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FORECAST THIS: Three years after raising $5 million in one of the earliest ICOs, and two years after launching a beta version, the Augur prediction market is finally live. Since it's one of the most complex applications to be launched on top of ethereum, some wonder if Augur could cause a CryptoKitties-style bottleneck on the blockchain. Maybe that's an outcome users can bet on (or against). Full Story
THEM'S FIGHTIN' WORDS: A People's Bank of China official issued a stern warning to foreign ICO promoters who illictly market tokens to Chinese investors. "We will crush them as soon as they dare to surface," vice governor Pan Gongsheng said. No word on whether he pounded his shoe on the desk for emphasis. Full Story
JUMP START: CoinGate is trying to bring critical mass to the lightning network. The payment processing startup is enabling 100 merchants (including the adult entertainment site LiveJasmin) to accept bitcoin sent via the second-layer technology. Since lightning is still considered not-ready-for-prime-time, CoinGate is absorbing the risk of something going awry, guaranteeing the merchant gets paid. Full Story |
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SPONSOR SECTION
 At Finova Financial, we see blockchain and crypto replacing Wall Street with something bigger and better. Taking business and investment to the blockchain will lower barriers to entry while creating a more transparent and agile environment for enterprises and entrepreneurs. Visit our website and see what blockchain and crypto pioneers like Jeremy Gardner and Finova’s Gregory Keough have to say. Learn More |
ON GUARD: Bitcoin is on the defensive today, and technical charts indicate a potential for deeper losses in the next few days should the bulls fail to defend the key moving average support. Full Story
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BEST OF THE BEST
Will tokens and smart contracts make corporations as we know them obsolete?
Bloomberg columnist Matt Levine considers, in his inimitable way, the recent trend of stock buybacks among publicly traded companies in the context of blockchain innovations. If "crypto-gig-utopians" are right, Levine says, and the new tech is reducing the transaction costs that made firms a necessary form of industrial organization (shoutout to Ronald Coase ), then the buyback boom represents "a small step toward a future where the perpetual corporation just doesn't matter that much."
THE REST
THE INFORMATION: The tech news site profiles Digital Currency Group (DCG) founder Barry Silbert, with details on the financial performance of the investment firm's portfolio companies.
BLOOMBERG: About half of crypto startups that raise money through ICOs do not survive four months after concluding their token sales, a Boston College study found after reviewing over 4,000 ICOs. The study also indicates investors should sell their coins within the first six months after the token sales. Acquiring coins in the token sale and selling them on the first day is the safest strategy, Leonard Kostovetsky, one of the researchers, said.
THE SUN: The British tabloid looks at the Seasteading Institute's plan to build a floating town in the South Pacific with its own government — and its own cryptocurrency, known as varyon, which is in pre-sale right now and "will be required for the purchasing of housing and building of new seasteads." Oddly, the article asserts, matter-of-factly, that "virtual currencies like bitcoin are dying out." Don't they know that's a losing game?
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