Cardano’s Vasil Hard Fork Went Live
Plus, a free pro insight: the small cap web3 gaming platform that's taking off.
Hey Stackers,
First Ethereum, now Cardano with the big update news.
After several delays and setbacks, Cardano’s long-awaited Vasil upgrade finally went live on Sept. 22. The price has remained muted, however. See more below.
Asset In Focus
Here’s this week’s top free Pro insight.
Immutable X aims to power the future of web3 gaming. The site already boasts a strong marketplace of games utilizing the platform, and the project has seen a 127% increase in developer activity over the past 6 months.
Definitely worth checking out.
Sign up to Stack’s Standard or Enterprise plans to get 3-4 emails per week, with multiple ideas like this.
Weekly commits for Immutable X:
Social following on Twitter is also strong and has been growing nicely:
Source: Stack
Sign up to Stack’s Standard or Enterprise plans to get 3-4 emails per week, with multiple ideas like this.
Top News This Week
Cardano’s Vasil Hard Fork Went Live
Cardano's much-anticipated Vasil hard fork has gone live after numerous months of delays.
Input Output HK, as well as the Cardano Foundation managed to successfully fork the mainnet through a hard fork combinator (HFC) event that occurred at 9:44 p.m. UTC.
This new upgrade brings significant new improvements to the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchain. However, not all of them are activated at once.
The Input Output HK Chief Executive Officer, Charles Hoskinson, explained that some of the features that come alongside this hard fork would be activated on September 27, which will be the start of the new epoch.
This was an upgrade that was originally meant to go live back in June 2022. However, the developers postponed it due to numerous technical difficulties.
In any case, the successful implementation of this hard fork has pushed the price of the ADA cryptocurrency higher.
The European Central Bank Picked Amazon and Four Other Firms to Prototype the Digital Euro App, and Nasdaq Established a New Digital Assets Business
The European Central Bank, or ECB, has announced a total of five companies that it will be collaborating with for the development of the potential digital euro user interfaces.
Specifically, Caixa Bank, Worldline, EPI, Nexi, and Amazon.
The five fintech, payments, and eCommerce firms will create the front-end prototypes following the digital euro that will not be used in later phases of the overall CBDC project.
Furthermore, Nasdaq has established a new digital assets business, known as "Nasdaq Digital Assets, that has the main goal of powering the digital asset ecosystem. This launch has underpinned the ambitions Nasdaq has to advance and help facilitate broader institutional participation within digital assets through providing a trusted as well as institutional-grade solution with an emphasis on custody, liquidity, and integrity.
Vitalik Buterin Shares Layer-3 Protocol Visions and Kraken CEO Jesse Powell to Step Down From the Role
Ethereum’s co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, said that a third layer on the blockchain only makes sense if it can provide different functions when compared to Layer-2 solutions, which have been utilized to enhance scaling via zero-knowledge (zk) Rollup technology. Buterin claims that there can be three use-cases, including customized functionality, customized scaling, and weakly trusted scaling through Validiums, a zk-proof technology.
Furthermore, Kraken Chief Executive Officer Jesse Powell is stepping down from his position at the company and will be replaced by the current Chief Operating Officer David Ripley, according to an announcement by the company. Powell co-founded Kraken in 2011 and will now become the crypto marketplace's board chairman, while Ripley will take over after Kraken finds a new COO.
WazirX Will Follow Binance When It Comes to Converting Stablecoins to BUSD, While a House Stablecoin Bill Can Put a Two-Year Ban on Terra-Like Coins
WazirX will begin the conversion of Tether (USDT), Pax Dollar (USDP), and True USD (TUSD) into Binance USD (BUSD) after delisting the other stablecoins on Sept. 26. Binance announced a similar type of conversion strategy earlier throughout the month, which means that WazirX is following in those footsteps. Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire recently discussed how BUSD utilized very little outside of Binance.
Additionally, legislation towards regulating stablecoins that are drafted in the House would place a two-year ban on coins similar to TerraUSD (UST), which is the algorithmic stablecoin that collapsed earlier this year.
Compute North Filed for Bankruptcy As the Crypto-Mining Data Center Owes Up to $500 Million
Compute North is one of the largest operators of crypto-mining data centers and has filed for bankruptcy.
The company revealed that its Chief Executive Officer had stepped down and that the company had filed for Chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas owes up to $500 million to at least 200 creditors.
Compute North, in February 2022, announced a capital raise of $385 million, consisting of an $85 million Series C equity round and $300 million in debt financing. However, the company fell into bankruptcy as miners struggled to survive due to the slumping Bitcoin (BTC) prices, the increased power costs, and the increased difficulty in mining Bitcoin (BTC).
Stack Web3 Developer Tracker
Here’s the latest update from Stack’s web3 developer tracker: stack.money/developers
Thanks for reading,
James