Weekly Crypto Roundup #6 - Mike Novogratz, Faketoshi, GMO ASICS, 0x & More!

This is my weekly, week in crypto digest of news, fluff, opinion & more opinion!

It's been an interesting week to say the least. Where to start?

Mike Novogratz on Laura Shin's Unconfirmed Podcast

Rock dwellers may not have heard of Mike, but he's a billionaire ex-hedge fund manager and really bullish on crypto. So much so 20% of his net worth is invested in Bitcoin and Ethereum! He is the CEO of Galaxy Digital Capital Management so when Mike speaks I listen.

He was on Laura's podcast, Unconfirmed the other day live from Consensus. Two things that really stuck out on the podcast:

• His insistence that the "The Herd" is coming, meaning huge, institutional money that would dwarf anything currently in crypto. He believes when that happens bitcoin will double overnight.
• Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index. An index of the top 12 crypto's right now. This is routinely adjusted according to market conditions. 

The second topic reminded me of a conversation I had with a guy in Tokyo about a similar idea in April. It was about a crypto hedge fund he was working on with some other people for the top 20 cryptos. This is a strategy I keeping in mind if I'm not going to be actively trading.

Faketoshi!

What kind of a week would it be without Faketoshi, Craig Wright, making an ass of himself and Bcash? Please Craig, don't stop, you're on a roll!

Faketoshi was smacked down the other day at a conference in Taiwan. Bitcoin Gold's Jack Liao was answering a question in Chinese to the Chinese/Taiwanese audience when Faketoshi became flustered and started to interrupt Jack. The exchange is beautiful to watch starting at 1:27 and ends with a surprise, CONSENSUS!

But wait! Craig's not finished making an ass of himself. No, prior to Taiwan he was in Rawanda making an ass of himself, crypto and Bcash. So much so that Charles Hoskinson, Ethereum Co-founder, now with IOHK and Cardano, got up and walked out. Bravo Charles!

0x News - Coinbase Buys Paradex

Yesterday it was announced that Coinbase had acquired Paradex, a decentralized exchange which is built on the 0x protocol. I wrote about it yesterday and so did @streetstyle here. My take is there has been a lot of chatter about 0x and Coinbase with rumors that Coinbase would add 0x to it's offerings.

With this acquisition Coinbase makes an entry into the DEX market. It also shows the 0x protocol as being legit which will bring more interest to it and it's token. Keep an eye on it.

Japan's GMO Shows Off It's B2 Miner 7nm ASIC

GMO has released basic details of it's "GMO Miner B2". It's the world's first 7nm ASIC miner. This is a massive threat to Bitmain's dominance in the ASIC mining world. GMO is a huge internet & crypto company in Japan with deep pockets. It is not a small start up the likes of Halong and other ASIC builders and should give Bitmain a run for it's money. It's important that GMO succeeds and breaks Bitmain's grip on the crypto mining industry.

GMO will launch the Miner B2 on June 6th at a special event. You can read more about it here: https://gmominer.z.com/en/

To understand the threat Bitmain poses to crypto I suggest this deep dive into ASIC mining by the SIA team. Well worth the read. https://blog.sia.tech/the-state-of-cryptocurrency-mining-538004a37f9b

New Crypto Pyramid Schemes On Ethereum! Pepe Farm, Ether Shrimp Farm and Ether Cartel

For fuck's sake, another pyramid scheme? As if ICOs weren't enough! Move over Crypto Kitties! Now there's Pepe Farm, Ether Shrimp Farm, Ether Cartel, Shroom Farming and others. These are "games" that farm ETH. I don't know how exactly, but I think it's by the new users' deposits that go into a fund and pay out the older users. I have to at least give these guys credit for being humorous. Who doesn't want to farm virtual cocaine for ether?

They are all based off the same dApp running on the Ethereum blockchain. That means more useless BS taking up space on the Ethereum blockchain which leads me to the next story...

Houston, Ethereum May Have A Problem

This lengthy post by Stop & Decrypt highlights some issues with Ethereum that if proven to be true, will be devastating. The core of the argument is that Ethereum is on course to becoming a centralized dumpster fire (see the pyramid garbage above). The problem lies with doing everything on-chain and staying decentralized. Translation, blockchains don't scale well and stay decentralized.

Mitsubishi UFG Launches It's Own Coin

Mitsubishi UFJ(MUFG) is joining Mizuho in launching it's own coin. Starting in 2019 Mitsubishi will launch an app that will allow users to pay for purchases using the MUFG coin. 100,000 people will be approved to use the app as a test group to work out bugs and any issues before a full launch. 

MUFG will join the ranks of Japanese banks issuing their own coins with rival Mizuho bank and it's J-coin.

While this is big news, it goes against why bitcoin was created, to get away from trusted 3rd parties and banks. I hope it fails spectacularly along with all other bank coins.

That's it this week. I'll be back next week with Weekly Crypto Roundup #7! Yeehaw! (gunshot sound effects)

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