Day: January 4, 2019

Ethereum Core Devs to Move Forward With ASIC-Resistant PoW Algorithm

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Ethereum (ETH) core developers have reached a tentative consensus to implement a new proof-of-work (PoW) algorithm that would increase the efficiency of GPU-based — as opposed to ASIC-based — mining on the network. The development was discussed in a meeting today, Jan. 4. During the meeting, developer Hudson Jameson noted he had heard “very little dissent” to implementing  “ProgPoW,” which has so far been trialed via client implementations running on the “Gangnam” testnet. As previously reported, a testnet is essentially a simulated version of the primary network that allows developers…

Crypto Giant Circle Traded $24B In Bitcoin (BTC), Altcoins OTC In 2018

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Circle Has Traded Billions Worth Of Bitcoin (BTC) OTC Since Bitcoin (BTC) found its all-time high in late-December 2017, just one fateful year ago, the leading cryptocurrency has fallen by a staggering 81%, posting a performance that could only be described as dismal. Yet, dozens of reports indicate that institutional players have only advanced further into this nascent battlefield, infusing purported billions of dollars worth of free-flowing capital into Bitcoin and its crypto asset brethren. Although these reports have been deemed credible by a myriad of industry researchers/analysts, the market has barely budged, which…

Huobi and OKEx to Support Upcoming Ethereum Constantinople Hard Fork

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Leading cryptocurrency exchanges OKEx and Huobi Global will support the Ethereum (ETH) Constantinople hard fork which is estimated to happen between Jan. 14 and 18, according to a press release shared with Cointelegraph. The Constantinople hard fork is an upgrade, which is supposed to fundamentally change the Ethereum blockchain, with the synchronous nodes update to the entire system. The hard fork encloses separate Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) in order to soften the transition from proof-of-work (PoW) to the more energy efficient proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus algorithm. OKEx will reportedly take a…

Coinbase CEO Champions Top Coin on Its 10th Birthday

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Brian Armstrong, founder and CEO of United States cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, has confessed that “Bitcoin is my first love” in a series of tweets commemorating the coin’s 10th birthday, Jan. 3. Summing up a thread in which he explained how he entered the industry and built one of its most successful firms, Armstrong wrote: “Bitcoin is one of the most important inventions of all time and has launched a global movement. It’s awesome to see an entire ecosystem spring up around it, but Bitcoin is my first love.” Armstrong pointed…

Pixel-by-Pixel, New Project Offers Game Where Crypto Players Can Create Blockchain Art

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A new project is gearing up to be the “first arts and games smart economy on the EOS blockchain” — offering games and giving artists the chance to showcase their creative works and monetize their passion. PixEOS says that the first game on its platform offers a new twist on the pixel-drawing titles previously seen on the EOS blockchain. Offering a 1 million pixel canvas, PixEOS Paint offers a profit-sharing system where players can paint pixels over one another and create a collaborative art piece. At the conclusion of every…

Central Bank Report States Crypto Does Not Threaten Financial Stability

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The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has stated that cryptocurrencies currently pose no threat to financial stability in its recent financial report, published Dec. 28. The document entitled “Report on Trend and Progress of Banking in India 2017-18” reads: “[C]rypto-assets do not pose risks to global financial stability currently. The market continues to evolve rapidly, however, and this initial assessment could change if crypto-assets were to become more widely used or interconnected with the core of the regulated financial system. RBI quoted a conclusion drawn from a recent report by…

Overstock Wants to Pay its Ohio Business Tax in Bitcoin

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Online retailer Overstock announced it would pay a part of its Ohio state business tax using bitcoin, making it the first company to use Ohio’s crypto tax portal, Fortune reported on January 3, 2019. Paying Taxes in Virtual Currency An online retail company has made new year’s headlines as being the first to make use of a relatively new phenomenon: Paying state taxes in crypto. According to Fortune, online retailer Overstock announced that it would be paying a part of its Ohio state business tax using bitcoin. This would make…

Crypto Is Tightening Up Its Anti-Money Laundering Game, While Banks Are Still Being Fined for Non-Compliance

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In 2018, barely a month passed without an official at a financial institution or government department calling on crypto to clean up its act. In the last quarter of the year alone, the United States Department of the Treasury, the Canadian Parliament and the Russian Federal Financial Monitoring Service all urged or announced the introduction of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) laws for cryptocurrencies, and all of them based their moves on the (noticeably mistaken) presumption that cryptocurrencies are a primary haven for criminals, who use them either as a medium of…

China Banking Body to Develop Multi-Use Blockchain Platform With Major Banks

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China’s self-regulatory bank organization the China Banking Association (CBA) will launch a blockchain-based platform to improve efficiency across the sector, participants confirmed in a statement Dec. 29. The project, formally dubbed the ‘China Trade Finance Inter-bank Trading Blockchain Platform,’ aims to use blockchain to target trade finance, transactions and other financial services. Multiple guinea pigs have signed up to pilot the platform, among them well-known names such as HSBC, Bank of China and Ping An Bank. “The establishment of this inter-bank platform can be described as extraordinary, opening up barriers…

Bitcoin is a ‘Black Box’ — I Won’t Invest in it: Analyst Gary Shilling

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Renowned investor Gary Shilling believes Bitcoin is a black box. And he prefers to stay away from it. Speaking to Business Insider, the American financial analyst admitted that the digital currency is too opaque and complicated for him to invest in — and he will not invest in anything that he does not fully understand. Shilling also clarified that while he had attempted to learn about bitcoin’s economic model, he eventually found that the asset is “not transparent,” primarily because its creator Satoshi Nakamoto remains unidentifiable. “I’m just very suspicious…