business

Major Chinese Mining Pool Drops out of BTC Mining Race, Looking to Altcoins

Although the Bitcoin hashrate has increased 33% in the last 48 hours the mining industry still faces uncertainties. This has left Baite mining pool, one of the top Chinese pools with no choice but dropping out of the mining race. According to local blockchain media on April 6, Chinese mining company Valarhash’s Baite mining pool hash rate decreased significantly from 4000 to 200 petahashes per second earlier in March. The pool decided to leave the Bitcoin mining business and possibly move into altcoin mining in the near future. Over 9% of Bitcoin

Photographer’s Payment Debacle Brings Bitcoin’s Anti-Censorship Into Focus

Censorship has always been one of the biggest problems, and circumventing; it has been one of Bitcoin’s most significant alluring properties. The latest in such occurrences is that of Ben Taylor, a photographer who was recently banned for life from Western Union as a result of his activities in Africa.“No Explanations. Just Leave” In a recent YouTube video, the photographer, better known as Pleasant Green, explained that he established a photography business in Africa as a means of doing some charity work. The business is based in Liberia, and he’s been wiring money

Vonage Co-Founder Launches Decentralized Videochat App to Battle Zoom

Jeff Pulver, a Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) pioneer and the co-founder of Vonage, has launched a decentralized application (dApp) that claims to provide the “most secure end-to-end business communications network” available.The move follows reports last week that rival videochat app Zoom exposed personally identifiable information and private conversations on the open web.Centralized data storage provides a centralized point of failureAccording to Pulver, the problem with existing communication solutions is that they route all business and personal data through one central point. This creates a huge security threat to confidential

US Congressional Watchdog Quietly Reveals DLT Prototype Development

The United States Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) Innovation Lab posted ads for job positions to develop “use case prototypes” for blockchain technologies in late-March.GAO is the supreme audit institution of the U.S. government and provides evaluation and investigative services for Congress.GAO to explore prototype applications for DLTThe two positions seek an ‘Interdisciplinary Computer Engineer/Computer Scientist’ and an ‘Interdisciplinary Assistant Director, Computer Scientist/Engineer’ to explore “emerging technologies” including blockchain.Both roles will be overseen by GAO’s Science, Technology Assessment, and Analytics (STAA) Team’s Innovation Lab.The listings show that the lab is creating

Celsius Lists Libra Challenger for 9.9% Potential Interest

Crypto lending platform Celsius Network has listed startup Saga’s SGA stabilized asset, unlocking the potential for token holders to earn interest.  “Saga has partnered with leading cryptocurrency interest income platform, Celsius Network,” Saga founder Ido Sadeh Man told Cointelegraph.The collaboration and listing means “users can both preserve their assets’ value with SGA’s proven stabilization mechanism (the IMF's SDR, a basket of currencies designed to offset currency fluctuations), as well as earn attractive interest through the Celsius network,” Man explained. Saga does not call itself a "stablecoin"Although Saga touts SGA as a stable

Blockin Launches Bitcoin Explorer With Detailed Fee Guidance

Blockin, the parent company of one of popular Bitcoin (BTC) mining pools, Poolin, is launching a new block explorer on April 6. The explorer includes mempool statistics that would help users decide the correct fee to send their BTC payment.Blockin’s explorer provides many of the standard features shared with competing offerings, like block data, transaction information and statistics on network hashrate and pool distribution. It adds to an already large suite of tools for miners to calculate profit or compare ASIC devices.The company says that its explorer will also be

The New Land of Crypto Fundraising Is in Asia and Europe, Says PwC

Most of the fundraising in the cryptocurrency space shifted from the Americas to Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), and the Asia Pacific regions (APAC), according to a recent report by Big Four auditing firm PwC.According to PwC's 2nd Global Crypto M&A and Fundraising Report, during 2019, fundraising efforts in the crypto space obtained 18% less funding, while funds in mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in the space decreased by 40%.As funding decreased overall, APAC and EMEA's share of the pie got larger. While APAC and EMEA saw 44% of

38% of Enterprises Plan to Adopt Blockchain Solutions in 2020

With blockchain solutions growing in popularity, the number of enterprises planning to adopt the technology in 2020 is set to increase. Data gathered by InsideBitcoins.com indicates that 38% of entities will integrate blockchain solutions into their operations this year.From the data, 15% of the enterprise will heavily adopt blockchain solutions while 23% will have moderate adoption to manage different operations. Organizations are also planning to adopt technologies like the Public cloud. About 79% of enterprises are planning to have heavy or moderate adoption of technology.Elsewhere, Artificial intelligence (AI)/and machine learning

People’s Bank of China Continues CBDC Development Talks

The People’s Bank of China held a teleconference on April 3 in Beijing, China. One of the main points confirmed during the call involved the institution’s continued research and development of a central bank digital currency, or CBDC.CBDC development is one of the bank’s top priorities The meeting summarized the central bank’s achievements with fiat currency, gold, silver, and securities since the end of 2019. Executives analyzed the bank’s present challenges in depth, while acknowledging that their top priority for 2020 is the continued research and development of a CBDC, saying: “The

Both Crypto Derivatives and Spot Markets Post Record Volume in March

CryptoCompare has published its monthly report analyzing the trade activity on crypto exchanges.The record-breaking crash of March 12 and 13 drove new all-time volume highs in both the spot and derivatives markets.March 13 sets record for daily spot tradesThe report states that March 13 produced the single greatest volume in the history of crypto assets — with all exchanges and markets producing $75.9 billion in trade activity over 24 hours.$54.3 billion of 71.5% of trades came from ‘Lower Tier’ exchanges, while ‘Top Tier’ exchanges generated $21.6 billion in volume.Despite Binance