Daily TL;DR - January 10th (Your One Stop Daily News)

DAILY TL;DR W/ CHESLINK
JANUARY 8TH – 12TH
January 10th

1. BTC NEWS
2. IN OTHER NEWS

MARKETCAP ANALYSIS

Recap from 11/20
Market Cap: $243,311,416,536
24h Vol: $7,403,167,283
BTC Dominance: 56.2%

As of 12/11
Market Cap: $462,879,608,891
24h Vol: $25,098,117,991
BTC Dominance: 61.7%

As of 12/31
Market Cap: $592,941,301,681
24h Vol: $33,207,433,786
BTC Dominance: 38.0%

As of 1/2
Market Cap: $689,345,508,374
24h Vol: $41,942,917,374
BTC Dominance: 37.1%

As of 1/8
(apparently CoinMarketCap took off Korean exchanges, because of the premium and this caused a slight market dip as people thought prices were tanking)
Market Cap: $743,509,110,252
24h Vol: $49,897,768,988
BTC Dominance: 34.2%

As of 1/10
Market Cap: $688,568,200,691
24h Vol: $50,217,684,266
BTC Dominance: 34.2%
BTC NEWS

Goldman Sachs Pro Bitcoin
• http://fortune.com/2018/01/10/goldman-sachs-bitcoin-currency/
Bitcoin may seem like a solution in search of a problem in the U.S., where transaction costs are already low and the dollar stable. But in developing countries, digital currencies could succeed as a real form of money, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. says.

“In recent decades the U.S. dollar has served its purpose relatively well,” Goldman Sachs strategists Zach Pandl and Charles Himmelberg wrote in a report Wednesday. But “in those countries and corners of the financial system where the traditional services of money are inadequately supplied, Bitcoin (and cryptocurrencies more generally) may offer viable alternatives.”

“Our working assumption is that long-run cryptocurrency returns should be equal to (or slightly below) growth in global real output—a number in the low single digits,” the strategists said. “Thus, digital currencies should be thought of as low/zero return or hedge-like assets, akin to gold or certain other metals.”

Beijing Lawsuit Sides with Exchanges
• https://technode.com/2018/01/10/beijing-bitcoin-exchanges-lawsuit/
A Beijing district court dismissed a lawsuit against Chinese bitcoin exchanges, stating “people have the right to freely participate in bitcoin trading at their own risk”, the Beijing Morning Post is reporting. This comes four months after China’s ban on initial coin offering (ICO).

The Beijing Haidian District Court ruled that the plaintiff cannot provide evidence that the exchange was operating illegally, and thus the plaintiff should be responsible for his own trading behavior.

The court judgement also states that, according to China’s relevant laws and regulations, bitcoin is not issued by the monetary authorities, does not have legal and monetary attributes, thereby bitcoin is not a currency issued by government and “there are no laws that forbid the investment and trading of bitcoin” and “people have the right to freely participate in bitcoin tradings at their own risk” (our translation).

IN OTHER NEWS

Korea Crypto Ban?
• https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/10/south-korea-official-reportedly-readying-bill-to-ban-all-cryptocurrency-trading.html
South Korea's justice minister said on Thursday that a bill is being prepared to ban all cryptocurrency trading in the country.
That news is a major development for the cryptocurrency space, as South Korea is one of the biggest markets for major coins like bitcoin and ethereum.

"There are great concerns regarding virtual currencies and justice ministry is basically preparing a bill to ban cryptocurrency trading through exchanges," Park Sang-ki said at a press conference, according to the ministry's press office.

Cryptocurrency trading in South Korea is very speculative and similar to gambling. According to assessments abroad, it is considered very "abnormal" because the price of major cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are priced higher in the country than elsewhere. That difference in price is called a "kimchi premium" by many traders.

SK Urges IMF To Regulate Crypto
• https://news.bitcoin.com/south-korea-countries-eu-imf-collaborate-curbing-crypto-trading/

The South Korean government has called for financial regulators and central bankers of 23 other countries as well as 12 organizations, including the International Monetary Fund and the European Union, to collaborate on curbing cryptocurrency trading.

The vice chairman of the South Korean Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), Kim Yong-bum, represented his country on Monday at the meeting of the Financial Stability Board (FSB) Steering Committee in Basel, Switzerland.

Speaking about cross-border cyber transactions being used for illegal acts and money laundering, Kim called for the “international coordination to curb virtual currency trading,” the publication detailed. Citing that it is time to start a full-scale international debate, he asserted:

“As the international financial risks related to virtual currency increase, the financial authorities need to pay close attention to this…In particular, virtual currency, which is outside the traditional regulatory domain of financial authorities, is affecting consumers.”

Korea FUD Dips Market
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/28/bitcoin-drops-11-percent-as-south-korea-moves-to-regulate-cryptocurrency-trading.html
On Thursday, the South Korean commission said in a statement, translated by CNBC, that it is prohibiting cryptocurrency exchanges from issuing new trading accounts. If an exchange does allow new accounts, the government has the ability to take action to either stop trading or shut the exchange down, the statement said. According to an English language Facebook post by the Commission, the rules would take effect in January.

The commission added that since much of the cryptocurrency trading was being done anonymously, users must now use their real names and anonymous trading is no longer allowed.

TLDR: South Korea is only prohibiting people to trade crypto anonymously and force exchanges to get identity from traders/investors.

POWR in the News
• https://particle.scitech.org.au/tech/wa-start-can-reduce-electricity-bill/
As Dr Jemma Green, Power Ledger co-founder and Chair told me, their technology “enables peer-to-peer trading of electricity and fractionalises ownership of energy assets … [which means] counterparties that are both big and small can transact with each other without needing an intermediary”.
Say you have extra power generated from all the solar panels on your roof. With Power Ledger, you can now sell it to your neighbours living in a solar-deprived apartment building who would not otherwise have access to clean energy. It also means you can get paid right way, rather than waiting up to 3 months, which is the case if you were to sell back to the grid through Western Power, as Jemma explained to me.

Coinone Banning ALL Foreigners?
• https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoKorea/comments/7pc1ch/overview_on_the_foreigner_ban_at_coinone/
The overview is currently foreigners, non-residents and residents, all of us that don't hold a Korean passport, will not be able to make deposits into Coinone (At it seems the other exchanges are making the same moves) as of the 16th. Additionally, I talked with the CEO briefly last night, and he said that this is probably just the start, and legislators seem like they will be making foreigners unable to make withdrawals and deposits to exchanges soon. Nothing is certain, but this seems to be big.

RLC Joins Openfod Consortium
• https://medium.com/iex-ec/iexec-joins-the-openfog-consortium-4d8b2b3b0c82
The OpenFog Consortium is a thriving ecosystem of organizations who share a collective vision that fog computing is a key enabler to IoT and other advanced concepts in the digital world.

OpenFog was founded by ARM, Cisco, Dell, Intel, Microsoft, and Princeton University, and has since grown into a robust organization with nearly 50 members from across the globe.

The consortium’s aim is to accelerate the deployment of fog computing technologies, with a focus on developing open architectures that will support intelligence at the edge of IoT. In order to meet with these organizations and set the strategy for 2018, iExec will be at the OpenFog 2018 Members Meeting in Hong Kong, on January 31-February 1, 2018.

Breyer Capital Invests Hugely into VeChain
• https://cointia.com/post/2444
Venture capitalist Jim Breyer, one of the early investors at Facebook, and whose net worth is estimated to be around $2.4 billion, has invested in VeChain.

“VeChain is a product management platform integrated with Blockchain technology that puts unique IDs on the Blockchain. Vechain is focusing on transparency through anti-counterfeiting and supply chain management. Counterfeit luxury goods are a big problem (some sources say it’s over a 400-billion-dollar problem!) and VeChain, if successful, could offer a transformative solution.

Mike Novogratz - Nixes Hedge Fund, Starts Investment Bank
• https://investfeededge.com/mike-novogratz-announces-plans-cryptocurrency-merchant-bank-shelving-hedge-fund/
The name for the bank will be Galaxy Digital Holdings, and Novogratz reportedly sees it as the Goldman Sachs of cryptocurrency. One person familiar with the plan told Bloomberg that Novogratz is allegedly putting pretty much all of his cryptocurrency holdings into the venture, and that plans for the bank had been in the works for months.

A merchant bank is not available for the general public to use. They are somewhat similar to an investment bank, and Novogratz’s version will focus on four categories.

It plans to invest in cryptocurrency through exchanges, invest in blockchain startups and ICOs, perform advisory services to those looking to get into the virtual currency market, and also offer asset management to clients.

Crypto Will Never Beat Fiat
• https://www.thestreet.com/story/14444820/1/cryptocurrencies-will-never-replace-the-dollar-fed-s-kashkari-explains-why.html
But Kashkari said that while bitcoin itself might not fall into inflation, other digital currencies could. That's because, according to Kashkari, "the barrier to entry in all these alt-coins is zero."

"I can create ... Neel Coin and all of the sudden you have inflation in cryptocurrencies that are indistinguishable from one another," Kashkari explained.

The indistinguishable nature of cryptocurrencies means unlimited new coins and tokens could be created, erasing the notion of finite supply. And after all, it's scarcity in supply that assigns values to currencies, including the dollar.

KODAKCoin
• https://m.benzinga.com/article/11014673
Tuesday's news that Kodak is planning a photo-centric cryptocurrency through a partnership with WENN Digital Partners was met with heavy market attention. “KODAKCoin” will work in conjunction with the KODAKOne image rights platform, which will allow both professional and amateur photographers to license their work for compensation via KODAKCoin upon sale, according to the Rochester, New York-based company.

Iconomi DAA 3 Month Performance
• https://medium.com/iconominet/daa-quarterly-overview-three-months-of-daa-performance
On October 4, 2017 we welcomed the first series of DAA managers to our platform. Since then, we have added seven additional DAAs, one of them private (hidden). We are also pleased to announce that we’ve reached the $200M AUM milestone to start 2018. We’ve witnessed increased activity in the last month, with almost 15,000 users invested in DAAs.

In the past three months, the first twelve DAAs have grown over 200%. The top three best-performing DAAs over the past three months were WMX, SOPR, and CCC. The data was collected on January 3.
DAAs over $2M USD AUM: BLX, CCC, SOPR
DAAs over $1M USD AUM: AAAX, BLX, BMC, CAR, CCC, FCI, GEM, SOPR, WMX
Tokenized DAAs: BLX, CCC and GEM

Fork/ICO on ARK Coming Soon
• https://persona.im/
A fork from ARK - Persona represents the solution for identity management, aligned with the latest data protection regulations. Its scope is to empower the customer and grant him/her the control over their personal data as well as the means to secure access to their private details.

By using Persona, the individual spends less time updating their data and service providers can access the latest version of the customer data.
Beginnings of the Ark Ecosystem
• Kapu, a blockchain for archaeological data
• Blockpool, a B2B blockchain solution providing tokens for businesses
• Persona, a new Ark-connected fork, is likely to be the first major Smartbridge blockchain that will serve a key component in the overall ecosystem, identity management. Imagine a single sign on system that has users pre-authorized KYC/AML done and the ability to work with all Ark Ecosystem chains out of the box

Crypto Market Tools
• https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/7pgh7u/ive_made_over_500k_in_crypto_here_are_some_good/
Market News and Tools

1. http://www.coindesk.com - Overview of what's going on in the crypto world
2. http://cryptopanic.com - An aggregator of various crypto sites and news, filterable. I use the pro version to customize the feeds but the free version is good enough for most.
3. http://coinmarketcap.com - Not just for checking prices, they also are the most convenient way to start your research as they have the blockchain explorers, official website links and also a useful API that can be linked to Excel.
4. http://cryptomaps.org - Visualization of price across different segments, primarily hashing functions and ICO release dates
5. http://onchainfx.com - A better version of coin market cap, has all sort of columns and you can add flags. Only downside is it only has 61 cryptos, but its always adding news ones.
6. http://icotracker.net - I like this site for looking at what ICO are coming up
7. http://icobench.com - Another ICO tracker which does nice summaries, shows teams, milestones, financials and gives a rating for each ICO
8. http://solume.io - compares the number of Twitter mention increase decrease to price
9. http://eveningstar.io - this is basically like Morning Star except for cryptos
10. https://bitcoin.tax - for calculating taxes owed on your crypto gains

Metronome ICO
• https://medium.com/@MetronomeToken/metronome-minute-dariusz-jakubowski-3f6e586f55aa
I am most excited about Metronome’s goal of longevity. From my experience in the space, this is the first cryptocurrency that I’ve come across that has every aspect built for endurance. From its auction style, to its issuance model, to its portability and chain flexibility, every part of Metronome was engineered to last. Having all parts work toward the same goal is powerful, and I can’t wait to see how the community continues defining Metronome after launch.

IBM/XLM Crossborder Payments
• https://tender-retail.acceo.com/blog/ibm-blockchain-cross-border-payments-to-radicalize-existing-systems/
This new network that uses the blockchain platform will implement a cross-border electronic exchange of twelve different currencies covering the Pacific Islands, Australia, UK and New Zealand. This will enable faster cross-border payment services with the feature to transfer the funds directly to mobile wallets. Both KlickEx and Stellar are supporting this payment service. The cross-border payments system will provide the scope of clearing and settlement of digital assets like central bank issued digital currencies and securities.

Ethereum FTW
• https://www.forbes.com/sites/cbovaird/2018/01/10/why-investors-are-flocking-to-ether/#375502ae5437

"Traders have been rotating out of BTC for a while," said Tim Enneking, managing director of Crypto Asset Management. Now, they are "definitely rotating out of Ripple into ETH."

Several analysts voiced positive sentiment regarding Ether, lauding it for having a very bright future. "The Ethereum blockchain. Is currently the most widely used and the most stable network," said Mati Greenspan, senior market analyst for social trading platform eToro. "So investors shifting funds to Ether is similar to what we would call a 'flight to safety' in traditional markets," he added.

Enneking also spoke to the digital currency's value proposition, stating that: "The use case of ETH is simply far more compelling that the use case for BTC." Going forward, Ether's price could continue to experience notable upside, emphasized Koyen. "ETH at $2,500 is an astounding number for those who bought at single digits," he stated. "But it's a very reasonable number for newcomers sick with envy over BTC's price exactly one year ago."