The internet giant is working with a local tax authority on fintech solutions to tax issues, and already has a blockchain solution for invoicing.

If bitcoin closes the week below the 50-week moving average it will increase the likelihood of a sell-off to $6,000

The U.S. state of Alabama has issued cease-and-desist orders to three ICOs that were allegedly soliciting residents with unregistered securities.

No team, plagiarized white paper, McAfee pump, promises of bitcoin-like returns, brand hijacking, a fake blog. Welcome to ICO-land.

Norfolk Southern is the latest railway to join the Blockchain in Transport Alliance.

As part of New York Blockchain Week, Distributed Business Accelerator (DBA) publicly launched their global blockchain accelerator community designed to cultivate an ecosystem of blockchain startups. The CEO of the project is Tom Tao, formerly of IBM and Chainbase Accelerator. In opening remarks, Tao gave his outlook on the industry and extrapolated on where he saw DBA adding value to the blockchain ecosystem, noting that “for startups, obtaining resources and attention quickly is one of the critical factors to attain success.” Tao laid out the goals of DBA which include equipping promising blockchain startups with all the tools necessary to accelerate their growth, giving them access to an incubator in which they can develop their product and helping them to plan out business strategies to deliver that product to the world. He also touched on current issues which seem to be creating a general environment that leaves individual blockchain ecosystems too isolated. He considers the t

Hut 8 Mining Group raised $70 million CAD to invest in mining machines, and mined 828 bitcoins in the first quarter of 2018.

A monero cryptominer based on XMRig is hijacking Macs, causing high CPU and fan usage.

The U.S. Justice Department is looking into whether the price of bitcoin and other virtual currencies are being manipulated, according to a report in Bloomberg that referenced four unnamed sources for the information. Still in its early phases, the criminal probe will bring in other agencies, like the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), a regulator that oversees bitcoin derivatives, sources said. On spot markets, like GDAX, Poloniex and Bitfinex, where cryptocurrencies change hands immediately, the price of bitcoin can vacillate wildly in a matter of hours. Starting in early 2017, the price of bitcoin ballooned from $1,000 to a record high of around $20,000 in mid-December. Currently, the price now sits in around $7,500. Unlike in Japan , where virtual currency exchanges are subject the same rules and oversight as any other financial institutions and are required to register with the government, in the U.S. and other countries, cryptocurrency exchanges are still largely

Thyssenkrupp successfully conducted a foreign exchange transaction using R3's Corda blockchain in partnership with Germany's Commerzebank.

Mobile banking app Revolut now lets users buy, sell and hold Ripple's XRP and bitcoin cash, in addition to bitcoin, litecoin and ether.

Deutsche Boerse AG is assessing whether to offer cryptocurrency-related products, a company exec has said during an event.

Singapore's central bank has warned eight digital token exchanges and an ICO issuer to stop trading tokens deemed unauthorized securities.

Two financial institutions are set to test a regulatory platform set up by the Bank of Russia that aims to make ICOs more transparent and secure.

The U.S. Department of Justice is reportedly investigating cryptocurrency traders who may have manipulated the markets using old-school tricks.

Bitcoin looks set to test $7,000 in the next 24 hours, courtesy of a bear flag breakdown on the technical charts.

Japanese IT giant GMO Internet says it will ship the world's first bitcoin mining device based on 7nm chips before November.

By deferring questions of trust to a decentralized algorithm, blockchains promise to boost transparency and allow more fluid, dynamic supply chains.

China's State Council has ordered local authorities to speed up blockchain development amid a fintech shakeup.

Throughout 2018, blockchain and cryptocurrency hackathons are taking place on every continent but Antartica. In the United States alone, conferences are happening in Las Vegas , Atlanta , Berkeley , Raleigh , San Francisco , New York City , Seattle and, of course, Silicon Valley . Some conferences will be more inclined toward a particular sector like Blockchain Health in Washington D.C. Others will target a specific demographic like Women4Blockchain in New York City. Some conferences will attract thousands in attendance; others might charge thousands of dollars for attendance. In its first year, EthMemphis distinguished its place on the blockchain conference circuit for displaying an under-the-hood glimpse at what actually moves this young industry forward, specifically on the Ethereum network. Taking place at the University of Memphis’ Fedex Institute of Technology, EthMemphis focused on Ethereum-based blockchain topics and projects applied to supply chain, healthcare, tourism

IBM plans to hire 400 researchers, a portion of which will be focusing on blockchain technology, CEO Virginia Rometty said Wednesday.

Norges Bank has released a report suggesting it might one day launch a digital currency as citizens continue to turn away from physical money.

Rural banks in the Philippines are looking to adopt ConsenSys' Kaleido blockchain platform in bid to boost financial inclusion.

Vitalik Buterin has suggested experimenting with quadratic voting, a governance model furthered by Dr. Glen Weyl, on the ethereum platform.

India could soon impose goods and services tax (GST) on many digital currency transactions, a report indicates.

China has prosecuted nearly 100 individuals said to be involved with locally operating the OneCoin cryptocurrency scheme.

Tari , a new open-source blockchain protocol, aims to redefine the digital asset experience. Backed by institutional investors including Redpoint, Trinity Ventures, Canaan Partners, Pantera and Multicoin Capital, its founders Riccardo “fluffypony” Spagni, lead maintainer of the Monero cryptocurrency; Naveen Jain, a serial entertainment industry entrepreneur; and Dan Teree, co-founder of Ticketfly, hope to simplify the management, trade, programmability and use of all digital assets. Current State of Digital Assets “Today, most digital assets such as event tickets, in-game items, loyalty points and virtual currencies are siloed due to restrictions that limit their use and secondary market trade,” Jain said in an interview with Bitcoin Magazine . Businesses primarily enact these restrictions to control assets after their distribution, verify an asset holder’s identity and prevent fraudulent counterfeiting. Siloed digital assets aren’t ideal for consumers or businesses. Consumers do

Following bitcoin's recent losses, a key long-term trend indicator is looking increasingly bearish. Notably, the five-month moving average (MA) has rolled over in favor of the bears and looks set to cut the 10-month MA from above - a bearish crossover that hasn't been seen since June 2014. If that occurs it could be a […]

Singapore's central bank is proposing a change to existing exchange market rules aimed to ease blockchain adoption and decentralization.

Huobi Pro has announced the launch of a market index to measure the overall performance of 10 digital assets on its platform.

Monero dev Riccardo Spagni and entrepreneurs Naveen Jain and Dan Teree are launching a new digital asset protocol on the privacy token's network.

Cryptocurrency Verge has suffered what executives are claiming is a DDoS attack. The platform is experiencing a serious delay in its blockchain , which has led to security concerns amongst users and worries about the currency’s stability. At press time, Verge is trading for roughly $0.052, and its market cap value sits at $785 million. A decrease in the currency’s price has occurred over the last hour, docking Verge down by 0.36 percent, while the coin has fallen by nearly 7 percent over the last 24 hours. Currently, Verge is the world’s 31st largest cryptocurrency per CoinMarketCap.com. Verge first mentioned the attack in a Twitter post, explaining: “It appears some mining pools are under DDoS attack, and we are experiencing a delay in our blocks. We are working to resolve this.” The problem may be more serious than the company is implying, however. The attack lasted more than a few hours and has resulted in over 35 million XVGs (worth approximately $1.7 million) being stolen.

CoinGate, a payment gateway for cryptocurrencies, is planning to launch Bitcoin Lightning Network payments on its platform. As explained in an update published by the company on Reddit , the company is currently testing the technology, and users are invited to join in the tests. The Lithuanian company serves over 4,000 merchants globally by allowing them to accept bitcoin and altcoin payments which can then be converted into BTC, EUR or USD as payouts. Utilizing the Lightning Network, merchants could accept payments instantaneously at reduced transaction fees. CoinGate has been preparing for the integration of Lightning for a while. In 2017, it was an early implementer of Segwit addresses, which fixed the scriptSig malleability problem, thereby making the Lightning Network less complicated to implement. The company has been experimenting with Lightning payment processing in its sandbox as further tests are being carried out to ensure the stability of the system. Lightning is cur

Working to “make journalism truly free,” Inkrypt wants to provide a censorship-free, back-end solution for content hosting and delivery. With a focus on transparency, data distribution and immutability, the protocol would give journalists and publishers the means to circulate content without the risk of a central point of failure or the threat of government intervention. Inkrypt was born from the experience of state-propagated censorship that each of its founders confronted before relocating to the United States. “[Inkrypt] is very much a product of the personal backgrounds of the founders and their mutual fascination for the implications of distributed ledger technologies,” co-founder Farhan Javed told Bitcoin Magazine . “They share a common experience of having lived under regimes of governmental censorship and are committed to changing such realities.” Standing testament to this, Javed alluded to co-founder Dr. Muhammad Ali Chaudhary’s childhood in Pakistan, quoting an experien

The U.K.’s new Cryptoassets Taskforce has taken the first step on its mission to "develop thinking and policy" around blockchain and cryptocurrency.

Circle Invest formally launched the startup's trading platform on Tuesday.

Æternity, a “blockchain 3.0” platform for scalable smart contracts interfacing with real world data, founded by “ Godfather of Ethereum ” Yanislav Malahov, is announcing the launch of æternity Starfleet, a series of incubator and accelerator programs to support the global blockchain ecosystem by building a network of innovators, investors and industry enthusiasts. “Today’s launch is the culmination of months of extensive research and preparation and underlines our commitment to be the enablers of innovation, strengthening the already thriving blockchain community worldwide,” said Malahov in a statement. “We are confident that these incubator programs will accelerate the adoption of blockchain technology globally and support projects that share our vision for a future built on powerful, user-friendly decentralized applications.” Malahov founded æternity in 2016. The æternity technology platform is an open-source , blockchain-based distributed computing platform, based on decentral

The North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) just announced “ Operation Cryptosweep ,” one of the largest coordinated enforcement actions by U.S. and Canadian regulators to crackdown on fraudulent Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs). The task force was convened in April 2018 and includes members from more than 40 jurisdictions throughout North America and has resulted in nearly 70 inquiries and investigations and 35 pending or completed enforcement actions related to ICOs or cryptocurrencies since the beginning of May. Joseph P. Borg, NASAA president and director of the Alabama Securities Commission, said “The actions announced today are just the tip of the iceberg,” Borg also noted that the task force had found approximately 30,000 crypto-related domain name registrations, most of which appeared in 2017 and 2018.” An important part of the Cryptosweep program is to raise public awareness of the potential risks associated with ICOs and cryptocurrency, while also encou

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has released new guidance for companies issuing cryptocurrency derivatives products.

Taiwanese lawmakers have announced the formation of a parliamentary group aimed to foster the nation's emerging blockchain sector.

Automotive executives are starting to wake up to the use cases of blockchain in the industry, but there's a way to go.

How much did developer Laszlo Hanyecz pay in the first-ever retail bitcoin transaction? With CoinDesk's new tool, you never have to guess.

Seoul mayor Park Won-soon is pledging to focus on blockchain innovation as part of his campaign pitch for potential re-election this year.

Bitcoin's failed bull breakout on Sunday has left the doors open for the bears to make a comeback.

China's highest-level state media outlet has said token sales are still common in the country despite a 2017 ban.

Bitcoin Suisse AG, a cryptocurrency brokerage listed as a defendant in a lawsuit against Tezos, has filed a motion to dismiss the case against it.

A bill proposed by an Ohio Senator would let the state legally recognize blockchain records and smart contracts.

A newly-released Walmart patent application outlines a digital resale marketplace placed on a blockchain.

As reported earlier by The New York Times (NYT) and Bitcoin Magazine , Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), parent company of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), is developing an online trading platform that would allow large investors to trade bitcoin directly. As news about the ICE platform continues to develop, Bitcoin Magazine spoke with lawyers Ben Sauter and Dave McGill of Kobre & Kim, a New York City law firm which specializes in disputes and investigations, to examine the regulatory issues surrounding the launch of such a platform, including swap contracts and the implications the ICE platform might have on cryptocurrency trading in the future. Sauter and McGill are also participating lawyers in the Digital Currency & Ledger Defense Coalition (DCLDC), a coalition of lawyers and academics whose collaborated effort focuses on understanding the regulatory and legal issues surrounding cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology to protect individual constitutional rights an

A report from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission indicates that Australians lost millions of dollars to crypto-related scams in 2017.

A group of old-school security researchers have raised funds to build a better smart contracting language.

An "international crackdown" on cryptocurrency scams was launched Monday by a group of securities regulators.

ASK.fm is one of the largest question and answer social networks in the world. The company’s recent announcement of the sale of its utility token (ASKT) has left many people wondering why a company that has been around since 2010 would make such a dramatic shift. Now, it has become clear that the company sees an initial coin offering (ICO) as its opportunity to take a leap into the decentralized economy. ASK.fm plans to do this by tokenizing social interactions within its network. Currently, ASK.fm has 215 million registered users in 168 countries facilitating 600 million questions per month. Known as ASK.fm 2.0, the company’s new blockchain-centric iteration will feature tokenized incentives for users. Influencers will have the opportunity to earn direct rewards for content, in this case, the responses they create. By increasing network activity through an incentivized token, ASK.fm expects to dramatically raise the level of knowledge and expertise on the network. Once the tokens

Bitcoin fell to one-month lows below $8,000 last week, but the lesser-known zilliqa token topped the list of losers.

China-based Canaan Creative, one of the largest bitcoin mining hardware makers, has filed for an IPO in Hong Kong.

A confluence of technologies is poised to dramatically reshape manufacturing and, in the process, render obsolete the international trade regime.

Colorado's Secretary of State has proposed allowing political committees to accept contributions in cryptocurrency.

The former chief executive of Hong Kong-based crypto exchange OKEx has said he is joining rival platform Huobi just a week after his resignation.

Bitcoin has bounced back above $8,500, but the rally is not backed by decent trading volumes, the technical charts indicate.

Forty percent of all Chinese blockchain startups emerged in 2017 alone, according to a new report published by China's IT Ministry

A more united front among all who believe in blockchain tech's sweeping potential could help ensure a more constructive legal environment.

A popular event forged during the token boom of 2017 saw discussion about the changing regulatory environment that has resulted.

Bitcoin cash recently hard forked and a little less than 20 percent of nodes didn't upgrade. The industry argues over whether that matters or not.

So what we get drunk? So what we smoke weed? We're just having fun, something something XRP.

This week’s news was dominated by stories out of Blockchain Week and the Consensus 2018 conference held in New York City. There was free beer served from an ID-validating dispenser, Warren Buffet was criticized for his “rat poison” view of cryptocurrency, and there were plenty of business announcements, including news from eToro, Netki, Bitmain and Circle. Catch up on these stories and more in this week’s Bitcoin Magazine review. Featured stories by Amy Castor, Colin Harper and  Kyle Torpey Stay on top of the best stories in the bitcoin, blockchain and cryptocurrency industry. Subscribe to our newsletter here . Fred Wilson Explains Why Warren Buffett Doesn’t Get Bitcoin In his 2018 annual shareholder meeting at Berkshire Hathaway recently, Warren Buffet referred to bitcoin as “rat poison.” Venture capitalists Fred Wilson and Balaji Srinivasan had a chat with Wall Street Journal reporter Paul Vigna on the mainstage of Consensus 2018. The pair of tech investors pointed out the dif

A short-lived rally gave eager bulls false hope as the the market attempted to break back into the trading range (TR) outlined in last week’s BTC Market Analysis . As noted in our last discussion, a break back into the TR would be considered a period of evaluation and an inability to maintain support within the TR would likely lead to a continuation of the downtrend: Figure 1: BTC-USD, 2-Hour Candles, Downtrend Continuation After establishing the Major Sign of Weakness (SOW), the market made a feeble rally and ultimately formed a Last Point of Supply (LPSY) at the bottom of the TR. The LPSY is the point where supply begins to overwhelm the market and long positions begin to close as the demand dries up. Shortly after the rejection of the TR, the market established a new low. However, this low was pushed on fairly low volume. The price action and volume are shaping out a reversal pattern called a Falling Wedge (FW): Figure 2: BTC-USD, 2-Hour Candles, Falling Wedge If the price man

In a poor week for the wider markets, a listing on the Gemini exchange put a strong bid under zcash, producing gains of 50 percent.

A committee of the European Parliament believes that small businesses could benefit from integrating blockchain technology.

Banco Santander has completed a blockchain pilot that it says improves the process of proxy voting during annual general meetings.

Historically, Facebook has done a great job of staying on the cusp of technological advancement through investing heavily in new technologies and smart acquisitions. From WhatsApp to Oculus, the company has used its bulging bank balances to stay one step ahead of consumer trends by snapping up tech and talent. And, after last week’s internal announcement that Facebook would be investing heavily in a new blockchain technology research wing, headed by David Marcus , one of the company's top execs, leader of its Messenger platform and a former CEO of PayPal, it is quite obvious which new emerging technology the company has its sights set on now. Blockchain technology — and its incorruptible, decentralized digital ledger — could offer the accountability and transparency needed to pull Facebook out of its recent data security quagmire, which saw CEO Mark Zuckerberg dragged in front of the United States Congress following the Cambridge Analytica scandal . On the flipside, the decentr

Bitcoin's drop to one-month lows has bolstered the already bearish technical setup.

While women in the blockchain industry want to focus on the technology, a lack of women is hurting the industry.

IBM has partnered with environmental fintech startup Veridium Labs to turn carbon credits — tradable instruments that provide an economic incentive to those who want to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions — into blockchain-based tokens. In a joint press release , the two companies announced a collaboration to “transform the carbon credit market using IBM blockchain technology with the goal of making it easier for companies to offset their environmental footprints.” "By using a public, permissioned blockchain network, we can help Veridium create a new sustainable marketplace that is good for business and good for the world," said Bridget van Kralingen, senior vice president of IBM Industry Platforms and Blockchain. “This is a great example of how industries are being reinvented by blockchain [technology], in this case establishing a far more efficient and transparent approach to carbon accounting and offsetting that will empower individuals and companies to play a role

Streamr , the blockchain-based data platform based in Zug, Switzerland, launched their real-time data Marketplace on May 16, 2018, during a presentation at Consensus 2018 . This was followed by an announcement of partnerships with Nokia and OSIsoft . The Streamr Marketplace connects data producers and consumers through a web-based application where data consumers can pay for access to real-time data streams listed by data providers. For example, a recent partnership between Streamr and Hewlett Packard Enterprise will allow vehicle data to be monetized in real-time. Vehicles generate data that is usable to third parties — it might be used to gauge traffic through a geographic region, or to fine-tune traffic signals, or to schedule road work, etc. Rather than just giving that data away for free, vehicle owners can make use of the Streamr Marketplace to monetize and trade that data. The use of the Streamr cryptographic token, DATA, will make it possible for data streams around the w