Drop-drop-dropping on heaven’s door

Market Report: 6th Feb. 2019 — Subscribe to our newsletter.

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CRYPTO NOTE

The daily view from our desk

Bringing up a child in this day and age is a minefield. Take this mum and dad from Mumbai, who are being sued by their son for… conceiving him? But the state of Hawaii are considering helping parents, and non-smokers alike, by raising the age of consent to buy cigarettes to 100. Don’t they know kids aren’t smoking cigarettes anymore it’s weed-infused gummy bears they should be careful about!

THE WAR OF THE CURRENT VULNERABILITIES

ABOUT THAT ZEROCOIN ELECTRIC COIN COMPANY

The event of the day wasn’t that menacing 6% dump ether faced around 1am UTC, right after the daily open. Or the 30% drop BTT faced from its top, after rising 67% since Saturday. No, it was the fairly resilient response that ZEC, the token behind one of the most popular privacy-focused protocols, had after a critical vulnerability which was present for years was finally made public.

To be fair, ZEC did mimic ETH’s dump in the first few hours of the day. But this was more than nine hours after the Zerocoin Electric Coin Company, the organisation behind the protocol, announced that eight months ago it had finally solved a mathematics mistake discovered 11 months ago! And this vulnerability — allegedly only known by four employees — allowed for infinite counterfeiting!

HEAVEN, PURGATORY, AND HELL

DROP-DROP-DROPPING ON HEAVEN’S DOOR

For now, no one can really know for certain whether that vulnerability was exploited. While many — including Edward Snowden, a long time ZEC fan — are praising Zcash for their discipline in handling the matter, others are heavily critical and accuse the team of “competent dishonesty” — with Peter Todd, a Bitcoin developer, explaining how frivolously the mistake was handled.

Meanwhile, Murad Mahmudov remade his popular long-term view of bitcoin and argues we’re currently sitting in purgatory. Compare the current bear market with the 2015 one and place your bets for what’s next: heaven or hell?

WHAT YOU CAN’T MISS TODAY

DON’T LEAVE FOR THE WEEKEND WHAT YOU SHOULD READ TODAY

▪ Are you desperate for some scalping opportunities? For learning some new tools? Check this interview with Marco, an Italian trader also known as BitScalp.

▪ Are you desperate to ”explore the core claims of crypto systems”? Check the latest paper from UCL’s Angela Walch on “Deconstructing ‘Decentralisation’”.

▪ Are you desperate to provide a rebuttal for those who think “VCs are out to sow the seeds of Bitcoin’s demise”? Chris Burniske explains why that theory is a joke.

▪ Are you desperate to learn exactly how much money the traditional banking system launders each year? And how do banks do it? Bloomberg shows it here.

▪ Are you desperate to know whether the infamous QuadrigaCX saga is just tragic or a sad exit scam? Well, CoinDesk has gained access to additional evidence here.

▪ Lastly, are you desperate to know more about Zcash? Curiously, the latest episode of Peter McCormack’s weekly podcast interviews Zooko, Zcash’s founder.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

WHEN VENTURE CAPITULATION?

“Grin distribution was designed to be the anti-VC-coin. Between SPV-miners and tragedy of the commons around protocol layer development, it’s looking like the defining VC-coin.”

• By Ryan Zurre