KPMG has built a suite of tools designed to help both traditional financial companies and fintech startups provide tightly managed crypto-asset services. Targeting institutional clients, the new KPMG Chain Fusion product lets customers manage their data in compliance with regulations around financial reporting, security and processing needs. The suite allows these customers to collect and
Technology
Software firm BlackBerry and tech giant Intel have joined the fight against crypto-mining malware with the launch of a detection tool for Intel’s commercial PCs. Dubbed the the BlackBerry Optics Context Analysis Engine, the tool utilizes “unique” processor telemetry from Intel’s Threat Detection Technology and a mix of machine learning and artificial intelligence in order
Crypto exchanges OKCoin and BitMEX recently partnered to sponsor a prolific open-source Bitcoin Core contributor, Amiti Uttarwar. Uttarwar is an alumna of Coinbase, the bitcoin custody startup Xapo and the Chaincode Labs residency. Over the past two years, she’s quickly become one of the industry’s most sought-after developers. According to Chaincode residency organizer Adam Jonas,
The latest blockchain to announce a token redeemable for bitcoin (BTC) is Polkadot. It’s only a proof-of-concept at this point and Polkadot is running but not usable yet, but a company called Interlay has designed a model under a Web3 Foundation grant for locking BTC on the Bitcoin blockchain and minting what it’s calling PolkaBTC
Algorand’s blockchain platform has been selected by the International Chess Federation (FIDE) to record the ratings and titles of players. In an announcement on Thursday, Algorand said it will record FIDE Online Arena World Chess players’ data and provide a transparent platform where participants can view game information that’s updated in real time. FIDE Online
It’s hard to pick just one stunning fact about the market suddenly created by the issuance of Compound’s COMP token. Since Monday, when the governance token started being released to users of tht decentralized lending platform, the total value locked (TVL) on Compound has broken $200 million for the first time, according to DeFi Pulse,
Ethereum’s consensus algorithm is not the only thing changing with the launch of Eth 2.0. The underlying cryptography itself is getting an overhaul based on leading research out of the Electric Coin Company. Called BLS12-381, the new elliptic pairing curve will securely coordinate transactions on the proof-of-stake (PoS) Eth 2.0 network, while opening up opportunities
A “high severity vulnerability” was found and patched in Ethereum wallet Argent, according to leading white-hat hackers OpenZeppelin. Disclosed Friday, OpenZeppelin security researcher Alice Henshaw discovered a vulnerability within Argent that would have allowed user funds to be drained from wallets that did not have Argent’s “guardian” feature. According to an OpenZepplin blog post and
The token for the decentralized finance (DeFi) app Compound, COMP, hit an all-time high of $231 on Friday. Now startups built on top of the lending protocol are considering what to do about this sudden windfall. Compound was built from the beginning as a simple marketplace for placing collateral and borrowing money. The intention was
Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency platform Crypto.com has revamped its digital exchange. The new upgrades are expected to increase the performance and throughput of the exchange tenfold, the company announced Thursday. Changes include improvements to speed, scalability and security. The Crypto.com exchange launched in beta at the end of last year. The exchange is one of many
Reddit is anticipating big demand for its Ethereum-based “Community Points” system only one month after rolling out the product. Now the social media site is looking for a scaling solution. Posted in the r/Ethereum subreddit Thursday, Reddit announced a partnership with the Ethereum Foundation to find a Layer 2 (L2) scaling technique for the site’s
Coronavirus is ravaging the globe, canceling presidential primaries in the U.S. and calling into question the wisdom of having lawmakers, many of them elderly, sitting close together as votes are held in Congress. Lawmakers, especially Democrats, have sought to expand mail-in voting, and perhaps give some voters the opportunity to vote digitally through their laptops
A slew of investors is backing bitcoin brokerage River Financial to the tune of $5.7 million. Announced Wednesday, the San Francisco-based startup has closed a seed round joined by Polychain Capital, Slow Ventures, Castle Island Ventures, DG Lab Fund, Cygni, Pfeffer Capital and IDEO CoLab Ventures, according to a release from the firm. Several individual
Ryde, Singapore’s first carpooling app, will now let customers pay for rides with bitcoin. Starting next week, its users will be able to store and convert bitcoin to the company’s RydeCoin with zero transaction costs, the company announced Wednesday. Customers can top up a maximum of S$999 (just over $700) in bitcoin at a time
China’s second-largest online retailer, JD.com, is teaming with blockchain privacy platform ARPA to protect the financial data of major clients. Specifically, the data platform for the firm’s subsidiary JD Digits (formerly JD Finance) will integrate with ARPA’s blockchain-based network, which uses technology known as secure multi-party computation (sMPC). JD Digits was formed to help other
Researchers in Australia have identified a bug that caused that country’s contact tracing app to malfunction, it was announced Monday. Governments around the world have introduced contact tracing apps to track the spread of the coronavirus. But, as in Australia, so far it’s unclear how much of a benefit these systems are having. Critics complain