Perhaps the two most prominent supporters of Bitcoin’s (BTC) Lightning Network have seen their share prices rocket this week as the technology gains fresh recognition. Data covering the share prices of Twitter and sister company Square, the payment gateway which directly supports Bitcoin, shows both companies sealed major gains in recent days. Cash flows towards BTC, Lightning Twitter stock (TWTR) appreciated by close to 20%, while Square (SQ) hit local highs of $81.65, almost 10% up on last week and nearly 25% since Jan. 1. The former recently revealed that it had turned its first quarterly revenues in excess of …

Mode, a financial services firm backed by Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, has rolled out its Bitcoin (BTC) banking app on iOS devices. The British company made its app available globally, with the exception of the United States, fintech-focused media outlet Finextra reported on Feb. 4. Customers can start using the app with as much as £50 ($65) and buy Bitcoin with bank cards or through a bank transfer. The funds are further processed through digital assets custodian BitGo. Mode addresses speed and security issues The app ostensibly allows users to credit funds almost instantly by means of a Faster Payments …

Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted the newly added Bitcoin (BTC) emoji on Feb. 2 and tagged Unicode, the consortium managing the character standard, in an apparent suggestion to do the same. Dorsey’s tweet showed that, now, whenever a Twitter user writes the Bitcoin or BTC hashtag, an image showing its symbol appears next to it. Dorsey’s tweet showing the Bitcoin emoji. Source: Twitter Dorsey’s apparent suggestion that the symbol be included in the Unicode text encoding standard was appreciated by the community, with Lightning Labs co-founder Elizabeth Stark joining the request. After Twitter added the emoji to its …

Back in December 2019, Jack Dorsey, the founder and CEO of Twitter and payments operator Square, announced a new team dubbed Bluesky, to work on decentralized social media standards. The news has gotten both the crypto and noncrypto communities abuzz — and for good reason. Mr. Dorsey has not only spoken in favor of decentralized protocols but (as proven by his work at Square) has committed resources trying to get there. Advocates and thought leaders of Web 3.0 such as Vitalik Buterin, Fred Wilson and Brian Armstrong have applauded this decision as a signal of open protocol acceptance. While it’s …

Singer Akon tweeted yesterday, “Just finalized the agreement for AKON CITY in Senegal. Looking forward to hosting you there in the future.” The futuristic city Last year, Cointelegraph reported early plans for the futuristic city. The project portends a “100% crypto-based city with Akoin at the center of transactional life.” The metropolis would become Senegal’s first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-certified city. It is set on a 2,000-acre parcel gifted by the Senegalese president. Reports hint at Mbodience, a short drive from Senegal’s new international airport, as the land in question. Last week, the 45-year-old entrepreneur signed a …

Ahead of its upcoming public beta launch, decentralized social media platform Voice announced that it hired former Forbes chief digital officer, Salah Zalatimo, as its new CEO, according to a press release, Jan. 9. Zalatimo joined Forbes in 2015 and led a successful digital transformation, rebuilding the Forbes platform from the ground up. Block.one CEO, Brendan Blumer, gave his thoughts on the new hire: “Salah is a rare combination of product and media talent enriched by an entrepreneurial past. His experience in creating state-of-the-art content monetization and publishing tools makes him uniquely qualified to lead Voice.” Decentralized blockchain-backed social media …

Binance’s decentralized exchange is a better target for criticism over being centralized than Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin believes. In a recent Twitter discussion, Ethereum co-founder Buterin triggered a wave of argument over decentralization in the crypto industry, particularly Binance DEX as well as Ethereum itself. Criticizing Ethereum for being centralized is bad, Vitalik says The discussion started after Buterin retweeted a promotional video by multi-currency digital asset and derivatives exchange BTSE on Dec. 21. While the video apparently has nothing to do with questions like Ethereum’s decentralization, the Ethereum co-founder has spurred crypto community on arguments by tweeting: “The part I …

Short-video sharing app TikTok has recorded its first viral Bitcoin (BTC)-related video as the firm’s owner reportedly launched a blockchain venture. Posted by TikTok personality The Wolf of Bitcoins, the video depicts a room in a house apparently equipped with dozens of cryptocurrency mining hardware units. The video displays a short caption, “this is why GPU prices went up,” and has a number of Bitcoin-related tags like “Bitcoin,” “explain Bitcoin” and “Bitcoin mining.” Allegedly first appearance of Bitcoin on TikTok feed At the time of this writing, the TikTok has amassed 1.2 million views and over 109,000 likes on the …

Jack Dorsey, the founder and CEO of Twitter and payments operator Squre, has revealed that Twitter is funding a dedicated team to develop a decentralized standard for social media. In a series of tweets on Dec. 11, Dorsey set forth a number of challenges social media networks face in their operations. These include the shift away from content hosting and removal to recommendation algorithms directing users’ attention, and content that sparks controversy and outrage rather than healthy and informative conversations. Addressing existing challenges in the field Dorsey went on to address new challenges centralized solutions are struggling to meet, specifically …

Bitcoin (BTC) will see its future “defined” by Africa, one of its best-known proponents has predicted after completing a tour of the continent. In a tweet on Nov. 27, Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey said that he would return to Africa in 2020 after spending time traveling in Nigeria and Ghana this month. Dorsey highlights Africa’s Bitcoin potential “Africa will define the future (especially the bitcoin one!),” he commented, revealing he planned to spend up to six months on the continent next year. During his stint in Nigeria, Dorsey attended a Bitcoin meetup, continuing his personal advocacy of the …

Everyone has an opinion on which cryptocurrency represents the future — the one that has the most utility or the one that has the most promise. Now, a new game is being built for fans of these crypto projects — giving them a chance to settle their differences once and for all. Whether a player is Bitcoin versus Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum versus EOS, or EOS versus Tron, Chain Clash hopes to create an engaging environment where clans of crypto fans can battle it out in 3D fights. Avatars represent the members of each clan, and they can either have a …

Bitcoin-friendly Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has made a direct investment in a fledgling cryptocurrency company as part of its latest funding round. CoinList to launch crypto exchange and wallet Dorsey, who has become increasingly well known for his support of Bitcoin (BTC), injected an undisclosed amount in token sales startup CoinList, the Wall Street Journal reported on Oct. 30. CoinList serves as a platform for other startups to raise capital via tools such as token sales, airdrops and hackathons. The company raised a total of $10 million in the latest round, having operated on the market since 2017. It will …