Top 4 crypto events to watch in 2022 besides The Merge

Ethereum’s current Mainnet integration with the beacon chain proof-of-stake system is generating a great deal of buzz, as it will finally end Ethereum’s proof-of-work system and reduce Ether mining energy by 99%. The transition was originally scheduled to take place in the first half of 2022; however, it has been delayed to the end of the year, with no firm date in sight.

Following up on the rapidly developing blockchain technology, let’s take a look at what the crypto community is looking forward to in 2022 – the biggest milestones for some of the most popular blockchain systems besides Bitcoin and Ethereum.

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Cardano’s Vasil hard fork  

Dubbed the ‘Ethereum killer’, Cardano (ADA) is a “Ouroboros proof-of-stake” cryptocurrency that was developed through a research-based approach by engineers, mathematicians, and cryptography experts. Charles Hoskinson, one of the founding members of Ethereum, co-founded the project. Due to disagreements with the direction of Ethereum, he left and then was involved in the creation of Cardano. Cardano Foundation, Input Output (IOHK) and EMURGO are three entities he founded to build a blockchain ecosystem based on proof-of-stake consensus.

Researchers behind the Cardano project have published more than 120 papers on different aspects of blockchain technology, which laid the groundwork for the project. 

The Vasil Hard Fork Combinator (HFC) event is a material change in the protocol that leaves behind the old version of ledger. 

According to John Woods, Director of Cardano Architecture, it will be more than a hard fork; it will include new features and improvements – enhancements to CIP 31, 32, and 33, as well as the introduction of reference scripts, inline datum, and reference inputs.

“These are things that are going to make apps sing on Cardano. And these are things that are going to make developer experience easier and better,” he said.

The ADA team will also bring pipelining, which is an enhancement to block diffusion that will allow Cardano to scale even further, and this will take them right up to the point of release of input endorses, which is their next generation strategy.

According to Woods, Blockchain’s GitHub page now has all the codes for the June update. Developers will conduct extensive quality assurance (QA) tests over the next few months to ensure everything is working properly. Integration testing will continue until the team is satisfied that all code is bug-free with no regressions or slowed performance. Woods expects the HFC to take place on June 29.

Tim Harrison, IOHK vice president, reported that 517 projects were being built on Cardano as of mid-March, including DEXs, wallets, DeFi projects, NFT marketplaces, launchpads, metaverses, gaming.

EOS’ migration to Mandel 3.0

EOS is a 3rd generation blockchain platform that leverages the EOS Virtual Machine and WebAssembly engine to enable deterministic execution of near feeless transactions, creating an optimal experience for web3 users and developers.

As of April 18, there have been 413,130 transactions sent to smart contracts using the EOS protocol.

Source: DappRadar 

EOS had been widely written off as a failure before last year. Its development stalled after Block.one, the company that ran the EOS ICO, raised over $4 billion, but then allegedly pocketed the money. It faced accusations from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In the end, Block.one reached a settlement for $27.5 million, but by then, the damage had been done, and a rift both within and outside the community. 

It took EOS a long time to establish its own reputation. One of the reasons it plans migration to Mandel is to prove that it is independent of the ‘fraudulent’ B1. In other words, Mandel represents more than just branding and upgrading; it signals the EOS ecosystem’s bold ambitions to the blockchain community.

The first release would be Mandel 3.0, which would be derived from EOSIO 2.0, with its best bits taken from 2.1 and B1’s release candidate 2.2. 

Mandel’s new features include:

• Configurable WASM limits – a feature that will allow Block Producers to deploy larger, faster, and more powerful smart contracts
• Enhanced configurable blockchain parameters 
• Several other system contract upgrades to boost the EOS Network

According to the ENF Q1 2022 Report, it spent $920,500 on core code development in the first quarter of 2022, an increase of 21% over the previous quarter.

Monero’s tail emission start

Monero (XMR) was founded in 2014, with the goal of enabling private and anonymous transactions through advanced cryptography.

The developers behind Monero say privacy and security are their top priorities, followed by efficiency and ease of use. 

Dark side is however that, because of its distinctive features, XMR is being used for illicit transactions – especially on darknet markets. Monero is a popular target for hackers, since governments promised thousands of dollars to anyone who can crack its code.

Among the project’s goals is achieving the highest level of decentralization possible, meaning that users don’t have to trust others on the network.

Monero’s tail emission is an unending subsidy of block rewards, even after the ‘last’ Monero is minted. Therefore, its block reward will never fall to zero, but will gradually decrease until tail emission begins. At this point, rewards will be fixed at 0.6 XMR per block, and they will remain at that level for all time. A miner working for Monero will always receive payment, and they will never rely on free market forces alone.

According to the Decentralized Monero mining pool, XMR tail emission will start at block height 2641623 at 21:28 UTC on June 8, 2022.

Tail emission is believed by Monero fans to make their blockchain more attractive to mining communities, as they will receive constant rewards even after reaching 100% circulation. They also believe continuous incentivization will make Monero’s blockchain more secure in the long run.

IOTEN’s public mainnet launch

IOTEN is a promising scalable and secure blockchain network for value and data exchange. The project’s vision for the interconnected world is to provide underlying infrastructure for online services that meets the scalability requirements of a decentralized economy. 

It plans to become a fully open, decentralized ledger using Roll-DPoS consensus, which extends the concept of Proof of Stake (PoS) by enabling users to choose delegates who represent their stakes in the network. It envisions a world where users control their data and devices, not institutions. This will lead to no intrusive advertising and constant monitoring.

The IOTEN mainnet is scheduled to launch in Q3 2022. In addition, IOTEN plans to launch its NFT marketplace, which promises to solve the current illiquidity issue with NFTs.