Allianz Should ‘Shut the F*** up’ about Bitcoin

VanEck CEO Gabor Gurbacs has reacted furiously to a pronouncement by Allianz CEO Andreas Utermann calling for cryptocurrency to be outlawed. In a now deleted thread on his Twitter account, Gurbacs called out insurance giant Allianz for its treatment of his mother when she needed to make a claim following a serious car accident. Inferring that Allianz and other insurance companies are in no position to adopt a position of moral superiority over crypto investors and businesses, Gurbacs admonished the company Read more …

Sephora Shoppers Are Getting Their First Bitcoin Using Crypto Startup Lolli

This holiday shopping season, hundreds of women are earning their first bitcoin by buying items online with an in-browser app called Lolli. Revealed exclusively to CoinDesk, cosmetics chain Sephora has joined the list of retailers where shoppers can earn cash back, in the form of bitcoin, through an app called Lolli. The bitcoin rewards startup says it won over the beauty chain with data: specifically, 30 percent of the app’s thousands of users are women. “We’ve gone back to a Read more …

New Bitcoin ATM Tracker Site Launches in Russia

News A new website showing a map of cryptocurrency teller machines and other points of sale has been launched in Russia. The platform currently provides information about bitcoin ATM locations in the city of Moscow but its developers plan to expand its coverage globally. Also read: French Lawmakers Propose Lower Electricity Rates for Cryptocurrency Miners Cryptocoinmap Has Some Useful Features Cryptocoinmap.ru is quite similar in design to the popular bitcoin ATM tracker website Coinatmradar. At this early stage, there’s still Read more …

Top Crypto Exchange Binance Adds Circle’s USDC to Its Combined Stablecoin Market

Crypto exchange Binance has added Circle’s USD-pegged stablecoin USD Coin as a quote asset for several new trading pairs in its combined Stablecoin Market (USDⓈ). The exchange has announced this in an official post published Dec. 14. USD Coin (USDC), first announced by Goldman Sachs-backed Circle this May, and released in September, is one of a host of new stablecoins notionally pegged 1:1 to a major fiat currency. This November, Binance, currently the world’s largest crypto exchange by daily trade Read more …

US Government Tells Bitcoin Bomb Scam Victims to Inform FBI, Not Pay Ransom Money

A suspected scam which threatens to blow up buildings unless recipients pay a Bitcoin (BTC) ransom caught the attention of the United States’ government Dec. 13. The scam, which centers on anonymous emails demanding payment of $20,000 in Bitcoin or face a “mercenary” detonating a device in “your building,” has appeared throughout the world. Now, the U.S. National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC) opted to release dedicated advice to victims, advising the only action necessary on receipt of an Read more …

Blockchain Development is Linkedin’s Biggest Growing Job Sector

Today, Microsoft-owned LinkedIn released its top 5 emerging careers, where it listed  “Blockchain Developer” as its biggest growing job sector for 2018. According to LinkedIn’s 2018 U.S. Emerging Jobs Report, job listings for engineers who can develop distributed ledgers with P2P technology have grown 33 times this year. In the second place, and by quite a massive distance, is the Machine Learning Engineer role, a position which has increased 12 times within the same period. New York needs Blockchain Developers Read more …

Blockchain Developer Role Tops LinkedIn’s 2018 Emerging Jobs List

The role of blockchain developer has leaped straight to the top of LinkedIn’s emerging jobs list for 2018. The networking platform for professionals said in a report Thursday that recent increased interest around cryptocurrencies has led to staff with blockchain development skills being in high demand in the U.S, and that related job listings have seen a 33-times increase in just a year. The most sought-after skills in the blockchain space include those around the Solidity programming language, ethereum, cryptocurrency and node.js, an open-source Read more …

CEO: Crypto Plunge is Healthy, Bitcoin Remains a Great Investment

Since the bear market hit the crypto ecosystem head-on, investors exposed to this helter-skelter asset class have been deterred at large. Not only have the value of cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin (BTC), declined drastically, but hype and interest surrounding this market have largely been exhausted. Nevertheless, there remain many libertarian-leaning zealots that will hold on to cryptocurrencies, even until the bitter end. And as such, it should come as no surprise that Bitcoin’s fanatics have come to its defense at a dreary Read more …

Blockchain Startup Civic Appoints Apple Veteran as Executive Director of Identity.com

Blockchain startup Civic has appointed Apple veteran Phillip Shoemaker as executive director of Identity.com, its Ethereum (ETH) blockchain-based, decentralized identity platform. The news was announced in a press release published Dec. 13. Identity.com is Civic’s open-source, decentralized and tokenized digital identity ecosystem that uses smart contracts to provide on-demand, blockchain-based identity validation. Shoemaker joins the initiative after working over seven years as senior director of the Apple App Store Review team, which he reportedly built “from the ground up, taking Read more …

Its ICO Portfolio ‘Could’ See 25 Percent Refund Rates Over Non-Compliance, Says Pantera Capital

Blockchain and cryptocurrency-focused investment firm and hedge fund Pantera Capital has warned that a quarter of its ICO projects could be found to violate the United States’ securities laws. According to the company’s most recent newsletter cited by a Bloomberg article Dec. 13, the ongoing crackdown by U.S. regulators means many ICOs, which have already felt the pinch from declining markets, may have to repay investors. “While we believe the vast majority of the projects in our portfolio should not Read more …

Market Analyst Tom Lee Says ‘Fair’ Price of Bitcoin is Over $13K

Fundstrat Global Advisors Head of Research, Tom Lee, holds that the current price of Bitcoin is wrong based on a range of factors. The BTC permabull has also refused to give any further price predictions.  Bitcoin’s Fair Value Between $13,800 and $14,800 According to Tom Lee, the current market conditions for Bitcoin are wrong. Bloomberg reports that the proponent has said BTC’s fair value is between $13,800 and $14,800. Lee explained: Bitcoin’s fair value, given the number of active wallet addresses, usage per Read more …

Bitcoin Price Defies Oversold Conditions to Hit 15-Month Low

Bitcoin (BTC) tumbled to 15-month lows earlier today, dashing hopes of a rally signaled by current extreme oversold conditions. The world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization fell to $3,200 on Bitstamp at 00:15 UTC – the lowest level since September 2017. BTC was trapped in a five-day-long narrowing price range 24 hours ago and showed signs that it might break upwards with a strong move toward the crucial resistance at $3,633. These bullish expectations were based largely on a premise Read more …