Day: February 21, 2020

Canadian E-Commerce Giant Shopify Joins Libra Association

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E-commerce giant Shopify has joined the Libra Association, a network of founding members supporting Facebook’s stablecoin project Libra. Shopify, a major Canada-based digital commerce platform hosting more than one million merchants, will be collaborating on the establishment of a global payment network within the Libra Association, the firm officially announced on Feb. 21. The Libra Foundation has confirmed the news in a Facebook post, outlining that Shopify would be an “incredible partner in making widespread economic participation a reality.” Shopify believes that traditional financial system wasn’t built for Internet commerce…

Irish Drug Dealer Tells Police That Keys to $56M in Confiscated BTC Are Lost

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Dubliner Clifton Collins, who was recently imprisoned for drug trafficking, claims that robbers took the keys to the $56 million in Bitcoin (BTC) Irish High Court had ruled should be confiscated. After obtaining more than 6,000 BTC by 2017, Collins decided to insure himself against hackers by distributing the cryptocurrency across 12 newly created accounts. Thus, he transferred 500 BTC into each of them, the Irish Times reported on Feb. 21. As of press time, that would leave each wallet worth roughly $4.87 million. A punishment for his own stupidity?…

David Ortiz Is Ridiculously Clueless About the Astros Scandal

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Former Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz came out swinging on the Astros cheating scandal. He torched Mike Fiers, the whistleblower who exposed the sign-stealing scheme, as “a snitch.” Ortiz has no place to be calling anyone’s integrity into question. David Ortiz may only be a spring training instructor for the Boston Red Sox organization this year, but he’s making headlines like it’s 2013. There’s been a lot said about the Astros cheating scandal, with most of the angry words aimed in one direction: at the Astros organization, owner Jim…

CFTC Joins the Telegram Vs. SEC Case, Shedding Light on Likely Verdict

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The United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission has recently weighed in on the Security and Exchange Commission’s ongoing legal battle with Telegram by filing a letter that contained its views on the case. According to the submitted document, the CFTC’s Office of General Counsel believes that all digital currencies are commodities, thus implying that Telegram’s Gram token is not a security and therefore not subject to registration under the Securities Act of 1933.  With that being said, the CFTC did concede that the Commodity Exchange Act does afford certain securities…

Coronavirus Is Grinding the U.S. Economy to a Halt – Here’s the Ugly Proof

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U.S. services PMI plunged into contraction territory for the first time since 2013. The broader U.S. economy is on pace to grow just 0.6% this month, according to IHS Markit. Business spending plans have been curbed over fears of a worsening coronavirus pandemic. Output in the U.S. services sector plunged to more than six-year lows in February, the first tangible sign of China’s coronavirus outbreak hitting home. U.S. Economy Grinds to a Halt: IHS Markit IHS Markit’s flash services purchasing managers’ index (PMI) registered 49.4 in February on a scale…

FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel: Restore Net Neutrality and Expand Internet to All

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There are two warring factions at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).  One side represents the business class, or the dominant internet service providers (ISPs) that want less regulation, freer markets, and the ability to determine how to run and where to build their networks. Its apotheosis is found in the current chairman, Ajit Pai. The competing side, represented by Jessica Rosenworcel, one of the five FCC commissioners, is fighting for the interests of consumers. Its cornerstone positions are the restoration of net neutrality and the expansion of broadband access for…

Bitcoin’s Lightning Network Found More Centralized Than Expected by Researchers

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The Lightning Network’s (LN) configuration is becoming increasingly centralized, with multiple hubs being formed. This is the finding of a yet-to-be-reviewed research paper, released on pre-print site arXiv on Feb. 7. A team of academics from Switzerland, France, Italy and Canada authored the paper. Jian Hong-Lin and Kevin Primicerio conducted the analysis, while others, including Blockstream Inc. researcher Christian Decker, designed the research. Core-periphery model The team gathered Lightning Network information for a period of 18 months from Jan. 18, 2018 to July 13, 2019. Researchers then analyzed the payment…

‘Bullish’ Comments on Reddit a Potential Bitcoin Signal

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In the never-ending search for signals to give traders an edge, could bullish comments on Reddit serve as a momentum indicator for bitcoin? That’s what a recent graphic by startup ChartStar suggests.  The data visualization company graphed comment data over the past several weeks for the term “bullish” from several popular cryptocurrency Reddit channels (“subreddits”), each with varying degrees of moderation. One thing these subreddits have in common is that discussion about trading is clearly allowed. Also, each comment entry was tallied only once; posting “bullish bullish bullish” would count…

Shopify Joins Libra Association – CoinDesk

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Digital payments platform Shopify has joined the Libra Association. The company announced the move in a blog post Friday, becoming the latest member of the stablecoin developer. Shopify joins roughly a month after Vodafone pulled out of the organization to focus on its own digital payments system. Shopify said in a blog post it intends to “work collectively” to build a payment network that works “everywhere.” “Our mission has always been to support the entrepreneurial journey of the more than one million merchants on our platform. That means advocating for…