Ep. 72. The code you write has consequences

Simon's in the studio with Teana Baker-Taylor from the GDF and Patrick Mang, Innovation Lead for Global Markets at HSBC. First up, China Lifts Bitcoin Ban; Individuals and Businesses Can Now Own Cryptocurrencies Legally. Bitcoin (BTC) is now recognized as a legal asset to be owned, transferred and utilized as a medium of payment for goods and services in China as decreed by the Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration after ordering the Bitcoin ban in 2017. Fake News: China Did Not End its Cryptocurrency Ban. Stories claiming that the ban was lifted were based on ‘outdated information that carries no weight’. China are still not a fan of crypto...The country is also going after hotels, office buildings, and shopping malls, as well. None of them can host marketing events involving cryptocurrencies any longer. SEC Charges EtherDelta Founder Over ‘Unregistered Securities Exchange’. The regulator said Thursday that EtherDelta, which acts as a secondary market for trading ERC-20 tokens, had been providing a marketplace for buyers and sellers to trade ethereum tokens that the SEC deemed to be "digital asset securities." It used an order book, an order display website and a smart contract built on ethereum, the agency said. CFTC Fines Bitcoin Trader $1.1 Million for Crypto Fraud. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has jailed a bitcoin trader and fined him over $1 million for running a fraudulent bitcoin and litecoin scheme. Arizona resident Joseph Kim, admitted to defrauding investors of hundreds of thousands of dollars after misappropriating more than $600,000 of his previous employer's funds. Why Centralized Cryptocurrency Exchanges Make Terrible Custodians For Crypto Assets. Centralized exchanges are subject to a tremendous number of problems simply because they contravene one of the cardinal laws of cryptocurrency - the owner of the private key is also the owner of the asset. The biggest exchanges like Binance, OKEx and Huobi take control of user funds and use them for market manipulation. Instead of having the custodian working for the customer, they have their own interests at heart. Custodial exchanges are like the fox guarding the henhouse. A storm is brewing over the largest Bitcoin exchange. BitMEX is based in the Seychelles and doesn’t submit to any regulator. Crypto Token Airdrops Are a Marketing Ploy (and That's OK). Coinbase Offers $5k Egg-Freezing Benefit in Bid to Retain Talent. Silicon Valley cryptocurrency unicorn Coinbase has taken an unusual and expensive step to recruit and retain diverse employees. "With possibilities for egg freezing, IVF [in vitro fertilization], fertility preservation, surrogacy, and more, our fertility benefits can serve a wide range of use cases for our diverse group of employees," Nat McGrath, Coinbase's VP of people, told CoinDesk. We also have a great Tweet of the Week on Bitcoin, PoW, Miners and PoSM. We finish off the show with a great interview with Dash Core Group CEO Ryan Taylor to talk about forks, payment networks and userbases in emerging markets. All this and so much more on this week's episode of Blockchain Insider. And if you enjoyed our tweet of the week why not send us your best tweets? See if you can get a shout out on the show! We hope you enjoy the show and, as ever, don't forget to subscribe! Want to join the conversation on all the topics discussed? Tweet the show @bchaininsider and if you really love the show, please leave us a review on iTunes. This week's episode of Blockchain Insider was produced by Laura Watkins and Petrit Berisha. Edited by Michael Bailey. Special Guests: Patrick Mang, Ryan Taylor, and Teana Baker-Taylor.