Cryptocurrency

MicroStrategy CEO, Michael Saylor, recently aired his view on why buying flagship crypto, Bitcoin now would look like investing in today’s multi-trillion dollar tech brands 10 years ago. In an exclusive interview with Block Journal, Saylor spoke on the key reasons his company invested $425 million in Bitcoin as a store of wealth option. READ: A billion dollar worth of Bitcoin moved by unknown identity In the interview, Saylor said that Bitcoin is not only a hedge against asset inflation but also serves as the first true and possibly “dominant digital monetary network.” Saylor goes on to liken the use of the cryptocurrency to that of other revolutionary digital service giants. READ: 98% of Bitcoin wallets in profit, hit 2-year high “And when I say digital monetary network I put it on the shelf next to Google being the first digital search network, YouTube being the first digital video network, Apple being the first digital mobile network, and Facebook is the first digital soc...

Facebook has banned the hashtag Bitcoin on their platform Altcoins like #Ethereum, #Cardano, #Ethereumclassic, etc. and several risky projects like #onecoin, #hex, and #auricon are all available on their platform Recently it is revealed that over past days, Facebook has been busy with unblishing all the posts that consists ‘#Bitcoin’ in its description. Yet virtual currencies have been a victim by tech giants like Facebook and Google of unfair prohibitions. However, virtual currencies are playing a vital role in modern days transformation, Facebook came with a fresh censorship story and targeted ‘#Bitcoin’. Twitter Having Pro-Bitcoin Position Unlike Facebook, Twitter is the platform providing the possibility to talk about Bitcoin. As after the outrageous act of Facebook, several advocates went on Twitter to denounce the ban. However, it is observed that in Twitter the hashtag is allowed with the bitcoin token emoji. Several times the CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, has gossip about...

Billionaire Peter Thiel-backed Valar Ventures emerged as the lead investor in Vienna-based digital investment platform Bitpanda. What Happened: The platform secured $52 million in Series A funding led by Valar and other investors including Speedinvest, the cryptocurrency brokerage said in a statement Tuesday. Bitpanda said it would utilize the fresh investments to enter additional European markets this year and next and introduce new product offerings. Valar Partner Andrew McCormack is joining Bitpanda’s board as a result of the investment. “We believe Bitpanda is perfectly positioned to take advantage of the opportunity by scaling across Europe and continuing to attract loyal users, which the team has already proven they can do profitably,” said McCormack. “Our goal is to become the leading investment and trading platform in Europe, not only for the people who are already familiar with trading but for everyone,” said Eric Demuth, CEO of Bitpanda. Why It Matters: The investme...

Sign up for our daily news briefing on the future of finance . Blockchain. It was in every headline for a few years; it was the subject your really intense cousin would never shut up about at Christmas; and in 2018, it crashed hard. Now, blockchain technology is making a more stable, more rational comeback in industries from health care to farming -- and financial services are still leading the way. The basic structure of blockchain consists of individual records, all connected using cryptography. This infrastructure allows blockchain networks to be distributed -- not necessarily run by a central authority -- while maintaining security, because nobody can change just one block in the chain. It’s an appealing model for many sectors, promising transparency and trust as it helps make value exchange possible. Evolving Blockchain Applications Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies dominated the roster of peer-to-peer blockchain companies when the technology first emerged, and there is still...

TOKYO -- The use of cryptocurrencies is increasing around the world. While the flow of these assets is not managed by individual governments or central banks, authorities are considering tightening rules as the risk of cryptocurrencies being used in money laundering and to fund crime are increasing. Tether is an emerging cryptocurrency issued by a Hong Kong company, Tether Limited, and it now has a larger presence than Bitcoin. Tether is also a stablecoin: a new type of cryptocurrency whose value is fixed against a certain asset. One Tether coin has the same value as one U.S. dollar. By paying $1 to Tether Limited, a person receives one Tether, and its value is pegged to the dollar. Some are dubious as to whether Tether Limited has enough dollars to match the value of coins issued, but Tether transactions are increasing nonetheless. A more worrying issue is that individuals can trade crypt...

Crypto social media platform Minds has been garnering users who are concerned about their privacy, according to the company’s CEO. The open-source platform, seen as an alternative to Facebook or Twitter, awards users with cryptocurrency for engagement. Crypto Social Network Minds Gaining Popularity Privacy-oriented social media platform “Minds,” often touted as an antithesis to Facebook and Twitter, has been seeing considerable growth in the number of users, according to its founder and CEO, Bill Ottman. The American entrepreneur told IANS publication that his platform “has already attracted people all over the world who are concerned about privacy practices on social networks.” Users were already migrating from mainstream platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook, due to privacy concerns even before the great Twitter hack that saw high-profile accounts tweet about bitcoin giveaways. Among compromised accounts were those of U.S. presidential candidate Joe Biden, former U.S. Preside...

Source: Production Perig / Shutterstock Yesterday, after a long delay, the social network Voice was launched. Similar to Reddit, users will be rewarded for high quality content. As Crypto News Flash has already reported, the beta version of the Voice social media platform was launched in February this year. The founders of Voice describe the project as a secure and decentralized alternative to the top dog Facebook and other networks like Reddit and Twitter. After a long delay and some teething troubles, Voice was officially launched yesterday. Voice website now available for all users The company announced in a post yesterday that the platform can now be tested by all users. However, only members who are invited to join the testers can post content and interact with other users. These restrictions will remain in place until 15 August 2020, till all beta tests are finally completed. Voice CEO Salah Michael Zalatimo was optimistic and described how Voice wants to give people b...

Days after Facebook-backed Libra scaled down its ambitions to become a global currency, China is now inching ahead in the race.  (Image: Reuters) China’s central bank has started testing its official Bitcoin-like digital currency DCEP, and the bank is now planning to roll out the virtual money payment system soon. Days after Facebook-backed Libra scaled down its ambitions to become a global currency, China is now inching ahead in the race. Digital Currency Research Institute of the People’s Bank of China (PBC) said that the research and development work of China’s official digital currency DCEP is proceeding steadily, PTI reported. China is currently carrying out internal pilot tests for the cryptocurrency in four cities. However, the cryptocurrency has not been officially launched yet, state media reported. Trial runs for DCEP will be piloted in a small range of banks and end users. After that, it will be spread to a wider range with certain improvement in technology and ...

The last participant of Facebook’s crypto money project Libra was the payment company Checkout.com. Thus, the number of members in the Libra Union increased to 24. London-based payment company Checkout.com participated in the Libra project led by Facebook. Guillaume Pousaz, the founder and CEO of Checkout.com, stated in a blog post published today that Blockchain has the potential to bring various benefits to global payment processes. Pousaz continued, speaking about Libra, “I look forward to working with the Libra Union to develop this new network and help shape its impact on global trade.” said. Checkout.com became the first payment processor to join Libra after US giants such as Visa, Mastercard and Strape, who left the project last October. With Checkout.com, the current number of members of the Libra Union has increased to 24. Global non-profit organization Heifer International was included in Libra last week. Critical revision in Libra On the other hand, Facebook made sign...

What a long and winding two and half years it’s been for Libra, the digital currency project spawned by Facebook.  For much of that time, all that was known about the social network’s ambitions for the cryptocurrency space was rumor and conjecture. The full scope of the project, unveiled in June 2019, exceeded most of this speculation – including the revelation that Facebook aimed to decentralize control of its creation, starting by handing it over to a governing council. But the Libra Association’s actions since have mostly been to scale back its hopes and try to address a largely hostile reaction to the project among the world’s governments.  CoinDesk has been chronicling this saga every step of the way. What follows is a detailed timeline of the Libra project’s history, from the early signs that Mark Zuckerberg’s social network was sniffing around the blockchain industry to Libra’s recent watering-down of its once-bold plans. Bookmark this article, because we’ll kee...

Facebook is scaling back its plans for the Libra cryptocurrency after nine months of regulatory scrutiny. In an updated white paper, released last week, the tech giant outlined how it was dialing down its ambitions to create a single global cryptocurrency. “The Association has made changes to its initial approach, many of which depart from the approaches taken by other blockchain projects,” Libra’s updated white paper says. “We appreciate the discussions with policymakers around the world who have helped us understand key concerns so that we can integrate actionable improvements into the Libra payment system’s design and into a phased rollout plan.” Libra’s initial plan was to circulate a single Libra coin (≋LBR) but discussions with economic regulators caused the Facebook-led Libra Association to scrap that plan in favour of including single-currency stablecoins to the network. These would be Libra-branded digital currencies (like ≋GBR, ≋USD, and ≋EUR) with those coins’ value pe...

Facebook is scaling back its plans for the Libra cryptocurrency after nine months of regulatory scrutiny. In an updated white paper, released last week, the tech giant outlined how it was dialing down its ambitions to create a single global cryptocurrency. “The Association has made changes to its initial approach, many of which depart from the approaches taken by other blockchain projects,” Libra’s updated white paper says. “We appreciate the discussions with policymakers around the world who have helped us understand key concerns so that we can integrate actionable improvements into the Libra payment system’s design and into a phased rollout plan.” Libra’s initial plan was to circulate a single Libra coin (≋LBR) but discussions with economic regulators caused the Facebook-led Libra Association to scrap that plan in favour of including single-currency stablecoins to the network. These would be Libra-branded digital currencies (like ≋GBR, ≋USD, and ≋EUR) with those coins’ value pe...

Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies are soaring—pushing the combined value of the crypto market back over $200 billion. Bitcoin, along with top ten tokens ethereum, Ripple's XRP, litecoin and bitcoin cash have all climbed between 6% and 12% over the last 24-hour trading period, adding over $10 billion to the crypto market. The bitcoin price has this week rallied back above $7,000 per bitcoin—approaching levels not seen since the coronavirus pandemic sent global markets into meltdown last month. MORE FROM FORBES Is This When To Buy Bitcoin? By Billy Bambrough The bitcoin price has staged a strong recovery since its heavy sell-off last month as global markets ... [+] crashed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Bitcoin has climbed back above $7,000 per bitcoin this week after falling under $4,000. SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Bitcoin's rally comes after social media giant Facebook revealed its embattled libra cryptocurrency project will move forward with a...

Libra 2.0 In June 2019, Facebook announced plans for a global cryptocurrency called Libra. The dream: let everybody, no matter where they are in the world, buy and sell goods and services without a credit card or bank account. Almost a year later, Facebook’s Libra project looks like an abject failure. Its updated white paper, as The New York Times reports, makes what was once a dream of a unified global currency look like an unreleased PayPal clone. Fall from Grace Over the last ten months, Facebook’s dream of a global currency has taken beating after beating. Experts called it Facebook’s downfall, French ministers shunned it, and even U.S. president Donald Trump said he was “not a fan.” Then high-profile backers who initially invested in the project started jumping ship. PayPal, Visa, MasterCard, and eBay all announced they were withdrawing from the Libra Association, the body that was meant to oversee Libra’s creation and rollout. In October, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg eve...

The Financial Stability Board (FSB) of the forum for international economic cooperation, G20, has mapped out rules for regulating stablecoins. The guidelines are aimed at preventing the Facebook cryptocurrency called Libra and other digital currencies from destabilizing financial systems.  G20 makes ten recommendations for regulating stablecoins G20 comprises 19 different countries and the European Union (EU). Through FSB, they specifically created ten recommendations for regulators to observe while regulating the so-called stablecoins. Reuters reported on Tuesday.  Stablecoins are commonly referred to as digital currencies that are backed or pegged to the value of an asset, or traditional currency. Just like other cryptocurrencies, stablecoin is equally used to pay for services and can serve as a store of value. The attention of the world regulators was drawn closely to stablecoin after the plans for Facebook cryptocurrency was announced. It spurred so many speculati...

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Even Co-Star’s astrologers could have predicted this one.  After regulatory blowback, Facebook is scaling back the most ambitious parts of its cryptocurrency project, Libra — namely, that bit where Libra would become a universal digital standard that unravels exchange rates. According to the Libra Association — which is tragically not a secretive organization of September to October babies but, rather, the nonprofit group overseeing the project — the new currency is going to look a lot more like digital payments on a platform like PayPal.  Instead of a universal coin backed by a mixture of currencies and securities, Libra will be split into a series of “stablecoins,” each of which is pegged to individual currencies.  Please welcome the Libra B-team  Heavyweights like Visa, MasterCard, and PayPal had abandoned the Libra Association over concerns it would destabilize the world economy, so Facebook has switched to teaming u...

Economist and academic John Vaz believes Bitcoin (BTC) still faces stiff competition from Facebook’s troubled Libra project. Vaz told Cointelegraph that Bitcoin has scaling challenges in terms of payments and was used disproportionately as a vehicle for speculation. By contrast he said Libra has been purpose-built to scale as a payments network and could quickly emerge as a major competitor despite its ongoing issues with regulators. “Libra isn’t dead,” he said,“they’re just navigating the regulatory nightmare.” However, Vaz dismissed central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), describing them as a weak “defensive posture” in response to the threat crypto assets posed to their control over money supply and credit. Vaz said that “the biggest competition for Bitcoin comes from other cryptocurrencies”. Facebook’s Libra is very interesting While noting that Facebook suffers from issues of public mistrust, Vaz said that the proposed model for the Libra stablecoin was “very interesti...

The Financial Stability Board (FSB) of the forum for international economic cooperation, G20, has mapped out rules for regulating stablecoins. The guidelines are aimed at preventing the Facebook cryptocurrency called Libra and other digital currencies from destabilizing financial systems.  G20 makes ten recommendations for regulating stablecoins G20 comprises 19 different countries and the European Union (EU). Through FSB, they specifically created ten recommendations for regulators to observe while regulating the so-called stablecoins. Reuters reported on Tuesday.  Stablecoins are commonly referred to as digital currencies that are backed or pegged to the value of an asset, or traditional currency. Just like other cryptocurrencies, stablecoin is equally used to pay for services and can serve as a store of value. The attention of the world regulators was drawn closely to stablecoin after the plans for Facebook cryptocurrency was announced. It spurred so many speculati...

Facebook, the social media giant, has also made its entry into the cryptocurrency world through its digital currency called ”Libra”. The grand vision of the association is to build a stable cryptocurrency for a more inclusive global financial system on a secure network. The Libra is hoping to achieve this by bringing in together millions of non-bankers in the world. The digital currency is taking power over the world through its services and applications. Facebook , the social media giant, has also made its entry into the cryptocurrency world through its digital currency called ”Libra”. Libra is different from Bitcoin as it will take the support of a governing body whereas Bitcoin does not. It is designed such that it is less volatile, and also this design to make it similar to a traditional currency. Advertisement It is reported that Facebook will soon begin the cryptocurrency’s trading. Few of the representatives of the “Libra Association” include Facebook, Spoti...

The social media giant’s new currency ‘Libra’ is set to start trading soon, and though it is backed by powerful corporations, not everyone is convinced that it is a good idea.    Facebook, Spotify, Uber, and PayU — those are just a number of representatives of the ‘Libra Association’, a plethora of venture capital firms and non-profit organisations spanning the telecommunication and blockchain networks. The grand vision of the Association is no less than to build “a stable cryptocurrency built on a secure network… [for a] more inclusive global financial system”.  Libra hopes to achieve this by hooking up the millions of ‘unbanked’ people in the world — that is, people with no ability to transfer money instantly across the world, securely and at low cost.  How Libra works Libra is understood to run on a blockchain of around 100 different computer servers. The blockchain algorithms have ‘command-line programs’ to enable scripting and interactive use, along with a...