London Stock Exchange-listed company, Mode Global Holdings PLC, has announced plans to put up to 10% of its cash reserves into Bitcoin (BTC).

With UK interest rates at a record low of 0.1%, and continued quantitative easing (money printing) around the world in response to economic woes, the firm says it is making the dramatic move to “protect investors’ assets from currency debasement.”

Mode’s executive chairman, Jonathan Rowland, has said that the company’s confidence in the long-term value of BTC has only increased, and described the move as a “modern, forward-looking but prudent treasury management strategy.”

In August, Virginia-based business intelligence software company, MicroStrategy, caused a stir when it announced it had bet big on Bitcoin with a $250M USD purchase, followed by another worth $175M in September, while Jack Dorsey’s Square has also put $50M of its cash reserves into BTC. 

AYO.NEWS says:

When major companies like this start converting significant chunks of their cash reserves into Bitcoin, it might be signalling a sea change in the way cryptocurrency is viewed by the world of big business. Of course, those waiting for the much-predicted Bitcoin Bull Run to $100K and beyond will be encouraged by the news. Will other major firms now follow suit? 

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020.

ConsenSys developer Ben Edington has predicted the ETH 2.0 beacon chain genesis is imminent. 

In an update announcing the launch of ‘V1.0.0 release candidate 0,’ Edington said he thinks the Ethereum 2.0 protocol’s deposit contract will be live sometime this week, allowing ETH to be sent between Ethereum and ETH 2.0, and that ETH 2.0 staking will launch before the end of 2020. 

After the beach chain goes live, 500K Ether will need to be staked, and a week delay will be required to give the network time to prepare, before phase 0’s launch is completed. 

Other changes announced in the update include the temporary increasing of penalty fees in an attempt to address the issues hit during the genesis “dress rehearsal” on the Spadina test network, and low participation on the Medalla testnet. 

Last week a successful trial, which Anthony Sassano of Set Protocol said would be the second last dry run, was held on the Zinken testnet. 

Despite Edington’s optimism, he did stress that it is his own opinion, and not an official statement. He also warned of the likelihood of many fake deposit contracts and Launchpad front-ends appearing over the coming days. 

AYO.NEWS says:

With Ethereum creaking under the strain of the exploding DeFi scene, and more alternative blockchains and protocols gaining traction, the ETH 2 project is under serious pressure to get a move on – and that pressure increases the risks of mistakes, so kudos to the whole development team for maintaining their cool and thoroughly testing. 

Illustrating the urgency of the Ethereum 2 project, earlier this month we reported that SingularityNET, the AI company best known for its Sophia robot, is considering ditching Ethereum and migrating to Cardano, due to serious concerns about the speeds and costs of Ethereum and the feasibility of Ethereum 2. 

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020.

Binance has confirmed it will be closing its Jersey-based subsidiary, Binance Jersey, next month. 

Launched less than two years ago, with the aim of strengthening Binance’s European growth, Binance Jersey supported both Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) trading against euros and British pounds. 

However, things didn’t go according to plan, and CoinMarketCap data shows the platform recently saw a 24-hour trading volume of just $164,470.

Binance has said it will be restricting new deposits of GBP and EUR, plus all supported cryptocurrencies, from 30 October, and will suspend trading and withdrawals from 9 November. Users will be able to access their accounts until the final shutdown on 30 November.

Binance stressed that “citizens of Jersey” will still be able to use Binance.com, where they will be served through “compliant banking channels.”

AYO.NEWS says:

Though no specific reasons were given for the decision to close Binance Jersey, it seems obvious the exchange never gained the traction needed to make it viable, and with so much competition now available, it seems unlikely it ever will. 

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020.

Crypto casino and sportsbook Cloudbet has made history by adding support for PAX Gold – effectively allowing customers to bet online with gold. 

Each token of PAX Gold (PAXG) is backed by one fine troy ounce (t oz) of a 400 oz London Good Delivery gold bar, stored in Brink’s vaults by the Paxos Trust Company, meaning that by owning PAXG you actually own the real physical gold. 

Discussing the news a Cloudbet spokesperson said:

“Tokenisation allows individuals to express their spending habits through the assets they choose to hold, rather than having to use currencies to which they hold no philosophical or economic attachments.

“In this case, we’re empowering players that want to own gold with the means to place bets with a gold casino or a gold sportsbook.”

PAXG is the third major stablecoin to be integrated by Cloudbet, after USD Tether and USD Coin. While PAXG’s value is tied to the price of gold, while USDT and USDC are fixed on a 1-to-1 basis with the US dollar. By using stablecoins, customers can avoid being exposed to the notorious market swings of other cryptocurrencies, but still benefit from fast transactions and low fees. 

Cloudbet relaunched an improved site in April, which introduced new features including esports and politics betting, easy credit card coin purchases, and stablecoins. The site also accepts Ethereum (ETH) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH).

In June, the operator demonstrated how its cryptocurrency business model allows it to offer more competitive prices by launching an English Premier League campaign, which saw its sportsbook charge no margin on pre-match bets for all games left in the season. 

AYO.NEWS says:

Tokens backed by real-world assets, primarily gold, are starting to gain real traction around the world, and are making ownership of the world’s premier precious metal much more accessible. 

In July, the Universal Protocol Alliance (UPA) launched ‘Universal Gold’ or UPXAU – a token backed by the Western Australian government-owned Perth Mint. Meanwhile, AgAu, the Swiss silver and gold electronic money system, announced it had secured investments from “high-profile bankers and commodity trading experts”, as it aims to launch both silver and gold backed tokens. 

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020.

Liftoff Week discusses a more open, resilient, and decentralised future for the internet.

Filecoin, the world’s largest decentralized storage network, is hosting Filecoin Liftoff Week, a worldwide, community-led series of inspiring talks, interactive workshops, and live demos to celebrate mainnet launch and explore the network’s future.

The event launches October 19-23, 2020, with renowned speakers from cryptography, information preservation, decentralized finance, and crypto assets set to discuss the trajectory of a fully decentralized internet.  Notable speakers include:

• Joseph Lubin, CEO and Founder of ConsenSys

• Brewster Kahle, Internet Activist and Digital Librarian and Founder of the Internet Archive

• Dan Boneh, Co-Director of the Stanford Computer Security Lab

• Emma Cui, Founding Partner and Chief Executive Officer at LongHash Ventures

• Wendy Hanamura, Director of the Internet Archive

• Jonathan Dotan, Silicon Valley Producer, and Fellow, Stanford’s Center for Blockchain Research & Stanford Compression Forum

The days will be divided into themes

• Monday 10/19 – All Systems Go: a long-term vision of Filecoin and overview of the vibrant ecosystem

• Tuesday 10/20 – Mine: focus on mining Filecoin the key to taking back control of our digital future

• Wednesday 10/21 – Build: developers focus talks and workshops,  and dive into the stack that will help you make your own decentralized apps

• Thursday 10/22 – Store: discover the remarkable content-
hosting tools on Filecoin

• Friday 10/23  – The Future: an overview of how the web 3.0 revolution can takeoff

Liftoff Week is for both Filecoin experts and novices, and serves as a great opportunity to learn, build, and explore the future of web3, celebrate the mainnet launch, and chart the future of the network. You can register to attend here. If you’d like to host your own event or celebration, submit your session today.

Raoul Pal has predicted a wall of money will power Bitcoin to $1 million by 2025. 

Bitcoin pundits have been rather quiet regarding the much predicted bull run recently, but last week Real Vision founder and CEO, Raoul Pal, went out on a limb and asserted that an “enormous wall of money” will be invested in the original cryptocurrency over the next few years, powering it to $1M by 2025. 

In an interview with Stansberry Research, Pal said:

“We’re going to go through two of these halving cycles, and just from what I know from all of the institutions, all of the people I speak to, there is an enormous wall of money coming into this. It’s an enormous wall of money, just the pipes aren’t there to allow people to do it yet, and that’s coming, but it’s on everyone’s radar screen and there are a lot of smart people working on it[.]”

Pal even went as far as saying he is contemplating switching his gold investments to Bitcoin, given the fact the crypto is now outperforming the precious metal. 

At this point, perhaps it’s worth remembering what Nigel Green, CEO and founder of financial consultancy firm deVere Group, said back in late July, when he pointed out that increasing US-China tensions and COVID-19 could push investors towards “decentralized, non-sovereign, secure digital currencies.” 

Despite a flurry of dramatic predictions around the time of the last Bitcoin halving in May, the crypto has seemingly been unable to find the traction it needs to break out of the $10-$12K zone. 

However, Pal isn’t alone in maintaining that if we just have a little patience, we’ll see BTC find its stride soon enough. Earlier this week, well-known creator of the stock-to-flow Bitcoin price models, PlanB, again said that the cryptocurrency is still on track for massive increases in the not too distant future. 

5 months after each #bitcoin halving
h/t @burdivelam pic.twitter.com/wKkXdFrrFQ

— PlanB (@100trillionUSD) October 8, 2020

Within the last few months we’ve also seen San Francisco-based crypto exchange Kraken suggest a significant price surge could be on the way for Bitcoin, and Virginia-based business intelligence company MicroStrategy bet big on BTC with a $250M purchase. 

One thing is certain right now, and that is the world is going through unprecedented changes, and is becoming increasingly unstable. Things we would have considered unthinkable just 12 months ago, like whole sectors of the economy being closed down at a moment’s notice, international and domestic travel being severely restricted, and even people’s social and family lives being put on hold by government diktat are now real. So, when it comes to where Bitcoin is going, anything is possible! 

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020.