Hacked off

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March 5, 2019 DAMAGE CONTROL: After days of pressure and a #deletecoinbase movement, Coinbase will be letting go of former employees of the Hacking Team employed by its recent acquisition, blockchain analytics firm Neutrino.  Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong announced Monday evening that the company would be parting ways with former Hacking Team members, regardless of whether or not they’re still affiliated with the organization. It is unclear how many employees this will impact, beyond the three senior executives listed on the firm’s website: CEO Giancarlo Russo, CTO Alberto Ornaghi and CRO Marco Valleri. The move comes after widespread criticism of Coinbase after the acquisition was first announced Feb. 19. Hacking Team previously aided governments known to commit human rights abuses. In his post, Armstrong explained that, “We had a gap in our diligence process. While we looked hard at the technology and security of the Neutrino product, we did not properly evaluate everything from the perspective of our mission and values as a crypto company.” Full Story 45 DAYS: Canadian crypto exchange QuadrigaCX has another 45 days to try and locate its missing millions. A judge granted the exchange an extension on its stay of proceedings during a hearing on Tuesday, meaning its customers cannot sue Quadriga until the stay is lifted or expires. Nova Scotia Supreme Court Judge Michael Wood also approved the appointment of a chief restructuring officer, though the title may not fit. Rather than organizing a restructuring of Quadriga, the CRO will be tasked with helping EY run the exchange and potentially organize the sale of its trading platform further down the line.  While a number of other matters were addressed, Wood returned to the question of what comes next for Quadriga. Based on the circumstances, he pondered whether the exchange might be better suited moving from a creditor protection filing under the CCAA to something more akin to bankruptcy proceedings. “This isn’t so much a restructuring as it is a claims process and liquidation … it does look like an end process,” he said. Full Story CRYPTO SAVINGS: Crypto lending startup BlockFi can now offer deposit accounts providing compound interest to its customers. Announced Tuesday, the new BlockFi Interest Account (BIA) is live, and can offer an interest rate as much as 6 percent annually, paid on a monthly basis in crypto.  This monthly interest would then be compounded to produce a 6.2 percent annual percentage yield (APY).  Users can deposit bitcoin or ether to earn interest from the offering, and can withdraw their funds at any time. Accounts are custodied by the Gemini Trust Company, which was co-founded by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, and all assets held will be insured. BlockFi director of marketing Brad Michelson told CoinDesk that the account “helps crypto investors grow their wealth with one of the most powerful tools in finance – compound interest.” Full Story FUTURES BOOST: Cryptocurrency futures provider Crypto Facilities says it has seen “tremendous growth” since being acquired by U.S.-based crypto exchange Kraken last month. Sui Chung, the subsidiary's head of indices and pricing products, told CoinDesk that trading volume increased more than 500 percent since the acquisition, with nearly $1 billion in futures being traded across the bitcoin, ether, XRP, litecoin and bitcoin cash products the company offers.  Crypto Facilities, which offers bitcoin and ether references rates to CME Group, believes some of this boost came from the Kraken acquisition itself, Chung explained.  “I think obviously having the support of a major U.S. exchange helped and obviously Kraken bringing our product set to a very loyal user base … that Kraken branding carries a lot of weight,” he said. Full Story​ LOOKING UP? Bitcoin has regained some poise after yesterday's 2.4 percent drop and could see further gains as the support of the widely followed 5-week moving average (MA), currently at $3,703, is proving a tough nut to crack for the bears. Notably, the moving average is reporting bullish conditions for the first time since August 2018. Continued bull defense of that key support, could invite a wave of buying and a re-test of recent highs near $4,200. Full Story​ BEST OF THE BEST   CARREFOUR: French retail giant Carrefour is continuing its efforts to apply blockchain tech to the tracking of its food supply chains with a new initiative aimed to inform consumers about its fresh micro-filtered milk products. The firm announced Sunday that data on the products will be placed on a blockchain, allow consumers to scan a QR code on the packaging to access "a wealth of information" and track the milk from the farm to the store refrigerator. The dairy products are sourced from animals within 30 km (18 miles) of the dairy, with the cows being fed GMO-free feeds and raised on farms with practices that "ensure animal welfare," the firm said.  The blockchain platform will give consumers highly granular data, even offering the GPS coordinates of the farms supplying the milk, as well as information on animal feed and more. THE REST THE NEXT WEB: Opera has revealed it will soon bring its cryptocurrency-focused web browser to Apple devices. Coming soon after it launched the software for Android, the Opera Touch product for iOS will similarly be loaded with a built-in crypto wallet that supports ethereum tokens and crypto collectibles (or non-fungible tokens) like CryptoKitties. It’s also been built to be Web 3.0 ready and can be loaded with ethereum dapps. According to The Next Web, no launch date has been set but early adopters can now sign up to test the browser. Opera said that it’s making the effort to launch on iOS “in response to popular demand from the Ethereum community.” FORBES: In the latest article looking at how cryptocurrencies can finally achieve mass adoption, Forbes contributor Darryn Pollock says the industry needs to look to social media. While the whole world is waking up to the potential of cryptos, the tech on offer is still far too complex for, say, your granny to ever think about getting to grips with, he writes.  However, Facebook too, once struggled with user adoption and it took some years before people came round to the idea of posting their private lives online for all to see. But, in the end they did, and "the social media wildfire started."  Part of the issue for cryptos is that there are so many projects working in different directions, whereas social media always had one aim, "connectivity." Decentralization also doesn't help, according to Pollock, as it prevents crypto projects from building an identity.  Increased focus on crypto’s “only real killer application” – as a currency – and following the social media example, could ultimately “force the mass adoption that it has the potential to achieve,” he concludes. WHO WON #CRYPTOTWITTER Copyright © 2019 CoinDesk. All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: 250 Park Avenue South New York, NY, 10003, US Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list