These private mempools – where blockchain transactions avoid the eyes of front-running bots – promise to offer better settlement and lower fees to Ethereum users, but experts are sounding the alarm bell on some big risks.
Blocknative Releases New Ethereum Mempool Explorer, to Help With MEV Protection
The tool, which was released just a few weeks after Blocknative had to cut back on its MEV-Boost relay services, could ultimately help reduce instances of block-level manipulation and protect users from front-running bots.
Bitcoin user pays $3.1M transaction fee for 139 BTC transfer
A mempool developer suggested that the user behind the transfer might not be aware of the non-cancellation of replacement fees policy, resulting in an accidental $3.1 million transaction fee.
‘Memepool’ full: Here’s how exchanges adjust Bitcoin withdrawal fees
Amid a spike in Bitcoin transaction costs, cryptocurrency exchanges are taking measures to serve their clients properly.
Bitcoin ‘under siege’ by BRC-20 coins with soaring fees, claims analyst
Bitcoin transactions and fees are at high levels, and 400,000 of them are still unconfirmed on the blockchain.
‘Bitcoin is not under attack:’ BTC maxis allay fears of a DoS offensive
Concerns circulated on Crypto Twitter of a denial of service (DoS) attack on the Bitcoin network.
Binance closes BTC withdrawals amid congestion on the Bitcoin network
Bitcoin mempool was clogged with over 400,000 transactions waiting to be processed on May 7.
Memecoin hype drives Bitcoin transaction fees to multi-year highs
Despite the latest spike in Bitcoin transaction fees, the current BTC transaction cost is still far from all-time high levels.
Bitcoin metrics to the moon: ATH for hash rate, daily transactions and Ordinals
While the Bitcoin hash rate briefly touches new highs, Bitcoin Ordinals are a contributing factor to daily transactions exceeding 500,000.
You don’t see that every day: Bitcoin empty block found
Don’t be fooled by its emptiness: Block 776,339 plays as important a role as busier blocks in the Bitcoin blockchain.
1inch releases new tool to protect traders against ‘sandwich attacks’
The company said that the new tool works by allowing users to submit transactions directly to validators.
How to transfer $1 billion for basically free: Bitcoin whale watching
At just 15 sats/vByte, a Bitcoin user is demonstrating just how cheap it is to send vast sums of money across the internet.
Bitcoin transaction fees briefly doubled yet remain exceptionally low
The cost of sending Bitcoin from one address to another has stayed exceptionally low since July 2021 despite spiking in price last week.
Spiral BTC Releases Lightning Development Kit. Jack Dorsey’s Puppet Promotes It
The Lightning Development Kit is Spiral BTC’s latest offering to the community. And to the world. The LDK is “The simplest way to integrate Lightning into your Bitcoin wallet.” It’s free to use and it contains building blocks that anyone can integrate with their product. The big news, however, is Jack Dorsey’s puppet. The company, Spiral BTC, released this video to promote the Lightning Development Kit’s release. And Jack Dorsey’s puppet stars in it.
Is it hilarious or cringe? Opinions vary. One thing’s for sure, however, it captured the mase’s attention and got eyeballs on the Lightning Development Kit project. So, it definitely worked as a marketing tool and the Bitcoin community should cherish it. Even though the Spiral team says that the main layer is too slow, “sucks,” and it’s “painful to use.” Nothing could be further from the truth, layer one does perfectly what it needs to do. If you want speed and ease of use, just go up to layer two. That’s where the LDK lives.
Related Reading | Jack Dorsey: Square Could Build Bitcoin Mining System
What’s The Lightning Development Kit?
The project’s documentation defines it as:
“Lightning Development Kit (LDK) is a generic library which allows you to build a Lightning node without needing to worry about getting all of the Lightning state machine, routing, and on-chain punishment code (and other chain interactions) exactly correct. LDK tends to be suitable for use cases where a degree of customization is desired, e.g. your own chain sync, your own key management and/or your own storage/backup logic.”
On the Lightning Development Kit’s introductory page, they promise the product was “designed from the ground up to be easily customized to your application needs.” Also, “as lightweight as you need it to be and optimized to run on all embedded devices such as mobile phones, IoT devices, PoS terminals and more.” Also, and this is very important, the use the Muun approach and help you create a single wallet experience. What does this mean?
“No need to create separate Bitcoin & Lightning wallets, forcing users to backup an additional recovery phrase. Instead, we let you define your own wallet and create one unified experience.”
What’s Spiral BTC And What Else Do They Do?
The company used to be called Square Crypto. When Jack Dorsey abandoned Twitter to focus on other ventures, it change its name to Spiral BTC. The aim was to convey better what their mission is all about. “Bitcoin is the best money. It should be used like it. We build and fund free, open-source projects aimed at making bitcoin the planet’s preferred currency.” When all of this happened, our sister site Bitcoinist gave us the 411:
“The year is almost at its close and as such companies have begun to make plans for the coming year. For Spiral, the year 2022 will be a year of expansion as it will be working on a number of projects in the new year. To do this, Spiral (formerly Square Crypto) plans to double the number of full-time developers in the coming year.
Some of the projects the devs will be working on include the Lightning Development Kit (LDK), the Bitcoin Development Kit (BDK), the grant program, and the Bitcoin Design Guide and Community.“
That’s right, they sponsor the fantastic Bitcoin Design Guide and already released a Bitcoin Development Kit for those who wish to build on layer one. They also give grants to Bitcoin developers, designers, and great projects like BTCPay Server, Lightning Signer, The Eye of Satoshi, and the widely used Mempool.
BTC price chart for 12/07/2021 on Gemini | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com
Other Jack-Dorsey-Led Bitcoin Projects
As soon as the rumor of Jack Dorsey leaving Twitter hit… well… Twitter, Bitcoinist ran a piece that praised his contributions to the space and speculated on what he would do next:
“The allegedly soon-to-be former Twitter CEO is perhaps best compared to Hal Finney in terms of the positive impact he has had on the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Both of have famously tweeted about “Running Bitcoin,” and both are now names nearly as synonymous with the top ranked crypto asset as Satoshi Nakamoto themselves.
Finney’s legacy has sadly ended, but could Dorsey’s truly just be at the very beginning in terms of what the business entrepreneur could bring to the overall Bitcoin ecosystem?”
Related Reading | Is Hyperinflation Inevitable? Jack Dorsey Says It’ll “Change Everything”
Before that, Jack Dorsey’s other Bitcoin-focused company TBD announced its first big project. The tbDEX will be a decentralized exchange and liquidity protocol. When the company released the whitepaper, NewsBTC reported on it and described the project as:
“The tbDEX aims “to build bridges between the fiat and cryptocurrency worlds,” that much is clear. We still live in a Fiat world and, if Bitcoin is going to succeed, we need new, simpler, and cheaper ways to interact with said world. “There are serious challenges to realizing this vision. Fiat rails are regulated, and no interface with either the traditional monetary system or “real world” can be completely trustless.”
At the Bitcoin 2021 Conference, Jack Dorsey said “Bitcoin changes absolutely everything. I don’t think there is anything more important in my lifetime to work on”. And now, he’s laser-focused on it. Things are moving fast since he left Twitter. It wouldn’t surprise us if the tbDEX releases a working version soon. They didn’t announce any timeline, though. Only one thing’s for sure. When the decentralized exchange is ready for the world to see, TBD should use Jack Dorsey’s puppet to promote it.
Feature Image: Screenshot from the promotional video | Charts by TradingView
Bitcoin transaction fees are down by over 50% this year
Transaction fees have dropped this year, after a spike earlier this summer.
Liquid network block production resumes following transaction processing issues
Pending Liquid transactions had been queued in the mempool for roughly 22 hours after the network reported an issue which caused “block signer nodes failing to validate certain parameters against each other.”
DeFi Has a Front-Running Problem. Sparkpool’s Potential Fix Is Launching This Month
Ethereum mining pool Sparkpool will launch its new mining network, Taichi Network, complete with a “private transaction” feature this month.
Bitcoin Miners Saw 7% Revenue Increase in July
Bitcoin miners earned $300 in revenue during July.