Thursday, January 31, 2019

Weathering Winter ❄️

January 31, 2019

Crypto Startups are Weathering Winter and Staying Optimistic

It's hard enough to build a business. Add on the fact that the crypto market is in the middle of one of its worst crypto winters and it's a bleak outlook for blockchain-based startups.

However, according to a new survey from CoinDesk, 40 out of the 45 responding startups mentioned positive comments about the upcoming year.

Here's a few reasons why...

Treasury management. A handful of projects that completed initial coin offerings (ICO) moved majority of their capital into fiat to avoid high volatility. This trade proved to be worth it after Ethereum's landslide in 2018.
Talent is growing. Projects are winding down and more blockchain engineers are finding their ways to surviving startups.
Newfound focus. Projects are finding and cutting overreaching expenses and refocusing on the necessary things central to the roadmap.

Here to stay

Alongside the positive comments, industry leaders seem to find those crypto winter to be somewhat "different" than the Bitcoin bear market of 2014.

Boost VC co-founder Braxton Williams explained:

"This 'winter' is 100X better than the 2014/15. People don't think crypto is going to die. They are all just trying to time for when it comes back. In 2014/15, the conversation was all about if crypto survives at all."

INSTITUTION

WBTC is Ethereum's New Bitcoin-Backed Stablecoin

Launched Wednesday, Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) is bringing the value of Bitcoin to Ethereum.

The token is a joint venture between crypto custody service BitGo, Kyber Network, and a handful of other projects including many decentralized exchanges (DEX).

That's because WBTC now makes Bitcoin trading pairs possible for DEXs - a new concept for exchanges that can only support Ethereum-based tokens.

Aiming for transparency

To build trust, WBTC smart contracts have allegedly already been audited by multiple third party firms.

Even better, all balances of WBTC and BTC are verifiable on-chain to ensure a truthful 1:1 ratio like the white paper states.

For now, CoinMarketCap shows 3 different exchanges that have WBTC trading pairs, however, this number is expected to rise as previously supportive exchanges follow through on their word.

EXCHANGE

Credit Card Purchases are Coming to Binance

Unveiled Wednesday, popular crypto exchange Binance is launching credit card payments on its platform through a partnership with payment processor Simplex.

According to Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ), the partnership will help "to provide Binance traders with fast and easy access to crypto, in the most secure way possible."

Enabling adoption or dangerous?

Since most of the world's money is still in fiat, crypto hasn't seen the significant adoption that would bring it to the next level.

However, credit card manufacturers have outwardly expressed their opposing views to crypto purchases on credit by calling them "dangerous."

To help cut risk, at launch, users will only be able to purchase top cryptocurrencies like BTC, LTC, ETH, and XRP.

BITS

But wait, there's more...

👀 Nasdaq revealed 7 different crypto exchanges are using its monitoring technology to cut down on illicit trading practices.
🚓 Authorities have found majority of the $11 million IOTA tokens that were lost last year.
🇵🇾 Bitfury is launching Bitcoin mining operations in Paraguay after a new partnership.

MEME