Author: Anna Galvez

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Crypto News

BaFin, The German Financial Market Authority, Debated Blockchain And Cryptocurrency Regulations

The German Financial Market Authority BaFin praised the revolutionary potential of blockchain technology in the first issue of its new “Perspectives” publication series published in July. On more than 30 pages, BaFin has numerous experts from the private sector explain technical aspects of distributed ledger technology. In a separate chapter on the subject of cryptocurrency regulation, BaFin makes its own contribution.

BaFin sees the blockchain technology’s confidence-building effect on the economy as positive

The intermediaries previously required in many transactions, such as banks and central securities depositories, could be partially replaced by blockchain technology applications, resulting in lower transaction costs and more efficient markets.

Blockchain technology can help to minimize the necessary trust and thus transaction costs between the parties involved in the transaction, for example by reducing dependence on intermediaries.

BaFin

Blockchain technology could, therefore, create a new type of decentralized ecosystem, which BaFin calls the “blockchain economy,” which will primarily affect the financial services industry. Their subscriber-supported infrastructure cannot only significantly change business processes but also massively shift the strategy of the companies working with them.

The German Financial Market Authority BaFin also debated cryptocurrency regulations

According to BaFin, it is “always guided by the principle of technological neutrality” and follows the credo “same business, same risk, same regulation,” which means that it is based on the “principles of proportionality and equal treatment under the rule of law.”

BaFin also rejects the view that cryptocurrencies are not regulated.

Cryptocurrencies are not unregulated per se, but are subject to the existing financial market regulations, depending on their concrete form in individual cases. They are therefore not regulated across the board, but specifically and technology-neutrally according to material facts that are subject to legal interpretation and can therefore also cover new types of facts.

BaFin

In the document, BaFin also describes in detail the principles it uses to evaluate crypto tokens and initial coin offerings (ICOs), which are based on the delimitation of payment tokens or virtual currencies of utility tokens and securities tokens.

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Status Announced Nimbus As The First Ethereum (ETH) Mobile Client That Supports ETH Sharding Protocol

Status, the developer of decentralized applications and mobile clients based on Ethereum (ETH) network, announced the development of Nimbus, a client focused on the Ethereum sharding protocol.

Written in the lightweight Nim programming language, Nimbus, still under development, proposes a solution for sharding implementation over the next two years. Specifically, Nimbus is focused on the application of the Ethereum (ETH) sharding protocol in mobile devices with restricted resources and tools with IoT (Internet of Things) properties.

The client’s design is modular, as the goal is to get the sharding node to work quickly and correctly in systems known as “embedded” and with smartphones of lower ranges since mobile devices with restricted resources are the most common according to research conducted by Status.

Sharding, a protocol based on a strategy to improve Ethereum (ETH) scalability, proposes to solve network congestion by segmenting it and dividing the validation of its transactions between different groups of nodes.

Nimbus is the first mobile client that supports Ethereum (ETH) sharding in the web3.js code repository

By implementing sharding in Ethereum (ETH) main blockchain, a beacon chain is formed that will function as a notary and after a certain number of blocks, will add the signature to the main blockchain. This way, the main chain houses all the information, but the shard nodes will not need to store the entire blockchain data.

At the moment, Nimbus is the first mobile client capable of supporting sharding in the web3.js code repository. A group of experts leads this development under a “permissive” license, but with patent protection, Apache 2.0 and MIT.

The release of the client that develops Status depends on the sharding protocol finally being included in Ethereum’s primary network. Therefore, the Nimbus roadmap calls for its development to culminate in the last quarter of 2019, with the launch of the customer.

Status is working on the development of this protocol while researching the implementation of the sharding protocol in the different processes that Ethereum’s network goes through, such as the implementation of Casper and Swarm, focusing on the features required to run shard nodes on mobile devices.

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Crypto News

Blockchain Summit Latam In Chile Will Host A Hackathon Starting This Friday

Cryptocurrency enthusiasts and their underlying technology will have the opportunity to participate in a hackathon to be held on Friday, August 3rd, and Saturday, August 4th, in Santiago de Chile, during the Blockchain Summit Latam. The Chilean government sponsors this activity, along with companies such as IBM and ecosystem companies such as NEO (NEO) and ConsenSys.

The idea is that attendees can operate on any blockchain they wish and that the event serves to discover new cases of use of blockchain technology.

“This is perfectly in line with our mission as an institution. It’s the first time we’ve done a hackathon in the country,” said Julio Pertuze, in charge of the Future Economy area of the Chilean Ministry of Economy.

Participants will have the opportunity to work on the development of tools and ideas that will make the potential of this technology manifest.

The hackathon will offer the winners the opportunity to develop their projects on the blockchain technology they want during the Blockchain Summit Latam

“How can we apply blockchain technology to different use cases, related to what could be commercial transactions and even collective financing, outsourcing, ICOs, all enabled by blockchain technology,” Pertuze said.

Participants will have 18 hours to present their concepts, and there will be different thematic focuses, such as finance, health, international trade, and energy, among others. The winners from each area will participate in an acceleration program with a Chilean startup.

The co-founder of Mifutu and one of the organizers of the event and the Blockchain Summit Latam, Cristobal Pereira, explained that the winners would be able to create a Proof of Concept or the pilot of the idea they develop in the hackathon after three months of business and technical acceleration.

The goal is that the winners of the event will be able to present a viable product to develop a pilot test, evaluate the results and, if it is exciting and useful, implement it.

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Crypto News

Cryptocurrencies And Blockchain Technologies Challenge The Conventional Banking System

With the emergence of Bitcoin (BTC) in 2009 and the subsequent launch of many other cryptocurrencies, most of them decentralized, essential challenges have arisen for banks. Namely, they work under a fully centralized scheme, which prevents them from achieving the efficiency and convenience of specific functions of this new type of digital assets.

Centralization of banks Vs. Decentralization of cryptocurrencies

If we start from the centralized nature of banks and contrast it with the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) infrastructure of Bitcoin (BTC) and the majority of the cryptocurrencies, the storage of transaction information is the first significant difference between the two platforms.

While banks store all their users’ transactions in large accounting ledgers that remains on the central servers of each bank, the ledger used by the cryptocurrency transactions is distributed, meaning its replicated at each node of the blockchain network.

Cryptocurrencies offer faster transactions in comparison with banks

Another great feat of the cryptocurrencies, in comparison with the banks, is that a cryptocurrency transaction is conducted fast, almost instantly in the case of some cryptos, which is also another advantage of decentralization.

In the cryptocurrencies universe, the transaction takes the same amount of time, regardless of the day of the week, or whether it is weekend or not, but more importantly, for transfers and payments with cryptocurrencies there are no geographical boundaries.

Blockchain and cryptocurrencies can replace banks, undoubtedly

In addition to the advantages of higher availability of information and more autonomy and flexibility in money transfers, since no central body will restrict or control the amounts transferred, cryptocurrencies offer another advantage over banks, namely, the unbanked can access to manage their own finances through this type of digital assets, which also provide the benefit of their total portability.

The crypto wallet is available anywhere and anytime, no matter it is day or night, or weekend. The only condition is to have an Internet connection.

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Bitcoin (BTC) Set For Another Price Breakout, According To “Wall Street’s Crypto King”

For the third consecutive day, Bitcoin (BTC) is still trading under the $8,000 level it reached in late-July 2018. A series of events that commenced with the SEC’s denial of Winklevoss twins’ Bitcoin ETF has resulted in a significant drop in the BTC value against the US Dollar. But a pair of market analysts thinks that a further breakout of its price is imminent.

Bitcoin (BTC) must have higher highs and lows, says “Wall Street’s Crypto King”

Bart Smith, Susquehanna’s manager of digital assets, also known as “Wall Street’s Crypto King,” stated to CNBC that Bitcoin (BTC) requires higher highs and lows. Smith said $6,800 is most likely the lowest value of BTC and that price has to be higher to provide a greater upward rebound for the leading cryptocurrency.

Many traders see that the $6,800 level is something they need to break. We have lower and lower ups and downs, and we have to get out of it. You are looking forward to a new bitcoin ETF, and there is a lot of enthusiasm. The price is as high as $8,400. The ETF is rejected and falls back. We need to see higher and lower ups and downs, so keep moving forward and stay at $7,500 and bounce higher.

Bart Smith, Susquehanna

He also discussed the next phase in the development of the Bitcoin (BTC) market. Susquehanna’s head added that the major brands must step into the market to encourage even more institutional investors to put capital into BTC futures.

Substantial achievements during Q4 2018 might lead to a Bitcoin (BTC) surge

For BKCM LLC’s Brian Kelly, the Q4 2018 might be an exhilarating occasion for the leading cryptocurrency, the Bitcoin (BTC). The advent of solid custody tools for cryptocurrency is most likely only four to six months apart, Kelly believes.

We are in an environment where there is a lot of regulation, and this is the best chance to get something new. The iron is hot, it’s time to strike. You have to remember, Bitcoin (BTC) can move five percent any day. While it may seem crazy to the legacy market, in the Bitcoin world, this is just a normal correction.

Brian Kelly, BKCM LLC

At the moment of this writing, Bitcoin (BTC) trades at $7,544, dropping about 1% in the last 24 hours.

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