Noelle Acheson is a veteran of company analysis and CoinDesk’s Director of Research. The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own. The following article originally appeared in Institutional Crypto by CoinDesk, a free weekly newsletter focused on crypto assets. Sign up here. Everything flourishes with a bit of attention – even attention itself. You may have

Samsung has integrated bitcoin (BTC) functionality on its blockchain-enabled smartphones. The move comes months after the flagship Galaxy S10 range was launched in March with a “Blockchain Keystore” offering cryptocurrency storage and transactions for ether (ETH) and related ERC-20 tokens, but which notably excluded the number one cryptocurrency by market cap. The South Korean tech giant has

Iranian bitcoiners are showing the world what censorship resistance really looks like. Starting last weekend, Microsoft’s GitHub started identifying and banning Iranian accounts based on U.S. trade restrictions. As such, blockchain developers are hindered from participating in software projects that include private repositories or paid services for commercial ventures.  “The majority of serious crypto/blockchain projects that

Bitcoin privacy wallet Samourai announced last Thursday that its primary competitor, Wasabi Wallet, is the target of an ongoing network attack. The blog post is the latest in a string of allegations Samourai has leveled against Wasabi since mid-July. The attack, according to Samourai Wallet, resembles a Sybil attack, where a small number of users

Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic partnered with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to publish a public dataset of bitcoin transactions associated with illicit activity. The group’s study detailed how researchers at the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab used machine learning software to categorize 203,769 bitcoin node transactions worth roughly $6 billion in total. The research explored whether

While bitcoin and ethereum enthusiasts might not always get along, one enterprising gaming startup is attempting to bring the two cryptocurrencies closer together. Blockade Games announced on July 31 that it has successfully bridged the two networks by sending a bitcoin lightning transaction in such a way that it can cause an ethereum smart contract to

Lightning-centric bitcoin wallets are gaining traction in 2019 and making small transactions affordable by reducing network fees. The bootstrapped Spanish startup Bluewallet garnered 35,000 downloads so far this year, according to co-founder Nuno Coelho, a significant jump from the 5,000 users it had in 2018. Coelho told CoinDesk the wallet’s built-in lightning marketplace, offering connections

Like it or not, there’s a bit of trust involved in the process of setting up, or “compiling,” the software at the heart of bitcoin – but a recent code change could help. Featuring container software Guix, code was recently merged into the most popular bitcoin implementation, Bitcoin Core, meaning it’s now ready for real

On June 19, Chaincode developer John Newbery gathered a group of developers to examine a proposed change to bitcoin’s code. Taking place via Internet Relay Chat (IRC), the topic was whether the change, which would help prevent a group of rogue miners from inflating bitcoin’s money supply, is a positive one with limited security risks or adverse impacts.

Introduced Wednesday, a new proposal called Signet offers a fresh alternative to bitcoin’s test network. The software plays a crucial role for developers, serving as a place where they can test their apps, to make sure they work reasonably well on the network by putting only test money on the line. Further, protocol developers can

The Takeaway: Former Bitcoin Core developer Peter Todd filed a defamation suit in April demanding the deletion of a tweet that accused him of sexual misconduct. In response, three people submitted statements to the court this week accusing Todd of such misconduct. One alleged victim, “Jane Doe,” stated she stopped contributing to bitcoin projects in

Cubans are quietly exploring cryptocurrency use-cases on the politically isolated island, even watching Facebook’s Libra project with cautious optimism. Cuban expat Claudia Rodriguez of the Brazilian startup Fusyona, the sole bitcoin exchange proactively serving Cubans, told CoinDesk the exchange has nearly 700 accounts since launching in 2018. She said up to 60 users purchase a

A loose group of developers are testing out the idea that the combination of bitcoin and orbital communication might provide a means for stopping governments or other powerful entities from suppressing news they don’t like. Censorship is a worldwide problem, with one of the more recent examples include a new law strengthening the Russian government’s

Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, co-founders of the New York-based crypto exchange Gemini, may soon join the Libra Association, the consortium governing Facebook’s proposed cryptocurrency. “We’re definitely looking at it in earnest and we’re excited about the project,” Cameron told CoinDesk Tuesday. Tyler added that in their view, Libra is a harbinger of cryptos to come:

The popular wallet service Electrum is soon to add support for bitcoin’s lightning network. Electrum’s founder Thomas Voegtlin told CoinDesk from the BIP001 blockchain event in Odessa, Ukraine, that work on the solution for sending lightning transactions with the Electrum wallet is now close to its official release. While he declined to reveal a specific release

Casa’s new mobile app makes it easier to manage your lightning node on the go. Launched today, the new Sats App works like a noncustodial wallet with some unique features. In addition to being able to manage a user’s lightning node from the mobile app, Casa CEO Jeremy Welch said the startup will soon roll

Thirteen coders and academics gathered this week at Chaincode Labs in New York City for the bitcoin protocol residency program, in what organizers say is the most intensive and diverse cohort to date. It would be hard to overstate how impactful this quiet program is, as one of the few resources for independent developers in

According to venture capitalist Dovey Wan of Primitive Ventures, finding sustainable funding for bitcoin developers is the biggest challenge facing the ecosystem in 2019. To bridge that gap, she’s helped gather 50 BTC — an amount worth just north of $450,000 at press time prices — that are now up for grabs. Wan partnered with

Binance will issue a number of tokens pegged to leading cryptocurrencies on Binance Chain to boost the number of trading options on its platform. The tokens are also likely to be extended to Binance DEX, the firm’s recently launched decentralized exchange, as they create the potential to in effect move cryptos from different blockchains onto its

After revealing that his payments firm Square is building a small team to help with bitcoin and cryptocurrency development back in March, CEO Jack Dorsey has revealed more details about the project – even though it’s still early days. In an interview with The Next Web, Dorsey, who is also CEO of Twitter, confirmed that

Many bitcoiners thought it would be a cold day in hell when BHB Network co-founder Giacomo Zucco admitted that all tokens aren’t inherently scams. But, as it turns out, all he needed were the right partners. What started as a client’s request for a more secure alternative to ethereum’s ERC-20 tokens will soon emerge as

New research from mobile mesh networking company goTenna explores how mobile communications can be decentralized with the help of bitcoin’s lightning network. Technologists have long explored how to use cryptocurrencies and blockchains to build programs where users are more in control of their data. GoTenna, the company behind mesh network devices for internet-less connections, is

A swift breeze swept across the canal and into a small Amsterdam pub, where about 30 bitcoiners sat drinking beers and registering for Breaking Bitcoin 2019. It smelled like rain. From a British mom who works from home as a “bitcoin hobbyist,” to a ripped Kiwi technologist with a thick beard, people who work with

So-called lightning network “watchtowers” — a much-anticipated next step for securing the network — are coming soon. Watchtowers have long been considered a missing piece of bitcoin’s lightning layer, as they’re crucial for squashing fraud on the experimental, off-chain network that could make bitcoin payments faster and more scalable. With version 0.7 of the LND software

The community behind the privacy-centric bitcoin app Wasabi Wallet recently brought together 100 people to collectively execute a “CoinJoin” transaction on bitcoin in what might be the biggest event of its kind. Some context: bitcoin itself is far from private, as users can, via the blockchain, see where coins are being transferred to and from.

Tadge Dryja, who co-authored the original paper underpinning bitcoin’s experimental lightning payments network, has released a new research paper outlining a proposed scaling solution that he’s been working on for the past year. Released Monday, Utreexo would make the part of bitcoin full nodes called the “state” (also known as the “UTXO set”) smaller and

A newly-proposed relay protocol could reduce the “transaction bandwidth” used up by bitcoin nodes by up to 75%. Called Erlay, the proposed protocol alters the way transactions are relayed so that they use significantly less bandwidth, an important resource for the nodes that make up the network. The authors include The University of British Columbia

Craig Wright, the Australian entrepreneur who recently and controversially filed copyright registrations for the bitcoin white paper and original code, now has a legal rival. A second copyright registration (number TX0008726120) for the white paper has appeared on the public catalog of the United States Copyright Office, indicating that a certain Wei Liu is also

An ardent critic of the hype surrounding crypto token sales is set to do the unlikely: launching a token. Samson Mow, the CSO of bitcoin startup Blockstream, has also been serving as founder and CEO of the gaming company Pixelmatic since 2011. The new plan will see Pixelmatic use Blockstream’s new token platform for launching

Titan, a new product from Bloq Labs, aims to make it easier to set up and run new blockchain miners in global farms. The software is essentially a web-based mining manager for owners of large setups. You install it onto your machines and then launch a server that will collect and analyse all of the