All about governance

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March 23, 2020 As the coronavirus continues to shake faith in institutions around the world, the novel governance structures blockchains present may provide alternatives. Though, just as often, blockchain governance is also beset by problems. Here's the story: ON CHAIN The Ethereum community now has a roadmap, albeit a confusing one. Dropped Wednesday, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin’s state of the network map helps contextualize the next five to 10 years for a global community of 20,000 developers while highlighting a key issue for the blockchain’s next version: scalability.Scalable map The Tezos Foundation sold bitcoin to reinvest in XTZ, bonds and equities. In 2019, the non-profit that holds funds raised in Tezos' $400 million ICO, sold as many as 8,000 BTC. Roman Schnider, CFO of the Tezos Foundation, said although bitcoin is a "key store of value," the protocol wants to focus on long-term objectives "without being distracted by short-term market moves." Long term investment The former Steem community is in hot water, after a hard fork away from Justin Sun. The new blockchain, named Hive, has stepped on the corporate toes of a blockchain firm branded with the same name, HIVE Blockchain Technologies, which sent a cease-and-desist letter to the new chain. Kick the Hive OFF CHAIN The U.S. government is looking to financially support citizens amid the fear and uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic. Why not pay people in digital assets, writes Catherine Coley, CEO of Binance.US, in an op-ed. “In the interests of speed and safety, why not consider sending the stimulus in the form of stablecoins as a means to verify the transfer of assets?” she asks.  The Federal Reserve is ready to flood the U.S. with coronavirus-free banknotes. According to a spokesman for the central bank’s Philadelphia branch, there’s no need to destroy potentially infected banknotes – as the People’s Bank of China reportedly did last month – but it is ready to remove them from circulation. New bills The Australian share market fell sharply during its opening session of trading on Monday (AEST) after the country's Prime Minister announced drastic measures to curb the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19). "I think the ASX is being driven by global equities, which are being driven by a combination of momentum selling, panic selling and de-levering on the back of coronavirus fears," Joshua Green, chief investment officer at Orthogonal Trading, said. Down under Bitcoin, gold and stock futures shot up after the U.S. Federal Reserve announced a quantitative easing package with no upper limit to support the economy amid the coronavirus crisis. Bitcoin's move higher along with gold is likely to revive the safe-haven narrative. Pick me up However, bitcoin is also staring at a "death cross,” a widely tracked, bearish chart indicator, having suffered sharp losses over the last five weeks. The pattern arises as the 50-day moving average is poised to cross below the 200-day average within the two days. If confirmed, it would be the first death cross since Oct. 26, 2019. Short lived? CoinDesk Research's latest monthly report examines Binance, Cash App and Coinbase fiat on-ramps, crypto's faltering narrative as a safe haven asset, and “criminality” as a use case for crypto networks. The report also looks ahead (and back) to bitcoin halving impacts, as preview to the event slated later this Spring. Full report   The dual financial and biological crises besetting the world can be difficult to deal with. CoinDesk’s Leigh Cuen talks with cognitive economist Leigh Caldwell, author of “The Psychology of Price,” about how to stay sane during the pandemic. Finding balance WHO WON #CRYPTOTWITTER   Copyright © 2020 CoinDesk, All rights reserved.  Our mailing address is:  250 Park Avenue South New York, NY, 10003, US  Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or  unsubscribe from this list