If you follow the Bitcoin mining you may have been waiting for the new fork that has been completed on block height 709632.
What is new with Taproot?
The new soft fork introduce the MAST : Merkelized Abstract Syntax Tree MAST to improve the scripting capabilities and privacy of the Bitcoin network.
To understand more about bitcoin forks, the difference between soft and Hard forks, read here.
Taproot upgrade will improve scripting capabilities and privacy by implementing MAST which will replace currently used P2SH (pay to script hash). P2SH and MAST are ways of locking the transactions with conditions until the conditions are met. P2SH allows other users to see the conditions and allows everyone to see all the different ways they could have met the conditions. While MAST hides all the conditions except the ones that are met when the transactions are processed.
The upgrade will also improve Lightning Network privacy by making Lightning Network channels look like regular bitcoin transactions.
Chainalysis is a data platform that drives applications for investigations, compliance, and market research. It is backed by Accel, Addition, Benchmark, Coatue, Paradigm, Ribbit, and other top startup capital companies to encourage financial independence with less risk. Over 60 countries supply data, software, services, and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, insurance, and cybersecurity firms.
According to research by Chainalysis, the number of individuals utilising peer-to-peer P2P cryptocurrency exchanges in Kenya, Nigeria, Vietnam, and Venezuela has doubled in the last year. According to the research, many locals utilise peer-to-peer exchanges as their primary gateway into cryptocurrencies since they lack access to centralised exchanges. Many citizens use cryptocurrencies to protect their funds from currency depreciation, send and receive remittances, and conduct commercial transactions.
P2P trading accounts for a large portion of all bitcoin activity, but it is not recorded on blockchains. This is why the study prioritised nations with lower purchasing power parity per capita and fewer internet users by ranking them by peer-to-peer trading volume. In 2020, the research dropped one metric: the number of deposits per nation weighted by the number of online users.
Bitrefill, a firm that lets consumers survive on cryptocurrencies by purchasing gift cards with bitcoin, has a strong presence in Vietnam. Kim Grauer, Chainalysis’ head of research, who prepared the report, claimed Vietnam topped the list. Nigeria is a different scenario. According to Grauer, “It has a significant commercial crypto industry. More and more transactions are taking place on the cryptocurrency rails.”
In a new index of worldwide crypto adoption, Afghanistan, Cuba, and Iran are top-ranked countries. Analysts say it’s challenging to gauge bitcoin acceptance at the grassroots level. Some experts predict sanctioned countries, such as Cuba, will be undervalued because transactions are more difficult to trace. One expert stated, “The technique has a significant blindspot.”
Argentina and Brazil are the Latin American nations where decentralised finance (DeFi) protocols are most often utilised. The two South American countries were rated 16th and 17th, respectively, behind the United States, Vietnam, and Thailand in the international rankings. This might imply that the acceptance of cryptocurrencies at the lowest economic levels is due to a desire to avoid inflation or transfer remittances more easily.
Which one is overvalued and which one is undervalued?
The DeFi and NFT boom of 2021 has raised the demand for a scalable smart contract platform. The competition in the crypto space is increasing, with every project or token fighting to make it to the top!
Among the two most fiercely competing projects in the crypto space are Solana and Cardano.
In recent months, Cardano and Solana have grown in popularity, this Video from MarketCap is comparing the 2 technologies.
Make sure to let us know in the comments below… Which one do you choose: Cardano or Solana?
