A peculiar phenomenon is occurring within the economic sector. In fact, it’s been transpiring over the past few decades. After the rise of the internet and the development of effective communications, the financial industry underwent a technical reconstruction. Those formerly disbarred due to a lack of capital found refuge in this revolution. Internet brokers and e-commerce start-ups with little more than a “.com” suffix proliferated. Some even threatened to subvert entrenched financial institutions. Among those attempting a banking coup was Confinity — now Paypal — one of the first online payment processors. Unbeknownst to most, financial disruption was the firm’s …

The Libra Association, the entity behind Facebook’s forthcoming eponymous stablecoin, has logged over 30 projects and 51,000 transactions on the Libra network during the past two months. Despite global regulators’ controversial stance towards Libra and the loss of a one-fourth of its founding partners, the Libra Association continues to develop the stablecoin’s network and has plans to introduce a range of new features in the upcoming months, which it set forth in a press release published on Nov. 15. Ten wallets, 11 blockchain explorers, one integrated development environment, one application programming interface and 11 clients have taken part in the …

New York-based blockchain startup Bison Trails has raised $25.5 million in a new funding round led by major venture capital firm Blockchain Capital. One of the 21 founding members of the Libra Association, Bison Trails is providing blockchain infrastructure solutions for more than 20 blockchain protocols to date, the firm said in an announcement on Nov. 19. The new Series A financing round featured a number of major industry investors including venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins, American crypto exchange and wallet service Coinbase, Ethereum blockchain firm ConsenSys and crypto merchant bank Galaxy Digital. Other new investors included Collaborative Fund, A …

Fundstrat’s Tom Lee believes Bitcoin (BTC) will accrue price value following a similar logic to the Silicon Valley tech titans. During an interview for CNBC’s Street Signs Asia on show on Nov. 15, Lee argued that cryptocurrencies “are network value assets” — and share this with the world’s most successful tech stocks. “Network value assets” Lee — a renowned Bitcoin bull, co-founder and Wall Street strategist at Fundstrat Global Advisors — made his argument when asked about the logic behind Fundstrat’s $25,000 by 2022 forecast for Bitcoin. Noting that the number was set in 2017 as part of a five-year …

As the Libra stablecoin project continues to face a hostile audience of regulators, Facebook launches a new fiat payment system called Facebook Pay. Empower people everywhere to buy and sell things online On Nov. 12, the social media giant announced that it is introducing Facebook Pay, a payment system that is designed to facilitate payments across Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Deborah Liu, VP, marketplace & commerce at Facebook said: “People already use payments across our apps to shop, donate to causes and send money to each other. Facebook Pay will make these transactions easier while continuing to ensure your …

A Dutch court has ruled that Facebook must remove Bitcoin (BTC)-related fraudulent investment ads following local billionaire and television producer John de Mol’s lawsuit against the company, Reuters reported on Nov. 11. De Mol initiated judicial proceedings against the social media giant in June 2019, claiming that Facebook failed to respond to multiple requests to remove ads of a scam that misused his and other celebrities’ images and eventually resulted in the loss of 1.7 million euros ($1.8 million) by investors. The ruling, fine and Facebook’s stance Following de Mol’s claim, a Dutch court ruled that Facebook must pull the …

The past week has marked a number of crypto- and blockchain-related developments in the German-speaking world. Malta Enterprise partnered with Deutsche Telekom's IT service subsidiary to offer its blockchain-as-a-service (BaaS) marketplace, French IT company Atos and Austrian startup Smart Digital proposed industrial plant inspections using blockchain, and the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) launched a market survey on crypto assets derivatives. Below is the past week of crypto and blockchain news in review, as originally reported by Cointelegraph auf Deutsch. BaFin launches a market survey into crypto derivatives BaFin’s survey contains 19 questions in five subject blocks and is …

A senior United States federal official has argued that Facebook’s Libra highlights the need for the Federal Reserve (Fed) to act urgently and launch its own real-time payments system. In a letter addressed to the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors on Nov. 7, Rohit Chopra — a commissioner at the United States Federal Trade Commission — expressed his support of the central bank’s proposal to launch a new, round-the-clock real-time payments system dubbed “FedNow Service.” A potential “shadow global central bank” In his letter, Commissioner Chopra argued that the central bank must act swiftly to prevent new threats to its …

Calibra cryptocurrency wallet CEO David Marcus spoke at the New York Times Dealbook Conference in New York City where he discussed the worldwide regulatory scrutiny the stablecoin project continues to face, among other topics. Calibra is considering an auditor for personal data practices On Nov. 6, the co-creator of Facebook’s Libra coin had a sit-down interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin of the New York Times and CNBC. In response to an audience member’s question about personal data privacy and protection, Marcus said that Facebook and its Calibra wallet would not intermingle personal data from the social platform and financial data …

The European Union is doubling down on its commitment to block the launch of Facebook’s Libra should it deem the project to present “unmanageable or excessive risks.” A draft document to be discussed at a meeting of E.U. finance ministers this Friday states that “all options should be on the table” — including impeding the stablecoin’s very development. The news was reported by EU policy site EurActiv on Nov. 6. Libra’s lack of clarity makes decision “impossible” The document is an initial text prepared by Finland, which currently holds the six-month rotating presidency of the E.U. Council. Beyond emphasizing that …

Facebook’s crypto project Libra will be more similar to email tech than payment services such as PayPal, vice president of product at Calibra said. Speaking at the Web Summit in Lisbon on Nov. 5, Kevin Weil, vice president of product at Facebook's Calibra digital wallet unit, emphasized that interoperability — the basic principle of email — will the key concept of Libra. “A journey of years and decades” Noting that any global developer or entrepreneur can build wallets for Libra, Weil encouraged the global community to collaborate on the interoperable protocols. He said: “You and me don’t have to collaborate …

Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg returned to Capitol Hill to testify before Congress on Oct. 23 about the company’s planned use of the cryptocurrency it is backing, Libra, attempting to debunk the voluminous number of concerns surrounding Facebook’s regulatory measures. This marks Zuckerberg’s first testimony to Congress since his last journey to Capitol Hill back in April 2018 after the Cambridge Analytica data breach. Related: Zuck of the Hill: After 6-Hour Libra Grilling, Congress Unconvinced Unfortunately, there was very little that both lawmakers and consumers took away from the hearing, which can be attributed to a combination of Congress’ continued lack …