From a Bitcoin mining bust in Brazil to a new atomic swap, here’s a look at some of the stories breaking in the world of crypto.
Bitcoin
Police officers in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, discovered a 25-machine Bitcoin mining operation in a home being occupied by a convicted criminal. Local news outlets report that the equipment has an estimated value of R$ 250,000, worth roughly $63,000.
Authorities made the discovery while searching for a drug trafficking suspect. Although the mining operation itself is not illegal, investigators believe the equipment was smuggled into the country from China and that the home in question, which contained an unmarked pistol and cloned license plates, may be the site of a crypto-money laundering operation for drug dealers.
Cryptocurrency adoption in Brazil is high. A leading supermarket chain in Rio de Janeiro, Oasis Supermercados, started accepting crypto last December, including Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin. Brazil also currently holds the record for the highest 24-hour Bitcoin trading volume in Latin America.
Police report that the illegal Bitcoin operation they uncovered was the first of its kind in Rio Grande do Sul.
Ethereum and NEO
Decentralized exchange Switcheo launched atomic swaps on the Ethereum and NEO blockchains. Switcheo’s atomic swaps allow clients to perform cross-chain transactions with unknown counter-parties without relying on any third party for settlement.
Switcheo vice president of engineering John Wong says,
“[Switcheo] spent a large portion of development time simplifying the process for users. By combining Atomic Swaps with an algorithmic market making backend, we are able to provide consistent liquidity in a trustless and speedy fashion, regardless of users’ knowledge level.’’
The exchange is the first to implement ETH and NEO cross-chain transactions.
Ripple and XRP
Appearing on a panel discussion called “The Road Ahead: The Future of Distributed Ledgers” hosted by the British Blockchain Association, Marjan Delatinne, global head of banking at Ripple and former head of business development at SWIFT, says that the financial industry understands the value of blockchain. But it needs to understand the position of crypto in the broader monetary system.
“When you are talking about the blockchain, you are talking as well around crypto. The story of crypto is a bit different. I think 2017 probably was the crypto party. 2018 was the crypto correction and I think 2019 will be the same trend. As long as we don’t have a global consensus about regulation – how this is going to be regulated – there will be a correction as well.”
“What is important is that the banks should understand that we don’t want to replace them, because they are part of this economy – an important and vital part of this economy. And I think as soon as they understand that the technology is not there to replace them or even crypto assets are not there to replace fiat currencies, I think they’ll feel much more comfortable about adoption.”
Litecoin
A new episode of The Lite Podcast is out. This edition covers a discussion with Lightning App developer Carla Kirk-Cohen and the beta testing of Lightning at South African exchange Luno.
Stellar
Wirex co-founder Pavel Matveev says the company’s plan to launch 26 stablecoins on the Stellar network is an effort to support mass adoption of digital assets.
In an interview with Forbes, Matveev explains,
“Joining forces with Stellar makes perfect sense for us. Both companies share the greater goal of encouraging the mass adoption of digital currencies and transforming the way people make payments.”
Tron
A new Tron-based game, Dragon Castle (DC), has launched on TRONArcade.
The game invites players to use TRX to defeat monsters in order to gain rewards in TRX and DC tokens.
Dragon Castle is the debut DAapp game from SkyPeople, a South Korean gaming company.
VeChain
During the 2019 VeChain Summit, Deloitte announced that it will be using the VeChain Thor blockchain for developing future blockchain solutions.
This is the second of the “Big Four” accounting giants to partner with the Singapore-based blockchain startup. PricewaterhouseCoopers began working with VeChain last year after purchasing a stake in the company.
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