Day: October 20, 2018

Marco Santori on Airdrops and the “Complete Picture” of SAFT Regulation

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Ever since the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a stern warning about initial coin offerings (ICOs) in February 2018, cryptocurrency projects have had to consider different options for distributing their tokens — and funding their development. One alternative for dispersing a token is an airdrop, where tokens are given out (for free) to the holders of an existing cryptocurrency. A former partner at law firm Cooley LLP has a positive view on them. “Airdrops can do no harm. In fact, we think they can make things better,” Marco…

Bitcoin Magazine Week in Review: Stablecoins Take the Spotlight

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With the exception of the SEC’s FinHub announcement, it has been a quiet week for regulatory news — something we’ve been getting a lot of recently as U.S. officials clamp down on unscrupulous coin offerings and crypto companies. Instead, stablecoins crowded headlines this week, as tether — among others — had difficulties retaining its peg, and top exchanges rolled out support for some of the asset class’ regulatory-compliant newcomers. All the while, developers remind us that, even in bear markets, the tools of innovation continue to work against the buzz…

Bitcoin Price Eyes Triangle Breakout Above $6.4K

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Bitcoin (BTC) is again trading in a narrowing price range above $6,400, but the lateral trading may soon give way to a rally, according to technical studies. The price consolidation comes after Monday’s big spike to three-week highs above $6,800, which weakened the bearish case put forward by last Thursday’s violation of key support. So far, however, a bullish follow-through has not materialized, possibly because buyers are waiting for a more credible evidence of bearish invalidation. Also standing in the way of a potential rally are a number of major…

Security firm G4S Has Launched a Crypto Custody Service

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U.K.-based security services company G4S now offers a crypto custody service aimed to protect investors’ holdings of digital assets. Announcing the move in a press release on Oct. 16, the firm said, with the rising popularity of cryptocurrencies, it developed the new service to offer “high-security offline storage that helps to protect assets from criminals and hackers.” The crypto sector has seen huge losses related to hacks this year alone. According to a recent report from blockchain security firm CipherTrace, nearly $1 billion was stolen in the first nine months of…

Crypto Exchange Coinbase Open-Sources Its Security Scaling Tool

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U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is making a recently developed automated security scaling tool available to the public. Called Salus, after the Roman the goddess of safety and well-being, the program can automatically choose to run and configure different security scanners and issue a report on the results, according to a Thursday blog post from Coinbase developer Julian Borrey. Available as an open-source tool on GitHub from today, Salus is said to offer the advantage of being able to centrally coordinate security scans across a large number of software storage repositories, avoiding having to…

Ripple’s Head of Information Security Leaves for Token Startup

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Ripple’s head of information security is leaving the company. Revealed exclusively to CoinDesk, Sujay Jaladi is departing the San Francisco-based firm, which is best known for its role in developing XRP, the third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. Jaladi is joining Harbor, a startup that provides a compliance platform for issuers of private securities housed as tokens on the blockchain. The company’s R-Token standard (the R stands for “regulated”) is compatible with ethereum’s popular ERC-20 token framework, and, according to Harbor’s white paper, can be used to tokenize interests in real…

The SEC Is Setting Up a New Division to Talk to ICO Startups

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The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is launching a new division with the goal of making it simpler for fintech startups – including those launching initial coin offerings (ICOs) – to navigate the legal implications of their products. Announced Thursday, the Strategic Hub for Innovation and Financial Technology (FinHub) will act as a central point for the securities regulator to interact with entrepreneurs and developers in the financial technology world, in particular with groups focusing on distributed ledger technology (DLT), automated investment advice, digital marketplace financing and artificial intelligence. As…

The Onion Released a Guide to Blockchain, and It’s Hilarious

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Despite the many amazing use cases for public and private blockchain networks, there’s no way around the fact that the word “blockchain” has been misused, misunderstood, and hyped into a state of near-meaninglessness in the last few years. Money-hungry ICOs have jumped on the chance to put everything from celebrities to board games “on the blockchain,” and there have been multiple cases of the stock value of different companies skyrocketing simply for putting the word blockchain in the company name. British firm On-line Plc changed its name to On-line Blockchain Plc…

The Onion Released a Guide to Blockchain, and It’s Hilarious

boss

Despite the many amazing use cases for public and private blockchain networks, there’s no way around the fact that the word “blockchain” has been misused, misunderstood, and hyped into a state of near-meaninglessness in the last few years. Money-hungry ICOs have jumped on the chance to put everything from celebrities to board games “on the blockchain,” and there have been multiple cases of the stock value of different companies skyrocketing simply for putting the word blockchain in the company name. British firm On-line Plc changed its name to On-line Blockchain Plc…

The Rumors of “Insolvency”, Banking Partners’ Escape, and the Suspension of Fiat Deposits

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On October 8, Hong-Kong-based exchange Bitfinex has announced that it is not under the immediate threat of insolvency and the related rumors are unsubstantiated, as well as false. According to the company’s press release, all cryptocurrency and fiat withdrawals are and have been processing as usual without the slightest interference. After some mild clarifications, tension is rising in the crypto community – the spread between Bitcoin prices on Bitfinex and other exchanges, on October 15, reached $1,000 against the massive sale of Tether (USDT). In the meantime, Bitfinex is testing…