FV Receives Funding, Integrates Patent-Pending Wallet Security
Puerto Rico-based FV Bank is an online-only financial institution that combines traditional banking services with digital asset management. The company, which was founded in 2018, raised $8M in Series A funding in August 2021. That same…
Coinplug Joins Number of Korean Crypto Firms Partnering with Banks. The Difference? Patents
Woori Financial Group, one of the largest banks in South Korea, has partnered with Korean startup Coinplug to establish a digital asset custody service. Korean legislation is strict on cryptocurrency exchanges, requiring that they take…
Visa and Mastercard Go Head to Head with Cryptocurrency Cards — We’re Calling it Early
Visa and Mastercard have both been making strides in cryptocurrency, from patents to partnerships aimed at increasing consumer adoption. Visa had focused on its Fast Track partnership program, which integrates third-party technology from…
Galaxy Digital Acquires BitGo, First Two Patent Assets, for $1.2B
Galaxy Digital is a cryptocurrency financial services company specializing in investments and the “institutionalization” of blockchain. The company has ventured into offering its own products and platforms, with a securities trading desk…
Gemini is Two-Faced on Patenting
Gemini, the digital assets exchange founded by the Winklevoss brothers, has acquired Shard X in June 2021. Shard X develops multi-party computation (MPC) cryptography, which is a secure distributed method of computation for mining and…
Securrency Raises $30M, Leads in DeFi Patents
Securrency uses blockchain technology to automate and regulate compliance and transactions for decentralized finance (DeFi), which does not rely on centralized banks, exchanges, or other traditional financial institutions. The company has…
Patents Prove Signal and MobileCoin are a Good Match
Secure messaging platform Signal is beta testing a peer-to-peer payment system on its app. The system supports the MobileCoin coin and wallet protocol, which makes sense when you consider Signal's reputation for privacy and security.…
Verasity Announces NFT Platform. Patent Issues 6 Days Later — See the Pattern?
Non-Fungible Token (NFT) art has become a huge topic of discussion in recent weeks. As multiple industries rush to explore implementations as well as security concerns, it turns out the companies who have invested in patents may come out…
PayPal Acquires Curv to Block Competition in Cryptocurrency Transactions
PayPal, which caused a surge in Bitcoin valuation when it enabled cryptocurrency transactions on its platform in October of 2020, is acquiring the start-up Curv, which has raised over $29M to develop its digital wallet platform technology.…
Why is Bitcoin Up? Inflation, Banks, and…Pornhub
Inflation On March 9, 2020, there was about $4 trillion in circulation. As of November 30, 2020, the money supply stood at over $6.5 trillion, largely due to coronavirus related stimulus bills. A December stimulus bill added $900…
Why is Bitcoin surging? PayPal. And we have the paper trail that predicted it.
What an incredible month it's been for Bitcoin - it has risen to its highest valuation for the year 2020. It started with Square investing $50 million. Then, Fidelity launched its first fund focused on Bitcoin. However, it was today's news…
Protect Your Hotel Reservation with Blockchain and Smart Locks
German smart lock company slock.it filed a patent application in April of 2020 for a smart lock system that uses blockchain records and smart contract execution to verify a user and allow access into a room. Specifically, the system uses…
Protecting Rentals with Blockchain
Two patents applications were published this week dealing with different aspects of property rentals: The first application, filed by startup Rentberry, teaches a method for crowdsourcing information about a rental property, its landlords,…
Using Blockchain to Secure the Next Election
The United States Postal Service (USPS) filed a patent application in February of 2020 for a secure voting system that uses a blockchain to encrypt and track electronic ballots. The patent teaches a method of using a mobile device to scan…
Intel to Use Blockchain Technology for Copyright Protection
Intel has received a patent relating to the use of blockchain-based shadow images to facilitate copyright protection of digital content. This is performed on a client platform using a digital rights management (DRM) engine, enabling…
McAfee is Cracking Down on Cryptomining
Modern computers often have always-on Internet connections, providing greater exposure to security threats. McAfee is looking to reduce this exposure by employing cryptojacking detection techniques, with a specific focus on cryptomining.…
Huawei Has a Solution to The VEP
One of the latest published patent applications from Huawei addresses issues related to verifying a property of plaintext using ciphertext. These issues are commonly referred to as verifiable encryption problems (VEPs). Huawei's solution…
Itron is Integrating Distributed Ledger Architecture into Smart Sensors and Smart Utility Meters
Itron has 3 published patent applications relating to the integration of distributed ledger architecture into smart sensors and smart utility meters. Itron is looking to evolve smart sensors and smart utility meters by addressing some of…
Monticello is Creating a Cryptocurrency Shopping Experience
Monticello Enterprises LLC (Monticello) is creating an online shopping experience with cryptocurrency support. The end goal: reduce shopper friction when shoppers transition from searching for products to a merchant or social network. How…
Bipartisan Bill is Bad News for Facebook
This week, a bipartisan group of senators introduced a bill, titled "Managed Stablecoins are Securities Act of 2019," targeting Facebook's cryptocurrency, Libra. The bill would classify Libra as a security, encouraging increased regulation…
Coinbase granted Irish E-money Licence
Coinbase is one of just a few companies to receive an e-money licence from the Irish government. This new license will enable Coinbase to expand their Irish operation and ultimately deliver a better product to customers across the…
ether is a Commodity!
Today, Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman Heath Tarbert has declared ether a commodity. Speaking with Yahoo! Finance, Tarbert said, "We've been very clear on Bitcoin: Bitcoin is a commodity. We haven't said anything about…
Bank of America: A Clashing Viewpoint Between Public and Private Action
Bank of America, the second-largest bank in the U.S., filed an application entitled "Multi-Tiered Digital Wallet Security" in early 2018 and the USPTO recently published the application. The application provides for a multi-tiered…
The first SEC-qualified crypto token offering
For the first time in US history, the SEC has approved a public token offering in which investors will receive tokens instead of shares in the company. Blockchain startup Blockstack launched its $28 million offering under Regulation A+…
A blockchain anchor bringing in millions
Visa and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz recently participated in a $40 million Series B for Anchorage, a startup that offers an omnimetric blockchain security system. The VC firm also led the $17 million Series A six months ago,…
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