Prediction Startup Numerai Raises $11 Million in ICO

American prediction market startup and hedge fund Numerai (NMR) has raised $11 million in an initial coin offering (ICO) to launch its project Erasure, Numerai tweeted on March 21. Introduced in late 2016, Numeraire network provides a blockchain and cryptographic token-based ecosystem for incentivizing anonymous data scientists to create predictive models. Based on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain, Numeraire tokens are used in trading market predictions on the startup’s platform. Numerai founder Richard Craib said that the funds from the recent ICO will be mostly spent on hiring engineers for Erasure,…

Betting Markets Are A Potential Boon For Major Cryptos

If you’re reading here, you’re likely aware that cryptocurrencies are still looking for major footholds in the consumer world. Those who favor cryptos and are determined to put them to use as functional currencies can generally find ways to do so; this has been true for years now. However, the average consumer tends to look at cryptos now and see one of three things: a gimmick, an investment asset, or something that’s intriguing but poorly defined. There still aren’t clear avenues for using cryptocurrencies for those who aren’t actively, and…

Alleged Bitcoin Fraudster Alexander Vinnik Appeals for Extradition to Russia

Former operator of now-shuttered crypto exchange BTC-e, Russian national Alexander Vinnik, has appealed with a Greek court for his release or extradition to Russia, local media outlet Kathimerini reported on March 21. Vinnik — who is accused of fraud and laundering as much as $4 billion in Bitcoin (BTC) over the course of six years — has reportedly filed an appeal with Piraeus court for his release or extradition to Russia for humanitarian reasons. Prior to that, Russia’s Commissioner for Human Rights Tatyana Moskalkova asked both the United Nations High…

Vitalik Buterin: High Ethereum (ETH) Prices are Good For Development

Vitalik Buterin, co-founder for Ethereum, has an interesting view on the price development of ETH. While current investors would be happy to see the price of Ethereum return to its all time high of $1432 in the early days of Jan. 2018, Buterin believes that a high ETH price is healthy for both network security and ecosystem development. Buterin made his comments in a crypto-focused interview held by Laura Shin at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism on Mar. 20, which was live-streamed for outside viewers. Shin asked the ETH…

Crypto Markets Descend While Tech Stocks Surge

Thursday, March 21 — Most of the top 20 coins by market capitalization are in the red, showing slight losses on the day, down from one to four percent. Market visualization from Coin360 The leading cryptocurrency Bitcoin (BTC) is trading at $4,027 at press time, down about one percent over the 24-hour period. BTC has been trading sideways as of early trading hours, following a drop to as low as $4,007 in the middle of the day. Bitcoin 24-hour chart. Source: CoinMarketCap The top altcoin Ethereum (ETH) has seen a…

IBM Developing Blockchain Solution to Combat Fake Medicine in Africa

IBM Developing Blockchain Solution to Combat Fake Medicine in Africa March 21, 2019 by Akshay Makadiya Global tech giant IBM is working on a blockchain solution to weed out Africa’s notorious counterfeit medication network. The company says blockchain will allow it to track medications all the way back to the manufacturers, so distributors can know they have genuine drugs. Also read: FBI Warns About ‘SIM Swapping’ Hacks Targeting Cryptocurrency Users Subscribe to the Bitsonline YouTube channel for great videos featuring industry insiders & experts IBM to Sign African Partnerships Haifa — the largest IBM…

UPS Integrates Blockchain Platform to Improve Merchant Supply Chains

Major American postal carrier UPS and e-commerce technology company Inxeption have jointly rolled out a blockchain-powered platform to improve merchant supply chains. The development was announced in a press release published on March 21. The new blockchain platform dubbed Inxeption Zippy is designed to help companies list, market and distribute their products to customers. The platform purportedly enables merchants to monitor the entire supply chain from product listing to delivery, ensuring that sensitive data like contract-specific pricing and rates are only accessible to the buyer and seller. By using the…

Bitcoin’s 4th Largest Exchange to Support Tron Stablecoin

The liquidity of the Tron network is about to go to the next level. As we previously reported, Tether is expanding its USDT product to the Tron blockchain. Now the community has heard from a veteran exchange – USDT-Tron is going to list on OKEx. 4th Largest Bitcoin Exchange to Support USDT-Tron OKEx is the 4th largest Bitcoin exchange by adjusted volume. In a note today, OKEx says: In order to meet users’ demand for stablecoin trading, OKEx will support USDT-TRON, the TRC-20 based USDT token co-developed by TRON and…

High Ethereum Price Good for Security, Ecosystem Development

Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin says that high ether prices are important both for network security and the wider ecosystem’s development. Buterin made his remarks during an interview for Laura Shin’s crypto-focused “Unchained,” hosted at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and live-streamed on March 20. In response to Shin’s question as to whether protocol designers and project leaders should be focusing on the question of a cryptocurrency’s price, Buterin referred to the “earlier rhetoric” of the Ethereum project, which had explicitly downplayed the importance of the asset’s value: “In…

Bitmain Plans to Set Up 200,000 Crypto Mining Machines in China

Cryptocurrency mining giant Bitmain is reportedly planning to set up 200,000 units of mining equipment in China to benefit from low-cost hydroelectric power in the country, crypto media outlet CoinDesk reported on March 21. A source from China familiar with the matter reportedly told CoinDesk that Bitmain will install 200,000 units of their own mining machines to take advantage of cheap hydroelectric power costs during the summer following the excessive rains in southwestern China. The mining equipment is estimated at around $80 million to $100 million. The crypto mining giant…