Image of The Day, 20 of December: The Daily Hodl, Market Watch, Forbes and Others
We're presenting "the image of the day". Bitnewstoday.com has chosen the most important news about the digital economy and virtual currencies. Only the most valuable stories from only the trusted sources. Each and every event from this list will change the world of the digital economy either way. The most important stories of this day in the most indicative quotes are below!
1.MALTESE OPINION (The Daily Hodl)
Binance CEO gears up for launch of 10 new crypto exchanges
Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao says the cryptocurrency market has a bright outlook despite losing over 80% of its value this year.Speaking on Bloomberg Daybreak: Middle East, CZ says: “2018 has been a tough year in terms of the pricing for cryptocurrency and I think we see a lot of projects not making it this year, so it’s a correction year.”
Despite the price plunge, CZ says people in the industry are still very confident about the future due to the many developments being made in the space. “The industry is going to grow by the builders. The guys who actually build applications.Long term, industry is sustained by real applications, real use cases of cryptocurrency, which a lot of people are building. So that’s happening regardless of where the price moves.”
2. THE GAME WAS RIGGED (Forbes)
Bitcoin was all about chinese money flight
As we often see with markets, people tend to confuse forced capital flows with genius.
We’ve seen it in the tech giants. The “disrupters” in Silicon Valley were only able to disrupt long-entrenched industries because of the hundred billion dollars that flowed from Washington to Silicon Valley as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Bitcoin is another case of confusing capital flows with genius. It’s no coincidence that the ascent of Bitcoin coincided perfectly with the crackdown on capital flight in China. In late 2016, with rapid expansion of credit in China, growing non-performing loans, a soft economy and the prospects of a Trump administration that could put pressure on China trade, capital was moving aggressively out of China.
3. A MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN (Forbes)
DLT And Big Pharma
Enterprises are finally getting on board with the idea of distributed ledger technology (DLT), or at the very least can now see the merit and the potential it holds. The next step will be when we start to see real-world use cases coming to fruition. Of course, the brutal year most cryptocurrencies have seen has done nothing to help the overall credibility of the space. Market volatility has led to more attention being given to the idea of blockchain as a technology, rather than the distracting get rich quick schemes that popped up in the last couple of years.
Most of the businesses that bloomed overnight, during the explosion of Bitcoin between 2016 and 2017, are now starting to show signs of their struggle to come through on their promises. One such company is ConsenSys, a blockchain software company originally out of Brooklyn, New York. They’ve been developing services and applications on Ethereum since 2015 but recently announced restructuring and austerity measures in order to save money, laying off more than 10% of their staff. ConsenSys is far from the only victim of the times.
4. ALL FOR THE CUSTOMERS (The Guardian)
Treasury presses for FCA to regulate cryptocurrencies to protect consumers
The UK government has said it stands ready to empower Britain’s financial regulator to oversee all cryptocurrency assets, after a warning from MPs that bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were “wild west” assets that exposed consumers to a host of risks.
While some crypto-assets are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), many others, such as bitcoin, are not, the Treasury noted in its response to a report from the Treasury select committee published in September, which called for regulation to protect investors and prevent money laundering.
5. THE REBOUND (CNBC)
Bitcoin crosses $4,000 for the first time in two weeks
Bitcoin has surpassed $4,000 for the first time in two weeks, continuing to break away from a months-long rout. The price of the world's best-known cryptocurrency climbed almost 7 percent to $4,037 on Thursday, according to CoinDesk's index tracker.
The last time the digital currency was trading at the $4,000 level was on Dec. 4. It began to plummet in mid-November after months of stability, restoring volatility in an asset known to jump or fall hundreds of dollars within hours.
6. COULD’VE BEEN WORSE (Bloomberg)
Crypto’s terrible year was actually pretty good
It was one year ago this week that Bitcoin reached an intraday peak of almost $20,000. Since then, it’s been all downhill. The market value of all cryptocurrency assets have fallen to about $100 billion from about $800 billion at the start of the year. That looks bad, but if you look at the market’s fundamentals, 2018 gets a B+ grade.
To put the price decline in perspective, the charts shows Bitcoin prices in 2017 and 2018 in blue, and superimposes prices from Bitcoin’s 2011 and 2013 peaks, all scaled to the same peak price and time. Bitcoin’s 2017 price rise was smaller and steadier than earlier run-ups. The decline fell between the rapid 2011 event and the slower 2013 one.
7. IT’S OVER 4000! (The Next Web)
Crypto-mining malware saw 4,000% increase in 2018
According to the latest report from cyber security firm McAfee Labs, 2018 saw a 4000-percent increase in instances of crypto-mining malware. The report states there were over 4 million new threats in Q3 of this year alone, compared to the 500,000 of the same period last year.
Crypto-jacking relies on infecting victims’ devices without their knowledge, and using the computing power to mine cryptocurrency. The victim ends up fronting the electricity bill and gets none of the reward.
Indeed, 2018 has seen some of the most outlandish cryptojacking scams ever.
Hackers got clever and started finding ways of hiding mining malware alongside legitimate software updates from the likes of Adobe and Microsoft. We also saw hundreds of thousands of MikroTik WiFi routers get infected with mining malware across Southern America and India.
Hopefully, 2019 will be the year we quash those pesky and sneaky crypto-mining malware scammers.
8. A GAME CHANGER! (The Daily Hodl)
Tim Draper targets bitcoin payments for Starbucks, Amazon and Tesla
Tim Draper is no stranger to bold bets on the future of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. The venture capital billionaire says his latest investment could bring Bitcoin Lightning payments to Starbucks, Amazon, Tesla, real estate and more.
Draper just invested in OpenNode, a Bitcoin payment processor built to give companies an easy way to integrate Bitcoin payments into their business. OpenNode says its platform is the easiest way for people and businesses to accept Bitcoin on-chain and via the Lightning Network, a scaling solution designed to make the world’s number one cryptocurrency a viable payment option at everyday shops and stores. The platform automatically converts Bitcoin to local currencies at point of sale to avoid price volatility.
9. BEYOND THE HYPE (Wall Street Journal)
All potentially transformative technologies are oversold in their early stages
With cryptocurrencies having lost more than 80% of their market value from their high in January, it’s a fair question to ask what this means for blockchain, the technology underlying the turbulent crypto market. There’s a difference, of course.
Blockchain’s true potential value. For blockchain, the technology underlying the turbulent crypto market. There’s a difference, of course. Blockchain’s true potential value lies not in making–or losing–the quick buck, but in helping solve some of the hardest questions.
10. YOU WON’T BELIEVE THIS! (Yahoo.Finance)
Trader who called bitcoin's 84% decline now
Brandt, a 71-year-old trading veteran, told Yahoo Finance it wasn’t particularly hard call to predict considering other parabolic advances have typically resulted in a similar crash. And he shared his latest bitcoin forecast. “I’ve seen that sort of thing take place so many times in the past,” he said. “And they always end the same — prices always fall 80% to 90%.”
But now that Brandt’s prediction has played out, he foresees less drastic price swings in bitcoin’s near future, despite a recent rebound from about $3,000 to near $4,000 in just the past week. “I really don’t think it’s going anywhere — maybe $4,600,” he said, adding that any rise above $4,000 would more likely be a dead cat bounce rather than a true return to a bitcoin bull market. In fact, Brandt predicts a low of $1,200 if the dead cat bounce materializes and bitcoin dips below the key psychological level of $3,000 sometime by the end of 2019’s first quarter.