CryptocurrencyScripts

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Non-fungible token: The Turnoffs.

Your reluctance to join the non-fungible token (NFT) trend is a result of any of these two instances; either you’re a maximalist of a non-nft project (probably bitcoin) or you’re discouraged by certain ‘not so good’ aspects of digital signatures.

Previously I questioned the value system in the NFT space, but that’s just one out of the whole bunch. The current scope of NFTs is limited to just multimedia vending; a very narrow use of NFTs, in my opinion. Apart from buying and selling digital art; NFT’s utility extends miles beyond the exchange of multimedia ownership. Maybe when the wave settles, these other use cases will come to life.

Just like every new idea, critics have presented these shortcomings of NFT technology in their arguments. But while these criticisms are valid, they don’t totally dampen the brilliance of NFT technology.

Alright, here are some of the most popular arguments against NFTs.

“Right-click and save”

If you ever tried to read more about NFTs, then the higher probability is that you’ve come across this phrase. Right-click and save!…easily the biggest argument against NFTs. Your NFT art can be easily saved and used by anyone. Just like a royalty-free picture on art vending sites, this argument is by far the scariest turnoff of NFTs. A fact any NFT investor should consider and understand before throwing a dime on digital arts. But just like I said earlier, even though this is a fact NFT art collectors need to worry about, it doesn’t bite down on NFTs’ brilliance. Saving a picture doesn’t make you an owner…in essence.

But do you even ‘own’ the multimedia attached to your NFT? Well, let’s get to that later.

Transaction fees

The part where blockchains claim to be a ‘cheaper’ option to mainstream alternatives should be wiped and rewritten with vague letters. Certain blockchains are multiple times more expensive than using custodial financial institutions; I’ll leave you to name these blockchains.

NFT transactions are one of the most complicated smart contract operations currently. Minting, selling, and buying; each of these transactions involve a number of protocols working together. This generates so many charges that depending on the blockchain, it could easily scare off investors and creators. A number of blockchains charge cheaper fees for NFT transactions, but unfortunately, they are less popular than the costlier ones and might mean lesser exposure for the creator and smaller options for the buyer.

Valuation

You just saw an art you love on an NFT marketplace, but you had to let it go. You couldn’t afford it. If pixelated art with negligible attributes could cost a few numbers of Ether, you can only wonder what real art and photographs would cost. Well, most times they cost way lower than this pixelated art. I might be oblivious to the process of creating these arts but the valuation system in NFT is questionable.

Tron’s Justin Sun has a history of extravagant spending, but top on his list is the millions of dollars he spent buying an NFT art. I’m clearly not a big fan of his; this is another reason to understand this stance. Certain NFT arts are way overpriced. If you ever tried to justify these prices, you will end up understanding the poor value system. A hype or a boom? I think a combination of these two words best explains the current state of things in the NFT space.

Liquidity?

You just bought an NFT for a certain price; you might have to worry about selling it. Unlike cryptocurrencies where an active market exists, NFT owners will have to go through the process of finding a buyer for their art. Just like the Barter trading system, the liquidity system for the NFT system is a burden for both creators and buyers.

Ownership

An art creator sold his art for a few hundred thousand dollars and went ahead to make this same art free of copyright issues. It raises a huge question for art collectors: Do you really own the art attached to your NFT? I probably need some extra answers and arguments. Personal research couldn’t provide enough clarity on this. If everyone can use the same property you paid a lot for without any form of permission or royalty, are you really even the owner of this property? Something art collectors should really consider before buying any art. The sellers’ integrity should be considered first.

For art with several mints, the ownership rights are presumably distributed between all the buyers. In a case like this, every buyer reserves the rights to the ownership of this art, the question comes up again; Do you really own the art attached to your NFT?

Rarity

How rare is your art? Very rare right? Not sure if you can freely say the same if this particular art can be minted again and resold by the owners; or scammers. I’ve come across a number of instances where this has happened and the question gets even more important. Is it really ‘rare’ or is the statement just for aesthetics? Not sure what the perfect and factual answer to this could be. Another huge turn-off for non-fungible tokens.

Scams and hacks

If you still have your bored apes, then you are one of the lucky ones. A good number of people don’t have theirs anymore. Nope, they didn’t sell it; they lost it. If you’ve been following NFTs, you might come across this hazard a few times. Just like your cryptocurrencies, your NFTs aren’t safe. But here, securing your NFTs is way harder.

I admit it, NFTs are cool, but these turnoffs are huge points to consider before dipping your toes into the non-fungible waters. As a creator or collector, these issues span across every party involved in NFT.

07/01/2023
Taproot and Serenity: How the big players are getting better.

Have you ever wondered what it takes to get to the very top? A whole lot, right? A bit more than that. As if that’s not enough, it takes, even more, to remain at the top. This is the case for the two biggest cryptocurrencies — bitcoin and Ethereum.

Worth over a trillion dollars and more than half a trillion dollars respectively, bitcoin and Ethereum have been an example to every other cryptocurrency and blockchain project. Much of the developments around this space revolve around them. Ethereum’s ecosystem particularly houses countless cryptocurrency projects and its technology and management tactics have been copied by even more projects.

After the blockchain itself; Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) is arguably the most brilliant invention in the crypto space, following it closely is smart contract technology…also developed by Ethereum. Bitcoin represents a whole lot; more than just a technology, it represents an economic and political revolution. For this reason, the very top spot is well deserved. Apart from this, I’d tip Ethereum to go to the very top.

At the top, these two projects continue to refine their technology and set the pace for other projects. Recent developments and improvement proposals have seen the bitcoin blockchain get even more potent and the Ethereum blockchain is set to undergo one of its biggest upgrades ever.

In a move that hopes to ‘solve’ cost and efficiency issues, the Ethereum blockchain will be moving from Proof of Work to Proof of stake. The upgrade to Ethereum 2.0 also known as SERENITY is expected to bring moment-defining changes to the Ethereum ecosystem. This upgrade changes Ethereum’s consensus algorithm to proof of stake.

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The move to proof of stake is expected to add more flexibility to the Ethereum blockchain, a feature it terribly lacks. Proof of work algorithm is a complex computing protocol. Running a node for a proof of work blockchain requires enough computing power and of course, a whole lot of electrical energy. Working on computer resources, proof of work operations pile pressure on the device resources, store an enormous amount of data, and consume the device memory in an outrageous manner. Poorly scaling blockchains like Ethereum and bitcoin would consume double to three-digit gigabytes on your device and heat up the device.

Proof stake algorithm is energy-conserving in all aspects. Due to its memory friendliness and relative simplicity, it makes judicial use of computing resources. Staking process also provides a more flexible token generation algorithm in contrast to the very complex proof of work. Getting rid of the mining process saves the electrical power required to mine tokens.

Moving to POS spares Ethereum blockchain from this turmoil, guess that’s why it was named SERENITY! Well, it’s serenity and peace at last for Ethereum believers and skeptics. An amazing move…arguably.

Elsewhere, bitcoin has just completed its first upgrade since 2017.

At block 709,632, bitcoin’s Taproot upgrade went live. Bringing into life what has been described as the biggest bitcoin upgrade since its inception the Taproot upgrade is bitcoin blockchain’s first upgrade in the last four years. Over five months of thorough testing and optimization, the Taproot finally grows out!

In addition to the current “Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm” (ECDSA), the Taproot upgrade introduces the “Schnorr signatures”. ECDSA creates a signature from the private key that controls a bitcoin wallet and ensures that bitcoin can only be spent by the rightful owner. When used to sign multiple-signature transactions, the Schnorr signature algorithm adds a privacy layer to multi-signature transactions.

‘Privacy layer’ might sound too complicated for what the Schnorr signature actually does. The Schnorr signature combines the signatories of a multiple-signature transaction into one signature. The individual signatories in this transaction are a little bit more ‘hidden’ as the transaction is represented with only one signature.

In addition to improved privacy for multisig transactions, the Schnorr signature can be used to significantly reduce the size of multisig payments and other multisig-related transactions, for example lightning channel transactions. It not only makes these transactions more private and secure; trimming the size of the transactions’ data makes for more efficiency in execution.

I’d say the Schnorr Signature is the real game-changer. Currently, smart contracts can be created on bitcoin’s core protocol layer and also on the Lightning Network. The lightning network is a payment platform built on bitcoin, it improves bitcoin transaction speed and enables almost instant transactions. Smart contracts on the Lightning Network are notably faster and less costly when compared to smart contracts on the bitcoin core blockchain.

By compressing multiple signatures into a single signature and greatly reducing the size of multiple signature transactions, the Taproot upgrade is set to add a whole new level of efficiency and speed to smart contracts on the bitcoin core blockchain and the lightning network as well.

Taproot makes bitcoin stronger; Serenity will restore orderliness on the Ethereum blockchain. Two game-changers, occupy the topmost position. Developments in these two projects means a lot to the overall growth of the crypto space. With the Schnorr signature, bitcoin will power relatively more efficient applications, gain even more utility and more adoption. If successful, the Serenity upgrade will solve the biggest issues limiting Ethereum blockchain’s adoption. Either way, these two projects won’t be matching the breaks any time soon.

07/01/2023
Death to 2022: A rekt man’s diary

We lit the fireworks and changed our calendars as we swerved into a year we thought will brew a better story. Well, on a general note for the crypto space, that didn’t really happen.

You could go on about how you made Bezos-level money from shorting the hell out of cryptocurrencies. Sincerely, I’d have bet a few dollars on bitcoin smashing the $100,000 mark in 2022. Such a bad gambler, I know. But the charts didn’t hint at anything this bad.

Fair enough, the charts could have never predicted multiple bankruptcies and a full-blown war.

Hell, of a year, literally, 2020 remains one of the worst years in the 21st century, but for the business sector, 2022 follows immediately.

The tales aren’t really so juicy and our sarcasm might taste like a poorly prepared coffee, but we’ll have to do it anyways. So, let’s go through 2022 again in just 670 words.

Michael Saylor stepping down from his throne at Microstrategy should have been enough sign for us. The bitcoin man probably got tired of saving the space with his firm’s annual profits. It’s just unfortunate, if he dipped in a few billion more, I’d have paid off the fee for a ‘single-issue’ Toyota Corolla. Sorry, that’s an excerpt from a friend’s diary.

Well, steady lads! A friend lost his tuition fee to that LUNAr eclipse, but it’s a good thing that we got a new fun phrase for euphemism. A couple of “Steady Lads” situations got us this far, if 2023 brings forth more, we might have to do better at word-building.

If anything good came from 2022, it is the fact that cryptocurrency projects have learned how easy it is to get away with impoverishing investors. The chronology is similar; reach enviable heights, then crash so badly that your biggest fans look like absolute degenerates. It’s unfair to bring in the word “generates” here, considering the fact that the same word is an important figure in some of the biggest mainstream pumps of 2021. Looking back at how everything turned out, I have no apologies.

A good measure of how bad we had it is that everyone already forgot about how Andre Cronje’s exit from Fantom foundation nearly rugged one of the best Layer-1 blockchains out there. Yeah, I think it’s time to give that project its flowers, even though it isn’t making those multiple profits anymore, for now.

You can’t close a rekt man’s diary without turning to the page where he discovered that the leftovers he ‘saved’ on his favorite exchange have been donated to a charity program and he didn’t even get a pat on the back for being so generous. Cryptocurrency hated the banks so much but still managed to lose out to a nominal Bankman. That hate should grow.

Since Alameda will spend more time in court, how likely is it that we still get that Solana blockchain phone in 2023? There’s a pre-order facility already, I hope a partial refund facility doesn’t follow. On a deeper thought, a $250 Million bailout should be enough to keep the project running. Unfortunately, someone already used that for himself. A silver lining, Solana Blockchain doesn’t stop twice in three days anymore.

I’ll leave you to guess what 2023 will come up with, I’d suggest you don’t expect a pump. Most of the architects of the 2021 pumps are either standing on court podiums, hiding in an exotic location in a third-world country, or buying up the rekt projects that still stand a revival chance. Either way, they are too engaged to pump your bags. The penny coins you are throwing your pocket money on are likely to remain pennies or something lesser…like half-pennies.

Being optimistic for 2022 didn’t stop two neighboring countries from clashing in a gruesome manner, nor did it stop Changpeng from putting out the tweet that almost put out the whole space; but it did help Mr. Trump to raise a couple of million dollars from selling some classic pictures. Hands-off to United States’ 45th chairman though, one of the biggest winners of 2022.

Who else took a big win in 2022? I don’t know your guess and it’s needless waiting for one. Hackers, a straight answer. Hackers had lots of fun over here and banks aren’t this porous. To be fair, they have a solid recovery system. If every alternative fails, getting a bailout from people who print some crispy notes is one way to go about it. In 2023, I suggest we stop throwing jabs at banks, they are badly beating the space currently if we are being fair.

I’d simply end by asking you to share your biggest losses of 2022. It might sound a bit too cruel until someone shares a story worse than yours and you go back to feeling better about your losses. Thank me then and thank you for taking the time to read.

Let’s hope 2023 is a better story; happy new year!

Follow up with CRYPTOCURRENCY SCRIPTS to stay refreshed in the crypto space with comprehensive articles and important tips.

04/01/2023
Securing your personal wallet(s) in a wild environment.

In a space of a few months, I’ve seen an alarming number of people lose their crypto assets. The number of victims is mind-blowing, but the fact that these assets were stolen from their personal wallets makes it even more surprising.

Personal wallets are thought to be a better option for the safekeeping of crypto assets than exchange wallets. Trustwallet and MetaMask are amongst the best mobile wallets to store your crypto assets, this is where the full surprise comes in. Most of these victims stored their assets in either TrustWallet or MetaMask, yet these assets were lost in the most tragic way.

Crypto assets are precious stuff, the thought of losing them is a pain only the bearer can properly explain…I actually doubt if anyone can properly explain the feeling that comes with losing a crypto asset.

Maybe I need to correct an impression; your cold wallets are still safe. These hacks aren’t directly on the blockchain. Perpetrators have developed special social engineering techniques and some good technologies to support their fraudulent activities.

Keeping your assets in a personal wallet is thus not the only thing that keeps you safe. In addition, keeping your wallets ‘safe’ is also vital. It’s a bit complicated, but here are a few tips to help.

Keep your wallet SAFE

Crypto assets are the best items to steal; yeah, that sounds a bit crazy…I know. Thanks to the anonymity features of cryptocurrency, a successful heist of crypto assets are hardly traceable. Perpetrators easily go away with stealing cryptocurrencies, especially when they don’t belong to a big organization. This put individual investors at high risk without tangible external security support.

Mobile wallet users are not only vulnerable to hacks, but physical theft also happens at a high frequency. With these in mind; the importance of keeping your wallets safe can not be overemphasized. Keep it as safe as possible. Yes, your wallet and your phone too.

Just like a dangerous chemical, keep them out of reach. Everyone is capable of siphoning your assets if they get sufficient access to them. For a cryptocurrency investor using mobile wallets, your phone should be private property. This means lesser freedom with how you share them with anyone apart from yourself.

Sounds harsh but you might have to be strict with your mobile phone and disciplined too. Unsupervised use of your devices by any external person is a poor security practice.

If you feel these rules are hard to adhere to, then consider getting a separate device for your cryptocurrency wallets. Probably the best practice.

Keep your Phrase/key SAFE

Here’s one piece of advice, “if you can’t keep secrets, then consider learning them before investing in cryptocurrency!”. Not just cryptocurrency, the internet, and most other forms of investment. Your keys, your investments; every vital detail of your involvement in cryptocurrency should be kept as secret as possible. Now that’s one hell of a task, but one you must perform if you must have a nice story to tell about your investments.

Blockchain-level security protocols are almost impossible to breach without external aid, hackers are aware of this. As a matter of fact, most hacks are actually socially engineered. The easiest way of getting your security breached is through you. Hackers are social engineers; most hacks are done with tips given up by the owners of the accounts. Keeping your security details safe is your obligation. Social hackers devise means to obtain these details or helpful hints about them (your details) from you.

Developing strong passwords is just one step toward your security, keeping these passwords safe is another (more) important step. Each of these is a tedious and sensitive process. A couple of writings on security tips suggest the best practice in password development. Taking a look at these tips, developing abstract passwords is the safest way to do it.

A password without reference to common knowledge of you is unarguably harder to guess. Popular ways of developing passwords such as; a combination of your name, birth date, and other notable dates, hobby e.t.c have simplified ‘hacks by guessing’ in many known cases. An abstract password makes guessing harder for the intruder. However, a strong password not properly stored is in fact weaker than a weak password. It all boils down to one thing; ‘keep it secret, as much as you can’.

Interacting with Decentralized applications (DApps)

Decentralized applications are utility platforms built to interact with the blockchain and sometimes your wallets. They possess connectivity features that allow your wallet connects to the platform. This connection gives the platform certain automatic access to your wallet. Administrators of these platforms or hackers can harness this short-term breach in intact blockchain security to meddle with personal wallets. Original DApps can also be cloned to target unsuspecting users.

For a personal wallet user, ensure to doublecheck the DApp’s website to ensure that you are visiting the right website. Also, do well to confirm the audit report of new DApps. Ensure that the project team is a trustable one and wouldn’t meddle with your assets as you connect to their website.

Watch out for Scammers

All those glitters are not gold. Regardless of how many times this warning is sounded, people still get unhealthily drawn toward shiny things. Shiny ideas, shiny projects, undeserved gains. The simple truth is, “if it sounds too good to be true, then it’s probably not true”. But greed clouds personal cognizance and in the pool of our greed, everything sounds good and everything is possible…like getting $3000 daily from a $1000 investment in a shady mining firm.

Human greed is the biggest tool for scammers, tricking your greed and getting the best out of it. The most tactical scams are simply ones most developed to put your greed to work in the best way. Scams are the biggest threat to every cryptocurrency investor. Falling into one is way easier than you’d think but also relative to your greed level. Greedy investors are more vulnerable. Fix your greed, said it for the second time!

Strategies used to break into user accounts are ever-evolving, everyday birth a new way to get to break into ‘secured’ profiles, looking out for existing and emerging means of scamming investors, and taking precautions to stay safe from them by applying advised security measures is the most effective way to protect your funds and stay safe in the internet

02/01/2023
CBDCs appeal more to governments than proper cryptocurrencies.

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For a moment I thought; “that move by El Salvador was supposed to trigger an era of national cryptocurrency adoption”. Well, it was actually too early to say that. National governments will have a very hard time accepting cryptocurrency in its normal form. ‘Impossible’ is a rare term, but if anything comes close, this is one of them. It will take a very long time before this becomes the case…if possible.

While El Salvador prepares to move their bitcoin gains into the nation’s education sector, most other countries are yet to take a definite stand on bitcoin and cryptocurrency. The People’s republic of China continues its ban on bitcoin and crackdown on crypto-related activities while the Federal Republic of Nigeria has officially launched its Central Bank Digital Currency — the E-Naira.

Hey, before going further, have you Followed us on Twitter?

Same Naira, more possibilities…the E-Naira has been received with mixed reactions from the Nigerians as the majority consider it ‘useless’; an assertion I disagree with. In comparison, the development in Nigeria is healthier for cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. China’s controversial stand on bitcoin and cryptocurrency continues to worsen. The crypto ecosystem will have to learn to steer ahead without the communist nation.

Despite detesting the idea of a decentralized form of money controlled by the people and essentially resisting the influence of a centralized government, China is rumored to be testing out its own CBDC — the digital Yuan. Nigeria’s close neighbor and fellow west African country — Ghana is also working on releasing a digitized form of her national currency. China’s effort on the digital Yuan and a nationally owned blockchain isn’t a rumor anymore.

One thing is common about these countries — little tolerance for proper cryptocurrencies.

Very logically, a centralized government will expectedly detest decentralized concepts. The world government structure is centralized. The presence of a central body of authority controlling the affairs of the people is the original idea of the government; this concept is also expected to be the main feature of a government-owned ‘cryptocurrency’.

With government-backed cryptocurrencies; it is impossible to ‘be your own bank’. Core financial activities will still require the involvement of a third party and the government retaining its veto power on activities related to this currency. From what we have seen in recent prototypes, this is exactly what CBDCs are and the government is absolutely loving it!

As far as the adoption of blockchain as a superior financial technology goes, CBDCs are a huge breakthrough. It delights the government; not only does it equip them with an easier way to manage financial activities, but it also preserves their central power and keeps them above the people…something not obtainable with proper cryptocurrencies.

It’s obvious that the government loves everything about cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology except for one thing — censorship resistance. CBDCs are in fact perfect; for them.

We are seeing national governments partner with blockchain firms to launch their CBDCs on their blockchains. Fantom blockchain is reportedly working with a number of reputable banks and governments to develop CBDCs, Algorand is also rumored to be taking a similar path. The idea of a central bank digital currency resonates well with governments and is set to be the next wave of blockchain adoption. On the other hand, proper cryptocurrencies will unarguably continue to face even sterner regulations.

02/01/2023
Tim Cook owns “some bitcoins”; should you?

A billionaire’s investment in any project should easily run into hundreds of thousands and probably millions. With that in mind; I’ll make a wild guess… Apple’s CEO Tim Cook owns at least TWO full bitcoins. That’s a wild but very conservative guess for a man presiding over a company worth more than the entire market capitalization of bitcoin and who sees cryptocurrency as an ‘interesting’ idea.

Cook’s revelation comes as a little surprise to me. For a guy as brilliant as him; it might be easy to ignore ‘the future of money’ but a bit harder to ignore the best performing ownable asset over the past decade. Hard to say why Apple’s CEO bought a cryptocurrency but whatever the reason is, it is probably the same with other wealthy individuals who have added bitcoin to their portfolios over the past decade.

Too bad, his revelation didn’t rally the crypto market, probably because he didn’t confirm if his company will be adding any cryptocurrency to its balance sheet or showing any form of special support for crypto products. But Tim Cook adding a cryptocurrency to his portfolio is actually a big deal.

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Cryptocurrency just like most other investments is a very risky venture, there’s unarguably a more pronounced risk when it comes to cryptocurrency. The often outrageous fluctuations and nerve-spinning volatility give it a good place amongst “a thousand ways to die in the west”…that wasn’t meant to scare you!

But whether you should consider bitcoin and cryptocurrency investment just because some popular names are invested in it is simply not advised. These popular people are regarded as smarter and more informed; but, making your own research and personal considerations have worked even better most times.

Blockchains are one of the most interesting inventions of the past couple of decades. The ability it poses and its numerous applications are certainly one to look out for. Cryptocurrencies aside, blockchains are one of the most advanced computing protocols which are unsurprisingly gaining mainstream attention.

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An immutable store of data, a flexible network for building almost anything on the internet, the list is endless. Venturing into the crypto space is as good as swimming in the oceans of blockchain technology, and getting used to what has been a tangible offset of traditional ways of data storage, internet, and finance…to mention a few. Regardless of the risks, these features should make you give it a try.

Even if the technology fails to impress you, it is hard to ignore the fact that cryptocurrency investments make mouth-watering returns. For investments in the last decades, cryptocurrencies have made the biggest return on investments, posting up to 20X gains.

The ‘fast money’ idea is surely an unhealthy one and an investor who really wishes to be successful in the crypto space must first get rid of this orientation and embrace the technology and avoid being over-expectant of their crypto bags. Regardless, there is an already proven fortune in cryptocurrency investment, but just like every good thing, this takes a lot of time and requires some good level of patience and persistence.

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To spice it all up, cryptocurrencies come with some enticing level of freedom and privacy in the management of your finance and the performance of some core financial activities. Probably this doesn’t sound so clear to you, but here in the crypto space ‘you are your own bank’, guess that sounds better! You don’t need a stockbroker to help you invest in cryptocurrencies, the simplicity makes it possible for a total noob to invest in cryptocurrency and manage this investment.

Now should you invest in bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency? Personally; I’d say yes, but that could be a very wrong source for your answers. You probably already own a few cryptocurrencies for different reasons…making some profits is a common one. Regardless of deep you are invested or will be investing in cryptocurrency, understanding the basics and making informed decisions is paramount. Albeit tons of compelling shills on the internet, an informed investor is healthier for the project and other investors too.

02/01/2023
Bitcoin is stronger with its ‘Taproot’

A couple of weeks ago; you could simply describe bitcoin as ‘a sophisticated payment technology’ and still make a whole lot of sense. Very reasonable when you consider the fact that the bitcoin blockchain which powers the alpha cryptocurrency is built to simplify peer-to-peer financial transactions while employing some very clever tokenomics and economic principles. Bitcoin maxis would easily frown when you describe their beloved investment this way; but yeah, I’m no maxi.

This description categorizes bitcoin as a payment technology. Sorry, but you can shake that idea off now.

Hello Ethereum! Not so soon anyways…guess I got too stoned by the thought of what can be achieved with bitcoin following its latest upgrade. More private transactions, increased efficiency, and of course smart…

Hey, before going further, have you Followed us on Twitter?

In case you missed the news; at block 709,632 the bitcoin taproot upgrade went live. Bringing into life what has been described as the biggest bitcoin upgrade since its inception the Taproot upgrade is the bitcoin blockchain’s first upgrade in the last four years. Over five months of thorough testing and optimization, the Taproot finally grows!

And if you’re still wondering how big this is for bitcoin and cryptocurrency, it is HUGE.

In addition to the current “Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm” (ECDSA), the Taproot upgrade introduces the “Schnorr signatures”. ECDSA creates a signature from the private key that controls a bitcoin wallet and ensures that bitcoin can only be spent by the rightful owner. When used to sign multiple-signature transactions, the Schnorr signature algorithm adds a privacy layer to multi-signature transactions.

‘Privacy layer’ might sound too complicated for what the Schnorr signature actually does. The Schnorr signature combines the signatories of a multiple-signature transaction into one signature. The individual signatories in this transaction are a little bit more ‘hidden’ as the transaction is represented with only one signature.

In addition to improved privacy for multi-sig transactions, the Schnorr signature can be used to significantly reduce the size of multi-sig payments and other multi-sig-related transactions, for example, lightning channel transactions. It not only makes these transactions more private and secure; but trimming the size of the transactions’ data makes for more efficiency in execution.

Smart contracts? Arguably the most important feature of the Taproot upgrade…

I’d say the Schnorr Signature is the real game-changer. Currently, smart contracts can be created on bitcoin’s core protocol layer and also on the Lightning Network. The lightning network is a payment platform built on bitcoin, it improves bitcoin transaction speed and enables almost instant transactions. Smart contracts on the Lightning Network are notably faster and less costly when compared to smart contracts on the bitcoin core blockchain.

By compressing multiple signatures into a single signature and greatly reducing the size of multiple signature transactions, the Taproot upgrade is set to add a whole new level of efficiency and speed to smart contracts on the bitcoin core blockchain and the lightning network as well.

An efficient smart contract platform with privacy features for multi-sig transactions unlocks more possibilities for the bitcoin blockchain. In a blink, you could think about a handful of new applications this could power.

With a ‘Taproot’; the bitcoin blockchain is stronger than it has ever been. Technologically this is a huge step forward. Bitcoin to 100k EOY? Well, ‘effect on price’ is not a yardstick for measuring technological breakthroughs. If it was, bitcoin climbing past $0.1 million would be an understatement.

02/01/2023
The 2022 Scripts: CryptocurrencyScripts Annual report!

You read through our content while we watched the charts and wrote even more. Not sure what the charts felt like, for you, but it’s generally not fun to watch the whole space weaken against a band of the worst financial news you ever heard. We could go on and on about how 2022 was a year to forget for the cryptocurrency markets, but since “it’s not about the money”, we will put that aside and detail you on how we fared this year!

Well, if the coffee hits the right spot, we might put out a 2022 summary. Hint: The title will be “Death to 2022”

CryptocurrencyScripts is “keeping up”; keeping up with events, with the bankruptcy, and hooking you up with these events in the most fun way, if you missed any of your 2022 publications, you can get to them here.

Closing in on what has been another amazing year for us, we did a couple of plausible stuff, and here’s a spoiler, We didn’t go bankrupt…at least not yet.

In 2022 we:

Didn’t stop writing

You know that popular where condition writers run out of ideas? We can’t really get the proper word for that but that’s because we didn’t experience it in 2022. One sentence after the other and we built quite a good number of words and put them out, one content after the other. We literally discussed crypto and wrote some nice scripts…they all played out!

Collaborated with other projects

CryptocurrencyScripts is powered by writers, as individual writers, and as a collective team, we have been involved in quite a reasonable number of projects. CryptocurrencyScripts in 2022 delivered content for cryptocurrency startups like Inocyx, Mosdex, Sleefi, CoinLore, MetaApes, and a few more. Affiliated writers have taken up writing roles at reputable cryptocurrency projects like CoinGecko, Gate exchange, Citizen (CTZN), OKX exchange, Tokenguard, and even more. We are excited to share our skills with other brilliant projects in the space!

Launched our official blog!

Yeah, have you seen this? The cryptocurrencyScripts blog is officially live! We are progressing with our goal of gaining a bigger internet presence and reaching out to even more readers with our content. As part of this goal, an official website has been added to our list of outlets. We will simultaneously maintain these channels and make additions and removals as the need may be. Visit and bookmark our official website!

Watched the charts

Like the space, we watched the charts. Unfortunately, we witnessed many meteorites fall. In fact, the whole charts look like fallen stars making their way to the center of the earth. The gravitational pull was fierce. Anyways, if Mr. Sam could post that $250 million bail, then he might also come back to save FTX and the whole space. He just needs 100X more.

Spent Quality time with you!

We develop our content like discussions, open opinions calling for arguments and criticisms and each time we post them, we get just what we want! A good number of readers raising their arguments in the comment sections and interacting with other readers; that’s exactly the plan! We spent a good time replying to the comments directed at us and reading the interaction! Time well-spent!

Awesome year! I heard you say that, but we are not relenting in our mission to keep you refreshed in a space that makes sure you don’t get any refreshments. Moving into another positive year, we hope to do better.

So, in 2023, we will:

Continue writing

As long as this space continues to welcome new developments every second, our pen will continue to flow. Even when we run out of ideas, the next pump or dump is already a good way to start. We promised to keep price talks at the minimum though. Nevermind, you won’t need to worry about our articles telling you about “the Next 1000X”. We will continue writing, you can count on that!

Continue to grow

In 2022, we saw a significant increase in external collaborations, as a team and individual writers. This is a positive development for our growth. We are exploring ways to disperse our services and grow the project itself. In 2023, we hope to come up with solutions and implement them. In addition, we are also ruminating on ways to improve readers’ experience and be even more resourceful to our audience. These we hope to tackle in the coming year.

Love to work with you

One of the main goals of CryptocurrencyScripts is to build around itself, a community. A community of people who wish to discuss cryptocurrency and not only “get rich quick” schemes. We hope to welcome our readers to our Telegram channel and grow as a discussion community without necessarily issuing tokens or going deep into monetization. Stay hooked with us and let us how we can improve on this!

What more can we say? Thank you! we are just a class of clueless writers building words on the internet. Our time in the space has been a beautiful one, this is only possible because you are devoted to giving us your attention. If you spent the whole year shorting cryptocurrencies, then you must be reading this from your Tesla Model Y, else, the public buses are still a fun thing…pun intended. Notwithstanding, we appreciate your contributions and see you in 2023!

Here’s a list of our outlets!

25/12/2022
Just like bitcoin, Ethereum is not an Altcoin.

Every cryptocurrency enthusiast holds bitcoin in high esteem. The market placed Ethereum just below it, can’t say the same for a majority of cryptocurrency investors. Despite occupying the second position, a wide gap exists between Bitcoin and Ethereum, in terms of market capitalization. Not considering ‘First to market privilege’, bitcoin’s prestige and the portion of the market it controls are quite justifiable. Revolutionary technology, a devoted community, and a long list of ‘copies. Furnishing the whole space, it has created a major ecosystem and every other cryptocurrency project benefit from its relevance; Speaking of which spreads across disciplines and school of thought. Politics, finance, governance, mathematics…the list is continuous.

Bitcoin’s breakthrough set off a spiral; exact copies and slightly modified copies of bitcoin’s code and functionality soon emerged. Just like the recent DeFi boom, these copies were simply bitcoin with a different name and tokenomics (probably). The term “Altcoin” was invented to accord these alternatives a more generalized name. A proper name in my opinion. An even funnier name — Shitcoin was invented by a growing community of bitcoin maximalists as a better definition of these bitcoin offspring. This group still exists and believes in the nothingness of every other cryptocurrency/blockchain project; a notion I disagree with but wouldn’t combat. Well; if we are being fair, the majority of altcoins fit perfectly into the ‘shitcoin’ description.

If you tried paying the least attention to Ethereum, the above story is familiar. Tons of ‘killers’; copying Ethereum exact code (almost) and running different consensus algorithms. These alternative projects have survived mainly off the fact that they offer a faster and cheaper platform than Ethereum’s Layer-1. Ethereum has resisted these competitions to remain the most used and ‘copied’ blockchain project. Apart from enjoying the ‘first to market’ benefits, Ethereum’s resistance to these competitions is majorly thanks to its brilliance, originality, the fact that it houses the most reputable projects pronounced instability of alternative projects; and thanks to a strong maximalist community.

“Originator of many things”, countless ‘copies’ and a strong maximalist community; these terms are peculiar to bitcoin and Ethereum…only. Both are in a league of their own; bitcoin controls a market capitalization of almost double Ethereum’s, but in terms of technological relevance, it is a close duel. Ethereum’s technological advancement is a level above bitcoin’s. OG bitcoiners would disagree, but even the recent tap root upgrade adopts some of Ethereum’s technology.

An alternative should share tangible similarities to the originator and improve on its core technology. This is the case with the numerous forks and copies of bitcoin. Pretty much ‘re-invented wheels’. This is the same with the uncountable Ethereum copies as well. Ethereum itself is a huge improvement and many steps away from bitcoin’s P2P technology.

Apart from recreating bitcoin’s decentralized value exchange system; Ethereum built a proper platform on the blockchain. A versatile platform of limitless potential. Smart contract and Decentralized application technology are novel and brainchild of Vitalik Buterin and his team of founders. Several projects have emerged separately to improve on this; basically working on improvements to the functionality and not the core technology itself. Even more, projects have been built directly on the Ethereum blockchain. Ethereum boasts the largest and most diverse blockchain ecosystem.

A personal opinion but bitcoin and Ethereum are the two most prestigious blockchain projects. Bitcoin has championed the political and economic revolution, a major factor keeping it afloat. Ethereum represents the biggest advancement in blockchain technology in terms of proper technology. Bitcoin maximalists frown at calling the orange coin ‘a cryptocurrency’; but placing Ethereum in the rank of an altcoin is an even bigger sin. Bitcoiners disagree; a big delusion.

25/12/2022
Greed will catalyze the next bull run

“Bull run comes around once in four years or just after a bitcoin halving”; I have my calendar set to July 2024; but just like my early morning alarms, I’m likely to miss it. Apart from the halving, the 2021 bull run was thought to be triggered by institutional adoption of bitcoin and cryptocurrency…at least that’s what they said. That’s not wrong anyways; Elon Musk dipped some of his Tesla money into bitcoin and spent most hours of his early 2021 days shouting “to the moon”. He’s deep in losses if he still holds on to those bitcoins. I hope DogeCoin is still very much around when his son grows up. He has a huge stash of some Dog coins to inherit…I heard. Not just the rocket man, even Tim cook applauded bitcoin at some point. If there’s anything like ‘Tech leaders’; these two guys should be somewhere up the list with Satoshi Nakamoto and Vitalik Buterin…of course. A worthy mention; Charles Hoskinson; you disagree…I know.

On speculations of institutional adoption of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, a handful of enterprise-level cryptocurrency projects grew to sky-levels in just six months… or less. Social media did its bit, the hype was many levels above the propaganda. DeFi, GameFi, (and ‘MemeFi’) were the rave. Mark Zuckerberg was destined to have a huge influence on the crypto space. Despite failing with his ambitious Diem project, his Metaverse ambitions have been championed by pump-and-dump cryptocurrency projects. Elon Musk pioneered dog-themed shitcoins; Mark introduced a popular prefix for the next generation of Hype projects. Hats off to Elon though; billion-dollar projects came to life thanks to Dog tags.

For a bull run that was “catalyzed’ by institutional adoption”, even the most innovative cryptocurrencies struggled to make the top search lists in some of the world’s most technologically advanced nations. Bitcoin’s record-setting $67,500 price was just about 3 times its previous record. $100,000 was meant to be a deserved price. That didn’t happen, not when the ‘OGs’ were busy throwing their money on some moon and ‘inu’ tokens and the newbies were struggling to survive the rampant rug pulls. Clean, rinse, repeat; even Hwang Dong-hyuk ‘s Squid game birthed some notable cryptocurrency projects. You can find them languishing in almost zero trading volume while their creators make a living off those funds pulled off the rug.

Simply put, the previous bull run was triggered by Greed. No, not ‘institutional investors’. Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey have always been pro-bitcoin and never hid their appreciation for the technology. Micheal Saylor has always channeled that MicroStrategy money into the orange coin and JP Morgan didn’t start talking about cryptocurrencies two years ago. The halving cycle and the institutional investors’ propaganda only triggered human greed which subsequently caused a hurricane of ‘dumb money’ thrown at everything that runs on a blockchain.

Once it runs on a blockchain, then it’s the future. It was that simple, yet funny. Even the blue-chip projects had huge loopholes in their technology and management. But it’s hard to care one bit when you have a moon flight to catch. DogeCoin raced to $0.7 per coin despite over 130 billion coins in circulation. This wasn’t because it “had a better economy than bitcoin” but because this exact statement was made by the richest man on earth and a lifelong fan of the fun token. Calling the tenth biggest cryptocurrency a ‘fun token’ feels odd anyways.

Like a beast unleashed, the whole space ran haywire. Frequent rug pulls couldn’t quench the raging greed from a horde of investors. When one 1000X project crashes, another is born. It only takes one popular influencer or music star and the gains start to roll in.

An almost exact scenario as the 2017 bull run. We thought that won’t repeat itself; it did…even worse. Taking a look at the 2017 raves that were short-lived, 2017 investors had way less greed. Investors were supposed to be more informed with time; turns out this wasn’t the case. The crypto space is a field of emotions; greed being the principal emotion. The ‘Bigger fool’ theory works here; no doubt.

The next bull run? Not sure the exact time that will come, but it will come when there is enough greed. If there are any handy metrics to watch, it’s the greed and fear index; not the halving or institutional investments…if that was ever a thing.

25/12/2022