Technology

Nigeria Launches Its First Bitcoin ATM

The largest country in Africa, Nigeria, is becoming savvier in the crypto sphere by the day. It recently launched its first Bitcoin ATM, which is also the fifteenth in the entire continent.Blockstale BTM installs ATMThe ATM was installed in the Dazey Lounge and Bar in the state of Lagos by Blockstale BTM. It plans to start 30 more terminals across the country. Daniel Adekunle, the founder and chief executive of the company said,“Despite all the legal uncertainties about cryptocurrencies in Nigeria, Nigerians happen to be the highest crypto traders in

Remaining Anonymous: Which Crypto Privacy Solution Works Best?

The cryptocurrency industry was initially headlined as anonymous digital cash. While experts were keen to point out that this was not exactly the case, Bitcoin (BTC) found initial popularity in darknet markets such as Silk Road, where merchants sold illegal goods ranging from light drugs to, allegedly, hitman services. Founded in 2011, Silk Road thrived for the next two years until the Federal Bureau of Investigation shut it down in 2013. Authorities later revealed that completely free blockchain explorers aided their investigative efforts.Bitcoin’s transaction ledger is completely open for the

SEC Postpones Decision on Overstock-Affiliated Security Token Exchange

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission is seeking more feedback and more time before it decides whether to approve the launch of the Boston Security Token Exchange (BSTX).In a letter published on April 1, the regulator postponed the current April 2 deadline in light of responses to a recent proposed rule change to BSTX’s original filing.The proposed exchangeBSTX is a project for a regulated security token exchange platform that would be jointly owned by Box Digital Markets and Overstock’s blockchain arm tZERO. As the SEC summarizes in its April

New Report links Satoshi Nakamoto with the Monero Whitepaper

The identity of Bitcoin creator (or creators) Satoshi Nakamoto is still one of the most highly debated questions in the crypto space today. However, a new research report is suggesting that the creator also developed another prominent digital asset. According to new research by Monero Outreach, the privacy-focused digital asset may also be the creator of Bitcoin. Using Monero to “Fix” BitcoinMonero was developed in 2014 as a means of addressing some of the privacy issues that Bitcoin had at the time. Up till today, the asset remains one of the most private digital

Ark’s 1 Million Token Grant Fund Drives Community Innovation

Interoperable blockchain project Ark (ARK) designated one million ARK valued at roughly $150,000 toward its new development grants program on March 24.While the grant program was launched one week ago, Ark’s Strategic Partnerships Manager, Ray Alvarez, told Cointelegraph that it has already received proofs-of-concept from developers.The program exclusively funds “proposals involving technical deployments and usage of [the] ARK technology stack.”The applications include standalone applications and plugins, including development contributing to Ark’s decentralized private messaging application, desktop wallet, and transaction plugins.In addition to sparking development for specific applications, Alvarez states that

Investment in Blockchain in Energy Markets Will Top $35 Billion by 2025

According to a new report released by Premium Market Insights (PMI), global investment in blockchain technology in energy markets is set to reach $34.7 billion by 2025. Valued at just $156.5 million in 2016, the sector is forecast to grow at a rate of 82% a year. Although $35 billion seems high, it’s dwarfed by the net worth of $1.85 trillion for the energy market as a whole. Key players using blockchain and DLT in the field include Accenture, AWS, Bigchaindb, Deloitte, IBM, Infosys, Microsoft, Nodalblock, Oracle, SAP, Enosi, and Electron. Blockchain

Brave Browser Gains 1M New Users in a Single Month

Open-source internet browser, Brave, tallied more than one million new users in March alone, a tweet from Brave’s head of marketing, Des Martin, detailed on April 1. Isolation has increased web trafficWith much of the world limiting their exposure to the coronavirus through self-imposed quarantine, web usership has undoubtedly increased.As a result, various internet-based services have hosted significantly greater demand for activities such as web browsing, gaming, and shopping, a March 20 Bloomberg article stated.  Brave sees increased attentionSome of this attention has been funneled toward Brave, as evidenced by its spike

A Crypto Venture Fund Bought the Most Tokens at MakerDAO’s Debt Auction

An auction to recapitalize MakerDAO (MKR) after the mid-March market turmoil successfully concluded on March 28, bringing in over $5 million worth of DAI. Crypto venture fund Paradigm Capital revealed in a March 31 tweet that it won approximately 68% of the auctioned tokens.The company had previously pledged to join a “backstop syndicate” and cover the entire system shortfall if necessary. Acting as a so-called “backstop,” the group would act as the buyer of last resort by purchasing the MKR tokens if their price fell to $100. (The auction’s starting

Celo to Issue at Least $15.7 Mln in Community Grants During 2020

Open-source payments network, Celo (cGLD), announced on March 31 that it had awarded $700,000 in developer grant funding to 16 startups looking to build on the Celo network. Cointelegraph spoke to Xochitl Cazador, the head of ecosystem growth at cLabs — the company behind Celo — to discuss what they look for from grant applicants, and Celo’s plans for 2020.Celo provides grant funding to 16 startupsCazador states that the most important criteria applicants are assessed on is whether they “support Celo’s mission of building an open financial system that creates conditions

Fed’s Quantitative Easing Strategy Holds Long-Term Benefits for Crypto

These are perilous times, and it hasn’t escaped anyone’s notice that the United States Federal Reserve is doing its part to alleviate the suffering — which began with the coronavirus pandemic and has spread to the global economy. It’s printing more money. “There is an infinite amount of cash at the Federal Reserve,” Neel Kashkari, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, told Scott Pelley of CBS on March 22, adding: “We will do whatever we need to do to make sure there is enough cash in the financial

Evolution of‘Payments’ Will Bolster Next-Generation Businesses

Humans have always been on a developmental journey. When we are born into thousands of years of inventions and improvements, it’s easy to take for granted what’s around us— as if they always existed. We seldom think about the changes it took to get to where we are.Take for example, the creation of language and how that opened up a new course in human history. How it led to communication, collaboration, communities and organizations. From there, people organized a set of doctrines and came up with story-telling, a precursor to