Stories by Rebecca Campbell
Startup uses DNA and blockchain to trace maritime fuel
Forensics and blockchain technology are coming together to help track maritime fuel supplies. London-based startup BunkerTrace is hoping to improve accountability by putting synthetic DNA into the fuel—known as “bunker”—at each stage of the supply chain, which will then be logged on the blockchain. Blockchain developer BLOC and DNA product marking company Forecast Technology have teamed up to create a DNA-based audit trail for the fuel and any changes made to it via the bunkering, or refueling,...
6 things we learned listening to Ripple’s CEO
Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple, recently sat down with Anthony "Pomp" Pompliano, co-founder and partner at Morgan Creek Capital, for an instalment of his Off The Chain podcast covering all things Ripple and XRP-related. The two spoke about what Ripple does, the three components of RippleNet: xCurrent, xRapid, and xVia, the XRP ledger, the threat crypto poses to national sovereignty, whether XRP is a security, and the origin of the “XRP army”, among other things. Read on to find out the six th...
Compound claims to solve DeFi’s biggest problem
Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Compound thinks it has found a solution to one of DeFi’s biggest weaknesses: Its over-reliance on centralized services to provide price data. Currently, DeFi projects require price feeds to operate. For example, a decentralized exchange will need to know what’s the market rate for a particular trade. But so far, the only sources of such information were centralized feeds. The problem with that is, if someone were to tamper with those feeds, it could cause D...
Blockchain voting platform Horizon State shuts down after lawsuit
Horizon State, a blockchain platform for voting based in Australia, has been shut down after a lawsuit was filed against it. The reason, according to a statement by Horizon State, made today, was due to legal costs. It’s not clear who filed the case, nor the details, but Australian publication Micky suggests that former CEO Oren Alazraki may be involved based on a discussion on the site’s Telegram group. Unsurprisingly, the project’s token, called Horizon State’s Decision Token (HST), has lost...
Transactions as anonymous as cash are now possible on Ethereum
Private transactions are now available on the Ethereum network, via a workaround method created by beta project Tornado Cash. That means users can now make transactions without revealing the amount of ether involved, or creating a trail of their previous transactions. In theory, the workaround makes using ether that much closer to using cash in terms of financial privacy, since nobody should be able to see what you are spending your money on. The Tornado Cash tool claims to let users send ether...
Hacker blackmails Binance over KYC data haul
An unnamed person is reportedly demanding 300 bitcoin (worth around $3.5 million) from Malta-based exchange Binance, implying that it will continue to release 10,000 photos that relate to alleged stolen know-your-customer (KYC) data in January if it fails to comply. In a statement today, Binance said it’s investigating the case for “legitimacy and relevancy,” but noted that there are “inconsistencies” with the published data, compared to the information in their system. “At the present time, no...
Bitcoin’s Lightning Network has grown nearly 100% in 2019
New research shows that the Lightning Network, a scaling solution for Bitcoin, is thriving, having nearly doubled its node count and capacity in the first six months of 2019. The new data, presented by crypto analytics firm CoinGecko, shows that network capacity for Bitcoin’s second layer protocol grew by 87% between January 1 to June 30. Meanwhile, its node count increased from 2,298 to 4,576 in the same time period. The rise in capacity and node count have come at a time which saw bitcoin’s pr...
Mastercard targets crypto wallet space with new job ads
Mastercard is turning its attention to developing crypto payment and wallet solutions, and is looking to hire several blockchain professionals in this space. It’s a move that could put it in direct competition with Facebook’s proposed crypto wallet Calibra. Mastercard is a founding member of Facebook’s Libra Association, and is tentatively supporting the Libra coin, which was initially expected to launch in 2020, along with the Calibra wallet. However, following Congress and Senate hearings last...
Bitcoin.com is launching a Bitcoin Cash-focused crypto exchange
Bitcoin Cash-focused news website Bitcoin.com, run by “Bitcoin Jesus” Roger Ver, is planning to launch its own crypto exchange next month. The exchange will simply be called Exchange.Bitcoin.com, making use of the premium domain name. The exchange will support 50 trading pairs. It will offer Bitcoin Cash trading pairs–as part of its mission to champion BCH over BTC–but will also offer trading against Tether, Ethereum and reluctantly, Bitcoin. The Bitcoin.com exchange will launch on September 2 a...
Zilliqa is teaming up with Chainlink to build a data-driven ecosystem
Public blockchain platform Zilliqa is now using decentralized oracle network Chainlink to power its smart contracts. Launched in 2017, Zilliqa uses a technique called sharding to break up databases into easily manageable sections, which, in turn, is designed to help increase the network’s scalability without limiting its security features. Since then, it’s been making hay, launching its mainnet and getting added to Coinbase Pro. And now it has decided to get closer to real world data by integrat...
Masternode provider GIN shuts down as utility token fails to deliver
Masternode service provider GIN is shutting down its platform on August 1 due to a lack of revenue. Masternodes help to run blockchain networks, typically for proof-of-stake cryptocurrencies such as Dash and Horizen. But they involve operating and maintaining powerful machines capable of running nodes and processing transactions, which puts masternodes beyond the reach of most crypto users. As such, the GIN platform was created to handle the equipment side of things and provide this service at a...
First SEC-approved sale of Ethereum tokens will be run by a twelve-year-old
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has given the green light for a crypto gaming company to issue tokens on the Ethereum blockchain—without classifying them as securities. This is the first no-action letter that has been given to an Ethereum-based project. A no action letter is in essence, a note, signed by Jonathan A. Ingram, chief legal advisor for the SEC’s FinHub division stating that it “will not recommend enforcement action to the Commission.” The project in question is Pock...
Scam “more gold” token clogs Ethereum network
More Gold Coin (MGC) is reportedly clogging the Ethereum network, causing transaction fees to spike to 20 gwei ($0.10). The token is being sent out to thousands of addresses, in what looks like a large airdrop. Data from Etherscan shows that there are more than 360,000 addresses that hold the token, with close to 8 million transfers having taken place at the time of writing–with countless more being added. That many transactions would cost the spammer $1.3 million in transaction fees, according...
Crypto industry’s market cap grew 125% in Q2, says new report
The crypto industry is in rude health, according to a new report. The industry saw total market capitalization increase 125.1% from April to June 2019, according to CoinGecko, a crypto analytics firm. The bull market was led by bitcoin, which surged 165% from $4,103 to $10,888 in the time period measured. Other coins within the top five included ether, XRP, litecoin, and bitcoin cash. However, XRP underperformed compared to the others with only 28% gains; the remaining ones all managed more th...
Lightning Network security took $23,000 from thieves says new report
A new report from BitMex Research found Bitcoin Lightning nodes took 2.22 bitcoin ($23,000) in so called “justice transactions” from bad nodes using the network. The report, Lightning Network (Part 3) – Where Is The Justice, focused on ‘channel closures’, a security measure put in place to stop dishonest Lightning nodes from taking funds on Bitcoin’s second-layer network. “By design, when a thief attempts to steal funds on the Lightning network, if caught, they not only lose the money they tried...
Ripple adoption gets another boost after Santander bank launches new payment corridor
Spanish banking giant Banco Santander has announced its One Pay FX, a digital banking app powered by Ripple for cross-border payments, has added a new corridor to its blockchain powered service. Following an update of the app last week, the iOS app supports instant payments between the UK and Poland. While the service was available in the UK and Poland prior to the announcement, money could not be sent between the two countries. Taking to Twitter, Marcus Treacher, senior vice president of custo...
Facebook’s $5 billion fine doesn’t bode well for Libra
It looks like Facebook’s $5 billion settlement, which was ratified yesterday by the Federal Trade Commission, will likely go through. The deal was approved 3-2 along party lines, with the Republican commissioners voting for it and the Dems—who represent, arguably, the victims of the Cambridge Analytica data breach that may have helped elect Donald Trump—voting against it. All that remains is for the U.S. Justice Department to rubber stamp it, and a settlement that The Verge described as an “emb...
Chainlink begins selling its ICO proceeds
Decentralized oracle provider Chainlink has been selling large chunks of its eponymously named cryptocurrency over the past few weeks. The coin, known as LINK, reached a new all-time-high above $4 in June. That largely occurred as a result of a number of new partnerships, and exchange listings: In June it teamed up with Google and the third biggest software company, Oracle. Then, it was listed on both Coinbase Pro and Coinbase—bringing the Coinbase effect back in town. But in the past 10 days, C...
Prediction market Veil shuts down
Veil, a crypto-based prediction market and derivatives platform, is shutting shop after just six months. Built atop the Ethereum-based predictions market, Augur, Veil was supposed to make the service more usable, permitting users to place bets on Augur markets, for things such as tennis matches, Oscar nominations, or the Academy Awards. It also promised faster and cheaper trading, with quicker payouts. Yet, in a Medium post, Paul Fletcher-Hill, co-founder of Veil, explained that as of July 11, n...
Virtual Commodity Association creates six regulatory committees
The U.S.-based Virtual Commodity Association (VCA)–a consortium of exchanges–today announced the launch of six committees designed to provide standards and regulatory oversight for the crypto industry. The six committees, when up and running, will tackle the Bank Secrecy Act and Anti-Money Laundering, custody and security, enforcement, insurance, market integrity, and tax. “Several regulatory agencies have called upon our industry to provide better oversight and surveillance of cryptocurrency m...
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