cryptocurrency

BODEN, Sweden — Tucked away in snowy Swedish Lapland is a modern-day gold mine. But instead of picks and shovels, it's filled with thousands of computers.These machines, known as mining rigs, are working around the clock to find new units of cryptocurrency — in this case, ethereum, the second-largest token globally.To do so, they must compete with others around the world to find the answer to a complex math puzzle, which grows in difficulty as more and more computers, known as "miners," join the network. The aim is to…

Bitcoin has steadily been gaining acceptance from the traditional finance and investment world in recent years but Warren Buffett is sticking to his skeptical stance on the cryptocurrency.He said at the Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholders meeting Saturday that it's not a productive asset and it doesn't produce anything tangible. Despite a shift in public perception about bitcoin, Buffett still wouldn't buy it."Whether it goes up or down in the next year, or five or 10 years, I don't know. But the one thing I'm pretty…

The cryptocurrency industry has been quietly lobbying U.S. lawmakers against legislation designed to prevent Russian oligarchs from using digital currencies to evade sanctions imposed on Russian President Vladimir Putin's allies and their companies following Russia's attack on Ukraine.The Blockchain Association, a lobbying group that represents more than 70 crypto platforms including Ripple, Crypto.com and Dragonfly Capital, is trying to convince Congress that cryptocurrencies aren't being used by wealthy Russians to to…

Some of the biggest names in bitcoin — including Jack Dorsey, Tom Lee, and Michael Saylor — have banded together to refute claims made by House Democrats calling on the Environmental Protection Agency to investigate the environmental effects of crypto mining.Bitcoin operates on a proof-of-work (PoW) mining model, meaning that miners around the world run high-powered computers to simultaneously create new bitcoin and validate transactions. Proof-of-work mining, which requires sophisticated gear and a whole lot of…

The Wikimedia Foundation (WMF), the organization behind Wikipedia, has announced that it will no longer accept donations in cryptocurrency, as first reported by Web3 Is Going Just Great. In an update, the WMF says it “has decided to discontinue direct acceptance of cryptocurrency as a means of donating.” It also says it will close its Bitpay account, preventing any future contributions in crypto. After a lengthy discussion with almost 400 members of the WMF community, the majority voted to do away with crypto…

Telegram now lets users send Toncoin, the cryptocurrency built off of Telegram’s abandoned blockchain effort, directly from chats within the messaging app (via Protocol). In a post on Twitter, TON (The Open Network), announced that Telegram now supports Toncoin transactions with no fees attached. TON included a short video showing how crypto transactions work on the platform. To get started, you’ll have to add Telegram’s Wallet bot to your attachment menu, which allows you to “purchase cryptocurrency by bank card,…

The world's first permanent NFT art museum has opened in Seattle, aiming to "pull back the curtain" on blockchain-based digital art.Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are a type of digital asset that has exploded in popularity recently, with NFT artworks selling for millions of dollars. NFTs exist on a blockchain, a record of transactions kept on networked computers.The museum opened its doors on Januray 14, and has been providing an outlet for artists, creators, and collectors to display their NFTs in a physical setting, while…

NFT or Non-Fungible Tokens are cryptocurrency assets that represent a wide range of unique items, both physical and virtual like real estate or digital art. NFTs are unique - like a real artwork, an NFT uses the blockchain to identify its authenticity, so you can tell the difference between an original or a replica. They are essentially a blockchain entry and provide an opportunity for collectors to have a digital collection where each item can be traced to its original issuer. CryptoPunks and CryptoKitties are the two…

Metaverse or gaming-based non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are the most common type of collectibles owned globally ahead of profile pictures and art, according to a report by cryptocurrency data aggregator CoinGecko. Metaverse refers to a convergence of physical, augmented, and virtual reality in a shared online space. The industry is projected to be an $800 billion market in the next two years, and games look like the most likely NFT-point-of-entry for most people, particularly crypto…

Telecom major Bharti Airtel on Thursday announced that it has acquired a strategic stake in Aqilliz, a Blockchain-as-a-service company. Airtel aims to deploy Aqilliz's blockchain technologies at scale across its fast-growing adtech (Airtel Ads), digital entertainment (Wynk Music and Airtel Xstream), and digital marketplace (Airtel Thanks App) offerings."Bharti Airtel has acquired a strategic stake in Aqilliz –a Blockchain-as-a-service company under the Airtel Startup Accelerator Program, subject to applicable statutory…