Moonday Morning: Canadian Bitcoin exchange hacked for $5.5M – ‘we cannot refund anything’

It’s Monday which means only one thing – it’s also Moonday. We’re so into blockchain and cryptocurrency we don’t even call Monday Monday anymore. It is, and will always be, Moonday in our hearts.

You know the drill, here’s what dropped over the weekend:

1. A major Singaporean energy provider has launched a blockchain-powered marketplace for renewable energy. The energy provider claims blockchain will be used to track the ownership of renewable energy certificates.

2. Canadian Bitcoin exchange, MapleChange, has been hacked. All funds are gone and it looks like customers won’t be getting their money back. Some sources say $5.5 million (913 BTC) was taken, and some are saying it’s not a hack, but an exit scam. Whatever happened, it’s not sounding so sweet anymore, is it?

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3. Another university seems to think it’s a good idea to accept payments in Bitcoin. France’s Financia Business School will allow students of its post-graduate finance and blockchain courses to pay in cryptocurrency. The school’s theory is that this will lessen the burden on foreign students who have to otherwise pay for expensive currency transfers.

4.  The Supreme Court of India has asked the country’s government to make its mind up on cryptocurrencies. The Royal Bank of India has already banned banks from working with cryptocurrency businesses, but there’s still much debate over what stance the country should take.

5. Technology giant Sony has announced the development of a “contactless” multi-purpose cryptocurrency hardware wallet. Sony claim’s the device can be used to secure not just cryptocurrency private keys but also the private keys of other data managed on blockchains.

6. While everyone’s been talking about how Malta is blockchain’s “place to be,” Israel has been working hard and is now home to over 200 cryptocurrency or blockchain-based startups.

Well there you have it, an exhausting, non-exhaustive round-up of the cryptonews from the last weekend. Cryptocurrency never sleeps, so we don’t either.