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Summary: Everyone knows that when you give your assets to someone else, they always keep them safe. If this is true for individuals, it is certainly true for businesses.
Custodians always tell the truth and manage funds properly. They won't have any interest in taking the assets as an exchange operator would. Auditors tell the truth and can't be misled. That's because organizations that are regulated are incapable of lying and don't make mistakes.

First, some background. Here is a summary of how custodians make us more secure:

Previously, we might give Alice our crypto assets to hold. There were risks:

Alice might take the assets and disappear.
Alice might spend the assets and pretend that she still has them (fractional model).
Alice might store the assets insecurely and they'll get stolen.
Alice might give the assets to someone else by mistake or by force.
Alice might lose access to the assets.

But "no worries", Alice has a custodian named Bob. Bob is dressed in a nice suit. He knows some politicians. And he drives a Porsche. "So you have nothing to worry about!". And look at all the benefits we get:

Alice can't take the assets and disappear (unless she asks Bob or never gives them to Bob).
Alice can't spend the assets and pretend that she still has them. (Unless she didn't give them to Bob or asks him for them.)
Alice can't store the assets insecurely so they get stolen. (After all - she doesn't have any control over the withdrawal process from any of Bob's systems, right?)
Alice can't give the assets to someone else by mistake or by force. (Bob will stop her, right Bob?)
Alice can't lose access to the funds. (She'll always be present, sane, and remember all secrets, right?)

See - all problems are solved! All we have to worry about now is:

Bob might take the assets and disappear.
Bob might spend the assets and pretend that he still has them (fractional model).
Bob might store the assets insecurely and they'll get stolen.
Bob might give the assets to someone else by mistake or by force.
Bob might lose access to the assets.

It's pretty simple. Before we had to trust Alice. Now we only have to trust Alice, Bob, and all the ways in which they communicate. Just think of how much more secure we are!

"On top of that", Bob assures us, "we're using a special wallet structure". Bob shows Alice a diagram. "We've broken the balance up and store it in lots of smaller wallets. That way", he assures her, "a thief can't take it all at once". And he points to a historic case where a large sum was taken "because it was stored in a single wallet... how stupid".
"Very early on, we used to have all the crypto in one wallet", he said, "and then one Christmas a hacker came and took it all. We call him the Grinch. Now we individually wrap each crypto and stick it under a binary search tree. The Grinch has never been back since."

"As well", Bob continues, "even if someone were to get in, we've got insurance. It covers all thefts and even coercion, collusion, and misplaced keys - only subject to the policy terms and conditions." And with that, he pulls out a phone-book sized contract and slams it on the desk with a thud. "Yep", he continues, "we're paying top dollar for one of the best policies in the country!"
"Can I read it?' Alice asks. "Sure," Bob says, "just as soon as our legal team is done with it. They're almost through the first chapter." He pauses, then continues. "And can you believe that sales guy Mike? He has the same year Porsche as me. I mean, what are the odds?"

"Do you use multi-sig?", Alice asks. "Absolutely!" Bob replies. "All our engineers are fully trained in multi-sig. Whenever we want to set up a new wallet, we generate 2 separate keys in an air-gapped process and store them in this proprietary system here. Look, it even requires the biometric signature from one of our team members to initiate any withdrawal." He demonstrates by pressing his thumb into the display. "We use a third-party cloud validation API to match the thumbprint and authorize each withdrawal. The keys are also backed up daily to an off-site third-party."
"Wow that's really impressive," Alice says, "but what if we need access for a withdrawal outside of office hours?" "Well that's no issue", Bob says, "just send us an email, call, or text message and we always have someone on staff to help out. Just another part of our strong commitment to all our customers!"

"What about Proof of Reserve?", Alice asks. "Of course", Bob replies, "though rather than publish any blockchain addresses or signed transaction, for privacy we just do a SHA256 refactoring of the inverse hash modulus for each UTXO nonce and combine the smart contract coefficient consensus in our hyperledger lightning node. But it's really simple to use." He pushes a button and a large green checkmark appears on a screen. "See - the algorithm ran through and reserves are proven."
"Wow", Alice says, "you really know your stuff! And that is easy to use! What about fiat balances?" "Yeah, we have an auditor too", Bob replies, "Been using him for a long time so we have quite a strong relationship going! We have special books we give him every year and he's very efficient! Checks the fiat, crypto, and everything all at once!"

"We used to have a nice offline multi-sig setup we've been using without issue for the past 5 years, but I think we'll move all our funds over to your facility," Alice says. "Awesome", Bob replies, "Thanks so much! This is perfect timing too - my Porsche got a dent on it this morning. We have the paperwork right over here." "Great!", Alice replies.
And with that, Alice gets out her pen and Bob gets the contract. "Don't worry", he says, "you can take your crypto-assets back anytime you like - just subject to our cancellation policy. Our annual management fees are also super low and we don't adjust them often".

How many holes have to exist for your funds to get stolen?
Just one.

Why are we taking a powerful offline multi-sig setup, widely used globally in hundreds of different/lacking regulatory environments with 0 breaches to date, and circumventing it by a demonstrably weak third party layer? And paying a great expense to do so?
If you go through the list of breaches in the past 2 years to highly credible organizations, you go through the list of major corporate frauds (only the ones we know about), you go through the list of all the times platforms have lost funds, you go through the list of times and ways that people have lost their crypto from identity theft, hot wallet exploits, extortion, etc... and then you go through this custodian with a fine-tooth comb and truly believe they have value to add far beyond what you could, sticking your funds in a wallet (or set of wallets) they control exclusively is the absolute worst possible way to take advantage of that security.

The best way to add security for crypto-assets is to make a stronger multi-sig. With one custodian, what you are doing is giving them your cryptocurrency and hoping they're honest, competent, and flawlessly secure. It's no different than storing it on a really secure exchange. Maybe the insurance will cover you. Didn't work for Bitpay in 2015. Didn't work for Yapizon in 2017. Insurance has never paid a claim in the entire history of cryptocurrency. But maybe you'll get lucky. Maybe your exact scenario will buck the trend and be what they're willing to cover. After the large deductible and hopefully without a long and expensive court battle.

And you want to advertise this increase in risk, the lapse of judgement, an accident waiting to happen, as though it's some kind of benefit to customers ("Free institutional-grade storage for your digital assets.")? And then some people are writing to the OSC that custodians should be mandatory for all funds on every exchange platform? That this somehow will make Canadians as a whole more secure or better protected compared with standard air-gapped multi-sig? On what planet?

Most of the problems in Canada stemmed from one thing - a lack of transparency. If Canadians had known what a joke Quadriga was - it wouldn't have grown to lose $400m from hard-working Canadians from coast to coast to coast. And Gerald Cotten would be in jail, not wherever he is now (at best, rotting peacefully). EZ-BTC and mister Dave Smilie would have been a tiny little scam to his friends, not a multi-million dollar fraud. Einstein would have got their act together or been shut down BEFORE losing millions and millions more in people's funds generously donated to criminals. MapleChange wouldn't have even been a thing. And maybe we'd know a little more about CoinTradeNewNote - like how much was lost in there. Almost all of the major losses with cryptocurrency exchanges involve deception with unbacked funds.
So it's great to see transparency reports from BitBuy and ShakePay where someone independently verified the backing. The only thing we don't have is:

ANY CERTAINTY BALANCES WEREN'T EXCLUDED. Quadriga's largest account was $70m. 80% of funds are in 20% of accounts (Pareto principle). All it takes is excluding a few really large accounts - and nobody's the wiser. A fractional platform can easily pass any audit this way.
ANY VISIBILITY WHATSOEVER INTO THE CUSTODIANS. BitBuy put out their report before moving all the funds to their custodian and ShakePay apparently can't even tell us who the custodian is. That's pretty important considering that basically all of the funds are now stored there.
ANY IDEA ABOUT THE OTHER EXCHANGES. In order for this to be effective, it has to be the norm. It needs to be "unusual" not to know. If obscurity is the norm, then it's super easy for people like Gerald Cotten and Dave Smilie to blend right in.

It's not complicated to validate cryptocurrency assets. They need to exist, they need to be spendable, and they need to cover the total balances. There are plenty of credible people and firms across the country that have the capacity to reasonably perform this validation. Having more frequent checks by different, independent, parties who publish transparent reports is far more valuable than an annual check by a single "more credible/official" party who does the exact same basic checks and may or may not publish anything. Here's an example set of requirements that could be mandated:

First report within 1 month of launching, another within 3 months, and further reports at minimum every 6 months thereafter.
No auditor can be repeated within a 12 month period.
All reports must be public, identifying the auditor and the full methodology used.
All auditors must be independent of the firm being audited with no conflict of interest.
Reports must include the percentage of each asset backed, and how it's backed.
The auditor publishes a hash list, which lists a hash of each customer's information and balances that were included. Hash is one-way encryption so privacy is fully preserved. Every customer can use this to have 100% confidence they were included.
If we want more extensive requirements on audits, these should scale upward based on the total assets at risk on the platform, and whether the platform has loaned their assets out.

There are ways to structure audits such that neither crypto assets nor customer information are ever put at risk, and both can still be properly validated and publicly verifiable. There are also ways to structure audits such that they are completely reasonable for small platforms and don't inhibit innovation in any way. By making the process as reasonable as possible, we can completely eliminate any reason/excuse that an honest platform would have for not being audited. That is arguable far more important than any incremental improvement we might get from mandating "the best of the best" accountants. Right now we have nothing mandated and tons of Canadians using offshore exchanges with no oversight whatsoever.

Transparency does not prove crypto assets are safe. CoinTradeNewNote, Flexcoin ($600k), and Canadian Bitcoins ($100k) are examples where crypto-assets were breached from platforms in Canada. All of them were online wallets and used no multi-sig as far as any records show. This is consistent with what we see globally - air-gapped multi-sig wallets have an impeccable record, while other schemes tend to suffer breach after breach. We don't actually know how much CoinTrader lost because there was no visibility. Rather than publishing details of what happened, the co-founder of CoinTrader silently moved on to found another platform - the "most trusted way to buy and sell crypto" - a site that has no information whatsoever (that I could find) on the storage practices and a FAQ advising that “[t]rading cryptocurrency is completely safe” and that having your own wallet is “entirely up to you! You can certainly keep cryptocurrency, or fiat, or both, on the app.” Doesn't sound like much was learned here, which is really sad to see.
It's not that complicated or unreasonable to set up a proper hardware wallet. Multi-sig can be learned in a single course. Something the equivalent complexity of a driver's license test could prevent all the cold storage exploits we've seen to date - even globally. Platform operators have a key advantage in detecting and preventing fraud - they know their customers far better than any custodian ever would. The best job that custodians can do is to find high integrity individuals and train them to form even better wallet signatories. Rather than mandating that all platforms expose themselves to arbitrary third party risks, regulations should center around ensuring that all signatories are background-checked, properly trained, and using proper procedures. We also need to make sure that signatories are empowered with rights and responsibilities to reject and report fraud. They need to know that they can safely challenge and delay a transaction - even if it turns out they made a mistake. We need to have an environment where mistakes are brought to the surface and dealt with. Not one where firms and people feel the need to hide what happened. In addition to a knowledge-based test, an auditor can privately interview each signatory to make sure they're not in coercive situations, and we should make sure they can freely and anonymously report any issues without threat of retaliation.
A proper multi-sig has each signature held by a separate person and is governed by policies and mutual decisions instead of a hierarchy. It includes at least one redundant signature. For best results, 3of4, 3of5, 3of6, 4of5, 4of6, 4of7, 5of6, or 5of7.

History has demonstrated over and over again the risk of hot wallets even to highly credible organizations. Nonetheless, many platforms have hot wallets for convenience. While such losses are generally compensated by platforms without issue (for example Poloniex, Bitstamp, Bitfinex, Gatecoin, Coincheck, Bithumb, Zaif, CoinBene, Binance, Bitrue, Bitpoint, Upbit, VinDAX, and now KuCoin), the public tends to focus more on cases that didn't end well. Regardless of what systems are employed, there is always some level of risk. For that reason, most members of the public would prefer to see third party insurance.
Rather than trying to convince third party profit-seekers to provide comprehensive insurance and then relying on an expensive and slow legal system to enforce against whatever legal loopholes they manage to find each and every time something goes wrong, insurance could be run through multiple exchange operators and regulators, with the shared interest of having a reputable industry, keeping costs down, and taking care of Canadians. For example, a 4 of 7 multi-sig insurance fund held between 5 independent exchange operators and 2 regulatory bodies. All Canadian exchanges could pay premiums at a set rate based on their needed coverage, with a higher price paid for hot wallet coverage (anything not an air-gapped multi-sig cold wallet). Such a model would be much cheaper to manage, offer better coverage, and be much more reliable to payout when needed. The kind of coverage you could have under this model is unheard of. You could even create something like the CDIC to protect Canadians who get their trading accounts hacked if they can sufficiently prove the loss is legitimate. In cases of fraud, gross negligence, or insolvency, the fund can be used to pay affected users directly (utilizing the last transparent balance report in the worst case), something which private insurance would never touch. While it's recommended to have official policies for coverage, a model where members vote would fully cover edge cases. (Could be similar to the Supreme Court where justices vote based on case law.)
Such a model could fully protect all Canadians across all platforms. You can have a fiat coverage governed by legal agreements, and crypto-asset coverage governed by both multi-sig and legal agreements. It could be practical, affordable, and inclusive.

Now, we are at a crossroads. We can happily give up our freedom, our innovation, and our money. We can pay hefty expenses to auditors, lawyers, and regulators year after year (and make no mistake - this cost will grow to many millions or even billions as the industry grows - and it will be borne by all Canadians on every platform because platforms are not going to eat up these costs at a loss). We can make it nearly impossible for any new platform to enter the marketplace, forcing Canadians to use the same stagnant platforms year after year. We can centralize and consolidate the entire industry into 2 or 3 big players and have everyone else fail (possibly to heavy losses of users of those platforms). And when a flawed security model doesn't work and gets breached, we can make it even more complicated with even more people in suits making big money doing the job that blockchain was supposed to do in the first place. We can build a system which is so intertwined and dependent on big government, traditional finance, and central bankers that it's future depends entirely on that of the fiat system, of fractional banking, and of government bail-outs. If we choose this path, as history has shown us over and over again, we can not go back, save for revolution. Our children and grandchildren will still be paying the consequences of what we decided today.
Or, we can find solutions that work. We can maintain an open and innovative environment while making the adjustments we need to make to fully protect Canadian investors and cryptocurrency users, giving easy and affordable access to cryptocurrency for all Canadians on the platform of their choice, and creating an environment in which entrepreneurs and problem solvers can bring those solutions forward easily. None of the above precludes innovation in any way, or adds any unreasonable cost - and these three policies would demonstrably eliminate or resolve all 109 historic cases as studied here - that's every single case researched so far going back to 2011. It includes every loss that was studied so far not just in Canada but globally as well.
Unfortunately, finding answers is the least challenging part. Far more challenging is to get platform operators and regulators to agree on anything. My last post got no response whatsoever, and while the OSC has told me they're happy for industry feedback, I believe my opinion alone is fairly meaningless. This takes the whole community working together to solve. So please let me know your thoughts. Please take the time to upvote and share this with people. Please - let's get this solved and not leave it up to other people to do.

Facts/background/sources (skip if you like):

The inspiration for the paragraph about splitting wallets was an actual quote from a Canadian company providing custodial services in response to the OSC consultation paper: "We believe that it will be in the in best interests of investors to prohibit pooled crypto assets or ‘floats’. Most Platforms pool assets, citing reasons of practicality and expense. The recent hack of the world’s largest Platform – Binance – demonstrates the vulnerability of participants’ assets when such concessions are made. In this instance, the Platform’s entire hot wallet of Bitcoins, worth over $40 million, was stolen, facilitated in part by the pooling of client crypto assets." "the maintenance of participants (and Platform) crypto assets across multiple wallets distributes the related risk and responsibility of security - reducing the amount of insurance coverage required and making insurance coverage more readily obtainable". For the record, their reply also said nothing whatsoever about multi-sig or offline storage.
In addition to the fact that the $40m hack represented only one "hot wallet" of Binance, and they actually had the vast majority of assets in other wallets (including mostly cold wallets), multiple real cases have clearly demonstrated that risk is still present with multiple wallets. Bitfinex, VinDAX, Bithumb, Altsbit, BitPoint, Cryptopia, and just recently KuCoin all had multiple wallets breached all at the same time, and may represent a significantly larger impact on customers than the Binance breach which was fully covered by Binance. To represent that simply having multiple separate wallets under the same security scheme is a comprehensive way to reduce risk is just not true.
Private insurance has historically never covered a single loss in the cryptocurrency space (at least, not one that I was able to find), and there are notable cases where massive losses were not covered by insurance. Bitpay in 2015 and Yapizon in 2017 both had insurance policies that didn't pay out during the breach, even after a lengthly court process. The same insurance that ShakePay is presently using (and announced to much fanfare) was describe by their CEO himself as covering “physical theft of the media where the private keys are held,” which is something that has never historically happened. As was said with regard to the same policy in 2018 - “I don’t find it surprising that Lloyd’s is in this space,” said Johnson, adding that to his mind the challenge for everybody is figuring out how to structure these policies so that they are actually protective. “You can create an insurance policy that protects no one – you know there are so many caveats to the policy that it’s not super protective.”
The most profitable policy for a private insurance company is one with the most expensive premiums that they never have to pay a claim on. They have no inherent incentive to take care of people who lost funds. It's "cheaper" to take the reputational hit and fight the claim in court. The more money at stake, the more the insurance provider is incentivized to avoid payout. They're not going to insure the assets unless they have reasonable certainty to make a profit by doing so, and they're not going to pay out a massive sum unless it's legally forced. Private insurance is always structured to be maximally profitable to the insurance provider.
The circumvention of multi-sig was a key factor in the massive Bitfinex hack of over $60m of bitcoin, which today still sits being slowly used and is worth over $3b. While Bitfinex used a qualified custodian Bitgo, which was and still is active and one of the industry leaders of custodians, and they set up 2 of 3 multi-sig wallets, the entire system was routed through Bitfinex, such that Bitfinex customers could initiate the withdrawals in a "hot" fashion. This feature was also a hit with the hacker. The multi-sig was fully circumvented.
Bitpay in 2015 was another example of a breach that stole 5,000 bitcoins. This happened not through the exploit of any system in Bitpay, but because the CEO of a company they worked with got their computer hacked and the hackers were able to request multiple bitcoin purchases, which Bitpay honoured because they came from the customer's computer legitimately. Impersonation is a very common tactic used by fraudsters, and methods get more extreme all the time.
A notable case in Canada was the Canadian Bitcoins exploit. Funds were stored on a server in a Rogers Data Center, and the attendee was successfully convinced to reboot the server "in safe mode" with a simple phone call, thus bypassing the extensive security and enabling the theft.
Over $200m has been stolen impersonating users of cryptocurrency platforms by one group alone. Here's a list of 10 social engineering attacks against corporate companies. Here's an even larger case. While verification methods are improving, so are methods of identity theft and social engineering. We now have sim swapping and deep fake videos to contend with. Hackers have massive database sets of personal information they can utilize. As the sums at stake increase, so to will the level of effort criminals are willing to undertake. Obscurity for an insecure system will only postpone an attack until the "jackpot" is large enough.
The very nature of custodians circumvents multi-sig. This is because custodians are not just having to secure the assets against some sort of physical breach but against any form of social engineering, modification of orders, fraudulent withdrawal attempts, etc... If the security practices of signatories in a multi-sig arrangement are such that the breach risk of one signatory is 1 in 100, the requirement of 3 independent signatures makes the risk of theft 1 in 1,000,000. Since hackers tend to exploit the weakest link, a comparable custodian has to make the entry and exit points of their platform 10,000 times more secure than one of those signatories to provide equivalent protection. And if the signatories beef up their security by only 10x, the risk is now 1 in 1,000,000,000. The custodian has to be 1,000,000 times more secure. The larger and more complex a system is, the more potential vulnerabilities exist in it, and the fewer people can understand how the system works when performing upgrades. Even if a system is completely secure today, one has to also consider how that system might evolve over time or work with different members.
By contrast, offline multi-signature solutions have an extremely solid record, and in the entire history of cryptocurrency exchange incidents which I've studied (listed here), there has only been one incident (796 exchange in 2015) involving an offline multi-signature wallet. It happened because the customer's bitcoin address was modified by hackers, and the amount that was stolen ($230k) was immediately covered by the exchange operators. Basically, the platform operators were tricked into sending a legitimate withdrawal request to the wrong address because hackers exploited their platform to change that address. Such an issue would not be prevented in any way by the use of a custodian, as that custodian has no oversight whatsoever to the exchange platform. It's practical for all exchange operators to test large withdrawal transactions as a general policy, regardless of what model is used, and general best practice is to diagnose and fix such an exploit as soon as it occurs.
False promises on the backing of funds played a huge role in the downfall of Quadriga, and it's been exposed over and over again (MyCoin, PlusToken, Bitsane, Bitmarket, EZBTC, IDAX). Even today, customers have extremely limited certainty on whether their funds in exchanges are actually being backed or how they're being backed. While this issue is not unique to cryptocurrency exchanges, the complexity of the technology and the lack of any regulation or standards makes problems more widespread, and there is no "central bank" to come to the rescue as in the 2008 financial crisis or during the great depression when "9,000 banks failed".
In addition to fraudulent operations, the industry is full of cases where operators have suffered breaches and not reported them. Most recently, Einstein was the largest case in Canada, where ongoing breaches and fraud were perpetrated against the platform for multiple years and nobody found out until the platform collapsed completely. While fraud and breaches suck to deal with, they suck even more when not dealt with. Lack of visibility played a role in the largest downfalls of Mt. Gox, Cryptsy, and Bitgrail. In some cases, platforms are alleged to have suffered a hack and keep operating without admitting it at all, such as CoinBene.
It surprises some to learn that a cryptographic solution has already existed since 2013, and gained widespread support in 2014 after Mt. Gox. Proof of Reserves is a full cryptographic proof that allows any customer using an exchange to have complete certainty that their crypto-assets are fully backed by the platform in real-time. This is accomplished by proving that assets exist on the blockchain, are spendable, and fully cover customer deposits. It does not prove safety of assets or backing of fiat assets.
- If we didn't care about privacy at all, a platform could publish their wallet addresses, sign a partial transaction, and put the full list of customer information and balances out publicly. Customers can each check that they are on the list, that the balances are accurate, that the total adds up, and that it's backed and spendable on the blockchain. Platforms who exclude any customer take a risk because that customer can easily check and see they were excluded. So together with all customers checking, this forms a full proof of backing of all crypto assets.
- However, obviously customers care about their private information being published. Therefore, a hash of the information can be provided instead. Hash is one-way encryption. The hash allows the customer to validate inclusion (by hashing their own known information), while anyone looking at the list of hashes cannot determine the private information of any other user. All other parts of the scheme remain fully intact. A model like this is in use on the exchange CoinFloor in the UK.
- A Merkle tree can provide even greater privacy. Instead of a list of balances, the balances are arranged into a binary tree. A customer starts from their node, and works their way to the top of the tree. For example, they know they have 5 BTC, they plus 1 other customer hold 7 BTC, they plus 2-3 other customers hold 17 BTC, etc... until they reach the root where all the BTC are represented. Thus, there is no way to find the balances of other individual customers aside from one unidentified customer in this case.
Proposals such as this had the backing of leaders in the community including Nic Carter, Greg Maxwell, and Zak Wilcox. Substantial and significant effort started back in 2013, with massive popularity in 2014. But what became of that effort? Very little. Exchange operators continue to refuse to give visibility. Despite the fact this information can often be obtained through trivial blockchain analysis, no Canadian platform has ever provided any wallet addresses publicly. As described by the CEO of Newton "For us to implement some kind of realtime Proof of Reserves solution, which I'm not opposed to, it would have to ... Preserve our users' privacy, as well as our own. Some kind of zero-knowledge proof". Kraken describes here in more detail why they haven't implemented such a scheme. According to professor Eli Ben-Sasson, when he spoke with exchanges, none were interested in implementing Proof of Reserves.
And yet, Kraken's places their reasoning on a page called "Proof of Reserves". More recently, both BitBuy and ShakePay have released reports titled "Proof of Reserves and Security Audit". Both reports contain disclaimers against being audits. Both reports trust the customer list provided by the platform, leaving the open possibility that multiple large accounts could have been excluded from the process. Proof of Reserves is a blockchain validation where customers see the wallets on the blockchain. The report from Kraken is 5 years old, but they leave it described as though it was just done a few weeks ago. And look at what they expect customers to do for validation. When firms represent something being "Proof of Reserve" when it's not, this is like a farmer growing fruit with pesticides and selling it in a farmers market as organic produce - except that these are people's hard-earned life savings at risk here. Platforms are misrepresenting the level of visibility in place and deceiving the public by their misuse of this term. They haven't proven anything.
Fraud isn't a problem that is unique to cryptocurrency. Fraud happens all the time. Enron, WorldCom, Nortel, Bear Stearns, Wells Fargo, Moser Baer, Wirecard, Bre-X, and Nicola are just some of the cases where frauds became large enough to become a big deal (and there are so many countless others). These all happened on 100% reversible assets despite regulations being in place. In many of these cases, the problems happened due to the over-complexity of the financial instruments. For example, Enron had "complex financial statements [which] were confusing to shareholders and analysts", creating "off-balance-sheet vehicles, complex financing structures, and deals so bewildering that few people could understand them". In cryptocurrency, we are often combining complex financial products with complex technologies and verification processes. We are naïve if we think problems like this won't happen. It is awkward and uncomfortable for many people to admit that they don't know how something works. If we want "money of the people" to work, the solutions have to be simple enough that "the people" can understand them, not so confusing that financial professionals and technology experts struggle to use or understand them.
For those who question the extent to which an organization can fool their way into a security consultancy role, HB Gary should be a great example to look at. Prior to trying to out anonymous, HB Gary was being actively hired by multiple US government agencies and others in the private sector (with glowing testimonials). The published articles and hosted professional security conferences. One should also look at this list of data breaches from the past 2 years. Many of them are large corporations, government entities, and technology companies. These are the ones we know about. Undoubtedly, there are many more that we do not know about. If HB Gary hadn't been "outted" by anonymous, would we have known they were insecure? If the same breach had happened outside of the public spotlight, would it even have been reported? Or would HB Gary have just deleted the Twitter posts, brought their site back up, done a couple patches, and kept on operating as though nothing had happened?
In the case of Quadriga, the facts are clear. Despite past experience with platforms such as MapleChange in Canada and others around the world, no guidance or even the most basic of a framework was put in place by regulators. By not clarifying any sort of legal framework, regulators enabled a situation where a platform could be run by former criminal Mike Dhanini/Omar Patryn, and where funds could be held fully unchecked by one person. At the same time, the lack of regulation deterred legitimate entities from running competing platforms and Quadriga was granted a money services business license for multiple years of operation, which gave the firm the appearance of legitimacy. Regulators did little to protect Canadians despite Quadriga failing to file taxes from 2016 onward. The entire administrative team had resigned and this was public knowledge. Many people had suspicions of what was going on, including Ryan Mueller, who forwarded complaints to the authorities. These were ignored, giving Gerald Cotten the opportunity to escape without justice.
There are multiple issues with the SOC II model including the prohibitive cost (you have to find a third party accounting firm and the prices are not even listed publicly on any sites), the requirement of operating for a year (impossible for new platforms), and lack of any public visibility (SOC II are private reports that aren't shared outside the people in suits).
Securities frameworks are expensive. Sarbanes-Oxley is estimated to cost $5.1 million USD/yr for the average Fortune 500 company in the United States. Since "Fortune 500" represents the top 500 companies, that means well over $2.55 billion USD (~$3.4 billion CAD) is going to people in suits. Isn't the problem of trust and verification the exact problem that the blockchain is supposed to solve?
To use Quadriga as justification for why custodians or SOC II or other advanced schemes are needed for platforms is rather silly, when any framework or visibility at all, or even the most basic of storage policies, would have prevented the whole thing. It's just an embarrassment.
We are now seeing regulators take strong action. CoinSquare in Canada with multi-million dollar fines. BitMex from the US, criminal charges and arrests. OkEx, with full disregard of withdrawals and no communication. Who's next?
We have a unique window today where we can solve these problems, and not permanently destroy innovation with unreasonable expectations, but we need to act quickly. This is a unique historic time that will never come again.

Thoughts?

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Welcome to ETERBASE (Summarized thread)

WELCOME TO ETERBASE (UPDATED 14.12.2019)
This thread is a summary of all that entails Eterbase (Xbase, Ebase, etc) and will be updated when more news comes out. It’s highly recommended to take your time and read this post if you’d like to know more about the company, token or exchange. If you have any amendments, feel free to post a reply and we’ll change it as soon as we can.
1 Overview / Company
Eterbase is a Slovakia based Digital Asset Exchange, which is compliant with EU laws and regulations, and offers the fastest and most secure API within the space. Having its own collateralized payment token EBASE and many features superior to its competitors, Eterbase aims to position itself amongst the TOP crypto exchanges and as a financial institution. Source
1.1 Exchange
The exchange is the cornerstone of the ETERBASE project. As history has shown, when it comes to periods of increased business activity (e.g. panic selling), the load on exchanges is increased by several orders of magnitude. Many current exchanges suffered severe slow-downs or outages as a result of such activities.We believe that a good exchange is one that delivers not only for sustained periods of time, but also during unexpected heavy load and peak times. We have also seen that in many projects, the initial design changed significantly during the development of the final product, and therefore these projects suffer from architectural constraints that make change management and development difficult. We want to have a robust, scalable and flexible architecture for our exchange. To support these goals, the design team at ETERBASE has defined seven primary objectives for the solutions behind the technical and architectural choices:

Own development of key components
Design to change
Design to cost
High throughput
Low latency
Ability to partition and scale
Fault tolerance

We want to deliver, maintain and continually develop our platform, as well as bring new features and experiences to users in the emerging fintech market. To be able to achieve this goal, we must design, develop and control every critical component of our exchange. We have developed every key component of ETERBASE EXCHANGE in house. Source
1.2 Eterbase coin
The Eterbase Coin (XBASE) was originally airdropped by its founders through the Ethereum Network to partners, traders and marketers to incentivize and promote the use of ETERBASE EXCHANGE. The Eterbase Coin (XBASE) has no legal connection to ETERBASE a.s. and it is at the sole discretion of the management to utilize Eterbase Coin (XBASE) or any other digital asset for that matter by the company at any given moment.
According to the ESMA opinion we consider the Eterbase Coin (XBASE) to be a transferable utility token. However, the precise classification might change due to the planned experimental mainnet implementation. It is also likely that this classification might differ in various jurisdictions. Eterbase Coin (XBASE) gives no rights to any entitlements of any kind or any decision-making power within the company or on the platform. The only utility of the token is to serve as a trading pair on the ETERBASE EXCHANGE and to unlock bonus features via Premium Memberships if certain conditions are met based on the sole discretion of the management. Premium Memberships can be obtained via means other than the utilization of Eterbase Coins (XBASE). These two are not legally linked and it is solely up to the discretion of the management of ETERBASE a.s. to enable the features of Premium Membership for individuals.
The Eterbase Coin (XBASE) is currently following ERC223 (Ethereum Network) standard and was audited by several external parties for potential security risks. ETERBASE a.s. might initiate the sale or purchase of Eterbase Coins (XBASE) at any time in any quantity with its own account, as it might do with other digital assets such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and others. Furthermore, the Eterbase Coin (XBASE) exists on the BEP-2 network as XBASE-B.
1.3 Eurbase
On September 1st, 2019; Eterbase announced that it has launched the first phase of the stablecoin named EURBASE [Ebase], which its sole aim to create the first anti-inflationary based stablecoin. As of now it’s pegged to the Euro, but this will change.
As most of us know the central banks and governments tend to tax most of us via inflationary taxation that is to certain degree sold to us via macroeconomic need to push people to spend instead of hoarding the savings and deposits.
Currently, this pressure is getting stronger by the very introduction of negative interest rates and negative yields to AAA-AA government bonds.What we are concluding is that holding Euro and other major currencies can get very expensive in the near future by virtue of both higher inflation due to global trade sanctions and negative interest rates.
We are modelling EURBASE stablecoin to be able to keep up with the inflation within the EUROZONE (current ECB target being 2%) and to be free from negative yields to its holders. In order to cover up the marginal increase the stablecoin will be use its earnings from fees, market making and portfolio appreciation of its underlying assets to manufacture the peg and anti-inflationary hedge in the mid-term utilizing BTC overcollateralization, EUR cash deposits and cash guarantees as the core holdings of its portfolio.
1.4 Token Information / Supply
Symbol

XBASE / XBASE-B

ERC Contract (ERC223)

0x4d13d624a87baa278733c068a174412afa9ca6c8

Decimals

BEP Contract (BEP-2)

bnb177v0mn59lmuxu90uph5mg065n9l4f3r4zqllvd

Supply

1,000,000,000 XBASE (450m Xbase / 550m Xbase-B)

Circulating Supply

1,000,000,000 XBASE (As per whitepaper foundation tokens are not locked, therefore can be considered as a part of the circulating supply). *^{According to the team, most of the remaining 25% will probably enter circulation until end of Q1 2020, which is dependent on other revenue streams like EBASE and listings}

1.5 Fees

2. General Info Links)

3. Exchanges^(\Sorted by alphabetical order, not volume)*

4. Third Party Reports

02.05.2018 Hackernoon ‘Why ETERBASE could be 2018’s top crypto exchange
09.04.2019 Cryptogems XBASE Token review
03.10.2019 Blockfyre Report
17.10.2019 The Daily Chain: Eterbase Introduction

5. AMA’s

12.04.2019 First Eterbase AMA (Video)
06.08.2019 Second AMA (Video)
08.10.2019 The Daily Chain AMA with Robert Auxt (CEO)
17.10.2019 AMA with Robert Auxt (and BURST) (Video)
23.10.2019 AMA Gcryptochat with Robert Auxt and Tomas Pristac
25.10.2019 AMA Crypto Daku with Robert Auxt and Tomas Pristac
02.12.2019 AMA Cryptodiffer with Robert Auxt and Tomas Pristac

6. Interviews

14.06.2018 Crypto Disrupt / Interview with Robert (Video)
20.06.2018 BIG Crypto / Eterbase interview with Robert (Video)
18.10.2018 Crypto Disrupt / The Tether Controversy? Ryan from TrueUSD and Robert from ETERBASE
19.11.2018 Crypto Disrupt / ETERBASE & ODEM interview (Video)
02.07.2019 Blockchain Brad Interview ETERBASE (Video)
17.10.2019 Robert Auxt (CEO) joins Ex Forbes columnist Jefferson Nunn to discuss Eterbase and all things crypto
23.10.2019 Trade With Negative Fees On Eurobase Digital Asset Exchange: Interview with Robert Auxt, CEO of Eterbase.

7. Partnerships

19.10.2018 Eterbase Partners with TrustToken (Creator of TrueUSD)
26.09.2019 Eterbase Partners with Darkpool Liquidity
09.10.2019 Eterbase Partners with Binance Chain Alliance
20.11.2019 Eterbase joins @thorchain_org as BEPSwap Launch Partner:

8. Announcements, updates and Events

09.05.2018 ETERBASE Quick Pitch in Barcelona (Video)
17.06.2019 Eterbase is going live on 17-06-2019
28.06.2019 Eterbase a.s. obtains opinion from the Local Central Bank
07.07.2019 Eterbase receives security audit certificate
01.09.2019 Introducing EURBASE
06.10.2019 Unofficial Eterbase Exchange Trailer
12.10.2019 ETERBASE is introducing ZERO fee withdrawals and deposits for EUR!
15.10.2019 We are proud to announce that the Treasury Gateway is now open
15.10.2019 We are delighted to announce that @getBurst ( $BURST ) is now listed on Eterbase.
22-10-2019 We are proud to announce that #EURBASE ( $EBASE ) is now listed on @CoinMarketCap
25.10.2019 EURBASE MODE ON!
29.10.2019 BAT is listed on Eterbase (EBASE pair)
01.11.2019 Eterbase Exchange is proud to be featured in the Garuda Airlines in-flight magazine.
02.11.2019 We are proud to share that the $1 million USD daily volume has been reached.
04.11.2019 BTC/EUR, ETH/EUR, LTC/EUR, BNB/EUR, XBASE/EUR, XBASEB/EUR pairs have been re-opened.
05.11.2019 EURBASE stablecoin is now listed on IDEX!
13.11.2019 Eterbase Exchange is introducing FREE USDT, EBASE, USDC, DAI, TUSD and EUR (SEPA) withdrawals!
14.11.2019 We are delighted to announce that we have just signed Ferrum Network as our first client for the Treasury Gateway
21.11.2019 Rune is now listed and trading on Eterbase
24.11.2019 XBASE and EBASE are now available on ParaSwap!
27.11.2019 Membrana is the second treasury partner of Eterbase
04.12.2019 Pylon joins the Treasury Program
12.12.2019 New UI launched
18.12.2019 We are proud to announce that we will be adding @WeAreTellor token( $TRB ) to our exchange.
19.12.2019 It is our pleasure to announce that @UnityCoin is joining our Treasury Gateway program!
30.12.2019 Due to implementation of the Directive (EU)2018/843, also known as AMLD 5 as of January 10, 2020 a full verification will be required for all the customers of ETERBASE platform.

9. Social media links

10. Explainer videos

Referral Links

The Crypto King Report Jan 11th: FUD Korea, ETH Fork, Buying Strategies, Favorite January Plays, Forking moves!

The Crypto King Report Jan 11th: FUD Korea, ETH Fork, Buying Strategies, Favorite January Plays, Moonshots, Forking Forks!
"South Korea Confirms there will be no trading ban" Thanks for the cheap shares :)
I appreciate all my loyal followers! I am trying to build a social media presence and would love if you followed me on Instagram and Twitter as well! For tips and strategy hours before being posted to the message boards follow on Instagram: JaketheCryptoKing and Twitter: JbtheCryptoKing. And now on Discord: https://discord.gg/qTjQp8W (join the group to reach me directly and see posts early, moonshots at 6am EST when available!).
If the title is a foreign language to you read my Cryto-101 post and let’s go from there: https://redd.it/7m48ne . See posts first in the new Subreddit: TheCryptoKingdom. Remember in trading minutes matter, hours are eternities.
The focus of today’s post will not be moonshots given the crazy macro events we are having this week but given my Kingdom’s cojones demonstrated yesterday by holding strong (1000s strong!) we were able to ride out the FUD news without any major losses. As a present to the Kingdom there will be a moonshot available to everyone regardless of your status in the Kingdom at 6am EST Friday morning. Let’s make this a weekend to remember following a night we’d rather all forget! So for today no moonshot (it is ok, move some $$ aside for the pick tomorrow it will be released bright and early on The Kingdom’s discord: https://discord.gg/qTjQp8W (to join us stop by 6am EST for moonshots or to discuss crypto while at work!).
If you do want to join us for our moonshot (we’ve hit 800%ers in 1 week) it will be on KuCoin and released tomorrow. Referral link for KuCoin: https://www.kucoin.com/#/?r=1cH1M
Yesterday at approximately 9:30pm news started circulating that top exchanges in Korea were being raided and that Korea was going to ban all cryptocurrency trading. This plummeted the overall price of all cryptocurrencies, especially altcoins, 30% in a matter of minutes. The crazier part is the ensuing panic. There was so much frenzied selling due to weak hands (not in my Kingdom) but weak hands, that the prices were allowed to be driven down 30% in minutes. What happened next you ask? No more than an hour later the news was proven to be false. YES, Korea like every first world country would like to receive taxes from crypto traders but by no means has crypto trading been completely outlawed as the FUD news pretended to suggest. This was a major FUD attack and I’m surprised major news outlets were able to take place in it. What is more surprising is that the governments of the world are allowing this type of manipulation. How could this “fake news” lead to market crashes everywhere yet there be no repercussions? This is why I feel that regulation would possibly harm the crypto world, but would also greatly benefit it. These types of malicious attacks would be prosecutable vs just a way to accumulate cheap crypto. However, the lesson remains the same. Ride out the downward trends and if you want to leave the market always sell in an upswing.
The best part about FUD attacks, they usually proceed market ATH…the best part about forks…they also usually proceed market ATH. This week we’ve seen multiple FUD attacks on the crypto market as a whole and individual coins. In approximately 8 days we will have the first ETH fork in a long time. The current ETH that so many are accustomed to is not the actual ETH that was first released. First it was “ETH Classic.” The current ETH was a fork of the original ETH as the original became more obsolete. BTC has regular forks for a multitude of reasons. ETH on the other hand only has forks for specific reasons, and they are rare. I believe this fork will be valued higher than most expect, and may eventually surpass ETH as a coin market cap (a bold statement that will need at minimum 6 months to play out). Either way we know the ETH fork is happening in a week, and at a bare minimum will provide a 10% dividend with the ability to appreciate into something much more valuable: source http://etherzero.org/etz.html?id=1
I personally am leaving all my alts as HOLDS and any ETHER I have leaving it in ETHER to either do last minute shopping the day of the fork, or to take the 10% fork (‘dividend’). The choice is yours what to do, I hold especially during dips in the market (and buy if you can). Now is not the time to sell a single alt. ATH (all-time highs) follow these dips, I expect a new ATH for many of them by our January conferences.
With alts very cheap I need to reiterate the importance of shopping during these dips! The FUD attack impacted Asian coins especially much but similarly they should recover at an ever greater rate of speed. South Korea’s ministry of Finance said they aren’t banning BTC and are looking just to tax it, and that the U.S. news blew it WAY out of proportion. Someone wanted cheap shares, no one better have sold!
This is when scared money flees alts, the ones that go up 500% in 2 weeks. Everyone who has liquidity should be doubling down on HST, EVX, BNTY, ELIX, PURA, DBC, DRGN, SNOV, KCS, and any other low priced alt you believe in on KuCoin. Traders are still flocking to KU at an unprecedented rate and the moonshots will continue to moon. The entire market is red right now, when the rebound occurs our rebound will be much more significant than that of BTC and most alts. To buy these alts (they are taking new traders) use my KuCoin link please.
Referral link for KuCoin: https://www.kucoin.com/#/?r=1cH1M
Every moonshot listed above has been explained in detail for why it should succeed. I am most bullish on HST and EVX, I expect them to have the largest short term recovery. BNTY and DRGN have had the highest % gains thus far but have very strong platforms, DRGN is Disney on the block chain, and BNTY is bounty hunting on the block chain. 2 very cool concepts. ELIX and PURA took huge hits when the market crashed yesterday and since are greatly undervalued compared to 95% of other alts. SNOV IMO is about where it should be, although given its upcoming calendar it will appreciate the value greatly this month. Decide for yourself which moonshot should be doubled down on at this time, I’ve chosen HST, EVX, and ELIX to double down on. The rest I am still holding through this storm. If you do not like any of the current moonshots, which should be impossible they are all at great discounts right now, there will be a new moonshot released tomorrow at 6am on Discord, the good news is at these depressed prices it’ll be hard being wrong about tomorrow’s moonshot!
Play for today: Add $$ to KuCoin (if possible) and double down on all moonshots (or if you are following me in particular, heaviest % in EVX and HST, plus ensuring you have some available for tomorrow’s moon).
Very excited for tomorrow’s 6am EST pick on Discord, and expect almost immediate appreciation due to the drop in value of the entire altcoin market right now. Join the Kingdom! https://discord.gg/qTjQp8W
(Some info on January's Buy and Holds has been repeated they remain: STRAT, ICX, and NEO)
Binance occasionally let’s new traders sign up, if you haven’t tred, definitely try to get on: https://www.binance.com/?ref=15316928
One of my favorite safe plays for the rest of January remains NEO (BUY and HOLD). Even with the FUD attacks in Asia this is their dominant player. NEO is an important hold (and accumulate) in all portfolios as it is hands down the Asian Ether. NEO has one of the biggest January’s of any coin and is up over 100% since I recommended it originally. NEO has meet-ups in Dublin, Hamburg, Amsterdam, and London the first two weeks of January. Everyone sees the upcoming calendar and realizes the next 2 months will provide more exposure than any 12-month period in crypto history. NEO is the latest addition to the buy and HOLD list. They end the month of January speaking at 2 of the largest blockchain conferences in the world. This will be one of the strongest plays for January 2018. I would slowly stock up on this one on dips (especially on days like today!). DBC a coin on NEO’s platform (a prior moonshot up 100+%) is also speaking at this convention!
STRAT (BUY and HOLD). I truly love talking about this coin. I enjoy my % returns on moonshots but this tech, the team, the coin, and especially the 1-month vision I truly believe in. I have an interesting update!!! STRAT is developing a Breeze wallet with Tumblebit which makes Bitcoin transactions private through the STRAT network. The biggest problems with BTC is its transparency and its speed. STRAT will help alleviate the transparency aspects for those who want to conceal how much they send/receive. A wallet that manages to conceal your BTC holdings (makes it similar to privacy coins). STRAT’s money for advertising has been saved with the anticipation of a high volume publicity campaign upon release of their new wallet and ICO platform. Once funds are spent advertising the STRAT ICO platform, their 2 flagships are announced, and their wallet is functional (all happening this month) I expect the price not only to trend north but more than double if not triple. I wouldn’t be surprised to see 100%-300% returns on a fairly safe crypto investment (normally the riskiest coins provide this monthly). Their twitter confirmed the 2 ICOs coming out in the next few weeks, when the official announcement is made we are looking at 100-200% gains.
STRAT is on the cusp of being able to host ICO’s for other companies. This is extremely valuable technology and they’ve announced it will be ready to go this week. Would anyone like to know the going rate of an ICO? 20-40BTC. Per ICO these small companies and their coin holders are making $250k-$600k at the current BTC prices. This is a very big business. They’ve also announced 2 Flagship ICOs that will be available on their STRATIS network in January. The platform to host ICOs goes live this week, and within 2 weeks we find out which ICOs STRAT is hosting, then their wallet and advertising rollout. This should be a very positive 2 weeks for STRAT. As the crypto market continues to expand, the need for new ICO platforms will expand as well. This is my safest, favorite coin for January. They are also extremely active on their Twitter updating and hinting at the 2 flagship ICO launches, this type of hype building increases market cap!
ICX (BUY and HOLD) Has been pounded downward the last 48hrs especially with the FUD news out of South Korea. The great news is their conference is perfectly timed following the ETH fork and allowing enough time to pass from this FUD attack for the price to correct. These coin founders are smart they understand when to release news to increase the value of their coin the most. This is again a good opportunity as it dipped, as the whole market did, to buy as I am still very bullish on this coin. The price will trend north until the end of the month where the blast off will occur. The Koreans love this little coin so much it is hosting its first blockchain conference in the tallest building in Seoul at the end of January. This will be enormous exposure for a coin which Koreans are already in love with. Their mainnet although once delayed was promised to be released prior to their January conference. Based on big news and Asian trading volume this should continue to trend North. Asians trade more than Americans. Koreans are the highest volume trading country in Asia, and they happen to love ICX. ICX should continue to trend north leading up to their conference in the end of January. This is an accumulate on dips until the January 25th conference. I am not sure we will see many more dips unless BTC has a run to 25k but continue to accumulate, this should trend north toward $20 by the end of January.
Time for ICOs, although they tie up your funds for 1 month they are the closest thing to a guaranteed moon as a successful ICO will be worth 6-10x its original market cap within 4 months.
ICO’S : STORIQA: “The Amazon Cryptocurrency Marketplace”. Great team, great platform, easy to sign up for ICO (even for U.S. investors). Well past their soft cap and approaching their hard cap! Discount for bonus coins still available in the short term! This has been on and off of my rec list but because they are approaching their hard cap I figured I’d give everyone one last opportunity to sign up! Referral link : https://tokensale.storiqa.com/?ref=6663944dff31989391d803ce
KYC Legal: KYC Legal (please use the referral as I make no $ spending countless hours researching these ICOs and coins ) referral: https://bookbuild.kyc.legal/?ref=23734776ffa2051a83eb8bc1
Know Your Customer (the dreaded KYC form). If you’ve completed an ICO recently you know the form I’m talking about. The form they give you at the end, after you’ve sent your .5eth but before they will release their tokens. Basically stating you understand this market is unregulated, etc. Well a blockchain token has in essence solved this problem. I HATE KYC forms and if the KYC system was set up in a way in which you wouldn’t have to fill out that form repeatedly for every ICO it would be more convenient for all investors and ICO companies. KYC Legal intends to do just that. According to the founder DR, “This is a simple and quick way to complete client identification procedures, which can then be used to verify the client’s identity during various financial operations (so-called KYC (“know your customer”) requirements that financial institutions and companies working with the money of private individuals use to identify and verify counterparties before starting a financial transaction). This niche is completely untapped and I HATE KYC forms enough to think this is a brilliant idea. They are calling it a “Universal alternative to Personal IDs,” on the block chain. Brilliant concept and there are 2 days left to receive the 38% discount from the final price. A 38% gain prior to token sale completion is significant, imagine what will happen when the hard cap is reached and it hits the first exchange. KYC Legal: https://bookbuild.kyc.legal/?ref=23734776ffa2051a83eb8bc1
Other coins to own for January! (Besides ICX, NEO, and Moonshots!)
All below information has been updated on Thursday at 11am EST. This will help individuals follow what information has been repeated/edited.
January Buy and Holds Stated Above: ICX, STRAT and NEO (moonshots are different than 1 month holds, those you plan on mooning 5x-20x, these should appreciate 40-200% in 3 weeks).
TRX (BUY) TRX has been a target of FUD attacks for almost a week slashing the price by almost 50%. Many coins prior to huge pumps are FUD attacked. With a game coming out this month and a huge drop in the alt market I expect TRX to come storming back. They’ve monetized gaming and it’s level of success will be felt within the next few weeks. I do not know if you played Cryptokitties but it crashed the Ether network. TRX is a much faster and less expensive network to process information on. I expect the game this month to be the second that monetizes gaming through cryptocurrency leading to TRX’s short term success. I’d expect another 100-300% returns leading up to the release of a game on their TRX platform.
TNB (BUY) Although the price has increased almost daily there is good reason for it! TNB has a BETA version of the Android and IOS wallet being released this month. This is one of the few coins that didn’t take a beating yesterday. Being able to take your funds with you is exceptionally important. Having a good looking interface is equally important. TNB looks to accomplish both tasks this month. It is also one of the cheapest coins on Binance, a plus for those looking for cheap coin acquisitions! I like TNB as a cheap Binance coin with truly significant potential.
My 3 favorite short term plays based on conferences for the next 2 weeks are: WAVES, ARK, and SONM. These 3 are all at events in the next 2 weeks of January (Waves and ARK are at a conference in Miami I will be attending!). The cost of attendance to these conferences start at $1,000 (I will need tips to cover costs !). However, they provide exposure to the top individuals and founders of coins with billions of dollars in market cap. In comparison to other coins speaking at the largest January events WAVES, ARK, and SONM’s price has not appreciated this week in correlation to the others. They are also the smallest market cap coins presenting at these huge conferences. This provides an opportunity to purchase WAVES, ARK, and SONM at an undervalued price. As their conferences in mid-January approach I expect their price to trend north rapidly, peaking on the day of, or day after the conference. These should be focal points if you shy away from moonshots (which you shouldn’t!).
XEM(BUY), They had their pop 2 days ago and have since decreased with the rest of the market!! This is one to own for the next 8 weeks. Their upcoming hackathon should provide publicity for a 2 straight months. Each coin has a specific reason for their being undervalued. Catapult, which is version 2.0 of NEM is to be released very soon. There is nothing better to build awareness and test out their new Catapult network they’ll be releasing this week, then a worldwide hackathon and a new update to their NEM network. XEM will have a pop this week when Catapult goes live, followed by a 4-week awareness rally driven by a worldwide hackathon.
POWR(BUY), Is one of the few coins supported by an actual government (Hi Aussies!) A county that struggles with power grid failure could succeed in implementing the first cryptocurrency related directly to trading power and electricity on the blockchain. I expect a strong future from POWR. Expect to see significant returns in the next 72hrs while the alt markets come back with force.
ADX (BUY), has had an impressive run but taken a recent dip. It remains a favorite of mine for multiple reasons. One of my favorite parts about ADX is they have a profitable platform already for coin holders. This is essential for every coin. Without a platform for a functioning coin, the coin is just unique code using up electricity. ADX advertised space on EasyJet boarding passes successfully last month and now is selling over 1 million more advertising spaces. This is a profitable coin with a strong future already occurring. ADX wins because NEO wins, Asian markets enjoy trading even more than the U.S. currently. This trend should continue as ADX continues its trend north. Their next partnership or announcement will lead to the next big pop in price, but as far as a coin goes, this is a safe option with stable returns that has a functioning and profitable platform.
ARDR(BUY) Honestly, Bittrex is beginning to frustrate me (as I’m sure you too!). I haven’t received my IGNIS and ARDR has been unable to be sold, bought, or transferred in weeks. I recommend moving $ to KuCoin and enjoying these insane %s. However, currently like many of you I have a large holding in ARDR which I still believe strongly in but would like the opportunity to sell if I choose! Their platform successfully launched Jan 1st. All those NXT you’ve been holding for the free IGNIS are used specifically on the ARDR block chain. With a new platform and coins to be used on it this will be a positive week for ARDR with exceptionally high returns correlated with the new platform and IGNIS’s continued appreciation. I believe ARDR and its new network will experience positive publicity and a successful launch of IGNIS. I would continue to buy and hold as the ARDR network gets rolling.
ENJ (Update For a Follower): I still own 50% of my position but with news on this one very quiet I reallocated some of my holding to KuCoin for more moonshots (they've been the highest returner to date). I do believe they will continue to appreciate due to their Minecraft plugin and gorgeous wallet platform.
See you all in the Kingdom at 6am EST on Discord! Proud you survived last night and your cojones are growing. The Kingdom will not be manipulated by FUD attacks we HOLD strong.
Some Lovely Followers Requested I Provide Addresses for “Thank You’s and Holiday Cheer” Here are 4 address to help provide my girlfriend with presents so I can spend more time researching! What is 5% of the 200% I earned you this week?
ETH: Address: 0xdef6b4415635d15b0dc50e7039ef73c33e622f22 LTC Address: LiTtwXUMCMmch5oKUXfrXMqXWnG6jLg3qD BTC Address: 1LFLx3cXD1xiqCrupZJKf8p6pR23JRZWtP DASH Address: Xi9637XDyW2Q6wtRyGLsNXbJHj4UZ2M3kN (cheapest way to send!) KCS Address: 0x56d0a5b42a8313c36d8fe7a37ee3ccade7e4e6e1
XMR Deposit Address:44tLjmXrQNrWJ5NBsEj2R77ZBEgDa3fEe9GLpSf2FRmhexPvfYDUAB7EXX1Hdb3aMQ9FLqdJ56yaAhiXoRsceGJCRS3Jxkn XMR Deposit ID: b72e438346259f2828feaec4b04f0a95034b6364853f6f33d2370f57a37a1753

Weekly Crypto Recap for the week ending July 27

Developments in Financial Services

Global investment firm Vaultbank has announced that free stock trading will be added to its platform launch in October. The platform will now include the free stock trading, crypto trading, and even trading security tokens. Vaultbank’s platform is currently undergoing beta testing, but users can sign up for the platform’s waitlist on vaultbank.io.
Popular cryptocurrency debit card provider, Wirex, has added a Ripple (XRP) wallet to its platform. 1.7 million clietns across 130 countries will now be able to use their Wirex Visa Cards to transact with XRP. XRP is currently the third-most popular cryptocurrency by market cap, and was specifically chosen by Wirex due to its unique utility for facilitating global payments.
Decoin is disrupting the crypto credit card market with its DTEP Exchange & Trading Platform. The Decoin credit card will operate directly the company’s coin wallet and will permit users to spend their digital currencies wherever and whenever they choose. Users registered to this exchange will also supposedly have the ability to earn redistributed revenues, up to 20% of the exchange’s trading revenue.
Fintech company Digital Asset announced a partnership with Google Cloud to aid in the construction of blockchain applications. Digital Asset and Google Cloud will provide support and software tools to blockchain application developers so that they don’t have to code the applications from scratch. The pair will also be working on Digital Asset’s developer program private beta, giving Google Cloud developers access to its Digital Asset Modeling Language (DAML) software development kit (SDK).

Regulatory

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has come to the conclusion that they need more time for the consideration of five Bitcoin ETF proposals. Direxion Investments submitted the proposals back in January. The SEC stated that they will announce their decision to either approve or deny the proposal on September 21, 2018. CBOE Global Markets also sent the SEC an ETF proposal last month that is also expected to be postponed.
The Chinese mountain region of Xinjiang Uyghur is known for its vast areas of land and abundant electricity: key elements for Bitcoin (BTC) mining. However, the local authorities of Xinjiang have announced their plan to shut down all illegal mining operations by August 30,2018. Illegal mining operations are those that fail to comply to registration, tax, social security, and other laws.
Japan Virtual Currency Exchange Association is suggesting domestic trading platforms limit investors to 4x leverage on their deposits. According to the Financial Services Agency, there are 142,000 crypto traders focused on derivatives a/o CY2017 in Japan, still a small portion of the estimated 3mm crypto traders in Japan. Just as a point of reference, 80%of crypto trading volume in Japan for CY2017 came from derivatives trading, recording USD$543bn - - 90%+ of this amount was from margin traders.
Iran is currently looking to develop a domestic cryptocurrency in order to bypass its economic sanctions. Alireza Daliri, Iran’s Science and Technology Department head in charge of investment affairs, reported that the project is being worked on with the Central Bank of Iran. The cryptocurrency would back Iran’s national currency, the rial, and would allow cross-border transactions ahead of the US sanctions going into effect next month.
The SEC rejected application for a Bitcoin ETF by Winkelvoss twins again. In its rejection, the SEC cited as a major concern the fact that “a significant portion of Bitcoin trading occurs on unregulated exchanges outside of the United States."
Hester Peirce, Commissioner of the SEC, has published a letter of dissent regarding the SEC’s recent decision upholding the agency’s past ruling to deny the Winklevoss twins’ Bitcoin (BTC) ETF. The SEC denied the Bats BZX Exchange’s proposed rule change hoping to allow trading of the Winklevoss’ Bitcoin Trust shares, leading Peirce to say “I believe that the proposed rule change satisfies the statutory standard and that we should permit BZX to list and trade this Bitcoin-based exchange-traded product,” and that the decision “sends a strong signal that innovation is unwelcome in our markets.”
The Law Commission of India published a report regarding the legal status of sports betting and gambling in the country, referencing cryptocurrencies. The report recognizes cryptocurrencies as a method of payment for betting and wagering. The report also stated that “gambling transactions should be made cashless, making use of electronic means of payment such as credit cards, debit cards, net-banking, virtual currencies (VC – also known as cryptocurrency), etc.”
US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CTFC) Chairman Christopher Giancarlo says the CTFC is falling behind and needs to begin testing the blockchain technology during testimony to House Committee on Agriculture. Chairman Giancarlo suggests the CTFC is four years behind other global institutions like the Bank of England (BOE) as it relates to testing blockchain.

General News

Lufthansa, one of the world’s largest airlines, has announced a partnership with software firm SAP to create a competition focused on increasing the airline industry’s adoption of blockchain technology. There are currently not a lot of efforts being made to incorporate blockchain in the airline industry, and initial submissions into the competition are due at the end of August. Lufthansa is looking for applications regarding data processing, flight booking, loyalty programs, and supply chain enhancements.
Cryptocurrency trading millionaires, especially in China, are looking into investments in foreign real estate markets as a form of diversification. Through the use of real estate startup apps, Chinese investors can buy real estate in California using Bitcoin (BTC), for example, through Hong Kong brokers that don’t require the same taxes and documentation as other financial assets held abroad.
Binance, the world’s most popular cryptocurrency exchange, will soon enter the South Korean market. During the Blockchain Partners Summit in Seoul, Binance CEO Chanpgeng Zhao held a speech noting that Binance will enrich South Korea’s community. While Binance has not made any official announcements regarding the expansion, South Korean media outlets reported it following the summit.
A New Jersey-based cryptocurrency mining startup, called Honeyminer, has released its free beta platform in June, and has amassed 10,000 downloads around the world already. The platform allows users to mine cryptocurrencies on their Windows laptops by running the app while the processor isn’t in use. Users will be able to mine Ethereum (ETH), Ethereum Classic (ETC), Monero (XMR), and Zcash (ZEC), but all earnings are transferred into Bitcoin (BTC) and sent to the user’s wallet.
Since cryptocurrencies became popular several years ago, not many cryptocurrency platforms (i.e. exchanges and wallets) have conducted third-party security audits. However, three-month-old XMR Wallet, a web wallet for Monero (XMR) has announced its conclusion of an audit by the firm New Alchemy. Additionally, XMR Wallet has published the results of its audit, and stated that all issues found have already been resolved.
ConsenSys, a blockchain technology company, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with China’s Xiongan New Area government. ConsenSys focuses on the development of Ethereum (ETH), and will be advising the government on blockchain solutions to make Xiongan a smart city. China’s president Xi Jinping has designated Xiongan a special economic zone and believes that by creating a smart economy using Ethereum, it could bring in USD$348 billion within the next 10 years.
Bitmart, a global cryptocurrency exchange, has announced that it will be listing its own utility token, called BMX, on its exchange. The BMX token is an ERC-20 protocol token, and there will be 1 billion issued. All transaction fees paid on the BMX market will be redistributed to those who backed the project, and using BMX on the exchange lets users pay a discounted fee.
US-based Coinbase is launching a crypto-backed gift card in Europe. Users of WeGift will be able to convert digital assets held in their Coinbase wallet to gift cards. Gift cards from WeGift can be used at over 120 retailers across the UK, France, Spain, the Netherlands and Italy.
The Bank of Canada (BoC) released its Staff Working Paper this week, where it said that the proof-of-work (PoW) consensus system, the same one used by Bitcoin (BTC), held the most promise out of alternative consensus systems like proof-of-stake (PoS). PoW includes a built-in security measure, people with malicious intentions would need to spend a large amount of resources in order to successfully cheat the system. The paper continued that PoS unfairly gives users with the most coins (stake) in the system a higher probability of validating blocks.
BitGo, a popular cryptocurrency custodial service, has announced its recent support of Zcash (ZEC). BitGo is the largest processor of on-chain Bitcoin (BTC) transactions in the world, and processes $15 billion every month in all cryptocurrencies. The Zcash team said that it is very excited for the recent support of their coin, and that along with their upcoming Zcash Sapling upgrade, this should prove to be a great catalyst for adoption of Zcash’s privacy features.
California-based Propy, a global real estate company known for its decentralized title registry, has announced that it has successfully executed a real estate deal on the blockchain. The transaction was tracked every step of the process on Ethereum smart contracts, making this deal the first blockchain-recorded property deal in California, and only the second to be done in the world. The transaction used Bitcoin (BTC) as payment, effectively cutting out the role of banks for this deal.
Waves decentralized exchange (DEX) was hacked on Tuesday, the first day it exited its beta test. Hackers were able to break into the exchange’s website and the company’s main site to phish for information in the personal wallets of users.
Ethereum Chrome browser extension MetaMask was pulled from the Chrome Web store yesterday. It was listed again, 5 hours later. MetaMask has said it is unsure why its extension was pulled from the Chrome Web store. MetaMask is one of the oldest and widely used decentralized apps (DApps) on the Ethereum network.
Augur has launched a platform that permits users to bet when certain public figures will die. If a user believes the public figure will die, they buy shares with ETH. If a user believes the public figure won’t die, they can short the bet by selling shares. If a user’s prediction is correct, they profit from the outcome. Augur uses a network of “reporters” who make sure that the bet is settled properly.
Decenturion, constituted this past January, claims to be the world’s first decentralized blockchain-based digital state. Decenturion has appointed blockchain expert and founder of ICOBox, Nick Evdokimov, as its Minister of Information. The blockchain-based state has no central person of power, but is rather governed by passport holders’ voting using smart contracts.
Popular cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex announced plans to delist nine tokens from its trading platform. The nine coins in question are FlorinCoin (FLO), FoldingCoin (FLDC), Vcash (XVC), Bitcrystals (BCY), Nexium (NXC), Radium (RADS), Blackcoin (BLK), Pinkcoin (PINK), and Riecoin (RIC). These cryptocurrencies reportedly do not meet Poloniex’s new asset framework. Owners of these coins have until September 2nd to withdraw them from the exchange.

Weekly Crypto News Recap for the Week ending July 27

Developments in Financial Services

Global investment firm Vaultbank has announced that free stock trading will be added to its platform launch in October. The platform will now include the free stock trading, crypto trading, and even trading security tokens. Vaultbank’s platform is currently undergoing beta testing, but users can sign up for the platform’s waitlist on vaultbank.io.
Popular cryptocurrency debit card provider, Wirex, has added a Ripple (XRP) wallet to its platform. 1.7 million clietns across 130 countries will now be able to use their Wirex Visa Cards to transact with XRP. XRP is currently the third-most popular cryptocurrency by market cap, and was specifically chosen by Wirex due to its unique utility for facilitating global payments.
Decoin is disrupting the crypto credit card market with its DTEP Exchange & Trading Platform. The Decoin credit card will operate directly the company’s coin wallet and will permit users to spend their digital currencies wherever and whenever they choose. Users registered to this exchange will also supposedly have the ability to earn redistributed revenues, up to 20% of the exchange’s trading revenue.
Fintech company Digital Asset announced a partnership with Google Cloud to aid in the construction of blockchain applications. Digital Asset and Google Cloud will provide support and software tools to blockchain application developers so that they don’t have to code the applications from scratch. The pair will also be working on Digital Asset’s developer program private beta, giving Google Cloud developers access to its Digital Asset Modeling Language (DAML) software development kit (SDK).

Regulatory

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has come to the conclusion that they need more time for the consideration of five Bitcoin ETF proposals. Direxion Investments submitted the proposals back in January. The SEC stated that they will announce their decision to either approve or deny the proposal on September 21, 2018. CBOE Global Markets also sent the SEC an ETF proposal last month that is also expected to be postponed.
The Chinese mountain region of Xinjiang Uyghur is known for its vast areas of land and abundant electricity: key elements for Bitcoin (BTC) mining. However, the local authorities of Xinjiang have announced their plan to shut down all illegal mining operations by August 30,2018. Illegal mining operations are those that fail to comply to registration, tax, social security, and other laws.
Japan Virtual Currency Exchange Association is suggesting domestic trading platforms limit investors to 4x leverage on their deposits. According to the Financial Services Agency, there are 142,000 crypto traders focused on derivatives a/o CY2017 in Japan, still a small portion of the estimated 3mm crypto traders in Japan. Just as a point of reference, 80%of crypto trading volume in Japan for CY2017 came from derivatives trading, recording USD$543bn - - 90%+ of this amount was from margin traders.
Iran is currently looking to develop a domestic cryptocurrency in order to bypass its economic sanctions. Alireza Daliri, Iran’s Science and Technology Department head in charge of investment affairs, reported that the project is being worked on with the Central Bank of Iran. The cryptocurrency would back Iran’s national currency, the rial, and would allow cross-border transactions ahead of the US sanctions going into effect next month.
The SEC rejected application for a Bitcoin ETF by Winkelvoss twins again. In its rejection, the SEC cited as a major concern the fact that “a significant portion of Bitcoin trading occurs on unregulated exchanges outside of the United States."
Hester Peirce, Commissioner of the SEC, has published a letter of dissent regarding the SEC’s recent decision upholding the agency’s past ruling to deny the Winklevoss twins’ Bitcoin (BTC) ETF. The SEC denied the Bats BZX Exchange’s proposed rule change hoping to allow trading of the Winklevoss’ Bitcoin Trust shares, leading Peirce to say “I believe that the proposed rule change satisfies the statutory standard and that we should permit BZX to list and trade this Bitcoin-based exchange-traded product,” and that the decision “sends a strong signal that innovation is unwelcome in our markets.”
The Law Commission of India published a report regarding the legal status of sports betting and gambling in the country, referencing cryptocurrencies. The report recognizes cryptocurrencies as a method of payment for betting and wagering. The report also stated that “gambling transactions should be made cashless, making use of electronic means of payment such as credit cards, debit cards, net-banking, virtual currencies (VC – also known as cryptocurrency), etc.”
US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CTFC) Chairman Christopher Giancarlo says the CTFC is falling behind and needs to begin testing the blockchain technology during testimony to House Committee on Agriculture. Chairman Giancarlo suggests the CTFC is four years behind other global institutions like the Bank of England (BOE) as it relates to testing blockchain.

General News

Lufthansa, one of the world’s largest airlines, has announced a partnership with software firm SAP to create a competition focused on increasing the airline industry’s adoption of blockchain technology. There are currently not a lot of efforts being made to incorporate blockchain in the airline industry, and initial submissions into the competition are due at the end of August. Lufthansa is looking for applications regarding data processing, flight booking, loyalty programs, and supply chain enhancements.
Cryptocurrency trading millionaires, especially in China, are looking into investments in foreign real estate markets as a form of diversification. Through the use of real estate startup apps, Chinese investors can buy real estate in California using Bitcoin (BTC), for example, through Hong Kong brokers that don’t require the same taxes and documentation as other financial assets held abroad.
Binance, the world’s most popular cryptocurrency exchange, will soon enter the South Korean market. During the Blockchain Partners Summit in Seoul, Binance CEO Chanpgeng Zhao held a speech noting that Binance will enrich South Korea’s community. While Binance has not made any official announcements regarding the expansion, South Korean media outlets reported it following the summit.
A New Jersey-based cryptocurrency mining startup, called Honeyminer, has released its free beta platform in June, and has amassed 10,000 downloads around the world already. The platform allows users to mine cryptocurrencies on their Windows laptops by running the app while the processor isn’t in use. Users will be able to mine Ethereum (ETH), Ethereum Classic (ETC), Monero (XMR), and Zcash (ZEC), but all earnings are transferred into Bitcoin (BTC) and sent to the user’s wallet.
Since cryptocurrencies became popular several years ago, not many cryptocurrency platforms (i.e. exchanges and wallets) have conducted third-party security audits. However, three-month-old XMR Wallet, a web wallet for Monero (XMR) has announced its conclusion of an audit by the firm New Alchemy. Additionally, XMR Wallet has published the results of its audit, and stated that all issues found have already been resolved.
ConsenSys, a blockchain technology company, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with China’s Xiongan New Area government. ConsenSys focuses on the development of Ethereum (ETH), and will be advising the government on blockchain solutions to make Xiongan a smart city. China’s president Xi Jinping has designated Xiongan a special economic zone and believes that by creating a smart economy using Ethereum, it could bring in USD$348 billion within the next 10 years.
Bitmart, a global cryptocurrency exchange, has announced that it will be listing its own utility token, called BMX, on its exchange. The BMX token is an ERC-20 protocol token, and there will be 1 billion issued. All transaction fees paid on the BMX market will be redistributed to those who backed the project, and using BMX on the exchange lets users pay a discounted fee.
US-based Coinbase is launching a crypto-backed gift card in Europe. Users of WeGift will be able to convert digital assets held in their Coinbase wallet to gift cards. Gift cards from WeGift can be used at over 120 retailers across the UK, France, Spain, the Netherlands and Italy.
The Bank of Canada (BoC) released its Staff Working Paper this week, where it said that the proof-of-work (PoW) consensus system, the same one used by Bitcoin (BTC), held the most promise out of alternative consensus systems like proof-of-stake (PoS). PoW includes a built-in security measure, people with malicious intentions would need to spend a large amount of resources in order to successfully cheat the system. The paper continued that PoS unfairly gives users with the most coins (stake) in the system a higher probability of validating blocks.
BitGo, a popular cryptocurrency custodial service, has announced its recent support of Zcash (ZEC). BitGo is the largest processor of on-chain Bitcoin (BTC) transactions in the world, and processes $15 billion every month in all cryptocurrencies. The Zcash team said that it is very excited for the recent support of their coin, and that along with their upcoming Zcash Sapling upgrade, this should prove to be a great catalyst for adoption of Zcash’s privacy features.
California-based Propy, a global real estate company known for its decentralized title registry, has announced that it has successfully executed a real estate deal on the blockchain. The transaction was tracked every step of the process on Ethereum smart contracts, making this deal the first blockchain-recorded property deal in California, and only the second to be done in the world. The transaction used Bitcoin (BTC) as payment, effectively cutting out the role of banks for this deal.
Waves decentralized exchange (DEX) was hacked on Tuesday, the first day it exited its beta test. Hackers were able to break into the exchange’s website and the company’s main site to phish for information in the personal wallets of users.
Ethereum Chrome browser extension MetaMask was pulled from the Chrome Web store yesterday. It was listed again, 5 hours later. MetaMask has said it is unsure why its extension was pulled from the Chrome Web store. MetaMask is one of the oldest and widely used decentralized apps (DApps) on the Ethereum network.
Augur has launched a platform that permits users to bet when certain public figures will die. If a user believes the public figure will die, they buy shares with ETH. If a user believes the public figure won’t die, they can short the bet by selling shares. If a user’s prediction is correct, they profit from the outcome. Augur uses a network of “reporters” who make sure that the bet is settled properly.
Decenturion, constituted this past January, claims to be the world’s first decentralized blockchain-based digital state. Decenturion has appointed blockchain expert and founder of ICOBox, Nick Evdokimov, as its Minister of Information. The blockchain-based state has no central person of power, but is rather governed by passport holders’ voting using smart contracts.
Popular cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex announced plans to delist nine tokens from its trading platform. The nine coins in question are FlorinCoin (FLO), FoldingCoin (FLDC), Vcash (XVC), Bitcrystals (BCY), Nexium (NXC), Radium (RADS), Blackcoin (BLK), Pinkcoin (PINK), and Riecoin (RIC). These cryptocurrencies reportedly do not meet Poloniex’s new asset framework. Owners of these coins have until September 2nd to withdraw them from the exchange.

In case you missed it: Major Crypto and Blockchain News from the week ending 12/14/2018

Developments in Financial Services

A cryptocurrency exchange-traded product (ETP) that trades on Switzerland’s Six Exchange saw record trading volumes on Thursday and Friday last week, suggesting that institutional investors may be buying the dip in cryptocurrencies. Four major cryptocurrencies underlie the HODL ETP, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ripple (XRP), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH). While HODL ETP’s one-month average daily trading is 20,000 shares, on Thursday, December 6th, and Friday, December 7th, 53,233 shares and 62.986 shares were traded, respectively.
A report published last week by global anti-money laundering policymaker, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), indicates that cryptocurrency exchanges in the United Kingdom pose a, “low risk,” for money laundering and terrorist financing activities. The report, however, does highlight that such activities on UK cryptocurrency exchanges are an, “emerging risk,” although there is not yet enough evidence to suggest that these activities are occurring through cryptocurrency exchanges. In its report, the FATF urged UK regulators to, “Continue to develop an understanding of emerging risks (such as virtual currencies) and intelligence gaps, and take appropriate action.”
Andreas Utermann, CEO and CIO of Allianz Global Investors, called on global financial regulators to ban cryptocurrencies while speaking at a panel discussion in London. According to a report by Reuters, Utermann said, “You should outlaw it,” while participating in a panel alongside Andrew Bailey, the head of Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority. Bailey responded by saying that Utermann’s comments were, “quite strong,” before adding that cryptocurrencies have, “no intrinsic value.”
Basis, a major US-based stablecoin project, is shutting down its operations and returning most of its funds to investors, according to a report by crypto news outlet The Block. The report by The Block cited, “multiple people with direct knowledge of the situation,” in claiming that the algorithmic stablecoin project, which generated UDS$133mm of funding through private investments in April, will return funds to investors. According to the Co-Founder and CEO of competing stablecoin project Nevin Freeman, Basis’ shutdown is due to regulatory concerns around one of its token types. Freeman explained, highlighting that algorithmic stablecoins implement a “secondary token”, known as a “bond token”, to help maintain the primary token’s peg. In many cases, regulators like the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) consider these secondary tokens to be securities.
Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by daily trading volume, announced that it has added Circle’s US dollar-pegged stablecoin, USD Coin (USDC), to its combined Stablecoin Market. Circle, a company backed by Goldman Sachs, first released its stablecoin in September of this year. Binance’s combined Stablecoin Market features other notable stablecoins, like Tether (USDT), that trade against cryptocurrencies as interchangeable base pairs.
Coinone, a South Korea-based cryptocurrency exchange, has officially launched Cross, a cross-border payments application that leverages Ripple’s xCurrent product to increase efficiencies. The application, released by Coinone’s payments subsidiary, Coinone Transfer, targets unbanked or underbanked South Koreans by enabling the transfer of funds to Thailand or the Philippines at a low cost.
Gemini, a cryptocurrency exchange heralded by the Winklevoss twins, released an official company blog post this weekend announcing that the firm will support Bitcoin Cash (BCH) custody and trading. The exchange will support only the Bitcoin Cash ABC network at this time, adding that they, “are continuing to evaluate Bitcoin SV over the coming weeks or months, and we may or may not choose to support withdrawals and/or trading of Bitcoin SV in the future.” Additionally, the company detailed that its listing of BCH is pending regulatory approval by the New York State Department of Financial Services.
Gemini, the cryptocurrency trading platform founded by the Winklevoss twins, announced the launch of a mobile crypto trading application in an official blog post today. Accompanying the launch of the crypto trading app is a new investment vehicle, dubbed, “The Cryptoverse,” that is comprised of a basket of cryptocurrencies weighted by market capitalization. While speaking to Bloomberg today, Cameron Winklevoss said that, “A lot of our decisions have perhaps given off a perception that we’re more institutional-based. The reality of the situation is that we have a diverse customer base. And the retail story is just beginning.” The Winklevoss twins went on to detail of a goal to expand reach to Asian markets by 2019’s end.
Good Money, a US neo-banking platform, has closed its Series A investment round that generated USD$30mm led by cryptocurrency-focused merchant bank Galaxy Digital and the founder of EOS (EOS) Block.one. Good Money aims to provide a variety of banking service and certain financial instruments to US account holders while exploring innovative changes to traditional banking practices. “Modern banking is a primary driver of so many issues we as a society face – from economic inequality, institutional racism, environmental destruction to political corruption,” said Good Money founder Gunnar Lovelace. Specifically, Good Money eliminates ATM fees while offering each bank user equity in the company.
Kraken, a notable cryptocurrency exchange, is seeking to raise funding with a USD$4bn valuation for the company and a USD$100,000 investment minimum, according to CoinDesk. In an email to investors, Kraken CEO Jesse Powell wrote, “There is presently a limited time opportunity available to a very small select number of clients to purchase shares.” The email goes on to detail that the exchange will close its offer on December 16th.
OKEx, the second-largest cryptocurrency exchange by daily trading volume, will begin listing Bitcoin Cash ABC under the original Bitcoin Cash ticker (BCH), as per an official announcement Tuesday. Additionally, OKEx will change the Bitcoin Cash SV ticker from BCHSV to BSV. The announcement by OKEx comes after other notable cryptocurrency exchanges have made the same switch, including Coinbase and Gemini.
PayPal, an online payments portal, has launched its own internal private blockchain platform that will allow staff to trade and exchange tokens while generating ideas and participating in programs to foster innovation, as per a report by news outlet Cheddar. The private blockchain network, which was built by 25 PayPal employees in just 6 months, will allow employees to earn more for enrolling in learning and development programs. The PayPal tokens are not tradeable, or worth anything for that matter, outside PayPal’s blockchain.
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), a big four consulting firm, is partnering with Bitfury Group, a large blockchain software and mining firm, to develop a blockchain accelerator specific to Russian businesses. As per an official press release by PwC, the partnership will leverage Exonum, Bitfury’s open source framework to build blockchain applications, for educational courses and seminars. The partnership aims to meet the, “current needs,” of PwC’s enterprise clients in Russia.
Revolut, a digital banking alternative with an in-application cryptocurrency exchange, announced that it has been awarded a European banking license. Seeking to become the, “Amazon of banking,” the license will allow Revolut to offer traditional banking services alongside its current cryptocurrency offerings to European customers. Nikolay Storonsky, Founder and CEO of Revolut, said in regards to the newly acquired license that, “With the banking license now secured, commission-free stock trading progressing well, and five new international markets at final stages of launch, we are living up to our reputation as the ‘Amazon of Banking’. Our vision is simple: one ap with tens of millions of users, where you can manage every aspect of your financial life with the best value and technology.”
Shinhan Bank, the second-largest commercial bank in South Korea, is launching a new project to implement blockchain technology in its internal processes with a goal of eliminating human error. According to a report by news outlet The Korea Times, Shinhan also recently completed a training program for its staff to increase their knowledge of blockchain technology across various applications. After Shinhan implemented blockchain technology for interest rate swap transactions on November 30th, South Korea’s second-largest bank is now aiming to apply the technology in its record-keeping process to enhance overall efficiencies.
SolarisBank, Germany’s second-largest and Europe’s ninth-largest stock exchange, is partnering with Stuttgart Exchange Group, a German fintech company, to jointly develop a cryptocurrency exchange. As per a report by Cointelegraph Germany, the joint cryptocurrency exchange venture, “is scheduled to launch in the first half of 2019.” This news comes after SolarisBank announced plans to launch a zero-fee cryptocurrency trading application this past May.
The Canadian city of Calgary is becoming the first city in Canada to launch a digital version of its local currency, according to a report by the Global News. Dubbed as the Calgary Digital Dollar, the digital currency will be exclusive to Calgary and operate alongside the country’s Canadian Dollar. Calgary-based businesses will now be required by law to accept at least 10% of a payment in digital currency, although they are allowed to accept up to 100%.
The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) is launching a pilot of its Global Payment Initiative (GPI) to combat growing blockchain and fintech solutions, according to an official announcement last week. Currently, the SWIFT Network is used by global financial institutions to conduct global financial payments and cross-border transfers of fiat currency. Although the project is still in its early stages, the GPI pilot hopes to, “build the foundation of a new integrated and interactive service that will significantly improve efficiencies in the payments process and which will ultimately be made available to all 10,000 banks across the SWIFT network.”
The United Arab Emirates’(UAE) central bank is partnering with the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) to develop a cryptocurrency to facilitate cross border transactions between the two countries, according to a report by news outlet GulfNews. In a meeting pertaining to global banking standards and regulation in the Arab region, Mubarak Rashed Al Mansouri, the governor of the UAE’s central bank, said, “This is probably the first time ever that witnesses the cooperation of monetary authorities from different countries on this topic and we hope that this achievement will foster similar collaboration in our region.” The prospective digital currency will be used by both central banks and financial institutions in the countries.
TokenSoft, a security token offering (STO) startup, has acquired a 20% stake in regulated broker-dealer Marpine Securities LLC in order to launch its own regulated broker-dealer. After acquiring the 20% stake, TokenSoft will launch its new regulated broker-dealer entity, called TokenSoft Global Markets, that will be registered through the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). The new regulated broker-dealer entity will allow TokenSoft to advise token issuers through every step of the Initial Coin Offering (ICO) process. Additionally, TokenSoft will now be able to legally operate in services related to insurance and management.
Tom Lee, co-founder of Fundstrat Global Advisors and a notable cryptocurrency pundit, believes that the current fair value of Bitcoin (BTC) is between USD$13,800 and USD$14,800, according to a note published on Thursday. Lee arrived at this valuation by taking into account the number of active wallet addresses, usage per account, and other supply and demand metrics. Additionally, Lee forecasted that the fair value of BTC will reach USD$150,000/coin once BTC wallets account for 7% of Visa’s 4.5bn account holders.
UAE Exchange, an exchange based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is partnering with Ripple to launch a blockchain-based cross-border remittances platform by 1Q2019, as per a Reuters report on Thursday. The report details further that Finablr, a payments and foreign exchange company that owns UAE Exchange, observes a high level of remittance inflows from expatriate workers in the Middle East region. “We expect to go live with Rippel by Q1, 2019 with two other Asian banks,” said Finablr CEO Promoth Manghat, adding, “This is for remittances to start with, from across the globe into Asia.”

Regulatory Environment

De Nederlandsche Bank, the Netherlands’ central bank, will soon require domestic cryptocurrency providers to obtain a license from the regulator to operate, as per a report by Dutch news outlet DeTelegraaf. The Netherlands' central bank is taking these measures in the hope that it will, “prevent such cryptocurrencies from being used to launder money obtained through crime or to fund terrorism.” In order to receive a license, cryptocurrency firms must maintain Know-Your-Customer procedures and report any suspicious activity to the Dutch central bank.
Eddie Hughes, a conservative member of the United Kingdom’s Parliament, suggested that Bitcoin (BTC) should be accepted as legal tender for tax and utility payments, according to news outlet Express.co.uk. The article discusses that Hughes, who is a self-described, “crypto enthusiast with amateur knowledge,” recently met with the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, which accepts cryptocurrency donations. This news comes after the US state of Ohio announced that it would begin accepting BTC as legal tender for tax payments.
Following a case in Canadian courts that resulted in a ruling ordering mistakenly sent crypto funds to be returned to their owner, a blog post from the University of Oxford Faculty of Law is noting that there could be repercussions with the case potentially setting a precedent for lost or stolen cryptocurrency claims. The Canadian court case’s ruling will require defendant Brian Wall to return USD$370,482 worth of Ethereum (ETH) tokens to the plaintiff, Copytrack. The blog post from the University of Oxford Faculty of Law reads, ‘This precedent may have major repercussions for the enforcement of claims regarding lost or stolen cryptocurrencies,” adding that the ruling allows the plaintiff to recover tokens, “in whatsoever hands those Ether Tokens may currently be held.”
Japan’s government is considering plans to ease cryptocurrency taxes in an effort to revitalize the domestic cryptocurrency and blockchain industry. This week, Japanese Congressman Takeshi Fujimaki proposed four significant changes to taxation requirements pertaining to digital assets, which include: a reduction on the cryptocurrency gains tax from 55% to 20%; elimination of taxes on crypto-to-crypto payments; elimination of taxes on miniscule cryptocurrency payments; and an adjustment that would allow cryptocurrency investors to carry forward losses across quarters and years, effectively until cryptocurrencies are ‘cashed’ out.
Jay Clayton, Chairman for the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (US SEC), said during a speech that Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), “can be effective,” for fundraising, but that, “securities laws must be followed.” Clayton went on in his speech to comment on the US SEC’s work regarding distributed ledger technology (DLT), digital assets, and ICOs, saying that it is an, “area where the Commission and staff have spent a significant amount of time,” and, “that this trend will continue in 2019.”
Jay Clayton, the Chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), expressed his optimism for distributed ledger technology’s potential impact on traditional financial markets in a testimony before the US Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs yesterday. According to a transcript published on the SEC’s website, Clayton said, “I am optimistic that developments in distributed ledger technology can help facilitate capital formation, providing promising investment opportunities for both institutional and Main Street Investors.” Additionally, Clayton highlighted that the SEC is, “Focusing a significant amount of attention and resources on digital assets and initial coin offerings (ICOs).”
Maxim Akimov, the Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, announced that no significant changes will be made to the draft of a bill concerning cryptocurrency regulation in the country, as per news outlet Finmarket. The bill was already approved by Russia’s parliament, the State Duma, in May 2018, although the bill has generated substantial discussion since. Since approval of the bill, all cryptocurrency and token-related terminology have been removed and replaced with the term “digital rights”. At the beginning of December, Pavel Krasheninnikov, Chairman of Russia’s State Duma, said that the bill needed to be, “significantly,” changed.
Pan Gongsheng, a deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China, highlighted that Security Token Offerings (STOs) in China are illegal while speaking at a summit in Beijing. As per a report by news outlet the South China Morning Post, Gongsheng told the summit that, “illegal financing activities through STOs and ICOs were still rampant in the mainland despite a nationwide clean-up of the cryptocurrency market last year.” In citing reasoning for the continued ban on STOs, Gongsheng explained that, “Virtual money has become an accomplice to all kinds of illegal and criminal activities.”
Pantera Capital, a blockchain and cryptocurrency-focused investment firm and hedge fund, is warning investors that as much as a quarter of their ICO project could potentially be violating US securities laws, according to a Bloomberg report. In a newsletter to clients, Pantera Capital warned, “While we believe the vast majority of the projects in our portfolio should not be affected, approximately 25% of our fund’s capital is invested in other projects with liquid tokens that sold to US investors without using Regulation D or Regulation S”
Russia has no intention of implementing Venezuela’s state-backed digital currency, the Petro, into commercial operations, according to a report by news outlet RIA Novosti. While speaking to reporters this week, Russian Deputy Finance Minister Sergey Storchak said, “Representatives from our tax service and central bank... got acquainted with the cryptocurrency Venezuela is introducing,” adding, “But no more than that. As for payments, they’re not happening yet.”
South Korea’s representative body, the National Assembly, held its first official meeting with seven of the country’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges on Monday. The purpose of the meeting was to debate cryptocurrency regulation between stakeholders of South Korea’s cryptocurrency industry. Cryptocurrency exchanges Bithumb, CobitCoin, Coinone, Upbit, Gopax, Coinplug, and Hanbitco were among the attendees of the debate, which reportedly focused on Anti-Money Laundering (AML) customer protections and Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures.
The United Kingdom’s Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an intergovernmental financial security body, is calling on the country’s government to increase monitoring of cryptocurrency markets. According to an official report last week, the UK must overhaul its Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and combat terrorist financing (CFT) efforts in order to prevent illicit activities with cryptocurrencies. “Virtual currency exchange providers are not yet covered by AML/CFT requirements,” the report details, adding, “this is an emerging risk and there is not yet evidence to suggest that broad scale ML/TF is occurring in the UK through this relatively small sector.”
The United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is interested in learning more about the Ethereum (ETH) network, its technology, and the markets build around it. On Tuesday, the CFTC published a Request for Input (RFI) that requests the public’s feedback on different questions concerning Ethereum. The RFI explains that its goal is to inform the CFTC about Ethereum and similar emerging technology, saying, “The input from this request will advance the CFTC’s mission of ensuring the integrity of the derivatives market as well as monitoring and reducing the systematic risk by enhancing legal certainty in the markets. The RFI seeks to understand the similarities and distinctions between certain virtual currencies, including here ether and bitcoin, as well as ether-specific opportunities, challenges, and risks.”
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (US SEC) is ordering that cryptocurrency asset manager CoinAlpha Advisors LLC pay a USD$50,000 fine, alleging that the firm conducted an unregistered securities sale. After forming in October 2017, CoinAlpha raised more than USD$600,000 from investors to invest in digital assets. In an official release, the US SEC said that CoinAlpha did not file a Notice of Exempt Offering of Securities, meaning that the firm breached securities laws by soliciting securities investors. Additionally, the firm allegedly did not adhere to proper know-your-customer procedures to verify that investors were accredited.
Venezuela is reportedly beginning to convert its citizens’ monthly pension payments into Petros, Venezuela’s controversial state and oil-backed cryptocurrency, according to a report by local economics blog the Caracas Chronicles. The conversion of Venezuelan pensioners’ payments into Petros came after the country already sent pensioners their monthly payment in the form of a check for Venezuelan Bolivars -- normally, upon receiving their check, pensioners would deposit their funds into a bank account where they could then withdraw fiat from local branches. The Venezuelan government, however, converted pensioners’ fiat payments into the Petro upon their deposit into a bank. In the first few weeks of the Petro’s existence, its value has risen from 9,000 to more than 15,000.
Warren Davidson, an Ohio Congressman and notable advocate of blockchain and digital assets, is floating blockchain technology as a solution to fund US President Donald Trump’s prospective US-Mexico border wall. While interviewing with NPR, Congressman Davidson suggested, “the American people, or whomever should choose to donate,” could pay for the border wall, adding, “you could do it with sort of like a crowdfunding site or you could do a blockchain and you could have WallCoins.”

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“The long-term value of Bitcoin (BTC) is more likely to be USD$100 than USD$100,000,” says Kenneth Rogoff, a former Chief Economist for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the current Harvard University Professor of Economics and Public Policy. While writing an article for major UK news outlet The Guardian, Rogoff highlighted that, because BTC’s use is limited to transactions, it makes the digital asset more vulnerable to a bubble-like collapse. Rogoff also cited that BTC’s energy-intensive verification processes is, “vastly less efficient,” than systems that leverage, “a trusted central authority like a central bank.”
A new report by PeckShield, a blockchain security company that monitors various cryptocurrency ecosystems, details that decentralized applications (DApps) on the EOS (EOS) blockchain have lost as much as USD$1mm in hacks since July 2018. The report details further that DApps on the EOS network have sustained 27 breaches since July, which are responsible for the up to 400,000 EOS that have been compromised from hacks. Guo Yonggang, a blockchain security expert cited in a report on the matter by crypto media firm Blockchain Truth, believes that the hacks can be attributed to security problems with the DApps themselves, rather than with the EOS network.
A new study published by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance on Wednesday finds that the number of unique ID-verified cryptocurrency users nearly doubled in in the first 3 quarters of 2018. The study details that total ID-verified users increased to 35mm in the first three quarters of 2018 from 18mm at the end of 2017, representing an increase of 94%. As per an analysis of the study by Bloomberg, the growth of crypto’s userbase despite the market decline, “could signal that an eventual recovery could be coming.”
Amid the continued cryptocurrency sell-off, only two cryptocurrency mining machines remain profitable, according to real-time data from ASICMinerValue.com. ASICMInerValue.com, which calculates the profitability of Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) miners, indicates that only indicates that only the Ebank Ebit E11++ and ASICminer 8 Nano 44Th mining models are profitable for mining cryptocurrencies based on the SHA-256 hash function -- notable cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) use this has function.
Bitmain, a large Chinese cryptocurrency mining firm, announced that it is closing its development center in Israel, citing current cryptocurrency market conditions. In closing Bitmaintech Israel, the crypto mining giant was forced to fire all 23 employees. Among the employees let go is Gadi Glikberg, head of Bitmain’s Israeli branch and Vice President of International Sales, who said on the recent market turmoil, “The crypto market has undergone a shake-up in the past few months, which has forced Bitmain to examine its various activities around the globe and to refocus its business in accordance with the current situation.”
Busan, a major South Korean city, will be the beneficiary of the South Korean government’s plan to spend 4bn Korean won (USD$3.5mm) to establish a blockchain-enabled virtual power plant (VPP). As per a report by South Korean news outlet Yonhap News Agency, the project will be angled as a national competition in 2019, hosted by South Korea’s largest electric utility, Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO). The VPP will integrate the idle capacities of multiple energy resources through a cloud-based distributed ledger in order to optimize power generation and decrease costs.
Church’s Chicken, a large international fast food franchise, is partnering with Dash Venezuela to accept cryptocurrencies in its Venezuelan locations. According to an official press release, 13 Church’s Chicken establishments will begin accepting Dash (DASH) as payment following, “extensive and rigorous days of training,” staff to understand cryptocurrencies. With the addition of Church’s Chicken, more than 2,200 establishments in Venezuela accept DASH as payment.
Crypto.com, a Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency payments platform, announced the appointment of former PayPal executive Tyson Hackwood to serve as the firm’s Vice President and Head of Global Merchant Acquisition in an official press release today. Crypto.com aims to increase cryptocurrency adoption by both merchants and consumers through their point-of-sale (PoS) transaction terminals. Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek believes that Hackwood will be integral in furthering this goal, saying, “As we develop the Crypto.com Chain to fulfill the current industry need to pay and be paid in crypto, Tyson will play an important role in expanding the number and quality of merchants that are part of our network.”
Hyperledger, a notable blockchain consortium, is continuing its robust expansion after announcing the addition of 16 new members at the Hyperledger Global Forum in Basel, Switzerland. Among the notables to join the consortium are, Alibaba Cloud, Citigroup’s Citi Ventures arm, and Deutsche Telekom. The latest addition of 16 members brings the total membership of Hyperledger to more than 260 different companies. In a public statement, Hyperledger Executive Director Brian Behlendorf said that, “The growing Hyperledger community reflects the increasing importance of open source efforts to build enterprise blockchain technologies across industries and markets. The latest members showcase the widening interest in and impact of DLT and Hyperledger."
Jeremy Henrickson, the former Chief Product Officer at Coinbase, has departed the US-based cryptocurrency exchange after serving since July 2016. “Jeremy’s contributions to Coinbase over the past two years were invaluable,” said a Coinbase spokesperson, adding that, “he helped to build our scrappy startup team into a high-functioning product and engineering organization -- overseeing a 5x+ growth of the team.” Henrickson’s departure comes after long-term Coinbase executives Adam White and Hunter Merghart left the US-based cryptocurrency exchange in recent months.
LinkedIn’s, “2018 U.S. Emerging Jobs,” report released on Thursday ranks the role of blockchain developer as the fastest growing job in the United States. The report by LinkedIn indicates that blockchain developer jobs have increased 33-fold in the past 12 months alone. San Francisco, New York City, and Atlanta are among the cities with the highest demand for blockchain developer jobs.
Orbs, a unique hybrid blockchain platform, raised more than USD$15mm in cryptocurrencies to fund its development of a public blockchain, according to a company blog post. South Korean application provider Kakao lead the fundraising efforts with a representative telling CoinDesk that the company, “always seeks to invest and support innovative startups, and Orbs is a good example.” In total, Orbs raised 139,000 Ether (ETH) and 892 Bitcoin (BTC), amounting to roughly USD$15.4mm. Orbs aims to build a public blockchain with this funding that is, “universal,” and, “scalable,” for decentralized applications (DApps) with the, “liquidity of a base layer.”
Samsung has reportedly filed patent applications for three different blockchain-related trademark requests that all pertain directly to smartphones, according to news outlet Galaxy Club. Specifically, the patents named “Blockchain KeyStore”, “Blockchain Key Box”, and “Blockchain Core” all pertain to cryptocurrency custody capabilities on smartphones. This news comes amid the release of HTC’s Exodus 1 and Sirin Labs’ FINNEY, both of which are being marketed as blockchain smartphones with cryptocurrency custody capabilities.

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