Steve Wozniak, co-founder of American tech giant Apple, has invested in a new blockchain-based company headquartered in Malta. Wozniak is now the co-founder of energy efficiency company Efforce, according to a report by Maltese news daily The Malta Independent on July 18. Wozniak co-founded the company alongside Jacopo Visetti, who — according to his LinkedIn profile — works in the renewable energy and environment sector. According to this page, Visetti co-founded Efforce in January, 2018 — approximately one year and seven months ago. According Efforce's LinkedIn page, the company provides the first blockchain-based platform focused on investing in energy efficiency, …

The United States’ Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is allegedly considering requiring tech giants to report on crypto activity by users, according to a presentation reportedly from an IRS presentation and provided by a Twitter user on July 9. According to the documents shared, the IRS hopes to use Grand Jury subpoenas on firms such as Apple, Google and Microsoft to check taxpayers’ download history for crypto-related applications. Known as Crypto Tax Girl, Laura Walter, certified public accountant and crypto tax specialist, tweeted the presentation, which was allegedly for agents in the IRS’s Criminal Investigation division. Citing the document, Walter concluded …

A crypto exchange that claims it has amassed more than 2 million registered users in the space of four months has released new apps for Android and Apple smartphones. As well as supporting transactions in a multitude of cryptocurrencies, Bitsdaq says its app offers real-time updates on movements in the markets — and enables users to make withdrawals and deposits quickly. The software is currently available in English, simplified Chinese and traditional Chinese. With the crypto exchange market growing increasingly congested, Bitsdaq says many platforms have been suffering from poor levels of platform security, inefficient liquidity, disappointing customer service and …

Yannick Sierra, security engineering and architecture manager for Apple, opened up the cryptography session at the 2019 Apple Worldwide Developers Conference and presented the CryptoKit with these words: Welcome to the bitcoin session! (Laughter in the room). Kidding — welcome to Cryptography and Your Apps session! This opening quote ended up being the only reference to cryptocurrencies or blockchain throughout the entire presentation of CryptoKit — Apple’s new framework for app developers designed to simplify building security-enhancing cryptographic functionality. Sierra’s joke was likely in recognition of how eagerly the crypto community anticipated the event, as well as the launch of …

Apple will target cryptographic developer tools at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2019, the company revealed in the event program for June 5. During a session scheduled for Wednesday at the ongoing event, titled “Cryptography and your Apps,” Apple will unveil a new tool dubbed “CryptoKit,” which will debut as an update in iOS 13. CryptoKit will focus primarily on developers, allowing them to build in more security functionality for apps with better support. “System frameworks encrypt both data at rest and data in transit in a transparent way for you. This functionality is available by simply setting an …

New Jersey-based cryptocurrency mining startup Honeyminer has made its mining app available on the Apple Macintosh operating system, the firm announced in a blog post on May 9. The Honeyminer app runs in the background, using the central processing unit (CPU) and graphics processing unit (GPU) of users’ computers for mining bitcoin (BTC). The startup claims to include app features such as mining while users’ computer is idle, an activity log with current mining statistics, currencies, and hardware utilized, and withdrawals, among others. While Honeyminer is expanding its offerings, other crypto mining services have reduced their capacities, or shuttered altogether …

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak declared that he thinks “we’ve seen massive value creation” when asked about Bitcoin’s (BTC) potential in an interview with Bloomberg published on Feb. 26. When Bloomberg asked Wozniak if he still expects Bitcoin to become the world’s currency in the future — an idea he expressed in June last year — after “we’ve seen massive value destruction in Bitcoin,” the entrepreneur countered: “I’m not sure I can buy that we’ve seen massive value destruction, I think we’ve seen massive value creation.” Apple’s co-founder then argued that oftentimes psychology drives market dips, with fear in part determining …

Tech giant Apple has mentioned its work in forming the Blockchain Guidelines of the Responsible Minerals Initiative (RMI) in a filing with the United States Security Exchange Commission (SEC). The document, entitled “Conflict Minerals Report” was published on Feb. 15. In general, the document pertains to Apple’s business practices and ethics in sourcing minerals for its various consumer electronic devices. Apple states that it is “committed to going beyond the minimum requirements in order to meet and exceed internationally accepted due diligence standards and protect people in its supply chain…” Last year, Apple came under scrutiny for its plans to …

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has said that he sold all of his Bitcoin (BTC) when the currency hit $20,000 in December 2017. Financial media outlet Business Insider Nordic reported on Wozniak’s comments on Jan. 24. Speaking at the Nordic Business Forum in Stockholm, Sweden, Wozniak said that he first bought an undisclosed quantity of Bitcoin when the crypto was at about $700 because he “wanted to experiment with it.” He then explained what he planned to do with it: “My goal was to travel to a place like Stockholm, and go to restaurants and hotels that only accept bitcoin, and …

Bitcoin (BTC) still has “lower to go” despite its bull run to above $4,000 last week, Morgan Creek Digital Assets founder Anthony Pompliano told CNBC on Dec. 26. Speaking in an interview, Pompliano, who is also a frequent markets commentator on social media, became the latest figure to claim Bitcoin markets will only bottom out when the price drifts below $3,000. “Short term, I actually think we have lower to go,” he told the network. In November, Pompliano had predicted a plunge to $3,000 for BTC/USD, which subsequently occurred earlier this month. Since then, prices across the crypto markets have …

The views expressed here are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of Cointelegraph.com. The way I see it, investors in 2017 — and specifically in Q4 — wanted to buy Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) for the sole purpose of exchanging it for specific ICO tokens they wanted to invest in. The buyers of Bitcoin and Ethereum did not want to own Bitcoin or Ethereum. They wanted to buy the newly issued initial coin offering (ICO) tokens, but they needed to buy Bitcoin and Ethereum as a short way to get what they ultimately wanted. The …

Bitcoin (BTC) has the potential to become a new asset class in the next ten years, CEO of major crypto derivatives platform BitMEX claimed on the podcast Unchained Dec. 16. Arthur Hayes, CEO and co-founder of BitMEX, the largest crypto exchange by reported daily trade volumes, spoke with host Laura Shin and a group of other industry leaders at CME's Global Financial Leadership Conference last month. When asked if cryptocurrency represents a new asset class, Hayes expressed skepticism, saying crypto “is sort of a blend” but that it is “still extremely small”: “Could it become a bona fidе asset class …