Blockchain Report 10/24: Ethereum Transactions Available at Low Cost

Welcome back to the Blockchain Report with your host, Taylor Nikolai. First up: Ethereum!

A large amount of Ethereum was just transacted with VERY low cost. $183 million of Ethereum just transferred with a cost of 6 cents. According to NewsBTC, a transaction that would normally cost approximately $5 million with traditional systems instead cost only $0.06 using Ethereum. This was done in Ethereum block 6556384, in which it took only 19 hours to transfer approximately $183 million USD with the six cents fee.

If this transaction were instead done on a platform such as PayPal or Western Union, it would cost more than $5 million in transaction fees. There are still issues with cryptocurrency adoption despite it having the ability to transfer large amounts of money with small transaction fees. Key issues include volatility and liquidity.

Even a small percentage change in the price of Ethereum could make that $183 million worth much more or less by the time the transaction finishes.

Next up, Pantera Capital just backed a security startup. According to Coindesk, the San Francisco-based smart contract security startup Synthetic Minds has raised $5.5 million from investment firms Pantera Capital and Khosla Ventures. Synthetic Minds is a startup that aims to analyse blockchain networks for coding bugs.

In 2017, Synthetic Minds graduated from Y Combinator’s summer batch. Y Combinator is one of the most well-known seed accelerators and it has invested in companies such as Airbnb, Stripe, and Dropbox. Synthetic Minds claimed that its technology can “analyze and synthesize computer code better than humans can.”

The company also stated in a press release: “Eventually, using program synthesis we will be able to offload most of the programming for mission critical systems to software, leaving humans free to do high-level architectural design.”

Next up, the Port of Rotterdam has launched a blockchain project. According to TheMediTelegraph, the Port of Rotterdam Authority and Samsung SDS, which is the logistics and IT arm of Samsung, have teamed up to launch a pilot program based on blockchain technology. Their goal is a complete, paperless integration of physical, administrative and financial streams within international distribution chains.

This is another real world application of the blockchain. So again, if someone you know tells you, “There aren’t any real-world applications of the blockchain…” Sanghun Lee, the president of Samsung SDS, said that the blockchain will allow “All parties in the logistics chain the opportunity to coordinate activities using validated data and without central management.”

Next up, China may start requiring blockchain users to register with government IDs. According to Verge, a new regulation was drafted recently that would attempt to stop the anonymity behind users of the blockchain. The regulation would apparently require anyone who registers to use a blockchain service to not only user their full real name, but use a government-issued ID.

Bitcoin’s already illegal in China, but this is to try to stop further blockchain development. The policy was released by China’s Internet regulator, which is called the Cyberspace Administration of China. On top of trying to decipher who’s using the blockchain, they also included rules like the fact that “illegal information” must be deleted.

The draft of the policy states that backups of user data must be held for six months, and must be provided to law enforcement whenever necessary.

And finally on today’s show, Trade.io was hacked.

The cryptocurrency exchange Trade.io had a major security breach this past Sunday. Over $7.5 million dollars was stolen in a hack. If you’re not aware, cold storage wallets are usually USB-based devices containing login information for a cryptocurrency account.

And Trade.io said they kept theirs in safety deposit boxes in banks. Trade.io CEO Jim Preissler, said, “”We have confirmed that the safety deposit boxes were not compromised.”

Luckily, the stolen TIO were just backup cryptocurrency, or money they had as a reserve if trading activity peaked too high. This means that the stolen crypto didn’t belong to registered users on the platform, just the company.

We’re not sure exactly what happened, but the investigation is still ongoing.

Hopefully this video has helped you come to a better understanding of some of the regulations in the crypto space. If you want to stay up to date on the latest cryptocurrency news and trends be sure to follow us on Instagram @BlockchainReport. We’ll see you tomorrow.

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