Coinbase will host its first investor day, New York State prosecutors won a jurisdictionaldispute involving Bitfinex and a protocol arms race is unfolding in Latin America. Heres the story:

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Top shelf

Not Your Traditional Investor DayOn the same day Reuters reported Coinbase is looking to go public, the exchange scheduled itsfirst-ever investor day,for Aug. 14. Investor days can often signal a planned direct listing, Jamie McGurk, a former operating partner at Andreessen Horowitz, has said.This will not be a traditional investor day, but rather an opportunity to hear our perspective on the cryptoeconomy and learn about Coinbases role in the ecosystem, said Coinbase spokesperson Daniel Harrison.

Employment KerfuffleFormer Tron Foundation employees arechallenging a court orderallowing the foundation to settle a lawsuit through arbitration, rather than in court. The initial complaint centers around allegations of wrongful termination and hostile work practices at BitTorrent, a file-sharing service acquired by the Tron Foundation.

Appeal DeniedBitfinex will have toface allegations from New York State prosecutorsthat it lost $850 million in client and corporate funds and tried to cover this hole with funds from the affiliated tether stablecoin, according to a ruling by the State Supreme Courts Appellate Division on Thursday. The exchanges parent iFinex initially claimed the prosecutors didnt have jurisdiction over the Hong Kong-headquartered firm, which the appeals court rejected. The court also dismissed the argument that tether was neither a commodity nor a security.

Canaan ShakeupThree Canaan Creative directors were dropped from the companys business registry, promptingspeculation of a power grab.For months an internal power struggle between co-founders Micree Zhan and Jihan Wu has wracked the Nasdaq-listed firm, which has been suffering growing competition and reduced profits following the Bitcoin networks programmatic halving.

Ethereum v. EOSEthereum and EOSIO are battling it out overenterprise blockchain businessacross Latin America. The square up pitsConsenSys in one corner and LatamLink in the other, a project backed by the Inter-American Development Bank, over which decentralized protocol will win the arms race.

Quick bites

The big picture

Venezuelas Real Use CaseAfter airdropping cryptocurrency to 60,000 users in Venezuela, an AirTM survey gives a snapshot ofhow crypto is actually used in the economically troubled nation.

Venezuela is often a proving ground for do-gooding crypto companies and protocols. Payments network Dash, for one, famouslymade headwayin the nation beset by hyperinflation.

AirTM distributed approximately $300,000 worth of crypto to Venezuelans, and while only 57% of recipients engaged with the funds, many were able to successfully use the donations to buy food and medicines. Others began treating the AirTM platform as a personal bank.

The bigger picture is coming into focus: Crypto only becomes a viable alternative to traditional financial systems if there is robust infrastructure to support it. If Venezuela offers an example of bitcoin usage, then it appears there is user demand for bitcoin-friendly services provided by a regular fintech company, CoinDesks Leigh Cuen reports.

Market intel

Balance Sheet Contractions. Bullish for Bitcoin?As the U.S. Federal Reserve begins to unwind its balance sheet,contracting $88 billion to $6.97 trillion(-1.5%) in the week ending July 8, some crypto observers are saying this could have negative consequences for bitcoins price. Thats because in recent months bitcoin has been positively correlated with traditional assets, which have rallied on the back of the Feds balance sheet expansion. But thats far from the consensus view. Zooming into the details of the Feds balance sheet reveals the reduction has been primarily driven by a drop in demand for emergency liquidity measures, a sign the coronavirus-induced stress in the financial system has eased, CoinDesks Omkar Godbole writes.

Opinion

Blockchain Credentials, Not CredentialismBlockchain certification can verify expertise and experience, making transferring schools and changing jobs easier. Butcertificate proliferation may be a bigger problem,argues Stephanie Hurder, a CoinDesk columnist and founding economist at Prysm Group. Non-degree credentials, such as badges and certificates, in particular are rapidly multiplying because they can now be digitally transmitted and verified at a minimal cost, she writes.

Podcast corner

Inequality, Social Chaos, Bankruptcy RalliesFrom the Robinhood Rally to the most profit-disconnected stock market in history, these are the mostinteresting ideas from FinTwitlast month.

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Blockchain Bites: Coinbase's Untraditional Investor Day and the Ethereum-EOS Arms Race in Latin America - CoinDesk - CoinDesk