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Huobi Cloud Aims for 80 More Exchange Partners in Bid for Revenue Growth
Singapore-based exchange conglomerate Huobi Group has a unique growth strategy for emerging markets: partner with local entities and then split the profits 50/50.
Revealed exclusively to CoinDesk, the South African exchange HIZA will launch in May and join a cohort of 150 platforms under the Huobi Cloud umbrella, according to Huobi Group’s senior business director David Chen.
“We will help them get their trading volume up and we’ll expand our business when the market is more mature,” Chen said, adding that up to 80 like-minded partnerships are currently in the pipeline.
Recent expansion isn’t unique to Huobi, however. Global exchange giants like Binance are opening independent subsidiaries in emerging markets like Uganda, or investing in local exchanges the way Bittrex did with the South African exchange VALR. Similar to Bittrex, Huobi Group offers partners like HIZA access to its global order books for prime liquidity.
Interestingly, the partnership approach allows Huobi to minimize the regulatory risks of working in under-developed markets – where banking relationships require local knowledge and repercussions for unintentional missteps remain uncertain.
“They [HIZA] own their customer data, it’s not Huobi that owns it, otherwise it would be Huobi’s responsibility,” Chen said.
He added that Huobi Group has earned $1.5 million in net profit since October 2018 from Cloud partnerships that have already gone live. One such partnership is with the Nigeria-based SaBi exchange, which facilitates roughly $100,000 worth of daily volume, according to SaBi founder Lucky Uwakwe.
Chen said the aim is to have such partners processing an accumulative total of roughly $55 million in daily volume by 2020.
Uwakwe said that in Nigeria, at least, his exchange has considerable regulatory hurdles to overcome if they intend to boost volumes. That’s why, Uwakwe said, his exchange is taking a multi-pronged approach with both peer-to-peer (P2P) and over-the-counter (OTC) services.
“We are creating options to give us room in case the government decides to shut down our operations with the banks,” he said. “We want to create options for users so that they can do what is more comfortable for them.”
Risk arbitrage
To be clear, none of these jurisdictions have outlawed crypto as much as they have yet to implement regulatory standards comparable with Western or even Asian markets.
“Bitcoin trading was not banned,” Nigerian lawyer Faith Obafemi told CoinDesk. “However, banks and other financial institutions were banned from investing in cryptos.”
On the other hand, HIZA founder Talha Idris told CoinDesk the South African government is starting to take a more proactive approach.
“They are seeking comments on [research] and will probably update regulations accordingly,” Idris said, speaking of local authorities. “Huobi will be helping us with all the technical aspects, especially security.”
This could turn out to be a lucrative play for Huobi Group, as a national survey by HootSuite in January 2019 found that 11 percent of South African mobile users own some cryptocurrency.
Plus, P2P exchanges like Paxful have already demonstrated that demand in various African markets, including Nigeria and South Africa, is growing even during broader market slumps. This is, in part, spurred by strict capital controls in each of those countries.
Speaking of local demand, SaBi’s Uwakwe added:
“We’ve got the drive. Even when there are many bans and restrictions, people find a way to get these things. When it comes to our daily volume, we actually do quite a lot.”
Johannesburg, South Africa image via Shutterstock
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Bakkt Acquires Crypto Custodian, Partners With BNY Mellon on Key Storage
Pending bitcoin futures exchange Bakkt has acquired the Digital Asset Custody Company (DACC), secured insurance for assets it will hold in cold storage and revealed a partnership with BNY Mellon.
Adam White, the former Coinbase executive turned Bakkt COO, wrote in a blog post Monday that it acquired DACC to continue developing a secure digital asset storage solution. DACC’s team “share [Bakkt’s] security-first mindset,” he wrote, while also bringing experience in building its own secure and scalable custody solutions.
White hinted that the acquisition may also help Bakkt add cryptocurrencies beyond bitcoin sometime after launch, writing:
“As we look to scale and support custody of additional digital assets, DACC’s native support of 13 blockchains and 100+ assets will serve as an important accelerator, and we’re pleased to welcome Matthew Johnson, Adam Healy, and the entire DACC team to Bakkt.”
Bakkt did not reveal how much it spent to acquire the custodian.
To further aid its storage solutions, Bakkt has been working with global bank BNY Mellon to set up “geographically-distributed” private key storage, White wrote.
BNY Mellon has a long history of storing institutional clients’ assets, including hedge funds, asset managers and broker-dealers, he said.
The exchange has also secured insurance for funds stored offline.
“Bakkt uses both warm (online) and cold (offline) wallet architecture to secure customer funds. The majority of assets are stored offline in air-gapped cold wallets that are insured with a $100,000,000 policy underwritten by leading global insurance carriers,” he wrote, though he did not identify who these carriers were.
White also confirmed Monday that Bakkt was seeking a qualified custodian license through the New York Department of Financial Services. If granted, the exchange would be able to provide a regulated custodian for any crypto assets that it holds, which may ease its launch of physical bitcoin future contract.
As previously reported, Bakkt’s original plan to custody bitcoin itself and settle contracts through its parent firm’s warehouse, ICE Clear US, may fall into a regulatory gray area. Its launch has been indefinitely delayed pending approval by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Adam White image via CoinDesk archives
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UK Baroness’ Luxury Bitcoin Property Project Reportedly Suffering Delay
A luxury residential project targeting the crypto rich may be in trouble.
According to a report from The Times on Sunday, the Aston Plaza project in Dubai – launched in 2017 by high-profile U.K. entrepreneurs Baroness Michelle Mone and Doug Barrowman – appears to have stalled, with its website still displaying the project as “25 percent complete,” the same figure as used in its marketing materials.
Aston Plaza plan was unveiled in September 2017. Said at the time to be costing £250 million ($323 million) to build, the two-tower complex was to feature 1,133 luxury apartments over 2.4 million square feet, with each flat costing between $133,000 and $379,000 in bitcoin.
According to The Times, government inspectors visited the construction site in January 2018 and declared the project as “on hold.” Construction, planned for completion by this summer, is no longer underway, according to the report.
Baroness Mone is also a lingerie designer and peer of the U.K.’s House of Lords, while Barrowman, her life and business partner, is a business mogul and founder of private equity firm Aston Ventures. Together, the two launched the real estate project specifically targeting the blockchain and crypto community.
Barrowman told CoinDesk at the time that he felt the venture was the perfect opportunity for bitcoin investors to convert their holdings into “real brick-and-mortar” assets.
He also said in a statement at the time:
“I wanted to offer the property, tech and blockchain community a unique and exclusive opportunity by merging the property and tech sectors together in a true first for the industry.”
The project was accepting payments in bitcoin through U.S.-based cryptocurrency payments processor BitPay.
Aston Plaza project image courtesy of the company
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We.Trade Co-Founder Mancone Is Leaving the Enterprise Blockchain Firm
Roberto Mancone, the charismatic chief operating officer of trade finance platform we.trade, is leaving the company.
One of the co-founders of we.trade, Mancone said he was proud to have led the platform as it became a legal entity and to have seen it grow from seven banks to 14.
However, he said his own personal vision brings the need for “exploring the next steps” of what blockchain technology can achieve and “staying ahead of the curve.”
He told CoinDesk:
“I have not yet seen something that shows the ultimate benefit of the technology. We are building solutions that are perceived as valuable by the providers of the solutions, not the users.”
During his time at the helm of the IBM-based platform, Mancone saw we.trade became one of the first enterprise blockchain projects to go live, out-flanking all its rivals in the busy trade finance distributed ledger (DLT) space.
Mancone praised both IBM and we.trade’s member banks for the progress they had made. “I admire the courage of the banks for entering into something so innovative in a highly regulated environment,” he said.
He also reiterated how he sees enterprise blockchains evolve to include a range of companies from overlapping industries – a point he made last year when he hinted that we.trade could join forces with IBM and Maersk’s Tradelense and other supply chain platforms.
When all the stakeholders belong to the same industry (as is the case with a group of banks all focused on receivables financing) they are not fundamentally changing the business model, noted Mancone, they are just trying to make things more efficient than previously.
He explained:
“For me, that was step one. I can see how this technology can change the business model, but to do that you need the stakeholders to come from different industries, not the same industry. That way it will be the final consumer (company or corporate) that reaps the rewards, rather than a group of incumbents.”
Mancone will be replaced at we.trade at the end of April by Ciaran McGowan, who will take over as general manager. McGowan does not come from a trade finance or banking background, having previously held technical delivery management roles with Alcon/Novartis, Retail inMotion, Pharmapod, Bank of Ireland, KBCBank, Fineos and Eontec.
Roberto Mancone image from CoinDesk archives
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Bitcoin Price Rally Stalls As Ether, XRP Shine
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Alternative cryptocurrencies are flying high while bitcoin is having a breather above $8,000.
Notably, ether (ETH) has hit a seven-month high of $235 and looks set to extend gains further toward $256 (Sept. 22 high) in the near-term. XRP, meanwhile, has confirmed a bull breakout.
With hourly chart indicators diverging in favor of the bears and the daily relative strength index (RSI) reporting overbought conditions, bitcoin is looking increasingly vulnerable to a price pullback to the key rising trendline, currently placed above $7,200.
Bitcoin could challenge Tuesday’s high of $8,335 and possibly break toward $8,500 if the lower highs pattern seen on the RSI is invalidated.
With bitcoin (BTC) price rally showing signs of exhaustion above $8,000, investors have begun diverting money into relatively cheap alternative cryptocurrencies (altcoins).
The world’s leading cryptocurrency by market value jumped to a 10-month high of $8,335 in the early European trading hours on Tuesday. The rally, however, stalled with BTC witnessing a minor pullback to lows near $7,600 in the U.S. trading hours.
As of writing, BTC has returned to levels just below $8,000, representing little change on the day.
While bitcoin is showing signs of bullish exhaustion, the altcoin market is a sea of green with prominent coins like ether – the second largest cryptocurrency by market value – rising to $235 on Bitstamp, its highest level since Oct. 1, 2018.
At time of writing, ether is trading at $232 – up 12 percent on the day – having witnessed a golden crossover, a bullish cross of the 50-day and 200-day moving averages (MAs) last month.
Even ether’s strong performance, however, is being overshadowed by XRP, which is the best performing top cryptocurrency of the last 24 hours.
The price of a single XRP jumped to $0.45 earlier today, the highest level since Dec. 24, confirming a double bottom breakout (a bearish-to-bullish trend change) on the three-day chart. As a result, the third largest cryptocurrency could rise further toward $0.50 in the near-term.
XRP has appreciated by 14.7 percent in 24 hours, with prices hitting 4.5-month highs near $0.45 across major cryptocurrency exchanges.
Stellar (LM), cardano (ADA) are also up by nearly 12 percent each.
Bitcoin cash is flashing red, having hit a six-month high of $410 on Tuesday.
While major altcoins have found some love, the flow of money is also heading towards lesser-known cryptocurrencies, as seen in the chart below.
Project Pai, ranked 71 as per market capitalization on CoinMarketCap, has appreciated by 28 percent in the last 24 hours and is currently the best performing top 100 cryptocurrency.
In second place is tezos (XTZ), up 21 percent. The cryptocurrency trapped sellers on the wrong side of the market last week with a fake head-and-shoulders breakdown and printed six-month highs near $1.68 earlier today.
The surge in altcoins has pushed their total market capitalization to $95.65 billion – a level last seen on Nov. 8, 2018.
BTC 4-hour and hourly charts
The lower highs on both the relative strength index (RSI) and the Chaikin money flow (CMF) on the 4-hour chart (above left) indicate that bullish momentum for BTC has weakened. The cryptocurrency could see a price pullback, possibly to the ascending trendline support, currently at $7,300.
The case for a deeper correction would strengthen if the 50-hour moving average (MA) support is breached. That average, currently at $7,872, has reversed pullbacks twice in the last 24 hours.
The case for a rally to $8,500 and higher would strengthen if the hourly chart RSI (above right) violates the falling trendline, representing bearish divergence. The bulls, however, may have a tough time holding onto gains above $8,500 (July 2018 high), as the daily RSI reporting extreme overbought conditions.
Ether 3-day chart
Ether’s rise to seven-month highs validates the ascending triangle breakout (bearish-to-bullish trend change) signaled witnessed in the three-days to May 12 (previous 3-day candle).
The cryptocurrency has violated the 16-month-long falling trendline, while the 5- and 10-candle moving averages (MAs) are trending north, indicating a bullish setup.
Prices, therefore, could challenge the immediate resistance at $256 in the near-term. The bullish outlook would be invalidated only if prices fall back below the high of $187 registered in the three days to April 10.
Disclosure: The author holds no cryptocurrency assets at the time of writing.
Bitcoin image via Shutterstock; technical charts by Trading View
This news post is collected from CoinDesk
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Bitcoin Price Rally Stalls As Ether, XRP Shine
View
Alternative cryptocurrencies are flying high while bitcoin is having a breather above $8,000.
Notably, ether (ETH) has hit a seven-month high of $235 and looks set to extend gains further toward $256 (Sept. 22 high) in the near-term. XRP, meanwhile, has confirmed a bull breakout.
With hourly chart indicators diverging in favor of the bears and the daily relative strength index (RSI) reporting overbought conditions, bitcoin is looking increasingly vulnerable to a price pullback to the key rising trendline, currently placed above $7,200.
Bitcoin could challenge Tuesday’s high of $8,335 and possibly break toward $8,500 if the lower highs pattern seen on the RSI is invalidated.
With bitcoin (BTC) price rally showing signs of exhaustion above $8,000, investors have begun diverting money into relatively cheap alternative cryptocurrencies (altcoins).
The world’s leading cryptocurrency by market value jumped to a 10-month high of $8,335 in the early European trading hours on Tuesday. The rally, however, stalled with BTC witnessing a minor pullback to lows near $7,600 in the U.S. trading hours.
As of writing, BTC has returned to levels just below $8,000, representing little change on the day.
While bitcoin is showing signs of bullish exhaustion, the altcoin market is a sea of green with prominent coins like ether – the second largest cryptocurrency by market value – rising to $235 on Bitstamp, its highest level since Oct. 1, 2018.
At time of writing, ether is trading at $232 – up 12 percent on the day – having witnessed a golden crossover, a bullish cross of the 50-day and 200-day moving averages (MAs) last month.
Even ether’s strong performance, however, is being overshadowed by XRP, which is the best performing top cryptocurrency of the last 24 hours.
The price of a single XRP jumped to $0.45 earlier today, the highest level since Dec. 24, confirming a double bottom breakout (a bearish-to-bullish trend change) on the three-day chart. As a result, the third largest cryptocurrency could rise further toward $0.50 in the near-term.
XRP has appreciated by 14.7 percent in 24 hours, with prices hitting 4.5-month highs near $0.45 across major cryptocurrency exchanges.
Stellar (LM), cardano (ADA) are also up by nearly 12 percent each.
Bitcoin cash is flashing red, having hit a six-month high of $410 on Tuesday.
While major altcoins have found some love, the flow of money is also heading towards lesser-known cryptocurrencies, as seen in the chart below.
Project Pai, ranked 71 as per market capitalization on CoinMarketCap, has appreciated by 28 percent in the last 24 hours and is currently the best performing top 100 cryptocurrency.
In second place is tezos (XTZ), up 21 percent. The cryptocurrency trapped sellers on the wrong side of the market last week with a fake head-and-shoulders breakdown and printed six-month highs near $1.68 earlier today.
The surge in altcoins has pushed their total market capitalization to $95.65 billion – a level last seen on Nov. 8, 2018.
BTC 4-hour and hourly charts
The lower highs on both the relative strength index (RSI) and the Chaikin money flow (CMF) on the 4-hour chart (above left) indicate that bullish momentum for BTC has weakened. The cryptocurrency could see a price pullback, possibly to the ascending trendline support, currently at $7,300.
The case for a deeper correction would strengthen if the 50-hour moving average (MA) support is breached. That average, currently at $7,872, has reversed pullbacks twice in the last 24 hours.
The case for a rally to $8,500 and higher would strengthen if the hourly chart RSI (above right) violates the falling trendline, representing bearish divergence. The bulls, however, may have a tough time holding onto gains above $8,500 (July 2018 high), as the daily RSI reporting extreme overbought conditions.
Ether 3-day chart
Ether’s rise to seven-month highs validates the ascending triangle breakout (bearish-to-bullish trend change) signaled witnessed in the three-days to May 12 (previous 3-day candle).
The cryptocurrency has violated the 16-month-long falling trendline, while the 5- and 10-candle moving averages (MAs) are trending north, indicating a bullish setup.
Prices, therefore, could challenge the immediate resistance at $256 in the near-term. The bullish outlook would be invalidated only if prices fall back below the high of $187 registered in the three days to April 10.
Disclosure: The author holds no cryptocurrency assets at the time of writing.
Bitcoin image via Shutterstock; technical charts by Trading View
This news post is collected from CoinDesk
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Congressman Emmer to Reintroduce Tax Bill Focused on Crypto Hard Forks
U.S. Representative Tom Emmer plans to reintroduce a bill that would benefit taxpayers who hold cryptocurrency resulting from blockchain network splits, or hard forks.
Emmer revealed his intention to reintroduce the “Safe Harbor for Taxpayers with Forked Assets” bill, first announced in 2018, during a panel on the relationship between government and technologies at Consensus 2019 on Monday.
The Minnesota congressman was joined on stage by Chamber of Digital Commerce president and founder Perianne Boring, Fidelity Investments deputy general counsel David Forman, and CoinDesk advisory board chairman Michael Casey.
For his part, Emmer reaffirmed his commitment to supporting the development and use of blockchain tech and cryptocurrencies, and bemoaned the complex network of regulators that the industry must navigate, pointing to the CFTC, the SEC, and others who “all have bits and pieces” of the regulatory picture, but have failed to provide regulatory certainty.
He indicated that Congress’ job is “getting government in line” such that the blockchain industry can generate new opportunities and innovations.
In practice, the certainty that Emmer and his Blockchain Caucus, co-chaired by Representatives David Schweikert and Darren Soto, have sought to provide has come in the form of measures like proposing that crypto miners should not be classified as money transmitters.
CoinDesk has further learned that the Safe Harbor for Taxpayers with Forked Assets bill would prevent the IRS from penalizing unreported crypto assets gained through hard forks until the IRS issues clear guidance on their regulatory treatment. The bill may also include airswaps, which were not covered in the bill’s earlier iteration.
However, Emmer noted that Congress still has some work to do before it could effectively advocate for the blockchain industry.
“You have members who have quite frankly a range of understanding and backgrounds, and there isn’t a lot of range when it comes to blockchain technology,” he said. “A lot of them have these preconceived notions, all they’ve ever heard of is the Silk Road.”
During the panel, Boring contended that the U.S. government lags behind other areas of the world in its exploration of blockchain. The EU, for example, has already invested 80 million euros in blockchain initiatives, she said, adding that they plan to invest 340 million euros by 2020.
Boring also pointed to China as being at the cutting edge of blockchain development, citing a state media report which called blockchain “10 times more important” than the internet.
Both Emmer and Forman emphasized that it’s important for the blockchain industry to make its voice heard and push for a better informed government.
“Talk to your regulators,” Forman advised the audience, while Emmer added: “We need your story.”
Consensus 2019 panel image via Anna Baydakova for CoinDesk. Left to right: Tom Emmer, David Forman, Perianne Boring and Mike Casey
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Crypto Exchange Binance Restarting Services After Post-Hack Upgrade
Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has announced that it is back online after completing a security upgrade prompted by a recent hack.
Kicking off at 03:00 UTC Wednesday, the upgrade meant that all services were suspended during this period, according to a Binance support message. A two-hour extension to the upgrade was announced this morning as some tasks took “longer than expected.”
Following the upgrade, Binance published an update saying that trading will recommence at 13:00 UTC. Users can now cancel open orders and process deposits, while withdrawals “will be available shortly after trading resumes,” it said.
Deposits and withdrawals have been offline since the hack last week, which Binance said saw 7,000 BTC (worth about $41 million at the time) stolen from the exchange’s hot wallet. Exchange customers would not be affected by the losses, Binance said.
Following the breach, CZ said in a blog post that the exchange would make “significant” changes related to its application programming interface (API), two-factor authentication (2FA) and withdrawal validation to reduce the risk of future hacks.
The exchange did not disclose full details regarding these efforts due to security concerns, but did say it’s also improving risk management and know-your-customer procedures to fight phishing, among other measures at the back-end.
UPDATE – Zhao sent out an update noting that withdrawals “will be open shortly.”
“A new requirement to be logged in while confirming the withdrawal mail was added. It caused a small conflict while using the app so it will be rolled back shortly,” he wrote.
Changpeng Zhao image via Binance
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Reid Hoffman’s New ‘Hamilton’-Inspired Crypto Rap Video Is Straight Fire
“I myself hold bitcoin,” Reid Hoffman, a co-founder of LinkedIn and a member of the PayPal Mafia, told CoinDesk as he described his reasons for releasing a new hip-hop video about central banks competing against cryptocurrency.
Hoffman’s interest in bitcoin goes back years, yet it would be a mistake to lump him in with the burn-traditional-banking-down school of long-time evangelists.
“I am a pro-government and well-run society guy,” he said, and yet Hoffman – a partner at VC firm Greylock – also believes a small handful of global cryptocurrencies will arise, inevitably, because they will enable things the world wants and needs.
“So that’s why I have this, to elevate the discourse,” he told CoinDesk.
The video is a small offering to the online discussion about the future of money in a much catchier format than we usually see. It pits actor-rappers playing Alexander Hamilton (the U.S. Founding Father and first Secretary of the Treasury) against Satoshi Nakamoto (the person (or group) that released the code that powers bitcoin).
youtube
HODL rhymes
Hoffman was inspired to make the video by watching the musical “Hamilton.”
He wanted to borrow the didactic rap format to improve the dialogue around an important topic and felt that the fight between traditional banking and decentralized capital made sense.
It’s an approach that will be familiar to fans of the YouTube channel Epic Rap Battles of History (ERB), the two main characters go back and forth rhyming out key points supporting each side and taking down the other.
“As if banks these days still help people make money,” the emcee playing Nakamoto, YouTuber Timothy DeLaGhetto, spits in response to the necessity of banking. “The interest in crypto’s on rapid ascent. What’s your current interest? Like half a percent?”
But the pro-banking side can give as good as it gets.
Epic Rap Battles member EpicLloyd plays Hamilton, with objections to crypto such as, “Untraceable money, wow, so clever. One typo in your address and it’s gone forever.”
Just in case readers aren’t familiar with this particular genre, consider checking out Gandhi vs. Martin Luther King, Rasputin vs. Stalin and (this reporter’s all time favorite) Eastern Philosophers vs. Western Philosophers.
And indeed this isn’t the first time that someone has borrowed the format to make an economic argument. In 2010, economist Russ Roberts teamed up with the group Emergent Order to do a video called “Fear the Boom and Bust” about the economics of contemporaries John Maynard Keynes and (crypto favorite) Friedrich Hayek.
Which side are you on?
With regard to this entry in the cannon of historical hip-hop, it’s hard not to view the video as pro-crypto.
Who wins in a debate: Alexander Hamilton or Satoshi Nakamoto?
— Reid Hoffman (@reidhoffman) September 4, 2019
The video is littered with cameos from the industry’s Illuminati, such as Charlie Lee, creator of Litecoin; Zooko Wilcox-O’Hearn, co-founder of Zcash, Lily Liu, co-founder of Earn.com; Elena Nadolinski, founder of Beanstock; Wences Casares, CEO of Xapo; Ben Davenport, co-founder of BitGo and many, many others.
If people say that the video is really just an argument for cryptocurrency, Hoffmann says, “I think I am OK with them saying that.” But he continued:
“I do think it’s good for the world to have one or more cryptocurrencies, and I think one more of those will be bitcoin or a derivative of it. I think that’s a good thing.”
Since his early days in technology, he saw companies come along that helped society work in new and better ways. For example, at PayPal, he saw individuals empowered to accept payments, which paved the way for millions of small businesses.
He saw bitcoin as a chance to offer similar new benefits, such as in emerging markets. He said he thought at the time, “This could be super important toward helping build society the way it should be.”
But really the underlying message of the video is not so much crypto replacing the banking system, but how the conversation can evolve so that both institutions advance in a way the improves more lives.
Hoffman concluded:
“What you are really doing is a design goal of how you evolve crypto networks and how you evolve banking systems, so that both are a part of a well-ordered society.”
Screenshot via YouTube / Rhyme Combinator
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US Energy Department Funds Trial of Factom Blockchain to Secure Power Grid
Factom, one of the earliest companies to pitch blockchains to enterprises, is participating in a U.S. government-funded trial of the technology to protect the national power grid.
Announced Thursday, TFA Labs, an internet-of-things (IoT) security startup, is experimenting with Factom’s protocol to validate that devices on the grid aren’t infected with malware.
Backed by a nearly $200,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the project aims to improve the security of millions of such devices.
In some cases, TFA Labs is looking at storing raw data, such as the health and status of devices, on the Factom blockchain. In other cases, the company wants to assign a digital identity to the firmware, or permanent software installed on devices. If the files are manipulated, they’ll produce a cryptographic hash that does not match the digital identity, indicating something is amiss.
“We can store raw data or data hashes of the data,” Dennis Bunfield, CEO of TFA Labs, told CoinDesk. “It’s ideal for IoT device use.”
The first phase will last until March when TFA aims to have a prototype for the use case. If the experiment gets to phase two, TFA Labs will collaborate with device manufacturers and could get close to $1 million in funding from the DOE.
Factotum
Factom is separately working with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to record camera and sensor data on the blockchain and with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to see if the tech can digitize records of individuals who live in remote parts of the world.
Enterprise users can develop on the startup’s protocol using familiar coding languages, said Greg Forst, marketing chair for Factom Protocol.
“We’re data-centric and enterprise-grade whether that’s a government or startup or anybody in between,” Forst said.
Founded in 2014, the Austin, Texas-based company conducted one of the earliest token offerings, raising $1.1 million in 2015 by selling “factoids.”
However, “you don’t need the factoid token to use the protocol,” Bunfield said. “So you never need to touch crypto to use the protocol, making this ideal for use by governments and corporate enterprises.”
Subsequent seed and Series A rounds brought in over $8 million to Factom. An early project recording land titles in Honduras stalled. Factom later introduced a product for the mortgage industry. In July of this year, a nonprofit called the Triall Foundation announced that it was running a clinical trial over Factom.
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Binance Labs Leads $5.7 Million Series A for Blockchain Maker Dapix
Denver-based startup Dapix Inc. has raised $5.7 million in a Series A funding round led by Binance Labs, the company announced Thursday.
Launched in 2018, Dapix is building a delegated proof-of-stake (DPOS) blockchain to act as the connective tissue between cryptocurrency wallets, exchanges and other applications. The goal is to establish an industry standard across all blockchain platforms for sending and receiving payments in crypto.
“The FIO Protocol is the service layer to the entire blockchain ecosystem,” said David Gold, founder and CEO of Dapix. “[The goal] is to do for blockchain what HTTP did for the internet.”
So far, 24 different blockchain wallet applications have joined the non-profit arm of this initiative, which is known as the Foundation for Interwallet Operability (FIO) Consortium. In February, Binance’s Trust Wallet joined the FIO Consortium, which already includes non-custodial crypto exchange ShapeShift, ethereum wallet application MyCrypto and the official Bitcoin.com wallet.
Speaking about the joint effort, Binance Labs spokesperson Kathy Zhu said:
“We invested in the decentralized FIO Protocol because we believe that it has the ability to be the usability layer for the entire blockchain ecosystem. As a start, the FIO Protocol will work immediately across every blockchain. … Over time, Binance envisions the open source FIO Protocol becoming a usability standard that every blockchain-related product integrates.”
Joining Binance Labs in the Series A round are crypto investment firms Blockwall Capital, NGC Ventures and LuneX Ventures.
Dapix’s Gold highlighted the FIO Protocol is targeted for mainnet launch in the first quarter of next year. For now, Dapix and the 24 members of the FIO Consortium are testing out aspects of the protocol with the FIO Address Presale.
FIO addresses are meant to simplify the complex wallet addresses normally used to send and receive cryptocurrency payments. Unlike most other tools to simplify wallet addresses, the FIO protocol aims to standardize addresses across all blockchain platforms and applications.
“Our primary goal with the FIO Address Presale is not to generate the most income possible; it’s to generate engagement with the FIO Protocol,” Gold said, adding:
“We want to get as many people to reserve a FIO domain in advance so they’re ready to use it with their FIO-enabled wallet as soon as mainnet goes live.”
David Gold image via ETHDenver 2018
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Blockchain, Cryptocurrency Not Proven Safe Havens Says Investor Mark Mobius
Mark Mobius, major investor and founding partner of Mobius Capital Partners, is still bearish on cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology… with some caveats.
Speaking on CNBC’s The Squawk Box this morning concerning emerging markets and safe-haven asset classes, Mobius said cryptocurrencies, like fiat, are backed by faith and only hold utility as far as others are willing to use them.
“The bottom line is there is a whole generation of people who have faith in the internet, they have faith in these cryptocurrencies…the degree to which a cryptocurrency can enable you to buy something and you believe that to be the case, then that’s fine.”
Mobius said a gold-backed cryptocurrency run on the blockchain would be of interest, however. “If there is a cryptocurrency that is really backed by gold and there is a meaningful agreement and some kind of modern thing connection, then this could be quite interesting,” he said.
On blockchain, the investor remains skeptical. Mobius said the underlying technology itself remains open to attacks.
“I believe blockchain is a very high-risk situation . . . anything that’s created by man can be broken into . . . and it could create a big crises, so I think we have to be very careful with blockchain.”
The statements follow the stablecoin issuer Paxos’ announcement of a gold-backed cryptocurrency earlier today. Tokenized on the ethereum blockchain, Pax Gold (PAXG), entitles holders to a gold bar stored London by Brinks.
Mark Mobius image via CNBC
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Gemini Offers Off-Chain, OTC Desk Trade Support With New Product Launch
Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss’ Gemini crypto exchange just added off-chain and over the counter trade negotiations on its platform.
The features come via Gemini Clearing, an electronic settlement system. According to the firm’s blog posting, Gemini Clearing allows Gemini accounts to negotiate and settle trades between Gemini accounts.
“Such trades can either be arranged bilaterally between two parties or brokered via a third party,” the company said. “Gemini Clearing provides regulated clearing and settlement services for such pre-arranged trades, which helps to ensure timely settlement and mitigate counterparty risk.”
In essence, Gemini Clearing acts as an escrow service for cryptocurrency traders looking to take advantage of Gemini’s customer services.
To be clear, Gemini does not have an OTC desk but rather supports OTC desk trades with the new product.
Based out of New York, Gemini offers six cryptocurrency products including bitcoin, litecoin, bitcoin cash, ethereum, zcash, and the exchange’s stablecoin, the gemini dollar.
Gemini says the new product falls under the exchange’s know your customer/anti-money laundering (KYC/AML) policies, which it holds as the industry standard.
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Cryptomining Malware Targets Back-to-School Students With Fake Textbooks
Security software provider Kaspersky has identified a form of cryptomining malware that has taken root in multiple sites where pirated textbooks are upload and downloaded. The delivery agent, WinLNK.Agent.gen, has been active since 2011 but now its payload is a bit more lucrative for the folks who spread it.
The malware masquerades as a book or essay packed in an executable file which allows the hacker’s command-and-control system to send other pieces of malware, including cryptominers and spam delivery systems, onto an infected computer. How do we know the malware is targeting students? Kaspersky watched its logs and saw “233,000 cases” of malicious essays and “122,000 attacks by malware that was disguised as textbooks.”
“More than 30,000 users tried to open these files [this year],” they wrote.
Downloading out-of-copyright ebooks and library books is quite simple and safe so this malware targets harder-to-find textbooks. Our own quick Google search found a number of ebook versions of various beginning college texts that cost $150 or more online. While most of them were PDFs, there were a number of executable files that were flagged as malware. Far more pernicious, interestingly, are the ads masquerading as download links that send you to malware sites rather than the correct PDF or ePub file. While you can save money pirating these books online – when you can find them – it’s clear the results can sometimes be nasty.
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Paxful Plans to Bring 20 Crypto ATMs to Colombia
A partnership between two cryptocurrency firms could bring 20 new bitcoin ATMs to cities around Colombia.
The bitcoin exchange, Paxful, and crypto ATM company, CoinLogiq, announced the partnership Sept. 5. By integrating the Paxful kiosk feature with CoinLogiq hardware, users will be able to purchase BTC using cash, credit and online debit transfers.
According to Coinatmradar.com, Colombia already boasts 46 bitcoin ATMs, nearly triple the number of all the other terminals located in South America. Further, Paxful conducted a survey of 1,000 random Colombian internet users, and found that nearly 80 percent of Colombians are open to investing in cryptocurrencies.
There are a number of concerns, however. Colombian regulators have thus far exhibited a hardline stance against cryptocurrencies. In 2017, Colombia’s central bank, Banco de la República, decreed crypto does not represent legal tender, while the Superintendencia Financiera (SF) said financial institutions are not authorized to invest, broker, or manage virtual currencies.
Despite these dictates, crypto exchange LocalBitcoins found that transactions made in Colombian pesos spiked 1,200 percent in 2017.
Evidence suggests that demand for crypto in Colombia is at least partially driven by expatriates from neighboring Venezuela. In fact, as previously reported, a cottage industry of crypto exchanges and ATMs has sprouted providing services for Venezuelans to exchange their hyperinflated currency and send remittances back home.
The newly-added ATMs will be placed in shopping centers and other public spots. The machines will allow users to withdraw or deposit cryptocurrencies. Paxful did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
Paxful’s manager for Latin America, Magdiela Rivas, said the partnering firms are also working to place 25 new cryptocurrency ATMs in Peru.
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Facebook’s WhatsApp Seeks Policy Expert to Champion Blockchain in Africa
Facebook’s WhatsApp is looking to hire a blockchain regulation expert in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The messaging app provider recently posted a job opening for a public policy manager who would “work closely with Facebook’s Africa Public Policy team to ensure blockchain technologies and digital payments can play their part in improving Africa’s socio-economic development.”
The job listing does not mention Libra, Facebook’s controversial cryptocurrency project, and it is not clear how involved the hire would be in that initiative. Nor does it mention Calibra, the Facebook subsidiary developing a wallet for the currency.
However, Libra’s stated goals include bringing financial services to underserved people in the developing world, and more specifically, enabling money transfers over WhatsApp.
WhatsApp declined to comment.
The position would be in London or Johannesburg with significant travel time and calls for someone with expertise in blockchain, digital identity and cryptocurrency.
Fertile ground
Acquired by Facebook in 2014, WhatsApp is the most popular messaging app in Africa. Mobile money accounts now surpass bank accounts in the Sub-Saharan region, and it’s the only region in the world where nearly 10 percent of GDP in transactions occurs through mobile money, according to the International Monetary Fund.
Facebook has said it aims to launch Libra in the first half of 2020 but vowed not to until it satisfies concerns expressed by regulators worldwide over the cryptocurrency’s potential impact on everything from privacy to financial stability.
Calibra is also building out a compliance team including a sanctions lead, head of compliance and head of fraud.
All told, Facebook is looking to fill 50 blockchain-related positions, including a public policy manager for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, according to its careers page.
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Paxos Launches Gold-Backed Cryptocurrency – CoinDesk
Many bitcoiners are former gold bugs who believe in “hard money,” so one crypto company is hoping digitized gold will attract more traders.
Paxos, the New York-based exchange and stablecoin issuer, just launched a gold-backed crypto asset called Pax Gold (PAXG), with each ethereum-based token encapsulating the legal title to a physical bar of gold stored in the Brink’s London vault. Pax Gold has been approved by the New York Department of Financial Services.
“It’s not a representation of the commodity, it’s actual legal title to it,” Paxos CEO Chad Cascarilla told CoinDesk. “This is the exact point of the blockchain, the exact premise, that you can now make [assets] easily moveable and divisible and not be tied to a manual, physical process.”
Each token costs the same as an ounce of gold and can be redeemed for a physical bar at partnering institutions such as Bullion Exchanges in New York. Cascarilla said Paxos will expand its list of global partners from the traditional commodities industry to ensure users can claim real gold even if they’re not in London or New York. Plus, the crypto loan startup SALT now offers PAXG-backed loans as well, available in fiat or stablecoins such as PAX, TrueUSD or USDC.
“We’re going to do more products like this where we are taking real-world assets and putting them on the blockchain,” Cascarilla said.
Still, it remains to be seen whether tokenized gold will appeal to crypto enthusiasts. Messari co-founder Dan McArdle told CoinDesk that assets issued by and custodied with centralized entities don’t rival bitcoin’s role as “digital gold.”
“Bitcoin achieves all of gold’s relevant properties, plus a lot more, and is just better gold for the modern era,” McArdle said. “Bitcoin achieves its properties precisely because it has no centralized or federated anchors to the physical world. You simply can’t get the trustless/uncensorable properties of bitcoin if some relatively small set of people/entities has to manage physical objects represented on a blockchain.”
Product-market fit
Paxos will need to find an audience of gold traders who are interested in crypto beyond bitcoin, as traditionalists on both sides are wary of tokens.
Bitcoin skeptics like Roy Sebag, founder of the precious metals custodian Goldmoney, don’t believe a self-custodied, relatively fungible cryptocurrency would bring new and compliant use cases to the broader gold market. It still requires a know-your-customer process.
“There’s zero value being added in terms of a decentralized blockchain,” Sebag said. “A closed system that is permissioned would be fine. We’ve already been doing that for five years.”
Indeed, the World Gold Council estimated gold-backed financial products like exchange-traded funds accounted for nearly $100 billion of the global market holdings in 2018. Paxos’ commodities trading platform, Post-Trade, secured a chunk of that pie by processing precious metal trades since July 2018. Now, with Pax Gold, retail investors will be able to participate in a broader range of digital gold trades beyond institutional platforms.
“We’re acting at that gateway, as a trusted holder of the assets, but also has trusted verifier of participants,” Cascarilla said. “Just like our Pax stablecoin, it’s audited.”
For traders who might want to buy gold on-the-go and then pick it up in another location, Cascarilla believes Pax Gold could offer a regulated alternative to physical ownership.
“You can own that gold but you don’t have to pay a custody fee, and you can send it around the world 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,” he said. “This is a groundbreaking product in the history of gold.”
Paxos CEO Chad Cascarilla image via CoinDesk archives
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