SynQ

April Weekly Recap 1 March 31st – April 6th, 2020 Welcome to our 1st weekly recap for April. Overview      Crypto News OPERA INTEGRATES .CRYPTO DOMAIN EXTENSION Opera now enables users to access decentralized web pages through a partnership with Unstoppable Domains. The collaboration entails Opera’s integration of Unstoppable Domain’s .crypto domain extension. This will allow the browser’s users to surf decentralized websites, as well as make cryptocurrency payments. MICROSOFT FILES PATENT FOR CRYPTO MINING USING HUMAN ACTIVITIES Microsoft has proposed a system that can mine cryptocurrencies using data collected from humans as they exercise or read an advertisement. The system could use physical exertion to mine cryptocurrencies: sensors could detect when the body is doing a physical task, such as a faster pulse, and use that data to unlock blocks. Scanners connected to the head could even use brainwaves, signals sent out during mental exertion, to mine for cryptocurrencies. BYRON REBOOT FOR CARDANO IS LIVE After more than 18 months of work, the Byron reboot was officially launchedContinue reading »

March Weekly Recap 4 March 23rd – March 30th, 2020 Welcome to our 4th weekly recap for March. Overview      Crypto News CARDANO LAUNCHES OUROBOROS Cardano launched its off-chain scalability protocol, Ouroboros Hydra, on March 25th, after 5 years of development. The protocol claims vastly increased scalability and low latency for the Cardano blockchain while using little storage on the network’s nodes. The solution also allows for applications such as micropayments, voting, insurance contracts, and other uses that require low fees or instant transactions. According to IOHK, Hydra could theoretically scale to a million transactions per second. In Hydra, each user who connects to the network generates 10 heads, which are throughput lanes for data and transactions. Because of that, the system reportedly gets faster and decreases its latency as it scales. VENEZUELA’S STRUGGLING INTERNET MAKES TRADING CRYPTO DIFFICULT The global coronavirus lockdown has put a strain on Venezuela’s internet, which could logically make crypto participation difficult. Already, within the first seven days of a shelter-in-place movement, Venezuelans haveContinue reading »

March Weekly Recap 2 March 15th – March 22nd, 2020 Welcome to our 3rd weekly recap for March. Overview      Crypto News COINBASE CARDS CAN NOW BE USED WITH GOOGLE PAY Coinbase announced Tuesday that Coinbase Cards can now be added to users’ Google Pay wallets, enabling crypto-backed payments from Google Pay-enabled devices, such as phones or smartwatches. Coinbase Cards launched its new Visa debit card for U.K. and European customers in April 2019. Holders can purchase everyday goods and services – up to £10,000 ($12,100) per day – with cryptocurrencies held in their exchange accounts that are instantly exchanged into the relevant fiat currency. The cards initially supported payments BTC, ETH, LTC and BCH. On November 2019, XRP, BAT, XLM tokens were also added to the roster. ARGENTINA’S GAS REGULATOR BUILT WITH BLOCKCHAIN Gasnet, a permissioned blockchain platform was launched Wednesday with approval from regulator Enargas. Running on an enterprise version of the RSK Smart Contract Network, Gasnet is designed to secure and speed Argentina’s chronically delayed gas certification processes.Continue reading »

March Weekly Recap 2 March 8th – March 14th, 2020 Welcome to our 2nd weekly recap for March. Overview      Crypto News ETHEREUM CONFERENCE ATTENDEES URGED TO TEST FOR COVID-19 On March 11, the co-founder of decentralized login service provider TorusLabs, Zhen Yu Yong (Zen), tweeted that he had been diagnosed with coronavirus COVID-2019. Zen urged people who may have been in contact with him during the ETHLondon hackathon or the Ethereum Community Conference (ECC) to take “extra precautions and/or get tested.” The coronavirus threat has impacted several major cryptocurrency conferences in recent weeks, leaving many crypto events canceled or postponed until later dates. CASH IS THE NEW SAFE HAVEN AS CRYPTO & GOLD CONTINUES TO FALL Liquidations set in on the cryptocurrency market the day after the U.S. announced European travel restrictions due to coronavirus fears Wednesday. Bitcoin is down 21 percent and Ethereum is down 27 percent over the past 24 hours. That’s more than the traditional markets, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 down nearly 8 percent. TradersContinue reading »

March Weekly Recap 1 March 1st – March 7th, 2020 Just like the January and February Report, our goal is to visually summarize the cryptocurrency market into an easy to understand and informative way. However, instead of the monthly duration, we will attempt to be more interactive with the market in a weekly format. Overview      Crypto News BAFIN CLARIFIES CRYPTO CLASSIFICATION IN GERMANY In a press release issued on Monday, March 2nd, 2020, the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) clarified cryptocurrency as: “a digital representation of a value that has not been issued or guaranteed by any central bank or public body and is not necessarily linked to a currency specified by law and that does not have the legal status of a currency or money, but is accepted as a medium of exchange by natural or legal persons and can be transmitted, stored and traded electronically.” According to BaFin, the new classification echoes the guidelines of intergovernmental agencies like the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). BaFin’sContinue reading »