The document introduces a questionnaire to determine how viable a blockchain project is. It contains technical suggestions on how to design transparent and reliable projects.

The Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications of Colombia (MinTIC) published, on Thursday, February 19, the Reference Guide for adopting and launching blockchain projects through public entities of the State.

The new document includes a set of changes compared to the draft version after the agency asked citizens to send feedback about the matter and other related observations. This action intends to ensure citizen’s participation in building the instrument that is part of the government’s strategy to promote innovation and the digital transformation process of public institutions.

On its official site, the MinTIC reflects that the guide presents the procedures and rules that public entities must obey and consider leading the development of projects related to blockchain.

Technical Recommendations on How These Projects Should be and what do the Entities Require to Operate them

It contains technical recommendations on how these projects should be and what do the entities require operating them and improving the effectiveness of public management and make the services that citizens receive more transparent.

The biggest obstacle is the citizens’ lack of trust regarding institutions of the State. “This level of mistrust is below 5% in our country,” said Mauricio Tovar, Colombia’s representative to the Ibero-American Blockchain Alliance, recently.

To face the mistrust crisis in the country, the Colombian government is turning to the implementation of projects based on blockchains. “Because the blockchain allows data’s record and publication without the need for intermediaries that could own or centralize such data. Citizens feel confident in the transparency of these processes,” says the statement from the MinTIC.

Tovar also added that several pilot projects consolidate how effective the blockchains are regarding the control of procedure and corruption. An example of this matter is the case of the School Feeding Program that is working since 2019.

Blockchain, a Useful and Versatile Technology

The Reference Guide for adopting blockchain projects in Colombia now introduces a questionnaire that public servants must answer to determine whether a particular project requires implementation through blockchains.

This questionnaire is one of the most significant changes that the instrument introduced. It was one of Mauricio Tovar’s points in August last year when the guide appeared.

Among the recommendations, the guide suggests “preferably, choose open source technologies that allow the public entity to quickly scale the solution, in a cost-efficient way, avoiding closed solutions or lock-in.”

There are also some warnings, such as the need to offer protection of users’ rights, especially their data. On this, Tovar points out:

“The properties of blockchain as a fundamental technology make these considerations particularly important, given the potential damage and subsequent effects that they can prevent in the verification of possible risks in the implementation of the project.”

By: Jenson Nuñez

The association between the two companies disintegrated. Ripple Labs registers a branch in the “crypto-friendly” state of Wyoming.

The remittance company Moneygram announced that it stopped operations on the Ripple Labs platform due to the lawsuit that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed in December last year. The lawsuit accuses Ripple of trading with its XRP cryptocurrency.

In a report released on Monday, February 22, MoneyGram talked about its decision to stop every single trading on the Ripple platform due to the uncertain panorama that the ongoing demand is causing.

MoneyGram has been using Ripple’s ODL (On-Demand Liquidity) tool since mid-2019 as a means of moving money internationally. After both companies announced their partnership, the alliance produced a 155% increase in MoneyGram’s market value and growth that reached USD 16.6 million in sending remittances between the United States and Mexico in September of that year.

The lawsuit Led Ripple to Hire High-Profile Legal Experts to Create a Defensive Barrier to Protect its Business

In December last year, when news of the case against Ripple broke, MoneyGram said it would continue its monitoring to the potential impact of the lawsuit and then make a reasonable decision.

However, there were indications that the partnership between the two parties suffered an indefinite suspension since the very beginning. Above all, because MoneyGram emphasized at the time that it was not using Ripple’s platform for direct transfers of funds from its consumers.

The lawsuit also caused Ripple to hire high-profile legal experts to create a defensive barrier to protect its business. These advocates included former SEC President Mary Jo White. In a recent interview with Fortune, she pointed out that the Securities and Exchange Commission might be wrong by filing a lawsuit against Ripple for the alleged sale of unregistered securities.

There is News about Ripple Registering a Branch in Wyoming

Kraken and the financial group Avanti, the State Banking Board, granted Kraken and the financial group Avanti a license to operate with cryptocurrencies. But Caitlin Long, Founder, and CEO of Avanti noted on Twitter that more companies realize that Wyoming is the right address because its laws are friendly for the development.

Long also highlights that the state has no corporate or franchise taxes, and all cryptocurrencies are exempt from sales tax. On the other hand, Cynthia Lummis, a Republican senator from Wyoming and with a famous reputation for investing in bitcoin, appears as an appointer to be a member of the Banking Committee of the US Senate. She has stated that cryptocurrencies will play an essential role in the new legislative agenda.

So far, it is not clear that Ripple will move its headquarters to Wyoming, as its main office is still in San Francisco. However, its CEO Brad Garlinghouse let his dissatisfaction speak due to the lack of regulatory clarity on cryptocurrencies and blockchain that the United States currently manages.

By: Jenson Nuñez

The Purpose Investments ETF traded an amount circling $ 165 million on its first day. Evolve Funds Group received permission from regulators for another bitcoin ETF.

The first bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded investment fund (ETF), announced on February 11, began trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) on Thursday, February 18, and managed to raise USD 421 million in two days. A bitcoin ETF serves to bring exposure to that cryptocurrency through direct investment with the physical settlement.

The bitcoin ETF (BTCC acronym), which appeared in the Canadian market by Purpose Investments, traded CAD 80 million in the first hour of trading and CAD 200 million (approximately USD 165 million) on the first day.  According to Yahoo Finance, the figure traded was CAD 350, which gives an approximate total of USD 421 sold in two days, according to Yahoo Finance.

Bloomberg ETF specialist Eric Balchunas recently tweeted that these amounts represent a  relative record compared to the volumes in trades for traditional ETFs in Canada and the US. Balchunas stated that Canada would rank among the five first ETFs and the first in the US Average ETF volumes with less than $ 20 million.

Balchunas also clarified through another tweet last Friday that, with the record amounts traded in its first two days, this ETF could outperform Canada’s largest instruments in a few weeks.

Also, $ BTCC may achieve total assets of $ 1 billion next week. Canada’s largest ETF totals $ 8 billion and the second-largest $ 5 billion. I am not ruling out that $ BTCC surpasses one or both in a couple of months.

This first North American bitcoin ETF, reported on February 11 by CriptoNoticias, was joined by another, which started its trade process on the Toronto Stock Exchange last Friday, issued by Evolve Funds. An application for a bitcoin ETF in the United States was filed with the SEC on Tuesday, February 16, by the New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG) and Investment bank Morgan Stanley,

Evolve is currently playing a less relevant role to Purpose. Purpose’s market capitalization is now at USD 2.6 million. Evolve contrasts that amount with a deal at $1.3 million.

Evolve’s been expanding its fields over the last day, though. Its price is currently at $27.17, after a 24-hour increase of almost 7%. In contrast, Purpose’s overnight gain was 4%.

There is undoubtedly a bigger frenzy regarding Purpose. Balchunas even said that was the most traded ETF in Canada on its first day. Evolve, though, achieved a rank in the top 20 on its opening day at a respectable eighteenth place.

Investors are always aiming at a low-risk way of riding Bitcoin’s bull run, ETFs bringing auditable investment systems that rejoice in the regulatory headlamps and trying not to worry on the matter, either with Bitcoin’s price or its blockchain security.

By: Jenson Nuñez

Following regular communication channels is a measure to avoid saturating the Bitcoin mempool. The nodes will now be able to improve their selectivity when it comes to transmitting transactions.

One proposal to allow Bitcoin nodes to reject the receipt of transactions that they have not requested or required, starting with the next versions of the Bitcoin Core client.

The solution aims to generate more efficiency in the management of Bitcoin transactions and their transmission between pairs. The developer Antoine Riard made this proposal on the Bitcoin mailing list.

The newsletter, published on February 17, explains that a node can first send an inv or inventory message before transmitting a transaction to other nodes. This light message is enough for the other nodes to consider saving and forwarding the transaction. The affirmative response from a node to receive marketing is the get data command.

When the node recognizes the transaction, it saves it in its memory. The network mempool is the sum of each node that the network uses to store incoming and unconfirmed transactions.

Riard’s proposal notes, the inv / getdata method has been bypassed “by some thin clients and other software” for more than a decade. These clients use the client of Bitcoin Core in Java language as an example. Bitcoin Core shows a visualization at the code level of how transactions went to the nodes without having been requested by them.

Without the nodes to avoid learning about an unsolicited transaction, an attacker could send many heavy or expensive to commit transactions from various connection points to a target node. This action ends up saturating the node’s memory.

More Effectiveness and Efficiency regarding Communication between Nodes

The developer’s solution is to enforce the inv / get data message exchange protocol, so that transaction processing and validation resources can find safety and better distribution. The nodes could also shut down connections against malicious peers or who are affecting the network.

The only possible way to evade this solution, and manage to transmit an inv message or raw transaction (raw tx, light marketing in information) when it becomes effective, is to rely on another pair that uses a compatible Bitcoin client.

Relay (relay) to transmit transactions would still allow this type of messages to reach the nodes, but once the condition of complying with the inv / get data sequence in all clients, this software would keep updating until the transmission of raw transactions becomes impossible on the Bitcoin P2P network.

In the GitHub discussion between developers, one of the participants confirms that only transmitting transactions that are expensive to process to a listening node or listening node would generate slowness in the transmission and validation of transactions.

Although this attack would have to be enormous to cause severe effects on the network, it can only affect a target node. That it is theoretically possible to do so requires a practical solution from Bitcoin developers and collaborators.

There are plans to implement this update in version 22.0 of the Bitcoin Core client. After there, all Bitcoin clients will have to upgrade, or they will not be able to send any transaction.

By: Jenson Nuñez

Bitcon’s price has fallen by almost 20% in just two days. This situation led to Bitcoin losing its eighth place among the most valuable assets in the world.

A drop of almost 14% in just 24 hours has contributed to the correction in the price of Bitcoin (BTC). After reaching a new all-time high above USD 58,000, the pioneering cryptocurrency pulled back below the USD 50,000 mark.

The main cryptocurrency on the market maintained its bearish behavior, even after falling below USD 45,000. However, Bitcoin rebounded above USD 46,000, at the time of writing this article, according to data from TradingView.

Taking into account an initial price above USD 54,000, the cryptocurrency has devalued by almost 17% in just a few hours. By extending the range, Bitcoin has seen a correction of almost 20% in two days.

This behavior has taken Bitcoin to levels not seen since February 11^th. However, it remains strong at apparent new support above USD 40,000.

The decline in the price of Bitcoin recently dropped its level as an asset above USD 1 trillion. That situation has also caused the cryptocurrency to lose its eighth place among the assets with the highest capitalization in the world.

The cryptocurrency that Satoshi Nakamoto created currently has a total capitalization of around USD 880,000. This brings it back below Chinese Internet giant Tencent. However, it still outperforms Facebook on the list that CompaniesMarketCap presents.

Bitcoin Bulls Receive nearly USD 1 Billion in Liquidated Positions

Recent Bitcoin’s price movements in a few hours have caused the liquidation of large amounts of money in market positions. According to data from Skew, there have been almost USD 1 billion in losses for traders in three days, on Binance alone.

Regarding the derivatives market, traders bet on the rise or fall of the price of an asset over some time. If the price of Bitcoin does not match the position of the trader up to a certain price, the liquidation occurs, and the trader loses the money “that he bet”.

Important price momentum that occurs in a short time has led to this situation. For example, the price of Bitcoin rose by 20% after the public support that Elon Musk posted on his Twitter account. That day, those people who bet low lost more than USD 250 million in just one hour.

Bitcoin is not the only crypto asset that the red day has affected. In a market that is widely correlated with the pioneering cryptocurrency, the rest of the currencies have followed the fall in the price of Bitcoin.

The altcoin that this situation affected the most was the Crypto.com token (CRO). Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency on the Ethereum network has fallen to USD 1,400. This seems to be putting at risk its level above the all-time high of 2018, which was around USD 1,200.

Even though Bitcoin also seems to be in danger, it is still more than twice the all-time high of the 2017 bullish run.

By Alexander Salazar

Tuteja has worked on TD Ameritrade’s digital asset strategy since 2008. She admits that she has been a bitcoiner since 2012 and has promoted it from her Twitter account.

“Since I heard about this esoteric thing called Bitcoin in 2012, the most wonderful thing for me has been the wide world that it opened to me. It has given the opportunity to connect with people, ideas, and places that I would not have run into otherwise.” These are the first words of an essay that Sunayna Tuteja wrote in November 2019. In recent days, she received the appointment as Chief Innovation Officer of the US Federal Reserve (Fed).

According to the portal of the Richmond Federal Reserve, Tuteja will be in charge of “leading the efforts to identify, research, enable and promote new technologies. At the same time, she must promote a culture of innovation, collaboration and experimentation,” which could resonate with the B word.

The new vice president of the Fed’s national information technology team has worked at TD Ameritrade since 2008. There she was dedicated to digital innovation and focused on digital assets for the past two years, according to her LinkedIn profile. She led TD Ameritrade’s investment in cryptocurrencies on the ErisX exchange, which the Commodity and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) regulates.

Ghada Ijam, the Chief Information Officer at the Federal Reserve, states that Tuteja “will collaborate with business and technology leaders. The objective is to formulate an agenda that advances technological research and leverages the innovation work that the Fed has directed.” He is probably referring to Central Bank cryptocurrency research currently underway.

A Bitcoiner Enters the US Federal Reserve

Until now, the US Federal Reserve has not adopted a very favorable position on Bitcoin. Boston Federal Reserve Chairman Eric Rosengren recently admitted his surprise at the “flourishing of Bitcoin.” However, he foresees that the cryptocurrency is coming to an end as he suspects “that a large number of central banks will have digital currencies.”

Unlike her more conservative colleagues, Tuteja has been outspoken on being a bitcoiner for years. On her Twitter account, she shares the Bitcoin white paper and shows her admiration for the resilience of the Bitcoin movement. In her essay “Cheers to Bitcoin”, she also recommends this industry as a source that inspires multidisciplinary learning.

Pragmatically, Tuteja has argued her reasoning about the success in adopting Bitcoin. She has not only watched it from its inherent monetary benefits but has also put it in the current context.

Tuteja is now part of a growing list of female bitcoiners working in the United States administration. She is joining Senator Cynthia Lummis, member of the Banking Committee Senate, and Hester Pierce, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Commissioner.

She may face a clash of beliefs over her confidence in Bitcoin’s limited supply monetary policy. For example, the Federal Reserve has promoted a policy of massive money printing in response to the current crisis. However, Tuteja’s essay suggests that she already knows that the conversion process goes from skepticism to conviction.

By Alexander Salazar