Bitcoin Price: US$ 65,845.70 (+0.69%)
Ethereum Price: US$ 3,175.48 (-4.81%)
At the 2024 Bitcoin event, Bitcoin expert Jimmy Song took a stand against the event’s focus on banking and institutional investment, asserting that the essence of Bitcoin lies in liberty, freedom, and self-sovereignty, a sentiment echoed by panelist Luke Rudkowski who highlighted Bitcoin’s potential to address government-created problems. This discussion unfolded against a backdrop of rising state surveillance and attacks on free speech, underscored by Edward Snowden’s warning of the NSA’s imminent takeover of the internet due to the reapproval of warrantless spying under FISA Section 702. In response to this increasing government surveillance, Telegram founder Pavel Durov suggested that it would inspire developers to create novel communication devices, inspired by crypto wallets, to sidestep state surveillance. Meanwhile, at the same Bitcoin conference, Robert Mitchnick, BlackRock’s head of digital assets, revealed that their clients show very little interest in crypto beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum, casting doubt on the future of many crypto ETFs outside of these two core digital assets. In contrast, Franklin Templeton expressed optimism about the emergence of more cryptocurrency ETFs, including a Solana product. In a move reflecting the growing acceptance of crypto, Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop announced plans to allocate part of the city’s pension fund to crypto ETFs, mirroring the 2% allocation by the Wisconsin Pension Fund.
The Cardano network, transitioning to the Voltaire era of decentralised network governance, is primed for the Chang hard fork with the latest release of Node 9.1.0, its node validator software. This hard fork, which will establish on-chain governance mechanisms, is set to be implemented once 70% of validators upgrade to the new node, marking a “significant transformation” of the Cardano ecosystem. The first phase of this transformation will introduce “bootstrap governance”, allowing the ecosystem to adapt to the new features. This follows the Vasil hard fork in September 2022, which enhanced block creation speed and smart contract performance. In parallel, the digital asset landscape is witnessing the rise of Real-world asset (RWA) tokenisation, one of its best-performing sectors, which has yielded investors a 213% return in the first half of 2024 and is attracting institutional interest in Web3. Jason Dehni, CEO of Credbull, a decentralised private credit platform, underscores the value proposition of RWA tokenisation in offering operational efficiencies, enhanced liquidity, and accountability to end users, thereby democratising traditionally opaque asset classes and investment processes. Meanwhile, Mt. Gox, holding a staggering 90,000 Bitcoin valued at roughly $6 billion, has left investors and speculators contemplating the impact of a potential sell-off on the Bitcoin market. The recent news of the Mt. Gox sell-off has stirred fear, uncertainty, and doubt among market participants, raising questions about whether the Mt. Gox creditors, who have awaited reimbursement for over a decade, will decide to sell their holdings.
In the first half of 2024, Ethereum and major layer-2 (L2) blockchains experienced a significant surge in activity, with a 127% increase in the average number of daily active addresses, as reported by Coinbase Institutional and Glassnode. This growth was driven by increased activity on leading L2s, and despite a 59% rise in transactions, total transaction fees on Ethereum dropped by 58% in Q2 2024, following the Dencun upgrade in March 2024, which significantly reduced transaction fees. In parallel, the TON Core team, in collaboration with Tonkeeper, launched the W5 smart wallet standard on The Open Network (TON) blockchain, promising gasless transactions. This upgrade, allowing users to use Tether for gas fees for USDT transfers and Notcoin for gas fees when transferring Notcoin (NOT), aimed to create a smoother and more efficient user experience. However, the crypto world faced a setback on July 11 when multiple Web3 protocols were attacked due to a faulty Google Domains to Squarespace migration system, according to several DNS experts. Looking ahead, tokenised web domains could significantly reduce the risk of these types of attacks, providing advanced security measures based on their programmable ownership.
Source: https://cointelegraph.com
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