Ethereum Constantinople Hard Fork Mid January

According to news reports, the long-awaited Ethereum network upgrade will be implemented sometime in mid-January 2019.

Ethereum developers have agreed to commence the upgrade dubbed as the Constantinople Hard fork at block 7,080,000.

The developers reached the consensus last December 7, 2018 in its bi-weekly developers meeting.

Block time of Ethereum is around 14.3 sec and with around 243,431 blocks remaining before hardfork it is estimated that there will be around 38 days left before the upgrade.

That is around January 14, 2019. Constantinople encompasses several updates with the primary aim of smoothing out the transition from Proof-of-work (PoW) to Proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus algorithm.

Ethereum was launched 2 years ago in 2015 and has become the third largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization.

Currently it has around $9.7 billion and is trading at around $95.88 as of press time.

Mastercard Seeking Patent To Make Blockchain Transactions Anonymous

Representatives from MasterCard have recently filed a patent in the United States Patent and Trademark Office for a system that will enable blockchain-based transactions completely anonymous.

This is the most recent blockchain-related filing of the card company as it has filed a patent to speed up cryptocurrency payments earlier this year.

In order to achieve anonymity the company will be using an intermediary to process transactions as well as splitting the single transaction into various parts to make it anonymous.

The use of intermediary seems to draw inspiration from bitcoin tumbler which hides transactions on the cryptocurrency’s blockchain by sending to various addresses and bouncing it a number of times rendering it untraceable.

However it is not clear if the new patent will use for cryptocurrencies as it does not mention that the system will be used for cryptocurrency transactions.

Nevertheless with its history of filing patent that is related to cryptocurrency use we cannot dismiss the possibility that it will be use for the new digital currenty.

Blockchain Used In Chinese Courts To Protect Intellectual Properties

It has been reported that one of the Internet Court in China has turned to blockchain technology to help fight piracy.

There are around three internet courts in China which are located at Hangzhou, Beijing and Guangzhou.

These are special courts that are intended to manage internet-related cases and allow plaintiffs to file their complaints online.

Hangzhou, home to many or most online writers in China, whose Internet Court is planning to implement a blockchain-powered copyright system.

According to a report by a local online news outlet piracy is one of the most prevalent problems online writers encounter in the area.

The makes matters worse they are having a hard time proving that they are the original author of their text resorting to screenshots and other online evidence which can be easily be forged.

With the help of blockchain technology, they hope to stomped out piracy and enable original authors legal means to go after those who are pirating their work.

A judge in the Internet Court, Wang Jiangqiao has express his confidence in the initiative stating that blockhchain guarantees that data cannot be tampered with and all digital footprints stored effectively in a judicial blockchain system that has legal effect.

Data in the blockchain can be used to track authorship, time of creation, content and evidence of infringement.

Digital Currency Group New VC Fund Investing In Decentraland Developers

Digital Currency Group (DCG) is a venture capital company that focuses on investing in blockchain startup has recently announced the creation of Metaverse Ventures.

It is a wholly owned subsidiary of DCG that will invest in companies building products and services for virtual reality platform Decentraland.

Decentraland is a blockchain-based virtual world where users can create, experience, and monetize content and applications.

Users of the platform can claim parcels of land space which is identified by a set of Cartesian coordinates.

These plot of virtual lands are permanently owned by users where they can create any type of content with it.

Land is a non-fungible, transferrable and scarce digital asset stored in an Ethereum smart contract.

They can be purchased by spending MANA an ERC-20 token which can also be used to make virtual purchases of goods and services in the space.

Ohio State Wants To Be The Silicon Valley Of Crypto

The U.S. State of Ohio has been very friendly to emerging technologies especially in the field of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.

So much so that many believes that it is one the prime candidate to be dubbed as the crypto valley of cryptocurrencies. In fact it is one of the first U.S. that allowed all commercial enterprises and other financial institutions which carry out their activities within the state to freely pay with Bitcoin, for taxes.

To accomplish this the State needs the support of from the different sectors especially in education that will help to offer blockchain technology innovation knowledge to people. In line with this vision the Western Reserve University is evolving to become a Cleveland Blockchain and Digital Futures Hub.

In the same vein a venture development entity based in Cleveland, Jumpstart, has recently announced investments of up to $300 million USD within the next 3 years to distributed ledger technology (DLT) startups.

At its current pace it seems the Ohio might well as be on its way of becoming one of or the silicon valley of crypto in the U.S. Only time will tell if their efforts will successful in the long run.

However, this kind of development is music to the ears of the crypto community which has been battered by the on-going bearish trend in the whole cryptocurrency ecosystem.

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