Weekly roundup: October 29, 2018 to November 3, 2018

By Swati Kishore

Welcome to our weekly roundup crypto enthusiasts! Let’s take you through some of the headlines that made waves this week.

The week started with good news coming in about Bitcoin’s stability in the latter half of October. Stable Bitcoin prices make the cryptocurrency a viable currency. Experts are of the view that the world’s first cryptocurrency will rally from here. Let’s wait and watch if this is a bottom!

More good news for cryptos comes from Ukraine where the government has announced their decision to legalize cryptocurrencies by 2021. The Asian nation of Taiwan is not far behind as a legislator in the country has published a recommendation that suggests that a new legal framework for security tokens to be made.

Moving on to South Korea, the country took a leap forward in the crypto game as the nation’s Financial Services Commission’s chief, Choi Jong Ku made it clear that, “There exists no issue in banks providing virtual bank accounts to cryptocurrency exchanges.” More good news for Bitcoin holders as Morgan Stanley’s research division has declared Bitcoin as an institutional asset class in its report titled, ‘Bitcoin Decrypted: A Brief Teach-In and Implications’.

As always, this week too some notable personalities have expressed their views on the world of Blockchain and cryptocurrencies. While some views were in favour, others were against.

The Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Web 3.0, Patrick Nielsen, talked in support of Blockchain at a summit in Berlin. The President of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, has spoken in favour of Blockchain at an annual meeting in Indonesia, saying that he feels that blockchain technology has “huge potential,”  and that it has not been optimally used by the world.

Benedict Evans, An Andreessen Horowitz venture capitalist expressed his views through some tweets and said that he sees huge potential in Blockchain tech and that the stage that the technology is in right now is comparable to how the internet was in 1993.

Critical of the industry were Former Chair Of Federal Reserve, Janet Yellen and Economist, Tyler Cowen. While Yellen criticised crypto’s decentralized nature, Cowen called crypto “illegal”, saying legality is essential for mainstream adoption.

Like every week, there have been collaborations, launches, and many partnerships! The idea about the launch of digital money E-Krona by the Bank of Sweden, Riskbank, is gaining momentum over the fears about the possibility of other organisations occupying this space.

While the Indian crypto space made a lot of buzz with a possible ban on the use of crypto in the country in near future, there was some good news from the South Asian nation as the Indian state of Manipur signed MoU with Lynked.World to foster Blockchain developments.

TronWatch, the wallet that has been built for Tron, has recently tweeted to their followers that a demo version of its decentralized exchange which is going to be called TronWatch Market will be launched soon. The Russian diamond giant Alrosa published a press release stating that it is partnering with De Beers’ Blockchain-based Tracr system.

ZCash Company has launched the Sapling Protocol on the occasion of ZEC’s second birthday. The protocol will improve the usability of the ZCash. Bittrex, the US-based blockchain trading platform is looking forward to going global by launching a new digital trading platform which is set to feature a “streamlined” token approval process in Malta.

Microsoft, the American software giant, is all set to integrate it’s Azure Blockchain technology, into Nasdaq, the world’s second largest American stock exchange’s Financial Framework. Bithumb, the dominant South Korean cryptocurrency exchange has recently signed a deal with a United States based fintech company to open a securities exchange in America. IOTA Tokens are all set to be integrated with Ledger’s hardware wallets!

Two $300 million investments into two fintech payment corporations by the usual naysayer of Bitcoin, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, illustrated that the prominent investor is also ready to join the cryptoparty. Michael Keaton has been roped into play the role of crypto advocate,. John McAfee for a movie on latter’s life. As per a Reuter’s report, Amir Sarhangi, Google’s tech leader in developing the Rich Communications System messaging apps is being hired by the crypto giant Ripple.