Category Archives: Bitcoin

NEW YORK, Sept.17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --Bit Digital, Inc. (Nasdaq: BTBT) (the "Company"), an emerging bitcoin mining company headquartered in New York, U.S. today announced that the Company has contracted to cooperate with the colocation partner in U.S.

On September 1, 2020, the Company's wholly-owned subsidiary Bit Digital USA, Inc. was incorporated in Delaware, United States and on September 15, 2020 Bit Digital USA, Inc. entered into a certain service agreement with Compute North LLC. Compute North is the world's leading bitcoin colocation company headquartered in Nebraska U.S. Pursuant to the service agreement, Compute North will provide bitcoin mining facilities for the Company's colocation, managing mining equipment which will save the Company's operating cost, including utilities and rent.

The pilot test with Compute North LLC represented the Company's strategy to source the best bitcoin and bitcoin mining resources in North America and further help the Company to balance its operations worldwide.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release may contain certain "forward-looking statements" relating to the business of Bit Digital, Inc. and its subsidiary companies. All statements, other than statements of historical fact included herein are "forward-looking statements." These forward-looking statements are often identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "believes," "expects" or similar expressions, involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, they do involve assumptions, risks and uncertainties, and these expectations may prove to be incorrect. Investors should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of a variety of factors, including those discussed in the Company's periodic reports that are filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and available on its website at http://www.sec.gov. All forward-looking statements attributable to the Company or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by these factors. Other than as required under the securities laws, the Company does not assume a duty to update these forward-looking statements.

SOURCE Bit Digital, Inc.

Originally posted here:
Bit Digital, Inc. Announced Officially to Cooperate with the World's Leading Bitcoin Colocation Partner In US - PRNewswire

According to Whalemap, an on-chain analysis firm that focuses on Bitcoin (BTC) whale activity, short-term clusters are present at $10,570.

Whale clusters are shown at $10,570 and $11,288 for Bitcoin. Source: Whalemap

Whale clusters form when whales accumulate Bitcoin and do not move the BTC. Areas that have large amounts of unspent BTC become an area of interest, typically a resistance level. Analysts at Whalemap explain:

Bubbles show locations where unspent bitcoins were accumulated. The larger the bubble, the more unspent bitcoins are located there. P.s. Unspent means these bitcoins have not been moved since they were inflowed to a whale wallet.

Whales, or individuals holding large amounts of BTC, like to sell either at breakeven or at profit, depending on the market trend. If whales deem the current trend to be bearish, the $10,570 level could serve as an area where whales breakeven.

The two biggest whale clusters in the short term are found at $10,570 and $11,800. Unsurprisingly, the two levels are also key resistance areas for BTC in the immediate term.

Based on the recovery of Bitcoin above $10,000, some traders foresee BTC retesting the $11,000-$11,300 resistance range.

According to the cryptocurrency trader Edward Morra, Coinbases order book has consistently shown decent buying demand at the $10,000 area. He said on Sept. 11:

In case bitcoin dips, coinbase has some fat orders below. Coinbase added bids, from 10200 to 10000, there are ~2500 BTC in bids now.

The strength of the $10,000 support level could allow BTC to retest $10,570, and potentially surpass it. For now, many traders appear to be cautiously optimistic, at least until the mid-$10,000.

Most short-term bullish and bearish cases also center around the $10,570 to $11,000 resistance range. A rejection from the range raises the probability of downside in the near future.

For now, several on-chain metrics are supporting the near-term bearish case for Bitcoin. Data from Glassnode, for example, shows BTC miner fee deposits to exchanges have increased to levels unseen since 2017. The researchers said:

Currently, almost 10% of all #Bitcoin miner fees are spent on transactions that deposit $BTC to centralized exchanges. This is a 2x increase since the beginning of the year, and levels we haven't seen since late 2017.

However, the rise in miner fees and the record-high hash rate of the Bitcoin blockchain network indicate an overall rise in network activity. But if miners sell the fees, then it could impose additional selling pressure on the BTC/USD pair.

Bitcoin fees are being sold on exchanges. Source: Glassnode

Historically, many analysts have used various network activity metrics to measure the short to medium-term trend of Bitcoin.

CNBCs Brian Kelly, as an example, has consistently utilized the unique address activity of Bitcoin to assess the BTC price trend.

Original post:
Bitcoin whale cluster at $10,570 is the most important level right now - Cointelegraph

Jim Cramer, the Mad Money host and The Street co-founder, said he is fixated on needing to own bitcoin because he fears a massive amount of inflation. While he owns so much gold, he is adamant about leaving a bitcoin inheritance to his children.

Jim Cramer is the host of Mad Money on CNBC, a former hedge fund manager, and a co-founder of Thestreet.com, a financial news and literacy website. During a podcast interview with Morgan Creek Digital partner Anthony Pompliano (Pomp), published Monday, Cramer asked many questions about cryptocurrency, particularly bitcoin. The Mad Money host said he has been following stock trader Dave Portnoy very closely. Portnoy recently bought bitcoin but exited the crypto market within a week after the price of chainlink, another of his crypto investments, fell.

Cramer calls himself a gold bug because he has so much gold, he revealed. He is concerned about hedging against inflation and leaving the right assets to his kids. The former hedge fund manager explained that to hedge against inflation, he currently goes to his inflation handbook, and what it says is buy gold, buy masterpieces and buy mansions. Those are the three things. He emphasized that what we didnt have in that menu was crypto and I think that you have to have [it]. He further opined: I feel very strongly that I have missed crypto.

Pomp clarified to Cramer that it is important to distinguish between bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. When you talk to your kids about it, you got to make sure its bitcoin not just crypto in general because bitcoin specifically has the inflation hedge things that were talking about here.

Cramer believes:

My kids, when they get my inheritance, wont feel comfortable with gold and will feel comfortable with crypto.

I just need something that my kids will understand and they will never understand gold and the reason why theyll never understand gold is they think golds dangerous. Its dangerous because it can be stolen. Its dangerous because they dont want to take it out of the bank, Cramer shared. As for cryptocurrency, the Mad Money host is also concerned about the security side, such as getting hacked. However, Pomp explained several ways to keep his bitcoin more secure.

Cramer admitted that when people asked him about bitcoin in the past, he said to them that he does not trade coffee, cotton, and bitcoin. That sufficed for a very long time. It worked until the three trillion dollar [Fed] package because we dont have that. We dont have three trillion in this country. You can raise them you make the rich pay as much as you want. This is the first time in my life, and Ive said it publicly, that I know we dont have the money and thats one of the reasons why I like gold so much. However, he agrees with Pomp that the upside of bitcoin beats gold.

Recently, the Federal Reserve has made a major policy shift to push up inflation. This has prompted some companies to move cash reserves into bitcoin, such as the Nasdaq-listed Microstrategy which recently bought a total of $425 million in bitcoin in order to hedge against inflation. Meanwhile, some people strongly believe that bitcoin beats gold in every way.

The co-founder of The Street exclaimed:

I am fixated on needing to own crypto because I fear massive amount of inflation.

Pomp proceeded to explain how Cramer could buy and hold bitcoin. For example, to get some exposure, he could buy Grayscale Investments GBTC, but there are premiums. Alternatively, he could buy bitcoin itself and either use the custody service of a reputable company or store it himself. He asked about JPMorgan, which Pomp believes will one day offer the same crypto service Fidelity does. Cramer says he has some funds at Fidelity so it is likely the place he will go and buy bitcoin, mentioning that he could be doing dollar-cost averaging. Cramer says that he is not worried about the price fluctuation of bitcoin since it will be part of his portfolio as an alternative asset for hedging purposes.

What do you think about Jim Cramer wanting to buy bitcoin? Let us know in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

Go here to read the rest:
Mad Money's Jim Cramer 'Fixated' on Buying Bitcoin, Fears Massive Inflation | News - Bitcoin News

Bitcoin (BTC) is getting its best advertisement once more as another major central bank floats the idea of charging people to save their money.

As Bloomberg reported quoting minutes of a meeting held Thursday, the Bank of England (BoE) has become the latest central bank to discuss negative interest rates.

According to the results of the meeting, the BoE will enter discussions with banking regulators over negative rates, which effectively mean lending institutions, and, hence, savers must pay to store cash.

The reason is the impact of the coronavirus lockdown on the economy, along with the looming prospect of Brexit, deal or no deal.

The bank is leaving all options on the table, due to elevated uncertainty, one analyst told the publication in light of the news.

The pound slid against major currencies Thursday, as policymakers further confirmed that they had voted to keep interest rates at 0.1% for the time being.

Bank of England balance sheet chart (GBP). Source: TradingEconomics/ Bank of England

Bitcoin proponents immediately seized on the BoEs troubles, arguing that such a policy simply undermined both fiat currencys reputation and its own position.

Wow, the Bank of England discussing negative interest rates. If they adopt this, they would be paying you to borrow, Tyler Winklevoss wrote on Twitter.

You couldnt buy a better advertisement for Bitcoin but u can take their money and go long bitcoin.

Veteran trader Tone Vays had similar thoughts.

I don't think any Bank would pay you to borrow but they will charge you to store/save your money at the Bank, what more can a Bitcoin Hodler as for! he said, responding to Winklevoss.

Thanks Bank of England, you will help drive $BTC adoption.

Others took aim at the interim interest rate decision.

One of the most important prices in our society is determined by vote, Christopher Bendiksen, head of research at digital asset investment strategist Coinshares, tweeted.

You read that right. In 2020, 8 middle-aged men and one woman literally come together several times a year to determine the price of credit. This will seem unbelievably archaic to our descendants.

As Cointelegraph reported, the BoE is particularly infamous in Bitcoin circles, the United Kingdom government bailing out the banking sector en masse on the eve of Bitcoins birth in 2009. An article from the national newspaper, The Times, was even included in the Bitcoin genesis block.

More recently, central banks reactions to coronavirus have fuelled the idea that Bitcoin will increasingly function as a hedge against fiat.

This week, the United States Federal Reserve fielded queries about its plans to overshoot inflation targets, a process that would weaken the U.S. dollar and provide a likely further boost to safe havens such as gold and Bitcoin.

For its part, the BoE had said that negative interest rates would be damaging to the U.K. economy as recently as last month.

The European Central Bank, or ECB, has administered negative rates since 2016, but such a move would be a historical first for the U.K.

Read the original here:
Bank of England talks negative interest rates in best ad for Bitcoin - Cointelegraph

WASHINGTON, Sept. 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --In Redefining the Future of the Economy: Governance Blocks and EconomicArchitecturethe authorsreveal what the first generations ofblockchainare missing. Norman Augustine, distinguished engineer and former Lockheed Martin CEO, states:"Your book is fascinating the way it moves from economics to governance to mathematics to philosophy to poetry."

Futurist George Gilder, author of Life After Google: the Fall of Big Data and the Rise of the Blockchain Economy, Wealth and Poverty, Microcosm, Telecosm, Life After Television, and the Silicon Eye, writes: "[Redefining the Future of the Economy] is a just-in-time blockbusting chain-reactive manifesto for a revolutionary second generation of blockchain for finance. If you are involved with the Cryptocosm, or with finance, or with artificial intelligence, you have to read it. . Talbot, a super savvy investment strategist, and Benko, a paladin of money theory, actually know why the movement is bogging down and how to fix it."

They prescribe the missing ingredients: Layering consensus algorithms for the creation of sophisticated financial systems and using combinatorial mathematics to provide an organizational structure bringing order to the autonomous chaos of AI, providing accountability and regulatory compliance.

Dawn Talbotis a Wall Street veteraninstitutional research analyst, corporate finance professional, and portfolio manager. Ralph Benko is a Washington insider, aReagan White House deputy general counsel and former senior counselor to the blockchain sector's trade association.The book is available from Amazon and we offer complimentary review copies to journalists and thought leaders. The authors are available for interviews to discuss their breakthrough findings.

Contact: Ralph Benko [emailprotected] 202.800.6550

SOURCE Tevoro.com

http://www.Tevoro.com

See the original post:
Tevoro.com Announces New Book Revealing What's Missing from Bitcoin, Ethereum and Other Cryptocurrencies - PRNewswire

The Philippines SEC has released an official warning about Bitcoin (BTC) cloud mining company Mining City, advising the public to steer clear of the scheme and others like it. Despite the official condemnation, the price of a related cryptocurrency is on the rise.

The warning describes the company as an unlicensed entity in the country and said it was not functioning in accordance with guidelines for virtual currency exchanges, stating:

The notice also identified Mining Citys CEO Gregory Rogowski, team leader Anthony Aguilar, and Facebook page admin Jhon Rey Grey as key personnel involved in the scheme all of whom will also be reported to the Bureau of Internal Revenue for investigation regarding their tax assessments.

The scheme offers cloud mining packages in the form of three-year contracts where hash power is rented to investors worth between $300 up to $12,600, and purports to provide daily returns of up to $92 per day. Mining City operates in partnership with MineBest, creator of the Bitcoin Vault scam, with investors receiving their profits in the form of BTCV tokens.

The regulator told the public not to invest or stop investing in plans offered by Mining City or by entities that engage in smart contracts, cryptocurrencies or digital asset exchanges that are not registered with the commission, adding that promoters could be criminally prosecuted with fines over $100,000 or imprisonment of up to 21 years.

In the two weeks prior to this warning, the price of BTCV plummeted 76% from $425 on Aug. 23, to $100 on Sept. 10. It has since risen to $163, suggesting the warning may not have been effective in deterring public interest in the scheme. On Mining Citys website, it states the program will continue to run even if its website is closed for any reason implying that it is immune to government intervention due to its decentralized nature.

The Philippines SEC previously flagged notorious Ethereum gas gazzler Forsage as a Ponzi scheme in July; however, it was stronger than ever in August boasting an expanded user base of 390,000 users and a daily turnover of over $3 million. Forsage currently has over 1,900 daily active users on Ethereum (ETH) and 800 active users on Tron (TRX), according to DappStats.

Follow this link:
Philippines SEC warns of cloud mining Ponzi related to Bitcoin Vault - Cointelegraph

One of the interesting things about cryptocurrency investors is they really dolook at the world very differently from many of their counterparts in traditional finance.

The thinking goes something like this: The efforts of governments and central banks to repair the economy are doomed to fail, and likely to make the situation worse. There is no point in moving to a defensive investment strategy because prices for digital assets are going to the moon. Every time the stock market goes up, it just validates the reality that the dollar is being debased by trillions of dollars of central bank money printing.

The latest turn-logic-on-its-head zinger came Monday from Dan Morehead, a former Wall Street trader and hedge fund executive who now heads the cryptocurrency-focused investment firm Pantera Capital in the San Francisco area.

In amonthly letter, Morehead was discussing how central banks typically succeed when they pointedly attempt to increase inflation, as the Federal Reserve is now pursuing as an official policy. Hecited Venezuela and Zimbabwe as twoprior success stories, as it were.

Morehead then pivoted to the argument that asset prices are not rising because stock fundamentals have improved, but because a huge wave of money is being printed.

Gold is at a 5,000-year high, Morehead wrote. Or, said another way, paper money is at an all-time low.

Its that counterintuitive,put another way perspective that can sometimes seem refreshing, partly because the crypto investorkeeps getting proven right. Audiences on both Wall Street and in broader society are now becoming more receptive to the idea that thetraditional financial system and economy arebothunsustainable and unfair.

The Federal Reserves top monetary officialsmeet this week to discuss their next steps for healing the U.S. economy, which at this point appears to consist of doingnothing for the next several yearsuntil inflation rises above the central banks historic 2% targetand stays above that level for a while.

Asreported byFirst Mover Monday, its possible the Feds next move would come if the stock market takes a fresh dive, prompting the central bank to step in and pump more money into the economy to keep markets functioning smoothly.

Jeff Dorman, another former Wall Street veteran whos now chief investment officer of the cryptocurrency-focused investment Arca Funds in Los Angeles, wrote Monday in hisweekly columnthat Congress, which has been gridlocked over a newcoronavirus-related stimulus package, might alsobe prone to a similar do-nothing-until-you-have-to dynamic.

He has written in the past that it would likely take an equity temper tantrum before Congress acts, and he wrote this week, Methinks Congress will be acting soon.

Moral hazard never left, but its definitely back, according to Dorman.

What tips the scalestoward the crypto investors being the sane ones and not the other way around is that market signalsare currently validating the crypto investment thesis.

Bill Gross, the legendary former Pimco bond fund manager, is encouraging investors to get defensive because there is little money to be made almost anywhere in the world,CNBC reported Monday.

Tell that toMorehead of Pantera, whose Digital Asset Fund has returned 168% so far this year, according to the letter.

Morehead said bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are winning because they have a relatively fixed supply, similar to gold, and improved usage/fundamentals, similar to tech stockslike Amazon and Netflix.

Just compare the following chart of year-to-date asset-class performance from Pantera:

To this one fromGoldman Sachs (off by a few days so the percentages are a touch different):

One includes crypto, and goes up to 244%; the other doesnt include crypto, and it goes up to 29%. So far this year, based on the track record so far anyway, it turns out thesmart money was in crypto.

Bitcoin Watch

Bitcoin looks north, having breached a 10-day-long sideways trend with a move above $10,500 on Monday.

Bullish developments on key technical indicators back the range breakout. For instance, the 14-day relative strength index has violated a descending trendline, signaling an end of the price pullback from the August high of $12,476.

Further, the MACD histogram, an indicator used to gauge trend strength and trend changes, has crossed above zero, indicating a bullish reversal.

As such, resistance levels at $11,000 and $11,200 could soon come into play. That said, the cryptocurrency remains vulnerable to a potential sell-off in equity markets, according to analysts.

Previous sell-offs have been exacerbated by risk-off momentum in stocks, particularly the tech-heavy Nasdaq index, Matthew Dibb, co-founder and COO of Stack Fund, told CoinDesk in a WhatsApp chat. We remain cautiously bullish this week.

Token Watch

BZx (BZRX):DeFi lending projectrecovers $8M of cryptocurrencyfrom attacker who exploited code bug.

Aave (LEND), Yearn.Finance (YFI), Compound (COMP), Synthetix (SNX), MakerDAO (MKR), REN (REN), Kyber Network (KNC), Loopring (LRC), Balancer (BAL), Augur (REP):New 10-token DeFi Pulse Index provides way for traders to get exposure to DeFi without having to go and buy every token individually.

Tether (USDT), Tron (TRX), Ethereum (ETH):Tether moves 1B of its dollar-linked USDT stablecoins toEthereum blockchain from Tron.

What's Hot

Analogs

The latest on the economy and traditional finance

Tweet of the Day

More:
First Mover: Bitcoin Investors the Sane Ones as Federal Reserve Cheers Inflation, Price Nears $11K - CoinDesk - CoinDesk

Every week theres usually at least one article in CoinDesk, a blurb in a newsletter and several charts in the Twittersphere about bitcoins correlation with something or other.

This week,we were told that the 60-day correlation between gold and bitcoin (BTC) had reached all-time highs. Last week,our monthly report featured a chart of BTCs correlation with the DXY dollar index. A few weeks before that, the correlation with the S&P 500 was in the headlines.

If you feel dizzy from the rapid turns in attention on which correlation metric matters, youre not alone. But, you had better get used to it because the fascination with BTCs correlation status is unlikely to fade any time soon.What this reveals about bitcoin is intriguing. Its not so much the correlation measures per se they are fun to watch go up and down, but theyre not the deeper story. The deeper story is why it matters so much to us.

When we point to BTCs increasing correlation with the S&P 500, gold, avocados or whatever, we are searching for a handle on its prevailing narrative. We hope that correlations will give us a clue.

BTC is a difficult asset to pin down. It is a scarce asset like gold, yet with a harder cap. It can be used for pseudonymous transactions, as can cash. It is a speculative holding for many, like equities. It is a bet on a new technology, like a growth stock. It is a hedge against a dollar collapse, a way to spread financial inclusion, an investment in financial evolution, a political statement. It is all of these, or none of these, depending on your intellectual leanings, economic philosophy and mood.

The narrative we choose for bitcoin matters, though. Not only does it form our investment thesis around the asset, but it also influences our valuation methods. Do we extrapolate its potential price using the size of the gold market? The payments universe? Transaction fees? Something else entirely?

So, faced with such a slippery narrative, we look to correlations to tell the story. If its highly correlated with gold, then the market views it as a safe haven. If its more closely correlated to the S&P 500, then its a risk-on investment. If bitcoins correlation to the dollar index plummets, then its a hedge.

We look to the market to tell us what bitcoins narrative is. But this creates a feedback loop (Follow gold! Follow Nasdaq!) that helps to perpetuate bitcoins momentum-fueled volatility, and which is often thrown off course by the evolving nature of markets.

BTCs 60-day correlation with the S&P 500 has been coming down recently. That must mean its no longer a risk-on asset. Its increasing correlation with gold corroborates that, putting BTC back in the safe haven story.

But wait. Youll have heard that BTC has not had a good run over the past few days. Youll probably also have heard that Tesla has had a particularly bad time this week. I wonder if theyre correlated.

What do you know, it looks like BTCs correlation with TSLA is increasing! BTC is now more correlated to TSLA than to the S&P 500. That must mean that bitcoin is now being seen as a tech stock. No wait, its being seen as a proxy for market hype. No wait, I mean its being seen as a moon shot.

Obviously, Im kidding, but point Im trying to make is that short-term correlations can tell a good story, but theyre not that meaningful.

With a happy ending

Correlations are based on price movements, which, especially in these crazy times, do not always respond to common sense. Prices have, on the whole, become untethered from fundamental factors and are being pushed around by sentiment. Sentiment fuels momentum, which we often mistake for a trend; it also perpetuates the directionality of prices, which can exaggerate correlations.

Yet, sentiment can turn fast when investors are jittery, and theres plenty to be jittery about. The story changes again.

This grasping for data to back a story reveals our very human need to put bitcoin in context of things were already familiar with. If it goes into a certain mental box, its easier to understand and easier to make decisions about. Boxes are comfortable. Yet, in the long run, they are unsustainable.

In the short run, too: These markets are nuts, and boxes are being smashed all over the place. Bitcoin, which never did belong in any box that we know, is hopping from one story to another, as told by correlation metrics.

I like a good chart as much as anyone, probably even more so (after all, I am an analyst), and I plan to continue to watch the numbers stories with interest. But rather than use return relationships as a narrative crutch, Ill be keeping an eye on what they say about what investors are looking for.

For short-term market movements, what we think bitcoins narrative is doesnt matter as much as what other peoplethink bitcoins narrative is. Other people move the market, so we should know what asset framework theyre using. The correlation stories are useful for that.

For long-term market movements, correlations matter more for portfolio diversification than for anything else. In the not-too-distant future, markets will hopefully be less confusing and even short-term covariance and other relationships might be steadier, and easier to use for planning purposes. By then, even bitcoins correlations might start to matter less for the story and more for the allocation calculations.

By then, we will hopefully no longer need to put bitcoin in a pre-conceived box. It will have found its own narrative, understandable by all.

Drawing lines

Investor activism comes to crypto. Technically its not the first time, but as far as I know its the first initiated by an institutional investor, which pushes it into a more public arena with potentially far-reaching consequences.

California-based hedge fund manager Arca is stepping up its campaign to overhaul decentralized exchange and prediction market platform Gnosis, which raised $12.5 million in a 2017 initial coin offering (ICO). Arcas complaint is that the project has seen its initial ICO proceeds and therefore its balance sheet multiply simply due to the increase in the price of ETH, and yet has not produced anyproducts that accrue value to the token holders.

Arca insists Gnosis should at least trade at the net asset value of its treasury, which is at current prices $139 per GNO (the platforms token, which at time of writing has a market price of $67), and that the mispricing is due to poor decisions on the part of management.The investor has suggested to management that it use the bulk of its treasury to make a tender offer for all outstanding GNOs. This would value each token at approximately $90, providing a decent return for early investors. Since the report of Arcas proposal came out last week, GNO has increased 34% in price (at time of writing), while bitcoin has fallen 4% overthe same period.

The interesting part is not the potential flip for investors as they crowd out the upside. Whats important about this is how it changes the conversation around token investments, on so many levels.

First, it will unleash a healthy discussion around responsibility. Token sales, especially those issued in the heyday of 2017, are lightly regulated if at all, with no clearly defined lines of obligations. This discussion could professionalize the field and encourage other institutional investors to take an interest.

Second, it could refine the definition of token. Is it like a venture investment, where investors are expected to help their portfolio companies in exchange for greater potential returns? Yet venture investments arent liquid, and tokens to some extent are. So, is it more like equity, in which case, do token holders have stakeholder rights? ArcaCIO Jeff Dorman believes his firms holdingis like an interest-free loan, which comes with the expectation that lenders are kept informed of the borrowers progress and plans for the proceeds.And, third, it could influence investment strategies. Weve seen the price of GNO jump over the past few days, presumably in the expectation that management will listen to Arcas demands. Will we see activists intentionally accumulate tokens in order to influence a companys direction?

Finally, this could trigger some governance innovations. Apart from investors collectively insisting on more transparency and accountability, we could start to see some protocol or algorithm adjustments. What could investor activism look like on staking networks, where the amount of tokens you hold programmatically determines the say you have in certain governance issues? What if an investor wants to leverage that position to influence more than the protocol had contemplated? How can a project protect itself against predator stakes?

Given the scope of the problem and what it means for the evolution of token issuance as a fund-raising mechanism and as a value proposition, this situation is worth keeping an eye on. Arcas initiative will most likely end up being about much more than a fair return on an investment.

Anyone know what's going on yet?

As the relentless growth in COVID-19 cases around the world shines greater focus on the bumpy road to a vaccine, uncertainty in the timing of an economic recovery seems to be spilling over into stock market valuations. The S&P and Nasdaq look on track to have their second week of declines, for the first time since March.

Amidst the growing uncertainty, BTC also had a down week, significantly underperforming gold and equities and giving a boost to its 30-day volatility.

While it may feel like stock market volatility is back with a vengeance, the VIX is still well below its June level, and about where it was in December 2018. In other words, this isnt too unusual.

Both the latest U.S. unemployment and consumer price indexfigures came in slightly higher than expected, adding to the overall unease. As renowned investor Stanley Druckenmiller re-ignited the heated debate between those that expect inflation and those that expect deflation, expect greater focus on bitcoins narrative as an inflation hedge.

CHAIN LINKS

My colleague Nathan DiCamillo shows how we can follow the initial public offering of INX, the first registered offering of security tokens in the U.S., and gives more insight into how the issuance will work. TAKEAWAY: This is an eye-opening peek at the transparency of a security token offering, vs. a normal security offering. You can actually watch the securities move, in real time. That, plus the innovative business model behind them, and the evolution of capital markets they represent, andthe fact that its the first token sale to register for retail distribution with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, make this issuance worth following.

Another issuance worth watching is that of Diginex, the Hong Kong-based company behind the newly launched EQUOS.io crypto exchange. This week it announced that it has raised $20 million from four family offices and a hedge fund, ahead of an anticipated Nasdaq listing later this month via a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC). TAKEAWAY: This will be the first crypto exchange to publicly list in the U.S., as well as an indication of public interest in crypto market infrastructure. For investors, its a listed play on the growth of the ecosystem. For analysts, its a welcome peek at the accounts of a market infrastructure participant, which could be even more interesting as rumors of a Coinbase listing continue to circulate.

Options market data shows an upward trend over the past couple of months in the traded volume of ether (ETH) puts vs. calls, which hints at a growing fear of a price drop. TAKEAWAY: The bitcoin (BTC) put-call ratio is flat over the same period, which implies that the hedging is specific to ETH. This could indicate greater concern about the fragility of the recent inflows into some decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms, and the potential impact on the networks congestion and token price.

The recent growth in bitcoin accumulation addresses, or addresses with at least two incoming bitcoin transfers in the last seven years and no spends, could indicate growing support for bitcoin in spite of lackluster price performance. TAKEAWAY: That we can even extract this metric is an example of the unique data sets available to crypto asset investors. Imagine having this level of information with traditional assets.

More than 30% of new customers at bitFlyer, one of the leading Japanese crypto exchanges, are in their 20s, according to a recent survey. TAKEAWAY: Its not news that millennials are interested in crypto assets. Last year investment management firm Charles Schwab revealed in a quarterly report that bitcoin was the fifth most popular investment among its millennial customers. A JPMorgan report issued last month also flagged millennials penchant for bitcoin over gold.

Investment management firm Wave Financial has received its first round of investment from clients for the Wave Kentucky Whiskey 2020 Digital Fund, which it plans to tokenize in a year or two. TAKEAWAY: I include this as an example of how interesting the tokenized security field will soon get. It should be clarified that holding a fund token does not give you access to the whiskey. It does allow you to share in the profits when the whiskey is eventually sold to wholesalers. Yes, this could be achieved without tokenization. And it remains to be seen how comfortable investors will be with this concept. The investment so far is still relatively small, but will be worth watching.

Podcast episodes worth listening to:

Read the rest here:
How Bitcoin Correlations Drive the Narrative - CoinDesk - CoinDesk

Jameson Lopp, co-founder and CTO of Casa, a crypto custody firm has released a test result report on Bitcoin multi-signature hardware signing performance on the Casa blog on Sep. 13.

The result shows that hardware crypto wallet devices can handle small, simple transactions well. However, they have trouble performing once the transaction becomes complicated. Casa is said to be built upon geographically distributed multisig, dedicated hardware devices to secure keys, designed user experience, and client services.

Lopp pointed out that while the company has no control over the hardware devices, the goal is to support any device at the end of the day. Thus, he decided to conduct research and hoped to draw some conclusions and help multisig software providers better understand the limits of hardware and customize wallet software for better performance.

Casa is currently compatible with six hardware including Trezor, Ledger, Coinkite and Coldcard The test was done on all the supported hardware devices and also BitBox.

Lopp set up the test by leveraging Electrum's 4.0.2 appimage on Debian Linux and created a variety of P2WSH (native segwit) multisig wallets that use Bitcoins testnet and with the hardware devices plugged in via USB. In each wallet, there was a deposit of 100 UTXOs.

Lopp created a series of tests to determine these hardware wallet capabilities when signing multi-signature transactions of varying complexity. He repeated these tests and concluded that its better and more secure if hardware devices can show progress indicators for loading and signing. He added that:

I came to really dislike hardware devices that don't show progress indicators for loading and signing. As such, I highly prefer Coldcard and Trezor in this respect. BitBox and Ledger are anxiety-inducing because you have no idea if anything is actually happening.

When it comes to overcoming transaction size limitation and delay of transaction processing time, Lopp suggested that hardware wallets could try to break up a send into multiple smaller transactions that are below its limits.

When the transaction process takes too long, some devices will lock itself from inactivity. Lopp suggests that the least device manufacturers could do to avoid such inconvenience is to disable the screen lock timeout while the device is still working on the transaction.

According to Lopp, hardware devices should also support Partially signed Bitcoin transactions (PSBT) and all possible valid multisig transactions. He added that:

I believe it's time for hardware manufacturers to start acting like platform providers and ensure that they are providing robust platforms that can be used to build a wide variety of solutions.

There are two steps for hardware devices to follow when signing a Bitcoin transaction, according to Lopp:

First, The transaction gets loaded onto the device, it parses the details and displays them on the screen for user confirmation. These details are generally the address(es) to which funds are being sent, the amount(s) being sent, and the fee being paid. Then, Upon user confirmation, the device signs each transaction input and then returns the signed transaction to the wallet software.

Follow this link:
Bitcoin hardware devices need to improve to handle complex transactions - Cointelegraph

Its been a tough week for Bitcoin. The price has fallen more than 8 percent and dipped below $10,000 on three consecutive days. Analyst Willy Woo, though, thinks its all looking good. He believes that on-chain indicators, such as the NVT ratio, suggest a bullish outlook, while Su Zhu of Three Arrows Capital believes that a surge to $100,000 is more likely than a fall to $5,000.

The son of gold investor and Bitcoin critic Peter Schiff is convinced. The 18-year-old college freshman just bought some more Bitcoin, against his fathers advice. Asked whether they want to follow the student whos never had a job or the 30-year investment professional, Twitter picked the Bitcoin fan.

At least the young Schiff will be set for the end of the world. Podcaster Adam Curry has told comedian Joe Rogan that the apocalypse is coming, and as you hide in your bunker and battle the zombies, youre going to need a Bitcoin. Its no wonder that Bitcoin is now the worlds sixth-largest currency. And thats despite dying again. As the cryptocurrency lost value this week, the Bitcoin Obituary got to add another eulogy to its list.

As youre mourning the 382nd death of Bitcoin, you might want to hold off on loading up on Bitcoin Cash, though. It turns out that Tim Draper didnt recently buy some or thank Roger Ver. It looks like his Twitter account was hacked or a paid ad went wrong.

But if the apocalypse does come, maybe the GoodDollar will save us. The eToro token will set aside a daily amount as a basic income for the platforms participants. Andrew Yang would like it. Or alternatively, you could just hack a wallet. Crypto Twitter user Alon Gal has declared that he has a wallet containing 69,000 Bitcoins. He just doesnt have the password. Hackers have been trying to crack it for two years with no luck. Did they try password123?

The number of active decentralized autonomous organizations, or DAOs, has jumped over the last year. Its up 660 percent, from ten a year ago to 76 now. At the same time, thefirst phase of the MakerDAO debt auction is reaching its final stages. Bidders have already committed to buying $2 million worth of Maker tokens using Dai.

Its not only DAOs that are on the up, though. Starbucks is now getting ready to deploy a blockchain to trace its coffee beans and enable greater product transparency. Chinas Hainan Wenchang International Aerospace City will use a blockchain to support its Smart Brain Planning and Design Institute. And Bangladesh is about to get its first blockchain-powered remittance service. The service will let Bangladeshi expats in Malaysia send their money home.

There have been a few setbacks too this week. The Texas State Securities Board has detected some more cryptocurrency scams. Texas Securities Commissioner Travis J. Ilesnamed Kumar Babu Bondesi and Darwin Eric Balusek as the alleged operators of the Forex Birds and PEK Universe scams. They could face up to ten years in jail. Balusek is also known as Bitcoin Pope.

And YouTube pulled the plug on Sunny Decrees crypto livestream. The platform said the video violated its policy against harmful and dangerous content.

Finally, Jay Cassano, Cointelegraphs editor-in-chief, has been promoted to CEO. His position will be taken by Jon Rice, previously the managing editor of Cointelegraph Magazine. Congratulations to them both.

Check out the audio version here:

Joel Comm is an internet pioneer, New York Times best-selling author, futurist speaker and co-host of The Bad Crypto Podcast. Thats a fancy way of saying he writes words, says things and loves to play with cryptos.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

Visit link:
Bitcoins obituary and a Starbucks blockchain: Bad crypto news of the week - Cointelegraph