Coinbase's big day

To view this email as a web page, go here.

Sponsored by   October 24, 2018 COINBASE QUALIFIED:​ Crypto exchange Coinbase has received official approval to launch a qualified custodian from the New York Department of Financial Services. The new Coinbase Custody Trust Company LLC will be able to hold bitcoin, bitcoin cash, ethereum, ethereum classic, litecoin and XRP. Coinbase already offers its customers access to the first five of those cryptocurrencies via its exchange services, but has not offered XRP to date. The firm is the latest to receive approval to launch a cryptocurrency-focused trust company in recent months. On the same day, Coinbase also announced it is launching support for buying, selling and trading of Circle's USD//Coin, the U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin launched last month. Full Stories BITCOIN CHALLENGE: Bitcoin enthusiasts have the opportunity to win 0.31 bitcoin, or about $2,000, from the 310 BTC Bitcoin Challenge during its final round. An artist going by the name "Pip" hid the recovery codes for four bitcoin wallets holding 310.61 BTC in a black-and-white image earlier this month, allowing the broader community to win the funds by solving the puzzle.  In its first eight days, users have found the keys to three of the wallets, winning the grand prize of 310 BTC in the process. However, the final wallet's puzzle is more complex, according to Pip. Full Story STELLAR STABLECOIN: An Australian payments processor, the Novatti Group, has just launched a stablecoin built on the Stellar network. Unlike many prominent stablecoins, though, this new token will be pegged to the Australian dollar (AUD), rather than the U.S. dollar. The firm told CoinDesk that it anticipates users will be able to purchase goods and services from Australian enterprises using the cryptocurrency, dubbed the Novatti AUD Utility Token. The token will be backed by AUD held in a trust, and is slated for launch on Nov. 19. Full Story CoinDesk Research tracks many different metrics in the crypto economy. Developer interest is important in determining the software activity for each individual crypto's underlying technology. We observed contributors on each cryptocurrency's unique software repository on GitHub, the popular development website, for Tuesday, October 23. A contributor is someone who has contributed to a project by having a pull request merged but does not have collaborator access. BTC had the highest share at 13 percent followed by QTUM at 11.5 percent. QTUM overperforms its 27th rank in market cap in grabbing that 2nd place. Simarily LTC, ranked 7th in market cap, ranks 3rd in contributors. It's important to note that GitHub development is not representative of all development that occurs within a specific crypto ecosystem. Decentralized developers could be writing code under the radar. Also, private companies could be building technology around these platforms that's not shown directly in GitHub. For more research insights check out the CoinDesk Research section here. SPONSOR SECTION   Consensus: Invest is for institutional investors that are looking for an outlook on where the crypto asset market is headed in 2019.  We have leading speakers including Mark Casady from Vestigo Ventures, Glenn Hutchins from North Island & Silver Lake and Mark Yusko from Morgan Creek Capital Management.  We also have leading analysts including Spencer Bogart from Blockchain Capital, Ari Paul from BlockTower and Tuur Demeester from Adamant Capital. Don't miss this full day event on November 27th here in New York. Register Now   SMOOTH SAILING: Today marks bitcoin’s ninth consecutive day in the narrow range of $6,360–$6,480, but traders shouldn’t stray too far from the computer since dull markets often come to a boisterous conclusion. In the meantime, altcoin traders can shift their gaze to today’s leading cryptocurrency in the top 10, XRP, which might be charting a technical pattern of bullish continuation. BEST OF THE BEST FORTUNE: In Fortune’s latest “Balancing the Ledger” episode, Dominic Williams, president and chief scientist of Dfinity, explained how the cloud startup is able to achieve decentralized governance to keep anonymous entities on the network within the law. Williams said the startup’s envisioned decentralized computers have an algorithmic governance system that can shut down proposals that could harm the network, citing “assassination markets” as an example. Still, the piece raised the possibility that the system might approve actions that “regulators (and many citizens) would consider harmful to society,” such as opioid distribution markets. THE REST  TECHCRUNCH: A new crypto project has launched to let token holders upvote content on websites, according to TechCrunch. PlusOneCoin effectively rewards users for accessing and interacting with social media content and is apparently already tradable on exchanges. A co-founder told TC that “+1 coin” (see what they did there?) can help monetize websites and give users “more power to affect the social media content they consume.” FORBES: The travel industry is set to see major changes, thanks to blockchain and a partnership between IBM and travel commerce platform Travelport, says a Forbes piece. The two companies are exploring emerging technologies such as blockchain and artificial intelligence for increased efficiency and privacy in the travel industry – in particular seeking specific digital ledger use cases that would benefit consumers.  Integrating booking systems, reducing the need to manually update travel agency systems, minimizing lost reservations and other issues and opening up industry data silos are some of the areas the companies are looking at to improve travelers’ overall experiences.   We've launched our first-ever podcast, "Late Confirmation," a digest of top stories in the blockchain world, delivered daily from the team at CoinDesk. Listen to Latest Episode and Subscribe   WHO WON #CRYPTOTWITTER   ConsenSys Jobs Blockchain Jobs Circle Jobs BitGo Jobs Copyright © 2018 CoinDesk. All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: 250 Park Avenue South New York, NY, 10003, US Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list