‘Solana killer’ Aptos soared to $100 on Binance before plunging

Aptos, a blockchain created by former Meta employees, debuted on Binance this week and soared to $100 before plunging to around $8.

The project has been called the “Solana killer” due to its claims of being able to process an incredible 130,000 transactions per second (tps).

As of writing, Aptos is processing around 24tps. This has led to many within the crypto community saying that Aptos’ performance claims are misleading.

Aptos co-founder Mo Shaikh has...

19 October 2022 | Altcoins

Blockchain Expo: Maturing blockchain industry paves the way for enterprise adoption

A session at this year’s Blockchain Expo Europe highlighted that blockchain is reaching a stage of maturity that paves the way for enterprise adoption.

The session was presented by Pedro Lopez-Belmonte, Senior Manager of Web3 and Technology Innovation at Richemont, on day one of Europe’s leading blockchain conference.

One of the first charts presented during the session was Gartner’s hype cycle, which shows blockchain platforms now leaving the trough of...

20 September 2022 | Blockchain

Zack Gall, EOS Network Foundation: On forking to a new protocol

EOS Network

Zack Gall, VP of communications at EOS Network Foundation, spoke with The Block ahead of EOS's upcoming talks at Blockchain Expo Europe on 20-21 September.

The Block: What is the EOS Network Foundation’s current core focus?Zack Gall: We serve as the hub and shepherd of the EOS Network, coordinating both financial and non-financial forms of support to encourage the growth and development of the EOS Network, through its constituent projects, entities, and creators. It’s a...

19 September 2022 | Blockchain

What to look out for at Blockchain Expo Europe and NA 2022: Mastercard, UNICEF, Walmart and more

Umar Farooq, CEO of Onyx, JP Morgan’s digital assets business, made an interesting comment at a seminar held recently by the Monetary Authority of Singapore. Most of crypto, he argued, was ‘still junk.’ “With the exception of a few dozen tokens, everything else that has been mentioned is either noise or, frankly is just going to go away,” Farooq added.

Put this alongside a recent statistic from S&P Global Market Intelligence that global private equity and venture...

15 September 2022 | Blockchain

CasperLabs: On delivering ‘the vision for Ethereum 3.0’ today

CasperLabs believes its blockchain has solved Vitalik Buterin’s infamous trilemma and is already delivering “the vision for Ethereum 3.0”.

The Block caught up with Casper Labs’ CTO and Co-Founder Medha Parlikar, and Senior Business Development Manager Niamh O’Connell, to hear more about the blockchain that claims to be several years ahead of Ethereum in technical advancements.

The Block: Vitalik Buterin’s “blockchain trilemma” suggests that any blockchain...

26 August 2022 | Altcoins

Binance exec deepfake fools ‘highly intelligent’ people

A deepfake of Binance Chief Communications Officer Patrick Hillmann is reportedly fooling “highly intelligent” people.

The attackers are using what Hillman describes as an “AI hologram” of himself to fool representatives of various projects that the CCO is helping them get listed on the exchange.

In a blog post last week, Hillmann revealed that he received several online messages from project teams thanking him for taking the time to meet with them. However, it...

24 August 2022 | Blockchain

Alex Reinhardt, PLC Ultima: On building a crypto ecosystem for ‘daily life’

PLC Ultima aims to spread opportunity with an ecosystem that anyone can use in their daily lives.

The Block caught up with Alex Reinhardt, Founder of PLC Ultima, to learn more about the project and get the crypto expert’s views on the uncertain regulatory environment.

The Block: How is PLC Ultima bridging the gap between traditional business and crypto? 

Alex Reinhardt: I originally conceived PLC Ultima as a universal financial instrument that can be...

23 August 2022 | Altcoins

Rory, Redlight Finance: On launching a blockchain in a bear market

Redlight Finance is preparing to launch a blockchain that it believes solves the infamous “trilemma” of earlier platforms.

The Block caught up with Rory (aka "RED") to learn more about Redlight Chain and why it’s proceeding with launching in a bear market.

The Block: Why have you decided to launch Redlight Chain rather than support an existing blockchain?

Rory: We decided to launch Redlight Chain rather than support an existing blockchain because we...

17 August 2022 | Altcoins

Ripple: Most financial institutions plan to use crypto within three years

A report by Ripple suggests that most financial institutions plan to start using crypto within the next three years.

Despite the bear market, financial institutions remain interested in the cryptocurrency space. Just this week, $10 trillion asset manager BlackRock launched a spot Bitcoin trust while saying that it’s also exploring “permissioned blockchains, stablecoins, cryptoassets, and tokenization.”

While BlackRock is exploring the potential financial benefits...

12 August 2022 | Altcoins

Vitalik Buterin downplays Ethereum PoW forks, Chainlink backs PoS switch

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin has downplayed the impact of Proof of Work (PoW) forks of the leading smart contract platform. Chainlink, meanwhile, has confirmed it will not support any such forks.

Bitcoin pioneered the PoW consensus that was adopted by Ethereum. PoW is energy-intensive, requiring increasingly powerful computers to validate transactions to earn blockchain rewards. Some lawmakers in several regions are even talking about banning PoW blockchains.

Proof...

8 August 2022 | Altcoins