Hardware

Introducing the new Blockchain.com monthly newsletter — April Edition: “After the Dust Settles”

The quality of information and data in crypto has improved in recent years, so you may be asking why another monthly newsletter?There are still some big data and analysis gaps in crypto. Crypto markets are nowhere near as widely served with reliable research and data as traditional markets. Indeed, the March 12–13th crypto stress test demonstrated there are also still some very significant issues with the state of crypto exchange infrastructure.What you can expect from our monthly newsletterOur intention with this newsletter is to avoid repeating what you can find

Quarantined Gamers Are Straining Microsoft Azure-based Blockchain Platform

Microsoft has acknowledged that the quarantined gamers are putting a strain on its Azure cloud platform which is a backbone of the company’s Blockchain As a Service (BaaS) offering.In the SEC filing, Microsoft addresses the impact of “the global health pandemic” on its Azure cloud services. The company admits that in certain regions “deployments for some compute resource types (...) drop below our typical 99.99 percent success rates”. Furthermore, Microsoft confirms that “Xbox Live [is] putting a strain on overall Azure capacity”:“As a result of the surge in use over

Is Decentralized ASIC Production Possible?

The news about ASICs for Nervos CKB came out recently, as the time of writing, there are four ASICs announced, the Toddminer C1, Toddminer C1 Pro, Bitmain K5 and PA miner — the first batch of C1 was delivered on March 9, K5 and PA Miner are expected to be delivered in April and C1 Pro in May.Since mainnet launch, the total hashrate on CKB mainnet has been around 200TH/S on average, it is now gradually picking up (at the time of writing at ~500TH/S) with ASICs. Toddminer says C1+C1

Cardano’s Byron Reboot Goes Live, Paving Way to Shelley Mainnet

Proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain Cardano (ADA) went live with its Byron reboot yesterday, March 30, as the project prepares its transition to the Shelley mainnet.Announced by Cardano’s developer, the peer-to-peer technology firm Input Output Hong Kong (IOHK), the reboot involves a series of updates to major components of the Cardano network — the Cardano node, explorer, and Daedalus wallet backend, which is being spun out as a new version, Daedalus Flight.A process, not an eventIn an outline of the reboot’s significance, which has taken 18 months to complete, IOHK explained that