Day: August 21, 2019

Nonprofit Launches Blockchain Platform for Credit History in Sierra Leone

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San Francisco-based nonprofit Kiva, a company that crowdfunds loans for financial inclusion, has launched a blockchain platform for credit history with the government of Sierra Leone. According to a Reuters report on Aug. 21, Kiva and President of Sierra Leone Julius Maada Bio jointly launched the blockchain initiative in the country’s capital.  The platform will use biometric data collected by the government, such as fingerprints, in order to access the credit history of citizens in the country. This will purportedly give a way for lenders to obtain citizens’ credit history.…

Casa Releases Node Monitor Service to Improve Bitcoin Network Health

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Casa, a crypto firm that provides a private key management service and Bitcoin node machine, has unveiled a node monitor and accompanying rewards program to promote Bitcoin network health. Casa announced the new projects in an official blog post on Aug. 21. Per the announcement, the node monitor — called Node Heartbeats — relies on establishing a brief connection between Casa’s server and an online, synced and Tor-activated node owned by a customer. The rewards program lets Casa node users earn 10,000 SatsBack per week in exchange for performing 5…

Cryptojacking Code Found in Eleven Open Libraries, Thousands Infected

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A Cryptojacking code was found in 11 open-source code libraries written in Ruby, which have been downloaded thousands of times. Industry news outlet Decrypt reported on Aug. 21 that cryptojacking code has been added to 11 open-source Ruby libraries distributed on the RubyGems platform. Per the report, the infected libraries were downloaded over three and a half thousand times. Hackers reportedly downloaded the software, infected it with malware, and subsequently re-posted it on RubyGems.  The malicious code was first noticed by a GitHub user, who posted about the issue on…

Binance to Launch US Platform Soon, Helped by a Little-Known Partner

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Binance is expected to launch its upcoming exchange platform in the United States by the end of the year, with the company’s executive estimating that the platform will launch within “a month or two.” In the interview, Changpeng Zhao (aka CZ), the CEO of Binance, predicted the launch despite acknowledging that many things are still “in flux” regarding the platform’s planned operations in the U.S.  CZ noted that the U.S. has historically enacted “very clear regulations” regarding financial technology, adding his expectation that despite current “uncertainties in the regulatory space,”…

Kraken Crypto Exchange to Add Support for BAT and WAVES

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American cryptocurrency exchange Kraken will add support for Basic Attention Token (BAT) and Waves (WAVES).  According to an announcement on Aug. 21, the exchange’s users will be able to deposit and withdraw the aforementioned coins starting tomorrow, Aug. 22, as well as trade with both assets. Kraken will roll out trading pairs between BAT and WAVES and Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), as well as with  fiat currencies such as the euro and the U.S. dollar. “The first trade executions will take a bit longer because sell orders cannot be…

Travelport and IBM Work on Blockchain Platform for Hotel Commissions

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Artificial intelligence-enabled travel platform Travelport, IBM and travel management company BCD Travel are jointly developing a blockchain platform to streamline hotel commission reconciliation. Per a press release on Aug. 20, the companies are collaboratively working on the creation of a blockchain-based platform in a bid to optimize hotel commission processing. Specifically, the product will purportedly allow users to track and account for commission payments hotels owe for services that travelers bought through booking agencies. Travelport and IBM are working within the framework of the IBM Garage — a consultation program…

Crypto Trader Reveals When Bitcoin Will Suffer a Painful Reckoning

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Bitcoin has destroyed the altcoin market in 2019, but one contrarian crypto trader believes BTC is about to suffer a reckoning. | Source: Shutterstock By CCN Markets: It’s easy to miss just how badly bitcoin has clobbered altcoins since the crypto market’s latest bull run began. From Ethereum all the way down to Stratis, almost every coin has developed an ultra bearish market structure. There’s no denying that the charts look horrible. This is perhaps the main reason why many on Crypto Twitter are already delivering an altcoin eulogy. Just…

OPSkins Group and WAX Summoned to California Court Over 2017 ICO

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The United States District Court for the Central District of California has issued a summons to video-game virtual good company OPSkins Group and Worldwide Asset eXchange (WAX) in response to a complaint filed by Crypto Asset Fund. The allegations On Aug. 15, the court issued a summons to OPSkins Group, WAX and several of their high-level employees in response to a civil complaint filed on Aug. 12 by Crypto Asset Fund and affiliate Digital Capital Management. The complaint included 12 charges, including fraud, unlawful business practices and violation of the…

Binance Venus Aims to Outshine Libra and Chinese National Crypto?

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Within the past 12 months, stablecoins have transformed from a niche idea to tackle the issues of a volatile market into methods of payment championed by some of the world’s biggest and most powerful tech companies.  Facebook’s announcement that it would be supporting the launch of a reserve-backed stablecoin played a vital role in turning around the so-called “crypto winter” by boosting Bitcoin (BTC) prices above $10,000 for the first time in over two years. Since then, the world’s number one cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, has thrown its hat into the…

Gemini Launches in Australia, Enables All Supported Coins Except GUSD

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The Winklevoss twins’ crypto exchange and custodian Gemini is expanding to Australia, enabling residents of the country to use its platform to buy, sell and store crypto. Australian residents can now download the Gemini mobile app on iOS or Android to trade major cryptocurrencies, according to a press release shared with Cointelegraph on Aug. 21. The list of supported digital coins includes Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC) and Zcash (ZEC). While Gemini supports six cryptos, its stablecoin Gemini dollar (GUSD) is not supported in Australia, according to its…