Russian Financial Watchdog Calls for Global Crypto Exchange Regulations

Russia’s Financial Monitor Service (FMS) is seeking the intervention of a global financial watchdog to regulate cryptocurrencies, local media sources have reported.

Russia Wants Global Crypto Regulations

The Russian financial regulatory agency contacted the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to request an intergovernmental initiative that could control the supply and flow of cryptocurrencies. Pavel Livadny, the Deputy Director of FMS, confirmed that they are endeavoring to secure the participation of all the FATF member countries to design a unified legal parameter for the thriving industry, citing money laundering as the primary concern.

Decentralized assets like bitcoin can be purchased, sold or exchanged semi-anonymously without a central authority’s approval. A  global crackdown against malicious underground revealed its use in some widespread crimes, including drugs trafficking, money laundering and — in limited cases — terrorism financing. The cases alerted agencies across the world, leading them to develop tentative legal provisions to regulate the crypto industry.

FATF, a global financial regulatory body, in June announced that it would build global-binding policies for cryptocurrency exchanges. Russia is among those 36 FATF members that are building regulatory frameworks for their local crypto industries, with some in the crypto community criticizing their efforts as nothing but knee-jerk reactions to the sudden bitcoin boom.

A boundary-free technology such as bitcoin cannot be tamed unless the governments willing to oversee the regulations do not come together, the FMS believes. Adding to what FATF regulation is already building, the Russian agency offered its opinion on how cryptos can be legalized, regulated and defined in the future. Translated excerpts from Livadny’s statement to the local media read:

“All FATF members must change the legislation to include new crypto ecosystems. They should introduce registration and license parameters for the companies developing in the space, which include exchanges, initial coin offering projects, and cryptographic administrators. FATF should also monitor the companies’ activities and standards for anti-money laundering.”

“If FATF regulations allow, a cryptocurrency can be digitally handled and transferred in the case of payments and investments.” the deputy added. “But, at the same time, it should not be made into securities, mainstream and virtual money, coins or other financial assets.”

$9,000 Cap on Crypto Flow

Livadny also revealed that FMS would likely impose a restriction of over $9,000 on crypto transactions. That would include every transaction made outside and inside the Russian Federation. The provision, however, stands unconfirmed unless it makes into the final regulatory draft on cryptocurrency assets.

If it comes into effect anyway, authorities would likely find it difficult to enforce, considering the pseudonymous nature of crypto-transactions, though it would be possible with the help of blockchain tracing firms, many of whom have inked government contracts elsewhere. The emergence of privacy-conscious coins like monero has already made it more difficult for agencies to identify participants in a crypto transaction.

Meanwhile, FMS is also building a crypto transaction monitoring tool to address these challenges.

BCH and EOS Extend Losses to 5% as Bitcoin Price Drops to $6,250

Over the past 24 hours, Bitcoin has lost 2 percent of its price against the US dollar, dipping below the $6,300 mark to $6,250.

While cryptocurrency-only exchanges are demonstrating a price of $6,350 for Bitcoin due to the premium on BTC-to-USDT (Tether) pair, the actual price of Bitcoin remains at around $6,256.

The volume of BTC has increased from $3.1 billion to $4.2 billion over the past seven days, by more than 35 percent. But, most of the volume recorded by major cryptocurrency exchanges represent sell orders.

Major Digital Assets and Tokens Take a Hit

As the price of Bitcoin fell below the $6,300 mark for the first time since October 15, the value of major digital assets including Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and EOS fell by more than 5 percent along with small market cap tokens.

Several cryptocurrency traders and technical analysts stated that the abrupt dip in the price of BTC was still a minor movement above major support levels and as such, it is still too early to confirm a bearish short-term trend.

“BTC dipped into a demand area. Absolutely nothing to worry about right now. Still focused on alts and using this opportunity to buy the dip,” AwaitingMonk said.

Andy Chung, the head of operations at OKEx, the third largest cryptocurrency exchange in the global market, emphasized that historically, Bitcoin has tended to dip in value and show a noticeable drop in volume prior to a large short-term rally.

In the weeks to come, before the end of 2018, Chung stated that the stability of BTC for nearly a year could lead to a positive movement on the upside.

“It’s always quiet before a good storm. The market has been calm for almost a year, we can expect something good to happen soon to Bitcoin.”

In September, the volume of Ripple was around $1.8 billion. Since then, the daily trading volume of Ripple has fallen to around $300 million, while the volume of BCH fell below the $300 million mark.

In comparison to the volume of Ethereum (ETH) at around $1.5 billion, trading activity of XRP and BCH investors remain significantly low relative to other major digital assets.

In the short-term, due to the lack of volume, BCH and XRP are more vulnerable to sell-pressure and a dip below important support levels than Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Can Bitcoin Speedily Recover?

Previously, analysts stated that if Bitcoin dips before the end of October, a speedy recovery will be possible as long as BTC does not fall below the $6,000 support level. If BTC can sustain its volume above the $6,200 region, then a short-term corrective rally will be possible.

But, if BTC falls to the low $6,000 region affected by the poor performance of major cryptocurrencies and other tokens, then a further drop to the $6,000 to $6,100 can be expected.

Singapore’s National Energy Provider Launches Blockchain Marketplace for Green Energy

Singapore’s national electricity and gas provider has launched blockchain-powered trading of renewable energy certificates in a new marketplace.

The blockchain is designed and built in-house by the company’s own team of digital energy experts to “ensure the security, integrity and traceability” of every renewable energy certificate (REC) transaction, Singapore Power (SP) said in a press release.

The SP Group, a unified corporate entity of former electricity and gas departments of Singapore’s Public Utilities Board, claims the blockchain marketplace will enable local and international companies meet their energy sustainability targets.

When companies purchase RECs, they are directly sold electricity from renewable sources from companies producing green energy. The marketplace, SP adds, will ‘automatically’ match buyers with sellers around the globe based on requirements and preferences.

Launched on Monday at the ASEAN Energy Business Forum, the blockchain enabled local companies City Developments Limited (CDL), a powerhouse in Singapore’s property sector and lending giant DBS Bank as the first buyers of the certificates.

“Given that buildings consume 40% of energy globally, increasing the use of solar energy and neutralising our operations’ carbon footprint has been a priority in the way we build and manage our projects,” CDL sustainability chief Esther An said.

She added:

“We are glad to support the innovative and timely initiative by SP Group to embrace blockchain technology as a platform to accelerate Singapore’s transition to a low-carbon economy.”

Notable sellers include solar energy producers Cleantech Solar Asia, with over 120 solar sites across Asia, and LYS Energy Solutions with their wares for sale on the marketplace.

Katoen Natie Singapore, a chemical logistics company set to launch a 6.8 MWh solar power facility – the largest single rooftop solar facility at a warehouse domestically – is also positioning itself as a seller of renewable energy on the blockchain platform.

The launch of the blockchain-powered trading marketplace follows SP’s marked foray to ‘transform’ the energy sector with commercial blockchain solutions. In May 2017, the energy supplier announced a collaboration with other global energy giants with the launch of a consortium to develop decentralized solutions.

Australian Crypto Startup Invites Steve Wozniak to ‘Digital Currency [Holiday] Town’

An Australian travel tech startup has invited Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak to Agnes Water and Town of 1770, the country’s first digital currency towns.

Brisbane-based TravelbyBit extended the invitation after the American inventor expressed his interests to travel the world using nothing but bitcoin, as reported by local publication Micky. The company, which enables businesses to accept bitcoin and helps travelers explore the world on cryptos, recommended Wozniak to use their portal to book flights to the beach towns in Australia’s Central Queensland region.

In a broader context, the tweet helped people understand the cultivating ecosystem of cryptocurrencies. Wozniak’s willingness to travel on cryptos reflect the demand of a majority of the crypto holders, i.e., to use bitcoin to make purchases in real-time. At the same time, TravelbyBit’s inclination to meet the demand by enabling merchants to accept cryptos completes the circle of one of the Bitcoin’s primary use cases.

On top of all, the tweet allows people to see the willingness of merchants and consumers to switch to alternative payment mechanisms that are cheaper and more hassle-free than their traditional counterparts. Agnes Water and Town of 1770 is a prime example displaying how users are open to the ideas of decentralized payment networks like Bitcoin. The towns have more than 30 businesses that accept bitcoin as one of the payment methods.

Traveling with Cryptos

If one looks at a case study of an average tourist traveling from, say, New York to Queensland, he will be required to either get an expensive traveling card, that would rip off 3-5 percent commission off every transaction, or exchange his/her US Dollars to Australian Dollars via over-the-counter exchanges. The latter would also charge high commissions for a task as mere as converting the fiat.

Bitcoin certainly solves this issue by becoming a global token that reduces intermediaries from the conversion process. One can carry it anywhere in a digital format, pay merchants by paying a nominal transaction fee charged by the network and exchange it for other fiat currencies at comparatively cheaper rates than OTC cash exchanges.

TravelbyBit CEO Caleb Yeoh said that traveling with Bitcoin is no less than moving with one global currency.

“If you travel the world you have to deal with multiple currencies, the exchange rate can be confusing, sometimes you struggle to find ATMs, and sometimes you get swindled by money changers,” he explained.

What’s more, Brisbane International Airport also began accepting cryptocurrencies across terminals in a world-first at merchant locations via point-of-sale systems developed by TravelbyBit.

Wozniak, should he accept the invitation, could accelerate a gradually-moving crypto revolution in his own way.

Cryptocurrency Derivatives in the UK at Risk of Ban, Taskforce to Have Final Say

Cryptocurrency derivatives including futures, options and contracts for differences could potentially be prohibited in the United Kingdom in the near future.

According to a statement issued by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), UK’s financial watchdog, consultations will be held between now and the first quarter of next year where a ban on crypto derivatives will be explored.

“A separate consultation by Q1 2019 on a potential prohibition of the sale to retail consumers of derivatives (including contracts for differences, options, and futures) referencing certain types of cryptoassets…” read the press release.

The consultations will be led by the UK Cryptoasset Taskforce which is comprised of representatives drawn from various government bodies and agencies including the Bank of England, Her Majesty’s Treasury (HMT) and the FCA.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly…

In light of the fact that crypto assets possess both risks and benefits to consumers, businesses and the markets, the FCA also outlined a couple of actions that will be undertaken after deliberations by the Cryptoasset Taskforce. By the close of this year, for instance, the Cryptoasset Taskforce has committed to holding consultations with a view of offering guidance on the cryptoassets that fall within the limits of the current regulations as well as those that don’t.

The Cryptoasset Taskforce has also committed to holding deliberations in order to determine whether the existing regulations should be expanded in order to include the cryptoassets that currently outside the regulatory perimeter but which have similar features to other specified investments.

And in order to determine whether there is a need for effectively regulating exchange tokens, cryptocurrency exchanges and wallet providers, and if so how to approach such an effort, the taskforce will also hold consultations early next year.

Comprehensive AML Measures

The Cryptoasset Taskforce has also committed to implementing a comprehensive response to the use of cryptocurrencies in illicit activities by building on the Anti-Money Laundering Directive of the European Union. The UK cryptocurrency taskforce is now more than seven months old having been unveiled earlier in the year as CCN reported.

The actions the Cryptoasset Taskforce has committed to pursuing come at a time when there have been growing calls in the United Kingdom pressing for cryptocurrency regulations. In September, for instance, British lawmakers branded the country’s cryptocurrency markets the ‘Wild West’ as investors were inadequately protected as they demanded remedial measures.

“Bitcoin and other crypto-assets exist in the Wild West industry of crypto-assets. This unregulated industry leaves investors facing numerous risks,” the chairperson of the Treasury Committee in the UK parliament, Nicky Morgan, said at the time.

Untraceable Cryptocurrency Can Help Us Bypass Sanctions: Iranian General

An Iranian general has strongly hinted that the country could soon turn to cryptocurrencies as a way to evade international financial sanctions.

Brigadier General Gholam Reza Jalali, head of Iran’s Civil Defense Organization, on Monday spoke about the ‘great opportunities’ presented by cryptocurrencies in the latest indication that Tehran is developing a state cryptocurrency.

As reported by the Mehr news agency, Jalali was speaking to the state-owned TV station Channel 2 news on Monday when he stated:

“Cryptocurrencies can help bypass certain sanctions through untraceable banking operations.”

In doing so, Iran expects to reduce its dependence on U.S. dollar-based payment rails operated by SWIFT for global commerce. U.S. President Donald Trump announced sanctions against Tehran earlier this year, sending the Iranian Rial to historic lows.

“Our major problem here is the US dollar, because the United States uses its national currency to control any country’s SWIFT operations, so we should reduce dependence on the dollar and replace it with another currency,” the senior Iranian official added.

Iran has previously suffered a banking blackout from SWIFT in a four-year hiatus between 2012-2016.

Iran and Russia Consider Using Cryptocurrency for Trade

As reported in May, following Trump’s formal withdrawal from the Obama-era nuclear deal with Iran, both Iran and Russia have held discussions over cooperating to use cryptocurrency in bilateral trade.

“They share our opinion,” Iran’s Parlimentary Commission of Economic Affairs chief Mohammad Reza Pourebrahimi revealed after a meeting with the Russian Paliament’s Committee on Economic Policy.

“We said that if we manage to promote this work, then we will be the first countries that use cryptocurrency in the exchange of goods,” the official said at the time.

Iran’s agenda to develop its national cryptocurrency was first revealed by the country’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) minister Mohammad-Javaz Azari publicly in February this year. Come May, the minister confirmed an experimental model of the cryptocurrency project was ready.

Open Source Technology

Iran’s Informatics Services Corporation (ISC) a central bank-affiliated body, revealed has notably revealed that the cryptocurrency is backed by the fiat currency Rial and is developed using open-source Hyperledger Fabric technology, the blockchain framework initially developed by IBM and New York-based industry startup Digital Asset. The Hyperledger Fabric is now code hosted by the Linux Foundation, which also leads the Hyperledger blockchain consortium.

The ISC has also revealed a roadmap for the cryptocurrency wherein the digital rial token is to be used as an interbank payment instrument in the first phase of its release before it integrates into society as a local payment medium in Phase Two.

Yellen: Bitcoin Not a Store of Value, ‘Anything But’ a Useful Currency

Janet Yellen, the former chair of the Federal Reserve, has doubled down on her longstanding criticisms of bitcoin and other cryptocurrency assets.

Speaking on Monday at the 2018 Canada FinTech Forum in Montreal, the Obama appointee, who led the Fed from 2014 to 2018 following a four-year tenure as vice chair, alleged that bitcoin’s decentralized nature inhibited its utility as a payment instrument.

She said:

“It has long been thought that for something to be a useful currency, it needs to be a stable source of value, and bitcoin is anything but. It’s not used for a lot of transactions, it’s not a stable source of value, and it’s not an efficient means of processing payments. It’s very slow in handling payments. It has difficulty because of its very decentralized nature.”

Of course, supporters would argue that cryptocurrency is still an early-stage technology, comparable to the internet in the early 1990s in that it has shown promise while also suffering from growing pains and a sub-optimal user experience.

Despite a fairly steep dropoff during early 2018, the average number of bitcoin transactions per block has steadily increased throughout the network’s history, from just 1 in 2010 to more than 1,800 today. Developers also predict that second-layer technologies such as the Lightning Network (LN) should allow the network to scale its transaction capacity exponentially while also making BTC useful for everyday payments and microtransactions.

Though perhaps not useful for the proverbial “cup of coffee” today, bitcoin is regularly used to move hundreds of millions of dollars across borders, often much more quickly and cheaply than settling such transactions through the conventional financial system. Earlier this month, for instance, a crypto user sent $194 million worth of bitcoin for just $0.10.

To Yellen’s other point, bitcoin, as the face of an entirely new asset class, is indeed volatile, though it has grown more stable in recent months, bolstered by the launch of cryptocurrency derivatives and other tools that aid in price discovery.

Nevertheless, Yellen’s bearish outlook on bitcoin is largely in line with criticisms she has made in the past. Last December, days before the bitcoin price crested near an all-time high near $20,000, she lambasted bitcoin as a “highly speculative asset” with a “very small role” in the financial system.

She said:

“I would simply say that Bitcoin at this time plays a very small role in the payments system. It is not a stable store of value and it doesn’t constitute legal tender. It is a highly speculative asset.”

Her successor, Trump appointee Jerome Powell, has struck a similar tone, warning lawmakers earlier this year that cryptocurrency is a risky investment class that is dangerous for “unsophisticated” retail investors. He also said that bitcoin and its peers should not be considered real currencies since they have no intrinsic value.

The US Government Maintains a Fork of Bitcoin

The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and other government bodies play a role in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

For starters, SHA-256 and most other hashing algorithms using in cryptocurrencies have been reviewed and tested by the Institute in the past. Independent cryptographers are frequently consulted by government agencies and scientists. The NSA and NIST occasionally conduct competitions for the development of new cryptographic software. The most recent winner was an algorithm called Keccak, but it is now most often referred to as SHA-3. The majority of hash functions that are submitted to these competitions see use, often wide use, regardless if they win or not.

While the world’s most famous cryptographers work in the private sector, it is fair to say that NSA and other government agencies provide decent career opportunities for up-and-coming cryptographers.

NIST Publishes Paper Suggesting Managed Blockchain with Transparency

Peter Mell of NIST wrote a paper in recent times entitled “Managed  Blockchain Based Cryptocurrencies with Consensus  Enforced Rules and Transparency.” The gist of the paper is that there is a happy medium between public, wild blockchains like Bitcoin, which follow the laws of consensus and little else, and managed blockchains which give their permissioned owners an untrustworthy amount of paper.

We demonstrate how to implement our approach through modest modifcations to the implicit Bitcoin specifcation, however, our approach can be applied to most any blockchain based cryptocurrency using a variety of consensus methods.

The implications are obvious: the blockchain could potentially be used by the government to issue its own cryptocurrency. A strictly public mining network and blockchain would obviously fail the means test for the government, for multiple reasons including the potential of a 51% attack launched by an unfriendly government. According to the paper, the features which make the Bitcoin protocol attractive to the government are its transparency and, of course, the inability to lose funds on it.

“We provide a novel cryptocurrency architecture which is a hybrid approach where a managed cryptocurrency is maintained through distributed open consensus-based methods. Key to this architecture is the idea of a genesis transaction upon which all other transactions are based and which enables the establishment of a hierarchy of accounts with differing roles It is these roles that enabled us to introduce features from fiat currencies into a cryptocurrency: law enforcement, central banking, and account management,” an excerpt from the paper explains.

“Another novel feature is that the architecture allows the cryptocurrency policy to be maintained dynamically by the currency administrator, but certain policy settings can be made permanent in order to facilitate confidence in the stability of the system. This is especially important for the relationship between the currency administrator and an independent community of miners,” it added.

Democracy is meant to be transparent, and government agencies are supposed to be accountable to the people who elect and pay for them. Current technologies in place don’t always provide for this and there are plenty of opportunities for fraud, waste, and abuse in the government sector.

The NIST version of the Bitcoin system makes only minor changes to the structure of a Bitcoin transaction in order to allow for the introduction of administrator policies. “Roles” are introduced into Bitcoin transactions, enabling changes to be made in the protocol as a whole. The paper explains that they are using the existing design which enables the spending of coins to additionally “spend roles.” Without getting too technical, it enables the manager of the blockchain to have a great degree of control over the entire pool of money in the system.

The  vin[] field operates  similarly as before. In  Bitcoin, a vin[] field specifies a set of coins from a particular transaction already posted on the blockchain.[…] However,  the vin[] field can also be used to bring roles into a transaction to authorize activities that require roles (which is most any activity in our architecture, depending upon the  specific policy enacted). Functionally, it is like we are ‘spending’ a role to use it to authorize some action given the usual use of a vin[] field (but roles can be ‘spent’  an infinite number of times and are not transferred like coin). A vin[] field can  specify a former transaction where an account was given a role.

Importantly, the design mentions an “independent community of miners.” Several aspects of the idea would require rigorous testing before ever seeing any real-world use – one example that comes to mind is the US Treasury’s blacklist and range of countries US Government and most US citizens cannot do business with. These people would have to be banished from both mining and the possession or use of “USCoin” in order for such a project to be in compliance with US laws.

NIST Tests Ideas on Own Bitcoin Fork

In addition to this paper, NIST has quietly maintained a fork of the Bitcoin software which attempts to integrate the ideas presented in the paper. Presumably the software has only been run in government labs, but it could inadvertently provide a boost to countries like Sweden which are actively working toward developing their own nationalized cryptocurrencies.

The prospects of a government-backed cryptocurrency in the US are likely years away, but certainly folks within the system have floated the idea multiple times. Government use of blockchain is on the rise, and the arc of history likely points toward cryptocurrencies being at the heart of all financial systems, but only time will tell what shape they will actually take. Aside from operating their own blockchain, governments could simply issue tokens on existing blockchains which follow the rules they decide to put in place. The options are myriad, but one thing is for sure: traditional, fiat-backed currencies are inferior to transparent and modernized digital currencies and will eventually have to be updated.

New Protocol Lets EOS dApps ‘Teleport’ Tokens from Ethereum

Arguably the most important contribution of Ethereum is the real-world implementation and accessibility of smart contracts.

From smart contracts follow decentralized applications or “dApps,” which enable common users to interact with financial and other purposes of the blockchain without necessarily needing to be cryptocurrency savvy. So many smart contracts and dApps have been launched on the Ethereum network that it has seen severe congestion at times, which has led to the development and implementation of third-party platforms which are still connected to the Ethereum network but enable more efficient operation through different methods of processing finalized transactions on Ethereum. Several have been launched over the past couple of years, including Raiden (developed by an Ethereum co-founder). However, other projects, like EOS, have abandoned Ethereum altogether in pursuit of alternative scaling technologies.

Smart contracts and dApps already operating on the Ethereum network may recognize the value in moving to a more scalable option such as EOS, but until now there would have been a great deal of work involved in porting such applications to the EOS architecture.

shEOS, a firm which helps companies launch EOS tokens and provides important infrastructure for that network, has recently created a new protocol called EOS21 which enables the smooth transition of ERC-20 tokens (standard Ethereum tokens and smart contracts) to the EOS ecosystem. “We think developers should have that technical and creative freedom, so we designed a protocol to make it possible,” the firm says of the development. They also wrote:

“Recently, the importance of one specific development has become clear to us, and that is inter-blockchain communication and interoperability. […] How empowering would it be for developers to have freedom to move their tokens to any chain they wanted to? To any chain they felt best addresses the needs of their particular project. It’s widely known that each blockchain offers certain qualities that make it more appealing depending on the needs of the dApp developer.”

What This Means for Users

Everyday users of Ethereum dApps may not immediately see any change, but ultimately this project could lead to an exodus from Ethereum mainnet to the (in some ways) more attractive EOS environment. EOS is capable of settling transactions faster and handling more users. There are dedicated servers operated by numerous firms including shEOS. The benefits to common users may not be seen for a while, but for developers and firms looking to improve their Ethereum dApp products, the EOS21 protocol could certainly be a gamechanger.

Potential applications of the protocol are myriad, including “two-way pegging.” This would mean that EOS tokens could be paired with traditional Ethereum tokens for some applications, a powerful possible implementation. The firm even foresees ETH transactions being authenticated via EOS, or vice-versa. Furthermore, a pro-open-source firm to the core, shEOS openly encourages similar projects or even other blockchains like Ripple/Stellar to copy their idea and build on it.

Want to Make Money as a Programmer? Learn Blockchain Development

Despite the year-long bear market that has seen the prices of major cryptocurrencies drop 70 to 80 percent, the demand for blockchain developers is still at an all-time high.

According to Mehul Patel, the CEO of San Francisco tech talent recruitment firm Hired, the demand for the blockchain has increased significantly in the past several months. The supply of software engineers is already low, and individuals that are well versed in the cryptocurrency sector are even more scarce.

“There’s a ton of demand for blockchain. Software engineers are in very short supply, but this is even more acute and that’s why salaries are even higher.”

Interview Requests Every Day

Speaking to CNBC, software engineer Dustin Welden, who currently works as an engineer for Globys, stated that immediately after he changed his job title from software engineer to principal blockchain engineer, he began to receive interview requests from both startups in the blockchain sector and major conglomerates on a daily basis.

Welden said:

“When my title became ‘principal blockchain engineer,’ it became relentless. I get interview requests every day on LinkedIn now.”

For large-scale conglomerates like IBM, Deloitte, and Microsoft, it is of utmost importance to form a competent team that is able to expose the conglomerate to the blockchain sector when the time is right.

To enter an emerging sector in a timely manner, corporations need to have individual talent in place to swiftly push the venture of the firm into the market.

Hired CEO Patel emphasized that the mindset of conglomerates to plan a long-term strategy to target the cryptocurrency sector has led to an increase in demand for distributed ledger technology engineers.

“There’s a mindset here of taking a long-term view of planning. If you’re going to build blockchain technology, you have to get that talent.”

London Bar BrewDog Dumps Cash Payments for Bitcoin

Craft brewery BrewDog, known in the UK for operating a chain of drinking pubs for hipsters, has opened a bar in Canary Wharf, London, that accepts not only bitcoin but also changes its markup based on the movement of the Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index (FTSE). According to a report on the Drinks Business, the FTSE induced pricing will be exclusively implemented on a “special beer tap.”

Due to the location of the bar, which overlooks Bellmouth Passage and the canal linking old North and the South Docks, known for trading, the company says the pricing of the beer will vary based on how the market is doing. If the FTSE goes up, the price of the beer goes on with it. If it falls, you will have an endless supply of beer at a steep discount. Before BrewDog, entrepreneurs Alan Grant and Glenn Burgess created the Reserve Bar Stock Exchange, an automated stock market for booze, three years ago. At the time, Grant had said that “alcohol doesn’t have to be sold at an extortionate rate.”

In an official blog post, BrewDog said the new location would also be the first of its bars to accept cryptocurrencies, allowing consumers to pay for their spirits using bitcoin or bitcoin cash and the second cashless bar under the company’s domain. The company advised consumers to come with their credit cards and their Equity Punk ID Card, a form of loyalty card that allows holders to redeem discounts at any of BrewDog’s location.

In addition to the grand opening of the Canary Wharf bar, BrewDog will also run a bitcoin cash giveaway, promising to give the first 100 attendees a BCH wallet pre-loaded with crypto between £12 and £100.

Earlier this month, Mr. Wolf’s , a nightclub in Bristol had an event where customers were allowed to pay for a pint of beer with bitcoin for the night. Mr. Wolf’s was ecstatic about the one-off event, which was done to support the documentary of two movie producers and prove that bitcoin could be a viable currency in a society that is fast becoming cashless.

Bitcoin Finds Stability at $6,400: Will BTC Fail to Recover by 2018’s End?

Over the past 11 days, the Bitcoin price has remained stable in the range of $6,300 to $6,500, struggling to initiate a major movement on the upside.

The volume of Bitcoin has declined substantially over the last 72 hours from $3.6 billion to $3.1 billion on CoinMarketCap, by nearly 20 percent.

Trading activity in the cryptocurrency exchange market has generally subsided, as investors have started to avoid taking high-risk, high-return trades in a period of uncertainty.

Support and Resistance Merging: Where is Bitcoin Headed to Next?

Since early August, for nearly three months, Bitcoin has shown a record high level of stability. The dominant cryptocurrency has not seen such a low level of volatility spread out across several months in recent history, even during the aftermath of the 2014 correction.

Bitcoin has stabilized in the lower price range to the point in which its support and resistance levels started to merge. Previously, respected cryptocurrency trader Peter Brandt stated that the short-term price trend of Bitcoin can be considered as a classic Wyckoff hinge behavior, which could lead to a major short-term rally for the asset.

However, Willy Woo, a prominent cryptocurrency analyst and operator of Woobull.com, stated that based on various technical indicators including the NVT Ratio, the cryptocurrency market is likely to be in the middle of a long-lasting bear market.

“If you’re into timing games, then my own NVT Ratio is saying we are still in the middle of a bear market. NVT is simply the ratio of volume carried by the blockchain to the historic price. (This indicator is due for recalibration after the Liquid Sidechain launch).

Woo added that the correlation between network volume and market cap of major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin could serve as an accurate indicator to measure the depth of the current bear market, referring to the NVT chart published on Woobull.com below.

“This is the chart that NVT is based upon; the historically tight correlation between the value transmitted by the chain (network volume) and network value (market cap). The deviation we are going through right now are clues to how much of a bear market we are in.”

Stocks Cleared and Settled Successfully in Bank of Canada Blockchain Trial

An experiment conducted by Canada’s central bank in conjunction with the country’s payments system, a stock exchange operator, a distributed ledger technology (DLT) firm and a global consulting and professional services firm has demonstrated that it is possible to clear and settle securities efficiently and cost-effectively using blockchain technology.

In the trial, the Bank of Canada in partnership with payments system organization Payments Canada, stock exchange operator TMX Group, global consulting firm Accenture and blockchain firm R3demonstrated the feasibility of an integrated DLT-based securities and payment settlement platform.

https://twitter.com/inside_r3/status/1054787035674877952

Proof of Concept

The experiment, which was conducted during the third phase of Project Jasper, involved exploring how the settlement of securities and payment interacted on a private blockchain. This required developing and testing a Proof of Concept (POC) system which was linked to the market infrastructures that already exist.

“The POC intended to bring together securities and cash ledgers for CDSX [Canada’s clearing and settlement system for securities] and participants in Payments Canada’s Large Value Transfer System (LVTS) to facilitate daily consolidated cash reporting and Canadian-dollar settlement of CDSX obligations,” noted the five organizations in a report titled ‘Jasper Phase III: Securities Settlement Using Distributed Ledger Technology’.

Jasper Phase III’s PoC solution was developed on distributed ledger technology of Corda specifically version 2.0. Cash and securities were brought on the ledger by issuing digital depository receipts with the Bank of Canada being responsible for the former and the Canadian Depository for Securities catering for the latter.

Reduction of Expenses and Enhancement of Efficiency

This allowed participants in the proof of concept test to settle the simulated securities against the simulated central bank funds on the blockchain. Equity, as well as cash, could be redeemed following their transfer since settlements enjoyed irrevocability.

From the PoC it was observed that not only was it possible to reduce counterparty risk but that collateral could be freed up without sacrificing the privacy of the participants as well as their transactions. However, more comprehensive studies will be required in order to more reliably determine the efficiency gains and cost savings accruing from using DLT.

“DLT is a promising technology that has the potential to reduce costs for participants and open new opportunities,” said Bank of Canada’s Director, Scott Hendry, in a statement. “Phase III of Project Jasper gave us the opportunity to test the technology further, and work remains to be done to determine how it can be set up to maximize the benefits for the whole financial system.”

Cryptocurrency Firms Headline Fintech 250 List

A number of the crypto industry’s biggest firms have been included in this year’s CB Insights Fintech 250 list. Compiled annually, the list ranks 250 of the most promising businesses in the Fintech space ranging from capital markets to insurance to wealth management and digital banking.

Drawn from a global pool of almost 4,000 applicants and nominees, inclusion on the list is based on a number of factors including data submitted by the firms, market viability and business models.  The company’s Mosaic Score, a holistic algorithm developed by CB Insights that measures the overall health and growth potential of private companies.

“Insurgent Startups”

Referencing the increasing importance of crypto startups within the space, this year’s announcement speaks of the transformation of the financial services space by “insurgent startups”, which is borne out by the number of new companies on this year’s list.

In total, there are 113 new companies on this year’s list. Coins.ph, BitPesa, Revolut, Robinhood, Xapo, Ripple labs, Coinbase and BitFlyer are among the most noticeable blockchain and cryptocurrency firms that feature prominently on the list following a year of continued, and in some cases record-breaking growth in spite of a general and sustained crypto market downturn.

In January, CCN reported that Philippine bitcoin wallet app Coins.ph achieved a milestone of 5 million customers, in the process becoming one of Asia’s hottest financial companies making serious headway into the $400 billion overseas remittance market with crypto.

Data from CB Insights show that the 2018 Fintech 250 raised nearly $53 billion in funding in the past five years. Listed among the 30 unicorns, companies that have reached a valuation of $1 billion are United States based Robinhood valued at $5.6 and Coinbase at $1.6. Robinhood is also featured as 2018 top most well-funded Retail Investing & Secondary Markets company.

In total, no fewer than 15 blockchain and cryptocurrency-related comapnies are represented on the list including bitPesa, Ripple Labs, Polychain Capital, Digital Asset Holdings, Coinbase, Chain, Brave Software, bitFlyer, Factom, Juzhen Financials and Blockstream among others.

The report reveals that among them, the fintech 250 companies have raised $31.85B from 373 deals in one year. Ribbit Capital is tagged top venture capital investor company on the 2018 Fintech 250 list; it invested in Robinhood, Wealthfront, Gusto, Coinbase, Cross River Bank, and Upgrade. The current year’s list has recorded more equity investments and venture funding than that of the preceding year- 2017 with  Ant Financial raising an unequaled  $14B.in the second quarter of 2018. The Top Acquisition for the year is PayPal’s takeover of iZettle in the second quarter for $2.2 billion, double the amount the company sought to raise with an IPO.