CEO and co-founder of Bitmain Jihan Wu today expressed confidence in the future of Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and proof-of-work (PoW) mining. Speaking at the Nikkei/CNBC “Future of Money” event in Tokyo in his first major appearance in Japan, Wu also addressed questions over the recent BCH hard fork, the growing importance of the mining industry, and PoW’s massive energy demands.

Wu said there has been “a lack of connection between miners and the other parts of the (cryptocurrency) ecosystem” as the industry had become more and more industrialized and professional over the years. Over the next 10 years, he said, we would see miners try to rebuild that connection, becoming coders and opinion-leaders, and becoming more active in protocol development.

What are your thoughts about proof-of-work (PoW) mining?

📌 Read more: Ultimate Bitcoin Cash Guide

The people of Venezuela have been forced to cope with an increasingly difficult economic situation in recent years. This has led to a loss of trust in government-issued fiat by the population in a way that many believe exemplifies the need for cryptocurrency. This may account for why a major Venezuelan department store chain accepts cryptocurrency, something which is a rarity to see in more prospering economies.

[…] According to its public profiles on social media, the company has opened up to transactions with digital assets since at least October. Traki accepts payments in a number of popular cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Bitcoin Core (BTC), Dash (DASH), Ethereum (ETH) and Litecoin (LTC).

Are you ready to pay your groceries using cryptocurrencies?

📌 Read more: 5 reasons why you should invest in Bitcoin

Bitcoin-based smart contract protocol Rootstock (RSK) is integrating with spin-off project RIF OS to expand its scope of operations.

As part of the deal, RIF Labs, the structure behind off-chain infrastructure layer RIF OS, will acquire RSK’s counterpart RSK Labs. RIF started out as a side project from the same executives who held senior positions at RSK.

Together, they plan to enable the RSK protocol to go beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum network support and include various P2P functions.

“Essentially Rootstock aims to be what Ethereum is, a decentralized, Turing-complete smart contract platform. However, Rootstock aims to utilize the Bitcoin ecosystem rather than creating a new one from scratch” Albert Szmigielski

Have you heard about smart contracts?

The second BCH Devcon hackathon took place in Amsterdam on Oct. 27–28, with more than 100 people competing to build useful cryptocurrency applications. The event culminated with a project called Pandacash winning the grand prize by delivering a “one-click” Bitcoin Cash blockchain software development kit.

“With [Pandacash] you can make calls to the Bitcoin Cash blockchain without the overheads of running an actual Bitcoin Cash node” [… ]“Addresses can be re-cycled, reset, instantiated with a fixed amount of bitcoin cash (no need for faucets or mining), and debug logs are displayed by default.” Adrian Barwicki

Stay tuned as the next BCHDEVCON hackathon will be hosted by Permissionless Ventures in Israel, Japan, South Korea, and India.

Will you join the next BCHDEVCON in Israel to build on BCH?

The International Monetary Fund [IMF] hasn’t always been the biggest fan of crypto. In a report entitled the World Economic Outlook released last month, they cited the rise of cryptocurrency as among “Challenges to Steady Growth” globally.

During a speech in Singapore at the country’s Fintech Festival, she appeared to advocate the creation of digital currencies by national banks. “I believe we should consider the possibility to issue digital currency. There may be a role for the state to supply money to the digital economy.” Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund

What are your thoughts about a state-backed cryptocurrency?

📌 Read more: Why should I backup my private keys?

Joseph Lubin, the co-founder of Ethereum, spoke during the Web Summit in Lisbon and stated that blockchain and decentralisation can improve innovation across all levels of society and the economy by implementing a sovereign identity. He argues that the blockchain technology and enhanced decentralisation would lead to a future where individuals will exert greater control over their identity and agency He said:

“We are going to to be more in control of our identity and our agency on these different decentralised networks. I think that’s going to create more wealth […]. It will also create more interest in expressing ourselves, and I think there will be more appetite for luxury than less.” Joseph Lubin

Do you think that blockchain and decentralization can improve innovation?

📌 Read more: How to join the Crypto Community?