Thursday, March 26, 2020

For bitcoin the bell tolls

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March 26, 2020
Today, Malta's financial watchdog reasserted itself, the TON community struck back, and Amy Castor reopened the conversation around how Wikipedia should chronicle crypto. Here's the story:

Proof-of-death schemes, a way to entrust bitcoin to an heir, are seeing a dramatic rise. According to cryptocurrency startups Casa Hodl and Unchained Capital the coronavirus outbreak has pushed demand for estate-planning services. Memento bitcoini

“Digital Dollar” legislation is opening the Overton Window in favor of national digital currencies. “We are becoming resourceful in looking at existing technology – and at the flaws in the current system – and applying them to future and current needs,” Catherine Coley, CEO of Binance.US, said. On the hill

Malta’s financial regulator has again issued warnings against crypto businesses falsely claiming to be licensed by the nation. This come on the heels of the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) claiming major crypto exchange Binance is neither licensed to operate, nor regulated by the island nation, in late February. Off the island

A U.S. court order may have barred Telegram from launching its blockchain, but that doesn't mean it won’t launch. The TON Community Foundation, a group of more than two dozen software developers and investors, are now discussing possible ways to launch the Telegram Open Network (TON) without the messaging platform's participation. Sending a message

Mobile bank Revolut has launched in the U.S. The London-based challenger bank will now look to offer cryptocurrency services sometime in the near future. Full story
AROUND THE WEB
Crypto journalist Amy Castor is opening old wounds, reviving the dismay around how the go-to online encyclopedia Wikipedia edits crypto content. Following Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson taking to Youtube to accuse the site of censorship, Wikipedia’s David Gerard claimed most crypto projects are self-promoting, uncredible, and unable to meet it’s “harsh” sourcing standards. The article spurred a lively debate on Twitter about what constitutes reliable crypto reporting. 

Coinbase announced integration of DeFi apps for its wallet app, allowing users to interact with interest-earning smart contracts without leaving the Coinbase Wallet. 

Block.one invested $150 million in Voice, its subsidiary social media app, to kickstart operations. Debuted in 2019, The Block reported $30 million was spent purchasing the Voice.com domain name. 

Vitalik Buterin tweeted the need for a decentralized means to swap bitcoin and ether. “It’s embarrassing that we still can’t easily move between the two largest crypto ecosystems trustlessly,” Buterin said, also suggesting a “trustless, serverless, maximally Uniswap-like UX” as a model for the decentralized exchange. 

Bitcoin’s mining difficulty dropped by 15.95 percent, the second-largest decline in the network's history. This drop may signal miners have capitulated, as a decline in the cryptocurrency's price has made the activity less profitable. That said, the drop could benefit those who stay in the game as less competition means individual miners would gain a bigger cut in Bitcoin's daily mining output. Hard money?

The bitcoin market is stagnant as global equities fail to respond to the U.S. Senate's approval of a massive coronavirus stimulus package. Bitcoin is currently trading around $6,650, having witnessed a push and pull in the $6,500-$7,000 range in the last 24 hours, according to CoinDesk's Bitcoin Price Index. A move above $7,000 is needed to restore the immediate bullish bias. No response



Different countries, states and cities are taking varied approaches to suppressing and overcoming the novel coronavirus. Singapore is deploying wide-ranging testing, while New York state has issued a "shelter-in-place" ruling. CoinDesk is looking to gauge reader sentiment on how their governments are handling the COVID-19 outbreak. Take our five-minute reader survey here
 
Join Anita Posch on the ground in Zimbabwe as she learns about the country's multiple currencies and the hyper-inflation that has ravaged its economy, in the second part of the “Bitcoin in Africa” podcast documentary series. Hyperinflation lesson

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