Just days after Coinbase announced the removal of support for Zcash for UK customers, reports suggest the cryptocurrency exchange is parting ways with banking mainstay Barclays .

Sources familiar with the matter told CoinDesk that Barclays is no longer working with Coinbase. It’s unclear if the sources are representatives from either of the companies mentioned, or are independent.

The news has caused undue disruption, and Coinbase users have reportedly been indirectly affected. Coinbase‘s relationship with Barclays gave its UK customers access to the Faster Payments Scheme which allowed users to directly deposit and withdraw sterling into their exchange accounts.

Coinbase has found a replacement UK banking partner in ClearBank. But even so, the break down of the exchange‘s relationship with Barclays has already reportedly slowed UK deposits and withdrawals, which now “take days to process.”

ClearBank is an upstart challenger bank based in the UK. It makes sense that such a bank would be interested in working with the likes of Coinbase, especially given the challenge cryptocurrency is often touted to pose against conventional banking . Big banks often stand by the mantra, “ blockchain not Bitcoin .”

The reasons for the separation of Barclays and Coinbase are not eminently clear. ClearBank, Coinbase, and Barclays all declined to comment on the matter.

However, one unnamed source told CoinDesk that the Barclays-Coinbase relationship was simply a “pilot program” that had run its course. The source further added that Barclays has probably held Coinbase back, preventing it from listing certain coins and tokens.

Does that mean ClearBank will be a clear run for a swathe of new coins on Coinbase? Probably not. Earlier this week, Coinbase announced that it would remove support for Zcash by August 26.

In a message to Hard Fork, a spokesperson from the Zcash Foundation said it had no more knowledge on why Coinbase has made the decision beyond what was discussed publicly.

Coinbase first secured a bank account with Barclays in early 2018, by August it began rolling out support to let UK customers buy and sell cryptocurrency in Pounds sterling .

PwC has a new cryptocurrency auditing tool… and actually, it sounds alright

One of the Big Four financial auditing and business services firms, PwC, wants to lend a hand to cryptocurrency businesses and help them keep track of their blockchain transactions.

In an announcement released yesterday , PwC says the addition will be made to its suite of auditing tools called Halo . The auditing firm believes it is now well-positioned to provide audit and assurance services to clients that hold and transact in cryptocurrency.

At the moment, the system only works with Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Gold, Bitcoin Diamond, Litecoin, Ethereum, Ripple, and the ERC20 token OAX. There’s no mention of more coins being added in the future.

While PwC hasn’t stated what kind of clients will make use of the system either, it’s clear it will be useful to cryptocurrency exchanges, and traders alike.

Given the swathe of hacks and collapsed cryptocurrency exchanges in recent years, it certainly sounds like a system that would have benefited a number of businesses. ( QuadrigaCX, anyone ?)

According to the announcement, the new tool can “provide independent, substantive evidence of the ‘private key and public address pairing.’” PwC says it will also, “securely interrogate the blockchain to independently and reliably gather corroborating information about blockchain transactions and balances.”

If you ask me, that just sounds like fancy auditor speak for a system that tracks cryptocurrency payments, ownership, and accounts, and puts it all in one place.

“It is important as companies continue to digitize we, as auditors, keep up with technology changes in the market, continue to develop audit tools that meet the needs of emerging technologies,” said  PwC’s global assurance leader, James Chalmers.

By its nature, cryptocurrency is easy to lose track of, especially if you misplace your seed phrase, make lots of transactions, and use a variety of different platforms.

For large legitimate corporate entities transacting in digital assets, PwC’s new tool will likely be of interest. And if it helps prevent the random loss of user funds, then it sounds like a benefit for consumers too.

It’s usually one of the Big Four auditing firms that gets called in when cryptocurrency businesses go insolvent anyway, so in someways, this tool sounds like it might save them from future work.

Of course though, with auditing and assurance comes the loss of pseudonymity, so there might be some trade off.

But considering the above, I think the tool sounds like a good thing.

The blockchain industry is sexist and still sucks at diversity

Diversity is a term that’s thrown about often, and sometimes rather vacuously, but the fact of the matter is that the blockchain technology and cryptocurrency industries need more of it.

According to Statista , female employees make up between 26 percent (Microsoft) and 43 percent (Netflix) of the workforce at major technology firms – unsurprisingly the numbers drop further when it comes to jobs where technology is a core function.

She spoke about how a cryptocurrency company called DateCoin attempted to entice prospective investors in its initial coin offering by posting a Facebook ad featuring a swimsuit-clad woman with the caption “Touch my ICO” featured across her body. Unfortunately, this isn’t an isolated event.

A brief trawl through Twitter shows that cryptocurrency exchange YoBit has taken the same tasteless approach.

Given the current zeitgeist, this isn’t just stupid, it’s offensive, short-sighted, tone deaf, and quite frankly, totally unnecessary.

If ‘blockchain bros’ want the industry to be taken seriously, they need to factor in how it’s perceived both internally and externally. Objectifying women only serves to alienate them and reflects negatively on the sector as a whole.

Things are changing, albeit slowly. Stark announced a scholarship scheme for female blockchain developers last year. Many industry organizations such as Diversity in Blockchain and Global Women in Blockchain are seeking to challenge the status quo and empower women in the industry. Although I’m certain their input is valuable, these organizations need to act in conjunction with industry participants if they are to make a sizeable impact.

Work to be done

If the blockchain industry was more diverse, there would probably be less sexism.

Essentially, diversity is a sign of maturity and strength. If things don’t change – and fast – we’ll only entrench technology’s existing gender gap further, but this time under much more dangerous circumstances: lack of regulation and pseudo-anonymity.

In a decentralized environment such as blockchain, which is largely driven by trust, diversity and the need to eradicate sexism shouldn’t be a luxury or an afterthought, it’s a necessity. The lack of a central authority means it’s up to individuals to behave responsibly.

This isn’t just about fairness. If blockchain technology can, despite the hype , transform the world we live in, we’re doing it a great disservice. The lack of diversity among creators and the industry’s deeply entrenched sexism will only pave the way for more biased products.

There are still many obstacles to overcome if the blockchain and cryptocurrency industries are ever to hit the mainstream, but it’s up to us to make sure the lack of diversity and ‘tech bro’ culture don’t get in their way.