This Week in Crypto
May 19, 2023
Welcome to this week’s issue of “This Week in Crypto”, where we dissect some of the hottest headlines that resonated throughout the crypto industry this week. Today, we are taking a look at the following key stories:
Key Points
- Ledger Recovery Service met with extreme negativity
- Crypto trading volume hits yearly all-time low
- Bitcoin block demand increases
- MXC at Edcon 2023 Superdemo
Ledger Recovery Service Met with Extreme Negativity
Ledger has launched its “Recovery Service”, and since its launch has been met with extreme negativity, skepticism, and anger. The scandalous product allows Ledger to break apart a user’s seed phrase into 3 parts, with each part being stored by Ledger’s trusted institutional partners. When a user losses the seed phrase, upon passing an identity verification, the 3 parts are re-assembled and provided back to the user.
The proposed centralization of a decentralized wallet and the notion that there is a backdoor for Ledger to export users’ seed phrases through a technical back door has resulted in thousands of users on various social media erupting in pure anger, with some users even burning their Ledger.
It is unclear whether the service will continue on its path or make significant changes. While the proposition is unattractive for the proponents of further decentralization, the service may be of additional comfort for retail users who often find it cumbersome to keep their seed phrases intact.
Crypto Trading Volume Hits Yearly All-Time Low
It may officially be the slowest week in crypto this year, at least for the crypto trading desks. Trading volumes in the entire crypto market have hit an all-time low since the beginning of this year. While the reason is unclear, it may be due to the news that Jump Trading, Jane Street Group, and other major crypto trading desks are pulling out of crypto in the US as the regulations get tougher.
Readers should keep a close eye on the situation, especially on the projects invested by these firms, as the closure of US-based operations may have a further impact on their approach towards crypto trading in other markets.
Bitcoin Block Demand Increases
Last week, we briefly discussed the rise of BRC-20, an ERC-20 equivalent to Bitcoin, with less technical complexity. It appears that the introduction of BRC-20 and the rise of its popularity is having a direct impact on the Bitcoin ecosystem and the miners involved.
The Bitcoin block demand has seen a sharp increase, resulting in an increase of nearly 40% since 2017. The number of transactions per block has also seen an increase from around 2000 transactions on average to over 4300 transactions, which is more than double. As a result, the total reward per block to miners has also increased to reach over 6.25 BTC per block.
If you are interested in mining Bitcoin at a fraction of the hardware costs and almost zero operational costs, check out MatchX’s M2 Pro.
MXC at EDCon 2023 Superdemo
Today, MXC is presenting its innovative zkEVM at EDCon 2023 Superdemo. EDCon is the largest conference in the world targeted at Ethereum and EVM developers. Happening in Montenegro this year, EDCon attracts some of the most influential individuals in the Ethereum ecosystem, including Vitalik Buterin — the Founder of Ethereum.
MXC has been handpicked to participate in the Superdemo, with a 10-minute time slot to pitch directly to Vitalik Buterin and other Ethereum developers. MXC CEO Xin Hu is presenting the MXC zkEVM, with a live demo showing the fastest asset bridge in EVM history, along with onboarding hardware onto the blockchain in less than 5 minutes.
