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Crypto and blockchain: What the Brazilian market can expect for 2021

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2020 will be remembered as one of the most difficult years for contemporary societies: Countries and entire populations have faced lockdowns and economic crises, financial markets still suffer from the severe impacts of the economic recession, and more than 2 million lives have been taken by COVID-19.

Despite this, other sectors have been impacted in other ways during the severe global health crisis — which still seems far from over, even though vaccines are beginning to be distributed in wealthy countries. Economies have radically digitalized, hedge assets have attracted mistrust, and the crypto market has had one of its most important years since 2009, the year of Bitcoin’s (BTC) launch.

In fact, the crypto and blockchain markets have stood out in the face of a crisis that has spared almost no sector. Cryptocurrency funds are among the most profitable of the year, Bitcoin and the biggest altcoins reach new historic highs, large institutions and investors in the financial markets have allocated investments in Bitcoin, and blockchain technology has broken down barriers in the financial sector and in the production chains of the most varied of sectors.

Faced with a year of profound changes, what is to be expected for the future? Cointelegraph Brasil invited some of the country’s top crypto and blockchain experts to chart the next steps for the market.

Institutional investment

Institutional investment was highlighted in 2020, finally reaching the cryptosphere, and it promises another year of growth in 2021.

According to Rodrigo Borges, founding member of the Oxford Blockchain Foundation, large Bitcoin contributions by institutional investors — which have even bought more BTC than the production capacity of miners — will intensify in 2021: “Regarding Bitcoin, I imagine that there will be an increase in demand for institutional investors, enabling the emergence of new products with exposure to Bitcoin,” analyzed Borges. He also sees “2021 as a year of consolidation and strong development in the sector.”

As for Tatiana Revoredo, MIT blockchain expert and Cointelegraph Brasil columnist, the custody of cryptocurrencies by traditional financial institutions and the adoption of stablecoins will be key in the new year:

“In the financial sector, we will see applications for custody of crypto assets being launched in Brazil, with the possible participation of the traditional market. And if the regulatory authorities allow it, stablecoins will have an expressive role in the Brazilian market, with the turnover being able to quadruple in size.”

Crypto markets

Crypto markets experienced a year of extreme optimism — or greed, as demonstrated by the Crypto Fear & Greed Index. Bitcoin reached a dramatic bottom close at $3,800 in March, and it beat its 2017 historic high of $20,000 on Dec. 16. In Brazil, the currency set a new historical record in November when it reached $106,000 Brazillian reals.

Cointelegraph Markets reporter Marcel Pechman highlighted the behavior of the market despite the setbacks suffered during the year. He recalled: “The Bitcoin and Ethereum markets developed in 2020 as never before imagined, both in terms of trading volume, price and the contribution of renowned investors like Paul Tudor Jones and Stanley Druckenmiller.”

Pechman said that despite the crypto market suffering some setbacks, the impact of those setbacks on market performance was not so significant: “We had, for example, the US Department of Justice suing BitMEX — at the time, the largest derivatives exchange — and KuCoin’s $280 million hack, and none of those affected the market.”

Pechman also recalled that the 2020 DeFi race led to expensive transaction costs on the Ethereum network but did not impact market sentiment.

OriginalMy CEO Edilson Osório agreed with the promising future of the DeFi sector, but he cautioned against fraud:

“This is an experimental and very promising market, but it must be given extra attention because of malicious groups applying scams and fraud in general. As it is a very new market, platforms may have problems with hacks, and due to the great centralization that exists (even with many platforms presenting themselves as decentralized), there is still a risk of exit scams.”

About 2020’s innovations, and the digitalization imposed by the COVID-19 crisis, Pechman also said that it will go even deeper in 2021:

“Successive innovations, which include Taproot, Schnorr and Lightning Network in Bitcoin, in addition to the launch of Ethereum 2.0 phase 0, pave the way for the next wave, with increasingly larger, scalable applications, and interconnected with traditional finance. The final proof? Fidelity offers loans covered in cryptocurrencies.”

On the domestic markets, Osório is betting on the tokenization market in Brazil, which is already used by the country’s largest crypto exchange, Mercado Bitcoin. According to him, 2021 will be a year for “maturing the security tokens market.”

“Existing protocols are beginning to be well regarded by regulators, since most of them provide for greater participation and visibility on the part of the regulator itself and allow the mitigation of various risks inherent in this market. In this race, there is a great chance that Brazil will gain prominence because the local regulator has established a regulatory sandbox and the first projects are already beginning to mobilize to have their applications running in a more legally secure environment,” – noted Osório.

Another player at the Brazilian crypto markets, João Paulo Mayall — head of operations at QR Asset Management — is also optimistic about the tokenization market in 2021. He highlighted the role of regulators in the sector’s expansion in the South American country: “I believe that the future is the tokenization of assets, debentures, court bonds, government debts. Brazil is very advanced in its banking system and we will have many surprises in this sector, so I am very optimistic. Tokenization is a billion-dollar market, but it lacks the infrastructure. Innovation came in front of the regulators, but I think they are open to listening and working on it. I think [the regulation] will happen next year, even before March 2021.”

Finally, blockchain expert Tatiana Revoredo argued that crypto adoption in Brazil, which saw its currency melt in 2020, will intensify, with Bitcoin once again asserting itself as an economic-protection asset. She believes that the crypto markets will see “an increase in the interest of Brazilians, with consequent increase in the Brazilian market, with a prominent role for Bitcoin being adopted as a protective asset.”

CBDCs and national governments

The digitization of economies has placed the discussion of central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, at the center of debates by financial authorities around the world. One of the countries that has definitely entered this race is China, which is already conducting real tests of the digital yuan in the country. Its main geopolitical rival, the U.S., announced that for the time being, it does not intend to digitize the dollar, but it is already seeing internal pressure from not following the Chinese leadership in the sector.

The Central Bank of Brazil has also commented on the transformation of the Brazillian real into a digital currency a few times, although there are no concrete plans for that in the short term.

Osório believes the European Union will join the hype soon, further accelerating the global race for CBDCs: “Although China appears to be leading the CBDC race, other countries are also beginning to move in this direction. Among them, Estonia, which recently started an internal consultation for the launch of its currency in the digital version. In particular, I believe that in Europe a more comprehensive and organized movement should take place in this sense, given the incentives promoted by the European Union.”

Many experts try to predict the impacts of CBDCs on economies — one of the main concerns of economic regulators. Governments, which largely study the adoption of blockchain in their public processes, should also enter the debate on privacy and the digitization of money.

According to Tatiana Revoredo, “in the government sector, the forecast is for the growth of [blockchain] applications in document registration and health applications, as well as a greater concern, by the citizens, regarding the relationship between privacy and CBDC.” She also claims that payments processors should closely monitor this innovation:

“Those who should be more attentive to these movements are the means of payment, such as PayPal and their peers. They will have to look deeply into their business models as soon as governments start issuing their currencies digitally. ”

Blockchain adoption

Governments have also viewed blockchain technology through a positive lens. In Brazil and Latin America, several state entities already use the technology to certify documents, including customs and notary offices. Big companies are also adopting blockchain to certify production, with use cases that are only expected to grow going forward.

Borges said that the acceleration of blockchain adoption by large companies and governments can positively impact crypto assets:

“Within the scope of blockchain technology, I see the development of interesting solutions, with the increasing involvement of traditional players, especially in the financial and agribusiness sectors, which may result in increased liquidity for certain assets.”

Revoredo agreed and highlighted the advancement of technology in the agricultural sector: “There has been a significant advance in agribusiness, with use in the identification of devices (drones, for example), integration with IoT and artificial intelligence to provide greater reliability and certify quality of agricultural production.”

Osório defended the growth of the blockchain market in 2020 and its prospects for the near future: “When we look at advances in blockchain with applications beyond digital currency, we see a growing market in the area of ​​decentralized digital identity, including with the approach of governments. We have seen movements in governments in the US and Japan, interested in modernizing their digital governance models. And the pandemic has certainly helped to accelerate and advance discussions on the issue around the world, as it understands that the digitization of analog and traditional services is a necessity.”

The end of 2020 was a milestone that closed out one of the most dramatic years in the history of contemporary societies, but it also revealed ways to combat global economic and health crises.

Blockchain technology has helped societies fight corruption, adopt more transparent processes and even contributed to the certification of medicines and vaccines during the most serious health crisis of the last 100 years, in addition to helping companies to improve procedures, products and services.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin has strengthened as an economic protection and investment product, has attracted institutional investment giants, and — together with other crypto technologies — has even laid the foundation for central banks around the world to start implementing their own digital currencies.

We still do not know the depth of the revolution we are experiencing with the digitalization of societies and the weakening of national currencies around the world, but by the end of 2021, we will certainly know many of the answers to the questions that still plague us at the beginning of this new year.

Crypto and blockchain: What the Brazilian market can expect for 2021

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CRYPTOCURRENCY- The Year’s Best-Performing Asset So Far

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Want to know what is the driving force behind crypto’s surge? Interested in learning more about cryptocurrencies? You have landed at the right page. 

Table of Contents 

  • The Evolution of Cryptocurrency
  • Cryptocurrency’s Landscape is Maturing 
  • Decentralized Finance- Driving the Climb 
  • Cryptocurrency: Redefining Money in the Digital Age
  • Conclusion: Is it Worth to Invest?

The Evolution of Cryptocurrency

Crypto evolution was started in 2009 by Satoshi Namakoto, presumed pseudonymous person or persons who developed bitcoin, where he mined the first Bitcoin on a decentralized network. In 2011, Litcoin was introduced, followed by another cryptocurrency ‘Ripple’, in 2012. Soon after this, the price of single Bitcoin was reached to be $1,000. As the concept of cryptocurrency started getting matured, Ethereum(often known as the king of smart contracts) was launched, bringing smart contracts into the crypto ecosystem. Then in 2017, around thousands of cryptocurrencies were listed. In 2018, EOS offered a Blockchain-based infrastructure for decentralized applications(DApps), and at present, decentralized finance has entered into a digital age, opening a lot of opportunities for the crypto ecosystem. 

Want to have in-depth knowledge about all the ins and outs of cryptocurrencies and become a Certified Cryptocurrency Expert(CCE)? You are just a click away! 

Cryptocurrency’s Landscape is Maturing 

As the advent of cryptocurrency has taken the world by storm, it has become a global phenomenon in recent years. However, much is still to be learned about this revolutionizing technology. Cryptocurrency experts and technocrats believe that digital currency has the potential to replace cash one day eventually. If you are a big fan of price predictions, you must have noticed how Bitcoin remains under the limelight in terms of increasing market capitalization. Crypto predictions state that Bitcoin market cap will reach an all-time high of $27,000 while other popular cryptocurrencies will explode to a whopping $2 trillion. 

Moreover, the majority of U.S. investors are gaining appeal in digital assets and believe that crypto should be a part of their investment portfolios. 

Decentralized Finance- Driving the Climb 

According to the Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index, crypto assets are showing a high up by 66 per cent in 2020, indicating the rate is exceeding that of gold’s performance by 20 per cent. 

It is found that digital assets are beating global stocks, bonds, and commodities this year and the key reason for the higher surge is due to Ethereum, which accounts for more than one-third of the cryptocurrency’s run this year.  

The Decentralized Finance(DeFi) space is gaining strength, due to “yield farming,” which allows entities and individuals to lend or borrow funds and earn interest without the need for traditional intermediaries. According to DeFi Pulse, the DeFi space has more than $9 billion in cryptocurrencies locked. 

Since the majority of the DeFi apps are run on the Ethereum blockchain, a key reason for the higher surge is due to Ethereum Blockchain.

Mike McGlone, a strategist at Bloomberg Intelligence, explained that Ethereum’s rise is powered by the increased adoption of DeFi, which seems to be keeping its platform leadership status in the domain. 

CEO of crypto asset management firm Two Prime, Marc Fleury, believes that the crypto market is performing outstanding despite the COVID-19 crises. According to him, Bitcoin has become a “refuge,” as it is a hedge against risks just like gold.

Cryptocurrency: Redefining Money in the Digital Age

During the coronavirus outbreak, the Bitcoin market cap was initially slowed down to almost $3,000, but in a few time, it soared back up, hitting $10,000. According to various reports, this pandemic is pushing Bitcoin’s maturity and gaining the upper hand, against the stock market. Rather than seeing this as a crisis situation, analysts and crypto experts are considering COVID-19 outbreak as a catalyst for Bitcoin’s transformation into a safe and most valuable asset like gold. 

Today, crypto can be used for making cross-border payments between participating parties without involving third-party intermediaries, value storage, digital ownership, and much more. Cryptocurrencies offer many proven, high-value use-cases for the digital age. And if this continues, crypto-assets will definitely replace traditional ways of exchanging money. 

Conclusion: Is it Worth to Invest?

Cryptocurrencies, without a doubt, hold a very promising future. But in reality, trading and investing in cryptocurrencies entails a serious risk of failure. The value of cryptocurrencies and futures can fluctuate, and one can lose more than their initial investment as a consequence. But with adequate knowledge in the crypto space, especially regarding the trading strategies, you can invest and trade confidently. If you’re looking for a proven plan to build wealth, I encourage you to check out Blockchain Council and get enrolled in the most-demanding crypto certifications and become a Certified Cryptocurrency Trader(CCT) or a Certified Cryptocurrency Expert(CCE). 

Let us guide you through the process of investing. Enrol yourself today! 


 

To get instant updates about Blockchain Technology and to learn more about online Blockchain Certifications, check out Blockchain Council.

CRYPTOCURRENCY- The Year’s Best-Performing Asset So Far

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Law Decoded: Police and thieves on their screens, Oct 2–9

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Every Friday, Law Decoded delivers analysis on the week’s critical stories in the realms of policy, regulation and law.

Editor’s note

Historians typically date the birth of international policing as we know it today to the 1800s, a response to the explosion in nationalist movements and non-governmental political radicalism in Europe. Just as new linking technologies like the telegraph and the steam engine aided and abetted new networks of political deplorables and any number of Sherlock Holmes plots, the explosion of communications tech of the last quarter-century has brought about new forms of crime. 

Which is, y’know, something everyone passively knows. In crypto, association with crime is a familiar reputational issue that is present but certainly not unique. New technology giveth and taketh away. Law enforcement’s interest in controlling new networks also grows. Paranational organizations like drug cartels and terrorist cells come to mind.

This week saw the U.S. Department of Justice press criminal charges against ISIS agents behind American deaths including James Foley’s, a move that expands their power to prosecute foreign agents as criminals under U.S. law. The FBI also busted up a home-grown far-right conspiracy to kidnap the governor of my home state of Michigan. In crypto, several jurisdictions have laid claim to new authority, with the DoJ in particular making a number of moves to expand its jurisdiction.

DoJ vs. everybody

The Justice Department’s new “Cryptocurrency Enforcement Framework” laid claim to a whole host of powers over crypto businesses that had previously been in limbo. Most notable is the generosity of what the DoJ is calling its own jurisdiction — basically anything that touches a U.S. server.

The new framework heralds a new era in the department’s crypto authority, but it’s just the clearest summary of a growing body of precedent that U.S. regulators from the SEC to the IRS have been building out for years.

The DoJ’s criminal charges against Seychelles-registered BitMEX’s leadership last week in some ways telegraphed their particular interest in combatting crime in crypto wherever in the world it may be. Most earlier involvement in crypto-linked prosecutions abroad had been focused on networks the DoJ saw as being primarily designed to finance terrorism or funnel money to sanctioned individuals. While the DoJ accused BitMEX of being a means for such action, the allegations against the leadership are not really accusing them of ideological or political illegality, but rather old-fashioned greed.

Distressing for the crypto community is, as always, the association with criminal activity. The DoJ’s report pays lip service to blockchain technology’s ability to revolutionize payments, finance, international trade, shipping, trust, consensus et al — I assume that this readership is familiar with the myriad use cases — but the report pivots compulsively to crime. From the DoJ’s side of things, that is their trade, so it makes sense, but it also adds to the unfair stigma against a technology.

Another cause for concern is that tech-savvy people in the U.S. can get around the barriers by really any crypto company, given enough time and potential profit. So as with the general trends of the last year, U.S. authorities really do seem to be building out the legal framework to give themselves jurisdiction over crypto basically anywhere. World Police indeed.

UK shuts door on whole genre of crypto investment

The United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority nixed trading of crypto-based derivatives — including futures, options and swaps — for all retail investors starting in January.

While the FCA may not be as globally hawkish on crypto as its U.S. analogues, London remains Europe’s financial center. Much like Brexit itself, the predicted exodus from London has seen delays that seem to mock all bold predictions.

With its focus on retail investors, however, the FCA has obviously designed its new ban to be more of a protective maneuver for regular Britons rather than a handicap on the reigning heavyweight champs of the London Stock Exchange.

Nonetheless, as the UK’s position within both Europe and the global economy is vulnerable, implementing a stringent ban on a new asset class seems like yet another way of recusing itself from the financial future. As mentioned earlier, determined UK crypto investors will almost certainly be able to get around the new ban to access offshore exchanges with less legal accountability to the UK and more extravagant and risky leveraged offerings. 

But maybe a somewhat built-in assumption is that, while the technological implementation of any ban is going to be slow and imperfect, a retail investor capable of working around it is not exactly the person the FCA is most worried about protecting.

DoJ vs. the elusive Mr. McAfee

After decades of intercontinental outrageousness, John McAfee was arrested in Spain for tax evasion. He also faces a suit from the SEC for fraudulent ICO promotion.

McAfee first found success in the 80s at the head of the firm that produces the antivirus software that still bears his name. He left the company in the 90s and has been bouncing around the world more or less ever since, racking up guns, substance addictions, and allegations of sexual assault and murder. Also not paying his taxes, allegedly. He was posted up in Cuba out of the reach of U.S. authorities for a while.

Despite his early successes in technology, McAfee has for decades built a personal brand on foundations of infamy. The SEC’s allegations suggest that he managed to translate that megaphone into millions of dollars by plugging into the curious hypedraulic mechanics of the ICO boom. Earlier this year, he tried to launch a privacy token that he admitted was largely taken from another project. McAfee is hardly what you would call a builder. While everyone is innocent until proven guilty, McAfee’s absence from the crypto scene would be a blessing for the industry’s reputation.

Further reads

The Bank for International Settlements put out a new and extensive report on Central Bank Digital Currencies and the associated risks and prospects.

Tax attorney Jason Freeman runs down the latest memorandum from the IRS on how to get your taxes on virtual assets in order.

Writing for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Rainey Reitman talks problems with the extradition hearings for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.

Law Decoded: Police and thieves on their screens, Oct 2–9

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Dont trust investors asking how youll exit to Apple, says Apple CEO

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If you’re a budding entrepreneur and the VC you’re pitching switches gears and asks you about your exit strategy that’s your cue to get up and leave, says Apple CEO Tim Cook.

Cook was speaking to an audience of students and would be entrepreneurs at the opening of the Foundry startup hub in Oxford, UK yesterday. During a Q&A session at the end of a hour long conversation an audience member asked Cook how entrepreneurs should handle investors who seem to be trying to steer them towards a quick exit to a tech giant like Apple or Google.

“If you have a VC asking you that you should get up and walk out of the room,” said Cook, qualifying himself slightly by saying that at least is what he would do if he were in such a position.

“You should not be attracted to that kind of money,” he added. “Because those people are not for growing your company and helping you — they’re for a quick buck and it’s not worth it.”

In a long and at times deeply personal conversation, Cook discussed his personal background, work philosophy and sources of inspiration, including touching on his early years at Apple and his relationship with co-founder Steve Jobs.

Another discussion point was how the current culture at Apple aims to encourage employees to challenge each others’ ideas. “I think you have to allow for different opinions — and not only allow but foster them,” said Cook, although he also said there’s a line to be drawn “if you don’t treat each other with dignity and respect — you need to leave”.

“If you’re in a position where you’re deciding people’s future and you’re deciding in a biased way, you need to leave,” he added. “But I think we have to allow for disagreement.”

He was also asked to share business advice on a range of topics including starting out building a career, leadership, and sustaining customer satisfaction at scale.

“Most people if you set up a focus group will tell you small changes to the existing thing,” he said discussing his approach to balancing product design and customer satisfaction. “And so if you want to go from the stagecoach to the car somebody’s not likely to come up with the car. If you want to go from the Sony Walkman to the iPod someone’s not likely to come up with the iPod.

“But the thing that you have to do is, your focus group is yourself — you should make products that you want to use. And not just want to use but you love. And you can bet that if you love it there are many other people out there that are going to love it too. And so that fundamental thing drives Apple.

“In addition to that — because we do make mistakes on some things that we ship — and so you always want to stay close to your customers and listen to them and be very accessible to them,” he said, adding: “One of the key reasons we have retail stores is to touch our customers and hear from them.”

Cook said he gets up early because he likes to spend his first hour going through customer emails — “because I want to know what they’re saying, I want to know what they’re feeling”.

For people in the audience thinking of setting up a startup, Cook also had this to say: “Recruit the friends of yours who are not like you. If you’re in engineering make sure you get someone in liberal arts. If you’re from the UK make sure you get someone from the Middle East or from China… or wherever.

“Find people that are different from you, where the common thread is they want to change the world and they want to change the world by creating the product or service that you also want. If you can find that collection of people… that is the kernel of a successful company.”

Responding to a question about how to figure out when you should stick at a product or piece of work which appears to be failing and when to scrap everything and start again, Cook pointed to Apple’s failed Cube desktop as an example of an instance when, even with a lot of time and effort invested, the company had made a quick decision to kill off a product.

“It was a very important product for us, we put a lot of love into it, we put enormous engineering into it… It was a spectacular failure commercially — from the first day, almost,” he said. “And within three months we withdrew it. We had to look at ourselves in the mirror and say we missed this one.

“I think it’s important to be able to do that — something that you were so passionate about — and this was another thing that Steve [Jobs] taught me actually… you’ve got to be willing to look yourself in the mirror and say I was wrong, it’s not right.

“I see so many people when they commit themselves to something their pride would not allow them to say this just doesn’t work…  Failure is a common thing. It’s like the common cold.”

“Steve of everyone I’ve known in life could be the most avid proponent of some position and within minutes or days if new information came up you would think he’d never, ever thought that,” he added. “He was a pro at this. And at first I thought ‘oh he really flip flops!’ and then all of a sudden I saw the beauty in it.

“Because he wasn’t getting stuck — like so many other people do when they say I’ve got to keep going on, my pride. So be intellectually honest — and have the courage to change.”

I can see uses for it everywhere. I can see uses for it in education, in consumer, in entertainment, in sports. I can see it in every business that I know anything about.

Cook was also asked for his thoughts on the most exciting emerging technologies, with an audience member listing blockchain, AI, hyperloop and quantum computing as possible examples. Cook picked a different one: Augmented reality.

“I’m incredibly excited about AR, one that you didn’t mention,” he said, naming the tech that Apple is making a big bet on via a supportive framework in its latest mobile OS. “Because I can see uses for it everywhere. I can see uses for it in education, in consumer, in entertainment, in sports. I can see it in every business that I know anything about. I see it is wide, it’s horizontal in nature.

“I also like the fact that it doesn’t isolate. I don’t like our products being used a lot. I like our products amplifying us. And I think AR can help amplify the human connection. I’ve never been a fan of VR like that because I think it does the opposite. There are clearly some cool niche-y kinda of things for VR. But it’s not profound in my view. AR is profound.”

“We will look back on this moment, or the moment we announced ARKit earlier this year, and this will be one of those things in history, I think. It’ll take some time, it doesn’t happen overnight but this is big and it’s good for humanity,” he added.

A final question raised monopolies and how dominant elements in markets might be blocking entrepreneurs — and what could be done to help?

“I’m not a big fan of regulation but when there’s any move at all towards that side I think that regulation is necessary,” said Cook.

“For us we have low marketshare, we’re about the best, not the most. But I think it’s essential that competitive markets exist. And where it doesn’t I think that is a prime role for government to step in and not only protect the consumer but also protect society at large because sometimes it can be more than about the price somebody pays for something. Sometimes that can be the least issue.”

“You’re asking a huge question that’s obviously on a lot of people’s minds right now, me included,” he added. “The regulators have to decide where in that spectrum are different companies. Each company’s in a different position so each one has to be looked at individually, instead of as a group.”

Read more: https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/12/dont-trust-investors-asking-how-youll-exit-to-apple-says-apple-ceo/