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.
THE REST
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.
IOST is proud to announce and confirm the exact dates for IOST's final Testnet version 2.0 and official launch of Mainnet version 1.0!
Endless Game just closed a $7.5mm series A led by Bluehill and IOST, along with 5 other investors. The team will use this fund to expand their operations and keep delivering top quality casino blockchain games. Together with Theseus, they aim to revolutionize the gaming industry!
We are excited to announce that IOST has been listed on Bithumb! Bithumb is one of the preeminent exchanges worldwide and is one of the top Korean exchanges. It also is a new Fiat-Crypto exchange platform for IOST.
On December 7th, Coinbase announced that it is exploring the addition of several new digital assets that meet its quality standards and are compliant with local laws. We are pleased to announce that IOST was listed and we are currently in talks with Coinbase concerning future collaboration. 
We were very pleased with the response to our developer bounty program and are proud to announce that two bounties have already been completed and two more have already been claimed. You can read the full update on the first week's progress 
IOST Japan held a workshop at Akita International University with local partners Eversystem and Swissborg. The workshop was planned and run entirely by students! After the presentations, a discussion was held on how blockchain technology can solve the critical issues facing their generation!
IOST has partnered with digglue, a startup for blockchain education, to co-promote blockchain technology through their education platform EnterChain. Our companies will also work together to promote blockchain adoption for companies throughout Japan and help grow the ecosystem!
IOST Japan Growth Lead, Akio Sashima, started meetings with nation-level crypto-financial project Loch Energy Japan and their development partners from India and the US. He also attended the signing ceremony between them and the Head of the Sakha Republic! We are excited by the possibilities that were explored and hopeful that together we can build something that improves the world!
