Image of The Day, 26 of September: Reuters, Mashable, 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. CHINESE BOOST (Reuters)
China to boost $3.8 trillion digital economy, Xi calls for self-reliance
China on Wednesday pledged to expand its $3.8 trillion digital economy and create jobs in new sectors such as big data and artificial intelligence (AI) as the world’s second-biggest economy looks to shift away from a reliance on polluting heavy industries.
China will make further inroads in its digital economy including the internet of things, big data, clouding computing and AI, the NDRC said on Wednesday.Those sectors will become new drivers of job creation by 2025, the state planner said. China should embark on a path of self-reliance with the rise of unilateralism and trade protectionism, state-controlled People’s Daily quoted President Xi Jinping as saying on Wednesday as he conducted an inspection tour of factories in the rustbelt province of Heilongjiang.
2. OPEN THE FLOODGATES! (Mashable)
You now can pitch your bad altcoin to Coinbase listings
Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase teased an opening of the altcoin floodgates today with an announcement that it will allow issuers of obscure altcoins, tokens, and even digital collectables like CryptoKitties to officially apply to be listed on its exchange.
At present, Coinbase only lists a few cryptocurrencies — Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ether, Ethereum Classic, and Litecoin — that are for the most part generally considered to be not a scam. According to a company blog post, that is all about to change. Of course, Coinbase may not accept your application. But hey, when has the almost certainty of failure stopped anyone in the cryptocurrency space?
3. THE GREAT RACE (Bitcoin.news)
Circle enters the stablecoin races with USDC
Stablecoin mania is showing no signs of abating. Within a week of Gemini launching its US dollar-pegged coin, Circle has followed suit. Named “USD Coin” (USDC), the ERC20 token has made its debut on Poloniex, the US exchange Circle purchased earlier this year.
In hyperbolic terms, US financial giant Circle announced the launch of its stablecoin today as “a milestone for the entire crypto industry”. While the significance of USDC has been significantly overstated by its creators, Circle and Centre, it is nevertheless a noteworthy addition to the growing roster of stablecoins. Like Gemini’s recent stablecoin, USDC is fiat-backed, and thus represents a simple tokenization of dollar assets that customers have deposited.
4. PHARMACHAIN (Bloomberg)
Blockchain hype may finally turn into reality in pharmaceuticals
Blockchain believers have delivered little more than hype, mostly failing to get it deployed outside the cryptocurrency space where the technology was developed. But a little-noticed U.S. law could change that, bringing the ledger system to the pharmaceutical business.
By 2020, pharmacies and hospitals must be able to verify that the drugs they’re dispensing came from manufacturers or repackagers, which divvy up huge batches of pharmaceuticals into the actual bottles that get distributed in pharmacies or hospitals. While pharma giants are still evaluating how to comply, health-care analysts says the impeding deadline is leading firms to seriously consider the blockchain, since it’s designed to create detailed and immutable databases.
5. ROLL OUT YOUR CHECKBOOKS (The Street)
How to buy Ethereum and where
Ethereum is much more affordable than it was 10 months ago, but is also in utter freefall. No one is certain if it will rebound or continue to fall. Anyone deciding they should buy low should know that cryptocurrency can lead to huge losses, as it has for many cryptocurrency holders this year.
Many exchanges will have Ether available to purchase. It has the second largest market cap of any cryptocurrency on the market, although XRP, aka Ripple, is closing in on that honor. Anyone looking into some of the biggest crypto exchanges, like Coinbase or Binance, will find Ethereum. Other exchanges that have Ethereum include Kraken, Gemini, Bitstamp and Bitfinex.
6. BIG ONE (Bloomberg)
The world's biggest crypto company just opened the books for its IPO
One of the cryptocurrency world’s most powerful, controversial and secretive companies just opened its books for the first time.
Bitmain Technologies, the virtual currency mining firm co-founded by billionaires Jihan Wu and Micree Zhan, released its first public financial statements in a Hong Kong regulatory filing on Wednesday. The disclosure, which also confirmed Bitmain’s intention to pursue an initial public offering, follows months of speculation about the company’s listing plans and its potential vulnerability to a more than $600 billion rout in digital assets since January.
7. ANALYSIS OF ANALYSIS (Bitcoin.News)
U.S. government agencies have spent $5.7 million on blockchain analysis contracts
A report published by Diar has asserted that public records show U.S. government agencies have entered into $5.7 million worth of contracts with blockchain analysis companies.
The report finds that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) accounts for the largest percentage of spending on blockchain analysis – having spent $2,191,835 on 9 separate contracts, or 38% of the total. Surprisingly, the second highest spender is the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) – spending $1,537,945 on 9 contracts (27%). The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the third largest spender – with $1,142,671 spent on 12 contracts (20%).
8. HARD SLAP (The Next Web)
Price of a mistake
Cryptocurrency wallet Coinomi will delist NLG – a token issued by blockchain startup Gulden – after Gulden botched a software update that purportedly crashed some of Coinomi’s servers.
In a blog post published this morning, Coinomi announced NLG will be removed from its wallet in two weeks. It appears that the latest Gulden updated broke some servers that Coinomi uses to deliver its service. When Coinomi devs reached out for assistance, they were met with a hostile and unhelpful reception from Gulden’s team.
9. IRS WANTS SOME HOT ACTION (CNBC)
Bitcoin investors beware: The IRS wants its piece
With Bitcoin down more than 50 percent so far in 2018, there's a chance some investors have triggered (or will trigger) a tax loss this year by either selling, trading or spending their digital assets. And while those losses can be used to offset any other investment gains, it could raise eyebrows at the IRS if it's the first time the agency is hearing about your crypto holdings.
"If I were in those shoes, I'd think about my past transactions and whether there were gains," said Sarah-Jane Morin, a partner in the San Francisco office of national law firm Morgan Lewis & Bockius.
10. ONLY A MATTER OF TIME (Market Watch)
Bitcoin below $6,000? It’s only a matter of time, warns one analyst
After opening the week with two consecutive losses, the price of the world’s largest digital currency, Bitcoin (BTCUSD), was trading at $6,527.66, up 2.1% since Tuesday at 5 p.m. Eastern Time of the Kraken exchange.
As digital currency owners tout the resilience of Bitcoin’s support at $6,000, one analyst believes the tenuous psychological level could soon disintegrate, noting the evidence isn’t in the support, but the weakness of every subsequent rally. “While we held $6k support firmly for nearly six months, every bounce has been getting lower,” wrote Jani Ziedins of CrackedMarket in a Wednesday post. Market technicians tend to view assets as remaining in bearish, or neutral, trend if prices fail to post higher highs.