This article previously contained statements implying that Binance DEX itself — rather than its website — was geoblocking users. It has been updated for accuracy. The decentralized exchange (DEX) developed by major cryptocurrency exchange Binance will block website access to users based in 29 countries. The Binance DEX website informs potential users of the restriction via a message that appears when accessing the platform from one of the regions. The message appearing on the platform states that accessing the website from certain countries will be restricted starting on July 1: “It seems you are accessing www.binance.org from an IP address …

American major cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has barred British right-wing pundit Milo Yiannopoulos from its platform, Yiannopoulos stated in a Gab post on May 3. Yiannopoulos is a well-known political commentator and public speaker, espousing controversial far-right views and describing himself as a "cultural libertarian". Previously, Yiannopoulos used to be an editor for syndicated American news and opinion website Breitbart News. Yiannopoulos’ account on Coinbase was reportedly closed within three minutes: Screenshot of Yiannopoulos Gab post. Source: Gab Yiannopoulos was previously banned by social media and networking platforms Facebook, as well as its subsidiary Instagram, and Twitter, according to the Guardian. …

The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) has introduced new regulations for blockchain firms that are operating in the country. The announcement was published on the regulator’s website on Thursday, Jan. 10. According to the CAC, the guidelines, which will come into force on Feb. 15, were developed to contribute to the healthy development of the industry. The document describes the firms that are subject to regulations as websites or mobile apps that provide information and technical support to the public using blockchain technologies. As soon as the regulations come into power, they will be obliged to register their names, domains …

United States-based payments firm Square’s Cash App has reportedly blocked the personal account of the founder of controversial social media site Gab, according to a tweet from Gab Jan. 8. The move was reported just after Gab announced that the firm had sent an email to its user base promoting Cash App and Bitcoin (BTC). In a tweet today, Gab announced that it has sent over 850,000 emails to its users, introducing them to “free speech money: Bitcoin.” The screenshot of the firm’s email generally describes alleged censorship measures that have been taken against “influential alternative media personalities and companies,” …

Controversial social media site Gab is reportedly now using the Cash App from United States-based payments firm Square to transact and receive Bitcoin (BTC) donations. The company’s official Twitter posted the announcement Jan. 6. Founded in 2016, Gab is a social network which presents itself as a haven for uncensored speech online. It has risen to notoriety due to a perception that it serves as an “echo chamber” for “extremist,” alt- or far-right views — many of whose proponents have allegedly been banned from networks such as Twitter and Facebook on the grounds of their alleged violations of these platforms’ …

The personal Coinbase merchant account of Andrew Torba, social media platform Gab’s founder, has been terminated, the official Gab.com account tweeted on Jan. 4. As blockchain blog Breaker reported earlier, Gab’s business account on Coinbase was allegedly closed in December. The news source put forward that a possible reason why it is hard for Gab to obtain a payment processor is its reputation for being the social network for people banned from mainstream platforms for hate speech. In October, the New York Times mentioned Gab as a social network used by the shooter in Pittsburgh to post a final message …

Bitcoin (BTC) has a substantial liberating potential, American mainstream newspaper Time reports on Dec. 28. The aforementioned article claims that “speculation, fraud, and greed in the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry have overshadowed the real, liberating potential of Satoshi Nakamoto’s invention.” According to the article’s author, Bitcoin “can be a valuable financial tool as a censorship-resistant medium of exchange.” Alejandro Machado, a cryptocurrency researcher at the Open Money Initiative, reportedly said that the fee on a wire transfer from the United States to Venezuela can be as high as 56 percent. To circumvent such conditions, Venezuelans have reportedly turned to cryptocurrency, …

China’s top-level internet watchdog, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), published new draft regulations for blockchain-based information service providers Oct. 19. The draft, open for public consultation until Nov. 2, proposes twenty three articles for the regulation of all companies or entities providing blockchain-based information services to the Chinese public. Under the proposed rules, all such entities would be required to register with the CAC within ten days of launching their platforms. The regulations would also require service providers to censor content that is deemed to pose a threat to national security or to “disrupt the social order,” and to …

Bitcoin (BTC) protocol developer Mark Friedenbach introduced a method for Bitcoin scaling he claims will not require a hard fork at a workshop in Tokyo October 5. The new concept presented at the Scaling Bitcoin workshop, entitled “Forward Blocks,” suggests a major on-chain capacity boost by means of a Proof-of-Work (PoW) alternation that is done as a soft fork, combined with use of alternative private ledgers. The proposal describes a method for scaling that claims to be able to increase “settlement transaction volume to 3,584 times current levels” and improve censorship resistance via sharding. During the presentation, Friedenbach suggested major …

The Supreme Court of Russia has ordered the St. Petersburg City Court to consider an appeal to the ban of a cryptocurrency information website, Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI) reported April 20. In summer 2016, the Vyborgsky District Court of St. Petersburg granted the application of the Prosecution Office and blocked Bitcoininfo.ru website. The court found that information on the website about digital currency Bitcoin, which represents a “virtual payment instrument and a store of value”, to violate the Federal Act “On the Central Bank of the Russian Federation (the Bank of Russia)”. In July 2017, the Oktyabrsky District Court …