Top Stories This Week Fractional Reserve Stablecoin Tether Only 74% Backed by Fiat Currency, Say Lawyers According to documents released by USD stablecoin tether’s (USDT) lawyers, the company behind the stablecoin only has enough fiat reserves to back a little less than three-quarters of its existing supply — 74%. Tether executives had previously publicly promised that each tether was backed one-to-one to the USD, a claim that has been disproven by the lawyers’ document release. The need to release the figures comes from the recent claims by the U.S. attorney general in New York that cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex, which shares …

Microsoft announced its fully managed Azure Blockchain Service in a press release on May 2. The new blockchain-as-a-service (BaaS) platform will purportedly allow users to build blockchain applications on preconfigured network. According to Microsoft’s head of corporate communications, Frank Shaw, this service “simplifies the formation, management, and governance of consortium blockchain networks.” Shaw further noted that Azure Blockchain Service can create a new consortium network “in a few simple clicks,” or let the user perform basic operations like adding new members to the network. Quorum, an open source blockchain platform backed by JPMorgan Chase, is the first platform that can …

In worsening news for users of Microsoft’s email services like Outlook, Hotmail and MSN, several cryptocurrency holders affected by a recent hack allege that the hackers responsible stole their crypto, as reported by Vice’s Motherboard on April 29. One victim claimed on a Dutch tech forum to have lost just over 1 bitcoin (BTC), or almost $5,400 at press time, when hackers used his email account to reset his password and gain access to his Kraken account on March 31st. Several Reddit users attested to similar experiences. According to Microsoft, the initial breach took place between January 1st and March …

The Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) has launched a blockchain-neutral Token Taxonomy Initiative in partnership with major firms, according to a press release from EEA on April 17. The initiative will seek to define tokens in non-technical and cross-industry terms in a bid to drive enterprise token adoption at scale. The EEA describes itself “a member-driven standards organization whose charter is to develop open, blockchain specifications that drive harmonization and interoperability.” Members of the initiative reportedly include global consulting firm Accenture, major banks Santander and JPMorgan Chase, blockchain incubator ConsenSys, Big Four auditor EY, tech giants Intel, Microsoft and IBM, blockchain …

Swiss food technology giant Bühler introduced two food safety products that can potentially integrate blockchain at the Microsoft booth at the Hannover Messe industrial event in Germany on April 1. The company reported the news in a press release published the same day. The so-called “blockchain-ready” products presented by the company are a tool aiming to reduce microbial contamination in dry goods, dubbed Laatu, and Tubex Pro, a scale system that self-optimizes and produces a constant flow of production data. Both solutions are connected to the Bühler Insights Internet of Things service, hosted on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform. The …

Microsoft-owned search engine and advertisement platform Bing noted that it blocked over five million cryptocurrency-related ads last year in its “Ad quality year in review 2018” report published on March 25. Bing notes that the pseudo-anonymity of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) “made cryptocurrency a prime target for fraudsters and scam artists to defraud end-users.” Bing claims that this is the reason for the ban of cryptocurrency-related content from its advertising platform that resulted in over five million ads being blocked. Bing also notes that its ban against weapon advertisement resulted in over 18 million ads being blocked alongside over …

Spain’s biggest multinational telecommunications company, Telefonica, has partnered with Microsoft to expand its digital innovation using blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI), a press release confirmed on Feb. 25. Telefonica, which has sealed multiple blockchain-related partnerships in recent months, will now leverage Microsoft’s Azure platform to develop new services for the telecoms industry. The deal emerged as part of the ongoing World Mobile Congress in Barcelona. “Together, we will apply the power of Azure and Azure AI to create new, innovative experiences for millions of Telefónica customers around the world and shape the future of Telefónica’s network,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella …

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 …

A new hacking tool is propagating throughout the online community in an attempt to install cryptocurrency mining malware, researchers at security intelligence firm Trend Micro confirmed in a blog post on Feb. 20. Detected at the end of January, the tool is a combination of extant threats which previously targeted Microsoft Windows users: MIMIKATZ and RADMIN. “Between the last week of January to February, we noticed an increase in hack tool installation attempts that dropped seemingly random files into the Windows directory,” the blog post reads: “Initially appearing unrelated, analysis showed the final payload to be a Monero (XMR) cryptocurrency-mining …

United States-based software corporation Microsoft has removed eight Windows 10 applications from its official app store after cybersecurity firm Symantec identified the presence of surreptitious Monero (XMR) coin mining code. The news was reported by Symantec on Feb. 15. Stealth crypto mining — also know as cryptojacking – works by installing malware that uses a computer’s processing power to mine for cryptocurrencies without the owner’s consent or knowledge. According to Symantec, the firm first detected malicious XMR mining code within eight apps — issued by three developers — on Jan. 17. After Symantec alerted Microsoft, the corporation is reported to …

The New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) has announced that it is opening its Blockchain Center in Manhattan, Bloomberg reports today, Jan. 10. The organization told reporters that the center is part of a partnership with international trade organization Global Blockchain Business Council and affiliates of New York-based venture capital fund Future Perfect Ventures. Located in the Flatiron District of Manhattan, the 4,000-square-foot center will reportedly offer blockchain-oriented educational services to the general public, such as programming classes to lectures for software developers. Ana Arino, chief strategy officer at the NYCEDC, told Bloomberg in a phone interview that the …

Digital assets platform Bakkt — created by the operator of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) — has announced the completion of its first funding round in a blog post today, Dec. 31. The institutional investor-focused cryptocurrency platform from the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) has officially raised $182.5 million from 12 partners and investors, according to the post. The partners and investors reportedly include major names in both traditional finance and crypto-oriented investing, including ICE, Boston Consulting Group, Galaxy Digital, Goldfinch Partners, Alan Howard, Horizons Ventures, Microsoft’s venture capital arm and Pantera Capital. Bakkt also noted in the announcement that the …