In November 2017, we saw the game CryptoKitties going viral in the blockchain news at the time - introducing the concept of non-fungible tokens in the minds of developers and investors in the crypto community. Still, 2019 seems to be the year when these tokens (known as NFTs) have gained mainstream attention. In the latest updates, we can see that Microsoft's blockchain based cloud platform Azure released its own non-fungible programs named "Azure Heroes" with the main aim of rewarding its developer community.Designed to empower technical practitioners of all backgrounds, Azure Heroes is a program which has a clear objective and aims to create a tool that will inspire the community to learn, coach and build on Azure while promoting healthy and inclusive behaviour.What's interesting as the latest Ethereum news show is that the issuance and transactions of "Badger" collectibles will be carried out on the Ethereum network and would therefore allow winners to hold them as NFTs. The tokens were created in partnership with the platform Enjin - one that caters to the video game industry.In order to earn one of these Badgers as part of the Azure Heroes initiative, developers must be first nominated (either by themselves or the community) and selected by the community based on their performance. Winners of Badgers will then be provided with a QR code that can be used to redeem their Badgers via their Enjin wallet - where it can be transferred to any other NFT-compatible Ethereum address.All of this shows that NFTs can be used in a lot of industries and fields. The diversification of use cases of NFTs is growing especially with the case multi-layer blockchains. NFTs can literally signify ownership of high value or sensitive physical, illiquid assets such as artworks or real estate.Through Azure Heroes, Microsoft has made a lot of pioneering efforts toward blockchain adoption. In May 2019, the company also unveiled its Azure Blockchain Services suite which allows for the formation, management and governance of consortium blockchain networks.

“Azure is locked in a battle to differentiate itself with AWS, Oracle, and Heroku among others. If nothing else, this creates visibility and further engages Azure's existing communities," the director at the CryptoAssets Institute Ethan Pierse recently said.

The owner of the major social media app TikTok, ByteDance, is apparently launching a joint venture with the state owned Chinese media group and ThePaper.cn operator Shanghai Donfang Newspaper in order to develop business models which will include blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI). The reports about the TikTok owner were first issued on Bloomberg.

"A unit of ByteDance has 49% of the new firm, which has registered capital of 10 million yuan ($1.4 million); Shanghai Dongfang Newspaper Co. owns the rest, according to a statement on the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System, an official business registration website," the publication wrote.

As they show, the joint venture was launched in the capital of eastern China - specifically the Shandong province Jinan - on December 10. There was a registered capital of 10 million yuan ($1.43 million) where ByteDance owns 49% and the rest of the venture is owned by the Chinese media group.Meanwhile, TikTok is a giant and a social network with more than 500 million monthly active users. As such, it is the second most downloaded app in the Apple App Store in the United States. The short video feed is completely managed by a purpose-built AI which predicts and delivers content that the user will likely prefer.Even though it is still not clear how the TikTok owner ByteDance could benefit from the blockchain technology, a possible use case shows that the collaboration might extend to digital media data verification. For instance, the US law enforcement Axon Enterprise aims to test blockchain for its body cameras and fight deepfake AI-generated videos.Meanwhile, recent reports in the blockchain news today show that the technology is rapidly maturing and seeing wide adoption in China. As we reported before, earlier this month the Bank of China issued 20 billion yuan ($2.8 billion) in blockchain financial bonds as reports showed. China is also expected to conduct the first real world test of its central bank digital currency in the near future.All in all, TikTok is a major player and since it taps into a technology like blockchain, we can expect many new developments and potential use cases for the tech that is backing cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin in the future. 

The Robinhood users with the help of the stock-trading company recently declared that its customers will in near future have the opportunity to buy fractional shares of a range of equities, so let’s find out more about the latest service by the company in our latest cryptocurrency news.Robinhood achieved to build its reputation in the six years of its operating in several distinguished ways. First, it enabled traders to trade stock while not churching them a fee. Now, it also announced that it will also enable customers to trade with small fractions of shares.In the blog post, it was declared that the company is introducing the Fractional Shares which come as a novelty in the world of investing. The company notes that there are a variety of stocks and ETFs that cost gruesome amounts of money; indeed, it is not rare to see the price per share thousand dollars or more. Fractional Shares, where everyone can invest in as little as $1 in many of the important major companies. Any amount of money can now serve for a first investment and the official start of the new feature is planned for next week.According to Robinhood, the ones who will sign up early will also get early access. In the meantime, investing in fractional shares will be intuitive, real-time and free of any commission just like traditional share trading. By investing smaller amounts the Robinhood users will have even more opportunity for diversifying portfolios, by choosing among several companies to invest. At the same moment, additional features will be introduced by Robinhood that was requested for some time by traders and investors.Beginning in early 2020, the Robinhood platform will be additional backing for Recurring Investments and Dividend Reinvestment Plan (DRIP). This will give the opportunity to investors to automatically reinvest dividends int their ETFs and the stock of their choice. Further traders will have the possibility to schedule recurring investments. Robinhood ends its announcement by stating that the revolutionary commission-free investing, which was the cause of why it drew so much attention at the start, was only the beginning. Fractional shares are the next step in the process to make investing accessible and cheap with the goal to be possible to be done anywhere and by anyone.

Chainalysis and Bitfinex announced their new partnership for the completion of a full AML solution applied to the exchange. The latest analysis is becoming the next frontier of verification as the FATF rules will be unrolled from next summer of 2020.Following the latest crypto news and analysis, Chainalysis and Bitfinex are two institutions that start to scrutinize blockchains themselves and the startup started offering its approach to proving the origin of the funds for multiple coins and tokens. Jason Bonds who is the Chief Revenue Officer at Chainalysis commented:‘’Bitfinex is known as a destination for cryptocurrency traders seeking liquidity across various cryptocurrencies, and that volume requires an automated blockchain analysis solution in order to comply with regulations across the world…We are thrilled to work with Bitfinex as we mutually invest in supporting multiple cryptocurrencies’’Bitfinex is not going without controversy and has faced multiple explorations into their activities. The market operator also had significant problems with the banking services and has gone through periods of non-transparent banking. However, the exchange I staking up a lot of reporting efforts. Chainalysis already tracks some of the biggest blockchains as well as ERC-20 tokens covering 41 top assets and a lot of other tokens. The Chainalysis KYT system allows the monitoring of multiple chains for suspicious activity.Peter Warrack who is the Chief Compliance Officer at Bitfinex, stated his approval of the platform’s latest partnership by saying:

‘’Chainalysis is a top-of-the-line, comprehensive and privacy-safe compliance solution aligned with what we were seeking to keep bad actors off of our platform, while protecting the privacy of our users.’’

The solution does not include information about the users’ ID which is kept strictly in-hour. The company noted they are very excited to work alongside the Chainalysis team and to build a safe and robust platform for the users. The transaction tracking has been done voluntarily but it seems limited. The exchanges have ended up liquidating coins that originated from hacks or other malicious activities and there are a lot of unknown wallets where funds from Ponzi Schemes reside.Bitfinex has left its spot as a top exchange and does not carry a lot of amounts as the activity tanked by 97 percent but the operator remained prominent and is concerned about transparency.