Image of The Week, 1-5 of October: Forbes, Bloomberg, ABC News and Others

We're presenting “image of the week”. Bitnewstoday.com has chosen only 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 in the most indicative quotes are below!

1 of October

POWER OF THE FUTURE (Forbes)

Joseph Muscat believes in blockchain and Bitcoin

The prime minister of Malta, Joseph Muscat, told the United Nations that cryptocurrency is “the inevitable future of money”. Muscat has previously said he believes Bitcoin and blockchain have the ability to eliminate third party service providers, giving users more freedom over information and money.

This time, in an address to the United Nation's General Assembly, Malta Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has said he sees blockchain technology as the tool which will allow Bitcoin and crypto to "inevitably" gain widespread, mass adoption and become the future of money.

BACK DOOR CRYPTO (Bloomberg)

Institutional investors are using back door for crypto buys

Institutional investors are becoming more involved in the $220 billion cryptocurrency market than many observers may realize. Buyers such as hedge funds have replaced high-net-worth individuals as the biggest buyers of large swaths of digital coins worth more than $100,000 through private transactions, according to Bobby Cho, global head of trading at Cumberland, the Chicago-based cryptocurrency trading unit of DRW Holdings LLC, which handles the over-the-counter purchases.

The over-the-counter market facilitated anywhere from $250 million to $30 billion in trades per day in April, according to researchers including Digital Assets Research and TABB Group. Exchanges have recently handled about $15 billion in daily trades, according to CoinMarketCap.com.

2 of October

NOBLE SEEKS HELP (Bloomberg)

Puerto Rico's Noble Bank Seeks Sale Amid Crypto Slide

Noble Bank International, the Puerto Rican financial services firm with clients that have included prominent cryptocurrency ventures, is looking for a buyer, according to a person with the direct knowledge of the situation.

Noble Bank attracted attention in cryptocurrency circles earlier this year because of its willingness to work with Tether and Bitfinex, which was dumped last year by Wells Fargo & Co. The two crypto ventures, which share management, were subpoenaed by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission in December as the regulator examined whether Tether had more than $2 billion in customer money to back its virtual coin, a person familiar with that matter said in January.

THE FIRST OF ITS KIND (ABC News)

World’s 1st blockchain university to begin teaching in 2019

A team of Oxford academics hopes to bring university education into the 21st century with the world’s first “blockchain university” when teaching begins early next year.

The pioneers at Woolf University will use blockchain, the technology behind cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, to provide a system of one-to-one education that will prove cheaper for students and pay more for teachers. Forbes recently described the university as “uber for students and airbnb for academics.”

3 of October

WE WILL DO IT TOMORROW (Trusted Nodes)

Indian supreme court keeps adjourning the crypto case

India’s crypto industry was on edge this September 10th as they awaited a potentially historic decision by the Supreme Court on a banking crypto ban by India’s Central Bank. The only decision that was made on that day, however, was the adjournment/postponement of the matter to the next day.

Again, all in suspense the next day to hear the decision, but it was adjourned. As it was the day after, and the day after, for weeks. Now a month later, an India based lawyer has begun sounding like a broken tape, stating: “Crypto Matter was listed as item no. 13 in Court no. 8 in the Supreme Court before Justices Rohinton and Navin Sinha. The matter could not reach and therefore adjourned.”

BRACE FOR THE IMPACT! (The Next Web)

Blockchain sector on “silent collision” course with the law

The University of Oxford has shared analysis of the relationship between blockchain developers and the rule of law. It claims the blockchain industry is on a “silent collision course” with lawmakers, and a major overhaul is sorely needed. Anastasios A. Antoniou, member of the EU Blockchain Observatory and Forum, argues blockchain evangelists open “Pandora’s box” by suggesting complicated smart contract systems create “order without law.”

“The primary source of friction between blockchain and law can be traced to the implied proposition that code-driven frameworks running on blockchains can and should operate outside our jurisdictional legal orders,” writes Antoniou. “This is most clearly illustrated when considering the deployment of blockchain-based organisations running entirely on autonomous code, without human consensus.”

4 of October

THE BIG GAME CRYPTO (The Daily Hodl)

Trophy property in French Alps up for sale, crypto accepted

Property owners with lavish spreads continue to open their doors to crypto payments.

A French chalet is up for sale for $4.95 million in USD, Bitcoin or Ethereum. The owner will consider other cryptocurrencies as well. With panoramic views of Mont Blanc, the 6-bedroom, 7-bathroom French Alps chalet is located minutes from the town center of Megève, a ski resort village. According to the listing, “The new owner of this brand new chalet could either use it exclusively for personal use or take advantage of the up to $80,000 per week in rental income that other similar chalets achieve in Megève.”

PARTNERSHIP IS IN THE AIR (The Financial Times)

Air France-KLM signs up blockchain partnership

Air France-KLM said it was exploring ways to use blockchain-based technology to cut costs for flyers and increase profits for suppliers by cutting out middlemen. The airline said it had signed up a new partnership with Winding Tree, a specialist in blockchain-based travel bookings, to help test and develop Winding Tree’s technology.

AF-KLM said it hoped the partnership would provide “a more advantageous travel offer for customers which is more profitable for suppliers, in particular by reducing the number of intermediaries.”

5 of October

NVESTMENTS IN THE FUTURE (Bloomberg)

Yale invests in crypto fund that raised $400 million

Yale University, the Ivy League school that has invested in everything from Puerto Rican bonds to timber in New Hampshire, is getting into the market for cryptocurrencies.

The second-largest endowment in higher education is among investors that helped a new fund focused on digital assets raise $400 million, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified because the information is private.

PESKY RUSSIAN HACKERS! (Mashable)
Russian government hackers mined bitcoin to fund attacks on FIFA

A lengthy indictment from the Justice Department dropped today, accusing seven Russian intelligence officers of conspiring to hack anti-doping agencies around the world in retaliation for their efforts to expose Russian athletic doping. And, at least according to the US officials, the GRU hacking group mined bitcoin to fund its efforts.

"The pool of bitcoin generated from the GRU’s mining activity was used, for example, to pay a United States-based company to register the [phishing] domain wada-arna.org through a payment processing company located in the United States," reads the indictment. "The conspirators used the same funding structure — and in some cases, the very same pool of funds to purchase key accounts, servers, and domains used in their anti-doping related hacking activity."