1. Binance Charity Foundation Donates $1m in BNB Tokens to the Australia Bushfire Donations Project
The Binance Charity Foundation (BCF) will be raising BNB Tokens worth $1m to help Australia recover from the unfortunate bushfire crisis. This donation will be made to the new charity project recently launched by Binance called Australia Bushfire Donation.
The Australia Bushfire Donation Project is based on Blockchain and all donations and distribution of BNB token will be open for public verification. Currently, the project has received close to $1m in donations from several donors including Binance, TravelByBit, and other anonymous donors.
Review: Good
Source: Cryptoknowmics
2. Ripple Partners with Thai Bank to Launch Instant Cross-Border Payments
A partnership has been formed by Siam Commercial Bank, the oldest Bank in Thai and Ripple to create a blockchain-powered mobile app for cheap and fast international payments.
The application called SCB Easy had a live test run by the Senior Vice president of Commercial Banking of SCB. SCB Easy was used to make payment into a receiver bank in just 40 seconds.
SCB is also planning to include QR payment features in the future. QR payments are accepted all of Asia, and tapping into this will allow SCB to provide micro-payment features.
Review: Good
Source: Cointelegraph
3. Interpol (International Police) Tackles the Coinhive Cryptojacker Malware that has Infected Over 20,000 Routers
In the attempt to get rid of the Cryptojacker, the crypto mining malware affecting users all across Asia, Interpol led an operation called Goldfish Alpha. They were able to remove the Cryptojacker malware from infected routers all over 10 nations across Asia. Those countries have been identified as Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Brunei, Thailand, Philippines, Singapore, Myanmar, and Indonesia.
Experts from the National Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) and the police across these 10 nations worked with Interpol to help victims remove the malware. Although the operation is still ongoing, they have been able to fix 78% of the 20,000 Infected Routers found.
Review: Neutral
Source: Coindesk
4. Internet Giant, Baidu Releases its Cryptocurrency Named Xuperchain
Baidu has recently announced the release of a beta version of its crypto blockchain to the public.
The cryptocurrency called Xuperchain runs its network with masternodes. This indicates that Xuperchain isn't a decentralized network. It is, however, a high-performing Blockchain application as it can allow for over 1000 transactions per second.
Xuperchain allows users to view transaction history on the network through its blockchain explorer. It is also designed to support blockchain-based applications with Baidu having more than 50 patents for the blockchain platform.
As stated in the whitepaper, Xuperchain plans to modernize China's capacity for governance while making them a forerunner in the development of Blockchain Technology.
Review: Good
Source: Blockonomi
5. Iranian Missile Attack on U.S. Coalition Base causes Surge in the Price of Bitcoin
Seven days into the new year, the value of Bitcoin surged from about $8,000 to peak at $8,438 within 40 minutes. The surge in Bitcoin's value occurred after Iranian missiles struck the United States coalition base in Iraq.
As a result of the attack and the uncertainties it brings, traders started began moving their funds from riskier assets to safe assets like oil, gold, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Prices of crude oil and gold increased by 4.3% and 2.19% respectively following the missile lunch.
It is safe to say that Bitcoin has already secured its position as the leading safe asset amidst geological unrest. Prominent altcoins such as XRP and ETH also witnessed little increase in value, with Ethereum price going up by 0.09 percent after the attack.
Review: Bad
Source:Coindesk
