A decentralized finance protocol has launched its mainnet — describing it as a crucial step on the journey to a frictionless financial future. Radix, which describes itself as a platform for smart money, is also launching Instapass with its Olympia mainnet — an optional user and developer service that delivers the world’s first single sign-on solution for building compliant DeFi. The Radix mainnet is being positioned as a generational improvement in the history of decentralized ledger computing — and one that delivers 100 times more executional efficiency than the Ethereum Virtual Machine. This comes hot on the heels of the …

Blockchain developer Neon Labs has created a compatibility bridge between Ethereum and Solana, opening the door to more cross-chain development opportunities for Ethereum programmers. Neon’s Ethereum Virtual Machine, or EVM, has deployed via testnet on Solana, the company announced Tuesday. The EVN grants any decentralized application on Ethereum access to Solana’s high throughput capacity and lower gas fees. Essentially, Neon EVM allows anyone to run Ethereum contracts directly on the Solana blockchain. Even during the testnet phase, Neon’s EVM will support decentralized applications such as Uniswap, SushiSwap, MakerDAO and 0x. The mainnet is expected to launch later this quarter. “Ethereum …

The estimated windfall Apple got from its App Store in 2020 is $67 billion. That’s up from $50 billion in 2019, a 28% increase. Even as the company has lowered its commissions for smaller developers, the App Store remains a major component of Apple’s bottom-line profits. And it’s not just Apple taking a cut of developer revenue: On Android, the world’s most popular mobile operating system, the Google Play Store netted $38.6 billion in 2020. That’s over $105 billion in revenue from the top two app stores combined. It’s no wonder that regulators in many countries are closely considering whether …

Bison Trails, an enterprise infrastructure provider for the cryptocurrency sector, announced Tuesday that it is providing network support to Provenance, a multi-billion-dollar platform that enables traditional financial institutions to offer blockchain services to their clients. Provenance will utilize Bison Trails’ infrastructure to strengthen its network and provide support to Hash holders to run validator nodes, according to June Ou, the executive director at Provenance Blockchain Foundation. Hash is the native cryptocurrency of the Provenance blockchain, serving both as a medium of payment as well as a governance token. “We’re proud to support Provenance in its mission to transform the financial …

Hong Kong tech company Meitu has taken a $17.3-million hit on its Bitcoin (BTC) holdings — but on the upside, its Ether (ETH) holdings have gained $14.7 million. The developer of popular Photoshop-style apps spent a total of $100 million on BTC and ETH between March and April this year, acquiring a total of 940.89 BTC for $49.5 million and 31,000 ETH for $50.5 million. According to a Tuesday voluntary announcement from Meitu, the fair value of its BTC and ETH holdings is based on the market prices as of June 30, which is the final day of the firm’s …

Crypto and blockchain enthusiasts take pride in belonging to a community that is working on the future of financial systems. Yet, the community is innately fragmented thanks to multiple blockchains working independently of each other. The dream of mass adoption of blockchain and decentralized finance faces a major hurdle: a lack of interoperability. Meanwhile, decentralized applications (DApps) — the fruits of decentralization — are being held up. DApp developers face difficulties while transacting between different blockchain networks, and the reason behind this is they are stuck in the Ethereum ecosystem. Despite having the best infrastructure, Ethereum is losing its foothold. …

A blockchain application platform has announced that its testnet migration is taking place on July 1. Lisk says its testnet is an invaluable tool — enabling upgrades to be put through their paces in a public setting before they are released into production on the mainnet. The migration is due to occur on block height 14,075,259. However, the exact time will hinge upon conditions on the testnet, and whether new blocks are being reliably created. Once completed, all protocol improvements introduced through versions three, four and five of the Lisk software development kit will be functional on the testnet, too. …

Top U.S.-based centralized crypto exchange, Coinbase, has announced plans to launch a crypto app store offering third-party developed products. A June 30 blog post penned by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong revealed its plans for an app store, stating that while “the crypto economy is still in its early stages, [...] it is clear that every year more and more economic activity will take place on crypto rails.” “Apple didn’t attempt to build every app for the iPhone, it empowered developers and gave mobile users an easy way to access new innovative apps. We need to do the same in crypto.” …

In a battle of animal-themed cryptocurrencies, a bullock-branded, anonymity-focused protocol is making the case that it is faster, safer and cleaner than the shiba inu-faced joke coin that became a top 10 cryptocurrency this year, largely on the strength of Elon Musk’s memes. Animals aside, the Oxen privacy coin does have some reason to compare itself with market darling Dogecoin. Speed, for one. While DOGE’s block time is one minute compared to OXEN’s two, Oxen can use what it calls Blink technology, which is the default setting for OXEN to make the transactions nearly instant. On top of that, Oxen …

Describing itself as a provider of “virtual worlds blockchain infrastructure,” the Rangers Protocol will open its testnet to users starting in July. In a Thursday announcement at the Global DeFi Summit, Rangers Protocol co-founder Mary Ma said the project would be aiming for a mid-July launch of its testnet following $3.7 million seed and private equity funding rounds. According to Ma, the protocol will have decentralized apps, or DApps, on its network, and will include a cross-chain protocol, nonfungible token protocol and Ethereum Virtual Machine compatible system. "In the past three years, we have solved many problems by tackling down …

A new DApp offers an escrow service for transactions involving cryptocurrencies, as well as a decentralized arbitration service that delivers resolutions quickly and inexpensively — irrespective of how complicated the dispute is. PayrLink says its solution is vital because we’re increasingly living in a world where everything happens online, meaning that it’s hard to trust anyone. As the project’s whitepaper explains: “The days of meeting people, shaking their hands, doing a deal is long gone. We need to feel safe and private when doing transactions online.” Although blockchain technology serves as a powerful tool because of how it delivers transparency, …

Twelve months ago, the total value of cryptocurrency locked in staking programs was barely more than $1 billion. Today, there is $58 billion locked in decentralized finance, or DeFi. The adoption of DeFi has been a sea change that’s helped push the crypto industry into the mainstream, but it’s hardly the only one. Mainstream institutions including MicroStrategy and Tesla have poured billions of dollars into Bitcoin — and some have been buying the dip — while nonfungible tokens have evolved from CryptoKitties and CypherPunks to an artistic medium pulling in millions in bids for a new generation of digital artists …