Blockchain Jobs, Bitcoin Adoption in Switzerland and North Korea | Hodler’s Digest

Hey Hodlers, I'm Molly Jane and this is your weekly Hodler's Digest 80s edition. Hit the subscribe button right now. It's actually been a pretty calm week in crypto. Bitcoin keeps hovering around 4,000, so there have been no real crazy price surprises. Some more justice was meted out this week as the CEO of now revealed crypto scam arisebank pleaded guilty to defrauding investors out of more than $4 million. The issue of fake exchange volume, which we covered last week, popped up again as two relatively unknown exchanges appeared to overTake Binance on CoinMarketCap under the adjusted volume section, which is supposed to correct exactly these kind of situations. But as we know from last week's overview, there's a pretty good chance that their volumes are fake and it looks like Binance is back up on top for now. So let's get started. But first let's have a look at the markets. A number of major banks from all over the world are planning to join worldwire, the stablecoin based payment platform designed for financial institutions and and launched by IBM last year. World Wire is running on the stellar Blockchain, thus allowing financial institutions to carry out cross border payments more quickly and cheaply than on traditional payment platforms. To put this simply, the Sennder institution will convert a certain fiat amount into a selected stablecoin through the World Wire platform. WorldWire will then convert the digital asset into the corresponding fiat currency of the receiving institution. So far, six prominent banks have signed a letter of intent to launch their own stablecoins, which will be run on World Wire. Among them are Brazilian Banco Bradesco banksusan from South Korea and RCBC from the Philippines. All of them are still waiting authorization from their respective financial regulators. As IBM's vice president of blockchain Jesse Lund told Bloomberg, two other major US banks have expressed interest in launching their own stablecoins on World Wire. According to Lund's Guess, banks are following the steps of JP Morgan, which announced plans to launch its own coin in February. So far, the platform is supporting the stellar lumens in a USD based stablecoin called Stronghold. The service is now available in 72 countries with a total of 47 fiat currencies. The future is not looking so bright if you work at BitHub. The South Korean exchange is apparently cutting 50% of its staff. But don't let that get you down. We when one moderately sized door closes, several other bigger doors open. Facebook, Twitter and Visa are all hiring and they want crypto and blockchain people so are you a lawyer? If so, Zuckerberg has got the job for you. Facebook is looking for a senior lawyer with blockchain experience. The job description includes drafting and negotiating a wide variety of contracts related to our blockchain initiatives. Responsibilities also include advising clients on the various legal risks, business strategies and other issues related to commercial transactions. The Facebook Coin is rumored to be launching in the first half of 2019. So if you do get this job, you'll need to be a self motivated fast learner. And if not, don't fret. Something tells me Facebook will always have the need for some lawyers. But if you didn't go to law school and you want to work for a company that is a bit less ethically and morally compromised, that's no problem. Because Jack Dorsey is also hiring at Square. They want engineers and a designer to work full time on open source contributions to to the bitcoin crypto ecosystem. New hires even have the option of being paid in bitcoin. Dorsey also assured applicants that the job would not entail working on Square's commercial interests, but would instead be open source focused. He believes that his enterprises have taken a lot from the open source community and now wants to return the favor. He said. This is a small way to give back and one that's aligned with our broader interests. A more accessible global financial system for the Internet. And if none of that suits you, Visa also needs to fill a crypto and blockchain related position. They are looking for a new Technical Product Manager at Visa fintech in their Palo Alto office, someone responsible for the execution of Visa's product strategy within a cryptocurrency ecosystem. All you really need is a functional knowledge of the crypto industry in depth knowledge of distributed ledger tech, and a deep understanding of existing retail payment solutions. And if you don't like the sound of any of these jobs, have no fear. Blockchain jobs are plentiful. However, you might want to think about moving to the US which is the market leader in blockchain related jobs listed on Glassdoor globally. It certainly helps if you are a developer. According to Hired.com, demand has increased 517% over the past five years. Another week goes by and the QuadrigaCX story just gets shadier and shadier. This time, surviving co founder Michael Patrin turns out to be a former convict whose real name is Omar Dhanani. Allegedly, he was apparently found guilty of identity theft related to a bank and credit card scam in 2005 and sentenced to 18 months in federal prison Dhanani was later deported to Canada, where he not only gave himself a new name, he also gave himself a new start by getting into the crypto space. Eventually co founding Quadriga, Patryn denies any criminal past in being named Danani. Canadian records appear to confirm the contrary. In fact, he legally changed his name not once, but twice. Once in 2003 and then again in 2008. QuadrigaCX, which was operated from a laptop before the founder, Gerald Cotton, mysteriously baby died in India. It is looking more and more like a criminal enterprise. 115,000 clients have yet to recover almost $200 million in missing funds. Michael Patryn actually did leave Quadriga due to a fundamental disagreement with Cotten long before Cotten's death, apparently because Cotten halted the listing process for the firm. According to Patron, the pair lost touch over time, but they did connect in the weeks before Cotten's death. We spoke to David Gerard, author of attack of the 50 foot blockchain, about the story. So, David, what do you think is the general consensus on Michael Patrin's alleged criminal past?

So both Bloomberg and the Globe and Mail are pretty much certain that Michael Patrin of Quadriga, who at one stage he ran for the Bitcoin foundation board, actually, and he's been around crypto for a while, but. But they're pretty certain that he is convicted fraudster and hacker Oma Danani. Now, Patrin's always denied this, and he engaged a reputation management firm to, like, wipe his name from the web. And that worked about as well as it always does. But Bloomberg think they found his name changes. First from Omar Dinani to Omar Patron, then from Omar Patron to Michael Patron. So Patron denies both of those are him, but they're pretty sure it's him. And everyone's going, yeah, he.

So do you think this is actually relevant? And if so, how.

So this is sort of relevant because what is this person doing involved in a $200 million crypto exchange? And also when Cotten died and Robertson was trying to get the company and work out what was going on, there was the major shareholder, which was Cotton. There was Michael Patron, there was his partner, Lovey Horner. And Michael Patron had been buying up the shares of a lot of the Miner owners of Quadriga. There are a lot of minor shareholders, so he actually does own a chunk of whatever there is of this company. So this is pretty important and relevant.

So what are they talking about in Canada? Is it actually big news over there?

Canadians are really worried about this. Everyone People in the street know about Quadriga. They know that $200 million went up in smoke. The government has a lot of people shouting what are you going to do? They go, we never knew. So now we have the Canadian Securities Administrators which oversees all the provincial regulators and the Investment Industry Regulation Organization. They're actually a consultation paper out how to regulate the crypto industry. This is really big news because all the regulators internationally all talk to each other. Crypto in Canada is going to be a lot more regulated now.

This episode is sponsored by cpi. CPI is a German based software development company with a focus on blockchain solutions. Its core product is a white label cryptocurrency exchange. White label means that CPI has already developed all the software and has a ready for market crypto exchange. You just need to brand it yourself though. CPI can also provide this for you. Their cryptocurrency exchange software allows high frequency crypto trading with up to 10,000 orders per second per market. Social trading follow successful traders and mimic their strategies. Full support of all major crypto and fiat currencies. Law compliant double entry bookkeeping. Also, the platform now allows you to launch your own security token offering and crowdfunding campaigns. So if you are looking for a ready for market solution to start a crypto exchange business, check out cpi. The link is in the description below. The Swiss giant Digitech Galaxis AG announced that both its two online retail stores, Digitech and Galaxys, will accept cryptocurrencies as a way of payment. While Digitech is Switzerland's leading online retailer in the field of electronics, IT and telecommunications, Galaxys is the country's largest shop, selling a wide range of products for all kinds of needs. Starting from this week, customers will be able to choose among 10 different cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin. Crypto payments will be available only on orders of 200 Swiss francs or more, and they will be processed by Danish crypto provider Coinify, which will instantly convert crypto tokens into Fiat, charging a 1.5% fee. Besides attracting crypto aficionados, the group hopes to educate newbies to the usage of cryptocurrencies. For instance, as both Digitech and Galaxys are selling crypto wallets, the group published a blog post explaining the basics on how to use this technology. Behind the implementation of the new payment system is the company's special task force force called Team Spectre. The most striking thing about this new adoption case was the easygoing approach the Swiss giant had towards cryptocurrency Oliver Herron, co founder and CIO of Digitech Galaxys, said he is still not fully convinced of the advantages blockchain offers over database technologies. Still in the announcement, he joked, saying that he now expected all Swiss crypto billionaires to buy from them in the future. One sure thing is that a major player like Digitech Galaxys have has the potential to spark crypto adoption. The company reported 1 billion USD in revenue in 2018 and the two websites attract over 15 million monthly visitors. Here with us is Dominique Barilocer, senior editor at Digitech Galaxis ag. So Dominique, what was the thinking behind the decision to implement crypto payments?

That's a funny story. So our engineers, they do get a certain amount of time allotted for projects that they think are interesting but are not critical or urgent or anywhere near on a release schedule. And one of these teams is Team Spectre, named so after the Bond villain organization. And they decided that, you know, crypto sounds interesting and implementing it will probably be fun. So they did. We have created a model that can be scaled, so that means that people in Switzerland, let's say a large supermarket chain or something, they can adopt this system as well now. But you know, it's a pilot project and yeah, we're now basically waiting to see what happens.

I know it's a bit early to say, but have you got an idea of how many customers are paying with cryptocurrencies?

So we don't have any numbers yet obviously, because, you know, as you said, it's too early. However, what we do have is an observation and that's an interesting one. A lot of people have used cryptocurrency, have bought stuff that is just about worth 200 Swiss francs. So the conclusion that we draw from this is that a lot of people are trying out what happens when you actually use cryptocurrency with us. So there is a certain curiosity amongst the people of Switzerland.

Always dreamed of having a vacation in North Korea, but struggling to get that visa. We've got the solution for you. A North Korean dissident group called Cheolima Civil Defense is selling blockchain based visas to enter North Korea. Once the country will be liberated, the visas will be issued in the form of non fungible tokens dubbed G visas, running on the Ethereum blockchain. The organization considers itself the legitimate North Korean government in exile and its ultimate goal is overthrowing the dictatorial regime of Kim Jong Un. Although their legitimacy might be questionable, these guys are not joking. It seems they are the same who a few days ago stormed the North Korean embassy in Madrid and stealing a bunch of computers and mobile phones and fleeing the scene in luxury vehicles. Let's be realistic. The liberation of North Korea is unlikely to happen anytime soon, but still, buying one or more Genesis visas should be seen as a way to support the organization in its effort to liberate the country. As pointed out in the announcement, visas should not be used for speculative purposes. The first 1,000 visas will be sold at the price of one Ethereum each, but additional donations are also welcomed, as shown by the Ethereum Block explorer Etherscan. Seven visas already exist and in the last couple of days around $57,000 in Bitcoin was raised while the Ethereum wallet is still pretty much empty. So hurry up. This offer is limited to 200,000 visas and will kick off on Sunday, March 24. Each visa is valid for a single entry and will allow a 45 day stay in the free North Korea of the future. Do you have a particular set of skills but no experience in blockchain or crypto but want to work in this space? Put your three main skills in the comments and the weirder the better and we will suggest a job for you. I'm here from the 80s telling you to like subscribe and hoddle.