More than 40 researchers met at a workshop hosted by IBM in Chicago this week to discuss the future of the consensus mechanisms that today form the governance layer for blockchain and distributed ledger technologies.

Whereas frequent participants in blockchain conferences might assume the event was geared toward informing those new to the technology, Distributed Cryptocurrencies and Consensus Ledgers (DCCL) consisted of high-level academic conversations and was designed to foster communication at the cutting edge of development, according to those involved.

Attendees included well-known cryptocurrency researchers Aviv Zohar and Ittay Eyal.

Event chair and IBM researcher Christian Cachin, who is a contributor to the Hyperledger Project and president of the International Association for Cryptologic Research, told CoinDesk:

"The audience was predominantly academics with deep technical knowledge of consensus protocols and blockchain security, most of them are active in this space."

The IBM workshop was designed to give participants the opportunity to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of various consensus protocols including so-called "Nakamoto consensus," named after bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto.

Attendee Jude Nelson of New York City-based Blockstack Labs told CoinDesk the conference was established to serve as a way to galvanize interest in blockchain in the academic community.

According to Nelson, topics discussed included separating block rewards from the coinbases in blockchain systems and building a more efficient gossiping mechanism.

The workshop was part of a larger event hosted by the Association for Computing Machinery and dedicated to a wide range of principles of distributed computing.

The event was the culmination of a call by IBM earlier this year to the computer science community for contributions pertaining to cryptocurrencies, with a special focus on the way their underlying protocols help groups reach agreements.

Specifically, IBM Zurich called for papers pertaining to distributed consensus among selfish nodes, mechanisms for consensus ledgers and Nakamoto consensus and protocols based on proof-of-work, among other topics.

The event comes at a time when many are asking deep questions about the nature of consensus mechanisms following the recent, and newly contentious, ethereum hard fork that resulted in two separate blockchains divided between ideological grounds.

Robot consensus image via Shutterstock

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Coinbase, one of the largest ethereum exchanges by volume and the best capitalized business serving the ecosystem, is reporting it has no "near-term plans" to offer support for Ethereum Classic, the alternative version of the ethereum blockchain that has been gaining market traction this week.

Representatives from the San Francisco-based company indicate that the decision extends to both its consumer wallet, as well as GDAX, the digital asset exchange on which it offers trading in both bitcoin and ether.

The company said:

"In the near term, we’re not planning on adding support for Ethereum Classic."

The startup, which has raised upwards of $100m in venture funding, however, said it is "keeping an eye on" developments as it relates to competition between the two versions of the ethereum blockchain, created over a disagreement over how best to resolve the collapse of a high-profile project called The DAO.

Ethereum Classic has opted to continue maintaining a blockchain history containing transactions that were invalidated on the ethereum blockchain overseen by the majority of developers and voted for by community members.

The statement follows actions taken by major exchanges (including market leaders Poloniex and Kraken) to support the alternative implementation and comes amid growing transaction volume for the digital asset.

Over the last 24 hours, classic ether trading volumes have eclipsed volumes for ether, the native asset on the blockchain network on which Ethereum Classic is based, surpassing $93m amid a 300% rise in value.

As for how it would be measuring the success of Ethereum Classic, representatives said the company would support the "longest chain", or the version of the blockchain containing the most sealed transaction blocks.

"Our guiding light here is that we follow the longest chain, the most popular chain, and that’s what we’re continuing to support," the representatives said.

The company noted it is likely to continue to monitor the situation, and that it will continue to watch how developments unfold in the coming weeks.

The comments are notable as Coinbase has been one of the most vocal supporters of the ethereum platform, adding ether buying and selling to its consumer wallets last week.

Image via Coinbase

Disclosure: CoinDesk is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which has an ownership stake in Coinbase.

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Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin issued new statements today reiterating that the Ethereum Foundation, the non-profit founded to support development work on the ethereum protocol, will support the version of the ethereum blockchain that includes a hard fork meant to enable investors to recover funds lost in the collapse of The DAO.

Founded in June 2014, the Swiss organization (formally called Stiftung Ethereum) has been largely quiet over the last month as the community sought to move forward from the collapse of The DAO, which for a brief time was the platform’s most prominent project, holding at one time $160m in investor capital denominated in ether, ethereum's cryptocurrency.

Most immediately, the statements quell uncertainty about whether the Ethereum Foundation would support both the primary ethereum blockchain, as well as Ethereum Classic, a version being maintained with the original transaction history.

Overall, the organization has elected to stand by the informal community voting that lead to the hard fork, executed roughly one week ago, while indicating it would not seek to hinder progress on any alternative ethereum projects, such as Ethereum Classic.

Buterin wrote:

"We recognize that the ethereum code can be used to instantiate other blockchains with the same consensus rules, including testnets, consortium and private chains, clones and spin-offs, and have never been opposed to such instantiations."

Buterin used the remainder of the announcement to discuss how technical users could ensure clients were formatted for use with their desired version of the ethereum blockchain.

Further, Buterin encouraged the Ethereum Classic team to execute an additional hard fork that would guard its blockchain from ‘replay attacks’ by moving classic ethers, or the currency units on the alternative blockchain, to new accounts.

At press time, reaction to the post was mixed, with users largely split over ideological lines that mirrored the larger debate across the ecosystem in recent days.

For example, on reddit, some praised the new clarity from the foundation. Others, by contrast, sought to reiterate support for Ethereum Classic as an implementation of the protocol that best represents the values of the ethereum project as a whole.

Image via ethereum 

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Coinigy has raised $400,000 in seed funding to develop an updated version of its bitcoin trading platform.

The funding comes more than a year after the US-based startup raised $100,000 to offer traders real-time charts, news feeds and technical indicators. According to the startup, the new funds come from a single undisclosed angel investor.

The capital will be used to hire additional developers as part of what Coinigy business development lead Derek Urben called the push toward the "2.0" version of the platform.

Urben told CoinDesk:

"I guess the biggest problem we have, which is a really good problem to have, is that we just quite literally don’t have enough hands to type up the code and enough bodies to do all this work."

Currently, Coinigy’s platform lets users trade digital currencies across multiple platforms, gathering price data from a range of bitcoin and other digital currency services. The plan now is to develop a more comprehensive resource for data and trading capability, while attracting smaller institutional investors.

Urben said that the startup is hoping to grow its subscription-based membership model, and is also looking to attract traders outside of major financial hubs like New York and London.

Trading image via Shutterstock

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Digital currency exchange provider Coinbase has expanded to Australia, bringing the total number of countries its supports worldwide to 33.

Announced today, Coinbase will allow users to buy bitcoin and ether with credit and debit cards. Notably, users will not be able to sell digital currency.

Coinbase product manager Ankur Nandwani said that the company was keen to start with extending its buying service to Australia as a means to increase the size of its network, but that it hopes to add a sell function at a later date.

Nandwani told CoinDesk:

"In the new countries, each country has its own way to enter the market."

With the news, Coinbase brings its exchange service to a market with relatively little access to trading pairs for the country's currency, the Australian dollar.

According to data from Bitcoin Charts, Australian dollar trading is only available on two exchanges, both of which have less than 2,000 BTC in volumes.

Nandwani, however, said Coinbase believes its investment in Australia could prove valuable.

"Even though it might be small, we do think in the future it will be a big market," he said.

Australian kids image via Shutterstock

Disclosure: CoinDesk is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which has an ownership stake in Coinbase.

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A prominent digital currency trading service reports that investors are expressing an interest in buying into the version of the ethereum blockchain that rejected last week's hard fork.

Over-the-counter digital currency trading service Genesis Global Trading is now trading classic ethers (ETC), but reports its volume at less than $100,000 in purchases thus far. Serving institutions and individuals, Genesis sells blocks of the digital currency, as well as alternatives such as bitcoin, with a minimum order size of $25,000.

Despite a small number of initial buyers, CEO Michael Moro said he is confident that demand could begin to rise for the nascent digital currency, which has been winning over users as a protest tool and, in recent days, building a budding market.

Moro told CoinDesk:

"We started to explore ETC over the weekend based on some inquiries we received. People were looking for a place to buy and sell ETC, and Genesis was happy to provide a market."

Moro went on to characterize institutional interest in ether as "minimal", while cautioning that it's too early to draw comparisons between the two digital currencies at this stage.

The news comes amid an increase in the price of classic ethers, which has risen more than 250% in the last 24 hours. The price of ether, by comparison, has fallen roughly 5% in that time.

At press time, the price of 1 ETC was trading for 0.0028 BTC (or roughly $1.80), up from $0.50 yesterday.

Disclosure: CoinDesk is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which owns Genesis Trading.

Trading desk image via Shutterstock

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