Ladies and gentlemen, I am hornored to untroduce the first Padawan ranked member of the forum: newshunter. What's next rank after Padawan for him to target?



Btw, the rank logo is cool.

Facebook is finally admitting that they are pursuing the implementation of a digital currency dubbed “GlobalCoin”.

If you’re familiar with Facebook (you have heard of Facebook, right?), you probably know they aren’t the most reputable when it comes to protecting user privacy. Still, you might be thinking, it’s kinda cool that they’re dipping their toes into the volatile ocean of cryptocurrency.

Except that when Facebook dips their toes into something like crypto, they’re highly likely to miss the whole point of cryptocurrency in their quest to monetize everything.

And if Facebook is the entry point for new crypto users around the world, a whole lot of casual users risk missing the point, too.

There’s no doubt, a Facebook-backed cryptocurrency that makes sending money “as easy… as it is to send a photo” would be massively popular. But the important question is, will GlobalCoin actually be a good cryptocurrency?

Probably not. In the traits below, I’m specifically talking about the concepts that make for the type of cryptocurrency that many in the industry would consider ideal – there are some that don’t share these characteristics and still have real-world use.

Crypto Is Borderless

A true cryptocurrency needs to consist of a few key attributes in order to be considered, well… good. If it lacks these key characteristics, it’s really nothing more than a digital version of the same old money we’ve been stuck using for centuries. At best.

First of all, a good cryptocurrency needs to be borderless. It needs to work anywhere, whether you send it to your next-door neighbor, or to someone in a country that is otherwise highly inaccessible, perhaps due to sanctions, like Iran or Venezuela.

Facebook plans to roll out GlobalCoin in select regions which have met certain regulatory compliance expectations, probably involving sharing mounds of personal information with various powers-that-be. The coin will initially be available in about a dozen countries to be transacted via WhatsApp, and might have a tough time finding approval in places like India and China.

It seems highly unlikely that it will be traded between places like Venezuela and the United States, for example.

Crypto Is Permissionless

Which brings up the second key characteristic of a good cryptocurrency. It needs to be permissionless.

Nobody needs to walk into a bank and sign a pile of papers in order to be granted the privilege of sending Bitcoin, Litecoin, or Ethereum to someone else, for example. Anyone, anywhere can send or receive a good cryptocurrency, as long as there are nodes available with which to connect and declare a transaction.

With Facebook’s GlobalCoin, chances are a range of permissions will only be granted once certain qualifications are met, most importantly being one’s nationality – but also possibly other requirements including the sharing of personal data (which, let’s face it, seems likely).

Some countries might also restrict who can transmit value using the currency. Users would be at the mercy of Facebook and whatever regulatory standards are in effect in a given region.

Crypto Is Trustless

Speaking of being at the mercy of Facebook, good cryptocurrencies must be trustless, meaning, one must be able to verify the validity of transactions without having to trust any other party, like Facebook, for example.

Facebook will most certainly keep a close eye — a really close eye — on all the monetary operations of this GlobalCoin, and will have to decide how and when it is issued and transacted. As far as we know, it is planned to be some kind of stablecoin, pegged to a basket of fiat currencies like the Euro, the Yen, and the USD. How this gets determined is unknown and is again, up to the folks at Facebook to figure out, requiring another layer of trust in the corporate entity to wisely design the currency’s protocol.

Crypto Is Decentralized

Which brings up the most important attribute of a truly good cryptocurrency — a trait that GlobalCoin will most certainly lack — decentralization.

This digital coin will be the most central of centralized coins (but at least we can stop complaining about XRP!) with Facebook running the show; lock, stock, and barrel.

There will be no decentralized network of nodes who, via free market gaming mechanisms, confirm the validity of transactions. No hashing power competition will ensure the security and integrity of this blockchain. This will be a 100% Facebook-sanctioned operation, from beginning to end, fully integrated into WhatsApp, for maximum profitability.

If Facebook decides to shut it down, for whatever reason — boom — it’s down. If Facebook decides a particular user can no longer use GlobalCoin — poof — gone. If Facebook has any kind of technical problem that causes its system to freeze, it’s frozen, for everybody. These are just a few of the problems caused by centralization.

Facebook Has No Incentive To Create A Good Crypto

What really stinks about the whole situation is that this GlobalCoin will likely be highly popular and will lead many to believe they have tapped into the freedom and independence of cryptocurrency as a revolutionary technology, just without any of the key features that make it special.

“Bitcoin is cool, but this is better. It’s on Facebook!”

The real revolution will be quietly taking place elsewhere, as good cryptocurrencies continue to grow and spread, perhaps more organically and slowly, but with genuine purpose.

The danger is, this subtle and unique revolution may be quashed by the marketing power of Facebook, with most people simply missing the point… and buying GlobalCoin instead.

Facebook will have your updates, your photos, your face, your friends, your habits… and now your money.

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Fintech solutions, new payment rails and the rapid pace at which the financial sector is changing is putting massive pressure on the incumbents, and Jim Aramanda is urging the banking industry to move as fast as it can to stay competitive in the digital economy.

Speaking at the American Bankers Association Payments Forum in Washington, D.C. to financial institutions, credit unions and community banks, The Clearing House CEO defined the real threat.

“The real competition out there isn’t the other banks. It’s the fintechs and others that are using the payment system as it exists today to disintermediate you from your customers. I would tell you that’s the real existential threat.”

TCH’s Real-Time Payments system, which is open to all depository institutions, is a new real-time payments platform that all federally insured US depository institutions are eligible to use for payments. It was launched in November of 2017, and was billed as “the first new payments infrastructure to be introduced in more than 40 years.”

Aramanda says it needs to be a ubiquitous network in order to outpace the competition.

Reaching roughly half of US demand deposit accounts, which includes checking and savings, the platform is targeting every US bank and credit union by the end of 2020.

Says Aramanda,

“We’re paying up to help everybody get connected because ubiquity is key.”

“And I should mention, maybe it came up in the panel discussion, one of the unique aspects of our system is what we call request for payment. And again, the whole strategy is to reconnect the consumer with the bank, keep them from going outside the banking industry. We have a bill pay pilot going live at the end of next quarter, beginning of the third quarter, and we’ve got a number of banks in this.”

“There’s a unique attribute of the system. It’s called a ‘request for payment’, and that is the ability for a biller to send a request for payment through the banking channels to your customers, and they in turn would push a credit out of their account to pay the bill. When that occurs, the banks that are hosting the request for payment are going to get paid $.10 for every transaction. This is new. Right now, these debits are coming out of your account, and you’re not getting paid at all. And it’s actually a cost to you. So we’ve flipped the model. It becomes – instead of a pure cost to you – it becomes a revenue stream for all of you.”

The incentive-based model is specifically designed to tackle the risks at play from new competitors.

We need to get you connected quickly because, again, I think the biggest risk to our industry is coming from outside our industry. The fintechs have made no secret that they want your customers, and they’re offering lending products, et cetera. And let’s face it, in the digital age, which is clearly what we are in today, our payment rails were developed 40 years ago: pre-digital age, pre-internet, pre-everything.

I find it amazing that I can order a package from Amazon and have it delivered faster than I can get a payment from one bank to another. The fintechs are leveraging that vacuum, if you will.”

In addition to fintech solutions such as Venmo and PayPal, Bitcoin and cryptocurrency platforms are attempting to address many of the issues plaguing 40-year-old payment rails by making remittances easier, faster, cheaper, more transparent and more accessible to businesses, communities and customers. These new systems are flourishing, particularly outside of the US. As more platforms are deployed and fully integrated into everyday life, the network effects of blockchain-based platforms continues to challenge the status quo.

According to a report by JRC Science Hub published by the European Commission,

“In recent years, a new trend has emerged among migrant workers to send money back to families in home countries: the use of cryptocurrency services. The cryptocurrency market is still in a nascent stage in terms of reaching the migrant population masses, but it may have considerable potential in the future.

With the advent of blockchain, several companies and startups have begun adopting cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin to offer remittance services. In a sector highly dominated by Western Union and MoneyGram, these new players are offering a different money transfer service, trying to solve multiple issues such as the high transfer costs, the limited money distribution methods, limited brand options, limited ways to deal with money, etc.

Most of remittances receivers do not live in big urban centers and, most of time, they must walk for several hours, sometimes an entire day, in order to get to the nearest money transfer office, receive the money and go back to the place where they live. It is not only time consuming, but depending on weather conditions, it may be impossible to reach the urban sites for prolonged periods of time. Moreover, rapid growth in smartphone adoption is one of the main reasons why the digital remittance market has steadily increased in size.

At the moment, the fastest developments are happening in Southeast Asia, in particular the Philippines and Vietnam, but some African countries – like Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria, and Uganda – have entered the market.”

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Swisscom AG, one of the largest telecommunications providers in Switzerland, has introduced a new approach to using non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Swisscom AG’s latest Ethereum blockchain-based, ERC-721 smart contract-enabled product, called Noow, will reportedly be used to showcase and certify artwork and only the owners and creators of the artwork will know how many pieces have been distributed. The digital certificates of authenticity, issued through smart contracts, will be easily transferable between buyers and sellers.

Independently Distributing and Financing Artwork

The Noow app has been developed by Dloop AG, a Zug, Crypto Valley-based firm which was initially launched through Kickbox, Swisscom’s accelerator and project incubator.

According to local news outlet Greater Zurich Areas, Dloop AG’s app allows artists to independently distribute and finance their digital artwork. The distributed ledger technology (DLT)-powered Noow app will be integrated into Swisscom TV, in order to introduce digital artwork to mainstream TV viewers.

As detailed by local sources, the digital art will be featured on screens located in Switzerland-based business offices, upscale restaurants, and hotel lobbies. The “changing sequences or animations” of the digital art pieces “create a unique ambience,” local news outlets explained. However, this type of artwork has not always been properly protected from being used without the consent of their creator or owner.

“Guaranteeing Ownership Rights for Buyers and Payment for Artists”

In order to prevent the digital art pieces from being used illegally, or without the permission of their owner, the copyright protection information will now be managed using Noow app’s blockchain-enabled solution which has been designed to “guarantee the ownership rights for buyers and payment for artists.”

As mentioned in a press release, published on Swisscom’s official website (on May 22, 2019), Noow will be available (starting May 23) as an app “exclusively on Swisscom TV (UHD-ready TV-Box from Swisscom).” The new DLT-powered app will include “100 works by 30 international artists” which will be selected by curator Stefanie Marlene Wenger.

Commenting on the initiative, the release noted:

This is about more than creating a virtual gallery; the next step will be to include curated exhibitions on the platform and a close collaboration with galleries.

Currently, Swisscom TV features more than 300 channels, which includes a large selection of films, sports and drama series and various on-demand shows. Swisscom TV also offers its customers different apps, which now includes the Noow app - allowing users to enjoy a wide selection of artwork from their living room.

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The initial coin offerings (ICO) sector is showing signs of an uptick due to positive investor sentiment, apparently spurred by the recent crypto market rally. The data was revealed in a new report from token rating platform ICObench, shared with Cointelegraph on May 25.

Providing data as of May 21, the report notes that the success rate of ICOs has increased, ostensibly reflecting a rise in projects’ quality. 85% of total funds raised so far in May reportedly belong to projects with a high (3-3.5) rating — as compared with 68% in April. 

According to ICObench’s data, the number of published projects in May has increased by 157 to hit 5,512 projects, with 287 ongoing ICOs and 140 upcoming token sales expected.

The report notes that data for the total funds raised so far in May has been overwhelmed by the reported $1 billion initial exchange offering (IEO) from cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex — bringing the total amount of funds raised via token sales this month to roughly $1.075 billion.

As reported, an IEO represents an alternative model of token offering wherein a centralized crypto exchange operates the sales and ostensibly vets both the projects themselves and prospective investors.

Aside from Bitfinex, IEOs from Economi and Poseidon each raised around $10.5 million and 2.4 million respectively, according to the report.  The sum of all funds collected from the top 5 IEOs (excluding Bitfinex) so far this month hit almost $15.5 million.

Bitfinex’s major offering has resulted in May being the month with the highest total funds raised so far in 2019. In ICObench’s historical data — which represents May 2018 through May 21, 2019 — only May and June 2018 saw higher levels of total funds raised via token sales.

In terms of geographical distribution, the Brisitish Virgin Islands took the lead in terms of total funds raised, followed by the Cayman Islands. The United Kingdom contributed the highest number of ICOs — with 9 projects — yet scored only 7th place in terms of total funds.   

In mid-May, Bitfinex unveiled its own native exchange utility token, LEO, for which the exchange had ostensibly raised the $1 billion in a private IEO — removing the need for a public offering. Also this month, together with spin-off Ethfinex, Bitfinex has launched an IEO platform.

The exchange meanwhile continues to challenge court proceedings sparked by the New York Attorney General’s (NYAG) recent accusations against it. The NYAG alleges that the firm lost $850 million in user deposits and had subsequently secretly covered up the shortfall using funds from its sister firm, stablecoin operator Tether.

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More than two dozen ethereum improvement proposals (EIPs) have been submitted for review and inclusion in ethereum’s next system-wide upgrade or hard fork, dubbed Istanbul.

The list – with 28 official EIPs and at least one other set to be added – include changes to the $27 billion network that impact its mining algorithm, code execution and pricing, data storage, and much more.

About a dozen of these proposals were discussed at length by ethereum core developers during a bi-weekly call on Friday. However, the majority ended up being tabled for further debate, with only one EIP receiving a tentative approval.

“We’ll talk more on the All Core Devs Gitter channel to wrangle in some of these EIPs that are still stuck in proposed and as quickly as possible decide on which ones are being implemented for Istanbul,” said Ethereum Foundation community relations lead Hudson Jameson before ending today’s call.

As noted by Jameson, the hard deadline for all Istanbul EIP submissions passed last Friday and now developers are working to reach agreement  about which proposed EIPs can be deemed officially “accepted.”

Decisions made

The one EIP to receive a tentative approval Friday was EIP 1108, which proposes a minor change to gas fees on the ethereum network. Developers emphasized that this proposal, while approved, requires benchmarking figures that will be presented at the next core developers meeting.

Alternatively, at least two other proposed EIPs look slated for delay.

Developer Rick Dudley explained that EIP 1559 – which introduces a new transaction fee model to ethereum – is “a pretty complicated change.”

Dudley further highlighted that it would most likely not be ready in time for Istanbul, which is scheduled for mainnet activation possibly as early as mid-October.

“[EIP 1559] we should assume that it’s possible that it will make it in [to Istanbul] but it seems unlikely right now,” said Dudley on the call.

The second EIP with a high potential for delay is EIP 1057. It is a proposed change to ethereum’s proof-of-work (PoW) mining algorithm, which since April of last year has been susceptible to mining by specialized computer devices called ASICs. With an estimated $655 million annual market for ethereum’s mining rewards, ASICs outperform graphics cards, or GPUs, which developers worry may lead to a more centralized mining landscape.

EIP 1057 proposes a revamped PoW algorithm known as “Progressive PoW” or ProgPoW in efforts to better leverage GPU-specific computing capabilities.

While approved twice in the last year by ethereum core developers, ProgPoW according to Jameson may face delay due to various logistical issues in organizing a third-party audit of the proposal.

“We ran into issues starting the ProgPoW audit,” explained Jameson in a Ethereum Magicians post yesterday. “We had a hardware partner who specialized in ASICs who was going to work with Least Authority to perform the hardware parts of the audit. They are no longer participating in the audit so we are looking for other auditors for the hardware portion.”

As such, Jameson proposed today that the EIP be held back from being in the approved category of EIPs until further details about the pending audit are sorted.

Looking ahead

The next official deadline for the Istanbul hard fork is merging accepted EIPs into existing versions of ethereum software called clients.

One EIP author, James Hancock, told CoinDesk that this step is akin to getting your code together so it can be fully tested.

“The suggestion is to have reference implementations in two ‘major’ clients,” said Hancock to CoinDesk. “The definition of major is pretty loose.”

Hancock also noted that he has put together an updated spreadsheet with all of the proposed Istanbul EIPs and their relative “readiness” for mainnet activation.

For now, the upcoming “soft deadline for major client implementations” is sometime in mid-July with an eventual mainnet launch slated for mid-October.

However, the envisioned timeline for Istanbul is a rather new creation that has never been replicated by previous ethereum hard forks. It was proposed by former ethereum developer Afri Schoedon and Ethereum Foundation developer Alex Beregszaszi as a way of breaking down hard fork process into “a fixed 9-month cycle.”

As such, Ethereum Foundation grant recipient Alexey Akhunov wrote in the Gitter chatroom that everyone should be thinking and iterating upon the new suggested “deadlines.”

“I myself will be questioning all the deadlines from the point of view of ‘what is the purpose of this deadline?’,” said Akhunov. “Because this is the first time lots of these things are introduced, we are here to make sure that what we do is done for the reason and not because “someone says so”

For now, blockchain protocol engineer at Consensys Danno Ferrin affirms that at the very least, the list of proposed Istanbul EIPs “stops growing” and will in all likelihood begin shrinking.

And down the road, the software upgrade itself must be accepted by the nodes that underpin the ethereum network itself when the hard fork event actually occurs.

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It has been a rather quiet week for Bitcoin so far. Despite a very promising start to May of 2019, the uptrend has ground to a halt. While that is not entirely unexpected, a lot of traders and speculators are growing antsy once again. There are several reasons as to why the Bitcoin price uptrend has stalled. How much of a role these all play in the big picture, is up for debate.

The Bitcoin Mempool is Filling up Again

There are always some things going on with Bitcoin which most people will not notice immediately. As has been the case for some time now, there will be periods when the BTC transaction queue fills up quickly and confirmations will take longer to materialize. While this problem can usually be solved by simply paying a higher transaction fee, it is a far cry from an ideal solution. After all, no one wants to pay more fees to move BTC across the network. When the unconfirmed transactions numbers rise, the Bitcoin price usually seems to enter sideways trading for a while. It is unclear if these events effectively correlate, though.

When looking at the weekly chart for the Bitcoin mempool, it is evident five key spikes can be noted. The last one materialized on the evening of May 20, yet it seems most of the queue was eliminated just a few hours later. That situation ultimately yielded a second spike, which further confirms there are still plenty of transactions waiting for confirmations. This problem was also present last week, when the number of unconfirmed transactions spiked well above 70,000 multiple times. Despite things settling down in the days after, it is evident the network is struggling to keep up with the demand.

Higher Fees Don’t Make Anyone Happy

When it comes to dealing with Bitcoin transaction fees, there will always be very conflicting opinions. Although low-fee TXes will always go through eventually, it seems the average fee has spiked five times in the past seven days. Not a promising sign, albeit this is somewhat to be expected under the current technical conditions. Bitcoin isn’t exactly suited to handle tens of thousands of transactions per hour without issues, albeit that situation may change in the future. For now, it is something users need to contend with and try to make the best of the situation. Either that or switch to altcoins for faster transaction speeds.

Novogratz Destroys Altcoin Season Expectations

Most cryptocurrency users are familiar with the name Michael Novogratz. He is a well-known Bitcoin price speculator, and one who still has high hopes for the world’s leading cryptocurrency throughout 2019. Interestingly enough, he also doesn’t believe there will be an altcoin season in 2019. A rather remarkable statement, especially since so many traders expect altcoins to pop off very soon. So far, there haven’t been any major surges outside of the market cap top 30.

Not this time. Market getting smarter. $btc will outperform.

— Michael Novogratz (@novogratz) May 19, 2019

While this statement should primarily affect altcoins, it could also explain why the Bitcoin price trend has stalled. Depending on how one looks at this statement, one could argue the next Bitcoin bull run is just around the corner. Assuming that is the case, nearly everyone seems to be holding their breath, which results in a status quo in the price department more often than not. That wouldn’t explain why every recent price push has been shot down pretty quickly, albeit speculators are making some good money off flipping Bitcoin on such a regular basis.

VanEck SolidX Bitcoin ETF Delayed Again

Bitcoin enthusiasts and traders should get used to these developments by now. Over the past few years, the SEC has either shot down all Bitcoin ETFs or delayed the decision-making process numerous times. The final outcome is always the same, however, as there is no Bitcoin ETF on the market. Nor may there be for quite some time to come. One also has to wonder if this industry really needs such trading vehicles to attract more players. In its most recent communication, the SEC confirmed additional analysis may be required, albeit that is not necessarily a positive development.

Interestingly enough, the SEC is seeking comments on how the general public perceives this trading vehicle. That in itself shows they are not closing the lid on this product immediately, but it may not necessarily yield an approval either. It would appear a new “verdict” will be rendered in five weeks from the day the notice was made public. That means this ETF will be either approved or rejected by late June of 2019. At the same time, there may be further delays as far as this decision is concerned as well. The tug-of-war involving Bitcoin ETFs is far from over at this point, that much is evident.

Bitcoin Price Correction is Still Ongoing

As mentioned a few days ago, there are interesting parallels between the Bitcoin price surges of 2017 and 2019. As such, it seems plausible to assume BTC is still in its first of potentially five correction waves. While no one knows exactly how long this wave could last, it may take another few days until a new high for 2019 is reached in a convincing manner. Every pullback to a more normal level is healthy for financial markets and cryptocurrencies are no exception in this regard.

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The Japanese House of Representatives has passed new crypto regulation in the upper house of the National Diet, local news agency Nikkei reports on May 21.

The lower house has reportedly moved crypto-related amendments to the existing financial law to the House of Councillors at a recent plenary session.                 

According to Nikkei, the amendments to two of Japan’s financial laws — the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act and Payment Services Act — intend to strengthen local regulations on cryptocurrency trading process. The amendments reportedly extend the regulation by adding legislation for cryptocurrency margin trading.

The new law also includes a change of crypto-related terminology, altering the term virtual currencies to “crypto assets.”

Japanese lawmakers first introduced the regulations for cryptocurrency margin trading in March 2019. The Japanese government’s executive branch, Cabinet of Japan, approved draft amendments to Japan’s financial instruments and payment services laws, limiting leverage in cryptocurrency margin trading at two to four times the initial deposit.

Margin trading represents the use of borrowed funds from a broker in order to trade a financial asset, which forms a collateral for the loan.

In April, Japan’s Minister of Finance and deputy prime minister Taro Aso urged reporters to stop using the term virtual currencies and to shift to the newly-introduced legal name crypto assets.

Earlier today, Cointelegraph reported that Russia was delaying the adoption of crypto regulation due to a requirement from the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering to legislate the terms cryptocurrencies and bitcoin (BTC) instead of using the sole term “digital assets.”

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