Crypto in Syria

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Sponsored by   October 11, 2018 CRYPTO IN ROJAVA: A region home to 4 million people in Northern Syria is looking to cryptocurrency as a way to overcome economic sanctions. Rojava, also known as the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria, has spent the last six years at war for its territory. Now under a fragile peace, the region is under economic sanctions from all sides – Turkey, Iran, Syria, Iraq. In the midst of this uncertainty, however, those backing the state are putting a new emphasis on monetary independence. Amir Taaki, a prominent bitcoin developer and co-creator of the Dark Wallet, is assisting this change. Erselan Serdem, a leader of Rojava's technological development, believes that the idea of democratic confederalism can prosper with the help of technology. "You need technology to spend less water, you need technology to have an equal relation with the earth, you need technology to use networks, like the blockchain. We see blockchain as a practical network in society that people use," Serdem told CoinDesk. FULL STORY BLOCKCHAIN GOES TO WASHINGTON: A group of U.S. senators heard from famed economist Nouriel Roubini and Coin Center research director Peter Van Valkenburgh today during a hearing on hte technology.  In prepared statements Roubini argued for stringent regulations and altcoins, which he referred to as 'shitcoins'. He went as far as to apologise to manure for the comparison. Meanwhile, Van Valkenburgh proposed a ‘light touch’ approach, similar to the Clinton administration’s approach to the internet in the 90s. Although in his statements he acknowledged the hype around the space, saying that, “blockchain technology is a vague undefined buzzword.” FULL STORY BUY-OUT TO BAIL-OUT: Fisco, a publicly listed investment firm in Japan, has signed an agreement to take over the Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Zaif. Zaif was hacked in late September, resulting in the loss of some $60 million in cryptocurrencies, including nearly 6,000 bitcoin. Fisco will be repaying the customers of Zaif with their personal bitcoin holdings. The complete business transfer is set for the 22nd of November. Tech Bureau, the company that operated Zaif, plans to dissolve its cryptocurrency exchange business and cancel its license with the Financial Services Agency. FULL STORY Ouch: most cryptocurrencies saw their prices tumble in the past 24 hours. Looking at the major coins, the biggest drop was -13.33 percentage points for XRP's price and the smallest was -4.28 percentage points for bitcoin. About 50 percent of XRP's recent exchange volume occurred on Bitbank, Binance, Bithumb, Upbit, and Bitfinex. About 37 percent of BTC's occurred on BitMEX, an exchange that offers leveraged trading. 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. SPONSOR SECTION   The $500 Retirement Blueprint The Wall Street Journal reports that this innovation "blows open the doors to investing..." Forbes says that "this changes everything..." And if you click here now, we'll share the details behind this investing breakthrough »   BEARS ROAR:  After weeks of lateral movement, late Wednesday evening Bitcoin stumbled and dropped to $6,252, thus leaning heavily towards a bear market. Some have cited many reasons for such a future, including the overall bearish trend that the cryptocurrency has shown in long-term charts. Full Story BEST OF THE BEST WALL STREET JOURNAL: The best intentions are often fraught with disappointment, and WSJ reports that this is the case for blockchain-for-journalism startup Civil. The plan to seamlessly integrate blockchain into journalism space is struggling to gain support and recognition from key players in the media world, with former executive Daniel Sieberg questioning its business model.  Jeff Jarvis, the director of the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, summed up the thoughts of media companies best when he said: “If I wanted to give money to a site, I could just give it to them. Where is the value created? I can’t get my head around it.” THE REST  YAHOO NEWS: The SEC is closing in on ICO-funded startups that it suspects of not following the letter of U.S. law, according to Yahoo.  The joint report between Yahoo News and Decrypt traces the history of the SEC’s crypto regulations, touching upon how companies are dealing with subpoenas from the agency and how they plan to refund investors if deemed fraudulent. To the SEC, there is no ambiguity – it is fairly clear that they apply the same “sniff” tests to ICOs as it would security offerings. THE OBSERVER: Perhaps unwilling to be left behind, the fine art industry has embraced blockchain with open arms. The Observer noted that the Blockchain Art Collective is focused on standardizing the sale of art, in an attempt to reduce the sales of stolen and fake artwork. Under their system, the artwork is given a sticker of authenticity,;the certificates of authenticity and sale history of a particular piece of art are then stored on a blockchain, and buyers are given a "microchip of authenticity" when they buy a piece.      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. 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