I go to North Korea's cryptocurrency summit
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I go to North Korea's cryptocurrency summit
If you’ve wondering about my absence last week — I was in North Korea for its blockchain and cryptocurrency conference.
It was a wild experience. I’m still trying to find the right words to describe the matter succinctly, and I will write or speak about it publicly when I do so.
Meanwhile, the people behind the conference have said their event has been a success, and that they are already planning a bigger and better conference for the “near future.”
The organizers are Alejandro Cao de Benes, president of the Spain-based Korean Friendship Association, and Christopher Emms, chief executive of the Malta-based blockchain company TokenKey.
Numerous experts have accused North Korea of carrying out a series of hacks on Seoul- and Tokyo-based cryptocurrency exchanges.
Cryptocurrency, which can be moved without centralized control, is also a useful tool for North Korea to evade the sanctions crippling its economy.
Price action: headwinds, Bitfinex controversy
Bitcoin will likely fall slightly, analysis shows, amid renewed questions on the legitimacy of the Tether cryptocurrency widely used to fund Bitcoin purchases. The world’s largest cryptocurrency is at $5,477 (C$7,379) as of 10 a.m. Sunday, Mountain Time, relatively unchanged for the week. It had fallen to $5,000 levels during the week, before snapping back.
World: Binance — platform for coin creation
The world’s biggest exchange platform, Binance, is setting up its own protocol for issuing coins and is inviting projects to migrate from their previous blockchain. That potentially gives Binance more control over the cryptocurrency ecosystem, raising concerns about concentration of power.
The Lloydminster, Sask.-born billionaire Calvin Ayre accuses Binance and Kraken of fraudulent intentions after the major exchange platforms removed Bitcoin Cash SV (BSV), which he backs. BSV is an offshoot of Bitcoin Cash, which is itself an offshoot of Bitcoin. Such offshoots are born amid in-fighting in the coins’ communities, often wreaking havoc on price.
Reports from Korean media point to the plans of Samsung to create its own blockchain and digital asset, Samsungcoin. The plans were revealed following the news that the Samsung Galaxy S10 would be able to support digital assets and protect private keys natively.
Coinbase is pulling the plug on a Wall Street-leaning project to upgrade its platform, and it could result in a multi-million dollar loss; 30 employees were laid off. It’s the latest update in the saga of Coinbase’s pivot away from Wall Street
Last paragraph: back in Canada next week
I'm back in my home city of Calgary next Thursday. Come to my meetup on Thursday 7 p.m. at the Bottlescrew Bill's pub. Also, I'll be moderating panels with Chinese-Canadian parliamentarians, cabinet ministers and Olivia Chow and a bunch of other people the upcoming weekend.
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