Friday, November 16, 2018

Banker Has Beef 😡

November 16, 2018

EU Central Banker Calls Bitcoin a 'A Combination of a Bubble, a Ponzi Scheme and an Environmental Disaster'

Meeting of the bankers

The Economics of Payments IX conference, is being held this week in Basel, Switzerland. The conference is hosted by the Bank for International Settlements, also known as the "bank for central banks".

Bankers, economists, academics, and government authorities all attend the conference to discuss the latest happenings in payments and financial markets.

The welcome address was delivered by Benoît Cœuré, who serves on the European Central Bank's executive board. Cœuré set aside a portion of his speech to discuss cryptocurrencies.

'Extremely clever idea'.. or is it?

Not surprisingly, Cœuré is a harsh critic of cryptocurrencies and expressed his opinions during his address. The banker went as far as to call Bitcoin the 'evil spawn of the financial crisis'.

However, Cœuré did acknowledge that Bitcoin is an extremley clever idea, his full quote reads:

"Lightning may strike me for saying this in the Tower of Basel – but Bitcoin was an extremely clever idea. Sadly, not every clever idea is a good idea. The opportunities of the blockchain are many, but the problems of Bitcoin are also plentiful. I believe that Agustín Carstens summed its manifold problems up well when he said that Bitcoin is 'a combination of a bubble, a Ponzi scheme and an environmental disaster.'"

But, banks are adopting the tech

Despite the bankers criticism, central banks are researching and testing cryptocurrency now more than they ever have in the past. According to some studies, two out of every three central banks are at the very least exploring blockchain.

Cœuré did rain on this parade, saying that is is unlikely that any central bank issues a digital currency within the next decade.

REVIEW

Recapping the Bitcoin Cash Hard Fork

The break up is official

Yesterday, the Bitcoin Cash split into two different blockchains, one supporting the new Bitcoin ABC code and one supporting the new Bitcoin SV code.

The event occurred just after 11:00 AM Eastern when the last "common block" was mined and the Bitcoin.com mining pool mined an entirely new block - signifying a chain split.

Now, according to data from Coin Dance, Bitcoin ABC is leading Bitcoin SV by over 30 blocks and controls more than 58% of the network's hash rate.

So...now what?

Well, since two blockchains coexist at the moment, there are two possible outcomes:

Two blockchains coexist in the long term as separate networks
One blockchain gives way to the other

Meanwhile, bystanders are watching carefully to see if Craig Wright, Bitcoin SV's outspoken supporter, will attempt an attack on the Bitcoin ABC network like he threatened earlier this week.

To do so, Wright would attempt to mine empty blocks - blocks without any transactions - on the Bitcoin ABC network to potentially corrupt the blockchain.

Still heated

Regardless of Bitcoin ABC's current lead, there is still heated debate in the community. Insults have even dropped as low as espionage accusations and child pornography claims.

According to Wright, the hash war is a "marathon, not a sprint" and he has a point. Technically mining pools could switch support to Bitcoin SV and begin mining the new blocks. However, so far, it seems Bitcoin ABC has secured a steady lead with no signs of stopping.

TECH

Microsoft Launched its Azure Blockchain Development Kit

Onboarding developers

According to a press release published yesterday, Microsoft is looking to help both individuals and organizations develop blockchain networks through its newly launched blockchain development kit called Azure.

Allegedly, the kit comes fully stocked with SMS and voice interfaces, data monitoring, and off-chain identity features among others.

Azure mostly aims to help developers grasp smart contract development to encourage unique use cases for blockchain technology.

Already in use

According to the release, in October, Azure was integrated with traditional stock exchange Nasdaq to help facilitate transactions, settlement, and more for the platform in the future.

TECHNICALS

Bitcoin's RSI Hits 4-Year Low

📉 What is RSI? RSI is short for Relative Strength Index. RSI is an indicator used by technical analysts to measure the momentum of a stock. The metric is on a scale from 0 to 100. A RSI under 30 indicates an asset is oversold and an RSI of over 70 indicates an asset is over bought.

Indicator hits a low

On Wednesday, Bitcoin crashed almost $1,000 in a day. The dip marked the largest single-day drop in the currency since March 30.

As Bitcoin quickly depreciated, so to did its relative strength index (RSI), which measure the momentum of the asset. The RSI dropped all the way down to 18, which is the lowest value for the indicator since September 2014.

This is a bullish indicator for Bitcoin, the RSI value indicates that Bitcoin has been oversold. The chart below, provided by CoinDesk, shows Bitcoin's price movement along with its RSI:

BITS

But wait, there's more...

The giant Bitcoin rat is back at it again outside on the streets of New York.
Nvidia released its third quarter results and its crypto mining business isn't doing too hot.
Interest from both employers and job seekers in blockchain and cryptocurrency-related jobs has declined in the past year.

MEME