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Showing posts from September 29, 2023

Buenos Aires to Bring Blockchain-Based Digital ID to Millions of Citizens

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The city of Buenos Aires has announced that it will roll out a blockchain-based, privacy-focused digital ID wallet starting in October. The Quarkid project, previously known as Tangoid, will allow its users to download a “self-sovereign” wallet to hold their birth and marriage certificates, with more digital documents to be added later this year. Buenos Aires to Roll Out Blockchain-Based ID Program The City of Buenos Aires government announced the deployment of a digital, blockchain-based “self-sovereign” ID project for its citizens. The wallet, called Quarkid, formerly known as Tangoid and scheduled to be operating by last January, will supposedly allow its users to exert full ownership of their data, granting only trusted and permissioned third parties access. The Quarkid wallet will use Zksync Era, a zero-knowledge (ZK) Ethereum L2 (Layer 2) protocol, as its base, allowing the use of this kind of mathematical proof for privacy and confidentiality purposes. Quarkid was co-creat

Sam Bankman-Fried Trial: A Colossal Legal Showdown Starts Next Week

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A calendar has been set for the upcoming trial of United States v. Bankman-Fried, with jury selection beginning October 3, 2023. The FTX founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, was denied temporary release from prison but will be allowed to use an “air-gapped,” internet-disabled laptop for note-taking in the courtroom. In the coming month and a half, the public will likely hear testimonies from FTX senior personnel such as Zixiao (Gary) Wang, Caroline Ellison, Nishad Singh, and Ryan Salame. The Bankman-Fried Trial Kickoff Next week, the co-founder and former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried is set to face trial following charges leveled by the U.S. government. The litany of accusations against him includes wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud, commodities fraud conspiracy, securities fraud conspiracy, and money laundering. The charges are associated with FTX’s collapse after the once-$32 billion crypto empire failed in November 2022. Bankman-Fried is the only one named in the lawsuit and on September 2

SEC Delays Decisions on More Bitcoin ETFs Including That of Blackrock

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U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has postponed its decisions on the spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) proposed by several companies. The delays of the applications of financial powerhouse Blackrock, asset manager Valkyrie and others come ahead of an expected government shutdown that would affect the SEC. U.S. Securities Regulator Pushes Back Verdicts on Multiple Bitcoin ETF Applications The future of a number of attempts to issue spot bitcoin ETFs in the United States remains unclear after the country’s regulatory body overseeing the securities market delayed its decisions again. The move concerns the high-profile application of investment giant Blackrock as well as those of Valkyrie, Bitwise, and Invesco, according to filings on Thursday. The development follows the postponing of the verdict on the Ark 21shares and Global X spot bitcoin ETFs earlier this week. The first was jointly proposed by Cboe BZX Exchange, 21shares, and Ark Invest, while the second was

Non-Regulation of Web3 Space Making ‘Mainstream Adoption Harder’ Says AGG’s Jack Vinijtrongjit

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According to Jack Vinijtrongjit, the co-founder and CEO of the Web3 infrastructure company AAG, more prospective users will be drawn to decentralized finance (defi) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) if tools that help them avoid falling prey to scammers are developed and deployed. Vinijtrongjit argued that the need for such tools will even become “more crucial” if and when the much-talked-about widespread adoption of Web3 becomes a reality. Onus on Industry Participants While he acknowledged the key role that education can play in making Web3 a safer space for new users, Vinijtrongjit insisted that the onus for solving this problem rests on the shoulders of industry participants. He told Bitcoin.com News that this is especially true at the latter stages of mainstream adoption of emerging technologies. Turning to the regulation of Web3 or the lack thereof, the AAG co-founder said he concurred with those who believe that a lack of regulation makes mainstream adoption harder. In writte