Armenian cultural heritage sites tokenized on Solana blockchain

December 8, 2023 Coin Telegraph

11th anniversary of Bitcoin’s first halving: from $12 to $37,000

November 28, 2023 Coin Telegraph

11th anniversary of Bitcoin’s first halving: from to ,000

Bitcoin experienced its first-ever halving 11 years ago today, and since then, its price has soared from $12 to its current price of $37,000.

Bitcoin (BTC), the largest cryptocurrency by market value, experienced its first-ever halving 11 years ago today. As the community celebrates the anniversary of the first Bitcoin halving, it’s timely to revisit some of Bitcoin's historical milestones ahead of the next halving expected in April 2024.

The first Bitcoin transaction occurred nearly 15 years ago on Jan. 3, 2009, a few months after the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, published the Bitcoin white paper in October 2008.

On Nov. 28, 2012, or three years and ten months after Bitcoin’s initial block was mined, the first-ever halving event took place. At the time, BTC traded at just around $12, according to data from StatMuse, or 308,200% below Bitcoin's current price, according to data from CoinGecko.

Though Bitcoin halving — as well as the digital currency's 21 million supply cap — is not directly described in Nakamoto's white paper, the document still hints at certain mechanisms to control the creation of new BTC. The white paper reads:

“To compensate for increasing hardware speed and varying interest in running nodes over time, the proof-of-work difficulty is determined by a moving average targeting an average number of blocks per hour. If they're generated too fast, the difficulty increases.”

Unlike some of the basic information in the BTC white paper, the halving aspect is mentioned in the Bitcoin source code. The halving is specifically available on the Bitcoin Core GitHub repository on the validation.cpp file, which indicates that the miner’s block subsidy is “cut in half every 210,000 blocks, which will occur every four years.”

*A Bitcoin halving-related snippet from the Bitcoin Core repository. Source: GitHub*

The Bitcoin halving mechanism had been programmed into the BTC mining algorithm to counteract inflation by maintaining scarcity.

Before the first halving occurred, miners were compensated with as much as 50 BTC per block. After the first halving event in 2012, the subsidy was slashed to 25 BTC, followed by the second halving in 2016, which reduced the subsidy to 12.5 BTC. The most recent Bitcoin halving occurred in 2020, cutting the block subsidy from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC.

As Bitcoin halvings significantly increase the cryptocurrency’s scarcity, the Bitcoin price cycle has been historically impacted by halvings. Just a year after its first-ever halving, Bitcoin had risen to nearly $1,000, while the second halving triggered a 350% surge during the year after the event, with BTC subsequently rallying to all-time highs of nearly $20,000 in December 2017.

In the aftermath of the third Bitcoin halving, BTC surged as high as $69,000 in November 2021.

The anniversary of the first Bitcoin halving comes as the cryptocurrency community awaits the fourth Bitcoin halving, which is now expected to occur on April 17, 2024. Many Bitcoin advocates are especially bullish on the Bitcoin price in 2024 amid growing expectations that United States securities regulators could finally approve a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund.

The 2024 halving won't be the last one, though. Bitcoin miner reward is expected to be halved 34 times until it reaches 0 BTC after all 21 million Bitcoin are mined. Based on the current schedule, the maximum supply of 21 million bitcoins will be reached around 2140.

Magazine: 5,050 Bitcoin for $5 in 2009: Helsinki’s claim to crypto fame

Researchers develop blockchain verification service for cultural artifacts

July 31, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

A combination of human expertise, NFTs and blockchain technology could help humanity protect its priceless artifacts from theft and looting.

Computer scientist Adel Khelifi, of the University of Abu Dhabi, and archaeologist Mark Altaweel, from University College London, recently announced the development of a Web3-based verification-as-a-service model for determining and recording the authenticity and provenance of cultural artifacts.

Called Salsal, the big idea behind the service is to bridge the world of historical artifacts with an on-chain validation system that can’t be fudged or cloned.

In an email interview with Cointelegraph, Altaweel said Salsal would be offered specifically to “cultural heritage organisations.”

There currently exists no official globally recognized registry for items of historical significance. Despite this, most territories have laws governing the procurement, collection, trade, buying and selling of artifacts of cultural significance, especially when they’re discovered on public or protected land.

Some of the most historically valuable artifacts known to exist remain unaccounted for. Missing treasures, such as the Honjo Masamune and the Crown Jewels of Ireland, have been lost to time and, in many cases, theft. And countless others have been looted from historically significant sites over the years before experts could even catalog them.

*Prior to Salsal, project co-leads Altaweel and Khelifi worked together on research using AI to identify looting at historically significant sites. Source: Altaweel, et al*

The team behind Salsal hopes to address some of these concerns by creating what’s essentially a protocol for identifying, grading and recording information about specific artifacts using a suite of technology tools.

When a cultural heritage organization has its collection validated, it uploads images and descriptions to the service. A group of experts then use a process similar to the one used by the Museums Association to grade the artifacts on a five-point scale.

According to the Salsal website:

“Once proven to be legitimate, the Collector can turn it into an NFT which is a Non Fungible Token. We use NFTs as their data is stored on the Blockchain and is immutable, allowing us to document the transfer of ownership accurately.”

Ultimately, the researchers hope to see mass adoption of their service. They envision a paradigm where curators aspire to have their collections validated via Salsal as a matter of verification — something that might be akin to having a rare collectible such as a comic book graded by a commercial validator.

There are already databases containing information on historical artifacts, but a unified database running on an immutable blockchain could help thwart theft and looting by requiring sellers and curators to document provenance.

Collect this article as an NFT to preserve this moment in history and show your support for independent journalism in the crypto space.

Cointelegraph 2023 Top 100 full list now mintable as digital collectibles

March 20, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Loved the Cointelegraph 2023 Top 100? Readers can grab the profiles as NFTs.

Beginning March 20, folks across the crypto industry will be able to mint nonfungible tokens (NFTs) out of Cointelegraph’s 2023 Top 100. Cointelegraph unveiled its 2023 Top 100 list of the most impactful heroes and villains in the crypto and blockchain space in February. It was published in batches throughout the month, counting down to the top-ranked profile, with each entry including a bio and an animated picture.

Check out Cointelegraph's 2023 Top 100 and collect the profiles

Over a seven-day period starting March 20, the profiles of everyone on Cointelegraph’s 2023 Top 100 will be mintable as limited-edition NFTs. Only 100 NFTs can be minted from each profile, and minting is only available during the seven-day window. After that, interested buyers will have to look to secondary marketplaces if they want to pick one up.

Purchasable via bank cards or Polygon’s MATIC (MATIC), each unique profile’s NFT starts off at $5 and becomes more expensive as subsequent NFTs are minted for it, with the price capped at $100. All proceeds from this limited-edition drop will go to support the victims of the recent earthquake in Turkey and Syria.

Cointelegraph’s 2023 Top 100 is wide-ranging and includes both entities, such as the Central Bank of Nigeria at No. 67; concepts, such as decentralized exchanges at No. 37; and people, such as ConsenSys CEO Joseph Lubin at No. 15.

Want to grab the profile of someone in the top 10 as an NFT? Perhaps Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao at No. 3, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin at No. 2 or Bitcoin itself in the No. 1 position? Buyers interested in the top 10 profiles will need to also hold an article from the Cointelegraph Historical Collection.

Cointelegraph is partnering with Mintmade to bring you its Top 100 digital collectibles as well as its Historical Collection. Earnable tokens called “Minting Points” can also be used to buy Cointelegraph Top 100 NFTs.

Mysterious Bitcoin miner shows off oldest signature dated Jan. 2009

December 4, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin mining

Answering the question 'Who has/had the oldest mined Bitcoin?' an anonymous member shared a signature dating back to January 2009, just a week after Bitcoin came into existence.

Online forums are integral to the Bitcoin origin story, where Satoshi Nakamoto and early contributors collaborated to discuss and create a disruptive financial system from scratch. One of the oldest Bitcoin forums — bitcointalk.org — still preserves historical discussions around creating the Bitcoin (BTC) logo and the payment system.

A curious member of the bitcointalk.org forum recently sought to identify Bitcoin miners from the early days. To their surprise, an anonymous member shared a signature dating back to January 2009, just a week after Bitcoin came into existence.

*The oldest known Bitcoin signature shared by OneSignature. Source: bitcointalk.org*

“Maybe OP is inviting Satoshi?” questioned another member after confirming the legitimacy of “the oldest signature” found to date. Adding to the mystery, the signature was posted by a newly created account on Nov. 26, 2022, under the pseudonym of OneSignature.

*Cointelegraph confirmed the validity of the signature. Source: verifybitcoinmessage.com*

OneSignature’s account history shows no other involvement on the forum, thus confirming that the intent for its creation was only to show off the oldest signed message. Digging deeper into the username shows a protected Twitter account, which was created back in October 2009.

*Twitter account of user OneSignature. Source: Twitter*

Cointelegraph confirmed that the address used by the mysterious poster holds no balance. The revelation of the signature dating back to the Bitcoin genesis period confirms the people involved in building Bitcoin’s legacy keep a close eye on the ecosystem while feeding the general public’s curiosity from time to time.

Despite the decade-long regulatory hurdles and prolonged bear markets, Bitcoin has managed to always come on top. However, the falling Bitcoin prices have added stress to the mining ecosystem.

The Bitcoin mining revenue in terms of the U.S. dollar is currently at two-year lows, down to $11.67 million, a number last seen on Nov. 2, 2020.

Historical

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