Battle of the exchanges: There will be blood
In the crypto world, building a large network is the key to survival for any blockchain-based company. However, the importance of the network effect isn't only applicable to the blockchain projects themselves, but also to the exchanges on which these coins are traded. In an ever-expanding industry, the future is bright for those exchanges which can successfully harness the network effect. And for those that can't — not so much.
Blockchain in financial services: Where are we now?
The examples of blockchain in financial services that we will explore illustrate a "work in progress" status for the industry, as one project was abandoned, a second has evolved, and a third is building slowly on the basis of early success.
Word on the Street: A week of extremes
Neither the majors nor the alts could catch a break this week despite a flow of positive news.
Investing in blockchain alternatives Pt III: Burst – the IOTA killer?
Burst has a lot to prove as a self-claimed contender for a globally adopted form of currency that talks an even bigger game than IOTA, Hashgraph and Nano with feeless transactions *and* “infinitely scalable” transactions per second.
How EU money laundering laws will impact crypto investors
Members of the European Parliament have cast their votes overwhelmingly in favor of a new directive that introduces stricter countermeasures against money laundering across Europe — a move that will have consequences for crypto investors
How Switzerland is shaping global cryptonomics
Switzerland's banking culture is synonymous with growing the wealth of the rich and hiding it away from the rest of the world to preserve it. Is this the right environment for global cryptocurrency policy-shaping to be taking place?
Why India and China won’t lift their crypto bans anytime soon
The highest court in India this week upheld the reserve bank's decree prohibiting the country's banks and other regulated lenders from dealing with or supporting any cryptocurrency-related services, including allowing customers to buy crypto with credit cards.
Crypto Q2 – The Bearish Boogaloo
The total market cap for all cryptocurrencies and assets currently stands at ~US$250 billion, unchanged since the beginning of the quarter. The total market cap peaked at the start of this year, at around US$800 billion, followed by a 3 month decline. The total market cap then rebounded from April to May, before giving up those gains just as quickly.
Bursting of baby boomer bubble will be a boon for millennials
How demographics, a mass of retirees, house prices and 1990s Japan all present a massive tailwind for the cryptocurrency markets as millennials come into their peak earning years.
Investing in blockchain alternatives Pt II: Nano and the block lattice
Fulfilling the promise of its whitepaper NANO was ranked the fastest of all cryptos for transaction times on Binance, but its abysmal price hasn't reflected that performance - is this really the best transaction technology?
Word on the street: VC looks beyond downturn for returns
A Hong Kong-based venture capital firm is placing a major bet that tZero, a security token exchange owned by e-commerce company Overstock, will be the future of tokenization.
Oracles: Blockchain’s gatekeepers to the real world
Oracles are the crucial link between the real world and the ethereal digital world, translating the non-deterministic off-chain data into deterministic on-chain data.
What are security tokens and how will they transform ICOs?
As market infrastructure improves security tokens will replace utility tokens as the standard for crypto issuance as investors realize they offer a better economic incentive.
Investing in blockchain alternatives Pt I: Hedera Hashgraph
Hashgraph is distributed ledger technology built on its own version of a DAG, similar to IOTA, for the age of the Internet of Things. But is this really the "blockchain killer"?
Word on the Street: Law firm confirms Tether’s assets
A comparatively quiet week in crypto where markets are still taking stock from the highs of the SEC clarifications and low of the Bithumb exchange hack that quickly succeeded it.
Token or security: What shape will Facebook’s coin take?
Either Mark Zuckerberg wants to decentralize Facebook and give users back control of their data, which would undermine the company's advertising model, or he wants to create the world's largest micro economy within its 2+ billion user community.
