Vietnam is all set to launch a regulated crypto exchange as two companies have just signed an MOU for the development and obtaining licensing for a cryptocurrency exchange.

Partnership for the cryptocurrency exchange:
According to an article published by PRNewswire, Linh Thanh Group, which is the biggest distributor in the country is partnering with Kronn Ventures AG, a blockchain company located in Switzerland for the development of the cryptocurrency exchange.

Recently, Kronn Ventures AG created an association with the financial committees around Asia which included countries like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Cambodia as well as Vietnam. The motive of the association is to use blockchain technology to create a worldwide wiring system that suits the environment of the Asian continent.

According to the report, Linh Thanh Group has officially stated that partnering with the Kronn Ventures AG will help both the companies in creating a cryptocurrency exchange that is world class. Kronn Ventures is quite famous for their work in the field of blockchain in Switzerland.

Regulation in Vietnam:
The government of Vietnam had earlier seized the domain name of the biggest BTC exchange in the country as the company was accused of allowing e-commerce services without seeking regulations from the authorities.

Also at the end of last year, Vietnam’s ministry of justice had proposed various methods which could help in regulating cryptocurrencies in Vietnam. The regulatory authorities had also explored the pros and cons of cryptocurrency regulations in the country.

Source: https://coinnounce.com/vietnam-launching-a-regulated-cryptocurrency-exchange/

Touted as the next big thing in crypto, stablecoins promise investors volatility-proof exposure to decentralized assets, but insiders say that this emerging asset class is vulnerable to the same manipulative practices that have tarnished the broader ecosystem.

According to Nevin Freeman, chief executive officer of Reserve, a Coinbase-backed stablecoin, many of his rivals artificially inflate their market caps and trading volumes, creating misleading data on crypto-tracking sites like CoinMarketCap and The Stablecoin Index.

Freeman identified two dubious tactics used by stablecoin operators to pump their metrics: giving discounts to investors who agree to lock up their funds for a set timeframe; and encouraging “wash trading,” where traders simultaneously buy and sell the same cryptocurrency to inflate the appearance of volume and liquidity.

PAXOS & GEMINI IGNITE CRYPTO PRICE WAR


Reserve alleges that investors can’t trust what they see on crypto data sites. | Source: Stablecoin Index

Recent examples of discounting tactics include Paxos and Gemini, both of which offered select over-the-counter (OTC) trading desks 1% discounts last year to kickstart adoption. These discounts were predicated on OTC partners agreeing to hold their stablecoins for a predetermined “lock-up” period.

Reserve claims these rebate schemes are the reason PAX and GUSD activity surged last December, on both OTC desks and exchanges like Huobi and Binance. For example, GUSD’s market cap soared from roughly $87 million on December 17 to over $103 million the next day, according to CoinMarketCap data.

In the case of Paxos, their discount program coincided with the launch of HUSD, a pool of stablecoins offered by Singapore-based exchange Huobi, which enabled traders to swap stablecoins without actually trading them. This led to an arbitrage frenzy where certain traders tried to mass-withdraw PAX, even going as far as to creating dozens of dummy accounts to circumvent Huobi’s $10,000 withdrawal limit.

As Huobi launched HUSD, PAX’s market cap roughly doubled from $40 million to $80 million in a single day last October. Thus, critics like Freeman say that a lot of this market activity is being “manufactured.”

TETHER’S ALLEGED WASHING MACHINE



Highlighting the second dubious tactic is Tether, the seminal stablecoin. Tether has been dogged by allegations of wash trading, a practice that has been banned in regulated markets because it distorts real supply and demand.

In June 2018, Bloomberg alleged that the Tether cryptocurrency (USDT) was being wash-traded on crypto exchange Kraken (a claim the US crypto firm vehemently denied).

Despite losing nearly 30% of its grip on the stablecoin market last year, Tether still accounts for over two-thirds of the sector’s $3 billion market cap. Regardless, in light of these trends, Freeman believes that market cap and trading volume are “becoming bad metrics.”

THE STABLECOIN INDUSTRY & GOODHART’S LAW



Freeman said such schemes are the epitome of Goodhart’s Law, an idea proposed by 20th Century British economist Charles Goodhart, which says that:

“When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.”

Applying Goodhart’s law to the stablecoin market, market cap and trading volume have become ends onto themselves to the detriment of the broader ecosystem. As the crypto industry evolves, Freeman hopes savvier investors will look to new metrics like the number of wallet addresses associated with a token, organic discussion about a project, and the number of consumer app downloads.

Ultimately, Freeman said that stablecoins with real-world applications beyond market arbitrage are best positioned for long-term success. Reserve, for its part, is targeting economically-challenged markets like Venezuela and Angola where people are vulnerable to hyperinflation and currency devaluation.

Freeman believes that stablecoins can help people in financially distressed countries to insulate their wealth from foreign-exchange shocks. Additionally, he said that stablecoins could facilitate a cheaper and more efficient model for remittance payments.

“Solving real-world problems, not financial engineering through arbitrage coins, is what is going to bring institutional legitimacy to the stablecoin market.”

Source: https://www.ccn.com/coinbase-backed-stablecoin-claims-rivals-deceptively-pump-market-caps

The dilemma of banks is noteworthy here. While the institutions themselves do not believe in establishing any links with the banks because that would threaten the identity of the former, there are times when it is understood that both are inseparable. Financial analysts pose an ideal scenario- how about both sharing a symbiotic relationship? What if they worked for each other rather than working against each other?

One such instance is cited by the head of the e-commerce department, JPMorgan Chase, Ron Karpovich. He says the Cryptocurrency industry will have to depend on banks for moving funds from one place to another. Similarly, blockchain technology may be used in banks to improve and fasten the payment structure that is existing in the financial institutions.

Can the Duo Really be Used for Each Other’s Benefits?
According to a report by Forbes, there are over 2 billion people who do not have access to banks and over 5 billion people who use mobile phones. With the cryptocurrency tokens and blockchain technology, one can enjoy the benefits of safe and transparent banking at a cheaper rate and faster pace. Digital money also allows one to have digital wallets, a controlling system and a regulation foundation. Here, Telcoin is showing the way. The basic idea they have perceived is to combine mobile companies with the banking system, the latter being a combination of different services including digital currency and a new cryptocurrency, which is likely to provide different services like mobile money, prepaid credit, and postpaid billing platforms.

The cryptocurrency industry is still in turmoil and has still a long way to go to establish its authenticity. Banks are skeptical to meet their demands, but cannot stay away from their popularity too; thus, giving way to growing Cryptocurrency banks. Such an alternative to the traditional banking system is Revolut which is a digital banking system. Revolut has already started featuring a Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency exchange that is built into its mobile app. The interesting fact is, despite skepticism mounting from all quarters of the world, it has obtained a European banking license.

Revolut- a friend or foe?
It is neither a friend nor a foe to Cryptocurrency; it is just doing what other banking services are not willing to do. In other words, it is an odd one out among the traditional banking services because it allows exchanging digital assets like BTC, XRP, ETH and others. The company could be a start-up but has a futuristic vision of making Cryptocurrency both adaptable and adoptable.

Source: https://www.cryptonewsz.com/why-cryptocurrency-would-not-survive-without-the-help-of-banks/12269/

Twitch.tv, a popular live streaming platform that as of May 2018 has over 15 million daily active users, has recently quietly stopped accepting bitcoin and bitcoin cash payments, as the options to pay with these cryptocurrencies seemingly vanished.

The company’s move was first spotted by users on Reddit, who pointed out they were no longer able to pay for subscriptions using cryptocurrencies. While some noted they didn’t even know the company accepted cryptos, others started cancelling subscriptions to boycott the company for the move.

While it isn’t currently clear why Twitch removed the payment option, a low transaction volume could be behind it, as most users seemingly didn’t even know it was there in the first place. Some have already contacted support to figure out what’s going on. Looking at the platform’s payments options shows there’s, at press time, no way to pay using crypto.

The company notably added cryptocurrency payments in mid-2018, allowing users to pay for subscriptions to their favorite streaming channels using various top cryptocurrencies, including BTC, BCH, ETH, and LTC.

The move came through another company called StreamLabs, which provides streamers on various platforms with a full suite of software to help them manage content, livefeeds, and donations. It also helped them accept donations in cryptocurrency.

Per another Reddit thread, StreamLabs has also dropped its support for cryptocurrencies. While the transaction volume associated with these could be behind the move, it’s worth pointing out a video game streamer was gifted over $70,000 worth of bitcoin earlier this year while on Twitch.

Twitch is notably a subsidiary of Amazon, as it was acquired by the e-commerce giant for $970 million back in 2014. It’s said to have over one million concurrent users on average, and has over 2.2 million broadcasters.

In the past, companies accepting cryptocurrency payments temporarily dropped them over technical difficulties. As covered, Chess.com recently revealed on social media it was unable to accept over 100 BTC payments over difficulties with its payment processor.

Twitch hasn’t responded to CryptoGlobe’s request for comment by press time.

Source: https://www.cryptoglobe.com/latest/2019/03/twitch-quietly-stops-accepting-cryptocurrency-payments/

Facebook’s foray into the virtual currency world ignited the interest of several messaging giants. Some like Signal and Telegram followed suit, while others looked at the tremors a payment-centric, crypto-specific project would cause to the global economy. Ted Livingston, the chief executive and founder of the Kik messaging platform equated the gravity of the Facebook Coin to the US dollar, and mulled a bold prediction.

Livingston, through a Medium post, approached the topic of the Facebook Coin and its impact on the payments’ realm. He further went on to make a prediction on whether the coin project, developed by one of the biggest technology companies in the world, could eventually replace the most powerful currency in the world, the US dollar.

To begin his argument, he differentiated the Menlo Park company’s project from similar projects emerging from the messaging realm, calling it an aim to overhaul the “physical world,” rather than the “digital world.”

Physical and digital often cannot be picked up simply from the surface, it has to be drawn out and explained at every level. The Facebook Coin, in order to take over the “physical world,” has to replace the currency of that world, in its entirety, and not just on the surface. The aim of this overhaul should be to remove the centrality of control that fiat currency holds, rather than superficial means of transaction, which paint an incomplete picture.

Facebook, according to Livingston, will work according to the WeChat “playbook,” given the latter’s success in monopolizing the payments realm in China. He put forth a three-pronged approach Facebook’s crypto will use. Beginning with enticing users to pledge their money onto the platform, the key will then be to ensure maintenance of funds. To cement user longevity, the reasons and options provided should be expanded so that the user’s money never leaves this ecosystem.

Livingston stated,

“This allows Facebook to enable payment functionality in their apps without needing to become a bank.”

Stablecoin Factor
Livingston plays out a scenario of the coin project being implemented on the remittance platform in India via Whatsapp. In his example, he admits that one of the main reasons this platform will be used is due to the stablecoin factor,

“And a stablecoin allows money to move on the blockchain without the risk of it becoming more or less valuable than the local fiat currency.”

The Indian example of the use of the Facebook Coin following the three-pronged approach employed by WeChat rests on one main principle, the stablecoin factor. The Indian market may be remittance heavy and Whatsapp may be the most prominent messaging application in the country, but the backing of the US dollar is key to the adoption and more importantly, maintenance of this technology.

Livingston closed the example with a bold prospect,

“Just as WeChat replaced cash in China, Facebook could soon replace cash in India.”

The Kik Founder argued that since the Facebook Coin will be essentially tied to the US dollar, they are “just dollars that run on a blockchain.” He cited the evolution of the world economy, moving on from the Gold Standard when the value of a country’s currency was backed by gold, to a system where the reserve currency is the US dollar.

He closed with an open-ended question, stating,

“what will stop Facebook from doing the same?”

Countering The Claim
The prospect of a cryptocurrency backed by a social media giant, replacing a fiat currency like the US dollar, seems like a victory for the digital currency. However, the buck, or the coin, does not stop here. Livingston’s closing comments, including the closing header “The End of the Dollar,” are misleading.

Facebook’s cryptocurrency is one based on the US Dollar and backed by a basket of stablecoins, provable and universal collateral against risk. There is a fundamental reason why the social media giant is launching a coin backed by fiat, and not one that is “digitally-pure,” like most cryptocurrencies are.

Stablecoins are the fine line between fiat and cryptocurrencies, allowing the user to venture into the digital asset world and enjoy the benefits of ubiquity and universality of payments, while still tethering the risk to a government’s reserve. The Facebook Coin is playing that very line by allowing remittances, as Livingston’s example proves, while still maintaining their allegiance to the government’s currency.

The undeniable point here is this, the Facebook Coin would not be the Facebook Coin without the US dollar backing every unit.

The argument that Facebook Coin’s perceived victory over the US dollar is a collective victory for the cryptocurrency market is a false equivalence. Even if remittances from the United States are sent to India via Whatsapp, the reason people are reliant on the service is because of the backing of the US Dollar.

You simply cannot replace or claim to replace the foundation of your premise. Without the US dollar, the Facebook coin would never viably be pushed onto their messaging platforms and transform the payments realm. It would be chided away if it was digitally pegged to the company or to the decentralized computer network that Facebook claims would operate the coin.

Replace not Redefine
The prospect of the Facebook Coin celebrating the absence of digital money, and circumventing governments is a false paradigm. US dollars, or a basket of currencies merely being digitally represented and pivoted by a social media giant, do not concur with the fundamental principle of a “decentralized” currency.

Cryptocurrency proponents aim to replace the world’s currency with one that is logical rather than sovereign. Logical here refers to its mathematical precepts, rather than its medium, conclusion or basis. Yes, the Facebook Coin will be digital. Yes, the Facebook coin will be ubiquitous. Yes, the Facebook coin will be universal. However, it is not mathematically logical, as it still will be a reflection of the Dollar value.

Livingston’s hope of the Facebook Coin replacing the US dollar is one that looks at the fundamentals of the ends i.e. in product terms, the point of production and the point of consumption. The Facebook Coin is produced via technology and operated on a “blockchain,” one that pleases the ears of cryptocurrency enthusiasts. However, the point of consumption being digital completes the myopic argument of the overhaul. Resting the argument on the poles, while ignoring the balance of the dollar in between, is ignorance of the means for the ends.



The US Dollar is the essential body of the project, one that is masked by the thin veil of digitization, blockchain technology, and a cryptocurrency product, without actually being a decentralized currency.

Without the US Dollar, the Facebook Coin is nothing.

Source: https://ambcrypto.com/facebook-coins-plan-to-overhaul-the-us-dollar-falls-short-of-conviction/

France’s central bank won’t issue its own digital currency anytime soon because doing so would be a complex undertaking that could hurt the country’s flailing economy. That’s the assessment of Pauline Adam Kalfon, a blockchain and cryptocurrency partner at PwC France.

PAULINE KALFON: BITCOIN IS GREAT, BUT COOL YOUR HEELS
Kalfon admits there’s growing interest in bitcoin and blockchain in France.

However, she warned against unchecked over-exuberance, saying the virtual currency economy needs to be battle-tested to ensure that investors are protected from scams, Forbes reported.

“France’s central bank may not be the best entity to drive forward such a digital currency project, which would sit within the prerogatives of the European Central Bank.”

“Having said this, Banque de France could seize technological leadership by following European Central Bank guidance.”

“It is clear that a European-level project would be very complex and challenging governance-wise, requiring alignment and the political consensus of all relevant stakeholders from each Member State.”

CRYPTO SHOULD BE ‘BATTLE-TESTED’ BY CORPORATIONS

Kalfon says rather than have France’s central bank issue a cryptocurrency first, it might be a better idea to have corporations such as Facebook or JPMorgan “battle-test” this experiment first.

“This would reduce the likelihood of potentially negative consequences on the economy arising from any central bank issuing a digital currency.”

“The underlying rationale is…to achieve the right balance between investor protection and technology friendliness.”

FRANCE’S FINANCE MINISTER ONCE HATED BITCOIN BUT NOW EMBRACES IT
Interestingly, French finance minister Bruno Le Maire was once a vocal bitcoin opponent. He changed his mind in 2018 and started wholeheartedly embracing cryptocurrencies and blockchain.

“I was a neophyte a year ago [in 2017], but now I’m passionate. It took me a year. Let us show a lot of pedagogy with our fellow citizens to make France the first place of blockchain and crypto-active innovation in Europe.”

However, Le Maire says the cryptocurrency revolution in France cannot happen without appropriate regulation to protect the public against the numerous scams that have roiled the industry.

Part of the reason for French politicians’ abrupt reversal on crypto has to do with their hopes that France can harness blockchain technology to bolster its anemic economy.

POLITICIANS: FRANCE MUST BECOME A ‘BLOCKCHAIN NATION’
In December 2018, two members of the French Parliament urged the government to invest up to 500 million euros in blockchain programs to transform France into a “blockchain nation.”

To this end, Deputies Jean-Michel Mis and Laure de La Raudière outlined 20 proposals to promote the mainstream adoption of blockchain, as CCN reported.

“2019 will be the year of the blockchain in France,” Jean-Michel Mis said. “This 10-year technology is moving out of the experimental stage into industrial implementation. The public will see the emergence of its uses in their daily lives.”

Similarly, Laure de La Raudière admonished France to wake up and capitalize on the blockchain revolution before its rivals China and the United States beat them to the punch.

“France must have a conquering philosophy on this subject. I’m sounding the alarm: It is time to invest. We must accelerate with French and European public money.”

Source: https://www.ccn.com/france-wont-launch-cryptocurrency-anytime-soon-pwc-blockchain-exec

The Centre for Information and Industry Development in China (CCID) has updated its monthly crypto project rankings. Following the update the top three spots on the list of most promising public blockchain-based assets are compromised of the Ethereum network (ETH), Tron (TRX), and EOS, whilst Bitcoin (BTC) fell on the list.

CCID looked at a total of 35 different projects in the digital asset space. The evaluation comprised of three components – basic tech, applicability, and creativity.

China More Excited by Smart Contracts Than BTC
The latest Chinese CCID crypto ratings are in and it is clear that the Chinese government body is optimistic about platforms supporting the creation of decentralisation applications. The newly published ratings have smart contract platforms Tron and EOS topping the list of 35 crypto projects.

Interestingly, Tron only made its debut on the list of projects deemed worthy of rating by the CCID last month. It has quickly managed to replace Ethereum as the project the agency is second most optimistic about. It failed to displace EOS, however, which has been rated the most promising project month-in, month-out since last June.

The CCID ratings are awarded based on three criteria: basic tech, applicability, and creativity.

Scoring highly in the basic tech department was EOS, Tron, Bitshares, Stem, and Gxchain. According to a translation taken from Bitcoin.com, the CCID did give mention Ethereum and its recent Constantinople upgrade. However, the performance-enhancements made to the Ethereum network were not enough to take ETH into contention for best crypto by basic tech:

“Since the Constantinople upgrade, the efficiency of the Ethereum network has improved, and the Ethereum basic technology index has also risen from the 9th [place] to the 6th.”

This basic tech assessment accounts for 64 percent of the total score of a project.

In terms of “applicability”, the CCID stated that this score was based on “the comprehensive level of public chain support for practical applications”. It comprises of 20 percent of the total score for crypto projects.

Here, the CCID’s five hottest crypto projects are: Ethereum, NEO, Tron, Nebulas, and Ontology.

Finally, the digital assets evaluated by the CCID were assessed by their creativity. This score accounts for 16 percent of the total awarded. The CCID explained this part of the ratings system as referring to the amount of “continuous innovation in the public chain”. The five projects deemed to be the most important in this regard are Bitcoin, Ethereum, EOS, Litecoin, and Lisk.

Evidently, the CCID researchers behind the latest crypto ratings update are less enamoured with straight-up digital currency offerings than they are with smart contract platforms. Bitcoin dropped from thirteenth position two months previous, down to fifteenth. Meanwhile, Bitcoin Cash also fell from to outside of the top 30 projects.

Source: https://www.newsbtc.com/2019/03/22/crypto-bitcoin-downgraded/