1. MAJOR US RETAILER DITCHES VISA — NOW CONSIDERING BITCOIN’S LIGHTNING NETWORK
US retail giant, Kroger, is no longer accepting Visa credit cards at its chain of Smith’s food and drug stores. So Anthony Pompliano tweeted an offer to hook them up with Bitcoin’s Lightning Network nationwide.
[Source: Bitcoinist] ✩✩✩✩✩
2. TWITTER CEO JACK DORSEY SHOWS OFF HIS (CASA) BITCOIN FULL NODE
Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey, took another step towards financial sovereignty two days ago when he tweeted about his new toy, a Casa Bitcoin full node. The Casa Node is a plug-and-play solution for running your own full Bitcoin and Lightning Network node at home. Running a Bitcoin full node allows you to validate the blockchain and verify your own transactions. Aside from this, it also increases decentralization and hence the security of the network.
[Source: Bitcoinist] ✩✩✩✩✩
3. ethereum Blocks Drop to 12 Seconds
Average block times in ethereum have dropped to their lowest level ever at just 12.5 seconds, down from 21 seconds per block. That’s after the Constantinople upgrade kicked-in on Thursday, delaying the difficulty bomb for another 12 months. Depending on where it levels off, it might be just a result of temporary adjustments to complex parameters following the ice age delay.
[Source: TrustNodes] ✩✩✩✩✩
https://www.trustnodes.com/2019/03/03/ethereum-blocks-drop-to-12-seconds
4. Binance Coin (BNB) Becomes 8th Largest Crypto After Gaining 75% in a Month
At a time in which the cryptocurrency market has been managing to make mild gains, with its total capitalization moving up around $40 million in the last 24 hours, Binance’s BNB token has been standing out due to its price’s performance.
[Source: Cryptoglobe] ✩✩✩✩✩
5. Hotel Chain in Spain Launches Pilot to Accept Bitcoin Payments
Casual Hoteles has launched a pilot to test customer payments in Bitcoin. The chain operates hotels across Spain in several locations including Madrid, Valencia, Lisbon and San Sebastián. The pilot will begin at its Casual Málaga del Mar hotel under the guidance of the company’s blockchain project.
[Source: DailyHodl] ✩✩✩
6. Bloomberg: Crypto Companies Still Run Into Trouble Opening Bank Accounts
Companies in the cryptocurrency industry still have trouble opening bank accounts, major financial publication Bloomberg reported on March 3. It also points out that ironically, while the larger banks avoid serving companies involved in crypto, smaller ones are trying to get hold of this underserved subset of the market.
[Source: Cointelegraph] ✩✩✩✩
7. Crypto Trading Giant Circle Wants to Raise $250 Million in Funding — But Why?
One of the world’s leading cryptocurrency startups, Circle, is seeking to raise $250 million according to sources directly involved with the initiative. Circle is the operator of the Poloniex cryptocurrency exchange, currently ranked 74 in the world by volume on Coinmarketcap. The firm acquired Poloniex for $400 million and also runs an institutional trading branch called Circle Trade.
[Source: CCN] ✩✩✩
8. Coinbase providers were selling client data to outside sources, says Sales Director; explains why XRP
Coinbase, one of the leading cryptocurrency exchanges in the United States, is currently one of the hot topics in the cryptocurrency space. With all the controversy around the platform’s Neutrino acquisition, and XRP listing, the latest revelations made by the Director of Institutional Sales, Christine Sandler has added more drive to the #DeleteCoinbase movement.
[Source: AMBCrypto] ✩✩✩
9. Angry Bitcoin Fans Delete Coinbase Accounts to Protest Neutrino Acquisition
The battle cry #DeleteCoinbase is resounding across crypto Twitter as bitcoin users close their accounts to protest a controversial acquisition by the exchange.
These users are upset with Coinbase for acquiring Neutrino because that blockchain analytics outfit’s executive suite — CEO Giancarlo Russo, CTO Alberto Ornaghi, and CRO Marco Valleri — previously spearheaded projects for the startup HackingTeam, which sold spyware to several governments known for human rights abuses.
[Source: Coindesk] ✩✩✩
10. Binance Offers Token Rewards for Testing New Decentralized Platform
Major cryptocurrency exchange Binance is offering a reward for testing the company’s new decentralized trading platform Binance DEX. The news was announced by Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao in a tweet on Feb. 28.
In the post, Changpeng Zhao, who also goes by CZ, invites users to test the recently launched exchange and thus help start the mainnet faster. Users will subsequently be rewarded with USD 100,000 worth in Binance’s native token, Binance Coin (BNB).
[Source: Cointelegraph] ✩✩✩
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