The crypto community has been hit with a sledgehammer before 2020 has even started, as Google-owned YouTube massacred crypto-related channels, pulling hundreds of videos… only to claim it was an accident and reinstate them hours later.

Just when it seemed Google’s attitude to crypto was changing for the better, signaled by it lifting its ban cryptocurrency ads in September, things seemed to have taken a dramatic turn for the worse.

According to Forbes, Google started removing hundreds of videos relating to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, leaving many channel owners feeling like victims of a crypto purge.

It appeared YouTube was focusing on smaller channels, with content from bigger publishers unaffected. YouTube’s only explanation for the culling was to say videos had been removed for “harmful or dangerous content” and the “sale of regulated goods”.

Unsurprisingly, many creators were left fuming, saying they would challenge YouTube’s actions.

YouTube backtracks, but trust is gone

However, it soon emerged it had been an almighty mess up at YouTube, as creator after creator started getting their videos reinstated – leaving YouTubers everywhere shaking their heads in disbelief, and many businesses taking a hit.

The general consensus on social media seems to be that the latest YouTube disaster is yet another signal that the Google-owned platform has lost its way, and decentralised, blockchain-based solutions are now needed.

Meanwhile, YouTube’s latest gaff has been a great Christmas present for those decentralised content sharing and publishing platforms, like LBRY, which claims over half-a-million users, and says 200K have joined it in just the past month alone. The platform took to social media to urge everyone to sync their content to LBRY, just in case YouTube decides to have another episode.

The biggest names in the blockchain space, like Binance founder and CEO CZ also chimed in, saying the drama was a short term setback, but would do good in the long term by allowing new platforms to emerge.

AYO.NEWS says:

Was this really a mistake, or was it Google trying to clear the way for its own entry into the digital banking world (through a partnership with US-based banking superpower Citigroup)? Was YouTube hoping to cull crypto content while people were distracted with the festive season, only to be caught off guard by the ferocity of the response, and claim it was a mistake?

AYO.NEWS says features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited.

Open-source enterprise-grade blockchain platform Nuls has confirmed it lost almost $480K worth of NULS tokens in a recent hack.

In an official tweet on 22^nd December, Nuls said 2 million tokens had been transferred in total, and that 548,354 tokens, worth around $131,600, had already entered the trading market, rendering them untraceable.

*Security Update* pic.twitter.com/GN41agKgi1

— NULS (@Nuls) December 22, 2019

Nuls’ response has been to hard fork the blockchain at block height 87,800, meaning the remaining NULS that had not entered the trading market will be permanently frozen. It further added that the hard fork will be released as soon as possible, and has advised all node owners the upgrade is mandatory and needs to be completed as soon as possible.

Hackers apparently exploited a vulnerability in Nuls 2.2. version, which has now been fixed, and all affected crypto exchanges have been contacted and are working with Nuls to mitigate the damage.

The NULS Foundation is based in San Jose, California, and also has teams operating in China, Singapore, South Korea and Australia.

AYO.NEWS says:

Though the hack only accounts for around 2% of the 73 million or so NULS in circulation, and the incident doesn’t seem to have spooked the market much, with the token only losing 1% on the day, the hack is another reminder that the good guys in the blockchain space can’t afford to get complacent.  

AYO.NEWS says features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited.

With the UK once again facing the prospect of a ‘No Deal’ Brexit, UK-based cryptocurrency data and wallet provider Blockchain.com has added a British pound sterling gateway to its crypto exchange, The Pit.

The new gateway enables UK users to purchase cryptocurrencies directly using British pounds, via the UK’s Fast Payments Scheme, which provides near-instant transaction settlement times for payments between participating British banks.

Traumatic Brexit now unstoppable

With Boris Johnson’s shock ‘landslide’ election victory (despite the fact that he lost the popular vote – one of the distinctly undemocratic qualities of the British ‘first past the post’ voting system), and after the cull of moderate Conservative MPs during the battles to stop a ‘No deal’ Brexit during the course of 2019, there is now no realistic way of stopping Brexit (read more).

Indeed, given the extremist and populist nature of Johnson’s government, the Brexit now on the cards is likely to be extremely traumatic economically, and may well lead to the disintegration of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

The Scottish National Party, which now dominates Holyrood is already pushing for a second independence referendum, despite Johnson’s government outright forbidding it. And, a return to open conflict in Northern Ireland was always likely if Brexit went ahead and a ‘hard border’ with the republic returned.

Brits flee to safe haven cryptocurrencies

Given this economic, geopolitical and social uncertainty, which is unprecedented in the peacetime history of the UK, it is unsurprising that crypto exchanges are reporting increasing business from nervous Brits looking for ways to hedge their bets and protect their wealth from the inevitably dire Brexit fallout.

Though the British retreat to the perceived safety of cryptocurrencies has only just begun, Hong Kong, Argentina and Venezuela have already set precedents over the last year, as people realise they don’t have to leave their hard-earned assets exposed to the utterly suicidal policies of incompetent or extremist politicians.

People may be distracted with Christmas festivities right now, but with Brexit expected as early as 31^st January 2020, we can expect the British flight to cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin (BTC), to increase significantly in the new year.

This article features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited.

Malta-based Binance, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume, has made a strategic investment in crypto derivatives exchange FTX.

According to an official statement, Binance has made an equity investment in FTX and is taking a long-term position in the FTX Token (FTT) – the exchange’s native asset.

FTX now worth “hundreds of millions”

Though Binance hasn’t disclosed the sums involved in the deal, FTX’s founder and head of its affiliate Alameda Research, Sam Bankman-Fried, told Bloomberg the deal was worth “tens of millions” – which he went on to say implied FTX was now valued in the “hundreds of millions of dollars.”

FTX was founded in early 2019 and provides professional derivative trading products. These include quarterly and perpetual contracts on various digital assets, leverage tokens and over-the-counter (OTC) services.

Binance builds out liquidity and institutional product offering

Binance says its aim is to drive sustainable growth in FTX’s ecosystem, which its claims already processes almost half-a-billion dollars in daily traded volume – making it the world’s seventh largest Bitcoin futures exchange according to analytics provider Skew (Binance itself is currently fourth largest).

The partnership will also help Binance build out the liquidity and institutional product offering across its ecosystem, including its exchange (Binance.com) and over-the-counter (OTC) trading desk. The Binance and FTX teams are also collaborating on product development.

Discussing the news Binance CEO, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), said:

“The FTX team has built an innovative crypto trading platform with stunning growth. With their backgrounds as professional traders, we see quite a bit ourselves in the FTX team and believe in their potential in becoming a major player in the crypto derivatives markets.

“We are pleased to have an excellent partner joining the Binance ecosystem and aim to grow the crypto market together.”

While Founder and CEO of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, added:

“Binance is a market leader which has strong synergy with derivatives platforms, and we appreciate their global industry leadership, consistent execution and innovation.

“The investment will help accelerate the growth of FTX with support and strategic advisory from Binance while FTX maintains its independent operations.”

AYO.NEWS says:

FTX’s growth in 2019 has been truly phenomenal, having only launched in spring! That success and this partnership is an indication of the increasing importance of the institutional sector in the cryptocurrency space, as the initial retail driven hype subsides, the entire industry matures and stability very slowly starts to assert itself.

Staying with Binance, just last week AYO.NEWS reported the company had launched LATAMEX, a fiat gateway for Argentina and Brazil (read more).

AYO.NEWS says features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited.

Zurich-based sports technology boutique Blocksport has announced a partnership with Paris-based esports data provider PandaScore.

The partnership will see PandaScore supply Blocksport with its range of live AI-based esports data, statistics and analytical services, to help Blocksport develop and launch esports-focused mobile apps.

Discussing the news CEO pf PandaScore, Flavien Guillocheau, said:

“Blocksport’s mobile app is bridging the gap between fans, sponsors and esports teams. It brings you everything in one hand. We believe in Blocksport – it’s the perfect way for us to deliver the esports data that fans truly deserve.”

While Co-founder of Blocksport, Semih Kaçan, added:

“The partnership with such an innovative data provider strengthens our social sports ecosystem significantly. We are looking forward to a successful partnership with PandaScore.”

PandaScore currently provides data covering League of Legends, Overwatch, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2, and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, and says it will be adding support for Rocket League soon.

AYO.NEWS says:

Esports generates huge amounts of real-time data, which can easily overwhelm and make for messy, clunky platforms and services, so having access to effective AI-based analytics and data services is critical to those developers looking to build apps that will deliver real-world value to esports fans.

Staying with PandaScore, in September we reported the company had entered a strategic partnership with UK-based multimedia news agency PA Media (read more).

AYO.NEWS says features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited.

EY, the giant UK-based auditing firm, has released a new version of its zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) blockchain.

The company says its third-generation ZKP blockchain, which enables data to be distributed between two parties without the need for passwords or associated information, is designed to cut transaction costs by 90%.

Released to the public domain on the Ethereum blockchain, EY says the latest iteration of its blockchain, which can batch combine up to 20 private transfers in a single transaction, and reduces the size of on-chain Merkle trees, will make private transactions on public blockchains more scalable and efficient, reducing transaction costs to just $0.05.

Already available on GitHub, EY says the new version represents a massive 400-fold improvement over its first blockchain prototype unveiled back in October 2018.

Commenting on the released EY global blockchain leader, Paul Brody, said:

“This technology is perhaps the most important EY blockchain milestone in making public blockchains scalable for the enterprise. In the prior iteration released in April 2019, public blockchains were already getting competitive with private networks. With this iteration, we cut the cost per transaction by more than 90% again, making private transactions more accessible for mainstream business application.”

Only yesterday, EY revealed it is almost ready to launch its smart contract and token testing service in beta, with a public beta of the initial version now available for users to review.