EncryptoTel weekly digest (14.01.20)
Forecasts from Zuckerberg and Coinbase, Hodlers and the pitfalls of Privacy
Zuckerberg calls decentralization and confidentiality the next decade’s priorities
The creator of Facebook Mark Zuckereg published a traditional annual post in which he lists his goals for the beginning of the new year. In 2020, Zuckerberg expanded his horizons and mentioned goals for the coming decade. One of the directions is the “decentralization of opportunities” for the development of small businesses in the network. In his opinion, social platforms such as Facebook, Instagram or WhatsApp are designed to help entrepreneurs.
“Over the next decade, we hope to build the commerce and payments tools so that every small business has an easy access to the same technology that previously only big companies have had.
If we can make it so anyone can sell products through a storefront on Instagram, message and support their customers through Messenger, or send money home to another country instantly and at low cost through WhatsApp — that will go a long way towards creating more opportunities around the world.”
Zuckerberg also noted such initiatives as augmented and virtual reality and focus on the development of local communities within a global social platform. He also emphasized the need to create a thoughtful and time appropriate legislation that addresses areas such as cybersecurity and privacy.
Predictions from Coinbase: Confidential cryptocurrencies will be the trend of the next decade
Brian Armstrong, CEO of the Coinbase exchange, published a post in which he revealed his view on the future of cryptocurrencies in the next 10 years. One of the key trends of the coming decade will be the focus on privacy. According to Armstrong, in the 20s there will be a cryptocurrency with a high level of confidentiality, which will be widely used. Finally, in the next 10 years, trading and speculation with crypto assets will fade into the background, giving way to the real and applicable blockchain assets.
Armstrong predicts that by the end of the decade, the number of blockchain users will reach one billion. But this will require the development of new solutions for scaling blockchains “by several times”, which, in turn, will stimulate the development of decentralized applications (dApps).
“In the same way that replacing a 56k broadband modem with modern broadbands has led to the emergence of many new services on the Internet (YouTube, Uber, etc.), scalability will become a prerequisite for moving the crypto industry to a new level.”
Study: more than 10 million bitcoins have not been involved in transactions for more than a year
According to the fintech company Digital Assets Data, about 10.7 million bitcoins did not move from their addresses for more than 12 months. Considering that 18.14 million bitcoins were mined by January 2020, almost 60% of bitcoins mined remained untouched in 2019, and only 40% of the coins participated in any transactions. This is the largest share of inactive bitcoins since the beginning of 2017.
Analysts see one of the reasons for hodling in the fact that a significant part of the hodlers acquired cryptocurrency in 2017 during its peak rate, so they are still at a loss and are waiting for the price to increase in order to return to their original position or even earn some income.
“Many investors are still below the rate at which they purchased in 2017 and 2018,” suggests Kevin Kaltenbacher of Digital Assets Data.
Opinion: confidentiality of personal data impedes the development of technology
Gary Shapiro, general director of the US Consumer Association and chairman of CES, the largest tech exhibition in Las Vegas, spoke about one of the challenges facing the development of the artificial intelligence technologies and machine learning. “Certainly privacy is an issue that’s increasingly important every year. We’re going to be having that debate for a long time, because there’s a tradeoff between access to data — you consider the Chinese. I was talking to a surgeon recently. He said, “We thought we were really big here because we were working with 40,000 patient records. Our Chinese counterparts are using 800,000 patient records, and they don’t have to ask permission.” It’s unbelievable. But it’s just a microcosm. The truth is that data is the fuel for AI. Here, in the western world, we value privacy. We have a balancing act. We’re competing with a country that doesn’t have to worry about that same balance.”
Shapiro also noted that the development of 5G and artificial intelligence is growing rapidly, and every year they become more and more involved in our daily life.
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