Facebook
Marcus said: "We have a lot of commerce stuff going on across Facebook. It felt like it was the right thing to do to rationalize the strategy at a company level around all things payments." The move marks the latest step in Facebook's effort to integrate its products and apps together. The tech giant is betting purchases in its apps will boost advertising revenue and push users to spend more time inside its ecosystem.
Here is the rest of the week in review:
The United States Postal Service (USPS) is patenting an innovate vote-by-mail elections system secured through blockchain technology. An application filed by USPS in February and published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Thursday envisions uniting the "dependability and security" of the USPS with blockchain "to prevent tampering" of electronic ballots. USPS said in the filing that American voters want a "convenient" method to access the polls and offered a multitude of embodiments of ideas including: mailing out token-linked QR codes, delivering scannable paper passcodes to a digital voting system, storing voter identification, electronic voting signatures, and even the actual votes on the blockchain. The USPS did not comment on the report, and it is unclear if it will actually test the ideas. The patent comes at the height of a crucial battle between President Donald Trump and the notion of mail-in voting.
The U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) revealed Thursday it had investigated and dismantled 3 "terrorist financing cyber-enabled campaigns" involving al-Qaeda, Hamas, and ISIL. The DOJ noted it was the "largest ever seizure of terrorist organizations' cryptocurrency accounts" with 300 crypto accounts and millions of dollars' worth of coins. Legal documents filed show the DOJ is attempting to seize Bitcoin (BTC) from 155 addresses it alleges were used by Al Qaeda to fund terrorism and arrest 2 individuals who allegedly helped facilitate transfers for Hamas. In a forfeiture complaint, the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, and Internal Revenue Service cybercrimes unit claim al-Qaeda created a sophisticated money-laundering operation through a network of Telegram channels, used to solicit Bitcoin donations for funding terrorism. Investigators found 155 different crypto addresses allegedly tied to al-Qaeda and other organizations supporting the group. Investigators used Chainalysis and Excygent to track Bitcoin transfers between these organizations over the past 18 months.
Crypto prices climbed to $373 billion this week on continued bullish sentiment. For the majors, Chainlink (LINK) and EOS posted outsized double-digit gains, while Cardano (ADA) and Bitcoin SV (BSV) slipped. In the top 100, the biggest losers were Balancer (BAL), down 20%, The Midas Touch Gold (TMTG), down 14%, and Bancor (BNT), down 13%. The biggest gainers were Numeraire (NMR), up a whopping 137%, Waves (WAVES), up 115%, and Reserve Rights (RSR), up 104%.
The author owns a small amount of BTC.
