Litecoin’s creator, Charlie Lee, has proposed mining pools voluntarily donate 1% of the network’s block rewards to support the Litecoin Foundation, which in turn can help grow Litecoin’s influence and funds its developers.

Hackers targeting cryptocurrency exchanges were more active last year, carrying out 11 major hacks. These were, however, less successful compared to 2018, where they stole nearly $600 million less.

Cryptocurrency firms are starting to pitch in to help coronavirus victims, with crypto exchange Binance pledging to donate $1.5 million to those affected by the deadly virus. Blockchain marketing firm Krypital has launched an effort to provide those affected with medical supplies.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• Litecoin Creator Proposes Miners Voluntarily Donate 1% to Developers
• Crypto Hackers Were More Active Last Year, but Less Successful
• Cryptocurrency Firms Are Pitching in to Help Coronavirus Victims

At the time of writing, bitcoin (BTC) is trading at $8,595.34 (2.35%) with a daily Top Tier volume of $1.23 billion. As for ether (ETH), it is trading at $165.56 (1.98%) with a daily Top Tier volume of $353.63 million. The MVIS CryptoCompare Digital Assets 10 Index is currently tracking at 3,035.22 (1.51%).

Litecoin Creator Proposes Miners Voluntarily Donate 1% to Developers

The creator of Litecoin, Charlie Lee, has on social media proposed the use of mining pool donations as a method of dunging the cryptocurrency’s developers. On Twitter, Lee said he believes a “better way to fund development is mining pools voluntarily donate a portion of the block reward.”

He added that is Litecoin pools donate 1% of blocks rewards to the Litecoin Foundation, the organization would receive about $1.5 million worth of LTC per year. Lee continued:

“Currently with merged mining of Dogecoin and other Scrypt coins, miners make 105%+ of block rewards. So 1% is a reasonably small amount to give back towards funding a public good.”

Speaking to Cointelegraph Litecoin’s creator confirmed a mere 1% would be enough to fund the Litecoin Foundation, as the amount would equal “about 7x” the organization’s early expenses. He stressed the donations would be voluntary as otherwise it “wouldn’t be right.”

The proposal comes after last week Bitcoin Cash miners proposed a 12.5% miner tax to fund the cryptocurrency’s developers. The proposal, supported by miners representing over 30% of the network’s hashrate, would see the miners orphan blocks of those that “don’t follow the plan” to “ensure participation” and “avoid a tragedy of the commons.”

Crypto Hackers Were More Active Last Year, but Less Successful

Data from blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis has shown that last year cryptocurrency hackers were more active, carrying out 11 major attacks on cryptocurrency trading platforms. These were, however, less successful as the total amount stolen dropped from $875.5 million in 2018 to $282.6 million in 2019.

In 2019, no attack reached the scale of 2018’s biggest heists, which included the $500 million NEM hack from Coincheck. Chainalysis’ methodology was limited to hacks that involved access to crypto exchanges funds, and didn’t include payment processor thefts or exit scams. The report reads:

“With no hacks taking in more than the $105 million stolen from Coinbene, both the average and median amount stolen per hack fell substantially in 2019, after having risen each of the three preceding years.”

The decline was attributed to cryptocurrency exchanges getting better at limiting damage from hackers.

Cryptocurrency Firms Are Pitching in to Help Coronavirus Victims

Various cryptocurrency firms have pledged to help coronavirus victims via charitable donations, after it was revealed cryptocurrency donations were being accepted for the cause. In a tweet, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said the cryptocurrency exchange “pledged 10m RMB ($1.5m USD) to help #coronavirus victims.” He added:

"We didn’t make any announcements. But [Binance Charity Foundation] BCF/Binance team has been busy for the last few days. Still need help to arrange logistics locally."

Blockchain marketing firm Krypital revealed on WeChat it was launching a charity donation effort to acquire medical supplies to support coronavirus victims in Wuhan. It added that it was going to create a blockchain-based donation system for greater transparency and efficiency.

Gilded Launches the Open Finance Platform for Business

Over the past year, crypto accounting startup Gilded has heard time and again just how difficult it is for businesses in the blockchain industry to accept payment in crypto. Even if they want to! Why is it so hard?

The Gilded team went back to the drawing board to create a completely seamless B2B payment solution for businesses. One where you can accept both traditional credit card payments and non-custodial crypto payments in one place.

The Open Finance Platform is built on blockchain to make it uniquely global and accessible like no other financial product.  

For the first time, a business can take advantage of the benefits of cryptocurrency (such as global access, fast settlement, and lower fees) while minimizing the parts that make it nearly impossible to adopt today. 

Gilded offers an end-to-end solution from invoicing through payment, bookkeeping, accounting, and tax reporting. The platform includes integrations with popular services like Coinbase and QuickBooks to make payments even more seamless.

With the Gilded Open Finance Platform you can:

• Give customers both crypto and traditional payment options on every invoice
• Keep track of crypto payments to your international contractors and vendors
• Stay compliant with an end-to-end crypto accounting and tax solution
• Take personal responsibility to drive the #MassAdoption we all seek

To celebrate the Open Finance Platform launch, Gilded is giving away $100 in Bitcoin. Send a Gilded invoice before the end of January 2020 and automatically enter in a drawing to win $100 worth of Bitcoin. It's free to sign up for Gilded and send an invoice. No purchase necessary.

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