Scientists propose a new way to build a scalable, low-energy Bitcoin

A new study by a team of research scientists claims to have cracked Bitcoin’s scalability problem. And it does it by eliminating the need for consensus among systems to confirm a transaction, the researchers claim.

The study is detailed in a paper by researchers at the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne in Switzerland. The paper, which recently won the Best Paper award at the International Symposium on Distributed Computing in Budapest, describes a very different approach to validating a transaction in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. 

ING chief: Facebook could lose banking services over Libra

Within the last few weeks, several members of the Libra Association have left Facebook in the dust. Now, it looks like the social-media giant may lose the support of banks as well.

Ralph Hamers—the chief executive of ING—told the Financial Times today that banks might need to part ways with Facebook if the company is unable to address the various regulatory fears associated with its planned digital currency, Libra. Specifically, Hamers pointed to Libra’s potential to facilitate money laundering and other white-collar crimes as particularly problematic.

Here are the biggest stories in the cryptoverse:

• Victims of Mayweather Centra Scam have their day in court.
• Task force to standardize digital assets is launched.
• New Bitcoin ETF from gold fund veteran launched.
• US Treasury to monitor Libra over potential risks.  

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.

Bitfinex faces declining market share amid regulatory woes: report

What you need to know

Bitfinex, until recently one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, has seen a decline in market-share as regulatory woes compound and other exchanges price it out. 

Why it's important

Since early May, the Hong Kong-based exchange’s market share has dropped from 30 percent to under 20 percent, while the market-share of Bitstamp, a competitor, has commensurately risen, according to a new report from crypto analytics firm Coin Metrics. 

Litecoin is proposing a new security upgrade

Litecoin has revealed its draft plans for a privacy upgrade, using techniques that were originally developed for Bitcoin. The proposal would allow users to access opt-in privacy by conducting MimbleWimble (MW) transactions on an Extension Blocks (EB) style side-chain.

Litecoin founder Charlie Lee originally announced plans to explore privacy technologies earlier this year, noting that “now that the scaling debate is behind us [for Bitcoin and Litecoin], the next battleground will be on fungibility and privacy.”

Read more here.