Block by Block Weekly Newsletter #34
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State of the Crypto Job Market
It’s the 1 year anniversary of the Cryptocurrency Jobs website and the team decided to give an overview of the current state of the crypto and blockchain job market in this tweet thread. They cover the most popular jobs in crypto (both technical and non-technical), top cities for jobs, how to get a job in crypto and much more. I highly recommend reading through the entire tweet thread!
News of the Week
🤯 WBTC Brings Bitcoin to Ethereum
WBTC is a new token that is set to be launched on the Ethereum blockchain this January, one that will be backed one-for-one by Bitcoin. Aimed at replicating the utility of bitcoin in a way that’s interoperable with Ethereum, the “wrapped bitcoin” or WBTC token will have similar functionality as other ERC20 tokens that live on Ethereum.
The companies behind the initiative include decentralized exchange startups Kyber Network and Republic Protocol, as well as cryptocurrency custody company BitGo. A number of ethereum-based projects have also joined on as launch partners including Maker, AirSwap and Dharma.
WBTC will initially be governed by a DAO that comprises of some of the launch partners. The ultimate goal is to fully decentralize management of the DAO over time.
💪 Coinbase and Circle Partner to Launch USDC
This week, Coinbase partnered with Circle to launch the USDC stablecoin on its platform. This is the first time that Coinbase has supported a stablecoin.
Each USDC is 100% collateralized by a corresponding USD held in accounts subject to regular public reporting of reserves. The underlying technology behind the USDC was developed collaboratively between Coinbase and Circle, in their capacity as partners and co-founders of the new CENTRE Consortium.
🤔 Bitcoin Cash Lawsuit Against Coinbase Temporarily Dismissed
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit against Coinbase alleging the exchange hurt investors when it listed bitcoin cash by allowing insider trading.
U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria, from the Northern District of California, dismissed a lawsuit filed by Arizona resident Jeffrey Berk against Coinbase, who claimed that the exchange allowed insiders to trade bitcoin cash prior to its listing on the exchange. This in turn harmed investors, he said in March.
In dismissing the suit, Judge Chhabria wrote that “Berk’s complaint does not sufficiently articulate the legal basis for his claims,” and explaining that “a reader of the complaint is thus left wondering what Coinbase should have done differently, or why the rollout of bitcoin cash would have gone more smoothly had Coinbase done whatever Berk thinks is appropriate.”
⚖️ Japan Grants Crypto Industry Self-regulatory Status
Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) gave the cryptocurrency industry self-regulatory status, permitting the Japan Virtual Currency Exchange Association to police and sanction exchanges for any violations.
The FSA approval gives the industry association rights to set rules to safeguard customer assets, prevent money laundering, and give operational guidelines. The association will also have to police compliance.
The FSA also published a set of guidelines for those applying to run crypto exchange. The agency said there are about 160 entities expressed interest.
🏦 Coinbase Now a Qualified Custodian
Coinbase Custody has obtained a license under New York State Banking Law to operate as an independent Qualified Custodian. Coinbase Custody will operate as a Limited Purpose Trust Company chartered by the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS).
The new license is an important piece of regulatory clarity that will allow Coinbase to compliantly store more assets and add new features like staking.
Coinbase Custody Trust Company will operate as a standalone, independently-capitalized business to Coinbase Inc. and will be held to the same compliance, security and capital requirements as traditional fiduciary custodial businesses like the DTC.
👊 Forbes Launches CryptoMarkets Platform
NewCity Digital Limited, in partnership with Forbes Media, NewCity Capital and trade.io, today announced the beta launch of Forbes CryptoMarkets, a new data-driven portal that offers comprehensive tracking of cryptocurrencies worldwide that licenses the Forbes brand name.
Forbes CryptoMarkets features real-time pricing and volume information on several thousand cryptocurrencies, insights on crypto exchanges, real-time newsfeed and more.
👩⚖️ SEC Met With SolidX, VanEck and CBOE to Discuss Bitcoin ETF Proposal
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published a memorandum, dated Oct. 9, from a meeting regarding the Bitcoin exchange-traded-fund (ETF) proposal from VanEck and SolidX.
I highly suggest reading the memorandum for a breakdown of what was discussed.
Project Updates
MakerDAO Core Community Development Initiative
MakerDAO announced a new initiative that they’re calling the Core Community Development Group (CCDG).
The group’s mandate is to directly foster the growth of the MakerDAO ecosystem by focusing on the community’s most motivated members.
At the Web3 Summit in Berlin, Parity Technologies founder Gavin Wood demoed launching a blockchain in under 60 minutes on a brand new laptop, announcing the November 2018 release of Substrate 1.0-beta
Compound Holding a Stablecoin Vote
Between now and 11:59pm PT on November 6th, all Compound protocol users are invited to vote for a stablecoin, by signing a message with their Ethereum address
The Settle platform will go live on November 12, 2018. Click through to the announcement post to learn more about Settle.
Bringing Token Sales to Ethfinex
The new Ethfinex Token Sales platform will allow users to participate in pre-vetted token sales for a small number of new projects.2
Gluon Plasma Full Spec for Non-custodial Exchanges
Gluon is an implementation of Plasma that focuses on UX, scaling and security.
Dharma Lever is a trustless service for accessing margin in high volume from anywhere in the world, affordably and instantly.
Sign in with Zippie is a 10-second, zero download onboarding experience for dApps. This week, they launched the platform on the Ethereum Kovan testnet.
3Box Ethereum Profiles 1.0.0 is Live
Ethereum Profiles makes it simple for users to create a reusable profile for their Ethereum address which can easily be shared with dapps to simplify the onboarding experience and create a more frictionless, social web3 dapp ecosystem.
Version 2.0 of the OpenZeppelin smart contract development package comes with a stable API, 100% test coverage and a full independent audit.
Project 8 is a side-chains-in-a-box framework to build high-performance decentralized applications which are protected by Ethereum.
Interesting Tweets
- Willy Woo’s tweet thread on his updated crypto charts
- Katherine Wu explains the recent ruling in China about Bitcoin
- “Decentralize all the things” is a mistake
- Re-imagining trust with crypto
- Let’s chat about #DeFi
- A thread on Ethereum economic abstraction
- Ethereum is the gold standard for project transparency
Ecosystem Bits
Blog Posts
- State of Ethereum Protocol #2: The Beacon Chain
- Difference Between Sidechains and State Channels
- ZK Capital IPFS Analysis
- Advances in Decentralized Infrastructure V0.1
- A Retrospective of the EOS Token Sale
- More Than Half of Crypto News Outlets Take Money to Cover a Project (recommended read)
- Enter the Crypto Idea Maze
- The Evolving Role of Crypto Investors
- Introducing Continuous Organizations
- What is a Decentralized Exchange?
- A Storm is Brewing Over the Largest Bitcoin Exchange
- Detailed Overview of Ethereum 2.0 Shard Chains
- The State of Dapp Development — Blockchain Summer 2018
- The Death of ‘Decentralization’
Videos
Misc
Website Updates
New research added to the site
- Difference Between Sidechains and State Channels
- Plasma Design Comparison
- Proof-of-Stake Ecosystem 101
- Gluon Plasma Paper
New resources added to the site
Feedback
Thanks for reading. I’d love to get your feedback so please send an email to info@blockbyblock.io and I’ll be sure to get back to you! :)
Disclaimer: None of the information outlined in this piece should be taken as investment advice. Please click here for more information.
