Top Five Cryptocurrency Stories of the Day in Five Sentences or Less (10/4/2018)

1) Abra Launches first cryptocurrency index for retail investors

The Bitwise 10 Crypto Index Token (Bit10) tracks the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization and is rebalanced monthly. Investors can purchase the token, which is built on bitcoin, to essentially invest in all 10 cryptocurrencies at once. This grants retail investors access to "nearly 80 percent of the cryptocurrency market" at once.

2) Cryptocurrency company makes massive sponsorship for the British Masters

LIFElabs, a philanthropy-focused cryptocurrency startup hoping to invest in “the future of humanity”, joined Adidas, TaylorMade and Ladbrokers to sponsor the Sky Sports British Masters golf competition next week. The startup will hold a contest on the ninth hole for participants: the first player to hit a hole-in-one will win £10,000, with a further £10,000 being split between Cancer Research UK, a research and awareness charity, and the European Tour Foundation.

3) Galaxy Digital, Aspect Ventures, Blockchange Ventures, Boost.VC, Canaan Venture Partners, Floodgate Fund, Hack.VC, Neo Global Capital and Signia Venture Partners invest in Ethereum Scaling Startup

In an effort to develop a blockchain scalability infrastructure for ethereum, Blockchain startup Skale Labs has raised nearly $10 million. Skale intends to launch the first implementation of the Ethereum Virtual Machine on a Plasma chain – a move it says would help dapp developers by giving them a layer-2 platform on which to execute smart contracts. Using Skale's network will enable dapps to conduct "millions of transactions per second at a fraction of the cost of what's possible today," the release claims. The startup plans to set its testnet live by the end of 2018 and activate its mainnet in the upcoming year.

4) Dogecoin creator calls out Bitcoin for being centralized at crypto conference

Jackson Palmer, creator of Dogecoin, recently called out the Bitcoin Core team for the "centralized way" in which they fixed the recently discovered bug in bitcoin's code, which involved coordinating with bitcoin miners behind closed doors. Palmer also said there is a "complete lack of transparency" about who manages the Bitcoin Core code base, and that he believes the whole bitcoin ecosystem suffers from a lack of diversity regarding both programming languages and implementations.
"A lot of people in the space are afraid to reflect on bitcoin," Palmer told CoinDesk, questioning why retail adoption is still a rarity. "If bitcoin was a startup, it would be dead. It hasn't reached product-market fit."

5) Crypto Exchange Poloniex Removes Margin and Lending Products for US Users

Poloniex, acquired by Circle for $400 million earlier this year, will remove its margin and lending products for U.S.-based customers by the end of this year. Poloniex explains that the move has been taken to ensure the exchange complies with regulatory requirements in every jurisdiction.

My name is Zachary Dash, a blockchain enthusiast from Austin, Texas. I compile these stories manually, break down the major takeaways, and distribute the content for free into a daily newsletter called 'Around the Block'.

If you are interested in getting a small and condensed daily dose of crypto sent directly to your phone, stay updated here: https://zacharydash.com/newsletter/

Please feel free to notify me of any errors or misinformation. Sources:

https://www.abra.com/blog/the-bit10/

https://www.britishmastersgolf.com/sponsors/

http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2018/tournamentid=2018082/news/newsid=358451.html

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/skale-labs-raises-9-65m-to-launch-the-skale-network-accelerate-dapp-performance-with-new-blockchain-infrastructure-300724289.html

https://www.coindesk.com/nothing-is-decentralized-crypto-springs-confronts-techs-shortcomings/

https://blog.circle.com/2018/10/03/poloniex-to-remove-margin-and-lending-products-for-us-based-customers/