On December 21, Fountain, a podcast app powered by the Bitcoin Lightning Network, launched its most comprehensive design and user experience upgrade to date. With the 1.0 version now available on iOS and Android, users can now more easily support their favorite podcasts, discover new ones through social features like clips and playlists, and earn bitcoin (BTC). Additionally, Strike users can now connect their Strike account with their Fountain wallet and top up using their preferred currency.
On the same day, Ambros, a data analytics provider for the Bitcoin Lightning Network, announced the launch of “Ghost Addresses,” which allow users to receive payments into self-custody without relying on centralized wallets.
Meanwhile, Tenderly released its “2023 EVM Network Landscape Report,” which looks into the most widely used Ethereum scaling solutions and revealed an increase in on-chain activity on Optimism, Arbitrum, Polygon, BNB Chain, Avalanche and Base. The report posits that a multichain system of independent networks and appchains benefits Ethereum’s scalability, ecosystem resilience, growth and innovation, and blockchain adoption in general.
WalletConnect also announced an ambitious roadmap to build an open, permissionless and decentralized network which will improve the performance of the WalletConnect Protocol and better align with the tenets of Web3. The plan will be tested, audited and executed over the next year, culminating in a proposed launch of the open, permissionless WalletConnect Network in 2025.
Finally, Bitfinex Securities Ltd, which offers listing and trading services for security tokens, announced the successful raise of 5.2M USDT in a tokenized bond issuance. The tokenized security offering is the result of collaboration with microfinancing firm Mikro Kapital, and the tokenized bond has a 36-month tenor with a 10% coupon.
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