Day: October 23, 2018

Police Filings Mount as Investors Demand Funds from WEX Exchange

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Users of the long-troubled cryptocurrency exchange WEX have begun filing police reports after more than three months of being unable to withdraw major cryptocurrencies or fiat, CoinDesk has learned. A WEX trader named Ruslan, who has been encouraging other users to seek an official investigation, told CoinDesk that as many as 35 such reports have been filed thus far online through the website of the Russian Interior Ministry. At least seven such reports have been filed since October, based on confirmation numbers reviewed by CoinDesk and checked against the Interior Ministry’s…

Binance Secures New Funding From Vertex Ventures

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Correction: This article has been corrected to note that Temasek Holdings did not play a role in the investment, as was initially reported. Vertex Ventures is a limited partner with Temasek.  The Vertex Ventures network, global group of venture funds has invested in the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. The Vertex Ventures network, a 30-year-old group of venture capital funds, have made a strategic investment in Binance and will work with the exchange to set up a new branch in the city-state, they announced Tuesday. The centerpiece of the plan is the…

Payments Company Square Open-Sources Its Bitcoin Cold Storage Tool

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U.S. payments processing company Square has announced that it is open-sourcing its Bitcoin (BTC) cold storage solution in an official blog post published today, Oct. 23. Cold storage refers to a method of keeping cryptocurrency holdings and users’ private keys offline in order to safeguard against theft via a remote attack. According to the post, Square’s solution, dubbed “Subzero,” uses a Hardware Security Module (HSM)-backed cold wallet for which the company has now released the code, documentation, and tools. Today’s post outlines that an HSM is a specialized hardware device…

Distributed Ledgers, Not Tokens, Are the True Heirs to Satoshi’s Vision

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Adam Krellenstein is co-founder and CTO at Symbiont.io, Inc., a FinTech company focused on coupling traditional financial markets and blockchain technology. He is also the author of some of the earliest attempts to use the bitcoin blockchain for its more experimental uses. This exclusive opinion piece is part of CoinDesk’s “Bitcoin at 10: The Satoshi White Paper” series. Ten years after the anniversary of the publication of the bitcoin white paper – inarguably one of the most significant technical achievements in recent history – the community that it created, and…

How Significant is Blockchain in the Mortgage Industry?

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The global residential mortgage market is estimated to be worth $31 trillion. 66 percent of all Americans have a mortgage on their house while in the UK and China it’s as high as 70%. It’s a segment of the financial markets that hits close to home for a large portion of the global population. The average mortgage closing costs would typically vary between 2 and 5 percent of the price of the property, including broker fees, loan origination fees, underwriting fees, surveyor fees, legal fees, and title fees. That means…

Payments Startup Square Is Open-Sourcing Its Bitcoin Storage Solution

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Mobile payments startup Square is making its bitcoin cold storage solution open-source. Alok Menghrajani, a security engineer for the company, announced in a blog post on Tuesday that the documentation, code and tools for the company’s “Subzero” bitcoin cold storage solution are now publicly available on Github. Menghrajani said Square uses Subzero to hold bitcoin assets on its users’ behalf in an offline environment based on a hardware security module (HSM) – the same technology the firm has been using to store encrypted keys for its other payments services. Menghrajani added that…

Consultancy Firm Accenture Targets Enterprise Blockchain Interoperability With Fresh Tool

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Global management consultancy firm Accenture revealed a new blockchain tool in a press release Oct. 22, its second in a month focusing on interoperability. A week after announcing a supply chain partnership with Thailand’s Siam Commercial Bank, Accenture said its latest offering facilitated existing enterprise blockchain systems to integrate with one another. Specifically, blockchain platform Digital Asset can now work in tandem with R3’s Corda platform, while Hyperledger Fabric and JPMorgan’s Quorum form another interoperable pair. Discussing the two separate solutions, which the company has already tested, managing director and…

HTC Opens Pre-Orders for Blockchain Phone, Payable Only in Crypto

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A decade after launching its first Android device, global consumer tech giant HTC is officially releasing its first blockchain-enabled phone. The early-access version of the HTC Exodus is now available for pre-order, the company announced Tuesday, and must be purchased with cryptocurrency. Dubbed the EXODUS 1, the device can only be bought using bitcoin or ethereum, and will start shipping by December. The company also said it is looking for developers to participate in the early-access version. The EXODUS 1 is available to customers in the U.S., Hong Kong, Singapore, New…

Elon Musk Sparks Speculation With Cryptic Crypto Tweet

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Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX and Tesla, just made a mysterious tweet about bitcoin that’s whipping up speculation across social media and the cryptocurrency community that it may be more than just a joke. Around 22:30 UTC on Monday, Musk – one of the highest-profile Twitter users – said in a tweet via his verified account that reads: “I love anime.” In the same thread, he made another comment around 23:00 UTC, stating: “Wanna buy some bitcoin?” alongside an anime image that features the bitcoin logo. The image was…

Aussie Blockchain Startup Wins Billionaire Branson’s Tech Challenge

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Power Ledger, a blockchain startup based in Australia, won business magnate Sir Richard Branson’s Extreme Tech Challenge (XTC) 2018, as reported by Australian news channel Nine News. The challenge, whose previous finalists include Doctor on Demand and Vantage Robotics, aims to provide entrepreneurs with the right tools to help them build their tech products. Power Ledger received endorsements worth millions of dollars in a ceremony that took place at Branson’s Caribbean island this weekend. Power Ledger was launched in 2016 and raised $34 million AUD in its ICO the following year with a mission…