A news digest of what happened in the crypto world in the past month, January 2019:
Ethereum’s Highs and Lows
- Ethereum (ETH) again regained the #2 cryptocurrency position after a rocky end of 2018, though it continues to jockey for this place with Ripple (XRP). Despite recent price blows, Ethereum on-chain transaction volume actually reached a new high in December. Discussion also continues about Ethereum moving to a proof-of-stake (PoS) system, which may cut down energy consumption by a drastic 99%.
- The anticipated Constantinople hard fork was delayed until February after a security vulnerability was discovered. Ethereum Classic (ETC) potentially suffered a 51% attack after more than 100 blocks were suspiciously “reorganized”, causing Coinbase to suspend trading of ETC.
Crypto Adoption, 10 Years On
- January 3 was the 10th anniversary of the mining of the first Bitcoin block on its blockchain. Hal Finney was the first person to receive a Bitcoin transaction (from Satoshi) and created the first tweet about Bitcoin on January 11, 2009. Bitcoin has grown massively since then. Though 2018 was a sobering year, January saw Bitcoin price volatility decrease 98% year-on-year.
- Bitcoin ATMs may soon be available in thousands of grocery stores across the U.S., thanks to Coinstar. The Wikimedia Foundation also announced support for Bitcoin Cash donations, in addition to Bitcoin.
