Day: September 21, 2019

Armenian IT Company Accused of Illegal Electricity Use to Mine Crypto

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An IT company in Armenia has been accused of illegally accessing electricity and using it to mine cryptocurrencies. $150,000 in power On Sept. 21, in an announcement from the Armenian National Security Service, the organization accused an IT company of illegally mining cryptocurrencies from inside a hydropower plant. The state agency reported that the IT company had installed cryptocurrency mining equipment inside one of the hydropower plants operating in Armenia and as a result illegally consumed 1.5 kilowatt-hours of electricity — worth more than $150,000, locally — over the course…

Swiss University Fights Fake Diplomas With Blockchain Technology

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The University of St. Gallen in Switzerland is setting its sights on blockchain technology to fight fake diplomas, a type of fraud that has been on the rise globally in recent years. Degree certification According to a CNN Money Switzerland interview from Sept. 19, the University of St. Gallen has announced that it is introducing a blockchain-based pilot project to verify the authenticity of its degrees in a matter of seconds rather than several days. The university’s CIO Harald Rotter said: “I saw that it could be necessary and it…

How Merge Mining and Anchored Blockchain Projects Capitalize on Bitcoin’s Security Model

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Since 2011, just after Satoshi Nakamoto left the Bitcoin project for good, networks have emerged that leverage the BTC chain in some way. A variety of projects over the last nine years have found value in anchoring some sort of feature set to BTC in order to bolster the satellite’s underlying network. The following article examines when these anchor-style projects started, where they are today, and how these concepts have been perceived by the crypto community. Also read: Bitcoin History Part 17: That Time Mt. Gox Destroyed 2,609 BTC Blockchain…

How Merge Mining and Anchored Blockchain Projects Capitalize on Bitcoin’s Security Model

boss

Since 2011, just after Satoshi Nakamoto left the Bitcoin project for good, networks have emerged that leverage the BTC chain in some way. A variety of projects over the last nine years have found value in anchoring some sort of feature set to BTC in order to bolster the satellite’s underlying network. The following article examines when these anchor-style projects started, where they are today, and how these concepts have been perceived by the crypto community. Also read: Bitcoin History Part 17: That Time Mt. Gox Destroyed 2,609 BTC Blockchain…

Two Firms to Build Blockchain-Based Solution for European Shipping

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Vakt, a blockchain-based post-trade platform for commodities, has signed a memorandum of understanding with essDOCS, a firm that develops paperless trade solutions, to put European shipping on the blockchain. As markets and technology-focused outlet Benzinga reported on Sept. 20, Vakt and essDOCS will work on a blockchain-based solution that will allow digitization of post-trade process in Europe’s barge shipping. Digitization of barge shipping data While the parties plan to launch the product in northwest Europe initially, they are hoping to expand further to global markets. A joint statement stated: “Trading…

Real-Time Strategy Game for Mining ‘Crypto Gold’ Launches on WAX

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The online real-time economic strategy game, Prospectors, will be launching on the Worldwide Asset eXchange (WAX). Prospectors blockchain game lands on WAX In a Sept. 17 blog post, WAX announced that one of the largest dApps in the world, The Prospectors, is launching on the WAX blockchain, which users buy physical and virtual items using WAX tokens. This blockchain-based decentralized strategy game set during the 19th-century gold rush launched on EOS in late June 2019. Notably, the game’s designers plan for it to become fully autonomous over time.  Arielle Brechisci,…

Justin Sun Reveals New Plan for TRON’s Proof-of-Stake Mechanism

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Blockchain platform Tron’s founder, Justin Sun has announced a new plan for TRON’s (TRX) proof-of-stake mechanism. In a series of tweets on Sept. 21, Sun highlighted four key developments in the new plan for TRON’s proof-of-stake mechanism. Specifically, the developments will focus on the means of distributing staking revenues and greater engagement of the community. Community engagement  Sun revealed that the company will consider “a fair, decentralized distribution of staking revenues” to increase user participation and engagement with staking from industry players such as exchanges, wallets and partners. To encourage…

Bitcoin’s Dominance Drops as BTC Price Briefly Dips Below $10K

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Saturday, Sept. 21 — crypto markets continued to trade sideways, with the majority of the top 20 coins by market cap seeing losses at press time. Market visualization. Source: Coin360 Bitcoin dominance continues to slip After briefly dipping below $10,000 threshold, Bitcoin (BTC) has broken back above $10,000 to trade at $10,041 at press time. The major cryptocurrency is down 1.1% over the past 24 hours, also seeing a nearly 3% loss over the past 7 days at press time. Bitcoin’s dominance on the market has continued to drop, down…

Real Estate, Blockchain and the Quantity Theory of Money

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The concept of illiquidity discounts, how it relates to markets like commercial real estate, and the benefits that tokenization could bring to the industry are topics that I have already discussed in previous articles. In this article, I am taking a closer look at the relationship between liquidity preference and the future demand for tokenized real estate investments. Related: Tokenizing Commercial Real Estate and the Promise of Liquidity Illiquidity discounts reflect the reduction in price that gets applied to an asset due to a shallow market and are particularly pronounced…

Global Blockchain Tech Market to Surpass $16B by 2024

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The global blockchain technology market is estimated to surpass $16 billion by 2024, according to a recent report from market research firm Global Market Insights, Inc. The report In a Sept. 20 press release, Global Market Insights provided highlights from its 180-page-long report entitled “Blockchain Technology Market By Providers (Infrastructure Provider, Application Provider, Operators), Application (Smart Contract, Payment & Wallet, Digital Identity, Exchange, Compliance & Risk Management), End-Use (BFSI, Government, Healthcare, IT Service, Media & Entertainment, Transportation & Logistics), Regional Outlook, Competitive Market Share & Forecast 2024.” Per the analysis,…