Crypto Currency

The Australian National University has partnered with Ripple to develop two Masters courses examining the impact of blockchain on legal disputes. The Australian National University (ANU)’s law school will roll out two new courses in its Masters program next year exploring the impact of blockchain on the legal field .  The courses are being developed with the assistance of Ripple’s Blockchain Research Initiative ( UBRI ) — a program that seeks to collaborate with universities to examine emerging trends and developments in distributed ledger technology, cryptocurrency and digital payments. ANU already offers undergraduate courses examining the intersection between blockchain and law, as do a number of other Australian universities. The University of Melbourne and The University of Southern Queensland offer courses explicitly concerned with DLT and blockchain, while other institutions incorporate the subject into broader programs . ANU law school partners with Ripple to launch...

A new report has found strict cryptocurrency regulations in Japan are discouraging foreign players — but will help the industry in the long run. A new report has found strict regulations are discouraging overseas exchanges from opening in Japan, but would likely benefit new players in the long term. Double jump.tokyo, the game developer behind My Crypto Heroes, commissioned a research team at So & Sato Law Offices to carry out a comprehensive report on digital assets in Japan. Released on March 31, the report covers all aspects of digital assets in the Asian nation, from tokenized securities to crypto derivatives. Entering the crypto market under strict regulations Joerg Schmidt and So Saito from So & Sato told Cointelegraph Japan in an interview that local regulations for cryptocurrency exchanges are “far stricter” than in most other countries. However, he said this would be beneficial in the long run because it encourages the traditional finance world to get involved:...

Economist Jeffrey Tucker sparked a debate with prominent crypto leaders when he argued the BTC price is depressed because it hasn’t scaled. American Institute for Economic Research editorial director Jeffrey Tucker reignited the long-running Bitcoin scaling debate with a tweet earlier today. The economist — who has long been a proponent of Bitcoin (BTC) — suggested the current price is much lower than it otherwise would have been because the underlying technology has not been “properly scaled”. On March 31, Tucker tweeted: I'm not unimpressed by a $6K price of BTC. I was blown away when the thing reached $30.00. But can you imagine the price today if the thing had properly scaled? — Jeffrey A Tucker (@jeffreyatucker) March 30, 2020 The Tweet expands on comments Tucker made earlier this month on RT, during a panel discussion with noted Bitcoin skeptic Peter Schiff. During the debate he said too much time had been wasted on this “ridiculous scaling problem” which had ultima...

This is the first part of a deep dive into the years-long debate between proponents of Proof of Work and Proof of Stake. Which one is better and why? This is the first of two articles providing a deeper dive into the eternal debate between the Proof of Stake (PoS) and Proof of Work (PoW) consensus algorithms. This part will focus on the basics, while also discussing the issue of wealth concentration and inequality, which is often at the center of any community argument. Bitcoin ( BTC ) and many of the original cryptocurrencies were born as pure PoW systems.  Proof of Stake was first pioneered in 2013 by Peercoin, a project that exists to this day.  Peercoin’s contribution to the popularity of PoS is likely dwarfed by Ethereum ( ETH ) and its goal to transition from PoW —  which has turned out to be a very long journey . Projects such as Cardano ( ADA ) avoided PoW entirely, deciding on PoS after using a formal approach to assess consensus mechanisms.  The Bitc...

An Australian startup is launching an innovative tokenized gold trading platform with ‘no central point of failure’. Australian startup Meld Gold will launch a blockchain-based platform for tokenized gold trading in the third quarter of 2020. Meld Gold said the platform will offer a digital method to buy and sell physical gold that is more efficient and transparent than traditional gold markets. Unlike other gold-backed tokens, the issuer doesn’t have a stash of gold in its own custody — rather each token represents one gram of gold held across different companies in the network, including the Melbourne Mint. Meld Gold to launch platform on Algorand The original prototype platform was built on Ethereum ( ETH ) in mid-2019, but the final version is being built in partnership with Algorand ( ALGO ). It’s due to launch in July or August.  AJ Milne, Meld Gold’s general manager, told Cointelegraph that it has already inked partnerships with “multiple businesses in the gold suppl...

No touching required! It’s just the kind of event that these sequestered, hunkered-down times call for. With COVID-19 still wreaking havoc on any plans to get more than ten people in a room together, Virtual Blockchain Week is a weeklong conference taking place completely online, and it just so happens that Cointelegraph is the primary media partner for the event. Virtual Blockchain Week attendees simply tune into the appropriate webcast to participate. The agenda kicks off the evening of April 26 and features a full lineup of huge blockchain names giving presentations and participating in fireside chats the entire following week.  Because of the online nature of the event, this conference agenda won’t be shifted around or canceled for coronavirus reasons. You don’t even necessarily need to pay to attend — there’s a free ticket available if you want it — but a $97 VIP ticket will include a networking pre-party and speaker meet-and-greets. Furthermore, 50% of the money generat...

Bitcoin balances of the major exchanges are at their lowest point since 2019. Bitcoin (BTC) balances of the major exchanges are at their lowest point since 2019. Calm waters ahead? From a high in mid-January, the number of Bitcoins on deposit at major exchanges has dropped significantly in following months. This trend accelerated after the recent market collapse . Source: Glassnode Further supporting this trend is the “exchange net inflow” data, which is derived by subtracting Bitcoins leaving exchanges from Bitcoin moving into exchanges. The net inflows have been negative for much of 2019 with a short positive spike around the most recent meltdown. Source: Glassnode This could imply that market participants are not expecting a major price move in the near future and have withdrawn their Bitcoin from exchanges for better safekeeping. Trading patterns are back to normal During the recent selloff, the bid-ask spread increased exponentially, indicating the disbalance in the ...

Blockchain firm Lightning Labs drafted a new Lightning Network-based authentication system that could replace traditional email-based accounts. Blockchain firm Lightning Labs drafted the specifications of a new Lightning Network-based authentication system that could replace traditional email-based accounts. According to a March 30 announcement , the Lightning Service Authentication Tokens (LSAT) is a new authentication protocol for paid services. The system issues Lightning-based tokens for users after they paid for the service in Bitcoin (BTC) instead of providing their personal information for traditional email-based accounts. The lightning tokens in question act as tickets for the purchased resources and encode what resource it grants access to. The tokens can be exchanged, revoked and modified after being issued. LSAT also reportedly allows for applications that charge users on an ongoing basis for resources instead of periodic upfront payments. The forgotten status code LSA...

CZ of Binance talks Bitcoin price, halving and decentralization in Cointelegraph China’s HUB. Changpeng Zhao, known as CZ — the man behind Binance, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world — took part in Cointelegraph China HUB, an online interview column started by Cointelegraph China . Cointelegraph ：The markets are currently seeing high volatility, which has challenged Bitcoin’s role as a safe haven and sparked a crisis of faith in the industry. But you tweeted: ”Still worried about #BTC going to 0? Don’t! So long as I have a penny left, it won't happen.” What three words would you use to describe 2020? Changpeng Zhao : It’s hard to define the year 2020 with three words. If I must pick three words, I would say: challenge, opportunity and decentralization. The year ahead will be a mix of challenges and opportunities as the industry takes one step further toward the future of decentralization. The global outbreak of coronavirus does affect certain industries ...

Coinbase Custody successfully migrated its Tezos Bakery — the largest validator on Tezos’ network — from the United States to Ireland while incurring just one minute of downtime. Coinbase reports that it migrated its Tezos ( XTZ ) staking bakery from the United States to Ireland while incurring just one minute of downtime on March 31. Since launching its staking service for XTZ in 2019, the exchange has come to operate the largest validator in the Tezos network. Regulatory needs of Tezos ETP provider sparks Coinbase bakery migration The Irish migration of Coinbase Custody ’s Tezos Bakery was necessitated by the regulatory needs of Swiss digital asset product provider Amun. In 2019, Amun launched the first Tezos -based exchange-traded product on the SIX Swiss Exchange. Coinbase provides both custody and baking services to Amun. Changes to Amun’s regulatory framework reportedly required that their staking activities occur within the European Union. Balancing security against d...

Libra rival Celo has announced its first round of development grant funding, designating $700,000 to 13 companies so far. Open-source payments network Celo has announced its first round of development grant recipients. A press release shared with Cointelegraph states that Celo has awarded $700,000 in grants to 13 different companies who are looking to build on top of the network, contribute to the development of the Celo platform, or foster the Celo community. The project has already received more than 50 grants proposals from teams based in 16 different countries and will continue to accept proposals until May 19. Celo Awards $700,000 to 13 developers in first round of grant funding Celo states that the chosen grant recipients "provide building blocks to help strengthen the Celo protocol, provide more access to the financially underserved, and develop programs to help educate and nurture the Celo community.”  The recipients building products and services on Celo include eS...

While a 29% drop in Bitcoin’s hash rate might be due to the miners’ capitulation, analysts point to other factors that could have had a bigger impact. The Bitcoin ( BTC ) network hash rate took a steep dive on March 26, dropping by a whopping 15.95%, which is a 45% sink from its peak highs of 2020. The hash rate dipped from 136.2 quintillion hashes per second on March 1 to just 75.7 EH/s on March 26, according to data from Blockchain.com. Analytics website Coin Dance reported similar findings, with the 2020 peak standing at about 150 EH/s on March 5 and then dropping to 105.6 EH/s 10 days later, thus showing a 29% decrease. The combined effects of the hash rate decrease and the ensuing outflow of miners from the market have resulted in arguably one of the biggest blows to the Bitcoin network since 2011. The negative impact is difficult to fully assess at this time. However, the reasons for the slump are disputable and are being attributed to a number of factors — from the upcomin...

Anatoly Aksakov, a member of the Russian State Duma, says that the country’s crypto law won’t be adopted before the end of spring 2020. After facing multiple delays , the adoption of Russia’s major cryptocurrency law will be postponed again, now due to the coronavirus. Anatoly Aksakov, chairman of the Russian State Duma Committee on Financial Markets, says that the country’s crypto law — the bill “On Digital Financial Assets” — is now finalized but won’t be adopted before the end of the spring 2020. Russian authorities have been arguing about crypto regulation since January 2018 According to a March 31 report by Russian news agency RBC, Aksakov has admitted that previous delays in the bill’s adoption were caused by disagreement on the new asset type between local authorities. Aksakov, who is also chairman of National Banking Council at Russia’s central bank, reportedly elaborated that the central bank opposed legalization of crypto while the State Duma advocated some crypto initi...

Apifiny’s GlobalX is being released today, and is set to connect global crypto markets to provide a unified liquidity pool and new strategies for institutional investors. Institutions will now be able to trade on every single crypto market simultaneously thanks to GlobalX, an API platform launched on March 31 by San Francisco-based firm Apifiny. The startup hired former executives of Google X, Kraken and AlphaPoint to promote the service. Specifically, Josh Li will act as Apifiny’s chief business officer, having previous experience in Google and Google X, Alphabet’s innovation arm. Michael Fertman will lead the B2B marketing efforts as VP Marketing of Apifiny, coming from the security tokens startup AlphaPoint. Finally, Scott Eilbeck was brought on as VP of strategic partnerships and institutional sales. He recently served as head of Over the Counter (OTC) markets at Kraken, while counting JP Morgan and Bear Stearns under past experiences. Cointelegraph spoke with Li, Fertman and ...