Monday, August 20, 2018

Blockchain / Venezuela / Gemini / Poker

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Here are today's ten most important Bitcoin stories, efficiently ranked & summarized by smart humans, not algorithms:

$BTC (1:44 p.m. EST): $6,490.08 (1.39%) // 90-day high: $8,362.59 // 90-day low: $5,755.25/ / More

$BCH (1:44 p.m. EST): $547.66 (-2.58%) // 90-day high: $1,663.91// 90-day low: $599.46 // More

$ETH (1:45 p.m. EST): $291.65 (-2.00%) // 90-day high: $790.72 // 90-day low: $290.75 // More

$LTC (1:45 p.m. EST): $57.13 (-0.48%) // 90-day high: $162.87 // 90-day low: $56.78 // More

$XRP (1:45 p.m. EST): $0.33 (-0.79%) // 90-day high: $0.86 // 90-day low: $0.22 // More

Here are the 10 most important stories about bitcoin and cryptocurrencies today

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1. Cryptocurrency wallet Blockchain said it had added up to 50,000 users per day despite dropping bitcoin prices. CEO Peter Smith tweeted the number in response to a Bloomberg interview where Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said his company added 50,000 new accounts during bitcoin's boom last year. Smith's tweet insinuated that Blockchain adds accounts of people that want to use crypto, opposed to speculators. -CCN

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2. Rapid inflation in Venezuela continues. The price of one bitcoin cost 44 billion bolivars on Friday, but jumping to 59 billion bolivars on Saturday. Citizens have turned more and more to bitcoin as the country's annual inflation tops 100,000 percent. At current rates, $1 can be exchanged for 9.2 million bolivars. -BITCOINIST

Inflation in Venezuela continues to drive up bitcoin
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3. Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin does not believe the latest cryptocurrency slump will hurt long-term growth. Lubin said the collapse in prices has always been present in the blockchain ecosystem. He added that later the price bubbles will seem like "little pimples on a chart" because growth will be exponential. -CCN

Lubin believes slump will not hurt crypto longterm
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4. There is growing speculation that Gemini will soon add litecoin support. The exchange tweeted that its vice president of engineering, Eric Winer, will speak at the Litecoin Foundation's Litecoin Summit on September 14. There is belief that Winer would not speak at the event if Gemini was at least not exploring litecoin. -CRYPTORECORDER

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5. Crypto Poker Club has used blockchain to try to bring integrity to online poker. The site has used a decentralized and fully anonymous structure to improve data protection. It also used blockchain to try to correct the pitfalls of other poker sites, including collusion, cheating, and the randomness of cards. The site also uses cryptocurrency to payout players, allowing for same day payouts in an industry where payments can typically take days or weeks. -BITCOINIST

Crypto Poker Club using blockchain to fix online poker
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6. UPS has filed for a new patent that uses blockchain as part of a distributed system for sending packages worldwide. The concept involves storing data within a distributed ledger network, including information about a package's destination, its movement, and transportation plans for shipment units. UPS has previously suggested that it could use multiple distributed networks in the shipping process. -COINDESK

7. Politicians have an increasing interest in bitcoin. However, attempts to classify which political parties favor bitcoin the most fall short. -BITCOINIST

8. Lou Kerner, co-founder of CryptoOracle, believes bitcoin is better than gold in a number of areas. He believes people that store value in gold will one day switch completely to bitcoin. –ETHEREUM WORLD NEWS

9. Here's is a longer look at Playboy's lawsuit against Global Blockchain Technologies. Most notable was Playboy's claim that Global Blockchain failed to integrate the Vice Industry Token (VIT). –COIN TELEGRAPH

10. Forbes takes a look at 26 ways blockchain will transform education. One way could be to put transcripts on the blockchain, validating their legitimacy. -FORBES

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From the Forums

An intro cryptocurrencies.

A member of congress owns litecoin.

A crypto community member arrested.

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Written and curated by David Stegon. He has been a reporter for 15 years, the past 10 focused on technology. Follow him @davidstegon.

Editing team: Lon Harris (editor-in-chief at Inside.com, game-master at Screen Junkies), Krystle Vermes (Breaking news editor at Inside, B2B marketing news reporter, host of the "All Day Paranormal" podcast), and Susmita Baral (editor at Inside, recent bylines in NatGeo, Teen Vogue, and Quartz. Runs the biggest mac and cheese account on Instagram).

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Chain lightning

Lightning devs sought and a trader on trial
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August 20, 2018
SPARKS FLY: Bitcoin developers are launching a Lightning Network bootcamp in New York to spur work on the "layer two" network project. The one-week residency, organized by Chaincode Labs, is aimed at getting more developers to work on Lightning — and produce a few consumer-friendly apps in the process.  Full Story

CRYPTO ARREST: A 21-year old American crypto trader has been indicted for alleged money laundering and unlawful exchanging. Jacob Burrell Campos, who has been arrested and denied bail, is being prosecuted for multiple instances of selling and buying bitcoin, as well as smuggling cash from Mexico to the U.S. Full Story

WOMEN IN CRYPTO: The blockchain industry is dominated by men, including in Asia, writes Sa Wang, a co-founder of IOST. Despite China's ban on crypto trading, the hunger for the quick wealth in the country is huge — and so is the number of scams. This presents even more challenges for female entrepreneurs who are often not taken seriously by their male counterparts, according to Wang. Full story 


There’s a difference between crypto transactions and payments: a transaction is a container for inputs from your wallet and outputs to your recipient, so it can have multiple outputs.

Each individual output represents a payment. This is important because simple transaction counts might obscure higher payment counts.

For example, EOS transactions have averaged 3,000 percent to that of BTC’s over the month of August. However, EOS payments only averaged 12 percent to that of BTC’s. This is a substantial difference that could lead one astray when not taking both into consideration.

For more research insights check out the CoinDesk Research section here.
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The Oxford Blockchain Strategy programme is developed for business leaders, innovators, and future thinkers with an interest in blockchain. This programme gives you a fundamental understanding of blockchain, and its implications and effects on your business strategy. Visit the programme page to learn more.
 
SQUEEZED: Bitcoin failed to reach $7,000 over the weekend and now is changing hands above $6,400 in a tight, $300 trading range. Full Story
BEST OF THE BEST

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Some young investors have been left in rags by the crypto market frenzy. The paper interviewed Pete Roberts from the U.K., who saw the value of his investments plunge from $23,000 to $4,000 over the course of eight months.

THE REST

BLOOMBERG: The news service gives a breakdown of the petro, Venezuela's controversial cryptocurrency, and Nicolas Maduro's public comments on it. And while the value of the petro is still not publicly reported, the government values it at 3,600 sovereign bolivars — $60 under the new exchange rate. The developments come amid continued economic turmoil in the country. 

FINANCIAL TIMES: The newspaper analyzes the cryptocurrency market dynamics during the first half of 2018. Trading interest has now waned and bitcoin investors have retreated to holding, experts contend. 

VICE: R&B singer Akon and his business partners offer more clues about their plans for AKoin and a real-life crypto-based city in Senegal. AKoin is being pitched as a future "app store for African entrepreneurship" and a source of passive income for Africans. 
 


We've launched our new podcast, Late Confirmation, which are the top stories in the blockchain world, delivered daily from the team at CoinDesk, sponsored by the Oxford Blockchain Programme. 

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Bitcoin scarcity just got real

August 20, 2018 Read in Browser
Blockchain Brew
quote-left-filled.pngQUOTE OF THE DAY quote-right-filled.png
“What affected me most profoundly was the realization that the sciences of cryptography and mathematics are very elegant, pure sciences. I found that the ends for which these pure sciences are used are less elegant.”
- Jim Sanborn

Happy Monday! It's the home stretch! Less than 24 hours left on our Crypto Starter Pack Giveaway that contains over $1,000 worth of crypto gear! Continue reading to see how to enter. Good luck!

Cheers,
Blockchain Brew Team

MARKET
COIN PRICE 24H

BTC $6,444.19022 -0.16%

ETH $286.026111 -5.84%

XRP $0.332731 -4.63%

BCH $542.848096 -5.4%

EOS $5.018897 -5.69%

*Information as of 9:30 AM EST


RESEARCH

Bitcoin scarcity just got real

CoinShares CEO Explains How Half of Remaining Unmined Bitcoin is 'Already Spoken For'

CRYPTO AWARENESS ON THE RISE

  • Three recent surveys indicate that people's interest in Bitcoin is steadily increasing:
    • ING International Survey
      • 66% of Europeans, 57% of Americans and 70% of Australians have heard of cryptocurrency
      • 25% of Europeans, 21% of Americans and 15% of Australians expect to own cryptocurrency in the future
      • 9% of Europeans, 8% of Americans and 7% of Australians currently own some cryptocurrency
    • Global Blockchain Business Council Survey
      • 6 out of 10 Americans have heard of Bitcoin
    • Bank of Canada Survey
      • Roughly 2/3 of Canadians have heard of Bitcoin
      • Less than 3% of Canadians own any Bitcoin

The CoinShares team did some math using data from the ING survey and found that there are 99 million people who intend to own Bitcoin but don't yet:

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HALF OF BTC SPOKEN FOR

  • If these 99 million people each buy only 100 euro (~$114) worth of Bitcoin that results in an increase in demand of 1.9 million Bitcoins
  • There are only about 3.8 million Bitcoins left to be mined

Read the full blog from CoinShares


EXCHANGE

Binance CEO Reveals that 90% of Binance Employees are Paid in BNB

CRYPTO SALARY

  • Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao recently revealed that 90% of the company's employees are paid in their own token, Binance Coin (BNB)
  • It is safe to assume that Binance is the leading company in the world in terms of paying their employees with cryptocurrency
  • The exchange allows employees to decide if they wish to receive BNB or fiat currency, after receiving the BNB employees are able to sell the coins for fiat if they need

OTHER COMPANIES OFFERING CRYPTO

  • Binance may be the most prominent, but other companies around the globe are beginning to offer work compensation in cryptocurrencies
  • The GMO Group, one of Japan's largest technology companies, offers crypto as an option for workers' pay

Last December, The GMO Group announced the reason behind its crypto pay option:

"The GMO Internet Group will contribute to the development of virtual currencies in the world by promoting efforts related to virtual currency throughout the group."

  • Companies adopting cryptocurrency in this manner will only help to further adoption and growth of the ecosystem

HACK

Chinese Authorities Arrest Hackers Suspected in $87 Million Crypto Heist

THE $87 MILLION HEIST

  • Chinese news agency Xinhua reported that three Chinese citizens have been arrested for stealing Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies
  • According to the estimates, $87 million worth of crypto was stolen from a number of corporate and personal victims
  • The heist was completed remotely as the cryptocurrencies were stolen off of breached computers and transferred to other locations

INVESTIGATION SUCCESS

  • To find the hackers, a self-declared victim came forward after he lost over $14.5 million worth of crypto due to cybercrime in March
  • Then, after collaboration with multiple unnamed internet companies, a suspect with the surname Zhou was located
  • In addition, two other experienced hackers connected with Zhou were located as well

It is still unknown what the consequences of the case may be but it seems China is cracking down on crypto-related cybercrimes after less than a month ago 20 individuals were arrested for illicit crypto mining.


OPINION

Microsoft and Intel Took 10+ Years to See Gains, Crypto Will Be Fine

CALLING CRYPTO DEAD

  • 2018 brought a worrisome bearish trend to many investors as Bitcoin slid over 50% in value and many altcoins have slid over 75-80% in value so far
  • Many critics are calling crypto dead as they point to low adoption and inconvenience as reasons to leave crypto behind
  • According to 99Bitcoins, Bitcoin has been declared "dead" 308 times by the media

PATIENCE WILL WIN

  • In contrast, crypto experts remain optimistic and are urging investors to have patience
  • To elaborate, crypto entrepreneur Phillip Nunn explained that "Amazon at its peak took nine years to recover from peak, troff, back to peak."
  • Further, Nunn adds that Intel took 15 years and Microsoft took 17 years to reach peak prices again
  • Nunn then closes with the hopeful line "Bravery will return massive amounts"

COINSHARES CHIMES IN

  • Also referring to the Dot-com bubble, CoinShares CSO Meltem Demirors reiterated that "new technologies [like cryptocurrencies] that shift the paradigm" don't get adopted overnight
  • She urges investors to take a look at the internet and you will see that many were skeptical of its success in the early days

One internet critic Paul Krugman is now immortalized on the internet after he predicted the internet's flop in 1998:

"The growth of the Internet will slow drastically… By 2005 or so, it will become clear that the Internet’s impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine’s."

Though no one can predict the future, it is safe to say that patience has been well rewarded in the past.


GIVEAWAY


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There are only 48 hours left to enter our Crypto Starter Pack Giveaway. Follow the steps below to possibly win over $1,000 worth of crypto gear!

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Good luck everyone!


BREW BITS
  • Developers from around the world are invited to join a 4 day "hacker camp" to learn about Bitcoin's lightning network.

  • SBI Holdings invests again in a cryptocurrency exchange under scrutiny for not meeting Japan's regulation standards.

  • The South African tax authority is improving its processes to track cryptocurrency traders to make sure they are paying their taxes.

LEARN LINGO

Block Height

noun

Block height refers to the number of blocks connected together in the block chain. For example, Height 0, would be the very first block, which is also called the Genesis Block.


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