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Stacks is a decade-old blockchain project that aims to establish a decentralised economy on top of Bitcoin.

See my YouTube dive on Stacks here.

As the largest Bitcoin Layer 2 network focusing on smart contracts, Stacks is slated to complete the final piece of a long-standing puzzle plaguing Bitcoin with its upcoming sBTC hard fork. This upgrade introduces a decentralised two-way peg, addressing the Bitcoin write problem.

With sBTC, developers will finally be able to utilise Stacks Clarity programming language to write fully-expressive smart contracts and build cutting-edge decentralised apps (dApps). This enables a vibrant DeFi, NFT, and web3 scene on Stacks, with dApps utilising Bitcoin as a settlement layer.

In short, Stacks is furnishing Bitcoins unparalleled capital, security, and network effects with advanced smart contracts functionality. These are capabilities that builders and web3 users have previously relied on through Ethereum Layer 2 solutions like Arbitrum, sidechains like Polygon, and competing Layer 1 networks like Solana.

Well, the big brother is about to catch up.

In this article, Ill dive into:

Theres a lot to cover, so lets dive in.

Stacks began in 2013 as Blockstack in Princetons computer science department, founded by two PhD students

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How High Can Stacks (STX) Go? Building the Future of Bitcoin with Advanced Smart Contracts - DataDrivenInvestor

Blockchain technology, often hailed as the backbone of cryptocurrency, has emerged as a transformative technology over the past few years.

Its decentralized nature and ability to record transactions in a secure and transparent manner differentiate it from traditional databases, marking it as an essential development in the world of finance and beyond.

At its heart, blockchain operates on a distributed ledger that facilitates peer-to-peer transactions without the need for a central authority.

This decentralized ledger is maintained across multiple computers or nodes, ensuring transparency and making it virtually impossible for a single entity to manipulate the data.

Each transaction, which records transactions on the blockchain, is verified by a consensus mechanism, such as proof of work (PoW) or proof of stake (PoS), making every transaction not only secure but also an integral part of the digital ledger.

Smart contracts, or self-executing contracts, are a pivotal innovation brought forth by blockchain technology, offering automated solutions across various sectors. Heres how they stand out:

Automatically execute the terms of a contract when predefined conditions are met, eliminating the need for intermediaries.

Significantly reduce paperwork and administrative overhead, making transactions faster and more efficient.

Encoded with cryptographic hash offer a higher level of security against fraud and unauthorized access.

Every party involved in the contract has access to the terms and conditions, ensuring complete transparency.

From finance and insurance to supply chain management and beyond are versatile in their application.

These features of smart contracts highlight their role in not just enhancing the efficiency and security of transactions but also in extending the transformative impact of blockchain technology beyond the realm of digital currencies, particularly in their ability to validate transactions.

When it comes to supplying chain management, blockchain offers unparalleled benefits in transparency and security.

Recording transactions in a transparent manner, it allows all parties within the chain to track the movement of goods in real-time, thereby conducting transactions securely, reducing the risk of fraud and improving efficiency.

Despite its transformative potential, blockchain technology encounters several challenges:

The future of blockchain is promising, with continuous innovation aimed at overcoming current limitations.

As the technology continues to evolve, its application is expected to expand beyond cryptocurrency and finance, impacting various industries in a secure and transparent manner.

Understanding blockchain technology, with its ability to facilitate secure, transparent transactions without intermediaries, stands as the backbone of cryptocurrency and a beacon of transformative technology.

As nodes across the network agree on the validity of transactions, blockchains decentralized ledger reinforces the importance of transparency and security in the digital age.

With its scalability challenges being addressed, blockchains potential to revolutionize traditional databases, ensuring transparency and security across transactions, is more tangible than ever.

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Blockchain Essentials: Understanding the Backbone of Crypto - Geeks World Wide

Coindar

BTSE will list Fetch.ai (FET) on March 6th.

Refer to the official tweet by FET:

FET Info

Fetch.ai's FET, a utility token, is the bedrock for discovering, creating, deploying, and training digital twins, playing an essential role in smart contracts and oracles on the platform. With FET, users can build and deploy their digital twins on the network. The token also allows developers to access machine-learning utilities for training autonomous digital twins and deploying collective intelligence on the network. Additionally, validation nodes can stake FET tokens to facilitate network validation, enhancing their reputation in the process.

The technological architecture of Fetch.ai consists of four distinctive elements. The Digital Twin Framework offers modular components to help teams construct marketplaces, skills, and intelligence for digital twins. The Open Economic Framework provides search and discovery capabilities for digital twins. The Digital Twin Metropolis is a collection of smart contracts that maintain an immutable record of agreements between digital twins on a WebAssembly (WASM) virtual machine. Lastly, the Fetch.ai Blockchain employs multi-party cryptography and game theory to ensure secure, censorship-resistant consensus and rapid chain-syncing to support digital twin applications.

Among the platform's key components is the learner, wherein each participant represents a unique private dataset and machine learning system. The global market emerges as a product of a collective learning experiment, with a machine learning model trained by the learners collectively. The Fetch.ai Blockchain supports smart contracts, allowing secure and auditable coordination and governance. Finally, the platform includes a decentralized data layer based on IPFS, facilitating the sharing of machine learning weights among all learners involved.

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Fetch.ai to Be Listed on BTSE on March 6th - TradingView

The business logic or protocol that drives every transaction on a blockchain is known as a smart contract. The main goal of a smart contract is to fulfill standard contractual requirements, such as minting its own Ethereum currency. We must create smart contracts that will govern how all of the tokens computations are carried out.

It is a standalone script that is written in Solidity, compiled into JSON, and sent to a specific blockchain address. By providing the correct data and Ethereum to call the built and deployed Solidity function, we may execute a deployed smart contract at a specific address in a manner similar to how we can use a RESTful APIs URL endpoint to perform some logic using a HttpRequest.

For a cost commensurate with the storage capacity of the contained code, smart contracts are added to the decentralized database. It may also be described as a group of codes that are kept on the blockchain network and specify terms that all parties to the contract must concur upon.

This is a detailed tutorial on using Solidity to create and implement Ethereum Smart Contracts.

MetaMask functions as a wallet and an Ethereum browser. It eliminates the need to download and install software in order to engage with dApps and smart contracts online. All you have to do is add the MetaMask Chrome Extension, set up a wallet, and send ether.

Although MetaMask is presently only compatible with the Google Chrome browser, Firefox compatibility is anticipated in the upcoming years. Before you begin developing smart contracts, download the MetaMask Chrome plugin.

You may import an existing wallet or create a new one after downloading and adding it as a Chrome extension. To implement an Ethereum smart contract on the network, you need to have some ethers in your Ethereum wallet.

Click on its symbol in the upper right corner of the browser window once it has been installed. It will open in a new browser tab when you click on it. To continue, click Create Wallet and select I agree to accept the terms and conditions. Youll be prompted to set a password.

It will email you a secret backup phrase that is used to backup and restore the account once you generate a password. This phrase can steal your ethers, therefore dont reveal it or share it with anybody.

The following test networks may also be present in your MetaMask wallet:

Robsten Test Network

Kovan Test Network

Rinkeby Test Network

Goerli Test Network

You need to have some fake ethers in your MetaMask wallet in order to test the smart contract. Click the Deposit and Get Ether buttons under Test Faucet to add fake ethers. You must select request one ether from the faucet in order to continue, and one ETH will be added to your wallet. To the test network, you may add as many ethers as you like.

To develop our Solidity code, we will utilize the Remix Browser IDE. Remix is the greatest choice for creating smart contracts since it provides a rich development experience and has a few features. Typically, it is employed in the drafting of minor contracts.

To generate a.sol extension file, open Remix Browser and click the add symbol next to the browser on the upper left corner.

A common template for ERC20 tokens is ERC20.sol.

Pressing the deploy button on the right side of the Remix window will enable the smart contract to be deployed on the Ethereum test network. Hold off until the transaction is finished. The address of the smart contract will be shown on the right side of the remix window upon a successful transaction commit.

Initially, the person implementing the smart contract will have all of the ERC20 tokens kept in their wallet. Go to the metamask window, select Add Tokens, enter the smart contract address, then click OK to view the tokens in your wallet. There, you would be able to check how many tokens there are.

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How to Develop and Deploy Smart Contracts on Ethereum - Analytics Insight

After a year of underperformance in 2023, the ETH/BTC dominance will grow this year on the backdrop of Dencun upgrade and other contributing factors within the Ethereum ecosystem.

In the year 2023, Ether (ETH), the native token of the Ethereum blockchain, faced a period of underperformance compared to Bitcoin (BTC). Bitcoins newfound narrative centered around smart contracts, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and optimism surrounding a spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) drew significant investor interest. Analysts now suggest a potential reevaluation of Ether in 2024, given Ethereums continued status as the leading smart contract blockchain globally, coupled with upcoming key upgrades. Analysts also see Ether as a strong contender for the next spot-based ETF in the United States.

In a recent weekly newsletter, Nasdaq-listed cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase expressed optimism, stating that ETH could be poised for a breakout year. The impact of last weeks Bitcoin ETF news proved beneficial for Ethereum, causing a brief spike above $2,700, marking its highest price since May 2022. Further optimism for ETHs near-term future arises from the fact that firms behind Bitcoin ETFs, including BlackRock and VanEck, are actively considering Ethereum-based spot ETFs.

A spot ETF involves actual cryptocurrency investment, offering exposure to the asset without direct ownership. This is a favorable alternative to futures-based ETFs, which are susceptible to roll costs. The potential launch of spot ETH ETFs is likely to unleash a flood of institutional and retail investment, mirroring the success observed with nearly a dozen Bitcoin spot ETFs that commenced trading in the US last Thursday. These Bitcoin ETFs have collectively recorded a cumulative volume exceeding $10 billion, with BlackRocks product amassing an impressive $1 billion in inflows.

Coinbase reports that Ethereums upcoming Dencun upgrade, designed to enhance the mainnets scalability through the introduction of data blobs, has the potential to ignite investor interest in the cryptocurrency. The upgrade recently went live on Ethereums Goerli testnet.

The Dencun upgrade introduces data blobs, which are temporary transaction data memories typically associated with Layer 2 solutions. These can be attached to Ethereum. Thus, following the mainnet upgrade, the network will only need to confirm the correctness of the blob data attached to the block, reducing congestion and network fees.

Coinbase notes that the Dencun upgrade, currently undergoing initial tests, is likely to implement Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 4844 in the coming months. Some Ethereum observers predict that this proposal could significantly decrease network fees by 90% or more.

In its annual report, institutional crypto firm ETC Group expresses a bullish outlook for the ether-bitcoin ratio. Despite Bitcoins surge in network activity in 2023, Ethereum continues to dominate as the preferred chain for decentralized applications, NFTs, and tokenized assets.

ETC Groups data reveals that the top 10 ERC-20 tokens on Ethereum have a combined market value of $21 billion, surpassing the $1.6 billion market capitalization of the entire BRC-20 token universe on the Bitcoin network. ERC-20 represents Ethereums token standard, while BRC-20 signifies a fungible digital asset on the Bitcoin network.

Additionally, in 2024, Ethereum investors can generate extra returns by staking or locking their coins on the network, earning rewards at an annualized rate of around 3.84%. Ethereums feature of burning a portion of transaction fees paid in ETH further contributes to a deflationary effect on the tokens supply, positively impacting investors.

ETC Group emphasizes Ethereums strong dominance in smart contract platforms and the potential for additional yield, stating that Ethereum should be a core holding in a diversified crypto asset portfolio. The report anticipates a reversal in the relative performance of ETH/BTC in 2024, citing historical trends of mean reversion in the 12-month relative performance of these two cryptocurrencies.

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Ethereum's ETH Gears Up for Potential Resurgence in 2024 amid Dencun Upgrade - Coinspeaker

LONDON - The leading smart contract platform is currently grappling with significant scalability issues, as highlighted by Crypto Rand, a respected voice in the cryptocurrency community. Ethereum's high transaction fees, which can average close to $5, are posing a substantial barrier to the broader adoption and efficiency of decentralized applications (dApps).

In stark contrast, Layer 2 solutions such as Optimism are emerging as viable alternatives by offering significantly lower transaction costs, sometimes even below $0.01. These solutions are designed to enhance the Ethereum network by providing faster processing times and reduced fees, all while ensuring compatibility with the existing Ethereum ecosystem.

Despite the hurdles presented by higher fees, Ethereum continues to hold its ground as the preeminent platform for smart contracts. Its sustained position is largely attributed to the strong network effect it has cultivated over time and the vibrant community of developers dedicated to its growth and improvement.

Layer 2 platforms like Optimism are not just complementary technologies but are increasingly seen as critical for the evolution of Ethereum. They are poised to play a pivotal role in resolving the scalability challenges, enabling Ethereum to maintain its leadership in the space by aligning cost and performance with user expectations and the demands of an expanding dApp marketplace.

This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.

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Ethereum faces scalability hurdles as high fees challenge dApp adoption By Investing.com - Investing.com

Shell Token Launch On January 22, 2024, Arbitrum-based DeFi protocol Shell launched its long-awaited SHELL governance token. Airdrop recipients can check their eligibility through the Shell app. Once claimed, SHELL tokens can be staked to generate yield. ...

On January 22, 2024, Arbitrum-based DeFi protocol Shell launched its long-awaited SHELL governance token. Airdrop recipients can check their eligibility through the Shell app. Once claimed, SHELL tokens can be staked to generate yield. Staked tokens grant voting power in the Shell DAO, which governs the protocol.

Shell aims to unify DeFi with a single swap interface for NFTs and one-to-many swaps across every major protocol. The protocol was built by a Hawaii-based DeFi development team, and has grown to a user base of 45,000.

Shell is a longtime DeFi protocol, created in 2020 by Cowri Labs. Cowri is helmed by chief economist and founder Kenny White. In 2021, Shell v2 became one of the first Arbitrum-native DEXs, launching with a novel smart contract design for swaps.

With Shell v3, developers at Cowri Labs hope to combine their unique technology with the massive liquidity of major projects like Uniswap and OpenSea, delivering a unified DeFi experience in a single app. It's the first real omni dapp, says Cowri Labs head of developer relations Petar Popovic, the app where you can do everything. That's the goal.

At launch, Shell v3 supports Balancer and Curve pools, allowing users to trade tokens and NFTs through multiple protocols from within the Shell app. Unlike aggregators, Shell v3 also allows users to manage LP positions across all supported protocols.

White hopes that Shell v3 will combine the best features of DEX aggregator 1inch and data aggregator DeFi Llama, becoming a place where people come to trade and explore the DeFi ecosystem. Shell v2 benefitted from an impressive UI and contract design, but nevertheless struggled to offer competitive swap rates in the face of older protocols with much larger TVL. Consequently, Shell v2 users had to choose between staying within the Shell app or hunting for better rates.

Shell v3 aims to solve this dilemma by integrating all major pools across all protocols with the Shell contracts and app. To start, the Cowri team is focusing on Arbitrum, but with the launch of the DAO the future will be shaped by community vote.

One big change with Shell v3 is a de-emphasis on native protocol TVL. Since Shell now serves to connect external pools, the Cowri team feels volume is the key to success. One major responsibility of the DAO is control over the protocol unwrap fee, which is currently set to zero but may be activated in the future to generate DAO revenue.

The total SHELL token supply is 200 million, unlocked every block after token launch through two-year linear vesting. 40 million have been allocated to users who contributed to the protocol over the past four years.

80 million tokens are split across the Cowri Labs core team, Cowri Labs itself, protocol contributors, and Cowri Labs investors such as BlueYard. 80 million are in the newly-formed DAO treasury, fully under the control of DAO members.

Tokens are not available in full upon claiming the airdrop. All investors, core team members, and airdrop recipients will unlock their SHELL on a block-by-block two-year linear vesting schedule.

The vesting system uses tradeable vesting NFTs from Sablier. From launch, the NFTs can be bought and sold via NFT marketplaces. Shell is also building a vesting stream AMM to allow instant in-app buying and selling of vesting NFTs. This AMM is expected to launch later in Q1 2024.

The SHELL token is currently trading through the Shell app. As for Cowri Labs, the team is already planning future integrations, with Uniswap and Aave on the near horizon.

Website: http://www.shellprotocol.io App: https://app.shellprotocol.io/trade Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShellProtocol Discord: https://discord.gg/shellprotocol Telegram: https://t.me/shellprotocol GitHub: https://github.com/shell-protocol

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DeFi Unifier Shell Protocol Launches Token, Staking, and Arbitrum Airdrop - The Defiant - DeFi News

HAPI Labs has launched a platform for reporting scam- and crime-related addresses, in partnership with Ukraines cyber police.

Scamfari OSINT, currently in beta mode, allows users to report cryptocurrency wallets related to scams, sanctions violations, terrorism financing and other crimes. The project is supported by Ukraines cyber police, which will work on freezing such wallets, the agency announced on Monday.

HAPI, a crypto startup working on cybersecurity tools for decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms, previously ran two-week-long contests asking people to find and report crypto wallets related to fraud and other crimes, with a special focus on the money pro-Russian volunteers raise to help Russian troops invading Ukraine. Users who report the most wallets get rewards in HAPIs own token, but only if the reports are approved by the firms team and are really linked to some kind of crime.

This week, another week-long contest went live. Even after this season is over, the hunting for criminal crypto will not stop but continue on a new website.

It works like this: A user signs up via a Telegram bot, fills out a form and submits a blockchain address and a screenshot proof that the address is being used for criminal purposes.

Then, two HAPI staffers manually check whether reports contain truthful and relevant data, then either approve or reject them. After a report is approved the reporter is assigned a reward in HAPIs own tokens, which are now trading around $13 each: $1 for a new address in the database, 10 cents for an address previously reported and $5 for an address related to a sanctioned person or entity, HAPI head of research Mark Letsyuk told CoinDesk.

For now, rewards are being distributed manually every two weeks, but in future HAPI wants to automate the reward distribution using smart contracts. The community might also have a vote soon as to whether to replace the HAPI token with a stablecoin as a reward, Letsyuk said.

Many people in Ukraine lost their jobs [because of the war] and some made several hundred dollars during the past season, he said. In these times, its good money. Now, people want to try and do it on a regular basis.

He added that since Scamfari OSINT launched in beta last week, over 15,000 addresses have been submitted, including the wallets raising funds for Russian mercenaries fighting in Ukraine.

In the future, HAPI is considering using AI to automate report approval, too, Letsyuk said: Were now feeding the reports we get to the [latest AI product by OpenAI] GPT-4 it looks very raw at this point, but promising. Not trying to catch some hype here, but we believe that it can be helpful in the near future.

The Ukrainian cyber police, in it announcement, underscored it will be looking particularly for wallets linked to financing Russian troops invading Ukraine. According to CoinDesks own investigation, such accounts have raised at least $1.8 million for ammunition, vehicles and other supplies for the troops since the beginning of the war. The Binance crypto exchange has said the number could be as high as $7.2 million.

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This Ukrainian Startup Is Looking to Automate Crypto Crime Reporting Using Smart Contracts, AI - CoinDesk

Source: Wit Olszweski

Ripples native cryptocurrency XRP made solid gains earlier this week gaining more than 20% in the last 24 hours and is currently trading at $0.4581 with a market cap of $23.3 billion. As per the latest development, the XRP Ledger is currently on the cusp of a major paradigm shift related to smart contracts.

Currently, the XRPL development team is working on a smart contracts feature dubbed Hooks and will integrate it into XRPL transactions. This is currently in development by the XRPL Labs and shall provide additional basic functionality on the base layer.

Furthermore, Peersyst is working on an EVM sidechain that would change the ecosystems course and shall go live in 2023. As a result, the XRP EVM sidechain will be able to do computing at par with other chains like Solana and Ethereum that support smart contracts.

Last year in June 2022, Ripple developers also proposed the XLS-30d standard for a native automated market maker (AMM). The devNet AMM is already operational and the proposal is in the draft. This particular AMM standard emphasizes on DeFi and expands the financial options available to liquidity providers.

Even though XRPL is open source, the XRPL Foundation and XRPL Labs have been the major contributors to the platforms development. Furthermore, Ripple also supports the growth of ecosystem services either through its own initiatives or by offering grants to other ecosystem-related companies.

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As we know, the XRP Ledger uses the Proof-of-Association (PoA) consensus model also dubbed Federated Byzantine Consensus Protocol. Each node within the PoA network has to create a list of trusted nodes to consult while seeking consensus.

Ripple calls this list of trusted nodes a Unique Node List (UNL). Thus, to take part in the consensus, a validator first needs to earn the trust of other nodes and it cannot rely alone on financial resources. A node not having the trust of the other nodes wont be a part of the UNL and thus, wont have any influence over the system. Also, the PoA system wont require a lot of hardware thus bringing down the operations and electricity costs.

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However, the downside to PoA is that it cannot punish the bad actors. This is because PoA isnt constrained by large capital or large outside costs. Also, the nodes can be moved out of the UNL in retribution and the validator links could be broken.

In other news, the latest developments in the Ripple vs SEC case shows that the case is coming to a conclusion with chances of Ripple winning. This was precisely the reason that the XRP price shot up by more than 20% in the last 24 hours.

Crypto News Flash does not endorse and is not responsible for or liable for any content, accuracy, quality, advertising, products, or other materials on this page. Readers should do their own research before taking any actions related to cryptocurrencies. Crypto News Flash is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods, or services mentioned.

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Ripple's XRP Ledger on the cusp of major upgrade that could propel it to be the go-to network for smart contracts - Crypto News Flash

Hiro's Hosted Development Environment Makes It Easy to Experiment with Bitcoin Layers

NEW YORK, March 22, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Hiro, the developer tools company for Bitcoin layers, today announced the launch of the Hiro Platform, a hosted development environment that enables the creation and deployment of Bitcoin smart contracts directly from a web browser and without the need for any software installations. By dramatically simplifying the developer experience, the Hiro Platform opens the door to more developers who want to build on the original and most secure blockchain.

With the Hiro Platform, developers can streamline their workflows with a convenient, ready-to-use development environment. They can access a wide range of ready-made smart contract examples for popular Web3 use cases, such as Bitcoin NFTs and trustless swaps between Stacks and Ordinals and Stacks and Lightning. These smart contracts are written in Clarity, the main programming language for Stacks, which is the smart contract layer for Bitcoin.

The Hiro Platform reduces context switching for developers, who can quickly discover smart contracts, clone examples, customize them, or simply deploy as is. Experienced users can also create and refine their own custom smart contracts, with all of their code saved in one convenient cloud-based location. Developers have the option to push their code to GitHub from the Hiro Platform, making it easy to collaborate with team members. The Hiro Platform also comes with pre-installed tools such as VS Code, Git, Clarity for VS Code, and Clarinet, which means developers can go from contract conception to mainnet deployment faster than you can say "Satoshi."

"The Hiro Platform not only increases developer productivity but also reduces the friction in deploying smart contracts on Bitcoin layers, ultimately driving the growth and adoption of decentralized applications," said Alex Miller, CEO of Hiro. "This comes at a crucial moment as excitement for building on Bitcoin reaches an all-time high."

The platform guides developers through the smart contract development and deployment process, whether they are new to Clarity smart contracts or seasoned experts. The Hiro Platform makes it easy to get started and scale by letting developers build, unit-test, debug, and deploy all from a web browser.

For more information on the Hiro Platform, please visit hiro.so/platform.

About Hiro

Hiro builds developer tools that bring Web3 to Bitcoin. Hiro's platform and suite of tools unlock the full potential of Bitcoin through smart contracts, digital assets, and decentralized applications. For more information, please visit: https://www.hiro.so/

Press Contact[emailprotected]

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Introducing the Hiro Platform: The First Complete Developer ... - PR Newswire