Crypto Highlights Week #32 – Ethereum Classic Suffers Second 51% Attack in a Week

Crypto Highlights: Ethereum 2.0 Testnet Medalla goes live, Bitcoin ATM locations reached 9,000 worldwide, 100% of Chainlink addresses now in profit, Ethereum Classic suffers second 51% attack in a week: These and more in this week’s crypto highlights.

Top Headlines Of The Week 

• The Ethereum Foundation has announced that the Ethereum 2.0’s “final” and “official” public testnet, Medalla, is presently accessible in real-time.
• It appears that the Ethereum Classic has been hit by its second 51% attack just in a week after more than 4,000 blocks were reorganized.
• IntoTheBlock, an intelligence firm, revealed that Chainlink’s rally has broken new grounds as 100% of its supply is currently profitable.

Ethereum 2.0 Testnet Medalla Goes Live With 20,000 Validators

The Ethereum Foundation has announced that the Ethereum 2.0’s “final ” and “official” public testnet, Medalla, is presently accessible in real-time. Medalla is the final testnet before the launch of the ETH 2.0 network. It is also the final of the many ETH 2.0 testnets over 2019 and 2020. Unlike the others, Medalla is enjoying public participation, i.e. network validators participated in its initial launch without central coordination by the developers. 

The Beaconcha.in block explorer revealed that more than 20,000 validators participated in the network with approximately 650,000 ETH invested. Five significant clients joined Medalla to wit: Prysmatic Labs’ Prysm, ChainSafe’s Lodestar, PegaSys’ Teku, Status’ Nimbus, and Sigma Prime’s Lighthouse. 

The much-awaited ETH 2.0 condenses years of research to transit from the current Proof-of-Work (PoW) system to a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus algorithm. 

Ethereum Classic Suffers Second 51% Attack in a Week

It appears that the Ethereum Classic has been hit by its second 51% attack just in a week after more than 4,000 blocks were reorganized. Giant Crypto exchange, Binance, and Mining pool Ethermine’s parent entity, Bitfly, revealed the reorganization. They also announced that all Ethereum Classic payouts, withdrawals, and deposits had been postponed due to the attack. 

Nevertheless, the majority of Ethereum Classic miners, i.e. Ethermine, are continuing to mine on the shorter version of the network since the longest chain on the network has been attacked.

Ethereum Classic Developers have previously warned via a tweet that exchanges and mining pools should “significantly raise confirmation times on all deposits and incoming transactions” in light of “recent network attacks.” Hashing power on Ethereum Classic looks to have decreased by 20% considerably from 1.6 TH/s to 1.3 TH/s as of press time. 

100% of Chainlink Addresses Are Currently in Profit

IntoTheBlock, an intelligence firm, revealed that Chainlink’s rally has broken new grounds as 100% of its supply is currently profitable. This metric is a simple way to compare the asset’s current price and the price at which it was acquired. 

A higher current price would mean it is “in the money”, a lower one means it is “out of the money”, and if it is the same, it means it is “at the money”. This state of being is quite unusual for any asset and is only partly explained by the parabolic rise of the asset. 

Chainlink’s bull run may be ascribed to its strategic partnerships and it championing a laudable grant program. That will fund projects facilitating smart contracts to become “the dominant form of digital agreement”.

More Highlights of the Week

Developer Debates On The Bitcoin Cash Network, Is A Split Likely?

On Tuesday, the 4th of August, Chris Pacia, one of the lead developers of the peer-to-peer marketplace and a volunteer developer for the Bitcoin cash system tweeted the following: “Bitcoin Cash developer meeting blew up with multiple people walking out.”

According to some reports, it appears that another chain split for the network may occur given the growing tensions over the difficult algorithm. Nevertheless, an Australian proponent for the network, Hayden Otto, has jokingly tweeted that he will be sticking with the network. 

He however maintained that a chain split is very probable as the software has not been widely adopted by many minors. Apparently, the supporters would not have the majority voted to get their changes through the upgrade on the date. 

Seeing that we haven’t brought BCH to the spotlight lately, we thought it deserved a top spot on this week’s digest of crypto highlights.

Alleged 17-Year-Old Twitter Hack Mastermind Pleads Not Guilty

Graham Ivan Clark, a 17-Year-Old twitter hack mastermind has pleaded “not guilty” to the allegations of leading the hack of several celebrity and company twitter accounts including Elon Musk, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Apple, etc. He pleaded not guilty in a Hillsborough Circuit Court. 

The charges against Clark are 17 counts of communications fraud, 11 counts of illegal use of personal information, one count of organized fraud over $5,000, and one count of illegally accessing a computer or electronic device. At press time, Clark’s lawyers were preparing for a bail reduction after a $725,000 bail was initially awarded. 

Clark along with 22-year-old Nima Fazeli of Orlando and Mason Sheppard, 19 of the United Kingdom allegedly carried out the hack in July. Fazeli and Sheppard, face similar charges in the California federal court. 

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SaTT solution is a blockchain-backed advertising platform for anyone who participates in the advertising economy seeking for an open, fair rewarding system, active community engagement, credible revenue-generating system for their work as well as quality work output/input from the right crowd. 

SaTT also boasts a huge number of cryptocurrency users and influencers. Customers who advertise with SaTT can leverage on this wider reach advantage. Another advantage of SaTT is the low barrier of entry and fair pricing and performance metrics.

This Week’s Crypto Adoption

Bitcoin ATM Locations Reaching 9,000 Worldwide

Almost 9,000 Bitcoin ATMs have been installed worldwide as the number of Bitcoin ATMs appears to be rising steadily. Coinatmradar, a cryptocurrency ATM tracking website revealed that there are currently 8,947 cryptocurrency ATMs and 211,239 non-ATM locations you can buy or sell cryptocurrencies at across 71 countries. 

The website disclosed that in July, the number of crypto ATMs rose from 8,490 to 8,919. While there were 544 new Bitcoin ATMs, 115 machines were shut down during the month, leaving a net growth of 429 machines. The U.S. continues to lead in the number of Bitcoin ATMs (BTMs).

At the time of this writing, there are 6,879 machines in the United States. Canada comes second with 816 Bitcoin ATM locations. According to Coinatmradar, other countries with more than 50 Bitcoin ATM locations include the U.K., Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Germany, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Italy.

Crypto Meme Of The Week

We hope you enjoyed the latest crypto highlights from last week. For a peek at the our last edition of crypto highlights & blockchain news, click here.