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Apple tends to recommend new applications in its App Store on a regular basis. It now appears that the Brave browser is part of these recommendations, with this a lot of interesting debates are sparked.

It appears that the technology giant sees no problem with Brave, even though it directly competes with the native Safari browser. While Brave is not directly tied to cryptocurrencies, its incentivization model certainly is.

Wikipedia explained Brave as  "a free and open-source web browser developed by Brave Software, Inc. based on the Chromium web browser. The browser blocks ads and website trackers. As of 2019, Brave has been released for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS."

Brave makes it possible for it's users to earn Rewards dubbed "Brave Rewards". According to Brave's official website:

"Brave Rewards lets you anonymously support the sites you visit. With Brave Rewards, your browser tallies the attention you spend on the sites you visit and divides up a monthly BAT contribution among sites based on your attention.

Nobody will know which sites you visit or support — including us here at Brave Software."

From TestBoo.com - https://testboo.com/brave-now-one-of-apple-recommended-apps/

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Telegram has announced it’s TON Wallet, the application that will be used to store its Gram tokens, will not be integrated into the privacy-centric messaging app at launch. The firm added that it has made no promises regarding the development of applications for the TON blockchain, leaving it up to the community to develop these.

The TON Wallet is the application that’ll allow users to store TRON’s native Gram tokens. According to the Notice:

“In this regard, the TON Wallet is expected to compete with any other wallet applications designed and offered by third parties. Telegram may integrate the TON Wallet application with the Telegram Messenger service in the future to the extent permitted under applicable laws and governmental authorities.”

Per TheBlock, in a Terms of Services dated October 2019, Telegram said its Grams wallet would either be an independent application or would be incorporated into the Telegram application.

Telegram went on to say that it hasn’t made any commitment to develop an application for the TON blockchain, and may not do so after the network goes live. According to its notice, it’s the responsibility of third parties and the community to implement such applications and smart contracts.

The firm’s statement comes as it battles the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over its allegedly illegal initial coin offering, in which it’s said to have raised $1.7 billion.

From TestBoo.com - https://testboo.com/telegrams-ton-wallet-will-not-integrate-its-messaging-app-at-launch/

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Baidu, a Chinese internet giant with over 65% of the search engine market share in the country, has launched its own cryptocurrency, called Xuperchain. It’s said to be fully compliant with China’s policies while using a network of masternodes for efficiency. Its whitepaper claims it can process up to 10,000 transactions per second and support blockchain-based applications.

The cryptocurrency is compliant within China and uses a series of masternodes to run its network, built on top of Baidu’s own technology.

According to local news outlets, the blockchain-based network is capable of supporting over 10,000 transactions per second and is designed to support blockchain applications, much like the Ethereum network.

Xuperchain’s underlying code was open-sourced back in May 2019, and can be easily accessed on GitHub. It also has an open block explorer anyone can visit. The cryptocurrency’s whitepaper makes it clear its role is to help modernize China’s governance capacity, helping it become a leader in distributed ledger technology.

It’s unclear how centralized or decentralized Xuperchain is. Its use of masternodes, according to some analysts, implies the need for centralization.

From TestBoo.com - https://testboo.com/baidu-launches-its-own-cryptocurrency-xuperchain/

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Binance Futures, the cryptocurrency exchange’s futures trading platform, has rolled out a perpetual contract for the XRP cryptocurrency. The contract, paired against Tether (USDT), offers leverage of up to 75 times, according to an announcement Monday.

The XRP/USDT contract appears to be the first such contract from a notable exchange. The Binance Futures platform went live last September and currently offers three more contracts - bitcoin (BTC), bitcoin cash (BCH) and ether (ETH) - all tied against USDT.

Binance is a global cryptocurrency exchange that provides a platform for trading more than 100 cryptocurrencies. It has been dubbed the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in the world in terms of trading volume.

The crypto exchange platform on it's vision wrote:

"Our vision is to increase the freedom of money globally. We believe that by spreading this freedom, we can significantly improve lives around the world"

Binance will go a long way in it's quest to be among the firms to shape the future of money as the exchange website keeps on updating and keying into new trends.

From TestBoo.com - https://testboo.com/binance-futures-launches-xrp-usdt-perpetual-contract-with-up-to-75-times-leverage/

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Bitcoin has turned upwards as the Middle East braces for a potential war with the U.S. which might be a quick one or might descend into a prolonged proxy war. In both cases, financially it will be costly and that will probably be paid by the regressive taxation of money printing. As a hard money, bitcoin should by itself reflect this potential devaluation, in addition to actual rising demand to escape the potential significant inflation of regional money.

Many people chanting “Death to America” crowded the streets of Tehran on Monday as Iran mourned Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, killed during a United States' drone strike on Friday, whose funeral was held in the capital.

He was killed by the United States on Friday in Baghdad in a drone strike under Trump's rule. American officials said the general had ordered assaults on Americans in Iraq and Syria.

Ayatollah Khamenei had a close relationship with the general, who was the second most powerful man. His successor swore revenge during his funeral.

From TestBoo.com - https://testboo.com/bitcoin-rises-as-president-trump-threatens-war-with-iran/

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Travala, the online platform that allows crypto users to book hotel rooms around the world, has registered remarkable growth. More than half of those in December were paid in cryptocurrency. The total number reached 1,528 in December which represents a more than 15% increase over November. Their report states that more than 60% of all Travala bookings in December were paid using cryptocurrencies with bitcoin core (BTC) topping the list with 28%. Whereas Fiat transactions with credit cards and Paypal had a 37% share.

It should be noted that the Cryptocurrency space is really increasing with more people picking interest in Cryptocurrencies. As previously reported, North America recorded the highest number of Cryptocurrency Investments last year, 2019.

It has been predicted that not too long from now, Cryptocurrency will take over most transactions. This has however led in the continuous interest of authorities to make a room for crypto regulation which WILL end up defeating the main idea of Bitcoin.

From TestBoo.com - https://testboo.com/travala-got-60-of-its-bookings-paid-with-cryptocurrency/

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Changpeng Zhao, says one of his biggest goals in 2020 is to give people around the world the ability to buy crypto using any and every fiat currency they have access to. Speaking about next decade he told by 2030, not only will blockchain and crypto still be around, they will be everywhere.

Crypto will be used to pay for self-driving versions of Uber. Crypto will be used to buy things from half a world away and have them delivered to you via drones. Crypto will be used to fund biotech research, to fund ambitious projects like going to Jupiter.

The fast rise of the cryptocurrency and blockchain Industry has made this Zhao's view a very possible one. Africa which is seen as the shreds of the society are already transacting on cryptocurrencies. There is also a very high number of cryptocurrency transactions in Brazil ... what's next?

From TestBoo.com - https://testboo.com/crypto-will-be-used-everywhere-by-2030-changpeng-zhao/

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On the 1st day of January, 2020 Google reinstated the MetaMask's mobile app (for Android) in the Google Play Store.

MetaMask's Android app, which is in the beta testing stage, happens to be both an Ethereum wallet and a decentralized app (DApp) browser. Also people who already use MetaMask on the desktop via its plugin for desktop browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and Brave), can sync their existing wallets "in seconds."

According to the description of the MetaMask app on Google's Play Store, You can:

"Use MetaMask to send ETH, tokens, or collectibles to anyone anywhere. Or use it to play games, use exchanges, publish content, chat with friends, buy crypto, and so much more."

On 26th December 2019, MetaMask notified its users that Google had suspended MetaMask's Android client on the basis that crypto mining apps are not allowed on the Google Play Store. MetaMask tweeted:

"In the last week, the MetaMask Android client was suspended by the Google Play App Store @googleplaydev. They cited their policy that bans mining on mobile, which we don't. Appeal rejected. #ProtectWeb3"

The MetaMask app does not however support crypto mining but although MetaMask appealed this decision, the appeal got rejected by Google.

On December 27th 2019, Google responded to MetaMask's tweet as thus"

"Hi , thanks for reaching out. We have escalated your issue to the relevant team for further investigation. We appreciate your patience while we are looking into this. #AskPlayDev"

As of January 1st 2020, Google has, after "careful consideration", decided to reinstate MetaMask's Android app.

MetaMask tweeted: "Happy New Year! Upon careful consideration, Google has permitted The MetaMask mobile app back on the Google Play (Android) store! Thanks to all the believers in an open web for speaking out in our support!"

From TestBoo.com - https://testboo.com/google-reinstates-metamask-mobile-app-for-android/

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The central bank of the Bahamas (CBOB) has officially announced the launch of a digital currency test pilot in the Exuma district.

The CBOB has been developing a digital currency called the "sand dollar" that was originally planned for a test pilot on the island of Abaco. According to a recent press release, the CBOB will be launching a sand dollar test pilot in the Exuma district with plans to extend the project to Abaco in the first half of 2020.

The regulator hopes the transition to digital currencies will reduce inefficiencies, including the costs associated with cash usage,

Most of the benefits of introducing a digital currency are still unquantifiable. However, they include a potential suppression of economic costs associated with cash usage, and benefits to the Government from improved expenditure and tax administration systems.

It is expected that the Government, as participant and user, would be a strong promoter of digital payments adoption, alongside non-bank payment services providers as the initial lead intermediaries in this space.

From TestBoo.com - https://testboo.com/central-bank-of-the-bahamas-to-launch-own-digital-currency-sand-dollar/

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The Android app of the popular Ethereum wallet and decentralized application browser MetaMask has been banned from the Google Play store. Appeals to reverse the ban have also been denied.

Per MetaMask, it was banned on social media over Google’s policy against cryptocurrency mining apps on its app store. MetaMask, as an ETH wallet and decentralized application browser, doesn’t offer any mining features. Those backing the ETH wallet noted it’s unclear “whether the reviewer doesn’t understand the policy, or whether they are enforcing an unwritten policy.”

This isn’t the first time Google banned MetaMask. Back in 2018 the wallet was banned from the Chrome Web Store, but after the community made known concerns regarding the move the tech giant quickly re-listed it on its platform.

According to the ETH wallet’s developers, if MetaMask is left banned, they will work on “other ways of bringing our services to users still stranded on the Android platform while they migrate to something more free.”

From TestBoo.com - https://testboo.com/google-suspends-metamask-from-its-android-app-store/

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The government of Uzbekistan has finally banned citizens from buying cryptocurrencies.

Per a report by local news outlet Novosti Uzbekistana, the National Agency for Project Management has passed an order barring citizens from acquiring cryptocurrency, including the purchase from established crypto exchanges. The report further claimed the order was previously published by the Uzbekistan government and officially went into effect on December 6th, 2019.

According to the report,

Already, many citizens of the republic are experiencing difficulties in transactions with bitcoin and other tokens. In addition, many experts believe that the Uzbek authorities thus impede the country's technological development.

Traders will be allowed to sell their cryptocurrencies on two licensed platforms within the country.

The Uzbekistan government however has an interest in developing blockchain technologies. Authorities have reiterated that blockchain may be used to increase the transparency of the economy and government.

From TestBoo.com - https://testboo.com/uzbekistan-bans-citizens-from-buying-cryptocurrencies/

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Binance is allowing European clients to purchase crypto directly by binding Visa cards to their accounts.

Per the official announcement published on December 26th, Binance now supports users purchasing crypto directly via binding Visa cards to an account. This feature currently allows for the purchase of four cryptocurrencies-- bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), binance coin (BNB), and XRP.

This can be accessed by visiting the new “Buy Crypto” page, where they will be asked to add their Visa card. Once the card is bound, clients will be able to purchase crypto directly through the exchange.

The new service is available for Visa credit and debit cards issued within the European Economic Area, which covers 31 countries.

The announcement also includes an update for Mastercard holders which goes thus:

"Support for Mastercard and additional currencies will be added in the near future. Please stay tuned for more information."

From TestBoo.com - https://testboo.com/binance-now-lets-users-buy-crypto-by-binding-visa-cards/

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The Ethereum Foundation announced that the next major network upgrade will take place on January 1st 2020, New Year’s Day.

Per an official blog post published on Monday, the Ethereum Foundation alerted developers and miners that the “Muir Glacier” upgrade is set to occur at 9.2 million blocks. The upgrade comes less than a month after Ethereum’s highly anticipated “Istanbul,” update, and marks a series of upgrades for the network as it transitions to Ethereum 2.0.

According to the official post:

The Ethereum network will be undergoing a scheduled upgrade at block number 9,200,000, which is predicted to occur on Wednesday, January 1, 2020. The exact date is subject to change due to variable block times and timezones.

A previous post about the upgrade revealed that Muir Glacier will serve to delay the planned increase in Ethereum’s mining difficulty by an estimated 611 days.

Ethereum Cat Herders said:

Once the difficulty increase of the difficulty bomb is too great for the block time retargeting mechanism, it results in an increase in block times for the network. This results in a degradation in the usability of Ethereum due to waiting for confirmation for transactions and Dapps as everything takes longer throughout the network.

Node operators and miners will be required to download the updated client software in order to be in compliance with the network.

From TestBoo.com - https://testboo.com/ethereum-foundation-to-run-upgrade-on-january-1st-2020/

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Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of Ripple, expects the biggest banks in the world to adopt cryptocurrencies in 2020. The CEO expects the top 20 biggest banking institutions in the world to hold and trade digital assets.

Along with other team members, he also anticipates that many government-backed currencies will be digitalized next year. Garlinghouse states that the industry will see some "consolidation" within crypto companies, meaning that many of them will probably disappear from the map.

“The world doesn’t need 2000+ digital assets. While I don’t think there will be one coin to rule them all, it’s clear that if an asset doesn’t have a proven use case beyond speculation, it is not going to survive.”

Also, Ethan Beard, SVP of Xpring, is certain that at least one country will have a central bank digital currency (CBDC).

Remember that Garlinghouse forecasted that 99 percent of all cryptocurrencies would eventually go to zero.

From TestBoo.com - https://testboo.com/20-biggest-banks-will-trade-crypto-in-2020/

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Bill Pulte, the heir to the Detroit real estate giant PulteGroup who gained popularity by giving out hundreds of thousands of dollars to strangers on Twitter, is big on Bitcoin and believes it could be used to fight poverty in Africa.

When it comes to Bitcoin, most highlight its ability to provide financial freedom from governments and other regulators. Few, however, see Bitcoin as a tool that can be used to fight poverty. Bill Pulte, believes the world’s largest cryptocurrency is the most efficient way to give to those in need.

The creator of the Twitter Philanthropy movement, Pulte randomly selects people in desperate need of help through his 1.7 million Twitter followers and gives them everything from cars to satoshis.

Though most of Pulte’s philanthropic efforts were focused on the U.S., he now wants to give more of his money to Africa. Pulte Twitted:

“In addition to America and other countries, I feel like giving some Bitcoin to people in Africa … Bitcoin could be given to many people in need in Africa and QUICKLY! Time to start thinking outside the box and using Twitter to help everyone … or as many as we can!”

From TestBoo.com - https://testboo.com/bill-pulte-wants-to-give-bitcoin-to-people-in-africa/

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Paul Gosar has introduced a draft bill which is aimed at bringing regulatory clarity to the cryptocurrency industry in the United States. This is according to a Forbes article published on December 19th. The Crypto-Currency Act of 2020 sets out which Federal agencies should regulate each type of crypto assets.

The draft bill defines three types of crypto asset; crypto commodities, crypto currencies, and crypto securities. This is according to a discussion draft of the proposed bill.

Crypto-commodities got defined as economic goods or services, stored on a blockchain, with fungibility and which the market treats with no regard as to who produced it.

Crypto-currencies are defined as representations of U.S. currency or synthetic derivatives resting on a blockchain. This covers reserve-backed stablecoins, and currencies determined by decentralized oracles or smart contracts.

On the other hand, Crypto-securities cover all debt, equity and derivative instruments on a blockchain, other than those which are operated and registered as complaint money services businesses.

Each type of crypto-asset would fall under the jurisdiction of a different regulatory body, to act as the ‘Federal Crypto Regulator’ or ‘Federal Digital Asset Regulator’ for that type.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) would be the agency in charge of crypto-commodities, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) would cover crypto-securities.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) would regulate crypto-currencies.

From TestBoo.com - https://testboo.com/draft-bill-to-classify-crypto-assets-now-in-us-congress/

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The company that created the XRP token, Ripple, has revealed it raised $200 million in a Series C funding round that valued the firm at $10 billion.

Per Ripple’s announcement, the funding round was led by New York investment company Tetragon and Japan’s SBI Holdings and Virginia-based venture capital firm Route 66 Venture participate in the round.

The company added that the investors “not only underscore Ripple’s long-term potential,” but will also offer “invaluable industry insight and expertise” as its partners to help Ripple’s business grow.

CEO Brad Garlinghouse said:

We are in a strong financial position to execute against our vision. As others in the blockchain space have slowed their growth or even shut down, we have accelerated our momentum and industry leadership throughout 2019.

Ripple makes use of the XRP token to facilitate cross-border transactions for financial institutions, and has created a blockchain-based interbank messaging system. Notable part of its income comes from selling its XRP holdings.

Ripple’s revenue also comes from deals with banks and other financial institutions that use its technology. It reportedly has over 300 financial services customers throughout the world.

From TestBoo.com - https://testboo.com/ripple-raises-200-million-funding-round/

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On Wednesday December 18th, Bitcoin had a 15% jump in one day AND a 6% "round trip" in 10 seconds.

According to data from CryptoCompare, Bitcoin started yesterday at $6,629, and three hours later, it had gone up by $100. The online asset then started falling and kept on falling until 13:20 UTC by which time it had reached $6,466.

Then the price attracted the bulls and Bitcoin started its recovery. By 22:55 UTC, Bitcoin had managed to bounce almost 15% from its intraday low to $7,413 the intraday high for December 18th.

Crypto analyst Tuur Demeester, Editor-in-Chief of Adamant Research and Founder of Bitcoin alpha fund Adamant Capital, seemed excited about seeing Bitcoin potentially establish a bottom for 2019. He tweeted: "We've now twice tested the support level—what a thriller."

Also another crypto analyst and trader Alex Krüger, was even more excited. Alex tweeted:

"That's a 6% roundtrip in 10 seconds. A rare event.

A roundtrip of that speed/magnitude may have happened 2-3 times in the last two years (would need to check).

(unlevered) Traders' Paradise"

From TestBoo.com - https://testboo.com/bitcoin-price-hikes-with-a-15-jump-in-one-day/

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Monero's (XMR) best-known advocate will be stepping down as the project’s lead maintainer in an upcoming reshuffle.

Per a blog post on December 16th, representatives confirmed that Riccardo Spagni, known as fluffypony will in start serving as a backup maintainer. He will be replaced by fellow developer Snipa.

“Fluffypony has served the Monero project well over its five years of existence, and he will continue to remain active in the community as a maintainer,” the blog post read. On the choice of Snipa as a replacement, the post explained:

“Snipa is a longtime contributor to Monero. He is best known for developing a popular piece of Monero pool software and supporting the network with well-connected nodes. He has substantial coding and auditing experience, and a desire to better Monero's processes.”

Spagni, who has a five-year history with Monero is well known in the industry, due mostly to his active social media participation. Spagni’s humor has earned him appreciation and hatred.

In 2019 he dealt with the likes of Craig Wright, the Australian computer scientist who claims to be the inventor of Bitcoin (BTC). In March, Spagni publicly called Wright a fraud.

From TestBoo.com - https://testboo.com/riccardo-spagni-monero-maintainer-steps-down/

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Crypto exchange Coinfloor has announced plans to de-list ethereum and focus solely on bitcoin trading.

According to an official blog post published December 17th, the exchange aims to offer only bitcoin services beginning from first quarter of 2020.

The statement reads,

We are excited to announce that Coinfloor will focus on providing Bitcoin only services from the 3rd of January 2020, on the 11th anniversary of Bitcoin’s launch. The decision will allow Coinfloor to provide a richer set of services for the world’s leading cryptocurrency while maintaining focus on simplicity.

The platform is also de-listing bitcoin cash. The  crypto exchange went on to reveal the uncertainty involved in hard forks as a reason to shift focus to a single currency.

Obi Nwosu, Founder and CEO of Coinfloor, said:

Since I first came across Bitcoin in 2011, I have seen it grow to become a mature proven currency. No other cryptocurrency currently comes close to Bitcoin’s track record, industry support, or brand recognition, so focusing on Bitcoin made perfect sense.

Announcing it on Twitter he wrote: "Finally happy can announce that

@Coinfloor will be focusing on #Bitcoin, the world's leading cryptocurrency, from the 3rd of January which is also it's 11th Anniversary!"

From TestBoo.com - https://testboo.com/coinfloor-set-to-delist-ethereum-focus-on-bitcoin/

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The price of most top cryptocurrencies plummeted yesterday. Bitcoin dropped below the $7,000 mark for the first time in three weeks, and Ethereum lost 7% of its value. Overall, the crypto market lost about $5 billion within a short while.

Per blockchain data analysis firm Chainalysis, The selloff, could have been caused by those behind the PlusToken.

Chainalysis’ report claims they still controlled 20,000 BTC (now about $137 million) and 790,000 ETH ($102 million). Six people associated with PlusToken have so far been arrested and extradited to China from Vanuatu, where it’s being claimed they ran a Ponzi scheme.

According to Chainalysis’ report, about 25,000 BTC ($171.4 million) associated with PlusToken has been cashed out since April 2019 via over-the-counter (OTC) brokers.

Per the report:

“As we hypothesized, spikes in on-chain flow to OTC brokers correlate with drops in Bitcoin’s price. There can be a lag, as Bitcoin that is moved on-chain to an exchange is not immediately traded.”

Though not yet completely clear that PlusToken cashing out was behind yesterday’s price movement, an OTC trader speaking to CoinDesk steered to the report when queried about the drop in crypto price.

From TestBoo.com - https://testboo.com/5-billion-crypto-selloff-associated-with-plustokens-scammers/

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Cryptocurrency exchange OKEx is set to become the first major platform to integrate the Dai Savings Rate (DSR). This will allow its users to earn interest of over 4% a year on their Dai holdings.

Per a blog post, Okex will on December 23rd add the Dai Savings Rate to its platform. OKEx’s users will only have to deposit the Dai stablecoin and stake via the “Pool” section to start earning the interest.

Interest earning via the DSR is determined by Maker Governance. It is at 4% now, but OKEx is set to add an exclusive additional reward for its “millions” of users. The post states that there are no minimum or maximum deposits needed to use the DSR, and there are also no fees involved.

MakerDAO persistently promotes that OKEx’s integration will help accelerate the DSR’s adoption in Asia, and potentially introduce many more people to Dai. The post goes thus:

"As more users benefit from the Dai stablecoin and discover the advantages of the DSR, more exchanges, platforms, and projects will integrate both, introducing new groups of users to the Maker Protocol and the DeFi ecosystem."

From TestBoo.com - https://testboo.com/okex-is-the-first-crypto-exchange-to-offer-dai-staking/

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Three cryptocurrency firms announced they will be shutting down over the introduction of the AMLD5 European Union regulation that’s coming into effect on January 10th, 2020.

The first firm to announce it will be shutting down was Bottle Pay, which provided its users a service to send cryptocurrency via social media accounts. The firm will be shutting down after “seeing huge growth in user numbers over the last few months” and raising $2 million in a seed funding round.

According to Bottle Pay on why they are shutting down because the new regulations would “alter the current user experience radically, and so negatively” that to maintain their “integrity as service providers” and to protect its users, it decided to shut down.

TheBlock has reported that a cryptocurrency mining pool and a bitcoin gaming platform, are shutting down over the same regulations. The mining pool, Simplecoin, published a notice on its website revealing it will shut down not to implement know-your-customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) checks on its service, to protect users’ privacy.

According to the platform, "When the laws come into effect, we would be forced to require you, the users, to identify yourselves for anti money-laundering purposes. We have been searching for solutions for a while, but it has become apparent that there is no way around it. (…) Mining should to be available to anyone and we refuse to jeopardise our users’ privacy."

Christian Grieger, Simplecoin’s co-founder revealed that the firm has 42,000 users and two employees and that users have until December 20th to withdraw their funds and until December 31st to delete their account information.

Also gaming platform, Chopcoin, also co-founded by Grieger, is shutting down over the same regulation.

From TestBoo.com - https://testboo.com/cryptocurrency-firms-shutting-down-over-new-anti-money-laundering-regulations/

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43% of Investors Interested in Bitcoin are Women - Grayscale

A new study by Grayscale has revealed that 43% of investors interested in the flagship cryptocurrency bitcoin are women. The study involved 1,100 U.S.-based participants aged 25-64 active in personal investing with at least $10,000 in tangible assets and a household income of at least $50,000.

The study found both women and men “share similar perceptions” of bitcoin which means that the cryptocurrency space is not as male-dominated as believed. However both groups have a different approach to investing in crypto.

The study revealed that women are “generally less optimistic about investments and more risk-averse, “but see identical opportunities in digital assets. Around 49.8% of women and 49.9% of men claimed that bitcoin’s finite supply may see demand, and hence price grow.

According to the study, women showed that more education on cryptocurrencies could lead to greater interest. 76% revealed they lack familiarity with bitcoin, and 93% indicated they could be more attracted to cryptocurrency if they had more educational resources on it.

From TestBoo.com - https://testboo.com/43-of-investors-interested-in-bitcoin-are-women-grayscale/

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Binance on Thursday December 12th revealed via a press release the launch of "Latamex", its new fiat gateway for Latin America.

Binance revealed its plans for the Latamex platform at the 7th LABITCONF (the Latin American Bitcoin and Blockchain Conference 2019), which is held 12–13 December 2019 in Montevideo, Uruguay.

As a result of a new partnership with the Settle Network "the largest digital assets settlement network in Latin America", Binance's Latamex platform will allow users in Latin America (starting with Brazil and Argentina) to buy/sell crypto using fiat currency.

Settle Network describes itself thus:

"We provide programmatic interoperability between traditional and digital assets, by leveraging our financial infrastructure in every country we operate. Covering the most relevant markets, including the largest banks and +100.000 retail locations. This enables unlimited and compliant interoperability between digital assets and the most important local currencies."

Binance Co-Founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao said:

"There is a strong need for cryptocurrency in Latin America, especially for financial access. Roughly 50 percent of the Latin American population is unbanked, and Latamex is a response to our users’ demands and the current market climate. Working with Settle Network allows us to instantly bridge the gap between fiat and crypto for Latin American traders. We are continuing to build with our key partner, Settle Network, to bring wider accessibility of cryptocurrency in Latin America and will support additional local fiat currencies in the region in the future."

“The crypto industry is still in its early stages and most of the world’s money is still in fiat. Building fiat gateways is what we need now to grow the ecosystem, increase adoption and introduce crypto to more users.”

Pablo Orlando, Founder and CEO of Settle Network said:

"Latin America has illustrated one of the largest needs and use cases for blockchain and cryptocurrency adoption. Partnering with Binance has allowed us to further open fiat gateways for Latin American users together and bring larger adoption forward to provide financial freedom in the region.”

From TestBoo.com - https://testboo.com/binance-to-launch-latin-american-fiat-gateway-in-brazil-argentina/

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Binance.US announced on Wednesday, December 11th that it is going to add support for two more cryptoassets: Enjin Coin (ENJ) and ICON (ICX).

Binance.US,launched on September 2019, is a digital asset exchange that is "powered by matching engine and wallet technologies" licensed from Binance but is operated by San Francisco-based BAM Trading Services.

Other cryptoassets that Binance.US has listed in the past few weeks include:

October 10: Chainlink (LINK) and Ravencoin (RVN)
October 15: Dash (DASH)
October 17: Algorand (ALGO) and Zcash (ZEC)
October 22: BUSD and IOTA
October 24: Dogecoin (DOGE)
October 29: Waves (WAVES)
November 7: VeChain (VET)
November 14: Qtum (QTUM)
November 19: Nano (NANO)

Per the announcement, the new trading pairs—ENJ/USD and ICX/USD—are due to go live at 21:00 EST on 12 December 2019 or 02:00 UTC on 13 December 2019 and once trading in these pairs has gone live, withdrawals will be possible.

This news initiated a surge in the price of both Enjin Coin and ICON.

From TestBoo.com - https://testboo.com/binance-us-to-list-enjin-enj-and-icon-icx-details/

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BitMEX announced today, December 12th 2019 that it now allows its customers to withdraw Bitcoin from their accounts using all three Bitcoin address formats which are P2PKH, P2SH, and Bech32.

BitMEX explained that Bitcoin uses three address formats in a blog post published earlier today,

Pay to Public Key Hash (P2PKH) — this was Bitcoin's original address format; addresses begin with '1', e.g. 17VZNX1SN5NtKa8UQFxwQbFeFc3iqRYhem

Pay to Script Hash (P2SH) — this format became available in April 2012; addresses begin with '3', e.g. 3EktnHQD7RiAE6uzMj2ZifT9YgRrkSgzQX

Bech32 (native SegWit) — this is the native SegWit address format; addresses begin with 'bc1', e.g.
bc1qar0srrr7xfkvy5l643lydnw9re59gtzzwf5mdq

The firm however said that although it is now possible to withdraw to addresses in any of these three formats, customers still need to make Bitcoin deposits using the "Pay to Script Hash" (P2SH) format due to their "multi-signature wallet solution."

According to BitMEX, the advantages of using the Bech32 address format are:

"More efficient use of blockweight (and therefore lower fees)"
"Improved error detection"
"More efficient QR codes"

BitMEX says that the main benefit of Bech32 is that it can deliver reduced transaction fees. The firm explained:

"Therefore this upgrade will not directly result in fee savings when customers withdraw from BitMEX, however in the next transaction, when the bitcoin already withdrawn from BitMEX is spent again, our customers may benefit from lower transaction fees."

On where the savings come from:

"When spending from a non-native address using SegWit, one must add around 20 bytes of overhead. When using native SegWit-style addresses (Bech32), this overhead is no longer necessary. The absence of this overhead generates the savings."

From TestBoo.com - https://testboo.com/bitmex-starts-allowing-bitcoin-withdrawals-to-bech32-addresses/

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The total number of bitcoin addresses that contain BTC has hit a new all-time high of 28.39 million, surpassing a late 2018 record. Alex Thorn, Cryptocurrency investor was the first to spot the trend, and said that this may be a good measure to assess how many users bitcoin actually has.

Making Use of data provided by blockchain analytics firm Coinmetrics, investor Alex Thorn saw the trend. Commenting ,Thorn said that calculating the total amount of bitcoin addresses with any balance “is one of the best proxies we have to approximate the total number of individual bitcoin users.”

He tweeted "The total number of bitcoin addresses that hold any amount of BTC has hit an all-time high at 28.39M addresses, surpassing the previous ATH of 28.38M (achieved on 1/10/18). (Data via @coinmetrics Pro)"

Looking at the data it’s clear the number of bitcoin addresses had a relatively smooth upward trajectory for the first nine years of the cryptocurrency’s existence. It however fell in late 2017 after crypto prices started decreasing rapidly in value.

While bitcoin’s price isn’t even close to its all-time high, the number of addresses with any BTC balance in them is.

Thorn however said that this might not be that accurate as one user can create many addresses for security purposes, which inflates the numbers. But as the same time, various users keep their funds on cryptocurrency exchanges, which aggregate them on single, large addresses in cold storage.

From - TestBoo.com - https://testboo.com/

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Binance's trading platform for customers resident in the U.S., has announced that it is exploring the idea of introducing support for up to 18 additional cryptoassets.

Binance.US, is a digital asset exchange that is "powered by matching engine and wallet technologies" licensed from Binance but is operated by San Francisco-based BAM Trading Services.

Catherine Coley, the CEO of Binance.US,on December 10th published a blog post that provided an overview of the exchange's achievements since launch date, the main one of which is trading support for 26 cryptoassets.

Coley also said that Binance.US is using its Digital Asset Risk Assessment Framework to evaluate 18 other cryptoassets -- CELR, DCR, ENJ, FTM, ICX, IOST, KMD, OMG, ONE, ONT, REN, SNT, THETA, TOMO, TRX, XEM, XTZ, HBAR -- to decide which to add.

From - TestBoo.com - https://testboo.com/binance-us-might-list-tron-trx-nem-xem-tezos-xtz-ontology-ont/

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China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), is reportedly looking to test its digital currency, named digital currency electronic payment (DCEP), later this year starting with commercial banks and telecommunications firms.

Per a report published by Caijing, the central bank is set to test the digital yuan in the cities of Shenzhen and Suzhou with the help of the Bank of China, the China Construction Bank, the Agricultural Bank of China, and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

The digital currency’s tests will also include three telecommunications firms China Telecom, China Mobile, and China Unicom. During the test the DCEP will be applied in real-world scenarios such as transportation, healthcare, and education.

The test will bear two pilot phases and the first one will take place before the end of this year. The second one is reportedly going to be a large-scale effort in Shenzhen, and if it goes well the DCEP could go live after that.

The People’s Bank of China is hastening the development of its digital currency because of the Facebook-led Libra cryptocurrency’s announcement.

From - TestBoo.com - https://testboo.com/chinas-central-bank-to-test-digital-currency-with-banks-telecom-companies/

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The government of South Korea is reportedly planning on taxing cryptocurrency-related profits, as the country’s Ministry of Economy and Finance is pushing for the measure to be implemented next year.

Per local news outlets, discussions on a bill to tax crypto gains have been taking place. Regardless of the bill’s passage, however, the government is reportedly planning to enforce capital gains tax on cryptocurrencies. To achieve this, the government will need to have a precise definition of cryptocurrencies

To levy taxes, the government will also need to get trading records from cryptocurrency exchanges, if it’s looking to tax gains from cryptocurrencies as it taxes gains from stocks and real estate transactions.

A ministry official who wants to remain anonymous told the news outlet."Related discussions have been taking place. The revised bill will be drawn up by the first half of next year,"

From TestBoo.com - https://testboo.com/south-korea-plans-to-place-tax-on-cryptocurrency-related-profits/