Day: December 18, 2019

Huawei Exec: How Xi’s Endorsement of Blockchain Greatly Improved Industry Reputation

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Huawei Research Manager Ruifeng Hu said that Chinese President Xi Jinping’s endorsement of blockchain technology greatly improved the reputation of the industry. However, there is a clear divide between blockchain and crypto. At the Blockchain for Global Impact Conference, Hu said that specialists working during the early days of the industry struggled with the public’s perception of the industry. He said that the use of crypto assets in black markets and money laundering brought a negative reputation to the asset class and the underlying technology. “As people working on blockchain,…

Huawei Exec: How Xi’s Endorsement of Blockchain Greatly Improved Industry Reputation

boss

Huawei Research Manager Ruifeng Hu said that Chinese President Xi Jinping’s endorsement of blockchain technology greatly improved the reputation of the industry. However, there is a clear divide between blockchain and crypto. At the Blockchain for Global Impact Conference, Hu said that specialists working during the early days of the industry struggled with the public’s perception of the industry. He said that the use of crypto assets in black markets and money laundering brought a negative reputation to the asset class and the underlying technology. “As people working on blockchain,…

HTC to Increase Focus on Blockchain Phones, AI After New Staff Cuts

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Taiwanese phone manufacturer HTC confirmed earlier this week that it would axe jobs to remain competitive and better focus on a handful of high-end products, including the EXODUS, its blockchain phone.  HTC, which has around 3,000 employees, has not disclosed the scale of the lay-offs or the departments that will be most affected, according to a report from Taiwan News. This will be the third round of job cuts staff at the phone manufacturer have faced in the past five years. The company let go 2,250 employees in 2015, and…

ErisX Launches Its Physically-Settled Bitcoin Futures to Compete Bakkt

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In direct competition to ICE‘s Bakkt platform, cryptocurrency exchange ErisX has launched its physically-settled Bitcoin futures contracts. In an official announcement on Monday, December 17, ErisX said that it will make its futures contracts available in the U.S. as of now. The product dubbed “Futures Digital Currency Products” will start trading today onwards from 8:00 a.m. Central Time (14:00 UTC). As per CoinDesk, ErisX’s Bitcoin futures will trade alongside its existing cryptocurrency spot exchange. As per the information on its product page, ErisX Bitcoin futures hold a contract size of…

Bitcoin Scammers ‘Tired’ of Crypto as Focus Switches to Prepaid Cards

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Bitcoin (BTC) scammers may be abandoning the cryptocurrency to focus on extorting money via prepaid debit cards, a new study suggests. Revealing its findings in a blog post on Dec. 16, cybersecurity company Kaspersky Lab highlighted a growing trend in Brazil as an example of hackers’ growing taste for prepaid cards. Prepaid cards’ international appeal Specifically, a so-called “sextortion” scam — demanding a victim pay money to avoid compromising information about his or her private life going public — targets Acesso cards in the country.  “The debit cards in this…

Justin Sun Riles Community With $1 Million Donation to Greta Thunburg

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Tron (TRX) founder Justin Sun has publicly pledged to donate $1 million to efforts by the young Swedish activist Great Thunberg to raise global awareness of the climate crisis.  Responding to the watered-down results of last week’s COP25 UN climate conference in Madrid, Sun tweeted on Dec. 18: “As a young entrepreneur, I share @GretaThunberg’s passion to change the world. Crypto will contribute immensely on reducing carbon footprint by implementing decentralized settlement. I would like to personally commit USD$1 Mil to @GretaThunberg ’s initiative. #cop25” COP25 ends in stalemate The recent UN climate…

Lead Monero Maintainer Riccardo ‘Fluffypony’ Spagni Steps Down

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Privacy-focused altcoin Monero (XMR) will see arguably its best-known advocate step down as the project’s lead maintainer in an upcoming reshuffle.  In a blog post on Dec. 16, representatives confirmed that Riccardo Spagni, known as fluffypony in cryptocurrency circles, will in the future serve as a backup maintainer. His replacement will be fellow developer Snipa.  Spagni moves to backup “Fluffypony has served the Monero project well over its five years of existence, and he will continue to remain active in the community as a maintainer,” the blog post read. Regarding…

Swap Bitcoin SV for BTC Before Hard Fork Stuns Wallet

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Digital currency management company BitGo has told users to move or convert funds they hold in altcoin Bitcoin SV (BSV) due to a compatibility problem. In a blog post on Dec. 18, BitGo said BSV’s upcoming hard fork, known as Genesis, contained a protocol change which would mean its wallets will be unable to receive transactions. BitGo warns of BSV “deprecation” The hard fork is set to occur in February 2020. After that time, BitGo users will only be able to spend remaining BSV tokens, not accept incoming transactions. Describing…

Four Big Acquisitions by $4 Billion Crypto Giant Shows Market Isn’t That Bad Afterall

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Crypto markets are in the doldrums at the moment, just as they were this time last year. A $10 billion dump on the week looks bad in the short term but things may not be that negative overall. One of the largest players in the industry has been on a shopping spree this year. Crypto Giant Goes Shopping Bear markets will shake out the weak hands leaving only the strongest left. 2018 was a clear example of that and the latter half of this year is turning into a case…

Are Exchanges Ready for New Rules?

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The deadline is rapidly approaching.  5AMLD — the Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive —  is a piece of legislation that brings fiat-to-crypto exchanges and custodial wallets across the European Union under a new first-of-its-kind regulatory framework. Exchanges must achieve compliance with the rules by January 10, 2020. Time is ticking away, causing some exchanges to scramble, while others stand ready to roll out compliance procedures. David Carlisle knows a thing or two about crypto and regulations. As former United States Treasury Anti-Money Laundering (AML) specialist and the current Head of Community…