In a patent application published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the MasterCard company describes a method by which nodes can connect and verify the content of a particular Blockchain. For MasterCard, it is important to increase the speed with which nodes storing a copy of the network transaction history can be updated. MasterCard first filed its application in October 2016, explaining that "Blockchain can store thousands, millions, and even billions of transaction records in a huge number of different blocks. Although this is part of its unchanging nature, it also means that Blockchain can "contain thousands, millions or billions of blocks, each of which must be verified by a new node before generating and adding new blocks to Blockchain".
"Verification of such a large number of blocks can take a considerable amount of time [...] Therefore, there is a need for a technical solution increases the speed at which you can navigate through Blockchain for verification "- the company claims. For this purpose, the proposed system would include so-called "fast track flags" included in the block headers. Mastercard nodes will then be able to use these flags to scan Blockchain content more quickly. It is worth noting that the application also discusses the use of a specially configured Blockchain that would act as a software equivalent for nodes and would help in further streamlining the process.
Let's now take a look at the Bitcoin technical picture at the H4 time frame. The price has broken below the black trend line at the level of $9,126 and now is heading towards the level of $8,706. The key technical support is still seen at the level of $8,355, but the current price action does not look impulsive actually. It is quite possible that instead of five waves to the upside, the market will perform only three waves up and will continue with the downtrend.
