Crypto News of the Day (26.3.) | Difficulty of bitcoin mining decreased • Charles Hoskinson claims that Wikipedia censors him • and other news
4 min read
Here you can find an overview of the most important events that took place during the last day in the cryptoworld.
Markets
After a calmer day yesterday, cryptocurrency market began to fall into red again. So far, the drop is moderate, but on all top 20 cryptocurrencies. The drop followed after the historically largest reduction in the difficulty of Bitcoin mining. Worldwide, other countries are issuing statements on new measures to support collapsing economies and to stop the spread of coronavirus. Thus, for example, the whole of India has found itself in a “lockdown” where everything is closed, except for food and pharmacy, and people are advised or instructed not to go out except in urgent cases.
You can monitor the current cryptocurrency prices – here.
Cryptocurrency
Bitcoin’s mining difficulty, an indicator of competition among bitcoin miners, has seen the second-largest decline in the network’s history. The difficulty has dropped by around 16% to ~13.90 trillion on March 26, as compared to 16.55 trillion in the previous cycle recorded on March 9. The difficulty is designed to adjust itself every 2,016 blocks or about two weeks.
This is the largest drop ever since bitcoin miners started using ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) chips to mine the cryptocurrency in early 2013. The largest-ever drop took place in November 2011 when bitcoin’s mining difficulty declined by about 18%. The third-largest drop in the difficulty happened in December 2018.
The Bitcoin (BTC) network hash rate has just taken a steep plummet and is now down almost 45% from its 2020 peak. The network’s hash rate sank from 136.2 quintillion hashes per second (EH/s) on March 1 to 7.5.7 EH/s today, March 26, according to data from Blockchain.com. Coin.dance — another analytics site for the coin’s blockchain — reveals a similar pattern, if less stark. The site reported a 2020 peak of roughly 150 EH/s on March 5, today down to 105.6 EH/s — a 29% decrease.
Wikipedia is a battleground of information. For cryptocurrency projects, you want to be recognized by the world’s largest encyclopedia. However, Wikipedia editors have repeatedly removed efforts to include an academic paper related to Cardano in their article on proof-of-stake. Earlier today, Cardano co-founder Charles Hoskinson said that Wikipedia was repeatedly removing the “single most cited proof-of-stake paper” from its article on the topic. Although there have been repeated attempts to include it, the paper keeps getting removed with the reason being “conflict of interest.”
Wikipedia commercial censorship. The single most cited proof of stake paper can't be mentioned in the PoS article!? https://t.co/QUe5Ma0i7c
— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) March 24, 2020
Ripple has recently made announcement of $200,000 donation to fight against COVID-19 pandemic. According to Ripple the $200,000 donation will be given to nonprofit Tipping Point Community that is based San-Fransisco and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.
In these challenging times, Ripple is committed to being part of the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We’re starting in our own backyard with $100K donations each to @tippingpoint's COVID emergency response fund and @siliconvalleycf’s COVID Regional Response Fund. (1/2)
— Ripple (@Ripple) March 25, 2020
Whale Alert (@whale_alert) is reporting on another 120M USDT being minted at Tether Treasury. The news means that yet another day has gone by with Tether Treasury printing more USDT, in greater and greater numbers. Responses to the freshly minted USDT were mixed. Many saw it as a cause of concern, comparing the incessant issuing of new USDT to the Federal Reserve’s own penchant for money-printing. Still, a proper audit has not yet happened for Tether Treasury.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 120,000,000 #USDT (121,462,694 USD) minted at Tether Treasury
— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) March 25, 2020
Tx: https://t.co/6aIbk7kIS8
Crypto exchanges
Apple and iOS users in the United States can now gain access to a number of financial services through European fintech giant Revolut. Customers who sign up for an account will have up to $250,000 in deposits FDIC insured through the company’s partnership with New York-based Metropolitan Commercial Bank. London-based Revolut, which has amassed a user base of 10 million customers in Europe since its inception in 2015, gives mobile users access to a long list of financial services on their smartphones, including an equity trading platform and a fiat currency exchange.
Revolut’s multi-currency mobile app aims to be comprehensive in scope, helping people manage their money and all of their everyday financial transactions, from budgeting meals to making online payments to ATM withdrawals, through a list of rich mobile features.
Decentralized finance (DeFi) is becoming even more mobile friendly. Crypto exchange giant Coinbase announced the integration of DeFi apps directly in the Coinbase wallet on both iOS and Android.
With the integration of DeFi apps built on the Ethereum blockchain, users can now lend and borrow crypto with interest through smart contracts that automatically execute when parameters in a contract are met. For example, Coinbase users will be able to deposit crypto into a DeFi contract, lend their crypto to others, receive interest on their loan, and cash out to their wallet without having to leave the app.
