Wednesday, October 24, 2018

Coinbase's big day

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October 24, 2018

COINBASE QUALIFIED:​ Crypto exchange Coinbase has received official approval to launch a qualified custodian from the New York Department of Financial Services. The new Coinbase Custody Trust Company LLC will be able to hold bitcoin, bitcoin cash, ethereum, ethereum classic, litecoin and XRP.

Coinbase already offers its customers access to the first five of those cryptocurrencies via its exchange services, but has not offered XRP to date. The firm is the latest to receive approval to launch a cryptocurrency-focused trust company in recent months.

On the same day, Coinbase also announced it is launching support for buying, selling and trading of Circle's USD//Coin, the U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin launched last month. Full Stories


BITCOIN CHALLENGE: Bitcoin enthusiasts have the opportunity to win 0.31 bitcoin, or about $2,000, from the 310 BTC Bitcoin Challenge during its final round.

An artist going by the name "Pip" hid the recovery codes for four bitcoin wallets holding 310.61 BTC in a black-and-white image earlier this month, allowing the broader community to win the funds by solving the puzzle. 

In its first eight days, users have found the keys to three of the wallets, winning the grand prize of 310 BTC in the process. However, the final wallet's puzzle is more complex, according to Pip. Full Story

STELLAR STABLECOIN: An Australian payments processor, the Novatti Group, has just launched a stablecoin built on the Stellar network. Unlike many prominent stablecoins, though, this new token will be pegged to the Australian dollar (AUD), rather than the U.S. dollar.

The firm told CoinDesk that it anticipates users will be able to purchase goods and services from Australian enterprises using the cryptocurrency, dubbed the Novatti AUD Utility Token.

The token will be backed by AUD held in a trust, and is slated for launch on Nov. 19. Full Story


CoinDesk Research tracks many different metrics in the crypto economy. Developer interest is important in determining the software activity for each individual crypto's underlying technology.

We observed contributors on each cryptocurrency's unique software repository on GitHub, the popular development website, for Tuesday, October 23. A contributor is someone who has contributed to a project by having a pull request merged but does not have collaborator access.

BTC had the highest share at 13 percent followed by QTUM at 11.5 percent. QTUM overperforms its 27th rank in market cap in grabbing that 2nd place. Simarily LTC, ranked 7th in market cap, ranks 3rd in contributors.

It's important to note that GitHub development is not representative of all development that occurs within a specific crypto ecosystem. Decentralized developers could be writing code under the radar. Also, private companies could be building technology around these platforms that's not shown directly in GitHub.

For more research insights check out the CoinDesk Research section here.
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Consensus: Invest is for institutional investors that are looking for an outlook on where the crypto asset market is headed in 2019. 

We have leading speakers including Mark Casady from Vestigo Ventures, Glenn Hutchins from North Island & Silver Lake and Mark Yusko from Morgan Creek Capital Management. 

We also have leading analysts including Spencer Bogart from Blockchain Capital, Ari Paul from BlockTower and Tuur Demeester from Adamant Capital.

Don't miss this full day event on November 27th here in New York.

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SMOOTH SAILING: Today marks bitcoin’s ninth consecutive day in the narrow range of $6,360–$6,480, but traders shouldn’t stray too far from the computer since dull markets often come to a boisterous conclusion. In the meantime, altcoin traders can shift their gaze to today’s leading cryptocurrency in the top 10, XRP, which might be charting a technical pattern of bullish continuation.
BEST OF THE BEST

FORTUNE: In Fortune’s latest “Balancing the Ledger” episode, Dominic Williams, president and chief scientist of Dfinity, explained how the cloud startup is able to achieve decentralized governance to keep anonymous entities on the network within the law.

Williams said the startup’s envisioned decentralized computers have an algorithmic governance system that can shut down proposals that could harm the network, citing “assassination markets” as an example.

Still, the piece raised the possibility that the system might approve actions that “regulators (and many citizens) would consider harmful to society,” such as opioid distribution markets.

THE REST 

TECHCRUNCH: A new crypto project has launched to let token holders upvote content on websites, according to TechCrunch.

PlusOneCoin effectively rewards users for accessing and interacting with social media content and is apparently already tradable on exchanges.

A co-founder told TC that “+1 coin” (see what they did there?) can help monetize websites and give users “more power to affect the social media content they consume.”

FORBES: The travel industry is set to see major changes, thanks to blockchain and a partnership between IBM and travel commerce platform Travelport, says a Forbes piece.

The two companies are exploring emerging technologies such as blockchain and artificial intelligence for increased efficiency and privacy in the travel industry – in particular seeking specific digital ledger use cases that would benefit consumers. 

Integrating booking systems, reducing the need to manually update travel agency systems, minimizing lost reservations and other issues and opening up industry data silos are some of the areas the companies are looking at to improve travelers’ overall experiences.
 
We've launched our first-ever podcast, "Late Confirmation," a digest of top stories in the blockchain world, delivered daily from the team at CoinDesk.

WHO WON #CRYPTOTWITTER

 
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Armstrong's Hot Streak 🔥

October 24, 2018

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QUOTE OF THE DAY

"Smart money is just dumb money that's been through a crash."
- Naval


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MARKET
COIN PRICE 24H

BTC $6,500.937612 +0.51%

ETH $204.562946 +0.88%

XRP $0.460849 +4.09%

BCH $445.164884 +1.13%

EOS $5.397615 +0.51%

*Information as of 10:00 AM EST


EXCHANGE

Coinbase Goes Two for Two on Announcements

Rocket Launch

Yesterday, Coinbase made two announcements that only further the platform’s strength in the cryptocurrency industry.

  1. Coinbase received approval to launch custody services in New York

  2. Coinbase will list the USDC stablecoin after announcing a new joint venture with Circle

The two milestones are notable in Coinbase’s mission to help cryptocurrencies reach mass adoption.

Let’s start with Coinbase Custody

The big news for Coinbase’s custody service came after the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) announced that the startup is now a qualified custodian.

According to an official blog post, Coinbase Custody, a subsidiary of Coinbase, is now able to store Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, XRP, and Litecoin in its “institutional-grade” systems.

The NYDFS approval also brings hope that institutions will start trusting the cryptocurrency industry and more importantly, immerse themselves in the new asset class.

Now for CENTRE Consortium

In addition to the Coinbase Custody approval announcement, the company also announced a new joint venture with Circle that has resulted in a new asset listing.

The new asset, USD Coin (USDC), is a stablecoin that is backed 1:1 by U.S. dollars. According to the official blog post, USDC is already available on Coinbase.com and in the Coinbase IOS and Android apps, however, Coinbase Pro will list the asset “in the coming weeks.”

Coinbase believes USDC will help people take advantage of cryptocurrencies, but without the price fluctuations. As for the use cases, Coinbase explained that USDC could not only help improve transactions and ease the use of decentralized applications but also be flexible for developers.

Two pieces of the puzzle

Though these two announcements are notable, they are only pieces of Coinbase’s bigger plan to bring cryptocurrencies mainstream.

Recently, the platform has been working relentlessly to build out new products and services that will legitimize the crypto industry for institutions.

Now, as a qualified custodian, Coinbase may have reached a pivotal point in its journey.

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TECH

Square is Open Sourcing its Bitcoin Cold Storage Solution

Safe custody for everyone

A security engineer at the payment company Square released a blog post, announcing that the company has open sourced the code, along with instructions, for its Bitcoin cold storage solution. The code and documentation can be found in the company's Github repository here.

The technology is built in a similar manner to how the company secures other digital keys for its payment service. A solution the company refers to as "Subzero".

Here's a basic understanding of the tech

Square's solution is known as "cold storage" because the device holding the keys has no connection to the internet. Funds can be sent to the wallet at any time. Moving funds out, however, is more difficult on purpose.

To move funds out of cold storage requires a multi-party signing ceremony. This means that multiple keys all need to permit the withdrawal of funds. In Square's case, the company only allows funds to be transferred to Square owned wallets.

Square's set up allows for multiple backups in multiple locations for another added level of dependability.

For the culture

Square's move to open source its cold storage solution is great for the crypto-community. Crypto is all about decentralization. Sharing of knowledge promotes this value.

Custody has been a sort of weak spot for the space. Hopefully, with Square's code, more companies will be more willing to adopt crypto, now that they have a safe method to store it.

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ETF

SEC Commissioner Met with Bitcoin ETF Applicants Earlier This Month

First impressions

A new report indicates that the new commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) hosted a meeting with some of the Bitcoin ETF applicants earlier this month.

Commissioner Elad Roisman started his role with the SEC in September. During his second month in office, the Commissioner met with the recently denied Bitcoin ETF applicants.

The applicants that were present at this meeting include Dan Gallancy and Dimitri Nemirovsky at SolidX, Laura Morrison and Kyle Murray from the CBOE, and Adam Phillips from VanEck.

What went down

At the meeting, the applicants gave the Commissioner the same pitch that they presented to the last commissioner. In addition, they addressed the concerns that were given to them at the time of their denial.

The details we know so far are: if an ETF is approved, it will be 25 Bitcoin per share and the trust holding the Bitcoin will be insured against loss or theft.

Why not a Bitcoin ETF?

The main reason that the SEC has been so hesitant on approving a Bitcoin ETF is that it is an entirely new asset class. This entails some new hurdles that need to be solved to protect investors.

Many experts agree that a Bitcoin ETF is a matter of when not if. It is just about a company drafting a robust plan for the ETF to get approval from the SEC.

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BITS

But wait, there's more...

  • Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) has given the local crypto industry self-regulatory status, certifying the Japanese Virtual Currency Exchange Association (JVCEA) to oversee the space.
  • Nasdaq has won a patent outlining how using a blockchain for information distribution could improve upon existing services.
  • Police in the Indian city of Bangalore have seized an ATM just weeks after it was set up by crypto exchange Unocoin.

COIN OF THE DAY
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Quantstamp (QSP)

Quantstamp helps to secure blockchain applications such as smart contracts. Quantstamp is developing a new protocol for smart contract verification, performing professional audits and consultations, and developing security tools. Quantstamp also has expertise in application security and secure software development.

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MEME

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