A crypto-focused payment platform says it is aiming to reduce financial pressures on everyday consumers by enabling them to receive their salaries early — whenever they demand it. JobCoin says a startling number of hard-working individuals are falling victim to loan sharks and high-interest loans, or racking up unsustainable credit card bills as they try to grapple with sudden expenses. The startup’s concept means workers can request to be compensated for the hours they have already completed, even if their normal payday is a few days or weeks in the future. Explaining its objectives in its white paper, the company …

BlockShow, an international blockchain conference, which will take place on Nov. 14-15 at Marina Bay Sands Expo in Singapore, says it changed its concept, moving from being a blockchain conference to becoming a Festival of Decentralized Technology. The event will include nine conferences: Investments & Startups, Development, Business, Gaming & DApps, Money, Trading, Regulations, Privacy & Security, and Marketing & PR. The team notes that by expanding each topic to its conference, BlockShow strives to bring more innovative thought to the surface. With an expertly curated program for each topic, it will engender an atmosphere in which everyone in the …

A new blockchain trading platform says its secure, reliable infrastructure enables users “to stay ahead of market movements and manage risk and loss like never before.” As well as supporting a wide range of mainstream cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, ether and litecoin, Bcnex says it is constantly expanding its offering to other quality tokens. In its white paper, the startup says that it wants to offer an antidote to the problems that currently blight crypto exchanges: weak technical architecture, a lack of liquidity, poor customer service and inadequate security. Bcnex says its platform is built upon an institutional-grade trading engine …

New York-based blockchain company ConsenSys is restructuring its various operations to shore up its market presence as it seeks $200 million in funding, a press release confirmed on May 6. In a move which will also see the departure of a founding executive, ConsenSys will consolidate ConsenSys Labs, accelerator Tachyon and VC operation, ConsenSys Ventures, under one umbrella investment arm. ConsenSys Ventures, which launched in September 2017, will no longer have Kavita Gupta at its helm, she confirmed to cryptocurrency news outlet The Block on Monday. “To continue to scale our investment activities, we need to consolidate systems and operations …

SeedInvest, the equity crowdfunding platform owned by crypto-friendly payment giant Circle, has gained approval to offer secondary shares trading, crypto industry news outlet The Block reported on April 26. The platform, which Circle bought out for an undisclosed sum in March this year, can now allow its users to trade startup shares via its accreditation as an Alternative Trading System. The company got the go-ahead from the United States Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), a month after gaining initial regulatory approval. At the time, Circle praised SeedInvest for its input in aiding the U.S. startup investment scene, notably through its …

‘Smart card’ crypto wallet manufacturer Tangem has received a $15 million investment from major Japanese financial services firm SBI Group, Cointelegraph auf Deutsch reports on April 24. The new investment will purportedly allow Tangem to relocate its headquarters to the ‘Crypto Valley’ of Zug, Switzerland. From Zug, Tangem want to develop new use cases for its physical smart cards that function like the hardware wallet version of banknotes. Each of these smart cards carries a fixed amount of cryptocurrency. The company intends for these smart cards to be used for daily crypto payments. Andrey Kurennykh, Tangem’s CEO said: “It is …

Israeli cryptocurrency developer KZen has raised $4 million from backers including South Korean electronics giant Samsung, industry news outlet The Block reported on April 17. The company’s product, smartphone wallet app ZenGo — currently in beta phase testing — aims to simplify custodial wallet usage for entry-level cryptocurrency users. Using a combination of split key storage and biometric security features, the company hopes users will be able to benefit from a simple wallet user interface while not relying on a third party or themselves to hold their private keys and other sensitive information. A smartphone and cloud storage form the …

Venture capital investment in cryptocurrency and blockchain startups will likely set a new all-time high in 2019, Reuters reported on April 17, quoting figures from market data provider PitchBook. Following on from the $2.4 billion in funding the industry received from backers last year, the $850 million raised this year already looks set to beat all previous records. At the same time, while continuing to avoid direct involvement with cryptocurrency handling, investors appear to be contributing larger sums per deal. 2018’s total came from 117 investments, whereas this year’s tally stems from just 13, Reuters reports. While Reuters did not …

An executive at electronics giant HTC is leading a new $50 million blockchain-focused venture capital fund, Proof of Capital, that includes a partnership with the firm, TechCrunch reports on April 17. The new blockchain fund is reportedly held in fiat currency and focused on “regular VC deals, as opposed to token-based investments.” The fund will reportedly mainly target early stage blockchain firms in fintech, as well as the consumer sphere of blockchain ecosystem. According to the firm’s LinkedIn profile, the San Francisco-based fund will have a particular focus on Asian markets and emerging economies. Proof of Capital fund is led …

This article has been updated to reflect that Algorand is not planning an ERC-20 token sale. Digital currency and transaction platform Algorand has released its public testnet to gather feedback on its product, the company confirmed in a press release on April 16. Algorand, the brainchild of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor Silvio Micali, seeks to build an app development platform for enterprises. The project previously obtained $66 million in funding, releasing the testnet to a limited group of participants prior to the public rollout. Among them was Top Network, a decentralized cloud communication service which subsequently formed a …

Ripple’s developer ecosystem project Xpring and Bain Capital Ventures have invested in early-stage blockchain venture capital (VC) firm Robot Ventures, head of the fund Robert Leshner wrote in a blog post on April 10. Leshner, who also founded Ethereum-based financial open-source protocol Compound, has already completed two investments within its new venture capital initiative. Targeting fintech and product strategy disruptors, Robot Ventures invested in crypto mining firm Coinmine and Point, a startup developing new debit card solutions. As Leshner told Cointelegraph, both investments were completed in Q1 2019. Leshner declined to reveal any additional information regarding the financial details of …

The United States-based startup Sparkswap has completed a successful seed funding round to create a decentralized exchange based on the Bitcoin (BTC) Lightning Network. A blog post revealed the development on Monday, April 8. According to Sparkswap’s founder Trey Griffith, the company raised $3.5 million from investors including Initialized Capital, Pantera Capital, Foundation Capital and Y Combinator. The startup intends to create a decentralized exchange that will be protected from hacks, while still processing transactions on blockchain. Sparkswap started testing its mainnet on Jan. 2, 2019, which is driven by Bitcoin’s Lightning Network. Its core technology, Atomic Swap, allows users …