Features Crypto News by Thebittimes.Com

The excitement in the cryptocurrency community is mounting as one of the most important events in the crypto industry – Bitcoin (BTC) halving –  is just hours away, with only 100 blocks left before the reward for mining the flagship decentralized finance (DeFi) asset cuts in half. Indeed, although predicting the exact Bitcoin halving dates is challenging, the more accurate method of understanding when this will happen is counting down the leftover blocks to be mined, and the Bitcoin block reward halves every 210,000 blocks – coinciding with a period of roughly four years. As a reminder, Bitcoin’s original creators have introduced this scheduled reduction mechanism to decrease the number of new Bitcoin coins going into circulation and keep the supply in check, limiting it to a finite total supply of 21 million BTC and setting it apart from conventional fiat currencies. Picks for you What is the quantum financial system? 2 hours ago AI p...

Attendees of the Network State Conference in Amsterdam believe that a new tomorrow is possible with decentralized technologies. The Dutch city of Amsterdam — no stranger to international conferences dedicated to cryptocurrencies, block chain and decentralization — was recently host to the Network State Conference, which explored decentralization at an entirely different level.  Conference speakers and attendees gathered to discuss and debate whether a new form of decentralized country is possible. The conference kicked off with an energetic host directing the crowd to chant and shout the title before Balaji Srinivasan, an entrepreneur, investor and former chief technology officer of Coinbase, entered to make his opening speech. During his initial remarks, Srinivasan asks, “Are new countries even possible?” Srinivasan delivered an opening address to the Network State Conference. Source: Cointelegraph In his book The Network State, Srinivasan proposes that new countries are possible vi...

Bitcoin mining difficulty is at new highs after recently rising by 6.47%. Accordingly, it has become increasingly challenging and competitive for miners to discover new blocks. Of note, mining difficulty has doubled since October 2022, increasing three consecutive times. CoinWarz estimates it now takes 61.03T hashes to mine a single block in the Bitcoin network. In this analysis, we’ll take a closer look at the recent increase in mining difficulty, its effects on those involved, and the key factors that will shape the future of Bitcoin mining. Mining difficulty rising The Bitcoin mining difficulty is a crucial metric in crypto mining.  It measures the complexity of the mathematical problems miners must solve to validate transactions and create new block s.  You might also like: Bitcoin ETFs could face rug-pull from Gensler, analysts say Presently, difficulty is at an all-time high of 61.03T hashes, marking the third consecutive increase since last October....

Clones will be certified with a smart contract on the blockchain to verify their authenticity and genetic lineage. A California-based cannabis nursery has turned to blockchain and smart contracts to verify the authenticity of its medicinal plants. The Cannabis nursery, known as Mendocino Clone Company, was named in a partnership announcement from the EMTRI project and tech firm Global Compliance Applications on Jan. 13. It will be harnessing the project’s blockchain capabilities to certify all clones, or baby plants, with a batch certificate. Cannabis nurseries are establishments that specialize in plant genetics, producing clones and baby plants and seeds for the purpose of wholesale distribution. The move allows the nursery to “document the beginning stages of a Cannabis plant’s journey to becoming a premium product for consumers based on the gram weight it flowers,” it stated. Photo of a cannabis plant nursery. Source: Mendocino Clone Company The batch certificate is a self-genera...