Grin (GRIN), a major privacy-focused cryptocurrency, is apparently no longer resistant to mining with Application-Specific Integrated Circuits — or ASICs — according to a former core developer. Gary Yu, a former core Grin developer, used a Grin ASIC mining device to test out the miner’s performance, according to an Aug. 10 post on Grin’s official forum. Yu purportedly managed to mine three blocks in less than 24 hours, with a block reward totaling at 180 GRIN, or $118 as of press time. ASIC-powered mining occurred at block heights 819660, 820461, and 820801, Yu added. In the post, the former core …

China’s blockchain-based Service Network (BSN), the country’s nationwide blockchain project, has just launched an official international website. Appearing on Aug. 10, the new english-language BSN website aims to help bring global developers to the project. Integration with six permissionless blockchains He Yifan, CEO of Red Date Technology, a local private company and a founding member of the BSN, told Cointelegraph that the new website allows developers to use BSN services and public chain services via the portal. As part of the new global effort, the BSN now features live integration of six public chains including Ethereum, EOS, Nervos, Tezos, NEO …

Crypto exchange OKCoin has continued to support Bitcoin (BTC) Core developers with a fourth grant being awarded to Bitcoin’s most active contributor since 2017, Marco Falke for an undisclosed six-figure sum. This grant brings the total amount provided as part of the company’s Independent Developer Grant to over $500,000. OKCoin believes that funding open-source development of the Bitcoin network is critical to the growth of the entire crypto ecosystem. CEO Hong Fang said, “Supporting Marco’s work on strengthening the testing framework in addition to his general responsibilities as a maintainer is important to continuing quality development.” Crucial development This grant …

The latest figures from Chinese recruiting platforms show that blockchain-related salaries are on the rise across China. This is likely due to high demand for specialists in the sector. According to Chainnews, quoting statistics from Zhaopin, “hundreds” of companies in China have been hiring staff for blockchain-related jobs. Monthly salaries start at $2,865 on average. This figure has skyrocketed from an average of $1,230 last year. Higher salaries are being offered to candidates who have more than three years of experience in the blockchain space. For people fitting this criteria, the average salary is set at $7,000 per month. Big …

DAML, a major smart contact language designed for building business-level blockchain applications, has been integrated with R3’s blockchain. Developed by United States’ blockchain startup Digital Asset, DAML, or Digital Asset Modeling Language, is now available on R3 commercial blockchain platform, Corda Enterprise. A cross-platform alternative to Corda’s native programming language In order to bring the cross-platform language to the Corda platform, Digital Asset partnered with international tech firm IntellectEU, the firm announced on July 27. Focused on emerging technologies like blockchain, IntellectEU provided commercial integration, enabling a new smart contract language on Corda. To date, Corda developers have only been …

OKCoin and HDR Global (the company that owns BitMEX) have partnered to provide a joint grant of $150,000 to Bitcoin (BTC) Core developer Amiti Uttarwar. This is the first time two competitor exchanges have come together to co-fund Bitcoin’s open source development. The two exchanges have provided funding separately in the past with OKCoin providing grants to Fabian Jahr and BTCPay Server ($100,000) in February and May 2020, respectively. HDR has recently provided grants to the MIT DCI, Bitcoin Core maintainer Michael Ford ($150,000), and Bitcoin developer and researcher Gleb Naumenko ($100,000). Surprise collaboration This joint move is in recognition …

An anonymous blockchain industry participant going by the name heyheeyheeey recently dropped an Ethereum 2.0 (ETH 2.0) staking solution on Medium in Satoshi-like fashion. The pseudonymous character did not do it for the fame, according to his recent comments to Cointelegraph. "The only thing that I'd like to clarify is that I wasn't paid, but I wasn't looking to get paid either," heyheeyheeey told Cointelegraph staff in a message. "For me it's a portfolio piece," they said, adding, "Unsolicited designs are very common in UX/UI design." The person's solution aims for scaling improvement With the public awaiting the release of …

As part of a blog post detailing a different approach to blockchain transaction scaling, Waves Smart Contracts head of development, Ilya Smagin, noted the blockchain space often makes excuses for its shortcomings. "One of the things blockchain people are good at is explaining why user restrictions and inconveniences are insignificant and are actually the solutions rather than the problems," Smagin said in a June 4 post. Blockchain is still a young industry Although some of the underpinnings and inspiration for blockchain tech came into play in years prior, the technology gained true ground with the inception of Bitcoin's white paper …

Free TON, a decentralized blockchain network derived from Telegram’s TON blockchain, is launching the first community contests to power its network. Starting Monday, users, developers and validators are invited to participate in three separate contests, with Free TON planning to distribute thousands of TON Crystals, or Tons, as rewards. On Monday, the Free TON Community officially introduced proposals for the first community contests on the Free TON forum. Each contest aims to distribute at least 50,000 Tons among winners, participants and juries. The three contests are expected to close on May 25. Free TON contests are the only way to …

China’s top digital bank, WeBank, has partnered with OpenNodes, a distributed ledger technology platform by Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority. Through the new partnership, WeBank will provide the FISCO BCOS blockchain platform to Singaporean academics to innovate and build on. The initiative seeks to offer the blockchain platform as an “innovation playground“ to Singapore’s student communities to expedite development in the field of DLT. As a requirement of participation in the program, all innovations produced through the FISCO BCOS initiative are made available as open-source. The program hopes to stimulate research into blockchain applications for the supply chain and finance …

Major Bitcoin (BTC) derivatives exchange BitMEX has started accepting grant applications from open source developers. The initiative follows $650,000 in developer grants that the exchange has issued to Bitcoin Core contributor Michael Ford and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. BitMEX expands open-source development funding BitMEX’s parent company, HDR Global Trading Limited, has opened its open-source development grants to applications from developers contributing to Bitcoin, Java, NodeJS, and Kubernetes. The application form also indicates that HDR is open to considering supporting open source development not relating to the four stated technologies, in addition to “smaller non-developer” grants for specific contributions such …

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic is transforming blockchain companies, and its impact is not always negative for the blockchain industry. Amid the latest coronavirus crisis-fueled changes, China is taking another step toward blockchain adoption to officially recognize industry jobs. China’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, or MOHRSS, is the ministry responsible for national labor policies and regulations. Recently, they have added blockchain-related jobs to a list of officially recognized jobs. New occupation types are officially introduced to promote employment amid COVID-19 According to a May 11 statement by the MOHRSS, blockchain-focused professions, like tech developers, engineers, and analysts, are …