Ethereum developers implemented the network’s first-ever “shadow fork” on Monday, marking an important milestone in the ongoing shift to proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus. The shadow fork provides a venue for developers to stress test their assumptions around the network’s complex shift to PoS, according to Ethereum Foundation developer Parithosh Jayanthi. “The aim of the Kiln merge testnet was to allow the community to practice running their nodes, deploying contracts, testing infrastructure, etc.,” he tweeted on Sunday. Wondering what the #TestingTheMerge team has been up to? The aim of the Kiln merge testnet was to allow the community to practice running their …

Scott Melker, veteran trader and pocaster, is convinced that major layer-1 protocols should be part of everyone’s investment portfolio. Instead of picking individual crypto projects, such as NFTs or blockchain games, Melker thinks it makes more sense to bet on the blockchain infrastructure on which these projects are built. “Any of these small projects could absolutely go nuts. But you're going to have trouble choosing what they are. You should just own the layer-1 and the infrastructure that they're all built on”, he said in an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph. “You may not own a Bored Ape, but Ethereum holders …

Three market catalysts suggest that Ethereum's native token Ether (ETH) is well-positioned to reach $4,000 this month. Google searches for "Ethereum merge" spike Internet users' interest in Ethereum's upcoming network upgrade, dubbed "the Merge," surged substantially in the week ending April 2, Google Trends' data shows. Searches for the keyword "Ethereum Merge" reached a perfect Google Trends score of 100 on a 12-month timeframe with most traffic coming from the U.S., Singapore, Canada, and Australia. Merge, also called ETH 2.0, refers to the Ethereum network's full transition to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) from Proof-of-Work (PoW), a development that had been touted as …

Greenpeace, along with other climate groups, and co-founder and executive chairman of Ripple, Chris Larsen, has launched a new campaign aimed at changing Bitcoin (BTC) to a more environmentally friendly consensus model. The “Change the code, not the climate” campaign aims to pressure key industry leaders, Bitcoin miners, and influencers like Elon Musk, and Jack Dorsey, into moving over to a new consensus model saying: “If only 30 people — the key miners, exchanges, and core developers who build and contribute to Bitcoin’s code — agreed to reinvent proof-of-work mining or move to a low-energy protocol, Bitcoin would stop polluting …

Proof-of-work (PoW) crypto mining won’t be banned in the European Union — not this year at least. That’s the conclusion from last week’s closely watched committee vote in the European Parliament (EP). A last-minute amendment presented by an ad hoc coalition of social democrats and Greens would have established a de facto ban on proof-of-work mining — the type of consensus mechanisms used by native cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) — has been decisively rejected. The crypto community can breathe easily, but some still worry that the industry’s problem with its energy-intensive consensus protocols remains. “My first reaction …

Ethereum's native token Ether (ETH) could reach back to $3,000 in March, backed by a mix of short-term technical, fundamental, and on-chain catalysts. ETH price paints "symmetrical triangle" The first interim bullish outlook for Ether ironically comes from a bearish continuation pattern Notably, ETH's 50%-plus decline from its all-time high of around $4,650 on Dec. 2, 2021, followed up with forming a consolidation channel called a symmetrical triangle. Hence, the Ethereum token has been fluctuating between a falling upper trendline and a rising lower trendline since the beginning of this year. ETH/USD last retested the triangle's lower trendline as support …

On Tuesday, Ethereum (ETH) developer Tim Beiko tweeted that Kiln successfully passed the Ethereum Merge, with validators producing post-merge blocks containing transactions. Kiln will be the last Merge testnet (formerly Ethereum 2.0) before existing public testnets are upgraded. "Merge" involves taking Ethereum's Execution Layer from the existing Proof of Work layer and merging it with the Consensus Layer from the Beacon chain, turning the blockchain into a proof-of-stake network. The Foundation writes: "This merge signals the culmination of six years of research and development in Ethereum and will result in a more secure network, predictable block times, and a 99.98%+ …

The much-anticipated ‘Merge’ on the Ethereum network is another step closer to becoming a reality after the final public testnet Kiln launched to put it through its paces. On March 14, the Ethereum Foundation urged network stakeholders to run tests using Kiln “to ensure a smooth transition on existing public testnets.” “We strongly recommend that developers run through a full testing & deployment cycle on Kiln and report any issues with tools or dependencies to those projects’ maintainers.” Ethereum developer Tim Beiko confirmed that Kiln has gone live and will soon be ready to merge with the Beacon Chain in …

In bull and bear markets, the mantra for cryptocurrency projects that are focused on long-term sustainability is “always be building.” Kadena (KDA) is one project that has earned rewards from its forward-looking approach to development despite the weakness in the wider crypto market and the layer-one proof-of-work blockchain protocol has seen its price reverse direction recently. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that the price of KDA spiked 40% from a low of $5.94 in the early hours on March 11 to a high of $8.28 as its 24-hour trading volume surged 784% to $325 million. Three reasons …

Ethereum's native token Ether (ETH) will likely fall below $2,000, according to one popular market analyst. Ether paints a classic bearish continuation setup Pseudonymous market analyst Wolf shared the downside outlook on Monday as Ether's price rebounded by over 3% to nearly $2,650, a day after testing its upward sloping trendline near $2,500. Ignoring the intraday upside reversal, Wolf anticipated the Ether's decline to continue further. At the core of Wolf's analogy was a "symmetrical triangle," a classic technical analysis pattern that forms when the price fluctuates between two converging trendlines. In a "perfect" scenario, the price breaks out of …

The parliament of the European Union is delaying a vote on a framework aimed at regulating cryptocurrencies amid concerns over proof-of-work mining. In a Friday Twitter thread, European Parliament economics committee member Stefan Berger said the government body had canceled a vote on the Markets in Crypto Assets, or MiCA, framework scheduled to take place on Feb. 28. Berger said parliament needed to clarify “the question of proof-of-work” in discussions with stakeholders to ensure a proper legal framework, adding that some might misinterpret the proposal as a ban on crypto. “The discussion about MiCA indicates that individual passages of the …

In May 2021, a Nashville couple known as the Jarretts filed a lawsuit against the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) over taxes they had paid on unclaimed and unsold Tezos (XTZ) staking rewards. At the beginning of February, news broke that the lawsuit filed by the Jarretts had come to an end, resulting in the IRS issuing the couple a tax refund for $3,793. Confusion among crypto holders Not long after this news made headlines, confusion among the crypto community piqued. One crypto media publication sent a tweet from its official account on Feb. 2, 2022, saying, “BREAKING: IRS …