CRYPTO WORLD NETWORK NEWS

Public transport facilities in 37 localities across Argentina now accept Bitcoin

February 8, 2019February 8, 2019 CRYPTO WORLD

Public transport facilities in 37 localities across Argentina will now accept Bitcoins, thanks to a collaboration between Alto Viaje, who provide the travelcard-loading platform, and Bitex, a fintech company. Manuel Beaudroit, CMO of Bitex, explained: “We believe that this type of project is of great importance since it brings technology as disruptive as bitcoin to the common people, demonstrating the true value and the applications it has in everyday life.” Argentina is in the middle of a financial crisis right now. Many citizens have turned to Bitcoin to preserve their…

Google Cloud Analyzes Coin Concentration, Adds Six Crypto Datasets

February 7, 2019February 8, 2019 CRYPTO WORLD

Google Cloud, a distributed computing service, has added several new cryptocurrencies to its data collections. The service originally introduced Bitcoin data in February 2018, and it followed up on that with the addition of Ethereum data last summer. Now, six more altcoins—Bitcoin Cash, Dash, Dogecoin, Ethereum Classic, Litecoin, and Zcash—have been added to the service. These additions mean that large-scale crypto analysis is more feasible than ever. The aforementioned datasets are now available to the public, but Google Cloud has already done some work with the datasets on its own.…

$1.4 Billion Raised via ICOs in Q4 2018

February 6, 2019February 8, 2019 CRYPTO WORLD

Initial coin offerings (ICOs) in Q4 2018 raised 25 percent less than in Q3, while the total amount of completed ICOs increased, according to a report by ICO rating service ICObench shared with Cointelegraph on Feb. 6. The number of ICOs completed in Q4 increased to 594 from 554 in Q3, the report says. With that, the number of ICO projects that did not raise funds has also increased in Q4, while the number of successfully completed ICO projects remained equal. According to the report, the total funds raised by…

Vulnerability Is Found in Constantinople

January 16, 2019February 7, 2019 CRYPTO WORLD

Ethereum’s (ETH) Constantinople hard fork faces a delay over a newly discovered security vulnerability allowing a reentrancy attack. The critical issue was detected by smart contract audit firm ChainSecurity and reported in a blog post Jan. 15. According to the company’s report, the Constantinople upgrade introduces cheaper gas cost (transaction fees) for some operations on the Ethereum network. As an unexpected side effect, this allegedly enables reentrancy attacks via the use of certain commands in ETH smart contracts. A reentrancy vulnerability allows a potential attacker to steal cryptocurrency from a…

Cryptopia goes offline after hack

January 16, 2019February 7, 2019 CRYPTO WORLD

A New Zealand-based crypto-currency trading company went offline after it was hacked at the weekend. Cryptopia, based in Christchurch, announced on Twitter that on January 14, it suffered a security breach that resulted in significant losses. “Once identified, the exchange was put into maintenance while we assessed damages,” it added. The exchange has not disclosed the value of the losses, the tokens and currencies affected or any measures to refund users. But Whale Alert, which tracks large crypto transactions, reported that 19,391 ether (ETH) tokens worth nearly $2.44 million, and…

20% of Bitcoin’s daily trading volume generated by a single project

January 11, 2019February 7, 2019 CRYPTO WORLD

According to the recent research published by Forbes Crypto, about 20% of all Bitcoin transactions are generated by a project called VeriBlock. It is developed on top of Bitcoin blockchain with the aim to provide a more secure alternative to existing cryptocurrency networks. VeriBlock is based on proof-of-proof (PoP) concept that functions as a supplemental consensus mechanism for blockchains integrated with VeriBlock. Basically, it allows minor altcoin projects to avoid security issues related to low hash rate and relatively low reward for mining. Low hash rate may lead double spend…

Two Thirds of Korean Crypto Exchanges Fail Government Security Check

January 10, 2019February 7, 2019 CRYPTO WORLD

Only a third of cryptocurrency exchanges inspected got a full pass in a recent government security audit. The Ministry of Science and ICT, the Korea Internet & Security Agency and the Ministry of Economy and Finance inspected a total of 21 crypto exchanges from September to December 2018, examining 85 different security aspects. Notably, only 7 of them – Upbit, Bithumb, Gopax, Korbit, Coinone, Hanbitco, and Huobi Korea – cleared all the tests, CoinDesk Korea reported Thursday. The remaining 14 exchanges are “vulnerable to hacking attacks at all times because…

Coinbase suspended Ethereum Classic (ETC) trading after a successful 51% attack

January 8, 2019February 7, 2019 CRYPTO WORLD

The cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase suspended the trading of Ethereum Classic (ETC) after double-spend attacks worth $1.1 Million. The cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has suspended the trading of Ethereum Classic (ETC) after double-spend attacks that consist in spending digital coins twice. Ethereum Classic (ETC) is the original unforked Ethereum blockchain, the attacks resulted in the loss of $1.1 million worth of the digital currency. 51% attack refers to an attack on a blockchain by a group of miners that controls over 50% of the network’s mining hashrate. “On 1/5/2019, Coinbase detected a…

McKinsey Finds Little Evidence of Practical Blockchain Use Cases

January 5, 2019February 7, 2019 CRYPTO WORLD

Major financial consulting company McKinsey & Company believes that there is little evidence of practical use for blockchain, according to an official post published on Jan. 4. McKinsey was founded in 1926 and has a reported revenue for 2018 over over $10 billion, with over 27,000 employees globally. The article, written by three McKinsey partners, notes that the “evidence for a practical scalable use for blockchain is thin on the ground,” explaining: “Blockchain has yet to become the game-changer some expected […] given the amount of money and time spent,…

Ethereum Extends Impressive Run, up 35% in 1 Week

January 4, 2019February 7, 2019 CRYPTO WORLD

In the past week, Ethereum, the second most valuable cryptocurrency in the global market, has experienced a strong upward movement, recording an additional three percent increase in value on the day. Within seven days, the Ethereum price has increased from $117 to $159, by over 35 percent against the U.S. dollar, making it one of the best performing crypto assets throughout the past two months. Can the Constantinople Fork Effect Continue to Fuel Ethereum? Analysts have attributed the positive price movement of Ethereum to its upcoming Constantinople hard fork. The…

The First Bitcoin Block Was Mined 10 Years Ago Today

January 3, 2019February 7, 2019 CRYPTO WORLD

Bitcoin’s Genesis block, which was mined on January 3, 2009, at 18:15:05 UTC, is now 10 years old. The Bitcoin Network Turns 10 The marking of the 10th anniversary of Bitcoin’s block 0 is, however, not to be confused with the Bitcoin whitepaper’s 10th birthday which was commemorated last year on October 31 in remembrance of the day the whitepaper titled “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” was released. As CCN reported earlier, Seychelles-based bitcoin exchange, BitMEX, has marked the day by placing an ad on the front page of…

Bitcoin Above $4,000 Again as Top Cryptocurrencies See Gains Across the Board

December 23, 2018February 7, 2019 CRYPTO WORLD

All of the top 20 cryptocurrencies are seeing moderate gains, with Bitcoin’s (BTC) price going above $4,000 again, according to CoinMarketCap data. At press time, Bitcoin is up nearly four percent on the day, trading at $4,050. Looking at its weekly chart, the current price is lower than the Friday’s high of almost $4,200; but the cryptocurrency is still trading significantly up from $3,294 — the point at which it started this week. Ripple (XRP) — the second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization — has gained over five percent on…

German Railway Operator Examines Deploying Blockchain to Tokenize Its Ecosystem

December 21, 2018January 6, 2019 CRYPTO WORLD

Unibright Deutsche Bahn Ecosystem Tokenization via Blockchain

German railway operator Deutsche Bahn AG (DB) has partnered with blockchain integration platform Unibright to examine the possibility of tokenizing its ecosystem. A press release revealed the partnership on Tuesday, Dec. 18. DB appointed Unibright to make preparations for an internal workshop, dedicated to the possible tokenization of the company’s assets. The railway giant, which is considered to be the largest in Europe, wants to find out whether decentralized solutions can cut operational costs and help DB interact with other members of the travel industry. Unibright developed a proof-of-concept (PoC)…

Coinbase Moves $5 Billion

December 20, 2018February 7, 2019 CRYPTO WORLD

Major cryptocurrency exchange and wallet Coinbase recently made what it claims is the largest transfer of crypto on record, a company blog post reports Dec. 19. According to the post, 5 percent of all Bitcoin (BTC), 8 percent of all Ethereum (ETH), and 25 percent of all Litecoin (LTC), along with “many other assets” were moved to new cold storage infrastructure in what the firm “believe[s] is the largest crypto migration on record.” Coinbase reports that last week, the firm “completed an on-blockchain migration of approximately $5 Billion (as valued…

Opera For Android Now Has A Cryptocurrency Wallet

December 13, 2018February 7, 2019 CRYPTO WORLD

Opera had confirmed earlier this year that it would build a cryptocurrency wallet inside its Android browser. The company has followed through on that promise and confirmed today that the latest version of its browser does indeed come with a cryptocurrency wallet. The announcement was made at a blockchain event in London today. The latest version of Opera for Android comes with a built-in crypto wallet. It will enable users to make transactions online and also securely store their digital tokens within the browser itself. The Opera browser’s cryptocurrency wallet…