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Cardano’s Alonzo Blue sees first-ever smart contract deployment

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Cardano has made notable strides in the last few months. In the latest development, IOHK’s Marketing Director Tim Harrison, Head of Delivery Nigel Hemsley, and Delivery Lead Dimitris Poulopoulos revealed that Alonzo is now able to run smart contracts.

The IOHK execs, in a recent conversation, revealed that the smart contract is powered by a Cardano-programmed language called Plutus. The team also disclosed the implementation of a command-line interface [CLI] for writing “Hello World”-style smart contracts as part of the first phase which is also known as the Alonzo Blue phase. This entails only a limited set of staking pool operators and early Cardano [ADA] enthusiasts or pioneers.

Hamsley stated,

“Well, we got the [Alonzo] Blue network up. It is up and spinning.”

The project in question has teamed up with external teams, such as Altlabs, Eleks, Mlabs, Obsidian, among others in a bid to expand applications and support experiments from decentralized finance [DeFi] realm like decentralized data oracles, DEXs, liquidity, and staking pools, lending and borrowing instrument, all the way to crypto-backed stablecoins, and non-fungible tokens [NFTs].

Poulopoulos also said,

“It could be as simple as a transaction that passes back a ‘Hello, world,’ or a confirmation of a payment that has been made.[…] It means that we have Alonzo running smart contracts.”

Cardano’s Alonzo Roadmap

The team also expects that the next phase, Alonzo White, to commence in July this year. However, for that to happen, the Cardano ecosystem needs to make sure that the partners and pioneers have been able to do their “Hello, world’ scripts.” This phase could potentially incorporate 500 community members, pioneers, stake pool operators [SPO].

The final phase is Alonzo purple, which is a crucial phase is where the testnet will be made wholly public with all Pioneers integrated with the partners’ decentralized applications. The roll-out of the Alonzo roadmap is scheduled to be fully implemented by the end of the fourth quarter of 2021.

DeFi Options Platform FinNexus Exploited; FNX Token Crashes By 90%

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DeFi hacks and rug pulls have become common by the day.

FinNexus, a decentralised finance [DeFi] options platform, was the most recent victim of a malicious entity’s exploit. While FinNexus has yet to publish a post-mortem report, the firm has cautioned users to withdraw their funds from the pools.. Its tweet regarding the same read,

“We regret to inform our traders and investors that the FinNexus erc20 contract appears to have been hacked. For safety reasons please withdraw your funds from the pools. The team is working on this issue and we will provide updates as they become available.”

The platform’s claims of the event being a smart contract hack was rebuffed by popular DeFi analyst and researcher, Chris Blec who speculated that either this is a case of a stolen admin key or was used maliciously by a team member.

What exactly happened with the DeFi Platform?

After digging deeper, another DeFi research analyst Igor Igamberdiev observed that FinNexus [FNX] contract deployer changed the token owner to some address on both Ethereum [ETH] as well as Binance Smart Chain [BSC] network. This address reportedly minted 323 million FNX [which was worth around $6M] on Ethereum and 60 million FNX [approximately $1.6 million] on Binance Smart Chain.

Following the minting, the attacker started dumping coins. In total, the decentralized options platform incurred a loss of $7.6 million.

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So now the community was left wondering if this was a case of rug pull or stolen private key and FinNexus is yet to provide a conclusive report on the same.

FNX Crashes

FNX

Following the development of the exploit, the DeFi platform’s native token, FNX, crashed by more than 90% in the last 24-hours. Before the exploit, it was trading above $0.3 however, its price went on a downward spiral to a new low of $0.062, at press time. The crash could be attributed to the fact that a major portion of FinNexus’ token collateral was liquidated during the attack.

IOTA Dives Into The World Of Smart Contracts With Its Latest Release

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IOTA has been in the news throughout the year following an array of developments pertaining to the network. Lengthening the list, the IOTA Foundation announced its latest Smart Contracts Platform.

IOTA Smart Contracts Protocol [ICSP]

The IOTA Foundation elaborated on the release of its latest platform in a blog post. The Foundation pointed out that the lOTA Smart Contracts Protocol [ICSP] was scalable, flexible as well as a feeless smart contracts platform. The IOTA Smart Contracts Pre-Alpha was made available to the community. The platform took to Twitter to make the announcement. The tweet read,

The Foundation suggested that the latest release was merely an opportunity for developers to explore the prospects of the IOTA Smart Contracts Protocol. A full release of the product will reportedly hit the market in the coming months. The smart contracts on IOTA have been implemented on a distributed DAG-based UTXO ledger, aiding to the “flexible and feeless” aspect of the smart contract. This further permits IOTA smart contracts to be deployed for real-world use cases.

The blog post further read,

“IOTA Smart Contracts Protocol lays the foundation for a rich ecosystem to be developed, with a large variety of the extensions and building blocks that we anticipate will be created by the community.”

This release included prominent features such as Wasp node software version 0.0.1, three demo dApps, proof-of-concept [PoC] smart contracts called TokenRegistry, FairAuction, and DonateWithFeedback as well as CLI wallet. However, this release misses a pertinent section of the ISCP, the Wasm Virtual Machine as well as the Rust programming setting for smart contracts. The blog post pointed out that these would be released by the end of this year.

While the platform considers the release of the IOTA Smart Contracts Pre-Alpha a step towards the creation of something even bigger, the Foundation revealed the next steps for smart contracts in IOTA. This included maturation of core protocols, core security adjustments along with several other updates.

The Foundation further urged the community to explore IOTA’s latest venture and also requested for feedback.

Bitcoin Mainnet Sees First-Ever DLC Smart Contract Deployment

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Nicholas Dorier, who happens to be a developer at BTCPay has made a bet via a DLC or Discreet Log Contract with Christopher Stewart, the Founder of Suredbits with Outcome Observer acting as a third-party oracle. Considering the fact that 2020 has been an extremely political year, the bet is over who will win the Presidential Election here in the US.

While as to who is going to clinch the victory title is still up to the voters, this was, however, an interesting development for the Bitcoin community. And with this, the Bitcoin network had its first-ever discreet log contract [DLC)] on 8th September.

Once the election is finalized, the Outcome Observer will broadcast a signature that both Dorier and Steward can use to settle the bet. If Trump wins the election, Dorier will receive 1 BTC. But if Biden wins, Stewart will receive 1 BTC.

This was first revealed by well-known Podcaster, Marty Bent, in a recent blog post, who asserted that DLCs are the “best way to implement smart contracts at the moment” primarily due to the scalability and privacy factor, than any other competing smart contract implementations on the market. He further went on to add that,

“DLCs may be the least appreciated “killer application” of Bitcoin out there right now. It will be very interesting to see the types of applications that begin to proliferate as more people come around to this type of smart contract.”

A quick primer: DLC technology essentially facilitates conditional payments on bitcoin and compatible blockchains. According to MIT’s Digital Currency Initiative’s post, by creating a DLC, two parties are able to form a monetary contract redistributing their funds to each other, based on preset conditions, without revealing any details of those conditions to the blockchain. It further reads,

“Its appearance on the blockchain will be no different than an ordinary multi-signature output. Therefore the contract is discreet in the sense that no external observer can learn its existence or details from the public ledger.”

Tech Mahindra launches the ‘Blockchain Based Contracts and Rights Management System’ on IBM Blockchain

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Indian Tech and IT services multinational company Tech Mahindra has launched a new digital platform dubbed the ‘Blockchain-based Contracts and Rights Management System’ (bCRMS) for the entertainment industry. BCRMS was created using the IBM blockchain infrastructure that uses the enterprise-grade open-source Hyperledger Fabric blockchain. The digital platform enables content creators and production companies to track revenue, pay royalties, manage rights and tackle content piracy, with the platform currently focused on video content. The system will also streamline the procedures involved in contracts and remunerations plus helps combat piracy

Is blockchain the ultimate solution to piracy?

In particular, the Indian tech firm is launching bCRMS solutions for both linear broadcast and over-the-top ( OTT) providers, such as video streaming networks. The emergence of online streaming services was welcomed with open arms to the digital content sector. However, its rise to prominence has led to other challenges such as content piracy.

The menace of digital content piracy is the main problem that Tech Mahindra is trying to solve by launching bCRMS. The issue of content piracy is echoed in a recent statement by Tech Mahindra’s Blockchain and Cybersecurity Practice Leader, Rajesh Dhuddu. He cited an estimate by Intertrust software company that online piracy will result in a $50 billion loss of revenue by 2022.

Tech Mahindra’s platform to provide online streaming services as well

The firm will achieve this by providing online content with an identifiable digital fingerprint that can help track it. The bCRMS platform uses tactics such as hashing and forensic watermarking to allow media and entertainment (M&E) companies to monitor and track where the content has been distributed. Tech Mahindra hopes that the new system will allow related companies to curb illegal access to and distribution of licensed material.

In addition, Tech Mahindra ‘s latest innovation provides an unalterable audit path and provides service providers with precise data on download and streaming data. bCRMS also provides streaming services and automates royalty payments. According to Dhuddu, the platform can “orchestrate the entire media content life-cycle workflow across pre-production, post-production and distribution phases to enhance revenues”.

Physically-Settled ETH Futures Pioneered by ErisX

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The Ethereum community and the entire digital currency industry could see another step forward soon. Chicago-based digital currency exchange firm, ErisX, rolled out its physically-settled ETH futures contracts, which avail real digital currencies to investors instead of fiat worth their value.

The latest launch of physically-settled ETH futures by ErisX, makes Ethereum the second digital currency to have a legally approved futures market after Bitcoin. Historic action indicates that regulators are becoming more and more warm with the second most capped digital currency after Bitcoin.

Physically-settled ETH futures rolled out a week after ErisX secures BitLicense

ErisX’s latest announcement comes just a week after the U.S.-based crypto exchange revealed that it had obtained a virtual currency license (BitLicense) from the state of New York. The Ethereum futures market of exchange falls under the hegemony of the CFTC.

Earlier in February, the Chairman of CFTC insinuated that the future of Ethereum is underway while emphasizing that ETH and BTC are products under the responsibility of the CFTC.

The physically-settled ETH futures by ErisX means that contracts are settled utilizing the basic asset. Ethereum is awarded to the trader, rather than the cash difference value between the asset and the market prices and the contract. ErisX utilizes a centrally administered order-book to govern the trading of futures contracts on its platform.

Futures contracts are regularly used by financial institutions and sole investors to insure the risk. For instance, an individual may decide to risk getting 20 ETH for $400 in half a year, although the price might rise higher at the time. Futures contracts help in market price determination and elevate the liquidity of the market.

ErisX new product available through American brokers

The Chicago-based crypto broker, ErisX, is backed by US brokerage firm, TD Ameritrade. The crypto exchange platform has secured two regulatory licenses: a derivatives clearing license and a designated contract market (DCM) license.

The three-year-old start-up has availed its products through US brokers licensed as futures commission merchants (FCMs). In fact, ErisX just joined TradeStation Crypto the other day, to extend the spread of attainable liquidity convenient to the latter’s clients.

Tron Leads Smart Contract Blockchains as Most Active DApp Platform

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Tron is ahead of all smart contract platforms with the most active users. A Dapp Review by CryptoDiffer ranked Tron blockchain ahead of Ethereum and EOS. The ecosystem continues to grow with increased user activity on decentralized applications (DApps). In fact, Dapps accelerated the number of users to approximately 2.77 million.  Among whom, 11% were active users. 

These stats left the blockchain community in a frenzy. Further debunking long-held beliefs that Ethereum was at the top of the Dapp chain. CryptoDiffer outlined differentiating statistics behind Tron, Ethereum and EOS blockchains. Although Ethereum lagged behind both Tron and EOS, the data revealed that Ethereum remains the smart contract platform of choice for many users. 

Most popular activities on the Tron ecosystem consist of gambling and high-risk applications. A user base that accounts for at least 75% of the platform’s total volume and active users. 

Prior Dapp reports claimed that Ethereum was popping more active users. A claim that CryptoDiffer refuted. In other words, despite Ethereum boasting a high number of decentralized finance applications (DeFi), these numbers do not necessarily translate to an active user base. 

According to CryptoDiffer, 94% of Tron (TRX) users are active on the platform judging from their active TRX addresses. EOS blockchain followed with 90% active user addresses and then came Ethereum, with 61%. 

Tether (USDT) seems to be enjoying a share of the Tron bubble with Tron based USDT ballooning to almost $1 billion. A figure that indicates at least 20% of the total supply of USDT coins. Presently, the US dollar stablecoin shows no signs of slowing down. 

The activity rate is an important aspect of judging the utility of an application. In fact a better indicator of the quality platform than user volume. Hence the disparity among DApp reviews ranking Ethereum at the top instead of Tron; arises from Tron having a slightly lower volume of users but a massive percent of whom are active. While on the other hand, Ethereum boasts about 2000 decentralized app developers on the platform. Additionally, Ethereum attracted a higher number of new enthusiasts.

For instance, Ethereum had 114K users in Q1 2019 compared to a whopping 578K users by Q4 2019. On the other hand, the number of new registrations on Tron fluctuated in Q2 2019. EOS would, however, face a decline as its users crashed from 163K in Q1 2019 to 58K in Q4. 

A prior report by Misha Lederman stated that Tron had 233K active user addresses. 5% of whose addresses were active. The report ranked Tron third after Bitcoin and Ethereum by activity rate. 

Unlike Tron, the rise in Ethereum’s new users is due to DeFi applications. And since most blockchain developers have the intention of democratizing banking and duplicating financial structures; it is clear the flock given Ethereum is the pioneer of DeFi apps. 

Meanwhile, Tron gaining the edge on the DApp ecosystem is quite encouraging. Analysts attribute the remarkable performance a result of last year’s launch of BitTorrent speed on the network. An action that potentially triggered bullish performance of the Tron (TRX) coin and boosted the number of new sign-ups. 

 

 

Tron blockchain on the cusp of achieving 1000 smart contracts milestone

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The TRON ecosystem has been seeing major success ever since the launch of its MainNet, nearly a year ago. Meanwhile, the number of TRON smart contracts continues to grow, as developers leave Ethereum in search of better, faster networks.

According to the TRON Foundation’s recent announcement, the number of TRON smart contracts has grown by 100 compared to the previous week. This puts the total number of smart contracts to 877. A similar surge has been noticed when it comes to the growth of TRON-based dApps.

Subsequently, the report states that TRON’s daily trading volume exceeded $505,000, which is also a 33% increase compared to the week before. Evidently, TRON is advancing in all aspects, and if it continues at this pace — it is only a matter of time before the ecosystem sees its 1000th smart contract.

TRON marches along nicely

The 1000th smart contract will be a significant milestone for the less-than-a-year-old network, as it directly implies that developers are coming to test the ecosystem — and are choosing to stay.

As mentioned earlier, TRON has also seen a major increase in the number of dApps, with three new games and 39 gambling decentralized applications within a single week. The growth in the number of dApps is likely one of the major reasons why TRON trading volume surged as well, as using the dApps means making minor transactions with pretty much every move.

The ecosystem has seen additional moves this week, such as the TronLink wallet announcing the launch of TronLending Bank feature, which will allow users and projects to reduce costs by optimizing energy usage.  The rental cost on TronLending Bank will be multiple times lower, which will allow users to save up more than ever before.

Then, there is the fact that TRON made multiple significant efforts in the area of security and safety by partnering up with Beijing’s Chainsguard. The Chainsguard team has a lot of experience with securing networks, as it worked with Ethereum and EOS on finding and fixing vulnerabilities in the past.

Finally, there is TRX itself, which has grown by 4.5% compared to the end of the previous week. The growth is likely a consequence of the increase in the number of dApps and trading volume, and it puts the coin’s price at $0.023639. Meanwhile, the project’s market cap sits at $1.58 billion, and the trading volume in the past 24 hours stands at $717.48 million.

The fact that TRX sits at the 11th spot on the list of largest cryptos by market cap with figures such as those is a clear confirmation that the market is seeing a recovery, and TRX is bound to follow. At the moment, the coin sees a slight price decline, at around 1.98% in the past 24 hours. However, reaching the 1,000th smart contract is bound to bring a lot more attention to the project, and will more likely allow its price to surge. Perhaps the Sun-led crypto might soon be able to test the resistance at $0.031.

Disclaimer: The presented information is subjected to market condition and may include the very own opinion of the author. Please do your ‘very own’ market research before making any investment in cryptocurrencies. Neither the writer nor the publication (TronWeekly.com) holds any responsibility for your financial loss.

Tron Foundation and ChainLink partnership likely to happen as early as tomorrow

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It’s never true until it happens. Perhaps, that’s what they say, or it is.

However, we’ve often come to learn that whenever the speculation intensifies, most likely but not always, the rumors turn out to be the truth. Today, rumors are carrying the day that Tron (TRX) might be on the verge of brewing a surprise for its ever-expanding community about a possible partnership with smart contracts solution firm ChainLink.

It’s Just Speculation – No Official Confirmation Yet

There’s no denying of the fact that Tron is one of the best in the game when it comes to strategic partnerships and business. Over the period that Tron has been on the sheet, it has managed to pull off some of the best partnerships which aim to help Tron objectives of becoming among the top best if not the best.

Besides, partnerships between the crypto platforms help to further innovate as well as increase productivity for both parties involved.

The rumors of a possible partnership between Tron and ChainLink first broke out on a Twitter account of LINK News Oracle. According to the Oracle, the news is yet to be confirmed, but they say it’s very much a possibility.

Again, it’s worth highlighting that the alleged partnership is nothing but speculation, but it doesn’t mean either that it won’t happen. In fact, just like anything nowadays on the internet, the buzz surrounding the alleged partnership has spread like fire eating up dry grass through other social media websites.

For instance, a Reddit user asked the subscribers of subreddit to be on the lookout for an official announcement of the potential partnership speculation at around 8 AM PST tomorrow.

But what would ChainLink bring to Tron ecosystem?

ChainLink is primarily an Oracle solution which allows a safe as well as the secure stream of data into smart contracts which means if any smart contract on Tron wants to utilize the outside data such as connecting to a pre-existing legacy or connecting with the data on another blockchain, can easily do it, thanks to the ChainLink oracles.

Therefore, it will be beneficial to Tron’s ecosystem as well as will attract several applications to be built on it as it, at the same time, maintains high-level security guaranteed by smart contracts.

Nevertheless, at the moment, neither Tron nor ChainLink has confirmed anything about the speculation which leaves questions of whether we’re about to get an announcement or it’s just the crypto world getting their hopes up? All the same, it’s a matter of time before everything unfolds, but until then let’s see how speculation rolls.

Image courtesy of Pixabay.

Disclaimer: The presented information is subjected to market condition and may include the very own opinion of the author. Please do your ‘very own’ market research before making any investment in cryptocurrencies. Neither the writer nor the publication (TronWeekly.com) holds any responsibility for your financial loss.