In an effort to expand its institutional services, Coinbase is joining an industry chase for the ever-elusive bitcoin exchange traded fund (ETF). As reported by Business Insider, the cryptocurrency exchange provider has been liaising with BlackRock, a U.S. investment management company with some $6 trillion in assets under its purview. Individuals close with the matter…
Abra, the all-in-one digital wallet and cryptocurrency exchange, has announced its support for Single Euro Payment Area (SEPA) bank accounts. European users can now enable direct wire transfers from European banks to purchase any of Abra’s 28 available cryptocurrencies. Founded in 2014, Abra is working toward providing users with maximum privacy and control. The application…
Based on blockchain technology, most cryptocurrencies have an open and public ledger. While this is required for these systems to work, it comes with a significant downside: Privacy is often quite limited. Government agencies, analytics companies and other interested parties — let’s call them “spies” — have ways to analyze the public blockchains and peer-to-peer…
In a what appears to be a seismic shift in company ethos, digital assets platform ShapeShift has launched a new loyalty program called “ShapeShift Membership” which will require the exchange users to provide “basic personal details,” according to a blog post published September 4, 2018. In his post, ShapeShift Founder and CEO Erik Voorhees said…
Bill Barhydt, founder of bitcoin wallet app Abra, said the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) would approve a bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) within a year once the financial regulator feels comfortable with the caliber of the applicants. A bitcoin ETF would allow investors to purchase bitcoin through funds listed on a regulated, legacy stock…
IBM has launched a blockchain-based payment system called Blockchain World Wire. According to IBM, the new payment network uses digital currency on Stellar’s blockchain to “clear and settle cross-border payments” in near real time. The Stellar network is a distributed, blockchain-based ledger that facilitates cross-asset transfers of value. Like Ripple, Stellar can handle exchanges between…
Goldman Sachs is struggling to find a way to trade bitcoin. The financial services giant has scratched its plans to open a desk for trading cryptocurrencies, at least for the near term, according to a Business Insider report on September 5, 2018. Cryptocurrency markets seemed to respond negatively to the news. Bitcoin dropped roughly 5…
The team behind Lightning Ramp, a system that provides customers with faster bitcoin payments, has joined forces with Casa, a “be-your-own-bank” product that provides users with a multi-signature, multi-hardware device and multi-location wallet designed, to offer top-notch security against attacks and theft. Together, both ventures are working to create the Casa Lightning Node, a platform…
As the birthplace of the Chaos Computer Club, the hometown of the mother of all hackerspaces, and what many of the world’s leading privacy activists consider to be a bit of a safe haven, Berlin may be the the strongest center in the world for hacker culture. Maybe that’s what makes the German capital a…
“We suck at marketing,” Eiland Glover, CEO and founder of Kowala, admitted in good humor. “Our PR probably doesn’t want to hear me say that, but it’s true.” Glover’s brutally honest statement is by no means a reflection on the company’s work ethic or even its progress — quite the opposite. The milestones the project…