Image of The Day, 30 of November: CNBC, The Next Web, The New York Times 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. THE UNDERTAKER (CNBC)
Off with the digital coins!
UBS Paul Donovan, who has never been a fan of cryptocurrency, wrote earlier this week: "I come to bury Bitcoin, not to praise it.” “These things were never going to be currencies. They're not going to be currencies at any point in the future," he said Thursday on CNBC's "Fast Money." "They're fatally flawed."
Donovan thinks the cryptocurrency could be in its "death throes" because losing 80 percent value "is not healthy." Government, he said, is "one of the main obstacles" to Bitcoin, adding the idea of digital currency replacing the dollar "is quite a leap."
2. SAVE YOUR STRENGTH (The Next Web)
Intel patent could make Bitcoin mining more efficient
Swathes of cryptocurrency mining establishments are going out of business at the moment, mostly because of high energy prices and the rising difficulty of mining, which adds up to an unprofitable system. The reward of mining isn’t worth the effort. But Intel thinks it can fight high energy consumption with its new patent.
The chip maker successfully filed a patent this week for a processor that claims to offer high-performance Bitcoin mining, in an energy-efficient package. The processor is specifically designed to mine cryptocurrencies built on the SHA-256 algorithm, like Bitcoin.
3. BACK OFF! (Yahoo.Finance)
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is making an example out of boxer Floyd Mayweather and rapper DJ Khaled
The SEC announced on Thursday it has settled charges against both celebrities for “unlawfully touting” initial coin offerings (ICOs). The main issue: Mayweather and Khaled did not disclose payments they received for promoting the ICOs on their social media accounts. Mayweather was paid by three different ICO issuers, including $100,000 from a company called Centra; Khaled also received $50,000 from Centra.
In total, Mayweather agreed to pay a fine of $614,775 ($300,000 in disgorgement, a $300,000 penalty, and $14,775 in prejudgment interest) and Khaled agreed to pay a fine of $152,725 ($50,000 in disgorgement, $100,000 penalty, and $2,725 in prejudgment interest). Mayweather may not promote any securities (“digital or otherwise”) for three years, and Khaled may not promote any for two years.
4. BUCKLE UP! (Market Watch)
The VC guy who advocated trimming bitcoin longs above $17,000 says there’s more pain in sight for the crypto community
Crypto owners got a much-needed reprieve on Wednesday with Bitcoin and major digital currencies posting double-digit gains, breathing life into their portfolios that have been shredded to pieces of late. However, venture capital guru Fred Wilson said those dabbling in cryptocurrencies should enjoy the rally while it lasts.
In a recent blog post titled “what bear markets look like,” the co-founder of Union Square Ventures said the hard times for digital currency owners are far from over. Drawing comparison with Amazon and the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s and early 2000s, Wilson said the lofty heights of late 2017 for bitcoin and other digital currencies could be years away.
5. BLOCKCHAIN FOR DE BEERS (The New York Times)
Will blockchain be a boon to the jewelry industry?
A number of jewelry industry heavyweights have recently adopted distributed ledger technology, an umbrella term for a shared and synchronized database, to record such information. And enthusiastic proponents of blockchain, the underlying system, say the technology could be a possible — and revolutionary — verification solution, although one still in its infancy.
In January De Beers unveiled Tracr, an initiative that aims to provide a single, tamper-proof and permanent digital record — from mine to consumer — for every diamond. And in September the Hong Kong giant Chow Tai Fook introduced a similar project developed with the blockchain provider Everledger and secured by the IBM Blockchain Platform. Competitors in the luxury industry aren’t known for sharing secrets but it is clear that some leaders in the space see short-term investment costs outweighed by long-term opportunities.
6. I WILL SURVIVE (FXSTREET)
Allianz chief economist Mohamed El-Erian claims that crypto will survive current sell off
The chief economist of Allianz, Mohamed El-Erian, was speaking on the cryptocurrency market. He noting that the crypto market will make it through this market sell-off, as it is here to stay. However, he did firmly say that cryptocurrencies will not replace fiat money anytime soon.
“Cryptocurrencies will exist. They will become more and more widespread, but they will be part of an ecosystem. They will not be dominant, as some of the early adopters believed them to be.”
7. NEXT-GEN NIETZSCHEAN (The Next Web)
Swiss university awards Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin with honorary PhD
The Faculty of Business and Economics has decided to grant Vitalik an honorary degree for his “outstanding achievements” in the fields of cryptocurrencies, smart contracts, and the design of institutions. “He makes a groundbreaking contribution to promoting decentralization and equal participation in the digital revolution,” the university wrote.
For the record, Buterin is not the only blockchain researcher to receive recognition this year. Indeed, it seems that institutions are finally starting to pay attention to the achievements of blockchain and cryptocurrency researchers. A few weeks back, Joseph Liu from Monash University was named Australian Computer Society’s researcher of the year for his contributions to privacy-oriented currency Monero.
8. GERMAN GAMBIT (South China Morning Post)
German private equity fund bets on Bitcoin mining in cryptocurrency slump
While thousands of miners in China, hurt by the recent slump in Bitcoin, have called it a day, German private equity firm Xolaris is preparing to launch a US$50 million Bitcoin farming fund targeting Asian investors.
The Munich-based private equity manager’s entry into the Asian market, including a new office set up in Hong Kong in July, comes at a time when cryptocurrencies have lost as much as US$700 billion in market capitalisation this month. Stefan Klaile, managing partner of Xolaris Group, said subscription for the Asian fund would start in December after the launch of its European mother fund this week.
9. NEW VENTURES (Gizmondo)
Crypto-king who bought Bittorrent sinking $100 million into putting video games on the blockchain
Like most blockchain-based technologies, Tron has its own complicated vision for how the network that verifies its currency transactions can be used for other applications. The company’s motto is “Decentralize the Web” and it hopes to cut out the internet’s middle-men by incentivizing users to operate a node through earning tokens and create a platform that can connect users with creators directly. VentureBeat spoke with Roy Liu, the company’s head of business development and Sun about its next big step: blockchain games.
Blockchain games are very primitive these days with the most famous being CryptoKitties. That game only barely qualifies as a game and is more of a set of auto-generated trading cards. It was built on the Ethereum network and became so wildly popular so quickly that it slowed transactions on the whole network to a crawl last year.
10. THE JOYRIDE (Markets Insider)
The rally never ends in the cryptoland
The biggest cryptocurrency by market value fell as much as 7.55% to a low of $3,867. It was lower for a second straight session, and has all but wiped out Wednesday's gain of more than 10% — its biggest daily advance since April. Bitcoin peers XRP (-5.56%), ethereum (-3.2%), bitcoin cash (-3.8%), and litecoin (-5.97%) were also lower.
"The crypto markets have largely been mirroring what we've been seeing from equities lately," said Mati Greenspan, senior market analyst at eToro. "It seems that investors are simply more averse to risk than they have been over the last few years. This is likely the result of monetary tightening by global central banks."