11 blockchain unicorns: Hurun Report

The Shanghai-based Hurun Report, a research institute famous for its annual China Rich List, today released its first Global Unicorn List. There are 11 blockchain companies among the 494 billion-dollar start-up companies researchers identified. 

The Hurun Global Unicorn List 2019 ranked technology start-ups which ticked the following boxes: they had a valuation of more than $1 billion; were unlisted on a stock exchange; had no private equity investment and were less than 10 years old. 

Opera web browser adds support for Bitcoin and Tron

Opera, a leading web browser, announced today the integration for Bitcoin and Tron wallets directly in its browser. This follows the integration of an Ethereum crypto wallet and dapp support last year.

Though it is already possible to use third-party services to access dapps and wallets within browsers, like the Google Chrome extension Moon, which lets Amazon customers pay with crypto, or Metamask, which lets you run dApps straight in your browser, Opera cuts straight to the chase. Customers can now use Bitcoin, Tron and Ethereum to pay for things in crypto. 

Here are the biggest stories in the cryptoverse:

• Russia will ban Facebook if America blocks Libra.
• Small exchanges still dominate market, says research.
• Peer-to-peer bitcoin trading hits all-time high in China.
• Casa helps pass crypto onto your loved ones after you die.  

The world is built on a giant $256 trillion pile of assets. Everything from property to art, to stocks to oil. Blockchain wants to change all that. This collection explores the industries being disrupted, by whom, and what that means for both consumers and enterprises. We've delved deep into the tokenized world to uncover the people, the projects and the potential of this technology to change capital forever.

Bitmain’s new Texas-based Bitcoin mining facility is finally open

What you need to know

Bitcoin mining company Bitmain has officially launched a new mining farm in Rockdale, Texas, according to a company statement.

Why it's important

The facility has been under construction since late 2018 and currently covers 33,000 acres of the Lone Star State. The building is set to handle an energy capacity of 50 megawatts (MW), though Bitmain says it’s looking to expand the station’s capabilities to cover 300 MW. This would purportedly make it the largest Bitcoin-mining facility in the world.

How to foil a ransomware attack

Ransomware attacks are on the rise, costing victims hundreds of thousands of dollars every month. But a new decryption tool could spell the end for a particularly virulent breed—the malware “STOP,” which accounts for 56 percent of attacks.

But STOP hides clues in the encrypted files that can be descrambled to reveal the key, says cybersecurity company Emsisoft, which has found a way to restore frozen files without paying the ransom. Its new tool—distributed freely from here—sends out a query to retrieve these clues, which it can use to figure out the decryption code. Emsisoft spokesman Brett Callow said the decryption tool can foil up to 70 percent of attacks.
 

Read more here.