One week in review | Ethereum implements "Muel Glacier" upgrade; Bitmain launches personnel optimization plan

Cryptocurrency

The cryptocurrency market experienced a V-shaped trend this week. Bitcoin, which has the highest market capitalization, fell below $ 7,000 once it entered 2020, but then the intensified tension between the United States and Iran pushed the cryptocurrency market to rebound again. The Bitcoin Iranian seller on the peer-to-peer trading platform LocalBitcoins has set the price to about 1 billion Iranian rials (about 24,000 US dollars). The founder of crypto analytics agency Messari Ryan Selkis sees it as "innocent and desperate Iranians looking for a way out of the impending chaos."

Ethereum, the second-ranked cryptocurrency by market capitalization, implemented a "Muir Glacier" upgrade this week. Most clients keep running synchronously. Nethermind clients have synchronization problems. The upgrade aims to delay the difficulty bomb to 4 million blocks, and the Sparkpool mining pool has dug up the first block after the upgrade.

Core blockchain infrastructure company Parity Technology said this week that it was suffering a collaborative attack, and the company subsequently released a network upgrade to defend against the attack. Ethereum developer Virgil Griffith's bail application was approved this week with a bail of $ 1 million. The judge ruled that he could be released to his parents' home.

Ripple, the company behind third-ranked cryptocurrency XRP, is preparing for global expansion. Information from Ripple's official website shows that the company is currently open for recruitment of 49 positions worldwide, including locations in the United States, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Japan, Singapore, Dubai and India. At the same time, the company's senior software developer, Evan Schwartz, announced his departure, and he was previously involved in developing the Interledger protocol.

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Tron's BitTorrent announced this week that blockchain-based content sharing platform DLive will join the BitTorrent ecosystem and begin to migrate to the TRON blockchain. Tron founder Sun Yuchen broadcasted live on the DLive platform. He said the Tron Foundation has no plans to sell the 33 billion TRX that was recently unlocked. On January 1, 2020, 33 billion TRX, which accounted for one-third of the total supply of TRX, was unlocked as planned. The crypto community was worried that the sell-off would put pressure on the price trend of TRX. Sun Yuchen said in the live broadcast that Tron will also start repurchases soon.

As for the mining machine, several people familiar with the matter said that the mining machine giant Bitmain has launched a personnel optimization plan at the end of 2019. Insiders of Bitmain revealed that the company is now operating normally and the cash flow is healthy. The optimization is only a "slimming plan" for halving, and it is also a corrective move for the original chairman's business expansion.

The information from Tianyancha of the enterprise information data tracking website shows that Beijing Bitmain Technology Co., Ltd. changed business on January 2 and Bitmain co-founder Wu Jihan stepped down as the legal representative of Bitmain and Chief Financial Officer of Bitmain Liu Luyao Newly added as legal representative and concurrently general manager. Wu Jihan is still an executive director. Liu Luyao entered Bitmain in 2018 as Chief Financial Officer.

The other side of the encrypted "Gongdou" drama, Zhanke Group, also took action. He initiated a lawsuit in the Cayman Islands asking the court to cancel the outcome of Bitmain's shareholders' meeting held in November. This shareholders meeting changed the voting right of 10 votes per share to 1 vote per share. The court filed a subpoena asking the court to cancel the outcome of the shareholders' meeting.

Bitmain's competitor Jia Nan Yunzhi Chairman and CEO Zhang Nanxun delivered a New Year's address to all employees this week. For the first time, he formally introduced the company's vision to "improve the efficiency of social operation and improve the human lifestyle." Looking into the future, Zhang Nanzhang also disclosed the progress of the company's second-generation AI chip K510 for the first time.

application

Turkish clearing and custodian bank Takasbank in Istanbul announced that its blockchain-based transfer system backed by physical gold is now online. According to the official announcement of the bank, this blockchain-based system called BiGA Digital Gold will be used for the issuance, redemption and transfer of digital gold.

The Nigerian Communications Commission has invested 2 million naira (about $ 5,500) in blockchain startup Wicrypt. Wicrypt provides a blockchain-based WiFi sharing service that enables users to make money by sharing an Internet connection.

Ripple product director Craig DeWitt created a platform called xSongs designed to allow artists to sell music in XRP. DeWitt personally funded the project. The project's mission is to connect digital content creators, such as musicians, directly with consumers to help reduce costs.

Guangzhou Metro issued the first blockchain electronic invoice on January 1, 2020, marking the application of blockchain electronic invoice in the public transportation industry in Guangzhou. It is expected that it will be fully launched on the Guangzhou Metro official app by mid-January. use.

Former Barclays executive Mark Hipperson will launch the UK's first regulated crypto bank in 2020. Digital bank Ziglu will allow multiple currencies such as fiat and digital currencies to be held in the same account, and will also be able to freely exchange funds between them. Foreign currencies can be bought and sold at the interbank exchange rate. Cryptocurrencies will be bought and sold at the best price.

Exchange

China's first domestic blockchain index fund (ETF) report was received by the Securities and Futures Commission this week. On the day of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange's release of the SZSE Blockchain 50 Index, Penghua Fund reported the application for "Public Fundraising Application for Registration-Penghua SZSE Blockchain 50 Transaction Open Index Securities Investment Fund" has been accepted by the Securities Regulatory Commission . This is the first domestic fundraising fund with "blockchain" in its name. The proposed ETF aims to track and reflect the performance of listed companies listed in Shenzhen in the blockchain industry.

Binance US, the US branch of the major cryptocurrency exchange, opens beta testing of iOS applications to all users. Binance US invites all its customers to participate in the beta test of iOS after the end of the internal test. The beta version of the app, which began on December 18, aims to find possible vulnerabilities in the app and address them to a wider audience.

Cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex sent an email to customers on Monday saying that some of the compromised email addresses and passwords could be used to log into Poloniex accounts. The exchange said that while almost all of the leaked email addresses listed are not part of the Poloniex account, the exchange is mandated to reset passwords for any email address that owns its account.

Simex Digital Asset Exchange announced a partnership with crypto payment provider Simplex, which enables Simex international users to make fiat currency deposits via debit or credit cards, effectively providing fiat currency deposits to their global customers.

Supervision

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) this week asked Telegram, an encrypted information platform, to submit financial details related to the initial coin offering (ICO). US market regulators have asked the court to order Telegram to disclose bank records of its use of the funds raised over the past two years. Telegram's lawyers have asked the US court to dismiss the request. Lawyers described the SEC's request as an unfounded unlawful investigation, and argued that the bank records requested by the SEC had nothing to do with the claims and defenses in the lawsuit.

The SEC has reached a settlement agreement with blockchain concept stock Longfin this week. Longfin CEO Venkata Meenavalii has agreed to settle with the SEC over fraudulent public offerings and forged revenue. Venkata Meenavalii has agreed to pay a $ 400,000 fine, and the settlement still requires court approval.

Ulrich Bindseil, head of the European Central Bank's (ECB) market infrastructure and payments business, said this week that he is open to the digital euro but does not want citizens to hold too much. In a recent work report on central bank digital currencies issued by the European Central Bank on Friday, Bindseil explored the prospects for the introduction of central bank digital currencies for the European Union and talked about the difference between this currency and crypto stablecoins. He said that issuing central bank digital currencies has advantages and disadvantages, and the EU should first address these issues before accepting this possibility. Although China may become the first country in the world to issue central bank digital currencies, the European Central Bank believes that, like other major banks in the world, it should first consider how to avoid risks.

An ex-employee of an unnamed tech startup was recently sued in Paris for stealing 182 BTC. The man was charged with theft, money laundering and fraudulent access to a data processing system, which involved a value of approximately $ 1.3 million. The suspect has carefully designed the Bitcoin theft program to ensure that the amount of each fraudulent Bitcoin transaction is below the threshold that triggers an internal security warning.

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