Block by Block Weekly Newsletter #38
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News of the Week
😞 Bakkt Delays Bitcoin Futures Launch
Intercontinental Exchange’s bitcoin futures trading platform is delaying its formal launch.
Announced Tuesday via a company blog post, Bakkt’s first product, unveiled in August, has now been postponed to Jan. 24, 2019. Trading and warehouse operations are both expected to begin on that date.
The platform explained that “the new listing timeframe will provide additional time for customer and clearing member onboarding prior to the start of trading and warehousing of the new contract.”
In an announcement on Medium, Bakkt CEO Kelly Loeffler expanded on this statement, saying that the “volume of interest” in the company and the “work required to get all the pieces in place” contributed to the delay.
⛏️ Bitcoin Mining Firm Giga Watt Declares Bankruptcy
U.S.-based bitcoin mining firm Giga Watt has declared bankruptcy with millions still owed to creditors.
The firm filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy at a court in the Eastern District of Washington on Monday, revealing that it still owes its biggest 20 unsecured creditors nearly $7 million in court documents seen by CoinDesk.
Creditors include the utilities provider in its Douglas County base, having a claim of over $310,000, and electricity provider Neppel Electric, which is owed almost half a million dollars.
Giga Watt has estimated assets worth less than $50,000, whereas estimated liabilities are in the range of $10–50 million, according to the court documents.
👍 Major Swiss Stock Exchange SIX Lists World’s First Multi-Crypto ETP
Switzerland’s principal stock exchange SIX Swiss Exchange will list the world’s first multi-crypto-based exchange-traded product (ETP) next week.
Backed by the Swiss startup Amun AG, the first global multi-crypto ETP will be listed under index HODL, and will track five major cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin (BTC), Ripple (XRP), Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and Litecoin (LTC).
According to the article, each cryptocurrency will acquire a certain market share within the upcoming ETP, with Bitcoin accounting for around half of the ETP’s assets. The rest are set to be divided in fractions, with 25.4 percent in cryptocurrency XRP, and 16.7 percent in Ethereum, while Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin will acquire 5.2 and 3 percent of the market, respectively.
🤝 Crypto Trading Firms Teaming Up
A band of cryptocurrency trading desks is opening up their books to help institutions better understand the price of bitcoin — and they’re hoping the move will take the floundering market to the next level.
Three major cryptocurrency over-the-counter traders — Genesis Trading, Cumberland, and Circle Trade — announced they would provide data for a new index, dubbed MVIS Bitcoin US OTC Spot Index. The new product, which is run by MVIS, a division of asset manager VanEck, is a standout given it draws data from OTC desks as opposed to exchanges, such as Coinbase and Kraken. “Transparency is coming to the over-the-counter market,” Gabor Gurbacs, head of digital asset strategy at VanEck said in an exclusive interview with The Block. “Before this no one would publish the price and it happened behind the scenes.”
🤯 Ohio Becomes First State to Accept Bitcoin for Tax Payments
Starting this week, Ohio businesses will be able to register with the state government to pay some taxes with bitcoin by visiting OhioCrypto.com. The idea to pay taxes with bitcoin comes from the state’s Treasurer Josh Mandel. Mandel believes the new program is both convenient for tax filers and helps in ‘planting a flag’ for Ohio’s cryptocurrency adoption.
‘I do see [bitcoin] as a legitimate form of currency,’ Mr. Mandel said. The state of Ohio will use bitcoin payment processor, BitPay, to help process the tax payments. Ohio filers will send their tax payments to BitPay, which will convert the bitcoins to dollars for the state treasurer’s office.
⚖️ Bitcoin-Rigging Criminal Probe Focused on Tie to Tether
As Bitcoin plunges, the U.S. Justice Department is investigating whether last year’s epic rally was fueled in part by manipulation, with traders driving it up with Tether — a popular but controversial digital token.
While federal prosecutors opened a broad criminal probe into cryptocurrencies months ago, they’ve recently homed in on suspicions that a tangled web involving Bitcoin, Tether and crypto exchange Bitfinex might have been used to illegally move prices, said three people familiar with the matter.
Bitfinex has the same management team as Tether Ltd., a Hong Kong-based company that created the namesake cryptocurrency. When new coins come to market, they’re mostly released on Bitfinex.
The Justice Department’s probe adds to an existing inquiry into possible misconduct. Both Tether Ltd. and Bitfinex received subpoenas last year from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Bloomberg reported in January. The Justice Department and CFTC are coordinating their examinations, the people said.
🤔 Overstock Goes All in On Crypto
Overstock plans to sell its decades-old retail business in the next few months to make way for a full-blown bet on crypto. The previously announced sale plans could go through as soon as February.
Overstock founder and CEO Patrick Byrne — an ardent believer in the technology that underpins bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies — declined to name any of the potential buyers.
Shares of Overstock surged as much as 26 percent Friday but the stock is down 66 percent this year.
Project Updates
Gods Unchained Gameplay Trailer
The first gameplay trailer for Gods Unchained is live along with details of the upcoming closed beta.
0x Tracker (with support from the 0x team) is moving to an open source model, allowing anyone from the 0x community to contribute to the future of 0x Tracker.
Katherine Wu added a SEC guidance page to the Messari website this week. Highly recommend checking it out!
Messari also revamped the look of their website this week.
Mustekala is a new light client solution for the Ethereum blockchain. In this latest dev update, the team gives an overview of nodes in Ethereum and how Mustekala can help.
Dether is integrating the Kyber on-chain liquidity protocol and you can now buy the DTH token on KyberSwap or in the Dether mobile app.
The Ethereum Dispute Resolution Alliance (EDRA) pulls together multiple teams and researchers working on dispute resolution in the Ethereum ecosystem.
What’s New in Eth2–19 November 2018
Bed Edgingtons Devcon recap and workshop notes and technical spec updates.
Vipnode is feature complete and approach the stable release of v2.0!
POA Announces ERC20 to ERC20 TokenBridge
The ERC20 to ERC20 TokenBridge allows users to transform ERC20 tokens from one EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) based blockchain network to another EVM based network within ONE user’s wallet.
Aion Developer Update: Web3 v1.1.0
The latest release of Aion Web3, version 1.1.0, is now available.
You can now make offers, create listings and buy crypto collectibles using the Dai stablecoin!
Loom released a new CryptoZombies lesson that covers ERC721x and announced a new Loom SDK Project — Coins & Steel.
The new stats section of the Infura Dashboard was launched this week along with a few other updates from the Infura team.
Project Spotlight
Multis — Cryptobank for Companies
Multis is building a platform that will allow companies to manage their cryptos. Users will be able to access, transfer and receive their cryptos while also being able to delegate responsibilities within the team and to remain in custody of their funds.
Ecosystem Bits
Blog Posts
- The Web3 Data Economy
- Introducing Personal Token Economies
- Proof-of-Stake Ecosystem 103: Stakeholders
- Fundamental Questions Around Web3/Blockchain Value Accrual
- Two Point Oh: The Beacon Chain
- 0x Ecosystem, Project Spotlight — Dharma
- Blockchain Communities and Their Emergent Governance
- Enterprise Ethereum: Blockchain Use Cases and Applications by Industry
- The Future of Organizations
Videos
Misc
Website Updates
New research added to the site
New resources added to the site
Feedback
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Disclaimer: None of the information outlined in this piece should be taken as investment advice. Please click here for more information.
