Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

The Chinese government is taking its digital yuan test one step further. Now, 10 million users will be able to test and use the currency after applying to join a whitelist in selected state banks. This new phase of the test aims to detect possible problems in a more broad testing environment. China is preparing its user base and its digital yuan technology to be used in the upcoming 2022 Winter Olympics. Digital Yuan Whitelist Open The government of China is expanding the testing of its CDBC. According to reports from an officer of the People’s Bank of China, it opened a whitelist to further experiment with the digital yuan. Citizens interested in being part of this initiative can request their inclusion in this new trial phase at selected state banks. More than ten million citizens are already on this whitelist, said Fan Yifei, deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China. However, the extent of this test and how the digital yuan will be distributed have not been clarified. Whil

Presenting at the Talent Land Jalisco 2021, Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak called bitcoin an “amazing mathematical miracle.” Wozniak said he’s not a bitcoin investor per se, but “believes in it for the future.” Steve Wozniak Is Not Necessarily Invested but Still Believes Bitcoin Is an ‘Amazing Mathematical’ Creation Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak is a fan of bitcoin and he’s mentioned the subject on numerous occasions over the years. Back in August 2018, Wozniak revealed he was participating with a crypto startup and spoke highly about bitcoin. “It’s so independent,” Wozniak said at the time. “It’s kind of like the internet when it was brand new… I was amazed at the technology behind it,” Wozniak added. Still months before the internet comparison, Wozniak told an audience at the Nordic Business Forum in Sweden that he wasn’t obsessed with bitcoin either. “I had bitcoin to experiment with and when it shot up high, I said, ‘I don’t want to become one of those people that watches it,

The publicly listed and iconic lifestyle company Playboy has announced the entertainment firm has collaborated with the non-fungible token (NFT) digital art marketplace Superrare. The Playboy NFTs expand upon an exhibit showcased to thousands of visitors at the Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miami. Playboy’s New Collection of NFTs Includes Heritage Photograph Print Playboy (Nasdaq: PLBY) has announced the company is collaborating with the NFT digital art marketplace Superrare in order to showcase and sell a collection of NFTs. The collection Playboy published on Friday, includes works by Jon Noorlander and MBSJQ, Ayla El-Moussa, and REK0DE. Furthermore, the works include the original heritage photograph that stems directly from the Playboy Archives. The Miami Beach NFT Collection produced by Playboy and various artists. The original heritage photograph features a water-skiing Playboy Bunny Kathy at the Miami Playboy Club in 1970. Moreover, the Playboy heritage NFT buyer will also

According to the findings of the latest study by Disrupt Africa, the number of fintech start-ups based on the African continent grew to 576 in 2021. This figure represents a 17.3% jump from the 491 start-ups that were operating on the continent in 2019. Overall, the number of fintech start-ups in Africa has increased around 90% from the 2017 figure of 301. Nigerian Dominance Leading the charge in this continuing African fintech growth is the West Africa region where “Nigerian figures were up 42.6 percent on 2019.” In Ghana, fintech companies grew by 25% over the same period while Ivory Coast’s count was up 100%. However, as the study’s findings show, three countries — Nigeria, South Africa, and Kenya — totally dominate the continent’s fintech start-up space. For instance, the findings show that out of all the fintech start-ups that were tracked during the period between 2019 and 2021, 391 were located in these three countries. Of these 391 start-ups, 154 are based in South Africa,

President Nayib Bukele’s adoption of cryptocurrency as legal tender in his country is not being met with deep understanding by most of his fellow Salvadorans, a new survey suggests. Almost half of the respondents admitted they knew nothing about Bitcoin, while two-thirds aren’t ready to be paid in crypto. Bitcoin Adoption ‘Not at All Correct,’ Half of Salvadorans Say In a blow to President Bukele’s crypto-friendly policy, poll results released Thursday showed that around 54% of people in El Salvador viewed the adoption of bitcoin ( BTC ) as “not at all correct.” Another 24% said it’s “only a little correct.” Less than 20% fully approved of the government’s crypto move. Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, Twitter. The survey has been conducted by Disruptiva , which is affiliated with Francisco Gavidia University, Reuters reported. The pollster reached out to 1,233 people across the Central American nation between July 1 and 4, and the study has a margin of error of 2.8%. El Salva

PRESS RELEASE. AscendEX , a global cryptocurrency financial platform with a comprehensive product suite, is excited to launch the Hummingbot Rebate Campaign to reward users for trading on AscendEX using the Hummingbot Liquidity Mining Portal. The campaign will begin July 9, 2021 and run for 60 days. During the campaign, new and existing Hummingbot users on AscendEX will be able to take advantage of a favorable VIP fee structure available to traders with any level of trade volume while using Hummingbot. The campaign is set up to offer a 0 bps Maker and 5 bps Taker fee for all Hummingbot users on AscendEX. As part of the campaign, users who maintain high enough trading volumes will continue to retain access to VIP fee levels after the end of the campaign. For new users rebate rates will go into effect 48 hours after users sign up by using Hummingbot’s affiliate link. For existing users rebate rates will go into effect 48 hours after the start of the campaign. AscendEX’s Global Head

On Thursday local reports from Mechanicville, the city located in Saratoga County, New York, say that an old hydroelectric plant constructed back in 1897 was almost dismantled, but today the plant is mining bitcoins. The Mechanicville facility is considered one of the oldest renewable energy plants in the world, and it’s now making “more money with bitcoin than selling the electricity” to the grid. Historical Hydroelectric Machinery From 1897 Mines Bitcoin In the historic district of Mechanicville, New York, there’s an 18.3-acre site that is considered one of the oldest renewable energy facilities in the world. Mechanicville Hydroelectric Plant was built in 1897 by the Hudson River Power Transmission Company and years ago the plant was almost shut down. The plant is now owned and operated by Albany Engineering Corp (AEC) and the company signed a deal with National Grid in order to have continued access to cheap renewable energy. Mechanicville Hydroelectric Plant is the longest-run

The CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, is a fan of base layers when it comes to blockchain technology and on Friday, Musk explained there’s “merit” to the Dogecoin chain “minimizing transaction cost.” Dogecoin developers are in the midst of preparing to update the Dogecoin network by gradually deploying the updates to the network “over multiple software releases.” Tesla’s Elon Musk Wholeheartedly Believes in Dogecoin’s Base Layer On Friday morning (EDT), top dogecoin (DOGE) Youtuber Matt Wallace tweeted about the fact that the Dogecoin upgrade was coming in the near future. “Reminder,” Wallace tweeted . “The Dogecoin update is coming soon. It will position Doge perfectly to become one of the most used currencies in the world.” Following the tweet, Elon Musk decided to respond to Wallace’s statement and said: BTC [and] ETH are pursuing a multilayer transaction system, but base layer transaction rate is slow [and] transaction cost is high. There is merit [IMO] to Doge maximizing base laye

A Swedish man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison in the U.S. for an investment fraud scheme involving cryptocurrency, including bitcoin. He defrauded thousands of victims of more than $16 million. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Thursday that a “cryptocurrency fraudster” has been sentenced to 15 years in prison “for securities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering charges that defrauded thousands of victims of more than $16 million.” Roger Nils-Jonas Karlsson, a 47-year-old Swedish man, was arrested in Thailand in June 2019. He pleaded guilty on March 4. According to court documents, Karlsson ran an investment fraud scheme from 2011 until his arrest. He sold shares in the scheme called “Eastern Metal Securities” using cryptocurrency such as bitcoin and other online payment platforms. He promised victims “astronomical returns” tied to the price of gold. However, Karlsson transferred the victims’ funds to his personal bank accounts and used the money to buy ex

Jack Dorsey’s payments company, Square Inc., has confirmed that it is building a bitcoin hardware wallet and service with the aim to “make bitcoin custody more mainstream.” Square’s Bitcoin Hardware Wallet in the Works Square Inc. is building a hardware wallet, Jesse Dorogusker, the company’s hardware lead, announced Thursday on Twitter. He tweeted: We have decided to build a hardware wallet and service to make bitcoin custody more mainstream. We’ll continue to ask and answer questions in the open. Square and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey subsequently confirmed, tweeting: “We’re doing it.” Dorogusker explained: “Our next step is to build a small, cross-functional team, which will be led by Max Guise (welcome back). We will incubate this full-stack of tech, design, product, manufacturing, and supply chain with Thomas Templeton & Square’s hardware team to start with a strong foundation.” The hardware lead elaborated: We have a lot of questions and issues to reconcile and we’ll s

Santander Bank in the U.K. has become the latest high street bank in the country to block fund transfers to cryptocurrency exchange Binance. Recently, Barclays and Natwest banks reportedly made a similar move. A number of Santander Bank customers reported on social media that they have received an email from the bank stating, “We’re stopping payments to Binance for your protection,” beginning on July 8. The bank explained: This follows the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)’s recent warning to consumers and is to help protect you from fraud. For now, we want to be restricting payments from finance to your account(s). The email continues: “We are taking this step as we want to do everything we can to protect you and help keep your money safe. We’ll continue to monitor the situation, and let you know if anything changes.” A Santander customer representative further explained on social media: “In recent months we have seen a large increase in UK customers becoming the vi

Thousands of users were scammed into buying fake Android cryptocurrency mining apps, according to a California-based security firm. These apps are advertised as a way of earning money via mining cryptocurrencies, but in actuality they don’t perform any function. Instead, they charge the user for supposed improvements and enhancements to improve their currency throughput. 93K Users Scammed Scammers tricked more than 93K users by selling them fake cryptocurrency apps through the Google Play Store. These numbers come from the latest report from Lookout, a California-based security firm. According to the report, the apps mimic a frontend for cloud mining platforms. The business model of these apps is to cheat users into thinking they are really mining cryptocurrencies. In fact, the apps do nothing at all. Compared to similar apps which siphon private data from their buyers, these are more subtle. This is what allowed some of them to remain undetected in Google’s Play Store. Of the 175

The highly anticipated Ethereum hard fork is expected to launch on August 4 at block height 12,965,000 according to Ethereum core developers. The London hard fork will add five Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) that aim to enhance the blockchain. However, the Berlin hard fork was postponed after a vulnerability was identified by the audit company Chainsecurity and the London hard fork could be delayed as well. London Hard Fork Scheduled for August 4, 2021 Ethereum’s London hard fork is one of the most long-awaited changes in quite some time and will follow the recently implemented Berlin hard fork. The London upgrade is meant to complement the Ethereum 2.0 transition which will change the ETH chain from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS). Ethereum core devs have proposed block 12,965,000 for London upgrade on Mainnet. It is expected around August 4th. https://t.co/EgHKhrabBz https://t.co/5ec2o7OKiD — banteg (@bantg) July 6, 2021 Just recently, Bitcoin.com News r

With over 1.3 billion inhabitants, Africa accounts for over 16% of the world’s population. However, the continent still falls short when it comes to providing its residents with legitimate or government-issued identification documents. As some studies have revealed, as many as 400 million Africans do not have the appropriate identification documents. Lack of Required Documents Creates Problems Unfortunately, the lack of a national identification document precludes many from accessing financial services, participating in national plebiscites, or even travelling across national borders. To help reduce the number of people that are in this situation, one African tech start-up, Flexfintx, has created a virtual solution to the challenge — digital IDs. To understand how digital IDs can potentially overcome the challenge of lacking identification, Bitcoin.com News interviewed Victor Mapunga, the CEO and co-founder of Flexfintx via email. Bitcoin.com News (BCN): Can you start by briefly t

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao stated his take on the recent regulatory crackdown Binance is facing. In a blog post, Zhao explains Binance aims to comply with local regulations. However, he also stated cryptocurrency was a nascent industry, and there are a lot of uncertainties in the field. Binance has been getting a slew of warning from governments all over the world for failing to comply with specific regulations. Changpeng Zhao States Compliance Is a ‘Journey’ Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance, finally issued a statement on its take about the recent regulatory crackdown the exchange faces. In a letter published yesterday, Zhao describes how Binance is gradually adapting to regulations all over the world. But he recognizes that Binance “haven’t always got everything exactly right.” Zhao further stressed: Compliance is a journey – especially in new sectors like crypto. The industry still has a lot of uncertainty. We also recognize that with the growth comes more complexity. Binance i

Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, has become the first national legislature to release a non-fungible token. The special NFT has been created for the country’s new president, Isaac Herzog, who took office this week after his election in early June. Knesset Becomes First Parliament to Issue NFT Isaac Herzog received the token right before his inauguration on Wednesday, the Jerusalem Post reported. The unique NFT represents a copy of the original oath signed by his late father, Israel’s sixth president, Chaim Herzog. President Isaac Herzog With the symbolic gesture, the Knesset becomes arguably the first parliament to create an NFT. “I am excited to present President Herzog with a special memento of his father that includes the oath he signed 38 years ago,” Knesset Speaker Mickey Levy was quoted as saying. Levy also stressed: It is a great honor for the Knesset to implement one of the world’s most innovative technologies in order to preserve such a significant historical docume