Crypto News: Ethereum, Vechain, Oyster, BAT, ICON, Ukraine, Uganda (29th of Oct – 4th of Nov)
Ukraine and Uganda adopting crypto
On 31st of October The Economic Development and Trade Ministry in Ukraine enacted a new state policy which sees cryptocurrencies becoming legal in the region.
Following the Binance launching the first official fiat-to-crypto African exchange in Uganda it was revealed that over 40k cryptocurrency traders has registered in the first week since the exchange has launched.
On top of that Ugandan government has more recently shown an interest in using cryptocurrency and blockchain technology which is a good sign. Uganda has almost 43 million residents.
BAT Coinbase Listing
On 2nd of November Basic Attention Token (BAT) to Coinbase Pro. The BAT deposits has been enabled before the trading with the actual trading to follow. Once sufficient liquidity is established, trading on the BAT/USDC order book will start.
BAT is not yet available at Coinbase.com or in the iOS and Android apps but it is almost certain that the listings on these will follow. The listing follows the listing of ZRX which was the first altcoin listed on Coinbase after a long period of no new tokens.
Basic Attention Token is an open-source, decentralized ad exchange platform based on Ethereum. The platform is integrated with the Brave web browser.
This news isn’t that surprising considering how well BAT has been doing. Coinbase seems to target cryptocurrencies with working products and BAT is one of the few ones that are widely used
Oyster Protocol issues
On 31 of October Oyster went through some very negative developments. Bruno Block, the original founder and chief architect of the project used a vulnerability in the Oyster smart contract to crate new PRL tokens which he later sold on the Kucoin exchange.
The CEO of Oyster William Cordes explained in the blog that the smart contract was written by Bruno and that he created trapdoor mechanism in the contract that was eventually exploited. Bruno stole around $300,000 in funds.
He also explained that the project will continue and that the steam are still evaluating options, but will most likely be executing a contract swap on the block just prior to this all happening.
As expected the price of the token fell down significantly and PRL since then has been removed from most exchanges.
VeChain Partnership
On 2nd of November VeChain has annouced partnership with Shanghai Gas and ENN to pilot blockchain-enabled liquified natural gas solution
In the introduced solution, ENN Energy Holdings Limited is responsible for the design and system construction of LNG-related business scenarios. VeChain is responsible for providing blockchain core technology and the necessary software services. Shanghai Gas is the overseeing party who ensures the solution expands across the national LNG market and has already connected a host of similar companies to the expansion of this solution.
The solution handles the quality assurance process including classification standards, weighing practices, and transportation process for the different types of natural gas. All information is certified by a third-party authority and uploaded to the VeChainThor Blockchain meaning a real life use case for the blockchain.
Ethereum Scalability Solutions
During Devcon4 that took place in Prague from 30 October – 02 November of this year Vitalik Buterin (Ethereum co-founder) said that Serenity, the planned Ethereum upgrade previously known as Ethereum 2.0 will trigger 1000x time increase in scalability.
The implementation will be divided into 4 parts:
Initial version with proof-of-stake beacon chain
Simplified version of Serenity with limited features
Amplified version of Serenity with cross-shard communication
Final version with various tweaks and optimized features
It’s important to note that Serenity will finally see the Ethereum network run on a consensus model which allows ether (ETH) holders to “stake” their own coins in order to maintain the network, and subsequently earn incentives for the service offered. Despite price struggles Ethereum future remains promising.
Icon Metropolitan Government: Demonstration
This week during Blockchain International Digital Festival held by the Seoul Metropolitan Government ICON demonstrated the three main components of its blockchain ecosystem for the residents of Seoul.
The projects include 3 blockchain-based mobile applications:
ICON Blockchain Identification Card which is basically ID system stored on the blockchain
ICON Blockchain Voting System which meant to be next generation election system based on intelligence information technology
ICON Blockchain S-Coin Payments which is an application by ICON that will enable users to quickly transact cash-free.
ICON has partnerships with Korea National Information Society Agency, Korea National Election Commission, and the Seoul Metropolitan Government and the future looks promising.