Brave 0.58 update released, STK and ChainLink cooperation announced while Nano becomes a native cryptocurrency on CoinGate
- Brave 0.58 update released
Crypto-focused browser Brave was updated to a version 0.58.16 today. The latest update brought several new features, including:
- The ability to import search settings from muon.
- A notification under Rewards panel that only appears once if user hasn’t enabled Brave Rewards.
- The ability to restore another wallet if the current wallet has been corrupted or is missing data.
- More information in “Add Funds” under Brave Rewards to make the experience more intuitive.
- Removed the reload button under the Rewards panel.
- Fixed several crashes when updating to a new version on macOS.
You can find the complete list of new features here. The biggest addition in 0.58.16 is the ability to customize your own tipping banners for your website/YouTube channel/Twitch stream. A tipping banner can be designed and branded via Brave’s Publisher Dashboard, giving individual creators an ability to decorate it with related images and messages. A user visiting the creator’s website will be able to see it and tip your favorite creator.
Today’s release will also force Brave users who are still sitting on the Muon browser architecture (0.25.2) to migrate their profiles onto something newer, as this old version will no longer be supported. The migration will include bookmarks, browsing history, search engine preference, saved passwords, cookies, open windows and tabs, Brave Stats, and Brave Payments data.
- STK and ChainLink cooperation announced
Revolutionary oracle technology-based crypto project ChainLink has long been silent in terms of partnerships, but they’ve intensified their efforts on this field as of late. Chainlink is a decentralized oracle network that enables smart contracts to securely access off-chain data feeds, web APIs, and traditional bank payments and their latest collaboration will be with a crypto-focused start-up called STK.
STK wants to create a cryptocurrency for instant, point-of-sale payments and will look to utilize ChainLink’s quality data collecting/providing infrastructure.
“We are pleased to announce that we will be integrating Chainlink, the leading provider of secure oracles, into our smart contract projects,” commented STK on their Medium page. They further add: “Currently, smart contracts cannot verify SWIFT banking transactions or connect easily to off chain data feeds and external APIs. These gaps make it difficult to bring blockchain solutions into the real world, especially for cryptocurrency payment solutions where funds need to be easily verified. Chainlink’s decentralized oracle network provides a secure solution that can easily connect STK smart contracts to APIs and send payments from our smart contracts to bank accounts.”
STK is looking to create a crypto payment solution operating on the territory of North America where it’ll be able to provide users with access to their money “anytime, anywhere”. The STK Token will be used as an utility in the STACK app to enable real-time transactions with cryptocurrency through the use of state channels technology. Read the full announcement about this cooperation here.
- Nano becomes a native cryptocurrency on CoinGate
An up-and-coming crypto “payment gateway” CoinGate announced they’ll be expanding their lineup of native cryptocurrencies with Nano.
With this latest integration, any Nano owner can transfer their funds onto a CoinGate wallet and shop at more than 4000 merchants currently using this payment gateway. Merchants like MMOGA, CoolWallet, BitLaunch, ThunderPick, Patchion, LibreOffice are currently on board of the CoinGate platform an should offer a good variety of spending options to any Nano holder.
CoinGate announced this development on their official blog, adding that Nano is probably one of the best peer-to-peer payment cryptocurrencies on the market. They cite several reasons why they picked Nano:
- Infinite scalability – Nano’s block-lattice architecture and a distributed ledger structure which effectively makes every account have its own blockchain theoretically solves many of the scalability issues connected to modern blockchain technology.
- Not being mineable – Nano utilizing this infrastructure where every user verifies their own transactions requires no mining to maintain the ledger.
- Feeless, quick transactions – the average cost of a single Nano blockchain transaction is $0.005, with the blockchain’s structure also making said transactions quite fast.
- Proof of stake consensus – the blockchain is governed via a PoS algorithm which ensures no malicious actors can harm it.
By making NANO a native cryptocurrency, CoinGate looks to leverage its blockchain’s micropayment capabilities and spread the overall adoption of cryptocurrency.
- OceanEx and Safe Haven collab to improve the VeChainThor ecosystem
An MoU between OceanEx and Safe Haven, two stand-out members of the VeChainThor ecosystem, has been announced today. The agreement was signed on December 12th but the projects decided to make the cooperation public more than a week later. The main goal of this cooperation will be to integrate Safe Haven’s flagship product at the OceanEx cryptocurrency exchange.
Safe Haven is a project focused on building solutions for inheritance, asset management and asset distribution. They plan on assisting OceanEx with their operations/identifying areas where OceanEx can benefit from blockchain-based solutions. This effort is being made to increase the effectiveness and reduce operational costs of both projects involved.
Both projects are built on top of the VeChainThor blockchain and are expected to improve the overall ecosystem. You can read the full announcement here.
