Since our last monthly update, we announced support for Terra, reflected on what the OCC’s recent news means for US banks considering using blockchain technology, and announced support for Crypto.com’s Chain testnet and mainnet. Read on for more!

– Mark Forscher

Company News

1. An opportunity for US banks to work with public blockchains

On January 4, 2021, the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) published an interpretive letter and guidance allowing for federally regulated banks to participate in public blockchain networks and use stablecoins to perform bank-permissible activities. This news, along with the announcement in July 2020 that banks and thrifts could serve as cryptocurrency custodians, could open the floodgates for technological innovation in the American banking sector.

Read more about what the OCC announcement means for institutions considering leveraging blockchain networks.

2. Bison Trails announces support for Terra

The Terra protocol is a delegated proof of stake network supported by a variety of fiat-pegged stablecoins, which are algorithmically stabilized by its native asset LUNA. Participate in Terra, earn rewards, and help to secure the global payment network by becoming a node operator. Those who stake LUNA on the Terra protocol now receive dual incentives for participating in the form of both LUNA and MIR, token of the Mirror protocol. Read more in our Terra guide.

3. NBA star Spencer Dinwiddie picks Bison Trails to power his blockchain community nodes

A driver of blockchain innovation, Dinwiddie taps Bison Trails to power Calaxy’s nodes on the Flow and Polkadot blockchains. (See coverage in Sportico and Brooklyn Magazine)

4. Crypto.com enlists Bison Trails to provide validator node infrastructure for its Chain testnet and upcoming mainnet

Bison Trails’ infrastructure as a service will help validators run nodes easily and securely. Read more.

5.Meet the herd: Customer Success Manager Anne Hathaway

Anne explains the ethos of Customer Success at Bison Trails, learning by doing in the blockchain space, and the industry’s shift towards increased usability. Read the full interview with Anne.

More from the Herd

• Joe’s tweet thread reveals the rapid growth of our team—we’re now 60 herd members strong!
• We wrote a comprehensive guide to delegating digital assets. If you're a crypto token holder who wants to participate in proof of stake networks, and you want to learn more about delegation and staking, start here.
• Evan Weiss, Head of Business Operations at Bison Trails, writes “Now is the time for enterprises to look at eth2” in an op-ed for Coindesk’s 2020 year in review: “Policymakers understand this is a clear movement towards enabling users to own a small part of the next generation internet.”
• Protocol specialist Elias Simos weighed in with insights on Bitcoin whales’ behavior: “Addresses with more than 1k $BTC continue growing at the expense of all others–even as this most recent downturn is taking effect. While you were selling, whales were gobbling up your Bitcoin…”
• Don’t miss Elias’s latest Substrate Ecosystem update: “2020 was a big year for the Substrate ecosystem—leading the pack on total value at stake, with a constant stream of builders enabling tech delivered and integral parts ready to launch in 2021.”
• Bison Trails was selected as one of the honorees of the inaugural Blockchain 50, CB Insights’ list of the most innovative companies that are applying or analyzing blockchain technology to solve business or consumer problems.
• Protocol specialist Viktor Bunin was quoted by Cointelegraph on the sustained community support for eth2: “I was surprised that the inflows have continued to be so large and think there’s a chance that the queue to enter Eth2 does not run dry for all of 2021, meaning there is always a wait for a validator to join the network because so many are trying to join simultaneously.”
• In December we shared more insights and information on eth2’s progress
• Some of our new eth2 + bison apparel was spotted in the wild on social media

“The best and most pragmatic way to gain mainstream adoption of crypto is widespread adoption in the existing financial system.”

—Joe Lallouz, CEO

And don’t miss our 2020 Year in Review—a look back at the moments that defined Bison Trails over the past twelve months.

About Bison Trails

Pioneering Blockchain Infrastructure®

Bison Trails is a blockchain infrastructure platform-as-a-service (PaaS) company based in New York City. We built a platform for anyone who wants to participate in 25 new chains effortlessly.

We also make it easy for anyone building Web 3.0 applications to connect to blockchain data from 33 protocols with Query & Transact (QT). Our goal is for the entire blockchain ecosystem to flourish by providing robust infrastructure for the pioneers of tomorrow.

In January, 2021, we announced Bison Trails joined Coinbase to accelerate our mission to provide easy-to-use blockchain infrastructure, now as a standalone product line. The Bison Trails platform will continue to support our customers. With Coinbase’s backing, we will enhance our infrastructure platform and make it even easier to participate in decentralized networks and build applications that connect to blockchain data.

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