TOMORROW: Building & Scaling Blockchain Solutions with IBM

Attend live on Thursday August 6, 2020 at 11:00 AM ET! Sign up today!

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LIVE WEBINAR | THURSDAY, AUGUST 6, 2020 | 11:00 AM ET Join us, tomorrow for an engaging panel to hear how IBM Blockchain solutions are being used to help corporations deliver technology for social good and for a variety of industry solutions. IBM further enhances your ability to build blockchain networks anywhere. IBM Blockchain Platform software is optimized to deploy on Red Hat OpenShift, Red Hat’s state-of-the-art enterprise Kubernetes platform. This means clients now have even more flexibility when choosing where to deploy blockchain network components whether on-premises with System Z, in public clouds, or in hybrid cloud architectures. The software includes the tools to build, operate, govern and expand blockchain networks.   SIGN UP TODAY WEBINAR SPEAKERS Nathaniel Whittemore, Moderator  Michel Considine, Innovation Delivery Leader at Cognition Foundry  Anthony O'Dowd, IBM Blockchain Distinguished Engineer Technical Executive Philip Webb, Founder and Managing Director, Investors In Community, IBM This email was sent by: CoinDesk   250 Park Avenue South New York, NY, 10003, US   Want to change how you receive these emails? update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list

Square's Booming Bitcoin Business

Eth 2.0's final testnet, a new DeFi accelerator and more

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August 5, 2020 By Daniel Kuhn If you were forwarded this newsletter and would like to receive it, sign up here.  TOP SHELF Square’s Bitcoin business is booming, lawmakers are batting for crypto staking protocols and a blockchain-based voting system in Russia may have been hacked. Here’s the story: Bitcoin Revenues Square’s Bitcoin business is booming. Announcing Tuesday, the San Francisco payments company said revenue made from selling bitcoin to Cash App customers during the second quarter came to a total of $875 million – up 600% up year-on-year. Square stresses it only takes a "small margin" selling bitcoin to customers, but Q2's results show it made $17 million profit – an increase of 711% year-on-year. While bitcoin made up only 5% of Square’s revenue at $34 million in Q1 2018 (its first full quarter), it came to $65.5 million in the same quarter in 2019. Square Crypto, a subsidiary, has also sponsored Lightning developer Lloyd Fournier. Taxing Staking Four lawmakers wrote a letter to the Internal Revenue Service Wednesday, asking the U.S. tax agency to ensure holders of staked crypto don’t face tax liabilities for receiving block rewards before they sell their new tokens. “It is possible the taxation of 'staking' rewards as income may overstate taxpayers’ actual gains from participating in this new technology,” the letter said. “It could also result in a reporting and compliance nightmare, for taxpayers and the Service alike.” Each block could be treated as a taxable event, creating headaches for filers and the IRS alike. The lawmakers said staking rewards resemble both rental income and interest payments.  Sophisticated Engineering The teenager arrested for allegedly masterminding the recent Twitter hack gained access to the platform by “socially engineering” a Twitter employee, according to a government affidavit and the company’s internal investigation. Social engineering is a broad term that encompasses many methods of exploitation including bribery, coercion, phishing and SIM swaps. Haseeb Awan, CEO of Efani, which protects against SIM swap attacks, estimated around 1,000 people fall victim every day, and the exploits are getting more sophisticated. In many cases, perpetrators go uncaught, and victims frequently do not come forward, making the arrests in the Twitter hack the exception to the rule. Blockchain Breached? Hackers are reportedly selling the personal data of more than a million Russians who voted electronically, using blockchain technology, during the recent constitutional amendment process. Over 1.1 million data points were stolen and put on sale for $1.50 each on the online forums, though authorities deny the hack. The online voting system, based on Bitfury’s open-source Exonum blockchain and built with the help of Kaspersky Lab, was previously reported to have poor data protection. Journalists were able to decrypt people’s votes as well as pull passport numbers out of a weakly-protected file posted online by the authorities, a Russian media outlet Meduza wrote. DeFi Development The Chicago DeFi Alliance (CDA) is launching one of the first accelerator programs for decentralized finance (DeFi) startups beginning in August. The program is modeled on Silicon Valley’s Y Combinator program and will invest $120,000 in each participating team in exchange for future token purchases. Volt Capital co-founder Imran Khan and CDA partner Qiao Wang will lead the eight-week program for early-stage startups, plus a fast-track program to introduce more established startups to relevant experts. “DeFi has all the fundamental qualities to become a real, trusted alternative to the legacy financial system,” Wang said.   QUICK BITES Dark web vendor and pharmacist charged with trafficking drugs worth $270 million in bitcoin SEC seeking “smart contract” tracing tool that can spot security vulnerabilities Genesis’ crypto lending rebounded in Q2 Missouri man pleaded guilty to trying to buy chemical weapons with bitcoin   AT STAKE In the mainstream financial press there is a lot of attention given to the inflationary risks of the Federal Reserve’s bout of money printing. As Pantera Capital CEO Dan Morehead said, the United States has printed more money in June than in its two centuries of existence. Putting this in context, over the course of the pandemic, the Fed has nearly doubled its balance sheet to about $7 trillion.  Some pundits, like professor of economics Antony Mueller believe the reverse case – that the economy is deflating – is more likely in the short term. Deflation is when the rate of growth of demand is lower than the growth rate of production. An under-utilized workforce reduces not only productivity, but also demand: because there’s less money to spend.  It’s this same depressed workforce that is likely keeping inflation, or hyperinflation, in check, according to Goldman Sachs economist Jan Hatzius.  “The modern monetary policy suffers from a deep fear of deflation and tries to avoid it at any cost,” Mueller said. “There are various effects at work that promote an automatic recovery from a deflationary shock.” He cited ZIRP and NIRP (zero interest rate policy and negative interest rate policies) and quantitative easing as two tools in the Fed’s toolbox.  These same tools often can often prevent a natural business correction and lead the economy to inflate. If that’s the case, and the workforce remains under lockdown, the states may be heading to a period of stagflation instead, where inflation rises without growth. Ending on a pragmatic note, Mueller said reliable economic prognosis is difficult and expectations are volatile. There is a degree of trust in economists and government actors to make forward-directed decisions, and “while trust can easily be destroyed, it is hard to re-establish.” Good thing there’s a trustless hedge. MARKET INTEL Sustained Cycle After wild Sunday action that saw the price of the world’s oldest cryptocurrency fall as low as $10,050 on spot exchanges like Coinbase, bitcoin is trading relatively flat, at around $11,200 Tuesday. “The asset is trading in a narrow range of $11,080 to $11,220,” said Constantine Kogan, a partner at crypto fund of funds BitBull Capital. “To continue last week’s rally, bitcoin needs to overcome the resistance level, which is in the $11,300- $11,400 region,” he added.  Ethereum 2.0: How It Work and Why It Matters CoinDesk Research's 22-page report covers the long-awaited Ethereum 2.0, from its technology and development road map to potential market impact as the foundational upgrade to the world's largest smart contract platform. Ethereum developers present commentary about the benefits and risks this new technology may bring. Download the free report. TECH POD ...See, Lightning! Blockstream released its latest version of c-lightning, an implementation of the Lightning Network. Dubbed “Rat Poison Squared on Steroids,” referencing Warren Buffett’s denouncement of Bitcoin, the update has added multi-part payments, an easier way to plug in crime-sleuthing watchtowers and also laid the groundwork for a tracking tool that could make filing taxes easier. Final, Official Test Ethereum 2.0’s final and official public testnet, Medalla, went live, according to the Ethereum Foundation. Medalla is the final testnet before the launch of the Eth 2.0 network, which is tentatively expected by year’s end. Over 20,000 validators had joined the network within a few hours of launch, staking some 650,000 ether (ETH), according to the Beaconcha.in block explorer. PODCAST CORNER No Hope? Bobby Goodlatte, founder of seed investment firm Form Capital and early Facebook employee, joins NLW to discuss the perils of social media and whether these platforms can be redeemed. WHO WON #CRYPTOTWITTER Blockchain Bites A newsletter from CoinDesk See previous editions 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.

Launch of the New Æmbassies Program and more — Click and dig into æternity newsletter!

Build your Own Æmbassy! The æmbassador program evolved into a wider concept: æmbassies. Æmbassies are co-created by talented individuals that work collectively to achieve local æcosystems and become referents in æternity  blockchain´s adoption. The skills we are seeking for are: Entrepreneur, Developer, Enterprise, and Community Builder. Supported by the æternity Crypto Foundation,  a set of interesting bounties are available for those who add value to the community, so if you are ready to jump into the program, don´t hesitate to apply! Click to apply Learn More Æ Tokens are More Accessible than Ever!   There are many ways to get your hands on some AE tokens – but there´s the best one: collect AE Tips through Superhero.com! Superhero removes third-party custodians from the online equation, delivering free and fair internet interaction that allows anybody to collect Tips for anything, from any site, blog, Social Media accounts, or platform. Click the button below to learn more about this and other ways to get Æ Tokens, and become an active part of the community. Learn More Learn the ABC's of Running your Own Node. A public blockchain like æternity is completely decentralized – people from all around the world come together to secure the network. Each participant in this intricate security network is called a node. There are many great reasons to run a node and several interesting benefits. Running an æternity node only takes the right hardware and a good internet connection. Click the button below to learn everything you need to know about running your own node and becoming an active member of the æternity community.  Learn More Thank You for Your Continuous Support! If you would like to interact with the team or the community, please feel free to join one or more of the channels below. The æternity Establishment is seeking highly talented individuals for the following positions: Web Designer Developer Advocate Senior Javascript Developer Senior Erlang Developer QA Engineer Growth Hacker   Social Media Channels Twitter  LinkedIn YouTube Medium Blog Forums & Chats Forum Reddit Weibo Telegram We are thrilled to have you with us! The æternity team info@aeternity.com Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list