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Announcement: Monero Tari
Source: Reddit
Announced today, Tari is a decentralized asset protocol built on Monero. It's similar to BTC's Colored Coins, Tari is a way of adding metadata to represent new use cases for Monero. Tari will have its own native token and operate as a merge-mined sidechain - miners ears Tari rewards while they mine Monero. This leverages the existing security and hashing power of Monero without taking mining power from the network to support the sidechain. Tari will also be an open-source initiative.
UN Member Creates First Sole Sovereign Cryptocurrency
Source: Cryptoglobe
The Marshall Islands, a member of the United Nations, has signed into law the first sole sovereign cryptocurrency. The currency, called the Sovereign (SOV), will replace USD as the national legal tender. The news was first reported by CNBC Africa host Ran Neuner, who noted the potential significance of the law, citing implications for financial institutions, which, in theory, will have to accept the cryptocurrency.
Norwegian Bank Issues Workgroup Findings
Source: Coindesk
Norges, Norway's central bank, released the findings of a workgroup focused on crypto as a potential solution in a world gradually moving away from cash. The paper offered two solutions, one centralized and one decentralized. The workgroup ultimately concluded that it was too early to.. draw conclusions.
Announcement: ZombieChain
Source: Medium
The founders of Loom Network today announced ZombieChain, an EOS-like Delegated Proof-of-Stake sidechain for Ethereum dapps. Built on the LoomSDK, ZombieChain offers developers faster performance, a particular concern for games developed on blockchain, and a fixed monthly fee based on app resource consumption (as opposed to the traditional gas-per-transaction model).
ShipChain Receives Cease & Desist
Source: Coindesk
ShipChain, an ethereum-based platform for tracking shipments, has been issued a Cease & Desist order from the state of South Carolina. The order alleges that ShipChain is offering a security without either registering with the proper state division or requesting an exemption from being a security offering. This is the first instance of the government using securities laws to target what appears to be a legitimate offering. ShipChain's token (SHIP) took a big hit in price following the news.
Dash Logo
Source: Dash
Dash has updated their logo & other branding materials. Access to the new materials and style guide can be found by following the source link above.
New Listings: Skycoin, ZenCash (Binance)
Binance will open trading for Skycoin to BNB, BTC, and ETH beginning at 9:00am UTC on May 24th, 2018. Trading for ZenCash began today.
MIT Demos BTC Lightning Network
Source: CoinDesk
As part of an ongoing research & development initiative, MIT has been testing a use case for the Lightning Network in which transactions are automatically triggered by external events, relayed to smart contracts through the use of oracles. The researchers stressed that this is just a demonstration and is not ready to be used for real money, but an interesting development nonetheless.
PayPal CFO Comments on Cryptocurrencies
Source: WeTalkCoins
PayPal's CFO, in a CNBC interview, said today that crypto is too volatile to be used as currency, and that as a result, PayPal does not "see much interest" from merchants to accept it as a form of payment. He went on to say that PayPal will support cryptocurrency as payment in the future if it stabilizes.
Israeli Government Seizes 1,000 BTC
Source: CCN
An Israeli State Attorney's office seized 1,000 BTC from a resident indicted on credit card fraud and money laundering charges. The indictment alleges that the resident converted money he acquired fraudulently to BTC in order to launder it - a sum of over $8 million. This is the first instance of cryptocurrency seizure in Israeli history and may set legal precedent for future seizures of digital assets.
CNBC Pump and Dump?
Source: CoinDaily
CNBC has received criticism from the cryptocurrency community, who allege that CNBC has engaged in market manipulation. While the nature of a network focused on financial markets and investment opportunities will always foster some degree of suspicion as to the motives of its hosts, CNBC has apparently raised a few eyebrows before.
BTC Lightning Network Passes 2,000 Nodes
The BTC Lightning Network passed 2,000 nodes today. While a nice milestone, the difficulty interfacing with the network is a barrier, and there has been no exponential growth. In other words, the Lightning Network still has a ways to go before hitting the mainstream.
Vitalik Buterin on 'Quadratic Voting'
Source: Medium
Vitalik published an article encouraging blockchain and cryptocurrencies to consider adopting "quadratic voting," an alternative to a one-person-one-vote model, which many feel imposes a majority-rule decision on an issue at the potential expense of a minority group of voters with a much greater vested interest. Quadratic voting capitalizes on collective decision-making to maximize efficiency and support those who feel most strongly about an issue.
BTC Direct Employees to be Paid in BTC
Source: AD (Dutch)
BTC Direct now offers employees the opportunity to have a portion of their salaries paid in BTC. How big a portion is at the employee's discretion, with the average employee receiving the equivalent of ~100 Euros per month in BTC.
Ashton Kutcher Donates $4 Million in Ripple to Ellen DeGeneres
Source: JustJared
In an on-air transaction, Ashton Kutcher and his business partner donated $4 million worth of Ripple to Ellen's Wildlife Fund. Viewers were able to see the transaction in real-time, a nice shill for Ripple, in which Kutcher and his partner are investing.