Weekly Hodler's Digest video (2018-07-15) covering recent crypto market weakness (Bitcoin ~US$6,200; EOS down ~7% in 24h), a DOJ/Special Counsel indictment charging 12 Russian military officers for 2016 election interference allegedly funded in part via cryptocurrency (report claims more than $95,000 laundered through crypto; the indictment does not allege vote-count changes; Hillary Clinton hacked 27 July 2016), and commentary on crypto adoption and criticism. The hosts cite Imperial College/Etoro research suggesting crypto could become a mainstream payment method within a decade if scalability, usability, regulation, volatility, incentives and privacy are addressed. Human-interest piece: Google co-founder Sergey Brin reportedly mined Ethereum with his son. Economists Joseph Stieglitz, Kenneth Rogoff and Nouriel Roubini publicly criticized crypto's viability as money. Notes on regulatory geography: China’s crackdown reduced yuan–BTC volume to under 1% while Japan’s yen accounts for ~44% of global crypto trading volume (as reported).
The crypto market was in a decline this week. Bitcoin is teetering below 6,200. EOS suffered the worst loss, falling nearly 7% within 24 hours. Also, Elon Musk is apparently impressed by criminals. The three economists of the fudpocalypse have arrived and it turns out that Google co founder spends quality time with his son in a side hustle mining Ethereum. Here's your weekly Hodler's Digestion.
We begin this week with a special report on Russia. Today, a grand jury in the District of Columbia returned an indictment presented by the Special Counsel's office. The indictment charges 12 Russian military officers by name for conspiring to interfere with the 2016 presidential election. The US Department of Justice indicted 12 Russian nationals for federal crimes funded by crypto. The Russian government's main intelligence directorate allegedly used Bitcoin to fund hacking into the computer networks associated with the Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton and US Elections related state boards. Russian officials allegedly obtained thousands of stolen emails and documents that they released through the domain dcleaks.com while promoting themselves as American hacktivists. The Department of Justice reports that the indictment does not claim that the alleged criminal activities altered the vote count or changed the outcome of the 2016 elections. The indictment includes the claim that more than $95,000 was laundered through cryptocurrencies to fund the hacking and spear phishing attacks. These attacks target specific individuals or organizations with the intention of stealing data for malicious purposes. Hillary Clinton was hacked that very same day. 27 July 2016. Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. Russia woes continue A Greek court agreed on Friday to extradite Alexander Vinick to France and now over to Molly.
New research suggests that crypto will become a mainstream means of payment. A new study conducted by Imperial College in London and trading platform Etoro has found that cryptocurrencies could really go mainstream. Crypto, the study claims, already meets at least one of the three main criteria for money acting as a store of value. However, it has yet to meet the remaining two criteria acting as a medium of exchange and serving as a unit of account. One battle might be won, but not the war. In order to become money, cryptocurrency needs to solve six main scalability, usability, regulation, volatility, incentives and privacy. The study is cautiously optimistic. It outlines that crypto is the natural next step for money and can become a mainstream payment instrument within the decade. It reminds readers, however, that the very first email was sent way back in 1971, so don't expect mainstream adoption overnight. This study flies in the face of fudmeisters everywhere, like the head of the bank for International Settlements who said last week that cryptocurrency cannot assume the functions of money. Rome wasn't built in a day, but neither did it fall in a day. It took about 109,500 days. So 10 years seems pretty fast for banks to do the same. In Silicon Valley, even family time is tech related. Google co founder Sergei rocking the cafdam like it's no big deal. Brin and his son have been mining Ethereum. A year or two ago my son insisted that we needed to get a gaming PC. I told him, okay, if we get a gaming PC, we have to mine cryptocurrency. So we set up an Ethereum miner on there and we made a few pennies, a few dollars. Since he later admitted that Google had been slow to adopt blockchain and that it was not on the bleeding edge of tech, he doesn't know too much about crypto, but finds the technology extraordinary. I see the future as taking these researchy out there ideas and making them real. 100 years ago, Russian born Brin may very well have been mining with his son in an actual coal mine. Mining Ethereum in 2018 may not be all that lucrative as a gaming PC, but at least it doesn't break any child labor laws. We will know when the apocalypse is here, when the four horsemen arrive. For the end of Bitcoin we only apparently need three economists. Joseph Stieglitz, Kenneth Rogoff and Nouriel Roubini all came out against crypto with the usual fud. Bitcoin will fail as a currency, it has no intrinsic value and it suffers price volatility. Yada yada yada. Nobel prize winning economist Stieglitz was particularly cutting. He said that it contradicts the idea of a transparent banking system which allows for nefarious activity, which no government can allow. Hate to be a stickler, Mr. Stieglitz, but the entire history of banking is riddled with nefarious activity, from the Medicis to the Lehman Brothers and beyond. A lot of which the government allowed. Stieglitz went on, once the cryptocurrency market becomes significant, they will use the hammer. Rogoff and Roubini, aka Dr. Doom, concurred this. Dr. Doom thinks Bitcoin fulfills none of the characteristics of money and is too volatile to be a store of value. The three economists of the Fuddpocalypse coming soon to theaters near you. Elon Musk Modern day Da Vinci or Silicon Valley's the Donald despite his genius, Elon Musk has been pretty hard to love as of late. There was the meltdown during the conference call and he suggested a rating system for journalist credibility, and reports abounded that Tesla workers are not paid or forced to use their vacation during factory shutdowns this week, he tweeted. Vitalik Buterin was not amused. Good to know that amongst the billionaire boys club there are at least some grown ups in the room. China's crypto crackdown unfortunately seems to have worked before the bitcoin purge last year, China accounted for the majority of all crypto trades. Now, trading yuan for bitcoin has plummeted below 1% of the global volume. And Japan, which has taken the opposite approach and opened itself up to the crypto world by introducing a licensing system for digital assets last year, is now the crypto trading hub, with the yen accounting for over 44% of global crypto trading volume. In January, Bobby Lee, who was forced then to shut down BTCC operations in China, said he was hopeful that the government would eventually lift the ban, but he couldn't predict a timeframe. Frankly speaking, I don't know what kind of timeframe that is. Whether it's a few months, a few years, or even a few decades, it's hard to tell. China is the ultimate centralized state, philosophically the polar opposite of Satoshi's original dream. So it's perhaps unlikely to be anytime soon. If China eventually does lift the ban on crypto, what year do you think it will be? 20 30? 22? 30? Predictions in the comments please and as always, like subscribe and Hodl cointelegraph Like subscribe and Hodl.
