Welcome to the official first issue of Cryptocracy. There is some interesting news today, but I think you’ll also find the interest reads informative. If you haven’t heard of Narrative yet, don’t worry; it’s dead. Below is an interesting analysis by Scott Cunningham on why, but I disagree with his conclusion.
In general, I think the word “scam” gets thrown about too much. People invest in some crappy ICO and lose money, then right away they want to call something a scam when, in actuality, they just lost money on a bad investment. I’m not saying that’s what Scott Cunningham did, but there are early supporters of Narrative who are hurt about losing their investment and they’ve been vocal on the Narrative Community Support site about it. Some have even talked about a lawsuit. Then there’s another group trying to revive it as an open-source project. I doubt that either initiative will grow wings.
At any rate, enjoy this issue of Cryptocracy, and don’t forget to share it with your friends.
Top News Today
Today’s news is tomorrow’s history. That’s why I like to highlight the top news of the day. Here’s what’s going on in the world of crypto this chill Monday morning.
The International Space Station has a crypto wallet
Launched from Cape Canaveral on Thursday, a SpaceChain-developed crypto wallet boarded the Falcon 9 and has since arrived at the International Space Station (ISS). SpaceChain was founded 2017 as a “community-based space platform” whose mission is to build an open-source blockchain-based satellite network for Dapps in space. Falcon 9 is a SpaceX rocket designed for transporting satellites into space. The ISS is a low-orbit space station managed by NASA, Russia-based Roscosmos, Japanese JAXA, European space agency ESA, and Canada’s CSA. — COINDESK
Ethereum completes Istanbul hard fork with exchange support
Istanbul went off without a hitch as node operators updated their software on December 7. Binance announced its support two days earlier. Coinbase wasted no time resuming trading activities. Kraken scheduled maintenance to update its nodes as Poloniex tweeted its support. Bitfinex also hopped on board the day before the update. Ethereum has subsequently traded up to $151, rising to a high of $152.39, but it’s down overall. — COIN TELEGRAPH
Image from @teddycleps on Twitter.
Binance Coin outperforms Bitcoin in 2019
Binance Coin (BNB) surged 150 percent this year while Bitcoin (BTC) merely doubled. Of the other top 10 cryptos, none of the other eight did as well as BTC. — BLOOMBERG
The Bank of China has tokenized $2.8B in bonds
One of the four largest state-owned commercial banks in China, the Bank of China (BOC) has issued almost $3 billion in bonds using blockchain technology. The bonds have a coupon rate of 3.25 percent and a two-year fixed rate. China has cracked down hard on cryptocurrencies in the last couple of years. In October, however, Chinese President Xi Jinping praised blockchain technology and hinted China would adopt it. — THE TOKENIST
The IRS is developing a Schedule 1, Form 1040 for crypto investors
It appears tax filers will be asked on their Schedule, Form 1040’s whether or not they’ve received, sold, sent, exchanged, or acquired any financial interest in a virtual currency at any time during 2019. The question will appear on the form in early 2020. — NEWSMAX
Today’s Bitcoin Chart
Interesting Reads
Can Bitcoin dip as low as $2,700?
Everyone wants to talk about the price of Bitcoin—where it’s going next, up or down?, bulls and bears, and other ugly creatures. One analyst says it could drop to $2,700. Another says it’s heading up toward $13,000-$14,000 range. Truly, it’s anyone’s guess. — COIN TELEGRAPH
Weekly MACD of Bitcoin shows bearish movement, courtesy of CoinTelegraph.
Narrative has died a quick death
I played around on Narrative from the first day of beta launch after joining in August 2018. Crypto podcaster Scott Cunningham joined the same month I did, but he didn’t start posting until September 2019. — PUBLISH0X
Why there’s so much fake news in crypto
Joël Valenzuela discusses three reasons the cryptocurrency space has a fake news problem and what the effect of that problem has been on Dash. — DASH NEWS
Top 5 cryptocurrencies this week
More times than not, you’ll see Bitcoin on this list somewhere, but not this week. Tezos is there. Cosmos is there. Ripple is there. Monero is there. And Binance Coin is there. You’ll have to read the analysis to find out why. — COIN TELEGRAPH
The Monero chart, courtesy Coin Telegraph.
What is the Bitcoin halving?
If you’re new to cryptocurrency and you’ve heard of the Bitcoin halving scheduled to take place around May 2020, you’ll want to read this. It’s a simple explanation of a major event that occurs periodically but has historically had major impacts on the price of Bitcoin. — COIN TELEGRAPH
Allen Taylor is a veteran award-winning journalist and former newspaper editor. He is a freelance writer focused on fintech, including blockchain and crypto projects, and manages crypto blogs through CryptoBloggers. Follow me on Twitter.
Note: If you have an interesting idea for a story or someone you’d like to see me interview, send your suggestions to me at allen@tayloredcontent.com. I’ll gladly take introductions. The best is yet to come.