Korean Court Rules in Favor of Cryptocurrency Exchange Against Bank

A South Korean district court has ruled that Nonghyup Bank, a major bank in the country, cannot block transactions to the account of cryptocurrency exchange Coinis based solely on the government’s anti-money laundering guidelines. This is reportedly the first time a Korean crypto exchange has taken legal action against a bank for blocking its transactions.

Also read: Yahoo! Japan Confirms Entrance Into the Crypto Space

Court Sided With Crypto Exchange

The 50th Civil Affairs Division of the Seoul Central District Court has ruled in favor of cryptocurrency exchange Coinis against Nonghyup Bank, local media reported.

The exchange filed a complaint with the court seeking to prohibit the bank from suspending its transactions after deposits to its account were blocked by the bank last month. Nonghyup Bank cited the Virtual Currency Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Guidelines set by the country’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) as its reason.

The court ruled on Monday that it is illegal for the bank to suspend the exchange’s transactions based solely on the FSC guidelines and moved to dismiss the suspension. Zdnet elaborated:

It is the first time that a cryptocurrency exchange has responded to bank suspension measures and has taken legal action.

Kim Tae-lim, a lawyer connected to the case, explained that Nonghyup Bank breached the contract with Coinis since the exchange “has the right to freely deposit and withdraw money in the account in accordance with the deposit agreement entered into between the bank and the exchange,” the Digital Daily detailed. Kim was further quoted by the publication:

This case is significant in that it is a decision to point out that indiscriminate regulation against a virtual currency exchange should be avoided in the absence of legal grounds.

Bank Losing Ground

The South Korean government introduced the real-name system for crypto exchanges in January with the aim to convert all accounts at crypto exchanges into real-name-verified ones. This system is part of the regulators’ anti-money laundering measures.

However, only four exchanges in the country are using the system: Bithumb, Upbit, Coinone, and Korbit. Banks have refused to provide the real-name conversion service to the rest of the exchanges. Coinis, therefore, continued to use its corporate account to accept customer funds. Banks claim that crypto exchanges that are not using real-name accounts are at high risk of money laundering.

Nonghyup Bank is currently providing the real-name conversion service for Bithumb and Coinone. In August, Bithumb suspended opening new virtual accounts due to a disagreement with the bank. In September, both Bithumb and Coinone announced that they were terminating fiat withdrawals for unverified crypto traders as requested by Nonghyup Bank.

Money Today elaborated:

The bank has been using the [AML] guidelines for ‘closing the transaction’ to pressure virtual currency trading sites for investor protection measures and anti-money laundering schemes and to encourage them to use real name verified accounts.

The news outlet noted that previously crypto exchanges have had to comply with the bank’s requests, adding that Coinis’ victory is likely to remove some pressure from exchanges.

What do you think of the court ruling in favor of a crypto exchange against a bank? Let us know in the comments section below.

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iPhone XS Max Screen Replacement Costs Almost RM 2000 in Malaysia

Unlike many brands out there, Apple does disclose the service charges that customers need to pay in order to replace a damaged iPhone display. However, it is not exactly a global policy though but fortunately, several Apple Authorized Service Providers (AASP) in Malaysia did the same too.

According to the service price list from Switch which is also a well-known Apple Authorized Resellers (AAR) in Malaysia, it currently costs RM 1790 to replace the Super Retina Display on iPhone XS Max. Naturally, the fees are slightly less for iPhone XS and iPhone XR which are listed at RM 1590 and RM 1140.

Another well-known AASP and AAR, Machines have also recently updated its service price list to include screen replacement for iPhone XS Max, iPhone XS, and iPhone XR. Interestingly, the fees are slightly higher though at RM 1999, RM 1599, and RM 1299 respectively.

Given these repair costs, it might be wise to invest in a good protective case or screen protector if you have obtained any of these newly released iPhone models. Alternatively, you can consider investing in extended warranty programs provided by some of the AAR in Malaysia such as Switch Smart Protection Plan or Machines Protection Plan.

Since AppleCare+ for iPhone is not being offered in Malaysia, these extended warranty programs are pretty much the closest you can get to having discounted repair fees for your iPhone.

(Source: Switch, Machines. Image: Apple, iFixit)

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Bitcoin History Part 1: In the Beginning

With today marking the tenth anniversary of the Bitcoin whitepaper, the web is predictably thick with op-eds, retrospectives and thought pieces. While Oct. 31, 2008 is hailed as a pivotal moment in monetary history, at the time, few noticed the publication of the Bitcoin whitepaper to a cryptography mailing list. Like all revolutions, this one would take time to germinate.

Also read: Coinbase Raises $300 Million, Reaching $8 Billion Valuation

From Tiny Acorns Mighty Oaks Grow

It’s hard to place a finger on the moment when Bitcoin transitioned from an idea into a movement. Was it when Satoshi Nakamoto mined the genesis block on Jan. 3, 2009? Or when he sent the first transaction to Hal Finney a few days later? Or did it occur imperceptibly over the course of that year, as the conversation moved from the mailing list, where it had begun, to Sourceforge, where the first Bitcoin forum was established?

That’s one for the armchair pundits to ponder. What is beyond dispute is that by Nov. 22 2009, when Satoshi welcomed members to the new Bitcoin forum, hosted at bitcointalk.org, his idea had taken root and there was now a small band of believers helping to till the soil. “Hello Satoshi, all forum members and Bitcoin users!,” read the first reply to Satoshi’s maiden Bitcointalk post. “Thank you for developing Bitcoin. A P2P anonymous digital currency / eCurrency is long overdue. I’m very impressed and this project has great potential.”

It All Could Have Been so Different

When writing history, it’s easy to assign inevitability to events; to assume that things happened a certain way because that’s just how they were destined to occur. The truth is that Bitcoin, like all seismic movements, was not preordained to play out as it did. Were it not for the tenacity of those ultra-early adopters, who kept Satoshi’s brainchild alive through its weakest hours, coupled with serendipity and reinforcement by geopolitical events, Bitcoin may have never gotten off the ground. Its survival and present-day robustness can be attributed to the power of Satoshi’s idea coupled with the efforts of the hobbyists who worked late into the night to patch critical bugs and nurse Bitcoin until the nascent network was strong enough to survive.

In Bitcoin History, starting today, news.Bitcoin.com will chronicle a series of mini-episodes from the cryptocurrency’s early years, with a focus on the events that began life, like so much of Bitcoin’s history, on the forum Satoshi started. While Bitcointalk wasn’t the sole repository of seminal ideas, it formed a hub, in the pre-Medium and early Twitter days, where key contributors convened to share ideas. Back then, as today, there was plenty of arguing, but less tribalism and virtue signalling. With no land to fight over, the first task for Bitcoin’s maiden users was to build a world by which the ideas contained within the whitepaper could be realized.

“One immediate problem with any new currency,” mused Hal Finney, on Jan. 11, 2009, “is how to value it. Even ignoring the practical problem that virtually no one will accept it at first, there is still a difficulty in coming up with a reasonable argument in favor of a particular non-zero value for the coins.” He concluded:

As an amusing thought experiment, imagine that Bitcoin is successful and becomes the dominant payment system in use throughout the world … the possibility of generating coins today with a few cents of compute time may be quite a good bet, with a payoff of something like 100 million to 1! Even if the odds of Bitcoin succeeding to this degree are slim, are they really 100 million to one against? Something to think about…

Do you think Bitcoin was destined to survive, or did luck and perseverance play a part in its early days? Let us know in the comments section below.

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NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition Review: Meet The New 4K HDR King

When NVIDIA made its new GeForce RTX series graphics card official, it launched not one, but three different cards for three totally different SKUs. Of the three, the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti is the brand’s latest king of the polygonal hill.

With the card having arrived in our hands, we set out to answer the same old question for every new generation of graphics cards that pops up: How powerful is the card’s new Turing GPU? More importantly, how much more powerful is it compared to its predecessor?

Design

As many of you may notice, the cooler shroud on the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti isn’t the same single-fan, blower style cooling solution that NVIDIA has used with many of its graphics cards of yore. What greets PC owners (who are fortunate enough to own a Founders Edition of the GeForce RTX series cards) is a dual-fan solution that still retains the blower style, rear exhaust design.

Gone are the angular cuts that the GTX 10 series cooler shrouds used to employ. In its place, the card sports a clean, simple, and dusted metallic design at front. On that note, even the card’s backplate looks a little more intricate; NVIDIA has gone with a silver design over the black motif that its predecessor used. With the card’s name emblazoned right in the middle.

Ports-wise, the card sports three DisplayPort 1.4 ports, 1 HDMI 2.0b port, and and USB Type-C port for DisplayLink. Because of the high-performance nature of the RTX 2080 Ti, the card doesn’t come with a dual-link DVI port. Just as well too, considering that this is a card designed for the big boys.

One last thing; the RTX 2080 Ti is one of the only two variants in the RTX series to use an NVLink bridge for multi-GPU configuration. Versus the previous SLI bridge used with all other GeForce cards before it.

Test Machine Specs

It should be noted that the monitor we used to test out the card was the ASUS ROG Swift PG27UQ 4K HDR monitor. It’s a fitting choice, considering that NVIDIA is touting the card as being able to run games and other media content at resolution, and with HDR activated to boot.

At this point, we should probably explain why it is we’re we’re testing the RTX 2080 Ti using an AMD Ryzen 7 1800X CPU instead of the latest Intel CPU with a Z370 or Z390 system. This is because, at the time of testing, it was the most up-to-date test bed which the assigned had.

That’s not to say the end results gained from an RTX 2080 Ti tested on an AMD Ryzen testbed is bad. If anything, it’s a fresh perspective to see how the card handles itself on such a system. Of course, we will update this article with benchmarks from an Intel-based test bed, provided we do get one in the future.

Benchmarks

As you would expect of NVIDIA’s new king of the hill, the card actually performed pretty well in the synthetic benchmarks. Especially with benchmark tests ran in 4K and 1440p resolution.

Naturally, the card wasn’t without its hurdles and caveats, and those issues reared their ugly heads when we put the card through three of (what we decided to be) the most graphically demanding titles to date. These titles were Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Doom, and the recently released Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

Of the three titles, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided was by far the most taxing for the RTX 2080 Ti. At the game’s highest graphics setting at 4K resolution, the card was genuinely struggling keep the average framerates above 50 fps, let alone 60 fps.

At 1440p, the framerates was naturally a more familiar story for the card. At this resolution, the RTX 2080 Ti was achieving framerates beyond 100 fps, before averaging out at the 72 fps mark.

Needless to say, the card’s performance on Doom was unprecedented. At both 4K and 1440p resolution, the card barely broke a sweat. Maintaining high average framerates well above the 100 fps mark, even with the heavy presence of in-game particles brought on by the game’s Nightmare setting. If anything, we’d say the card was cackling at the game.

We took a slightly deviated approach with Shadow of the Tomb Raider, running the three highest anti-aliasing settings – TAA, SMAAT x2, and SMAA x4. At TAA and SMAAT x2, the RTX 2080 TI produced similar results across 4K and 1440p resolutions.

When we cranked it up to SMAA x4, it became very apparent that the card was struggling to keep its composure at 4K resolution. To be precise, the card began showing some stuttering effects caused by graphical lag during the Paititi portion of the game’s benchmark.

Overclock

Overclocking the card was – as these things usually go – a relatively straightforward process. However, instead of MSI’s Afterburner OC Tool, we decided to use the new Precision OC Tool that was provided to us by NVIDIA. Do note that the tool was still in beta, but to its credit, we didn’t encounter any issues while using it to push the RTX 2080 Ti as hard as we could.

In regards to the numbers, we only managed to overclock the RTX 2080 Ti by an additional 160MHz on the GPU and 90MHz (15MHz x4) with its memory. We also managed to crank up the GPU Core Voltage by an additional 30mV, though there were times that we were able to reach 50mV via the OC tool.

While the RTX 2080 Ti showed some significant performance improvements with the synthetic benchmarks, the same cannot really be said for the gaming portion of the tests. In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the card only showed a minor increase of 5-7 fps. This trend was consistent in all three AA modes.

DOOM was practically the only title that showed signs of a marked improvement with an increase of nearly 10 fps in 4K, 14 fps in 1440p, and 22 fps in Full HD.

Power Consumption And Thermals

Compared to the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, the RTX 2080 Ti surprisingly requires a tad bit more power to function efficiently. To that end, the card actually requires two 8-pin PCIe power ports to run.

Out of the box, the RTX 2080 Ti had an average temperature reading between 44°C and 52°C. When idle, the card’s temperature hovered around the 37°C mark, and peaked at 82°C on a full load. By comparison, that’s a 9°C difference between the RTX 2080 Ti and the GTX 1080 Ti. On top of that, that’s with a dual-fan cooling solution too.

Surprisingly, the RTX 2080 Ti’s temperatures showed minimal differences when we overclocked it. We did, however, notice a moment when the card spiked to 88°C and maintained that temperature for a period of no longer than 15 minutes.

In terms of power consumption, the RTX 2080 Ti idled below the 90W mark when we left the PC turned on but doing nothing. When put to work, the card (along with the system) pulls an average of 421.7W on a full load. Upon overclocking it, that number (obviously) increased, and even surpassed the 450W threshold, and hovered around 474W.

Conclusion

While the Founders Edition of the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti won’t be coming to Malaysia (at least, not through legal channels) anytime soon, there isn’t a shadow of a doubt that this card was designed to go hand-in-hand with a top-tier, decked out PC.  However, if you’re already an owner of last year’s top-of-the-line GTX 1080 Ti,  we can only imagine you trading up for the RTX 2080 Ti for a couple of reasons.

The first reason would be bragging rights. As it stands, there isn’t anything more powerful than this card on the current market. The second reason would be to gain access to the new RTX feature that- as its namesake suggests – adds real-time ray-tracing to games. However, the availability of this feature is dependable on Microsoft officially rolling out the DXR patch, as well as game developers patching their game accordingly.

That said, the card is still a definitive step up for gamers, especially for gamers who can afford the over RM5000 asking price of all the custom cooled RTX 2080 Ti cards that are currently on sale in Malaysia.

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Honor Magic 2 Is Now Official: A Full Screen Notch-less Slider Phone with Six Cameras and Kirin 980

As the story goes, the newly announced Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 is now not the only slider full-screen phone in the market. There is another option that has just been launched yesterday in the form of Honor Magic 2 although the name of the phone was first revealed at IFA 2018 earlier this year.

Powered by the new Kirin 980 processor that is also being used on the Huawei Mate 20 series family, the Magic 2 is equipped with a 6.39-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display together with an in-display fingerprint scanner. Just like on the Mi Mix 3, sliding the front half of the phone downwards would reveal its selfie camera.

Here is where things seemed to be rather a little bit extreme: Honor has actually equipped the Magic 2 with three front cameras that involved a 16MP sensor with a f/2.0 lens as the main camera. As for the other two cameras, they consist of two 2MP f/2.4 cameras which seemed to be a rather odd choice by Honor.

On the back of the phone, there are also another three cameras which were arranged in a similar manner as per Huawei P20 Pro. Among them is a 16MP f/1.8 camera alongside a 24MP f/1.8 monochrome and 16MP f/2.2 super wide-angle cameras. Completing its general specifications is a 3500mAh battery that also supports 40W fast charge technology which allows the phone to be fully charged from 0% in less than an hour.

Price-wise, the Magic 2 with 6GB/128GB configurations will be made available later this month for CNY 3799 (about RM 2282) while the models with 8GB/128GB and 8GB/256GB setup will go for CNY 4299 (~RM 2582) and CNY 4799 (~RM 2882) respectively.

The highest-end model which includes graphene cooling, 3D front camera, 8GB RAM, and 512GB storage will go on sale for CNY 5799 (~RM 3483) this December. For now, Honor has yet to reveal any details regarding the availability of Honor Magic 2 in Malaysia. We’ll keep you posted once we hear more from the company.

(Souce: Honor China // Thanks to everyone that sent in the tips!)

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Exchanges Roundup: BNB on Etoro, Binance Freezes Wex Funds, Bittrex International

In cryptocurrency exchange news, Binance’s native coin has listed on Etoro, Bittrex has announced the upcoming launch of its Malta-based international exchange, and Chris Lee of Huobi has predicted that security token offerings will become a mainstream form of fundraising within five years.

Also Read: Bitcoin Trader Faces Five Years in US Jail for Unlicensed Money Transmitting Business

BNB Lists on Etoro in First Listing Outside of Binance

Binancecoin (BNB) has been listed on Etoro, bringing the number of cryptocurrencies supported by the platform to 13. The listing comprises the first instance in which the altcoin has been listed on an exchange other than Binance.

The chief executive officer and co-founder of Etoro, Yoni Assia, stated: “Despite sensational headlines about the death of crypto, we continue to believe in the potential for crypto assets, as do our clients who are increasingly looking to diversify their crypto holdings. In response, we will continue to add the leading crypto assets to our range and we are pleased to add BNB to the platform.”

Binance Freezes Funds From Wex Worth $18.5 Million

It has been revealed that on Oct. 25 Binance froze more than 93,000 ETH that had been transferred from the embattled Wex exchange, valued at $18.5 million.

In response to a post on Twitter emphasizing the movement of funds from Wex to Binance dating back to August, Changpeng Zhao, the chief executive officer of Binance, tweeted: “The identified accounts are frozen, please report to law enforcement and have a case number. We will work with [law enforcement]. This is part of centralization we hate too, dealing with other exchange’s mess (we don’t even know the details). But we will do what we can.”

Users of Wex appear to have been unable to withdraw fiat or cryptocurrencies from the exchange for more than three months, with recent reports claiming that 35 complaints have been filed against Wex with the Russian Interior Ministry.

Bittrex Announces Upcoming Launch of Bittrex International

Bittrex has announced that it will launch Bittrex International, formerly branded as Bittrex Malta.

The exchange will seek to target users based outside of the United States, with Bittrex also promising “a streamlined token approval process” designed to facilitate the onboarding of new markets in “weeks instead of months.” The launch of the new exchange will also see a “European-based Bittrex affiliate” listing particular tokens that are available on the Bittrex International platform and not the US-regulated Bittrex exchange.

If tokens are approved through Bittrex’s “standard initial review process,” prospective projects will be “directed to follow the process outlined in the Malta Virtual Financial Assets Act.”

Huobi’s Chris Lee Predicts STOs Will Become Mainstream in 3-4 Years

Chris Lee, the former chief executive officer of Okex and the current board secretary and vice president of global business development for Huobi, has stated his expectation that security token offerings (STOs) will become a “mainstream fundraising method” in approximately three to four years.

Speaking to Huoxun Finance, Lee added: “Time will prove everything, [STOs are] indeed a big opportunity, as I believe asset-backed tokenization, which is the digital assets backed by physical assets, have the potential to drive the entire crypto industry to a higher level. There will be a place for STO in Hong Kong’s capital market one day.”

What is your response to Binance’s freezing of 93,000 ETH associated with Wex exchange? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!

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Google wants to map your house with iRobot’s Roomba vacuums

Google and iRobot want to map users homes with robot vacuum cleaners for the future of smart homes.

iRobot’s latest vacuum, the Roomba i7+, already creates indoor maps by using both a low-resolution camera and the robots odometry data, which is how far the wheels move. Having a home map allows the user to ask their Roomba to clean specific rooms with voice commands.

The two companies are partnering for more than just voice commands. Instead, they want to figure out solutions for setting up and managing a smart home both now, and in the future.

“Robots with mapping and spatial awareness capabilities will play an important role in allowing other smart devices in the home to more seamlessly work together. We’re looking forward to working with Google to explore new ways to enable a more thoughtful home,” said Colin Angle, chairman and CEO of iRobot, in the company’s October 31st press release.

One potential application would be teaching the user’s devices where they are in a home. For example, the Roomba could identify the kitchen and the smart devices within it. It could then let the smart fridge, smart lights and other devices know that they’re in the kitchen.

So you could request things like “Okay Google, start making coffee in the kitchen.” Alternatively, if you had another robot that needed to get around your house, it would be able to much easier with a map. If the other smart devices were also on the map, it opens up the possibility for the robot and those devices to interact.

This is all speculation for what the technology can do, but it paints an interesting picture for what smart homes may become.

Michelle Turner, Google’s director of smart home ecosystems, said that the idea is to create a “thoughtful home” that is able to react to things and can function with much less input from the user, in an interview with The Verge.

Turner mentioned that there are no plans to take users home layout data and use it for ad-targeting.

Source: iRobot Via: The Verge

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Nintendo says Fortnite has been installed on nearly half of all Switch systems

Nintendo announced today that developer Epic Games’ Fortnite has been installed on “nearly half” of all Switch systems.

The information comes from the Japanese gaming giant’s latest quarterly earnings report, which revealed that 22.86 million Switch units have been sold since the console launched in March 2017. This means that Fortnite has been installed on around 11 million Switch units.

It’s important to note that Fortnite is available for free on the Switch, so a high install rate doesn’t necessarily equate to how many people are actually playing the game or how much money has been earned through in-game purchases. Instead, Nintendo simply said that “many people” are playing Fortnite on Switch, which is “boosting the overall utilization ratio of Nintendo Switch.”

A Fortnite Switch bundle was also released at the start of October, although it’s unclear exactly how well the package has sold so far.

Still, 11 million-odd downloads is a markedly high attach rate for Fortnite, especially when the game has only been available on the Switch since June.

Via: The Verge

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Brazilian Banks Ordered to Reopen Cryptocurrency Exchange’s Frozen Accounts

A Brazilian court has ordered the reopening of cryptocurrency exchange Bitcoin Max’s bank accounts, which were closed without explanation by Banco do Brasil and Banco Santander in September. The two banks have reportedly reactivated the accounts to avoid paying fines.

Also Read: Kenya’s Bithub Africa Mines Bitcoin Using Solar Power

Threat of Fine Forces Banco Do Brasil and Banco Santander to Reactivate Exchange’s Accounts

According to local news site Portal do Bitcoin, Brazil’s Federal District Court promised to slap Santander with a fine of 5,000 real ($1,350) and Banco do Brasil with 20,000 real ($5,400) should both fail to comply with the preliminary judgement. Leonardo Ranna, a lawyer representing Bitcoin Max, said that all of the exchange’s accounts “have been restored, including those of exchange partners.”

In September, the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE), a transparency and competition body, started to investigate six of Brazil’s biggest banks after they closed accounts belonging to digital currency exchanges without explanation and refused to discuss the decision. The probe centred around allegations of “monopolistic practices … that could be limiting the action of brokers” within the cryptocurrency industry.

Results of the investigation are not yet known. The ruling against Banco Santander may only be temporary, however. The bank only complied on account of a “kind of injunction” that compelled it to reopen Bitcoin Max’s accounts within five days, Portal do Bitcoin reported. The injunction had been previously denied by a judge at a lower court, forcing the exchange’s lawyers to appeal to the Federal District Court.

The latest ruling by Ana Catarino, a judge with the higher court, was based on Banco Santander’s unilateral decision to close the exchange’s accounts without explanation, something that the court described as “abusive conduct that is prohibited by consumer protection rules.”

When Banco do Brasil shut down Bitcoin Max’s account, about $32,400 of the exchange’s money was stored in it. The exchange filed a lawsuit against the bank on Sept. 12. An injunction was turned down initially but a Federal District Court judge later gave the bank a 24-hour ultimatum to reactivate Bitcoin Max’s accounts or face a fine of about $540 a day.

Arbitrary Bank Account Closures

Adriano Zanella, chief executive officer of Bitcoin Max, said they were never made aware of the account closures and that he learned of the blockage via the manager of an agency. During the investigation by CADE, the transparency body accused major banks of “imposing restrictions or even prohibiting access to the financial system by cryptocurrency brokerages.” The banks denied the charge, saying accounts were closed as a security measure to prevent money laundering. Some of the banks under investigation include Banco Santander Brasil SA, Banco Bradesco SA, Banco do Brasil SA, Itau Unibanco Holding SA and Banco Inter and Sicredi.

Brazil is a hive of cryptocurrency activity in Latin America. The number of people trading bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has soared from less than 100,000 two years ago to about 1.4 million today. More than $2.4 billion worth of BTC was traded in the country last year, up from just $160 million in 2016.

In January, Brazil’s Securities and Exchange Commission stopped local investment funds from buying digital coins because “cryptocurrencies cannot be qualified financial assets.” The commission, however, made a U-turn immediately after, allowing for indirect ownership, meaning Brazilians could buy into crypto-related investment funds. Even politicians in the country are talking about bitcoin; a candidate in the recent presidential election campaigned for formally legalizing bitcoin.

What do you think about the relationship between virtual currency exchanges and legacy financial institutions? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Zynga announces Harry Potter, Game of Thrones mobile games

Zynga has announced that it is working on several new games, including casual mobile titles based on the Harry Potter and Game of Thrones franchises.

In an interview with Gamesbeat, the Farmville maker confirmed that it has struck a deal with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment to develop a match-3 “mashup” Harry Potter mobile title coming in the second half of 2019.

No other details were revealed, although given the match-3 description, players can expect a Candy Crush-style game with a Harry Potter coat of paint. It’s currently unclear if the game will draw from the story of Harry Potter himself, the prequel Fantastic Beasts series or something different from the Wizard World entirely.

At the same time, Zynga said it is also working with HBO on two new mobile Game of Thrones games. Zynga says these games are being developed by its social slot machine game division. The first Game of Thrones title is described as “a social casino slots game,” which Zynga says will pull from a wide range of characters and territories in the George R. R. Martin-created universe. Zynga says this title will launch in the second half of 2019.

No details were provided about the second game, though it’s unlikely it will come out in the latter half of 2019 if Zynga’s Harry Potter and first Game of Thrones titles are releasing during that period.

These are the latest licensed titles to be announced by Zynga, following the confirmation that the studio is working on a Star Wars game with Disney.

Harry Potter fans, meanwhile, can look forward to Pokémon Go maker Niantic’s Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, a currently undated mobile game that incorporates augmented reality technology. Footage of a Harry Potter console action-RPG, meanwhile, was leaked earlier this month.

Image credit: Warner Bros. Pictures

Source: GamesBeat

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Developers must support the iPad Pro 3 or iPhone XS Max by March 2019

Apple just released the new iPad Pro, and it has a unique design that gets rid of the home button. The search giant has placed a time limit for app developers to support the new hardware and make space for users’ gestures.

The iOS developer page explains that devs must build new apps with the iOS 21.1 SDK by March 2019. Alongside supporting the newest version of iOS, devs must support the screen size on either the iPhone XS Max or the latest iPad Pro.

Since the home button is missing on the modern iPads, users have to navigate the OS by using gestures, which need a bit of extra space at the bottom of the display so users don’t hit the apps buttons when they’re trying to multitask or go home.

This isn’t the only change. Developers are required to implement a lot of new features, like support for the new Apple Pencil and external hardware that can now connect via USB-C.

Interestingly enough, Apple doesn’t have any mandate for the smaller 11-inch iPad Pro, even though it features an entirely new aspect ratio.

To find out more about Apple’s developer rules relating to its new hardware, check out the company’s developer portal. 

Source: Apple Via: VentureBeat

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How to vote in the US midterms 2018: Alexa has the answer

October Volume Report: Weakest Monthly Trading Activity of 2018

On the eve of the 10th anniversary of the initial publication of the Bitcoin whitepaper, the cryptocurrency markets recorded their weakest month for trading volume in all of 2018. Most of the leading markets saw a significant decline in trading activity throughout October, but NEO, TRX, QTUM and ZEC posted month-over-month volume increases.

Also Read: Venezuela Begins Public Sale of National Cryptocurrency Petro

BTC, USDT, ETH and EOS Hit
Lowest Points of the Year

In the last 30 days, approximately $109.5 billion worth of BTC has changed hands, resulting in an 11.9 percent decline in trading activity from $124.3 billion in September — the weakest monthly volume posted in 2018 thus far. The drop in BTC trading activity coincided with a similar plunge in USDT trading volume. Despite fears of a widespread USDT “untethering,” as well as the eradication of 30 percent of Tether’s circulating supply, the trading volume of USDT fell by just 12.6 percent, from $86.5 billion in September to $69.5 billion.

October saw $41.2 billion in trade for ETH pairings, down 30 percent from the $53.8 billion recorded in the preceding month. EOS, meanwhile, returned to its position as the fourth most-traded cryptocurrency, with a 30-day trade volume of $13.94 billion — down 30 percent from $20 billion in September.

XRP and LTC Hit Second-Strongest Levels Since May

XRP has held its top-five volume ranking for the second consecutive month, despite seeing a 45 percent reduction in trading activity. October saw $13.6 billion in trade across XRP pairings, down from $24.7 billion in September.

BCH was the sixth most-traded cryptocurrency in October, hitting $9.5 billion in trade volume over the past 30 days. BCH saw a 26 percent reduction in trading volume, down from $12.9 billion in the preceding month.

LTC ranked as the seventh most-traded cryptocurrency for the third consecutive month. About $9.14 billion of LTC changed hands in October, down 4.8 percent from $9.6 billion in September.

DASH posted a 30-day trade volume of 5.16 billion, settling at eighth place for the second consecutive month. Trading of the currency fell 20.6 percent from $6.5 billion in September.

NEO Breaks Into Top 10

NEO saw a massive 76.25 percent increase in trade volume in October, to rank ninth for the month. Approximately $4.6 billion worth of the currency has changed hands in the past 30 days, up from $2.61 billion in September.

ETC fell one position to rank 10th on the list of the most-traded cryptocurrencies in October. It hit a 30-day trading volume of $4.2 billion for the month, down 17.65 percent from $5.1 billion in September.

TRON, QTUM, and ZEC Post Modest Volume Gains

TRX hit $3.67 billion in trade volume this past month, up 4.25 percent over the preceding month’s 3.52 billion. TRX was the 11th most-traded cryptocurrency in October, moving up one rank from September.

CKUSD posted a 16.5 percent drop in trading volume at $3.4 billion, down from $4.07 billion in September. CKUSD ranked 12th for the month, sliding two positions from the preceding four-week period.

Despite recording a slight 2.5 percent increase in 30-day trade volume, QTUM fell two places to 13th on the list of the most-traded cryptocurrencies in October. About $3.73 billion worth of the currency traded hands for the month, up from $3.64 billion in September.

Trading of ZEC fell 4.16 percent month over month to $3.5 billion. Despite rising slightly by volume from $3.36 billion in September, the currency slid one place to rank as the 14th most-traded cryptocurrency in October.

BIX climbed two places to rank as the 15th most-traded cryptocurrency over the past 30 days. The currency posted a monthly trading volume of $1.42 billion, down nearly 30 percent from $2.02 billion in September.

Stellar recorded a monthly volume of $1.33 billion, sliding one position to rank as the 16th most-traded cryptocurrency for October, following three consecutive weeks during which it ranked 15th. Trading of Stellar fell 42.17 percent by volume from $2.3 billion in September.

New Entrants in Top 20

The declining trading volume across many leading markets saw several cryptocurrencies sneak into the top 20 rankings for the first time in recent months. ZB, for example, ranked 17th with a 30-day trade volume of $1.16 billion, following by XIN at $988 million.

BTM ranked 19th for the second consecutive month, with $920.8 million traded, despite falling 31.3 percent by volume, from $1.34 billion in September.

BNB, meanwhile, settled at 20th place in October, with $853.6 million worth of the currency changing hands over the last 30 days.

Do you think that the 10th anniversary of the Bitcoin whitepaper will drive greater trading volume across the cryptocurrency markets? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!

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Images courtesy of Shutterstock

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At Bitcoin.com there’s a bunch of free helpful services. For instance, have you seen our Tools page? You can even lookup the exchange rate for a transaction in the past. Or calculate the value of your current holdings. Or create a paper wallet. And much more.

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Privacy Commissioner launches investigation into Statistics Canada project

Canada’s Privacy Commissioner plans to launch an investigation following Statistics Canada’s request that the commissioner take another look at a controversial data project.

The project would allow the federal agency to collect detailed information on financial transactions of 500,000 Canadians. Further, the agency would not seek people’s consent or notify them that data was collected.

Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien announced in a statement that the investigation was related to complaints received regarding the project.

However, chief statistician Anil Arora defended the agency’s decision to force the country’s nine largest financial institutions to turn over data. Arora told Global News that Statistics Canada takes privacy seriously and that it’s baked into all of the agency’s processes.

Along with the project to capture daily financial transaction details from a random group of 500,000 Canadians, a second project took place in January. That project saw 15 years worth of credit history on an unknown number of Canadians transferred from the TransUnion credit bureau to Statistics Canada.

Arora also said that Statistics Canada removes all identifying information from the data when it enters the agency.

Furthermore, Statistics Canada cannot legally share any personal data it collects with any other organization, including other government departments or the RCMP.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sided with Statistics Canada in the House of Commons. However, Conservatives plan to try and shut down any collection of personal information that Canadians haven’t consented to give.

Finally, Arora also argued that the agency needed the data to provide timely and accurate information.

Source: Global News

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Nubia X ditches notch and selfie camera in favour of dual displays

Chinese smartphone manufacturer Nubia has taken an odd and innovative approach to avoid the accursed iPhone X-style notch. Instead of using some sort of sliding mechanism or a waterdrop notch, the company decided to reveal a handset, called the Nubia X, with two displays and only one camera setup.

The Nubia X features a 6.26-inch FHD+ LCD display that is surrounded by very thin bezels. On the rear, there’s another smaller 5.1-inch 1,520 x 720 OLED panel with dual cameras. This rear-facing display, on the other hand, is surrounded by very large bezels.

With the secondary display, users can take advantage of a dual rear-facing camera setup for both selfies and regular photo taking purposes. The phone features a 16-megapixel sensor with a f/1.8 aperture as well as a 24-megapixel sensor with a f/1.7 aperture.

This is the Nubia X, a dual-screen phone with a very high screen ratio.
Source: Weibo 字幕 GOUBA pic.twitter.com/L2So4FdzNU

— Ice universe (@UniverseIce) October 31, 2018

Reportedly the camera can use artificial intelligence to analyze the subject’s ethnicity, facial features, skin tone and age to set the phone’s beautification and bokeh functionalities.

Nubia also applied its own three-level blue light filter to the OLED panel, and the company suggests flipping the device to that panel for night sight protection.

To activate the phone’s other display, users can either simply flip the phone and the Nubia X’s software can determine that the user looking at the rear panel. Or a user can tap on both side-facing fingerprint sensors — there’s one on each side of the device.

Additionally, the Nubia X features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor, up to 8GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, a 3,800 battery and dual Nano SIM slots. Furthermore, the phone comes with Android 8.1 Oreo out-of-the-box.

The Nubia X starts at 3,299 yuan ($623 CAD) for the model with 6GB of RAM with 64GB of storage. While the variant with 8GB of RAM, 256GB storage and a blue light glass filter costs ¥4,299 ($811 CAD).

The device isn’t officially available here in Canada and lacks many of the Canadian 4G bands, so I’d skip it until Nubia launches a North American-friendly version.

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The Facebook Effect: WhatsApp confirms ads are coming to the Status tab

Apple Watch business to ship a total of 33 million watches during 2019: Report

Apple’s quarterly earnings will be released tomorrow and the analytics firm UBS predicts that the Apple Watch will ship 24 million units in 2018 and 33 million in 2019.

Apple doesn’t normally release its Apple Watch sales figures, but analysts have been tracking the device for a while.

If the Apple Watch grows as UBS predicts, it will account for a five percent increase in Apple’s revenue. This is about the same amount of income it makes from selling 25 million iPhones.

UBS also mentions that the increased price of the new Apple Watch Series 4 will likely cause more customers to buy Apple Care, which is even more money in Apple’s pocket.

The UBS report also detailed that 50 percent of buyers it surveyed are unlikely to buy any smartwatch, which UBS takes as a good thing since it gives the wearable market lots of room to grow.

Source: 9to5Mac

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Twitter gives users more power to report fakers, as purge continues

Facebook’s Level Up game streaming program now available in Canada

Facebook has announced that it has launched its Level Up game streaming program in 21 countries, including Canada.

Our Level Up Program for up-and-coming creators is now live in over 20 countries! Visit https://t.co/ofUA7NoUbg to check eligibility and make your stream a reality.

— Facebook Gaming (@FacebookGaming) October 30, 2018

With Level Up, game streamers are able to earn money through ‘Facebook Stars’ that viewers tip them with, similar to Twitch’s ‘Bits’ system.

Further, Level Up streamers can gain access to benefits like 1080p/60fps streaming quality, customizable dashboards and early access to beta products and features. Finally, a Twitch-like partner program will support streamers in earning additional funds and gaining larger audiences.

Facebook users can see if they’re eligible to join the Level Up program here. If eligible, users will need to create a “Gaming Video Creator” page and hit certain game streaming requirements, including a minimum of four-hour streams in the past 14 days.

More information on the Level Up program can be found here.

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Oculus Rift 2: New report says ‘Rift S’ could be a pretty modest update

Royole’s FlexPai won’t sell you on foldable smartphones

A little-known Chinese company could beat Samsung and company to market with the first foldable display smartphone.

On Wednesday, Rouyu, known in North America as Royole Corporation, announced the FlexPai, a new tablet-sized Android smartphone that folds into a device the size of a paperback book. Pre-orders for the smartphone start today in China, with a planned release sometime in December.

Before you get excited about the FlexPai (and foldable display smartphones in general), check out the video Chinese device leaker Ice Universe shared of a hands-on with the smartphone.

This is the "world's first foldable screen phone" released by Rouyu Technology, which will use the Snapdragon 8150 processor, but its design is very rough, just to seize the "first", this is a futures product. pic.twitter.com/M0v9o2z0Bw

— Ice universe (@UniverseIce) October 31, 2018

In action, the FlexPai looks little more than a prototype. The display doesn’t fold flat, and the software is, well, less than consistent when it’s asked to properly orient the interface. What’s more, even folded, the FlexPai isn’t a size one could call pocketable.

According to GizmoChina, the FlexPai starts at ¥8999, which translates to close to $1,700 CAD. Internally, the smartphone features an 800-series Snapdragon processor, up to 8GB of RAM and up to 512GB of internal storage.

With a price tag the makes Apple’s new iPad Pro seem like a steal and less than stellar software support, the FlexPai is unlikely to set the world on fire. Of course, this is just the start for the foldable smartphones and we won’t know what the format holds until the big players show off their devices.

Source: Ice Universe, GizmoChina Via: The Verge

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