Day: September 2, 2018

The Petro Probably Doesn’t Exist, Nor the Oil Reserves Backing It: Report

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A month after Venezuelan president Nicholas Maduro announced the creation of the Petro, a state-backed cryptocurrency that would supposedly bring the country out of six-figure hyperinflation, the only place the Petro seems to exist is in the media. A Reuters special report recently documented the situation in the oil-rich savanna region around the town of Atapirire, which is where the bulk of the oil-reserves supposedly backing the Petro are situated. “5 Billion Barrels of Crude Oil” Back in February when Maduro announced the decision to create the Petro, the sparsely inhabited…

Crypto Exchange Bittrex Invests 10 Percent Stake in Malta-Based Blockchain Firm Palladium

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Bittrex, one of the top cryptocurrency exchanges worldwide, has recently invested in Malta-based blockchain company Palladium, local news outlet Times of Malta reports September 2. The U.S.-based Bittrex, now the 18th top crypto exchange by total average trade volume, has bought a 10 percent share in Palladium. In July, Palladium had announced plans to distribute $150 million in tokens in the world’s “first” Initial Convertible Coin Offering (ICCO) in partnership with Bittrex and Unikrn eSports bookmaker, scheduled to begin on July 25. Current shareholders of Palladium include Investar Holding and…

The rise of crypto in higher education – The Coinbase Blog

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When David Yermack, the finance department chair at New York University Stern School of Business, first offered his course on blockchain and financial services in 2014, 35 students signed up, eight fewer than the school’s typical elective. By spring 2018, the number of enrolled students climbed to 230, forcing Stern to move the class to its largest auditorium. This academic year, Yermack will teach the blockchain course both semesters to meet interest from students. Yermack says he first developed the class because he was interested in bitcoin and how quickly…

Understanding Web 3 — A User Controlled Internet – The Coinbase Blog

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Coinbase breaks down the motivation and technology behind the development of Web 3 This 3-part post focuses on the why, what and how of the latest chapter in the world wide web’s history, called Web 3. Part 1 explains shortcomings of today’s web and how Web 3 represents an improvement; Part 2 focuses on what the Web 3 stack is; and Part 3 focuses on how developers can build on it. Today’s world wide web, or the internet, has two key missing properties: It doesn’t hold “state”, independent of trusted operators…

Experimental art, presidential campaign donations, and Yale economic research

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A curated selection of meaningful moments in August that are bringing us all closer to realizing an open financial system for the world. Artists Ai Weiwei and Kevin Abosch create conceptual art called Priceless on the Ethereum blockchain Artists Kevin Abosch and Ai Weiwei. Source: https://whatispriceless.com/ Berlin-based Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has partnered with New York-based Irish artist Kevin Abosch to explore the concept of value in a work called PRICELESS. The work is largely made up of two standard ERC-20 tokens on the Ethereum blockchain, with PRCLS as its…

Bookmark your favorite dapps on Coinbase Wallet – The Coinbase Blog

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Everyone has a few favorite decentralized apps (dapps) — whether it’s a collectibles game, a token trading platform, or a decentralized social network. Bookmarks have been one of our most requested features since we launched dapps on Coinbase Wallet. Now, you can bookmark your favorite dapps and see them on your Coinbase Wallet homescreen. Add and manage your bookmarks with Coinbase Wallet. And that’s not all we’re shipping in this update. We’ve also launched the dapp explorer — your homebase to discover the latest and greatest dapps on the decentralized web. The dapp explorer is…

Despite Shorts Rising Rapidly Bitcoin Secures $7,200, Tokens Bleed Out

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On September 2, short contracts on Bitcoin started to pile up on BitMEX and Bitfinex, a relatively large portion of the crypto market expressed their negative stance on the short-term performance of Bitcoin price. Although Bitcoin has successfully broken out of the $7,200 resistance level on September 1, since late August, the dominant cryptocurrency has struggled to see major movements on the upside. Some analysts have said that the stability being shown by BTC is positive, especially if the market prepares to initiate a mid-term rally in the weeks to…

Japan’s Financial Regulator Enhances Risk Screening Process for Crypto Exchanges

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Japan’s financial regulator, the Financial Services Agency (FSA), will fortify the process of registration screening for cryptocurrency exchanges, local media outlet The Japan Times reports September 2. The FSA has ungraded the registration process, revising the Payment Services Act — enforced since April 2017 — in order to “to see whether they [crypto exchanges] are properly conducting risk management,” sources told The Japan Times. The financial watchdog has added several new features to the previous act’s legislation, increasing “the number of questions asked when screening applications to about 400 items,…

VMware Claims Greater Scalability With Open-Source Blockchain Project

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Cloud computing and virtualization firm VMware said Tuesday that it has developed an open-source blockchain infrastructure designed to be both scalable and energy efficient. Dubbed Project Concord, VMware’s blockchain aims to provide a base for blockchain implementations which can solve certain scaling issues by modifying the Byzantine Fault Tolerance consensus algorithm commonly found in blockchain networks. Senior researcher Guy Golan Gueta wrote in a company blog post that the project’s algorithm uses a different communication procedure than existing consensus protocols that “exploits optimism to provide a common case fast-path execution” and…

Ripple Scores Small Win Against Investors Claiming XRP Is a Security

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Ripple’s efforts to consolidate multiple lawsuits filed against it are proceeding successfully. As reported by CoinDesk, Ripple, which has been sued by a number of parties claiming the XRP token it uses to power some of its products is a security, has been pushing to have the various class action lawsuits against it combined, or at least coordinated, to limit the number of cases it fights at once. On Wednesday, a California Superior Court suit filed by investor David Oconer was formally designated as “complex litigation” – meaning it will…