Node Updates

MimbleWimbleCoin (MWC) v5.3.10

• Transaction fee limits: safeguards to prevent unexpectedly high fees.
• New “offline” mode: run in a mode better suited for cold wallet setups (prepare and sign transactions without network access).

We recommend upgrading if you use cold storage or routinely craft transactions for offline signing.

Ergo (ERG) 6.0.1

• Versioned block transaction serializer since 6.0: ensures the correct serializer version is used going forward.
• Candidate regeneration fixes: stability improvements while preparing block candidates.
• Indexed node API additions: endpoint to fetch blocks with full transactions.
• UTXO queries refined: option to exclude mempool-spent outputs across all “unspent” endpoints.
• Unconfirmed TX detail: endpoint now returns full inputs with proofs for pending transactions.

This maintenance release focuses on correctness, API completeness, and smoother block candidate handling.

Zcash (ZEC) v6.3.0

Network Upgrade 6.1 (NU6.1) preparations are included in this release.

• ZIP 271: Deferred Dev Fund Lockbox Disbursement.
• ZIP 1016 (partial): Community and Coinholder Funding Model.
• Activation (testnet): NU6.1 activates at height 3,536,500.
• Regtest control: can be activated at a specific height using -nuparams=4dec4df0:HEIGHT.
• Testing note: during the test phase, consensus rules may change; if so, testnet will be rolled back in v6.10.0 and re-activated a second time (see ZIP 255 for deployment process).

Bug fix: corrected accounting for unshielding transactions spending Orchard notes in transparent balance-related RPCs (e.g., getbalance, gettransaction), aligning behavior with earlier fixes for Sprout/Sapling.

Default updated: -preferredtxversion now defaults to 5 (NU5 format). Use -preferredtxversion=4 to retain the previous behavior.

Block Reward Reductions

Karlsen (KLS)

Per the Karlsencoin tokenomics and emission schedule, the block reward decreased:

• Previous: 29.71 KLS
• New: 28.89 KLS

Please pay attention! 2CryptoCalc has been updated accordingly.

Kaspa (KAS)

As part of the Kaspa emission schedule and Crescendo hard fork process, another planned reduction occurred:

• Previous: 4.90 KAS
• New: 4.62 KAS

Please pay attention! 2CryptoCalc reflects the new reward.

That wraps up the key events of August 2025. Follow us on X (Twitter) and join our Telegram community for instant updates and support.

Author

The 2Miners pool co-founder, businessman, miner. In 2017 started mining cryptocurrencies and built many rigs on his own. As a result, he gained lots of practical knowledge and became interested in sharing it with others.

In his articles on 2Miners, he shares useful tips that he tried and tested himself. For example, Darek gives advice on how to buy hardware components for the basic mining rig and how to connect them to each other correctly. He also explained lots of complicated terms in simple words, such as shares, mining luck, block types, and cryptocurrency wallets. After the pool was launched, he published a series of articles ‘Crypto Mythbusters’ where he explained how to protect the network against 51% attack, talked about cryptocurrency mining difficulty and difficulties of launching your own node.

MimbleWimbleCoin (MWC) is Back on 2Miners!

We’re happy to announce that MimbleWimbleCoin (MWC) has returned to the 2Miners mining pool!

Important Notes:

• Payouts are available in MWC only (BTC payouts are not supported).
• You must use the official wallet for payouts: mwc.mw/downloads
• Profitability estimates are already available on 2CryptoCalc.
• The primary exchange for MWC is XT.com.

Node Updates

Zephyr Protocol v2.2.0 – Audit Extension

Hardfork v10 has activated at block 511000, re-enabling the Audit state (originally used in Hardfork v8). From this block forward, only audit transactions are permitted. All regular transfers and conversions are temporarily disabled.

This is your final opportunity to have your assets audited. The extension ensures that all services and ecosystem participants complete their audit procedures. The next hardfork, v11, will restore normal functionality and will require another update.

Stay informed through the official Zephyr channels for confirmation on v11 activation and the upcoming build.

Zephyr Protocol v2.2.1 – Wallet Improvements

This optional update delivers several wallet-side improvements and addresses reported transaction issues. Although not mandatory, it’s highly recommended for users experiencing problems with transaction rejection or UTXO synchronization.

Key Fixes and Enhancements:

• Improved transaction broadcasting in chunks.
• Updated UTXO selection logic to handle dust properly.
• Better synchronization behavior after broadcasting a transaction.
• New RPC options for viewing wallet versions and background operations.
• Memory leak fixes, syncing optimizations, and Node.js warning resolution.
• Improved transaction mass policy to prevent rejected submissions.

If your wallet has shown errors related to oversized transaction mass, this update should resolve those issues. Thanks to all community contributors!

Ergo Protocol Reference Client v5.0.25

The latest update to the Ergo reference client brings several useful changes for developers and node operators:

• New API Methods
• bannedPeers config field allows permabanning of specific peers.
• Improved rollback handling and extra index reliability.
• Reworked segment retrieval for better ordering in blockchain-related endpoints.

Attention Ergo (ERG) miners! In accordance with the Ergo Tokenomics and Emission Schedule, a scheduled block reward reduction has occurred. The block reward for miners has been decreased from 18 ERG to 15 ERG. Please make sure to update your profitability estimates — 2CryptoCalc has already been updated with the new value.

That’s all for May 2025. Don’t forget to follow us on X (Twitter) and join our Telegram community for real-time updates. Happy mining!

MWC 2025 has come and gone, and while we could only choose a select few products in our Best of MWC 2025, that doesn’t mean there was a shortage of interesting and even straight-up weird devices. That’s where this list comes in, as Android Central’s Derrek Lee and Harish Jonnalagadda list out some of the coolest (and weirdest) devices at MWC 2025.

TECNO’s very thin phone

The Spark Slim is one of the most impressive devices at the show. Not only does it have an incredibly sleek design, but the phone measures just 5.75mm in thickness. What’s amazing about this is that TECNO managed to squeeze a fairly large 5,200mAh battery into the phone, which is larger than the battery powering the rather massive Galaxy S25 Ultra.

The design looks like a futuristic Nexus, with a camera bar spanning the top of the phone and LEDs and unibody ceramic or stainless steel rear panels, both of which look better than most phones on the market today. For now, the phone is just a concept, but with the renewed interest in thin phones this year, we hope it arrives sooner rather than later.

Samsung Display’s claw-like foldable

So-called “tri-fold” phones are slowly becoming a thing, but this device does things a little differently. Instead of a large phone opening to a tablet-sized device, this Samsung Display concept takes the flip form factor and flips the script… again. Instead of folding two halves together, this phone folds in two separate sections, which closes the phone like you would close your fist.

Even more unique is the fact that it leaves a section of the display visible when the phone is closed, allowing the user to view notifications or the like from the small sliver of the screen. It’s by far one of the weirdest designs we’ve seen.

This Realme phone lets you use camera lenses

Realme showcased the Ultra at MWC 2025, and the main highlight of the device is that it has a 1-inch sensor — much like the Xiaomi 15 Ultra and other Chinese rivals. However, unlike all of those phones, Realme managed to add a mount to the back of the Ultra, allowing you to attach standard camera lenses to the phone. It is a neat idea, and Realme had a 10x lens that allowed the device to take lossless images at that zoom factor. As you’d imagine, the camera lens is absolutely massive, but it is usable — more so than I initially imagined.

Obviously, this isn’t a retail product yet, but Realme has indicated that it will start selling a variant of the phone to consumers at some point. The lens that Realme showcased had a custom mount, but if the brand is able to deliver a retail device that works with standard Sony, Canon, or Nikon lens mounts, it would make the phone so much more versatile as a camera package.

Xiaomi also has an interchangeable lens on a phone

Xiaomi also tried its hand at attaching a lens to the back of its phone — in this case, a custom Xiaomi 15 — and unlike Realme, it bolted on magnetic ring with pogo pins to the back of the device to facilitate the lens. The result is a cleaner look, and you can use the main cameras in addition to the lens attachment. The lens itself is considerably shorter than most traditional DSLR lenses, and the 35mm focal length is ideal for shooting in day-to-day scenarios.

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Xiaomi says the pogo pins make it near-instantaneous to transfer imagery data to the device, and I like the idea of being able to attach lenses to the back of an existing phone. Xiaomi didn’t say if it would put this idea into production, but it is possible we may see something along these lines on the next Ultra device.

Your next handheld console could be a foldable

Samsung knows how to make standout foldable OLED panels, and at MWC, Samsung Display showcased what’s on the horizon. The star attraction is a handheld console with a foldable panel; it bends in the middle similar to the Galaxy Z Fold 6, and it is an undoubtedly cool idea. The demo unit was just to highlight the panel, so it wasn’t a full-fledged console as such, but I’m excited to see one of the many handheld brands try to leverage this design — I would love to use a foldable Steam Deck.

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Samsung also highlighted its Flex G and Flex S designs; these are foldable panels aimed at tri-folding and multi-folding devices, and while it is unlikely we’ll see Samsung release phones that use these OLED panels anytime soon, it’s great to see that the tech itself is available.

Tecno has a tri-fold to take on the Huawei Mate XT

I’m thoroughly enjoying using my Huawei Mate XT, and the tri-folding device is holding up much better than I imagined. Tecno demoed its own tri-folding device at MWC, and it is pretty great in its own right. While it isn’t as sleek as the Mate XT, it has a usable tri-folding design, and it also extends to a tablet-sized panel.

Tecno didn’t detail much about the device, but the one advantage it has over the Mate XT is that it has Google’s Play Store and associated mobile services installed out of the box. Like the Tecno Spark Slim, the brand doesn’t have any plans to introduce this device as a retail offering at this moment in time, but I want that to change.

Unlock your inner Jedi with the Mudra Link

Mudra Link is a unique gesture control wristband that leverages neural signals to drive interactions. It connects via Bluetooth, and in the MWC 2025 demo, it was paired to a Mac Mini and was able to control the volume and play a virtual violin instrument. There’s also a Mudra Band that can be used with the Apple Watch, giving you the ability to control the Apple TV from your wrist. Mudra says it’s working with XR device manufacturers to integrate the Link with their devices, and that sounds interesting to say the least.

Infinix’s phone with color-changing back

Infinix had one of the coolest demos at MWC 2025, with its E-Color Shift 2.0 phone featuring a color E Ink panel at the back that changes colors dynamically. There’s the option to change colors to custom patterns or designs, and you can also tweak the back colors to reflect the weather, your mood, or even an emoji. It did a great job changing colors on the fly, and the use of E Ink at the back to do so is a novel idea.

Infinix says it is mulling debuting a phone with similar tech, but there are no plans to bring this particular device to market. Even then, I’m positive another brand will see what Infinix did here and will try to leverage the same idea in its own device.

Honor’s magic hand

As an honoree for best AI innovation at MWC, Honor is doing a very interesting thing with its AI. The company had a robotic hand on display that onlookers could interact with. Paxini includes a camera that can view your hand and then replicate your movements. A computer was set up to stream the feed from Paxini so you can see how it’s analyzing your hand’s movements. It wasn’t immediately clear what Honor planned to do with the hand, but there’s no doubt there could be plenty of uses for something like this.

The Z in ZTE stands for Zoom

With the adoption of telephoto lenses on smartphones, we’re finally graduating from the era of digital-only zoom. ZTE is taking things a step further with the Nubia Focus 2 Ultra, which features a ring around the camera housing that can be physically rotated to control the zoom. ZTE says the Focus 2 Ultra has a 108MP primary camera and five focal lengths. With the zoom ring, users can close in on a subject up to 10x, and you even get a camera button to complete the package, making this the ultimate camera phone.

Cycling with style (and a camera)

We love smart glasses here, and if you’re a cyclist, then these glasses are for you. Not only do they look cool, but there’s a 16MP camera in the middle that is capable of capturing smooth 1080p video for up to four hours. What’s cool is that they use AI to create automatic highlights within the app, and then you can stitch the clips together for an ultimate highlight video, complete with your route and stats like speed, distance, and duration. Plus, there’s a great set of open-ear surround-sound speakers to keep you both entertained and aware of your surroundings.

FaceID for Android

Android has had a few goes at a true FaceID competitor, but nothing has really stuck. Metalenz is trying to change that with Polar ID, which uses the company’s technology to not only make traditional camera stacks smaller and smarter but also bring FaceID-levels of biometric security to Android phones. It appears to be much more secure than what’s available on phones like the Google Pixel and is even smart enough not to be fooled by masks or even a 3D printout of someone’s face.

Polar ID is supported on flagship Snapdragon chips, and the company is talking to OEMs now, so hopefully, we’ll be seeing this tech on our next smartphones.

RayNeo demoes futuristic XR glasses

RayNeo is doing all the right things in the XR category, and the X3 Pro is definitely interesting. The AR glasses use a micro-LED light engine and go up to 2500 nits, and there’s a camera at the front that lets you record photos and videos. The best feature is the built-in AI translation; it translates conversations in real-time, and it did an effective job in the demo that RayNeo set up on the convention floor. The glasses are coming out in the latter half of the year, and I can’t wait to get my hands on the product.

Lenovo bends its best-selling notebook

Foldables phones have become mainstream these days, but that isn’t the case with notebooks. Well, Lenovo is aiming to change that with the ThinkBook Flip, a device that has an absurd 18.1-inch panel that folds outwards. Other than the fact that the panel folding outwards means there’s always a section that’s prone to damage should it take a tumble, I don’t really see how the extra-tall width makes sense on a notebook. This is just a demo at this point, and it’s unlikely Lenovo will introduce a consumer model anytime soon.

Etisalat’s humanoid robot freaked us out

Etisalat is the UAE’s biggest carrier, and it now goes by the name e&. Anyway, it had a humanoid robot at its booth made by the U.K.’s Engineering Arts, and it was pretty convincing. Called Amira, the robot mimics facial cues easily, and it uses AI to converse. Engineering Arts noted that the robot on the show floor was controlled by a human to answer queries — we were told that is the only reliable way to make any sense of dozens of attendings shouting questions at once — so we don’t have to be too worried about the robot apocalypse.