Bitcoin Daily: John McAfee Gives Up On ICOs, Twitch Brings Pokemon To The Blockchain

BitTorrent may be sold to blockchain firm TRON for the price of $140 million, The Next Web reported. According to reports, shareholders have not signed off on a deal and some details are still in the works. BitTorrent has about 170 million total users across its products, which include BitTorrent Now and uTorrent.

And, in Japan, the Financial Service Agency (FSA) is reportedly seeking improvements at licensed crypto exchanges in the country, CoinDesk reported. The agency wants the improvements because of issues it perceived with the internal systems of exchanges, such as anti-money laundering (AML) measures. The move comes as the holdings at larger exchanges are quickly rising.

In other news, users can catch ‘em all – Pokémon, that is – on the blockchain with a new game, The Next Web reported. Through Poketoshi, which was created by João Almeida, users can play the classic Nintendo game. The game works on the Lightning Network and is hosted by Twitch.

And a university in California has received lots of interest in an online professional certificate program that homes in on the blockchain, Computer World reported. More than 7,000 students have signed up for a two-part course at UC Berkeley that covers permissioned blockchains and crypto. That’s a large increase from 2016, when the university saw approximately 70 students sign up for a course focused on bitcoin and crypto.

In other news, John McAfee said he doesn’t plan to promote initial coin offerings (ICOs) anymore, CoinDesk reported. McAfee made the announcement on Twitter, naming “SEC threats” as his rationale. Even so, he is working on an article about “an equivalent alternative to ICOs” that “the SEC cannot touch.”

And Europol is meeting with several crypto exchanges in order to determine measures to tackle money laundering, Financial Times reported. An event at The Hague will include discussions on the “the abuse of virtual currencies for illegal activities” along with measures to “enhance the capabilities of law enforcement,” a Europol spokesperson told FT.