From the long-term impact of Bitcoin, cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, to a showdown between Ripple and Swift, here’s a look at some of the stories breaking in the world of crypto.
Bitcoin
Pantera co-CIO Joey Krug says Bitcoin has started a revolution that will radically transform every aspect of the global financial system.
In an extensive thesis on the future of finance, Krug says crypto and blockchain technology will prove to be every bit as significant as the printing press and the internet.
“Just as the internet effectively created a parallel information infrastructure, crypto (sorry cryptographers, the term has officially been co-opted!) will build a parallel financial infrastructure. And, no, it’s not going to happen with private blockchains any more than the internet revolution occurred with intranets…
I think to make money in this market you have to be contrarian and right about which projects and companies to invest in. It’s easy to just buy bitcoin and hope that digital gold will be the end-all, be-all. But I think we’re standing on the precipice of something much, much bigger than that: the early beginnings of a revolution of the entire financial system.”
You can check out the full thesis here.
Ripple and XRP
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and Swift CEO Gottfried Leibbrandt are set for a showdown in Paris.
The two will join a panel called “Let’s Send the Money” at the Paris Fintech Forum on January 30th. In November, Garlinghouse said Ripple’s suite of cross-border payment solutions are designed to replace Swift, which is currently the dominant network used to power international payments between banks and financial institutions.
⚠ #PFF19 30/01 SAVE THE DATE✍ Exceptional panel with 
— Paris Fintech Forum (@ParisFinForum) January 11, 2019
Ethereum
The Ethereum-based development studio ConsenSys has released a detailed infographic outlining the changes coming to Ethereum in its upcoming Constantinople upgrade.
Constantinople is set to launch on January 16th.
Litecoin
Litecoin creator Charlie Lee just sat down for an interview on the Unconfirmed Podcast with Laura Shin.
Lee talks about the recent 51% attack on Ethereum Classic, and what it means for the future of blockchain.
IOTA
A lead developer at the IOTA foundation says the team has completed a proof of concept that allows smart electricity grids to balance themselves.
“We built a proof of concept of how a smart grid could autonomously balance itself, by sharing data in a secure way via IOTA and letting devices decide if they want to help balance or not, but if they do they’ll get a small fee in return. This is all done by the system itself. There is no human interaction needed to run the system…
We all know what solar and wind energy are become more and more common in our grids, and we also know that at night the sun isn’t shining. This means that we have to use the energy when it’s available, or store it for a later moment in time. By using this technology we can create self sustainable islands which can keep themselves running with the power they harvested. Combining multiple islands would create a much more resilient network, and thus much more resistant to power outages.”
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