Bitcoin Cash

These Are the Crypto Economy’s 5 Most Expensive Assets per Unit

18/07/2021 by Idelto Editor

On July 18, the most valuable cryptocurrency in terms of dollars per unit, is bitcoin which is currently trading for $31,693. Besides all the wrapped bitcoins and synthetic bitcoin pegs, the second-highest valued crypto-asset per unit is yearn finance and maker follows behind. Removing the market capitalization positions and viewing crypto assets in this way gives a user an entirely different perspective.

A Look at the Top Digital Currencies by Price per Unit

At the time of writing, there are only two crypto assets worth five-digits in USD value and only two worth four-digits. Looking at the price of each coin per unit shows a view of how many coins are trading at certain price ranges. Price per unit recorded in this report was accounted for at 8:55 a.m. (EDT) on Sunday, July 18, 2021. Data was collected from the crypto market aggregation sites markets.bitcoin.com and coingecko.com.

Currently, a person must spend five-digits in U.S. dollars to purchase bitcoin (BTC) and yearn finance (YFI). While BTC is swapping just above $31K per unit, YFI is exchanging hands for $27.9K per token. Similarly, there are only two coins that are priced at four-digits per unit with maker (MKR) and ethereum (ETH).

Market aggregation sites show there are eleven crypto assets at three-digits per unit and bitcoin cash (BCH) leads the pack. BCH is followed by coins like compound (CMP), binance coin (BNB), and aave (AAVE) respectively.

23 Crypto Assets Trade for Two-Digits, 20 Coins Are in the Single-Digit Range

The last coin in the three-digit position is bitclout (CLOUT) which is trading just above the $100 region at the time of writing. There are only 23 crypto assets that are worth two-digits in value and the leader of the two-digit positions today is zcash (ZEC) running just under a hundred dollars.

Horizen (ZEN) and filecoin (FIL) are the only two coins in the $50 range out of the 23 two-digit cryptos. Kucoin token (KCS) holds the 23rd position and is the last two-digit coin out of the batch.

27 coins are in the single-digit range between $1 and $9 and seven of those crypto assets are stablecoins like USDT, USDC, DAI, and TUSD. Only 21 crypto coins have unit values between $0.50 and $0.99. The leader of the 21 is klaytn (KLAY) at the time of writing and the final position belongs to tron (TRX).

Of course, a number of crypto market cap aggregators are a touch different as coingecko.com has 8,545 coins recorded and coinmarketcap.com has 10,939 crypto assets recorded. Other aggregators like markets.bitcoin.com and messari.io have different numbers of recorded crypto assets as well.

Despite a few discrepancies, most of the market websites show roughly the same number of crypto assets per USD value for every unit. From this perspective, the top five coins in terms of the highest value per unit include BTC, YFI, MKR, ETH, and BCH.

What do you think about looking at the crypto economy from this perspective? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

As BTC and ETH Pursue Multilayer Schemes, Elon Musk Says ‘There’s Merit to Doge Maximizing the Base Layer’

09/07/2021 by Idelto Editor

The CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, is a fan of base layers when it comes to blockchain technology and on Friday, Musk explained there’s “merit” to the Dogecoin chain “minimizing transaction cost.” Dogecoin developers are in the midst of preparing to update the Dogecoin network by gradually deploying the updates to the network “over multiple software releases.”

Tesla’s Elon Musk Wholeheartedly Believes in Dogecoin’s Base Layer

On Friday morning (EDT), top dogecoin (DOGE) Youtuber Matt Wallace tweeted about the fact that the Dogecoin upgrade was coming in the near future. “Reminder,” Wallace tweeted. “The Dogecoin update is coming soon. It will position Doge perfectly to become one of the most used currencies in the world.” Following the tweet, Elon Musk decided to respond to Wallace’s statement and said:

BTC [and] ETH are pursuing a multilayer transaction system, but base layer transaction rate is slow [and] transaction cost is high. There is merit [IMO] to Doge maximizing base layer transaction rate [and] minimizing transaction cost with exchanges acting as the de facto secondary layer.

The message from Musk follows his June 27 statement on Twitter, where he said it was “important to support” the Dogecoin upgrade. Dogecoin core developer Patrick Lodder and Dogecoin core maintainer Michi Lumin have been working with a team that has been coding the upgrade.

“The proposed changes below bring the decision power towards which transactions to include back to miners instead of the relay network and increase configurability of all fee-related parameters, enhancing the sovereignty of each individual node operator and the community as a whole,” the new fee structure for Dogecoin core says. Back in May, Tesla’s CEO said he was hoping block times would increase 10X and the fees would drop 100X. Lodder’s new fee structure states:

Lower the minimal relay fee to 0.001 DOGE
Lower the dust limit to 0.01 DOGE
Set the default block inclusion fee rate to 0.01 DOGE
Bring back a functional free transaction space
Lower the default fee rate to 0.01 DOGE

Responses Sent to Musk See Recommendations Like Solana, the Lightning Network, Stacks, Drivechain, and Bitcoin Cash

Currently, the cost to send dogecoin (DOGE) is 0.0052 DOGE per byte, which can be translated into 2.13 DOGE per transaction ($0.454). During the first week of May, dogecoin transaction fees touched a high of $2.37 per transfer. Dogecoin prices at that time were much higher than they are today. Some people responded to Musk’s base layer transaction rate tweet and explained that there are existing blockchains that are already up to speed.

“Solana, you literally are just asking for Solana,” one crypto fan replied to Musk on Friday. Software developer Patrick Dugan responded to the individual’s Solana tweet. “The one thing that would make defi on Doge better than Solana is its PoW mining and the impact of that on amortizing solar and battery installations,” Dugan tweeted.

Of course, supporters of the Lightning Network (LN), which has seen significantly less adoption than many other networks used for BTC sidechain purposes, tried to convince Musk to look into the LN protocol. LN was recommended to Musk by people like Udi Wertheimer and others.

Bitcoin Cash supporters also chimed in and responded to Musk’s base-layer statement. “Meanwhile BCH is already doing it… sound electronic cash for everyone.. even the poorest people on the planet,” a BCH supporter wrote in response to Musk’s dogecoin statement.

Other people responded by recommending things like Paul Sztorc’s Drivechain (BIPs 300+301) and the Stacks protocol. A Stacks representative wrote that Musk’s requests have been innovated on for quite some time now and he believes Stacks offers these benefits.

“Everything that Elon Musk is saying is what the space has been innovating for the past 5 years,” Louise Ivan Valencia tweeted to Musk. “TLDR; Stacks adds scalability [and] smart contract functionality to Bitcoin without modifying it.”

What do you think about Elon Musk’s statements about the Dogecoin network’s base layer? Lets us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

As China Cracks Down on Bitcoin Miners, Stealth Miners and Mystery Hashrate Return

22/06/2021 by Idelto Editor

While on the surface it seems officials from five provinces in China have been cracking down on bitcoin miners, no one is quite sure how much hashrate is moving, which pools are affected, or where these miners will end up. A number of mining pools have seen hashpower percentages decline and Bitcoin’s overall hashrate has regressed as well. On the other hand, as several known pools have lost hashrate, processing power from “unknown” pools has increased a great deal.

Pool Percentages Decline, Overall Hashrate Dips Lower

There have been reports stemming from officials in provinces like Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Qinghai, Yunnan, and Sichuan instructing bitcoin miners to close down shop. The crypto community, in general, assumes that a great deal of hashrate comes from China, but exactly how much hashpower actually resides in the country is still a mystery. Reporting is scarce when it comes to bitcoin mining operations and the most recent studies are outdated.

Hashrate distribution shows known pools that have disclosed their identity have seen recent hashpower losses. On June 2, 2021, the Bitcoin (BTC) network hashrate was around 191 exahash per second (EH/s) and today, it’s hovering just above the 100 EH/s zone. The metric has dipped on a few occasions lower than 100 EH/s, but has remained fairly consistent at that level since June 19. Pools that have seen hashrates slide significantly include operations like Okex pool, Binance pool, and Huobi pool.

As China Cracks Down on Bitcoin Miners, Stealth Miners and Mystery Hashrate Return — Mystery hash has captured between 8.63 % to 10% of Bitcoin’s overall hashrate on June 22, 2021. Today, “unknown” hashrate has been bouncing between the seventh and the fifth-largest hashers in the world.

Interestingly, pools like Antpool, F2pool, Viabtc, Poolin, and Btc.com have seen wild fluctuations in terms of hashrate but remain the top five mining pools worldwide. Antpool and Viabtc, which are considered ‘Chinese pools,’ command the most SHA256 hashrate globally as well, of all the chains using the SHA256 consensus algorithm. On the BTC chain, the top five mining pools today have been the top miners for months on end in 2021, with a few pools changing positions every now and then.

The Return of Mystery Miners

Since the initial warnings coming first from Inner Mongolia during the first week of March 2021, stealth mining has increased a great deal. Mystery miners — engaged in stealth mining — have been prevalent since the Bitcoin network first launched. Basically, if one was to look at the BTC hashrate distribution today, they would notice 18 pools that disclose their identity.

But there’s another chunk of hashrate that is dubbed “unknown” on Btc.com’s hashrate distribution charts and other hashrate aggregation/distribution websites. Since China started cracking down on bitcoin miners, the mystery hashrate — which is the seventh-largest mining pool today — has increased a great deal. Statistics show that stealth mining pools are finding a lot more blocks since March 2021, and unknown hash has increased every month thereafter.

Unknown hashrate commands around 10 EH/s of BTC hashpower today and over 12% of the overall SHA256 hashrate processing blocks on BTC, BCH, and BSV chains. The crypto community understands that mining operations that want to remain unidentified leverage virtual private networks (VPNs) or proxy services to hide their IP addresses. Mystery hash was very prevalent in 2018 and 2019, but subsided a great deal in 2020. In January 2019, mystery hash commanded 22% of the BTC chain and 17% of the BCH chain. At the time, Coin Metrics published a study on the mystery hash phenomenon.

Coinmetrics detailed that between mid-2015 and mid-2017, most miners disclosed their identity through the coinbase parameter to identify themselves with the name of their pool. “However, through 2018, unknown miners picked up,” Coin Metrics said, and stressed stats had shown “a newly-found appreciation for privacy, or the emergence of miners who have something to hide.”

But toward the end of 2019 and throughout most of 2020, unknown hashrate was almost nonexistent. That trend has changed a great deal in 2021, and unknown hashrate has returned, coincidentally as Beijing wants to crack down on bitcoin mining and crypto trading in China. There’s likely a reason there’s a new emergence of bitcoin miners this year who have something to hide.

What do you think about the return of mystery hashrate after China started cracking down on bitcoin miners in the country? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

As Crypto Interest Winds Down Bitcoin’s Daily Transaction Rate Plummets to Two-Year Lows

08/06/2021 by Idelto Editor

Onchain data indicates that bitcoin transactions per day have plummeted to lows not seen since October 2018. Further, bitcoin transaction fees have dropped 93% after touching a high of $62 per transaction in April 2021.

Bitcoin Daily Transaction Rate Dips by 35%, Google Trends Data Shows Interest Has Dropped Since May

While bitcoin (BTC) prices have dropped to lower bound ranges, after touching an all-time high over $64K per coin, the number of daily transactions has dive-bombed as well.

In fact, daily BTC transactions have been plummeting since the first week of 2021, as statistics show a high of 387K transactions on January 6. Data from bitinfocharts.com indicates that the number of bitcoin transactions confirmed on June 3 was around 249K. Between the first week of January up until now, daily transactions have slipped by more than 35%.

Statistics from bitinfocharts.com indicate daily transaction rates are as low as they were in October 2018.

Fork.lol stats show on June 7, the BTC network processed around 221,624 transactions on Monday. From February 14 to April 28, 2021, the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) network outpaced the BTC chain’s daily transaction rate during that time span.

Today, the BCH chain has a lower daily transaction count than BTC, as current daily stats for June 7 show, BCH has processed around 68,973 transactions. BTC transactions per day have not been this low since October 2018, as daily transactions have been consistently higher since then.

BTC’s highest daily transaction rate has only tapped 478K confirmed transactions, while BCH broke over two million confirmed transactions per day during the first week of September 2018. In addition to BTC transactions per day dropping to 2018 levels, bitcoin fees have slid as well during the last few weeks.

On April 21, 2021, the average BTC transaction fee hit a high of $62.79 per transaction according to ycharts.com. The same ycharts’ data set shows fees are down to $4.38 per transaction today.

Worldwide Google Trends data for the search query “bitcoin.”

The lack of interest in bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, in general, may have contributed to the daily transaction levels dipping to 2018 levels. The search query “bitcoin” touched an all-time high on Google Trends in May with a score of 100, but the worldwide search trend has dipped to 52 on June 5.

Daily transactions for a great number of the top digital assets including BTC, ETH, DOGE, XRP, LTC, and BCH have all dipped significantly. While XRP transactions did dominate Ethereum’s daily confirmed rate during the first few months of 2021, the ETH chain is now ahead of XRP in terms of daily transactions confirmed.

What do you think about BTC transactions dropping to 2018 levels? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Big Block Breakthrough: 1 Gigabyte BCH Scalenet Block Mined With Raspberry Pi4

02/06/2021 by Idelto Editor

While it seems the big block vs. small block debate is over, it is still relevant in the cryptocurrency sphere and some users are still delving into the limits of big blocks. Mtrycz, a writer leveraging the read.cash blogging platform, claims to have mined 1 gigabyte (GB) block using a Raspberry Pi4 on the Bitcoin Cash scalenet, showing it is indeed possible to deal with these block sizes, albeit only in an experimental way for now.

1GB Block Mined With a Raspberry Pi4

Mtrycz, a writer who regularly posts experiments to the BCH-based blog platform read.cash, has achieved a mining breakthrough by mining a massive 1GB block with only the computing power of a Raspberry Pi4. Mtrycz claimed to have done this by using a new “light” template created last year by BCHN, the current leading Bitcoin Cash (BCH) full node implementation.

However, this was no easy task. While the block did get mined, it took some time to get it done. According to his reports, the whole ordeal took more than two hours to finish, with the machine mining a block with more than 5.2 million transactions in about 50 minutes. This was not the first experiment he has done in this field, as he had also previously experimented with mining 256MB blocks with positive results.

These experiments show that, albeit in an experimental way, it is possible to handle big blocks with the existing technology and today’s hardware, and the possibilities will only grow with subsequent advances in internet speed and computing power. In this regard, Mtrycz stated:

Technology improvements will expand the limits both of what is possible and what is safe. It’s great to be a part of the community that is pushing this limits, for making Bitcoin Cash accessible for the whole world

The Big Block vs. Small Block Debate Resurfaces

If technology keeps improving at the same pace, all evidence shows that end-users will have the opportunity to run their own node and verify their transactions with retail hardware, helped by innovations in the software front.

This would also mean that scaling can indeed be done in a sustainable way just by increasing block sizes in conjunction with tech advancements, something that small blockers thought (and still think) was not possible, and chose to scale using second layers to maintain the smaller block size.

What do you think about the Raspberry Pi4 mining a 1GB block? Tell us in the comments section below.