Bitcoin mining difficulty reaches ATH, ‘Not Your Keys, Not Your Coins’ and a Grant for the development of Utreexo
Bitcoin mining difficulty increased to an all-time high
Yesterday, the mining difficulty adjusted to a new all-time high! With the increase of 3,6%, this difficulty reaches the 17.56 trillion.
Adjusted every two weeks, the Bitcoin mining difficulty is an automatic mechanism to ensure blocks are mined in the Bitcoin network at a steady pace. This calibration is set at an average of 10 minutes per block, calculated each ~2 weeks (2016 blocks).
If these blocks are mined quickly (due to a higher hashrate), the difficulty will go higher. If blocks are mined at a slower rate, the difficulty could decrease to put the network at the same pace again.
At the same time, this means the Bitcoin network has never been this secure before! A higher hashrate (and difficulty) makes it harder to attack the network (consensus).
“Not Your Keys, Not Your Coins” is now Officially Recognized!
Thanks to a new California appellate court decision, it’s official: Not Your Keys, Not Your Coins. It all started with Archer, who accused crypto exchange Coinbase for refusing giving him his Bitcoin Gold.
On October 23 2017, a third party launched this new cryptocurrency called “Bitcoin Gold”. Coinbase monitored and evaluated its network and informed its customers via the website:
‘At this time, Coinbase cannot support Bitcoin Gold because its developers have not made the code available to the public to review. This is a major security risk.’
In 2018, the Bitcoin Gold network was attacked by hackers who stole millions of dollars of funds from trading platforms and individuals on its network.
Archer sued Coinbase, based on Coinbase’s failure and refusal to allow him to receive his Bitcoin Gold currency and Coinbase’s retention of control over his Bitcoin Gold.
So the solution and judgment is easy: use the self-souvereign aspects of cryptocurrencies by generating a private key and store it yourself, instead of using custodials and/or exchanges. Not Your Keys, Not Your Coins.
Source: Justia
Grant for Developer working on Utreexo
100x Group announced that it has awarded a $40,000 grant to Calvin Kim. He has been working on Utreexo for over a year. This is a solution to make it easier and more convenient to run a node.
Utreexo is a hash based accumulator, which allows unspent outputs (UTXO’s) to be compressed into a smaller size. There is no loss of security.
With Utreexo, the holder of funds maintains a proof that the funds exist, and provides that proof when spending the coins. This is done by a Merkle Tree structure, which is also used in the upcoming Taproot update e.g. And hence the name Utreexo, combining UTXO and Tree.
Kim is the sixth developer to receive a grant from 100x Group. Last editions went to Jeremy Rubin and Amiti Uttarwar.
Source: BitMEX
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