TL;DR: Welcome to In Case You Missed It (ICYMI), a daily crypto news update. Proof of Keys event happening today, Genesis Block Day. Bitmain to cut its workforce in half. 10,000 MKR donated to Carnegie Mellon for DeFi research. BlockFi ready to launch bitcoin rewards credit card this year. Starling Bank former CTO to start Ziglu crypto bank, and Poloniex forces password reset on users due to data leak.



Proof of Keys Movement Celebrates Genesis Block Day

Tomorrow is the 11th anniversary of Bitcoin's Genesis Block. Join in the Proof of Keys celebration by taking possession of bitcoin held by trusted third parties on your behalf, by sending them to your wallet. Bitcoin isn't a get rich quick scheme, it's a get free quick scheme. — Rhythm (@Rhythmtrader) January 2, 2020

Proof of Keys, a community movement led by early crypto adopter Trace Mayer, is preparing to withdraw cryptocurrency from exchanges to detect if these companies do have the crypto in their vaults, the ultimate stress test. Another Proof of Keys objective is to empower the cryptocurrency ecosystem to really take ownership, to avoid having their cryptocurrencies on exchanges in custody with trusted third parties. The event happens every January 3rd to commemorate Genesis Block Day, mining of the first Bitcoin block.

Bitmain to Cut 50% of Its Workforce

Bitmain, the leading cryptocurrency mining manufacturer, will reduce its workforce to half of its actual number of employees, according to local reports, as an answer to the Bitcoin Halvening event now only a few months away, reducing mining block rewards. This decision comes as one of the first in line with recently reemerged CEO Jihan Wu who urged such actions previously over strong objections from his ousted rival.

10,000 MKR Donated to Carnegie Mellon for DeFi Research

Nikolai Mushegian, a former employee of MakerDAO, the cryptocurrency company behind the DAI stablecoin, donated 10,000 MKR tokens (worth $1.38 million) to Carnegie Mellon University. It’s an effort to fund a research program for DeFi and dApps. Mushegian stated he is “very concerned about the increasing rent-seeking behavior from some of the big players in this space, and also from existing banks and tech giants.” Most of the funds will be directed to PhD and Master students studying “key areas of research.”

BlockFi to Launch Bitcoin Rewards Credit Card

BlockFi, a decentralized finance lending and trading company, announced they will launch a bitcoin rewards credit card this year to cater to new audiences and introduce them to crypto without having to invest directly. Users will be able to spend fiat and get cryptocurrency rewards sent to their addresses. “We want to be able to market to people that don’t have cryptocurrency yet. We want to be a place where they can take that first step into the crypto ecosystem,” declared Zac Prince, co-founder of BlockFi.

Former Starling Bank CTO to Start Crypto Bank in UK

Mark Hipperson, former CTO of Starling Bank, founded in 2014, announced the launch of a fiat and cryptocurrency hybrid banking company, Ziglu. It will be regulated and approved as a virtual currency issuer by the FCA (Financial Control Authority), and will let users spend cryptocurrencies and fiat money using a single MasterCard debit card. Ziglu will serve UK customers only and it will also offer trading services on its platform, to let users save funds in the cryptocurrency of their choice.

Poloniex Reveals Data Leak, Prompts Users to Reset Passwords

Known cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex forced a password reset on accounts of some users affected by a supposed email leak on social media, as announced by an official email from the platform. However, according to a new report, “there was no information or data leak originating from Poloniex and our actions represented a swift response to an external threat.” The attack impacted just 1% of the users in the exchange, and they stated Poloniex does not “store passwords in plain text or a recoverable form.”

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