The Financial Integrity Network (FIN) — a Washington D.C.-based advisory firm — has urged the United States Congress to regulate firms in the cryptocurrency sector under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). Virtual asset service providers should be regulated under BSA In a copy of FIN testimony published ahead of a hearing on Sept. 3, FIN...Read More
The Bitcoin (BTC) price has rallied over the past few days and has again crossed the $10,000 threshold. Bitcoin 7-day chart. Source: Coin360 On Aug. 28, Bitcoin dropped $600 in the course of a half-hour, sinking below the $10,000 mark before slumping to a weekly low of $9,362 on Aug. 29. The price has slowly...Read More
Self-proclaimed creator of Bitcoin (BTC) Craig Wright wants to challenge a recent court order requiring him to pay 500,000 Bitcoins to the Kleiman estate. Reinhardt did not have power to enter the order, Wright says On Aug. 30, Wright’s attorney Andres Rivero filed a document with the United States District Court for the Southern District...Read More
The first birth certificates to be recorded by exclusively using blockchain technology were issued in Brazil. As Cointelegraph Brasil reports on Sept. 1, Álvaro de Medeiros Mendonça is one of the first children in the country to have their birth certificate recorded only with blockchain technology, without the need of the registry office. Streamlining registration...Read More
The municipal government of São Paulo, Brazil, is going to use a blockchain registry for its public works projects. The Municipal Secretariat of Urban Infrastructure and Works contracted blockchain firm Construtivo to implement a blockchain solution for city hall, Cointelegraph Brasil reports on Sept. 1. Better transparency after past inefficiencies The city has decided to...Read More
Philippine boxing champion and celebrity Manny Pacquiao has launched his own cryptocurrency. On Sept. 1, the South China Morning Post reported that the Filipino boxer turned politician and singer launched his own token with the financial support of private investors such as ex-Liverpool and England soccer star Michael Owen and Sheikh Khaled bin Zayed al-Nahyan,...Read More
Coming every Sunday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link. Top Stories This Week Sudden slump sees Bitcoin lose support for five figures After...Read More
There are several countries around the world that are developing national blockchain-based digital currencies — such as Venezuela and its state-owned Petro (PTR), China and its plans to issue a government-backed digital currency, etc. We reached out to experts in the crypto and blockchain industries, central bank officials and researchers to answer whether or not...Read More
Telegram Open Network’s (TON) blockchain will allow developers to port their Ethereum (ETH) smart contracts. As industry news outlet CoinDesk reported on Aug. 30, software startup TON Labs managed by Telegram’s token offering investors is building a Solidity compiler for its blockchain. This programming language is primarily used to develop smart contracts in the Ethereum...Read More
This week saw major expansion of crypto payments in Brazil, new standards freeing Bitcoin from Portuguese taxes, and the allegedly fraudulent Grupo Bitcoin Banco’s refusal to pay clients their deposited funds. Brazil’s central bank announced that it would classify cryptocurrencies according to International Monetary Fund (IMF) guidelines on Aug. 26. With the new classification under...Read More
This week saw twin reports from smart contract startup Simba Chain and blockchain data management firm Constellation, both of whom announced contracts with the United States Air Force. New utility in USAF Judging by these developments, the U.S. Air Force is looking seriously at new tech to shore up supply chains and rearrange data. Simba...Read More
On Aug. 28, the Ministry of Economy of Kyrgyzstan has submitted the draft law “On Amending the Tax Code” with the aim of introducing cryptocurrency mining taxation. New tax proposal According to news outlet Kabar, the draft law was specifically developed to allow for the possible taxation of crypto mining. The taxation on cryptocurrency mining...Read More
This week, major cryptocurrency exchange Binance stated that it plans to take a conservative approach and that Venus project will comply with all the regulatory requirements. This will keep it away from the hurdles that Facebook’s Libra project currently faces. The total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies has dipped below $250 billion. Since mid-July, crypto markets...Read More
Automotive supplier Continental has unveiled an application called Earn As You Drive, which uses blockchain technology to monetize car user information. Parking space data for digital currency Forbes reported the news on Aug. 29. Per the report, Continental has partnered with tech firm Hewlett Packard Enterprise and open source network provider Crossbar.io to create Earn...Read More
South Korean art-focused blockchain project ArtBloc will conduct a fractionalized ownership sale of two paintings by popular British painter David Hockney. ArtBloc launch commemoration ArtBloc plans to host a special event introducing the blockchain-enabled fractionalized ownership sale of two of David Hockney’s paintings in Seoul on Sept. 19, local outlet KoreaTechDesk reported on Aug. 29....Read More
Distributed ledger technology (DLT) company Iota partners with auto manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover for a proof-of-concept (PoC) demonstration for tracing car energy with DLT. Tracking energy source and usage Iota announced the news in an official blog post on Aug. 30. Per the announcement, Iota is partnering with Jaguar Land Rover and French energy R&D...Read More
Switzerland’s largest supermarket chain and retailer, Migros is turning to blockchain to keep tabs on its supply chain for food. Migros announced the implementation of TE-Food’s blockchain-based food traceability system, Aug. 29. Whilst many retailers are incorporating such systems to provide transparent information to customers, Migros is looking to the technology to optimize processes and...Read More
Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has said that it will learn from the regulatory issues that have plagued Facebook’s proposed Libra digital currency. In an interview, Aug 29, Binance co-founder He Yi claimed that the company will engage with regulators from day one regarding its Venus stablecoin project. He also confirmed previous rumors that Venus will be...Read More
Cybersecurity company McAfee Labs has released its August 2019 threat report, which notes an increase in cryptojacking campaigns and ransomware attacks in Q1 2019. Cryptojacking on the rise McAfee Labs posted their report on the company’s website on Aug. 28. According to the report, crypto jacking — installing and running a cryptocurrency miner without user...Read More
Major phone operator China Telecom has released a white paper on blockchain-powered smartphones in the 5G Era. China Telecom introduced the white paper at the China International Intelligent Industry Expo on Aug. 27, according to a report by local finance news outlet Sina. Existing troubles In the document, China Telecom pointed out the potential benefits...Read More
TSMC, the world’s largest independent semiconductor foundry and chip supplier for Bitmain, is facing multiple lawsuits from its competitor GlobalFoundries (GF). Alleged patent infringement GF, the second biggest semiconductor foundry by sales after TSMC, filed several lawsuits in the United States and Germany, accusing Taiwanese TSMC of infringing on 16 GF patents, according to an...Read More
Dubai-based fintech company Wethaq has entered into a strategic partnership with enterprise software firm R3, in order to create a platform for issuing and trading sukuk securities based on R3’s Corda offering. A platform for Islamic securities According to a press release on Aug. 28, Wethaq’s platform is built on R3’s open source enterprise blockchain...Read More
New research by major cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase shows that 56% of the top 50 universities in the world offer one or more classes on cryptocurrency or blockchain tech. Metrics indicate growing interest Coinbase shared its research in an official blog post on Aug. 28 in which it used rankings from US News and World...Read More
Monday, Aug. 26 — Top cryptocurrencies Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and XRP are in the red. After trading sideways for most of the day, the market is currently seeing minor losses. Market visualization. Source: Coin360 BTC is trading at $10,350 at press time — a 1.72% price decrease on the day. BTC has been mostly...Read More
Pat Gelsinger, the CEO of major cloud computing and virtual machine company VMWare, has condemned Bitcoin (BTC) as being “bad for humanity.” Fortune spoke to Gelsinger about Bitcoin prior to VMWare’s annual conference in San Francisco on Aug. 26. According to Gelsinger, one issue with Bitcoin is its purportedly high energy consumption, which contributes to...Read More
The protracted legal battle involving self-proclaimed Bitcoin (BTC) inventor Craig Wright and the estate of computer scientist David Kleiman could go in Keiman’s favor. According to a court audience member on Aug. 26, Judge Bruce Reinhart rejected Wright’s testimony, stating that he had perjured himself by providing the court with falsified documents and recommended that...Read More
The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) told investors to ditch gold for Bitcoin (BTC) just before the precious metal surged. A case of bad timing for Grayscale That was the latest observation from RT host and Bitcoin bull, Max Keiser, who on Aug. 26 concluded GBTC’s dedicated Bitcoin-not-gold campaign got its timing wrong. “$GBTC’s ‘Drop Gold’...Read More
A new partnership between a development bank, a nongovernmental organization (NGO) and a tech corporation is eyeing the creation of a blockchain-based identity system to improve financial inclusion in Buenos Aires. IDB Lab (the Innovation Laboratory of the Inter-American Development Bank Group), NGO Bitcoin Argentina and the Argentine subsidiary of NEC Corporation announced they had...Read More
Japan is a friendly jurisdiction for cryptocurrency trading and development, having eliminated the consumption tax on Bitcoin (BTC) trading in 2017, after which it recognized the coin as legal tender. This week in Japan, a crypto exchange that was hacked earlier this year has closed its doors, while the central bank has come out as...Read More
Following a visit to Switzerland to meet with the country’s financial regulators, United States lawmakers are still concerned over Facebook’s proposed cryptocurrency project, Libra. Meetings with multiple agencies According to an official statement from Representative Maxine Waters, members of the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee met with multiple regulatory agencies and lawmakers. These...Read More