Your Cryptocurrency Newsletter for 05 November,2020

If you are interested in cryptocurrencies, this newsletter is for you. [img]  [Learn more about RevenueStripe...](   [Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( [img]( [FeedBinary Newsletter]( [Will America or China Be No. 1 in cryptocurrency?]( ANALYSIS/OPINION: China shouldn’t stroll to the front for next-generation technology for financial services, a U.S. invention Regardless of what happens in the election, regardless of what one thinks the direction of the country should be, virtually everyone on the planet agrees that it would be better for the United States to remain the No. 1 economic, cultural, and military power in the world rather than, say, the Chinese Communist Party. The warning sign that the whole world should realize is the CCP’s deceitful mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic. They are responsible for the disease, but Americans will probably be responsible for the cure. That one fact undergirds everything we do best — we are the No. 1 source for innovation in the world. China has clawed its way to a lot of No. 2 spots — mostly by lying, cheating and stealing — but as long as we can keep beating them on innovation, they will never overtake us. That’s why it is so alarming that in cryptocurrencies — the next generation technology for financial services we invented – America is letting the Chinese stroll right up to the front. A lot of the blame falls on Jay Clayton and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) he has chaired since the beginning of Donald Trump’s presidency. A weak point in Trump’s otherwise robust economic policies, the Clayton SEC should have led the charge for a regulatory framework that nurtured and cultivated America’s crypto innovators while weeding out the usual bad actors. Out of the gate, he was a disappointment to advocates of market-driven change in support of U.S. industries and technologies. Clayton has too often led like a Democrat – no carrot, all stick and zero vision. Congress hasn’t done any better. They were all too ready to use the Libra cryptocurrency platform proposed by Facebook as a pretext to hurl political Molotov cocktails at the social media giant for the cameras. It was quite clear from watching that while they wanted the world to know how much they hated Facebook, not many House members understand cryptocurrencies as well as they need to. When Congress is too busy fighting with itself, there’s no time to learn the ins and outs of a multi-billion dollar, homegrown industry poised to revolutionize financial services. This neglect is not benign. The lack of a sound regulatory framework that protects and strengthens the innovators as much as guards against criminality translates into chaos. Innovators already face high risks, but this level of legal uncertainty makes doing it here in America an almost unsustainable challenge. For nearly a decade, this technology has been taking root and evolving into a whole array of real economy applications from American innovators that could transform how we handle money, store value, make payments and build supply chains. Just as those products are building to cross over into mass adoption, the companies that will sell them to the world find it impossible to do business here anymore. Then there’s China, laying in wait and watching us bungle this. The People’s Bank of China has been hard at work developing a digital yuan, and have already signed up nearly 2 million citizens for a massive lottery for the first issuance. Chinese crypto miners have spent years mining bitcoin so intensively that they now control its value. It’s what they know how to do – take our inventions, copy them and shove mass adoption down onto their billions of subjects with an eye towards dominating the global marketplace. President Xi Jinping has included blockchain as a goal for his country to overtake us, blockchain development ranks among the Chinese State Council’s 13th Five-Year Plan goals, China has filed the most patents related to blockchain in the world, and Chinese crypto-magnate BabelBank reports a boom in speculative borrowing for crypto investment.And now it’s becoming urgent for the feds to get their act together fast. There is great disruption in the global economy with an inevitable need for innovative, modernizing tools in the recovery period that can quickly revive and expand economic activity. It’s a perfect time for the American crypto industry to step in. It will take a combination of vision, determination and belief in the intrinsic importance of American leadership to get it done in time. If China is able to supplant America as the No. 1 economy in the world, it will then quickly likewise be able to supplant us as the No. 1 military too. The right kind of leadership from Washington on cryptocurrency can make sure that doesn’t happen. [Read Full News]( The post [Will America or China Be No. 1 in cryptocurrency?]( first appeared on [Feed Binary](. [Read Full Story]( ------------------ You Might Like     [Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( ------------------ [Why Cryptocurrency Exchanges Need Better Identity Verification]( Newcomers to digital assets may be frustrated by the tedious process of buying crypto.The COVID-19 pandemic has moved even the most resolutely analogue activities online. At the beginning of 2020, no one considered that elementary schools would go virtual or that offices around the globe would institute a fully remote workforce.What a difference a year makes! COVID ground economies to a halt, drove thousands of businesses out of operation, and turned major cities into ghost towns. But the shutdown of the business-as-usual accelerated our digital lives. Amazon posted record sales during the pandemic — everyone was making purchases from their screens and tablets. As we learned to conduct our professional and personal lives online, it’s no surprise that interest in digital-native cryptocurrencies soared.As the entire world logged on, global digital currencies looked more and more appealing, especially if we take into consideration that governments are increasing the amount of money circulating, in order to boost their economies. Put simply, bitcoin has become a safe haven.Although interest in cryptocurrency has grown in the pandemic, newcomers to digital assets may be frustrated by the tedious process of buying crypto. Most people are used to the one-click purchase model of e-commerce, but buying bitcoin isn’t like ordering takeout or joining a Zoom call.In most jurisdictions, the rules that pertain to digital assets are complicated and cryptocurrency exchanges face significant regulatory scrutiny.Because digital currencies are financial instruments, anyone who deals with them must adhere to a whole series of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) standards, which includes document verification as well – and a selfie next to their document does not meet these standards. Further, the relative novelty and unfamiliarity of cryptocurrency — crypto’s history is measured in months and years, not decades and centuries — requires the industry and regulators to adapt and determine suitable requirements. The three barriers to cryptocurrency adoption Even the most traditional financial institution would have to devote significant resources to KYC and AML efforts, but cryptocurrency’s unique properties pose special problems for institutions and individuals alike.First, there’s the fact that cryptocurrency purchase and trading is done almost entirely online. When you open a bank account at a traditional Main Street brick-and-mortar bank, you’re likely to do so in person, sitting opposite a bank official with documents in hand.In 2020, this presents a logistical challenge, but even before COVID-19, no such option existed for digital currencies. The second obstacle that faces crypto-asset providers is geographic diversity. Businesses may recognize potential customers and traders in almost every country in the world, but each country has its own rules, its own regulators, and its own designs for identity documents.If a firm cannot verify documents and complete KYC/AML screening for customers from a particular country, it must turn them away. And even if that firm later expands its capabilities, many would-be customers who were disappointed once are likely to have turned to a local exchange or have concluded that cryptocurrency just isn’t for them.A third challenge for cryptocurrency exchanges is ease and speed of verification. Simply choosing passwords and security questions for non-financial websites is inconvenient enough; older identity verification tools may require scanning documents and uploading photos. Completing the process is feasible but frustrating, and new sign-ups may have to wait for their verification to complete. At every step of a protracted verification process the risk of abandonment increases.If the verification process is dependent on employees manually checking each user application, that can lead to delays of days before a new sign-up can use the product.Customers’ first experiences with a service provider color any future interactions; a lengthy and inefficient sign-up is unlikely to inspire enthusiasm. Identity verification technology paves the way forward Thankfully, it’s possible for businesses to balance convenience and thoroughness in identity verification and account creation. For example, “biometric identification” sounds ominous, but it means that users can use selfies to confirm their identity.Some banks even believe that those face-to-face account setups, which COVID makes difficult, should be a thing of the past. Thanks to new tools, cryptocurrency exchanges such as Bitbuy and Metal Pay can verify identity documents from dozens of countries around the world to help them meet compliance requirements in just a few clicks. Compliance and convenience are no longer opposed.The burden of regulatory compliance should always fall on the institution, not the customer. Cryptocurrency providers have a legal and ethical responsibility to keep untrustworthy people out of their services, but good business sense mandates that they make identity establishment as quick and painless as possible for new customers.With global identity verification, the business-client relationship starts off on the right foot, regulators are satisfied, and the world of digital assets grows one person larger. [Read Full News]( The post [Why Cryptocurrency Exchanges Need Better Identity Verification]( first appeared on [Feed Binary](. [Read Full Story]( ------------------ You Might Like     [Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( ------------------ [Ethereum 2.0 Set To Launch On December 1]( Version 1.0 of the Ethereum 2.0 specifications has been released and if all goes to plan, the blockchain upgrade should happen at the beginning of next month.The first version of Ethereum 2.0 is set to launch on December 1, according to an Ethereum Foundation blog post today, as long as certain criteria are met. The blockchain upgrade, which moves the network toward a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, will allow Ethereum holders to stake their coins to help run the network, instead of mining blocks as is currently the case. As long as there are 16,384 validators on the network, it will go live on December 1 at 12pm UTC. Each validator will need to be staking 32 Ethereum, currently worth $12,700—for a total amount of $209 million.The Ethereum Foundation also released version 1.0 of the specifications for Ethereum 2.0 today. It revealed a Launch Pad, where users can sign up to become an Ethereum 2.0 validator (someone who stakes on the network) and the main Ethereum contract address—where funds will be deposited. However, it’s worth noting that funds should not be sent directly to the deposit contract, instead they should be staked using the staking mechanism (via the Launch Pad). As ConsenSys (which funds an editorially independent Decrypt) pointed out on Twitter, “REMEMBER: DO NOT SEND ETH TO THE DEPOSIT CONTRACT! Sending Eth to this contract address will result in a failed transaction, and does not mean you are staking on Eth2.” On the back of the announcement, the price of Ethereum spiked $15 from $383 to $398—up 3.9%. This start to reverse a downward trend from a price of $417 that was seen earlier this month.As Decrypt reported earlier today, a tool was released yesterday that helps to generate keys required for Ethereum 2.0. This was seen as a precurser to the launch of the official specifications and was entitled “We have a go for Main engine start.Now it looks like we have a clear date too. [Read Full News]( The post [Ethereum 2.0 Set To Launch On December 1]( first appeared on [Feed Binary](. [Read Full Story]( ------------------ You Might Like     [Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( ------------------ ------------------ Connect with TheFeedBinary on Facebook and Twitter [fb](  [tw]( ------------------ You received this email because you operate or create content for a website/service and based on your website it seemed like this could be important information to you and your users. FeedBinary daily newsletter is managed by [Postbox Consultancy Services Pvt. Ltd.]( C-4/5, IBD Emporia, Kolar Road, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, INDIA, 462042 Want to change how you receive these emails? [Update your preferences]( or [Unsubscribe](