THE MARKETS - BTC: $6,538.01 | -$96.22 (-1.45%) since last week
- ETH: $222.68 | +$2.85 (+1.3%) since last week
- LTC: $57.98 | +$3.72 (-6.03%) since last week
| | MUST KNOW
Biggest news story: Ripple's XRP crypto product has gone live for the first time
In another first for the cryptocurrency startup, Ripple's xRapid payment protocol has officially gone live. Announced at the company's annual Swell conference this week, the protocol is now available for use by financial services firms.
This is what we know: - The new protocol will act as a "bridge" between currencies, and is specifically designed to enable faster, more seamless cross-border transactions. Banks like Santander are presently experimenting with similar products, but Ripple's is the first to go live in full.
- xRapid has undergone limited testing at payment companies like Western Union and MoneyGram, but it hasn't yet picked up any paying pilot customers (which makes sense, as it's still early). Banks in emerging markets are looked at as strong contenders to be the first to use the xRapid platform, as their regulations around digital assets are more forward-looking than countries like the US or China.
- Despite its biggest product announcement to date, the price of XRP has been struggling ever since. At one point, the Ripple cryptocurrency declined by 13% after the announcement. This market challenge is indicative of a wider trend in crypto that's seeing tokens increase in value before key announcements and then decline after (the inverse of most normal market dynamics on Wall Street).
Bitcoin Core 0.17.0 Is Released: Here's What's New
This week saw the 17th release of the Bitcoin Core platform, which remains the dominant Bitcoin implementation on the web today. The 0.17.0 release is full of new features, as well as some key performance improvements and bug fixes.
This is what we know: - This release of Bitcoin Core includes support for more efficient coin selection through the "Branch and Bound" algorithm, which was designed by a former BitGo engineer. The algorithm calculates fees for each chunk before a transaction is conducted, and matches different chunks to avoid changing addresses mid-transaction.
- With Bitcoin Core, users can now easily create and use multiple new wallets. Wallets can now be created at anytime, and even better, they're now available through Bitcoin's GUI.
- Bitcoin Core can now handle complex, multi-signature transactions easier than ever through the implementation of Partially Signed Bitcoin Transaction (PSBT) framework. This new feature allows users to partially sign a multi-signature transaction before passing it on to the next user in the transaction.
Federal Court Finds that Virtual Currencies Are Commodities
In a key court ruling this week, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) ruled that virtual currencies should be considered commodities from both an economic and legal standpoint.
This is what we know: - The CFTC ruling revolves around My Big Coin (MBC), a virtual currency that has been around since 2014. Its owners have allegedly made repeated false claims about the currency's value and defrauded customers of more than $6M in fiat currency in the process.
- This is the first ruling in which the CFTC has taken a firm stance on cryptocurrencies. By ruling that virtual currencies should be treated as commodities, the CFTC is setting a clear legal precedent that will increase the legitimacy of virtual currencies within the US.
- The case also confirms that the US government is taking virtual currency fraud seriously, and will be taking serious measures to combat it moving forward.
| | GOOD READS
Here's how China's crackdown helped Binance become the world's largest crypto exchange
This in-depth profile details exactly how China's tighter regulations on crypto pushed Binance to leave the country, re-incorporate in Malta, and become the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange in the process.
Institutional investors are starting to use this backdoor for crypto purchases
Institutional investors are already moving into the crypto market, but most of their trading volume remains obscure. This is due to most institutions leveraging private brokers to conduct crypto purchases, for the time being at least.
Visa and Mastercard have yet to be disrupted by crypto and blockchain
Bitcoin is fizzling out as a method of payment, but other digital payments solutions (Visa and MasterCard among them) are still going strong. Just like crypto, these payment providers also benefit from network effects, and this competitive moat continues to be seen even today.
This is a great index of where to find all of the best Dapps out today
This report from Blocktimes is an excellent rundown of all the best Dapp resources on the market today. Though the overall number of Dapps on the market today is still low, they're rapidly growing in number - and the trend looks set to continue in the months ahead.
Bitmex has released a new piece of research on Ethereum holdings in ICO treasury accounts
According to a recent study done by Bitmex, most Ethereum projects seem to have sold almost as much crypto as they've raised - meaning that many projects still have unrealized gains, instead of massive losses.
A new documentary shows how a man with 1 BTC is traveling the world using crypto
After purchasing 1 Bitcoin early last year, one entrepreneur decided to set off a journey around the world, using nothing but crypto. He's now producing a documentary on the topic, which is set to be released later this year.
There's a simple explanation for why Nvidia isn't going all-in on crypto
This article does a good job of summing why, despite servicing massive demand for crypto mining GPUs earlier in the year, Nvidia has to date shied away from offering standalone crypto mining offerings. | | COMMUNITY NEWS - Bithumb has announced plans to launch a global decentralized exchange platform. Link
- Yale University is said to invest in crypto fund that raised $400 million. Link
- Tiger Global is in talks to invest up to $500B in Coinbase at a $8B valuation. Link
- Binance is investing $2.5M in Australian blockchain startup Travelby. Link
- Meet MoneyTap, the Ripple-powered app for domestic payments in Japan. Link
- Acinq has raised $1.7M to double down on Lightning development. Link
- John McAfee and Roger Ver talk crypto, investing, and more on the most recent Blockchain Cruise. Link
- One of India's largest crypto exchanges, Zebpay, has just shut down. Link
- TokenData has just released its ICO funding report for September. Link
- A vote buying scandal is stoking fears around EOS's potential for failure. Link
- Coinbase is hiring a Business Operations Lead in Tokyo. Link
- Join the North American Bitcoin Conference in Miami on January 16-18. Link
- We just added 17 new crypto companies, 103 new ICOs, 1 new exchange and 1 new crypto media outlet to CryptoList. Link
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