BTC.com News Digest: BCHDEVCON San Francisco — Amsterdam is Next! Censorship-Resistant Social Media, Ivy League & Crypto Investments, CH & First Crypto Asset Management License, Seoul & Blockchain to Build a Smart City, IBM Food Trust, 30 Crypto ATMs in India
15th of October 2018, read the highlights of the latest cryptocurrency and blockchain news.
Staying up to date with all the latest crypto news can be overwhelming. Screening through Reddit’s home page, Twitter’s feed and keeping up with your favorite Youtuber can be tiresome. Just sit back with a cup of coffee, we’re here to digest some of the top crypto news of the week for you.
BCHDEVCON Hackathon San Francisco
On 10th and 11th of October, Bitcoin Cash developers from all around the world gathered in San Francisco, for the first BCH DEVCON hosted by Permissionless Ventures. A total of fifteen teams participated in the hackathon with projects ranging from micropayment solutions, to launching an ICO using the Wormhole protocol.
? The first place went to a Japan-based development team, Yenom, who created a Money Button-like application that’s more akin to the Badger Button but without tokens. The same team also developed a chrome extension that enables micropayments, and an app called ‘Kittyhub’ where you pay $0.05 to remove annoying ads online.
? The second place went to the creators of the application Broccoli.cash, which enables cheap batched transaction services and invoicing so employers can pay part-time and full-time contractors in bitcoin cash.
?? Register now for the next BCHDEVCON hosted in Amsterdam!
Facebook and Twitter Beware — Censorship-Resistant Social Media Is Here
Censorship on large social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter has been rampant this year. Facebook is currently purging hundreds of pages and profiles that regularly posted about alternative news and libertarian views. The aggressive censorship has caused many people to start searching for more decentralized platforms that allow free speech.
Alternatives?
? Memo.cash is a platform that is comparable to Twitter, but posts cannot be selectively removed by anyone as they are all stored onchain. Memo allows users to post text, animations, pictures, URLs, and videos while also setting a custom profile.
? The application Blockpress is a mixture of Twitter with a Facebook feel. The customization of Blockpress profiles gives the website a Facebook-like look alongside the application’s user interface.
? The Keyport platform is an application that provides users with the ability to send and receive encrypted messages built on top of the BCH chain. Essentially all messages are hashed into the BCH chain using an OP_Return transaction but they are encrypted. Only the recipient can decrypt the message, making the messaging service difficult to censor.
Would you be inclined to use a censorship-resistant social media?
Harvard, Stanford, MIT and Other Major Universities Have All Invested in Crypto Funds
Several members of the prestigious Ivy League have made investments into crypto, suggesting that institutional investors are finally starting to warm up to the nascent asset class. According to a report by The Information, the endowments of Harvard University, Stanford University, Dartmouth College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of North Carolina have invested into at least one cryptocurrency fund. […] The institutional investor entrance into the digital market has been a long-awaited one and hopefully the leading education institutions will open the gates to Wall Street giants who are still wary towards virtual currencies.
Do you think that the Ivy League institutions will open the gates to institutional investors?
Swiss Crypto Fund Obtains Country’s First Crypto Asset Management License
Switzerland’s top regulator, the Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) has issued the first digital asset management license, a move that opens the door for institutional investors to the Swiss crypto market. The license approval falls in line with the country’s pro-crypto policy that aims to ensure Switzerland’s status as one of the global leaders in the budding industry of digital money.
Switzerland has a pro-crypto policy, what is your country’s stance on cryptocurrencies?
Seoul Government Plans $100 Million Investment into Blockchain to Build a Smart City
During his nine-day-long visit to Europe, Park Won-soon, mayor of Seoul, revealed that the South Korean capital is planning to implement blockchain technology across a number of key areas in the city’s government over the next five years. The Blockchain Urban Plan will see the technology added to 14 public services in the city. The budget for the plan stands at estimaded 123 billion Korean won ($108 million). […]
The Plan comes to light just months after Park was re-elected as the mayor of Seoul. One of his campaign promises was the pledge to increase support for blockchain development and it seems the mayor stayed true to his word. South Korea is already among the global crypto leaders and with the blockchain-friendly mayor of the capital, things continue to look on the up.
Seoul is developing a “Blockchain Urban Plan”, is your city also planning ahead in regards to blockchain technology?
IBM Launches Their Blockchain-Based Food Tracking Network
After 18 months of testing, IBM‘s blockchain-based food tracking network, dubbed IBM Food Trust has been released for commercial use. According to the official statement, millions of food products have been tracked during the trial, as the cloud network, “offers participating retailers, suppliers, growers and food industry providers with data from across the food ecosystem to enable greater traceability, transparency and efficiency.”
IBM Food Trust is currently one of the largest enterprise-level blockchain networks around and is a great example that distributed ledger technology can be applied not only to cryptocurrencies but real world use cases as well.
The platform is now available for food enterprises worldwide, with subscription prices ranging from $100 to $10,000 per month. Joining Carrefour in the first wave of adopters are cooperatives Topco Associates and Wakefern who represent over 15,000 stores and suppliers BeefChain, Scoular, Smithfield and Dennick Fruit Source.
Do you think that blockchain technology will allow the supply chain ecosystem to have greater traceability, transparency and efficiency?
30 Crypto ATMs Launching in India
One of India’s most important cryptocurrency exchange, Unocoin has officially announced the launch of its crypto ATMs. CEO Sathvik Vishwanath announced that the company will initially deploy 30 machines in Bangalore, Mumbai and New Delhi. These ATMs will allow people to cash in and cash out, enabling crypto enthusiasts to by pass the crypto banking ban imposed by the country’s central bank; the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
Do you have a crypto ATM in your city?
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BTC.com News Digest: BCHDEVCON San Francisco — Amsterdam is Next! was originally published in The BTC Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.