Our stuffBrowser Wars 3.0. Must everything be a battle or a war? Yes, Adriana H. convincingly argues in her readable, landmark piece on the competition to become the market leading browser-wallet. This nifty piece of software, which is billed as the on-ramp to the cryptoweb, is cleverly portmanteau'd as a "browlett" [Ed. Didn't you have one of those removed from your forehead recently, Munster?][M: Just have the unibrow, now, sir.] This is clearly the story of the week, and you must, must, must READ it now. The Best, er, browletts, then? Since she knew you'd be asking, the brilliant Ms. H—with an assist from the suave and focused Guillermo J—have compiled a round up of the top browser-wallets. Good show you two! Read it here, and consider getting a browlett tattoo. Rest for the wicked. The emotionally unavailable Ben M today wrote up a cracking press release about a startup, called IBMR, using a “social proof of work” protocol to combat entrenched corruption in Southeast Asia. Instead of milking ASICs like cows, participants mint new coins by logging allegations of corruption and wrongdoing on the network. And if IBMR itself plays foul? Then it too would get exposed, permanently, on its own ledger. Other stuffYou don't know @Jack. Last night Twitter chief Jack Dorsey appeared to sing the praises of Bitcoin, while disparaging Ethereum and Bitcoin Cash, in a tweetstorm that really set Crypto Twitter alight! Having received 2,860,000 “satoshis” (a satoshi is one millionth of a bitcoin) from Bitcoin dev Matt Odell as part of a globe-spanning series of payments using the high-speed light network—dubbed the “Lightning Network Trust Chain”—Dorsey, or just “@jack” on Twitter, proceeded to field questions from the crypto community. What altcoins does he hold? “I only have Bitcoin,” Dorsey insisted. Buy “$ETH,” wrote one commenter. “No,” was @jack's clever rejoinder. Integrate Bitcoin Cash into your “Square” payments app, another demanded. That’s “fakebitcoin,” Dorsey intimated. Dorsey had previously told podcaster Joe Rogan that he was interested in the possibilities of a “blockchain Twitter,” in which posts are preserved immutably on an underlying blockchain, with the overlaid Twitter interface able to execute some level of censorship. Dorsey, notably, is an investor in the Lightning Network, which surely has nothing at all to do with his preference for Bitcoin. Invest in pretend stocks. Bitcoin investment platform Abra has launched a platform that lets users buy up portions of bitcoin, the notional value of which is then pegged, by smart contracts, to items traded on the stock market—Google stocks, ETFs, your mum. It’s all very clever! It essentially means that those excluded from the traditional financial system will have exposure to traditional investments, without the complications of having to comply with regulation—which Abra apparently doesn’t need to do, either. Lovely! Online at the Opera. Through a partnership with exchange Safello, “popular” Android browser Opera now lets users in in Norway, Denmark, and Sweden top up in Ethereum, instantly. Yeah that’s it. (Wait—this is all in Adriana's piece isn't it? Will leave it in since I get paid a satoshi a word.) Written by Ben M, who, due to an unforeseen quadruple heart bypass, will be unable to attend Stephanie’s sixth birthday party. Best wishes to Mark and the family. Bear a grudge against Ben for his flakiness at ben@decryptmedia.com |
