Saturday, July 9, 2022

Bitcoin Potential Black Swan Event. Crypto Holder barred from working on US regulations.

https://cryptogemtokens.com/bitcoin-potential-black-swan-event-crypto-holder-barred-from-working-on-us-regulations/

Bitcoin Custody Question

I’m going to heed Craig’s LinkedIn warning and pull most of my coins off of the exchange. I use RH, which I’m less concerned with in-general than the others he mentioned. I don’t like them either but I think it’s the ‘best’ of the worst so to speak. I’m a little nervous about doing this myself as I’ve generally only invested in stocks (and derivatives) in the past. With regulation SPIC / FDIC, I’m generally covered from risks with custody banks when dealing with securities. As you know, coins are another matter.

I’m divorced but have a daughter, so, in the event I get hit by a bus I want to make sure if this whole thing takes off, she could inherit. I don’t have a crazy amount, but rather a little squirrel stash. But, that could be worth a lot here #soon (or much later). I don’t have any ‘crypto’ friends. No one really knows I mess with this stuff. Kind of shameful and it’s hard to explain to normies ‘this one’s different’ and it’s the ‘real bitcoin.’ And, I don’t like to suggest or push it as an investment anyways because of the risks - don’t want to feel accountable if tanks / goes to 0.

Anyways, that’s the background. So, here’s the catch 22. I want to keep this safe and secure but also retrievable if I bite the dust. I’m going to keep the majority in cold storage. I’m getting an ELLIPAL Titan. I’m a little nervous about it, but a little excited too (strangely).

How do you suggest I share this information with a trusted individual, that doesn’t know much about ‘crypto’ to recover in the event I die?

I know I can generally give them the pubic key and seed word phrase? Along with the log-in information on the device? Would all of this be enough for them to retrieve?

Any and all suggestions welcome. Any procedures to keep it safe, but not so safe that it couldn’t be recovered. Trust is a tricky thing too. Even though I have maybe 3 people I completely trust, that wouldn’t do anything nefarious, you never know. Things happen, people change. Life. I’m auditor and think usually in terms of controls and risk adverse procedure. So, what’s best practice in this circumstance?

Thanks in advance for everyone’s help and engagement here on the board. We have a good balance of supporters here but enough healthy friction to avoid groupthink (sock-puppetism). Grateful for y’all (as we say in the south).

LATEST CRYPTO HEADLINES OF THE WEEK - 9th of July 2022

Latest crypto news

In today's latest crypto news we will dive into Binance VASP registration, Twitter deal with Elon Musk, Celsius update and many more things you can read below!

Fairfax County highlights the value in the 'short-term nature' of yield farming

Fairfax County continues to invest public retirement funds in the cryptocurrency space, highlighting the "short-term nature" of yield farming as an appealing portfolio diversifier.

Virginia’s Fairfax County continues to be a prominent public institutional investor in the cryptocurrency space and is set to diversify its portfolio with a move into yield farming.

As previously reported, global asset managers VanEck announced that the Fairfax Employees’ Retirement System and Police Retirement System will invest $35 million into the firm’s crypto lending fund. It’s the latest investment move by the two county-run funds in the cryptocurrency space since their original foray began in 2018.

Cointelegraph reached out to Andy Spellar, the chief investment officer of the Fairfax Employees' Retirement System, to unpack their investment in VanEck's crypto lending fund and the reasoning behind it.

Binance gets VASP registration for its Spanish subsidiary from the Bank of Spain

Crypto exchange Binance is now registered as a virtual asset service provider (VASP) by the Bank of Spain, allowing the exchange to offer custody and crypto exchange services in the country.

In an announcement on Friday, Binance said that its Spanish subsidiary, Moon Tech Spain, was registered as a VASP by Spain’s central bank on Thursday. It applied for registration in January.

Binance can now provide fiat currency exchange to digital assets and wallet custody services while complying with the country’s Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing rules.

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said the development in Spain is a result of the company’s hard work to make its platform centered on protecting users. He explained: cointelegraph.com

Alameda Research happy to repay Voyager loan in its first ever tweet

The reaction from Crypto Twitter was lukewarm to the company’s first tweet. Some viewed the message as containing a “menacing tone” and was “not very customer focused” appealing to SBF’s recent string of interviews. David Bailey, the CEO of Bitcoin Magazine, called the tweet “hypersensitive.”

Alameda Research Venture LLC currently owns 9% of the shares of Voyager after it recently canceled 4.5 million shares to reduce its holdings. It also gave Voyager a line of credit to the tune of $200 million and 15,000 BTC. Voyager had drawn down $75 million immediately after the loan was approved, which is its monthly limit.

FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has a complicated relationship with Voyager. He owns shares in the company along with Alameda Ventures Ltd and Alameda Research Ventures LLC. According to Voyager’s recent Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, Alameda Research Ltd. owes Voyager $377 million, while the credit facility was agreed with Alameda Ventures Ltd.

Elon Musk pulls out of Twitter deal amid “false and misleading” information from Twitter

Tesla CEO and Dogecoin superfan Elon Musk has pulled out of his $44 billion deal with Twitter citing concerns over “false and misleading representations.” One of the key concerns was a lack of data available to Musk to analyze the severity of the bot problem on the platform.

Twitter Bot issues

Musk had previously stated that he would not purchase Twitter if the number of bots exceeded its reported rate of 5%. Musk has also remarked that the number of bots was likely between 20 – 90% of Twitter users. With the deal falling through, the public may never know the truth unless an independent audit is ordered by Twitter to quell investor fears potentially.

Shares in Twitter fell 5% in after-market trading hours following the news. The price dropped to $36, a 33% discount on the price Musk had offered for the company. Dogecoin moved less than 1% within an hour of the information becoming public as dreams of Twitter accepting Doge died. At least for now, Dogecoin investors appear less worried than Twitter shareholders.cryptoslate.com

Celsius Network continues to make moves, prompting calls to resume withdrawals

It’s approaching four weeks since Celsius Network implemented a pause on withdrawals, swaps, and transfers between accounts, citing “extreme market conditions.”

During this time, senior staff has drawn heavy criticism for mismanagement of the company. In particular, the lax approach employed over risk management.

Nonetheless, since the start of July, the company has taken proactive measures to prevent bankruptcy. This includes cutting 150 staff members and a series of significant loan repayments to reduce its liquidation risk.

Commenting on the repayment spree, crypto investor Mile Deutscher called the turn of events “remarkable.”

The general sentiment among Celsius users is hope and the expectation that normal operations will resume soon.

Celsius has not given an update since a June 30 tweet, in which the team confirmed efforts to “stabilize liquidity and operations,” including exploring the restructuring of liabilities. cryptoslate.com

Binance Volume Surges After Zero Trading Fee Policy Goes Live

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao attributed the surge to people trying to gain VIP tiers via high trading volumes. “We will exclude BTC trading from VIP calculations,” he tweeted. “Remove all incentives to wash trade. Announcement with details coming shortly.” A wash trade occurs when an investor buys and sells an asset for the purpose of artificially inflating the price.

The exchange made the zero-fee announcement on Wednesday, with the plan becoming effective Friday on Binance’s fifth anniversary.

“With the onset of the crypto bear market, exchanges like Binance have been seeking ways of attracting and retaining users on their platforms to ensure their slice of the depleted pie remains healthy,” CoinDesk reported at the time.

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Video clips of the most insane and spectacular gaming feats will be easily mintable into NFTs with just a couple of clicks. And with a click or two more, they will be listed and ready to trade on IKONIC’s marketplace.

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Terra Luna and UST

Recently we have had several requests to trade various Terra Luna and UST digital assets on CoinHarbour.

This was referred to internal CoinHarbour Compliance and Risk Committee, and a decision was made that these crypto represented too great a risk to our customers. CoinHarbour will not list or operate a market for Terra Luna and UST digital assets in the near future. This includes related coins, such as "Terra 2.0".

All digital assets include some financial risk for customers, however, we feel the risk for Terra Luna is far too great.

Terra is a blockchain protocol and payment platform used for algorithmic stablecoins. The project was created in 2018 by Terraform Labs, a startup co-founded by Do Kwon and Daniel Shin. It is most known for its Terra stablecoin and the associated Luna reserve asset cryptocurrency. In May 2022, the Terra blockchain was temporarily halted after the collapse of the stablecoin TerraUSD (UST) and Luna, in an event that wiped out almost $45 billion in market capitalisation within a week

Beginning on 9 May 2022, the tokens made headlines after UST began to break its peg to the US dollar. Over the next week, the price of UST plunged to 10 cents, while Luna fell to "virtually zero", down from an all-time high of $119.51. Before the crash, Luna was one of the top ten largest cryptocurrencies on the market. The collapse wiped out almost $45 billion of market capitalisation over the course of a week.

On 13 May, Terraform Labs temporarily halted the Terra blockchain in response to the falling prices of UST and Luna. Despite the company's attempts to stabilise UST and Luna via its bitcoin and other cryptocurrency reserves from the Luna Foundation Guard, the 1:1 peg of UST to USD did not materialise. As of 16 May 2022, blockchain analysts claim that the usage of the bitcoin reserves of LFG still remains largely uncertain.

Likely causes of the collapse included mass withdrawals from the Anchor Protocol days before the collapse, investor concerns about cryptocurrencies more generally, and a drop in the price of bitcoin. During the collapse, holders converted Terra into Luna via the mint-and-burn system, which caused the price of Luna to collapse due to its increased supply. This in turn destabilised the balancing mechanism between the currencies.

On 25 May, a proposal was approved to reissue a new Luna cryptocurrency and to decouple from and abandon the devalued UST stablecoin. The original blockchain is now called Terra Classic, and the original Luna token is called Luna Classic. The new Luna coin is called "Terra 2.0" by investors, and has lost valuation in the opening days of being listed on exchanges.

Current Transits of Outer Planets in the Signs: July 9, 2022

Welcome back to the second of my Astrology discussions. This is going to be a continuation of the prior week's discussion, focusing on Jupiter and Uranus' transits. Afterwards, we can conduct an analysis of certain eras, examining these outer planet transits, and seeing if we can see their effects on the society at that time. I also picked out a few individuals where we can see these outer planet effects in their individual lives. Lastly, I want to analyze how the transits correlated with certain timeline effects with the COVID-19 pandemic, and how might we see that in the individual's life.

I am focusing on the outer planets first, as I feel they are a good representation of the larger cycles that society goes through. Historians can point to time frames that had common themes, for example, we can look at the Age of Enlightenment in Europe where we see a major advancement in scientific, political and philosophical ideas. The individuals of society were, in a way, jointly undergoing change at the time based around these new ideas, and incorporating them into their own lives. We see how Age of Enlightenment ideas then fuel the following time period, where a number of colonies and countries began declaring independence, or desiring a change in how their society operated. By isolating the transit of the outer planet in the Astrological sign, we should be able to see a trend in society which represents some age, era or trend in that area of life the planet represents.

Uranus in Taurus: May 15, 2018 to April 25, 2026

With Uranus, astrologers usually relate Uranus with technological advancements, or it could relate to the renaissance of intellectual, political and philosophical thinking. Combined with Taurus, where we are testing the things we initiated from Uranus being in Aries, what advancements can we see in society that are being tested now? Uranus was in Aries between May 27, 2010 and March 6, 2019. In my view, social media became very prominent in our lives over this time frame. We had online chat rooms, forums, Instant messenger, all brought to us by the development of the personal computer and the internet in the prior time frames, but what did society do with these things are Uranus entered Aries? We can see a larger number of social media platforms launch between 2010 and 2011 (Pinterest, Instagram, Snapchat, Google+, Twitch) and even the early explores of social media are becoming more established during this time (Facebook goes public with it's IPO.)

How has social media progressed since it's conception? Near the end of this Uranus transit through Aries (2018-2019), we see which social media platforms stood the test of the public, where Facebook and others blossomed, while certain ones like Google+ did not. But, what else has come from these social media platforms? Some individuals might point to how it is being used as a political tool to wedge our society, but it was also a great tool to connect with individuals over the world during the pandemic.

Another technology development we see is the establishment of cryptocurrency and other digital currency over these Uranus transits. Bitcoin starts near the beginning of this Uranus transit of Aries, and we see Bitcoin becoming more valuable as Uranus progressed into Taurus. NFTs are another tech developed, where we try to turn content into an digital asset to be traded, but we see societal adaptation of that technology is low, so is it to the benefit of society to have NFTs?

The prior time frame of Uranus in Taurus was June 1934 to May 1942, which is close to the time frame of World War 2. A lot of technology outside of weaponry actually improved during this time frame. We see advances in microwave technology, which becomes more prominent as society progresses into the later 1900s. Medicine also progressed, as penicillin was discovered just before this time frame, but did not meet mass production needs until after World War 2 started. I suppose the pinnacle of the work in this time frame was the development of the atomic bombs, and that begins a whole line of scientific research and development as society aged.

What other advances can we see in society in this Uranus in Taurus transit? I would say political and societal rights groups have become more established in this time frame. We can see movements such as Black Lives Matters and the Proud Boys being founded during Uranus' transit in Aries, but I would say they became much more prominent as Uranus entered Taurus. A push for LGBTQ rights also became prominent during these two time frames, as society pushed for these in the prior cycle, and now we have the opportunity as a society to move in that new direction. Yet, as Uranus entered Taurus, we start to see LGBTQ rights becoming questioned more heavily by those who have a different opinion.

Jupiter in Aries: May 10, 2022 to May 16, 2023

Returning to Jupiter in Aries, what can see in life that represents this initiating energy for a new growth/direction in society? Since May 2022, I would say there has been some major political polarization coming to the surface, as the current USA Congress is investigating what happened in the prior presidential term. On one political side, we see a sudden push from the Supreme Court with rulings that back a more conservative ideology. Certain individuals also feel compelled to go out and openly support their conservative political organization. On the other political side, individuals are looking for avenues within our current structures to counter the moves of the other side, as they feel they can work within the built system to initiate change, or otherwise they go to the streets and protest their unhappiness with the decisions being made by the courts. Either way, we can see both groups are pushing for a new direction now that society has passed through the pandemic. The things that worked before the pandemic no longer meets our current needs, and we can see that through inventory shortages, inflation, job vacancies, etc. How do we initiate those changes? Well, it has to start somewhere, and I think that is why we are seeing a lot of people voicing their discontent with politics, business, careers, just society's structure in general.

Jupiter's prior transit in Aries was between June 2010 and June 2011. I think another example of society moving in a new direction is the market of Bitcoin began to develop around this time. Bitcoin began to be trade for a few cents, but in the following 12 years, we can see those cents have transformed into a couple thousand dollars. This also is the time frame after the 2008 Recession, and society is beginning to recover from the economic downturn, which we can see the stock market enter a new growth phase over the following 12 years Jupiter cycle too.

Since we have seen examples of the planet transits, why not try this theory that planets in certain signs represent an age or era for society. Perhaps we can look at certain time frames and see how the planets are working together to represent society at that time.

*Industrial Revolution (1600s-1800s)

I picked this larger time frame, as I feel it is a good demonstration of a Pluto cycle. At the start of the Industrial Era, we have the East India Company charting out from Europe and establishing trade with parts of India and Southeast Asia. Through their operations, the East India Company began establishing a global market in a way, trading for spices, fabrics and other goods in East Asia, and importing them back to England. Eventually, we see this connection the East India Company established with Asia lead to England becoming a cotton exporter in 1750s, and a more significant market hold going into the 1800s. We can see Pluto begins to enter Aries around 1577, which is not far from the start of the Industrial Revolution, and Pluto completes a cycle through the signs by 1822. I would like to think we established a number of base business principals based, which had to be built upon over this time frame. The cycle starts with people seeking to establish trade from Europe to Asia/India, and eventually leads to more global markets becoming established as well as the creation of factories. This is a good demonstration of how one's currency ability transformed over the cycle of Pluto. Middle class citizens at the start of this cycle did not have access to foreign marketplaces, but at the end we can see how markets and trade evolved, along with currency. Not to mention, the East India Company faced a lot of challenges and competition in it's pursuits, which refined what it was attempting to achieve over the course of Pluto's cycle through the Astrological signs. We see slavery was used around the start of the cycle, but by the end individuals were demanding fair trade and equality, as they also wanted to be a part of the society they saw developing. Society had to test ideas and rework them, and this takes time for ideas and concepts to evolve, as we need to observe both sides (or multiple sides) of these topics and personally evaluate and learn these things on individual levels.

*Reconstruction Era (1865-1877):

Right after the Civil War in the United States, we see rights established for the recently freed slaves, and the challenges that come along with moving in that direction. I notice this time frame is roughly matching up with Neptune in Aries (1861-1875.) We see that while the Northern states won the Civil War, having the former confederate states agree to and enforce the new rights of their black citizens provided a challenge. We can see Chiron joins Neptune in Aries in this time frame too (1868-1878.) Polarization of political ideology is also apparent between how black citizens were treated in the south vs northern states, as we can see certain polarized groups coming to their own power around this time. We can still see the effects established at the start of this Neptune cycle, as now that Neptune is in Pisces along with Chiron in Aries, those similar civil rights ideas are coming to focus again. Did we actually figure out the right way to treat people back then, or did we really just establish two of many possible choices on how we can co-inhabit the planet.

Individually, how can we see these outer planet transits in our own individual lives? For example, Ronald Reagan has Chiron transit over his natal Moon as he entered office. Shortly after the 1970s, we can see how Reagan partially “picked a side” with Chiron moving over his moon around the time he entered office of the President. He largely ignored the AIDs epidemic, and also began the War on drugs in the US, while also implementing “Reaganomics” which we still see the effects of today. In a way, we could see how he was a polarizing president based on a number of the things he chose or chose not to address in his career.

Franklin D. Roosevelt is another individual with an interesting transit around the time he enters his first presidential term. Saturn is beginning to conjunct his Sun on the first year of his presidential term, and we can see he is also dealing with a Chiron Return. At this time, the Great Depression was raging on in the USA, and within his first few months of office, Roosevelt enacted legislation to better help the country through those testing times. Perhaps, to Roosevelt, his first presidential term was a test from his view, as he just went through being diagnosed with polio around the time Pluto conjunct his Moon around 1920-1921.

Instead of an individual, why not analyze when the atomic bombs were dropped in World War 2. We see Neptune and Chiron are beginning conjunction in Libra at the start of the evaluation of using the atomic bombs, but as these two planets conjunct, we can see the effects the atomic bombs had on the citizens in the two bombed Japanese cities, and the effects on military individuals on the US side that were exposed to the nuclear blasts as well. Before the bombs, military leaders were evaluating using the bombs versus a ground troop approach, but the island fighting was wearing down both sides. Were we going to sacrifice individuals on both sides to end the war trying to regain the Pacific from the Japanese, or were we going to use the bombs in hopes of swiftly ending the war? Once we saw the effects of the bombs, I feel society determined that never again will we want to see those bombs.

And a more recent event in transits: COVID-19. Right around the start of COVID-19's initial discovery, we see Jupiter entering Capricorn on December 2, 2019. Nearly a month later, Saturn and Pluto conjunct on January 12, 2020 in Capricorn, we see a virus becoming a concern in China, but it is not until after the Sun conjuncts both Saturn and Pluto do we see the virus becoming more properly identified as COVID-19. Once the Sun conjuncts Neptune, we see it becoming more of a global concern, as countries begin declaring various emergencies around the time Sun conjuncts Neptune on March 5, 2020. If Saturn represents the challenges and pinnacle of society, would Saturn passing Pluto (the planet of transformation) somehow produce a societal problem for us to face? It highlighted a number of problems that I believed existed before in society, but the parameters of the pandemic pushed these issues to the forefront, and I feel these issues are being explored because of Jupiter's transit joining Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn. The Sun's transit to Neptune shows how it took time for the events of COVID-19 to develop, as the virus would need time to go through infection cycles and spread into various countries.

How did the events of the pandemic affect you? We can see the themes working together in society with the slower moving planets like Saturn and Pluto, but how can we see our personal role in all this? This is where I feel Natal charts and Return charts come in to play. Everyone underwent changes in their life related to the pandemic, but how did their specific life change due to the pandemic events? I would say people with personal planets in Capricorn or early Aquarius placements may have been the most affected career wise, as all those slow moving planets would have conjunct a number of these personal planets. Did you change job, or did your work responsibilities change, or did you gain the ability to work from home? Another group that is affected would be the individuals with personal planets in Pisces. I noticed a trend with these individuals exploring more of the spiritual/esoteric side of life during these times. These individuals seem to be moving away from the traditional roles and ideas of society, as they see from their view and experiences how our past societal structures do not work, and the events of the pandemic demonstrated that to some degree to them. We also see a new era of human rights emerging from the pandemic for those with personal planets in Aries due to Chiron's transit, whom may feel attracted to the political, social or civil rights groups forming around this time. Not to say these transits through the signs are true for everyone with personal planets in Aries, Capricorn, etc., but perhaps we can see a trend in how the slow moving planet(s) changed each individual's life.

Do you feel the examples of the planetary transits are a good representation of Astrology in real life? Is there an era, time period, person or thing we want to examine astrologically? Let me know your thoughts and feedback on this or any of the discussions.

Reddit is Launching a New NFT Marketplace

Link to blog :

https://blog.unifarm.co/crypto-market-reddit-is-launching-a-new-nft-marketplace/

Even though more crypto startups faltered due to the consequences of crypto contagion, enduring crypto platforms drove a market upswing this week. As Reddit teamed up with Polygon to create an NFT market and Ethereum successfully merged a new testnet, the volume of Bitcoin leaving exchanges continues to break records.

Top Market Trends of the Week

The ongoing liquidation events include Voyager declaring bankruptcy, CoinLoan capping withdrawals at $500,000 to $5,000 per day, and Celsius referencing pre-bear fragility and “ponziness” in legal docs.
Turkey’s Bitcoin trade volume increased 40% as the nation battles a 78% inflation rate.
While Jason Fung, the former head of gaming at TikTok, will create a blockchain games startup, VC firm Konvoy has launched a fund for blockchain-based games called GameFi.
Using Polygon’s Ethereum scaling solution, Reddit developed an NFT marketplace for avatars.

IKONIC Metaverse continues to function smoothly in spite of the worldwide economic crisis

However, the IKONIC Metaverse continues to function smoothly in spite of the worldwide economic crisis. It was well worth the time and effort that went into it. This project could provide an altogether new viewpoint on the metaverse. There is something for everyone in the IKONIC metaverse scenario. NFT receivers and speakers are necessary for virtual meetings. Coed sports might be good for both you and your significant other. For sporting and entertainment events, NFTs have been made available for purchase. Make sure you have a few extra things on hand in case something comes up.

#IKONIC #CRYPTO #BSC #BINANCE #BITCOIN