One week in review:
Oct. 14–20 We've selected the hottest materials of the past week for you to stay up to date with the latest crypto news: | | #1 New York district court postpones Telegram's TON hearing to 2020 | | | It looks like we're all going to be waiting a while for the legal showdown between Telegram and the US SEC. A district court in New York has said the next hearings will be held the next Feb. 18 and 19. The defendants have been ordered not to "offer, sell, deliver, or distribute" Gram tokens until the proceedings are concluded. All this comes a week after the SEC alleged that Telegram had violated U.S. securities laws during its initial token offering, which raised an estimated $1.7 billion. In other news, investors must decide until Wednesday whether they are prepared to delay the launch of the Telegram Open Network until April 30, 2020. | | #2 Bank of England Governor Mark Carney defends Facebook's Libra stablecoin | | | Facebook was pleasantly surprised this week when the Bank of England's Mark Carney defended the social network's decision to pursue its digital currency. While other central banks have come out firmly against Libra, the governor said Facebook is simply trying to address the shortcomings in the traditional financial system that have lingered far too long. Carney believes modern-day transactions should be instantaneous, virtually costless and 100% resilient. In other developments, the not-for-profit Libra Association held its inaugural meeting in Switzerland. That happened despite seven prominent members — including Booking Holdings, Visa, eBay, PayPal and Mastercard — abandoning their seats at the table. | | #3 Crypto-friendly browser Brave hits 8 million monthly active users | | | Brave, the crypto-powered web browser that has had some more promising news this week. New figures have shown it has 2.8 million daily active users and has also enjoyed a substantial increase in the number of creators who have subscribed to its advertisement network. Last month, it also emerged that the Brave browser had surpassed industry behemoths such as Firefox, Opera and Chrome in Japan. | | #4 Cointelegraph blocked in Russia | | | Cointelegraph's domain has been added to the registry of blacklisted sites — meaning it has become widely inaccessible across the country. Although Cointelegraph has been on a list of blocked sites for a couple of years now, this appears to be the first time that restrictions have been imposed at a technical level. Regulators have yet to comment on why the block has been enforced. | | #5. FUD of the Week Nearly 75% of German consumers would reject Facebook's Libra, survey says | | | As much as Mark Carney's remarks may be reassuring to Facebook, the other Mark — Zuckerberg — still has plenty to worry about. Just look at the poll that came out this week that indicates just 27% of Germans aged 16 and over would ever consider using Libra for payments at home or abroad. Most of those who were against the stablecoin said it was because they don't trust Facebook as a company, or because they only trust state-controlled currencies like the euro. | | #6. FUD of the Week Hackers use malicious code in WAV audio files to mine cryptocurrencies | | | You may think that a WAV audio file is innocuous, but new research suggests you should put an end to this notion — and fast. A software company has uncovered malicious code hidden in recordings so hackers can mine cryptocurrencies without a victim's knowledge. It is believed the criminals behind the malware have the potential to earn thousands of dollars a month. | | Feel free to explore the most important news with Hodler's Digest by Thomas Simms:
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