Latest Updates
Pizza Hut Venezuela Now Accepts Crypto Payments
- The service is made possible by a partnership with CryptoBuyer.
- Accepted cryptocurrencies are BTC, DASH, and CryptoBuyer's XPT.
Live Coverage: Ethereum 2.0 Launch
- Ethereum 2.0's deposit contract is now live and accepting stakes from investors.
- Once the milestone of 16,384 validators and 524,288 ETH staked is reached, Beacon Chain will activate the genesis event.
Latest Updates
LiveDoncho Karaivanov -
- ETH Recovers, Pushes $600 Again After a Thanksgiving selloff, Ether, and the crypto market as a whole, has recovered. At the bottom of the slump — on 26 November — ETH dropped down below $500. Afterwards, it took only 3 days for the asset to return to its charge at the $600 wall.
- Exact Genesis Time Next Tuesday — 1 December — at precisely 12:00:23 PM UTC, the Beacon Chain genesis will happen, effectively marking the launch of Eth2.
Live Coverage: Ethereum 2.0 Launch
- Ethereum 2.0's deposit contract is now live and accepting stakes from investors.
- Once the milestone of 16,384 validators and 524,288 ETH staked is reached, Beacon Chain will activate the genesis event.
xSigma To Launch Stablecoin Exchange Platform
- The launch of the platform marks the first step towards the creation of a vast blockchain ecosystem powered by xSigma.
- The company has gathered a team of experienced developers in order to successfully scale the project, and introduce many others in the next 12 months.
Chinese Authorities Obtain Crypto Worth $4B From PlusToken
- The Chinese court has ruled that all proceeds from the seized crypto will go to the national treasury, though it remains unknown how the assets will be processed.
- A total of 15 people connected to the scheme have been convicted so far, with sentences ranging from 2 to 11 years.
No, CoinDesk, Satoshi’s Local Time Zone Wasn’t UTC+8
- Satoshi used AnonymousSpeech.com's webmail client to send emails, making the timezone in the Date header field therein irrelevant.
- This time zone is naturally the same as the one in the Received header field of the same emails.
Unibright & Concircle Partner To Improve Unibright Connector Workflows
- Unibright Connector already has a "tailor made derivation" of Concircle's workflow solution — conFLOW.
- The partnership came about thanks to the companies mutual work on Baseline-related projects throughout 2020.
VanEck Lists Bitcoin-Backed ETP On Deutsche Börse Xetra
- The new offering is an Exchange Traded Note (ETN), which is not a mutual fund, but a debt instrument that tracks an underlying index.
- The product will be fully backed by Bitcoin, which will be held in cold storage by Liechtenstein-regulated crypto custodian, Bank Frick.
Law Firm DLA Piper Launches Security Tokenization Platform TOKO
- DLA Piper successfully completed the first tokenization project on TOKO, featuring a fine art piece.
- The platform's transaction ordering will be utilized by deploying a Hyperledger Fabric network in the Microsoft Azure cloud environment, connecting to Hedera Hashgraph.
Chainalysis Raises $100 Million In Series C
- The capital will be used to reach more potential clients worldwide, including government agencies and private businesses.
- Chainalysis will continue to assist institutions with cryptocurrency finance oversight and dealing with crime-related activities.
SBI Group Now Offers Crypto Lending Services
- Thanks to the new service, users can now lend their crypto holdings to SBI, and earn an annual interest rate of 1%.
- The minimum lending amount is set to 0.1 BTC, while the maximum is capped at 5 BTC.
Crypto.com Receives Two Regulatory Approvals In Malta
- The regulatory approvals were granted in-principle only, meaning that the company still needs to meet certain conditions.
- If successful, the firm will be able to provide payment services, issue electronic money, and offer investment management services, custody and trading to investors.
Mysterious Miner Threatens The Existence Of Bitcoin Cash ABC
- Transactions on the ABC chain are only let through if they contain the following message in their op_return: "There was never a funding problem."
- The occasional block mined by ViaBTC mostly contains spam transactions, making transacting on the network next to impossible.
Editors' Picks
Satoshi Nakamoto Lived in London While Working on Bitcoin. Here’s How We Know.
- Satoshi's Bitcointalk posts, SourceForge commits, and emails, lay out a clear activity pattern, which we plotted in different time zones.
- Other available data gave us clues that helped us determine, with reasonable confidence, where he lived.
Satoshi Used Timestamps For Early Bitcoin Source Code Versioning
- We analyse early Bitcoin source code archives - a preliminary version from November 2008, 0.1.0 (both RAR and TGZ), and 0.1.3.
- We conclude that Satoshi used timestamps as a versioning scheme, before the SourceForge repository was established in mid-2009.
Your Friendly Neighborhood Bitcoin Mining Pool
- In the study, we included 16 major Bitcoin mining pools with 80 stratum server locations across 11 countries on 4 continents.
- The data shows that Asia, North America, and Europe is where almost all stratum servers reside, with 1 pool and 1 stratum server representing Australia.
Square Invests $50 Million In Bitcoin
- The payment firm was able to secure 4,709 Bitcoin at an average price of $10,600 per BTC, which is equal to 1% of Square's total assets.
- The firm has stated that BTC is "an instrument of economic empowerment" that can help the "world to participate in a global monetary system".
Estonia Begins CBDC Research
- Eesti Pank will look into KSI Blockchain, which is already a part of its e-government system.
- The project will last for two years and will be conducted in several phases, the first focusing on building a scalable, practical and secure platform.
The US Introduces New Crypto Exchanges Bill
- The bill will supposedly allow crypto exchanges to operate in the entire US under a single license, rather than applying in 49 states separately.
- While the SEC is currently responsible for the oversight of ICOs and token pre-sales, the introduction of the act might cause a shift in the status quo.
When Socialism Destroys a Country, Cryptocurrency Helps
- Socialist policies have destroyed Venezuela, despite the country having the largest oil reserve in the world.
- As hyperinflation made the Venezuelan Bolivar useless, troubled citizens turn to other currencies, including cryptocurrency, as a way to preserve their wealth.
Opinion
The Blockchain-Enabled Elections Of The Future
- We now have the technology to immutably store and process data in a trustless environment, yet we still resort to paper ballots as the fundamental ingredient for elections.
- In a blockchain-enabled future, voting will be as simple as withdrawing money from an ATM, and processing election results will be finished in minutes.
Opinion: How Will Crypto Markets React To The Second Wave Of COVID-19?
- As several countries have already entered the second period of lockdown, many parts of the world are bracing for a long winter of isolation.
- How will this affect crypto markets this time around, and how will it differ from the first lockdown?
Opinion: Why The $100,000 Harvest Finance Bounty Is Absurd
- Only if we put ourselves in the shoes of the attacker can we find a possible angle of negotiation in a bid to recover more from the 13 million USDC and 11 million USDT that were profited from the arbitrage scheme.
- Although the Harvest Finance team has acted responsibly in the face of an unprecedented-to-the-project crisis, their bounty reward initiative is naive.
Opinion: The Impact Of PayPal Entering The Crypto Market
- PayPal will expose cryptocurrency access to its 346 million user base and 26 million merchants worldwide.
- The news is a stamp of mainstream approval on cryptocurrency, but doesn't come without its downsides, including asset encapsulation and centralization, the latter seen by many as the enemy of what Bitcoin stands for.
The Crypto Market Is Preparing For Ethereum 2.0
- Several delays and a couple years of flying under the radar have set up Ethereum's Beacon Chain as a catalyst to a possible crypto market renaissance.
- Phase 0 launch is just around the corner and the market is preparing for the expected increase in demand for ETH.
Can Cryptocurrency & Blockchain Really Change The Global Economy?
- The robustness of trustless DeFi could be the improvement current financial systems need.
- With global change on the horizon, cryptocurrency could be at a turning point.
Is DeFi Sustainable?
- Although speculation largely drives DeFi at the moment, there is much more potential there to be extracted.
- Leading countries are already experimenting with concepts such as CBDC.
In Other News
OneConnect To Provide Blockchain Infrastructure For Two Major China Ports
- The new platform is expected to reduce cost transportation and customs declaration costs by 30%, while integrating a lot of new smart features.
- OneConnect will ensure that logistics data cannot be traced, reducing risks of third-party intrusions.
CipherTrace Files Patent For Monero-Tracking Technology
- This is the second patent filing from the blockchain analytics firm that outlines a Monero tracking technology.
- Both applications are the result of the firm's work with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which began in 2019.
Chainlink Funds IRISnet To Integrate Oracle Technology Into China’s BSN
- IRISnet will provide the required technology for the integration through its consortium blockchain product IRITA.
- The company will also be responsible for the deployment and monitoring of all components to China's Blockchain Services Network.
DAiM First To Offer Company-Sponsored BTC Retirement Plans
- The new retirement plans will include varying degrees of exposure to traditional assets, and will allow for the allocation of 10% to Bitcoin.
- Companies interested in offering the new product to employees in 2021 need to put the plan in place by mid-December 2020.
Algorand Launches New Global Partner Program For Delivering Algorand-Based Products
- Companies that join the program will be able to leverage Algorand’s resources and support to develop and deliver their blockchain-based products to the public.
- The firm will further look into expanding the program to add more global partners, in order to integrate blockchain in bigger financial institutions.
Brave Adds Binance Widget To Android Browser
- Brave Android users can now connect to the Binance Widget and manage their cryptocurrency assets directly through their mobile device.
- All of the options available with the update can be utilized in a privacy-preserving and secure way.
Group Of 30 Japanese Firms To Experiment With Digital Currency
- The group consists of Japan's three largest banks, various brokerages, telecommunication firms, utilities and retailers.
- The goal of the group is to create a digital currency, which would use a common settlement platform.
Zcash Undergoes First Major Network Halving, Introduces “Canopy” Upgrade
- Contrary to public expectations, future funding of the platform has been reinstated with the introduction of the new Major Grants Fund.
- While the platform has certainly adapted to the needs of the community, institutions are still wary of potential privacy issues.
Bitcoin Suisse Partners With Evolute, Prepares For Ethereum 2.0 Launch
- Bitcoin Suisse will utilize Evolute’s financial services platform to integrate external asset managers and allow them to operate with safety and security.
- The Switzerland-based company also announced that it is ready to handle Ethereum 2.0 staking.
Pizza Hut Venezuela Now Accepts Crypto Payments
- The service is made possible by a partnership with CryptoBuyer.
- Accepted cryptocurrencies are BTC, DASH, and CryptoBuyer's XPT.
xSigma To Launch Stablecoin Exchange Platform
- The launch of the platform marks the first step towards the creation of a vast blockchain ecosystem powered by xSigma.
- The company has gathered a team of experienced developers in order to successfully scale the project, and introduce many others in the next 12 months.
Chinese Authorities Obtain Crypto Worth $4B From PlusToken
- The Chinese court has ruled that all proceeds from the seized crypto will go to the national treasury, though it remains unknown how the assets will be processed.
- A total of 15 people connected to the scheme have been convicted so far, with sentences ranging from 2 to 11 years.
No, CoinDesk, Satoshi’s Local Time Zone Wasn’t UTC+8
- Satoshi used AnonymousSpeech.com's webmail client to send emails, making the timezone in the Date header field therein irrelevant.
- This time zone is naturally the same as the one in the Received header field of the same emails.
Pizza Hut Venezuela Now Accepts Crypto Payments
- The service is made possible by a partnership with CryptoBuyer.
- Accepted cryptocurrencies are BTC, DASH, and CryptoBuyer's XPT.
Unibright & Concircle Partner To Improve Unibright Connector Workflows
- Unibright Connector already has a "tailor made derivation" of Concircle's workflow solution — conFLOW.
- The partnership came about thanks to the companies mutual work on Baseline-related projects throughout 2020.
Law Firm DLA Piper Launches Security Tokenization Platform TOKO
- DLA Piper successfully completed the first tokenization project on TOKO, featuring a fine art piece.
- The platform's transaction ordering will be utilized by deploying a Hyperledger Fabric network in the Microsoft Azure cloud environment, connecting to Hedera Hashgraph.
Chainalysis Raises $100 Million In Series C
- The capital will be used to reach more potential clients worldwide, including government agencies and private businesses.
- Chainalysis will continue to assist institutions with cryptocurrency finance oversight and dealing with crime-related activities.
SBI Group Now Offers Crypto Lending Services
- Thanks to the new service, users can now lend their crypto holdings to SBI, and earn an annual interest rate of 1%.
- The minimum lending amount is set to 0.1 BTC, while the maximum is capped at 5 BTC.
Crypto.com Receives Two Regulatory Approvals In Malta
- The regulatory approvals were granted in-principle only, meaning that the company still needs to meet certain conditions.
- If successful, the firm will be able to provide payment services, issue electronic money, and offer investment management services, custody and trading to investors.
Report: South Korea Will Ban High-Risk Privacy Coins
- The Financial State Commission of South Korea will tighten the security around cryptocurrency transacting.
- Crypto companies will now have to introduce the required compliance policies and provide KYC information in order to continue operating in the country.
Cayman Islands To Attract Crypto Businesses With New Regulatory Framework
- Phase one of the new regulatory framework will focus on compliance with and enforcement of AML/CFT rules.
- Phase two, expected to come into force in June 2021, will look into licensing requirements and "prudential supervision" for VASPs.
Xi Jinping: China Should Support Digitalization, Participate In Global Regulatory Framework
- President Xi Jinping announced his intentions to guide the country towards implementing innovative technology and expand its previous digitalization models.
- He further stated that China should participate in the creation of a Global Regulatory Framework for digital assets.
Read More
CRYPTOCURRENCY
xSigma To Launch Stablecoin Exchange Platform
- The launch of the platform marks the first step towards the creation of a vast blockchain ecosystem powered by xSigma.
- The company has gathered a team of experienced developers in order to successfully scale the project, and introduce many others in the next 12 months.
Bittrex Global Lists 7 Top DeFi Tokens, Offers 0% Trading Fees
- Bittrex claimed that removing gas fees for DeFi trading will encourage more clients to enter their regulatory system and comply with the required standards.
- The company has plans to add 12 more tokens to this list until the end of 2020 .
Origin Protocol’s Stablecoin Exploited For $7M In Latest DeFi Hack
- The latest attack once again used a flash loan to exploit a vulnerability in a DeFi protocol, to artificially inflate the supply of OUSD.
- Deposits to the OUSD vault have already been disabled, and the firm is expected to release a full post-mortem of the incident in the following days.
Bittrex Global Lists 7 Top DeFi Tokens, Offers 0% Trading Fees
- Bittrex claimed that removing gas fees for DeFi trading will encourage more clients to enter their regulatory system and comply with the required standards.
- The company has plans to add 12 more tokens to this list until the end of 2020 .
Liquid Suffers Security Breach, User Data Possibly Exposed
- The exchange has said that its customers' funds remain safe, and that the attacker was not able to access its MPC-based and cold storage crypto wallets.
- Liquid customers were warned to be on the lookout for phishing attempts, as the intruder had access to data such as users' emails, names and addresses.
KuCoin Launches NFT Asset Exchange Platform Through Pool-X
- KuCoin will become the first major cryptocurrency exchange to support public trading of non-fungible tokens.
- Users will be able to deposit NFTs starting November 16, and withdraw starting November 20.
Ledger Users Can Now Lend Their Stablecoins & Receive Interest
- Ledger Live will utilize the Compound protocol to facilitate the loans through Compound's cTokens.
- The stablecoins currently available for lending are DAI, USDT, and USDC.
Circle Launches High Yield USDC Business Accounts
- Circle's new project is built entirely on USDC, so clients and corporations can easily integrate the product in a variety of financial applications.
- Customers can now secure their spot on the project’s waitlist and sign up to be among the first to utilize this new investment option.
G7 To Oppose Facebook’s Libra Until Properly Regulated
- Central bankers and finance ministers from the G7 said, in a draft statement, that Facebook's Libra should not launch until it's properly regulated.
- The team agreed "global stablecoins" could improve access to financial services, but that they could also undermine financial stability and consumer protection.
No, CoinDesk, Satoshi’s Local Time Zone Wasn’t UTC+8
- Satoshi used AnonymousSpeech.com's webmail client to send emails, making the timezone in the Date header field therein irrelevant.
- This time zone is naturally the same as the one in the Received header field of the same emails.
VanEck Lists Bitcoin-Backed ETP On Deutsche Börse Xetra
- The new offering is an Exchange Traded Note (ETN), which is not a mutual fund, but a debt instrument that tracks an underlying index.
- The product will be fully backed by Bitcoin, which will be held in cold storage by Liechtenstein-regulated crypto custodian, Bank Frick.
Satoshi Nakamoto Lived in London While Working on Bitcoin. Here’s How We Know.
- Satoshi's Bitcointalk posts, SourceForge commits, and emails, lay out a clear activity pattern, which we plotted in different time zones.
- Other available data gave us clues that helped us determine, with reasonable confidence, where he lived.
Bitcoin Suisse Partners With Evolute, Prepares For Ethereum 2.0 Launch
- Bitcoin Suisse will utilize Evolute’s financial services platform to integrate external asset managers and allow them to operate with safety and security.
- The Switzerland-based company also announced that it is ready to handle Ethereum 2.0 staking.
Ethereum Foundation Announces Eth2 Staking Grants, Testnet
- The organization has announced the "Eth2 Staking Community Grants" round, in an attempt to support a more "delightful" staking experience.
- A number of client developers have also released a 16,000 validator testnet with v1.0 mainnet configuration, and are expected to release a 100,000 validator version next week.
LiquidStake Launches, Offers Collateral Liquidity To Ethereum 2.0 Stakers
- LiquidStake clients can use the ETH staked through the platform as collateral to borrow USDC loans.
- While the platform is strongly centralized, it will allow investors to maintain liquidity while having the opportunity to stake their ETH into the new Beacon Chain.
Ripple Continues To File For Trademarks In The U.S.
- Last week the firm filed for yet another trademark, PayString, though the lack of information leaves us guessing what it will be used for.
- 2020 has been a busy year for Ripple, as can be seen from the USPTO website, which shows the company has filed for 11 trademarks throughout the year.
Ripple Threatens To Move If SEC’s “Hostile” Attitude Doesn’t Change
- Ripple's executive chairman, Chris Larsen, voiced his opinion that the "hostile attitude" towards crypto can only hurt the U.S..
- While moving Ripple's headquarters would do little to lessen U.S. regulatory oversight, a softer host government would nonetheless help.
Santander Adds New Regions To Payments App In Collaboration With Ripple
- Built by Santander and Ripple, the One Pay FX international payments app is now available in 19 additional regions.
- The bank also enhanced its Ripple-powered payments system to allow instant transactions.
Mysterious Miner Threatens The Existence Of Bitcoin Cash ABC
- Transactions on the ABC chain are only let through if they contain the following message in their op_return: "There was never a funding problem."
- The occasional block mined by ViaBTC mostly contains spam transactions, making transacting on the network next to impossible.
Bitcoin Cash Splits, Again
- The outcome of the contentious fork appears to be a massive win for the new BCHN implementation.
- BCHA, while still alive and kicking, appears to only catch 5% of the coin's value. alongside less than 0.1% of the total SHA256 hash rate.
Timeline: Craig Wright’s Story So Far
- Though the Australian has claimed, multiple times, that he is Satoshi Nakamoto, he has yet to provide any concrete proof.
- Wright's story has been revolving mostly around the debunking of multiple "proofs" of him being Satoshi, his role in the Bitcoin Cash split, a multi-billion dollar lawsuit, and his patent trolling company.
Chainlink Awards Grant For xDai Integration
- Protofire will use the grant for a native integration of Chainlink's oracle technology into xDai Chain.
- Being both a validator and core developer of the xDai technology stack made the firm an excellent candidate for the grant.
Unibright Announces New Token Model For UBT, Upgrades Payments System
- The new UBT token will be used as “integration gas” for Unibright services, calculated and managed by Provide Payments.
- Users will be able to buy the assets either directly from Provide or from exchanges and will have to transfer them to Unibright’s hot wallets in order to use their platform.
Ocean Protocol Forks To Retrieve 21 Million OCEAN Stolen From KuCoin
- The organization encourages members of its community to support the hard fork.
- Users who want to transact with their OCEAN tokens will have to use different means in order to do so as it will take time for third-party providers to integrate with the new contract.
After a Successful IEO, The Atari Token Is Now Trading Live
- ATRI's initial live trading price is revolving around the IEO price, providing an opportunity for people who didn't pass KYC to purchase the tokens.
- The IEO lasted slightly more than 24 hours before reaching its hard cap of $1,000,000.
Gaming Giant Atari To Launch An IEO On Bitcoin.com
- The asking price during the IEO will be more than 3 times higher than the price in the first presale round.
- The token will be used for payments in video games and DeFi use cases are also possible in the future.
Binance Launchpad To Host Injective Protocol Public Token Sale
- Since Binance has shown strong support for the protocol throughout its development, Injective have decided on conducting their public sale on Binance Launchpad.
- The layer-2 protocol is expected to bring tremendous change in the DeFi space and show unmatched results in terms of on-chain transaction speed and gas fees.
Kik & SEC Jointly Propose $5 Million Settlement To End ICO Lawsuit
- The proposed joint settlement is not final, and still requires approval from presiding judge Alvin Hellerstein.
- If approved, the settlement will enjoin the firm against future securities law violations, and make it pay a $5 million fine.