Stories by Greg Thomson
FCA, Met Police Continue Bitcoin ATM Crackdown in East London
The United Kingdom Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) continued its crackdown on illegal Bitcoin automated teller machines (ATMs) this week, announcing it had inspected several sites in East London suspected of hosting unregistered machines. As per an announcement by the FCA on March 8, the financial regulator stated that it had investigated several sites in the East London area alongside the Metropolitan Police, and would continue to “identify and disrupt” unregistered crypto ATM businesses in t...
Shyft Network wants to keep crypto exchanges in business
Shyft Network announced the release of Veriscope today, its solution to pressing regulation called the Travel Rule. If the product is successful, it could help crypto companies become more compliant with incoming, stringent regulations. The Travel Rule is an old piece of regulation that, in June 2019, was applied to the cryptocurrency industry. Laid out by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), it requires those handling cryptocurrency to know where the money came from and where it’s going. Its...
JP Morgan’s Singapore blockchain payment network ready for roll-out
Project Ubin, a blockchain-based multi-currency payments network created by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), JP Morgan, and state-investor Temasek, is ready for a commercial roll-out following the successful implementation of its prototype. A Reuters report from July 13 confirmed the success of the prototype multi-currency blockchain, dubbed. In a joint press release, the MAS and Temasek said: “An international settlement network, modeled after this payments network prototype, could e...
Chainlink price spikes 30% to hit new all-time high
The dollar value of Chainlink (LINK) exploded over the twenty-four hours leading up to July 13, notching up a new all-time high in the process. The value of LINK has risen throughout 2020, and has increased by 372% since January 1. Leading into Monday, the value of LINK climbed from $6.34 up to $8.22—a 29.65% increase. The peak of the surge arrived in the early hours of the morning, before a slight rebound saw the token price retreat back to the $7.80 range, leaving it up 21% over the last 24...
Wrapped Bitcoin goes live on Compound DeFi protocol
Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) can now be used as collateral on the Ethereum-based Compound protocol. Compound recently became the most utilized decentralized finance (DeFi) application in existence, with almost $1 billion in decentralized loans currently outstanding. The addition of Wrapped Bitcoin to Compound follows a community proposal which was floated to Compound holders in May 2020. After two months of deliberation, the Compound community voted in favor of adding WBTC to the lending protocol, at...
Grayscale large cap fund shifts focus to Bitcoin and Ethereum
Digital assets management firm Grayscale has increased the weighting of Bitcoin and Ethereum in its Digital Large-Cap (DLC) investment fund—at the expense of other major altcoins. Grayscale announced in a Twitter thread on July 12 that the composition of its DLC fund had shifted moving into Q2 of 2020. Between March and June, the percentage of Bitcoin in the fund increased from 81% to 81.5%, while Ethereum’s weighting in the fund increased from 9.6% to 11.7%. The presence of three other major a...
Active Ethereum addresses growing twice as fast as Bitcoin
The number of active Ethereum addresses has more than doubled since the start of 2020. Ethereum's active address count is growing at nearly twice the rate of Bitcoin’s. Data from the blockchain analytics website Messari shows that Ethereum’s active address count has increased by 118% since the turn of the year. Bitcoin’s active address count, by comparison, increased by 49%. Ethereum's unique active address growth outpaced Bitcoin's by a large margin in 2020. Image: Messari Ethereum’s DeFi boom...
XRP tweets hit all-time high after 14% price surge
There were more than 29,000 tweets about the cryptocurrency XRP yesterday, setting a new all-time high and coming shortly after a 14% surge in the coin’s price. According to data from Bitinfocharts, there were a total of 29,143 tweets that mentioned XRP. For the first time ever, this outnumbered the number of tweets about Bitcoin, by 5,000. The number was also seven times greater than the number of tweets about Ethereum. XRP tweets hit an all-time high of 29,143 on July 9. Image: Bitinfocharts W...
Ethereum's DeFi tokens are rapidly outpacing Bitcoin
Tokens associated with decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols exploded in value in the past three months, outperforming the wider cryptocurrency market by a wide margin. Over $2 billion worth of Ethereum and Bitcoin has found its way into DeFi protocols already. The second billion of that sum flooded in during just three weeks in June. What’s more, DeFi platforms are now collectively handing out $25 million per month to their users. As a result, the tokens used by these DeFi protocols have grow...
Vitalik Buterin creates digital art on Ethereum platform Cryptograph
An Ethereum-based digital art auction is set to go live on July 8, featuring exclusive artworks by popular cryptocurrency personalities. The auction will take place on a newly launched auction platform called Cryptograph, that has a social element built in. Cryptograph, which launched on June 6, is a platform for auctioning its own type of digital artworks, eponymously called Cryptographs. Ownership of the artworks will be stored as unique digital collectibles, known as non-fungible tokens (NFTs...
Bitcoin trader bankrupt after fleeing investors’ $13m bill
An alleged Bitcoin scammer has been declared bankrupt after failing to honor payments of R227 million (South African rand), worth roughly $13.3 million. Willie Breedt, CEO of VaultAge Solutions, traded Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on behalf of investors—many of whom now look set to lose their substantial stakes in the company. As reported by News24, Simon Dix, the largest individual investor in VaultAge, successfully applied for a sequestration order from the Gauteng High Court in Pretori...
Visa seeks Ethereum and Ripple devs for global blockchain payments
This article has been updated to reflect the fact that the job posting advertised dated from 2017 Visa is on the lookout for Ethereum developers to help build a global blockchain payments network. According to a job advertisement by the payment processing giant on its New Zealand site, the company is looking for a “strong developer experienced with Ethereum and blockchain architecture” to join its Global Commercial Payments team, working on distributed applications. “Our ideal candidate has bui...
Twitter replaces “non-inclusive” coding terms with newly approved speech
Twitter has abandoned the use of “master” and “slave” terminology in its programming code. The terminology has links, obviously, to the slave trade. On June 2, Twitter released a list of “non-inclusive” terms common to programming which they would excise from common use. “Master” and “slave” will turn into “leader” and “follower”; “whitelist” will turn into “denylist” and the gendered “guys” will become “folks.” Twitter's new words. Image: Twitter In line with its new policy, Twitter will change...
Philippines' SEC just denounced the top Ethereum dapp as a Ponzi
A gas-guzzling Ethereum dapp that accounts for 13% of activity on Ethereum network has been denounced as a potential Ponzi scheme by the Philippines Securities and Exchange Commision. An announcement from its SEC on June 30 advised users of the dapp in question, Forsage, to stop using it immediately, and demanded that the owner officially register with the commission. Forsage describes itself as a “fully decentralized matrix marketing project,” and, “the most thought-out marketing of this type.”...
Crypto social media platform Voice finally launches on EOS
The EOS-based crypto-based social media platform first conjured up by Block.one, Voice, today opened its doors to the public. Anyone can now sign up to browse the site, which essentially functions as a decentralized version of Facebook or Medium. However, those looking to publish on the site will still be required to register until August 15. The launch came earlier than anticipated; the public launch was supposed to happen after beta testing finished on August 15. “We opened up early. We couldn...
‘Bitcoin Jesus’ Roger Ver: crypto could create heaven or hell
The man known as “Bitcoin Jesus”, Roger Ver, laid out his vision of heaven and hell for the future of the cryptocurrency space in a recent podcast appearance. Speaking on the Follow the White Rabbit podcast, Ver told host Alex Kehaya that emerging technological systems like cryptocurrency could swing the fate of personal sovereignty either way. Roger Ver is a vocal Bitcoin Cash supporter and the Executive Chairman of Bitcoin.com. He gained the moniker of “Bitcoin Jesus” thanks to his investment...
Bitcoin Nazis; Ethereum Jews; Tron Japanese: Vitalik Buterin Explains
Just as battle lines were drawn between 1939 and 1945, similar lines were drawn across the crypto landscape in the eleven years since Bitcoin’s creation in 2008. The analogy comes from Ethereum (ETH) creator Vitalik Buterin, who drew attention to the comparison in a Twitter post on July 3, in which he tried to explain the alliances that have formed in the crypto industry. Buterin said that Ethereum is often considered the “mortal enemy” of Bitcoin supporters, while Tron (TRX) is spared the same...
Bitcoin can stop future financial crises, say blockchain analysts
Bitcoin is immune to Federal Reserve’s excessive money printing, say the blockchain analysts at Weiss Crypto Ratings, who this week decried the latest decision by the Fed to buy out junk corporate bonds at 7-to-1 leverage. The bailout, announced last month, will see a further $750 billion pumped into the corporate credit market. The money will provide additional liquidity and credit for larger companies. But the analysts at Weiss, Bruce Ng and Juan Villaverde, argued in a post on July 1 that th...
Dapp volume hits $12 billion as Ethereum dominates
Transaction volumes for decentralized applications (dapps) hit $12 billion in Q2 of 2020—a $4.5 billion (37%) increase from Q1 of the same year. That’s according to the latest figures from DappRadar, which also show Ethereum’s sustained dominance in the space. DappRadar 2020 Q2 #Report is out! We are covering the performance of 13 #blockchains listed on DappRadar. - Total transaction volume across all protocols reached $12 Billion in Q2 2020. - 13 blockchains already hold more than 70,000 daily...
Mass arrests follow police penetration of encrypted messaging app
Police have arrested more than 700 people across the UK and Europe, following an operation in which messages on the EncroChat encrypted messaging app were "intercepted and decoded" en masse. The combined efforts of Europe’s law enforcement agencies led to the seizure of over two tonnes of drugs, dozens of guns, and $67 million in cash, reported the BBC on July 7. The operation began when French authorities successfully penetrated the Encrochat network in early April, installing a technical tool...
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