Shanghai Man: VeChain still popular in China, crypto media shutdown and OKEx goes global

November 19, 2021 Coin Telegraph

This weekly roundup of news from Mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong attempts to curate the industrys most important news, including influential projects, changes in the regulatory landscape, and enterprise blockchain integrations.

Its been over half a year since the crackdowns began in China and pressure from the top-down government is still being enforced. Most projects operating from within China are finding ways to skirt regulations by focusing on the technological aspect, but few are in a very enviable position. Among other issues, finding talented individuals to hire will certainly become more difficult as conservative-minded local citizens will have concerns about safety and the sustainability of the industry.

At home with new policies

Some projects, like VeChain, are using the opportunity to focus on their blockchain-as-a-service technology and are well positioned to continue operations. Blockchain has always been viewed as an important technology for China, especially when used for things like food safety and other socially-responsible applications.

Last week the smart contract platform boldly attended Chinas acclaimed International Import Expo, where it showed off its traceability system alongside long-term partners PwC. The expo was even bigger than usual this year due to this marking the 20th anniversary of China joining the WTO. Chinese president Xi Jinping gave a speech via video to celebrate the opening of the expo, noting as usual how China is successfully opening up and developing.

During the 4th #CIIE, VeChain joined @PwC in the discussion around Air Trace. We are proud to attend this grand event and showcase our advantage in low code blockchain development, which will power more significant digital initiatives in the future. #CIIE2021 pic.twitter.com/jUb3HeUz5D
— VeChain Foundation (@vechainofficial) November 9, 2021

Enterprise solutions on public blockchain were all the rage a few years ago, but now fewer and fewer competitors to VeChain exist, as most have pivoted to DeFi solutions or simply gone quiet. The real challenge will be to convince Chinas organizations to adopt a truly public solution, rather than a consortium model without all the decentralized bells and whistles.

Tech giants such as Alibaba and JD.com have their own private solutions which may be just close enough to true blockchain technology for public officials to gloss over the details.

Turning a new leaf

The gossip columns were abuzz after OKEx founder Star Xus LinkedIn status suddenly displayed he was in San Francisco. The leader of the second largest exchange by volume had been under scrutiny this year considering the harsh regulations coming towards exchanges. His abrupt arrival in the US indicates that OK Group is serious about its divorce from China, and will be able to target new markets without fear of disruptions from law enforcement. OKEx has enjoyed strong growth in the past few months are now pushing hard on the GameFi and NFT segments, hoping to gain an edge over the competition.

OK Group Founder Star Xu is now setting up shop in Silicon Valley

Huobi, on the other hand, seems to be placing its bets on Singapore, where it hopes to rebound after a rocky third quarter of 2021. Huobi Global announced it was exiting the country, opening a path for Huobi Singapore to make a compliant entrance.

Users will have till March of next year to switch to the Huobi Singapore service, at which point their Global accounts will be closed. Singapore has been a safe haven for many of the industrys largest players, leaning on a progressive regulatory environment, high quality of life, and a multi-cultural atmosphere for both English and Chinese speakers to feel at home.

Continued crackdown on media and mining

On October 13, top blockchain media companies received notice from the Cyberspace Administration of China ordering them to stop their operations. Among them were ChainNews and Block123, two of the more established platforms.

Servers on Alibaba Cloud cut off relevant services, turning off the APP and web page. Twitter and Telegram channels were naturally not affected, making overseas outlets one of the few places where Chinese users could go for information. This requires some additional networking tools to get around the great firewall, but should have the intended result of eliminating excessive retail speculation while allowing the true tech adopters to still take part.

Chinese provincial official expelled for violating crypto mining ban — For industry participants, stability is hard to come by

In other regulatory news, the Chinese government has warned State-owned enterprises to stay away from cryptocurrency mining activities. Many public services, such as electric companies, phone companies, and oil companies still are owned and operated by party-backed organizations.

Jobs within these enterprises offer a lot of perks with benefits and stability, but often come with lower salaries than the private sector. Corruption and under-the-table deals were traditionally an easy way for these employees to boost their earnings, but since Xi Jinping took office and made anti-corruption a key issue, the risk of exposure has shot through the roof. Already, one official from Jiangxi has fallen victim to these crackdowns, and been expelled from the party and office.

6 Questions for Anton Bukov of 1inch Network

November 14, 2021 Coin Telegraph

6 Questions For...

We ask the buidlers in the blockchain and cryptocurrency sector for their thoughts on the industry… and we throw in a few random zingers to keep them on their toes!

This week, our 6 Questions go to Anton Bukov, co-founder of 1inch Network, a distributed network of decentralized protocols.

Anton has been writing code for more than 20 years (since he was 12), mostly C++, C#, Objective-C, Swift and SQL. Since 2017, he has been working on blockchain solutions, primarily smart contracts. Anton has contributed to several crypto projects, including MultiToken, Near Protocol where he was involved in the Ethereum-Near Rainbow Bridge and the Synthetix derivatives liquidity protocol, working on gas optimization of the smart contracts.

For some time, Anton co-hosted a YouTube show, CryptoManiacs, with Sergej Kunz, 1inch Networks eventual co-founder. Over the course of 36 hours at a May 2019 hackathon in New York City, they developed a prototype crypto exchange aggregator that became the basis of 1inch.

1 From smart contracts to DApps, NFTs and DeFi, we have seen so many of the next killer apps for crypto, but none have really taken off quite yet. What will stick?

I see some projects that are already taking off. This growth is exponential but still limited by blockchain capacity at this point. Everyone is expecting a layer-two solution that will eventually scale DeFi to a great number of users, triggering explosive growth.

2 What is the single most innovative use case for blockchain youve ever seen? It may not be the one likeliest to succeed!

True innovation comes when a project considers blockchain as an actor following strict, programmable rules rather than a passive database. This is happening for the first time in human history we have an ultimately honest (protected by consensus) instruction executor. Moreover, it is unstoppable in following instructions. Currently, the most exciting applications for me are automated market makers (AMMs) and money markets (aka lending protocols).

3 Do you subscribe to the idea of Bitcoin as a means of payment, as a store of value, as both… or as neither?

I respect Bitcoin I mean, the engineers behind it for being the first blockchain, but from my viewpoint, blockchains with smart contracts make much more sense at this point. Bitcoin can still work as a store of value, but as a means of payment sorry, I dont believe in it anymore. The Lightning Network and IOU tech can only work for a small subset of the community/population. Most people prefer to use less volatile currencies for payments, such as stablecoins.

4 Who makes sense to you, and who makes no sense whatsoever?

Innovators, inventors and smart people make sense, and this category does not usually intersect with popular people. Advice coming from popular people doesnt necessarily make sense for everyone, but few understand this.

5 Where do you stand on alien intelligence and the existence of life elsewhere in the universe?

I strongly believe in it the probability is very high. Overall, Im curious about non-protein forms of life. And Im curious about the lack of physics determinism. This could be the only reason for the possibility of life.

6 Which book has influenced you the most? Why?

I like sci-fi books from the 1980s. Maybe Frost and Fire by Ray Bradbury was one that made me think a lot about life and time.

A wish for the blockchain community:

Participate in hackathons and get engaged in building the decentralized future its a huge space with huge opportunities. All these crypto prices only help attract more attention to this industry. But the true gem is innovations and projects!

6 Questions for Daniela Barbosa of Hyperledger

November 7, 2021 Coin Telegraph

6 Questions For...

We ask the buidlers in the blockchain and cryptocurrency sector for their thoughts on the industry… and we throw in a few random zingers to keep them on their toes!

This week, our 6 Questions go to Daniela Barbosa, general manager for blockchain, healthcare and identity at the Linux Foundation and executive director of Hyperledger.

At Hyperledger, Daniela is responsible for the overall strategy and operations of the organization, including staff, programs, expansion and the execution of Hyperledgers mission. Daniela has more than 20 years of enterprise technology experience. She has a masters degree in library (remember those?) and information science, which she put to work in the 1990s when the internet was becoming nascent for consumers and enterprises alike. An active voice in the industry, Daniela has been a featured guest speaker at many key blockchain conferences worldwide and advises the Hyperledger community on the use of open-source technologies.

1 What is the main hurdle in the way of the mass adoption of blockchain technology?

Onboarding. For enterprise blockchain, it is no longer a question of if the technology will work. We have seen plenty of proven enterprise networks across many use cases in supply chain, trade finance, digital payments, healthcare and more. It is how those networks are governed as active growing networks beyond the POC stage and how you onboard a diverse ecosystem of both small and large players.

In crypto, usability has a long way to go, as anyone who is not deep in the tech and has tried to set up their own wallet might tell you. Third-party services are certainly making some usability aspects easier, especially to buy and hold, but then we are getting ourselves back into the same game.

2 Looking at the top 100 projects in crypto by market cap, which ones stand out to you and for what reason?

Great, thanks for the question. I just spent 30 minutes falling down the rabbit hole. There are more than a handful on that list today that are leveraging our Hyperledger ecosystem… However, I had to pick one, it is Ethereum. The Hyperledger community has been part of the Ethereum ecosystem since the Hyperledger Foundation started in 2016. From 2018 onward, we have worked closely with the key stakeholders defining Ethereum-based solutions and use cases in the enterprise. In early 2017, our Technical Steering Committee approved the Hyperledger Burrow project, which was our first Ethereum-derived project that supports the Ethereum Virtual Machine. Then, in 2019, we welcomed Hyperledger Besu, a code contribution by ConsenSys. Hyperledger Besu is an Ethereum client developed under the Apache 2.0 license and written in Java that runs on the Ethereum public network, private networks and test networks and is designed to be enterprise-friendly for both public and private permissioned network use cases.

3 Do you subscribe to the idea of Bitcoin as a means of payment, as a store of value, as both… or as neither?

I obviously subscribe to the idea of Bitcoin (BTC) as a means of payment, otherwise I wouldnt have spent all my first Bitcoin in 2012. Today, I think it is both a store of value and a means of payment, especially outside of the United States. Just wished I had stored more of it…

4 Who makes sense to you, and who makes no sense whatsoever?

The young climate activists who are fighting for their (our) right to live on a habitable planet make sense. We need to support climate action initiatives, in the streets and with global funding for innovation and sustainable development.

People who stick with their principles without looking at facts and science make no sense. Even after being clearly proven wrong, they just double down.

5 What was the most embarrassing moment of your life?

I traveled halfway across the globe for a meeting, padding in about 36 hours before the meeting to be well rested. I then showed up two hours late because I had the wrong address and stayed at a hotel on the other side of town from the actual meeting location. Forever a Road Warrior.

6 Think of a favorite poem or song lyric. What is it, and why does it speak to you?

Bob Dylans I used to care, but things have changed. As Bob said when he received the Academy Award for best original song for Things Done Changed in 2001, it obviously is a song that doesnt pussyfoot around nor turn a blind eye to human nature. Yes, indeed. People are crazy, and times are strange.

A wish to the blockchain community:

Keep building.

Metamask founder Joel Dietz is a true Renaissance man

November 5, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Joel Dietz, founder of Metamask and founding team member of Ethereum, is a romantic at heart. He creates art as Cryptoapollo that reflects the intersection between traditional art and technology.

I have a very classical romantic temperament, which can be hard to bring into the modern world since romantically inclined people can be suppressed in the modern economy, but I also love the cutting edge of technology as it applies to art in architecture and sculpture, explains Dietz.

And like any technological enthusiast, I always try and explore the latest tech such as VR. Mostly my art is digital, although I have played around with physical pieces, he declares.

He is a polymath and a Renaissance man whose passions include the arts, poetry and cryptography. He wears his heart on his sleeve, gets bored easily and is constantly learning.

Dietzs art projects. Source: Cryptoapollo.io

Kindergarten programmer

When he first attended kindergarten as a child, Dietz immediately informed his mother that he wanted to be homeschooled instead. She agreed, and this decision was quickly vindicated.

Dietz started programming computers at age six, won a scholarship to Arcadia University at age 13 to study computer science, and thereafter collected prizes for his programming from Salesforce, Google and Topcoder.

After a brief academic career studying comparative poetry and mythology, Dietz joined the Ethereum team on day one, including creating the first educational channel for smart contracts (EtherCasts), writing the first Ethereum DEVGrant and starting Metamask at Devcon 0 which was already his third cryptocurrency-related browser extension.

Dietz was also very interested in the evolution of governance and law with respect to cryptocurrencies. He did the first academic work on crypto economics at the University of Notre Dame in 2014, ran the first on-chain nonprofit election for the Bitcoin Foundation, created several governance-related protocols that culminated in Swarm Markets the first regulated DeFi exchange in Germany and co-organized the first conferences on law and cryptocurrency at Harvard and MIT. He is currently a Connection Science fellow at MIT and an industry adviser at Notre Dame.

His latest projects include a recently launched layer-two solution for the NFT industry called ArtWallet, which currently trades with a $600-million market cap. He is also working on a platform for building metaverses called the Meta Metaverse which he started before Facebook rebranded to Meta.

I am looking for VCs that might understand the meta metaverse. Anyone come to mind?
— Joel Dietz (@jdietz) October 26, 2021

His academic research interests focus on the confluence of blockchain network topologies and swarm intelligence (self-organizing systems), especially how the principles underlying decentralized organizations can be used to fuel global innovation. He also works on holonic philosophy (how biological and social systems cohere), the evolution of jurisprudence (history of law), data-driven approaches to innovation, and smart city data architecture.

Model sculptor

Dietz dated a sculptor, Marianna Costi, which influenced his appreciation of physical art. He also became a model for her fresco painting, akin to Archangel Michael in Florence, which remains to this day on a wall in an unnamed church in Italy.

I brought this appreciation of sculpture in 2014 to a Burning Man festival, where I designed and commissioned and created a giant metal sculpture, like a Spartan warrior mask, for my first large steel installation art, he recalls.

His own life intersects with art too. A dalliance with erotic photography led him to host an erotic-themed opera with other like-minded people for his birthday. The operatic genre was chosen based on his admiration of Philip Glass Egyptian opera, Akhnaten.

Philip Glass had, in turn, been inspired by the Egyptian Book of the Dead, and I am not alone in being interested to see how we can connect to ancient Egypt and its teachings, he says.

Dietz has dabbled in poetry too, producing a book called Monkey Love in a tribute to a woman he was wooing at the time.

It was, in the end, a failed romance, but the poetry reflects the free-spirited nature of my paramour. I think poetry is a way to delve into the details of feelings.

Holistic view

And so, on to holon systems, which can be likened to the human body where different, autonomous organs act together as a whole. Dietz uses it to describe elegant organizational design. His research culminated in an academic book, which is free to download from Academic.

How we make decisions, even at the cellular level, is complex, he says. Philosophically, we may think of ourselves as autonomous individuals, but we also exist as part of larger social organizations, from family groups to towns to nations. I see it as a series of nested systems that each have their own degree of complexity.

As a logical extension, Dietz sees the libertarian movement not rejecting overarching authorities such as the Catholic church, for example but rather asking people to look at how they participate, either consciously or unconsciously, in different organizations.

Dietz reckons that John Locke, the Enlightenment philosopher commonly known as the Father of Liberalism, was indeed hostile to totalitarian mechanisms that forced people to act without self-reflection on their activities.

Self-reflection is key to understanding how we act and how we can optimize our participation for the best good of ourselves.

The self-reflection is even better described in Dr. Seuss lesser-known, frequently banned book The Butter Battle Book.

*The Butter Battle Book* byDr. Seuss (Publisher: Random House)

Its an anti-war allegory where two people live on either side of a wall and butter their bread on the opposite side of a slice of bread to their neighbor. The argument escalates into a feud from cross words to stick and stones, to bigger and bigger weapons, Dietz explains.

The pointless escalation of aggression can be tempered if we can step away from those pointless violent tendencies which have not been great for the evolution of this planet and reflect on our participation.

Cipher

Like most of Dietzs passions, his interest in cryptocurrency was fostered by another distinct love: his interest in the history of ciphers. He explains that the founding director of the National Security Agency formalized the study of ciphers during the Second World War and into the Cold War. But Dietz, in turn, was influenced by the American author Edgar Allen Poe and, in particular, by his short story The Gold Bug,which features hidden treasure and clues.

The history of hidden messages is much broader than the formal science of cryptography. Cryptography as a mathematical discipline is a subset of how to relay hidden messages, and much of the basis of this science is not actually based on mathematical systems.

In fact, the concept of number theory, upon which modern cryptographic systems are based, is totally unproven. The random idea in number theory that states that prime numbers do not have patterns is not proven its a working hypothesis at best.

Working on unproven mathematics leads to applications that may also be unproven, according to Dietz.

(function() {window.mc4wp = window.mc4wp || {listeners: [],forms: {on: function(evt, cb) {window.mc4wp.listeners.push({event : evt,callback: cb});}}}})();

The best of blockchain, every Tuesday

Subscribe for thoughtful explorations and leisurely reads from Magazine.

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Leave this field empty if you're human:

Bitcoin didnt buzz him initially

For all his ability to see around corners, Dietz was initially skeptical about Bitcoin. When he read the first technical papers, he felt it was going to remain a nerd currency and not have mass application.

As he saw more and more projects fighting to survive, especially other forms of digital currency, he gradually saw that the new enemy was regulation for anyone trying to transfer money.

He sees the fight as being between old money and old people and new money and young people.

Kids are going to build cool things. They are going to build increasingly sophisticated platforms and applications. Now, I dont expect it to be all plain sailing quite the opposite. Its going to have issues on steroids because everything is moving so fast.

Dietz is now well embedded with NFTs and has an agency, 1ofONE, that represents a bunch of celebrities. Recently, he managed the Mike Tyson drop, which proved very successful, and he is excited about the speed of development.

This white-glove service was run on OpenSea, with Tyson collaborating with well-known digital artist Cory Van Lew. Dubbed The Baddest NFT Collection on the Planet, it captured some of Tysons most formidable moments in the ring. Eleven unique one-of-one NFTs were minted alongside six regular NFTs, with mints ranging from 50 to 250. Launched at the beginning of September, the one-of-ones sold out in an hour at not less than 5 ETH each, and Tyson promises bigger and badder drops to come.

Its largely a speculative art frenzy, but it is raising awareness, says Dietz. Over time were going to bring in many more layers. including economic models, insurance, bankable assets basically, second-generation versions of this tech.

To my mind, the next step is to open up the infrastructure and to allow easy access to traditional media and the entertainment industry.

Cappadocian Revelations by Joel Dietz. Source: Cryptoapollo.io

Wherefore art thou wallet?

Dietz is often described as someone who provides a bridge between seemingly disparate elements. In his new layer-two project, ArtWallet, he pairs physical items with NFTs. One such interpretation planned is a car wrapped by an artist twinned with an NFT. The ArtWallet project currently has a $600-million market cap, and he is also working on his metaverse-building Meta Metaverse platform.

As always, there are about 50 business plans on his desk waiting for his attention. He sees his value as sprinkling fairy dust on projects, and he only gets interested in projects with serious CEOs and teams.

I can really only scale up one project at a time. I am also happy being a little bit dark too. Like when I was building Metamask, we didnt need to be in the public eye.

Like most serial entrepreneurs and cyberfuturists, Dietz has so much waiting for his attention. Once, in a bid to beat the clock, he tried to do without sleep, staying awake for two days in a row but that played havoc with his health. Now, he keeps on his game through diet and exercise.

I am very competitive, but I like to go at a measured pace, like a metronome. If you were to put a term on me using musical composition, Id be the allegro section.

Decided today I want to beat pg in value creation https://t.co/FDTcbZNuAm
— Joel Dietz (@jdietz) November 1, 2021

Shanghai Man: $130M hack raises suspicions, Chinese miners head to Laos, Huobi’s moon mission

November 5, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Shanghai Man: 0M hack raises suspicions, Chinese miners head to Laos, Huobi’s moon mission

Coin Telegraph

It was a quiet week in the mainland as much of the Chinese crypto community was either lying low, off in Lisbon, or recovering from a week-long hangover following the Shanghai Blockchain Week that concluded over last weekend.

The largest blockchain-related news was the $130 million hack of DeFi platform Boy X Highspeed, or BXH for short. BXH is a decentralized exchange running on BSC, Ethereum, HECO, and OKEx.

We are sorry to announce that BXH was attacked on #BinanceChain. Other chains assets are safe.
We are cooperating with BSC and Peckshield to follow up and trace.#BXH @HECO_Chain @BinanceChain @AnyswapNetwork @O3Swap @renprotocol @cz_binance @peckshield pic.twitter.com/jNo8C53DM0
— BXH (@BXH_Blockchain) October 30, 2021

Even more peculiar than the platforms name itself is the nature of the hack. It appears that the attacker somehow gained access to the admin key, which leads to plenty of questions about the security and decentralization of the project.

Based on this and the fact that the Chinese project claims to have enlisted the help of Chinese law enforcement, there are suspicions it could be the result of an inside job. BXH has offered a large bounty of up to $10 million for those who can help return the funds.

This reward announcement was later announced on the BXH Twitter

Huobi not giving up on moon mission

Volumes on Huobi continued to drop, at times falling behind Coinbase Pro and Korean exchange Upbit. Last week Huobi was roughly 60% of the volume on FTX, but it sat on Wednesday at around 40%. Its also around one-third the volume of major competitor OKEx. Huobi is now less than two months away from its own deadline to close accounts belonging to Chinese users. Huobi will need to dramatically reshuffle to win back the market share it has slowly lost to exchanges with fewer regulatory risks.

Even with falling volume, it’s hard to bet against the longstanding giant of CeFi

In a strong marketing push, Huobi has announced a contest to send one user into space onboard a private spacecraft. Not all the details were given, but this announcement comes as the exchange celebrates its eigth anniversary, making it one of the older trading institutions in the sector.

PlatOn claims a partnership with Google Cloud

One of Chinas more low-key public chains announced on Twitter it is partnering with the large cloud service provider Google Cloud:

“We will work together to provide basic application technology and enterprise-level platform services for global users, as well as the research and development in blockchain technology, privacy protection, and ecosystem building.”

The announcement didnt gain much attention, as its unclear how much actual reciprocation is happening from Google Clouds end. Despite the announcement, the token was down around 6% on Thursday.

Mining in Southeast Asia

The Southeast Asia country of Laos is exploring cryptocurrency mining in the aftermath of Chinas mining crackdown. A pilot project between the government and the private sector is expected to bring in roughly $194 million towards the countrys total domestic revenue projected for 2022.

Laos shares a small southern border with Chinas Yunnan province, an area where a lot of miners are still leaving following the announcement from the Energy Administration of Yunnan in June that clarified the national policy would apply to Yunnan itself.

Contacts report that though a lot of miners have left China already, a portion has been laying low, waiting to see if the regulatory environment changes or a better opportunity presents itself. Countries like Laos are interesting potential destinations as regulations are still quite ambiguous. Traditionally, Southeast Asia has been home to a lot of Chinas “offshore” businesses, such as gambling or casino games seeking to avoid regulations or law enforcement.

CBDC gaining traction

Chinas central bank is once again boasting about the traction of its centralized digital currency, the e-CNY. Announcements at Hong Kongs Fintech week revealed that now more than 140 million people have access to accounts, with over 62 billion transactions processed.

This is a large jump from the previous year and should come as little surprise considering the amount of trial programs that have been rolled out around the country. Many franchise restaurants and retailers are already advertising e-CNY at point of sale devices throughout the country.

It seems likely that number will continue to rise, challenging private apps Alipay and WeChat, both of which claim over 1 billion users each. Supplanting those two will be a difficult task, mainly due to the feature-rich nature of the super-apps. However, the central bank currency surely has a lot more patience and the advantage of regulatory policy-makers that can tilt the market in its favor.

6 Questions for Yoni Assia of eToro

October 31, 2021 Coin Telegraph

6 Questions For...

We ask the buidlers in the blockchain and cryptocurrency sector for their thoughts on the industry… and we throw in a few random zingers to keep them on their toes!

This week, our 6 Questions go to Yoni Assia, the co-founder and CEO of eToro.

Yoni Assia is the co-founder and CEO of eToro, the social investing network with over 23 million registered users from more than 100 countries. Yoni is widely acknowledged as a crypto pioneer, having co-written the Colored Coins white paper with Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin in 2013. In 2018, Yoni founded GoodDollar, a nonprofit initiative created to develop a sustainable and scalable framework for bringing a digital, universal basic income to the world via new crypto asset technologies. He has long been a champion of different approaches to wealth and capital distribution, initially introducing the GoodDollar concept in a white paper called The Visible Hand in 2008. Yoni holds a BA in Management and Computer Science, and an MSc in Computer Science from the Reichman University (IDC Herzliya), Israel.

1 What kind of consolidation do you expect to see in the crypto industry in 2021?

Were nearly at the end of 2021 and what a year it has been for crypto, with many coins reaching new ATHs, the launch of a Bitcoin ETF in the United States, and growing demand for crypto from both retail and institutional investors. Weve seen more and more traditional companies embrace crypto and the blockchain technology that underpins it, and this will only continue.

This year has been about continued growth and the mainstreaming of crypto but, as the industry matures, we will see consolidation. Ultimately, I am hugely optimistic about the outlook for crypto blockchain technology will revolutionize finance.

2 Which is sillier: $500k Bitcoin, or $0 Bitcoin? Why?

$0 Bitcoin (BTC), easily. I bought my first Bitcoin in 2010, and 11 years later Im still investing in Bitcoin and running a company that makes it easier for others to do so too. Crypto is still a nascent asset class and Bitcoin, the first and largest crypto, is only 12 years old. It may take some time to hit $500,000, but the future is bright for BTC and crypto more broadly.

3 Which people do you find most inspiring, most interesting, and most fun in this space?

I have to mention my eToro team. Im lucky enough to work with some of the smartest, most dedicated and inspiring people in the industry.

Looking beyond eToro, I recently attended the Milken Institute Global Conference. The event brought together many of the brightest and most influential minds in the world to discuss the most urgent challenges facing us globally. Entitled Charting a New Course, the conference focused on how recent disruptions can be reframed for a thriving future. I left feeling deeply inspired and even more determined to push forward with GoodDollar a digital blockchain project which aims to make universal income a reality on a global scale. The income gap is a crisis of global proportions, and GoodDollars goal is to onboard the next 100 million people into the digital economy.

4 Whats the most interesting place youve ever visited?

In 2020, I was fortunate enough to have dinner with Warren Buffett in Omaha, Nebraska. It was an honor to meet one of my heroes and a life changing moment for me. The two key takeaways for me were:

Investing can be simple when you invest in businesses you understand and believe in. If you follow the rules of value investing over a long period of time, you can succeed as an investor.
The most important investment you can make is in yourself.

5 Which two superpowers would you most want to have, and how would you combine them for good or evil?

Im going to cheat and name three. Ive always said I would want to be able to teleport, heal and have the ability to shake someone’s hand and know everything they know. Im all about using power for good.

6 Choose the single most memorable moment from your favorite movie.

For me, it would be the scene from The Matrix (1999), directed by the Wachowskis, when the main character, Neo, has to choose between a red pill and a blue pill.

Shanghai Man: Inside Blockchain Week’s private parties, Vitalik’s speech, and Gate.io climbs the ranks

October 29, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

This week, Wanxiang Blockchain hosted its annual Shanghai Blockchain Week, an event that usually brings together the government, enterprise, academic and degen side of the industry for a big celebration of how far decentralized technology has come.

This year was a lot different, as the degens have been pushed out of the limelight by the recent spate of regulation. That didnt stop them from having their private parties, but it was a big change from previous years where nearly every major project, VC, exchange, and media group hosted glitzy all-you-can-eat-and-drink events at landmark venues all over Shanghai.

Vitalik giving his thoughts on the need to keep improving infrastructure

For the main event, Ethereum cofounder Vitalik Buterin attended via video, giving his usual profound insights into the development of Ethereum. Much like the speeches he gave recently at other Ethereum events, he talked about how Ethereum can evolve through Layer-two scaling.

Layer-two projects, such as Near, Avalanche, Polygon and Arbitrum have spent a lot of time cultivating Chinese-language ecosystems, hoping to tap into a large user population that doesnt have as many ideological qualms around decentralization as western counterparts. Buterin also joined a panel with two others who have had success raising interest in China, Juan Benet of Filecoin and Dominik Williams of Dfinity.

Playing hard to get

A few big events were available for the evening crowds, but most of them were invite-only attendance. One event titled Degen Night was causing a stir because the organizers purposely left out any mention of where it was located or who they were. People who were invited were contacted anonymously and told to keep the location secret. The poster did specify that OHM, SPELL, TIME, and KLIMA communities were likely to be well represented.

This event required a very exclusive invitation to attend, with organizers sworn to secrecy

The MAODAO, a Chinese backed community of play-to-earn gamers and NFT fans, also held an exclusive event. Like the other events, the DAO waited till the last day to reveal the location, and only in the Discord channel. Owning a Ready Player Cat NFT was stated to be a requirement for entrance, but no word on how strictly that was enforced.

China’s leading NFT and gaming DAO held an exclusive meetup

In general, the week didnt feel like as much of an old friends gathering as previous years. Its hard to tell how much of that was due to regulations, and how much was a result of the strong market conditions diluting the scene with newer players.

Ranking the exchanges

Huobi slipped further behind FTX this week, now sitting at only around 60% of the volume. Last month, Huobi announced that they would be closing Chinese accounts at the end of 2021, potentially cutting off a large portion of its active user base.

Judging from the volumes, OKEx and FTX seem to be benefiting the most from this. Huobis HT token has had a rough 2021 as well, now trading at less than $10, a steep drop from the May peak at $35.

Another strong performer is Gate.io, an exchange with roots in China that is threatening to shed its Tier-2 status. On Thursday, it was showing over $7.5 billion in 24-hour volume, making it on par with leading Korean exchange Upbit, and seventh overall. Fans of memecoins will rejoice to see that of that volume, around 20% came from the leading duo of Shiba Inu and Dogecoin.

Spilling into Hong Kong

Hong Kong is apparently becoming a hotbed of OTC trading desks, according to an article by Rachel Wolfson on Cointelegraph. Wolfson described how many of these have their own physical locations and use case that to build trust with users, including Chinese tourists.

The one barrier standing in front of this booming industry is an upcoming regulatory framework, which is currently being mulled over. If Hong Kong is to follow the path Beijing took earlier this year, it could have a major impact on the citys crypto industry. That would likely give an even bigger boost to Singapore, where many major crypto players have already taken regulatory refuge.

6 Questions for Jennifer Wines of Fidelity Private Wealth Management

October 24, 2021 Coin Telegraph

6 Questions For...

We ask the buidlers in the blockchain and cryptocurrency sector for their thoughts on the industry… and we throw in a few random zingers to keep them on their toes!

This week, our 6 Questions go to Jennifer Wines, vice president of Fidelity Private Wealth Management.

Jen grew up between Mexico, Canada and the United States. Academics brought her to Boston, where she attended law school and passed the bar exam. Jen started her career at Goldman Sachs Private Wealth Management and later transitioned to JP Morgan Private Bank. She is currently vice president of Fidelity Private Wealth Management. She holds a Certified Private Wealth Advisor designation from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Additionally, Jen is a founding, advisory member of 100women@Davos, a community of impact-driven leaders and change makers. She met this group of women during her visits to Davos during the World Economic Forum, where she focuses on philanthropic initiatives. Further, she contributes thought leadership via Forbes Business Development Council.

1 Does it matter if we ever figure out who Satoshi really is or was?

It doesnt matter, until it does. In other words, it may become material if/when we find out who Satoshi is/was.

In the meantime, not knowing who Satoshi is/was is interesting for the adoption of Bitcoin (BTC) because it provided a neutral starting point for adopters to co-create the Bitcoin narrative and use case as a decentralized collective.

I imagine Satoshi must be watching this anthropological experiment unfold, somewhere in the world.

2 What does decentralization mean to you, and why is it important?

Decentralization, to me, means the distribution of power. There are lots of reasons why decentralization is important, but the one general point Id like to mention here is that it invites everyone to participate in whatever is being decentralized. This ends up activating more people and potential than is possible with centralization.

3 Which people do you find most inspiring, most interesting and most fun in this space?

I find the mental workings of Balaji Srinivasan, Michael Saylor and Robert Breedlove most inspiring, most interesting and most fun in this space. I appreciate the theoretical and philosophical discussions of crypto, and these guys just crush it.

Balajis predictive abilities are otherworldly. Saylors application of thermodynamics to Bitcoin is pure brilliance. And Breedloves What is Money? philosophical discussions are critically important to our time.

I thank the great interviewers too, who are asking meaningful questions.

4 Think of your favorite poem or song lyric. What is it, and why does it speak to you?

Talk about rabbit holes! Theres rarely a time in the day when Im not listening to music, whether its classical (Im listening to Chopin while typing this), rock, hip-hop or electro and everything in between. So, lots of favorite song lyrics immediately rush to mind, but heres the first:

Go With The Flow by Queens of the Stone Age: I want something good to die for, to make it beautiful to live.

As for poems, one of my favorite quotes is from Thoreau: The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run. Though I also appreciate the widely circulated, more concise variation of it: The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.

The beauty of poems and lyrics is that they are left to interpretation and fit snuggly with the interpreters journey.

5 What is the book that influenced you the most? Why?

Kahlil Gibrans The Prophet has influenced me the most because he masterfully touches and teaches on all facets of life. Further, every word within the book is potent and powerful. Ive read this book several times and have realized something new each time.

I super appreciate minds that can create, construct and communicate value in a thoughtful, tightly crafted and artful way. The classics, broadly speaking, do this zero fluff or filler. And this is important because of the Thoreau quote referenced above.

6 If you didnt need sleep, what would you do with the extra time?

Not needing sleep would be an absolute superpower. Im one of those people who needs a solid eight hours of sleep each night, while I always wished I only needed five or six hours per night. Those additional hours have mega compounding potential. Id do more of everything that contributes to evolution: work, read, write, listen to podcasts, get together with friends, exercise, travel all the things.

Not needing sleep would also make international travel way more manageable. And as someone who loves to adventure the world, this would be a game changer.

Shanghai Man: Blockchain Week with Vitalik still happening, ‘Bitcoin’ searches on WeChat hit 26M in a day

October 22, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

In this 30th edition of the Shanghai Man column, we preview the Wanxiang Shanghai Blockchain Week, an offline event that normally is the biggest blockchain conference on the Chinese calendar. Next week, despite all the regulatory crackdowns, the event is still planning to go ahead, albeit with a one-month delay from its usual place in mid-September.

The flagship event

Historically, Wanxiang Blockchain Week has attracted huge crowds of industry participants including traders, investors, developers, financial institutions, and traditional companies. The three-day event is usually supplemented with a busy schedule of side events, focusing on areas like DeFi or network-specific meetups.

Last year, following the COVID-19 lockdowns, the event was much more subdued, notably with a lack of overseas speakers such as Vitalik Buterin and Gavin Wood physically attending. These two thought-leaders both have strong ties to Shanghai and always helped to raise the profile of the event from a technical perspective.

An advertisement for the Wanxiang Blockchain Summit focuses on digital transformation this year. Source: Wanxiang Blockchain Labs

Wanxiang Blockchain is a large investment outfit that supports some of the strongest projects in the space. It has invested over 100 billion RMB in over 200 projects, operating somewhat like the Consensys of the East. Its ties to China Wanxiang Group give it an elevated position in the business world, including a closer relationship to enterprises and government resources.

This years event is set to take place on October 26 and 27, with keynote speeches planned from Vitalik Buterin of Ethereum, Sergey Nazarov of Chainlink, Yat Siu of Animoca Brands and Anatoly Yakovenko of Solana. Its not clear whether any of these will physically attend the event, but given Chinas strict quarantine restrictions and cryptocurrency policies, it is more likely that they will give the speech via video.

In the past, most of the speeches have focused on the infrastructure and applications, rather than cryptocurrencies and trading-related activities. This has allowed the event to keep attracting government representatives regardless of increasingly negative policies.

The Metaverse and NFT art are two topics that have managed to avoid the wrath of regulators. As such, a number of related events have been grouped into what is being called Shanghai Metaverse Week, which may be just a subtle way for Blockchain Week events to avoid scrutiny from the government. This Metaverse Week is being hosted by partners including Litentry, Polygon, Harmony, Flow, Tezos and Mask Network. The event is planning to have exclusive live streams in Decentraland.

Changes in the ranks

Searches containing the keyword Bitcoin on WeChat spiked to nearly 26 million on October 15, fueled by the news of an ETF approval in the US. These levels of attention hadnt been seen since mid-summer when the regulatory crackdown drew a lot of attention to the asset.

Exchange volumes tell an interesting story as OKEx has picked up steam recently, emerging as a clear second to Binance with about 11% of the total market share according to FTXs global volume monitor. Huobi, which announced it would be restricting Chinese users from using the platform at the end of 2021, has struggled to keep pace with OKEx and has now slipped behind FTX, into the fourth position and only a few billion dollars per day ahead of ByBit.

Huobi dominated the CeFi scene between 2014 and 2016, where it enjoyed extended spells as the highest volume exchange. Now a new wave of CeFi exchanges led by FTX and ByBit are starting to eat away at the dominance of the traditional CeFi leaders Huobi, Binance, and OKEx, collectively known as HBO.

Catching the NFT trend

A number of major corporations have been dropping their own NFTs these days, including eCommerce giant JD.com. The retailer, which has its own blockchain, is releasing a set of seven NFT models through its WeChat mini-program later this year.

Last week, logistics company DHL also announced an NFT launching on the VeChain mainnet. These NFTs are emerging as a way to reward customers, but with the strict policies, its unlikely these NFTs will end up on open marketplaces and expose many users to the greater cryptocurrency ecosystem.

DHL used VeChain’s ToolChain to create these NFTs for their retail users. Source: DHL

Losing out to the US

An announcement on the website for the National Development Reform Commission proclaimed that the US has now overtaken China as the top Bitcoin mining country in the world. The brief article boasts that this transformation has come just two months after Beijing ruled cryptocurrency mining to be illegal.

Its unclear whether or not this article is intended to be taken literally,or as a very subtle but sarcastic reminder that recent political decisions may not be in the best interest of the country.

(function() {window.mc4wp = window.mc4wp || {listeners: [],forms: {on: function(evt, cb) {window.mc4wp.listeners.push({event : evt,callback: cb});}}}})();

The best of blockchain, every Tuesday

Subscribe for thoughtful explorations and leisurely reads from Magazine.

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Leave this field empty if you're human:

Famed Brit photographer Platon’s NFTs have stars in their eyes

October 20, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Platon, the British photographer famous for his close-up portraits of world leaders, is using NFT photos of the human iris to show how humans can be reduced to a unique but unrecognizable image. He even did one self-portrait of his own iris but, if placed in an iris lineup, he could not tell his own from anyone elses.

Platon only uses one name like Prince, he says.

His first human portrait reduction took place in June 2021, when he auctioned 12 anonymous irises as NFTs, each one priced at $111 on the LGND.art marketplace. People bidding for the NFTs, each a single mint, did not know whose iris NFT they were buying.

They were in for a pleasant surprise: It turns out they were bidding to purchase NFTs depicting the irises of Kobe Bryant, Harry Styles, Harvey Weinstein, James Comey, George Clooney, Donald Trump, Cara Delevingne, Bill Clinton, Caitlyn Jenner, Alicia Keys, Spike Lee, and Maria Masha Alyokhina. They all sold out but have remained static on the secondary market, as the holders appear to want hodl the strange art pieces.

Images from Eye Love You, Eye Hate You II (Source: LGND)

Photographer to the stars

In a career littered with outstanding celebrity portraits, Platon is now consumed with human rights causes and is more concerned with and fulfilled by capturing the faces of activists. In 2008, he spent a year documenting civil rights leaders across America as part of a project commissioned by The New Yorker.

But, while his mission is now virtuous, his world leader and celebrity shoots are legendary; he used the camera to tell stories, posing often provocative or eclectic questions that is his superpower.

For Platon, moving into NFTs was logical. Photographers, artists, often innovate and seek out new technologies. We like to move into new space and experiment, he says.

He now revels in his work documenting human rights, working on projects with the U.N. He has set up his own foundation, The Peoples Portfolio, which amplifies the voices of the ignored. Important people dont scare him he doesnt scare easily. He quotes Martin Luther King, who said beware the illusion of supremacy. The funds raised from these recent NFT drops go straight to this foundation.

Platon’s portrait of Muhammad Ali (Supplied)

Platon treats everyone the same. He doesnt care if they are a human rights defender, an activist, a former political prisoner, or a head of state.

Theyre all people. Be nice. Be curious, he says.

My job is to be a cultural provocateur. When I saw NFTs, I understood this was a way for me, as an artist, to gain control over my work. To feel a sense of empowerment there is a long history of artists losing control over their creative output through history. With NFTs, I could see we were cutting out the middlemen we artists were going straight to the collectors. I got that.

I also understood that, with NFTs, I wanted to put storytelling back into this new, exciting technology. Its more than tech; its an opportunity to talk about the big issues we face in society issues such as human rights, climate change, poverty, womens rights, social inclusion, racial equality.

When I saw the buzz about NFTs, I wondered if I could hijack some of that excitement and draw it towards important social issues.

Platons first NFT was a portrait of Edward Snowden. He admits the vagaries of the world move in mysterious ways. In April, an auction of the Snowden NFT raised $5.5 million for the Freedom of the Press Foundation, and then $5,000 for his own foundation.

Edward Snowden: Platon — Edward Snowden as captured by Platon (Supplied)

Back to the beginning

Born in 1968, Platon studied at Saint Martins School of Art and the Royal College of Art. He began working in London, earning his stripes as a photographer. Soon, he was accumulating portraits in his arresting style, which could be both authentic and dramatic, earning himself a name at British Vogue.

He did not realize it, but John F. Kennedy Jr. was scouting for a photographer to launch his new George magazine in New York. Kennedy picked out multiple of Platon’s portrait photographs in magazines and told his aides he wanted that photographer, without even knowing his name at that stage. Kennedy just knew he wanted a photographer to shoot people in a way that felt real. He had grown up inside the inner circle, but wanted to present people politicians and celebrities as real people. So, Platon was found and invited to New York based on his work.

It was 1995. The magazines tagline was Not Just Politics As Usual and neither were the images. Platon says:

John told me we were working on a secret new project. He wanted to humanize the worlds most powerful people. He gave me access, he said I must always be respectful but he wanted me to produce real photography.”

When Kennedy was tragically killed in 1999, Platon was doing a cover story for him the same day. Platon had just landed in Hollywood when the FBI met him at the airport to tell him the news.

I was by then rooted in the States but I had to continue without my mentor, he says.

Presidential, suite

Its 2000. President Bill Clinton is in the White House. Platon is commissioned by Esquire Magazine to do a formal shoot. Platon figures this might be the one and only time he shoots a living president (actually, he goes on to shoot six in his illustrious 30-year career).

Camera dangling from his hands like a James Dean cigarette, he asks, Will you show me the love?

Instant concern within the White House team the impeachment trial over the Monica Lewinsky affair had concluded the year earlier. A hush descends, everyone looks aghast at Platon while an aide leans over and says, none too quietly, in Clintons ear, That is not advisable, Mr. President. Weve had enough love in this administration. Instead, Clinton brushes him aside and says in his distinctive drawl, Shut up, shut up, I know what he wants.

The result is the famous crotch shot with Clinton sitting, hands on knees, legs akimbo, and oozing charisma and power. People said afterwards the tie was an arrow pointing to the seat of power.

Putin on the Beatles

Cut to President Vladimir Putin in Russia in 2007. Hes Time Magazines Person of the Year. Platon is taking pictures. He thinks: What to ask this powerful man? So, he asked him about The Beatles. Turns out Putin really likes the Beatles, and Paul McCartney is his favorite member of the seminal band. Look at the resulting portrait of Putin and see him humming Yesterday. Not Back in the U.S.S.R., laughs Platon.

Its not just questions its storytelling and a way of relating to his subjects. Platon has a son called Jude and a dog called Sgt. Pepper. Platon clearly likes The Beatles too.

Time Magazine Putin — Time’s 2007 Person of the Year cover as shot by Platon (Source: Time.com)

A lifetime of photography has allowed Platon to tap into the authentic and look inside the heads of his subjects. Sometimes these subjects are the most powerful people in the world, sometimes people whose power has been taken from them, and sometimes people who are just ignored.

Its the ignored who he obsesses over now. Its not that they dont have a voice, its just that people are not listening, he says.

In all Platon’s portraits, he is in them too. With Putin, he got so close he could feel Putins breath on his hands as he held the camera inches from his face.

All my photography is 50% subject and 50% me, he says.

He is dismissive of the constant taking of photographs and sharing on social media.

Thats not photography, there is no connection. Its just mechanical. Weve been robbed of our connection and COVID has clearly highlighted that.

Pussy Riot NFT

Putin famously hated the feminist punk band Pussy Riot and defended their imprisonment on the grounds that they threatened the moral foundations of Russia.

Platon first met Nadya Tolokonnikova from Pussy Riot after her release from prison. Ten years ago, he photographed her in his studio. They messed about, fashioned homemade masks from rubbish in his studio. He photographed her in the masks and not. As we speak, he quotes from her speech on the dock prior to being sentenced to two years incarceration in a penal colony.

She said: It’s not us three women from a punk rock group that’s on trial here. It’s you, the Russian Federation. it’s not for you to judge us. It’s for history to judge us all. And history will be the ultimate judge as to whether our values are right or wrong.

He knew he wanted to combine this powerful speech with her iris in an NFT to celebrate her bravery.

(function() {window.mc4wp = window.mc4wp || {listeners: [],forms: {on: function(evt, cb) {window.mc4wp.listeners.push({event : evt,callback: cb});}}}})();

The best of blockchain, every Tuesday

Subscribe for thoughtful explorations and leisurely reads from Magazine.

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Leave this field empty if you're human:

Platon took her iris and coupled it with her reading her statement of reconciliation to create a unique NFT. The auction ran for seven days in September but, owing to the aforementioned vagaries of this world, this NFT did not sell. Its not stopping Platon, though. He has many more irises and causes to celebrate and he’s planning multiple iris NFT drops in the future.

The trouble with Harvey

At the core of these drops is a story. Each iris tells a story. Each story asks a question.

Included in the first drop was filmmaker Harvey Weinstein, prior to the #MeToo movement.

At the time the portrait was themed bad boy Hollywood. Now we know him to be a modern-day monster.

What if I took away 90%, 95% of the picture. Just reduced it to the eye, the window to the soul, and even further reduced it to the iris. What can we see then? Can we even judge?

Which brings us to the title of the drop Eye Love You, Eye Hate You II.

The eye is the most intimate part of the body; when we are in love, we look deeply into our partners eyes, says Platon.

If I strip away everything except the iris can we love, can we hate? And if all our irises are indistinguishable, then who can judge?”

Columns

At home with new policies

Turning a new leaf

Continued crackdown on media and mining

Kindergarten programmer

Model sculptor

Holistic view

Cipher

The best of blockchain, every Tuesday

Bitcoin didnt buzz him initially

Wherefore art thou wallet?

Huobi not giving up on moon mission

PlatOn claims a partnership with Google Cloud

Mining in Southeast Asia

CBDC gaining traction

Playing hard to get

Ranking the exchanges

Spilling into Hong Kong

The flagship event

Changes in the ranks

Catching the NFT trend

Losing out to the US

The best of blockchain, every Tuesday

Photographer to the stars

Back to the beginning

Presidential, suite

Putin on the Beatles

Pussy Riot NFT

The best of blockchain, every Tuesday

The trouble with Harvey

Share this video