Weekly Digest #5 – BitcoinWiki Digest

US Government Getting Serious About Crypto Regulation?

Facebook’s Libra coin and project has been met with its fair share of admiration and an even bigger share of criticism, but the most impactful will be what the US Government ultimately thinks about the project. It was made public in a press release that The United States House Financial Services Committee will hold a hearing on Facebook’s proposed virtual currency, Libra, on July 17. Committee chairwoman, Rep. Maxine Waters, had previously prompted Facebook to cease work on the project until Congress and regulators had had the chance to properly examine the proposal. She also denoted the lack of uniform regulation in the crypto market and that regulators should use Facebook’s plans for Libra as a wake up call.

Will Facebook’s Libra coin bring about harsher or more comprehensive and extensive regulation of the crypto market in the US? Is all of the negative press warranted? Will the US House Financial Services Committee shut the Libra project down?

New dApp Contender?

DApps are a huge part of the crypto market, evidenced by the number of blockchain platforms and the market available surrounding dApps and dApps creation. DApps are seen as a way to bring cryptocurrencies and blockchain to the masses. Waves, a blockchain startup, has introduced an upgrade, named Waves Node 1.0, to its blockchain and this major update will allow for the implementation for dApps on the Waves platform. They’ve also introduced an alternative to the REST API, a mechanism for stand description of interfaces and data formats designed to reduce development time and also allow the issuance of non-fungible tokens.

Could this upgrade mean dApps on the Waves platform? Will dApp creators look to Waves for a new place to build their innovations? Will the market for dApps soon expand to the point where developers can choose the blockchain best for them?

Could The Turkish Market Be The Next Big Crypto Market?

Singapore-based crypto exchange Huobi plans to expand operations to Turkey with a crypto-to-fiat onramp for Turkish users by the end of 2019. The company cites data from Statistica’s Global Consumer Survey for 2019 that 20% of Turkish residents now hold some form of crypto as the reason for the expansive move. This rate would be the “highest per capita rate of cryptocurrency ownership of all nations surveyed.” Huobi also plans to add localized products, customer services, as well as launch a branch office in Turkey. This comes after the recent advancements of Coinbase crypto exchange to the Turkish market.

Could the Turkish market bring more big players like Huobi? What other countries will become bigger players in the crypto market?

Is CoinMarketCap Creating a More Transparent Crypto Market?

Fake data has plagued the crypto market since its inception, especially data regarding volumes. Scandal broke months ago with the news that Bitwise concluded that only 10 exchanges have a real bitcoin trading volume above $1 million. In May, CoinMarketCap requested that all exchanges in the global exchange market disclose accurate data, lest they be delisted from the platform for failure to provide accurate trading data. With an initiative called Data Accountability and Transparency Alliance (DATA), CoinMarketCap hopes to eliminate inflated volumes and inaccurate information from the market. Over the past several months following the implementation of the DATA initiative on CoinMarketCap, the top exchange rankings by trade volume have started to reflect legitimate volumes coming from reputable exchanges. The hope is that over time, strictly regulated platforms in key countries like the U.S. will help see less inflation, and reflect real demand and interest. This means that it’s possible that minor exchanges will not survive.

Can false data and volume numbers truly be eradicated from the crypto market? What will this mean for smaller exchanges? Will this push towards transparency favor big players in the market at the expense of the smaller ones?

Gemini Exchange Expanding To Take Over The US Market?

Already having offices in both New York and Portland, Oregon, Gemini exchange, the famed exchange child of the Winklevoss twins, will expand with a new office in Chicago. This new office will act as an engineering hub and will reflect the company’s goal of providing a “safe and reliable institutional-grade infrastructure” for trading and storing crypto. Reportedly, Gemini has hired former Coinbase engineers who were reportedly laid off when Coinbase shut its Chicago office down. The initiative comes directly behind the news that Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss have seen their fortune more than double because of Bitcoin’s high run this past week.

Will Gemini become the top American exchange? Will the Winklevoss’ brainchild become successful enough for them to expand even further? Will an even further increase in the Bitcoin price bring this exchange to the forefront of the crypto world?

Ethereum Seeing A Surge in Transactions?

Being a network with known scalability issues, it’s been almost a year since that daily transactions registered on Ethereum have hit over one million. But for the first time since May 2018, the daily transactions registered on the Ethereum network exceeded one million. On June 28, there were 1,004,170 transactions confirmed on the Ethereum blockchain, which is still lower than the daily transactions peak on January 4 of last year, which saw the daily reported transactions at well over 1,300,000. Reported Ethereum dApp volumes hit a new high in April along with the bitcoin network.

Will Ethereum ever overcome its scalability issues? Will the blockchain known for its smart contract capabilities ever make it back to its highest daily transactions level? Could we see another surge in dApps on the Ethereum blockchain?

Coinbase CEO A Real Proponent for Privacy, or Just Jumping on the Bandwagon?

Nothing is as important to crypto users and enthusiasts than their privacy. Which is why Coinbase CEO and Co-founder Brian Armstrong has come under fire for praising private crypto transactions on June 22, while it was then brought to light that Coinbase seems to blacklist those who might get their coins from certain, private sources. The CEO then tried to pass this off saying that “dirty” coins can be distinguished, and therefore the exchange is forced to block them. In short, it is possible that Coinbase blocks some privacy coins. Whether intentional or not, we can’t really say for sure at this time, but one thing is apparent, users are ready to question the higher ups for their companies’ shortcomings.

Could Coinbase really be blocking privacy coins? Will privacy coins ever become widely accepted or will they continue to be blacklisted?

We, again, thank you all for tuning into our digest and hope that we’ve spurred your interest to learn more about crypto. Feel free to tweet at us with any comments or questions, post on our subreddit, or strike up a conversation in our Telegram chat. Until next week, keep learning more!