• Did an inaccurate story claiming Chinese police raided Binance's Shanghai offices really knock $1,000 off the price of bitcoin? (Mussi Katz, via Flickr)
    Did an inaccurate story claiming Chinese police raided Binance's Shanghai offices really knock $1,000 off the price of bitcoin? (Mussi Katz, via Flickr)
    Media

    EXCLUSIVE: The Block and Binance were working on a deal. Then a fight broke out.

    A lucrative partnership was lost after a cryptocurrency billionaire called a reporting error malice and demanded that journalists act as cheerleaders

    November 25, 2019 /

    The Block and Binance were working on a potentially lucrative strategic partnership for more than a month, a source with knowledge of the negotiations told Modern Consensus. Then, on Nov. 21, the crypto news and research site published a story claiming that a police raid forced Binance out of its Shanghai offices. Not only was that wrong—at least about the police raid part—it enraged  cryptocurrency exchange Binance’s billionaire CEO, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao. He promptly jumped on Twitter, telling his 450,000 followers that The Block’s story was a lie. There was no raid, he said, and Binance hasn’t had a Shanghai office for two years. During the four-day Twitter fight that…

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  • Facebook's chief seems to be losing, for once. (Anthony Quintano via Wikimedia Commons)
    Facebook's chief seems to be losing, for once. (Anthony Quintano via Wikimedia Commons)
    Libra

    Despite being called ‘global threat’, Libra Association launches

    A signing ceremony by the cryptocurrency’s members was overshadowed by dropouts and a report calling stablecoins a threat to the global economy

    October 15, 2019 /

    Facebook’s wounded Libra Association formally voted itself into existence on October 14, electing a board and choosing officers. The ceremony was overshadowed by the loss of seven original members including Mastercard and Visa.

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  • Bittax VP Or Lokay Cohen at the Ethereal conference in Tel Aviv on September 15, 2019 (photo by Molly Jane Zuckerman for Modern Consensus).
    Bittax VP Or Lokay Cohen at the Ethereal conference in Tel Aviv on September 15, 2019 (photo by Molly Jane Zuckerman for Modern Consensus).
    Technology

    How the IRS is cracking down on crypto taxes: A conversation with Bittax’s Or Lokay Cohen

    At this weekend’s Ethereal Summit, Modern Consensus delved into the murky waters of cryptocurrency taxation and its various pitfalls

    September 18, 2019 /

    Or Lokay Cohen has been at crypto tax calculation service Bittax since 2016, which means that she may know more about how to file crypto taxes than any other person alive. Lokay Cohen told Modern Consensus that she came to the Ethereal conference in Tel Aviv on September 15 to meet other like-minded crypto people, as she was toying with the idea of using Ethereum-based smart contracts to pay your taxes automatically for the IRS.

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  • The libra logo on a cellphone sitting on some coins. What else do you need to see? (via Shutterstock)
    The libra logo on a cellphone sitting on some coins. What else do you need to see? (via Shutterstock)
    Libra

    Facebook stands firm on 2020 Libra cryptocurrency launch

    Despite heavy resistance, the head of the Libra Association said the group is ‘firmly maintaining’ plans to take its stablecoin live as early as June

    September 13, 2019 /

    Facebook’s cryptocurrency will launch as early as June 2020, Libra Association head Bertrand Perez told a French newspaper on September 13.

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