“Developers don’t want to build on a moving target, and backwards compatibility should be taken seriously as well,” Izquierdo said in an email to CoinDesk Friday. “Ethereum is not a toy anymore, it’s a platform with a sizable investment and a big reach, and as such changes like this need to be professionally measured before

One of Microsoft’s customers, Icertis, a cloud-based platform for contract management, tried out Blockchain Data Manager “in preview,” prior to the release at Ignite, and built use cases involving ethical supply chain contracts and the way certain subsidized pharmaceutical drugs are used. Icertis used Quorum for the Data Manager builds, but the firm has used

In crypto, it’s exactly the opposite, Bankman-Fried pointed out during our conversation. Exchanges are the biggest, the deepest-pocketed and among the most influential crypto firms operating today. In part, that’s because bitcoin and ethereum aren’t firms. In part, it’s because of crypto’s immaturity: speculating on the speculative activity of others is the only use case

The raise brings Figure’s total funding to more than $225 million and values it at $1.2 billion, according to a company press release. Aside from Morgan Creek, which led the round, and MUFG, participants included DCM, Digital Currency Group, HCM Capital, Ribbit Capital, RPM Ventures and The Partners at DST Global. While the size of

The company would not disclose exact numbers, but, according to Prince, “tens of thousands” of people are now keeping their crypto with BlockFi, and more than 50 institutional players are borrowing from it. But that’s not enough for this venture capital-funded outfit: in addition to experienced crypto holders, BlockFi wants to attract first-time buyers, too.

Disclaimer Read More This article is intended as a news item to inform our readers of various events and developments that affect, or that might in the future affect, the value of the cryptocurrency described above. The information contained herein is not intended to provide, and it does not provide, sufficient information to form the

In the past 18 months, Gemini has added several senior leaders to its ranks. The former global head of financial crimes at Morgan Stanley, Noah Perlman, joined Gemini as its chief compliance officer; its chief security officer, David Damato, came from cybersecurity firm Tanium; its new general counsel, Sydney Schaub, has worked for Google and

“If something is Fabric-related we still have some Fabric engineers on board,” said Achkar, who runs a digital asset product development and innovation team in London, complemented by similar teams in the U.S. and Singapore. But his objective is to identify the best business cases, rather than the best protocol, he said. 

“We filed suit because of the principle that everyone obviously has a private life and the right to act as a private individual,” union chairman Kent Petersen said in a statement. “It was important for us and our members to establish what rights managers have. In this case, it was more far-reaching than what we

Banking compliance consultant Simon Lelieveldt, who has worked for the DNB and as a Dutch financial historian, said the two entities are trying to be proactive and not repeat past mistakes. Regulators are under pressure from critics who say lax oversight, particularly concerning the Netherlands largest bank, ING, led to the 2008 collapse. ING received

Meanwhile, Luke Dashjr, veteran bitcoin coder, argued on Twitter that there are other aspects of mining centralization that still need to be addressed. For example, the fact that only a handful of companies produce mining hardware, the computers made specifically for producing bitcoin, is also a grave threat to decentralization.

Legislation clarifying the legal status of cryptocurrencies, including mining and token sales, was reported to be passing through the State Duma by the end of the last summer session, but has seen delays. Two of three planned bills were passed in 2018, however, one regarding digital rights and the other covering crowdfunding, RIA says.

The central bank conducted three rounds of QE between 2009 and 2015, during which time the S&P 500, a benchmark for risk assets across the globe, rallied by more than 200 percent. Gold, a classic safe-haven asset, rose from $800 to $1,921 in the three years to 2011 only to fall back to $1,050 by

Oliver von Landsberg-Sadie, CEO of BCB Group, a regulated financial services enterprise for digital assets, said Kruger’s second scenario, in which scarcity continues to drive prices higher is likely to remain a constant forever. He also said global cryptocurrency adoption was a long way from mainstream adoption but said the markets continue to march on,

Akomba’s results indicate BDN could have a modest but potentially cascading effect on block propagation in the Ethereum mainnet, one of the largest public blockchains and one of the more expensive to transact on, with gas prices around 20 cents. It is also a frequent target in the scalability debate.

To be sure, it’s not as accessible as some may have hoped. Gurbacs’ firm, for example, withdrew a proposed bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) from consideration by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in September, after the regulator signaled it was in no hurry to approve any such vehicle for retail investors. Instead, VanEck is

Disclaimer Read More This article is intended as a news item to inform our readers of various events and developments that affect, or that might in the future affect, the value of the cryptocurrency described above. The information contained herein is not intended to provide, and it does not provide, sufficient information to form the

Instead of institutional participation, the hype led to a kind of “adverse selection” phenomena, said Lippiatt, attracting people who didn’t have a better option to raise funds, or who had spent a lot of money building blockchain token infrastructure and wanted to follow through with one of their own projects.   

BNY Mellon chose Marco Polo because the blockchain works well for open account financing, which makes up around 85 percent of trade finance, and works well for large corporates, Kim said. (In open account transactions, the goods are shipped and delivered before payment is due; with letter-of-credit financing, the bank guarantees a buyer’s payment ahead

On Monday, CoinDesk reported the shopping app Lolli was offering bitcoin rewards to U.S.-based Alibaba shoppers for Singles Day. Alibaba Group representatives have since denied the “partnership” touted by Lolli CEO Alex Adelman. The fissure revealed a common misconception in the blockchain industry. “One of Alibaba.com’s contractors hired a subcontractor who brokered an affiliate marketing

A rogue chain has developed during a planned bitcoin cash hard fork, as an unknown mining pool failed to update to the new chain’s software. The on-going chain battle, which should be resolved by bitcoin cash’s internal rules, gives an insider look into how proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanisms operate. The hard fork occurred on Friday

Bitcoin’s lightning network might have a use case beyond faster and more scalable payments. Last week Lightning Labs developer Joost Jager revealed an experimental, new proof of concept: Whatsat, a version of lightning that can be used to send private messages. Like bitcoin, it’s censorship-resistant. But, unlike encrypted apps that morph messages into unreadable, garbled

Ethereum developers are using the Lightning payments network to build bridges into the bitcoin ecosystem. The venture-backed crypto startup Radar Relay, best known for its decentralized exchange (DEX) relayers for 0x, just launched a service called RedShift, which allows people to pay a lightning invoice from an ethereum wallet. Radar product lead Brandon Curtis told

Longtime bitcoin advocate Bruce Fenton has created a new broker-dealer for digital asset firms and financial advisors called Watchdog Capital. The firm is registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, public filings show. It’s a subsidiary of digital securities firm Chainstone Labs, also led by

China’s recent multi-front embrace of blockchain technology has divided the global cryptocurrency community. While some see it as helpful validation, others worry that crypto is diverging further from its anti-authoritarian roots. Authorities in China have long discouraged investment in grassroots cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. But the world’s most populous country is making significant progress with plans

Canadian investment fund manager 3iQ received initial approval on its long road to launch a closed-end bitcoin fund on the Ontario Stock Exchange later this quarter. The firm said on Wednesday that it received a favorable ruling before a panel of the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) for the Bitcoin Fund, noting the commission moved to

Canadian startup Ledn, which offers bitcoin-backed fiat loans, now also offers dollar-pegged DAI loans, connecting bitcoin users with ethereum’s decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem. Ledn co-founder Mauricio Di Bartolomeo, a Venezuelan expat, told CoinDesk this new partnership with stablecoin promoter MakerDAO was driven by customer demand. Out of “thousands” of users, more than half of Ledn’s

Lebanon is far from a poster child for cryptocurrency adoption. News of Lebanese banks shuttering to prevent a bank run was met with predictable enthusiasm from the global bitcoin commentariat. People in Lebanon can no longer send foreign currencies, mainly dollars and euros, abroad. Further, due to heavily restricted banking access and limited liquidity provided

Bitcoin IRA will soon allow customers to lend their retirement assets for interest.  The firm, which provides digital asset individual retirement accounts (IRAs) is partnering with digital currency trader and lender Genesis Trading to offer interest on cryptocurrency and cash holdings that customers want to lend out, including bitcoin, ether, XRP, litecoin, and zcash.  The

When bitcoin advocates claim adoption is surging in developing countries, particularly during periods of political unrest or economic turmoil, their go-to source for evidence is often LocalBitcoins. The peer-to-peer exchange, which matches buyers and sellers of the largest cryptocurrency in nearly 250 countries, publishes weekly volume data for each nation and region where it has