Blockchain

IOTA (MIOTA) Inching Closer to Complete Decentralization

Published

2 months ago

January 16, 2021

Jakub Cech, the Director of Engineering at the IOTA Foundation, on Jan 14, released the development update detailing progress made in December 2020.

IOTA Smart Contracts and Chrysalis

In their report, the Chrysalis testnet and the pre-alpha version of IOTA smart contracts were made public in December. Hornet has since been running on this testnet as most integrations for Chrysalis phase 2 are now ready.

Chrysalis is the intermittent stage (IOTA 1.5) before Coordicide. The objective of releasing the testnet to the public, the foundation explains, was to test all of the Chrysalis components openly while concurrently adding remaining capabilities and components.

Auditing of Bee Node Software, Stronghold, and Firefly

From next week, users will be able to test the Bee node software on the testnet. The Bee Node software audit is ongoing and will conclude in early February—or after three weeks.

Developers also released version 0.3.5 of Pollen—the first phase designed as the testbed for engineers and developers testing and validating the concepts of IOTA 2.0. The update will be more robust, secure, and reliable, as that was the main goal.

The development team is also working on Stronghold and will release its Beta version in Spring. The primary determinant will be its feature-completeness and robustness.

Meanwhile, most of Firefly‘s user interface is complete. Its code will also be audited in January.

Leading IoT

IOTA is the leading distributed ledger technology (DLT)-based Internet of Things (IoT) platform whose supporters say will underpin the future of machine and data economy. Unlike the common architectures deployed by existing platforms, IOTA is using a blockless system.

Their design is to inherently lower transaction fees and incrementally scale the base layer depending on the platform’s demand. Therefore, diverging from Ethereum or Bitcoin, a sharp increase in load won’t clog the network but exponentially increase its throughput.

The network throughput, as adjudged from their setting, is variable, fluctuating depending on user load.

The Coordinator Problem

Despite what IOTA seeks to achieve, the network is presently under the control of the foundation which runs the Coordinator. It is a super-node primarily tasked with protecting the network against third party attacks and confirming Proof-of-Work transactions.

However, their pressing concern is to remove the Coordinator and decentralize the network in a three-stage release strategy starting from Pollen, eventually culminating with Honey.

As BTCManager reported, IOTA will consider a partnership and bridge to Cardano, a peer-reviewed and research-led smart contracting platform.

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Source: https://btcmanager.com/iota-decentralization/

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Blockchain

Bitfinex launches payment gateway for merchants to accept crypto

Crypto exchange Bitfinex has entered into the payments space with a new service called Bitfinex Pay.

The post Bitfinex launches payment gateway for merchants to accept crypto appeared first on The Block.

Published

9 mins ago

March 3, 2021

Republished by Plato

Crypto exchange Bitfinex has launched a new payments offering, geared toward merchants, dubbed Bitfinex Pay.

The service is aimed at helping online merchants receive crypto payments in bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH), as well as Tether (USDT) via the Ethereum and Tron blockchains. Bitfinex Pay also supports bitcoin payments via the Lightning Network.

Bitfinex said it wants to take on companies like PayPal with its new service. PayPal doesn’t yet support crypto payments, but the company previously announced plans to add crypto as a funding option as well as integrate it into the Venmo app.

“We’re aiming to take on established behemoths in the technology and payments fields, leveraging our knowledge of the tech to bring crypto payments into the mainstream,” said Bitfinex CTO Paolo Ardoino. “This is the age of digital money and with Bitfinex Pay we’ve created an intuitive and seamless way for online merchants to receive payments in crypto.”

Merchants willing to use Bitfinex Pay will have to open an account with the exchange, where their crypto payments will be directly deposited. Bitfinex said the maximum payment per client is capped at $1,000.

There are no processing fees for using the service, said Bitfinex, adding that any blockchain transaction fees will be borne by merchants and their customers.

Kings of Leon to release the first-ever music album as an NFT

Published

10 mins ago

March 3, 2021

Republished by Plato

The rock band enjoys worldwide fame and says NFTs are the future of how artists will interact with the public.

First-ever album NFT

American rock band Kings of Leon will become the first music artist to release an album via a non-fungible token (NFT), as per a report on music industry publication Rolling Stones today.

NFTs are cryptographic representations of tangible or non-tangible items on a blockchain that prove the holder’s ownership of whatever they back (such as digital art, music, real estate, or in-game assets). The sector saw muted growth in the past years but has surged to a $3.44 billion sector in the past few months.

The tech allows the peer-to-peer exchange of the ownership of assets, one that, in turn, rewards creators fairly—a benefit that Kings of Leon wants to capture.

“Over the last 20 years — two lost decades — we’ve seen the devaluation of music,” said Josh Katz in a statement regarding the launch. Katz is the CEO of Yellowheart, a blockchain-based ticketing company and the firm that is providing smart contracts to aid the album launch.

Katz noted that the music industry had become great at selling “everything except music.” “There’s been a race to the bottom where, for as little money as possible, you have access to all of it,” he said.

But that changes with NFTs. “I think this will be how people release their tracks: When they sell a 100,000 at a dollar each, then they just made $100,000,” Katz noted.

Three token types; three arts

Kings of Leon would drop three types of tokens as part of a series called “NFT Yourself,” according to people involved in the project. One type is a “special” album package, while a second type would offer live show perks such as front-row seats to a Kings concert for life. The third type would be reserved for exclusive audiovisual art.

All three types of tokens offer digital art designed by creative firm “Night After Night.” In addition, Yellowheart would mint 18 unique-looking ‘golden tickets’ as part of the NFT release. Out of the 18, six will be auctioned by the band and the remaining would be placed in a vault.

“Each one of those is a unique NFT with the most incredible Kings of Leon art you’ve ever seen,” said Katz.

The launch was met positively by influential crypto figures. Ari Paul, the founder of crypto investment firm BlockTower Capital, said in a tweet that such NFT launches would unlock “all sorts of game-changing stuff” while letting the musician having a direct relationship with the buyer.

By itself, trivial. But it unlocks all sorts of game changing stuff. It lets the musician have a direct relationship with the buyer. They can communicate or airdrop (like merch, tickets and more directly), transparency into their fan base, cross-promotion etc. /1 https://t.co/OUf3CHgaVZ

— Ari Paul ⛓️ (@AriDavidPaul) March 3, 2021

Who knew NFTs would go from near-obscurity in 2019 to this far in 2021?

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Source: https://cryptoslate.com/kings-of-leon-to-release-the-first-ever-music-album-as-an-nft/

Blockchain

Crypto Tax Provider TaxBit Raises $100M for Global Expansion

Published

16 mins ago

March 3, 2021

Republished by Plato

Crypto tax solution provider TaxBit has raised $100 million in a Series A funding round, according to its official website. The software provider would channel the capital into its expansion program, with eyes set on the United Kingdom.

Expanding its Audience

The fundraising campaign was spearheaded by investment firms Paradigm and Tiger Global. Paypal Ventures, Winklevoss Capital, the Winklevoss twins’ investment arm, Coinbase Ventures, Bill Ackman, and Qualtrics co-founder Ryan Smith, also participated. TaxBit came out with $107 million in total investments raised.

According to a company’s released statement, the investment round became necessary after cryptocurrencies gained wide acceptance following the pandemic. Michael O’Connor, vice-president of marketing, said the need for TaxBit’s tailored tax and accounting software is conspicuous given the industry’s hazy regulations.

Founded by the Woodward brothers, Austin and Justin, TaxBit automates profits and losses of crypto assets for major and small-time investors. Cryptocurrency tax software provider TaxBit has new plans for cryptocurrency investors in the UK.

Company CEO Austin Woodward informed Forbes that the newly raised funds would be targeted towards developing its enterprise tools and international market expansion. The United Kingdom was pinpointed by the US company as the first destination in its push to grow its global presence.

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The company said it would offer a tax solution akin to the traditional enterprise resource planning tool for corporations. These tools will help crypto-facing companies manage their crypto transactions for optimal tax returns, like software tools for foreign currencies.

The crypto compliance firm, founded in 2018, initially offered crypto tax services to individual users before expanding to corporations. Although it still services retail users, the company has opened the doors for corporations looking to enter the crypto space without worrying about their taxes. Tax agencies like the Internal Revenue Services (IRS) are also considered natural clients as crypto payments are widely adopted.

FCA and Crypto

The United Kingdom has been quite aggressive towards cryptocurrencies ever since it crossed the Great Thames River’s shores. In a Jan. 6 parliamentary ruling, the House of Commons and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) passed a ban on the sale of crypto derivatives and exchange-traded notes (ETNs) in the UK.

The law, which will see a large portion of the investing public lose out on the flourishing industry, was promulgated to protect investors from risk.

Crypto derivatives are tradeable securities that get their value from an underlying asset, such as an established crypto asset.

But, the UK government has not outrightly banned private ownership of cryptocurrencies and is preparing a regulatory framework to supervise the decentralized industry. It will mandate crypto exchanges in the country to conduct due diligence by adopting customer-recognition programs (KYC) and ensure that cryptocurrencies do not end up violating anti-money laundering practices (AML) or encourage terrorist financing.

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Source: https://insidebitcoins.com/news/crypto-tax-provider-taxbit-raises-100m-for-global-expansion