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DECENTRALIZING WORK? Misthos, a new multi-signature bitcoin wallet created on top of Blockstack's platform, could point the way toward future models of employment that reflect the ethos of crypto.
The wallet is designed to distribute income between members of project teams, investment partnerships and other ad hoc ventures. Misthos requires that every payout be unanimously approved by partners of the venture, replacing traditional contracts and salaries with team consensus about the value of individual contributions.
"It helps us create a transparent environment where contributions are rewarded fairly and democratically," said Marcel Kasper of Coin Trainer, a German bitcoin publication that is already using Misthos. Some deliberations, however, inevitably must happen offline, experts say. Full story
ONE-STOP SHOP: IBM and the currency trading utility CLS today unveiled LedgerConnect, a blockchain "app store" which boasts megabanks Barclays and Citigroup among its nine founding members.
The platform is designed to be a hub of DLT-based services for banks for such purposes as know-your-customer processes, sanctions screening, collateral management, derivatives post-trade processing and reconciliation and market data. Full Story
NEW PLACE FOR DAPPS: A team of former Alibaba employees have raised $20 million for Ultrain, a platform for dApps.
The combined token and equity sale attracted such investors as token funds Draper Dragon, FBG Capital, DanHua VC and Arrington XRP Capital; blockchain startups Bixin and OKCoin; and VC funds Morningside Capital and Ceyuan Capital.
Launched in October 2017, Ultrain is said to process 3,000 transactions per second on a testnet. Full story |
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Q2 saw $1.1 bn in venture capital funding for blockchain firms and 178 deals. Compared to last quarter, funding grew by 24 percentage points and deal count by 18 percentage points.
All-time venture funding in the blockchain space has reached a cumulative $4.3 bn, which is almost a quarter of the cumulative ICO total. About three quarters of venture activity occurs in rounds of $10 mn or less.
The biggest deals were for miner and mining equipment manufacturer Bitmain, at an estimated $300 mn, and crypto mobile payment platform Circle, at $110 mn.
A more novel funding method that hybridizes ICOs and VC is the Simple Agreement for Future Tokens (SAFT) and it's becoming more common. 37 SAFT deals resulted in about $304 mn in Q2 funding.
The top geographic areas for total SAFT activity are San Francisco ($289 mn), Austin ($126 mn), Grand Cayman ($97 mn), and Waterloo ($50 mn).
Learn these insights and more in CoinDesk's Q2 State of Blockchain report. More research |
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| | BEARS PACIFIED: Bitcoin is changing hands at $8,170 on Bitfinex, and technical charts show room for a rally to recent highs above $8,500. Full story |
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BEST OF THE BEST
NEW YORK TIMES: The paper offers an overview of the most crypto-friendly jurisdictions and what they offer to blockchain entrepreneurs.
Bermuda, Malta, Gibraltar, Liechtenstein and, of course, the famous Swiss canton of Zug, are competing for the title of a blockchain heaven now, introducing new regulations for ICOs and cryptocurrency trading while the traditional leaders in world finance deliberate and dither.
THE REST
BLOOMBERG: Mike Novogratz’s crypto merchant bank will soon be listed on a Toronto stock exchange after months navigating regulatory thickets. But he sounds kind of lukewarm about the debut, given how the markets changed while he was awaiting approval.
“Unfortunately, the Canadian capital markets aren’t roaring anymore," Novogratz told Bloomberg. “I have faith that they will come back."
FORTUNE: Ahead of Bitmain's coming IPO in Hong Kong, the magazine obtained internal financial documents showing that the company made $1.1 billion in the first quarter of 2018, almost equal to the 2017 total of $1.2 billion.
A conservative estimate from the magazine’s source is that Bitmain could make $2 billion to $3 billion for the full year.
JACOBITE MAGAZINE: Sonya Mann, a former tech journalist who works for the Zcash Foundation, offers a philosophical take on the impact of cryptocurrency on society.
Comparing oppressive states and centralized financial systems to an abusive spouse, she writes that someone who feels trapped in such a relationship has two options: voice or exit, i.e. speaking up for your rights or building an alternative. P2P networks such as crypto offer an exit of sorts. |
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