BEST OF THE BEST BLOOMBERG: As bitcoin ATM (BTM) coverage and user numbers climb, Bloomberg looks at the darker side of the growing industry. Despite the market downturn this year that has seen bitcoin’s price drop by over 80 percent, it says, the BTM industry is flourishing and, worryingly, the machines (which exchange cryptos for fiat money) provide “
perfect vehicles for cleaning dirty cash.”
As the piece notes, setting up a BTM in the U.S. is easy, and merely requires registration for a federal money transmission license on the Treasury's website. That can take just 15 minutes. In theory, such business must comply with anti-money laundering laws, yet some are openly advertising their services as anonymous.
And since bitcoin bought at the machines could be sent to wallets owned by anyone, even drug cartels, they are ripe for use as a means to transact dirty money, the piece argues. “If I were a crook, I would be searching for the ATM with the least requirements and highest daily limit,” said one industry insider.
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THE NEXT WEB: A recent valuation of bitcoin based on real-world factors by Fundstrat’s Tom Lee
is plain wrong, according to a piece in the FT.
Lee had written in a Bloomberg article that bitcoin’s “fair value,” accounting for active wallet addresses, account usage and other factors is “between $13,800 and $14,800.” The difference between that price and what bitcoin is actually trading for currently (around $3,300), he put down to last year’s record-breaking price rally, “a “meltdown” in the macroeconomic climate and treasury sales during initial coin offerings.”
Not so fast, says the FT; what economic meltdown? Global GDP is set to grow 3.1 percent this year, while, among other factors, the "plain weird" Treasury sales comment ignores that fact that the Fed had said it would stop buying Treasuries months before the price mania in 2017.
OZY: Several African countries have turned to blockchain to tackle major issues
affecting their economies, says a piece from Ozy.com. For instance, Tanzania has removed thousands of "ghost workers" from the public sector that existed only on paper and cost the country a monthly outflow of $195.4 million in fake salaries.
Nigeria, Ethiopia and Ghana are also exploring blockchain tech to fight corruption, while the Ethiopian government is looking to monitor the supply chain of one of its main exports, coffee, and help boost the incomes of growers.
This shift is not a fad, according to experts cited in the piece, but is recognition of the transformative potential of blockchain tech. Importantly, local blockchain firms are also involved in the effort.
“What’s truly exciting is that Africa is building whole new stacks of technology, infrastructure and decentralized applications that fit the continent’s particular needs,” says Jason Eisen, founder and CEO of Nairobi-based startup Utu.
