Monday may have been uneventful for Bitcoin’s price, but it was a historic moment nonetheless. 18599 Total views 120 Total shares Listen to article 0:00 Follow up Bitcoin’s () third block halving has finally taken place. The year’s most talked-about crypto event , May 11, as block number 630,000 was successfully mined. The Bitcoin block reward has now gone down from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC, which will likely have many repercussions on the industry. But here’s how the historic event went down. First, the states that every four years producing BTC becomes more difficult, as block rewards get cut in half by a precoded blockchain protocol. As a result, miners begin receiving 50% less BTC for verifying transactions. This was coded in as a deflationary measure and happens because Bitcoin’s supply is limited: Once 21 million coins are generated, the network will stop producing more. Thus, the halving regulates the supply by delaying the moment that all 21 million coins (Bitcoin’s total cap) get into the market. Currently, about 18.3 million BTC has been mined, which is roughly 85% of the total cap. F2Pool, the miner responsible for the extraction of block 629,999, printed a New York Times headline onto the blockchain just before the halving occurred. Titled “NYTimes 09/Apr/2020 With $2.3T Injection, Fed's Plan Far Exceeds 2008 Rescue,” a New York Times article by Jeanna Smialek and Peter Eavis that compares the current financial crisis to the 2008 collapse, the time when Satoshi Nakamoto published the original Bitcoin white paper. “During times of inflation, the key to preserve wealth is to hold real assets,” Kristin Boggiano, a co-founder of the Digital Asset Regulatory and Legal Alliance, told Cointelegraph. She elaborated: “Bitcoin is inherently a store of value because by its design it cannot exceed 21 million, and therefore it’s a natural hedge to an inflationary dollar.” The halving day itself went uneventfully for Bitcoin’s price, which stayed around the $8,500–$8,700 mark throughout Monday. That confirmed the assumption that the halving event was already “priced in,” which was of cryptocurrency commentators. Nonetheless, crypto Twitter celebrated the event in full force.  Data from The Tie, a data provider for digital assets, showed that yesterday, tweets from cryptocurrency-related accounts. As the firm’s CEO, Joshua Frank, told Cointelegraph, conversations on Bitcoin grew by 72% compared to the 30-day moving average, while Bitcoin surpassed 50,000 daily tweets for the first time since June 2019. Indeed, the idea that Bitcoin would become more scarce has aroused the public’s interest, as Google searches for “Bitcoin halving” earlier this month, exceeding the surge associated with the previous halving event by as much as 350%. Crypto services are also witnessing , as recently revealed by Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao. According to Zhao, the level of renewed interest could be compared to the peak of the 2017 bull run. Cointelegraph was also celebrating the momentous happening by holding featuring prominent industry figures such as Tim Draper, Roger Ver and Meltem Demirors. However, as the party was coming to a close,. The viewing platform deemed the livestream to be “harmful content” for an unknown reason, once again highlighting the censorship problem that affects practically all crypto-related content on YouTube. More than 2,000 Cointelegraph viewers were locked out of our coverage as a result, with the livestream having amassed more than 124,000 views by that time. The situation is still unclear, and more updates will follow. So, where does Bitcoin’s price move from here? That is arguably the most popular halving-related question right now, and there is no straight answer to that. Still, the price of BTC has been seeing a lot of positive action lately, which has likely been influenced by the halving event — at least in part. Since on the so-called “Black Thursday” exactly two months ago, Bitcoin has bounced back to the $8,800 mark and even briefly traded above $10,000 at the start of May. Nonetheless, once the rejection of $10,200 became apparent on Sunday, one day before the halving, Bitcoin’s price fell by 20%. It has stayed around the same level since, albeit a minor correction of 5%. As for where the price is headed next, traders remain divided, as the. Some experts believe that Bitcoin could soon see an upswing to the $14,000–$15,000 resistance area, while others suggest that a pullback to the $6,000 region is also a likely scenario in the short term. Another important aspect affected by the halving is Bitcoin’s mining hash rate, or the amount of computing power miners are using to validate the blockchain. Like Bitcoin’s price, the hash rate has been seeing major volatility ahead of the halving, reaching an all-time high and then swinging down. As for now, experts predict the hash rate will go down. As Marc Fresa, the founder of United States-based Asic.to — a company that specializes in producing firmware for mining machines — : Indeed, many unprofitable miners have already left the network due to the decreased block reward, as Alejandro De La Torre — the vice president of major mining pool Poolin — said in a , predicting that up to 30% of the hash rate could be lost as a result.  However, the situation is likely to change for the better once the out later this month, as the new machines have been. “Just give it a little bit of time and the hashrate will be at a new all-time high,” Fresa told Cointelegraph. Loading Are you a journalist or an editor? Join us: career@cointelegraph.com Language Extensions: Cointelegraph covers fintech, blockchain and Bitcoin bringing you the latest news and analyses on the future of money. © Cointelegraph 2013 - 2020

In a paradoxical twist, bitcoin’s price, which is denominated in dollars, has become unusually stable in recent weeks, prompting some Twitter users to joke that it’s trading like a stablecoin.

“It’s surprising to see bitcoin be so boring given everything happening both within and outside the crypto industry,” the digital-asset analysis firm Messari wrote in its daily email to subscribers. 

You’re reading First Mover, CoinDesk’s daily markets newsletter. Assembled by the CoinDesk Markets Team, First Mover starts your day with the most up-to-date sentiment around crypto markets, which of course never close, putting in context every wild swing in bitcoin and more. We follow the money so you don’t have to. You can subscribe here.

On Wednesday, the cryptocurrency slid 0.5% to about $9,200, even as reports emerged that a bitcoin “giveaway” scam was at the heart of a coordinated hack targeting accounts of prominent Twitter users, including former U.S. President Barack Obama and Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

“Even if there is a small percentage of bitcoin that is used for illicit activity, investors now understand this is no different than cash, except that digital currencies are much more traceable,” Joe DiPasquale, CEO of BitBull Capital, told First Mover in an email. 

Bitcoin was designed by Satoshi Nakamoto as a peer-to-peer payment method, a version of electronic cash that would “allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another,” according to the white paper. 

But a new report suggests bitcoin’s original core payments function might be increasingly fulfilled by a competing faction of digital tokens – so-called stablecoins like tether and USD coin, which have values linked to the price of the U.S. dollar.

Stablecoins, invented five years ago, have expanded rapidly this year, doubling in the past four months to an outstanding supply of about $12 billion.

Cryptocurrency traders use them as the de facto form of liquidity in digital-asset markets, to move money between exchanges and park cash on the sidelines. Investors can lend out the dollar-linked tokens for yields up to 13%, more than 20 times the level on 10-year U.S. Treasury notes. Some holders might simply want U.S. dollars as a safe haven as the coronavirus roils the global economy. 

Recently, though, more people might be using stablecoins to send each other payments, according to a report this week published jointly by cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp and research firm Coin Metrics. 

The analysts noted that the daily transfer value of stablecoins recently surged past $2 billion, while bitcoin’s slid to just below $2 billion. Global remittances and cross-border payments are a “natural use case for stablecoins given their ease of international transfer,” they wrote. 

“It feels like a little bit of a paradigm shift, especially now that stablecoins are exploding,” Nate Maddrey, a senior research analyst at Coin Metrics, said in a phone interview. 

The sudden popularity of stablecoins could raise knotty questions over the utility of bitcoin, which is the oldest cryptocurrency, at 11 years, and the biggest by far, at a market capitalization of $170 billion. 

Maddrey believes bitcoin’s value proposition has changed over the years: Many investors are buying it because they see the cryptocurrency as a store of value, similar to gold, and as the linchpin of the world’s most secure blockchain network. Because of its capped supply, bitcoin is often posited as a hedge against inflation and central-bank money printing. 

“I don’t really see a path where bitcoin becomes a true medium of exchange,” Maddrey said. 

While the Federal Reserve has yet to unveil its own version, some countries with exchange rates pegged or closely linked to the dollar might be able to create CBDCs that work like proxies for the U.S. tender. 

That might curb the appetite for stablecoins, many of them issued by upstart companies with scant corporate transparency and untested creditworthiness.     

“Would you rather I sent you a stablecoin or a CBDC backed by a sovereign nation whose currency is pegged to the dollar?” Matt Blom, head of sales and trading for the digital-asset firm Diginex, said in a video interview. “I’d rather receive a sovereign-backed CBDC.” 

Blockforce Capital, a cryptocurrency investment firm based in San Diego, wrote Wednesday in a monthly investor update that, at least for now, there’s good money to be made from lending out or depositing stablecoins. 

“Stablecoins are proving their utility in the digital-asset ecosystem,” according to the email. “Our traditional finance friends are often shocked to hear that as interest rates sink lower and even negative in some cases, we manage to earn close to 8% as we lend out stablecoins to high-quality counterparties.”

On the other hand, holding stablecoins is essentially the reverse of betting on assets that are denominated in dollars, from stocks to bonds to oil and bitcoin. The Federal Reserve this year has pumped nearly $3 trillion of freshly created dollars into financial markets, propping up asset prices. “Holding dollars is no fun when assets are mooning,” Mati Greenspan, founder of the analysis firm Quantum Economics, wrote in an email. 

But, hey, maybe some people might just want to send stablecoins to a pal.  

BTC: Price: $9,085 (BPI) | 24-Hr High: $9,253 | 24-Hr Low: $9,048

Trend: Bitcoin is edging lower on Thursday, with the four-hour chart indicating a failed breakout and fresh bearish lower-highs setup. 

The number one cryptocurrency by market value is currently trading near $9,080, representing a 1.3% decline on the day. 

A falling channel represented by trendlines connecting June 1 and 22 highs and June 2 and 15 lows was breached to the higher side on July 8. As such, the cryptocurrency was expected to chart a minor rally toward resistance at $9,800 (June 22 high). 

Instead, the cryptocurrency has ended up charting fresh bearish lower highs, as represented by the trendline connecting July 8 and 13 highs (yellow line). In addition, prices fell back inside the bearish channel early on Thursday – a sign of failed breakout. Chart analysts consider failed breakouts as strong bearish signals. 

Indicators, too, are beginning to realign in favor of the bears. The MACD histogram, an indicator used to identify trend strength and trend changes, is producing deeper bars below the zero line. It indicates the downward move may gather pace. Meanwhile, on the daily chart, the histogram has crossed into bearish territory below zero. 

Bitcoin may dive below $9,000 and test support at $8,830 (June 28 high). On the higher side, a high-volume move above $9,350 is needed to revive the case for a rally to $9,800.

3 days agoonIn a move that will surely raise a few eyebrows, rideshare behemoth Crypto Tidbits: ErisX Bitcoin Futures, Blockchain on Jeopardy, Proposed BitMEX Ban0After a strong recovery, bitcoin price struggled to gain momentum above $12,000 against the US Dollar.The price topped near the $12,050 level and recently corrected gains below $11,500.There is a major bearish trend line forming with resistance near $11,700 on the 4-hours chart of the BTC/USD pair (data feed from Kraken).The pair could either surpass $11,700 and $12,000 or decline further below the $10,800 support.Bitcoin price is facing a couple of strong resistances near $11,700 and $12,000 against the US Dollar. BTC must surpass the $12,000 barrier to continue higher towards the $13,000 level.Bitcoin Price Weekly Analysis (BTC)This past week, bitcoin price started a from the $9,700 swing support against the US Dollar. The BTC/USD pair climbed above the $10,500 and $11,000 resistance levels. The upward move was very positive since the price surpassed the $11,200 and $11,500 resistance levels. Finally, the price broke the $11,800 resistance and the 100 simple moving average (4-hours).Finally, there was a break above the $12,000 resistance level, but the price failed to continue higher. A swing high was formed near $12,050 and the price recently corrected lower. It trimmed gains and declined below the $11,500 support level. Moreover, there was a break below the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the upward move from the $9,650 swing low to $12,050 swing high. The decline was such that the price spiked below the $11,000 support level.However, the $10,800 level acted as a strong support. Additionally, bitcoin stayed above the 50% Fib retracement level of the upward move from the $9,650 swing low to $12,050 swing high. At the moment, the price is consolidating near the $11,200 level and the 100 simple moving average (4-hours). On the upside, there is a major bearish trend line forming with resistance near $11,700 on the 4-hours chart of the BTC/USD pair.If there is an , there are chances of a fresh increase. The next immediate resistance is near the $12,000 level, above which the price could accelerate towards the $12,500 and $12,800 level. On the downside, there is a connecting bullish trend line forming with support near $11,000 on the same chart. However, the main support is near the $10,800 level, below which there could be strong losses.Looking at the , bitcoin price is clearly preparing for the next break either above $12,000 or below $10,800. As long as the price is above $11,000 and $10,800, there are chances of an upside extension above $12,000.Technical indicators4 hours MACD The MACD for BTC/USD is slowly moving back in the bearish zone.4 hours RSI (Relative Strength Index) The RSI for BTC/USD is currently just below the 50 level.Major Support Level $10.800Major Resistance Level $12,000Like what you read? Give us one like or share it to your friendsoriginal postContinue ReadingETH price stayed above the $270-275 support and recently recovered higher against the US Dollar.Bitcoin price is currently trading above $11,000, but it is struggling to gain bullish momentum.There is a key breakout pattern forming with resistance near $295 on the 4-hours chart of ETH/USD (data feed via Kraken).The pair could either surpass $295 and $300 or it could extend losses below the $280 and $275 supports.Ethereum price is likely preparing for the next move against the US Dollar, similar to. ETH might climb high sharply once it clears the $295 and $300 resistance levels.Ethereum Price Weekly AnalysisThis past week, Ethereum price retested the $270-275 support area against the US Dollar. The ETH/USD pair remained stable above $270 and formed a swing low near the $272 level. Later, there was an upside correction above the $280 and $290 resistance levels. Moreover, the price also climbed above the $300 resistance level and the 100 simple moving average (4-hours).The price even surpassed the 50% Fib retracement level of the from the $324 high to $272 low. However, the price struggled to stay above the $300 support level. It was rejected near the 61.8% Fib retracement level of the downward move from the $324 high to $272 low. Later, there was a minor downside reaction below the $295 support level.Besides, the price is currently trading below the $295 level and the 100 simple moving average (4-hours). At the outset, there is a key breakout pattern forming with resistance near $295 on the 4-hours chart of ETH/USD. If there is an upside break above the $295 and $300 resistance levels, Ethereum price could continue to accelerate higher in the near term. The next stop for the bulls could be $305, followed by $320.Conversely, if there is no upside break above $300, the price could decline below the $285 support level. If there is a downside break, there could be sharp losses below the $280 and $275 levels. In the mentioned case, the price may even slide below the $270 support area.The above indicates that Ethereum price is preparing for the next key break either above the $300 barrier or below the $280 support area. Having said that, a clear break below the $270 support area wont be easy in the coming sessions, whereas a close above $300 might accelerate gains.Technical Indicators4 hours MACD The MACD for ETH/USD is slowly moving back in the bearish zone.4 hours RSI The RSI for ETH/USD is currently below the 50 level, with a few negative signs.Major Support Level $275Major Resistance Level $300Like what you read? Give us one like or share it to your friendsoriginal postContinue ReadingMore people own (BTC) than you may think. In a resurfaced tweet, Tony Hawk, a legendary skater whose name graces countless video game names, claimed to have been HODLing the crypto asset for years now.Related Reading: Responding to a chart that accentuated the parabolic nature of Bitcoins chart, which then resembled a skate ramp, Hawk that hes been riding BTC for six years, adding that he has yet to cash out of his position.Been riding it for 6 years. Havent bailed yet Tony Hawk (@tonyhawk) While it isnt clear how much BTC the professional athlete has his hands on, the cryptocurrency traded well under $1,000 for most of 2013, making it likely that Hawk owns at least a few dozen coins.Hawks innocuous response may seem mundane a polite, high-octane response to a fun Twitter mention. But, it may have a fair bit of meaning.Firstly, it shows that there are likely countless celebrities in the public spotlight that quietly own Bitcoin. Secondly and more importantly, the revelation that Hawk owns Bitcoin marks yet another case that proves mainstream media figures, prominent investors, and celebrities want and understand BTC.And lastly, it proves that HODLing through the fire and the flames can pay off, despite what some cynics of the strategy suggest.Mainstream Media Loves Bitcoin Again This comes as the mainstream media has begun to laud Bitcoin for once, instead of bashing it.In a recent article, The Financial Times, which is a prominent business news outlet read by some of the worlds most prominent investors and funds, recently lauded Bitcoin as a potential safe haven asset. As, Bitcoin has begun to gradually enter the mainstream financial discourse, which is rather bullish, to put it lightly.A few days after this article was posted, Jim Iuorio of CNBC, a CME trader, lauded BTC on public television, revealing that he has begun to acknowledge the cryptocurrency as a viable alternative to fiat.And who could forget Tyler Cowen, an economist that frequents Bloombergs op-ed column. In a, Cowen gave four reasons why he believes Bitcoin will succeed, which caught many aback, as he was previously cynical that BTC was needed. A number of those reasons mentioned Bitcoins viability as a hedge against populism and geopolitical unrest.Celebrities Love Crypto, Right? As aforementioned, Hawks tacit statement of support for Bitcoin and its ilk marks the latest case of celebrities getting their hands dirty with cryptocurrency.In the sports world, Hawk joins NFL player Russell Okung and UFC fighter Ben Askren as professional athletes-turned-crypto rookiesAs however, the aforementioned sportsmen are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to celebrities in the crypto space.Featured Image from ShutterstockLike what you read? Give us one like or share it to your friendsoriginal postContinue ReadingBoth Bitcoin (BTC) and gold have once again been caught in the throes of volatility that have allowed them to form fresh levels of support and resistance that will likely continue to hold strong in the near-future.Despite this volatility, Bitcoin is still in a firm bull market, and analysts are now noting that gold and asset that BTC is often compared to has been facing increasing downwards pressure. But is golds poor performance as of late good for Bitcoin?Bitcoin Begins Climbing Higher Despite Recent Drop At the time of writing, is trading up just under 2% at its current price of $11,500, which is up significantly from its daily lows of $10,900.Over the past week, BTC has been forming a pattern of that has elucidated the cryptocurrencys current levels of support and resistance, which currently appear to exist at $9,800 and $12,000 respectively.Assuming that these levels continue hold strong, it is highly likely that Bitcoin will face increased selling pressure as it gets closer to $12,000, which is only slightly above its current price level.Josh Rager, a popular cryptocurrency analyst on Twitter, spoke about BTC in a recent tweet, explaining that he is leaning bullish on the crypto currently, as it has been able to flip its previous resistance level to a level of support.$BTC looking bullish: Flipped resistance into support right on the close of the 4 hour chart. At this time, I see Bitcoin retesting local highs if it can hold current support. This would be quite bullish for likely continuation upward, Rager noted. looking bullishFlipped resistance into support right on the close of the 4 hour chartAt this time, I see Bitcoin retesting local highs if it can hold current supportThis would be quite bullish for likely continuation upward Josh Rager (@Josh_Rager) Gold Plummets Lower as Global Economy Expresses Stability As of late there has been a growing movement to call Bitcoin digital gold or gold 2.0, but recent data regarding the US and global economy being stronger than anticipated sent golds price reeling down from highs of over $1,420 to its current price of $1,399.This drop, which came on the heels of stronger-than-anticipated , signals that the bulk of Golds price action is still highly correlated with data regarding the state of the US and global economy.Although many investors like to consider as a safe-haven investment class, its recent climb and current bullishness seems to signal that its price action is not at all correlated with the state of the global economy and is likely to continue moving independently in the near-future.Featured image from Shutterstock.Like what you read? Give us one like or share it to your friendsoriginal postContinue ReadingAnother week, another round of Crypto Tidbits. (BTC) may have shed a good portion of its year-to-date gains over the past week, but the underlying industry saw an array of positive fundamental developments.Over the past seven days, theres been an array of positive news: ErisX secured a key license, Donald Trump announced his intent to get the Federal Reserve to manipulate the dollar, Ethereum 2.0 came one step closer, among other tidbits.Related Reading: Also recently, we saw a countless number of traditional investors, most of which were formerly skeptical of crypto, turn bullish on Bitcoin. A convert that comes to mind is Mark Mobius, a prominent emerging markets investor. This trend is a bullish sign, especially considering that this market cycle is just getting started.Related Reading: Bitcoin & Crypto Tidbits : Announced early this week, ErisX, an exchange startup backed by countless Wall Street and crypto-native firms, has secured a license from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The Derivatives Clearing Organization license (DCO) will allow the soon-to-launch platform, funded by firms from Nasdaq and The CME to Digital Currency Group and the pro-Bitcoin Fidelity Investments, to offer its clients physically-delivered cryptocurrency futures. ErisX joins Bakkt and LedgerX in this arena, all of which are expected to soon list their take on Bitcoin futures in the coming months. And while all eyes are frankly on Bakkt, some suggest that ErisX may have just as big of an effect as its rival, as it has been rumored that American retail brokerage TD Ameritrade will be listing its partners vehicles in the near future.Ethereum 2.0 (Serenity) Sees First Spec Freeze, Upgrade On Its Way: Announced by Justin Drake, an Ethereum Foundation researcher, the first code specification freeze for Ethereums 2.0 (Serenity) upgrade recently occurred. This release marks the end-of-June phase 0 spec freeze, v0.8 is to serve as a stable target as implementers work toward multi-client testnets in addition to on-going efforts in formal verification, fuzzing, and audits, Drake explained. For those unaware, s that Serenity could simply be explained as a way to bring technical improvements, like PoS and sharding, together to improve the Virtual Machine, Merkle Trees, the efficiency of the protocol, and a whole bunch of small technical things that you have never heard of. Per the industry insider, this is all being done in a bid to create a next-generation blockchain to be hundreds of times faster and scalable than Ethereums current iteration.: On Monday, Bitcoins journey back to the mainstream limelight took a massive leap forward, with Jeopardy featuring the cryptocurrency for the second, maybe third time. During an episode of the popular American game show last week, the following clue was given: Bitcoin uses this technology as its transaction record. The answer to this, a simple What is Blockchain? This mention may seem small, but the show often pulls in 10 million weekly viewers not bad. This isnt the first time that Jeporady has centered its sights on cryptocurrency. Late last year yes, the de-facto bottom of the recent crypto crash the show had an entire section dedicated to crypto. Crazy, right? Some answers included references to Venezuelas Petro, social media apps Kin token, and the infamous Kanye West-branded Coinye coin, which has notably been slammed with a lawsuit from Yeezy.Like what you read? Give us one like or share it to your friendsoriginal postContinue ReadingAdvertisementSearchRecent PostsBitcoin (BTC) Price Trading Near Make-or-Break LevelsEthereum Price Weekly Forecast: ETH Preparing For Next Key BreakBitcoin Fun Fact: Tony Hawk Has Been HODLing Since Sub-$1,000 BTCBitcoin Still in Bull Market Territory as Gold Plummets; Will Growing Economic Stability Slow BTC?Crypto Tidbits: ErisX Bitcoin Futures, Blockchain on Jeopardy, Proposed BitMEX Ban

The cryptocurrency and blockchain space is one of the most rapidly evolving technology and financial ecosystems in the word. Year by year this innovative and experimental industry continues to adapt and change, shifting focus and intent regularly.2017 was the year of the ICO and astronomical growth for the price of cryptocurrencies, helping slingshot these digital assets into mainstream interest. From Wall Street to ‘FAANG’ (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google), governments and investors, there were few who had not heard of, or been interested in, blockchain and cryptocurrency following the 2017 boom.However, 2018 turned out to be a bit of a turn around for the plucky investor types. Predictions of Bitcoin reaching a $1 million by renegade former software mogul John McAfee, and talk of Bitcoin breaking down the global banking institution soon became laughable as the speculative bubble popped.Cryptocurrency may be down, but its certainly not out, especially with the air cleared of speculative investors. Now, it is blockchain that is taking the baton and driving the technology with its associated digital tokens forward. Many see 2019 as the year of the enterprise blockchain.One man, who has immersed himself in almost every corner of the cryptocurrency and blockchain space, is Brock Pierce. The former child actor who is recognisable from his roles in the 1990’s Mighty Ducks movies has become a key figure since 2013.Pierce’s main predictions focus in around the growth and development of dApps, STOs as well as unsurprisingly from the former gaming head, a push in adoption from gamers and the gaming industry.dApps are just starting to find their feet as platforms, like EOS, as well as Ethereum, Tron, Cardano and a bevvy of others open the doors for developers to build decentralized applications along the blockchain.“We’re going to see big things being built, multiple applications hitting a million users,” Pierce said. “I love the fact that prices are down. When prices are up, very little gets built because teams don’t stick around. Everyone is getting rich too quick and that de-motivates people. All the best things I’ve seen built in this ecosystem have been built in bear markets.”When asked what needs to happen to make dApps more than just developer play-things, Pierce added:“Three things: They have to be scalable. They have to be fee-less and frictionless. They have to be fast. No one will use the new internet if it’s slow, costs money and doesn’t’ scale. We are building the new internet, so new standards need to be set. Timing-wise, blockchains that check these boxes are happening now within the 3rd gen protocol; EOS, Tron and Cardano, to name a few.”There is a lot of talk and expectation coming out of Security Tokens, and Security Token Offerings, which are supposed to be able to pick up from where ICOs left off, and work in a better, and more regulated, manner.“Security tokens are going to give birth to a quadrillion dollar market,” adds Pierce. “This is because we will see the tokenization of the world’s fiat money, debt market, real estate, equities, and art.”“They are the next wave in the evolution of capital markets. ICOs did not adequately protect market participants – it wasn’t intended to – utility tokes are by nature not intended to be security, so it provided little protection. STOs have a framework that can do that. STOs are designed for investors and can have many provisions that are there to protect market participants.
”Pierce, having been in both camps, gaming and crypto, can see a viable cross-over and he believes it will be the gamer and the ever-growing gaming industry that will further drive adoption through 2019.“Gaming is going to be a huge part of it” states Pierce. “The earliest adopters at scale of crypto were gamers. That’s why Korea and China are so big. These were the markets where people played video games and bought and sold virtual currency for games like Second Life and World of Warcraft.”“It’s that community of users around the world that have driven the first wave of crypto adoption and so I think there’s a very good chance that gaming in all its forms will be one of the major drivers of the success of the ecosystem.”Pierce also adds that cryptocurrencies will be striving to be much more user-friendly, turning more into forms of money messaging, especially for the unbanked.“Messaging and peer-to-peer payments to bank the unbanked as well also significant. Two-thirds of the people on the planet don’t have access to financial services. The internet didn’t become usable until Netscape because that gave the average person a user interface that was intuitive, simple, friendly – this made it accessible.”“The same thing needs to happen now. With crypto payments We’ve had wonderful technologists now we need great user interfaces.”Pierce is an interesting character within the blockchain and cryptocurrency space. The entrepreneur and Venture Capitalist came into this space from his gaming days when, In 2001, he founded Internet Gaming Entertainment (IGE), a company which pioneered the MMORPG currency-selling services industry.It was 2013 when Peirce really got involved though when he joined brothers Bart and Bradford Stephens in founding venture capital firm Blockchain Capital (BCC). This was the precursor to the cryptocurrency now known as EOS which was marketed through a new vehicle called Block.one. Peirce had many roles within Block.one, but he resigned in March of last year.However, he recently formed EOS Alliance, a community non-profit formed with other EOS investors to support the community and focus on governance issued for the delegated proof of stake network.Pierce was also recently asked by the creditors of the famous Mt. Gox Exchange to assist in presented a unified plan with the hopes of maximizing creditor’s recovery from the Japanese bankruptcy courts as well as to redeem the damage caused to the community.Pierce is a knowledgeable and well-connected figure in the cryptocurrency space, but, having been in the spotlight for most of his life, across different sectors, he has also attracted a fair share of controversy.Following his retirement from child acting, Pierce at 17, joined as a minor partner in establishing Digital Entertainment Network (DEN), it was from that stage in his life that, in 2000, that three males filed a lawsuit alleging that the three DEN co-founders, including Pierce – who was 17 at the time – forced them into sexual contact.All three plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed their claims against Pierce. It was reported that Pierce paid more than $21,000 to settle the claim by Michael Egan, but it was clarified that it was a payment to Egan’s lawyer for expenses.In 2015 Egan filed lawsuits  with similar claims accusing other industry figures, including Bryan Singer and David Neumann, of sexual assault, only to withdraw the allegations and admit that these claims were false. Egan was sentenced to two years in prison in connection with a fraudulent investment scheme.These accusations against Pierce were made only in the Egan lawsuit, none has ever been corroborated, and all of them have since been discontinued. It appears the allegations and accusations around the DEN members were  lacking in evidence, and, in light of Egan’s further fraudulent lawsuits, it could be deduced that the lawsuit against Pierce may have been an attempt to extort.Despite the facts that Pierce was still a teenager at the time the lawsuit was filed against him, that no criminal charges were brought against him, and that the claims have been discredited, articles still tie him and his former partners him to the scandal.Regardless, Pierce continues to be an important figure in the cryptocurrency and blockchain space and, based in Puerto Rico he is currently working on launching a small VC fund for investing in Puerto Rican entrepreneurs to help fund innovation in technology startups. He admits there a lack of angel investors and opportunities for entrepreneurs to build companies in the country and the talent potential there is huge.The bank, the largest in Africa, wants to make payments easier for its importer...14, March 2019- Asia Crypto Week is in full swing in Hongkong with one...AN American cryptocurrency firm is offering its coins to anyone willing to snitch on...North Korea has amassed upwards of $670 million worth of bitcoin and other currencies, according to a...The Wall Street Journal reports today that Philadelphia is the latest jurisdiction to pass a law...The famous quote, usually attributed to Benjamin Franklin, about tax states: “In this world...The cryptocurrency space is no stranger to cars, namely, exotic cars such as Lamborghinis....Cryptocurrency regulation can evolve as a project matures. At least that’s the view of...Directly in line with our “boots-on-the-ground” intention of being present at more conferences around...Imagine that no one else can access your data but you. If a company...© 2019 MONEY IN CRYPTO. PROPERTY OF STANKEVICIUS GROUP. CONTENT ON THIS WEBSITE BELONG TO INFORMATION PROVIDERS. READ DISCLAIMER FOR MORE INFORMATION.© 2019 MONEY IN CRYPTO. PROPERTY OF STANKEVICIUS GROUP. CONTENT ON THIS WEBSITE BELONG TO INFORMATION PROVIDERS. READ DISCLAIMER FOR MORE INFORMATION.

February was Bitcoin’s (BTC-USD) first positive price month since mid 2018 and it wasn’t the only coin to see gains. In the top 10, Litecoin (LTC-USD) saw a substantial 20% boost through the month (and even more in the last week). Basic Attention Token (BAT-USD) saw the same boost thanks to good press from its browser Brave. But no coin has had the run of the last five weeks as Binance Coin (BNB-USD), the native coin for the Binance exchange. It’s more than doubled in the last 30 days and is up 42% just in the last seven days alone. It’s led the pack as crypto makes a minor comeback and Bitcoin battles between the $3,500 and $4,000 price zone. The question is can BNB keep its pace up and stay above the $15 mark?Binance Coin is intrinsically tied to its namesake exchange. And that’s a good thing. Binance started as an exchange with some fan fare in 2017 but came to be a recognized leader in user experience and security since then. Binance has continued its dominance as the most used crypto trading platform — escaping any plaguing reports or security scares — that have troubled competitors. And here’s the BTC trading volume on Binance. Notice that even as crypto places have popped from eye-watering all-time highs, trading volume on Binance hasn’t deflated. It’s picked up where lesser exchanges have dropped off or closed and become a de facto place for any serious crypto trader to do their bidding. As long as Binance continues to be a frontrunner as an exchange — and to play a vital role in the crypto market at large, the coin will hold an esteem and value. Certainly this is true as it compares to other exchange tokens. Here’s a comparison of its competitors in the utility space, specifically for exchanging crypto currencies.Here’s a three-month chart of Binance Coin’s price against its closest competitor in the space (KCS-USD):Binance Coin’s main use is as a fee discounter on the Binance exchange. Holders of BNB that choose to utilize their coin (pay with it) for the low trading fees on Binance can receive up to a 50% discount on those fees. That may not seem like a lot (a standard fee may be half of a cent) but for high-frequency trading or those trading a lot of coins (“whales”) the BNB ownership is a prerequisite. This site expands on the other uses for Binance Coin — which includes its use as a peer-to-peer currency token (much like Bitcoin) or its use as collateral on Nexo for a crypto-backed loan. Why does this matter? It shows that the wider crypto world views Binance Coin with a legitimacy rarely granted to other coins — even larger ones like Ripple or Stellar haven’t seen the wide-set adoption of Binance.Some of this is likely because of the reputation of the exchange and that Binance Coin is likely backed up by the exchange’s financial success itself. In other words, it’s not going anywhere. Still, there have been doubts about BNB value as Binance has announced it will decrease the discount and offset that BNB owners get with Binance trading. Below is the chart and timeline for that fee and discount structure:So what will continue to hold BNB’s value over time? I think legitimacy will be one. As BNB is still used as a “base pair” for trading and as a coin legitimate enough to be used as collateral for crypto loans, it will continue to be seen as a value holding or “store of value” asset that’s propped up by the success of Binance itself. Or, in other words, it’s a coin with a real team and product behind it rather than relying on a voluminous agreement amongst anonymous masses on a value proposition (like a DASH, Dogecoin or others). I like BNB as a safe or conservative play in the crypto space. I recommend it to my Coin Agora marketplace followers, especially those looking for that more conservative investment play within crypto (acknowledging the potentially oxymoron there). If the market swings up, BNB will careen with it. If it swings down, there’s still a way to see BNB as a trader’s storage place, a stablecoin of sorts that’s pegged more to the success of Binance than to a fiat currency. An option that provides traders with a route less traveled.Binance Coin’s success in the early part of this year, and even its ability to not totally fall to a loss of 99% in the bear market of late 2018 shows that crypto traders see a value proposition here. That’s what’s doubled it over the last few months and had it accelerate past peers in March.The trading discounts might move away but that’s a long timeline and I see BNB as a value play here in 2019 and 2020 that provides a different incentive to holders and traders. It’s the best coin of its kind and pegged to what’s emerging as the best exchange. I like BNB as a buy and see its potential going well beyond the recent rise it’s had. Bitcoin may have come down from the stratosphere, but there’s still an abundance of opportunities in cryptocurrencies. At the Coin Agora, our focus is on altcoins – the smaller cap cryptos that have massive potential to disrupt business ecosystems. Invest with us for your chance to get in on the ground floor. Our mission is to help you find small, new and growing coins and reap rich returns. Let us help you cut through the noise and find winners – join the Coin Agora community today!Disclosure: I am/we are long BNB-USD. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.window.SA = {"App":{"name":"SA","fullName":"Seeking "active":false},"Data":{"article":{"id":4247481,"title":"Binance Coin Up 42% This Week - Will It Keep witContent":"$BNB-USD - Binance Coin Up 42% This Week - Will It Keep Going? ull,"marketingBullet":"This idea was discussed in more depth with members of my private investing community, The Coin Agora. u003ca href='/checkout?service_id=mp_1231' sasource='mp_marketing_text_top'u003eGet started today edonia-cooperative","exclusiveResearch":{"title":"The Coin Agora","short_pitch":"We find small, new, and growing coins and get you in on the ground floor","id":1231},"tagId":48361,"name":"The Freedonia sage":"Comments disabled for this S":1552055400,"END_TIME":"03/08/2019 16:00","1D":"03/08/2019 9:30","PREV_1D":"03/07/2019 9:30","5D":"03/01/2019 9:30","1M":"02/08/2019 9:30","6M":"09/07/2018 16:00","1Y":"03/08/2018 16:00","5Y":"03/07/2014 16:00","10Y":"03/06/2009 16:00","20Y":"03/08/1999 16:00","MAX":"01/01/1950 _on":"2018-03-29T06:39:58.000-04:00","content":"Binance Coin .js","id":"facebook-jssdk"}]},"lastRequested":"2019-03-08 21:34:55 },"requires":[],"trackq":[],"exceptions":[],"gptInit":false}; READ SOURCE Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. 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… and the scarcity aspect of Bitcoin that makes it such an attractive proposition over anything else currently out there!11:40April 15, 2020MY 3 STEP PROCESS - LEAVING OUR BITCOIN TO LOVED ONES SUDDENLYIn this show I cover the three steps I advise people to go through when getting into owning Bitcoin. I talk about what NOT to do… and how best to secure your coins and then what to do after you’ve secured them!  I also talk about the minefield that is what we do to ensure our loved ones can access our Bitcoin if anything happens to us suddenly!13:06April 15, 2020TREZOR - NEWBIES & THE BASICS - DON’T TRADE BTC - STRONG HAND!In this show I go back to basics for the newbies joining the space. We sometimes gallop ahead with the information we provide, but leave many newbies joining the space feeling way out of their depth and ultimately feeling left behind!  I also talk about the only hardware device I use and endorse and that’s the Trezor. It has a very simple interface and doesn’t really take much time to get your head around.   We also advise strongly that you don’t try trading Bitcoin as for sure you WILL lose money!12:58April 15, 2020COINBASE RUMOURS - SOUTH AFRICA PRESIDENT SON & BTC CONFERENCEIn this show I talk about where Bitcoin is heading as well as the rumours surrounding a possible $500million investment into Coinbase by Tiger Global, a UK Hedge Fund that invests mainly in global consumer brands that if it comes off would give Coinbase an $8billion valuation from $1.5billion in 2017!!  It was also announced from a very good source that recently also, the South African Presidents son arranged and attended a Bitcoin conference, so does that tell us that Bitcoin is failing, or consolidating ready for the next big bull run? You decide but I know where my bet lies!10:41April 15, 2020BEAR MARKETS SCARE WEAK HANDS AWAY - SO BUILD YOUR STRONG HAND!In this video I talk about the common mistakes people make in bear markets. Bear markets are a time to develop your STRONG Hand and not fritter your Bitcoin away under the illusion that it's going nowhere or even down!  The Strong hands understand that you buy, store and hold your Bitcoin and wait for the 4 year halvings as during those times Bitcoin will go UP… and it will go down, but over time, it always climbs higher.10:37April 15, 2020THERE'S MONEY TO BE MADE CREATING CONTENT USING CRYPTO SOCIAL MEDIAIn this show I expand on the previous show talking about the different Crypto Social Media platforms I use to get my content out there.  ANYONE can do this. I am nothing special, just a guy who in early 2017 had NEVER heard of Bitcoin or Crypto. I had spent most of my life hauling goods around The UK in a truck, so don’t give me “I can’t” as if I can, YOU can, you just need to learn how like I have!14:48April 15, 2020BE IN MOTION - EARN FREE BITCOIN BY BECOMING A CONTENT CREATOR!In this episode I talk about how one can accumulate Bitcoin for FREE if buying it is beyond you. By learning how to create and post good content on Crypto platforms, instead of wasting time posting on platforms like Facebook that pay you nothing for posting, you can grow a steady income that you can then convert to Bitcoin!  It takes time to build, bit it’s sure better than down the road having NO Bitcoin and moaning about it. Instead, get out there and BE IN MOTION!10:54April 15, 2020CREATING WORK LIFE ACCUMULATING BITCOIN v CONVENTIONAL BUSINESSIn this show I talk about the stress level difference between building a conventional business where one works crazy hours and never sees family, or they are always taking work home, versus growing a Bitcoin Position by investing each month, getting it on to a @Trezor and then waiting it out through the halvings.  You do not want to be trying to trade Bitcoin as you WILL, ultimately lose money, whereas Bitcoin is the rock that WILL stand the test of time if you just buy and hold!16:07April 15, 2020KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING OR IT CAN BE COSTLY - MY AIRDROP EXPERIENCEIn this show I really try to get the point across that it really is SO easy to mess something up and lose your coins, but on this occasion I am talking from recent personal experience.  This is all so new that we ALL really MUST take considerable care when trying to claim any crypto dividends and airdrops as I found out to my cost this week!14:27April 15, 2020NOT YOUR KEYS - NOT YOUR BITCOIN - OWN YOUR PERSONAL SOVEREIGNTY!In this show I talk about the fact that when we keep our Bitcoin on an exchange, they own it NOT us. We must get our coins off an exchange and on to a hardware device such as a Trezor.   By holding our coins on a Trezor WE own our coins… NOT the exchange that can easily be hacked and then we lose our coins FOREVER!09:54April 15, 2020 THE BEARS & BULLS - DON’T PANIC SELL YOUR BITCOINEveryone new into #Bitcoin MUST learn about the Bulls & Bears… and why both can be advantageous to all of us. In this show I explain the ups and downs of both. It’s also really important we don’t sell our Bitcoin in the dips as the dip is the time to BUY and accumulate more Bitcoin!11:37April 15, 2020BEING A PIONEER IS TOUGH, BUT REWARDS FOR HOLDING ARE IMMENSE!Why is it that people investing in Bitcoin feel the need to keep it a secret for fear of ridicule? This smacked me from a recent conversation I had with a family member and I felt the need to make a show around the stigma that pioneers ALWAYS face!   Pioneers will ALWAYS face ridicule as they are carving a new path. They are stepping out and trying something that is new… and that always leads to ridicule from the masses no matter what we are doing, but if we can all learn to deal with the skeptics out there and hold our Bitcoin with a strong hand, WE will be the ones smiling down the road!11:28April 15, 2020BITCOIN MILLIONAIRES - GET INTO COMMUNITY - DO NOT FEEL YOU ARE ALONE!It’s always refreshing when we read success stories… and todays show talks about Erica from The UK who has become a Bitcoin Millionaire.  The problem is that when we are pioneers in something we really are in the minority group and we can feel very alone and start to doubt what we are doing, so it’s really important we get into community with other Bitcoiners and keep ourselves motivated to stay on course!   Get your trezor: https://www.cryptohwwallet.com  Twitter:   https://twitter.com/cryptoHWwallet  Get your t-shirt: http://www.bitcointothemoon.com/merchandise.html  Twitter:       https://twitter.com/BtcToTheMoonCom  Join Coinbase: https://www.coinbase.com/join/591ef1807e4844f75592e9f3  Donate BTC if you can:  39omG6QEimhcqRnaiaTWv98i2at9ZVwwoM   PREVIOUS SHOWS FULL LIBRARY: http://www.UKBitcoinMaster.com   Previous 5 Youtube shows:  Bitcoin For Beginners - Show 35 https://youtu.be/N3prsCtgzUc  Bitcoin For Beginners - Show 36 https://youtu.be/Sq509FsiWxU  Bitcoin For Beginners - Show 37 https://youtu.be/Ijn_9dx487s  Bitcoin For Beginners - Show 38 https://youtu.be/3qx8iygvRzU   Bitcoin For Beginners - Show 39 https://youtu.be/Ej1cv6V1XOs   UKBitcoin Master Guest on Live On The BitcoinMeister Show:  https://youtu.be/uggPfmS_88s   Follow these Bitcoin commentators:  The Bitcoin Miester:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsqKbe0_9D9gO48DeuDjbCg  https://twitter.com/techbalt  The One Vortex: @cryptocastnet @bitcoinpodcasts  https://twitter.com/theonevortex  Simon Dixon: https://twitter.com/SimonDixonTwitt  https://twitter.com/BankToTheFuture  Andy Hoffman - CryptoGoldCentral: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiLyzn8tm9ckqbBn-mBV9NA  https://twitter.com/Andy_Hoffman_CG  BTC Benny: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChzLnWVsl3puKQwc5PoO6Zg  https://twitter.com/BTCbenny  Andreas Antanopolous: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJWCJCWOxBYSi5DhCieLOLQ  https://twitter.com/aantonop   Worth also following:  JW Weatherman https://twitter.com/@WeathermanIam  Trace Mayor https://twitter.com/@bitcoinkn  Ansell Linder https://twitter.com/@AnselLindner10:03April 12, 2020THE POWER OF ASSOCIATION - DON’T UNDER ESTIMATE WHAT WE CAN LEARN IN A YEAR!It’s really amazing how much we can learn in just a year by associating with the right people! On a personal level, in mid 2017 I had never even heard of Bitcoin… and now I find myself producing education videos EVERY week on both Youtube and Steemit, thanks to following people like Adam meister AKA The Bitcoin Meister. UKBitcoin Master Guest on Live On The BitcoinMeister Show:  https://youtu.be/uggPfmS_88s  NEVER say “I can’t”!!  ALWAYS say “I’ll give it my best shot… and with that sort of mindset, watch your life change!!  NEVER say “I can’t” ALWAYS say “I’ll give it my best shot… and with that sort of mindset, watch your life change!!   Get your trezor: https://www.cryptohwwallet.com  Twitter:   https://twitter.com/cryptoHWwallet  Get your t-shirt: http://www.bitcointothemoon.com/merchandise.html  Twitter:       https://twitter.com/BtcToTheMoonCom  Join Coinbase: https://www.coinbase.com/join/591ef1807e4844f75592e9f3  Donate BTC if you can:  39omG6QEimhcqRnaiaTWv98i2at9ZVwwoM   PREVIOUS SHOWS LIBRARY: http://www.UKBitcoinMaster.com   Previous 5 Youtube shows:  Bitcoin For Beginners - Show 34 https://youtu.be/gUQqGQSCX5I  Bitcoin For Beginners - Show 35 https://youtu.be/N3prsCtgzUc  Bitcoin For Beginners - Show 36 https://youtu.be/Sq509FsiWxU  Bitcoin For Beginners - Show 37 https://youtu.be/Ijn_9dx487s  Bitcoin For Beginners - Show 38 https://youtu.be/3qx8iygvRzU    Follow these guys:  The Bitcoin Miester:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsqKbe0_9D9gO48DeuDjbCg  https://twitter.com/techbalt  The One Vortex: @cryptocastnet @bitcoinpodcasts  https://twitter.com/theonevortex  Simon Dixon: https://twitter.com/SimonDixonTwitt  https://twitter.com/BankToTheFuture  Andy Hoffman - CryptoGoldCentral: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiLyzn8tm9ckqbBn-mBV9NA  https://twitter.com/Andy_Hoffman_CG  BTC Benny: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChzLnWVsl3puKQwc5PoO6Zg  https://twitter.com/BTCbenny  Andreas Antanopolous: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJWCJCWOxBYSi5DhCieLOLQ  https://twitter.com/aantonop   Worth also following:  JW Weatherman https://twitter.com/@WeathermanIam  Trace Mayor https://twitter.com/@bitcoinkn  Ansell Linder https://twitter.com/@AnselLindner13:03April 12, 2020BE PREPARED TO RIDE THE BITCOIN ROLLERCOASTER & IGNORE THE FUD!In this episode I talk about the ups and downs of being involved with Bitcoin. You really do need to detach yourself from the mainstream… and whatever you do, IGNORE the FUD (Fear, Uncertainty & Doubt)… and NEVER take your eye off your long term goal.  Do you have a plan? If not you need to prepare one. For me the financial plan is shorter than the younger generation due to age, but I still have a plan and am working towards that plan!   Get your trezor: https://www.cryptohwwallet.com  Twitter:   https://twitter.com/cryptoHWwallet  Get your t-shirt: http://www.bitcointothemoon.com/merchandise.html  Twitter:       https://twitter.com/BtcToTheMoonCom  Join Coinbase: https://www.coinbase.com/join/591ef1807e4844f75592e9f3  Donate BTC if you can:  39omG6QEimhcqRnaiaTWv98i2at9ZVwwoM   PREVIOUS SHOWS LIBRARY: http://www.UKBitcoinMaster.com   Previous 5 shows:  Bitcoin For Beginners - Show 33 https://youtu.be/HDuTlG08eFs  Bitcoin For Beginners - Show 34 https://youtu.be/gUQqGQSCX5I  Bitcoin For Beginners - Show 35 https://youtu.be/N3prsCtgzUc  Bitcoin For Beginners - Show 36 https://youtu.be/Sq509FsiWxU  Bitcoin For Beginners - Show 37 https://youtu.be/Ijn_9dx487s   UKBitcoin Master Guest on Live On The BitcoinMeister Show:  https://youtu.be/uggPfmS_88s10:43April 12, 2020MY TOP BITCOIN CONTENT CREATORS YOU SHOULD FOLLOW AND LISTEN TOIn this episode I talk about the content creators I have listened to since I got into the space in mid 2017.   From understanding absolutely nothing AT ALL about Bitcoin, over the time I've been involved these guys have really helped me to build my STRONG HAND, BUY AND HOLD mentality.  In no particular order I will talk about each one of them, run very short video clips of each one… and then, my STRONG advice would be for you to follow them as closely as I have… and YOU TOO will develop your STRONG HAND mentality!   Get your trezor: https://www.cryptohwwallet.com  Twitter:   https://twitter.com/cryptoHWwallet  Get your t-shirt: http://www.bitcointothemoon.com/merchandise.html Twitter:        https://twitter.com/BtcToTheMoonCom  Register with Coinbase: https://www.coinbase.com/join/591ef1807e4844f75592e9f3  Donate BTC if you can:  39omG6QEimhcqRnaiaTWv98i2at9ZVwwoM   PREVIOUS SHOWS COMPLETE LIBRARY: http://www.UKBitcoinMaster.com   UKBitcoin Master Guest on Live On The BitcoinMeister Show:  https://youtu.be/uggPfmS_88s   MUST FOLLOW PEOPLE:  The Bitcoin Miester:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsqKbe0_9D9gO48DeuDjbCg  https://twitter.com/techbalt  Vortex: https://twitter.com/theonevortex  https://twitter.com/cryptocastnet  Simon Dixon: https://twitter.com/SimonDixonTwitt  https://twitter.com/BankToTheFuture  Andy Hoffman - CryptoGoldCentral: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiLyzn8tm9ckqbBn-mBV9NA  https://twitter.com/Andy_Hoffman_CG  BTC Benny: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChzLnWVsl3puKQwc5PoO6Zg  https://twitter.com/BTCbenny  Andreas Antanopolous: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJWCJCWOxBYSi5DhCieLOLQ  https://twitter.com/aantonop   Others worth following on Twitter:  JW Weatherman https://twitter.com/WeathermanIam  Trace Mayer https://twitter.com/bitcoinkn  Ansel Lindner https://twitter.com/AnselLindner   Previous shows:  Bitcoin For Beginners - Show 32 https://youtu.be/5Xig6u1F1tQ  Bitcoin For Beginners - Show 33 https://youtu.be/HDuTlG08eFs  Bitcoin For Beginners - Show 34 https://youtu.be/gUQqGQSCX5I  Bitcoin For Beginners - Show 35 https://youtu.be/N3prsCtgzUc  Bitcoin For Beginners - Show 36 https://youtu.be/Sq509FsiWxU30:24April 12, 2020MESSAGE TO YOU BITCOIN CONTENT CREATORS - LET’S ALL SUPPORT EACH OTHER MORE!We are in the midst of extremely exciting times… and the next few years to a decade will shape a radically changing financial world like never before, so those of us in motion in the space with the same vision with regards to where Bitcoin is going need to totally support each other in our combined quest to get our message to the world!   Let’s all start liking, subscribing and sharing each others content on all platforms like Youtube, Twitter, DLive and Steemit, as by us all helping each other, the overall audience will grow, the entries into #Bitcoin will grow… and finally Bitcoin will come of age much sooner!   In other words, the sum total is GREATER than the individual parts, which by the way is the definition of Synergy!!    Get your trezor:    https://www.cryptohwwallet.com  Twitter:    https://twitter.com/cryptoHWwallet  Get your t-shirt:   http://www.bitcointothemoon.com/merchandise.html  Twitter:     https://twitter.com/BtcToTheMoonCom  Donate BTC if you can:   39omG6QEimhcqRnaiaTWv98i2at9ZVwwoM   PREVIOUS SHOWS LIBRARY: http://www.UKBitcoinMaster.com   UKBitcoin Master Guest on Live On The BitcoinMeister Show:  https://youtu.be/uggPfmS_88s   Follow these guys: The Bitcoin Miester:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsqKbe0_9D9gO48DeuDjbCg  https://twitter.com/techbalt  The One Vortex: Host of The Bitcoin News Show on @WorldCryptoNet  https://twitter.com/theonevortex Wold Crypto Network:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR9gdpWisRwnk_k23GsHfcA  https://twitter.com/WorldCryptoNet  Andy Hoffman - CryptoGoldCentral: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiLyzn8tm9ckqbBn-mBV9NA  https://twitter.com/Andy_Hoffman_CG  BTC Benny: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChzLnWVsl3puKQwc5PoO6Zg  https://twitter.com/BTCbenny  Andreas Antanopolous: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJWCJCWOxBYSi5DhCieLOLQ  https://twitter.com/aantonop  Simon Dixon: https://twitter.com/SimonDixonTwitt   Previous shows:  Bitcoin For Beginners - Show 31 https://youtu.be/q6UYAC54NF4  Bitcoin For Beginners - Show 32 https://youtu.be/5Xig6u1F1tQ  Bitcoin For Beginners - Show 33 https://youtu.be/HDuTlG08eFs  Bitcoin For Beginners - Show 34 https://youtu.be/gUQqGQSCX5I  Bitcoin For Beginners - Show 35 https://youtu.be/N3prsCtgzUc08:54April 12, 2020DON’T PANIC SELL YOUR BITCOIN - FOLLOW THE RIGHT PEOPLE - BUILD YOUR STRONG HANDBitcoin For Beginners - DON’T SELL YOUR BITCOIN - FOLLOW THE RIGHT PEOPLE - BUILD YOUR STRONG HAND  So many people panic as the Bitcoin price drops. People... the massive institutions WANT you to panic sell because then the price falls, they buy low… and when the price goes up again, THEY are the winners!!! Follow the correct commentators to help you to have that strong hand!   Follow me: https://twitter.com/UKBitcoinMaster  \https://steemit.com/@buzzukbitcoinmaster  https://dlive.io/@ukbitcoinmaster   Upvote today’s video on Steemit:  https://bit.ly/2L9GcpA   PREVIOUS SHOWS LIBRARY: http://www.UKBitcoinMaster.com   UKBitcoin Master Guest on Live On The BitcoinMeister Show:  https://youtu.be/uggPfmS_88s   Follow these guys:  The Bitcoin Miester:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsqKbe0_9D9gO48DeuDjbCg  The One Vortex: Host of The Bitcoin News Show on @WorldCryptoNet  https://twitter.com/theonevortex Wold Crypto Network  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR9gdpWisRwnk_k23GsHfcA https://twitter.com/WorldCryptoNet  Andy Hoffman - CGC https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiLyzn8tm9ckqbBn-mBV9NA  https://twitter.com/Andy_Hoffman_CG  BTC Benny https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChzLnWVsl3puKQwc5PoO6Zg  https://twitter.com/BTCbenny  Andreas Antanopolous: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJWCJCWOxBYSi5DhCieLOLQ   Get your trezor:    https://www.cryptohwwallet.com  Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/cryptoHWwallet  Get your t-shirt:   http://www.bitcointothemoon.com/merchandise.html  Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BtcToTheMoonCom  Donate BTC:   39omG6QEimhcqRnaiaTWv98i2at9ZVwwoM   Previous 5 shows:  Bitcoin For Beginners - Show 30 https://youtu.be/5wALW5uyqCA  Bitcoin For Beginners - Show 31 https://youtu.be/q6UYAC54NF4  Bitcoin For Beginners - Show 32 https://youtu.be/5Xig6u1F1tQ  Bitcoin For Beginners - Show 33 https://youtu.be/HDuTlG08eFs  Bitcoin For Beginners - Show 34 https://youtu.be/gUQqGQSCX5I09:02April 12, 2020BLOCKCHAIN v BITCOIN - CENTRALISED V DECENTRALISED - PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITYIn this episode I explain the difference between Bitcoin and Blockchain and why decentralised is way better than centralised. We also really don’t want to let the banks and government control our money so we must take personal responsibility for our financial sovereignty, but with that comes big responsibility!   Follow me: https://twitter.com/UKBitcoinMaster  https://steemit.com/@buzzukbitcoinmaster  PREVIOUS SHOWS LIBRARY:  http://www.UKBitcoinMaster.com   UKBitcoin Master Guest on Live On The BitcoinMeister Show:  https://youtu.be/uggPfmS_88s   Upvote today’s video on Steemit:  https://bit.ly/2MOLng5   Get your trezor:    https://www.cryptohwwallet.com  Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/cryptoHWwallet  Get your t-shirt:   http://www.bitcointothemoon.com/merchandise.html  Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BtcToTheMoonCom  Donate BTC:  39omG6QEimhcqRnaiaTWv98i2at9ZVwwoM   Previous 5 shows: Bitcoin For Beginners - Show 29 https://youtu.be/8DBSlZcPwAg  Bitcoin For Beginners - Show 30 https://youtu.be/5wALW5uyqCA  Bitcoin For Beginners - Show 31 https://youtu.be/q6UYAC54NF4  Bitcoin For Beginners - Show 32 https://youtu.be/5Xig6u1F1tQ  Bitcoin For Beginners - Show 33 https://youtu.be/HDuTlG08eFs10:17April 12, 2020STEEMIT NAME CHANGE - THE HALVING - WALLET CHOICESMy @Dtube and @steemit branding is all wrong and I want to put that right, so any advice would be really welcome. I also wanted to help the newbies understand exactly WHAT the #bitcoin halving is and means, so have tried to accomplish this using a chart doing the rounds on #twitter. Finally, if we are going to get our coins offline into cold storage, I talk about the device I use and highly recommend and how one can get hold of one.   Follow me: https://twitter.com/UKBitcoinMaster  https://steemit.com/@buzz27  https://d.tube/#!/c/buzz27  Upvote today’s video on Steemit:  https://steemit.com/life/@buzz27/hymkdyuv   UKBitcoin Master Guest on Live Adam Meister Show:  https://youtu.be/uggPfmS_88s   Get your trezor:  https://www.cryptohwwallet.com  Twitter:  https://twitter.com/cryptoHWwallet  Get your t-shirt:  http://www.bitcointothemoon.com/merchandise.html  Twitter:   https://twitter.com/BtcToTheMoonCom  Donate BTC:  39omG6QEimhcqRnaiaTWv98i2at9ZVwwoM   Previous shows:  Bitcoin For Beginners - Show 28 https://youtu.be/zeKfFFBq9_4  Bitcoin For Beginners - Show 29 https://youtu.be/8DBSlZcPwAg  Bitcoin For Beginners - Show 30 https://youtu.be/5wALW5uyqCA  Bitcoin For Beginners - Show 31 https://youtu.be/q6UYAC54NF4  Bitcoin For Beginners - Show 32 https://youtu.be/5Xig6u1F1tQ17:08April 12, 2020IGNORE THE PRICE SWINGS - DON’T BE AN 80%ER - STONG HANDPeople need to learn to have a strong hand as we can do nothing about price swings caused mostly by outside factors we have no control over. Follow the right commentators and you will be fine. Listen to mainstream media and you are doomed!   Follow me: https://twitter.com/UKBitcoinMaster  https://steemit.com/@buzz27 https://d.tube/#!/c/buzz27  Upvote today’s video on Steemit:  https://steemit.com/life/@buzz27/99irtlqk   Follow these guys:  The Bitcoin Miester:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsqKbe0_9D9gO48DeuDjbCg  Andreas Antanopolous: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJWCJCWOxBYSi5DhCieLOLQ  Simon Dixon https://twitter.com/SimonDixonTwitt  Andy Hoffman - CGC https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiLyzn8tm9ckqbBn-mBV9NA  https://twitter.com/Andy_Hoffman_CG  Vortex - Host of The Bitcoin News Show on @WorldCryptoNet  https://twitter.com/theonevortex  BTC Benny https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChzLnWVsl3puKQwc5PoO6Zg  https://twitter.com/BTCbenny  Wold Crypto Network https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR9gdpWisRwnk_k23GsHfcA  https://twitter.com/WorldCryptoNet  Thomas Hunt - Mad Bitcoins  https://www.youtube.com/user/madbitcoins  https://twitter.com/MadBitcoins   UKBitcoin Master Guest on Live Adam Meister Show:  https://youtu.be/uggPfmS_88s   Get your trezor:  https://www.cryptohwwallet.com  Get your t-shirt:  http://www.bitcointothemoon.com/merchandise.html  Donate BTC: 39omG6QEimhcqRnaiaTWv98i2at9ZVwwoM   Previous shows: Bitcoin For Beginners - Show 27 https://youtu.be/7xw6Bbilluw  Bitcoin For Beginners - Show 28 https://youtu.be/zeKfFFBq9_4  Bitcoin For Beginners - Show 29 https://youtu.be/8DBSlZcPwAg  Bitcoin For Beginners - Show 30 https://youtu.be/5wALW5uyqCA  Bitcoin For Beginners - Show 31 https://youtu.be/q6UYAC54NF407:18April 12, 2020BITCOIN IS RISKY - BANKING, PENSIONS & BUSINESS IS RISKY!People say to me all the time that investing in Bitcoin is risky. My argument in response is that expecting a good pension in this day and age is risky. Starting a high street business is risky... and leaving your money in a bank these days is seriously risky, so why focus in only on Bitcoin when clearly, everything we do in life is risky, but at least Bitcoin has the ability to change ones finances considerably by investing!   Follow me: https://twitter.com/UKBitcoinMaster  Upvote today’s video on Steemit:  https://steemit.com/life/@buzz27/95hlv2gb  https://d.tube/#!/c/buzz27   Follow The Bitcoin Miester:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsqKbe0_9D9gO48DeuDjbCg  UKBitcoin Master Guest on Live Adam Meister Show:  https://youtu.be/uggPfmS_88s  Andreas Antanopolous: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJWCJCWOxBYSi5DhCieLOLQ   Get your trezor:  https://www.cryptohwwallet.com  Get your t-shirt:  http://www.bitcointothemoon.com/merchandise.html  Donate BTC: 39omG6QEimhcqRnaiaTWv98i2at9ZVwwoM   Previous shows:  Bitcoin For Beginners - Show 26 https://youtu.be/1sbve6t_EGg  Bitcoin For Beginners - Show 27 https://youtu.be/7xw6Bbilluw  Bitcoin For Beginners - Show 28 https://youtu.be/zeKfFFBq9_4  Bitcoin For Beginners - Show 29 https://youtu.be/8DBSlZcPwAg  Bitcoin For BeginnersThe Bitcoin For Beginners ShowBy - The UK Bitcoin MasterEducating the masses on what Bitcoin is, why it came into existence... and why they should steadily accumulate some Bitcoin every pay day.Starting in undefined…00:0042:271xBTC READYING FOR 2017-LIKE LEAP, BTC HALVING A NON EVENT, EOS PROJECT WALKS WITH $50M OF USER FUNDS!#bitcoin On todays show we ask, Is Bitcoin readying for a leap like we saw in 2017, why is the Bitcoin halving possibly a non event, how a Chinese EOS app has shut walking away with $50million of users funds, how you will soon be able to be paid in crypto for using the zoom app, the NFL player who has invested into the fold app… and finally the block having is racing towards us! We also look at some tweets.34:24April 23, 2020ANALYST - S&P500 WILL DETERMINE BTC OUTCOME, UK TV CELEB CRYPTO SCAM, SHOULD I KEEP BTC ON EXCHANGE!#bitcoin An analyst says the S&P500 will determine the fate of Bitcoin, another UK TV celeb’s image is used in a crypto scam, should you keep your Bitcoin on an exchange, Uk crypto copper says that law enforcement MUST understand Bitcoin… and finally more news that Faketoshi has been given a deadline by the courts to deliver 11000 documents with regards to his court battle with the Kleiman family. We also look at some tweets worth a mention too!44:02April 20, 2020BTC WILL BENEFIT FROM MONEY PRINTING, BTC RISE PREDICTED 30 YEARS AGO, VIRUS WILL SEND BTC PARABOLIC#bitcoin On todays show we look at the latest news surrounding Bitcoin, including, Why Mark Cuban now says Bitcoin will benefit from the US printing such unprecedented money, how the Bitcoin phenomenon was predicted 30 years ago, Top author Robert Kiyosaki predicting that this pandemic will send the Bitcoin price parabolic, Kraken boss saying Bitcoin price rally to $1million… and finally how banks may be able to take your helicopter money, but Bitcoin is unseizable!. Some tweets too.42:27April 18, 2020CRYPTO USED TO FUND ILLEGAL STUFF A MYTH - SCHIFF GOLD TO MOON BTC TO CRASH - BTC WHALES AT 2YR HIGH#bitcoin Surveys are showing that the noise around Crypto being used for illegal activities is a myth, Gold bug Peter Schiff is on it again predicting that Gold will moon and Bitcoin will crash, the number of Bitcoin whales leading up to the May halving is at a 2 year high, King of the trolls RV stops mining BCH following the Bcash halving, a Venezuelan exchange launches an SMS Crypto transfer service… and finally it appears miners are fleeing the BSV chain to mine more profitable Bitcoin as the halving approaches!  We also look at some tweets.34:11April 18, 2020SELLING BTC FOR FIAT IS A CRIME - STOCKS REBOUND A TRAP, BUY BTC - BTC WILL FLOURISH IN THESE TIMES#bitcoin Selling your Bitcoin for Fiat is a crime says Max Keiser, Stocks rebounding could be a trap so go Bitcoin instead, Tim Draper says Bitcoin will flourish in times like these, why Bitcoin haters WILL buy at $20k… and finally a UFC fighter changes his twitter handle to ‘Bitcoin Halving May 13’ plus some tweets.41:36April 18, 2020WELLS FARGO ADVISOR NAMED IN CRYPTO SCAM - FED BALANCE SHEET NEAR $6T - DOW SUFFERS BUT BTC UP…MORE!#bitcoin Today: Wells Fargo advisor named in yet another crypto scam, The Feds balance sheet nears $6T and yet Bitcoin seems to be holding its own around the $7k mark whilst the dow suffers. We look at what the actual accessible Bitcoin numbers are, how traditional investors seem to be paying more attention to the crypto industry, why you should buy Bitcoin says Robert Kiyosaki… and finally why it looks like Bitcoin will be next in line to ‘economy’ throne! We also, as always look at a few worthy tweets.35:55April 18, 2020BTC OUTPERFORMS STOCKS DESPITE WORST MONTH - BINANCE TO BUY COINMARKETCAP - BITCOIN TAXES… MORE!#bitcoin Bitcoin has outperformed stocks in Q1 of 2020 despite having a bad March, Binance plans to buy CoinMarketCap, How to minimise your Bitcoin and Crypto taxes… and finally a top French soccer star claims he’s been impersonated by a crypto scammer. Some tweets too.35:45April 18, 2020QR CODE HACKERS STEAL $45K - BINANCE TO LAUNCH BTC DEBIT CARD - MINERS LEAVE BCASH FOR BTC... MORE!#bitcoin QR code generators have stolen over $45k of peoples BTC, Binance says it will launch a Debit card to help with payments in Bitcoin, it appears miners are jumping ship from Bcash to Bitcoin, Coinbase commerce passes $200,000,000… and could Bitcoin drop to $2.4k? We also go into some tweets.34:14April 18, 2020BTC WILL BE SEEN AS BETTER WAY TO HOLD VALUE, UNKNOWN MINERS TAKE OVER BSV CHAIN, 2020 POSS BTC’S YR#bitcoin On this show: We look at why Bitcoin could be recognised as simply a better way to store value, how unknown miners have taken control of the BSV chain leaving it vulnerable to a 51% attack, why 2020 could very well be Bitcoin’s year, Binance CEO predicts a $2T Bitcoin market cap… and finally why Bitcoin mining marches on! we’ll also look at a few worthy tweets too.36:46April 18, 2020FORMER US SENATOR IN $4.3M ICO SCAM - BULLISH SIGNS FOR BITCOIN - REASONS TO SMILE IF YOU HOLD BTC!#bitcoin In the news: A former US senator has been caught in an illegal $4.3m ICO, there are bullish signs for Bitcoin, 5 reasons to be happy if you are a holder of Bitcoin, as the crisis worsens could Bitcoin become that safe haven we all expect it to become… and finally, how we can all be very productive even if quarantined at home. We can either watch rubbish TV, or get into some serious learning about Bitcoin and what makes it so unique and special. We’ll also delve into a few tweets.42:03April 18, 2020UK BITCOIN SCAM WARNING, BITCOIN WILL SAVE THE WORLD & NOT GOVS, CENTRAL BANKS HAVE RUN OUT OF ROAD!#bitcoin UK warns of a new Bitcoin scam, Bitcoin will save the world, not governments, Central banks have ran out of road, Google searches for ‘Buy Bitcoin’ surges 70%… and finally, Propaganda art can spread the Bitcoin word. We also go into a few interesting tweets!42:47April 18, 2020ITALY RED CROSS LAUNCHES BITCOIN CAMPAIGN TO RAISE VIRUS FUNDS - BTC VOLATILITY REMAINS HIGH...more!#bitcoin In these seriously troubled times we find ourselves in we must stay on task and fight the Bitcoin fight. Bitcoin’s volatility remains high but to be expected, the Italian Red Cross launches a Bitcoin fund raising campaign to help fight the virus, why running your own Bitcoin node is a must for privacy and security… and the how to’s of setting one up. Some tweets too!39:38April 18, 2020BITCOIN HALVING JUST 60 DAYS AWAY - YOUTUBE BANNING VIDEO’S AGAIN..BITCOIN 2020 PUSHED BACK...more!#bitcoin  Bitcoin’s 4 year halving is now just 60 days away, Youtube are at it again banning videos randomly, the Bitcoin 2020 conference has been pushed back to later in the year… and finally the awesome thing about Bitcoin is there are no offices and it can all be done online. Plus a few tweets.35:02April 18, 2020FRENCH COURT, BTC IS MONEY - WHY YOU SHOULD HOLD BTC NOT FIAT - BTC IS GOLD 2.0 FOR MILLENNIALS…More#bitcoin In this show: France accepts and states that Bitcoin is indeed a form of currency following on from Germany,India and South Korea, Why one should hold Bitcoin and NOT Gold, Why Bitcoin is Gold 2.0 for Millennials, BTC drops due to Plustoken scam… and finally why Bitcoin could be $100k but the end of 2021. We also go through a few interesting tweets!37:29April 18, 2020BTC THE TECHNOLOGY OF DISSENT - BUFFET LOSES $28B IN A WEEK - 42% OF ALL BTC NOT MOVED IN 2YRS…MORE!#bitcoin In the news: Bitcoin is the technology of dissent that secures individual liberties, Warren Buffet loses $21B in a week, surveys show that 42% of all Bitcoin hasn’t moved in 2 years, Robinhood crypto exchange has a major system outage... and Tron forces a takeover of the Steem blockchain. Some tweets too!37:30April 18, 2020CAITLIN LONG LAUNCHES AVANTI BANK - BUYING BITCOIN NOW MAKES SENSE - GOLD LOSSES BUT BITCOIN STEADY!#bitcoin Caitlin Long launches crypto friendly bank. Buying Bitcoin at this time makes good sense. Gold has biggest losses since 2013. Veteran actor Steven Seagal fines $300,000 for promoting a failed fake bitcoin ICO. Square cash app announces 7th month in a row of growth…. and what would $100 of Bitcoin bought today be worth when the final Bitcoins are mined in around 2141? Some tweets too.35:56April 18, 2020WORLDS RICHEST LOSE BILLIONS - IS BTC THE ANSWER, DRAPER STILL BTC BULL, BUFFET STILL SLAMMING BTC!#bitcoin This show: The worlds richest lose billions - could Bitcoin be the answer, Confirmed Warren Buffet owns Bitcoin, Mr Schiff back on his soapbox about Bitcoin… and Tim Draper is still very bullish on Bitcoin. Some tweets too!27:53April 18, 2020BTC HALVING, HOW WILL THE DOMINOES FALL - VODAFONE INCLUDES BITCOIN IN AD AFTER DUMPING LIBRA… MORE!#bitcoin On todays show: The upcoming Bitcoin Halving - how will it play out. One of the UK’s leading mobile phone airtime providers Vodafone add Bitcoin to an ad after dumping the Libra project. The amount of BTC address holding above zero balance. The Bank of England’s statement about considering digital currencies. JP Morgan moving from calling Bitcoin a fraud to calling it an asset… and the talk of developing a dead mans button to pass on our Bitcoin to our descendants automatically when we die!  We’ll cover a few tweets too!38:03April 18, 2020WHAT BUFFET REALLY THINKS OF BTC - SAMSUNG MOB SUPPORTS BTC - ARE YOU IN THE TOP 1% OF BITCOINERS?#bitcoin What Warren Buffett REALLY thinks about Bitcoin, Samsung now supporting Bitcoin on the new S20 Mobile, How you become part of the Bitcoin 1%ers club, Binance halts trading, Bitcoin supply distribution increases 33% in a decade, and the Crypto market is a garbage dumpster according to Federal Reserve chairman! Some tweets too.40:57April 18, 2020BITCOIN IS GOLD ON STEROIDS - FED’S 10 YEAR GAME PLAN - BTC MIXING A MONEY LAUNDERING BUSINESS…MORE!#bitcoin In todays show: Bitcoin is Gold on steroids, The Fed’s 10 year game plan after a collapse, Bitcoin mixing could be classified as money laundering, The reality that if you hold more than 1 Bitcoin, you are in the Bitcoin Elite… and we talk about why Bitcoin is a real threat to the US Dollar! We also look at a few tweets.32:00April 18, 2020ROCKY PALUMBO TALKS WITH THE UK BITCOIN MASTER ABOUT THE RECENT ‘TREZOR SECURITY’ SCARE MONGERING!#bitcoin On this special show Brian talks with legendary Bitcoiner and coin splitting expert Rocky Palumbo around the recent 'Trezor Security 'scare mongering... and Rocky will once again give away some hints and tips that he normally charges for, so tune in and don't miss this one!1:02:27April 18, 2020THE UK BITCOIN MASTER INTERVIEWS VIDEO GAMES MEDIA CEO & GAME JOURNALIST BORIS FROM DE BITCOIN SHOW#bitcoin Brian The UK Bitcoin Master is excited to be interviewing Boris from Holland who is a game journalist and runs De Bitcoin Show which is a great way for people learn the Dutch language as well as about Bitcoin. Boris also runs a media and events company around video games, so should make a for a terrific Bitcoin Interview show!1:05:13April 18, 2020BTC CLOSER TO BECOMING DIGITAL GOLD, BTC STANDS AS A SAFE HAVEN, RUN UP TO $100K STARTED SAYS POMP#bitcoin BITCOIN CLOSER TO BECOMING DIGITAL GOLD, BITCOIN STANDS AS A SAFE HAVEN, RUN UP TO $100K HAS STARTED SAYS POMP, BEWARE OF SCAMMERS IMPERSONATING COINDESK STAFF… AND WHY YOU SHOULDN’T TRADE BITCOIN. WE TALK ABOUT SOME TWEETS TOO!36:10April 18, 2020BTC BREAKS 500M TRANSACTIONS MILESTONE - MAKE BTC SECURITY A HABIT - CORPORATE CORRUPTION RIFE…MORE!#bitcoin In this show: Bitcoin transactions pass the 500m milestone, Were being encouraged to make security a habit, More corporate corruption is exposed, New Bitcoin banking app now on IOS… and what would’ve happened if you’d have put away just one dollar a day for the last five years. We also delve into a few interesting tweets.35:53April 18, 2020VITALIK, BCASH IS NOT BITCOIN - BSV VOLUME HEAVILY MANIPULATED - SCOTLAND’S CANNY INVESTORS - MORE!#bitcoin In this show: Etherium creator Vitalik Buterin says that BCash is NOT Bitcoin, BSV is being heavily manipulated, The Scotland investors sharing their canny tales of buying the dip, The financial crash the Coronavirus could cause… AND, finally we have a Bitcoin emoji!  We also take a look at a few tweets worth sharing!26:32April 18, 2020BITCOINER ROCKY PALUMBO TALKS WITH BRIAN - PETER SCHIFF WRONG RE BITCOIN - 125K BTC SENT FOR $80??#bitcoin Today I talk with Rocky Palumbo who intends to make a lot clearer a few points that seem to be inadvertently misleading comments, statements or facts, so tune in for what promises to be a really educational show!1:17:23April 18, 2020GOLDMAN SACKS CRIME WAVES REPORT - PARIS SAINT GERMAIN FC LAUNCHES ETH TOKENS FOR FANS… MORE!#bitcoin On todays show we look at Goldman Sachs and how they run their ops and why Bitcoin is the ONLY thing we can trust. Massive French soccer team using Etherium, why we should not be surprised at how OneCoin ran their ops and a little bit about the upcoming Bitcoin Halvings and what it means!38:23April 18, 2020TIM DRAPER, MILLENNIALS SHOULD BUY BTC - ELON MUSK OPENS UP ON BITCOIN - AND MUCH MORE!#bitcoin In this show we discuss what Venture Capitalist Tim Draper feels millennials should buy Bitcoin, How Elon Musk has finally opened up about Bitcoin. the UK cricket club now using a blockchain platform to sell its tickets… and the first smartphone able to run a full Bitcoin node.27:43April 18, 2020BITCOIN RETURNS DWARF INVESTOR EXPECTATIONS - UK TO TRACK CRYPTO TRANSACTIONS… AND MORE!#bitcoin In todays show: Bitcoin returns dwarf investor expectations, It appears YouTube are banning videos once more, The UK is going to start tracking Crypto transactions including Bitcoin, Does Peter Schiff losing his Bitcoin reveal shortcomings in the technology… and finally we pay tribute to a pioneering Bitcoin developer who has sadly passed away.27:05April 18, 2020FIAT MONEY ALREADY WORTH NOTHING, CSW DOES’NT HAVE BTC KEYS, 36% SMALL BUSINESSES TAKE CRYPTO… MORE!#bitcoin On todays show we talk about how already our FIAT currency is worthless with interest rates as they are, the ongoing Faketoshi saga finally coming to its conclusion (thankfully) how a third of all small to medium size businesses in the US already accept crypto payments… and finally how the Winklevoss twins are strongly intimating there will be a Bitcoin price surge following the upcoming block size halving!19:23April 18, 2020BITCOIN UP 800M% IN LAST 1O YEARS, FED PUMPS TRILLIONS INTO WALL ST, BITWISE WITHDRAWS ETF... MORE!#bitcoin A great article by ‘The Bitcoin Standard’ author Saifedean Ammous about how Bitcoin has grown massively over the last ten years… AND how the Fed are pumping trillions into the US economy… and why, surely that is NOT sustainable. We also look at Bitwise and how they have pulled out of their proposed ETF… and some very wise words around the current pump… and why we should keep our feet on the ground as it may not be a full Bull run everyone is waiting for!37:22April 18, 2020BTC COULD SOON BE $100K SAYS ADAM BACK, BITCOIN A SAVINGS TECH, PROOF OF RESERVES SO IMPORTANT…MORE!#bitcoin Is it really possible that a Bitcoin price of $100k is not so far away? Also, Fidelity says that Bitcoin is fast becoming a savings technology, Proof of reserves is so important... and a betting giant is integrating Bitcoin into its platform.  We also look at a few tweets34:29April 18, 2020Brian The UK Bitcoin Master Interviews Bitcoiner Aleks Svetski#bitcoin Brian takes the opportunity to interview Amber CEO and Ausie Bitcoiner Aleks Svetski about his background, how he discovered Bitcoin and his thoughts on it’s future!39:14April 18, 2020BTC will help India economy to $5T - 1st Burger King to take BTC - BTC will be understood much later#bitcoin As the new year starts to unfold we delve into what’s topical in the news right now. Starting with an article stating that Bitcoin could help the Indian economy to hit $5Trillion, a Venezuela Burger King being the first to accept Bitcoin, Bitcoin pumps after Iranian assassination… and more!37:09April 18, 2020BTC advantages over alts in 2020, BTC & ETH outperform Amazon & Netflix, BTC price positive in 2019.#bitcoin To kick 2020 off we take a look back not only at 2019 but the last decade and how Bitcoin has performed. We look at the advantages Bitcoin has over alts in 2020 as well as why Bitcoin performed positively across the board in 2019. We also look at Google trends and what that revealed about how Bitcoin NOT Blockchain defined the crypto market in 2019. Another reminder of Proof of Keys and we cover a few tweets too!37:14April 18, 2020Be warned and get your coins off HitBTC, Proof of Keys coming, Read The Bitcoin Standard… More!!#bitcoin Do yourself a favour and get any coins you have off Hitbtc as the rumours are that it could be taken down by the Jan 3 Proof of Keys initiative!  We also look at what is happening on Jan 3rd with Trace Mayer's Proof Of keys initiative… and yet again I give a huge shout to for why you need to read The Bitcoin Standard if you are serious about investing in crypto and in particular Bitcoin. CSW is at it again too so we'll briefly give him some air time too.37:01April 18, 2020YouTube blocks videos about Bitcoin and crypto - BTC superior to FIAT - 2019 Most influential crypto#bitcoin YouTube are in the news again for closing quite a few content creator channels for no apparent reason, so we take a look at that as well as why BTC is far superior to FIAT currencies... and some of the most influential people in the Bitcoin space in 2019.32:44April 18, 2020Bitcoin can take 50% of gold market, Philanthropist gives away BTC, Bottle pay - who's next...more!#bitcoin Bitcoin could possible take 50% of golds market share, Philanthropist is now giving away Bitcoin, How AML forced the closure of Bottle Pay and who is next… and what will Bitcoins future look like in 2020 and beyond?33:22April 18, 2020Oldest UK exchange to delist ETH & BCH - BTC to disrupt many industries, pop star & Bitcoin... more!#bitcoin The oldest Uk exchange delists ETH & BCH - BTC will disrupt many industries according to Pantera Capital boss, what what could Bitcoin achieve in 2020, a major pop star promoting Bitcoin, a major airline explores Bitcoin, Proof of keys and more!33:40April 18, 2020BILLIONAIRE BILL PULTE BUYS 11 BITCOINS - FED TO INJECT $425B OF NONEXISTENT $$ INTO ECONOMY.. MORE!#bitcoin In the news: Billionaire Bill Pulte announces he’s just purchased 11 Bitcoins, Bitcoin is this decade’s best investable asset, The Fed announce they will inject $425B of nonexistent money into the US economy in Jan 2020… and the Bitcoin women are coming! We also look at how far Bitcoin has come in it’s short ten year existence, as well as delving into a few interesting tweets!36:12April 18, 2020CUBAN, BITCOIN CAN BE A RELIABLE FINANCIAL INSTRUMENT - ARGENTINE RANS0ME ATTACK, MORE!#bitcoin In the news, Mark Cuban intimating that Bitcoin COULD be a financial instrument. Argentine Ransom attack, Bitcoin infrastructure strong, Bitcoin getting popular in China… and much more!34:35April 18, 2020SEC APPROVES BITCOIN FUTURES FUND - MILLENNIALS EMBRACE BITCOIN - GLOOMY GOLD SLUMPING… MORE!#bitcoin ON TODAYS SHOW: The SEC approves a Bitcoin Futures fund, Research shows that millennials are embracing Bitcoin, Gold is looking bearish, Tim Draper is still really bullish on Bitcoin, Trace Mayer's 'Proof Of Keys' initiative, Bitcoin obituaries... and more!32:44April 18, 2020HACKERS STEALING CRYPTO USING CLIPPER MALWARE - GEMINI EXCHANGE EYES EUROPE EXPANSION… MORE!#bitcoin In todays show we talk about the hackers stealing crypto using clipper malware, Gemini now looking to expand into Europe by taking on a top former Starling banker, Andreas Antonopoulos slamming Intuit for blocking him taking crypto payments… and we also talk about the new initiative Bitcoin Giving Tuesday.27:01April 18, 2020LEGENDARY BITCOINER ROCKY PALUMBO TALKS HEX SNAPSHOT AND CLAIMING WITH BRIAN THE UK BITCOIN MASTER.#bitcoin In this show I interview the great Rocky Palumbo where we discuss the Hex coin snapshot that is taking place today 2nd Dec 19, what we are all entitled to claim per Bitcoin we hold… and what one has to do to claim this divided offered to ALL Bitcoin holders who have their keys or seeds safe!1:08:50April 18, 2020BITCOIN WILL REMOVE DEBT FOR MILLIONS - BITCOIN HALVING WONT BE BULLISH - EXCHANGE $50M THEFT, MORE!#bitcoin In todays show we talk about how Bitcoin could save millions from debt. We also analyse why the Bitcoin Halving could be bearish, Malls installing ATM’s, The Korean exchange hacked for $50m… and finally another plug for the January ‘Proof Of Keys’ initiative, along with a handful of tweets.32:45April 18, 2020BITCOIN MINERS UNFAZED BY PRICE DROP, HASH RATE STRONG - 8yr HODLERS WOULD HAVE 2700x ROI… & MORE!#bitcoin In this show we delve into what’s making the news. Coin Telegraph says the Bitcoin miners are not fazed at all by the price drop and we look at how that is supported. We also take a look at what an investment into BTC in 2011 would be work in 2019, the corrupt lawyer convicted on fraud charges, yet another Bitcoin obituary… and also the proof of keys initiative coming round again.33:03April 18, 2020#bitcoin With the two sides of the argument under debate (Should Bitcoin be implemented into Bitcoin For Privacy Or Not) , Rocky Palumbo interviews MWC Lead Dev Chris Gilliard and drills down with reg#bitcoin In todays show we delve into the latest crypto news including the FUD floating around what WILL cheat many 80%ers out of their coins! One such article states that Bitcoin Miners are capitulating and basically intimating yet again that Bitcoin is dead. It’s ALL FUD people - don’t buy into it. We also look at the latest hack on Gatehub, who’s leading the Crypto race in the UK, more FUD around crypto crime, what’s going on at LocalBitcoins… AND the crypto buzzword ‘Lambo’ looking at blockchain too. Some tweets as well people!34:14April 18, 2020ROCKY PALUMBO INTERVIEWS LEAD DEV CHRIS GILLIARD ON WHY MWC & IT’S POTENTIAL FOR THE FUTURE!#bitcoin With the two sides of the argument under debate (Should Bitcoin be implemented into Bitcoin For Privacy Or Not) , Rocky Palumbo interviews MWC Lead Dev Chris Gilliard and drills down with regards to MWC and where Chris feels it will find it's niche or home!1:04:03April 18, 2020FED PRINTS EQUIVALENT OF 12.7M BTC IN NOTES TO PROP UP MARKETS - GLOBAL ‘PLAN A’ HAS FAILED…MORE!#bitcoin In this show we look at the real possibility of a financial crash and why that could be on the cards. We look at why the worlds financial system, or ‘Plan A’ appears to have failed. We take a look at the Iranian Bank fire… and also talk boring Bitcoin! We’ll also delve into a few tweets worth a mention.30:09April 18, 2020CHINA SAYS BITCOIN IS 1ST CRYPTO SUCCESS - LAWMAKERS USE AML AS AN EXCUSE TO CENTRALISE CRYPTO… MORE#bitcoin In this show we talk about how China appears to be turning full circle. First they ban Bitcoin and now they state it’s the first real crypto success story! Also in the news, are lawmakers using anti money laundering to push people towards centralised coins bearing in mind that decentralisation is the VERY reason Bitcoin was born in the first place to take control away from banks and governments and put it back in the hands of the people. Lightning Cashback wants a system to accept FIAT for payments but give the change with sats as a transition into Bitcoin… and finally we look into why Malasysia may introduce cash payment limits which could drive Bitcoin adoption.34:42April 18, 2020RUSSIA ALLOWS CRYPTO CONFISCATION, UK - CRYPTO NOT A CURRENCY, 65% RISE IN CRYPTO COMMERCE - MORE!#bitcoin In todays show I talk about Russia’s decision to allow crypto confiscation, the UK’s decision to rule out crypto as a currency, the fact that UTXO’s are up massively… and the 65% rise in crypto commerce after the so called crypto winter! We also delve into a few

Distributed ledger era supplier R3 has performed an in depth inside reorganization, ensuing within the departure of 2 participants of its control committee, CoinDesk has realized. Brian McNulty, a managing director and head of worldwide services and products, and Lauren Carroll, leader administrative officer, are leaving the corporate, R3 instructed staff at the town corridor conferences Friday, consistent with folks aware of the location. An R3 spokesperson showed the interior reorganization, which he stated will come with an expansive hiring program for 2019, however declined to touch upon particular person team of workers departures. Neither McNulty nor Carroll responded requests for remark by means of press time. McNulty joined R3 in March 2016 when the start-up used to be busy onboarding consortium member banks. He had up to now based the PTDL (Post Trade Distributed Ledger) Group, a rival blockchain workforce which numbered round 40 participants together with CME Group, State Street Bank and the London Stock Exchange. Carroll used to be previously in-house suggest at ICAP ahead of transitioning into trade control roles on the digital buying and selling company. As a part of the reorganization, co-founder Todd McDonald will run a brand new “design” crew that mixes all of R3’s product and advertising efforts, consistent with a memo CEO David Rutter despatched the corporate’s more or less 200 staff after Friday’s the town corridor conferences. Product control used to be up to now in the similar department as engineering, which Richard Gendal Brown will proceed to guide. The memo additionally defined a number of different adjustments: Chief engineer James Carlyle will run a brand new “production” crew devoted to supporting the deployment of R3’s era at shopper corporations. The common suggest’s place of business has been merged with exterior affairs and positioned underneath Charley Cooper, who has lengthy overseen regulatory affairs and public members of the family for R3. Chief of team of workers Zack Kavanaugh assumed added duties for recruiting, HR and trade sources. Chief monetary officer (CFO) Paul Harris will oversee a blended finance and corporate development (M&A crew. A seek is underway for a primary earnings officer (CRO) to guide the gross sales crew. As CoinDesk reported previous this month, Scott Grayson, R3’s former leader gross sales officer, left in September and not too long ago joined the blockchain services firm AlphaPoint. In June 2018 R3 needed to box media speculation that the corporate used to be operating in need of price range. More not too long ago, a prison dispute with Ripple relating to a freelance to buy 5 billion XRP tokens was resolved. Image: R3 founder David Rutter at Consensus, from CoinDesk archives Like what you learn? Give us one like or proportion it for your buddiesoriginal post… You have reacted on "2 Executives Are Leaving Blockchain Startup R3 ..." LocalBitcoins Reveals Security Breach With Some Cr... Grayscale Assures Investors: Ethereum Classic Trus... Billionaire Warren Buffett Remains Clueless About ... Crypto Market Wrap: EOS Spikes 16% in 48 Hours as ... Here Are 3 Reasons Why Copy Trading Strategies fro... Blockstream Unveils ‘Proof Of Reserves’ Tool to Pr... Dow Suddenly Swings Lower as Global Growth and Tra... Binance’s BitTorrent Token Sale Sells Out in Minut... Tokenized Bitcoins Running on the Ethereum Network... Online Loan Platform SoFi Will Offer Crypto Tradin... jQuery('.yuzo_related_post .yuzo_wraps').equalizer({ columns : '> div' }); Related Topics:BankingBusiness NewscoindeskCordaDistributed Ledger TechnologyICAPPost Trade Distributed LedgerR3tcrthecryptoreport Crypto Hacker Scores $28,600 After Hack Of Bitcoin Exchange Coinbase Integrates TurboTax to Help its US Customers File Crypto Taxes function bsaIframe() { var iFrameID = document.getElementById('bsaIframe'); if(iFrameID) { iFrameID.height = iFrameID.contentWindow.document.body.scrollHeight + 'px'; } } Japanese Megabank Mizuho is Launching its Own Digital Currency in March Ripple (XRP) Path to the Moon after CoinBase Announcement Bitcoin SV and Enjin Coin FOMO Leads Crypto Markets Back Over $130 Billion Crypto Broker Voyager Is Buying Token Issuer and Wallet Ethos.io for $4 Million Singapore State-Owned Fund Backed Coinbase’s $300 Million Raise: Report Japanese Megabank Mizuho is Launching its Own Digital Currency in March Almost a fortnight since JPMorgan unveiled its own cryptocurrency and nearly three years after conducting tests, Japanese financial giant Mizuho Financial Group has announced a launch date for its digital currency, J-Coin. According to the Nikkei Asian Review, the Japanese bank will unveil its own crypto known as J-Coin on March 1. The value of the J-Coin will be pegged to the yen with one coin being worth one yen. Mizuho Financial Group intends to use its cryptocurrency primarily in digital payments and remittances. The Japanese banking giant has partnered with other domestic financial institutions numbering around 60. Combined, the 60 or so financial institutions boast of about 56 million user accounts – all of which will have digital wallets to accomodate J-Coin. Mizuho’s J-Coin Promises to be more Convenient and Accessible than Credit Cards To make payments using the J-Coin Pay app, all that users will be required to do is scan the QR code at checkout. Unlike in the case of credit cards, registering for a J-Coin Pay services will require no screening. J-Coin Pay will not have age restrictions and will be available to minors. Mizuho Financial Group has set a target of signing up over 6.5 million users in the next couple of years. The Japanese bank also aims to reach at least 300,000 participating retail outlets. The digital currency was first tested in December 2016 by the banking giant in partnership with IBM Japan. Japanese MegaBank Mizuho Tests its Own Digital Currency https://t.co/iMq6SwX7dw pic.twitter.com/NrKllZ01eT At the time, the primary goal was to reduce money transfer costs. This is something the digital currency seems to have achieved as users will be able to transfer the digital currency from a wallet to a bank account at no cost. Additionally, J-Coin Pay will charge participating retail outlets lower transaction fees compared to credit cards. To What Extent Will J-Coin Assist Japan in Achieving its Cashless Payments Goals? The launch of J-Coin Pay next week comes amidst Japan’s plans to boost cashless payments, according to The Japan Times. By 2025 Japan has set a target of ensuring that 40% of all financial transactions are cashless. As #Olympics #Tokyo2020 approaches, Japan pushes for widescale adaptation of cashless payments @japantimes https://t.co/kKHwinCTgI pic.twitter.com/1Xg04b2GZx Another Japanese bank that is working on its own digital currency  in Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG). Earlier this month CCN reported that Mitsubishi’s cryptocurrency had been tentatively named MUFG Coin and will be pegged to the Japanese yen. JPMorgan’s JPM Coin not for Retail Users… At Least Initially The news of the impending launch comes less than two weeks since U.S. lender JPMorgan Chase unveiled the JPM Coin. Unlike the J-Coin which is targeting ordinary users, the JPM Coin will be primarily focusing on large transactions. Per JPMorgan’s head of blockchain projects, Umar Farooq, this will cover organizations that make use of decentralized ledgers: “The applications are frankly quite endless; anything where you have a distributed ledger which involves corporations or institutions can use this.” According to CNBC, this will include processing international payments for big corporate clients and thus replacing wire transfers. JPMorgan will also use the digital currency for securities transactions to ensure instant settlements. Another use for the JPM Coin will be in its treasury services business. In this case the coin which is pegged to the dollar on a 1:1 basis will be used to replace the greenbacks held in custody. Like what you read? Give us one like or share it to your friendsoriginal post… You have reacted on "Japanese Megabank Mizuho is Launching its Own D..." These Cryptofunds Say ‘Generalized Mining’ Is the ... Why Elizabeth Warren and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ... Why This Bitcoin Maximalist Moved to Bitcoin SV: “... Bitcoin’s ‘Lightning Torch’ Has Blazed Through 37 ... Microsoft Removes 8 Crypto Jacking Apps from its O... Constantinople Incoming: Tomorrow’s Two Ethereum H... ‘Decentralized Airbnb’ Starts Charging Fees as ICO... How SABRE Tech Can Stop Hackers From Splitting Bit... Crypto Analyst Expects Multi-Year Bear Market, Cur... jQuery('.yuzo_related_post .yuzo_wraps').equalizer({ columns : '> div' }); Ripple (XRP) Path to the Moon after CoinBase Announcement Ripple prices up 5.3 percentXRP now supported by CoinBase ProTransaction volumes have doubled in the last three weeksPerhaps the only triggers needed for higher highs was CoinBase announcement. In days ahead, XRP will be available for trading at CoinBase Pro, and this could help drive volumes higher boosting prices as a result.Ripple Price AnalysisFundamentalsXRP is outperforming other assets like TRX and BNB. The reason for their renewed interest is CoinBase’s announcement that it will be offering support for XRP at CoinBase Pro. CoinBase Pro, previously known as GDAX, is where CoinBase customers can trade, buy, sell or transfer their digital assets while enjoying low fees. Moving on, XRP will be available for trading but until when liquidity is satisfactory.In the meantime, it is CoinBase decision that is a source of optimism as well as speculation. Questions linger and whether CoinBase customers will someday buy XRP like they do Bitcoin and Litecoin remain unanswered.However, it is CoinBase’s stringent nature and their emphasis on compliance that is a source of assumptions that they have approved XRP as a utility. Will this force the SEC to clarify their stand now that CoinBase customers are predominantly from the US?If that is the case, then it is likely that SEC will make their position known and open the door for remittance companies as Ramessa Online to upgrade and even leverage xRapid as a way of achieving faster settlement times and low fees.Candlestick ArrangementsIn a sea of reds, XRP is the only asset printing greens in the last 24 hours. At the back of high transactional volumes and optimism, Ripple (XRP) bulls reversed losses of Feb 24.Because of this revival, the 30 cents level is cementing itself as a reliable support line and a possible mark that could propel prices to new highs.Regardless, Ripple (XRP) bulls will be free of sell pressure once prices edge past 34 cents in a bull breakout move at the back of above average volumes as laid out in our last XRP/USD trade plans. After that, modest targets will be at 40 cents, 60 cents and later Sep 2018 highs at 80 cents.Technical IndicatorsMarket participation levels are high, and after Jan 30 double-bull bar pattern, average XRP trading volumes have doubled from around 17 million to 34 million of Feb 25. Because trade volumes were high on Feb 24—61 million, exceeding Feb 25—52 million and Feb 19—54 million, a convincing break out driving prices above 34 cents should be pumped by high volumes above 61 million and 83 million recorded on Jan 10. Like what you read? Give us one like or share it to your friendsoriginal post… You have reacted on "Ripple (XRP) Path to the Moon after CoinBase An..." Down Again: Bitcoin Is Closing on Key Long-Term Pr... Civic CEO: If Bitcoin (BTC) Breaks $3,000, Crypto ... A Fight Is Brewing Among QuadrigaCX Crypto Exchang... IBM Completes Blockchain Trial Tracking a 28-Ton S... Cardano (ADA) Founder: Crypto Prices Could Take 10... New Malware Targets Apple Mac Computers to Steal a... Vanguard CIO Greg Davis Just Issued a Dire Warning... Tokenized Bitcoins Running on the Ethereum Network... jQuery('.yuzo_related_post .yuzo_wraps').equalizer({ columns : '> div' }); Crypto Broker Voyager Is Buying Token Issuer and Wallet Ethos.io for $4 Million Voyager, a crypto brokerage platform that launched and went public this month, has agreed to buy wallet startup Ethos.io for about $4 million. Announced Thursday, the deal would give Voyager a range of products developed by Singapore-based Ethos, including the Ethos Universal Wallet and the blockchain platform Ethos Bedrock, plus “certain blockchain technology and IP.” Further, Voyager said it will pick up an allocation of Ethos tokens, which the target company, formerly known as Bitquence, issued through an initial coin offering (ICO) in July 2017, raising $1.6 million, according to CoinDesk’s ICO Tracker database. Voyager will pay for the acquisition with its listed shares — earlier this month the New York-based startup went public through a reverse merger with a dormant company traded on Canada’s TSX Venture Exchange. The deal will cost Voyager 7 million common shares, the company said, which are now quoted at $0.80 in Canadian dollars, which works out to a total value of $5.6 million CAD, or roughly $4 million in USD. While the deal is expected to close at the end of March, the price won’t all be paid upfront. The conditions of the deal stipulate that 3.3 million shares will be delivered to Ethos at the start, 1 million will be held in escrow and released monthly over two years (provided that Ethos continues integrating its functionality into the Voyager platform and updating the technology), and the remaining 2.6 million will be held in escrow for 24 months “against any future indemnity claims.” As part of the deal, Shingo Lavine, founder and CEO of Ethos, will become Voyager’s chief innovation officer and join the company’s board, and Ethos’ former owners will have the right to nominate one director for appointment to the Voyager board at each annual general meeting, once they have amassed  at least 3.5 million shares. Even before the merger agreement, Voyager and Ethos had been working together for some time. The two startups partnered last October to add a self-custody option for Voyager’s users, as well as allowing Ethos users to convert, store and trade cryptocurrencies via Voyager. After the acquisition, the two developer teams will start working together on the same objectives, Voyager’s CEO, Steve Ehrlich, told CoinDesk: “Before we had separate priorities, but we liked so much what we started together as strategic partners that we decided to bring our resources together. There is some different expertise at the two developer teams, and now they are working closely together.” The Ethos token, which was first introduced to the market through an ICO in July 2017, will be a valuable component for Voyager’s business, Ehrlich said. The token was designed to pay for Ethos’ wallet services, for example, transaction fees and API calls. But in the future it might be used to pay cash-back rewards for trading on the platform, Ehrlich explained, adding that the token isn’t getting listed for trading at Voyager yet, though the joint team is “having conversations about that right now, but there are regulatory hurdles related to that.” Among other future use cases for Ethos tokens, users may be able to pledge it as collateral for margin trading accounts and even earn interest on their token holdings, Voyager said. Another benefit of the deal, according to Ehrlich, is that now Voyager owns and can fully utilize the fintech platform for crypto companies developed by Ethos, Ethos Bedrock, to build a future crypto-payment system. “We’re starting to become a real end-to-end cryptocurrency solution,” Ehrlich said. Over the next few years, he said, Voyager aims to become a big player at crypto trading, custody, payment and security, and the acquisition of Ethos will help to do it faster. Voyager is not disclosing the number of users it managed to attract so far since launching in mid-February, but combining the user bases of the two companies will result in “hundreds of thousands” of clients overall, Ehrlich said. The company was founded in July 2018 to allow trading cryptocurrencies across different exchanges without paying trading fees. The founding team included Uber’s co-founder Oscar Salazar and the app’s early investor Philip Eytan, as well as Ehrlich, who previously worked as a CEO of retail brokerage Lightspeed Financial and ran the professional trading arm for online stock broker E*Trade. Like what you read? Give us one like or share it to your friendsoriginal post… You have reacted on "Crypto Broker Voyager Is Buying Token Issuer an..." Coinbase Hires New Compliance Chief for UK Operati... Coinbase’s Wallet App Is Getting Bitcoin Support T... Netflix Revenues Soar and Georgia State Wants a Pi... Counter Argument: Why Bitcoin is Unlikely to Recor... Crypto Market Wrap: A Few Survivors As Markets Cor... Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, EOS, Litecoin, Bitcoin ... Japan’s Biggest Bank Launching Blockchain Payments... Walmart Stock Surges on Blowout Earnings, So Why i... Funds in Short Positions on Bitcoin Drop to 6-Mont... jQuery('.yuzo_related_post .yuzo_wraps').equalizer({ columns : '> div' }); Singapore State-Owned Fund Backed Coinbase’s $300 Million Raise: Report GIC Private Limited, a Singapore government-owned wealth fund, reportedly backed Coinbase’s $300 million funding round last year. The news comes via a Bloomberg report on Thursday citing “people familiar with the matter.” This was possibly GIC’s first investment in the crypto space, the sources added. The fund has more than $100 billion in assets in over 40 countries across various asset classes, the report adds, though the Sovereign Wealth Institute puts the total far higher at an estimated $390 billion. Crypto exchange Coinbase announced the $300 million Series E equity round last October. At the time, neither the exchange nor GIC disclosed the fund’s participation. The funding was led by Tiger Global Management, while Y Combinator Continuity, Wellington Management, Andreessen Horowitz, Polychain and others also participated. Coinbase said at the time that the raise gave it a “post-money valuation of over $8 billion.” Large investment funds are increasingly starting to dip their toes in the digital assets space. Just last week, the University of Michigan, which has an endowment valued at about $12 billion, disclosed that it committed $3 million to Andreessen Horowitz’s cryptocurrency fund back in June. The university also said that it is considering further investment in the fund. Yale University, which boasts second-largest endowment among educational institutions globally, also reportedly invested in Horowitz’s fund at the time, as well as backing Paradigm’s $400 million crypto fund last October. Earlier this month, two public pension funds in Fairfax County, Virginia, backed Morgan Creek Capital’s crypto-focused venture fund that raised $40 million. Further, Cambridge Associates, a pensions and endowments consultant, recently said that it’s time for institutional investors to consider getting into cryptocurrencies. Like what you read? Give us one like or share it to your friendsoriginal post… You have reacted on "Singapore State-Owned Fund Backed Coinbase’s $3..." Not Just ICOs — Why Traditional IPOs are Also at t... Mt. Gox Restitution Process Frozen Due to One Man’... QuadrigaCX ‘Inadvertently’ Sent BTC to Dead CEO’s ... Tax Nightmare: 10,000 Bitcoin Trades Net Swedish M... Chip Maker TSMC Reports ‘Big Drop’ in Crypto Minin... MIT Professor Thinks Blockchain Can Lead to Border... Ethereum Anti-ASIC Protocol Delayed As Crypto Deve... Op-Ed: Bitcoin Security — How Do We Arrive at Cons... Bye Bye Trade War? China Plans $1 Trillion Buying ... SatoshiPay Integrates Blockchain Payments for Majo... jQuery('.yuzo_related_post .yuzo_wraps').equalizer({ columns : '> div' }); Bitcoin Price May Rise in March Despite Month’s Bearish Track Record Bitcoin could end the five-year March losing streak with solid gains if resistance at $4,190 (high of last week’s inverted bullish hammer) is convincingly scaled in the next week or two. The cryptocurrency reinforced a bullish triangle breakout witnessed last week with a quick recovery from sub-$3,700 levels yesterday. This “buy the dip” mentality indicates scope for a break above the recent high of $4,190. The focus would shift to the primary bearish trend seen on the monthly chart if BTC fails to pick a strong bid in the next few days. In that case, the probability of BTC ending March on a negative note for the sixth consecutive year would rise. Bitcoin is heading into a historically weak month on a positive note and could see gains if resistance at $4,190 is breached. The leading cryptocurrency by market capitalization has had a tough time in the final month of the first quarter for the last five years. Prices fell 15.7, 4, 4.9, 9.3 and 32 percent in the month of March from 2014 through 2018, according to CoinDesk’s Bitcoin Price Index. This time, however, March may turn out to be a good month, especially if the early signs of bullish reversal seen in February yield quick progress to levels above the crucial resistance of $4,190 in the next week or two. Further, BTC has posted gains in February in the previous four years and is all set to extend that winning streak to the fifth year with 10 percent gains. As of writing, BTC is changing hands at $3,820, having defended key support of $3,700 yesterday. Bitcoin has posted gains in February and losses in March for the last four years. March has proved a weak month six times out of the last eight years. On the 3-day chart, BTC has bounced up from the ascending 10-candle moving average (MA), reinforcing the bullish view put forward by that MA. Further, both the MACD (moving average convergence divergence) histogram and the Chaikin money flow (CMF) are printing bullish above zero. Meanwhile, the daily chart shows the cryptocurrency has defended the former resistance-turned-support of the upper edge of the triangle pattern with a long-tailed doji – a sign of dip demand. As a result, a re-test of $4,000 could be on the cards. A violation there would expose the next major resistance lined up at $4,190. The inverted bullish hammer seen in the weekly chart suggests the bulls are beginning to test the bears’ resolve to keep prices lower – a sign the market is bottoming out. That said, a bullish reversal would be confirmed only if prices end the current week (Sunday, UTC close) or the next week above the hammer’s high of $4,190. That would validate the bullish divergence of the MACD and the relative strength index’s (RSI) upside break of the falling trendline and allow a stronger rally toward $4,833 (50 percent Fibonacci retracement of the sell-off from November highs to December lows). However, an inability to produce quick gains above $4,190 would shift focus back to the primary bearish trend, as seen on the monthly chart, and would shift risk in favor of a drop to recent lows below $3,400. Disclosure: The author holds no cryptocurrency at the time of writing. Bitcoin image via CoinDesk archives; charts by Trading View Like what you read? Give us one like or share it to your friendsoriginal post… You have reacted on "Bitcoin Price May Rise in March Despite Month’s..." Tom Lee: Bitcoin (BTC) At $25,000 Is “Fair,” But I... 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Coinone Transfer, which is a subsidiary of crypto exchange Coinone, has launched a mobile payments platform that uses Ripple’s xCurrent cross-border payments system to expedite transfers and cut back on fees.The new platform is called Cross and is one of the first to be released after a recent change in South Korean remittance laws, which allows non-banking companies to offer cross-border services.Despite this new partnership and rumours about a possible Coinbase listing for XRP, the price of Ripple’s digital coin remains bearish, with close to zero buying pressure.After a spike seen on Dec. 8, XRP/USD failed to follow through and remained below the resistance zone created between 0.33 and 0.35, also capped by a bearish trend line drawn from the minor top at 0.40 reached on Nov. 28.XRP is down 2.50% for the last 24 hours and more than 15% over the last 7 days, with the two Exponential Moving Averages crossing bearishly and spread apart, not to mention that a key support level is now threatened: 0.30.A break of said support level would serve as a warning for a bleak scenario in which the pair will likely reach 0.25 against the US Dollar during the coming days. As long as the pair remains below the trend line and the resistance zone (0.33 – 0.35), we cannot expect any substantial gains for Ripple’s XRP.Resistance zone: bearish trend line and 0.33 – 0.35Most likely scenario: break of support en route to 0.25Alternate scenario: choppy movement in close vicinity of support; no clear direction  2018 was a hard year for investors: prices of the major crypto assets dropped severely with Ethereum price falling by 76% from January 2018 to November 2018. However, as it always happens with any bear environment, experts anticipate improvement, and Ethereum price 2019 promises to grow back. Will Ethereum restore its previous position? Let’s read about Ethereum predictions from crypto experts and find out whether Eth investments still make sense.Before we start comparing forecasts and opinions, let’s find out what happened to Ethereum.Despite highly positive Ethereum price prediction 2018, the cryptocurrency value didn’t live up to traders’ expectations. With crypto put on a pedestal by crypto enthusiasts, how come it happened?The main explanation for the massive drop of crypto price is bearish market that mostly affected:Why did the market go bearish? The clearest reason is that Bitcoin ETFs haven’t been supported by the SEC. “Crypto investors hoped that ETF would attract even more money”, - explained Money Morning Cryptocurrency Expert David Zeiler. ETFs would open new opportunities to large investors and stabilize the market.But since SEC didn’t approve of Bitcoin ETFs, crypto investors lost their enthusiasm. As the result, it triggered cash outflow.Another reason for Ethereum prediction 2018 to fail is massive hacking. Although crypto holders are aware of cryptocurrency safety practices, hackers invent new ways of stealing the hard-earned tokens. According to CCN.com statistics, by July 2018, cybercriminals stole crypto worth $731 mln from crypto exchanges. Zaif alone (the Japanese crypto exchange platform) lost $59 stolen from users’ accounts on September 19, 2018.On August 24, 2018, hackers stole Ethereum worth $150,000 from MyEtherWallet accounts performing a DNS attack. According to Chinese internet security firm Qihoo 360 Netlab, hackers have stolen $20 million in Ether from poorly configured Ethereum mining rigs and third-party applications. Experts at the firm say the cyber-attacks target unsecured Ethereum nodes on the Internet.According to Eric Wall, a cryptocurrency expert in Cinnober, many blockchain-based Ethereum projects that made millions of ETH in bucks last year dumped the currency to trigger the effect on the major global exchanges. Therefore, it would be logical for Ethereum price to fall in answer to it.This situation was among experts’ Eth predictions: some of them claimed that after a record-breaking price growth, the market requires a cool down. In the period from January 2017 to January 2018, Ethereum price performed even better than Bitcoin: while BTC grew by 1,364%, Ethereum soared by 9,370%. The early crypto investors multiplied their riches enormously, and that caused the adverse reaction.Now when the prices returned back to the bottom, investors are curious: what Ethereum price prediction 2019 is? Will buying Ethereum for the current $150 make you profit down the road? 💼 Related ArticleEthereum Price Prediction: ETH Will Be Larger Than Bitcoin Next Couple Years 🔥 Hot 1 week256 Answering the previous question: yes, you should definitely consider buying Ethereum right now. Why?1.    Ethereum stays the primary blockchain for development of dApps. Not only it executes smart contracts, but also renders tools for decentralized software solutions popping up day by day. The smart contracts feature is on the rise, and this technology is backed up by governments, as well.2.   Many ICOs use Ethereum platform, too, which means Ethereum future price should rise.3.   Ethereum is supported by some fortune 500 companies and is being incorporated by financial organization. This factor adds up to the chances of Eth price prediction being positive.The investments made right now would be speculative: you can enjoy huge profits in the following year if you purchase some Eth today. But how large your ROI can be?In fact, many crypto experts reckon that Ethereum will go up in 2019. The lowest projections are:Therefore, making a 100% return of investment would be a natural thing. Are there any other possible scenarios? Here’s Ethereum forecast from a few famous crypto enthusiasts.1.    Joseph Raczynski (founder of Joe Technologist.com) is sure the ETH value will reach $1,200 in a year. Besides, he claims that the ETH network has the largest crypto community and the dev team, and Ethereum's proof of concept is common among corporate contributors.2.   Nigel Green (CEO of The deVere group) is being very optimistic: he reckons that Ethereum future price might reach $2,500 by 2019. There are three reasons for it, including the growth of platforms using ETH, rising demand for digital currencies and smart contracts, and decentralization of cloud computations.3.   Ian McLeod (technology expert of Thomas Crown Art) is less optimistic. According to his Ethereum price forecast, the asset will set at $500 in 2019, though the dev team might reach new striking achievements. He predicts BTC will lose 50% of its crypto market share to ETH in about 5 years.4.   Tom Lee (head of research at Fundstrat Global Advisors) thinks that Ethereum will recover after the critical losses in the next year and reach the value of $1,900.5.   Craig Cobb (founder of TraderCobb.com) states that the cost of Ethereum will reach $240 by the end of 2019.6.   Trading Beasts’ Ethereum price forecast is $908 by the end of 2019, but the average value might stay at the level of $650. That seems to be a realistic opinion.7.    Brian Schuster (founder of Ark Capital LLC) plans big. He believes that the asset can reach $100,000 or even higher in the next 5 years, and eventually replace gold with crypto. What this Ethereum price analysis is based upon? He doesn’t explain. 💼 Related ArticleWhales Starting to Move Ethereum Assets 🔥 Hot 3 days 10 hours256 We have already witnessed mind-blowing Ethereum rise, so why doubt this scenario can repeat? According to Coinswitch’s Ethereum price predictions 2019, the currency can reach $1,400 in 2019 thanks to the enormous development of blockchain projects. Ethereum continues being number one blockchain platform for implementation of smart contracts. Besides, there are some technical improvements coming.The rumor goes that ETH co-founders Vitalik Buterin and Joseph Lubin considered introducing storage fees for smart contracts with other engineers. To top it off, in the next 2 years, Ethereum will launch Proof of Stake that will enable users to earn their interest by using ETH in the network for validating transactions. Besides, the proof of stake will lead to zero supply inflation because stakers won’t require large rewards considering the low cost of running a validating node. With proof of work, Ethereum miners have to spend much money on electricity and hardware, which requires a greater reward for the service.Another factor coming into play is gas burning: every transaction performed on Ethereum, we might expect that a small amount of Ether will be burned. This proposal received mostly positive reaction from the dev community. The results of PoS and gas burning would be evident: Ether price will soar.Today, Ethereum is already highly demanded in such spheres as decentralized control, digital asset storage, decentralized exchange, and gambling. Therefore, as soon as main Ethereum bottlenecks (high transaction cost, poor user experience) are eliminated, we can expect a boost of value growth because a higher level of demand would justify a $1,000 Ether.However, some experts don’t really think that Ethereum will recover its positions.Despite a highly bullish Eth price prediction, Tim Enneking, managing director of Digital Capital Management explained that “There are no drivers to push ETH to 40% above its prior all-time high”. According to Matthew De Silva, a crypto journalist at Quartz who made Ethereum prediction 2018 that its price will crush to the $179 mark (which really happened), Ethereum is getting close to zero, its natural state.There are several factors contributing to Ethereum’s evolving:1.    Massive adoption of Ethereum and smart contracts by decentralized applications and ICOs.2.   Introduction of new technologies, such as proof of stake and gas burning.3.   Support from government and financial organizations.As for the Ethereum price prediction 2020, it’s too early to judge yet: the following year promises to be another rollercoaster, so we don’t know where it all will finish.That Ethereum price prediction seems to be close to reality, but don’t make any judgments until 2019 comes. It promises to be full of ups and downs. Probably, Ethereum will never outperform Bitcoin by the market cap, but Eth predictions are still positive, so don’t miss out on your chance to make your ETH riches in 2019.Once again, Ethereum and Ripple switched places in CoinMarketCap rankings, with the latter moving to number 2 spot. The difference in market cap is very slim, both digital assets standing at $14 billion, so another flippening is not out of the question.We warned several days ago about a potential pullback on ETH/USD, but the speed of the current drop makes us wonder if we are dealing with a retracement to the short-term uptrend that started on the Dec. 15 last year or a resumption of the long-term downtrend of 2018.Having dropped almost 12% in the last 24 hours, Ethereum is now trading at 134 against the US Dollar and has reached a major turning point represented by the 200-period Exponential Moving Average on a 4-hour chart.True downtrend resumption will only occur when the low at $83 is breached, but until then a break of the 200 EMA could mean a major blow dealt to the bulls and one that would suggest a further drop. If the said barrier is broken, the next destination will be 127 and the trough at 117. The RSI has just entered oversold on a 4-hour chart, thus slightly increasing the chances of a move up.Support zone: 127 and 117 (unclear how price behaves at 200 EMA)Resistance zone: 50 EMA (red line) followed by 165 - 170Alternate scenario: recovery and move up based on the oversold position of the RSICryptocurrency exchange Gate.io confirmed that a successful 51% attack on ETC indeed happened and that it resulted in a loss of approximately 40K ETC, the equivalent of roughly $184,000 at the time.Gate.io publicly stated they will cover the loss entirely, so their clients won’t be affected. They have also raised the confirmation number to 500, implemented a new 51% attack detection and urged ETC devs to build a new consensus mechanism to better protect the network against this type of attack.As it was expected, Ethereum Classic’s price is going south, but then again, most coins are headed that way so maybe the 51% attack is not the main culprit.On Jan. 6, Ethereum Classic made a final attempt to break the resistance at $5.63, but failed and started to drop sharply, now trading at 4.55 against the US Dollar, having shed 12.50% in the last 7 days.The major support at 4.63 was recently broken and it is currently being re-tested from below, which is a pattern seen often after a break. If the price will be rejected lower from here, the level will turn into resistance and the break will be confirmed, which means we will probably see an extended period of downside price action.The RSI is oversold and the last few candles show long wicks in their lower part, suggesting there’s a small trace of bullish pressure, but probably not enough to offset the selling pressure.Support zone: 4.00 as psychological level, followed by 3.57Resistance zone: 4.63 (potential resistance) and the moving averagesAlternate scenario: timid rally based on the oversold position of the RSIContinuing our research on what may be the major trends for cryptocurrency market in 2019 this article is about Stellar price prediction 2019, and opinions on Stellar price forecast 2019. Results of 2018 will be presented below as a start to figure out the main trend and performance for Stellar in 2018.Stellar (XLM) cryptocurrency as the end of December has a market price of $0.112272 and a market capitalization of $2.147.942.264 USD, the circulating supply is 19.160.772.795 XLM and the total supply is 104.582.774.327 XLM. Price on Jan. 1, 2018 was $0,3604 and the yearly performance is a decline of 69%. It is ranked number five on top 100 cryptocurrencies on Coinmarketcap.com in terms of market capitalization. What is the Stellar lumens price prediction for 2019 and beyond?Our Stellar price prediction for the end of 2018 was the following:“Our forecast for the end of 2018 is based on the weekly chart and will not move higher than $0.31 or fall below $0.13. The prolonged selloff may turn to a consolidation and a moderate bounce towards $0.17 or $0.20 is probable.”Our forecast was incorrect as price moved up to the level of $0.148 and fell below the price level of $0.10, a classic example of why attempting to make a Stellar coin price prediction is a very hard task. In our case the XLM prediction 2018 proved to be inaccurate, in contrast with some other short-term prediction for December 2018 which were correct.What are some of Stellar lumens prediction ranges for 2019? Do experts appear to be optimistic and make a bullish XLM forecast for 2019 or not?Smartereum is optimistic that the price of Stellar will rise in 2019 offering two bullish scenarios. The first scenario is that price will move sideways in the range $0.17-$1, and the second scenario is that price will move eventually to $0.35 and a breakout will soon follow. Further upside potential is possible. Theoofy appears to be rather pessimistic with a base scenario of a price decline from $0.28 to $0.22. This depends on whether the price will be near the first price level of $0.28, which for now seems not a realistic scenario with a current price of $0.114. Some catalysts for the price of Stellar in 2019 are business prospects, applications and updates.Coinswitch.co appears also to have an optimistic range of Stellar predictions with a forecast about xlm coin price reaching the $0.60- $0.66 range.Not all Stellar cryptocurrency price predictions are optimistic though as Longforecast.com forecasts a high price of $0.15 in January 2019 and then a gradual and continuous decline all year long to the low price of $0.05 by the end of 2019.InvestingHaven.com has a forecast of $4 for Stellar in 2019 based on both fundamentals and technical analysis. A very important fundamental factor is the collaboration of Stellar with the IBM in the Blockchain technology.BeingCypto.com reports several estimates made by influencers about Stellar price prediction in 2019. The price range varies significantly from $5-$10, to $2. The estimate of BeingCrypto.com is that price could potentially reach $1.20 in 2019, with a small probability of further decline below the current price of $1.114, but still there is a reference to the worst-case scenario, a price of $0.42.BeingCrypto.com forecasts that in 2020 there is a best-case scenario of $6.25 for Stellar and a worst-case scenario for $0.67. Longforecast.com forecasts a low price of $0.06 in January 2020 and by the end of 2020 sometime during December a price of $0.15.Tradingbeasts.com forecasts for January 2020 a minimum price of $0.25, a maximum price of $0.36 and an average price of $0.29. At the end of 2020, in December 2020 the forecasts are for a minimum price of $0.30, a maximum price of $0.44 and an average price of $0.35. Theoofy.com predicts that the year 2020 will be pivotal for the cryptocurrency market and mentions that Stellar might reach $0.55 as its top price in 2020, still away from it's all-time high of $0.75.Stellar Lumens is expected to have a more stable pace of growth in the market by 2020. This may mean that volatility will decrease which is not considered negative as a potential price stability could be interpreted as a more mature market.It is far riskier to make any XLM price prediction for 2025 compared to a forecast of only one year, yet some interesting estimates are mentioned below:·     BeingCrypto estimates than in five years from now the best-case scenario for Stellar is $10.26 and the worst-case scenario is for $2.18.·     DigitalCoin mentions the probability of price reaching $0.35425323·     AltPocket appears very bullish as it predicts that it is most likely for the price to breach the $30 mark by 2025.·     Walletinvestor is very optimistic mentioning that in 2025 Stellar could have a price of $227.664460·     CoinSwitch based on a realistic and conservative analysis, forecasts that Stellar will certainly touch the $1 mark in 2023, predicting XLM to reach $1.14 by the end of 2023.·     Theoofy predicts that Stellar might go for $1.20 by November 2025, with further upside potential because Stellar is one of the fastest currencies in the market.We will provide our conservative forecast about Stellar in 2019.Technically the downtrend is still intact. An attempt for the price to break above the level of $0.148 failed. The 20-period, 50-period and 200-period exponential daily moving averages are all above the current price of $0.113 and as they are declining, they suggest selling pressure is still dominant. It is interesting that our recent article on Stellar was titled “Stellar Price Prediction for December: Is Bottom-Fishing Now Still Dangerous?”. Will the low price of $0.094 be a real bottom price for 2018 and 2019?The answer is no as there is not any valid arguments to support it. As long as price is trading below the three moving averages mentioned above, chances are that lower price levels are very probable. There are not any significant support levels below the current price of $0.114. There are significant resistance levels at $0.139, $0.182, $0.192 and $0.24.For now, our best-case scenario about Stellar in 2019 would be a price of $0.21-$0.22 which is very near to the current price of 200-period exponential daily moving average at $0.215. The ADX/DMI indicator shows a current weak trend which is positive for Stellar indicating that the momentum of recent downtrend has diminished significantly. Our conservative xlm price prediction still represents an upside potential of about 100% from the current price.As the daily Bollinger bands have recent values of $0.096 and $0.137 for the lower and upper band respectively a closing price above the upper daily Bollinger band would be a first sign that uptrend is gaining momentum. What about our worst-case scenario? A closing price below the recent low price of $0.094 has literally a price target of either $0.05, as mentioned above or even lower. It would be unrealistic trying to predict the real bottom even if advanced mathematical models were used. Truth is predictions are very uncertain.Still our price target of $0.21-$0.22 coincides with Fibonacci analysis. From the swing high price of $0.287 in November 2018 to the low price of $0.095 in December 2018 the 0.618 retracement level is $0.215. the 0.786 retracement level is $0.247, and the 0.5 retracement level is $0.192. This confluence of numbers supports our technical analysis about a potential rally of Stellar in 2019. If there any positive fundamental developments for Stellar in 2019 then a combination of these factors with technical analysis may indeed prove our forecast to be correct. In any case this is not a financial advice, only an article mentioning potential scenarios about Stellar predictions in 2019 and in the near future.TRON outperformed yet another coin today and secured the number 8th spot in the rankings by market cap. After moving ahead of Bitcoin SV just a couple of days ago, today it was Tether’s turn to succumb to the pressure, albeit for a very thin margin: TRON market cap $1,957,545,913, Tether market cap: $1,931,671,398 (data from CoinMarketCap).This new flippening comes just a day after TRON announced they’ve hired David Labhart, who is a former US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) supervisory attorney, as first chief compliance officer and co-general counsel. It’s unclear whether this was the catalyst behind the price increase, but it’s certainly good news for TRX.Without a doubt TRX is the best performer of the year to date, adding more than 46% during the last 7 days and spiking to a high of 0.0358 against the US Dollar. However, many of the gains were erased and now the pair is testing the support/resistance level at 0.0280.The last candle is showing a very long wick in its upper part, which is almost always a clear sign of rejection. On top of this, the Relative Strength Index is overbought on several time frames, including the Daily chart above and all this evidence points towards a potential drop below the previous resistance level (0.0280) and into the 200 days Exponential Moving Average (thick blue line on chart).After said retracement is complete, the pair is likely to move again towards the previous high at 0.0358. Our view is bullish as long as the blue trend line seen on the chart remains intact.Support zone: 0.0245, the bullish trend line and 200 EMAResistance zone: 0.0358 (also, 0.0280 can turn into resistance if the price drops below it)Most likely scenario: retracement that finds support at 0.0245, 200 Days EMA and/or bullish trend lineAlternate scenario: break below 0.0245 followed by a stagnation period

the history of Britain? Went from having a monarchy to parliamentary, constitutional democracy without having a revolution.Glen Weyl: Well, Britain is a very good example of this, because … so the origins of British parliamentary democracy were something called the Witton. Do you know what that is?Glen Weyl: Yeah, so it was this set of knights that went out and surveyed the countryside. They were sent out by the King. They would come back and they would talk to the King about what they had seen so he could make better decisions. And then things started to get too complicated for the King to listen to all the discussions. So they would then have one of them who would give a report to the King, of their discussions. And then the King would make a decision based on that. That person eventually evolved into the Prime Minister.Glen Weyl: The discussions started being summarized ever more tightly into a series of recommendations for the King, which the King would generally just approve. Then, of course, the French invaded and it gets … starts saying, “Well what is this thing?” Well it’s a place where they speak, the parliament. You know what I mean?Glen Weyl: So, you see how, basically, an institution grows up. And then it’s legitimacy is confirmed by things like The Glorious Revolution, right? But the institution already pre-exists its formalization.Robert Wiblin: So you want, kind of, yeah, organic change before things are formalized.Robert Wiblin: People have particular goals and then they find a way to do it that works, and then it’s formalized.Robert Wiblin: Do you feel like social institutions are more static than they used to be? I guess, like, one concern that one might have about this being the most effective thing to work on, could be that it’s just going to be very hard to get these things applied, because social institutions now are too formalized or too sporadic. And so even if you have great ideas for reform, you’re not going to be able to get them applied very widely.Glen Weyl: I would say actually the opposite. I don’t view the impetus for these things as being so much that just we need this change, as the fact that if we don’t supply these sorts of alternative ways to solve the problems that we’re currently facing, much worse solutions are rapidly being proposed and could be highly destabilizing.Glen Weyl: So, I actually think the impetus for providing these solutions, even beyond the fact that we’ll eventually need this change, is that if we aren’t starting to supply this in an organic way, someone else will impose from the top down something that’s far worse.Robert Wiblin: Why do you think there is so much political discontent at the moment? I guess, Martin [Gurry 01:41:00], who I mentioned on the show recently, explains it in terms of information technology changing such that it’s easier for people to find out ways in which their leaders are unsatisfying or not performing as well as they used to claim. It’s easy for them also to organize amongst themselves, movements to oppose whoever is the ruling class or whoever has power a pick what point in time. Do you think that’s the reason or is it some other thing going on?Glen Weyl: That might be part of it, but I think it’s pretty unlikely that, that is the majority of what’s going on, because if you actually look at the timing in relationship to these developments, the move toward the far right was way before the emergence of the internet. It started in the early ’90s, and a large part of it was accomplished before social media came about. And then the last bit of it came about in the social media era. And of course, we notice the last bit of it, because that’s what actually causes people to start winning elections. But the thing is, that’s not actually most of the phenomenon.Robert Wiblin: Yeah, I wouldn’t have thought that the move for the far right started in the early ’90s. What [crosstalk 01:42:02].Glen Weyl: Yeah, you should recast [Muddy’s 01:42:04] work, and actually just look at the historical rise of the vote share of the far right. The national front, for example in France, made it into the second round of the presidential election in the contest between [Sherock 01:42:16] and Le Pen [Pair 01:42:19]. So, this stuff is really not … and if you look at polarization in the United States, most of that occurred basically starting with Newt Gingrich and was accomplished by the mid 2000s.Glen Weyl: And then of course you throw a match onto that kindling with the great recession and so forth, but I don’t think that, that’s the main phenomenon.Robert Wiblin: So, yeah. What do you think is causing that then?Glen Weyl: I think dramatic increases in inequality, dramatic falls in growth rates, and a general sense of people that the promises that liberalism made them are failing. And technology is part of that, but not just in terms of the way it enables things, but in terms of the way in which it’s caused people to feel increasingly lonely, isolated, and a reduced sense of agency.Robert Wiblin: So, it’s interesting. In Gurri’s book he points to a whole bunch of data showing that the people who are the most insurgent, the people who are most likely to take to the streets and vote for candidates that, in the past, would have been not as successful, tend to be doing well economically and tend also to be quite socially connected. That is not the people who are struggling in society or most depressed who are most politically connected?Glen Weyl: I’d have to see his particular information, but I’m very skeptical of that being the overall weight of what the social scientific community would say about this. The single biggest predictor of swings to Donald Trump that people have found versus Mitt Romney was basically the aggregate connections of people on the Facebook graph being very local and not externally connected. So, I don’t … but there are definitely Republicans who voted for Trump, right? But most of the trump enthusiasts were those who were won over by Trump relative to other Republicans were not people who are well connected or high income.Robert Wiblin: Okay. Yeah. This is super complicated. So I’ll probably have to get someone who studies this specifically on the show to talk about it at some point. Do you worry that politics as it stands today is too anti-intellectual to be interested these reform that are justified in a very abstract, economic sort of way?Glen Weyl: Well, I don’t think that, that’s what’s going to persuade people. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t build a praxis of a relationship that helps people appreciate these things through their experiences and through art, which is why I put so much emphasis on art earlier. I think we can build that. I think that we need to build that. But what I definitely am against, and maybe we’ll turn to this later, is something which builds a politics that only wants to speak or only respects nerdy and mathematically inclined ways of approaching issues. I think that’s a huge mistake.Robert Wiblin: Yeah, okay. Go into that as a nerd whose fixed that way, what are your reservations?Glen Weyl: I think that the rationalist community, for example, which I assume many of your listeners are sympathic towards that community-Glen Weyl: Has built itself a politics and a practice of obsessive focus on communicating primarily with and relating socially primarily to people who also agree that whatever set of practices they think defined rationality are the way to think about everything. And I think that, that is extremely dangerous as a tendency within a broader society, because I think A, it’s not actually true that most useful knowledge that we have comes from those methods. There’s lots of useful knowledge that comes in other ways. And if you cut yourself off from that other useful knowledge, you’re actually missing most of the relevant information.Glen Weyl: And B, it’s fundamentally anti-democratic as an attitude. And the problem with anti-democratic attitudes is, they often start to mutate very quickly into anti-democratic politics, because if you think that the only people who have access to the truth are philosopher kings, it becomes hard to escape the conclusion that philosopher kings should rule. Because you’re just going to be enormously frustrated by the fact that you can’t get other people to understand your arguments.Glen Weyl: So, Robin Hanson has this book, Elephant In The Brain, which has some interesting things in it, but I think ultimately is a long complaint that people aren’t interested in talking about politics in the way that I am interested in talking about politics. And that really annoys me. I would submit that, to someone that has that attitude, you should say, “Perhaps consider talking about politics in a different way. You might find that other people might find it easier to speak to you that way.”Glen Weyl: It’s like, if you have a club of Esperanto speakers, and they send most of the time that they are spending talking in Esperanto, speaking about how annoying it is that no one else speak Esperanto, you might consider suggesting to them to speak a language other than Esperanto, if that’s their primary frustration. You know what I mean? Unless there’s some enormous gain that they can demonstrate clearly that they’re getting from speaking Esperanto.Robert Wiblin: I don’t normally participate in the politics discussions in the rationality community. Are there any examples of, when you think of people are going wrong and how you think they ought to do things differently?Glen Weyl: As a general matter … there’s something called neo-reaction, which is a very obscure, and a lot of people aren’t aware of it. But it’s actually had a lot of influence on a number of quite wealthy people and filtered into politics in various ways. It’s basically a politics that is built around the notion that basically there should be a small elite of people who own property and control power through that property, because the masses aren’t capable of understanding or solving or whatever various types of questions.Glen Weyl: I think that, that politics, even though most people in this rationalist community would reject that kind of politics, I think there’s a natural tendency, if you have that set of social attitudes, to have your politics drift in that direction, because that sort of social practice of only associating with people who have that way of approaching knowledge tends to lead you to be frustrated with everybody else’s politics. And therefore to want to … if you’re socially anti-democratic, the chances that you’re going to become politically anti-democratic seem to me to be much higher.Robert Wiblin: That’s interesting, because I think of myself as having the view that there’s some people who are much more informed about politics and have much more sensible views about what legislation ought to be passed. I guess in some sense I’m like part of an elite that unusually educated about these issues. But when it comes to … nothing is more appalling to me than neoreactionary politics. I have particularly no sympathy with it. What’s going on there? Am I just part of a different, somewhat-Glen Weyl: Well, I mean, I’m not saying everyone or like no social tendency is absolute or constant or whatever. But I think that as an empirical matter, we have seen a very large number of people enter into the rationalist community with politics similar to what you’re saying, and gradually drift in the direction of neoreactionary politics. And there’s a pretty simple theory of why that might happen, and it seems to empirically happen quite a bit.Glen Weyl: So, it seems to me that the combination of that empirical evidence and the theory explaining it would tend to lead me to suggest that people who don’t want their politics to drift in that direction, or who find that reprehensible, might consider changing their practices and not just resisting that political inclination.Robert Wiblin: So to play devil’s advocate here for a second … I obviously have no sympathy with it, with a neoreactionary view. But it seems like it is just true that if you start looking at public opinion survey, it’s the case that many voters are misinformed about many empirical issues. And then they support policies that seems, I don’t know, to most people who have studied the topic to be bad ideas. And so there is this kind of kernel of truth that at least, democracy as it functions now is quite a strange way of making decisions in a sense. There are other reasons why we organize it this way, to prevent oppression and to distribute power more broadly. That’s very valuable. But do you want to kind of take on that attitude-Glen Weyl: How long have you been living where you are currently living?Glen Weyl: How much do you know about the candidates for local office?Robert Wiblin: I know that the Republican was a practical Nazi. My congressional seat, that was particularly that. I mean I can’t vote-Glen Weyl: You know, I mean really local office. Like the teacher’s board or whatever.Robert Wiblin: Oh, I mean nothing. I can’t vote, so otherwise I might know it, but I know nothing about them.Glen Weyl: I know nothing about my local candidates either. So the notion that there are a class of people who are just epistemically crap, I think, is just wrong. I think the answer is that people focus on different things, because they are adapted to different areas. And yes, I absolutely believe that there should be division of labor, and that people should be allowed to opt in to things that they care more about and opt into things that they care less about. But I think that the notion that some people are epistemically great and other people are epistemically crap is just really wrong and deeply problematic.Glen Weyl: And I think that what we need is a system that allows people to elect into the things that they have something to add to, which is what quadratic voting allows, and elect out of things that are less. But establishing some sort of clear or elite driven hierarchy, that rather than people electing in to certain things and electing out, that some group of people decide they know, and they are going to have the power and hold it, I think is deeply mislead and doesn’t correspond to my empirical experience or reality, which is that on most things relevant to the world, I’m an idiot. It’s just that there are some issues that I’ve devoted my life to, on which I think I know better than others do. And I hope that they’ll value my perspective and that I’ll learn something from their perspective as well.Robert Wiblin: Yeah, so I think that, that goes quite a long way. The main reason … the key driver of people having bad ideas in politics is that, they’ve spent, they’ve dedicated very little time to it, to informing themselves most of the time. And that makes total sense that people should specialize, yeah, that there should be some people who focus on … because we can’t all be informed about everything. That’s impossible. And people have got their lives to live, too. So some people specialize in learning about this, some people specialize in learning about that topic. But it does, too, seem that there this issue that some people are just less intelligent or they’re never going to make the effort to inform themselves, and yet they will still be very keen on voting. That could add some noise to the system.Glen Weyl: Well, I mean, my guess is, most of the time when you have people like that, you actually find that there’s a lot of really interesting and intelligent things that they’re bringing to the conversation that your perspective didn’t include. That’s usually what I find. In fact, I learned way more personally from interacting with my colleagues, who are the people of this country and in Europe who I’ve been talking to about this book, than I have interacting with the intellectual leads I usually interact with. I made way more intellectual progress.Glen Weyl: The intellectual leads, who are so great at all this stuff, didn’t think Donald Trump was going to win. They thought neoliberalism was just fine. They were missing a lot of shit. And you want to even say it off the intellectual level? All this talk about community that’s been out there in the world, and people’s complaint for years, I think it’s a really good way of putting the stuff that I was saying about increasing returns.Glen Weyl: And what have economists been doing? They’ve been focusing on the 5%. So, where is the manifest stupidity of the population? Is it among the economists who are the experts, or is it among … I mean, I just think that it’s precisely this attitude of persistent epistemic superiority that leads people into actually going down intellectual cul-de-sacs and not making progress in the most important problems. And I think of people actually had more of a democratic spirit in their conversations, they would actually be making a lot more intellectual progress than they would in the current self-imagination.Robert Wiblin: So, there’s two different reasons that you could like having this kind of democratic spirit in wanting to distribute power. One would be on principle. You just think it’s bad to concentrate power or elitism or hierarchy is unappealing in principle. The other is that, as an empirical matter, information is very widely distributed. In fact, even people who don’t have a great education or whatever are in fact, bring a lot of knowledge to the table when they are able to contribute.Robert Wiblin: I thought that you were going to justify on the first principle. But it sounds like you just think-Glen Weyl: No, I’m justifying it on the second ground.Robert Wiblin: Just in practice, like ordinary voters actually have a lot of value to contribute to the system.Glen Weyl: There’s a wonderful book called Seeing Like A State that I recommend to you and to all of your listeners.Robert Wiblin: I’m a huge fan. You should read his new book.Robert Wiblin: Against the Grain. I think it was my favorite book of last year.Glen Weyl: Ninety percent of the way through it right now.Glen Weyl: Yeah, it’s very good. What I think he points out … it’s very similar to Hayek’s point, that there’s a lot of knowledge out there. And people a lot of libertarians are in to that when they hear it in Hayek. When they hear about politics, suddenly they think that there’s no knowledge out there. And I think that… that’s nuts. I think that politics is just like all these other things. There is lots of local information out there. And in fact, I don’t even think there’s much of a distinction between politics and economics. I think it’s the same basic problem, that when high modernists, which is what he calls people who are just obsessed with science and rationality and whatever, try to impose they derived visions on the complex realities that people are adapted to without thinking about leaving space for information gathering from those complex realities, they end up creating monstrosities often. And I think that is a big danger.Robert Wiblin: Yeah, do you want to flesh that out a little bit more. Explain the hierarchy in knowledge problem and how this relates to markets and politics and why you think there’s a tension between people thinking that the market is great, but democratic politics is like a-Glen Weyl: One of the examples that Scott gives is Jane Jacobs in New York City. So, there was all this stuff of people being like, “The city has to be rational. We have to have a grid. We have to build spaces that are zoned one way here and zoned another way there.” And Jane Jacobs points out, “Well actually what makes a city fun is that people have lots of coffee shops to go to near where they live. Or that there are interesting things going on it the street. And that actually makes people look at the street. And that makes the street safe.” All these ground level things about what it is to live in a city are often ignored by people who only think about it from a rational scientific perspective, right?Glen Weyl: That doesn’t mean that science can’t incorporate those things, but usually, science is going to leave out some of that stuff. It’s lonely through a dialogue with what’s going on, on the ground, that you figure those things out. And the problem with saying, “Oh, well that’s true of markets, but that doesn’t need to be true of democracy” is that as I pointed out earlier, almost everything is some sort of collective action. Very little can be done by an individual isolated on their own. So, you have to allow to filter into collective actions and collective decision making, those on the ground perspectives.Glen Weyl: Now that doesn’t mean that everything should just 100% bubble up. That’s doesn’t work either. But there has to be more of a dialogue and more of an attempt in institutions to make room for that emergence, rather than for everything to just come from what a scientist wants to impose.Robert Wiblin: So, I’m inclined to think that high modernism is underrated. That suddenly it didn’t turn out super great in city design, although I now think that you could have just rational planner who read the papers and decide, well we’re going to rationally, as a high modernist, plan it out in this organic fashion. But the high modernist approach of just trying to schematize everything and standardize it has given us lots of really wonderful things, like modern agriculture, which makes a lot more food and at much cheaper prices than over before. We managed to eradicate lots of diseases with very high modernist vaccination programs. The census is a high modernist program that delivers really valuable information to us.Robert Wiblin: I think to some extent, Scott isn’t quite … he picks up the cases where the high modernist mindset didn’t work out very well or didn’t work out well initially. For example, in agriculture where it creates all the problems, but then in the long terms seemed to have worked out a lot better. And then talks about that to condemn the whole thing, whereas I think to some extent now, that idea is underrated, because everyone wants to be grassroots, bottom up. That’s the better way to do things.Glen Weyl: Well, look. I think that the right answer is, things need to emerge from an appropriate level of organization. And if you make it too disaggregated, you lose the potential economies of scale that are called scientific knowledge. But on the other hand, if you just assume that capital T, capital S, The State, or The Platform knows what’s going on, you end up with really bad things happening.Glen Weyl: So, one example of this is Facebook, which I think someone should write a book called Seeing Like A Platform, decides oh here’s the metrics that we need to maximize. And then they send their reinforcement learning system to go maximize those metrics. And now, most of them live in the US, so if their kids are getting incredibly addicted to something and it’s destroying their lives, they at least have some sensitivity to that. But they have nobody in Myanmar. And when it turns out that maximizing their metrics ends up leading to people getting hacked to pieces in Myanmar, it’s pretty hard from them to see that or to get the feedback on that.Glen Weyl: And they employ … they spend about 10% of their value add on labor. They don’t hire people, because they think oh no our algorithms will do it all, right? So that sort of arrogance, that sort of unwillingness to be looking and think that there are maybe things that are missed in their models all over the place can lead to really bad outcomes. So, that’s not to say that there isn’t value to technology. Technology has a huge amount of value. But for a direct … to realize its value it also requires human input. And that human input is being increasingly lost by abstract ideas that artificial intelligence, which is really just collective human intelligence. And the question is just which types of collective human optimistic about, but I guess you think it’s okay to do radical rethinking as long as it’s within the liberal tradition or as long as it’s not kind of of a statist form?Glen Weyl: Well, first of all, radical rethinking, I think, is called for by the conditions of society. I don’t think there was an alternative. Whether one would have liked to have preserved a world where a few people are incredibly wealthy and everybody else is starving in Depression-like conditions, and you could have thought, “Oh, that’s not such a bad world. At least we avoided fascism or communism,” I just don’t think that that was tenable. Even if you’re inclined to think that that’s fine, I think you would just, you would not do well, and John Maynard Keynes very much made that case that in order to survive, liberalism had to adapt. I also think just there are fundamental intellectual incoherencies in liberalism back then and liberalism now that are going to come home to roost at some point, regardless, so I actually also agree with the intellectual critiques of the nationalists and the statists today.Glen Weyl: I think that they’re right to say that neoliberalism and capitalism are just fundamentally intellectually bankrupt, but even if you don’t agree with that, I think that most people think that now, and so unless you have a plan to exterminate them or eliminate their political voice, you’re unlikely to be able to survive in democratic societies without addressing the concerns that they have.Robert Wiblin: Yeah. In what way are they intellectually bankrupt? I guess I’m fairly in favor of this new wave of neoliberalism, which is like more, perhaps more of a economically rationalist center-left politics, but it seems to me like kind of the current system has given us the best of times, setting aside risks from new technologies which, of course, I’m worried about, or perhaps the risk of war between the U.S. and China. It’s like poverty is declining very quickly. It’s like globally, equality is increasing very rapidly. It seems like there’s the glass is pretty half-full.Glen Weyl: I think the fundamental problem is that what makes civilization possible is the fact that we can all do more together than we can each do on our own. That’s a idea that is called increasing returns in economics, and the problem is that basic economic theory will tell you that capitalism does not lead to good outcomes in the presence of increasing returns. I think most of the problems that we are seeing in the world today can be traced to that. Global warming is an increasing returns phenomenon. It affects everyone on the planet. Most of the network industries that have so much concentration of power that we’re worried about them are increasing returns phenomena. Most of the issues around insurance has to do with the fact that insurance has increasing returns properties to it. That’s why people think about things like single-payer systems and so forth.Glen Weyl: Most of the major social issues that we’re dealing with, community, and the feelings of destruction of community that people have, come from the inability of the, quote, “magic,” unquote, of capitalism to deal with increasing returns, when in fact, increasing returns are literally what’s responsible for everything good that you were talking about since the Great Depression. Yet you go to literally any economics textbook, you read any of that stuff, one of the first things it will tell you is, “All this works under the assumption of decreasing returns. If there’s increasing returns, we don’t really have anything to say about that. Go talk to someone other than an economist,” more or less. What that amounts to is basically saying, “Everything that’s responsible for all the wealth that we have, we don’t really have much to say about that.”Glen Weyl: Then this little edge case of like decreasing returns, which we know cannot possibly be most of what’s going on, or we wouldn’t have all the wealth that we have, well, that, that we can account for. Then we’re going to say, “Oh, all the wealth we have is attributable to this thing which we know only works in the edge case which we know can’t have anything to do with all the wealth we have.” That’s just like … I’m not saying that that immediately means any particular alternative system, but to think like, “Things are pretty good,” intellectually, when that’s the state of affairs, I think takes sort of really bizarre intellectual gymnastics.Robert Wiblin: Okay, so let’s go a little bit slower. Can you explain why the framing of the increasing returns to scale is the best way of looking at this problem and maybe what do the models say is going to be the inefficiency when you have increasing returns to scale? Like what is happening, and how are we getting things wrong?Glen Weyl: Let me start with the example of public goods, which will probably be more familiar to people, and then a lot of people will probably object, “Well, there aren’t really that many pure public goods,” and whatever, and we can get into that, but the point is that the basic logic of public goods is the logic behind why increasing returns doesn’t work under capitalism. The logic of public goods are, imagine there is some thing that we can all pour money into, which will generate benefits for all of us rather than just for one of us. Now, each of us has an incentive to contribute to that thing until our personal marginal utility equals the cost of contributing further to that thing, but the actual optimality condition is that the sum of all the benefits that we receive is equal to the cost of one of us contributing one additional dollar. What you then get is, if people are individualistically contributing to that, a factor one over n, roughly, underfunding of the resource. Right?Glen Weyl: That is not a small inefficiency. That’s not like, “Oh, the marginal tax rate is 70%, and therefore people only have 30% of the incentive.” This is like orders of magnitude underfunding of the relevant thing. Then you might say, “Well, how common are public goods?” If you want to say 100% pure public goods, maybe not that common, but there’s like no 100% pure private goods either. Then the question is, where on that spectrum do most things lie? My claim is, what makes something like a public good is that it has increasing returns to scale, that we can achieve more together than we could each achieve on our own. Then you have to ask yourself, “Do you think that as an overall description of human civilization, the notion that we would be all basically equally well off if we were, or even better off, in the case of decreasing returns, if we were isolated in individual huts, interacting with no other human beings?” I think most people think probably not. Probably, that would not lead to as high flourishing of human civilization in whatever sense you take that to mean.Robert Wiblin: Kind of a public good, like, say, creating a piece of information, then, everyone can use for free, is that the kind of thing we’re thinking there is increasing returns to scale, because you have more-Glen Weyl: Let me give you an example just very concretely from everyday life of where I think … It’s pretty obvious that capitalism is sort of orders of magnitude off of leading to anything like efficiency. Imagine that The New York Times, tomorrow, discovers incontrovertible proof that Donald Trump is literally receiving a daily batch of orders from Vladimir Putin. Right? How much money do you think that The New York Times will make as a result of having discovered that relative to the amount of money they’d make from having a really good cat video? Possibly more? Probably not, but certainly not many times more. The reason is that that information that they discovered, nobody needs to read The New York Times piece, and certainly not for like years and watch tons of ads in order to figure that out, whereas the cat video holds your attention for a while. Right?Glen Weyl: The value of the information they create just bears no relationship whatsoever to the reward that they’re getting, or at least the ratio of noise to signal is like 99.9 or something like that.Robert Wiblin: Yeah. I went on a rant about how there’s no reason to think that capitalism makes information economics work well, I think, back with, back in an episode with Brian Christian, on Algorithms to Live By. I’m curious to know, are there other common examples outside of kind of information economics where things are much more inefficient than what people realize that’s not commonly recognized?Glen Weyl: Well, I mean, first of all, all monopolies are basically just examples of this. Every distortion that you consider to be a monopoly distortion is effectively an example of this, because, like why do monopolies exist? Because a bunch of people split up can’t do the thing as well as one person who does it all together, but then if you turn that into private property, the person’s going to use that to extract as much rent as they can rather than providing as much value as they’re able to. All of the oppression of corporate power, all of the stuff about monopolies, and most of the environmental crap that we are dealing with, like climate change. Again, you fix the climate, we all benefit from that, and you can’t really exclude people from that. I mean, that’s actually maybe about as close to a pure public good as you get, and then you’ve got all these different countries that all want their selfish things, and we just don’t have institutions for actually dealing with that.Glen Weyl: Now, maybe to some limited extent, some democracies in some cases try to deal with that, but democracy is just like a profoundly messed up and not relevant mechanism, at least as it’s currently practiced and adapted to the actual challenges of public goods that we’re facing as a world.Robert Wiblin: Okay. All right. I want to take a step back for a minute back to crypto, because we’re going to come to these mechanisms for public good funding later on, and it might be worth talking about the book first. What do you think are the biggest downsides of the crypto community? I guess I only have vague exposure to it, and it seems to me like whoever came up, or whatever group of people came up with Bitcoin are clearly geniuses, and Vitalik is, Vitalik Buterin, creator of Ethereum, is otherworldly, I think, in his insightfulness, but I guess it also seems to have kind of attracted a lot of overconfident people, and people who are drawn in by ideology more than anything else. I guess at the worst end is kind of a lot of scammers and bullshit artists who’ve seen a chance to make a quick buck. Do you see them damaging the community, or you think it’s still overall, it’s like a very good group?Glen Weyl: Oh, so first of all, I would say that the technology that is currently called blockchain, which has a bunch of different elements to it, I think is a dead end, and I think it has very, very few applications, if any, where I think that that’s going to be the right type of a data structure to use. I also think it has very problematic social implications. I actually think the ideology instantiated by the actual technical protocols right now is dark and deeply problematic, and I think that, like there is a spectrum from really intelligent person who has a good understanding of what’s going on, through deeply naïve and somewhat self-deluding deliberately because of potential greed and so forth issues, through to outright scammers.Glen Weyl: Like if you ask for the center of gravity of that within the typical thing in the community, it’s definitely towards that latter end of the spectrum, so there are huge problems. However, like capitalism has enormous problems, as I’ve been trying to say, and there is very little space in our society for seriously reconsidering that and for people to think boldly about these things. I think that this is offering a space for that, and that’s extremely important.Robert Wiblin: Okay, you’re completely confounding my plan for this interview here, because I thought you were going to be like, explain how the blockchain’s going to be very useful, and I was going to have to explain why I’m kind of skeptical that its applications are terribly useful. Yeah. Okay, talk to me about the technical side. Why do you think that the blockchain is overrated or that it’s like … It sounds like you even think it might be harmful overall.Glen Weyl: Yeah, so first of all, I think that the data structure instantiates a view of how data, like where data originates and how it should be stored, that is pretty inimical to what’s the right way of thinking about where data is and how it should be stored. In particular, I’m a big fan of decentralization, but the blockchain is not really based on that concept. It’s really based on the notion that a large chunk of all data should be completely public, and then a bunch of stuff should be utterly private. That is ultimately, and maybe we’ll turn to this more later, sort of the anathema of the way I think about things.Glen Weyl: I actually think that everything has some sphere of intimacy where it should be shared, and some other sphere of intimacy, or of society, into which its leaking would be problematic, and that it’s almost never the case that you want things stored completely globally. On the other hand, it’s almost always the case that you don’t want them to be overly cloistered, and so data structures that instantiate the appropriate level of decentralization and that actually store data in relationship to the communities to which it pertains, have to be a much closer to optimal way of thinking about data structures. That’s at the very core of how it’s conceived, I think, a fundamental problem with the blockchain.Robert Wiblin: Can you cash that out in an example, where the current approach would, I guess, lead to things being too public in a way that’s harmful, and how it might be organized better?Glen Weyl: Well, I mean, basically, the blockchain says you are anonymous online, and then everything you do online is totally public and completely transparent, but think about your reputation. Your reputation is not something you need to share with everybody in every context, but on the other hand, it’s incredibly important that you not be anonymous, because if you’re anonymous, then you’re unaccountable. Instead, the appropriate thing to do, like if I was looking into you, Rob, and saying, “Is this a guy I should be doing a podcast with,” probably what I wouldn’t want to do is go to some global repository where every action that you’ve ever taken is either listed or completely detached from you. Instead, I would go to some people, I would get, in confidence, some references about you. You see what I’m saying? Like-Glen Weyl: That’s the way that human societies are and should work. Things should not be either global or utterly individualistic and private. They should always be shared with some communities and not with other communities, and the blockchain just doesn’t have the affordances, naturally, to allow for that sort of a structure at a technical level.Robert Wiblin: Okay, so are there any applications that you are excited about? I guess, what’s your view on the kind of use case side of things, or is that not your area?Glen Weyl: The problem is that I don’t have a lot of examples of things for which I really think blockchain is necessary and sufficient as it’s currently instantiated. There’s lots of things that people in the blockchain community are trying to think about that I think are really important problems to think about, but the technology, as it currently stands, I’m not sure there’s anything I think is really a desirable application.Robert Wiblin: Is there a vision going forward on the technical side for how we could produce a data structure that doesn’t have to have this dichotomy-Robert Wiblin: … between super public and super private?Glen Weyl: I’m working on that stuff a lot, and I think the notion that mechanisms, rather than discretionary centralized authorities, should be the basis for us interacting in information structures, I’m a huge supporter of that, and I think that, honestly, that’s really what has gotten many of the people excited about blockchains, but I don’t think the actual technical structure of the current setup, I have a clear vision for an area where I really think of it as the right, right application. I mean, maybe there’s some notion of central reserve deposits, or other things that really should be global public records of some sort, where something like this is not terrible, but even there, I would say the proof of work consensus is really a bad way to do it.Glen Weyl: It’s basically the stuff that means you have to mine things, and there’s all this waste of energy and so forth, so that’s not a very good way to structure it. Yeah, and there are other problems as well. Like even in those narrower things where I don’t think the problem is the data structure per se, there are many ways, issues with how it’s implemented at present that I think are fundamentally flawed and need to be replaced.Robert Wiblin: Okay, all right. Let’s move on from the blockchain and talk about your book, Radical Markets. I’ve read it twice now, and I can honestly say that, the first time, at least, I was just incredibly excited. I felt like a young economist again, back when I was an undergrad, because it’s, back then, all the time, there’s all of these big new ideas that you’re encountering that hope to explain the world and show you a path forward for making it better, and now I’m like, become old and jaded, and it’s hard to find any really exciting new ideas anymore, but you had, at least four of them that I really hadn’t heard before, which I thought was very impressive.Glen Weyl: Well, and the thing I would say for myself is that when I came up with those ideas, I experienced that sort of joy as well, but even more so, in the six months since the book came out, I’d say I’ve made more intellectual progress than in the whole 10 years before that. It’s been just one unending sort of trip through a candy store for me working on this book project, so-Robert Wiblin: I need to start reading all of your new papers, evidently, but yeah, so, unfortunately, we’re not going to have that long to talk about the proposals in the book. I think there’s only one that I really want to dive into, because we’ve got so many other issues to discuss, and I guess people can read the book if they’re interested, and I can stick up links to reviews, both positive and critical, but yeah. Maybe just quickly, can you try to summarize this as fast as possible, like what are the five proposals that you put forward in the book, and what’s the case for them?Glen Weyl: We propose an alternative to private property that’s based on the idea of auctions where everyone, every corporation or person with significant private property would self-assess the value of the asset and pay a tax on that self-assessed value but have to sell the asset at that price if someone else came along to buy it, and this would both fund enough to dramatically reduce inequality, would basically make two-thirds of private wealth common property, and at the same time, it would make a much more efficient and dynamic economy, because no assets would be subject to the current monopolization, and they could be much more easily transferred to new uses.Robert Wiblin: Rob here chiming in after the recording. I just wanted to offer some more information on this first proposal in the book, because I think it will come in quite handy later in the episode. The proposal is called the Common Ownership Self-Assessed Tax, or COST.Imagine that you owned a piece of commercial real estate with offices on it. Under the COST you would have to pay an annual tax of, say, 10% on the value of that property.Now a classic problem with such property taxes is that it’s hard to know the value of any particular piece of real estate.The COST solves this in a clever way. You get to say what you think the property is worth to you at any point in time, and pay the tax on that amount. But there’s a catch – your valuation would be listed publicly, and you have to be willing to sell it to anyone at that self-assessed price.This obviously gives you a reason to report a high value, to avoid being forced to suddenly sell it for a price that’s less than how much you actually value it.But on the other hand, you’d like to suggest a lower value if you could get away with it, to reduce your tax bill.The point at which these considerations balance out is if the tax rate is the same as the rate at which that kind of property naturally changes hands. So if it’s efficient for a piece of commercial real estate to get a new owner each twenty years, then with a 5% tax rate, your best bet is just to write down how much you actually value the piece of property. Neat huh!Now, taxes like this would obviously also discourage you from investment in creating valuable things, because as that thing became more valuable your taxes would go up, extracting some of the value. This is a good reason to keep tax rates lower than they otherwise would be, but Glen thinks that suitably low rates would have an acceptable effect on investment rates. Keep in mind other taxes could be reduced as the COST increased.For Glen a big benefit of having public prices on significant pieces of property, and allowing folks to quickly buy them at that price, is that it will improve allocative efficiency, by reducing search costs and the amount of time-consuming kind-of competitive or strategic bidding behaviour among buyers and sellers of unique pieces of property.Glen speculates that we could end up funding much of government using the COST, and that it could ultimately end up being applied not only to things like commercial real estate, but all forms of wealth.In a way this would mean we fund government by renting all of our significant property from it.There are obviously pretty serious practical issues here, but the book does a decent job of making them seem surmountable, at least for some kinds of property.Anyway, now you know about the Common Ownership Self-Assessed Tax. Back to the second proposal in the book.Glen Weyl: The second idea is called quadratic voting. It’s an alternative way of voting that protects minorities rather than them needing to be protected by new rights and things like that, separate rights. The notion is that everyone would have a budget of voice credits they could spend on different issues where the cost of the number of votes that they get is the square of the votes that they get on that issue. That allows for truly representative decision making where everyone can weigh in in proportion to how much they care, which we think would resolve a lot of the current tensions around democracies.Glen Weyl: Third, we propose a new system of migration where, rather than nation-states having the primary responsibility for migrants coming in, and therefore most of the benefits of migration accruing to wealthy employers or the migrants themselves, we would allow individuals in communities to sponsor migrants and to benefit from them coming so that you would have far broader support for migration as well as potentially much higher levels thereof.Glen Weyl: Fourth, we argue that almost all of the market power that exists is not as actually ignored by competition policy at present and that most of that comes from two sources. One is institutional investors who own most of the corporate economy and have no interest in seeing people compete. That’s like Vanguard, BlackRock, State Street, and from the power that companies have over their workers rather than over their consumers, and that there are simple, very simple, antitrust policy changes that would address these issues, and these should be implemented, and that they would have macro-level effects on inequality and growth.Glen Weyl: Finally, we argue that all the data that all of us are every day feeding to Google and Facebook is what trains all of their artificial intelligence and machine learning systems that everyone is saying are going to replace us as workers, and that if we just recognized that data as the labor that it is, we would be able to provide people a sustainable living rather than telling them that they’re useless.Glen Weyl: To provide people with sustainable living rather than telling them that they’re useless.Robert Wiblin: That sounds like you’ve had various changes of opinion, and you’ve learned lots of new things since the book came out, I guess, about eight months ago. Which of these do you now think is the worst? Are there any that you’ve gone cold on?Glen Weyl: I think my interpretation of them has changed quite a bit, but I don’t think that there’s anything we said in the book that I don’t think would be an improvement of the status quo as described in the book. I think probably the one that I think is most misconceived in terms of how it’s described is the Immigration one. I think the Data is Labor one was also described poorly in the book.Robert Wiblin: Yeah, how do you think you miscommunication them?Glen Weyl: I think fundamentally the whole book, but especially those, are too individualistic and don’t think enough about supporting social institutions or even … they just conceive of the relevant actors as too much being isolated individuals rather than being various groups or public good providing entities or however you wanted to describe that. I think that that was confused and confusing.Robert Wiblin: Yeah, is there any of these that you think is just kind of a no-brainer, that should just be turned into policy? I guess you hate that word, but should be done sooner rather than later?Glen Weyl: I think the things that are closest to “policy” are the things in the Data is Labor chapter and the Antitrust chapter. I think those are rapidly happening in both Europe and increasingly even in the US. I think that that stuff is policy-ish and is being treated is such. I think it’s making great progress.Robert Wiblin: The Antitrust one there is the idea that kind of an index fund that owns all of the companies in America. It would have to choose … if it gets efficiently big, it would have to choose just one airline and say that it’s going to invest in so that it can’t own a large fraction of all of them and then just encourage them not to compete with one another, which is just an obvious kind of … yeah, [inaudible 00:33:59] of trust.Glen Weyl: Yesterday we had the great tragedy of having lost Jack Vogle, who is the Founder of Vanguard, and not just a hero but a personal mentor of mine and my wife’s. A truly great man. When I first told him about my views of this, it was a subject of some contention. One thing I greatly admire about him is that over the course of several years since then, he really came around. He was one of the most important voices warning of too much power being in too few hands in that industry. That’s something I think definitely needs to be addressed sooner rather than later.Robert Wiblin: Great, all right. Let’s dive into one of these ideas in greater detail. One that I haven’t heard discussed on other podcasts as much, which is quadratic voting. You gave a very quick description of quadratic voting earlier, but kind of what is it and what’s some more detail, what’s the case for it being better than just a one person/one vote system that we have today?Glen Weyl: The idea is that every citizen will be allocated an equal budget of voice credits, which they can use to vote on different issues or candidates in favor of or against. They have to pay out of their voice credits the square of the number of votes that they buy. The reason that the square is the right formula, is that you want people to buy votes in proportion to how much they care about an issue. In order for that to be the case, people have to buy votes just up until the point where the next vote is worth it to them. In the quadratic formula, and only in that formula, the cost of the next vote is proportional to how many votes you’ve already bought.Glen Weyl: That gives everyone an incentive to weigh in precisely in proportion to how much they care. That’s how to think about it from a utilitarian perspective. But more broadly, what I would say that is quadratic voting gives an opportunity for people to express their commitments and their engagement with different aspects of social life in a fluid and open way that is not allowed under standard voting protocols. Albert [Hirschman 00:36:11] once said that, “Authoritarianism actually gives people a great ability to speak sometimes, than does democracy, because it’s too cheap to speak under democracy.” So there is no way for people to actually show that something’s really important to them.Glen Weyl: Whereas, under authoritarianism, if you go out and protest in the street, you know that’s really an important thing to someone. In some ways, what quadratic voting does is without the violations of freedom, gives people an opportunity to truly show what’s important to them.Robert Wiblin: So it’s the idea that each year each voter would get 100 voice credits that they can then spread out over various issues that they want to vote on? Or, is it that people could buy these voice credits? Or is it kind of both ideas are there?Glen Weyl: It’s complicated because it depends whether you’re talking about a proposal that I’m making over what time horizon and where, but I think if you asked my ultimate vision of the world, probably I have a vision where this sort of expression of voice replaces income. So there’s not even a clear notion of money. Then even asking the question becomes difficult. In the short term, I would say you should give voice credits in relatively egalitarian and legitimately accepted ways that are easy for people to grasp and be happy with.Glen Weyl: Is there some realm in between those two where you might use something more like money? Possibly, but it’s probably not that much.Robert Wiblin: All right, so when was this idea first proposed? Was it you and your colleagues who originated it?Glen Weyl: The truth is that there is nothing truly new under the sun. There are precedents in some form for pretty much everything. You can, in some ways, trace this back to Roger Penrose in the 1940s. You can, in some ways, trace it back to the 1970s and 1980s. But in terms of something that is recognizably decodable as quadratic voting, and intelligible even to most economists as such, it originates in a paper in 2012 that I wrote. I came up with it in 2009.Robert Wiblin: Has it been applied anywhere? Where do you think it might have the greatest contribution?Glen Weyl: It’s been used a lot in polling right now.Glen Weyl: But it’s also been used in export/import regulatory compliance, block chain stuff. It’s been used inside lots of organizations. It’s been used among students. But in the long term, I think the most important ways to deal with global public goods like climate change or something like that. But that’s obviously going to take longer than some of these other applications get. There’s a whole range of things.Robert Wiblin: Can you explain how would this help with climate change? For that matter, how is being used in this import/export regulation?Glen Weyl: They’re using it elect block makers, who then verify compliance with various regulations, and the participants who have to elect them come from the governments or other organizations that are involved in regulatory compliance for import/export. In terms of climate change, the idea would be that you have to come to an agreement on international rules that have very disparate impacts on many different people. You need to have a clear understanding of the trade offs that people have between different aspects of that agreement because some aspects have huge effects on one country, others have huge effects on others, and you need a way to make that credible. In that process of bargaining, quadratic voting is a natural tool to use to express those views.Robert Wiblin: I see. So we’re imagining at the Paris Climate Conference, where they’re trying to come up with [crosstalk 00:42:18]-Glen Weyl: Well I don’t know what city they’re moving onto now, now that Paris is over, but yeah.Robert Wiblin: Yeah, the next question of that. I guess-Robert Wiblin: I guess we’re going to do the voice credits, and I suppose in order to make this appealing to countries it would have to be, to some extent, in proportion to their power or their influence, or their size or something.Robert Wiblin: So more powerful countries get more voice credits, otherwise they’re just not going to be interested in participating.Robert Wiblin: But then this will kind of streamline the negotiations and the trade offs that have to be made between different countries because they will be easier for countries to communicate sincerely how much to care about different issues.Glen Weyl: Which is kind of the polling application that I was telling you about, right?Robert Wiblin: Right. Do you want to explain how it works in polling?Glen Weyl: We ran a survey for about 5000 people, where there were 10 hot button US issues like repeal Obamacare, deport a bunch of illegals, et cetera. People had 100 voice credits to allocate in favor of or against these different issues. According to this, sum of the squares is equal to your total budget rule, so that’s the idea.Robert Wiblin: Yeah. Maybe explain in that concrete case. I imagine people have probably seen polls before. It’s like you’ve got 100 points that you get to divvy up between different issues that you care about. In that case, it’s linear rather than quadratic so you can give like 10 different issues, 10 points.Glen Weyl: Here, what happens is you keep pressing plus or go up on something. It’s like a thumbs up or a thumbs down. As you do, the scale down to an increasing rate so you can visually see the fact that it’s got this quadratic structure to it.Robert Wiblin: But it’s getting more expensive to vote, and harder and harder.Robert Wiblin: Again, so the reason is that casting extra votes is like imposing a greater and greater imposition on other people? Is that the idea?Robert Wiblin: But why is my second vote a greater imposition on someone else than my first vote? From their point of view, they don’t care whether I voted twice, or two other people have each voted once.Glen Weyl: Basically, if the system is working optimally, then suppose you don’t participate. The system should be doing what is best for everyone other than you. Now, if I start voting, I’m moving away from the optimal point for everyone else. But the loss from moving away from an optimal point is always second order. There’s no first order loss, because otherwise you would have moved where we were before to somewhere else.Robert Wiblin: This makes it a bit more intuitive. So you’ve got some kind equilibrant point, that’s like [inaudible 00:44:46] what everyone else wants. Then as you move away, the size of the imposition of other people’s preferences is like a triangle or a square, or-Robert Wiblin: And so then it’s growing to the square because the area of a square or a triangle is to the square. Okay. That’s makes it a bit more intuitive. Did you want to paint a vision for how this would work in kind of state or national elections?Glen Weyl: Yeah, I mean I think eventually we would like to have a system where there is some pool of voice credits that you have to spread across many different elections, including state, local, national, referenda, elections for high office, elections for parliament, et cetera. And you can spread your votes across all of these so you can weigh in on the things that are most important to you, and weigh less in on things that less important to you. You could save it across to weight on the elections that are most important to you and less on the ones that are less important to you.Robert Wiblin: One concern that people would have with anyone being able to vote more than once it that it would lead to some people dominating a decision, although they’re worried about the inequality that this would create. Is the quadratic formula of using a square root a sufficient dampener, that you think it would have an acceptable [crosstalk 00:45:57]-Glen Weyl: Certainly that’s true, but the other important thing to recognize is that there exists no system that is truly equal because in the end we elect representatives. Those representatives weigh in much more than the rest of us do. There’s always going to be a system by which we reveal that some people decide to have more influence than other people do. That is in the nature of politics. The question is, can we do that in a way that’s as optimal and as free, and as equal in an aggregate sense as possible? I think that quadratic voting does that in a way that no other system that’s yet been proposed does.Robert Wiblin: So that raises the point that presumably some people would anticipate, that if we had opted quadratic voting that they would influence because they get more power in a less observable way. They have more discretion in a less observable way here, where was quadratic voting would [inaudible 00:46:49] someone, and they might oppose this. Do you have any sense of who those people might be, and how they might be appeased so that they don’t mind it so much?Glen Weyl: I think one important thing to recognize is that quadratic voting actually can give you efficiency gains. It doesn’t have to be the case that things come at one person’s expense and benefit someone else. You can actually get better outcomes overall. In addition to that, I think that there are going to be people who will be disadvantaged by this. I actually think it’s a bit hard to tell precisely who those people will be. They may not even be within some particular, identifiable, externally visible group. I’m not sure in the case quadratic voting I could even very clearly tell you who the people are going to be who will benefit or be harmed. It’s not even clear that they could predict it.Glen Weyl: My guess is that there are some groups that have really disproportionate and political power because of quirks in any given electoral system, like farmers in the United States, who are going to be disadvantaged by moving to any sort of reasonably coherent electoral system, or people who are benefiting from gerrymanders. I don’t think that’s a specific quadratic voting feature. It’s more a general feature of any plausible electoral reform.Robert Wiblin: I guess in as much as people can’t tell ahead of time who’s going to win and who’s going to lose, that’s good because there’s not going to be an identifiable lobby group that knows that they’re getting [crosstalk 00:48:15]-Glen Weyl: That’s James Buchanan’s idea of a Constitution. A Constitution is meant to made in such a fashion that it’s hard for people to clearly identify where they’ll end up standing, so they were put in a quasi behind the veil of ignorance position.Robert Wiblin: I’ve got some possible concerns about this to bring up. First, I was going to ask what do you think are the biggest downsides of quadratic voting, and if it’s used very much, or if it does get used it turns out badly. Why would that be?Glen Weyl: I think that the biggest issues with quadratic voting have to do with the fact that it assumes a fixed [inaudible 00:48:50]. This other idea of liberal radicalism tries to address that. The other biggest issue is that it kinds of solves the collective action problem almost too well in the sense that if people are acting purely self interestedly, it should lead to optimal outcomes.Glen Weyl: Actually people are altruistic towards other people to some extent, and we’ve evolved mechanisms that sort of address our selfishness. Because this is such a powerful solution for that, it almost maybe goes too far. We need to find other ways of sort of figuring out what those other social structures are, and sort of compensating for them somehow if we’re going to have an optimal system.Robert Wiblin: Yeah, I think we’ll come back to that with a liberal radicalism case, because I think the problem of altruism is most striking there. [inaudible 00:49:39] Cohen wrote about quadratic voting. My reservation about this and other voting schemes, such as demand revelation mechanisms, is that our notions to formal efficiency are too narrow to make judgments about political processes through social choice theory.Robert Wiblin: The actual goal is not to take counter preferences and translate them into the right outcomes in [inaudible 00:49:55] sense. Rather, the goal is to encourage better and more reasonable preferences, and also to shape a durable consensus for future belief in the policy. Did you have any reaction to that?Glen Weyl: I think that it’s not a very coherent argument to criticize a technology derived from loosely optimizing Condition X to say there’s Condition Y, and it was not designed to optimize Condition Y. You have to actually argue that it will do worse in achieving Condition Y, which is something … As far as I could tell when I read Tyler’s post, he never actually does. I think there’s many good reasons to think quadratic voting would do a better job of achieving a lasting consensus and overall social engagement better than one person/one vote does.Glen Weyl: In particular, it allows people to specialize and to have diverse social commitments rather than to be forced into a single coherent notion of the nation, and have everyone be equal with regards to that. Which, I don’t think is a good basis for a rich society. I actually think it leads to sort of a Russoian coherent nation that is not meaningful concept whereas quadratic voting allow for more expression within this collective context of people’s rich and diverse social commitments.Glen Weyl: I think there is other important points here, which is that Tyler says that about this collective setting, but when he turns to private goods he’s obsessed with the market. He’s all into everyone expressing whatever they want. But if what he said was correct, then why should we have market mechanisms to allocate private goods? Because those are even more subject that sort of a problem, in my view. In fact, I think in quadratic voting setting, those issues are much less present because actually we’re engaged in some sort of a collective thing, and we’re weighing on our different collective commitments.Glen Weyl: Whereas in a private market, why should we allocate goods to whatever it is that people happen to demand, when all those demands are ultimately just the outgrowth of collective conditions?Robert Wiblin: I think much of this will be Tyler’s view, but a lot of people might think that people have more well-considered preferences about a private goods that they’re going to consume, like what kind of car to buy or what house to live in, than they do about matters of public policy because if they buy a bad car, they suffer personally. The burden is on them for that bad decision, whereas if they vote for a bad public policy then overwhelmingly the burden of that, past their ignorance or their bad foresight, is on other people.Glen Weyl: Yeah, but that’s all the more reason why you’d want to move to a system like quadratic voting rather than to one person/one vote, because one person/one vote absolutely maximizes the problem you just described. It literally takes that to the furthest extreme that it could possibly take it by literally taking the men over every one of their ignorant … like the max over their ignorance, and assigning as much weight as possible to the person who’s maximally ignorant in that way.Glen Weyl: Whereas quadratic voting actually allows for the revelation of how important and knowledgeable things are to people. There’s a huge amount of evidence that people would vote if they have the chance to flex more on things that they’re more knowledgeable about. I think precisely if you’re concerned about that problem, is precisely why you should value quadratic voting.Robert Wiblin: That sounds right. Some people might have the intuition that … Let’s you’ve got this pre-existing problem of a population that just does not know a ton about public policy issues, that have chosen rationally to be ignorant about those issues because they can’t have much effect on them. Even after the application of quadratic voting, each individual in a large population still can’t have that much influence, even if they spend a lot of voice credits on an issue. They’re only a small fraction of the total poll.Robert Wiblin: This is another issue that’s come up from some critics, that they’re concerned that minority interest groups that really have a hobby horse that perhaps they haven’t thought about very well, would then have perhaps too much influence in the system collectively. Did you have any thoughts on that?Glen Weyl: The evidence that we have from political science is that on almost every issue in almost every social class, there is what Martin [Gillands 00:54:12] calls a “issue public”, which is some subset of those people who really care about, are informed about, and have preferences on that issue that treks a reasonable model of what would be in their interest. But the problem is, in many social classes, that’s a very small fraction of the population. Whereas among the wealthy, it tends to be most people.Glen Weyl: So I actually think allowing self revelation of things actually allows you to clear out the noise that’s supplied to the preferences of many classes, and to get the signal from those people. I actually think our current system, by swamping things so much noise and so much things that are easily influenced by wealth and advertising and stuff like that, basically makes it impossible for the signal for much of society to be heard.Robert Wiblin: We’re talking very abstractly here. Is it possible to kind of cash out that intuition like in a specific case where you think quadratic voting might make things go better?Glen Weyl: For example, if you look at economic issues, there is a relatively small part of the working class that really understands economic issues. Their preferences tend to far better track what an economist would predict would be the incidents on those people of various policies. They tend to be people maybe who have some experience with that particular policy issue, or they work in a tax office or something like that. They usually don’t know about the rest of other economic policy issues, but on some issue they really know that issue really, really well.Glen Weyl: The problem is most of their neighbors don’t know crap. They vote for some, let’s say, republican or whatever, who’s going to really work against their interests because they just don’t think about the economic side of stuff at all and they get advertised to a lot. That person, if instead their neighbors voted more on local issues, or social issues, or whatever it was that they actually were more knowledgeable about, the relative magnification of the voice of working class people would actually be far greater than the magnification of the voice of say wealthy people who are going to be knowledgeable about everything and not be able to spend their votes on everything.Robert Wiblin: This requires people to be more willing to spend their voice credits on issues that they’re more informed about, rather than perhaps passionate, but ignorant about.Glen Weyl: The evidence we have also suggests that when us ask people to prioritize, or you ask people intensity that it does a good job with tracking those things that people are most knowledgeable about in surveys.Glen Weyl: So there’s good reason to think that that would actually be the case.Robert Wiblin: You can imagine that it could go the other way, that the more informed people become, the more uncertain they are. Whereas, the more-Robert Wiblin: Okay, interesting. So just empirically that’s not how it works.Robert Wiblin: Do you have any concerns about minority groups in society, kind of the tail wagging the dog if there’s small groups that can save up all of their voice credits to do something that the rest of the population isn’t into?i suppose that’s compensated for, for everyone else, by the fact they again get a [crosstalk 00:57:06] of other decisions.Glen Weyl: They pay for those externalities, and they actually pay disproportionally. So that minority group actually is less overall influenced, but just gets an influence on the one issue they care about. I think that from my perspective, that’s how trade works. It’s like saying suppose some group saves up all of their income in order to buy the best cars in the society, and then starves to death otherwise. Is that really skin off of their nose? Or off someone else’s?Robert Wiblin: Okay. Yeah, I think I’m reasonably convinced. Do you think that we could use this to make other organizations that currently don’t really have voting apply voting? For example, within projects with incorporations, or like most organizations, we don’t use voting. I think part of the reason is that one person/one vote has major flaws that it doesn’t consider the strength of preferences, or indeed like the extent of people’s knowledge. Would more sophisticated voting systems make it more appealing to use voting in a wider range of context?Glen Weyl: I think that’s likely, and I think that’s likely to be one important application coming in years. Yeah.Robert Wiblin: I guess that’s place where you could try it out on a smaller scale, and it’s like, “Well that’s dangerous,” if doesn’t work as [inaudible 00:58:15] says.Glen Weyl: As a general matter, I think all of the ideas we’ll be talking about today are things that I want to become part of every day practices before they’re ever blessed by a state as some official and extremely important part of the social fabric.Robert Wiblin: One thing that occurred to me, was how do you stop people … Let’s say there’s a minority group that really cares about X. So it’s got gay people who are very passionate about gay marriage. There’s other groups in society that will have difference preferences from that group, but they know that this minority group is going to have use up lots of their voice credits in order to vote banning gay marriage from getting up. How do you stop them from putting this vote up again, and again, and again, to kind of exhaust the voice credits about people who they generally disagree with so that then they can up other things because they’d run down a little bit.Glen Weyl: You can have an endogenous agenda setting mechanism, where the agenda is … you only get something up for a vote if there is a certain number of sort of signatures. That’s the way that petitions for referenda usually work. Those signatures could be based on voice credits. Therefore, in order for a troll to do that, they would have to commit a lot of credits, which would wipe them out more quickly than the people they’re trying to wipe out would be wiped out by it.Robert Wiblin: Okay, so the idea is this kind of a fixed cost for putting something up to a vote that would rarely make it appealing to try to up other things just-Robert Wiblin: Okay. I guess depending on where that amount is set, it could either be too discouraging, or not discouraging enough, right?Glen Weyl: Ultimately, that thing should be set equal to whatever the social cost of changing the underlying policy is, or something like that. Some of the things around liberal radicalism that we’re going to be talking about should help reveal that. That set of issues was part of the inspiration for thinking about that.Robert Wiblin: It seems like it doesn’t have … does it have to be set in proportion to the social cost of putting up the policy? Because you kind of know that it’s not going to get up. The point is that you just know that in order to avoid from getting up, some other group has to spend a lot of voice credits.Glen Weyl: The thing is, the other group doesn’t need to send a lot of voice credits in order to stop it unless there’s already been a bunch committed to it. Otherwise, it’s basically free to stop it from getting up. It’s not actually the case that like, in equilibrium, what you were saying is going to happen. You can’t really get some group to spend down to avoid something unless there’s a credible threat that it actually passes. The only way to get a credible threat that it actually passes is for someone who’s part of this conspiratorial group to put stuff up.Glen Weyl: Then unless the conspiratorial group is like the majority of the population, but then it’s not really conspiratorial … Anyways, [inaudible 01:01:02] don’t actually happen. The only way that something like what you’re saying can happen is if people have some false beliefs, or if there’s some friction in the system or something like that.Robert Wiblin: I guess you could have risk aversion on the part of the minority group, if they really don’t want this thing to get up. So they always overspend ahead of time.Glen Weyl: There are many frictions in any system that one has to work out experimentally, and put in reasonable safeguards against. So I’m not saying that there would be none like that in quadratic voting. I just think a lot of these elaborate discussions are at very least, very premature and probably wrong, and probably missing other things that will come up. It sort of has to be discovered.Robert Wiblin: How high do you think it would be for people to come to accept quadratic voting as legitimate?Glen Weyl: People who try it out have a really good time with it, and say that it generally makes sense to them. I actually think that a harder thing honestly for people to come to believe it’s legitimate is democracy. The truth is, we don’t actually use democracy that much. Quadratic voting and the lot of the organizations that you’re describing, the harder thing is to get them to even think about any form of voting at all, much less quadratic voting.Glen Weyl: But look, any major social change is going to take a long time. I think that this one is one that whose benefits manifest themselves relatively quickly. It should have the ability to spread relatively quickly, but it will spread still in an organic way through different social groups. It won’t come to be seen legitimate until many people have had experience with it. I think that will gradually happen over the course of five or 10 years, or 15 years or something like that.Robert Wiblin: In a world where people can kind of trade voice credits sometime in the future, do you think that it would actually end up being more cost effective for a wealthy advocate for an issue to buy those voice credits than just to own The New York Times, or to try to engage in advocacy in some other form.Glen Weyl: I don’t think people should be allowed to just trade voice credits across people. That has to be [inaudible 01:02:53] in the system.Robert Wiblin: Okay, you still have the quadratic function that dampens people’s-Glen Weyl: Yeah, but if you buy voice credits from somebody else, then that turns it into a monetized system.Robert Wiblin: But it sounded like you’re open to a monetized system where you might be able to pay taxes to get votes or something.Glen Weyl: Potentially. Potentially, but I wouldn’t want that-Glen Weyl: Yeah, well some amount down the road. Then there are things that are further down the road than that, which eliminate most private income and we can talk about those. So yeah.Robert Wiblin: Okay, just before we get to eliminating income, if there’s any listeners out there who are very excited about this idea of quadratic voting and any of this, definitely [inaudible 01:03:33] who are very into voting reform as general, what needs to be done and what organizations or people can they get involved with to push this forward?Glen Weyl: There’s all sorts of start ups that are experimenting with things like this. Start ups like Democracy Earth, you can come to the Radical Exchange Conference. I have lots of people who come to the Radical Exchange Conference. You can find at www.radicalxchange.org, and you’ll get exposed to all those there. We would love to explore applications to local democracy-Glen Weyl: We would love to explore applications to local democracy, to citizens’ petitions. We’d love to find someone in Taiwan. The Taiwanese government wants to experiment with this, but we need someone who’s sort of technically inclined in Taiwan who wants to work with the Taiwanese government on this. So that would be a great avenue, if anyone wants to do that.Glen Weyl: So yeah, we have many avenues like that. Yeah. Get involved with radical exchange. The whole goal of it is to, you know, do the stuff … We have local groups all over the world that are, in a collaborative way, trying to experiment with these things. So, you know, join a local chapter, start a local chapter if there doesn’t happen to be one in the area that you’re living in.Robert Wiblin: What kinds of skills do you think are most needed? Like what’s the ideal kinds of people to move this forward? Or does it take all kinds?Glen Weyl: Well, it absolutely takes all kinds. But, you know, the types that I want the most are artists.Robert Wiblin: I did not expect that. Explain that one.Glen Weyl: Artists of all types. Yeah. Filmmakers or video game designers … Because what’s going to make this really compelling for people ultimately is the user experience and the way in which people are able to imagine how a world based on this would be different. And we need people to help with that sort of thing even more than we need experiments, because there’s lots of experiments that are going on.Robert Wiblin: This makes me think, could this be first applied … or could a lot of people get kind of first exposure with this on Wikipedia or on YouTube or on like a [crosstalk 00:01:27].Glen Weyl: Yes. So I think probably the best commercial application of this, and this is something, because I know a lot of your listeners are probably in tech companies, I think the best commercial application of this is to replace reputation systems online.Robert Wiblin: Yeah. That seems like a no brainer, really.Glen Weyl: Because like right now you think about like … Right now you have like a private tip on Uber, right? But that’s much more credible because it’s actually your money. Or you have this review thing which has like almost no informational content. So why not have something that’s in between those where you get voice credits and you can spend them to vote up or down someone’s reputation.Glen Weyl: So that just seems like a no brainer to me. So I think that that’s one of the most interesting applications.Robert Wiblin: Yeah, that’s interesting. I guess like dating sites, I guess, have tried to create more credible signal by giving you these things. So it’s like you have one vote a day or something for the person who you’re most interested in. And then try to recreate this. But you could all do it in this more fluid, quadratic mechanism that you could then apply to all kinds of different online services.Robert Wiblin: All right. with that throat clearing of quadratic voting out of the way, let’s talk about a more recent idea that you’re even even more excited about, which is liberal radicalism. Or … You put this into a paper, “Liberal Radicalism: A flexible design for philanthropic matching funds.” A paper that you wrote with Vitalik Buterin, the credit theorem theory, and Zoe Hitz …Robert Wiblin: Zoë Hitzig. So, yeah, you think you’re particularly excited about it? And you’re not the only one. Economist Alex Tabarrok called it, “Quite amazing and a quantum leap in public goods mechanism design.” So take it away. What’s the proposal of liberal radicalism?Glen Weyl: Well, so right now the way that we organize most of these increasing returns things I was talking about before, all these things we do together in big groups, is either we have like corporate monopolies of various sorts, charities that are totally underfunded because of the free rider problem, or democratic states that are like extremely rigid and have very little relationship to anything like optimal connection to the relevant goods. So I would submit that like most public goods problems are just like really poorly served at the moment. And what liberal radicalism tries to do is use ideas that sort of came out of quadratic voting. Rather than to vote for a fixed organization, to allow a new principal for the formation of organizations of people. And the notion is based kind of on the idea of matching funds. So in the state of New York, or in New York City in particular, if you contribute to a political campaign less than $100, you get matched six for one, as long as there’s enough other contributors and there’s some threshold.Glen Weyl: But you might ask … “Well that makes sense.” It’s sort of like, “Well, no one really wants to contribute to political campaigns because they’re not going to make a difference, so it would be good if we match them because then maybe they’ll contribute more.” So that makes some sense. And also like, “We’ve got all this money, we want to give it. Who should we give it to you? Should we just give it to the guy who has the best polling ratings?” Well, that doesn’t sound right. You want someone who actually people are into and willing to contribute to. Right?Glen Weyl: So it all sort of makes sense, but then you ask, “Okay, why only up to $100? Why some particular threshold? It’s all totally arbitrary.” So then you could ask what’s actually the optimal system for doing something like that. And it turns out that it’s this particular formula which is the square of the sum of the square roots contributed being the amount that’s received by the organization. And that’s the liberal radicalism formula. And the idea of liberal radicalism is that we would have a new type of organization that maybe it would eventually replace states and corporations, that would be based on this principle.Robert Wiblin: So this formula is that you take everyone’s personal contributions, how much personal sacrifice they’d be willing to make, then you square root it, you square root each of them and you add them all up and then you square the sum of that.Robert Wiblin: Is there any way of making intuitive why that is the optimal formula? I guess I don’t want to get too bogged down on that. People can read the paper [crosstalk 01:09:27].Glen Weyl: I think the closest way that I think of to explain it is from Kant’s idea of the categorical imperative. So Immanuel Kant had this idea that probably your philosophically inclined readers are familiar with, that you should act as if by your action everybody else would act the same way. Now, selfish people won’t generally do that. So the question is, could you come up with a mathematical formula that will cause it to be the case that you perceive it as if everybody else does that. And you can think of matching as being a version of that. It’s like, “Oh, I contribute $1. Well, if everybody else contributed $1 when I contributed $1, then I wouldn’t have any incentive to free ride because it would just be like I was choosing the tax rate for the whole society.” Right? And so it turns out that if you just write down the general version of what I just described as a differential equation, you can then integrate that up and you get the liberal radicalism formula.Robert Wiblin: So, yeah, a question I had about this, and I guess both … and quadratic voting as well, is it sounds like the mathematical derivation is not that complicated, although it might not be immediately obvious just from listening to this conversation. Why did it take so long for people to come up with these formulas? Are they just not … Have people just not been investigating this kind of line of research in general?Glen Weyl: Well, what I would say is, have you ever read Einstein’s Principle of Special Relativity?Glen Weyl: It doesn’t use anything beyond, basically, trigonometry.Glen Weyl: Why did it take so long for people to come up with that?Robert Wiblin: It’s kind of everything obvious in retrospect issue or …Glen Weyl: Yeah, I mean sort of. I mean like … And, in fact, the deepest insights are usually mathematically the simplest. The slightly longer and more convoluted answer is that there was this … You know, Vickrey had these ideas. And the problem is people took them to serious … William Vickry was the guy who came up with the Vickrey Auction, which was the original seed that ends up leading to something like quadratic voting. But the problem is he had this very general solution, but which doesn’t really make any sense like in any practical case. And he pointed out that that was true. But everybody was so enamored of the fact that his was generally correct, that they didn’t try to find like versions of it that might actually make sense. They basically just said, “Oh, that’s correct in general,” and then either you were like Tyler and you’re like … just dismiss that whole thing and you’re like, “Ah, too abstract.” Or you were like, you know, Robin Hanson and you just said, “Let’s just do it! Let’s just do it!” You know? And like neither of those was really convincing.Glen Weyl: So if you get something like quadratic voting or like what I … like liberal radicalism, you have to take, instead, the attitude that, “Yes, that’s the right goal. How do we find something that gets 99 percent of the answer in a way that might be practical and philosophically satisfying?” And so forth. And that requires a little bit less of just sort of the like optimizing mathematicians like, you know, obsession with just getting the perfect answer to things and a little bit more of some appreciation for that perspective, but also a broader way of thinking about things. And that does not seem to be in high supply among people who describe themselves as economists.Robert Wiblin: Okay. So backing up to liberal radicalism, specifically, it seems like with public goods there’s kind of two classic problems. One is that people are inclined to free ride on the contributions of other people. I mean humans in reality, but more psychologically complicated than that. But in the models, they don’t want to contribute to public goods basically at all because it’s all going to benefiting other people.Robert Wiblin: And then you’ve got this other problem that, in fact, we don’t even know how much of the public good would be optimal to supply because it’s very hard to elicit people’s honest preferences about how much they would value it … a public good existing, more or less.Robert Wiblin: So. Which one of these is liberal radicalism targeted at? Or is it both?Glen Weyl: Yeah, I mean, Alex Tabarrok says that these things are different, but I don’t agree with that. I basically think they’re the same problem. But I think the fundamental problem is that the system of private property is just not the right system when you have situations like this. I think that’s the fundamental issue. And like the system of private property just doesn’t make sense when you have increasing returns things because it treats something whose value is really created by this sort of collective process as something that belongs to individuals. And then individuals are going to try to get as much of that collective thing as they can to take it away. And that’s basically the free rider problem, but it’s not really like an abstract problem. It’s a problem that comes out of the system of private property.Robert Wiblin: If you had a public good that had declining rather than increasing returns, I guess … Or is it the nature of public goods that –Glen Weyl: Then it wouldn’t be a public good. Because public good has the property right that if you supply it to n people, on a per person basis, it’s cheaper than supplying it to n over two people. Right. So that’s what makes it increasing returns.Robert Wiblin: On a per person. I see. I see. So it becomes more and more efficient, the larger the population.Robert Wiblin: Okay. So I guess then you’re saying that it deals with both of these issues. It both gets people to reveal their honest preferences for how much they value public good and it then gives them a reason to personally contribute.Glen Weyl: Well, yeah, I mean, another way of putting it is that eliminating private property is the source of the contributions. So the issue of people not contributing [crosstalk 01:14:54].Robert Wiblin: But people might be a bit alarmed by this eradicating of private property. What do you mean by that?Glen Weyl: Well, so liberal radicalism reveals the right amount of the public good that should be supplied, but it doesn’t actually supply most of the funds that are necessary.Glen Weyl: Those funds have to come from elsewhere.Glen Weyl: And so the question is … Well, yeah, you could call them taxes. I don’t really like even that term. I mean the point is like things shouldn’t be private property. Like most things shouldn’t be private property because most of the value associated with them doesn’t actually come from things that one individual did. It came from a social process that created that value. Like you think about what do you value? You value an apartment. But do you value an apartment anywhere? If I put it in the middle of like a desert, would you value the apartment? No. You value the apartment in a community. So most of that value actually belongs to the community, not to you, the apartment owner. Right? And so it’s just not logical. It just doesn’t cohere to like think of most of stuff as being private property. Unless … You know, like in the middle of the desert, maybe that could be private property. That’s fine. But, you know, in a civilization that doesn’t really make any sense.Robert Wiblin: Okay. So, unfortunately, we skipped over the first chapter of the book, which might make that a little bit clearer.Robert Wiblin: Maybe we’ll get to talk about that more. Maybe we’ll have time. Otherwise I’ll stick up links to other people who can explain your view on private property a bit more.Robert Wiblin: But, yeah, we’ve been being quite abstract here. Yeah, maybe could we go through kind of a worked example of how this in practice would like allow us to provide a specific public good. And like imagine one person kind of contributed more or less in this framework and what their incentives are.Glen Weyl: Yeah. So the idea is, you know, suppose we’re all giving money, again, to a political candidate to campaign for elective office. If I give one more dollar … imagine we’re all homogeneous. There’s like 100 people that are contributing to this person. Under this mechanism, what happens is if I contribute $1, the mechanism matches $99. Now, that shows you why you need money from the outside in order to do that matching. Right?Glen Weyl: The notion is then that we will all choose a level such that if we could each choose to like tax each other for it, we would choose that level rather than a level which is just derived from like what I individually want to contribute.Robert Wiblin: Okay. So it seems like kind of the larger the population of people who are affected by this or who are contributing some amount, the more of other people’s kind of resources that I can then command by giving a little bit more of my own money to this thing. And, indeed, the amount could be like vast, right?Glen Weyl: Right. Because then it’s less and less your private … Well, the thing is it’s less and less your private project then, and it belongs more and more to other people. So you shouldn’t be able to command other people’s resources for something that’s just selfish. But for something having their own private property that’s available, that they have their house, and they have their stuff. They have their private sphere where they don’t really have to care what other people think, and that that is something that protects us from tyranny and concentration of power. Then they look at this thing where you would have to rent your land. You can never buy it outright. You always have to rent it. They’re like, “This is destroying this private sphere that allows decentralization of power and gives people a place where they can always do what they want, come what may.”Glen Weyl: I think that the fundamental flaw in that logic can be easily seen on the internet. Do you really think decentralization of power online comes from every individual’s ability to read, and consent, or not consent to the terms and conditions that they’re so easily able to negotiate with the tech giants? You just think about it, and it’s like as a logical matter, the actual power that people derive in a decentralized way almost always comes from their ability to act collectively. It’s almost never possible on your own to exercise much power. The only people who think that power comes from your private property are people who have a huge amount of wealth. They’re able to use that wealth because they have monopolized the collective wealth of a large number of people. Then yeah, sure. Then private property is the source of your power.Robert Wiblin: The standard thing that libertarians, or neoliberals, or I guess even social democrats might say is that the way to solve that is just with government redistribution, that they collect taxes, and then send people a check. That provides them with the positive freedom because they always know that they’re going to have this money. [inaudible 02:26:19] you get this enthusiasm for a minimum basic income, and so on.Glen Weyl: I think that that would take away all of the freedom at some level because if you truly flattened everything out, then no one would have an ability to act collectively. Everyone would be on the flat. Right now there’s the people who have a lot of wealth. They can actually feel some sense of agency. The people who don’t have much feel no sense of agency. Now if you flatten it all out, like maybe you double people’s income, do those people really feel a sense of agency? They still would feel a sense of agency when they’re able to act collectively. See, I actually think inequality is the fundamentally wrong thing to be going after even though I believe in equality. I think the fundamentally wrong thing is that there are all these collective processes where we’ve randomly chosen someone to be in charge of that collective process because that collective process is the actual source of agency. Then whoever is in charge of it feels agency, and everybody else feels none. What you really need to spread is that sense of collective agency, not the sense of this completely itemized individual agency because ultimately, that doesn’t allow you to do very much to actually feel like you’re in control of any process.Robert Wiblin: I feel like I haven’t understood that. If you partially redistribute some income, so that people whose incomes previously were low, and now are more medium, then they can still coordinate with people through the forming of corporations, or co-operatives, or nonprofits, or just friendship groups.Glen Weyl: Right. I’m not saying that the redistribution is bad. I’m just saying it’s not sufficient because if you’ve taken and privatized all of the forms of collective agency, which are like corporations, which actually control the major coordination in our society or states, if you’ve put those in a very narrow hands, then you’ve already basically centralized agency. Just then giving people a little bit more income doesn’t actually accomplish very much in redecentralizing that. Only by allowing that collective agency to be emergency, and flowing, and have people have a chance to participate in that do I think you give people a real sense of agency.Robert Wiblin: This is things like the liberal radicalism where you’re coming up with new ways of people to coordinate, to do things that previously were there were no institutions available. I guess all of us have a deep worldview that informs how we approach these problems. I guess it seems like a deep part of your worldview is that, decentralization is good, that concentrations of power, you’re very nervous about, and that everyone has something really useful to contribute. I guess, what things could you see that would make you wonder whether that was actually right? Could you imagine reading some papers, and you’re like, “Actually, no, we need a technocratic elite to be running everything?” In fact, I’m more nervous now about decentralization of power than I used to be. Of course, there’s many threads of political philosophy that are quite concerned about majoritarian rule, which I guess you’re trying to deal with these concerns.Glen Weyl: I am concerned about that too. Look, if I believed in some of the culturalist erasist stuff, and I really thought, or honestly, if biotechnology progresses to the point where some people are able to turn themselves into X-Men, and everybody else is left behind, my first solution to that would be let’s try to equalize that, but if I couldn’t, and there was some persistent reason why … Her, think about Her. Imagine that there were a few people in the world who had the capacities of the Her people, like Her. Everybody else was just like an ordinary human. Then there would be real questions of is really the richness and complexity of organization living at that level and not at the level or ordinary people? My guess is in that sort of world, the sorts of questions I’m talking about aren’t even going to be an issue any more. Those beings are just going to separate themselves, and there will be nothing anyone can do about it.Robert Wiblin: I guess in that case it seems like Futarchy, like Robin Hanson’s idea where people vote for what they want, but then bet on what the outcomes will be, might work quite well because you would avoid exploitation by having distributed voting power, but then you would have these superhuman minds would predict what the outcomes of different policies or different actions would be. Then they would be able to achieve whatever outcome was specified by a broad population. We’re [inaudible 02:30:44] in science fiction now.Glen Weyl: I have issues with Futarchy, but I think what I really object to, it’s less even the worldview I’m talking about. I think really, the problem I have is that there is a rhetoric out there of trying to convince people that they’re insufficient and that everything should be the private property of a small number of people for this reason when in fact, if it was really the case that those few people were so important, and great, and powerful, they wouldn’t need to have all this rhetoric to convince other people of it. People would just see it, they would get it. If there were really a few X-Men floating around, it would be manifest to everyone. In fact, those X-Men wouldn’t even need everyone else. They would do the Atlas Shrugged thing like go off, [inaudible 02:31:30], do whatever you want, and have no connection to the outside world. If you’re really that great, just do it, and stop bitching, and trying to convince everybody else that they’re inadequate, and stupid, and useless, and that you’re the elite. You know what I mean? That’s the thing that I think is so ridiculous.Glen Weyl: Fine. That doesn’t bother anyone if you want to go do that, but don’t take as private property all the stuff that was produced in this society that we created. Go off on your own with nothing into the forest and build this great Atlantis that you’re capable of doing, and that no one else can do. Great. Honestly, if there were a bunch of X-Men, they would do that. They wouldn’t bother with everyone else. They’d just go off into outer space and do their own thing. That’s not what’s actually going on. What’s actually going on is that there’s this elite of people who’s trying to use rhetoric to dominate others, and to take the collective work that others have done, and expropriate it to themselves. I think that’s nonsense.Robert Wiblin: To speak up for the poor elite of the world, [crosstalk 02:32:35] the last few decades. Again, to repeat, I guess I look at global statistics. I’m like, “Health is improving so quickly.” Education is rising. Globally, GDP growth is really good. We’ve had no major wars. I think setting aside, again, these risks from technologies, the world just seems to be going really well to me, much better than it has at any other point in history. It’s true that there’s this middle class group in developed countries who have had a bad few decades where their incomes have stagnated for reasons that people will try to debate, but we’re talking about 5% to 10% of the global population. Most other people have been doing really fantastically. Do we really want that kind of tail wag the whole dog and say, “Let’s radically change things that seem to be going super well just because there’s this very vocal minority of people in the world who are upset?”Glen Weyl: I think throughout history there have been these moments when big inequalities of some sort arose, and then they got resolved in some way. I think to a large extent, the whole neoliberal thing that we’re in right now was a result of women, minorities, people in poor countries being fed up with the way that they’ve been marginalized. Neoliberal progressivism, which is our current ideology is to a large extent like an outgrowth of dealing with those inequalities, but in the process other inequalities flared up. If you want people in the poor world to do well, if you want women and minorities to do well, you better find a way to address the concerns of the people who are feeling really alienated right now because there’s a lot of them, and they’re in strategic positions. We, according to my theories, can address their concerns in ways that actually will make things better for the rest of the world that you’re worried about. Just ignoring them and saying, “Let’s just keep on the trajectory” is, I think, a recipe for a huge reaction that’s going to bring down all the benefits that you had before and possibly destabilize the whole global community. I think it’s a really stupid and arrogant approach to ignore those issues just because the things that you’ve done have accomplished something.Robert Wiblin: Yeah. I do feel it seems to be women and minorities who vote most consistently for the institutionalist candidate. Hillary Clinton, obviously, that’s the case. Maybe I’ll look more broadly whether it’s the case that people who come from more marginalized groups are more likely to vote … They seem more dissatisfied and more likely to vote for radical changes.Glen Weyl: The current system has been helping them converge.Robert Wiblin: Right, exactly. They’ve been doing a lot better.Glen Weyl: That’s great. That’s a huge advance in human welfare. It’s a huge accomplishment, and it’s the reason why for my all critiques of neoliberal capitalism, I still think it was a major improvement on what came even immediately before in the 1950s, but that doesn’t mean it’s enough, or that it’s stable, or that we don’t need to do things to keep it from going off the rails.Robert Wiblin: Yeah, this has been super stimulating. We’re almost out of time. I want to give you maybe five minutes to talk about what you’d like listeners to do if they want to get on board with this agenda, what they should be reading, you pitch for changing society for the better, and how to do it.Glen Weyl: Absolutely. We’re trying to build a movement that connects really a broad range of people. We have arts and communications, entrepreneurship and technology, ideas and research, and activism and government. We need people in all of those areas who want to get involved and work with people from all the other areas. We need people to start local groups. We need people to develop public policies. We need technocrats who want to work within existing power structures to create experiments. We need entrepreneurs who want to build new platforms, and tools, and whatever, and have those things grow. We need artists who want to help communicate these ideas and imagine them. We need researchers who want to develop the ideas further and want to get beyond just talking to technocrats or talking in this narrow language, but actually want to start engaging in a democratic spirit, and being in touch with all these other people.Glen Weyl: There are now about 100 groups around the world, and we need many more of them. Anyone who’s interested in getting involved can reach out to me on Twitter. Reach out to @radexchange on Twitter. Go to www.radicalexchange.org and don’t just follow my writings. This isn’t about me. We’re going to create a intellectual partial commons where it’s going to be basically somewhere between Wikipedia and authorship where there’s going to be a list of signatures. Submit things to that. Sign articles on there. Look at the ideas, and they’re going to belong to the community, or partially belong to the community in this blurred out way. There are all sorts of ways to get engaged with this. This thing has just been exploding. I genuinely believe that there isn’t out there right now a coherent attempt to create a school of thought that represents an embrace of markets, and technology, and diversity that can actually address the current sources of our crisis.Glen Weyl: If you believe in all those things, if you want to embrace them, help us build this thing. You’ll find the most amazing community, the most diverse community of people with all these different skillsets, from all these different backgrounds, from all around the world who are interested in engaging in that project with you. Let me tell you, it’s such a rewarding thing not to be alone and in a narrow community, and not to claim things as your private property, but to feel the zeitgeist flow through you. That’s what the last few months have been with me. I think everyone who has been involved in the movement, intimately, so many of them just volunteering. We have 50 people giving 10 or more hours of their time a week as volunteers to Radical Exchange. Every one of the, I think, has found that this is the most exciting thing that they’ve done because they’re with such a diversity of people with all these different skillsets all coming together to create that vision of a liberal future that’s actually sustainable, and believable, and that can save us from these real dangers that we’re facing. Check out all those resources that I talked about. I have a syllabus online, if you want to read more and just get involved in the community.Robert Wiblin: We’ll stick up links to all of those things. I knew this was going to be an exciting conversation, but it’s been even more so and unexpected in a lot of ways.Robert Wiblin: The book is Radical Markets, and my guest today has been Glen Weyl. Thanks for coming on the podcast, Glen.Robert Wiblin: I hope you enjoyed that spirited conversation as much as I did.If you’d like to go to the RadicalxChange event in Detroit check out the event at radicalxchange dot org. That’s the letter x. They have a list of which speakers are coming, including Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin, and tickets are available now though they’re likely to sell out fairly soon.Also, just a reminder to check out our job board at 80000hours dot org slash job hyphen board.There are a lot of great positions there that can help many listeners find a fulfilling job in which they can greatly improve the world.The podcast and the job board are going to be a pretty killer combination, one helping people to deepen their understanding of how to do more good, and the other connecting people with concrete opportunities to make a bigger contribution. Or at least that’s our hope!The 80,000 Hours Podcast is produced by Keiran Harris.The 80,000 Hours Podcast features unusually in-depth conversations about the world’s most pressing problems and how you can use your career to solve them. 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After volatile 24 hours, Litecoin prices showed signs of stabilizing Friday as investors speculated about the digital currency’s ability to de-throne bitcoin. The LTC/USD exchange rate plunged 26% on Thursday to touch the lower $74 level. At the time of writing, prices had recovered near $82.50 for total market cap of around $4.5 billion. The cryptocurrency had virtually doubled between Nov. and Nov. 29 in period of general euphoria for cryptocurrencies. Litecoin wasn’t the only digital asset to suffer double-digit correction earlier this week. Bitcoin Cash and Ethereum also plunged more than 20% on Thursday. Both currencies found stability on Friday, although Bitcoin Cash was still headed for weekly declines of more than 20%. Litecoin’s precipitous drop followed another record-setting surge that took prices above $100 for the first time ever. Turnover in LTC trades has reached $429 million in the last 24 hours. About one-fifth of the activity was concentrated on the GDAX exchange. Bitfinex and South Korea’s Bithumb also saw roughly 11% of the daily volumes. The cryptocurrency market was in state of buzz Thursday after The Motley Fool ran compelling story about Litecoin’s potential to overtake bitcoin. Litecoin’s price trajectory since the start of the year has largely mirrored the broader cryptocurrency market. However, its exposure hasn’t come anywhere near bitcoin’s or some of the other leading altcoins. According to Motley Fool writer Sean Williams, this has more to do with creator Charles Lee taking back seat in the development of the token. Recent developments suggest Lee is now ready to put his full weight behind the project. “Litecoin certainly has what it takes to give bitcoin run for its (virtual) money,” Williams said. “Recently, Litecoin completed the highly anticipated SegWit upgrade, which has been critical in improving the capacity of its blockchain, hastening settlement times, and reducing the costs to process transactions. Doing so should help attract businesses and, perhaps, investors.” It didn’t take long for the Litecoin Foundation to temper expectations about the coin’s potential. In Nov. 29 tweet, the Foundation said it doesn’t believe its cryptocurrency is the biggest competitor for bitcoin. It also reiterated its focus on transaction processing. “Bitcoin and Litecoin will have different focuses. Litecoin will definitely focus more on payments,” the tweet said. Despite vastly different market caps, bitcoin and Litecoin share many similarities. Both algorithms put hard cap on the number of coins that can be created. They’re also much older than the latest wave of altcoins sweeping the market. Whereas bitcoin was created in 2009, Litecoin came on to the scene in 2011. For long time, LTC was the no. cryptocurrency in terms of market value and overall trading volume. Despite slipping to the likes of Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and Ripple XRP, Litecoin is still considered to be the silver to bitcoin’s gold. Bitcoin prices spiked above $11,000 on Thursday for the first time in its history. Prices have since moderated back down to the mid $9,500 region. Disclaimer: The author owns bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies. He holds investment positions in the coins, but does not engage in short-term or day-trading. Featured image courtesy of Shutterstock.  Trade Recommendation: Ethereum Classic MyBit: Invest in the Internet of Things (IoT) Ether, Litecoin Drag Crypto Market Lower in Overnight Trade LitePay Failure Weighs on Litecoin as Prices Enter Oversold Territory Litecoin Recovers After Massive Slide as Charlie Lee Makes Bold Prediction You must be logged in to post comment You must be logged in to post comment. Ethereum experienced another brisk selloff Thursday, as the digital currency dipped below $400 for the first time since November amid signs of ICO fatigue. The world’s no. digital currency fell to low of $380 on Thursday and had recovered very little at the time of writing. Prices are down more than 14% over the past 24 hours, with total trade volumes slipping below $2 billion on the major exchanges. ETH/USD has struggled with oversold levels all week long, but this has failed to inspire rally. With the exception of few minor bounces, the digital currency has been in firm downtrend this week. Ether is down 50% this quarter, with most of the losses concentrated in the last six weeks. Its dismal performance is hardly unique; the broader cryptocurrency market is down more than 50% year-to-date, including fresh four-month low on Thursday. At the time of writing, the total crypto market cap was $268 billion, according to data provider CoinMarketCap. Although not solely responsible for ether’s latest dip, cooling ICO market may have been contributing factor. Funds raised by initial coin offerings fell to $557 million this month, less than half of the $1.2 billion generated in February, according to ICOData. ICOs burst onto the financial scene in 2017, with the vast majority of token projects adopting the popular ERC-20 and ERC-23 protocols. According to one estimate, ICOs generated more than $6 billion in financing last year, surpassing early-stage venture capital. The market extended its record-setting pace in January, with more than $1.4 billion raised. The sharp slowdown this past month is partly symptom of “ICO fatigue,” with investors complaining about hasty projects and lack of direction from token issuers. The cash grab has gotten the attention of security regulators in the United States, with the likes of the SEC devoting more time and resources to investigating the market. Washington’s top securities regulator has reminded token issuers repeatedly about their obligations to uphold federal securities laws. This warning recently extended to digital currency exchanges that offer trading in so-called security tokens. To avoid being labelled “security token” by the SEC, many ICO projects have forgone the U.S. market entirely. Token projects routinely list the United States and China as two jurisdictions barred from participating. Hacked also reported back in January that, despite record growth, many startups were struggling to meet their funding goals. This reflects both greater investor scrutiny and information overload as hundreds of projects flood the markets every month. Latest data indicate that these factors have finally gotten to the ICO market. Disclaimer: The author owns bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies. He holds investment positions in the coins, but does not engage in short-term or day-trading. Featured image courtesy of Shutterstock. The crypto market dipped below $300 billion on Wednesday, as leading digital currencies like Ethereum and Litecoin fell at brisker pace than their peers. Lacking any major fundamental driver, the recent skid appears to be influenced by Twitter’s sudden ban of cryptocurrency advertising. Cryptocurrencies were down across the board on Wednesday, as daily trade volumes fell back below $15 billion. The combined value of all coins in circulation bottomed just below $294 billion, according to CoinMarketCap. The market later recovered near $297 billion, having declined more than 5% over the previous 24 hours. Digital currencies Ethereum and Litecoin were among the biggest laggards on Wednesday. Ether bottomed near $445, putting it on track for its lowest settlement since early December. It was last seen trading near $449 for 24-hour drop of 5%. Litecoin fell nearly 5% to $135 per coin, which was the lowest since early February. While ether and Litecoin have followed similar pattern in recent days, market speculation has divided them. On the one hand, Ethereum was the center of positive headlines on Tuesday after Coinbase announced it would extend support to ERC-20 tokens. The ERC protocol is the launchpad of most major coin offerings, which automatically gives Ethereum major stake in the ICO market. Meanwhile, Litecoin is facing backlash over the failure of the LitePay merchant processor, once highly touted platform for consumer-to-business payments. Investors were especially disappointed to hear that the project was canned over an apparent falling out between the Litecoin Foundation and Kenneth Asare, who led the LitePay project. Twitter’s sudden decision to ban crypto-related advertising clearly played role in weakening consumer appetite. However, it’s worth mentioning that the market was already on the back foot long before Twitter confirmed the ban. Although Twitter’s announcement was sudden, it had been in the works for at least week. While sound fundamentals usually aren’t needed to influence major moves in the crypto market, knee-jerk reactions to negative news headlines are often short-lived. In the case of Twitter, the ban will play very minor role in the overall market, as the following research clearly indicates. To understand the latest downshift in the market, one has to look at the whole picture and not just small piece of the puzzle. Cryptos began the year on wild upswing, as speculation in altcoins reached all-time highs. Increased regulatory scrutiny, multiple cyber attacks, shifting technical positions and perhaps even taxes have all soured investor sentiment. This ebb and flow is nothing new and it won’t be the last time cryptos experience similar pull back. The only difference this time is there are hundreds of billions of dollars at stake. Despite all the acute risks facing the market, cryptos as collective have gained more than 1,100% over the past 12 months. In most cases, that would classify as an outstanding investment. Disclaimer: The author owns bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies. He holds investment positions in the coins, but does not engage in short-term or day-trading. Featured image courtesy of Shutterstock. The value of Litecoin declined sharply on Monday after Charlie Lee confirmed that the LitePay merchant processor has ceased operation one month after its scheduled launch. Litecoin fell as much as 11% on Monday, touching session low near $142. After brief recovery, LTC/USD was back to trading near the Monday low. At the time of writing, Litecoin was valued at $143.11. The digital currency is severely oversold, based on the Relative Strength Index (RSI). Initial support is located near the Mar. 18 swing low near $137. The digital currency continues to hold the no. spot on the market cap leader board with total value of $8 billion, according to data provider CoinMarketCap. Trade volumes over the past 24 hours surpassed $413 million on total circulating supply of 55.8 million LTC. OKEx was the biggest market for LTC tokens, with more than one-quarter of daily turnover taking place on the exchange. The other active exchanges for LTC included GDAX, Bitfinex and Huobi. The Litecoin Foundation confirmed on Monday that LitePay had ceased operation and was in the process of being liquidated by CEO Kenneth Asare. The foundation, which operates as not-for-profit, had falling out with Asare over his “less than transparent nature with the company.” In particular, he requested additional funding for LitePay without providing an adequate explanation of where the original funds had been spent. Litecoin founder Charlie Lee also issued an apology for pumping the project without doing his due diligence: “Like everyone else, we got too excited about something that was too good to be true and we optimistically overlooked many of the warning signs. am sorry for having hyped up this company and vow to do better due diligence in the future,” Lee tweeted from his @SatoshiLite handle. We speculated last month that Litecoin could be one of the most undervalued coins in the top-ten. Although that might still be the case, bullish sentiment was largely tied to excitement around the launch of LitePay and the promise of scalability and instant transactions. LitePay had been described by some analysts as “game-changer” for bringing instant payments to the merchant community. Litecoin rallied nearly 40% in mid-February in anticipation of the LitePay launch, which was originally scheduled for Feb. 26. Despite the recent drop, Litecoin’s performance hasn’t lagged the broader market by any noticeable stretch. LTC is down 31% for the month of March and 43% year-to-date. By comparison, the global crypto market cap has shed 30% this month and 48% since New Year’s day. Disclaimer: The author owns bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies. He holds investment positions in the coins, but does not engage in short-term or day-trading. Featured image courtesy of Shutterstock. Hacked.com and its team members have pledged to reject any form of advertisement or sponsorships from 3rd parties. We will always be neutral and we strive towards fully unbiased view on all topics. Whenever an author has conflicting interest, that should be clearly stated in the post itself with disclaimer. If you suspect that one of our team members are biased, please notify me immediately at jonas.borchgrevink(at)hacked.com. Tron Cryptocurrency is Surging Ahead of Test Net Launch Crypto Update: Coins Plunge Below Support as Bounce Fades Crypto Update: Market Retreats but Most Coins Remain Bullish ICO Analysis: DAV (Decentralized Autonomous Vehicles) Crypto Update: Bitcoin Back at $9000 with Bulls Eager for Break-Out Long-Term Cryptocurrency Analysis: Selling Pressure Persists as Altcoins Still Weigh Crypto Update: Coins at Major Decision Point Copyright © 2017 Terms Conditions

Taylor’s Summer Update 11th July, 2016 Ethereum Dev Update 2015 / Week 44 02nd November, 2015 Last month marked the 2 year anniversary of Ethereum’s public announcement at The North American Bitcoin Conference in Miami, Florida, USA. Amid much rumour and excitement, a sizeable crowd mobbed the young Vitalik Buterin after his on-stage announcement, questioning the merit and his desire to build such a system. It can be hard to truly appreciate how far we’ve come in the last couple years. Sometimes it feels as if the cryptoeconomic sphere moves at such a blistering speed that weekly news announcements have become the norm rather than the exception. Interest in the field has exploded for lots of great reasons, but none of that particularly matters unless the underlying technology exists. As interested observers, our job is to help manifest the idea of a blockchain-driven world into reality. With ideas enshrined in a white paper, the time to talk was over. Now was the time to build. To frame things appropriately, consider that Ethereum was formally announced on January 25, 2014. Back then, the price of Bitcoin had recently peaked and was hovering around $800. Dogecoin was exceptionally popular and began fundraising to sponsor the Jamaican Bobsled Team. Alternative uses of “blockchain technology” included Namecoin as decentralized name system atop a global key/value store. An attempt at untraceable messaging was even invented as BitMessage. Only a month prior, researchers demonstrated in a paper that block times under 1 second were possible. In short, it seemed there was nothing blockchains couldn’t do. Vitalik announcing Ethereum (Marc van der Chijs) Although Bitcoin’s speed of settlement was a huge improvement over traditional systems, it was clear that more innovation could be had by further experimenting with whatever this “blockchain” thing was. At the time, there was much debate about so-called “blockchain bloat” and concerns that additional applications built on the Bitcoin protocol would cause problems scaling. Already, betting platforms had come under fire for creating lots of low-value transactions. There was a stirring in the bitcoin community that continues to this day. With all these possibilities, how could a single protocol be made to accommodate all the varying needs? As a first experiment, Bitcoin was already gaining quickly in value. What began as a cypherpunk dream had blossomed into an industry. Changes to the core protocol risked billions in value and there was no clear governance in place for proposing and including changes. One path to acceptance was forming a consensus around a Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP, for short) and offering the code in a “pull request” for public comment. Making the changes required to support more generalised use would be a radical proposal, to say the least. By April of 2014, Dr. Gavin Wood published the Ethereum Yellow Paper that would serve as the technical bible and de-facto specification for the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). From this vantage point, Ethereum pursued a course of producing implementations that matched a specification, as opposed to being a specification defined by an implementation. Because Bitcoin as a protocol was defined by the reference C++ implementation, any ports would have to replicate all logic in intricate detail, including bugs. Today, the Bitcoin protocol is in a better place, with core consensus features separated from GUI into a discrete library. Furthermore, clients like BitcoinJ (a Java client, written by Mike Hearn) and btcd (a Go client) has moved the goal posts beyond a single system language. Contrast this to the Ethereum ecosystem which today has no less than 6 implementations of consensus: C++, Go, Python, Java, JavaScript, and Haskell. When a discrepancy occurs due to either human or computer languages, a roundtable of client developers can compare results and discuss the ramifications of a particular interpretation so as to determine a specific course of action. Aided by automated and random testing, sometimes the result of a consensus failure was not in code, but the documentation itself. Nonetheless, the benefits of a specification-driven implementation began to shine, helping to neutralise human error as we interpreted words into code. Concurrent to this initial development, several legal entities were formed to provide a framework for coordinating the organised effort of building a decentralised DApp platform. The result was Stiftung Ethereum being established in June 2014 in Zug, Switzerland. With all the paperwork and agreements in place, a crowdsale of Ether tokens was held in Summer 2014, based on a proposal laid out earlier in the year. Within moments of launch, thousands of bitcoin began flowing to a multisig Bitcoin address, each purchase marking its place in history as supporters of an ambitious vision. In the spirit of complete decentralisation, no database was used, instead relying 100% on transactions as recorded in the Bitcoin ledger. If Ethereum were to build anything, it would be atop the shoulders of giants. As the Ethereum proof-of-concept (PoC) series marched forward through the generous efforts of developers around the globe and the Ether Sale finishing towards the end of summer, the stage was set to execute on the vision outlaid by Vitalik only a few months earlier. In less than a year, the legal and financial framework was in place to begin full-scale development of a next-generation blockchain platform. Almost immediately, the results of the sale were put to use paying back mounting legal debts and also for the months of developer effort that had yet to be compensated. Some had left their job and not seen a single satoshi in their Bitcoin wallet in a half-year, as others grew concerned about feeding their families and paying their mortgages. Times were tight for everyone involved. Finally, around September 2014, the majority of funds would be available to support the complex engineering of bleeding-edge decentralisation technology. Born out of an interest in extending blockchains, Ethereum commenced a massive hiring effort, attracting developers across a variety of disciplines to carry out the hard work of fully flushing out what were only preliminary ideas. Only two months later, in November 2014, the majority of the Ethereum project team was assembled and descended upon Berlin to participate in the first Ethereum conference: DEVCON0. Although many had spoke via Skype, this was a time when most of the project members met for the first time. At this proto-conference, in a modest but beautiful space, developers took turns standing in front of peers explaining their vision for any given segment of the many protocols that would be necessary to develop “Web3”. This was a key time for the project as the general community anxiously awaited more refined tools to begin building their own dream. Many iterations of protocols and several implementations of any given feature had yet to be developed. To understand this more clearly, it should be acknowledged that Ethereum had only reached PoC7 and many ideas were barely more coherent than theory. As a team, we were only first starting to work with each other and the many tools and systems required for full-scale development had yet to be put in place. As a project, we identified the need to begin extensive testing and measurement to ensure each of the ideas were performing as expected. If the testing couldn’t prove the theory, the hypothesis was little more than fantasy. So it would go for several months through the holidays with increased development occurring early in 2015. Around this time, Jeff Wilcke called the Go development team together in Amsterdam to evaluate the state of the software. Despite the face-to-face event in Berlin a few months earlier, this was the time that the go-ethereum team came together and experienced the first working Whisper DApp for in-office chat. It was exceptionally exciting to experience this vague notion of what the future might hold, but it also exposed our many weak points. This dogfooding was the nexus point from which many of the working groups were established to build towards the Mist vision. Already at this point in time, the bug bounty program was in full swing as we sought the most egregious bugs. As eventual users of the system, vigorously seeking problems brought far more benefit than hiding behind excuses. Because we were writing consensus software, there was little room for error and we would go as far as randomised fuzz testing to ensure that even unknown unknowns were handled to the best of our ability. As the software audits progressed, the DevGrants program began to more publicly emerge with the announcement of the Ethereum Embedded program, making it exceptionally simple to run an Ethereum node on low-cost Raspberry Pi hardware. At the same time, the teams focused on ensuring a stable feature-rich command line interface (CLI) was available for developers to begin working with. It would take only a few more weeks until the eventual Olympic testnet was launched, providing a valuable testing bed for client patching and protocol upgrades. As the suite of software and interfaces eventually marched towards stability and developer confidence grew around what we were building, murmurs of a Frontier launch started to permeate the community. Despite the excitement to release early and often, the community backed the developers decision to make sure the security and stability of the software was paramount, deferring to the software & security auditors on what must be changed before a wide-scale release. Eventually, the most severe problems would be fixed and Ethereum mainnet would launch the beta-esque Frontier mere months after many Ethereum developers met for the first time, ever. The dedication expressed by many of the developers would be a testament to the importance of the project we undertook. It was July 2015, a mere year since the crowdsale and Ethereum had a working network. No more could the label “vaporware” be applied to this idea of Bitcoin 2.0—Ethereum was real. After a much-deserved reprieve in the summer following the relatively smooth launch of Frontier, the development teams refined rough edges in the software and began working towards improved abstractions to better model what the future of Ethereum might look like. A new & improved Ethereum Wallet beta was released based on a more robust toolkit than the prior Qt versions. This decision would yield huge dividends later as mobile builds would become a high-priority target for the project. With the widening interest beyond the core Ethereum community, it was time to spread our collective wings to help the rest of the world see the same ideas that many early adopters had. Following a short delay, DEVCON1 was announced to take place in London, England for a week in November 2015. Almost 400 people joined together at this location for an entire week, totaling 80 talks and topics about the Ethereum ecosystem. Adding to the excitement, the community gleefully welcomed Nick Szabo, Imogen Heap, and representatives from IBM, Microsoft, and Deloitte. Unlike other crypto-conferences, there was little talk of price or speculation. Instead, the focus was squarely on building tools, standards, and shared understanding between technical and business folk. Fast-forwarding to present day, there is a healthy network with increasing transaction volume along with dozens of DApps starting to appear. With the help of Consensys, one of many organisations in the ecosystem, Ethereum is already available for rapid deployment on Microsoft Azure and through the efforts of Slock, Ethereum can also be deployed on low-resource Ubuntu Core images. A large amount of effort has gone into mobile builds for both the C++ and Go clients that will become even more important as low-power devices replace traditional desktops for all but the most demanding tasks. Also rapidly progressing is so-called “light client” functionality along with state-pruning, both of which will allow for resource-constrained devices like phones and watches to process and store the blockchain. Combined with the mobile builds effort and Mist developments, the community is pushing Ethereum to new edges where previous cryptocurrencies haven’t often treaded. We are now on the precipice of the Homestead hard fork, tweaking minor issues before releasing what will be considered the “stable” version of the network. Because the initial launch of Frontier network was significantly more stable than planned for, relatively few changes are being implemented for Homestead: a block difficulty change, addition of a new opcode, and some networking tweaks. Beyond the immediate planned updated, there’s a bright future of developments ahead including solutions for scalability and a move from wasteful proof-of-work (PoW) to a more earth-friendly proof-of-stake (PoS). What began as an abstract model in one human head has evolved to a tremendous amount of developer effort to see that vision through, and it exists today thanks largely to the active community with a healthy attitude for creating something meaningful. In 2015, Ethereum made a transition from an idea to reality, backed by a growing ecosystem striving for something more. The fundamental insight Vitalik described in his paper was how to abstract decentralised transfer of value to a generalised state transition function, supporting any application. Combined with a peer-to-peer network, Ethereum strives to do everything Bitcoin does and more. But our effort isn’t complete and there still remains much innovation to uncover. “Isn’t it astonishing that all these secrets have been preserved for so many years just so that we could discover them.” The implicit promise of upgrading Bitcoin was to prove feasibility in a sidechain for a chance to have the functionality merged back into the reference client. This promise has yet to be fulfilled and the result is a proliferation of external experimentation. Although much hullabaloo has been made about “the developer that quit bitcoin“, obviously the Bitcoin community isn’t dead, nor is its intrinsic use as a scarce digital resource valueless. Satoshi is a hero for recognising how to string several technologies together to create a truth protocol that no one explicitly controls. But the dream for Bitcoin to be the only transformative technology has been dead for a long time. We should instead embrace our new reality and look forward to all the possibilities that this important first attempt enabled. Good read. Ethereum is an amazing technology. privileged to watch these nextgen soft platforms launch while the masses popcorn brain away on touchscreens I think the separation of the state tree / transaction list is an under-rated but fundamental feature of Ethereum. Great article… great quote.. “Isn’t it astonishing that all these secrets have been preserved for so many years just so that we could discover them.” Excellent summary. Credit to all involved. Great Post. I’m convinced that you guys will go down in history Quite a number of events for a single post. Thanks Taylor.. Hi, I have started mining Etheream (cloud) but I do not understand what Is going to happen at end of 2016. I know there is a PoW and PoS, but is it better just to accumulate my etherium or should I build on my Hashrate/s ? You may use these HTML tags and attributes:

Bitcoin first emerged in 2009 and is now hugely popular among traders,having almost doubled in price since the beginning of December aloneThe newest way to bet on bitcoin, the cryptocurrency that has taken Wall Street by storm with its stratospheric price rise and wild daily gyrations, will arrive on Sunday when bitcoin futures start trading.The first bitcoin future trades are set to kick off at 6 pmEST (2300 GMT) on Cboe Global Markets IncsCboe Futures Exchange.The launch has given an extra kick to the cryptocurrencys scorching run this year. It has nearly doubled in price since the start of December, but recent days saw sharp moves in both directions, with bitcoin losing almost a fifth of its value on Friday after surging more than 40 per cent in the previous 48 hours.But while some market participants are excited about a regulated way to bet on or hedge against moves in bitcoin, others caution that risks remain for investors and possibly even the clearing organisations underpinning the trades.The futures are cash-settled contracts based on the auction price of bitcoin in US dollars on the Gemini Exchange, owned and operated by virtual currency entrepreneurs Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss.The pretty sharp rise we have seen in bitcoin in just the last couple of weeks has probably been driven by optimism ahead of the futures launch, said Randy Frederick, vice president of trading and derivatives for Charles Schwab in Austin.Bitcoin fans appear excited about the prospect of an exchange-listed and regulated product and the ability to bet on its price swings without having to sign up for a digital wallet.The futures are an alternative to a largely unregulated spot market underpinned by cryptocurrency exchanges that have been plagued by cybersecurity and fraud issues.You are going to open up the market to a whole lot of people who arent currently in bitcoin, Frederick said.The futures launch has so far received a mixed reception from big US banks and brokerages.Interactive Brokers plans to offer its customers access to the first bitcoin futures when trading goes live, but bars clients from assuming short positions and has margin requirements of at least 50 per cent.Several online brokerages including Charles Schwab and TD Ameritrade will not allow the trading of the newly launched futures from day one.Some of the big US banks including JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup,will not immediately clear bitcoin trades for clients, the Financial Times reported on Friday.Goldman Sachs Group Incon Thursday said it is planning to clear bitcoin futures for certain clients.Bitcoins manic run-up this year has boosted volatility far in excess of other asset classes. The launch of futures may help dampen some of the sharp moves, analysts said.Rohingya refugees gather in the "no man's land" behind Myanmar's boder lined with barb wire fences in Maungdaw district, Rakhine state bounded by Bangladesh. Myanmar government said on April 15, it repatriated on April 14 the first family of Rohingya out of some 700,000 refugees who have fled a brutal military campaign, a move slammed by a rights group as a PR stunt ignoring UN warnings that a safe return is not yet possible. AFP/GettyPresident Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron, first lady Melania Trump and Brigitte Macron hold hands on the White House balcony during a State Arrival Ceremony in Washington.APA boy walks on a pile of garbage covering a drain in New Delhi.ReutersNewly ordained priests lie on the floor as Pope Francis leads a mass in Saint Peter's Basilica at the Vatican.REUTERSSouth Koreans cheer during the welcoming event for the inter-Korean summit between South Korea and North Korea in Seoul. The inter-Korean summit is scheduled on April 27, 2018 at the Joint Security Area in Panmunjom, agreed by South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un.GettyA Palestinian slings a shot by burning tires on the Israel-Gaza border, following a demonstration calling for the right to return. Palestinian refugees either fled or were expelled from what is now the state of Israel during the 1948 war.AFP/GettyOutgoing Cuban President Raul Castro raising the arm of Cuba's new President Miguel Diaz-Canel after he was formally named by the National Assembly, in Havana. A historic handover ending six decades of rule by the Castro brothers. The 57-year-old Diaz-Canel, who was the only candidate for the presidency, was elected to a five-year term with 603 out of 604 possible votes in the National Assembly.AFP/Getty/www.cubadebate.cuTurkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announces early presidential and parliamentary elections for June 24, 2018, at the Presidential Palace, in Ankara. Erdogan announced the snap elections, originally scheduled for November 2019, in a move that will usher in a new political system increasing the powers of the president. He said the new system needed to be implemented quickly in order to deal with a slew of challenges ahead, including Turkey's fight against Kurdish insurgents in Syria and Iraq.APEuropean lawmakers raise placards reading "Stop the War in Syria" in protest against airstrikes launched by the US, Britain and France in Syria last week criticizing the legitimacy of the operation, as French President Emmanuel Macron delivers his speech at the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Macron is expected to outline his vision for the future of Europe to push for deep reforms of the 19-nation eurozone and will launch a drive to seek European citizens' opinions on the European Union's future.APPeople participate in a protest against the rape of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua near Jammu, and a teenager in Unnao, Uttar Pradesh state, in Bangalore, IndiaReutersFireworks are set off as the final performance takes place during the Closing Ceremony for the 2018 Commonwealth Games.PAThe wreckage of the Scientific Studies and Research Centre compound in the Barzeh district, north of Damascus, after the United States, UK and France launched strikes against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime early on April 14 in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack after mulling military action for nearly a week. Syrian state news agency SANA reported several missiles hit a research centre in Barzeh, north of Damascus, "destroying a building that included scientific labs and a training centre"AFP/GettyIndian activists gather to show support for the chairperson of the Delhi Commission for Women Swati Maliwal, who is on a hunger strike against the alleged rapes in Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, in New Delhi, India. According to news reports Maliwal is sitting on hunger strike demanding that authorities take strict actions against the alleged rapists.EPAShi'ite pilgrims carry a symbolic casket outside Imam Moussa al-Kadhim's shrine to mark the anniversary of his death in Baghdad, IraqReutersSeasonal winds washed tons of debris ashore at Matahari Terbit beach, near Sanur, Bali, Indonesia.ReutersSyrian onlookers gather around rescue teams clearing the rubble at the site of an explosion of unknown origin which wrecked a multi-storey building the previous night in the war-battered country's northwestern city of Idlib. The cause of the explosion in the jihadist-held city, which killed more than a ten people and wounded 80, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group, was not immediately clear.AFP/Getty Protesters try to block French gendarmes during an evacuation operation in the zoned ZAD (Deferred Development Zone) in Notre-Dame-des-Landes, near Nantes, France.ReutersCompetitors cross the start line at the annual Pyongyang Marathon.AFP/GettyThe body of journalist Yasser Murtaja, 31, is carried during his funeral in Gaza city. He was shot by Israeli troops while reporting on Palestinian protests on the Gaza-Israel border.ReutersSupporters of the former South African president Jacob Zuma rally prior to his appearance in the KwaZulu-Natal High Court on corruption charges in Durban. Zuma, 75, arrived to face corruption charges linked to a multi-billion dollar 1990s arms deal. The graft case against him was postponed until June 8 after a brief 15-minute hearing.AFP/GettyPalestinian protesters run during clashes with Israeli troops at Israel-Gaza border.ReutersPresidents Hassan Rouhani of Iran, Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and Vladimir Putin of Russia pose before their meeting in Ankara.ReutersSouth African school children pause next to a portrait of the late South African anti-apartheid campaigner Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, wife of African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela, at her house in Soweto. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa paid tribute to Winnie, who died on April 2, saying that Nelson Mandela's former wife was a "voice of defiance" against white-minority rule.AFP/GettyJewish priests and civilians take part in the Cohanim prayer during the Passover holiday at the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem.AFP/GettyPope Francis greets the crowd at St Peter's square after the Easter Sunday Mass in the Vatican. Christians around the world are marking the Holy Week, commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, leading up to his resurrection on Easter. AFP/GettyMourners hold back a relative of Palestinian Hamdan Abu Amshah, who was killed along the Israel border with Gaza, during his funeral in Beit Hanoun town.ReutersIsraeli soldiers shot tear gas grenades towards the Palestinian tent city protest commemorating Land Day. The day marks the killing of six Arab Israelis during 1976 demonstrations against Israeli confiscations of Arab land.AFP/GettyAn emotional Steve Smith is comforted by his father Peter as he fronts the media at Sydney International Airport. Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft were flown back to Australia following investigations into alleged ball tampering in South Africa. GettyFrench gendarmes escort the coffin of the late Lieutenant Colonel Arnaud Beltrame transported by car during a funeral procession leaving the Pantheon as part of a national tribute in Paris. The French President will lead a national commemoration to hostage-swap policeman Arnaud Beltrame killed in jihadist attack. AFP/GettyRussian President Vladimir Putin visits a memorial made for the victims of a fire in a multi-story shopping center in the Siberian city of Kemerovo. Officials say that the fire escapes were blocked and a PA system was turned off during the fire that killed over 50 people.Kremlin Pool Photo via APAt least 64 shoppers have been killed in fire at a shopping centre in Russia. A further 16 people were still missing after flames broke out at the four-storey Winter Cherry mall in the city of Kemerovo in Siberia, according to Russian Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov. The fire was extinguished in the morning after burning through the night. Parts of the building were still smouldering and the floors of the cinema hall had caved in in places, another emergency official said.Russian Emergencies Ministry via ReutersSyrian civilians gathering for their evacuation from the town of Arbin in the Eastern Ghouta region on the outskirts of the capital Damascus, following a deal with the regime. The deal is expected to see some 7,000 people bussed from Arbin and Zamalka towns and the district of Jobar to a rebel-dominated part of northern Syria.AFP/GettyStudents attend the March For Our Lives in Washington. In the wake of the Florida attack, there has been a widespread effort to ban assault rifle.GettyPolice at the scene of a hostage situation in a supermarket in Trebes. An armed man took hostages in a supermarket in southern France, killing three and injuring about a dozen others, police said. A French minister confirmed the gunman had been shot dead by police.ReutersA boy rows his boat in the polluted waters of the Brahmaputra river on World Water Day in Guwahati, India.ReutersKosovo's opposition lawmakers release a teargas canister inside the country's parliament in before a vote for an agreement to ratify or not a border demarcation deal signed in 2015 with Montenegro.AFP/GettyPeople carrying luggage leave the Russian Embassy in London and board a van bearing diplomatic plates. Dozens of people including adults with children arrived at the Russian embassy in the morning and then left carrying luggage in vehicles bearing diplomatic registration plates. Britain last week announced the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats over the spy poisoning row, prompting a tit-for-tat response from Moscow.AFP/GettyThe Soyuz MS-08 spacecraft is mounted on the launch pad at the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in KazakhstanAFP/GettyPresident Vladimir Putin walks out of a voting booth at a polling station during Russia's presidential election in Moscow.AFP/GettyPeople take part in a pensioners protest to demand decent pensions in Barcelona. Thousands of people across the country took part in mass demonstrations called by main Spanish workers unions demanding rises of state pensions in accordance with the consumer price indexAFP/GettyRussian President Vladimir Putin visits the Almazov National Medical Research Centre in Saint Petersburg.AFP/GettyVladimir Putin chairs a meeting with members of the Security Council in Moscow.ReutersGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel is sworn in by the President of the German lower house during the government's swearing-in ceremony at the Bundestag in Berlin. Merkel, head of the Christian Democratic Party CDU, starts her fourth term as German chancellor, capping months of political uncertainty as she bartered with her rivals of the SPD to help govern Europe's top economy in a "grand coalition".AFP/GettyNepali students of University of Dhaka light candles in memory of the victims of the US-Bangla aircraft crash in Nepal, Bangladesh.ReutersRescuers work to save passengers from a plane crash at Kathmandu airport in Nepal.APFrench President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron pose for photographs as they visit the Taj Mahal.AFP/GettyFrances far-right party Front National (FN) president Marine Le Pen applauds former US President advisor Steve Bannon after his speech during the Front National party annual congress, in Lille, northern France.AFP/GettyA television screen showing pictures of US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un at a railway station in Seoul.AFPProtesters form triangles with their hands during a demonstration for womens rights in Bilbao, Spain.ReutersA labourer works on a salt pan in the outskirts of the Nagaur district in the Indian state of Rajasthan ahead of International Womens day.AFP/GettyHypothetically, volatility over the long run should drop after institutions get involved, said Ophir Gottlieb, chief executive of Los Angeles-based Capital Market Laboratories.But there may not be an immediate impact, say in the first month, he said.The launch futures on an underlying spot market can lend more order to spot trading in the long run, by facilitating better price discovery and directional bets, not just long bets, J.J. Kinahan, chief market strategist at TD Ameritrade in Chicago, said.Analysts, however, warn that much of how the futures market will react is a mystery, given that bitcoin is unlike any other asset.This is completely unknown territory, said Charles Schwabs Frederick.Fears of inaccurate pricing and systemic risk to clearing houses should prices move sharply and clients fail to meet margin calls remain. Brokers have said that more safeguards are needed to protect against bitcoins high volatility.The risk of market participants manipulating the underlying spot market to their benefit in the futures market is another big concern.Large equity indexes show some volatility around cash settlements and those are in highly liquid, highly regulated venues, said Steve Sosnick, chief options strategist at Interactive Brokers Group Inc in Greenwich, Connecticut.Compare that to cash settlement in bitcoin, and there is a lot more uncertainty on how that would play out.Reutersor register with your social accountAlready have an account? Log inWe use cookies to enhance your visit to our site and to bring you advertisements that might interest you. Read our Privacy and Cookie Policies to find out more.We've noticed that you are using an ad blocker.Advertising helps fund our journalism and keep it truly independent. 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Bitcoin NewsThe latest blog posts and news articles based on Bitcoins and other crypto-currencies.Indian Government Shed Light on Proposed Crypto Regulation Since leaked information regarding India's cryptocurrency bill emerged, there have been constant discussions about what it entails. Four different government bodies have been asked about their involvement in the drafting of the bill. South Korea went through a similar situation, causing confusion to the public. PR: Anxone Provides Multi-Layer Security For Crypto Storage Hacking is a front and center issue for digital asset exchanges. Especially given its worrying year-over-year increases, from US$152mn in 2016 to US$950mn in 2018. Central Bank of Russia's head praises blockchain The head of the Central Bank of Russia, Elvira Nabiullina has praised the implementation of the blockchain in the local economy for the future. Bitcoin Hash Rate Climbs to New Record High Boosting Network Security The essential metric for bitcoin network security reached more than 65 trillion hashes per second on Wednesday this week. Indian Government May Ban Use of Facebook's Libra Cryptocurrency "If Facebook were to design the Libra to be a closed system, only to be transacted on its network and not beyond, RBI should ideally be less concerned, since the coin does not engage with the external economy," explained Anirudh Rastogi, founder of Ikigai Law, a technology-focused law firm. Libra: Is Facebook Re-Branding China's Online Payment Module as Cryptocurrency? China is one of the leading countries when it comes to online payments. Reportedly, there are more than 580 million mobile payment users in China. Chinese citizens can even use WeChat to send or receive payment on their phones. This is essentially what Facebook is planning to achieve with its cryptocurrency, Libra. QuadrigaCX Curtain Call Part 2: Pseudonyms, fake accounts and several multi-million dollar transactions Ernst and Young, the audit giant, the court-appointed third-party monitor and now the bankruptcy trustee of the QuadrigaCX proceedings, released its fifth report on the QuadrigaCX episode. Part 1 o Competition Is Forcing Cryptocurrency Exchanges to Get Creative In the last two years, a Cambrian explosion of cryptocurrency exchanges has given traders a plethora of options. This cornucopia of choice has not resulted in a corresponding increase in quality, however. Coinbase Announces Push Notifications for Price Fluctuations Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase' mobile application now offers users the option to set up push notifications to alert them of price swings in the 22 cryptocurrencies it supports, according to a blog post by the company on June 20th. Facebook may pull-out Calibra from India, world's largest WhatsApp market; early warning signs? Its been less than 48 hours since Facebook unveiled its cryptocurrency Libra, which will operate on a private blockchain and have its own wallet. With the fiat currency-backed digital asset a ye Examining Facebook's Claim Its Crypto Is for the Unbanked The excitement about Libra is premature. Maybe Zuck's got more to share, but right now there's very little information, and Libra has a lot to prove. Libra's main stated mission is to service the world's poor and unbanked. Italy's banking sector to get cozy with blockchain The Italian banking sector, also known as the Italian Banking Association, has confirmed the deployment of a blockchain platform in order to support its reconciliation operations starting March 2020. Cryptocurrency Analysis and Prediction: Bitcoin, Tron, and Ripple Both cryptocurrencies are trading on a sideways trend. This shows that there is a lack of market momentum and confidence in the crypto. Both are undergoing a bearish outlook with all indicators supporting the downward price rally. In most instances, previous supports have been dropped as the downtrend continues. Bitcoin hits 15-month high as it surges toward $10,000 - SiliconANGLE Bitcoin hits 15-month high as it surges toward $10,000 - SiliconANGLE. Facebook's Blockchain Head, David Marcus, Agrees That Libra and Bitcoin are Different Facebook released the Whitepaper of its cryptocurrency, Libra on 18th June 2019. The cryptocurrency community and Bitcoin maximalists welcomed the news as a positive impetus for awareness about Bitcoin. Nevertheless, one might still argue that, if Libra is globally used as a medium of exchange, what the use of Bitcoin is? Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram may be banned by countries after Libra's launch, says Caitlin Long Co-founder of the Wyoming Blockchain Coalition and a blockchain evangelist, Caitlin Long, recently spoke about Libra, Facebooks cryptocurrency, during an interview with WhatBitcoinDid. She spoke a Employee Building Emergency Savings Funds Is Also Good For Businesses There's a growing trend in the workplace that's an all-around win: employers are helping their staff build emergency savings. This helps the employees, of course, and benefits the company, too, through increased retention, loyalty, productivity and even safety and with reduced hiring and recruitment costs. QuadrigaCX Curtain Call Part 1: Gerald Cotten's deviousness and the downfall of Canada's largest crypto-exchange QuadrigaCX is the gift that keeps on giving. The now-defunct Canadian cryptocurrency exchange has been at the center of a six-month-long controversy involving 650,000 ETH, a Big-Four auditor, a p Are Inexpensive Stocks a Smart Choice? Many consumers wonder about non-traditional ways to trade stocks. These approaches include activities like premarket trading post-market trading, the use of low-cost, or so-called "penny stocks," and day trading. Bitcoin Price Breaches $9.6K to Hit 400-Day High At 18:00 UTC on June 20, the world's largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization broke upwards on the daily chart, after being held beneath $9,348 for an extended period of time. Gold Price Rises Strongly as Bitcoin Value Shows Bullish Momentum A lot of things are happening in the world of finance which seemingly go by unnoticed. One of the biggest developments this week is how the price of gold - per troy ounce - has skyrocketed over the past few days. Bitcoin Lightning Network Mobile App Released for User Testing Lightning Labs, the Research organization working on the development and design of payment channels using Lightning on Bitcoin announced the release of Mobile App. Lightning App is now available on Bitcoin mainnet in alpha for iOS and Android. QuadrigaCX Curtain Call Part 3: Private Jets, yachts, a major bombshell and maybe a biopic? Ernst and Young, the audit giant, the court-appointed third-party monitor and now the bankruptcy trustee of the QuadrigaCX proceedings, released its fifth report on the QuadrigaCX episode. Part 1 & Bitcoin ATMs Go Live at 20 Circle K Convenience Stores DigitalMint, a Chicago-based over-the-counter cryptocurrency trading platform, has installed bitcoin kiosks at 20 Circle K convenience stores as part of a pilot program across Arizona and Nevada. This represents the largest expansion for the crypto platform since its founding 2014, according to a press release. Canadian pharmaceutical giant explores blockchain potential in cannabis tracking Shoppers Drug Mart, Canada's largest retail pharmacy chain, is collaborating with TruTrace Technologies, a company dedicated to tracking medical cannabis using the blockchain platform, to deal with one of the most talked-about challenges in the pharmaceutical industry. Bitcoin Flag Pattern Aims $11000, But are the Bull Exhausted? Analysts Weigh-in Bitcoin has continued to rise above $9000 as the market sentiments towards the emerging asset is growing string with each day. The Whitepaper release of Facebook's crypto venture, Libra, is acting a positive market indicator. Although Libra is backed a basket of currencies, it still works on the concept of token holding value. Bitcoin Just Hit A Fresh 2019 High - Here's Why Bitcoin, back in the limelight after social media giant Facebook this week announced it's creating its own cryptocurrency and payments network, has hit a fresh year-to-date high and is edging closer to the psychological $10,000 per bitcoin mark. Libra Could Be Unbalanced by Indian Crypto Laws Despite cryptocurrencies' precarious standing within Indian law, the media outlet reports "Facebook has not filed any application with RBI for its cryptocurrency in India," according to an anonymous source with direct knowledge of the situation. Bitcoin proves to be outperforming assets that have been around for more than 100 years Peter Brandt, an old school trader, detailed his reasons behind trading Bitcoin and explained how the Bitcoin market is the best the world has ever seen. There have been more than a few prominent p Lightning Labs Mobile App Gets 2,000 Downloads in 24 Hours The new mainstream-friendly mobile wallet from Lightning Labs saw 2,000 downloads on Day 1. Next up for the company: merchant services. Craig Wright Provides New Details on Bitcoin Trust at Heart of US Lawsuit Allegedly written in 2011 by Dave Kleiman, a forensic computer investigator and author, the document describes a trust fund containing exactly 1,100,111 bitcoin, "to be managed by at least three people but not more than seven at any time." The document also declares the bitcoin holding is to be returned to Craig Wright on January 1, 2020. Rep. Maxine Waters Says US Can't Let Facebook's Libra 'Compete With the Dollar' House Financial Services Committee is doubling down on her calls for Facebook to pause development on its new blockchain, Libra. Two days after calling for a hearing, Rep. Maxine Waters appeared on CNBC Thursday afternoon calling for a "moratorium" on Libra development. Italian Court Invites Bitgrail Creditors to File Their Refund Claims It seems things are moving along with the bankruptcy proceedings of Bitgrail as an Italian court today said the defunct cryptocurrency exchange's creditors will be soon able to file their claims in order to claw back their trapped assets. PwC Unveils New Tool for Auditing Crypto Transactions The new tool allow users to take a closer look at the cryptocurrency transactions they make, providing "independent, substantive evidence of the 'private key and public address pairing'" to establish ownership of cryptocurrency and gather information about blockchain transactions and balances, according to the company. Facebook is way too late in entering the crypto game, claims Tim Draper The famous American venture capital investor, Tim Draper, was one of the first to trust the power of cryptocurrency, openly accepting it as a viable investment option. In one of his recent intervie QuadrigaCX CEO traded and lost over 21,000 Bitcoin in customer deposits Ernst and Young revealed that QuadrigaCX, a failed Canadian crypto exchange that lost almost $190 million of its users funds, may have committed fraud. Auditors found that the exchange's late founder and CEO transferred user funds off QuadrigaCX and used them for margin trading on other exchanges, losing millions. These Are 2019's Biggest Cryptocurrency Winners and Losers so Far Since the significant lows in December 2018, most digital currencies have captured remarkable gains. Also read: Policymakers Meet to Finalize Global Crypto Guidance - A Look at Standards G20 Supports. Bitcoin Breaks $9,300 as US Stock Market Sees Minor Uptrend Monday, June 17 - most of the top 20 cryptocurrencies are reporting moderate losses on the day by press time, as bitcoin passed the $9,300 mark again. Market visualization courtesy of Coin360. Bitcoin is currently up about 2.5% on the day, trading around $9,358 at press time, according to Coin360. Skepticism about Libra is natural, claims Sheryl Sandberg as Facebook's crypto faces growing resistance Facebooks blockchain project has been under the works for more than a year. When it was finally revealed however, the whitepaper received mixed reactions from a host of people, ranging from develo Facebook Libra: Forecast and its effects on Bitcoin Prices Please use this comment field to express your own thoughts and opinions. We do not allow harassment, profanity words or off-topic comments. All comments are manually reviewed before published. Comment. Name. Email. Website. Facebook's Libra won't be as power-hungry as Bitcoin Libra, Facebook's new cryptocurrency, is expected to have a smaller environmental footprint compared to some of its more notorious blockchain brethren, including bitcoin, according to experts. Bitcoin marks another milestone; records a higher monetary base than South Korea, Australia Bitcoin made headlines recently with the value of the smallest unit of Bitcoin, Satoshi, recording greater values than the fiat currencies of Iran, Vietnam and Indonesia. After breaching the Ethereum Classic's Next Crypto Code Upgrade Set for September In a public call Thursday, Ethereum classic developers recommitted to releasing a system-wide upgrade, or hard fork, to the blockchain's main network in September. The targeted block number for the so-called Atlantis activation is 8,772,000, which is expected to hit at roughly 12:00 UTC on Sept. 'Billions' May Be Saved By Tokens Backed With Central Bank Money: BoE Chief Bank of England governor Mark Carney said that distributed ledger tech projects have the potential to "unlock billions of pounds in capital and liquidity" - and that they might one day see closer cooperation with the central bank itself. India: Facebook's Libra Launch Might be Restrict Due to RBI's Policy Concern Libra coin by Facebook is becoming a major concern in a few countries where regulations around crypto are still uncertain. One such country is India where the regulators are considering cryptocurrency as Ponzi scheme and eventually deciding to impose a complete ban. Bitcoin Cash technical analysis: BCH/USD bulls need to breakdown $425-50 range for greater upside pressure Relative change: - 2.10%. High: 418.00. Low: 404.68. Note: All information on this page is subject to change. The use of this website constitutes acceptance of our user agreement. Please read our privacy policy and legal disclaimer. Trading foreign exchange on margin carries a high level of risk and may not be suitable for all investors. New real-time price alerts for the Coinbase app Today, we're introducing real-time price alerts for any cryptocurrency supported by Coinbase, available in the Coinbase mobile app. Now, automatically find out when the market moves on the crypto you care about most-no need to go check websites or your app. Coinbase Launches Mobile Push Alerts for Crypto Price Swings Coinbase is introducing a new push notification feature to alert mobile app users of price swings and market fluctuations in cryptocurrencies supported by the exchange startup. Bitcoin is not a currency: Israeli court rules BTC subject to capital gains tax The cryptocurrency space in Israel has been forced to deal with a ruling in a case that involved a tax dispute between the country's tax authorities and the founder of a blockchain-based startup. This follows a major court case in May where a defendant argued that the $2.5 million made after the sale of BTC was not subject to tax. Bancor to block US users from trading on its platform starting July 8 Effective July 8, 2019, US residents will no longer be able to access Bancor's web application to convert tokens, as confirmed in their blog post yesterday June 18. Bancor, a decentralized exchange platform, came up with the decision citing increased regulatory uncertainty. 2019's Bitcoin Price Boom is Reawakening Hellish Crypto Scammers By CCN Markets: Cryptocurrency evangelist and educator Andreas Antonopoulos has warned that the bull run the bitcoin price has been enjoying has revived fraudulent activities in the crypto space. In a series of tweets, Antonopoulos indicated that the prolonged crypto winter had driven scammers away. Facebook Is a Threat to Governments Not Crypto The moment Facebook released the whitepaper for its planned Libra coin, social media was flooded with claims about Zuckerberg's new drive to take over the cryptocurrency market, with some even calling it a Bitcoin killer. Bitcoin healthy AF following Zuckbuck reveal, hash rate hits all-time high Bitcoin is running on more computational power than ever before, proof that it simply doesn't care who or what launches which token. US police cracks down on cryptocurrency drug dealers The United States police have conducted several arrests recently when they lured a known drug manufacturer and dealer to a crypto exchange deal worth $200,000. According to the reports, the police made the suspect transfer Bitcoin and then approach them offline in order to collect the cash, during which he was arrested. Florida city pays hackers $600K in bitcoin to get computer systems back The Riviera Beach City Council on Monday unanimously approved its insurance carrier to pay 65 bitcoin - valued at about $592,000 - in hopes of regaining full access to its network, the Palm Beach Post reported. The attack two weeks ago wiped out the city's entire computer system. Will Cryptocurrency Libra Enter China with Facebook Ban and US-China Trade War? Facebook made its cryptocurrency announcement on 18th June 2019. In less than 24 hours, Governments around the world asked for a review or a temporary suspension of the project. The Social Media Giant has been called upon to clear the concerns that regulatory watchdogs have. Craig Wright says he invented bitcoin. Now he's suing those who doubt him By claiming he is Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysterious genius behind bitcoin, Craig Wright has become a comic-book supervillain for some in cryptocurrency. Decorate Your Car Dashboard With Trim Kits You Can Buy With BCH Cryptocurrencies are money and what better way to use them than spending a little on things that bring you satisfaction. You can now upgrade your car's interior with trim parts you can buy with bitcoin cash. Cockpitdekor is a company that promotes the benefits of paying with crypto and it sells customization kits worldwide. PwC adds crypto platform to its auditing tool arsenal One of the world's largest auditing firms, PwC, also known as PricewaterhouseCoopers has just added a cryptocurrency platform to its tool of auditing arsenal in order to cater to companies dealing in cryptocurrency transactions. Roll Wants to Take Power From YouTube With Cryptos for Content Creators Influencer image via Shutterstock. Bitcoin price: Cryptocurrency expert believes bitcoin will surpass all-time high of $20k BITCOIN is likely to exceed it all-time high of just under $20,000 following the announcement Facebook would be launching its own cryptocurrency, according to cryptocurrency expert Tom Lee. This father of three put everything into bitcoin. Heres what happened next. According to Taihuttu, invitations to blockchain conferences and seminars have piled up ever since he liquidated almost everything he owned and invested his remaining capital in bitcoin. It's a financial pivot that's both irrational and dangerous to an outsider, but within the crypto nation, it can make you a legend. US Senate Announces Hearing for Facebook Cryptocurrency The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs released a short statement on its website on Thursday announcing the hearing. Discover the Barcelona Trading Conference - A Top Tier Crypto Trading Event. QuadrigaCX CEO Set Up Fake Crypto Exchange Accounts With Customer Funds Cotten also appears to have created fake accounts on Quadriga, credited them with fiat amounts that did not actually exist, and use this fake fiat to purchase actual crypto from customers, with the largest account using the name Chris Markay. Central Bank of Russia will Hold Bitcoin Reserves Predicts Analyst Reportedly, Russian lawmakers, the State Duma is expected to finalize a bill on Digital Financial Assets within two weeks. They have already held discussions on the bill once and seem to have received positive votes from the house. Deputy Finance Minister of Russia, Alexei Moiseyev said,. Bitcoin Price Rally Stalls as Open Futures Hit Record Highs Bitcoin is struggling to find acceptance above $9,300 even as futures listed on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange are witnessing record open bets. The top cryptocurrency by market value is currently trading at $9,250, having hit a high of $9,362 earlier today, according to data source CoinMarketCap. Bitcoin $9,400 Ethereum $280 Ripple $0.44 Cryptocurrencies price prediction BTC/USD is seen trading at 9,269 on Thursday as the bulls battle to hold onto the minor gains on Thursday. For most of the trading this week, BTC/USD has stayed above $9,000. However, its upside has been limited under the resistance at $9,400. Looking at the hourly chart, the largest cryptocurrencies continues to respect the new June trendline. Is Bitcoin's recent price rally leaving Asian crypto-assets behind? The crypto-industry has recorded unprecedented milestones this year, including substantial value recovery, mass adoption, integrations and partnerships. And while growing trust in crypto has led to Swede caught over bitcoin investment fraud A Swedish man wanted by the United States and Interpol for alleged money-laundering in a virtual currency investment scam in the US has been arrested on Koh Chang in Trat province. Crime Suppression Division police apprehended Roger Nils-Jonas Karlsson, 45, at a house on the island of this eastern province on Tuesday. Debt-Plagued Millennial Parents Are Starting To Save For College Earlier Debt-plagued Millennial Parents Are Starting to Save for College Earlier than Past Generations. New survey by CollegeBacker.com shows the greater their own college debt burden, the more likely Millennials are to start saving early. MIT's 'Fiat Cryptography' System Automates the Process of Securing Almost Anything Gone are the days of manual encryption as MIT researchers create a way to automatically generate security algorithms. Swede facing extradition to US over $11M Bitcoin investment scam A Swedish citizen has been charged with securities, wire fraud, and money laundering in a scheme that saw him encourage victims to invest using cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. Can you contribute to Bitcoin ecosystem? Hard Core Fund will pay you Cryptocurrencies bounce back from the market crash of 2018 and the market sphere continues to grow. Naturally, firms and organisations are looking for pioneers and workers to either develop the technology or to learn how to interact with the crypto sphere. Italy's Banking Sector Will Boost Reconciliations With Blockchain The move is part of the Spunta Project, a program managed by ABI Lab, the association's research and innovation arm, to improve transparency and efficiency of communication between banking counterparts. The banking consortium also aims to enact daily rather than monthly reconciliations. Despite convertibility issues, Facebook's Libra will be a dominant stablecoin, opines Thomas Lee Thomas Lee, Head of Research at Fundstrat Global, spoke to CNBC about Facebooks Libra Blockchain. He also opined on how it would affect the cryptocurrency space, especially Bitcoin, stablecoins, a LINE's Crypto Exchange Could Win Japan License This Month, Report Says Japanese messaging giant LINE may soon be able to open a cryptocurrency exchange for users based in the country, according to a report from Bloomberg. Streamanity video service on Bitcoin SV secures investment from Calvin Ayre Streamanity, the video platform built on Bitcoin SV, announces an investment from entrepreneur Calvin Ayre, founder of Ayre Group and CoinGeek. These Websites Help You Shop With Major Retailers Using Cryptocurrency Cryptocurrency users are often forced to convert their coins to fiat in order to purchase items from leading retailers and ecommerce platforms such as Walmart and Home Depot, Amazon, Aliexpress, and Ebay. Bitcoin is comparable to Las Vegas for CO2 emissions Weblog: A new study shines a light on the cryptocurrencys effect on the climate. Will Indian users be next on Binance's ban list? Changpeng Zhao aka CZ, CEO of Binance, organized an AMA and addressed rumors regarding the recent shutdown of Binance for U.S.-based users, while also talking about the announcement of Binance U.S. Bitcoin price prediction: BTC/USD cautiously creeps above $9,300 - Bitcoin confluence Bitcoin is hovering at $9,300, off the intraday high of $9,364. The first digital currency is range-bound with bullish bias during early Asian hours; however, the recovery may gain traction once the European session kicks in. Facebook Libra: Bank of England's Governor Raising Eyebrows, Citing Highest Standards of Regulations Since the announcement of Facebook's Libra Coin rolled out, regulations around it become the center point to discuss. Facebook's cryptocurrency will have a negative impact on PayPal, says Caitlin Long Caitlin Long, Co-founder of the Wyoming Blockchain Coalition, recently spoke about Facebooks entry into the cryptocurrency space with the introduction of Libra, in an interview on WhatBitcoinDid. US Congress Calls for Facebook to Halt Cryptocurrency Project, Libra: Report The US Government has spoken on the release of the Whitepaper on Facebook's cryptocurrency, and it does not sound like good news. Reportedly, a U.S. Senate-House lawmaker has asked for ceasing all developments on Libra until a company executive testifies before the Congress. Token, an Open Banking Platform, Raises $16.5M in Funding Token, a San Francisco and London-based open banking platform, raised $16.5m in funding from prominent tech funds including Opera Tech Ventures, the venture arm of BNP Paribas, Octopus Ventures, and EQT Ventures, according to an announcement Tuesday. This strategic round of funding comes on the heels of the company's partnership with Mastercard. Cryptocurrency market update: Bitcoin hovers at $9,300, altcoins range-bound with bullish bias The cryptocurrency market is in recovery mode as Bitcoin and all major altcoins have gained some ground in recent 24 hours. The total market capitali. Crypto analytics firm to integrade Twitter-based sentiment feed On June 17th, a cryptocurrency analytics company, called Crypto Metrics, partnered up with the Social Media Analytics team, in order to provide a specific feed that will calculate the overall sentiment towards the market based off of social media posts on Twitter. Hackathon winner plans to recruit new users by paying them in Bitcoin SV The leader of the Uptime team, Brent Bevear, explained that "We wanted to give people a way of completing jobs to earn Bitcoin SV because I think that's the most significant way that you can get a lot of people interested." Uptime will offer the chance to earn "a little bit of money in the background" doing something useful. Bitcoin Traders Turns Bullish as Facebook's Crypto Plans Threatens the Banks Bitcoin plunged below $9000 briefly on 18th June 2019; this can be attributed to the extension of consolidation above $9000 as Bitcoin was unable to break above $9400. According to analysts, the $10k mark is expected to attract a flurry of investors due to FOMO. Blockchain Video Startup YouNow Files With SEC to Give Away Tokens The New York-based startup has filed a Reg-A+ offering circular for its Props token with the Securities and Exchange Commission - even though it isn't selling them to investors, accredited or otherwise. Bitcoin price prediction: Bulls aim to break past $9,335 resistance level BTC/USD is currently trading for $9,295 in the early hours of Thursday, following a bullish Wednesday. The bulls took the price up from $9,078.35 to $9,265 over this Wednesday. Before that, BTC/USD enjoyed six straight bullish days from June 12th to June 17th, where the price went up from $7,920 to $9,335 before it met massive resistance. Exchanges are complying with CoinMarketCap's transparency campaign CoinMarketCap, a leading crypto chart website has announced that most of the crypto exchanges listed on the website have complied with its new initiative of delivering transparency to the crypto market. Tyler Winklevoss Bets Bitcoin Is Headed to $15,000 Once It Hits This Level Tyler Winklevoss, co-founder of Gemini exchange, looks to bitcoin $10,000 as a key level that could catapult the cryptocurrency even higher. Crypto-news website faces lawsuit for allegedly using copyrighted photograph of Bitcoin Foundation's Charlie Shrem Photographer John Curtis Rice has filed a lawsuit against Cointelegraph, a popular cryptocurrency news website, for allegedly using a copyrighted photograph of Charlie Shrem, Founder of Bitcoin Fou Will Facebook's Libra Be an On-Ramp or Dead End for Crypto? The immediate question for the crypto industry following the announcement of Facebook's ambitious Libra project was whether this new token will lead more users into the broader world of cryptocurrency or insulate them from other projects. Algorand Raises $60 Million in Token Sale The Foundation previously said it will auction off 600 million Algos per year, meaning that this most recent auction of 25 million tokens only represents a portion of the forward float. Algorand also said it aims to release 10 billion Argos within its first five years of operation after launching the token in April of this year. Consumer Affairs Report Shows 70% Spike in Japanese Crypto Inquiries Japan's Consumer Affairs Agency has released its 2019 report and noted a significant spike in inquiries concerning cryptocurrency related issues last year. The report details a 70% increase in 2018 in regard to consumer queries largely stemming from exchange issues. FINRA is still making crypto companies wait for approval It's been at least a few months since the United States Financial Institutions Regulatory Agency, has received applications from around 40 different cryptocurrency startups to be given a license as broker-dealers in the industry. FINRA has been delaying the requests as much as possible, citing various reasons as to why there is so little progress. Bitcoin continues to hover over $9,000; did Facebook's Libra prolong bullish swing? Over a week ago, Bitcoin was trading at $7,650 and was rebounding off $8,000 for the second time in a matter of days. Now, the largest cryptocurrency in the market has marked a 13-month high and is 3 Developments Setting the Stage for Bitcoin use We're beginning to see more big companies and industries exploring the use of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. Whispers abound about Amazon's activity, Ubisoft is getting into blockchain, and in some cases even major banks are considering getting involved in one way or another. Senate Banking Committee Schedules July Hearing on Facebook's Libra Crypto Senate Committee on on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs will hold a hearing on July 16 regarding Facebook's new cryptocurrency, Libra. The hearing, "Examining Facebook's Proposed Digital Currency and Data Privacy Considerations," comes in the wake of calls from members of Congress to more closely examine Libra and its potential risks. Facebook's Libra 'sounds an awful lot like Proof-of-Stake' and will 'run into Ethereum's problems,' claims Jameson Lopp Facebooks The Libra Blockchain whitepaper has created quite a frenzy, not only in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, but also with U.S. government officials. Some people claim that Libra is not a blo Facebook Talked to the Fed About Libra, Chairman Powell Says Speaking during a press conference that followed a two-day Fed policy meeting, Powell was asked if he or the Fed had any concerns about Libra affecting the central bank's ability to conduct monetary policy, as well as if Facebook met with Fed officials. Facebook's Libra receives flak from US legislation: Asked to put a stop to its developments A week after officially announcing its launch, Facebook's very own cryptocurrency Libra runs into more trouble with US lawmakers demanding the social media giant to halt all developments in this regard. Regulators Debate Cryptocurrency Legislation Ahead of G20 Summit The new rules for crypto businesses will be released in June 21 but many regulators are already worried about the repercussions. Bitmain's Nishant Sharma Talks China and Crypto in the Humans of Bitcoin Podcast This week on the Humans of Bitcoin podcast host Matt Aaron chatted with Bitmain's Nishant Sharma who shared his story and discussed the western hemisphere's false impressions of China and Bitcoin. Bancor reacts to increasing regulatory uncertainty; will disable conversion functionality for U.S users Decentralized trading platform, Bancor, recently announced in a blog post that citizens of the United States will no longer be able to use the Bancor application to convert tokens. However, users w PR: Decoin Exchange Launches Unique Revenue Sharing Protocol 19.06.2019: Amid the gory reports of fake trading volumes claimed by crypto exchanges which have made many traders apprehensive of crypto trading, one rising exchange seems to be sailing on a high note of late. China's Biggest Payment Firms Have No Plans to Follow Facebook into Crypto While Ant Financial, which operates AliPay, is expanding to overseas markets, instead of issuing a cryptocurrency, it's adopting a conventional strategy of partnering with regional payments providers one-by-one to offer services to local users. Bitcoin Holds $9,100 Support While Top 20 Coins Trade Sideways The majority of the top 20 coins are trading sideways, while litecoin is seeing the biggest gains, following a crypto debit card announcement. Is Facebook's Libra a fiat in crypto's disguise? Facebooks entry into the cryptospace has finally given the community a much-needed push into mainstream adoption. As a result, institutions and individuals are being forced to understand the inner Seed CX Partners with Digital Asset Redemption - Finance Magnates Institutional-focused crypto exchange Seed CX is expanding the reach of its settlement solution, dubbed 'Zero Hash,' through a new partnership with Digital Asset Redemption. 'I Don't Trust Facebook With Anything:' The World Reacts to Facebook's Libra "It is no surprise that Facebook Inc.'s ambitious plan to roll out its own cryptocurrency - Project Libra ran into immediate political opposition in Europe, with calls for tighter regulation of the social-media giant," reflected Robin Matze, Blockchain Lawyer and Advisor to the German Government. EBay undergoes change of heart: Supports the cryptocurrency adoption EBay has made a U-turn on its decision and decided to consider the incorporation of cryptocurrencies in its platform. Going back on its last month's comment, the e-commerce giant had declared that they had no intention of adopting the cryptocurrency payment platform. Facebook's Cryptocurrency Will Face 'Regulatory Hurricane,' Canaccord Analysts Say Facebook's Libra coin will face a regulatory "hurricane," warn otherwise-bullish analysts at investment bank Canaccord. 'Satoshi's Useful Idiot' Zuck Will Boost Bitcoin Price Above $20,000: Max Keiser The bitcoin price is likely to reach new all-time highs after Facebook announced its cryptocurrency Libra, according to Max keiser. CEX.io Survey Finds 13 Percent of Brits Hold Digital Assets A survey compiled by cryptocurrency exchange CEX.io has found that approximately 13 percent of Brits hold some form of digital asset. Astonishingly, 35 percent of those people claimed that they owned cryptocurrency assets worth in excess of 100,000. Mark Zucerberg reveals all 27 companies backing Libra; Calibra launched The founder of the most used social media network, Mark Zuckerberg, in a statement on Facebook, reveals all twenty-seven companies supporting the Libra stablecoin project. In his statement, Zuckerberg expressed that the mission is to bring the digital financial infrastructure that is spread across the globe to billions of people. Block.one Paid $30 Million for a Domain Voice.com is now home to Block.one's Voice social media service, a blockchain based system that aims to destroy "bot mobs, data tracking, the shady algorithms behind our feeds." Block.One has already spent $150 million on the project so another 30 bills is chump change. Pros and Cons of Using Bitcoin for Online Gambling It used to be that those that loved to gamble had to road trip to their nearest casino friendly town. Fortunately, those days are long behind us so long as you're willing to be a little bit clever. 'Hard Core Fund' Collects 50 BTC to Support Bitcoin Developers "Right now, you wouldn't believe it, there are less than 10 full-time bitcoin developers.We want to fund full-time independent bitcoin developers." To be fair, it's hard to say how many people work full time on Bitcoin Core if you include independent research and open source, nonprofit projects like crypto wallets. Facebook will have no governance control over Project Libra, claims VP of Messaging Products Facebooks maiden tryst into the realm of blockchain and cryptocurrency has taken the world by storm. The Libra project, despite looking at a launch date of 2020, is today the talk of the town. Dav Internet Security Provider Cloudflare Announces an Ethereum Gateway The gateway is part of Cloudflare's ongoing effort to bring more users to the decentralized Internet and "break down the barriers created by a select group of powerful companies." Peaceful Warrior Lets You Buy Jewelry With Bitcoin Cash Do you want to show off your support for cryptocurrency and look good doing it? Peaceful Warrior lets you buy jewelry that will do just that, and you can also pay for all items in the store with bitcoin cash, of course. Also Read: How to Invest in Cryptocurrency Without Worrying About Volatility. What Are The Benefits Of Forex Trading? With the increasing growth of trading opportunities in the last couple of decades, the financial market has become accessible to many. The biggest challenge that people face today is, which is the right market? Bitcoin Cash market update: BCH/USD bulls wait for a signal amid market indecision BCH/USD is among the cryptocurrencies that are holding on to the slightly intraday gains on Wednesday. A recovery staged yesterday saw Bitcoin Cash brush shoulders with $420. The decreasing buying pressure failed to break past the trendline resistance. Facebook Doesn't Want to Work with Wall Street-But to Replace It Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao pointed this out on Twitter:. But the project is allegedly a little more private than many may have thought. For one thing, users will use pseudonymous identities to buy into and cash out of Libra coins at local exchange points, which will include places like grocery stores. Binance's CZ submits proposal for listing BTCB on Binance DEX; case of the transferred 9001 BTC solved Binance, the Changpeng Zhao-led cryptocurrency exchange, has been on an uptrend recently with respect to terms of updates and developments. The latest release from the company is the launch of the Bancore Terminates Crypto Trading for US-Based Clients Decentralized crypto exchange Bancor has decided to cut access to its trading services for the US-based clients. In the official announcement on June 18, the Zug-registered company cited the uncertainty in the US crypto laws as the reason behind this strong decision. Japan's leading foreign exchange brokerage makes a subsidiary of a cryptocurrency exchange On June 14, Money Partners Group, one of Japan's leading foreign exchange brokerages, announced that an agreement had been reached to acquire all the shares of a special-purpose company that owns all the shares of COINAGE, which is preparing to register as a cryptocurrency exchange, and make both companies its subsidiaries. Bitcoin's Price Snaps Longest Daily Win Streak Since 2018 Bitcoin's price fell on Tuesday, snapping the longest daily winning streak since July 2018. The long-term outlook, however, remains bullish. Is Ripple investment in Money Gram pushing Bitcoin to $10000 The year 2019 has proved different as various tokens' price rose significantly. Ripple's price rose by twenty-five percent while Bitcoin's price rose an incredible one hundred-fifty percent as it nears the ten thousand dollars mark. Government to consult on Bitcoin risks The process, according to Glen, will focus on how authorities can best ensure cryptocurrencies and the wider DLT sector do not negatively impact financial markets. "The government will consult on its approach to cryptoassets this year," he said. Flexer charged with trafficking Bitcoin-purchased drugs in Australia A man who frequently flaunted his wealth on social media has been found guilty of importing and trafficking drugs purchased with Bitcoin BTC on the dark web. Brendan Leigh Baker, 27, a former cafe owner in Canberra, was found guilty in the ACT Supreme Court this week. Brazil authorities announce blockchain sandbox for regulations The crypto-market is expanding and so does the blockchain technology. The regulation of blockchain technology is also a difficult task. Recently, the four financial authorities in Brazil have made partnership and announced a blockchain regulation sandbox in South America. PR: Bitcoin.com Announces Mining Partnership With Bit Mining Bitcoin.com and Bit Mining are excited to announce a business partnership focusing on BCH and BTC mining. A New Beginning. This joint endeavor is between Bitcoin.com, a company dedicated to spreading BCH and BTC adoption, and Bit Mining, a blockchain ecosystem builder with large mining farms spread across the globe. CFTC Files Lawsuit Against Control-Finance for $147 Million Fraud The Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Tuesday announced that it has filed a civil enforcement action Control-Finance Limited, a purported Bitcoin trading and investment company, and its founder Benjamin Reynolds. Top 3 Price Prediction Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum: Markets rising as Calibra provides the earthly gateway to the Crypto universe Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram will all be opened to Calibra - a massive development. Calibra will initially offer a global payment and money transfer platform with low commissions and instant execution. However, this is only the beginning. Decentralized Video Platform Built on Ethereum Raises $8 Million The infrastructure functions as a "token coordinating network," incentivizing those with computing power to join and match the needs of those looking to stream, by offering the ability to get paid for their idle processing power in ethereum. CFTC busts Bitcoin scheme worth $147 million The United States financial regulator, Commodity Futures Trading Commission has launched legal action about a recently discovered Bitcoin scheme worth somewhere around $147 million. Bitcoin market update: BTC/USD ushering in the consolidation phase as indecision sets in Bitcoin surge retreated from $9,400 bringimg to a halt the widespread gains witnessed among the major cryptocurrencies. Ripple stepped above $0.46 but has since corrected to levels above $0.43 while Ethereum brushed shoulders with the psychological $280 but is now holding ground above last week's range at $266. 'Phase Zero' of a New Ethereum Blockchain Could Go Live Next January To encourage a safe on-boarding experience for current ethereum miners looking at transitioning to the ethereum 2.0 proof-of-stake blockchain as validators, Drake mentioned that opening up the deposit contract for staked ETH this October during Devcon, an annual gathering held by the Ethereum Foundation, could be wise. Japanese manufacturers will adopt blockchain-based data sharing platform In order to increase the efficiency and the output of hundreds of manufacturers in Japan, companies have agreed to use the blockchain as a platform for sharing data for a better economic future of the country. Currently, the largest companies involved are Mitsubishi Electric and Yaskawa Electric. Indian Startup Launches Crypto Trading Strategy Marketplace An Indian startup has launched a marketplace for algorithmic trading strategies. Investors can choose a strategy based on factors such as past performance, cryptocurrencies invested, and time frames. The platform also offers a drag-and-drop tool for traders to build their own strategies without writing code. Facebook's Libra Could Meet 'Highest Standards' in Regulation: BoE Governor Facebook's Libra cryptocurrency payments initiative could be subject to the "highest standards" in global regulation, said Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England. Japanese Manufacturers Enter Blockchain-Backed Data Sharing Arrangement It will be overseen by the Industrial Value Chain Initiative, a manufacturers group that launched in 2015 to promote the "internet of things" in Japan. Facebook's Monumental Libra Debut: Crypto Experts Weigh In Facebook has announced the launch of its Calibra wallet that is backed by the Libra Association, an independent consortium with members such as Visa, Mastercard, Stripe and Coinbase. US Lawmakers Want Facebook to Halt Libra's Development After officially announcing Libra on Tuesday, Facebook has attracted the attention of the policymakers in the United States, but not in a good way. Multiple US senators, from both Republican and Democratic party, has raised concerns on the digital currency of the social media company. 200,000 in Bitcoin Seized in Dark Net Drug Probe In total, authorities also seized 20 kilograms of MDMA, more than seven kilograms of Ketamine, over 10,000 Xanax pills, and more than $100,000 in cash. All three men were indicted yesterday in federal court in Boston on charges of conspiring to manufacture and distribute controlled substances. Bitcoin Breaks $9,000; Uptrend In Adoption And Institutional Support A commentary on the recent Bitcoin price movements from leaders in the blockchain space. Sky Guo, CEO and Co-Founder at Cypherium, an enterprise-ready blockchain protocol, said,. "The analytics have shown us that a huge number of retail investors who entered the space in 2017 never actually abandoned the industry, holding most of their positions. Changpeng Zhao will not participate in the development of Binance US Changpeng Zhao, one of the most beloved cryptocurrency influencers in the world recently held an AMA session where investors could ask him some questions about the upcoming Binance US subsidiary that the company will be opening in the United States. Watch Facebook's Libra Videos: An Inside Look At the Calibra Wallet Facebook provider primers for folks not quite up on their blockchain tech. Here are a few of the best. Bittrex expands its USD market to Delaware as state approves Money Transmitter License Bittrex, a leading cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, recently announced that it had secured another Money Transmitter License in the United States. The US state that was recently added Cryptocurrency market update: Bitcoin and major altcoins range-bound with bearish bias The cryptocurrency market is a mixed picture with bitcoin and major altcoins moving directionlessly within the recent ranges. The total market capita. USDC is now the largest stablecoin by market cap after Tether, claims Skew Markets analysis Some proponents in the cryptocurrency market have stated that 2019 will be the year of stablecoins, this speculation evidenced by the number of recent updates and developments in the space. In a re South American e-commerce platform to reportedly integrate Facebook's Libra for user payments In their quest to release their much-awaited cryptocurrency, Facebook has been consistently active in the virtual asset ecosystem over the past few days. Facebook had recently announced the introduction of the Libra Association on June 18th, which was indicated to be the operating unit of Libra crypto. Facebook Co-Founder Chris Hughes: FB Has Gotten Too Big CNBC Exclusive: CNBC Transcript: Facebook Co-Founder Chris Hughes Speaks with CNBC's "Squawk Box" Today. WHEN: Today, Monday, June 17, 2019. WHERE: CNBC's "Squawk Box" The following is the unofficial transcript of a CNBC EXCLUSIVE interview with Facebook Co-Founder Chris Hughes on CNBC's "Squawk Box" today, Monday, June 17th. Bitcoin hits the million mark with daily active users Bitcoin shows a promising future by reaching its one million marks with active bitcoin users around the world, reports the leading provider of crypto market updates, CoinMetrics. "Just users and not traders" The news, however, has received conflicting views from crypto enthusiasts. Turkey, Latin America stand tall on crypto-popularity charts; Japan lags well behind The cryptocurrency market has seen compelling growth since its early days. Launched in 2009, 10,000 of the worlds first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, were used once to buy two Papa Johns pizza. The va Winklevoss twins foresee FAANG coins in the future as Facebook's Libra threatens Gemini's market As global markets collectively hold their breath awaiting the Libra whitepaper, which has the potential to change the face of finance, technology, social media, and payments world as we know it, some are masking their fear in predictions. Privacy Is Paramount: How KYC Makes Us All Less Free KYC policies and endless private data collection, coupled with force-backed, violent legislation compromise the utility and ethics of crypto trading. An uncompromising stance on user privacy is critically important to crypto traders and peer-to-peer transaction. 'Bitcoin inventor' Craig Wright hits fancy Italian spot after tense day in court Australian tech entrepreneur Craig Wright, who claims to be the man behind the moniker Satoshi Nakamoto - aka the inventor of bitcoin - post-gamed a "tense" day in court at fancy Italian restaurant Fi'lia at SLS Brickell in Miami on Monday night, an insider told Page Six. Bitcoin price prediction: BTC/USD falling fast, will it stay above $9,000? - Confluence Detector BTC/USD bears have taken the price down from $9,330 to $9,010 this Tuesday. The $9,100 support line was holding strong before the bears made their breakthrough. Worryingly enough, the daily confluence detector shows a lack of any strong healthy levels. Visa joins blockchain bandwagon - competes with Ripple While many payment facilitating companies have been lagging behind in catching up with the latest blockchain trends, there are others that are finding ways to incorporate the futuristic technology into their systems. Joining the bandwagon this time is Visa, alongside other prominent names such as Paypal and Uber. Bitcoin price remains at 2019 high as analysts predict positive impact from Facebook Libra cryptocurrency Bitcoin continues to trade at a 12-month high following Facebook's announcement that it plans to launch its own global currency to rival the US dollar. The Libra cryptocurrency is the first move from a major technology giant to take on bitcoin, which launched just over a decade ago. Halt Libra? US Lawmakers Call for Hearings on Facebook's Crypto House of Representatives Financial Services Committee wants Facebook to stop developing its new Libra cryptocurrency network - at least temporarily. Congresswoman Maxine Waters asked Facebook to halt development of the Libra Network until hearings can be held. Speed, ease of use are Binance's primary differentiators, claims CEO Changpeng Zhao While the mainstream media often highlights the probable impact of non-financial players in the cryptocurrency space, only crypto-enthusiasts notice the decade of work put in by todays crypto gian Libra Taps KoreConX for ME Digital Security Offering - Finance Magnates Libra Project, a London-based private tokenized green utility, has selected KoreConX to provide the protocol upon which its yet-to-launch digital securities venue will be created and distributed. The Stronger The Suppression Of Challenges To High Stock Prices, The Stronger The Panic Will Be When They Fall My last three articles here have examined comments by Jeremy Grantham arguing that we can no longer count on fair-value stock prices to reassert themselves as quickly as they always did prior to the mid-1990s. Facebook's Cryptocurrency Is a Nail in the Coffin for 'Blockchain Not Bitcoin' Edan Yago is the founder of CementDAO, an effort to bring together stablecoins into a unified ecosystem. The views expressed here are his own. With the announcement of Libra, cryptocurrency has entered the big leagues. Facebook's entry into this market means every single company now has to take cryptocurrency seriously. Why Facebook's Cryptocurrency Will Quickly Surpass Bitcoin Modern currencies best serve as stores of value when backed by real and dynamic economies, not static metals. For a cryptocurrency to compete with the dollar, renminbi, yen, or euro, it must be built on an ecosystem of services currently provided by countries, not just scarcity. 'Bitcoin is easily going to take out its all-time highs': Fundstrat's Tom Lee A Division of NBCUniversal. Data is a real-time snapshot Data is delayed at least 15 minutes. Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data and Analysis. Data also provided by. India: New RTI response clarifies India's stand on cryptocurrency regulation Indias position on crypto has been in the gray owing to a lack of legal clarity on the part of the Indian government and its financial institutions. The latest development in the space was when th 10,000 Bitcoin Price Imminent in 'the Days of Bitcoin Bug': Analyst By CCN Markets: On CNBC's Fast Money, Cornerstone Macro's Carter Worth stated that based on technicals, the trend of bitcoin is seemingly positive and is aiming for 2018 levels. Year-to-date, the bitcoin price has risen by 146 percent against the U.S. Bitmain Launches Low-Cost Special Edition Antminer S9 On Monday, June 17, the Chinese mining rig manufacturer Bitmain Technologies announced the launch of a low-cost miner called the Antminer S9 version SE. The new 16 terahash per second S9 SE is $350 per unit and the launch celebrates the company's most popular product, the original S9. Why Bitcoin Has Surged to $9,300 Bitcoin is on another astronomical rally, rising 22% in just over a week to reach a 14-month high of $9,300. The stock has skyrocketed 141% this year and outperformed all asset classes after weakness last year wiped out most of its gains from 2017. The Best-Performing Crypto Coin Up 340% Isn't Named Bitcoin Litecoin has risen more than double the pace of Bitcoin and is now the seventh-largest digital asset. Breaking: Facebook's Libra Whitepaper Reveals Mission Behind Launching Libra Coin And a long-awaited whitepaper of Facebook's crypto is out on June 18, 2019, as scheduled. As per the whitepaper released, the cryptocurrency of Facebook will be called as 'Libra' and the coin will roll out in the first half of 2020. Latin America and Turkey Have the Most Cryptocurrency Users, Poll Shows Cryptocurrency usage has been expanding globally and a new survey confirms that trend. The poll conducted by Statista shows that the citizens of troubled countries tend to exploit the benefits of decentralized digital money far more readily than the citizens of thriving nations. Bitcoins Calm Before The Libra Storm? - PYMNTS.com The official debut of a new cryptocurrency, Libra, may have stalled a rally in the marquee name in digital coins. Libra is the currency that will ride the new permissioned Libra Blockchain Network rails, also developed by Facebook. The marquee name would be bitcoin, of course, which as of this writing was changing hands at a bit more than $9,100. CFTC Lawsuit Alleges $147 Million in Bitcoin Defrauded From Trading Scheme Investors He alleged his expert virtual currency traders earned up to 45% trading returns per month, and used risk diversification methods to create a "safe haven" from crypto market risks and protect customers' Bitcoin deposits. Nouriel Roubini reverts to attacking Bitcoin; quotes British MP to call crypto a scam The cryptocurrency market has had its fair share of critics and proponents for a long time now. The latest critic to voice his concern about cryptocurrency and especially Bitcoin, is Nouriel Dr.Do Researchers Discover How To Automate Accountability On The Blockchain Researchers have figured out how to tell when varmints and rustlers are trying to double spend. PR: WaykiChain CEO Gordon Gao Building a Win-Win Public Blockchain This article feature quotes returned direct from inquiry to the company CEO Gordon Gao. WaykiChain CEO Gordon Gao's credentials are substantial and they include having previously worked as a 'senior business associate' at Alibaba.com. A New Bitcoin Exchange Point On the Colombian-Venezuelan Border Will Help Refugees The ATM installed in Villa del Rosario City is connected to the Venezuelan border by the state of Tachira. The states are only separated by the Simon Bolivar International Bridge, one of the most heavily traveled borders used by Venezuelan refugees. Why we could see the price of bitcoin quadruple within just a few months Compound interest might be the most powerful force in the universe, but FOMO can't be far behind, especially as it relates to bitcoin. A new report claims bitcoin is mostly powered by renewable energy. Really? China's proposed ban asks a fundamental question about bitcoin: Regardless of where the power comes from, is bitcoin a good use of energy at all? Bendiksen said bitcoin mining is making use of energy resources that would otherwise go to waste and that renewable power mitigates its environmental footprint. Bitcoin Falls Near $9,000 as US Stock Market Sees Gains Tuesday, June 18 - most of the top 20 cryptocurrencies are reporting moderate losses on the day by press time, as bitcoin falls Near $9,000 mark again. Market visualization courtesy of Coin360. Bitcoin is currently down about 3% on the day, trading around $9,045 at press time, according to Coin360. Bitbuy Confirms Crypto Purchasing Partnership with Blockgeeks Canadian cryptocurrency exchange Bitbuy announced on Tuesday that it is partnering with Blockgeeks. The deal between the two firms means that Blockgeeks' users will be able to buy cryptocurrency directly through the content and educational information firm's site. Bitcoin will test key Fibonacci resistance levels before breaching $10000, suggests analyst Bitcoin started this week on a major high as the virtual asset breezed past $9ooo, after briefly breaching the mark in the month of May. At pres time, the crypto was consolidating above the $9000 mark, recording its 2019 high. Facebook Has Yet to Answer US Lawmakers' Questions About Libra Crypto Facebook is still working on its responses to a plethora of consumer protection questions about the Libra cryptocurrency asked by a group of U.S. senators last month. Bitcoin Basher Nouriel Roubini Labels Facebook's Libra a 'Monopoly Scam' By CCN Markets: Avowed Bitcoin critic Nouriel 'Doctor Doom' Roubini has found another target - Facebook's upcoming cryptocurrency Libra, on the day of its announcement. According to the New York University economics professor, Libra is 'blockchain in name only'. Japanese Consumer Agency Reports 70% Spike in Crypto Queries Cryptocurrency complaints have risen for the fifth year in a row in Japan, according to a new report publishing by the country's Consumer Affairs Agency. Facebook's New Crypto Faces Scrutiny From European Authorities "It is out of question'' that Libra be allowed "become a sovereign currency," Le Maire said, adding:. Facebook's initiative to "build a financial ecosystem that can plug in and empower billions of people" was formally announced Tuesday after months of rumors and speculation. Medici Land Governance Makes Teton County, Wyoming the First County in the USA with Blockchain-Registered Land SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, June 17, 2019 - Overstock.com, Inc. announced Medici Land Governance, its blockchain subsidiary focused on land administration, has recorded Teton County, Wyoming's land titles to a blockchain-based land record and information platform. Free Law Project's Courtlistener Repository Now Accepts Bitcoin Cash Donations Court documents and the litigation system, Courtlistener.com, is accepting BCH for donations. Courtlistener captures hundreds of thousands of visitors every month by making high quality legal data widely available. Also Read: Crypto Cards in Weekly Video Update From Bitcoin.com. Bitcoin $9,187 Ethereum $280 Ripple $0.44 Cryptocurrencies price prediction Bitcoin's Fear and Greed indicator reached extreme values on the back of the recent rally. At the time of writing, the value of the indicator is set at 84, which means that the market is "extremely greedy" about Bitcoin. This is the highest level on record. Facebook's Cryptocurrency Wants to Take on Banks, Not Bitcoin The details are emerging, but what we do know is that the asset will be called Libra, it will be a "stablecoin" and there are so far 28 confirmed 'validators.' The cost to be a validator is $10 million each, there's a foundation in Switzerland and Facebook has stated that their main focus is to help facilitate payments across the developing world. Bitmain - Largest Crypto Mining Firm Suing Three Ex-Employees Bitmain is the crypto mining giant and the owner of BTC.com which is the world's top bitcoin mining pool by hash rate. Recent reports revealed that the firm is suing its three former employees on account of violating the non-compete agreements of the Bitmain. Binance to Launch Bitcoin-Pegged Token on Its Own Blockchain Binance will issue a number of tokens pegged to leading cryptocurrencies on Binance Chain to boost the number of trading options on its platform. CryptoCompare report: Trade patterns alone are insufficient evidence of exchanges fudging trading volume Of the many pertinent stakeholders in the cryptocurrency space, exchanges have been the well and true focus of 2019. BTC2 Token Levels Bitcoin Fees with Bitcoin Cash Sideshift AI launches a new Bitcoin-pegged BTC2 token on the Bitcoin Cash blockchain. Facebook Targets Remittances, World's Unbanked With Libra Social media giant Facebook released more details of its prospective cryptocurrency this Tuesday, saying that it will be launching a wallet for its Libra cryptocurrency. Called Calibra, the wallet will be available to users as a stand alone mobile application, as well as being integrated into Facebook's Messenger app and WhatsApp. Crypto App, Debit Card 2Gether Adds Dash to Roster of 9 Tokens 2gether, a European payment app allowing users to spend crypto via a Visa debit card, is adding dash to its list of supported coins. Launched in March and available in 19 countries of the European Union, 2Gether now supports nine tokens, including bitcoin, ether, XRP, bitcoin cash, EOS, Stellar, litecoin, QTUM and dash. Bitcoin: It's Not Just For Buying Stuff The use cases expand beyond paying for items digitally and being able to circumvent clearinghouses for faster payments and transfers. The Best Ways to Utilize Your Bitcoin in Vegas Using Your Bitcoin in Vegas. You may not be able to order and have a pizza delivered with a Bitcoin wallet yet, but it is only a matter of time. Vegas has already seen the potential in Bitcoin and many of the casinos are accepting it while keeping a watchful eye on the volatile values. Preparing For The Next Bitcoin Bubble Bitcoin is a wild market. What's not to love about that? The trouble with markets is they make perfect sense in hindsight but little when you try to look forwards. US CFTC Brings Action Against $147 Million Bitcoin Investment Scheme The United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission launched action against a reportedly fraudulent $147 million bitcoin scheme, fintech news outlet FinanceFeeds reports June 18. 70% of Crypto Exchanges Have Complied With CoinMarketCap's Transparency Initiative Crypto data provider CoinMarketCap says most listed exchanges have complied with its transparency-boosting mandatory data requests. The news marks the end of the first phase of the site's Data Accountability and Transparency Alliance initiative, which pushes for stricter disclosures, which include live trading and order book data. China, U.S and Hong Kong account for 70% of the world's mining pools, report reveals Mining pools have been the backbone of the crypto-ecosystem, owing to their inherited duty to fuel transactions and ensure immutable credibility. Given the power mining pools hold in the space, countries like China, U.S.A, and Russia have been competing to host the world's largest mining pools and earn the corresponding block rewards. Microsoft, Salesforce Join Hyperledger Enterprise Blockchain Consortium And although some have questioned if the enterprise blockchain space was going to finally get projects into production, the new batch of big names in the Hyperledger fold is "an indication that this space is still where a lot of value is expected," according to Behlendorf. IBM Unveils Upgraded 2.0 Version of Enterprise Blockchain It's also added support for app management and deployment platform Kubernetes. "This hybrid and multicloud approach will allow blockchain networks to work effectively across multiple environments," said Cuomo. 'Crypto' Doesn't Really Explain Bitcoin, Either Cryptocurrency still needs a genius communicator who can explain what it is and how it works to the rest of us. How to Invest in Cryptocurrency Without Worrying About Volatility Seeing the value of your portfolio fluctuating can keep you up at night or push you to sell when prices are low, especially in a fast moving market like cryptocurrency. Luckily, there are ways to mitigate that. Also Read: Bitcoin Cash Development Fund Receives Massive Support. Bitcoin continues to scale new heights after Wasabi Wallet records first ever 100-person CoinJoin Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency in the market, has successfully breached the $9000 mark, boosting the market sentiment. Notably, the digital currency was not the only coin to rise in the market as other coins such as Ethereum also registered a significant rise in the market. Bitcoin Price Trades Flat on Facebook Libra Blockchain Launch Bitcoin is struggling to gather upside traction following Facebook's official announcement of its Libra cryptocurrency project. Top 3 Price Prediction Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum: Awaiting the Altcoins for the next bullish move to $10,700 The first pause in the Crypto market arrives after a few days of gains in Bitcoin compared to all other assets. Meanwhile, the focus is on Facebook's initiative named "Libra." The project will offer a Stablecoin linked to any main currency - Dollar or Euro perhaps - and that counts on the collaboration of big players companies. The largest crypto scams have been carried out by Russian hackers It turns out that the biggest crypto jacking scheme was conducted by Russian hackers and not the North Koreans that everybody has been talking about. Recently, a Japanese media outlet reported that several cases have been linked to hackers based out of the Russian Federation. Libra White Paper Shows How Facebook Borrowed From Bitcoin and Ethereum Cryptocurrency, at scale. That's Facebook's vision as laid out in the long-awaited, just-released Libra white paper. Bitmain has Announced 16 THS Antminer S9 SE Bitcoin ASIC Bitmain may not have a stock of their newer 7nm chips for the faster SHA256 ASIC miners, but they apparently have more of the old chips to push new miners, so hence the Antminer S9 SE is born. It is a 16 THS Bitcoin ASIC miner with built-in power supply and a 1280W power consumption. British Bitcoin scammer nets $50M running fake Bitcoin trading site A British Bitcoin BTC scammer has admitted to a con that duped people, all over the world, out of $50 million. In US courts last week, the perpetrator, identified as 50-year old Renwick Haddow, admitted to running a fake Bitcoin trading platform that defrauded hundreds of investors form around the globe. PR: Legislators Support V20 Summit in Response to New FATF Rules Legislators have shown their support for the V20 Summit which is set to take place alongside the G20 Leaders Summit in Osaka, Japan, 28 and 29 June 2019. There's a Second Token: A Breakdown of Facebook's Blockchain Economy As such, the token will be sold to a much more exclusive audience: the founding corporate members of the project's governing consortium, known as the Libra Association, and accredited investors. Facebook Unveils Libra Cryptocurrency, Targeting 1.7 Billion Unbanked Facebook's newly unveiled Libra blockchain is tackling remittances at first, but it could have a much broader impact. Facebook's Libra Cryptocurrency: A Technical Deep Dive The Libra blockchain will go live in 2020, with the Libra Association - a Switzerland-based non-profit - tasked with leading the cryptocurrency's ongoing development. Bitcoin worth $300,000 at the center of an alleged scandal involving Brazil's Justice Minister, The Intercept Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have been in the news for all the wrong reasons several times over the years, after its use for a range of nefarious and illegal activities. The Silk Road, a darknet marketplace that was closed down by the FBI and DEA, is the most popular example of the same. Bitcoin Price Analysis: Technicals Suggest a Reversal to $8,800 After The Surge The post Bitcoin Price Analysis: Technicals Suggest a Reversal to $8,800 After The Surge appeared first on Coingape. Private Blockchain's Biggest Startups Integrate in Unprecedented Tie-Up A historic change in strategy is taking place at R3 and Digital Asset, who are now collaborating to maximize their respective blockchain ecosystems. Announced Tuesday, DA will be bringing its smart contract language DAML to R3's Corda platform, as well as Hyperledger Fabric, following on from its Hyperledger Sawtooth tie-up last month. Apart from a brief 90-day window, Bitcoin has always been profitable for users, claims Anthony Pompliano Bitcoin has changed the climate of the cryptocurrency industry by rising above the $9000 mark and in turn, giving a boost to its market cap as well. Although the community still has its fair share of critics, a majority of the members foresee a positive future for the world's largest cryptocurrency. Fundstrat's Tom Lee: Bitcoin Is Easily Going to Reach New Highs Fundstrat Global Advisors co-founder Tom Lee said that bitcoin could easily reach new highs during an interview with CNBC published on June 18. In his comments, Lee said that bitcoin is becoming the reserve currency of the cryptocurrency space, and noted that it has been worth over the $9,000 price level in only 4% of its history. Ripple's XRP 'Major Milestone' Surge Pushes Bitcoin Toward $10,000 - Here's Why Bitcoin has again broken its year-to-date highs, climbing to $9,478 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange and coming within spitting distance of the psychological $10,000 mark for the first time since May last year-spurred on by a sharp rise in Ripple's XRP which jumped some 5% yesterday. Facebook Could Change The Game For Bitcoin, ETH, XRP, And Litecoin Facebook's plans to launch its own cryptocurrency could change the game for Bitcoin, ETH, XRP, Litecoin, and other coins, in a positive and a negative way. On the positive side, Facebook's movement could change investor sentiment, as is already evident by the upward movement in cryptocurrency prices. Cryptocurrency market update: Bitcoin bulls hit the pause button; XRP remains unstoppable The cryptocurrency market has stayed in a green zone during Asian hours on Tuesday. The total market capitalization increased stayed at $288 billion;. Bitcoin Vs Facebook Coin: Should Bitcoin Hodlers Care About Facebook Coin? Peter Schiff took to twitter the other day to blast Bitcoin yet again. This is hardly new for the Gold Evangelist, as Schiff has essentially made his entire living promoting the return of the gold standard and investing in the precious metal. This time, however, Schiff pointed to the looming threat of Facebook's GlobalCoin. Policymakers Meet to Finalize Global Crypto Guidance - A Look at Standards G20 Supports The Financial Action Task Force has kicked off its meeting to discuss global cryptocurrency regulations which the G20 countries have committed to follow. Meanwhile, the crypto industry has raised concerns regarding some recommendations, and a meeting has been set up to coincide with the G20 summit to influence policymakers. Binance steps up its game by introducing tokens pegged to Bitcoin Binance has been taking prominent steps in terms of expanding its services to customers all around the globe. The exchange made another significant announcement earlier today, the launch of tokens pegged against the largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin. Notably, the tokens will not only be pegged to Bitcoin but also to other leading cryptocurrencies. Community reports Trading View bug on Twitter; they respond According to reports, TradingView which is an extensively used stage for dealers and stock predictors has a bug so stark that it is casting dealers innumerable damages. The bug has generated tangible complications for the dealers. While elucidating the condition in a video message and on Twitter, a dealer-CryptoTeddyBear has raised the alarm. Bitcoin Tops $9,000 as Crypto Rally Trounces Stocks, Bonds, Gold and Oil The price of bitcoin rose above $9,000 to a 13-month high, extending a rebound that has made cryptocurrencies far outperform traditional asset classes this year. Judge Seals 'Bitcoin Inventor' Craig Wright's Satoshi Documents By CCN Markets: A Florida judge sealed the list of bitcoin holdings that self-proclaimed "Satoshi Nakamoto" Craig Wright was compelled to submit on June 17 pursuant to an order he issued last week. Unfortunately for curious followers of this bizarre legal drama, federal magistrate judge Bruce Reinhart sealed the files. Bitcoin Is Back! Here Are Targets to Shoot At I am resuming bitcoin coverage and will treat it as nothing special, since thats the best way to be objective when reading its charts. The one shown. Bitcoin Is Hedge Against Global Liquidity Crises: Grayscale Study Grayscale Investments, the cryptocurrency asset manager backed by Digital Currency Group, which acquired CoinDesk in 2016 - has released a report showing what it argues is bitcoin's potential as a hedge against global liquidity crises. Bitcoin up for a long run as it re-visits an old bullish pattern The price of Bitcoin saw a sudden surge that took its price above $9k, a long-awaited breach in resistance. The coin started to pump late June 15 and continued to rise on June 16. Many speculated the reason behind this pump, however, a crypto enthusiast highlighted a familiar pattern of Bitcoin. Understanding disinformation through Reddit threads; research Investigators at the PNNL have published a new report that observes the incidence of Reddit crypto debates to understand if online talk can help in predicting market performance and understand the spread of misinformation. The leading scientist explained an effective proxy program for untruth in her presentation in the recent Web Conference. Russia fights against cryptocurrencies It seems that betting on crypto currencies in Russia, even if you had available promotions from casino-bonuscode.us, is. During an interview with the TASS information portal, Anatoly Aksakov, head of the Duma Committee on Financial Markets, revealed that the government could alter its mining policies within a few weeks. Brazilian Financial Authorities Announce Regulatory Sandbox For Blockchain The new regulatory initiative comes after the announcement of regulation on cryptocurrencies earlier this year by the Financial Supervision Counsel of Brazil. In this case, the regulation follow the same rules as in money laundering, with fines as high as $5 million for scofflaws. Libra / Globalcoin: Facebook Stock Price Target; eBay, Vodafone and Coinbase in List of Validators Project Libra, the cryptocurrency initiative of Facebook has also led to the formation of an Association to facilitate the decentralization of the cryptocurrency. These are called nodes or validators; the validators are made to pay a hefty fee and promised returns on it. Bitcoin Leaves Other Asset Classes in Dust as Market Stars Align While the S&P 500 and oil are both up by a double-digit percentage, gold is in last place with returns of less than 5%. Bitcoin's gains add insult to injury to gold investors, considering that the leading cryptocurrency is seemingly taking market share away from the precious metal given its store-of-value features. Ripple Could Invest Up to $50 Million in MoneyGram in XRP Boosting Deal Brad Garlinghouse image via Nikhilesh De for CoinDesk. This article has been updated to clarify the price of MoneyGram shares. Why bitcoin hasn't gone to zero and is now knocking on the door of $10,000 1 cryptocurrency is on fire, with a price approaching $10,000, pushing the digital asset near its highest level in more than 14 months, according to MarketWatch data provided by CoinDesk. A single bitcoin BTCUSD, - 0.32% most recently, was trading at $9, 218.21, after putting in a December low at $3,194.96. Bitcoin Bears Seem Out-of-Sight as Analysts Predict Targets Above $13000 Bitcoin's bullish momentum again caught fire as it broke above $9000. Currently, it is testing yearly highs near $9100. The rise comes after a red candle on the weekly scale, which apparently provided the pullback the traders were expecting to confirm sustainability in the surge. 2019 The Topical Talk ProjectContact Us | Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions We use cookies minimally and in a responsible way. To find out more read our Cookie Policy. News, videos, podcasts, and shop items and their associated media are copyright of their respective publishers.

again, Weintraub said, she’d demand at least some FEC staffers remain at work. Commissioner Hunter, though, disagrees. A government shutdown is a government shutdown. “The FEC is not essential to the operation of the republic in the same way, say, the Department of Defense is,” she said. As the FEC’s internal divisions have mounted and resources have dwindled, a wave of high-ranking staff members have grown increasingly disenchanted with the agency some had called their professional home for years, even decades. Several said they retired earlier than planned. Others simply quit. Democratic Commissioner Cynthia Bauerly resigned in February and returned home to Minnesota, where she now works for the state’s Department of Employment and Economic Development. General Counsel Tony Herman resigned in July after just two years on the job. In part stymied by commission inaction on a variety of recommendations his office made, Herman decided to take a job at his former law firm, Covington & Burling LLP. His departure triggered widespread rumblings about the commission’s ability to work with its staff and whether Republican commissioners in particular were on a quest to purge high-level employees they considered obstacles to consolidating power at the commission level. For months this year, McGahn spearheaded a Republican effort to approve a public FEC enforcement manual that, among a host of actions, would require commission approval for various decisions now primarily in the hands of staffers. Herman and many top staffers and Democratic commissioners were opposed. “Someone from [the Office of the General Counsel] asked me if Tony Herman is leaving before the Commissioners toss him out,” McGahn’s executive assistant, Jill Moschak, wrote in a June email to J. Duane Pugh, the FEC’s top liaison to Congress. “OGC peeps sometimes have a very active imagination.” Herman says he never believed the commission would have “the requisite four votes to fire me.” Since his departure, though, the commission has yet to even name an acting general counsel. “You have to trust your senior staff. Otherwise you’re just going to needlessly slow things down,” said one former top-level FEC staffer who recently departed. “It’s very difficult to come to work every day … do a professional job and then send it up to the commission so the commission can deep-six it because of ideology and spite.” Another mid-level staffer who also left this year said most staffers were doing the best they could, “but everyone has six bosses who don’t get along and don’t seem to want to get along.” “Morale was very low, and understandably, when morale is low, people don’t do their best work,” he said. There have been numerous calls for reform at the agency over the years, but the process has been stymied in part because some influential politicians—especially Republicans—philosophically disagree that the FEC should wield significant power. “We’re talking about regulating political speech, a constitutionally protected freedom that must be approached with extreme caution,” said Representative Gregg Harper, a Mississippi Republican and a member of the Committee on House Administration, which has FEC oversight responsibilities. Destroying the current 3-3 partisan balance “would just create a temptation for that majority to extend campaign finance laws beyond their legitimate scope,” he added. For Representative Robert Brady, a Pennsylvania Democrat who is the House Administration Committee’s ranking member, the recent wave of changes to the election landscape—starting with Citizens United and continuing now with the Supreme Court’s pending McCutcheon v. FEC case—make the FEC’s regulatory duties more important than ever. “It will fall entirely upon the FEC to guide members and candidates through this uncertain territory, and right now I’m not convinced the agency is capable of doing so,” Brady said. Jan Baran, chairman of Wiley Rein LLP’s election-law practice and former general counsel for the Republican National Committee and President George H. W. Bush’s 1988 campaign, suggests Capitol Hill is the FEC’s most notable obstacle. “If there’s one problem the FEC has always had, it’s Congress. It can’t even agree on what the law should be,” he said. Beyond freezing its funding for years, Congress hasn’t passed a single one the FEC’s most recent volley of legislative recommendations, on which all commissioners—Democratic and Republican—actually agreed this year. The asks include passing a law that makes Senate candidates file campaign reports electronically, not on paper—at an estimated $430,000 savings to the federal government—and making it illegal for anyone to misrepresent themselves as working on behalf of political candidates or committees when they don’t. Moreover, Capitol Hill has brushed off an overture to create senior executive-service positions at the FEC—much like those that exist at myriad other agencies—and won’t heed commissioners’ plea to ban people involved with any political committee, not just candidate committees, from using money raised for personal use. A repeatedly introduced House bill prohibiting the practice among leadership PACs has sat in committee for months, and a separate bill, the Clean Campaign Contribution Act of 2013, is also stuck in committee. The lone exceptions? The House approved a bill that extends the FEC’s administrative fine program—used to punish minor violations without full-blown investigations—through 2018. It awaits a Senate vote. In 2003, and again in 2006, 2007, and 2009, Senators McCain and Russ Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, attempted to reclaim some of their campaign reformist magic following the 2002 passage of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, which banned unlimited “soft money” contributions to political parties. To do so, the cross-aisle senators introduced bills that would dissolve the FEC and, from its ashes, create the “Federal Election Administration.” A key feature of the most recent proposal: installing a three-member administration panel to prevent deadlocked votes. But the Senate referred the bills to its Committee on Rules and Administration, where they sat, then died, without a hearing. Feingold is no longer in the Senate; McCain, whose office declined to comment, stopped trying. Little in the way of Congress-initiated FEC reform has surfaced since. “We’re not anyone’s No. 1 priority,” Weintraub concedes. Don’t look to Obama for major FEC reforms, either. The president once regularly railed against the Citizens United decision and decried the influence of big money in the political process, but his recent track record is hardly reformist. Indeed, Obama became the first president since the FEC’s creation to not successfully appoint someone to the FEC during an entire term. His lone nominee, labor lawyer John Sullivan, withdrew from consideration after the Senate blocked his consideration. McGahn’s term expired April 30, 2009. The White House could have nominated his replacement at any point during the next four-plus years. It chose not to, and McGahn kept working against campaign reformers’ most every demand. By 2012, Obama had given his blessing to supportive super PACs. In 2013, he blessed formation of Organizing for Action, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit political lobbying group that reveals limited information about its donors. These actions, campaign reformers say, eviscerated any hope they had that the president would push back against election deregulation in a meaningful way. White House spokesman Eric Schulz declined comment. Upon their nominations for the FEC on June 21, Weintraub sent Goodman and Ravel effusive email messages—the McGahn era appeared to be nearing an end. “Allow me to be among the first to welcome you to the FEC!” she wrote Goodman, who with Ravel, would ultimately take his oath in October after a relatively uneventful confirmation process.” She told Ravel that “I'm so looking forward to working with you. ” For Goodman and Ravel, their time is now. Come this winter, the FEC will likely elect Republican Goodman as its chairman and Democrat Ravel its vice chairman, since all other current commissioners have had their turn in the rotating leadership positions. It’ll be their agency to direct. “I am an eternal optimist, and if I wasn’t, I wouldn’t be here,” said Ravel, who in October as chairman of California’s Fair Political Practices Commission oversaw the outing of numerous donors to nonprofit organizations that sought to influence a ballot initiative vote. Ravel will continue fighting for expanded political disclosure at the federal level, saying, “It is the essential purpose of the FEC.” Goodman describes himself as libertarian in his campaign finance philosophy, “and you’ll find me erring on the side of freedom,” he said. But, he says, “To be effective in my philosophical viewpoints, my door needs to be open, and I need to be open to [Democrats’] viewpoints, as well …. There doesn’t need to be a lot of animosity or angst for us to do our work. We all agree it’s important work — and that the FEC is still relevant.” Whether newfound collegiality translates into functionality, however, remains an open question. In a headline-generating case this November, the Conservative Action Fund, a PAC, asked the newly constituted commission to provide guidance on whether it could raise and spend bitcoins—an all-digital currency. FEC staffers drafted four plans of action, spanning 83 pages, for commissioners to consider. The Republicans supported the most permissible option. Democrats blocked them. Another 3-3 deadlock. The PAC—and by virtue of the decision, all political committees—left the FEC’s 9th floor chamber at 999 E St. in Washington, D.C., back at square one, no answer in hand. “We will continue to work on these very interesting issues,” said Weintraub, the chairman, who promised the commission would revisit the bitcoin matter sometime in the future. No date for doing so has yet been set. The Center for Public Integrity is a non-profit, independent investigative news outlet. For more of its stories on this topic go to publicintegrity.org. An emotional film gets up close and personal with a family torn apart by recidivism. When the “bonds of affection” are strained, the spirit of generosity and the virtue of tolerance demand extraordinary measures to avert a break. Last month, The Atlantic hired Kevin Williamson, the longtime National Review staffer. Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in chief of The Atlantic, announced the move, declaring him a writer “whose force of intellect and acuity of insight reflect our ambition.” Immediately, critics began poring over Williamson’s substantial archive of published writing and public statements. Among the most controversial was an exchange on Twitter about abortion and the death penalty. Williamson declared that “the law should treat abortion like any other homicide.” Pushed to clarify, Williamson added, “I have hanging more in mind.” Later, he expounded, “I’m torn on capital punishment generally; but treating abortion as homicide means what it means.” The scientific paper—the actual form of it—was one of the enabling inventions of modernity. Before it was developed in the 1600s, results were communicated privately in letters, ephemerally in lectures, or all at once in books. There was no public forum for incremental advances. By making room for reports of single experiments or minor technical advances, journals made the chaos of science accretive. Scientists from that point forward became like the social insects: They made their progress steadily, as a buzzing mass. The earliest papers were in some ways more readable than papers are today. They were less specialized, more direct, shorter, and far less formal. Calculus had only just been invented. Entire data sets could fit in a table on a single page. What little “computation” contributed to the results was done by hand and could be verified in the same way. Mid-century politicians envisioned ideologically defined parties—but failed to anticipate today’s hyper-polarized environment. “It would be a great tragedy if we had our two major political parties divide on what we would call a conservative-liberal line. [O]ne of the attributes of our political system has been that we have avoided generally violent swings … from one extreme to the other. And the reason we have avoided that is that in both parties there has been room for a broad spectrum of opinion.”—Vice President Richard M. Nixon, 1959 Since “the country was already split vertically between sections, races, and ethnic groups” it would be “dangerous to split it horizontally too between liberals and conservatives.” Down that path “lay the rift between haves and have-nots and the ideological politics of Europe.” —Attributed to Robert F. Kennedy, 1963 No meaningful American response will be forthcoming, no matter how hideous the war crime. Bashar al-Assad, the president of Syria, might have great contempt for the sanctity of human life, but he is not a reckless strategist. Since 2011, he has prosecuted an uncompromising war against his own population. He has committed many of his most egregious war crimes strategically—sometimes to eliminate civilians who would rather die than live under his rule, sometimes to neuter an international order that occasionally threatens to limit his power, and sometimes, as with his use of chemical weapons, to accomplish both goals at once. When he does wrong, he does it consciously and with intended effect. His crimes are not accidents. The Syrian regime’s suspected chemical-weapons attack on Saturday in Douma, a suburb of Damascus, suggests that Assad and his allies have accomplished many of their primary war aims, and are now seeking to secure their hegemony in the Levant. But two major factors still complicate Assad’s plans. One is Syria’s population, which to this day includes rebels who will fight to the death and civilians who nonviolently but fundamentally reject his violent, totalitarian rule. The second is President Donald Trump, who has expressed a determination to pull out of Syria entirely, but at the same time has demonstrated a revulsion at Assad’s use of chemical weapons. The digital manipulation of video may make the current era of “fake news” seem quaint. In a dank corner of the internet, it is possible to find actresses from Game of Thrones or Harry Potter engaged in all manner of sex acts. Or at least to the world the carnal figures look like those actresses, and the faces in the videos are indeed their own. Everything south of the neck, however, belongs to different women. An artificial intelligence has almost seamlessly stitched the familiar visages into pornographic scenes, one face swapped for another. The genre is one of the cruelest, most invasive forms of identity theft invented in the internet era. At the core of the cruelty is the acuity of the technology: A casual observer can’t easily detect the hoax. This development, which has been the subject of much hand-wringing in the tech press, is the work of a programmer who goes by the nom de hack “deepfakes.” And it is merely a beta version of a much more ambitious project. One of deepfakes’s compatriots told Vice’s Motherboard site in January that he intends to democratize this work. He wants to refine the process, further automating it, which would allow anyone to transpose the disembodied head of a crush or an ex or a co-worker into an extant pornographic clip with just a few simple steps. No technical knowledge would be required. And because academic and commercial labs are developing even more-sophisticated tools for non-pornographic purposes—algorithms that map facial expressions and mimic voices with precision—the sordid fakes will soon acquire even greater verisimilitude. The one consistent message coming out of the White House was born in the 1970s: Don’t trust any institution. President Trump has brought the spirit of the 1970s into the Oval Office. If there is one consistent message that has come out of this White House, it is a message born out of the turbulent decade: Don’t trust any institution. Every president carries with them the zeitgeist of a period that shaped their values and vision. In recent decades, Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush embodied the patriotism and national bravado of the early Cold War in the 1950s—an unyielding belief in American Exceptionalism. To the consternation of Representative Newt Gingrich, President Bill Clinton emerged as the voice of the 1960s counter-culture even though his domestic policies were often at odds with the legacy of FDR and LBJ. President George W. Bush championed the conservative ethos of Reagan’s America in the 1980s, with its zealous belief in free markets, deregulation, and tax cuts. President Barack Obama promoted the hard-headed, data-loving, problem-solving pragmatic attitude of the 1990s when the end of the Cold War suggested that almost any challenge could be met. A scathing obituary of Richard Nixon, originally published in Rolling Stone on June 16, 1994 DATE: MAY 1, 1994 FROM: DR. HUNTER S. THOMPSON SUBJECT: THE DEATH OF RICHARD NIXON: NOTES ON THE PASSING OF AN AMERICAN MONSTER.... HE WAS A LIAR AND A QUITTER, AND HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN BURIED AT SEA.... BUT HE WAS, AFTER ALL, THE PRESIDENT. Richard Nixon is gone now, and I am poorer for it. He was the real thing -- a political monster straight out of Grendel and a very dangerous enemy. He could shake your hand and stab you in the back at the same time. He lied to his friends and betrayed the trust of his family. Not even Gerald Ford, the unhappy ex-president who pardoned Nixon and kept him out of prison, was immune to the evil fallout. Ford, who believes strongly in Heaven and Hell, has told more than one of his celebrity golf partners that "I know I will go to hell, because I pardoned Richard Nixon." Glass has changed the world like no other substance, but people usually overlook it. An Object Lesson. To reach you, these words were encoded into signals of light moving about 125,000 miles per second through fiber-optic cables. These lines, splayed out across mountains and oceans, are made of hair-thin glass 30 times more transparent than the purest water. The technology was made possible in part by a team from Corning Incorporated. In 1970 they patented a type of cable that could transmit large amounts of information long distances, building on decades of work by other researchers. Assuming you’re reading this on a smartphone, you also owe a debt to Steve Jobs, who in 2006 asked Corning to make a very thin, strong screen for his new product, the iPhone. The result, Gorilla Glass, now dominates the market for mobile devices: Phones made with the fifth generation of this product can be dropped onto a rough surface from a height of five feet (selfie height) and survive 80 percent of the time. Among the more practical advice that can be offered to international travelers is wisdom of the bathroom. So let me say, as someone who recently returned from China, that you should be prepared to one, carry your own toilet paper and two, practice your squat. I do not mean those goofy chairless sits you see at the gym. No, toned glutes will not save you here. I mean the deep squat, where you plop your butt down as far as it can go while staying aloft and balanced on the heels. This position—in contrast to deep squatting on your toes as most Americans naturally attempt instead—is so stable that people in China can hold it for minutes and perhaps even hours ... The Democratic presidential candidate believed that the ordinary American was open to a message of collective responsibility and common purpose. Seventy years ago, on the night of July 14, 1948, Hubert Humphrey, speaking at the Democratic convention in the Philadelphia Convention Hall, changed the course of the Democratic Party, and of post-war American politics. Yes, that’s the same Hubert Humphrey whom those of us who came of age in the late 1960s remember as the incarnation of a shopworn Cold War liberalism, the martyr of the cataclysmic 1968 Democratic convention. That Humphrey was LBJ’s sad rubber-faced puppet. This Humphrey was the maverick mayor of Minneapolis, the Happy Warrior whom Time had put on its cover under the banner, “The number one prospect for liberalism in the country.” In 1948, “liberalism” operated as a synonym for energy, optimism, and, above all, idealism. But with the Democrats now under the stewardship of Harry Truman, a stodgy machine pol, men like Humphrey feared that the party no longer stood for anything worth caring about. And Humphrey had come to Philadelphia determined to commit the Democrats to the one issue that cried out for a politics of conviction: civil rights. Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken,” originally published in The Atlantic in 1915, is animated in a new video. Joan Baez performs the mournful song in a new animated video that remembers Obama’s visit to Charleston. Non-monogamous couples speak candidly about the challenges and rewards of their unconventional lifestyle. Support 160 years of independent journalism. TheAtlantic.com Copyright (c) 2018 by The Atlantic Monthly Group. All Rights Reserved.

IPFS, CoinList, and the Filecoin ICO with Juan Benet and Dalton Caldwell Juan Benet is the founder of Protocol Labs (YC S14). They’re working on IPFS, Filecoin, and CoinList. Dalton Caldwell is a Partner at YC. }(window,document,'script','__btL','__btR', 'https://player.backtracks.fm/embedder.js')) [s].q=[]), c.src="https://c.bktrks.com/utils-1.0.0.all.min.js", use('backtracks-autolink', options).init(); Craig Cannon [00:00] – Hey, this is Craig Cannon, and you’re listening to Y Combinator’s podcast. Today’s episode is with Dalton Caldwell, who’s a partner at YC, and Juan Benet, who’s the founder of Protocol Labs, a YC company that’s working on IPFS, Filecoin and CoinList. If you’re just getting into cryptocurrency, I highly recommend listening to episode 244 of Tim Ferriss’ podcast, which does a pretty good job of covering all the terms and explaining how they all connect to each other. Before we get started, I wanna let you know that this is a really long episode, so it’s pretty much broken up into three parts. Part one starts right after this, and it’s Juan’s explanation of IPFS and Filecoin. Part two is our conversation with Dalton, and that starts around minute 11. Part three is Juan answering questions from Twitter, and that starts around one hour and 40 minutes in. All right, here we go. Let’s just start with a description of all the words we’ve been talking about, IPFS, Protocol Labs, et cetera. Juan Benet [00:50] – Protocol Labs is a research development and deployment lab for networks that I started to really build the IPFS project and build Filecoin, and create a place where we could create the kinds of projects that could turn into something like IPFS or Filecoin or other things. I really wanted to build an organization that someone like Satoshi could have seen as a way to build a project through and be like, oh, yeah, instead of doing this on my own anonymously, I could go and build it in Protocol Labs. It was born out of a personal frustration where when I was starting an IPFS project, I didn’t have such an organization that I could go to and go and build a project there. Really, I think the only option was either university or Google. In the university case, it would have been killed in the publish or perish world where like, hey, this is way too ambitious. Focus on this one little thing and maybe publish that and move on to the next thing. It would have not been an implementation project. Similar to how the web could have never really been built as a grassrooted project. Then the flip side, I think this kind of tech is stuff that Google might be interested in funding from the perspective of Google funds a lot of protocols and funds a lot of research. But it also kinda runs counter to basic Google positions around data, control of data and how the internet, how information flows and all that kinda stuff. It’s like in direct opposition, so it’s stuff that probably shouldn’t have been funded or in direct control by Google. It’s the kind of stuff that has the potential to really rebalance power on the internet. I figured I would start an organization that’s separate. Protocol Labs is really a group that is trying to create a number of these projects and protocols around things that we think are broken on the internet. The charge that we have for ourselves, the mission that we have is to go in and improve and upgrade a whole bunch of the software and protocol machinery that we have running the internet both in low level actual internet part or the web and more user-facing pieces. We have a very open-ended kind of perspective of like, hey, we just want to improve computing in general and improve the pipeline of going from research to a product that people use. It just happens that for now and for the next few years, we’re super focused on how information moves around the internet, how to distribute it better, how to change and rebalance power associated with information, give people sovereignty of data. Just making it more efficient, make it route around things like attacker and hostile censorship. Make it so that information has more permanence, a whole bunch of questions around this. The two projects there are, one of them is IPFS, the InterPlanetary File System. It’s used by a ton of organizations and, both businesses and projects and blockchain networks and governments and so on. It’s used in a whole bunch of cases around … A sure way to describe IPFS is saying, hey, it’s a large scale content-addressed content distribution thing. It’s a protocol. It’s a peer-to-peer protocol for moving around anything, any kind of content; files, data, hypermedia, whatever, in a peer-to-peer way, and with proper content addressing and cryptographic verification and all this kinda stuff, and a whole bunch of tooling around the guts of making all of that work, which is peer-to-peer networks and the ability to work across a whole bunch of different transports. There’s no end to the really important pieces of the peer-to-peer machinery that you have to build that the IPFS part was really about. That’s used by a ton of people both in the blockchain space and outside. It’s used in the blockchain space because it fits really well with the model of you have authenticated data structures, then you have hashes and you address things that way. It’s used outside because people want to distribute things in a better way. People want to address things by what they are, not where they are. It’s time for the internet to move from location addressing to content addressing. In a big way, we’ve been, I guess, appointed to do so. We have to slog through the really hard work that is doing that. We’re doing it and it’s great. We’re succeeding, but there’s more to go. There’s a lot more to go. Craig Cannon [05:49] – What’s the current status of making it all human readable? Because I knew that was an issue early on. Juan Benet [05:53] – Oh, like making human-readable names? Juan Benet [05:56] – Human-readable names are an interesting question. Human-readable names should map to content, and people should use them when they know and are aware that that name is now subject to a consensus protocol. In a way, human-readable names either require a consensus protocol that is global scale and makes everyone agree on what the value of a name is. Or they’re relative. Meaning, I think there’s a GNS which is like the new naming system, which is relative on a trust graph. It kinda maps more to how humans think about names where I might call a friend Jeremy, and I know him as Jeremy, but he actually might have a last name, as well, and he might other names that he goes by on the internet. Other people call other people Jeremy. GNS is an interesting, or the approach of using trust graphs and so on or social networks to name people, it’s a really interesting and good one, but it doesn’t give you URIs or names that you can print in a billboard that a ton of people can look at and enter into their computer, which is the whole point of human-readable naming. You really are stuck with consensus. So when you’re stuck with consensus, you either have something hierarchical like DNS and so on, or you have something like blockchain naming, so Namecoin or ENS or Blockstack. You have a situation where, human-readable naming is important for people to type, but I think we have this massive addiction to human-readable naming where it shouldn’t be used in a lot of places because it brings in a whole bunch of baggage around, hey, now you need a consensus system, now you need like a network stack, now you need a whole bunch of things that normally you shouldn’t need to just address or point to some information. We still want hashes to be the main thing that people use to link to things, just maybe allow human readability as an entry point to all of that. Do you want me to describe Filecoin first or do you wanna dive deeper? Juan Benet [08:02] – The Filecoin project is a, it was borne out of IPFS as a way to incentivize the distribution of content in the IPFS network. That’s where you can think about the problem of storing bytes of data in the world, and you have a situation where there’s a lot of people with disks and there’s a lot of people with data. It’s effectively a market where people want to buy storage and some people want to provide storage and provide a valuable service. In the old peer-to-peer tradition, people would just do resource sharing and kind of try and hope to achieve a right balance. It’s been shown that that works for some use cases, but doesn’t work for others. What was really missing there was an understanding that there’s actually a spectrum where on one end, some people contribute massive amounts of storage and don’t really need to use the network very much, and on the other end, you have people that are contributing or asking for massive amounts of storage to store all their data, and don’t plan to contribute any storage. This is basic, hey, introduce a currency and now you’ve mediated this market. That’s what Filecoin is about. It’s creating a currency that can mediate this market. Now, there’s a whole second aspect to it, which is you can look at a network like Bitcoin as an entity that managed to get tons of people around the planet to amass massive amounts of computing power to maintain the Bitcoin blockchain, all of the Bitcoin mining that’s going on. Can you create a different proof of work function that maintains a blockchain that instead of just trying to crunch through hashes and find the little target, that also causes a valuable side effect? That valuable side effect is, hey, you have to store a whole bunch of files in order to have power in the consensus. A way of framing it is that the Filecoin consensus, if you want to participate in a Filecoin consensus and maintain the Filecoin blockchain, what’s counted is not your CPU raw power as your influence over the consensus, but rather the amount of storage you are providing to the rest of the network. For that, we use proofs of storage and specifically a new kind of proof we came up with, we, I guess, discovered, which we call proof of replication. That checks and verifies that content has been correctly and independently stored. Independently in, it doesn’t mean different physical hardware, but rather it means that a different array of bytes somewhere is being used to store this, and you can’t de-duplicate that, and that you can’t cheat it in that you can’t generate, you can’t pre-generate a lot of the content and cheat. There’s a whole bunch, that’s a very specific problem, but the thing there is Filecoin, with this different work function, can organize massive amounts of storage to then sell in the network. You get a lot of people to mine the currency, and you have a very strong incentive to mine the currency, and then you can sell all that storage, that supply that comes on to users. Mediate this. It’s a blockchain-powered decentralize storage network. It’s the way that we can think about it. Craig Cannon [11:15] – Dalton, you wanna just kick it off? What’s your first question? Dalton Caldwell [11:18] – My first question is, maybe start with the timeline of you as a founder, what your initial idea was, why you started the company and just how it got here. Juan Benet [11:29] – Sounds good. It was probably 2013, late 2013 or so. I’d been working on a whole bunch of knowledge tools. This means software tools that can help you learn faster or help scientists figure out what’s in papers and so on better. I found this really annoying problem, which is data sets, scientific data sets, were not well-versioned, were not well managed and so on. There’s a whole bunch to that problem, but it struck me as this hugely lacking thing that computers scientists have Git and we have versioning, and we also have BitTorrent and we know how to move around large content volumes of data very efficiently in a peer-to-peer way. What really seem to be missing was this sort of combination of getting BitTorrent that would enable these data sets to be distributed worldwide, well versioned and so on. That sent me on a path of re-engaging with a whole bunch of stuff that I’d been thinking about prior, many years before, a lot of peer-to-peer stuff. My background is in these sort of systems and networking. I studied that at Stanford. At the time, I had been looking into things like wireless networks and why peer-to-peer networks like Skype works, and so on. It always struck me that that was a very untapped area of potential. I think the potential there was vastly underutilized. Dalton Caldwell [13:10] – A lot of the problem’s with usability, I don’t know if you know my whole background, but my first company, imeem that I started, was a peer-to-peer. It was distributed social networking. A lot of these ideas keep recycling every few years. One thing that we noticed is how hard it was for users to get the negative side effects; having something that is peer-to-peer. BitTorrent worked pretty well, but even Skype. Skype kept it really, you didn’t know that it was peer-to-peer. Unless your upstream bandwidth was saturating and you got a nasty letter from your ISP or something, you had no knowledge as a user. Sort of my takeaway during that era was that usability always trumped the elegance of peer-to-peer models. Then when I saw YouTube take off, YouTube is exactly the sort of thing you expect to be both on top of BitTorrent, but in fact was entirely centralized and they were streaming everything themselves. Holy cow, because it worked so well and Flash Video worked so well, the culmination of those events happened. My kind of knowledge going into this of even for the, going back to your story in a second, is usability, to me, is such an important concept to have these distributed systems get used by end users. Juan Benet [14:20] – Absolutely. Without a question. Famously, I think Drew has even pointed out how there were a whole bunch of clunky sync, file sharing sync things that really just did not work. The big thrust of Dropbox for a while was just get usability right, get the user experience flawless, and it almost doesn’t matter what you do underneath the hood as long as you make sure the UX is like- Dalton Caldwell [14:47] – I’m sure back in the day, everyone was like, well, we have rsync, that’s good enough. We don’t need Dropbox, we have rsync. Juan Benet [14:52] – But then there’s this other fundamental difference, which is that, yes, absolutely, building these systems is hard and you have to pay attention to the UX, but there’s a whole bunch of places where, economically, it makes a ton of sense to do something better and to do something that has a different arrangement. I think there were a whole bunch of, there was a period of time, basically from 2003 to 2009 or so, where peer-to-peer was sort of dead. I sorta call this like the peer-to-peer winter similar to the AI winter. There’s been a series of AI winters. That was kind of like the peer-to-peer winter. There probably were more peer-to-peer winters before because peer-to-peer is actually a pretty old concept. A lot of people have been struggling with the differences between making things peer-to-peer or centralized since the beginning of the internet. I think there’s a whole bunch of reasons why a lot of the companies failed that were getting built around that time where products failed, and why there were very few success stories. I think Skype and BitTorrent are probably the biggest success stories from that entire time. Yeah, I think Skype didn’t really talk about peer-to-peer very much. BitTorrent, aside from Blizzard and a few others. it was mostly used for moving around a lot of movies. That said, though, it doesn’t, the actual CS behind it, the actual engineering reasons for choosing to do something peer-to-peer make a ton of sense. This actually connects very well with Protocol Labs as a company because the key thing is to understand deeply what the benefits of using some technology are. What are the underlying, from a research and theory perspective, what is the theoretical difference between doing one thing one way or another, between centralized models or decentralized models, between doing things peer-to-peer or doing things in a hierarchical, well-structured way? Those different properties can give you a different range of opportunities. Now, Peer-to-peer is a lot harder to build with because you don’t have a lot of control. When you build centralized things, it’s a lot easier for people to get going. Lots of established ways of doing things and so on. Dalton Caldwell [17:04] – Rolling out changes. We could enumerate all these. It’s easy to roll out a website. It’s hard to distribute software and get everyone to upgrade. Juan Benet [17:15] – I would argue that it’s easy to roll out a website today because you’re working on top of decades of centralized engineering, whereas we haven’t had the same level, deep level, of engineering on the peer-to-peer side. The majority of groups that end up going into peer-to-peer end up having to create a lot of stuff from scratch because it either hadn’t been done or had been done in a way that wasn’t re-usable. This was actually one of the big thrusts of the IPFS project in general, it was create a whole bunch of, create a huge toolkit that people can use to build applications in peer-to-peer land without having to reinvent everything from scratch. It was this really huge frustration for us. Okay, great, it’s 2013, ’14, at the time. We have to go back and rewrite tons of normal peer-to-peer stuff that could have been written 10 years before, mostly because the language and tooling had changed, we wanted to do a few different things. We couldn’t reuse a whole bunch of the libraries that were out there, or the libraries made a whole bunch of assumptions about reality that were broken. Very famously, a lotta people, just from the engineering perspective, things like assuming that you are gonna be working on top of TCP and that the port that you have is a TCP port, and that it’s not UDP port or whatever, or even that you don’t have some other transport, right away can make a library completely unusable for a project years down the road. Dalton Caldwell [18:34] – I remember dealing with NAT traversal. Juan Benet [18:36] – Yeah. NAT traversal is a wonderful problem. It still plagues people everywhere. Dalton Caldwell [18:42] – Let’s go back. You were working on distributed systems. This was interesting to you. How did this turn into the company? What was the thing you applied to YC with? What was the timeline there? Juan Benet [18:51] – I applied to YC with a plan of doing this, of building both IPFS and Filecoin, and a company called Protocol Labs. It was, right away from the beginning, it was this large-scale plan of going to build a whole bunch of different things, all around distributed peer-to-peer systems, all about decentralization, and with a business model of taking a portion of currency. This was in 2014, when this was a very new thing. People weren’t doing this. There was basically Ethereum and a couple other groups that had also gotten to the same conclusion. Aside from a few side projects that we started and so on, and basically delaying our timelines, in terms of software taking a lot longer to build than expected, we’ve pretty much followed the plan in that, from the beginning, we had both IPFS and Filecoin. Connecting to what I was saying earlier, I had this problem around data sets and versioning and so on. That led down the rabbit hole of really thinking through how information moves in the network, how information moves on the internet in the first place. How do we do addressing in general? It turns out, with HTTP and so on, we do all this location and addressing stuff. It works very well for certain kind of use cases, but absolutely terrible for a bunch of other setup use cases, and introduce a whole bunch of brittleness to the infrastructure. Exploring this set of ideas that had been well trodden by lots of groups before me, and before the current wave of peer-to-peer– Dalton Caldwell [20:30] – Do you remember MojoNation? Dalton Caldwell [20:33] – I would run it in my dorm at Stanford. Dalton Caldwell [20:36] – It had a lot of the primitives in there. I ran a node, and I had storage space on my PC. I had fast internet. It was great. Juan Benet [20:44] – I was not familiar with Mojo until I chatted with Zuko about it. It turns out Mojo pioneered all this, completely. Dalton Caldwell [20:51] – I thought it was so cool. I completely drank the Kool-Aid. This was in 1999. That was my favorite thing. Juan Benet [20:59] – It was a great era. You had the beginning of, had just been, the first major, large-scale DHD had been deployed. You had a bunch of people building peer-to-peer networks, like Kazaa, which then turned into Skype and a whole bunch of other things. It was very promising. It was the moment where everyone was getting connected to the internet. You could now build huge, large-scale infrastructures and so on. Again, there was this peer-to-peer winter. There’s a whole bunch of reasons why that happened, and people could sit around debating, but I think it had to do with the fact that the first primary use case that people were using peer-to-peer for was copyright infringement, and that being not a viable strategy for a lot of companies. Another thing was it was right around the same time of the rise of the normal cloud. Google and other companies were investing very deeply into building large-scale distributed systems. They were building hierarchical structures. They ended up funding a ton of work down the road in a bunch of labs. A lot of the labs that were doing peer-to-peer research switched entirely to doing cloud infrastructure research. That’s another avenue, that’s another point. Then, I think, probably third or fourth where, third was there was no digital currency, so you couldn’t actually pay people correctly. You had a bunch of trusted. You had the beginnings of cryptocurrency. Dalton Caldwell [22:24] – Mojo was a currency, as I recall. Juan Benet [22:25] – That’s right. You had the beginnings of digital currencies, but they were still very unproven and still, I think, relied on significant trust in a bunch of places. You didn’t have the same fungibility that you, sorry, the same level of trustlessness that you have with something like Bitcoin. I think the properties were not quite there yet with digital currencies. I think another one was just the hardware, the hardware around that people had did not warrant a peer-to-peer structure yet. Meaning, it made sense for a number of use cases, but a different set of use cases, they didn’t make that much sense. It’s interesting to think about computing and a normal computing problem this way because a lotta people always get hung up on how things scale, but when you actually think about the total magnitude of data in a problem, sometimes you realize, oh, yeah, just throw that into one server. You have one server, and maybe you replicate that to, you have five servers that are all full copies of the index, and you’re done. You don’t have to build a very complicated distributed system to deal with this because your total amount of data is way smaller than the latest disks. So, whatever. Dalton Caldwell [23:36] – Let’s think about this, just to put this in context. In a lotta ways, history is repeating itself, and the same ideas cycle back. I’ve heard Marc Andreessen say this before, that Webvan, he’ll keep funding ideas that didn’t work over and over again ’cause eventually they’ll work. Instacart and Webvan. It seems like a lot of these ideas are well known to researchers and computer scientists, we’re trying them again. There’s a bunch of things that are different. You listed a few of them. But to enumerate them so I infrastructure that might take years to build out before the utility is shown. That’s just something that normal VC can’t entertain. VC is not built for long-term investment in things that are extremely high risk and building some deep, foundational technology. VC is doing for 10 year returns, which means that in two or three years, you have to show very strong sign of massive adoption and a really strong business, which means that if something is more than two years out in development, and there’s research questions to be solved, it doesn’t fit. You have to go and figure out all of that before. Dalton Caldwell [48:36] – Historically, wasn’t this the government that funded all this stuff? Juan Benet [48:38] – That’s right. This is part of why I’m building Protocol Labs, which is that there’s this massive gap between, there’s this huge open area where stuff is not getting funded around building large-scale infrastructure. My claim is you couldn’t build something as free and open and that works as well as the internet today because no group would fund it. What you would end up with is a massively stunted version of something that is highly centralized and controlled by a couple of groups, and that wouldn’t have the amazing generality of something like TCP/IP. Part of what’s beautiful about TCP/IP, DNS, that whole era of protocols was that people worked super hard for months and years at a time to think about the interfaces and refine it so that you could end up with something sufficiently abstract to support a ton of use cases, and sufficiently concrete to actually work today. That kinda development is not super fast, and it takes a lot of work and takes a lot of money. That’s not something that VC funds. VC funds clear application use cases. Dalton Caldwell [49:52] – Why should VC? In those cases– Juan Benet [49:54] – I’m just describing. Dalton Caldwell [49:55] – Universities and Bell Labs. Those things exist today. It’s mostly doing AI stuff, but the closest equivalent to that are things like OpenAI or Google Brain and all of that, where there’s absolutely no practical use for that stuff, but man, there’s a lotta money in grant research. Juan Benet [50:11] – No practical use for Google Brain? Dalton Caldwell [50:13] – They’re not productizing it immediately. Juan Benet [50:16] – I disagree very strongly. I think that a very clear use for Google Brain is massive cost reductions to a company like Google. Dalton Caldwell [50:23] – I guess I can speak much more confidently about OpenAI ’cause I actually know how that works. We’re not productizing that. Craig Cannon [50:30] – You see a lotta stuff being rolled in, like speech-to-text, already. Dalton Caldwell [50:33] – But again, it’s not a startup. There’s not double bottom line where people are trying to monetize. That’s not why it’s being funded. I’m saying if you want people working on this foundational stuff, it seems like if you’re trying to replicate what you feel like worked really well, do you think it needs to be direct? Does the analog need to be directly replicated? Juan Benet [50:56] – These kinds of projects don’t get funded. You could see it with something like SpaceX and Tesla. SpaceX and Tesla both went through major, major funding issues. If Elon hadn’t been extremely wealthy, both projects would have probably failed. That is a clear example of something that is, it’s basically maybe not directly consumer perspective, but Tesla, definitely. Tesla is a very consumer-oriented thing, but it was extremely difficult. It was a large-scale, long-term project that just scared the hell out of VC, with good reason. It’s extremely unlikely that you would get any of that to work. But what I’m highlighting is not that necessarily VC has to fund this. What I’m saying is that’s not what VC funds. Because it’s not what VC funds, and then there is no strong ARPA organizing major large-scale infrastructure endeavors like it used to, then you have this gap and this hole of things that weren’t getting funded. Bell Labs is a great example. Part of the reason that I started Protocol Labs is to try and re-create the spirit of the labs in an organization, at least focused around networks. The reason that you had something like Bell Labs happening was because you had an entity that was very enlightened in its perspective about technology and understood how to innovate and understood how large-scale innovations could be done with deep investment over decades. They would run projects for multiple decades. Sometimes they would break up projects. These first five years are gonna be about this. These next five years are gonna be about this other thing, and so on. Dalton Caldwell [52:38] – Out of curiosity. Juan Benet [52:39] – You wouldn’t see a product until much later. Dalton Caldwell [52:40] – Do you know what their budget was if we translated it into modern dollars? Juan Benet [52:44] – I don’t know what the budget is, but it’s tens to hundreds of billions or more. Massive. Craig Cannon [52:49] – Then you figured it out with Ethereum, right, because the value gets accrued to the people that are creating and developing the protocol. There’s a fundamental shift. Juan Benet [52:55] – Yes. But that’s, I think, something a bit different. I wanna draw an analogy between what happened at Bell Labs and with Google Brain. Bell Labs was about constructing massive cost reductions for Bell. The reason Bell Labs got to thrive as an organization was because it represented a very strong financial interest for this massive monopoly that had enormous business. They had deep pockets to just invest deeply into things that were gonna save them a lot of money later. Bell could look at thing like, oh, wow, vacuum tubes are really inefficient, or vacuum tubes break a lot and it’s a huge pain to repair them. Wouldn’t it be great if we had something better? It basically took something like 20 years, I think it’s 10 to 20 years before the transistor. I might be wrong on those dates, but the point is Bell Labs understood the need. Bell Labs, of this massive cost reduction that happened. It had it as one of the open problems. If you were a researcher at a Bell Labs at the time, one of the things that you could work on that was seen as a very important problem to solve was replace vacuum tubes. Create something that can replace vacuum tubes. It took a whole bunch of open-ended thinking and deep fundamentalist research from a physics perspective and solid state physics, this is the story of Shockley and Bardeen and Brattain and so on, to be able to come up with something that became the transistor that solved that problem. But that was an innovation that happened over decades in time scales, and primarily motivated by cost reductions on the large-scale Bell front. The funding that Bell could feed into funding tens to hundreds of researchers thinking about all of these problems, these specific problem, on a 10-year time horizon to try and get that cost reduction is something that only massive monopolies to date have been able to fund. Basically, massive monopolies, either in business or in power. It’s either massive monopolies like Bell or Google, or massive monopolies like the US and power over being able to say we need something that connects all the computers around, and we just need it, so just fund it. Whatever it takes. Dalton Caldwell [55:16] – Like the Space Race. Juan Benet [55:17] – Or the Space Race. We need to get to the moon. I don’t care how much money it takes. Just make it happen. That kind of directed power and funding can predictably innovate, which is kind of amazing. In Bell Labs, you had a place where they could chart out the things that they were working on and kinda think through when they were gonna, not exactly and precisely per year, but they would know the relative progress through a whole bunch of open-ended problems whose solutions ended up giving people Nobel Prizes. This was the kind of innovation that is seen and recognized by the world as this stroke of genius that would have been so hard and so unpredictable and so on, and yet, Bell Labs was able to reliably get a whole bunch of researchers to achieve these kinds of innovations. The questions around why Bell Labs ultimately failed and fell apart have to do more with the surrounding ecosystem, its funding source– Dalton Caldwell [56:17] – Is that when they broke apart the monopoly? Juan Benet [56:19] – That’s right. Breaking Bell apart effectively stifled and killed Bell Labs. A few things happened. One was the rise of Silicon Valley, and the great invention, or not invention, but the great use of stock options, or just giving stock to everyone in the company working on something caused a ton of people working on very research-oriented things at the time to become quite wealthy, or get very significant personal returns. That, coupled with the excitement around all of the stuff that was happening in Silicon Valley in the ’50s and ’60s, with a number of people moving out and then coming back and talking about all the great and exciting things that were happening in the West, started to drain a lot of people out of Bell Labs and out of Boston. It’s known as this brain drain. Part of that, what happened there, was not only were people leaving and going and creating other research organizations that had different funding models, but Bell also started getting broken up. This is more like the ’80s, ’90s. I forget the exact date on this. But when Bell got broken up, Bell Labs had to find a way to charge the new, separate entities for all of its work, and it just became infeasible to fund and maintain a massive organization like that. It ended up breaking part. There’s a few interesting financial reasons why Bell Labs couldn’t continue existing, but the research organization itself was amazing, and continued to be amazing for a very long time. Craig Cannon [57:56] – According to one site, their budget was 500 million in ’74, which translates to 1.5 billion today, or 2% of AT&T’s gross revenue. Dalton Caldwell [58:07] – One and a 1/2. Juan Benet [58:07] – 1 and 1/2 billion. I was ’cause I said it’s something like 10 to 100. That’s a lot better. That is a lot cheaper than what I expected foundational research to cost, but that’s still massive. On the scale of 10 years, that’s 10 billion. You have to have 10 to 50 billion, and ready to commit them for two decades to be able to undertake some of these projects. Dalton Caldwell [58:34] – Probably self-driving cars is getting that kind of money today. Probably AI’s getting that kind of money today. Not many, though. There’s few things that maybe, if you added all of the R and D budget being put into it, are getting that, but it’s definitely not probably for– Juan Benet [58:49] – I think something like Google Brain is a clear example of this kind of thing happening again, where Google saw massive advancements in machine learning. We want to apply all of those massive advancements to machine learning into a whole bunch of the normal Google applications, and we want all of our applications to get better, faster, stronger and so on, and reduce costs. Not only are we gonna be able to do a whole bunch of new things and cool things, but we’re also gonna be able to do them a lot cheaper, which, effectively, is making money. The thing to think about is once you’re an organization that’s big enough, you don’t have to sell more products to make money. You just have to cut your costs. Dalton Caldwell [59:29] – To make sure I understand, you’re saying that is analogous to the Bell Labs model. Juan Benet [59:32] – That is analogous. Dalton Caldwell [59:32] – I’m just making sure I get what you’re saying. Juan Benet [59:34] – I wouldn’t wanna claim that something like Google Brain or even X is akin to Bell Labs because I think that’s very different organizations. I think that Google Brain and X are much more focused on shorter term valuable things than Bell Labs was. I think both Brain and X can’t yet afford to innovate on the multi-decade time scale. They’re innovating in single decade time scales on their own. I think that if you look around the planet, they’re the closest thing, probably, but they’re still kinda far away. I think it’ll take much more, not only capital, but also reach of that organization to be able to undertake some of these larger scale fundamental. When you start seeing Google funding open-ended physics research labs, then we’re in the– Craig Cannon [01:00:28] – For a decade or more. Juan Benet [01:00:28] – For a decade or more. Where you see the budget of a Google-run physics lab have a budget for a decade or more and 50-plus researchers and you start seeing some Nobel Prizes won outta Google, then we’re talking about the same thing, but we’re far away from that. We don’t necessarily need to re-create the same kinda structure. I think what we can do is look at a different thing that’s going on, and look at how innovation happens in a very different, open-ended way in the internet. The internet has a lot of similarities with the research culture of Bell Labs in that it’s extremely open, you get a lotta people thinking about problems, you have a lot of people talking about problems. Not only talking about potential solutions, but trying them out and so on. The people sharing knowledge and ideas through the internet and working in open-ended groups has been able to have very important results achieved, but they’re of a very different nature. You don’t get something like a transistor out of random open-source collaboration. You get something like Bitcoin and Ethereum, which are, arguably– Dalton Caldwell [01:01:39] – And the Linux kernel, just to use a very different. That came out of the internet. The Linux kernel, that exists ’cause of the internet. Juan Benet [01:01:46] – Yes, the Linux kernel’s an awesome example. You had the ability to undertake these major, major infrastructure projects, things that take a long time to create and mature, on the internet. A whole other interesting avenue here is how do you fund these things? How can you fund these long-term endeavors that are much more open ended on the internet and so on? That’s what Bitcoin and Ethereum proposed one example of how you fund that. This goes back to what you were starting to bring up earlier, which is the idea of you have a protocol and you have, you take that protocol and you say, hey, it’s gonna create a whole bunch of value. It also has this native token that’s gonna address a whole bunch of that value. Not all of it, but some subset. That native token is gonna be of limited supply, so because we’re creating this token, we can take some of that token and give it to the people building the protocol, which then helps, they can sell it for dollars or whatever to then feed themselves. That way, they can actually fund the development of the project. This is effectively what Ethereum did. That kind of funding model allows people to remain very close to the actual protocol layer and to think deeply about the protocol itself and its concerns without having to think about a product or a service on top. This is precisely what Protocol Labs business model is. Craig Cannon [01:03:23] – How do we keep the funding going on? ‘Cause obviously there’s a certain amount of hype and excitement right now with all the ICOs happening. Juan Benet [01:03:30] – There’s a ton of stuff happening right now. Dalton Caldwell [01:03:37] – If we do it over 10 years. Let’s drill down, ’cause that’s a great point. We were just talking about it. What’s the 10 year? Do you have to keep selling bits, not you personally, but if you’re one of these folks, do you have to keep constantly reissuing tokens to keep feeding yourself? Juan Benet [01:03:51] – It depends on whether to not the token appreciates. If the token appreciates enough, then you’re gonna have to sell less and less of it over time. You saw this happen with Bitcoin. There were some people that were early to Bitcoin that are now, they have their personal wealth at a point where unless there was a major crash in their assets, they don’t have to work again. Bitcoin is 10 years old now, almost. It started in 2008, 2009. Craig Cannon [01:04:17] – Roughly, yeah. Juan Benet [01:04:20] – It’s roughly 10 years old. I think maybe you could claim that the origins of Bitcoin happened through the Cypherpunk mailing list and MojoNation and all these other things and all of those discussion. That was long-term innovation that happened, and then only was getting funded afterwards. It’s a very different approach than, say, the Bell Labs centralized perspective. I think the funding of these things is gonna depend entirely on whether these things are continuing to be useful. If Ethereum continues to be useful five, 10 years from now and continues to accrue, continues to grow. If Ethereum becomes more and more successful, continues to solve a whole bunch of problems, then an ether is gonna be worth a ton more. As that ether is worth a lot more, you’re now gonna have tens of thousands of people that right now are crypto millionaires turning into, they’re gonna have 10 million, 100 million, potentiality billionaires. Who knows? I don’t know. I think at that point, the valuation of something like Ethereum gets as high as something like Google and Apple and so on. Who knows? Maybe it is worth that, but I don’t think it’s quite there yet. You have this very different way of building a service where you take a share of the worth of the service, in a sense. Having ether is kind of having a share of the worth in the network. It’s not the worth of the network totally. The network is worth more than that, but it is a subset of that. Then if you choose to hold it, and it accrues in value, then you have now gotten a return. It’s risky. Definitely I would not encourage anyone to invest so deeply into cryptocurrencies that they have a very significant fraction of their net worth. Dalton Caldwell [01:06:07] – During the dot com bubble, everyone was a day trader and everyone made, you couldn’t lose. Dalton Caldwell [01:06:15] – If you would have bought and held, to this day, and you were lucky enough to have enough exposure to, what, like Apple and Google, it actually woulda been okay, but if back in there you were day trading and you didn’t have one of those big winners, or if you just lost all your money in the early days. Craig Cannon [01:06:30] – Or if you just sold early. Dalton Caldwell [01:06:31] – If you just sold early, it would have been rough. But it’s kinda tricky right now because it’s really hard to lose money. Juan Benet [01:06:37] – There’s a very big honeymoon period right now, where a ton of people have just finally understood the massive value that can be generated by these things. The excitement is around, and everyone is really stoked. If you caught Google and you invested early on, if you were one of the early investors of Google, during the height of the bubble, or PayPal or any of these amazing companies that got built through that period– Dalton Caldwell [01:07:03] – Google didn’t go out till ’04, so I stand corrected. I’m trying to think of a ’99. Who could you have caught? If you were a day trader, definitely Apple. Juan Benet [01:07:09] – Yeah, but I wouldn’t think of this like day trading and IPO markets. You have to think about. Dalton Caldwell [01:07:17] – I just mean it was hot. It was the same thing where it was, popular media was like, hey, you could buy this stock and make three x. It’s more of the way people. Juan Benet [01:07:23] – If you invested that way, you probably ended up getting thrown into the bubble and you probably lost a ton of money. Dalton Caldwell [01:07:29] – I mean or even if you would have held and you had a decent portfolio, then you actually, even if you were the dumbest money at the top of the market, you woulda done okay. Juan Benet [01:07:37] – Yeah, maybe, I don’t know the math. Craig Cannon [01:07:40] – Is that maybe a question? Do you apply an ETF model right now and just buy some of everything? Dalton Caldwell [01:07:45] – You have to hold it, right? One of the learnings is. Yeah, go ahead. Juan Benet [01:07:49] – I think the more important thing that’s going on deeper, which is that a whole bunch of important things are getting built. If you find them, you can fund them. You can be part of them and you can help create them, and create massive amounts of value. The people that do that are gonna get greatly rewarded. I think that goes along with diligence. My perspective on this and the way that I look at a lot of the space is that I think deeply about each of these pieces of technology. I approach it much more like investing into a startup or investing into a project that I think is worthwhile and should happen, even if I lose all the money that I invest in it. I think about the underlying value that’s being created. What is this thing going to enable in two, five, 10 years from now? I think within a crypto space, you don’t even need to think 10 years out. Dalton Caldwell [01:08:40] – Just to do a minor push on that, that’s a little different, though, than basic research. Isn’t part of basic research you don’t wanna, you wanna believe that the researchers are good, but you don’t actually wanna worry about what they’re working on ’cause they’re gonna do great stuff. Do you know what I’m saying? This is something I go through when I’m looking at these. You wanna understand that it’s a good team and that you believe in their vision, but if you get too in the details, you’ll miss the boat. Juan Benet [01:09:05] – We’re mixing so many different topics, which is awesome, by the way. I rarely get to get this deep into a lot of this conversation, and I love it. I don’t mean to imply, that Bitcoin or Ethereum in like Bell Labs. It’s a different thing. It’s a different thing that is showing off that, or what you get out of it is you can see innovation of the kind that you saw at something like Bell Labs happening in the open internet with people exchanging ideas, with people scrounging up funding in whatever way they can until later. Now that we have cryptocurrency, now a new funding model can emerge, and now we can start thinking about this in a deeper way. When I think about structuring of Protocol Labs, we think about Filecoin as a specific service and business that has a much shorter term perspective. Filecoin has to work and be successful and valuable in two, three years, not five or 10. We’re nowhere near close to be able to– Dalton Caldwell [01:10:01] – You’re already two, three years in. It is five years in. The company’s in two or three years. Juan Benet [01:10:06] – Three years. We were building IPFS first. IPFS is out there and creating a ton of value for people, but IPFS is not something that we planned to monetize directly. IPFS is a large-scale infrastructure project that happens to be at a layer where you should not put money in. Money should not go and be a question on moving data. Money should be a concern that’s applied on top to a subset of those transactions. A subset of those transactions are gonna be the Filecoin transactions. Now we’re building out, we’re setting off and doing all this work. I really start the clock on Filecoin. We’ve had a whole bunch of detours. We ended up building this whole platform called CoinList. You can go and have token sales and so on because that whole madness of how do you correctly and legally do a token sale is a huge rabbit hole. Dalton Caldwell [01:11:00] – We could burn the whole hour on that. Juan Benet [01:11:04] – But we built a platform that allows people to do that in a compliant way in the US, using a set of documents that we developed called the SAFT. Similar to the SAFE, but for tokens. That was a detour that took us four, six months of work, but it’s gonna end up being super vital for the entire rest of the ecosystem, and for Protocol Labs in that we will have not only Filecoin, but other projects down the road that will end up using CoinList. You invested a little bit deeper into this thing, and now you have it. Filecoin has been delayed by IPFS and its success, and by things like CoinList and so on. Now we’ve managed to successfully switch gears to go and invest very deeply into the whole thing. One of the most interesting things probably about Filecoin that you’ll see coming out very soon is we spent about a month and a 1/2 rethinking the entire protocol from scratch, and looking at all of the advancements that have happened in distributed systems and crypto and the blockchain space in general in the last two or three years since the paper came out. We got to upgrade all of the entire system while it’s still in, before it’s out and live and people are using it, and it ends up being a very different protocol. We’re about to ship the new Filecoin paper, and it’s a very different protocol than when people first saw it. Solves a whole bunch of important problems. We had, for a brief period of a month and a 1/2, something akin to a Bell Labs feel of four or five people in a house doing nothing but reading papers and working on hard research problems and reading the papers of Turing Award winners, and then being a step ahead of some of them and being like, oh, wow, they just published this thing. That’s a problem that we solved a while ago or something. You get glimpses of this happening. You can think of someone like Vitalik as operating entirely in that space, where he’s just thinking about large-scale problems in the five, 10-year time horizon. Craig Cannon [01:13:11] – Creator of Ethereum. Juan Benet [01:13:13] – Vitalik, the creator of Ethereum. He has managed to build for himself a lab similar to one you would have at a place like Bell Labs or something, but in a very different landscape. You probably won’t see the creation of a Bell Labs like the one before. It’s possible that someone like Google and so on creates it, but I think what we’ll have instead is a much more distributed version of it, where you will have smaller labs that are able to get large-scale, 10-year time horizon funding. What I’m particularly interested in, and I’ll throw this out there now because it’s an interesting problem that I think is worth solving, and if we solve this, it can have massive implications for the world. If you’re a researcher and you wanna think about not just starting businesses and starting companies and so on, but really think deeply about what kind of problems, if we solved them today, would create enormous value for humanity worldwide. There’s a very specific problem in, and this is an economics problem, and it’s also an AI problem. It’s the credit assignment problem, which is that if you have a set of agents that are participating in a set of endeavors, and those endeavors either create or destroy value, how do you correctly propagate reward back to the agents? Meaning if you have a number of people working on a startup and you create a whole bunch of value in a startup, you capture some of that as a reward, how do you propagate that reward back? Effectively, this is equity. Equity right now is the way that this is done. In a larger scale, in the market, it’s seen as investments and capital and the capital formation world and so on. But then when you look at it in a different world, in science, for example, you have labs that are effectively accruing academic credit, economic/social credit and credibility that they’re gonna be able to use to then get further grants to fund the rest of the thing. That’s a different answer. When you think about open source, we don’t have, today, an easy way of correctly figuring out and computing what is the credit assignment on something like the Linux kernel. Linus has done an enormous amount of work and created a huge fraction of the value from the Linux kernel, but so have a ton of other people that have been slogging and wading through major, major issues. The majority of those people that are building this huge foundational thing that is now on a huge fraction of the computers on the planet did not see any kind of reward attributed to them on the scale of the companies that came after that used their technology and captured value. You can see something like Android as capturing massive amounts of value that went into the Android business and Google and all of those groups that completely rode on the value created by the Linux kernel group. You can think about this across every single business. Every single business that runs computers on a large scale has gotten value out of the Linux kernel group. How can we just propagate reward back so that all of those people now no longer have to worry about other day jobs and can really just focus on this thing? But can you do this in a big scale across all possible projects? We are super interested in solving this problem because we think if we solve this problem, even if we have a bit of a good answer to this problem, then we can fundamentally change how open source gets built, in that it would be great if people that wanna work on projects on open source can just do that without having to have a day job that they don’t like or whatever. There’s a lotta people I know that operate in that landscape where they have some job that’s kind of interesting and they do it because they have options. They’re not gonna work on something they completely don’t like or whatever, although there are a lotta people that are in that position. But at the same time, it’s not what they love the most, and it’s what will pay their bills. At the same time, they’re creating a ton of value by working on a whole bunch of interesting open-source projects, but there’s no easy way for them to get rewarded by the value that’s captured many, many layers deep after. I claim, and this is a complete guess, and I could be totally wrong about this, but I claim that if we solve that problem in a way that we have a function. Like, I could run a function over all of the people on GitHub that have contributed to all of the projects that Protocol Labs runs and all of the projects that Protocol Labs projects use. We’re taking about not only the community that’s working on one project, but also the other communities your project depends on. We depend on things like the Linux kernel. Can we figure out a way to correctly and accurately propagate reward back in a way that’s fair and that correctly gauges a whole bunch of these hard questions about opportunity cost– Dalton Caldwell [01:18:10] – I’ll take a swing at that. Have you seen the papers about how to fairly slice a cake? Dalton Caldwell [01:18:18] – Essentially, you slice and I pick. They found a way to extrapolate that into multiple parties. This isn’t the actual solution, but I wonder if you could use where other contributors all are slicing other people’s cake. Craig Cannon [01:18:35] – So they decide proof of work. Juan Benet [01:18:38] – That’s a good intuition, that’s a good intuition, but then are you sure that’s not gameable? Because then I could just get a collection of 10 people that we all like each other and we all give each other huge slices. Craig Cannon [01:18:49] – But that’s how companies work oftentimes, right? There’s someone who doesn’t always push the best code, but they might be a huge morale boost. Them being on the project is actually super valuable. Dalton Caldwell [01:18:58] – To touch that, though, so what, you’re looking for something that doesn’t use human intervention whatsoever? It’s a purely algorithmic answer. Juan Benet [01:19:05] – I think it’s fine to feed in human intervention along the way. There’s interesting research done on large companies and governments where you have all these peer reviews and manager reviews and all this kind of 360 review kind of perspective. Out of that, you can get good signal. Otherwise, if we weren’t getting good signal, then there’s no hope for any kind of company that’s large. Surely, something’s working. It’s a good ratio that shows you can definitely get interesting human feedback in the loop, and you can take that as a signal. But the hard thing is I claim that what we need to do is allow the collection of that feedback to have humans in the loop, but do so in such a way that it is extremely difficult to game because, again, if you give people, people will quickly learn that they can just give each other really high ratings, and that will translate into really big boosts and promotions and so on, or greater rewards. You have to get something that doesn’t, it’s not easy to game, but then further, if you take people out of the equation in the choosing part at the very top, all of those feedback, all of that feedback always propagates all the way to the top, and it’s ultimately people making decisions of compensation and all this kinda stuff. This is in companies, but in science, it’s grant funding. People that actually choose who to give grants to and what research to fund. Or in open source, it’s like, hey, a company decided to invest deeply into this project because they thought it was super valuable and they allocated engineers to just work on it, but they’re not directly just giving money to everyone in that project. If we just take humans out of the loop in that decision process and put an algorithm that people can have confidence over, that this is gonna be a correct and fair, a correct and fair allocation of the reward, at least better than most humans would do at first pass, approximation, if we can do that, turn that into an algorithm, then, I claim, we could fix a whole bunch of cap tables around the world that really screw up, and you can fix a whole bunch of the way that grant funding is done in science because you’re not gonna rely as hard on prior success. Or rather, you’re not gonna rely as hard on social signals, and you’re gonna rely more on deep achievement. And, I claim, you can do something fundamentally new, which is you can start propagating rewards through open source to the point where a lot of people can gravitate to the things that they think are extremely valuable, and they invest their time instead of investing their money into things they think are cool and interesting and valuable. If those turn out to be valuable in such a way that reward ends up getting propagated back to them, they can then turn that contribution into eating. We’re headed for a very big economic problem, and we’re already kind of in the middle of it, but we’re gonna have bigger problems that as automation comes in and AI comes in and all this kinda stuff, it’s gonna challenge our basic notions of worth in value, in economic terms. We live in a world that’s centered very rigidly around a perspective of, hey, you get a job and you work and you contribute value to an endeavor, and you get back some pay, and you turn that pay into food. If you want food and shelter and survival, and if you want nice things, and if you wanna be able to not only survive and have good things and so on, but you wanna be able to afford school for your kids or healthcare and so on, you have to have a job. This job is mediated by a whole bunch of external forces. It prevents a ton of people from allocating their work to what they think is actually most fundamentally valuable. I claim it doesn’t do as good of a job as it should in correctly rewarding major contributions. We see people with Nobel Prizes and Turing prizes that have made massive contributions to the world, and have not net worths similar to groups that ended up doing terrible things for the world and managed to get away with it. The claim here is one that this, on the small scale, could improve dramatically something like open source, and potentially companies and how you allocate compensation there, but in the big scale, a really good answer to this problem could be a new economic model. It could be a new version of capitalism, or it could be something else that’s not called capitalism. It could be something around just correct. I don’t know, it’s a whole new world. Dalton Caldwell [01:23:45] – I think that’s super interesting, and we’ve had a lot of discussions internally around basic income. I think where I get hung up on this is that let’s pretend that we did have the algorithm. Let’s pretend someone did the research and they found a fair way to allocate worth. Would anyone accept it? Essentially, the tricky part is not the technical challenge, it’s getting people to ever believe a computer is fair. What if the algorithm said, actually, you’re not worth very much? It’s very hard to imagine people saying, you know what, you’re right. This algorithm is inherently fair. Craig Cannon [01:24:19] – I think it actually meshes quite well with the American mindset, which is I can do work and create more value than the next person, rather than relying on some social system around you. You’re like, I’ll just do it. Right now, we rely on the market to decide what’s valuable, but who knows? Juan Benet [01:24:34] – Ideally. I think for this to work correctly, you have to have markets involved and you have to have this kind of algorithm either work in a market. You can turn an algorithm into a market. Then, ideally, you wouldn’t have one computer that decides what you’re worth, but rather, you have an entire large-scale system, and relative worth is being ascribed by other groups. You have a lot of cases where one group thinks something is really valuable, and another group doesn’t think so. That’s fine. They themselves are accruing value and worth in whatever ways, and they can propagate it however they want. Similar to companies going in opposite directions or whatever. Yes, it’s gonna call into question a bunch of hard things, like here’s what your contribution’s really worth. But my claim is right now, we have a much. I kind of describe this as similar to the self-driving car problem. People think how could a computer ever possibly drive better than me? Computers are stupid. I am a great driver. I can go fast and I can react really well and so on. I would never trust a computer. Yet, it’s taken a long time. It’s taken over 50 years since the first plans to do this appeared, but now we have computers that drive better than humans. Pretty soon, they’re gonna start getting deployed, and we’re gonna start riding in them and so on. People will see this is gonna save a ton of lives, comparatively. My claim is you can create something that’s fair and you can create something that is also provably fair. One of the things here about algorithms is you can have a computation that’s provable, that actually runs over the whole thing and can produce a cryptographically verifiable proof that it was done correctly and that it was correctly assigning the right thing. It could give you a trace of all of the validation. Here’s the argument as to why this determination was made. I think that would be a much better place to be than where we are now, where it’s extremely fuzzy. Based on a whole bunch of factors that I think are biases all over the place. Allow a few people that understand all of those biases and perspectives to then game then, and then put themselves in positions of greater and greater power, which is, by the way, I think, one of the big reasons why capital accumulates. There’s a whole bunch of reasons why capital accumulates and centralizes, but I think one of them is the fact that once you understand enough about how all this stuff works, you can then position yourself and maneuver yourself to expose yourself to things that generate a lot of capital and wealth that don’t necessarily generate or create a lot of value. There’s a very big different between capital and value that is not correctly. The value of a dollar today does not equate to just raw, fundamental value. We use an approximation, and we think that it’s a good enough approximation and continue using it, but in a lot of ways, you can see things that are worth massive amounts of money. There’s tons of companies that get a lot of value by dumping a bunch of crap into the ocean and wrecking. There’s a whole bunch of externalities that we cannot properly calculate and account in those situations. Ultimately, there’s, at least in most countries here in the world, you have groups of people that are making those decisions at the very top and deciding what are the outcomes of major bad actors, actors that have made serious mistakes, like the 2008 crisis, major mistakes. They seem like, well, all these were major mistakes. All these things should fail, but if they fail, we’re gonna be in deeper trouble, so let’s just bail them out and continue as if nothing happened, to some degree, not quite, but to some degree. A ton of these people walked away scot-free, and got away with, in some cases, they’re actually making money through the financial crisis. People that were directly responsible for the problem ended up with returns. This is screwed up. I think this is something extremely far away from a correct and fair distribution of value. I think that’s an open problem of the kind of pre-companies or capitalism or this kind of thing. If we find a good solution to this problem, it could, in decades, translate into a rewiring of how we think and how we value things and how we allocate resources and all that. In the small scale, I think that we were beginning to see a few experiments in this direction. I see things like what Ethereum was able to do with its own resources and being able to just give a lotta people ether that then accrued in value and so on, and do things through RFPs and try to get some vague measure of what this might be worth, and giving people a share of the return. Not dollars or Euros, but instead ether, which means it’s a share of the potential future value generated by the network. It’s a step in the right direction. We’re gonna … way into this, but it’s a step in the right direction. I think we are gearing up to try some things like this. Dalton Caldwell [01:29:27] – Do you think the way, you’ve looked at the relative distribution of wealth from crypto, that that is a good model? ‘Cause isn’t it really concentrated on a small number of people that happened to have the resources to be early? Juan Benet [01:29:43] – I don’t think that. I think a few people ended up getting a lot of value. Also, with a lot of these projects, a few people ended up creating massive amounts of that value. For example, I think people should not at all undervalue Vitalik’s contribution. I think he’s contributed an enormous amount to the entire space. I use that as an example. There’s probably a whole bunch of misallocations all over the place that we can probably find. Dalton Caldwell [01:30:11] – I’m just thinking through what you were saying about. Juan Benet [01:30:14] – But I also know a lot of people, in the dozens to hundreds, that made a lot of money through crypto who slogged through the creation of value in this new network who understood the value of this thing, were willing to take the risk and work on it. Really spent the better part of a year and a 1/2 working on something that was completely super high risk, unclear that it was gonna work out and so on. They’ve seen returns that are higher than most startups. Higher than what their distribution would have been in– Dalton Caldwell [01:30:49] – Like a 400X return, right? If you bought Ethereum at the crowd sale? Craig Cannon [01:30:53] – It depends when you got in. Conversely, think of it like you just happen to luck into being one of the first 10 employees at a giant company, but the 25th person is the person who actually created the value, and their allocation is much less than yours. That model is not figured out yet. Juan Benet [01:31:10] – I am deeply frustrated by that problem. I desperately wanna fix that problem. I think that if we fix that problem, then we can have massively open-ended creation of value. It’s a strong claim, but I think fixing that issue– Craig Cannon [01:31:23] – It makes sense. Juan Benet [01:31:24] – Would make a ton of tech companies work extremely well and be able to generate tons of value. Not only tech companies, but tech projects in general. The company is fading away, or not fading away, but rather an new thing has come in, which is the network or a market that is not a company, but it functions kinda like a company. You can think of Ethereum not as a company, but rather as this network that has some shared asset that is incenting people to work on it and so on. There’s some loose organization, but not really centralized, or it’s not really central planning. That’s a whole bunch of things that are interesting and are pushing in the right direction. I would say that the distribution of wealth is probably flatter. I don’t know this to be 100% the case. I need to look at the raw data. Dalton Caldwell [01:32:06] – I think the raw data for Bitcoin a few years ago wasn’t pretty awesome. I looked at it, for what it’s worth. Juan Benet [01:32:11] – For Bitcoin, what about Ethereum? Dalton Caldwell [01:32:12] – I don’t actually know. I haven’t seen any breakdowns on that. But I remember, I was actually very curious about this, not what Satoshi has, but the other people that had, the people that bought in early, basically. What is their relative distribution and all that other good stuff? Juan Benet [01:32:29] – I’m kinda bothered by that. I’m kinda bothered by the fact that in crypto, right now, you’re seeing the normal issues with capital flood in, which is that if you’re a speculator that has a lotta capital, you can afford to get much greater rewards than the people that actually build the thing. That, to me, is, again, another frustrating thing that I– Dalton Caldwell [01:32:47] – This is why I ask ’cause it’s like here we are creating all this new stuff– Juan Benet [01:32:51] – But I think it’s incremental. I think it’s a step in the right direction and a big step, dare I say a quantum leap in the right direction. What’s interesting to me is rather not what has been done so far, but the tools we now have, meaning that, and this is starting to get into the experiments we’re gonna run next year and the year after that, but we’re looking at the possibilities of issuing a token to a whole bunch of contributors that have created a whole bunch of value to a ton of projects that we think are valuable. Mostly, right now, we’re gonna do it with our own projects, but if this works well, we can do that in an even deeper way and across projects that contribute value to us. We’re gonna issue this token, and then we either are gonna do things like issue dividends or buy it back, and create a way for us to directly share a fraction of the value that Protocol Labs creates with the people that helped create that value. This is a huge experiment. Could go completely wrong. It could change the way that people, why people contribute. It could bring in a lotta people that are not deeply interested in the right things and are kinda just looking for money. That’s what I worry about. I don’t wanna do anything that would cause that ’cause I think open source is an amazing place where people are motivated to work for the project because of what you believe in. That’s super important. I would hate it if whatever kind of experiment in this direction kills the fact that the Linux kernel is built by a bunch of people that really care deeply about the problems and are fixing them. It has be to done carefully, but I think we can start running some experiments. Craig Cannon [01:34:42] – Right, ’cause you don’t want every project to end up at some weird local maximum, where companies are using this now, value will accrue to me, I can jump to the next thing. Craig Cannon [01:34:52] – Is this being wrapped into CoinList yet, these ideas? Juan Benet [01:34:56] – They are ideas we are thinking about. These are not being wrapped into CoinList or other things just