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Cloud-based supply chain company Tradeshift said it would push blockchain development with cash it received from its latest funding round Wednesday, May 30. The Series E round, which included Goldman Sachs among its major contributors, was worth $250 mln, bringing the total investment funding to over $400 mln. Identifying key areas for growth, Tradeshift noted both blockchain and artificial intelligence, which it will pursue via its Frontiers innovation lab which it launched in January this year. "We have always believed that the future of supply chains is 100 percent digital and that connecting trade is just the first step to a digitally connected economy," Tradeshift CEO and co-founder Christian Lanng said in an accompanying press release, continuing: "This investment will enable us to continue our rapid growth and consolidate our leadership position. We welcome Goldman Sachs and PSP Investments as our newest investors and look forward to their valuable contributions a...

Localbitcoincash.org offers an escrow service so buyers and sellers can trade Bitcoin Cash (BCH) in a peer-to-peer fashion. The platform was launched in October 2017 in its beta stage and has seen a lot of changes since then. Localbitcoincash (LBC) pretty much offers the same services as its BTC counterpart Localbitcoins but also has a variety of other options for users. Since our last review, the website looks and feels completely different as the colors are now green and black in contrast to its older orange look. The front page shows a step-by-step walkthrough detailing how to use LBC alongside a list of buyers and sellers below this field. The Localbitcoincash.org exchange. LBC's Fiat and Crypto-to-Crypto Exchange The sidebar to the left has a bunch of different options which include the fiat exchange where users can swap BCH for fiat currencies. Looking at the list of buyers and sellers on Localbitcoincash shows the platform seems to be getting a fair share of users. People fr...

US-based financial corporation American Express is researching how blockchain technology can provide solutions to issues such as fraud and identity protection. More and more financial services companies are exploring how blockchain technology can make a difference, not only in their existing processes but also in providing improved user experiences for their clientele. AMEX ON BOARD THE BLOCKCHAIN TRAIN Mastercard is turning to the crypto-supporting technology as is American Express. According to TechRadar, the latter will make a concerted effort to research how blockchain may not only protect their customers against fraud but also how it can keep their identities safe too. While at the Oktane18 conference in Las Vegas, the company's VP of technology, Tereasa Kastel, chatted about the future blockchain plans of American Express: American Express is a very innovative company. They were working on blockchain specifically for financial transactions, but we were starting to explore wha...

Employees of a regional police department in Ukraine were recently caught mining cryptocurrencies using the department's resources, according to the court document. They had been mining for four months before they got caught and their mining farm seized. Police Mining Farm Discovered Police Officers in Ukraine Caught Secretly Mining Crypto at Work for Four MonthsEmployees of the National Police of Ukraine reportedly set up a cryptocurrency mining farm in their workplace and mined cryptocurrencies for four months before they were caught, local media reported this week. The employees work at the Rivne Oblast regional police headquarters' Communications Department. This information was revealed in the Rivne City Court document number No. 569/8710/18, Finclub reported. Ukrainian news agency Glavcom elaborated, "In April of this year, employees of the Department of Homeland Security of the Police Headquarters in Rivne Oblast identified the [crypto mining] equipment at the offic...

Bitfinex, an exchange famed for its opaque banking arrangements, has begun ordering its users to submit their tax details. The platform, which is registered in the British Virgin Islands, a known tax haven, will retain this information and may share it with tax authorities in their customers' jurisdiction. The news has caused quite a stir. Bitfinex Wants Your Tax Details In an email issued to a portion of its users, Bitfinex has outlined a new KYC policy. Not content with knowing the identity and location of its customers, it now wants their tax details. It has been stated that this is to accord with local laws in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) where the exchange is registered. The platform's tax data gathering won't stop there however: it notes that the BVI government "may then exchange that information with the tax authorities of the customer's country of residence". Up until a few months ago, Bitfinex didn't even enforce basic KYC for its users. It...

It's been well over a day since the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) network upgraded its protocol, and the consensus rules now come with a 32MB block size. Although the block size increase is quite a feat, BCH developers have also expanded the network's default data-carrier-size to 220 Bytes and re-enabled some old Satoshi OP_Codes that were previously removed from earlier codebases. Now over the past 24-hours, lots of people have been playing around with the new BCH features. Experimenting With the New Bitcoin Cash OP_Codes Lots of BCH community members have been discussing the new OP_Code features and the additional space added to the network's default data-carrier-size. The first signs of people messing around with the new features came from the Memo and Blockpress developers as both platform's increased posting character limit from 79 to 217. Both Memo and Blockpress (featured above) now have 217 characters. This means users of both social media applications can now post more co...

Blockchain technology has revolutionised the modern world. Transactions and exchanges on a global scale have never been easier, as we begin to unlock the full potential of the blockchain. The implementation of blockchain technology has completely revamped a number of industries. However, so many different blockchain systems are incompatible, interoperability has previously been impossible. ARK is an innovative blockchain startup that seeks to bridge this gap. By incorporating an all-encompassing blockchain network ARK is beginning to realise the potential of the blockchain through "smartbridge" technology. ALL-IN-ONE BLOCKCHAIN SOLUTIONS ARK is offering users, developers and blockchain startups a way to communicate across platforms. Using smartbridge technology users from one blockchain can trigger an event in another blockchain such as sending compatible tokens. Once the user from the initial chain executes an order, ARK will transfer the information to the other chain, whic...

A U.S. state has issued emergency cease and desist orders to two companies and related persons purportedly engaged in cryptocurrency investment schemes. The first company posted videos of three mining farms composed of online stock images, according to the order. Both companies made numerous materially misleading claims and violated U.S. securities laws. Bitcoin Trading & Cloud Mining Limited Texas State Securities Board. The Texas State Securities Board has issued "an emergency cease and desist order" to London-based Bitcoin Trading & Cloud Mining Limited, also known as Btcrush. Also included in the order are the company's sole director and shareholder Jaylon Cross, founder and CEO Bruce Rodgerson, Chief Marketing Officer Robin Lozinski, and sales agent Thomas A. Johnson. Btcrush is self-described on its website as "a cloud-based cryptocurrency mining company that mines bitcoin and altcoins and profits from selling altcoins for bitcoins." The company pr...

Do you want to support UNICEF's goal of making the world a better place for less fortunate kids? Turns out now you can, just by visiting a website and volunteering your computer's processing power. UNICEF Australia has turned to crypto mining to fund its humanitarian causes, and it's counting on support from the public. While there have been widespread cases of people's computing power being used to mine cryptos, this initiative is different, as it's dedicated to funding UNICEF as it endeavors to provide humanitarian assistance to children and mothers. THE HOPEPAGE UNICEF Australia has launched The Hopepage, a website with a simple interface that calls on visitors to "Give Hope, Just By Being Here." Once one visits the site, he or she is prompted to click a 'Start Donating' button that lets them start donating their computer's processing power right away. One also gets the option to determine just how much of their processing power they will do...

Bitcoin is often accused by regulators, governments and central bankers as being a tool for money laundering by criminal organizations, usually without presenting any evidence. A new report from Hong Kong, a major international financial hub and nexus for trade between China and the whole world, spells this out clearly.  No Evidence of Money Laundering Bitcoin Is Not Used by Organized Crime Syndicates Says Hong Kong GovernmentThe government of Hong Kong has published on Monday its 2018 Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (ML/TF) Risk Assessment Report. The paper examines threats and vulnerabilities facing the city with regards to the recommendation of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the inter-governmental body that sets international standards on combating ML and TF. Addressing the issue of bitcoin, the report reveals that Hong Kong Police Force monitoring indicates no apparent sign of organized crime or ML/TF concerning the trading of cryptocurrencies. Moreover investigat...