According to a blog post from Sept. 3, Steemit is now fully operational again, as are all Steem applications leveraging their API. The chain halted over the weekend due to a bug in the curations reward curve, which was apparently unrelated to the previous halt or the so-called delegation bug.
Steemit took to Twitter today to announce to their fellow-Steemians that Steemit is back up and running and fully functional after having suffered from a bug in the curations reward curve.
The Steemit team was quick to develop a patch that did not necessitate a hardfork, but did require a replay of nodes that were used by steemit.com and other Steem applications like Steem Monsters.
Quick response to fix bug
The post went on to say:
“The bug was the result of a subtle behavior in the new curation rewards curve that lead to votes being able to have a curation reward weight of -1, which when stored in an unsigned field resulted in a computed value of 2^64 – 1. When paid out, these votes were attempting to receive trillions in STEEM.”
The team concluded the post by apologizing for the inconvenience and promising that they will be conducting a retrospective, the results of which will be shared on their website.
Bug bounty program for Facebook’s Libra
As Cointelegraph reported on Aug. 27, the Libra Association has opened its bug bounty program to the public to address security concerns in anticipation of Libra’s 2020 launch.
Michael Engle, head of developer ecosystem at the Libra Association, said that they want to help their researchers uncover issues while the Libra Blockchain is still in testnet and no real money is in circulation.
StrainSecure Seed-to-Sale Blockchain Cannabis Tracker Is a Gamechanger
Medical cannabis companies are rushing to sign up for the world’s first blockchain-secured platform for tracking product from seed-to-sale, according to a report from ProActiveInvestors on Jan. 3.
The StrainSecure platform, developed by TruTrace, provides testing, DNA-based validation and product guarantees for patients and customers.
Seed-to-sale tracking
The immutable, cryptographically-secure platform enables cannabis producers to foster enhanced trust among customers in an industry famous for unreliable supply chains.
“By focusing on granular genetic, chemical and contaminant data, as well as motion and movement information and then merging that into a blockchain we are able to provide real-time data on each product being purchased.”
Pilot recently completed
Major players in the medical cannabis industry like WeedMD and Harvest One Cannabis recently took part in a pilot project for the platform. As part of the pilot, WeedMD put 40 of its strains through validation.
As Cointelegraph reported, Aeternity is launching a blocking-tracking platform for cannabis in Uruguay. However, the StrainSecure platform goes further in its testing and DNA-based validation.
Startup Particl Reveals Marketplaces Creation and Management Feature
Privacy-focused blockchain software project Particl has announced a market management option that allows vendors to create and manage stores for specific audiences.
Particl revealed the development in a press release shared with Cointelegraph on Sept. 12. With the new feature for its Open Marketplace product, Particl will enable vendors to set up an unlimited number of marketplaces within the ecosystem and share them with a specific group of customers. Such marketplaces will be available to only those users who have a market’s Market ID.
Creation of personalized stores
As such, merchants can create personalized stores on the Particl Open Marketplace and aggregate their products within a single environment. The release further explains:
“One other use case example is a merchant offering special discounts on products for VIP customers. The merchant can create a private marketplace and only share the access keys with their premium customers, giving them VIP access to unique items and discounts that other users cannot buy or don’t even know exist.”
Commenting on the product development, Paul Schmitzer, project marketing and strategy at Particl, said that “it’s critical for merchants to be able to create ‘invite only’ marketplaces for premium clientele and the power this gives them to target users and key demographics is an undoubted gamechanger, something that other platforms fail to provide.”
Harnessing the benefits of blockchain
As previously reported in a dedicated analysis, harnessing the benefits of distributed ledger technology could improve security, give customers more control over their data and create new forms of marketing to help retailers meet consumer needs with higher precision.
Leading merchants around the world have made a pivot to blockchain technology. In August, American retail giant Walmart submitted a patent application for a blockchain-based drone communication system. In essence, the vehicle-to-vehicle communication system between unmanned drones would relay messages, mesh communications networks and allow machines to be aware of each others’ location and bearing.
