Blockchain Project Aims to Apportion and Tokenize the Moon

A new blockchain project has launched a registry that would divvy up and tokenize portions of the lunar surface.  Dubbed Diana — after the Roman goddess of the hunt and the moon — the project launched on July 19, just one day before the 50th anniversary of the Apollo moon landing. The goal of this project is purportedly to “secure the possible right of man to the Moon to propose a solution to ‘who owns the moon.’” A lunar registry will reportedly secure access to the moon as it is…

Iran Finalizes Electricity Pricing Scheme for Cryptocurrency Miners

The Iranian Economic Commission has reportedly finalized a tariff scheme for cryptocurrency miners, according to a July 21 report from Iranian economic daily Financial Tribune.  Per the report, Energy Minister Homayoon Ha’eri announced that, while the tariff scheme has been finalized, it is awaiting approval from the Cabinet of Iran — a governmental body consisting of various ministers and other officials chosen by the president.  While Ha’eri did not elaborate on the exact price scheme, he stated that the price is dependent on market factors such as fuel prices in…

Don’t Hold Your Breath, Bitcoin to Outperform Altcoins For Now

Despite the fact that Bitcoin is the leading crypto, altcoins — the blanket term given to cryptocurrencies that aren’t BTC — were all the rage in late-2017 and early-2018. In fact, over the course of the bull run from 2016 to early-2018, Bitcoin dominance fell from over 90% to 33% at the bottom. This so-called “altseason” was catalyzed by a Cambrian explosion in the number and variety of cryptocurrencies, the ICO revolution, and massive growth in older projects like XRP and Ethereum. Related Reading: Crypto Tidbits: “Unstoppable Force” Bitcoin Back…

Number of Crypto Notables on Buffett Lunch Guest List Grows

Justin Sun, the founder of Tron and winner of the annual auction for a lunch with renowned investor Warren Buffett, has invited more notable figures from the crypto industry to attend.  Earlier today, July 21, Sun invited the founder and CEO of trading platform eToro, Yoni Assia, to the lunch with the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway via tweet. Assia quickly responded saying, “Justin, it is my honor to join you for lunch with @WarrenBuffett. A big step for bridging between the traditional finance world and the new one!”…

Libra Won’t Launch Until Regulators Are Satisfied

Benoit Coeure, a board member of the European Central Bank, said that Facebook’s Libra coin will not launch until global regulators are satisfied.  Speaking to Reuters at the G7 summit in Chantilly, France on July 18, Coeure said that the proposed stablecoin must be guaranteed to be safe for users before it can launch: “You’ve got to be safe, robust and resilient from day one. It’s not a learning process: either it works or it doesn’t.” Coeure stated that guaranteeing the protection of user privacy and ownership rights may require…

8Pay vs Coinbase vs BitPay: Cryptocurrency Merchant Payment Comparison

8Pay is a crypto payment solution like no other. Designed for B2B, B2C and P2P, it enables one-shot and recurring payments to be created and settled quickly – all controlled in a permissionless manner via smart contracts. There are several key differences between 8Pay and current merchant payment solutions. To demonstrate how 8Pay fits into the crypto payment ecosystem, and what differentiates it from the market leaders, we’ve undertaken a competitor comparison. Join us as we consider the strengths and weaknesses of Coinbase and BitPay’s crypto payment solutions, before finishing…

Buterin Considers zk-STARKS, Plasma, Casper, Bitcoin Cash for Enhancing Ethereum’s Efficiency

The developers of Ethereum (ETH), the world’s largest platform for building and deploying decentralized applications (dApps), have been experimenting with different approaches for effectively scaling the smart contract platform. Ethereum Co-Founder Vitalik Buterin has considered using other blockchain platforms as data layers for the Ethereum network. These platforms include Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ethereum Classic (ETC), and potentially a few other crypto networks with relatively high throughput rates. Bitcoin Cash Blockchain Has Up to 7x Greater Throughput than Ethereum  At present, the BCH blockchain can handle 32 MB of data in…

Libra Special! Top Stories, Price Movements, Quotes and FUDs of the Week

Coming every Sunday, the Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions, and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link. Top Stories This Week Libra hearings: Hostility and criticism as Congress grills Facebook executive A godsend to drug dealers. More dangerous than 9/11. A global economic threat. Congress was given two days to grill the head of Facebook’s Calibra wallet, David Marcus, over the upcoming Libra cryptocurrency, and…

Bank of America Files Patent for Settlement System Citing Ripple

Bank of America has filed for a patent for a settlement system citing the Ripple ledger, according to a filing on Google Patents. The patent in question — the application of which was published on June 6 — describes a system using distributed ledger technology (DLT) as an interbank communication tool. The proposed system would enable real-time settlement with transactions being communicated through a shared, decentralized ledger to which both the banks would have access. The decentralized network would both verify the identity of the payer and the payee and…

Iran Has Not Issued Any Licenses for Importing Crypto Mining Equipment

Iran’s customs administration has not issued licenses for importing digital currency mining equipment into the country due to the absence of approval from the government. Deputy President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) Jamal Arounaghi said that the agency has not issued any licenses for importing cryptocurrency mining devices into the country, multilingual Tehran-based news outlet Mehr News Agency reported on July 21. While cryptocurrency mining equipment is banned in the country, IRICA has determined a tariff rate for its import, defining it as related to the…