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February 7, 2020 ‘95% CERTAIN’: Ethereum’s next system-wide upgrade, Eth 2.0, won’t launch in Q2 2020 as previously indicated, though the project’s researchers remain confident the initial network parameters will deploy this year. Anything less would be considered a “failure,” they said. Full story IMMUTABLE MEMORIAL: An unknown netizen created a smart contract on ethereum memorializing Dr. Li Wenliang, the whistleblower of China's coronavirus outbreak who died of the disease Thursday. Full story BRIDGE BUILDING: The parent company of bitcoin-based smart contract platform RSK has launched a new token bridge joining it to ethereum. Gibraltar-based developer IOV Labs announced Wednesday that the new interoperability function would allow users to move RSK- and ethereum-based digital assets across the different protocols. Full story $10K BROKEN: Bitcoin futures listed on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange rose to multi-month highs, breaking $10,000 early Friday. CME’s February contract printed a high of $10,030 at 11:40 UTC, a level last seen on Oct. 26. Full story STAYING STRONG:  Though key indicators show bullish momentum is strong, bitcoin buyers have struggled to keep gains above $9,850 over the last 24 hours. If that level keeps proving a tough nut to crack, a short-term pullback may on the cards. Full story   TAXMAN COMETH: Tomicah Tillemann is the chairman of the Global Blockchain Business Council and, at Davos this year, he pushed for ways to make tax systems more efficient, transparent and accountable. “Tax, obviously, is on its face about the most boring topic imaginable, but it turns out that it powers many of the most fundamental elements of our lives," he told CoinDesk's Michael Casey. Watch now WHO WON #CRYPTOTWITTER   Copyright © 2020 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

LBX is placed into liquidation / Japan wants crypto on G7 agenda / BTC.Top closed due to coronavirus

Inside Bitcoin.

Presented by Subscribe | View in browser Market Watch: Prices remain up during Friday trading. Will Bitcoin reach $10,000 again this week? And is this the start of the next bull run? Bitcoin: $9,765 (⬆️ 1.38%) // $177.7 billion market cap. Ethereum: $218 (⬆️ 4.51%) // $23.9 billion market cap. XRP: $0.282 (⬆️ 0.52%) // $12.3 billion market cap. Bitcoin Cash: $438 (⬆️ 0.10%) // $8 billion market cap. Top 100 Winner: KickToken: $0.0001 (⬆️ 38.78%) // $129 million market cap. Top 100 Loser: Molecular Future: $0.929 (⬇️ 18.21%) // $79 million market cap. Prices are as of 11:32 a.m. ET. 1. Formerly known as the London Block Exchange (LBX), Dragon Payments Ltd. has been placed into compulsory liquidation. It has been known as Dragon Payments Ltd. since July. In a statement, the company said: "The Joint Liquidators and their team are working toward resolving customers' concerns, including the recovery of any sums owed, as a matter of priority." LBX first launched in 2017 after it raised over $2 million from investors. Last April, the company was taken to court by one of its creditors to recover a debt. According to then-CEO Benjamin Dives, around $12,900 had not been paid on time. -COIN DESK 2. Japanese lawmakers are calling on the government to push for digital currencies to be placed on this year's G7 agenda. According to Akira Amari - former economy minister and a member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party - "Japan should work in close coordination with the United States." Speaking to a group of lawmakers, Amari added that they should ask the U.S. to include talks on digital currency. The U.S., which is leading this year's Group of Seven advanced economies' meetings, is the focus of Amari's concerns because of the possibility that a digital yuan could threaten the dollar's hegemony. -REUTERS A MESSAGE FROM OVERNIGHT FORTUNES A “pay off your mortgage” opportunity… An Expert Hedge Fund Manager shares his wealth-building secrets used by billionaires and former presidents on economic policy. He's now crafted a 90 day profit window strategy for retail investors to have success as well. See his recommendations. Learn More Now! 3. Follow Friday: Dominique Frances Frances is the founding member and former director of the Bitcoin Association of Hong Kong. Passionate about Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, Frances describes herself as someone who values personal development, growth, freedom, systems and building sustainable relationships. She regularly posts messages on Twitter. Her most recent and topical was her experience at being denied boarding her flight to Los Angeles from Manila due to the coronavirus and being placed in a mandatory 14-day quarantine. She later tweeted that she wasn't sick and was being looked after by her Bitcoin friends. Other tweets of hers focus on Bitcoin wallets, crypto encounters while traveling, and Bitcoin Clarity. You can follow her @dominiquefrnces. 4. Bitcoin mining pool BTC.Top has been closed by Chinese authorities in a bid to stop the spread of coronavirus. Jiang Zhuoer, who runs the mining pool, posted a message on Chinese social networking site Weibo to say: "I have a mine in a remote suburb. The police came and forced all the mining authorities to shut down." Jiang added that while it was "understandable" to prohibit people from going out, he questioned the benefit of closing the mining pool to prevent the epidemic. Latest figures from the World Health Organization (WHO) note that there are over 26,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the country, while more than 560 people have died from it. -DECRYPT A MESSAGE FROM SALESFORCE The Best of Dreamforce: get how-to resources to help you drive digital transformation with the Customer 360 Platform. Whether you’re trying to connect every customer, empower every employee, or create a company culture of innovation, Dreamforce-in-a-box will show you how the Customer 360 Platform can help you reach your biggest goals. Learn More Here 5. Venture capitalist Mike Novogratz has taken to Twitter to say that XRP is still "proving" itself but that Bitcoin remains the recommended investment choice. In a series of tweets yesterday, the CEO of Galaxy Digital praised the altcoin and Brad Garlinghouse as CEO, adding that he "would like to see them do well." -@NOVOGRATZ/TWITTER 6. A Japanese court is demanding that a 32-year-old web designer face justice after infecting website visitors' devices with crypto mining malware. According to the Tokyo High Court, which overturned a previous ruling, visitors of the website were not informed of the Coinhive mining program, which had been active for a month and used visitors' devices to mine crypto for the web designer's own benefit. -THE MAINICHI 7. Blockchain monitor Whale Alert has suggested that Jed McCaleb, co-founder of Ripple, sold 1.05 billion XRP between 2014 and 2019. In a post published yesterday, Whale Alert estimates that McCaleb has 4.7 billion XRP remaining, which is around 5 percent of the total existing XRP. This equates to a value of over $1 billion USD. According to the figures, this dwarfs the $135 million Whale Alert believes he's made with his sales to date. Last month, McCaleb sold another 19 million, or $4.13 million, but Whale Alert is of the opinion that this will increase this year as his agreement with Ripple restricting his sale of XRP ends in 2020. -@WHALE ALERT/MEDIUM 8. French food manufacturer Avril Group has started using the IBM Food Trust blockchain network to ensure the traceability of its products. By using the technology, the food company is hoping to improve its corporate social responsibility, particularly when it comes to the quality of livestock and animal welfare. It's also hoped that this will boost the customer's experience by delivering greater transparency. -LEDGER INSIGHTS 9. The Naval Air Warfare Center, a research group of the U.S. Navy, has given $9.5 million to Simba Chain, a blockchain software startup, so that it can deploy a secure, blockchain-based messaging and transaction platform. CEO Joel Neidig has said that the platform will be live this year, "with ongoing updates over the next four years." The money given to Simba Chain is part of a Small Business Innovation Research, or SBIR, Phase III agreement lasting five years. -COINTELEGRAPH 10. Iskander Malikov, a former COO at major trading chart analysis service TradingView, has joined crypto exchange Binance as the new director of fiat. According to the platform, Malikov will "primarily serve in establishing new fiat-to-crypto channels and gateways in regions throughout Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States CIS," in addition to expanding existing ones in Binance's main markets. Malikov will also examine "ways to simplify fiat-to-crypto and crypto-to-fiat conversions." -BINANCE 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. Ad Empower everyone to build apps fast with low code on the Lightning Platform.

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