IBM, Mastercard Join a New Enterprise Blockchain Effort

While Ethereum passes a milestone and faces new competition

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May 5, 2020 By Daniel Kuhn If you were forwarded this newsletter and would like to receive it, sign up here.  TOP SHELF There's a lot of action happening in enterprise grade blockchains. Big Blue's preferred chain Hyperledger is being tapped by three energy grid operators, a new consortium to establish digital identities for public and private organizations and has been shown to perform better than expected in a medical supply chain pilot. Elsewhere in the crypto-verse, Bitcoin's difficulty setting is increasing while Ethereum is seeing a burst in transactions. Though both may soon face a new competitor, with the imminent launch of NEAR. Here's the story:  Big Blue Goes Green With Blockchain IBM has created a new blockchain consortium with three of Europe’s electricity grid operators to help smooth the transition to renewable sources of energy. The Equigy platform will use Hyperledger Fabric to share charging data between consumers, aggregators and three energy providers in Northern and Southern Europe.  Digital Identities on Hyperledger The ToIP Foundation is building a solution to the problem of digital identity and how to maintain trust between various counterparties. A vast ecosystem of public bodies and private companies, including Mastercard, IBM and the Canadian Province of British Columbia, are working on establishing decentralized digital trust, which will live within the Linux Foundation.  Drug Blockchain Better Than Expected IBM, Merck, Walmart and KPMG’s drug-tracing blockchain pilot on Hyperledger Fabric has exceeded the benchmarks outlined by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the group announced Monday. In their final report to the FDA, the partners said, "this technology might be able to address the foundational requirement of track and trace for [the Drug Supply Chain Security Act] in addition to establishing trust between trading partners." Reweighing Gram Returns Telegram won’t repay its investors in gram tokens after all. After twice delaying the launch of its TON blockchain, the company is contractually obligated to pay investors back 72% of their investments immediately, but has offered to pay investors 110% of their investment in equity or gram tokens if they wait a year for the network to go live. Lawyers advised the firm "not to pursue an option involving grams or another cryptocurrency due to its uncertain reception from the relevant regulators." 'It's Gravy,' Turkish Authorities Said iMiner, a Turkey-based company, has been granted a license to operate up to 6,000 mining rigs. The mining company has so far spent 311 billion rials ($7.3 million) on setting up the biggest mining operation in the country to date. Getting Harder Bitcoin mining difficulty – a measure of how hard it is to compete for block rewards – has neared an all-time high in the network’s last adjustment before the halving event, roughly seven days away. This adjustment is the second time that mining difficulty has topped the 16 T threshold and follows the second-largest decline in the network’s history in late-March. Ethereum Killer? NEAR, a blockchain project that aims to compete with Ethereum, closed a $21.6 million token sale led by Andreessen Horowitz and joined by some 40 other investment firms including Pantera Capital, Libertus, Blockchange and Animal Ventures. The creators are targeting April 22 for a mainnet launch of its Proof-of-Stake blockchain.  Busy Days Meanwhile, Ethereum’s network is experiencing its busiest days in 10 months amid increased issuance of stablecoins and the runup to Ethereum 2.0. The seven-day moving average of the total number of confirmed transactions on Ethereum’s blockchain rose to 845,400 on April 30 to hit the highest level since July 1 , 2019, according to the data source Coin Metrics.  Milestone Block Ethereum has mined 10 million blocks in five years of existence. Ethereum’s protocol prints a new block every 20 seconds, compared to Bitcoin’s consensus mechanism, which usually will create a new block of transactions every 10 minutes. (Decrypt) New Suit Puerto Rico-based Bitcoin Manipulation Abatement filed a lawsuit against Ripple and its CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, alleging they had violated securities laws when hosting its $1.1 billion XRP sale. Incorporated last year, BMA accuses Ripple of publicly promoting the sale to investors to drive up demand and maximize profits, without registering the sale with the relevant regulator.  Ongoing Suit The long and tumultuous lawsuit between Craig Wright and the brother of his former business partner has a tentative trial date, July 6. The Kleiman estate is suing the self-declared inventor of Bitcoin for half of the suspected 1 million bitcoin trove Wright had mined with Dave Kleiman. (Decrypt) Trade Function Trading messaging platform Paradigm will launch a trading feature that makes it easier to execute derivatives trades. (The Block)  Salty Hackers A hacking group has installed crypto mining malware into a company server through a weakness in Salt, a popular infrastructure tool used by the likes of IBM, LinkedIn and eBay. "The mining attempt spiked CPUs and quickly overloaded most of our systems, which alerted us to the issue immediately,” an incident report reads.  The Long Read Fintech guru David Birch wrote The Currency Cold War: Cash and Cryptography, Hash Rates and Hegemony, a book that seemingly foresaw the future. What was once a niche theory, that digital dollars could displace the sovereignty of money, is now front of mind for central bankers, regulators and the builders of new monetary systems. The world, it appears, is heading to a Cold War between a competing set of programmatic currencies, all with their own designs and purposes. Birch sits down with Jeff Wilser to discuss the coming state of the world where we will have to choose between “between the Federal Reserve and Microsoft (between dollar bills and Bill’s dollars)? Between Facebook’s Libra and China’s Digital Currency/Electronic Payment (DCEP) system? Between spendable drawing rights (SDRs) and Kardashian kash?”   COINDESK LIVE: LOCKDOWN EDITION CoinDesk Live: Lockdown Edition continues its popular twice-weekly virtual chats via Zoom and Twitter, giving you a preview of what’s to come at Consensus: Distributed, our first fully virtual – and fully free – big-tent conference May 11-15.  Register to join our sixth session Tuesday, May 5, with speaker Amy Davine Kim from the Chamber of Digital Commerce to discuss upcoming guidelines from the Financial Action Task Force, most notably the Travel Rule, hosted by Consensus organizer Aaron Stanley. Zoom participants can ask questions directly to our guests. MARKET INTEL Investor Interest? Bitcoin failed to plant a flag above $9,000 early on Tuesday. Still, on-chain data suggests spiking investor interest. The seven-day average of the number of unique addresses active on the network rose to the highest level since June 29, 2019. “We have observed a significant increase in ‘new money’ entering the ecosystem,” said Matthew Dibb, co-founder of Stack. Not for Buffett. Billionaire investor Warren Buffett says he's having a hard time finding attractive investments as the coronavirus ravages the global economy. Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency that the 89-year-old Buffett described in February as having "no value," is up 23% this year to about $8,870. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index of large U.S. stocks, which Buffett routinely endorses for amateur investors, is down 12%. CoinDesk's First Mover team reports, shares of Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett's insurance-to-utilities conglomerate, are down 21% in 2020. Let Them Eat Gold Other institutional players, including hedge funds, are betting on gold as a refuge from “unfettered” currency printing. (Financial Times, paywalled) COINDESK PODCAST NETWORK The Oracle of Omaha In the latest episode of The Breakdown, Nathaniel Whittermore unpacks the “Woodstock of Capitalism,” or the 4.5 hour long virtual Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholders meeting, addressing why Warren Buffet is sitting on $137 billion in cash and is hesitant to invest.  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 here.

Andreessen Horowitz leads funding round / Essay: Bitcoin is common sense / Crypto Masterclass

Inside Cryptocurrency .

Inside.com Part of   Network May 04, 2020

Happy Monday everyone! Just a reminder that we're offering 50% off to our new subscribers who sign up for Inside Crypto Premium on a monthly basis. To take advantage of the 30 places we have left, simply use the promo code Crypto50 when signing up, which you can do here. By doing so, you'll get access to all these features and more: Full access to content five days a week, advert-free. Q&As with crypto experts, such as Ray Youssef, CEO and co-founder of Paxful. The latest studies on crypto, including our own in-depth analysis. Our daily Masterclass with leaders from the crypto space giving their views on market conditions. Click here to upgrade to premium! Stay healthy, stay safe, Rebecca

Market Watch Market prices at the start of the working week are mostly in the red. Ahead of its block reward halving next week, Bitcoin remains within touching distance of $9,000. The biggest mover, however, is Hyperion, which rose by nearly 55 percent in a 24-hour period. Bitcoin $8,761 -2.07% Ethereum $203 -4.37% XRP $0.217 -1.77% Tether $1.00 -0.26% Top 100 Winner: Hyperion $0.577 +54.89% Top 100 Loser: Energi $2.96 -9.72% Prices are as of 2:00 p.m. ET.

Andreessen Horowitz led a $21.6 million token sale for proof-of-stake blockchain. The NEAR Foundation, which is behind the recently launched proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain, also saw participation from 40 investment companies, including Pantera Capital, Libertus, and Blockchange... To read the full story and others in this newsletter, sign up to Inside Crypto Premium. To sweeten the deal, we're offering our first 50 new subscribers 50 percent off on monthly plans. Simply use the code Crypto50 when signing up. Click here to upgrade to premium! SUBSCRIBE NOW TO FIND OUT MORE

Analyst essay: "Bitcoin is common sense." An analyst points out that as central banks continue to print money in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, Bitcoin makes common sense. To find out more, sign up for Inside Crypto Premium. Simply use the code Crypto50 to get 50 percent off. Click here to upgrade to premium! SUBSCRIBE NOW TO FIND OUT MORE

Crypto Masterclass, featuring Brian Norton. Our Crypto Masterclass feature showcases a well-known thought leader or expert in the crypto space, including their visions and advice for the future. "The halvening is coming at an interesting time for the crypto ecosystem." In Brian Norton's (COO of MEW) view, this block halving event is coinciding with several cross-chain projects and questions how much demand for Bitcoin will be driven by use cases on Ethereum... To find out more of Norton's views and receive our Masterclass every day, sign up for Inside Crypto Premium. To take advantage of 50 percent off on monthly plans, simply use the code Crypto50. Click here to upgrade to premium! SUBSCRIBE NOW TO FIND OUT MORE

Paxful launches Bitcoin fundraising campaign to support Africa during COVID-19. The peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplace is expanding its #BuiltWithBitcoin charitable initiative... To read the full story and others in this newsletter, sign up to Inside Crypto Premium. Simply use the code Crypto50 to receive 50% off when signing up. Click here to upgrade to premium! SUBSCRIBE NOW TO FIND OUT MORE

Coinbase blog: Bitcoin's advantage over gold. Due to the economic crisis, investors are turning to gold as a safe haven. Yet, as Coinbase points out in its pro-Bitcoin blog, the gold market is facing a historic squeeze as shortages are felt. In the post "Market efficiency of gold and Bitcoin," the crypto exchange highlights reports that gold bars are being flown from Australia's Perth Mint to New York to ease the supply squeeze. In Coinbase's opinion, this only clarifies that Bitcoin is a better store of value than gold, pointing out that Bitcoin doesn't rely on a fragile physical supply chain. More: Energy costs of gold are difficult to measure, whereas Bitcoin is relatively transparent and easy. As of April 29, Bitcoin is outperforming gold and the S&P 500. Year-to-date returns are +20 percent for Bitcoin, +12 percent, and +8 percent for gold and the S&P 500. Bitcoin is at a technological advantage compared to gold. COINBASE/MEDIUM

Litecoin Mimblewimble sees functional testing framework. Litecoin and Grin++ developer David Burkett posted an update on the Mimblewimble integration, which will see privacy protocols introduced into Litecoin. Burkett states that he has built out a functional testing framework that builds valid headers, blocks, and transactions. He adds that he has completed some end-to-end block validation tests. More: Burkett has already started integrating with Litecoin codebase, in particular with the ConnectBlock logic. This is the part where blocks are validated before adding them to the chain. Back in March, Burkett projected that by the end of summer there would be a Litecoin Mimblewimble testnet launch. LITECOIN TALK

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.  Editor Beth Duckett is a former news and investigative reporter for The Arizona Republic who has written for USA Today and other publications.

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Emerging Markets

Why the Middle East is turning towards crypto

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May 4, 2020 By Daniel Kuhn If you were forwarded this newsletter and would like to receive it, sign up here.  TOP SHELF Deposing Banks The Bitfinex crypto exchange is making a new push to find and potentially recover more than $800 million in user funds seized by legal authorities in four different countries after its payment processor’s bank accounts were frozen. iFinex Inc., Bitfinex's parent firm, applied for subpoenas in Colorado, Arizona and Georgia this month, asking federal courts to aid it in deposing banks that may have held funds for Crypto Capital, the payment processor on which Bitfinex stored customers’ and exchange funds.  Emerging Market Citizens in the Middle East are turning to crypto – from Bitcoin to stablecoins – to resist the effects of weak governments and wildly fluctuating exchange rates. CoinDesk’s Leigh Cuen weighs in on the phenomenon as part of a three-part column on how cryptocurrencies are used in the developing world, leading up to her “Crypto Across Emerging Markets” panel at Consensus: Distributed. Enterprise Risks Enterprise-grade private blockchains, the supposedly more efficient sister to public chains, are vulnerable to denial of service attacks and insider threats, according to researchers at Kaspersky and EY. “Open source code that isn’t widely used and doesn’t have a vigilant community testing and inspecting it is far less secure and reliable than systems like Bitcoin and Ethereum, which are continuously hardened by nearly constant attack and public inspection,” said Paul Brody, EY's global blockchain lead.   Blockchain Voting The Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, a U.S. Senate subcommittee hunting, floated blockchain voting as a way to keep the chamber legislating through crises. “The Senate may consider blockchain” if its 100 members must vote remote, staffers wrote. They also proposed voting on end-to-end encryption platforms, and via a military-esque “air-gapped” communications system akin to those presidents and generals use. Fraud Ruling  A New Jersey judge dismissed a lawsuit against Riot Blockchain, which alleged the firm committed securities fraud by changing its name to "Riot Blockchain" in an effort to boost its share price. Restricted Access Japan has amended the way cryptocurrencies are regulated within the country, prompting BitMEX to begin restricting access to local residents, the exchange announced last week. New Collateral? MakerDAO may collaterialize tBTC, an Ethereum-based token pegged to Bitcoin. Though the token is expected to launch in mid-May, Matt Luongo, tBTC’s creator, proposed the move Sunday on MakerDAO’s forum. "While I believe BTC can be great collateral for DAI, more importantly, I believe a native BTC on-ramp into the ecosystem can grow the protocol’s user base,” he said. (The Block) Bitcoin's Benefits Even as stocks tread water, it's likely the global economy is due for a correction. Bitcoin's underlying technology and monetary system make it one of the few investable assets that is immune to the economic fluctuations we have ahead, argues CoinDesk Director of Research Noelle Acheson, in the latest Crypto Long & Short newsletter. Granted More than 150 Ethereum projects have received nearly $25 million in total grant money to date, primarily from the Ethereum Foundation. (The Block) Porsche-Backed  Gapless, a blockchain startup meant to track vehicle ownership, raised about $6 million from FinLab EOS VC Fund and previous investor Porsche among others. (The Block) COINDESK LIVE: LOCKDOWN EDITION CoinDesk Live: Lockdown Edition continues its popular twice-weekly virtual chats via Zoom and Twitter, giving you a preview of what’s to come at Consensus: Distributed, our first fully virtual – and fully free – big-tent conference May 11-15.  Register to join our sixth session Tuesday, May 5, with speaker Amy Davine Kim from the Chamber of Digital Commerce to discuss upcoming guidelines from the Financial Action Task Force, most notably the Travel Rule, hosted by Consensus organizer Aaron Stanley. Zoom participants can ask questions directly to our guests. MARKET INTEL Price Pullback? While Bitcoin is rallying ahead of the halving, jumping from $6,700 to $9,400 in the last 10 days of April alone, historical data suggests it could suffer a temporary price pullback following the supply-altering event. On-chain data suggests both small and large investors are accumulating coins in the run-up to the event. As a result, a bout of profit taking may be seen after May 12. Some investors, especially short-term traders, may sell their coins after halving, putting downside pressure on prices. Public Interest Bitcoin is up 21% in 2020 to about $8,600, during a time when the pandemic laid bare some of the structural vulnerabilities of the post-Bretton Woods monetary system. While Bitcoin is outperforming the S&P 500 as well as gold, it still appears popular interest in the cryptocurrency is still tied to its ongoing price volatility.  COINDESK PODCAST NETWORK Miner Interests F2Pool is the largest bitcoin mining pool in the world, controlling 20% of the collective computational energy on the Bitcoin network. On the fifth and final episode of Bitcoin Halving 2020: Miner Perspectives, Thomas Heller, the mining pool's global business director, discusses the economic incentives driving cryptocurrency mining and mining pool operations. 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 here.

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