Month: September 2020

Despite being, perhaps, the biggest tech buzzword of the last decade, blockchain technology has largely remained just that: a buzzword. While its best-known implementation, Bitcoin (BTC), has become a household name, the technology that underpins it remains little more than a mystery for most. By and large, this can be attributed to slow progress in the adoption of the technology for consumers and businesses, caused by divided attention. Rather than a collective push to build advancements only on the Bitcoin Read more …

IOV Labs, the company behind Bitcoin-powered smart contract platform RSK and RIF, has announced a new ecosystem pitched at enterprises and governments. Extrimian, a joint venture with enterprise software firm Grupo Sabra, has set itself the goal of enabling businesses and government agencies to interact with the blockchain and thereby promote wider adoption. It’s the latest shot across the bows by IOV Labs, who is building out a comprehensive technology stack to rival enterprise giants like Hyperledger, Corda and Quorum. Read more …

The President of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro says that the country’s government is now looking at diverse cryptocurrencies as a potential way of avoiding sanctions. On Sept. 29, Maduro presented a new bill that intends to help the country overcome the impact of United States’ sanctions.  As part of the bill, Venezuela will study the possibility of using various cryptocurrencies in both domestic and foreign trade. Maduro claimed that the new anti-sanctions bill involves both private and state-backed crypto initiatives like Venezuela’s Read more …

Crypto exchange Bitfinex is now offering a way for holders of three different cryptocurrencies to earn up to 6.2% annual interest. According to a Sept. 30 announcement, Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) holders are now eligible to earn up to 6.2% annual percentage yield (APY) through a partnership with Celsius Network, while XRP holders can earn up to 4.91% APY. The lending platform, which currently has more than $1 billion in coins from roughly 150,000 users, said it would allow Read more …

A widespread debate among investors is the correlation of Bitcoin (BTC) with other markets. A high degree of correlation between the equity markets and Bitcoin has existed, particularly in the last few months. In other periods, gold and Bitcoin appear to move in tandem. However, the correlation that should be watched the most is the dollar since the global economy is based on the strength or weakness of our world reserve currency, the United States dollar. Weaker USD drove up Read more …

ATOM was among the biggest gainers on cryptocurrency boards this Wednesday as traders assessed its integration into the US-regulated crypto exchange Coinbase. The Cosmos’ native token rallied 9 percent on a 24-hour adjusted timeframe, touching an intraday high level near $5.56, hours after Coinbase added support for staking ATOM rewards. Its gains appeared even as other top crypto assets showed signs of a downside correction. “Starting today, eligible customers can easily start earning 5% APY on their Cosmos (ATOM) held on Coinbase,” Read more …

Swipe, a Binance-owned cryptocurrency debit card provider, is expanding its offering with a new crypto Visa card that allows users to borrow funds using blockchain technology. Dubbed the “LendFi Visa Card,” the new product deploys major decentralized finance protocols to provide “near-instant access to lending balances.” The card is integrated with the LendFi app — a decentralized lending platform that is connected with the borrower through their mobile device. At launch, the platform will support major DeFi protocol Compound, a spokesperson Read more …

A new enterprise initiative launched by IOVLabs, the company behind the RSK Bitcoin sidechain, seeks to simplify blockchain development for governments and enterprises. The joint venture, called Extrimian, was established with Argentinian software provider Grupo Sabra to create the RSK Enterprise Cloud platform. The blockchain-as-a-service platform is designed to allow governments and businesses to develop decentralized solutions and set up permissioned networks with ease. The platform is said to help integrate blockchain DApps into existing infrastructure used by enterprise and Read more …

Technical Operations Coordinator at Brave, Chris Nguyen, hosted a Reddit AMA in which he answered questions from the community. Although he stated that he was happy to discuss all topics, including details of his personal life, the most upvoted questions were about the future direction of Brave. For example, one user asked Nguyen to explain THEMIS in simple terms. Nguyen responded by saying THEMIS is a proposal to decentralize Brave. But it’s still at the research stage of development, and Read more …

JPMorgan Chase has admitted to fraud charges and agreed to settle with the U.S. Department of Justice, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm has agreed to pay nearly a billion dollars in penalties and victim compensation. JPMorgan’s Fraud Cases The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced separate actions against New York-based global banking and financial services firm JPMorgan Chase & Read more …

Bitcoin could soon see a bullish trend reversal as an on-chain indicator suggests it will do so. The on-chain indicator has predicted a number of notable price trends over the past few years. For one, during 2017’s bull market, the indicator formed a number of bounces off the 1.0 reading. Other fundamental trends also suggest that the prevailing Bitcoin trend is bullish. Bitcoin Could See a Bullish Trend Reversal Very Shortly: Key On-Chain Analysis Bitcoin may be primed to see Read more …

A large goup of accomplaces allegedly financing a jihadist network in Syria have been arrested after a sting operation by French police — despite choosing cryptocurrency coupons in an attempt to cover their tracks. In a statement, police said that “constant surveillance of these networks prompted terrorist organisations to seek more opacity by using cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin,” as reported on Sept. 30. Since 2019, the 29 accomplices have allegedly been supporting the operations of an  Al-Qaeda affiliate terror organization, Read more …