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TOKEN SHARING: Peer-to-peer sharing network BitTorrent is developing its own cryptocurrency for users to earn or spend while using the protocol.
BTT, which is being built upon the tron network as a TRC-10 token (that blockchain's equivalent of ethereum's ERC-20), will be used to let users pay for faster downloads and incentivize them to keep files available to the BitTorrent network.
The token will initially be available to non-U.S. accounts via the Binance Launchpad platform, as well as certain airdrops. It will initially become available as BitTorrent launches its Project Atlas upgrade.
However, BitTorrent users who do not wish to utilize the cryptocurrency will still have full access to existing services, and the new version will be backwards compatible. Full Story
PRIVACY LAUNCH: A new cryptocurrency based on the mimblewimble privacy technology has gone live on mainnet. Called Beam, the token utilizes confidential transactions
Beam has an optional transparency feature which can identify the parties utilizing the coin, though as the project's GitHub notes, users can determine what information they want to share.
Beam's launch comes just weeks before another mimblewimble implementation, Grin, is expected to go live. Full Story
TOKENIZED STOCKS: A Nasdaq-powered securities exchange wants to issue stocks on a blockchain for clients. DX.Exchange, set to launch next week, will allow clients to purchase tokens representing shares in major tech firms, earning any dividends that the shares themselves would net.
The platform, which uses Nasdaq's matching engine and financial information exchange messaging protocol, has an exclusive partnership with MPS Marketplace Securities. MPS will purchase the shares and generate ERC-20 tokens, which customers can purchase on DX.Exchange, COO Amedeo Moscato told CoinDesk.
The shares will be held in a segregated account to safeguard against any financial issues MPS might have.
At launch, customers can purchase tokens representing shares in AlphaBet, Apple, Amazon.com, Facebook, Microsoft Corporation, Tesla, Netflix, Baidu, Intel Corporation and Nvidia. Full Story
DECADE OF DEVELOPMENT: The bitcoin Genesis Block was mined 10 years ago today. In the decade since, thousands of other cryptocurrencies and blockchain platforms have been developed, and yet, work continues in the space. If you haven't already, read CoinDesk's Bitcoin at 10 opinion series, and stay tuned for more commemorative content in the weeks ahead. |
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 The Lightning Network is a decentralized network using smart contract functionality in the blockchain to enable instant payments across a network of participants. By using real bitcoin/blockchain transactions and using its native smart-contract scripting language, it is possible to create a secure network of participants which are able to transact at high volume and high speed. In order for bitcoin (BTC) to scale, the Lightning Network is being developed to handle small transactions while all final settlement will occur on the base layer of the bitcoin blockchain. In order to measure the progress of this second layer of bitcoin, we observe a few statistics like number of nodes, number of channels, and network capacity sourced from 1ml.com on Jan. 3, 2019. Over the past 30 days each of those metrics has grown double digits. Nodes comes to just over 5,000 at 16.9 percent, channels to 17,600 at 39.6 percent and capacity to 543.6 BTC at 20 percent. It appears that the Lightning Network is making progress on scaling bitcoin into a bright new year. For more research insights, check out the CoinDesk Crypto-Economic Explorer here. |
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| KEY RESISTANCE: Bitcoin bulls may have won control of the market, at least in the short-term. However, the next test comes near the $3,940 mark – if the cryptocurrency can move past this price, it may open the door to passing $4,000 again. Full Story |
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BEST OF THE BEST BLOOMBERG: The crypto lending business is thriving amid the bear market, according to a piece from Bloomberg. Creditors are reportedly finding strong demand from borrowers who don’t want to sell their crypto holdings at lower prices, as well as from investors who want to borrow cryptos for short selling. “The bear market has certainly helped -- at least has fueled the growth,” Genesis Capital’s CEO Michael Moro was quoted as saying in the article. Genesis has reportedly issued $700 million in loans since its debut in March, and has about $140 million in loans outstanding. Other startups in the space are also growing. Crypto lender BlockFi has seen its revenues growing tenfold since June; ETHLend is nearing profitability and plans to enter the U.S. market; and Salt Lending is hiring more employees every month as its revenues grow, Bloomberg reports. THE REST FINANCIAL TIMES: Crypto fund managers are urging investors to stay the course, even after negative performance due to the prolonged bear market, according to a report from the Financial Times. Pantera Capital’s Digital Asset fund, for instance, was down 77 percent in the first 10 months of 2018; another ICO-focused fund fell 75 percent to October last year, FT reports. But, this may be a temporary issue. “We firmly believe that tokens will achieve real world usage. In fact, it’s already starting to happen in the depths of this bear market,” Pantera’s Dan Morehead and Joey Krug wrote to investors in a December letter, according to the report. They added that it could take two to three years for blockchain networks to achieve scale, which would help digital tokens become more widely used. WALL STREET JOURNAL: The crypto industry’s new year goal should be to build technology that can be used by everyday people, according to the Wall Street Journal. At present, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are still largely usable only by developers. Crypto’s next era “has to be about how we can turn this technology into products for people to use,” Andy Bromberg, the founder of Coinlist, was quoted as saying in the article. Jalak Jobanputra, the founder and managing partner of venture-capital firm Future Perfect Ventures, is also reportedly interested in both products and services that will appeal to users, and platforms like ethereum, which hope to challenge Apple Inc.’s iOS and Google’s Android operating systems. But, this will take some time. “There are no shortcuts to heads-down building tech,” Jobanputra said. “Building consumer products is really hard. The developer tool kit isn’t there,” Bromberg added in the report. |
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WHO WON #CRYPTOTWITTER  |
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