Day: January 7, 2020

MARKETS DAILY: Are Governments Feeling the FOMO?

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With bitcoin setting a blistering pace for 2020, Markets Daily is back with the news moving markets, plus a look at several stories on the escalating, global interest in blockchain by governments. No time to listen? scroll down for the complete episode transcript… Tune in as CoinDesk podcasts editor Adam B. Levine and senior markets reporter Brad Keoun run down recent action, track interesting longer-term trends and highlight some of the most important crypto industry developments of the day. More ways to Listen or Subscribe: Adam B. Levine: On Today’s episode,…

Blockchain Vendor R3 Scores Its Second Patent in a Week

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Enterprise software vendor R3 has won a patent for a blockchain-based record system designed to make corporate information-sharing more efficient. Awarded Tuesday by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the patent describes a “system and method for managing transactions in dynamic digital documents” that would provide companies with a shared distributed ledger to supply relevant parties with the same immutable data record. The award comes just over a week after R3 received another patent, that one for a new decentralized payments system that doesn’t have to use a blockchain. Awarded…

Bitcoin Rally Unclear while Faltering at $8000, Hash Rate at All-Time High

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BTC/USD is currently trading at $7,861 (+1.4% from the beginning of the day). The crypto is in motion as part of a vigorous bull trend in Asia amid growing volatility and a tested zone past the $8,000 price level. As Bitcoin halving approaches, several market analysts are trying to project how this will influence the price, while in some other forecasts, an analyst said that dominance in the Bitcoin market may not surpass 75%, and price recovery may be limited to $15,000. The Bitcoin sphere counts the months preceding a…

Blockchain Bandwagon Company Longfin CEO Settles with US SEC for $400,000

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Venkata S. Meenavalli, an Indian ex-CEO of a once Nasdaq-listed American fintech firm Longfin, has settled with the US Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) for conducting a $27 million accounting fraud scheme to inflate the revenue of the now-defunct cryptocurrency company in order to get it listed on the Nasdaq. The company’s share price jumped some 2,500 percent in 2017 after jumping on the Blockchain bandwagon and announcing a blockchain pivot during the height of the bubble.  The Longfin CEO has agreed to pay $400,000 in disgorgement and penalties to…

SBI, GMO to Rent Capacity at Massive Bitcoin Mine in Texas: Report

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Potentially the world’s biggest bitcoin mine is said to have signed up two top corporate customers in the form of SBI Holdings and GMO. The Japanese corporate giants will be renting mining capacity at the facility in Rockdale, Texas, recently put into construction by Whinstone Inc., according to Bloomberg sources. The firms are to begin mining “within coming months,” the report says, adding that the firms involved would not comment when asked. As CoinDesk reported in November, when the facility gets up and running it will likely be the biggest…

CFTC Cannot Locate Man Responsible for Over $140 Million Crypto Ponzi

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The United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is having trouble locating Benjamin Reynolds, who is allegedly responsible for a cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme worth over $140 million. Financial news outlet FinanceFeeds reported on Jan. 6 that the CFTC has filed a motion with the New York Southern District Court. More precisely, the regulator filed for the service of process on Reynolds by publication on The Daily Telegraph and extending for sixty days the time limit by which the service must be effected on him and his firm. A major Bitcoin…

Measure Protocol Backed with £2m in New Funding for Blockchain-Powered Person-Based Data Marketplace

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Blockchain-fueled data marketplace Measure Protocol has received £2 million in additional funding led by Dynata and Blockchain Valley Ventures (BVV), with Medicys Limited also joining the round. Owen Hanks, CEO of Measure Protocol said: “The new investment is a clear illustration that the industry is starting to pay attention to consumers’ needs, both from a practical and ethical standpoint. The super-power of blockchain is its ability to build trust in a marketplace, and provide a foundation upon which to meet the consumer’s needs for privacy and transparency – whether they are aware of the…

Major Spanish Bank Latest to Bring Blockchain Into European Finance

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On Jan. 3 Spain-based CaixaBank added the blockchain-powered finance platform We.trade to its list of services. CaixaBank has now become one of the first banks in Europe to provide its customers access to blockchain technology. Launched in 2017, We.trade is a finance platform powered by IBM’s blockchain technology. It was developed by a consortium of 15 financial institutions from around Europe, like UBS and Societe Generale, and it works to provide businesses with a digital, trustless platform for verifying financial information. We.trade’s open API architecture lets it track and trace goods shipped…

DAO Platform Aragon Begins Recruiting Jurors for Tokenized ‘Court’

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Aragon has started the process for recruiting human jurors as the governance protocol prepares to launch its decentralized court system. As of 16:00 UTC Tuesday, community members will be able to exchange the project’s ANT tokens for newly minted Aragon Network Juror (ANJ) tokens that will be used for staking on its dispute resolution platform. The pre-activation window, open until the launch of Aragon Court on Feb. 10, will select the first class of jurors to adjudicate on cases brought before the court. Aragon provides the framework and tools needed…

Bitcoin Scam Ads Featuring Martin Lewis Now Spotted on Instagram

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Bitcoin (BTC) scam ads featuring the likeness of Martin Lewis have continued to appear on social media despite Lewis’ previous efforts to prevent such illegal practices. After the British financial expert settled a defamation lawsuit against Facebook for showing unendorsed fake Lewis crypto ads in 2019, new scam adverts have now been spotted on Facebook-owned Instagram. Reported by Twitter user @peterfinn5252 on Jan. 7, the scam Instagram ad shows Lewis’ face to promote a fake article pretending to be published by major British national daily tabloid The Mirror.  The fake…