Bithumb to go public in the USA — and so much more

Welcome to the Daily Debrief, where democracy dies in darkness. 

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Bram's struggle 

Bram Cohen, whose BitTorrent network once threatened all of civilization, is back at it again. This time, with his Chia Network, which promises to be a “green” alternative to bitcoin. Almost as interesting: Cohen is using a gamified approach to developing his soon-to-be launched network.  Guillermo Jimenez, the Texas Tornado, has the story and an interview with Cohen. [Ed: Jimenez was apparently the only person working on a daily story today. Are these the dog days or crypto or are the rest of you slacking?] [Ben: Sorry had a case of the vapors, I guess.]

Other stuff

Karmic justice

A new Reddit platform redirects ad money to users with high “Karma,” by way of an ERC20 token called a “donut”— which can be traded for ETH. Shout out to TrustNodes, which accumulated 400 Karma and made $10 off the whole thing. As crypto site TrustNodes points out, it’s rather like the Brave browser’s “Basic Attention Token,” which cuts out the middleman (centralized companies) from data-based advertising. Devolving the power to profit off shilling awful products to the Common Man. Noble.

Bithumb to moonwalk into US market

Singapore-based Bithumb, one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges, is reportedly seeking to go public in the US. It would be the world’s first such exchange to do so, as well as the first whose name sounds like an an injury.

Rather than an IPO, Bithumb is taking a “nonconventional route,” reports CNBC.  According to its unnamed source, the company is pursuing a so-called “reverse merger” with US-based holding company Blockchain Industries.

Isengaard for blockchain

The Institute for Fintech Research at Beijing’s Tsinghua University is joining forces with Ripple to educate students about "global regulatory policies and blockchain development,” according to Coindesk. The course, coordinated by Ripple’s “University Blockchain Research Initiative,” is designed to ready participants for servitude in the future blockchain economy, in which China will be King, Queen, Taskmaster, Cruel Mistress and avaricious Mr. Bumble, all rolled into one. Good old decentralization.

Bitcoin, undermined

A fun addendum to the radiant Guillermo’s article on the Wyoming’s recent move to recognise bitcoin as a “currency” under existing regulation: Popular Twitter man Beautyon wrote that a clause in the bill—that individuals “by law can’t self-custody”—would prohibit use of private blockchain wallets:

[sic]