Image of The Day, 25 of September: The Next Web, CNBC, The Street 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. ROYAL AMNESTY (Daily Hodl)
Ad Giant Google Is Lifting Sweeping Crypto Ban
Tech giant Google is reversing the sweeping ad ban it imposed on the crypto space in June. Starting in October, it will allow regulated crypto exchanges to advertise in the US and Japan. According to the announcement, “Advertisers will need to be certified with Google for the specific country in which their ads will serve. Advertisers will be able to apply for certification once the policy launches in October.”
Google banned crypto advertisements in June in order to protect consumers from scams, particularly fraudulent initial coin offerings (ICOs). The wide-ranging ban included offerings from trading professionals and wallet services.
2. BITCOIN AS A MAIN MEDIUM OF EXCHANGE (News.Bitcoin)
Bitcoin is pushing the boundaries of economic change in Africa.
In East Africa, a new deal between digital currency exchange Bitpesa and a Japanese firm shows Kenyans are using bitcoin to pay for used Japanese cars, cosmetics and electrical gadgets. In Nigeria, Sure Remit is helping make cash transfers cheaper, and in Zimbabwe, TV subscriptions, university fees, and second-hand car imports.
Ghana is one of a number of countries in Africa whose economies are currently being reshaped by cryptocurrency. In the West African country, the crypto market is still very small, with issues around regulation casting a shadow over the market’s future, but it “has seen a lot of growth lately,” according to Elisha Owusu Akyam, founder and chief executive of Token Media.
3. MONEY TO BURN (The Next Web)
Devs disclose critical XMR-burning bug in Monero wallets
Monero developers have disclosed a major bug that could really have been nasty. Until now, attackers could have drained Monero from exchanges (or any organizational wallet), all for the cost of a few transaction fees.
“A bug in the wallet software allowed a determined attacker to cause significant damage to organizations present in the Monero ecosystem with minimal cost,” declares the official statement. “[…] A determined attacker could burn the funds of an organization’s wallet whilst merely losing network transaction fees.”
4. AND HUGE LEAP FOR THE BITCOIN (Forbes)
Another huge leap towards mainstream acceptance
Bitcoin has been taking giant strides towards mainstream acceptance over the last couple of years, boosted by its bull run last year that made Bitcoin and cryptocurrency household terms — and now Bitcoin has been given a badge of approval reserved for only the most important new technologies.
Bitcoin has been added to the Merriam-Webster Scrabble dictionary, many people's go-to source for Scrabble approval (though official Scrabble tournaments use a different list that includes offensive words as well as words up to 15 letters long).
5. IT IS TIME TO PART WAY (The Street)
Ether and Bitcoin prices moves are starting to diverge
These top-two cryptocurrencies have historically moved in sync. Though the price difference between them is significant — and irrelevant — the two have exhibited relatively high beta, or price correlation, until this summer. As a consequence, over a trailing 12 months, Bitcoin has seen prices rise by 50%, while Ether has lost around 40%.
Recent trading days have magnified the price divergence as Bitcoin has traded on volume with strength and Ether prices continue to falter. The trend continued Thursday as Bitcoin climbed by 1.20% — slightly over $6,400, while Ether continued to hover near $200 after being unable to sustain any momentum.
6. XRPTIDE IS GOING DOWN (CNBC)
Over $9 billion wiped off of XRP value after surprise spike in the price
XRP, which is often incorrectly referred to as Ripple, fell over 18 percent from the day before at around 8.25 a.m. London time, according to Coinmarketcap.com. It was trading at $0.46. On Friday, the price of XRP jumped to $0.69 following a CNBC report that the company Ripple could be rolling out its cryptocurrency product that is based on XRP.
Ripple is a fintech company that focuses on blockchain-based payments to help financial institutions move money around the world faster. The firm holds the majority of the cryptocurrency XRP, which is independent of the company but can be used on Ripple's platforms.
7. JPMORGAN EXTENDS THE NET (Financial Times)
Company brings blockchain payments to more than 75 banks
More than 75 of the world’s biggest banks are turning to blockchain to fight the threat of new payments rivals in what will be the regulated banking industry’s largest application of the distributed ledger technology underpinning cryptocurrencies.
More than 70 banks, including Société Générale and Santander, are joining the Interbank Information Network (IIN) which JPMorgan, Royal Bank of Canada and ANZ have been testing for 11 months to see if blockchain technology can speed up payments that are not run of the mill.
8. YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG (Quartz)
The co-founder of Ethereum says we’re thinking about money all wrong
Every time someone comes up with a new representation to manage the physical world, people become suspicious. When Marco Polo first came back from the East, his stories of people using paper representations of money in China, not metal, were discredited as sorcery. How could slips of paper equal a chicken?
Cryptocurrency is in many ways a natural evolution of prior representational systems, though one that favors truth over state-sanctioned power. Unlike the government-run property systems (and the financial vehicles that followed it), its protocols minimize the need to trust other actors in the system. It is a system of peer-to-peer trust that is also radically decentralized and open.
9. WITHOUT A TRACE (The Next Web)
One third of ICOs launched in the past two years aren’t listed anywhere
Despite investors dropping a whopping $12 billion into Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) in the past year, 70 percent of cryptocurrencies outside of the top 100 are now valued less than the amount initially raised.
In fact, blockchain research unit Diar calculated that the bulk of the ICOs conducted in the past year are now just worth $2.2 billion. This represents an “eye watering” $6 billion loss across just a small part of the token ecosystem.
10. DAZED AND CONFUSED (News.Bitcoin)
Vague laws leave crypto users confused in almost half of the US
Justin Wales and Arnaldo Rego, lawyers at Carlton Fields, have surveyed all 50 states in the US, looking for clarity on money transmitting laws as they relate to cryptocurrencies. As adoption and general usage increases, states appear to be failing to keep up, leaving many enthusiasts to wonder if they’re committing a crime.
Out of 50 US states, 12 have been judged “unclear” in terms of money laundering laws and how they relate to cryptocurrency. That’s significant due to the way enthusiasts have been prosecuted in the United States by regulators. Legal researchers from the law firm Carlton Fields examined all 50 states, and Washington, DC with regard to cryptocurrency law. As a result — in nearly half of the US, crypto enthusiasts cannot be sure of the law.