Also today, OmiseGo announced a partnership with Hydro Labs, an open-source blockchain project designed to address the unbanked issue. The cooperation between the companies is geared to streamline Hydro Pay Ethereum-based transactions, purportedly making them instant even when the Ethereum network is congested.
OmiseGo, a finance-oriented scaling network for Ethereum (ETH), has become a member of Universal Protocol Alliance, a coalition of blockchain and cryptocurrency-focused firms.
In a press release shared with Cointelegraph on Oct. 8, the startup revealed that it will incorporate the Universal Protocol Platform UPT utility token into its payment processing technology.
By doing so, OmiseGo intends to let stakeholders to use UP stablecoins for financial services and tax collection, as well as collect transaction fees.
Targeting financial services and tax collection
Dan Schatt, co-founder of the Universal Protocol Alliance, said that OmiseGo’s technology “will help support the mass adoption of blockchain technology utilizing UPUSD and other UP stablecoins for consumers, merchants and local governments.”
Partnership with Hydro Labs to streamline payments
As for OmiseGo, the new partnership allows it to introduce the real world application of its plasma chain technology for everyday payments. Indeed, the problem of the unbanked population, which accounts for around 1.7 billion adults across the globe, remains acute.
This spring, the Alliance issued its own euro-pegged stablecoin. The coin is pegged to the euro on a 1:1 basis and will reportedly allow customers to earn up to 8 percent interest. Moreover, the stablecoin targets residents in countries with high inflation or limited access to traditional banking.
New Parity Update Fixes a Vulnerability Present in Some ETH Nodes
Blockchain software development firm Parity released an update for its Ethereum (ETH) node software which fixes a vulnerability present in some instances.
Remote node crashing vulnerability
In a blog post published on Aug. 29, Parity announced the release of an update for its Ethereum node software fixing the Remote Procedure Call (RPC) vulnerability. Per the announcement, nodes running Parity’s software with manually enabled public-facing RPC could be remotely crashed with a specially constructed RPC call.
The team suspects that nodes with manually enabled tracing may also be vulnerable to the exploit. The author of the post points out that not all of the nodes running the company’s software are vulnerable:
“This means that primarily only public infrastructure setups are exposed. Regular users who have not changed these node setting are not impacted.”
Most nodes probably unaffected
While Parity expects most of the nodes running its software not to be affected, the company still recommends that everyone running Parity Ethereum nodes update to this latest version. The company claims to have received the bug report yesterday afternoon, from Scott Bigelow at blockchain startup Amberdata.
As Cointelegraph reported yesterday, Parity is delaying the Ethereum core devs’ planned hard fork until Sept. 6.
New Layoffs Hit Ethereum Incubator ConsenSys
ConsenSys is laying off dozens more staffers, CoinDesk has learned.The Brooklyn, N.Y.-based firm known for incubating Ethereum projects is cutting «just over 90» people, a spokesperson confirmed. That’s about 14 percent of the firm’s headcount.
«The global COVID-19 pandemic has deeply impacted the world’s health and livelihood,» the company spokesperson told CoinDesk. «ConsenSys has carefully analyzed its business in relation to what is occurring globally. Like most of its peers, the company is seeing extraordinary uncertainty in the market, with businesses rebalancing priorities and reevaluating timelines.»
The move, word of which leaked out after a company town hall meeting Monday, follows a round of layoffs announced in February. Those cuts also shrunk the firm’s headcount by approximately 14 percent, the company said at the time. The numbers indicate that ConsenSys may have begun the year with just under 850 employees, and now retains just over 550.
«All key operational aspects of the business are preserved to ensure the development and service of key products and solutions,» the company said in its statement.
The firm also mentioned current work on «crisis-related opportunities such as Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), emergency loans disbursement solutions, supply chains for personal protective equipment (PPE), and related identity solutions.»
ConsenSys says affected employees will be provided two months of severance pay and career transition services.
Led by Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin, ConsenSys laid off about 13 percent of its workforce in a late-2018 restructuring dubbed «ConsenSys 2.0.» The cuts in February 2020 were related to that strategic overhaul.
