Thanos Hard Fork Is Coming!!! You Ready???

Thanos Is Coming! You Ready? Thanos Hard-Fork Comes This Week! Dear Ethereum Classic stakeholder, The Ethereum Classic network will be undergoing the Thanos hard-fork this week, at block 11_700_000 or around November 29, 2020. Major ETC pools making up the majority of the hash rate have confirmed their support for Thanos as well as major block explorers and infrastructure providers. Exchanges, wallets, and other services are preparing or ready. As we track the progress of the fork, please signal to an ETC organization or the community that you're ready for Tha What is the Thanos ETC hard-fork? Thanos is a hard-fork which will reduce the size and the growth rate of the DAG file. The Thanos hard-fork is specified in ECIP-1099 a proposal that increased the long term viability of GPU mining on ETC.   At current epoch (372) the DAG size is 3.91 GB. 4GB GPUs are getting obsoleted while they still make up a significant amount of ethash hashrate. Activating this change at epoch 376 (for example), would reduce the DAG size from 3.94GB to 2.47GB. With the reduced growth rate, 4GB GPUs will remain supported for an additional 3+ years. Thanos aims at providing a breathing room to developers fighting against "double-spend" attacks. While we know adding potentially more hash rate from lower memory GPU cards adds to the supply technically available to attack ETC, its been shown that because Ethash and the newly known mining algorithm "EtcHash" NiceHash has dropped ETC from its markets. Slowly but surely things are getting better.   Implementation  Hard fork required for activation. Mining software and pool implementations required.further work. Clients Supporting Thanos? Besu, Core-geth, and Mantis will be supporting the Thanos hard-fork. Miner users should use Core-geth because Besu and Mantis mining is not mature enough for mainnet mining yet. Hyperledger Besu 20.10.0 or later. Core-geth 1.11.19 or later. Mantis 3.1.0 or later. (Beta) Ethereum Classic will now be using the Etchash algorithm for the mining of its crypto currency. As such, from miners, to mining software developers, and user iners need to update their mining software to an Etchash . EtcHash resources: https://github.com/eth-classic/etchash While core devs and the community are doing their best to ensure a successful hard-fork, take safety measures, and be alert if any network issues or fixes may arise please contact our community manager Kevin Lord While core devs and the community are doing their best to ensure a successful hard-fork, take safety measures, and be alert if any network issues or fixes may arise. See you on Thanos! ETC Cooperative 250 Park Ave S, New York NY 10003 United States  You received this email because you are an extremely human being and somewhere along life's journey you've signed to get a hold of his . You wouldn't ever subscribe to some lame newsletter.  Unsubscribe

Consensus 2021 - SAVE THE DATE

Preheader: Consensus 2021 will take place May 24-27. Save the date to get early access.

2020 has been unprecedented. While in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic many of us, from all across the globe, watched the world shift and transform as a "new normal" emerged. This new way of life has the global economy at a crossroads.   We invite you to join us at Consensus by CoinDesk on May 24-27, 2021. This immersive virtual experience will explore the tensions of this new financial system taking shape in today's economic landscape. Together with thousands of blockchain and cryptocurrency community members, we will examine the most critical questions and shed light on the most newsworthy developments in the space. SIGN UP TODAY We encourage you to pre-register today to receive early access to event registration, launching in 2021. Earlier this year more than 22,000 attendees gathered to learn from pioneers including Ethereum's Vitalik Buterin, Binance's Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, Former CFTC Commissioner Chris Giancarlo and many more. Be among the first to hear about exclusive event updates, speaker announcements and networking opportunities. GET UPDATES Copyright © 2020 CoinDesk, All rights reserved.    250 Park Avenue South New York, NY 10003, USA You can manage your preferences here or unsubscribe from all CoinDesk email.

Coinbase's $20B AUC, Chainalysis' $1B Valuation, Bitcoin's Volatility Measured

The top stories in bitcoin, crypto and more – all in one place, delivered daily

November 23, 2020 The top stories in bitcoin, crypto and more – all in one place, delivered daily By Daniel Kuhn If you were forwarded this newsletter and would like to receive it, sign up here.  Top shelf The U.S. government is using Circle's USDC to bypass Venezuelan blockades. Chainalaysis is looking to raise $100 million in fresh capital at a $1 billion valuation. Billions of dollars from institutional players are flowing into Coinbase. And VanEck found that bitcoin is less volatile than a quarter of S&P500 stocks, reigniting the case for a bitcoin ETF.    Injecting "stability" An unnamed U.S. government agency has enlisted dollar-backed stablecoin provider Circle and P2P payments startup Airtm to support Venezuelan politician Juan Guaidó's bid for office. The plan is to distribute relief funds to medical workers and other Venezuelan locals, bypassing restrictions set up by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who was re-elected in a 2018 election, by converting U.S. seized funds into Circle's USDC product and dispersed via Airtm's mobile phone network. "This is, in a sense, a way to bypass the state-controlled banking system and just directly distribute to people," Circle's Jeremy Allaire said, adding this is likely the first U.S. foreign policy objective utilizing a cryptographic stablecoin. Private eyes Chainalysis expects to raise $100 million venture capital at a $1 billion valuation in a fast-approaching Series C. Led by VC newcomer Addition with participation expected from Accel, Benchmark and Ribbit, the round could propel the blockchain analysis startup to unicorn status (a rarity for crypto). Several governments, banks, regulators and crypto firms rely on Chainalysis technology, seen in the company's financial status: The firm increased its customer base 65% from Q3 2019 to Q3 2020. In other blockchain sleuthing news, analytics firm Coinfirm found government agents frequently leave behind "substantial" amounts of forked cryptos in seized wallets. Finally, CipherTrace has filed for two patents related to sniffing out privacy-preserving monero (XMR) transactions.  Open banking The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, a national bank regulator led by former Coinbase counsel Brian Books, has proposed a rule that would forbid banks to blacklist legal, but unsavory businesses – potentially including crypto firms. Under the proposed rule, banks could deny financial services to customers only on the basis of "quantitative, risk-based standards established in advance," not in response to political pressures. Crypto firms have long struggled to obtain or keep bank accounts in the U.S., with only a handful of friendly providers – namely, Silvergate Bank, Signature Bank, and Metropolitan Commercial Bank. The proposal is open for public comment through Jan. 4. $20B BTC Coinbase now custodies $20 billion in institutional assets, an exchange executive claims. Brett Tejpaul said the institutional assets business was under $6 billion when he joined the firm in April and has grown by $14 billion under his watch. Notably, Tejpaul pointed to Coinbase's Tagomi acquisition in May as a boost. "It radically transformed our ability to cater to institutional clients that want to use smart order routing and algorithmic execution," he said. The veteran banker also said that adding JPMorgan Chase as its banking partner and Deloitte as its auditor has given Coinbase more compliance credibility. The firm is now measuring new capital coming in for bitcoin in the billions, Tejpaul said.   CBDCs not crypto? China Construction Bank (CCB), the world's second-largest bank, has suspended the upcoming listing of a $3 billion bond issuance that was intended to be tradable for bitcoin and U.S. dollars. The bank was sponsoring the issuance of the Longbond debt securities, set to be traded via the Fusang digital asset exchange. Now the program is being re-evaluated. In other news out of China, the city of Suzhou will hold the second lottery of the country's central bank digital currency (CBDC) next month (this time with additional features like smart touch payments.) This follows on China's President Xi Jinping comments at the G20 that CBDCs are to be embraced by developed nations. Quick bites YER ORANGES:  Sean Ono Lennon, musician and younger son of Beatles legend John Lennon, appeared on the Orange Pill Podcast on Sunday to say bitcoin is a tool for empowerment and among a few optimistic developments for "the future and humanity in general." UP & RUNNING: KuCoin, the Singapore-headquartered digital asset exchange that was hacked to the tune of $281 million in September, said it has restored the deposit and withdrawal services of all tokens as of Sunday. DOMAIN BREACH: Cryptocurrency trading platform liquid.com and crypto mining firm NiceHash were two of at least six firms that had control of their domains briefly transferred to malicious actors last week after employees at GoDaddy, the world's largest domain registrar, were tricked by fraudsters. YOU GOTTA BE GERKIN ME?! Popular decentralized finance protocol Pickle Finance was hacked on Saturday, draining $19.7 million in DAI, a decentralized stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar, from Pickle's latest arbitraging smart contract. MOVING IMAGE: A programmable painting of Ethereum co-creator Vitalik Buterin set records this weekend when "EthBoy" sold for 260 ETH (ETH, +12.69%). The painting utilizes new cryptographic tooling to refashion itself everyday based on a bevy of market and community data. Market intel Leveraged buyers Some BTC traders may have become overleveraged during the recent rally above $18,000, according to one key metric. The average level of the "funding rate" across major exchanges has risen sharply from 0.023% to a five-month high of 0.087% in the past 48 hours, according to data source Glassnode. The funding rate reflects the cost of holding long positions – measured by the premium derivative plays pay over spot prices. A higher number indicates excessively bullish, and therefore overbought, conditions. In such situations, a pullback or consolidation can trigger an unwinding of longs, leading to a deeper drop and a pick up in price volatility. XRP pumps XRP, the native asset of the XRP ledger, is riding 16-month highs. On Saturday the third-largest crypto by market cap climbed to $0.437564, the highest price since July 2019, according to the CoinDesk 20. It has continued to rise, with minor contractions, since. Now above the $0.50 level, XRP has appreciated over 120% since the start of the year. Webinar: How to Value Ethereum The penultimate episode of How to Value Ethereum explores the metric of gas costs. How is gas calculated? What is its unit of account? And why is it an important metric to valuing Ethereum?   Find out the answers to these questions by registering for How to Value Ethereum, episode 3, on Nov. 24. At stake Volatility, market data and ETFs A new analysis from VanEck, a major investment management firm, found that bitcoin is less volatile than the S&P's benchmark stock index.   The report, published Nov. 20, compared BTC to the companies listed on the S&P 500, finding the cryptocurrency was less volatile than 22% of these stocks over the past three months. "Historically, bitcoin has been discussed in the news and among investors as a nascent and volatile asset outside of the traditional stock and capital markets," the report reads. VanEck attributed this volatility to bitcoin's relatively small total market size, regulatory blockers and limited participation from traditional asset managers.   But bitcoin's volatility is not an aberration, as over the 90-day period measured ending Nov. 13 some 112 stocks experienced as much or more price volatility. Further, over the past year, 29% of S&P stocks were more volatile than bitcoin.   As CoinDesk Director of Research Noelle Acheson noted in a September newsletter, volatility is frequently and erroneously conflated with risk. "Volatility is a metric, a number, a measurement. Risk is an ambiguous concept," she writes, adding that volatility can be an attractive attribute for a well-weighted portfolio.   In Acheson's analysis, she found bitcoin volatility is often correlated with the asset's price direction: That is, when the price comes down, so usually does the volatility.   In comparison, the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), which measures the S&P 500 implied volatility, tends to move inversely to the S&P 500. "The average 60-day correlation between the two for the month of August was -0.84, an almost perfect negative association. Using bitcoin's 30-day realized volatility as a proxy for a bitcoin VIX, we get an average 60-day correlation for August of 0.45. A very different scenario," she found.   What's more, bitcoin's volatility is more measurable than traditional markets, as the crypto trades 24/7 freely across the world. More data points means more data to analyze.   It's for these reasons, bitcoin's similar volatility and market information, that many feel comfortable for agitating for a BTC exchange-traded fund. As reported, U.S. regulators have been hesitant to accept crypto ETF products, often citing a lack of cohesive market data.   But a sober look at the real market conditions may point the other way.   VanEck ends its report saying: "While there are no U.S. bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) available today, we believe such products may show similar volatility characteristics – based on the comparison above – as many stocks in well-known indices and ETFs, such as the S&P 500 and related products." Who won #CryptoTwitter? ATTENTION: Scammers have been sending fraudulent emails with links to sites disguised to look like coindesk.com. If you are in doubt about a link, type https://www.coindesk.com directly into your browser; do not copy and paste. Remember, if something seems too good to be true, it probably is. Blockchain Bites   A newsletter from CoinDesk   See Previous Editions Copyright © 2020 CoinDesk, All rights reserved.    250 Park Avenue South New York, NY 10003, USA You can manage your preferences here or unsubscribe from all CoinDesk email.