The marketwide sell-off on May 19 triggered a 55% decline in the price of Bitcoin (BTC), and altcoins were hit even harder, with some tokens seeing declines of up to 90%. One project whose native token price appears to have bottomed out after an 87% decline from its all-time high is Verasity, an e-sports-focused blockchain protocol focused on increasing engagement and advertising revenues for video publishers. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that after declining from a high at $0.0558 on April 17 to a low of $0.0073 on July 20, the price of Verasity's VRA token has …

The Cryptocurrency Open Patent Alliance, or COPA, headed up by finance company Square, recently picked up Coinbase as a cornerstone participant. Square unveiled the group in September as a method of warding off patent overreach — an issue that has been known to limit technological advancement. Coinbase senior counsel and COPA board member Brittany Cuthbert said in a public statement from the alliance on Friday: “As the crypto economy continues to grow, we believe it is important to help empower all projects building towards an open financial system. [...] We look forward to working alongside the members of COPA to …

Puerto Rico-based blockchain and robotics firm Bots Inc. has announced it is exploring its options with “a major law firm” to launch litigation against firms operating Bitcoin ATMs across the United States. Two weeks ago, the company acquired a patent for protocols underpinning the operation of Bitcoin ATMs, which it believes makes it eligible for millions in monthly royalties. As the owner of intellectual property for technology it claims is fundamental to the operation of Bitcoin ATM networks, Bots’ chief executive Paul Rosenberg is eying “per-transaction” royalties from Bitcoin ATM manufacturers: “Per-transaction royalty payments will be negotiated for a several-year …

Block.one, the company behind the EOSIO protocol (EOS), has been awarded a patent for a blockchain-based bidding system for promotional exposure tied to popular social media posts. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office approved the patent on April 28. Block.one filed with the office during May 2019. The patent, which Block.one describes as means to incentivize positive feedback contributions among a social media community, describes a system where bidders can compete to have their profile displayed in a prime position on trending posts. “One way that posts achieve influence is through positive community feedback,” the filing reads. “Although a user …

Electronics giant Samsung filed for a patent in May 2019 titled, “Programmable Blockchain Solid State Drive and Switch.” Even though few details are known about the newly designed system, a surge in patent applications filed by large corporations on blockchain is clearly visible. Related: Bank of America’s Blockchain Foray: Patent Trolling or Hedging Risks? Patent wars — i.e., battles between corporations or individuals to secure patents for litigation — are certainly not new. They have been widely practiced in the tech ecosystem since the times of Alexander Graham Bell at the turn of the 20th century, who was involved in …

A new patent filing suggests that United States retail giant Walmart may be developing its own U.S. dollar-backed digital currency similar to Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency. Walmart filed patent for “Digital Currency via Blockchain” Patent filing number 20190236564, “System and Method for Digital Currency via Blockchain,” was published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on Aug. 1. The document outlines a method for: “Generating one digital currency unit by tying the one digital currency unit to a regular currency; storing information of the one digital currency unit into a block of a blockchain; buying or paying the one digital …