There were more than 20,000 pending transactions for the last blocks before the halving. The transaction fees were around 100 sat/byte to enter the next block.

This is the third time that a halving has occurred in Bitcoin’s history. That reduction by half in the rewards per block mined is set in the network code every 210,000 blocks. Miners will now go from receiving 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC per block.

Given the expectations regarding the price, and after momentarily exceeding USD 10,000, Bitcoin’s value in the market fell below USD 9,000 again, reaching USD 8,400. After a slight rebound, the price went to around USD 8,943, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

Regarding the state of the network, during the hours before the halving, the network was less congested than in previous days and weeks. Besides, there were over 20,000 unconfirmed transactions on Bitcoin, according to data mempool.space.

The numbers on jochen-hoenicke.de coincide, and that record also shows that the number of pending transactions even exceeded 80,000 at some point on April 30^th, four times the current amount. Until now, that level of congestion has been the highest on the network this year.

In recent days, the total number of transactions processed on the network has ranged from 280,000 to 340,000 daily. In the last month, even on April 12^th alone, there were fewer than 240,000 transactions, according to data from Coin Metrics.

On the other hand, it is possible to see on mempool.space that the last 4 mined blocks were 1,195 MB on average. Before the halving, there were about 18 MB of data to confirm among the pending transactions, as the same source shows.

Bitcoin Hash Rate, Fees and other Metrics

During the mining of the last blocks, the average of fees soared again. Between blocks 629,964 and 629,967, fees went from 6 sat/byte to 112 sat/byte. On average, those last fees were equivalent to USD 2.47, according to data from mempool.space.

Meanwhile, the hash rate on the network was close to its all-time high. Data from Coin Metrics show that last Sunday, May 10^th, Bitcoin’s hash rate exceeded 136 EH/s. March 1^st had the maximum so far, with 136.2 EH/s, as the same source indicates.

Consequently, Bitcoin mining difficulty was similarly close to its all-time high. Coin Metrics shows that the difficulty was at 16.10481T, whilst in mid-March, it had reached 16.5529T. After that record, the difficulty of the main cryptocurrency had its biggest drop since 2011.

The number of active Bitcoin addresses was still around 870,000. Although this represents a decrease, compared with previously reported numbers, the figure remained above the averages of recent months.

At the time of writing this article, block 630,000 has already been mined. With this, the third halving in the history of Bitcoin has come and the rewards for mining have been reduced by half. In this way, a new issuance cycle has begun in Bitcoin’s history, in which 6.25 BTC are created per block mined, about every 10 minutes.

By Alexander Salazar

Currently, there are a total of 159,569 users in the DeFi ecosystem. Around USD 887 million are deposited on DeFi platforms and protocols.

Dune Analytics produced a chart that shows the accelerated growth in the number of unique addresses in the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) ecosystem so far in 2020.

According to the graph, the number of unique addresses in the ecosystem last January 1^st was 93,733, 2020. However, there are now around 159,560, not including DAI unique addresses. The said data mean that the number of addresses that use the DeFi protocol has increased by 70.22%.

The chart takes into account the number of unique addresses on several platforms and protocols that offer DeFi products and services. Since a user can have several addresses, charts only take into account the unique addresses on each platform. There are also graphs of important platforms such as Uniswap, Kyber, and Compound, which represent 85% of the total number of unique addresses in the ecosystem.

Besides, the stablecoin DAI is one of the most widely used in the DeFi ecosystem. For that reason, it is noteworthy that there is also a graph that indicates the number of unique addresses of the token. According to Dune Analytics, the number of unique addresses is 339,759, whilst it is possible to see that on EtherScan there are only 63,370 addresses that own DAI. This is because the unique addresses that Dune Analytics considers to be “users” are not all “holders.”

Growth of DeFi Ecosystem Is Prominent

The lending platform Maker, which belongs to MakerDAO, is the most popular option in the ecosystem for DeFi products through the use of DAI. Currently, users have around 468 million DAI on the platform.

According to data from DeFi Pulse, the total amount deposited on DeFi platforms and protocols is USD 887 million. This means that Maker has on its platform 52% of the total amount of the ecosystem. Sinthetix is in second place, with USD 123 million, which represents 13% of the total amount. Compound is in third place, with USD 89 million deposited on the protocol, which translates into 10%.

The growth of this ecosystem is increasingly prominent. Every day, there are announcements of new DeFi products, applications, and platforms. For example, some products have been integrated into well-know platforms such as Gnosis, new Bitcoin, and Ether futures DeFi markets have also been launched, and the Exodus wallet application now allows users to receive interests on their savings in DAI.

To conclude, it is important to remember the advantages of using the DeFi protocol. The traditional financial system depends on financial institutions, which act as intermediaries, and the court provides solutions for controversial issues. However, the DeFi protocol does not require any intermediaries and therefore does not need arbitration from third parties. This reduces the cost of services and provides more transparency. Besides, users initialize it on blockchain networks, thus excluding the influence of unauthorized people.

By Alexander Salazar

Users executed most of the exchanges through top tier platforms like Binance and Okex.

According to a report that CryptoCompare presented, one of the largest bitcoin exchange volumes in history took place on April 30^th. The numbers indicate that the operations conducted accumulated an approximate of 66.2 billion dollars.

The platform managed to record this figure and reflected it in its monthly exchange report. Although this figure does not manage to be the highest recorded to date, it becomes one of the most outstanding in history. The figure of March 13^th surpassed the one registered las April 30t^h. On March 13^th, the exchange of Bitcoin reached a daily volume of about 75.9 billion dollars, the highest in the history of high-level exchanges in Binance.

According to the report, the increase in volume experienced in March happened when cryptocurrency prices fell by 8% in just a few hours. Similarly, last April 30^th, the increase in volume could happen when the price of the digital currency decreased from USD 9,440 to USD 8,530. Both indices represent a good number of those interested in buying bitcoin when the market is down, the report noted.

The CryptoCompare’s document highlighted that users carried out the vast majority of these exchanges through low-level exchange houses. These exchanges managed to accumulate an approximate of 48.3 billion dollars. It is worth mentioning that CryptoCompare orders the platforms that conduct crypto-exchanges at certain levels ranging from A to F. This way of classifying these exchanges corresponds to the volume of data that each exchange company registers.

In this sense, the report highlighted the large number of exchanges that Binance registered last April 30^th. CryptoCompare considers this exchange office as a first-rate exchange.

“When Bitcoin fell below USD 9,000, on the morning of April 30^th, Binance recorded most of the trading volume (BTC / USDT market), trading a total of USD 15 million at 11 a.m. At this time, it represented approximately 50 % of the volume of trade processed by seven of the largest top-tier exchanges”, the report says.

In this way, Binance and Okex were the exchange platforms that registered the highest volume of operations last April 30^th. Binance managed to trade a total of USD 3.6 billion in exchanges, whilst Okex registered about 2.5 billion dollars. In the next place was the Coinbase platform, which negotiated a total of USD 800 million in exchanges.

The report also highlighted the level of growth that these companies have had, compared to March. Binance was the only one of the companies that achieved 11.6 % growth, while BitMex experienced a sharp drop of 40 % since March.

These data that the document provided go hand in hand with some press reports that assured that the mining profits would have reached a considerable increase, reaching some 291 million dollars in bitcoin mining.

April was also an important month on Bitcoin’s history since the price of the main crypto-asset increased more than 20%, despite the crisis that the Covid-19 pandemic generated. The price of Bitcoin went from USD 6,372 on April 1^st to the USD 9,000 barrier, at the end of last month.

In this way, the price recovered a few days before the halving date and showed greater confidence in crypto users.

By María Rodríguez

Researchers note that most XRP transactions are similar to DoS attacks. Almost all the traffic on the EOS and Tezos networks lack value.

According to a study conducted by experts of the Imperial College London, Just 2% of the transactions in the big distributed ledger of Ripple (XRP) are equivalent to transfers that contain a value. When tracking the operations on the network, they found that, among a large number of processed transactions, most cannot be considered valid.

In the document, researchers Daniel Pérez, Jiahua Xu, and Benjamin Livshits, as well as Ripple, analyzed the transactions on the EOS, and Tezos networks between October 1^st and December 31^st, 2019. On Ripple alone, they observed more than 43,000 million processed transactions, which they proved to a great extent to contain spam or a token that still do not have any value in the market. In their conclusions, the researchers highlighted that both the volume of transactions and the value of XRP can be easily manipulated.

The team also found that millions of transactions were conducted on the EOS network, many coming from decentralized game applications and gambling websites. However, even so, 95% of the operations were activated to run a token without any value, as they stated.

In the case of Tezos, 82% of the flow was used to maintain the consensus. Millions of transactions were conducted on all the networks. In other words, the XRP, EOS and Tezos networks are good in terms of processing capacity and can manage millions of transactions. However, the problem is that these transactions do not have any value.

The experts also observed that in the three months that it took them to complete the study, 90,000 accounts conducted 150 million different transactions. However, half of all this traffic had its origin in a few accounts, just with the idea of encouraging transactions among them, even wasting money on fees. For that reason, they note that most of the transactions conducted on the EOS and XRP networks are similar to DoS attacks.

A DoS (Denial of Service) attack is a computer attack consisting of mass requests to a server (computer network) that saturate it and affect its availability to other users. In that sense, a large number of spam e-mails can be sent to a certain server (like that of a company) to make its webpage and services collapse.

In the light of all this information, the researchers conclude that, regardless of the state of the XRP, EOS and Tezos blockchains in terms of processing capacity, they have not yet been able to exploit its potential.

The Ripple network recorded a drop of 87% in XRP sales in the first quarter of 2020, compared to the previous quarter, according to recent information. Besides, a little known company, located in Puerto Rico, has been to court because of Ripple, accusing the blockchain firm of making a sale of non-registered securities.

By Alexander Salazar

The cyber attackers are requesting the financial institution to install high-security systems. The criminals have already published 240 credit card numbers.

A group of hackers, called “Maze Ranzomware,” claim to have accessed the systems of the Bank of Costa Rica (BCR). They reportedly extracted millions of data about users’ accounts and credit cards. The cybercriminals are demanding a ransom in order not to expose the information that they have in their possession.

Last May 1^st, BCR denied that their security system had been the object of hacking. They even stated that they have exhaustively verified their technological platform. Likewise, they said that they had activated their protocols, including links to other national and international institutions, and determined that it was just an extortion attempt.

However, the cybercriminals claim to have attacked the Bank of Costa Rica on two other occasions in the last eight months. They said that they compromised the financial institution in August 2019, when they stole credentials and other sensible data. After that, they attacked it last February and they are now posting a series of messages on the social networks.

The criminals stated that they may sell that information in the dark market for several million US dollars. However, the Maze team is not selling the private information in the dark market or stealing users’ money. They say that they are trying to focus on the security gaps affecting the Bank of Costa Rica, as well as other financial institutions whose credit cards were processed by BCR.

After allowing some time for the institution to reply to their request, and given the inaction by the managers of the entity, the group decided to publish 240 credit card numbers without the last four digits. As part of what they are requesting from the bank is the installation of high-security systems to protect its network.

Banks vs. Bitcoin

Banks are responsible for safeguarding not only their customers’ money but also their data. Although they provide a balance of the movements of the funds, they never explain what they do with private data. Financial institutions need to give consumers more control over their data and provide more information about how they use private information.

Bitcoin’s decentralized network establishes a new value relationship that contrasts with the one that banks traditionally offer. It represents more power over assets and private data, part of the offer of decentralized alternatives, which allow the user to operate privately and transparently.

To operate on the Bitcoin network, it is not necessary to provide personal data. Therefore, it is impossible to know, at first glance, who owns the wallet. Network users have an address (public key), which is not identified with a name, and it is impossible to relate it to a particular person unless that person decides to reveal his or her address.

During the eleven years that Bitcoin has existed, no one has ever been able to hack its blockchain. No central server maintains balances, passwords, or user names. Besides, each user has his or her keys (private keys), which is the only way to transfer funds.

By Alexander Salazar

The event would boost Bitcoin prices in the medium or long term. Miners’ behavior can influence future prices.

After the third halving of Bitcoin, part of the mining community hopes that this event will help increase the price of Bitcoin (BTC), in the coming hours, days or months.

Last April, the price of Bitcoin recovered more than 20% and even reached USD 9,400 despite the Covid-19 pandemic. However, on the night of May 10^th, the price of Bitcoin was USD 8,757, whilst after the halving, the night of May 11^th, the price of BTC was approximately USD 8,595.

Until now, experts do not take for granted that the halving will fuel a bullish rally in Bitcoin, but they do consider that this reduction could give a positive boost to the value of the main cryptocurrency, in the medium or long term. Recent data on the Bitcoin chain suggests that miners expect an increase in the price of the main cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin halving is an event of the cryptocurrency industry. The halving is part of Bitcoin’s monetary policy. Its goal is to self-regulate the issuance of bitcoins, which is limited to 21 million cryptocurrencies.

This event occurs every 210,000 mined blocks, approximately every four years. It consists of reducing the rewards in the mined blocks. During the halving, these rewards go from 12, 5 to 6.25 BTC every 10 minutes.

Possible Long-Term Bitcoin Price Rise

Some members of the mining community believe that the halving would generate positive reactions in the price of Bitcoin. According to PlanB, the creator of the “Stock to Flow” (S2F) model, the reduction of the Bitcoin issuance rate seeks to increase the price of Bitcoin in the long term.

Recently, the analyst said in a tweet: “In my opinion, the halving of Bitcoin 2020 will be like in 2012 and 2016. According to the S2F model, I expect 10 times the price (order of magnitude, not precise) 1-2 years after the halving. The halving will be make-or-break for S2F model. I hope this halving will teach us more about the underlying fundamentals & network effects”.

However, other members of the mining community believe that the halving is a factor that is already taken into account in current Bitcoin prices, since this is a public event and the community knew it would occur in the first days of May 2020.

Miners Set the Price

On the other hand, other members of the crypto community consider that the price of Bitcoin is the result of speculation and that supply and demand play an important role to set it. The truth is that miners are important when it comes to understanding the price of Bitcoin, as they are the only providers of new currencies on the market.

Miners create constant selling pressure when they liquidate their minted coins to pay for electricity services and lodging expenses. In this way, miners “dictate” the price of Bitcoin on the supply side.

Although crypto exchanges are another major player in the market, they do not represent real buying or selling pressure, but rather short-term buying and selling movements.

Joe Nemelka, a data analyst of the company CryptoQuant, recently explained that an increase in the number of miners in crypto-exchanges may indicate volatility. Miners liquidate their bitcoins for different reasons. But Nemelka believes that monitoring miners’ behavior will help detect subtle changes in trends.

When miners enter exchanges in a bull market, they could be creating more selling pressure at prices they believe would be wise to sell.

On the other hand, a high influx of miners when the price has been going down can generate a change in the market as some miners hold on to their BTC and the selling pressure decreases.

Either way, the change or not in Bitcoin prices can be evident days, even months or years, after the halving.

By María Rodríguez