2024-03-14 13:22

COPA took Wright to court to try and prevent him from suing developers and other members of the crypto community, claiming intellectual property rights over Bitcoin's technology. Craig Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto or the author of the Bitcoin whitepaper, U.K. Judge James Mellor said after closing arguments in the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) trial on Thursday. The evidence presented during the month-long trial was "overwhelming," the judge said, adding that he plans to write a ruling detailing his conclusions – including that Wright did not create the Bitcoin system. "I will make certain declarations, which I am satisfied are useful and are necessary to do justice between the parties. First, that Dr. Wright is not the author of the Bitcoin white paper. Second, Dr. Wright is not the person who adopted or operated under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto in the period 2008 to 2011. Third, Dr. Wright is not the person who created the Bitcoin System. And, fourth, he is not the author of the initial versions of the Bitcoin software. Any further relief will be dealt with in my written judgment," Judge Mellor said. COPA sued Wright in 2021 to secure such a ruling to prevent him from taking legal action against developers and other members of the crypto community or claiming intellectual property rights over Bitcoin's open-source technology. The outcome is a victory for COPA, which is backed by industry titans like Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, Coinbase and others. Justice Mellor halted two other cases – including one Wright filed against Coinbase and Dorsey’s Block – alleging he had database rights to the bitcoin blockchain, which depended on the outcome of this case. The conclusion that Wright is not Satoshi may influence the continuation of each of those cases. “This decision is a win for developers, for the entire open source community, and for the truth. For over eight years, Dr. Wright and his financial backers have lied about his identity as Satoshi Nakamoto and used that lie to bully and intimidate developers in the bitcoin community. That ends today with the court’s ruling that Craig Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto,” a COPA spokesperson said in an email to CoinDesk. Wright declined to comment on the outcome of the trial. Read the judge's full remarks. Can't say Satoshi? Just before Mellor announced what he planned to include in his written judgment, Wright's counsel opposed COPA's plans to seek injunctions against Wright that would prevent him from ever declaring he is the Bitcoin creator. Wright’s Counsel, Lord Anthony Grabiner, argued that such a prohibition is unprecedented in the U.K. and would prevent Wright from even casually going to the park and declaring he’s Satoshi without incurring fines or going to prison. Grabiner said that injunction could be "sinister" and urged the court to consider a judgment that would not infringe on Wright's legal right to freedom of expression, adding that Wright should be able to tell his community who he says he is. Meanwhile, COPA's solicitor Jonathan Hough urged the Judge to consider the particular problem of this trial – that Wright has sought a "campaign of litigation" against the crypto community. On Wednesday, Wright's team hit back at COPA's forgery allegations saying they needed more evidence and argued that the alliance’s expert witness Patrick Madden's evidence was inadmissible. On Tuesday, Hough said COPA plans to ask U.K. prosecutors to consider if Wright had perjured himself during the trial. Mellor has not said when his final written judgment will be issued. Sandali Handagama contributed reporting. https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/03/14/craig-wright-not-satoshi-didnt-author-bitcoin-whitepaper-judge-rules/

2024-03-14 09:32

The upgrade allows layer 2 solutions to store data in "blobs" instead of the expensive call data. The average transaction costs on layer solutions like Optimism and Base slide after Ethereum’s Dencun upgrade. The upgrade allows layer 2 solutions to store data in “blobs” instead of the expensive call data. Ethereum’s Dencun upgrade went live on Wednesday, introducing a mechanism to reduce costs associated with transactions on layer 2 solutions that batch and compress transactions before sending them to the mainnet. The latest information shows the upgrade is living up to expectations. According to blockchain analyst Marcov’s Dune-based tracker, the average cost of transactions on scaling solution Optimism has dropped to nearly 4 cents, down significantly from the recent average of around $1.4. The average fee on Coinbase’s layer 2 solution Base fell to 3 cents from roughly $1.50, while Arbitrum’s declined to 40 cents. The average fee on zkSync and Zora also fell. Dencun upgrade introduced Binary Large Objects (blobs), which attach large data chunks to regular transactions. Blobs store data off-chain and become inaccessible after three weeks, unlike call data, which is stored permanently. As such, layer 2 rollups like Optimism, Arbitrum, and zkSync can now store data in blobs instead of expensive call data, processing transactions at a lower cost. Rollups compute transactions outside the Ethereum main chain and then bundle multiple transactions into a single transaction before submission to the main chain. Note that rollups need to implement blobs manually. So far, Base, Optimism, Arbitrum, Zora, and zkSync have done so, per Marcov. According to data tracking website L2Beat, there are more than 40 rollups on Ethereum, of which 26 are upcoming projects. The consensus is that the blob mechanism will eventually lead to a 90% slide in transaction costs on layer 2 solutions. Per Vitalik Buterin, 125 kb of call data costs approximately 0.06 ETH ($238). Meanwhile, a similar-sized blob is likely to cost 0.001 ETH ($3.98), according to decentralized prediction platform Polymarket. That said, the Dencun upgrade is yet to boost investor interest in the native tokens of rollups, which supposedly stand to benefit the most from the blob-carrying transactions. As of writing, Optimism’s OP token traded 4.6% lower at $4.30, and Arbitrum’s ARB token changed hands at $2.07, down 6% on a 24-hour basis, according to CoinDesk data. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/03/14/layer-2-blockchains-become-cheaper-after-ethereums-dencun-upgrade/

2024-03-14 08:44

Total crypto market cap is expected to almost triple to $7.5 trillion by 2025, the report said. Bernstein initiated coverage of Robinhood (HOOD) with an outperform rating and $30 price target. The broker expects total crypto market cap to grow almost threefold to $7.5 trillion by 2025. It said bitcoin spot ETF assets under management could climb as high as $300 billion by 2025. Bernstein initiated coverage of trading platform Robinhood (HOOD) with an outperform rating and a price target of $30, citing a "monster" crypto cycle as the reason for the bullish call, the broker said in a research report Thursday. “We expect total crypto market cap to reach $7.5T by 2025 versus $2.6T today,” and this means Robinhood crypto revenue should grow ninefold, the report said. The company said Wednesday that crypto trading volume on its platform rose 10% in February from January. Bernstein expects bitcoin’s (BTC) market cap to grow to $3 trillion by 2025, ether’s (ETH) to increase to $1.8 trillion and other leading blockchain tokens to reach a combined $1.4 trillion. “We believe the crypto market is amidst unprecedented institutional adoption,” analysts Gautam Chhugani and Mahika Sapra wrote. Spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) assets under management may surge to as high as $300 billion by 2025. It expects an ether ETF to become available within 12 months. The broker views Robinhood as a two year cyclical trade, “riding the crypto-led earnings inflection over 2024-25.” Robinhood shares rose over 10% in after-hours trading. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/03/14/robinhood-to-benefit-from-monster-crypto-cycle-initiated-outperform-by-bernstein/

2024-03-14 07:22

"Normally rising wedges resolve bearish," crypto analyst and trader Josh Olszewicz told CoinDesk. Bitcoin’s rising wedge pattern suggests potential for price pullback, according to crypto analyst Josh Olszewicz. The cryptocurrency’s 10-day rate of change has decoupled from rising prices. A key price pattern has emerged on bitcoin’s (BTC) price chart, hinting at a potential pullback ahead. The cryptocurrency has rallied from $60,000 to new record highs above $70,000 in less than two weeks. The ascent has taken the shape of a “rising wedge,” which is a bearish pattern, according to technical analysis theory. “Normally rising wedges resolve bearish,” crypto analyst and trader Josh Olszewicz told CoinDesk, explaining a possibility of a typical bull market pullback ahead. A rising wedge pattern comprises upward-sloping trendlines that connect highs and lows and converge toward a single point known as the apex. The converging nature of trendlines indicates a steady weakening of bullish momentum. Thus, an eventual wedge breakdown, or the move below the trendline connecting lows, represents a bearish development, paving the way for deeper price losses. Other indicators like the 10-day rate of change, which measures how rapidly prices are surging or falling over 10 days, have decoupled from the rising prices. The divergence suggests a downside momentum is building and often foreshadows price pullbacks. 20% or more pullbacks were common during the 2017 and 2020-21 bull markets. However, Olszewicz expects the pullback to be short-lived. “Given the ETF inflows coming in and MicroStrategy’s Saylor continuing to buy more, I think even if prices do retrace after potential wedge breakdown, it will be hard for the bears to keep them under pressure for long,” Olszewicz explained. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/03/14/beware-of-bitcoins-rising-wedge-chart-analyst-says/

2024-03-14 07:18

Copying and pasting the Bee Movie script is a niche internet meme that originated on Tumblr and quickly spread to Reddit, YouTube, Facebook, and other social media platforms. Ethereum’s Dencun upgrade has significantly reduced data fees, allowing developers to post the Bee Movie script on the blockchain at a much lower cost. The new “blobs” feature is designed for layer 2 networks. It provides a cheap and temporary way to store data, lowering fees for layer 2 networks like Optimism and Base blockchain. Ethereum developers are having some fun on the blockchain as a drop in data fees on the Ethereum network after the Dencun upgrade. Developers are posting the entire script of the Bee Movie, an animated comedy by legendary comedian Jerry Seinfeld about a bee who sues humans, on the Ethereum blockchain for cheap following the Dencun upgrade. “I didn’t get the first blob, but as far as I can tell, I DID get the first BEE MOVIE on mainnet,” posted Paradigm developer Dan Cline on Wednesday, shortly after the new blobs feature went live. The transaction cost only about $14. Shortly afterward, another developer posted the script for just $5 as fees fell further. Copying and pasting the Bee Movie script is a niche internet meme that originated on Tumblr and quickly spread to Reddit, YouTube, Facebook, and other social media platforms. In March 2023, a developer posted the script on the Bitcoin blockchain for the first time after Ordinals technology, a way to post text data on Bitcoin, went live. Blobs are a cheap way to temporarily carry data about transactions that are now possible after Wednesday’s upgrade. Uploaded data exists on the network for about eighteen days, after which it is permanently removed. These blobs are designed primarily for layer 2 networks that run atop Ethereum as an alternative to data storage within Ethereum blocks. And it’s working well so far. Data from L2Fees shows that fees on layer 2 network Optimism were less than a cent as of Thursday morning, much lower than their usual levels. Elsewhere, Base blockchain developers are reporting a 99.8% drop—with fees at $0.0005 instead of $0.31. https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2024/03/14/developers-upload-script-of-jerry-seinfelds-bee-movie-on-ethereum-as-gas-fees-plunge-after-dencun/

2024-03-14 06:21

The court found that The Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) did "not establish that the Finder Earn product is a debenture" and ordered it to pay the defendant’s costs. An Australian court has dismissed a case brought by the nation’s market regulator against Finder Wallet for offering a product as a debenture. The court found that the regulator did "not establish that the Finder Earn product is a debenture” and ordered it to pay the defendant’s costs. An Australian Federal Court handed the crypto industry a major victory in a “landmark” judgment on Thursday. The court dismissed a case brought on by Australia’s market regulator against Finder Wallet in Dec. 2022. The case alleged that its Finder Earn product offering was a debenture and, as a result, it violated the Corporations Act by carrying on a financial services business without holding an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL). The court found that The Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) did “not establish that the Finder Earn product is a debenture” and ordered it to pay the defendant’s costs. “A landmark case such as this highlights how important it is for policymakers and regulators to work with industry to provide real guidance and clarity to avoid the wasted time and costs inherent in regulation by enforcement,” said Blockchain Australia Chair and Digital Assets Lawyer Michael Bacina. Finder stopped offering its Earn product in November 2022, within days of the FTX meltdown and a month before it was sued. The ASIC has 28 days to appeal the ruling. “Currently, we are not planning to bring it back, but never say never,” said a Finder spokesperson to CoinDesk. “When we sunset the product in November of 2022, it was because it was no longer competitive in a world of higher interest rates.” This was the first case in which an Australian authority considered a crypto asset as a debenture and only the second case the ASIC brought against a crypto-related entity seeking to prosecute yield products. An Australian court had given a split decision in the case against Sydney-based crypto startup Block Earner in February 2024. The court found that Block Earner engaged in unlicensed financial services conduct when offering its crypto-backed Earner product but dismissed allegations relating to Block Earner’s DeFi “Access” service. “ASIC pursued this matter because we considered that this product was being offered without the appropriate license or authorization and therefore without the benefit of important consumer protections,” said ASIC Executive Director Enforcement and Compliance Tim Mullaly. Australia’s Treasury has announced that it expects to release draft legislation that covers licensing and custody rules for crypto asset providers by 2024, and once the legislation becomes law, exchanges will have 12 months to transition to the new regime. Read More: Australia Proposes New Licensing Regime for Crypto Exchanges, Aims for Draft Legislation by 2024 https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/03/14/australian-court-dismisses-lawsuit-by-market-regulator-against-finder-in-landmark-ruling-for-crypto-industry/