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ICO FINES: The SEC has settled charges with Floyd Mayweather and DJ Khaled after accusing the two of promoting initial coin offering without disclosing that they were paid to do so. Both promoted Centra Tech in social media posts, while Mayweather also touted Stox and Hubii Network.
The move marks the first crackdown on celebrity endorsements after the SEC announced more than a year ago that such actions might be illegal. In particular, it is against the law to promote investment products without disclosing compensation.
Under the terms of the agreements, neither will admit to or deny the charges. Mayweather will pay more than $600,000 in disgorgement and penalties, while Khaled will pay a bit more than $150,000. The two will also each see multi-year bans from promoting any securities products – digital or otherwise. Full Story
IMMEDIATE EFFECT: Just one day after the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control announced it was adding two bitcoin addresses tied to a pair of Iranian individuals to its sanctions list, residents in the country are already seeing an impact.
Some residents in the nation told CoinDesk that they were unable to access ShapeShift, one crypto swap platform, even if they used virtual private networks. In other words, even those trying to conduct lawful transactions are being impacted.
There are further questions about how individuals can avoid interacting with bitcoins that may have been processed by the accused. As trader and developer Sin Saad put it, “How can I know these bitcoin are sanctioned? By constantly checking the Treasury, Federal Reserve, or OFAC website?” Full Story
SCALING TOGETHER: Developers are beginning to rally around ethereum 1x, a proposed upgrade that aims to more quickly improve the usability of the world’s third-largest blockchain.
While the exact code changes that will be included in the upgrade have yet to be settled, active discussions suggest a myriad of different proposals could be activated by June 2019, should a final proposal ultimately be formulated, proposed and approved by users of the ethereum network.
There's even been a suggestion by Afri Schoedon, release manager for the Parity ethereum client, to release the upgrade on its own, separate blockchain network. Nevertheless, there are many voices contending ethereum 1x ought to be activated on the existing blockchain – and soon. Full Story |
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 CoinDesk’s Crypto-Economics Explorer aggregates data points across the industry to measure the size and opportunity of crypto markets. In addition to price and market cap, CoinDesk’s explorer provides users with a comprehensive way to view the crypto-economic forces that shape an asset’s market maturity, growth, and potential. We compared the top two smart contract coins: ETH and EOS for each Friday of this month. We primarily observed the network scores which encompass the activity occurring on the internal blockchain networks. EOS has recently shot up past ETH in network activity due to its blockchain maturing and its unique cost structure. We saw EOS slump back below ETH before shooting back up into a score of about 34 percentage points. Today, EOS sits at 26.31 compared to ETH’s 22.38. Check out the CoinDesk Crypto-Economic Explorer to learn more. |
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| HOLDING: Bitcoin has moved back below $4,000, neutralizing the bullish view put forward by the double bottom breakout on the 4-hour chart. Prices, however, are holding well above $3,771 - low of Wednesday's big green candle - which had confirmed bullish divergence of the 14-day RSI. As a result, the short-term outlook remains bullish. Full Story |
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BEST OF THE BEST FORBES: Blockchain an artificial intelligence (AI) are both nascent technologies with the potential to revolutionize industries. But they are at critical stages in their adoption and advancement. Interestingly, the two different solutions could benefit each other on the road to the “fourth industrial revolution,” says a guest piece from Forbes. Blockchain, says the author, Darryn Pollock, can make AI more “coherent and understandable,” allowing users to track decisions made in machine learning. All such data and related variables could be traced and store on distributed ledgers.. Similarly, AI could boost the efficiency of blockchain “far better than humans, or even standard computing,” says the author. Running blockchains on standard computers as is currently done – with vast amounts of processing power needed to perform tasks such as hashing – is evidence of this. Both technologies have “massive potential”, but their full influence will not be seen for some time – and they will only be effective when tied together, Pollock argues.
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CNBC: The U.S. state of Ohio is hoping to attract blockchain startups with its new bitcoin tax program, state treasurer Josh Mandel told CNBC. The state announced earlier this week that businesses would be able to pay their taxes with bitcoin through BitPay. Allowing bitcoin both makes it easier for taxpayers to file their payments and may encourage tech and financial startups to move to the state. In the future, Mandel hopes that the state will be able to accept other cryptocurrencies, as well as allow individuals to also pay their taxes using digital assets. “We’re doing this to plant the flag in Ohio as a national and international leader in blockchain technology … We really want to roll out the red carpet and welcome all sorts of blockchain companies to Ohio — not just in the cryptocurrency space but in a variety of different use cases,” Mandel explained. THE NEW YORK TIMES: Will blockchain be a boon to the jewelry industry? For industry insiders quoted in a NYT article today, the answer is a big yes. The issues that blockchain has great promise in solving are ethical provenance and authenticity. With so-called blood diamonds emanating from conflict zones, blockchain tracking of could solve the issue of “fragmented and opaque” supply chains they say. The industry is already moving to adopt blockchain for the promising use case. IBM’s Laurence Haziot told the NYT, “Blockchain helps to authenticate, in an instant, the apparent high value of any luxury item – from where it comes from to what it’s made of; from how many hands it has passed through to where and when it has been stored, stocked and delivered.” That’s “extremely important” jewelry and watch industry, she added. There are still barriers, though. Smaller firms in particular may struggle with the technical complexity and high initial costs of setting up. And there’s general lack of awareness to counter. |
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