Ep. 77. Custody is Everything

Simon's in the studio with Teana Baker-Taylor of GDF and John Detrixhe, Future of Finance Reporter at Quartz.

First up, Mike Novogratz Explains Why He’s Still All-In on Crypto. We look at what’s next for cryptocurrencies, how strategy for Galaxy evolved as crypto imploded and if there's still a sense of inevitability around crypto.

This Brazilian Bank Is Using Ethereum to Issue a Stablecoin. State owned, Brazilian national social development bank will launch pilot in Jan 2019. Since the bank has a history of corruption scandals involving misallocated funds and alleged bribes, creators hope public BNDES blockchain data will help bolster trust in state-owned banks.

A company trying to solve one of the biggest pain points in cryptocurrency just raised $8 million, and it could help lure big Wall Street funds to the burgeoning industry. Venture firm Two Sigma and blockchain company ConsenSys have invested $8 million into digital-asset-custody provider Trustology. The startup tackles one of the key challenges in cryptocurrencies: safely holding digital assets in a way that protects them from thieves but also allows the rightful owner to get quick and easy access. The funds will be used to develop new products, move into additional asset classes, and expand internationally.

Gazprombank Switzerland to Launch Crypto Services Next Year. Gazprombank ahs partnered with fintech startup Avaloq and crypto firm Metaco to offer clients crypto services. The system is meant “for the management of client portfolios across all asset classes, including cryptocurrencies.”

Coinbase U.S. Customers Get Instant Paypal Withdrawals. As part of the 12 days of Coinbase program, the popular US based exchange announced the support of instant withdrawals through PayPal for their U.S. customers. Limited PayPal to withdrawals as their partnership does not support the depositing of funds to Coinbase accounts.

Ethereum Unique Addresses Break 50 Million, Active Wallet Number Keeps Dropping. On Saturday, the Ethereum network saw a daily increase of 168,506 unique crypto wallets. The highest historical daily growth of unique Ethereum addresses took place on Jan. 4, 2018, with 352,888 new addresses created on the Ethereum network.

Razer Wants Gamers to Mine Cryptocurrency for Store Credit. Gaming hardware manufacturer Razer wants gamers to download software that mines cryptocurrency with their idle computers. But users won’t get to keep the digital coins they generate with their machines, and neither will Razer.

Why we are forking 0x? Our perspective of what’s most urgent diverged. Being on the front-lines, it is painfully apparent that most DEXs today still are plagued by rudimentary problems such as order collision, front-running, and poor liquidity.

We also have a great Tweet of the Week from Stephen Palley on Bitcoin.

To finish off the episode we've got an interview from Colin with Antony Lewis, Director of Research at r3 to talk all about his new book ‘The Basics of Bitcoins & Blockchains’.

All this and so much more on this week's episode of Blockchain Insider. And if you enjoyed our tweet of the week why not send us your best tweets? See if you can get a shout out on the show!

We hope you enjoy the show and, as ever, don't forget to subscribe!

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This week's episode of Blockchain Insider was produced by Laura Watkins and Petrit Berisha. Edited by Alex Woodhouse.

Special Guests: Antony Lewis, John Detrixhe, and Teana Baker-Taylor.