Image of The Day, 23 of November: Financial Magnates, Blokt, The Wall Street Journal 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. BAD NEWS EVERYONE! (Financial Magnates)
Norwegian Government Revokes Electricity Subsidies for Crypto Miners
The Norwegian government has taken action to end subsidies for electricity purchased by Bitcoin mining companies, according to a report y local news source Afterposten on Nov. 21st. Previous to the subsidies’ end, mining firms paid the equivalent of just $0.05 per kilowatt; starting in January, they will have to pay the equivalent of $1.94 per kilowatt — a whopping 3880 percent increase.
Norway cannot continue to provide huge tax incentives for the dirtiest form of cryptocurrency output,” said Lars Haltbrekken, a member of the country’s Socialist Left Party. “[Bitcoin] requires a lot of energy and generates large greenhouse gas emissions globally.”
2. BLOCKCHAIN BASED BLOCKSHOW TICKETS (The Next Web)
BlockShow becomes first blockchain conference to sell tickets by smart contract
Next week, BlockShow is returning to Singapore for the second time after successful events in Berlin and Las Vegas. But BlockShow Asia 2018 — which will take place Nov. 28 and 29 — already stands out. The 3,000 expected attendees can buy tickets via ethereum-based smart contracts thanks to a partnership with Trustee, the secure and easy-to-use blockchain service providing the interface.
The smart contract DApp enables users to book tickets directly, without any intermediaries or centralized services. Ticket ownership is granted once the transaction is confirmed in the blockchain, while attendees can also gift tickets to other people after purchasing. The account that bought the ticket is able to transfer it to any other account without any limits or intermediaries, in the same way as any other cryptocurrency. And because this is a decentralized solution, there are no limits to usage of any other wallets and interfaces as well.
3. WATCH OUT FOR THE BLACK HELICOPTERS (Blokt)
Coinbase will face an amended lawsuit which claims that it manipulated the price of BCH in December 2017
An amended lawsuit against Coinbase was filed on November 20, with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, in respect to the exchange’s alleged Bitcoin Cash (BCH) market manipulation last year. The amended filing lists seven plaintiffs representing the class action, six more than the original filing, which recorded Jeffrey Berk as the only plaintiff. The new filing, of approximately 16,000 words, contains more detail than the initial filing of around 8,000 words.
According to the filing, Coinbase listed the newly forked BCH without notice, after it had previously tipped insiders and employees. While regular customers rushed to place their orders, trading of BCH was halted. The existing open orders belonging to regular customers were only settled after the halt was lifted and the BCH price had already spiked. This allegedly caused substantial losses to the plaintiffs, who are now seeking for restitution from Coinbase.
4. THE EVOLUTION BABY! (Forbes)
Evolution of VC structure in the age of blockchain
Traditional VC funds naturally own a less democratic nature. Investing is not open to all, but rather a few elite that meet certain criteria. The VC industry has undergone an interesting year because of blockchain technology, especially when it comes to openness and inclusion.
Blockchain technology opens up the world of VCs beyond financial institutions and accredited investors, making it so that more people can invest and join. With ICO's, thousands of companies have raised from the public but with zero regulation and more than zero scammers, and the upcoming future of STO's actually seems much more promising.
5. MAKE BLOCKCHAIN, NOT BEDSHEETS (The Wall Street Journal)
Patrick Byrne is so certain about the technology’s possibilities, he’s planning to sell Overstock’s retail business
In August 2015, Overstock.com Inc. Chief Executive Patrick Byrne rented out Nasdaq Inc.’s Times Square broadcast studio for a lavish party to unveil his newest project, a blockchain-based trading system called tZero.
Three years later, tZero still hasn’t launched commercially, and it is burning through millions of dollars a month. Yet Mr. Byrne is staking his company’s future on it and more than a dozen other blockchain startups.
6. LONG ROAD DOWN (CNBC)
"You really won't find [the price floor] until you kind of hit the 3K-flat level" says Genesis Trading & Genesis Capital Trading chief Michael Moro
Bitcoin was down 40 points at one point early Friday, continuing a nosedive that began last December soon after the futures exchange launched on CME. The digital currency peaked north of $17,000 in early 2018. Now it's trading about 75 percent below that value, at around $4,400. But there is no stopping here according to the Genesis Trading & Genesis Capital Trading chief.
"This is about the fifth or sixth 75 percent-plus drawdown that we've seen in the 10-year history of Bitcoin," he said. "And so if you have that [long-term] lens, I don't believe institutional investors really ultimately care where the price of Bitcoin ends in 2018 simply because they're looking at things three to five years out."
7. FROM BAD TO WORSE (Fortune)
The great cryptocurrency crash of 2018 is heading for its worst week yet
The largest cryptocurrency retreated as much as 7.6% on Friday, before paring losses to 3.2% at 6:36 a.m. in New York, according to Bloomberg composite pricing. At $4,285, it’s trading close to its the lowest closing level since October 2017. Rivals Ether, XRP and Litecoin all declined at least 4%. The market value of all cryptocurrencies tracked by CoinMarketCap.com has sunk to $140 billion, down from about $835 billion at the market peak in January.
The rout’s biggest casualties: individual investors who piled in just as prices peaked, and companies like Nvidia Corp. that supplied the crypto ecosystem. The California-based chipmaker has lost nearly half its value since the start of October as demand for its cryptocurrency mining chips collapsed and results in its gaming division disappointed. The economic impact of the crypto collapse has so far been limited, in part because most major banks and institutional money managers have little to no exposure to virtual currencies.
8. ROOM FOR DESSERT (Market Watch)
Bitcoin selloff has more room to go, says analyst
After a Thanksgiving respite, the crypto selloff has resumed with all major coins trading lower on Friday and on track to log their third consecutive weekly declines. Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, was last changing hands at $4,259.80, down 3.8% since 5 p.m. Eastern Time on the Kraken crypto exchange a day earlier and lower by 23% since the start of the week.
And for one analyst, the end to the crypto demise is far from in sight. “Bitcoin is likely to move even lower after a failed attempt to break above the $4,700 level. The regulatory environment is suffocating the bulls and the bears are going wild. It is likely that the price may touch the level of $3,800 or even $3,500 if the current momentum continues,” wrote Naeem Aslam, the chief market analyst at Think Markets U.K
9. BIRDS AND BEES (The Daily Hodl)
Coin Center director breaks down Bitcoin for regulators: ‘There are no Bitcoins, they don’t exist’
Van Valkenburgh, who faced off against economist Nouriel Roubini at a congressional hearing on cryptocurrency in October, regularly meets with federal and state regulators about blockchain technology. Based in Washington DC, Coin Center works on relevant legal issues in order to grow the technology for many different applications, supporting innovation around Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. Their primary goal is to educate policymakers about the rapidly developing space that has joined computer scientists, crypto entrepreneurs, e-commerce business owners, brick-and-mortar retailers and mobile Millennials all around the world.
But it’s not easy, he says, because the current regulatory framework is complicated.
In the US, money transmitter laws are broken down into two major subsets: state and federal. They govern and were designed for, physical currencies. It’s a system where borders are firm and geographical location is meaningful. In the decentralized world of digital assets, “money” is not physical, transactions are borderless and blockchain networks are run on computers that span the entire globe.
10. CHEAPER THAN MCDEE’S (The Next Web)
The entire cryptocurrency market is now worth less than McDonald’s
Chew on this: the entire cryptocurrency market now has a smaller market cap than fast food titan McDonald’s. The total worth of the cryptocurrency market has fallen to $139.7 billion — a staggering 80-percent-plus downswing compared to an $819 billion market cap in January 2018. By comparison, McDonald’s market cap currently stands at $140 billion.
True, the comparison to McDonald’s is tongue-in-cheek — and admittedly not that insightful. But it does expose a stark contrast between hype and real-world use cases.