Friday, March 20, 2020

Crypto changes as pandemic spreads

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March 20, 2020

The coronavirus is stirring up the crypto community. This week, bitcoin’s primary value proposition may have shifted from “digital gold” to “censorship resistant,” the Huobi exchange added once unthinkable circuit breakers to halt trading during crunches, and, Israeli coiners are just dandy with surveillance. Here’s the story:

Bitcoin may not have proven itself as a store-of-value this week, but it’s still censorship resistant. Leigh Ceun reports what an uptick in identity-masking “coinjoin” transactions means for bitcoin’s value proposition.  Private values

The largest U.S. Ethereum miner is helping to find a coronavirus vaccine. CoreWeave is redirecting the processing power of 6,000 specialized computer chips, toward Stanford University's Folding@home research platform, which uses distributed work to solve for possible therapeutic solutions to coronavirus. Ethereum powered?

Surveillance is to be expected during pandemics. So said a number of Israeli developers responding to a government approved emergency measure this week to track civilian mobile-phone data to monitor the spread of COVID-19. Surveillance statement 



Realistically, privacy can never be provided by the state, writes Alex McDougall in his latest CoinDesk op-ed. "We need to re-orient our data paradigm away from the 'abstract and extract' model to one where individuals and businesses start our own digital identities," he argues. Privacy flaws

CoronaVirus API is the first effort to web scrape and repackage data from all 50 state government websites, providing trusted metrics of the viral spread in real-time. The CDC states that "since states are testing and reporting their own results, CDC’s numbers are not representative of all testing being done nationwide." Disintermediated data

Exchanges and miners are hedging against price volatility, giving a boost to customizable options contracts. "The pandemic has predictably sparked a rise in trading activity, but it’s only adding to what has been a substantial shift towards risk management in 2020," said GSR co-founder Rich Rosenblum. New options

The Huobi exchange added a ‘circuit breaker’ in the aftermath of last week's cryptocurrency market crash. The Singapore-based firm said Wednesday the new mechanism would halt all liquidations – where a trader's position is automatically closed – during periods when volatility starts to present a real risk for traders. Crypto breaker?



Bitcoin is on a price tear. In early morning trading Friday, bitcoin clawed back 40 percent lost during last week’s market tumble. The technical charts are calling a continued rally above its current high of around $6,900. Although a failure to keep prices above key support near $6,400 would weaken the immediate bullish case and allow a pullback to $6,000. Decoupled crypto?



CoinDesk Research's latest monthly report examines Binance, Cash App and Coinbase fiat on-ramps, crypto's faltering narrative as a safe haven asset, and “criminality” as a use case for crypto networks. The report also looks ahead (and back) to bitcoin halving impacts, as preview to the event slated later this Spring. Full report
 
Peter McCormack, host of What Bitcoin Did and the Defiance podcasts, sits down with Nathaniel Whittemore for an off-the-cuff conversation about state power, nuance in an age of tribalism, and where bitcoin meets politics on the latest episode of The Breakdown. Sit in

Bitcoin is riding high on the latest Markets Daily with CoinDesk's John Biggs and Adam B Levine. The rebound was expected, Biggs reports, with technical charts indicating the cryptocurrency was and is still undervalued. Catch that story and more on Apple Podcasts

WHO WON #CRYPTOTWITTER
 

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