Welcome to another Moonday Mornings. Let’s waste no time and take a look at the weekend’s cryptocurrency and blockchain headlines you can’t afford to miss.
1. Cryptocurrency traders in Israel are facing a sticky situation. Some banks are refusing to accept deposits from profits of cryptocurrency trading for fear they may have been obtained through illicit or illegal activities, local media reports. There is now a stack of $86 million in unpaid taxes that should have been paid on earnings from cryptocurrency trading.
2. Over the past financial year, – April 1, 2018 to March 31, 2019 – Canada’s anti-money laundering watchdog sent 61 cryptocurrency-related incidents to relevant law enforcement agencies, according to The Globe and Mail. This is more than three times the number of cases it sent in the previous year. Industry experts expect this number to explode over the next 12 months when the watchdog begins examining the operations of virtual currency exchanges.
3. After a five-year wait, China’s central bank digital currency is said to be “ready,” The Block reports. A senior official from the country’s central bank announced that it would roll out its digital currency “soon.” According to the announcement, the prototype coin exists and has “fully adopted the blockchain architecture.” That said, the digital currency won’t rely entirely on a “pure blockchain” as it wouldn’t provide the transaction speed required for the coin to be used for retail payments.
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4. Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has teased what digital assets might be added to its US targeted platform. A blog post from the company’s US CEO outlined the 30 tokens being considered. Leading coins such as Bitcoin, XRP, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin are mentioned, along with the exchange’s own token Binance Coin.
And finally…
5. Blockchain patent whore IBM has filed yet another patent (spotted by CoinDesk), this time for a blockhain-based web browser – whatever that means. According to the patent, the browser gathers information from sessions which is transferred to a peer-to-peer network for “collection and storage.” The type of data gathered depends on the type of browsing session. Data gathered whilst browsing at work will differ to data gathered when browsing at home.
While IBM says its browser will put privacy in the hands of the individual, I don’t buy it. If there’s one place I don’t want my web history, it’s on a public ledger, where all can see, forever. Not that I have anything to hide, obviously…
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