In the News

Bitcoin review: Blockchain to fight Deepfakes, Apple CEO talks competing currencies

New York Business Journal
10/04/2019

This week, U.S. senators Mark Warner, a Democrat, and Marco Rubio, a Republican, asked YouTube, Facebook Inc. and nine other online service providers to address the proliferation of "deepfakes" — highly synthesized footage or audio recordings of real people.

Turns out, blockchain — the tech that underpins bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies — may help in authenticating these fabricated videos.

Reuters is reporting that Axon Enterprise Inc. — the leading maker of U.S. police body cameras — is researching the potential of newer technologies, including blockchain, to thwart "the havoc" these manipulated videos can create.

Recall how earlier this year a fake video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi slurring her words went viral.

The rollout of Axon’s Body 3 camera and its research into data-tracking technologies, namely blockchain, gives a glimpse into how the camera maker is stepping up in response to lawmaker and public concerns about video tampering, the report added.

TOP HEADLINES
Sunday, Sept. 29: Fusion Foundation gets hacked. The nonprofit published a blog post on Sept. 28 explaining that the Fusion swap wallet was compromised, resulting in theft of 10 million native FSN and 3.5 million ERC20 FSN tokens. "Investigations so far show that this is the only wallet affected," according to the statement. "The Foundation deeply regrets this incident and its impact on the path of Fusion’s innovation. While private key theft is an industry-wide risk and occurrence, we clearly must strengthen the protection around our private keys." (h/t CoinTelegraph)

Monday, Sept. 30: Dear, Fed — make a digital dollar. Two U.S. lawmakers, Rep. French Hill (R-Ark.) and Rep. Bill Foster (D-Ill.), sent a letter to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell outlining concerns they have about risks to the U.S. dollar if another country or private company were to create a widely used cryptocurrency. “The Federal Reserve, as the central bank of the United States, has the ability and the natural role to develop a national digital currency,” the Congressmen wrote, adding: “We are concerned that the primacy of the U.S. Dollar could be in long-term jeopardy from wide adoption of digital fiat currencies. Internationally, the Bank for International Settlements conducted a study that found that over 40 countries around the world have currently developed or are looking into developing a digital currency.”

Tuesday, Oct. 1: Six major Japanese brokerages formed the Japan Security Token Offering Association. The team is made up of Nomura Securities, Daiwa Securities, kabu.com Securities, Monex, Rakuten Securities and SBI Securities. The self-regulatory organization will devise rules and guidelines for issuing security tokens. In addition to regulating its members, the group also will develop security tokens as a product and lobby for their use in the country.

Wednesday, Oct. 2: A Congressional challenger to Speaker Pelosi is fundraising in crypto. Per CoinDesk, 2020 congressional candidate Agatha Bacelar (D-California) is fundraising $1 million in cryptocurrency through the Coinbase exchange. As of this writing, her campaign has raised $5,000 in bitcoin, bitcoin cash, ethereum, litecoin, and USD Coin. Bacelar wants to unseat Pelosi in California’s 12th district.

Thursday, Oct. 3: Wanted — New Deputy Superintendent for Virtual Currency. According to a job advert posted online, the New York Department of Financial Services is looking for someone to create and maintain compliance measures for virtual currencies including markets, involved businesses and other regulatory bodies. Specifically, the person will work for the agency's cryptocurrency and blockchain unit (the Division of Research and Innovation), which the department created in July.

Friday, Oct. 4: Will Apple launch a cryptocurrency? CEO Tim Cook says no. In a statement translated from an interview with Les Echos, Cook seemed to have been taking a jab at Facebook's Libra initiative. He said: "I deeply believe that money must remain in the hands of states. I am not comfortable with the idea that a private group creates a competing currency. A private company does not have to seek to gain power in this way."