Image of The Day, 11 of October: Motherboard, The Motley Fool, Market Watch and Others
1. FRIENDSHIP WILL PREVAIL (The Next Web)
Singapore’s financial regulator wants its banks and blockchains to be friends
Singapore’s financial regulator has revealed it will help local cryptocurrency firms set up traditional bank accounts, to help boost the country’s fintech economy. “What we are trying to do is to bring the banks and cryptocurrency fintech startups together to see if there is some understanding they can reach,” Said Monetary Authority of Singapore CEO Ravi Menon
But before you go moving to Singapore to set up your new blockchain-based firm in search of crypto-riches, Menon also made it clear that this help will only be for local Singaporean businesses. “We should not be trying to create an extremely lax regulatory environment in order to attract that kind of business,” he added.
2.BLOCKCHAIN-POWER FOR THE MASSES (Daily Hodl)
Crypto startup reveals the xphone, a blockchain-powered android smartphone
The Singapore-based company revealed the new blockchain-powered XPhone at the XBlockchain Summit in Bali, Indonesia. Pundi X says it has created a new smartphone that runs entirely on a decentralized blockchain operating system (OS).
The XPhone is powered by FunctionX, a blockchain ecosystem which enables users to send and receive data. Just like any other smartphone, the XPhone will be able to send messages, make calls and transfer data. The goal is to power the decentralization of all apps, websites, communications and data. FunctionX OS is based on Android OS 9.0, which makes it compatible with Android apps and allows for easier development of DApps.
3. PLUNGE (Gizmodo)
Cryptocurrencies just plummeted
The cryptocurrency markets saw a significant crash on Wednesday (Eastern local time), with just short of $13 billion in value wiped out over the course of just three hours.
As of late Wednesday, cryptocurrency-tracking site CoinMarketCap listed Bitcoin as down 4.26 percent, Ethereum down 9 percent, XRP down 9.95 percent, and Bitcoin Cash down 10.54 percent in the last 24 hours. Of all the major cryptocurrencies listed on the site’s front page, a mere handful had gained value, with the vast majority posting losses.
4. JUSTICE HAS BEEN SERVED (Motherboard)
Cops arrest infamous sim swapper
Authorities in Oklahoma City arrested a man who sources in the criminal hacking community believe to be one of the most infamous “SIM swappers,” who steal cellphone numbers and use them in cryptocurrency heists. He is accused of stealing $14 million in cryptocurrency in one single heist.
He has been charged with hacking, identity theft, and grand larceny, according to a statement of facts provided by the authorities to Motherboard. Harris is accused of stealing $14 million in cryptocurrency from Crowd Machine, a blockchain startup. On September 21, Harris allegedly hacked the company’s CEO and stole his private keys, which allowed him to access Crowd Machine wallets and steal the cryptocurrency.
5. FOOD SAFETY IN CHAINS (The Motley Fool)
IBM'S food safety blockchain picks up steam
Walmart was the first major company to announce its intention to adopt IBM Food Trust in a significant way. The retailer is requiring suppliers of leafy greens to adopt the platform by Jan. 31, 2019, and it plans to expand that requirement to other suppliers over the next year. With Walmart being the leading grocery seller in the U.S., that news was a huge win for IBM's blockchain efforts.
IBM Food Trust announced the addition of a handful of other partners. Most notable was Carrefour, the French multinational retailer with more than 12,000 stores. Carrefour will use IBM Food Trust for some of its private-label products initially, with plans to expand to all its brands by 2022.
6. HISTORIC MOMENT (Daily Hodl)
Crypto exchange coinbase lists its first ethereum-based token
Crypto exchange Coinbase just listed 0x (ZRX) on its professional trading platform Coinbase Pro. The listing marks the first ERC20 token, based on the Ethereum blockchain, to be traded on Coinbase.
As an open, permissionless protocol that allows ERC20 tokens to be traded on the Ethereum blockchain, 0x is designed to power decentralized exchanges. The idea is to facilitate companies that want to tokenize various assets and then move those digital assets in a decentralized environment.
7. NO SHAME (The Next Web)
Cryptocurrency exchange orchestrates pump and dump scheme
In a blatantly fraudulent turn of events, a small-time cryptocurrency exchange has decided the best way to beat the bear market is to just throw morality to the wind, and ‘pump and dump’ random coins.
Wednesday evening, Russia-based cryptocurrency exchange YoBit took to Twitter to announce it will be buying 1 Bitcoin (BTC) worth of a “random coin” every couple of minutes, starting this Thursday. This is apparently meant to happen ten times.
8. MOTHER OF ALL BUBBLES (Market Watch)
‘Permabear’ Nouriel Roubini says blockchain is only as good as a spreadsheet
Prominent bitcoin detractor Nouriel Roubini, a professor of economics at the New York University Stern School of Business, has, not for the first, nor probably the last, time denounced the emergent technology that is blockchain and cryptocurrencies.
In a prepared testimony for a Senate Banking Committee hearing Thursday, the Turkish-born economist, known colloquially as “Dr. Doom” for his seemingly permanent bearishness, said digital currencies are the “mother of all bubbles” and, in fact, have entered an apocalypse.
9. THE PLAN (Yahoo Finance)
Zaif exchange reveals a refund plan
Tech Bureau, the firm behind the Japanese crypto exchange Zaif, has revealed a refund plan to compensate users after a $60 million hack that happened on the platform last month.
Tech Bureau said on Wednesday in a release that it signed an agreement with Fisco a publicly listed investment firm in Japan to transfer the business of Zaif to Fisco Cryptocurrency Exchange. The two stated this approach would avoid further risks for Fisco and users on the platform. Zaif, currently one of the 16 licensed crypto exchanges in Japan, experienced a hack on Sept. 20 when some $60 million worth of cryptocurrencies got stolen, including nearly 6,000 bitcoin.
10. NO ENTHUSIASM (Wall Street Journal)
Plan to fix journalism with cryptocurrency draws skepticism
The Civil Media Co. bills itself as a solution to some pressing problems in modern journalism, pitching a new cryptocurrency that would help news consumers support quality information and weed out bad actors.
So far, the effort isn’t going smoothly. Consumer demand for the new so-called token that the company is selling has been weak ahead of an Oct. 15 deadline, and major news organizations have rebuffed partnerships with the company. Meanwhile, a Civil co-founder said their business plans are fundamentally flawed.