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Enjin Wallet just added full native support for the Binance Chain and all BEP-2 (Mithril, ChangeNow) based assets. This means all Binance Chain assets can now be safely stored on both Android and iOS phones and transferred with ease (with “memo” support). This integrations comes merely a week after the official launch of the Binance Chain mainnet on April 23. Binance Chain boasts fast transactions, transaction finality and support for Binance Decentralized Exchange (DEX).

For more information about the Enjin Platform, check out our Enjin Coin Guide.

This initiative is also a step in the right direction for Enjin, coming weeks after their collaboration with Samsung. With their partnership, Samsung Galaxy S10 Blockchain KeyStore will natively support ENJ, ERC-1155, Ethereum (ETH) and Ethereum based tokens.

“Like Enjin, Binance is a fast-moving, innovation machine — and one that we are proud to throw our support behind through this collaboration and many more to come.”

— Maxim Blagov, Enjin CEO

It’s Enjin Wallet is the most secure mobile wallet in the crypto space with a strong private key encryption mechanism and their own secure keyboard which. Enjin team claims these security features gives the wallet “hardware-like security. (www.spinabifida.net) ” To ease navigation, Enjin has a coin management system with features that allow one to customize fees and set limits. 

Stronger BUIDLers stick together

Following this incorporation, Ted, lauded Enjin as a “community- and BUIDL-focused.” Apart from BNB support, Enjin also announced their plans of allowing clients to “place orders to Binance DEX’s on-chain order books—without leaving the Enjin Wallet’s secure interface” in coming days.  

For more information about the Enjin Platform, check out our Enjin Coin Guide.

“We are excited to have the support of Enjin Wallet on Binance Chain. Enjin users will be able to transact from wallet to wallet on Binance DEX with full custody over their assets, increasing the level of freedom in the community.” 

Ted Lin, the Binance Chief Growth Officer

If anything, this announcement complements Binance’s effort of launching a modern, liquid and easy to use decentralized platform effectively creating a liquid market place where participants can exchange digital assets without a third party via Binance Chain, a decentralized network from where the Binance DEX and all other Binance’s operations will operate from. 

   “Binance Chain is a very simple chain in terms of application, but it can handle very large loads. It is our opinion that the load is more important than the features.”— Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, Binance CEO 

Clearly, Enjin is strategically positioning itself and will tap on the success of Binance DEX. Besides, the announcement is a testament enough, revealing their code improvement and dedication of prioritizing the user which is the reason why the wallet as a 4.6-star rating at Google Store. 

Update: Huobi has released new information about the IEO, with Thundercore (TT) being sold at $0.015 USD.

Thundercore protocol, a revolutionary fast scaling network protocol that can be used to scale ethereum Dapps will be launching on “Huobi Lite” on May 9th. This launch strategy is interesting because of the small investment size given to public – only a $500,000 USDT allocation available for Huobi platform users. Normally Initial Exchange Offerings are in the $1 to $5 Million allocation range. With such a small allocation, it’s unlikely platform users will get a significant quality of ThunderCore (TT) – possibly leading to a sellout in a few seconds.

For more information about Thundercore, read our Thundercore Guide here.

OTC trading & Risks

As Thundercore TT tokens are unlocked, savvy traders have already started speculating on the price of TT. Many OTC desks are offering TT for trade, at prices between 3.5 and 5 cents USD – depend on the region. It’s important to remember that OTC trades may not be safe – there are already reports of scammers pretending trade TT when in fact they don’t have any. Do not trade with unknown strangers.

What is ThunderCore and how does it work?

We have produced a video on the scaling protocol summarizing how “Thunderella” – the core consensus mechanism behind Thundercore works.

Large TT transactions and movements

Some groups have spotted large amounts of TT being transacted, such as this following transaction of 895980079.999TT ($30 M USD worth) being moved:

https://scan.thundercore.com/address/0x59ec13c2a3b794e188c62b48673da2dac5a3ae21

To view current ThunderCore transactions, check out Thunderscan
https://scan.thundercore.com

Token Price / Private Sale price

Official token price and private sale information from the Huobi Listing is as follows:

Total Token Supply: 10,000,000,000 TT
Prime Lite Allocation: 0.33% of Total Token Supply
Prime Lite Release Period: No lock-up/Vesting
Seed Round Price: Jan 2018, $0.01/TT
Seed Round Allocation: 575,906,500 TT, 5.76% of Total Token Supply
Seed Round Release Period: Lock up until Feb 26, 2020
Strategic Round Price: March 2018 to May 2018, $0.02/TT
Strategic Round Allocation: 1,862,274,499 TT, 18.62% of Total Token Supply
Strategic Round Release Period: One year lock-up after investment, release respectively over March 2019 to May 2019
Private Round Price: June 2018 to July 2018, $0.1/TT
Private Round Allocation: 147,648,516 TT, 1.48% of Total Token Supply

This information is in alignment with the information on Thundercore Telegram Channel.

Telegram and Chat groups

Thundercore English: https://t.me/thunder_official

Thundercore China: https://t.me/thundercore_china

Recently reports have surfaced regarding trouble at Bitmain – with entire research divisions cut and rumors that CEO Jihan Wu will step down. The reason why this is important for the entire crypto field is for 2 reasons:

• Bitmain has a huge effect on the price of Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin – with holdings of up to $600M USD in Bitcoin Cash alone.
• Future of Mining – Bitmain the largest producer of mining equipment (ASICs)

Currently, Bitmain is trying to issue an IPO and raise additional funds. For many, a successful Bitmain IPO will mean good news for Bitcoin Cash, whilst a failed IPO would mean disaster. In this article, we will examine what is known about Bitmain.

Bitmain Holds 1 Million Bitcoin Cash (5% of supply)

Bitmain is responsible for mining and holding a significant amount of Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin and DASH. It is difficult to track directly on the blockchain how much they own as they control newly minted coins. There is a leaked chart of Bitmain cryptocurrency holdings from the IPO filing in Q1 of 2018:

From what we can see from the chart, Bitmain was has been increasing their supply of Bitcoin Cash from 841,000 BCC (BCH) to 1,021,315 BCC over a 3 month period.

Mining Slowdown

Bitmain’s trouble stems from the fact sales for their ASICs have significantly fallen. This is because their customers, cryptocurrency miners are not making a profit in 2018 due to low profits. Mining companies such as Gigawatt have even filed for bankruptcy. Without a strong demand for ASICs, Bitmain will struggle to main sales and generate revenue. Competitors such as GMO has announced they will exit the cryptocurrency mining business altogether.

Hong Kong Exchange hesitant to approve Bitmain IPO

Hong Kong’s Exchange (HKX) has been hesitant to approve Bitmain’s Initial Public Offering (IPO), casting fear into the future of the company. In order to successfully apply, Bitmain has to justify that they have “sustainable models“.

Bitmain has 6 months to gain regulatory approval from the HKEX and the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) before the application is considered lapsed. Once the application has lapsed, the application decision needs to be appealed for Bitmain to have any chance of having an IPO. Bitmain’s competitor, Canaan mining’s application for an IPO has already lapsed.

Trouble for Bitcoin Cash?

With Bitmain in hot waters, Bitcoin Cash holders worry that this is bad news for their future. Bitmain has been the biggest vocal supporter and cryptocurrency buyer for Bitcoin Cash. With holdings of 1 Million Bitcoin cash, the own around 5% of the total supply. Bitmain also funds Bitcoin Cash development – and this is under jeopardy as there rumors that this research funding will be cut.

As we tread deeper into the crypto winter, we begin to see the bodies of those who didn’t prepare well. With Ethereum plummeting over 95% from its all-time high, projects left holding Ethereum are left high and dry. 
Research has shown that a significant portion of projects keep their funds in crypto, for example, Golem holds 369,023 ETH (valued at $33 Million)

(Crypto) Winter is here

We are starting to see layoffs at various crypto startups, including those behind top currencies such as Steemit and Ethereum. Many of these companies were not prepared for cryptocurrencies to take such an intense price nosedive.

Here are 5 companies who have announced layoffs/ scale backs. 

1. Consensys – 13% Staff laid off

Consensys, the company backing Ethereum is reducing its workforce by 13%. This New York based company is one of the largest companies in crypto works on real-world solutions using Ethereum. Currently the restructuring is seen as the birth of “Consensys 2.0″, a brand new direction for the company. Whilst this might be the case, one ex-employee took to reddit to voice his grievances in an AMA. 

2. ETCDEV – complete shutdown

ETCDEV, the leading Ethereum Classic development company stopped all development and shut down completely. Its founder and tech-lead Igor Artamonov stated in a tweet that ETCDEV can no longer keep afloat. Whilst this is a strong blow to the Ethereum Classic (ETC) community, the price of ETC has not plummeted to zero – there are other development teams at work on this decentralized project

3. Steemit Inc – 70% of Staff

Steemit Incorporated, laid of 70% of their workforce citing the price of STEEM going below the “worst case scenario“. This restructuring also resulted in a significant cut in the company’s scope – their social media arm being cut completely. Steemit Inc will now focus primarily on the development of the STEEM blockchain rather than its social media website steemit.com. 

4. DASH – Defensive Measures

DASH Core Group (DCG) issued a pre-emptive notice that they will not make any drastic cut backs. However, the group has made cuts to stipends and ad hoc contributors who work on non-essential features. DCG has been under fire over the past year for having a high burn rate of 240,000 USD per month (allocated from by masternode voting). 

5. Bitmain – Axed a research and development centre

Bitmain, the mining equipment manufacturer cut an entire research and development division in Israel with 23 staff. Named BitmainTech, the Israeli division was established in 2016 to work on blockchain technology and artificial intelligence. 

A Fresh New Start?

One recurring theme with this wave of “restructuring” that it marks a new beginning. In many ways, crypto startups, especially those who raised through initial coin offerings were living a fantasy.

During the bull market, the funny (but true) running joke was that if a project mentioned “blockchain” a venture capitalist would come out of the bushes and throw money at it. 

Unfortunately, it is clear that a lot of these companies had no experience in financial management, nor any clue how to generate revenue to sustain long term operations. Whilst it might seem news of layoffs is a signal for doom and gloom in the blockchain space, I consider it a necessary step for the future.

Let’s face it, we don’t live in a fantasy world where the money comes easy and results don’t matter. Crypto startups need to think about how to generate profit in the long term and find a way to sustain their operations. 

Attending Blockshow Singapore, I only have one question in my mind – is the Blockchain scene still alive? Conferences are great for answering this question because unlike fake trade volumes, attendees cannot be faked.

Who’s Attending Blockshow – any new investors?

Upon arriving at the Marina Bay Sands Conference center, I was pleasantly surprised at the number of attendees: more than 3000 blockchainers packed the conference halls. Both conference halls had over 70% of the seats filled, which was a good sign as people were actually listening to the talks. The organizers made some cheeky “optimizations” by booking a smaller venue:  the main conference hall packed around 300 people instead of the usual 600 seen in other conferences. 

I’m watching out for new investors. High numbers of new faces to the blockchain space would mean that the scene is heating up again. It could also potentially signal an end to the year-long bear market. Unfortunately, CEO of Blockshow Addy Crezee stated that there are few new investors coming into this conference. 

Strong Development Focus

You’re going to need different types of people – can’t just be engineers. You’re going to need branding, marketing, financial consultants … everybody

Jeffrey Huang, Co-founder of Mithril

For once in a Blockchain conference, attendees are no longer comparing “top ICO deals” or “hottest altcoin tips“.  Unproductive ICO deal discussion dominated the conversation space at Consensus in New York this year, a conversation topic that breeds unwanted speculation into this space.

Read more about Mithril and Binance Partnerships in Mithril Coin Guide

During Blockshow, discussions matured and revolved around about “what a team is developing?“. In addition critical debates were held over how to advance blockchain technology. This sends a strong positive long-term signal as we are guided towards health growth and advancements in this space. 

Working Products

I was lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the SBTG Shadow Fury with Vechain anti-counterfeit technology. Scanning the trainers with the Vechain Pro app will verify the unique ID on the shoe and match with records on the Vechain blockchain. (Diazepam) The tag is directly sown into the tongue of the shoe and cannot be duplicated due to the strong encryption used. 

Read more about Vechain in our Vechain Coin Guide

I have to say, seeing products in real life is much better than looking at drawings and whitepapers. The next step is to take this technology mainstream and into major brands (Nike is trialing this) and other products such luxury handbags. 

Security Token Offerings (STO)

Security Token Offerings (STOs) have become a hot topic this year, with ICO engineers look to STOs as a way to reignite the fundraising fever. STOs offer direct value to token holders – by offering an equity share of the company, it solves many of the problems of Utility Tokens face. Token holders no longer need to as “what are the tokenomics” or “what makes this token valuable in the long term“.

However, there is catch: extremely limited accessibility, especially in the US. Security tokens can only be traded between accredited investors who have more than $1 Million USD net-worth. 

There will be new terms like Token Security – which I always talk about. (Token Security) has an underlying asset that is a security, which already has an legal entity.

Professor David Lee, Blockasset Ventures

Steemit Inc announced that 70% of their employees were laid-off due to the company restructuring. It is clear that there are major issues at the company. We did some analysis on the reasons for the layoffs and also took a deep dive into the future plans of the company. 

Reasons for the Lay-offs

• Market Collapse – Unfortunately, the price of STEEM dropped 97% (from $7.31 dollars in January 2018 to $0.24)
• Budget Shortcomings – Steemit Inc held substantial amounts of the cryptocurrency STEEM. As employees are paid out in fiat, this meant the company couldn’t cash out enough STEEM to pay for the employees
• Company direction – the company focused on two fronts – blockchain development AND website development. Unfortunately they couldn’t master both. 

Long Term problems

• The company is doing too much blockchain development – developing blockchain features (Database migration, Smart media tokens (ie ICOs on Steem)), Developing DAPP (steemit.com),
• Costs of API maintenance – the company maintains APIs for free (Steem API) which is expensive
• Steemit.com is a full-blown social media project and is hard to maintain.
• they don’t have resources/management skills to manage both sides well

Solutions

• Cut down the scope of new features (Steem Media Token ~ lite edition). 
• Sunset on Steemit.com website / Dapp.
  • Ned said the infrastructure of can never scale to compete vs Instagram 
  •  “Destiny” a new app to solve core issues with steemit.com is now abandoned because of the lack of resources

Future Goals 

• Goals to improve the adoption of blockchain – transfer of value / store of value
• encourage other applications on steemit that further censorship resistance
• Increase usage of Steem as currency. how to grow the currency

Competitors

Various competitors in the social media space have also sprung up this year. One of them is Mithril, an ethereum based social network which focuses on fair-reward for content creators. Other social media services such as Dlive have migrated away from the Steem blockchain in favor of alternatives like Lino. 

Conclusion

Steemit Inc had to make some tough decisions. After setting the core direction of blockchain development, everyone else was cut. Moreover,CEO Ned Scott was unnerved during the livestream Q & A session, especially considering a majority of their employees are leaving leaving. This sets a dangerous precedent at the company and goes to show that financial management and prudence – including not speculating on their own currency is key to the successful running of any company. Questions over how the company can generate income to sustain long-term development remains. 

Summary of the Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Securities, and Investment (Committee on Financial Services) Hearing: “Examining the Cryptocurrencies and ICO Markets” held on Wednesday, March 14, 2018 (10:00 AM)

General summary of the hearing

• The hearing was devoted to discussing cryptocurrencies, initial coin offerings (ICOs), and whether the current regulatory framework adequately protects investors.
• Drawing from a mix of academic and industry witnesses, the hearing highlighted the divergent viewpointson the technology held by some of the members of Congress.
• Ultimately, many subcommittee members expressed a commitment to strike a balance between oversight and the accommodationof technological innovation.

Closing statement by the subcommittee chair, Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-MI)

“I believe this is probably hello, not goodbye.”

Positive viewpoint

• Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN)
• a member of the cryptocurrency-friendly Congressional Blockchain Caucus
• criticized politicians for calling for new regulations without taking the time to research and develop an adequate understanding of the technology

“I hear elected officials who don’t have any concept of what we’re dealing with here and how exciting it is talking about, ‘Oh my gosh, we’ve got to run in and regulate and create more government infrastructure,’” commented Emmer, adding that although there needs to be modest cryptocurrency regulation, the access to capital that ICOs provide “is something Democrats and Republicans should celebrate.”

• Some twitterers granted him the title of new “cryptodaddy”

Negative viewpoint

• Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA)
• His biggest contributors are in finance and securities
• Used all the old and regurgitated arguments to bash crypto, really didn’t offer anything new
• Called cryptocurrencies a “crock” and expressed doubt that they can be used to accomplish any social good that cannot be achieved otherwise

“Perhaps we’ll have another hearing after a major terrorist event” is financed using cryptocurrency,” he quipped, adding elsewhere that cryptocurrencies are only “popular with guys who want to sit in their pajamas and tell their wives they’re going to be millionaires.”

• Lots of backlash on twitter

Other views

• Rep. Ted Budd (R-NC)
• Applauded ICOs and other blockchain-related fintech advancements
• Cautioned that the wrong regulations could threaten the US’ status as fintech leader

“Regulation in this space is something that the U.S. has to get right, because poor or rushed policy in cryptocurrencies really threatens our reputation in finance and technology,”

• Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY)
• the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee
• working on a cryptocurrency oversight bill that would cover exchanges that offer trading services for digital assets

• Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-MI)
• chairman of the Capital Markets, Securities and Investment subcommittee
• declared his intention to pursue some kind of legislative action

“This panel, this Congress is not going to sit by idly with a lack of protection for investors.”

Coinbase view (local player in the industry):

• Awesome technology with great potential
• Can only realise this through responsible regulation
• Lack of understanding, and thus, the lack of suitable regulations is harming the space
• Because of this uncertainty, coinbase only operates with 4 cryptocurrencies: BTC, BCH, LTC and ETH
• Coinbase, he said, determined that these digital assets qualify as a “virtual currencies”
• the CFTC’s 2015 guidance that bitcoin and other virtual currencies are commodities,
• a recent ruling that supported the CFTC’s classification of bitcoin as a commodity
• the SEC’s July 2017 DAO report, which referred to Ether as a virtual currency.

Mike Lempres, Chief Legal and Risk Officer at Coinbase wallet and cryptocurrency exchange, stated that the power of the digital currency’s technology can transform “capital formation, innovation and economy,” saying that its “tremendous potential” can be only achieved through “responsible regulation.”

However, at the current stage, the US regulatory system “is harming healthy innovation” due to a lack of understanding of what should be allowed and what should be not, and how digital assets should be considered; either as securities, commodities, property, or money.

For Lempres, the goal is to ensure that potential benefits from new technology are not harmed by uncertainty resulting from “regulatory or legal missteps.” Lempres provided a short review of the main US regulatory bodies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), and Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

According to Lempres, the SEC, which is in charge of securities transactions, considers crypto as securities, while the CFTC who fully controls commodity derivatives transactions, claims that tokens are commodities. FinCEN has full authority for Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) matters, and considers tokens to be money. Meanwhile, according to the IRS, the digital coins should be considered as property for tax treatment. According to Lempres, this constitutes an extreme “lack of coordination.”

Answering a question from the Subcommittee chairman Rep. Bill Huizenga, Lempres stated that Coinbase cannot start supporting ICOs until the necessary regulations are adopted.

“We do not support any [ICO] at the current time because we are not sure what the regulatory [treatment] is… We are waiting for the dust to settle between the CFTC and SEC before we electively engage on supporting ICOs.”

* The information contained in this article is for education purpose only and not financial advice. Do your own research before making any investment decisions. (cashcofinancial)

Resources

Video of the hearing – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CCqCsmCDdw

Strong Words, Little Action: ICOs Draw Fire at US Congress Hearing

Crypto Is a ‘Crock’? Twitter Reacts to House ICO Hearing

At DC Hearing, Coinbase Calls Out Federal Regulators For ‘Harming Innovation’

US Congress Debates ICOs, Cryptocurrency Regulation in House Subcommittee Hearing

An analytical piece on how the hearing relates to and impacts ETH