As part of an international effort to wrest power from Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela, the Bank of England has denied the nation access to gold deposits stored with the institution. Such instances highlight just why a permissionless store of value like Bitcoin is important on both the global and personal level. Several members of the…
In an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier, the senior adviser to the governor of the Bank of England weighed in about the threat posed to the current financial status quo by Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Huw van Steenis largely dismissed the blockchain-backed fintech innovation on the grounds that Bitcoin had not yet…
Privacy-focused, stable-coin-of-sorts crypto, the Haven Protocol (XHV), appears to have been disbanded. According to Tweets from those involved in the project, one of the lead developers has disappeared with the only access to the code repository, halting development for months. The news broke via the project’s Discord channel, with the announcement that one of the…
The race to launch the first crypto powered messenger app is heating up. Naturally the internet monopolies such as Facebook are scrambling to be first, but looking at its history it is one of the least suitable to handle decentralized currencies. New contenders are appearing on the scene with far better credentials than the world’s…
Just in the past two months, Bitmain has fired more than half of its staff, has closed an entire office in Tel Aviv, has shuffled top management, and removed two of its chief operations officers. And today, the Chinese bitcoin mining giant decided that it would close another overseas workplace – this time in Amsterdam.…
Early in October 2018, after years of growth, investors appear to be spooked by rising bond yields that have been drawing some out of the stock market. Fears of further falls led others to sell their holdings. The best-performing stocks over the past year – which include the so-called FAANG companies of Facebook, Apple, Amazon,…
Reports are emerging that the anti-Emmanuel Macron protesters in France, known in English as the Yellow Vests, are planning to stage a bank run this weekend. Although the changes of such an initiative bringing the government to its knees, as the demonstrators hope, are slim, what may very well be the first ever voluntary bank…
The entire premise set in motion by Satoshi Nakamoto ten years ago was one of a decentralized peer to peer currency beyond the control of governments, banks and mega corporations. Fast forward to 2019 and we have yet to achieve that goal as banks are still controlling the inflow and outflow of fiat to crypto,…
Back in the latter half of 2017 many of the cryptocurrencies experienced wild price swings with double digit pump and dumps several times a week. This volatility was seen to be the detractor of wider spread adoption, though easy to make, or loose, a quick buck for day traders and speculators. Then the bears got…
There’s no denying it, the crypto industry is known for its eccentric individuals, statements, and startups. John McAfee, for example, promised to consume his family jewels if Bitcoin (BTC) doesn’t reach $1 million apiece by 2020’s end. While McAfee’s call is by far the most bizarre, especially what he wagered, he isn’t the only industry…