Daily Crypto Report: Bitcoin adoption: Blockchain Inc wallets grow by 48%; Nasdaq Licenses Tech to a ‘One-Stop Shop’ for Crypto Trading and Mining.
Bitcoin adoption: Blockchain Inc. wallets grow by 48% since 2018, 34 million now in operation
[cryptoslate.com] Over 34 million Blockchain, Inc. wallets are functional as of March 2019, showing a 48 percent increase since 2018 and a staggering 1 million percent increase since 2012. Wallets for bitcoin have grown in tandem with its price, reaching 500 percent growth between the years 2014 to 2016 and over 280 percent between 2016 to 2018.
Blockchain, Inc. is a London-based software development company that offers tools for developers and real-time transaction data for users to analyze the burgeoning digital economy. Blockchain, Inc. also offers one of the most popular cryptocurrency wallets supporting Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Ethereum.
Sources suggest public curiosity and the absence of banking in some regions may be a fuelling factor that’s driving cryptocurrency awareness and wallet growth. Take for example the African continent, which has seen a marked rise in bitcoin adoption since the latter’s introduction.
Nasdaq licenses Bcause to a ‘One-Stop Shop’ for crypto trading and mining
[coindesk] Bcause LLC, a self-described “full-stack cryptocurrency ecosystem,” plans to use Nasdaq technology to operate its markets.
The company announced Wednesday that it would be using Nasdaq’s matching engine, clearing and market surveillance tools through the Nasdaq Financial Framework platform to operate a spot cryptocurrency market, to be launched within the next few months.
Bcause has also filed to become a designated contract market and to launch a derivatives clearing organization with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
According to a press release, Bcause plans to be the only “one-stop shop” to operate a spot trading market, crypto mining facility and a futures/derivatives clearinghouse, once regulators approve the latter offering.
In a statement, Nasdaq senior vice president and head of Marketplace Operators and New Markets Paul McKeown said Bcause “has methodically built a unique ecosystem that gives investors, partners and market players a holistic experience in tapping the cryptocurrency market and value chain.”
He went on to add:
“By leveraging the Nasdaq Financial Framework, Bcause will have the scalability and modular functionality to introduce new micro-services and expand its business offerings to meet industry demands and the evolution of the digital assets economy.”
The New York Times Is Planning to Experiment With Blockchain Publishing
[coindesk] The New York Times, the second-largest newspaper in the U.S. by circulation and a storied institution in American journalism, is getting ready to experiment with blockchain technology for publishing.
According to a job posting that appeared on the Times’ website Wednesday, the media organization is looking for someone to help “design a blockchain-based proof of concept for news publishers.”
To start the project, NYT is looking for a “forward-looking leader” who would be working on the proof-of-concept’s outline for 12 months within the company’s research and development division, according to the post, which was removed after this article was published.
The new hire “will codify the vision for the research project and share that vision with potential stakeholders at other media organizations” and “help brand and create a public identity and assets for the project.”
Another goal will be to form a pool of the project’s stakeholders and find advisors from news organizations, academia and social media companies.
Brock Pierce: 2019 Blockchain & Crypto Predictions
[bitcoinist.com] Blockchain and cryptocurrency stalwart Brock Pierce has been instrumental in some of the highest profile projects in the cryptosphere. Most recently, the Mt. Gox creditors asked him to help prepare a plan to maximize returns and repair the damage caused by its infamous scandal — so his predictions in Forbes for the next year are certainly worth listening to.
The Rise of dApps
Decentralized applications have been around for a while now on platforms such as Ethereum (ETH), TRON (TRX), Cardano (ADA), and the Pierce-developed EOS. So far, though, they are struggling to find regular users outside of the gambling and gaming categories.
Pierce believes that 2019 will see multiple dApps hitting a million users. He says that the best projects in the crypto ecosystem happen when prices are down. In bull markets, people are too busy getting rich to build things.
He thinks that three criteria must be met to spur mass adoption:
They have to be scalable. They have to be fee-less and frictionless. They have to be fast. No one will use the new internet if it’s slow, costs money and doesn’t’ scale. We are building the new internet, so new standards need to be set.
Security Token Offerings
Pierce suggests that security token offerings (STOs) will create a “quadrillion dollar market,” with the tokenization of all manner of real-world assets. He sees them as the next wave in the evolution of capital markets but doesn’t think initial coin offerings (ICOs) are fundamentally bad.
…utility tokens are by nature not intended to be security, so [ICOs] provided little protection. STOs have a framework that can do that. STOs are designed for investors and can have many provisions that are there to protect market participants.
Online Gaming
With a CV that includes the pioneering of selling in-game items for real currency, you could expect Pierce to see potential in this sector.
He says that the people who originally bought and sold in-game currency and items online became some of the earliest adopters of cryptocurrency:
It’s that community of users around the world that have driven the first wave of crypto adoption and so I think there’s a very good chance that gaming in all its forms will be one of the major drivers of the success of the ecosystem.
The final pieces of the puzzle, according to Pierce, are user-friendliness and embracing features like money messaging — especially for the unbanked. He likens the current state to that of the internet before browsers with intuitive user-interfaces started to appear and make it accessible:
“The same thing needs to happen now. With crypto payments we’ve had wonderful technologists now we need great user interfaces.”
Disclaimer: The Daily Crypto Report is curated by DigiFinex for your reference only, it is NOT an investment advice.
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