Bitcoin Daily: Zap’s Lightning Wallet Targets ‘Normies’; Not Guilty Plea For Ethereum Dev Griffith; Ex-Coinbase COO Now At Figure

Zap CEO Jack Mallers told Coindesk on Thursday (Jan. 30) his latest lightning wallet upgrade is a U.S. dollar clearing system that tackles numerous issues that the current cryptocurrency payment options have. Mallers said this dollar-denominated front end is situated to attract “normies” into the crypto space for the first time.

Mallers said Zap’s new framework to like swiping a credit card, but using “Zap’s web of lightning nodes to settle charges.” Users at no time interface with the digital asset.

Ethereum developer Virgil Griffith entered a plea of not guilty on Thursday (Jan. 30) to violating North Korea sanctions, Coindesk reported. He was arrested in November and charged with conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act after traveling to North Korea in April 2019 to attend a cryptocurrency conference.

A complaint by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said Griffith had explained how crypto could be used for money laundering. He also might have attempted to advance a negotiation between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and South Korea.

Griffth, who has said he was a “disruptive technologist” who wanted to improve the internet, could face up to 20 years in prison. He is out on bail after being convicted earlier this month by a grand jury.

The former president and chief operations officer of Coinbase, Asiff Hirji, has moved on after two years and will serve as president for the blockchain loan processor Figure, Cointelegraph reported on Thursday (Jan. 30).

At Figure, he is tasked with developing the firm’s new merchant bank, which will tap the Provenance blockchain platform to process institutional financial services. He will also be in charge of the company’s main business units.

Provenance simplifies financial transactions by taking paper documents — which mandates experienced custodians — out of the picture. Paper trails are also harder to access and modify.