Ex-Coinbase Executive Joins Bakkt

It has been reported that Adam White, the former head of Institutional platform group at Coinbase, have joined Intercontinental Exchange’s (ICE) Bakkt.

This was revealed by anonymous sources that are familiar with the matter.

White left Coinbase early October and have not commented on his decision to leave the company but a representative from Coinbase states that they are deeply saddened by the Executives decision to leave the company.

It was also revealed by the anonymous source that White will be serving as the new Chief Operating Officer of Bakkt.

Bakkt was first revealed in August of this year by ICE who is the operator of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

The said platform was developed by Starbucks and Microsoft.

White help Coinbase launch a series of services targeted at big institutional clients, such as custodian services and an index fund.

Fidelity Investments Launches Crypto Trading Platform

Announced this Monday, Fidelity Investments had launched a new company that will offer cryptocurrency services to its clients.

The company is called the 'Fidelity Digital Asset Services LLC' and will provide trading and custody services to hedge funds, family offices and other market participants.

The chairman and CEO of the Fidelity Investments, Abigail P. Johnson said that the goal is to make bitcoin and other digital assets accessible to investors and they will continue to invest and experiment on the ways to make this emerging asset class easier for their clients to understand and use.

The security offering will include vaulted cold storage and physical cyber controls.

This development in the cryptocurrency world is significant as the market continues to strive for adoption.

Fidelity manages over $7.2 trillion in assets and has been outwardly supporting bitcoin and cryptocurrencies among traditional investment platforms.

The Community In Response To Dr. Doom

The crypto space has seen the Senate testimony of Keynesian political economist Nouriel Roubini highly insulting to the many good men and women working on blockchain technology.

The Senate has invited a very measured representative for the crypto community - Peter Van Valkenberg.

Although, it would be very interesting to involve someone who can duke it out with Roubini at the same level of arguments like McAfee, Andreas M. Antonopoulos or even Roger Ver, Peter still did a great job and the Senate's appointment of him was essential. This is a big win for crypto.

Newcomers in the space will find themselves intrigued at crypto which is defended by a composed intellectual against the old markets (fiat, gold) which seems to be defended by an angry old crackpot in the form of Roubini.

Many in the crypto community have expressed disgust on Roubini’s remarks about crypto and blockchain but some were not surprised as they view him as lapdog, an intellectual cover to a system that have failed in the past and people have revolted against and a financial system that he has earned a living from being a consultant for years.

He might have some valid points in the economics or financial aspect of crypto and blockchain but his obvious ineptness on the technical side of a multidisciplinary subject like blockchain and crypto, begs us the question if the U.S. government should even listen to what he is saying.

He describes blockchains as glorified spreadsheet which is tantamount to saying computers are just glorified calculators.

Gemini Launches Litecoin Trading With New York State Approval

Gemini’s VP of Engineering, Ering Winer has recently announced that their trading platform will support Litecoin (LTC) Trading.

Since October 13 at around 9:30 a.m. EST, their customers will be able to deposit LTC into the platform and trading will commence today Oct. 16, 2018.

Currently the platform trades three other cryptocurrencies Bitcoin, Ether and Zcash in which LTC will be paired with as well as LTC for USD.

Winer notes that LTC is part of the original Bitcoin network and Gemini hopes to use it to push the adoption of crypto for daily transactions.

The exchange was given the go signal by the New York State Department of Financial (NYSDFS) to include LTC in the platform.

The VP explains that the addition of Litecoin further solidifies Gemini’s position as the leaning exchange for retail and institutional investors alike.

Monero Developer Launching Free Blockchain University

A South African blockchain startup, Tari Labs has recently launched a free online university that makes training accessibility to local and international blockchain developers.

Tari is the brainchild of local blockchain expert and Monero promoter Riccardo Spagni with the support of American investors, Naiveen Jain and Dan Teree.

The proposed free blockchain university is in line with Tari Labs’ initiative to create the next generation blockchain experts and open-source developers who are able to spread the Tari protocol further.

Cayle Sharrock, Senior Contributor states that Tari Labs wants to be the go to place for accessible learning materials for blockchain, digital currency and digital assets, from the beginner and advance level.

The company feels that the more graduates they produce, the better it is for the whole crypto ecosystem.

Sharrock also states that the initiative will enable talented people to develop their abilities.

He said the Tari Lab University is the natural next step in sharing knowledge and learning from the community.

They want to construct an ecosystem for developers and enable them to leverage the Tari protocol.

The blockchain university will be situated in Johannesburg where Spagni believes has much of the talent required to assist in developing Tari.

Institutional Investors Will Benefit Crypto According to CFTC Chair

Chair J. Christopher Giancarlo of U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission said that the increase in number of institutional going into cryptocurrencies could help the market to mature.

The Chair states that there is still a lot of things to do in the crypto space which includes issues in some of spot exchanges, a lack of transparency, a lot of conflict of interest, a lack of systems and systems safeguards.

He further explains that it takes time before the space can mature and the influx of institutional money in the space will help attain this maturity.

Giancarlo also reveals that the agency is taking a two-handed approach towards cryptocurrency.

On one hand there is law enforcement and the other is innovation.

In addition to this approach the CFTC wants to take a do no harm approach to cryptocurrencies to allow people to innovate within the space.

Headlines for the world of Cryptocurrencies - October 15, 2018 Tron’s Multibillion Partner / Study Reveals Bitcoin Is Maturing / Blockchain-Based Voting Pushing Ahead in West Virginia / Former JPMorgan Executive Tells Wall Street Blockchain Is Coming / Litecoin Founder Interested With Monero
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