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? Daily Crypto News, August, 20th?

August 20, 2019 (updated August 20, 2019) Published by
  • China Is Racing to Launch a Digital Currency Ahead of FB’s Libra ;
  • World Bank Sells $33.8 Million More of Its Private Ethereum Blockchain Bonds ;
  • Crypto and Security Token Exchange INX to Raise $130 Million in Landmark IPO ;
  • New York Court Rules That State Attorney Has Jurisdiction Over Bitfinex ;
  • ‘Youngest Bitcoin Millionaire’ Willing to Stake it All on Metal Pay ;
  • ? Daily Crypto Calendar, August, 20th?
  • STEEM Trading Update

Welcome to the Daily Crypto News: A complete Press Review, Coin Calendar and Trading Analysis. Enjoy!

? China Is Racing to Launch a Digital Currency Ahead of FB’s Libra

The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) is almost ready to launch its government-backed digital currency, official sources say.


An Aug. 20 report from the CPC-owned English-language news portal China Daily further revealed that the central bank digital currency (CBDC) may have been influenced by the unveiling of Facebook’s planned cryptocurrency, Libra. 


‘Inspiration from Libra’


After five years of research and system development work since 2018, the PBoC is almost ready to launch its CBDC, the deputy director of the bank’s payments unit Mu Changchun revealed at a forum last week. 

Trials for the currency have been ongoing and the institution is reported to be testing multiple approaches for the project. If things proceed smoothly, the PBoC expects it could launch the currency sooner than Libra. 


The latter’s recent announcement is notably reported to have influenced the PBoC’s original design for its planned CBDC. 
Yang Dong — director of the Research Center of Finance Technology and Cyber Security at Renmin University of China — told China Daily that the announcement of Libra had sparked debate among Chinese regulators and motivated the project’s designers to involve more non-governmental institutions in the currency’s development and issuance process.

He stated:
“Further testing is needed before officially launching the Chinese CBDC, gaining inspiration from the Libra.”

? World Bank Sells $33.8 Million More of Its Private Ethereum Blockchain Bonds

The World Bank has issued a second round of its landmark blockchain bonds.


The international financial institution raised another $50 million AUD ($33.8 million U.S.) by selling the “blockchain-operated debt instrument” (bond-i), according to Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CommBank), which managed the sale jointly with RBC Capital Markets and TD Securities.


Both new and existing investors participated, CommBank said.


All told, the World Bank has issued $160 million AUD ($108 million U.S.) of these bonds, which run on a private version of the ethereum blockchain. It is “the first bond created, allocated, transferred and managed through its life-cycle using distributed ledger technology,” according to CommBank.


“We are happy to see the continued, strong support and collaboration from investors and partners,” Andrea Dore, the World Bank’s head of funding, said in a press release. “The World Bank’s innovation and experience in the capital markets is key to working with our member countries to increase digitization to boost productivity in their economies and accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals.”

? New York Court Rules That State Attorney Has Jurisdiction Over Bitfinex

The New York State Supreme Court has ruled that the New York Office of the Attorney General (NYAG) has jurisdiction over cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex.


According to a court filing on Aug. 19, this will allow the NYAG to continue its investigation of the exchange over allegations of fraud and misleading investors. 


In the filing, Judge Joel Coehn dismissed a motion by Bitfinex to terminate an action by the NYAG that would prosecute Bitinex under a New York law — the Martin Act. The NYAG originally alleged that Bitfinex and associated stablecoin firm Tether covered up an $850 million loss and in doing so, misled investors in the state of New York.


The allegations have resulted in a protracted legal battle between Bitfinex and state prosecutors, with the exchange claiming that it spent $500,000 and hired over 60 lawyers in order to comply with documentation requests by the NYAG.

? Crypto and Security Token Exchange INX to Raise $130 Million in Landmark IPO

INX Limited, a crypto exchange startup, plans to raise up to $129.5 million through an IPO, in the first security token sale registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

No, that’s not a typo for “ICO,” the initial coin offerings that tested the limits of securities law during the go-go days of 2017. IPO means IPO here: INX, which is domiciled in Gibraltar, filed a draft F-1 (the SEC’s prospectus form for foreign issuers) with the agency on Monday and will market the tokens to retail and institutional investors through the initial public offering. 

As such, it’s a major milestone since to date, token sales have been unregistered. Some issuers confined their marketing to wealthy investors so they’d be exempt from the registration requirement and filed notices with the SEC. Most didn’t even bother to tell the regulators what they were up to, and over the last year, the agency has brought a slew of cases against ICO teams for illegally selling unregistered securities.

? ‘Youngest Bitcoin Millionaire’ Willing to Stake it All on Metal Pay

Metallicus, the startup behind the peer-to-peer payments platform Metal Pay, received an undisclosed angel investment from the youngest bitcoin millionaire, Erik Finman.


In partnership with Metal Pay CEO Marshall Hayner, the two look to develop the first “all-in-one” cryptocurrency banking platform, which includes a 17 digital asset exchange, a digital bank and a payments application with social features similar to Venmo.


Founded in September, Metal Pay has processed approximately $11 million in total payments from nearly 130,000 registered users across 38 states. On a monthly basis, the company processes $1 million in crypto or fiat for around 30,000 active users, according to Hayner.


Finman staked a modest amount of bitcoin to finance the development of the banking and exchange ecosystem, he said, which currently holds approximately $2 million in crypto and fiat on the platform. Though Finman is willing to put in his entire “400 something” bitcoin fortune to fund Metal Pay’s growth, the 20 year old told CoinDesk.


“We’re looking to beat bitcoin,” Finman said.

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? Daily Crypto Calendar, August, 20th?

Validators and delegators can begin participating in WAN staking.

Da Hongfei unveils NEO’s next development journey at a meetup in Berlin from 6:30 – 9:00 PM.

Earning automation is the point at which payouts move to fully automated.

We’re happy to announce that TomoZ mainnet will be live at 3 pm GMT +8 on 20th Aug 2019.

“The trading will open at UTC 4:00, August 20th .”

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STEEM Trading Update by my friend @cryptopassion

Here is the chart of yersterday :

STEEMUSD.jpg

Here is the current chart :

STEEMUSD.jpg

We are currently testing the resistance line at 0.18$ but till now we are not able to break it. Most of the altcoin are not doing a so big UP with the bounce from the BTC so I don’t expect that STEEM will do better. We need a second bigger UP on the BTC to help us to break that resistance line and confirm that the low at stort term has been touched on the STEEM.

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Last Updates

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Join this new Free To Play on the STEEM Platform !

Electric Unicorn: Bus Maker Proterra May Hit $1 Billion Valuation With New Funding Round

August 19, 2019 Published by

Electric
Unicorn: Bus Maker Proterra May Hit $1 Billion Valuation With New Funding Round
(Forbes)

  • US-based electric bus maker Proterra, which may be looking to go public, is planning another fundraising round that is likely to push the company to a unicorn-class valuation of US$1bn.
  • The company supplies transit buses to cities across the US and employs a number of former Tesla engineers and executives.
  • The private equity sale (which the company registered on August 2nd) could raise up to US$75m in support of the company’s planned expansion beyond transit buses and into a new business unit aimed at selling EV components such as its batteries and motors.

Analysis and Comments

  • The bus sector is the easiest to electrify because of the predetermined nature of the driving routes which makes it easier and less costly to set up charging points. This explains why 60% of the bus fleet in Chinese cities is already electric.  
  • The bus sector contributes 10% to road related emissions despite being less than 1% in terms of the vehicle fleet. Electrification of bus fleets in Europe and the US will likely speed up over the next 5 years.
  • Chinese companies such as BYD will likely capture the bulk of the international electric bus market, especially short range city buses (also called transit buses). This will be because of their clear cost advantage versus western OEMs. Companies like Proterra are hence focussing on higher value longer range electric buses.      

? Daily Crypto News, August, 19th?

August 19, 2019 (updated August 19, 2019) Published by
  • Santander to Connect Latin America to Ripple-Powered Remittance Service ;
  • Alive, Thriving and Totally Unauthorized: Inside the Underground Market for Telegram’s Cryptocurrency ;
  • Binance Reveals ‘Venus’ — Its Own Project to Rival Facebook’s Libra ;
  • Bitcoin Price Bullish Wedge Forms Pointing to $11K
  • Crypto Wallet ZenGo Now Supports Facebook’s Libra Testnet ;
  • ? Daily Crypto Calendar, August, 19th?
  • STEEM Trading Update

Welcome to the Daily Crypto News: A complete Press Review, Coin Calendar and Trading Analysis. Enjoy!

? Santander to Connect Latin America to Ripple-Powered Remittance Service

Spanish megabank Santander Group is expanding its use of Ripple’s technology.


The bank is building a “payment corridor” that would let customers in Latin America send money to the U.S. instantly for free via One Pay FX, a mobile app that uses Ripple’s xCurrent software, officials told CoinDesk.


Currently, only customers in the U.K. and Spain can send money to the U.S. over One Pay FX. While the bank would not reveal how many Latin American countries it plans to connect to the corridor, Santander serves Brazil, Uruguay, Chile and Mexico.


Like Santander’s DLT efforts to date, the new payment capability will not involve XRP, the cryptocurrency that Ripple periodically sells to fund operations and that powers its separate xRapid product.

Last year, Santander introduced One Pay FX in four countries that account for more than half the bank’s profits: Spain, the U.K., Brazil and Poland.

? Alive, Thriving and Totally Unauthorized: Inside the Underground Market for Telegram’s Cryptocurrency

The Takeaway:


Telegram’s long-awaited blockchain, Telegram Open Network, is said to be scheduled to launch Oct. 31, but the yet-to-be-issued gram tokens are already trading in an unauthorized secondary market.


Telegram has yet to publicly or formally acknowledge the project, but investors in last year’s $1.7 billion token offering, widely publicized in the press, are selling their gram allocations via OTC desks, exchanges and special-purpose vehicles.


Purchasing tokens this way might be risky, investors warn, as Telegram specifically prohibited investors from re-selling their allocations under penalty of terminating the purchase contract.
Secondary buyers may end up with nothing.

? Binance Reveals ‘Venus’ — Its Own Project to Rival Facebook’s Libra

Top cryptocurrency exchange Binance is launching an open blockchain project “Venus” focused on developing localized stablecoins worldwide.


In an announcement published today, Aug. 19, the exchange argues it is well-positioned to launch such a currency ecosystem in light of its existing public chain technology, Binance Chain, wide user base and already established global compliance measures.


Leveraging existing know-how


The exchange says it is seeking partnerships with governments, corporations, technology firms, and other cryptocurrency and blockchain projects in order to develop a new currency ecosystem that will empower both developed and developing countries

? Bitcoin Price Bullish Wedge Forms Pointing to $11K, Says Trader

Bitcoin (BTC) price was returning to bullish form on Aug. 19 as markets look to break out from last week’s sideways trading. 

Market visualization

Bitcoin price builds on $10K support

Data from Coin360 revealed Bitcoin challenging $11,000 in morning trading as Monday delivered almost 5% gains.
Markets appeared to be reacting to news cryptocurrency exchange Binance was planning to release its own version of Facebook’s Libra digital currency, in what is also a direct response to China’s central bank.
At press time, BTC/USD was circling $10,650, capping daily gains of 4.9%, while weekly progress still totalled 5.5% losses.

Bitcoin 7-day price chart

? Crypto Wallet ZenGo Now Supports Facebook’s Libra Testnet

On Aug. 18, the developers of ZenGo, a non-custodial keyless cryptocurrency wallet solution, announced that their app now supports Facebook’s Libra testnet.


Experimenting with Libra


According to the announcement, now users “can send and receive Facebook’s new cryptocurrency, Libra, just like any other cryptocurrency in ZenGo.” The developers also noted that the “testnet funds don’t hold any real value and are only for testing purposes.” The post explains:


“If you would like to experiment with Libra, you can turn on Libra testnet from the Account tab in the wallet. Once you turn on the feature, make sure your wallet is backed up, and we’ll send you your first Libra. Facebook is developing its own wallet Calibra, but it’s not publicly available yet. When it does become available it will be a custodial wallet, meaning that Facebook will have full control over the funds stored in it. But that will not be the only option. That’s why we’re offering Libra in ZenGo a non-custodial that people will have the option to choose.”

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? Daily Crypto Calendar, August, 19th?

Xensor will be listed in Bithumb Global exchange on August 19, 2019.

Web3 Summit is organized around a single rallying call: to facilitate a fully functional and user-friendly decentralized web.

“We’re going to launch Vexanium Whitepaper 2.0 (Bahasa & Mandarin) on 19th August 2019.”

“Big news coming this Monday for Project Hydro!”

“PegNet Mining goes live Monday August 19th 17:00 UTC!”

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STEEM Trading Update by my friend @cryptopassion

Here is the chart of yersterday :

STEEMUSD.jpg

Here is the current chart :

STEEMUSD.jpg

Nothing really new for the STEEM, as the BTC, the moves are very limited and we didn’t even touched the resistance line at at 0.18$. We are closed of it so I would be really interested to see if we can try to break it or not. The worst scenario would be a touch on that line foloowed by a new drop. Let’s hope it won’t happen.

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Last Updates

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Join this new Free To Play on the STEEM Platform !

Twitter Data Shows Major Increase in Gaming Engagement on Platform

August 16, 2019 Published by

Twitter
Data Shows Major Increase in Gaming Engagement on Platform (HollywoodReporter)

  • According to Twitter, more than 500m gaming-related tweets were sent in H1 2019, a 20% increase yoy. In 2018, gaming topics topped 1bn tweets for the first time.
  • While the US seems to be tweeting the most about gaming, Japan hastaken the top spot in the past year as the topic is becoming more global.
  • Following last week’s mass shootings and President Trump’s condemning remarks about video games, several supportive hashtags such as #VideoGamesAreNottoBlame and #GamersAreGood started trending on the platform.

Analysis and Comments

  • Given the recent series of high-profile gaming-related news (the political debate, but also a number of milestones and records achieved across esports events such as the Fortnite and Dota 2 World Championships), the uptick in tweets does not seem surprising.
  • In a way, it is yet another sign that playing video gaming and watching esports is becoming more socially accepted/”mainstream”.
  • With the steady increase in esports viewership numbers and the continued strong demand for video games, we expect this trend to continue.
  • On a side note, Chinese video gaming giant Tencent and Chinese livestreaming platform Huya reported Q2 figures this week, both showing continued growth in mobile revenues and mobile users, respectively.

HUYA’s Share Price (USD)

? Daily Crypto News, August, 16th?

August 16, 2019 (updated August 16, 2019) Published by
  • Coinbase CEO: Institutions Depositing $200-400M Into Crypto Per Week ;
  • Steemit to Automate Development Funding With New DAO ;
  • A Big Four Audit Firm Lost $1 Million In Bitcoin. Victims Are Losing Patience ;
  • Ripple to Give Away 1 Billion XRP in Massive Bid to Fund Online Content ;
  • Binance to Resume US Operations Within Two Months, Predicts CEO CZ ;
  • ? Daily Crypto Calendar, August, 16th?
  • STEEM Trading Update

Welcome to the Daily Crypto News: A complete Press Review, Coin Calendar and Trading Analysis. Enjoy!

? Coinbase CEO: Institutions Depositing $200-400M Into Crypto Per Week

Bitcoin (BTC) adoption by institutions has gone from a myth to fact in the past year, the CEO of major cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has said. 


‘We know the answer’ about adoption: Armstrong


Speaking on Twitter Aug. 16, Brian Armstrong said that 2019 had formed the year of reckoning for institutional Bitcoin uptake, with the trend now obvious. He wrote: 


“Whether institutions were going to adopt crypto or not was an open question about 12 months ago. I think it’s safe to say we now know the answer. We’re seeing $200-400M a week in new crypto deposits come in from institutional customers.” 

Coinbase becomes world’s largest crypto custodian


Armstrong made the comments hours after Coinbase confirmed its acquisition of the international operations of storage giant Xapo. 
The move, as Cointelegraph reported, put Coinbase top of the institutional manager list for crypto with $7 billion of assets under custody. 

? Steemit to Automate Development Funding With New DAO

Steemit, a blockchain project that focuses on monetizing social media sites, has given details of a coming code upgrade that will usher in big economic changes.


Announced on Wednesday, the steem blockchain will undergo its 21st hard fork on Aug. 27 – one that will build in a new Worker Proposal System aimed to allow the blockchain to “fund its own development.”

The new system – set up as a decentralized autonomous organization, or DAO – will allow Steem users to publicly propose work they are willing to do in return for payment in the project’s native cryptocurrency, steem dollars (SBD). The Steem.DAO will provide a way for the platform’s users to vote on proposals, weighted by their stake in the platform.

? A Big Four Audit Firm Lost $1 Million In Bitcoin. Victims Are Losing Patience

The Takeaway:


QuadrigaCX’s former users are running out of patience with Miller Thomson and EY, the court-appointed companies tasked with recovering their missing funds.

The users want more transparency into EY’s investigation of Quadriga’s missing funds, as well as a better understanding of how the audit firm accidentally lost 103 bitcoin earlier this year.

Some users are contemplating finding new legal representation due to their frustrations with Miller Thomson.
Ripple has until mid-September to file its response.

? Binance to Resume US Operations Within Two Months, Predicts CEO CZ

Changpeng Zhao, CEO of major cryptocurrency exchange Binance, has predicted that Binance will resume crypto-to-fiat operations in the United States within the next two months.


Navigating U.S. regulation


Zhao, also known as CZ within the crypto community, made his prediction in an interview with online news outlet Cheddar published Aug. 15. When asked about Binance’s return to operations in the U.S., Zhao said: 


“I don’t want to promise any fixed dates, but there’s a lot of work being done and there’s a lot of things going on in flux, but I would say in a month or two.”

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? Daily Crypto Calendar, August, 16th?

“Xensor will be listed in Digifinex exchange on August 16, 2019.”

V1.4.3 release, which includes filesharing and continuous backups, by August 16.

Trading: begins August 16, 2019 at 3:00PM (UTC+8). Trading pairs will be ABBC/BTC and ABBC/USDT.

Skycoin’s bi-weekly development update for week 32 & 33 of 2019.

“The team is set to host their first live AMA on 17th August to answer all your questions!”

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STEEM Trading Update by my friend @cryptopassion

Here is the chart of yersterday :

STEEMUSD.jpg

Here is the current chart :

STEEMUSD.jpg

So the support line created by the previous low has been broken and as predicted, the drop has continued on the STEEM. We have no real support now at these levels. We are having currently at little bounce but if we cannot go higher than the line that we just broke, I expect that it is just a pull back before the drop continuation.

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Last Updates

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Join this new Free To Play on the STEEM Platform !

Bitcoin Draws Premium in Argentina and Hong Kong Amid Sell-Off

August 14, 2019 Published by
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Interesting article from Bloomberg showing that people/investors are willing to pay a premium when the geopolitical or monetary situation in their respective countries is worsening.

This is the ultimate sign that Bitcoin is a hedge against risks. Government & Currency Wise.

Here are some extracts of this article.

In Argentina, where the peso plunged on election uncertainty, Bitcoin was recently trading for as much as $12,000 on LocalBitcoins.com, a peer-to-peer platform, or 10% higher than on many international crypto exchanges. The token was trading at about a 4% premium in Hong Kong, where continued anti-government protests are raising fears of retaliation.

  • “Bitcoin is becoming the asset of last resort in areas of extreme currency devaluation and political uncertainty,” said Rayne Steinberg, chief executive officer at Los Angeles-based crypto hedge fund Arca. *
  • “In the last week alone, Bitcoin is up approximately 50% against the Argentine peso and trading at a significant premium on local exchanges. And they are not alone, joining the ranks of Venezuela, Hong Kong and Turkey who have also experienced similar shocks.”

The premiums would seem to support the argument that Bitcoin is a means of protecting assets from plunges in local currencies and authoritarianism. Even so, the cryptocurrency has tumbled about 8% to around $10,890 this week, increasing the risk for investors in troubled nations of moving from one volatile asset to another.

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In the past month many advocates have been pointing to the increased negative correlation with U.S. equities as proof that investors were turning to Bitcoin as a haven. That narrative proved to unravel this week as the inverse relationship broke down.

And you, What would you do if you were in Argentina or Hong-Kong at this very moment?

? Daily Crypto News, August, 14th?

August 14, 2019 (updated August 14, 2019) Published by
  • Cardano Founder Charles Hoskinson Announces Upcoming Release of v1.6 ;
  • Barclays Is No Longer Banking Coinbase ;
  • SEC Guidance Gives Ammo to Lawsuit Claiming XRP Is Unregistered Security ;
  • Dallas Mavericks Become Second NBA Team to Accept Bitcoin ;
  • European blockchain company Bitfury launches artificial intelligence unit ;
  • ? Daily Crypto Calendar, August, 14th?
  • STEEM Trading Update

Welcome to the Daily Crypto News: A complete Press Review, Coin Calendar and Trading Analysis. Enjoy!

? Cardano Founder Charles Hoskinson Announces Upcoming Release of v1.6

Charles Hoskinson, a co-founder of the Ethereum Network and current CEO of IOHK, has announced that IOHK-created project Cardano is rolling out version 1.6 within a few days’ time.


Hoskinson teased the upcoming launch in a Twitter post on Aug. 13. Hoskinson also asked users to send screenshots and comments on the latest version of Daedalus, which is an open source cryptocurrency wallet also backed by IOHK.


As per IOHK’s website, Cardano is a blockchain platform that uses the proof of stake algorithm Ouroboros. Its native cryptocurrency, ADA, is based on the functional programming language Haskell. Daedalus, for its part, is the only cryptocurrency wallet that supports ADA. Additionally, the website states that Daedalus can also be used as a wallet manager to organize and provide backup for other wallets and their assets.

A new project for Hoskinson


As previously reported by Cointelegraph, Hoskinson announced during the blockchain conference Consensus 2019 that he would be working on a new project with the security token platform Polymath. The project is called Polymesh, and is reportedly an attempt to create a blockchain for tokens centered on meeting regulatory requirements.

In the announcement, Hoskinson said:
“After co-founding Ethereum and Cardano, two of the most widely used blockchains in the world, I am looking forward to working on Polymesh. There are quadrillions of dollars of financial securities, and building a blockchain to secure them is an incredibly exciting task.”

? Barclays Is No Longer Banking Coinbase

The most prestigious banking relationship in crypto has ended.


Barclays, the London-based global bank, is no longer working with cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, industry sources told CoinDesk. And while Coinbase found a replacement in U.K. upstart ClearBank, according to people familiar with the situation, the change has indirectly inconvenienced the exchange’s users.


That’s because, aside from the cachet of working with a household-name bank, Barclays connected San Francisco-based Coinbase to the U.K. Faster Payments Scheme (FPS), enabling users to instantly withdraw and deposit British pounds at the exchange. The end of the relationship disrupted Coinbase’s access to FPS – which in turn slowed deposits and withdrawals in GBP for U.K. customers, which now take days to process.


The situation is temporary, though, thanks to Coinbase’s new relationship with ClearBank. One of the U.K. “challenger banks” that have sprouted up in recent years to compete with market incumbents, ClearBank is expected to restore Coinbase’s FPS access by the end of the third quarter.


Barclays, ClearBank and Coinbase all declined to comment.

? SEC Guidance Gives Ammo to Lawsuit Claiming XRP Is Unregistered Security

The Takeaway:


A new amended complaint against Ripple draws on the SEC’s framework for digital assets to outline how XRP might be a security – likely the first federal case to do so.


The filing also cites California advertising law, in addition to federal securities law, to argue that investors were misled by Ripple’s promotion of XRP.


While the case is a year old and has not yet received class-action status, the new complaint is the first that Ripple must respond to with a substantive answer.


Ripple has until mid-September to file its response.

? Dallas Mavericks Become Second NBA Team to Accept Bitcoin

The Dallas Mavericks have become the second NBA team to accept Bitcoin (BTC) as a means of payment for match tickets and merchandise.


A tweet from cryptocurrency payment processor BitPay confirmed the news on Aug. 13. 
Mavs’ billionaire owner is a crypto enthusiast


Cryptocurrency adoption has been on the horizon for the Mavs since early last year, when team owner and billionaire tech investor Mark Cuban hinted that fans would soon be able to use Bitcoin to buy tickets to the team’s games.


A year and a half later, Cuban’s plans have materialized and the Mavs join their NBA rivals, The Sacramento Kings, in rolling out cryptocurrency access for their fans. 

? European blockchain company Bitfury launches artificial intelligence unit

European blockchain company The Bitfury Group, valued recently at more than $1 billion, has launched its artificial intelligence (AI) division, the company’s top official told Reuters in an interview.

The AI division will operate alongside Bitfury’s existing blockchain services and remain part of the company.Bitfury is one of a handful of blockchain companies around the world with at least a $1 billion valuation. That list includes Coinbase, a U.S.-based exchange, and China’s Bitmain, the largest cryptocurrency mining firm in the world.


Valery Vavilov, chief executive officer and co-founder of Bitfury, said the need to analyze and extract value from tons of available data drove the company to go into artificial intelligence, that branch of computer science that emphasizes the creation of intelligent machines that act and behave like humans.

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? Daily Crypto Calendar, August, 14th?

“BitMax will enable margin trading for ONE (3X) under the pairs of ONE/USDT, ONE/BTC at 10:00 AM EDT, Aug 14th, 2019.”

Second mainstream merchant, Phone House, joins UTRUST family.

“Our Bank Account Marketplace is going to be released on Wednesday, August 14!”

“If you’re around the Phoenix area, join Chainlink ambassador Cole Gendreau who is hosting a meetup on Wed August 14th at 6PM (MST)!”

“International Conference on Block Chain & Data Science” in Tokyo, Japan from August 14-15.

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STEEM Trading Update by my friend @cryptopassion

Here is the chart of yersterday :

STEEMUSD.jpg

Here is the current chart :

STEEMUSD.jpg

So yesterday, we have been rejected from the pink mobile line (MMA50). It was already a bad sign for the short trend and it is confirmed today by the drop which is back. We should try to go test the previous low around 0.175$. Let’s see if it will hold us or not.

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Last Updates

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Join this new Free To Play on the STEEM Platform !

♻️ 3 Recent Examples of Corporates Which are Working to Counter Climate Risks ♻️

August 13, 2019 Published by

Big Money Starts to Dump Stocks That Pose Climate Risks (Bloomberg)

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  • As climate change related risks are becoming more pronounced, major investment firms have been increasingly pushing companies to address these risks and their role in exacerbating them.
  • This year, almost every major public oil company faced at least one shareholder resolution involving climate change, with proposals winning record support.
  • While most asset managers prefer engagement to divestment, frustration over fruitless discussion and resolutions has also led to a growing divestment campaign.
  • Earlier this year, Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) reduced its stake in oil giant Exxon by US$300m, using its remaining stake to vote against the reappointment Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Darren Woods.

Analysis and Comments

  • The whole debate around divestment vs engagement is a potentially divisive one – not so much among asset managers but in discussions with asset owners and particularly retail investors.
  • Over the last few years, it has been interesting to watch the shift in focus, as the engagers have increasingly honed in on the stranded asset risk across a whole range of industries, which has real and tangible implications for value.

Google pledges carbon-neutral shipping, recycled plastic for all devices (Reuters)

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  • Google announced beginning of the week that it would neutralize carbon emissions from delivering consumer hardware by 2020, and include recycled plastics in each of its products by 2022.
  • According to Anna Meegan, the company’s head of sustainability for its devices and services unit, the company’s transport-related carbon emissions per unit fell 40% in 2018 as it increased the use of ships rather than planes in transport.
  • Currently three out of nine products for which the company discloses details online contain recycled plastic (ranging from 20-42%) – which trails behind hardware rival Apple’s sustainability efforts.  

Analysis and Comments

  • The trend may be slow, but for those companies that sell high profile products such as Apple & Google, the pressure to show their green credentials appears to be growing.
  • It is not clear how Google will fully “neutralise carbon emissions from delivery” – initially it looks as if at least part of the solution will be via carbon credits (which will gradually become more & more expensive to buy).
  • Hence longer term, this increase in carbon crédits price could be providing an incentive for the transport sector to accelerate its own shift to low carbon.

Diageo spends £180m on greener African operations (FT)

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  • British spirits maker Diageo is investing £180m into green energy and water recovery solutions such as biomass boilers, solar installations and water recycling systems at 11 of its breweries across Africa.
  • The investment is the company’s largest environmental investment in a decade, and will include £50m in upfront capital for solar, water treatment and biomass equipment, as well as £130m in long-term supply and maintenance contracts.
  • The company’s ultimate goal is to become 100% green and it plans to half its water usage and GHG emissions by 2020 as part of a group-wide commitment. It is also increasing its focus on sourcing locally in, with 78% of agricultural materials used in its 12 breweries across Africa currently sourced from local farmers.

Analysis and Comments

  • Africa contributes c. 13% of Diageo’s global turnover and about half of the company’s beer sales, and a minimum of 20 of the company’s African production facilities are in so-called “water-stressed locations”.
  • Unsurprisingly, water is an essential ingredient in all of Diageo’s brands (90%+ of beer and 60% of spirits) and the company has thus far been able to achieve a c.44% improvement in water efficiency between 2009 and 2018.
  • According to new data from WRI’s Aqueduct tools, 17 countries (including Africa) – home to one quarter of the world’s population – face extremely high levels of baseline water stress, as water withdrawals globally have more than doubled since the 1960s.
  • Of the 17 most water-stressed countries,12 are in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), where growing demand and climate change are pushing already constrained countries even further into extreme stress.
  • According to the World Bank, this region has the greatest expected economic losses from climate-related water scarcity (c. 6-14% of GDP by 2050), stressing the importance of pursuing SDG 6 – ensuring the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.
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Rocket League is dropping lootboxes

August 12, 2019 Published by

Rocket
League is dropping lootboxes (VentureBeat)

  • Rocket League, a highly successful live-service video game (PC/console) debuted in 2015 is still very popular, ranking in the top 10 most played games on gaming distribution platform Steam.
  • Its developer, Psyonix, was recently acquired by Epic Games and is now dropping the lootbox-style crate system it used to generate revenues from its player base.
  • Psyonix has already shifted the main focus of its monetisation strategy over to premium progression passes (so-called Battle Passes), which have been very lucrative for Epic Games.

Analysis and Comments

  • Lootboxes and micro transactions have long been popular monetisation techniques in mobile games, but it is only more recently that the big-budget games from AAA studios have been introducing them as well.
  • The main reason we are highlighting this story is because it showcases the subsequent shift away from monetisation techniques based on randomized item rewards (in premium games), as they have received a lot of attention and criticism in the near past – and come with a looming regularity overhang.
  • Battle Passes, on the other hand, are a tried and proven method to generate revenue from a game’s player base (and importantly not hated by gamers, unlike the “surprise mechanics” of lootboxes).
  • There are many successful examples of companies using this technique (including Epic Games & Riot), with perhaps one of the best ones being Valve’s annual Battle Pass sale for the esports World Championship of its game Dota 2: the game’s prize pool is almost entirely crowdfunded via the Battle Passes, and while only 25% of the in-game sales actually go towards the prize pool, the total prize pool currently amounts to more than US$32m, with 18 days left until the crowdfunding ends.
  • Notably, the Battle Pass-funded prize pool has consistently broken its own record every year, with this year’s officially being the largest single-event prize pool in esports history.

Tencent’s Share price (majority shareholder of EPIC Games)

? Daily Crypto News, August, 12th?

August 12, 2019 (updated August 12, 2019) Published by

Welcome to the Daily Crypto News: A complete Press Review, Coin Calendar and Trading Analysis. Enjoy!

? Trump’s Currency War With China Could Be Bitcoin’s Do-or-Die Moment

The global economy faces its biggest crisis in 11 years.


In theory, this should be bitcoin’s moment to shine, a chance to prove itself as an uncorrelated asset immune from political risks. Eventually, that result may bear out. But a rocky road lies ahead – for bitcoiners and nocoiners alike.


Before we do the bitcoin up or down game, let’s dive into why the current situation in global finance is so disturbing.


The Backdrop


It all begun last Monday, when Beijing let the renminbi fall below RMB7.0 to the dollar.
Almost immediately, the U.S. Treasury Department said it would take the rare step of labeling China a “currency manipulator,” a move that, in theory, would give the Trump Administration legal cover to impose punitive sanctions against Chinese. Markets freaked out at the specter of a currency war, a tit-for-tat feedback loop of exchange rate depreciations fueling a destructive downward spiral in trade and growth.


Now, that fear may never play out.

? Justin Sun: Tron’s Listing on Major US Exchange Is #1 Priority

Tron (TRX) founder Justin Sun has said that getting the cryptocurrency listed on the American version of Binance or Coinbase is his company’s number one priority.


The entrepreneur was responding to tweets from Tron enthusiasts on Aug. 9, with some claiming that investors were concerned that United States citizens will be unable to trade TRX on Binance.


Alarm bells also sounded after TRX was absent from a list of 30 digital assets being explored for the upcoming launch of Binance’s U.S. marketplace.

? ? SteemMonsters Statistics & Big Datas ?

SteemMonsters reached 247k visits in July 2019!

Thanks to ALL of you, Steemmonsters (aka Splinterlands) is growing, it does not care about bear/bull markets and is ready for the next Bull Run !

Résultat de recherche d'images pour "steem monsters"

SteemMonsters reached 247k visits in July 2019!

There is an important difference between total visitors to a site and unique ones. In this case the 247k include the multiple times a person visited the website.

Therefore, as a good Steemian you probably connect everyday which will make you count for a total of 30 visits.

Therefore, how many “unique users” does SteemMonsters has?

This is a very important question that I will try to answer later on. According to the Beta Analysis from the website I use to compile these datas, it is c.30,6k in July (compared to an average of c.20k over the past 18 months) !

I] Traffic

Daily SteemMonsters Traffic

SteemMonsters Daily Traffic kept on improving since the launch to reach close to 10k daily visits in July 2019.

You can find the full analysis here

? China’s Digital Currency Is Ready, Central Bank Says

The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) has claimed that its digital currency “can now be said to be ready.”


According to PBoC deputy director Mu Changchun, a prototype that adopts blockchain architecture has been successfully developed after five years of research.


His announcement, made at the China Finance 40 Forum, was reported by local news site Shanghai Securities News on August 10.

? IBM Files Patent for a Blockchain-Based Web Browser

A new patent application from IBM describes a blockchain-based web browser.


Filed on August 6 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, IBM’s patent is for a web browser backed by a peer-to-peer network.


The browser collects pre-specified information from web browsing sessions, according to the patent. The information is then transferred to a network of peer-to-peer nodes for collection and storage. Information collection depends on the type of browsing experience chosen. Browsing on a work computer versus a personal browser would demand different settings, for example. 


Types of potentially storable session information include what websites one visits, bookmarks, task performance, geolocation, plugin installation, and security patches. 
As the company states, a blockchain-based browser “affords a system for storing browsing information such that privacy is preserved and places privacy in the ‘hands of a user’ rather than a third party.”

? Steemit Statistics & Big Datas: ? End of July 2019 Update ?

We reached 12.2 mn visits in July 2019!

There is an important difference between total visitors to a site and unique ones. In this case the 12.2mn include the multiple times a person visited the website.

Therefore, as a good Steemian you probably connect everyday which will make you count for a total of 30 visits.

Therefore, how many “unique users” does Steemit has?

I] Traffic

Daily Steemit Traffic

You can find the full analysis here

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? Daily Crypto Calendar, August, 12th?

“Particl Desktop 2.0 release with alpha Open Marketplace UI on mainnet coming!”

Blockchain Futurist Conference from August 12-14 in Toronto, Canada.

“WAX is activating EOSIO version 1.8.1 on Monday, Aug 12 @ 17:30 UTC.”

“#Zilliqa x @longhashhatch’s accelerator program extends application period to 12 AUG! ”

“We will perform XWallet system upgrade from 10:30 to 14:30 GMT+8 on Aug 12, 2019. This upgrade will take approximately 4 hours.”

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STEEM Trading Update by my friend @cryptopassion

Here is the chart of yersterday :

STEEMUSD.jpg

Here is the current chart :

STEEMUSD.jpg

So the Bounce is still in progress on STEEM like on most of the altcoin. Let’ see if we will be able to go test the resistance line at 0.21$ or if the Drop will come back before that touch. Be very carefull if we touch that resistance line but we don’t break it. It could be a pull back before the resume of the drop.

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Last Updates

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Join this new Free To Play on the STEEM Platform !

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