Key Takeaways

• The Bitcoin (BTC) hash rate has witnessed a jump of more than 100% in the last six months. Glassnode’s data shows that BTC’s mean hash rate has touched a new all-time high of 183 Exahash. (ref)

• Polygon (MATIC), a layer-two Ethereum (ETH) scaling solution, has announced the launch of Plonky2, a zero-knowledge scaling technology. The move comes after Polygon allocated $1 billion to the advancement of zero-knowledge technology. (ref)

• Proof-of-stake blockchain Near Protocol (NEAR) has raised $150 million in seed investments to accelerate the adoption of Web3 technologies. The team announced that the fund would be used to develop regional hubs and raise awareness for blockchain and decentralised tech. (ref)

• The two month-long Cronos (CRO) Hackathon has concluded with 62 total submissions and 16 winners across 5 categories. The Grand Prize went to #dev DeFi, a decentralised aggregate lending and borrowing protocol built on the Cronos Chain. (ref)

• Cronos (CRO) saw a +8.06% increase in total transactions to 11.00M and an increase of TVL to $1.86B (+2.20% week-on-week). The total number of wallet addresses now stands at 332,542, up +4.93% from last week.

Highlights

• Payments giant Block to build open-source Bitcoin mining system

• Paper by researchers at Peking University and Duke University on the consequences of EIP-1559

• Tiny Bitcoin miner defies massive odds to solve a valid block

• Stellar Development Foundation launches new account model

• Ethereum-compatible smart contract parachain Moonbeam is live on Polkadot

• Bitcoin rewards platform Satsback V2 launches

• Polygon (MATIC) schedules long-awaited EIP-1559 upgrade for next week

• Iota selected for Phase 2A of EU blockchain initiative

• Cardano to unveil scaling plans for 2022 as number of blockchain projects grows to near 200

• Elrond ($EGLD) Unites With Utrust ($UTK) to Tackle Web3 Payments

• Jack Dorsey proposes creation of fund to ‘minimise legal headaches’ for Bitcoin developers

Sources: Coingecko, Etherscan, Ethernodes, Terra Station, Terra Etherscan, Avascan, Solana Beach, FTMscan, BSCscan, CronoScan, DeFi Llama

Sources:  DeFi Llama, Polygonscan, Clark Moody Bitcoin, 1ML, Ronin Explorer, Coingecko, Optimistic Etherscan, Arbiscan, Boba Explorer