n Russias prime minister has argued that crypto regulation is not a priority for the Russian government, since crypto lost its popularityn
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Crypto Prime Dealer SFOX Partners With New York Bank to Offer New FDIC Protection
n SFOX crypto traders will now have access to insurance through the U.S. governments Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation FDIC worth up to 0,000n
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New York Grants Its 18th BitLicense to Crypto Prime Broker Tagomi
The NYDFS has awarded its 18th BitLicense to prime broker startup Tagomi Trading.
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Crypto Bear Market is Prime Entry Point For Tech Giants
The yearlong plunge in cryptocurrency markets has resulted in downsizing for many tech startups but for the big players it could provide the perfect entry point.
Big Players Looking Towards Blockchain
Many blockchain projects have faced the squeeze in recent months and been forced to let staff go and downsize operations. The NEM Foundation has been the latest in the growing list of those battered by the bears as it faces a complete restructuring. This could be good news for bigger players looking to scoop up tech talent for their own crypto ambitions.
Facebook has been the latest example as the social media giant recently acquired the team from a small London based blockchain outfit called Chainspace. According to RBC internet analyst Zachary Schwartzman crypto and blockchain could be seen as a huge threat to the likes of Facebook as computing moves to public blockchains in what he described as the “embryonic stages of a potential massive paradigm shift”.
“On the surface, it may appear that Facebook purposefully hired the technical team related to DECODE. But we don’t believe this was the case. Our view is that this was simply an acqui-hire to expand Facebook’s internal crypto team’s expertise,” Schwartzman told CNBC.
The report goes on to note that other tech and finance giants are also keenly eyeing the space which looks far more lucrative today than it did at the height of the hype a year ago. IBM, Amazon, Microsoft and JP Morgan are all venturing into blockchain for its increased security and transparency over existing systems.
Venture capital was on a roll in 2018 as over .6 billion was spent on deals for more than 300 companies, according to researchers. This was more than triple the figure for 2017 despite the plunge in prices. The investment environment has cooled off a little since then however as some companies still didn’t have products on the table at the time of their fund raising. EOS has been the prime example here with billion raised, mostly in Ethereum, and no product at the time. EOS has dumped 88% since its all-time high in April last year along with the rest of the cryptocurrencies.
The plunge in Ethereum, which many used to raise funds, has added to the woes of these startups which have flooded the market with it further adding to the bearish overall sentiment. Analysts have predicted a big shakeout whereby those that failed to meet deadlines and keep up with product updates will fall away while those still focusing on building the technology will ultimately survive.
The tech and internet monopolies are definitely paying attention and are circling like sharks in a digital pool that is filling up with fresh talent as the crypto winter continues.
Image from Shutterstock
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Prime Trust Undercuts Rivals in Crypto Custody Race
Prime Trust has eliminated its fees for storing digital assets such as BTC, ETH and XLM, in a move the custodian called an industry first.
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Naval: Killer App of Crypto is Socialism, Venezuela is a Prime Example
The killer application of crypto is socialism, said Naval Ravikant.
The killer app for crypto is Socialism.
— Naval (@naval) January 26, 2019
The prominent entrepreneur, who co-founded AngelList, a website dedicated to matching startups with investors, emphasized the use case of crypto at a time when socialism is failing in Venezuela. However, he didn’t specifically mention the country.
Venezuela: A Socialist Evil
Every sensible witness agrees that Venezuela, which is sitting atop the world’s largest oil reserves, has turned into a humanitarian disaster. Former president Hugo Chavez and its “Fifth Republic Movement” overtook the nation with the dissolution of social democratic parties and movements. He hijacked the political language through a discourse that established the idea of “people” and “anti-people.”
Chavez and his allies were able to enforce Scandinavian social-democracy whereby economic and social policies intervene to promote social justice within the framework of a capitalist economy and liberal democracy. The results were confident in the early days. Venezuela achieved an impressive Human Development Index, offered free education, and used government resources to tackle poverty.
But the good things could not sustain. People supported the idea of confiscation of economy’s strategic areas such as telecom, electricity, and oil. Things started to move in the opposite direction when the Chavez government also began expropriating other regions, including valves, paper, rice, meat, fruit juice, hotels, coffee, etc. The policy didn’t go well while catering to a dynamic, global market. The cases of top-level corruption surged thanks to an increase in favoritism inside the government. Meanwhile, a faltering economy led to the birth of black markets. It reduced people’s dependency on the local Bolivar as they started acquiring dollars to settle cross border deals.
When oil prices plummeted, the chips went down for Venezuela whose overspending had already created an economic deficit. They responded by printing more Bolivar currency, leading to inflation, which further led to price controls, and then to shortages. Protests followed. Repression ensued. A democracy destroyed.
What Venezuela got, in the end, is hyperinflation, scarcity of goods, despair, and hunger.
Breaking Free
Naval proposed crypto as a solution to the failure of Marxist-based economies. But whether or not a cryptocurrency would be centralized or state-backed (like Petro), he didn’t specify. A follower later decrypted Naval’s one-line tweet, which the celebrated entrepreneur endorsed openly.
“I think he means it’s the best the insurance policy against Socialism,” wrote the follower, “but curiously an “evil” bitcoin could be envisioned wherein authoritarianism prevails and monitors all transactions, automatically taxes, etc.
Venezuelans self-admittedly started mining cryptocurrencies and sold them on local exchanges to meet their economic ends. Oscar, a citizen, offered an insight into the inflation and its impact on Venezuelans.
“I don’t want to drag this topic a lot, but Venezuelans don’t have tools to exchange their Bolivares easily,” he wrote on CoinSpice. “They have to depend on the black market to get the dollars in cash or PayPal. Some might exchange using international bank accounts, but it’s minimal for the common people to access this. It is where Bitcoin came in. As BTC volume started rising in Local Bitcoins, it started to become as a price marker for USD/Bolivares exchange rates.”
Dash, an alternative cryptocurrency project, received a warm welcome from Venezuelan when it launched its p2p payment services in the region.
“We are seeing tens of thousands of wallet downloads from the country each month,” Ryan Taylor, the CEO of the Dash Core Group, told Business Insider at the time of launch in August 2018. “Earlier this year, Venezuela became our number two market even ahead of China and Russia, which are of course huge into cryptocurrency right now.”
What’s Next
Venezuela is now looking at a power shift. With the US, Europe and a majority of Latin American nations supporting the “fairly” elected president Juan Guaido, the country could see the overthrowing of its dictator Nicolas Maduro. The political development does not necessarily contribute to how crypto adoption would fare in Venezuela. But, people have already accepted it as a tool to combat anything that smells like inflation.
Then they ask, what its use case is.
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Russia Business Lobby Group Sends Prime Minister Medvedev Proposal on Crypto Regulation
n Russian business lobby group RSPP has presented Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev with an alternative proposal to a current draft law on cryptocurrenciesn
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Government Sites in India Among Prime Targets for Cryptojacking, Research Shows
n Trustworthy official government websites have become a prime target for cryptojacking in India, according to new research from local cybersecurity expertsn
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Former Estonian Prime Minister Becomes Blockchain Startup Advisor
Former Estonian prime minister Taavi Rivas is joining cryptocurrency startup Lympo as the chairman of its supervisory board.
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Manufacturing and Blockchain: Prime Time Is Yet to Come
By deferring questions of trust to a decentralized algorithm, blockchains promise to boost transparency and allow more fluid, dynamic supply chains.