Ethereum classic’s open-source developer team failed to reach a consensus Thursday on whether to move forward with a forthcoming system-wide code upgrade as outlined, effectively sending the planned batch of upgrades back to a drafting stage.

Developers have been deliberating on a set of 10 proposals to be integrated into the protocol since February, an upgrade colloquially called “Atlantis.” A continuation of the original ethereum blockchain, ethereum classic (ETC) effectively broke away from the project in 2016, subsequently rising to a near $1 billion valuation, according to CoinMarketCap.

Still, while ethereum classic has strived to carve out a unique value proposition (based on an altered monetary policy among other differences), its community has also been making greater efforts to introduce changes to the network that would make interoperability between the two blockchains easier.

In fact, Atlantis is the first of two protocol upgrades or hard forks aimed at incorporating the EIPs that have already been activated on ethereum in recent years.

“These upgrades would bring ETC up to date with ETH’s latest protocol, making migration of dapps between the networks much easier,” wrote Bob Summerwill, the executive director of Ethereum Classic Cooperative in an email newsletter back in May.

Today, it was expected that the community would come to a final decision about the contents of the upgrade and its planned activation for mid-September. However, some developers expressed hesitation about including one particular proposal – EIP 170 – into the Atlantis upgrade.

Summarizing his thoughts on the proposal in a GitHub comment, ethereum classic developer Anthony Lusardi wrote:

“These rules can simply be applied to transaction validation rather than block validation, making it a soft fork rather than a hard fork… It’s vitally important to stick to pre-agreed rules when they’re defined.”

As background, EIP 170 if implemented would put a fixed cap on the size of smart contract code that can be run in a single transaction. This idea was originally conceived by ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin who explained at the time that a cap was necessary to prevent certain attack scenarios on the blockchain.

However like Lusardi, ethereum classic community member “MikO” argues this change doesn’t have to be a hard fork (i.e. backwards incompatible).

“I don’t like the idea of having to change a hard limit in the future if we desire more complex contracts,” wrote MikO on the ethereum classic Discord channel.

At the same time, both Lusardi and MikO emphasize their disagreements with EIP 170 should not delay or in any way obstruct the progression of the Atlantis upgrade.

MikO highlighted:

“If everyone feels setting this limit in this way is the way to proceed, then I agree with the majority.”

Lusardi added that outside of not wanting to delays the Atlantis upgrade, he doubly doesn’t believe that “any one person should be able to halt the [upgrade] process.”

For now, no decision has been made on the timeline or content of the Atlantis upgrade as a result of the comments shared in today’s developer call.

“Let’s just acknowledge there’s discussion around EIP 170 and take this time, another one or two weeks [to discuss] what’s the problem with a maximum code size limits and how to move on,” concluded ethereum classic developer soc1c.

Ethereum classic image via CoinDesk archives

The latest person to claim authorship of the bitcoin code created under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto isn’t really about claiming to be its original creator, rather he’s just out to satirize that such a thing could even be attempted at all.

Wei Liu, CEO of Coinsummer, a crypto market research firm, and former CEO of crypto fund MarvelousPeach Capital, registered a copyright for “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” last week, it was revealed today, making him the second individual to copyright the famous document. We tracked him down in Beijing to get clarity on his attempt to wrest to control or, most likely, comment on Craig S. Wright’s white paper registration.

Liu is a crypto entrepreneur from China and said his goal in registering the document was to point out that copyright is technically meaningless in this context. To be clear, Liu chose not to answer whether or not he is Satoshi Nakamoto when asked by CoinDesk.

He said:

“I filed it just to let people know anyone can register a copyright. Everyone can be Satoshi Nakamoto.”

“Now we can both show our credentials and see who ends up wearing an orange suit!” Craig Wright told Decrypt in response to our initial story.

Liu was the former COO of F2Pool and started bitcoin mining in 2011.

Liu’s filing is dated May 24, a few days after Wright registered his copyright. Liu retweeted a Weibo post on Thursday to clarify it was him who filed the second copyright registration after some Craig Wright supporters indicated online that “only CSW can register a copyright, no one else can.”

Clearly, as we see, someone else can.

Wolfie Zhao contributed reporting.

Image via Shutterstock

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to clarify Wei Liu’s did not comment on CSW on his Weibo posts. He retweeted a different user’s Weibo post which called out CSW to be “cult.”

Binance exchange is teaming up with Cred to offer cryptocurrency lending and borrowing services across its ecosystem.

As part of the arrangement, California-based Cred will migrate a portion of its native “LBA” token to Binance’s blockchain network, Binance Chain, according to an announcement Wednesday.

Binance chief growth officer Ted Lin said that as Binance Chain has a “one-second block time,” it will help Cred scale its operations to more markets and users, and ensure transactions are “fast, efficient and effortless.”

Cred offers two services: “Borrow” and “Earn,” according to information from its website. The former allows users to borrow fiat currencies with cryptocurrencies as collateral, while the latter offers interest rates on deposited cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies.

The firm is backed by investors including Binance Labs and Arrington XRP Capital, and claims to have already secured over $300 million in lending capital, according to the announcement.

Earlier this year, Cred also formed an alliance with cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex and four other blockchain firms, to launch a euro-pegged stablecoin called the “universal euro.” The stablecoin can also potentially offer holders an annual rate of return if deposited with Cred, the group said at the time.

The addition is the latest new offering from Binance. Last week, the exchange confirmed that it will be launching a margin trading service in the near future.

It’s also recently launched its decentralized exchange, set up a fiat-to-crypto exchange in Singapore and unveiled a new platform in Australia that allows users to buy bitcoin with cash from newsagents.

Correction: This article previously indicated Binance is to offer lending and borrowing through the partnership. This was not correct and has been amended.

Binance image via Shutterstock 

Bitcoin’s price peaked above $9,000 for the first time in over a year earlier today, but the rally was short lived as its price returned below $8,600 just minutes later.

At 16:00 UTC, the world’s largest cryptocurrency jumped 4.6 percent from today’s UTC opening price of $8,681 and climbed as high as $9,084 – its highest price since May 10, 2018, according to CoinDesk pricing data.

However, sellers quickly halted the rally, causing the price of bitcoin to drop more than $500 to $8,548 in just 30 minutes after reaching today’s high.

In all, Messari data reveals $26.3 billion in reported bitcoin volume has traded hands so far today.

The broader cryptocurrency market also felt the pull of gravity shortly after climbing to a 10-month high of $285.8 billion in total capitalization.

Highly ranked cryptocurrencies such as tron (TRX), litecoin (LTC), and EOS (EOS) are all reporting losses greater than 3 percent after initially being a few percent in the green before the market wide dip.

That said, some cryptocurrencies are still reporting 24-hour growth. The prices for dogecoin (DOGE) and Bitcoin SV (BSV) – both top 20 cryptocurrencies by market cap – are still up more than 5 percent on the day.

What’s more, today’s pullback has hardly put a dent in an impressive performance from crypto bulls this month, with bitcoin still reporting month-to-date gains of roughly 63 percent at the time of writing.

Disclosure: The author holds several cryptocurrencies. Please see his author bio for more information. 

Roller coaster image via Shutterstock

Huobi Global said it does not engage in any wash trading, and has taken steps to discourage such activity in the wake of a report implying the crypto exchange reported fake trading volume.

Livio Weng, CEO of Huobi Global, told CoinDesk through a spokesperson that the exchange “is not involved in any wash trading,” and any such actions would go against the exchange’s “core values.”

A report by Bitwise Asset Management which implied that Huobi reported inflated trading volume “surprised” its team, he said, and the exchange “subsequently did a thorough check and review of our system.”

Huobi did not find any evidence of systematic abuse, he said, but added:

“We did identify a few of our market makers conducting what we suspect may have been wash trading for the sake of performance and marketing purposes. We have already communicated with these market makers and they have discontinued the strategies in question.”

Huobi is now in the process of updating its policies so as to avoid potential wash trading issues going forward, he added. Huobi did not immediately respond to a request for further details.

Wash trading occurs when participants collude to sell an asset back and forth to each other at ever-higher prices, creating the illusion of a rising market.

In a report published in March, Bitwise said that Bitfinex, bitFlyer, Binance, Bitstamp, Bittrex, Coinbase, Gemini, itBit, Kraken and Poloniex were the only exchanges that appeared to report genuine trade volumes, citing low arbitrage across these exchanges, as well as their reported volumes in comparison with the overall market.

The asset management firm, which is seeking the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) approval to launch a bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), published another report on Friday, where it noted that at least one exchange – Huobi – had begun reporting different trade volumes within a few weeks of its initial report.

Huobi had an “anomalous pattern” according to an analysis of its reported trades, which indicated a “resurgence of large trade sizes,” the new report said.

This pattern was “consistent” until the initial Bitwise report was published. “Then it completely disappeared within three weeks.”

Bitwise could not explain why the reported trade volume shifted, though the new report suggested that “those engaging in wash trading at Huobi changed their trade size signatures to be more in line with our detection methods.”

“We also recognize that Huobi might have taken action to clean up wash trading on their platform within that time frame, but that view is challenged by the fact that Huobi’s reported bitcoin trade volume did not meaningfully drop during that time,” Bitwise added.

Image via Shutterstock

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has issued updated regulatory guidance for businesses involved with ICOs and crypto assets.

Announced Thursday, the guidance details the legal obligations for cryptocurrency firms under the country’s Corporations Act, the ASIC Act and other laws.

“These regulatory requirements are in place to maintain the integrity of Australia’s financial market and ensure consumer protection,” the regulator said.

ICOs and crypto assets in many cases are financial products or involve financial products that are regulated under the Corporations Act, according to ASIC. Therefore, if a firm is issuing a token that falls within the definition of a financial product (such as an interest in a managed investment scheme or a security), laws will apply, including the requirement to hold an Australian financial services (AFS) license.

Laws also cover those giving advice, dealing, or providing other intermediary services for crypto-based financial products.

Cryptocurrency wallet and custody service providers, on the other hand, need to ensure they hold the appropriate custodial and depository authorizations. Cryptocurrency miners, if assisting the clearing and settlement of tokens that are financial products, are also bound by Australian laws.

Cryptocurrency exchanges and trading platforms also need to comply with applicable rules, including holding an Australian market license, while cryptocurrency payment and merchant service providers are required to apply for an AFS license if they are providing “non-cash payment facility,” as well as complying with a number of laws.

John Price, ASIC commissioner, said:

“Australian laws will also apply even if the ICO or crypto-asset is promoted or sold to Australians from offshore. Issuers of ICOs, crypto-assets and their advisers should not assume the use of these structures means that key consumer protections under Australian laws do not apply or can be ignored.”

For ICOs and crypto assets that are not financial products, promoters must ensure that they do not engage in misleading or deceptive conduct or statements, ASIC said.

ASIC first issued regulatory guidance for ICOs in 2017. At the time, rules were mainly focused on Australian consumer law and the country’s Corporations Act.

Australian flag image via Shutterstock