Illinois has legalized blockchain contracts

“We cannot learn from one another until we stop shouting at one another - until we speak quietly enough so that our words can be heard as well as our voices.”

- Richard M. Nixon

In today's newsletter, we will be covering:

• Telefonica piloting blockchain access on 8,000 Spanish firms

• Illinois legalizing blockchain contracts

• Canada's DMG blockchain installing 1,000 new Bitcoin mining rigs for U.S. client

Poll of the Day

How much do you agree with this statement: "I believe that smart contracts should be legalized, and seen as legally binding contracts, in the court of law"

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

Access

Spanish telecommunications giant Telefonica has purportedly teamed up with the local Association of Science and Technology Parks (APTE) to offer approximately 8,000 companies in Spain access to its blockchain. 

The news was published in a report by telecommunications news outlet TotalTele on 9 Jan, which also said that Telefonica would deploy its Hyperledger-based blockchain's nodes at APTE's 52 sites. 

CEO of Telefonica Spain Maria Jesus Almazor said that the project will offer significant advantages to companies located at Spain's science and technology parks without having to deal with blockchain technology's "inherent complexity," or "dedicate resources to acquire the knowledge necessary to make the most of it."

Opening up a new dimension

The state of Illinois has become the latest state to recognize smart contracts and other blockchain-based records as legal instruments under the "Blockchain Technology Act" sponsored by Republican Keith Wheeler. 

This took effect on 1 Jan, opening up various potential new legal scenarios for blockchain-based contracts, as it is now allowed as court evidence and seen as a viable alternative to paper-based records and free from local taxation.

Part of the law states that “A smart contract, record or signature may not be denied legal effect or enforceability solely because a blockchain was used to create, store or verify the smart contract, record or signature.

Who could it be?

A press release on 6 Jan revealed that Canadian technology firm DMG Blockchain Solutions has installed 1,000 new Bitcoin (BTC) mining machines at its Christina Lake mining-as-a-service facility located in British Colombia. 

The firm bought the new miners from Chinese mining giant Bitmain, and now has the combined power consumption of about 1.5 megawatts.

The equipment will serve a new U.S.-based customer, whose name was not revealed in the release. 

DMG COO Sheldon Bennett explained that the decision was made "to focus on attracting large scale hosting clients as profitable crypto-mining is a function of creating cost efficiencies, and our mining facility is well-suited for industrial miners."

Other news 

• Luxembourg-based firm MY Sardines has announced its plan to start a cryptocurrency backed by vintage sardines, allowing investors to redeem their tokens for cans on a 1:1 basis like Tether (USDT) any time over a period of 10 years.  

• Internet of Things (IoT) software developer has launched a blockchain-enabled lock, IoTLock, that turns any keypad-enabled device into blockchain-secured smart devices that prevents package theft.

• Cryptocurrency derivatives exchange Deribit is leaving the European Union (EU) for Panama to avoid the possible tightening of regulatory demands known as 5AMLD. The requirements would need Deribit users to produce much personal data, causing high barriers for most traders, both regulatory and cost-wise.

Blockchain term of the day - Cipher

The name given to the algorithm that encrypts and decrypts information.

Special announcement - According to CoinMarketCap 2019

Wonder how the crypto market performed in 2019? Here is our version on how Bitcoin fared against major financial assets, other crypto assets, token exchanges and more! Plus additional insights based on our web traffic data! Check out this link for our 2019 review, "According to CoinMarketCap 2019"! 

Crypto calendar 

11 Jan   - CryptoNight 2020 (Chile)

15 Jan   - Crypto Finance Conference (Switzerland)

15 Jan   - The North American Bitcoin Conference (Miami, U.S.)

20 Jan   - Blockchain Economic Forum (Switzerland)

21 Jan   - CV Summit Davos (Switzerland)

25 Jan   - The Genesis Block Conference 2020 (Bangalore, India)

TBA        - Justin Sun's lunch with Warren Buffet

What you said

"How much do you agree with this statement: "I believe that the crypto community is over anticipating/ pinning too much hope on the BTC halvening event in May""

The average vote was 6.3. 13.3% of y'all voted a '1', and 23.3% of y'all voted a '10'!

"Why or why not?"

 

 

Absolutely ! Just the memory of the much-hyped Litecoin halving last year, which passed without a whisper of excitement must still resound in many people's memories. – Hahaha I remember that. I laughed at how it all played out. 

 

 

Yes, Market forces will move prices, its a reserve unit of value like gold......... Re my last coment......... All of them, I'm over 70 – Wow mad respect! Would love to hear your perspective on crypto as a whole....... World debt, atitude to money, spending before we have cash with companys like Afterpay, I am not against debt but not for an unsustanable standard of living. – I think finding that balance is almost impossible. Debt is essential.

 

 

every halvening is a major milestone.. apart from that crypto & blockchain is maturing day by day... few blockchains are doing very good in improving their codes.. we should be seeing good uses this year. coupled with halvening there will be lot of interest in Bitcoin.. – Yes we are definitely making good progress in the underlying tech side of things. 

 

 

I think that the hope invested into the upcoming Bitcoin halvening is largely based on the current lengthy cryptocurrency bear market. However, to say that too much is being pinned on the halvening would be overlooking the historical cryptocurrency trends and fundamental research. Blanket cures/blames for market phenomena are simply irresponsible. - Well, I would argue that past performance is not a good indicator of future returns. 

 

 

 

I think there will be a point where the miners turn into HODLers regardless of how much people think the price increase is baked into the cake already. If miners arent making the money required at the current price point, BTC is going to rise. – If they don’t sell, how will they keep mining operations running? 

 

 

We known about it since day one, the price already factored in, well for a while, yes, i think it still under priced, but too many people want to see 12k USD per BTC after halving and i dont see that really happening – Same.

 

 

The halving may already be factored in. BTC doesn’t have any useful utility. LN hasn’t progressed as much as we would have liked by now, and transactions have been lost. Without Bitcoin actually been backed by something does it really have any value? Other protocols and algorithms have scaled and have uses. It is true that large FI’s are investing in mining, however as we stand now China are still the centralised force behind the mining. Plus after the halving transaction fees are expected to increase. It also has to be considered that regulation may have gone in BTC’s favour as centralised governments understood that the technology was inadequate for a progressive future and didn’t want the technology to die off because of the failure of Bitcoin, allowing other projects to develop or continue so that blockchain became the forefront of progression. Quantum computing should be able to break the code within ten years. - Quantum computing can also help secure the code. Also, the difficulty would increase (readjustments every 2016 blocks) such that it would even be difficult for a quantum computer to mine the following blocks. 

See you again on Monday!

our newsletter? Share with a friend!

our newsletter? Spam your enemy!

Listen!