🗞 Daily Crypto News, September 29th 💰

Today’s main news for all Steemians : Smart Media Token (SMT)!

Daily Crypto News

US Currency Boss Opens Door to Licensed Bitcoin Banks
Russia May Ban Bitcoin Payments Entirely: Deputy Finance Minister
South Korea ICO ‘Ban’: Bitcoin Price, Ethereum Show Market Not Impressed
Central Banker Reveals Unlikely Next Act: Helping Merchants Mint Cryptocurrency
Dash Conference 2017 Brought News of Major Integration, Hints on Future
Andreas Antonopoulos: ICOs Are ‘Total Shit Right Now, Revolutionary In 15 Years’
Tokenization: The Force Behind Blockchain Technology

🗞 US Currency Boss Opens Door to Licensed Bitcoin Banks

The acting comptroller of the currency for the U.S. Treasury Department has said he is open to the idea that banks might one day conduct business in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Speaking at an event hosted by the U.S. Federal Reserve yesterday, Keith Noreika, the newly named director of the agency tasked with supervising all national banks, went so far as to state publicly that he foresees a future in which such companies might be granted "fintech charters" – proposed licenses designed to simplify the way banks do businesses across state borders.

He told attendees :

> "I wouldn't be adverse to those people coming in and talking to the [Office of the Comptroller of the Currency] about how a charter could make sense for them. But that is a long process they'd have to go through, and just because you get in the door doesn't mean you're going to get out the door on the other side.”

🗞 Russia May Ban Bitcoin Payments Entirely: Deputy Finance Minister

Russia seems to be constantly shifting its stance on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Just a month ago, Buterin was smiling and signing agreements with the Russian state banks for Ethereum partnerships.

Now suddenly, it appears that Russia may ban Bitcoin payments entirely, as was previously suggested.

In an interview the Russian minister said:

> "No regulator doubts that payments will be banned. In my opinion, in a country where millions have suffered from pyramid schemes, it is impossible to allow the situation when citizens sell apartments in order to make investments in cryptocurrencies to repeat.”

🗞 South Korea ICO ‘Ban’: Bitcoin Price, Ethereum Show Market Not Impressed

South Korea potentially “banning” ICOs has unsettled markets Friday, as regulatory statements from earlier this month come back to haunt investors.

Comments from the country’s Financial Supervisory Commission published in local news outlet FN News Sept. 3 hints that it will be illegal to issue digital tokens later this year.

"It is almost a gamble," the publication quotes an official as saying.

🗞 Central Banker Reveals Unlikely Next Act: Helping Merchants Mint Cryptocurrency

While the Bank of Russia has long been at the forefront of central bank cryptocurrency exploration, for Vadim Kalukhov, its recently departed director, exploration alone wasn't enough.

Instead, Kalukhov wanted to move faster than central banks typically do, experimenting and in turn, launching a product. So in May, Kalukhov left the central bank to start something of his own. Flash forward to today and Kalukhov is chief information officer at Crassula, a brand-new blockchain startup that's anything but ordinary.

In his first interview revealing the project, Kalukhov, who helped develop the Bank of Russia's masterchain blockchain platform, described how his experience in global finance prepared him to help others do what had previously been the exclusive domain of central banks: mint money.

🗞 Dash Conference 2017 Brought News of Major Integration, Hints on Future

Future plans

Dash Core CEO Ryan Taylor gave a sneak peak of future partnerships that will be announced over the next few months, including:

Global brokerage service with free bank transfers
New exchange integrations
Dash will have access to 20 new fiat currencies
An additional ATM manufacturer
Integration with several large retailers
A healthcare integration

Few details were given, but Taylor mentioned that the community should expect press releases to be coming soon.

🗞 Andreas Antonopoulos: ICOs Are ‘Total Shit Right Now, Revolutionary In 15 Years’

ICOs will “ripple out like a tsunami” and disrupt the entire financial industry in 15 years, Andreas Antonopoulos has said. He also described “99.999 percent” of ICOs currently on the market as “shit.”

Speaking at the Advanced Digital Innovation Summit in Vancouver earlier this month, the celebrated educator said that the current climate of knee-jerk regulation was ultimately a “futile” attempt at controlling participation in the “revolutionary” new investment model.

“It is unstoppable, it is enormous and it is going to shake the world,” he said.

“...99.999 perent of ICOs right now are shit. They are complete junk; they will return nothing.”

🗞 Tokenization: The Force Behind Blockchain Technology

In the current era of Blockchain evolution a new concept has emerged: tokenization. Tokenization is an intrinsic part of the Blockchain technology that serves the purpose of platform identification and accessibility.

Every Blockchain platform is powered by tokens, sometimes also referred to as “coins.” Bitcoin is a token, as is Litecoin, Dash, and other currencies that function over a Blockchain. While tokens can represent money, as in the case of the above, they can also represent other things.

The demand for a particular Blockchain product is usually the main determinant of the value and eventual market price of its token. This is why there is a variation in the prices of different altcoins in the Blockchain environment. For example, Bitcoin is more readily accepted by merchants than Litecoin, and is consequently more valuable

🗞 Daily Crypto News, September 28th 💰