Zcash Community Approves New Mining Reward Distribution Scheme

A recent poll revealed community support for Zcash mining reward changes, which will take effect in November 2020.  With the Zcash Founder’s Reward terminating in November, the privacy asset’s mining situation has come into question, a blog post from one of the project’s supporters, Electric Coin Company, or ECC, said on Jan. 28.  Community votes in new specs Using a bevy of avenues, including Telegram and Twitter, the Zcash foundation questioned the coin’s community on mining payouts going forward, the blog post read.  Taking effect in November during the coin’s…

Did Ethereum Silently Give Up on Plasma?

In a Jan. 27 post, Dragonfly Research proclaimed Plasma to be dead, noting that the Ethereum (ETH) community is converging on Optimistic Rollup, despite initial enthusiasm. The news comes in stark contrast to earlier claims by Plasma Group arguing that the technology was moving into production phase. The history of Plasma The original paper detailing the Plasma proposal was published in August 2017. In essence, Plasma was conceived as a network of sidechains attached to the main Ethereum blockchain. They would have allowed offloading of the majority of the transactional…

Close to $6k in Bitcoin Cash Tips Paid to Read.cash Authors Last Week

The read.cash blog has been a resource for the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) community for a while now but ever since the recent miner funded development proposal, the blogging site has gathered significant traction. For instance, the front page of read.cash shows that during the last week, more than $5,730 in bitcoin cash has been given to post authors. Also read: Data Shows $25 Billion Worth of Bitcoin and Ether Held by Seven Crypto Exchanges Read.cash Blog Gathers Momentum During the Infrastructure Funding Debate Read.cash is a blogging website that rewards…

Former Google Exec Joins Coinbase as New Chief Product Officer

Former Google executive Surojit Chatterjee has joined Coinbase as the company’s new chief product officer.  Before joining Coinbase, Chatterjee worked as a Google’s vice president of product, tallying 11 years at the internet company, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong wrote in a Jan. 29 blog post announcing the hire.  An experienced hire During his time at Google, Chatterjee headed up the internet giant’s shopping branch. Prior to Google, Chatterjee served at the helm of Indian e-commerce venue Flipkart as its head of product, the blog post detailed.  “Surojit’s 11 years at…

Better Regulation Could Curb Crypto Scams, Chainalysis Report Says

Greater regulations and enforcement can deter some crypto crimes, blockchain forensics provider Chainalysis said in a new report. Chainalysis’ 2019 Crime Report, published Wednesday, details its analysis of illicit activities last year, contrasting 2019 actions with previous years. It found that while the amount of bitcoin sent from criminal entities doubled between 2018 and the end of 2019, it still accounts for just 0.08 percent of the total number of bitcoin transactions last year.  And while exchange hacks and thefts dominated headlines last year, “scams were by far the highest-earning…

Cambridge Analytica Whistleblower Eyes Blockchain to Solve Data-Privacy Crisis

Blockchain technology is an important tool in addressing the data protection crisis, Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Brittany Kaiser believes. Kaiser, a former business development director at controversial British data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica, has discussed global data privacy issues in an interview with Cointelegraph on Jan. 23. Currently serving as co-founder at digital intelligence startup Own Your Data Foundation, Kaiser first came into the spotlight during the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which revealed that the firm had collected raw data from up to 87 million Facebook profiles for the Trump campaign. Speaking…

Antonopoulos Writes to Judge Vouching for Law Team Suing Bitfinex for BTC Manipulation

One of the biggest names in crypto has joined in an ongoing argument about who will lead the class-action suit against Bitfinex and its affiliates over alleged market manipulation leading to Bitcoin’s 2017 bull run.  Antonopoulos’s affidavit Amid a flurry of filings seeking to lead the class, Andreas Antonopoulos has come out in support of the legal team of Liebowitz, filing an affidavit on Jan. 27 vouching for the expertise of the team — which Antonopoulos has seen in action on the Kleiman v. Wright case.  Liebowitz’s representation includes a…

Vodafone Becomes Latest Big Name Backer to Quit Libra

British telecom giant Vodafone is the latest firm to pull out of the Libra Association, the non-profit body overseeing the Facebook-led digital coin, bringing the total number of early backers to withdraw from the project to eight. Vodafone Walks Away Both Vodafone and Libra confirmed the news last week with the departure appearing to be amicable, despite several high profile withdrawals last year coming across as less than friendly. The telecom company now says it intends to dedicate resources previously allocated for the project to its own well-established digital payment…

Craig Wright Knows Exactly Who Pumped Bitcoin SV by 350%

Controversial computer scientist Craig Wright claims to know exactly who was behind the spectacular Bitcoin SV pump of early January. Wright says the interest in the market was indeed organic but is unwilling to go into specifics. Wright also believes that the patents filled by nChain will position the company well to take advantage of central bank and private efforts to create stablecoins. He says that when those behind such projects realise the challenges, it will make sense for them to use Bitcoin SV. Wright Knows Exactly What Caused the…

Developers Say Google Play Unfairly Booted Their Bitcoin Rewards Game

Google recently suspended and removed bitcoin rewards game “Bitcoin Blast” from its Google Play app store for allegedly deceiving users, but it will not explain to the developers what exactly was deceptive about the game.  On Jan. 20, Google pulled Bling’s “Bitcoin Blast,” a match-three puzzle game that rewards users with bitcoin-redeemable loyalty points. The Android version of the game had been live on the Play Store since May 2019, CEO Amy Wan told CoinDesk.  Within that time, she said it amassed 800,000 users, 20,000 ratings and 13,000 written reviews,…