Byte Size Weekly #2 (September 6, 2017)

Bitcoin and Ethereum are in free fall, dropping the most in market value since July, read to find out what happened…

Bitcoin tumbles after China declares ICOs illegal

• China declared on September 4th that initial coin offerings will be considered illegal moving forward and asked all related fundraising activity to cease immediately
• This move has signified the strongest regulatory push in the explosive market for digital token sales
• China’s regulatory stance has promoted the separation between high quality, ethical offerings versus low quality, fraudulent funding rounds
• Since the news broke, Bitcoin tumbled nearly 11.4%, the most since July, down to approximately $4,327, while Ethereum dropped over 16%

Tech leaders respond as the Trump administration announces plans to end DACA

• With the Trump administration confirming its plans to end the Obama era’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy on September 5th, prominent high-tech executives have added their names to a letter asking Trump to preserve the program
• Although their concerns have yet to be addressed, executives at Airbnb, Apple, Facebook, Google, Lyft and Microsoft continue to speak out against the repeal

Tencent backs German startup’s high-speed flying jet taxi

• Chinese internet giant, Tencent funded flying jet taxi designer Lilium GmbH $90 million in conjunction with investors LGT Group of Lichtenstein, Obvious Ventures and Atomico, bringing the startup’s total capital raised to over $100 million
• The company is using the money to build a prototype that can seat five peaple and fly as fast as 300 km/h, with a promise to transport passengers from downtown Manhattan to JFK Airport in just five minutes
• Although it is still far away from mass deployment, Lilium has already successfully completed trial runs for its existing two-seater test model back in April