Friday, March 6, 2020

BoJ: Mature economies don't need CBDCs / Binance: Altcoin season may come soon / BaFin targets ATM selling crypto

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Dear subscribers,

Welcome to your Friday free Inside Bitcoin newsletter.

Today, I've got a jam-packed newsletter for you that I hope you'll enjoy. For those who are thinking about signing up for the premium issues, you can do so here.

By signing up, you'll get your Inside Bitcoin newsletter sent straight to your inbox five days a week and ad free, which means you can keep up-to-date on the latest news without having to do a thing! What could be better?

For anyone else who's still sitting on the fence, I do hope you'll make the move across. Each newsletter that I put together is filled with plenty of extra information that you could shake a stick at(!), meaning that I've done all the hard work for you and given you more information than you may want or need. You are welcome!

Enjoy your weekend and I'll see you on Monday!

Rebecca

Market Watch: Coin prices remain up during Friday trading, ending the working week on a positive note.

  • Bitcoin: $9,126 (⬆️ 0.25%) // $166.6 billion market cap. 
  • Ethereum: $237 (⬆️ 2.33%) // $26.1 billion market cap. 
  • XRP: $243 (⬆️ 1.07%) // $10.6 billion market cap.
  • Bitcoin Cash: $347 (⬆️ 2.48%) // $6.3 billion market cap.
  • Top 100 Winner: Hedera Hashgraph: $0.057 (⬆️ 33.92%) // $194 million market cap. 
  • Top 100 Loser: Energi: $1.86 (⬇️ 7.47%) // $50 million market cap. 

Prices are as of 4 p.m. ET.

1. Masayoshi Amamiya, deputy governor of the Bank of Japan (BoJ), has indicated that mature economies don't require the need for a central bank digital currency (CBDC). In a speech publicized today, Amamiya, who was speaking at Bank for International Settlement's (BIS) recent Future of Payments Forum, implied that economies in Cambodia and the Bahamas, which have "remained immature," could see the latest technology being adopted easily if the payment and resettlement systems were rebuilt. However, when it comes to "major advanced economies" such as Japan's, Amamiya said, "there is no need to implement new steps to ensure people's access to central bank money." He continued: "Moreover, the currency systems and the payment and settlement systems of these economies are operating safely and stably. They cannot simply jump into new technologies, or actually, they should not." -BIS

2. Binance Research, the market research arm of crypto exchange Binance, has released a report suggesting that that "altcoin season may soon come." According to the report, February wasn't just a volatile month for crypto - it was also an active month for altcoins. It went on to note that Bitcoin's trading dominance on the exchange went from 40 percent to 27 percent last month, adding that "if this trend were to continue, it would signify a greater appetite for altcoins from market participants." Additionally, Ethereum saw an increase in interest, with a total monthly value of 158.6 percent. "The top event of the month was ETHDenver, with many hackathon projects on Ethereum building various projects. Many of them highlighted Ethereum's pending switchover to Proof-of-Stake and the composability of smart contracts built on top of each other," the researchers noted. -BINANCE 

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3. Follow Friday: Jon Atack

Atack is a Bitcoin core developer and protocol researcher. For the past year, he has been doing Bitcoin core development work.

Earlier this week, Atack became one of two developers in the space to receive undisclosed grants from Square Crypto, the aim of which is to help further Bitcoin developments.

Follow him on Twitter (@jonatack) if you want to find out more about his work in the Bitcoin space ... or pictures of waves during an incoming storm.

4. Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, has taken to Twitter to say how many people will eventually use crypto. His remarks are part of a thread that focused on the parallels between crypto and the early days of the internet. In his opinion, they are "pretty staggering," highlighting that "slow internet speeds/dial up models reflect early challenges in scaling blockchains." In his opinion, though, there are three areas that the industry needs to focus on to get right: scalability, privacy, and decentralized identity. Concluding, he wrote that it was still to be decided which blockchain will help crypto go from 50 million users to five billion, but that the "chain that manages to ship some of these scalability, privacy, decentralized identity, and developer tool solutions will have a big leg up." -@BRIAN_ARMSTRONG/TWITTER

5. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is planning to file a petition against the Supreme Court's decision to overturn a crypto ban, which the central bank had imposed preventing companies from transacting in crypto. As reported earlier this week, India's Supreme Court reversed a ban on crypto trading, bringing an end to an almost two-year legal battle. As a result, several crypto platforms in India - Unocoin and WazirX - have resumed fiat deposits. However, the RBI isn't taking this lightly. According to the central bank, it's worried that the Supreme Court's decision could make way for trading in crypto while putting the banking system at risk. While the Supreme Court may look at the RBI's review, the central bank could have another issue to deal with. Following its blanket ban, several crypto platforms in the country went bankrupt, which could see them seeking compensation. Abhishek A Rastogi, a lawyer representing a crypto firm, said: "[The] Supreme Court may look at the RBI's review petition but as of now the cryptocurrency platforms can operate in India. Many companies have even gone bankrupt after the RBI's diktat and they may also look to initiate action in this regard." -THE ECONOMIC TIMES

6. CryptoKitties creator Dapper Labs has announced the launch of Flow Playground, an interactive web interface that lets people learn about developing applications on the Flow blockchain. Those who use the platform will be able to write and run smart contracts in a test environment. According to an announcement, "Playground makes it easy for you to work through the fundamentals of developing on-chain currencies, collectibles, marketplaces, and more, all on Flow." Users will also be able to explore its "new resource-oriented programming language called Cadence." Introduced in September 2019, the Flow blockchain was described by Dapper Labs as a "developer-friendly blockchain built to support entire ecosystems of apps, games, and the digital assets that power them." -FLOW

7. Vitalik Buterin, a co-founder of Ethereum, has voiced his support for Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter, who could potentially be replaced. Taking to Twitter, Buterin, using the hashtag #StandWithJack, said that while the platform "certainly has flaws," he feared what a hedge fund appointed CEO could do better than what Dorsey has to date. Another supporter of Dorsey is Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who said earlier this month that he supports Dorsey as Twitter CEO, adding that "He has a good heart." -@VITALIKBUTERIN/TWITTER

8. Crypto exchange OKCoin has named Hong Fang, it's chairperson, as the company's new CEO to help drive its expansion in the U.S. Fang will replace the firm's current CEO Tim Byun at the end of March. Byun will move into the role of global government relations officer (GGRO) at OK Group, the exchange's parent company. Prior to joining OKCoin, Fang was at Goldman Sachs for eight years, where she focused on mergers and acquisitions, capital markets and restructuring. -COIN DESK

9. Germany's financial watchdog - BaFin - is stopping a company from Berlin, KTT UG, from permitting customers from buying and selling crypto at ATMs. According to a statement issued by BaFin, it has ordered Adam Gramowski, who runs KKT UG as managing editor, to cease cross-border proprietary trading. The statement reads, "the company operates the www.shitcoins.club website and operates vending machines throughout Germany where cryptocurrencies can be bought or sold for money. In addition, the company offers so-called "face-to-face" transactions with the possibility of purchasing cryptocurrencies." -BAFIN

10. Telecommunications company Vodafone has announced that it is "exploring" the use of the blockchain to promote and verify diverse suppliers through a digital platform called Trust Your Supplier. The platform was launched together by IBM and blockchain company Chainyard last August. The aim of it is to help reduce the time and cost associated with qualifying, validating, and managing new suppliers. Today's announcement from Vodafone comes ahead of International Women's Day on March 8, with its #ChangeTheFace initiative, which is calling on technology leaders to join and make a pledge to increase diversity and equality in the sector. -VODAFONE

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.

Edited by Beth Duckett, staff writer at Inside.

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