Month: February 2019

Steven Maijoor, who chairs the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), has shown support for further regulation of crypto assets. Maijoor said he would like to see financial instrument regulation applied to cryptocurrencies in line with Europe’s securities laws, ostensibly to “help protect investors.” Also read: Cryptopia Lost Almost a Tenth of its Assets in January Hack ‘Financial Laws to Protect Crypto Investors’ “Where crypto assets do not qualify as financial instruments, we are concerned that the absence of applicable Read more …

South Africa’s Standard Bank will soon launch its private permissioned blockchain for overseas exchange trades on behalf of corporate clients, fintech news outlet FinExtra reports Thursday, Feb. 28. The platform, which is set to go live in the second half of 2019, is based on the Hyperledger Fabric — a foundation for developing applications or solutions for enterprise with a modular architecture. The South African bank is also planning to connect its foreign currency trading app, Shyft, to the blockchain Read more …

Voyager Digital, a crypto brokerage firm co-founded by a former CTO of Uber, is acquiring crypto wallet startup Ethos, an announcement published by Voyager on Feb. 27 reveals. This acquisition is building on a strategic partnership between Ethos and Voyager, which was first announced in September last year. According to the announcement, the Ethos Universal Wallet software, first released in July 2018, will be integrated into Voyager’s retail and institutional businesses enabling self-custody integrated with a brokerage solution. With the Read more …

Blockchain device manufacturer startup Pundi X unveiled new specifications for its blockchain phone, which it plans to release to the public later this year. Revealed at the Mobile World Congress conference in Barcelona this week, the XPhone will let users switch between a traditional mode that supports Android apps and a “blockchain mode,” which will grant users access to decentralized apps (dapps) loaded on the device. Customers will be able to make the switch with the push of a button, Read more …

Tesla investors should be nervous right now. The company faces a looming $1 billion debt deadline on Friday. The repayment will wipe out a third of Tesla’s cash reserves instantly. But it gets worse. Tesla is reportedly about to take on a further $2 billion in loans to fund its new gigafactory in China. The situation is gloomier still. Elon Musk bought a mountain of Tesla shares with borrowed money. And he put up other TSLA shares as collateral. The Read more …

Another week, and another black eye – two to be exact this time – for Facebook. The latest reveal includes privacy and workplace environments. The company is dealing with fallouts from two fronts. The first relates to a scathing report by The Verge. It details the work environment the company’s content moderators claim has forced them to do all kinds of inappropriate things, including having sex in office stairwells. On a more horrid front,  if you could imagine what could Read more …

Bitcoin price is set to end a 6-month red candle losing streak today if the bulls can maintain a price above $3420. After a sharp $150 (4%) decline and subsequent sharp reversal, we take a look at the charts to try and get the lay of the land before the close. MONTHLY CHART Bitcoin price 00 opened the month at $3360 and managed to reach towards $4200 last week before suffering a setback on Sunday where the bears managed to Read more …

French President Emmanuel Macron has called for increased use of data technologies such as blockchain in the EU to boost the agriculture industry and address concerns over food traceability. Inaugurating the 56th International Agricultural Fair in Paris at the weekend, Agridigitale.net reports, Macron spoke of the need to authenticate and track agricultural products amid growing consumer concerns over issues such such as the recent Polish beef scandal, saying: “Let’s do this in Europe, [be at the] the vanguard of agricultural Read more …

China’s state-backed tech workgroup has released its tenth crypto rankings report, placing Bitcoin (BTC) in 13th, while EOS (EOS) keeps its top spot. The monthly report was released by China’s Center for Information and Industry Development (CCID) on Feb. 26. Operating under China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, CCID first launched its monthly crypto ratings report in May 2018, and awarded major altcoin Ethereum (ETH) the top-rated crypto position out of the original 28 coins. In its latest crypto Read more …

The highly anticipated meeting with the U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korea Chairman of the Workers’ Party Kim Jong Un came to an abrupt end with neither party willing to compromise on a denuclearization agreement. Trump-Kim Summit Ends Without a Deal A relatively high number of political analysts and think tanks in South Korea predicted a fallout between President Trump and Chairman Kim before the meeting took place. Hover Lab, a conservative think tank based in South Korea founded Read more …

When Coinbase acquired Neutrino for an unspecified amount in February 2019, the news looked like business as usual: A cryptocurrency juggernaut had made another acquisition. But the company in question, specifically the ties it has to the unethical practices of one of its predecessors, suggests that the monolithic Coinbase may be joining the oligarchic ranks of its privacy-hostile, too-big-for-consumer-comfort counterparts in legacy tech. The Ties That Damn On its website, Italian blockchain analysis company Neutrino proudly advertises that its proprietary Read more …

The city council of Moscow, Russia’s capital city, has submitted a bill to use blockchain technology for an electronic voting system, major Russian news agency Tass reported on Tuesday, Feb. 26. The Moscow City Duma, a local parliament of the Russian capital city, plans to protect the process and results of electronic voting in the upcoming elections through the use of blockchain technology. The news was announced by one of the authors of the relevant bill, the deputy of ruling Read more …