An Italian airport staff member took advantage of his workplace computer systems illegal mining of Ethereum (ETH).

According to Rai News report, a man who was in charge of managing the computer system at Lamezia Terme International Airport in the southwest region of Calabria was caught illegally mining Ethereum (ETH). Moreover, the authorities caught the culprit through security footage cam.

Ethereum is the second biggest cryptocurrency in the market. It is a blockchain-based open-source, decentralized software platform. According to CoinGecko, Ether price is at $384, with a 24-hour trading volume of $13.73 billion, at the time of writing.

ETH Price Chart (Source: TradingView)

The miner was employed by Sacal SpA, the firm that is responsible for maintaining the Lamezia airport. The report states that he exploited the computer infrastructure of Sacal SpA by infecting it with crypto-mining malware. On noticing some issues in the system, other Sacal workers informed border police.

The investigation involves both police officers and airport officials. In addition, there were five Ethereum mining rigs in two separate control rooms. Moreover, the analysis of IP addresses associated with the equipment helped to find the mining pool.

Report said,

The investigations, coordinated by the Lamezia Terme Public Prosecutor’s Office, were conducted with technical activities that made it possible to examine the IP addresses associated with the machines installed, to identify the site of the ‘Ethermine’ pool (used for ‘mining’ of the Ethereum cryptocurrency) and monitor the site.

Recently, 100 smuggled cryptocurrency miners were seized by authorities in Abkhazia earlier this week. As reported by U.Today, earlier this month a Hungarian politician also initiated controversy after being busted for stealing electricity from his office to mine Bitcoin.

KSK Honda Coin was launched by soccer star Keisuke Honda through a blockchain platform Rally.io to allow fans with coins to interact with Honda.

Rally.io is a blockchain platform for creators building businesses and provides engagement between creators and the fans. Creators can issue their own cryptocurrency on this platform. Moreover, Keisuke Honda is a former Japan midfielder and presently a captain of the Brazilian professional league team Botafogo. 

Keisuke said,

I decided to create my social token to build new connections with my most loyal fans…This is a new type of innovative ‘fan club’ that I will be experimenting with. With Rally so that my fans can benefit and be connected anywhere in the world.

KSK Honda coin holders will be able to get videos that Honda updates. In addition, interaction with Honda through Discord’s private chat. Honda explained on Youtube that “We decided to create a social token to build new connections with our most loyal fans.” 

Recently, Zenit St. Petersburg, a top soccer club in Russia’s Premier League signed on to the blockchain-based gaming platform Sorare. To issue collectible and tradeable digital cards on October 15. 

Through the crypto trading platform StormGain, Italian professional sports club SS Lazio signed a multiyear deal, enabling new fan engagement options through crypto in September 2020. However,  the world-wide soccer community is moving deeper into the crypto and blockchain space. In search of new ways of connecting stars with their fans.

LINE, a Japanese messaging giant is building a platform for developing central bank digital currencies (CBDC), as per the report by South Korean news agency the Chosun Ilbo. 

CBDC is the cryptocurrency issued directly by central banks to replace real fiat currency. It is generally different from cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. The private sector issues these cryptocurrencies and has increased market price volatility.

However, LINE is in discussions with Asian central banks about possibly working on digital currency projects. Executives of the line stated that they could not deliver the exact countries that considered the platform’s application.

The Bank of Korea, for instance, could trial its CBDC for micropayments. A recent report from the central bank mentioned that other countries like Uruguay, Cambodia, and the Bahamas are also developing CBDCs for micropayments to decrease money management costs.

Line officials said,

It is difficult to disclose the exact country where the discussion is taking place…It is a major Asian country focusing on the development of CBDC for micropayment.

Payments giant Mastercard launched a virtual and custom testing platform last month which will allow central banks to evaluate digital currency systems. On October 7, the South Korean central bank reported that it will start the distribution phase of its CBDC pilot scheme next year.

Breitling has, a well-known Swiss company has become the world’s first luxury watchmaker to leverage blockchain technology digital watch certificates.

Swiss firm partner with Arianee, an open-source protocol for creating digital identities for valuable items, to issue these watch certificates. Every watch sold by the firm will come with a blockchain-based digital passport. The passport is automatically linked to Breitling’s digital warranty program. 

Breitling said:

With this blockchain-based digital passport, collectors no longer need to retain paper documents. And instead can freely consult with Breitling more efficiently and anonymously thanks to an embedded chat feature.

The digital passport will allow clients to extend their warranties, track repairs, request services. And subscribe to insurance for protection against theft. Furthermore, users could guarantee authenticity if they want to trade or sell on the secondary market.

Aside from Breitling’s latest innovation, French entrepreneurs and Tradeewatches Co-founders Guillaume Kuntz and Marc Ambrus also initiated Watch Certificate in spite of the Covid-19 pandemic. This includes a physical steel card that bears a QR code linked to a digital certificate.

This service enables clients to put a purchased watch through a detailed authentication and checking process. Kuntz explains this as the increasing creation of a passport for a luxury watch, which can be viewed through a phone app.

Moreover, the world’s biggest luxury group LVMH, collaborated with Consensys and Microsoft last year in developing its own blockchain platform AURA. Through this network, customers can access the product history and proof of authenticity of luxury goods.

A sneak peek of Ideaology’s new product Active Idea platform is available now.

A Swiss-based startup Ideaology has recently provided the public with a development update. They have announced that their platform’s prototype, named Active Idea, is in the last stages of development and is scheduled to launch on October 1st, the date that their ICO pre-sale starts.

The team at Ideaology firmly wanted to have the prototype ready, before the start of the ICO, so that anyone interested in investing can see and imagine exactly what the final product will be like.

The prototype of the platform will serve as a means to demonstrate its capabilities and functions to potential users and investors. These range from idea launching, crowdfunding and project growth to freelance work and a digital asset market on the same platform.

Prior to the announcement of the prototype launch, Ideaology’s co-founder Amar Kovačević invited the public to a sneak-peek reveal of an early stage of the prototype (Active Idea) in his Thrive Global interview.

Jump Ahead To:

• Next step: Beta Version
• About Ideaology

Next step: Beta Version

The first version of the fully functional platform available for user registration and testing is planned for December 2020, along with the pre – ICO stage of crowdfunding. Pre-registration for the beta version of Ideaology will be possible on the prototype Active Idea, launching 1st October. Along with the pre-registration, the prototype will include a feedback form for users to leave comments, critiques, and ideas for future improvement of the platform.

About Ideaology

Ideaology is a project which will harness the amazing potential of blockchain technology to create a versatile platform with a diverse community of people and enterprises cooperating to develop great ideas and solutions into successful businesses. The platform will create an ecosystem in which everyone involved benefits from each other.

Link to the website: https://www.ideaology.io

Link to Prototype: http://activeidea.com/

Disclaimer: This is a paid press release. Any information contained in this website is not proposed to be and doesn’t constitute financial advice, investment advice, trading advice, or any other advice. TheNewsCrypto is not responsible to anyone for any decision made or action taken in conjunction with the information and/or statements in this press release.

Chainlink has made its second acquisition with Cornell University’s privacy-preserving oracle solution DECO for an unrevealed amount. 

Deco Co-Founder Ari Juels will be joining Chainlink as a Chief Scientist. Since 2014, he has been teaching at Cornell University, one of the premier blockchain hubs in the world. He took leave to focus on Chainlink’s work.

The term “proof-of-work”, was coined by Jeuls and Markus Jakobsson, his research partner. DECO also claims to leverage how HTTPS/TLS data is transmitted for more secure web practices. 

As per DECO’S website reads, “DECO is also useful for users who want to monetize their own data (and therefore prove that they are indeed providing correct data) without giving away anything but the data that they are selling.”

As per Chainlink’s co-founder Sergey Nazarov, the integration of DECO will potentially create new use cases apart from an increase in the security of the project’s infrastructure.

Nazarov said,

“DECO-enabled Chainlink oracles will have big implications for smart contracts across the enterprise, consumer, and even DeFi applications. Basically, any smart contract that was previously limited by private data will soon be able to function on a public blockchain like Ethereum without revealing any confidential information to the blockchain.”

Nazarov mentioned DECO can be used as a basement for some crypto wish list items, such as decentralized identification or permissionless credit. For example, he said by pulling data from a DMV while hiding the individual’s birth date DECO can prove a person is over 18.

Nazarov said that DECO will one day allow a smart contract to check off-chain credit data such as banking records without overreaching into personal data. He also said that in the DeFi space, DECO can create endless possibilities.

On August 16, Standard Chartered Bank successfully leveraged blockchain technology to conduct Bangladesh’s first blockchain transaction by issuing a Letter of Credit (LC) for Viyellatex Ltd.

Standard Chartered Bank is the biggest international bank in Bangladesh, with a presence of over 115 years in the country. Viyellatex Ltd is a ready-made garment exporter that imports textile items from Viyellatex Spinning. 

LC was issued by Standard Chartered Bank for the trade between garment exporter Viyellatex Ltd and Viyellatex Spinning. The transaction was entirely paperless and completed digitally through Contour’s network.

Most of the raw materials of the ready-made garment industry are sourced locally through inland LC, which requires a lot of tedious paperwork. If the transactions are moved into a paperless blockchain, major efficiency can be achieved in local trade.

CEO of Contour Carl Wegner said,

“Global trade lacks a solution that drives out inefficiencies, improves data transparency and enables interoperability between all trade participants. The long-established elements of trade finance don’t have sufficient integration, ultimately causing friction and unnecessary administration.”

These may cause significant barriers to global trade growth, adding complexity, increasing cost, and delaying the process for both banks and corporate. These issues can be overcome by the Contour network.

Contour is a distributed trade network that gives enhanced collaboration over the main elements of trade with all participants utilizing the network to create and renew trade data in real-time.

Contour’s blockchain network was built on R3’s Corda blockchain. Likewise, in order to complete a 100,000 euro money market security transaction German banking and tech giants have utilized Corda’s platform.

The rise of many blockchain-based games that provide high-quality experience is seen to be the catalyst that will enable the exposure of 2.5 billion gamers worldwide to cryptocurrency.

The blockchain gaming development is still fairly organic in nature in spite of the advancement of innovation by industry leaders. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao has spoken about the developing blockchain and crypto industry in a press release.

Zhao said,

“The potential of blockchain and cryptocurrencies reaches far beyond the financial sector. Given the readiness of the gaming industry in its continuous evolution, especially in new technologies.”

Blockchain-based games are secure, transparent, and provide fair gameplay, which has also brought the development of non-fungible tokens (NFT) to gaming. NFTs will allow players to own their in-game items and can also trade these items with other players.

One example is The Sandbox, a blockchain gaming platform where the creators can adapt the experience of gaming. The most recent 3D blockchain-empowered cycle has just been making news with its pre-sales of LAND packages and sale of its native SAND token on the Binance Launchpad.

There are numerous other games like the Age of Rust, Neon District, Infinite fleet, and many more games which will bring the power of blockchain into the gaming scene. Many industries are prepared to expand gaming coverage to incorporate energizing developments from a gamers’ perspective.

Now-defunct Mt. Gox was one of the biggest Bitcoin exchanges in the world before it succumbed to a massive hack. Nevertheless, it began as a card-trading platform and got its name from “Magic: The Gathering Online”. This shows how far blockchain technology has grown in the gaming industry.

Blockchain.com, a provider of cryptocurrency products has extended its support to Algorand (ALGO), a Proof-of-Stake (POS) blockchain.

Blockchain.com Product Manager Amadeo Pellicce said,

“We are excited to add support for ALGO not just so that our customers can buy and sell the token, but also because it exposes more people to an advanced, high-powered and truly original crypto network.”

Blockchain.com has also launched Algo trading API in Jan 2020, for cryptocurrency traders to access the fastest matching engine and deep liquidity in crypto on the Blockchain.com Exchange using automated trading algorithms.

Algorand’s maximum supply is limited by 10 billion ALGO tokens with a circulating supply of over 770 million. The project also provides support for staking that allows holders to earn income (5% APY) by securing the blockchain network.

Algorand Foundation also partnered with Circle, a crypto-focused fintech firm in June 2020, to bring fiat-supported USD Coin (USDC) to Algorand blockchain. 

As a result of the partnership, clients of  Circle APIs and Circle Business Accounts can move funds and can move assets between traditional banks and card networks on the Algorand blockchain. Clients can also manage accounts and payment activity through Circle APIs.

Algorand is a public cryptocurrency protocol and blockchain that aims to deliver decentralization, scale, and security for all participants, its native currency is ALGO. Founded by Silvio Micali, a Turing award winner, and MIT professor.

On the other hand, Blockchain.com is a popular place where users can securely buy, sell, and store Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other top cryptocurrencies. It has steadily expanded its user base and trading volumes, while consistently releasing new features and assets.