Blogs
Ethereum Co-Founder Says Tether Backed By USD
Joseph Lubin, one of the co-founders of Ethereum, has thrown his weight behind the controversial stable coin of Tether (USDT). In an interview with Yahoo Finance, Lubin elaborated why he believes that USDT is backed by actual US dollars in a one-to-one ratio. He added that:
“Tether’s an interesting project. Based on our analysis, which involves just talking to a bunch of people in the space, we do believe that tethers are backed 1-to-1 by U.S. dollars in bank accounts… With respect to market manipulations, I’m not sure that market manipulations are related to Tether directly, if they do exist.”
Tether Market Manipulation
The market manipulations Joseph Lubin is referring to, are claims by a research paper by faculty at the University of Texas (Austin) stating that USDT is used to prop the value of Bitcoin (BTC) during times of turmoil. The co-authors of the paper, Professor John M. Griffin and Ph.D. Candidate Amin Shams of the same institution, stated that USDTs are minted whenever the value of BTC is declining significantly. The newly minted Tethers are then used to prop the value of BTC in the markets.
The paper goes on to conclude that:
“Our analysis centers on examining potential manipulation of Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies. We examine whether the growth of a pegged cryptocurrency, Tether, is primarily driven by investor demand, or is supplied to investors as a scheme to profit from pushing cryptocurrency prices up. By mapping the blockchains of Bitcoin and Tether, we are able to establish that entities associated with the Bitfinex exchange use Tether to purchase Bitcoin when prices are falling. Such price supporting activities are successful, as Bitcoin prices rise following the periods of intervention. These effects are present only after negative returns and periods following the printing of Tether.”
According to Lubin, the manipulation in the crypto markets might stem from the fact that most trading platforms are relatively unregulated when compared to traditional securities exchanges. He would add:
“Ideally we’ll get a little better regulation of those centralized exchanges, at least, and we’ll see less sloshing around in price.”
Ethereum’s Difficulty Bomb Delayed
In other news, Ethereum’s core developers have decided to delay the network’s ‘Difficulty bomb’ by agreeing to include the code for such a change into the upcoming Constantinople fork.
The ETH difficulty bomb refers to the increasing difficulty level of puzzles in the mining algorithm used to reward miners with Ethereum on its blockchain. As the puzzles become more difficult to solve, there is a lag in the production of blocks on the ETH network. This lag will continue to slow down the network resulting in a scenario that has been referred to as an ‘Ice Age’ where rewards will not be based on Proof-of-Work but on Proof-of-Stake.
Per the agreement by the Ethereum core developers posted on Github, the difficulty bomb will be delayed for about 18 months and there will be a reduction in the block rewards with the Constantinople fork. The summary decision stated that:
“Starting with `CNSTNTNPL_FORK_BLKNUM` the client will calculate the difficulty based on a fake block number suggesting the client that the difficulty bomb is adjusting around 6 million blocks later than previously specified with the Homestead fork. Furthermore, block rewards will be adjusted to a base of 2 ETH, uncle and nephew rewards will be adjusted accordingly.”
This decision and plans for a hard fork, further provide hope that the Ethereum core developers will also come to a discussion with regards to the scalability issues evident on the Ethereum network.
For the latest cryptocurrency news, join our Telegram!
Disclaimer: This article should not be taken as, and is not intended to provide, investment advice. Global Coin Report and/or its affiliates, employees, writers, and subcontractors are cryptocurrency investors and from time to time may or may not have holdings in some of the coins or tokens they cover. Please conduct your own thorough research before investing in any cryptocurrency and read our full disclaimer.
Image courtesy of Pexels
Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 25th January, 2021, // ChainWire //
Xeno Holdings Limited (xno.live ), a blockchain solutions company based in Hong Kong, has announced the listing of its ecosystem utility token XNO on the ‘Bithumb Korea’ cryptocurrency exchange on January 21st 2021.
Xeno NFT Hub (market.xno.live ), developed by Xeno Holdings, enables easy minting of digital items into NFTs while also providing a marketplace where anyone can securely trade NFTs.
The Xeno NFT Hub project team includes former members of the technology project Yosemite X based in San Francisco and professionals such as Gabby Dizon who is a games industry expert and NFT space influencer based in Southeast Asia.
NFT(Non-Fungible Token) technology has recently gained huge focus in the blockchain arena and beyond, making waves in the online gaming sector, the art world, and the digital copyrights industry in recent years. The strongest feature of NFTs is that “NFTs are unique digital assets that cannot be replaced or forged”. Unlike fungible tokens such as Bitcoin or Ether, NFTs are not interchangeable for other tokens of the same type but instead each NFT has a unique value and specific information that cannot be replaced. This fact makes NFTs the perfect solution to record and prove ownership of digital and real-world items like works of art, game items, limited-edition collectibles, and more. One of the ways to have a successful…
2020 has been an incredible year for crypto as investors have generated windfall profits and crypto projects have seen their businesses gain the spotlight they’ve been looking for. While Bitcoin has received most of the attention after major institutional investors announced they were accumulating the increasingly scarce asset, many altcoins have also seen their fair share of glory. When looking at all the big winners of the past year, the first project that probably comes to mind is Chainlink, having appreciated by more than 550% YTD and now valued at over $4.5 billion. But, the actual biggest winner of the year is HEX with a YTD return of over 5,000%.
I mention both of the above projects as they have each taken slightly different paths to achieve greatness. Chainlink has devoted resources toward building a fundamentally sound business with many strategic partnerships while HEX has spent vast sums of money on marketing and promotion. Both approaches are valid, but one thing is certain, it is absolutely imperative for crypto projects to let the crypto community know what makes them special. Of course, one of the reasons that makes crypto so valuable is the powerful blockchain technology that most projects are utilizing.
Cryptocurrency vs. Blockchain Technology
It’s important to make a distinction between blockchain technology and cryptocurrency. Although they are often used interchangeably, they are different. Blockchain technology and crypto were both created after the 2008 financial crisis, but cryptocurrency…
Altcoins
XENO starts VIP NFT trading service and collaborates with contemporary artist Hiro Yamagata
Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 24th December, 2020, // ChainWire //
The XENO NFT Hub (https://xno.live) will provide a crypto-powered digital items and collectables trading platform allowing users to create, buy, and sell NFTs. Additionally it will support auction based listings, governance and voting mechanisms, trade history tracking, user rating and other advanced features.
As a first step towards its fully comprehensive service, XENO NFT Hub launched a recent VIP service to select users and early adopters in December 2020 with plans for a full Public Beta to open in June 2021.
“NFTs are extremely flexible in their usage, from digital event tickets to artwork, and while NFTs have a very wide spectrum of uses and categories XENO will initially focus its partnership efforts and its own item curation on three primary areas: gaming, sports & entertainment, and collectibles.”, said XENO NFT Hub president Anthony Di Franco.
He also added “This does not mean we will prohibit other types of NFTs from our ecosystem However, it simply means that XENO’s efforts as a company will be targeted into these verticals initially as a cohesive business approach.”
Development and Procurement Lead, Gabby Dizon explained, “Despite our initial focus, we found ourselves with a unique opportunity to host some of the works of Mr. Hiro Yamagata. We are collaborating with Japanese artist Hiro Yamagata to enshrine some of his artwork into NFTs.”
Mr. Yamagata has…
-
Blogs6 years agoBitcoin Cash (BCH) and Ripple (XRP) Headed to Expansion with Revolut
-
Blogs6 years agoAnother Bank Joins Ripple! The first ever bank in Oman to be a part of RippleNet
-
Blogs6 years agoStandard Chartered Plans on Extending the Use of Ripple (XRP) Network
-
Blogs6 years agoElectroneum (ETN) New Mining App Set For Mass Adoption
-
Don't Miss6 years agoRipple’s five new partnerships are mouthwatering
-
Blogs6 years agoEthereum Classic (ETC) Is Aiming To Align With Ethereum (ETH)
-
Blogs6 years agoCryptocurrency is paving new avenues for content creators to explore
-
Blogs6 years agoLitecoin (LTC) Becomes Compatible with Blocknet while Getting Listed on Gemini Exchange
