Blockstream Launches The First Ever Production Bitcoin Sidechain, Liquid Network

Blockstream, one of today's leading provider of blockchain technologies have launched a the world's first production Bitcoin sidechain, Liquid Network.

Liquid Network provides fast, secure, and confidential transactions to address the needs of exchanges, market makers, brokers and financial institutions around the globe.

It is an innovative sidechain built on the Bitcoin network that facilitates faster bitcoin transactions between businesses and individuals while allowing extended functionality.

Some of these extended functions or features are Liquid's native coin Liquid Bitcoin (LBTC), Liquid's Issued Assets, and Blockstream's Confidential Transaction.

LBTC is an asset backed by a 2-way peg to Bitcoin (BTC) and can be redeemed at any time, providing institutions and individuals with a rapid and secure way to transfer bitcoin between members with full settlement in two minutes.

The Issued Assets brings bitcoin-like features to traditional assets, such as tokenized fiat, digital reward points and attested assets (such as gold coins, etc.), removing the need for dedicated blockchains or wallet software.

Confidential Transaction technology of Blockstream will ensure that the amount and type of asset transferred are known only to the transacting parties, enhancing the privacy of both L-BTC and Issued Asset transactions.

The network went live this September 27, 2018 where the first block was generated at 1:29 UTC.

The launch was participated by 23 major companies in the cryptocurrency world including, Bitfinex, BitMEX, OKCoin, Xapo, Zaif, Bitbank, Bitso, Coinone, Unocoin, Altonomy, Atlantic Financial, Bitmax, BTCBOX, BTSE, Buull Exchange, DGroup, Crypto Garage, GOPAX, Korbit, L2B Global, The Rock Trading, SIX Digital Exchange, and XBTO.

These member comprise the whole Liquid Network, ensuring the protection of users'assets through a geographically diverse network with no single point of failure.

This new development marks the start of a new era of digital asset issuance and transcation by enabling the tokenization of fiat, securities, gold and even other new crypto assets – all with Bitcoin at the center.

SEC’s FinHub Is An Open Line Communication For Fintech Projects

The Securities and Exchange Commission of the United States of America has recently announced a new office that will be the focal point of engagement between new Fintech Projects such as cryptocurrencies and blockchain-based initiatives.

Dubbed as the Strategic Hub for Innovation and Financial Technology (FinHub) it seeks to make the interaction between the agency and fintech startups more efficient on related issues and the legalities of their products and services prior to launch.

The Finhub was announced by SEC last Oct 18, 2018 and will be focusing on emerging technologies in Fintech such as artificial intelligence, digital marketplace financing, blockchains and others.

The initiative is an effort to curb down the number of blockchain start ups that may have violated federal securities law.

The FinHub can direct entrepreneurs and provide the much-needed clarity on the requirements needed to build compliant platforms and products.

The new division in the agency will be led by Valerie A. Szczepanik who is the Senior Advisor for Digital Assets and Innovation in the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance and will be joined by agency officials with expertise in related industries.

CME Bitcoin Futures up by 41% in Q3

The CME Group has recently announced that their Bitcoin futures average daily volumes (ADV) rose up to 41% percent with open interest increased by 19% at the same period of time.

Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) is the first large financial markets operator to roll out BTC futures contracts which many have viewed as the key driver of the cryptocurrency bull run by the end of 2017.

Investors use CME bitcoin futures contracts to hedge Bitcoin exposure or harness its performance.

CME Bitcoin futures contract is just 0.03% of all the contracts being traded worldwide in its platform.

Bitcoin future contracts are seen as financial instruments where institutional investors can get indirect exposure to the asset calls and is seen as drivers of a future rally in the Bitcoin and cryptocurrency markets.

It has been reported that high-profile institutions such as Harvard, Standford, Yale and MIT invested into cryptocurrency in at least on fund in varying degrees.

Ripple Now A Payment Method For Online Rental Platform

The online item rental and storage management startup, Omni have announced that they are allowing their users to get paid in Ripple.

This initiative is not mandatory as stated by the company.

It has raised $25 million in XRP early this year and now will be paid out from its own stash of XRP.

Users will still have the option to cash out in USD if they are not interested with the volatility of cryptocurrency.

According to its CEO, Tom McLead speaking to TechCrunch, every company should have a cryptocurrency strategy to prepare for the future.

Using Ripple could benefit both Omni and its platform users where Omni can lower the transaction fees they need to pay when users cash out and transfer USD and the users can unlock liquidity in their items while growing their investment portfolio.

McLead explains the double-sided benefits of using XRP saying that in every other crypto investment scenario you have to risk cash, this way users can put items they already own to work and have them earn XRP doing nothing using Omni’s new feature called Marketplace.

This enables users to rent out their unused items generating a side income.

With the said integration they can double dip on ownership-as-investment by both unlocking liquidity early and investing some or all of the proceeds back into the cryptocurrency markets.

Possible Bull Run As Tron Passes Ethereum In Daily Transactions Volumes

TRON has recently surpassed Ethereum in terms of daily transactions.

It has been reported that on October 18, Ethereum recorded 565,791 transactions against Tron’s 599,354 transactions, which puts Tron ahead by tens of thousands of transactions.

It has been revealed by Tron Blockchain Explorer on a tweet that 77% of transactions happening on the network were Smart Contracts.

TRONbet has seen to have greatly contributed to this spike as huge numbers of users troop in to earn themselves some TRX.

Founder of TRX, Justin Sun tweeted that about 70 million TRX had been transferred to winners on TRONbet. On its first day, TRONbet recorded 10,000 plays.

He goes on to tweet that this recent milestone of surpassing Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization in terms of daily transaction is just the beginning of more of TRON’s triumphs to come.

TRON have been touted 80 times faster than the Ethereum network and with the impending release of its Project Atlas could be the catalyst that TRON needs to make a major jump in the crypto rankings.

New York City Mansion For Sale For Bitcoin Or Ethereum

It has been reported that a New York city mansion located next to Manhattan’s Riverside Park is up for sale.

The said mansion has a floor space of 10,720 square foot and is priced at around $15.9 million dollars, as reported by Fortune magazine.

Its owner, Roy Niederhoffer is open to accepting cash or cryptocurrencies in Bitcoin or Ethereum.

Despite Niederhoffer’s affinity for the historical property that was originally constructed in 1897, he is very bullish on Bitcoin and desires to own more of the cryptocurrencies.

This recent listing shows that the global real estate market continues to be more comfortable with cryptocurrencies.

The use of cryptocurrencies is seen to boost international transactions, especially in nations with monetary controls.

It has been reported that citizens of these states have looked into cryptocurrencies as an alternative financial mechanism to participate in real estate transactions to get around state-imposed limits on currency flowing out of the nation.

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