Monday, April 15, 2019

An Invitation from MIT Technology Review

View in browser

Stay connected with an MIT Technology Review All Access Digital subscription

As the trusted authority on emerging technology and innovation, MIT Technology Review is always looking forward. Subscribe today and discover the technologies that will change your world.

Subscribe today

Subscribing now ensures you won't miss the conversations about the technologies shaping the world around you. From interviews with the thought leaders who are changing the way you live and work, to discerning coverage of the issues that will impact business, politics, and the social landscape, MIT Technology Review's award-winning coverage gives you unparalleled insights that separate fact from fiction and hype from reality.

Stay ahead. Stay connected. Subscribe today.

Subscribe today

Click here to manage your newsletter preferences and email settings.

MIT Technology Review, One Main Street, Cambridge, MA 02142

To unsubscribe from all emails, including newsletters, follow this link.

CZ vs CW

To view this email as a web page, go here.

‘SATOSHI’ FEUD: Top crypto exchange Binance has said it will stop offering all Bitcoin SV (BSV) trading pairs on April 22. The announcement comes just days after its CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) threatened to delist BSV if its creator Craig Wright did not cease attacks on Twitter users who say he is not bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto, as Wright claims. While Binance’s announcement did not cite the disagreement, it’s likely that BSV is being deleted due to Wright’s attacks on anonymous Twitter user “Hodlonaut” and other individuals. Specifically, Wright placed a bounty on Hodlonaut’s identity after the latter publicly refuted Wright’s claim. Full Story

BULLETPROOFS BANK: ING is testing privacy technology called “bulletproofs,” the latest in a series of seemingly unlikely cypherpunk experiments at the Netherlands-based bank. Bulletproofs hide the amounts being transferred in bitcoin transactions, which are normally visible to anyone. This ability appeals to banks too, since they don’t want to expose competitive or sensitive client data to rivals. While it’s also tested versions of related tech called zero knowledge proofs, the bank found bulletproofs turn out to be “roughly ten times faster than other range proofs, for a single range proof,” said Mariana Gomez de la Villa, global head of ING’s blockchain program. Full Story

PHYSICAL FUTURES: Cryptocurrency derivatives provider LedgerX plans to become the first U.S. firm to offer physically settled bitcoin futures contracts. The company says it has filed for a designated contract market (DCM) license, which would allow it to offer physically-settled bitcoin futures products to its customers. Perhaps more notably, LedgerX aims to target retail investors with its new offering, said Juthica Chou, who serves as both chief risk and operating officer at LedgerX. Once approved, LedgerX will offer bitcoin, bitcoin options and bitcoin futures to retail customers through a new platform, dubbed Omni. Full Story

BLOCKCHAIN SCHOOLING: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank have launched a private blockchain network and a crypto token called “Learning Coin” to better understand how blockchain technology works. The two institutions said that the coin would have no monetary value and would not be made openly available, according to an FT report. The IMF said the project is aimed to address a “growing knowledge gap between the legislators, policymakers, economists and the technology.” Full Story

WANING VOLUMES: Bitcoin's bounce from Friday's low of $4,912 looks shallow as trading volumes slipped lower to $10 billion over the weekend – down over 50 percent from the high of $21 billion earlier this week. As a result, another drop to $5,000 or below could be in the offing. Acceptance below $4,912 in particular could prove costly, as that would validate the signs of bull exhaustion seen in the weekly chart. Full Story

BEST OF THE BEST

HYPE POLICE: The SEC is cracking down on ETFs that change their names to tap into market trends, according to Bloomberg. Wary that some offerings could be misleading investors, the US agency is said to have “encouraged” two funds to remove the term blockchain from their names late last year, according to the piece. ETF offerings from Amplify and Reality Shares both used the term in early filings, but eventually launched with alternative names.

THE REST

SAMSUNG DEAL: IT multinational Tech Mahindra has inked a deal to offer Samsung SDS's Nexledger blockchain platform in the Indian market and globally. Nexledger was built to provide “scalable and flexible” blockchain solutions for a range of enterprise use cases. Developers building applications can choose from a number of blockchain technologies and consensus algorithms including Hyperledger Fabric and ethereum using the platform. Samsung SDS said blockchain is a “strong focus area” for both firms in 2019.

CONTINUED CYBERATTACKS: The Royal United Services Institute, a London-based security think tank, believes that North Korea might target southeast Asia's growing cryptocurrency sector as a way of raising funds while bypassing sanctions. The heavily-sanctioned nation has is a "sophisticated" cyberattack player, and may try to exploit cryptocurrencies to obtain new funds, CNBC reports.

WHO WON #CRYPTOTWITTER

Copyright © 2019 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

Closing the communication gap with FISSION

Ultimately, establishing a common vocabulary and advancing the accessibility of Ethereum Classic to it's global user base.

Can't see images? Click here...

Hi there,

With talent and perspective going into blockchain projects from every corner of the world, unique challenges are made apparent due to communication barriers in the spoken language, and especially how that translates to lines of code.

FISSION is a semantic protocol made for closing the communication gap between end-users and developers using EVM-based smart contracts. Ultimately, establishing a common vocabulary for smart contracts to communicate, and thus advancing the accessibility of Ethereum Classic to it's global user base.

Learn more about the future of FISSION here!

Thanks again for choosing to keep up with ETC.

Until next time,

~Anthony Lusardi
Director, US | Ethereum Classic Cooperative
@pyskell

Know someone else that needs to keep up with all things ETC? Share this message!

ETC Cooperative

636 Avenue of the Americas
3rd Floor
New York, NY 10011

Add us to your address book

FORWARD

You received this email because you signed up on our website or made a purchase from us.

Unsubscribe

Space cats in court 🙀

April 15, 2019	View in browser

Good morning! Thanks for reading. If you enjoy our free newsletter, please share us with a friend and tell them they can subscribe here.

Today's top reads

Craig Wright's crusade
Assange's arrest
Blockstack's (historic) token sale
The Pentagon's problem

This week's poll: Is the bear market over?
Click to answer: Yes, we've already bottomed out No, we haven't seen the worst yet

Running Unbankd is not free, if you like our content, Donate!

DONATE

Market update

COIN	PRICE	7-DAY
BTC	$5,148.63	- 1.96%
ETH	$165.24	- 8.27%
XRP	$0.325	- 9.32%
BCH	$296.39	- 4.14%
LTC	$80.72	- 9.72%

1. Craig Wright's crusade

Craig Wright's not playing around anymore. In the last week, the Australian computer scientist who claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto has expanded his campaign to serve legal threats to anyone who publicly denounces him as a fraud.

But besides all the cat avatars spreading around crypto Twitter, here's what you need to know:

Legal letters are plentiful. Aside from the anonymous Twitter account @Hodlonaut, both podcast personality Peter McCormack and Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin were allegedly served legal notices.
Bitcoin SV has delisting threats. In an effort to thwart Wright's actions, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao threatened Wright through Twitter saying "Anymore of this sh!t, we delist [BSV]."
Donations topped $27,000. To defend @Hodlonaut, the Bitcoin community banded together to build weareallhodlonaut.com and gathered over $27,000 for the anonymous cat's legal fund from more than 1000 contributors.
Augur markets have joined the party. At least one threat has come out of Augur's decentralized prediction market that allows users to bet on whether or not Calvin Ayre, a supporter of Wright, will get egged within the next three months.

It's quite the circus honestly. Not only that, but it is detracting away from real development going on in the space - on both coins.

Here are some projects that might be worth a peek...

Snake on the BSV blockchain. Have a minute? You can literally play the popular arcade game snake on the BSV blockchain through a normal browser. It might not be a "world changing" use case, but it showcases a new side of development that is serverless and 100% powered by the blockchain.
Bitcoin rewards when you shop. Lolli is a Chrome extension that lets you earn up to +30% back in Bitcoin when you checkout at partner stores...and they already have 500+ top brands including Walmart, Best Buy, Macy's and more.

2. Assange's arrest

"Free speech money" is flowing. At least that's what WikiLeaks supporters are calling the some $20,000 in Bitcoin that came pouring in 24 hours after founder Julian Assange was arrested and carried out of the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

Now, more than 400 transactions later, the WikiLeaks donation wallet address has gathered over $31,000 in Bitcoin - a figure that excludes donations made with ZCash or other traditional methods like cash and check.

But WikiLeaks could care less about "traditional methods." That's because back in 2011, payment processor PayPal joined forces with U.S. and Swiss-based banks to ban WikiLeaks from using its platform. Since that day, the international non-profit organization has collected over 4,000 Bitcoin, or in USD terms, over $20,000,000.

Those 4,000 Bitcoin didn't come easy though. After being banned by Visa, Mastercard, Paypal and various banks in an action that glaringly violated Bitcoin's censorship-resistant priniciple, even San Francisco crypto exchange Coinbase dropped Assange's publication as a customer.

However, despite repeated attempts to shut off WikiLeaks' funding, this week's message is clear: No one can control Bitcoin...not even you Coinbase.

3. Blockstack's (historic) token sale

In what looks like a world first, Harvard's $37.1 billion endowment fund has purchased $12.65 million in Stack tokens (STX) from BlockStack's recent $50 million token sale.

The news came after a report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) by BlockStack LLC outlined Harvard Management Company as a participating investor.

But haven't other university endowments invested in blockchain ventures? Yes. However, this time it's different because Harvard will be holding Stack tokens directly. Not investing in the startup's equity itself.

In the end though, the result is the same. Blockstack received $50 million in startup capital to build its privacy-focused internet regardless of the investment method.

The bottom line: Harvard's investment is a pivotal moment for token sales and the types of investors they can attract.

[OP-ED]

4. The Pentagon's problem

Have we learned nothing? Last week the Pentagon announced that it has selected two finalists, Amazon and Microsoft, for its two-year-long interview.

The prize: A $10 billion contract that gives one cloud computing provider complete control over the migration of U.S. military information into the cloud.

So why is this so wrong? Here's a couple reasons:

One target. That's right. The Pentagon's search for one cloud computing provider is the first red flag. Following the $10 billion award, who do you think hackers are going to target first to unveil classified military information? Not to mention that if the winner is Amazon, the bounty will be twice as much since the company already manages the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) cloud.
It takes two to tango. The scale of the project is too large for one provider. Moreover, a single cloud platform "complicates the integration of legacy applications and walls off access to future innovations." That means America's military would miss out on any innovations that happen outside of its contract winner's realm.

Does this have anything to do with blockchain or crypto? Well, not really. It's actually the exact opposite of decentralization and that's why it grinds our gears.

But who cares, when in history has a single point of failure ever actually failed?

In all seriousness, maybe the U.S. should take some advice from China. At least they are using 3 of their nation's top cloud computing providers to carry such a heavy (and sensitive) weight.

5. You should also know

A new study has found that a vast majority of endowment funds have made investments in crypto-related projects despite concerns of liquidity and volatility.
Bitmex CEO Arthur Hayes has plans to open a crypto options trading platform in the medium term.
South Korea's largest crypto exchange Bithumb posted a whopping $180 million loss in 2018 after a massive market collapse, high infrastructure investments, and ongoing labor costs.

6. No to ASIC

From last week's poll, 60% of respondents answered that they are anti-ASIC miner. Let's take a look at the biggest arguments on each side:

Pro: ASIC miners are faster, more efficient, and more powerful than their GPU counterparts. This allows ASIC miners to mine coins at a lower energy cost and maintain a higher ongoing profit margin.
Con: The initial cost of ASIC miners creates a high barrier to entry and forces all participants to upgrade or be left behind. In this regard, it's a race to the bottom as ASIC miners push the hash rate higher and higher of a coin as they compete.

To each their own. Many coins have chosen the ASIC-resistant path and others, like Bitcoin, have parted ways with the GPU. It's just a matter of the community.