Today we have a Daily Token Review and three really awesome cryptocurrency news segments to share with you. When it comes to today’s news, first up, VeChain (VET) has inked a significant partnership deal with Zeux, a platform that claims to be an all-in-one money manager, to enable the latter’s users to seamlessly spend their cryptos at Apple Pay and Samsung Pay-supported retail stores across the globe. Second up, HTC, a leading mobile phone maker has reportedly said that it’s looking to launch a smartphone with the capacity to run a full Bitcoin node, in Q3 2019. Thirdly, the U.S Senate Banking Committee has asked Facebook to provide more clarity on its billion-dollar cryptocurrency project.
As seen on CoinMarketCap, we’ve got a mixture of greens and reds on the market, with the majority in the reds. The world’s flagship cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC) has decreased by 1.47% . Ether (ETH) still maintains its “second in command” status, with a minor decrease of 2.23%. Ripple’s XRP maintains the number three position, and it’s currently losing by 0.04%. Other considerable movements in the market include Cardano with a major drop of 5.16%. Looks like the drop form Binance Coin late last week has stopped with the token recovering well. Now, if I scroll down to the top 20, you can see here that while there are a few greens it is also once again, a very red market. There aren’t too many major drops, perhaps with the exception of Bitcoin SV falling 6.85%.
Now, onto the news! According to a report by The Daily Hodl, Zeux, a feeless payments solution that aims to provide users with a simpler way to pay, bank and invest, has inked a strategic partnership deal with VeChain (VET), a top blockchain project that’s in charge of the 27th largest cryptocurrency in the world, to enable users of the Zeux app to make cost-efficient payments at all Samsung pay and Apple Pay-supported stores across the globe.
While Zeux is now live in the United Kingdom, the firm has revealed that preparations to launch operations in Europe is in top gear and users in the region will start enjoying the Zeux advantage shortly. Explaining the reason behind its decision to choose VeChain, the Zeux team made it clear that the blockchain project remains one of the very few platforms determined to foster wider blockchain adoption via its highly functional solutions and VeChain’s large European community would enable it (Zeux) to reach more clients in the continent.
“VeChain has been a key player in developing its blockchain to make a difference in enabling enterprises and professional teams to leverage public blockchain. In particular, given the large VeChain community in Europe, the partnership will help us to reach our target European customer base,” declared Zeux. Interestingly, the VeChain Foundation also took to Twitter to express its excitement over the latest partnership with Zeux.“Thanks for the integration and now VET holders can use their VET to pay at all stores using Apple Pay representing approximately 140mm global users in 2018 and Samsung Pay representing 51mm global users in 2018 via #Zeuxapp,” tweeted VeChain.
Notably, the Zeux team has revealed plans to make the Zeux app an all-in-one digital banking solution that would bridge the gap between traditional POS payment systems and the crypto world. Zeux also plans to add investment features as well as a foreign exchange function to the app shortly.
Now, onto the second news item for today! Per a Coindesk report, HTC, a Taiwan-based manufacturer of premium smartphones, which recently unveiled its blockchain-enabled Exodus1 smartphone, has revealed that the new low-cost version of the Exodus1, is capable of running a full Bitcoin node. In other words, users of the smartphone will be able to store the entire data contained in the Bitcoin distributed ledger on their phones, manage their private keys and do other great things!
Commenting on the exciting development, Phil Chen, HTC’s decentralized chief officer, reiterated that the phone, which is called Exodus 1s, will be available by the end of Q3 and it will be a lot cheaper and more accessible than the HTC Exodus 1. Though the firm is yet to release the entire specifications of the phone, as you can see on TechRadar it has hinted that the retail price of the device will be between $250 and $300.
“We think that’s foundational to the whole decentralized internet and just the whole fundamental premise. If you don’t own your keys, you don’t own your bitcoin, you don’t own your crypto,” he declared. With more and more firms such as HTC creating reasonable solutions aimed at promoting crypto adoption, you must agree with me that these are exciting times indeed for the cryptospace and it’s only a matter of time before we hit the moon once again!
Now, onto the third news item for today! According to a report by Bitcoin News, the United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs have reportedly sent a letter to Facebook, requesting for more clarity on its billion-dollar stablecoin project, dubbed Libra. Specifically, the open letter which was addressed to the CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, aims to find out how the firm’s cryptocurrency payment system will work, the efforts made by Facebook to ensure Libra functions in line with regulatory guidelines and more.
Additionally, the letter seeks to find out the details of the consumer financial information Facebook has received from third-party institutions, how it handles the information and prevent it from being used to violate consumers’ rights. “How does Facebook ensure that information bearing on an individual’s (or group of individuals’) creditworthiness, credit standing, credit capacity, character, general reputation, and/or personal characteristics is not used in violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act?” stated the committee. At press time, Zuckerberg is yet to respond to the inquiry and how this scenario impacts Facebook’s crypto ambition remains to be seen.
So what are your thoughts on this situation?
Do you think that the latest partnership with Zeux will boost the price of Vechain (VET)? What are your thoughts about the HTC Exodus1s blockchain smartphone?
And how do you see the latest inquiry sent to Facebook by the U.S. authorities?
Will it hamper the progress of project Libra?
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Disclaimer: Cryptopig content is written by a team of blockchain passionate people. We are not registered as investment advisors. Don’t take the information in this post as investment advice and make sure you do your own research before investing. Cryptocurrencies are a very risky investment, never invest more money than you can afford to lose.