Governments

Efforce (WOZX): Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak’s Cryptocurrency

Every so often a cryptocurrency is released that makes you a do a double take. Efforce (WOZX) is certainly one of those cryptocurrencies. Efforce was founded by world famous Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, and WOZX cryptocurrency token went from a price of 10 cents USD to over 3$USD in its first days on the market. In just the first 13 minutes of trading, WOZX had an unrealized market cap of 950 million USD.Although this price action made the headlines both inside and outside of the cryptocurrency space, it seems that

How to Restore Your Faith in Government

Images courtesy of MIT Video Productions Here’s the announcement of the new blockchain education program with the Massachusetts state government. It’s a big deal. We have a vision for where this kind of partnership can go, when governments begin educating themselves on the power of bitcoin and blockchain. That vision can be summed up in two words: Kendall Square. Kendall Square, then. The Kendall Square neighborhood lies next to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, stretching along the Charles River that separates Cambridge from Boston. (Here’s a map.) Although you’d think

Questions Remain Around The OCC Decision To Allow Banks To Custody Crypto

The recent Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) ruling that national banks and savings associations can provide cryptocurrency custody services to clients is one of the biggest milestones in the short but spectacular lifetime of digital currencies. Now that U.S. banks have the green light to begin custodying crypto, everybody knows that the rules have changed — we just don’t yet know exactly how.  As the dust begins to settle, there are a number of important questions we need to ask. What is the thinking behind the OCC’s letter? Why now? And

Key Timing for Adoption? Crypto Goes Mainstream With TV, Newspaper Ads

Amid turbulent times for the world at large, the cryptocurrency space seems to be cruising on its own steam in 2020. The coronavirus pandemic has put a major strain on economies around the world, and countries such as the United States have seen their central banks resort to extended quantitative easing in order to stimulate their financial ecosystems.Some analysts believe that this continual fiscal stimulus is part of the reason that the cryptocurrency market is enjoying relative success compared with its traditional financial counterparts.The likes of Anthony Pompliano, co-founder of

Bitcoin and Gold Short-Lived Correlation Not a Sign of Comparability

The Bitcoin (BTC) and gold one-month correlation reached a record high of 68% as Bitcoin hit $12,000 early in August, but the correlation crashed by 20% the following week. Despite this, Bitcoin looks set to become digital gold in 2020 considering the price correlations and trends in the futures market.Both gold and Bitcoin are having a phenomenal year in terms of year-to-date returns. According to Skew Analytics, gold has a 27.93% YTD return, while Bitcoin has racked up a 71.68% YTD yield. Although Bitcoin sees much higher volatility than gold,

Samsung Phone Support for Gemini Exchange Can Further Crypto Adoption

In a major new partnership, Samsung has announced that the Samsung Blockchain Wallet will be integrated with Gemini, a New York-based crypto exchange. This integration will allow owners of newer Samsung Galaxy phones to not only use their devices as cold storage wallets but to buy and sell crypto via the Gemini exchange as well.Samsung is the global leader in the smartphone market, with 298.1 million units shipped and a 21.8% market share in 2019, according to tech analytic firm Canalys. Adding support for Gemini will lower the barrier to

Thailand’s Central Bank Eyes DeFi Use Cases for Its Digital Baht

Thailand’s central bank is looking at smart contracts and decentralized finance (DeFi) implementations for its national digital currency, the digital baht.Vijak Sethaput, senior developer for the Bank of Thailand’s (BoT) central bank digital currency project Inthanon, discussed the country’s CBDC progress in an interview hosted by a global think tank for central banking, the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum, on Aug. 13.Sethaput was joined by Sky Guo, CEO of New York-based enterprise blockchain firm Cypherium, which is focused on global CBDC implementations and interoperability.In the interview, Guo said that

Venezuela May Soon Be Collecting Taxes in Crypto

The Bolivarian Council of Mayors in Venezuela signed the so-called "National Tax Harmonization Agreement" for 305 municipalities in the country, including the Petro (PTR) as a means to collect payments of taxes and sanctions.The cryptocurrency is becoming increasingly widely used as the result of a new campaign. According to the government, the vice president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, will be in charge of implementing a single registry of taxpayers through a digital consultation tool.She will also be in charge of creating an information exchange and monitoring system for companies to record

Mobile DeFi and the Shift Toward Self-Sovereignty

Many speculate that mainstream adoption of cryptocurrency is dependent solely on improving ease of access and user experience. In reality, there’s an even bigger obstacle: a mentality shift. Self-sovereignty and personal autonomy are the endgame of this technology, and with that goal comes a significant increase in personal responsibility for one’s funds. This is totally at odds with people’s traditional financial experience so far; the legacy system takes away your autonomy and replaces it with convenience, offering useful tools related to fraud protection and password management. By comparison, cryptocurrencies, decentralized finance