Skip to main content

MLB Team Washington Nationals Partners With Terra Blockchain Community, Ballpark Plans to Accept UST

On February 9, the American professional baseball team based in Washington, D.C., the Washington Nationals, announced the team has partnered with Terra, the open-source blockchain platform and decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). The Washington Nationals detail that the team is a “leading innovator” and is “consistently introducing new technologies to enhance the fan experience.” Washington Nationals Ink Long-Term Deal With Terra Major League Baseball (MLB) team the Washington Nationals has partnered with the blockchain platform and DAO Terra, according to an announcement published by the team on Wednesday. The deal with Terra follows a slew of sports-related deals with crypto firms, but the MLB team will be the first to partner with an open-source blockchain project. In addition to the partnership, the algorithmic stablecoin UST that’s issued on the Terra blockchain will be “accepted as a payment method at Nationals Park as early as next season.” “The Nationals continue t...
Post a Comment

Bitcoin Miners Start Signaling for Taproot Activation, People Prep for BTC’s Largest Update in 4 Years

Bitcoin Miners Start Signaling for Taproot Activation, People Prep for BTC's Largest Update in 4 Years

Bitcoin miners have started to signal for Taproot activation and crypto supporters are looking forward to the largest bitcoin update in almost four years. The mining operation Slush Pool mined the first block signaling for Taproot and since then the pools Foundry and F2pool have joined in on signaling as well.

Bitcoin Block: 681,458 Signals for Taproot

It’s been a long time since the Bitcoin network has seen a major upgrade and the last time it happened was in 2017, back when BTC participants activated Segregated Witness (Segwit). Since then, bitcoiners have been discussing the next major upgrade Taproot. The Taproot proposal was introduced in January 2018 by software developer and Bitcoin Core contributor Gregory Maxwell.

Last October, Taproot was introduced into the Github repository as a pull request initiated by Bitcoin Core programmer Pieter Wuille. Ostensibly, Taproot can help BTC scale and bitcoin transactions can become more private. The protocol that will be deployed if it comes to consensus, is a soft fork that improves the blockchain’s scripts for privacy-centric and complex transactions.

“Taproot is a proposed Bitcoin protocol upgrade that can be deployed as a forward-compatible soft fork,” the Github “Taproot-Activation” documentation notes. “By combining the Schnorr signature scheme with MAST (Merklized Alternative Script Tree) and a new scripting language called Tapscript, Taproot will expand Bitcoin’s smart contract flexibility, while offering more privacy by letting users mask complex smart contracts as a regular bitcoin transaction.”

In Order to Upgrade Network Participants Must Come to Consensus

Following the traditional rules, in order for the Taproot activation to happen, miners need to adopt the new consensus rules by a certain period of time. At the time of writing, more than a dozen blocks have been mined with blocks signaling for the activation of Taproot. The three distinct pools known as F2pool, Foundry, and Slush Pool have all started signaling. F2pool is currently the largest mining pool by hashrate on the BTC network, as far as hash distribution is concerned.

While a great number of BTC supporters are positive about Taproot activation, how to upgrade BTC has already come with controversy. In mid-April Bitcoin.com News reported on software developer Luke Dashjr and his angst against miners upgrading with the “Speedy trial” activation method. In a post six days ago, Gregory Maxwell otherwise known as “nullc” on Reddit, got into a heated debate in a thread called “Taproot activation status.”

It’s been a while since Bitcoin (BTC) has upgraded and per usual, people are skeptical about blockchain participants coming to consensus following the Segwit2x battles in 2017. The stubbornness and length of time have led people to talk about things like ossification, bitrot, and bitcreep. Moreover, at the end of 2020 Blockchair’s lead developer, Nikita Zhavoronkov ferociously criticized Taproot on Twitter.

Despite some disagreements, many people think that coming to consensus over Taproot and even with the debatable activation methods, the upgrade will happen this year. Krakenfx Editor Pete Rizzo recently wrote a comprehensive Twitter thread about the Taproot consensus subject after doing a Clubhouse event in March.

“Yes, there are differences in opinion. No, this does not resemble debates that have led to past network splits,” Rizzo said.

As of Sunday, May 2, 2021, around 25% of the network’s SHA256 hashrate approves of the Taproot activation. There is a signaling period of 2,016 blocks and “1,802 Taproot blocks left until [the] soft fork is locked in,” the web portal taproot.watch says. “Taproot will not lock in with the current signaling ratio (7.14%),” the page adds.

What do you think about the Bitcoin network upgrading? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blockchain Software Firm Consensys Acquires Mycrypto Ethereum Wallet

On February 1, the blockchain infrastructure firm Consensys has revealed it has acquired the Ethereum-based wallet Mycrypto and plans to merge the wallet into Metamask. The price Consensys paid for Mycrypto was not disclosed but the announcement notes that the acquisition will “further improve the security of all the products.” Consensys Obtains Mycrypto Ethereum Wallet, Plans to Merge With Metamask in the Future Consensys has acquired the Ethereum-based wallet Mycrypto for an undisclosed sum according to an announcement released on Tuesday. The deal aims to strengthen the company’s Ethereum wallet Metamask and “enhance Web3 experiences.” The eventual merger between the two Ethereum interfaces will “provide users with a heightened experience that is even more extensive and secure,” according to Consensys. Consensys is an Ethereum software company led by one of the Ethereum co-founders Joseph Lubin. The Web3 wallet Metamask, with 21 million monthly active users (MAUs) is owned by C...
Post a Comment
Read more

Bitcoin Legal Tender in 3 Days but Survey Shows 7 Out of 10 Salvadorans Want Bitcoin Law Repealed

Bitcoin is becoming legal tender in El Salvador in three days. However, a nationwide survey conducted by the University Institute of Public Opinion (Iudop) shows that seven out of 10 Salvadorans want the government to repeal the Bitcoin Law. El Salvador’s Bitcoin Law Goes Into Effect in 3 Days The University Institute of Public Opinion (Iudop) in El Salvador conducted a study between Aug. 13 and Aug. 20 of how the public views the country’s upcoming Bitcoin Law. The institute is a research center of the José Simeón Cañas Central American University (UCA). El Salvador’s Bitcoin Law is set to go into effect on Sept. 7 , when BTC will be legal tender in the country alongside the U.S. dollar. A total of 1,281 respondents ages 18 and over participated in this national survey that “represents the entire adult population residing in the country,” according to the institute. Out of all the respondents, 62.4% said they were aware of the approval of the Bitcoin Law by the deputies of the ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Congolese Mountain of Gold: Surprise Discovery in Africa Shows Metal’s Scarcity Is Hard to Prove

A myriad of gold bugs like to compliment the yellow precious metal for its ostensible scarcity, as estimates say only 2,500 to 3,000 tons of new gold is produced annually. While new gold discoveries have seemingly slowed, investigative studies also show that in some areas, gold is being smuggled into the economy by the ton, and often never accounted for as far as per annum issuance estimates. Recently, reports show a whole mountain of gold was discovered in the Congo, as the Democratic Republic of the Congo is well known for being a region that sees tons of smuggled gold filtered into the global financial system unreported. Surprise Gold Deposits Continue to Crack the Precious Metal’s Scarcity Proposition It has always been said that the precious metal gold (Au) is scarce, and some reports even say that gold mining on earth will end by the year 2050 . Additionally, estimates also show that there’s roughly 2,500 to 3,000 tons of new gold that is accounted for and enters into the fin...
Post a Comment
Read more