The blockchain/crypto week in numbers

27,000…Canadian blockchain and cryptocurrency venture, DMG Blockchain Solutions, has energised up to 60 megawatts of its 85 megawatt crypto mine.

The 27,000 square foot mining-as-a-service (MaaS) operation sits on 34 acres in British Columbia and is currently using clean hydroelectric power.

$796 million…The Binance ecosystem just got bigger, with the addition of Binance Research.

This is focused on the creation of institutional-grade research reports and aims to increase “transparency and improve the quality of information available within the crypto space”.

In an online statement, the company says: “Two of our in-depth research reports are already online, with more set to be regularly released over the coming weeks at: https://info.binance.com/en/research“.

Binance was founded in China in 2014 and has gone on to become the world’s largest digital exchange in terms of adjusted daily trading volume (around $796 million at the time of writing), according to CoinMarketCap.

“The success of new technologies should not be measured only by their ability to power new industries and disrupt old ones, but also on their ability to affect positive change in the world. Too often the tech world focuses on generating commercial value, rather than societal value”

$500…Ethereum will experience a “monumental, defining global breakout” when smart contracts can accept outside data, according to Ian McLeod of Thomas Crown Art.

Ethereum’s price jumped 4% on Monday, adding some 8% over the last week, to trade at highs of $210. McLeod comments: “Ethereum is back in bull territory and is on track to enjoy considerable gains before year-end. I maintain that we can expect Ethereum to hit $500 by the end of 2018 and go on an overall upward trajectory throughout 2019.”

$100,000…Blockchain startup ambrpay has won a $100,000 first prize at the CV Competition for Finance, an event based in Crypto Valley, Switzerland.

$40 million…Rumours were swirling last week that $40 million worth of Ripple (XRP) had been moved to an address believed to belong to Jed McCaleb, co-founder of the altcoin. He is also the founder of Stellar Lumen and Mt. Gox, the exchange that lost nearly $1 billion to a hack in 2014.

10,000…Blockchain venture Bidooh, has inked a contract with DBDB Labs, a media agency based in Seoul, to utilise its decentralised digital billboard platform across 10,000 screens in South Korea.

1…Having established itself in Europe, crypto payments solution provider, Paytomat, has landed its first customer in the US market. Insomnia café in Los Angeles, known as ‘the truest writers’ café in the city’, is now onboard.

$1 million…eToro has unveiled a blockchain powered project, GoodDollar, that aims to reduce global wealth inequality.

The investment platform has stumped up $1 million in funding and is calling for more ‘brains, ambassadors and funders’ to join the initiative.

€150 million…Spain’s second largest bank, BBVA, and Red Electrica Corporation have carried out a blockchain-based syndicated loan of €150 million.

15…The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) has moved to the testing phase of a project to re-platform its credit derivatives Trade Information Warehouse (TIW) on distributed ledger technology and cloud.

“Ethereum is back in bull territory and is on track to enjoy considerable gains before year-end. I maintain that we can expect Ethereum to hit $500 by the end of 2018 and go on an overall upward trajectory throughout 2019″

Fifteen banks are conducting user acceptance tests, leveraging simulated use cases and test data and validating the interaction between systems, firms and other key market infrastructure providers, including MarkitSERV and its new platform for credit, TradeServ. UK-based Barclays is among the banks taking part, while the other 14 were not named.

4…Cryptocurrency podcast ‘Off the Chain’ was removed from Apple’s iTunes app this past week. It reached number four on the investing genre of the US rankings before being pulled, a move that caught the presenters and team behind it off-guard.

76%…Verge, Ethereum and Bitcoin are set to be the most successful cryptocurrencies in November, ending two months of limited price fluctuations in the market, according to personal finance comparison site finder.com’s latest Cryptocurrency Predictions Survey.

Verge will lead the way, with a rise of 76% by 1st December, followed by Ethereum and Bitcoin, at 32% and 29% respectively. It’s bad news, however, for Tron, which is expected to see a fall over the next month. Despite finder.com’s panel of experts predicting a bright 2019 for the coin (80% growth), they believe its value will drop by 10% in November.

£1.2 million…UK FinTech Atom Bank is teaming with Newcastle University on a three-year project which focuses on the design of better digital banking services.

Dubbed FinTrust, the initiative, involving computer science, psychology and banking experts, is funded by a £1.2 million grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council as part of an £11 million campaign to support research into accessing and using personal data.

Atom’s blockchain and crypto-statistics project is one of two Knowledge Transfer Projects that the challenger bank is working on, funded by Innovate UK and managed by the Knowledge Transfer Network.

$80 million…Bitcoin mining giant Bitfury has raised $80 million in a closed funding round.

11…Technology consultancy DataArt’s iGaming Practice won the Malta Blockchain Summit hackathon.

Eleven teams worked with the main mentor and judge, John McAfee, to produce their entries. Other members of the judging panel included blockchain founding father Scott Stornetta, Co-founder of Ethereum Charles Hoskinson, Ilya Smagin of Waves and Lucas Park, CTO of Fleta.

Over a period of 48 hours, DataArt implemented and launched the Blockchain Charity Gambling Platform.

8,500…No more than 5,000 attendees had been expected to attend Malta Blockchain Summit, which took place last week. But after a few hours of the first day (1st November), Dennis Avorin, one of the organisers of the event, told Coin Rivet that 8,500 had shown up.

Three…The Arizona Attorney General’s Office has accepted Sweetbridge as one of the first three projects into its new Financial Technology Sandbox.

£20 and £250…eToro has created an ATM that dishes out free Bitcoin when people sing to it.

This is in celebration of the tenth anniversary of the cryptocurrency, with the company giving away vouchers worth between £20 and £250 in Bitcoin to successful singers.