Launching “The Scoop” —Your Weekly Summary of Everything Important in the Crypto World
The Scoop for September 3rd to September 10th 2020
Why we’re starting “The Scoop”
This article was originally written as a document for internal purposes. I began writing it to make sure the entire Wanchain team is kept up to date on all the important events and trends in the industry. The team found it to be quite useful, and after a while we realized it could be useful for our community as well.
NOTE:
The Scoop is not intended to be original journalism. It is intended to be brief summary of significant articles and events from the past week with links to the original sources. Sources will always be linked and credited. If you know any good newsletters or Twitter accounts which have news we’ve been missing, please mention them in the comments!
Hope you enjoy!
The Scoop for September 3rd to September 10th 2020:
- ADOPTION:
- Latin American nations seem to steadily adopt cryptocurrencies, they represented about 5 to 9% of all crypto transaction activity for any given month in the past year; fluctuations of national currencies are very severe;
- usage if Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in Africa also steadily rises
- thanks to Just Eat delivery service in France it is possible to pay in crypto for delivery from more than 15,000 restaurants
- Ukraine, Russia, Venezuela, China and Kenya are amongst the countries with most widespread adoption according to Chainalysis report (linked below, it is a GREAT read)
- The Korea Internet & Security Agency is the first public entity to implement a blockchain powered employee ID system (October 2020); a blockchain-based decentralized identity app
SOURCES:
https://news.bitcoin.com/latin-america-bitcoin-fiat-currencies/?utm_source=coingecko&utm_content=coingecko&utm_campaign=coingecko&utm_medium=coingecko&utm_term=coingecko
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-crypto-currencies-africa-insight/how-bitcoin-met-the-real-world-in-africa-idUSKBN25Z0Q8
https://decrypt.co/41059/just-eat-now-accepting-bitcoin-payments-in-france
https://blog.chainalysis.com/reports/2020-global-cryptocurrency-adoption-index-2020 < this article seems especially interesting
https://ledgerinsights.com/koreas-internet-security-agency-kisa-blockchain-identity/ - - ransomware attack by NetWalker hackers demanding Bitcoin temporarily shutdown all of Argentina’s immigration checkpoints
- attack put immigration offices and control posts out of service for 4 hours
- seems Argentina did not pay, but did not get at least some of the data back
SOURCES:
https://decrypt.co/41064/hackers-shut-argentina-borders-with-4-million-bitcoin-ransom-demand
https://cointelegraph.com/news/ransomware-hackers-shut-down-argentinas-borders-demand-4m-btc - - USDC just broke 1.8 Billion in circulation; a 340% increase YTD
- it was also added to Algorand mainnet (it is a second chain after Ethereum that it is on)
- the USDC is a stable currency co-founded by Circle and Coinbase as a fiat-based internet-native digital currency
SOURCE:
https://ibsintelligence.com/ibsi-news/centre-consortium-announces-algorand-as-an-official-chain-for-usdc/ - - mobile version of MetaMask was released
- users can manage their cryptocurrency wallets, store NFTs, sign messages and play blockchain powered games from their phones.
SOURCE:
https://thebitcoinstreetjournal.com/metamask-finally-escapes-the-desktop-with-new-mobile-wallet/ - -decentralized Exchanges (DEX) growth outperformed Centralized Exchanges (CEX) by 3X
- probably Uniswap is the biggest rise, though.
SOURCE:
https://www.coingecko.com/buzz/coingecko-monthly-crypto-report-august-2020 - - SushiSwap creator has sold all the dev-fund tokens after his super hard work of 1 week for about 17,971 ETH; the ownership of SushiSwap was transferred to FTX CEO
- another liquidity mining pool DeFi project Yfdexf.Finance has defrauded users of $20 million in total funds locked in their protocol
SOURCES:
https://cointelegraph.com/news/another-defi-exit-scam-just-made-off-with-20m-in-investor-funds
https://cointelegraph.com/news/ftx-ceo-sushiswap-probably-wasnt-a-long-planned-heist
https://news.bitcoin.com/sushiswap-founder-reportedly-exit-scams-as-sushi-token-price-tanks/#:~:text=The%20anonymous%20founder%20of%20Sushiswap,%2410%20in%20just%2024%20hours. - CENTRAL BANK DIGITAL CURRENCY
- Brazil could have CBDC in two years according to Banco Central (Brazil’s central bank); Brazilians could expect to see a central bank digital currency before 2023
- Mastercard launches CBDC testing platform for central banks
- it is assumed that at least three to five nations worldwide will replace their fiat currency with CBDC by 2030
SOURCES:
https://www.coindesk.com/brazil-digital-currency-by-2022
https://thedailychain.com/china-reducing-us-dollar-treasury-holdings-as-digital-yuan-pilot-continues/
https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2020/09/07/digital-yuan-change-fiat-yuan/
https://cointelegraph.com/news/brazil-could-have-cbdc-in-two-years-says-central-bank-president
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200909005341/en/Mastercard-Launches-Central-Bank-Digital-Currencies-CBDCs
https://cointelegraph.com/news/at-least-3-nations-to-replace-their-currency-with-cbdc-by-2030-report - - centralized exchanges want to get part of the liquidity mining cake
- both Binance and Huobi launched their products
- over $250M was locked in Binance’s pool
SOURCES:
https://cryptopotato.com/cefi-chases-defi-as-huobi-launches-liquidity-mining/
https://cryptopotato.com/binance-births-centralized-defi-with-launch-of-bswap-automated-market-maker/ - - Ethereum classic was 51% attacked three times over the past month
- in PoW the attacks can happen as many times as the attacker wants; PoS is safer in that regard due to slashing
SOURCE:
https://www.coindesk.com/crypto-51-attacks-etc - - another bug in the DeFi project allows user to turn $200 into $250k
- user did it on accident and made about 740 ETH from the initial investment of 0.5 ETH
- a bug in rebasing system allowed for the user to sell the currency for the previous price when his 2 tokens changed into 15551 tokens.
SOURCES:
https://cointelegraph.com/news/jackpot-user-turns-200-into-250k-thanks-to-a-buggy-defi-protocol - - crypto lending platform Cred has joined Visa’s Fintech Fast Track Program
- Cred could send interest payments directly to customer’s bank
- seems both Visa and Mastercard are more interested in crypto either way
SOURCE:
https://www.coindesk.com/visa-cred-fast-track
Let me know if you have any suggestions or ideas, and as mentioned above, please let me know in the comments below about any good newsletters or other news sources with news I’ve missed! Until next time!
About Wanchain
Wanchain is the infrastructure connecting the decentralized financial world. Wanchain’s live cross-blockchain solution is EVM-based, includes optional private transactions, and provides a decentralized, permissionless, and secure approach for interoperability. Wanchain has employees globally with teams in China, the USA, and other team members around the world in Asia, Africa, and Europe.
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