Global Blockchain Spending to Reach $2.9 Billion in 2019

Global spending on blockchain solutions will reach $2.9 billion in 2019, according to a recent report from advisory services firm International Data Corporation (IDC) published on March. 4. The report dubbed “Worldwide Semiannual Blockchain Spending Guide” was prepared by market intelligence and advisory firm IDC. The report analyzes the emerging blockchain market evaluating spending data for 10 technologies across 19 industries and 15 use cases in nine geographic regions. The report forecasts that blockchain spending will be nearly $2.9 billion in 2019, up by 88.7 percent from the $1.5 billion…

Russian Human Rights Commissioner Seeks UN Help to Extradite Alexander Vinnik

Russia’s Commissioner for Human Rights has asked the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to help extradite the former operator of now-defunct crypto exchange BTC-e, Alexander Vinnik, from Greece to Russia. The news was reported by Russian news outlet TASS on March 5. At a meeting between commissioners Tatyana Moskalkova and Michelle Bachelet on March 5, Moskalkova reportedly noted that Vinnik has been in critical condition because of the hunger strike he started in November, 2018. Moskalkova also pointed out that Vinnik’s wife is seriously ill and is on…

Samsung Galaxy S10 Has Native Support For Ethereum, Not Bitcoin: Pre-Release Device

S10 May Only Support Ethereum, Not Bitcoin Out Of The Box Just weeks ago, Samsung hosted its Unpacked event, unveiling the Galaxy S10 lineup. But, at the time of the event, little was known about the offering, save for the fact that it was named the “Blockchain Keystore,” which would store keys for blockchain-enabled mobile applications. In the days that followed, however, details and images reached media claiming that Keystore was actually a fully-fledged crypto wallet that supported Bitcoin, Ethereum, and potentially ERC-20 tokens. Yet, a pre-release/early-release version of the…

Crypto Community Urges Forgiveness for Coinbase After Exchange Apologizes for Hacking Team Imbroglio

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase recently faced widespread backlash from the crypto community after the exchange acquired Neutrino – a company with close ties to the notorious Hacking Team, who has allegedly sold spyware and other software to oppressive regimes. Despite this, Coinbase has now claimed that the acquisition of Neutrino was the result of a “gap” in the exchange’s due diligence process and have determined that all the Neutrino members that were previously affiliated with Hacking Team will transition out of Coinbase. This announcement has led many notable figures within the crypto…

Crypto News | Huobi Adds XRP and IBM Releases X-Force Red

Crypto news has been fairly slow this week, minus a few major announcements. Huobi Global just announced support for XRP. Another piece of news that should excite investors is IBM releasing its new X-Force Red. Huobi Adds XRP to OTC Trading Desk #Huobi OTC #announcement is now here!$XRP @Ripple will launch on #Huobi #OTC at 10:00 6 March.Details here: https://t.co/BsBc3KEN37 @bgarlinghouse #Ripple pic.twitter.com/cpCZjG0Cmv — HuobiGlobal (@HuobiGlobal) March 5, 2019 Yesterday, Huobi released word that XRP would launch on its OTC platform today, making this the biggest piece of crypto news…

Blockchain-Based Journalism Platform Civil Launches

Blockchain-based journalism network Civil has announced its launch in an official blog post on March 1. Civil is a platform for independent journalism that aims to develop an alternative model to support journalism. The project’s ecosystem has its native CVL token —  the amount of which will be limited to 100 million — that purports to provide financial sustainability and improve trust in journalism. Starting March 6, users will purportedly be able to purchase Civil membership, including CVL which will represent members’ voting power within the Civil ecosystem. “Thirty-four million…

4 of Tokyo’s Hottest Nightclubs to Accept Bitcoin Cash

Japan is currently the third densest region of Bitcoin Cash (BCH) accepting merchants. In order to keep the adoption ball rolling, this week an avid BCH supporter talked the owners of Tokyo-based luxury lounge Mezzo into accepting BCH at three more popular nightclubs in the Tokyo district. The owners revealed that the Japanese clubs V2, Ele, Villa, and Mezzo’s food and beverage cafe Ruby will be accepting BCH for drinks and services this April. Also read: How to Create Your Own SLP Token Using the Bitcoin Cash Blockchain Bitcoin Cash…

4 of Tokyo’s Hottest Nightclubs Plan to Accept Bitcoin Cash

Japan is currently the third densest region of Bitcoin Cash (BCH) accepting merchants. In order to keep the adoption ball rolling, this week an avid BCH supporter talked the owners of Tokyo-based luxury lounge Mezzo into accepting BCH at three more popular nightclubs in the Tokyo district. The owners revealed that the Japanese clubs V2, Ele, Villa, and Mezzo’s food and beverage cafe Ruby will be accepting BCH for drinks and services this April. Also read: How to Create Your Own SLP Token Using the Bitcoin Cash Blockchain Bitcoin Cash…

Ethereum Foundation Funds Columbia, Yale Researchers’ Work on Smart Contract Language

The Ethereum Foundation has awarded a grant to researchers at Columbia and Yale universities for the compilation of a new smart contract programming language into the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). The development was announced in a press release shared with Cointelegraph on March 6. The beneficiary of the grant is a smart contract R&D project called DeepSea, spearheaded by Professor Ronghui Gu, an assistant professor of computer science at Columbia, in collaboration with researchers at Yale. Gu is also the co-founder of blockchain security firm CertiK, which is also one…

Deutsche Boerse, Commerzbank Complete Blockchain PoC for Legally Binding Repo Transaction

German financial services company Commerzbank and securities marketplace Deutsche Boerse have completed a proof-of-concept (PoC) for a legally binding repo transaction using distributed ledger technology (DLT). The news was reported by Cointelegraph auf Deutsch on March 6. A repo transaction is commonly used for short-term borrowing, and allows dealers to sell securities to investors — often for as short a time as overnight —  and repurchase them the following day, or as otherwise determined. For the party selling the security, the process is termed a repo, whereas for the counterparty,…