Aztec launches private smart contracts as Ethereum rollup
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3 Monaten ago
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Aztec, a privacy protocol developing on Ethereum, announced on Monday the launch of its second iteration, promising private transactions and smart contracts while being cheaper than standard transfers.
The layer two solution adopted by Aztec relies on zkRollups, similar to Loopring or ZkSync. All these protocols rely on zero-knowledge proofs to help Ethereum, scale but come with different benefits and focused use cases.
Loopring focuses on the decentralized exchange experience, while ZkSync aims to be a generalized layer two protocol that could boost Ethereum’s transaction throughput.
Aztec, in comparison, makes a heavy focus on privacy while still allowing a certain degree of scalability. The team says that the rollup can reach 300 transactions per second while allowing shielded ERC-20 token transactions and private interactions with decentralized finance protocols. Users would be able to trade on Uniswap and other exchanges as part of a pooled contract, similar to how it works in Incognito, a cross-chain privacy protocol.
The stated throughput is a far cry from potential figures on other zkRollup solutions, but it is still well above Ethereum’s maximum theoretical throughput of 40 transactions per second. As Cointelegraph highlighted earlier, privacy always carries a performance cost.
One of the innovations introduced by Aztec is Noir, a private smart contract language. This could let developers send private transactions and use on-chain cryptographic routines while benefiting from privacy. The rollup also features social recovery by default and has several usability benefits like human-readable accounts.
The network is currently live on the Ropsten testnet, though no indications were yet given as to its mainnet release.
Layer two technologies are often seen as the next step in Ethereum evolution, allowing to carry some of the burden off the main network while sharding is still being developed.
Competition is fierce in this segment, with the first solutions like OMG Network’s Plasma having reached production. Smart contracts on layer two, which could help DeFi scale, have still largely eluded developers. Solutions like Optimistic Rollups and some types of zkRollups are poised to solve that problem, but are still relatively far off from a full launch.
Crypto enthusiasts could make $122K per year mining Ethereum with this setup
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29 Minuten ago
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Dezember 29, 2020
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Simon Byrne has taken at-home crypto mining to a whole new level as he looks to capitalize on Ethereum’s (ETH) enormous price potential.
As first reported by Anthony Garreffa, Byrne has set up an ETH mining rig consisting of 78 GeForce RTX 3080 graphics cards. Although the RTX 3080 is marketed toward high-end PC gamers, crypto miners are using these powerful specs to enhance their capabilities.
With each card using roughly 300W of power, Byrne’s setup uses 23.4KW of energy. And that doesn’t even factor in associated costs like AC. All said, his electricity bill is estimated to run up to around $2,166 per month.
The RTX 3080 launched in September at a price of $699, but supply shortages have caused the per-unit cost to swell to $1,199. At the shortage price, that’s a price tag of $93,522 for Byrne’s setup.
Still, these costs could be offset by the operation’s mining capability. One GeForce RTX 3080 graphic card has a hash rate of around 83MH/s using Ethash, which should generate roughly 0.22236870 ETH per month, according to Garreffa. All 78 cards would therefore generate 17.3 ETH per month, which is equivalent to around $12,352 at today’s prices.
Stripping away the electricity costs, that’s roughly $10,200 per month or $122,000 per year. And that’s not factoring in Ethereum’s price potential during the next bull market.
Ether’s price zipped past $700 over the weekend, the first such move since mid-2018. The return of altseason, as some have predicted, could send ETH’s price even higher over the medium term as investors cycle from Bitcoin to other large-cap cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin price rally cools down as Polkadot gains 34% in first week of ‘altseason’
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12 Stunden ago
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Dezember 29, 2020
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Bitcoin (BTC) fell below $26,000 on Dec. 29 as fresh fallout from Ripple’s threatened U.S. lawsuit was felt throughout crypto markets.
Cryptocurrency market overview. Source: Coin360
BTC price dips as Coinbase halts XRP trading
Data from Cointelegraph Markets, Coin360 and TradingView showed BTC/USD hitting lows of $25,830 during Tuesday trading.
$27,000 support failed to hold overnight, sparking a retest of lower levels which now center on $26,000. At the weekend, Bitcoin hit all-time highs of $28,400 before swiftly reversing.
The latest losses come as XRP, the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, hits $0.23 thanks to major U.S. exchange Coinbase opting to suspend trading from next month. The reason is a lawsuit from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which threatens to classify XRP as an unlicensed security and make trading it all but impossible.
“There is going to be a rangebound construction, after which 2021 will most likely break out again,” Cointelegraph Markets analyst Michaël van de Poppe summarized about Bitcoin’s short-term perspectives in a video update on Monday.
Analyst braced for altseason
Van de Poppe is eyeing altcoins as next in line to see major gains. XRP notwithstanding, the market is already showing signs of life, with Ether (ETH) climbing above $700 for the first time since May 2018 this week.
Another winner on Tuesday was Polkadot (DOT), now the seventh-largest token by market cap, which saw a 22.5% daily rise, capping weekly performance of nearly 34%.
For Van de Poppe, the next “impulse wave” on Bitcoin in 2021 should take the market to $40,000 or $50,000, but “until then, altcoins will most likely do well.”
He additionally pointed to a likely top in Bitcoin market cap dominance, which at almost 70% should soon give way to altcoin presence. December tends to see BTC dominance peaks, with 2017, the time of Bitcoin’s first attempt to crack $20,000, a notable comparison.