Friday November 9 2018, Daily News Digest

United States

Coinbase Launches Full Trading of Basic Attention Token (CoinTelegraph), Rated: AAA

American cryptocurrency exchange and wallet provider Coinbase has announced the rollout of full trading of the Basic Attention Token (BAT) at Coinbase.com and in the Coinbase Android and iOSapps, per a blog post published Nov. 8.

Square’s Bitcoin Revenue Increases by $ 6 Million in Q3, Profits Top $ 500,000 (CoinTelegraph), Rated: AAA

U.S. financial services company Square revealed it generated $43 million in Bitcoin (BTC) revenue for Q3 2018 in its most recent shareholder letter Nov. 8.

Presenting a digest of its total earnings and financial activities, Square, which introduced Bitcoin support in its Square Cash payment app earlier this year, saw cryptocurrency revenue grow by a total of $6 million compared to Q2.

“Total net revenue was $882 million in the third quarter of 2018, up 51% year over year. This includes $43 million of bitcoin revenue,” the letter confirms, stating:

Recovery in Doubt as Bitcoin Price Drops Out of Bullish Channel (CoinDesk), Rated: AAA

Bitcoin is painting a less bullish picture than 24 hours ago, following a drop out of an ascending price channel.

As a result, BTC was expected to remain well bid above $6,500 and looked likely to rise to $6,800 in the near-term.

Instead, it fell back to $6,450 on Coinbase earlier today, invalidating the bullish higher lows and higher highs pattern, as seen in the chart below.

The problem bitcoin solves (The Spectator), Rated: AAA

Paul Krugman, blogger, fiat-currency enthusiast and winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics earlier this year justified his scepticism about cryptocurrencies in the New York Times. He asked readers to give him a clear answer to the question: what is the problem cryptocurrency solves? He wrote: ‘Governments have occasionally abused the privilege of creating fiat money, but for the most part governments and central banks exercise restraint.’ He added that, unlike bitcoin, ‘fiat currencies have underlying value because men with guns say they do. And this means that their value isn’t a bubble that can collapse if people lose faith.’

Bitcoin on track for worst session in 10 days (MarketWatch), Rated: A

Bitcoin, BTCUSD, -1.24%  the most famous digital currency, was changing hands at $6,442.99, down 1.2% since Wednesday at 5 p.m. Eastern Time on the Kraken exchange. As it stands, bitcoin is on track for its worst session since Oct. 29.

Initiative Q Won’t Solve Bitcoin’s Problem (Forbes), Rated: A

Initiative Q won’t solve Bitcoin’s problem of mass adoption because it isn’t a digital currency. It’s just a pipe dream going the OneCoin way.

Civic CEO Bets That Bitcoin (BTC) Won’t Hit $ 28,000 By 2020 (Ethereum World News), Rated: A

World Crypto Con, which calls itself the “first experiential conference for the cryptocurrency and blockchain space,” saw some of this industry’s foremost commentators, insiders, investors, long-time Bitcoin bulls and consumers attend its multi-day event in Las Vegas,

Moas, who hasn’t shirked away from consulting with his crypto crystal ball in the past, stated:

“$50,000 is for 2020. $100,000 would be in the next halving, which may be in 2023 or 2024… And $28,000 is my target for the end of next year (2019).”

Ripple Listing on Nasdaq in 2019 is Aimed to Destabilize Coinbase (ZyCrypto), Rated: AAA

Mother luck finally smiled at the Fintech company when it started partnership negotiation with the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation exchange NASDAQ.

Ripple’s ambition is to make the cross-border transfers a better experience by providing decentralized financial tools and having a strong partnership. This partnership would strengthen them to overtake other strong competitors like Coinbase.

Ripple Labs Bumps Up XRP Security Suit to Federal Court (The Recorder), Rated: A

Attorneys repping crypto outfit Ripple Labs have removed a consolidated superior court class action over the company’s failure to register its XRP offering as a security to federal court.

Side Marketing: Blockchain Companies And Enterprises Are Using One Business To Grow Two (Forbes), Rated: AAA

Today, side marketing is being used in the blockchain industry, from traditional enterprises, cryptocurrencies to blockchain companies who are looking to expand their service offerings. Here’s a fresh look at some creative ways that businesses are expanding.

Nationwide introduced a new pilot program called Riskblock, which speeds up insurance assessments via QR codes, smartphones and blockchain technology.

Recently, HUMAN Protocol launched a blockchain challenger to Google’s reCAPTCHA, called hCaptcha. This works the same way as Google’s reCAPTCHA—but instead rewards website owners in human tokens for verifying data. The hCaptcha decentralized app (DApp) helps HUMAN Protocol increase their token usage and adoption, growing two businesses at the same time.

Gnosis, a protocol built on ethereum has several projects, geared to boost the awareness and engagement amongst Gnosis users. As an example, the Gnosis Safe project aims to provide safe and easy cryptocurrency trading and the company has recently expanded, by offering a variety of prediction market services through the Gnosis Olympia platform.

Amazon Partners On New Ethereum Marketplace For Enterprises (Forbes), Rated: A

Kaleido, a startup that aims to help enterprises implement blockchain technology, has launched a new platform in collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS). Kaleido Marketplace will provide tools and protocols for all the components of new blockchain projects, “from the app all the way to the chain,” founder and CEO Steve Cerveny told Forbes.

Overstock CEO Bullish On Cryptocurrencies, Expects Them to Become the Dominant Method of Exchange (Crypto-News), Rated: A

Speaking to Brockwell Mr. Patrick Byrne, the CEO of Overstock, said that he expects crypto to become the dominant means of exchange when centralized financial systems collapse. Given below is what he had to say:

“People turn to it where they collapse, like Venezuela or Cyprus or Syria, something like that. When people start getting into it is when their own financial systems collapse. So yes, given that I think the entire modern financial system is a big Keynesian, magic money tree Ponzi scheme, I do expect that the day will come when people turn to crypto.”

Tron Hits 12 Million Smart Contract Triggers (ZyCrypto), Rated: A

Tron CEO, Justin Sun announced in a tweet that just after two weeks of launching smart contract, it has reached 12 million. The foundation is not stopping at that but determined to hit a target of 50 million by the end of 2018.

Bloomberg Predicts Year-End Crypto Bull Run (The Daily HODL), Rated: A

Bloomberg is seeing positive signs for a year-end Bitcoin and crypto bull run.

“A technical indicator for an index tracking some of the largest digital currencies suggests the crypto industry could be poised to break out of its recent malaise and rally at year end.

The MACD, or moving average convergence divergence, gauge for the Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index entered its first positive divergence in a month. The move corresponds with an upward trend in Bitcoin, which makes up around 30 percent of the fund.”

In EtherDelta Case, SEC Hints Most Ethereum Based Tokens are Securities (NewsBTC), Rated: A

In a press release today, the SEC announced that the charges against Coburn are the result of EtherDelta’s ERC20 token offerings, many of which were issued through initial coin offerings (ICOs) and qualify as securities.

Lendindex to Add Centre’s USDC Digital Currency to its Lending Platform (PRWeb), Rated: A

Lendindex, the world’s first open-web business scoring and blockchain-powered digital lending solution, announced today that it has added Centre’s USDC digital currency to the Lendindex SME loan portfolio. USDC, a U.S. dollar-backed, ERC-20 compliant digital asset, will be available for lending on the Lendindex blockchain marketplace on anticipated launch date of January 30, 2019.

Digital Tokens: Rethinking the Term “Cryptocurrency” (The National Law Review), Rated: A

What are the similarities between a one dollar bill, a share of a company, and a prepaid gift card? The answer is … not so much! The same is true of the similarities between virtual currencies, security tokens, and utility tokens; in truth, not so much. Yet, if you follow the world of digital tokens in the media and popular press, you would think that virtual currencies, security tokens, and utility tokens are all very similar because they are often concurrently and interchangeably discussed under the topic of “cryptocurrency.”

Remco Launches Pre-ICO Token Sale – Parent Company Processed $ 700,000,000 in the Last 24 Months (Bitcoin.com), Rated: A

Remittancetoken.io is a tokenized money transfer platform with unparalleled speed.

The off chain version of Remco token is on a run rate of $20,000,000 by the end of 2018, and the solution is Jurisdiction and Money Transmission Flow Agnostic. Any money transmitter can use it.

After a stressful election, experts warn blockchain is not the answer (NBC News), Rated: AAA

Experts this week warned against entertaining the idea that blockchain could fix the voting system despite growing frustration with the long lines and malfunctioning machines that caused problems during the midterm election.

“If you’re trying to convince Walmart it needs blockchains to track avocados or whatever, be our guest,” Arvind Narayanan, an associate professor of computer science at Princeton, tweeted. “But if you’re messing with critical infrastructure, you’ve crossed a line.”

The state has used the technology in their primary elections, and almost 140 West Virginians voted in the midterms with the Voatz app.

Unlocking a $ 200 Billion Dollar Collectibles Market on the Blockchain (Forbes), Rated: A

Verified Collection, a tech startup based in Los Angeles, CA is building a connected world where consumers have True Digital Ownership of the physical and digital goods they collect. In my last article, I wrote about why games were poised to change blockchain forever but today, we are looking at a startup focused on unlocking a $200 billion dollar collectibles market using elements of blockchain technology without the barriers found in blockchain companies today.

COBINHOOD Announces Four New Stablecoin Additions: GUSD, DAI, PAX and TUSD (PR Newswire), Rated: B

COBINHOOD, the next-generation cryptocurrency service platform and zero-trading-fee exchange, is announcing the addition of four stablescoins available beginning tomorrow on its exchange: the Gemini Dollar (GUSD), MakerDao (DAI), Paxos Standard Token (PAX) and TrueUSD (TUSD). Each of these stablecoins have a unique set of features that achieve same end result: increased market stability.

BlockRe Announces Risk Assessment Tool (BusinessWire), Rated: B

BlockRe is pleased to announce the first comprehensive underwritingand risk assessment tool designed to aid in the issuing of insurance policies in the cryptoasset and blockchain space. This solution is one of the only comprehensive third-party risk assessment tools for cryptoassets and blockchain systems currently available in the world today. Created in July, 2018, the tool has been continuously refined to cover nearly 500 points across 18 categories to meet the needs of AM Best A and A+ carriers globally.

Texas Takes Action Against Crypto Company Promising 200% Profit (Bitcoin.com), Rated: B

The Texas State Securities Board on Tuesday issued an emergency cease and desist order to Sydney-based Aws Mining Pty. Ltd. and nine other respondents affiliated with the company. The entities named are Automated Web Services Mining (Aws Mining), Mycoindeal, Aws Elite, and West Texas Oilfield Cloud Miners Club.

International

Bitcoin trapped in tighter range than Mexican peso, Brazilian real and other popular currencies (MarketWatch), Rated: AAA

In the first two months of 2018, bitcoin traded from above $17,000 to below $6,000, making it one of the hottest assets for volatility seeking money-makers. However, the last two months have seen a marked change for the world’s largest digital currency, which has been trading in a range most pundits would deem razor thin.

Since Sept. 7, the price of a single bitcoin BTCUSD, -0.99%  has oscillated on either side of $6,500, not venturing outside the $6,000 to $7,000 range, limiting its top-to-bottom range to less than 8%.

October’s Official Site Traffic List: Steemit is Leading (U Today), Rated: AAA

Steemit is last month’s leader with over 5.6 million monthly visitors to the site.

Behind Steemit is Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange platform, with around 4 million monthly visitors, despite their recent fallout with the New York Attorney General office (during which other platforms were also implicated).

In third place, with the figure approaching a million monthly visitors, is LBRY, a platform which is rather different from the previous two in that it is a virtual space where artists and authors can publish their work without any involvement from advertisers or intermediaries. In some ways, it is quite similar to Amazon Publishing, but, naturally, unlike Amazon, LBRY makes use of the Blockchain technology.

New Ranking Puts Binance At The Top Spot Among Crypto Exchanges, Huobi And OKex Fall Behind (Ethereum World News), Rated: A

The report by Blockchain Transparency Institute puts Binance at the top spot.

To clinch the number one position, Binance had to perform well in various criteria used in the ranking. The exchange leads in the number users. It serves about 160,000 users on a daily basis. Binance handles daily transaction volumes of over $1 billion. The crypto exchange also leads in terms of mobile users and volume-to-visitor ratio.

In the ranking, OKEx comes second with 105,609 active users and a daily trading volume totaling around $694 million. Other crypto exchanges among the top 10 include Huobi, BitStamp, Upbit, Bitfinex, Kraken, HitBTC, and Coinbase.

Ripple Rips Old School Payments Industry As XRP Hits $ 300 Million Crypto Lending Platform (The Daily HODL), Rated: A

Meanwhile, the crypto-backed lending company Cred says it’s now offering USD loans, collateralized by XRP.

High-profile investor Michael Arrington, the founder of crypto investment company Arrington XRP Capital, says he’s a user and fan of Cred. He calls the addition of XRP an important step in the evolution of the digital asset.

Star Trek’s Shatner Defends Ethereum, Talks ERC Standards (NewsBTC), Rated: A

Following up on this tweet, which was partially made in jest, Shatner sent Vitalik Buterin, creator of Ethereum, a thumbs-up — a message of approval that came straight out of left field, so to speak. While Buterin didn’t respond (maybe because he’s too young to know who Shatner is), the actor’s message saw an abounding number of responses from crypto proponents and critics alike.

Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance, quickly expressed his excitement, retweeting the Star Trek actor’s pro-Ethereum message with an accompanying statement regarding adoption.

Dogecoin Creator On The “Re-Centralization” Of Cryptocurrency (Crypto Disrupt), Rated: A

In a submission to the Diar publication, Dogecoin creator Jackson Palmer has outlined some of the concerning trends that are taking place in the DLT industry, most notably that people are completely forgetting that the DLT industry was designed to replace the current infrastructure, not integrate into it.

Palmer notes the three fundamental tenets of DLT as being trustless, verifiable, and censorship-resistant. But with the ‘advances’ in the cryptocurrency industry, these three tenets are being rendered obsolete.

This new would-be currency isn’t crypto — but is it for real? (Vox), Rated: A

More than 2 million people in 180 countries have reportedly signed up for Initiative Q, an invite-only payment network that aims to set the stage for a new digital currency. If you know someone who belongs to the network, you likely got an email asking you to sign up and invite others.

As curiosity about Initiative Q grows, those behind it are using social media and an online FAQ to address questions and conspiracy theories about the payment network. At present, Initiative Q is exactly what its name suggests, more of an idea than anything concrete, because the currency doesn’t exist in any official capacity. Those who’ve registered for the initiative, however, are counting on Q becoming a real, and profitable, entity.

Three challenges facing blockchain technology (TechCrunch), Rated: A

Finding good enterprise-level blockchain software developers

Because blockchain is a new field of technology, there are fewer talented enterprise-level software developers who understand it well.

Avoiding the temptation of regulation

Political engagement will increase awareness and interest for utilizing blockchain technology and help drive adoption of these new ideas. Unfortunately, it also brings the temptation of regulation to an emerging market.

Reaching critical mass

Colu is a digital wallet that uses blockchain technology to create local currencies. People simply download the app, add money and shop locally. The app highlights local establishments and makes shopping convenient. And it is dazzling people in Tel Aviv!

Once any blockchain application is embraced in sufficient numbers by both the using and accepting sides, the impressive software will become an invaluable and ubiquitous tool. More widespread adoption of blockchain’s most beneficial use cases will trigger network effects that will multiply the benefits.

DrMiner.io: Rent Hash Power for Cryptocurrency Mining (Blockonomi), Rated: B

DrMiner.io lets users rent real hash power from its crypto mining equipment. The team behind DrMiner.io is the same one behind Chainads.io.

European Union

Insurance study finds Kraken, Bittrex, Coinbase Pro among safest exchanges (CoinGeek), Rated: AAA

Insurance study finds Kraken, Bittrex, Coinbase Pro among safest exchanges

A joint venture between cybersecurity firm Group-IB and Swiss insurance broker ASPIS SA, through its CryptoIns platform, has classified cryptocurrency exchanges by insurance risk, finding the Kraken exchange to be the most secure.

Ripple (The Daily HODL), Rated: A

SEB, a Swedish financial group and longtime Ripple partner, says it is now moving billions of dollars using Ripple’s xCurrent payment platform.

Startup ambrpay wins Competition and USD 100,000 cash prize (ambrpay email), Rated: B

The USD 100,000 cash prize of the CV Competition for Finance goes to ambrpay, a startup founded by Andreas Hauri, a neuroscientist who used to grow brains in a lab before he turned tech entrepreneur. Hauri conceived a new idea this summer – a B2B backend solution which enables users of subscription services to pay for subscription services with crypto currencies. Since then Andreas Hauri has developed the blockchain technology in the backend and won first customers for pilots.

Anonutopia, a Smart Contract Country, Announces the First Payout of Universal Basic Income to Its Citizens (Inside Bitcoins), Rated: A

In June 2018 one such “smart contract” country – Anonutopia – was founded by hacktivists from Croatia by publicly announcing the development of its main cryptocurrency Anote and stable crypto-versions of Euro, US dollar, and Croatian kuna (the so-called cryptofiats). Soon followed the joining of Serbian Anonymous hacktivist group by publishing its cryptofiat pegged to Serbian dinar. A call for establishing other crypto-counterparts of the world’s countries and crowdfunding their development is also open for all interested groups and individuals.

The main currency, Anote, is a Waves-platform based token which has
several roles: crowdfunding coin, a decentralized stable coin with programmed price, as a
collateral for stabilizing cryptofiats, and as the platform for Anonutopia’s dapps. Cryptofiats are stable coins pegged 1:1 to fiat currencies (or can be stabilized to other fixed reference).

XIXOIO Introduces Initial Public Coin Offering (IPCO) Tokenization Solution (Bitcoin Exchange Guide), Rated: B

IPCO is a combination of Initial Coin Offering and Initial Public Offering (IPO). Essentially, IPCO is a smart contact built on the Ethereum network.

United Kingdom

$ 200BN Cryptocurrency Industry Goes Mainstream for Online Shopping on Flubit.com (BusinessWire), Rated: AAA

As cryptocurrency grew to see $15BN in daily trading volume throughout October, MonetaryUnit’s summer acquisition (flubit.com) has launched the world’s largest integrated shopping marketplace for cryptocurrency. Importantly for the wider crypto industry, this provides fresh validation for those seeking to make cryptocurrency an everyday payment asset.

Surprising Bitcoin Survey Reveals U.K. To Be A Nation Of Crypto Believers (Forbes), Rated: AAA

A bitcoin survey, carried out by respected pollsters YouGov, has found that one in five people in the U.K. think bitcoin will be “as common as cash or card” payments in future—just as bitcoin celebrated its 10th birthday last month.

The survey found that, while bitcoin is still a relatively new technology, nine out of ten (93%) of people in the U.K. say they have heard of bitcoin—with just over one in five (23%) say they understand it “fairly” well.

Currently, bitcoin is all but unused for payments either over the internet or in brick-and-mortar stores and the survey found that four in ten (43%) of people in the U.K. expect that status quo to continue, saying they do not think cryptocurrencies will ever be as common as cash or card. A third (34%) don’t know.

China

Cryptocurrency ‘Bubble’ Risk Cited by Central Bank (Caixin), Rated: AAA

China’s central bank warned of “obvious bubbles” in blockchain-related financing and investments involving cryptocurrencies, especially in Initial Coin Offering (ICO) activities.

Chinese school teachers caught mining Ethereum at work (The Next Web), Rated: A

Two principals at a Chinese school have been caught using their employer’s electricity to mine Ethereum, $ETH▼2.01%according to local news outlet HK01.

Asia

South Korea’s Emergence as an Important Player in Cryptocurrency (The Diplomat), Rated: AAA

Since 2017, North Korea has stolen $571 million from cryptocurrency exchanges and accounted for nearly 65 percent of all cryptocurrency stolen. Despite North Korea’s illicit activities in this burgeoning field, the recent acquisition of Europe’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by a South Korean investment firm is just the latest sign that South Korea is developing into a significant player on the licit side of cryptocurrency and its underlying blockchain technology.

Thailand Readies First ICO Portal, Junta Wants More Control (NewsBTC), Rated: A

Mixed messages are still coming from Thailand with regard to the cryptocurrency industry in the Kingdom. This week the Thai Securities and Exchange Commission stated that at least one ICO portal will be certified this month, while the Deputy Prime Minister has called for more control over cryptos.

Bezant Listed on Bithumb, World’s Largest Cryptocurrency Exchange (BusinessWire), Rated: A

Bezant Foundation has announced that its key currency BZNT of its blockchain platform will be listed on Bithumb, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange as of Nov. 8th, 2018 (Coinmarketcap).

the Arrest of India’s First Bitcoin ‘ATM’ Operators (CoinTelegraph), Rated: A

Earlier in October, the developers of India’s first Bitcoin (BTC) “ATM” were arrested in the city of Bangalore under criminal charges, in a case that has shaken the local startup community and cast a spotlight on the lack of clarity surrounding “the law of the land” in regard to crypto.

MENA

Exchange opens as Dubai pushes for crypto regional role (Asia Times), Rated: AAA

While countries such as China and India continue their crypto crackdown, the Middle East is growing as a destination for blockchain startups.

The government is taking a positive stance towards blockchain and crypto-currencies and plans to have more than 50% of state transactions on the blockchain by 2021. The initiative has been launched as the UAE Blockchain Strategy, and digital currencies are a big part of it.

Canada

BTL Provides Development Update on Interbit Megachain Platform (GlobeNewswire), Rated: B

BTL GROUP LTD is pleased to provide an update on its efforts to advance Interbit, the megachain technology platform it is building with the objective of being able to run 1,000,000+ chains simultaneously, and supporting the complex Enterprise level applications presented to the Company. BTL began development of the Interbit platform three years ago to overcome the limitations of single blockchain platforms. Following the release of Interbit (version II) in April 2018, the Company concluded from feedback that the revenue possibilities and its competitive position would be enhanced if it significantly increased the chain-joining and chain generation capacity of the platform. Since then, the Company has re-architected the Interbit platform (version III) towards this unique megachain vision, which it targets to complete in Q1 of 2019.

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