The IWF is planning to collaborate with bitcoin exchanges to fight against online child pornography, bitcoin marketplace Brawker to shut down at the end of the month, uTorrent removes "Epic Scale" hidden bitcoin miner, and more top stories for April 15.

IWF Looking to Work with Bitcoin Exchanges to Fight Child Pornography

The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) is seeking to collaborate with Bitcoin companies to fight against the use of digital currencies for online child pornography, reported CoinDesk.

Emma Hardy, director of external relations at the IWF, stated:

"We noted the use of cryptocurrencies in the first quarter of 2014, and specifically the use of bitcoin to pay for child sexual abuse imagery. We know, from our experience, that new services and technologies will always be abused by criminals for their own agendas and we’re really open to working with anyone who seeks to keep their services, networks and exchanges free from criminality."

Bitcoin Emerging as an Everyday Currency

According to BitPay's latest research, bitcoin has significantly shifted from being an investment commodity to becoming an actual currency to pay for goods and services, reported the International Business Times.

Wouter Vonk, BitPay's European marketing manager, told the media outlet:

"The investors are usually the first ones to hop on new technology, but as bitcoin circulates more, and as the amount of transactions increases, we should see bitcoin being used by more and more average consumers."

According to BitPay's data, the total number of bitcoin transactions more than doubled last year, while the average order valued dropped by almost half.

IT Giant Infosys Exploring Blockchain Applications for Banking Software

Indian IT multinational Infosys Ltd., has recently started to work on finding ways to incorporate Bitcoin's blockchain into its core banking software Finacle.

Finacle, which currently serves several banks around the globe, could be a front-runner in its industry in case bitcoin does succeed in reaching mainstream acceptance.

According to Jost Hopperman of Forrester Research:

"As soon as the client base of global banking platform vendors - mainly banks - consider Bitcoin and Blockchain as mainstream, it will be the time when banking platform vendors should incorporate Bitcoin/Blockchain capabilities into their solutions.

Will they be open to embracing Bitcoin and Blockchain? Vendors with more advanced architectures will certainly find it easier to offer this kind of support."

IT Giant Infosys Exploring Blockchain Applications for Banking Software

WoodShares Launches Crowdsale

Woodshares, an environment project developed under a Distributed Collaborative Organization (DCO) model, has launched the crowdsale of its tokens.

The funds will be dedicated to the acquisition of lands and tree seedlings, as well as to start the cultivation of the trees, the organization said in a release.

Divided into three rounds, the crowdsale aims to raise 300 BTC in the first time, 400 BTC in the second time, and finally 2,000 BTC in the last round.

Holders of WS tokens will become direct owners of the WoodShares project, with voting rights, direct access to project heads, and control over the allocation of funds.

Bitcoin Marketplace Brawker Announces Closure

Brawker announced it will shut down its bitcoin marketplace in the end of April, citing unsatisfying growth rate and scaling.

The company issued a blog post on April 14, to notify users and ask them to withdraw their funds before the end of the month. The announcement reads:

"We have tried to keep Brawker running for as long as possible, and put a lot of time and effort into it.

However, our growth rate did not meet our expectations, and the service does not scale as we would have expected to. The Bitcoin community came up with many great startups and the environment is very different from what it was 18 months ago, when we started working on this project."

uTorrent Releases New Version, Removes 'Epic Scale' Miner

BitTorrent Inc., the developer of the original BitTorrent client and uTorrent, released on April 8, uTorrent version 3.4.3, a new update free from the hidden "Epic Scale" bitcoin miner.

The company said in an announcement:

"As mentioned in our blog on March 28, the Epic Scale Partner offer has been permanently suspended. This means that as long as you are downloading uTorrent directly from us, the Epic Scale partner offer will not appear. This new release is in part to make it easy for our users to identify which version of uTorrent to pursue."

South Korea Gets Its First Multisig Bitcoin Wallet

South Korean startup Coinone, has just become the first company in the country to launch a multi-signature wallet via BitGo's API, reported CoinDesk.

CEO Myunghun Cha, said in a statement:

"We decided that multi-sig technology from BitGo was the answer to many security concerns facing exchanges and wallets. With its implementation, we hope to bring in more users from the national and international pool of bitcoin users."

CoverYou Insurance Becomes Europe's First Insurer to Accept Bitcoin

Dutch CoverYou Insurance announced today it will start accepting bitcoin for services, leading the company to become the first insurer in Europe to accept the digital currency as a payment method.

Ewoud Uphof, online business developer at CoverYou Insurance, said in an announcement:

"Paying by using bitcoins stands for innovation and with CoverYou Insurance, we want to present the creation of a new sort of insurer; one who is consumer-driven and innovative."

Russell Brand Teams Up with StartJOIN

Russell Brand, an English comedian and activist, has partnered with crowdfunding platform StartJOIN to raise funds for a revolution.

Co-founded by Max Keiser, the host of the Keiser Report, StartJOIN is a crowdfunding platform dedicated to ideas and projects that leverages on cryptocurrency such as StartCOIN, its very own crypto, and bitcoin.

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