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Looking for a summary of the SWELL Conference + the latest news about XRP? I've got you covered! SWELL was a tour-d-force for Ripple; you won't want to miss my TL:DR breakdowns of each session in this blog. I provided my own personal take on each of the sessions, including the "800 Pound Gorilla" panel discussion at the end. This latest blog also covers the latest news in crypto, and Ripple & XRP as well, including what to expect from the Malta conference, and news that SmartStream piloted Ripple tech. Coinswitch adds a custom crypto switch page for XRP fans, and Bitrue announces their new mobile application. I hope you enjoy the read & please leave any feedback below. Also, feel free to share my blog with anybody you'd like - and also feel free to re-post on any other social media platform you wish - and thank you for doing so! Twitter Reddit r/Ripple Reddit r/CryptoCurrency Reddit r/CryptoMarkets Reddit r/xrp Reddit r/RippleTalk Reddit r/alternativecoin Bitcointalk - alt coin sub forum Bitcointalk - XRP speculation thread

XRP and its ecosystem components are the health foods that the crypto market needs. We have two new exchanges supporting XRP; one from Nigeria and another one - the second one in four days - from Singapore! I also cover news about Coinjar and the Bitcoin Superstore, and wrap up with coverage of two new videos released by Ripple. All that - and more - in today's blog: Hope you enjoy the read & please leave any feedback below. Feel free to share my blog with a friend - or on any other platform or media - and thanks for doing so! Twitter Reddit r/Ripple Reddit r/CryptoCurrency Reddit r/CryptoMarkets Reddit r/xrp Reddit r/RippleTalk Reddit r/alternativecoin Bitcointalk - alt coin sub forum Bitcointalk - XRP speculation thread

tl;dr Malta makes a lot of money on virtual gaming and is looking to position themselves as the leaders in blockchain technology adoption. This is supported by their central bank, I only know of one crypto asset that has a history of working with global banks. A picture is worth a thousand words. There's a whole pile of assumptions that have to be made before giving this any credence, I'm going to ignore those for the most part primarily because I can't prove or disprove anything about who BearableGuy123 is or what they know. Aside from the glaring $589+ prediction for EOY2018 the two bits of information that seem relevant are the fact that the picture is of the UN and the fact that the Maltese flag has the George Cross replaced with the Ripple logo. Bypassing theories about the UN wanting to replace the USD as the primary global currency let's assume that the it was chosen to show that out of all the countries represented Malta is the one. "The one what?" you may ask. "Why the Ripple logo?" you may ask. Those are the questions I asked Google and here is what I learned-ish (nothing concrete with regard to Ripple unfortunately). It turns out that since the enactment of the Public Lotto Ordinance in 1922 the gaming industry has become a large part of the Maltese economy, making up 12% of the total economic value added generated in the Maltese economy in 2016, which is about $1.3 Billion USD based on the 2016 GDP of $10.95 Billion USD. I couldn't find the numbers but that seems like a large volume of global currencies changing hands would be needed to drive Malta's revenue up that high. Seems like a good source of liquidity. In April of 2017 Malta's Prime Minister revealed that his cabinet has approved the first draft of a national strategy to promote blockchain, the Malta Blockchain Strategy. This Malta blockchain plan has the single purpose of making Malta one of the first countries in the world to embrace blockchain. So Malta's Prime Minister has stated that he wants to spearhead blockchain technology adoption and his government has put together a strategy to make it happen. In July of 2017 the Malta Gaming Authority published a white paper proposing major reforms to Malta's Gaming Legal Framework. The paper states: “The Authority is cognizant that the rise of crypto-currencies is inevitable. Conscious of the need to remain at the forefront of innovation and to keep up with new developments in technology and the industry…the Authority is committed to allow the use of cryptocurrencies by its licensees in the immediate future.” As part of that strategy the Malta Gaming Authority commisioned PricewaterhouseCoopers to put together a report on how a potential introduction of virtual currency to Malta would go. In October 2017 PricewaterhouseCooper recommended that the Malta Gaming Authority setup a "Sandbox" test where virtual currencies could be tested within the Maltese gaming industry. According to the MGA chairman Joseph Cuschieri, the Malta Financial Services Authority, the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit and the Central Bank of Malta agreed to participate in the virtual currency roll-out test and will be providing their feedback when necessary. This test, as far as I can tell, is happening right now. Also in October of 2017 the Malta Gaming Authorities Chairman Mr. Joseph Cuschieri participated in a panel discussing the regulation of the digital market with counterparts from the UK and the Isle of Man and other experts. During the panel, Mr Cuschieri announced that in early Q1 2018, the MGA will be publishing two detailed position documents – one on the virtual currency sandbox launch and another on the application of DLT (blockchain) technology in the provision of gaming services by licensed entities. So if you want to buy into BearableGuy123 as a person with insider information (not saying that I do) then it become easy to connect a few dots and see that sometime in Q1 2018 the government of Malta is going to release reports discussing their trials with virtual currency and on how DLT could be applied to gaming. We know that the virtual currency trials are being conducted with participation between the Malta Gaming Authority, the Central Bank of Malta, and the Malta Financial Services Authority. Does Ripple fit into this somehow? We will have to wait until those reports are published to find out. Can we speculate on how Ripple could fit in? Sure thing. Ripple has a history of working with central banks and also has (I think) a good shot of addressing the regulatory concerns being addressed with the Maltese Gaming Legal Framework. This relationship also has the potential to give Ripple much needed liquidity with XRP as a lot of cash flows into and out of Malta right now through their virtual gaming industry. Also, given that Malta really wants to be the global leader in blockchain technology adoption and regulation a strong partnership now with Ripple (or whoever they decide to work with) may go a long way in making Ripple (or whoever they decide to work with) the de-facto global blockchain tech. Maybe? Do you buy it?

Could not find this article about Malta here in the past month. Things are moving fast, Malta will come up with a framework in the first months of 2018, so any day now. In April 2017, it was brought to the attention of @nikb Other source: http://www.maltachamber.org.mt/en/malta-set-to-regulate-blockchain-services-sector-with-world-s-first-legal-framework