SegWit Reaches 42% Adoption Two Years after Activation

Willmen Blanco
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SegWit Reaches 42% Adoption Two Years after Activation

The level of adoption has not registered significant growth in the last year. Approximately 132,000 transactions have been made following the protocol for two years.

On August 23rd, two years after the implementation of SegWit (Segregated Witness) in the Bitcoin network, it has reached an adoption rate of 42% to date. The proposal of the company Blockstream and the development team of the customer Bitcoin Core officially came to light in 2017, during the mining of block 481.822.

The improvement was published in 2015 under BIP-141 by Pieter Wuille, Johnson Lau and Eric Lombrozo, with the goal of helping improve Bitcoin’s scalability. In May 2017, the necessary consensus for its activation was achieved, after observing that the network began to become congested, until it was full of unconfirmed transactions.

Subsequently, in July 2017, the miners followed the protocol described in the BIP-141 proposal, taking the first steps to perform the update. Then, on August 9th of that same year they managed to check the compatibility with SegWit, until the activation was finally done on August 23rd.

SegWit was implemented with the idea of ​​enabling the Bitcoin blockchain to handle more transactions in less time, managing to reduce the high transfer fees paid by users. For this reason, the SegWit protocol opened the doors for the network to operate with larger block sizes, bringing the maximum block size from 1 MB to 4 MB.

In this way, updates on the size of the blocks of the network are guaranteed, without having to apply a hard fork. In addition, it is possible to reduce competition for priority rates among users and facilitate the reduction of network fees.

Sustained Adoption

SegWit is a software function designed to improve the efficiency of transactions and reduce the cost of the fees on the network. Since it was activated, several exchange houses and wallet services have been activating their functions in search of better results.

The use of the protocol was growing gradually since its inception. By October 2017 SegWit already had more than 10% adoption, but these levels became noticeable in the first months of 2018. Between the end of February and the beginning of March of that year the percentage of transactions went from 14.5% to 30% of total network volume. The progress was sustained that year until it reached an all-time high of 51.6% in October 2018.

At the same time, after reaching this all-time high, from the end of 2018 until today, the process of adoption of SegWit has been more or less constant, with oscillations that range from 30% to a little over 40% of the volume of transactions of the network.

According to SegWit Space statistics, for this second anniversary, the protocol shows an adoption rate of 42.4%. Besides, according to Charts Woobull graphics, on August 21st the network registered a total of 132,000 transactions with SegWit, out of a total of 332,000 transactions made in Bitcoin.

The adoption pace does not show extraordinary increases compared to the data that was available on the first anniversary of SegWit. However, its presence is active on the network and together with Lightning Network offers users lower rates and solutions to transaction malleability problems.

By Willmen Blanco

US Lawmakers Remain Worried about Libra Cryptocurrency after Meetings in Switzerland

Andres Chavez
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US Lawmakers Remain Worried about Libra Cryptocurrency after Meetings in Switzerland

Facebook’s crypto project Libra has turned the cryptocurrency industry upside down ever since the moment it was unveiled back in June. A lack of compliance with the vast majority of financial regulators across the planet has somewhat halted its progress, and watchdogs are still not sure how to act and react towards the newly announced ecosystem.

American legislators, led by Representative Maxine Waters, recently traveled all the way to Switzerland for meetings with the European nation’s financial regulators. However, the US-based lawmakers remain highly concerned about Libra and Facebook’s potential privacy risks for users.

The Official Position

An official release from Chairwoman Waters that was published in the last few hours informed that multiple members of the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee met with several regulatory agencies and lawmakers in Switzerland. Among them were the State Secretariat for International Financial Matters, the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner, and the Financial Market Supervisory Authority.

American representatives wanted to know specifically how several local authorities were going to approach Libra’s regulation. They also wanted to learn a bit more about the project, its current state, and its magnitude. Waters described the meetings as helpful, but she did not come with good news from a concerns standpoint.

“Last month, the House Financial Services Committee held a hearing to examine Facebook’s proposed cryptocurrency, Libra, and its impact on consumers, investors, national security, and the American financial system. As I said then, that hearing was just the first step in our oversight and legislative process. Today, my colleagues and I are departing Switzerland after meeting with the government officials that Facebook claims would regulate the Swiss-headquartered Libra Association, which will issue and manage the Libra currency. Our discussions with representatives from the State Secretariat for International Financial Matters (SIF), the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC), the Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), and Swiss legislators were helpful in understanding the status, complexity, and magnitude of Facebook’s plans,” her statement started.

Concerns Remain

The chairwoman explained that “while I appreciate the time that the Swiss government officials took to meet with us, my concerns remain with allowing a large tech company to create a privately controlled, alternative global currency.”

David Marcus, one of the heads of the Libra project and the Calibra wallet, lead several congressional hearings back in July to defend Facebook’s newest venture, without much success in terms of convincing lawmakers that it did not represent a severe privacy risk for users around the world.

Marcus stated at the time that Switzerland and the Libra project could match very well from a regulatory point of view. American legislators, however, did not buy those remarks and made their concerns public.

Using Switzerland as a Shield?

In fact, lawmakers expressed their worry that Facebook would use Switzerland as a way to prevent all the legal drama that surrounds the regulation of the digital asset. The social networking giant established the first half of 2020 as the projected date for the launch of its crypto ecosystem.

Despite all the drama surrounding the regulation of the asset, the issue is still in the Financial Services Committee’s agenda as a priority, according to Waters. The chairwoman has been a vocal detractor of Libra, saying that the involved actors have showed “a demonstrated pattern of failing to keep consumer data private on a scale similar to Equifax.”

By Andres Chavez

US Treasury Department Sanctioned Three Chinese Citizens Who Used Cryptocurrencies for Money Laundering

Maria Rodríguez
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US Treasury Department Sanctioned Three Chinese Citizens Who Used Cryptocurrencies for Money Laundering

The Treasury Department added the cryptocurrency addresses of these Chinese citizens to the blacklist.

The United States sanctioned three Chinese citizens for being immersed in money laundering and drug trafficking using cryptocurrency addresses to conduct their negotiations.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which belongs to the US Department of Treasury, determined the sanction for these citizens and claimed that the accounts were used for illegal activities such as drugs and traffic.

In this way, OFAC, under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act described the citizens, Xiaobing Yan, Fujing Zheng and Guanghua Zheng, as drug traffickers, and immediately the entity named all bank accounts, properties and assets that they have within the United States.

In this way, a series of emails, passports of the three citizens, and their identity numbers were listed. The agency also determined and qualified a number of Bitcoin and Litecoin addresses, which were used by Chinese citizens for their business transactions.

The press release issued by the agency labeled Fujing Zheng and Xiaobing Yan as “important drug traffickers”, whilst Guanghua Zheng was appointed as Fujing’s main assistant. He also gave full support to achieve currency exchange and money laundering. In this way, Zheng’s Drug Trafficking Organization was included in the sanction, as well as it was included Qinsheng Pharmaceutical Technology Co. Ltd.

The Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Sigal Mandelker, commented that it was a joint work of the OFAC with local agencies and the Financial Crime Execution Network (FinCEN) to determine the execution of the law.

In addition, the group appointed Chinese citizens last Wednesday to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi, as well as the various Drug Enforcement Administration(DEA), and the US Department of Justice Criminal Division.

As part of the statements about the blocking of Chinese citizens’ accounts, Mandelkar said these three people were directly involved with drug trafficking. “The Chinese drug dealers that OFAC designated today lead an international drug trafficking operation that manufactures and sells lethal narcotics, contributing directly to the crisis of opioid addiction, overdose and deaths in the United States.

Fujing Zheng and Yan have sent hundreds of synthetic opioid packages to the US, targeting customers through online advertising and sales, and using commercial carriers to smuggle their drugs in the United States”, said Mandelkar.

It is not the first time that OFAC sanctions citizens for using cryptocurrency addresses for illicit acts, in November 2018, the same investigation team sanctioned two Iranian citizens and they were added to the agency’s blacklist too.

Hence, this sanction corresponds to the second time that the US Treasury Department designates a sanction against foreign citizens who use digital currencies for money laundering. The idea is to avoid this kind of crimes to preserve the goods of the country and the security of the citizens. That is the main objective.

By María Rodríguez

Argentine Institute Offers Blockchain Courses to Avoid Art Forgery

Maria Rodríguez
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Argentine Institute Offers Blockchain Courses to Avoid Art Forgery

Lovers of art or beginners in technology could take the course. Preserving the cultural heritage and the authenticity of the artworks is only one of the benefits of blockchain technology.

Innovations in the art world do not cease and less now, thanks to blockchain technology. For instance, one of the benefits is organizing information, so that citizens can access art, hide prizes valued in cryptocurrencies in murals; the ideas are diverse.

This is the reason why the Argentine Institute ICAE will offer in September a series of courses based on the application of this technology to the art sector. These workshops will present the different benefits of using blockchain technology in the art field.

One of the current problems in the art world is the falsification of pieces. This is an aspect that blockchain manages to solve in other fields, such as food traceability since it allows a complete and unalterable record of the most important data of an object, product or service.

Preserving the cultural heritage and the authenticity of the pieces of art is only one of the benefits that blockchain technology would offer. Transparency, immutability, and decentralization are other characteristics of blockchain, invaluable in an industry full of counterfeits.

Art Expertise

The courses will be taught in the cities of Córdoba, Rosario and, Buenos Aires. There, people interested will learn topics such as possible uses, applications and potential elements of blockchain technology for the art world.

One of the points of special attention on the courses is the expertise of art, as well as aspects such as evaluation, registration, identification, and authentication of the art piece.

Anouk Lancestremere, CEO of Giova and who is also in charge of the Art and Blockchain workshop at ICAE, recently talked about the details of the project. “Our goal is to be at the forefront of technology, which is why we have been in this for two years. Blockchain technology is one of the pillars of our training”, he said.

Giova is an interdisciplinary group specialized in the evaluation and preservation of works of art. The company has a presence in Brazil and Argentina. It is dedicated to the democratization of the expertise of artistic pieces.

For all Audiences

The courses are aimed at the general public. Lovers of art, technology or beginners in this area are able to participate in the courses since they make a review of the basic concepts related to blockchain.

Information about different applications and uses of disruptive technology, identification and registration of artworks in blockchain platforms is also provided.

“Our intention is to bring the public to the expertise and specific authentication in technology. It is our fundamental pillar”.

The course “The New Ecosystem of Blockchain Art” will be presented in Córdoba on September 9th, in Rosario on September 16th, and in Buenos Aires on September 23rd.

According to Lancestremere, the link with technologies is presented from moment one. Blockchain would allow the analysis of pigments to validate the authentication of each art piece.

In addition, it would allow cataloging and labeling of artworks, as well as their assessment. The Argentine blockchain platform Signatura is used for this.

Smart tags are also used to link the works in physical with their digital certificate registered in blockchain.

The objective for the coming months is to conduct these courses in Uruguay, Chile, and other countries to achieve an expansion of knowledge in the area and begin to clear historical concerns about the art forgery, in addition to contributing, in this way, with the preservation of Latin American cultural heritage.

By María Rodríguez

Crypto Personality Patrick Byrne Presents his Resignation as Overstock’s CEO

Andres Chavez
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Crypto Personality Patrick Byrne Presents his Resignation as Overstock’s CEO

Through a letter of resignation directed to shareholders of the company, Patrick Byrne, a widely known crypto advocate and enthusiast, presented his resignation as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Overstock.

Per a report from Fox 13 Salt Lake City, Byrne “abruptly resigned his post following eyebrow-raising comments about dating a spy and his involvement in a series of investigations into Hillary Clinton and Russia.”

Improving a Company through Crypto

Byrne is famous for bringing out the best of the crypto world to the e-commerce platform of the firm. He led the development and launch of tZero, which is Overstock’s crypto token ecosystem, and he also was the primary reason behind the company accepting Bitcoin payments to keep up with modern times.

The resignation of Byrnes comes around the same moment in time in which the company announced a disappointing performance in the first quarter of 2019, specifically referring to earnings. The crypto enthusiast also said that his “controversial” relationship with Maria Butina, a Russian operative currently in prison, also factored in the decision.

Government Matters

“In July I came forward to a small set of journalists regarding my involvement in certain government matters. Doing so was not my first choice, but I was reminded of the damage done to our nation for three years and felt my duty as a citizen precluded me from staying silent any longer. So, I came forward in as carefully and well-managed fashion as I could. The news that I shared is bubbling (however haphazardly) into the public,” he wrote.

“Though patriotic Americans are writing me in support, my presence may affect and complicate all manner of business relationships, from insurability to strategic discussions regarding our retail business. Thus, while I believe that I did what was necessary for the good of the country, for the good of the firm, I am in the sad position of having to sever ties with Overstock, both as CEO and board member, effective Thursday August 22,” he stated.

Byrne took advantage of the opportunity to emphasize that he has faith that “the blockchain revolution will reshape key social institutions.” It is not clear, however, which stance will Overstock take regarding the use and implementation of the technology going forward now that he won’t be in charge.

In the fourth quarter of 2018, tZero reported pre-tax losses of $12.6 million, a situation that did not reduce Byrne’s confidence on the platform.

A Replacement in Place

Overstock announced via a press release the very same day that it already has a replacement in place. Jonathon Johnson will be the man tasked with the responsibility of filling Byrne’s shoes, and Kamelia Aryafar will take over as executive vice president of Overstock Retail and as a board member.

The statement released by Byrne when he said was a part of the investigation into Russian involvement in the 2016 elections made the company’s stock collapse, per Fox 13 Salt Lake City.

By Andres Chavez

HashKey Capital Makes Investment in Terra’s Stablecoin

Andres Chavez
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HashKey Capital Makes Investment in Terra’s Stablecoin

Stablecoins have become quite popular at the moment of developing new crypto assets. One only needs to look at the examples: Facebook’s Libra is a stablecoin as is Binance’s new project. The industry has a soft spot for these kinds of values. This is the reason why they continually receive attention and, therefore, investments.

Such is the case of Terra’s mining token, which has recently received an influx of funds by Hong Kong-based Company HashKey Capital. The information was made available to the public via a press release.

The Acquisition of Luna

Terra is a stablecoin and payments network creator; it is essentially a partnership between several Asian prominent names in the e-commerce business. The mentioned investment came in the form the acquisition of Luna, which is Terra’s mining token that trades on the Bittrex and the Bitrue platforms.

Luna is implemented as a way to keep the value of the Terra stablecoin. Daniel Shin (who also founded TMON,) a known Korean entrepreneur, developed it last year with several partners.

The Terra stablecoin has several ties in the industry, having alliances with over 20 e-commerce ventures in the Asian region. Its goal is to become PayPal’s version in the continent, something similar to Alipay, according to reports.

The amount of money invested was not published at the time of writing this article. The buying party, HashKey Capital, has not yet talked publicly about its decision to contribute in the Terra mining token.

According to staffers and executives of the influential firm, the decision to invest in the development and future of the Terra stablecoin originated from a desire to expand Terra’s name and efforts in Asia, including mainland China.

“HashKey Capital has a great presence across Asia, especially in Hong Kong and Mainland China, and we look forward to exploring those regions together,” were the words of Shin, the Cofounder of Terra.

HashKey Capital was born in 2018 and drafted several entities in Hong Kong last year and in the first part of 2019, per the Companies Registry. It has been very active in last few months.

Lots of Recent Movement

Per information from Crunchbase, it has been involved with projects in the United States of America, China, and Singapore. Among them are Kava Labs, AlphaWallet, Blockfolio, and several others.

Terra’s released informed that HashKey Capital maintains a strategic alliance with Wanxiang Blockchain Labs, a Chinese company that acts as a research group and claims to be involved in the Chinaledger Alliance and China Blockchain Technology and Development Forum.

Other Partners

Other HashKey’s partners are Singapore’s DBS, Shanghai’s Fenbushi Capital and Zug, Switzerland’s Dfinity. Those are relationships to watch as the company looks for consolidation after a very promising start. The industry, especially lately, has become extremely competitive.

This is not Terra’s first investment received in 2019, as LuneX Ventures, Kakao Capital, Iconium, and Arrington XRP Capital have all contributed at some point during the year. More could follow in the upcoming months.

By Andres Chavez

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