Moonday Mornings: Maduro forces pensioners to use Petro

Last week, we had our first ever blockchain event, Hard Fork Decentralized, where we discussed a range of challenges facing the industry and hosted talks all over London. We’ll be posting some videos from our live stream of the event, so keep your eyes open if you want to catch up on what went on.

But the cryptocurrency and blockchain world didn’t take a vacation, so there is a lot to catch up on, here’s Moonday Morning for you:

1. London based cryptocurrency exchange Cubits, has voluntarily entered administration after being hacked for over $32 million back in February. While the company is in administration investors will not be able to trade or withdraw funds. According to Cubits, three Chinese traders bought Bitcoin through an online payment service based out of Malta, only the payment service never relinquished the funds. Cubits is undertaking legal action in Malta to try to recover the stolen funds, but so far the company has not been able to recover.

2. Bahrain is one of the next countries to come down on cryptocurrency platforms as it is beginning to draft regulations for the sale and trading of digital assets. The regulatory frameworks will aim to supervise and license platforms dealing in cryptocurrency to protect the interests of customers and investors. Though it’ll be a while until these regulations are in place, as the draft consultancy period is expected to last until the end of this year.

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3. As many other countries clamp down on cryptocurrency, the Swiss government is loosening its grip in a bid to assist with the evolution of the technology. Switzerland is keen on maintaining its reputation as one of the world’s financial centers, it believes a more open regulation of cryptocurrency will allow the country to take advantage of opportunities presented by the digitization of currencies.

4. So called “free speech” social media platform Gab, is closing in on using Bitcoin as a payment system. Gab has been denied access to numerous digital payment services due to the controversial nature of the platform. Ironically, Gab announced it would be moving towards using Bitcoin “out of necessity,” on Twitter.

5. Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro, has now set his sights on pensioners in the next step for his pet cryptocurrency, the Petro. According to the Caracas Chronicles, elderly residents received their monthly pensions in the Venezuelan cryptocurrency. Besides being wildly volatile, there is very little opportunity to spend or trade the Petro, if that wasn’t bad enough, Maduro took the decision to pay pensions in the Petro without consulting with the pensioners first.

There you have it, we’re back from Hard Fork Decentralized and that’s another weekend caught up with, normal service resumes.