“JPMorgan Chase & Co is in talks to lead a $50 million funding round in ConsenSys. The arrangement will see the bank’s Quorum project merged with the blockchain software development firm.
The tie-up will help ConsenSys grow by relieving some of its widely reported cash flow problems. JPMorgan will also likely benefit from adding blockchain expertise to its Quorum project.
Its interest in working with ConsenSys will see the Ethereum-focused company take on its Quorum unit.”
“DeFi meme coin YAM has succumbed to a bug within its rebase function, meaning the coin has lost control of its on-chain governance feature. All of the roughly $750,000 Curve tokens stored in the project’s treasury are lost as well.
In an ensuing blog post, YAM said it is drawing up plans to launch a new version of the yield farming protocol – presumably without the rebase bug in the codebase.
The team will gauge community interest by setting up a funding goal; if reached the team will develop a migration contract porting the ecosystem onto a new protocol.”
See Also: YAM’s Market Cap Falls From $60M to Zero in 35 Minutes
“First there were Tendies and YFI. Then came (and went) YAM. And, as of yesterday, we have Based Money. These aren’t the same DeFi projects launched earlier this summer, they’re about making crypto fun again.
Meet today’s decentralized finance (DeFi), in what amounts to a crossover between massive multiplayer online (MMO) games, like World of Warcraft, and crypto pump-and-dump schemes.
DeFi MMO is all possible because of Ethereum’s composable nature. Often analogized to Lego bricks, Ethereum applications can be snapped together to create novel financial projects.
Farm the BASED token, push the token price up and storm out the door before the algorithm changes the rules.
If you are clued in to play the game, play it. If not, sit out to the next one.”
See Also: Decentralized Finance, the YAM fiasco and the road to DeFi sustainability
“Between the fourth quarter of 2019 and the second quarter of 2020, the global market capitalization of the banking market dropped by a staggering 30.32%.
Hong Kong’s Standard Chartered and Spain’s Banco Santander had returns of -1.3% and -2% respectively. Meanwhile, UK-based HSBC Holdings saw stock values drop -16.7%, the worst among all banks.
Despite mitigation measures in place, the pandemic has raised the credit risk for most banks. A slump in economic activity raises banks’ loan losses.“
“The surging hashrate, Ether price, and rising fees signal that the user activity on the Ethereum blockchain is increasing. Although the momentum of Ethereum has primarily been fueled by DeFi, the data show the fundamentals of Ethereum have strengthened.
Miner revenue from fees on Ethereum has skyrocketed in the past two months, reaching an all-time high of around 18%.
On-chain transaction fees on Ethereum continue to outpace Bitcoin. The gap is now up to $1 million a day.”
See Also: Ethereum DEX trading hits nearly a half billion in 24-hour volume
See Also: Decentralized Finance Frenzy Drives Ethereum Transaction Fees to All-Time Highs
“Chainlink has climbed 15 places in under a year, and is now the best performing top ten cryptocurrency.
The cryptocurrency is now up almost 850% year-to-date (YTD), 110.5% in the last month, and 68% in the last week.”
“The arrival of digitized securities is one of the core aspects of the federal government’s blockchain strategy.
The proposed draft bill also improves regulatory clarity, stipulating that the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority will be acting as a major regulator in the field of blockchain-based e-stocks.”
See Also: Anchorage Is Streamlining Custody of Tokensoft’s ERC-1404 Security Tokens
“Federal Reserve Board Governor Lael Brainard said the U.S. central bank has been testing DLT over the past several years to study what a digital currency might do to the existing payments ecosystem, monetary policy, financial stability and the banking sector.
Her remarks indicate the Fed is further along in its experimentation than has previously been confirmed.
To enhance the Federal Reserve’s understanding of digital currencies, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston is collaborating with researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in a multiyear effort to build and test a hypothetical digital currency oriented to central bank uses.”
See Also: New Blockchain Platform Aims to Help Countries Issue CBDCs More Easily
See Also: Fed Reserve Analysts Say Common Digital Currency Distinction ‘Problematic’
“One million South Koreans have foregone their physical drivers license in favour of a blockchain-powered digital alternative used in conjunction with the PASS smartphone app.
This is the first authorized digital identification card to be used throughout South Korea. The legally recognised ID solution can also be used for identification and proof-of-age requirements.
In late 2018, Australia’s NSW government announced the trial of Ethereum-based digital licenses which can replace physical ones.”
See Also: Nigerians Are Using Bitcoin to Bypass Trade Hurdles With China
“The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the “largest ever seizure of terrorist organizations’ cryptocurrency accounts” on Thursday, including “millions of dollars” and 300 crypto accounts.
Al-Qaeda and affiliated terrorist groups have been operating a BTC money laundering network using Telegram channels and other social media platforms to solicit BTC donations to further their terrorist goals.”
“Bitcoin smart contracts are a tricky beast to tame, but a new language is making them easier to write.
Minsc’s focus is on usability and making it easier to express, comprehend and reason about scripts, using a simple and familiar syntax.
Minsc doesn’t add anything new to Script, it just makes it easier to use.”
The Disrupt 