TLDR Crypto 2022-01-12

Moonbeam, an Ethereum-compatible smart contract parachain, is now live on Polkadot. The parachain is expected to significantly increase activity on the Polkadot ecosystem. The project was made possible through a highly successful crowdloan campaign, which had over 200,000 supporters and raised around $944 million worth of DOT. Moonbeam's native GLMR tokens are transferable. The first 30% of crowdloan rewards have been distributed, with the remaining to be released over the 96-week lease period.

The Ethereum Push Notification Service (EPNS) has announced a web3 communication primitive that allows dapps to manually send messages or automatically send alerts based on on-chain activity. Users are able to subscribe to alerts, with messages sent directly to Ethereum addresses. There are no transaction fees for the messages. EPNS is launching with MakerDAO, Aave, Uniswap, and dYdX, among others, and CoinDesk will be an early user.

Unstoppable Domains has launched a single sign-on service using NFT domains for Ethereum and Polygon. Login with Unstoppable allows users to log in using an NFT domain, a concept similar to Google sign-in. Users can set permissions for what private information can be shared with services. Unstoppable Domains has around 2 million registered domains, and over 50 companies are integrating Login with Unstoppable.

Evmos is a scalable Proof-of-Stake blockchain that is fully compatible and interoperable with Ethereum. It features web3 and EVM compatibility, high throughput, horizontal scalability, and fast transaction finality. Evmos is built using the Cosmos SDK which runs on top of the Tendermint Core consensus engine. This allows developers to benefit from Tendermint's PoS implementation and exchange value with the rest of the Cosmos Ecosystem.

Ronin is an Ethereum sidechain that was created to be an industry-leading blockchain for gaming. It was built with Axie Infinity’s community in mind, as Ethereum was limiting the game's ability to attract new players and retain existing ones. Ethereum would have spikes in gas fees and network congestion that would slow the game's economy to a halt. Ronin optimizes for near-instant transactions and negligible fees, allowing for millions of in-game microtransactions to occur seamlessly. This article explains the Ronin ecosystem and gives an overview of how to exchange, store, stake, and transfer assets within the sidechain.

Squeeth is now live on the Ethereum mainnet. The dapp gives traders a leveraged position with unlimited upside, protected downside, and no liquidations. It allows traders to make more ETH when it goes up and lose less when it goes down.

TaxBit, a major crypto-focused tax compliance firm, is working with 20 major crypto-related businesses in the US to enable free 2021 tax forms for users. The TaxBit Network will include businesses such as PayPal, Coinbase, Binance, and Gemini. Every user of the network will be able to receive free and accurate 2021 tax forms. The service will ensure that crypto users in the US are able to stay tax compliant without spending a lot of money. TaxBit is backed by the Winklevoss twins' family office and it was valued at $1.3 billion in 2021.

A solo bitcoin miner recently won a 6.25 BTC reward, worth about $265,600, after adding a new valid block to the Bitcoin network. The miner had a hashrate capacity of about 120 TH/s, 10,000 times less than most public bitcoin miners. With that hash rate, the miner had about a 1 in 10,000 chance of finding a block per day. Having a higher hashrate increases the chances of finding a valid block as miners can try more computations per second.

The Republic of Palau has partnered with Cryptic Labs to launch a digital residency program using Cryptic Labs' Root Name System. Global citizens will be able to claim digital residency backed by the Republic of Palau using the blockchain and receive perks of residency without physically living there. Approved applicants will be issued a physical resident ID card and digital ID in the form of an NFT. Cryptic Labs has yet to announce which blockchain the protocol will use.