In a world where conventional wisdom has never been more up for grabs, one VC explains why there is opportunity in alternative narratives.
The battle to control narratives is the battle to shape how people understand the world around them. But the traditional gatekeepers of narratives – the media – have never had more competition to shape what is perceived as truth. 
In this episode, NLW speaks with Bedrock Capital founder Geoff Lewis about what it means to seek out opportunities in “narrative violations.” They also discuss: 
Disclosure Read More The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.

The equities markets far outpaced cryptocurrencies Tuesday on optimism that economic restrictions put in place to help slow the spread of the coronavirus are easing.
Bitcoin (BTC) poked its head above the $9,000 level briefly during morning trading in New York but fell to below $8,700 on selling. As of 20:35 UTC (4:35 p.m. ET), bitcoin was trading at $8,846, a loss of 1% over 24 hours.  The largest cryptocurrency by market cap is currently trading below its 10-day and 50-day technical indicator moving averages, a signal of bearish sentiment. 
“Bitcoin failed to break higher and has been bouncing off support in the $8,700 region,” said Max Boonen, CEO of cryptocurrency liquidity provider B2C2.
Bitcoin trading on Coinbase since May 24Source: TradingViewWhile bitcoin has been trending lower, Tuesday’s big winners are stocks.
The Nikkei 225 in Asia closed trading up 2.2%, with the index hitting a three-month high as Japan ended its pandemic-induced state of emergency measures. The FTSE Eurotop 100 index of Europe’s largest public companies by market cap was also in the green, although up less than a percent. The gain was also attributed to the easing of lockdowns in Europe. 
Read More: Paul Tudor Jones: Bitcoin Is Now the Macro Big Bet
In the U.S. the S&P 500 climbed 1.2% on the day, up 4% for the past month. 
“It’s probably the case that stocks are moving upward in response to increased reopening of the economy, which Wall Street may be taking as a positive sign,” said Danny Kim, head of revenue for exchange aggregator SFOX. “Bitcoin’s minor downward movement, on the other hand, probably has more to do with a loss of momentum than anything else.” 
Since starting the first week of May in tandem, bitcoin and the S&P 500 have been going in opposite directions.
Bitcoin and S&P 500 compared for MaySource: CoinDesk Research“Bitcoin is not demonstrating correlation to the equity markets at present, given a lot of the smart money is still sitting in stablecoins, particularly tether,” said Chris Thomas, head of digital assets at Swissquote Bank. Indeed, stablecoins are on the rise and tether is leading the way with a $9 billion market capitalization, according to its transparency page. The blockchain-based assets, pegged to the U.S. dollar, are helpful for traders to move balances quickly across different exchange platforms.
Stablecoin issuance per week since the start of 2020Source: CoinDesk ResearchThere is some looming concern bitcoin’s price will keep sliding downward due to changes in mining economics since the May 11 bitcoin halving. The once-in-four-year event for the Bitcoin network dropped daily new bitcoin generated to reward miners from roughly 1,800 to 900 BTC. At Tuesday’s bitcoin prices, that 900 BTC translates to around $8 million per day. 
Read More: Iranian President Calls for National Crypto Mining Strategy
Miners will have to sell a lot of that bitcoin for cash, according to Swissquote’s Thomas. “Chinese miners who are still running are barely profitable running old technology. They are surviving due to extremely cheap hydro electricity through the Chinese wet season, but will need to continue selling most of their monthly bitcoin gains to pay their operations expenses,” he said. “This will also start weighing on the market.”
Chinese miners make up about 65% of the total bitcoin mining power, according to data provided by pools and collected by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance.
Hashrate share provided by BTC.com, Poolin and ViaBTCSource: Cambridge UniversityDespite a lower crypto outlook, B2C2’s Boonen says his firm has seen professional traders pick up bitcoin at these prices, possibly because they see a value play. “Against the trend, we have seen light buying of BTC and selling of ETH across our franchise since the weekend,” he told CoinDesk. 
Other marketsDigital assets on CoinDesk’s big board are mostly in the red Tuesday. Ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, lost 2.2% in 24 hours as of 20:35 UTC (4:35 p.m. ET). 
Ether trading on Coinbase since May 24Source: TradingViewThe biggest losers in 24-hour trading were ethereum classic (ETC) down 2%, stellar (XLM) slipping 1.4% and iota (IOTA) in the red 1.3%. The few winners on the day include lisk (LSK) gaining 4%, qtum (QTUM) in the green 1% and nem (XEM) climbing less than a percent. All price changes were as of 20:35 UTC (4:35 p.m. ET) Tuesday.
In the commodities sector, oil is up 1%, with the price for a barrel of crude at $34.21 as of press time. Gold experienced heavy selling early in the session, with the yellow metal slipping less than a percent on the day to $1,710 at the close of New York trading. 
Contracts-for-difference on gold since May 22Source: TradingViewRead More: Bitcoin Could Get a Boost From Central Bank Digital Currencies
U.S. Treasury bonds were mixed Tuesday. Yields, which move in the opposite direction as price, were up most on the 30-year, climbing 4.6%.
Disclosure Read More The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.

 
South Korean tech giant Samsung has announced a new revolutionary turnkey security solution to secure cryptocurrency transactions on its smartphones and tablets.
 
Cryptocurrency transactions are one of the primary purposes of Samsung’s new Secure Element chip, which is expected to be available in Q3 2020. 
 
The solution involves a Secure Element (SE) chip S3FV9RR, which is Common Criteria Evaluation Assurance Level (CC EAL) 6+ certified. The new SE chip along with enhanced software is designed to offer higher protection for tasks including booting, isolated storage, mobile payment, and other applications. 
 
Dongho Shin, the senior vice president of System LSI marketing at Samsung Electronics said, “In this era of mobility and contact-less interactions, we expect our connected devices, such as smartphones or tablets, to be highly secure so as to protect personal data and enable fintech activities such as mobile banking, stock trading, and cryptocurrency transactions. 
 
The new S3FV9RR chip is an enhanced turnkey following the first-generation solution (S3K250AF) announced in February. The new turnkey solution has twice the secure storage capacity and supports hardware-based root of trust (RoT), a secure boot, and device authentication that takes mobile security to the next level. 
 
Bitcoin support for blockchain phones
 
Samsung makes up 19 percent of global smartphone sales, selling over 300 million phones in the last year. Samsung’s Galaxy S10 range launched a year ago with the Blockchain Keystore feature offering the storage of cryptocurrencies and transactions for Ether and ERC-20 tokens. Samsung added Bitcoin to the Blockchain Keystore, on the blockchain-enabled smartphones.  
 
The added Bitcoin features to the developer kit are available on the S10 models, as well as the Note10 and Note10+ devices. Samsung is still in the process of developing a blockchain mainnet based on Ethereum and may release its own token in the near future.  
 
Image via Shutterstock

A senior figure at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) believes a digital currency backed by a central bank would open the door to much greater innovation in retail payments.
Tommaso Mancini-Griffoli, the IMF’s deputy division chief in the Monetary and Capital Markets Department, said synthetic CBDCs – digital currencies backed by the liabilities of a central bank, but issued with the aid of a private entity – could provide citizens with a reliable means of payment that simultaneously leverage some of the key competitive advantages of the private sector.
A synthetic CBDC as outlined by Mancini-Griffoli is pretty much a public-private partnership. The idea is a licensed eMoney provider stores client funds in a central bank and, in return, receives a central bank liability they can package however they see fit into a publicly tradeable stablecoin that remains fully-backed by central bank reserves.
Speaking Tuesday morning on The Money Movement, Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire’s new Youtube series, Mancini-Griffoli argued the key benefit offered by a synthetic CBDC, compared to a traditional CBDC – namely, where the central bank is responsible for the entire running of a digital currency – was that it made space for innovation.
Synthetic CBDCs – focusing on retail payments – enable central banks to promote monetary innovation within the confines of a safe and well-regulated environment, he said. In contrast, the traditional idea of a CBDC – which had pretty much “gone out of the door” in Mancini-Griffoli’s opinion – could become “very costly and very risky to the central bank, and it may deter innovation.”
“This public-private partnership [of a synthetic CBDC] is intended to conserve the competitive advantages of the private sector: to interface with clients and innovate, and the comparative advantage of the central bank: to regulate and provide trust,” he said.
See also: Central Banks Mull Creating a CBDC, but Not on a Blockchain: Survey
Other central banks have also mooted the possibility of a role for private companies. The Bank of England (BoE) has suggested there could be areas where a private entity would be far better placed to offer its own monetary solution for customers, as opposed to the central bank itself jumping in.
Even China, a major critic of the Facebook-planned Libra initiative, has carved out a role for a select group of private entities, the Agricultural Bank of China, say, as well as Alibaba and Tencent, to help in the issuance of its own digital yuan to Chinese citizens.
But the key aspect of a synthetic CBDC, so far as the IMF sees it, is that it delegates most of the fundamental functions of a CBDC to the private sector.
At the IMF-Swiss National Bank Conference in May 2019, Tobias Adrian, the IMF’s director of the Monetary and Capital Markets Department – Mancini-Griffoli’s boss – said a notable advantage of a synthetic CBDC was it allowed the central bank to focus only on areas where it offers tangible value: namely, regulatory oversight and settlement.
By offering liabilities wholesale, all other functions that the private sector traditionally excels at, such as customer management, client screening, even the tech design of the CBDC itself, can effectively be outsourced, Adrian added.
In fact, there would be nothing to stop, under the IMF’s interpretation, multiple private companies all issuing digital currencies that are all backed by the same central bank liabilities, and effectively compete with one another.
See also: Sweden’s Central Bank Finally Embraces DLT, but Only in Simulation Mode
Still, there remain some unanswered questions. Chief among them is what the relationship between the public and private sector will ultimately look like. As Mancini-Griffoli highlighted: would a central bank ensure private entities undertake proper due diligence on clients, and would they provide input on what the tech design of the token itself would look like?
It remains hazy on “where do you draw the line of what the public sector does and what the private sector does,” he said.
Disclosure Read More The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.

What is Novi?
 
Facebook has renamed its digital wallet, Calibra, as Novi. Calibra was the digital wallet that the social media giant has been building to access Libra digital currencies. 
 
 
In a blog post, the company explained that the new name was inspired by the Latin words “novus” and “via,” meaning “new” and “way.” The digital wallet company, a subsidiary under Facebook will now be named Novi Financial.
 
As previously reported by Blockchain.News, Libra has abandoned its original plan of a widely accessible permissionless digital currency aimed to solve financial inclusion issues, due to ongoing regulatory backlash. 
 
Libra was seen as a controversial project, especially in the eyes of regulators. Libra has then applied for a payment system license from the Swiss Financial Markets Supervisory Authority (FINMA), to be able to allow the Libra payments system to be used publicly. 
 
One of the major updates of the Libra whitepaper is that it explicitly mentions the limits of what users are able to do on the network, including balance and transaction limits, and the network would only be accessible to regulated crypto firms in the beginning.
 
As stated on Novi’s website, the project is now moving towards providing individual stablecoins for major fiat currencies, including USD, EUR, and GBP. Previously, the Libra stablecoin aimed to be backed by a basket of global currencies, which also included the Singapore Dollar, and Japanese Yen. 
 
Despite changing the name of the digital wallet, Facebook says the mission for both Novi and Libra remains unchanged – enabling the transfer of money as easy as “sending a message.” 
 
A standalone Novi app is a part of the plan, as well as a version where it is integrated with WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger to allow consumers to send money to their contacts easily.
 
David Marcus, the Co-creator of what was once known as Calibra, now Head of Novi also explicitly mentioned in his tweets, that instead of creating a global, digital currency payment network, the focus has shifted to act as a wallet for stablecoins. Although Libra hopes to work with as many central banks as possible, for jurisdictions whose currency has not been added to Libra’s stablecoin backing will be unable to use it.
 
Binance’s take on Libra
 
Binance took a closer look at Libra’s recent whitepaper update and concluded that Facebook’s project could potentially disrupt the payment industry. 
 
There is an advantage of issuing widely-available programmable currency, which could lead to efficiency gains. As an optimistic comparison, Binance added, “Libra’s envisioned global payment system could do to the payment industry what SpaceX did to the space industry: shake the foundations of a well-established sector with high entry barriers. 
 
Technology entrepreneur Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, was mentioned in the report as an industry leader in the space sector due to its significant step forward in improving speed for rocket journeys. 
 
The report also highlighted that most payment systems are operated by a central bank and of regional scope, as Libra could have an advantage has it could potentially have a wider reach of users. Focusing further on financial inclusion, Binance claims that Libra positions itself as a new financial framework to “enable a simple global currency and financial infrastructure that empowers billions of people.”
 
 
Image via Shutterstock

We’re happy to be back after a recharging long weekend. Let’s get to the news.
India’s central bank has clarified its crypto stance, Tencent is looking to invest in “emerging technologies” including blockchain and Facebook’s digital wallet subsidiary announced a rebranding and new details.
You’re reading Blockchain Bites, the daily roundup of the most pivotal stories in blockchain and crypto news, and why they’re significant. You can subscribe to this and all of CoinDesk’s newsletters here. 
Top ShelfLibra’s New FaceA statement announcing the rebranding of Facebook subsidiary Calibra to Novi also reveals details of the anticipated wallet product. The Novi wallet will operate as a standalone app, as well as provide interoperability with Facebook’s social messaging apps Messenger and WhatsApp, to make transactions as “easy as sending a message.” Novi customers will need to be verified using a government-issued ID. The wallet will initially be rolled out to a limited number of countries, though the release date still remains unclear.
‘No Such Prohibitions’India’s central bank has clarified the nation’s new crypto policy, months after the Indian Supreme Court lifted restrictions on banking crypto clients. Commercial banks can indeed provide banking services to traders and firms dealing in cryptocurrencies. “As on date, no such prohibition exists,” the Reserve Bank of India said on May 22. The statement came in response to a query filed by BV Harish, co-founder of the cryptocurrency exchange Unocoin.
Signed TransactionsMore than 100 addresses Craig Wright – the self-proclaimed inventor of Bitcoin currently being sued for half of his supposed multi-billion dollar stash of the cryptocurrency – claimed to be his were used to sign a message calling Wright a “fraud” and making it plain that he does not in fact own or control them. The Bitcoin addresses were inadvertently entered into the public record in the ongoing case against Wright. 
Challenging AmazonIn a bid to attract users beyond the cryptoverse, Halsey Minor’s VideoCoin platform will launch Wednesday with fiat payment options. VideoCoin decentralizes the hosting and streaming of video, paying out a native token to participants in the network. “A company like Fox is never going to go to an exchange and buy volatile tokens. You kind of have to be in the crypto world to use crypto projects – and we are trying to break that barrier down,” Minor said. 
Tencent’s InvestmentsTencent is investing 500 billion yuan ($70 billion) into “new infrastructure” based on emerging technologies including AI, cloud computing and blockchain over the next five years. The investments are aimed at recovering losses accrued during the coronavirus crisis and “further cement virus containment success,” Tencent’s senior executive vice president Dowson Tong told Guangming Daily.
Bitcoin 401(k)Bitwage has unveiled a trial of a bitcoin 401(k) plan. The pension plan is supported by crypto exchange Gemini, the custodian service Kingdom Trust, as well as the established pension provider, Leading Retirement Solutions, who keep records for the 401(k) plan with the Department of Labor and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). 
Trading CurrentsThailand is teaming up with a blockchain firm Power Ledger to encourage peer-to-peer trading of renewable energy. “Blockchain-enabled transactive energy solutions including peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading, virtual power plants as well as renewable energy certificates and carbon credits trading will be the key to establishing economically viable renewable energy markets,” said the startup’s co-founder, Jemma Green, and help the nation hit its 25% renewable energy target by 2037.
Strategic InvestmentIndia’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, CoinDCX, has secured a $2.5 million strategic investment led by Polychain Capital with support from Coinbase Ventures. The investment will reinforce the exchange’s efforts to drive cryptocurrency adoption in the country after a major legal victory in March.
Telegram Throws in the TowelTelegram is no longer challenging the Securities and Exchange Commission’s ban on its blockchain token project in the courtroom. On Friday, the company filed an agreement for dismissal without prejudice of a previous appeal challenging the SEC’s prohibition of distributing gram tokens to U.S. investors. 
Supporting Steem?Binance is forced to “technically” support last week’s hard fork of the Steem blockchain, according to the crypto exchange’s CEO. In a statement on Binance’s official blog Sunday, CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao said the exchange is “very much against zeroing other people’s assets on the blockchain,” but to not support it would mean that Binance users would not be able to withdraw their steem tokens.
Louisiana Licensing The Louisiana State Senate is about to consider a bill to regulate and license virtual currency businesses. If passed, the legislation would establish Louisiana’s first crypto licensing regime. Crypto businesses would have to apply with the state’s Office of Financial Institutions (OFI), fork over executives’ fingerprints, subject their “experience, character and general fitness” to investigation – and perhaps the business premises as well – and pay a nonrefundable registration fee, among other requirements.
Market IntelDigitization BoostMessari analysts wrote a report arguing the “coming digitization of money,” including the launch of CBDCs, could provide a “secular tailwind” for bitcoin. The resilience of cryptocurrencies has catalyzed government investigation into CBDCs, which in turn expose the wider population to the mechanics of cryptocurrencies. CBDCs, “will increase people’s comfort with and understanding of cryptocurrencies, get more people creating and using cryptocurrency wallets, and provide on-ramps into decentralized cryptocurrencies like bitcoin,” the analysts said. This insight comes from First Mover. Get it in your inbox here. 
Inflation and PriceRewards per block mined on the zcash blockchain – launched and supported by the Electric Coin Company – are scheduled to be cut by 50% sometime in November. The privacy-centered crypto is often criticized for its high levels of inflation, though some industry experts are saying its programmatic halving could solve this problem. This case study could reveal insight about the impact inflation has on a cryptocurrency’s price. 
Fees and TransactionsBitcoin’s average transaction fee has dropped 53% from $6.64 to $3.06 in the past five days, as the backlog of unconfirmed transactions sitting in the blockchain’s mempool has dropped 71% over the same time period. (Decrypt)
Crypto Long & ShortVC InflowsAndreessen Horowitz (a16z) stirred up discussion last week by claiming the crypto economy is teetering on the edge of its next cycle of development, just days after it unveiled a second $515 million crypto-focused fund. CoinDesk’s Noelle Acheson looks at venture capital inflows into crypto and what a16z’s plans means for the direction of this industry. “[V]enture funding implies building, steady progress, support for the never-ending search for product-market fit and a relatively attractive profile for institutions looking for return with reasonable risk,” she said. You can sign up for Crypto Long & Short here.
Opposite EditorialSpiritual Reflections on the Bitcoin HalvingAllen Farrington, a freelance writer, reflects on bitcoin’s third programmatic halving and what the shared event means for the future of the network and the internet. “The bitcoin halving happened at the same time for everybody because the Bitcoin protocol is the same thing for everybody. It knows no borders and no nationalities. It knows no time zones,” he said. 
What I Learned the First Time I Lost a Million DollarsJeff Dorman retells the tale of his gains and losses on Wall Street and what this experience means for risk management in the age of digital assets. “The ability to stay disciplined with risk management changed my career. I always knew I had the tools required to be a successful investor, and I’ve always been convinced I can make smart investments, but it took years to realize the difference between good asset managers and bad ones comes down to more than just picking good investments,” he writes. 
Who Won #CryptoTwitter?Subscribe to receive Blockchain Bites in your inbox, every weekday.Disclosure Read More The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.

Argentina’s Financial Information Unit (FIU) has ordered stricter controls and monitoring into cryptocurrency transactions in the country to eradicate money laundering and other illicit activities. 
 
 
Argentine newspaper El Cronista reported that the FIU, a government agency that is responsible for enforcing anti-money laundering laws and compliance, is looking to tighten its controls on cryptocurrency trading. 
 
President of the Financial Information Unit, Carlos Alberto Cruz said, “In recent times, we have seen an increase in operations carried out through virtual assets.” He added that these transactions could be “carried out by people who intend to circumvent international standards and avoid the anti-money laundering system.”
 
The announcement by the FIU comes at a time when Argentine citizens have been swapping out pesos for more stable foreign currencies, and “parallel exchange markets” have been observed by the government. 
 
This observation has been backed by Franco Amati, the founder of the Buenos Aires Bitcoin Center, as he explained that the Argentine government is clamping down on its citizens from buying Bitcoin with Argentine pesos and converting them to Bitcoins, then to US dollars on foreign exchanges.
 
Lack of confidence on the Argentine peso
 
Argentina has been one of the earliest adopters of cryptocurrency in South America, in an effort to go against inflation and overcome the prohibition of purchasing and transferring foreign currency abroad. Although cryptocurrencies have always been deemed legal in Argentina, the country formally banned consumers from purchasing Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies using credits since November 2019. 
 
The high adoption of cryptocurrency among the Argentine citizens could be linked to the high volatility of the peso, the value of the peso against the US dollar has dropped by 85 percent in the past five years. Argentine citizens have had little confidence in their currency, therefore converting their pesos into Bitcoins then the US dollar. 
 
Argentina’s central bank looks to test a blockchain clearing system
 
The Central Bank of Argentina (BCRA) is looking to test a blockchain-based clearing system to be used by the country’s major financial institutions. The aim of the blockchain clearing system is to provide efficiencies for fiat payments and enable them to be more reliable and to provide end-to-end traceability. 
 
A proof-of-concept for the permissioned blockchain network has been created, based on RSK Smart Contract network, along with the major commercial banks in Argentina, including Santander and BBVA, according to a blockchain developer IOV Labs. One of the major goals of the proof-of-concept was to show that there are other use cases for blockchain such as smart contracts, other than just cryptocurrencies.
Image via Shutterstock