Ripple: Most financial institutions plan to use crypto within three years

A report by Ripple suggests that most financial institutions plan to start using crypto within the next three years.

Despite the bear market, financial institutions remain interested in the cryptocurrency space. Just this week, $10 trillion asset manager BlackRock launched a spot Bitcoin trust while saying that it’s also exploring “permissioned blockchains, stablecoins, cryptoassets, and tokenization.”

While BlackRock is exploring the potential financial benefits...

12 August 2022 | Altcoins

Vitalik Buterin downplays Ethereum PoW forks, Chainlink backs PoS switch

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin has downplayed the impact of Proof of Work (PoW) forks of the leading smart contract platform. Chainlink, meanwhile, has confirmed it will not support any such forks.

Bitcoin pioneered the PoW consensus that was adopted by Ethereum. PoW is energy-intensive, requiring increasingly powerful computers to validate transactions to earn blockchain rewards. Some lawmakers in several regions are even talking about banning PoW blockchains.

Proof...

8 August 2022 | Altcoins

Internet Computer Protocol achieves 1B blocks in just over a year

Internet Computer Protocol has achieved the milestone of processing one billion blocks in just over a year in production.

The project’s lead developer, Zürich-based nonprofit DFINITY Foundation, made the announcement earlier today.

“Internet Computer is a unique blockchain powered by game-changing ‘chain key crypto’. It runs at web speed, with web efficiency, can scale its capacity without limit and, uniquely, the smart contracts it hosts can serve interactive...

14 July 2022 | Altcoins

Cardano launches Vasil upgrade on testnet

Cardano’s much-anticipated Vasil upgrade has successfully launched on the project’s testnet.

Vasil is the most significant upgrade for Cardano since ‘Alonzo’ in September 2021 which brought smart contracts to the platform.

The platform’s main developer, IOHK, described Vasil as delivering numerous improvements:

https://twitter.com/InputOutputHK/status/1541800460838993922

Cardano is consistently among the most actively-developed blockchain...

4 July 2022 | Altcoins

Tether CTO responds to reports of hedge funds shorting USDT

Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino has responded to reports of hedge funds shorting its USDT stablecoin.

A “short” is a bet against the value of an asset. In contrast, a “long” position is a bet that an asset will appreciate in value.

On Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported that various traditional hedge funds had open USDT short positions worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

“There has been a real spike in the interest from traditional hedge funds who...

28 June 2022 | Blockchain

Ethereum Virtual Machine goes live on Cardano testnet

Ethereum developers that are considering defecting to Cardano can now test their dApps on the growing blockchain platform.

https://twitter.com/InputOutputHK/status/1535979507840167943

Cardano’s Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) has full compatibility with Ethereum upgrades and tools, Web3 wallet compatibility, can use the Ouroboros Byzantine Fault Tolerance consensus protocol, and inherit security from Cardano’s main chain.

Cardano vs Ethereum

Ethereum is...

14 June 2022 | Altcoins

Terra buys another 4,550 Bitcoin worth over $206M

Blockchain project Terra continues to amass Bitcoin by taking another 4,550 off the market, worth over $206 million.

Terra has been following a number of companies – including MicroStrategy, Tesla, Square, and others – in adding Bitcoin to its reserves.

Do Kwon, CEO of Terraform Labs, has said his ultimate aim is to have Terra’s reserves of Bitcoin rival that of Satoshi Nakomoto...

6 April 2022 | Altcoins

Marc Blinder, Aikon: Making blockchain simple for businesses and consumers

Marc Blinder, Aikon CEO.

Could you tell us a little bit about Aikon and what it offers?

Yeah, absolutely. So I'm one of the founders of the company, and also of a blockchain called ORE, which is the open record exchange. And four years ago we started this project, inspired by my original co-founder, Stefan Rover, who was an early encryption pioneer on the internet. Sadly, he has since passed away, but we're kind of continuing on with his original vision. 

You probably remember that the US...

15 February 2022 | Blockchain

Polkadot network launches parachain functionality

Parallel Lines

Polkadot, a network protocol for connecting multiple blockchains, has launched its first five parachains, individual blockchain networks running in parallel to create an interoperable ecosystem.

The five parachains that went live this weekend – Acala, Astar, Clover, Moonbeam, and Parallel Finance – were chosen following successful crowdfunded auctions and focus on topics from decentralised finance (DeFi) to investments and loans.

In total, the five projects raised...

20 December 2021 | Blockchain

SEBA Bank makes it possible to digitally own physical gold

A pile of gold bars and coins.

Digital assets banking platform, SEBA Bank, has launched a Gold Token, a regulated digital token for investment in and delivery of physical gold on-demand. 

SEBA Bank issues a token backed by what it describes as responsibly sourced gold, providing a cost-effective access to the precious metal, and sets a new standard in the stablecoin sector.

The SEBA Bank Gold Token is a landmark development in investment products, enabling investors for the first time to own a...

16 December 2021 | Banking