A former MakerDAO contributor and Carnegie Mellon alumnus has committed 10,000 MKR — valued at just under $4.3 million at press time — to his alma mater to develop a research program for decentralized applications. Who is giving what for what? Nikolai Mushegian announced the donation in a Jan. 1 post on his website. By his account, he already donated 3,200 MKR ($1.3 million) on the previous day and “informally committed” another 6,800 MKR ($2.9 million). In the post, the developer said that his goal for the donation is “to establish a research program for decentralized applications/protocols and game-theoretic mechanisms.” …

The Africa Blockchain Institute (ABI) will open Rwanda’s ostensibly first blockchain school in 2020, offering five new courses for local developers, professionals and policymakers. In an interview with Cointelegraph on Dec. 26, ABI Executive Director, Kayode Babarinde, revealed that the new school has five key courses in the pipeline: a blockchain essentials certification course, a blockchain developers’ course, an enterprise blockchain course, blockchain for lawyers and blockchain for impact. Groundwork laid in Ghana Babarinde told Cointelegraph that the ABI laid the foundation for its work in Rwanda by running a pilot phase for the school in Ghana, where it launched …

The University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) has just concluded its first accredited course focused on blockchain and distributed ledger technology. The course, which was taught as a computer science class through the College of Creative Studies, was formed in response to requests from the Blockchain Acceleration Foundation (BAF), a nonprofit organization composed of students, professors, blockchain advocates, and interested individuals who want to facilitate the mass adoption of blockchain technology. Blockchain at UCSB co-founder and Blockchain Acceleration Foundation president Cameron Dennis noted that despite blockchain’s rising popularity on college campuses, students at UCSB previously had few opportunities to …

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase plans to shut down cryptocurrency learning platform Earn.com in favor of its in-house developed counterpart Coinbase Earn. Industry news outlet The Block reported on Dec. 22 that Coinbase announced in an email to its customers that the exchange plans to only focus on Coinbase Earn and will be “sunsetting Earn.com.” Earn.com and Coinbase Earn are platforms that compensate their users with crypto assets for learning about them and completing educational tasks. Coinbase had initially acquired Earn.com in April 2018. Earn.com users are advised to withdraw their balances by Feb. 2020. Coinbase states that next year it plans …

Interest in cryptocurrencies has been on the rise throughout 2019 and Bitcoin’s (BTC) impressive 300% rally from $3,130 in February 2019 to $13,800 on June 26 surely had something to do with growing interest. Multiple studies have shown that millennials and younger investors, in particular, have grown increasingly skeptical of traditional financial service providers and banks in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. At least 40% of this demographic has said that they intend to invest in cryptocurrency in the future. Fortunately for new investors, investing in digital assets has become much easier than it was pre-2017. But there …

As discussed in a previous article on bullish candlestick patterns, trading using Japanese candlesticks is the most popular method for analyzing price action by crypto traders. There are many patterns worth learning and understanding — some of the most essential bearish patterns are discussed below. It is important to note, once again, that context and candle placement are essential in identifying patterns. The same exact candlestick can be bullish when located in a different place on the chart. Bearish Harami The Bearish Harami is a two candle pattern that signals a likely reversal in price. In this pattern, the first …

Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) has shared a list of instructors for its free, seven-week crypto startup school, scheduled to launch in February 2020. On Dec. 11, the venture capital firm announced that experienced entrepreneurs, builders, investors and experts in the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry will coach students by sharing lessons they’ve learned, bring new project ideas, and share information to help them get started in the cryptoverse. The list of crypto startup school instructors includes top entrepreneurs and technologists like general partner at Andreessen Horowitz Chris Dixon, professor of computer science at Stanford University Dan Boneh, and Brian …

The Chamber of Digital Commerce and the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) have partnered to facilitate industry advocacy and education efforts around tokenization. According to a Dec. 11 press release, the two blockchain advocacy organizations entered a strategic partnership to boost educational efforts in the field of digital assets and blockchain-based technologies by promoting their understanding, acceptance and use. Interoperability initiatives and regulatory considerations As part of the initiative, the parties’ staff will get access to their respective token-related efforts, which will subsequently enable joint participation in the EEA’s Working Groups and Token Taxonomy Initiative (TTI), and the Chamber’s Token Alliance. …

Candlestick charts are favored by crypto traders due to their visual appeal and simple to understand nature. Their history lies in the Japanese rice trading and the system has been updated and utilized throughout the years, becoming the most popular method of charting assets. They are called candlesticks because of their rectangular shape and long lines (wicks) formed by price action during a certain time period. Candlesticks can also give clues to price action and the mood of the market towards an asset. Over time, multiple candlesticks form patterns that give traders signals that help bulls and bears make trading …

Peer-to-peer marketplace Paxful has just announced that it is rolling out a worldwide entrepreneurship program that will offer education and unique benefits to those who sign up, as well as paths for growth within the community. The Paxful marketplace has been in operation since 2015 and has the mission of not only spreading awareness of Bitcoin but also making it a viable economic option for the underbanked and unbanked worldwide. To make this possible, the service supports over 300 different payment methods, including credit/debit, cash, online wallets, bank transfers, gift cards and other digital currencies. This is possible due to …

A Bitcoin (BTC) investor has allegedly lost access to funds worth over $12.9 million after failing to record the passphrase for their wallet. In what may become the latest timely lesson for the wider Bitcoin user base, Reddit account u/lumanubrecon claimed that as of Nov. 26, their balance of 1,800 BTC was out of reach. Brain wallet woes The user said the coins were originally stored in a so-called “brain wallet” in 2016. When attempting to recover the wallet using the passphrase generated at the time, however, the wallet does not unlock. A brain wallet is a form of Bitcoin …

The Chamber of Industry and Commerce of Munich and Upper Bavaria, Germany, will issue its first blockchain-enabled training certificates next spring in cooperation with the Digital Ministry. In the future, employers will be able to determine whether the certificates are genuine with the help of an electronic key. Authentication Stamp “Made in Bavaria” According to a press release from Nov. 20 from the Minister of State for Digital Affairs, employers will use an electronic key to verify the authenticity of certificates using blockchain technology. The Digital Ministry will create a web application that enables companies to verify the authenticity of …