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BUILDING BLOCKS: The going theme at the Scaling Bitcoin conference in Tokyo this weekend was "kaizen," the Japanese concept of continuous improvement.
As explained by Jameson Lopp, a bitcoin developer at Casa, many of the presentations introduced small improvements, “which is arguably preferable to huge overhauls that promise significant improvements but add a lot of complexity and would be contentious.”
Another aspect of the Japanese philosophy is to minimize waste. In keeping with the theme, several presentations touched on unspent transaction outputs (UTXO), especially those that contained bitcoin dust.
This becomes a real problem as nodes are made to store and download all the UTXOs. Sergi Delgado Segura, a cryptocurrency researcher at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, suggested that users should consolidate outputs when fees are low, or consider better coin selection algorithms. Full Story
SALAAM BLOCKCHAIN: Rain Financial revealed that it has become the first cryptocurrency exchange licensed by a central bank in the Persian Gulf.
After spending a year in a fintech sandbox built by the Central Bank of Bahrain, the digital currency exchange is looking to institutional investors to differentiate itself from fellow sandbox member and incumbent crypto exchange BitOasis.
However Rain faces a difficult journey ahead as prospective crypto investors "are waiting for the right regulations to be in place and the right partners," co-founder Yehia Badaway told CoinDesk.
Adoption of crypto in this region has been bogged down by a lack of knowledge around cryptocurrencies and a tense regulatory climate. Full Story
PUNISHED: The popular cryptocurrency project targeting the adult industry, SpankChain, fell victim to a hack over the weekend. In a blog post, the company disclosed that 165.38 ETH (worth around $38,000 at the time) had been lost on Saturday.
Unfortunately, the crypto startup found out about the hack a day after the event took place, at which point the faulty smart contract, SpankLive, was taken down. However, the team guaranteed full refunds to SpankChain users, as soon as SpankLive was rebooted.
From preliminary investigations, the team found that, “the attacker created a malicious contract masquerading as an ERC20 token, where the 'transfer' function called back into the payment channel contract multiple times, draining some ETH each time.” Full Story |
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The latest IMF World Economic Outlook report was just released. While covering the usual international financial trends, it made note of a particular one: cryptocurrencies.
Although the mention was brief, we might be able to infer some meaning. - "Crypto assets" was the nomenclature used. This could be indicative of the IMF more seriously considering other use cases outside of money as impactful on the current system. Such use cases could be in real estate, art, debt, equities, etc.
- "Continued rapid growth": Even with most cryptocurrencies losing 70-100 percent of their value over the past year, the IMF affirmed a positive trend. They seem to implicitly recognize that price isn't the only metric that matters, and that continued overall growth in the sector has not diminished.
- "New vulnerabilities": This suggests that prior considerations of the crypto phenomenon were viewed as less disruptive. Perhaps with the introduction of alternative use cases, those presiding over the traditional international financial system have more to worry about than they originally thought.
For more research insights check out the CoinDesk Research section here. You can also follow CoinDesk's research analyst Peter Ryan on Twitter for the latest insights. |
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| | DITHERING ALONG: Though investors are still awaiting a definitive move by bitcoin, the cryptocurrency saw a bullish breakout around midday yesterday, confirming billionaire investor Novogratz's comment that bitcoin has defined a long-term bottom at around $6,000. Full Story |
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BEST OF THE BEST
ZDNET: The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation's (CSIRO) Data61 is exploring using blockchain to manage insurance payments in Australia, ZDNet reported.
The federal government's National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) ensures individuals and their carers receive different funding amounts that can be spent on specific services.
Under Data61's proposal, smart contracts would be used to direct precise funding amounts for these specific uses.
THE REST
THE COEUR D'ALENE PRESS: Karambu, a crypto startup in a small city in northwestern Idaho, aims to develop enterprise-level blockchain hardware. According to this local news outlet, co-founder Travis Jank has experience building the world’s fastest computers, servers, and workstations.
He sees a need for improved hardware to support blockchains going into the future, emphasizing that, “It’s not bitcoin that matters, it’s blockchain that matters.”
ASIA TIMES: Blockchain is set to have a permanent home in the Hainan province. As reported by the Asia Times on Tuesday, Oxford’s Blockchain Research Centre has partnered with the Hainan Resort Software Community (RSC) to establish an official blockchain pilot zone.
Reportedly, this is aimed at attracting crypto talent from around the world to bring China to the forefront of blockchain innovation.
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