Tax day this year, like everything else, is different. The United States Internal Revenue Service has rescheduled it to July 15, but there’s little time left to get your records together and to file. Everyone knows the IRS is pushing hard to scrutinize crypto. A new IRS question appears at the top of Schedule 1 of your 2019 Form 1040 asking if you received, sold, sent, exchanged or otherwise acquired any financial interest in any virtual currency at any time during the year. As the IRS classifies crypto as property, any sale should produce a gain or a loss. Perhaps …

The world has been slowly recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, while some countries are bracing themselves for a potential second wave, but the economic downturn in many fields is imminent. This has spurred debates on the current model of a cash-based society, which claim that it had become outdated long before the crisis struck the world. The coronavirus has arguably accelerated the transition to digital cash and cryptocurrency adoption across the globe. The tradition of using fiat currency has been on a path toward becoming obsolete, and cash as a financial instrument is about to become a relic of the …

Major financial institutions love certainty, and that will help the crypto community immensely. Let’s get down to basics: A stablecoin is a type of digital asset designed to solve the problem of the hypervolatility of cryptocurrencies. This year is an exciting time for stablecoins as interest among financial institutions picks up speed. For example, Wisdomtree, a regulated money manager, has made plans to launch a stablecoin as an extension of its business in exchange-traded funds. IBM, State Street, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo have all been exploring the opportunities provided by stablecoins. None of these institutions are prone to wild …

On June 11, the Congressional Fintech Task Force held a hearing examining FedAccounts and a digital dollar as ways of expanding financial inclusion in the United States. Particularly in the aftermath of greatly delayed $1200 stimulus payments directly to U.S. citizens, the digital dollar has gotten much more attention. A number of bills appeared in the wake of the CARES Act calling for FedAccounts and digital dollars as means of streamlining aid distribution. Upgrading financial tools as a public good Morgan Ricks, a law professor at Vanderbilt University who recently spoke with Cointelegraph about the digital dollar, said in today’s …

The blockchain arm of Japan-based bitFlyer Holdings is debuting a new app for shareholder voting. According to an announcement by bitFlyer Blockchain, the new app — dubbed bVote — aims to allow Japanese corporations to conduct general shareholders meetings without requiring anyone to physically attend. Per bitFlyer, the app will be able to prevent vote forgery and manipulation and requires users to scan their My Number card (similar to Social Security Number in the United States) for identification. The firm will purportedly put its tech to the test at its own shareholder meeting on June 26. Using blockchain to prevent …

We are currently living in an unprecedented time, with the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping the world and taking far too many precious lives. Markets are being decimated and economies are on the brink of a global depression. Doctors, nurses, shopkeepers, pharmacy workers and everyone else working on the front lines will go down in history as the heroes of 2020. COVID-19, although devastating and disruptive, has revealed what can be achieved by humanity when individuals, governments, non-governmental organizations and corporations genuinely work in tandem to find adequate solutions to the most pressing issues. Although trivial in comparison to the devastation that …

Many financial and human resources are being deployed in the effort to fight the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Technologies are also being used in this fight: artificial intelligence for research, 5G to increase information transmission speed and many others. Blockchain is not being left out of this fight, as it now plays an important role in helping institutions and governments around the world respond to COVID-19, and is currently being integrated into healthcare and food supply chains. How blockchain platforms can help defeat a pandemic Blockchain platforms can be used to monitor pandemic material distribution, donations, relief distribution and other responses …

One of the linchpins of the internet is the ability to access and share data seamlessly. Whether it’s financial metrics for an institution or something as innocuous as a meme, the internet’s distinct pathways of protocols and standardization are the ideal medium for exchanging information. That transmissibility of information has not translated well to specific industries, however. Regulatory moats, cumbersome and outdated database architecture, and poorly designed user interfaces are a hindrance to major industries — particularly healthcare. Even in the United States, where healthcare standards are high, onerous regulatory processes inhibit the ability of doctors to adequately share patient …

Blockchain firms are increasingly dominating Hong Kong’s financial technology sector, with 39% of new firms launching in the country’s fintech industry last year operating with distributed ledger technology, or DLT. According to Hong Kong’s Financial Services and Treasury Bureau, DLT represents an increasingly dominant share of the country’s new fintech firms year-over-year, up from 27% as of 2018. Blockchain drives big businesses in Hong Kong A June 1 report published by Hong Kong’s treasury department has provided a detailed snapshot of blockchain’s accelerating growth within the territory. Blockchain comprises the fastest-growing segment of the territory’s fintech industry, with 22 of …

In an effort to keep citizens safe, state authorities have rapidly implemented various emergency plans to curb the spread of COVID-19. In South Korea, the movements of infected citizens are being broadcasted via public text message. In Israel, the government has approved a law to track smartphones belonging to those suspected of being infected. In the United States, the government is in talks with Google and Facebook to access location data, and in the United Kingdom, data giant Palantir is merging data for the National Health Service to inform the nation’s response. The extent to which governments can leverage technology …

Data published by Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky indicates that Singapore has seen a significant increase in the prevalence of attempted cryptojacking attacks during the first quarter of 2020. Kaspersky estimates that 11,700 attacks were attempted on devices located in Singapore from January until March — up from 2,900 as of the first Q1 2019. Kaspersky asserted that the spike in attacks is the highest percentage increase posted within the South-East Asian region. Cryptojacking attacks up three-fold in Singapore In an interview with Straits Times, Kaspersky’s general manager for South-East Asia, Yeo Siang Tiong, described Singapore’s high-performance internet infrastructure as attracting …

The COVID-19 pandemic forced the world to hit the brakes on economic activity, and in response, the United States Federal Reserve has introduced trillions of U.S. dollars to pay for the stimulus packages it’s giving away. Naturally, many people have jumped to inflation as the forgone conclusion. Proponents of Bitcoin (BTC) are excited about the prospect of inflation because the cryptocurrency has been billed as a check against central bank expansion, and such a period of inflation would demonstrate Bitcoin’s value in this regard. But inflation is not a foregone conclusion. Central bank expansion can spare millions of unemployed people …