Weekly Crypto #5
Stay ahead of the game with weekly industry updates, aimed to capture all important crypto and blockchain news of the week.
This week encouraged community feedback after ETF rejections, Vitalik Buterin shared his thoughts on the current state of Ethereum network, Don Tapscott called for crypto regulation clarity and economist Jeffrey Tucker was calling out banking elites. Updated Coinbase Wallet is out, first view on Binance’s decentralized exchange was presented by Changpeng Zhao and the world’s first blockchain-based bond is being developed.
Regulations & Finance
Blockchain Research Institute Report Calls for Crypto Regulation Clarity: Don Tapscott, the co-founder and executive director of the Blockchain Research Institute (BRI), published a report “2018 Blockchain Regulation Roundtable: Addressing the Regulatory Challenges of Disruptive Innovation”, where four core issues are identified: lack of regulatory clarity, obsolete statutes, a lack of dialogue between both regulators and other stakeholders, and lack of dialogue between financial service providers and blockchain entrepreneurs. The author explains: “The new oil of the digital age is data…We need to help educate the public to distinguish a cryptocurrency from the many amazing results that people are achieving with blockchain, and what they might do with a self sovereign identity secured on a distributed ledger”.
EU Lawmaker Wants to Include ICOs in New Crowdfunding Rules: Ashley Fox, a UK Member of the European Parliament (MEP), wrote a draft report on proposed regulations for Europe’s crowdfunding platform operators and companies. “This Regulation gives the opportunity to ICOs that want to prove their legitimacy to comply with the requirements of this regulation. Whilst this regulation may not provide the solution for regulating the ICO market, it takes a much-needed step towards imposing standards and protections in place for what is an excellent funding stream for tech start-ups.”
World Bank’s Blockchain-Based Bonds — A Step Toward Adoption? World’s most influential institutions are starting to leverage blockchain technology to improve their offering. The bond-i, designed and developed by the CBA (Australia’s Commonwealth Bank) Innovation Lab’s Blockchain Centre for Excellence, was ordered by the World Bank. CBA previously developed the blockchain-based system using a private Ethereum blockchain.
“Your keys — your Bitcoin; not your keys — not your Bitcoin”, says Andreas Antonopoulos, being critical about Exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Following news about the second rejection of the Winlevoss twins Bitcoin ETF, Antonopoulos thinks ETF is still gonna happen eventually, but warns about having your private keys managed by a “second tier”. Similar sentiment on the feedback of ETF was also expressed by Nick Szabo, saying he is “not lobbying for an ETF or for Wall Street-managed money in general”, adding “It might cause more problems than it’s worth”.
Bitcoin, Crypto and Banks: Economist Says It’s the End of Government Monopoly on Money. In a report Governments and Central Banks Should Look to Gold Not Crypto, Jeffrey Tucker, economist and editorial director for the American Institute for Economic Research, advises central banks and governments to stop meddling in the world of crypto — where they’re not wanted, not qualified and not going to succeed. Tucker is calling out banking elites and governments for their long-standing monopoly on money, which has led to “world wars, depression and inflation, enormous government indebtedness, and the rise of leviathan states that learned to print their way to power and riches.”
Industry & Technology
Banking Is Only The Beginning: 42 Big Industries Blockchain Could Transform. Blockchain technology with global public ledger is proving usefulness in finance as the first choice of industry, but increasingly more case and projects in different industries aim to transform the ways business is done. Among potential industries, ripe for blockchain disruption, are education, advertising, internet of things, global storage and cloud computing, music and entertainment, trading, real estate, insurance, healthcare, supply chain management, energy management, sports, loyalty programs, governmental services, inheritances, retail, charity, human resources, manufacturing, crowdfunding, libraries, publishing and more.
Vitalik Buterin On The State Of Ethereum, The Future Of Blockchain And Google Trying To Hire Him: In an interview with Forbes contributor Rachel Wolfson, cofounder of Ethereum Foundation and Bitcoin Magazine Vitalik Buterin shared his thoughts on current development of Ethereum network, privacy, blockchain and regulation. Buterin states that “Currently, there are no good ways to use blockchain while preserving privacy”, praising good efforts of Zcash as an example. He also thinks regulators should focus on “allowing people to use small amounts of cryptocurrency is valuable within crypto”. He discussed the current development, plasma and proof-of-work, saying: “I am seriously looking forward to when the cryptocurrency community basically passes away with proof-of-work.”
Illegal Activity No Longer Dominant Use of Bitcoin: A DEA special agent admitted that illegal activity is no longer bitcoin’s primary use. In a report, following bitcoin usage activity since 2013, DEA special agent Lilita Infante sees a very different view from the early days of bitcoin: “The ratio of legal to illegal activity in bitcoin has flipped…Now, illegal activity has shrunk to about 10 percent and speculation has become the dominant driver.”
Toshi, developed by the Coinbase team a little over a year ago, is becoming Coinbase Wallet: On their blog, Coinbase announced the renaming and new possibilities of Toshi, saying this is “part of a larger effort to invest in products that will define the future of the decentralized web and make that future accessible to anyone”. New wallet will have abilities to manage ETH and ERC-20 tokens, receiving airdrops and ICO tokens, buying and storing crypto collectibles, sending payments, accessing leading decentralized exchanges and more.
Binance DEX is Ahead of Schedule in Terms of Development: Binance CEO, Changpeng Zhao presented “a first (rough, pre-alpha) demo of the Binance Decentralized Exchange (DEX), showing issuing, listing and trading of tokens”, in a video, posted on his Twitter account. A decentralised exchange would allows users to trade digital assets without a trusted, central intermediary.
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