After a much-needed recovery during the third week of September, the final week of the month ended virtually unchanged after a $20 billion sell-off by early-Wednesday was erased by steady gains to the end of the week. Bitcoin followed a similar trajectory of losses then gains, although at $6,600, it ended the week marginally lower than where it began. According to CoinMarketCap, we also now appear to have officially gone past the 2000-mark in terms of the number of listed projects.
Google to lift ad ban in October
On Tuesday, reports emerged that Google is ending its ban on crypto-related advertising, and is planning to allow regulated crypto exchanges to buy ads in the US and Japan. Having first announced the restrictions back in March, which then went into effect in June, the new policy will effectively reverse those restrictions to allow regulated cryptocurrency exchanges from all over the world to purchase ads in Japan and the US.
The initial ban saw Scott Spencer of Google stating at the time, “We don’t have a crystal ball to know where the future is going to go with cryptocurrencies, but we’ve seen enough consumer harm or potential for consumer harm that it’s an area that we want to approach with extreme caution.” The amended policy will allow advertisers all over the world to run their ads, although they will only be run in Japan and the US, meaning that interested parties will have to apply for certificates to run ads in each country individually.
Vitalik Buterin: “On-chain scaling to potentially 500 tx/s” for Ethereum
In a post published on Saturday, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin stated that Ethereum could utilize innovations currently being used by privacy coin project Zcash, called ZK-SNARKS. The technology would be used to “mass-validate” transactions on the Ethereum blockchain. Ethereum has shown previous interest in using zkSNARKS, with Solidity developer Christian Reitwiessner observing that it can be used to “verify the correctness of computations without having to execute them and you will not even learn what was executed – just that it was done correctly.”
Interestingly, Buterin’s post also sees him predicting that achieving cryptographic proof for many blockchains will eventually be done “by a specialized class of “miners” running GPUs and more specialized hardware”. Such a scheme, according to Buterin, would not be susceptible to 51% if one entity ends up controlling a majority of the hashing power, “as long as there is someone to step in and take their place if they suddenly stop participating.”
Collusion taking place in EOS voting process?
A recent report published by non-profit block producer supervisor EOSONE details alleged collusion among Chinese EOS block producers. Specifically, the report highlights an Excel spreadsheet that was accidentally leaked by Huobi, the Chinese cryptocurrency exchange giant and currently third-ranked block producer.
As detailed by EOS community member Maple Leaf Capital, “The 2 allegations by the article are (a) Huobi and many other BPs mutually vote for each other to cement their BP position, and (b) Huobi openly votes for a few bp candidates in exchange for EOS returns.” In addition, Maple Leaf Capital states, “In allegation 1, Huobi votes for 20 other BPs candidates where 16 of those vote for Huobi as well. As you can see in the image attached to this tweet.”
“Coinbase Can Be the Google of Crypto” says CEO
According to Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, his company can be the Google of crypto. In a video published by Fortune, Armstrong explains, “Web 1.0 was a lot about the publishing of information on the web. Web 2.0, where Google really kind of took off, among other companies, was about interaction on the internet and messaging and sharing data. Web 3.0, we think, is going to be about value transfer on the internet. I think Coinbase can be the Google of crypto in the sense that this new way that applications are being built on the internet, Web 3.0, we can be the leading company in the world.”
Congress calls on SEC to provide regulatory clarity
A group of lawmakers from the US House of Representatives has sent a letter to SEC Chairman Jay Clayton Friday urging him to detail exactly how the agency plans to regulate cryptocurrency. According to the letter, “It is important that all policymakers work toward developing clearer guidelines between those digital tokens that are securities, and those that are not, through better articulation of SEC policy, and, ultimately, through formal guidance or legislation.”
The letter follows a “crypto roundtable” hosted by congressman Warren Davidson on Tuesday that included over 45 representatives from major Wall Street firms and crypto companies, which saw concerns being raised over the lack of regulatory clarity for ICOs and digital currencies. Congressmen have since relayed concerns to the SEC regarding this lack of clarity, which they believe prevents innovation in the US and could eventually drive business to other jurisdictions. As per their letter to Clayton, “We… believe that formal guidance may be an appropriate approach to clearing up legal uncertainties which are causing the environment for the development of innovative technologies in the United States to be unnecessarily fraught.”
