2020 Week 9
The ProfitStance TL;DR is a summary of the most important developments in crypto news, along with our thoughts on how they impact the crypto space and the economy at large.
IRS March Summit
The IRS announced a summit happening on March 3 in Washington, DC. In a first-time even to its kind, the IRS is bringing together industry leaders in blockchain, cryptocurrency, and crypto taxation to discuss the crypto environment. The summit is an open forum where panelists will be able to answer questions from both the IRS and attendees alike. Hopefully, what we see as an outcome from this event is a set of regulations that actually fit the crypto space rather than cutting-edge technology being shoehorned into existing rules for centuries old industries. View article
HSBC
An HSBC executive has announced that the company plans to cut 35,000 jobs before 2023 and invest in digital systems. While some of the money will go to digitizing their paper-based records, HSBC has spent the last three years looking into such technologies as AI and blockchain. It wouldn’t be a surprise if they didn’t announce a new cryptocurrency project similar to JP Morgan Chase Coin within the next year or so. View article
Cardano Ouroboros
Cardano’s hard fork, called Ouroboros, went live this week. It offers a new API for Cardano and is intended to make the crypto more scalable and interoperable. This hard fork is the first step to moving to a new phase called Shelley. Cardano has been promising the move to Shelley for years, and if the launch of Shelley happens this year, it could mean big things for both Cardano and investors. Like Ethereum, however, they’ve been promising their upgrade for so long, you might not want to hold your breath. View article
ENJIN
Enjin launched its development mainnet on Ethereum this week. Enjin is a crypto environment for gaming. Imagine purchasing content for one game, say a costume for your favorite character from the most recent superhero movie, and then because you purchased it on the blockchain, that costume is available in the other games as well. Considering the amount of money that goes into online gaming for products like this, Enjin could be poised for big success as well as forwarding mass adoption. View article
Voice
Block.One, the company that created EOS, has launched the beta version of its new social media, Voice. Aimed at giving everyday users back their voice, the platform is intended to allow people to be paid for their social media posts. If you sign up, you get free VOICE tokens which can then be given to other users if you like their posts. Tokens can also be purchased and exchanged just like any other crypto.
This article raises some concerns about Voice’s onboarding process. Obviously, the use of the VOICE tokens means that heavy regulation is involved, but apparently the extent to which Voice has gone is past what most people expect. Each user has to provide their government ID including full name, home address and telephone number. On top of that, users personal data isn’t hosted by Block.One, but a third party company based in the UK. View article
Chiliz
Chiliz is a company that tokenizes all aspects of sporting events, from highlights to tickets and memorabilia. They have had a relationship with European soccer teams and looks to connect with US based sports teams in the NFL, MLB, and NBA. This is another example of crypto entering a new space and bringing us all closer to mass adoption. View article
Tl;DR stands for Too Long; Didn’t Read. Basically, it’s a summary of an article that you want to read, but for either lack of time, or desire, don’t want to read all the way through the article to get the salient points. In crypto space, there are many articles published every day about many different topics. As I research, I pick the top 5 – 10 articles that represent the most important news and developments over the past week and pass those on to you. I’ll give you the TL;DR and my take.