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The world is built on a giant $256 trillion pile of assets. Everything from property to art, to stocks to oil. Blockchain wants to change all that. This collection explores the industries being disrupted, by whom, and what that means for both consumers and enterprises.

We've delved deep into the tokenized world to uncover the people, the projects and the potential of this technology to change capital forever.

Tokenize all the Things

Breaking news and features live from Devcon's fifth conference.

The Ethereum community gathered in Osaka, Japan, for its fifth developer-focused conference. Here are all the highlights and everything you need to know.

Devcon 5

Insights on Telegram's upcoming blockchain platform

Telegram, one of the largest messaging platforms in the world—and used by many in the crypto industry—is launching its own blockchain platform. But it's up against a deadline: October 31. Will it deliver the GRAM cryptocurrency on time or will it be forced to backtrack on its ambitious plans?

Telegram's crypto play

Tim Copeland

Changpeng Zhao

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Long-form Journalism

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The Binance exchange's own coin, used to reduce fees when converting and buying currencies.

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Deep dives into Web 3.0, future and present.

Features

Binance: The inside story of the world’s biggest Bitcoin exchange - Decrypt

How Binance escaped China, rode the Bitcoin bull, made half a billion dollars in one year and plans to revolutionize money.

Shuyao Kong

_[Welcome to _Da Bing,_ a weekly round-up of the most important crypto-related news that happened in China last week.]_

Blockchain went from being President Xi’s favorite technology to real-world success—as demonstrated in a very public way—when e-tail giant Alibaba used it to power its biggest shopping day on record.

China’s Singles Day, which started out as a celebration of being single, is annually on November 11th (yes, it always falls on 11/11). A decade ago, Alibaba turned the Singles Day concept into a massive shopping day, observed  by happy singles, and couples. Last week, the holiday generated a record-breaking $30 billion sales for the e-tail giant in, er,  a single day. 

What’s mind-blowing about all this is not just the sales record, but the technology deployed to ensure the that the extravaganza didn’t go bust: _Blockchain_ entered the scene this year. 

According to Ant Financial, the fintech arm of Alibaba, it applied blockchain technology to supply-chain tracking (among other things, it eliminated counterfeit goods), ID verification and supply-chain financing throughout the festival. Though it’s not clear precisely which technologies Ant used, the day served as a rare, real-world experiment to deepen the tech firm’s blockchain understanding. 

And it was duly noted everywhere. articles on “Shuang shi yi ( Singles’ Day)” and “Blockchain” are trending topics on Weibo, China’s twitter. One article even has the title, “Even Blockchain Celebrate Singles’ Day.” 

FUN FACT: consumers could earn bitcoin rewards instead of cash back during the sales. We will likely see more bitcoin plug-ins to traditional online retailer in the near future.

 

TOP 3 OTHER THINGS THAT HAPPENED LAST WEEK 

#1. TENCENT PLANS TO OPEN A VIRTUAL, BLOCKCHAIN BANK IN HONG KONG AFTER GAINING REGULATORY GREENLIGHT

Despite increasingly violent protests, Hong Kong continues to be a fertile island for Chinese tech giants to experiment with new blockchain solutions. A case in point: Tencent, which this week announced its plan to launch a virtual bank on a blockchain,  in Hong Kong. The multinational giant, which is sort of a cross between AOL in its heyday, Facebook and EA, has already gotten the blessing of Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission.

The license might sound novel to people who don’t follow Hong Kong’s fintech scene. Yet it’s hardly a breakthrough. Hong Kong is struggling mightily to secure its position as the fintech hub in Asia, even as the mainland Chinese government is pouring more resources into other, favored mainland business and tech centers, such as Shenzhen. (China’s attempt to starve Hong Kong Hong is working, too: For the first time in a decade, the island is in the grips of a recession.)

Still, Hong Kong is resisting by trying to stay innovative and competitive. It started issuing online virtual banks licenses to tech giants Alibaba and Xiaomi,  in May. 

Tencent has formed a JV with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China; Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing; the private equity firm, Hillhouse Capital; and Adrian Cheng, executive vice chairman of New World Development and executive director of Chow Tai Fook. The JV—renamed “Fusion”—will be the blockchain bank. 

This sounds like another example of old wine in a new bottle, right?

What’s new or unique about Tencent’s Blockchain Bank? Tencent gave no details about its virtual bank’s offering, aside from  a supply chain, invoice-financing platform with McDonald’s. Though defi was mentioned a few times, it was not clear how Tencent will use defi to provide new lending solutions through Fusion. 

When all is said and done, however, a Tencent virtual bank on a blockchain _could_ be a massive idea. It has enormous customer-acquisition potential via Wechat, which is used by for virtually every kind of financial transaction, from paying utility bills to hailing rides from Didi. 

 By the way, we might be at the dawn of witnessing many more blockchain-themed banking solutions. It takes little imagination to speculate that Alibaba will make a similar announcement soon, given its huge market share in payments, e-commerce, and its flagship fintech spinoff, Ant Financials. 

Competition will only heighten China’s blockchain race to win the battle of fintech supremacy. 

#2: CANAAN PROCEEDS WITH IPO, DESPITE LOOMING DEVALUATION 

Among crypto mining firms in China, Canaan is neither the biggest nor the most reputable. While its competitor, Bitmain, is fighting an ugly in-house war, Canaan just made its third attempt at being listed as a public company. (In August, 2017, it was rebuffed by China’s National Equities Exchange Quotations Co; and The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong rejected its listing bid in May 2018.) 

Will the third time be the charm? Though investors are bullish on Bitcoin due to China’s recent approval of blockchain technology, it’s unclear whether China’s endorsement will make a difference and benefit mining companies whose profit depends on the price of bitcoin. If it does succeed, it will pave the way for other mining companies to IPO— including Canaan’s rival, Bitmain. 

#3: ONECONNECT, PING AN’S AI & BLOCKCHAIN SPINOFF BACKED BY SOFTBANK, FILES FOR U.S. IPO

OneConnect’s IPO filing did not come as a surprise. Yet the way the IPO was being reported made the company sound like a new one. While AI has always been the buzzword for OneConnect, “blockchain” has now sneaked into the headline. Suddenly, social media in China is claiming that OneConnect is the first blockchain-enabled fintech firm to debut on the New York Stock Exchange. 

Ping An, the second-largest insurance company in China,  has been the leader in China’s blockchain space. It has filed the  second-largest number of blockchain-related patents in China. Though OneConnect “commissioned” a white paper on its FiMAX S3S blockchain infrastructure using D3 ZKP, the company is seen as little more than a cash-rich, state-backed fintech player, that continuously lost money. 

Dissecting OneConnect’s business model and product portfolio is no easy task. The company claims to provide end-to-end fintech solutions, such as cloud computing to SMEs. But it’s not clear to the public if any of their solutions has taken a big market lead, given that 40% of its revenue comes from the mothership, Ping An. 

Now the Internet is abuzz with the idea that it’s a hot blockchain IPO? Crazy.  

 

DO YOU KNOW?  In China, we have a phrase called “drawing a picture of a pancake to fill the hunger (画饼充饥)” meaning one has to create an illusion ( drawing ) in order to satisfy the desire (hunger ). That sounds like some many token-based projects. 


Justin  Sun

Justin Sun

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Insights into the biggest events shaping the crypto industry.

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Jose Antonio Lanz

The National Council of Commerce and Services of Venezuela (Consecomercio) issued a statement earlier this week making its position clear on both cryptocurrency, such as Bitcoin, as well as the state-backed digital currency, the petro.

José Miguel Farías—a member of Consecomercio’s Economics Commission—published the group’s statement on Twitter, which indicated that there is a general consensus among businesses in Venezuela that cryptocurrency plays a crucial role in the nation’s economy. But the state-backed petro—the brainchild of President Nicolas Maduro to evade U.S. sanctions and stimulate Venezuela’s economy—has been a rushed project that will take time to assimilate, the group said.

"The petro has diverse problems and flaws of origin that make it difficult to really know what may be its application in the economy," said the Council. “What is undeniable,” the statement added, “is the importance and relevance of the use of cryptocurrencies in Venezuela, given the limitations suffered by citizens and companies when it comes to mobilizing their money."

 Maduro unveils aggressive plan to fund Venezuela's economy in petro cryptocurrency

The organization said that it is imperative to clarify certain key issues regarding the petro. The group believes that the uncertainty has generated mistrust in this technology. For example, the group noted that questions remain answered regarding whether the petro would be used to pay salaries, as a unit of account or a store of value, or whether it could be used as a reference for currency trading. 

“The use of cryptocurrencies has allowed [the country] to channel an important part of the remittances that come from Venezuelans abroad,” Farías told _Decrypt. _“In an economy in which the bolivar is less and less used in transactions, cryptos are an important actor to maintain the cash flow inside the economy,” he said.

Last week, President Maduro ordered all public and private companies to "double-count" their accounting records, which forced business owners to express their books in both bolivars and petros, separately. Likewise, invoices issued by merchants must express amounts in both currencies. Legal paperwork and transactions must also be done and registered in bolivars and petros.

The new requirement could lead to confusion, since the government still uses different methods for calculating the value of the petro. According to the official “Petro Calculator,” 1 petro (PTR) is the equivalent of 1,794,634 bolivars (or roughly $60). But there is another value set by state decree that gives 1 petro the value of 80,000 bolivars as a unit of account. And neither calculation considers the fluctuations reflected on national exchanges.

Farías believes that the proper value of a petro should be the one that the government uses as its unit of account: “As far as we know, 1 petro is worth 80,000 bolivars,” he said, adding that businesses currently use the prices set by Venezuela’s Central Bank as reference, even though there is no explicit connection between the bank’s monetary policy and the petro project.

As for the petro potentially gaining widespread adoption and use throughout Venezuela, Farías said that it must first gain the people’s trust.

But the confusion regarding the petro’s validity has not diminished the influence of cryptocurrencies in the country's economy in general, he said.

Merchants throughout the country informally keep dual accounting records in bolivars and US dollars, and many have begun accepting various forms of cryptocurrency as payment, including Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dash—and even the petro.


Venezuela’s national business association Consecomercio says cryptocurrency is a boon for its economy, but the state-backed petro has been rushed.

Robert Stevens

In places such as Africa and India, where it’s hard to buy cryptocurrency, peer-to-peer Bitcoin exchange Paxful sees opportunity.

Paxful yesterday announced a new “entrepreneurship program” called the Paxful Peer Program,  which pays successful applicants for spreading the good word Paxful to anyone who’ll listen. The goal of the program is to grow its Bitcoin exchange in new markets, particularly those which have previously been difficult to penetrate.

Tugba Abadan, Paxful’s Head of Community tells _Decrypt _that the company wants to have Peers from each corner of the globe, but, “marketing-wise, we are focusing on South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, and India until the end of this year.” 

There are vacancies for three types of positions in the Paxful Peer Program. The grunts—Paxful Peers—will promote Paxful on social media, moderate online groups, and submit feedback on Paxful features. Impress _El Jefe_ Paxful, and you’ll rise through the ranks to the salaried position of Ambassador—essentially a content creator and meetup organizer. 

Occupying the highest rank among Paxful Peers are Associates, who’ll train other peers, focus on expanding the entrepreneurship program, or defend the network against malicious actors, such as hackers.

The recruitment drive thus sees Paxful double down on its expansion into developing markets. According to a press statement, 45 percent of Paxful’s active users are from Africa, and that its African user base doubled in 2018. Paxful’s Kenyan user-base doubled in the first half of this year, and the amount of trades quadrupled compared to the first half of 2018. Trading in Kenya and India alone hit around $100 million last month.

Artur Schaback, Paxful’s Co-Founder & COO, told _Decrypt _last month that growth in these regions is due to “arbitrage”: cryptocurrencies can be difficult to buy in African and Indian markets, so customers in these markets often buy their crypto directly from Europeans and Americans, who find it relatively easy to buy cryptocurrencies. 

As regulators and high fees keep traders in developing countries away from large exchanges, Paxful—a platform where you can trade Bitcoin for hundreds of currencies, including Xbox Live gift-cards or vouchers for Applebees—has become a hit. 

The Paxful Peer Program ramps up Paxful’s previous education initiatives. Head office has already partnered with African universities and schools to push the platform, and teach communities the fundamentals of cryptocurrencies. 

Paxful’s head of community, Abadan, says that the exchange would would like to keep the structure for its Peer Program the same for every country, but minor adjustments will be made for different markets. “For instance, in some countries, face-to-face communication is very important to build trust. In those markets, Paxful peers will still moderate online communities but they will be organizing more in-person events."


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P2P Bitcoin exchange Paxful wants your help to spread its word. If you’re successful, there’s the chance to become a Paxful employee.

Jeff Benson

Why wait for the future when you can finance the one you want? 

Sam Cassatt, one of ConsenSys' longest-serving executives, is stepping out of his role as chief strategy officer to start a new investment firm. Cassatt announced today at the TransTech Conference in Palo Alto that Aligned Capital is seeking $50 million in capital to fund companies working in blockchain/cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence, or innovative healthcare.

To Cassatt, those three areas have the potential to change human history. "What I'm looking at here is trying to create the opportunity to align capital with what I think are some of the most revolutionary technologies available that could possibly produce civilization-scale changes in human behavior," he told _Decrypt_. 

In other words, this isn't about making money off the price of bitcoin going up or from a company automating a factory to cut labor costs. The stakes are bigger, and the fund is shaped by Cassatt's worldview.

An admitted cypherpunk and hacker, Cassatt views technological progress with equal parts optimism and apprehension. He witnessed the internet "evolve from the more utopic cyberspace described by John Perry Barlow" to its current iteration. "And," he said, "I am watching as our society grapples with the fact that simple AIs (in the form of Facebook and YouTube algorithms) are shaping us in unanticipated ways, and probably taking measure[s] that I think will fail."

Cassatt is uniquely qualified to lead this new endeavor. He's steeped in both computer science and cognitive science, having created software to model working memory at Johns Hopkins University. His business acumen, earned via nearly five years at ConsenSys, is another plus.

Simultaneously an "engineer and a technical executive," Cassatt insists he's not building just another venture capital firm. "I'm a bit different than a VC that stops by these fields because it's the next big thing," he said. "I am from these cultures."

As if to underline Aligned Capital's goal of enabling large-scale societal transformations, one of its advisors is Nicholas Paul Brysiewicz of Long Now Foundation, which fosters long-term (as in 10,000 years) thinking. Other advisors include Nichol Bradford of Transform Tech Lab and ConsenSys founder Joseph Lubin, who is also a financial backer. (This seems like a good time to note that ConsenSys also funds_ Decrypt_.)

Cassatt declined to state how much of the fund's planned $50 million has been secured.


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Aligned Capital is looking for $50 million to support "revolutionary technologies." It's already got a commitment from ConsenSys founder, Joseph Lubin.

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Ameen Soleimani

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The inside story of Spankchain: Ethereum's unlikely star - Decrypt

We visit the “Spankhouse” to document Spankchain’s terrifying, sexy rise—and its plans for global domination. Here is its endless, unexpurgated and deeply explicit story.

We spent a week hanging out with Spankchain

Matt Hussey

Kadan Stadelmann is a blockchain developer, operations security expert, and Komodo platform’s chief technology officer (CTO). He started life writing code before he started school, before going on to work in operations security in the government sector in Austria and eventually working in the cryptography business. In this interview he explores his journey into blockchain, and why markets aren't a good measure of projects with the most promise. 

HOW DID YOU FIRST GET INTO BLOCKCHAIN AND THE DECENTRALIZED WEB?

I first came across decentralized technologies when I was in high school, a time when I was actively coding a lot. Bitcoin wasn’t around back then but we used file-sharing clients, which utilized similar technologies. From 2011 to 2012, I spent some time traveling on the African continent and went through a period of personal deliberation. 

I came to realize that my true passion was actively engaging with technologies that could make our world a more liberal, fair, and peaceful place. One of these technologies was Bitcoin and its underlying blockchain technology, as it has the power to offer a secure, borderless and non-inflationary form of currency, to provide global financial services to those without access to traditional banking services, and to create the foundation of a decentralized global economy that’s more equitable to all people. 

I started GPU mining the same year just as a non-lucrative hobby and, later, in 2013 and 2014, I started actively contributing to various crypto-related projects while keeping my main focus on security and vulnerability detection and analysis.

WHEN DID YOU SET UP YOUR COMPANY?

The Komodo project was publicly announced by the team in September 2016. The ICO was held in October and November of the same year. We raised 2,639 BTC, or a little less than $2 Million USD at the market price of BTC at the time, which is still a pretty modest raise compared to most blockchain projects that hold ICOs. The KMD coins bought in the ICO were distributed in January 2017 and the mainnet went live that same month.

 I don’t have a main residence so I am largely nomadic. I travel around the world and work from wherever I am. Usually, I spend between one to three months in the same spot. Sometimes, I fall in love with a place and stay for six to 12 months or keep going back to certain places on a regular basis— like Spain and Africa, for example.

WHAT NEED DOES IT SERVE?

When we first started Komodo, it was an enhanced fork of the privacy project Zcash. In fact, in the early days, Komodo’s first value proposition was “Protecting Your Privacy With Bitcoin’s Hashrate,” but since then we have evolved and challenged the larger issues of blockchain sovereignty and scalability. The Komodo vision is to provide an easy set of tools that developers, startups, and enterprise businesses can all use to launch customized, application-specific blockchains, each of which is protected with the hash rate of the Bitcoin network. 

Currently, some of the barriers stopping businesses from integrating blockchain technology are the cost of hiring blockchain developers, lack of advanced coding experience, or challenges with forking existing blockchains such as Ethereum or EOS. Blockchain developers are few and far between so we aim to provide business-friendly solutions where anyone can create their own custom and autonomous blockchain, regardless of blockchain development experience. Komodo’s real purpose is to provide an adaptable framework for blockchain development, from customizing and launching the chain itself to programming applications and software that run directly on one’s own independent chain.

> Blockchain’s killer app is going to be a decentralized client that runs on all operating systems and devices.

HAVE YOU LAUNCHED OTHER COMPANIES BEFORE? WHAT WERE THEY?

Prior to Komodo, I launched an IT company in the operations security space with former university colleagues. The company was successful and we were able to sell the company for a profit but, unfortunately, I’m not able to discuss this in detail, as I’m still under a non-disclosure agreement. I moved away from traditional IT entrepreneurship when I began getting involved with blockchain technology.

CAN YOU GIVE US A SUMMARY OF YOUR CAREER THUS FAR, HOW DID YOU GET HERE?

My passion for information and electronic technologies appeared at a very young age. I was raised in Northern Africa as the son of an Austrian diplomat and an African school teacher, so I received a multilingual education. I actually coded my first simple applications, like a calculator and a text-manipulation app, before entering primary school. Later, I studied IT and economics at universities in Germany and Vienna. 

After my formal education was complete, I gained deep practical experience in IT security and network development while working in operations security in the government sector in Austria. Then, my career in the crypto industry began with penetration testing and bug-hunting various blockchain projects, codebases, apps and web platforms. This was also how I first got in touch with James ‘jl777’ Lee, who is now the lead developer of Komodo.

WHAT HAVE BEEN THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES YOU’VE FACED IN BUILDING A BUSINESS IN THIS SPACE?

At first, no one takes you seriously—banks, lawyers, accounting firms and even friends or relatives. Everyone just said, “What is this? Why aren’t you doing something ‘real’?” Of course, everyone has now seen how important blockchain technology has become around the world, so their attitudes have changed since I first got involved in the industry.

Forming a cohesive team was also a pretty tough task. The initial Komodo team was basically a dozen crypto enthusiasts and the first community members, many of whom were anonymous. Over time, we became a bit more formalized, such as requiring employees to sign contracts and non-disclosure agreements, while still remaining globally distributed and fully decentralized. The team has really evolved into a group of talented, hardworking, and extremely professional crypto experts.

WHAT’S THE BEST PIECE OF ADVICE YOU WERE GIVEN WHEN IT COMES TO BEING AN ENTREPRENEUR IN THIS SPACE?

There are a lot of times when you know the odds are against you and there is a high chance that what you are doing or creating will not succeed or take off immediately. In those times, it’s important to accept the challenge and take the risk. Deliver more than what is expected and prove your potential to yourself!  There is nothing more satisfying that delivering on your promises and showing everyone what you are capable of. 

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO SOMEONE SETTING UP A BUSINESS IN THE DECENTRALIZED WEB?

You need to believe in yourself and your project. You’ll also need to invest a great deal of time in forming the initial team. Only with a solid team will you be able to achieve big things. 

Do not look at crypto markets and financial capitalization of the various blockchain projects. The markets aren’t always a true reflection of which projects show the most promise. Only by distinguishing between the technology and the market will you be able to experience the true potential of blockchain technology. Money is the wrong motivation in this industry.

 IF YOU BUILT YOUR BUSINESS ALL OVER AGAIN, WHAT WOULD YOU DO DIFFERENTLY?

In the beginning, Komodo didn’t have the ecosystem layers we see today, which include third-party service providers, as well as many independent developers with different backgrounds and areas of expertise. So if I were to go back and do things over again, I would likely try to bring third-party projects and devs into the Komodo ecosystem earlier on.

WHAT PROJECT OR PROJECTS ARE YOU MOST EXCITED ABOUT (THAT AREN’T YOURS!)

I am really excited about new technologies that aim to bring decentralized governance to the industry, like what Tezos is doing, for example. Recently, I have also been following VerusCoin closely, a project that solved the two biggest proof-of-stake issues, the “nothing at stake” problem and the “weak subjectivity” problem.

WHAT IS (OR WHAT WILL BE) BLOCKCHAIN’S ‘KILLER APP’?

Blockchain’s killer app is going to be a decentralized client that runs on all operating systems and devices (PC, smartphones, IoT, etc.) and interconnects all blockchain networks and even other p2p networks/technologies to build a base foundation layer for a trustless and meritocratic society. It would be an app that enables anyone from anywhere at any time to participate in this “virtual” world to communicate, earn money and/or respect and to build a reputation. Essentially, a “software-collage” of social networks, blockchain, fintech/banking, freedom of speech, economic systems, and meritocracy. This is something that Komodo looks to build in the long-term— so not something on our immediate roadmap, but a goal that we have in the back of our minds as we continue to develop and innovate new technologies.

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SETTING UP A COMPANY IN THE DECENTRALIZED SPACE VERSUS REGULAR BUSINESS?

The biggest difference is in the people you will work with but also the structure and organizational aspects. Most blockchain companies aren’t just technically decentralized but also work in a decentralized manner— meaning working remotely, in different timezones, and sometimes without ever meeting each other in real life. Instead of a traditional office building, encrypted channels and chat-rooms are our workspaces.  

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE BLOCKCHAIN TO SOMEONE WHO HAS NEVER HEARD OF IT BEFORE?

It’s a decentralized and distributed network that allows different people to exchange data and value without having to trust one another. These peer-to-peer exchanges are completely secure, based on advanced cryptographic and mathematical techniques, and once a transaction is complete, no one can delete, shut down, spoof or edit. 


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Komodo CTO Kadan Stadelmann explores what it takes to succeed in blockchain.

Markets aren't a true reflection of a project's promise - Decrypt

Komodo CTO Kadan Stadelmann explains his journey and why the best companies aren't always the ones people are most hyped about.

If there was a winner of San Francisco Blockchain Week last week, it was Catherine Coley. Everywhere I looked, she was there: onstage being interviewed by _The Financial Times_, commanding attention in the lobby, hanging out in the media area in a…Darth Vader costume?

It was, after all, Halloween. And the freshly appointed Binance.US CEO had a sense of occasion and, perhaps, irony. Here, Binance wasn't the evil empire—it was just The Empire. As one prominent name in cryptocurrency confided, it seems like most companies are struggling for users. Everyone _except_ Binance, she added, as if wondering how they're doing it.

She might want to talk to Coley.

  

Coley—who introduces herself by her last name—is smart and funny. One might mistake her as a naïve newbie yet to be ground down by an industry powered by contrarians, trolls, and—worst of all—true believers. They'd be dead wrong: she's anything but naïve. Though just 30 years old, Coley came to the job from Ripple, where she was head of XRP Institutional Liquidity. Before that, she cut her teeth on the foreign exchange trading floor in Hong Kong a mere three years after the global financial system nearly melted down.

Her new employer, the massive global crypto exchange Binance, apparently sees in Coley the perfect candidate to lead its U.S. efforts. She’s too much of a veteran to be scared off by the regulatory uncertainty Binance faces stateside, and savvy enough to help the U.S. exchange stand out for a segment of the retail investor population confused by crypto.

In fact, Coley says Binance.US has been designed to get people trading on the exchange in six to 12 minutes.  

Coley relishes her position as a standout in an industry dominated by (mostly white) men. She says she's stood out wherever she's been. "I was a 5'10" brunette with curly hair in Florida. It started then. Then I was a tall girl in Hong Kong on a trading floor," she said before looking around at a table that, with a lot of (mostly white) men, was broadly representative of the crypto industry. "And then I'm here sitting [talking] crypto at a table while we've got one other lady—cheers."

The thread through each stop is a goal to help people not only keep more of the money they earn but also make some cash from investing it.

 [Crypto] really is such an equalizer in terms of getting people to access, manage, and grow their own personal wealth.

That stated passion started at the Epcot World Showcase, a Disney-fied recreation of 11 countries in Orlando, Florida, near where she grew up. "You travel around the world, you had one wallet—it was probably my mom's at the time—and it was seamless," she said. "I got to see the cultures of the world. I got to see buildings, innovation, architecture types, all around the world super seamlessly. And I thought that's how the world worked. And I had a rude awakening when I left college and moved to Hong Kong to work with Morgan Stanley in foreign exchange and realized that everything costs money."

To Coley, the forex exchange fees represent more than just financial pains for power users. This "friction" deters people from traveling and broadening their worldview. "We're always going to be a close-minded society unless we lower these barriers to entry," she said.

She's taken that democratizing drive to her new role at Binance.US, even though she can talk traders under the table when she wants to. When I asked her about Binance's fees (which are a fraction of a percent for trading), she delved into basis points and lost me. So, I told her.

"Basis points! Oh my God!" she exclaimed. "That was my fault. Not human enough. I've done it. See? These things happen. We talk this jargon and lose audience members." 

She then pivoted into a non-technical explanation of basis points that I'd like to forward to my mortgage broker before she brought it back to her main point: To make crypto use mainstream, companies have to recognize they're dealing with humans, not well-oiled machines, and eliminate barriers. She gave the example of trying to navigate the exchange KYC/onboarding process and having it take weeks. 

"I hate to tell you I have a short attention span. If you're going to give me one-week notice, I'm going to forget all about that."

 Binance.US enables debit card purchases, aims to overtake established exchanges

Who are those people Coley wants to be using the exchange, which is open to residents in 37 states, Puerto Rico, and D.C.? It's not necessarily folks who are familiar with crypto, whom she recognizes are "probably set in their ways already." After all, Binance.US is a few years late to the party. Moreover, some of those same users might actually be part of the problem, acting as psychological barriers to entry.

She scanned the room. "You've got either suits, which are intimidating for people in t-shirts. Or you've got t-shirts and hoodies that are intimidating for suits. And guess what: I don't wear either of them." She continued: "It's a rich man's sport right now, and we're not making it any easier for people to begin to cut into it…It's just built itself on such a culture that is celebrating misfits but alienating anyone that may not consider that who they are."

A lot of those people are women. She pointed out that while 51 percent of consumers are female, only about 13 percent of her Twitter followers are. Beyond the male/female divide, there's also middle America. 

Coley said that despite all her travels, she's missed out on much of the United States. She mentioned a recent conversation with someone from rural Missouri and said, "There are parts of America that are just being able to have this sense of unlocked ability to be part of a much bigger world."

Addressing that "asymmetry" is the challenge, but Coley was hopeful about the promise of blockchain technology: "It really is such an equalizer in terms of getting people to access, manage, and grow their own personal wealth, that this doesn't have to be fit for only computer science majors, or fit for only bankers, or fit for only full-time paid employees."

The CEO job, however, does seem to be fit only for Coley: "I'm hoping that we can at least shepherd and show the way that it's not scary, and that a little girl from Orlando can figure out how this world works and bring people towards it." Sometimes while wearing a Darth Vader costume.


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The key to understanding Catherine Coley, CEO of the Binance.US crypto exchange: Darth Vader, Disney World, and a different dress code.

Ki Chong Tran

To deeply understand how blockchains work, you need to understand some of its fundamental infrastructure, and it doesn’t get more fundamental than Merkle Trees. In this article, we get to the root of how blockchains work by digging into Merkle Trees.  

PROBLEM

On a centralized network, efficiently organizing data isn’t that big of a deal because you only need one copy of it and users generally trust the data is valid. In a decentralized blockchain network, efficiently organizing data is everything—every node in the network needs a copy of or at least access to all the data at all times. Because there is no central authority, blockchain users also need a way to verify if the information they are receiving is true. Enter Merkle Trees.

WHAT ARE MERKLE TREES?

Merkle Trees allow blockchains to be both more efficient and trustworthy. By organizing data in a certain way, Merkle Trees can save on memory and processing power while keeping everything secure.  The security comes from cryptography and hash functions, which we explain more below.

HASH FUNCTIONS

A critical component of Merkle Trees and cryptography, in general, is hashing.  A hash function is a process converts information into a unique set of letters and numbers. The unique string is called a hash. If even a tiny bit of the input changes, the hash output will change completely. A cryptographic hash function is a one-way function—easy to put information in, but nearly impossible to get that information out. Merkle Trees rely on both of these features to organize and verify data.

HOW ARE MERKLE TREES ORGANIZED?

Merkle Trees make blockchains more scalable by splitting up data into different pieces. In its most basic form, a Merkle Tree looks a bit like a Christmas tree with each ‘parent’ node having exactly two ‘child’ nodes. The hash of two child nodes creates the hash of the parent node. The process of hashing goes all the way up the tree until you end up at one ‘root’ hash at the top. Nearly any amount of data can be put into a Merkle Tree, but it will always end up in a root hash at the top.  
[merkle-tree-what-is-a-merkle-tree]

HOW DOES IT WORK?

In a Merkle Tree, data such as transactions in a smart contract or between accounts are hashed or turned into a string of numbers and letters. That hash is then hashed again, but this time in combination with the hash of the data next to it in the tree—its ‘sibling’. The new hash of the two siblings creates a new hash of the ‘parent.’ This process of hashing goes all the way up the tree until it reaches the one root hash at the very top. 

Remember that changing any part of the input of a hash will dramatically change its output. Knowing this, we also know that changing any data in the Merkle Tree causes its hash to change and the hash of the parent node to change—eventually causing a change in the root hash. This property ensures that information in the Merkle Tree is frozen and cannot be changed, but it can be checked and verified.

WHAT ARE MERKLE PROOFS?

Merkle Trees neatly organize data to be recovered later, but Merkle Proofs are used to actually verify the information is true. A Merkle Proof uses the piece of information you are examining and all the ‘branches’ of the tree connected to it going up to the root hash. If the hash is consistent from that branch to the root then it is true. If the root hash doesn’t match, then data has been tampered with.

Instead of needing to verify all the information in the whole tree, Merkle Proofs only need enough computing power to verify a small amount of data to see if it is true. 

WHO INVENTED MERKLE TREES?

Merkle Trees are named after Ralph Merkle, a computer scientist, and professor who invented public-key cryptography and cryptographic hashing along with Merkle Trees themselves. The concept was invented in 1987.

 Our example refers to the most basic version of Merkle Trees called Binary Merkle Trees with only two child nodes for each parent, but it can get much more complicated than that with many more child nodes per parent. Since Ethereum has to process transactions for smart contracts, it uses a more complex type of Merkle Tree called Patricia Trees.

WHAT’S SO SPECIAL ABOUT IT?

Blockchains like Ethereum have to store, process, and verify the data of nearly 9 million blocks—each containing hundreds of thousands of transactions. Even a relatively simple blockchain such as Bitcoin has hundreds of thousands of blocks and thousands of transactions in each block. Merkle Trees allow that to happen, without the need for vast computing power. 

WHAT ELSE IS DIFFERENT?

Merkle Proofs are used in blockchain light clients. These less memory-intensive programs allow people to participate in the blockchain without needing to download every transaction and all the data from every block. Light clients simply need to know the root hash for each block then use Merkle Proofs to verify information when needed. 

THE FUTURE

Blockchains like Ethereum are still not scalable even with Merkle Trees so this fundamental cryptographic tool is not going away anytime soon. No matter how big the forest grows, it will always need its roots. 


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What are merkle trees? A simple 4-minute guide - Decrypt

Merkle Trees allow blockchains to be both more efficient and trustworthy. Merkle Trees can save on memory and processing power while maintaining security.

Quantum computing and quantum physics sound like the stuff of science fiction: everything is made of waves AND particles, matter can be present in the same place at the same time, and particles can be sent to the other side of the galaxy but still remain connected. Mind-bending? Yes. Science fiction? Not anymore. This article explores what quantum computers are and what kind of threat they pose to the crypto industry.

PROBLEM

Scientists and researchers are beginning to harness the power of quantum physics to build powerful computers with the capability to break the world’s encryption algorithms. Beyond only blockchains, quantum computing could threaten the security of the global financial system, top-secret intelligence agencies, as well as all the data on your phone.

WHAT IS QUANTUM PHYSICS?

Also known as quantum mechanics, quantum physics is a type of physics that only applies to things that are small enough for their rules to apply. In classical physics, nearly everything behaves in a predictable way—calculations and measurements can be exact. Once you start studying objects at the size of quantum physics, things become much more unpredictable. 

Measurements and calculations in quantum physics are not guaranteed to be accurate—they can only be guessed using probabilities. At the quantum level, particles can start behaving like waves and even change states suddenly depending on whether or not it is being observed. In the quantum realm, everything becomes uncertain.

WHAT IS A QUANTUM COMPUTER?

By harnessing the laws of quantum mechanics, quantum computers can be exponentially more powerful than our most advanced modern computers. The most important thing to understand about quantum computers is quantum bits or qubits. A classical computer uses bits, which are represented by “0”s and “1”s. Normal bits are binary—it’s either on or off—one state at a time. Qubits can be a “0”, a “1”, switch between them, or be both at the same time. Because the basic units of quantum computers are these magical-seeming qubits, quantum computers can perform functions or calculations at a rate that normal computers can’t even come close to—why they may one day be able to break the encryption in crypto.

Here's an example: If we have four bits from a normal computer, they can be in any one of 16 combinations, i.e. 1000, 1100, 1110, but you can only choose it to be in one when making a calculation. With four qubits however, they can be in all of those 16 positions at once, and the number grows exponentially the more cubits you add. Just 20 qubits can store more than a million values in parallel, which allows a quantum computer to be able to work through a problem by performing calculations in parallel rather than one at a time.

WHO INVENTED IT?

The idea of quantum mechanics can be traced back to research in 1900 by Max Planck who is considered the father of quantum theory. Quantum computers would come later in the 1980s and 1970s when Paul Benioff proved it was possible to build a computer that operated under the laws of quantum physics.

WHAT’S SO SPECIAL ABOUT QUANTUM COMPUTING?

Because a qubit can switch between states—be it a “1”, “0”, or be in multiple states at the same time, qubits can do multiple computations in parallel or simultaneously. Qubits allow quantum computers to process complex calculations so quickly that while a normal computer would take over half a billion years to break Bitcoin’s encryption, a quantum computer could to break it in under 10 minutes.

 “The exact physical mechanism at work within the quantum computer is somewhat theoretically complex and intuitively disturbing. Generally, it is explained in terms of the multi-world interpretation of quantum physics, wherein the computer PERFORMS CALCULATIONS NOT ONLY IN OUR UNIVERSE BUT ALSO IN OTHER UNIVERSES SIMULTANEOUSLY.” -- Andrew Zimmerman Jones (author of “String Theory for Dummies”)

HOW ARE QUANTUM COMPUTERS MADE?

Traditional computers are essentially made up of millions of tiny switches that manage the flow of electrons. But as we have shrunk those gates down to the sub-atomic level, the ability to control whether electricity flows through a gate or not becomes, well, a bit weird. Through an idea called QUANTUM TUNNELING, when we get to the sub-atomic level, electrons can simply hop over the gate at will rendering a machine's ability to manage that flow useless. As a result, quantum computers are made very differently.

They work in the weird and wonderful world of sub-atomic particles, where qubits do strange things like being in any one of 16 states at the same time–until they are observed by which they collapse into one state. As a result, a 'quantum gate', as opposed to a 'logic gate' which is used in traditional computing goes through a process whereby it sets up some qubits, applies quantum gates to 'entangle' them, manipulates the possible probabilities, and then measures the outcome. Confused? Yeah, it's a real head-spinner.

But what you need to understand is, to be able to control this process, Google, for example, is using a special superconductive metal operating at temperatures that are eight times colder than space, which is a far cry from computer sat on a desk. As a result, quantum computers are unlikely to be leaving the lab any time soon. 

SHOULD I BE WORRIED?

According to smart people like Etherum founder Vitalik Buterin and crypto evangelist Andreas Antonopolous, there’s no need to panic about quantum computers just yet. According to Antonopolous, quantum computers are currently nowhere near powerful enough to break something like Bitcoin.

In theory, quantum computing could break the cryptography securing crypto assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum, but Buterin reasons that quantum computers like the one announced by Google are more proofs of concepts than fully realized technologies. The current cryptography used in major blockchains may also be strong enough to resist even fully realized quantum computers meaning not all cryptography would be vulnerable.

Quantum computers can not only be used to break cryptography—they could also help build more powerful encryption. Upgrade plans are in place for blockchains like Ethereum to resist quantum computers.

THE FUTURE

Even if we’re safe for now, the crypto world is not taking any chances. Quantum resistant blockchains like Praxxis and QAN are already under development in preparation for the potential quantum apocalypse. We can rest assured knowing—even if quantum computers start taking over the world—our crypto will be safe. 


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What is quantum computing and how will it affect crypto? - Decrypt

Quantum computing is the next giant leap forward for computing. But it could also be crypto's great undoing. We explore this idea in greater detail.

The web is an unfinished project. In this article, we will look at what is, potentially, the next major iteration of the Internet; one in which users take back control from the centralized corporations that currently dominate the web.

The main reason that so many people are working hard to redesign the current Internet is because the majority of today’s most-used Internet platforms are controlled by only a handful of powerful companies, which profit from the data users generate.

Web 3 is essentially a new way for individuals to use the Internet without giving up their privacy and valuable data. 

WEB 1.0

To understand what Web 3 is, we first have to understand the previous versions of the Internet.

The first phase of the Internet and can be characterized by the way users initially interacted with the web. Most users, during the first iteration of the web, were passive consumers of content. In other words, Web 1.0 was about reading and not writing. It was static instead of dynamic. This changed with Web 2.0.

WEB 2.0

The next major phase of the Internet was all about interactivity and users. 

In this phase, users created most of the content on platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter. This Internet was more social and collaborative, but that usually came at a price. The downside of this more participatory Internet was that by creating content, users were also providing personal information and data to the companies that controlled these platforms.

WHAT IS WEB 3?

Web 3 is the next step of the Internet. It is currently still being built, so there is no single, established definition yet of what Web 3 is or will be.

In general, however, Web 3 refers to an Internet that is made possible by decentralized networks, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. The key innovation of these networks is the creation of platforms that no single entity controls, yet everyone can still trust. That’s because every user and operator of these networks must follow the same set of hard-coded rules, known as consensus protocols. 

The secondary innovation is that these networks allow value or money to be transferred between accounts. These two things—decentralization and Internet money—are the keys to understanding Web 3.

WHO INVENTED WEB 3?

Like the previous versions of the web, there was no single creator of Web 3. Instead, it has grown as a collaboration of different individuals and organizations building on top of each other. In general, those involved in blockchain smart-contract platforms, such as Ethereum, EOS, and TRON, are recognized as leading the way for Web 3.

 One of the most popular programming libraries used for writing Ethereum code is called web3.js. There is also a Web3 Foundation, which is run by the founders of the Polkadot network.

WHAT’S SO SPECIAL ABOUT IT?

The main advantage of Web 3 is that it attempts to address the biggest problem that has resulted from Web 2: the collection of personal data by private networks which are then sold to advertisers or potentially even stolen by hackers.

With Web 3, the network is decentralized, so no one entity controls it, and the decentralized applications (dapps) that are built on top of the network are open. The openness of the decentralized web means that no single party can control data or limit access. Anyone is able to build and connect with different dapps without permission from a central company.

WHAT ELSE IS DIFFERENT?

On Web 3, money is native. Instead of having to rely on the traditional financial networks that are tied to governments and restricted by borders, money on Web 3 is instant, global, and permissionless. It also means tokens and cryptocurrencies can be used to design completely new business models and economies, a field increasingly becoming known as tokenomics. 

For example, advertising on the decentralized web would not need to rely on selling users’ data to advertisers, but could instead reward users with a token for viewing ads. This type of Web 3 application is being developed with the Brave Browser and their Basic Attention Token (BAT).

HOW DO YOU USE WEB 3?

There are many Web 3 dapps that are currently available. One of the most popular and promising products involves decentralized finance (or DeFi) tools through which users can lend and borrow, tokenize real-world assets, make predictions, invest, and trade crypto assets. Playing games, gambling, and making predictions are also popular ways to use Web 3.

THE FUTURE

The future of the web is about increasing usage, usability, and scalability. For the vision of Web 3 to become reality (and for Joe Lubin to win his bet), a lot more people are going to have to start using Web 3 dapps. This not only means more dapps, but also dapps that are easier to use and more appealing to non-technical users. 

Finally, with Ethereum, the largest and most-popular smart-contract platform, regularly at near full capacity, Web 3 networks will need to scale up and be able to quickly handle millions of transactions if they ever want to compete with their Web 2 counterparts.


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EOS is a cryptocurrency that wants to be a direct competitor to Ethereum. It raised more than $4 billion in a year-long ICO, and was designed to run Dapps on a blockchain without having to worry about speed or expending vast amounts of electricity. But as yet it's untested as a network and has run into a number of problems.

Ethereum is a cryptocurrency that allows smart contracts and Dapps to operate on its network. It was created by Vitalik Buterin, a Russian/Canadian software developer and is regarded as an evolution of Bitcoin.

Ethereum

Tron is a decentralized blockchain designed for entertainment and content creation.

Tron

We explore Web 3, the next major iteration of the Internet, which promises to wrest control from the centralized corporations that today dominate the web.

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