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Ledger Recover Fiasco Exposes Gap Between Blockchain Ideals and Technical Reality

After a video went viral of what appears to be a hardware wallet getting smashed with a hammer and then blow-torched into a charred mass, Ledger (and all of the crypto industry) got a searing reminder on the importance of managing expectations.

Screen grab from video purporting to show a user smashing a hardware wallet with a hammer and then setting it ablaze with a blowtorch. (@oklahodl1/Twitter)

Ethereum Briefly Stopped Finalizing Transactions. What Happened?

The loss in finality meant that blocks could have been tampered with, and while it isn’t supposed to affect end-user experiences, it did lead to some inconveniences for some applications.

(Shubham Dhage/Unsplash)

Urbit, a Network Older and Weirder Than Bitcoin, Finally Turns Toward Growth

The peer-to-peer network started in 2002 says it's taking on "MEGACORP," much in the same vein as many blockchain networks. A bit more fun are the "secret code names" that users are assigned.

Josh Lehman, executive director, Urbit Foundation, spoke at Consensus 2023 in Austin, Texas, in April. (Shutterstock/CoinDesk)

Blockstream Developer Neigut Expects ‘Cambrian Explosion’ of Bitcoin Layer 2 Protocols

Bitcoin already has one of the most diverse layer 2 ecosystems of any network, but coming technology upgrades could lead to an acceleration in the blockchain's development, according to Blockstream's Lisa Neigut.

Blockstream's Lisa Neigut speaks at Consensus 2023 in Austin, Texas. (CoinDesk)

How the Hunt for Yet-to-Exist Tokens Is Shaping Ethereum’s Layer 2 Landscape

Token airdrops – and the prospect of them – have become the default customer acquisition strategy for Ethereum's layer 2 scaling projects. But is this strategy sustainable?

Layer 2s with native tokens and blockchain bridges might introduce more problems than they fix as blockchain scaling solutions, Trust Machine's Rena Shah argues. (Creative Commons, modified by CoinDesk)