A former baseball player has created a non-fungible token, time-sensitive artwork piece that allows crypto holders to donate Bitcoin to enable two African American boys to fulfill their dreams. According to a representative for the artist, former Tampa Bay Rays player Micah Johnson, marketplace Async Art will be making NFT artwork available starting on Oct. 29. The NFT is programmed to show the effects that Bitcoin (BTC) donations will have on the two children, represented by a door opening wider with each passing year. Each year on the boys’ respective birthdays, a BTC QR code will appear directing all NFT …

During the annual Swell conference, Ripple announced a contribution of $10 million to Mercy Corps to help it use digital assets in its work on developing financial inclusion in emerging markets. Mercy Corps is a nongovernmental, humanitarian aid organization that aims to create economic opportunities in countries where the financial system isn’t operating properly. The organization claims to have assisted over 220 million people survive various humanitarian conflicts. According to an announcement, Mercy Corps will partner with Ripple and its nonprofit RippleWorks to support solutions that include digital assets and cryptocurrencies. Speaking at the conference, Scott Onder, senior managing director …

Peer-to-peer cryptocurrency marketplace Paxful announced Sept. 17 that it had broken ground on a new school in Nigeria. This is the fourth school of 100 planned as part of its #BuiltWithBitcoin initiative to bring quality education to emerging countries. The school, located in the Ankara Nandu community of Sanga Local, will serve an estimated 100–120 children between the ages of three and six years old, and double as an adult education center in the evenings. The city is home to 4,000 people, and currently has just one school providing both primary and secondary education. Paxful CEO and co-founder Ray Youssef …

Malaysia-based company IBF Net said it is seeking to implement blockchain technology in Islamic charities. According to a press release on its blog, blockchain technology will enhance the confidence of existing donors. It will also encourage new donors to give their zakat, a payment made under Islamic law for charitable giving, and sadaqah, or voluntary charity. The product, called RecurPay, will be on the Tezos platform and facilitate recurring and automatic small payments. IBF Net said blockchain technology would create a framework that will allow the donor to ensure that their payments, whether it is zakat, sadaqah, or cash endowments, …

The Ethereum Foundation has announced that over $3.8 million in grants will be awarded to teams working on the Ethereum blockchain. In a Sept. 8 post published on the Ethereum Blog, the Ethereum Foundation, or EF, announced that it has given grants to teams as part of its ecosystem support program during Q2 2020. The categories included teams focusing on community and education, cryptography and zero-knowledge proof, or ZKP, developer experience, Ethereum 2.0, and Layer 2. The $3,884,000 funds will go to 28 companies and researchers, including blockchain advisory firm Akomba Labs for community and education, and Beacon Fuzz for …

It’s been a good week for Bitcoin. The dollar price is up more than 3 percent to around $9,500. That $10,000 ceiling is looking more fragile than ever. One sign that the ceiling may be about to break is the decline in Google searches for “Bitcoin.” According to Google Trends, search interest is the lowest since December 2019. Last time search interest fell by such a degree, the price climbed around 50 percent. One coin in which interest is running high—and putting up prices—is pennies. A slowdown in coin production caused by the coronavirus has led to a shortage of …

Last month, the United States Congress increased the tax benefits of charitable giving in the CARES Act in hopes that people will give more. Some give money; others give property; and a growing number have been giving crypto assets. Once you have made the difficult decision of which charity or cause to donate to, your focus should shift toward your tax position. There are certain things to keep in mind when giving crypto assets — particularly considering how their volatility can affect your taxes and decision making. Which crypto asset do I gift? Generally, giving a gift of crypto does …

It has been all over the news about the great Twitter Bitcoin hack of 2020. We’ve got you covered if you haven’t been paying attention to #CryptoTwitter this week. After a period of calm in the cryptomarkets, last week showed some movement. Unfortunately, it went in the wrong direction. Bitcoin was down about 3 percent over the last seven days—and it got off lightly. Ethereum fell more than 5 percent and Bitcoin Cash dropped over 8 percent. One reason for the fall might be a relationship between stocks and digital coins. Analysts note that Bitcoin shows a 95 percent correlation …

Better Business Bureau, or BBB — the charity giant behind Give.org — launched a privacy-focused donation platform built on the Ardor (ARDR) blockchain. According to a July 4 announcement, BBB’s charity monitoring organization Wise Giving Alliance launched blockchain-powered donation platform, GiveSafely.io. The platform uses distributed ledger technology to facilitate donations to BBB-accredited charities while ensuring donor data is only shared when permitted: “The platform also aims to restore trust in the online donation model, address concerns people have about misuse of their personal data and potential hacks. All personal information is stored on the Ardor blockchain and is only accessible …

It’s been another good, stable week for Bitcoin. No big breakout yet but also no sudden collapse and a comfortable rise of around 1.6 percent. If that sounds like Bitcoin is becoming a bit predictable, don’t rest too easy. Some analysts see this sideways period as the prelude to a big move—either up or down. Other analysts, though, are more positive. They see Bitcoin in the same place that Apple was in pre-iPhone days. They think it could reach $60,000 by 2023. If that happens, participants in a new German guerrilla marking campaign will be doing a lot of people …

Akon, a famous Senegalese-American musician and a known blockchain supporter, is setting up a blockchain hub in Kenya. Dubbed the “Kenyan Opportunity Hub”, the new venture aims to promote blockchain and artificial intelligence, or AI, education. They also hope to provide Kenyans with more work opportunities. First African blockchain hub launched by Akoin and Effect.AI A joint initiative of Akon’s blockchain startup Akoin and EOSIO-powered project Effect.AI, the hub is set to launch in Q4 2020 and will be the first initiative of its kind in Africa, the companies announced to Cointelegraph on July 1. The project will be handled …

Over the past four years, the United Nations International Children’s Fund has been investing in startups applying open-source technology, hoping to make the world a better place, but is looking to step up its game even further now. Cecilia Chapiro, an investment advisor at UNICEF Ventures, told Cointelegraph that UNICEF had launched its innovation fund in 2016 with the goal to support emerging technologies being built in developing countries. Since then, UNICEF has invested in over 50 startups across 35 countries. “We invest in technologies that have the potential to influence billions of people, especially children in emerging countries,” Chapiro …