1) Two Days After the Sudden Death of Regulating Official, South Korea Gives 'Green Light' to Cryptocurrency

This story is absolutely wild; here is a timeline of events

January 30th: South Korea bans cryptocurrency traders from using anonymous accounts
February 18th: South Korean Regulating Official who guided Seoul’s regulatory clampdown on cryptocurrencies was found dead of supposed 'heart attack'.
February 20th: South Korea’s financial regulator says the government will support “normal transactions” of cryptocurrencies, about three weeks after it banned their trading through anonymous bank accounts.

Sources:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-southkorea-bitcoin/south-korea-to-ban-cryptocurrency-traders-from-using-anonymous-bank-accounts-idUSKBN1FC069

https://www.wsj.com/articles/south-korean-cryptocurrency-regulator-found-dead-at-home-1519093020?mod=e2tw

https://verifiedtopics.com/south-korea-greenlights-cryptocurrencies/

2) Vitalik Buterin, Founder of Ethereum, Has New Idea of ICO's

Vitalik believes investors need more control over ICOs. In Buterin's post, he describes a smart contract in which token holders vote to set two mechanisms: a "tap" and a "refund." First, the tap is the rate at which the smart contract would allow the issuing team to draw down ether from the smart contract that holds funds raised in a crowdsale. "The intention is that the voters start off by giving the development team a reasonable and not-too-high monthly budget, and raise it over time as the team demonstrates its ability to competently execute with its existing budget," Buterin said in the post.

https://www.coindesk.com/vitalik-new-idea-icos-tested/

3) Man Bets Twitter That IOTA Does Not Work; Proceeds to Lose $1000

Owner of Shitcoin.com was having some difficulties with the IOTA wallet when challenged his followers to show a successful transaction and synced wallet of IOTA. They did.

Since we think no one is able to run an #IOTA full node, We will tip $25 here on Twitter for every screenshot of a fully synced IOTA wallet with a balance and a transaction history with at least one send.
Shitcoin.com (@ShitcoinDotCom) February 18, 2018

Source: https://twitter.com/ShitcoinDotCom/status/965370339999014913

4) Western Union Experiments With Ripple’s ‘xRapid’

Not a fan of Ripple, but this is still news. Last week, Western Union officially confirmed that it has been testing transactions using Ripple’s platform. Neither Western Union nor Ripple mentioned whether or not the RippleNet (which does not typically use XRP tokens for international transfers) was being tested. It’s also unclear whether or not the relationship will expand beyond this testing phase.

https://www.financemagnates.com/cryptocurrency/news/rumors-true-western-union-experiments-ripples-xrapid/

5) 500 Startups, Huobi Lab Team Up to Incubate Blockchain Projects

Tech incubators like YCombinator and 500 Startups are the origin of some great companies like AirBNB, Dropbox, Stripe, Udemy, and many others. Today, the Silicon Valley startup accelerator '500 Startups', announced that it is partnering with cryptocurrency exchange Huobi's incubator wing, Huobi Lab. The two companies will support startups in various areas, including developing business plans, focusing on elements such as white papers, marketing strategies, community engagement and fundraising efforts, the accelerator said in a press release.

Source: https://www.coindesk.com/500-startups-huobi-lab-team-up-to-incubate-blockchain-projects/

My name is Zachary Dash, a crypto enthusiast and entrepreneur from Austin, TX. Everyday, I publish exclusive and original crypto content onto steemit. If you find value in this information and would like to support my mission to inspire the mainstream adoption of crypto, please upvote this post or donate directly.
More About Me

#crypto #steemit #bitcoin #investing