| May 6, 2019 | View in browser |
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Today's top reads
- The deal with LEO
- Milo gets banned
- Buffett has beef
- Craig is in a pickle
This week's poll: Do you actively stack sats?
Click to answer:
Yes, it's raining sats
Nope, I've already got my stash
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Market update
| COIN | PRICE | 7-DAY |
| BTC | $5,640.93 | + 9.19% |
| XRP | $0.294 | + 1.29% |
| ETH | $162.33 | + 6.43% |
| XLM | $0.0940 | - 1.22% |
| EOS | $4.69 | + 3.60% |
1. The deal with LEO
It's not a whitepaper, but it's something. On Saturday, known Bitfinex investor Dong Zhao released a marketing document that outlined plans for its newest exchange token venture: the LEO token.
Though we don't quite have the tech specs yet, we do know some things. Here's the fundamentals of the LEO token that everyone should know:
- They want $1 billion USDT. To purchase LEO, investors have to use USDT to buy each LEO token at a 1:1 rate.
- LEO gets you discounts. According to the initial plan, LEO will act as a discount-giving utility token for Bitfinex and EOSfinex exchange trading fees. This discount will also increase depending on how many LEO an investor holds.
- LEO wants to help recover funds. Following last week's report that Tether Ltd. lost $850 million to Crypto Capital's seized accounts, LEO is iFinex's (Bitfinex and Tether Ltd.'s parent company) plot to help pay users back. That will allegedly happen via LEO buybacks using at least 27% of Bifinex’s profit from the previous month.
In addition, if the $850 million in seized funds never gets retrieved, Zhao predicts it will take less than 4 years to pay back users based on Bitfinex's 2017 and 2018 profits.
The bottom line: While the marketing document gives us a good idea, there's still more details to come. Some investors, however, can't wait for that because there's already allegedly $600 million in private, verbal commitments.
[OP-ED]
2. Milo gets banned
3 minutes. That's how long it took for controversial political commentator Milo Yiannopoulos to get banned from Coinbase after opening a new cryptocurrency exchange account.
For Yiannopoulos, however, it's normal. Coinbase is just another company on the laundry list of Silicon Valley tech giants censoring his, and other similar figures' content and ability to conduct business.
So far, Milo has been censored by:
- Venmo
- Paypal
- Eventbrite
- Shopify
- Patreon
- Coinbase
- Periscope
- Mailchimp
- Tumblr
And that list will likely keep growing. It's all part of an attempt to reduce the "hate speech" and controversial opinions that these platforms feel is better said somewhere else.
So that brings us to the question: Should crypto companies engage in censorship when cryptocurrencies pride themselves on being censorship-resistant?
We're not just talking about Coinbase and Milo. We're also talking about exchanges that require customer identification because of know-your-customer (KYC) policies.
Yes, it's true that these policies are necessary to operate in certain countries. But since that's the case, it seems we are simply reinventing the wheel if we continue down this path.
Coinbase has your identity, they hold your cryptocurrencies, and have shown they are willing to ban users - all ingredients of the current banking system.
In the end, the censorship debate boils down to a simple trade off: Give up power to an authority in hopes of protection, or, prioritize power and learn to protect yourself.
3. Buffet has beef
Warren Buffett has beef with Bitcoin...and it makes sense. Though Buffett's empire spans across a number of industries, he made his $90 billion fortune in a specific way: value investing in productive assets.
For Buffett, that means picking up shares of Coca Cola and Dairy Queen while avoiding unproductive assets, or rather those that don't generate cash flow, like gold or Bitcoin.
And that's okay with him. Because the truth is, no matter what currency Buffet's customers are paying with, he'll still get his profit.
Bitcoin investors on the other hand only profit when another investor is willing to pay a higher price - a concept known as the Greater Fool Theory.
But let's be clear...trading isn't a use case. So until Bitcoin can make its mark and become a top contender as a global currency, don't expect Buffett to touch the "gambling device" anytime soon.
4. Craig is in a pickle
Craig Wright is in a pickle. Last week, the alleged creator of Bitcoin received a court order forcing him to reveal his Bitcoin public addresses. The court case, which started long after David Kleiman death in 2013, is between Kleiman’s family and Wright.
The reason? If Wright’s story about creating Bitcoin alongside Kleiman is true, he holds Kleiman’s fair share and the family should get their Bitcoin billions from his estate.
But now there’s a dilemma. If Wright reveals addresses that aren’t Satoshi’s, he’ll be able to claim he never stole Bitcoin from his previous partner. But then again, he’ll be labeled as a liar by the industry.
On the opposite side, he could list Satoshi’s addresses but claim he doesn’t have access to them as they are part of an alleged “Tulip Trust.”
Regardless, the bulk of Wright’s claims are finally hitting a wall with this court order and by May 15th, we’ll have the truth...or his version of the truth I guess.
5. You should also know
6. We're split even
From last week's poll, 53% of respondents answered that the Tether FUD is nothing relevant and is a bore at this point.
Meanwhile, 47% think it's very important and might be doomsday prepping for the day Tether finally sinks.
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