Day: December 13, 2019

ECB Embraces Own Stablecoin Dismissing Bitcoin’s Classic Principles

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European Central Bank’s head (and former International Monetary Fund’s head) Christine Lagarde said that the stablecoins market is gaining momentum and the officials need to keep up with changes: “My personal conviction is that giving the developments we are seeing, not so much in the bitcoin segment, but in the stablecoins projects. And we only know of one at the moment but there are others, being explored and underway at the moment. We’d better be ahead of the curve if that happens. Because there is clearly a demand out there that…

Celcius CEO Says Entire Internet Will Become an Application on the Blockchain

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Speaking at ELEV8CON in Las Vegas on Dec. 10, founder and CEO of Celsius Network Alex Mashinsky said that there is a war brewing between centralized and decentralized networks. “The centralization of the Internet by companies such as Facebook and Google has created a distorted reality where fake news and blatant lies get the same treatment as documented truths,” said Mashinsky. Mashinsky said that the rise of centralized social media networks has resulted in an increase in fake news, causing a great deal of confusion regarding the basic facts of…

What DeFi Needs Next Year: Three Priorities

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After driving down collateralization rates, the second priority for DeFi is greater diversity of synthetic assets. Look at MakerDAO: MakerDAO produces dai, a synthetic dollar-pegged stablecoin, with no actual dollars being held anywhere in the system. All requires is an ETH/USD price feed. If we just swap out that price feed for ETH/gold instead, suddenly we can produce a synthetic gold-pegged token through the exact same mechanics. Maker and UMA are two protocols that are pursuing this, and I expect we’ll soon see a wide array of synthetic financial assets.…

Bitcoin Miner Riot Blockchain Announces Additional 1,000-Rig Purchase

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Cryptocurrency mining firm Riot Blockchain announced the purchase of an additional 1,000 next-generation Bitmain S17-Pro Antminers on  Dec.12. This completes the upgrade of its Oklahoma City mining facility, following an initial purchase of 3,000 units announced on Dec. 4. The latest generation of Application-Specific Integrated Circuit miners from mining hardware giant Bitmain represents an approximate 50% improvement in hardware power efficiency compared to the S9 Antminers currently in use by Riot. The company anticipates that the new miners will generate 440% of the hashrate of the S9s while consuming only…

Lisk’s Lightcurve Lays Off 40% of Workforce to Decrease Overheads

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Blockchain development studio Lightcurve — a part of the Lisk open-source blockchain application platform — laid off 40% of its workforce earlier this week. Lightcurve and Lisk co-founder, Max Kordek, announced the decision earlier this week on Discord, citing a need for the project to cut costs. The job losses represent 21 of Lightcurve’s 53 employees, and in addition, the project has canceled the contracts of three employees who were set to join.  Kordek said that the firm would focus on keeping talent in the research, backend development and developer…

Swiss Government Quashes ‘E-Franc,’ Says Current Risks Outweigh Benefits

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The government of cryptocurrency-friendly Switzerland has shot down the idea of issuing a digital Swiss franc, for now. According to a Dec. 13 press release published on the Federal Council’s website, the Federal Council approved a report exploring the opportunities and risks of issuing a digital form of the country’s national currency, the franc.  Following an analysis, the Federal Council concluded that a central bank digital currency (CBDC) cannot meet expectations for payment efficiency, effective monetary policy, and a more stable financial system. The council said: “Universally accessible central bank…

Bitcoin Whale ‘Defends’ $7.2K Price With 800 BTC to Win $0.01 in DOGE

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Bitcoin (BTC) price may have spiked throughout the global market on Dec. 12 due to the actions of a single bagholder — trying to win a $10,000 Dogecoin (DOGE) bet. In an ongoing Twitter exchange, a Bitcoin whale known as Joe007 and Dogecoin supporter Samu publicly jostled for supremacy as it emerged Joe007 likely bought 800 BTC ($5.77 million) to defend the $7.2K level. 800 BTC to win 5 million DOGE The latter is a prominent trader — and last month’s leader — on cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex, with monthly realized…

‘New Risks’: Swiss Government Skeptical on Central Bank Digital Currency

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In a statement following a cabinet meeting, the government said: “Universally accessible central bank digital currency would bring no additional benefits for Switzerland at present. Instead, it would give rise to new risks, especially with regard to financial stability.” Source If You Liked This Article Click To Share BankCentralCurrencyDigitalGovernmentRisksSkepticalSwiss CryptoX Portal

Bitcoin’s Best Ally Is Just Time: Pompliano

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For us, it’s a foundational component of the technological change taking place. I always joke, we never have anyone come into our office and say ‘Hey, we’re building a Microsoft Excel Company.’ If you think about automation of micro-transactions or high frequency transactions between a bunch of connected devices, there’s no way current way to keep track of it all. If you need interoperability between systems, these public open source, permissionless ledgers allow you to do that in a really interesting way. Our investment thesis on the technology is just…