Here are the 10 most important stories about bitcoin and cryptocurrencies today
1. Some blockchain sleuths have discovered at least five cryptocurrency wallets that belong to QuadrigaCX. The discovery came after QuadrigaCX, the Canadian exchange that claims to be unable to access more than $130 million in cryptocurrency after its founder's death in December, told a court it accidentally moved 103 bitcoins into cold storage. Blockchain watchers looked for wallets that received multiple small transactions totaling this amount. Reddit user Decoze published the addresses of these wallets on Wednesday. –COIN TELEGRAPH
2. Lightning Pizza, the latest offering from payment app Fold, allows users to buy pizza with bitcoin through the Lightning Network, including at Domino's. The service is currently in its initial phase, but it promises to allow users to purchase pizza for pick-up or delivery to any address in the country. Better yet, since the app uses the Lightning Network there is only a $0.01 fee for each transaction, which take about 30 seconds to complete. Fold already offers similar services for other large companies, including Uber and Starbucks. –BITCOINIST
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3. Vinsent is a new blockchain-based application that allows investors to register wine futures products, while ensuring that bottles are authentic. The app is the child of VinX, a Medici-funded company that sought to create a digital wine futures platform similar to the Bordeaux model. Like similar blockchain apps, Vinsent tokenizes bottles and allows for permission-less selling and trading of wine futures. The app still has a relatively low number of bottles of wine on it right now, but has plans to expand its offerings in the future. –THE BLOCK CRYPTO
4. Baidu has launched a plug and play blockchain platform aimed at simplifying commercial deployment of decentralized apps. Called the Baidu Blockchain Engine, the operating system aims to make producing decentralized applications in a similar way to mobile applications. Baidu released a white paper last September that highlighted some of its work in the blockchain space, and previously launched both a photo application and a space-focused game for blockchain users. –COINDESK
Throwback Thursday
Today we are going to go back to Valentine's Day last year where the future of bitcoin looked a little more rosy. The price of bitcoin jumped above $9,000 per coin for the first time since the beginning of February that year. The increase was part of a larger rally that saw bitcoin prices reach nearly $11,000 per coin on February 20 before starting their long fall down to current prices.
Throwback Thursday is our weekly look at an important historical event in the bitcoin community. If you have an idea for a future issue hit reply to this email. –David
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5. Litecoin's hash rate has seen steady growth for the past two months after hitting a low in mid-December, proving bullish optimism for analysts and investors. –COINGAPE
6. Binance now allows customers to purchase XRP with credit cards, but some users claim that the fees associated are too high to make it worthwhile. –NEWS BTC
7. Bitcoin trading in Venezuela has hit another all-time high, as citizens continue to turn to the cryptocurrency amid hyperinflation. –CNBC
8. Nasdaq plans to add the Bitcoin Liquid Index (BLX) and the Ethereum Liquid Index (ELX) to its Global Index Data Service, which gives real-time price updates at 30 second intervals. –COIN TELEGRAPH
9. The recent outages at Wells Fargo provide another valuable use case for cryptocurrencies and unregulated financial systems, writes Billy Bambrough. –FORBES
10. A writer argues that bitcoin is about as safe as keeping money in a sock under someone else's bed. –FOREIGN POLICY
Written and curated by David Stegon. He has been a reporter for 15 years, the past 10 focused on technology. Follow him @davidstegon.
