While there are countries which are actively trying to limit the usage of bitcoin, other nations such as Ukraine are looking for innovative ways to use bitcoin and its underlying technology, the blockchain, to encourage progress.

With this in mind, recent reports indicate that Ukraine’s Minister of Finance, Oleksandr Danilyuk, who spoke for the Blockchain Incredible Party Conference on Thursday, shared his vision on Ukraine becoming a leading nation in terms of blockchain technology use. Danilyuk explained that it would do a great job in public service management, while also improving the overall efficiency and transparency of the government.

In case you have been following bitcoin news during the last couple of months, then chances are that you may have heard about the upcoming halving. Well, a couple of hours ago, bitcoin has just undergone its second halving event, thus marking the evolution of bitcoin through all these years.

To put things better into perspective, people who mine bitcoin are rewarded with bitcoin in return for their hard work. Well, the bitcoin protocol is coded in such a way to reduce the supply of bitcoin by half every 210,000 blocks or so, in order to maintain the need-demand laws, but also to make sure that the total number of 21 million coins will be mined over a prolonged period of time, rather than in 3-4 years or even less. Another law set in place for this purpose of the 10-minutes interval between confirmed blocks. In case the current bitcoin protocol remains unaltered in this perspective, then the last bitcoin will likely be mined in the year of 2140.

During the last couple of years, bitcoin has been a grey area in China, due to numerous government regulations and the current state-focused financial system of the country.

However, recent reports indicate that the Asian country will soon have a set of laws that can be applied to both bitcoin and other digital currencies in China’s market. The set of laws are meant to offer rights to own, sell and store virtual property, and is a part of the new draft for the People’s Republic of China General Principles of Civil Law.

During the last couple of years, it was proven that the stability of digital currencies such as Bitcoin can best be analysed during moments of crisis. Due to the fact that the United Kingdom has recently voted to leave the European Union, the British Pound has collapsed in terms of value, thus proving that bitcoin is a safe haven asset.

Economic analysts from all around the world and supporters of the digital currency movement claim that bitcoin represents the ideal form of protection against most of the world’s major economic events, as it is independent from political moves, government regulations and economic crises. This led analysts to compare the currency to gold, thus making a strong statement that bitcoin is in fact, as ‘good as gold’.

During the last couple of months, Kraken has managed to become the largest cryptocurrency exchange in Europe, with tens of thousands of people exchanging bitcoin and other currencies on a daily basis.

According to recent reports, Kraken has just acquired the Dutch Bitcoin exchange known by the name of CleverCoin. This move will allow the company to further consolidate its place in Europe, with CleverCoin being the third exchange to be wholly swallowed by Kraken this year, after Coinsetter and Cavirtex which were both acquired less than six months ago.

There have been numerous reports on banks, stock trading corps and various other financial institutions showing interest in bitcoin’s underlying technology, the blockchain. Yet, not many have showcased their interest in using digital currencies for other purposes- until now.

Recently, the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ has announced that it has begun conducting experiments using their very own digital currency. With this in mind, the bank plans to release its digital currency sometime in the autumn of 2017.

Surprising news from the realm of Bitcoin, as the world-loved digital currency has just managed to reach its highest level in more than two years.

If you’re not yet aware, the cryptocurrency has managed to break the $700 barrier, and is valued at $709 at the time of writing. This is bitcoin’s highest value since February 2014, thus showcasing its true potential as more and more people decide to switch to it. In fact, during the last month alone, the value of bitcoin has increased by over 51%.

While the last couple of months have brought the blockchain network massive growth, some techies believe that bitcoin’s underlying technology is not yet ready for mainstream development. In this article, we will talk about some of the main reasons why it would be best to wait a bit more prior to fully adopting distributed ledger technology.

Unfortunately, during the last couple of months, cyber-attacks and ransom attempts have become significantly more common, given the raising popularity of bitcoin as a ransomware payment method.

In fact, a study carried out among a number of UK companies has revealed that many of them have begun building a bitcoin reserve meant to pay off cyber-criminals in case their businesses are attacked. To put things better into perspective, according to the numbers that were crushed into place by the Citrix and Censuswide companies, which managed to question a total of 250 UK IT companies and their respective security managers, it seems like 1 in 3 UK IT companies has a bitcoin reserve meant to be used for this purpose.

Since becoming popular once again, bitcoin has sparked lots of attention from numerous politicians and governments from all around the world. While not all countries are supportive of bitcoin and its prospects, Russia seems to be the only country that is seriously considering the idea of banning the digital currency.

However, things may change. According to recent reports, the head of a powerful far-right political party in France has recently called to end the use of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in the country. Marine Le Pen, who is the leader of the French National Front, and who will likely be a candidate for the 2017 French Presidential Election has published a note accusing world leaders of seeking a world with no cash, and of pushing bitcoin forward to fuel this scheme.