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.

The crash of the Japanese Bitcoin exchange, Mt Gox, was probably one of the worst events to happen in bitcoin history to date. In fact, right afterwards, the digital currency proved its incredibly volatile nature by dropping in value significantly.

Well, the people affected by the hack may have something to look forward to in the next couple of days, considering the fact that some of the investors will be receiving a part of their bitcoin investment back. With this in mind, an announcement made by the Kraken Bitcoin Exchange showcases that the verification process being carried out for over 25,750 claims has been completed.

During the last couple of years, China has held an interesting position when it comes down to regulating cryptocurrencies. This is no surprise, considering the length of censorship that the Great Firewall of China may impose on their people.

However, it’s worth pointing out that the country’s peer-to-peer (P2P) lending market has grown quite a lot in the last years, thus emerging as the largest in the world. So far, it has been driven by the constant supply of funds coming from retail investors, but also to the demand to financial help coming from SMEs.

During the last couple of months, a brand new digital currency known by the name of Ethereum has seen its ups and downs, but so far, it seems like Ether’s value and Ethereum’s popularity are both going forward in full throttle.

According to recent reports, it seems like miners, the people who operate large networks of machines to verify crypto-transactions in exchange for monetary rewards, are taking an interest in moving towards Ethereum. In fact, the recent increases in the prices of Ether have encouraged miners to expand their operations and start mining Ether as well. With this in mind, as miners also make money when the return of the digital currency generated and the cryptocurrency sold exceeds the cost of electricity thus generating profit. As bitcoin’s halving is quickly approaching, mining btc will become more difficult and expensive, which may explain the move.

DAO, which stands for decentralized financial organization, represents a new concept that is quickly gaining ground in the financial, and developer markets.

To put things better into perspective, what makes DAO organizations special, is the fact that while they do have regulations and bylaws just like all other companies, their legal documents are actually embedded, and hard-coded into the distributed ledger we know as the blockchain. During the last year, financial institutions, enterprise tech companies and startups have all begun focusing on this exciting new technology, and thus started looking for ways to initiate secure transfers, incorporate smart contracts, and improve our current financial infrastructure.

While the true identity of bitcoin’s creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, remains a mystery, it seems like one of the early pioneers of the digital currency, who is one of the few people suspected to be Satoshi in the past, is raising money to start a financial company based on bitcoin.

According to recent reports, it seems like Nick Szabo, who also put in quite a lot of work on an early bitcoin prototype known by the name of DigiCash, wants to raise a total of $3 million for his new business.

During the last couple of months, the popularity of blockchain technology has grown significantly, considering the vast number of potential uses that it has. According to recent reports, it seems like a bigger number of schools have started, and/or are considering using bitcoin to track students.

To put things better into perspective, recording and verifying student’s credentials, but also issuing certificates, diplomas and other important data, are processes that are both time-consuming, but also quite expensive. This is why certain schools have started using the blockchain for these purposes, as it allows employers to save valuable time, and focus on other aspects of their jobs.

As time passes, bitcoin mining becomes significantly harder due to the way that bitcoin is built. In fact, the profitability of the business has the risk of decreasing substantially in case bitcoin’s worth does not increase once the halving process occurs this summer.

This is one of the main reasons why a company known by the name of CoinFac has recently announced their offer of next generation quantum computing mining technology that will reportedly increase the speed of miners by up to 4,000 times.

During the last couple of months, there has been an increase in the activity of trading bitcoin, which is essential for the development of the digital currency. According to recent reports, it seems like the CME Group, which has reportedly been looking for ways to strengthen their digital foothold, will begin publishing bitcoin market prices, updated in real time.