Quebec Halts Crypto Mining Approvals As New Rules In Progress

https://www.coindesk.com/report-quebec-freezes-crypto-mining-operations-seeks-to-raise-costs/

Search Giant Baidu Is Launching a Blockchain Space Game

https://www.coindesk.com/search-giant-baidu-is-launching-a-blockchain-space-game/

Which Way? Bitcoin's Low Volatility May Force Big Move

https://www.coindesk.com/which-way-now-low-bitcoin-price-volatility-may-force-breakout/

Mizuho Financial's Blockchain Lead Is Leaving the Firm

https://www.coindesk.com/mizuho-financials-blockchain-lead-is-leaving-the-firm/

Mastercard Patent Would Put Credit Cards on a Public Blockchain

https://www.coindesk.com/mastercard-patent-would-put-credit-cards-on-a-public-blockchain/

Crypto Exchange Bithumb Hit With Bill After Tax Investigation Ends

https://www.coindesk.com/crypto-exchange-bithumb-hit-with-bill-after-tax-investigation-ends/

To Better Organize, Decentralize: Matan Field of DAOstack
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/better-organize-decentralize-matan-field-daostack/

It’s time to move past the inefficiency of antiquated organizational structures, and blockchains are the key. So say the creators of DAOstack (https://daostack.io/), a solution that’s designed to intuitively move people into systems of decentralized governance and away from the traditional top-down hierarchies that predominate the planet today.
DAOstack CEO Matan Field was the featured guest on Episode #237 of Epicenter (https://letstalkbitcoin.com/blog/post/epicenter-237-matan-field-daostack-an-operating-system-for-collective-intelligence), joining hosts Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture for a deep dive into his personal journey with, and considerable ambitions for, the company he co-founded. It’s the second act in the world of Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) design for this theoretical physicist, who originally set out to combine the blockchain and decentralization with the short-lived company Backfeed (http://backfeed.cc/).Realizing in the midst of Backfeed that both a technological partner and a revised focus were necessary, the company stopped operations. Field hit reset, and the result was DAOstack, a platform for decentralized governance which allows collectives to self-organize, gathering with relative ease and efficiency over their shared goals and values.Unpacking the StackIn conversation with Crain and Couture, Field described how the primary appeal of DAOstack crystallizes around its concept as a “WordPress (https://wordpress.com/) for DAOs.” Evolved from open-source origins, WordPress provides website creators with a set of backend tools that make it relatively simple to design, launch and grow an extremely wide array of websites, from simple blogging to full-blown media portals and e-commerce operations. Thousands of plugins and themes are available to further customize a WordPress site and make it suit an individual organization’s unique needs.“When I say that you establish and operate a DAO easily, like you would a blog in WordPress,” Field says in the interview, “the meaning is that you have a framework of rules for coordination of people. If I want to establish a new DAO with its own rules, its own governance protocol, I don’t have to code that from scratch.”The idea that this WordPress workflow can be applied to enabling DAOs is compelling, to say the least. It makes the massive challenge of taking on ancient systems of hierarchical management seem achievable, even user-friendly. That’s key if Fields’ vision of enabling decentralized infrastructures — for everything from governments to hedge funds, insurance companies, coding collectives and climate change warriors — is going to see significant adoption.From there, users who get drawn in will discover what makes this system a “stack,” built as it is on a modular Ethereum-based smart contract framework (“Arc”); a JavaScript developer environment (“Arc.js”); and an intuitive user interface designed to encourage participation (“Alchemy”) even by the non-technically inclined. In Practice       Need a use case of a deployment where the user-friendly DAOstack can make a positive impact? Field provides one with the Ethereum project itself which, in his estimation, has abundant financial and human capital (in the form of thousands of developers).“So what is the limiting factor in producing solutions? Why haven’t we solved the scalability problem?” he posits. “The actual answer is the decision-making capacity to wisely deploy capital into human capital and produce solutions. That’s exactly the role for Alchemy: decentralizing the decision-making function, so that people can get into the system, and they can make any proposal to use funds. People can vote on a proposal and produce decisions in large numbers, effectively.”GENESIS Is NextThe rollout of DAOstack took another step with the public sale in May of GEN, which is the native crypto token of DAOstack’s ecosystem. Meanwhile, there is a Q3 2018 release scheduled for the GENESIS DAO, which will

be open to public participation as it marks the first DAO created using this stack.How will it fare? Doubtless, Field and his colleagues will patiently be on pins and needles as they watch it unfold, informed as they were by their Backfeed experience which showed them that infrastructures require time to evolve. No matter how it pans out, however, his experiment bears out a truth noted by Crain at the podcast’s conclusion: “Finding new ways of collaborating, organizing and building structures and organizational systems is one of the most exciting aspects of blockchain.”



This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine (https://bitcoinmagazine.com/).

Moscow Stock Exchange to Publish ICO Data

https://www.coindesk.com/moscow-stock-exchange-to-publish-ico-data/

Another Investor Lawsuit Claims XRP Is a Security

https://www.coindesk.com/another-investor-lawsuit-claims-xrp-security/

Inside the Sprawling (Ongoing) Vote That Will Decide When EOS Launches

https://www.coindesk.com/inside-sprawling-ongoing-vote-will-decide-eos-launches/

Bank of Italy Official: Central Banks Not Ready to Issue Digital Currencies

https://www.coindesk.com/bank-italy-official-central-banks-not-ready-issue-digital-currencies/

The Crypto Community Isn't Sad or Surprised By R3's Reported Woes

https://www.coindesk.com/crypto-community-isnt-sad-surprised-r3s-reported-woes/

Japanese Syndicate Wallet Hacked, $10 Million Reported Missing
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/japanese-syndicate-wallet-hacked-10-million-reported-missing/

Shopin (https://tokensale.shopin.com/) — a universal shopper profile that delivers personal shopping experiences through retailers’ apps, websites and stores — says one of its token distributors has been hacked and roughly $10 million in a variety of cryptocurrencies has been stolen. Representatives of the platform have released the following statement: “On Wednesday, May 30, 2018, Shopin distributed tokens to one of its leading partners in Japan, who runs a large Japanese syndicate. A few day later, her wallet was hacked, as she was not storing it in cold storage or in a hardware wallet. This is a very sad moment; the Shopin team has a lot of empathy for the situation and the wonderful Japanese people who have participated. We are investigating what can be done to help with the situation.” Eran Eyal is the founder and CEO of Shopin. Speaking with Bitcoin Magazine, Eyal explained that the syndicate in question is a group of participants that pool their funds together to get access to better deals in TGEs and ICOs. Typically, the syndicate is represented by one or a few individuals that the group entrusts to handle funds, send them to varying projects and then distribute project tokens back to respective members. “Usually, this is done via prima-block, which enables the participants to pool their funds into a smart contract which handles all the parameters and distribution,” he explains. “This was a methodology that we urged the Japanese syndicate head to use, but it was unheeded. Instead, the syndicate lead decided to store the funds and tokens they received in a wallet like MyEtherWallet.” Eyal insists that executives spent weeks urging those involved to be cautious and to use only cold storage for housing tokens. “At one stage, we even recommended other wallets for receiving the tokens and sent instructional videos,” he assures. “The only things that could have brought this to bear, in our minds, is that someone had access to the syndicate lead’s passwords, devices or mnemonic key. The actual vulnerability is the negligence of keeping this all in a hot wallet.” The Shopin team is working extensively to get the funds back. Eyal says they’ve even tried pleading with the hacker and have offered a reward for returning the funds. “Our tokens were distributed by an airtight smart contract and was audited by three external top-of-class firms,” he claims. “176 hackers couldn’t find bugs or flaws in our bug bounty program, so we take this matter very seriously.” Shopin is now working with Blockseer (https://www.blockseer.com/) — which tracks cryptocurrency transactions — to see if the stolen funds hit an exchange that can be locked down. Eyal says the team has left comments on various wallets informing users not to interact with the tokens, though this isn’t a fool-proof plan. “We are investigating other technical solutions as well, such as a token swap, where all existing token holders send their tokens to a smart contract that converts the tokens into a new token, except for the stolen ones,” he says. “If our legal team and community approves this solution, we would thwart the thief, and the syndicate would get its tokens back.” Overall, Shopin claims to have put approximately 200 hours of time into trying to locate the stolen funds. “From a legal standpoint, Shopin’s responsibilities ended when we delivered the tokens to the syndicate and they acknowledged successful reception,” Eyal states. “However, the moral and ethical ramifications are the real issues. Shopin takes a very thoughtful and balanced approach to decisions we make as a company. We are sparing no effort in examining every solution possible.” Stationed in Brooklyn, New York (https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/japanese-syndicate-wallet-hacked-10-million-usd-reported-missing-300660484.html), Shopin was recently voted “Best ICO” at the North American Bitcoin Conference of 2018. It was also labeled “Best ICO and Startup” by CoinAgenda Global and given the number

five “Top ICO” spot at Davos d10e.



This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine (https://bitcoinmagazine.com/).

Chinese Cryptomining Chip Giant Bitmain Is Considering an IPO
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/chinese-cryptomining-chip-giant-bitmain-considering-ipo/

Bitmain — the largest and most established manufacturer of cryptocurrency mining chips — is considering an IPO, or initial public offering. This could potentially open the company’s books to the world and allow the stock market to assign the company real-time value.
Bitmain’s 32-year-old founder Jihan Wu says he’s chiefly examining the possibilities of a listing in Hong Kong or “an overseas market with U.S. dollar-denominated shares.” This, he says, would give early investors the chance to cash out.“Bitmain is trying very hard to maintain its advantage,” he explained, commenting that the company (http://www.businessinsider.com/bitmain-cryptocurrency-bitcoin-mining-jihan-wu-ipo-2018-6?r=UK&IR=T) has dominated the mining scene since it first came to fruition.Wu says a public share sale would be a “landmark” for both the company and the cryptocurrency space in general. He comments that miners, venture capitalists and developers alike are trying desperately to appease global regulators and are thus opting for less privacy and more transparency to prove digital assets are not fraudulent but rather legitimate forms of currency.He continued to say that an IPO would also help push Bitmain’s profile, as the company is eagerly looking for ways to branch out into alternate arenas of technology including artificial intelligence which, unlike cryptocurrencies, has garnered solid support from Chinese officials.One of Bitmain’s primary competitors, Canaan Inc., has already filed for a Hong Kong (https://cryptonewsmonitor.com/2018/05/16/asic-manufacturer-officially-files-1-billion-ipo-in-hong-kong/) IPO. The offering is slated to raise approximately $1 billion in initial funding, but this is relatively miniscule compared to what Bitmain has managed to accomplish.Wu explains that Bitmain’s revenue for 2017 alone was roughly $3 billion (http://fortune.com/2018/06/07/jihan-wu-cryptocurrency-mining/), and that he and co-founder Micree Zhan own more than 60 percent of the business, making them the primary shareholders. He values Bitmain at just under $12 billion, while he, himself, has a net worth of over $5 billion.A Bitmain spokesperson told Bitcoin Magazine that Canaan beating Bitmain to the punch is not something executives are overly concerned about.“There certainly isn’t a race to be the first crypto-mining company to go IPO. Should Bitmain continue on this path towards an IPO, it does so on its own terms and to support its own strategic goals, not as a competitive marketing exercise.”Per a February report by Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., Bitmain holds as much as 80 percent (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-16/bitcoin-mining-equipment-maker-canaan-files-for-1-billion-ipo) of today’s crypto-mining gear, and that units from its most popular mining series — the Antminer — typically sell for anywhere between a few hundred and a few thousand dollars each. Professional mining operators with access to low-cost electricity have been known to purchase these units in bulk.Despite the positive effects an IPO could have on the company’s reputation and status, Mizuho Securities Asia analyst Kevin Wang was critical of Bitmain’s plans, saying the only reason Hong Kong investors would be drawn to an IPO like this is because there are very few options to choose (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-07/crypto-s-32-year-old-billionaire-mining-king-is-mulling-an-ipo) from in the Chinese mining arena, which Bitmain already dictates.“They’ll have a premium for their valuation because there are very few stocks like Bitmain in Hong Kong,” he said. “It’s the sustainability of the business that’s the real question mark.”Bitmain’s spokesperson responded to this criticism by saying, “Many assume that Bitmain’s success must mean it possesses a level of power no company really has. This includes the false rumor, which was addressed in our blog (https://blog.bitmain.com/en/bitmain-sia-state-cryptocurrency-mining/), that we prevent suppliers in

China from working with other companies. On the contrary, there have lately been new competitors, both in China and abroad, who are making competing mining devices. Bitmain has also been more transparent about its operations, such as publishing QA and shipment information.”




This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine (https://bitcoinmagazine.com/).