News of News for Bears and Bulls

Summer has taken a holiday here in UK and elsewhere. With volatility returning even to gold, the trading desk or the stuffy bureaucratic halls is now the new mojito cocktail on the beach.

Or on Mars. That’s if The Mars Society gets its way. They say: “the world’s largest non-profit dedicated to the human exploration of Mars, is pleased to announce that it is now able to accept Bitcoin and several other types of digital currencies as donations to further our goal of future human exploration and settlement of Mars…

Additional donations of Bitcoin, Marscoin, Ethereum (a digital currency supported by Microsoft) and Litecoin (a digital currency founded by a former Google employee) are now able to be donated to the Mars Society.”

We haven’t taken even a glance at this society because this is the clearing desk where we get rid of our open tabs to make way for a new Wednesday, so do your own research Elon Musk.

“The Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) today announced the addition of a newly appointed Board member, Ethereum Foundation’s Aya Miyaguchi, and the formation of the EEA Mainnet Initiative, a technical working group designed to accelerate and lead the collaboration between enterprises and the mainnet and vice versa.

‘This is an exciting time,’ said Ethereum Foundation Executive Director and EEA Director Aya Miyaguchi. ‘As blockchain adoption accelerates, it’s important that the Ethereum Foundation works to connect businesses with the latest research and development coming from our worldwide community, and that we convey our challenges and experiences while better understanding those impacting industries…’

The EEA has also today unveiled the Mainnet Initiative, a technical working group that will provide a venue for interactions and collaboration between the EEA’s enterprise and startup members and those working on the mainnet’s technology and interoperability advances.

By examining how to harmonize the way industries and ecosystems work on the blockchain, the Initiative will seek to understand how public network components match the commercial market requirements needed to allow the world to connect to Ethereum – the predominant blockchain network for exchanging value and conducting business.

To learn more about the Mainnet Initiative, EEA members can visit the Membership Collaboration site.”

What site they’re referring to we don’t know because they didn’t say, but apparently they’ll elaborate at Devcon in Japan this October.

An October that may make August look like a child’s walk in the park as Brussels and London exchange “no u” comments on what might sound like a failure of negotiations before they’ve even begun:

“EU said UK demands to remove the Irish backstop from Theresa May’s deal were unacceptable.

EU negotiators told European diplomats there was currently no basis for ‘meaningful discussions’ and talks were back where they were three years ago. Downing Street said the EU needed to ‘change its stance’.”

Right, off to Iran then . “According to a new bill approved by the cabinet and published on Sunday, any trade activity involving cryprocurrencies inside the country is illegal.

According to this bill, the government and the banking system would not recognize cryptocurrencies as legal coins and the Central Bank of Iran would not guarantee their value.

However, the bill said mining digital currencies would be allowed inside Iran under certain conditions, including if miners obtain the approval of Iran’s industry ministry, do not mine the currencies inside a 30-kilometer boundary of all provincial centers except for the capital Tehran and the central city of Isfahan where tougher restrictions apply.”

At least we can find some solace in knowing they’re all led by donkeys, rather than just us, but illegal and bitcoin sounds a bit like an oxymoron .

“SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce wants a safe harbor for crypto entrepreneurs.” So says the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the ones behind Bakkt. Peirce said:

“We need to allow people that are interested in this space to be involved with it in a way that is within the regulated framework. Understanding that investors have to make their own decisions, we can’t make those decisions for them.”

Are you listening Jay Clayton? Not that it’s necessarily his fault. After Trump came out against bitcoin, one does now have to wonder whether he is the one blocking everything.

“Earlier today, IBM announced that it is collaborating with a handful of companies including Anheuser-Busch InBev, Lenovo, and Nokia to create a blockchain solution for supply chain management. This initiative aims to alleviate the inconvenience of manual supply management, while also expediting verification processes.”

That’s what we’re told. Anyway, who knew people still use checks? Apparently they keep being counterfeited according to OCC, which says:

“Banks have reported that counterfeit cashier’s checks using the bank’s routing number of 051403122 are being presented for payment nationwide in connection with a variety of online auction and job opportunity scams…

Checks presented to date have been made payable in varying amounts between $1,250 and $7,350 and have been signed by Evelyn Sutherland.”

Ah, the joys of writing a number and that being money. For Evelyn it’s counterfeiting, of course. For banks, it’s just money, and in many cases it’s not only money, but it’s money which you have to magically pay back with interest.

What is interest daddy? SHHhhHhh! You’ll risk riots if people were told.

“Caspian, the full-stack crypto trading, portfolio and risk management platform, today announced the launch of its pairs trading functionality. The new capabilities are paving the way for funds looking to use statistical arbitrage and relative value-based strategies to grow their business – two strategies that have become popular in the crypto market.”

“Today, the Tezos token is available to eToro’s 11 million registered users. Tezos, the world’s first self-amending crypto, will be the 15th asset available on the global trading platform. 

Unlike the majority of tokens, Tezos tokens are not mined, but instead rewarded to users taking part in the proof-of-stake consensus protocol.”

So self-amending they still have KYC for the ICO investors with no one proposing its self-amndedable removal.

Not that anyone can remember whatever password or seven secret keys or the 3 mountains they have to jump through to get the tokens they paid for.

Meaning it may well be just that Tezos founder “staking” on 100 different addresses and so “self-amending” this blockchain.

“Since the launch of the US office of CEX.IO Corp on July 4, CEX.IO’s regulatory compliance team has been tirelessly working with regulators to pass all required checks and audits and receive MTLs in new states… Together, that amounts to coverage of 31 US jurisdictions.”

Hmm, they apparently have 2.7 million customers, and “provides a rich variety of trading tools for Bitcoin” and other top coins.

Well, here’s an interesting take by Tom Maxon, Head of U.S. Operations for CoolBitX, an international blockchain security company specializing in digital asset compliance hardware and software:

“Billions of dollars in daily volume are handled by whales and managed portfolios through over-the-counter (OTC) desks, and actually relatively smaller volume is held in exchanges that are accessible by retail investors.

OTC desks are largely unregulated and therefore, it is impossible to know exactly where the inflows and outflows are coming from.

These whales and shrewd, large-volume traders (including exchanges themselves) will most likely leverage bitcoin’s current upward momentum toward a new high from its previous peak in order to short it to the detriment of less powerful retail traders.”

Right. This guy apparently created some “mobile hardware wallet.” What? And he knows what’s happening at OTC desks or exchanges how? Oh wait, point was for their name to be mentioned. Trickednodes.

This is the clearing desk. We say what we wants here. Defamation laws and nuffin applies so off then to… Hmmm, well, we might quote at length:

AN AFRICAN VIEW ON PEER-TO-PEER FINANCE

Benjamin Onuoha, Africa’s Regional Consultant for Paxful (Paxful.com), addressed delegates at a Johannesburg event recently to share insights on the bitcoin and cryptocurrency economy as well as present use cases observed from Africa’s consumers.  

He commented: “The people of Africa have been the most ingenious and resourceful of our users – they are redefining our understanding of the uses of bitcoin. The world has much to learn from Africa about the future of the crypto-economy.”

BITCOIN USE CASES ON THE CONTINENT 

Reflecting on Paxful’s experience in Africa and further afield, Onuoha added: “Three developments made the crypto-economy possible. First, the emergence of peer-to-peer electronic currency, bitcoin, that is powered by the blockchain technology. The second and arguably the most important miracle is the human layer, that connects everyone in the world making this peer-to-peer revolution powered by the people. And lastly, the third miracle is the sharing economy.”

Onuoha listed the following as true use cases for bitcoin: grey markets, speculation, payments, e-commerce, remittance, wealth preservation, and social good.

“Historically, much of the news coverage about bitcoin has tracked speculative activity, where 90% of trading volume is currently centred. This toxic phase is in line with expected adoption trends as the crypto economy, still in its infancy, matures. The next focus point of the evolution is the end-user and their opportunity-laden journey in peer-to-peer finance. It’s about wealth generation – and giving people the means to do it.” 

He noted that many young Africans see bitcoin as an opportunity to develop entrepreneurship ventures; users set up side-hustles and their own businesses – which include remittance, as well as import and export enterprises, amongst others.  

Demonstrating how the cryptocurrency community can contribute to social good, Paxful recently completed the building of a second school in Rwanda, as part of the group’s strategic commitment to education. Through its #BuiltWithBitcoin initiative, the group is in pursuit to build 100 schools across the continent.

EDUCATION, EDUCATION, EDUCATION

With over 2,5 million users globally and Africa being the fastest-growing region, in 2018, Paxful disclosed it had seen a 200%+ increase in users in Africa over the previous 12 months. Paxful is observing a new generation of young African graduates and professionals making use of peer-to-peer finance as a way to better engage the global financial system.

Co-Founded by Egyptian entrepreneur Ray Youseff, who is passionate about empowering fellow African youth, Paxful is committed to reaching as many young people as possible to help them better understand the opportunities presented by the cryptocurrency economy. To this end, Paxful launched its first university education drive to expose youth to the true use cases of bitcoin, highlight how to avoid falling prey to bad actors in the crypto-space, and counter the over-emphasis on bitcoin speculation. 

Launched at universities in South Africa and Kenya, the Paxful workshops provide key, practical insights, with each attendee also receiving free bitcoin to start them on their journey. Over 1000 youths have attended the events across SA/Kenya.

CHARITIES COULD BENEFIT FROM THE CRYPTO-ECONOMY

To date, Paxful’s #BuiltWithBitcoin initiative has raised over R3 million for charities across Africa and the MIddle East. Paxful – has donated over 13,000 Rands worth of bitcoin to GROW with Educare Centres. The donation forms part of Paxful’s #BuiltWithBitcoin initiative and is its first South African charitable contribution.

As a non-profit organisation, GROW with Educare Centres empowers qualified, passionate women to own and run successful high-quality Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres, such as daycares and pre-schools, in low-income communities using the principles of social enterprise and micro franchising. With reading being an integral part of the Educare programme, the donation from Paxful will be used to purchase books for their various centres’ mini-libraries.

The GROW with Educare Centres project was incubated by a partnership between The Clothing Bank and Grow Learning Company and currently has 31 ECD centres running across Cape Town, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng. 

“This donation opens new opportunities for our organisation to engage the crypto-community in charitable giving. An investment in Early Learning is one of the greatest investments you can make since one teacher influences a generation of learners. We hope that Paxful will inspire others to do the same,” says Helene Brand, Marketing and Fundraising Manager for GROW Educare Centres.

Paxful launched #BuiltWithBitcoin in 2017 to encourage the cryptocurrency sector to contribute funds for humanitarian projects.”

No editing. We don’t even know what they said (we do obv). That’s what you get for reading nus of nus, but.. hmm.

“I wanted to make sure you saw the news that Poloniex has launched Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC) trading quote pairs for Bitcoin and plans on releasing a wave of new margin trading options in the coming weeks.”

“Opolis released a special report today for freelancers, digital nomads, and blockchain enthusiasts detailing the financial, technical and social implications of their platform which will give freelancers access to the same quality financial automation, benefits and services typically reserved for full-time corporate employees. The Opolis Off-White Paper details the world’s first employment ecosystem designed to empower the self-sovereign worker .” Self-sovereign. As opposed to? Shut up!

“15 of the world’s most promising tokenised protocols come together for a combined dev con, “Diffusion” in Berlin Fall ‘19, to build an alternative web… Fetch.AI, Cosmos, IOTA, Chainlink, Enigma, Sovrin, FOAM, Ocean Protocol and more…

The crypto scene is often seen as a mass of competing and adversarial tribes. However 15 protocols have joined forces to collaborate and pool developer communities to build a literal stack of technologies that collectively enable a ‘new data economy’, centered around privacy, the decentralisation of insecure cloud architecture and the deconstruction of platform monopolies, called ‘The Convergence Stack’.

The Convergence Stack spans IoT hardware through internet networking, storage, routing, databases, middleware and machine learning leveraging innovations in distributed ledger technology and crypto assets to coordinate decentralised networks of stakeholders to enable a more peer to peer and open web.”

Folks, this never ends. Well… if you spend some more hours on it, it’ll prob will. It’s an expression you autist. Omergad that’s it! Off to gulag with you raa.

The dum things we say after a long work day. Hope you enjoyed it folks. Oh yeh, let’s do dis:

Loading ...Loading ... Loading …

 
 Copyrights