The number of daily transactions on Bitcoin’s blockchain has dropped sharply to the levels of March 2019. At first glance, this might seem bad for Bitcoin, since it sounds like fewer people are making Bitcoin transactions—which could imply falling usage.
But that’s not the case, argues Nic Carter, founder of crypto data provider CoinMetrics. He said there’s an underlying reason for this drop and the end result is good for Bitcoin.
Coinbase introduces Bitcoin batching
In a series of tweets, Carter noted that there was a “definite uptick in batching last week or so.” He saw that Bitcoin transactions are getting bigger on average—while the number of transactions has dropped. This, Carter suggests, is an indicator of more batching.
Coinbase is an app for buying, selling and storing cryptocurrency. Image: Shutterstock.
Bitcoin transaction batching is the process of unifying several Bitcoin transfers into one—more complex—transaction, instead of a single BTC movement taking up a block all to itself. Such “packaging” reduces the load that Coinbase puts on the Bitcoin blockchain by more than 50%.
Another way to confirm this – transactions are getting bigger on average (in terms of bytes). A hallmark of batching. To soon to call this a definite trend but something to watch. https://t.co/i7aujn53DEpic.twitter.com/l3OMhknCrU
Over the last week, the price of Bitcoin was halved. According to research from Multicoin Capital, network congestion made the market crash harder than it would have done otherwise.
Two back-to-back crashes cut Bitcoin's price in half last week. The driving force for the drop was the collapsing economy as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. But, crypto investment firm Multicapital explains what amplified the price crash.
Fundamentally, the firm points the finger at cryptocurrency's flimsy market structure. Had it remained intact, say the researchers, Bitcoin would not have submitted so readily.
How will Bitcoin's price crash affect the halving?
"The Bitcoin and Ethereum...
As Kyle Samani, managing partner of Multicoin Capital, explained, when the price dropped, there was a sudden increase in Bitcoin transactions. But the network was unable to process them, leading to delays and higher fees. This made it harder to move Bitcoin between exchanges, creating silos where the price of Bitcoin dropped excessively, such as Bitcoin futures exchange BitMEX.
Traditionally, a Bitcoin (BTC) halving—when the supply of Bitcoin issued as mining rewards is cut in half—has been seen as a very bullish development for the cryptocurrency. The event, which happens only once every four years, is generally preceded, or followed by, a rise in the price.
But 2020’s halving, due in 50 days, is a very different beast. The economic fallout caused by the coronavirus crisis has caught Bitcoin on the hop. Its price plunged 50%, from $9,000 to $4,500 last week, throwing...
So, with Coinbase batching its transactions, this frees up more space on the Bitcoin network. If another price drop were to happen—say another pandemic strikes—then the market would be more resilient.
A hacker inserted a malicious pull request into a code extension for Ethereum developers, according to researchers at cybersecurity firm ReversingLabs.
The malicious code was inserted into an update for ETHcode, an open source suite of tools used by Ethereum devs to build and deploy EVM-compatible smart contracts and dapps.
A blog by ReversingLabs reveals that two malicious lines of code were buried in a GitHub pull request that comprised 43 commits and 4,000 updated lines, and that concerned i...
As catastrophic floods ravage central Texas and North Carolina, emergency responders are using professional and military-grade drones with infrared and real-time video to map flood zones, locate stranded victims, and direct rescue teams.
In Texas, MQ-9 Reapers flying 18,000 feet above the impacted area assisted first responders in locating missing victims of the flooding, including those from Camp Mystic, a summer camp where 27 children and counselors lost their lives.
But while drones assist in...
Minna Bank, Japan’s first digital-only bank and a subsidiary of Fukuoka Financial Group, announced Thursday it is exploring the use of stablecoins and digital wallets to support everyday financial services and payments in the country.
The initiative is part of a joint study in collaboration with Fireblocks, Solana Japan, and Japanese tech firm TIS, aiming to assess the practical applications of stablecoins and decentralized wallets in real-world banking.
The study will examine use cases includin...