From China to Africa: All Around the Cryptoberry Bush

If you grew up in the U.S. of A, you may remember a catchy little nursery rhyme that goes something like this ...

"All around the mulberry bush the monkey chased the weasel; the monkey said, 'twas all in fun'. Pop! goes the weasel!"

In crafting the title for this post, I promise I wasn't chasing a weasel, though I might admit to being a monkey if given the right amount of pressure.

Okay, so what does this have to do with the price of tea in China, or Africa, or anywhere fine cryptocurrency is sold? Absolutely nothing, but I needed an introduction so this is what you got. Happy reading, my crypto friends.

Crypto News

The top #news of the day, I'm sure you've heard by now, is China released the results of its first blockchain rating system and #Ethereum came out on top. Like others, I was surprised--albeit pleasantly so--to see #Steem hit the No. 2 spot. I actually think it was a good assessment because Steem has so many things going for it that other blockchains don't have, but the article, published at #CCN, does contain some inaccuracies, which you can read about in detail from @jrcornel in his open letter to @iamjosephyoung.

Bitcoin always makes good news. Today's news involves a little race between Square Cash and Venmo, PayPal's payment app. It seems that #Bitcoin actually pushes Square Cash up a little higher on the growth scale than Venmo. In my mind, that's a testament to the value of all cryptocurrencies.

There's another race going on in crypto these days, but it's more behind the scenes. It's actually a race between hardware devices (GPUs vs. ASICs). In this case, ASICs could soon be taking over the crypto ecosystem, and MIT Technology Review has a pretty detailed look at it.

The Swiss have a lot of good things going for them too: Army knives, cheese, the Alps. Well, the government recently requested a study be done on state-backed cryptocurrencies, so, if all goes well, they could soon have their own national crypto to add to the collection.

JPMorgan hasn't always had a good outlook on cryptocurrencies. Serious crypto fans will remember the criticisms hurled by Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase. Okay, things change. Sort of like that monkey chasing the weasel. As it turns out, JPMorgan has hired a crypto strategist to head up its blockchain project, and who knows what else?

Binance has been at the center of a lot of drama. You could say it's the star of its own little soap opera. The latest twist in this plot involves the stablecoin TrueUSD. Yesterday's news was TrueUSD was going to be listed on #Binance, and when that news broke, the value of TrueUSD shot to the moon (or it may have fallen a few feet short). Okay, so today, Binance got cold feet and decided to delay the listing. Psyche!

Crypto Analysis

The Wall Street Journal performed a study on ICOs and discovered a great deal of them are fraudulent. Surprise! Actually, out of 1,450 included in the study, over two hundred of them raise at least one red flag that includes plagiarism, identity theft, and whacko promises.

#Coinbase fans will find it interesting to know how the exchange is building its crypto empire.

@crypto-daily asks, could #Cardano be the next coin listed on Coinbase?

Just in case you've ever wondered, #Forbes would like you to know what determines the price of Bitcoin. Or, you could take a wild and hairy guess like everyone else.

While cryptocurrency mining is legal in most places, there are some places (even in the U.S.) where it's not legal. One story I found interesting was reading about some of these illegal crypto mining cases. One of them involves a chicken farm, for crying out loud.

Wrapping it up for today is a little ditty about Jack and Diane, or was it Toto singing about the rains down in Africa? Okay, so now that I've dated myself, enjoy this summary of the Transform Africa Summit. Help, help me, Rwanda.

These and many more good cryptocurrency and blockchain stories are featured in today's Blockchain Times. But just so you know, I am not compensated by the companies I mention in this post as I am a paid #editor for Blockchain Times. Happy reading!

#BlockchainTimes #crypto-news #crypto-analysis