Morning News: Coinbase’s Vendor Tool, Call for Crypto Crackdown

Coinbase’s New Tool For Vendors Munger: “US Needs a China-style Crackdown” IT Investor Aiming to Bring Emercoin into Japanese Market Drone Expert Joins the Japan Blockchain Association

Catch up on the most essential cryptocurrency and blockchain news stories breaking in Asia and the Americas while the rest of the world was asleep.

Coinbase’s New Tool Will Let More Vendors Accept Cryptocurrency Payments
American exchange platform Coinbase will release a tool that allows vendors to accept payments in the Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin cryptocurrencies. The service, named Coinbase Commerce, can be added as a payment option on e-commerce sites, per a Coinbase blog post. Canadian e-retailer Shopify will be among the first companies to integrate the new tool. Coinbase wrote, “We are actively adding more integrations to make accepting cryptocurrency as easy as possible.”

Munger: “US Needs a China-style Crackdown”
Berkshire Hathaway, an American multinational conglomerate holding company, vice chairman and Warren Buffett right hand man Charlie Munger has said the United States government should embark on a China-style crypto crackdown. Munger explained, “[The American] government’s more lax approach to [cryptocurrencies] is wrong. The right answer to something like that is to step on it hard.” Munger also called cryptocurrency “totally asinine” and referred to Bitcoin as a “noxious poison.”

IT Investor Aiming to Bring Emercoin into Japanese Market
Japanese venture capital investor IT-Farm Corporation has made an investment of an undisclosed size in the Emercoin cryptocurrrency, only a month after similar announcements from Bitfury and Canadian cryptocurrency investment company First Block Capital. IT-Farm has a long history of supporting overseas startups that are looking to move into the Japanese market. IT-Farm president Morio Kurosaki stated, “We are looking forward to working with the Emercoin team very much, and will look to expand Emercoin’s activities in Japan.” Emercoin last month also added the likes of Alex Petrov, Bitfury’s Chief Security Officer, and Keynote’s CEO Moe Levin to its advisory board. Per IT-Farm, Kurosaki will also be appointed to the board in an advisory capacity.

Drone Expert Joins the Japan Blockchain Association
Japanese drone and aerospace startup SkyWings says it is moving into the world of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies. The company, which consults the Japanese government on drone application, has become a member of the Japan Blockchain Association. The association was first formed in 2014, and its members and partners include Japanese MPs, various gaming companies, Microsoft Japan, energy giant TEPCO and exchange platforms Coincheck and BitFlyer.