Bohdan Prylepa--the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Bitcoin Ultimatum, a Bitcoin hard fork with smart contracting capabilities, in an interview on Dec 24, said crypto is driven by ordinary people, not regulators.

Ripple's Legal Woes with the SEC

This comes at the back of Brad Garlinghouse's accusations that public blockchains like Ethereum and Bitcoin are under the grip of China. 

Brad is the CEO of Ripple. As recently reported by BTC PEERS, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) intends to sue Ripple, Brad Garlinghouse, and Chris Larsen, for allegedly raising $1.3 billion through the sale of XRP. The SEC claims XRP is an unregistered security. 

At the center of Brad Garlinghouse's claims, Bohdan notes, is their use of Proof-of-Work consensus algorithms. In this arrangement, unlike other variations, special nodes funnel computing power to the network. 

The one with the most hash rate (computing power) stands a chance of solving the cryptographic proof (work) and earning the 6.25 BTC and transaction fees in that block.

Regulator's Impediments Causing Rebellion

However, it is the increasing prices of BTC and the potential of blockchain as an emerging technology that is forcing more investors to the sphere. 

This, in return, is forcing some analysts to claim that rising digital asset prices and the increasing use of specialized mining gear, will force cryptocurrencies to corporations—with financial muscle, or governments—with better pro-blockchain policies.

In Bohdan's assessment, crypto thrives because the end-users are demanding more, and creators are more innovative, keen to launch more products. 

While some governments want to maintain the status quo as regulators introduce roadblocks to block crypto innovation in some cases, their attempts have caused a Streisand Effect. 

The resulting rebellion, in return, forces many ordinary users to question the role of government and traditional systems in their financial well-being.

DeFi as a Prime Example

Specifically, Bohdan continues, is the rise of decentralized finance (DeFi). 

Although he says the space is still nascent and experimental, the CTO and co-founder of Prof-it Blockchain Ltd—a development firm building Bitcoin Ultimatum, says the space will be disruptive in the future. He notes the rise of decentralized protocols, like Uniswap. 

At the height of the DeFi market in September, Uniswap registered higher trading volumes than Coinbase Pro—a centralized exchange that's regulated in the United States supporting fiat and crypto trading. 

In his view, Bohdan explains, DEXes—though complex for new users will gradually gnaw the market share of leading CEXes if DeFi proliferates more with the establishment of better infrastructure and formulation of proper legislation.

There are over $13.5 billion of assets under management in different DeFi protocols in Ethereum alone. According to the latest statistics, the Ethereum network processed $835 billion of stablecoin volumes by Dec 24. 

The amount could be higher by the end of the year. The most dominant stablecoin, USDT is issued by Tether Limited. USDC and DAI, the other two coins, were dominant. 

Ethereum is Shifting to Encourage Even More Participation

Ethereum is in transition. After six years of development, its creators are in the early stages of shifting from a Proof-of-Work to a Proof-of-Stake consensus algorithm. 

The new algorithm has low threshold requirements, prioritizing decentralization and the participation of ordinary users who might not be willing to purchase expensive mining gear but can run a full node and stake only 32 ETH, becoming a validator. 

Even though Bohdan says Proof-of-Work algorithms are "certified secure", their energy demands could draw more criticism from conservation groups. Bohdan Prylepa is against POW because he believes it is not environmentally friendly and toxic to the environment. He fully supports the transition to PoS ETH, although it has more to do with ETH's strategic goals.

At later stages, Serenity will launch with better scalability and efficiency, "righting the wrongs of ETH1."

Building For "Ordinary Folks"

Bitcoin Ultimatum, a project that's being developed by Prof-it Blockchain Ltd, which in fact is not a fork, but a full-fledged protocol implemented on the basis of the BTC core. 

However, it shall use a new consensus algorithm, Leased Proof-of-Stake (LPoS)—a variant of Proof-of-Stake, in conjunction with Proof-of-Authority which is called "UPOS" Ultimatum Pos. Because of the use of their own UPOS consensus, the network should be scalable and with higher bandwidth. 

To address the problems faced in Bitcoin, it shall have 50 validators. In the early stages, 10 will be determined by the team. These will consist of top exchanges and leading crypto companies. This will allow a higher capacity of their protocol, they also use an environmentally friendly type of mining. 

The other 10 will be chosen from the community as they are the core, driving utility of the revamped platform whose transactions are private. Later, 30 more validators will be added. And at the same time, they allow the community to participate in solving strategic issues of the network development. Equally important is the use of "anonymous" transactions, according to the "canons" which Satoshi bequeathed. The project team is striving to give the community the solutions they need within a single protocol. Among other things, it is equally important is the integration of atomic swaps as part of their protocol, which is planned in the roadmap.