Blockchain Insider Podcast by 11:FS

Simon's in the studio with Adi Ben Ari, Founder of Applied Blockchain.

First up, the SEC settles Securities Registration charges against 2 ICO startups. The SEC’s announcement centred on two firms: CarrierEQ Inc., also known as Airfox, and Paragon Coin Inc., both of which conducted token sales last year. Airfox raised $15 million through its sale, while Paragon raised $12 million.

After Friday’s SEC actions, experts say ICO party ‘Is truly over’. U.S. regulator stated that “there is a path to compliance with the federal securities laws” for startups issuing tokens, even if “issuers have conducted an illegal unregistered offering of digital asset securities” already.

Firm tied to cryptocurrency entrepreneur faces SEC investigation. Securities regulators are investigating Salt Lending Holdings $50 million cryptocurrency sale. The company, which loans money to people using their cryptocurrency as collateral, received a subpoena from the SEC in February seeking records related to a $50 million digital-token sale it held last year, the people familiar with the matter said.

Crypto’s Too Expensive? Binance Sent $600 Million in Bitcoin for Just $7. The transaction in block 550211 was a transfer of just over $1 million. For this transaction, Binance paid just over $8 in fees. Another transaction, $600 million at the time it was sent, made it the largest unspent transaction output existing to date.

Shell and BP back blockchain platform to modernise commodities trading. Oil industry giants Shell and BP are among a group of firms planning to launch a blockchain platform to automate post-trade processes in the energy industry by the end of 2018, consortium building the platform is called VAKT Global.

Deloitte Blockchain Chief: Bad Crypto Headlines Making Clients ‘Nervous’. "Can we stop talking about my bad brother?” That’s how Linda Pawczuk, leader of Deloitte Consulting’s financial services industry blockchain group, describes the conversations she often has these days with executives and board members of client companies.

Kraken credits clients with Bitcoin SV (BSV) and launches BSV Trading. The recent Bitcoin Cash hard fork resulted in two (for now) viable chains:

Bitcoin Cash (following the Bitcoin Cash ABC protocol and roadmap published by bitcoincash.org)
Bitcoin SV (following the Bitcoin Cash SV protocol and roadmap published by nChain)

WARNING: Bitcoin SV does NOT meet Kraken’s usual listing requirements. It should be seen as an extremely high risk investment. There are many red flags that traders should be aware of.

This week's episode of Blockchain Insider was produced by Laura Watkins and Petrit Berisha. Edited by Alex Woodhouse.

Special Guest: Adi Ben-Ari.

Links:

• SEC Settles Securities Registration Charges Against 2 ICO Startups - CoinDesk
• After Friday's SEC Actions, Experts Say ICO Party 'Is Truly Over' - CoinDesk
• Firm Tied to Cryptocurrency Entrepreneur Faces SEC Investigation - WSJ
• Crypto's Too Expensive? Binance Sent $600 Million in Bitcoin for Just $7
• Shell, BP Back Blockchain Platform to Modernise Commodities Trading
• IBM and Maersk Struggle to Sign Partners to Shipping Blockchain - CoinDesk
• Deloitte Blockchain Chief: Bad Crypto Headlines Making Clients ‘Nervous’ - CoinDesk
• Kraken Credits Clients with Bitcoin SV (BSV) and Launches BSV Trading | Kraken Blog

Simon and Colin are live at the Blockchain Insider stand and sat down with a great guest, Teana Baker-Taylor, CMO at Coinfloor. We also have an exclusive interview with Dan Larimer, CTO of Block.one and Brendan Blumer, CEO of Block.one.

First up the panel takes a look at New York AG report faulting crypto exchanges for manipulation risks. The New York Office of the Attorney General (OAG) has released a report on cryptocurrency trading platforms, finding that many are vulnerable to market manipulation and referring several exchanges to another agency for potential violations of state law. NYAG's inquiry was launched in April, seeking voluntary participation from 13 of the world's most notable trading sites, including Coinbase, Kraken, Bitfinex, Bittrex, and Binance, among others.

a16z crypto purchases 6% of MKR, backing Stablecoin Vanguard MakerDao. Signaling their support of MakerDAO’s Dai stablecoin, investment fund a16z crypto has purchased 6% of the total MKR token supply for $15 million USD. The purchase gives a16z crypto a stake in the first functional decentralized stablecoin and the only system built with formally verified smart contracts on Ethereum (or any blockchain).

From adoption to FOMO: Reasons behind Ripple’s leap. Over the past week, altcoin Ripple’s (XRP) price has gone through the roof. It has seen an unprecedented 140 percent growth over the past seven days. We explore the major reasons why it's grown so fast.

How Colin because a crypto quadrillionaire without writing a single line of code.

Bitcoin bugs out. CVE-2018-17144, a fix for which was released on September 18th in Bitcoin Core versions 0.16.3 and 0.17.0rc4, includes both a Denial of Service component and a critical inflation vulnerability. In order to encourage rapid upgrades, the decision was made to immediately patch and disclose the less serious Denial of Service vulnerability, concurrently with reaching out to miners, businesses, and other affected systems while delaying publication of the full issue to give times for systems to upgrade.

We also have a Tweet of the Week on moggy miners.

All this and so much more on this week's episode of Blockchain Insider. And if you enjoyed our tweet of the week why not send us your best tweets? See if you can get a shout out on the show!

We hope you enjoy the show and, as ever, don't forget to subscribe!

Want to join the conversation on all the topics discussed? Tweet the show @bchaininsider and if you really love the show, please leave us a review on iTunes.

This week's episode of Blockchain Insider was produced by Laura Watkins and Petrit Berisha, written by Dhanum Nursigadoo and edited by Holly Blaxill.

Special Guests: Brendan Blumer, Dan Larimer, and Teana Baker-Taylor.

Links:

• New York AG Report Faults Crypto Exchanges for Manipulation Risks - CoinDesk
• a16z crypto purchases 6% of MKR, backing Stablecoin Vanguard MakerDAO
• From Adoption to FOMO: Reasons Behind Ripple’s Leap | Cointelegraph
• How I became a Crypto Quadrillionaire without writing a single line of code...
• Bitcoin Core :: CVE-2018-17144 Full Disclosure
• In Wake of 'Major Failure,' Bitcoin Code Review Comes Under Scrutiny - CoinDesk

Our hosts take an in-depth look on the most interesting news in blockchain this week. Focusing on: what impact the SEC's decision on Ethereum will have on ICOs, Ripple being sued for security violations, and the likelihood of Fedcoin.

All this and more on this week's episode of Blockchain Insider.

And if you enjoyed our tweet of the week why not send us your best tweets? See if you can get a shout out on the show!

We hope you enjoy the show and, as ever, don't forget to subscribe.
Want to join the conversation on all the topics discussed? Tweet the show @bchaininsider and if you really love the show, why not leave us a review on iTunes?

Links:

• SEC decision on Ethereum cryptocurrency could affect others funded by ICOs | Computerworld
• SEC commissioner won't declare all tokens are "securities" - Axios
• Ripple Sued for Securities Law Violations — CRYPTO LAW
• Should the Fed Create ‘FedCoin’ to Rival Bitcoin? A Former Top Official Says ‘Maybe’ - The New York Times
• Barclays CEO Rules Out Cryptocurrency Trading Desk, For Now
• 12 Chinese Banks Say They Deployed Blockchain in 2017 - CoinDesk
• Bitcoin Sees Wall Street Warm to Trading Virtual Currency - The New York Times
• South Korean lawmakers seek to overturn ICO ban | Asia Times
• BMW, Ford, GM: World's Largest Automakers Form Blockchain Coalition - CoinDesk
• Microsoft Azure Launches Tool To Speed Up Blockchain-Based App Creation

Kicking things off on a special live episode, has Bitcoin solved its scaling issues? Lightning Network launches, more than doubling transaction speeds! Colin is keen to explain it all.

'Bitcoin investors are clueless' says Visa's CFO. Are cryptocurrencies just the new casino for unaware buyers to double or triple their cash in a low interest environment? But is all the future crypto potential on the enterprise side?

Payment rails should be very afraid! If cryptocurrencies can figure out how to scale up then there's no telling what they could do.

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney thinks crypto has no risk to financial stability. At less than 1% of the global GDP at its peak and unable to function as a currency, Bitcoin isn't able to take on the financial system.

ICOs split opinions on the panel but one thing's for sure, both public and enterprise want a solid infrastructure.

Colin has some strong opinions on the future of cryptocurrencies, could they ever compete with banks or do they need to find a way past focusing on transactions?

Binance is keen to decentralise, but without a way of stopping scammers can it be used properly. Does decentralisation remove legitimacy for cryptocurrencies or will it make them stronger than ever?

We've got a fantastic interview with Preston Byrne, who also managed to snag tweet of the week, on block-chain versions of central-bank cash.

And if you enjoyed our tweet of the week why not send us your best tweets? See if you can make it on to the show!

We hope you enjoy the show and, as ever, don't forget to subscribe.
Want to join the conversation on all the topics discussed? Tweet the show @bchaininsider and if you really love the show, why not leave us a review on iTunes?

Special Guests: Jason Bates, Richard Crook, and Sara Feenan.

Links:

• First Bitcoin Mainnet Lightning Network Product Launches As Developers Net $2.5 Million
• Bitcoin Investors have ‘no clue’ thinks Visa’s Chief Financial Officer
• Carney On Eve of G20: Cryptos Don't Pose Risks to Financial Stability
• JP Morgan's Amber Baldet On What Enterprise Wants from Ethereum
• Bloomberg - Binance Decentralized Exchange to List Almost Any Coin, CEO Says
• A primer on blockchain-based versions of central-bank money

Sara is with Olivia Vinden, Director at Alpha FMC, Obi Nwosu, CEO and Founder of Coinfloor, and Richard Burton, CEO and founder of Balance Software.

First up the panel looks at a16z back blockchain project Dfinity's funding round. Decentralized cloud startup Dfinity just raised $102 million to further its work in developing an "internet computer". Dfinity hopes to launch its world computer, what it refers to as "the cloud 3.0," by creating a scalable network that is more efficient than proof-of-work consensus.

Messaging giant LINE is launching its own cryptocurrency. LINE has become one of the first publicly traded companies to have launched a proprietary blockchain mainnet with its own cryptocurrency. LINE aims to gradually issue a total of 1 billion of the network's LINK tokens, of which 800 million will be distributed to public users while the rest will be held as a company reserve.

Crypto exchange Huobi acquires public firm for $70 Million. Huobi has become the largest shareholder of a public firm listed in Hong Kong, inching a step closer to a possible back-door listing. Pantronics Holdings, the acquired firm, released a statement on Aug. 29 saying Huobi Group had completed the deal by purchasing about 199 million of its shares.

Cboe is telling market makers that it's getting close to launching ether futures- and it could mark a big step in the crypto's evolution, the exchange group behind the first market for bitcoin futures, is telling market makers that it is getting close to launching ether futures.

Deutsche Bourse sets up dedicated blockchain and crypto-assets unit. Deutsche Bourse has been actively exploring potential applications of distributed ledgers and implications of crypto-assets, including co-operation with international central securities depositories on the use of distributed ledgers and smart contracts for mobilising scarce collateral, as well as the joint development of a functional prototype for the blockchain.

Google now provides a big data view of the ethereum blockchain. Google has added ethereum to its big data analytics platform BigQuery.

Coinbase survey shows 18% of US students now own cryptocurrency. According to the survey commissioned by Coinbase, 21 of the top 50 U.S. universities, as ranked by U.S. News and World Report, now offer a class on blockchain technology or cryptocurrency, and at least 11 colleges offer more than one.

The listing of several coins will happen in 2019 according to a NASDAQ source. While there have been other headlines connected to global exchanges dipping their toes into the crypto waters via partnerships and futures trading; the NASDAQ may just go all in.

We also have a Tweet of the Week on revolutionary HODLers.

Rounding off the show we have an interview from Colin with William Mougayar, Managing Partner and CIO at JM3 Capital.

All this and so much more on this week's episode of Blockchain Insider. And if you enjoyed our tweet of the week why not send us your best tweets? See if you can get a shout out on the show!

We hope you enjoy the show and, as ever, don't forget to subscribe!

Want to join the conversation on all the topics discussed? Tweet the show @bchaininsider and if you really love the show, please leave us a review on iTunes.

This week's episode of Blockchain Insider was produced by Petrit Berisha and edited by Michael Bailey.

Special Guests: Obi Nwosu, Olivia Vinden, Richard Burton, and William Mougayar.

Links:

• $102 Million: A16z, Polychain Back Blockchain Project Dfinity's Funding Round - CoinDesk
• Messaging Giant LINE Is Launching Its Own Cryptocurrency - CoinDesk
• Crypto Exchange Huobi Acquires Public Firm for $70 Million - CoinDesk
• Cboe is telling market makers it is close to launching ether futures - Business Insider
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