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Monday, December 10, 2018
Bitcoin Cash SV Vulnerability / Jeff Bezos / Facebook
Shuttering the unnecessary 🤭
December 10, 2018
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"When I first heard about Bitcoin, I thought it was impossible. How can you have a purely digital currency? Can't I just copy your hard drive and have your bitcoins? I didn't understand how that could be done, and then I looked into it and it was brilliant."
- Jeff Garzik
| COIN | PRICE | 24H |
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| BTC | $3,550.25 | - 0.67% |
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| XRP | $0.304817 | - 2.44% |
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| ETH | $92.62 | - 2.61% |
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| XLM | $0.119378 | - 1.85% |
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| USDT | $1.02 | + 0.22% |
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*Information as of 10:00 AM EST
Bitmain Shutters Its Israeli Development Center
All 23 Gone
The market is weighing heavy on crypto startups and Chinese mining giant Bitmain is no exception.
According to Globes, an Israeli news outlet, Bitmain is now shutting down its Israel-based development center and firing all 23 of its current employees.
That number includes Gadi Glikberg - a longstanding employee that is not only head of the Israeli branch but also Bitmain's vice president of international sales and marketing.
Citing the collapse
To explain the closure, Glikberg told Globes that it was linked to the market's recent downturn.
Specifically, Glikberg mentioned that the downturn has "forced Bitmain to examine its various activities around the globe and to refocus its business."
IPO worries
This isn't the only thing worrying investors ahead of Bitmain's forthcoming IPO. Aside from two lawsuits the mining firm is facing from unethical mining practices, it is also rumored to have had its worst quarter on record.
Allegedly, the firm lost $740 million in the third quarter of 2018 and largely attributed the losses to inventory levels and Bitcoin Cash performance.
Still unconfirmed
Bitmain's poor third quarter performance is still unconfirmed and the overall health of the business is unknown. However, one thing is clear: Bitmain isn't getting the type of momentum it needs for a successful IPO.
Facebook Posts Five Job Openings for its Blockchain Team
Facebook's history with crypto
Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has long been interested in cryptocurrencies. On January 4th, he took to his personal Facebook page to share his thoughts about the technology, he posted:
"With the rise of a small number of big tech companies — and governments using technology to watch their citizens — many people now believe technology only centralizes power rather than decentralizes it. There are important counter-trends to this --like encryption and cryptocurrency -- that take power from centralized systems and put it back into people's hands. But they come with the risk of being harder to control. I'm interested to go deeper and study the positive and negative aspects of these technologies, and how best to use them in our services."
Back in May, a report surfaced from Cheddar claiming Facebook is planning on launching its own crypto. Around the time of the report, Facebook announced a new team led by David Marcus to "explore how to best leverage blockchain across Facebook, starting from scratch".
Since Cheddar's report, Facebook's initiatives related to cryptocurrencies and blockchain has been very quiet. This year has been tumultuous for both Facebook and cryptocurrencies. Facebook has been plagued by privacy and data scandals resulting in its stock taking a substantial hit. During the same period of time, cryptocurrencies have dropped in value an even greater amount.
Crypto resurgence at Facebook
Months after Facebook reportedly began a blockchain initiative, the company has now posted five job openings for blockchain talent.
The company has still not disclosed its plans for utilizing the technology, but the job postings include its mission for the tech being to provide "billions of people with access to things they don't have now [...] equitable financial services, new ways to save, or new ways to share information".
The postings also indicate that the blockchain initiative is being treated as a startup within the firm. The five postings include roles for a data scientist, data engineer, software engineer, and a product marketing lead.
China Extends Crypto Ban to Security Token Offerings
💰 What is a security token? Security tokens are similar to ICO tokens but are backed by a company's revenue, earnings, or assets. They are essentially a hybrid between ICO tokens and shares of stock.
Brief recap of China's ban
China has been arguably the most strict nation on cryptocurrency regulation. The government has imposed a blanket ban on pretty much all things crypto including, trading, ICOs, and media publications.
Despite all of these bans, China is home to a significant amount of Bitcoin's miners and citizens are allowed to own cryptocurrencies.
Ban being extended
Security tokens have gained more interest in the cryptocurrency space as the SEC has been cracking down on initial coin offerings (ICO). Security token offerings (STO) are being proposed as a way to hold an ICO that is in compliance with securities regulations.
As STOs are gaining popularity, China has now made sure to make it clear that STOs are not allowed within its borders like all of the other crypto related activities.
In its announcement of the STO ban, China's central bank cited that crypto's role in illicit activities is the motivation for the country to restrict activity involving digital currencies.
Bitcoin Volatility has Tripled in the Last Month
After Bitcoin broke through the $6,000 price level and proceeded to hit record lows, the cryptocurrency's volatility has tripled to levels not seen since March.
According to the Bitcoin Volatility Index, Bitcoin's 30-day volatility now stands at 5.73% - a far more recognizable figure for crypto than early November's measly 1.03%.
Though volatility has increased in the last month, it's still about 2% lower than when Bitcoin began to tumble from its all-time highs in early January.
Almost a year later, some experts hold that volatility will only continue to decrease as institutions begin entering and stabilizing the market.
But wait, there's more...
- 🏛 A Japanese lawmaker is proposing 4 new changes to ease crypto tax burdens and encourage adoption.
- 🎁 PayPal has launched a blockchain-based reward system for its employees.
- 🍗 KFC in Venezuela will begin accepting Dash payments within the week.
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Sunday, December 9, 2018
Weekly Bulletin (Dec 9, 2018)
Weekly BulletinSEC delays VanEck Bitcoin ETF decision until February 27
So we might see about a month of Bakkt activity before this February 27 deadline (Bakkt has a target launch date of January 24). Grayscale Trust continues to buy BTCThey now own over 1% of bitcoin circulating supply. (Source)
I don't like the chart because it's misleading (they've only bought ~23,000 of their 203,000 bitcoin in the past year). But the meme is real folks. Smart money buys when dumb money sells. G20 leaders pledge crypto-asset regulationAfter the G20 meeting in Argentina, the international forum of governments and central bank governors issued a declaration titled "Building consensus for fair and sustainable development." This made a few headlines last week because the word "crypto" appeared once in the 4,000 word declaration.
And here I was…thinking I should launder money and help fund ISIS. Great work lads.
*Note, I should be clear here that my sarcasm is directed at folks giving this "news" any weight and significance.Binance released a DEX demoChangpeng Zhao (Binance CEO) said in a recent interview they are close to launching their proprietary decentralized exchange blockchain, known as Binancechain. We'll see if this is one of those decentralized exchange that has to introduce full KYC. Coinbase adds a few more (shit)coinsLast week Coinbase added CVC, DNT, LOOM, and MANA to Coinbase Pro. (Source) Coinbase also said that they are:
Namely, the assets below.
Yes, I know. You probably feel like this:  lol coinbase 🤦♂️ Their main advantage is the regulatory moat they've built themselves but they are trying their best to fuck that up.Or like this:  @matt_odell Coinbase shitcoins OK for millions of retail investors. Bitcoin ETF for institutional investors too crazy. What f*ing parallel universe is this? 🤦♂️🤯What I find interesting is how the general consensus shifted from 2017 to now. 2017 > Why isn't Coinbase adding more coins? What is the right thing to do? Is their business model to list random coins from their friends projects so they can all fill their coffers? I don't know. And I mostly don't care. And if you're tilted, don't fret. The market will decide if they're right or wrong. Recommended ReadingsMoney as a social contractHasu thinks that understanding the connection between the social and protocol layer is *the* key to understanding Bitcoin.
You can read his article here.
That's all for now. If you think I missed anything important, mention it in the Telegram group. Have a great week folks!
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