fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
How Proof of Stake Affects DeFi
By: Justin Nearing
Tags: Staking, Defi, Yield Farming, Proof Of Stake, Liquidity

DeFi has exploded in market size over a few short years. It makes sense- if you hold a digital asset, you may as well earn some extra yield as it appreciates in value.

Since it’s initial spike, DeFi yields have largely stabilized in value.

This is the current yield for the top 5 assets on the lending platform AAVE. Lending your digital assets on a collateralized platform is a common DeFi strategy.

For a lender, most of the yield is less than 5%. This makes sense, given the large market sizes and low risk of the assets being lended.

What happens when you add Proof of Stake (PoS) granting 5% Annual Percentage Yield (APY)?

Assumptions for staking:

Low risk (no chance of slashing)

No lockup periods

Very easy to use

Given these assumptions, the Staking APY (SAPY) is going to be an extremely important bar for DeFi products to clear.

Any product below the bar is going to have some intense pressure put on it. If a DeFi product approaches or falls below the SAPY, investors will start rotating out- the juice will not be worth the squeeze.

In fact, DeFi products will have to well clear the SAPY in order for the risk to become worth it. Calculating that risk will become much more important for investors- a low risk 5% APY is a very powerful yield generator.

The expectation is that DeFi on PoS protocols will have a lot less money in them, as sane investors will stake the majority of their holdings. Much like the risk portfolios of equity markets, investors will likely commit 1–5% of their holdings to higher risk DeFi products.

Those DeFi products will likely have to double the SAPY, and those yields will have to stay high.

Thankfully, the liquidity pressure driven by staking will push DeFi yields higher.

As the wealth pours into Staking, liquidity is drained from DeFi markets. In theory this should drive higher yields in the DeFi markets as liquidity becomes much more important.

This is as true for liquidity pools as it is for lending- less people are providing loans, driving the yield higher. Across the entire DeFi market liquidity becomes much more valuable.

It presents a big challenge for new DeFi products, as raising funds to offer yield becomes much more important. Expect crypto-VC’s to play a much more important role in DeFi products as Staking eats the easy liquidity.

For the markets overall, the expectation is that an equilibrium will be reached within the markets as yield calibrates along the Staking APY.

This creates a situation similar to equity markets calibrating against the 10Y US Bond. Just as changes to the 10Y causes ripples throughout the stock market, changes to the SAPY will cause ripples through a protocols DeFi markets.

As such, she who controls the staking reward controls the market. Protocol-wide Governance will become much more important as time goes on. Monetary policy of a distributed ledger must be decentralized as a check against corruption of the protocol.

As DeFi comes online on PoS protocols, new challenges- and opportunities- will present themselves.
Elrond: Validator Nodes experience
By: Mohak Agarwal
Tags: Cloud Computing, Elrondnetwork, Proof Of Stake, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain

I have been studying POS systems since last 2 years and running validator nodes on different blockchain networks. I like to support the projects since the early testnet stages itself as it helps me to understand the system well, get involved with the community and eventually also help me to gather delegators during the mainnet.

I have been following Elrond since inception and was really keen to run nodes on it. Ever since the public testnet was released, I started the node on Google Cloud Platform. The first monitor(26th June) looked very different:

The testnet has come a long way with a much elegant monitor now:

As soon I got comfortable with the system, I started multiple nodes. However, updating and maintaining multiple nodes was very difficult. Then came Alwin with his scripts which made running multiple nodes very easy task. The best part was, he was updating the scripts quite frequently to make them even more robust. The only task remained was to update the nodes manually every time an update was announced, which was again very frequent. To overcome this issue, Elrond team officially released the scripts v2 which had an auto-update feature enabled by default. Since then, I did not even have to even log in to my server.

During the course of Battle of Nodes, I have used Google Cloud Platform and AWS with each server running 6 nodes with the following configuration:

AWS: m5a.4xlarge, 1200GB SSD

Google Cloud: 16v CPU, 60GB Memory, 1200GB SSD

The above configuration worked very well and my nodes never crashed due to any hardware issue.

This is not the end, rather it’s the beginning of a new Era!
AVA DELIVERS
By: Avalanche Português
Tags: Ava Labs, Defi, Proof Of Stake, Emin Gün Sirer, Avalanche

AVA is Proof of Stake consensus platform that allows you to…

CREATE NEW ASSETS

It is difficult for people to create new, expressive assets with liquidity and reach. In fact, many types of assets that currently exist are simply not traded in efficient ways. Digitize and deploy assets through AVA’s “smart assets” primitive. Do this on a new or existing market that trades these types of assets. Unlike other blockchains, such as Ethereum, digitization of assets on AVA can obey special covenants, making it highly suitable for legal compliance.

LAUNCH PRIVATE SUBNETS

We note that subnets are not isolated networks. They are fully interoperable with the rest of the network, 170 meaning that they can atomically transact with other subnets. The subnet architecture, therefore, allows those participating to deploy blockchains which fits custom requirements. Everything is ultimately a subnetwork in AVA, including the subnetwork where the native token, AVA, resides. Its flexible architecture is secure. It enables anyone to launch their own blockchain — or subnetwork.

DEPLOY NEW BLOCKCHAINS

AVA bridges permissionless (public) and permissioned (private) blockchains in one, interoperable network. Deploy new or existing blockchains directly on AVA to leverage superior performance and security properties. Deploy a blockchain with specific rules and privacy requirements

BUILD CUSTOM VIRTUAL MACHINE (VM)

In order to launch a new subnet, a developer will first write the code for the corresponding virtual machine, or VM. VMs provide the blueprint for deploying subnets in AVA. When ready to create a subnet, the developer specifies the VM to use, as well as the genesis state of that VM. The behavior of a chain/DAG on a given subnet is defined entirely by the VM that the subnet uses. Naturally, since a 175 subnet is just an instance of a VM, there can be arbitrarily many subnets that use the same VM. However, although many subnets may use the same VM, they maintain their own state, which is independent from that of other subnets. For simplicity, we sometimes write that a subnet “uses” a VM or that a subnet “runs” a VM. In both cases we mean that the subnet is an instance of that VM.

EXCHANGE ASSETS CROSS-CHAIN

Interoperable and Flexible AVA is designed to be a universal and flexible infrastructure for a multitude of blockchains/assets, where the base $AVA is used for security and as a unit of account for exchange. The system is intended to support, in a value-neutral fashion, many blockchains to be built on top. The platform is designed from the ground up to make it easy to port existing blockchains onto it, to import balances, to support multiple scripting languages and virtual machines, and to meaningfully support multiple deployment 45 scenarios.

Aviso Legal

“Esse artigo é meramente informativo e não é uma recomendação de investimento, o mercado de criptomoedas é bastante volátil e você deve pesquisar e decidir por si mesmo em que investir, especialmente em mercados de alto risco”.
You Missed the Hard Fork — Now What?
By: Jackson Belove
Tags: Hard Fork, Blockchain, Proof Of Stake, Qtum

Qtum mainnet hard forked on August 28 to launch offline staking protocol. Qtum Core wallet version 0.19.1 was a mandatory update for protocol and consensus changes and implemented a hard fork at block 680,000, which means older version wallets are incompatible and were automatically disconnected from mainnet.

If your wallet missed the hard fork it would be disconnected from mainnet, but still able to peer with other wallets that missed the hard fork, making up a smaller dying “split chain”. There are two fundamental reasons to not be on the split chain: missing transactions and lost block rewards.

Missing Transactions

Split chain wallets can make transactions, sending coins that can never reach an exchange (or receive coins from an exchange), because the exchanges (and most other wallets) made the hard fork and are on mainnet. The symptoms for this are sending transactions that never show up, and the transaction ID can’t be found on qtum.info. Missing transactions can be recovered as shown below.

Since the hard fork, there have been over 150 transactions on the split chain.

Lost Block Rewards

Some split chain wallets continue to stake and win block rewards, but block rewards on the split chain are worthless since they can never be spent or moved to mainnet. As a friendly reminder, here are some addresses that continue to stake on the split chain, and we miss them on mainnet:

Since the hard fork, there have been over 2,000 block rewards on the split chain.

Recovery

If your wallet missed the hard fork, take these steps to recover.

1. Backup your wallet, make a good copy of the wallet.dat file.

2. Update your Qtum Core wallet to version 0.19.1 (https://qtumeco.io/wallet)

3. Delete the local blockchain and resync the whole blockchain.

4. If your wallet balance is off or you staked on the split chain, run the zapwallettxes=2 command on startup.

5. Make a new backup of your wallet.

These steps are detailed here for Windows and here for Mac and Linux/Raspberry Pi.

Further tech support available on Qtum Telegram:

https://t.me/qtumofficial, https://t.me/qtumchina, https://t.me/qtumkoreaofficial, https://t.me/qtumrussia, https://t.me/qtumspa
Stats of StakingDrop : Over $200M Bonded, Mainnet is Coming
Tags: Defi, Proof Of Stake, Stakingderivative, Stafi

StakingDrop 1st stage has ended on 31 Aug. More than $205M worth of staked assets have been bonded across 1767 addresses. In fact, 20% of the staking amounts were NEW staked assets and 40% are NEW staking addresses. This yet again shows that StaFi doesn’t only make staking liquid and enables new DeFi products — but also increase security of PoS networks!

--Average Staking rate of projects in StakingDrop have been incresased by 0.25%

-- Average value per account is $116K

--Average dropped FIS for each account is 1130

--FIS distribution for StakingDrop was over-subscribed by 7x

We are thankful to all participants and hope that all new members will become an integral part of the StaFi community. Next step is Mainnet, stay tuned!

About Stafi Protocol

Stafi is the first DeFi protocol unlocking liquidity of staked assets. Users can stake PoS tokens through Stafi and receive rTokens in return, which are available for trading, while still earning staking rewards. FIS is the native token on Stafi Chain. FIS is required to provide security to the network by staking, pay for transaction fees on the Stafi chain, and mint & redeem rTokens.

Website: www.stafi.io

Twitter:@Stafi_Protocol

Telegram Chat: https://t.me/stafi_protocol

Telegram Announcements: https://t.me/stafi_ann

Discord: https://discord.com/invite/jB77etn
ElonCoin Staking | A Beginners guideline to Staking ElonCoin
By: Eloncoin, I'M Not An Official Member.
Tags: Eloncoin, Staking, Staking Rewards, Staking Guide, Proof Of Stake

Staking Eloncoin is the best way to earn EMC. Unlike PoW Coins, staking doesn’t require a lot of hardware resources. ElonCoin staking will only require you a device to run the ElonCoin Wallet, hold some EMC on the wallet, and keep your wallet connected to the internet. That’s it. You are fine to earn some EMC by contributing to the ElonCoin network.

ElonCoin has been created with the purpose of ensuring low energy consumption as recently Elon Musk has posted Bitcoin consumes so much fossil fuels. Since Bitcoin is a Proof-of-Work coin and there are thousands of active miners trying to find a single block, it wastes a lot of resources. However, a PoS coin consumes/wastes much less energy than PoW coins.

Information about ElonCoin Staking Rewards:

Ticker: EMC

Max Supply: 10 Billion

Type: PoS

Block time: 71 seconds

Block Reward:

0 to 50000 Block- 100000 EMC

50001 to 100000 Block- 50000 EMC

100001 to 150000 Block- 25000 EMC

150001 to 200000 Block- 12500 EMC

200001 to 250000 Block- 6250 EMC

250001 to 300000 Block- 3125 EMC

300001 to 350000 Block- 1562.5 EMC

350001 to 500000 Block- 781.25 EMC

500001 to UP- 500 EMC

Guideline to Staking ElonCoin (EMC)

For staking ElonCoin, you will either need your computer to run all the time to run the wallet for ElonCoin Staking, or you have to rent VPS to run the ElonCoin Client. Both processes are the same. If you have idea about how to set up a VPS, you are fine to go. I will share here about running your wallet on your personal computer using Windows and staking ElonCoin.

1st Step:

You have to download the ElonCoin wallet in order to stake ElonCoin. After downloading the file, install the wallet. Now, create your wallet. Remember to save your wallet backup and/or store your private key in a safe way.

2nd Step:

After creating your wallet, generate an address and receive some EMC in your ElonCoin wallet in order to start staking ElonCoin. After receiving the coins, you have to wait till 600 confirmations for starting ElonCoin staking. After 600 confirmations, your coin will be mature enough to stake ElonCoin for you.

That’s it. Very simple.

FAQ on ElonCoin Staking

But, you should probably know some more information about how ElonCoin staking actually works. I will list them below. Will update the list with more soon.

A. Why don’t I get a block?

It depends on how much ElonCoin you are holding for staking. If you are holding a few thousand coins, you are unlikely to get a block.

B. How long does it take to get a block?

If your coins are matured which means they are over 600 confirmations, depending on your network weight vs total network weight, you will get a block. Right now, it should take at least a week to get a block if you are staking ElonCoin of 100k.
Proof of Work (PoW) VS Proof of Stake (PoS)
By: John Smith
Tags: Proof Of Work, Crypto, Proof Of Stake, Blokchcain

What is Proof of Work (PoW) ?

The term “proof of work” was coined by Markus Jakobsson and Ari Juels in 1999. It’s relevant to bitcoin. Proof of work is a protocol which is designed for secure digital transactions without any interference of 3rd parties. This work is based on previous puzzle solutions. Proof of work may be a method of authenticating the current and past transitions. Basically this work is used in solving the puzzle generating rewards for whoever solves it called mining. Simply this is an algorithm that is designed to authenticate transactions and obtain new blocks added into blockchain. In Proof of work, miners are competing or fighting to solve a mathematical puzzle which will generate the new block then get the rewards as a bitcoins.

Benefits of Proof of Work

Proof of work reduces the risk of 51% attack because it is very difficult to do work.

The whole bitcoin network cannot be controlled by single handedly based on the Hashcash Proof of work system.

The miner needs to provide the proof that they have done some work before suggesting a new block.

Each solution is easy to verify for the community at the same time. This makes it convenient to check all transactions for trustworthiness.

Proof of work also sets a specific limit on how many new blocks of data can be produced. E.g, miners can only create Bitcoin blocks every 10 minutes.

It doesn’t depend on a single third party transactor. This is based on a truthless and transparent network.

Monopoly can increase time by time.

Seemore
The future we look forward to
By: Joel Foster
Tags: Ethereum, Proof Of Stake, Cryptocurrency, Omisego, Blockchain

We believe that OmiseGo is the catalyst for Ethereum scaling. That OMG’s Plasma is the Layer 2 solution the Ethereum World Computer will implement in order to bring scale to a truly decentralized smart contract platform, unlocking world-shaking business model innovations not seen since the mainstream adoption of the internet. That OMG itself will be the reigning platform for decentralized universal currency-agnostic exchange of value, allowing you to instantaneously pay for coffee using Dai or dollars or Bitcoin or euros or World of Warcraft gold or airline loyalty points, or a combination of all of them, right at the point of sale. That you can instantly liquidate rare in-game items or tokenized fine art to pay merchants in the currency they prefer.

We believe that Omise, the parent company that created OMG, will jump-start the system by migrating its tens of millions of dollars of daily transactions onto the network. That their clients and partners in established economies of Japan and Korea, and emerging economies of Thailand and Indonesia will wind down widespread use of credit card technology and jump headfirst into native mobile payments, following in the path of WeChat in China.

Photo by Benjamin Dada on Unsplash

We believe that by staking our OMG tokens, we provide a service to the network by validating transactions through consensus, and get paid to do so. That by risking financial loss for any dishonesty, we join our peers in agreeing on what everyone’s balance is. We believe that the fees we get paid will dictate the OMG token’s price, which reflects the ever-increasing value of keeping the network accurate.

We believe that staking pools are a commodity that is best open-sourced, and that those focused on serving their communities will triumph. That crypto’s decentralization fundamentally represents the giving back of power to the participants, rather than funneling wealth to profit-maximizing corporations.

We believe that we are so, so early — that the ones who take the most risk reap the most reward. That those who believe in and pursue a solid vision (and execute it well) are those who drag the rest of the world kicking and screaming into the future. We believe we’re ready.
What is POS Bakerz?
Tags: Tezos, Cosmos Network, Cryptocurrency, Proof Of Stake, Blockchain

POS Bakerz is an infrastructure operator for Proof-of-stake (PoS) public blockchain, offering public delegation and staking-as-a-service.

At POS Bakerz, the whole team is very optimist on the future of Proof of Stake (PoS) cryptocurrencies. We believe it can improve the distribution of wealth and leads us towards a better-decentralized future while being energy-efficient and thus sustainable.

After successfully running our first Tezos validator since cycle 72 and endorsed our first blocks, we recently decided to expand to Cosmos, IRISnet, but also to some other PoS cryptocurrencies.

Our intention is to build a staking service first and foremost for the community, the holders, the builders, the developers, and the believers.

As such, not only will we have some of the lowest fees in the market, but we are also thinking about some clever way to offer back a portion of these fees through grants for innovative projects building on Proof-of-Stake blockchains. We’ll publish details about our fees very soon on our new website, stay tuned.

Vision

Allow people to receive interest on their crypto holdings and vote on protocol governance in a simple and secure way

Mission

Become a leader in the staking industry & simplify access to crypto-dividend.

Who is the team behind the project?

We are Edouard, Tiago and Lionel, a team of 3 with various skills and backgrounds. All of us have experience in finance, entrepreneurship, and are really passionate about blockchain.

We value transparency at the utmost as at the end of the day you are trusting us to stake your hard earned tokens.

Edouard Lavidalle has been building a Crypto Traded Indices project for the past year with Lionel and started deploying nodes as a side project. He is also a corporate finance advisor to several blockchain-related projects and used to work in Investment Banking for leading French banks in his pre-blockchain life.

Tiago Machado is a passionate full stack developer and he’s been working for leading companies such as Robert Bosch Gmbh (Power Tools), and great startups related to AI such as Ikasi and M&A Digital.

Lionel Rebibo is the senior guy of the team, he’s been working a Crypto Traded Indices project for the past year with Edouard. He used to work for large hedge funds and will be of support in helping them catching the blockchain virus.
Rocket Pool 2 — rETH. Hello Rocket Poolers! As our first beta…
By: David Rugendyke
Tags: Blockchain, Proof Of Stake, Ethereum

Staking Liquidity

We believe it’s important for users to have liquidity for their staked deposits during these initial phases, because as we said earlier, these phases could run for an extended time and having options for your staked deposit is important for a lot of the users we’ve spoken too.

rETH — A token that represents locked ETH on the beacon chain for Rocket Pool users.

rETH is our initial attempt at providing this liquidity. It is a new token that exists just for Rocket Pool 2 users. When you stake with Rocket Pool in phase 0 and 1, you will receive these tokens when you withdraw. These give our users a source of liquidity during this transition period, they could be traded or sold as desired until access to the real ETH on the beacon chain is available during Phase 2, at which point they could be traded in. We would also charge our fees in rETH in the meantime so we are using the same service we offer our users.

The Benefits

Obviously having access to a token which is backed by deposits on the beacon chain now opens up a host of opportunities for liquidity, it can be traded or sold as desired while these initial phases are being rolled out.

Integration with other token markets such as those on Uniswap could also allow for a rETH : ETH pair, this means that users who withdraw on Rocket Pool, could potentially have their withdrawal converted to actual ETH if liquidity for the rETH pair on Uniswap is good.

The Drawbacks

Currently we are not locked into any one approach, and are evaluating all new ideas (such as a proposed ETH1->ETH2 bridge) as they pop up. But rather than sit on our hands, we’re taking the pragmatic approach of pushing forward with rETH, until something better arises (if it does).

This approach though does have some drawbacks and is part of the reason we aren’t locked into this idea as it would centralise part of our service (although all network node staking would still be decentralised and highly distributed); we’d have to be responsible for porting over rETH balances to the new Ethereum chain in phase 2 when smart contracts are supported.

We’re open to feedback on this idea and will be integrating it into our first beta in September 2019, just for testing initially.
A sneak peek into the world of Binance smart chain
By: Arka Sengupta
Tags: Binance Smart Chain, Consensus, Proof Of Stake, Binance, Blockchain

If you look something like this whenever you come across the term ‘BSC’, we understand. Binance Smart Chain has been turning quite a number of heads in the industry but it can be a daunting subject in the initial days of your research.

BSC is to Binance what Jarvis is to Iron Man.

The formers are quite the best thing that happened to the laters since their very inception.

Binance, for the ones who live under a rock, is by far the most popular cryptocurrency exchange in the entire world. Commanding over a $3.88 billion average daily trading volume, a $15 billion all-time-high spot trading in 24 hours, and over 591 trading pairs, Binance is well on its way to the moon.

The BSC, otherwise known as the Binance Smart Chain, on the other hand, enables the creation of smart contracts for tokens on the Binance-branded blockchain. It also introduces an all-new staking mechanism for BNB, one of the world’s top cryptocurrencies.

With the introduction of the Proof of Staked Authority (PoSA) consensus mechanism, BSC creates an ecosystem where validators, token holders, developers, and users all benefit from a rewarding blockchain that offers high performance and ample space for further innovations.
A Digital Collectible Card Game is Coming Soon to Tezos
By: William Mckenzie
Tags: Tezos, Gaming, Proof Of Stake, Digital Cards, Non Fungible Tokens

So, What is Coase?

There’s been a lot of misconception within the Tezos community, in relation to, Coase actually being the name of the digital collectible card game being built on the Tezos blockchain. This is not the case, rather Coase is the name of the gaming company formed by the core team members Kathleen Breitman, Zvi Mowshowitz, Brian David-Marshall, and Alan Comer. The actual name of the game has yet to be decided on, but in Kathleen Breitman and Zvi Mowshowitz’s latest interview on Tezonomics, it is expected to launch early 2020.

With some of this confusion and lack of there being a lot of public information on the card game being built by Coase, I decided to ask Kathleen Breitman a few questions, to which she provided some great insight into. Below are my questions for Kathleen and her provided responses following thereafter.

Looking at the list of core team members of Coase shows quite an impressive list. There is a Marvel Comics designer, a team member who has built AI engines for Pokémon and Magic: the Gathering, an MTG pro, and hall of fame member, and yourself as the Co-Founder of Tezos. How did you connect with all these people and create such a powerful core team?

Arthur has known Zvi for years and Zvi has spent most of his life ingratiated in the Magic community. This was his curated list of awesome designers.

As enumerated on in the concept paper, a game will fail if it isn’t “great” and people don’t enjoy it. With Coase, you are placing a lot of resources towards design to actually making the game enjoyable. How does Coase plan to address “deal-breaker issues” of games like Magic: The Gathering by reducing barriers of entry, becoming more watchable and implementing more player interaction?

An original turn order, a new resource system, and a design that optimizes for quick, mobile play. (Many strategy card games are derivative of physical mechanics; our design is digital-first).

What challenges do you foresee in terms of adoption with the digital collectible card game you are building?
Cardano / ADA Staking Guide
Tags: Blockchain Technology, Crypto, Proof Of Stake, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain

Cardano / ADA Staking Guide

The Cardano incentivized testnet began with a balance snapshot taken at 7 AM EST (12:00 UTC) on November 29, 2019.

To delegate your ADA to Staked, please use the following validator address:

61a6a2ebd0896f02df71beb7f6dd5fa96b712071c27448faeac78b0a424ce45e

Delegation is non-custodial and delegates cannot spend your ADA. Staked pays 90% of the block rewards to delegates, and offers the industry’s only 100% SLA on block production.

Instructions for delegating ADA are included below.

Summary

Cardano is a groundbreaking proof-of-stake blockchain — home to the ADA cryptocurrency — with a strong focus on sustainability, scalability, and transparency. Developed by world-leading academics and engineers, it will serve as a stable and secure platform for the development of enterprise-level dApps and a staging point for global change.

Staking Token Economics: (01/09/20)

If you had ADA in a Daedalus or Yoroi wallet when the balance snapshot was taken at 12.00 UTC on November 29, 2019, you check whether your balance was successfully captured, browse stake pools, and delegate your stake using the Yoroi rewards wallet client.

Once a token holder has delegated to the Staked stakepool, rewards are automatically delivered by the protocol at the end of a period (aka Epoch).

Staking Instructions

Download the Yoroi wallet for the Shelley incentivized testnet here. After installing the Yoroi wallet, access your testnet balance by entering the wallet recovery phrase associated with the mainnet wallet that held your ADA when the snapshot was taken. Navigate to the Delegation (Simple) section of the Yoroi wallet.

4. Enter “STKD” or “Staked” and select the “Delegate” button.

5. Enter the amount of ADA you want to delegate, enter the spending password, and select the “Delegate” button.

Congratulations! You have now successfully delegated ADA to Staked.

Having trouble getting started? Reach out to the Staked team here or at cole@staked.us.
Staked Joins as a Supernode to Support Staking on V SYSTEMS
By: V Systems
Tags: Crypto, Cryptocurrency, Proof Of Stake, Blockchain, News

January 9 — With more than 95 million of VSYS coins leased for staking, Staked has officially become one of the supernodes on the V SYSTEMS mainnet today.

Backed by two of the biggest blockchain investment firms Coinbase and Pantera, Staked is a well-validated staking-as-a-service company in the US that provides its users with the technical infrastructure for staking services — investors can reliably and securely compound their digital assets by participating in the validation process of proof of stake (PoS) blockchains.

We believe the Staked team will further leverage its network to grow VSYS’ influence in the overseas markets and attract more institutional investors to join the ecosystem.

Powered by the pioneering Supernode Proof of Stake consensus, VSYS was announced as the TOP 5 staking coins on Staked last year, with an average annual return on investment (ROI) of over 17% and a total of US$200 million by value locked in staking. VSYS coin holders can easily participate in block validation and get minting rewards without building nodes.

View the lastest supernode rank list for more details.

About V SYSTEMS

V SYSTEMS is a general purpose blockchain database for decentralized applications. Led by Chief Architect Sunny King, the V SYSTEMS blockchain has implemented his new innovative consensus algorithm — Supernode Proof of Stake (SPoS). V SYSTEMS aims to deliver decentralized database cloud technology that is scalable and durable, with high finality, performance and the highest resistance to 51% attacks.

The network is operated as a cloud platform that can support efficient and agile development of a vast variety of applications, including but not limited to decentralized finance applications (DeFi), entertainment, social media, tokenization, dapp deployment and many more.

About Staked

Staked helps investors reliably and securely compound their crypto by 5% — 100% annually through staking and lending. Staked runs validation nodes for proof-of-stake currencies and offers access to on- and off-chain lending options that provide an annualized yield of in-kind currency. Staked’s investors include Pantera Capital, Digital Currency Group, ParaFi Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Winklevoss Capital, Fabric Ventures, Global Brain, and other leading crypto investors.
v.systems / VSYS Staking Guide. Put your VSYS to work today!
Tags: Blockchain Technology, Crypto, Proof Of Stake, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain

v.systems / VSYS Staking Guide

The v.systems mainnet launched on November 27, 2018.

To lease your VSYS to the Staked supernode, please use the following address:

ARNK3hFsaQfGHVqD94wZxwDb6s2YfXWc1Cv

Leasing is non-custodial and supernodes cannot spend your VSYS. Staked pays 90% of the block rewards to stakers, and offers the industry’s only 100% SLA on block production.

Instructions for leasing VSYS are included below.

Summary

v.systems is a next-generation blockchain database for decentralized applications. Introduced in November 2018, it has since been dedicated to deliver an advanced blockchain platform with high stability, scalability and efficient performance in an expanded environment.

Staking Token Economics: (1/9/20)

Rewards are distributed upon participation in minting. Token holders are able to lease VSYS to any supernode candidate via the v.systems official wallet. There are no minimum requirements or lock-up period when leasing VSYS.

Staking Instructions

Download the VSYS wallet here. Navigate to the minting section and select the “Start Leasing” button.

3. Enter the Staked Supernode address ARNK3hFsaQfGHVqD94wZxwDb6s2YfXWc1Cv in the Recipient field, the amount of VSYS you want to lease in the Amount field, and then click Continue.

4. On the next screen, click on the Confirm button to broadcast your leasing transaction.

5. Staked will pay rewards every week on Wednesdays at 12 PM EST. We offer a market-leading 10% commission fee and highly reliable service.

Having trouble getting started? Get help or find time to speak with the Staked team by emailing cole@staked.us.
Sparkswap Desktop: the only way to buy Bitcoin on the Lightning Network
By: Trey Griffith
Tags: Bitcoin, Lightning Network

After months of hard work, we’re proud to announce Sparkswap Desktop, our new product for buying Bitcoin from your bank account directly to your Lightning Wallet.

At Sparkswap, we’ve been pioneers of Lightning Network atomic swaps for trading, and now we’re using that same technology with the trading pair we use the most: Bitcoin and USD. Not only that, we’ve packaged¹ it up for use on Windows, macOS, or Linux.

We’ve taken our core belief that trading shouldn’t require you to give up custody of your assets, and combined it with the best of traditional fiat on-ramps: clear pricing, instant purchases, and USD bank integration.

The result is a product that is as easy to use as the most popular cryptocurrency exchanges, but keeps you in control of your assets.

Your keys, your Bitcoin

You can transfer USD² directly from your bank account via ACH with no fees. For qualified customers, these transfers are instantly available for purchasing Bitcoin, otherwise transfers are cleared in a few days.

Bitcoin purchases through Sparkswap Desktop are transferred instantly to your Lightning wallet without Sparkswap ever taking custody of your Bitcoin. Every Bitcoin purchase from Sparkswap is executed as a Lightning Network Atomic Swap — you only have to trust the open source software, not Sparkswap the company.

That makes Sparkswap the only way to buy Bitcoin for which you hold the keys, instantly.

Since every satoshi you buy is instantly available in a Lightning channel, Sparkswap is also the easiest way to get started with the Lightning Network. Just connect your bank account, make a deposit, and you’ll be able to use all that the Lightning Network has to offer.

With Sparkswap Desktop, you’ll be #StackingSats the only way that makes sense — with full custody of your private keys.
Running c-lightning on OpenBSD ⚡️🐡
Tags: Lightning Network, Openbsd, Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain

Power your Lightning node with OpenBSD to reduce its attack surface

The Lightning Network has grown tremendously since it reached the Bitcoin mainnet back in early 2018. The network is slowly reaching maturity with all implementations now in beta and new features being added steadily — like multi-path payments, keysend, large Wumbo channels, and new privacy improvements.

Exciting new features like Wumbo channels and Multi-Part Payments (MPP) coming to the Lightning Network also means we have a bigger need to fortify the systems our nodes are running on. Large amounts of BTC in a hot wallet is a sure bet for attracting unwanted attention. So it’s best to be proactive and research ways to reduce the attack surface of the systems that your BTC sits on.

Up and to the right screenshot from https://txstats.com/dashboard/db/lightning-network?orgId=1&from=now-5y&to=now

Since nodes are securing more and more BTC, it may be a good time to consider minimizing the amount of extra running code on your node’s operating system. A famously minimalist operating system is OpenBSD.

OpenBSD is an operating system (like Windows or Linux) focused on minimizing security faults in its code. Commonly used to power firewalls and routers as a first line of defense, it’s also suitable for servers and can even be used as a workstation OS. It runs on all of the popular CPU architectures like x86 and ARM (for those running nodes on Raspberry Pis) as well.

A Lightning node has to be exposed to the internet in order to accept incoming channel requests, so OpenBSD could be a good fit. In this post, I put together a quick guide for compiling c-lighting on OpenBSD. Both Bitcoin Core and c-lightning run on OpenBSD with no modifications, so the process is simple!

Build and install c-lightning

Make sure you’ve installed bitcoind since c-lightning requires it. Bitcoin Core ships instructions for building and installing bitcoind on OpenBSD.

From there, the process for compiling and installing c-lightning is relatively straightforward. Open the terminal, and enter the following commands one-by-one.



git clone

cd lightning && git checkout v0.9.3

pkg_add automake # pick the highest version e.g. 1.16.2

pkg_add autoconf # pick the highest version e.g. 2.69p2

pip3.7 install --user mako

pip3.7 install --user mrkd

export PATH=$PATH=/home/<your username>/.local/bin

export AUTOCONF_VERSION=2.69

export AUTOMAKE_VERSION=1.16

./configure

PYTHON3_VERSION=3 gmake

gmake install # as root pkg_add git python gmake py3-pip libtool gmpgit clone https://github.com/elementsproject/lightning cd lightning && git checkout v0.9.3pkg_add automake # pick the highest version e.g. 1.16.2pkg_add autoconf # pick the highest version e.g. 2.69p2pip3.7 install --user makopip3.7 install --user mrkdexport PATH=$PATH=/home/ /.local/binexport AUTOCONF_VERSION=2.69export AUTOMAKE_VERSION=1.16./configurePYTHON3_VERSION=3 gmakegmake install # as root
Meet BTC2019 Teacher Beatrice Leung
By: Cryptocurrency Certification Consortium
Tags: Blockchain Technology, Lightning Network, Bitcoin, Bitcoin Lightning Network, Blockchain

C4 is proud to host Blockchain Training Conference 2019 in Denver this August 28–30. BTC is different than your average crypto conference because instead of speakers, we have teachers. This is not a conference where you’ll hear pitches on ICOs from questionable companies. Sponsors don’t get stage time simply because they’re helping pay for the event. Every course session is designed with two or more learning objectives, and every teacher cares that you learn something useful from their session. With almost 16 hours of educational content, it’s like you’re getting an entire college course, condensed into just three days. On top of all of this, you also have the chance to earn your Certified Bitcoin Professional designation onsite or online as part of your ticket purchase to BTC.

We’re excited to spotlight some of our BTC2019 teachers this year, and today, we’d like to introduce you to Beatrice Leung. Beatrice will be teaching the “Open Your Own Channel on the Lightning Network” master class. Check out our chat with her to learn more:

How did you get involved in your subject area & why are you passionate about teaching it?

I’ve been following the Lightning Network for nearly a year now and leading a team working on the homepage of the Lightning Network: RADAR ION. I’ve always been passionate about breaking down complex subjects, after multiple internal sessions to onboard our team to Lightning it was clear that I could help others get started.

Why do you think certifications and standards are important in the blockchain industry today?

There’s a lot of material in the Blockchain industry today with varying degrees of quality. Having a standard allows us to avoid bad investment advice, hyperbolic teaching material, and helps the industry mature.

Why have you decided to teach a session at #BTC2019?

The Lightning Network is growing rapidly, but can be intimidating for those just getting familiar with the space. I want to help scholars understand what the Lightning Network is and onboard to the network.

We’re looking forward to attending Beatrice’s master class at BTC2019! Make sure to join us by getting your tickets here.
Faster Than Lightning: How Thor Revolutionizes Payments
Tags: Lightning Network, Thor, Bitcoin, Blockchain, Vtradetech

One of the biggest problems cryptocurrencies face today is scalability. Cryptocurrencies have a very slow rate of transaction processing. The standard to beat is Visa’s 24,000 transactions per second (TPS) capability. Bitcoin and Ethereum, the two most prominent cryptocurrencies today, have a rate of only 7 and 15 TPS, respectively. Many startups and seasoned companies are working to solve this issue. The Lightning Network is one possible solution that has shown a lot of potential.

The Lightning Network is a second-layer solution to Bitcoin’s scalability problem. To use it, a channel has to be set up between two parties. They need to deposit enough bitcoin to hold it open. Users can only send as much money as the channel’s capacity supports. The Lightning Network aims to provide cheaper and faster off-chain bitcoin payments. But the process of opening a channel and keeping it open is too complicated for many users. That’s where Thor comes in.

Thor, a service by Bitrefill, allows people to connect to the Lightning Network whether they have bitcoin or not. To take advantage of the service by Bitrefill, a user needs one of the supported wallet apps and \ can the purchase a channel opening from Bitrefill. The complicated process of setting up a channel between two parties and depositing enough bitcoin to hold it open on the Lightning Network is no longer needed. Thor allows users to outsource this taxing process. Thor does the technical work of opening a channel and Bitrefill will maintain that channel for up to 30 days.

In an interview with CoinDesk, Bitrefill’s CCO John Carvalho said, “The idea here is to be able to allow everyone to get on the Lightning Network and run a hot wallet. There’s still a lot of Lightning development left to go and a lot of convenience that is needed, so it’s not so intimidating to get onto Lightning.” Through Thor, Bitrefill allows people to make faster payments, like paying phone and cable bills, or giving someone a tip. The service has already successfully completed over 3,700 orders. According to 1ML.com, Bitrefill is one of the top five organizations increasing global Lightning channel capacity.

While the cheaper and faster transactions sound good, there is a hefty fee attached to the service. Bitrefill claims that the fees are assessed because they have to lock up capital when opening Lightning channels. However, it’s only a matter of time before competitors start popping up, at which point it’s likely the fees will diminish dramatically. However, research and advancements like these are what will help Lightning services become capable of processing a high volume of low-value payments for mainstream users. In his interview, Carvalho expressed this view himself. He added, “The more these services are working, live and tested, the more this will become a majorly used network that people can transact on.”

Art by Imam Syafei Hidayat
Lightning Hood Weekly Round-Up for the Week Starting 2/25/19
Tags: ZeusLN/zeusA mobile Bitcoin app for Lightning Network Daemon (lnd) node operators ⚡️ - ZeusLN/zeusgithub.com, Bitcoin, Lightning Network

Newly Added Items on Lightning Hood

1.) Bitcart allows you to use bitcoin via the Lightning network on Amazon gift cards

2.) Tweetstamp is a twitter bot that uses OpenTimestamps to append the hash of a tweet to the bitcoin blockchain

3.) C-Otto created a script that can be used to balance lightning channels of a LND node

4.) ACINQ has created a new Lightning Network explorer that shows a list of all known nodes and the geographic location of the nodes

5.) Grubles walks users through how to setup a private Lightning node using Blockstream’s c-lightning over Tor

6.) Cent2sat is the world’s smallest currency converter. Currently you can by 262 satoshi’s with just 1 penny

7.) Part 2 of the Let’s Talk Bitcoin Podcast #390 Revisiting Lightning is now available

8.) We at Lightning Hood are now selling limited edition bitcoin related coffee mugs via Lightning

Lightning Network News and Good Reads from the Week

1.) bitcoinpaperwallet.com has changed ownership and is no longer safe to use

2.) Draug has configured a pinball machine to accept bitcoin via the Lightning network to play a game

3.) BTCPay now allows you to get paid in Bitcoin by simply sharing a URL

4.) Square customers brought $166 million worth of Bitcoin on the Cash App in 2018

5.) Want to delete your Coinbase account, but are unable too due to dust balances? Well follow Udi’s guide #DeleteCoinbase

6.) Casa launches three keyset types for their Keymaster:

Mobile Key for managing small amounts

for managing small amounts 2-of-3 Basic Multisig as an entry-level multisig option

as an entry-level multisig option 3-of-5 Key Shield for the best security on the market today

7.) Blockstream announces c-lightning v0.7. The new release is the culmination of work by 50 contributors from all over the world comprising of 1,300 commits. Check it out to see all of the new features and fixes

8.) The Lightning Trust Chain Torch makes it’s way to Iran

9.) Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter and Square shows of his new Casa node

10.) Radar releases one-stop onramp for Bitcoin’s Lightning Network

11.) Bitficus makes a proposal for the universal symbol for a Satoshi

12.) ZuesLN gets upgraded to v0.0.5 with initial lndconnect support, the option to set invoice expiry and other features

Lightning Hood’s Selection for Meme of the Week

If there are any other major news events or items we may have missed from the week please let us know! You can reach us on twitter @lightning_hood

See you guys next week! Click Here for the Lightning Resources Page
Running Bitcoin & Lightning Nodes Over The Tor Network (2021 Edition)
Tags: Node, Lightning Network, Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency, Tor

Running Bitcoin & Lightning Nodes Over The Tor Network (2021 Edition)

Preface

In 2018 I made a tutorial for getting a Bitcoin full node up and running on Linux, and I provided a complete step-by-step process, along with explainers for how to use & understand the bash shell, and what certain commands and their flags did. It’s been 3 years since, and what you’re reading now is the updated and next iteration of that.

This tutorial is 1 of 3 being published in tandem. The one you’re viewing currently is the primary one, and brings the other two together to run over the Tor network, and connect your phone’s Bitcoin & Lightning wallets to it using Zap iOS over Tor (if you do not have iOS you may skip the Zap aspects of this tutorial, or use the Zap desktop client). The other two function as standalone tutorials for both Bitcoin & Lightning respectively, and they completely break down the entire node installation process for beginners.

The Bitcoin & Lightning sections in this tutorial will be simplified. If you want more detail please reference the standalone guides for each:

Primary:

Running Bitcoin & Lightning Nodes Over The Tor Network

Standalone: