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This week saw South Korea serve as host to two more conferences, one major and one minor, but both quite interesting. Additionally, Roger Ver and friends moved from Korea over to London in the same week. There was other activity around the world involving government entities finally finishing their DD to realize that digital currencies may be a development they should be investing in. Lets dive in and look at the tech updates, biggest gainers, and official announcements from the week.

First, we have Brave browser, based on Chrome and by most accounts indistinguishable from Googles flagship browser barring their advanced ad blocking and crypto rewards program, reaching 8 million active users. Now that may not necessarily mean 8 million individuals because many people are active on multiple devices with the browser, but it is not an insignificant amount of active accounts nonetheless.

Both the Canadian bank and the US Federal Reserve made announcements about their involvement in launching their own government-backed digital currencies. The Canadian Bank went as far as to name theirs CBDC and will be launching it as soon as possible. There are some caveats, however, since they were the first and most public state government to be doing broad due diligence on how and why to launch a coin since early 2018. The Fed also announced that they were actively debating whether or not to develop and launch a digital dollar that would be used like CBDC. Just so you know, they all realize that they can track transactions with it.

Thena US Senator urged all the companies remaining on Libras council to stay there amidst PayPal and others jumping off of the council in the past few weeks. His argument was simply to wait and watch as the Libra situation becomes clearer. They may be part of something huge.

Brave Breaks the 8 Million User Mark

Coming as little surprise to those who use the Chrome-based browser, Brave has hit the 8 million-user mark. Daily active users is nearly 3 million which suggests that the 8 million number could be just the number of installs since its hard for someone to use two instances of a browser on two separate devices at the same exact time. For example, you can download Brave on your laptop, desktop, phone, and tablet, but would likely only use one of them at a time. Furthermore, the 14% click-through rate on ads is more than 5-times the industry standard 2%. Turns out, people are more inclined to watch something if there is a direct incentive for them to do so. Groundbreaking ideas.

CBDC Canada Bank-Backed Digital Currency

Last week we discovered through an official correspondence that US government officials are seriously interested in developing and rolling out a USD digital dollar to combat the likes of Libra. Since digital assets and cryptocurrencies have taken a major spotlight in the past few months from business-types, the Canadian government is also realizing that there is money to be made, or rather, money to be saved in developing a project that would replace Libra and other cryptocurrencies with similar use cases. The scariest part is that it would allow the sharing of personal data with tax authorities or police.

Practical Blockchain Adoption via Banks

Panelists at a conference in Seoul discussed mass adoption and the value of blockchain for the average Joe. The consensus was that traders are not a factor in mass adoption. All of your Chads who think more people should be using STEEM have it all wrong. Their assertion was that blockchain will be most practically adopted and regularly used as a broker, saving up to 30% of the price of a deal between parties, and as a rewards system to pay people for using a platform. These ideals are far from the lofty ones we used to hear at similar blockchain conferences a year or more ago, and are coming from people who have been in other industries for years before blockchain, as well. Listen up, folks; blockchain at a bank near you.

Fed Now Actively Discussing Fed-Backed Digital Dollar

Not only are officials interested in developing a digital dollar, apparently the Fed is making strides forward at making a final decision whether they will or wont develop and launch a USD digital currency. At about 65% of global currency reserves, the USD is by far the largest currency in circulation. Making a digital dollar would likely make the currency more accessible, or at least easier to house safely since it wouldnt take costly vaults and staff to protect the reserves if it were held digitally. The spark for the deep debate at the Fed is the realization that other currencies are gaining on the USDs heels despite its global dominance. Losing that dominance would mean higher costs all around. Taking the USD away from competitors while USD is still the top currency would be the smart business move, but smart business moves dont always come from governments, or businesses for that matter.

US Senator Urges Firms to Stay Aboard Libra

Whether or not you are bullish about Libra, at least one regulator has seen the light surrounding innovation. US Senator Rounds of South Dakota has recently written a letter which praised and encouraged Anchorage, the crypto custody firm, for staying the course with Libra. While PayPal, Visa, and Mastercard of the Libra Associations founding members have since caused an imbalance with their recent departures, Anchorage and others remain. In the letter, Rounds expressed his concern that regulators were taking an ominous tone towards Libra and slowing innovation. It is worth noting that the state, known for large swaths of farmland, may become a tech-hub in the future, especially so if Rounds and his cohorts continue to spearhead positive regulatory efforts.

FOCUS ETH Validator Wallets

There is a clear bullish trend since the launch of ETH. This is fairly simple: the more wallets that are opened, the more value the network has. As the cryptocurrency these wallets hold are traded more and/or used for their specific functions, the value of both those cryptos and the network as a whole rises.From an economic standpoint, keep in mind that roughly 30% of the total circulating supply has been mined, with the rest being pre-mined. Therefore, inflation is merely a minimal factor when it comes to 32 ETH being a notable amount.

The steady ascending pattern of the amount of wallets indicates an overall steady growth of the network as a whole. A non-negligible portion of these addresses are likely held by individual actors who are keeping their ETH in segmented addresses, for better or worse. This is more than just HODLers looking to stash away their ETH for a few years and wait for it to quintuple in value. The owners of the wallets represent people who are staking their principles on the success of the Ethereum network in the very long term. ETH2.0 will require 32 ETH to be a validator. The race to acquire validators for the highly anticipated ETH 2.0 Phase 0 is clearly shown in this trend. At ETHs highest USD value, a single validator would have cost nearly 45,000 USD, the current price for a future validator is closer to 6,000 USD.

Courtesy @ASvanevik

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Weekly Wrap-Up October 18th, 2019 - TheNews.Asia