Lightning Hood Weekly Round-Up For The Past Week In Bitcoin, July 16–21, 2019
Bitcoin and Lightning Network News
Major Headlines
1.) The New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) has granted virtual currency licenses to two subsidiaries of crypto derivatives provider Seed CX. NYDFS Superintendent Linda Lacewell announced Monday that Seed Digital Commodities Market LLC (SCXM) and Zero Hash LLC, both of which operate under Seed CX, had received BitLicenses, while Zero Hash has also been granted a money transmitter license
2.) In a press conference Monday, Mnuchin voiced the Trump administration’s concerns with Facebook’s Libra and cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. Mnuchin’s statements came ahead of two hearings on Capitol Hill this week, in which Facebook blockchain lead David Marcus testified before both Senate and House lawmakers
3.) Introduced Wednesday, a new proposal called Signet offers a fresh alternative to bitcoin’s test network. The software plays a crucial role for developers, serving as a place where they can test their apps, to make sure they work reasonably well on the network by putting only test money on the line. Further, protocol developers can use it to test the viability and safety of big changes to bitcoin, such as Segregated Witness, one of the best-known and largest-scale bitcoin changes
4.) The Coinbase Bundle product has been deprecated, per an FAQ on the cryptocurrency exchange’s site. All cryptocurrency balances that users obtained via Bundle purchases have been placed into the respective asset wallet in the Coinbase user’s account
5.) Seychelles-based cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX is reportedly being probed by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The news appeared in brief on Bloomberg Terminal soon before press time on Friday. That was soon followed by a report from Bloomberg citing sources who said the regulator is investigating whether the exchange has allowed U.S. traders to use its platform
6.) Fidelity Digital Assets has officially applied to the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) for a Trust license, according to several sources familiar with the matter. If its application is successful, Fidelity Digital Assets (FDAS) would be cleared to add New York to the handful of states in which it currently operates its custody business for digital assets
7.) In an AMA session on July 19, Armstrong presented his vision of the company in five years, claiming that he sees Coinbase as not just a crypto trading service provider, but rather a more universal entity driving adoption to crypto
8.) The Hangzhou Internet Court, litigating a lawsuit dating to 2013 between a cryptocurrency exchange and one of its clients, ruled this week that bitcoin is considered legal property under Chinese law
Community News And Developments
1.) Square Crypto is looking to hire a new person to lead design for Bitcoin initiatives
2.) Ledger Live gets updated to version 1.11.0 and brings native SegWit, Bech32
3.) Casa Node gets updated to include improvements to fee handling, updates to Bitcoind version 0.18.0 and LND version 0.7.
4.) Samourai Wallet whirlpool CLI update 0.7.2 enables full Tor on the Nodl and includes general Tor config upgrades
Research And Thought Pieces
1.) The Wiz outlines the why Bitcoin in his latest article
2.) Ray Dalio outlines how to identify paradigm shifts in his most recent piece. One of Ray Dalio’s primary investment principles is: Identify the paradigm you’re in, examine if and how it is unsustainable, and visualize how the paradigm shift will transpire when that which is unsustainable stops
3.) Pierre Rochard’s slides on Bitcoin and Lightning presented to VanEck
4.) Colin Harper outlines how Members of the U.S. House’s Financial Services Committee left the Libra hearings with a better understanding of Bitcoin and why Libra is nothing like it
5.) Nozomi Hayase Op Ed on how bitcoin restores the law of nature
6.) Hans-Hermann Hoppe outlines why the current monetary policy will always make a fiscal crisis worse instead of better
Podcasts And Videos
1.) Watch Calibra CEO David Marcus testify before the House Financial Services Committee
2.) Rockstar Developer joins Stephan Livera to talk about his experiences in open source development, working on BTCPayServer, Tor crowdfunding, and his philosophy of Rockstarism
3.) Episode 2 of the SLP BTCPayServer series, Pavlenex (BTCPayServer contributor and Operator of BitcoinShirt.co) joins Stephan to talk about his journey in becoming a bitcoiner and becoming a BTCPayServer contributor
4.) Episode 3 in the BTCPayServer series, Kukks, BTCPayServer developer and contributor joins Stephan in this episode to talk about his work. We talk about the way BTCPayServer is structured, and also about the BTC Transmuter (aka fiat bridge), enabling merchants to take Bitcoin payment via BTCPayServer, but receive fiat through an interface with a Bitcoin exchange
5.) Rabbit Hole Recap: Week of July 15th, 2019
6.) Marty sits down with Ben Hunt (with a guest appearance from James O’Beirne) to discuss some of the running themes from Epsilon Theory, how they relate to Bitcoin, and why Bitcoiners may be fighting a losing battle
Lightning Hood’s Selection For Meme Of The Week
If there are any other major news events or items we may have missed from the week please let us know! You can reach us on twitter @lightning_hood
See you guys next week! Click Here for the Lightning Resources Page.
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