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Russian News Outlet Calls for Crypto Donations as Kremlin Cracks Down on Media

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Meduza, one of Russia's leading independent news organizations, called for donations in fiat, bitcoin, ether and BNB after Russian authorities labeled it a "foreign agent" last week. The label, basically marking Meduza as an "enemy of the state," can hurt its ability to contact sources and report news, the team said in a statement. "They are trying to kill Meduza," the team said in another editorial statement. "The Ministry of Justice deemed us a 'foreign agent.' As a result, we lost our advertisers. It means that our funds are running out. Right now." On April 23, the Russian Justice Ministry designated Meduza as a foreign agent, which means the journalists will have to mark every article they write as published by a foreign agent. They will also have to submit detailed financial reports every quarter. According to the editor-in-chief, Ivan Kolpakov, on Monday many advertisers pulled out. Because of the financial urgency, Meduza laun...

As Ether Pushes Ever Higher, Crypto Traders Plot Price in Bitcoin Term

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ther (ETH), the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum blockchain and the second-biggest overall, reached a fresh record high early Wednesday, widening its lead over market leader bitcoin (BTC). The trend looks set to continue, with ETH/BTC (the ether-bitcoin price ratio) breaking out to a multi-year high in a sign of increased capital flow into ether. Ether rose to $2,800, surpassing the peak price of $2,762 reached Wednesday, according to CoinDesk 20 data. The cryptocurrency has rallied by 43% so far this month, decoupling from bitcoin, down 7%. The ETH/BTC ratio has jumped to 2.5-year highs above 0.050, confirming a major bullish breakout on technical charts. "ETH/BTC has broken out after a multi-year consolidation, and the trend looks very strong," Pankaj Balani, co-founder and CEO of the Singapore-based Delta Exchange, said. "There are no further resistances here, and we expect to see ETH/BTC push through 0.10 eventually." The implication is the ongoing capital ...

High-level Overview of Lisk Interoperabilit

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We already revealed that the Lisk interoperability solution aims to enable general cross-chain messages. In this blog post, we now explain how this is achieved by providing a high-level overview of the Lisk interoperability solution similar to the online presentation given in the "First Glimpse at Lisk Interoperability" at the Lisk Updates from the Lisk Center, Berlin event from November 2020. Moreover, we can now unveil our updated roadmap that contains all the objectives of the blockchain interoperability phase. Technical Solution Our interoperability solution is based on the paradigm of cross-chain certification introduced in detail in the previous research blog post "Introduction to Blockchain Interoperability". Basically, cross-chain certification means that information from one chain is submitted to another chain utilizing a signed object called a certificate. Let us see more specifically how this will work in the Lisk ecosystem. Cross-Chain Update Transaction...

Neo N3 Official TestNet Launch

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After 5 Preview versions, the first release version of Neo N3 (Neo N3 RC1) has been released on 16th March 2021. The most significant upgrade in this version is the integration of NeoFS system into the Oracle module. Numerous improvements and fixes have also been applied in this version for State Root service, Policy native contract, opcodes and etc. NGD will perform the Neo N3 RC1 TestNet upgrade from UTC 6:00AM to 9:00AM, 25th March 2021. The TestNet might be temporarily unstable during this period. We are sorry for any inconvenience caused. The comprehensive list of improvements and optimizations in this version: NeoFS API Completion & Integration into Oracle neofs-api-csharp is now completed and has been integrated into the Oracle plugin in this version. The NeoFS master nodes in this TestNet are now Neo-go nodes by NeoSPCC and will operate as a side chain. Neo nodes will interact with them through the NeoFS API. These Go nodes will be fully migrated to corresponding Neo master...

GET Protocol — The ticket NFT production line

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getNFTs are rolling off the production belt! After a full year of focusing on testing locally the first getNFT mints have finally hit the public ledger over the last weeks. Over the last 72 hours more than 35 000+ getNFTs have been minted by GETs 'playground' runner. This runner is only the mocking the back-filling of 120 000 backlogged tickets in our system. The actual back-filling of the tickets will be done if the mocked back-filling is completed. Isn't minting easy? It is. However it isn't the mint that we are testing here. The process of minting and back-filling involves far more complex actions as only the minting transaction. Before a mint transaction is sent to the getNFT contract on-chain a lot has happend in the backend of both the ticketeer as well in GETs servers running the getEngine and getCustody. It is these processes that require attention and monitoring. The diagram below gives a rough overview of what is going on behind the scenes. Diagram showing all...

Cryptocurrency Adoption Passes Another Milestone Surpassing 100 Million Users

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According to a new study conducted by Crypto.com, the total number of global cryptocurrency users has surpassed 100 million for the first time ever. The study, which measured the cryptocurrency marketplace's size using onchain metrics, survey analysis, and internal data, recorded 106 million cryptocurrency users in January 2021. Compared to December 2020, the 106 million users represent a 15.7% increase in just one month. What's fueling the growth of the crypto market? According to Crypto.com's research, it comes down to bitcoin adoption momentum. Eric Anziani, Crypto.com COO had this to say to Bitcoin.com regarding the research's findings: Our study improves upon previously used methods to find a clear trend of growing cryptocurrency ownership. As more companies and merchants adopt cryptocurrencies as a treasury asset and means of payment, we expect 2021 to be a banner year for crypto mass adoption, bringing us ever closer to our vision of 'Cryptocurrency in Every ...

MoneyGram suspends Ripple relationship over SEC lawsuit

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MoneyGram has suspended its relationship with Ripple Labs, citing the legal uncertainty surrounding the company. In its latest earnings report, the Dallas, Texas-based firm said it would no longer be using Ripple's XRP remittance solution until the payments firm sorts out its legal issues with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). MoneyGram partnered with Ripple in January 2018, becoming one of the first payments service providers to pilot Ripple's xRapid solution. xRapid allows companies to transfer funds across borders using XRP without the need for pre-funded nostro accounts. Three years later, MoneyGram has suspended the service. In its 2020 financial results report, the company stated: "In addition, the Company is not planning for any benefit from Ripple market development fees in the first quarter. Due to the uncertainty concerning their ongoing litigation with the SEC, the Company has suspended trading on Ripple's platform. In the first quarter of 2...