Beware! Scammers Are Out for Crypto Amid the Coronavirus Pandemic

As the world continues to battle with the deadly coronavirus pandemic, immoral cybercriminals are once again on the prowl. This time, they are using the chaos and fear through phishing techniques and sophisticated malware hacks to access people’s crypto holdings.On March 27, residents in the United Kingdom received warnings from their local councils “to be on their guard against a series of scams attempting to take advantage of the coronavirus outbreak.” Scammers have been using other tricks to lure victims, including the use of false Bitcoin (BTC) donation channels, fake

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

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

Ethereum Founder Tells Bitcoin Dev: BTC Wasn’t Always ‘Digital Gold’

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin was involved in a spat with a Bitcoin developer on Twitter yesterday, when he suggested BTC was originally designed to be P2P cash, not digital gold.Replying to Blockstream employee Zack Voell who claimed that Bitcoin was, is, and always shall be digital gold, Buterin pointed out the narrative had changed since 2011:“I joined Bitcoin land in 2011 and back then I remember a clear vibe that Bitcoin was P2P cash first and gold second.”Source: Twitter: Vitalik Buterin, Zack VoellButerin’s view that Bitcoin was originally intended to

U.S. Crypto ATM Network Helps to Promote Social Distancing

Bitcoin Depot, the largest Bitcoin ATM operator in the world, has begun powering down some of its machines in an effort to halt further spread of COVID-19.As much of the world sits in quarantine, Bitcoin Depot has chosen to temporarily shut off crypto ATMs which specifically reside in high traffic areas. The company is undertaking this push as a way to encourage social distancing.“As we monitor the ongoing situation, the number of locations temporarily taken offline will likely increase,” Bitcoin Depot’s director of product, Alona Lubovnaya, told Cointelegraph in an

Vitalik Buterin: Ethereum is DeFi Chain as Much as Bitcoin is Digital Gold

Ethereum co-founder, Vitalik Buterin has recently asserted that aside from the numerous potential applications of Ethereum in various areas, its use as a cryptocurrency, for settlements, cannot be overlooked. This is coming after Ryan Sean Adams, the founder of Mythos Capital, shared how Bitcoin Maximalists are trolling him about how pointless Ethereum is. Got Maximalists trolling me about how pointless Ethereum is meanwhile I just sent a crypto backed stablecoin in a private transaction on the Ethereum mainnet peer-to-peer w/o a bank Keep trolling We’ll keep building the bankless future

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

Huobi Wallet and Crypto Lender Cred Now Enable Users to Earn Interest

Major cryptocurrency exchange and wallet provider Huobi has partnered with decentralized crypto lending platform Cred to enable users to earn interest on their holdings.An announcement on April 1 revealed that Cred’s lending and borrowing services will be fully integrated into the Huobi Wallet, which supports over 1,000 crypto assets, including 8 stablecoins, for users across 200 countries and regions.The two firms did not provide a comprehensive list of supported crypto assets, but noted that Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and stablecoins such as Universal Dollar (UPUSD) would be part of the

Bitcoin and Visa Transactions Plunge But Pizza Deliveries Are Up

Online purchases using Bitcoin (BTC), Visa, and some retail apps are down for the first quarter of 2020, spanning cryptocurrency and fiat currency transactions.With many around the world self-quarantining or otherwise recommended to stay inside to prevent the spread of COVID-19, one might assume there would be an increase in online purchases and deliveries. Yet with unemployment on the rise and an uncertain economic future, it seems consumers want to save their money rather than spend it.Bitcoin transactions rivaling those during crypto winterThe crypto market is not exempt from this