The US Department of Energy (DoE) is now looking into blockchain tech. According to a research area overview document published in late December, the DoE – which is tasked largely with the security and oversight of the US nuclear industry and nuclear weapons stockpile – is seeking research proposals “for the realization of robust fossil energy systems” incorporating blockchain. The solicitation for proposals is the first for the DoE, though other departments in the US government have in research projects and startups to date. A number of startups in the space are focused on the application of the technology to new ways of distributing or funding power. According to the DoE, cybersecurity is one major area of interest. The DoE said in the notice:…
Though details are currently scarce, Chinese regulators are reportedly looking into the use of bitcoin to avoid capital controls. According to Tencent Finance, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) is exploring how bitcoin can be used to circumvent capital flight. The news website cited unnamed sources close to regulators, and Tencent’s report was later cited by Bloomberg. The report emerges in the wake of statements from China’s central bank, which said today that it had met with domestic bitcoin exchanges this week, warning them about adhering to state regulations. It also comes as Chinese officials weigh instituting additional capital controls on top of existing constraints amid an outflow of funds from the country, as reported last month…
Is it 2013 or 2017? For bitcoin’s investors, traders and enthusiasts, an answer to this question might be harder to give today than you might imagine. Bitcoin prices surged above the $1,100 mark this week (near all-time highs) only to sink back down to earth amid higher volatility and foreboding – if not unclear – news out of China. Taken together, the developments evoke memories of 2013, when the price of bitcoin surged to similar levels, bringing the digital currency to international attention. Both rallies were buoyed by bullish sentiment among those actually trading in the market, and somewhat more eerily, both would face headwinds from events in China. At the same time, the ecosystem is fundamentally different today than it was in 2013-2014, both in…
Just hours after it was first revealed that the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) had held closed-door meetings with domestic bitcoin exchanges, new details are emerging about the conversations. According to a new report by Caixin, the PBoC sought to restrict how the exchanges could seek to acquire potential new users, with the central bank indicating that the startups aren’t able to mention the depreciation of the yuan in connection with marketing or otherwise promote their services offline. Some of the involved exchanges were said to have cancelled planned activities that would have potentially utilized such a strategy. The article further states that exchanges were advised to comply with know-your-customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) laws,…
Bitcoin: you can’t see it, you can’t touch it, but you’ve still got to find some way to illustrate an article about it day after day, week after week. It’s actually a trade secret in the bitcoin industry that there are only 10 types of bitcoin stock images in existence, with the illusion of variety being created by making slight variations of these template pictures and hoping desperately that none of the readers will notice. In this feature, CoinDesk explains the secret meaning behind the only bitcoin images you’ll ever see. Be warned, the world may never look the same again. 1. The Miner Sentavio / Shutterstock You know the great thing about ‘mining’ as a metaphor? There’s a ton of pictures of it. But since modern mines…