Oscar Meyer is facing a potential problem with a bacon-backed cryptocurrency dubbed “Bacoin” that it promoted: Someone else might have come up with the idea first, Motherboard reported. Kirk Steele claims that he came up with the idea for a digital currency that is backed by bacon in 2014: He just couldn’t find a local meat company to help him with the project.
As a result, Steele wants Oscar Meyer to stop the promotion. He reportedly sent a cease-and-desist letter to the company administrating the promotion. But Motherboard reported in an update that Kraft Heinz (which owns Oscar Meyer) said they would make a donation to a science center and supply Steele with some free bacon.
In other news, JPMorgan Chase has applied for a patent to use the blockchain for financial transactions, CoinDesk reported. The bank is seeking to use distributed ledgers to keep track of payments that are sent between banks using a peer-to-peer (P2P) network.
The technology would provide a “unique system for recording transactions and storing data.” And the bank said that the blockchain can allow for less expensive real-time settlement.
And SBI Group, a Japanese firm, said that it is planning to officially launch a cryptocurrency exchange later this year, Cryptovest reported. CEO Yoshitaka Kitao said his company rolled out the service to some customers in January.
The exchange’s official rollout has been delayed multiple times. Kitao said he wants to “build a system that can bear” and “pursue safety thoroughly.”
And Reddit just might accept crypto again, Fortune reported. CTO Chris Slowe said the site stopped taking bitcoin after Coinbase migrated to a new platform. But the site may now be able to accept bitcoin once more.
“We just didn’t have time to upgrade our current API integration, and once the redesign … is landing … I think we’ll see crypto payments come back,” Slowe said.
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