Keeping in tradition with other years, Facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg has issued a mission statement just as the new year begins. Unlike before, he concentrates more on putting power back into people’s hands, other than his task to fix Facebook, in a note published on the popular social networking site Facebook on 4 January.
The non-profit that oversees development of ethereum has officially unveiled two subsidy programs that will support research on how to grow the number of transactions its blockchain can process.
In a blog post published Tuesday, ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin described how the network is beginning to reach 1 million transactions per day.
Security researchers on Wednesday disclosed a set of security flaws that they said could let hackers steal sensitive information from nearly every modern computing device containing chips from Intel Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc and ARM Holdings, Reuters reported.
On Wednesday evening, a large team of researchers at Google’s Project Zero, universities including the Graz University of Technology, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Adelaide in Australia, and security companies including Cyberus and Rambus together released the full details of two attacks based on that flaw, which they call Meltdown and Spectre.
The price of Bitcoin increased by 13.5 per cent to US$15,017 ($21,187) after a report found billionaire Peter Thiel, an early investor in Facebook and co-founder of Paypal, had heavily invested in the cryptocurrency.
Co-founded by high-profile investor Peter Thiel and based in San Francisco, Founders Fund has bought $15 million to $20 million worth of bitcoin across several of its recent funds, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing anonymous sources
Beijing is planning to build a 13.8 billion yuan ($2.12 billion) artificial intelligence development park in the city’s west, the official Xinhua news agency reported, as China pushes ahead to fulfil its ambition to become a world leader in AI by 2025. The AI park will house up to 400 enterprises and have an estimated annual output of 50 billion yuan, Xinhua said, citing a report from authorities in Beijing’s Mentougou district.
Russian officials are developing a cryptocurrency intended to help the country evade international financial sanctions, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has commissioned government agencies to work on a “cryptorouble,” the FT reported, citing Moscow officials.
Bitcoin has started the year with another drop in its price. It’s the first time since 2015 that the cryptocurrency has started a calendar year with a fall in value. The virtual coin traded at $13,624.56 in the U.S. on Monday, down 4.8 percent from Friday. This is a fall from the final day of trading of 2017 when the price was at $14,156. The disheartening start to the year is in direct contrast to the January of 2017 when the cryptocurrency began its year of huge gains. On the first day of trading in January bitcoin rose 3.6 percent holding a value of approximately $998.
To the surprise of many, 2017 was the year cryptocurrencies catapulted into mainstream consciousness. Bitcoin’s value grew by more than 1,000% in 2017, but that wasn’t enough to even place it among the 10 best-performing cryptoassets of the year.
At its highest point Sunday, Ripple XRP skyrocketed 36,000% to become the world’s best-performing digital asset. The cryptocurrency charted an impressive path in the final three weeks of the year, gaining more than 800% when comparing the closing price between Dec. 7 and 31.
