How Wired lost $100k in Bitcoin – and why it wants them back
After receiving a review unit of a Bitcoin miner in the cryptocurrency’s early days, WIRED magazine inadvertently made a $100k profit just by testing the machine – but it later lost the private keys to the tokens they’d mined, which are now unrecoverable. It’s illustrative of the setbacks faced by many of crypto’s earliest miners.
How blockchain firms are re-globalizing our world
As our world is going through a phase of anti-globalization, blockchain has stepped in as an antidote to this worrying trend. The technology (along with cryptocurrency) is at its core an attempt to re-globalize economies and re-establish a truly global internet once again – this is particularly pertinent in light of the recent news around GDPR that has seen many sites go offline or restrict service.
Alex Tapscott discusses the post-crypto frenzy, and the future of regulation
In this interview author Alex Tapscott discusses his views on the frenzied crypto market, as well as what he thinks the crypto regulatory landscape will evolve into in the coming months. In addition, Tapscott believes that self-regulation by the various stakeholders in the industry is critical to the development of a healthy global crypto ecosystem.
Introducing a new security token thesis for crypto
At least one crypto researcher thinks that security tokens should be defined as “any blockchain based representation of value that is subject to regulation under security laws”. In addition, blockchain technology is opening up new kinds of digital securities (such as real estate) that can be fractionally owned and traded.
Ethereum’s recent price drop may be due to a massive ETH sell-off by EOS
After several significant drops in the price of Ethereum this week, some investors believe that the market fluctuations may be due to a large sell-off of ETH by EOS. The organization reportedly spent more than $900m of the cryptocurrency in recent days, and may be selling off more in the coming days.
Read Astronaut Capital’s key crypto predictions for 2018
After a whirlwind first half of the year, investment firm Astronaut Capital has checked in with its mid-year review of the crypto markets, as well as some predictions for the rest of the year. The firm predicts continued strong growth from Ripple, as well as substantially increased competition in the crypto exchange space (and a potential dethroning of Binance, the world’s #1 exchange).
Singapore has sent warnings to 8 crypto exchanges, and halted sales of at least 1 ICO
The island city-state has recently begun cracking down on ICOs, and this week it sent warnings to 8 crypto exchanges that were not complying with securities laws, while halting sales of at least 1 other ICO that wasn’t compliant. The move marks a tightening of crypto regulations for the country, which has historically taken a looser approach to regulation than most countries.
Amid chaos, our decentralized future is quickly taking shape
Although many in the crypto community focus on the markets above all, it’s worth noting that the technical innovations being made by many teams are perhaps even more important. This is exemplified by breakthroughs like Lightning Network, which promises to be one of the most significant innovations since the creation of Bitcoin itself.
The Eureka moment that made Bitcoin possible
The creation of Bitcoin wouldn’t have been possible without the decades of technological innovation that came before it. One key insight around encryption, however, was discovered by a renowned physicist nearly three decades ago. Without this breakthrough, it’s doubtful cryptocurrencies would still exist today. |
