Bitcoin’s Lightning Becomes Latest Protocol to Court Publishers With Micropayments

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

With paywall systems for a whole bevy of assets, crypto payments could revolutionize the media industry – if demand actually matched supply.

via CoinDesk https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoins-lightning-becomes-latest-protocol-to-court-publishers-with-micropayments

TTS 251 Luke Mulks of Brave Browser

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Luke Mulks from the innovative new web browser, Brave, returns to The Tatiana Show.

Brave, the privacy focused web browser, is on a mission is to fix the web by giving users a safer, faster, and better browsing experience while growing support for content creators through a new attention-based ecosystem of rewards.

Tatiana and Luke discuss the importance of privacy in the digital age and the steps Brave takes to make sure privacy is their number one priority, why the companies in Silicon Valley are not as competitive with each other as people think, and how Google and Facebook's privacy settings are not really keeping your data from being collected.

Luke describes the Brave Rewards system where a user can earn BAT tokens for viewing privacy respecting ads, how to fund the content creator and publishers you enjoy and visit the most with BAT, and how Brave is giving back in this time of the COVID19 crisis by working with non- profits such as No Kid Hungry.

About the Guests:

Luke Mulks has founded multiple businesses of his own, worked for others, freelanced, taught, worked in print publishing, print production, photography, video, audio, illustration, web design, development, user experience, client services, ad ops, ad products, strategic planning, product integration, product support and incident response. He is a true Jack-of-all-trades.

He is currently the director of business development for the privacy focused web browser, Brave.

More Info:

Brave
PREPPERPALOOZA
TatianaMoroz.com
Crypto Media Hub
Vaultoro

Friends and Sponsors of the Show:
Proof of Love
eToro

*You have been listening to the Tatiana Show. This show may contain adult content, language, and humor and is intended for mature audiences. If that's not you, please stop listening. Nothing you hear on The Tatiana Show is intended as financial advice, legal advice, or really, anything other than entertainment. Take everything you hear with a grain of salt. Oh, and if you're hearing us on an affiliate network, the ideas and views expressed on this show, are not necessarily those of the network you are listening on, or of any sponsors or any affiliate products you may hear about on the show.

via The Let's Talk Bitcoin Network https://letstalkbitcoin.com/blog/post/tts-251-luke-mulks-of-brave-browser

Crypto-Powered Internet Helps Work From Home During Coronavirus

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Althea brings the internet to under-served places, offering households crypto to be part of a mesh system.

via CoinDesk https://www.coindesk.com/crypto-powered-internet-helps-work-from-home-during-coronavirus

Nic Carter: ‘If You’re Not Radicalized, You’re Not Paying Attention’

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Castle Island Ventures and Coin Metrics co-founder joins to discuss cascading crises, crypto dollarization and the state of the bitcoin narrative.

via CoinDesk https://www.coindesk.com/nic-carter-if-youre-not-radicalized-youre-not-paying-attention

Remote Working Proves Unexpected Hero as Half of US Economy Shifts to Home Offices

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

To those who believe in a digital future in which decentralization makes systems more resilient, the coronavirus crisis has expedited the inevitable.

via CoinDesk https://www.coindesk.com/remote-working-proves-unexpected-hero-as-half-of-us-economy-shifts-to-home-offices

POV Crypto - Fight Night XI - COVID, China, Checks, Change

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

David and Christian take time to reflect on recent news, and discuss what they are bracing for in times ahead.‚

Please rate and share the podcast!

Sponsors

• eToro - Sign up for the best trading in Crypto
• Quantstamp - Get a security audit with the experts
• Unchained Capital - Easy BTC cold storage and BTC backed loans

Please rate and share the podcast!

You can find us‚@POVCryptopod‚on Twitter.‚

David Hoffman on Twitter and Medium‚@TrustlessState

Christian Keroles on Twitter‚@ck_SNARKs

Send Bitcoin: 3P1kkSBdsc2vPWXin3h6bdVeTS4BzXdNG1

Send Ether: POVCrypto.eth

via The Let's Talk Bitcoin Network https://letstalkbitcoin.com/blog/post/pov-crypto-fight-night-covid-china-checks-change

With Traditional Markets in Turmoil, AlphaPoint Transforms Assets

https://ift.tt/12L05rn

This is a sponsored article provided by AlphaPoint.

In 2013, blockchain technology was in its earliest stages. The Bitcoin white paper, ushering in this underlying technology along with the world’s first cryptocurrency, had been published only five years before and was just beginning to gain traction in the wider world. At this dawning moment, AlphaPoint began its own journey to decentralize assets of all kinds and transform the traditional market into one that is more secure, transparent and suited for the future.

AlphaPoint is a white label exchange and brokerage technology service that has reached more than 150 customers across 35 countries, ultimately serving more than 1 million end users and facilitating more than 100 million yearly trades for its clients. In this way, it is a proven and established portal for accessing the future of wealth, asset ownership and decentralization by facilitating the tokenization of assets and launch of needed marketplaces.

“Our white label exchange software means that we have developed software that our customers can use to launch their own exchanges and brokerages around the world quickly and with their own branding,” explained AlphaPoint CEO Igor Telyatnikov. “We were pioneers in the industry and were the first to provide such a solution in this space almost seven years ago.”

The Advantages of Decentralized Assets

Among the customers who have taken advantage of AlphaPoint’s offerings to build novel token economies is First Bullion. Operating under regulations from the Cagayan Special Economic Zone (CEZA) in the Philippines, First Bullion is leveraging tokenization to open up a traditional asset market, enabling more fluidity, efficiency and inclusivity in the network and expanding investor participation. It has conducted a successful token raise for a plantation of agarwood — one of the most precious and expensive natural resources in the world.

By unlocking new value creation opportunities, and by simply improving the traditional process of asset distribution that financial institutions have relied on for decades, AlphaPoint is offering solutions to an economic system that is betraying cracks and inefficiencies now more than ever.

“Traditional markets have exchanges, brokerages, clearinghouses, custodians and market makers, and we see those players more and more getting involved in the cryptocurrency space,” Telyatnikov said. “At this moment in time, we are forcing the global population to go digital to an extent never before seen in history. It’s an interesting experiment, driven by a global health crisis we are watching closely to see the current financial infrastructure being tested significantly.”

Improving the Financial World in a Time of Crisis

Illustrated by the traditional market turmoil caused by the coronavirus outbreak, unprecedented stimulus from centralized forces like the Federal Reserve and the eradication of traditional savings assets, the world is ready for an alternative way to invest in and secure wealth.

“Securing and standardizing proof of ownership of assets is a huge advantage that could eventually resolve many issues globally and drive significant efficiency in commerce,” said Telyatnikov. “Exchange of digital currency and assets can automatically track and audit transactions, follow approval workflows and eliminate the need for title insurance in the future.”

If and when the coronavirus epidemic is curbed, there will still be no putting the genie back in the bottle — the ruptures in our traditional financial system have given way to a new era. People around the world are being forced to decentralize, economic stimulus is occurring at unprecedented rates and we are all looking at financial assets in new ways.

“We believe the coming months and potentially years will put significant strain on national currencies and financial institutions which will make Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies attractive as countries grapple with recoveries for their local economies,” Telyatnikov concluded. “Our core mission is to enable access to digital currencies and the demand for those services has grown over the last seven years and will likely accelerate in the next seven.”

The post With Traditional Markets in Turmoil, AlphaPoint Transforms Assets appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

via Bitcoin Magazine https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/with-traditional-markets-in-turmoil-alphapoint-transforms-assets?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=with-traditional-markets-in-turmoil-alphapoint-transforms-assets

IoT App Nodle Moves From Stellar Blockchain to Polkadot

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

IoT platform Nodle announced it is switching from the Stellar blockchain to a custom build on Parity Technologies’ Substrate network.

via CoinDesk https://www.coindesk.com/iot-app-nodle-moves-from-stellar-blockchain-to-polkadot

Ex-State Street Blockchain Team Drops DLT From New Data-Privacy Startup

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Data privacy startup Manetu goes live early next month with $3.5 million in backing from Castle Island Ventures and others.

via CoinDesk https://www.coindesk.com/ex-state-street-blockchain-team-drops-dlt-from-new-data-privacy-startup

View From Manila: Life During Coronavirus

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Leah Callon Butler works out where to stash her cash and tries to tell fact from fiction amid the shutdown in the Philippines.

via CoinDesk https://www.coindesk.com/view-from-manila-life-during-coronavirus

What Is Happening to Money?

https://ift.tt/12L05rn

Money — the magical power it has on people is almost universal. But whether we earn it, spend it or save it, we hardly ever think about the following questions: What is money? Why does it exist? What will money look like in the future? And why should we think too much about it? Our money works. Day in, day out, we use it without much effort. So what’s the problem?

As August Friedrich von Hayek pointed out, we humans constantly use things we don’t know anything about. For example, you don’t need to know anything about internal combustion engines in order to drive a car.  It’s no different with money. We don’t have to think deeply about money in order to use it successfully. This very fact is what makes us such a successful species and indicates how well our market and knowledge society functions.

Given recent developments, more and more people have started pondering the state of today’s money. This is indicative of the fact that strange things are happening in the realm of money.

What the general public is being told right now is that money can be created ad infinitum. With the coronavirus popping the so-called “Everything Bubble,” central banks have been interfering heavily by providing vast amounts of money — in all the different flavors that money or money-like substitutes exist in today’s financial world. On top of that, governments have set up stimulus packages in the trillions of dollars, exceeding anything the world has ever seen by far. 

In the wake of the enormous money tsunami unleashed onto economies and societies, people have begun (rightfully) to start asking the question: What has become of money? Is money even worth anything any longer?

A Battle of Devaluation

Others, among them many bitcoiners, are asking the question: How has money gotten to this point? In order to answer this question one has to go back to 1971, when the dollar, as the last national currency, was cut off from gold. Perhaps surprisingly, government currencies did not crash to zero at that time; rather they moved to a system of free exchange rates. 

Whereas the yellow precious metal had previously served as an anchor of value and price, henceforth a battle of national currencies was unleashed. This battle turned out to be quite costly. The different exchange rates of individual currency pairs led to an increase in currency risks. The latter increased transaction costs for international trade, which continue to weigh heavily on global trade to this day, representing a globally inefficient barter system on a national currency level.

Merchants, companies and politicians reacted to this situation. Within the political sphere, the U.S. dollar developed into the global unit of account for oil and other commodities due to U.S. hegemony being the strongest economic power around the globe. To this day, the U.S. dollar continues to function as an international reserve currency. In this way, the greenback facilitates global trade, but due to its importance it also let the U.S. exploit what is called its “privilège exorbitant.” The sheer dominance of the dollar and the advantages for U.S. markets are impressive. 

Financialization of the World

The entrepreneurial response has been to financialize the world and create derivatives and more and more hedge funds. The former are financial products whose primary objective is the contractual hedging of risks over time and space. The latter, hedge funds, are entities that trade in these financial products in the form of actively managed investment funds. It is, therefore, hardly surprising today that hedging transactions to minimize exchange rate risks account for a considerable proportion of total financial transactions.

Government currencies beget ever greater financialization. It’s the entrepreneurs’ reaction to them. So the ever-increasing number of derivatives used today is ultimately a consequence of the costly effects of this diversity of national currencies. Anyone wishing to send money across national borders today pays hefty fees. The reason: the reality of different currency areas requires the involvement of banking and financial institutions. Countless banks, partner banks and financial service providers from different countries are involved and want their “fair” share. So, ultimately, our current international monetary order resembles a global barter trade based on numerous fiat monies. Legacy systems and regulatory requirements make their efficient and rapid transfer difficult.

The various fintech companies of today are therefore also actors in the entrepreneurial reaction to this state of affairs. The most popular and successful among them are those who want to remove artificial barriers in international payment transactions resulting from this global barter. Upstart companies such as TransferWise or Revolut are making possible those things that banks have barely managed to do. Sending and receiving national currencies is not only becoming faster but also cheaper.

Bitcoin: The Ultimate Reaction

The entrepreneurial reaction in the form of financializing the world has its drawbacks though. It might help investors, entrepreneurs and corporations to deal with the hassle of government currencies, but the system at large is being inflated and becomes ever more fragile. Ironically, this is also the reason why we see central banks floating the markets now. They are reacting toward something that has itself been a reaction to central bank national currencies in the first place. The problem is a closed loop that creates an ever greater problem.

In 2009, a new player entered the stage: bitcoin. In a sense, the crypto asset is the final reaction that aims to break this closed loop of national currencies and financialization. Born at the height of the financial crisis, Bitcoin represents the antithesis to the existing financial order. It is an attempt to wrest money as a force influencing the economy, politics and society from the hands of centrally planned God players. 

Money again should be scarce and decentralized in order to tame the endless appetite of politicians, functionaries and economic giants. In the eyes of its supporters, Bitcoin is a counter-reaction to the shameful misuse of fiat money. Whether fiat money is supported by the state and issued by private banks or even corporations, the problem remains the same: It remains in centralized hands and users cannot keep self-sovereign control of it. 

Digital payment solutions that promise to turn current money into “fiat money 2.0” are merely putting “lipstick on a pig,” according to the argument of Bitcoin aficionados. This would not solve the fundamental problem of monetary socialism that is ailing our current monetary system. Money is still tied to intermediaries and every payment made is recorded in a central database controlled by a third party. Transactions can be censored at any time.

A Real Alternative

For this reason, a distinction must be made between digital currencies and cryptocurrencies. The latter can be exclusively controlled by individuals using cryptographic methods. So-called cryptographic values can thus be held and used directly by their owners and without intermediaries, similar to bearer instruments or material objects. Instead of being managed by an intermediary, cryptographic values are based on a blockchain. This is a distributed database that nobody has sole control over. A blockchain is ultimately a computer protocol, based on programming code. From a technical point of view, this turns the crypto assets into pure information and mathematics.

Consequently, Bitcoin stands for an alternative way of thinking about financial systems. Today, our financial system is a conglomerate of abstract constructs such as contracts, promises and balance sheets. This bears witness to the fact that our economy has been becoming ever more abstract. Money is no exception. The great philosopher and sociologist Georg Simmel already noted this tendency toward ever greater abstraction in his work “The Philosophy of Money.” 

There exists a hierarchy of money in today’s financial system: money in the narrower sense, which is also known as base money; and money in a broader, more abstract sense in the form of bank deposits, shadow banking IOUs, credit cards or mobile payment options. This development toward more abstract forms of money is driven by the financialization of the past decades, which has led to a stronger fusion of the economic and financial worlds. 

This amalgamate requires a financial alchemy that is now based on three basic building blocks: institutions (technology), incentives and human participation. In the existing financial system, the human element predominates. Contracts and promises are framed by institutions, but they are executed and enforced by human hands. 

An uneducated observer might regard Bitcoin as only the latest iteration in this constant evolution toward more abstraction. And although bitcoin truly is an abstract form of money, it is not a mere extension of this hierarchy of money in a seemingly endless game of financialization. It is a new form of base money for a new form of network or institution powered by what is today generally called an open, neutral, borderless, censorship-resistant public blockchain.

As a new form of base money, bitcoin will see financialization occur and with it, ever greater abstraction happening on top of the bitcoin base money. Interestingly enough though, on its most fundamental layer, the Bitcoin protocol reduces the human element to an unprecedented extent and gives technology and incentives more weight.

Incentives to keep the human element in check and technology are becoming more important due to mathematics, cryptography and computer science. A financial alchemy as we know it today, but one based on Bitcoin, is likely to depend less on the human element and more on computers, formulas and code in order to control, execute and enforce it. It’s the hope of bitcoiners that this sort of financial alchemy will be better in an objective sense than what we have today. 

The Endgame Is Upon Us

So let’s come back to the question asked in the beginning. What has become of money? Quo vadis, financial system? It seems obvious that our current financial system can only go down this one path: Ever more money is needed to keep it alive. Helicopter money is imminent in the U.S., another chapter in the tragic but inevitable trajectory of money.

Further reading: Zero Interest, Limitless Repo And QE4: The Federal Reserve’s Market Operations Explained

The ultimate chapter will finally be the adoption of what is referred to today as “modern monetary theory” or MMT. This theory, which ironically is not “modern” at all, holds that the state does not need creditors because it can create funds in its own currency at will. As a monetary sovereign, the state is, therefore, not dependent on borrowing on the market in the form of government bonds. It would much rather create the money itself via the central bank incorporated into it. 

MMT has been growing in popularity, probably because more and more people seem to intuitively feel the inevitable endgame. Other reasons are also more pragmatic: MMT is a blank check for all kinds of political projects such as “jobs,” “education” or “climate protection.” Fewer and fewer people are able to resist financial resources for political “necessities” — after all, the ultimate aim is to enrich society.

Another argument at the heart of MMT is that of justice. Today, bankers and other financial actors seek to enrich themselves in the process of financing of the state, so the argument goes. A few people get richer and richer at the expense of the masses. The fact that MMT wants to end the whole financial circus around interest rates and government bonds by depriving commercial banks of the opportunity to create money is thus met with approval, especially from the political left. The entrepreneurial reaction of financialization will not be made possible anymore; the state will take over all on its own.

Debating whether MMT will be more just than today’s system really doesn’t make any sense, in the end. Once money has lost all its meaning, there’s no point in debating any justice because there won’t be any left. Money will truly be worthless; people will only use it under a state of coercion. 

In the wake of this coronavirus crisis, the great triumvirate of our day and age — governments, central banks and banks — has set out to achieve the following: “Fiat iustitia et pereat mundus” or “Let justice be done, though the world perish.” The problem, however, is that in fiat money, there is really no iustitia left. Without justice, there is only pereat mundus… 

So, as an antithesis to endless growth and the meaningless of money, Bitcoin stands firm: Its network is limited to 21 million bitcoin units only. There will never be more bitcoin. That is the message of it all, and in a world in which “relatively scarce” money in the form of state fiat currencies will soon only be suitable for lame jokes, such a message is more important than ever. 

So if Bitcoin didn’t exist, it would have to be invented: As a psychological elixir of life, so to speak, it will give comfort and confidence to many more people in the light of the crazy money interventions of our times. What would we do without Bitcoin?

This is an op ed contribution by Pascal Hügli. Views expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Bitcoin Magazine or BTC Inc.

The post What Is Happening to Money? appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

via Bitcoin Magazine https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/what-is-happening-to-money?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=what-is-happening-to-money

From SARS to COVID-19: Hong Kong’s Path to an Asia Free Health Zone

https://ift.tt/12L05rn

Bats are a known harbor to a large variety of viruses. Humans rarely interact with bats directly (they are not a common delicacy or pet in China), but other wild animals, such as civets and pangolins, do. Seventeen years before the outbreak of COVID-19, a coronavirus already made the jump to humans, likely starting with a farmer in Guangdong province in Southern China.

2013: SARS

In the case of SARS, it remained locally contained until a fishmonger from the Guangdong region was checked into a hospital in the province’s capital of Guangzhou on January 31, 2003. There, he infected 30 nurses and doctors.

Ten days later, China notified the WHO, but another ten days later, one of the infected doctors traveled to Hong Kong to attend a wedding ceremony. Within a day of his arrival, he felt sick and checked himself into a local hospital, where he died two weeks later.

Shortly after, other hotel guests checked themselves into hospitals in Vietnam, Canada and Singapore. Throughout March and April, SARS spread quickly in Hong Kong, infecting 1,700 people (80 percent of whom were infected directly or indirectly through the Guangzhou doctor), killing 300.

By May, Hong Kong’s number of newly infected cases dropped to the single digits, and by June the area was declared free of any infections. While some researchers infected themselves months later while handling the virus, the outbreak was declared contained in July 2003.

The SARS outbreak shaped Hong Kong forever. The two-week school closures remain vivid in the memory of all students; street markets were dramatically altered in its aftermath; bathrooms were remodelled and plumbing remade (over 300 people were infected in a single block of an apartment building as the virus spread through the pipes). Temperature scanners were installed at border crossings and fever clinics were set up, usually via a separate entrance to a hospital. Many employers, especially those servicing large numbers of customers, made masks available to employees.

2019: A New Virus

When Wuhan doctor Li Wenliang posted in a WeChat group for doctors on December 30, 2019, about SARS having returned, people in Hong Kong opened their ears wide and local media began reporting on it. When the Chinese CDC and the WHO declared in mid-January that there is no evidence this new virus could be transmitted from human to human, Hong Kong did not believe them. The local authorities confirmed their first case by January 23, 2020. On the same day, Wuhan was put under complete lockdown and the over 7 million people of Hong Kong knew the drill. They stocked up on masks, soap and hand sanitizer, cancelled their travel plans or returned from their trips to China. Blockchain meetups began to cancel their gatherings and venues closed their doors to talks and seminars.

Remembering the cover up by Chinese authorities around SARS in early 2003, residents  assumed the worst. They were convinced the virus was already among them and every returnee from China was a potential carrier. With its unusually long incubation time and the possibilities of asymptomatic carriers, the “Wuhan Pneumonia,” as it was then referred to in Chinese and Hong Kongese media, was taken seriously.

Having only recently unionized themselves in response to the 2019 Hong Kong protests, concerned doctors and hospital staff began to strike for border closures. While the government initially rebuked such demands as “discriminatory,” the pressure from losing 40 percent of their medical staff during an emergency became too high; major land and sea crossings were closed and all those arriving had to put themselves into 14-day mandatory quarantine.

Even without any official orders and while authorities at the WHO and China CDC were still playing down the threat, local restaurants and streets became deserted and events were cancelled. The feared epidemic, however, did not materialize. One month after the first case was reported, and as the first cases were officially recovered, only 73 cases were known, most of which had been imported from China.

Moving Toward Greater Surveillance

As the disease began to spread in Europe, Hong Kongers let their guard down. They reappeared in malls and restaurants, congregated under the unusually clear skies in Hong Kong’s country parks and returned to their desks. Europe seemed far away.

Another month later, by March 25, the number of total cases had increased to 350; over 60 percent of cases were recorded just in the past ten days. Throughout March, Hong Kong authorities began to significantly restrict International travel. First, only arrivals from Italy, Korea and Hokkaido were instructed to be quarantined, then arrivals from parts of France and Germany, then the entire Schengen area, then U.S., Ireland and the U.K., finally the entire world. 

As of now, non-residents are not allowed to enter or even transfer through Hong Kong airport. All ferry and cruise ship terminals have been shut. Those arriving from northern Italy are put into a supervised quarantine complex run by the government at a cost of about $25 per day, including board. They are not allowed to leave their room or receive visitors for 14 days.

Everyone else has to put themselves under quarantine at home or in a hotel. Other members of their household are advised not to leave their unit either. Those under quarantine have to wear a simple PVC armband, like the kind you receive at a festival or club. It is sealed and has a printed QR code.

The QR code contains a simple case number. It can be scanned using an app available on the Google Play and Apple App stores and connected to a phone number. It scans nearby Wi-Fi signals and uses their relative strength to determine if an individual has left their home. The “Stay Home Safe” app has been criticized for not working properly and is likely not very functional.

Most of the quarantined travellers are returning students and those who have been on short-term employment in Europe. Unlike in neighboring Taiwan, where those under a quarantine order are strictly surveilled and receive regular visits from the authorities. Hong Kong’s police are unable to follow up with everyone under quarantine. Instead, they are asking the public for help. Telegram channels exist where people can dox anyone violating their quarantine orders. A recently announced version of the wristband will connect to its holder’s smartphone via Bluetooth. If the connection is cut (for example, because the phone is left at home while the holder ventures out) the authorities are alerted.

Consequences of Isolation

Hong Kongers take SARS-CoV-2 seriously, and unlike authorities in Europe and America, the Hong Kong administration will work hard to completely eradicate the disease from the city, as it did during the SARS outbreak in 2003. They believe society cannot “coexist” with shutdowns for too long, and allowing COVID-19 to spread through society threatens modern civilization.

So far, chances seem good that the virus can be eradicated in the city without bringing the economy to a dangerous halt, with frequent temperature checks, voluntary self confinement at home, zero tolerance for leaving home while feeling unwell and facemasks for everyone. Other neighboring countries, such as Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Singapore seem to be on a similar trajectory.

More worrying for now remains the medium-term future. Will travel to Europe and the United States resume this year? With outbreaks so massive, lack of testing and no political will to entirely contain this, it seems unlikely Hong Kong authorities will want to risk a third or fourth wave of imported cases.

It’s entirely conceivable we will see an “Asia Free Health Zone,” a loose union of places that are COVID free, and have policies in places to keep it that way. Tourists and business travelers are able to freely move between these areas, while everyone outside is required to quarantine for 14 days. With testing becoming more reliable and available, maybe this period can be shortened to just five days, in which no daily test is allowed to return positive.

The disruptions of daily life have already far exceeded those of the traumatic SARS outbreak 17 years ago. School closures are scheduled to be six times longer and might be extended beyond that. Even when Hong Kong was hardest hit by SARS, flights remained scheduled.

Cryptocurrency conferences such as Blockchain Week, Token2047 and SPOT are cancelled throughout July, and there is significant uncertainty around whether they can be held in the fall or even in 2021. Hong Kong lives off its massive financial services, accounting and logistics industries. It relies on food and pharmaceutical imports and has close to no domestic industry of its own.

It has a highly skilled and young workforce, but political considerations have made it difficult in the past to reinvent the economy on a more sustainable path. While “virtual commodities” like bitcoin and ether remain unregulated and freely convertible, the cryptocurrency industry is straight-up unwelcome among the multinational banks and local regulators.

Being highly internationally connected, Hong Kong’s fate depends on the economies around it. The efforts to contain COVID-19 cannot be locally isolated but have to be internationally coordinated. Authorities have to produce reliable data and look beyond their own population when implementing policies. Given the rise of isolationist nationalism and tense cross-Pacific relations, all of this seems more difficult than ever.

This is an op ed contribution by Leo Weese. Opinions expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Bitcoin Magazine or BTC Inc.

The post From SARS to COVID-19: Hong Kong’s Path to an Asia Free Health Zone appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

via Bitcoin Magazine https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/from-sars-to-covid-19-hong-kongs-path-to-an-asia-free-health-zone?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=from-sars-to-covid-19-hong-kongs-path-to-an-asia-free-health-zone

Bitcoin News Roundup for March 31, 2020

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

A popular Ethereum game is dropping crypto while France explores digital banks. It's CoinDesk's Markets Daily.

via CoinDesk https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-news-roundup-for-march-31-2020

Bitcoin World #7: Syria - How Bitcoin Can Help Refugees WBD204

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Location: BedfordDate: Tuesday, 17th MarchProject: MyjamRole: CEO

In 2011, growing levels of unrest over lack of employment, political freedom and high levels of corruption in Syria led to a small number of pro-democracy demonstrations.

Inspired by the ongoing Arab Spring revolution in nearby countries, the movement began gaining traction within Syria. The Syrian government retaliated with deadly force, leading to widespread calls for the president Bashar al-Assad to resign.

Disdain for the government grew, and with it, the government's attempts at suppression intensified, escalating into a civil war that has now gripped the country for over nine years. It is no longer a case of for/against Assad as numerous groups and nations have been dragged into the conflict.

The Syrian civil war is the second most deadly in the 21st century and has displaced millions. The total number of Syrian refugees is predicted to be over nine million with many heading to Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt, with many migrating through Europe.

For the people of Syria, Bitcoin offers enormous advantages over cash. Within Syria, a large percentage of the population does not have access to banking services, and the Syrian Lira suffers from high inflation. For refugees, there is a risk of theft and confiscation as they make their way to new countries. Once settled, Bitcoin is also a perfect tool for remittances to their families back in Syria.

In this interview, I talk to Moe Ghashim, a Syrian Bitcoiner now living in the UK. We discuss the ongoing civil war in Syria, the devastating physical and economic damage to the country, and how Bitcoin is a perfect tool to help refugees.

via The Let's Talk Bitcoin Network https://letstalkbitcoin.com/blog/post/bitcoin-syria-how-bitcoin-refugees

Ex-Royal Mint Team’s Crypto Insurance Now Provides $1M Cover for All Civic Wallets

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Coincover is now providing automatic insurance cover on all new signups for Civic's hot wallet.

via CoinDesk https://www.coindesk.com/ex-royal-mint-teams-crypto-insurance-now-provides-1m-cover-for-all-civic-wallets

5 Tips For Minimizing Your Bitcoin and Crypto Taxes

https://ift.tt/12L05rn

W2s and 1099s have been sent out and tax season is officially in full swing here in the United States. For those operating in the world of bitcoin or altcoin investing, this time of year can have added stress as reporting gains and losses for your crypto trades can be a cumbersome task. While the reporting can be difficult at times, there are many things you can do to help minimize your bitcoin and other cryptocurrency gains and, in turn, your tax liability. This article discusses a few of these tips and tricks. 

Open a Crypto 401(k) or IRA Retirement Account

Retirement accounts like IRAs and 401(k)s are popular vehicles used in the world of investing. These types of investment accounts come with tax incentives and can help shield profits from the tax man. By using a retirement account like a self-directed IRA to purchase cryptocurrencies, you can defer paying tax (sometimes you can even pay none at all). 

This is contrary to using a traditional cryptocurrency exchange where the income generated from selling or trading crypto is taxed during that same year. Cryptocurrency IRAs can be an effective tax reduction tool — especially if you believe in the long-term value of cryptocurrencies. 

Keep in mind that there is a deadline to open and contribute to your self-directed cryptocurrency IRA. The period in which you can make a contribution for a given tax year is from January 1 of that year until you file your tax return. Contributions cannot be made after your filing deadline (i.e., April 15 of the following year).

Look into Using a Specific Identification Costing Method

After the new IRS cryptocurrency tax guidance came out in October 2019, it clarified that specific identification costing methods could be used when calculating your gains and losses for your cryptocurrency transactions provided that you had records to specifically identify your crypto. 

This sounds a lot more complex than it is. Essentially, pre-2019, most bitcoin and crypto investors were using the common First In, First Out (FIFO) calculation method to calculate their gains and losses from their trades (the cryptocurrencies that you bought first are sold first) because the IRS had not yet specified whether specific ID was allowed. Now that the new guidance makes this clear, specific identification is a great way to reduce your gains.

In using this strategy, you want to specifically identify and “sell” the cryptocurrencies that you bought at the highest price first. For active traders, this slight change can lead to huge tax savings. 

Cryptocurrency tax calculators are especially good at applying these tax minimization algorithms like Highest In, First Out (HIFO) and Last In, First Out (LIFO). 

However, before you can use a specific identification method, you have to be able to specifically identify a unit of cryptocurrency as the IRS outlines:

To specifically identify a unit of cryptocurrency, you must have records of the following information:

1. The date and time each unit was acquired;
2. Your basis and the fair market value of each unit at the time it was acquired;
3. The date and time each unit was sold, exchanged or otherwise disposed of; and
4. The fair market value of each unit when sold, exchanged or disposed of, and the amount of money or the value of property received for each unit.

If you have this data for your transactions, you are able to use specific identification methods like LIFO or HIFO which can drastically lower your cryptocurrency capital gains taxes.

Hold for Longer Than One Year

Similarly to the world of investing in stocks, holding onto a cryptocurrency investment for longer than one year pushes you out to the long-term capital gains tax rates. These are typically much lower than the short-term capital gains tax rates which apply when you have sold or traded out of your investment after holding onto it for less than one year. 

Additionally, if you are able to identify your cryptocurrencies specifically, you can take advantage of this strategy further. You can specify that the coins you “sell” are the coins that you have held for longer than one year’s time. This will qualify you for the long-term capital gains rate and will help reduce your overall tax liability!

Invest Your Crypto Capital Gains into a Qualified Opportunity Zone Fund

Opportunity Zone Funds became part of the tax code with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. The IRS defines an Opportunity Zone as an “economically-distressed community where new investments, under certain conditions, may be eligible for preferential tax treatment.” Put simply, the communities on the receiving end of these funds benefit from revitalization while investors gain tax benefits from investing.

When an investor sells an asset that produces capital gains, he or she can roll any amount of the gain into an Opportunity Zone Fund within 180 days of the sale. The investor can then defer capital gains taxes on that amount until December 31, 2026, or until the Opportunity Zone Fund investment is sold or exchanged (whichever comes first).

For bitcoin investors who have large amounts of capital gains, rolling these gains into an opportunity fund investment can be a powerful strategy for reducing your tax bill. 

Use Cryptocurrency Tax Software

Finally, one of the best ways to fully maximize your tax savings on your crypto investments is to plug all of your trade history into a cryptocurrency tax software. Bitcoin and crypto tax software platforms have built-in tools to analyze and optimize your gains and losses reporting for tax minimization. Importing your trade history is as easy as connecting your cryptocurrency exchange accounts. Once your historical trades are in, these programs will then generate your tax reports with the click of a button.

This is a guest post by David Kemmerer, co-founder of CryptoTrader.Tax. Views expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Bitcoin Magazine or BTC Inc. This article is for informational purposes only and should not be considered tax or accounting advice. Always seek guidance from a tax accounting professional when assessing your individual tax situation.

The post 5 Tips For Minimizing Your Bitcoin and Crypto Taxes appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

via Bitcoin Magazine https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/5-tips-for-minimizing-your-bitcoin-and-crypto-taxes?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=5-tips-for-minimizing-your-bitcoin-and-crypto-taxes

Plugging into C-Lightning: The Future of Lightning Plugins Is Bright

https://ift.tt/12L05rn

Trying to navigate the different Lightning implementations can be a challenge. Although there were initially three implementations: c-lightning, eclair and lnd, more continue to come out of the woodwork all the time with ptarmigan, rust-lightning and Electrum the most recent to enter the fray.

Often, it seems developers and aspiring developers choose to use or contribute to a particular implementation based on the language it is written in. Familiar with Scala? Choose eclair. Excited by the potential of Rust? Choose rust-lightning. However, there are other key considerations such as the aims, design philosophies, use cases and trade offs of the different implementations. In addition, just because an implementation is written in a certain language doesn’t necessarily mean that you are required to code in that language to contribute to the ecosystem around that implementation.

The emerging contrasts between the lnd and rust-lightning implementations were explored on a panel at Breaking Bitcoin 2019 and in this Bitcoin Magazine article. Whilst lnd seeks to take the load off developers and provide ultimate functionality out of the box, rust-lightning seeks to offer ultimate flexibility with developers encouraged to bring their own components and slot them in. 

In contrast, c-lightning offers a third way. It maintains a robust and secure core that is designed to not be tweaked or replaced by the developer. Flexibility and additional functionality is available through the use of plugins that can be written by the developer in various languages such as Python or Go. The aim is for the c-lightning ecosystem to emerge as a testbed for experimenting with new cutting edge features, previously the terrain of other implementations such as lnd and eclair, without sacrificing the performance and robustness of the core.

Plugins are subprocesses that are started by the main lightningd daemon. They work in cooperation with lightningd. Any plugins that are surplus to requirements do not need to be run. Some plugins do need certain hooks to be introduced into lightningd that will notify the plugins about internal events and/or alter the behavior of lightningd.

The First C-Lightning Plugins

Blockstream has a series of Medium blog posts to showcase some of the first plugins written by the c-lightning team. These include the “Summary” plugin which provides a summary of node status including satoshis onchain, what that amounts to in fiat terms, number of peers, number of channels, how balanced are they, etc. 

The “Probe” plugin determines whether there is a route to make a payment to a certain node in the network, returns the fee level required and indicates which channel(s) are preventing a successful payment. This can be used to prepare the groundwork for a future payment or merely to explore the topology of the network. 

The “Prometheus” plugin collects data on the performance of your node to provide visualizations and alerts. With all of these plugins you could choose to contribute to the plugin by adding a feature or building your own from scratch.

Community Plugins

In total there are 16 “community curated” plugins for c-lightning available at the time of writing. These include an autopilot plugin ported from a library built by Rene Pickhardt. Autopilots decide which nodes to open channels with on behalf of the user. The user needs to tell the autopilot the percentage of funds under their control, the number of channels to be opened and the minimum channel size. The autopilot also needs to be notified by lightningd when channels are opened and closed by remote parties. Building an effective autopilot is challenging as user preferences, such as maximizing the probability of a successful payment, can conflict with network health, such as the level of decentralization. 

There is also a rebalance plugin, which moves liquidity between the user’s channels to ensure there is sufficient incoming and outgoing liquidity; and an invoiceless payment plugin, which allows a user to make a payment without first receiving an invoice. When running c-lightning you can choose to turn on or off any combination of these plugins.

As Lisa Neigut (@niftynei) said in her tweetstorm, c-lightning doesn’t provide “a standardized HTTP accessible interface out of the box nor an authentication scheme” for third-party app developers like lnd does. But community-built plugins offer the opportunity to build equivalents for c-lightning that exist in other implementations. 

Kristaps Kaupe has started a GitHub repo for plugins emulating some lnd commands. Other plugin authors worth highlighting are Richard Bondi, who has written a collection of plugins in Go, including a plugin to ban peers; fiatjaf, who has written a plugin implementing LN URL to help the payer interact with the payee; and Conor Scott, who has written a number of plugins in Python including a plugin to create channels with top capacity nodes. Finally, Justin Moon has built a proof-of-concept plugin to fund Lightning channels with hardware wallets.

The Challenges of Plugins

Although this plugin architecture seems to offer the best of both worlds, it does present some challenges and potential downsides. It is not clear at this stage whether the ultimate flexibility of rust-lightning will mean it is better suited for existing Bitcoin wallets seeking to integrate Lightning into their existing codebase.

In addition, as the number of community plugins multiply and the value of Bitcoin relying on these plugins increases, security and curation are going to be critical. There will inevitably be duplication and overlap between plugins. 

Curation is challenging because it effectively recommends (unofficially, caveat emptor) which plugins should be used and which shouldn’t. Without curation, it becomes impossible for users and developers to get started quickly without examining all of the competing plugins. There is an argument that some languages (and some developers!) are better suited to writing security-critical software. However, the particularly dangerous JSON-RPC methods can only be installed with the developer option and are only intended for testing and debugging with the assistance of the c-lightning team. There is also guidance available on the dangers a plugin developer might incur when taking advantage of a particular hook that can change the default behavior of c-lightning.

It is not the case that this approach creates a perfectly permissionless environment for developers, as some future plugins will still require additional hooks to be merged into the c-lightning codebase by the c-lightning team. For example, a hook to facilitate a watchtower plugin is in discussion at the time of writing. It is possible that some hooks won’t be merged due to security concerns or implementation details.

It remains to be seen whether instances of c-lightning nodes running different sets of plugins cause compatibility issues between c-lightning nodes or with other implementations. It is already challenging to ensure compatibility between different implementations, assuming c-lightning nodes are all running the same release. Experimentation is important, though, and lessons from this experimentation will prove invaluable when finalizing the BOLT specifications for the Lightning protocol.

London Bitcoin Devs

The opportunity to build and play around with new plugins in a wide selection of different languages is drawing developers into building on top of c-lightning. Antoine Poinsot (@darosior) came to London to present at the London Bitcoin Devs meetup in March 2020. Poinsot is developing a plugin manager called Reckless which will offer a selection of plugins to the user and start the chosen plugins dynamically. He has also built an RPC command hook which allows a plugin to take over any RPC command and change it. This is potentially reckless and experimental as RPC commands are how users interact with lightningd. If RPC commands can be accepted, rejected or changed it opens up a number of use cases but also possibilities for users to lose their funds.

This RPC command hook formed the basis of Rusty Russell’s most recent presentation at the online Boltathon 2. There is still a whole swathe of plugins that could be built from trampoline routing to HODL invoices, and Christian Decker expects “There’s already a plugin that does that” to become a meme. In that case, Decker and the c-lightning community may just have their work cut out curating this emerging jungle of plugins.

Thanks to Antoine Poinsot and Christian Decker for their contributions to this article.

The post Plugging into C-Lightning: The Future of Lightning Plugins Is Bright appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

via Bitcoin Magazine https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/plugging-into-c-lightning-the-future-of-lightning-plugins-is-bright?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=plugging-into-c-lightning-the-future-of-lightning-plugins-is-bright

Crypto Holders Still Face Issues Reporting Tax Liabilities, Survey of CPAs Finds

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Certified Public Accountants familiar with crypto largely believe their clients might face audits or penalties for under-reporting holdings in past years, according to a survey.

via CoinDesk https://www.coindesk.com/crypto-holders-still-face-issues-reporting-tax-liabilities-survey-of-cpas-finds

Bitcoin’s Recent Recovery Won’t Salvage a Terrible Month for Prices

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

While bitcoin has recovered sharply from recent lows below $4,000, the cryptocurrency is still on track to end March with a double-digit price loss.

via CoinDesk https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoins-recent-recovery-wont-salvage-a-terrible-month-for-prices

‘MLB Champions’ Downplays ETH, Aims for Mass Market in New Game Reboot

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Blockchain game MLB Champions is rolling out a slew of new gameplay features while reducing its reliance on Ethereum.

via CoinDesk https://www.coindesk.com/mlb-champions-downplays-eth-aims-for-mass-market-in-new-game-reboot

Australian Crypto Exchange CoinSpot Wins ISO Security Accreditation

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

CoinSpot says it's jumped through the hoops to meet the internationally recognized ISO standard.

via CoinDesk https://www.coindesk.com/australian-crypto-exchange-coinspot-wins-iso-security-accreditation

Crypto Markets Can Never Close, and That’s a Good Thing

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Should markets temporarily close even temporarily to calm investor panic? Noelle Acheson says no while crypto markets can’t. Both are good things.

via CoinDesk https://www.coindesk.com/crypto-markets-can-never-close-and-thats-a-good-thing

Mt. Gox Deadline Extended Again After Creditors Criticize Refund Proposal

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Mt. Gox's bankruptcy trustee is holding off on filing a civil rehabilitation plan to the Tokyo District Court after creditors took issue with it.

via CoinDesk https://www.coindesk.com/mt-gox-deadline-extended-again-after-creditors-criticize-refund-proposal

Bitcoin, Stablecoins, DeFi and Privacy: How COVID-19 Is Changing Key Crypto Narratives

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

How the once-in-a-generation COVID-19 pandemic is shifting the way with think and talk about different parts of the crypto industry - from bitcoin to DeFi to stablecoins.

via CoinDesk https://www.coindesk.com/how-covid-19-is-changing-key-crypto-narratives-bitcoin-stablecoins-defi-and-privacy

How Bitcoin’s Price Slump Is Changing the Geography of Mining

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Although China remains the leading region for bitcoin mining, the coronavirus downturn is changing the picture in other geographies.

via CoinDesk https://www.coindesk.com/how-bitcoins-price-slump-is-changing-the-geography-of-mining

How Central Banks Could Use Digital Cash to Deliver Universal Basic Income

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Central banks are well placed to deliver regular, no-questions-asked monthly payments to everyone, and to manage any ensuing inflation.

via CoinDesk https://www.coindesk.com/how-central-banks-could-use-digital-cash-to-deliver-universal-basic-income

French Central Bank Puts Out Call for Digital Currency Experiments

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

France's central bank is calling for digital currency proposals with an experiment that moves it to the front of Europe's CBDC debate.

via CoinDesk https://www.coindesk.com/french-central-bank-puts-out-call-for-digital-currency-experiments

Chain Reaction - ZenLedger's Pat Larsen: Navy Pilot To Crypto Startup CEO

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Host Tom Shaughnessy talks to Pat Larsen, CEO, and co-founder of ZenLedger. They discuss the issues with filing taxes when you have cryptocurrencies, what gaps ZenLedger fills, possible future use cases, and more.

Key Points

Most CPAs have no idea how to handle cryptocurrency in tax filings.Using ZenLedger saves you hours of aggregating information manually.

Tweetable Quotes

'œThe IRS obviously cares. They've sent out tens of thousands of warning letters. They're using blockchain analytic software. So I think the enforcement actions are stepping up, there will be audits, so you just want to take care of yourself.' '"Pat Larsen

'œAt its core, we're saving you time, we're giving you accurate reports, and we're giving you peace of mind whether you're in a corporate capacity or an individual capacity.' '"Pat Larsen'œYou're going big wave surfing & you just have to pick a place that has good waves & you need to trust that you've trained with your skills to be able to ride those waves, & if you fall down as you inevitably will, that you're gonna get back up & ride another wave.' '"Pat Larsen

Support The Show

• ZenLedger is the official tax software of Chain Reaction for crypto investors and accountants. Get a 15% discount when you use code Chain15.

To sponsor this top crypto research podcast, email Tom@DelphiDigital.io

Disclosures: This podcast is strictly informational and educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any tokens or securities or to make any financial decisions. Do not trade or invest in any project, tokens, or securities based upon this podcast episode. The host may personally own tokens that are mentioned on the podcast. Tom Shaughnessy owns tokens in ETH, BTC, STX, SNX, RUNE, sUSD and HNT. Let's Talk Bitcoin is a distribution partner for the Chain Reaction Podcast, and our current show features paid sponsorships which may be featured at the start, middle and/or the end of the episode. These sponsorships are for informational purposes only and are not a solicitation to use any product or service. Guest host Kevin Kelly holds tokens in BTC, ETH, RUNE, and LEO.

Music Attribution:

Cosmos by From The Dust | https://soundcloud.com/ftdmusic

via The Let's Talk Bitcoin Network https://letstalkbitcoin.com/blog/post/chain-reaction-zenledger-pat-larsen-navy-pilot-crypto-startup-ceo

Bitcoin News Roundup for March 30, 2020

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Bitcoin is back and Breitling puts watches on the blockchain. It's CoinDesk's Markets Daily.

via CoinDesk https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-news-roundup-for-march-30-2020

Japan’s Crypto Garage Is Raising the Bar for Bitcoin-Based Cryptofinance Products

https://ift.tt/12L05rn

This is a sponsored article provided by Crypto Garage.

At Tokyo-based Crypto Garage, innovators are working to create a wide array of specialized cryptofinance tools to help facilitate a transformation of our financial world into one based on the values of Bitcoin: transparency, security and decentralization.

“We see a world where there is a platform for various types of assets that can be transacted without counterparty risk,” as Justin Dhingra, chief cryptofinance officer at Crypto Garage, put it. “Our service is not here to replace the existing financial infrastructure, but instead give the end customer, ranging from consumers to institutions, a choice to conduct different types of financial transactions on a peer-to-peer (P2P) basis.” 

Crypto Garage’s DNA in Bitcoin

Crypto Garage seeks to become the leading architect of products in the cryptofinance space, which it defines as a specialized field that integrates modeling and structuring from financial engineering, cryptography and Bitcoin technology.

In terms of how this vision can interact with the world of Bitcoin, Crypto Garage believes that security is paramount for building a financial infrastructure and that Bitcoin is the only protocol that is suitable for a secure network.

The company has been active since 2018, when it was founded as a partnership between Digital Garage, Tokyo Tanshi and Blockstream. Digital Garage is a Tokyo Stock Exchange-listed company and started its research in the Bitcoin protocol in 2015 in collaboration with some leading Bitcoin Core developers. DG Lab, Digital Garage’s research and development organization, continues to work on advancing the Bitcoin protocol by supporting core protocol developers. Digital Garage is also an early investor in Blockstream. Tokyo Tanshi is a well-established money market broker in Japan with 100 years of history.

Pushing Bitcoin Cryptofinance Applications Forward

Building up a company that seeks to leverage the concepts of financial engineering, cryptography and Bitcoin technology has not been a straightforward or easy task.

“Our approach is to go after long-term tech but still win short-term business,” Dhingra said. “In  2019, we broke ground on the announcement of our digital asset settlement application called SETTLENET on Blockstream’s Liquid Network. With SETTLENET,  digital assets can be settled simultaneously using atomic swaps. The instant settlement is an attractive feature for trading purposes where one counterparty no longer needs to worry who pays first when settling a trade.   SETTLENET seeks to apply the decentralized, P2P, trust-minimized principles of Bitcoin to the trading community.”

SETTLENET’s expected launch date is set for June 2020.

For the long term, Crypto Garage aims to spread cryptofinance products through Bitcoin, Lightning and the Liquid Network, and one key technology it is working on is the Discreet Log Contracts (DLCs) protocol.

DLCs enable the creation of monetary contracts directly on the Bitcoin blockchain, using an oracle for determining its outcome, but without having to reveal the existence of the contract to the oracle. As with regular contracts, parties first need to agree on the terms, such as the different payouts for the possible outcomes. They then pre-commit their collaterals in a Bitcoin transaction broadcast to the blockchain, and can unilaterally redeem their payouts at contract maturity using a signature from the oracle over the outcome value. Using the Bitcoin blockchain removes the need for an intermediary third party, while also mitigating counterparty risks.

The first natural applications of this kind of technology are financial contracts, such as options, futures and derivatives and Crypto Garage is testing the possibilities of this technology. In 2019, Crypto Garage traded a financial contract linked to the price of BTC/USD with Blockstream and a U.S. equity option settled in bitcoin with Skew, a crypto derivatives data platform company, using DLCs.

From the lessons learned from 2019, Crypto Garage is working on an application based on DLCs called P2P Derivatives that enables trust minimized derivative transactions between two parties. Crypto Garage expects to release an MVP version of the application around May 2020.  With the MVP, Crypto Garage hopes to stir interest for further development and usage of DLCs and P2P cryptofinance products.

To continue to push Bitcoin-based cryptofinance applications, Crypto Garage wants to see more progress in the development of best practices for open-source technology within the Bitcoin industry. As one example, the P2P derivative product is based on open-source specifications for DLCs jointly developed with Suredbits. Crypto Garaga is actively looking for more contributions to these specifications, so if you are interested, feel free to reach out directly on the GitHub repository. If you have an interest in beta testing its coming P2P derivatives application, contact the Crypto Garage team at info@cryptogarage.co.jp. Crypto Garage will continue to work closely with the Bitcoin developer community and contribute with OSS.

Make History With a Decentralized Trustless Financial Infrastructure

At Crypto Garage, the team believes that the role of a thriving and decentralized trustless financial system will be a hugely transformative force for people all around the world.

The financial market is currently a selective market limited to professional financial institutions and corporations, and derivatives contracts are traded based on the trustworthiness of one party able to pay at the expiration of the contract. A good portion of the world still does not have access to the financial market and financial contracts due to not having a bank account and cannot enter into financial contracts freely with anyone in the world. Crypto Garage hopes features like atomic swaps for instant settlement and DLCs for a more trust minimized financial contract framework will bring us closer to a decentralized financial system.

The post Japan’s Crypto Garage Is Raising the Bar for Bitcoin-Based Cryptofinance Products appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

via Bitcoin Magazine https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/japans-crypto-garage-is-raising-the-bar-for-bitcoin-based-cryptofinance-products?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=japans-crypto-garage-is-raising-the-bar-for-bitcoin-based-cryptofinance-products

German Startup Pitches Decentralized ID for Prescription Pickup During COVID-19

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Coronavirus drove blockchain startup Spherity to develop a decentralized ID prototype for interacting with healthcare providers and pharmacies.

via CoinDesk https://www.coindesk.com/german-startup-pitches-decentralized-id-for-prescription-pickup-during-covid-19

The Bitcoin Game #76: Andrew 'Cybergibbons' Tierney

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Welcome to episode 76 of‚The Bitcoin Game, sponsored by eToro. I'm Rob Mitchell.

Today's interview is with Andrew Tierney, otherwise known online as Cybergibbons. Andrew hacks everything from oil rigs at his day job, to Cryptocurrency hardware wallets and smart locks in his free time. We conducted this interview a bit before COVID-19 had taken over the planet, back in the good old days (a few weeks ago), when we were more worried about malware than going to the grocery store without an N95 mask. Andrew and I discuss hacking hardware wallets, general security, IoT devices, home routers, his day job as a hacker for hire, and other stuff too. I hope you enjoy!

---

EPISODE LINKS

Andrew's Twitter
https://twitter.com/cybergibbons

Andrew's Blog
https://cybergibbons.com

Pen Test Partners
https://www.pentestpartners.com

Bitfi Hardware Wallet Hack Article
https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/30/john-mcafees-unhackable-bitfi-wallet-got-hacked-again

Abe Snowman
https://twitter.com/AbeSnowman

Oversoft
https://twitter.com/oversoftnl

Saleem
https://twitter.com/saleemrash1d

Shadow Ops
https://twitter.com/Shadow0pz

Trezor
https://trezor.io

Ledger
https://www.ledger.com

BC Vault
https://bc-vault.com/shop/bc-vault

Multisig
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Multisignature

Shamir's Secret Sharing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamir%27s_Secret_Sharing

Secure Element (blog post)
https://www.intrinsic-id.com/pros-cons-secure-elements

Pen Test
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penetration_test

Caravan Multisig (Unchained Capital)
https://unchained-capital.com/blog/the-caravan-arrives

Rubber Ducky
https://latesthackingnews.com/2017/06/16/20456

OpenWrt
https://openwrt.org

Tomato
https://advancedtomato.com

Ubiquiti Routers
https://www.ui.com/products/#edgemax

---

THE BITCOIN GAME IS SPONSORED BY ETORO

Are you interested in getting into the cryptocurrency markets but don't know where to start building your portfolio? eToro has the answer for you. It's called CopyTrader. With CopyTrader, you can automatically copy every trade of eToro's top crypto traders at the exact price in real time. No need to study up on markets or develop your own strategies. Simply sign up and copy the trader of your choice. Any profits they make, you do too (proportional to your investment). With eToro, you get access to the world's most popular cryptocurrencies, with transparent trading fees, all in one easy-to-use app.

Join now at b.tc/etorogame.

---

While much of a Bitcoiner's time is spent in the world of digital assets, sometimes it's nice to own a physical representation of the virtual things you care about. For just the price of a cup of coffee or two (at Starbucks), you can own the world-famous Bitcoin Keychain.

As Seen On
The Guardian ' TechCrunch ' Engadget ' Ars Technica ' Popular Mechanics
Infowars ' Maxim ' Inc. ' Vice ' RT ' Bitcoin Magazine ' VentureBeat
PRI ' CoinDesk ' Washington Post ' Forbes ' Fast Company

Bitcoin Keychains - BTCKeychain.com

---

CREDITS

All music in this episode was created by me, or is from a jam with me, Mike Coleman and Steve Lunn.

The Bitcoin Game box art was created from an illustration by Rock Barcellos.

Lightning Network tips:
https://tippin.me/@TheBTCGame

Bitcoin tipping address:3AYvXZseExRn3Dum8z9tFUk9jtQK6KMU4g

---

Note: We migrated our RSS feed (and primary content host) to Libsyn; SoundCloud is just a legacy feed.

via The Let's Talk Bitcoin Network https://letstalkbitcoin.com/blog/post/the-bitcoin-game-76-andrew-cybergibbons-tierney

Crypto Derivatives Platform Gets Nod From London Stock Exchange’s Software Tester

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

ZUBR, which only opened for trading in early March, said its trading software had been successfully stress-tested by Exactpro

via CoinDesk https://www.coindesk.com/crypto-derivatives-platform-gets-nod-from-london-stock-exchanges-software-tester

Binance CEO Says Leveraged Tokens Were Cut Because Users ‘Don’t Read Warning Notices’

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Binance only listed FTX leveraged tokens two months ago, but users have struggled to get to grips with the complex products.

via CoinDesk https://www.coindesk.com/cz-binance-delisted-ftx-leveraged-tokens-as-users-didnt-understand-them

USD Stablecoins Are Surging, but Zero Interest Rates Complicate Business Model

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

With investors seeking safety in dollars, stablecoins have seen inflows of more than $2 billion since the crash. But, says our columnist Hasu, zero interest rates threaten business revenue.

via CoinDesk https://www.coindesk.com/usd-stablecoins-are-surging-but-zero-interest-rates-complicate-business-model

Opera’s Android Web Browser Adds Access to .Crypto Domains for 80M Users

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

The “blockchain-ready” web browser has added support for Unstoppable Domains’ decentralized .crypto websites.

via CoinDesk https://www.coindesk.com/operas-android-web-browser-adds-access-to-crypto-domains-for-80m-users

Telegram Hopes It Can Still Sell Tokens to Non-US Investors After Court Ruling

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

The firm has asked a court to clarify if it can still issue its tokens to non-U.S. investors after a preliminary injunction blocked the issuance in the U.S.

via CoinDesk https://www.coindesk.com/telegram-hopes-it-can-still-sell-tokens-to-non-us-investors-after-court-ruling

Bitcoin Diverges From Falling Equities With $500 Price Rise

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Bitcoin rose by 7 percent early on Monday even as the risk-off mood returned to the traditional markets.

via CoinDesk https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-diverges-from-falling-equities-with-500-price-rise

US Cash in Circulation Sees Biggest Increase Since the Y2K Bug Panic, Fed Reserve Data Indicates

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

U.S. currency in circulation has experienced its largest increase in over 20 years.

via CoinDesk https://www.coindesk.com/us-cash-in-circulation-sees-biggest-increase-since-the-y2k-bug-panic-fed-reserve-data-indicates

Crypo Lender Celsius Taps Chainlink’s Price Oracles for Interest Rate ‘Decentralization’

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Celsius Network has teamed up with oracle provider Chainlink to make the price feeds it uses to calculate asset interest rates less centralized.

via CoinDesk https://www.coindesk.com/crypo-lender-celsius-taps-chainlinks-price-oracles-for-interest-rate-decentralization

Investors in Polychain Capital’s Crypto Hedge Fund Saw 1,332% Gains – If They Stomached the Dips

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

An investor document obtained by CoinDesk charts the dramatic ups and downs of the first four years of Polychain Capital’s cryptocurrency hedge fund.

via CoinDesk https://www.coindesk.com/investors-in-polychain-capitals-crypto-hedge-fund-saw-1332-gains-if-they-stomached-the-dips

Microsoft Files Patent Application for Crypto Mining System Powered by Human Activity

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

A Microsoft patent application details a human-powered crypto mining project by collecting data as people exercise and watch ads.

via CoinDesk https://www.coindesk.com/microsoft-files-patent-application-for-crypto-mining-system-powered-by-human-activity

Can Bitcoin Survive the Climate Change Revolution?

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

If ESG is becoming the new buzzword among impact-minded financial institutions, where does energy-intensive bitcoin fit in?

via CoinDesk https://www.coindesk.com/can-bitcoin-survive-the-climate-change-revolution

Riot Blockchain Says Coronavirus Outbreak Might Hurt Crypto Mining Farms

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Riot Blockchain's 10-K filing captures the fear COVID-19 is sowing in American companies.

via CoinDesk https://www.coindesk.com/riot-blockchain-says-coronavirus-outbreak-might-hurt-crypto-mining-farms

Singapore Crypto Exchange Eyes US Expansion After Registering With FinCEN

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Singapore-based Bitget has registered with the U.S. Treasury Department as a money services business, the first step to launching operations in the country.

via CoinDesk https://www.coindesk.com/singapore-crypto-exchange-eyes-us-expansion-after-registering-with-fincen

Bear Market Over? Charts on Bitcoin and ASX 200 Suggest Otherwise

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

U.S stocks are showing signs of life amid the recent $2 trillion stimulus package. Yet it may be a while before confidence is restored.

via CoinDesk https://www.coindesk.com/bear-market-over-charts-on-bitcoin-and-asx-200-suggest-otherwise

Let's Talk Bitcoin! #432 How MKRs Stablecoin Survived the Crash, Smart Contract Bugs and Full Decentralization

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

In the aftermath of the so-called "Black Thursday" crash from several weeks ago, MakerDAO's"DAI" ethereum backed dollar pegged stablecoin came untethered and was, for a time at least, functionally insolvent. In the aftermath, holders of the MKR token which allows holders to participate in governance decisions opted to do a couple of things, including adding the centralized stablecoin USDC to the list of acceptable collateral, which drew both condemnations mostly around centralized risk being added to the system and praise for making the system more robust against sudden ETH collateral price crashes.

And now most recently, the Maker Foundation which had held some centralized control over the protocol completed their long-planned exit with all authorities now transferred to the holders of MKR tokens, removing both a point of control which had been used as a safety check and a point of risk in that centralized control can be co-opted and used to disrupt a system as we've seen in other examples.

On today's show we're digging into:

• What is Decentralized Finance (DeFi)?
• How does decentralized finance differ from traditional banking?
• Fractional reserve vs over-collateralized loans
• Liberty Dollars's missing collateral and USDC's risky name
• MakerDAO, DAI dollar-pegged stablecoins and how this DeFi stablecoin actually works
• SDAI (Single Collateral DAI) vs. DAI (Multi Collateral DAI)
• Smart contract 'vaults'
• Lending money to yourself: 150%, 300%, insurance and auctions
• What happened on 'Black Thursday' as the price of Ether dropped more than 50%
• What happened when transaction fees went through the roof
• A bug in the collateral auction smart contract
• A surprising crash: as the system became functionally insolvent the price of the dollar pegged stablecoin actually went up.
• Oasis.app vaults are transparent and pretty interesting,take a look!
• Loaning yourself money using your ether (at interest)
• How MakerDAO's approach differs from SALT Lending
• The other half of the DAI system: saving vault smart contracts
• DAI Saving Rate (DSR) and the new certificate of deposit
• The reward for using MKR tokens to administer a good system
• Can savings vaults be liquidated?
• Smart contract risks, consensus risks, systemic risks and response time risks
• Sponsors:eToro.comandPurse.io
• What specifically went wrong with the auction smart contracts?
• Recapitalizing the system by diluting MKR governance stakeholders
• Even with bugs, market mechanisms to fill the solvency hole seemed to work better than government bailout equivalents.
• Completing the transition from foundation-overseen to full tokenized governance.
• Decentralization transition - A necessary step or a natural one?
• Single collateral vs. Multi-collateral stablecoins
• Why would a decentralized stablecoin want to allow a centralized stablecoin for collateral?
• External political risks vs. internal technological risks
• "Life finds a way" and DeFi's natural circuit breakers (also Mt.GOX)
• Whats the point of putting USDC in to get DAI out?
• How does DeFi stablecoin insurance work?
• A modular ecosystem
• How DeFi and traditional finance are similar
• DeFi vs. 2nd layer protocols

Credits

Hosts: Adam B. Levine, Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Jonathan Mohan & Stephanie Murphy

Sponsors:eToro.comandPurse.io

Music: Jared Rubens andGurtyBeats

Editing: Jonas

via The Let's Talk Bitcoin Network https://letstalkbitcoin.com/blog/post/lets-talk-bitcoin-432-how-mkrs-stablecoin-survived-the-crash-smart-contract-bugs-and-full-decentralization

Luxury Watchmaker Breitling Adds Its First Timepieces to a Blockchain

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

In a rare example of real-world business deployment, Breitling is registering watches on a blockchain to track their provenance from owner to owner.

via CoinDesk https://www.coindesk.com/luxury-watchmaker-breitling-adds-its-first-timepieces-to-a-blockchain

How MakerDAO’s Stablecoin Survived the Crash, Smart Contract Bugs and Full Decentralization

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

How do DeFi stablecoins actually work and what happened during the sudden, precipitous drop in crypto prices earlier this month? On today's show Andreas M. Antonopoulos leads us through a very interesting system and how it survived 'Black Thursday'.

via CoinDesk https://www.coindesk.com/how-makerdaos-stablecoin-survived-the-crash-smart-contract-bugs-and-full-decentralization

Telegram Ruling Closes Another Door to Legally-Compliant Token Sales

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

A recent ruling stopping Telegram from distributing its cryptocurrency creates new legal peril for public blockchains, argues lawyer Josh Lawler.

via CoinDesk https://www.coindesk.com/telegram-ruling-closes-another-door-to-legally-compliant-token-sales

The role of crypto during these uncertain times

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Watch Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong speak to how Bitcoin was created for moments like this

On March 26, Coinbase had its first ever fully remote Company All Hands. Watch Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong kick off the virtual meeting by talking about:

• Why crypto is the money people need in this moment
• Why fiat currency isn’t hygienic or convenient, especially during a pandemic
• How crypto solves many of fiat’s problems
• Why crypto can be an alternative investment during a recession
• The importance of Coinbase’s mission, vision, and values in creating an open financial system for the world

---

The role of crypto during these uncertain times was originally published in The Coinbase Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

via The Coinbase Blog - Medium https://blog.coinbase.com/the-role-of-crypto-during-these-uncertain-times-b59e9012b604?source=rss----c114225aeaf7---4