On the eve of the United States presidential election, most mainstream polls are pointing to a highly likely Joe Biden victory, though this isn’t reflected in crypto prediction markets. For Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, the “big difference” between them presents something of a puzzle, and he’s offered three guesses as to why such a disparity has emerged. In what he posed as a pro-prediction market or favorable view, Buterin suggested that these markets “correctly incorporate the possibility of heightened election meddling, voter suppression, etc. affecting the outcome.” In contrast, statistical models perhaps “just assume the voting process is fair.” To …

Blockchain-based payments firm Ripple has joined a non-partisan group of companies working to ensure access to fair voting in the United States. According to a Nov. 2 tweet from Ripple, CEO Brad Garlinghouse has joined Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and PayPal CEO Dan Schulman at the Civic Alliance, an organization that states it supports “safe, healthy and trusted elections” in addition to encouraging members’ employees and customers to be civic-minded. “We believe voting should be safe and accessible to everyone, everywhere,” said Ripple. “That’s why Ripple is 100% in #ForDemocracy.” Within the Civic Alliance, which has 936 members at the …

Bitcoin (BTC) starts a new week and month just dollars away from its highest monthly close in history — what’s in store next? Cointelegraph takes a look at five price factors which may influence BTC/USD as the U.S. goes to the polls and coronavirus sparks new Europe-wide lockdowns. Election day looms for Trump vs. Biden This week contains a geopolitical event which traditionally plays havoc with markets: the U.S. presidential election. Coming at a time when coronavirus angers and restricts daily life for many U.S. citizens, markets will be keenly watching the result for clues as to the incoming president’s …

The United States is girding its loins for an election that has cast a pall over a far longer timeframe than we ever should have let it. But then again, what did you expect when so many people spent so much of the past year cut off from their normal lives and circles, growing increasingly dependent on social media as a way of connecting with the outside world? That's not a recipe for sanity, even if it was a race between sane people. The phenomenon of modern information flow has gotten an enormous amount of attention since the last, similarly …

Tech-heavy stock market indices, including the Nasdaq Composite and the S&P 500, have begun to recover. Amazon posted high pandemic sales that led profits to climb threefold and reported a 37% spike in revenue. Facebook also surpassed Wall Street expectations, achieving $21.5 billion in revenue during the third quarter. Although the correlation between Bitcoin and U.S. stocks has declined in recent weeks, the probability that the rising risk-on market sentiment could buoy BTC remains high. As Kevin Svenson, a chartist at Kraken’s Cryptowatch, explained, the market direction between Bitcoin and the S&P 500 is the “same 80% of the time.” …

In an interview with Cointelegraph, Charles Hoskinson suggested that a Cardano-based solution might make blockchain voting possible for future national elections. He stated: “Not only do I believe — we've been building the infrastructure for that." Hoskinson acknowledged that the road to Cardano-based elections would be gradual and require a number of experiments. He suggested that it could start with third parties using the network for their primaries, before escalating to municipal and state elections. From there, he supposed the network could be utilized in national elections for countries that struggle with legacy systems: “I think it's entirely possible in …

Whether it is a Democratic sweep led by Joe Biden or a Donald Trump reelection, Bitcoin () would likely thrive. Industry executives, including DCG and Grayscale CEO Barry Silbert, say both a Trump or a Biden win would buoy BTC. The optimistic stance of industry execs despite the glaring election risk comes after Grayscale’s Bitcoin study. Trump wins = brrr Biden wins = brrr Either way, bitcoin wins — Barry Silbert (@BarrySilbert) Grayscale, a major cryptocurrency investment firm with in net assets under management, released a study on Oct. 27 highlighting that the potential market for Bitcoin has significantly expanded …

One of United States President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign websites was briefly defaced yesterday, according to an Oct. 28 article on TechCrunch. Hackers managed to replace donaldjtrump.com’s usual campaign rhetoric and request for donations with a spoof of the FBI’s “This site has been seized” message. The unknown attackers claimed to have obtained “strictly classified information” and encouraged people to essentially vote on whether they wanted the data released, using payments to two Monero wallets. Among the insider information reportedly on offer was evidence discrediting Trump as president and connecting his government to “the origin of the coronavirus.” There is …

“My first thought was he must have been hacked”, said Hoskinson, reflecting on opening an email he received from David Barrett, the CEO of Expensify, urging him to vote for Joe Biden: Hoskinson later discovered that he was not the only recipient of the email at IOHK, but was rather a part of a bulk email blast sent to all of his company's employees. Hoskinson remembered using Expensify, a platform which provides companies with expense management tools, in the early days of IOHK, but could not immediately recall if they were still using it. He mentioned in a 10-minute YouTube …

A ransomware attack targeting the government systems of Georgia’s Hall County also impacted key voting infrastructure it has been revealed. Local officials initially released few details regarding the Oct. 7 attack, stating that “critical systems within the Hall County Government networks” had been affected. Today, CNN reported the incident “may be the first ransomware attack to hit election infrastructure this political season.” According to Hall County spokesperson Katie Crumley, the county’s voter signature database and voting precinct map were heavily impacted by the attack. However, Crumley noted the county is in the process of bringing affected systems back online, including …

Kyrgyzstan’s acting President and Prime Minister Sadyr Japarov has proposed introducing a blockchain-based system to ensure fair elections in the near future and restore public faith in the democratic process. On Oct. 20, Japarov reportedly told Al-Jazeera television channel reporters: “We have had three revolutions because of unfair elections. If this continues, the unrest and the revolutions will continue. From now on, everything will be fair. I consulted with the Central Election Commission and offered them to introduce the blockchain technology. This system can be implemented in 3–6 months.” Japarov had seized the levers of power to become Kyrgyzstan’s acting …

The latest Bloomberg crypto newsletter contends that the election of Joe Biden as president of the United States would bring greater mainstream adoption of Bitcoin (BTC), including a potential exchange-traded fund approval. Further, it referred to the policies of President Donald Trump's administration with regard to crypto as “hands-off”: “A potential Joe Biden presidency should shine favor on further appreciation in the price of Bitcoin, in our view. New leadership may change the hands-off policy of the Trump administration — to the detriment of the broader crypto market — and nudge the firstborn benchmark toward the mainstream, improving chances for …