Crypto Prediction Market Augur Is Gearing Up for Its First Major Upgrade

People want to use Augur, if only they could figure out how.
The decentralized platform for prediction markets based on real-world events launched on the ethereum blockchain in July. Since then, it has generated excitement beyond the usual crypto circles due to its perceived potential as a trustless, un-censorable platform to bet on sports, forecast elections, trade derivatives and hedge against risk.
But as a venture-capital investor said in a recent interview, Augur's "biggest pain point is user experience." This has meant that, following a brief honeymoon in which Augur attracted a flood of users (300 being a "flood" by decentralized application standards), the platform's daily active user count is now solidly below 100.
One would-be user even reached out to CoinDesk for guidance on how to get started on the platform, having gone to the project's website and found it was "not user friendly at all."
The developers behind the project, who are technically affiliated with the non-profit Forecast Foundation, recognize Augur's user experience problem.

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Italian Bank Consortium Trials Interbank Transfers on R3's Corda

The second largest bank in Italy, Intesa Sanpaolo, and 13 other banks have successfully completed the first phase of an interbank reconciliation blockchain trial.
The tests, which started on June 4, were held in conjunction with ABI Lab – a research lab supported by the Italian Banking Association (ABI) – and finished last week.
The project is aimed to improve certain aspects of "spunta," or inter-bank transactions, such as the time needed to identify mismatched transactions between two banks, and the lack of a standardized process and a single communication protocol.
In the 10-month proof-of-concept and testing phase, each bank was assigned a node and the banks uploaded actual data bank data, processing 1,200,000 transactions through the course of the trial.
The interbank system is built on Corda Enterprise, the platform developed by blockchain consortium startup R3 that offers what's called a Blockchain Application Firewall. This enables the platform to be "deployed inside corporate data centres, while retaining the ability to communicate securely with other nodes anywhere else in the world," according to a press release.
Katerina Koutoulaki, associate director at R3, told CoinDesk by email:

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Rapper Soulja Boy Brags About Bitcoin Gains in New Rap Track

Famous rapper Soulja Boy might just be a bitcoin hodler.
The 28-year-old musician, perhaps best-known for his debut single "Crank That," debuted a new song about bitcoin in his latest album "Young Draco." Simply titled "Bitcoin," the track describes how Soulja "made [$1] million off of bitcoins" after seemingly buying in at $6,000.
"Man, this going crazy the cryptocurrency man," the lyrics begin, continuing:

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Bitcoin-Stealing Malware Targets Fortnite Gamers

The release of season six for the popular Fortnite video game has inspired the development of bitcoin-stealing malware disguised as game cheating tools.

Malwarebytes Labs has discovered malware disguised as cheat tools that can steal data and bitcoin from Fortnite gamers, according to Christopher Boyd, the lead malware intelligence analyst. Malwarebytes Labs found the malware among YouTube videos offering “free” season passes and offers for “free” Android versions of the game, Boyd noted in a blog post.
Multiple Steps To Getting Scammed

Finding the malware required going through numerous steps, including subscribing to a YouTube channel, getting prompted to a different site, then taking a survey before downloading the malware.

One video was titled, “New Season 6 Fortnite Hack Cheat Free Download September 2018 / WH / Aimbot/ Undetectable.” One was titled, “Fortnite Hack Free Download,” while another was titled “Fortnite Cheat.”

One video racked up 120,892 views before being removed for violating YouTube’s spam policy, noted Boyd, who also observed that disguising malware as a cheat tool is not a new technique, but one that can do a lot of damage.

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Bitcoin is Still at an Early Stage: If You Hold 0.28 BTC, You’re Part of the 1%

Due to the fixed supply of Bitcoin, former Google Product Director Steve Lee stated that only 1 percent of the world’s population can own more than 0.28 BTC.

“If you own 0.28 BTC and HODL, you can be certain no more than 1% of the current world’s population can ever own more BTC than you. A modest investment of $1,830 today can ensure you are a 1%er in a future Bitcoin world,” Lee explained.

Throughout the next few years, the scarcity of Bitcoin will increase as more investors and institutions continue to accumulate the cryptocurrency, which could further reduce the total possible number of individuals that can ever own one whole Bitcoin (1 BTC)

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Israel's Securities Watchdog Builds Blockchain Into Its Messaging Tool

As reported by The Times of Israel, the Israel Securities Authority (ISA) announced Wednesday that the tech had been rolled out initially across its "Yael" platform, which the agency uses to communicate with entities under its jurisdiction.

The Times indicates that the blockchain integration has been developed in recent months by Israeli cybersecurity firm Taldor. By using an immutable blockchain technology, the agency aims to verify the authenticity and provenance of messages, as well as avert fraud by preventing communications from being altered.

The ISA is quoted as saying that the integration provides an extra layer "ensuring the credibility of the information relayed to the supervised bodies."

Going forward, the ISA also aims to integrate blockchain in two other systems – an online shareholder voting platform developed by the ISA and a regulatory document archive called Magna.

Natan Hershkovitz, director of the agency's Information Systems Department, said:

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With Rambling Clinton Keynote, Ripple Is Sending a Clear Message

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton didn't have to say much when he delivered the keynote at Ripple's Swell conference in San Francisco. And indeed, he barely said anything relevant to the blockchain industry.

The 42nd commander in chief has long been recognized for his rhetorical prowess, but there was little pressure on him to rouse or inspire the audience at Ripple's event. He was sending a message on Ripple's behalf simply by appearing on stage.

Specifically, the company was saying: Ripple is the kind of company that can book Clinton to speak.

While Clinton and his wife – former U.S. Senator, Secretary of State and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton – have given talks at any number of venues over their decades of public service, the "Paid Clinton Speech" became something of a meme in 2016.

During the campaign, critics on the left and right balked at the $22 million Hillary had earned giving speeches to employees of big banks and other establishment boogeymen. The content of these speeches – she refused to release transcripts – became something of a national obsession. To some, they epitomized what was perceived as overly cozy relations between DC and Wall Street.

For a company like Ripple, then, there is powerful subtext in booking a Clinton to speak. To understand why, consider the ambiguity of the company's position.
Schrodinger's Ripple

Ripple is a Schrodinger's cat.

In one outcome, we open the box and a thriving fintech company emerges, one that provides a long-overdue efficiency boost to the financial services sector by introducing new, disruptive technologies: blockchain and digital assets.

In the other outcome, we open the box and Ripple is just another cryptocurrency company looking for a use case: the company sells tens of millions of dollars worth of the cryptocurrency XRP every quarter through a subsidiary, but as of today, just a few firms are making commercial use of the Ripple product that leverages XRP.

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SBI Ripple Asia Wins Payments License for Blockchain Money App

A joint venture between SBI Holdings and Ripple has inched a step closer to launching its blockchain-based payments app for consumers.

SBI Ripple Asia announced Wednesday it has completed registration with the Kantou bureau of Japan's Ministry of Finance as a licensed agent for handling electronic payments.

The move clears the regulatory path for SBI Ripple Asia to roll out its MoneyTap payments app – one aimed to facilitate peer-to-peer money transfer for retail users over a DLT network.

According to Japan's Financial Services Agency (FSA), any entity wanting to operate as an agent to handle electronic payments using banks' open APIs must be registered with local finance bureaus. This legal requirement became effective as of June 1 this year, the FSA said in an announcement in May.

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