Solidity, a major programming language for writing smart contracts, will soon become compatible with the Cardano blockchain. According to a Thursday announcement on the Cardano developers' website, Cardano devs are now opening up Cardano to the Solidity and Ethereum community through an interoperable platform that uses native Ethereum code. As part of the effort, Cardano developers are planning to restart and accelerate their K Ethereum Virtual Machine, or KEVM, developer network program. The devnet envisions an EVM running within the so-called “K framework” — a system for specifying and creating languages and virtual machines. K intends to enable developers to …

Wolfram Alpha, a major computational knowledge engine providing technology for major services such as Apple’s Siri assistant, is integrating data from the Cardano blockchain. According to a Thursday announcement, Wolfram Blockchain Labs, or WBL — a subsidiary of Wolfram Research — has partnered with Charles Hoskinson-founded tech company IOHK. As part of the partnership, WBL will integrate Cardano’s blockchain data into Wolfram Alpha, allowing developers to integrate external data into Cardano’s smart contracts. The new partnership will specifically address work on the so-called “avant-garde oracles,” which the companies believe are a necessary component to build advanced smart contracts. According to …

The Kraken cryptocurrency exchange announced that it would match $150,000 in donations to support open-source Ethereum projects on Gitcoin. Gitcoin is a developer-funding platform relying on a hybrid model of sponsored donations and direct community support. Through its quadratic funding model, community donations are used as guidance to identify the projects that should receive the most matched funding. The quadratic formula ensures that separate contributions are weighted more than a single large donation. For example, two people donating 1 Dai will result in a much higher match than just one person sending 2 Dai. Kraken’s participation comes as Gitcoin launches …

Bitmain, one of the world’s largest Bitcoin (BTC) miner producers, has reportedly halted its funding for some primary developers maintaining Bitcoin-related software. Jonas Schnelli, a major Bitcoin Core contributor and maintainer, claimed that Bitmain halted its support after funding his efforts for more than three years. In a Dec. 1 tweet, Schnelli said that he lost his sponsorship from Bitmain alongside Joao Barbosa, another Bitcoin Core contributor also known under the “Promag” nickname on GitHub. “Thanks Bitmain for all the help (despite the disagreement we had),” Schnelli tweeted, asking the crypto community to contribute to his further efforts on Bitcoin …

As exploits and hacks run rampant across the DeFi ecosystem, at least one project appears to have fended off the worst of an attack — the once-maligned “vampire” AMM (automated market maker) exchange Sushiswap. Observers noticed last night that Sushiswap — which got its start leeching liquidity from rival AMM Uniswap — was experiencing an exploit, and that anonymous head developer 0xMaki was taking steps to mitigate it: Possible @SushiSwap exploit found? @0xMaki sends exploiter a tx with a message to collect bug bounty. See below tx with message from 0xMakihttps://t.co/1MdXqw9chq Exploiters address:https://t.co/ehh7EassCo@DefiantNews pic.twitter.com/fRpdA1j7y1 — JuanSnow (@Juan_Snow1) November 29, 2020 …

Chinese government-backed blockchain initiative, the Blockchain Service Network, or BSN, is introducing support for another batch of major blockchain protocols. On Nov. 26, it announced that it will integrate Polkadot, Oasis and Bityaun into its ecosystem on Nov. 30. Polkadot's blockchain protocol is designed to connect multiple specialized blockchains into one unified network. Polkadot also enables processing of numerous transactions on several chains in parallel, bringing another level to its network capacity. Oasis specializes in private and scalable decentralized finance tools, while Bityuan is a blockchain solutions provider to Chinese companies. Yifan He, CEO of Red Date Technology and executive …

Since the Financial Action Task Force, or FATF, introduced its controversial “travel rule” for businesses in the crypto space, the debate over the suitability of established regulatory frameworks for cryptocurrencies has been unrelenting. Some experts, however, believe that the industry’s experience with the FATF guidelines is only the tip of the iceberg and hints at more significant challenges down the line. During the concluding panel of the V20 conference on Nov. 18, Siân Jones said that the collision between new, decentralized models of finance and older models of regulation has implications that both regulators and the community are not yet …

United States’ retail giant Overstock is expanding its blockchain wing tZero with new hires in Ireland. The Utah-based e-commerce company is seeking to hire software and devops engineers to work on its blockchain and security token subsidiary tZero, local tech news agency Silicon Republic reported on Nov. 10. As reported, the new hires for tZero are part of a new team at Overstock’s headquarters in Sligo in western Ireland. The online retail company already employs 90 people working in AI, research and development, and machine learning. Amit Goyal, chief technology officer at tZero, told Cointelegraph that Ireland is the only …

The Algorand Foundation, the governance and research organization behind major blockchain platform Algorand, is launching a new accelerator program in Europe. Known as “Algorand Europe Accelerator,” the new program intends to support European developers and entrepreneurs looking to build applications on the Algorand platform. Announcing the news on Oct. 15, the Algorand Foundation told Cointelegraph that the new program will launch in collaboration with established Algorand’s investors, Eterna Capital and Borderless Capital. As part of the program, Borderless Capital will distribute $15,000 in upfront seed funding to ten selected projects. Successful initiatives will be eligible for up to $500,000 in …

Decentralized finance startup Equilibrium has received a grant of $27,000 from the Web3 Foundation to develop its DeFi pallet and provide tools which enable other projects to migrate to the Polkadot platform. The updated pallet would enable the Equilibrium parachain to introduce a developer environment for DeFi applications. This will include an Ethereum Virtual Machine, aiming to attract Ethereum dApp developers, who can reuse their existing code. The Web3 Foundation offers grants of up to $100,000 to organizations who are developing new technologies. Equilibrium’s DeFi pallet is universal, can be reused and implemented on other parachains. As Björn Wagner, the …

The Blockchain Services Network (BSN), the largest blockchain infrastructure initiative in China, now has a unified smart contract programming language. Red Date Technology, a major tech company involved in the BSN's development, will add support for DAML — a smart contract language developed by American blockchain startup Digital Asset. Announcing the news on Sept. 14, the companies’ executives said that DAML will now be the “exclusive standard” for developing decentralized applications, or DApps, on top of the BSN. The integration will enable the interoperability of DApps regardless of the implemented blockchain network. As such, developers will not have to rewrite …

Persol Group, one of the largest human resource companies in Japan, has partnered with major Japanese IT and electronics company, NEC Corporation, to build a new blockchain-powered recruiting platform. Persol Group is one of the largest staffing companies in the country, with 32,000 employees and a market cap of $5.7 billion as of 2017. According to the announcement, the two companies have begun working on a Proof-of-Concept to test a direct recruiting service that utilizes blockchain technology to securely manage personal data, prevent falsification of information, and ensure authenticity. This new platform is expected to target the shortage of IT …