1. Turkey's Istanbul Clearing, Settlement and Custody Bank (Takasbank) announced that its blockchain-based, physical gold-backed transfer system is now live. Turkish Takasbank launched BiGA Digital Gold to provide banks with a blockchain-based system for the issuance, repayment and transfer of digitized gold. The BiGA project aims to "establish an infrastructure that will allow for the execution of the transfer of dematerialized gold at certain standards with their physical equivalents kept in safe custody using blockchain technology," the official website explains. Read Full on takasbank
2. 2019, didn’t quite go as well as many crypto experts thought it would. Enduring one of the shameful crypto performance and volatility in the previous year, 2019 was expected to see a major turnaround in the numerous digital coins in the crypto market. 2019 has been a bittersweet year for cryptocurrency, with the market experiencing a fair share of volatility. The crypto market started the year with a total market cap of around $130 billion, which saw an increase in mid-year to $373 billion around July before plummeting to $194 billion in December. 1. Chainlink (LINK), 2. Tezos, 3. Binance Coin, 4. Cosmos (ATOM), and 5. Litecoin. Read Full on ZyCrypto
3. The Nigerian Communications Commission, the country’s telecom regulator, has invested 2 million nairas (~$5,500) in blockchain startup Wicrypt. Wicrypt facilitates blockchain-based WiFi sharing service, which allows users to earn money by sharing their internet connection. Users can register via Wicrypt’s mobile app and deposit funds using fiat currency, as well as three cryptocurrencies - bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH) and Binance coin (BNB). Hosts, on the other hand, can withdraw their earnings in fiat or cryptocurrency. Read Full on The Block
4. Changpeng Zhao, says he expects Indian regulators to align with crypto innovators in the long run. Despite the government’s crackdown on crypto, with a population of 1.3 billion, India is a massive market and a major target for industry leaders who envision how cryptocurrency and blockchain initiatives can address systemic poverty by reaching people who are entirely cut off from the existing banking system. Zhao, said “I am very bullish about India. Strong tech talent, large population, just need more favorable crypto regulations.” Read Full on twitter
5. Ripple just unlocked one billion XRP from escrow to ring in the new year. The San Francisco-based payments startup, which owns more than half of the approximately 100 billion XRP in existence, locked 55 billion tokens in escrow in late 2017. Ripple then set up a schedule that releases one billion XRP at the start of every month, making the cryptocurrency available for Ripple to sell to third parties. By the end of the month, Ripple takes whatever portion of the one billion XRP that it doesn’t sell and locks it back into escrow. Read Full on The Daily Hodl
6.  China is set to release its Centrally Backed Digital Currency [CBDC] in 2020, while also planning to expand it across the rest of the world. According to Tendai Tomu, author of Libra in Africa, upon the launch of China’s digital Yuan, one of the first markets, after China, it will expand into, will be Africa. According to the author, “Because China has a very good relationship with most African countries. It doesn’t impose sanctions on African countries. It does encourage trade with most African countries.” Read Full on AMBCrypto
7. Bitcoin’s $132 billion market cap might be a far cry from its 2017 all-time high, but it doesn’t mean it’s not playing in the big leagues. According to data from the CIA, Bitcoin’s current market cap makes it the 34th largest economy in terms of M1 money supply, just below the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and above Turkey. Bitcoin’s $132 billion market cap isn’t something that should be shrugged off. According to Jameson Lopp, the CTO of Casa, it means that Bitcoin’s isn’t a small niche market anymore and it’s finally playing in the major league. Read Full on CryptoSlate
8.  According to Jack Mallers, the founder of Lightning Network wallet, Zap wallet who spent the last four months performing extensive user research with regard to the Lightning Network told Lightning Network is a “rail of physical settling and clearing true value,” while there’s a whole other use-case where Lightning can be used to conduct truly private commerce on the Internet. Mallers also said that custodial wallets will start to require KYC, adding that Lightning Network is about to grow up a little bit. Read Full on AMBCrypto
9. Tyler Winklevoss, the co-founder, and CEO of cryptocurrency exchange and custodian company Gemini Trust, has shared his views on what the next ten years hold for crypto. According to Winklevoss, crypto is already becoming more than a niche technology and a form of money, and it will play an essential role like Email in our daily life in the foreseeable future. Crypto will not only redesign the internet but will also redesign the financial and monetary systems to protect the rights and dignity of users, he said. Read Full on twitter
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