Highlights from Crypto World | Wednesday #1
👉 Hyper Tokenization: The Antithesis of Bitcoin Maximalism beincrypto.com
In a scenario where every property of a person is tokenized and any valuable thing is accessible through a token, then there might be no need for money. Money was invented as a medium of exchange in an economy where the exchange of things was, and still is, linked with huge friction. For example, if I had tomatoes and wanted to buy a pair of shoes, it was difficult to find someone selling shoes in need of tomatoes for an equitable exchange. Before money in the form we know today, people used seashells for transactions, then coins made out of precious metals, and now banknotes.
In a hyper-tokenized world, everything would be available in a digitized form and transactions would be trustlessly confirmed. When every transaction is instantly settled and tokens are interoperable between each other, then the whole economy becomes a huge marketplace of exchanging products and services without currencies. Taking it a step further, the need for a primary medium of exchange, like money, could potentially disappear.
At the same time, the enabler of this future world is interoperability between blockchains. Without it, settling transactions between multitudes of tokens in our daily life would make no sense.
👉 Bitcoin and Gold correlation: BTC to $5500 with head and shoulders pattern? coinnounce.com
According to an article published by the Wall Street Journal, the price of bitcoin and gold is trading in a correlation with each other. The price of gold has mostly been trading opposite to the stock markets as gold is considered a hedge to the stock markets. From the last 5 days, gold and bitcoin have been trading in a similar pattern.
According to the report, bitcoin and other top cryptocurrencies have been trading at around 0.84 correlation with the price of gold where -1 represents a complete inversion and +1 represents a correlation.
The article explains that large institutional investors are entering into the cryptocurrency space with Bitcoin being the primary investment.
According to the publication, assets under management worth $55 million were seen by the trust in 2013. In the end of last year when the price of bitcoin was at the highest point, the assets under management also saw a rise to around $3.5 billion. For now, as the market is in a downtrend, only around $900 million are retained by the assets under management. The publication also explains that the venture capital investment in bitcoin was around $96 million in 2013 whereas it saw rise up to $500 million in 2016 and again a surge last year when the venture capital investment into cryptocurrency space was around $2 billion.
With the regulation of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies rising around the world especially the United States of America, more and more institutional investors are entering into the cryptocurrency space. Another great news for the crypto environment is the launch of Bakkt Exchange early next year which will allow the physical delivery of bitcoin futures. Other great events such as the launch of Fidelity’s digital asset business is also proving to be quite beneficial for cryptocurrencies especially bitcoin.
👉 Ripple Says XRP-Based xRapid Expanding As Company Aims to Take Charge of Global Payments dailyhodl.com
“There is a lot of activity in the Middle East and in India, as you mentioned during the introduction, in Southeast Asia, and also in Latin America. We are seeing a lot of growth as well in Northern Europe. So there is really a nice global coverage that is building very quickly… So, for the payment side, we have created a product called xCurrent. And xCurrent is what is at the heart of the Ripple network. That connects banks and payment companies together and enables money to move in seconds around the world. The other component is xRapid. xRapid is where we can separately connect into the XRP ledger for very fast delivery of liquidity into the target country as required. When you put those two together, you get a very powerful payment delivery proposition which is using blockchain technology – but does not use any token – supported by a really powerful liquidity proposition which does use the token XRP. We don’t release the full figure, but it’s growing very, very quickly.”
“I think with the SWIFT and Ripple model, there may still be a role to play for the older hub structure messaging model such as SWIFT. However, we feel that for the bulk of payments, the real commercial flows and the resale flows – that will move to a much more open interconnection model which Ripple has created. So, certainly, we will dominate that central space. Whether that leads to a complete move into Ripple or not, we don’t really mind. It is a big enough world. If Ripple is seen as an alternative to SWIFT at some point, then okay fine, but our sweet spot is bringing that high-volume, commercial flow which we think in the 21st century will be really, really important to support the economies of the world.”
👉 Brad Garlinghouse, head of Ripple's predictions for 2019 chepicap.com
One of the first points Garlinghouse brings up, is that he sees 2018 as principly involving the 'demise of the ICO', due to both 'bad actors' or even apparently accidental circumvention of securities law. ICO has certainly lost its sheen, and with innumerable ICO scams having occured in 2018, jurisdictions around the world are cracking down on this payment method. Garlinghouse suggest that in spite of this, or indeed because of the changes which will come in terms of crypto's relationship to funding, 2019 will be the year of institutional adoption, with XRP the 'number one' digital asset for the banking sector.
Despite this fact, Garlinghouse predicts increasing participation in digital marketplaces of institutional investors in the year to come. He notes that he thought 2018 would see more of this specifically, but argues that 'the industry hasn't matured to the point where they can participate.'
By the end of 2019 he predicts that banks will hold digital assets. Banks, being 'profit motivated entities,' theres no reason to think that banks won't hold digital assets as they mature and become more profitibility. In fact, since then Garlinghouse, speaking to CNBC, as reported by Smartereum , has made the claim that banks will 'soon' be looking to XRP as their main digital asset.
Garlinghouse compares the SEC in the US, with other jurisdictions like Abu Dhabi, Japan, and the UK who are seeking more regulatory clarity. Nonetheless, Garlinghouse concedes that US engagement in the early internet was part of the reason that it became developed there, and hopes that as the SEC clarifies its position, there will be more cooperation between crypto firms and and US regulators. Garlinghouse takes care to assert that XRP is not a security, because if Ripple were to shut down tomorrow, XRP would continue to trade around the world.
Importance of transparency; succesful enterprises will operate with transparency and cooperation with jurisdictions
