Updated 20:00 UTC, Nov. 26: This article has been updated to include comments from Omni Rentals that Cointelegraph received after initial publication. Omni Rentals, a $35 million-funded storage and rental startup backed by major crypto firm Ripple, is reportedly shutting down its operations. As Omni is expecting to close its platform by the end of 2019, about 10 of Omni’s engineers will be hired by major American crypto exchange and wallet service Coinbase, tech-focused publication TechCrunch reports Nov. 25. Omni had not made an official closure announcement at press time, but a representative from Omni did confirm the closure in …

American software security firm Symantec found a spike in a new crypto mining malware that mainly targets enterprises, TechCrunch reports on April 25. The new cryptojacking malware, dubbed Beapy, uses the leaked United States National Security Agency (NSA) hacking tools to spread throughout corporate networks to generate big sums of money from a large amount of computers, the report notes. First spotted in January 2019, Beapy reportedly surged to over 12,000 unique infection across 732 organizations since March, with more than 80% of infections located in China. As found by researchers, Beapy malware is reportedly spread through malicious emails. Once …

The BlockShow Americas 2018 conference kicked off Monday, Aug. 20 in Las Vegas. The first panel discussion involved a heated debate between proponents of two opposite views of how — and if — blockchain should be regulated and adopted by institutions around the globe. BlockShow is a series of fintech and crypto events, usually held in Singapore and Europe; the previous BlockShow took place in Berlin in the spring of this year. The opening panel, titled “Wall Street vs Crypto,” brought together a number of industry experts to discuss the future potential of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC), and the importance …

More than a thousand of crypto projects are “already dead” as of June 30, 2018, according to a recent TechCrunch report. The news outlet has based its claim on data from two websites: Coinopsy and DeadCoins. Coinopsy provides daily reviews of various cryptocurrencies, including ones that are already “dead.” It defines a “dead” token as exhibiting at least one of the following: “abandoned, scammed, website dead, no nodes, wallet issues, no social updates, low volume or developers have walked away from the project.” According to Coinopsy’s list, there are 247 “dead” coins as of press time. These include the notorious …

This interview has been edited and condensed. Mike Butcher, an editor-at-large of TechCrunch is a pioneer of the tech and journalism industries. He has also started covering the crypto industry and blockchain technology, as — in his words — “that is effectively going to be a new way to the future.” He first heard about crypto back in 2011 and it was "Bitcoin that got [him] interested in the space." “I think it is sort of a general theme — decentralization. It is really fascinating, you know. We had Google, Apple, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, effectively build centralized networks for the …

In his Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace John Perry Barlow wrote, “Governments of the Industrial World, you weary giants of flesh and steel, I come from Cyberspace, the new home of Mind.” “On behalf of the future, I ask you of the past to leave us alone. You are not welcome among us. You have no sovereignty where we gather.” Yet today, the Internet is highly centralized and under the thumb of few governments and corporations. USA Today cited the research firm Forrester as saying that Amazon alone controls 42 percent of the cloud market by revenue. Then there …