The crypto markets are set to end the second week of May on a low note, with all but a few, such as bytecoin and zilliqa, showing significant losses.

Blockchain use cases, but also the technologies vulnerabilities, were discussed at length at the CDX Academy's Blockchain forum on Friday.

ConsenSys' Brooklyn Project introduced a framework for consumer token project standards at the Fluidity Summit on Thursday.

At ConsenSys' Ethereal Summit, the focus was on reaching those people that aren't already a part of the blockchain space.

Brian Forde, who is running for the California's 45th district seat in the U.S. House, is pitching himself as the crypto candidate.

One of the most influential people in blockchain is close to unveiling her next move.

No one knows what the !$ is going on.nn

At ConsenSys' Ethereal Summit, the standard crypto garb was offset by some real fashionistas, promoting the idea of individuality over being subdued.

Bahrain's General Directorate of Traffic has a plan to develop a blockchain-based vehicle registry system.

The 600-member Crypto Valley Association has added venture capital firm Lakestar as a strategic partner.

During Ethereal Summit, attendees were invited to track the tuna in their sushi from start to finish through the use of the ethereum blockchain.

Following its acquisition of a qualified custodian, BitGo is unveiling a new product suite Sunday designed to appeal to institutional investors.

From miner adoption to a lightning-like network to new partners, RSK, which developed the bitcoin smart contracts sidechain, is building momentum.

Filament announced Monday that its blockchain-native semiconductor is now available in a USB form factor.

Software giant SAP has announced a new food safety-related blockchain pilot and a collaboration with a Swiss supply chain startup.

From bitcoin futures' impact on spot prices to the rise in hash rate and drop in fees, our latest research report sheds light on a tumultuous Q1.

Bitcoin hit a three-week low over the weekend and may be looking at a deeper sell-off below $8,200, price chart analysis indicates.

BitPay has partnered with a Florida county tax collector to facilitate tax payments in bitcoin and bitcoin cash.

Derivatives exchange operator CME Group and U.K. firm Crypto Facilities are partnering to create an ether reference rate and real time index.

New York's Economic Development Corporation is launching several initiatives to put the Big Apple on the map as a blockchain technology hub.

Today, Overstocks Medici Ventures doubled down on its investment in the realm of digital currency for central banks. The additional $3 million dollar investment in Caribbean blockchain-based digital payment provider Bitt.com signals a reaffirmation of Overstock and Medicis belief in the ability of digital currencies to become the de facto means of payment transactions.Medici Ventures originally invested $4 million in the Barbados-based fintech company in 2016. At the time of the initial inves

In its most sweeping crackdown yet, a Japanese regulator has penalized seven cryptocurrency exchanges, requiring two to halt operations for one month. Japans Financial Services Agency FSA announced today, March 8, 2018, that it came down on the exchanges due to their failure to provide proper internal-control systems. All of the exchanges were ordered to step up efforts to improve security and prevent money laundering.Business suspension orders were issued for FSHO and Bit Station, effective

One of the biggest Russian IT holdings, Mail.Ru Group, is allowing advertisers and the owners of advertising sites to pay and be paid with cryptocurrencies on the advertisement platform myTarget. Mail.Ru Group is the worldwide technology company which unites three big social networks Vkontakte, Odnoklassniki and My World ICQ messenger mobile ads service Youla popular online games Warface, Allods Online, Armored Warfare and Skyforge food delivery platform Delivery Club and ridesharing service

One of the most promising concepts of second-generation blockchains is that of dApps or decentralised applications. These are apps built on top of a blockchain. To date, few have made the headlines with the exception, perhaps, of CryptoKitties, but there is a an increasingly large amount being pushed to the Ethereum mainnet, and even more in the works State of the Dapps lists a range of projects in various stages of development.MetaMask will let users interact with these dApps using only the

Combining the benefits of a utility-based cryptocurrency and a company that exhibits the characteristics of a power law network creates the perfect opportunity for a globally adopted cryptocurrency the Amazon Token.Amazons Full-Circle EconomyIn this hypothetical futuristic scenario, Amazon extends on the suite of products and services it provides customers in 2018 including online shopping, physical grocery, web services, artificial intelligence, internet of things, video and music streaming

While Japan has been cracking down more on cryptocurrency exchanges recently, we see the state of Wyoming opening things up to make the state more attractive to the technology. At the same time, the SEC defined ICOs as money transmitters and crypto exchanges as money exchange businesses. It is rapidly becoming easier to run afoul of these quickly changing clarifications and find yourself in hot water.On the lighter side, words such as cryptocurrency, blockchain and ICO are joining Bitcoin in

Just as a countrys borders drawn on a globe arent often exact, neither are the lines drawn on individual properties around much of the world. De Soto Inc., a socially-conscious joint venture between Overstock.com subsidiary Medici Ventures, Overstock founder Patrick Byrne and world-renowned Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto, has plans to solve the problems of property titles with a developed global property registry system utilizing decentralized blockchain technology.The vision of de Soto

This is the first in a series of weekly news highlights about blockchain technology and cryptocurrency in Russia. Last weeks headlines included an endorsement of blockchain technology from President Putin, tax exemptions for cryptocurrencies and a legal decision that prevented the seizure of cryptocurrency assets in a bankruptcy case.Putin Endorses Technological Development in RussiaDuring his conversation with Herman Gref, the head of Russias largest bank, Sberbank, Russian President Vladimi

In a landmark development for blockchain advancement, Wyomings state legislature has cleared what is known as House Bill 70 HB 70, which exempts various types of crypto assets from securities laws. The bill was originally passed by Wyomings House of Representatives last month on February 20. It is now headed to Governor Matt Mead for signature. According to public records, it passed by a vote of 273, with no senators abstaining. This final vote, which was expected to occur last week, was held

Anyone needing an established definition for cryptocurrency, blockchain or ICO now has a trusted resource the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. On March 5, 2018, Merriam-Webster announced the addition of 850 new words, phrases and new meanings for existing words to merriam-webster.com and to the Merriam-Websters Collegiate Dictionary print edition.n Oh hey. Cool news. We added 850 new words to the dictionary! https//t.co/eyYWKHKzk7&mdash Merriam-Webster MerriamWebster March 5, 2018nnnnnnnnnn

Slush Pool, Bitcoins first and oldest mining pool, announced support for AsicBoost today, March 6, 2018. Slush Pool users that have the technology embedded in the application-specific integrated circuit ASIC chips in their mining hardware can connect to the pool to mine more efficiently and, thus, more profitably.The protocol extension we propose and already implemented allows miners to use overt AsicBoost over stratum protocol, which was not yet possible, Slush Pool CTO Pavel Moravec told Bi

Halong Mining announced today, March 7, 2018, that it is embedding AsicBoost in its DragonMint mining hardware. Halong Mining is able to do so because it joined the Blockchain Defensive Patent License BDPL, giving them access to the patent-pending technology, which utilizes a trick called version rolling. With AsicBoost, the DragonMint machines should be up to 20 percent more energy efficient than they would otherwise be.We have produced and will continue to produce a significant amount of ve

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission SEC has been proclaiming for a while that initial coin offerings ICOs are securities. Now, in the latest regulatory backlash against ICOs, the federal bureau charged with enforcing the nation's laws against money laundering has decided that, effectively, anyone who sells tokens is an unregistered money transfer business. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network FinCEN made public a letter on March 6, 2018, that Drew Maloney, FinCEN's assistant

TrustToken has launched trading for TrueUSD, the first independently verified asset-backed stablecoin on the market that fixes its value to the U.S. Dollar. TrueUSD TUSD is live on the cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex.TrustToken is proud to launch TrueUSD so that traders can easily and quickly trade into a stablecoin that is 100 percent USD collateralized and independently verified by third-party accountants, said Danny An, co-founder and CEO of TrustToken. The market has demonstrated that the

Identity verification is paramount to global freedom and citizen access to public services. We see many examples of this today in terms of how barriers to documentation adversely impact issues like democratic voting processes, especially among homeless communities and refugee settlements.Todays developments in blockchain technology are now enabling solutions to these and many other verification issues. The use of distributed technology shows promise as a more robust, cost-effective mechanism

Private companies, as well as national and local governments, have all caught media attention for announcing some kind of investigation or at least interest in the blockchain. Of course, one of the most notorious examples of this was Long Island Iced Tea Corporations pivot to Long Island Blockchain Corporation.On February 28, 2018, the Kenyan government announced it will appoint a task force to explore the use of distributed ledger technology and artificial intelligence over the course of a t

Modern energy services are vital to human well-being and to a countrys economic development, yet according to the International Energy Agency IEA, globally 1.2 billion people lack access to electricity. Its thought that around 95 percent of these people are in either sub-Saharan Africa or developing Asia, with 80 percent in rural areas.Ethereum-based platform ImpactPPA is attempting to turn on the lights using the power of the blockchain.Selected as one of the top three most promising ICOs at

Nokia is launching a set of services, based on Internet of Things IoT, data analytics, and blockchain technologies, for economically and environmentally sustainable smart cities.In the emerging IoT, billions of connected devices and sensors will generate vast amounts of data. Smart cities will need to retrieve, process, interpret and act upon real-time environmental data in a timely manner to ensure they remain sustainable environments for their citizens. To enable efficient IoT ecosystems fo

After seeing a rally to the $11,000s, bitcoin has managed to pull back to the $9,000 range and has left many bullish investors confused. The initial bullish rally seemed promising as it broke the macro, descending channel that governed much of the market over the last two monthsFigure 1 BTC-USD, 6-Hour Candles, Descending ChannelThe breakout of the descending channel red dotted channel gave hope to many bullish investors as it seemingly signaled the end of the downtrend and perhaps the beginn

After changing its name to Riot Blockchain in October to include the word blockchain, the public company watched its stock skyrocket from $8 a share to more than $38 during a cryptocurrency rally at the beginning of the year.The first significant problem was the company did not have any real focus on blockchain technology. Before October, Riot was known as Bioptix, a maker of diagnostic machinery for the biotech industry. The company also changed its ticker symbol to RIOT from BIOP.Another pr

In the past week, news from Venezuela was at the forefront, where crypto mining is way up due to cheap electricity. But their stab at launching their own crypto, the Petro, is not looking like a great plan so far.Good news in regulation, however, is coming from the state of Wyoming as the House unanimously passed two pro-blockchain bills, with five more in the pipe.On the technological front, researches think they have solved a big part of the sidechain puzzle and have published a detailed pa

Today marks the official release of Bitcoin Core 0.16.0, the 16th generation of Bitcoins original software client launched by Satoshi Nakamoto a little over nine years ago. Overseen by Bitcoin Core lead maintainer Wladimir van der Laan, this latest major release was developed by some 100 contributors over a span of five months.As is usual for new releases, Bitcoin Core 0.16.0 includes performance improvements, bug fixes and other optimizations. This release in particular includes several adde

Chinese e-commerce company JD.com, a member of the Fortune Global 500 headquartered in Beijing, is launching AI Catapult Accelerator AICA, an accelerator program designed to unlock the transformative potential of startups demonstrating cutting-edge talent in the blockchain space.JD.com is one of the two largest business-to-consumer B2C online retailers in China by transaction volume and revenue, and a major competitor to Alibaba-run Tmall. As of September 2017, JD.coms platform, often referre

Following remarks made by Valdis Dombrovskis, vice president of the European Commission EC, after a roundtable on cryptocurrencies, it appears that the European Union EU is prepared to take steps toward regulating cryptocurrencies.While acknowledging that European nations should embrace blockchain technology in order to remain competitive in financial markets, Dombrovskis also cautioned that they should be taking steps to protect their citizens from hazards in the cryptocurrency space.Based o

Circle, a mobile payment app company backed by Goldman Sachs, has announced it is buying U.S.-regulated cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex Inc. a move that will transform Boston-based Circle into one of the biggest players in the industry.According to Fortune Magazine, Circle paid $400 million for the exchange, which handles a trading volume of around $1.5 million per day. Up till now, Circle had three main products Circle Pay, a mobile app that allows users to hold, send, and receive traditio

Ethereum has just announced its Ethereum Community Fund ECF grant program, an initiative launched by a collection of major players in the Ethereum world that is designed to accelerate the development of blockchain infrastructure apps and services. The stated aim of the ECF is to bring about an environment where teams and ideas can thrive, grow, and collaborate to become essential and functioning pieces of the broader Ethereum ecosystem.All of this raises the question of what exactly we mean w

Blockchain technology can revolutionize the way in which businesses provide services to both consumers and to other organizations. From building digital trust over a completely transparent ledger, to allowing participants to quickly interact via a peer-to-peer network, blockchain technology is proving to be a solution that will drive the next phase of digital transformation. This in mind, enterprises and companies are spending more money than ever before on blockchain solutions.According to I

Ask most, and youll hear the opinion that Asia is a minefield when it comes to cryptocurrency. The mere mention of regulatory action on the already-volatile markets sends the price of bitcoin and consequently altcoins into a nosedive. One need only look at the recent South Korean dilemma or Chinas ongoing aversion to cryptocurrency to confirm this. Clearly, the continents role in this emerging digital realm should not be underestimated.The attempts by certain governments to ban the exchange o

If you are one of the 81 million people who use WordPress to publish content, youll soon be able to automatically timestamp your works within the WordPress content management system using the new Po.et plugin.February 8, 2018 marked the launch of Frost, an open API and set of developer tools from Po.et that will enable content publishers and developers to more easily register their creative works on the blockchain. The new API will enable integrations and decentralized applications, including

Japan's largest Bitcoin and blockchain company, bitFlyer, has now received an official license to operate in the state of Illinois.After receiving a BitLicense to operate as a virtual currency exchange in New York in November 2017, the Tokyo-based company has now received approval to operate in 44 states and territories. On January 22, 2018, bitFlyer announced its expansion into Europe, after being granted a Payment Institution PI license to operate in the European Union. This announceme