Brave Browser Surpasses 5.5 Million Users And ShapeShift Announces Lay Offs

The State of The Market — January 9, 2019BTC: $4,049.81 (-0.32%)ETH: $151.93 (-0.29%)XRP: $0.369404 (+1.25%)

Another stable day for the crypto market, as most major cryptocurrencies changed by less than 1% in the last 24 hours. The market volatility is lower than yesterday, as the total market cap went down by just $200 Million in the last 24 hours. Bitcoin is rangebound between $4,000 and $4,100. Every time it goes below $4,000, there is a strong rebound. We can get a clear picture only if the price moves significantly beyond these points. The price of Ethereum Classic (ETC) remains unchanged even after the 51% attack, while Tron (TRX) is up by 7%.

In other news, Canaan Inc. is considering a US IPO. Canaan is China’s second-largest Bitcoin miner manufacturer after Bitmain. Canaan is looking to raise $1 Billion in the New York Stock exchange, and it could happen in the first half of 2019. Also, Telenor Microfinance Bank recently unveiled Pakistan’s first blockchain-based cross-border remittance service, launched in partnership with Valyou of Malaysia. The service is provided by Telenor’s Easypaisa and Valyou, a financial technology company that provides remittance services to unbanked populations, and powered by blockchain technology developed by Ant Financial’s Alipay online payment platform. The service will help to increase the speed and efficiency of remittances from Malaysia to Pakistan.

1) This week Brave Software announced that their browser had notched more than 5.5 million monthly active users. Brave started 2018 with about 1 million active users and grew this base by more than 450% by the end of the year. The number of verified published using the platform also grew from 4,000 to 28,000 and YouTube channels and Twitch streamers are among the news outlets represented on the platform. 2019 looks to be a fruitful year for Brave as the company secured partnerships with the Dow Jones Media Group, DuckDuckGo, and HTC. Brave Browser will also be the default browser on the new HTC Exodus phone. In spite of this impressive growth, Basic Attention Token is down more than 82% since reaching an all-time high in 2017. (Read More)

2) On Tuesday ShapeShift crypto exchange CEO Erik Voorhees announced that the startup had sacked 37 employees, which is nearly a third of its staff. Voorhees said that having to lay off employees was a “deep and painful reduction, mirrored across many crypto companies in this latest bear market cycle.” Voorhees was very transparent about the process and explained that growing industry-related legal concerns and unsustainable growth in staff hurt the company. Voorhees also mentioned that ShapeShift’s decision to implement know-your-customer (KYC) procedures led to a significant drop in users and the overall market-wide drop in transaction volume meant staffing changes were necessary. (Read More)

3) KodakONE, a blockchain-based image rights platform that is licensed by Kodak, has generated more than $1 million in licensing claims for content protection during a trial beta test of the platform. The platform essentially functions as an image copyright protection, monetization and distribution platform built on Ethereum, Stellar and Hyperledger blockchain technology. In October, KodakOne debuted its beta Post-Licensing Portal (PLP) and the platform uses an intelligent web crawler and image recognition technology to permit image rights holders to track their images and view infringements. The platform also uses artificial intelligence (AI) technology to estimate licensing value based on similarly registered images and the platform allows a user to retroactively license image usage in order to turn copyright infringers into paying customers. KodakONE co-founder Cam Chell said that in the future the platform will use KodakCoin to provide instant license settlement and the deployment of smart contracts. (Read More)

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