Monday, 28 January 2019

In January of 2019, studies have revealed that there is a growing trend of unknown miners processing blocks on the Bitcoin Core (BTC) network. A few years ago, most mining pools began revealing their identity via the coinbase parameter when they found a block. Over the last two years, however, unknown miners have started to dominate as established operations have lost a considerable share of hashrate.

Researchers say that there could be concerns with the growth of unknown mining pools. Their report explains that just because the miner chooses not to disclose its identity doesn’t mean the source of the hash power isn’t an existing known pool. The researchers note that the three large pools of Btc.com, Antpool, and Viabtc have all seen their percentage of total hashrate decline over the past year, even though they have added a 55 percent increase in pooled resources. In January of 2018, those three combined pools had 53 percent of the network while now they have less than 39 percent.

Tuesday, 29 January 2019

An Italian court has ruled that Francesco Firano, founder of now defunct cryptocurrency exchange Bitgrail, was at fault for the disappearance of $170 million worth of the nano digital currency on his exchange last year. Firano is now required to return as much of the assets to his customers as possible. In its ruling, the Italian Bankruptcy Court concluded that both Bitgrail and Firano personally be declared bankrupt and forfeit their assets.

During the eve of the Electronic Banking and Payment Systems conference in Tehran, Iran announced regulations on cryptocurrency, thus, lifting the cryptocurrency ban, according to reports.

The Central Bank of Iran published a ‘Version 0.0’ of its regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies on their website. It states that the ban has been lifted but restrictions have been imposed on its use in the country. The framework was aimed to organize and define boundaries of ongoing crypto operations in the country and allowing traders to plan for future endeavors.

Wednesday, 30 January 2019

On January 30, a group of cryptocurrency developers and organizations officially launched a project called Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) on the Ethereum network. The ERC20 token is a coin backed by bitcoin core (BTC) reserves and has started trading on several exchange platforms.

The new tokens are meant to bring more liquidity into the decentralized ecosystem between both chains, while also enhancing decentralized applications. Wrapped bitcoin (WBTC) is the first ERC20 token backed 1:1 with BTC.

Thursday, 31 January 2019

Startups based in Switzerland have attracted a record amount of venture capital in 2018 and companies from the cryptocurrency industry have contributed to the notable increase. Swiss startups received almost 1.24 billion francs (approx. $1.25 billion) of venture capital during 2018, nearly 32 percent more than the previous year. At the same time, the number of financing rounds has also increased by over 31 percent to 230.

Friday, 1 February 2019

According to the legislature website, Wyoming has passed the bill allowing for cryptocurrencies to be recognized as a form of money.

The bill was presented on 22nd Jan where it captured the attention of the entire crypto world. It passed all its readings on 29th, 30th, and 31st of January, and was finally introduced to the state’s House of Representatives on 1st of February.

The bill ended with the statement that it will be effective from the 1st of July, 2019.

Saturday, 2 February 2019

Zebpay, which is one of India’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, is expanding its presence in Europe. The trading services of the now Malta-based platform will be available for users in five more countries – Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Spain – bringing the total of supported European jurisdictions to over 40.

Sunday, 3 February 2019

Token Relationship Management (TRM) has received $1.7 million from investors like Blockchain Capital to provide cryptocurrency startups with solutions to stay compliant with local regulations.

Staying compliant in an ultra-confusing and ever-changing regulatory landscape is not easy for your average cryptocurrency startup looking to actually stay compliant as opposed to simply exit scam with users’ funds. Now, startup TRM is offering a RegTech solution as part of its Token Relationship Management platform.

Last Week in Crypto – 21 January to 27 January 2019