The NASDAQ plans to set up a crypto “coin exchange” by the second quarter of 2019, ICO Journal reports, citing a “trusted source." ICO Journal thinks this is no surprise: the NASDAQ made inroads into crypto in early August when it partnered with crypto-exchange Gemini. Another “trusted source” elaborated further: “I’d put money on their [sic] being a joint venture of some sort that sees several tokens listed and available to the public to trade on the NASDAQ by Q2 of 2019.” Can we trust the trusted sources, or will the trustless tokens remain untrustworthy assets?
Maybe you’d trust a robot a little better. Tippr, an online bot that can be directed to tip “good content” via a text command, has reportedly been used to tip $100,000-worth of bitcoin cash to over 15,000 users since its launch in early 2018. The only question worth asking, obviously, is “Can I use it to tip myself?” Sadly not: the bot doesn’t just carry around wads of its own digital cash, but requires that users maintain an off-chain Tippr wallet.
Speaking of bitcoin cash, the verbal sparring continues. To recap, research firm nChain and mining pool Coingeek are squaring off against mining software provider Bitcoin ABC and mining giant Bitmain over incompatible updates both plan to push in November. Now, nChain has set up a new mining pool, dubbed Bitcoin SV, that will let miners run its proposed software.
This follows a recent “invitation only” diplomatic mission attended by, among others, nChain founder Dr. Craig Wright, representatives from Bitmain, and Bitcoin Cash advocate Roger Ver. The meeting was held in Bangkok, which news.bitcoin thinks is in China. (Did Ver himself, who owns news.bitcoin, think he was in China too?) After the meeting, Dr. Wright vowed to “orphan” Bitmain and push it into “bankruptcy.” Meeting must have gone well then.
Yes, we orphan him and bitmain into bankruptcy
— Dr Craig S Wright (@ProfFaustus) August 30, 2018
Iran, meanwhile, is planning its own hard fork (of sorts). Following the sanction-riddled Venezuela’s, er, fine example, the country has now finalized plans for a fiat-backed cryptocurrency that will be controlled and issued by the central banks. Iran has due reason. In May, the collapse of the Iran nuclear deal toppled the Iranian rial, leaving its value against the dollar in tatters. But we’ve seen this trick before. Nicolas Maduro, the President of Venezuela, tried such a crypto-switcheroo with his “petro” currency, which the U.S. swiftly banned from foreign exchanges as an “extension of credit.” Perhaps Venezuela isn’t the best role model.
Read Next: Daily Debrief, August 29, 2018