Block by Block Weekly Newsletter #27
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News of the Week
🤔 LINE Launches Its Own Cryptocurrency
LINE, the popular Japanese messaging company, announced that it has launched its own cryptocurrency, named LINK, and in-house blockchain.
The company plans to issue 1 billion LINK tokens (with 200 million to be kept as a company reserve). The tokens are to be used as a payment means for a range of LINE services. LINE plans to launch its first two dApps in September with over 10 to be released in Q1 2019.
LINE will not be selling the tokens through an initial coin offering (ICO), opting instead to distribute them as rewards to users of the platform. The tokens will be tradeable on LINE’s recently launched BITBOX exchange.
💰 Crypto Exchanges Invest in New Stablecoin
Binance Labs, OKEx, Houbi Capital and Dunamu — the firm behind Korea’s Upbit — have participated in a $32 million investment into a new stablecoin called ‘Terra’.
The deal is a token-based investment round with Terra planning to hold a private and public sale in the coming weeks and months.
Terra aims to be more than just another stablecoin with plans to integrate with e-commerce firms across Korea and other parts of Asia to become a fully fledged fintech platform.
👮 NASAA Provides Update on Operation Cryptosweep
The North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) announced this week that they are actively investigating more than 200 initial coin offerings (ICOs) and crypto investment vehicles.
Since Operation Cryptosweep launched in May, the coordinated effort has resulted in 46 enforcement actions involving ICOs or crypto-related investment products.
💸 CBOE to Launch Ethereum Futures Trading
CBOE is planning to launch ETH futures by the end of 2018 and will be basing the futures on Geminis underlying market — the same strategy they use for BTC futures.
CBOE are reportedly waiting on the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to give the go-ahead before launching the product.
⛏️ Bitmain’s BTC.com to Launch an Ethereum Mining Pool
BTC.com, which claims to have mined 21% of all Bitcoin blocks last year, will offer the new mining services through its pool.btc.com portal along with an Ethereum block explorer and API.
BTC.com also said that they may consider launching mining pools for other popular cryptocurrencies such as LTC, ZEC and XMR.
🤑 DFINITY Raises $102 million In Latest Funding Round
DFINITY, the ‘internet computer’, announced this week that it has raised $102 million in funding in a round jointly led by Andreessen Horowitz (via its crypto fund a16z) and Polychain Capital. Interestingly, both of these firms were investors in DFINITYs previous $61 million funding round.
Project Updates
Local Ethereum Releases Whitepaper
Local Ethereum aims to be a peer‐to‐peer custody‐less encrypted marketplace for buying and selling ether over‐the‐counter. This week they released their whitepaper and announced that they are not doing an ICO or creating a token.
The Ethereum blockchain is now available for exploration on Googles BigQuery platform.
Zombie Battleground Alpha is now available on mobile for Kickstarter backers and the Loom team did a Zombie Battleground AMA.
The Filecoin team have been quiet for a while but this week they released their 2018 Q1 and Q2 update which includes demos, research and a roadmap.
De.Fi is a community for decentralized finance platforms. The launch members include 0x, Dharma, Set, Abacus and WalletConnect.
MyCrypto have announced that they have raised $4 million in a Series A funding round led by Polychain Capital.
MakerDAO Announces Dai Savings Rate
The Dai Savings Rate (DSR) rewards Dai to people who hold it for at least a full year.
Origin Protocol Introduces Messaging
The messaging solution uses OrbitDB, a technology built on IPFS, and Ethereum wallets to handle the signing process.
LibSubmarine allows you to temporarily hide your transactions on Ethereum.
BlockParty Joins Status Incubate
BlockParty is building an event management dApp and this week it was announced that they will be joining Status’ incubate program.
Project Spotlight
Guesser is a peer to peer betting platform built on Ethereum.
The Guesser protocol aims to be the simplest set of smart contracts built to provide developers with the necessary tools to create betting platforms on Ethereum.
Crypto Drama, Controversy and Memes
Craig Wright’s nChain to Fork Bitcoin Cash
Craig Wright has long been a controversial figure in the cryptocurrency community but his latest stunt has many scratching their heads.
Craigs company, nChain, released their Bitcoin SV (short for “Satoshis Vision”) Bitcoin Cash client this week with plans to launch a mining pool that will begin onboarding miners in September to support the new fork of Bitcoin Cash.
Ecosystem Bits
Blog Posts
- Free Riders, the Cost of Hodl and a Deep Dive on Staking
- How OmiseGo Will Bring Plasma to Everyones Daily Life
- The Disruptability Index
- Community Driven On-Chain Compliance
- Finality in Blockchain Consensus
- What is Sound Money?
- Understanding Web3
- Why You Need a Physical Vault to Secure a Virtual Currency
- Layer 1 Should Be Innovative in the Short Term but Less in the Long Term
- The Three Branches of Blockchain Governance
Misc
Website Updates
New research added to the site
New resources added to the site
Feedback
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