Month: Februar 2023

Solana Network Outage Sparks Concern Over Blockchain Design

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• Solana (SOL) network experienced another outage on February 25th, 2023.
• Community members are expressing concern as the blockchain’s reliability and inherent design are being called into question.
• The cause of the degradation in performance is unknown, but some suggest a flaw in Solana’s design may be to blame.

Solana (SOL) Network Experiences Outage

The Solana (SOL) blockchain suffered a significant network outage on February 25th, 2023. The outage lasted approximately 24 hours and caused transaction interferences resulting in the developer community opting for a network restart.

Community Questions Reliability of Blockchain

The recent outage has left the community disgruntled with some members questioning the network’s reliability and others illuminating flaws in Solana’s inherent design that could have triggered various outages. A tweet by Solana Status addressing the „coordinated restart“ on February 26th has gathered close to 200,000 views on Twitter amidst community FUD.

Design Flaw Could Be Responsible for Outages

Some community members believe that a major design flaw is responsible for the recurrence of network outages. According to one user, consensus occurring on-chain with validator communications reflecting as transactions inflates transaction volume and transactions per second (TPS), consequently bottlenecking the network which can lead to prolonged outages if validators become unavailable during an outage.

Price of SOL Has Not Declined Dramatically

Despite all this disruption, the price of SOL has not declined dramatically following another significant network outage despite upgrades implemented by Solana Foundation to improve their blockchain’s performance.

Cause Behind Performance Degradation Unknown

According to a report published by Solana Foundation, they remain unaware of what caused this „significant“ degradation in performance which further adds fuel to speculations from community members regarding potential underlying issues with its inherent design or other factors causing these outages.

Japan Takes Step Toward Digital Currency with April Pilot Program

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• Japan plans to launch a CBDC pilot program in April 2023.
• The pilot will test the technical feasibility of the “digital yen” and model a CBDC ecosystem with the involvement of private companies.
• The BoJ is also considering lifting the ban on foreign stablecoins.

Japan Launches Pilot Program for Digital Yen

Japan plans to launch a pilot program for its central bank digital currency (CBDC) in April 2023. The executive director of the Bank of Japan (BoJ), Shinichi Uchida, announced the launch at a CBDC committee meeting on February 17th, stating that it will focus on the technical feasibility of the „digital yen“ and model an ecosystem with private companies involved.

Focus on Technical Feasibility

The main focus of this pilot program will be on testing out the technical feasibility of using digital currency in Japan and exploring how it would fit into their economy. Simulated transactions will take place during this time and no actual retail transactions will be made. To ensure smooth sailing, active collaboration between industry players and feedback from them is necessary, which is why they are creating a CBDC forum to facilitate communication.

Lifting Ban on Foreign Stablecoins

In addition to launching this pilot program, Japanese authorities are also considering lifting their current ban on foreign stablecoins. This has been highly anticipated by local media since November 2022 when rumors first started circulating about the Bank’s intentions for a digital currency system in Japan. At least three Japanese megabanks and regional banks are expected to collaborate with the BoJ for this project as well.

Importance Of Collaboration

The BoJ acknowledges that collaboration with industry players is paramount for successful implementation of their digital currency system which is why they have created a CBDC forum to facilitate communication regarding design choices such as alternative data models and frameworks for offline payments. It is important that all stakeholders benefit from these new developments so that trust is built between them moving forward into an era where digital currencies become more commonplace around the world..

Conclusion

Overall, Japan’s plans to launch its own central bank digital currency (CBDC) come as no surprise as it had been widely discussed by local media even before official confirmation was given in February 2023. With its upcoming pilot program set to commence in April 2023, we can expect great things from Japan as they venture further into becoming a leader in digital currencies worldwide!

Optimism Airdrops Millions of Tokens, OP Price Sinks

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• Optimism (OP) distributed 11.7 million OP tokens to active ecosystem users who have delegated the voting power of their OP tokens and spent more than $6.10 on layer 2 gas since March 25, 2022.
• The news caused a significant drop in the value of OP tokens which had gone up 250% since the start of 2021.
• Optimism plans to do more airdrops in the future to experiment & iterate on this ever-evolving mechanism.

Optimism’s Second Airdrop

Optimism (OP) surprised its users with a second airdrop on Thursday, allocating 11.7 million OP tokens to those that have delegated the voting power of their OP tokens and spent more than $6.10 on layer 2 gas since March 25, 2022. A snapshot of the airdrop was taken on January 20, 2023 and eligible users don’t need to claim their tokens as they’ve been sent straight to their wallets.

Reaction To The Airdrop News

The news caused a significant drop in the value of OP tokens which had gone up 250% since the start of 2021, going from $0.913 at the start of the year to an all-time high of $3.19 on February 3rd according to data from CoinGecko, before dropping by almost 9% following the announcement about the second airdrop and currently trading at around $2.37 with 15% lost over 7 days period .

Unlock Schedule

Industry observers have pointed out that OP has one of the worst unlock schedules in 2023 as only around 214 million OP tokens out of 4 billion are currently in circulation while around 5 million worth is being emitted daily adding pressure for further price decreases .

Future Airdrops

Optimism stressed that it’s going to do more airdrops in order to further facilitate positive-sum behavior in its ecosystem so it’s never too late for users to participate .

Conclusion

Optimism continues its journey towards scaling Ethereum network with multiple initiatives like these two successful airdrops but investors should be aware about bad unlock schedule it has with most of its token locked until 2023 .

Layer-2 Tokens Soar: Optimism (OP) Breaks All-Time High

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• Layer-2 tokens, such as Optimism (OP), Loopring (LRC), ImmutableX (IMX), and Polygon (MATIC) are enjoying a strong rally in the crypto markets.
• The reason for the massive run might be that a new narrative is forming around the Layer-2 ecosystem and its promising future.
• Ethereum Layer-2 tokens seem to be benefiting from the still bearish environment in the financial markets.

Ethereum Layer-2 Tokens Enjoying Incredible Run

Ethereum Layer-2 tokens have been enjoying an incredible rally despite the still bearish environment in the financial markets. Optimism’s governance token OP has reached a new all-time high of $3.20, up about 230% in the last month. Other Layer-2 tokens like Loopring (LRC), ImmutableX (IMX), and Polygon (MATIC) are also pumping, indicating that a new narrative is forming around this sector of blockchain technology.

What is Layer 2?

Layer 2 refers to various scaling solutions on a separate blockchain that extends Ethereum network capabilities by taking multiple transactions off-chain and bundling them into one which can then be sent for verification to Ethereum mainnet, thus reducing gas costs. One such solution is an optimistic rollup Optimism (OP).

The Reason Behind This Pump

It’s difficult to determine what sparked this massive run in Ethereum Layer-2 tokens but some plausible reasons could include: 1) A rally in the equity market; 2) Multiple other crypto tokens being up huge since the start of 2021; 3) Special attention from investors towards these particular types of tokens due to their potential use cases; 4) Last year was supposed to be ‘the year of layer 2’s’ however multiple bankruptcies and controversies stopped it from happening; 5) This year there seems to be more optimism regarding layer 2 projects as they are gaining momentum right from start of 2021.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Ethereum layer 2 tokens seem to have found renewed interest among investors due their ability to reduce transaction costs on Ethereum mainnet while providing more scalability and flexibility for developers working on decentralized apps or smart contracts. It remains unclear how long this pump will last but so far it looks like these projects could become very valuable over time if they continue delivering on their promises.

References

CoinGecko https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/optimism