The BioMedWire Podcast

Jonathan Keim, communications director of CryptoCurrencyWire (“CCW”), called in with his usual weekly update, which began with a revelation that may startle the IRS. Residents of Switzerland’s canton of Zug, aptly named Crypto Valley, now have the option of paying their taxes in Bitcoin (“BTC”) and ether (“ETH”) (https://ccw.fm/1USWE). Zug acquired the crypto label because of its crypto-friendly policies.

Despite its size — population of 30,000 — the small town is home to cryptocurrency exchange Shapeshift, as well as the Ethereum Foundation. Opening its arms to the latter has proven to be a game changer. The presence of the Ethereum Foundation has precipitated an entire ecosystem of service providers and developers within the community. With this latest pronouncement, which allows companies and private individuals to pay taxes up to an amount of 100,000 Swiss francs ($109,670), the canton maintains its place as a leader in crypto regulation.

In other news, social content publishing platform The Capital claims that Bitcoin is now the sixth-largest world currency (https://ccw.fm/YpEMB). The Capital report states that “at its current market cap, Bitcoin has a money supply worth more than 170 different fiat currencies,” which is a good indication that contrasting the money supply of various world currencies to Bitcoin valuation may be a bit of an apples-to-oranges comparison.

Despite being dubbed a currency, Bitcoin seems to lack three essential characteristics — medium of exchange, store of value and unit of account — that money must have. Many businesses and individuals will transact in Bitcoin, but the currency is still not widely enough accepted to be a medium of exchange. Moreover, its price fluctuations make it ill-suited to qualify as a store of value or a unit of exchange.

Keim’s final headline, CFTC Greenlights LedgerX Request to Move Beyond Digital Currency Products, shows regulators are warming to the idea of digital assets (https://ccw.fm/QgqEK). The CFTC has announced its approval of the LedgerX application to offer fully collateralized futures and options products in addition to the digital asset swaps it already provides. The CFTC order effectively removes the distinction between derivatives on digital assets and those with more established bases, such as commodities, stocks, bonds, interest rates and currencies. Now investors should find it a tad easier to cut risk as they search for returns in the current pandemic-plagued environment.

To view the most recent episode of “The Wild West Crypto Show,” now on TV in 45 cities across the nation, including its ongoing segment from CryptoCurrencyWire featuring the latest news from around the world, visit https://ccw.fm/PlMwA

Jonathan Keim, director of communications at CryptoCurrencyWire, joined the show and brought everyone up to speed with developments in the crypto space. The big headline for the day: Fidelity President Files for New Bitcoin Fund (http://ccw.fm/2Res2).

If anyone had doubts that cryptocurrencies are now totally mainstream, they can lay that uncertainty to rest. America’s largest 401(k) provider, Fidelity, plans to start a new fund entirely devoted to Bitcoin. Called the Wise Origin Bitcoin Index Fund I, the fund may boost the investing behemoth’s assets under management (“AUM”), which presently stand at $8.3 trillion.

Fidelity has been an early supporter of crypto assets. The company began mining Bitcoin (“BTC”) and ether (“ETH”) in 2014 to develop knowledge of the technology, a venture that turned out to be quite profitable (http://ccw.fm/XVuYr).

Second on Keim’s list was this headline: Semtech and Helium Expand LoRaWAN Network Deployments (http://ccw.fm/uFy5P). The collaboration between Semtech and Helium has taken a step forward.

Semtech is the developer of the LoRaWAN (Long Range Wide Area Network) protocol, designed to wirelessly connect battery-operated “things” to the internet. Helium is creator of the LongFi technology, said to have a range 200 times that of Wi-Fi. The company has also developed the People’s Network, the world’s first peer-to-peer wireless network for low-power Internet of Things (“IoT”) devices to connect to the internet. With this partnership, IoT applications have now become a great deal more feasible.

Finally, a news headline that shows managers of the U.S. Postal Service are no Luddites: US Rep. Darren Soto Is Excited about the Recent USPS Blockchain Voting Patent (http://ccw.fm/hqAaP). USPS has filed a patent for mail-in voting that draws on blockchain cryptographic security safeguards. The initiative comes at a time when new allegations that mail-in voting is vulnerable to fraud have surfaced.

However, senior law-enforcement figures have expressed the view that it would be “extraordinarily difficult” for fraudulent mail-in voting to take place on a scale that would affect election results, “given the range of processes that would need to be affected or compromised by an adversary.” (http://ccw.fm/lUQc1). With Russia’s election meddling an ongoing threat, this is a decidedly reassuring pronouncement.

To view the most recent episode of the Wild West Crypto Show, now on TV in 45 cities across the nation, including its ongoing segment from CryptoCurrencyWire featuring the latest news from around the world, visit http://ccw.fm/LcK2Z.

Highlights of the show included Jonathan Keim, communications director of CryptoCurrencyWire, who shared an intriguing trio of bulletins in his Weekly News Update. First off was the headline: Blockchange and Gemini Partner in Industry First to Bring Digital Assets to Registered Investment Advisors (http://ccw.fm/lCpXt).

This news brief highlighted the collaboration between these two pioneers that makes it possible for registered investment advisers (“RIAs”) to offer their clients exposure to digital assets, which provides two immediate advantages: Clients’ portfolios can benefit from the continuing upturn in those assets, and clients enjoy a further measure of diversification to their holdings, thus reducing overall risk. Blockchange is a digital asset investing platform for professional wealth managers. Gemini is a cryptocurrency exchange and custodian that allows customers to transact in more than 20 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Bitcoin cash, ether, litecoin and Zcash.

Next in line was the report that TRON and Waves are partnering on Inter-chain DeFi with Gravity (http://ccw.fm/tdyMj). This partnership between TRON and Waves means that the smart-contract languages of the two platforms will be integrated, which, among other things, will counter fragmentation in the digital asset space. Waves is a blockchain platform on which users can create their own new custom tokens for use in loyalty programs, as in-app currencies and for initial coin offerings (“ICOs”). TRON is a widely used blockchain platform that is particularly well suited to the development of decentralized applications (“DApps”).

Keim’s updates ended with a reassuring news headline for crypto skeptics: The Crypto Phenomenon Cannot Be Ignored, Says US Banking Regulator (http://ccw.fm/mMmoA). Brian Brooks, acting Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”), is seeing crypto moving further into the mainstream. His take on the crypto scene comes as no surprise. About a month ago, a directive from Brooks made it possible for banks to offer cryptocurrency custody services. The OCC is an arm of the Treasury Department, which charters, regulates, and supervises national banks, federal savings associations and agencies of foreign banks.

“The crypto phenomenon cannot be ignored, especially in a world where 50 million American citizens hold cryptocurrencies and many more millions outside the U.S,” said Brooks. “Lot of people have this stuff, and they have it for good reasons. And we need to make sure it’s accessible to them in the same safe and sound way that they can get the check in their account.”

To view the most recent episode of the Wild West Crypto Show, now on TV in 45 cities across the nation, including its ongoing segment from CryptoCurrencyWire featuring the latest news from around the world, visit http://ccw.fm/gZnPc.

Jonathan Keim, communications director of CryptoCurrencyWire, kicked off his report with the eye-catching news that Grayscale was debuting a new TV campaign focusing on the history of money (http://ccw.fm/2j0DA). Grayscale Investments, reportedly the world’s largest digital currency asset manager, is launching an advertising “blitzkrieg” to raise awareness of its products. The company provides a suite of investment products based on crypto assets that includes Bitcoin Trust, Bitcoin Cash Trust, Ethereum Trust, Ethereum Classic Trust, Horizen Trust, Litecoin Trust, Stellar Lumens Trust, XRP Trust, Zcash Trust and Grayscale Digital Large Cap Fund. The campaign will “illustrate how money has evolved over thousands of years” as well as how “we’ve ‘proceeded to wave goodbye to value, printing unlimited amounts of money.’”

Next up, was the news that Coinbase now allows Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP holders to pay for goods directly from their accounts (http://ccw.fm/9QCwI). Coinbase, a large cryptocurrency exchange, has partnered with BitPay, the Bitcoin payment service provider, to allow crypto holders to become crypto consumers. The integration of the two companies’ APIs will allow Coinbase users to “spend bitcoin, ether, XRP, USD Coin and other major cryptocurrencies to pay for goods offered by BitPay-supported merchants, which include Microsoft, Twitch and the Dallas Mavericks.”

Keim’s final feature showed that transacting in Bitcoin has become part and parcel of everyday life: one million Bitcoin wallets are now being used every day (http://ccw.fm/j3zM3). It appears that Bitcoin use has risen, once again, to levels not seen since late 2017. At that time, the cryptocurrency was trading at around $20,000. Bitcoin transaction levels tend to correlate positively with its price, but only since 2018, says Glassnode, the Bitcoin analytics firm that examined the data. Other factors — including increasing awareness and the potential to be a hedge against inflation — have historically influenced transaction volume, as indicated by the number of active addresses.

To view the most recent episode of the Wild West Crypto Show, now on TV in 45 cities across the nation, including its ongoing segment from CryptoCurrencyWire featuring the latest news from around the world, visit http://ccw.fm/JE1OD

Jonathan Keim, communications director of CryptoCurrencyWire (“CCW”), tuned in for his regular weekly news update, which kicked off with the intriguing headline: “Bloomberg: Americans Trade Depreciating Dollars for Bitcoin” (http://ccw.fm/pSNhF). Fearing an inflation-driven devaluation of the dollar, investors are shunning savings accounts, money market funds, and treasuries, and placing their cash in speculative assets such as stocks, gold and Bitcoin. This has pushed prices to record levels. In the last several months, the stock market has regained the lofty levels it had reached in late February while Bitcoin has appreciated by 55% and gold has climbed 29% to a level not seen since 2011.

Keim’s second headline looked at how one company is responding to inflation expectations: “Nasdaq-Listed MicroStrategy, Wary of Looming Dollar Inflation, Turns to Bitcoin and Gold” (http://ccw.fm/gSqL9). MicroStrategy, a Nasdaq-listed provider of business intelligence, mobile software and cloud-based services, plans to invest $250 million of its cash reserves in Bitcoin, gold and other alternative assets over the next 12 months as a hedge against U.S. dollar inflation. The company’s CEO says it makes sense to “shift our treasury assets into some investments that can’t be inflated away.”

Finally, the news that a basic “banking product” will soon be available should bring cheer to the crypto community; this headline read “Genesis Partners with Luno to Create Alternative Savings Products, Extending Institutional Crypto Interest Rates to 4 Million Global Consumers” (http://ccw.fm/zICVV). Genesis, which provides digital-currency, prime-brokerage services, is joining forces with cryptocurrency exchange Luno to offer customers of the latter opportunities to earn interest on their crypto holdings. Earning interest on deposits is a defining characteristic of the established banking system. With this development, crypto has moved closer to convention.

To view the most recent episode of the Wild West Crypto Show, now on TV in 45 cities across the nation, including its ongoing segment from CryptoCurrencyWire featuring the latest news from around the world, visit http://ccw.fm/cG3Oz

Jonathan Keim, director of communications at CryptoCurrencyWire, had a triplet of fascinating developments to report on. He started with the headline: Celsius Network Announces 25+ Cryptocurrencies as Loan Collateral (http://nnw.fm/OtKQp). Keim sees this announcement as a strong vote of confidence in the crypto markets, which historically have experienced a great deal of volatility. In January 2018, for example, Bitcoin was trading at over $17,000 but by December of the same year, it had plunged to around $3,400, a drop of some 80%.

Celsius offers its “community of HODLers,” or long-term owners of crypto assets, a convenient way to obtain some liquidity without having to dispose of any assets. The company provides loans of stable coins and fiat money using crypto assets as collateral. An additional benefit of this arrangement is that crypto owners avoid having to pay capital gains taxes, since no assets are sold. Access to such loans has now become easier after the announcement that “every asset accepted in the Celsius Network wallet will also be approved for loan collateral.” These loans can be backed by 26 different cryptocurrencies, including “stablecoins like TUSD, PAX, USDT, and GUSD, [and] altcoins such as DASH, ZRX, XLM, and for the first time the [Celsius] native token, CEL.” The facility is available in more than 200 countries with affordable rates that start at just under 1% APR.

Keim’s second report featured speculation by Heath Tarbert, who heads the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), that “a ‘large part’ of financial system could end up in blockchain format” (http://nnw.fm/j4jWv). The CFTC chairman marveled at the speed of development in the crypto space, noting that while the present financial system took several hundred years to evolve, the digital asset space has become a viable economic system within a decade.

Finally, a blurb for Bitcoin from Wall Street touted this: Major Investment Bank Recommends Bitcoin Over Gold (http://nnw.fm/auX1F). A senior analyst at investment bank Oppenheimer thinks that Bitcoin has potential for more appreciation than gold. At around $11,594, the cryptocurrency is a far way from its lofty levels at the end of 2017, while gold, hovering around $2,000, is at a 20-year high.

To view the most recent episode of the Wild West Crypto Show, now on TV in 45 cities across the nation, including its ongoing segment from CryptoCurrencyWire featuring the latest news from around the world, visit http://nnw.fm/pXqhx.

Jonathan Keim, communications director of CryptoCurrencyWire, appeared with another trio of exciting updates, kicking off with this headline: eToro Quarterly Report: Q2 2020, stablecoins find a mainstream use case (http://ccw.fm/NHn2m). Results of a recent study, conducted by social investment platform eToro and its market research unit, the Tie, indicate that adoption of cryptocurrencies and assets are increasing globally. It’s good to see headlines and anecdotal evidence substantiated with data from surveys.

In other news, Keim reported MasterCard’s increasing commitment to cryptos with the press release title: MasterCard Accelerates Crypto Card Partner Program, Making It Easier for Consumers to Hold and Activate Cryptocurrencies (http://ccw.fm/TlRua). The card network, the second largest after VISA with a 30% market share, is actively recruiting cryptocurrency companies to join its Accelerate program for crypto-card issuers. Additionally, the network is collaborating with London-based, crypto-payment-processor Wirex, which makes the latter “the first ‘native’ cryptocurrency platform to gain principal membership.” The alliance allows Wirex to directly issue crypto payment cards. Now Wirex customers can top up their fiat currency designated payment cards using cryptocurrencies.

Keim’s final report — Banks in US Can Now Offer Crypto Custody Services, Regulator Says — shows that banks have found a safe way to get into the crypto space (http://ccw.fm/EpsuD). The Office of the Comptroller of Currencies, a major U.S. bank regulator, has given nationally chartered banks the green light to hold digital assets for their clients. On July 22, a senior official of the agency wrote a public letter stating that the OCC will allow banks to hold the unique cryptographic keys for a cryptocurrency wallet, opening the way for banks to provide electronic safety boxes for crypto customers. This development is one more indication that crypto adoption is continuing at rapid pace.

For the most recent episode of the Wild West Crypto Show, which includes CryptoCurrencyWire’s ongoing segment featuring the latest news from around the world, visit http://ccw.fm/USLFE.

Jonathan Keim, communications director at CryptoCurrencyWire, called in with his usual weekly triplet of exciting developments in the crypto space. He started with the headline: “CoinPayments Appoints Veteran Tech Marketer Ray Torresan as CMO to Drive New Branding & Global Growth” (http://ccw.fm/qDTuf). CoinPayments, a large cryptocurrency payments processor, has appointed Ray Torresan as chief marketing officer as part of the company’s major rebranding initiative. That marketing repositioning is meant, in turn, “to support exponential revenue growth targets,” says the company.

The CoinPayments platform allows merchants to accept Bitcoin and hundreds of altcoins in their stores by incorporating plugins, APIs and POS interfaces. As a result, the company, now with more than 2.2 million users in 182 countries around the world, has come a long way since 2013, when it became the first payment processor to support altcoins. CoinPayments now supports transactions in more than 1,900 coins.

Next on Keim’s list was the news that Jack Dorsey’s Cash App is sponsoring NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace (http://ccw.fm/IvaiL). Wallace, perhaps best known for the role he played in getting NASCAR to ban displays of the Confederate flag at its events, has a new backer, and it’s none other than Twitter co-founder and CEO, Jack Dorsey.

The sponsorship deal requires Wallace’s car to sport the logo of Cash App, the mobile payments platform from Square, which was also founded by Dorsey, as well as the Bitcoin emblem. Square’s Cash App offers mobile banking services plus the ability to transact in stocks and Bitcoin.

Finally, Keim reported on what is driving institutional interest in cryptocurrency investment, according to Huobi Global (http://ccw.fm/NSSEs). Huobi has experienced a surge in transactions as institutional investors have flocked to the company’s futures market place. In early May, futures and swap trading transaction volume reached $5.2 billion. A substantial part of this was due to perpetual contract swaps that hit $2.2 billion during one 24-hour period, a remarkable achievement considering that perpetual swaps were launched on March 31.

For the most recent episode of the Wild West Crypto Show, which includes CryptoCurrencyWire’s ongoing segment featuring the latest news from around the world, visit http://ccw.fm/CpbTi.

Jonathan Keim, communications director of CryptoCurrencyWire, appeared to give his usual weekly news update. He got the ball rolling with a headline that should put developers in good spirits: “Algorand Provides Native Support of the Pocket Network’s Next-Generation Decentralized Infrastructure” (http://ccw.fm/uukO0).

Pocket Network is a decentralized infrastructure platform for the development of peer-to-peer applications. Algorand’s involvement means that developers will have easier access to the platform, which, by virtue of being decentralized, should reduce costs, improve scalability and security, and provide a wider range of blockchain development tools. Algorand is the world’s first open-source, permissionless, pure, proof-of-stake blockchain protocol.

Next Keim reported on developments in the crypto-mining space: “HIVE Blockchain Continues Increasing Bitcoin Mining Power Through Additional Purchase of Next-Generation Miners for Green Energy-Powered Quebec Facility” (http://ccw.fm/oXeVl).

HIVE Blockchain Technologies plans to add 200 Bitmain Antminer S17e 60 Terahash per second (TH/s) SHA 256 mining machines to its Quebec operations, adding to the 750 Bitmain S17+ Antminer machines previously acquired. HIVE also owns digital-currency mining facilities in Sweden and Iceland. The company focuses primarily on the production of Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Finally, security software superstar John McAfee is back in the news, after launching the world’s first private cell phone data service (http://ccw.fm/yB18m). McAfee claims his Ghost Cell Phone Data Service will be the first 4G data service to make connections to the network untraceable.

The phone will employ a software SIM instead of a physical one. A special network will deploy a range of cryptographic techniques to ensure that connections can’t be tracked. The system will support VOIP and other IP-based communication platforms. McAfee is inviting members of the media to beta test the service, which he plans to launch globally in September. McAfee is something of a curiosity in Silicon Valley, at least partially because he has orchestrated two unsuccessful presidential campaigns.

For the latest episode of the Wild West Crypto Show, which includes CryptoCurrencyWire’s ongoing segment featuring the most recent news from around the world, visit http://ccw.fm/NN96V.

Episode 116 of the Wild West Crypto Show, titled “Cryptos Looking Strong,” was chock-full of good stuff. The show, hosted as usual by Drew Taylor and Brent Bates, featured three pioneering crypto pros: Jon Allen of the Unitize Conference, Josh Tate from ForumPay, and a special segment featuring Bo “Knows” Polny, who declaimed on face masks, the Fourth of July holiday, and gold and silver, which he says are “God’s money.” Jonathan Keim, communications director of CryptoCurrencyWire, also appeared with his usual trio of newsbreaks, one of which recounted a fake gold scam in China. In addition, listeners enjoyed commentary on cryptocurrencies and the big board indices, all of which are looking strong. Bitcoin, for instance, maintains its position above $9,000, while stocks continue to rise from their low point in mid-March.

Allen talked at length about his project, a collaboration of Cointelegraph’s BlockShow and the popular San Francisco Blockchain Week. Scheduled for July 6–10, the Unitize Decentralized Digital Conference delivered content continuously to audiences on a near-daily basis (http://ccw.fm/CSdeP). The event offered participants a chance to hear expert speakers on crypto and blockchain, as well as visit virtual exhibitions, interactive lounges and chat rooms. Networking was never so easy. An audio stream was available, so those who couldn’t take part fully still had a way to participate.

Speakers included the Hon. Hester Peirce, SEC commissioner; Vitalik Buterin, creator of Ethereum; Silvio Micali, Turing-Award cryptographer and founder of Algorand; Tim Draper, founder of DFJ VC; California Senate Majority Leader Robert Hertzberg; and Alessandro Chiesa, an assistant professor at UC Berkeley and co-founder of Zcash & StarkWare.

During his segment on the show, Tate explained how his crypto payments platform is helping small businesses expand the range of payment options they offer their customers (http://ccw.fm/j5Ebd). ForumPay can be integrated into an online merchant’s standard payment solution in only a few easy steps. The platform is a good way for online retailers to increase their customer base, as more and more people are paying for goods and services with cryptocurrencies.

Keim launched his triplet of updates with the headline “Curv Raises $23M Series a Round; Launches tX to Accelerate Institutional Adoption of Digital Assets” (http://ccw.fm/iea7p). Curv, a start-up that provides crypto custody services to institutions, has developed a platform to manage digital assets. The company’s security technology allows cryptofinance products to be safely stored and transferred on a blockchain. News of the funding was accompanied by announcement of the launch of a community of cryptographers and engineers — tX — who use Curv’s keyless technology.

In other news, Keevo announced a strategic partnership with Iron Mountain to protect crypto currency users and their heirs (http://ccw.fm/5uCsi). Keevo, which has developed a crypto hardware wallet, has formed an alliance with Iron Mountain (NYSE: IRM) to provide storage and information-management services to users of its wallet. Securing cryptocurrencies and other crypto assets has become increasingly challenging as their adoption has grown. For instance, in just the first half of 2019, more than $4 billion worth of cryptocurrencies disappeared, victim to the machinations of hackers.

Finally, Keim reported on a $2.8 billion fake-gold bullion scam (http://ccw.fm/yMjVO). Kingold Jewelry (NASDAQ: KGJI), a Chinese manufacturer of jewelry based in Wuhan, has been accused of putting up fake gold as collateral for $2.8 billion in loans the company received over the past five years. It seems the old saw — all that glitters is not gold — has been proven right once again.

For the most recent episode of the Wild West Crypto Show, which includes CryptoCurrencyWire’s ongoing segment featuring the latest news from around the world, visit http://ccw.fm/bdM58.