Facebook could become the most important company in Crypto.
News broke yesterday that Facebook is building a stablecoin (crypto coin) that will be launched to allow WhatsApp users in India to transfer money. Of course, the immediate reaction of those in the space was to start yelling. Many people were excited, others were upset about the company’s recent privacy issues, and some felt that a Facebook stablecoin didn’t fit the authentic ethos of the crypto industry.
All of these reactions missed the mark though.
Zuckerberg and the Facebook team have never been interested in playing it safe. The highly talented team consistently looks to invent and/or grow products that change the world. If Facebook is building a stablecoin for WhatsApp, this is less about crypto and more about building a globally dominant product that changes the way billions of people live their lives.
David Marcus who leads the blockchain team is the former President of PayPal. Kevin Weil is the VP of Blockchain Product, previously served as the VP of Product at Instagram, and was once the SVP of Product at Twitter. Evan Cheng is the Director of Blockchain Engineering and was a former senior manager at Apple. And finally, Morgan Beller is the unsung hero of the group — the woman who leads blockchain strategy, but worked solo on the project for a period of time before she was able to build internal support and recruit some of the company’s best talent.
Couple these individuals with Facebook’s notorious "Growth Team" and you have a recipe for success. The Growth team is the company’s secret weapon. They are brought in like a SWAT team to solve the hardest problems by leveraging immense amounts of data and the proprietary analytical tools that have been built over the years. This team has helped four separate Facebook product teams scale their offerings to over a billion users each (Facebook main app, Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp).
So what exactly is the potential for this team?
The holy grail would be to build the world’s dominant payment system. This would be a direct competitor to Visa and Mastercard, but it is more likely to happen than you may think. Facebook has billions of users and tens of millions of merchants. This gives the company a leg up on competitors as they bootstrap the network effects needed to lock in both sides of a marketplace.
If Facebook could successfully build the product and drive adoption, they will have a chance to transition from a social network to one of the largest financial services companies in the world. This move would allow them to take a small percentage on each transaction and reduce the dependency on their advertising-based model.
This won’t happen overnight though. Facebook needs to
(1) create a viable stablecoin (not that easy)
(2) launch the product in India’s large market (significant opposition from government and financial institutions)
(3) drive sustainable adoption,
(4) expand to other jurisdictions and other digital currencies, and then
(5) build out additional financial services to serve their customers.
It wouldn’t be surprising to see Facebook back their way into becoming a new-age bank for digital natives outside the United States.
Facebook could be the most important company in crypto. They have 2+ billion people who use their services daily. Anything they launch will quickly become the most popular product in the industry….maybe even one of the most popular products in the world.
Mark Zuckerberg has dedicated his life to changing the world. Most people in tech don't trust him and would love to see him fall. Many people no longer trust him ... and still, get your popcorn ready — I wouldn’t bet against this team (and in most cases, it boils down to the team)
The Bloomberg report is a first solid suggestion at what will come from the new division and, according to the publication, it’ll be a stablecoin that “let[s] users transfer money on its WhatsApp messaging app, focusing first on the remittances market in India.”
“Like many other companies, Facebook is exploring ways to leverage the power of blockchain technology. This new small team is exploring many different applications. We don’t have anything further to share,” it told Bloomberg in a statement.
If the U.S. giant does carry out the plan that Bloomberg is reporting it would (easily) be the largest company to embrace consumer blockchain service. That’s both in terms of the size of the business — a $376 billion market cap and annual revenue of more than $40 billion — and the user base it touches. Facebook reaches more than 2.2 billion people for its core social network, 1.5 billion for WhatsApp, 1.3 billion for Messenger and a further one billion via Instagram.
That makes this a thread worth pulling, so let us get into it.
Former PayPal CEO David Marcus heads up Facebook’s blockchain division — Marcus is also a former board member at crypto exchange Coinbase
Yet another stablecoin
Stablecoins have become all the rage in the blockchain space during the second half of this year, with scores of projects popping up to provide solutions — but let’s start with why.
The concept is simple: a cryptocurrency that is pegged to a fiat currency and therefore immune to the often wild valuation swings.
Blockchain as programmable and border-less money has potential, but stability is a huge concern. Bitcoin, for example, hit a record high of nearly $20,000 one year ago; today its price is just over $4,000 but, symbolically, it fell below that figure in recent months. The ride for “altcoins” has been even bumpier.
Stablecoins offer a way to deposit money ahead of buying into Bitcoin, Ethereum or other tokens more quickly than a bank account. They also allow profits to be moved from volatile tokens and, among other things, are a more stable way of sending crypto to another person (or business) without being subject to moving prices.
Yet, despite a simple premise, there are no current examples of a proven and successful stablecoin, despite the many who have thrown their hats into the ring.
Tether, the highest-profile project, is dogged by concerns around its financial backing. The organization behind it has never shown that it has the required fiat currency to back the tokens in the market, while its value has previously slipped below $1.....
Op Ed: Bitcoin Is a Declaration of Our Monetary Independence
Nick Spanos is an early adopter and innovator in the blockchain space. He is best known for launching Bitcoin Center NYC, the world’s first live cryptocurrency exchange, in 2013, right next to the New York Stock Exchange — as immortalized in the Netflix documentary “Banking on Bitcoin.” As part of Bitcoin Magazine’s series of interviews and op eds leading up to the 10th Anniversary of Bitcoin, Nick shares his thoughts an early Bitcoin adopter.
Before Bitcoin, I worked tirelessly for liberty-minded political candidates for many years. These candidates, the most prominent of whom was Dr. Ron Paul, spoke out against the Federal Reserve Bank because of its role in inflating the money supply which devalued the life savings of hard-working people. In almost every case, the mass media would sharply (and often unfairly) attack the image of the candidate with half-truths and misinformation, decimating our poll numbers, until they were sure that we would be defeated on Election Day. No matter how hard we worked or how much money we raised, we were no match for what I call the political bosses of today, the mainstream media.
After two decades of struggle, I thought I had wasted my life fighting unwinnable battles. Then one day, I read the Bitcoin white paper. I read it half a dozen times and I thought, “Finally, I have a weapon that cannot be destroyed on Election Day.”
Bitcoin for me is not an instrument for financial investment. Bitcoin for me is a declaration of our monetary independence.
When I started the Bitcoin Center in 2013, I had a flourishing real estate business in downtown New York. I had an established career in developing technologies for political campaigns. Because of bitcoin’s reputation in the mainstream media back then, I knew that many of my relationships would be destroyed if I emerged as a public figure in the cryptocurrency space.
When I launched the center, a press release was sent out revealing me as the founder even though I never wanted that information to go public. Immediately, concerned friends and family started calling me, asking me what I was getting myself into and wondering if I had lost my mind. Bitcoin was for illicit activities on the internet, they told me. This is nothing but video game money, said others.
My life mission of personal freedom was more powerful than anything anyone could ever say to me.
I knew I had to bring Bitcoin out of the back alleys and onto Wall Street for...
The city of Zug, home of the Swiss Crypto Valley, has been named the fastest growing technology community in Europe. Zug ranked atop the “State of European Tech” report by London-based global investment firm Atomico last week, on the strength of its year-on-year growth of attendees to tech-related meetup events.
According to the report, Zug recorded a 177 percent increase in the number of tech meetups in 2018, compared to last year. The city’s crypto activity has been warmly supported by the Swiss government, which is fine-tuning its legislation and policies to improve financial innovation, with particular emphasis on virtual currencies.
“There is a huge geographic diversity among the top 20 fastest-growing tech hubs in Europe, as measured by the annual growth in attendees to tech-related meetup events in those cities. Zug in Switzerland, home to a growing crypto community, ranked number one as the fastest-growing community overall,” the report said.
Novosibirsk in Russia follows Zug with 173 percent increase in tech meetups, while Ghent (Belgium), The Hague (Netherlands) and Katowice (Poland) complete the top 5 of the fastest-growing tech communities.
Novosibirsk has reported startup activity in its science and technology hub, Akademgorodok, also known as the Siberian Silicon Valley. Success stories out of the suburb include nanotechnology firm Ocsial, precision laser manufacturer Tekhnoscan and banking software company CFT.
The Atomico report emphasized community-building, measured by the meetups of technological talent, as necessary for attracting investment to cities. This year, the density of meetups in Europe equated around 200 events per day throughout the year.
Progressive Switzerland
Switzerland has taken a progressive stance towards cryptocurrency, legalizing its...
The Napston cryptocurrency exchange has the potential to turn the industry upside down, if it’s able to produce the results the company expects. The exchange is a fully automated platform that uses a proprietary technology, the “Distributed Artificial Neural Networks (DANN),” to make accurate market predictions. Company officials assert that the platform pools data from “thousands” of independent sources and makes trading possible for even the most inexperienced investor.
According to a press release by the company, “Napston entered the cryptocurrency space in 2013, long before it became mainstream. Over the last five years, the company has been through all the uncertainties and fluctuations of this evolving market. During this phase, Napston was serving only the larger corporate and high net worth individual customers, helping them properly structure and trade their cryptocurrency portfolios. They have spent a high percentage of profits to build the proprietary Distributed Artificial...
U.S. stocks pulled ahead on Tuesday, as investors shrugged off calls by President Trump for additional tariffs on Chinese goods. Cryptocurrencies faltered after a solid start to the week as bitcoin SV made its debut.
Stocks Finish Higher
Equities pulled ahead in the final hour of trading, with the S&P 500 Index registering gains of 0.3% to close at 2,682.20. Seven of 11 primary sectors contributed to the gains, led by the defensive consumer staples and utilities categories. Healthcare and the much smaller real estate sector also notched solid gains.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 108.49 points, or 0.4%, to 24,748.73. Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) and Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) were the biggest contributors.
The technology-focused Nasdaq Composite Index finished flat at 7,082.70.
Trump Threatens Additional China Tariffs
U.S. President Donald Trump told The Wall Street Journal on Monday that he plans to move ahead with harsher tariffs on Chinese goods, lowering the prospect of an imminent trade deal later this week. China had requested that the president hold off on raising tariffs on $200 billion worth of U.S.-bound experts scheduled to come into effect Jan. 1. Trump not only said...
Recently launched cloud server cryptocurrency mining service, Splitt is now making the heads turn in the global crypto community. Designed to make cryptocurrency mining user-friendly and safe for all, Splitt has secured an investment of well over $5 million from more than ten thousand investors over the last three months.
Splitt, a recently launched cryptocurrency mining service equipped with a cloud server, is now taking giant strides towards becoming a highly preferred choice amongst the crypt mining enthusiasts around the world. Following its mega launch in August, Splitt has done well to secure close to one hundred thousand users and ten thousand investors in less than three months. Official sources have revealed that the company has already received an investment of more than five million for further development of the business.
As a result of drastic increase in the number of miners, bitcoin mining has become extremely competitive these days. Along with this growing competition, the bitcoin network has increased the difficulty level of solving the puzzles. As a result, it has become necessary now for the miners to up their game to stay in the race.
The crypto cloud of Splitt meets these challenges by offering mining services with ASIC integrated chips. This is considered to be the latest breakthrough in crypto mining because it is faster compared to the traditional GPU and CPU mining, and consumes less power. Splitt cloud mining requires no specialized hardware as it utilizes shared processing power from data centres.
Thousands of users have recommended Splitt as their crypto mining alternative because of the following features.
Flexible multi-algorithm cloud mining
No pool fees, no waiting for equipment and no system crashes
Hashpower is purchased and is retained for the whole contract duration.
Dedicated to transparency and discloses everything to the public
The company can be located easily and its representatives attend a number of events regularly
Mining a number of different cryptocurrencies from scrypt and proof of work algorithm coins as well as ASIC and GPU...
Bitcoin is not without its vocal band of critics and naysayers. The Nouriel Roubinis and Paul Krugmans of this world would have you believe that Satoshi Nakamoto’s creation is 100 percent doomed to fail.
Bitcoin Doesn’t Need Men with Guns
Earlier in the year, Bitcoinistreported on Paul Krugman’s column in the New York Times where the Nobel Prize winner in Economics took aim at cryptocurrency asking what problems virtual currencies solve. This week, Economics professor Saifedean Ammous offered a robust reply to the flawed rhetoric espoused in Krugman’s piece.
For starters, Bitcoin $6393.00 +0.02% doesn’t need men with guns to enforce its value. According to Krugman:
Fiat currencies have underlying value because men with guns say they do. And this means that their value isn’t a bubble that can collapse if people lose faith.
If the above is true then the current situation in places like Zimbabwe, Venezuela, Iran, Turkey, and even Argentina shouldn’t be happening. This author is going out on a limb to say each of...
Based on market cycle psychology, depression is the state where people have lost all hope in the market. They believe that the downtrend is a bottomless pit and the market will never again reach its former glory. This discourages everyday investors from entering the market when in fact, this is the point of maximum financial opportunity. Time and time again, markets bottom out when ordinary people have abandoned them.
This is exactly what we’re seeing in Bitcoin (BTC/USD). The hype that surrounded the cryptocurrency almost a year ago is completely gone. The interest over time, when looking at google trends, is at its lowest in 12 months. More importantly, many people believe that it can go significantly lower.
Current market sentiment maybe depressive but the charts show that the end is almost near. In this article, we show how Bitcoin may be transitioning from depression to disbelief.
A Comparison of Market Cycle Psychology Chart and Bitcoin Chart
Disbelief is the state where the market shows signs of life but participants ignore them. They do so because they think that the downtrend is not yet over and the rally is just another pump and dump scheme to slaughter newbies.
We believe Bitcoin is getting ready to make you a non-believer. To understand why we have this point of view, allow us to first show you the market cycle psychology chart.
Disbelief comes after a boring and depressed market. If you’ve been following Bitcoin’s price action since September, you’d know that the past few months have been the longest. Volatility has been almost non-existent. There were times when Bitcoin traded within a $10 range. At that point, we knew that Bitcoin was in a state of depression.
If you’re skeptical, the next chart should help alleviate your concerns.
Bitcoin daily chart over market cycle psychology chart
We overlayed the Bitcoin daily chart on top of the market cycle psychology chart and we have an almost perfect representation of market sentiment over the last twelve months.
It’s been ten years since Satoshi Nakamoto published the Bitcoin White Paper and introduced cryptocurrencies to the world. His radical vision of a decentralized peer-to-peer electronic cash system was groundbreaking, as it sought to rebuild the structures that upheld our global financial institutions. A decade on, the cryptocurrencies market is now worth $209 billion globally, and there are more than a thousand separate tokens in circulation.
[Note: This is a guest op-ed article submitted by Samuel Leach, Founder of Yield Coin]
Despite this success, Nakamoto’s vision is yet to be fully realized. Although “cryptos” and associated phrases have entered the popular language, and awareness of them is at an all-time high, uptake has been restricted to a narrow subset of society.
Bloombergestimates that around a thousand users own approximately 40 percent of all bitcoin currently in circulation and cryptos have failed to supplant fiat currency. Before we see the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies, there are a number of obstacles that first need to be overcome.
While regulation is often treated as a pariah among many in the crypto community, if executed properly, it will bring beneficial change for all. Cryptocurrencies have only been in existence for a relatively short amount of time meaning many governments are still figuring out the best way to regulate them. The result of this has been a crypto market structured in a laissez-faire fashion. While it can be argued that this has fostered further innovation, it has undoubtedly led to several negative side effects.
At present, anyone could set-up a new cryptocurrency and raise significant capital without having to face repercussions if they fail to implement their plans. This has reduced overall confidence in the market, as it can be difficult to differentiate legitimate projects from nefarious ones. This is also preventing many institutional investors from entering the market, as the lack of regulatory guidelines will lead to compliance issues on their part.
A daily price swing of 10-20 percent is not uncommon among most cryptos, making them exceptionally volatile in comparison to fiat currencies; in comparison, the pound lost 4 percent of its value against the dollar on the infamous Black Wednesday. Finding a way to temper this instability would go some...
On our August 29, 2018 trade recommendation, we anticipated NEO/Bitcoin (NEO/BTC) to breakout from the large falling wedge on the daily chart. We emphasized the importance of buying only after the pair generates volume of 1 million NEO units. Without heavy volume, the breakout would not look convincing to breakout traders and trend followers. Hence, there wouldn’t be enough momentum to ignite a massive rally.
Though NEO/BTC broke out from the falling wedge as expected on August 31, the volume it printed was way below our requirements. As a result, the breakout rally was short-lived since bottom fishers saw the low volume breakout as an opportunity to take profits. The selling drove the market down. Nevertheless, this gives us a chance to buy the bottom before NEO/BTC takes off.
Technical analysis shows that NEO/BTC is respecting the historical support of 0.00245. This view comes after the pair successfully completed the retest when it dropped to as low as 0.00239 on October 15 but bulls came to the rescue and lifted the market above the support. We watched NEO/BTC from that point to see if the support will hold. The confirmation came on October 18 when volume suddenly surged. This was a signal that participants are comfortable accumulating at this level.
More importantly, the daily RSI appears to have printed a new higher low at 32.6. This is an encouraging sign as it shows that participants are no longer waiting for extreme oversold readings before entering long positions.
The strategy is to buy as close to 0.00245 support as possible. As long as the market remains above this level, it has a very good chance to rally to our initial target of 0.0034 and then 0.0046.
