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Cryptocurrency News From Japan: March 29 – April 4 in Review

This week’s headlines from Japan included the country’s Financial Services Agency revealing feedback from the public on recent regulation, the Cabinet Office Ordinance announcing regulatory changes, Zaif exchange removing three crypto assets, BitBank’s COO predicting crypto exchange mergers, and Nomura Research Institute issuing Japan’s first blockchain-based bond. Check out some of this week’s crypto and blockchain headlines, originally reported by Cointelegraph Japan.Japanese FSA receives comments on new regulationsThe Japanese Financial Services Agency, or FSA, unveiled 172 comments from citizens and groups, pertaining to recent crypto asset laws taking effect on May

Retail Bought $3.7K Bitcoin Price Dip on Record $76B Volume: Report

Although the Coronavirus pandemic has led many brick and mortar industries to close operations, cryptocurrency exchanges seem to have had their best month in a long time. According to an exchange report released by CryptoCompare, Bitcoin (BTC) trading volume saw record-breaking numbers throughout the month.Cryptocurrency market daily view. Source: Coin360The March 13 market crash that brought the Bitcoin price from $8,000 to a low of $3,800 in 24 hours registered the biggest day for crypto in terms of trading volumes registered at Bitcoin spot markets. On March 13 alone, total daily volumes

Staking, Consensus and the Pursuit of Decentralization

Oh, the wonders of decentralized consensus — that dream of permissionless blockchains to be censorship-resistant, trustless, collaborative and egalitarian for a potentially global community of users. While lofty in ideals, consensus is foundational for each crypto network, which must agree upon that most basic question of who decides what on the network.Decentralized consensus in the form of a proof-of-work mechanism was at the core of Satoshi Nakamoto’s innovation when creating Bitcoin — all additional protocol elements stem from PoW’s ability to reach consensus regarding the digital ledger through the computational work

Blockchain Experts Weigh in on Russia’s Controversial Coronavirus Tracking App

Experts suggest that blockchain technology could have been a better solution for handling coronavirus-related data in Russia.Moscow’s COVID-19 App is pulled from Google PlayOn March 25, an app called “Social monitoring” appeared in Google Play store. According to the app’s description, it was designed for social monitoring as well as for providing access to emergency services.Users soon noticed that the app required many sensitive permissions, including geolocation, bluetooth pairing, biometric data, and calls. Notably, the data was also being openly transmitted without encryption. The backlash against the app led to

Crypto Community Largely Approves of Binance Acquiring CoinMarketCap

Despite markets all over the world facing ever-worsening economic troubles amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, it seems as though the crypto industry has been able to weather the storm, at least thus far. In this regard, Binance — the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange — has recently reached an agreement to acquire CoinMarketCap, one of the most prominent crypto data websites.The official announcement was made by both companies on April 2, with Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao telling Cointelegraph that CMC and Binance have from the very start been working to make

Talking Digital Future: Smart Cities

My journey into smart cities and their future development was a really big surprise, as the way I arrived there was not something that I had planned. I was working as the chief information officer for a company in Northern California called O'Reilly Media when I got a call from a headhunter who asked if I would consider being the chief information office for the City of Palo Alto. I can vividly remember — it was only about eight years ago — my feeling when she asked the question. The

South African National Blockchain Alliance Holds Online Launch

The South African National Blockchain Alliance carried out an online livestream launch while the country is in the midst of a 21-day lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. The organization was due to be launched at the beginning of April in Johannesburg but had to be taken online as South Africa and the world tackles a global health crisis.The launch happened during a livestream on YouTube on April 3, which included a panel of speakers elaborating on how SANBA will help nurture blockchain-focused startups and companies that

Revolut Reacts To Corona Crisis, Pushes out New Crypto Support

Revolut, a digital banking app, has recently rolled out its cryptocurrency services to all of its standard users. This comes alongside a statement from the app itself that it widened its access earlier due to the current global economic crisis.This Is No April Fools’On the first of April, 2020, the UK-based fintech service provider made the announcement that it will allow for cryptocurrency accounts and trading to all of its standard users, with a 1.5% flat fee per trade. Before this announcement, these services were reserved only to its Premium

Is Decentralized ASIC Production Possible?

The news about ASICs for Nervos CKB came out recently, as the time of writing, there are four ASICs announced, the Toddminer C1, Toddminer C1 Pro, Bitmain K5 and PA miner — the first batch of C1 was delivered on March 9, K5 and PA Miner are expected to be delivered in April and C1 Pro in May.Since mainnet launch, the total hashrate on CKB mainnet has been around 200TH/S on average, it is now gradually picking up (at the time of writing at ~500TH/S) with ASICs. Toddminer says C1+C1

How the Pressures of the Coronavirus May Open the Door for Tokenization

The coronavirus pandemic is the only thing on most people’s minds right now around the world.The pending economic fallout is only surpassed by the anxiety induced by surging cases in both the United States and Europe. People remain firmly in quarantine around the world, and consumer demand has fallen off a cliff as people are holed up with only basic necessities.Paired with the awful Purchasing Managers’ Index numbers published by the National Bureau of Statistics and the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing, as well asearly U.S. indicators, we’re about

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