David Marcus / Saudi Arabia / Scammers / Turkey

Subscribe | View in browser Here are today's ten most important Bitcoin stories, efficiently ranked & summarized by smart humans, not algorithms: $BTC (1:35 p.m. EST): $6,227.31 (-1.79%) // 90-day high: $8,362.59 // 90-day low: $5,755.25/ / More… $BCH (1:35 p.m. EST): $536.44 (-6.65%) // 90-day high: $1,663.91// 90-day low: $599.46 // More… $ETH (1:35 p.m. EST): $290.73 (-10.07%) // 90-day high: $790.72 // 90-day low: $290.75 // More… $LTC (1:36 p.m. EST): $56.78 (-5.00%) // 90-day high: $162.87 // 90-day low: $56.78 // More… $XRP (1:36 p.m. EST): $0.29 (-4.69%) // 90-day high: $0.86 // 90-day low: $0.22 // More… Here are the 10 most important stories about bitcoin and cryptocurrencies today       1. Facebook's David Marcus has left the board of Coinbase. The move raises speculation that Facebook's blockchain project, which Marcus currently leads, has progressed. Marcus joined Coinbase's board in December of 2017 and said he decision to resign was to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest. While little is known about Facebook's blockchain project, there is speculation that the social network wants to create its own payments network. –BUSINESS INSIDER       Trade smarter with Quadency: The future of crypto asset investing Sign up Free for early acces Quadency is a unified crypto asset trading platform for both active traders and long term investors. Say goodbye to logging in and out of exchange accounts and missed opportunities with a holistic, real-time picture of your portfolio AND advanced trading features built right in. For an ad-free experience, upgrade to Inside Premium       2. Saudi Arabian officials have issued a statement reaffirming the illegality of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The announcement comes after a number of web sites and social media accounts began promoting cryptocurrencies in the country. Saudi Arabia's Capital Market Authority said that none of these web sites or social media accounts are authorized by government officials and have been providing false information. The authority went on to warn citizens about the volatility of the cryptocurrency market and the potential for scams. –ARABIAN BUSINESS       3. Free "ETH Giveaway" scams make between $50,000 and $100,000 per day. That number comes from a scammer who Cryptocurrency evangelist and YouTuber Adam Guerbuenz claims to have interviewed. Guerbuenz came across one of the scams and sent the account some questions. The process for scammers is fairly straightforward once the necessary bots are set up. "Well, the process from generating accounts, to tweeting to rotating ETH wallet address is all done automatic by our bots," the scammer said. "The only manual process is cashing out." -BITCOINIST       4. Cryptocurrency mining has become a popular activity in college dorms. Students use both the school's power and connectivity to mine the coins and then keep the profits. Universities have begun to create policies against crypto mining because of the electricity costs it can bring, along with concerns about overheating small dorm rooms that lack adequate cooling. –NEWS BTC       5. The Turkish Lira has lost half its value since January, leading to increased use of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in the country. The Lira recently slid to all-time lows against the U.S. dollar over a raft of geopolitical factors. Volumes at Turkish bitcoin exchanges have jumped 150 percent in the last week alone, as interest in the cryptocurrency has also increased. –COIN TELEGRAPH       6. A 22-year-old Finnish man was scammed out of $24 million worth of cryptocurrencies. Authorities said the victim, Aarni Otava Saarimaa, became convinced to invest in shares of three companies, including a casino. He met with a group of men pretending to be Thai businessmen. While the story gets more complex, Saarimaa sent them 5,500 bitcoins only to see them disappear. The money was liquefied and distributed to seven bank accounts. The case is still under investigation. -MASHABLE 7. An analyst believes bitcoin could fall to $4,000 per coin in the coming weeks. The drop could come as investors have become fixated on government approval of an ETF, something that may not come anytime soon. -FORBES 8. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin called Zcash "cool." Buterin's comments serve as a validation for Zcash, which has been largely praised in the cryptocurrency community for its privacy features. –ETHEREUM WORLD NEWS 9. Is a $1 trillion market cap in crypto's future? Maybe, but a number of things must happen first. -BITCOINIST 10. Bitcoin investing has created tax problems for hedge funds. The IRS has said that it will take a harder stance on crypto-enforcement in the coming year, as well. -BLOOMBERG       From the Forums DutchX is paving the road towards a decentralized exchange. Litecoin is bitcoin's sidechain. Censorship.       Written and curated by David Stegon. He has been a reporter for 15 years, the past 10 focused on technology. Follow him @davidstegon. Editing team: Lon Harris (editor-in-chief at Inside.com, game-master at Screen Junkies), Krystle Vermes (Breaking news editor at Inside, B2B marketing news reporter, host of the "All Day Paranormal" podcast), and Susmita Baral (editor at Inside, recent bylines in NatGeo, Teen Vogue, and Quartz. Runs the biggest mac and cheese account on Instagram).

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Chain of drones

Drone startup to use blockchain as "trust layer"; Nebulas ICO team agrees to 10-year lockup

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Sponsored by   August 13, 2018 SKIN IN THE GAME: The team behind the Nebulas project, a Beijing-based protocol valued at $64 million, said that they will wait voluntarily for up to a decade before they can get their hands on the 20 million tokens they will earn for their labor. The project, powered by the top-100 cryptocurrency NAS, raised $60 million in an initial coin offering (ICO) last December. At the time, 20 percent of the initial supply of NAS tokens was set aside for the team and founders to be released over a three-year period. The revised multi-year vesting schedule is considered by some to be “a standard for new token companies.” Full Story TOGETHER AT LAST: It sounds like a match made in Silicon Valley, but this project combining drones with blockchain technology is based in Russia. SKYF envisions deploying these flying robots to deliver heavy cargo, fight fires and spray fertilizer on crops, among other uses. Why do you need a blockchain for that? According to the company, the technology can create “a trust layer between stakeholders,” including leasing and insurance companies and manufacurers, government agencies and licensing bodies. The project has also registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to raise $30 million in an initial coin offering. Full Story FORBIDDEN: Regulators in Saudi Arabia reiterated that cryptocurrency trading is illegal in the kingdom. A governmental committee said that the ban was due to "negative consequences and high risks on traders as they are out of government supervision." Notably, the warning follows a critical remark by Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal back in Demeber, in which he said bitcoin is "just going to implode one day." Full Story The CoinDesk Sentiment Survey reaches out to the crypto community every quarter to better understand the collective thoughts of respondents on issues and trends. Proof-of-work (PoW) mining has stirred concerns around its substantial usage of energy and the future environmental concerns.   •    41 percent believe that it's a problem that should be addressed •    13 percent agree that the concerns are valid but that nothing should be changed •    46 percent don't want any alteration and think the environmental concerns are overstated   Learn more crypto research insights here. SPONSOR SECTION   The Oxford Blockchain Strategy programme is developed for business leaders, innovators, and future thinkers with an interest in blockchain. This programme gives you a fundamental understanding of blockchain, and its implications and effects on your business strategy. Visit the programme page to learn more.   SAFE HAVEN? Bitcoin jumped to seven-month highs against the Turkish lira amid a poitical and economic crisis in that country. Full Story BEST OF THE BEST THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: The Journal takes a close look at the rise of tether, the cryptocurrency that claims to be backed by U.S. dollars. One striking statistic in the article from research site CryptoCompare: tether has become a key source of liquidity as it represents as much as 80 percent of bitcoin trading volume. Some believe tether has become “systemically important” to the cryptocurrency market, meaning that if the so-called stablecoin failed, it would be almost “catastrophic” for the whole ecosystem. THE REST BLOOMBERG: A tax predicament for many hedge funds that invest in cryptocurrency is likely to be come to a head later this year, according to the business newswire. Though many hedge funds have been investing big bucks in cryptocurrencies, they are having difficulties calculating the related taxes as there are very few guidelines. And following an announcement by the Internal Revenue Service in July that cryptocurrencies would be a focus of audits of large businesses, crypto funds should be expecting bigger tax bills or even penalties soon. CNBC: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued a new warning on individual retirement account (IRA) frauds, amid an increasing level of investment in cryptocurrencies. As more and more people today are pursuing self-directed IRAs, in which they have control over what to invest, the SEC warned that this type of IRA doesn’t normally fall under the agency’s oversight, unlike traditional IRAs. As cryptocurrency investments are included in the self-directed IRAs, especially those offered in initial coin offerings, the SEC told CNBC that it is important to alert investors about the potential risks and frauds.   We've launched our new podcast, Late Confirmation, which are the top stories in the blockchain world, delivered daily from the team at CoinDesk, sponsored by the Oxford Blockchain Programme.  Listen to Latest Episode and Subscribe   WHO WON #CRYPTOTWITTER   ConsenSys Jobs Blockchain Jobs Circle Jobs BitGo Jobs Copyright © 2018 CoinDesk. All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: 636 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY, 10011, US Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list