Every week we make a digest about the most significant news in crypto with bloggers and crypto community members, but this week we decided to find out what companies’ representatives and media think about all things crypto.
Please enjoy and don’t forget to add your favorites to your CoinJoy Feed!
Projects And Updates
?? European Bitcoin Exchange BL3P To Remove Litecoin (LTC)
Netherlands based Bitcoin exchange BL3P decided to remove LTC from the platform from May, 10, 2021. From this date users won’t be able to trade LTC or to send the assets on their BL3P account, if there still will be any LTC remaining they will be converted to BTC and added to users Bitcoin balance on BL3P. Litecoin was added to the platform in 2017 and was often used as a cheap way to perform transactions between exchanges. But after Segwit was activated on the Bitcoin network making it more efficient, BL3P doesn’t see the need of LTC anymore and wants to focus on Bitcoin and similar concepts.
?? Goldman Sachs Looking To Step In The Crypto Offering Pool By 2nd Quarter
Goldman Sachs bank is planning to offer digital assets to its clients as a part of private wealth management services by the second quarter of 2021. The private wealth services are focused on working with investors with more than 425 million to put it, and as the crypto market continues to grow rapidly Goldman Sachs doesn’t want to miss the trend and considers it as a way for successful expansion. According to the report, the bank may offer Bitcoin investments funds similar to the competitor Morgan Stanley bank. Mary Rich will lead this direction, as she will be working with the clients, helping them with having a full picture of the possibilities of the crypto investments.
“There’s a contingent of clients who are looking to this asset as a hedge against inflation, and the macro backdrop over the past year has certainly played into that. There are also a large contingent of clients who feel like we’re sitting at the dawn of a new Internet in some ways and are looking for ways to participate in this space,” — Mary Rich, Goldman Sachs
?? Cardano: Block Production Is 100% Decentralized
On March 31 the d parameter of Cardano network finally came to 0, which means that from now on the block production of the network became completely decentralized. The parameter was set at 1 after implementation of Shelley upgrade through Hard Fork Combinator and every 5 days its value was decreasing allowing Stake Pool Operators to create more and more blocks. By now all the Cardano blocks are produced by the members of its community including more than 200 SPOs that are getting rewards for securing and decentralizing the network. Soon we can expect the Alonzo hard fork that will finally add smart contracts functionality on Cardano. According to the announced by Charles Hoskinson roadmap it’s now planned for August, 2021.
“This is a process which will continue throughout the rest of this year. Peer to peer network decentralization is next in our sights, along with implementing advanced governance features to hand control of the blockchain over to the Cardano community,” — Aparna Jue, Product Director at IOHK
?? Tesla Just Helped Patch A Bug In Bitcoin Payment Processor BTCPay
Reviewing BTCpay service project on GitHub Tesla Company discovered a bug in the processor that was affecting the users ejecting BTCPay from Docker deployment, using configured email service and permitted user registration from Server settings. The car maker company also helped to patch the defect, contributing to the Bitcoin community once again.
?? IOTA Token Launches On BINANCE Smart Chain
IOTa launched on the Binance Smart Chain which is increasingly gaining popularity and becoming a base for numerous blockchain projects due to its scalability and comparably low transaction fees. This step boosts IOTAs liquidity to multiple networks. The wrapped version of IOTA — BER20 was launched on BSC and the holders of original tokens can swap them using Binance Bridge at the 1:1 rate. BEP 20 IOTA token allows the holder to participate in the other protocols on the BSC system, such as staking and DeFi projects. The IOTA team is also considering expanding to the other popular blockchain networks as well.
”Cross Chain liquidity is the pillar of any decentralized ecosystem. The IOTA ecosystem grows and becomes more decentralized by making IOTA liquidity available to other networks,” — IOTA team
Regulations
?? Despite No laws, Indian Minister Says Traders Must Pay Taxes On Bitcoin
Anurag Singh Thakur, the Minister of State for the Finance Ministry of India declared on March 29 that the tax is to be paid from any gains from trading Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency. So far the sector was existing in a legal “grey area”, but this statement means now Indian investors have to declare their gains. The official explained that as stated in the Income Tax Act, income from any source should be declared regardless if it was specifically mentioned or not unless it was exempted. He also acknowledged that the government doesn’t maintain the data on citizens' crypto earnings as there is no provision telling them to do so in the law. Thakur also added that Indian government soon will take a decision about cryptocurrencies which is eagerly awaited on the background of the gossip about crypto ban in India from the very beginning of 2021.
Mass Adoption
?? PayPal to Enable Customers to Pay with Crypto at 29 Million Merchants Worldwide
PayPal Holdings. Inc will allow its customers from the US to pay with their digital assets (Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash) in 29 million merchants across the globe. Right now the check-out service for instant conversion of crypto to fiat without transaction fees is being worked out. The option is planned to be ready in a few months and will appear in the PayPal wallets. The merchants will be able to convert the coins into local fiat currency except US dollar at the standard PayPal rate. By implementing this option PayPal will eliminate any volatility risks for the clients which will help to push the cryptocurrencies further to the mainstream adoption.
“We think it is a transitional point where cryptocurrencies move from being predominantly an asset class that you buy, hold and or sell to now becoming a legitimate funding source to make transactions in the real world at millions of merchants.” — Dan Schulman, PayPal CEO and President.
?? Visa Enable Payment Settlements Via Crypto
Leading payment company Visa announced that USDC is now accepted as a means of payment on the Visa network for CRYPTO.COM users, so the customers can perform transactions without converting stablecoin to fiat when it’s made within Visa. This initiative is caused by the recent partnership between Visa and one of the biggest crypto exchanges Crypto.com and California-based crypto bank, Anchorage as well. Visa is planning to offer the same services to its other partners as well, which is a large set of more than 30 services, including COINBASE and BlockFi. Cuy Sheffield, Head of Crypto at Visa explained that this step was caused by the increased demand from the users to have a product that allows consumers to easily access the digital assets.
“Crypto-native fintechs want partners who understand their business and the complexities of digital currency,” — Jack Forestell, Chief Product Officer of Visa
?? General Motors May Follow Tesla in Accepting Bitcoin Payments but Will Not Invest in Bitcoin
At General Motors fourth quarter earning conference , company CEO, Mary Barra admitted that the car producer may start accepting Bitcoin as a payment method for its products, if there will be relevant market requests for it. The company was researching customers’ opinions on making crypto full or part payment. Also answering the analyst Morgan Stanley question, she said that General Motors isn’t having plans to invest in the leading cryptocurrency.
“If there’s strong customer demand for it in the future, there’s nothing that precludes us from doing that,” — Mary Barra, General Motors CEO
Hacking
?? 3.5 Million Customers KYC Information Leaked in Alleged MobiKwik Hack
On March, 29 the tweet from the user Alliot Anderson appeared on Twitter saying that Indian wallet and payment service provider MobiKwik was hacked with nearly 8,2 Tb of information leaked. Founded in 2009, the service offers small loans to the users, which require submitting KYC (know your customer) information. Even though the service is denying the attack and saying that “some media-crazed so-called security researchers” keep posting fake hacking news, while no attacks have been found by the service developers, the KYC data appeared for sale on the dark web forum for hackers at 1,5 BTC price. The seller made a service where you can find specific results in 8,1 Tb of data. Each database entry can bring from $500 to $1000 of Indian loans and the seller declares that he had already acquired some data. As a proof the samples of the data acquire MobiKwik QR codes.
“We thoroughly investigated and did not find any security lapses. Our user and company data is completely safe and secure,” — MobiKwik
People
?? Snoop Dogg’s First NFT Collection: A Journey With The Dogg
Popular American rapper Snoop Dog is setting his first NFT collection in collaboration with Crypto.com. It will be realized on April 2 and includes eight pieces in total: original tracks from the artist; one named NFT is devoted to the pumping present trend, and artworks related to the rapper’s life. The NFT will be set on the auction and one more art piece named “Snoop Doge Coins'' will be available only an hour after the launch. The money raised will partly go to support new artists that are trying to get their place in the Crypto world and also to support the artist's youth football league.
?? In A Recent Live Stream “Price And Value” Cardano CEO Said Ada Price Can Rise To $10 In Future
Charles Hoskinson said he believes ADA price will rise up to $10 even though he doesn’t like price predictions and will work for the project no matter if the token price will be 1 cent or 100 dollars. So far Cardano price increased 6700 percent in a single year from being 0,018 in March, 2020 to around $1,21 at the moment of publishing. But Hoskinson seems not to care for the price and is more interested in the technical possibilities of the project. But for investors the materialistic future of Cardano looks very promising with its upcoming deal with Euphoria and smart contracts placement on the network in April.
“I don’t know why the price is going up. I don’t know why the price is falling, and I don’t want to have anything to do with speculations about these particular things. It’s not my job as an engineer scientist to get the price up,” — Charles Hoskinson, CEO of Cardano
Prices
That’s all for now! For more info follow us on Twitter, subscribe to our YouTube channel, join our Telegram.
The content of this article is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as investment advice. We ask you to do your research.
