Digital asset trading service Crypto Facilities is launching ethereum futures contracts. Announced Friday, the U.K. startup claims the news marks the first time futures for ether - the cryptocurrency that powers the ethereum blockchain - will be traded on a regulated platform.

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As ethereum, now the world's second most valuable blockchain, grows larger and more diverse, it's becoming clear its mechanisms for getting input from its constituency are proving problematic.

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Ethereum appears to be at a notable crossroads on technical direction. At least, that was the mood at a meeting of top ethereum developers late last week where a discussion on a controversial code proposal called EIP 999 led some to speculate the scenario is now a possibility. 

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New code written to change the way the ethereum network reaches consensus is now ready for review, developers said Friday. Ethereum improvement proposal (EIP) 1011, known as Hybrid Casper FFG (short for "Friendly Finality Gadget"), would implement the first step in a long-planned shift away from the energy-intensive mining process and toward an allegedly greener method sometimes called…

Could adding a new fee help preserve ethereum in the long term? It's a contentious statement in light of the debates ongoing across blockchains over how and when users should pay to support what amount to global computing networks. However, the concept is now gaining notable momentum on ethereum, most recently from the creator of the world's second-largest blockchain himself, Vitalik Buterin.

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Crypto whales are generally thought of as wealthy traders with the ability to move markets via a single sell order. Yet the greatest whales of all aren’t traders but ICOs which own millions of ether worth billions of dollars. Over 3% of the total ethereum supply is estimated to be in the hands of ICOs, and when those projects cash out, as periodically happens, the effects can be dramatic.

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In a first-of-a-kind transaction happening Friday, all it takes to switch from the old world of centralized clearing houses to the frontier of decentralized blockchains is the press of a button.

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In a surprise appearance at the ethereum community conference EthCC in Paris on Friday, ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin presented a scaling solution for Plasma, a system of smart contracts that seeks to increase the computational potential of the world's second-largest blockchain.

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Coindash has announced that 20,000 ETH have been sent to the company’s wallet from the address associated with the hacker that stole approximately 37,000 ETH during the company’s ICO last year. The transaction constitutes the second instance in which the hacker has returned funds to Coindash.

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Next week the ethereum classic (ETC) community is expecting to receive coins from a ‘snapshot’ fork called ‘callisto’ (CLO). The clone will be an exact copy of the ETC chain up until block 5,500,000 and ETC holders will receive a 1:1 ratio of CLO coins.

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On paper, EOS is a $6 billion company and the 14th largest cryptocurrency project in the world whose token changes hands for $10 a pop. It has raised over $700 million to date in the world’s longest running ICO, which began last June. By the time it’s done, the company, led by Dan Larimer, will have a $1 billion war chest at its disposal. The question is, will the charismatic founder stick around long enough to spend these…

Ethereum tokens (ethers) have reached $1,000 on multiple major exchanges for the first time ever. This is an all-time high and the result of a multiple-day rally. The total market capitalization of ethers currently available is now $100 billion.

And yet, ethers only represent around 13 percent of all cryptocurrencies out there. 2017 may have been a huge year for cryptocurrencies across the board,…