he U.S - China trade war may bother many, but the solution for hedging might be right around the corner. What will be the outcome of this trade war? No one really knows. But one thing is for certain: Bitcoin has a major role in it. Here is why Bitcoin had a wild-weekend, topping $10,000.

Discussions about the upcoming recession and the global economic slowdown are still relevant, but there are several other events and factors, and one critical ongoing trade war.

The world largest economies, United states and China, are locking horns over what seem to be the war over the economic throne. ­This time, it's not all about rates and tariffs, it is a battle on innovation.

From Mark Zukerberg facing the U.S congress, to China's president Xi embracing Bitcoin and Blockchain. These are some of the main events we followed in October 2019.

Mark Zukerberg interrogated by U.S. congress over Libra and Facebook

Many of the concerns surrounding Libra revolves around how the platform and cryptocurrency will be secured. Specifically how the network will be able to protect the privacy of its users and how it will be able to prevent criminals who intend to exploit its uses to launder money.

Image by skeeze from Pixabay

Visa, MasterCard, UBER and more left the Libra project as regulators started digging deeper. On October 25th, Mark Zuckerberg testified before the U.S. Congress.

Facebook gained a lot of negative attention when Cambridge Analytica got exposed. Their ability to mislead the public by using targeted marketing ads scared the masses.

While Zukerberg tried to reassure skeptical regulators that Libra will meet their strict regulatory standards, the congress seemed to have already made up their mind.

In the video below, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez questioned Mark Zuckerberg on whether or not Facebook will fact check their ads.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xT9BRUoXhh8" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

China on the other hand, received and welcomed cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology unlike the U.S. Congress.

Xi Jinping, President of the People’s Republic of China embraces Blockchain

According to a rough translation of Xi’s comment, the world leader said that blockchain should be treated as a an “important breakthrough” for innovation of “core technologies”.

“[We must] clarify the main direction, increase investment, focus on a number of key core technologies, and accelerate the development of blockchain technology and industrial innovation.”

Xi went on to call for the creation of “Blockchain+,” a platform alluding to personal development in key areas such as medicine, employment, law and education, but not limited to those needs. (read more about China embracing blockchain)

This major announcement wasn't a surprise from China, as their central internet regulator, the Cyberspace Administration, has released a list of 197 companies approved to use and explore blockchain technology on March 30, 2019. The list includes Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent.

Photo by wu yi on Unsplash

US stock market hits record high as Donald Trump gives trade deal hint

Wall Street celebrates Xi's announcement with new gains among tech giants, with Apple, Google and Chinese tech stocks reaching their new all-time high.

Luxury jeweler Tiffany & Co shares jumped 31% after French luxury group LVMH offered to buy the iconic New York company for $14.5 billion. In case you missed it, LVHM has announced its plans to launch its own blockchain. (code-name AURA).

Donald trump suggests 'Phase one' of US-China trade deal 'ahead of schedule.'

"We are looking probably to be ahead of schedule to sign a very big portion of the China deal, we'll call it phase one but it's a very big portion,"

The US president said the phase-one portion will "take care of the farmers" and "it will also take care of a lot of the banking needs." Blockchain technology has the potential to advance all of these sectors.

Talking about banking needs, The world's leading banks have been fined $321 billion since the 2008 financial crisis. Researchers estimate the total amount to be over $400 billion in 2020.

China Requests Communist Party Members to Pledge Loyalty on Blockchain

The Chinese Communist Party (CPC) is taking their leader's blessing on blockchain to the next level by releasing their decentralized application for members to pledge their loyalty on a blockchain.

According to a post from CCP's propaganda office on Saturday, the "Original Intentions Onchain" allow members to express their loyalty transparently and stay committed to the party. As mentioned in the post, a Beijing based company called Lingzhu Technology has developed this decentralized application using state-owned capital funds tied to China’s Tsinghua University.

Photo by Peiheng Yang on Unsplash

In fact, according to Lingzhu Technology data, their own cryptocurrency called OFCoin and has been listed on exchanges such as OKEx and Coinmex since early 2018 (few months after China banned ICOs and fiat to crypto trading).

There are other signs of increased popularity for Chinese crypto projects. Searches in Baidu, the country's largest search engine for "Bitcoin" and "Blockchain (translated to Chinese) jumped 200%. Other Chinese born crypto like Qtum, Vechain, Ontology, NEO, Tron and Bytom also benefited from the hype.

Why is Bitcoin the classic hedge ?

Bitcoin bull Tom Lee told CNBC on Monday that cryptocurrency is a hedge against global risks, amid the U.S.-China trade conflict and the currency war.

“Last couple of years, it’s been really correlated to dollar.” he said.

“Weak dollar has been good for bitcoins. ... And it’s been really correlated to risk markets. This year, it’s steered away from the dollar because dollar’s been strong, bitcoin’s been up, which is a real breakage. It’s gone negative on correlation to the equity markets.”

Lee also added that Bitcoin and crypto are now "positively correlated to gold". Rightly or not, gold is widely viewed as an inflation hedge, and once it's behavior is being compared to Bitcoin, many investors will be using BTC as a hedge to political risks.

‍