Friday, October 25, 2019

Dorsey says hell no / Crypto ownership doubles / Jo'berg's Bitcoin ransom

Inside Bitcoin presented by Keeps.
Presented by
Keeps
Subscribe | View in browser

Market Watch: Friday trading has seen most of the market trading in the green. Bitcoin is slowly climbing, but it is Bitcoin SV that is making waves. Over a 24-hour period it has risen by over 17 percent.

  • Bitcoin: $7,508 (⬆️ 0.42%) // $135.2 billion market cap.
  • Ethereum: $162 (⬆️ 0.79%) // $17.6 billion market cap.
  • XRP: $0.279 (⬆️ 3.11%) // $12 billion market cap.
  • Tether: $1.01 (⬆️ 0.20%) // $4.1 billion market cap.
  • Top 100 Winner: XMax: $0.002 (⬆️ 26.23%) // $35.6 million market cap.
  • Top 100 Loser: Bytecoin: $0.0003 (⬇️ 7.06%) // $57 million market cap.

Prices are as of 2:15 p.m. EDT.

     

1. Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter and mobile payments company Square, has made it clear that Twitter will not be joining Facebook's Libra project. Dorsey said "hell no," when asked would Twitter join Libra during a Twitter thread, which Alex Weprin, editor and reporter Alex Weprin of The Hollywood Reporter, covered. According to the CEO, "nothing within Libra had to be a cryptocurrency to do what they wanted to do." His remarks come at a time when Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and CEO of Facebook, was answering questions from Congress earlier this week on the proposed plans for the stablecoin. They also come at a time when several founding members of the Libra Association have decided to step away from the project, with some citing regulatory uncertainty as to the reason why. –@alexweprin

Jack Dorsey says "hell no" on joining Libra
     

2. The number of Americans who own cryptocurrencies nearly doubled this year, according to a new survey. The study, undertaken by Finder, a financial services firm, shows that the figures in 2019 so far amount to 14.4 percent, which equates to 36.5 million Americans owning crypto. This is compared to 7.95 percent in 2018. According to the company, the average amount of crypto owned was $5,447; however, the median amount was far less at $360. Of those surveyed, men make up the most at owning crypto, with 19 percent claiming they hold some, whereas, only 10 percent of women do. –COINTELEGRAPH

     
A MESSAGE FROM KEEPS

Get 50% off hair loss treatments that actually work.

Bad news: 2 out of 3 guys start losing hair by 35. Good news: Keeps makes it easy and affordable to keep (and even regrow) your hair. Get hair loss treatments that work delivered to your door for less than $1/day. The sooner you take action, the more hair you'll keep.

Get 50% off your first 3 months

3. Follow Friday: Ryan Taylor

Ryan Taylor is the CEO of Dash Core Group, which develops cryptocurrency Dash, a position he has been in since 2017. In 2016, when he joined the organization, he was director of finance.

Prior to arriving at Dash, Taylor was a hedge fund analyst covering payments industry investments for a $20 billion investment fund in New York. With over 15 years experience in the payments industry, he is considered an expert in the field.

Since joining the Dash Core team, Taylor has spoken out about the steady impact that Dash is making. According to this October article, the altcoin is helping Bitcoin and cryptocurrency traders. In his opinion, it can aid traders in boosting their profits on exchanges.

And he's not afraid of speaking out, particularly when it comes to correcting journalists with their coverage on Dash. Back in August, Taylor took to Twitter to argue that a Coin Desk article hasn't produced a "remotely balanced article on Dash," adding that there were so many factual errors and misinformation presented.

With just under 6,500 followers on Twitter, Taylor is a frequent user. Yesterday, for instance, he reached out to his followers to ask which of the Bitcoin improvement proposals that had been abandoned would offer the most value to Dash if they revived them. Elsewhere this month, he posted a series of tweets that pointed out the growth of the Dash network.

Follow Friday: Ryan Taylor
     

4. The so-called Shadow Kill Hackers have, reportedly, attacked the City of Johannesburg administration website in South Africa if not given $30,000 in Bitcoin. If not given the ransom, the hacking group has threatened to upload stolen data. According to a report, the government has until October 28 at 5 p.m. to hand over the payment. A tweet states that the incident is being investigated by security experts and that appropriate security measures have been taken to avoid any further attacks. –BUSINESS DAY

     

5. Darrell Duffiew, Dean Witter Distinguished Professor of Finance at Stanford Graduate School of Business, has said that cryptocurrencies are likely to change banks' business models in the next 10 years. According to him, the future is coming and the banks that don't get on board will be disrupted. He went on to say that the benefits crypto can provide means that banks may lose access to low-interest-rate accounts. –STANFORD BUSINESS

     

6. Our Follow Friday above, Ryan Taylor, CEO of Dash Core Group, has said that the number of transactions on the Dash network has grown by 178 percent year-over-year. According to him, other records have also been hit. These include the number of mobile wallets now over 56,000, up from 41,000 at the end of Q2. In Taylor's opinion, "this is what adoption looks like." –DASH NEWS

     

7. China's president has said that the country should "seize opportunity" to adopt the blockchain. Xi Jinping, President of the People's Republic of China and General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, said that the technology was an "important breakthrough for independent innovation of core technologies." He added that the development of the blockchain must be accelerated while increasing investment and focusing on the key core technologies. –XINHUANET

     

8. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao has said that WeChat Pay uses the blockchain to track payments. According to Zhao, they have "got word" that this was the case. However, it's been reported that this may not be the case and that the platform is using the technology for invoicing purposes. WeChat has also previously stated its anti-crypto stance.  –COINTELEGRAPH

     

9. Following China's president announcement that the country should seize blockchain, the crypto community has responded stating that it wishes the U.S. to do the same. Those within the industry have praised China's stance, stating that the keyword to remember is blockchain and not Bitcoin. China is one nation that has banned the use of cryptocurrencies, following the prohibition of initial coin offerings (ICOs) in 2017. –U TODAY

     

10. Tether is gaining popularity as a payment method. According to analysts, this could see it catching up with the likes of Bitcoin and Ethereum. According to CoinPayments, a crypto payments processor, the stablecoin accounts  30 percent of the volume, pushing Ether out of second place. Bitcoin has seen its volume drop to 60 percent from 80 percent last year. –BLOOMBERG

     

This newsletter was written and curated by Rebecca Campbell. She has been writing and reporting on various industries for the past 10 years, more specifically tech in the last three. Connect with her on Twitter.

Editor: David Stegon (senior editor at Inside, whose reporting experience includes cryptocurrency and technology).

     
Copyright © 2019 Inside.com, All rights reserved.

Our mailing address is:
Inside.com
767 Bryant St. #203
San Francisco, CA 94107



Did someone forward this email to you? Head over to inside.com to get your very own free subscription!

You received this email because you subscribed to Inside Bitcoin. Click here to unsubscribe from Inside Bitcoin list or manage your subscriptions.