FEE HIKE? The open-source developer group behind the dollar-pegged, ethereum-backed stablecoin DAI is considering whether higher fees could help stave off mounting liquidity issues. During a weekly developer call on Feb. 28, MakerDAO founder Rune Christensen said that the DAI's dollar peg is "almost at a breaking point" as a lack of organic demand threatens to start a "dangerous feedback loop." He then called for a community poll to guide stakeholder votes about increasing fees and raising the stablecoin system's debt ceiling. Full story LATE EDITION: ConsenSys-backed media startup Civil finally launched its CVL token today after months of delay. Many independent newsroom employees and Civil Media partners will now receive the token compensation packages they were promised in 2018, Civil Media CEO Matthew Iles told CoinDesk. The original CVL sale was canceled in October 2018 due to lack of buyer interest. Full story SPACE CHAT: A cosmic “message in a bottle” has become the latest novelty in the bitcoin technical community. With the launch of spacebit.live, a simple website that allows users to pay a small fee in testnet bitcoin, users can send a message via satellite to anywhere in the world. The service has been made possible with the help of Blockstream Satellite, an eccentric project released over a year ago with the goal of making bitcoin accessible for people without internet access. Full story DATA BACKTRACK: Coinbase has taken steps to clarify statements on the use of customer data made in the wake of its controversial acquisition of blockchain analytics firm Neutrino. After Christine Sandler, the exchange’s director of institutional sales, said last week that the exchange’s previous analytics provider was “selling client data to outside sources," Coinbase now says the exchange “never shared our customers’ personally identifiable information with any third-party blockchain analysis vendors.” Full story ETH ETP: Swiss stock exchange SIX Group has listed an ethereum-based exchange-traded product (ETP) backed by Amun AG. The exchange said that trading for the Amun Ethereum ETP started Tuesday under the ticker symbol AETH. It already lists a bitcoin ETP and another tracking a basket of five cryptos (with the ticker HODL). Full story WEE WALLET: U.S.-based startup VaultTel has launched a tiny cryptocurrency hardware wallet that sits in the SIM tray on Android mobile phones. The wallet solution combines an app and the VaultTel Intellichip card to store cryptocurrency private keys on mobile devices, using biometric authentication and “military grade” encryption to keep the funds safe, the firm says. iPhones will need a dongle accessory to use the chip. Full story |