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Every day, every night, every morning, something is always happening in the world of crypto. Some events directly or indirectly affect the entire community. Others do not affect the price or users. In this article, we will talk about the most important events of 2020. With the news, this year’s harvest was good. That’s why we believe it will make hashcash do a little speed dash in the future. However, let’s get started.
Halving
Halving of the first cryptocurrency is a premier crypto industry event. It took place on May 11. The reward for a new block has halved from 12.5 to 6.25 BTC this year. Halving is called one of the main factors that should lead to Bitcoin appreciation. The emission of the asset is falling. To see growing demand, the exchange rate should be raised. This has happened before. For example, after the first reduction in miners’ reward for the extracted block, the price rose from $11 to $1100, after the second — from $600 to $20,000. However, past growth does not guarantee a future one.
DeFi: The Hot New Crypto Trend
The sphere of decentralized Finance has become one of the main trends in 2020. It wormed its way into wider popular culture when traders started to use the yield farming strategy actively. They blocked their Ethereum in the smart contract of DeFi projects and received payments in tokens. If the price of these tokens rose, traders multiplied their capital many times.
The most popular token in DeFi is YFI. At the start of trading, its price was $32 in July. It set a historic high of $44,000 (an increase of 137,400%) in September. But in the last month, the market was under correction. For example, YFI is worth $15,077, and many tokens have almost devalued.
Ethereum 2.0
A global update was scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2020. Ethereum 2.0 has been successfully launched as a testnet to detect problems when switching from the Proof-of-Work algorithm to Proof-of-Stake. The entire ecosystem based on the original protocol will continue to exist (including all smart contracts) and will work the same as ETH 2.0. The backward compatibility function will be opened for switching from the first version to the second, but the transition in reverse order will not be possible.
A key difference here is that we will see a shift away from Proof-of-Work with the release of Ethereum 2.0. This is a consensus mechanism that is also used in Bitcoin mining. In Eth 2.0, mining will become a thing of the past as attention moves to staking. Verification of transactions in this blockchain will no longer depend on computing power. Supporters of this theory claim that the update will eventually make Ethereum much more secure. Another big advantage could be significantly improving energy efficiency, especially given the growing concerns about how much electricity the BTC network consumes.
Ethereum 2.0 is promised to provide a significant increase in throughput, which ultimately means It can process more transactions per second.
MicroStrategy Makes Massive Bet on Bitcoin
An enterprise business intelligence application software vendor invested $250 million in Bitcoin. The company has adopted a new reserve management policy this year. MicroStrategy is ready to increase investment in the coin with a stellar reputation.
Michael Saylor, the founder, explained that the organization additionally bought 16,796 BTC for $175 million in September. He estimated the total investment in digital gold at $425 million, including fees and expenses.
The reserves of MicroStrategy will consist of fiat, its equivalents, and short-term investments, and Bitcoin. Management used crypto as the main reserve asset permanently. Because of following the new policy, assets in BTC may exceed the investment of $250 million that the company reported in summer 2020.
It should be reminded the CEO called investing in BTC a decent alternative to the dollar that had called into question people’s trust. MicroStrategy became the first public company to invest part of its capital in virtual currency.
Earlier, Snappa, a Canadian software company, moved half of its fiat reserves to BTC — high inflation risks are the very reason. The leadership is poised to invest in decentralized digital money more. And that day is not far.
Square’s Major Bitcoin Buy
The payments company founded by Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey purchased 4,709 BTC totaling $ 50 million. The cryptocurrency is now representing just 1 percent of Square’s total assets. That development had marked a significant milestone, affecting the state of the market. The crypto community met the news with characteristic positivity.
Jack Dorsey has long supported the first cryptocurrency and does not hide it. He introduced a branded BTC Emoji in February of this year, which is now displayed next to each corresponding hashtag on Twitter.
Besides, in September, he analyzed ways to popularize magic internet money, including reducing commissions and making Bitcoin more understandable to a broader public, which sometimes might be deterred from developing a greater interest in it. This investment extended the entrepreneur’s efforts.
PayPal’s Crypto Play
The PayPal payment system is granting American customers access to cryptocurrencies. From November 11, they can purchase, hold, and sell digital gold directly through PayPal.
The company will deal with BTC, ETH, BCH, and LTC. Users need not pay a commission for storing crypto. Also, there will be no fees when buying or selling it until December 31.
Thus, it will be possible to pay with cryptocurrency in 26 million retail outlets. Stores will accept it after conversion in dollars. This was made possible by PayPal obtaining a special Mit license from the New York State Department of Financial Services.
At the first stage, only users from the United States can make transactions with cryptocurrency in the PayPal system. The company seeks to internationalize their activities by adding the ability to work with digital currencies in the Venmo payment system in the first half of 2021.
BTC Is a Superstar on Social Media, Hip, and In-Demand
Since the stock market position seems rather shaky, investors prefer to invest in gold and Bitcoin. The number of those who think about buying virtual coins or have already done this and are now monitoring the exchange rate is constantly growing from year to year. More people have become interested in cutting-edge technology. Celebrities are no exception. Joanne Rowling, Harry Potter’s creator, asked users to explain how Bitcoin works on Twitter. Elon Musk also replied to her. He criticized Central banks that make the currency worthless and force BTC to look reliable.
British actress Maisie Williams, known for the role of Princess Arya Stark in the TV series “Game of Thrones”, blew up the crypto Twitter with a question about Bitcoin. She was answered by Elon Musk and many other prominent figures.
