Image of The Week, January, 28 — February, 1: TechCrunch, Coinlaw, Bitcoin Magazine and Others

Italian Senate Committee Approves Country’s First Blockchain Legislation (Coinlaw)

The first piece of blockchain legislation which could pave the way for widespread use of the technology is now approved by the Senate Committee of Italy. The legislation contains a range of legal stipulations clarifying the government’s definition of cryptocurrencies some other terms related to blockchain technology. This latest development is a result of a joint initiative between Italy and several other Southern European countries, aimed to promote the blockchain adoption in public and private sectors. However, the document has yet to be approved by the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. Once the new framework comes into effect, the Italian government will obtain possession of tools and solutions that could dramatically increase transparency and accountability which will benefit various government activities.

Japanese Yen Overtakes The US Dollar In Bitcoin Trading Again (Bitcoinist)

The national currency of Japan has officially overtaken the US Dollar in terms of bitcoin trading throughout the world. A total of 490,925.45 BTC were traded against the JPY on January, 29, - Coinhills reports. The JPY/BTC deals have grown in popularity over the last two months of 2018. In November, only 21 percent of the BTC trading transactions were committed in yen, compared to a solid 50 percent for the USD. The drastic change in JPY/BTC trading volumes comes as no surprise. All in all Asia now has way more impact on Bitcoin price than America and Europe and that’s the result of consistent and prudent government actions (Japanese in particular) regarding crypto regulation.

Chainalysis: Darknet Market Activity Nearly Doubled Throughout 2018 (Bitcoin Magazine)

The latest research by Chainalysis shows a 100% growth of darknet market activities. The pioneering platform Silk Road was closed in 2013, AlphaBay and Hansa, its successors, joined its fate in 2017. However, it seems that the shadow market is on the way to full recovery. Its participants simply move their business to other platforms and technologies, while the law enforcement authorities are always one step behind. Bitcoin still remains the preferred currency in darknet while the growth detected in the research proves that its price has little effect on its use for illicit activities.

Indian state government leaks thousands of Aadhaar numbers (TechCrunch)

Aadhaar is a 12-digit number assigned to each Indian citizen as part of the country’s national identity and biometric database. It allows users to open a bank account, get a SIM card or call a taxi. The number isn’t strictly secret but is usually treated similarly to Social Security numbers. The system has been plagued with problems that vary from starvation cases to illicit trade of citizen data on the underground market. The latter is more likely to happen again as thousands of numbers have leaked recently. The government website that was internal use only was somehow indexed in Google and everyone who knew were to search could get an access to the personal information of Indian citizens. You should check the original article to learn who’s to blame.

Canadian Crypto Exchange Has Lost Access to its Cold Storage (News BTC)

The QuadrigaCX exchange went offline a couple of days ago. The shutdown was followed by the post signed by company’s board of directors saying that the platform has lost access to the digital assets it held in cold storage. All the efforts in order to locate the exchange’s cryptocurrency reserves were considered unsuccessful. The number of QuadrigaCX users impacted shouldn’t be enormous since the exchange boasted less that $500,000 in trading volumes. Anyway, crypto exchanges are still considered as the riskiest places to store digital currency.