Day: November 9, 2018

93% of Brits Have Heard of Bitcoin, but Only 4% Have Bought It, Survey Shows

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The vast majority of British people – 93 percent – have heard of Bitcoin (BTC), but only 4 percent claim to have bought it, according to a recent poll by UK market research company YouGov published Nov. 7. According to the survey, conducted this month, nine out of ten Brits have heard of Bitcoin, however, they report not understanding it. Only 4 percent of those surveyed claimed they understand Bitcoin “very well,” while 23 percent state they know it “fairly well,” with men almost three times as likely as women…

Malaysia’s Education Ministry Sets up University Degree Verification System via Blockchain

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The Ministry of Education (MoE) of Malaysia is establishing a University Consortium to combat degree fraud using blockchain, the ministry announced in a tweet Nov. 8. According to the ministry’s tweet, the system is designed to issue and verify the authenticity of university-issued degrees. The new government-backed consortium will initially be comprised of six public universities and their diploma-verifying system is set to operate using the NEM (XEM) blockchain. According to the ministry, the new system was developed by a team led by a professor from the International Islamic University…

How Do We Make Blockchain User-Friendly for Mass Adoption?

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It’s been forecasted that by 2021, there will be over 3 billion worldwide registered social media accounts and with blockchain-based businesses aiming to disrupt many industries, one has to ask if established and emerging social media apps on the blockchain can supplant the incumbent centralized social platforms? For blockchain to fully become mainstream, it is essential for it to illustrate an increased real-world use. There has to be real businesses with real communities, usable and live products, and a strong, active business development aimed at growth, user-base, AND revenues. Regardless…

Crypto Markets See Ongoing Mild Losses, Bitcoin Trades Below $6,400

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  Friday, Nov. 9: crypto markets are continuing to see downward momentum, with virtually all of the major cryptocurrencies at least mildly in the red, as data from Coin360 shows. Market visualization by Coin360 Bitcoin (BTC) is down just over 1 percent, trading around $6,340 at press time. After a period of protracted stability, the top coin has seen a short-lived burst of price action of late, growing Nov.7 to break above the $6,500 mark. Bitcoin has since corrected downard to trade close to the start of its weekly chart,…

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) Fork: Poloniex Announces Pre-fork Trading Support

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Popular cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex announced on November 7, 2018, the trading support for two competing cryptocurrency tokens, Bitcoin Cash ABC and Bitcoin Cash SV. The scheduled Bitcoin Cash hard-fork goes live on November 15, 2018. Poloniex Takes a Neutral Stand The upcoming Bitcoin Cash (BCH) fork is due on November 15, 2018, and there are two competing development teams proposing two different consensus protocols to become the next implemented fork. In the scenario, Poloniex opted for a neutral position and announced that it was opening trading for both tokens before the fork…

For Bitfinex Users, Dollar Withdrawals Are Now a Weeks-Long Struggle

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Three weeks after being assured that everything was running smoothly, some customers of cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex are wondering why they still can’t withdraw their money. On Oct. 15, the cryptocurrency exchange published an announcement saying, “all cryptocurrency and fiat withdrawals are, and have been, processing as usual without the slightest interference.” It continued, for emphasis, “all fiat (USD, GBP, JPY, EUR) withdrawals are processing, and have been, as usual.” This communication came on the heels of an announcement the previous week, in which the exchange responded to what it called “online…

Scaling-Focused Blockchain Platform MultiVAC Claims ‘Breakthrough in Sharding’

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Blockchain platform MultiVAC has claimed it has reached a “breakthrough” in the blockchain scaling technology sharding, according to a press-release Nov. 5. According to the company’s release, MultiVAC reported achieving 30,784 transactions per second (TPS) using 64 shards. While the total amount of transactions for all shards used exceeded 30K at its peak, a single a shard was claimed to reach 533 TPS. MultiVAC also claimed in the release that their “all-dimensional sharding expansion solution” could potentially be used for large-scale commercial applications, as well as for crypto mining on…

Drug Barons, Rogue States and Terror Groups Use Banks – Can Blockchain Stop Them?

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  Scathing reports by regulators have accused traditional banks of inadvertently helping “drug kingpins and rogue nations” – enabling them to commit money laundering, make questionable transfers and evade economic sanctions and taxes. It is a problem that dates back decades. Indeed, an article in The New York Times from 1989 estimated that $100 billion in revenues from cocaine sales in the US alone were ending up in the hands of a violent drug cartel in Colombia. The advent of electronic wire transfers was to blame, with one politician warning:…

U.S. Law Firm Files Claims Against AT&T, T-Mobile Over SIM Swap-Enabled Crypto Thefts

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  U.S. crypto investor law firm Silver Miller has filed arbitration claims against telecoms giants AT&T and T-Mobile for “SIM-swap”-related thefts, according to a press release published Nov. 8 SIM-swapping – also known as a ‘port-out scam’ – involves the theft of a cell phone number in order to hijack online financial and social media accounts, enabled by the fact that many firms  use automated messages or phone calls to handle customer authentication. According to one of the (partially redacted) Silver Miller Statement of Claim documents – filed against AT&T…

Buy and Sell BAT on Coinbase

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Starting today, Coinbase supports the Basic Attention Token (BAT) at Coinbase.com and in the Coinbase Android and iOS apps. Coinbase customers can now buy, sell, send, receive, or store BAT, along with Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Litecoin, ZRX and USDC. BAT will be available for customers in most jurisdictions, but will not initially be available for residents of the state of New York. One of the most common requests we hear from customers is to be able to buy more assets on Coinbase. In September we announced a…