It’s been six years since Hal Finney passed away from the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or ALS. Finney is known as an early supporter of Bitcoin (BTC), and one of the first people to respond to Satoshi Nakamoto’s initial post on the cypherpunk mailing list. In Bitcoin’s earliest days, he was the only one who fully understood the possibilities of the technology, without being overtly skeptical about its prospects. Finney was one of the better-known cryptographers in the cypherpunk community even prior to his involvement with Bitcoin. Early in his career,…
Day: August 28, 2020
Ministers used influence to pilfer millions in alleged Ponzi Scheme
A recent filing from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, takes action against three individuals for allegedly raising millions of dollars against more than 1,000 victims. “From 2017 to May 2019, Jali, Frimpong, and Johnson, directly and through two entities created to perpetrate the scheme, Smart Partners and 1st Million (the ‘Companies’), fraudulently raised more than $27 million from approximately 1,200 investors, many of them African immigrants,” an Aug. 28 legal filing states. The allegations claim the three individuals used their influence in churches and health care, preying…
A new Cardano-based project is handling oracles a lot differently than Chainlink
Cardano (ADA) is getting into data oracles ahead of the Goguen era that will add smart contract functionality, taking a different approach than Chainlink. The first oracles are being built in partnership with EMURGO, one of the companies in the Cardano ecosystem, and Ergo (ERG). The first two oracles are deployed on Ergo and provide price feeds for the two trading pairs: ADA/USD and ERG/USD. The new model introduces Oracle Pools, which are capable of incentivizing good and disincentivizing bad behavior. Ergo’s core developer Alexander Chepurnoy told Cointelegraph that the…
‘Sex sells’ – sex.crypto sells for 230 ETH
Earlier today, the domain ‘sex.crypto’ sold for 230 ETH, or approximately $90,000 at press time. The domain extension .crypto is generated by Unstoppable Domains and is censorship-resistant. The transaction, which occurred on OpenSea’s token marketplace, was completed by a user named Maxstealth. Currently, he owns 196 .crypto domains in total. This individual or entity appears to be an Ethereum (ETH) whale, as the Ethereum address from which the payment was sent has received over 10,000 ETH. Currently, the account has only 1.75 ETH left, according to data from CrystalBlockchain. The buyer most…
Charles Hoskinson’s IOHK submitted a decentralized treasury proposal to the Ethereum Classic community
Charles Hoskinson’s IOHK recently published two Ethereum Classic Improvement Proposals, or ECIPs, meant to help the struggling chain recover after a slew of recent 51% attacks. The first introduced a checkpoint system to prevent the possibility of such attacks, and the second proposed a decentralized treasury — a seemingly divisive idea within the ETC community. Following the recent attacks, a heated debate ensued concerning the project’s future. Hoskinson, one of Ethereum’s co-founders and a supporter of the ETC fork, believes that the way forward revolves around the institution of the decentralized treasury. The proposal suggests that the…
Don’t just blame DeFi for paying high ETH gas fees
Transaction costs on the Ethereum blockchain are at record highs, and no one will let you forget it. Reports often detail how decentralized finance platforms are the cause of ever-rising gas fees — tokens paid to miners who confirm and enable transactions on the Ethereum blockchain. Yes, DeFi does play a role, but the problem is institutional. Some exchanges, custodians and asset managers have been using multisignature platforms to secure their digital assets. Several years ago, multisig was viewed as a respected attempt to prevent private keys from being compromised.…
Alt season is here? DeFi tokens taking on Bitcoin for crypto dominance
With Bitcoin dropping below the $12,000 level and pulling back to $11,400 in the last few days, altcoins also seem to have lost their momentum, even after their impressive gains since the start of 2020. However, some believe that “alt season” is alive and well and that cryptocurrencies still have room to grow, even after tokens like Chainlink and others have grown by more than 100%. The rising price of the dollar may have been the major reason for the recent drop in Bitcoin’s (BTC) price, with safe-haven assets such…
Troubled Crypto AG successor reportedly dismisses 70 employees
Crypto International, a successor of controversial Swiss company Crypto AG, is reportedly dismissing dozens of employees following a major spying scandal. As many as 70 employees had to quit Crypto International after Crypto AG was found to be selling backdoored products to benefit agencies like the United States Central Intelligence Agency in February 2020. The firm reportedly confirmed the dismissals to Switzerland-centred publication Swissinfo.ch on Aug. 28. Representatives at Crypto International reportedly said that the dismissals were unavoidable because the government recently refused to resume the examination of export applications.…
Japanese financial giant SBI to launch CFDs for Bitcoin, Ether and XRP
Japanese financial giant SBI Holdings is preparing to launch contract-for-difference (CFD) trading for major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC). Starting Aug. 31, SBI Holdings will start CFD trading service for crypto assets like Bitcoin, Ether (ETH), and XRP, Cointelegraph Japan reports on Aug. 28. As officially announced, the new service will be offered through SBI’s foreign exchange-focused arm, SBI FX Trade. The platform is accepting new account registrations immediately, the announcement notes. The new trading offering will allow SBI clients to trade crypto CFD contracts against the Japanese yen and the…
Crypto leaders at odds over SEC’s ‘accredited investors’ move
Major players in the crypto community have responded to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission recently amending its definition of an “accredited investor”. While many gave positive feedback, some say the new rules don’t go far enough. On Aug. 26 the SEC announced that the accredited investors definition would now be based on “professional certifications, designations or credentials, or other credentials issued by an accredited educational institution.” Under the old definition, accredited investors needed to have either $1 million in net worth or a stable income of at least $200,000…