New information is coming to light about the relationship between Russian state-owned development bank Vnesheconombank (VEB) and ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin.

First reported as a partnership that would find the state-owned bank collaborating directly with the Ethereum Foundation, the non-profit for which Buterin serves as council, the VEB has confirmed it will be retracting public statements to that effect.

According to Buterin and the VEB, a deal has actually been struck with a new entity, Ethereum Russia, which is being created for the partnership. Buterin, in statements to CoinDesk, called the press release, issued yesterday, a "misunderstanding."

The new entity is founded by Buterin and Vladislav Martynov, CEO of Yota Devices, a Russia-based mobile communications and connectivity devices company.

Maryynov told CoinDesk:

"We signed, not a partnership, a kind of collaboration agreement ... where we, and when I say we, it's Ethereum Russia, the company which is founded by Vitalik and myself, we provide, we provide specific support, we took a commitment to provide specific support to the bank."

According to Martynov, Ethereum Russia will provide education, events and architecture review for VEB, while also providing support to the development of the new center for blockchain research at the National University of Science and Technology (MISIS). The new center is being funded by the bank and geared towards providing solutions to government services.

Martynov clarified that the difference between Ethereum Russia and Ethereum Foundation is that while the Foundation must be left "pure" and free from conflicts of interest, other variations can collaborate with government and corporate bodies.

Vitalik Buterin image via YouTube

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The creator of the first ever commercial fuel pump to accept bitcoin has revealed a plan to add Lightning Network functionality to his design.

The original machine, designed and built by Andy Schroder in 2014, allows users to scan a QR code and send bitcoin instead of more traditional means of payment. Schroder now wants to adapt his design to incorporate the Lightning's off-chain payments, he announced on the Lightning-dev mailing list yesterday.

However, Schroder pointed out some issues he has with Lightning – which he hopes will provide "real-time micropayments" – including that its invoice protocol BOLT 11 does not appear to accommodate refunds. Refunds are a necessity for the bitcoin fuel dispenser, because it runs on a fixed prepayment, and immediately returns any unused credit at the end of sale, he said.

Schroder is currently using bitcoin improvement protocol (BIP) 70, a user-friendly payment protocol that creates a receipt for the customer, as well as automatically providing a refund address to the seller.

He stated in the mailing list:

"I don't really see an option for a refund address like is present in BIP 70. Is this intentional? If so, why do you not see that people would possibly want to receive a refund?"

He also speculated about a possible fix for this problem that would involve fitting cars with an onboard digital wallet, though he conceded this is not a short-term solution.

Fuel pump image via Andy Schroder

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BitcoinIRA, a company that allows users to create retirement funds based on cryptocurrencies, is adding new options to its portfolio.

Starting with Ripple's XRP token from today, the firm also plans to add further cryptocurrencies in coming weeks, including litecoin, ethereum classic and bitcoin cash.

BitcoinIRA already supports retirement accounts in both bitcoin and ethereum.

The company, which is fully Internal Revenue Service (IRS) compliant, supervises the transfer of fiat retirements funds into cryptocurrency and provides "cold" offline storage for the investments.

In a statement, BitcoinIRA spoke positively about XRP, calling it "the best digital asset for payments" and stating that it is "one of the largest digital assets by market capitalization."

Chris Kline, COO of BitcoinIRA said that customer demand for the currency has been "immense."

Disclaimer: CoinDesk is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which has an ownership stake in Ripple.

Piggy bank image via Shutterstock

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A new "game of skill" centered around bitcoin's price changes is going live.

Launched by Chicago-based Level Trading Field, Bitcoin Market Predictor now allows users to place bets on the future price movements of bitcoin, adding to a growing list of mechanisms U.S. investors can use to speculate on bitcoin's price – whether it's going up or down.

While most of the mechanisms to short bitcoin, at least in the US, are aimed at institutional investors, Bitcoin Market Predictor is notably targeted towards retail investors. Each game costs only $50 to play.

In an exclusive interview, Lanre Sarumi, CEO of Level Trading Field, whose corporate clients include users at Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, and Barclays, explained why he believes the game is so important to U.S. retail investors.

Sarumi told CoinDesk:

"If you believe the price is going to go down, how do you make that bet? Right now, there are really no tools available to let you."

And there's truth to Sarumi's statements. While several global exchange's allow users to short bitcoin, only Coinbase's GDAX exchange offers such functionality to US residents, though the shorting feature is currently disabled, pending GDAX's review of unusual price movements in ethereum in June.

So, how does it work? The game is structured so that groups of 10 are segmented into a game, with users placing bets about the price of bitcoin at the top of the hour. The top three most accurate predictions share the pot, which for each game (after Level Trading Field's 10 percent fee) leaves $450 to split.

The closest guess gets 50 percent of the pot ($225), the runner-up gets 30 percent ($135), and the second runner-up receives 20 percent ($90).

While gambling on games and chance is prohibited under Illinois law, Samuri said his company's prediction game, which is similar in some ways to fantasy sports betting, is permitted because it is a game of skill.

Level Trading Field uses price data provided by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) as the reference data for the game. CME data combines four different bitcoin exchanges - Bitstamp, Coinbase's GDAX, itBit and Kraken - in order to normalize price data.

In order to further minimize the effects of price volatility, Level Trading Field applies additional logic to the final price used to benchmark the winning bid. The company will store all of the tick data for the final minute of each game, and then averages it to determine the winning bid.

Bitcoin over chart image via Shutterstock

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Bitcoin's price has risen above $4,700 for the second time in as many days to hit a new all-time high.

Prices climbed as high as $4,747.15, according to the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index (BPI), after opening at roughly $4,630. The gains come a day after bitcoin's price increased to $4,703, surpassing the previous market high set on August 18.

At press time, the price of bitcoin is at a global average of $4,733.74, representing a gain of about 2.2 percent, BPI data shows.

Market data shows that all of the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization are also seeing prices increases today. Ether, the cryptocurrency of the ethereum network, is currently trading at around $381 – a price that is still below the all-time high reported in June but higher than the gains reported earlier this week.

Combined, those price gains have pushed the overall market capitalization above $170 billion for the first time, according to data provider CoinMarketCap.

Hot air balloon image via Shutterstock

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Computer technology multinational Oracle has officially joined the Hyperledger project, the Linux Foundation-led blockchain development initiative.

In joining the effort, Oracle – which outlined its participation in a blog post – plans to use the Hyperledger Fabric blockchain code as the basis for a new cloud-based service.

Amit Zavery, Oracle's SVP for cloud platforms and middleware, said in a statement:

"As we develop our blockchain cloud platform for enterprise use, we believe scalable cross-industry technologies, confidential transactions, and modular architecture promoted through initiatives like the Hyperledger Project, are critical components."

Hyperledger's newest members – the Patientory Foundation and BTS have also just joined – come amid election season for the project. Hyperledger stakeholders have just selected the newest members of its technical steering committee, with voting for the committee's new chairman beginning today.

That Oracle would look to grow its involvement in the blockchain space is perhaps unsurprising, given the interest the company has expressed toward the tech in the past. As previously reported by CoinDesk, Oracle has filed patent applications focused on the areas of governance and employee work flows.

Server room image via Shutterstock

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