Balaji Srinivasan has offered $1,000 in Bitcoin (BTC) to the first Twitter user who can get Vox’s technology news website Recode to retract a story about Silicon Valley’s ‘overreaction’ to COVID-19 in February. The former CTO of Coinbase made the offer on Twitter today. He specifically targeted Kara Swisher, the co-founder and editor-at-large of Recode. Srinivasan says he will give $1,000 — or 0.11 BTC at the time of writing — to anyone who is able to provide “a timestamped reply from [Recode] agreeing to correct the piece” and a publication of the correction. Kara Swisher still hasn't run a …

The Commons Foundation, a South Korean non-governmental organization, revealed its plans to develop a blockchain-based platform that aims to handle health epidemics in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis. According to Digital Today, the NGO will rely on blockchain public services to create an epidemiological research system to suit the coming post-coronavirus era. The article quotes a statement from Choi Yong-gwan, chairman of the Commons Foundation, who expressed concerns regarding the ongoing violation of personal information due to the pandemic emergency. Such a situation motivated the NGO to develop a solution. Guaranteeing privacy through the platform Choi says that the …

Parker Lewis, Unchained Capital's head of business development, said he sees recent government stimulus talk as a sign that it’s time to pick up more Bitcoin (BTC). "Every time that I hear a new trillion-dollar stimulus will be announced, I immediately buy Bitcoin," Lewis told Morgan Creek Digital co-founder Anthony Pompliano in a June 26 interview. "That's my new trigger and I seemingly get to buy Bitcoin every week." The U.S. government keeps spending After coronavirus took center stage as a pandemic in March 2020, the U.S. government took numerous measures to stop viral spread, including shelter-in-place orders and business …

Online events are becoming more common as coronavirus cases continue to surge. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the blockchain community has seen an uptake in virtual hackathons this year, a concept which is actually proving to be beneficial. For example, hackathon management platform TAIKAI works with organizations to facilitate a virtual open network for innovators looking to solve different challenges. TAIKAI CEO, Mário Ribeiro Alves, told Cointelegraph that lately the platform has been drawing attention from blockchain companies interested in launching virtual hackathons. According to Alves, virtual hackathons will play an important role in developing the blockchain …

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a key member of the White House coronavirus taskforce, says the number of daily infections in the U.S. could reach 100,000 per day if immediate precautions are not taken to prevent the spread of the virus. As Fauci issued this warning, stocks reacted with caution and investors are anticipating that a downturn in equities markets may lead to a correction in Bitcoin (BTC) price. Fauci also cautioned that an effective vaccine may not arrive as quickly as the medical community expects. He said on July …

Bitcoin (BTC), in fact, crushed stock markets during the Covid-19 recovery with equity “growth” simply down to inflation, fresh data argues. Charts showing stocks denominated in gold and Bitcoin in 2020 show that far from having their best quarter in ten years, markets had no “recovery” at all. “It’s all inflation” The perspective is starkly different to the message coming from governments and mainstream media about the health of the economy. Central bank intervention, they claim, helped boost stocks to clinch their strongest quarterly growth since 2011 in Q2. But when viewed in BTC, however, Q2 gains from the March …

A branch of the Russian federal government has recently published a draft of new litigation called “On Digital Financial Assets,” which is focused on enforcing strict cryptocurrency laws in the country. The legislation has not been approved yet and has been in discussion since 2018. The new laws define Bitcoin as property but not legal tender, and propose, among many other things, that Bitcoin (BTC) miners register as individual companies so they can be appropriately taxed. President Putin is planning on developing and revealing a new tax for Bitcoin miners by July 1, but many are skeptical about the government’s …

Chinese authorities are trying to strengthen their epidemic preparedness and have identified blockchain as a key component of the response. The Chinese Circular of the National Health Commission released its plan on June 30 on how to ramp up its information technology support amid future pandemics. One component of the strategy is the use of blockchain technology for enhancing data sharing among medical institutions. Data sharing is key The Commission is urging local health departments to promote data sharing and collaboration between online hospitals and physical medical institutions. It says that Blockchain technology should be implemented to achieve the safe …

Research from Microsoft reveals that Indonesia had the highest malware encounter rate across the Asia Pacific region in 2019. They conclude that this indicates a surge in cryptojacking and ransomware attacks. The report shows that the region continues to experience a “higher-than-average” encounter rate for ransomware and other malware attacks, posting figures 1.6 and 1.7 times higher than the rest of the world, respectively. Ransomware and cryptojacking attacks on the rise in Indonesia Indonesia had a 10.68% malware attack rate during 2019. While this does represent a 39% decrease, the figures remain two times higher than the regional average, Microsoft …

The COVID-19 pandemic has crushed businesses, crippling life all across the world. It is costing darknet drug traffickers millions as well because their methods of moving drugs and funds have been compromised during the lockdown, according to a blog post by Chainalysis. “Darknet market revenue has fallen much more than we’d expect following Bitcoin’s recent major price drop,” Chainalysis reported, noting that supply problems for Mexican drug cartels and dealers in China’s Hubei province could be “hampering darknet market vendors’ ability to do business.” “Perhaps darknet market customers aren’t buying as many drugs given the public health crisis,” Chainalysis wrote, …

Like every maturing industry, the cryptocurrency market is experiencing extensive developments on many fronts. The potential continues growing every year — from the emergence of initial coin offerings, the first blockchain-based projects and speculation on Bitcoin’s (BTC) price to decentralized finance and central bank digital currencies. Crypto has never run out of hot topics. Now, in 2020, the crypto asset field is no longer regarded as just another “dot-com bubble.” The subject is gaining more traction over the globe, and as COVID-19’s emergence has streamlined digital assets and crypto’s popularity, mainstream acceptance is just a few steps away. The derivatives …

The fintech industry has been changing rapidly. Digital assets, distributed ledger technology and central bank digital currencies are gaining momentum. Multi-trillion-dollar United States Federal Reserve System money creation has increased demand for digital assets, particularly Bitcoin (BTC). Banks, brokers, commercial lenders, investment advisors, private investment funds, family offices, mutual funds, fintech entrepreneurs, lawmakers and private citizens should take note of several developments in this space. Old wine, new bottles The use of ledgers to track events and transactions is of ancient origin. DLT and blockchain technology combine venerable record-keeping techniques with new technologies — like storing old wine in new …