Though their market is small, their reach is mighty. The National Basketball Association’s (NBA) Sacramento Kings are at it again and will tip off a live auction for gear with a blockchain-based app. On Jan. 15, the team announced its new live auction platform with blockchain development firm ConsenSys. Starting tonight, fans can bid live on in-game sports gear. The platform reportedly authenticates auction items, patching problems that have long bedeviled gear-hungry fans. How it works Fans anywhere can bid on game-worn gear with the new Kings + Golden 1 Center app. The first garb to hit the virtual block …

On Jan. 6 at The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, IBM and Farmer Connect – an organization committed to increasing transparency and sustainability in agriculture supply chains – demoed a blockchain-based app that allows consumers to learn about the coffee beans they purchase. Founder and president of Farmer Connect, David Behrends, told Cointelegraph that the “Thank My Farmer” mobile app provides consumers with an interactive map to show the journey of their coffee by scanning a QR-code: “After scanning a QR-code, consumers are taken straight to a product page that gives details about the coffee they are drinking. Below …

Binance’s cryptocurrency trading platform for United States-based users, Binance.US, is asking its customers to beta test the upcoming Binance.US iOS app. On Dec. 18, Binance.US took to Twitter to announce that the iOS app is now in the beta testing phase. Give the importance of beta testing to a successful app launch, the company is reaching out to its active community to help test the app. The beta testing phase will give Binance.US the opportunity to address possible flaws and have them resolved before making the app available to a wider audience. Beta testers will use the app over a …

A company providing cloud-based crypto trading software that enables transactions to be completed automatically has unveiled support for another crypto exchange. TradeSanta says its users can now connect to their Huobi accounts. The exchange is one of the world’s biggest in terms of trading volume — and reportedly serves 5 million clients in 130 countries, including the United States. Other leading exchanges including Binance, HitBTC, Bittrex, Upbit and Bitfinex are also supported by TradeSanta — with the likes of BitMEX and OKEx set to be added in the not-too-distant future. According to TradeSanta, there has been growing interest in its …

Cryptocurrency custody and futures trading platform Bakkt has announced its coming entry into mobile payments with a consumer app. Per an Oct. 28 blog post from the company, Bakkt will follow its recent successes in trading Bitcoin (BTC) futures with a consumer app. According to the company, the app will help consumers “unlock the value of digital assets, as well as ways in which they can transact or track them.” Starbucks on board Though the announcement is vague on the specifics of the app’s functionalities, coffee empire Starbucks is the first major retailer to commit to the new payments application. …

Despite bitcoin’s (BTC) recent price surge, the download count of cryptocurrency-related mobile applications is not increasing, Bloomberg reports on June 28 Data form mobile app analytics firm App Annie shows that, while in the first half of 2018 there were 65.8 million cryptocurrency-related app downloads, in the first six months of this year there were 67 million, an increase of about 1.82%. This growth is not nearly as sharp as that reported in previous years, considering that the first half of 2017 saw 28.2 million crypto apps downloads from 2016’s 15.3 million, a 45% increase. Apps related to the industry …

Throughout May 2019, United Kingdom-based nonprofit organization Oxfam International executed a month-long trial that saw MakerDAO’s DAI stablecoin distributed as a means of exchange among citizens of Vanuatu. The Oxfam initiative, named UnBlocked Cash, was conducted in partnership with MakerDAO, ConsenSys and Australian tech startup Sempo. The Australian government also supported the program. Tsunamis, cyclones and volcanic eruptions comprise a constant concern for the citizens of Vanuatu, with WorldRiskReport describing it as the world’s most at-risk nation to natural disaster for five consecutive years. The month-long program saw 200 residents of the Vanuatu villages of Pango and Mele Maat issued …

Cryptocurrencies have gone a long way since the day when, nine years ago, Laszlo Hanyecz had paid 10,000 bitcoins for two large Papa John’s pizzas, marking the first purchase of tangible goods for digital money. Although bitcoin is still far from being universally accepted by retailers, thousands of merchants around the world are taking crypto in exchange for goods — and their ranks grow daily. The latest of the big developments in this vein came up at this year’s Consensus conference, as blockchain startup Flexa made public its partnership with a number of major U.S. retailers. Flexa’s payments app, Spedn, …

Cryptocurrency exchange and wallet service Coinbase has introduced a service to link users’ accounts on its main platform to its Coinbase Wallet app, according to an announcement on March 12. According to the company, Coinbase Wallet is slightly different from the main app, referred to as Coinbase.com. With the latter, a customer’s cryptocurrencies and private keys are stored by Coinbase. With Coinbase Wallet, users store their own crypto protected by their unique private keys. The exchange has explained that the wallet can now be connected to accounts on its main platform for quick transfers from the main account to the …

A decentralized platform offering “e-commerce on demand” is launching, and says it has the ambition of enabling shoppers to have online orders delivered in less than two hours — with food shopping arriving at their door in 30 minutes. Buying.com says its service will initially be available across six zip codes in New Jersey, providing customers with a choice of more than 50,000 items. A center in the town of Mahwah is going to monitor the platform’s progress, and the startup has bold ambitions to roll out across the state and nationwide in the months that follow. Customers can make …

United States cryptocurrency exchange and wallet Coinbase has added Bitcoin (BTC) to its Coinbase Wallet app, according to an announcement published Tuesday, Feb. 5. In August 2018, Coinbase had announced that Toshi, the open source decentralized app browser and wallet developed by Coinbase, will rebrand to become Coinbase Wallet. As explained by the crypto exchange, Coinbase Wallet is slightly different from the main app, Coinbase (or Coinbase.com). With the latter, the cryptocurrencies purchased by customer and the private keys are stored by Coinbase. With Coinbase Wallet, users stores their own crypto protected by their unique private keys. The new update …

Germany’s second largest stock exchange, Boerse Stuttgart Group, has officially launched its crypto-trading app Bison, according to an official tweet today, Jan. 31. According to the app’s webpage, the software was developed by FinTech Sowa Labs — a subsidiary of Boerse Stuttgart Digital Ventures. The developers’ reported aim in making the app is to ease access to cryptocurrencies for investors that are accustomed to using traditional markets. Currently, the app enables free-of-charge trading in Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC) and Ripple (XRP). Another subsidiary of the stock exchange, Blocknox, will act as custodian for users’ funds, using an escrow …