FF Los Angeles, an advertising firm, has designed an innovative bitcoin ‘Ocean Miner’ for the Tara Expéditions Foundation.
Lack Of Funding Prompts bitcoin Mining
According to statistics, only a petty three percent of donations are made to charities which work toward preserving the environment. The low proportion of funds actually reaching where they are needed represents a roadblock for many firms, who either shut their organizations or move toward other charitable causes.
However, the – which has spent thirteen years working towards ocean preservation – and , might have the solution to fund environmental organizations; .
A bitcoin Miner Harnessing Natural Energy
The aptly named ‘Ocean Miner,’ the hydraulic turbine is already installed in the Gulf of Morbihan, France. The methodology is a hybrid of blockchain and land art, enabling oceans to go some way toward financing their own preservation by producing .
The turbine, driven by steam action, transforms the energy from the ocean to electrical energy. A mining rig is attached to the turbine, thus producing a margin of bitcoin for the owner. Mined bitcoins are then converted into euros and immediately re-invested in ocean research. After almost a month of running the turbine miner, the Tara Foundation has collected $250, spread over the entire implementation phase.
Romain Troublé, managing director of the Tara Expéditions Foundation, is quick to note that the mining system does not cover all costs, yet, the naturally powered contribution is “symbolic.”
Troublé :
“It is a powerful way of recalling that only the mobilization of everyone together will make it possible to fund the research to study, understand and to better protect the ocean in the future.”
FF, a world-renowned advertising firm, is not the kind of company that would work in the niche field of harnessing natural resources for bitcoins. But Fred Raillard and Farid Mokart – the founders of FF – say their company has been actively involved with multiple creative social responsibility projects, such as , social advocacy, and environmental issues.
They added, “Today, we’ve decided to focus our creativity on a place of huge importance that doesn’t get the attention it needs; our oceans.”
Natural Resources A Sustainable Way To Mine Cryptocurrencies
In the future, using naturally generated, renewable energy might be a popular choice for mining business.
The effects couldn’t be more obvious – renewable energy is free of cost, has no environmental implications, and would never run into opposition.
During early 2018, a Japanese power producer – Kumamoto Energy – their use of solar energy for mining cryptocurrencies.
An affiliate of the company, OZ Mining, intends to use excess power generated at solar power plants for their cryptocurrency mining operation. The company expressed upcoming partnerships – with other Japanese electricity enterprises – in order to run “mega solar plants” in the Kumamoto Prefecture.
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Much of the cryptocurrency industry remains shouldered on the pillars of crypto-exchanges. This support comes mostly out of convenience; banks and financial bodies seek exchanges with a good track record, liquidity, and easy fiat-to-crypto process.
All Eyes on Crypto
With institutional interest and government regulation at an all-time high, 2018 represents a marquee year for cryptocurrencies. Several news and prove that Wall Street and its counterparts are indeed looking into cryptocurrency trading, investing, and even the implementation of a company-specific .
But as an institutional investor, the exchange checklist is vastly different than for an average person. While the latter may have scouted the number of altcoins on offer and the ease-of-access of the exchange, an institutional investor will give a higher premium to items like security, liquidity, development team, and fee rebates.
This distinction is understandable, as the difference in account sizes between the two groups could very well be $100 million.
In this article, BTCManager explores three brands in particular who are aiming at institutional investors: , , and .
Gemini Exchange: Pros and Cons
Founded by the Winklevoss Brothers in 2015, Gemini bears the title as the world’s first U.S Government licensed crypto-exchange; displaying a clear intention of being distinguished from its peers at the time. Specifically, the exchange adheres to banking compliance standards as applicable by the and the .
Gemini employs a team of 55 people, who necessarily have a experience of three years in their respective sectors.
The exchange has also already been endorsed by institutional players, such as crypto hedge fund and for the daily settlement of bitcoin futures. Gemini also provides different accounts for institutional investors which include features like high deposit limits and advanced crypto-wallets.
For banking, Gemini’s customers have their USD funds stored in a secure FDIC-insured bank located in the United States, meaning the accounts are insured up to $250,000 in case of an unfortunate hack.
Furthermore, account holders have unique accounts which aren’t under Gemini’s name, thus protecting investor funds in the event of exchange bankruptcy. Customers also enjoy instant bank transfers, with funds immediately available for trading once the transfer is made. But, as mentioned earlier, there is always a flipside to these advantages and Gemini is no exception.
Perhaps the most significant con, and this reflects in all three exchanges mentioned in this article, is the centralized nature of Gemini.
Trusted third parties are security holes
— Nick Szabo⚡️ (@NickSzabo4)
Although the exchange holds investor tokens in cold-wallets, it is recommended that all cryptocurrencies are kept in personal hardware wallets, and not trusted with a third party.
It must be noted that the exchange ensures only USD accounts, meaning the $250,000 insurance is good as long as it was stored in dollars in the company’s wallet. This insurance amount does not cover loss of and .
Bank deposits are limited to $10,000 per day for institutional investors. This constraint may also be a concern for an investor willing to invest $10 million, as the trading account will take a whole year to be trading-ready.
In what can be a drawback for investors seeking aggressive returns, Gemini currently offers only BTC and ETH, that may not give altcoin-like returns.
Regarding security, no independent auditor audits Gemini’s trade platform. Despite having an NYDFS cybersecurity regulation, it is a bonus if third-party audits are considered.
According to Glassdoor, a platform that lets employees review their company, the company has a paltry , with several employees expressing dissatisfaction with the work environment. Finally, Gemini does not offer services to Europe, Japan, Australia, Russia, and China, all of which are crowded markets of wealthy investors.
Global Digital Asset Exchange (GDAX): Pros and Cons
A wholly-owned business by Silicon Valley-funded Coinbase, GDAX was launched in 2016 and is among the highest volume exchanges in the world, according to collected data from Coinmarketcap.
The parent company of GDAX, , currently handles $9 billion worth of digital assets across all its platforms, thus making it the world’s top cryptocurrency business. A total of 200 experienced employees work at their offices in London, New York, and San Francisco.
Recently, the company announced a partnership with Trading Technologies (), a world leader in providing trading software. Moreover, TT customers can now use GDAX for trading cryptocurrencies and bitcoin futures.
Similar to Gemini, all USD fiat deposits are held in FDIC-insured accounts in U.S banks. Fiat in Euro and GBP are kept in separate accounts as well, without insurance, but are protected in case of exchange bankruptcy.
The fee per trade is 0.25 percent, which is also enticing for institutional investors. But that’s where the buck, or crypto, stops.
The company has a centralized trading platform, which is a cause of concern for institutional investors. Furthermore, only two percent of investor funds are held by the exchange, with the remaining in cold wallets. Hence, just this amount is subject to insurance in case of a hack or employee theft.
GDAX is infamous for its slow deposits, poor customer support, and week-long waiting periods for fund withdrawals. The exchange is the subject of many-a-post on , where users frequently voice their dissatisfaction over the exchange’s poor service.
The firm does not conduct any independent security audits of their trading platform, and the choice of coins available remains limited: GDAX offers only bitcoin, Ethereum, bitcoin Cash and Litecoin for trading.
Gibraltar Blockchain Exchange (GBX): Pros and Cons
Perhaps the only exchange with a direct government connection, the GBX is a subsidiary of the and works towards becoming compliant with the specifications of institutional investors. The exchange aims to become the platform of choice for – an added advantage for aggressive and high-risk institutional traders.
Backed by the country’s official stock exchange, the GSX certainly carries more reputation than its competitors. Its mandatory for all traders to complete AML/KYC checks, and the exchange offers multi-signature wallets to all users.
In contrast to other institutional exchanges mentioned, the GBX offers the Rock Token (), the exchange’s native toke, that allows the trader to pay lower trading fees if they trade with it.
It has also been reported that later in 2018, the exchange will launch the GSX Tokenized Securities Exchange, an independent subsidiary that will list security tokens exclusively. These tokens, it must be noted, are different to utility tokens and are backed by a real-world asset, such as oil.
As with GDAX and Gemini, GBX stores a fraction of coin holding on the exchange, with the rest in company cold wallets. GBX also conducts no independent security audits of its platform, which could give a lack of transparency to institutional investors.
The exchange GBX excludes some of the most prominent crypto markets worldwide, such as USA, South Korea, and Japan. Plus, 65 percent of GBX’s native RKT is held by the GBX team, making it less appealing for fundamental investors.
Lastly, the company GBX borderline misleads investors via its compliance claims. Although the company is a division of the GSX, it does not have any traditional finance regulatory certificate and only holds a distributed ledger regulation (); a mandate for every blockchain business in Gibraltar.
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