Results for the second quarter of 2020 show tremendous growth for decentralized applications across all ecosystems, primarily spearheaded by Ethereum (ETH) decentralized finance, or DeFi. Decentralized exchanges were at the frontlines of the rise as Compound token mining activity trickled down to on-chain swapping solutions. According to Our Network, Curve was one of the biggest beneficiaries of yield farming as it helped users switch between different stablecoins to maximize yield. Curve is an automated money market that only supports swaps between different types of stablecoins and wrapped tokens. This limitation allows Curve to provide competitive slippage and fees for exchanging …

On-chain liquidity protocol Kyber announced on June 29 that a major upgrade of Katalyst protocol will go live on July 7, 2020. The upgrade includes changes to the Kyber Network Crystal (KNC) token model to attract more participants to the development of the protocol. According to the announcement, Katalyst aims to reduce friction in liquidity contributions, introduce rebates for high-performing reserves, and allow decentralized apps to integrate with the Kyber network by adding a custom spread. Participating in governance Among the features included in the upgrade is the launch of KyberDAO, a community platform that allows KNC token holders to …

Hyundai is reportedly looking to launch a blockchain ecosystem through its Europe-based subsidiary, Hdac, and IT arm, Hyundai BS&C, after registering three business trademarks with the Korea Intellectual Property Office. According to Chosun, a local media outlet, Hyundai BS&C’s CEO Chung Dae-sun applied to the intellectual property authorities for the brand names Altum, Atolo, and Rizon. Each application has the description “electronic wallets that can hold cryptocurrencies.” Crypto trading services and ATMs coming soon? Hyundai has yet to reveal more details about the conglomerate’s intentions within the blockchain space. The data from the recent trademark filing indicates that the company …

Digital asset protocol Ampleforth announced the official launch of a new “Liquidity Incentive Program' on June 23'. This program, named Geyser, targets Uniswap 2.0 and aims to enable users to stake their Ample liquidity tokens (AMPL) to earn staking rewards. According to the announcement, users will earn Ample tokens based on the amount of liquidity provided and the duration the user’s tokens are available. The company claims that the entire process is on-chain and non-custodial. Targeting Uniswap 2.0 and DeFi’s current status Brandon Iles, co-founder of Ampleforth, told Cointelegraph that the Uniswap platform has had time to prove itself in …

While Ethereum has brought about a whole new realm of possibilities due to its native token Ether (ETH) and its smart contract and tokenization capabilities, it is often faced with challenges such as network congestion, relatively low transaction times and throughput, large blockchain size and excessive electricity use for mining — all issues Bitcoin also shares. While Bitcoin (BTC) was created by an anonymous developer that left the network to be developed by its capable community, Ethereum was always envisioned with a roadmap and a team behind it. While the plan has been subject to changes and delays, Ethereum has …

Across Europe, a privacy row has been brewing over various efforts to use coronavirus contact tracing technology. Contact tracing is the cornerstone of the efforts to track the spread of COVID-19 in an attempt to prevent a second wave by quarantining those exposed to the infection. After all, it proved to be successful in China and South Korea. However, the contact tracing efforts in China and South Korea are generally considered to breach user privacy to an extent that’s culturally and legally unacceptable across much of Europe. Nevertheless, it seems that many governments are now prepared to compromise on their …

In an effort to keep citizens safe, state authorities have rapidly implemented various emergency plans to curb the spread of COVID-19. In South Korea, the movements of infected citizens are being broadcasted via public text message. In Israel, the government has approved a law to track smartphones belonging to those suspected of being infected. In the United States, the government is in talks with Google and Facebook to access location data, and in the United Kingdom, data giant Palantir is merging data for the National Health Service to inform the nation’s response. The extent to which governments can leverage technology …

The most popular decentralized application (DApp) on Steem — a crypto-powered card trading game called Splinterlands — has become the latest high profile migration to rebel Steem fork, Hive. As a result, the number of daily transactions on Steem has fallen by a third to drop below Hive’s for the first time. Hive is a community run fork of Steem, set up following the purchase of Steemit Inc by Tron founder Justin Sun. The migration was a response to a surprise hard fork initiated in late May to freeze the tokens of former Steem block validators. Splinterlands wrote at the …

Charlie Shrem has been involved in crypto longer than almost anyone. He likes to joke that he was one of the first ten people to ever hear about Bitcoin. He now hosts the crypto-focused podcast Untold Stories, which attempts to chronicle the history of crypto through the eyes and experiences of its most influential players. Cointelegraph’s most recent live Q&A gave the audience the opportunity to directly question Shrem about crypto, his past, and anything in between. The topics ranged from XRP, DApps, and stablecoins to his time spent in prison. Shrem revealed how he first heard about Bitcoin, who …

The future of finance is decentralized. Striving to facilitate that prognosis, decentralized finance — or DeFi — is quickly shaping into an alluring prospect for investors and companies alike. Looking to harness this decentralized ideal, rivals to the Ethereum-centric sector are feeling the fear of missing out and leveraging their own blockchains in order to gain dominance. Reaching an early climax this year, DeFi breached $1 billion in locked assets. For the Ethereum ecosystem, this stood as a significant boon, drastically increasing its value proposition — and leading competitors to turn their heads. With the Ethereum ecosystem intrinsically linked to …

Ethereum 2.0 is expected to launch within months, but new scaling solutions and gas-free transactions are already here. The network is also growing more popular, with the number of active wallets more than doubling since January to around half a million. Synthetix scales up optimistically The developers behind the second-largest DeFi protocol, Synthetix, have partnered with Ethereum layer-2 research team Optimism to launch a demo deployment of Synthetix Exchange on the Optimistic Virtual Machine (OVM). Optimism’s OVM is a layer-2 scaling solution designed to allow DeFi financial platforms to operate with comparable speeds to centralized systems. The use of scaling …

The Tron (TRX) project announced on April 27 that apps built on its blockchain will be featured in the Samsung Galaxy Store. Owners of Samsung smartphones in specific countries will see Tron decentralized apps, or DApps, in an alternative app store. Tron and its tokens were already supported by Samsung’s Blockchain Keystore, which stores private keys in a secure memory compartment. The integration was announced alongside Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). As indicated by Tron, the Samsung store will feature “applications like Blockchain Cuties, Super Player, Meerkat Mining and Timeloop.” It is worth noting that Blockchain Cuties is a multi-platform …