Switzerland will host the Swiss Blockchain Hackathon later this year in a bid to help companies find real-life applications of blockchain technology, according to an announcement published on Feb. 27. The three-day event is reportedly organized by Switzerland’s six leading blockchain and IT organizations — Trust Square, Bitcoin Association Switzerland, CV Labs, Crypto Valley Association (CVA), Swiss Blockchain Federation and swissICT — and will take place from June 21 to June 23, 2019. Per the announcement, the hackathon is designed to facilitate the deployment of blockchain across a wide range of industry sectors and help find the technology’s tangible applications …

Global professional services firm Accenture is working with major global firms including Mastercard to introduce a blockchain-based circular supply chain, according to a press release published on Feb. 25. An active user of blockchain and digital ledger technology, Accenture now intends to employ the tech as a key component to boost the circular supply chain. The term circular supply chain encompasses all stages on the supply chain, from the beginning to the end, in order to eliminate waste and improve sustainability for the environment. Within the announced initiative, Accenture is collaborating with major global companies including cloud computing firm Amazon …

The development software of corporate-oriented cryptocurrency Ontology (ONT) has been added to the Google Cloud Platform Marketplace, a Medium post from Ontology revealed on Feb. 23. The newly supported software, called ont_dev_Platform, is a set of tools for developing smart contracts on Ontology’s blockchain. The DApp product includes a block explorer, a smart contract Integrated Development Environment (IDE), SmartX, and an Ontology test environment. According to the announcement, this addition makes the project “one of the first public blockchains to have a development platform on the leading cloud provider marketplaces.” This statement is referring to the fact that Ontology is …

Shoppers of e-commerce giant Amazon would like to be able to purchase a wider variety of products, including cryptocurrency, according to a recent report published by a financial portal Investing.com. In the course of the survey, Investing.com reportedly surveyed over 1,000 Amazon shoppers in order to discover ordering frequency and the trust level customers have in the company. Notably, the survey polled customers on what products they are comfortable buying under an Amazon brand. When asked what kind of products they feel comfortable buying under the Amazon brand, 12.7 percent of the respondents named cryptocurrencies. Other hypothetical Amazon-branded products included …

One of the cryptocurrency industry’s best-known figures confirmed he still believes online retail giant Amazon cannot avoid issuing its own altcoin, in a tweet Feb. 2. Discussing the internet business sector more broadly, Changpeng Zhao — CEO of top crypto exchange Binance — said it was not so much a question of if, as of when Amazon will issue its own coin. The retail giant has made efforts to adopt forms of blockchain technology in the past, but its relationship with cryptocurrency remains tied to rumors. Such rumors periodically appear in the press, including those that Amazon could integrate Bitcoin …

A site enabling consumers to buy Bitcoin using hundreds of different payment methods says demand is thriving despite declining cryptocurrency prices — with Africa being its biggest market. Paxful says the volume of transactions it has processed from the continent has risen by more than 130 percent — and now, an average of 17,351 trades per day are being made by its users in Africa. As well as enabling consumers to buy crypto using debit cards and platforms such as PayPal, the company has carved a niche in the market by allowing users to exchange gift cards and vouchers for …

Crypto markets might need more than a decade to regain 2017’s price highs, but the industry will a “dramatically different ecosystem at that point,” according to top altcoin Cardano’s (ADA) founder, Charles Hoskinson. The industry expert made his comments in an interview with Cointelegraph at the Crypto Finance Conference, Jan. 17. Hoskinson compared crypto’s major growth spurt in 2017 with Amazon’s performance during the dot-com bubble. The entrepreneur — who is also the co-founder of Ethereum (ETH) — noted that it took 11-12 years for the internet giant to recover its all-time highs at the peak of the bubble. He …

Bitcoin has been among the most fascinating tradable assets to watch over the last year. From reaching dazzling new heights to its most recent tumble to fresh one-year lows, the cryptocurrency market has been nothing short of exciting when attempting to characterize its volatile ebb and flow. Amid the growing chorus of enthusiasts, activists and investors calling for greater adoption — and more importantly, the launch of new financial instruments designed to give the budding new asset class greater exposure — Bitcoin prices have become a bellwether for the market. While still difficult to nail down an exact characterization of …

Bitcoin (BTC) still has “lower to go” despite its bull run to above $4,000 last week, Morgan Creek Digital Assets founder Anthony Pompliano told CNBC on Dec. 26. Speaking in an interview, Pompliano, who is also a frequent markets commentator on social media, became the latest figure to claim Bitcoin markets will only bottom out when the price drifts below $3,000. “Short term, I actually think we have lower to go,” he told the network. In November, Pompliano had predicted a plunge to $3,000 for BTC/USD, which subsequently occurred earlier this month. Since then, prices across the crypto markets have …

The views expressed here are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of Cointelegraph.com. The way I see it, investors in 2017 — and specifically in Q4 — wanted to buy Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) for the sole purpose of exchanging it for specific ICO tokens they wanted to invest in. The buyers of Bitcoin and Ethereum did not want to own Bitcoin or Ethereum. They wanted to buy the newly issued initial coin offering (ICO) tokens, but they needed to buy Bitcoin and Ethereum as a short way to get what they ultimately wanted. The …

Where do loyalty programs fit in? This marketing tool has been suffering issues for years. In the non-crypto world, consumers are overwhelmed by the number of schemes offered by retailers and are disappointed by the rewards. Blockchain projects are hoping to inject some innovation into this sector by offering schemes which are meaningful to shoppers. The startup behind Elipay — Eligma — says its approach involves a universal loyalty scheme. Instead of carrying around a wallet full of cash and credit cards, consumers will be able to shop and receive rewards from a plethora of merchants in one place. The …

Coming every Sunday, the Hodler’s Digest will help you to track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions, and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link. Top Stories This Week Nasdaq Notes Bitcoin Futures Could Launch in Quarter 1 2019, Bloomberg Reports Major U.S. stock exchange Nasdaq still intends to launch Bitcoin futures, and may do so in the first quarter of 2019, according to “two people familiar with the matter.” Speaking to Bloomberg this week, the two unnamed sources note that Nasdaq …