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SCALING SING-A-LONG: Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin closed his keynote at the Devcon4 event by commemorating ethereum development ideas that never quite made it past the early stages. And, unusually, he did it with a song.
During his remarks, Buterin touched on ideas revolving around ethereum's impending shift to becoming a more ecological and scalable platform in the near future, beginning with the blockchain's move to a proof-of-stake consensus algorithm with its Casper upgrade.
He also outlined a four-step plan combining Casper with another proposed scaling solution – while others have called it Shasper, Buterin prefers Serenity.
As envisioned, Serenity will first introduce the “beacon chain,” which will co-exist alongside ethereum and allow Casper validators to participate. This will be followed by a simplified data storage form of sharding, after which users will be able to send messages and funds using shards. The final phase will simply optimize the platform.
And then, of course, came the singing. Full Story
CASH FOR KITTIES: Dapper Labs, the company currently behind the development of CryptoKitties, just secured $15 million in new funding from the likes of Google and Samsung's venture arms, among others. The investment comes just months after it raised $12 million from a group that included a16z and Union Square Ventures.
Dapper Labs CTO Dieter Shirley hinted that the startup was looking to vastly expand its offerings in the coming weeks, pointing to a more game-centric focus in the period to come.
"Ultimately our mission here is to bring a billion people to the blockchain. We think blockchain has real value for consumers but we're never going to get them to see that value by explaining it," he told CoinDesk. Full Story
ATMS APPROVED: Bitcoin ATM operator Coinsource has become the 12th crypto company to receive a BitLicense from the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS).
The firm announced news on Thursday, with its general counsel, Arnold Spencer, noting that it was the first NYDFS license granted to a bitcoin ATM provider to date. The company already has 40 BTMs in the state, having been operating under a provisional license pending full approval.
Compared with traditional exchanges, the firm's BTMs are convenient and offer direct peer-to-peer transactions, Spencer told CoinDesk, adding: "We do our account opening and compliance in real-time."
Going forward, the company aims to add more cryptocurrencies once regulatory approval is granted, and it's also eyeing expansion across all 50 U.S. states, as well as internationally. Full Story
DELTEC SPEAKS: Stablecoin issuer Tether Limited confirmed Thursday it was banking with Bahamas-based Deltec Bank and Trust Limited and published a letter purportedly from the institution as evidence of its reserves.
The company, which issues the controversial tether (USDT) stablecoin, has long been under fire over concerns that it does not have the fiat holdings to fully back the tokens in circulation. It had been rumored for weeks to be working with Deltec but did not previously acknowledge the relationship.
"The acceptance of Tether Limited as a client of Deltec came after their due diligence review of our company," the issuer said in a blog post. Full Story. |
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 We're excited to announce that CoinDesk has partnered with MarketWatch to release our Crypto Sentiment Survey, sponsored by Zion Trades. In the above research, we find two interesting points that jump out. First, 57% of MarketWatch readers believe that bitcoin is too risky an investment to buy, marking a stark difference from CoinDesk readers. However, the two audiences are more in agreement that, while risky, a small amount of investment is within an acceptable tolerance range. For more insights in this sentiment survey, check out the full report here. |
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SPONSOR SECTION
 HYCON - Hyperconnected Coin - is a new, minable blockchain protocol featuring on-chain scalability with high transaction throughput capacity in a fully decentralized manner. On October 31st, HYCON will implement the GHOST Protocol, which marks an important milestone in our journey towards becoming a DAG-based blockchain with the SPECTRE consensus algorithm. Check out our code on GitHub and follow us on social media to stay updated on our progress. Learn More Here |
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| LOOKING UP? Is a near-term rally in the future? Bitcoin's defense of the key 21-month EMA support for five months straight, as well as the positive historical performance in November, raises the possibility. Full Story |
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BEST OF THE BEST FORBES: Delving into the murky world of porn, a Forbes contributor discusses how, while early attempts to develop cryptocurrencies to serve the adult industry “flopped miserably,” things have shifted in the last year. After major websites such as xHamster began to accept bitcoin, and services like Pornhub teamed up to welcome altcoins like Horizen (the crypto formerly known as ZenCash) and Tron, new crypto projects have sought to cater to the industry directly with dedicated tokens. With examples like OGOcoin, BOOTY and WankCoin, the piece suggests that new "porncoin" projects feel their tokens can help solve the major industry issue that almost no one pays for adult content these days. Winning mass adoption won’t be easy, though, the piece finds, with cryptos presenting a steep learning curve for the industry, and little real reason for users to switch when bank cards are much simpler for most people to use. THE REST ZDNET: Enterprises are jumping onto the blockchain bandwagon simply because of the fear of missing out. At least, so says David Furlonger, a vice president at tech analysis firm Gartner. Speaking at a recent event, Furlonger said: “It's still not appropriate for the vast amount of enterprises to consider blockchain technology in its current level of maturity.” He added that all the features that blockchain has – immutable records, encryption and decentralization – “none of that is new” and can be carried out with existing technology that firms may be more used to. THE CONVERSATION: Blockchains are known for their immutability – meaning data is recorded permanently. But this feature can also be an issue in areas where “right to be forgotten” laws require that data should sometimes be removable, according to a piece from The Conversation. To combat this privacy issue, a team of researchers have designed a tool, via which data can be removed from the database without affecting a blockchain’s consistency. The tool still leaves a hash on the blockchain, however, as a proof of the original data’s existence, in case disputes arise at a future date, they say. |
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Consensus: Invest Keynotes |
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|  Jay Clayton Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission |
|  Dr. Mohamed A. El-Erian Chief Economic Advisor at Allianz |
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WHO WON #CRYPTOTWITTER  |
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