FUD-free Friday: Juventus FC release token to 400M+ fans
Earlier this month, we asked our community on Twitter what they wanted to read. Among mixed responses, use cases for cryptocurrency and blockchain came out on top. This FUD-free Friday, we’ve got a couple of interesting, tangible use cases to throw in the mix. A little early festive season gift from us to you.
Ethereum dev to be released after arrest
Virgil Griffith, the Ethereum developer arrested last week after allegedly travelling to North Korea to give a talk on cryptocurrency, is to be temporarily released from prison. He will, however, still face trial after a judge ruled that there was enough evidence to move forward with the case against him.
Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum‘s co-founder, has also publicly defended him.
“I don’t think what Virgil did gave DRPK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] any kind of real help in doing anything bad. He *delivered a presentation based on publicly available info about open-source software*. There was no weird hackery “advanced tutoring,” he said on Twitter.
I refuse to take the convenient path of throwing Virgil under the bus, because I firmly believe that that would be wrong. I’m signing. Reasoning below.https://t.co/E44p5caeJO
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) December 1, 2019
Juventus FC releases token giving 400M fans voting power
Italian football club, Juventus, which boasts soccer superstar, Christiano Ronaldo as one of its team members, announced the launch of its own crypto token that gives voting power to its over 400 million fans. Juventus has partnered with sports-focused blockchain startup, Socios.com for the $JUV token.
If you’re a Juventus fan wanting to get in on the action, you can simply buy tokens via the Socios app and get the chance to earn rewards and vote on certain club decisions.
“99.9% of sports fans are not in the city/country of the team they are supporting. We created these fungible fan tokens to allow fans to have an influence over some fan-based initiatives,” Alexandre Dreyfus, founder and CEO of Socios.com, told The Block. It’s a decentralised football first – who will follow their lead?
Socios has reported “dozens” of other clubs are ready to join the platform, but should there be a cause for concern regarding the legitimacy of token-holders as real fans? Others have also spoken against the token saying it’s unnecessary and expensive. Would you buy a token for your football club? Let us know on Twitter.
Bakkt CEO, Kelly Loeffler, officially to become US Senator
Following up on our report earlier this week, Kelly Loeffler has officially been appointed Georgia’s interim US Senator.
“I haven’t spent my life trying to get to Washington. But here’s what folks are gonna find out about me: I’m a lifelong conservative. Pro-Second Amendment. Pro-military. Pro-wall. And pro-Trump,” she said. “I make no apologies for my conservative values, and will proudly support President Trump’s conservative judges.”
She will step down from her post at Bakkt after 16 years of working for ICE and leading the company’s crypto startup since its launch.
“We are grateful to Kelly for her many contributions to Intercontinental Exchange spanning seventeen years and will miss her wisdom and counsel on the executive team and leadership of Bakkt,” ICE spokesperson Josh King said in the press release. “Intercontinental Exchange has a proud tradition of service to the community, and we applaud Kelly’s sense of duty to step forward to serve her country and represent the people of Georgia in the U.S. Senate.”
France to test central bank digital currency in 2020
The central bank of France plans to pilot a central bank currency (CBDC) for financial institutions in the first quarter of 2020. The governor of the Bank of France, François Villeroy de Galhau announced the bank will start testing the digital Euro project, and that it will only target private financial sector players at this stage.
Villeroy noted the project aims to assert France’s sovereignty over private digital currency, keeping other initiatives, like Facebook’s Libra project, out. Other countries keen to keep Libra out in this way are Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands. This is yet another indication that France is blazing a trail in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space.
New app leverages blockchain to help sexual assault survivors
Smashboard is an India-based alternative social media network operating as a non-profit, with features geared towards challenging rape culture, while also providing support to sexual assault survivors. They describe themselves as having “special features for people of all genders fighting patriarchy”.
The app hosts an extensive list of mental health and legal practitioner resources, plus a forum for users to seek help and offer help within the community. Blockchain technology allows users to remain anonymous while on the app, as they claim the app doesn’t harvest data or use location-tracking services.