Nasdaq - Linq.
The previous days Nasdaq announced that its "Nasdaq Financial Framework" is fully functional and available for all its operators clients. This is a much awaited milestone which sealed the wider adoption of BTC, the token, blockchain and the supporting infrastructure as it is registering data on the btc blockchain. Estonia has launched already its e-residency project allowing for location independent identity registration which may then be used to access services previously impossible without a physical residence record.
IMF radar.
Andreas Adriano a Senior Communications Officer, Communications Department and Hunter Monroe a Senior Economist, Monetary and Capital Markets Department, IMF, published an article titled "The Internet of Trust" arguing whether BTC is indeed as promising as it is believed by some people. I would just point out Marc Bayle, ECB’s director general of market infrastructure and payments, who stated he is not impressed. Perhaps because he has not fully grasped yet, the degree which their systems have become legacy while still being deployed and fine tuned. What a waste of funds and time.
Bitmain endeavours... and misconduct?
Bitmain went ahead and added Ethereum mining support to Antpool but also unveiled S9 Antminer, the most efficient mining unit up to this point. I am obliged to report a significant drop of S7 Antminer prices on Hashnest platform for a while before the official announcement, raising questions about privileged access to information that led to loss of value for those caught holding S7 mining power.
EU Parliament & Commission overreach.
On the other hand, European Union Parliament instructed the respective executive overreaching branch to monitor bitcoin and altcoins and examine steps to address money laundering and terror financing. Of course given the support European Union as a whole and Member States separately have provided to various terror organizations abroad, I perceive this action more of an effort to contain the widespread usage of btc, especially given the ECB's views as expressed above.
21 Inc. decentralized weather data accumulation.
21 Inc. has published an implementation that will allow to set up a market for weather data using, what else, bitcoin. Such an implementation may serve as a paradigm for all those involved in smart contracts looking for mechanisms that will provide on demand data, to determine predicates set in those contracts. In order to further assist the Supply side to catch up with the Demand, I have decided to dedicate a section of my blog to post requests for such data implementations not currently in existence. Likewise, supplying implementations will be able to announce the availability of another implementation. Feel free to send me an email with your request or announcement.
Lisk coin launch.
Finally, Lisk the first modular cryptocurrency utilizing sidechains was launched. It is indeed built embedding some of the aspects discussed when we were still developing the bitcoin paper and I am excited to see it implemented or at least attempted.
Conclusion.
These are just a few of the initiatives going on in the digital crypto economy. We are still far from talking wide adoption as it is still demanded on behalf of users to be technological literate at a significant level. Furthermore, new approaches are introduced either complementing or competing with existent implementations of the blockchain token concept. For as long as diverse approaches struggle for validation before becoming mainstream adoptions of current and future industries and business sectors, we will witness a lot of volatility. Despite that, the only thing that is beyond doubt, is the inherent value blockchain-token implementaitons carry not just for the future of money but also for the organization of humanity's interpersonal aspects in general.