Latest Updates
Theta Labs Welcomes Google Cloud As Enterprise Validator, Releases Mainnet 2.0
- Google Cloud will also become the preferred cloud provider of Theta Labs.
- Users will be able to access Mainnet 2.0 via Google Cloud Marketplace.
Coinbase Acquires Crypto Brokerage Tagomi
- Though the specifics of the purchase remain unknown, the two firms did say the deal is expected to be finalized later this year.
- Since its launch 18 months ago, Tagomi has attracted clients such as Paradigm, Pantera, Bitwise and Muticoin.
Global Blockchain Value & Research Center Launches In Shanghai
- The center commenced its work after an initiative on May 22.
- The Global Blockchain Value and Application Research Center revealed the first 16 experts to be employed.
China’s Central Bank: No Launch Date Set For Digital Yuan
- The comment was made by the central bank's governor, Yi Gang, during a rare interview at China's annual government conference.
- The release of China's CBDC could be sped up though, in order for the country to handle a large scale post-COVID-19 stimulus.
Facebook’s Calibra Rebrands To Novi
- The Head of Novi, David Marcus, has stated that the rebranding was needed, as "the old name was a little too close to the name of the Libra".
- The firm also revealed that the wallet will not only act as a standalone application, but can be used in Facebook's Messenger and WhatsApp.
New Partnership Allows Eidoo To Issue Crypto Debit Cards
- Through its new partnership with Contis, a principal member of Visa Europe, Eidoo can now issue crypto debit cards in the U.K. and Europe.
- The firm will use smart contract-based atomic swaps and regulated stablecoins for its crypto-to-fiat conversion.
“Cars Are Just The Beginning”: An Interview With Gapless CEO Jan Karnath
- More than 50,000 cars and 500,000 events have already been registered on the app.
- The long-term vision for the company includes turning it into the "go-to platform for all things you love", including motorcycles, watches, and art.
Telegram’s Court Battle With SEC Officially Over
- The firm has now dropped its appeal against the U.S. federal court’s injunction, which forbade the distribution of its Gram tokens.
- Though Telegram has thrown in the towel, the TON blockchain dream is not over, with the "Free TON" community's launch of their own version of the project.
Craig’s Lies Continue: Kleiman Alleges Wright Possesses Key To Encrypted BTC File
- The plaintiff's legal team points to the movement of $1.6 million in BTC from addresses contained in Craig Wright's list.
- A Redditor, who studies all lists in great detail, explains that all three lists have recently been active.
Editors' Picks
We Asked 21 Professionals Which Crypto Exchanges They Use & Why. Here’s What They Told Us.
- Top picks include Coinbase, Binance, and Kraken.
- The most mentioned reason for using a particular crypto exchange was strong focus on security.
Blockchain.com Reveals Impressive Stats, Future Plans
- One third of all bitcoin transactions ever, happened in Blockchain.com wallets.
- The new Blockchain.com wallet experience will allow users to buy BTC directly with their credit or debit card.
Bank of France 1st To Successfully Test Digital Euro
- The Banque de France's first successful test with digital euro was carried out in collaboration with investment bank Societe Generale.
- Though the bank did not reveal much, the test indicates that the pilot program is focusing more on the wholesale use of CBDC.
The “Unmasking Satoshi” Aftermath
- A YouTube video creator who goes by the moniker Barely Sociable has given the community his take on the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto.
- His work has received disappointing responses, focusing more on partisanship than arguments.
Crypto.com’s Visa Card Now Available In 31 European Nations
- Previously only available in Asia and the U.S., the card is now accessible to all 27 EU member states, including Switzerland, Iceland, Norway and the U.K..
- The company claimed it already had "thousands of reservations" lined up from consumers in the E.U..
Reddit Introduces New Blockchain-Based Community Points
- Users will be able to earn ERC-20 tokens for creating quality content.
- Reddit and its moderators will have no way to take points away from users, as community members will exercise full control over them.
Telegram Gives Up On TON Blockchain After Fight With SEC
- Telegram's CEO, Pavel Durov, cited a preliminary injunction from March, which the U.S. SEC won, as the reason behind the decision.
- Even though Telegram will no longer be involved with the project, the TON blockchain is not dead.
Opinion
Follow This One Rule To Avoid Being Scammed
- Scammers' revenue has grown from "just" $400 million in 2017 to more than $4 billion in 2019.
- Following this one rule will help you identify the overwhelming majority of crypto schemes that many are still falling prey to.
It Would Have Been So Much Easier To Distribute The COVID-19 Stimulus Package With CBDC
- Sending cheques by mail poses a multitude of problems, including lost cheques and wrong addresses.
- If there was a central bank digital currency in place, the distribution process could have been so much simpler, as simple as executing a process in a simple UI.
Can Bitcoin be Used as a Central Bank Digital Currency?
- As unlikely as it might be, we took a look at bitcoin being used as a central bank digital currency.
- We listed the pros and cons, as well as the necessary evolution bitcoin would have to go through in order to be used as a CBDC.
Opinion: 2020, The Return of Cryptocurrency
- With three bullish trends dominating this January alone, the crypto market is showing strong signs of an all-out bull charge.
- The quick progress of blockchain and digital assets into a multitude of industries is fueling a new bubble, bringing up memories of the 2018 Armageddon.
Democratic Presidential Candidates Should Talk About Cryptocurrency
- Aside from a few generic mentions, cryptocurrency has been left out of the 7 Democratic debates so far.
- The digital assets sector has matured enough to demand the attention of top-level lawmakers as regulatory uncertainty keeps hindering innovation.
Fraud is Holding Back the Crypto Market. Will it Ever End?
- Investors need to start evaluating projects more critically, opting to invest in what people do, not what they say.
- More than $4 billion worth of cryptocurrency have been stolen in 2019, compared to $1.7 billion in 2018.
Why Are You Still Not Using Brave?
- The privacy-focused browser is quickly gaining momentum after its 1.0 version release.
- With features like Brave Rewards, seamless security, and top speed, Brave is gradually turning into the benchmark browser of the future.
In Other News
Iran To Draft National Crypto Mining Strategy
- Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, ordered the government to draw up a renewed national approach for crypto mining.
- The development comes barely two days after the Iranian parliament moved to include cryptocurrencies into its foreign currency exchange regulations.
EOSDT Stablecoin Adds Binance, Eosfinex To Governance Board
- The exchanges will now act as "governance supervisors", and will be responsible for approving smart contract upgrades.
- Currently, Equilibrium has four block producers, each of which has a portion of a multi-signature key.
Derivatives & Spot Exchange FTX Joins Coinbase Custody International
- The native $FTT exchange token will be securely stored on Coinbase Custody.
- FTX is the largest crypto derivativesexchange to-date to join Coinbase's custody solution.
Blockchain-Based Finance Platform we.trade Enhances Collaboration With IBM
- The COVID-19 global pandemic accelerated digitization processes in the finance trade industry.
- we.trade is one of the largest blockchain-based trade platforms in production, backed by some of the top banks.
Tokensoft Uses Ethereum To Distribute $4M In Equity
- The company decided to distribute ERC-1404 tokens to investors who participated in its 2018 Series Seed round.
- Thanks to the tokenized equity, investors will be able to receive real-time periodic dividend payments.
Libra Hires Former FinCEN Official As General Counsel
- Libra's new General Counsel, Robert Werner, previously acted as director of both FinCEN and OFAC.
- He also held senior positions in financial firms, such as HSBC, Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch, and is the founder and CEO of GRH Consulting.
Harmony Becomes 1st Sharded PoS Blockchain
- With 4 shards and a proprietary Effective Proof-of-Stake algorithm, Harmony has laid the foundation upon which developers can build.
- The project's goals for 2020 include sub-8 second settlement times and transitioning to community governance.
Uniswap V2 Mainnet Launch Brings New Features, Improved Security
- Some of the features include the addition of an oracle service and flash loans.
- The key limitation of the initial version - running all token trades through ETH - is now in the past.
Bitcoin Derivatives Exchange BitMEX Experiences Issues
- It took roughly an hour for BitMEX's security team to bring the platform back online, though in cancel mode only.
- Days before the outage, the exchange was hit with a major lawsuit, from the same company that sued Ripple.
We Asked 21 Professionals Which Crypto Exchanges They Use & Why. Here’s What They Told Us.
- Top picks include Coinbase, Binance, and Kraken.
- The most mentioned reason for using a particular crypto exchange was strong focus on security.
Telegram’s Court Battle With SEC Officially Over
- The firm has now dropped its appeal against the U.S. federal court’s injunction, which forbade the distribution of its Gram tokens.
- Though Telegram has thrown in the towel, the TON blockchain dream is not over, with the "Free TON" community's launch of their own version of the project.
Derivatives & Spot Exchange FTX Joins Coinbase Custody International
- The native $FTT exchange token will be securely stored on Coinbase Custody.
- FTX is the largest crypto derivativesexchange to-date to join Coinbase's custody solution.
Bitcoin Derivatives Exchange BitMEX Experiences Issues
- It took roughly an hour for BitMEX's security team to bring the platform back online, though in cancel mode only.
- Days before the outage, the exchange was hit with a major lawsuit, from the same company that sued Ripple.
Theta Labs Welcomes Google Cloud As Enterprise Validator, Releases Mainnet 2.0
- Google Cloud will also become the preferred cloud provider of Theta Labs.
- Users will be able to access Mainnet 2.0 via Google Cloud Marketplace.
Coinbase Acquires Crypto Brokerage Tagomi
- Though the specifics of the purchase remain unknown, the two firms did say the deal is expected to be finalized later this year.
- Since its launch 18 months ago, Tagomi has attracted clients such as Paradigm, Pantera, Bitwise and Muticoin.
Global Blockchain Value & Research Center Launches In Shanghai
- The center commenced its work after an initiative on May 22.
- The Global Blockchain Value and Application Research Center revealed the first 16 experts to be employed.
China’s Central Bank: No Launch Date Set For Digital Yuan
- The comment was made by the central bank's governor, Yi Gang, during a rare interview at China's annual government conference.
- The release of China's CBDC could be sped up though, in order for the country to handle a large scale post-COVID-19 stimulus.
Facebook’s Calibra Rebrands To Novi
- The Head of Novi, David Marcus, has stated that the rebranding was needed, as "the old name was a little too close to the name of the Libra".
- The firm also revealed that the wallet will not only act as a standalone application, but can be used in Facebook's Messenger and WhatsApp.
Iran To Draft National Crypto Mining Strategy
- Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, ordered the government to draw up a renewed national approach for crypto mining.
- The development comes barely two days after the Iranian parliament moved to include cryptocurrencies into its foreign currency exchange regulations.
Massachusetts Congressman Introduces Blockchain-Powered Bill
- As the bill states, the Department of Health and Human Services and the National Biodefense Science Board have to establish the National Emergency Biodefense Network.
- Using a private blockchain will allow states to know the status of their biodefense capacity in real-time.
India’s Central Bank to Appeal Supreme Court Crypto Decision
- The Reserve Bank of India is concerned that lifting the ban could pave the way for cryptocurrency trading.
- Imposed by the RBI back in April 2018, the ban was opposed by crypto exchanges and startups across the country.
Russia Proposes New Tokenization Framework, Says Crypto Transactions Are Suspicious
- Russia's central bank has completed a pilot project for the issuance of tokenized assets.
- The country is also planning to update its bank guidance, and could label the sale and purchase of cryptocurrencies as suspicious activities.
Bank of France 1st To Successfully Test Digital Euro
- The Banque de France's first successful test with digital euro was carried out in collaboration with investment bank Societe Generale.
- Though the bank did not reveal much, the test indicates that the pilot program is focusing more on the wholesale use of CBDC.
Uniswap V2 Mainnet Launch Brings New Features, Improved Security
- Some of the features include the addition of an oracle service and flash loans.
- The key limitation of the initial version - running all token trades through ETH - is now in the past.
Republican Party of Arizona Employs Mobile Voting Using Blockchain-Based Election App
- More than 1,100 people voted through Voatz during the party convention on May 9.
- With over 60 elections completed since 2016, Voatz is promoting safe alternatives to voting in person.
Read More
NEWS
Theta Labs Welcomes Google Cloud As Enterprise Validator, Releases Mainnet 2.0
- Google Cloud will also become the preferred cloud provider of Theta Labs.
- Users will be able to access Mainnet 2.0 via Google Cloud Marketplace.
Coinbase Acquires Crypto Brokerage Tagomi
- Though the specifics of the purchase remain unknown, the two firms did say the deal is expected to be finalized later this year.
- Since its launch 18 months ago, Tagomi has attracted clients such as Paradigm, Pantera, Bitwise and Muticoin.
Global Blockchain Value & Research Center Launches In Shanghai
- The center commenced its work after an initiative on May 22.
- The Global Blockchain Value and Application Research Center revealed the first 16 experts to be employed.
We Asked 21 Professionals Which Crypto Exchanges They Use & Why. Here’s What They Told Us.
- Top picks include Coinbase, Binance, and Kraken.
- The most mentioned reason for using a particular crypto exchange was strong focus on security.
Derivatives & Spot Exchange FTX Joins Coinbase Custody International
- The native $FTT exchange token will be securely stored on Coinbase Custody.
- FTX is the largest crypto derivativesexchange to-date to join Coinbase's custody solution.
Bitcoin Derivatives Exchange BitMEX Experiences Issues
- It took roughly an hour for BitMEX's security team to bring the platform back online, though in cancel mode only.
- Days before the outage, the exchange was hit with a major lawsuit, from the same company that sued Ripple.
Iran To Draft National Crypto Mining Strategy
- Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, ordered the government to draw up a renewed national approach for crypto mining.
- The development comes barely two days after the Iranian parliament moved to include cryptocurrencies into its foreign currency exchange regulations.
Massachusetts Congressman Introduces Blockchain-Powered Bill
- As the bill states, the Department of Health and Human Services and the National Biodefense Science Board have to establish the National Emergency Biodefense Network.
- Using a private blockchain will allow states to know the status of their biodefense capacity in real-time.
India’s Central Bank to Appeal Supreme Court Crypto Decision
- The Reserve Bank of India is concerned that lifting the ban could pave the way for cryptocurrency trading.
- Imposed by the RBI back in April 2018, the ban was opposed by crypto exchanges and startups across the country.
Telegram’s Court Battle With SEC Officially Over
- The firm has now dropped its appeal against the U.S. federal court’s injunction, which forbade the distribution of its Gram tokens.
- Though Telegram has thrown in the towel, the TON blockchain dream is not over, with the "Free TON" community's launch of their own version of the project.
Craig’s Lies Continue: Kleiman Alleges Wright Possesses Key To Encrypted BTC File
- The plaintiff's legal team points to the movement of $1.6 million in BTC from addresses contained in Craig Wright's list.
- A Redditor, who studies all lists in great detail, explains that all three lists have recently been active.
Block.One Facing Class Action Lawsuit Over EOS ICO, Again
- The new class action complaint accuses the firm of taking $200 million from U.S. investors during its ICO.
- The development comes only months after the firm paid $24 million to the SEC, after an investigation into the ICO.
Beware: Livestream Crypto Scams On YouTube
- The scammers are using popular figures such as Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak to try and defraud people.
- They also buff the channels with fake subscribers and viewers to make the livestreams seem more realistic.
Blogging Platform Ghost Fights Off Crypto-Mining Malware Attack
- It took around 24 hours to completely clean servers from the malware.
- The firm is now working on rebuilding its entire network, and on cycling all sessions, passwords and keys as a precautionary measure.
dForce Refunds Users After $25 Million Hack
- The attack, which took place on 29 April, exploited a known vulnerability in the ERC-777 token standard.
- Two days after the hack, the attacker returned the stolen digital assets, after accidentally revealing his identity during a transfer.
Bank of France 1st To Successfully Test Digital Euro
- The Banque de France's first successful test with digital euro was carried out in collaboration with investment bank Societe Generale.
- Though the bank did not reveal much, the test indicates that the pilot program is focusing more on the wholesale use of CBDC.
Uniswap V2 Mainnet Launch Brings New Features, Improved Security
- Some of the features include the addition of an oracle service and flash loans.
- The key limitation of the initial version - running all token trades through ETH - is now in the past.
Republican Party of Arizona Employs Mobile Voting Using Blockchain-Based Election App
- More than 1,100 people voted through Voatz during the party convention on May 9.
- With over 60 elections completed since 2016, Voatz is promoting safe alternatives to voting in person.
Tether To Use Chainalysis’ AML Compliance Tools
- With the help of Chainalysis' Know-Your-Transaction tool, Tether will be able to track potential criminal activities.
- While Tether can not confiscate the tokens used in a "high risk" transaction, it can still freeze the wallets that contain them.
Tether Deploys on Algorand
- Tether announced back in July, 2019, that they will deploy on Algorand.
- Algorand has become only the fifth blockchain where USDT is available for trading.
WisdomTree Considers Launching a Stablecoin in the U.S.
- The asset manager, who oversees around $63 billion in assets, will first try to obtain the approval of the SEC.
- The regulatory agency might be a bit more welcoming towards WisdomTree, given that it is an established U.S. financial firm.
The Third Bitcoin Halving (Live Coverage)
- Today marks a historic event in bitcoin's evolution as the third halving approaches.
- After the halving, block reward will go down from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC, heavily disrupting the mining industry.
Coinbase, Kraken Experience Difficulties Amid Bitcoin Price Surge
- Both exchanges seemed to have had issues with their APIs, which could have resulted from "very heavy traffic".
- The brief outages might have also been connected to the price of Bitcoin, which jumped as high as 15% on Wednesday.
Here’s What Happened Before & After The First 2 Bitcoin Halving Events
- The two previous halving events point to a price rally 4 - 6 months after the halving happens.
- There is no clear indicator that suggests miners quit in droves after block rewards are halved.
First U.S. Ethereum Futures Contracts Launched By ErisX
- The first physically-settled futures contracts for the 2nd largest crypto by market cap will be regulated by the CFTC.
- The new offer came only days after the exchange obtained the lucrative New York virtual currency license.
Unibright, Chainlink, Anyblock Analytics Form EMINENT Task Force
- The goal will be to produce open-source standards that will make it easy for enterprises to integrate with the Ethereum mainnet.
- The task force expects to be done within 18 - 24 months, though intermediate updates will be released to the public.
Testnet Split Caused by Ethereum’s Istanbul Early Arrival
- The update came in 2 days earlier, causing a split of the Ropsten testnet.
- There shouldn't be any problems when the update is activated on the main Ethereum network, Hudson Jameson, community manager of the Ethereum Foundation, explained.
New Lawsuit Alleges XRP Sale Violated Security Laws
- The new allegations are coming from the same firm which unsuccessfully tried to sue crypto derivatives exchange FTX for $150 million in November 2019.
- The company, Bitcoin Manipulation Abatement, is looking to "recover damages" and obtain "compensatory damages".
TPBank To Provide Transparent Transactions Between Vietnam & The World Using RippleNet
- Via the new remittance services a transaction between two countries can be settled in minutes.
- Using RippleNet, TPBank plans to open new cross-border transaction corridors and eventually grow their operations into other countries.
The Oldest Bank In Thailand Goes Digital Thanks To Partnership With Ripple
- SCB expects that its Outward Remittance Service should be of big interest to its 16 million customers.
- Mobile payments are very popular in Asia and SCB Easy can transfer money to accounts in 40 seconds.
The Scheduled Bitcoin Cash Network Upgrade Is Complete
- Bitcoin Cash's planned network upgrade went without hiccups or attacks on the network.
- Three new features have been added, enhancing user experience and development capabilities alike.
Bitcoin ABC, Jiang Zhuoer Determined to Implement a Mining Tax on Bitcoin Cash
- Major ecosystem participants, including former supporters of the proposal, have publicly criticised the actions of the most popular Bitcoin Cash node implementation and its representatives.
- The latest iteration of the proposal features a 5% redistribution amount, a voting system and a whitelist of fund recipients.
Roger Ver Explains The Motivations Behind The @Bitcoin Twitter Handle Ownership Change
- In Ver's words, the original owner was one of the earliest popular bitcoiners who lost his cryptocurrency fortune to a hack.
- Selling Twitter accounts is prohibited by the service's policies.
Rewards for Miners Have Been Halved on Litecoin’s Network
- Today the Litecoin network reached block height of 1,680,000, which reduced its miners block rewards by a half, from 25 LTC per block to 12.5 LTC.
- Even though the increased scarcity could push the price of the token up, it could also have an effect on the interest of Litecoin mining.
Litecoin Outshines Rivals in Advance of August Reward Halving
- Litecoin has seen fantastic progress in both pricing and non-price metrics in 2019.
- This superb performance could be connected to the mining reward halving that will happen on August 6.
Litecoin ranked ‘Excellent’ in Adoption and Investment Return
- Litecoin ranked highly by the respected Weiss Ratings.
- The Litecoin Foundation has valuable partnerships and new goals ahead.