British Crypto Exchange CEX.IO Now Requires Identity Info From Users

United Kingdom-based cryptocurrency exchange CEX.IO now requires its users to disclose their identities, financial trading news outlet Finance Magnates reported Dec. 11. Established in 2013, CEX is a London-based cryptocurrency trading platform, initially started as a cloud mining provider. Currently, the exchange supports eight major digital currencies and four major fiat currencies, while its adjusted daily trading volume is around $4.9 million, according to CoinMarketCap. While the situation with Brexit — the scenario in which the U.K. leaves EU — remains cloudy, CEX.IO does business with clients internationally, and therefore…

Spanish Ruling Party to Introduce Regulation on Blockchain, Crypto

Spanish ruling party Partido Popular (PP) will introduce a draft bill on cryptocurrencies and blockchain regulation in a few days, local newspaper La Vanguardia reported Dec. 10. The publication reported that PP’s secretary Teodoro Garcia Egea announced the decision during the opening ceremony of ISDE Blockchain and Law research center in Madrid on Dec. 10. The key reason behind elaborating the regulation is reportedly to provide some grade of certainty to investors and to allow “everyone who wants it” to introduce their own coin, the party’s secretary said. Garcia Egea…

How Bitcoin Futures Products Affected Cryptocurrency Markets in 2018

Finance It has been a year since the start of Cboe’s XBT futures contracts and CME Group’s bitcoin derivatives products launched last December. With super bearish prices these past few months, a lot has changed since the cryptocurrency economy touched all-time highs on spot markets. Meanwhile, bitcoin futures contracts have been growing and some skeptics still believe these derivatives products are disruptive toward cryptocurrency spot prices. Also Read: Law Professor: Confusing Crypto Regulations Will Hamper Innovation Have Futures Products ‘Tamed’ Bitcoin’s Spot Price? A few weeks before the launch of…

Mike Novogratz Compares Current Bitcoin Markets to ‘Methadone Clinic’

Mike Novogratz compared current cryptocurrency  market performance to a “methadone clinic” in an interview with Bloomberg Dec. 11. During the interview, Bloomberg asked Novogratz how coming from Wall Street made him different from most of the cryptocurrency community, which seem to treat cryptocurrency “almost like a religion.” Novogratz answered that, while he believes in the underlying technology, “when prices get stupid,” he sells. Novogratz also characterized Bitcoin’s (BTC) enormous growth in late 2017 –– which peaked at $20,000 per coin –– “a drug.” He called the period a “speculative mania,”…

US CFTC Asks for Comments to Improve Understanding of Ethereum Blockchain, Altcoin

The United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is seeking public comments and guidance on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain, according to an official press release published Dec. 11. In order to improve the commission’s understanding of Ethereum and its underlying technology, the CFTC has announced its intention to publish a respective Request for Information (RFI) with the Federal Register. In the upcoming RFI, the commission will request public comments on a wide range of questions such as Ethereum-related “technology, opportunities, risks, mechanics,” its market features, as well as use cases…

Proof-of-Stake, Sharding to Make Blockchains ‘1,000x’ More Efficient

Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin declared that future blockchains with sharding based on proof-of-stake (PoS) will be “thousands of times more efficient,” in a lengthy Twitter thread Dec. 10. In the long series of tweets, Buterin addressed non-financial applications of blockchain technology. He stated that as scalability advances (driving fees down), and User Experience (UX) gets better, non-financial applications will become “a bigger part of the story.” He further noted that blockchains are not about “cutting computational costs,” but instead increase computation cost while decreasing “social costs.” Buternin stated that…

DNAtix Releases Live Demo of its Blockchain based Genetic Infrastructure Platform

About Richard Kastelein Founder and publisher of industry publication Blockchain News (EST 2015), partner at ICO services collective CryptoAsset Design Group ($500m+ and 50+ ICOs), director of education company Blockchain Partners (Oracle Partner) – Vancouver native Richard Kastelein is an award-winning publisher, innovation executive and entrepreneur. He sits on the advisory boards of some two dozen Blockchain startupsand has written over 1500 articles on Blockchain technology andstartups at Blockchain News and has also published pioneering articles on ICOs in Harvard Business Review and Venturebeat Ad honorem – Honorary Ph.d –…

Vermont Govt. Forms Working Group to Explore Blockchain Technology

The second-smallest state in the United States by population has formed a working group consisting of state agencies with a view toward studying blockchain technology. This was announced by Vermont’s attorney general, T.J. Donovan, who disclosed that the blockchain working group would commence work next year in January. The working group — which will seek input from stakeholders, blockchain associations, and other experts in the industry — will be made up of four state agencies: the Agency of Commerce and Community Development, the Secretary of State, the Department of Financial…

Gemini Launches New Mobile App for Crypto Traders

Crypto exchange Gemini has just launched a mobile wallet for its users. Gemini CEO and co-founder Tyler Winklevoss wrote in a Medium post on Tuesday that the new app allows customers to buy or sell cryptocurrencies, view market prices, see their own portfolio values and set price alerts, among other features geared toward traders. The exchange is working to “build the future of money” through its licensed exchange and regulated custodian, Winklevoss wrote, ensuring that customers can entrust their holdings to a compliant platform. “A trusted and regulated platform, however,…

State Farm is Testing Blockchain to Expedite Auto Insurance Claims

Insurance is one of the golden geese of the blockchain, an industry with so much paperwork, sensitive data, and manual processes that it almost seems obvious that it will eventually adopt blockchain technology to streamline its claims processes, data storage, and even — eventually — its payments. State Farm is among the first notable insurance carriers to announce that it is investigating such a move as regards the claims payment process. In insurance, subrogation is when one insurance company settles a debt with another. According to a recent statement by…