As you probably heard, the Bitcoin halving occurred on Monday. F2Pool mined the last block before the reward was halved; block number 629,999. F2Pool also embedded a message into the block referencing a newspaper headline, similar to the one Satoshi embedded in Bitcoin’s first-ever block.

Major US investment bank, JP Morgan Chase, is offering banking services to both Gemini and Coinbase crypto exchanges. The news surprised many, given that the bank’s CEO, Jamie Dimon, made public statements in 2017 claiming Bitcoin to be “a fraud that will blow up,” and “only fit for use by drug dealers, murderers, and people living in North Korea.”

The Reddit link-sharing and discussion platform, with an estimated 330 million users, is set to release its own crypto tokens. Users will earn tokens, known as Community Points, for interacting with the site. These tokens will allow users to buy access to certain site features and functions. The CP token will run on the Ethereum network. While incentivizing engagement using crypto is certainly not a new idea, Reddit’s wide reach will serve to introduce many new users to cryptocurrency.

The company behind the popular encrypted messaging app Telegram announced that it will be ceasing all active involvement with the TON blockchain. This came after a prolonged battle with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that sought to halt it as an unregistered securities sale.

Before we conclude, this week’s “Bitcoin quick question” is what is the incentive for running a Bitcoin node?

A Bitcoin node is a term for a computer that holds a complete copy of the Bitcoin blockchain. Meaning it has records of every Bitcoin transaction ever made. The more nodes operating around the world the harder it is to shut down Bitcoin. Think of it this way – in order to truly destroy Bitcoin you need to destroy all records of all transactions ever made, so more nodes means a more robust Bitcoin network.

However, there’s no economic incentive to running a Bitcoin node. Unlike Bitcoin mining, if you run a node your only incentive is to make sure you’re not relying on any third party to use the Bitcoin network and in doing so you’re contributing to the network’s strength.

Today there are nearly 8400 nodes spread out around the world. If you want to see exactly where they are, take a look at the link in the description below.

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That’s what’s happened this week in Bitcoin. See you next week.

Source: https://99bitcoins.com/bitcoin-news-summary-may-18-2020/