- More details about Bitmain layoffs emerge
Major Chinese cryptocurrency mining company Bitmain just can’t seem to catch a break lately. Just months after filing to go public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, these plans have apparently been shelved as a complete restructuring of the company’s business is seemingly under way.
“There has been some adjustment to our staff this year as we continue to build a long-term, sustainable and scalable business. A part of that is having to really focus on things that are core to that mission and not things that are auxiliary,” a company representative said in a statement given to Coindesk.
Chinese social media has been swarmed with discussions regarding Bitmain laying off its staff, with some sources suggesting more than 50% of workers will be forced to find new accommodations.
“It’s affirmative. The layoff will start next week and involves more than 50 percent of the entire Bitmain’s headcount,” commented one verified Bitmain staff member on Maimai, Chinese version of LinkedIn.
Popular “harbinger of Bitmain’s doom” Dovey Wan commented on her Twitter that the layoffs are a clear case of “year-end personnel adjustment”. According to her sources, the lay-offs will affect BCH client & mining the most. At the same time she reveals that Bitmain’s Beijing office will be cut from 1000 employees to 300 while the company’s Shenzhen office will see similar downsizes as well (from 700 to 200).
- Jordan Peterson accepting Bitcoin in light of Patreon controversy
Jordan Peterson, popular professor of psychology-turned-free-speech-advocate, is just one of many individuals who decided to start accepting Bitcoin donations on his website.
Peterson recently reacted to the controversy of Patreon, a crowdfunding platform used by online creators looking for alternative ways of financing, selectively banning various creators/free speech advocates for apparently politically motivated reasons. Peterson criticized such practices:
“Imagine if banks started canceling the accounts of people who have committed no offense but did not abide by their corporate mission statement? We’d have political banks.”
The man has since been swarmed with a number of people suggesting he should make the switch to Bitcoin, the payment system that was built to counter politics and censorship in finance. One Twitter user summed it up nicely:
“The answer lies in an emerging industry that’s been developing since the 2008 crash: cryptocurrencies, with Bitcoin leading the pack; an independent, open-source, peer-to-peer cash system with an immutable, public ledger.”
It would appear that Peterson either knew about Bitcoin before or was enlightened by the slew of pro-cryptocurrency posts on his social media as his website currently offers you a way to donate Bitcoin. As traditional payment platforms start becoming more political and more restrictive in terms of who gets to enjoy their basic human right of getting paid for their work, we should expect to see even more creators embrace cryptocurrency payment options.
- XLM-based exchange airdrops tokens to its users as a sign of gratitude
Keeping up with the festive spirit of the holiday season, XLM-based financial services platform Stronghold airdropped 100,000 SHX tokens to its users.
Stronghold is a financial services platform that enables payments, trading, and USD reserves using their products like Stronghold USD and their platform APIs. Stronghold USD is a one-to-one USD-backed stablecoin of the platform; in cooperation with the Stronghold API, the token allows users to create wallets, accept and make payments, and perform other transactions.
This little show of appreciation from Stronghold was made available only to fully KYC-registered users of the platform. Full airdrop details can be found here. Overall, the move is expected to bring increased adoption and liquidity to both the Stronghold and XLM ecosystems. Stronghold team suggested that similar announcements could be expected in the near future.
- XRP is an example of “mature cryptocurrency”, claims PwC
Popular London-based audit, assurance, tax and financial consulting company called PricewaterhouseCoopers (or PwC) recently had some positive words about XRP. The speed, simplicity and cheapness of cross-border transactions that this Ripple-made cryptocurrency offers has apparently impressed the higher-ups at PwC, especially Henri Arslanian, a crypto-focused employee of the company.
Henri Arslanian, PwC’s FinTech & Crypto Leader for Asia as well as the Chairman of the FinTech Association of Hong Kong, feels that Ripple and its XRP token represent a great example of how the future of cryptos can be. He feels that Ripple already having many partners and possessing a SWIFT-like payment system that is already capable of high-speed, low-fee cross border transactions are clear indicators that they will be at the forefront of crypto revolution.
Arslanian expects the year of 2019 to bring about increased institutional investment, and cites this as one of the most exciting prospects in crypto industry. Big banks and financial institutions will likely look to gain a firm foothold in the crypto market and Ripple’s Ripplenet represents a solid gateway into the space. To conclude, he stated that 2019 will be the year when partnerships between crypto and regular finance become much more solidified.
