Ethereum has a rising competitor, thanks to Rootstock which allows a fundraising mechanism on Bitcoin Network.

MrCoin

Weekly Crypto Recap

“It might make sense just to get some in case it catches on. If enough people think the same way, that becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.” ~ Satoshi Nakamoto

Market State

BTC: €5,762.49 | 0.98% since last week

ETH: €196.42 | -1.11% since last week

BCH: €454.05 | -3.38% since last week

LTC: €50.60 | 0.14% since last week

We have seen another calm week in terms of price. The overall cryptocurrency market cap dropped by 1.24% to €219 billion. Bitcoin is up by 1% to €5,762.49 while the price of Ether is down by 1.11% to €196.42.

According to Google trend analysis general interest in cryptocurrency has dropped to 18 month low. However in terms of adoption the crypto market has seen more progress. Institutional investors are starting to move into crypto and have accumulated huge amount of digital assets, but their trading volume remains private.

Yale endowment fund which is the second largest in the US has invested in two crypto funds. European Union is paying more attention to crypto in terms of legislation. Cryptocurrency as a new financial asset is getting more accepted by institutions. Until recently everyone was reluctant to get into crypto because investing in crypto is risky. Now no one wants to be left behind, everyone wants to get involved in cryptocurrency market.

Quiz of the week

What are sidechains?

A parallel network that is run for additional security
A term for a hash function
Any mechanism that allows tokens from one blockchain to be securely used within a completely separate blockchain

Scroll down to see the answer at the end of the newsletter.

Top stories of the week

Yale University Invested In Two Crypto Funds

US Yale University endowment has invested in two crypto funds, “Paradigm Fund” and “a16z Crypto Fund”. Yale has the second largest university endowment in the US and regarded as one of the best. The head of Yale’s endowment fund is David Swensen who is also known as “Yale’s Warren Buffet” as he managed to grow Yale’s endowment fund from $1 billion to $29.4 billion in three decades. Paradigma is a new $400 million cryptocurrency fund launched by Fred Ehrsam, a co-founder of the Coinbase exchange. Also, Yale secretly invested in Andreessen Horowitz’s “a16z Crypto Fund” which has raised $300 million dedicated to crypto in June. Yale’s participation in crypto is a clear positive indicator which provides credibility to the crypto industry and will bring more institutional investors.

Official Cryptocurrency of Tokyo 2020 Olympics

About ten months ago, Ken Takahashi started a petition on Change.org to make Ripple (XRP) the official crypto of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. Today the petition has more than 10,000 signatures. The petition reads “As tourists stream into the country, demand for the local currency skyrockets, causing long lines at currency exchanges, as seen at past events like Beijing 2008 and Rio de Janeiro 2016. ” Takahashi chose Ripple because of its instant cross-border transactions. Last week Ripple announced the commercial launch of xRapid at its annual Swell event, which uses cryptocurrency XRP to carry out international transactions. Ripple powered mobile app MoneyTap is now live in Japan, which will help international guests to settle real-time payments in Japan.

EU Budgets €1.1 Million to Monitor Cryptos

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has dedicated €1.1 million to finance the monitoring of developments in the crypto sector. ESMA is an independent EU Authority that acts as a standard setter with regard to financial instruments legislation and contributes to the financial stability of the EU. According to its Annual Work Program for 2019 published last week, ESMA plans to focus on crypto and fintech trends in order to identify problems and risks that may arise from the nascent technology. ESMA’s main objective for the next year is to achieve a coordinated approach to the regulation of innovative financial activities and provide advice to present to the EU institutions, market participants or consumers.

Google Searches for Bitcoin are Down

Global search rate for the leading crypto terms such as “Bitcoin”, “Ethereum” is at its lowest ever. Average people are becoming less and less interested in Bitcoin, while the more educated people in crypto are becoming more and more interested in the industry. Google Trends analyzes the popularity of top search queries in Google Search for different periods of time and regions. A value of 100 was taken as a peak popularity for the word “Bitcoin” in December 2017, and it dropped to its lowest value of 6 in the first week of October 2018. People haven’t shown much interest in Ethereum either. Despite the lack of general interest in Bitcoin the price seems to be stabilized and yet its annual inflation rate is 3.87%. This means Bitcoin is growing.

ICOs Are Coming to Bitcoin

An Initial Coin Offering (ICO) will be launched on Bitcoin by the end of the year. Typically Ethereum has been the choice of a platform to raise funds for new projects. Now Ethereum has a rising competitor, thanks to Rootstock (RSK) which allows a fundraising mechanism on Bitcoin Network. Rootstock (RSK) has been creating a sidechain for Bitcoin since 2016. It allows smart contracts that are written in the same language as Ethereum. South Korean supply chain management startup Temco will be the first ICO on Bitcoin with the goal of raising $19 million. Temco's CEO Scott Yoon said, “RSK sidechains will be dominating the smart contract ecosystem and will open another era of Bitcoin, like Ethereum."

Gemini secured insurance for its digital assets

Gemini cryptocurrency exchange founded by the Winklevoss twins, Cameron and Tyler became the first crypto exchange to provide insurance for the assets they hold on behalf of their users. Usually, it is not advised to keep your digital assets on an exchange wallet due to hacks. However, by securing insurance coverage Gemini eliminates the custodial risk that investors previously had to deal with. Still, Gemini has the power to close or freeze your account any time. Starting October 13th Gemini is expanding its existing portfolio of Bitcoin, Ether, and Zcash with Litecoin.

Tweet of the week

Meme of the week

Crypto word of the week

Turing Complete is a system of data-manipulation rules that can solve any kind of computational problem. With the help of Turing Complete developers can create any kind of applications and smart contracts. Ethereum, for example, is a "Turing Complete" blockchain, which allows developers to implement sophisticated logic with smart contracts. Bitcoin blockchain was not Turing Complete until Rootstock sidechain incorporated Turing Complete to Bitcoin. Rootstock (RSK) is a smart contract platform that is connected to Bitcoin blockchain. Both Ethereum and Rootstock uses the same programing language called Solidity. Rootstock is still in development. Once smart contract is available on Bitcoin network, it can be used to issue ICOs.

Quiz answer

What are sidechains?

The correct answer is : “C”

A sidechain is a separate blockchain that is attached to a main blockchain using a two-way peg. Two-way peg means you can move assets to the sidechain and then back to the main chain. Sidechain assets are interchangeable with main chain assets at a predetermined rate.

Thank you for reading :)

Have a great day!

MrCoin

MrCoin

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