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ETHEREUM DRAMA: After a few months of quiet, a polarizing debate in the ethereum community has returned with a vengeance.
At issue is whether the world’s second-largest blockchain should conduct a system-wide software upgrade to help users reclaim $239 million worth of ether (ETH) lost due to a startup's coding mishap.
But the fight is not only over the merits of ethereum improvement proposal (EIP) 999 (which critics call a bailout) but also the process for reviewing and accepting such proposals. Full Story
MILESTONE: Augur, a decentralized platform for creating prediction markets, has successfully resolved its first markets, as payments of ether worth about $20,000 were paid out to its first users.
The peer-to-peer platform, which conducted its initial coin offering (ICO) almost three years ago, only went live on ethereum last week after years of rigorous beta testing. The work seems to have paid off as the platform has experienced only minor issues so far. Full Story
ONE GAME, TWO BLOCKCHAINS: The team behind Etheremon, a blockchain version of Pokemon, will move the gameplay from ethereum to Zilliqa, a blockchain protocol that will be launched soon, due to poor user experience and a dropping number of daily active players.
However, they won’t move the game’s asset, a non-fungible token (NFT), to Zilliqa, which will make Etheremon a dapp on two blockchains: one, Zilliqa, to allow users to play the game faster and more cheaply; the other, ethereum, to secure their hard-won digital collectibles. Full Story
RESEARCH BLAST
ICOs show no sign of slowing down. Q2 saw an approximate $7.2 billion in ICO funding along with 192 ICOs. This past quarter has brought the cumulative total to a whopping $19 billion.
The most notable ICO close was EOS with $4.2 billion, making up 58% of the Q2 total and 22% of the cumulative. EOS had a unique, year-long ICO raise period that gave it more time to collect funds.
Learn more research insights in CoinDesk's Q2 State of Blockchain coming on Monday. More research |
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SPONSOR SECTION
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ALL EYES ON 8K: After a minor pullback yesterday, the price of bitcoin will likely move toward $8,000, following a bullish trend on the technical charts. Full Story
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BEST OF THE BEST
AMERICAN BANKER: Abra, a fintech startup based in Silicon Valley, recently announced that it has started to accept credit cards to buy bitcoin, which raised the question once again if major banks should allow people to buy cryptocurrencies this way.
The ban on crypto credit card purchases by Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Capital One and Discover took effect back in February after the values of several cryptocurrencies dropped. But Abra said that it believes the core issue lies with the systems inside the banks.
“A lot of U.S. banks that haven’t rolled out 3-D Secure and other technologies have different chargeback rules because they’re still behind in the technology curve,” Bill Barhydt, Abra's CEO, said. “So they’ve been reluctant to process crypto transactions.”
Speaking of Abra, be sure to check out Barhydt's new CoinDesk op-ed on stablecoins. He claims they'll play a more transformative role than many realize.
THE REST
BLOOMBERG: Several insurance companies have identified the cryptocurrency sector as "a big opportunity" and have started to offer crypto-heist insurance — a product that the news wire describes as "the hot new play in [the] bitcoin Wild West."
Among the insurers that are writing these policies, Aon is one of the major players. It claims to have a 50 percent market share and just adjusted its standard policy form to speed up the underwriting process.
SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST: Echoing the trend during the “dot-com” bubble of the late 1990s, China has seen a surge in new companies with names associated with “blockchain,” SCMP reports.
According to data from a Chinese government website, between January and July 16, 3,078 companies registered names with the word "qukuailian" (the Chinese translation of blockchain), up from 555 for all of last year.
The figure also dwarfs the 817 U.S. companies and 335 U.K. companies using "blockchain" in their registered names. |
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WHO WON #CRYPTOTWITTER  |
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