Tag Archives: Crypto

China’s Central Bank Crypto Currency Is “Ready”, After 5 Years Development

A senior official at China’s central bank announced at the China Finance 40 Group meeting today that the country will soon roll out its central bank digital currency (CBDC.)

techinasia

Mu Changchun, Deputy Chief in the Payment and Settlement Division of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC,) stated that the CBDC prototype exists and the PBOC’s Digital Money Research Group has already fully adopted the blockchain architecture for the currency. China’s CBDC will not rely entirely on a pure blockchain architecture, as this would not allow the currency to achieve the throughput required for retail usage.

According to Changchun, the currency has been in the research and development phase since 2014. At the meeting on Saturday, he said, “People’s Bank digital currency can now be said to be ready.”

The CBDC will employ a two-tier operational structure, per Changchun:

 The People’s Bank of China is the upper level and the commercial banks are the second level. This dual delivery system is suitable for our national conditions. It can use existing resources to mobilize the enthusiasm of commercial banks and smoothly improve the acceptance of digital currency.

 

A two-tier system is preferable due to China’s complex economy, vast territory and large population. “From the perspective of improving accessibility and increasing public willingness to use, a two-tier operational framework should be adopted to deal with this difficulty,” Changchun said. He also welcomed the resources, talent and innovation capabilities of commercial businesses who will partner with the PBOC to roll out the currency. Finally, this system will help avoid concentration of risk and financial disintermediation.

At the same meeting, China UnionPay Chairman Shaofu Jun said that the goals of China’s CBDC would be difficult to achieve. While a CBDC could solve issues related to cross-border transactions, long lag times and legacy inefficiencies, the lack of clear operational processes and a detailed regulatory framework across countries will be challenging to overcome.

Source: The Block

Secretive Crypto Firm Opens Books For 1st Time To Reveal Enormous Profits

Crypto prices surged on Wednesday after Beijing-based Bitmain published its long awaited IPO prospectus, publicly disclosing for the first time just how enormously profitable the purveyor of crypto mining rigs and chips has become since it was founded in 2013 by crypto billionaires Jihan Wu and Micree Zhan. The company, which controls roughly 85% of the market for crypto mining rigs and chips, has seen its profits expand from just $12.3 million at the end of 2015 to more than $700 million during the first six months of 2018 alone. Importantly, its revenues and profits have continued to expand, even as the market for cryptocurrencies has cooled since the start of the year.

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According to MarketWatch, the company’s profits increased by more than 800% from the prior year to $700 million. It revenues, meanwhile, expanded ten fold to $2.8 billion.

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Bitmain was founded in 2013 by Wu and Zhan just as bitcoin was entering the mainstream. The price of a single coin peaked at around $2,000 in November of that year before plunging to around $200 following the spectacular collapse of Mt. Gox in February 2014. At the time, Gox was the largest crypto exchange in the world.

Speculation about an IPO has been metastasizing for years, but many believed that the secretive company would shelve its plans following the $600 billion drop in aggregate crypto valuations.

According to its prospectus, Bitmain’s business model revolves around the design of ASIC chips for both crypto mining and AI purposes. According to a consulting firm cited in the prospectus, Bitmain is one of the largest ASIC-based crypto mining company. Still, the success of its IPO is far from certain. As Bloomberg points out, two of the company’s biggest rivals, Canaan Inc. and Ebang International Holdings Inc., are also pursuing IPOs. And some analysts cited by BBG fear that the company could lose its competitive edge. If it follows through with the IPO (which is a big if considering Hong Kong’s benchmark index has fallen 16% from its January highs), analysts will view the offering as the first big test of investor appetite for crypto firms working on an industrial scale.

But like we said – that’s still a big if.

Read the prospectus below:

Source: ZeroHedge

Are Charts Telling Us The $USD Is Heading For Trouble?

By quick way of review, here’s the key chart. As you can see, the $USD staged a large bull market run in 2014 as the [Foreign] Federal Reserve wound down its QE program. The greenback was then range bound for three years until this month when it broke down in a big way.

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US Dollar ($USD) dropping below critical support.

Here’s the $USD’s chart running back 40 years. I call this the “single most important chart in the world,” because how the $USD moves has a massive impact on all other asset classes.

As you can see the $USD broke out of a massive 40 year falling wedge pattern [between 2014-2016]. This initial breakout has failed to reach its ultimate target (120) and is now rolling over for a retest of the upper trendline in the mid-to low-80s.

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The Long Term [40 year] Chart Of The $USD

Question:

What happens when new currency is created with few limits by central and commercial banks?

Answer:

Far too much debt and currency are created.

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Central Bank Balance Sheets have increased by $10 trillion in the last decade and $1 trillion YTD in 2017.

Question:

What happens when an extra $10 trillion in central bank debt plus another $80 trillion or so in other global debt is created in a decade?

Answer:

Prices rise because each unit of fiat currency purchases less.

Market                             Early 2007                                  Early 2017

NASDAQ Composite            2,400                                        6,000

S&P 500 Index                      1,400                                        2,370

T-Bond                                     110                                            150

Gold                                         700                                         1,250

Silver                                         13                                              18

Crude Oil                                  60                                              50

Now might be a good time to grab some physical gold, silver and cold stored Crypto.

Source: Political Vel Craft

 

Russia Adopts Blockchain In Response To US Sanctions

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Russia’s largest exchange group has announced plans to trade cryptocurrencies on the Moscow Exchange.

The central depository for the Moscow Exchange, National Settlement Depository (NSD), announced that it is developing a platform to provide accounting services for digital assets like cryptocurrencies.

The platform looks to be build a unit of account, very important in the volatile crypto-space, for people to value their assets in and have access to through a wallet platform.

In short, the Moscow Exchange is taking a page out of Dan Larimer’s BitShares and its OpenLedger exchange to provide trading and accounting and banking services all validated and accessible through the blockchain.

In essence, by the end of 2018, cryptos will be trading on the Moscow Exchange and integrated into the banking system to stand beside stocks, bonds and other derivative assets.

CEO Eddie Astanin:

“Our goal is to create a secure and user-friendly accounting infrastructure for digital assets. We consider the platform would not only provide technological and legal protection of all parties involved, but also extend variety of post-trade services for investors, custodians and new institutions emerging in this sector of economy.”

Building Blockchains off the Putin/Buterin Meeting

This is yet another example of Russia’s rapid response to the changing environment of cryptos.  Vladimir Putin’s meeting with Ethereum designer, Vitalik Buterin, in May at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum must have been truly eye-opening for Putin.

Since then I can almost not keep up with the news flow coming out of Russia relative to the widespread adoption of the blockchain to rapidly modernize those areas of its economy that need it in order to compete over the next generation or two.

Putin, ever the long-game strategist, must have had a ‘eureka’ moment talking with Buterin about Ethereum for people close to the Kremlin to be reacting this quickly.

And the news this morning that Buterin is working on the fix for Ethereum’s scaling issues is welcome news on this front as well.

Blockchains as Sanctions Defense

But this goes deeper than just banking modernization, which is a priority for the Russian government.  These moves into crypto are direct responses to the new sanctions placed on Russia by the U.S.

These are moves to make Russia a diversified destination for capital fleeing the chaos of the Western political breakdown that we are watching unfold before our eyes in real time.

There has been a lot of smoke about Russia (and China) backing their national currencies with Gold. And, while as a gold bug, I appreciate this sentiment I also understand that Russia couldn’t do that in this environment without creating insane capital flow issues in the current environment.

The better plan is to loosen central bank policy, issue some ruble-denominated debt (or yuan) while building up the crypto infrastructure to absorb those capital flows without creating dislocations within the ruble market.

This creates a more natural and organic flow of capital into the country without it causing social upheaval. Like the announcement of Russian Miner Coin, his move by the NSD is just another building block in the foundation of a more resilient Russian financial system to better coordinate the flow of capital and smooth the development of the chain of production.

This, in turn, limits the effects of U.S. sanctions. Once the market comes to the conclusion that Russia treats capital better than the U.S. does, the current trickle will become a torrent. And Russia has to be ready to handle this.

Diversifying into the blockchain is one of those important avenues.

Source: Coindesk