| Friday, July 19, 2019 |
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Nodes on the Networks
Bitcoin: 8623 | Ethereum 8,610 | Litecoin 210 | Bitcoin Cash 1,554 | Dash: 4,720 | Monero: 1,513 | Zcash: 389
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Friendly Zcash fork Ycash (YEC) went live today at 3:00 UTC; Ycash is led by longtime Zcash proponent Howard Loo as a preemptive fix to the founder's rewards fee change; Ycash will cap the founder's reward at a perpetual five percent funneled to the Ycash Foundation - CoinDesk
New reports from Bloomberg convey that the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is investigating crypto exchange BitMEX, according to people familiar with the matter; the months-long CFTC probe is focused on whether BitMEX broke rules by allowing Americans to trade on the platform; BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes said in an interview in January that BitMEX removes anyone who violates the company's rules barring U.S. residents; but it is possible clients masked their location by using virtual private networks (VPNs) to assign their computer an Internet protocol address from a BitMEX permitted country, tricking filters put in place, Hayes said - Bloomberg
China is leading the world in Google searches of Facebook's Libra; China has a search value of 100 for 'Libra' with the United States falling far behind at 25th at a value of 10; Chinese search engine Weibo also has high search counts for Libra with the phrase "Libra will compete with Alipay and WeChat" being the second most popular search - CoinTelegraph
Coinbase's Bundle product has been discontinued per an FAQ on the exchange's website; the product was launched in Sept. 2018 with five cryptos including Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, and Litecoin- The Block
Binance 'discovered' it has been staking customers Stellar Lumens for the past year following wallet recommendations from the Stellar Lumens team; Binance will airdrop 9.5M XLM worth $775K to XLM holders on Sept. 1st. - Link
A letter from a grouping of consumer advocates asks the current 28 Libra partners to leave the Libra Association en masse; the letter, signed by the Open Markets Institute, Public Citizen, Revolving Door Project, and Demand Progress Education Fund, argues Libra's and Facebook's "leadership structure is based on fear" and that the future of digital currency needs to build on "fair rules and democratic deliberation, and not intimidation by the powerful” - CoinDesk
📚 David Marcus' recent hearing before the Senate Banking Committee and House Financial Services Committee raised several holes in Libra, according to TechCrunch. While Marcus tried to sit in the ambiguity of Libra vs. Calibra, lawmakers took issue with Facebook's history. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-D) argued Facebook leveraged the Libra Associations governance model, setting up a dangerous precedent. Unintended but real consequences of Libra include sovereign currency destabilization, said Rep. Maxine Waters (CA-D). Defining the digital currency as an exchange-traded fund and the implications of KYC or platforming were also raised too little response - TechCrunch
The Group of Seven (G7) says Libra needs to be tightly regulated in light of possible macroeconomic consequences, per Reuters; French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire strongly opposed a corporation holding the ability to issue money like sovereign states - Reuters
LibertyX is rolling out 90 new Bitcoin ATMs across Nevada and Arizona; the ATMs will be placed in select gas stations and dollar convenience stores. “Our goal is to make bitcoin available on every block in America," LibertyX CEO Chris Yim said in a statement - CoinDesk
Reports from Reuters convey that Hedge funds and asset managers are pouring funds into algorithmic sentiment analysis, according to Reuters; top crypto social media platforms like Twitter, Telegram, Reddit, and WeChat are being scanned by natural language processors as arbitrage opportunities shrink with market maturation; one executive from Bluesky Capital estimated automated Twitter readers cost between $500,000 and $1 million to deploy - Reuters
📚 Bitcoin Core is often construed as an elite inner circle holding the Bitcoin network hostage. BitMEX Research disagrees, looking at three different ways competition exists within Bitcoin: between chains, between independent implementations, and other competing software projects; BitMEX finds that regardless of an offshoots goals, it requires network consensus. In the same manner, Bitcoin Core requires network consensus and its actual power is vastly overestimated; the ability to alter or maintain code does not mean it will be adopted by the greater network - BitMEX Research
France's Financial Markets Authority (AMF) is set to greenlight three to four initial coin offerings (ICOs) after passing crypto regulation last year; Taxes, consumer protection, and capital requirements are bundled into the regulation, Reuters writes; France's lead on ICOs and crypto regulation, in general, comes amid Libra hearings in the United States and France's progressive stance on crypto within the Group of Seven (G7) - Reuters
Coinbase has released a slew of free data tools for first-time crypto investors, according to a company blog; the suite of signalling tools alerts new traders of top traders holding positions; Coinbase hopes to aid retail investors crypto portfolios through the tools - CoinDesk
McDonald's, Nestlé, and Virgin Media have entered the Joint Industry Committee for Web Standards (Jicwebs) blockchain trial for trust and transparency in digital advertising per The Drum; the trial will conclude by the end of the year - The Drum
The Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC) whom Facebook's David Marcus cited as the overseer of privacy for crypto project Libra has not heard from the social media giant, according to CNBC; speaking to CNBC, FDPIC's Hugo Wyler said:
"We have taken note of the statements made by David Marcus, Chief of Calibra, on our potential role as data protection supervisory authority in the Libra context. Until today we have not been contacted by the promoters of Libra,” Wyler said. “We expect Facebook or its promoters to provide us with concrete information when the time comes. Only then will we be able to examine the extent to which our legal advisory and supervisory competence is given. In any case, we are following the development of the project in the public debate" - CNBC
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