Day: February 6, 2019

Blockchain firm Chainspace bought by facebook

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Facebook has made its first acquisition in the blockchain space, hiring the team behind Chainspace, hinting at an increasing interest in the payments market. The acquisition is according to sources that spoke to Cheddar. Chainspace is a blockchain start-up specialised in smart contracts and was founded by researchers from University College London. Long-time Facebook executive and former PayPal president David Marcus was tasked with leading Facebook’s blockchain group earlier last year. The researchers behind Chainspace were also looking at how blockchain and decentralisation could be applied to areas outside of payments, like…

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey Says Bitcoin Is the Only Crypto He Holds

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Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey has again expressed his pro-Bitcoin (BTC) stance, revealing that the sole crypto he holds is BTC, according to a tweet on Feb. 6. The known Bitcoin supporter has revealed his cryptocurrency of choice following a recent interview where Dorsey claimed that he still believes that Bitcoin will be the the native currency of internet. In a thread of the tweet that amassed over 5,000 likes, Dorsey reiterated his previous statements regarding the biggest and oldest cryptocurrency, also calling it a “great brand.” He wrote:…

The Chamber of Digital Commerce and Blockchain Association of Canada Join for a Stronger and more Coordinated Blockchain Ecosystem

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The Chamber of Digital Commerce, the world’s first and largest blockchain trade association, has united with the Blockchain Association of Canada (BAC). The new name under which the joined organizations will operate is the Chamber of Digital Commerce Canada. advertisement Some of the most prominent and forward-thinking blockchain innovators in the world call Canada their home. The country’s strong policy commitments to supporting innovation and the digital economy attract global blockchain innovators and investors alike. The Chamber of Digital Commerce launched in four an a half years ago and has…

Blockchain’s Promise of a Trustless System Is False, Wired Author Argues

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An opinion piece published by American online magazine Wired on Feb. 6 has leveled criticisms at the promise of new blockchain-based architectures of trust. The article’s central argument is that trust is not eliminated, but rather displaced, in blockchain systems — principally from institutions and social conventions onto technology. The article’s author, Bruce Schneier, alleges that this techno-maximalism overlooks both the residual trust in tech systems whose governance remains irreducibly human, as well as the frequent — and often opaque — fallibility of the technology itself. Schneier’s take on trust…

How DLT Helps Tracking Gems and Prevents Fraud

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Last week, Russia’s Ministry of Education and Science introduced a blockchain-enabled platform for tracking diamonds. Indeed, blockchain has been bringing transparency into the diamond industry — a complex ecosystem where corruption and irresponsible mining appear to be largely present. Self-regulation in the diamond industry — and how Everledger’s arrival pivoted it from a dead end The history of blockchain in the diamond industry can be traced back to May 2015, when Australian entrepreneur Leanne Kemp founded Everledger — a global digital registry for diamonds powered by the IBM Blockchain Platform.…

Jack Doesn’t Want to Integrate Any Other Cryptocurrency Apart From Bitcoin on Square

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Square and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has made it very clear that Square will only support Bitcoin (BTC) in the foreseeable future. On February 6, in response to some members of the cryptocurrency community inquiring about potential Square integrations, Dorsey said: Nah — jack (@jack) February 5, 2019 He also expressed his enthusiasm towards the Lightning Network, a second-layer scalability solution that enables instantaneous payments on Bitcoin. Dorsey invested $2.5 million in Lightning Labs in 2018, a startup developing an infrastructure to handle Lightning payments on the Bitcoin blockchain network.…

Opera Adds Crypto Buying Service to Android Wallet

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Opera now lets Android users buy ethereum’s ether (ETH) cryptocurrency directly from its browser-based wallet, it announced Wednesday. For the new service, Opera said it has partnered with regulated crypto brokerage Safello to provide the cash-to-crypto exchange. The feature allows payments with credit and debit cards, along with “trusted” payment networks including Swish in Sweden. At launch, ether purchasing is available only in Sweden, Norway and Denmark, however. Safello – which is registered with Sweden’s Financial Supervisory Authority – will verify users who make purchases using Sweden’s BankID and Denmark’s NemID…

Bitcoin Falls Under $3,400 as Top Cryptos See Losses

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Wednesday, Feb. 6 — most of the top 20 cryptocurrencies are reporting slight to noteworthy losses on the day by press time. Bitcoin (BTC) has fallen under the $3,400 mark again, according to Coin360 data. Market visualization from Coin360 At press time, Bitcoin is down a fraction of half percent on the day, trading at around $3,387, according to Coin360. Looking at its weekly chart on CoinMarketCap, the current price is nearly 3 percent lower than $3,481, the price at which Bitcoin started the week. Bitcoin 7-day price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap Top…

Abra Wallet Introduces Bitcoin Investment Option for Stocks and ETFs

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Digital wallet Abra has introduced new features enabling global investors to invest in shares and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) using Bitcoin (BTC), according to a press release shared with Cointelegraph on Feb. 6. The United States-based firm has announced early access registration to the platform, allowing investors in more than 155 countries to invest in 50 new traditional investment assets with zero trading fees through the rest of 2019 using the leading crypto. Those assets reportedly include major stocks such as Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Google, Netflix, commodities such as SPDR Gold…

US Crypto Exchange Coinbase Adds Bitcoin Support to Coinbase Wallet App

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United States cryptocurrency exchange and wallet Coinbase has added Bitcoin (BTC) to its Coinbase Wallet app, according to an announcement published Tuesday, Feb. 5. In August 2018, Coinbase had announced that Toshi, the open source decentralized app browser and wallet developed by Coinbase, will rebrand to become Coinbase Wallet. As explained by the crypto exchange, Coinbase Wallet is slightly different from the main app, Coinbase (or Coinbase.com). With the latter, the cryptocurrencies purchased by customer and the private keys are stored by Coinbase. With Coinbase Wallet, users stores their own…