Asia and Australia Welcome to our weekly roundup of all important blockchain and cryptocurrency news from around the world. Follow the latest developments in the cryptocurrency space continent by continent, country by country. Japan Honchu village launches own crypto: The Japanese village of Nishiawakura in the Aida district has announced that it will be launching its own cryptocurrency. The small village …

Africa and the Middle East Welcome to our weekly roundup of all important blockchain and cryptocurrency news from around the world. Follow the latest developments in the cryptocurrency space continent by continent, country by country. Africa South Africa B2B Blockchain Summit to take place in Johannesburg next week: Johannesburg will be home to the first B2B Blockchain mega event take place …

South America Welcome to our weekly roundup of all important blockchain and cryptocurrency news from around the world. Follow the latest developments in the cryptocurrency space continent by continent, country by country. Brazil Blockchain data sharing platform for regulators revealed: The Brazilian Central Bank Banco Central do Brasil (BCB) has announced a new data sharing platform based on blockchain technology for …

In the first of its kind, the ‘OUR Music Festival’ (OMF) in San Francisco has opted for a DLT ticket purchase system, reports EconoTimes. The idea of running the festival using blockchain ticketing is thought to have originated to overcome a prevailing history of scalping – the purchasing of bulk numbers of tickets and reselling them at exorbitant prices, either …

A Swiss councilor has delivered a speech in Bern, Switzerland, suggesting that students at schools should be given some awareness of how digitalization works as part of the curriculum. Crypto-friendly Switzerland, with its crypto havens and government support of soft legislation for cryptocurrency exchanges, sees its entire economy being influenced by new technology, of which blockchain and cryptocurrency will both …

South Korea is showing faith in blockchain in the light of recent exchange hackings and forging ahead with blockchain developments, according to the EconoTimes. The collective hacking of Bithumb and CoinRail and loss of USD 72 million seems to have done little to dampen the enthusiasm of the Asian powerhouse. The government responded by immediately introduced a bill amendment designed to tighten …

Stanford University computer scientists have launched the Center for Blockchain Research, which will bring together faculty, post-docs, students, and visitors from the fields of computer science, economics, law, and engineering to research cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, with the ultimate goal of developing new technology. The center will be directed by Dan Boneh and David Mazieres. The Center for Blockchain Research …

The Irish co-founder of Eircoin has complained that he feels that the Banking and Payments Federation of Ireland (BPFI) is discriminating against crypto-related accounts, writes Cointelegraph. Irish Bitcoin’s (BTS) Dave Fleming has accused Irish banks of pursuing a defensive and over-regulated banking system in matters of cryptocurrency. Dave Fleming is an Irish pioneer when it comes to Bitcoin, starting his …

George Friedman said in an interview on CNBC that he believes Bitcoin and blockchain will eventually become obsolete in the near future, saying “I’ve never known any encryption technology not to be broken” and “I doubt between Russia, China, and US intelligence services that blockchain can’t be decrypted”. Friedman is a well-known geopolitical forecaster and strategist. Founder and chairman of Geopolitical …

On 19 June 2018, block #528,249 was discovered with a peculiar blockhash containing a highly improbable starting sequence of 18 consecutive zeros: ‘00000000000000000021e800c1e8df51b22c1588e5a624bea17e9faa34b2dc4a’. The ’21e8′ sequence following the zeros is also being interpreted by some as a reference to the unified field theory, i.e. the theory of everything that tries to unify all fundamental physics interactions into one theory (there is a …