Ethereum Archives - The Block

Polygon decentralised apps increase to 37,000, up 400% in 2022

Layer 2 Ethereum scaling platform Polygon has seen more than 37,000 decentralised applications (dApps) developed on its network, a 400% increase since the start of 2022.

The figures were sourced from partnered Web3 development platform Alchemy and represent the cumulative number of applications ever launched on both the Polygon testnet and mainnet.

In terms of active developer teams, Polygon reached 11,800 at the end of July, up 47.5% since March.

The project...

11 August 2022 | Blockchain Applications

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

North Korea’s stash of stolen crypto has plunged in value

Victims of North Korea-linked crypto thefts may take some comfort in knowing that connected wallets have plunged in value.

Despite the recent drawdown, the exponential rise in the value of cryptocurrencies over the past decade has made them key targets. Hackers are regularly seeking to obtain cryptocurrencies through hacks and ransomware campaigns.

Fortunately, transactions on most blockchains are easy to track. Wallets connected with North Korean hacking groups like...

29 June 2022 | Altcoins

Ethereum Virtual Machine goes live on Cardano testnet

Ethereum developers that are considering defecting to Cardano can now test their dApps on the growing blockchain platform.

https://twitter.com/InputOutputHK/status/1535979507840167943

Cardano’s Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) has full compatibility with Ethereum upgrades and tools, Web3 wallet compatibility, can use the Ouroboros Byzantine Fault Tolerance consensus protocol, and inherit security from Cardano’s main chain.

Cardano vs Ethereum

Ethereum is...

14 June 2022 | Altcoins

Crypto market falls to lowest capitalisation since January 2021

The global crypto market has tanked below one trillion dollars (£820 billion) for the first time since January 2021.

According to data from CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin is down 13 percent over the past 24 hours and Ethereum is down 16 percent.

The trend marks the twelfth consecutive week – apart from some minor respite in week ten – of price losses for Bitcoin, something the market has never seen before.

Falling from nearly £40,000 in March, the top...

13 June 2022 | Bitcoin

Ethereum Ropsten testnet planned for June 8 marks “huge milestone”

The Ropsten public testnet, a testing environment that is the closest replication of the Ethereum mainnet, is set to undergo its long awaited merge on June 8.

The merge will mimic Ethereum’s upcoming transition from using a proof-of-work consensus mechanism to a proof-of-stake one. This allows developers to test and finalise adjustments for Ethereum’s mainnet merge later this year.

Ethereum DevOps engineer Parathi Jayanathi submitted a pull request for the Ropsten...

19 May 2022 | Development

Solana NFTs launch in beta on leading marketplace OpenSea

Solana NFTs (non-fungible tokens) have finally gone live on Opensea, the leading NFT marketplace.

Despite being the home ground of Ethereum-based NFTs, OpenSea’s users have long requested integration of the Solana network.

Launching in beta with 165 NFT collections and partners, OpenSea plans to “improve the Solana experience” over time and add more collections every day.

OpenSea said: “Solana has emerged as one of the fastest growing NFT ecosystems in...

12 April 2022 | Altcoins

StarkWare set to reach £4.5bn valuation for its blockchain scaling solutions

StarkWare, an Ethereum Layer 2 start-up, is on track to close a $100 million (£76m) funding round, according to Israeli news source Calcalistech.

Whilst not yet announced, the funding will follow a $50 million (£38m) Series C from November last year that pulled in investors such as Sequoia Capital, Paradigm, Three Arrows, and more. Back then, the company was pegged at a $2 billion (£1.53bn) valuation.

Now expected to push for a $6 billion (£4.57bn) valuation,...

11 March 2022 | Blockchain Applications

LUNA flips Ethereum for staked value after bullish recovery

Terra’s native token, LUNA, has flipped Ethereum to become the second-largest blockchain network in terms of staked value.

LUNA captures value for Terra’s stablecoin, UST, which functions as part of a network of decentralised finance protocols.

The coin has increased in value ten-fold over the past year as the popularity of the Terra network continues to grow, holding the position of seventh largest crypto by market cap as of March 7.

With 226,408 stakers...

7 March 2022 | Decentralised Finance (DeFi)

Sommelier raises £16.7m in Series A funding for automated DeFi protocol

Sommelier Finance, the Ethereum-based project designed to automate decentralised finance (DeFi) trading, has raised £16.7 million in its Series A funding round.

The round was led by Polychain Capital with participation from existing investor Alameda Ventures and new participation from Zola Ventures, Byzantine Ventures, Tendermint Ventures, Secure Ventures, D1 Ventures, and Ferngrove Ventures.

Sommelier was founded in 2020 by Zaki Manian, the former lead developer of...