Wednesday, July 17, 2019

📌 Libra Grilled, Trump Tells Bitcoin 'GTFO', and Social Media Crypto Clues

MUST READS

🔥 Facebook's Libra Gets Grilled in US Senate Hearing

David Marcus, Facebook's blockchain lead, went before the U.S. Senate Banking Committee to answer questions on Facebook's upcoming crypto project, Libra.

Here are some takeaways from the 2 hour 35 minute hearing (click here to watch the entire hearing):

Facebook's user privacy and trust issues is a major point of contention of the hearing
"Facebook is dangerous" was the opening statement from Senator Sherrod Brown
US. Congressman Kevin McCarthy spoke positively of bitcoin, saying "I like Bitcoin"
Facebook hasn't contacted the agency they claim is overseeing Libra privacy
Facebook will have to appear before another Senate committee that will feature committee chair Sen. Maxine waters, who called the moratorium of Libra.

For any of those interested on reading more about the Libra/Bitcoin debate, we highly recommend you check out this piece by CoinCenter. They are evidently two-steps ahead of any politician in that room.

SEC Clears Blockstack to Hold First Regulated Token Offering

After cracking down on ICOs, the SEC just okayed the first (and second) RegA+ tokens. Both projects now offer an alternative way for anyone trying to gain a financial stake in the company.

Blockstack got approved for a $28 million digital token sale to raise money... while influencer live-streaming app YouNow's spin-off (called Props) received a formal greenlight for a utility token that users can earn to get loyalty perks in multiple apps.

One day after getting the greenlight, Blockstack promptly started their public token sale, with the traffic momentarily crashing the website... Go figure.

One of the main reasons people are excited about the approval is that through these rules – non-accredited investors can FINALLY participate in investments that previously were only open to the rich.

The laws still need to change, but this is a great stride in the right direction.

DEEP DIVE

📱 Sifting Through Social Media for Clues to Crypto Moves

What moves the price of an emerging asset in an opaque, largely unregulated market?

For some, the answer lies in social media.

Hedge funds and asset managers are reportedly seeking an edge by training computers to scrape social media sites for triggers that could move the price of digital currencies.

BetterHash: Decentralizing Bitcoin Mining With New Hashing Protocols

Here's a stellar article by @StopAndDecrypt about all the things that are currently wrong with mining pools... and how the highly anticipated "Betterhash" protocol could change the mining game.

Bitcoin Average Dormancy New Views of a Classic On-Chain Metric

We know you guys love BTC indicators, so here's three brand new ones. Click here to explore Bitcoin's "average dormancy" – an on-chain metric indicating the asset's long term economic health.

REGULATORY FRONT

Donald Trump: Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies Aren't Money

Lots of Regulatory news this week. But nothing got more attention than this one, of course...

Hours after the Federal Reserve Chairman compared Bitcoin to gold as a speculative Store of Value (SoV) asset, President Trump spoke about Bitcoin for the first time ever. In just three tweets, he criticized Bitcoin, Facebook's proposed Libra digital coin, and other cryptocurrencies.

A new era has begun, folks. Negative or not, for proponents, the event marked a psychological milestone for Bitcoin, as Trump had previously held off from mentioning it in public.

"Achievement unlocked! I dreamt about a sitting U.S. president needing to respond to growing cryptocurrency usage years ago. "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win". We just made it to step 3 y'all." – Brain Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase

[VIDEO]: U.S. Treasury Secretary's Press Briefing on Cryptocurrencies

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin called concerns surrounding cryptos a "national security issue" in a news briefing on cryptocurrencies earlier this week. He stressed that the administration's "number one issue" is keeping bad actors from utilizing crypto for nefarious activity.

Here's the video and an edited transcript from The Block.