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The real-time dashboard, produced by the Solana Foundation, shows how much carbon the smart contracts platform is emitting.

Bankruptcy claims exchange OPNX is backed by the likes of Susquehanna (SIG), AppWorks and the venture capital arm of DRW trading.

The finalization of the landmark law puts “significant pressure” on the U.K. to deliver its own crypto rules, one industry group said.

Optimism is an Optimistic rollup, a type of Layer 2 scaling solution designed to increase the throughput and efficiency of Ethereum (or other blockchain networks) by performing computations off-chain and only submitting the results to the main chain.

Client diversity for Optimism

The Optimism architecture is designed to accommodate multiple clients operating on the Layer 2 network as well as other chains, such as Coinbase-backed Base, within the Optimism ecosystem. Optimism contributors emphasize that client diversity can help improve the network’s overall resilience.

Optimism’s software architecture, known as the OP Stack, allows the network to split into a consensus layer, responsible for achieving consensus, and an execution layer, designated for smart contracts, similar to the Ethereum mainnet. This modular approach to software design allows for a more adaptable network infrastructure for developers involved in the Optimism ecosystem.

“A fork of the L1 execution client Erigon, OP Erigon will strengthen network resilience, contribute to the decentralization of the OP Stack, and foster developer creativity and experimentation,” OP Labs, Optimism’s core developer, noted in a tweet.

The initial release of OP Erigon can now be accessed on the Optimistic Goerli testnet. 

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

David Maisel, who pioneered the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is spearheading a new digital art collection from Mythos Studios, featuring artwork by noted comic book artist Michael Turner.

Starbucks failed to sell out its latest NFT collection, which was modeled on the first coffeehouse it opened in Seattle 52 years ago. 

Out of the 5,000 NFTs in the Starbucks First Store Collection that were on offer for $100 each this week, only 4,579 sold, according to data from Starbucks’ NFT marketplace partner Nifty Gateway. The performance is starkly different from the coffee giant’s previous Siren collection, which paid homage to the company’s logo and reportedly sold out in under 20 minutes.

It is unclear what particularly led to the disappointing results, but NFT activity has generally declined over the past few months. NFT trading volume across blockchains has dropped lately, according to The Block’s Data Dashboard.

Starbucks didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Floor prices — the lowest likely purchase price — of blue-chip NFT collections, have also plunged recently. The floor price of Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), for instance, has fallen below 50 ETH for the first time since last November, according to The Block’s Data Dashboard. Floor prices of CryptoPunks and Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) have also declined.

The Starbucks First Store Collection

The First Store collection was Starbucks’ second paid collection. Minted on the Polygon blockchain, it features art that recalls the company’s first location, which opened in 1971 in Seattle’s Pike Place Market. The collection opened for sale on Wednesday and closed on Thursday. There was a limit of one NFT per person.

While the world’s largest coffeehouse chain could not sell all 5,000 First Store NFTs, the pieces are doing better in the secondary market. The current floor price of the NFT stands at around $150, according to Nifty Gateway data.

The current floor price of the Siren NFTs is also sharply higher at $450, up from its minting price of $100. Meanwhile, the floor prices of Starbucks’ Journey Stamps, which were offered for free as rewards, are also trading higher in the range of $40-$1,300 each.

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

A bitcoin whale that has been inactive for a decade transferred 279 bitcoins — worth $7.8 million — to three fresh addresses today.

The wallet in question received 1,128 bitcoins in October 2012 and May 2013, on-chain analyst account Lookonchain tweeted. The price of bitcoin during those transfers was approximately $12 and $195 per coin, respectively.

This latest transfer comes a day after another long-dormant bitcoin whale transferred 2,071.5 BTC — worth $60.7 million — yesterday after nine years of inactivity.

This story is developing and will be updated.

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Ethereum scaling project Polygon has bid adieu to research lead Prabal Banerjee as he joins its spin-off Avail, a modular blockchain project.

Banerjee has joined Avail as a co-founder, Avail said Friday. Avail was spun off from Polygon last month, with Polygon co-founder Anurag Arjun leaving to manage Avail as a separate entity by acquiring it.

“I had been working on Avail with Anurag since joining Polygon in 2020, starting with the first design to creating proof of concept and then launching testnet,” Banerjee told The Block. “I believe in the Avail mission and the team behind Avail, and it only made sense for me to target my entire focus to it.”

Banerjee had decided to join Avail when Arjun left last month but completed his pending duties at Polygon and quit the company on April 14, he said. Polygon declined to comment on Banerjee’s departure.

Avail, a modular blockchain project 

Polygon initiated the Avail project in late 2020 and introduced it publicly in mid-2021. Avail is a modular blockchain that allows developers to build customizable and scalable applications. Unlike monolithic blockchains — such as Ethereum and Solana — modular blockchains break down the essential functions of consensus, security, data availability and execution, and handle them separately.

“This enables developers to design fast, efficient, and scalable applications,” Avail said.

The project hopes to cater to standalone chain developers as well as scaling projects with its platform.

“Blockchain development is a very niche space due to various complexities that involve spinning up a chain, and it shouldn’t be,” Banerjee said. “That’s why we want to offer a robust and secure data availability API so that chain developers can bootstrap security in minutes and concentrate on business and execution logic.”

Polygon’s Avail team moves

Avail is currently live on a testnet and its mainnet is expected to launch around the fourth quarter of this year, according to Banerjee. There are currently 20 people working on the project. Last month, the entire Avail team at Polygon moved to the new entity.

While Avail is currently under development by the team, it intends to create a not-for-profit body called the Avail Foundation in the future and eventually hand over governance to a community. That suggests Avail could launch its own token, but Banerjee declined to comment.

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

The latest price moves in bitcoin (BTC) and crypto markets in context for April 21, 2023. First Mover is CoinDesk’s daily newsletter that contextualizes the latest actions in the crypto markets.