Responding to a tweet from Cameron Winklevoss, co-founder of the Gemini crypto exchange, rock star Gene Simmons said he plans to make Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) more easily accessible. “It’s easier to buy Bitcoin and Ether if you are already in the old system,” Winklevoss said in a Sept. 15 tweet, summing up a rather long thread addressing racial bias, crypto and decentralized finance. “If you don’t have a bank account, it’s hard to get funds into crypto,” he noted, adding: “We need to change this.” Retweeting the post…
Day: September 15, 2020
eToro, BlockFi & Nexo capitalize on Brave ads for ‘unmatched engagement’
According to Brave browser, businesses like eToro, BlockFi, and Nexo have achieved unprecedented results by advertising to the platform’s users. Considering the popularity of Brave within the crypto community, this does not come as a surprise. For instance, the crypto-lending platform BlockFi was able to reduce its customer acquisition costs by 75% with Brave ads. The campaign was also twice as effective as a Google campaign in terms of the percent of respondents who opened accounts. BlockFi’s marketing manager Nick Ries was quoted as saying: “Brave has proven to be one…
Unikrn ICO faces further SEC action
Unikrn, an initial coin offering, or ICO, from 2017, faces action from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commision, or SEC. The SEC has accused the startup of running its ICO without going through the proper legal channels, based on a Sept. 15 statement from the regulating body. The commission claims Unikrn offered an unregistered investment opportunity. “Unikrn agreed to settle the charges by paying a $6.1 million penalty, substantially all of the company’s assets, to be distributed to investors through a Fair Fund,” the statement said. Unikrn made headlines back in…
MIT scholar suggests ETC counters 51% attacks
The recent 51% attacks on Ethereum Classic (ETC) have raised fresh questions about the security of proof-of-work blockchains. Not only has ETC been attacked three times within a month, but these assaults have been enabled with rented hashrate power. One of these attacks cost OKEx $5.6 million as it paid out its customers in full. The major cryptocurrency exchange then threatened to delist Ethereum Classic if it doesn’t improve its security soon. Some questions being asked last week were: Is this problem unique to Ethereum Classic, or are all PoW…
BitPay decides to let all employees work from home permanently
Bitcoin (BTC) payment and wallet company BitPay has chosen to take its company’s working atmosphere remote, permanently. A poll from within the company revealed: “85% of employees preferred to work from home and felt they were more productive,” said a Sept. 15 statement. “This insight coupled with the continuation in business, is a main reason the company chose to make working from home permanent.” As a niche largely held within the digital world, the crypto space often sees companies and individuals working remotely. A growing trend in light of COVID-19…
Nearly 30,000 blockchain votes were recorded in Russian elections — The most ever
Close to 30,000 votes were recorded on the blockchain during the Russian parliamentary elections in what appears to have been the biggest case of blockchain-based voting yet. The blockchain component of the online voting platform was built by Waves Enterprise. The voting concluded early yesterday, and according to the chief product officer of Waves Enterprise, Artem Kalikhov, everything went off without any hiccups. He told Cointelegraph that the elections took place on the permissioned network run by Rostelecom. The firm was contracted by Russia’s Central Election Commission, which, in turn, subcontracted…
Russia’s largest bank joins blockchain trade finance platform
A subsidiary of Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank, has joined a blockchain-based platform for commodity trade finance. Sberbank Switzerland AG has signed an agreement with Swiss trade finance platform Komgo to apply its blockchain-powered trade finance service. Representatives from Sberbank Switzerland AG told Cointelegraph that the collaboration with Komgo addresses the growing digitization of trade finance. Evgeny Kravchenko, head of trade finance at Sberbank, outlined that commodity trade finance is a strategic business of Sberbank Switzerland AG. According to the executive, Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States’ countries are the…
How blockchain can promote sustainability and ethical labor practices
As the post-coronavirus world develops a greater awareness of global supply chains, we talk to Leanne Kemp, the CEO and founder of Everledger who has made it her mission to increase transparency and trust within global markets. Aside from Everledger, a company that uses blockchain technology to create digital records that track the supply chain of luxury goods like gemstones and fine wine, Kemp is a leader in the blockchain space in myriad other ways. She co-chairs the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on the Future of Manufacturing. She…
BNP Paribas connects to major stock exchanges with DAML smart contracts
BNP Paribas’ securities arm has partnered with Digital Asset to develop a number of real-time trade and settlement applications using DAML-based smart contracts, the firm announced on Sept. 15. The new DAML-driven apps will connect BNP Paribas Securities Services with major global stock exchanges like the Australian Securities Exchange, or ASX, and the Hong Kong Exchange, or HKEX. The apps will provide market participants in the Asia Pacific with real-time access to ASX’s and HKEX’s upcoming blockchain-based trading and settlement platforms. BNP Paribas will specifically connect to the ASX’s blockchain-powered equity…
Curve, Aave, Synthetix and 7 others join Global DeFi Alliance
Huobi’s decentralized finance (DeFi) consortium — dubbed the Global DeFi Alliance — has welcomed 10 new members — bringing its total membership to 15. The new members comprise DeFi heavyweights Curve Finance, Aave, Synthetix, Balancer, Loopring, Zapper, Zerion, Bitpie, Mykey, and CoinGecko. They join founding members Maker Foundation, Compound, NEST Community, dYdX, and Huobi DeFi Labs to explore “cross-border collaboration opportunities” and promote the development of the DeFi ecosystem. The Global DeFi Alliance launched one month ago, describing its mission as driving collaboration between decentralized finance projects from both the…