WhiteboardCrypto Newsletter - Apr 20

Welcome back to this week's edition of our WhiteboardCrypto Newsletter!

Bitcoin Halving

Every four years, the Bitcoin blockchain cuts its mining rewards in half, so that the new supply of BTC entering the ecosystem is halved. This is meant to negate any inflationary pressures; “inflation” is when the value of an asset drops because there is more supply than there is demand. In fiat, like USD, inflation happens usually because the government prints more money (yes, it’s more complicated than that, but that’s the gist). We say Bitcoin’s halving happens every four years, but it’s actually based on block number, not real-world time, which is why the specific date and time isn’t known ahead of time. But, the latest halving occurred on Fri, Apr 19 around 5pm PST! Happy Halvening! So far, the price has remained pretty stable.

Learn more here.

Runes ushers in the new Bitcoin season

In our April 6 newsletter, we explained a new fungible token protocol on Bitcoin called Runes that released after the Halving. The launch of Runes made fees on Bitcoin surge, and only 9 blocks after the halving (just over an hour), Runes minters already paid 78.6 BTC in fees alone. That’s roughly $4.95m.

Learn more here.

Korean won most traded crypto-fiat pair

In Q1 2024, the South Korean won traded over $456 billion on centralized exchanges. In comparison, the US traded just over $455 billion. Euro-denominated trading pairs only hit $59 billion. This increase in won trades is partly due to zero-fee policies on some crypto exchanges in the country. With upcoming spot bitcoin ETFs likely to be approved in South Korea in the coming weeks, this inflow will likely only increase. So, if you’re wanting to start a crypto company, South Korea might be a good place to do it!

Learn more here.

Arbitrum releases new validation protocol

The developers behind the Arbitrum blockchain released a new protocol on testnet called Bounded Liquidity Delay (BoLD) that is meant to provide a more decentralized way to validate the network. Right now, validators on Arbitrum need to be white-listed, so there are few of them. BoLD will allow anyone to be a validator. The reason this wasn’t already the case is because of the fear of delay attacks, which are when a malicious actor delays (possibly indefinitely) transaction confirmations. BoLD addresses this problem by making it so that as long as there is one honest validator, transactions can be processed successfully.

Learn more here.

Thanks for reading and I hope you learned something!

- Theodore