Sentiment in the cryptocurrency market is on the upswing after small gains from Bitcoin (BTC) and altcoins hint that the market could be in the process of a bullish breakout. A handful of altcoins are also finding momentum and a round of fresh partnership announcements appear to back the 40% gains seen in select assets on April 21. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that the biggest gainers over the past 24-hours were Steem (STEEM), TrustSwap (SWAP) and 0x (ZRX). Binance lists STEEM The community-focused blockchain network Steem is the underlying chain for the social media platform Steemit, …

Cointelegraph is following the development of an entirely new blockchain from inception to mainnet and beyond through its series, Inside the Blockchain Developer’s Mind, written by Andrew Levine of Koinos Group. People use social applications daily, but despite all the hype around supposedly “next-gen” blockchains, none of those social applications are decentralized. Let’s unpack why, using two blockchains as a reference: Ethereum and Steem. Ethereum has far more developers than any other general purpose blockchain, and yet none of those developers have managed to build a social application with mainstream adoption. At one time, Steem was one the most widely …

Decentralization: It’s a word that holds so much power and promise. But over the years, it’s become painfully clear that this concept isn’t being given the respect it deserves — and the consequences can be downright dangerous. We live in a world where DAOs aren’t DAOs, where independent validators aren’t independent, and where PR departments breezily gloss over the fact that some blockchain projects are far more centralized than they may seem. Emotionally and financially, countless crypto enthusiasts have bought into decentralized projects — full of belief that these platforms will bring about change and hopeful that they could make …

In March, the crypto world saw the first instance of what many saw as a hostile takeover attempt of another blockchain. Justin Sun, the founder of Tron, had acquired Steemit, Inc. and the Steem blockchain with it — or so he thought. A complex battle of hard forks, block production takeover, alleged bribes and misdirection ultimately resulted in most of the Steem community migrating to Hive, a completely grassroots version of the previous platform. Meanwhile, the original employees and developers of Steemit, Inc. left the company almost immediately after the purchase. Their role in the ensuing battle was limited, but …

Hashgraph has partnered with the Chopra Foundation to develop a mental health platform that they hope will scale to 1 billion users within five years. The platform's initial focus will be on suicide prevention, though they hope to eventually turn it into a broader mental wellbeing network. According to the press release, the "Never Alone Initiative" will "serve a global community, delivering secure access to scientific research, the work of mental health and wellness experts, and pragmatic tools and practices for everyday use." We asked Hashgraph CEO Mance Harmon whether the fact that Deepak Chopra has been accused of promoting …

A former Steem witness, who is also a prominent member of Korea’s crypto community, spoke to Cointelegraph and shared proof that he received death threats from a Hive user ahead of Steem’s 0.23 hard fork. The former witness, who has requested to remain anonymous, told Cointelegraph that he stepped down shortly before the 0.23 hard fork due to constant threats targeted at him and his family: “I received direct threats from a Hive user based in Korea who said he would come to my house at night if they had the time and put feces on my door. Users also …

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 …

It’s been a good week for Bitcoin. The halving doesn’t seem to have done the top cryptocurrency any harm at all, with the dollar value up more than 8 percent over the previous week. Ethereum is up more than 10 percent which just shows that the opportunity for blockchain-based solutions are still red-hot. If you’re taking that opportunity to issue tokens or digitized assets and seeking legal counsel with respect to securities and regulation then you should speak to Josh Lawler at law firm Zuber Lawler. They sponsor the Bad Crypto podcast and they’re specialists in developing technology, including the …

Changpeng Zhao, or CZ, the chief executive of top crypto exchange Binance, has issued a statement regarding the recent Steem hard fork that sought to freeze 23.6 million STEEM tokens associated with 64 wallet addresses. Binance will support the fork, however, indicating that they will support future forks executed by those affected within the Steem community. Steem fork attracts controversy The latest fork was ostensibly intended to protect against malicious actors in the Steem network, however, critics have accused the project of seeking to punish proponents of the Hive hard fork and detractors of Steemit’s owner as of February, Justin …

Steem has executed a soft fork to restrict the rogue “community321” account from making transfers after the account sent nearly 24 million STEEM to Bittrex in protest of a hard fork that sought to freeze the funds. While Steem has claimed that the hard fork was intended to protect the Steem community against malicious actors, critics claim it was intended to punish supporters of the Hive hard fork by freezing their funds. Steem sanctions community321 An update posted to Steemit on May 22 announced the completion of a soft fork sanctioning community321, stating that “the community no longer has control …

Soon after an unknown entity “rescued” $5.7 million worth of STEEM tokens from a “New Steem” hard fork seizure, Bittrex confirmed that the funds reached their account. The crypto exchange now faces a difficult decision of what to do with the 23.6 million STEEM tokens allegedly stolen from Steem witnesses. In a May 21 statement, Bittrex co-founder Richie Lai confirmed that the entity of the transaction initiator, the account named “community321,” remains unknown so far. Lai pointed out that there is an allegation that the account could be hacked outside of Bittrex. The statement reads: “This morning, someone deposited 23,627,501 …

As part of the long-running Steem drama, the Steem (STEEM) network experienced another fork today. Particularly designed to tackle “constant attack from malicious accounts,” the new hard fork doesn’t appear to have been entirely successful. Code named “New Steem” the hard fork 0.23 had two primary aims. The first was to reduce the power down period from 13 weeks to four weeks. The second was to seize 23.6 million in STEEM tokens from Steem accounts and stakeholders associated with the Steem blockchain’s rebel and fork, the Hive blockchain. The latter goal has apparently failed as the seized funds were ‘rescued’ …