Welcome to The Daily Forkast, July 30th, 2021. I’m Angie Lau, Editor-in-Chief of Forkast.News,
covering all things blockchain. Coming up, the Korean city of Busan plans
a digital asset exchange. Bitcoin mining difficulty is increasing;
and China’s Tencent launches a digital IOU platform.
Let’s get you up to speed from Asia to the world.
First up, as South Korea gets set to tighten restrictions on crypto exchanges, one city
is acting as a regulatory safe haven and getting ready to start its own digital asset exchange.
Busan city is reportedly set to spend almost US$ 40 million on the project.
The city was designated as Korea’s “regulation free blockchain zone” last year, meaning
blockchain developers can bring proposals to the city government that are blocked by
regulations elsewhere. But will it be a success? Well, one expert
told Forkast.News there are many hurdles to clear first.
“First of all, its partner [blockchain] companies need to present innovative business
models. That is the very first thing. When that’s settled, then it is the relevant
government ministries outside of Busan city. The relevant authorities need to say ‘Yes,
let’s do this.’ ‘This fits well with the meaning of a ‘regulation-free blockchain
zone’, let’s actively make this work’. Those authorities need to review ideas with
a pro-active attitude.” A city official told Forkast.News that Busan
is in the early stages of making specific plans and policies for the new venture.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin miners who quit China following the clampdown appear to be wasting no time
getting back into the game. How do we know? Well, the mining hash rate
is back on the rise, having plummeted following China’s clampdown on crypto mining in the
country. It’s been climbing again since early July,
According to data from Blockchain.com. That means the difficulty level calculations set
to be made this weekend is predicted to increase by almost 5% after having dropped to its lowest
level in 18 months at the last reading. When the hashrate increases, Bitcoin mining
difficulty also increases. The difficulty level is calculated every 2016
blocks, which works out at roughly once every two weeks. And that difficulty refers to how
hard it is for a miner to ‘dig for Bitcoin’, and that depends, of course, on the global
hashrate. With those Chinese miners making their way
back online overseas, it means competition is heating up again.
But on the final trading day of the Asian trading week, it looks like it’s still lukewarm
for Bitcoin, down almost 0.5%, still sitting just under that US$ 40,000 mark.
That’s as of 4 p.m. Hong Kong time today. And this follows the broader Asia market in
the red today with a lackluster debut by Robinhood on Nasdaq closing 8% down on its debut price
of US$ 38. One analyst told Forkast.News that
was due to inside selling. “So I think because of its unique customer
base, the young retail investor base, it was really based on a model that’s exploded
because of the pandemic, but also consists of a lot of speculation, almost 40% of the
trading volume is just options and people just being very active trading there.”
Emons says it was a case of quick profit taking. And in the top 10 for cryptocurrency, XRP
rebounded up almost 6% today and Ethereum up 4.5% ahead of its EIP 1559 upgrade next
week. And finally, not got enough cash on hand,
and you want to borrow from a friend? Not to worry, a Chinese tech giant may have the
solution. Tencent has added a digital IOU platform backed
by blockchain technology to its WeChat app. Called ‘Mini IOU’, it provides users with
e-signing services for personal loan contracts, simply filling your names, loan amount, time
period and interest rate. And it will generate an IOU note that can be sent via WeChat to
your friend. Once both sides approve, the IOU is stored
on Tencent’s Zhi Xin Chain. Using blockchain this way could ensure the
authenticity of a debt and offer crucial evidence if any conflicts arise between friends.
In fact, Zhi Xin Chain, which launched in 2019, has already been used in court for copyright
dispute trials. The IOU has one other function too, you can chase your loan so you don’t
have to feel awkward about asking your friend to pay you back.
And that’s The Daily Forkast from our vantage point right here in Asia. For more, visit
Forkast.News. I’m Editor-in-Chief Angie Lau. Until the next time.