Crypto News, June 6, 2018: Red Day

Highlights: Graph Query Protocol, Secret ASICs, and crypto goes Hollywood.

Launch: The Graph Query Protocol for Ethereum and IPFS

Source: TheGraph

The Graph, a protocol for extracting data from blockchains in a dapp-friendly format, has launched. The Graph utilizes GraphQL, a proprietary query language with syntactical roots in JSON. The protocol leverages a type system to tailor accessibility to various blockchain projects. Full details of the launch and the product can be found at the source link above.

Waltonchain Infared Chips Entering Mass Production

Source: Medium

Waltonchain has announced that its “mid-end” infared receiver chips have entered the mass production stage of development, while its low- and high-end chips are now in preparation for mass production. The chips will be part of Waltonchain’s interest in improving the Internet of Things and will be used in “air conditioners, televisions and other household appliances,” among other things.

Electroneum: Back Up

Source: Twitter | More Twitter | ETN Block Explorer

As we reported on last week, the Electroneum network continues to suffer from slow blocktimes following its fork from Ethereum. According to their Twitter, they subsequently completely shut down the network in order to speed up recovery time. As of the time of this writing, all systems appear to be go.

Parity Consensus Bug

Source: Parity

Parity Ethereum published a client issue report of severity level “critical” today, describing a consensus vulnerability on its Ropsten testnet. According to Parity, the bug could have resulted in malformed blocks being accepted as valid by the chain, and in the worst-case scenario led to chain split. The fix has already been released.

ZenCash Offers Solutions in Response to 51% Attack

Source: ZenCash

ZenCash co-founder Rob Viglione issued a statement today regarding the 51% attack on their network that we reported on last week. In the article, he asserts that the consensus protocol introduced by Satoshi is not the technical and economical infeasibility it was when the original Bitcoin whitepaper was published. To that end, he outlines potential solutions that ZenCash plans to explore. These include protocols for parallel block handling, penalties for delayed block reporting, and leveraging existing nodes as chain notaries. There were no implementation dates specified.

Sia Blockchain Co-Founder Seeks to Compete in Mining Rig Market

Source: CoinDesk

Obelisk, a new project founded by David Vorick of Sia, will seek to compete with current ASIC mining rigs by manufacturing its own mining chips. Obelisk will also work with new cryptocurrencies to develop custom proof-of-work algorithms in conjunction with the hardware than works with them, all in secret. The company will control the distribution of mining hardware to the community.

Former Ripple CTO Resurrects Codius Project

Source: Codius | Coil

Codius, a smart contracts platform independent of any one blockchain which underlies the Interledger technology, has been re-released as an open source project. Former Ripple CTO Stefan Thomas will seek to leverage the platform for Coil, a flat-rate subscription service for web-based content. Coil will aim to pay out to websites directly using Interledger-based tools in lieu of creating a proprietary content platform. The project is receiving financial and technical backing from Ripple.

Walmart & IBM Create Blockchain Food Safety Alliance

Source: News BTC

Walmart, in partnership with IBM and Tsingua University, is embracing blockchain as a supply chain management strategy. They will use it to track the “origin, safety and authenticity” of their products as well as improve supply chain efficiency. An initiative like this could have major implications for blockchain adoption, given Walmart’s size and influence as a brand.

Vietnam to Leverage Blockchain Solution for Food Quality

Source: Medium

Vietnam’s new Food Integrity Center (FIC) will look to leverage blockchain technology to improve their quality standards. They will partner with OriginTrail, who will provide the technological foundation for their supply chain initiative.

Huobi to Fund $166 Million Blockchain Development Initiative

Source: CoinDesk

Cryptocurrency exchange Huobi has announced its plan to fund the Huobi Chain Project, an initiative to create their open-source blockchain protocol and the DAO that will sit atop it. It will allow users to participate in ICOs and vote on which coins are listed on the exchange. The fund is comprised of 30 million Huobi Tokens, currently valued at $166 million. Huobi plans to invite developers to participate in the initiative on a competitive basis over the next year and a half.

Binance Sets Up Maltese Bank Account

Source: Cointelegraph

Binance has opened a bank account in Malta, according to an exclusive interview given to Cointelegraph. CEO Changpeng Zhao says he considers this a “very significant” development and hopes to see fiat-crypto trading pairs on the exchange “within the year.”

Robinhood Adds Texas to Exchange

Source: Monarch Crypto

Cryptocurrency exchange Robinhood has added the state of Texas to their platform. Robinhood currently supports BTC and ETH only.

Circle Seeks U.S. Banking License

Source: Bloomberg

Circle, the cryptocurrency platform backed by Goldman Sachs, is seeking a U.S. federal banking license, as well as SEC registration. If successful, Circle would be the first cryptocurrency platform to be accepted by U.S. regulatory agencies, though previous reports indicate that Coinbase has also approached the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) about obtaining a banking license.

Fidelity Hiring Developers for “Digital Asset Exchange”

Source: Cointelegraph

Fidelity Investments, a U.S.-based investments firm, is looking to hire developers for a cryptocurrency exchange - specifically, a systems engineer. The reports come from alleged internal correspondence.

Ripple CEO Bullish on xRapid Adoption

Source: XRP World

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse predicts that by the end of 2018, “dozens” of major banks will be using the xRapid platform as a liquidity tool. Gotta love the optimism.

VanEck & SolidX to Launch Physically-Backed Bitcoin ETF

Source: Business Wire

VanEck & SolidX will partner to develop a physically-backed BTC exchange-traded fund, with VanEck providing the marketing and SolidX funding the project. The ETF will be insured against loss or theft, and will be listed on the Cboe BZX Equities Exchange.

American Universities Investing in Cryptocurrencies

Source: Business Insider UK

A U.S. finance lawyer claims that a number of East Coast universities have begun investing in cryptocurrency hedge funds. The lawyer, who would not name the universities due to attorney-client privilege, says that the schools are “getting involved on a limited basis for strategic reasons” and that the investments thus far have been modest.

Binance Waiting for ICO Bubble to Burst

Source: Bloomberg

A few days ago, we reported on Binance’s $1 billion crypto fund for social blockchain projects. Today, Ella Zhang, in charge of investing the money, says the blockchain space won’t see “truly good projects” until the bubble bursts and the market hype dies down. It’s not an illogical position given the current volatility of the cryptocurrency markets and the sheer volume of ICOs in the space.

Brave $500,000 Promotion

Source: BAT
Referral Link

Brave has launched a promotional campaign aimed at expanding their user base. While supplies last, it will give away $500,000 in BAT, its proprietary token, for users to put back into the Brave ecosystem by rewarding content creators. (Hey, did we mention our referral link? Yes? Well, there it is again.)

Airdrops

Source: HadesCoin | SiacashCoin

Check out the links above for FREE MONEY!*

*maybe.

Cryptocurrency Comedy Premiering in London

Source: Crypto Coin Spy

KevCoin, an award-winning movie about cryptocurrency, will premiere in London on June 27th. The film follows an out-of-work roadie as he attempts to launch the title coin. Shenanigans ensue.

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