Bitcoin Blockchain and Cryptocurrency News Center
The government of South Korea’s capital city has committed to invest 1.2 trillion won ($1.07 billion) by 2022 via an investment fund for startups, including those working with fintech and blockchain. The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced the news Monday, stating that via the Seoul Innovation Growth Fund, which launched last year, it will invest across […]
The German government is seeking industry feedback ahead of developing the country’s blockchain strategy by the summer, the CoinDesk writes. A Reuters report on Monday, citing anonymous government sources, said that companies and industry groups “that could become stakeholders in a blockchain deployment process” have been invited to provide recommendations on the strategy. Whether proposed recommendations would […]
Japan’s second-largest bank by assets, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), has completed a proof-of-concept (PoC) using blockchain consortium R3’s Marco Polo trade finance platform. A press release confirmed the PoC completion on Feb. 18. SMBC, which is the only Japanese bank participating in Marco Polo, said it had partnered with Japanese multinational Mitsui & Co. to enhance efficiency in trade processes, the […]
One of the most selective universities in China, Fudan University, has opened a blockchain research center, according to an announcement published on Feb. 15. Per the announcement, Fudan University established the Shanghai Blockchain Engineering Technology Research Center in collaboration with Zhongan Online Property Insurance Co., Ltd. and Shanghai Zhongren Information Technology Co., Ltd. The center will purportedly carry out basic […]
Japanese e-commerce firm Rakuten announced that a major update of its Rakuten Pay mobile app will be released on March 18, according to the firm’s 2018 earnings release, published on Feb. 12. The app’s new structure appears to indicate that it will support cryptocurrency payments in addition to fiat. According to the company’s presentation material for the fourth quarter […]
On Feb. 12, San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase announced that users of its Coinbase Wallet can now back up their private keys on cloud storage, namely on Google Drive and iCloud. The move has received mixed reaction from crypto community and cybersecurity experts, some of whom seem skeptical about the idea of storing private keys on centralized servers. Others are […]
As the CoinDesk reported on February 15, Apple has submitted what might seem like an arcane filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) – but the document contains tantalizing details about the computing giant’s interest in blockchain tech. The document – entitled “Summary of Apple’s Commitment to Responsible Sourcing” – details the company’s commitment “to upholding […]
On Feb. 14, United States banking behemoth JPMorgan Chase announced its own cryptocurrency, the CoinTelegraph reported. Significantly, it is the first time a major U.S. bank has tapped into digital assets for direct use in business operations. It is fair to say that move comes unexpectedly for JPMorgan Chase, whose CEO, Jamie Dimon, is famous within the crypto community for his anti-Bitcoin […]
Liberstad — a private, anarcho-capitalist city in Norway — has adopted a cryptocurrency native to its blockchain-powered smart city platform as its official medium of exchange, according to a press release published on Feb. 12. Founded in 2015, Liberstad is the outcome of the Libertania project, run by the nonprofit Liberstad Drift Association, which aims to create a city-society autonomous from government […]
Israel-based crypto brokerage Coinmama — which allows users to purchase Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) using a credit card — has suffered a major data breach affecting 450,000 of its users. The incident was disclosed in an official company announcement on Feb. 15. The breach is reportedly part of a mammoth, multi-platform hack that affected 24 companies […]