For the week ending 11-Sep-2018

This is a roundup of top stories from the EOS community, and from the greater blockchain industry in which EOS exists.

Curated weekly by Jeanene and brought to you by Thomas. 

Nikhilesh De at CoinDesk posted an article regarding EOS New York's announcement on a new protocol update which reduces cost of a new account from 4 KiB to 3 KiB. (Link 1)

Jeffrey Gogo at bitcoin.com explored how cryptocurrencies are being used across Africa. (Link 2)

Alexander Borodich, Founder and CEO at Universa.io, wrote an opinion piece on the future of blockchain, (Link 3) while Sam Town at Cryptoslate speculated on the future of cryptocurrencies. (Link 4)

Iran

The Secretary of Iran’s Supreme Council of Cyberspace, Abolhassan Firouzabadi, stated that mining of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin had “been accepted as an industry in the government and all related organizations..” (Link 5)

Philippines

Philippine SEC Commissioner Ephyro Amatong has stated that it is exploring regulating virtual currency exchanges and expects to release draft regulations by the end of next week. (Link 6)

Russia

Russia’s prime minister Dmitry Medvedev urged the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union to develop a common approach to cryptocurrencies, saying, “We should not be locked into the framework of the national model…It is impossible to implement these principles within one country; we need to bring our approaches closer to the level of the Union…Otherwise, all this will be under a completely different angle to develop and will not look completely understandable and legitimate.“ (Link 7)

South Korea

At the 20th Integrated Financial Supervisors Conference, the governor of the South Korean Financial Supervisory Service, Yoon Suk-heun, urged representatives from all countries attending the event to jointly respond to cryptocurrency risks, saying, “The authorities are in a difficult situation to minimize the side effects while encouraging financial innovation…The aim is to calm overheated speculation and prevent illegal activities against new risks associated with virtual currency or initial coin offerings (ICOs)…We need to create an international discipline system, which can only generate regulatory gains between countries. “. (Link 8)

Thailand

The Thai SEC has now approved six crypto exchanges. The Thai government’s Anti-Money Laundering Office is considering maintaining its own cryptocurrency wallet, “to hold or confiscate digital currency from illegal sources.” (Link 9)

Ukraine

While the legal status is unclear, Ukrainian taxpayers are being urged to report crypto assets either as “property” or as a “financial asset” and pay the regular 19.5% income tax rate. (Link 10)

USA

At the state level, the California legislation to define blockchain for legal reasons may become an problem itself. The appending Clause (c) to Section 1633.2 of the California Civil Code reads, “The data on the ledger is protected with cryptography, immutable, auditable, and provides an uncensored truth,” none of which completely applies. (Link 11)

EOSIO Usage

JP Buntinx ranked the top three EOS wallets; Greymass, SimplEOS and Scatter. (Link 12)

Banking / Finance

The Chairman of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Yi Huiman, reportedly said that the financial institution will focus on innovations in cloud computing, big data, AI, blockchain, and IoT. (Link 13)

Conferences

The CFTC’s LabCFTC and the Office of Customer Education and Outreach will be hosting the FinTech Forward 2018: Innovation, Regulation and Education conference. According to Erica Elliott Richardson, director of the Office of Public Affairs and Office of Customer Education and Outreach, “This conference is in line with many CFTC efforts to keep market participants informed of new financial products and services. The CFTC’s dynamic approach to coordination helps staff engage across offices in order to maximize our efficacy for the marketplace, rather than being siloed. Our customer education efforts are closely coordinated with LabCFTC in order to keep pace with developments in the markets the CFTC regulates, and we look forward to the dialogue that happens at this conference, which will help us continue to develop cutting-edge resources to help customers protect themselves against fraud and manipulation in the marketplace.” (Link 14)

Education

Coursera and ConsenSys have joined together to offer, “Blockchain: Foundations and Use Cases,” a new online learning program that explains the foundational ideas of blockchain in a non-technical way. (Link 15) The Linux Foundation has opened enrollment for “Hyperledger Fabric Fundamentals,” its new advanced training course for Hyperledger Fabric blockchain technology. (Link 16) The Russian Association of Cryptoindustry and Blockchain unveiled the details of its upcoming voluntary crypto certification program. (Link 17)

New Cryptocurrency Usage

Six new options for BCH point-of-sales transactions are now available. (Link 18) Virtual Crypto Technologies Ltd has announced a proprietary crypto payment solution specifically developed for cannabis dispensaries. (Link 19) According to a press release, Post Oak Motor Cars is reportedly the first Rolls-Royce, Bentley and Bugatti dealership in the U.S. to accept BTC and BCH as payment. (Link 20)

The New York Department of Financial Services have recently approved the US dollar-backed stable coins Gemini dollar (Link 21) and the Paxos standard. (Link 22)

New Governmental Usage

The justice department of Zhongshan, China, has launched a blockchain-based system that can provide up-to-date data on each convict's movements around the clock to community correction staff and relevant law enforcement agencies, and thus can take necessary measures if one is breaking from the required routine. (Link 23)

Shipping and Supply Chain

As counterfeit merchandise abounds, using blockchain for verification of luxury items is the most appropriate countermeasure, as it has the ability to address many of the drawbacks the luxury goods market currently faces. (Link 24)

Issues

According to researchers at Trend Micro, malware aimed at exploiting a service vulnerability in bitcoin ATMs is being sold in underground markets. Senior Threat Researcher Fernando Mercês, explained, “Unlike regular ATMs, there is no single set of verification or security standards for Bitcoin ATMs. For example, instead of requiring an ATM, credit, or debit card for transactions, a Bitcoin ATM involves the use of mobile numbers and ID cards for user identity verification.” (Link 25)

Financial / Exchanges / Wallets

Investigators at Danske Bank are reportedly combing through a whopping $150 billion worth of transactions suspected of money laundering that passed through its Estonian branch between 2007 and 2015. (Link 26)

Legal filings

Belgium’s Financial Services and Markets Authority has published a list of 78 crypto platforms showing signs of fraud, writing, “Despite its earlier warnings the FSMA continues to receive new complaints of consumers who have invested in cryptocurrencies through these trading platforms. Hence, the FSMA repeats its warning against the fraudsters behind those platforms who are using cryptocurrencies to swindle consumers.“ (Link 27)

The US SEC announced the suspension of trading in the securities of Bitcoin Tracker One and Ether Tracker One, “because of confusion amongst market participants regarding these instruments.“ (Link 28)

Patents

Walmart recently applied for another patent related to the implementation of the technology that underpins cryptocurrencies. Walmart is looking into crypto in other ways, including selling chocolate “bitcoin: candies. (Link 29)

Intel and SAP are joining together to to address “gaps in the market” for solutions that power enterprise blockchain systems, according to an official Intel post. (Link 30)

IBM has launched Blockchain World Wire, which "can simultaneously clear and settle cross-border payments in near real-time." (Link 31) This is just one of IBMs blockchain projects – IBM has 1,500 employees working on more than 500 blockchain projects in industries like shipping, banking, healthcare and food safety. It also has forged partnerships with the likes of Columbia University to develop still more uses for the tech. (Link 32)