It’s Monday, which means it’s time for a roundup of the weekend’s cryptocurrency and blockchain news. Here’s Moonday Mornings. 1. Japan’s Financial Services Agency is reporting a 36 percent drop in the number of cryptocurrency related inquiries in the fourth quarter of 2018 compared to the previous quarter, Brave New Coin reports. This … [Read More...]
5 things you should know about STOs
Last weekend Hard Fork flew Seattle to attend NEO’s second ever developer conference. Besides getting to see and hear from NEO itself, we got to meet a host of developers that are trying to use the NEO platform to bring their dapps to life. While there, I moderated a panel … [Read More...]
Cryptocurrency exchange botches airdrop, gives $5.3M to its users
Every week we seem to read another new story about yet another cryptocurrency exchange hack or scam in which users’ funds are stolen. But this week, a South Korean exchange has flipped the narrative on its head. In what is being called a “computer error,” CoinZest done^ goofed and … [Read More...]
Blockchain sharding made so simple your dog would understand
Welcome to Hard Fork Basics, a collection of tips, tricks, guides, and advice to keep you up to date in the cryptocurrency and blockchain world. Scaling blockchain is becoming one of the technology’s great mysteries. Does anyone know how to do it? Can it even be done? Some seem to … [Read More...]
Bitcoin ransomers arrested for kidnapping in South Africa
Police in Mpumalanga, South Africa, have arrested two suspects who demanded a Bitcoin ransom following the kidnapping of a teenage boy and the attempted kidnapping of a 13 year-old girl. The kidnappers demanded just over $100,000 (1.5 million rand) worth of Bitcoin in exchange for the safe return of the … [Read More...]
Israel shipping giant opens its blockchain after successful trial
Israel‘s largest shipping firm is opening up its blockchain to all of its clients of specific trades following a successful trial. Shipping firm Zim took the decision to roll out its blockchain for electronic bills of lading (eBLs) following a successful trial last year, TradeWinds reports. For those not in … [Read More...]
Hard Fork’s blockchain and cryptocurrency expectations for 2019
The cryptocurrency and blockchain industry has had a particularly turbulent year. In January Bitcoin prices were well over $18,000, and in December dropped below $4,000. It seems impossible to make any reasoned judgement as to what prices the market will hold next. That said, when it comes to broader trends … [Read More...]
Here’s a list of cryptocurrency terms we coined in 2018
Technology is responsible for literally thousands of new words that have been added to our daily lexicon in the last decade. Words like selfie, TL:DR, bingeable, and Bitcoin have all been added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary this year. All these words started somewhere before being included in the … [Read More...]
Abra is giving away $25 of Bitcoin this Christmas – but there’s a catch
Cryptocurrency exchange and wallet provider Abra is trying to add a little holiday cheer to the current bear market bear market by giving away Bitcoin. This morning, in an email to customers, Abra announced a promotion which would see new investors of its BIT10 “exchange traded fund” (ETF) style token … [Read More...]
Scaling blockchain: Sidechains explained in plain English
Welcome to Hard Fork Basics, a collection of tips, tricks, guides, and advice to keep you up to date in the cryptocurrency and blockchain world. Blockchains are actually quite limited in their scope. There are challenges of scalability and speed which make it challenging for some applications of the technology … [Read More...]
MasterCard wants to make electronic payments anonymous… with blockchain
Just as the US Department of Homeland Security announced plans to develop forensic techniques to deanonymize cryptocurrency transactions, MasterCard has thrown a spanner in the works with plans for the exact opposite. According to a recent patent application, the payment infrastructure provider wants to anonymize “electronic transactions via blockchain.” … [Read More...]
Hello Big Brother: EU wants to manage your digital identity on the blockchain
Blockchain promised us freedom and liberation from centralized authorities like governments, but in the latest report from the EU Blockchain Forum (EUBF), the technology is starting to sound more like 1984 than ever before. The EUBF’s latest report details that for blockchain to realize its potential within government institutions, they must … [Read More...]
Hodl my beer: Coinbase trademarks the non-word ‘BUIDL’
In a seemingly random move Coinbase has submitted a trademark request for the word “buidl.” No, you read the correctly, the cryptocurrency exchange is trying to trademark a miss-spelling of the word “build.” The application document identifies the trademark in relation to “Software as a service (SAAS) … [Read More...]
EOS devs warn of yet another fake cryptocurrency wallet on Google Play
Another day, another fake cryptocurrency app on Google Play. A group of Brazilian EOS developers, called EOS RIO, has warned users someone is trying to spread a fake version of its cryptocurrency wallet app on Google Play. While the app poses as the real thing (and claims to have been … [Read More...]
Chinese school teachers caught mining Ethereum at work
Two principals at a Chinese school have been caught using their employer’s electricity to mine Ethereum, according to local news outlet HK01. The report details how employees at Puman Middle School in Hunan province had been witnessing excessive noise from computers over the last few months – day and night, … [Read More...]
French authorities are pushing a 30 percent flat-rate Bitcoin tax
French regulators are realigning the taxes imposed on hodlers of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The French finance commission supported plans yesterday that will see capital gains tax applied to cryptocurrencies brought in line with other capital gains tax, Reuters reports. Any profit obtained from owning cryptocurrencies is currently taxed at … [Read More...]
It takes three times more energy to mine Bitcoin than gold
According to newly published research, mining cryptocurrency takes nearly twice as much energy than mining gold, platinum, and copper. Researchers from the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education in Cincinnati tracked the daily energy demand and hashrate of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Monero between 1st January 2016 to 30th June 2018. … [Read More...]
Bitcoin’s marketcap as a sound is a terrifying symphony of ups and downs
Bitcoin hasn’t done much recently. Well, except remaining stable. It’s pretty much held its value since the middle of September – an eon in the cryptocurrency world. With no rockets to the moon, the Bitcoin community is a little bored. Luckily for us, boredom is the great instigator of creativity. … [Read More...]