Die europäische Parlamentsabgeordnete Eva Kaili wurde verhaftet und ihr wird unter anderem Korruption vorgeworfen. Das wird als ein Schlag für die Krypto- Blockchain-Akzeptanz betrachtet.
6 Fragen an Mauro Casellini, CEO von Bitcoin Suisse Liechtenstein
Mauro Casellini ist CEO der Bitcoin Suisse (Liechtenstein) und Leiter von Bitcoin Suisse Europe. Im Interview erzählt er, was seiner Meinung nach die größte Hürde auf dem Weg zu einer breiten Akzeptanz von Kryptowährungen in Europa ist.
„Welle nach unten“ für alle Märkte? 5 wichtige Dinge bei Bitcoin diese Woche
Der BTC-Kurs pendelt in einer engen Spanne hin und her. Aber Bitcoin-Analysten prognostizieren ein schlimmes Jahresende für riskante Anlagen.
Tezos activates the 12th upgrade “Lima”
- The Lima upgrade is the 12th upgrade on the Tezos protocol.
- Tezos is referred to as the “self-amending blockchain” for its ability to seamlessly upgrade using its on-chain governance.
- Lima upgrade reduces the risk of bugs in smart contracts among other benefits.
Tezos, one of the original Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchains, has activated its 12th upgrade, the Lima upgrade, which was voted upon and approved by the Tezos community. The new upgrade which introduces several new features also reduces the risk of bugs in smart contracts.
Lima marks the fourth protocol upgrade in 2022 and the 12th upgrade since the Tezos protocol was unveiled. Tezos is known for its ability to seamlessly upgrade through its on-chain governances which allows the protocol participants to propose and vote on upgrades and changes that they believe are important for the protocol.
Key improvements introduced by Lima upgrade
The Lima upgrade introduces several key improvements to Tezos functionality including faster processing speeds, the introduction of consensus keys, and improvements to tickets.
The Lima upgrade continues with the ‘Pipelining validation project’ that speeds up the processing of blocks and operations on Tezos by separating validation processes from application processes. A new block on Tezos is first validated before being forwarded to other peers; a feature that speeds up block propagation on the network and reduces the block time to 15 seconds and increases the overall throughput for the blockchain.
The consensus keys will allow validators (known as bakers in Tezos) to designate a special key for signing blocks and consensus operations. This feature prevents backers from losing delegators due to a change in setup or the need to coordinate with delegators off-chain to move them to a new address.
Tickets are a type of data unique to Tezos smart contracts and a great foundation for the scalable solutions that have allowed for many use cases including tokenization, authentication, and voting among others. Lima upgrade in particular deprecates the creation, storage and transfer of zero-amount tickets thus reducing the risk of bugs in smart contracts.
In addition to the improvements to the current Layer 1 Tezos solutions, the Lima upgrade also finalizes the development work towards Smart Rollups, which is an innovative Layer 2 scaling solution that is expected to debut in the subsequent Tezos upgrade proposal.
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Arguing that governments can’t shut down Bitcoin is missing the point
Key Takeaways
- Chair of the US Banking Committee has suggested a ban on all cryptocurrencies
- Many declare that crypto is immune to government shutdowns, but this is only true directly
- By attacking the ecosystem and the ability to access it, crypto can be curtailed significantly by lawmakers
Bitcoin cannot be shut down, so the saying goes. But this misses the point.
Firstly, let me be clear and affirm that this mantra is true, technically at least. Bitcoin exists on the Internet and hence it is immune to being shut down. Unless, of course, you somehow shut down the Internet. But for all intents and purposes, Bitcoin is decentralised and exists in the online world, a feat of technology that makes it resilient to being restrained.
Bitcoin can’t be shut down directly, but indirectly is a different story
But while a direct shutdown of the blockchain is impossible, governments can, at least theoretically, dent Bitcoin heavily and curtail its adoption by the masses. It might not qualify as technically shutting it down, and I am not commenting on the likelihood that this happens, but there is little doubt that if a concerted enough effort is made, an assault by lawmakers on Bitcoin could be devastating.
We need only look at the prevalence of centralised entities in the space. While Bitcoin itself is decentralised, in order for the masses to access it, the vast majority go via centralised companies such as Binance or other exchanges. And what happens if governments go after these companies?
These companies will be forced to abide by the laws. Sure, decentralised exchanges (DEXs) will remain, and like Bitcoin itself, are resilient to being directly shut down. But would you expect Bitcoin to achieve mainstream success and continue to grow into a legitimate financial asset if DEXs were the only option?
Not only would institutions be reluctant to pursue this route, but they could also just be banned from holding it.
US Banking Committee Chair suggest banning cryptocurrencies
I write this article now in the wake of the story which emerged regarding the US Banking Committee Chair, Sherrod Brown, suggesting a ban on cryptocurrencies.
Brown said:
“I’ve already gone to the Treasury and the Secretary and asked for a government-wide assessment through all the various regulatory agencies. … The SEC has been particularly aggressive, and we need to move forward that way and legislatively if it comes to that.”
It has been scoffed at in some quarters, but it’s worth paying attention to. The US is the financial capital of the world. Were the SEC to come out and ban it, this would have a seismic impact.
Think of the chunk of the market that could be forbidden from holding Bitcoin – institutions, pension funds, public companies, etc. Or all the infrastructure that would be torn down, such as exchanges.
On the flip side, it does remain a remote possibility. And getting back to my point earlier about how people overlook the potential for governments to shut Bitcoin down, Brown did acknowledge that “We want them to do what they need to do at the same time, maybe banning it, although banning it is very difficult because it would go offshore, and who knows how that would work.”
Final Thoughts
I’m not predicting any sort of demise for Bitcoin or crypto off the back of this. I just think that too many overlook how damaging governments can be towards the world’s biggest cryptocurrency.
Sure, the beauty of the blockchain is that it cannot be shut down directly. But indirectly? That is a different story. Governments carry too much power to be written off as “irrelevant” when it comes to Bitcoin.
So far, there is nothing to think that countries such as the US will make such drastic moves to ban crypto. But after a torrid 2022 that has seen scandal after scandal rock the space, comments such as Sherrod Brown’s are not surprising.
In the remote possibility that these words were ever put into action, it would be foolish for investors to write it off as a benign development for crypto.
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