Lobbying groups are urging the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to allow crypto-related products to be tested in its regulatory sandbox, Indian daily The Economic Times reported on May 16. The RBI’s proposed framework, unveiled last month, would allow blockchain technology to be tested on a small number of consumers — but cryptocurrencies, exchanges and initial coin offerings are excluded. Nasscom, a trade association of Indian IT companies, is calling for the regulator to rethink, and argues the RBI would better understand the risks associated with crypto by including it in the sandbox. The organization said: “Since cryptocoins and tokens …

A crypto-focused payment platform says it is aiming to reduce financial pressures on everyday consumers by enabling them to receive their salaries early — whenever they demand it. JobCoin says a startling number of hard-working individuals are falling victim to loan sharks and high-interest loans, or racking up unsustainable credit card bills as they try to grapple with sudden expenses. The startup’s concept means workers can request to be compensated for the hours they have already completed, even if their normal payday is a few days or weeks in the future. Explaining its objectives in its white paper, the company …

The recently reintroduced Token Taxonomy Act (TTA) will create a de minimis tax exemption for crypto transactions under $600, according to the executive director of Coin Center, Jerry Brito, at Consensus 2019 on May 13. The de minimis tax exemption stipulates that if a crypto owner experiences a capital gain up to $600 of crypto, then that owner is not required to report the gain to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the United States’ tax authority. Brito notes that this situation parallels how small gains on foreign currencies were treated prior to a de minimis proviso that was introduced in …

A British government-led jurisdiction team has launched a public consultation to determine the status of crypto assets under English private law, according to an official statement on May 9. In the document, the United Kingdom Jurisdiction Taskforce (UKJT) stated that the existing legal uncertainty around the crypto industry is a major reason for a lack of confidence by investors. The UKJT, one of the six taskforces of the LawTech Delivery Panel (LTDP), brings together the Judiciary and the Law Commission of England and Wales, as well as tech and legal experts. As the document notes, the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority …

An Ethereum (ETH) 2.0 Proof-of-Stake (PoS) testnet beacon blockchain is now live. Preston Van Loon, co-founder of sharding development firm Prysmatic Labs, announced the development in a Medium post on May 7. Ethereum 2.0 is an upcoming new Ethereum chain featuring improvements in security, scalability, and decentralization. Ethereum 2.0 would not be introduced to the current Ethereum network by means of a hard fork. Instead, users will be able to transfer value from the current Proof-of-Work (PoW) chain via a one-way smart contract. The announcement also notes that shards are a core concept behind Ethereum 2.0. Shards are individual chains …

MakerDAO, the Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) behind the DAI stablecoin, announced a critical security update to its governance contract in a Reddit thread published on May 6. Per the announcement, during the second round of security audits part of the DAO’s partnership with crypto exchange Coinbase and smart contract security startup Zeppelin, a critical vulnerability had been discovered in the governance smart contract. Zeppelin also released an independent critical vulnerability notice. While the announcement claims that the tokens of users who have staked MKR tokens in the contract are not in danger, it also advises users to move them. Still, …

The Tron Foundation disclosed a fixed critical vulnerability which could have crashed its blockchain on vulnerability disclosure platform HackerOne on May 2. The disclosure explains that with enough malicious requests, an attacker could have filled up all the available memory and effectively perform a Distributed Denial of Service attack on the TRX network by employing malicious code in a smart contract. The disclosure further explains the impact of such an attack: “Using a single machine an attacker could send DDOS attack to all or 51% of the SR node and render Tron network unusable or make it unavailable.” The cybersecurity …

A test ad campaign for PepsiCo built on blockchain delivered a 28% increase in efficiency, according to a news release on May 6. Media agency Mindshare said the experiment was part of Project Proton, which uses smart contracts to ensure businesses only pay for ad impressions that are genuine, brand-safe and free from ad fraud. The WPP-owned network claimed that, compared with a campaign run without smart contracts, there was a 28% increased efficiency in terms of costs for viewable impressions. The test took place in the Asia Pacific region back in March of this year. According to the press …

One of the United Kingdom’s most senior lawyers said in a speech on May 2 that cryptocurrency and smart contract use will inevitably begin, but regulations are needed. Addressing the University of Liverpool School of Law and the Northern Chancery Bar Association, Sir Geoffery Vos, Chancellor of the High Court, dedicated time to exploring necessary changes in order for smart contracts and crypto assets to become widespread. “My starting point is to ask why smart contracts have taken so long to become ubiquitous,” he began. Vos continued: “We have been discussing how and when they may take over the world …

Decentralized blockchain platform Qtum is working with Google Cloud as a software partner to increase the ease of launching native products for users, the company confirmed in a blog post on May 2. Qtum, which like the Ethereum (ETH) platform focuses on smart contracts and decentralized applications (DApps), has already released a suite of developer tools on Google Cloud, which executives hope will further uptake. “Google Cloud is the perfect partner to help us make the blockchain ecosystem simpler and more intuitive. Where launching a node was once an intensive and complex process, Qtum’s new developer suite introduces helpful shortcuts …

A crypto platform says “pioneering technology” known as command chain protocol (C2P) is going to be instrumental in ensuring the industry is protected with strong security in the future. ILCoin says C2P was designed to prevent 51% attacks — one of the biggest risks that cryptocurrencies face today. This is when malicious actors acquire the majority of the computing power in a network, create a new chain and potentially double spend funds. As reported by Cointelegraph, Ethereum Classic fell victim to such an incident back in January. In its white paper, ILCoin says this protocol consists of a “set of …

Big Four auditing firm Ernst & Young (EY) has launched a private beta test version of its new Smart Contract Analyzer tool for the public Ethereum (ETH) blockchain. The news was announced in an EY press release on April 16. The tool is described as a testing and security service that will allow companies and individual investors to assess smart contracts and associated tokens for known security risks. Developed by the EY Blockchain Security Lab in Israel, the tool works for tokens and contracts either prior to their launch or after they have gone live on the public blockchain. EY …