George McDonaugh is the CEO and Co-Founder of KR1 plc, the London listed cryptocurrency and blockchain investment company. Facebook’s Libra, Twitter, Digital Fiat, and China Let’s look at some macro trends circling the esoteric inner core of this ongoing technological revolution. First up there’s Facebook’s Libra, which currently is a swirling mass of confusion. It’s clearly become a major part of the world’s biggest social media giant’s roadmap and they’re throwing a lot of resources at it. Fo...

With less than two days left to the ninth Ethereum upgrade, Muir Glacier, majority of the node operators are ready for it. As previously reported, Ethereum is forced to have another hard fork less than a month after the Istanbul upgrade, due to a mistake, and in order to delay the feature known as the difficulty bomb which slows down blocks, aka Ice Age, for approximately 611 days. Nodes should’ve been upgraded by December 30 to account for the variable block times, given that even the exact tim...

Crypto Briefs is your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptocurrency and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news. Adoption news Long lines are reportedly forming at Venezuelan stores that accept Petro (PTR) pay, reports Venezuelan media outlet Panorama. The news outlet published photographs of what it says are customers queuing up to spend their state-issued, oil-backed tokens at some of what Caracas claims are the 4,300+ stores nationwide th...

Here is what happened in the Cryptoworld in the second quarter of this year: Total crypto market capitalization in Q2 April The quarter started with Bitcoin price suddenly jumping by 16% in an hour, reaching USD 4,882 per coin, the level last seen in November 2018, then it went above USD 5,000. This all prompted numerous crypto forecasts to start pouring in. Singapore-headquartered blockchain company Pundi X blamed the bear market and long certification process for missing their expansion targe...

Crypto Briefs is your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptocurrency and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news. Adoption news A central bank group will assess potential cases for central bank digital currencies (CBDC). The Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank, the Sveriges Riksbank, the Swiss National Bank, and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) have created a group to share experiences...

Crypto Briefs is your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptocurrency and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news. Libra news Canada-headquartered e-commerce giant Shopify said it has become a member of the Libra Association. "As a member of the Libra Association, we will work collectively to build a payment network that makes money easier to access and supports merchants and consumers everywhere," the company said. Exchanges news Malta Financ...

Uzbekistan’s president has produced a draft decree that will see tax authorities in the country waive taxes on cryptocurrency trading and transactions – for both Uzbeks and non-nationals living in the country. As previously reported, the government has been keen to implement the new measures – as well as new mining regulations – since the turn of the year. However, according to a document posted on the government’s official website, the draft decree could be implemented as early as February, wit...

Though only recently announced, Ethereum's (ETH) latest upgrade has been announced as a success, while the price of ETH is showing a rise in the last week. At the time of writing (11:15 UTC), ETH is trading at c. USD 130. It dropped 0.73% in the last 24 hours, but the price appreciated 3.6% in the week leading up to the Muir Glacier upgrade. In comparison, bitcoin (BTC) is down by almost 1% in a week, while majority of other coins among the top 10 advanced by 1%-12% in the past seven days. A...

Crypto Briefs is your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptocurrency and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news. Adoption news The Kakao Group’s KakaoTalk chat app-linked crypto wallet Klip will debut this summer, or later than expected. As reported by Cryptonews.com, in November 2019, the company planned to roll out its crypto wallet in the first quarter of 2020. Per Fn News, the CEO of Ground X, Kakao’s blockchain arm, claimed that the wal...