Blockchain Daily :
Deals, Investments & M&As
ICOs Soar As Pump-and-Dump Cowboys Trade On 'Next Bitcoin' FOMO
Jessica Sier - AFR
It doesn't seem to matter that some of these ICOs are no more than a one-page white paper explaining how the developers plan to use the cash they raise and have no actual product at all.
The prices of these fledgling, digital strings of code are rocketing higher and higher, before sometimes keeling over and dying as traders lose their nerve and cash out their Ether or Bitcoin.
FAO: Some of these ICOs may have “South Sea Bubble” “coded” all over them... don’t miss the “Opinion” section of today’s newsletter.
Ethereum Alternative Æternity Starts Phase Two of Crowdfunding Campaign
Avi Mizrahi - Finance Magnates
By not storing contract code or state on-chain, Æternity can make smart contracts easier to analyze and faster to process without substantial loss of functionality.
Cryptocurrencies
Bitcoin Investor Vinny Lingham: Bitcoin Future Is Bright, Just Be Patient
Frisco d'Anconia - The Cointelegraph
Cointelegraph reached out to Vinny Lingham once again to seek his views if the burst is over yet. Whilst the Civic Key's CEO understands it is fuzzy, he maintains the scaling millstone is still a looming threat.
Exchanges & Trading Venues
Bitcoin Exchange Woes See Almost $50 Mln Pass Through LocalBitcoins
William Suberg - The Cointelegraph
LocalBitcoins set a new all-time trading high of $45.7 mln last week as Bitcoin almost hit $3,000.
Regulation
How, When and Where Will Regulators Accept Bitcoin ETFs?
Drew Pierson - CoinDesk
Will bitcoin ETFs ever be accepted by regulators in the US or abroad? That's a question that's even more complex than would initially appear, say industry participants.
House Panel MPs, India: Bitcoin Can Be Misused For Cycling Black Money And Financing Terror
CL Manoj - The Economic Times
A meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee of Finance last week saw many members across the political divide razing questions about the Bitcoin mode of financial transactions. Members feared that it could become a parallel instrument for cycling black money and dodgy transactions and also a source for terror financing.
Other News
Europe's Biggest Utilities Join Blockchain Energy Trading Trial
Weixin Zha - Bloomberg
Utilities from Enel SpA to RWE AG will start live trading based on blockchain in the fourth quarter, after tests that start in August, said Michael Merz, managing director at Ponton GmbH, the developer of the project. The software, called Enerchain, allows anonymous peer-to-peer trading without using a third party.
Opinion
Baseball on the Blockchain? One Fan's Quest to Merge Two Passions
Jos Metnick - CoinDesk
Josh Metnick is the former CTO of the Chicago Sun-Times, where he helped pilot the first cryptocurrency paywall. His current blockchain project, Loki, is in stealth mode.
In this opinion piece, Metnick recalls his journey to uncover applications for blockchains in Major League Baseball, ultimately presenting a hard-fought rubric outlining the intersection between two of his passions.
Blockchains Are The New Linux, Not The New Internet
Jon Evans - TechCrunch
Three weeks ago the redoubtable Vinay Gupta, who led Ethereum’s initial release, published an essay entitled “What Does Ether At $100 Mean?” Since then it has doubled. Too many altcoins to name have skyrocketed in value along with the Big Two. ICOs are raking in money hand over fist over bicep. What the hell is going on?
(Lest you think I’m overstating this, I got a PR pitch the other day that literally began: “Blockchain’s 1996 Internet moment is here,” as a preface to touting a $33 million ICO. Hey, what’s $33 million between friends? It’s now pretty much taken as given that we’re in a cryptocoin bubble.)
Op-Ed: Bitcoin Is More Akin To The Nasdaq Than Gold And Is Not A Safe Haven Asset
Arjun Kharpal - CNBC
It's clear that investors are flocking to bitcoin, not because it offers stability, which it quite clearly doesn't, but more to find solid returns on an asset that is up over 150 percent year-to-date.
Investors still believing bitcoin is a safe-haven asset might find themselves on the wrong side of the trade.
Read more by Soren K.Group
