Waves Launched a Non-Profit Association Under German Law

According to a Feb. 3 press release, open source blockchain platform Waves established a non-profit organization called Waves Association in Frankfurt, Germany to provide effective governance for its own ecosystem, Web3, and to foster the development of DLTs, including public and private blockchain protocols.  Uniting six countries  The Waves Association will be represented by ten community members from six different countries: Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, and Russia. Waves founder Alexander Ivanov, who is also a member of the association, calls the launch of the Waves Association an important…

When Will We See the Digital Dollar? ‘CryptoDad’ Says Soon

Former CFTC Chairman Chris Giancarlo aka “CryptoDad” sees the current set of financial systems – the older systems associated with the pre-digital age – as hopelessly obsolete. He aims to fix them. “During my five years at the commission we saw this sort of new wave of the digitization of our world that’s taking place,” he said. “The first wave was the digitization of information, and that’s created the Internet as we know it today. But we’re seeing what some people call the digitization of value, or the or the…

When Will We See the Digital Dollar? ‘CryptoDad’ Says Soon

Former CFTC Chairman Chris Giancarlo aka “CryptoDad” sees the current set of financial systems – the older systems associated with the pre-digital age – as hopelessly obsolete. He aims to fix them. “During my five years at the commission we saw this sort of new wave of the digitization of our world that’s taking place,” he said. “The first wave was the digitization of information, and that’s created the Internet as we know it today. But we’re seeing what some people call the digitization of value, or the or the…

Crypto Capital Co-Founder Rejects Plea Deal in Shadow Bank Case

Crypto Capital co-founder Reginald Fowler has rejected a plea deal with the US government in an ongoing case in which he is accused of operating a “shadow bank” for several crypto exchanges. Fowler was indicted in April 2019, along with Israeli national Ravid Yosef, for allegedly running a shadow bank for several cryptocurrency firms, including Bitfinex and Tether, which are currently embroiled in a separate case in which they are accused of creating “the largest bubble in human history.” According to a letter submitted by the prosecution on January 31, the…

Tech Like Blockchain Will Transform Chinese Economy, Bank Chair Says

Digital transformation is a national priority for China, and it’s being integrated into both enterprise and banks and other services industries. According to a Feb. 4 report from Economic Information Daily, chairman of Minsheng Bank Hong Qi said: “The full adoption of digital technologies such as blockchain is expected to accelerate the digital transformation and upgrade its agriculture, manufacturing, finance and other services in the next 10 years.”   China Minsheng Bank is the first national commercial bank owned principally by non-government enterprises. It is famous for making loans to…

Hackers Stole and Encrypted Data of 5 U.S. Law Firms, Demand 2 Crypto Ransoms

Hackers compromised five United States law firms and demanded two 100 Bitcoin (BTC) (over $933,000 at press time) ransoms from each firm: one to restore access to the data, one to delete their copy instead of selling it. According to data shared with Cointelegraph by cybersecurity firm Emsisoft, the hacker group — called Maze — already started publishing part of the data stolen from the aforementioned firms. Two of the five law firms were hacked within the 24 hours leading to Feb. 1. The hackers published the data on two…

US Marshals to Auction $37M in Confiscated Bitcoin in February

The United States Marshals Service (USMS), a federal law enforcement agency within the U.S. Department of Justice, will auction more than 4,000 confiscated Bitcoins (BTC). According to the official USMS website, the authority is planning to sell “approximately” 4,040 Bitcoins (4,040.54069820), requiring a $200,000 deposit in order to take part in the auction. The USMS said it will return the deposits to non-winning bidders, promising to initiate the return of losing bid deposits within five business days after transferring bitcoins to the winning bidder. At press time, the total amount…

This Initiative Could Single-Handedly Push Ethereum to Mass Adoption

In an effort to promote safe smart contract use, a group of Ethereum startups has founded a new initiative. The Ethereum Trust Alliance (ETA) will provide smart contract ratings, informing users of an application’s reliability. Previous examples of smart contract vulnerabilities have resulted in millions of dollars of missing funds. The ETA hopes to prevent similar occurring again. Good information about the trustworthiness of a smart contract may well drive Ethereum adoption going forward. ETA Understands Not Everyone Can Audit Their Own Ethereum Smart Contract Public blockchain projects, like Bitcoin…

An Experience From Naples, Italy

E-voting is gaining its place in the growing discussion over the use of blockchain. In our view, when technology addresses such socially sensitive issues, values step forward to the fore, together with the differences and clashes that they imply. Such democratic values convey the identity, pathologies and fears of the context from which they come. In that sense, the technical operation of designing and developing a voting system entails political and legal effects that make the matter case-sensitive, depending on the different territorial and constitutional traditions.  Thus, we believe that…

Deplatforming, Ethereum Marketing and Whether Brexit Matters for Crypto

A look at social media censorship discussion plus ethereum marketing and Brexit reactions with Ledger CEO Pascal Gauthier. Much of the Crypto Twitter conversation this weekend was dominated by talk of Twitter’s suspension of ZeroHedge. @nlw explores why the specifics of the infraction or the quality of the publication aren’t the important part of the conversation, and why he thinks we’ll see arguments for social media platforms to be turned into public utilities in the years ahead.  Disclosure Read More The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet…