Our planet has four seasons that arrive more or less on time every year. However, we still cannot predict whether the crypto winter is going to last a little longer.
Pessimists claim that we are in for a long night and that winter may be prolonged for a couple of years, just like those winters in Game of Thrones. But the only Night King we have to battle in order to end the crypto winter is the one within us. As soon as we overcome that obstacle, we can dream about spring once again.
On the other hand, optimists believe that the crypto winter ended some time ago and that summer’s sunshine is slowly casting its rays upon blockchain and the crypto space once again.
Let’s explore some of the important stories from April and decide who to side with, shall we?
Exploring the SEA: Service Execution Agreements by Dimitri De Jonghe
De Jonghe already discussed Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and their importance in holding the world together. This educational blog post further explores them and focuses on Service Execution Agreements (SEAs) — one of the essential points in the Ocean Protocol Network. De Jonghe shares knowledge about the technical architecture of Ocean Protocol and all underlying ideas and technologies with his readers in a series of blog posts that you should definitely consider following if you are interested in Ocean.
Blockchain Is Here and It Is Here to Stay! by Milan Janosevic
This short and tasty piece on Medium is mainly targeted at people who have doubts about the adoption of blockchain. Janosevic tackles some of the basic prejudices regarding this technology and provides a couple of arguments for implementing blockchain in every corporate strategy by making connections with other revolutionary technologies, which some companies refused to embrace in the recent past and failed to remain competitive because of that.
Opera Introduces Reborn 3, the First Desktop Browser with Web 3, Faster VPN and Ad Blocker by Joanna Czajka
Remember Opera? Although its popularity significantly dropped after the introduction of Google Chrome, the team at Opera did not give up and is actually moving forward at the speed of light. Joanna Czajka published an official Opera blog piece introducing their latest piece of software that they code-named Reborn 3 (Opera 6O). The browser will have support for Web 3, a built-in crypto wallet, as well as a built-in Virtual Private Network. In other words, they have made a browser that has set new standards for the future. Moreover, the browser has a very modern, borderless design, which is a nice bonus.
Taylor Monahan Talks the Transition from MyEtherWallet to MyCrypto and Her Philosophy on Key Management by Roshni Rawal
Taylor Monahan is the founder of MyEtherWallet — a next-gen wallet for Ethereum tokens. Furthermore, she founded a platform called MyCrypto that has a goal to educate people about cryptocurrencies and help them remove confusion related to this technology. Roshni Rawal published a lengthy interview with Monahan who was eager to share her thoughts not only about her projects but also about her role as a CEO.
The Intrinsic Value of Crypto (What the Bubble Hasn’t Changed) by Hu Liang
Being a former vice president of State Street and a co-founder of Omniex, Hu Lian is a very respected name in the crypto space. Now, he decided to share his thoughts on cryptocurrencies, coming up with an Intrinsic Value theory.
This is not a new idea as Liang has been holding on to that project for a very long time. According to him, the real value of cryptos is actually their “ability to create decentralized networks” that would eventually lead to new forms of business. He published an article on Coindesk recently, further discussing this view on cryptos and their role in the future.
Why Rating Exchanges Is Crucial for the Crypto Economy by On Yavin
On Yavin is a founder of Cointelligence — a company that focuses on rating exchanges and ICOs. Yavin argues that we could separate the wheat from the chaff by rating exchanges, thus making them improve their services. Furthermore, he explores various aspects we should consider when we rate these online services and even includes a couple of them in this article, further explaining their rating process.
Dapp.com Q1 2019 Dapp Market Report
The title says it all — if you are interested in the latest insights about the dapp market in the first quarter of 2019, make sure to check out this report published on dapp.com.
Will-o-the-Wisp with CREATE 2 Ethereum Feature
Published on devpost.com, this article explores the use of CREATE2 opcode in order to create an Asset Store contract that would help with moving a huge number of items all at once. This was tested because it is very difficult to move hundreds of CryptoKitties and hundreds of ENS names all at once. Read more about this experiment here.
Blockchain 50: Billion Dollar Babies by Michael del Castillo
Michael del Castillo and Forbes’ team of experts comprised a list of all companies that currently have revenues or valuations of more than $1 billion. The only thing that these companies have in common is that they are either testing and adapting to decentralized ledgers or using this technology full-time.
Further Disclosure on Zerocoin Vulnerability by Reuben Yap
Zerocoin experienced minor complications when their systems began noticing irregularities that happened in mint and spend patterns. They immediately reacted and disabled Zerocoin to put a stop to these irregularities. This happened on April 9, and the company published a disclosure with all the important details about the issue on April 26, allowing visitors to read all about the situation.
What Are the Hot News in Blockchain in April 2019?
Let’s take a quick recap of the most important things that took place in the blockchain industry in April. Read on!
Blockstack Seeks SEC Approval for Crypto Offering
A decentralized internet is such an inspiring idea that it even persuaded the popular HBO show Silicon Valley to further explore it. In the real world, Blockstack is doing something very similar (they actually were the main source of inspiration for the show), and they are one step closer to achieving their goal. If all goes well, we could witness the first SEC-approved security offering made by a blockchain-based company from the US.
PewDiePie Swaps Stream to Blockchain Video Platform
Every YouTube lover is familiar with PewDiePie and his videos. He is the single most influential YouTube persona — everything he does influences millions of his subscribers (as of today over 95 million of them, to be precise). Recently, this video superstar, gamer, and vlogger decided to partner up with a decentralized streaming platform called DLive that is built on Lino blockchain. In other words, PewDiePie may pose a significant blow to Google and YouTube and further popularize blockchain technology by joining the new blockchain-based platform and taking millions of subscribers with him.
Coinbase and Visa Join Forces to Make a Coinbase Card
Many cryptocurrencies have been struggling with volatility for a very long time, and it seems that Coinbase is set to put an end to that by making a Coinbase Card. One of the steps they have taken is to join forces with Visa, which will help them develop the card that crypto owners will be able to use to make payments just like they use fiat currencies.
PayPal Makes First Blockchain Investment
It seems that PayPal is interested in the development of blockchain technologies after all; they invested in Cambridge Blockchain — a start-up based on blockchain that would allow people to own their identities on the web without the need to use intermediaries such as Facebook.
A Publishing House in Switzerland Dumps Fiat in Favor of Bitcoin
Netzmedien AG is a popular media giant in Switzerland that made an announcement about dumping fiat currencies in order to pay all wages in bitcoin. The entire company is moving towards the adoption of cryptocurrencies, but its employees will have an opportunity to choose whether they want to switch to cryptos or continue receiving their wages in Swiss Franc.
ConsenSys Seeks Investors for Additional $200 Million
ConsenSys had a very tough year that included laying off 13% of their staff during the crypto winter but also generating more than $21 million in revenue. They have decided to take the next step in their development and are seeking a $200 million investment to move forward.
EY Announces ZKP Protocol and Launches Smart Contract Testing Service
EY made an announcement, claiming they would soon launch the zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) protocol that enables companies to make secure and private transactions on a public blockchain.
This is not the only piece of news coming from EY, as they also launched the EY Smart Contract Analyzer for Ethereum. This smart contract testing service is in its private beta stage and will allow users to get an insight into possible risks of smart contracts they analyze.
Samsung Developing a Blockchain Network Based on Ethereum
Samsung is keeping up with the latest technological advancements, and its experts are working on creating a blockchain network that may even issue a Samsung token. Reportedly, the network is still in its early stages as the company is still experimenting with it.
Interesting April Projects
Instead of a traditional conclusion, let’s take a look at some blockchain-based projects that started their journey in April.
- #BUIDL Explorer — Developers who struggle to find adequate Ethereum open-source projects to work on can use this tool to browse through repositories and choose the ones they would like to contribute to.
- Binance Academy — “The World of Blockchain” at the tip of your finger for free, with a lot of interesting tutorials regarding everything blockchain-related.
- Try Ethereum — A platform that offers people to try various Ethereum projects and experience its power.
- SKALE — A platform providing elastic side chains that would help build powerful dapps.
- Recall — A decentralized and open-source alternative to Google Photos.
- NoteRiot — A straightforward and powerful decentralized app for taking notes that can be accessed from all devices at any time.
- ZenGo — Technology offering keyless crypto wallets by using breakthrough cryptography.
This article is part of our blockchain awareness posts where we try to help newcomers and people interested in this space enter it more easily.
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This Month in Blockchain — April 2019 was originally published in MVP Workshop on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
