Learning to love Libra

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October 18, 2019 BITCOIN FAILED? Bitcoin and other early cryptocurrencies have failed as an “attractive means of payment or store of value,” says a new report from the G7 and Bank of International Settlements (BIS). However, the report argues, widely adopted stablecoins such as Libra are a growing threat to monetary policy, financial stability and competition. Responding to the G7, the Libra Association said the project is “not intended to change the role and influence of central bankers,” Full story LEVERAGE HIKE: Binance’s futures exchange is raising leverage to 125x with the launch of BTC/USDT contracts today. The exchange first announced its futures platform in early July, at the time hinting it would allow 20x leverage. Now, futures traders can now choose leveraged positions between 1x and 125x, it said Friday. Some have argued that such high leverage exposes traders to too much risk. Binance said its BTC futures contract provides a built-in hedging tool to help manage that risk, as well as an “insurance fund” that “helps to limit the chances of auto-deleverage.” Full story TURKISH DELIGHT? Global crypto exchange Huobi plans to roll out a fiat gateway in Turkey that could increase access to more than 250 cryptocurrencies for local investors. The move comes as Turkey puts forward a clearer legal framework for the crypto market in a country where many people already hold cryptocurrencies, Mohit Davar, Huobi’s EMEA regional president, told CoinDesk. Full story TOR THEFTS: Hackers have been distributing a compromised version of the official Tor Browser that’s packed with malicious tools used to both spy on users and steal their bitcoin. Discovered by researchers at IT security firm ESET, the trojanized Tor targets Russian users and steals their bitcoin wallet addresses as they try to pay on dark net markets. Full story FAN FOUND: Amid a sea of scorn, one U.S. lawmaker is praising the Libra project. Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) wrote a letter to Libra Association member Anchorage, a South Dakota-based trust company, endorsing the Facebook-led project. “Technologies like Libra … have the potential to help unbanked and underbanked consumers right here at home,” Rounds wrote. “It would be unfortunate to shun a new solution that could connect more of the most vulnerable Americans to our financial services system.” Full story BTC BOTTOM? Bitcoin's slow descent toward support near $7,750 continues with the daily and weekly chart indicators reporting bearish conditions. That said, the cryptocurrency may be in the final stages of the recent bearish period, according to an impending death cross of the 50- and 200-day moving averages. Historical data shows bitcoin tends to bottom out following the death cross  – a lagging indicator. Full story DON'T FEAR THE LIBRA: Citing Chinese companies like AliPay and WeChat as conduits to the global financial system, RBC Capital Markets analysts issued a report Tuesday arguing China's state-backed stablecoin may become the hegemonic cryptocurrency, reports Fortune. The analysts write, “If U.S. regulators ultimately dismiss Libra and decide not to draft regulation to encourage crypto innovation in the U.S., China’s central bank digital currency may be strategically positioned to become the de facto global digital currency in emerging economies." WHO WON #CRYPTOTWITTER   Copyright © 2019 CoinDesk, All rights reserved.  Our mailing address is:  250 Park Avenue South New York, NY, 10003, US  Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list

Basechain will support bitcoin! (Loom Update #54)

Hey friend! Hope you got some fun plans this weekend. I've been digging into Cosmos (the book) by Carl Sagan — man, I forgot how brilliant Sagan was.  So, instead of partying up... I'll be getting my nerd on with Carl Sagan (and MAYBE Charlie Munger) and a giant bowl of roasted pistachios — BA BOOM 🤪 Anyway... On to the updates... First up... 1. Loom Basechain is adding support for Bitcoin! You read that correct. We are adding Bitcoin support to Basechain. Which means, you'll be able to send/receive BTC for zero fees with 1 second confirmation times... among lot's of other cool things.  We believe this is going to offer significantly more value to you compared to the Lightning Network. If you are curious about why that's the case, you should... 👉 Learn about the benefits of Loom Basechain supporting Bitcoin Not only that... 2. Axie's Loom Validator is now online In our last update, I mentioned that Axie Infinity (who is building a kick-ass game on Loom) is going to become our newest validator. Well, they are officially online and are helping secure Loom Basechain by validating transactions etc. Now, if you are interested in earning rewards by staking your LOOM tokens with Axie (or a different validator of your choice), feel free to go ahead and stake. On the other hand, if you are curious about Axie being a validator, go ahead and...  👉 Read about Axie becoming a Loom Basechain Validator. That's not all... 3. Relentless is now open source! We have open sourced Relentless to invite you (and other developers) to build on top of it by injecting your own creativity into the ecosystem.  ...and for the most part, everything is ready to rock and roll right this moment.  If you are curious about Relentless being open source, you should... 👉 Read about Relentless being open source.   Those are all the latest updates from Loom HQ 😉 If you want to discuss any of the latest updates — stop by our subreddit @ /r/LoomNetwork.  Until next time... Your friend, —Dilanka P.S — Ever heard of Marshall McLuhan? — The dude is a genius when it comes to media. He wrote a book called The Medium is the Message and it's brilliant. If you are not familiar with his work, consider watching this old school interview with Marshall McLuhan. On the other hand, if you are a Breaking Bad fan, you should watch the new Breaking Bad movie called El Camino. It's pretty fun.  Don't want to receive anymore updates from Loom Network? Unsubscribe. Our address: 26/-47 12A Floor Orakarn Building,, 46 Chit Lom Alley, Khwaeng Lumphini,, Bangkok, Thailand, 10330

FATF's Libra warning / BCH token on Binance / US Senator supports Libra

Inside Bitcoin presented by DataStax.

Presented by Subscribe | View in browser Market Watch: Market prices are down today, with Bitcoin falling below the $8,000 mark. Some suggestions indicate that it could fall even lower to $7,430. Bitcoin: $7,958 (⬇️ 1.62%) // $143.2 billion market cap. Ethereum: $172 (⬇️ 2.44%) // $18.6 billion market cap. XRP: $0.291 (⬇️ 1.47%) // $12.6 billion market cap. Tether: $1 (⬇️ 0.03%) // $4.1 billion market cap. Bitcoin Cash: $214 (⬇️ 2.24%) // $3.8 billion market cap. Top 100 Winner: SOLVE: $0.106 (⬆️ 31.62%) // $35 million market cap. Top 100 Loser: 0x: $0.303 (⬇️ 6.30%) // $182 million market cap. Prices are as of 11:55 a.m. EDT.       1. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has said that the rise of cryptocurrencies such as Facebook's Libra could hinder efforts to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing. The global watchdog on illicit finance made their comments today. According to them, if stablecoins become more widespread, they could bring about the mass adoption of crypto. This, in turn, the agency notes, may then cut out the need for regulated middlemen to help curb financial crime. Even though Libra is separate from Facebook, the social media platform has the reach to attract billions of people to the stablecoin. –REUTERS Why It Matters: Authorities worldwide have voiced their concerns for Libra, and crypto in general, but the fact that Facebook has over two billion users means it presents more of a threat to the global economy.       2. Changpeng Zhao, CEO and founder of crypto exchange Binance, has said that he is proposing to list a token to Bitcoin Cash on Binance DEX. In the post, Zhao, said "we are proposing to list BCH-1FD," which will track the value of BCH. Regarding conflict of interest, the CEO stated that Binance will provide conversion between Bitcoin Cash and BCH-1FD through the deposit and withdraw services. Additionally, there isn't much development work in the token or any potential conflict of interest, he said. –BINANCE BLOG       A MESSAGE FROM DATASTAX Scale Out, Don't Stress Out. Ensure your Database is Holiday-Ready. The holiday rush is about to begin—and in 2019, it's expected to be the biggest spending season ever. Learn more about why holiday sales success starts with your underlying database.  Read the holiday database report.   3. Follow Friday: Elizabeth Chee Chee is the chief operating officer (COO) and vice president of business development at Iomob Technology Services, a technology platform for mobility. Prior to joining the company, she was the co-founder and COO of the HIT Foundation, which offers a blockchain-based marketplace for personal health data. Founded in 2017, the organization helped individuals to take control of their data and monetize from it. The aim of the platform is to foster improved research and healthcare outcomes through the agreed exchange of data between the individual and the providers they trust. On International Women's Day this year, Chee was nominated to the UNESCO 2019 list of Remarkable Women in Technology. Chee is also involved in a number of global nonprofit organizations in blockchain, digital health, and professional development. These include Women in Tech & Blockchain, Bottish Europe, and NTU Alumni, Germany. On Twitter, she has just under 2,000 followers and often retweets posts focusing on healthcare and fintech investment in Singapore. She also posts tweets such as the one looking at the rise of venture capital funding in Europe.       4. U.S. Senator Mike Rounds has voiced his support for Facebook's Libra in a letter to the Anchorage Trust. In a letter dated yesterday, Rounds wrote to Nathan McCauley, president of the crypto custodian company. In it, he said that it was "profoundly disappointing" that his fellow colleagues were against Libra, which he fears "may put a chill on innovation in the long run." He goes on to note that there is "promise" in crypto and digital payments, but that the U.S. is falling behind in the space. –COINTELEGRAPH       A MESSAGE FROM MONGODB MongoDB Cloud Database MongoDB Atlas is the automated database as a service built by the engineers behind MongoDB. Get started free! 5. Stafford Masie, a computer scientist and former CEO of Google Africa, believes Bitcoin will have more of an impact on humanity than technology. Masie, now general manager of WeWork South Africa, made his comments at the SingularityU South Africa Summit earlier this week. He went on to say that while the crypto wallet was "misunderstood, misused, misrepresented, and viewed as complicated," it would eventually change global trade. –COINTELEGRAPH       6. Cameron Winklevoss, one of the founders of the New York-based crypto exchange Gemini, has said there are 17 trillion reasons why someone should own Bitcoin. Taking to Twitter yesterday, he made his remark while commenting that "$17 trillion dollars are currently held in negative interest bonds." As reported by Bloomberg, worldwide negative-yielding debt reached $17 trillion back in August. –@winklevoss       7. Bitcoin has already reached 40 percent of life expectancy of the average fiat currency. That's according to crypto statistician Willy Woo who refers to a 2018 study by DollarDaze.org. Taking to Twitter, Woo stated that the average currency lasts around 27 years; however, the longest-living coin, the British pound, has lost 99.5 percent of its value. Bitcoin, on the other hand, is increasing in value. –@woonomic       8. Nearly 75 percent of German consumers would reject Facebook's proposed Libra coin, according to a survey. Broken down, 42 percent said they don't trust Facebook and 31 percent said they only trust state-backed currencies. Out of 2,000 people aged 16 and above, only 27 percent indicated that they would accept the stablecoin if it launches next year. Of those within the 55-plus age group, 85 percent said that it's impossible to do anything with Libra. –COINTELEGRAPH AUF DEUTSCH       9. Footwear company New Balance Athletics Inc. has announced it's using the blockchain to track supply chain authenticity with it's newest basketball shoe, the OMN1S. The organization is teaming up with Input Output Hong Kong to create the New Balance Realchain. It will be built on top of IOHK's Cardano blockchain. Launching today, the pilot program will enable new customers to record the ownership of their shoes. –SILICON ANGLE       10. Pascal Gauthier, the CEO of Ledger, a security and infrastructure solutions company for crypto, has said that the blockchain is promising, but it can't save the world. Making his comments during a Q & A, Gauthier said that one of the biggest myths around the technology was that it could be used for anything. It is good for some things, but not everything, he noted. –TECH REPUBLIC       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).       Ad MongoDB Atlas is the automated database as a service built by the engineers behind MongoDB. Get started free!

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