Decentral Block Post

Bitcoin (BTC) and altcoins lost big on Aug. 26 after the United States Federal Reserve delivered hawkish remarks on economic policy.

Across the board, risk assets took a major hit — U.S. equities shed around $1.25 trillion in a single session.

Analyst: Powell retiring "soft landing" rhetoric

As comments by Fed Chair, Jerome Powell, suggested that larger rate hikes were still firmly on the table despite recent data hinting that inflation was already slowing, investors rushed to cut risk.

"Restoring price stability will likely require maintaining a restrictive policy stance for some time. The historical record cautions strongly against prematurely loosening policy," Powell said at the annual Jackson Hole economic symposium.

The S&P 500 closed down 3.4% on the day, hitting its lowest levels since late July. The Nasdaq Composite Index copied the move and extended losses, shedding 4%.

Just when the Ethereum ecosystem reached its final stages in preparing for the much-anticipated upgrade, The Merge, german cloud provider Hetzner, reiterated its stance against allowing mining operations for both proof-of-stake (PoS) and proof-of-work (PoW) applications.

Hetzner, a private, centralized cloud provider, stepped in on a discussion around running blockchain nodes, highlighting its terms of services that prohibit customers from using the services for crypto activities. However, the Ethereum community perceived the revelation as a threat to the ecosystem as Hetzner’s cloud services host nearly 16% of the Ethereum nodes, as shown below.

In crypto, the reliance on centralized service providers has been historically perceived as a negative trait when it comes to long-term sustenance — and for a good reason. Redditor u/Supermann- questioned the anti-crypto policies laid down by the second biggest Ethereum Mainnet host, Hetzner. Clarifying the doubts and legal implications associated with using its services for crypto activities, Hetzner stated:

“Using our products for any application related to mining, even remotely related, is not permitted. This includes Ethereum.”

The company also stated that the non-allowance extends to running nodes, mining and farming, plotting, storage of blockchain data and trading. While acknowledging the extensive use of its services for powering Ethereum, Hetzner revealed that “we have been internally discussing how we can best address this issue.” As a fair warning to the community, Hetzner added: