issues

Slow But Steady: FATF Review Highlights Crypto Exchanges’ Struggle to Meet AML Standards

In June 2019, the intergovernmental Financial Action Task Force (FATF) introduced its revised set of standards for virtual asset service providers. The document establishes the anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism (AML/CFT) requirements that regulated VASPs —  the term mainly referring to cryptocurrency trading platforms — must eventually implement in their day-to-day operations. The guidelines are framed as recommendations, and the FATF leaves it to the participating nations’ governments to develop their own regulations in accordance with suggested principles.The watchdog has also set a 12-month review timeframe to monitor the public and

TikTok Ban: The Beginning of a New Age in Social Networks?

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that forbids American companies to transact with Tencent and Bytedance. The ban comes after a long debate involving alleged data mining from apps like WeChat and TikTok. Following the ban, Tencent shares fell 5%. American companies will effectively have 45 days to stop transacting with these companies. The ban is sparking worldwide debate regarding the boundaries of national security. Is this an opportunity for decentralized social media platforms to step up? Tencent and the Yuan Plummet The announcement was immediately felt on

Title Token for Blockchain Estate Registry, Part 3

The advantage of the cross-blockchain protocol for public registries is that it can unite any number of existing ledgers in one ecosystem and does not need to upgrade the protocols of such blockchains. In simple terms, the protocol works as an aggregator of tokens across blockchains. The protocol conceptually comprises two major elements:The format requirements for an entry by knowing the standard of a record, the user’s machine can automatically collect records from various ledgers in one bundle.The hook, which is the algorithm that scans blocks of ledgers and extracts

What is Wrapped Bitcoin? A Guide to WBTC

WBTC is a way for Bitcoin to run on the Ethereum blockchain. Performing quick and affordable transactions using Bitcoin (BTC) has long been a problem of the community ever since it became more popular. This is why there have been many developments planning to address this issue.  But what if we can make our BTC coins functional on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain? Would there be a difference? Wrapped BTC (WBTC) is a multi-institution project that aims to solve common BTC problems by creating its ERC-20 token counterpart. And in the

California Attorney General’s Office Issues Crypto Scam Warning

Xavier Becerra, Attorney General (AG) for the State of California, released a warning for investors and consumers on Friday, highlighting the rise in digital asset scams. The warning provides guidance and caution, given the substantial number and variety of scams that have plagued the cryptocurrency market. The apparent impetus for the announcement may be linked to the most recent scam perpetrated by hackers on Twitter. Several high-profile accounts were breached, promising double returns on whatever was sent. However, the scam was just another in a long line of hoaxes. Per

BitBlockBoom Is Bringing Bitcoiners Back Together

Gary Leland is hosting the third installment of the BitBlockBoom conference in Dallas, Texas on August 29, 2020. But this year’s event is decidedly different: this is set to be the first well-attended, in-person Bitcoin event held in the United States since the Covid-19 outbreak began. Because of the unique situation he’s in, Bitcoin Magazine wanted to check in with Gary and understand more about the preparations he’s making to ensure that BitBlockBoom is both a successful and safe event for everyone attending. Flip: I think you’re the first well-known

mStable DeFi Guide: Ultimate Stablecoin Solution

mStable is a newly launched DeFi protocol aimed at streamlining the application of stablecoins in a unified ecosystem it aims to create. There are many projects that seek to increase the adoption of cryptos by linking them to traditional financial systems. Stablecoins, for one, have been created to do just that. Using blockchain and smart contracts, the crypto community has devised a way to make digital asset representation of fiat currencies. But even behind the recent developments surrounding stablecoins, a concern still remains: the assets that back the number of

What is Serum? A DeFi Derivatives DEX Guide

DeFi-based exchanges have seen wild success in 2020 thanks to yield farming, which has incentivized hundreds of thousands of users to provide liquidity to these platforms. With that being said, DEXs are still a far-cry from centralized exchanges in both UI and UX. Serum is here to change all that. Serum is a protocol that claims to be “pure DeFi” as they have managed to address a lot of issues the space is facing. Most of the users in DeFi today are not traders but yield farmers. Yield farmers are

International Group of Finance Leaders Says Ripple’s XRP Remittance Network Leapfrogs Traditional Banking System

ADVERTISEMENT An independent body of global finance leaders says Ripple’s XRP-powered cross-border payment platform “leapfrogs” the efficiency of traditional remittance methods. The Group of 30 published the report, calling on central banks and financial authorities around the world to be proactive in terms of regulating digital assets. G30 experts discuss the theoretical possibility of a “systemic hegemonic currency,” which some academics have posited could possibly reduce “spillover shocks” that come with the US dollar acting as a reserve currency. The systemic currency could come in the form of a stablecoin

There’s More To Bitcoin’s Rally Than Just Inflation Fears

While some analysts are pointing to inflation fears to explain bitcoin’s recent rally, there are so many other factors at play that affect the cryptocurrency’s rise.Neil Johnston was a creature of habit, and it was one of the things which his wife of twenty-four years Dorothy, both loved and loathed about him. While Dorothy appreciated Neil’s dependability, she was wondering if things were getting a little stale.So naturally Dorothy grew a little worried when Neil, who would walk through the door almost like clockwork at 7 pm every evening for