Global equity marketplace Vesta Equity has chosen the Algorand blockchain to launch its new real estate tokenization services, hoping to disrupt a decades-old industry and open up the possibility for homeowners to convert their equity into digital assets. Under the new partnership, Vesta will utilize Algorand to further disintermediate the numerous parties involved in the traditional home equity and borrowing space. With Vesta eliminating expensive intermediaries from the process, Algorand’s technology will allow all data to be readily available and verified automatically. The new marketplace will enable homeowners to convert their home equity into digital assets and sell a percentage …

Facebook is no stranger to data hacks and leaks, with the company having been on the receiving end of many high-profile security breaches in recent years. For example, back in 2018, the social media giant revealed that it had inadvertently exposed the personal information of more than 50 million users due to a small error in its platform coding, thus allowing miscreants to gain access to its users’ accounts. Similarly, in 2020, the Mark Zuckerberg-led firm was embroiled in another major controversy when it came to light that thousands of developers had been able to access data from inactive platform …

A scam cryptocurrency app on Apple’s app distribution service App Store has reportedly stolen $600,000 Bitcoin (BTC) from one iOS user. Cryptocurrency holder Phillipe Christodoulou fell victim to a scam app on the App Store, losing nearly all his life savings to a fake crypto wallet application, The Washington Post reports Tuesday. Christodoulou went on the App Store last month to search for a mobile Trezor app to check his Bitcoin balance via phone. Unaware that Trezor does not currently provide an iOS app, Christodoulou downloaded a doppelgänger Trezor application that boasted close to five stars, giving the impression that …

Blockchain company LBRY, Inc. has hit back at the Securities and Exchange Commission, saying a complaint filed against it threatens much of the crypto industry because it would define most tokens as securities. The SEC has been looking into the blockchain-based publishing platform LBRY, Inc. as part of a three-year investigation that started in May 2018. According to the complaint filed by the SEC, the platform is alleged to have sold unregistered securities across multiple avenues including to institutional investors and platform users between 2016 and 2020. The regulator is seeking a permanent injunction to prevent the company from selling …

Two Trezor executives have taken part in a live ask-me-anything session on Cointelegraph — revealing how their suite of crypto hardware wallets are set to evolve in the future. Head of development Tomas Susanka and head of product Matej Zak said one of their biggest priorities is ensuring that technical hurdles are removed for Bitcoin beginners — meaning that it’s never been easier to keep digital assets safe. During the broadcast, they proudly showed off the Model T, which supports more than 1,000 cryptocurrencies. An intuitive touch screen offers an interface that’s not dissimilar to a mobile phone — offering …

Three months after resigning from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, Jay Clayton has joined an advisory board of crypto investment manager One River Asset Management, signaling a changing of the guard for the former securities regulator. Clayton, along with Kevin Hassett of The Lindsey Group and Jon Orszag of Compass Lexecon, joins One River Asset Management’s newly formed academic and regulatory advisory council, the company announced Monday. Although Clayton’s exact role within the advisory group wasn’t specified, One RIver CEO Eric Peters said his goal was to bring together distinguished individuals with “varying regulatory and policy …

The Dubai Financial Services Authority, or DFSA, is continuing its efforts to create a standardized framework for cryptocurrency regulations in the megacity. According to a DFSA press release issued on Monday, Dubai's financial regulator has called on members of the public to submit comments on its proposed regulations for cryptos deemed to be security tokens. The public comments phase of the process will last for 30 days and is part of the modalities for instituting the DFSA’s “Framework for Regulating Security Tokens.” Dubai’s security token infrastructure focuses on providing regulatory clarity across three major areas of concern. The first part …

Everything is bigger in Texas, but when it comes to crypto-friendly legislation, this doesn’t seem to be the case… just yet. On March 12, 2021, Texas Representative Tan Parker introduced the Uniform Commercial Code, also known as UCC, amendment bill (House Bill 4474) to better adapt commercial law to blockchain innovation and digital asset regulations. Specifically speaking, the Texas UCC amendment bill aims to recognize virtual currencies under commercial law. Lee Bratcher, president of the Texas Blockchain Council — an organization recently established as a trade association intended to make Texas a leader in national blockchain growth — told Cointelegraph …

On Dec. 22, 2020, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission filed a complaint against Ripple Labs. The complaint essentially alleged that Ripple had engaged in a multi-year, sustained practice of illegally selling unregistered, non-exempt securities in the form of its XRP tokens. This complaint, having been filed on the last day of former SEC Chairman Jay Clayton’s tenure at the commission, led to a considerable volume of public commentary, as is not unusual for SEC litigation against major players in the crypto space. What is unusual about SEC versus Ripple is the reaction from a sizable segment of XRP …

The internet has undoubtedly revolutionized the way we live. It has changed how we work, access information, travel, communicate and interact with each other. Along with it comes a greater level of freedom that we enjoy because of democratizing and decentralizing information. By doing so, the internet has opened up to a greater debate, analysis and scrutiny by the general public on matters that impact them and the world. Thanks to the internet, the sphere of influence is shifting away from centralized authorities and the mainstream media. In our rush to grasp the freedoms offered by the internet, we have …

In these hyper-partisan times, any bill that includes sponsors from both sides of the aisle is noteworthy. There is one pending now that is particularly important in the crypto space. On March 8, 2021, H.R. 1628, the Token Taxonomy Act of 2021, was introduced by representative Warren Davidson. It was co-sponsored by representatives Ted Budd, Darren Soto, Scott Perry and Josh Gottheimer. Terms of the Token Taxonomy Act of 2021 Among other provisions, the bill would exempt “digital tokens” from the definition of security, and it would also preempt inconsistent state regulation. Crypto assets would need to meet certain specified …

When it comes to computer data storage, it can seem like we are running out of numbers. If you are old enough, you may remember when diskette storage was measured in kilobytes in the 1980s. If you are a little younger, you are probably more familiar with the thumb drives denominated in gigabytes or hard drives that hold terabytes today. Humanity’s unfathomable data footprint But we are now producing data at an unprecedented rate. As a result, we are going to need to be able to grasp numbers so large that they seem almost beyond human comprehension. In order to …