Telegram, the messaging app company currently facing a legal fight with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over its $1.7 billion token sale, revealed more details about the technical specifications underpinning its TON blockchain Wednesday. A new white paper details the block validation process for its blockchain, describing it as a Byzantine Fault Tolerant protocol
Bitcoin
The Iowa caucuses were thrown into disarray as reports surfaced that a secretive app used to tabulate the results and report them to Democratic Party officials was reporting only part of the required data. Although the app had been developed to improve efficiency in communicating the final caucus tallies, it ended up causing significant delays.
A look at social media censorship discussion plus ethereum marketing and Brexit reactions with Ledger CEO Pascal Gauthier. Much of the Crypto Twitter conversation this weekend was dominated by talk of Twitter’s suspension of ZeroHedge. @nlw explores why the specifics of the infraction or the quality of the publication aren’t the important part of the
In “Libre Not Libra: Facebook’s Blockchain Project,” Andreas answers the burning question… Has he tried haggis? Just kidding… He shares his thoughts on the recently released Libra whitepaper, as part of a permissioned blockchain project spearheaded by Facebook. Years of jokes about “FaceCoin” and “ZuckBucks” have finally come to life – sort of. In a
Last December Brian Behlendorf is the Executive Director of Hyperledger said that 2019 was a year of “careful, prosaic BUIDLING.” Now, in an interview with CoinDesk’s Michael Casey at Davos, Behlendorf said he believes a lot of what the blockchain ecosystem was building is getting closer to becoming a net positive in the world. Citing
One of the products that have become particularly important to the continued growth of the crypto industry is Bitcoin futures. The derivative product has become one of the most heavily traded crypto-based securities. Key Drivers The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) revealed its actual figures with regard to this particular product yesterday. The futures contracts have
This reporter attended his first bitcoin meetup in sunny Scotland on Thursday. It took place in the Bayes Centre – Edinburgh University’s snazzy artificial intelligence and data science hub. It also happens to be the spot where IOHK, the creators of the Cardano cryptocurrency, helped establish a Blockchain Technology Laboratory. The topic of the meetup,
Nomura Research Institute (NRI) will launch a benchmark rank and compare Japanese cryptocurrency assets on Friday. The Tokyo-based management consultancy and research firm said the “NRI/IU Crypto-Asset Index Family” – created in coordination with Intelligence Unit LLC (IU) – will be available through NRI’s financial information database, IDS, to domestic and overseas institutional investors, financial
Google recently suspended and removed bitcoin rewards game “Bitcoin Blast” from its Google Play app store for allegedly deceiving users, but it will not explain to the developers what exactly was deceptive about the game. On Jan. 20, Google pulled Bling’s “Bitcoin Blast,” a match-three puzzle game that rewards users with bitcoin-redeemable loyalty points. The
Back in 2019, Bitcoin had been in the middle of a massive rally at the beginning of the year, and it seems that there might a repeat this year. In a new development that should come as a major boost to BTC investors, the cryptocurrency surged past $9,000 a token. It is believed that the
We’re over $9,000! That means a lot of good things, of course. But any price increase brings with it increased scrutiny and, yes, increased FUD. The question for this time around is whether the “fear, uncertainty and doubt” is the same old same old or something new. In this episode, @nlw looks at three emergent
Transfer agent Vertalo wants its customers to issue securities on the Tezos blockchain. The company has made Tezos its default blockchain, encouraging customers to switch over from ethereum. It has developed the ability to convert ERC-20 tokens to Tezos-formatted smart contracts, though it will still support ethereum. “We think that that covers 99 percent of
The best Sundays are for long reads and deep conversations. Earlier this week, the Let’s Talk Bitcoin! Show gathered to discuss Lightning Network technology and two innovative approaches at the wallet level which simplify the new-user experience at a tangible, but seemingly minimal cost. Subscribe to the new CoinDesk Podcast Network for fresh, insightful episodes
Max Boonen is the founder and CEO of crypto trading firm B2C2. This post is the third in a series of three that looks at the structure of crypto markets. Opinions expressed within are his own and do not reflect those of CoinDesk. In the two previous articles, I summarized the evolution of speed in
That’s a wrap! The World Economic Forum is over, and the key ideas coming out of Davos for our industry are: 1) a continued “blockchain, not crypto” narrative; 2) a belief in the inevitability of cashless futures (without much concern about the negative implications) and 3) the rise of CBDCs. On the CBDC front, the
There is an ongoing debate in the crypto community about where mainstream adoption. One point of view is that it will be the slow steady acceptance of digital assets. On that front, Bakkt president Adam White said in Davos yesterday that the company is on track to launch their app this year. Another perspective is
Bitcoin (BTC) bled yet again this week, as the bears assert their dominance in an increasingly volatile market, with BTC losing as much as $400 USD yesterday and tumbling towards the $8,000 milestone. The bearish movement of Bitcoin has been ongoing for months, with the exception of a few relatively small reprieves, and has many
Telegram CEO Pavel Durov pushed back against a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) attorney’s speculation that his company’s 2018 token sale was meant to refill its cash reserves. During an 18-hour deposition, Durov disputed in particular SEC attorney Jorge Tenreiro’s claim that the sale would help Telegram pay for servers. This claim is a
The year commenced with a massive rally in Bitcoin (BTC) that ultimately led to a sustained bull run, and the price of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency eventually reached levels that raised visions of 2017’s climb. However, that eventually came to an end, and the last few months have been pretty tough for the crypto industry
Huobi Group is opening its first digital asset brokerage platform, offering trading products and services to institutional clients and high net-worth customers. Announced Tuesday, the Gibraltar-based Huobi Brokerage is also the first product launched under the company’s Global Institutional Business (GIB) division, according to a company statement. Formed in November 2019, the new division was
The biggest cryptocurrency in the world by market cap started off the year with a rally that went on for six months, but since then, it has been a bit chaotic. On Monday, Bitcoin slumped to its lowest level in six months after the Chinese central bank, The People’s Bank of China (PBOC), launched a
Open interest in bitcoin futures listed on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) have doubled in the first few days of the year, as noted by data analytics firm Skew. About $235 million worth of positions (5,329 contracts) were open on the CME on Jan. 17 compared to $110 million seen in early December. Open interest
The first six months of the year were a remarkable time for the crypto space, as Bitcoin (BTC) went on a rally that was reminiscent of the one that had taken place in 2017. However, times have proven to be a lot tougher since then, and over the past few weeks, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency
Credits for LTB#423 This episode of Let’s Talk Bitcoin! is sponsored by Brave.com and eToro.com. Original Photo by Ubaidhulla Adam on Unsplash This episode featured Adam B. Levine, Stephanie Murphy, and Jonathan Mohan Music for today’s episode was provided by Jared Rubens, and general fuzz, with editing by Jonas. Would you like to Sponsor a future episode of
Plaintiffs in three separate putative class action lawsuits against Bitfinex and Tether have moved to consolidate their cases, according to a Thursday court filing. Court filings by David Leibowitz et al, Eric Young et al, and Bryan Faubus et al, accuse the sister companies of manipulating the crypto markets. Their cases share common threads, filings
Canada’s top financial watchdog has told crypto exchanges they will be subject to securities law if they act as custodians to users’ digital assets. The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) said in guidance published Thursday the common exchange practice of custodying users’ assets – “merely providing users with a contractural right or claim to an underlying
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Bitcoin (BTC) is the subject of increased buying momentum after coming under pressure early in the year. After plummeting to $6,860, the flagship token has bounced back and is currently staring at a 2-month high of $9,000. The 15%+ rally has come at the back of improvements in fundamentals. Bitcoin Futures Boost BTC According to
New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness Director Jared Maples predicted Wednesday that domestic terrorists will increasingly turn to bitcoin. Speaking during a U.S. House Financial Services Committee monetary policy sub-committee hearing, Maples said domestic terrorists find value in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies’ security and maskability. “They’re seeing the effectiveness of being able to
Whether you’re a first-time listener or you’ve heard every episode, we’d like to know what you think about the show. What do you like? What don’t you like? What do you think we’ve totally missed but should be talking about every day or at least every week? Disclosure Read More The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk