#hashbased is a blockchain innovation newsletter provided by HashBased.com, an OKA innovation brand

John Griffin and Amin Shams, authors of the 2018 article “Is Bitcoin Really Un-Tethered?“ have dropped an update on SSRN. The article is worth reading. It has been heavily criticized on Twitter but some of the major conclusions and their implications have not been really addressed yet. We will see this paper being discussed for many weeks to come.

Abstract
This paper investigates whether Tether, a digital currency pegged to the U.S. dollar, influenced Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency prices during the 2017 boom. Using algorithms to analyze blockchain data, we find that purchases with Tether are timed following market downturns and result in sizable increases in Bitcoin prices. The flow is attributable to one entity, clusters below round prices, induces asymmetric autocorrelations in Bitcoin, and suggests insufficient Tether reserves before month-ends. Rather than demand from cash investors, these patterns are most consistent with the supply-based hypothesis of unbacked digital money inflating cryptocurrency prices.

John M. Griffin, Amin Shams, Is Bitcoin Really Un-Tethered?

Worth Reading

• Good article by J.P. Koning, “Banking Unbanked Bitcoiners“, on how Bitcoin debanks the banked and on the emergence of banking services specially tailored for Bitcoiners. “Cryptocurrencies and cryptocurrency service providers are being increasingly embedded into traditional finance.”
• Christopher Giancarlo and Daniel Gorfine making a case for a digital U.S. dollar based on “a government-sanctioned blockchain protocol“.
• BIS (Bank for International Settlements) released a report on “Investigating the impact of global stablecoins“.
• The Shady Cryptocurrency Boom on the Post-Soviet Frontier by Hannah Lucinda Smith

“Dodgy energy deals, loose regulation, and dubious characters—with links to the Hillary Clinton email hackers—are fueling a burgeoning crypto industry that could provide an end run around US sanctions.”

(…)

Around Kuchurgan, under a web of pylons and electricity lines, plots of land are being readied for cryptocurrency miners to build industrial farms. In a news story aired on Transnistrian television, Chinese investors gawp at the size of the empty warehouses where their servers could soon be housed

Culture

Infographic

Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) released Singapore’s blockchain landscape map to “promote awareness and adoption of blockchain technology and to grow blockchain ecosystem in Singapore.“

#hashbased is a blockchain innovation weekly newsletter provided by HashBased.com, an OKA innovation brand