BitDigest April 15 · Issue #637

Name: FS Insight
Price range: $$$

Apr 15, 2020

Author

Gregory Landegger

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Crypto prices unchanged overnight
Reports are flying out of China that its central bank digital currency has gone into testing across four different regions and its national blockchain network will go live today
The FBI is the latest national security organization to warn about an increase in crypto scams related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

TechnicalRoundup’s weekly view on bitcoin/dollar is bearish based on bitcoin’s recent difficulty in closing above $7,000. “Nevertheless, as time has progressed, a counter-argument is starting to emerge. Bitcoin/Dollar has been testing the $7000 area for several consecutive weeks now, and no strong rejection has materialized. This could be interpreted as evidence of weakening resistance following recurring tests.”

The Headlines

China Appears to Have Begun Testing CBDC

www.decrypt.co

Reports out of China claim the Agricultural Bank of China has begun testing the Chinese DCEP (central bank digital currency or Digital Currency/Electronic Payments) in four regions: Shenzhen, Xiongan, Chengdu, and Suzhou. Pictures showing the new mini program application have appeared across social media and it is believed the app is currently only available to select, whitelisted customers. The app includes a wallet and allows customers to transfer the digital currency with a QR scanner.

Chinese Blockchain May Be Released Today

www.coindesk.com

Coindesk is reporting that China’s national Blockchain Service Network will launch today and be globally available on April 25th.

BIS & World Bank Release Overview of Technologies Benefiting Financial Inclusion

www.bis.org

The Bank of International Settlements (BIS) in cooperation with the World Bank issued a report on the impact of payments on financial inclusion in the new fintech era. The report identifies different advances in technologies that can benefit financial inclusion like payment tokenization, use of distributed ledger technology, central bank digital currencies, stablecoins and electronic wallets.

FBI Warns of Increase in Crypto Scams

www.fbi.gov

The Federal Bureau of Investigation issued a warning “on the lookout for an increase in the following cryptocurrency fraud schemes related to COVID-19.” The FBI highlighted an increase in blackmail attempts, work from home scams, requests for payment of non-existent treatments or equipment, and investment scams to increase with the counterparty requesting payment by digital currency.

a16z Raising New Crypto Fund

www.ft.com

Andreessen Horowitz is looking to raise $450 million for a new crypt fund, a follow-up to 2018, when the venture capital fund raised $350 for its first effort.

Bitmain Issues Credit Following Price Reductions

www.coindesk.com

Chinese mining equipment manufacturer Bitmain plans to issue credits to customers who purchased mining rigs prior to recent company announced pricing reductions. Bitmain will issue buyers of its Antminer S17+ and T17+ rigs with coupons good for future purchases ranging from $17 to $272.

Dapper and Libra Partner on Open Source Collaboration Project

www.decrypt.co

Dapper Labs, the creator of CryptoKitties, is working with Libra to make their programming languages interoperable. The open source collaboration project will allow Libra to incorporate Cadence (Dapper’s programing language) into their own language, Move Virtual Machine (MoveVM).

Market Data

Hutt Capital Releases View on Blockchain VC Fund Landscape

www.medium.com

Crypto fund of funds Hutt Capital released their annual analysis of the Blockchain VC Fund Landscape and reports that the number of funds grew by 33% to 65 in 2019 with a total pool of capital representing $4.06 billion. The average fund size is $63 million with a median fund size of $30 million. They report that the average funds net IRR has decreased over time with the average 15.4% return on fund 1 decreasing to 14% for fund II and additional series.

Exchange, Custody and Product News

ShapeShift Acquires Non-Custodial Wallet App

www.en.globes.co.il

ShapeShift has acquired Israeli software wallet company Portis and plans to maintain their existing office, giving the US exchange and custody platform a Tel Aviv based base. Portis’ main product is a non-custodial digital wallet that has been integrated into ShapeShift’s platform since late last year.

Coinbase Custody to Offer DOT Staking

www.theblockcrypto.com

Coinbase Custody announced plan to begin allowing clients to stake Polkadot native currency, DOTS. Through a partnership with Bison Trails, Coinbase Custody clients will be able to delegate DOT tokens to its validators to earn staking rewards.

Coinbase Links Wallet to OpenSea

www.dailyhodl.com

NFT platform Opensea and digital exchange Coinbase have announced an integration allowing Coinbase users to seamlessly link their wallet to the OpenSea platform through a QR code.

McAfee Developing New Privacy Coin

www.twitter.com

Eccentric security software developer John McAfee announced his latest project is a new proof-of-stake based privacy coin called Ghost. McAfee announced the transparent online coin will allow atomic swaps against other digital currencies on McAfee’s decentralized exchanged, McAfeeDex.

Thoughts on the Ecosystem

Vitalik Does Not Believe Mining on a Phone Works

www.mobile.twitter.com

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin believes the idea of mining on a mobile phone is a “fool’s game” and “Goes against everything we know about hardware economies of scale and [will] more likely to trick users with false hope than help them.” Buterin does however see the opportunity of staking on phones to be “quite promising.”

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