In a hearing before the Senate Banking Committee today on Tuesday, central bank digital currencies took center stage before an audience of Senators looking to upgrade financial infrastructure and expand financial inclusion in the country. The witnesses and the concerns The banking committee welcomed Paxos CEO...
Month: June 2020
DeFi Governance Tokens Tread Carefully as the SEC’s Invisible Hand Looms
Governance tokens in decentralized finance, or DeFi, have suddenly jumped into prominence following the success story of Compound’s COMP token, whose price action and liquidity mining program resulted in increased public interest. Unlike previous iterations of “utility tokens” during the initial coin offering mania, DeFi...
Tether: Challenging the USD’s Hegemony, Championing CBDC and Beyond
In 2008, a momentous occasion took place with the release of the Bitcoin (BTC) white paper. With author Satoshi Nakamoto explicitly calling for the deconstruction of financial intermediaries, regulators around the world were put on alert, particularly as Wall Street faced one of its biggest...
An Israeli Blockchain Startup Claims They’ve Invented an ‘Undo’ Button for Bitcoin Transactions
Kirobo, a two-year-old Israeli blockchain startup, announced on Tuesday that it has found a way to tackle problems related to human error in cryptocurrency transactions. In a recent survey by the Fio Foundation, 55% of respondents reported experiencing stressful human errors when sending cryptocurrency, and...
Max Keiser: US Hash Rate War With Iran Can Send Bitcoin Price to $500K
Bitcoin (BTC) will hit $500,000 because the United States will start a giant hash war with Iran and Venezuela — and it’s already started. In the latest episode of his “Keiser Report” TV show, Max Keiser predicted that the Iranian and Venezuelan regimes would force...
Incognito Blockchain Launches DeFi Privacy for Kyber
Privacy blockchain Incognito has released Kyber Privacy (pKyber), a privacy feature for decentralized finance within the Kyber Network for users from both parties to trade anonymously. First announced on April 24, Incognito’s open-source technology enables anonymity for smart contract-based protocols, making it possible for any...
First Rupiah-Backed Stablecoin Launches on Binance and Tokocrypto
Major cryptocurrency exchange Binance and Indonesian exchange Tokocrypto have listed a rupiah-backed stablecoin, Binance IDR (BIDR). According to an announcement on June 30, Binance and Tokocrypto users can now trade BIDR against Bitcoin (BTC), Binance Coin (BNB), Binance USD (BUSD), Tether (USDT) and Ether (ETH)....
Qtum Preps for Mainnet Hard Fork With New Testnet Event
Proof-of-Stake, or PoS, blockchain Qtum successfully completed a hard fork of its testnet in preparation for the launch of its mainnet hard fork. According to a statement sent to Cointelegraph, the upgrade went live on the testnet at block 625,000 on June 29. This event...
Researchers Say Ransomware Attacks on the Rise as More People Work From Home
A study published by cybersecurity firm, Proofpoint, shows an increase in email-based phishing attacks used to deliver ransomware over the last few months. According to the report, first-stage deployments of ransomware are reportedly on the rise and have mostly been targeting the United States, France,...
Class Action Alleges Visa-Acquired Co Was ‘Data Plumbing’ Venmo, Cash App & More
June 25, a new class action was filed in California against fintech startup Plaid, which was acquired by Visa for $5.3 billion earlier this year. The plaintiffs allege that Plaid violated privacy and data protections by accumulating and monetizing financial transactions of millions of users....