The UN must embrace blockchain

Your daily newsletter for 30 December, 2019

“I think every single imperfection adds to your beauty. I'd rather be imperfect than perfect.”

- Sonam Kapoor

In today's newsletter, we will be covering:

the Treadway Commission issuing blockchain security guidance in 2020
the United Nations Secretary-General claiming that the UN must embrace blockchain
the South Korean central bank organizing a CBDC task force

Daily Market Summary - Boring 😴

Total Market Cap: ~$195.1 billion (~2.6%) BTC Price: ~$7,380 (~2.0%)

24-Hour Volume: ~$79.8 billion (~2.0%) BTC Dominance: ~68.3% (~0.6%)

Notable movers: BitTorrent (B TT) (~15.6%)

BTC is currently trading at ~$7,380, up ~2.0% over the weekend. On the daily chart, BTC broke above its 100-day EMA line over the weekend, and RSI currently stands at ~49 (it has been in this region for the past 2 weeks). On the weekly chart, BTC continues to hold its 100-EMA line, a level it has been battling to hold for the past month.

BTC is still trading within its lower highs and lower lows trading pattern/ channel/ zone it has been trading within since late June this year. It is currently testing the lower bound. 👀

Poll of the Day

How much do you agree with this statement: "I am optimistic about 2020's overall price action for the crypto space"

Why or why not? Share with me in the polls!

Guidance 🛣️

The Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO), or the Treadway Commission, will be issuing guidance for companies using blockchain technology in Q1 of 2020.

The guidance aims to boost control over the uses of blockchain in supply chain management and financial services. 💵

It also focuses on helping companies combat cyber risks due to the adoption of new technologies by managing them "through careful design and implementation of appropriate responses and recovery processes," citing hackers who demand ransoms paid in cryptocurrency.

You must 📢

According to a recent Forbes report, United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres said that blockchain should be one of the technologies used by the UN, and that the organization must embrace the technology. 😍

He explained that the UN needs to "embrace technologies like blockchain that can help accelerate the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals," allowing them to "deliver better on our mandate in the digital age."

In July 2018, Guterres created a "High-Level Panel on Digital Cooperation" that explicitly put blockchain technology on the UN agenda. This included launching a blockchain tool that aims to prevent the exploitation of migrant workers in Hong Kong and working on blockchain solutions for sustainable urban development in Afghanistan.

CBDC task force 👊

A recent report titled "Monetary Policy for 2020" announced that South Korea's central bank, the Bank of Korea, will employ experts to study the effects of cryptocurrencies, distributed ledgers and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) on security and financial settlements, as early as January 2020. 👀

The CBDC task force will 'enact assessment principles, reflecting domestic conditions, to improve the effectiveness of its oversight of the payment and settlement systems". It will also "keep an eye" on other countries' CBDC experiments.

Other news 📰

As part of his new year predictions, Mike Novogratz said that Bitcoin (BTC) will reach $12,000 in 2020 as markets recover from new suppression. He would also honor a 1 ETH bet, should U.S. President Donald Trump lose the upcoming presidential election. 📉
U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase warned users that it may be forced to remove the decentralized application (DApp) browser feature from its wallet application from the Apple App Store. 📱
As part of their global expansion strategy, Huobi is launching a fiat gateway in Indonesia for fiat-to-crypto trading between the Indonesian Rupiah (IDR) and Tether (USDT), making it possible for investors to use the IDR to trade over 250 cryptocurrencies on Huobi Indonesia. 🇮🇩

Blockchain term of the day 🤓 - Block Reward

An incentive for a miner who successfully calculates a valid hash in a block during mining. By contributing to the security and liveness of the chain, the miner is rewarded with this incentive, ensuring that miners continue to act in the best interest of the blockchain by legitimately taking part in the process (instead of hacking it).

Crypto calendar 📅

TBA - Justin Sun's lunch with Warren Buffett

What you said

"How much do you agree with this statement: "2019 was a less boring year in crypto than 2018""

The average vote was 5.7.

"Why do you think so?"

It was less scarey because I got out . – Nooo why!

More momentum in the transactions – It definitely is building up. 💪

yes and no, Jan to Feb '18 was still on that high from Dec '17. But and maybe my nerdy side only enjoyed this the excitement of '19 felt mature as if crypto is joining the adult table at Christmas. Was a interesting year, Libra, China, Bakkt, YouTube purge. – Yeah, it really feels as if the market is slowly maturing. I remain optimistic about the space.

It's seem intl banks and financial companies try to play something for their future. – They know they can’t sit out any more. Look what happened to those companies that refused to embrace the internet back then.

I was just getting started in crypto in Nov '17. 2018 tore that part of my investment money to shreds and dented my sanity as well. I survived and I continue to expect an interesting future for bitcoin - Definitely gonna be yet another interesting year. Be sure to stick around. 👀

Halving year – True! 🔪

2018 was gut-wrenching watching multiple cycles of price free falls and bounces resulting in ever-lowering prices. Whereas, 2019 was predominantly sideways action with decreasing prices. This year was way more boring. – We did see a cool run up at the beginning of the year tho.

I don’t! Too many fairy tales and get rich quick, which are muddying the waters, also makes me skeptical for 2020. In due course the truth will out. Still 100% behind crypto and it’s tremendous benefits but feel it will need considerably more time for common sense to prevail and, perhaps, a retreat and regroup. – I agree. We should be focusing on a longer time horizon. 2020 is still too early for a space to see a run up imo.

2019 was fucking depressing - Lmaooo 😂

All the new companies offering BTC custody like Fidelity, ICE, JPmorgan and more. As well getting ready for the May 2020 halving and developments around the world preparing to guard against Quantum computing breaking the blockchain. – Yup!

Thank you all for reading! Catch you back here again tomorrow for your daily dose of crypto news! 💙