EthHub Weekly #70

Trump tweets about crypto, Geth v1.9.0 released, InstaDApp launches DeFi bridge, Celer Network live on mainnet and much more!

Jul 15, 2019

Curated by Anthony Sassano (@sassal0x) and Eric Conner (@econoar)

🤓 Meme of the Week

Memes started as an “underground” part of the internet and over the last few years they’ve been spreading to every community in the world (online and offline) and even being ridiculed for influencing elections through “memetic warfare”.

The crypto community in particular basically runs on memes. Whether it’s on Twitter, Reddit or some other online forum - memes are a critical cog in the crypto machine.

So that’s why, starting in this issue, we’re going to be featuring a ‘Meme of the Week’ that’s related to Ethereum in some way. You’ll find it just below the ‘Ecosystem Bits’ section.

Have a great week everyone!

- Anthony

News of the Week

🐂 Trump Not a Fan of Crypto

President Donald Trump expressed his views on Bitcoin and Facebook's Libra cryptocurrency for the first time since becoming president of the United States.

In a three tweet Twitter thread, President Trump stated that he is "not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air," adding that "unregulated Crypto Assets can facilitate unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal activity."

Furthermore, President Trump said "Facebook Libra’s 'virtual currency' will have little standing or dependability," and that "if Facebook and other companies want to become a bank, they must seek a new Banking Charter and become subject to all Banking Regulations, just like other Banks."

⚖️ US May Bar Large Tech Firms From Issuing Cryptocurrencies

Lawmakers in the U.S. are discussing a bill that seeks to prevent large technology institutions in the country from issuing cryptocurrencies.

According to a report from Reuters on Monday and a copy of the draft bill circulating online, policymakers in the U.S. House of Representatives are looking to step up the scrutiny over big tech firms that are interested in cryptocurrencies.

Under the section of “Prohibition related to cryptocurrencies,” the draft bill, called “Keep Big Tech Out Of Finance Act,” states:

“A large platform utility may not establish, maintain, or operate a digital asset that is intended to be widely used as medium of exchange, unit of account, store of value, or any other similar function, as defined by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.”

The bill specifically defines a digital asset as “an asset that is issued and transferred using distributed ledger or blockchain technology, including, so-called ‘virtual currencies,’ ‘coins,’ and ‘tokens.'”

🤔 Bitfinex, Tether Served New York Residents Longer Than They Claim

The New York Attorney General’s Office (NYAG) has submitted new evidence in its aim to prove that crypto exchange Bitfinex and Tether had served New York customers longer than they claimed.

As part of the NYAG’s ongoing investigation into Bitfinex and Tether, the NYAG filed a Memorandum of Law in Opposition, an affirmation, as well as a total of 28 pieces of exhibits on July 8, with the New York Supreme Court.

The NYAG said in the new documents:

“Even a cursory examination of the facts gathered to date in the OAG’ s investigation shows that Respondents have extensive and consistent contacts to New York concerning the matters under investigation.”

The filings come with various exhibits to showcase Bitfinex’s and Tether’s interactions with New York residents over a period that was longer than the two previously claimed.

Project Updates

Geth v1.9.0 Released

A huge release from the Geth team this week with version v1.9.0. The blog post is packed with information on performance improvements, new querying options, hardware wallet support, Clef support, new integrations and much more.

If you haven’t got time to read the whole post, check out Lefteris’ awesome tl;dr twitter thread here.

0x Development Update #20

The 0x team made a number of improvements across the protocol and its associated tooling this past month that makes 0x easier and better to work with including updates to 0x v3.0 and launch kit.

There was also a critical vulnerability found in the 0x v2 smart contract this week which you can read about here and here.

Kyber Ecosystem Report #4

Another big update from Kyber Network this week covering all the progress and growth that the team have made over the last month.

KyberSwap’s limit orders feature also went live this week.

InstaDApp Launches Decentralized Bridge

You can now easily switch your debt position between the MakerDAO and Compound Finance protocols with the best rates in just one click using InstaDApps new decentralized bridge service.

Celer Network Alpha-Mainnet Now Live

Celer Network’s alpha-mainnet launch, Cygnus, is the world’s first Generalized State Channel Network on Ethereum. You can currently play games such as Gomoku and Fish Jump using the CelerX mobile app - winning prizes in DAI along the way!

Nimbus Development Update

Nimbus’ first update since the Ethereum 2.0 phase 0 spec freeze covers all the work they’ve been doing over the last few weeks including the release of a basic metrics app - nim-metrics.

UMA Protocol Publishes Design for Blockchain Oracle

This new oracle works by providing economic guarantees around the cost of corrupting the system. In his twitter thread, Hart Lambur explains how this all works under the hood.

Samsung Blockchain SDK

Samsung released a blockchain SDK this week for developers from Canada, South Korea and the U.S to start using. The best bit? It’s only supporting Ethereum at this stage!

How to Nominate Tokens for MCD

Maker have released a guide on their blog that walks users through how they can nominate tokens that they want to see included in multi-collateral dai.

Community Member Spotlight

This week we’re highlighting the great work of Vishesh!

Vishesh is an independent crypto analyst working mostly in the Maker/DAI space. He is the creator of Descipher - a tool for tracking the metrics of Maker, Dai and Compound (with more coming soon).

Vishesh also has great insights about various Ethereum DeFi projects on twitter and is a highly recommended follow.

Keep up the great work Vishesh!

On-Chain Activity

CDP 14290 drew $1 million in one transaction this week
Gini, Thiel and Nakamoto factors for Ethereum tokens now available on Bloxy
Maker dominance under 70% as users move to other protocols

Interesting Tweets

Ecosystem Bits

Blog Posts

Videos

Ethereum 2.0 Client Interop Workshop Toronto

Podcasts

InstaDapp: A Bridge to Decentralized Finance - Into the Ether
TokenCard: Path to a Self-Sovereign Banking Service - Into the Ether
Compound – An Automated Money Market for Ethereum Tokens - Epicenter
Truffle: Making Ethereum Sweet with Tim Coulter - POV Crypto

Misc

Meme of the Week

Trump tweeted about “Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies” this week and of course it immediately became a hot topic for meme’ing. Our favorite came from Alexander on Twitter.

Looking for Work?

Top jobs listed on Cryptocurrency Jobs this week:

Product Designer - CoinList
Head of Growth & Marketing - Numerai
Business Development Associate - Bitstamp
Digital Asset Project Manager - Goldman Sachs
+100’s more on the Cryptocurrency Jobs website!

Protect Your Crypto

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