USA

Participating and investing in ground-breaking technologies including blockchain, cryptocurrency, decentralized web, and decentralized applications (Dapps), would enable Italy and Europe at large to liberate themselves from the long-term monopoly the United States (USA) has had on the internet, and also protect their sensitive data from being accessed or leaked to other rival countries.

The whole cryptocurrency community was expecting for the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) decision on Bitwise Bitcoin exchange-traded fund on April 1, 2019, the Commission has once again turned around and suspended the event to May 16.

When it comes to the use of blockchain technology and cryptocurrency, the United States is in its own league. In an effort to outperform the U.S, Italy started investing heavily in this nascent industry. Right now, Italy still has fewer numbers, but the growth rate is promising - it is expected to increase from 2017’s €16 million to €92 million by 2020 and with a CAGR of around 79.2%.

The entire crypto community is waiting for the approval of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Since last year, more than 9 ETFs have been rejected by the United States (U.S) Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The data from Bitnodes, a popular site covering nodes of the Bitcoin (BTC) network, uncover the top 20 countries running Bitcoin nodes, with the United States leading the list with 2625, forming 25% of the total.

In the world of smartphones, we thought we had seen it all, particularly after the arrival of folding smartphones, but the Mobile World Congress (MWC) taking place in Barcelona, Spain, gives us another innovation to discuss: the first smartphone in the world which earns crypto just by keeping it on.

The newly created cryptocurrency “JPM Coin” by JPMorgan (JPM) is gaining momentum in the blockchain arms race amongst the giant United States (U.S.) Federal Reserve (Fed), at a higher rate. It’s the first bank to develop its own digital coin. The coin is pegged to the U.S. dollar.

The e-commerce sector in Italy is expanding. According to the 2017 statistics, nearly half the total number of Internet users in the world have purchased something online at least once. This trend seems to be popular in China, the USA, Germany, as well as in Italy.

The Commissioner of the US Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), Hester Peirce, aims at opening the SEC to innovation, invention and entrepreneurship. Of late, the leaked interviews of Hester gave the crypto industry hope for Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) approval. Hester, also known as the Crypto Mom, calls for an innovative and improved regulatory framework which is more malleable to the cryptocurrency field.