Less than a month after Brian Armstrong declared Coinbase should “be laser focused on achieving its mission,” he seemingly violated his own policy by tweeting a political post riddled with falsehoods... during business hours. In an Oct. 23 tweet from Armstrong’s personal account, the Coinbase CEO posted a link to a blog written by Rob Rhinehart on Kanye West’s presidential run with the tagline “epic post.” Rhinehart’s Twitter account is no longer available for unknown reasons, although its absence may be related to the inaccuracies and outright falsehoods contained in the post — even if it were written as satire, …

“My first thought was he must have been hacked”, said Hoskinson, reflecting on opening an email he received from David Barrett, the CEO of Expensify, urging him to vote for Joe Biden: Hoskinson later discovered that he was not the only recipient of the email at IOHK, but was rather a part of a bulk email blast sent to all of his company's employees. Hoskinson remembered using Expensify, a platform which provides companies with expense management tools, in the early days of IOHK, but could not immediately recall if they were still using it. He mentioned in a 10-minute YouTube …

A ransomware attack targeting the government systems of Georgia’s Hall County also impacted key voting infrastructure it has been revealed. Local officials initially released few details regarding the Oct. 7 attack, stating that “critical systems within the Hall County Government networks” had been affected. Today, CNN reported the incident “may be the first ransomware attack to hit election infrastructure this political season.” According to Hall County spokesperson Katie Crumley, the county’s voter signature database and voting precinct map were heavily impacted by the attack. However, Crumley noted the county is in the process of bringing affected systems back online, including …

Kyrgyzstan’s acting President and Prime Minister Sadyr Japarov has proposed introducing a blockchain-based system to ensure fair elections in the near future and restore public faith in the democratic process. On Oct. 20, Japarov reportedly told Al-Jazeera television channel reporters: “We have had three revolutions because of unfair elections. If this continues, the unrest and the revolutions will continue. From now on, everything will be fair. I consulted with the Central Election Commission and offered them to introduce the blockchain technology. This system can be implemented in 3–6 months.” Japarov had seized the levers of power to become Kyrgyzstan’s acting …

Coinbase leadership recently moved to curb sociopolitical discourse within their company, mandating that the team should focus on the company's mission rather than politics. Coinbase co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong later held an all-hands meeting, billed as an "ask me anything" session, to discuss changes in company culture with his employees. Audio of this staff-wide meeting from Oct. 1 was subsequently to media outlet Motherboard; the technology wing of Vice media. "An internal all-hands meeting obtained by Motherboard shows Coinbase management was accused of 'stunting internal discussion' and that it forced employees to delete political Slack messages," Motherboard wrote. Motherboard …

The central bank of Kyrgyzstan has disabled cross-border transactions on the SWIFT financial network amid widespread unrest over the country’s disputed parliamentary elections. Aida Karabaeva, an official representative of the National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic, announced a temporary suspension of SWIFT in Kyrgyzstan in a statement on Oct. 7. According to Karabaeva, the bank decided to suspend SWIFT transactions in order to prevent capital outflows from the country and ensure the safety of assets. The executive claimed that the bank is planning to resume SWIFT transactions as soon as the situation in the country stabilizes: “The measures taken are …

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has taken major U.S. crypto exchange Coinbase to task over its open letter to employees published on Sept. 28. The letter, written by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, explained why the firm intends to avoid political and social distractions, and instead focus on its core mission of building an open financial system for the world. The new direction has met with strong support in some quarters and pushback from others. In a Twitter post to his 4.7 million followers, Dorsey argues that “Bitcoin (aka crypto) is direct activism against an unverifiable and exclusionary financial system.” He goes …

Nexo co-founder Antoni Trenchev told Cointelegraph that he believes the information revealed during the recent FinCen leak vindicates the crypto industry. According to the leak, the world’s leading financial institutions cleared over $2 trillion “suspicious” transactions — and Deutsche Bank alone cleared over $1.3 trillion of that amount. Trenchev said: “The first thing I'm feeling is vindication because like everyone has been saying for years, all that Bitcoin and money laundering in the same breath. We've been hearing that from regulators, from politicians, from bankers, from just about anyone. And it turns out that the number one choice for money …

On Wednesday, the Chamber of Digital Commerce announced the addition of Visa, Goldman Sachs and Six Digital Exchange (SDX) to its executive committee. Mick Mulvaney, a former White House Chief of Staff and a co-founder of the Congressional Blockchain Caucus will also be joining the chamber’s board of advisors. Mulvaney left the White House in March. On the board, he will be joining a number of figures familiar to Cointelegraph’s readers, including Don Tapscott of the Blockchain Research Institute and former CFTC Chairman Chris Giancarlo, who is now with the Digital Dollar Project. Regarding the lineup of the advisory board, …

A candidate for the Wisconsin State Assembly is challenging a state regulator by accepting donations in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC). Phil Anderson, a real estate broker and entrepreneur, now accepts cryptocurrency donations for his Assembly campaign. According to an official statement by Anderson, crypto donations are available via major cryptocurrency payment service provider BitPay. Anderson said that his campaign is accepting crypto donations despite regulatory uncertainty from the Wisconsin Ethics Commission. Back in 2018, Anderson accepted Bitcoin donations in his campaign for governor of Wisconsin despite the WEC finding them a “serious challenge” to compliance with state law. According to …

As Russia is set to pilot a blockchain-based e-voting system, the country’s federal elections authority has provided public access to the platform’s source code. According to an official announcement by Russia’s Central Election Commission, or CEC, the source code for the e-voting system was partly released on GitHub on Sept. 7. The initial release included the source code for smart contracts and front-end elements of the e-voting platform like developer libraries and servers responsible for the vote count. According to the CEC, the internal elements of the e-voting platform are expected to be published on Sept. 10. At the time …

Amid the ongoing political unrest in Belarus, some local cryptocurrency-related companies are reportedly setting up backup offices in neighboring countries. Currency.com, a Minsk-headquartered crypto trading company, is reportedly planning to open an office in Lithuania to provide a safe place for its employees. According to a Sept. 8 report by local news agency TUT.BY, Currency.com is offering its Belarus-based employees to “take a sabbatical” in Vilnius amid the current election-fueled unrest. Currency.com CEO Jonathan Squires reportedly said that the company will maintain its offices in Minsk, while relocation is voluntary. “We expect that most employees who wish to relocate will …