Cardano Blockchain “Shelley” hard fork due for release
Cardano is a proof-of-stake platform focused on building a “third-generation” blockchain. This Wednesday, July 29th, it will transition from the Byron mainnet to the Shelley mainnet via a hard fork. The update is focused on decentralization.
Beam set to execute a second major hard fork
Following its first successful hard fork in August 2019, the privacy-focused Beam (BEAM) blockchain is set to execute its second hard fork on June 28th, 2020. The update comes with a new hashing algorithm as well as a new DeFi focused upgrade that will allow users to issue confidential assets.
Segwit2x, ‘The New York Agreement’
On May 23rd the Digital Currency Group released a statement declaring that 58 signatories had agreed on a way to end Bitcoin’s ‘scaling debate’. Known as the New York Agreement (NYA) it was said to be a compromise between the two sides of the debate — those who want to achieve scaling through Segregated Witness (Segwit) and those who prefer to scale by increasing the block size. It consists of two sequential phases — to activate Segwit using BIP 91 (making it compatible with the UASF) and then to hard fork the base block size to 2 MB ninety days later.
Bitcoin Cash forks successfully, but investors have little access
Bitcoin survived a forking event on Tuesday, with a muted reaction from the market. Anyone who held bitcoin at the time of the fork are automatically holding an equivalent amount of the new alternative, Bitcoin Cash (BCH), which they control with their Bitcoin private keys. After a bumpy start and rapid appreciation the price of the new asset has mostly risen, briefly touching 0.485789 BTC, worth US$1,327 at the time, on the Bittrex asset exchange. At press time, one Bitcoin Cash is worth 0.232 BTC (US$629), although other exchanges offer a wide range of prices down to 0.0482 BTC (US$222).
Why your Bitcoin will be safe when ‘Bitcoin Cash’ is released
On August 1st at 12:20 UTC a new cryptocurrency called Bitcoin Cash will be launched. It's based upon Bitmain’s UAHF proposal which was initially created as a contingency plan to thwart the efforts of the UASF, which now looks likely to activate without incident. Whilst the arrival of yet another alt-coin derived from Bitcoin’s source code is not newsworthy in itself, the fact that Bitcoin Cash shares a common transaction history (blockchain) with Bitcoin has raised its profile somewhat.
ViaBTC plans to launch Bitcoin alternative, ‘Bitcoin cash,’ on August 1st
Much like Ethereum’s July 2016 split into ETH and ETC, Bitcoin appears to be unable to avoid having a pair of currencies with ideologically-opposed proponents behind either side. For much of the last week bitcoiners have been focused on, and at times celebrating, a rare and important scaling advancement called BIP 91 (Segsignal). The hard-fought system upgrade has begun the process of Segwit activation, initially relieving fears of a hard fork that would lead to two competing versions of bitcoin.
Bitcoin exchanges announce contingency plan for hard fork split
Just two days after Gyft founder and Civic CEO Vinny Lingham’s warning about a Bitcoin hard fork devastating bitcoin’s value, 21 different Bitcoin exchanges have clarified their position on Bitcoin Unlimited trading. The exchange coalition stated in a hard fork contingency plan that they will trade any Bitcoin Unlimited cryptocurrency alongside bitcoin.
Bitcoin’s Block Size Debate Tests Its Community Governance
Over the weekend two bitcoin core developers released Bitcoin XT, a way to 'opt out' of bitcoin's current 1MB block size limit. This is the first attempt to resolve the ongoing debate over how to solve scalability issues for Bitcoin’s blockchain.
Bitcoin Developer Officially Proposes Raising Block Size Limits
After 6 Years of hearing ideas for how to scale up the bitcoin transaction network, lead developer Gavin Andresen has chosen a preferred route for scaling, and has set a date for the coordinated effort it will take to do so.
