Episode 223 - The fine art world ventures into crypto, Justin Sun milks Kobe's passing, and Dubai launches a Crypto Valley.

Hello everyone and welcome to this week's Flagship Friday (Saturday? Who knows at this point) where we go over the most important crypto news of the past week! This week we're talking about smART contracts (not a hard pun to figure out), Justin Sun being sort of a doofus, Dubai going full on tax haven mode on crypto, and much much more. Tune in now!Rapid FireTaxact is charging more for your service if you click "I traded crypto" and it doesn't add any steps. Don't use themIf you make under 66k the IRS lets you file for free.Blockchain.com Has Created A Crypto Gateway for the Turkish Lira (Decrypt)Now they can convert lire to bitcoin, eth or tether without using a third party payment processor.Cool Website Talking About If It's Alt SeasonA season is three months, so we looked at the performance of all Top 50 Coins over the last 90 days. The more Altcoins are up against BTC, the higher the Altcoin Season Index. If 75% of all Altcoins are up against Bitcoin over the last 3 months, it's Altcoin Season!And to spoil it for the listeners, no, no it is not alt season yet. The heat index is currently at a 51.Hey Telegram, you're crypto is worth less than donuts (CoinTelegraph)In the memo, the SEC included a few barbs against the instant messenger service. It called out Telegram for doing “a two-step around the registration provisions” and performing “sleight of hand” by fabricating the difference between a purchaser’s investment in Grams and their delivery of the Grams, which would allow them to withhold info normally in regulatory statements. Pavel Durov’s creation, the document contends, gave a “strawman” argument about “existence” since “Grams will never be tangible.” The SEC put the frosting on when it wrote:“Telegram’s attempt to avoid this economic truth by labelling Grams ‘commodities’ also fails. Grams are not commodities. Unlike gold, comic books, and Krispy Kreme donuts — commodities Telegram compares to Grams — Grams have no intrinsic value.”Art project uses Ethereum to validate their art piecesAs Thomas Crown Art’s tech expert and business analyst Ian Mcleod, explained, each piece of artwork is embedded with blockchain technology. “All our works of art are logged on the Ethereum’s blockchain with a unique ‘smART’ contract,” he said. “This means that all the artwork is authenticated, and all providence issues are solved. This is a major step forward in the art world where forgery is a growing and expensive problem.”Justin FREAKING Sun. SMH.https://twitter.com/justinsuntron/status/1221537900568829953?s=20https://twitter.com/justinsuntron/status/1222307981041135616?s=20Bitcoin Jesus (aka Roger Ver) Caves as Fight Over Fourth-Biggest Coin Heats Up (Bloomberg)On Jan. 22, a group of key Bitcoin Cash supporters proposed changing the cryptocurrency’s computer code to temporarily direct 12.5% of all newly issued coins to fund technology development -- an idea that irked many purists who prefer the typical decentralized governance of most cryptocurrencies.The proposal had a high chance of passing, though, as companies advocating for the change controlled a third of computing power used to support the network of the Bitcoin offshoot in the past week, according to data tracker Coin Dance.“will not go through with supporting any plan unless there is more agreement in the ecosystem.” The mining operation said it will work to come up with an alternative plan “which preserves the fundamental economics of Bitcoin Cash.”Bitcoin Cash still likely has to do something to prop up its developer ecosystem. The average number of developers working each month on Bitcoin Cash-related projects declined 32% in the first half of 2019 from the previous six months, according to Electric Capital. The project lost the most developers of all other top cryptocurrencies.Guy on reddit goes through one of those discord scams to see how it works.This one is called razebitBasically on discord they say you won some btc.Then he goes to the site, signs up with throwaway. Says it looks fairly legit. He can see that he has BTC in his account.Tries to withdraw it, and there's an error that says he needs to deposit .02 BTC before his account is verified.Just an advanced verdion of the nigerian prince scam.BULLISH OR BULLSHIT"Literally No One Is Trading BAKKT Options" (CoinDesk)Trading volume on the Intercontinental Exchange's BAKKT platform have completely dried up. Not a single Bitcoin options contract was traded last week and the last one was January 17th. It launched the first regulated bitcoin options contract on Dec 9th and while it saw over $1mill worth of bitcoin options in it's first four weeks.Solid numbers initially but when compared to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, it's pretty weak. Their first day of bitcoin options was $2.3millBAKKT Futures had a record 6,600 contracts of trading volume on Dec 18th, CME had a daily average of 6400 in 2019.So I ask, do you think Bitcoin options is ever going to be a thing?Crypto Around the WorldDubai Set To Launch It's Own Tax-free 'Crypto Valley' (Decrypt)The Dubai Multi Commodities Center (DMCC) is set to establish it's own Crypto Valley in the United Arab Emirates.Announced last week at Davos, the DMCC has teamed up with a Switzerland based CV VC, to build out the sector devoted to blockchain and cryptocurrency innovation within the UAE. Coworking faciilities, mentorships, education, all focused on the crypto space.It will be situated in one of Dubai's free zones—meaning there are no personal, corporate, or withholding taxes. Businesses get to keep 100% of what they earn!ExitPlease join the conversation in the Discord. We're in there all the time.Rate us on iTunes.Follow CryptoBasicBrent on Reddit.We are not Financial advisers.