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Fusion Hacked? CEO Says That 10M FSN Tokens are Gone

The blockchain-based financial platform, Fusion Network has announced a compromised wallet on Sept. 28. The Fusion swap wallet compromise resulted in a theft of 10 million native FSN tokens.

On Sept.28, Fusion Foundation’s CEO, DJ Qian announced in the official telegram group that the token-swap wallet with an Ethereum address to swap ERC-20 FSN tokens for the tokens on the FSN mainnet had been compromised.

Qian announced on the telegram group:

“After it was stole, we found the [thief] kept moving those stolen FSN in order to wash the address holding FSN, and sent part of the them to exchanges to sell.”

The theft was due to a compromise of the swap wallet’s private key after the private key was stolen, abnormal wash-trading of the tokens were observed, in exchanges such as Bitmax and Hotbit. The loss of funds appeared to have been worth approximately $6.4 million at the time of the hack.

The remaining tokens in the wallet had been moved to a cold storage address, while major exchanges such as OKEx, Huobi, and Bitmax had been contacted.

Qian stated that a certain individual with access to the foundation’s wallet’s private keys was to blame and has collected evidence that is substantial enough to be reported to the police.

IOTA Foundation Releases Testnet of Fully Decentralized Network Pollen

The IOTA Foundation, a non-profit organization focused on blockchain and open-source development has announced the launch of its testnet of a fully decentralized network, Pollen.

The release of the testnet marks the first time where it enables developers and other parties to test the capabilities of a fully decentralized IOTA network.

IOTA 2.0, starts with its first phase, Pollen, and the next two phases, called Nectar, its second testnet, and Honey, its mainnet.

IOTA’s team of researchers, developers, and academic institutions have spent the last year researching a solution that will replace its current network by H1 2021. The new network has developed a distributed ledger network that can scale to meet the demands of the industry without leaving out the considerations of speed, security, and decentralization.

The IOTA network has developed a new architecture made up of three layers, including the application layer, communication layer, and the network layer. These three layers will enable support for features such as tokenization, scalable smart contracts, feeless Dapps, and sharding in the future.

Phase two, Nectar involves releasing the remaining components on the IOTA 2.0 test network, where rewards will be distributed to node operators or attackers to test the resilience of the protocol. Phase three, Honey will be the official release of IOTA 2.0 and will be the production-ready version of the protocol.

In a press release shared with Blockchain.News, Jakub Cech, Director of Engineering at the IOTA Foundation said:

“The community has always been an important part of IOTA’s development. With this release, we look forward to allowing our research and developer community, along with others to test out and validate the Coordicide components. We look forward to continuing to build the future of the IOTA protocol together with the community and our academic partners towards its production-readiness.”

IOTA increases its speed by 20x following its relaunch

The IOTA community has conducted a stress test that illustrated a stable network of over 150 nodes with over 650 confirmed transactions per second (TPS). This shows an increase in transaction throughput by a factor of 20, while Hornet is able to consume 10 times less memory under normal operations compared to its previous node software.

The IOTA Network has seen a massive hack in February, on the platform’s Trinity Wallet software. The network was shut down on the same day to prevent any further security breaches, however, 8.55 million MIOTA, approximately $2 million was stolen from 50 digital wallet users.

Image source: IOTA Foundation

Ethereum Launches Final Testnet Before Officially Releasing ETH 2.0 Mainnet

The software developing team for Ethereum 2.0 has finally announced that they will be launching ETH 2.0’s testnet on August 4.

Final Testnet Before Official Mainnet Launch

The multi-client testnet is an alternative blockchain designated for the purposes of testing out the validity of the network. Ethereum (ETH) has dubbed it “Medalla,” which is Spanish for “medal.” This is named in honor and reverence to Ethereum 1.0 testnet, which was considered an “Olympic gold medal” for its success in the ETH community. The Ethereum 2.0 testnet is reported to be the final one of its kind that will launch before mainnet officially comes into play.

The launch of the Ethereum testnet date, though confirmed to be August 4 at 1 pm UTC by Ethereum Foundation’s ETH 2.0 coordinator – Danny Ryan, is nevertheless not set in stone. In fact, there are two necessary criteria that need to be fulfilled in order for the new testnet to launch.

Criteria to “Unlock” the Medalla

The first one is “minimum genesis time.” This is a manually imposed parameter that details when the earliest launch of ETH 2.0 testnet can be held. On Ethereum’s official blog, the foundation writes:

“MIN_GENESIS_TIME is the earliest the chain can start, but the chain won’t start until the minimum validator count has also been reached.”

That brings us to the second criterion. which postulates that for the testnet to be activated, there needs to be a minimum number of validators that are signed up for Medalla testnet. The number of validators required is set at 16, 385 blockchain users, which should translate to 524, 288 ETH in total. This means that each of the validators would have to make a deposit of 32 ETH coins each for the testnet to be unlocked. EF coordinator Danny Ryan states:

“In the event that minimum deposits are not met by 1pm UTC on August 2nd, the chain will start later than MIN_GENESIS_TIME. This is okay.”

In other words, if the minimum coin deposits – 16, 384 crypto transactions – are not fulfilled, the ETH 2.0 testnet will be delayed for 48 hours. In sum, “genesis” will start 48 hours after both conditions are met.

Is Medalla An Upgrade From Altona?

ETH 2.0 coordinator says that ETH 2.0 testnet is “a major step up from Altona in the sense that Medalla is a testnet built for and maintained by the community.” Altona, Medalla’s precedent, is actually a “devnet,” entailing that it was mainly run by client teams and members of the Ethereum Foundation (EF). The software developing team for Ethereum 2.0 hopes that with Medalla, the fact that blockchain maintenance is entirely in the hands of the community will translate to more stability and health for the digital network.

COVID 2020 Not The Best, But ETH Is Having a Heck Of a Year

The ongoing pandemic has caused much distress worldwide, affecting global economies and setting the fintech industry in a frenzy. However, regardless of the worldwide shift, Ethereum seems to be having quite a bull run. Data from digital-asset data firm Messari showed that Ethereum has now surpassed Bitcoin as the network that settles the most value per day. This is a huge win for the crypto platform, as it has always been competing and trailing behind its counterpart, Bitcoin.

Currently, the Ethereum blockchain daily settlement value is estimated to sit at approximately $2.5 billion, which makes it the first time since early 2019 that the blockchain has outranked its rival, Bitcoin.

Cause for Concern? Ethereum's 15 Minutes of Extreme Volatility Explained

Ethereum’s price on the crypto market underwent a lot of fluctuations in the span of 15 minutes yesterday, causing quite a stir in the crypto community.

Market Experts on Ethereum

Across major coin exchanges, such as Binance Futures, Ethereum (ETH) peaked at $418, but within 5 minutes, it dropped by 25%. Eventually, it climbed back to $385 within a 10-minute span.

The reason behind ETH’s price fluctuations has been speculated upon by market experts, who are saying that the $410 to $420 range has always been a historical resistance area since 2017. Also, the sudden 25% drop of ETH led to a cascade of futures liquidations across major crypto exchanges and extreme movement for Ethereum.

Ethereum Has Big Plans for The Future

Global markets analyst Alex Krüger commented on Ethereum’s price fluctuation and said that though ETH underwent a “blowoff top” of 25%, a blowoff doesn’t have to be “the top”, meaning that Ethereum’s market value may still escalate further. Despite the digital asset’s sudden market correction, a lot of crypto investors still remain positive about the blockchain ecosystem’s outlook.

With the launch of ETH 2.0 testnet set for August 4, much is to be anticipated of Ethereum. Kelvin Koh, co-founder of cryptocurrency venture capital firm Spartan Black, stands by the belief that ETH is leading the crypto market’s uptrend. With the launch of ETH 2.0 testnet’s first phase, there is much to be expected of the blockchain ecosystem. Koh added:

“Depending on how hard ETH runs, the successful launch of phase 0 may culminate in a near term peak for ETH and other large caps.”

Ethereum Introduces Testnet Medalla

As Ethereum is transitioning from a Proof-of-Work format to a Proof-of-Stake, Ethereum 2.0, dubbed “Medalla” will be launched in at least 3 phases, the first being phase 0. Ethereum hopes that by separating the testing in phases, aspects of the new blockchain can be covered methodically and perfected before release.

Phases 0, 1, and 2 each outlines a different concept. Phases 0 focuses on all the machinery behind ETH 2.0’s consensus, and it tracks the validators and their transaction balances. Phase 1’s main objective is to handle the addition and storage of new and old data associated with ETH 2.0. Finally, Phase 2 adds execution to ETH 2.0, and it enables programs to be run on top of it.

Ethereum Dominates The DeFi Scene

Ethereum Foundation has come a long way since its beginning, with new projects such as ETH 2.0 in the horizon. Last Thursday marked the anniversary of Ethereum’s official network launch. The blockchain ecosystem has since expanded its growth, with it currently holding the majority of DeFi applications run on a blockchain. As the pioneer of DeFI applications and with their rising popularity, Ethereum seems to be having a pretty good bull run this year, despite its setback on the crypto market on August 2.

The new multi-client testnet that Ethereum has been planning for quite some time is set to launch on August 4, at 1 pm UTC. However, all pre-launch criteria must be met beforehand.

Ethereum Gathers Cybersecurity Team Dedicated to ETH 2.0 Final Testnet Launch

With the launch of Ethereum 2.0 testnet set to be released on August 4 at 1 pm UTC, the Ethereum Foundation has been looking to build a security team that will be responsible for maintaining ETH 2.0.

Cybersecurity 2.0

The security team’s main point of focus would be to attend to any potential cybersecurity issues and maintain the anticipated ETH 2.0 upgrade. Ethereum 2.0 researcher Justin Drake took to his Twitter platform and announced that Ethereum was hiring for multiple tests that include fuzzing, bounty hunting, pager duty, applied cryptanalysis, formal verification, to name a few.

The security team hired by Ethereum Foundation will therefore be responsible for coding and verifying the cryptographic algorithms behind ETH 2.0. As their duties would include fuzzing, an automated testing software would have to be set up to make ETH 2.0 stronger. “Fuzzing” refers to a technique used in cybersecurity to weed out potential catastrophic bugs that may occur on the network. The technique involves inputting random, miscellaneous data into the computer program to generate undesired behavior such as crashes, leaks, and much more. The goal of the cybersecurity team is to perfect and coordinate all aspects of the network to make ETH 2.0 testnet safer, stronger and more efficient.

Ready, Set, Launch – Medalla 2.0 Testnet

The Ethereum Medalla testnet is set to launch on August 4, at 1 pm UTC. For it to launch, the multi-client testnet needs to fulfill two criteria.

The first is to achieve “minimum genesis time,” which details the parameters around the earliest the ETH 2.0 testnet can launch. The second criterion that needs to be fulfilled is that there needs to be a minimum number of validators signed up for the Medalla testnet. That number is set at 16,385 blockchain users, who all need to make a deposit of 32 Ether coins for Medalla to be launched. Also, the emphasis for Medalla is that it is a multi-client testnet, which means that the trial network is run by the community.

Ethereum coordinator Danny Ryan has announced that “the minimum validator deposits (16k+of them) required to kick off the Medalla testnet were met on Friday.” This means that the genesis of the testnet will happen on August 4 at 1 pm, as expected.

When Will ETH 2.0 Mainnet Launch?

As for the mainnet, the official launch has not yet been confirmed, as software developers need to make sure the blockchain is stable before clearing it for official release. Ethereum researcher Drake has predicted that this will only happen in 2021. However, co-founder and CEO of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, seems to be pushing for it to happen this year.

The CEO took to his social media platform earlier last week and expressed his wish to see the beginning of phase 1 sooner than later.

Ethereum 2.0 Testnet to Launch: Can the Blockchain Network Keep Up With the Surge in Demand?

Over the last couple of months, Ethereum has been experiencing a lot of exciting news, with its rally on the crypto market and its plans to launch its final 2.0 testnet, “Medalla.”

What Explains The Higher Transaction Records on Ethereum?

The number of transactions on Ethereum has seen an all-time high and has shot up over the last few months. However, crypto experts are debating on whether the blockchain network can keep up and whether its scalability is reliable enough.

Crypto investors have been speculating that the higher number of transactions that have been ongoing on Ethereum’s blockchain is attributed to the rise in popularity of decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols such as Uniswamp and Compound. Another explanation debated upon by Ethereum experts is that the anticipated launch of ETH 2.0 testnet, Medalla, is causing an increasing amount of transactions processed on the blockchain.

However, though these are valid explanations, there may be other reasons why Ethereum’s network activity has been soaring. Ponzi schemes such as Forsage, MMM and Lion’s Share seem to have something to do with Ethereum’s increased network activity. In fact, over the last month, these scam smart contracts were responsible for approximately 5,600 Ether (ETH) in gas fees over the last months. Since mid-July, it has also been recorded that at least 1 million daily transactions have been processed on Ethereum at the cost of 21 billion gas.

Gas Prices Inflated With Ponzi Schemes

If one were to solely look at smart contract activity running on the ecosystem, 57 billion transactions on the Ethereum blockchain network are allocated towards those transactions. Ponzi schemes make up about 17 billion of that consumption, and so almost 30% of smart contract activities can be accredited to fraudulent investing scams. Due to these scams, gas prices have undergone inflation and are priced from anywhere between 30-90 gwei, the most commonly used unit of Ether crypto.

With the rising popularity of Ethereum’s network and Ether prices continuously surging, Ethereum has been working on implementing a better scaling solution with ETH 2.0 to process the mass amount of transactions that are occurring on the blockchain.

ETH 2.0 Final Testnet Set to Launch

Co-founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, has spoken up about Ethereum 2.0 earlier this year. The 2.0 multi-client testnet is set to launch on August 4, at 1 pm UTC, and the Ethereum community has been anticipating its release.

Ethereum executive coordinator Danny Ryan has confirmed that the criterion for the amount of validator the testnet needs to have pre-launch has been met.

Scalability of ETH 2.0

In the past, when discussing the developing blockchain, Buterin had disclosed that the data capacity of ETH 2.0 will be immense. However, as his blockchain ecosystem is still being perfected, the upgrade will not necessarily translate to higher scalable transactions for the time being, meaning that the blockchain will not necessarily process more transactions for now.

Ethereum On the Search For Cybersecurity Team

Ethereum developers are working on making the blockchain more scalable, more efficient, and faster, and they have been coming up with innovative solutions to maximize and improve the performance of Ethereum 2.0 testnet before the launch of ETH 2.0 mainnet.

Just yesterday, Ethereum 2.0 researcher Justin Drake took to his Twitter platform and announced that Ethereum Foundation was looking to build an “internal security team dedicated to Eth2.”

Ethereum Revamps Website And Transitions to Staking with Latest Testnet Release

Ethereum Foundation is transforming their website and adding new designs to deliver a more user-friendly and educational experience to the Ethereum community.

Ethereum.org’s Newest Web Features

On the official website, ethereum.org, the Foundation has announced that it will now be running on Gatsby instead of Vuepress in order to facilitate higher traffic, better content and faster transaction speed. Gatsby is to be initiated as part of Phase 0 of the revamping of ethereum.org. The Ethereum team has also been working on creating educational content for their crypto community, and it is now available on the official website. To brighten up their website, Ethereum also integrated Doge illustrations and the money-legos meme.

The tutorials are created to help users locate wallets and exchanges that accept ETH around the world, and there are currently three sections dedicated to this that explains what Ethereum is, what Ether (ETH) is, and how to get ETH. To accommodate their growing Ethereum community, ETH developers have also provided content in 30 different languages. They emphasized that it was a community effort and that without their user base, the translation program would not have been updated.

Ethereum Launches Medalla Final 2.0 Testnet

This is exciting news for Ethereum, as they are working on Medalla testnet, which was launched earlier this week, on August 4 at 1 pm UTC. This is to be the last testnet put forth by the blockchain ecosystem before the launch of Ethereum 2.0 mainnet, and it operates based on the participation of the Ethereum community. ETH 2.0 is expected to make the blockchain network faster and more efficient.

Though Ethereum executives labeled the ETH 2.0 testnet launch as successful, the issue of low validator participation was brought up during the official release. Though the number of validators required to initiate genesis time was met, the participation rate during the release was lower than expected. It was seen to be a 57% participation rate, when 80% was expected.

What’s at Stake?

Ethereum developers attributed this case scenario to the fact that initial validators that signed up prior to the release by depositing 32 ETH each were not active during Medalla testnet’s launch.

Ethereum coordinator Danny Ryan also said that 10% of that participation gap might be due to issues with Nimbus and Lodestar clients. Despite low validator participation rate, the Ethereum team remains confident about their launch, stating that low participation rate is just temporary. One Ethereum executive also pointed to the fact that this was something that the network was programmed to solve on its own. He said, “We have an opportunity for the protocol to demonstrate what it can do, which is to recover from low participation from validators.”

As Medalla testnet progresses in its upgrades, the issue of block finality should therefore be resolved.

Ethereum Uncovers Blockchain Bugs to Stabilize Medalla Testnet

Ethereum developers discussed the technical issues that went wrong during the launch of Medalla testnet and that could have been improved to make the release smoother.

Ethereum Team Brainstorms

On a live stream, developers deliberated about issues that needed to be addressed for the testnet to be healthy. The software developing team all agreed that the number of validators that were active during the launch was lower than desired, as the network needed more participation to operate optimally. However, since the launch earlier this week, the network has been reported to have stabilized.

Bugs Uncovered During Genesis

Ethereum (ETH) team deliberated about what went wrong during the launch. Before genesis time was initiated, several bugs were discovered. These bugs would have hindered the connections between nodes to run smoothly if not fixed. As this was only uncovered a few days before the launch, some validators might have failed to upgrade to the latest software update, leaving the issue of interoperability unresolved just before the launch of Medalla testnet.

As ETH 2.0 testnet relies on the community to run smoothly, all validators must do their part in order to ensure the health and stability of the blockchain.

Ethereum Raises Awareness to Prevent Future Mishaps

Problems with the launchpad that enabled validators of the blockchain network to stake their coins were also uncovered. Node binaries were not prepared in time, and it was uncovered by Ethereum developers that some users had staked multiple 32 ETH deposits, the minimum level required to mine on ETH 2.0 testnet.

To improve user experience and make Ethereum accessible to all, Ethereum Foundation redesigned their website shortly after the launch of Medalla and integrated educational content as well.

Participation Levels During Launch

As validator inputs was 57% during the first hour of the launch, Ethereum developers stipulated that this was partially due to Nimbus and Lodestar clients demonstrating low validator participation during attestations, which are crucial for verifying each block. Also, during the launch, some important stakers were offline, but through a bit of coordination with the 5 main client teams – Teku, Prysm, Nimbus, Lodestar and Lighthouse- the participation rate soared to 80%, ensuring a healthier chain.

Medalla 2.0 Final Testnet

Medalla testnet is still mature, and therefore it appears that is it not completely stable at the time of writing. However, Ethereum team are working on improving and perfecting the blockchain, before the anticipated launch of Ethereum 2.0 mainnet. Ethereum 2.0 is much anticipated by the ETH community, as it will transition from a Proof-of-Work consensus to Proof-of-Stake (PoS), joining Cardano’s ranks. PoS will enable users in the Ethereum network to lock up their accumulated digital coins and get paid for helping secure the blockchain.

Medalla 2.0 testnet is to be the last testnet released before Ethereum 2.0 mainnet comes into play. On the day of the launch, an Ethereum developer reportedly stated confidently :

“Low participation is just temporary; we will get through this. We have genesis, we have a chain running and resilience built into the protocol. We have an opportunity for the protocol to demonstrate what it can do, which is to recover from low participation from validators.”

Ethereum developers are confident that their blockchain project will only get better from here on forward.

Cardano’s Shelley Mainnet Enters Epoch 3 With Two Major Milestones Accomplished

The Cardano Shelley mainnet has already reached two significant milestones ahead of epoch 3 — reaching the target of 1,000 registered stake pools and having the first block produced by an external party other than Input Output Hong Kong (IOHK) and Emurgo.

Cardano’s Shelley entered epoch 3 just recently and has witnessed two significant milestones in epoch 2. With the start of epoch 3, external stake pools were authorized to validate blocks for the first time.

The first block produced by an external stake pool was by “1percentpool.eu.” As of press time, Cardano has already over 75 unique stake pools that have produced blocks. Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson added, “It’s truly extraordinary to see all this come together.”

External stake pool operators would be able to produce blocks from epoch 3 and other epochs that come after, and eventually, all blocks will be produced by external stake pools as Cardano transitions to be fully decentralized. Charles Hoskinson recently announced Cardano’s first block produced by an external stake pool in excitement:

“This is the first moment where they actually do that, on a real live production mainnet. So cool. I don’t want to forget this moment, it’s a big thing for me. I hope it’s a big thing for you guys too.”

Epoch 3 is the beginning of the era where community-driven stake pools will validate 10 percent of all blocks, and the federated nodes will create the other 90 percent. Federated nodes will decreasingly produce blocks as Cardano moves from its current federal system into a fully decentralized network.

The second milestone, as explained by Charles Hoskinson, is that the Cardano mainnet has now over 1,000 registered stake pools, which is much quicker than expected. Hoskinson stated:

“I think we just crossed the threshold of 1,000 registered stake pools. And these are coming down a lot faster than I expected them. […] It is amazing to see decentralization so quickly. And it gonna be so cool to see actual performance data come and be able to apply this non-myopic stuff that we developed out of Oxford into the system.”

Cardano also recently launched Project Catalyst — a new experimental treasury system combining proposal and voting procedures for Cardano’s last and final phase, Voltaire. IOHK elaborated that the Project Catalyst would focus on making the treasury stem a reality while sustaining the Cardano community’s democratic culture.

Cardano’s Project Catalyst will ensure the funds are used well, and to enable innovation in the decentralized network. IOHK previously stated that the company is building a decentralized financial system, to address the world’s needs — starting with Voltaire.

Ethereum Devs Launch Spadina Testnet, What Needs to be Perfected for ETH 2.0?

Just when the Ethereum community thought that Medalla was going to be the last testnet before Ethereum 2.0 mainnet’s official release, developers have unveiled yet another.

Ethereum developers have once again launched another testnet, bringing them one step closer to replacing the current Ethereum public mainnet with a new blockchain that will operate based on a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) protocol.

Spadina, a rehearsal launch for Ethereum 2.0

Spadina, the newest addition to the string of testnets developers have unveiled in preparation for Ethereum 2.0’s Phase 0, is said to be a short “dress rehearsal” for validators before the mainnet launch. Released on September 29, Spadina testnet will only be active for 72 hours, and the network will operate in parallel with Medalla, the multi-client testnet that Ethereum launched at the beginning of August.

The main focus for developers and Ether stakers on Spadina is to practice their deposit and genesis chops before Ethereum 2.0. Speaking on behalf of the Ethereum ecosystem, mainnet lead researcher Danny Ryan said:

“The main objective is to give us all another chance to go through one of the more difficult and risky parts of the process – deposits and genesis – before we reach mainnet. If all goes well, it should give us greater peace of mind before we jump into the real deal later this year.”

Just like Medalla testnet, the main problem that occurred with Spadina’s launch was that there were lower participation rates than expected. The first round of validators was reported to be below 35%, with the target for participation levels set at 80%.

However, developers have affirmed that this was nothing to worry about, as the low participation levels are maybe due to the fact that no real Ether is “at stake,” since Medalla and Spadina are a chance for validators and for the community to practice staking in anticipation of the future chain.

Despite the slight drawback, it has been announced that Ethereum developers were quite happy with the outcome of Spadina’s launch, as blocks were handled successfully by the clients in the deposit process. According to Ryan, Spadina testnet’s launch was “90% successful.”

When Ethereum 2.0 mainnet launches, the issue of offline stakers will likely not be a problem anymore, as real ETH will be running on the chain.

Ethereum 2.0 mainnet

Ethereum 2.0 will be launched in three phases so that during each stage, different aspects could be focused on to achieve a highly scalable and healthy blockchain.

The future mainnet will be an upgrade and a replacement of the current Ethereum blockchain, as developers are actively working on making the necessary adjustments to transition from a Proof-of-Work (PoW) protocol to a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchain.

Although an official launch date has not been set, Phase 0 of Ethereum 2.0 is predicted to be in effect before the end of 2020, as disclosed by one of the top client teams staking on Ethereum testnet.

Recently, with most decentralized finance(DeFi) protocols running on its chain, Ethereum’s transaction fees reached new highs, with gas prices hitting 700 gwei. On average, gwei prices are supposed to be around 416. The issue of scalability will need to be addressed and upgraded with ETH 2.0, which is said to increase transaction processing on Ethereum from 15 transactions per second to approximately 100,000 transactions per second.