North America: Crypto and Blockchain News Roundup 15th to 21st April, 2019

North America

Welcome to another weekly blockchain news roundup from around the world. Here we present to you all the latest Bitcoin news continent by continent and country by country.

USA

CFTC Commissioner says rapid pace of innovation presents difficulty in approving proposal like Bakkt: In the current period of innovation, it will be harder to approve proposals like Bakkt, according to Christopher Giancarlo, US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Commissioner. CFTC is responsible for regulating options and futures markets.

Recently, prospective clients were promised by Bakkt that CFTC will be requested to permit the issuance of the first physically deliverable Bitcoin futures. Moreover, Bakkt will be looking to store Bitcoin in a physical warehouse on their client’s behalf. Industry is changing at a rapid rate, hence it is difficult for regulators to catch up with upcoming technological innovations, believed Giancarlo.

John McAfee relied on mathematics to predict BTC price: By the end of 2020, Bitcoin (BTC) price will be no less than USD 1 million, claimed John McAfee in a recent tweet. He stated that his prediction is based on mathematics and it will be “mathematically impossible” to experience a lower price. In 2018, BTC price experienced a 20 times increase which, according to many experts, was extremely unexpected and will not likely happen again.

Nevertheless, BTC currently sits at USD 5,277, meaning that it will have to increase by 20,000% to achieve USD 1 million target. It is important to note that previously, in 2017, McAfee predicted that BTC price will touch USD 500,000 mark by the end of 2020.

2020 presidential candidate Andrew Yang criticizes BitLicence, demands clarity on crypto regulations: More lucidity is demanded by Andrew Yang (democratic presidential candidate) on crypto regulations. Yang, who is known as a supporter of Bitcoin, stated that BitLicence is “onerous”.  According to the reports, the New York State Department of Financial Services will issue BitLicence, which will serve as the business license for cryptocurrency activities.

Yang said that federal government must bring clarity in regulations so that investors can proceed with relevant information. It is worth noting that Yang announced to accept crypto donations. He is among a few presidential candidates to do so. Moreover, he himself is an entrepreneur and has worked in multiple startups during the span of 2000-2009.

Russia allegedly used BTC to purchase computer hardware for hacking into Clinton’s emails: Bitcoin (BTC) was used by Russian intelligence to secure computer infrastructure required for hacking purposes, which aided in interfering in the 2016 US Presidential Election, stated the Mueller Report. As per the report, Russia damaged Hilary Clinton’s presidential campaign by using hacking, which in turn helped Donald Trump and “smoothed his path”.

However, Donald Trump was not found guilty of collusion.  The operation was carried out by the main intelligence directorate of the general staff of the Russian army (GRU). GRU was responsible for hacking into computers of Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) and leaking the hacked material, states the report.

IBM and University of Louisville will join hands to open blockchain academy: A blockchain skills academy will be setup by IBM in collaboration with the University of Louisville, reports the media. The academy will aim at reducing the gap between existing supply and demand for blockchain expertise.

The curriculum of the said academy will be comprised of eight developing and emerging technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI), cybersecurity and Internet-of-Things (IoT). The academy will be established in Kentucky state (USA). IBM is expected to extend this program to other universities as well.

ETFs should drop “blockchain” tags in their names, warns SEC: Fund providers looking to offer blockchain exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have been warned by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to lose “blockchain” tags in their names.

The said step is taken to avoid “misleading investors”. During 2018, one out of every three companies changed their names during the SEC approval process, owing to the increased scrutiny. As per the reports, one of those companies replaced the word “blockchain” with “transformational data sharing”. Many ETFs changed their names even before their funds started trading.

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