1) Binance withdrawing their services from Canada
Similarly to Malaysia, Binance has also pulled out to offer crypto services in Canada They cited that new guidance related to stablecoins and investor limits provided to crypto exchanges makes the Canada market no longer tenable for them at this time. Furthermore, they hope to keep engaging with the Canadian regulators for a comprehensive regulatory framework, similarly to Coinbase’s approach with the SEC.
This will be a big blow to the Canada crypto users, as according to the Canadian Securities Administrators, only Fidelity is the big name that has the authorization to do business with the Canadians as a trading platform, while Kucoin & Poloniex has been banned. As Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao is also a Chinese-born Canadian himself, I’m sure Binance may find ways to reach an agreement on a regulatory framework that works for both parties and reinstated themselves back into the Canadian markets.
2) Bittrex Crypto Exchange Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy
A month after I covered an extensive view on the SEC charges on Bittrex for operating unregistered securities exchange, Bittrex is the latest name that filed for bankruptcy after the SEC accused Bittrex of violating federal laws, such as not registered themselves as an exchange, clearing agency and broker while they provided all three types of services.
I remember when Bittrex was a pretty popular crypto exchange for users who wished to trade microcap cryptos that other large exchanges don’t list. Still, with the SEC maintaining their strong unfavourable crypto stance, we may see even more exchanges following the same footsteps as Bittrex.
3) You can now view your ETH address on your google search
Etherscan has now integrate a new feature where you can view your ETH balance on your Google search by copy-pasting your ETH address on the Google search bar. You can also see your last updated date of transaction, and an Etherscan.io link to your transaction details.
I think this is more user-friendly than what Etherscan has on their website, especially for users who want to track other users’ or foundations’ funds by inputting their respective crypto public addresses, thus improving the convenience of auditing balances & transactions. However, it would be much better if other datapoints such as the last 5 transactions or graphical interfaces can be implemented to further improve the user experience.
4) Ethereum failed to finalize transactions for 25 minutes
In a recent incident, the Ethereum blockchain faced a problem where it failed to finalize transactions for about 25 minutes. Ethereum contributors confirmed that the issue has been resolved, and the blockchain continued to partially process transactions during the incident. The cause of the problem remains unknown, but one contributor suggested that the lack of diversity among clients may have played a role. Currently, two consensus clients, Lighthouse and Prsym, dominate Ethereum, each with 38% dominance, while three other clients have a notable presence.
This is not the first time Ethereum has experienced issues. In the past, it faced a DDOS attack in 2016, partial Infura-related outages in November 2020, and a significant impact due to an attack on The DAO in 2016. Despite this incident, contributors emphasized that Ethereum is designed to be resilient and can withstand such issues.
While this may seem like bad news, all systems, even your online banking system, will typically face downtime sometimes due to some issues that needs to be resolved. However, generally if a blockchain experiences downtime, it can be seen as a potential security concern due to vulnerability to attacks such as 51% Attack, resulting in a lack of confidence for users to trust the security and reliability of the blockchain.
Nevertheless, if these issues are addressed promptly, the security and integrity of the blockchain will be maintained, thus it’s crucial for blockchain developers and operators to promptly identify and resolve any issues to minimize the potential security risks associated with downtime.
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