Satashi Nakamoto has been nominated for a Nobel prize, and Bitcoin is still on neutral ground in Taiwan. Here are the cryptocurrency highlights of week 46:
- The man, woman, or group behind Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto has been nominated for the 2016 Nobel Prize in Economics by UCLA Professor of Finance Bhagwan Chowdhry. In his blog post detailing his decision Chowdhry calls the invention of Bitcoin “nothing short of revolutionary”, and adds that the “Bitcoin Protocol has spawned exciting innovations in the FinTech space by showing how many financial contracts — not just currencies — can be digitized, securely verified and stored, and transferred instantaneously from one party to another.” Despite the nomination, Nakamoto is not expected to reveal himself even if he wins the Nobel prize.
- Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has unintendedly provided some support for Chowdhry’s nomination, as it recently discussed the potential impact of blockchain technology and concluded: “The impact of blockchain is huge. Its importance is similar to the emergence of Internet and Google”. On the other hand, the minutes of the meeting do note that “centralized processing has merit providing liquidity”.
- The man who is believed to be Satoshi Nakamoto, Cryptographer and legal expert Nick Szabo, spoke at an Ethereum Developer Conference (DevCon1) this week. Szabo noted that smart contracts could “substitute an army of lawyers and accountants” while speaking extensively about the “security benefits of decentralised monetary systems built using blockchain technology.” A full summary can be found here.
- Bitcoin is not banned in Taiwan according to Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC). For now, its stance on Bitcoin remains neutral despite speculation it was moving towards more restrictive policies. It would appear that the Taiwanese news service Central News Agency incorrectly reported that the FSC had deemed digital currencies “illegal”.
- After seven weeks of continuous gains for Bitcoin its winning streak ended with a serious crash this week. The price plummeted by almost fourteen percent to a current exchange rate of about $333 per coin. Compared to Bitcoin’s recent peak above $500 just one and a half weeks ago the digital currency has even lost one third of its value.
