Cryptospace News Digest, May 15 â€“ 21

22.05.2016

Bitcoin exchange rate’s unexpected retreat against the background of skyrocketing Ether, big newsÂ from cryptocurrency exchanges, and Vitalik Buterin’s long-awaited visit to Russia â€” all in ForkLog’s weekly overview.

Bitcoin Price

Bitcoin continued its earlier fluctuations in the corridor between $450 and $460, however, on Thursday it sank down to $435.62.

Even though there has been some correction afterwards, Bitcoin failed to reach $450 again. At the time of writing, its price is dancing around $445.

There have been numerous explanations for such an unexpected downdrop; the most likely of them has something to do with Ether’s as-unexpected rise on the background of its addition to Coinbase’s set of services.

In fairness it has to be noted that Ether started its ascension a bit earlier. While prior to May 14 it was traded at the rate of 0.021 BTC for 1 ETH, the rate peaked on May 20 at 0.034 BTC/ 1 ETH. This means that Ethereum token managed to gain nearly 50% its worth in about a week. Over the course of last 24 hours, Ethereum retreated a bit. At the time of publication its exchange rate comprises 0.0317 BTC / 1 ETH.

Exchanges

The aforementioned addition of Ether by Coinbase has coincided with the platform’s rebranding. From now on, the exchange formerly known as Coinbase is called GDAX, which stands for Global Digital Asset Exchange.

Seeking to avoid misunderstanding of any kind, the company clarified the rebranding does not cover their wallet, and involve exclusively their professional trading platform. Coinbase also hinted that it may add some other cryptocurrencies in the future, however, it did not say a thing about what exactly they might be. Litecoin’s creator Charlie Lee tweeted a bit later that â€?digital silver’ will also be supported at GDAX. Only time will tell if it is true, but in any case, it doesn’t seem unbelievable.

Coinbase Exchange is rebranding to GDAX and will support ETH/BTC and ETH/USD trading soon. LTC/BTC and LTC/USD in the works!

— Charlie Lee [LTC⚡] (@SatoshiLite) May 20, 2016

Meanwhile, another popular exchange Poloniex has announced it adds Decred, a cryptocurrency positioning as an open, progressive, community-managed, and self-funded.

Ukraine’s KUNA has hit the news once again. The project’s team has announced they release version 0.8 of their platform, and has stated it would soon enter beta testing phase. Currently the testing is restricted to the exchange’s shareholders who had supported the project during its crowd-sale campaign, and to those whom the project’s administration has provided individual access.

As a reminder, KUNA’s crowd-sale was held in late 2015. The platform managed to raise in excess of 200 BTC in exchange for 10% of the project’s shares. Thus, KUNA has become Ukraine’s first exchange to successfully close a public ICO. Kuna’s tokens have been assigned to all involved investors. Those tokens will become tradeable once the exchange launches.

Thunder Network

One of the week’s most interesting news is the release of a Lightning Network’s counterpart in alpha by Blockchain.info. The system dubbed Thunder Network is said to be an alternate network of nodes enabling one to bypass off-chain payments in just a few seconds by recording them on the blockchain only as necessary.

According to the company, the project is the first implementation of Lightning Network protocol. Blockchain.info hopes the network will attract users as it would enable them to effect previously impossible instant transaction.

However, the belief that Thunder Network may act as a successful replacement for Lightning Network isn’t common. One of the protocol’s developers even stated that the thing resembles its counterpart, yet requres mutual trust, as it doesn’t use malleability fix.

Ethereum

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin has finally revisited his place of birth, and came to Moscow to participate in Ethereum Russia 2016 conference. The even, by all means, is a landmark in Russia’s cryptocurrency realm, and one can only hope it would incentivize the industry’s development in Russia. Apart from speaking at the conference, Buterin also talked with Forbes Russia. ForkLog collected the most interesting statements by Buterin, and compiled them in a feature.

There have been several important announcements at the conference. Thus, Skolkovo Foundation stated it would delve into Ethereum blockchain studies to implement them in financial and public sectors. Additionally, a cooperation between Ethereum and Acronis was announced. Acronis, a data services provider, intends to use blockchain to protect user data.

Buterin also gave an open lecture at Fiztechpark of the Moscow Institute for Physics and Technology. Its video footage is available hereunder.

Developers now have a chance to get a grant from California-based String Labs. The candidates have to ensure their project has open code, and has nothing to do with private permissioned blockchains.

Fintech Week 2016

This week in Ukraine is significant due to Kyiv Fintech Week, a series of events and conferences on innovative financial technologies, blockchain capabilities, and cybersecurity.

On Thursday, All-Ukraine Roundtable on Bitcoin’s Legal Status was held as a part of the Fintech Week. The event, which was attended by ForkLog’s editors, featured the discussion on necessity of determining bitcoin’s legal status by the regulator, or refusal to enage in such legislative initiatives.

Additionally, yet another Blockchain Conference featuring blockchain, digital currency and e-gov experts was held. Over the course of the conference, so-called Smart Socket was presented. The device has been developed by Belarusian fintech expert Valery Litvin. It is capable of selling power and WiFi for Ethers.

This week, it became known that Ukraine, under the auspices of Microsoft, will launch an online platform for investiment in corporate innovations. Block-chain.fund will be presented on July 2. The platform intends to provide warranty for transactions between companies and authors via Ethereum blockchain-based smart contracts. The technology would enable such warranty without any paper contracts involved.

ForkLog will soon publish detailed reports on the events in question.

Blockchain Again

Now let’s shift the focus of our attention from Russia and Ukraine, and see what happened elsewhere.

Brian Behlendorf, founder of Apache Software Foundation, became the executive director of Hyperledger Project, which is a Linux Foundation-powered initiative on creating an open source code blockchain. Several other companies have joined the project. Behlendorf believes all of them will contribute in development of the technology, and will accelerate creation of public blockchains.

Meanwhile, Nasdaq has published a demo of project enabling solar power projects to sell power certificates via blockchain service Linq. Under the project, solar panels are connected to the internet using a solution by another blockchain startup, Filament, which is engaged in connecting traditional appliances to the network.

Deloitte has presented a prototype of a solution aimed at creation of a distributed data-exchange channel for artists, owners of artworks, galleries and other people involved in art. The prototype dubbed ArtTrackative wsa developed in Deloitte’s Luxembourg office, and presented at ICT Spring conference.

Finally, Sydney Stock Exchange (SSX) has announced it works on development of blockchain-based solutions for direct investment markets. Initially, the system will be intended for private capital. However, later its coverage may expand to publicly traded assets.

The Return of Lightning Network

In the conclusion of this week’s review, let’s go back to the Lightning Network meetup held in Kyiv. We have already described the protocol, and now it’s time for a detailed report on the event itself. Therein, you might find out what the developers were talking about, and watch the meeting’s video footage.

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