Facebook’s ‘cryptocurrency’ Libra lacks concrete plan for 2020 launch, says board member-Computerfanfield

Facebook ’s ‘ cryptocurrency ’ project Libra has no concrete strategy for launching in 2020.

Speaking to Reuters , Patrick Ellis, one of the board members of the Switzerland-based Libra Association, said there were currently no plans to determine how or where the digital currency would launch next year.

“At this stage, there is no strategy set in stone for the markets or the product , or how it will actually get rolled out,” Ellis added.

However, when asked whether Libra would actually launch in 2020, Ellis simply said “yes.”

Facebook ’ s controversial ‘ cryptocurrency ’ project has ruffled feathers across the globe , as regulators panic about its potential impact on the global financial system.

The tech giant sent the world into a frenzy when it first announced its plans to enter the payments realm with the launch of Libra earlier this year.

At first, Facebook announced it had support from 28 companies — including Visa , MasterCard , and PayPal .

However, it didn’t take long for regulators and central banks to issue warnings and air concerns about Libra ‘s potential impact, thus spooking several of Facebook ‘s original backers.

Back in October, Hard Fork reported that Facebook ‘s Libra was slowly turning into a soap opera and that it was probably going to be a long season. It seems we weren’t far off.

Although Facebook is clearly set on launching Libra in 2020, it’s impossible to know when — and the apparent lack of concrete strategy certainly seems out of character for the tech giant.

Zoom insiders dumped $119M in company stock this month — 4x their sales in May

Zoom Video execs have already sold more company stock in June than at any other point this year, generating $119 million for just 7 insiders.

Zoom Video company director Carl Eschenbach unloaded more stock than any other insider this month. The Sequoia Capital partner sold almost 381,000 shares for an average price of $214.29 in the first week of June — a cool $81.6 million.

Four more directors at the video comms darling joined in. On June 19 , Santiago Subotovsky sold 73,168 shares for $240.60 via their venture capital firm Emergence (a ‘ 10% owner ‘), a total haul of $17.6 million.

Bart Swanson of Horizon Ventures generated $9 million , while ServiceNow’s Jonathon Chadwick and Mangrove Digital’s Kimberly Hammonds sold $2.35 million and $643,000 in stock respectively.

As for C-level execs: Zoom Video COO Aparna Bawa pocketed $5.2 million by selling 237,219 shares for an average price of $200. Kelly Steckelberg, the company‘s CFO, made less money but got a better deal : 11,000 shares for $240.49 on average made $2.7 million.

If you were a Zoom insider, you’d be dumping shares too

Since becoming synonymous with remote work and education in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, $ZM has skyrocketed from $70 to beyond $250, up 260% in just four months.

In total, insiders sold almost 550,000 company shares in June — more than triple the amount sold last month.

As one might except, the company‘s chief exec Eric Yuan has sold more Zoom Video stock than any other insider this year, earning him $78.2 million. He’s followed by CMO Janine Pelosi, who’s rid herself of $51.3 million worth of Zoom Video shares in 2020.

Back in April, Hard Fork reported that Zoom Video execs had sold millions in company stock in the weeks leading up to a spate of bad publicity for the app, notably security flaws , apparent links to China , and the gamification of ‘Zoombombing.’

At the time, a company spokesperson confirmed that “certain Zoom executives and Board members have pre-set trading plans” that execute trades at predetermined times with no input at all from the individual.

In Zoom Video’s case, insiders set them between 45 days and three months before their first trade.

According to the related SEC filings, just one sale from June was made outside of a plan: director Subtovsky’s $17.6 million sale.

Still, pre-set trading plans have contributed to a total of $234.1 million dumped by Zoom Video insiders in 2020 — almost a quarter-billion dollars — all while $ZM continues to regularly hit new highs (it set a new price record only yesterday).

Shoutouts to their stock brokers.

Satoshi Nakaboto: ‘We should be investing in blockchain, says Andrew Yang’

Our robot colleague Satoshi Nakaboto writes about Bitcoin every fucking day.

Welcome to another edition of Bitcoin Today, where I, Satoshi Nakaboto, tell you what’s been going on with Bitcoin in the past 24 hours. As Stephen Hawking used to say: Success is just a product of your motivation!

Bitcoin price

We closed the day, January 30 2020, at a price of $9,508. That’s a respectable 2.07 percent increase in 24 hours, or $192. It was the highest closing price in ninety-four days.

We’re still 52 percent below Bitcoin‘s all-time high of $20,089 (December 17 2017).

Bitcoin market cap

Bitcoin’s market cap ended the day at $172,978,577,931. It now commands 66 percent of the total crypto market.

Bitcoin volume

Yesterday’s volume of $32,378,792,851 was the highest in one day, 84 percent above last year’s average, and 28 percent below last year’s high. That means that yesterday, the Bitcoin network shifted the equivalent of 637 tons of gold.

Bitcoin transactions

A total of 332,402 transactions were conducted yesterday, which is 2 percent above last year’s average and 26 percent below last year’s high.

Bitcoin transaction fee

Yesterday’s average transaction fee concerned $0.21. That’s $3.50 below last year’s high of $3.71.

Bitcoin distribution by address

As of now, there are 13,412 Bitcoin millionaires, or addresses containing more than $1 million worth of Bitcoin.

Furthermore, the top 10 Bitcoin addresses house 5.8 percent of the total supply, the top 100 15.1 percent, and the top 1000 34.9 percent.

Company with a market cap closest to Bitcoin

With a market capitalization of $173 Billion, Adobe has a market capitalization most similar to that of Bitcoin at the moment.

Bitcoin’s path towards $1 million

On November 29 2017 notorious Bitcoin evangelist John McAfee predicted that Bitcoin would reach a price of $1 million by the end of 2020.

He even promised to eat his own dick if it doesn’t. Unfortunately for him it’s 95.1 percent behind being on track. Bitcoin‘s price should have been $197,377 by now, according to dickline.info.

Bitcoin on Twitter

Yesterday 18,452 fresh tweets about Bitcoin were sent out into the world. That’s 1.2 percent above last year’s average. The maximum amount of tweets per day last year about Bitcoin was 41,687.