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FINAL FLICKER: Bitcoin's lightning torch will soon burn out, putting an end to a global payments experiment that has seen participation from hundreds of recipients, from tech luminaries like Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to users in countries cut off from parts of the world by economic sanctions. The torch has burned through at least 54 countries so far, showcasing its cross-border prowess as each carrier adds a little in bitcoin and passes it on. But because of a hard-coded transaction limit of about $170 (officially 4.29 million satoshis), users will only be able to pass the torch about 10 more times. So, will the torch die out or will someone simply start a new one? Full Story
LIGHTWEIGHT APPEAL: O(1) Labs’ Coda protocol has raised $15 million from Accomplice, Coinbase Ventures, Paradigm and General Catalyst. The O(1) team describes Coda as a succinct blockchain: it only takes 22 KB to store a copy of the blockchain because it uses zk-SNARKs to generate proof that the most recent block and all prior blocks are accurate. That means older proofs can be tossed away. “We see Coda as way more than just payments, what we’re excited about is for Coda to enable new kinds of apps and games made possible by a cryptocurrency with a lightweight blockchain that is way easier to develop for and use,” CEO Evan Shapiro told CoinDesk. Full Story
BANK BEATER: Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has ranked above investment banking giant JPMorgan in LinkedIn’s top 50 U.S. employers list for 2019. The networking platform for professionals placed Coinbase at number 35, nine spots ahead of JPMorgan at number 44. No other cryptocurrency or blockchain firm made the list. Topping LinkedIn’s list of preferred employers is Alphabet, the parent company of Google and YouTube, followed by Facebook and Amazon at number two and three, respectively. Full Story
REAL QUICK ESTATE: Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), enterprise blockchain firm R3 and others have completed a blockchain trial that they say resulted in faster property transactions. The tech partner on the project, R3-affiliated Instant Property Network (IPN), said the trial used test data to carry out simulated property transactions over a distributed ledger system for a five-day period. The effort, the firm said, demonstrated that the real estate buying and selling process could be reduced from more than three months to “less than three weeks.” Full Story |
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| BRIEF DIP: Bitcoin's rally to $5,345 on Wednesday overextended many of its technical indicators including the relative strength index, aiding a minor pullback yesterday to as low as $4,778. That said, sell volume was minimal, suggesting recent buyers are not yet keen to convert back to fiat and sit on the sidelines. As a result, bitcoin's price recovered to above $5,000 earlier today, keeping the bullish view intact. That would only be invalidated with acceptance below the 200-day moving average (MA), currently located at $4,597. |
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BEST OF THE BEST
HAPPY RETURNS? Today marks the birthday of Satoshi Nakamoto, bitcoin's pseudonymous inventor. Well, possibly. The Next Web writes today that, when Nakamoto first created his/her profile with the P2P Foundation, alongside stating a home country of Japan, their date of birth was registered as April 5, 1975. However, the date could just be another economics in-joke from Nakamoto, who famously embedded a headline from The Times referencing bank bailouts in bitcoin’s genesis block. As TNW says, April 5 is also notably the date Franklin D. Roosevelt banned public ownership of gold back in 1933.
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WASTE NOT: Inefficiencies in the global construction industry could be addressed with blockchain solutions , according to the World Economic Forum. An article from the organization cites a McKinsey & Co report as saying that big capital projects often cost 80 percent more than was budgeted and miss deadlines by 20 months. Turning to distributed ledger technology, though, could potentially transform the sector by removing transactional costs associated with fragmented supply chains and ushering in greater transparency to boost trust and collaboration in what it says is an often adversarial and sometimes corrupt industry.
STREAMLINING IRAN: Like many cities, Iran’s capital, Tehran is plagued by heavy traffic congestion. However, a startup called Locon is hoping to ease the issue with four decentralized apps (dapps) covering map making, data sharing, navigation and ride-sharing, Al-Monitor reports. As an incentive for contributing and good behaviour, the project is issuing a cryptocurrency called Locoin, with a cap of 6.2 billion coins. “Our goal is to offer a variety of services to the general public and demonstrate that we will not steal their data for our own profit,” said cofounder and CEO Amir Habibzadeh. |
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