Startup Status raised $100 M in its 2017 initial coin offering on the premise of building a private messenger based on the Whisper protocol that allows Ethereum DApps to communicate. Each smartphone that runs a Status app becomes a node, and all the messaging runs on a peer-to-peer network which is censorship-resistant. After three years of hard work, it is ready for the spotlight. Picking up where Ethereum dropped off Whisper currently allows for only about 100 daily users before bandwidth consumption becomes an issue according to the company's simulations. Status hopes to overcome this limitation. “Whisper has scalability issues. …

As of 19:30 UTC on Feb. 13, the Twitter account of the co-founder of Morgan Creek Digital and noted crypto personality Anthony Pompliano was suspended, only to return to action within a matter of hours. A short suspension, possibly for pitching Given Pompliano’s position within the crypto community — where he is often known by the moniker “Pomp” — the suspension was the subject of a great deal of speculation during the short time that the account was actually offline. One Twitter user noted that earlier that day, Pompliano had used a viral tweet from Democratic Presidential hopeful Mike Bloomberg …

A Venezuelan team is developing Locha, a decentralized mesh network that doesn’t rely on the internet to transact with Bitcoin (BTC). The system, based on radio waves, was born in response to frequent electricity and internet outages in Venezuela. Locha Mesh is an open-source project led by Randy Brito, a member of the Bitcoin Venezuela organization. It is developing two devices, named Turpial and Harpia, that would allow anyone to connect to the Bitcoin blockchain using long-range radio waves. Turpial is the simpler version of the radio transmitter, reported to work over distances of one to two kilometers in urban …

More crypto-related content is being re-enabled on YouTube after several days of unilateral deletions and non-communication from the video giant. YouTube responded three hours ago via Twitter to YouTuber Carl The Moon regarding the crypto-related videos that have been removed from the platform this week. @TeamYouTube responded to a previous tweet sent by Carl The Moon (@themooncarl) on the matter, stating today: “Hey there, this was an error on our side during the review process – your video should be reinstated and strikes resolved. Let us know if you're seeing otherwise!” Source Twitter Following the statement from @TeamYouTube, Carl The …

On December 26, YouTube released a statement saying the platform had mistakenly removed hundreds of crypto-related videos this week. However, many of the YouTubers affected by the ban still have not had their videos restored on the site. YouTuber Ivan on Tech told Cointelegraph on December 26th: “Nothing has changed. YouTube said this was a mistake yesterday too. I’m not sure why they are saying this.” Ivan on Tech’s YouTube account, which has more than 210,000 subscribers, received a strike from YouTube earlier this week. He has since set all of his crypto-related videos to private as a precaution. YouTuber …

YouTube, one of the most popular social media platforms for video sharing, has aggressively started deleting cryptocurrency-related content from some of the biggest influencers in the industry. Based on Twitter and Reddit threads, YouTube suddenly began deleting a number of cryptocurrency videos on Dec. 23. YouTuber Chris Dunn, whose channel has over 210,000 subscribers, noticed on Monday that the platform had removed all of his videos that mentioned cryptocurrencies. Following this, Dunn tweeted, "@YouTube just removed most of my crypto videos citing 'harmful or dangerous content' and 'sale of regulated goods'... it's been 10 years of making videos, 200k+ subs, …

Disclaimer: Speaking to Cointelegraph, YouTube later responded that the cryptocurrency-related content was taken down by accident and has since been restored. Crypto YouTubers are greeting the holidays with reports that their content appears to have been censored by the platform. In a tweet published on Dec. 23, Chris Dunn — a crypto YouTuber with 210,000 subscribers and almost 7.5 million channel views — claimed that: “@YouTube just removed most of my crypto videos citing "harmful or dangerous content" and ‘sale of regulated goods’... it's been 10 years of making videos, 200k+ subs, and 7M+ views. WTF are you guys doing …

Bitcoin artist “Bnoiit.c” has created an Ethereum-based virtual museum “Cryptovoxels” that ensures censored artworks are immutably preserved for an online audience. In its collection as of Aug. 25 has been a Bitcoin mural by French street artist Pascal “PBOY” Boyart, which was painted over by French authorities earlier this year. Revolutionary stirrings Cryptovoxels’ site tells the story of the subversive mural — a modern-day reworking of Eugène Delacroix’s classic revolutionary painting “La Liberté guidant le peuple” (Liberty Guiding the People). The mural — created in honor of the 10th anniversary of Bitcoin’s Genesis Block — had recast the rebels who …

Verge (XVG) has seen a 33% pump in the 24 hours following Paypal’s move to pull the plug on the adult entertainment website Pornhub. XVG — whose creators struck a deal with Pornub back in April 2018 — has skyrocketed in value since the PayPal news broke on Nov. 14, as Coin360 data shows. XVG price 7-day chart. Source: Coin360 168% increase in 24h trade volume The XVG network uses anonymity-focused networks such as Tor and I2P, as well as additional layers of encryption to bolster security. It ranks 66th largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization globally and is trading at …

Earlier in September, Cointelegraph reported that Israeli cybersecurity startup GK8 had raised $4 million to finance its offline cryptocurrency transaction solution. The company developed a cold wallet with “hot wallet functionalities” that is completely shielded from online hackers because it does not require an internet connection. Apart from creating additional security layers, offline transactions could, in theory, enable complete censorship resistance for cryptocurrencies. Being able to sign, send, validate, receive and record value transfers without the internet might also be the key to ensuring global cryptocurrency adoption. To this end, there are some startups working on mesh networks (commonly called …

Social media platform Gab has made a bid to seal $10 million in a Series A crowdfunding round that will enable it decentralize its infrastructure and integrate bitcoin (BTC) and Lightning Network payments. Founded in 2016, Gab has risen to notoriety due to a perception that it serves as an “echo chamber” for “extremist,” alt- or far-right views as it welcomes users who have been banned from sites like Twitter and Facebook for their alleged violations of hate speech rules. More broadly, the site targets a user base of libertarian, nationalist, populist or conservative leanings — or anyone who dissents …

At the start of June 2019, reports emerged that Binance DEX’s website was blocking users with IP addresses from 29 countries. This news immediately caused confusion with some commentators, using it as an opportunity to reaffirm their stance that Binance DEX is not truly a decentralized exchange (DEX). However, as it turned out, the initial reports were somewhat inaccurate, as the geoblocking only applied to Binance.org — the website for the DEX platform. Traders could still access the DEX via some supported wallet apps, bypassing the need to go through the website to reach the DEX service. Responding to the …