Saturday, January 5, 2019

Wrong audience Gemini 😬

January 5, 2019

The Reason Gemini's New Ad is Taking Heat from True Crypto Believers

If you live in New York, it's possible you have seen one of Gemini's new physical ad placements.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the ad campaign is a call for better regulation in the crypto space.

Plastered on a bus stop, one Gemini sign displays a simple sentence: "Crypto needs rules." Similarly, other advertisements in the new movement include slogans like "crypto without chaos" and "money has a future."

But while Gemini is looking to add regulations to help protect crypto investors, some are asking for the exact opposite.

Born out of angst

Back when Bitcoin was first created in 2009, the world's first cryptocurrency had a chip on its shoulder and promised supporters an immutable ledger that is censorship resistant.

Immediately it was a hit on the small online community simply because it meant government and big business couldn't control how people transact.

Knowing this, regulation was the last thing early crypto supporters wanted. For Bitcoin, the only rules needed were the mathematics that governed the program itself.

But it didn't last

Eventually, however, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies made it to regulators' desks around the world.

And as they passed bills and laws that tightened their hands around the new financial system, it became less free.

Suddenly, exchanges were required to ask for customer identification and forced to hand over user transaction information to the government for tax purposes.

It was far from the outcome crypto's early supporters desired.

It's a sad sign

And so, Gemini, to many of crypto biggest believers, your sign is saddening.

One Twitter user even went so far as to say that Gemini is asking for regulations from "the same individuals and cartel leaders that have been screwing the average man for years."

On the flip side, however, some institutional investors are waiting for clear regulation so they can dip their feet in the market.

It seems adoption is a double-edged sword.

NEWS

ConsenSys Joins Forces with Chip-Maker AMD

The Ethereum focused startup incubator, Consensys, announced on Friday that it has initiated a joint partnership with AMD.

AMD is one of the largest computer hardware manufacturers in the world. The company ranks behind Intel and Nvidia as the largest producer of CPUs and GPUs respectively.

Hardware and software unite

The two companies are joining forces to develop a cloud computing infrastructure based on blockchain technology. Think like AWS or Google Cloud for blockchain applications.

AMD is planning on leveraging its hardware capabilities to better scale and proliferate decentralized applications.

Consensys will then use its knowledge of the software side of blockchain networks to tune AMD's hardware to be most effective.

Trying to figure out the kinks

Both Consensys and AMD have been impacted by the bear market.

Consensys was recently forced to meaningfully trim down its staff due to a lack of funds.

AMD, whose GPUs are commonly used to mine crypto, saw a decrease in sales revenue as the market tanked.

TECH

Ethereum One Step Closer to Blocking ASIC Miners

Member's of the Ethereum development community came to an agreement Friday to implement a new feature in the Ethereum code base that would block the use of ASIC miners.

ASIC miners are computer hardware built specifically for solving the complex math invovled with mining cryptocurrencies. These sort of miners are controversial because they are much more expensive than CPUs or GPUs. Ultimately, this leads to mining being more centralized.

The code change is being called "ProgPoW". Developers believe that this change will be beneficial for Ethereum's imminent transition to proof-of-stake.

This news comes as Ethereum's fifth major upgrade, Constantinople, is preparing for launch.

Ethereum Foundation communications officer Hudson Jameson commented on the plan to block ASICs:

"Sounds like we have come to agreement that we are tentatively going ahead with ProgPoW, which means we are going ahead unless there is a major problem found with the testing or things of that nature. We will be going forward with ProgPoW."

BITS

But wait, there's more...

📉 Major consulting firm McKinsey and Company found there was little evidence of real blockchain use cases.
🌵 Stablecoin issuers might need an extra license in Texas.
🇯🇵 Five more exchanges joined Japan's self regulatory group.

MEME