Kodak releases KodakCoin for KodakOne platform
Kodak has just announced launching its very own cryptocurrency, KodakCoin, which is intended to power Kodak’s new platform, the KodakOne platform. Photographers will be able to register their images and license them for appropriate use. In response to the news, Kodak’s stock doubled and closed at $6.80 on Tuesday.
Crypto debit card companies scramble for solutions following VISA ban
European bitcoin users were hit hard last week, when Wavecrest announced termination of all services associated with bitcoin debit card providers Xapo, Bitwala, Bitpay, and TenX. This came a consequence to Visa’s decision to terminate all business relationships with Wavecrest, the debit card issuer.
Tether announces the release of the EURT
Tether has already released the USDT, a digital currency backed by the US dollar, and has recently revealed the EURT, a digital currency backed by the euro. Both the USDT and EURT will be used with the ERC20 standard compatibility.
Ethereum grows by 15% and hits trading prices of $1,800
Ethereum’s price has just exceeded the $1,000 mark. Even more, its price reached $1,800 on some South Korean exchanges, namely due to the new policies issued by the South Korean government which support the growing cryptoeconomy. The latest policies could also perhaps have contributed to the high price of most cryptocurrencies in South Korea, as compared to the rest of the world.
Venezuela launches oil-backed token
Venezuela is another country choosing to issue a cryptocurrency, as the Venezuelan President has just announced that the country will issue a digital token, called ‘petro’, that will be backed by the country’s oil reserves. Venezuela plans on launching the new tokens in January 2018. Belarus and Estonia are some of the other countries that have decided to use digital tokens in their economy
Ripple’s weak infrastructure poses a problem
Ripple’s market capital increased by around 4,000% in 2017, and its number of transactions have increased at an exponential rate. However, Ripple’s infrastructure is not strong enough to handle the increase in traffic which it is witnessing during the last couple of months. On December 29th, a number of users temporarily lost their XRP coins. They eventually got their tokens back, and it turns out that the tokens had vanished into thin air for some time.
Bitcoin card providers cancel their services without notice
All bitcoin debit card providers, including Bitwala, Bitpay, Wirex, and Tenpay, have halted all operations of their issued debit cards. It is important to understand that Wirex, TenX, and Bitwala are just providers of the debit card services. However, the cards are issued by WaveCrest, with the permission of the global Fintech company, Visa, which decided to to stop the operations of all non-US digital token debit cards.
Estcoin to promote digital citizenship
In a more recent development, Estonia has also announced that it will be starting a e-residency program. This program will be backed by a blockchain-based digital token, called estcoin. Since the introduction of the concept, many miners have showed their support for an initial coin offering for estcoin.
SegWit2x 2.0, scam or reality?
The new SegWit2x hard fork, SegWIt2x 2.0, team has no relation to the people of the New York Agreement (NYA), who initially decided on performing SegWit2x. The team’s GitHub page is less than a month old and the proclaimed leader of the team has a half empty LinkedIn profile. The team performed the hard fork on block number 501,451 on the 28th of December, but the users can only access the new coins after the 15th of January. It is hard to believe that the team will be able to fulfill all of the promises it is making.
Bitcoin’s scalability issues
Bitcoin’s scalability problems have become very prominent, as transaction fees have exceeded $37, rising from $2 in October 2017. Even though Bitcoin was developed to facilitate microtransactions, it is currently unsuitable for such forms of payments. Consequently, many merchants have recently decided to stop accepting bitcoin payments, including Steam, the online video game store.
