Happy Bastille Day as Binance turns 3
Greetings from the Jurassic coast where young Lady Luna (my fast growing puppy) and I are on holiday with my relatives enjoying all the Dorset countryside has to offer!
My French husband and I celebrated our 23rd Anniversary on the 12th July over WhatsApp and my old university French friend Carine Remy Greenwich celebrates her birthday today fittingly on ‘le quatorze’ / the fourteenth commonly known as Bastille Day. These key dates are indelibly inked in my brain for obvious reasons and now another birthday lands on the same auspicious day – today Binance officially turns three years old and Changpeng Zhao, CZ, contributes to Crypto AM: Founders series whilst I caught up last night with Teana Baker-Taylor, UK Director, Binance.
“From day one, Binance has worked to grow the blockchain ecosystem hand-in-hand with our community, and we remain committed to providing exceptional user support and innovative products. As we reflect on our achievements and growth over the last three years, our laser focus on supporting industry growth, including the UK crypto market and community, stands out as both one of our key achievements and a continuing goal. We believe we are stronger together – as industry participation increases and grows sustainably, we all benefit.
Binance is dedicated to our commitment to providing the core infrastructure services for organising the world’s crypto to increase the freedom of money globally. Whilst many industries have been impacted by monetary uncertainty and the Covid-19 crisis, crypto continues to grow. The appetite for access to alternative ways of increasing and securing wealth, raising entrepreneurial capital as well as new opportunities to earn income propel the crypto industry forward. As the crypto industry continues to mature, we strive to build upon the core facets of the blockchain ecosystem, bringing new services and financial opportunities to people around the world.”
Price Watch
At the time of writing, Bitcoin (BTC) is trading at US$9,222.69 / GB£7,379.17 ; Ethereum (ETH) is at US$240.04 / GB£191.95; Ripple (XRP) is at US$0.1988 / GB£0.1595; Binance (BNB) is at US$18.13 / GB£14.51 and Cardano (ADA) is at US$0.1258 / GB£0.1006 Overall Market Cap is at US$271.76bn / GB£216.85bn (data source: www.CryptoCompare.com)
City PM’s Crypto Insider
Having seen Coincover earlier in the year present at the Insurtech Gateway’s Crypto Insurance event it was gratifying to see the news break this morning they have recently closed a growth funding round. Coincover specialises in protecting cryptocurrencies held online and includes deposit protection as well as cover from theft of cryptocurrency and have the cloud of being underwritten by Lloyds of London insurers. In speaking to Sharon Henley, CPO, it was exciting to hear just how much the market for cryptocurrency protected by insurance has heated up in the last few months. “Coincover is removing the last major barrier to the mass-market adoption of cryptocurrencies. We are partnering with businesses looking to demonstrate they have a fully compliant crypto offering and is fully covered against the risk of its customer investments being lost or stolen. We’ve seen a huge growth in enquiries since COVID-19 lockdowns began around the world. This investment will allow us to meet this demand and fuel exponential growth.”
After what seems quite sometime, welcome news from one of my favourite Crypto Fintech projects Pigzbe. Pigzbe, to remind you, is an educational pocket money app for kids age 6 and up that helps them learn how to earn, save and spend crypto, while allowing parents to create a trusted network of family members that can transact with one another.
This week Pigzbe Founder Filippo Yacob announced the release of the Family Network feature, so we caught up yesterday for me to hear what he had to say “Pigzbe parents can now invite relatives and family friends into a safe network, so they can all send their kids tasks, gifts and allowances. Focusing on a family means the potential to acquire 8 customers for every child on-boarded, and the potential to bring Crypto to a wider demographic than any other Fintech by connecting Boomer grandparents to the 2.5 Billion (and counting) Gen X and Alpha children.”
Cardano has seen a spectacular boost in its Market Cap over the last couple of weeks and as a result the ugly side of the crypto Twittersphere has raised its head and contemporaneously the number of scam attempts too. It’s always a sad thing to see so I reached out to Aparna Jue, Product Director, IOHK:
“Scamming and success seem to go hand in hand in the crypto industry – as soon as any cryptocurrency rises into the top 10, we see videos like this popping up left, right and centre, attempting to exploit the increase in interest. That’s exactly what’s currently happening with ada.
“This correlation extends beyond the world of crypto. In any industry, as a product’s unique advantages become clear, scammers attempt to exploit that growing brand awareness.
“From banks to mobile phone networks, successful global businesses deal with scams like this every day. The most important thing is ensuring that consumers have the tools available to them to help recognise and avoid bad actors. One thing that sets Cardano apart is our wonderfully proactive community. They have been instrumental in flagging and reporting these scams as soon as they appear, for which we are very grateful.”
And Finally
Crypto fundraising is perfect for charitable giving
As many of you know I used lockdown to raise money for the elderly and vulnerable and did so by joining forces with BABB.
So when Crypto AM contributor Toby Lewis, CEO of Novum Insights, reached out about a charity his mother, Caroline Jessel, chairs and that he had linked up with Crypto AM Awards 2020 winner CoinPass I asked him to fill us in. Here’s what he had to say:
“The instinctive pull generated in many by the cryptocurrency world is due to its decentralised nature, working as an alternative to central bank-controlled mainstream currencies. The Bitcoin whitepaper itself is in part a strongly worded response to the failures of central banks and the banking sector in 2008. Given this, one of the sectors that is a natural adopter of cryptocurrencies is the charitable sector, with charities being autonomous organisations aiming to fill the gaps where centrally controlled government fails in helping society.
Larger charities that have adopted cryptocurrency include Oxfam and UNICEF, but also there is huge potential for smaller organisations to do this. A charity I have been advising, Dandelion Time, provides young children between the ages of 7 and 14 with educational support in the natural environment and has had stunning results.
These children have challenging emotional issues, often resulting from trauma, violence or serious health difficulties in the family, and the work they do with animals and in the natural world has had a very positive impact transforming the lives of the children and their families.
It has partnered with crypto exchange Coinpass to take in donations in the cryptocurrencies Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin. To donate to Dandelion Time’s cryptocurrency fundraising click here.”