Two-sided marketplaces are more than a smart business model. These platforms can democratize access and promote widespread economic inclusion in previously inaccessible markets. They have worked wonders in myriad verticals already — e.g., stock exchanges — and the world of digital asset liquidity may now be fertile ground for this business model. Successful new platforms bring together buyers and sellers who would otherwise be unable to connect, creating entirely new value streams for sellers who capture more revenue. Meanwhile, buyers gain access to new capabilities, creating a win-win for everyone involved. A CoreSight research indicated that revenue of two-sided markets …

Google pulled outsourced work from a Philippine contact center whose employees were involved in a Bitcoin scam. According to Newsbytes.PH, Google confirmed the company shifted some work it outsourced to a Sykes Philippines branch in Cebu City to another vendor in the country. In the Philippines, social media posts alleged some employees of outsourcing firms siphoned around 60 million Philippine pesos ($1.23 million) of Google gift cards and converted these into Bitcoins. Sykes did affirm to news outlets that it did find employees breached their conduct standards but did not mention what these violations were. Crypto scams have proliferated recently. …

Law firm JPB Liberty filed a class-action lawsuit in the Federal Court of New South Wales earlier today, targeting Facebook and Google for anti-competitive behavior for banning cryptocurrency advertising in 2018. JPB argues the ban, which was loosened in 2019, killed the initial coin offering (ICO) market and caused severe financial damage to the wider cryptocurrency industry. JPB Liberty CEO Andrew Hamilton said the tech giants had acted as a cartel in launching the crypto ad ban, in order to crush competition from the blockchain sector. The suit has garnered more than $600 million worth of claims from across the …

Chainlink's LINK token has experienced a meteoric rise this year, becoming a top-five crypto asset by market capitalization. We took a look at the data from the decentralized finance space as well as Google to help explain this phenomenon. In the past 24 hours, Chainlink has seen another massive rise of 30% (alongside other DeFi tokens such as SNX and MKR), which seems tied to demand from yield farmers trying to get their hands on YAM tokens with the much hyped new protocol. The battle for number five, 2020 edition. Source: CoinMarketCap. The battle for the number five spot in …

Andrew Hamilton, a lawyer with a background in computer science, is spearheading a class-action lawsuit accusing the social media and search giants Google, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube for cartel-like behavior intended to kill off the burgeoning cryptocurrency sector. The suit, which has already amassed more than $600 million in claims, accuses the firms of acting as a cartel in launching a coordinated attack designed to crush competition emerging from the nascent virtual currency sector in 2018 — when the social platforms enacted sweeping bans against the promotion of crypto assets and initial coin offerings. After two-and-a-half years of preparation, Hamilton …

China’s blockchain-based Service Network (BSN), the country’s nationwide blockchain project, has just launched an official international website. Appearing on Aug. 10, the new english-language BSN website aims to help bring global developers to the project. Integration with six permissionless blockchains He Yifan, CEO of Red Date Technology, a local private company and a founding member of the BSN, told Cointelegraph that the new website allows developers to use BSN services and public chain services via the portal. As part of the new global effort, the BSN now features live integration of six public chains including Ethereum, EOS, Nervos, Tezos, NEO …

Nigeria, the biggest source of Bitcoin (BTC) trading volume in Africa, is apparently one of the fastest-growing crypto markets in the world, according to a new report. According to a new study by major crypto wallet Blockchain.com, Nigeria has seen the largest influx of activity on its wallet app since April 2020. Nigeria shows biggest interest in Bitcoin globally Published on Aug. 5, the report says that Nigeria has been the best performing country on its platform over the past three months. The report notes a 60% increase in usage of Blockchain.com’s web wallet in the region since April. In …

Every Friday, Law Decoded delivers analysis on the week’s critical stories in the realms of policy, regulation and law. Editor’s note The concept of monopoly will reign in today’s Law Decoded. As a fundamental principle, blockchain technology is about distributing both inputs and outputs of information securely. In its still very young lifecycle, the technology has proven to have boundless applications on the basis of this fairly simple principle. A secondary principle is decentralization, and in this way, blockchain technology seems inherently opposed to monopolies. The big challenge of Bitcoin’s white paper was finding a way to move value across …

Chinese content generation platform TikTok, a video-sharing app that has been called the fastest-growing social networking service in history, has been in the spotlight since early 2019 and now surpasses 800 million users. Despite the fact that the app’s data security breaches are raising controversy worldwide, more and more young people are using it as the go-to social media for the new generation, with a reported 69% of TikTok’s global audience being between the ages of 16 and 24. Despite its overwhelming success and rapidly growing user base, the truth behind the worldwide sensation is that “the new Instagram" is …

Facing rising accusations of running monopolies, the CEOs of four of the world’s biggest tech firms are testifying before the Judiciary Committee’s Antitrust Subcommittee today, July 29. The hearing was originally scheduled for July 27 and was moved to 12PM EST today. It is seeing further delays today and as of 12:25 had not been called to order. Global monopolies The hearing is entitled “Online Platforms and Market Power, Part 6: Examining the Dominance of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google.” It continues a lengthy series of investigations into the role these giant companies play. All of these firms except for …

July 27, Brave Software partners with Guardian to bring greater levels of security and privacy to the iPhone and iPad users. This partnership will combine the privacy stack of the two companies — Brave’s privacy focused browser with Guardian’s VPN and firewall service. The iOS users of Brave Browser will be able with one click to turn on Brave Firewall + VPN that will protect the entire device from privacy intruding trackers. A screenshot of Brave’s VPN+Firewall. Source: Brave. Guardian is good for Brave users Brave CEO Brendan Eich told Cointelegraph that he has been a long-time user of Guardian …

Bitcoin (BTC) is at its least popular among Google users since last year — should history repeat itself, BTC/USD will reclaim $10,000. According to data from Google Trends, worldwide interest in the term “Bitcoin” is now at its lowest since December 2019. Bitcoin interest hits 7-month lows Over the past seven months, price volatility has delivered occasional spurts of curiosity in Bitcoin, but these have simply punctuated a general downtrend. As of July 20, interest was firmly at multi-month lows on Google’s normalized scale of 1 to 100 — at 45, “Bitcoin” was challenging its reading of 41 from the …