The Lunafi Daily — Tuesday 03-13-2018
Ever feel like there is too much going on in the cryptocurrency space and it is impossible to keep up? Us too. So here is a summary of the daily news (and a little bit of commentary)!
Mainstream
A Japanese Electric Power Company is testing Bitcoin payments (via Lightning Network) to pay for electric charging.
Although this is only on the test network, it is a great step forward. Japan has had a tough time moving towards renewable energy, so this story resonates with the Chubu Electric Power Co looking for innovative ways to bring renewable energy to the masses. This shows the potential of using Bitcoin technologies for small quick transactions!
“Boasting 15,000 employees and more than 200 power generation facilities, Chubu is now using Lightning to prototype a new way of letting customers pay to charge an electric vehicle”
Source: Japan’s Third-Largest Electric Provider Is Testing Bitcoin On Lightning
Source: Video in action
FBI pressured Facebook to ban crypto related ads and now they are pressuring Google to do so as well.
The crypto space, just like all other categories, fall victim to the “fake news” or “misleading news”. Facebook took the approach to ban all of them, and I am happy because it was overwhelming. A lot of ICOs have been deemed scams, yet still people were pouring money into them. This is because people want to join the rush and latch on to anything shiny. Be careful before you invest as some of these things become more mainstream. People may have a bad taste in their mouth about ICOs, let’s make sure the future has better food :) P.S. This article “mentions” FBI, but I think it is because it wants to make the story more inciting (thus I am a little skeptical of how much the FBI is involved).
“Roy [senior investigator at the Manitoba Securities Commission and chairman of Canada’s Binary Options Task Force] and the FBI have been making consistent efforts to make Google follow the paths of Facebook, but Google is not ready to play such dirty games. “We already ban and enforce against misleading ads and misrepresentation (across all categories),” a Google representative said.”
Source: FBI to Google: Stop Displaying Cryptocurrency-related Advertisements ⋆ Tech Talk
Investment
Companies are using social media “indicators” to provide data to investors
Thompson Rueters is doing what every good investment company should do: find all the factors that can predict price movements. People have been using Google search trends to predict price, this is just another indicator. I have mixed feelings about the ethical use of this data, but market prices are all speculated by the people’s opinion and people are emotional.
“Thompson Reuters announced today that Bitcoin data feed will be included in their latest version of MarketPsych Indices. Thompson Reuters MarketPsych Indices is a real-time, easy to interpret analytics using new feeds and social media banter. It scours through the various sources and through AI, analyses the sources to extract meaning that it quantitate. It uses emotional indicators such as fear, joy, and trust, buzz metrics based on mergers, banks etc. and provides forecasts and expectations from over 400 websites related to cryptocurrencies.”
Source: Thompson Reuters to look into Bitcoin [BTC] data feed to ‘measure’ what people ‘feel’ about it |
Source: Thompson Reuters indices
Square, a bank/payment processor company, integrates bitcoin into their app and their stock skyrockets.
This post could have went into mainstream or startup because of the success story. This is a good example of a company utilizing a technology to help consumers and shareholders see a bright future. Be careful, some companies just change their name to have blockchain in it and their price skyrockets as well. Some thought this was a PR stunt a while ago, but Square has followed through and continued to evolve accepting and sending Bitcoin through their apps.
“Following the announcement of its support for bitcoin, quite a number of new customers were attracted to it; Square’s shares quickly multiplied making its past achievements in the finance industry look like mere child’s play.”
Source: The Bitcoin Fever is Taking Square’s Stocks to the Moon | BTCMANAGER
Startups
Companies, like Coinbase, are trying to make it easier to calculate your taxes.
Taxes are tricky for a lot of Americans. Even software like TurboTax can be challenging to use in some situations. For example, a CPA (disclaimer: I am not one) might say you have to put in every single trade’s proceeds, cost basis, date purchase, and date sold (since there is no import feature for cryptotaxes). This is manual and tedious. The more tax tools that are out there for people, the less risky an IRS audit will be for people jumping into this space.
“Cryptocurrency startup Coinbase has launched a new gain/loss calculating tool as part of an effort to help its user base keep up with U.S. tax requirements.”
Source: Coinbase Releases Cryptocurrency Tax Calculator — CoinDesk
Source: Coinbase blog announcement
Binance is going to launch another Binance exchange (a decentralized one)
Hopefully your mind wasn’t blown by this title. Binance is one of the biggest exchanges out there and hasn’t been able to do much except scale. The company believes they have finally stabilized and wants to build a decentralized exchange (DEX). The most common problem with current DEXs are they aren’t truly decentralized yet and they only operate on one common chain (mostly Ethereum). So, This is awesome news for users because, if done correctly, will reduce the amount of hacks on exchanges and provide similar benefits that Bitcoin itself provides. With that being said, this is no easy feat for Binance. They plan on building a “Binance chain” and probably use their BNB token to facilitate trades across other chains. P.S. This may be a direct blow to ARK which is trying to build cross-chain blockchain.
“As a public blockchain, Binance Chain will mainly focus on the transfer and trading of blockchain assets, as well as provide new possibilities for the future flow of blockchain assets. Binance Chain will focus on performance, ease-of-use, and liquidity. Binance Coin (BNB) will be upgraded to exist on its own blockchain mainnet, becoming a native coin. At the same time, Binance will transition from being a company to a community.”
Source: Binance Chain
Regulations
Countries, like South Korea, are continuing to protect people through regulation and looking for alternative ways to allow businesses to run initial coin offerings.
South Korea banned all ICOs 6 months ago. This received mixed feelings because the ICO space was booming, but its probably a good thing they banned them because most ICOs from 2017 have already failed or disappeared. Remember, regulation may make it hard for businesses, but its there to protect the consumer. As long as countries have a balance, it will be a win win.
“Nearly six months after a blanket ban on ICO (initial coin offering) fundraising, South Korean regulators are reportedly planning to allow ICOs, under certain conditions.”
Source: South Korea Regulators Considering Reversal of ICO Ban: Report
Source: Original Post in Korea Times
The International Monetary Fund, an organization that is focused on stability of exchange rates across the world, says we should use the blockchain to regulate the blockchain.
The IMF is extremely scared of technologies like Bitcoin. If Bitcoin takes over as a universal currency (not saying it will.) then the organization would have to completely revamp itself. Although the comments and blog post come across “angry”, the IMF should be using the public ledger to help with regulation. If they are scared of AML or terrorism, build tools to help identify abnormalities just as they tag bills in a bank. All countries need to “ban together” to help regulate and protect consumers, but they can’t make it impossible for businesses to operate in the space.
“The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde, has said regulators should use blockchain technology to curb the “peril that comes along with the promise” of cryptocurrencies.”
Source: IMF’s Lagarde: Track Cryptos with Blockchain to ‘Fight Fire with Fire’ — CoinDesk
Source: IMF Blog
Wyoming is blazing the trail for cryptocurrency startups.
Wyoming is officially a “haven” for cryptocurrency startups. They have passed bills such as exempting certain cryptos from state security regulations aka “Utility tokens”, specific LLCs that are friendly to decentralized protocols, exempt cryptocurrency companies from property taxes, amending money transmission laws to allow companies fiat-crypto companies to operate, using blockchain as a record for shareholders voting, etc. This is huge step forward and we know the federal government is watching.
“… the Wyoming state legislature passed House Bill 70 on March 6, which effectively exempts crypto from state securities regulations. The bill was signed into law by Governor Matt Mead March 8. “
Source: US: Wyoming Set Precedent By Creating New Asset Class For Cryptos, Hopes to Inspire Feds
Source: Governor signed bills
