Developer Adds Improvements to the Bitcoin Cash Java Library

On January 30, the software developer Pokkst published a blog post sharing his experience of how he’s been maintaining the Java BCH library bitcoincashj for the last 10 months. At one time Pokkst used to develop BTC applications, but then switched to working with BCH in March 2019. The programmer explained how he put a lot of work into the bitcoincashj library after forking it from Mike Hearn’s original bitcoinj implementation.

Also read: Cashfusion Far More Practical Than Other Coinjoin Protocols, Says Data Analyst

Software Developer Pokkst Adds a Number of Improvements to the Bitcoincashj Java Library

This week BCH supporters read a blog post from the developer Pokkst who explained he’s been working on the Java implementation for the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) protocol (bitcoincashj) over the last 10 months. Pokkst is a programmer who used to write applications for BTC but in March 2019 he switched to developing BCH applications. At the time, in a blog post called “Why I’m moving to BCH,” Pokkst said that he liked innovation and had “high hopes” for the Lightning Network. “Unfortunately, the Lightning Network is an over-engineered mess,” Pokkst stressed. “Trying to walk someone through depositing Bitcoin to a wallet, opening a channel and routing the payment through the network, then explaining why larger payments do not route well will kill adoption of the Lightning Network.”

Since then, Pokkst has been very active within the BCH community and he has developed a number of applications. During the last week of March 2019, news.Bitcoin.com reported on Pokkst’s photo gallery application that makes a BCH wallet look like a smartphone photo folder. The developer also released the Crescent Cash (CC) wallet which became the third BCH light client to adopt the Cash Accounts protocol.

In April 2019, CC added Simple Ledger Protocol (SLP) token support. The following month, Pokkst implemented a new feature to CC that allows people to send bitcoin cash through a text message. Pokkst is also known for his work on the platform Tipbitcoin.cash, a tool that gives anyone the ability to tip their favorite streamer on Twitch using bitcoin cash. In addition to all the applications and wallets, the developer also worked on bitcoincashj, a Java implementation for Bitcoin Cash.

“I like Java for programming — For me, it’s easy to develop quick prototypes for. It’s also the language used for Android apps,” Pokkst wrote on the read.cash platform on Thursday. “Because of this, I liked using bitcoinj when developing BTC applications back in the day.” The software developer added:

Since I wanted to port my existing apps over to Bitcoin Cash, I needed an active bitcoinj library for Bitcoin Cash. I looked at bitcoinj.cash but by the time I moved to Bitcoin Cash, the maintainer for this fork moved to BSV.

Feel free to read. https://t.co/jLAZrE8F9q

— pokkst (@pokkst) January 30, 2020

BitcoincashJ Sees 7 Completed Improvements Over the Last 10 Months

Pokkst added that the fork had what he needed but he had to polish a few issues with the codebase. He explained that it had outdated DNS seed issues and problems with Canonical Transaction Ordering (CTOR). So the developer worked with another programmer who helped make the bitcoincashj library compatible with CTOR. However, the other developer introduced other problems to the codebase so Pokkst “tweaked his algorithm a bit and implemented it into more places within the bitcoincashj system. Now it’s working flawlessly as far as I know.” The developer said he also updated other portions of the bitcoincashj library like adding the standard BCH derivation path, Cash Account sending support in SendRequest.java, native Cash Account registration, and UTXO management in SendRequest.

The engineer said he’s also been working on the fun part, by implementing the Simple Ledger Protocol (SLP) framework into the bitcoincashj library. With all the changes Pokkst has done over the last 10 months the programmer has added:

• CTOR support
• 32MB block support
• Native Cash Account integration (trustless registration and sending)
• SLP tokens
• Standard BIP44 derivation (m/44’/145’/0′ for BCH, m/44’/245’/0′ for SLP)
• UTXO management when sending coins using SendRequest.utxos
• Up-to-date hardfork checkpoints

During the last two years, BCH has seen a number of implementations and clients that leverage different programming languages. Pokkst said that he plans to continue maintaining the bitcoincashj implementation going forward. “I do not intend to stop maintaining this fork, but it is very tiring work to make sure it stays up-to-date,” the developer concluded. Following the statement, the software developer remarked that he added an address to the README.md so BCH supporters can donate to help keep his project going.

What do you think about all the improvements Pokkst has done to the Java implementation of the Bitcoin Cash? Do you think a variety of different BCH libraries and implementations are important to the Bitcoin Cash ecosystem? Let us know what you think about this topic in the comments section below.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not an offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation, endorsement, or sponsorship of any products, services, software or companies. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

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Image credits: Shutterstock, Twitter, bitcoincashj, Fair Use, Wiki Commons, and Pixabay.

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Did you know you can buy and sell BCH privately using our noncustodial, peer-to-peer Local Bitcoin Cash trading platform? The local.Bitcoin.com marketplace has thousands of participants from all around the world trading BCH right now. And if you need a bitcoin wallet to securely store your coins, you can download one from us here.

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Deutsche Bank Reports €5.3 Billion in Net Loss for 2019 as It Counts the Cost of Restructuring

A year of reorganization has left its mark on Germany’s leading financial institution. Deutsche Bank revealed this week it suffered significant losses in the last quarter and all of 2019. The banking giant claims that the damage is “entirely driven by transformation-related effects” such as compensation for sacked employees and devalued assets.

Also read: US Bank Silvergate Sees Growth in Crypto Clients, Despite Decreasing Deposits From the Sector

New Strategy is Gaining Traction, CEO Says

In a report published Thursday, Deutsche Bank announced a pre-tax loss of €2.6 billion (over $2.85 billion) and explained it had to absorb transformation charges of €1.1 billion, goodwill impairments of €1 billion as well as restructuring and severance expenses of €805 million. The bank’s net loss for 2019 amounts to the staggering €5.3 billion (almost $5.85 billion). The figure includes transformation-related deferred tax asset valuation adjustments of €2.8 billion.

In Q4, Deutsche Bank had a pre-tax loss of €1.3 billion, including transformation charges of €608 million and another €473 million in restructuring expenses. The net loss of €1.5 billion incorporates deferred tax asset valuation adjustments of approximately €400 million. According to the report, the transformation-related effects were largely in line with the expectations. Last year, the bank incurred 70% of the total costs to achieve the goals of the reorganization program which was launched in July and will continue through 2022. Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing stated:

Our new strategy is gaining traction. Stabilizing revenues in the second half of 2019 and our consistent cost discipline both contributed to better operating performance than in 2018. Our client business is developing well, right across the bank.

The chief executive insisted the bank has a strong capital position and expressed confidence that it is capable of financing its transformation with own resources and eventually returning to growth. The report details, however, that Deutsche Bank’s revenues are down 2%, with pre-tax profit at €543 million. But if specific revenue items and transformation charges are taken out of the equation, the bank claims an adjusted pre-tax profit of €2.8 billion, or up 7% from the 2018 figure.

Deutsche Bank Slashed Over 4,000 Jobs in 2019

The Frankfurt-based financial institution is explaining the losses with the need to deal with the serious problems accumulated through the years. The measures introduced in 2019 included writing down the value of some assets and cutting 4,100 jobs. Last summer, Deutsche Bank announced it’s going to lay off at least 18,000 people by 2022, a fifth of its global workforce that should be reduced to 74,000 as it scales down investment banking and equities sales and trading operations. The bank’s management was also considering to cut up to 20% of its bonus pool and suspend the 2019 and 2020 dividend in order to reduce costs further. In 2018, €1.9 billion were paid in bonuses, despite a 14% cut.

The German lender has been dogged by many problems that have left observers concerned about its prospects. Being one of the world’s largest financial institutions, its current state inevitably contributes to the risks for Germany’s economy and the global financial system. Deutsche Bank is not an isolated case in Europe, where many other banks have been struggling to overcome the consequences of the 2008 meltdown.

This week, the European Central Bank published the results of its 2019 Supervisory Review and Evaluation Process. The ECB uses a scoring system to assess financial institutions, taking into account the viability and sustainability of business models, the adequacy of internal governance and risk management, the risks to capital, and the risks to liquidity and funding. With 1 being the best and 4 the worst score, the share of banks receiving an overall score of 3 increased to 43% in 2019 from 38% last year, only 18% achieved a score of 2, and no significant bank scored 1.

The review also indicated that the earnings of Europe’s most important banks are below their cost of capital. Business model risk remains a key area of concern due to low profitability, the ECB remarked in a press release while also emphasizing that internal governance continues to deteriorate. “Findings show that in a significant number of instances management bodies are not effective and internal controls are weak,” ECB concluded in the report.

Do you expect Deutsche Bank to achieve its restructuring goals? Share your thoughts on the subject in the comments section below.

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These Are the Most Traded Tokens on Decentralized Exchanges Right Now

The decentralized exchange landscape is evolving fast, with new liquidity aggregators and relays enhancing usability while reducing slippage. Trade volumes are also strong across the leading ERC20 DEXs and Binance DEX. The bulk of this volume is captured by a small proportion of tokens, however, whose demand augurs well for the projects and the DEXs they dominate.

Also read: Ethereum’s Value Transfer Is Now Dominated by Stablecoins

Verasity Is Binance’s King of the DEXs

On Binance DEX, the decentralized exchange that operates on the eponymous Binance Chain, verasity (VRA) is out in front, with 19% of all trades. Verasity is an attention-based video and gaming platform that enables content creators to earn tokenized rewards. Rather than trying to create a crypto-friendly Youtube, a la Dlive, Verasity is designed to integrate into existing platforms such as Twitch, Youtube, and Vimeo.

Behind the scenes, Verasity has been busy, gaining an entry into Asia’s lucrative streaming market through a partnership with Jun Capital, while a token burn has seen 17% of VRA’s supply removed from circulation. In Q4 2019, the project reported a 20x increase in videos viewed and a 10x increase in wallet registrations. VRA is currently listed on six exchanges, with the volume on Binance DEX exceeded only by that on Hitbtc.

Stablecoins Dominate Kyber Network

In keeping with Ethereum’s evolution into a stablecoin network, the most traded coins on Kyber’s DEX are all dollar-pegged assets. The most popular of these is multi-collateral dai ($890K 24-hour volume), USDT ($384K), and USDC ($282K). This is followed by wrapped bitcoin (WBTC) and wrapped eth (WETH), with link the leading altcoin on Kyber, with $147K in trades. Kyber Swap – the token swapping platform created by Kyber Network – has processed over $500M of trades since launching, and in December added support for Ethereum Name Service (ENS) token transfers.

Maker and Augur Are Uniswap Favorites

On Ethereum token exchange protocol Uniswap, dai is the most traded currency ($420K), followed by Maker’s MKR governance token ($204K), Augur’s REP ($183K), and synthetix (SNX, $165K). Fifth and sixth spot are taken by stablecoins – SAI and USDC – before HEX makes an appearance at seventh with $115K in volume.

Unibright Tops the IDEX Charts

IDEX, the leading decentralized exchange for years, lost ground when it introduced KYC. The exchange nevertheless maintains a lead over its Ethereum counterparts, recording 24-hour volume of $738K. The leading token by far is unibright (UBT) with $264K. The token is up 55% in 24 hours, which accounts for its high trading volume, which has surpassed $1 million across all exchanges.

Unibright is an enterprise-oriented blockchain project that’s focused on helping businesses integrate tokenization and distributed ledger technology. It’s unclear why the UBT token has spiked in value, though speculative trading is the likeliest cause.

Uniswap and Token Aggregators Make Gains

Crypto Differ has published data showing that Uniswap was the biggest winner in December, increasing its volume by 33% and its traffic by 29%, while other Ethereum DEXs, save for IDEX, lost market share. Conventional Ethereum DEXs are also losing ground to token aggregators, which achieve the best rate for buyers by splitting orders across multiple DEXs in a single transaction. 1inch exchange is the leader here, seeing its volume increase 50% to $15M this month. It’s followed by DX.ag and Totle, the trio handling $1.7M in weekly volume.

DEX aggregator @1inchExchange volume is looking more and more like a 🏒 https://t.co/qmduAPB4AM pic.twitter.com/s5yZyDwvat

— Dune Analytics (@DuneAnalytics) January 27, 2020

Decentralized exchanges still account for only a fraction of crypto trading, but the rate of innovation and ecosystem growth augur well. On Jan. 28, 0x launched its own liquidity aggregator, combining the order books of Kyber Network, Uniswap, and Oasis. As user experience and liquidity improve, and the defi movement gathers pace, DEXs can expect to break new records this year, even if they won’t be challenging CEXs anytime soon.

Do you trade on DEXs? If so, which platforms do you recommend? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Hierarchies of Money: Why You Use Bank Money But the Bank Wants Reserve Currency

While people tend to think of money as being all the same, the fact is governments and banks use different types of money than the everyday individual. From the top of the economic pyramid of world reserve currencies, down through central bank and commercial bank money, the capacities and function of different kinds of money vary broadly. Beyond M0, M1, and M2 classifications, reserve currencies ultimately afford policymakers opportunities not enjoyable by those holding “downstream” versions of the supply.

Also Read: Money and Democracy: Why You Never Get to Vote on the Most Important Part of Society

Different Money Supplies for Different People

Because various countries classify money differently, understanding the M0, M1, M2, etc., supplies can be somewhat tedious. From the broadest perspective, the two types of money existing worldwide in the current fractional reserve paradigm are central bank money and that of commercial banks. With central banks themselves ultimately relying on world reserve currency and the power to create money directly.

Modern fiat money is not backed by a commodity, but can be created at will by governments.

The popular classification system denominated in M’s generally measures different types of liquidity in overall money supplies. Trading Economics defines M0 for the United States as “the most liquid measure of the money supply including coins and notes in circulation and other assets that are easily convertible into cash.”

MB, or the broader monetary base, includes central bank reserves. The average person does not have power to significantly alter this base. The Fed, however, recently increased its balance sheet by creating over $400 billion from September to the end of December last year, demonstrating the monetary hierarchy.

Unlike central banks, everyday individuals cannot create official money, but must use it.

Money typically becomes classified as M1 when it exits central bank reserves and hits private bank checking accounts and the pockets of spenders. Because commercial and private banks are not required to hold all of this new money as reserves, they can loan most of it out, and other banks receiving these loans can then further loan it out again. This results in something called the ‘money supply multiplier effect,’ which is a staple of fractional reserve banking. As Investopedia clarifies:

[The effect] raises the value of money supply even though no additional physical currency actually exists to support the new amount.

For a simplified breakdown of the different money supply classifications and how the effect comes about, the video below is a handy resource for reference.

World Reserve Currency: The Magic Money of Kings

In short, there is a group that can create money and dictate its policy, and another group that must abide by these decrees and simply use it. As Perry G. Mehrling writes in his short article “Why is money difficult?”:

This process apparently offends common sense understanding of what it means to make a loan—I can only lend you a bicycle if I already possess a bicycle. Even more, it seems to go against a fundamental principle of elementary economics that “there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch”. Against this resistance, I insist that the essence of banking is a swap of IOUs.

Indeed one cannot lend a bicycle they don’t have, but banks can legally loan money which they also don’t have, multiple times over. It becomes easier to see then how some libertarian economists might label fractional reserve banking as hardly distinguishable from a state-sponsored Ponzi scheme. Mehrling points directly to the two kinds of money existing in the current hybrid system stating that “Money is part private (bank deposits) and part public (central bank currency), though in normal times we hardly notice because the two kinds of money trade at par.”

While central banks (which are neither truly public nor private) can print money and hold their own exclusive reserves, as well as dictate policy for subservient banks in the private sector, there is something at the top of the pyramid even they depend on: reserve currency status. A reserve currency has two main aspects:

1. It’s held in large reserve quantities.
2. It’s used in international trade.

Gold, whose value originated organically as a commodity in times past, and which eventually made its way to becoming the most saleable good worldwide, is the world’s first true money in a Mengerian sense. As such it can also be seen as the original world reserve currency.

With the advent of fiat money — or money created by governments by decree alone — new assets would soon take turns gaining and losing the title of world reserve currency, often in direct correspondence to political strife and wars. The progression from gold, to gold or silver-backed paper, to unbacked paper money demonstrates a politicization process which is often overlooked in modern times, as the state has become synonymous with money itself in much of mainstream cultural thought.

A distinctive feature of gold is that — like all natural resources — it is limited in supply. As governments and empires sought more and more expansion in times past, they needed to fund conquest and war, and this limitation became financially unbearable. The result was ultimately the system of fractional reserve banking practiced worldwide today, with the U.S. dollar as the unofficial world reserve currency.

With USD as the ‘new unlimited gold,’ power is secured for the United States government in trade much the same way it would have been for a gold-hoarding king of ancient times. Borrowing can be done at lower interest rates, imports become less expensive, and geopolitical power plays are easily made as the world economy relies on the reserve currency creator for survival. However, fiat printers, unlike gold, don’t know limitations. The collapse of fiat reserve currencies occurs when there is an inevitable point of failure at a concrete level, where the market no longer values the currency against the resources it was previously traded for, or truer forms of money.

When the Fiat Hits the Fan

Advocates of crypto often point to the limited supply of bitcoin and the mathematics which governs it in stark contrast to fiat money’s model of unlimited expansion regardless of underlying economic realities. It’s an unpopular position for those who don’t view scarcity as a pressing issue, or who perceive the state to have the sole right to money creation.

For many bitcoiners, this type of ideation misses the mark, as “divine right to rule” when it comes to anything — especially money — seems a terribly outdated and dangerous concept. So while the average person transacts every day with money whose value has been heavily diluted by way of an interminable cascade of IOUs, both private and central banks want to be as close as possible to the source controlling the most hard assets and global money creation itself — the central bank issuing the world’s reserve currency.

What are your thoughts on the different types of money and money supplies? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Did you know you can buy and sell BCH privately using our noncustodial, peer-to-peer Local Bitcoin Cash trading platform? The local.Bitcoin.com marketplace has thousands of participants from all around the world trading BCH right now. And if you need a bitcoin wallet to securely store your coins, you can download one from us here.

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Ethereum’s Value Transfer Is Now Dominated by Stablecoins

The Ethereum (ETH) blockchain has become home to a number of stablecoins. On January 29, Messari researcher Ryan Watkins explained that the stablecoin value transfer issued on the ETH chain recently flipped the number of native ether transactions. Essentially, Ethereum’s value transfer is now largely made up of stablecoins like tether, pax, and dai.

Also read: Cashfusion Far More Practical Than Other Coinjoin Protocols, Says Data Analyst

Researcher: ‘Ethereum’s Economy Now Dominated by Stable Value Transfer’

On Wednesday, Messari analyst Ryan Watkins reported on the Ethereum blockchain and how the ETH economy is now dominated by stablecoins. The ETH chain has a great number of stablecoins such as TUSD, USDT, DAI, PAX, and GUSD. All five of these stablecoins leverage the ETH chain for stable value transfers. “Stablecoin transfer value has now flipped ETH on Ethereum,” Watkins tweeted. While sharing another chart, Watkins indicated that most of the story is consumed by tether (USDT) transitioning to Ethereum last year. Watkins believes the flippening took place in mid-2019 and emphasized that since then “Ethereum’s economy is now dominated by stable value transfer.”

During the last week of August 2019, news.Bitcoin.com reported on the significant migration of tether from the Omni Layer network to Ethereum. At the time, ERC20 tether transactions flipped their Omni equivalent. The stablecoin tether is a $4.6 billion dollar network and all the coins are issued and maintained on chains like BTC (Omni), ETH (ERC20), EOS, and Tron. After the significant migration into the ERC20 standard, a majority of the USDT in circulation stems from the ETH chain. Additionally, researchers have noted that 70% of the circulating tether supply is controlled by roughly 104 addresses. Following Watkins’ tweet about stablecoins flipping the chain’s native currency ether, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) commented on the topic.

“Many of us (early adopters) don’t like stablecoins,” CZ tweeted. “But [the] fact is, that’s what’s needed to help us cross the chasm, as most new crypto people will still think in fiat base for a while to come. I wish that’s not the case, but we live on earth, not utopia.”

One person disagreed with CZ and said that certain stablecoins will likely remove revenue from trading platforms. “Very hypocritical — I totally agree with you about centralized stablecoins like Paxos – Binance USD or USDC,” the individual wrote. “[But] how about crypto — collateralized ones like DAI? The truth is that [decentralized finance] apps, like Uniswap, [and] Makerdao take away a lot of revenue from exchanges like Binance,” he added. However, the Binance founder said he wasn’t worried about that situation and stated:

The more choices for users, and the more innovation for the industry, the better for all of us. Don’t worry about Binance, we will manage — We are adaptable.

Stablecoins and Exchange Tokens Outshine 2017-2018 ICO Tokens That Used Ethereum’s ERC20 Standard

Another crypto proponent agreed with CZ’s assessment and said: “That’s usually how new tech and ideas are adopted. The present generation needs one foot on the old and one on the new at the same time to feel safe and be familiarized in their new surroundings.” Out of the five stablecoins maintained on the ETH chain, tether USDT is by far the most dominant. This is followed by Circle’s USDC, Makerdao’s DAI, Pax Global’s PAX, True USD (TUSD), and Gemini’s GUSD.

Today, @RyanWatkins_ reported that transfer value of stablecoins on ethereum has surpassed that of $ETH. Token transfers as a whole have been happening with higher frequency on ethereum than non-token transfers. These are both signs $ETH is proving more utility than currency. pic.twitter.com/cAt4hfqBLU

— Christine Kim (@christine_dkim) January 29, 2020

At the time of publication, 2.29 billion USDT is represented by ERC20 tokens and there are 439 million USDC tokens housed on the ETH chain as well. In addition to all the stablecoin value held on Ethereum, a great number of exchange tokens leverage the chain. For example, exchange tokens like BNB, LEO, HT, CRO, OKB, and KCS just scratch the surface when it comes to exchange-created coins hosted on the ETH chain. Stablecoins and exchange tokens are the most used ERC20s today by a long shot, and they have surpassed most of the initial coin offering (ICO) ERC20s issued in 2017-2018. Observers like Watkins and others have asked whether “it is good for ETH or does it damage ETH’s monetary premium?” Watkins further discusses this topic in his latest research analysis hosted on the Messari website.

What do you think about stablecoins flipping ether on the Ethereum chain? What do you think about the number of stablecoins and exchange tokens that leverage the ERC20 standard? Let us know what you think about this topic in the comments section below.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not an offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation, endorsement, or sponsorship of any products, services, stablecoins or companies. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

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Image credits: Shutterstock, Twitter, Messari analyst Ryan Watkins, Fair Use, and Pixabay.

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Did you know you can buy and sell BCH privately using our noncustodial, peer-to-peer Local Bitcoin Cash trading platform? The local.Bitcoin.com marketplace has thousands of participants from all around the world trading BCH right now. And if you need a bitcoin wallet to securely store your coins, you can download one from us here.

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Google Executive From India Joins Coinbase as Chief Product Officer

A Google executive from India has joined Coinbase as the new chief product officer after 11 years at Google. He aims to help Coinbase make cryptocurrency mainstream. “I am excited about what crypto and blockchain technology can do to democratize our financial systems,” the executive said, citing his experience growing up in India and the trauma of demonetization.

Also read: Regulatory Roundup — New US Crypto Tax Bill, Central Banks Join Forces on Digital Currencies

From Google and Flipkart to Coinbase

Coinbase co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong announced on Wednesday that Surojit Chatterjee is joining the company as the new chief product officer. He is leaving his position as Vice President of Product at Google, where he led Google Shopping, which helps people discover and compare products on the internet giant’s website. He was also a founding member of Google’s mobile search ads product. Prior to joining Google, Chatterjee was the Head of Product at Flipkart, a popular Indian e-commerce site. Armstrong wrote:

Today we’re announcing that Surojit Chatterjee is joining Coinbase as our new Chief Product Officer after spending 11 years at Google.

Surojit Chatterjee (left) and Brian Armstrong

Noting that the Google executive will assume his role at Coinbase on Monday, Reuters conveyed:

Chatterjee will aim to make cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin and ethereum, mainstream and easy options for paying for goods and services, especially in cross-border transactions.

Armstrong told Techcrunch that Chatterjee will help the company “organize its complex array of products, including its cryptocurrency exchange, wallet, stablecoin, incentivized crypto education platform Earn and Coinbase Commerce that lets businesses take payments in bitcoin, ethereum and more.”

Experience From India and How Crypto Can Better Financial Systems

In a Medium post published on Wednesday, Chatterjee shared his thoughts about his decision to exit Google and join Coinbase. “I’ve always enjoyed being associated with technology that is on the brink of changing how we live. Google ads has helped democratize commerce, Flipkart and e-commerce has revolutionized life in India, and I believe Coinbase is going to turn conventional finance on its head,” he opined.

The executive explained that working on mobile ads at Google and mobile commerce at Flipkart has helped him understand the profound impact smartphones have to enable commerce in more places. He then shared two memories. The first was observing very closely what a lack of liquid cash does to a family’s lifestyle, noting that he grew up in a poor, middle-class household in India and his dad still lives in a remote village in the country. The second was the demonization experience in November 2016. “The lines at the bank snaked around blocks. ATMs ran out of cash. The daily limit was hardly enough for an average family of four to function normally,” he recalled.

A long line at ICICI Bank in Delhi, India, after the demonetization announcement in 2016.

After that, he began to really think about the limitations of the current financial system. “As an immigrant who migrated to the U.S. more than two decades ago, I have personally felt the complexity and inefficiency of sending money to my parents. The situation isn’t too much better today,” the Google executive noted, adding:

I am excited about what crypto and blockchain technology can do to democratize our financial systems.

While noting that cryptocurrency and its technology can help the internet become less centralized, he emphasized: “But most importantly, it’ll help 1.7B of the world’s unbanked population transact and avail financial services using their smartphones.” Chatterjee added, “This is why I am inspired by Brian’s vision to create ‘economic freedom for everyone’ and excited to be a part of the Coinbase journey.”

Google recently came under fire in the crypto community when its subsidiary Youtube removed some crypto-related videos. Youtube later said it was a mistake and restored them. In addition, Google suspended the Ethereum Android app Metamask from its play store, citing its policy that bans mining on mobile. However, the company later backtracked on its ban and restored the app.

Coinbase Custody Goes International

On Wednesday, Coinbase also announced the launch of Coinbase Custody International Ltd. The company will now offer its institutional-grade crypto asset storage to clients throughout Europe via its regional base of operations in Dublin, Ireland. The company detailed:

Our international launch is aimed to meet the demands of institutional investors in Europe and beyond. Europe is our fastest growing geographic segment and our international launch is a direct result of client demand.

The company explained that Coinbase Custody has served European-based clients in the U.K., Switzerland, Germany, Finland, the Netherlands and more since 2018. “Our dedicated presence in Europe will allow us to offer these services in a completely localized way, with local staff, localized SLAs [service level agreements] and in compliance with local laws.”

With over $7 billion in assets currently under custody, and just under $1 billion of that belonging to non-U.S. clients, Coinbase said that it plans to support more assets and launch new features over the coming months. The company is regulated in New York as a chartered custodian. Coinbase Custody CEO Sam McIngvale told CNBC on Wednesday that the company “absolutely” intends to secure a license in Europe.

What do you think of the Google executive joining Coinbase? Let us know in the comments section below.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not an offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation, endorsement, or sponsorship of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

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Images courtesy of Shutterstock.

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Did you know you can buy and sell BCH privately using our noncustodial, peer-to-peer Local Bitcoin Cash trading platform? The local.Bitcoin.com marketplace has thousands of participants from all around the world trading BCH right now. And if you need a bitcoin wallet to securely store your coins, you can download one from us here.

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US Bank Silvergate Sees Growth in Crypto Clients, Despite Decreasing Deposits From the Sector

Financial results released by two U.S. banks providing services to the crypto industry have indicated a decline in deposits from digital currency customers. However, a positive trend has been observed as well. One of the crypto-friendly institutions, Silvergate Bank, has seen an increasing number of crypto clients throughout the year.

Also read: Swiss Bank Julius Baer Offers New Digital Asset Services With Licensed Crypto Bank SEBA

Silvergate Bank Adds 48 Crypto Customers in Q4

Last year saw a reversal of the crypto market downturn but the cryptoconomy hasn’t fully recovered yet. Although the growing regulatory clarity in the developed world, and hopefully restored interest in decentralized money can potentially increase turnovers in the near future, the recovery may take longer. Luckily, there’s a number of financial institutions willing to support the crypto sector.

Several of these banks operate in the U.S. and this week one of them, Silvergate Bank, published its Q4 and full year results for 2019. The California-based subsidiary of Silvergate Capital Corporation revealed that during the last quarter of 2019 its ‘digital currency customers’ grew to 804, from 756 in Q3 of this year and 542 at the end of December 2018.

Despite adding 48 new crypto clients in Q4, the bank registered a decrease in the digital currency customer related fee income which was $1.4 million, compared to $1.6 million for the third quarter of 2019 and $0.7 million for the fourth quarter of 2018. On yearly basis, however, that income has increased significantly – from $2.0 million in 2018 to $4.9 million in 2019. Silvergate further details:

Noninterest income for the year ended December 31, 2019 was $15.8 million, compared to $7.6 million for 2018. The increase in total noninterest income was primarily due to the increase in fee income from our digital currency customers and a $5.5 million gain on a branch sale that occurred in the first quarter of 2019.

Silvergate acknowledges a third quarter decrease in deposits which totaled $1.8 billion at Dec. 31, down $33.4 million from Sept. 30, 2019, although there’s an increase of 1.8% from Dec. 31, 2018. Noninterest bearing deposits were $1.3 billion, or around 74% of total deposits at the end of last year. They decreased by over $50 million from the previous quarter and by more than $238 million in comparison with Dec. 31, 2018. “The decrease in total deposits from the prior quarter reflects changes in deposit levels of our digital currency customers,” Silvergate notes.

Breakdown of Silvergate’s digital currency customer base and the deposits held by such customers (dollars in millions).

Metropolitan Commercial Bank Registers Drop in Deposits From Crypto Companies

While larger financial institutions in the U.S. and around the world have mostly refused to work with the crypto industry, many smaller banks have accepted the challenge. The list is getting longer and already includes the German WEG Bank and a number of Swiss banks. They are not only opening accounts for blockchain companies but also cooperating with them to offer clients new financial services based on digital assets. Other crypto-friendly banks operating in the United States are Simple Bank, Ally Bank, Provident Bank, and Quontic.

Metropolitan Commercial Bank (MCB), another of these entities, recently shared data about the crypto segment as part of 2019 results included in its latest investor presentation. According to the information, the share of digital currency customers in the bank’s deposit composition has been shrinking throughout the whole year, dropping to $104 million at the end of December, from $220 million a year earlier. Corporate cash management deposits, for example, increased during the same period from around $1.6 billion to almost $2.8 billion.

Despite the 2019 decrease in crypto-related business, the New York-headquartered bank maintains its focus on the niche. The outlook section of the report details that it plans to “continue to provide cash management service to digital currency related clients” as part of its core deposit funding and to establish long-term profitable relationships. Among its customers are industry leaders like crypto exchange Coinbase as well as bitcoin payment processor Bitpay and digital asset wallet provider Crypto.com whose crypto debits cards are issued by MCB and support bitcoin cash (BCH) among other cryptocurrencies.

What do you make of the data released by the two crypto-friendly banks? Tell us in the comments section below.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not an offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation, endorsement, or sponsorship of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

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Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Silvergate Bank, Metropolitan Commercial Bank.

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The post US Bank Silvergate Sees Growth in Crypto Clients, Despite Decreasing Deposits From the Sector appeared first on Bitcoin News.

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Cashfusion Far More Practical Than Other Coinjoin Protocols, Says Data Analyst

On January 29, data analyst James Waugh decided to test and see if the Cashfusion protocol was really anonymous. After testing Cashfusion, Waugh explained he sifted through a number of transaction inputs and outputs and realized that it’s “not possible to establish a concrete link” between them.

Also read: How to Obscure Bitcoin Cash Transaction Data by Leveraging Cashfusion

Cashfusion Tests Prove the Protocol’s Anonymity Set Is Greater Than Traditional Coinjoin Transactions

This week Bitcoin Cash supporters were pleased to see that Cashfusion passed rigorous testing when data analyst James Waugh decided to comb through a slew of Cashfusion transaction inputs and outputs. Following the experimentation, Waugh wrote a blog post on Medium called “Is Cashfusion Really Anonymous?” “A newer Coinjoin protocol called Cashfusion doesn’t enforce the requirement of equal payment amounts and instead purports anonymity due to the high number of participants in a transaction,” Waugh said. The data analyst decided to see if the Cashfusion developers’ claims were true. He added:

Some [individuals] in the cryptocurrency community are skeptical of these claims. I set out to try to crack Cashfusion by linking inputs and outputs together and then proving that they had to be the true transaction.

Cashfusion is an extension of the Cashshuffle mixing application that launched last year and the protocol improves upon Cashshuffle by allowing people to fuse coins without the requirement of equal payment amounts. Cashfusion is getting lots of attention from BCH users. The privacy enhancing protocol was cast into the limelight even more so after the Wasabi wallet creator complimented the concept.

Bitcoin Magazine’s technical writer Aaron van Wirdum wrote an editorial about the subject as well. When Waugh tested Cashfusion, he leveraged an integer programming solver to try and find some matches. “After repeating this process for all the inputs and outputs in the original candidate match above, we find that there is no way for us to know if the candidate match we found is the true transaction,” the analyst stressed. Waugh added:

It’s not possible to establish a concrete link between these inputs and outputs since it’s more likely that these inputs & outputs are linked by pure coincidence than it is that they are verifiably linked by their payment amounts.

A candidate matched set of transaction inputs and outputs shown in Waugh’s Cashfusion review.

An Indication That the Cashfusion Developers’ Claims Are True

Waugh then asked himself if other matched subsets can be verified as the true payments and explained the answer is “no.” “I have repeated this process across thousands of matched subsets, none can be mathematically proven to be the true transactions,” Waugh remarked. “So to sum up (excuse the pun), we have somewhat verified the Cashfusion’s developers’ claims that even if someone could link inputs and outputs such that they balance, due to the high number of inputs and outputs it’s impossible to determine the true way that inputs and outputs truly relate (since there are multiple possible combinations of ways of getting the inputs and outputs to balance),” Waugh concluded.

Imagine dedicating a lot of effort to break #CashFusion and then remember that, with #Schnorr signatures, you can have multiple parties involved in each input.

If #CashFusion gains traction that's a possibility that cannot be ignored.

— Cláudio Gil (@m4ktub2) January 30, 2020

The analyst further stated that the testing results were “encouraging for Cashfusion users” and emphasized that “Cashfusion is far more practical than other Coinjoin protocols that require users to send equal transaction amounts.” The news follows the recent 5th Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD5) and FATF guidelines that are being enforced this year throughout the U.S. and across Europe.

Because of the regulatory climate, cryptocurrency exchanges in these regions have ramped up identification and KYC processes. Moreover, the testing results also follow the recent Paxos Global customer ‘Ronaldmchodled’ tweeting about the exchange giving him issues because they thought he was sending to a mixing service. Despite exchanges like Binance and Paxos discouraging crypto mixing, protocols like Cashfusion are improving crypto privacy a great deal.

What do you think about data analyst James Waugh’s review of Cashfusion? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not an offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation, endorsement, or sponsorship of any products, services, bitcoin mixing wallets or companies. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the mentioned software. The Cashfusion software mentioned in the article above is in its alpha stage. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

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Image credits: Shutterstock, Cashfusion, Twitter, James Waugh, Pixabay, Fair Use, and Wiki Commons.

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The post Cashfusion Far More Practical Than Other Coinjoin Protocols, Says Data Analyst appeared first on Bitcoin News.

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