GM Readers!📪 It's BitDegree Insider, and let's push that web3 button.
⭐️Today's selection:
- ❄️Crypto Winter No More?
- ⛏Bitcoin Mining Intensifies
- 😎Cool Fact Tuesday
- 👌Selected Meme of The Day
- 📰Bite-Sized News
CRYPTO WINTER NO MORE?!
March is almost over. Winter's gone. But how about the crypto winter?
Polygon has released a beta version of its EVM network with "zero knowledge" technology.
Once again, a reminder: an EVM network with zero knowledge technology uses advanced cryptographic techniques to verify transactions without the need for a trusted intermediary, enhancing the trust and security of the network.
The first transaction on the new zkEVM was executed by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin.
It was broadcast live. Vitalik sent 0.005 ETH to a random address, the transaction was successful.
He also wrote in a comment on it, "A few million limits for man, unlimited scalability for mankind."
Buterin himself has been pushing the development of Ethereum scalability solutions since 2020.
Polygon co-founder Sandeep Naiwal wrote that even though Polygon's zkEVM is real-time, risks need to be considered.
"This is a new technology, so we are going to post detailed warnings to users that please be careful in this, don't invest your savings immediately," said Naiwal.
As we wrote last week, zkSync Era Mainnet Alpha was opened to all users last week as well.
It looks like we're about to experience a zkEVM summer, as evidenced by the frequency of its mentions on the Lens Protocol (decentralized social network).
Moreover, Polygon co-founder said:
"In 18 to 24 months, you will see almost all of the large web3 applications being built on the zero-knowledge-proven layer 2 chains."
So, maybe this summer will come later than the actual summer. But it's on its way.
If the shift towards zero-knowledge-proven layer 2 chains like zkEVM occurs even during next winter, it could potentially move us closer to the end of the prolonged crypto winter.
TL;DR: Polygon launched zkEVM. Vitalik Buterin made the first transaction on it. More than 50 companies plan to use the zkEVM technology
BITCOIN MINING INTENSIFIES
Bitcoin mining difficulty increased by 7.6% the other day, setting a new record due to hash rate hikes.
The difficulty metric is recalculated approximately every fortnight. It is a measure of how much computing power it takes to mine bitcoin blocks in order to earn a BTC reward.
And this echoes the fact that the prices are rising again in the market. So the miners are back at it.
So, the mining difficulty was 46.84 trillion at block 782,208.
Bitcoin's hash rate reached 398 EH/s at moments, reaching an all-time high, data from BTC.com shows. It has now fallen slightly to 344 EH per second.
P.S. EH/s stands for exahash per second. For example, if the hash rate of a network is 150 EH/s, it means that the network can perform 150 quintillion hash calculations per second. But this time, it almost reached 400 EH/s.
Analyst Sam Wouters writes that after a prolonged crypto-winters, miners have turned their rigs back on.
During the downturn, many companies weren't profitable spending energy on mining "cheap" coins. Now they are back online.
This theory was confirmed by the mining firm TeraWulf.
They reported that they are now ramping up their hashing speeds to the maximum. The firm recently plugged in more installations at its new Nautilus Cryptomine facility.
According to BitInfoCharts Bitcoin mining profitability for the last 24 hours was $0.0706 per day for 1 THash/s.
A year ago, this was $0.19. In 2021 - $0,45.
So there's still a way to go to recover the profitability levels of the the recent past.
TL;DR: Bitcoin mining difficulty increased by 7.6% the other day, setting a new record due to hash rate hikes.
COOL FACT TUESDAY
It's Tuesday. Let's look at cool numbers.
10 years ago today, Bitcoin hit a market cap of $1 billion for the first time.
Today, it has a ~$535 billion market cap.
Now imagine becoming 535 times better in 10 years. Bitcoin truly is inspiring and motivating.
BTW, here's what Bitcoin decentralisation looks like. Take a look at this map of the global presence of Bitcoin mining activity:
SELECTED MEME OF THE DAY
BITE-SIZED NEWS
- Arbitrum's Official Twitter Account Temporarily Suspended After it Was Flagged. Twitter's spam detection system flagged it as spam by mistake.
- Binance to Solidify Its Presence in Georgia with a New Blockchain Hub. Currently, there are 25 Binance employees in Georgia.
- Bankrupt Crypto Lender BlockFi Agrees to Refund Its California Users over $100K. The precise amount is $103,471.
With close to a decade of experience in the FinTech industry, Aaron understands all of the biggest issues and struggles that crypto enthusiasts face. He’s a passionate analyst who is concerned with data-driven and fact-based content, as well as that which speaks to both Web3 natives and industry newcomers.
Aaron is the go-to person for everything and anything related to digital currencies. With a huge passion for blockchain & Web3 education, Aaron strives to transform the space as we know it, and make it more approachable to complete beginners.
Aaron has been quoted by multiple established outlets, and is a published author himself. Even during his free time, he enjoys researching the market trends, and looking for the next supernova.