Messengers and social

The news was announced Tuesday by enterprise analytics and mobility software provider MicroStrategy, saying that it sold the domain name voice.com in a transaction facilitated by Internet domain registrar GoDaddy and that it has subsequently been used by Block.one.

A leading U.S. House lawmaker on Tuesday called on Facebook Inc to halt development on its new cryptocurrency and for company executives to testify before Congress, adding to global concerns about what the digital currency could mean for data privacy and security.

Facebook has been quietly building out its cryptocurrency for over a year, and it looks like that time has been well spent, enlisting the support of some of the most prominent companies across payments, retail, and technology.

Ripple (XRP) and most other cryptocurrencies should be looking over their shoulders now that Facebook has announced it is launching GlobalCoin (or Libra), according to Bitcoin expert Max Keiser.

Block.one, the startup that claims to have raised a record $4.2 billion in an Initial Coin Offering last year, launched a new social-media application Saturday.

Facebook’s payment-focused cryptocurrency Globalcoin will face demographic challenges, according to recent research by cryptocurrency analysis firm Diar published on May 28.

Telegram is planning to launch its Telegram Open Network (TON) in Q3, according to an internal note sent to the company’s investors.

Venture capitalist Tim Draper is planning to meet with Facebook Inc. to discuss investing in the social network’s cryptocurrency project.

Telegram is a hugely popular messaging app with over 200 million monthly users, available across a large range of platforms and countries.

Ripple (XRP), the third largest cryptocurrency by market cap is gaining a lot of attraction recently, with massive adoption currently going on for the crypto. For Google Mail (Gmail) users, it is now easy to send a tip to people all over the world using XRP.

BitTorrent, a leader in peer-to-peer technology, today began offering early access to its new BitTorrent Live streaming service, which lets consumers create live content and connect on mobile devices to people who share common interests.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently made a bombshell post outlining a “privacy-focused vision for social networking” that suggested a move to embrace end-to-end encryption of users’ data on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. There have also been rumours about Facebook starting its own coin, which in many ways would make sense for advertisers - lower payment processing fees and new value created through the token could, potentially, lower the cost of ads.

Wuabit is a cryptocurrency wallet accessible via a chat interface in WhatsApp. The developers describe it as 'software agent' powered by specialised AI. Users simply type in commands like 'send 0.05BTC to Vera' and Wuabit will send the cash. By using a service as popular as WhatsApp, Wuabit hope to propel crypto payments further into the mainstream.

Telegram is great…when it works. Unfortunately, the crypto world’s favorite messaging app is prone to periodically going down due to technical failures and what seems like repeated attempts by the Russian security services to meddle. Over-reliance on Telegram is a classic case of over-centralization. For cryptocurrency projects seeking a fallback alternative, the following options are worth a look.