Image of The Day, 26 of October: Business Times, FxStreet, TechCrunch 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. ONE STEP TOWARDS THE CRYPTO (Daily Hodl)
Chinese court takes step towards recognizing Bitcoin and cryptocurrency as legal property
A new ruling issued by an arbitration body in China states that cryptocurrencies are legally protected property. The ruling, passed by the Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration, confirms that Bitcoin is protected by law.
An unnamed plaintiff in a dispute settled in Shenzhen argued that the defendant, tasked with managing the plaintiff’s crypto portfolio, failed to return Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Bitcoin Diamond (BCD) as agreed under contract. But the arbitrator upheld the contractual obligation between the two parties as legally binding, citing the defendant’s fiduciary obligation to return the plaintiff’s cryptocurrencies.
2. FREEMIUM SERVICES (TechCrunch)
More than half of crypto news sites are pay-for-play
In a clever bit of sleuthing by Corin Faife at Breaker, we find that over half of the most popular crypto blogs offer pay-for-play posts including “CEO interviews” that are not labelled as sponsored. Further, many sites offer premium services in which blog writers will repost PR content without a sponsored tag.
Faife reached out to 28 cryptocurrency news sites and received 22 definitive responses. Posing as a Russian PR professional, Faife first asked for rates for posting information on the site. When he received a response, he asked if the posts would have a “sponsored” tag, a traditional signal that a post wasn’t explicitly written by the news organization’s reporters.
3. PERSONALIZED ROAD TO HEALTH (Venture Beat)
PatientSphere uses AI and blockchain to personalize treatment plans
Artificial intelligence (AI) can — and already has — improved the health outcomes of patients around the globe. Google earlier this month achieved 99 percent accuracy in metastatic breast care detection with an AI system, and Nvidia recently debuted a model that generates synthetic scans of brain cancer from whole cloth.
Most deployments so far have been in isolation, though — siloed in a way that prevents them coordinating with each other. That’s what inspired Tatyana Kanzaveli, CEO of Silicon Valley startup Open Health Network and a cancer survivor, to forge a new path. The result — PatientSphere — launches broadly today.
4. PERSPECTIVE FOR THE FUTURE (Market Watch)
Bitcoin: the first decade
In the aftermath of the global financial crisis, the first and most famous cryptocurrency emerged from an underground network of libertarian-leaning cypherpunks. Over the past decade its popularity has soared, but so has the number of its detractors.
The very first digital currency is still going strong, albeit with plenty of ups and downs. Once worth less than 1 cent, a single Bitcoin fetched nearly $20,000 in December 2017. Today, one Bitcoin changes hands for about $6,500.
5. BUT THE SCAM AIN’T ONE (The Next Web)
Belgium warns citizens against these 99 cryptocurrency scam sites
The Belgian Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) continues to warn netizens of the dangers of dealing with cryptocurrency businesses having identified several new blatant scam sites.
The regulator announced today that it has added another 21 recognized cryptocurrency scam sites to its ever growing list. The authority now recognizes 99 “cryptomonnaies” (Belgium’s surprizingly mellifluous word for cryptocurrencies) trading websites as being untrustworthy. At this rate, the list will be well over 100 by the new year.
6. STABLEMANIA (TechCrunch)
As Tether flails, cryptocurrency exchanges launch rival stablecoins
Tether (USDT), the largest stablecoin to date, seems to be in a terminal decline following intense scrutiny this year over dubious accounting practices. USDT is a widely tradable stablecoin created by Tether, a company run by the same executives behind the exchange BitFinex. Tether has been criticized for its failure to prove that the reserve has enough US dollar to back its digital currency on a one-to-one ratio, which it promises for its dollar-pegged cryptocurrency.
A number of stablecoins have been in existence since 2017 but exchange stablecoins pegged to the dollar have been a big trend in the last few months, including Gemini, Huobi and few others. However it’s far too early to say when that Tether is done for
7. THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS (Daily Hodl)
New Bitcoin ERC20 token on ethereum set to launch in january 2019
Developers and innovators from three cryptocurrency companies are launching a Bitcoin ERC20 token on Ethereum. The new cryptocurrency, Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), is designed to bring bitcoin liquidity with Ethereum’s decentralized ecosystem. It will be fully backed by Bitcoin and is scheduled to launch in January 2019.
To get from zero to mainstream adoption, the new cryptocurrency will draw liquidity from Kyber and Republic Protocol. Together they’ll pre-mint WBTC tokens from their own Bitcoin inventory for the launch. They’ll also make WBTC available for atomic swaps.
8. ILLEGAL ACTIONS (Business Times)
Nasscom president Debjani Ghosh asked players to obey the law
Debjani Ghosh, the president of the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), was cited by the Hindu saying that cryptocurrencies are illegal from NASSCOM’s perspective. NASSCOM is a nonprofit trade association of over 2,000 member companies for the Indian IT and business process outsourcing industries.
"It is law of the land and hence, we have to work with it. If we do not agree, we have to go back to the government and speak about why cryptocurrencies aren't correct," she said.
9. DESCENDING LINE OF DEATH (FxStreet)
Ethereum (ETH/USD) bulls fail to break descending line of death
The ETH/USD bulls once again fell short of their major near-term challenge, which was breaking above a descending trend line, that has contained the price since 22nd September. A failure to sustain any form of upside continues to plague the bulls.
On each occasion the price has met with this above-mentioned descending trend line, a chunky sell-off has been seen. Should this play out again, eyes would be on another drop below the $200 mark, this has been protected over the past six days.
10. STOPPING TO THINK (Bloomberg)
When it comes to volatility, tech stocks are the new Bitcoin
When it comes to wild price swings, all the action of late is with technology giants — not Bitcoin.
The sector has been front and center of the global equity sell-off while the digital currency has remained listless. That’s pushed the spread between the 10-day volatility of the NYSE FANG+ Index and the digital currency to a record high of 46 percentage points, according to Bloomberg data. The trend may continue amid choppy market sentiment and earnings disappointments from Amazon.com Inc. and Google’s Alphabet Inc.
“Volatility is coming into the traditional markets and when things correct, it’s going to be the outperformers like tech which are the most volatile,” said Timothy Tam, co-founder and CEO of CoinFi, a cryptocurrency research firm.