#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 manyweeksto 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.”
“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.”
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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
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
American policy-makers have long been locked in a heated battle over whether, how many, and what kind of immigrants to allow to live and work in the country. Those in favor of welcoming more immigrants often cite humanitarian reasons, while those in favor of more restrictive laws argue the need to protect native citizens.
But economist Bryan Caplan adds a new, compelling perspective to the immigration debate: He argues that opening all borders could eliminate absolute poverty worldwide and usher in a booming worldwide economy―greatly benefiting humanity.
With a clear and conversational tone, exhaustive research, and vibrant illustrations by Zach Weinersmith, Open Borders makes the case for unrestricted immigration easy to follow and hard to deny.
3. Mammon. Far from representing rationality and logic, capitalism is modernity’s most beguiling and dangerous form of enchantment by Eugene McCarraher (society, aeon)
Oragious 