About Author:
Ashwath Balakrishnan
Ashwath is a financial market and technology junkie. He is a cryptocurrency investor, trader, and enthusiast. He has expertise in market psychology and explaining complex technology in a simple way. He aims to battle misinformation in the cryptocurrency space.
In laymen's terms, the Lightning Network (LN) is a protocol built on top of the Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Monero blockchains; these protocols are called "layer two protocols" because they run on top of an existing network. By moving away from the main chain, layer two protocols help the overall network...
USD Coin (USDC) released its audit report attested by Grant Thornton LLP, which offered insight on the state of token issuance and fiat backing for April 2019. The report, released on May 18, 2019, is part of a monthly disclosure and makes USDC one of the most transparent fiat-backed stablecoins...
Deviations in Ripple's escrow disclosure have arisen in a report by Coin Metrics on May 16, 2019. This information came to light less than a month after Ripple released its Q1 disclosure report. On-Chain Analysis Coin Metrics, a data and analytics provider, has found discrepancies in the escrow released on a monthly...
The Stellar Lumens Network came to a grinding halt after network validators were unable to reach consensus. The Stellar Development Foundation revealed the measures they will take to reduce such downtime in a blog post, May 17, 2019. Stellar Network Went Down for an Hour On May 15, 2019, the...
One of the more popular justifications for the current bull market floating around the Internet is the growing hostility between China and the USA. Several experts and industry insiders believe Chinese investors are pulling their money out of the Yuan in anticipation of further depreciation, as reported by Forbes on...
Bitcoin Cash underwent a hard fork to upgrade network security and add a few key features, as reported by BTCManger on 15 May, 2019. The hard fork went as per plan but a bug on Bitcoin ABC's client rendered the chain non-functional for a few hours. Bitcoin ABC Nodes Malfunction Bitcoin ABC,...
Finastra, one of the world's largest FinTech companies, has added three French Banks to its lending consortium that runs on a distributed ledger. SocGen, BNP Paribas, and Natixis have joined NatWest on the DLT platform that went live in October 2018, as announced on their website on May 14, 2019. ...
The long-awaited bi-annual hard fork on Bitcoin Cash (BCH) has been rolled out as of 15 May 2019. Schnorr signatures and recovery from SegWit addresses are the biggest takeaways from the hard fork. Network Upgraded Bitcoin Cash's network has finally rolled out its long-awaited upgrade; the BCH network hard forks...
The Electric Coin Company that runs ZCash (ZEC) has published a transparency report highlighting key figures and expenses they incur on a monthly basis. The report, which was published on their blog on May 14, 2019, comes amid demand for more transparent disclosures from cryptocurrency firms. Financial Status and Outflows...
WhatsApp has confirmed it was subject to spyware that allowed the attacker to read a target's messages, as reported by MIT Technology Review on May 14, 2019. The hackers accessed messages after penetrating WhatsApp's encryption through a flaw in the voice call feature. Spyware Strikes Again WhatsApp, which is piloting a stablecoin...
