Huge gains in stock markets despite the dire economic consequences of coronavirus may soon be a thing of the past, one analyst warns. In a tweet on Sep. 4, Mike McGlone, senior commodity strategist at Bloomberg Intelligence, said that gold may soon get the limelight as markets reach an “inflection point.” Strategist: fiat markets may soon face day of reckoning “In a battle of the bulls, we see greater potential endurance favoring #gold over the #Nasdaq,” he wrote. “The conundrum of monetary and fiscal stimulus lifting most assets may be nearing an inflection point, where the increasing certainty of QE …

The Colombian police have issued a warning about fraudsters promoting a Bitcoin scam website to social media users. The “announcement” about the launch of a fake Bitcoin-related investment system was purportedly “approved” by Ivan Duque, President of Colombia. According to Colombia Check, quoting a statement by the Cybernetic Police Center, the site promotes a Bitcoin investment opportunity (BTC) that Duque is quoted as saying will offer “relief to the economic crisis triggered by the coronavirus pandemic.” The post claims that the president signed “the biggest deal of the century” to create a platform named Bitcoin Era, and citizens could start …

The Economic Policy Symposium hosted annually by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City — an event attended by finance ministers, central bank managers and academics, among others — was held virtually due to COVID-19 concerns this year, and there was little virtual about the announcement. The U.S. dollar would be fed to the wolves. A monumental shift from an already-unprecedented monetary policy stance To be sure, the Fed has persisted with an accommodative monetary policy posture since the Great Recession despite strong years of growth in the middle of the Obama years and sluggish yet consistently positive growth the …

Binance Charity and Integro Foundation raised $1 million to donate personal protective equipment to frontline workers. A total of 500,000 KN-95 masks will be distributed to workers in the Brazilian Amazon, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Venezuela, Peru, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Bermuda, Barbados, St. Lucia, Haiti, Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, the Navajo nations, Russia and Puerto Rico. The initiative is part of the Crypto Against COVID campaign. Integro, founded in Puerto Rico in 2015, committed $333,000 to the initiative with Binance Charity matching that amount 2:1, the foundation said in a statement sent to Cointelegraph. Brock Pierce, chairman of the board …

The strain placed on healthcare teams and networks over the past few months has been severe, pushing dedicated medical professionals to the limit as they work tirelessly to combat COVID-19 in communities around the world. The crisis has permeated every facet of society, shining a spotlight on the glaring inefficiencies within the traditional global healthcare system and illustrating the inherent need for technology-driven initiatives that can alleviate pressure on healthcare professionals and ensure patient data collation is as streamlined and secure as possible. As someone who has long championed the potential of blockchain technology to be a transformative enabler of …

According to Asia Kyungjae, at least 44 employees of an unnamed South Korean Blockchain company recently tested positive for COVID-19. The employees have since been quarantined. The report states that the company is based in the southern Gwanak District of Seoul; a well-known hub for large tech companies. Some are concerned that this newly discovered hotspot could lead to a fresh wave of coronavirus patients in the country. We previously reported that Jeju Island, a tourism-heavy island in South Korea, now requires all visitors to use a Blockchain-based app to generate a decentralized identity for private and secure COVID-19 contact …

Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso suggested blockchain would be key in the world’s battle against the coronavirus pandemic as the technology can be used for contact tracing while ensuring privacy. Aso gave the opening remarks for the Blockchain Global Governance Conference, also known as the FIN/SUM Blockchain & Business, on Aug. 24 in Tokyo. "In the battle against widespread infectious diseases, blockchain provides one solution for contact tracing," he said, while referring to the coronavirus. There are almost 24 million COVID-19 cases around the world, with more than 60,000 in Japan. Despite the topic of Aso’s speech, a limited number …

The nation of Qatar is a World Bank “high-income economy,” backed by the world's third-largest natural gas and oil reserves. It has the third-highest GDP per capita in the world (by purchasing power parity), with very high human development. Similar to other Gulf Cooperation Council states — which also include the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain — Qatar has had to deal with the decline in global oil and gas prices after they first collapsed in 2014, and the situation has been made even more difficult by a Saudi-led embargo of the nation that started in …

The new work-from-home culture is gaining more traction than ever before as businesses, government departments and schools try to remain afloat while flattening the pandemic curve. This migration to remote working is a double-edged sword that creates a fertile land for cybercriminals to thrive on. There is no way that cyberattacks can be eliminated completely. The best that companies can do is minimize the frequency of the threats. What is ransomware? Cybercriminals use malicious software code to block people or organizations from accessing their computer systems until a ransom has been paid. Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) have made it …

Jeju Island, a southern island in South Korea, is one of the most popular tourist destinations for Koreans and has about 15 million visitors annually. It now requires those visitors to use a decentralized identity (DID) blockchain technology based app that claims to offer private, secure COVID-19 contact tracing. An August 19 announcement said that Jeju Province had reached an agreement with South Korean blockchain company ICONLOOP to introduce the system. Starting this week, visitors will be required to download the Zzeung mobile app when arriving on the Island and verify their identity using a Korean telecom service. A verifiable …

As people continue to rethink topics like technology development, economic measures and freedom of speech because of the COVID-19 pandemic, blockchain has now emerged as a solution for many issues. Iva Wisher, co-founder of Ignite, a decentralized microblogging platform, said blockchain may also be a solution against state-sponsored censorship in today’s pandemic-related new normal. During an interview with Cointelegraph, Wisher clarified that in general, freedom of speech means a “possibility to express any opinion, even an unpopular one, unless this opinion is not a call to violence.” The blockchain technology then could come in to bring an opportunity to “express …

During times of international economic crisis, governments print money. This leads to inflation and investors subsequently stashing their investment capital in long-term, stable investments. Historically, that has meant gold, but in the current economic crisis, gold has been joined by another long-term store of value: Bitcoin (BTC). There are several good reasons for this. The United States Federal Reserve is handling the crisis terribly, and has responded to soaring unemployment numbers in the same way they always do: by printing money. Already, the dollar has lost 5% of its value, with predictions that this is only the beginning. The currency …