Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter and mobile-payment platform Square, is donating $5 million to Humanity Forward, a group launched by crypto-friendly former presidential candidate Andrew Yang, as part of both entrepreneurs’ efforts to establish universal basic income (UBI) for Americans. Dorsey announced the plan on Yang’s podcast, Yang Speaks, on May 21, while discussing the future of technology. Dorsey told Yang that UBI was “long overdue,” saying “the only way that we can change policy is by experimenting and showing case studies of why this works.” In a statement to Rolling Stone, Yang said Humanity Forward would use Dorsey’s donation …

UAE-based startup incubator, in5, is helping to design blockchain-based methods to contain the COVID-19 pandemic in the country and thus flatten the curve. According to a report published on May 20, Liber Health, supported by in5, is one of the platforms used for patient identification supported by blockchain technology. They are creating a contactless system to recognize the biometric ID data and analyze suspected COVID-19 symptoms. Liber Health hopes that by tracking patients that have been in contact with suspected COVID-19 cases, they can help individuals apply quarantine measures as soon as possible. Liber Health plans to expand conversations with …

More than two million Americans requested unemployment compensation for the first time last week, which may or may not affect Bitcoin. Recording its seventh consecutive week of decline, last week hosted 2.44 million new unemployment claims, CNBC said in a May 21 brief. These numbers, however, fall within range of economist expectations. Within the timeframe surrounding coronavirus, Americans have posted 38.6 million jobless claims to date, CNBC said. Pompliano expresses reopening need Morgan Creek Digital co-founder and partner expressed a push of sentiment favoring a national reopening after weeks of business closures and shelter-in-place orders, which have increased job loss …

Aren't we all searching for a safe haven? Whether we mean literal shelter — four walls and a roof over our heads — or something more sophisticated, the craving for a dependable defense against random chaos has always been our instinct. With the COVID-19 pandemic rearranging society at every level, the allure of a safe haven reigns supreme for our battered psyches. In the realm of financial instruments, the search for the safest of safe havens, also known as a store of value, has taken on a new urgency. Is Bitcoin (BTC) a safe haven? Will cryptocurrency prove to be …

Vin Armani, the crypto YouTuber and former star of Showtime’s Gigolos, packed up his life and family and moved to a tiny Pacific island in April to ride out the pandemic and escape the “totalitarian tyranny” he predicted was about to occur. Speaking to Cointelegraph, the founder of CoinText said he believed there was a very good chance of him “being disappeared” if he had stayed in California as he was “an undesirable” in the eyes of unnamed forces. Like a number of prominent members of Crypto Twitter, Armani believes the authorities are using COVID-19 as a smokescreen to impose …

In a recent interview with Anthony "Pomp" Pompliano, Julia Cheek, CEO of home medical testing company Everlywell, called for major reform in the U.S. lab testing sector. “I’ve been fighting this battle for five years, talking about how lab testing is broken and Americans are getting screwed,” Cheek said in a May 19 podcast interview with Pompliano, adding: “Lab testing is cheap, it can be affordable, you should know how much your tests are going to cost, period. [...] There is no excuse for that, especially as you’re having to pay for it out of pocket more and more.” Everlywell …

As announced on May 19, Swiss cryptocurrency exchange Lykke will be offering four prizes totalling 200,000 Swiss Francs ($205,800) as part of the Open Initiative. The initiative is looking for new proposals from developer teams for blockchain-based solutions to problems linked to current economic turmoil, divided into four categories. The jury and the categories for tech Judging the contest will be Lykke CEO Richard Olsen, former CFTC Chairman Christopher Giancarlo, and Ashkan Nikeghbali, a professor at the University of Zurich. Giancarlo is also serving as a strategic advisor to the Open Initiative. The four categories are blockchain-backed platforms for digital …

Technology has always been one of the main drivers that has boosted social changes. Of course, there have been other reasons: wars, natural cataclysms and disasters, plague pandemics and more. Speaking of such, the current COVID-19 situation, being a once-in-a-century type of pandemic, has come at an inconvenient time. But the time is never right. However, what happened in late 2019 made an impact on various industries to a level that can hardly be estimated at the current moment. The losses and negative aftermaths are imminent, and the use of cutting-edge technology may shine some light during this period of …

Japan-based Media Do Holdings will be investing $2.8 million toward distributed ledger technology for the distribution of its e-books. According to a Sunday article in the Nikkei newspaper, Media Do Holdings plans to invest 300 million yen — roughly $2.8 million United States dollars at the time of writing — into developing a distributed ledger for the company’s e-books for the next two years starting in late 2020. The company cited that being able to have a reliable transaction history via such a ledger for e-books makes it possible to sell used copies and to return royalties to both publishers …

Blockchain tracking platform, VeChain, announced that it co-developed a blockchain-based medical data management platform in partnership with digital healthcare solution firm I-Dante. The platform, dubbed “The E-NewHealthLife”, is set to see deployment at the Mediterranean Hospital of Cyprus — with the European island’s healthcare sector reportedly operating with numerous inefficiencies resulting from outdated technological infrastructure, VeChain announced on May 16. The Mediterranean Hospital of Cyprus has 300 employees and processed 38,000 outpatient visits during 2019. VeChain launches DLT medical platform in Cyprus The first phase of the platform’s rollout will see it used in the emergency department of the Cyprus …

In a recent trend survey made by DMEXCO and presented at an event in Cologne, Germany, it was determined that although the world is currently suffering economically, the digital economy may greatly benefit after the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the survey, the COVID-19 crisis will accelerate the rhythm of digital transformation. One of the benefits of an advancing digital transformation is that it can lead to new solutions, unlocking inconceivable possibilities. This is especially true in digital services provided by governments, as the potential for innovation within the sector is vast. With that in mind, Brazil instituted its Digital Government …

Crypto is a place where everything changes faster than in any other industry, and seeing as it was born in the age of the internet, this is quite fitting. Today, China is leading the global digital asset initiative. The train of innovations seems to go faster as the digital yuan (also referred to as DCEP) has fueled rapid development in the field of distributed ledger technology. Instead of wallowing in a swamp of regulatory uncertainty, the Chinese government shifted its attention to benefits. The Chinese have not wasted time, and despite being the country where the new coronavirus started and …