Thursday, November 22, 2018

Happy Turkey Day

Coinbase complaint continues

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November 22, 2018

INSIDER TRADING? A new amended class action complaint has been filed against Coinbase by investors who allege the exchange allowed insiders to unfairly profit from its rollout of bitcoin cash last December. 

The document, filed Tuesday in federal court, is a more detailed version of a case that was dismissed last month, and explains how the exchange failed investors when first listing the bitcoin fork to its platform, according to the allegations.

Coinbase now has a month to respond, and a hearing on the matter is set for the end of next January. Full Story

MISSED THE POINT? While it is to be applauded that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been gone to significant lengths in an attempt to understand the crypto asset space, it's failed to come to terms with a fundamental aspect of crypto assets and systems, says Edan Yago, the founder of CementDAO.

The issue is that properly constructed crypto systems do not involve "persons" or "entities" and do not represent a form of property. For this reason, they do not have any analogue in the traditional financial world, nor can they fall under financial regulation.

The SEC is trying to regulate smart contracts too. But who “provided” the smart contract? Who performed its functions?

The SEC, for obvious reasons, would like to establish jurisdiction over crypto assets. However, this jurisdiction is only appropriate where there are legally enforceable contracts between legal entities and not to recognize this important distinction is a recipe for overreach and confusion, Yago says. Full story

ON TRACK: The Swiss Federal Railways has officially conducted a proof-of-concept trial for a blockchain-based credentials management system. Developed by Linum Labs, the project ran from May to November and sought to see if a blockchain platform could improve on current manual, paper-based processes for site safety on construction projects, a railway spokesperson told CoinDesk. 

The railway system has "strict requirements" regarding personnel identity and qualifications due to safety concerns, the spokesperson explained. As a result, there is a need for a robust identification system. 

Through the trial, built using the uPort open source platform, railway workers, supervisors and other authorized persons received their own digital identities linked to an ID app and used it to sign in and out at work by scanning a QR code. Their ID data, as well as information about certificates and training, was stored and accessed over the blockchain platform. Full Story



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, our new tool provides users with a comprehensive way to view the crypto-economic forces that shape an asset’s market maturity, growth, and potential.

On the chart above, you can see how various cryptocurrencies measure on the graph. XRP shows better "exchange" and "social" scores than it does for "network" and "developer." XMR and ZEC show over-performing "developer" scores. ETH has the most robust profile across all five categories, second only to bitcoin.

Use our new tool to learn more.
 


Jay Clayton
Chairman of the SEC


Kelly Loeffler
CEO of Bakkt


Dr. Mohamed A. El-Erian
Chief Economic Advisor at Allianz


Jeffrey Sprecher
Chairman of the New York Stock Exchange & Chairman and CEO of
Intercontinental Exchange, Inc.
 
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HERE'S HOPING: Bitcoin charted a bullish “inside-day" candlestick pattern yesterday, signaling indecision in the marketplace. As a result, a short-term bullish reversal is likely if the oversold cryptocurrency moves above yesterday's high of $6,435 in the next 48 hours or so. Full story
 

BEST OF THE BEST

CNBC: It’s Thanksgiving again, and isn't it different this time round? A CNBC feature revisits the bitcoin mania seen last year – a far cry from the current bear market.

From Thanksgiving 2017, the price of bitcoin almost doubled from below $10,000 to nearly $20,000 in December. Kyle Asman, partner of crypto advisory firm BX3 Capital, remembered going to a restroom at a holiday party when bitcoin was $9,000. Minutes later when he returned to the table, it was $11,000. 

Much of the investor excitement was driven by the mentality of FOMO – or fear of missing out. As Steve Ehrlich, COO of Wall Street Blockchain Alliance said: “At some point when the price went up by so much, so quickly, people had no choice but to peek under the hood and see what was going on.”

THE REST
 
REUTERS: Bitcoin’s use in commercial payments has slumped this year, says Reuters, basing the piece on a research report from Chainalysis.

The value of bitcoin passing through crypto payment processors shrank by almost 80 percent from September 2017 to the same month in 2018, the research suggests. 

Despite calming in recent months, the cryptocurrency’s notable volatility last year was cited as one reason bitcoin payments didn’t maintain earlier momentum. “There would have to be a stability requirement if it is to become another form of money,” said Joni Teves, a strategist at UBS in London told Reuters.

But one thing that would take bitcoin into mainstream adoption is scalability, Teves added, saying: “Is it able to process the value or volume of transactions that money tends to do?”

FINANCE MAGNATES: Saudi Arabia is launching its own cryptocurrency next year, reports Finance Magnates, citing local news sources.

However, rather than replacing the national currency, it looks like the token will be used by banks as a payments tool, though details are still sparse.

One thing that is clear is that the cryptocurrency is being built in conjunction with the neighboring United Arab Emirates, and the governor of the central bank of the UAE reportedly said earlier this week that it’s already in the design phase.

There's no set delivery date yet, and the crypto's launch timeline will depend on how soon all the R&D work can be completed. 

WHO WON #CRYPTOTWITTER

Consensus: Invest Keynotes



Jay Clayton
Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission


Dr. Mohamed A. El-Erian
Chief Economic Advisor at Allianz
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This Week in Technology Review - Week of November 19

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Business Impact
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