Last week’s Merge was the “most significant development in the history of the Ethereum network,” according to Fidelity Digital. And from a purely technical standpoint, the blockchain network’s transition from a proof-of-work (PoW) to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism was a marvel. Widely compared to changing a jet engine mid-flight, the software upgrade proceeded with nary a glitch on Sept. 15. Overnight, too, Ethereum, the world’s second-largest blockchain platform, reduced its energy usage by 99.95% from a rate as high as 94 TWh per year in May — roughly equivalent to the nation-state Chile — to an almost negligible 0.01 …

With cryptocurrency prices wavering this year, nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and other sub-ecosystem investors have also found themselves in the grips of a bear market. However, looking beyond the trading value of Ether (ETH), NFTs were primarily created to represent assets and ownership in the real and virtual world. The bear market, as a result, has reignited discussions around how NFTs can backtrack and focus on attending to use cases while the market recovers. In a conversation with Cointelegraph, Tony Ling, the co-founder of analytics platform NFTGo, shared insights into the NFT ecosystem, revealing the expected trajectory of the ecosystem. Cointelegraph: …

Economies around the world are facing a motley of challenges caused by rising inflation. High inflation devalues national currencies, which, in turn, pushes up the cost of living, especially in scenarios where earnings remain unchanged. In the United States, the government has responded aggressively to inflation. The nation hit a 9.1% inflation rate in June, prompting the Federal Reserve to implement a series of fiscal countermeasures designed to prevent the economy from overheating. Hiking interest rates was one of them. Soaring Fed interest rates have consequently slowed down consumer spending and business growth in the country. The counter-inflation approach has …

With the Trade Ministry officially approving the use of cryptocurrencies for foreign trade, Iran will become the first-of-a-kind adopter in the world. The obvious problem with the news is that the country’s innovative policy obviously aims at circumventing financial sanctions that have been hampering its participation in the global economy for many years. These circumstances set an ambivalent tone for Iran’s experiment — while for some, it could prove crypto’s emancipating ability to shirk the all-too-real hegemony of the United States political will and international financial institutions that enforce it, hardline crypto skeptics could get the proof they need for …

A few years back, the concept of owning and trading fragments of physical real estate might have seemed too far-fetched for many. But with the advent of blockchain technology, real estate tokenization is providing new opportunities for fractional ownership and investment. Blockchain technology’s long-overdue debut in real estate has made real-world asset tokenization a heavily-discussed topic in the industry. After all, tokenization ticks all those boxes that are often required to ruffle many a feather in a traditional industry — it’s digital, global, complex and future-oriented. But how exactly does real estate tokenization work, and how can it help transform …

Poolin, one of the largest Bitcoin mining pools by hash rate, has announced it will be issuing IOU tokens in an effort to “minimize the impact of withdrawal suspension” for users. In a Tuesday blog post, Poolin said its wallet service will be releasing IOU ERC-20 tokens for users unable to withdraw their Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Tether (USDT), Litecoin (LTC), Zcash (ZEC), and Dogecoin (DOGE) holdings. On Sept. 15, the mining pool will issue IOUBTC, IOUETH, IOUUSDT, IOULTC, IOUZEC, and IOUDoge, respectively, at a 1:1 ratio based on users’ holdings following the suspension of withdrawals due to reported “liquidity …

In recent years, nonfungible tokens (NFTs), cryptocurrencies and other modern investment options have become trendy. However, physical commodities such as gold are still in high demand. In 2021, the global market capitalization for cryptocurrency surpassed $2 trillion. Now, investors must ask themselves: which option should I choose — crypto or gold? Gold is a commodity that dates back thousands of years as a store of value and as a means of exchange and is still successful today. Even with the invention of decentralized digital cryptocurrency, gold has remained just as prominent. Although, for most individual investors, owning gold can be …

High transaction fees have been a long recurring issue for users on popular blockchain networks like Ethereum and Bitcoin during periods of increased demand. However, there are protocols, platforms and methods that help users to reduce costs. What are transaction fees? Transaction fees are fees that users pay to send a transaction or interact with a smart contract on a blockchain network. While gas fees can refer to transaction fees on any blockchain, the term is mainly used to describe the Ethereum network transaction fees. Transaction fees are paid in small fractions of the network’s native cryptocurrency. For example, with …

Eight years ago, in 2014, the crypto world was rocked by the crippling hack of Mt. Gox, a popular Bitcoin (BTC) exchange, which was forced to shut down after miscreants were able to make away with approximately 850,000 BTC, worth more than $16 billion at today’s exchange rates. At the time of the incident, the Tokyo-based exchange was the world’s largest cryptocurrency trading ecosystem, processing over 70% of the crypto market’s daily Bitcoin trading volume. However, due to its lack of quality security protocols, hackers were able to make their way with the crypto assets of over 24,000 customers, which …

All facets of a token's production and management, including its allocation to various stakeholders, supply, token burn schedules and distribution, are managed through tokenomics analysis. Tokenomics help to determine the potential value of decentralized finance (DeFi) projects. Since the law of supply and demand cannot be changed, tokenomics dramatically impacts the worth of each nonfungible token (NFT) or cryptocurrency. Related: What is Tokenomics? A beginner’s guide on supply and demand of cryptocurrencies However, there are various loopholes in the tokenomics design, such as a substantial initial supply allocation to insiders, which may be a pump and dump warning sign. Also, …

Decentralized finance (DeFi), one of the fastest growing ecosystems in the cryptocurrency market, has long been a dilemma for regulators, given the decentralized nature of the space. In 2022, United States regulators paid special focus to the nascent area with significant attention to ending the anonymous nature of the ecosystem. DeFi protocols allow users to trade, borrow and lend digital assets without having to go through an intermediary. DeFi ecosystems by nature are decentralized with the majority of projects being run by automated smart contracts and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). Most DeFi protocols don’t require heavy Know Your Customer (KYC) …

Interest in crypto has been growing since the 2017 bull market and has increased even further since 2021, which saw the nonfungible token (NFT) boom and Bitcoin (BTC) hitting its highest price so far. So, what can a crypto investor tell family and friends who are interested in cryptocurrency? Here are some common and important questions that one can come across regarding crypto and some appropriate responses with opinions from experts in the industry. What is cryptocurrency? One of the most common questions a crypto investor might get asked is what cryptocurrency is in the first place. Cryptocurrency is a …