“A former MakerDAO contributor and Carnegie Mellon alumnus has committed 10,000 MKR — valued at just under $4.3 million at press time — to his alma mater to develop a research program for decentralized applications.
His goal for the donation is ‘to establish a research program for decentralized applications/protocols and game-theoretic mechanisms.’ Mushegian said he was troubled by profiteering in the industry, including what he called ‘the increasing rent-seeking behavior from some of the big players in this space, and also from existing banks and tech giants.‘”
“The Muir Glacier update was activated at Block number 9,200,000 on Jan. 2, 2020, with only one improvement proposal, EIP 2384.
The proposal aims to delay the difficulty bomb, a built-in algorithm of the Ethereum blockchain that would drastically increase the difficulty in mining a new block if left unaccounted for. The update is designed to delay the difficulty bomb for another 4,000,000 blocks, or approximately 611 days.”
“A large platform utility may not establish, maintain, or operate a digital asset that is intended to be widely used as medium of exchange, unit of account, store of value, or any other similar function, as defined by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
While Facebook has remained pretty quiet following congressional hearings about Libra, the Keep Big Tech Out Of Finance proposal would empower the federal government’s financial regulators to assess fines up to $1 million per day for violations.
Based on the drafted legislation and penalty that follows if rules are not met, large technology companies will most likely think twice before launching their own currencies and/or performing bank functions.
[Further], ‘it is appropriate for Congress to provide clarity by amending statutory definitions of the term security to include managed stablecoins.’
Assuming the “Stablecoins Are Securities Act” bill does pass, all of the laws that apply to stocks and bonds will also apply to stablecoins like Libra.”
“Google has now reversed its short-lived ban on the browser add-on.
Google has permitted The MetaMask mobile app back on the Google Play (Android) store! Thanks to all the believers in an open web for speaking out in our support!“
“Ubisoft is going to become a block producer on Ultra’s associated UOS blockchain, a DLT-driven gaming platform that might be fairly described as Steam on the blockchain.
This move is purportedly about lending UOS more trust since Ubisoft is such an established company, and its hardware is now part of the ecosystem that approves transactions in UOS tokens that are confirmed by other block producers.”
“We use Escrow to establish 55 contracts of 1 billion XRP each that will expire on the first day of every month from months 0 to 54. As each contract expires, the XRP will become available for Ripple’s use.
Prior to the scheme beginning, Ripple was selling around $300 million in XRP each month. However, in 2019, sell-offs noticeably intensified, with Ripple disposing of more tokens last year than any other.
The escrow movements have further failed to stem a dramatic decrease in the price of XRP relative to both Bitcoin (BTC) and the US dollar.”
“China has formally implemented a law governing cryptographic password management. It divides passwords at large into three distinct categories — passwords, common passwords, and commercial passwords — and aims to facilitate China’s transition to blockchain technology.”
“Turkish Takasbank launched BiGA Digital Gold to provide banks with a blockchain-based system for the issuance, repayment and transfer of digitized gold. Each asset represents a gram of gold that is physically stored in vaults of the Borsa Istanbul (BIST) Turkish stock exchange.“
“In the U.S., the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation reported that cash ‘represented just 30% of all payments in 2017.‘ In a digital banking and monetary system without a cash equivalent, individuals would not be able to have access to a last resort of public money. As cash is eliminated, citizens must be guaranteed access to a form of public money.
[Further, banks will] have an even bigger problem on their hands when certain other countries’ central banks decide to issue their own digital currencies, go cashless, and then internationalize their payment systems to penetrate other countries’ economies with their new currency.”
- “Bitcoin never failed
- Coinbase didn’t fail
- Competition emerged
- Surviving the bubbles and crashes
- App adoption took longer than expected
- The ICO boom and bust
- Exchanges saw most value
- Stablecoin adoption increased
- Institutions grew
- Cryptocurrency is [now] a regulated industry”
The Disrupt 