It is a question that many in the crypto community must have asked themselves at least once. The news of Wladimir van der Laan taking a temporary hiatus, prompted us to explore what some might consider to be an improbable, yet highly impactful situation. A Bitcoin Core developer that is also a maintainer of the project’s GitHub account (i.e., someone who can “merge code into the master branch”) is a rare commodity. To put this in perspective, if a Bitcoin Core developer is a black belt, then someone like van der Laan…
Day: September 11, 2020
Digital Assets Data CEO says mainstream finance still doesn’t trust Bitcoin
Following the news of Fidelity Investments’ Bitcoin (BTC) fund filing, Mike Alfred, CEO of analytics outfit Digital Assets Data, described continued hesitancy in mainstream finance when it comes to Bitcoin. “Many in the traditional financial services/asset management/wealth management verticals remain deeply skeptical of Bitcoin and the ecosystem,” Alfred told Cointelegraph on Sept. 10. “One commenter on my LinkedIn yesterday even called Fidelity’s move ‘Abby’s folly,’” he said, which takes a shot at Fidelity CEO Abigail Johnson in reference to her activities and position as an early Bitcoin adopter. A mainstream…
Hong Kong’s BTC association pushes ‘Bitcoin Tram’ ad campaign
The Bitcoin Association of Hong Kong, a major local alliance promoting crypto awareness and education, is launching the “Bitcoin Tram” ad campaign in Hong Kong; one of the world’s main global financial centres. According to a Sept. 11 announcement, the new ad campaign composes three double-decker trams fully covered with Bitcoin logos and ads alongside 20 similarly-designed billboards across the city. Hong Kong’s Bitcoin Association said in the announcement that the “educational campaign” was initiated by the Hong Kong Bitcoin community and is coordinated by the association. The campaign is…
Chef Nomi has returned all funds back to the SushiSwap community
In a surprising turn of events, SushiSwap’s former head, anonymously known as Chef Nomi on Twitter, has apologized for their mistakes and returned $14M to the project’s development fund. Nomi said in a Sept. 11 Tweet thread: To everyone. I f***** up. And I am sorry. On Sept. 6, news broke that Nomi had given FTX exchange CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, control over the SushiSwap project — but not before taking approximately $13 million with them. The funds, which Nomi alone controlled, were from a $27 million dollar developer fund that was meant to…
Ethereum 2.0 is coming, unlikely to speed up enterprise DeFi adoption
Many members of the blockchain community have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of Ethereum 2.0, the major upgrade to the Ethereum blockchain set to be released in multiple phases. Phase 0 is the first expected release on the Ethereum 2.0 roadmap, scheduled to launch this year. While speculation around the exact release date remains, Ethereum co-founder and founder of software company ConsenSys, Joseph Lubin, revealed in a recent interview on the Baseline Protocol YouTube channel that Ethereum 2.0 will indeed arrive soon: “Ethereum 2.0 is coming. We are now in…
Binance listing SUSHI was no big deal
Binance’s Changpeng Zhao has received more than his fair share of criticism since Binance’s 2017 launch. As a high-profile crypto figure and the CEO of one of the sector’s largest companies, that is to be expected. But the denunciation leveled at him after the anonymous Chef Nomi’s SushiSwap sell-off scandal has been unwarranted. Few things are more antithetical to the ethos of decentralized finance than having a single figure being the arbiter of the quality or viability of a project. If crypto and decentralized finance are borne of the desire…
Binance should not have listed SUSHI
Chef Nomi has cooked up what appears to be the biggest exit scam of 2020, but should others be held accountable as well? Binance, like many other major exchanges, listed SUSHI raw and unaudited on Sept. 1. The token price doubled upon listing. The token contract was deployed on Aug. 26, it started trading two days later, and the first and only security audit was published on Sept. 3 (the firm confirmed to Cointelegraph that it had not discussed its audit of SushiSwap with Binance prior to publication). Binance’s listing…
Pomp launches new venture fund, says ‘You’ll never regret betting on yourself’
Anthony Pompliano, co-founder of Morgan Creek Digital, announced the launch of a new fund based around his own person and brand. “Today I am announcing a new rolling fund that will be backed by a group of successful investors across Silicon Valley and Wall Street,” Pompliano said in a Sept. 11 blog post announcement. “This rolling fund structure gives me ultimate flexibility, which I believe will lead to a significant advantage when investing in early stage technology companies.” Pompliano plans to open a solo general partner, or GP, fund as a…
Russia’s crypto law is a mixed bag, according to industry execs
Russia’s new cryptocurrency-related law, “On Digital Financial Assets,” or DFA, seems to have had little impact on the local cryptocurrency industry so far. In its current form, the DFA law essentially provides legal status to digital assets like Bitcoin (BTC), but prohibits their use for payments in Russia. As the DFA law is poised to be officially adopted in less than four months, Cointelegraph talked to major crypto firms operating in Russia to get their take on how the new law can impact their business. Based on comments from executives…
Square launches cryptocurrency patent alliance to fight the trolls
Square, the U.S.-based financial services company headed by Twitter’s Jack Dorsey, is establishing a consortium to fight patent trolling and ensure open access to technology in the crypto sector. The ‘Cryptocurrency Open Patent Alliance’ (COPA) seeks to democratize access to innovative technologies in the crypto sector, asserting that “open access to patents covering foundational cryptocurrency technologies is necessary for the community to grow, freely innovate, and build new and better products.” Square is putting all of our crypto patents into a new non-profit org we’re calling the Crypto Open Patent…