Crypto Highlights Week #33 – Bitcoin mining difficulty jumps a second time as miners settle offshore
Crypto Highlights: Bitcoin Hashrate continues to recover, the U.S to utilize Coinbase forensic tools, Bitcoin breaks $48k briefly: These and more in this week’s Crypto Highlights.
Table of Contents
Top Headlines Of The Week
Here are the top picks of this week’s crypto highlights.
- The mastermind behind the legendary Poly Network hack which is considered to be the biggest DeFi heist has reportedly returned almost all the stolen funds.
- The Bitcoin Mining Difficulty has continued to normalize after taking a hit following China’s crackdown on miners.
- Data shows that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to use Coinbase forensics tools.
Top Stories Of The Week
Bitcoin mining difficulty jumps a second time as miners settle offshore
The Bitcoin network’s mining difficulty plummeted after China declared a crackdown on mining operations, which once accounted for three-quarters of the worldwide hash rate. According to the most recent data from BTC.com, Bitcoin mining difficulty has been increasing steadily since June 17, 2021.
The Bitcoin ecosystem has seen a 13.77 percent spike in mining difficulty in two consecutive jumps, surpassing 15 terahashes (TH) for the first time since the second week of June, as Chinese miners slowly settle down in crypto-friendly countries. The next adjustment is set to begin on August 27 and is scheduled to increase the difficulty to 15.63 TH.
Bitcoin’s mining difficulty peaked at 25 TH before China’s ban on local miners. The rapid drop in Chinese miners had lowered the level of competition for confirming blocks. Existing miners on the network were able to increase their revenues as a result of this. According to Statista, China’s contribution to Bitcoin (BTC) mining has dropped to almost 46%, while the United States has stepped in to fill the void, holding nearly 17% of the worldwide mining hash rate.
Quantum Economics crypto specialist Jason Deane stated in a CNBC piece that the network’s current difficulty adjustment mechanism had made mining Bitcoin 7.3 percent less economical.
Concluding the discussion, Mike Colyer, CEO of Foundry — a New York-based digital currency group — said:
“There is an enormous amount of machines coming out of China that need to find new homes.”
Colyer also believes that the new generation of mining rigs is more efficient and would “double the hash power for the same amount of electricity.”
Poly Network Hacker Returns Nearly All Funds, Refuses $500k White Hat Bounty
The hacker who stole $610 million from the Poly Network cross-chain decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol has returned virtually all of the funds, claiming their activities were “white hat activity.”
According to a Thursday update from Poly Network on the incident, all of the $610 million in cash stolen through an exploit that exploited a “vulnerability between contract calls” has now been transferred to a Multisig wallet held by the project and the hacker. The only remaining tokens are around $33 million in Tether (USDT), which were frozen as soon as the attack was discovered.
Through encoded messages in Ethereum transactions, the hacker communicated with the Poly Network team and others. They claimed to have done the breach “for fun” because “cross-chain hacking is hot,” but it appears they had no plans to move the monies after successfully taking them.
On Wednesday, however, the hacker refunded $258 million of the funds after meeting with the project and users. Poly Network ruled that the hacking was “white hat behavior” and offered the hacker, called “Mr. White Hat,” a $500,000 reward.
“The poly did offer a bounty, but I have never responded to them. Instead, I will send all of their money back,” said the hacker.
The biggest hack in decentralized finance appears to be concluding now that the remaining funds, except the frozen USDT, have been refunded. Though the hacker’s identity hasn’t been revealed, Chinese cybersecurity firm SlowMist issued an update shortly after the news of the breach leaked, claiming that its investigators had tracked down the attacker’s email address, IP address, and device fingerprint.
This Week’s Market Sentiment
BTC price passes $47K ‘worst-case scenario’ as Bitcoin realized cap hits all-time high
PlanB, the author of the stock-to-flow family of Bitcoin pricing models, said in a tweet on Aug. 13 that $47,000 should only be the beginning for BTC/USD. Long-established price models based on the stock-to-flow principle were put to the test following the May miner exodus from China and subsequent BTC price drop.
PlanB himself experienced some trepidation as Bitcoin fell to lows of $29,000. However, he projected that when the dust settled on the mining restructuring, a return to strength would catapult the market far higher.
According to him, August, or more particularly the August close, should be $47,000. BTC/USD should then continue to rise month by month, reaching a “worst-case scenario” price of $135,000 by the end of the year.
PlanB’s prediction came true this week, as Bitcoin reached $47,000 after spending several days attempting to break through a massive resistance barrier at that level.
“Bitcoin is below $34K, triggered by Elon Musk’s energy FUD and China’s mining crackdown. There is also a more fundamental reason that we see weakness in June, and possibly July. My worst-case scenario for 2021 (price/on-chain based): Aug>47K, Sep>43K, Oct>63K, Nov>98K, Dec>135K”
“Bitcoin price AND 200-week moving average AND realized cap .. ALL rising,” PlanB added.
As Bitcoin price moved higher on Friday, realized cap, a technique of gauging Bitcoin’s market cap based on the price at which each coin last moved, reached new highs. It is now worth more than $378 billion.
Mainstream Adoption Of The Week
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to use Coinbase forensics tools
According to public records, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a prominent government border security department, wants to use Coinbase’s “computer forensics software.”
An August 3 document, which is now available in the SAM.gov database, contains details about the scheduled contract award. Despite its lack of specifics, the notice of impending contract action states:
“The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Office of Acquisition Management (OAQ), intends to award a purchase order on a basis other than full and open competition for computer forensic services. In accordance with FAR 13.106-1(b)(1)(i) and (ii), Coinbase, Inc. (DUNS number 081007539) is the only vendor who can reasonably provide the services required by the agency.”
“The estimated total dollar value for this requirement is $29,000.00 with an estimated period of performance of one year, to commence on the date of the award. This requirement is LAW ENFORCEMENT SENSITIVE[sic], therefore minimal information will be provided publicly,” the document later reads.
The existence of the pending deal reflects the growth of Coinbase’s analytics business line, even though the company — which does the vast majority of its business in the institutional and retail exchange and brokerage arena — remains a small player when compared to companies like Chainalysis.
Exclusive From SaTT
It was definitely a big week for SaTT. Read all about them in this week’s crypto highlights.
SaTT, Our Favorite YouTubers
SaTT, the advertising cryptocurrency, has selected three YouTubers for you. Indeed, YouTubers are one of our main targets. Our smart contracts, Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain, allow you to farm cryptocurrency with your content. Our DApp will open its doors in version 1.0 very soon. For the occasion, the YouTube oracle that we have chosen to start the opening, before Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and many others, which we will add as and when future updates.
To best inform our French-speaking community on the subject of cryptocurrency, we have selected three YouTubers whom we trust. Check out their videos to teach you more about vocabulary, security, speculation, trading methods, and the technology projects surrounding us. Our selection includes:
Our goal at SaTT has always been to educate our community about cryptocurrency. As a result, we’ve hand-picked these YouTubers to suggest to you. Follow us on social media and we’ll share their material with you on a regular basis.
SaTT Database Migration: Rigorous modifications
ATAYEN created the SaTT project to apply its digital marketing expertise to the fast-growing cryptocurrency market. ATAYEN will convert its current clients, train them on how to utilize this cutting-edge tool, and recruit new customers. With over 4,000,000 clients, the ATAYEN projects Iframe Apps, Automatic Newsletter, and Facebook Store have already conquered the online marketing sector.
The team used the model from their prior database to test the SaTT and the first test version of the DApp. MySQL’s relational database. This system was working for the initial tests, but it is incompatible with the DApp SaTT’s available diagram and the move toward Open Source. As a result, a new NoSQL database has been implemented, which improves the SaTT database’s interoperability and harmonization.
So far, the migration has been effective; a few members have experienced unique manipulations to log into their accounts, but they account for less than 1% of our users.
However, if you detect a problem, SaTT technical support remains present on our Facebook page and email at contact@satt-token.com.
Meme Of The Week
We hope you enjoyed this week’s edition of crypto highlights. For a peek at our last edition of crypto highlights & blockchain news, click here.
