The latest news on TAM, Montenegro, funding, new hirings and debit cards.

Check out our weekly “This Week in Crypto” summary in our blog post or watch the full video here.

Crypto Market News Highlights

1) Walmart Wants to Patent a Stablecoin That Looks a Lot Like Facebook Libra

Walmart probably will tokenize things for rewards, buying things on the Internet, possibly some type of stablecoin if they have business in other countries, etc. Microsoft, Apple, Google, all these companies are going to move in to tokenize.

2) Bitmain Recorded $310 Million in Losses in Q1 2019

Bitmain wanted to do an IPO but canceled it, and they still haven’t refunded everyone who invested in the IPO. Now they’re saying they have $310 million in losses? Good thing they’re not Tether, so they can’t print money out of thin air.

3) Experts Say Mexico’s Regulations Raise the Bar ‘Too High’ for Crypto Entrepreneurs

Kevin would say these experts are morons. The problem right now with Mexican regulations is that the CMBV (SEC basically) and the Bank of Mexico, disagree on one key point – the CMBV is saying that the Bank of Mexico should state which assets should be regulated, and the Bank of Mexico says none of them. You’re required to get a license under the CMBV in order to be an exchange, but as soon as you get the license, you can’t trade anything.

4) Binance Customer Data Has Leaked: What We Know and What We Don’t

Kevin loves a good “Binance screwed up” story. First, they said it was FUD, obviously wasn’t, then the hacker came out and said they were a white hat hacker, and they only stole from the other hackers. Still a thief, and then they ask for 300 BTC, and then they released the data online. Altruistic for sure.

Shows that no matter how much money you got in a bank, or the perception of how sophisticated your systems are, any system can be broken. The bigger you get, the more people want to break your system.

5) British Tax Authority Coming for Tax-Evading Crypto Investors

Only a matter of time. All major tax authorities will figure out how they can get data off the blockchain. They will find these guys and get their tax money.

Live YouTube Questions

How many hues of cm T-shirts exist?

Purple, turquoise, white, black. Same color on the logos, including gold/yellow ones. So all kinds of combinations of those.

Any news on funding?

The Brazilian group, still in the mix. Was planning to meet them this weekend in Moscow or Madrid but looks like it’s not going to happen because one of the individuals didn’t make it out here, he’s in Brazil.

We have an active group right now where questions flow back and forth. We will field those questions collectively on our side, and more than likely there’ll be a meeting towards the end of August in Brazil.

What’s new regarding Montenegro?

Close to finishing the English drafts. One of the co-founders of the CSD, who is the attorney here in Tallinn, will have a look as well over the weekend and on Monday we’ll send them back if we have any revisions or comments. Probably towards the end of the week we’ll get the actual final version, they should vote for it the week after. Going to have another meeting in London probably in the first week of September, so more info towards then.

How is your search for a back-end developer and an IT manager going? Those positions have been available for quite some time.

Still looking. Those positions are one of the hardest to fill, because we need to find someone who has a rather long list of attributes, and not willing to compromise on those.

Some candidates for the Head of Marketing?

Seen a few candidates, one so far that might fit the bill. HR has been away this week, will be back next week, and we’ll look to see if we maybe send an offer. Also has been a lot of incoming resumes for that position, something like 200 responses.

Can you explain how LP works for CoinMetro? How expensive is it for you to offer?

We basically connect to a liquidity provider, that provides us top of book in about 5 other levels of depth, in major cryptocurrencies/pairs/assets. That’s piped into the book via FIX connection. You’re able to trade off that, and those trades are basically routed over FIX to the liquidity provider, who fills them, tells us they’re filled, and we report back.

How expensive it is? Costs around the same as it would if someone was making into our book, considering we give 50% back to the makers.

Will token burning come into play as soon as TAM is released, or will it be more based on volume hitting the exchange?

We’re working on that right now. There’s been a debate on how we structure this and how it’s shown to the public in terms of GUI and things like that. About two weeks’ worth of development to finish. We also have TAM and other things that are all close to being done, so we have a bit of a priority list. Around the release time of TAM, the token burn mechanism will be released, not the same day, but around the same time.

Development news (new site, API)?

API is going to be after TAM is done. The API requires documentation which is a pretty arduous job and we don’t have anyone who can tackle that right now.

Part of the new site that was being developed Kevin simply didn’t like and ordered it back to the drawing board. Got new mockups which Kevin likes much better. Those are starting to move, so right now, in terms of front-end development, we have the front-end of TAM, Go! Dashboard, and the website. All is worked on in unison.

I see comments in TG about Agrello ID, can you talk about this project and how you plan to implement their tech into the platform?

Agrello ran an ICO back in 2017. They have guys on the team that worked for the company that created the loginless ID in Estonia, used by banks, etc. Basically, you use your mobile phone, you get a 4-digit code, you verify that it’s the same code shown on the site, and then you get pin-codes. That’s what we’re looking to use.

We’re working with them to integrate our own KYC platform, so we can use that system and they can use our system, and people who are KYC’d through us can use all their services, and people who are KYC’d through other services on their platform can come to CoinMetro. Still in process, not a super priority, but something we’ll look to do in the future.

How is the framework that LHV is making progressing?

Not sure, but in the talks and the messages we have back and forth – they’re moving. It hasn’t progressed as much as Kevin would have liked. Hoping to hear some information back from them this Thursday after their risk meeting, to see how much they’ve progressed in the last week, and based on that, decide how we move forward with additional assets.

You’ve said in the past that clients will be protected from negative balances. CoinMetro will bear the cost if that happens?

That is true, and we must under law. Technically speaking, we do everything we can to protect from negative balances, but they can happen.

How is the debit card progress coming along?

We haven’t finished designs yet, was waiting for the framework for how we must create the design, we just got it last week. Next week, Monday or Tuesday, we’ll have some people back from vacation that can start with the designs. Would assume the design takes two weeks, and then we’ll submit those to Mastercard. The process on the other side through Mastercard is already started, not an update on that yet. Progress made and it is moving forward.

Will the debit card also be a “virtual one” like the latest from Mastercard?

Any company can issue virtual ones if they already have a physical card. Not sure if virtual will be released right away, if it’s something asked for, it’s something we can do.

Will you be looking at Facebook advertising?

Yes. Facebook would be included. All social media, Twitter, Facebook, etc.

We’ve been testing, in very small amounts, Facebook so that we can go through their certification process.

How close is Margin Posting?

Looking at my priorities list here, we’re basically three weeks away from TAM/XCM fees. A few other things as well that aren’t necessarily releases, market makers, adding in new liquidity, a few other things. It looks like it’s going to happen after TAM at this point, because TAM was prioritized as we have a few algo-traders that wants to start using it.

I thought you needed MTF/sandbox for IEOs?

We don’t need the MTF/sandbox for “initial offerings” to be primary market of this particular asset. It’s just a listing. All the tokens initially are owned by one seller, who is the issuer basically. If it’s a regulated product, that would be correct. If it’s a utility token, then no, we don’t need the sandbox for that.

Did you develop the IEO platform yourselves?

The answer to that is yes, it’s something we’ve been developing in-house.

When is the piggy bank coming back, drop off on trading since you pulled that feature down?

There may have been a drop off, but not sure if that is equated to the piggy bank. It should be coming back in a future release. Tag me in Telegram and I’ll get you an update.

Reddit Questions

Thoughts on reme coming back and saving XCM?

Everybody loves reme, he has kind of become the CoinMetro pet troll. Kevin doesn’t know what his effect was in terms of saving or not saving XCM, but sometimes it’s nice to have a bit of spice in the group. Kevin is OK to have reme back.

When IEO news?

Announcement coming out 15th August, is the date that we have tagged between the two companies to make the announcement. It’s not just based on us, but it’s the date we have set in our minds.

“Kevin Explains Crypto” Term: Sidechain

Everybody knows that a blockchain consists of chains of data. A sidechain is essentially something that runs in parallel. You have the mainchain and sidechain. Let’s say it has a two-way peg, and assets can flow from the mainchain to the sidechain and back to the mainchain. Those assets are basically controlled by some type of timing mechanism, like an atomic swap or a smart contract. Assets from the mainchain go into a smart contract, they’re locked/verified. Then they’re released onto the sidechain.

Want to know more? Check for more details in the video below.

Listen to Last Week’s TWiC on the Go

Get the complete scoop by tuning in to our audio version of last week’s TWiC on SoundCloud. Happy listening!

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Well, that’s it for this week’s AMA with CoinMetro Founder Kevin Murcko! Please join us next week on CoinMetro’s Facebook and YouTube Channel at 12:00 (UTC) for another round and make sure you submit your questions to the CoinMetro subReddit!

As always, we’re available to answer any questions you may have on our Telegram Group 24/7.