Sunday, 1 April 2018

On Fareed Zakaria GPS Today

Insights, analysis and must reads from CNN's Fareed Zakaria and the Global Public Square team, compiled by Global Briefing editor Jason Miks.

April 1, 2018

On Today's Show

On GPS at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET on CNN:

First, Fareed gives his Take on American foreign policy under President Trump, and how his rhetoric can undermine US diplomacy.

"America remains a superpower. Its allies search for ways to accommodate it. The Trump administration can keep making outlandish demands, and it will obtain some concessions because no one wants an open breach with the United States. If Trump says the Europeans have to come up with some changes to the Iran deal, they will try to find a way to do so because they don't want to see the deal collapse and the West fall into disarray. This is not a sign of power but rather the abuse of it."

Next, Fareed hosts a panel to discuss the meeting this week between Kim Jong Un and Chinese President Xi Jinping, US policy on North Korea, developments this week over Russia, and more. Joining Fareed are Anne-Marie Slaughter, president and CEO of New America and the author of "The Chessboard and The Web," Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations and author of "A World in Disarray," and Walter Russell Mead, a professor of foreign affairs and humanities at Bard College and a columnist for The Wall Street Journal.

Also on the show: What is the likelihood that the US will end up in a trade war with China? Does China's economic model offer lessons for the West? Is America underinvesting in its future? Joining Fareed to discuss this and more are Rana Foroohar, global business columnist and associate editor at the Financial Times, and Steve Rattner, formerly President Obama's "car czar" and now Chairman and CEO of Willett Advisors.

Plus: What does it mean to be American? And can anything be done to heal the current divisions? Joining Fareed to discuss what she describes "zero-sum political tribalism" is Amy Chua, a Yale Law School professor and author of "Political Tribes: Group Instinct and the Fate of Nations."

Take This Week's GPS Challenge

In which year did Kim Jong Un assume power? Which former French president has been told to stand trial on charges of corruption and influence peddling? Which country supplies the most UN peacekeepers?

Find out the answers to these questions and more – and see how other GPS viewers did – by taking this week's quiz here: cnn.com/fareedquiz

Forward

Copyright © 2017 CNN

What did you like about today's Global Briefing? What did we miss? Let us know what you think: GlobalBriefing@cnn.com

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Saturday, 31 March 2018

AirAsia Planning Cryptocurrency-Based Rewards Program

NEWS

Nikhilesh De

Mar 30, 2018 at 18:00 UTC | Updated Mar 30, 2018 at 18:01 UTC

Malaysian low-cost airline AirAsia is launching a cryptocurrency-based rewards program.

AirAsia chief executive Tony Fernandes told Nikkei Asian Review that its frequent-flyer rewards program is being converted into a cryptocurrency platform called BigCoin. The move is part of a broader effort to improve the airline's digital services and move the company toward a cashless system.

In the Nikkei article published Thursday, Fernandes described a system in which customers could buy seats, in-flight meals, seat upgrades and other services using BigCoin, in addition to existing fiat currency options.

Most notably, he told Nikkei Asian Review that he sees AirAsia launching an initial coin offering (ICO) at some point. While Fernandes did not provide a firm timeline, the article says the token could be offered within the next three to six months.

No details have been released yet on whether AirAsia is developing its own blockchain or utilizing an existing platform.

Other airlines have looking at blockchain as a possible rewards program model in recent months.

Singapore Airlines announced last month that it was planning to launch a private blockchain for its own frequent-flyer program, thought it did not specifically state it would be developing its own cryptocurrency.

However, Singapore Airlines did note it had successfully concluded a proof-of-concept trial with KPMG and Microsoft, and a fuller implementation of the system could see the airline working with merchants to enable customers to spend their miles at various stores or restaurants.

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Huobi Officially Launches in South Korea with 100 Cryptocurrencies

Huobi has officially launched in South Korea. The platform facilitates the trading of 100 cryptocurrencies and 208 markets. The exchange is also creating an investor protection fund and program to immediately compensate for any losses that are not investor error.

Also read: Japan's DMM Bitcoin Exchange Opens for Business With 7 Cryptocurrencies

Huobi Korea Launched

Huobi Korea, a subsidiary of the Beijing-based crypto trading service provider Huobi, announced that it has officially launched on March 30.

Huobi Officially Launches in South Korea with 100 Cryptocurrencies

"Huobi Korea will list 100 coins and 208 markets (33 USDT markets, 98 BTC markets, 77 ETH markets)," Zdnet detailed. The exchange stated that it stores 98% of its customer assets in cold wallets. Furthermore, the exchange's internal access procedure has been strengthened, according to the publication. "In order to open the repository, we have added security to complex procedures that require multiple people to authenticate together," the news outlet conveyed, and quoted an official of the exchange explaining:

We are also creating an investor protection fund and run an investor protection program to immediately compensate for losses that are not investor error.

100 Cryptos

Huobi confirmed on Thursday that "In Huobi Korea, 100 coins can be traded," noting that the exchange "will try to support more and more coins trading."

Huobi Officially Launches in South Korea with 100 Cryptocurrencies The supported cryptocurrencies, according to Huobi, include DAT, DBC, DGD, DTA, EDU, ABT, ACT, ADX, AIDOC, APPC, AST, BAT, BCD, BCH, BCX, BIFI, BLZ, BTC, BTG, BTM, CHAT, CMT, CTXC, CVC, LINK, LSK, LTC, LUN, MANA, MCO, MDS, ICC, IOST, ITC, ICC, IOST, ITO, EKO, ELA, ELF, ENG, EOS, ETC, ETH, EVX, GAS, GNT, GNX, MTP, MTL, MTN, MTX, NAS, NEO, OCN, OMG, ONT, OST, PAY, POWR, PROPY, QASH, QSP, QTUM, QUN, RCN, RDN, REQ, RPX, RUFF, SALT, SBTC, SMT, SNC, SNT, SOC, SRN, STK, STORJ, SWFTC, THETA, TNB, TNT, TOPC, TRX, USDT, UTK, VEN, WAX, WICC, WPR, XEM, XRP, YEE, ZEC, ZIL, ZLA, and ZRX.

Korean Won Support Coming Soon

Huobi Officially Launches in South Korea with 100 Cryptocurrencies As for the Korean won trading, Huobi Korea wrote, "the KRW market is in the process of being prepared and will be available soon."

The lack of won trading is likely due to the South Korean regulation which enforced the real-name system at the end of January. Since its implementation, Korean banks have only been issuing virtual accounts to the country's largest four exchanges – Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, and Korbit. However, Money Today reported on Thursday that a major bank in Korea, Shinhan Bank, is in talks to start issuing virtual accounts to a smaller crypto exchange, Coinplug.

The official from Huobi Korea was quoted by Zdnet saying:

We are concentrating our ability to prepare for the rapid opening of the Korean won market…All employees will work hard to provide safer and more stable trading services.

Huobi's Global Expansion

Huobi is currently the third largest crypto exchange globally with a 24-hour trading volume of $1.32 billion at the time of this writing. South Korea's largest exchange is the Kakao-backed Upbit with a trading volume of $745 million during the same time period.

Before China closed down cryptocurrency exchanges, Huobi was among the largest in the country. Today, the company has a presence in six countries – Korea, Singapore, USA, Japan, Hong Kong and China.

Last week, Huobi registered with the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network in preparation for its U.S. launch. Meanwhile, Japan's SBI Group has stopped the capital and business tie-up with Huobi Group.

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ERC20 Tokens Surge Ahead of New Coinbase Listings

Coinbase is poised to list its first new crypto assets of 2018 and one coin that's unlikely to make the list is ripple. The U.S. exchange, whose CEO Brian Armstrong is known for his love of all things ethereum, has all but confirmed that its next additions will be ERC20 tokens. 0x and REP (Augur's native token) surged in price as investors hone in on the likeliest tokens to make the cut.

Also read: 80,000 New Merchants in Europe Gain Option to Accept Crypto

New Coinbase Listings Cause a Ripple

Crypto traders have been starved of positive news for weeks. Thus they leapt on the news, released Monday evening, that Coinbase was set to list new tokens. The last time the U.S. exchange added a new asset was back in December in the form of bitcoin cash. That one didn't go so well, with accusations of insider trading that pumped the price in advance of the news leading to a lawsuit. This time around, Coinbase has sought to break the news gently, confirming that it will add support for ERC20 tokens, leaving only the question of which assets it will anoint. The exchange wrote:

We're excited to announce our intention to support the Ethereum ERC20 technical standard for Coinbase in the coming months. This paves the way for supporting ERC20 assets across Coinbase products in the future, though we aren't announcing support for any specific assets or features at this time.

Coinbase Loves Ethereum

Brian Armstrong's love affair with the ethereum ecosystem is well documented. The CEO was previously pilloried for tinkering with ethereum dapp browsers at a time when bitcoin transaction fees were sky-high and Coinbase had yet to implement batching or Segwit. It makes sense that Coinbase would add ethereum tokens ahead of, say, ripple, which has pumped at least twice this year over false Coinbase rumors.

ERC20 Tokens Surge Ahead of New Coinbase Listings

Diar's weekly crypto newsletter, released on Monday morning, appears to have called it right. It contains an analysis of the criteria Coinbase uses to decide which assets to list. Ripple may not qualify because Coinbase decrees it essential that "the ownership stake retained by the team is a minority stake", and as everyone knows, most of the XRP in existence resides with Ripple. The same reasoning could also preclude stellar from being added, while dash, despite its high liquidity and existing fiat trading pairs (another Coinbase requirement), may be ruled out due to its anonymity features.

Diar's tip for Coinbase inclusion, augur, seems likely, as does 0x, a project boasting three advisors who are current or former Coinbase employees. Both assets, together with ERC20 tokens such as OMG and SNT, jumped in price off the news, but were unable to sustain their momentum amidst another red day for the markets. Having just featured in the intro to HBO's Silicon Valley, Coinbase has been having a good week.

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