Michael Owen To Launch Own Cryptocurrency (ChannelsTV.com)
Former Manchester United and Real Madrid striker Michael Owen is launching a cryptocurrency in his own name, joining other famous sportsmen including Manny Pacquiao in a new venture to connect with fans. The retired England star announced Wednesday his investment in the Singapore-based Global Crypto Offering Exchange (GCOX) as he unveiled the “Owen Coin”. The celebrity tokens will allow fans to buy merchandise such as personal training videos, make donations to charities and even interact with the ex-sportsman via live-streaming.
Cask Coin: First ‘Whisky-Based’ Cryptocurrency Is Launched (BitsOnline.com)
As the strangest of companies – from juice bars and vaping rooms to adult content media and even camera enterprises – seek to get in on the action of digital currency, there’s a race to see just how many different kinds of crypto-asset the market can bear. Now, the North of Scotland Distilling Company is releasing what they call “Cask Coin”, the first digital asset with a value based on… whisky.
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DNotes Launches Version 2.0, Cryptocurrency With Interest (PaymentWeek.com)
DNotes 2.0, as it’s known, just recently went into Alpha Pre-Release, and represents what the company behind it is calling “a significant upgrade of the original DNotes currency introduced in 2014.” Backed up by blockchain technology, DNotes 2.0 boasts a set of new features and capabilities. First among these is that DNotes will no longer use the “proof-of-work” concept, turning instead to “proof-of-stake” in a bid to keep mining operations from becoming centralized and previous stakeholders from having their influence reduced.
Top 10 Advantages of Decentralized Cryptocurrency Exchange STeX (CoinSpeaker.com)
Cryptocurrency exchange STeX has introduced a decentralized advanced crypto coin platform bringing liquidity and prices from all major exchanges in one place. Coin holders can now trade cross-rates among coins directly. In effect, if any two coins are listed on STeX, investor can trade one against the other directly, which enables thousands of pair trades that weren’t available on the market before. STeX team developed proprietary virtualization technology and named it A2A (Any2Any). A2A solves the cross-coin exchange problems common for the customers of other cryptocurrency exchanges.
Cryptocurrency Startup Claims BMW Partnership, but BMW Disagrees (TheNextWeb.com)
Fledgling cryptocurrency startup carVertical made waves after announcing last week that the company had struck a partnership with BMW that would see the two parties build the “first ever connected reports for cars.” But it appears the company might have misrepresented its relationship with the German automobile titan after all. BMW has taken to Twitter to clarify that it currently has no formal partnership with carVertical. It further claimed the cryptocurrency startup – which aims to build a decentralized car history registry on the blockchain – is merely “using” the BMW CarData interface “available to any third party.”
Bitcoin Users Being Spied On? NSA Report Leaked by Snowden Reveals ‘Extensive’ Tracking Operation (Bitcoinist.com)
Classified US NSA documents made public by whistleblower Edward Snowden go on to expose that the agency was keeping tabs on users of Bitcoin and Liberty Reserve. The activity seems to go back to as far as 2013 according to the reports. Recently reported classified documents, leaked by none other but Edward Snowden, suggest that the United States’ National Security Agency (NSA) was, in fact, eyeing on bitcoin users worldwide. The report has surfaced back in March 2013 and, as if it’s taken out of a classic spy movie, contains code names, numbers, blacked-out lines and all the “James Bond” goodies.
Bitcoin’s Blockchain is Full of Content that Can Land You in Jail (TheNextWeb.com)
If you are someone who has downloaded Bitcoin’s blockchain, you might have violated a dozen of your country’s laws, at least according to research published by Germany’s RWTH Aachen University. The research suggests that Bitcoin’s blockchain could be storing anything that could make mere possession of the blockchain illegal. The researchers’ examples ranged from image depicting the sexual abuse of children to copyrighted material, to any other digital files that could be illegal in the user’s jurisdiction. The knowledge that Bitcoin’s blockchain contains dodgy stuff is not a revelation. Even though this is the first time it has been confirmed through research, there have been speculations dating as far back as 2013.
Ethereum and Stellar? Kik’s Kin Token to Use Two Chains (CoinDesk.com)
One crypto token on two different blockchains? While it might sound unlikely, social messaging app Kik has announced it’ll be doing just that with its “kin” token, which allowed the company to raise $98 million in an initial coin offering (ICO) in September. After some back and forth about which blockchain the company wanted to host its crypto token on, Kik has decided to use ethereum (on which the tokens were first launched) for liquidity and stellar for transactions. The decision comes only a few months after CoinDesk reported that Kik was thinking about moving its crypto token fully off ethereum and onto stellar due to high transaction fees and slow confirmation times plaguing the ethereum network.
Ripple “Very Confident” of Entering Chinese Market this Year (GTReview.com)
Ripple is “very confident” that its blockchain-powered payments solutions will have some traction in the Chinese market by the end of this year. The company is in informal talks with regulators, banks and payment providers with a view to initially launching its XCurrent software in China, which allows banks to instantly settle cross-border payments with end-to-end tracking, but which doesn’t use cryptocurrency.
What’s Wrong With Ethereum, Ripple, and Litecoin? (The Motley Fool)
Investors who had the nerve and wherewithal to invest in cryptocurrencies early in 2017 and hold throughout the year were probably handsomely rewarded. Between the beginning and end of 2017, the aggregate cryptocurrency market cap gained almost $600 billion, which works out to an increase in value of more than 3,300%. For a single asset class, it might just be the greatest 12-month return we will see in our lifetimes. Unfortunately, 2018 hasn’t looked anything like the previous record-shattering year. After hitting an all-time market cap high of $835 billion on Jan. 7, cryptocurrencies pushed to lows that hadn’t been seen since around Thanksgiving on March 17 ($274 billion). But it’s not the drop itself that’s necessarily the most attention-grabbing point. Instead, it’s what’s leading the crypto market cap significantly lower.
Litecoin [LTC]’s Smart Contracts Network to be Used by AbraGlobal – LTC Opted over Many! (AMBCrypto.com)
The newest launch of Abra app which supports 20 cryptocurrencies and 50 fiat currencies is the world’s first app to support multi coins. Charlie Lee, founder of Litecoin has just tweeted about his interview with the CEO of Abra app, Bill Barhydt in which the news about Abra using smart contracts on the Litecoin network in about 2 weeks was revealed.
