Bitcoin
The Hidden Reason Behind Bitcoin’s Increasing Fees: Darknet Mixers (Bitcoin.com)
Just recently a darknet marketplace (DNM) vendor who details he’s been involved with the bitcoin industry for five years, says the rising fee market is caused by marketplace mixers that process multiple transactions at a time. The vendor details that DNM sales using these mixers are forcing him and many others to pay for 50 transactions at a time at ten times the cost, to cover their tracks.
Bitcoin Developers Publish BIP For 'Dandelion' Privacy Project (Coindesk)
During the stem phase, each node relays the transaction to a single peer. After a random number of hops along the stem, the transaction enters the fluff phase, which behaves just like ordinary transaction flooding/diffusion. Even when an attacker can identify the location of the fluff phase, it is much more difficult to identify the source of the stem. – Andrew Miller, University of Illinois Assistant Professor
Ethereum
The Ethereum Ecosystem Could Use More Paper Wallet Solutions (The Merkle)
It is evident there is a demand for Ethereum paper wallet solutions right now. However, it is difficult to find a convenient solution right now. The Ethereum community can only hope someone comes up with a more convenient solution to create a paper wallet. Then again, there are quite a few hardware wallet solutions available right now, which are more secure than paper wallets will ever be. Paper wallets can be used to create convenient ETH gifts for friends and family, though.
What is Sharding? (The Merkle)
This means the Ethereum blockchain will remain secure as it has always been, yet it will allow for better scaling. There are quite a few different sharding proposals as well, although it is difficult to find one that checks all of the right boxes. To be more specific, sharding as part of the Ethereum ecosystem is designed to process thousands of transactions every second without forcing all nodes to store terabytes of state data.
Blockchain
How Soon Blockchain Technology Will Change Currency As We Know It (The Cointelegraph)
Blockchains can be used for anything and everything. They have the capability to endow everyone with the ability to participate in a global economy. The distributed ledger could cut costs of transactions and completely cut out middlemen in commercial and economic enterprises. By the same token, however, there are colossal complexities concomitant with cryptocurrencies. If they continue to grow in popularity, how will governments decide to regulate them? What flaws in the Blockchain platform will emerge - and how will we address them? The answers, as of right now, are uncertain.
Blockchain-Based Loans Could Rescure SMEs Without Other Funding Options (The Cointelegraph)
One of the major advantages of Blockchain-based loan systems is the fact the it offers accessibility to international capital and reduces the dependence on bank procedures. The system also offers SMEs the opportunity of becoming independent of other local institutions, thereby giving equal chance for both banked and the unbanked entrepreneurs.
Regulation
Vermont Approves Blockchain Impact Study (Coindesk)
The existing Vermont legislation on blockchain technology and other aspects of e-finance have given Vermont the potential for leadership in this new era of innovation as well, with the possibility of expanded economic activity in the financial technology sector that would provide opportunities for employment, tax revenues, and other benefits.