Decentralized identity startup Civic and blockchain security firm BitGo plan to launch a new wallet using BitGo’s multisig technology in Q4 2019. In a press release shared with Cointelegraph on July 23, the two firms revealed that the forthcoming Civic Wallet will host hold both cryptocurrency and identity data on mobile devices. Control and security over funds and personal data In the press release, Vinny Lingham, co-founder and CEO of Civic said that “we’re building a new financial and identity ecosystem.” Lingham further expressed enthusiasm for lowering the barrier to entry into the blockchain sphere for consumers. Using BitGo’s multisig …

A blockchain platform and a mobile gaming company have unveiled a partnership designed to benefit hundreds of millions of users. High Performance Blockchain (HPB) has announced it is the first public chain to team up with gaming company Shanghai Youwan — paving the way for widespread adoption by the customers of some of China’s biggest brands. According to HPB, this integration means that its coins can be converted into in-game currency that can be used on an array of titles. Players will also have the freedom to make conversions into in-game credits compatible with all companies under the Ping An …

Domain registrar company EnCirca has announced that it is accepting pre-registration applications for the Ethereum website extension, “.ETH.” EnCirca said that it will be accepting applications until August 10, in a press release on July 18. EnCirca also said that they were the first registrar approved by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to accept applications for Ethereum domain websites. According to its website, ICANN is a not-for-profit public-benefit group that serves to coordinate and develop policy for Internet naming conventions. According to the press release, EnCirca was motivated to start including blockchain-related extensions in its registrar …

Daimler, the German multinational corporation behind the Mercedes-Benz brand, partnered with European blockchain interface solutions startup Riddle & Code to provide an open car hardware wallet solution, the startup announced in a press release published on July 22. ‘Turn automobiles into future market places’ Per the release, car wallets have a wide variety of use cases, such as car-sharing, autonomous vehicles, real-time exchange of secure traffic data and with smart city environments to reduce congestion and lower insurance premiums. The startup’s CEO Tom Fürstner declared: “Autonomous cars must behave consistently to be trusted. Cars are already computing devices. A secure …

The official Samourai Wallet Telegram account raised concerns over the alleged lack of privacy ensured by the CoinJoin implementation of competing wallet Wasabi on July 18. According to Samourai Wallet, Wasabi wallet CoinJoin transactions are often not as private as they are purported to be. The company pointed out: “With Wasabi if you are mixing 10 BTC, I can trivially track that 10 BTC as it is peeled down into smaller UTXOS (unspent funds). [...] Additionally Wasabi outputs are in the order in which they are registered, allowing you to make educated guesses that cluster outputs that you can later …

In a world where the global crypto community continues to face a growing number of regulatory hurdles with each passing day, the term “virgin Bitcoin” is starting to become more common among digital currency enthusiasts. However, it is of utmost importance to clarify what this term actually means and the significance it carries. According to Dave Jevans, the CEO of CipherTrace, virgin Bitcoins are essentially BTC tokens that do not have a transaction (TX) record associated with them. As a result of this, coins lack a defined attribution history, making them extremely useful for money launderers as well as other …

On July 10, Kim Nam-jin applied for a Trademark 5 (TM5) on the name “Samsung Coin” with the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO). As per the filing, it appears that Nam-jin is seeking to trademark the name in both its Korean spelling in Hangul as well as in English. However, per a July 19 report, a Samsung representative told CoinDesk that Kim Nam-jin is not affiliated with the Korean tech giant Samsung. “We don’t work this way,” the representative apparently said. Additionally, the report says that the trademark was listed under categories including downloadable electronic money computer program, electronic money …

A mobile crypto wallet has announced that users can now effortlessly access thousands of decentralized applications (DApps) directly through its platform. Lumi Wallet says its motivation is to create a one-stop-shop for crypto enthusiasts — a whole ecosystem focused on convenience and simplicity. At the heart of this strategy has been an ambition to streamline the process of downloading DApps. According to Lumi Wallet, it was driven to act after seeing how frustrating the experience can be for smartphone and tablet owners. Not only do individual pieces of software take up a lot of precious memory, but it can be …

Eliyahu Gigi, a 31-year-old from Tel Aviv, has been charged with stealing over $1.7 billion in a variety of cryptocurrencies. Gigi allegedly stole Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Dash (DASH) from users in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany. Lawyer Yeela Harel of the cyber department in the State Attorney's Office filed charges against Gigi on July 17, according to a report published the same day by Israeli business outlet Globes. Gigi has reportedly been charged with crimes including theft, fraud, and money laundering, among others. According to the report, Harel’s indictment claims that Gigi set up a network of scam …

Privacy-focused cryptocurrency Grin has completed the first hardfork so far on its mainnet. The fork occurred at block height 262,080 on July 17, as shown on the Grin block explorer Blockscan. According to an official announcement from Grin core dev Quentin Le Sceller, the latest blockchain hardfork is designed to discourage Grin mining through dedicated application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and also includes a new iteration of its bulletproof rewind scheme for Grin wallets. As previously discussed by Cuckoo Cycle author John Tromp, there is reportedly no sign of users deploying ASICs to mine Grin yet; however, Grin’s secondary Proof-of-Work …

The Ethereum-based predictions platform Veil is shutting down, according to an official Medium post on July 11. As of July 11, no new markets will be added to the platform. Trading will be disabled entirely on July 24. Veil co-founder Paul Fletcher-Hill recommended that users redeem open positions, withdraw positions from active markets, and withdraw Veil Ether and convert it to Ether. Veil was a type of extension to the Ethereum-based predictions market Augur. Augur is a predictions market — that still exists — that uses smart contracts to let users create and bet on the outcome of any event …

Bank of England governor Mark Carney said that people need to acknowledge the issues Facebook is attempting to solve with Libra, regardless of the project’s potential downsides. Carney delivered his remarks at the Financial Stability Report press conference as seen on the Bank of England’s YouTube channel on July 11. Carney said: “It’s way too expensive to do domestic payments. It’s way too slow, and that hurts consumers and businesses. It stifles innovation, and it’s far too expensive to send money cross-border, and there are huge financial inclusion issues related to that and costs related to that. So, while we …