Month: February 2019

Swiss Blockchain Hackathon in June Includes Partnerships With PwC, Amazon Web Services

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Switzerland will host the Swiss Blockchain Hackathon later this year in a bid to help companies find real-life applications of blockchain technology, according to an announcement published on Feb. 27. The three-day event is reportedly organized by Switzerland’s six leading blockchain and IT organizations — Trust Square, Bitcoin Association Switzerland, CV Labs, Crypto Valley Association (CVA), Swiss Blockchain Federation and swissICT —  and will take place from June 21 to June 23, 2019. Per the announcement, the hackathon is designed to facilitate the deployment of blockchain across a wide range…

European Regulatory Chair Supports New Digital Asset Regulations

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The chairman of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) — the European Union-level financial markets supervisor — has said that he supports further regulations on digital assets, political news outlet Roll Call reported on Feb. 27. Delivering his speech at the FinTech Conference 2019 earlier this week in Brussels, Belgium, ESMA Chairman Steven Maijoor reportedly outlined the need to apply regulations to digital assets in order to help investors. He also expressed his support for expanding Europe’s Anti-Money Laundering (AML) requirements to include those involved in the exchange of…

Square’s Cash App Sold $52M Worth Of Bitcoin In Q4 2018, $166M Over 2018

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Cash App Sold More BTC Quarter-Over-Quarter At the peak of 2017’s bubble, Square, a fintech company based in America, introduced a native Bitcoin (BTC) market into its flagship product, the Cash App. While the integration received some flak, especially for Square’s inability to be quick on the draw, the cryptocurrency product has grown alongside the startup’s swelling user base. Per the company’s recent Shareholder Letter, which pertains to fiscal Q4 of 2018, the company sold $52 million worth of Bitcoin (13684 BTC at the current price point). This means that…

Square’s Cash App Sold $52M Worth Of Bitcoin In Q4 2018, $166M Over 2018

boss

Cash App Sold More BTC Quarter-Over-Quarter At the peak of 2017’s bubble, Square, a fintech company based in America, introduced a native Bitcoin (BTC) market into its flagship product, the Cash App. While the integration received some flak, especially for Square’s inability to be quick on the draw, the cryptocurrency product has grown alongside the startup’s swelling user base. Per the company’s recent Shareholder Letter, which pertains to fiscal Q4 of 2018, the company sold $52 million worth of Bitcoin (13684 BTC at the current price point). This means that…

Crypto Mining Service Coinhive to Shut Down Operations in March

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Cryptocurrency mining service Coinhive is shutting down, as the project has reportedly become economically inviable. The team behind Coinhive announced the news in a blog post on Feb. 26. Per the announcement, the mining service will stop its operations on March 8, 2019, while users’ dashboards will be accessible until April 30, 2019. Among the reasons behind the closure, the developers note the over 50 percent drop in hash rate following the last Monero (XMR) hard fork. The service was reportedly also hit by the cryptocurrency market drop off ,…

Bitcoin is ‘Potentially Disruptive’ to PayPal & Visa: Analyst

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Bitcoin or another cryptocurrency won’t supplant PayPal and credit cards as payment options yet, but they could in due time. That’s the assessment of Lisa Ellis, an equity analyst with sell-side research firm MoffettNathanson. “Cryptocurrency systems (e.g., Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple) are potentially disruptive to private payment systems,” Ellis wrote in a client note. “Their core design characteristics — which are aimed at enabling ‘freedom of money’ — are in direct contrast to the characteristics of most traditional, private payment systems.” Ellis: Visa and PayPal Should Embrace Crypto Because of their disruptive…

Bitcoin is ‘Potentially Disruptive’ to PayPal & Visa: Analyst

boss

Bitcoin or another cryptocurrency won’t supplant PayPal and credit cards as payment options yet, but they could in due time. That’s the assessment of Lisa Ellis, an equity analyst with sell-side research firm MoffettNathanson. “Cryptocurrency systems (e.g., Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple) are potentially disruptive to private payment systems,” Ellis wrote in a client note. “Their core design characteristics — which are aimed at enabling ‘freedom of money’ — are in direct contrast to the characteristics of most traditional, private payment systems.” Ellis: Visa and PayPal Should Embrace Crypto Because of their disruptive…

New York-Based Entrepreneur Charged With Fraudulent Cryptocurrency Scheme

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The United States Department of Justice (DoJ) has charged a New York-based operator of a purported cryptocurrency payment services firm with a wire fraud and unlawful monetary transactions. The DoJ announced the allegations in a press release on Feb. 27. According to the release, New York citizen Randall Crater founded and managed My Big Coin Pay Inc. (My Big Coin), a purported cryptocurrency and virtual payment services company headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada. From 2014 to 2017, Crater and his associates allegedly developed a fraudulent cryptocurrency “My Big Coins” and…

Coinomi Wallet Addresses Vulnerability Concerns

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Coinomi Wallet denied recent claims that its software sends wallet recovery seed phrases to Google’s remote spell checker servers in plain (unencrypted) text. The company refuted the claims in an official statement published on Feb. 27. In the statement, Coinomi claims that, unlike what was reported, the seed phrase transmission was encrypted via SSL (HTTPS), with Google being the only recipient capable of decrypting the message. Coinomi notes that the phrase was only transmitted if the user chose to restore his wallet and only on the desktop version. Finally, Coinomi…

Blockchain Adoption Is Still Early

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Experts and industry players have said that the adoption of blockchain technology is still in its early stages at the annual meeting of The Wall Street Journal CIO Network, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Feb. 26. The regular Wall Street Journal CIO Network is a membership exclusively for chief information officers and technology experts from the largest companies around the world. The event gathered a range of experts from startups, large corporations and governments to share their views on the development of enterprise technology. Although enterprise blockchain technology has…