Morning Brief 01.06.2018

Binance, a prominent multi-lingual cryptocurrency exchange, plans to create a $1 billion fund, Ella Zhang, head of Binance Lab, announced at an online conference. Binance Lab will select 20 qualified fund partners to work together in providing financial support for high-quality projects. The exchange has outlined a number of conditions for potential partners - according to a Binance representative, they must be long-term investors who believe in the crypto industry and blockchain, and have more than US $100 million in assets under management. After the applicants confirm the size of their fund and present their team members and investment portfolios, Binance Lab will consider them as a partner.

Mining equipment manufacturer Bitmain has been criticized over its latest mining product, the AntMiner B3. Early Chinese users are asserting that Bitmain significantly exaggerated the product’s power capability. While the device’s official specifications boast a computing power of 750 hashes per second, user tests have shown that the AntMiner B3 can only produce 500-600 hashes per second. The number of complaints about the new device has begun to escalate, and social network users are speculating that Bitmain may be using secondhand components to produce the B3.

Blockchain, the UK-based provider of cryptocurrency wallets and services, announced that it reached a milestone of 25 million wallets this week. Most of this growth has been in the US, where the company recently rolled out bitcoin sales. According to data from BitcoinPrivacy, the number of wallets exceeds the number of addresses that have a positive balance, suggesting that many wallets are empty, or that a large number of users hold ether.

Estonia, one of the first countries interested in creating a national cryptocurrency - the so-called Estcoin - has scaled down its plans following criticism from Mario Draghi and local banking authorities. Siim Sikkut, an official in charge of the country’s IT strategy, said that the token will only be issued as an incentive to e-residents - foreigners who use Estonia’s electronic identification to remotely sign documents and register firms. “We agreed in discussions with politicians that Estcoin will proceed as a means for transactions inside the e-resident community,” Sikkut said. “Other options aren’t on the table. We’re not building a new currency.”

Financial services giant Mastercard (NYSE: MA) has won a patent for a system that employs blockchain technology to authenticate coupons. The application for the "method and system for authentication of coupons via blockchain" was published on May 31 by the US Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO). The technology will be used "to store and track coupon data, such that the issuing entity is not required to store or manage any data, thereby freeing up resources and processing power for the entity." The idea is that a blockchain can help reduce the risk of data manipulation that accompanies the use of certain types of systems to store coupon data.

CariNet, the Caribbean Digital Finance and Free Trade System, was launched on May 31. According to the press release put out, it will apply blockchain technology to “help the Caribbean FTA member countries to build digital payment and digital financial infrastructures in order to build a platform for international trade.” Caribbean FTA member countries will be able to use the infrastructure of digital payments, including mobile software and ATMs with the help of the blockchain system. Thus, it will be possible to solve the problem with the lack of a local electronic payment system.

Huobi Token (+20,96%) showed the best growth in the top-100

IOTA (+10,78%) showed the best growth in the top-10

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By Ekaterina Ulyanova