Issue #2 – December 15th

Hello everyone! The past few days have been crazy in crypto and we witnessed many significant events that occurred – so let’s get into it!

Bitcoin:

– Bitcoin Futures (what the hack are they?) has arrived! Despite the fact that not all of the brokers support it, the volumes are quite high.
– Here are the reasons why it should affect the Bitcoin price in a positive fashion.
– Great improvements in the implementation of the Lightning network. You can check its explorer here.
– In the meanwhile, BTC’s transaction fees went up — that reminds me the scaling debate, an extensive timeline of which you can find here.
– Elliptic made a nice graphic of the flow of bitcoins
– You keep hearing a lots about this – but once again – how is Bitcoin’s bubble different to Dotcom?
– Some facts on Bitcoin mining and energy consumption, and why it is good to do that in Siberia, as well as why it’s not wis eto compare Bitcoin and Visa in terms of consumption.
– Interesting new piece of HW wallet on the market!

Ethereum:

– Dive into the DNA of Cryptokitties!
– Apart from that, Cryptokitties have clogged the Ethereum network – some suggestions occurred that address the issue.
– Vlad Zamfir’s contemplation of Blockchain governance.
– New formal executable specification of ERC20
– Explanation of the Request Network that brings lots of interesting features on top of Ethereum network.
– Ethereum vs. NEO comparison.
– Difference between PoW nonce and accounting nonce in Ethereum.
– Deep dive into ETH PoS and Casper FFG.
– New Dai Stablecoin on Ethereum announced!
– Guys at ConsesSys Ventures made their first investments.
– Intro to Ethereum programming.

Altcoins:

– Great in-depth explanation of NEO.
– New reserach efforts in Zcash’s privacy
– Nice comparison of some of the privacy coins including PIVx, Monero, and Zcoin.
– Bitcoin Cash is about to release a debit card.

Blockchain:

– Great advancements in blockchain-based identity efforts in cooperation of uPort and the City of Zug!
– An extensive summary of challenges of public blockchains that need to be addressed.
– Folks at Etherisc introduce the protocol for decentralized insurance.

ICOs:

– Indiegogo embraces ICOs!
– If you haven’t gotten what Neufund is – this might help you!
– An amazing infographics showing the exponential growth of ICOs! Definitely worth to see.
– SEC issued a new statement on ICOs and crypto, and cracked down the Munchee ICO as it pretended to be an utility token