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The regulator's view of Facebook's Libra currency. A lot of discussion at the United Nations, where I’ve been all week (blogging about that next week), has raised the question of Libra, the Facebook digital currency.

The regulator's view of Facebook's Libra currency

I’m avoiding calling it a cryptocurrency, as it’s more a stablecoin that is focused upon transactions, which is why it has Visa, MasterCard, PayPal and Stripe as part of its partnership network. If you want to know more about Libra, Simon Taylor talked about it on the blog the other day. The reason it’s being discussed at the UN is because it challenges nation states. If people can freely move money around the network without border authorities being able to oversee what’s happening, that’s an issue. One area that seems to have been of interest is that, in questioning Facebook on their plans, they had all the answers. In particular, a point that came up regularly is that Facebook is not trusted, but Libra is not Facebook. With Near-Infinite Resources, Facebook Launches a Cryptocurrency. Facebook’s Libra Facebook has officially announced details of its cryptocurrency, which it’s calling Libra.

With Near-Infinite Resources, Facebook Launches a Cryptocurrency

The idea, like with pretty much every other cryptocurrency ever, is that it can be used to buy and sell products or services without having to rely on a credit card or bank account. It’s a huge step for blockchain visibility — not for any technological reason, but because Facebook is by far the biggest online network of people in the world, which means it can strongarm them into jumping on board. At least, that is, if it has any user trust left after a spate of privacy violations, leaks, and election meddling scandals. Zuck Bucks To buy or sell Libra, you’ll have to go to a local exchange point, like a participating nearby store, third party resellers or via Calibra, the partnering app that will take care of Libra transactions.

Even big investment banks are excited about the prospect of an international digital currency. Crypto-What? The Rise Of An “Assassination Marketplace” Shows The Dark Side of Decentralized Networks. Right now, there’s an online bidding war over whether or not Donald Trump will die before the year is out.

The Rise Of An “Assassination Marketplace” Shows The Dark Side of Decentralized Networks

All a would-be assassin has to do is stake a whole bunch of money on “yes” and they’d make a fortune. These not-quite death threats reportedly lodged against the president and other public figures, including Jeff Bezos, John McCain, and Betty White, can be found on Augur, a decentralized app recently launched by the nonprofit Forecast Foundation. Augur is a protocol through which people can create prediction markets, which are crowdsourced platforms where people stake cryptocurrency (in this case Ethereum and the Augur-specific token Reputation) on a prediction’s most likely outcome. Winners get a payoff while losers part ways with their crypto. On Flipboard. 9 out of 10 blockchain trials go nowhere. I just read an interesting new report from Deloitte about blockchain.

9 out of 10 blockchain trials go nowhere

They tracked the history of 86,034 blockchain projects hosted on GitHub since 2009 to pull out “key lessons” on where the blockchain industry is going and its long-term prospects. Here are some of the highlights: More than 26,000 blockchain projects were started in 2016, of which 9,000 were started by corporations, research institutions and start-ups;In 2010, organisations developed less than 1 percent of all projects but, by 2017, their blockchain projects accounted for 11 percent;Organisation-owned projects also tend to be updated more frequently than those developed by users, and are reportedly five times more likely to be copied, implying that the blockchain community has deemed them most relevant;Financial services firms are leading the way in blockchain, with the most commercial use cases in the marketplace;Financial services firms are either a committer and a watcher.

Economist. Mainstreamed or dead? 2018 is the critical year when Bitcoin and associated technologies, will either mainstream or die.

Mainstreamed or dead?

Last year (2017) was significant because of the mega-bubble in the financial value of Fintech and, more broadly, the continuing efforts to apply blockchain or DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology). I do not mean that such technologies will necessarily rise or die together (though the fortunes of e.g. Bitcoin will undoubtedly have an impact on the fortunes e.g. of Ethereum). It is totally possible for Bitcoin and other currencies to take a nosedive, while blockhain/ DLT marches on unhindered. There have been many efforts to mainstream fintech in 2017. Intriguingly, ASX invested A$14.9 million in DAH in January 2016 (presumably in order to at least partly finance the development and testing of the technology) and further subscribed US$3.5 million in convertible notes only a month ago (presumably on the technology passing the tests required to make it eligible for public deployment).

The Real Price of Bitcoin? According to Morgan Stanley, It's Zero. In Brief A Morgan Stanley analyst said bitcoin may be worth $0, given that very few online retailers accept it.

The Real Price of Bitcoin? According to Morgan Stanley, It's Zero

Bitcoin also can't be considered a true currency, the analyst said, because it doesn't have an interest rate. A Cryptocurrency Without a Blockchain Has Been Built to Outperform Bitcoin. Bitcoin isn’t the only cryptocurrency on a hot streak—plenty of alternative currencies have enjoyed rallies alongside the Epic Bitcoin Bull Run of 2017.

A Cryptocurrency Without a Blockchain Has Been Built to Outperform Bitcoin

One of the most intriguing examples is also among the most obscure in the cryptocurrency world. Called IOTA, it has jumped in total value from just over $4 billion to more than $10 billion in a little over two weeks. But that isn’t what makes it interesting. What makes it interesting is that it isn’t based on a blockchain at all; it’s something else entirely. This piece first appeared in our new twice-weekly newsletter, Chain Letter, which covers the world of blockchain and cryptocurrencies. The rally began in late November, after the IOTA Foundation, the German nonprofit behind the novel cryptocurrency, announced that it was teaming up with several major technology firms to develop a “decentralized data marketplace.”

A what, now? The future of cryptocurrencies. 2017 has been a wild and fantastic year for cryptocurrencies, especially bitcoin.

The future of cryptocurrencies

Everyone was wondering whether they should buy bitcoin. That was back when it was $500 a coin. Now it’s over $11,000 a coin. Funny year 2017. 2017 was when everyone thought they had to get into cryptocurrencies, and you realise that they don’t get it when they decide not to buy bitcoins as they’re $11,000 each; let’s buy Litecoins instead, as they’re just $100 (at start of year $2). What this mad speculation has done is stoked the formal markets into action. That overlooks one fundamental: bitcoin is popular in markets where their fiat currencies are unstable, such as Venezuela and Zimbabwe.

In other words, bitcoin is becoming a mainstream asset class for some markets, including the USA where the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Nasdaq are crating crypto derivatives based on bitcoin. Bitcoin could cost us our clean-energy future. If you’re like me, you’ve probably been ignoring the bitcoin phenomenon for years — because it seemed too complex, far-fetched, or maybe even too libertarian.

Bitcoin could cost us our clean-energy future

But if you have any interest in a future where the world moves beyond fossil fuels, you and I should both start paying attention now. Last week, the value of a single bitcoin broke the $10,000 barrier for the first time. Over the weekend, the price nearly hit $12,000. At the beginning of this year, it was less than $1,000. If you had bought $100 in bitcoin back in 2011, your investment would be worth nearly $4 million today. That sort of precipitous rise is stunning, of course, but bitcoin wasn’t intended to be an investment instrument. The Land Registry in the block chain — testbed. Blockchain Technology. Blockchain for dummies. Bitcoin Rose More Than 1,300 Percent This Year. Is This a Bitcoin Bubble? In Brief Bitcoin is rounding off 2017 in fine form, breaking new ground in terms of its value.

Bitcoin Rose More Than 1,300 Percent This Year. Is This a Bitcoin Bubble?

The cryptocurrency is now worth almost fifteen times what it was this time last year. Why distributed ledgers aren’t working (yet) I spent a day facilitating a series of roundtable discussions focused upon distributed ledger technologies (DLT). I realised that there’s a lot of confusion around the subject. Hell, even I’m confused most of the time even after dedicating hours to the subject. Blockchain Just Became Obsolete. The Future is Hashgraph. Swirlds is a software platform that has developed the hashgraph consensus algorithm: an entirely new distributed ledger technology that is much more cost-effective (no proof-of-work), 50,000 times the speed, safer (Byzantine), more efficient (no stale blocks) and mathematically fairer than the blockchain. This is the future of the internet and decentralized technology.

What is Blockchain Technology? Considered the greatest technological innovation since the internet: Blockchain technology emerged in response to the collapse of several banking institutions in 2008 with the release of a whitepaper by Satoshi Nakamoto titled: “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System.” “…blockchain technology facilitates peer-to-peer transactions without any intermediary such as a bank or governing body …” – Don Tapscott. Can Basic Income Plus The Blockchain Build A New Econom. This story reflects the views of this author, but not necessarily the editorial position of Fast Company. You may not have noticed, but a huge global movement is well on its way to creating the next generation of the internet. The truth about bitcoin. It’s been an interesting few weeks, watching bitcoin’s rollercoaster ride as it rises to valuations over $4,000 and then dives to almost $2,000 before rising again to near $6,000. This is for an asset that just a year ago you could have purchased for a few hundred dollars.

The rise of cryptocurrency valuations is confusing and fuelled by everything from China and Russia trying to ban the asset, to forks that offer you free cash and coins. It is for these reasons that Jamie Dimon (CEO, JP Morgan) calls bitcoin a fraud … … and Gottfried Leibbrandt (CEO, SWIFT) gets a big laugh from bankers by talking about bitcoin whilst showing tulips on a slide. Bankers may laugh at bitcoin but they’re obviously conflicted. Cryptocurrencies are Dead – The World of Deep Wealth – Medium. (They just don’t know it yet.) I believe the crux of the issue confronting current implementations of cryptocurrencies is that you can’t govern something that doesn’t exist.

The truth of that last statement is probably obvious, so let me clarify the connection to cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrencies are having crises of governance — Bitcoin about blocksize and other scaling strategies, Ethereum because the hard fork they made to try to save DAOhub in the midst of its crisis of having no way to authorize an update to a buggy smart contract. Plenty of other coins and systems have had their own issues along the way as well. These problems are not incidental to the design of these systems, they are inherent.

Even British Airways gets blockchain now - Chris Skinner's blog. When I fly with British Airways, which I try to avoid these days thanks to the fatuous actions of their lame duck CEO, then I’ll always check out the latest edition of Business Life. It’s their upmarket magazine for business fliers, and usually hits the right note. So imagine my surprise to see last month’s issue has a digital Vitalik Buterin, the creator of Ethereum, staring out at me. British Airways Business Life magazine cover – Jul/Aug 2017 Yep, the magazine was dedicated to featuring blockchain as it’s subject and, for those who don’t fly BA (congratulations), here’s the details: Equifax Hackers Demand Ransom in Bitcoin - Foundation for Economic Education - Working for a free and prosperous world. Economist.

InsurTech's big ticket items: machine learning on the blockchain - Chris Skinner's blog. Here's Why Cryptocurrencies Have Dropped in the Past Two Days. While peaking it $5,000 over the weekend, Bitcoin joined almost every other digital coin that experienced double-digit drops in value over the past 48 hours or so, before finally recovering again today (Tuesday). The History of Bitcoin - Chris Skinner's blog. Still Don't Get Bitcoin? Here's an Explanation For Five-Year-Olds. The blockchain could have better security than the banks. There are ways to improve the online ledger blockchain by taking some security notes from banks. If people could use both two-step verification and spending limits on the blockchain, this would reduce any economic loss from cyber attacks and in turn encourage more users.

Bitcoin Cash: Price of new currency rises after bitcoin's 'hard fork' Steep fees call into question bitcoin’s promise for the underbanked. Abra set out in 2014 to make mobile money movement cheap and fast worldwide, using the bitcoin network as rails. But lately the fees for transferring value on that network have risen, creating a predicament for the startup: charge more for sending funds with its mobile app, or eat the fees.

For a time, Abra absorbed the additional cost. Given that the average transaction size for Abra is $200, and that bitcoin’s scaling problem is relatively new, “we can afford to wait for that technology to scale,” Bill Barhydt, the company’s founder and CEO, said in early July. Bitcoin ATMs invade Philly, taking cryptocurrency to the masses. Coin activates the first 100% Cooperative Blockchain. We are at a historical landmark: after two years of development and testing, Faircoin’s blockchain is ready to change its consensus algorithm from Proof of Stake (PoS) to Proof of Cooperation (PoC). Ethereum Could Be Using More Than a Country's Worth of Electricity. The Entire History of Bitcoin in a Single Infographic. Suddenly, Spotify Goes Blockchain, Aims to Improve Tracking of Royalty Payments.

Spotify, the largest European streaming music platform, has announced its decision to acquire Blockchain-related startup Mediachain. Blockchain Technology Has The Power to Let Us Build An Entirely New Internet. Blockchain Is Helping Us Feed the World's Hungriest Families. All the Evidence You Need That Bitcoin Is Turning Into a Real Currency. Humanity Has A Massive Trust Problem, But We Can Fix It. Two mainstream blockchain developments already - Chris Skinner's blog. Blockchain is dead, long live the Blockchain - Chris Skinner's blog. Blockchain May Hold the Key to a Governance Crisis. Which digital currency will win: bitcoin or ether? - Chris Skinner's blog. The future of blockchain in 8 charts. Explicit cookie consent. 15 Percent of Big Banks Will Be Using Blockchain by 2017, Says IBM. The Future of Work.

Central bank digital currency: the end of monetary policy as we know it? Big banks plan to coin new digital currency. Blockchain could be 'revolutionary' to this $2 trillion problem: HSBC. Hacked Bitcoin Exchange 'Bitfinex' Distributes Losses to All Users Equally. Why Canada Is Blockchain's Biggest Hot Spot. Is Blockchain-Powered Copyright Protection Possible? Bitcoin Heist: $72 Million Worth of Bitcoin Stolen from Hong Kong Exchange.

There Was Just A $79 Million Cryptocurrency Heist. Fast FT. A new approach to consensus: Swirlds Hashgraph. Reserve Bank Of India Mobilizes Blockchain & Fintech Initiatives. How Blockchain Helps Brooklyn Dwellers Use Neighbors' Solar Energy : All Tech Considered. Money or property? The answer has big implications for bitcoin. Blockchains: Ukraine's Solution to Ending Corruption? Royal Canadian Mint sells Mintchip digital payments platform to Toronto's nanoPay. Why the search for Bitcoin's founder matters. An Introduction to Bitcoin and Blockchain for Financial Services. China (Unofficially) Authorizes Bitcoin, Price Turns Bullish [UPDATE] The future of cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin and beyond. The Rainbow After The Bitcoin Storm. Researchers Use Game Theory to Identify Potential Problems for Bitcoin. New Bitcoin Rival Currency Will Offer More Anonymity, Say Its Creators. A Bitcoin Believer’s Crisis of Faith.

Canada experiments with digital dollar on blockchain. Ethereum is the Forefront of Digital Currency — Stories From Coinbase. Blockchain-Based Venture Capital Fund Raises $100 Million And Counting. The blockchain is a threat to the distributed future of the Internet. Vinay Gupta at Michel Bauwens & the Promise of the Blockchain. What can blockchain be used for, other than Bitcoin? Bitcoin Crushes Bank Fees in Emerging Economies. Beyond Bitcoin, the Blockchain Looms Large. Applications for the Bitcoin Blockchain. Blockchain believers seek to shake up financial services - FT.com.

Economist on block chain. The Blockchain is a New Model of Governance. Blockchain And The Future Of Finance. What can blockchain be used for, other than Bitcoin?