roadrunner

Though his latest project with partner and fellow activist Amanda Rose, Candles in the Dark, is a program helping people escape authoritarian programming through non-confrontational dialogue, there’s nothing meek and mild about Larken Rose’s stance when it comes to government. News.Bitcoin.com recently connected with the outspoken anarchist via Skype to talk about Bitcoin, the IRS, and the importance of permissionless money. Also Read: Bitcoin and Voluntaryism – Where Libertarian Philosophy Meets Crypto Bumping Into Crypto News.Bitcoin.com (BC): How did you get into the crypto space? Larken Rose (LR): I only accidentally crashed sideways into crypto stuff just because so many people who are into freedom and self-ownership got into it when it came along, realizing it could be a really useful tool to resist centralized control. I’m by no means any sort of expert on it. I was just sort of dragged along for the ride, because at this point it’s kind of hard to not be hearing about it and involved with it if you’re into freedom, because it’s such a useful tool for that. BC: Do you remember when that was? LR: It was a number of years ago, and I remember I heard the term a bunch of times before I had the foggiest idea what it meant, and what it referred to. It may have been at Porcfest in New Hampshire, where some of the guys promoting it early on actually gave me some of the physical Bitcoins, back when they were worth like a dollar each, and I think they gave me 20 of them. And, I sold them at a sadly low rate, well before it went up. I accidentally held onto one of them, without knowing I still had it, but I eventually gave that one to my daughter and she ended up getting a car out of it, so I’m happy about that. But it was a number of years later before I really understood the beauty and the power of the concept of blockchain and decentralized, uncontrollable mediums of exchange. Bitcoin and Voluntaryism BC: You’re a voluntaryist. More people are learning what that word means lately, but most still don’t know. What’s it all about? LR: In short, to be a voluntaryist means you advocate that all human interaction be voluntary, rather than by way of violence and coercion. And when you describe it that way, almost everybody initially reacts by saying, ‘Oh yeah, that’s me; I totally agree; that’s what I want too.’ But they don’t recognize that, even if they live that way in their daily lives — when it comes to politics, almost everybody has been taught that there’s an exception for the people who call themselves ‘government,’ and that it’s okay if they threaten violence and rob you by threats of force and boss you around and control you. A voluntaryist is basically somebody who realizes that the whole ‘live and let live’ and ‘do unto others as you would have done unto you,’ there’s not an exception for government. BC: You’ve touched on this a little already, but where do you see crypto and voluntaryism intersecting? LR: To me there are two very important pieces that have to go together to actually get a large number of people being able to be free, and eventually society being free. One is the mentality, and that’s what my main focus is on: having people stop believing that they’re obligated to obey a ruling class. But after that, then you need the tools necessary to be ungovernable. And some of those tools are, for example, guns. If you’re gonna resist oppression, if they have guns, it’s convenient if you do too. But when it comes to currency and all the frauds and the tricks that governments have done by way of fiat currency and central banks and all that garbage, crypto is just a very powerful tool for those who are mentally ready to escape the controls of a ruling class, to be able to trade and basically have a complex international economy that doesn’t have the tentacles of the ruling class in it anywhere. And that’s huge. BC: What would your response be to those people who say, ‘Yeah, these rules suck, the government’s terrible, but without it, it would be chaos’? LR: People have been trained by the ruling class to imagine that, without the ruling class, we’d be these stupid, violent animals. And it’s already the case that the average person, all the things in his life that work, aren’t because he personally figured them out. The average person who buys a car doesn’t know how to build a car. The average person who goes grocery shopping doesn’t know how to grow all that food, and they don’t need to. The order and the complexity and the cooperation and the productivity already comes from voluntary interaction. But it’s easy for politicians to scare most people into thinking, ‘Well if nobody’s in charge, if there isn’t a government bossing everyone around, then it will be this chaotic free-for-all.’ There’s no reason to actually believe that. If you go to a supermarket—it’s one of my favorite examples of anarchy in action—yeah, it has government tentacles in there getting in the way and robbing people, but nobody’s forced to be involved, and you get an amazing level of complexity and organization and cooperation, and nobody’s being forced to do anything—not the people who work there and not the customers who go and buy stuff there. IRS, Anarchy and Activism BC: Speaking of governments and money, you had a run-in—well, a run-in is kind of a mild way to put it—but you had some trouble with the IRS. Could you tell us just a little bit about that, and what happened there?” LR: My adventures with the federal extortion racket are something I don’t usually talk very much about these days, because it takes so much time and effort for people to actually get into it and to learn it. If anybody wants the full story for free, I now give away my book, Kicking the Dragon (Confessions of a Tax Heretic), for free as an e-book. BC: Could you tell us about your activism? I know Candles in the Dark is going online on Thanksgiving, and you’re speaking at Anarchapulco again this year. LR: Yep. Well I have a number of books, The Most Dangerous Superstition being the main one, and I’ve given a bunch of talks and I still do here and there. I don’t like to preach to the choir, so usually when I give talks it’s with the intention of it being recorded and ending up on YouTube or something, to talk to the rest of the world. I also just started doing my daily podcast again. But the two main things I’m working on now—one is the Candles in the Dark seminar, and the full online version will be up and running by Thanksgiving and we’re already taking pre-orders now. What that does, for people who are already voluntaryists, is teach them a drastically more effective method of communicating with the rest of the world, that doesn’t just result in the usual stress and emotions and arguments and frustration, that normal debates almost always end in. It’s not at all what I do in public. When I publicly debate I’m blunt and totally in people’s faces, and that’s for a totally different purpose. And then the other major—the biggest project I’m working on; probably the biggest project I will do in my whole life—is called The Mirror, which is basically an interactive program that does the whole process for us. So voluntaryists don’t even need to know how to do it; The Mirror will do it for them, all by itself. BC: So just strap on the VR goggles and set them free from statism. LR: Pretty much, because it does the conversation by itself. It asks them what they believe about things and their answers determine where it goes next. And that’s a monstrous project which is still many months away from being completed. But ultimately that will make it so we don’t even have to be good at communication, because it will do it for us. So hopefully I won’t get suicided before that’s done. The Future of Crypto Freedom BC: It seems like there’s a split in the cryptocurrency community at large, where you’ve got the more libertarian-minded crowd that’s saying, ‘We’ve got to use this privately, between ourselves, as peer-to-peer permissionless cash,’ and you’ve got this other group saying, ‘Well, it’s gotta be regulated, and we’ve gotta get the government in on this thing.’ LR: I want the government involved in absolutely nothing. It shouldn’t freaking exist. I’m kind of on that side of the spectrum. BC: Yeah, I kind of figured. LR: But what I love about the concept of blockchain and the concept of cryptocurrencies is that the ruling class can try with varying degrees of success to try to stick its nose into different kinds of trading and different cryptos, and it can try to regulate this and that and the other thing, but the thing it can’t ever do away with is the idea. Now that the ideas of blockchain and cryptocurrencies are out there, there is nothing that will keep it down forever. It’s not like there’s some centralized place where, if they go and shut down that thing, it’s gone forever. Even if there was some magic button that would make Bitcoin disappear—and it doesn’t work that way—another one would appear. And then a hundred more would appear. The ideas are, to me, what is most powerful. It’s the evolution of ideas and technology and understanding that can’t be undone, and that can’t be regulated out of existence. That doesn’t mean they won’t try it, but in the long run they are doomed; they have no chance of squelching this permanently. What do you think about Rose’s ideas on crypto freedom? Let us know in the comments section below. Image credits: Shutterstock, Avens.me, fair use. Did you know you can buy and sell BCH privately using our noncustodial, peer-to-peer Local Bitcoin Cash trading platform? The Local.Bitcoin.com marketplace has thousands of participants from all around the world trading BCH right now. And if you need a bitcoin wallet to securely store your coins, you can download one from us here. The post Activist Larken Rose Weighs In on Bitcoin, Anarchy, and the Importance of Permissionless Cash appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has declared the IPO of pro-crypto Silvergate Bank effective. Its shares started trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday. The crypto-friendly bank works with 756 customers in the crypto space, including Coinbase, Gemini, Circle, Bitstamp, Kraken, and Bittrex. The bank has attributed significant growth to its crypto business. Also read: 23 Central Banks Divulge Their Digital Currency Requirements Silvergate Bank’s IPO The U.S. SEC declared the initial public offering (IPO) of crypto-friendly Silvergate Bank effective on Wednesday. Its common stock subsequently began trading on the NYSE on Thursday under the symbol SI. The shares opened at $12.75, a 6.25% increase from its IPO price of $12, and closed at $12.62. The NYSE Opening Bell on Nov. 7. Opened in 1988, Silvergate Bank is a commercial bank with a focus on “creating the banking platform for innovators, especially in the digital currency industry, and developing product and service solutions addressing the needs of entrepreneurs,” the bank’s SEC filing describes, elaborating: We intend to continue focusing on our digital currency initiative as the core of our future strategy and direction. As of the end of September, the bank had total assets of $2.1 billion, total deposits of $1.8 billion, and total stockholders’ equity of $230.6 million. Go-To Bank for Crypto Industry Silvergate Bank began focusing on providing services to the crypto industry in 2013. Over the years, it has become a go-to bank for the industry. “We believe our first-mover advantage serving the digital currency industry has led to numerous strategic advantages, many of which are significant barriers to entry for potential competitors,” the bank explained. According to its registration statement, the bank has 756 customers in the crypto industry as of the end of September. Among its customers, 69 are exchanges, 468 are institutional investors and the rest are other crypto companies such as mining operators and protocol developers. Its clients include Coinbase, Genesis, Bitstamp, Gemini, Sofi, Circle, Kraken, Bittrex, and Paxos. The bank also revealed that approximately 77% of its eligible cryptocurrency-related customers are enrolled in the Silvergate Exchange Network (SEN), its proprietary payment network for the crypto industry. The system was developed and tested in 2017 and made available to all of the bank’s crypto customers in early 2018. “The core function of the SEN is to allow participants to make transfers of U.S. dollars from their SEN account at the bank to the bank account of another SEN participant with which a counterparty relationship has been established, and to view funds transfers received from their SEN counterparties,” the bank detailed, adding: Because of our focus on the digital currency industry in recent years and the unique value-add solutions and services we provide, we have achieved improvements in our deposit base and significant growth in key operating metrics. What do you think of crypto-friendly banks like Silvergate Bank? Let us know in the comments section below. Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not an offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or as a recommendation, endorsement, or sponsorship of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article. Images courtesy of Shutterstock and Silvergate Bank. Did you know you can buy and sell BCH privately using our noncustodial, peer-to-peer Local Bitcoin Cash trading platform? The local.Bitcoin.com marketplace has thousands of participants from all around the world trading BCH right now. And if you need a bitcoin wallet to securely store your coins, you can download one from us here. The post Crypto-Friendly Silvergate Bank IPO Debuts on NYSE appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

“It’s clear that the political establishment wants to hold back a future where economic freedom is afforded to all.” This excerpt from Congressional hopeful Agatha Bacelar’s campaign donation page echoes what many within the cryptosphere have been saying ever since Satoshi Nakamoto dropped the Bitcoin whitepaper in 2008 – and what many libertarians have been trumpeting for decades. Also read: FBI Says Bitcoin Concern Is Getting ‘Bigger and Bigger’ Bacelar Lays the Smackdown The fact that Bacelar, who has set her eyes on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s seat in the California Congress, seeks to raise $1 million in crypto is significant. Stanford-educated and an engineer by trade, the 27-year-old Brazilian-American understands blockchain technology like few politicos before her, having worked with digital governance platform Democracy Earth. This nonprofit seeks to change the political system by building open-source, censorship-proof democracies, and grew out of what Bacelar describes as a “trojan horse” political party in Argentina. Uniquely, the party used blockchain tech to field candidates who were not so much representatives of the people as, well, the people themselves. Bacelar was recently invited on to the Bitcoin.com podcast and, needless to say, the topic of cryptocurrency came up more than once. “I can see why it’s very scary to introduce cryptocurrency to central banks because it kicks them in the knees,” she said. “But I think for a healthier world we need more public banking, public financing of things rather than having the power consolidated through central banks.” As for the day-to-day benefits of using cryptocurrency, they are self-evident: “Whenever I want to pay my rent it takes a week for my money to transfer to my landlord’s bank account. We could be having faster global currency that doesn’t take 10% for a middleman.” Audit the Fed Many listeners would have been keen to hear the candidate’s thoughts on how distributed ledger technologies could be used to revamp the entire system. Host Matt Aaron beat his guest to the punch, suggesting that publicly auditing the Federal Reserve might be a good place to start. “Yeah, that would,” Bacelar concurred. “Doing more participatory budgeting, letting people have a greater say on how we use our tax dollars.” “Right now, we lose information every time a transaction happens. Whereas, I would hope with cryptocurrencies, if you buy an iPhone, you would know whether this phone was made at a factory where three people committed suicide, or whether the resources were mined in a place that used human slavery or contributed to pollution in that bio-region. “You know, those things are not reflected in the cost of things today, but I think in a future world they could be. And that could lead us to a more regenerative, sustainable economy.” Not Your Average Congressional Candidate The backstory of Agatha Bacelar is a little different to most would-be politicians – just 3% of House Representatives currently come from a STEM background, for starters. As well as her experience with blockchain, she’s worked for social change organization Emerson Collective and Hope Credit Union, a banking institution that provides financial services to low-income applicants. Bacelar’s father is Herb Stephens, a software entrepreneur who, having worked in the nonprofit sector for a number of years, now acts as her Finance Director. Trump rode to the White House on a hubristic ticket, with an oft-repeated boast that – unlike the other candidates – he “knew money.” Perhaps Bacelar could also profit from knowing the future of money – cryptocurrency – and having an awareness about how the underlying technology could inform the body politic. “I would like to be a member of Congress that makes decisions informed by how people would vote on an open-source digital platform in real time,” she says, “because right now there isn’t accountability in our politics. There isn’t transparency, and people are writing off politics and or feeling so frustrated with it. But I think people can represent themselves or proxy their vote to people they trust and know in their community.” The Injustice of the Silk Road Trial At one stage in the discussion, Bacelar segues from addressing the absurdity of criminalizing drugs like marijuana to discussing Silk Road. “Ross Ulbricht is incarcerated right now for two life sentences plus 30 years for nonviolent crime, where he didn’t even do any of the drug transactions on there.” As an enthusiastic pro-crypto voice, Agatha Bacelar is a breath of fresh air. Whether she has a realistic chance of turfing out Pelosi remains to be seen. Whatever the outcome, you get the sense that Bacelar recognizes the ability of cryptocurrencies – and blockchain technology more generally – to fundamentally reshape society. For public ledgers to introduce greater accountability in corporations and government agencies. For sound access to finance to be available to all. For profit-offshoring, money laundering and tax evasion to be effectively addressed. The final word goes to Bacelar: “We need to decentralize power and get people to participate in our democracy. A democracy is strongest when most people engage in it.” What are your thoughts on Agatha Bacelar’s take on Silk Road and the benefits of bitcoin? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Did you know you can verify any unconfirmed Bitcoin transaction with our Bitcoin Block Explorer tool? Simply complete a Bitcoin address search to view it on the blockchain. Plus, visit our Bitcoin Charts to see what’s happening in the industry. The post Congressional Hopeful Agatha Bacelar Talks Silk Road on the Bitcoin.com Podcast appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

One of the biggest privacy issues in today’s society revolves around the use of overreaching know-your-customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) laws. Despite the fact that many cryptocurrencies were designed to avoid these invasive practices, KYC and AML guidelines bolstered by political parasites and their followers have perverted the original crypto-anarchist ideologies espoused by the cypherpunks. Also Read: Bitcoin Cash Captured 90% of October’s Crypto Spending in Australia KYC/AML Are the Real Cryptocurrency Scams When people talk about scams in the cryptocurrency industry they usually look at a certain project or the initial coin offerings (ICO) that raised billions in 2017 and 2018. However, the biggest scam in the blockchain ecosystem is how some members of the community and bureaucrats have pushed their statist ideals into the crypto industry. KYC/AML practices have increased a great deal and influencers want politicians to bless and define digital currencies like BTC. The financial regulations known as know-your-customer and anti-money laundering laws require crypto-based businesses to verify the identity of their clientele and also make sure customers are paying taxes by flagging unusual behavior. Even though these practices are immoral, unethical and cause significant friction, bureaucrats and law enforcement use these methods to track and monitor every financial transaction they can observe. Probably the biggest qualm with KYC/AML regulations is how businesses and large corporations track and store data that hackers can exploit. Thousands of companies hoard vast amounts of important information about a person’s identity, residence, social security numbers, and credit information on centralized servers. These servers are breached by hackers and opportunists on a regular basis and because of severe leaks, people’s private information can be sold on the black market. Data stemming from the Risk Based Security researchers’ 2019 mid-year data breach report shows that 4.1 billion records were compromised in the first six months. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were built to avoid invasive KYC/AML practices and if these regulations did not exist, collateral damage like massive breaches would be dramatically reduced. However, there are many services invading the crypto industry right now and rough-shodding KYC/AML standards into our everyday practices. Politicians Have Ushered in Digital Currency Compliance Standards On November 4, the New York Times reported on how “Little-known companies are amassing your data.” In the report, columnist Kashmir Hill got access to a secret consumer score which disclosed things like “all the messages I’d ever sent to hosts on Airbnb; years of Yelp delivery orders; a log of every time I’d opened the Coinbase app on my iPhone.” The 400 pages of data derived from a company named Sift and the data collected on the journalist’s everyday affairs are quite shocking. “Sift knew, for example, that I’d used my iPhone to order chicken tikka masala, vegetable samosas, and garlic naan on a Saturday night in April three years ago,” Hill wrote. “It knew I used my Apple laptop to sign into Coinbase in January 2017 to change my password. Sift knew about a nightmare Thanksgiving I had in California’s wine country, as captured in my messages to the Airbnb host of a rental called ‘Cloud 9.’” There are also accidents like crypto exchange Bitmex slipping up and doxxing nearly every customer’s registered email. The trading platform’s problems didn’t end there because, after the leak, hackers sold the leaked info via Telegram channels. The Bitmex Hack Group on Telegram welcomes visitors with a message that says “Thank you Arthur Hayes.” Data breaches have disrupted the crypto industry since the early days and KYC/AML info only makes it worse for end-users. ‘Arise, You Have Nothing to Lose But Your Barbed Wire Fences’ When Bitcoin was first unleashed by Satoshi Nakamoto, the cypherpunks at the time cherished the fact that it could be used as a medium of exchange outside the existing regulatory frameworks. Cryptocurrencies were embraced by people holding strong anarchist and libertarian beliefs because the assets can mitigate government regulation and essentially remove any coercion and violence that stems from the state. In fact, many cypherpunks believe that digital currencies are a tool meant to bolster free markets and self-governance. “Just as the technology of printing altered and reduced the power of medieval guilds and the social power structure, so too will cryptologic methods fundamentally alter the nature of corporations and of government interference in economic transactions,” the cypherpunk Timothy C. May wrote in 1988. Digital currency users can tighten their operations security (opsec) with tools like Tor, Tails, and Cashshuffle. Nowadays, however, there are many cryptocurrency supporters begging for traditional institutions and governments to accept bitcoin. They are blatantly allowing corporate fascism and regulatory capture in order to spread the network effect, knowingly understanding the original cypherpunk values are fading. What these politicking parasites don’t want you to know is that you can still access digital currencies and move outside the traditional financial system. Did you know you can buy and sell BCH privately using our noncustodial, peer-to-peer Local Bitcoin Cash trading platform? The local.Bitcoin.com marketplace has thousands of participants from all around the world trading BCH right now. And if you need a bitcoin wallet to securely store your coins, you can download one from us here. Cryptocurrency users can still transact with digital currencies in an extremely private manner by utilizing tools like Tor and VPNs. They can get to know and understand the privacy-centric operating system Tails and PGP email encryption. There are encrypted messaging applications like Signal, Viber, Dust, Threema, Wickr, and Cyphr. Decentralized trading platforms like local.Bitcoin.com, Localethereum.com, Bisq, Barterdex, Radarrelay, Kyberswap, and Uniswap. Other tools can be used like Openbazaar, Haven Privacy, and installing Whonix. Bitcoin cash (BCH) users can shuffle their UTXOs using the decentralized mixing platform Cashshuffle. Digital asset proponents can use encrypted messengers services, encrypted email, and decentralized marketplaces like Openbazaar. The fact of the matter is that there are still plenty of people who hold the cypherpunk ideals of the past and hope to separate money from the state in the same manner the church was removed. There’s an abundance of tools that can keep people off the KYC/AML radar and these invasive acts can be avoided. There’s been a bunch of fraudulent digital currency projects over the last decade that prey on ignorant investors but the biggest scammers in the entire crypto industry are those who embrace the existing status quo and have helped usher the surveillance state (KYC/AML) into the cryptocurrency industry. Want to learn more about Bitcoin? Check out our getting started page. Looking to hear more about freedom, liberty, voluntaryism, the Non-Aggression Principle (NAP), and more? Check out the links below. Samuel E Konkin III (SEK3): The New Libertarian Manifesto Larken Rose: The Most Dangerous Superstition Samuel E Konkin III (SEK3): The Agorist Primer Peter Kallman: A 21st Century Introduction to Agorism Lysander Spooner: No Treason Not Being Governed: The Vacate Manifesto Timothy C. May: The Cryptoanarchist Manifesto Eric Hughes: A Cypherpunk’s Manifesto What do you think about the relationship between cryptocurrencies and freedom? Let us know your thoughts on the subject in the comments section below. Op-ed Disclaimer: This is an Op-ed article. The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own. Bitcoin.com is not responsible for or liable for any content, accuracy or quality within the Op-ed article. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the content. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any information in this Op-ed article. Image credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, and Twitter. Do you want to keep an eye on moving cryptocurrency prices? Visit our Bitcoin Markets tool to get real-time price updates, and head over to our Blockchain Explorer tool to view all previous BCH and BTC transactions. The post Ridiculous Crypto Regulations Are an Enemy of Bitcoin appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

In a recent U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security And Governmental Affairs hearing, Senator Mitt Romney expressed concerns about Bitcoin’s potential as a threat to national security. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray replied that cryptocurrency is a concern that’s “going to become a bigger and bigger one.” Also Read: Crypto Secularizes Wealth by Returning Power to the People What Mitt Doesn’t Know Might Affect Crypto As more nations begin to experiment with or talk about development of their own central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), and regulation of crypto in general, the topic of truly permissionless crypto like bitcoin is becoming hotly debated. According to a report from Forbes, the Republican senator from Utah was admittedly in the dark about the nature of cryptocurrencies, but nonetheless concerned at the hearing Tuesday. Addressing Homeland Security, National Counterterrorism Center and FBI leaders, Romney stated: I’m not in the Banking Committee. I don’t begin to understand how cryptocurrency works. I would think it is more difficult to carry out your work when we can’t follow the money because the money is hidden from us… The FBI Director noted that the agency views crypto “from an investigative perspective including tools that we have to try to follow the money.” Though citing the increasing efficiency with which criminals are able to utilize emergent tech and anonymizing tools, Wray was nonetheless reticent to commit to any statements about proposed regulations saying, “Well certainly for us cryptocurrency is already a significant issue and we can project out pretty easily that it’s going to become a bigger and bigger one. Whether or not that is the subject of some kind of regulation as the response is harder for me to speak to.” Republican Senator Mitt Romney Libra, Permissionless Money, and CBDCs As Facebook’s ongoing battle for Libra seems to demonstrate, U.S. regulators are in no hurry to let just anybody come out with their own digital money. Even some generally opposed to Facebook couldn’t help but take small pity on CEO Mark Zuckerberg as he faced an hours-long bipartisan grilling at an October 23 hearing. Questioned on Facebook’s record of invading user privacy and other shortcomings, Zuckerberg put forth his case, stating of Libra: The vision here is to make it so that people can send money to each other as easily and cheaply as it is sending a text message. The topic of easy-to-use digital money is gaining popular currency these days, and even central banks are jumping on the bandwagon. There is political pressure being applied by lawmakers to U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, urging openness to the possible development of a U.S. digital currency, and at least 40 other countries working on or considering the development of digital currencies worldwide, according to a study by the Bank of International Settlements. While central bank digital currencies and Libra are both in the spotlight, the real focus of much government unease seems to be around bitcoin and other decentralized, permissionless variations of digital money. Romney, like other lawmakers in the nation, is concerned with compliance and crime. While CBDCs would be easily monitored and centrally controlled, making things like money laundering and tax evasion challenging, permissionless crypto enables easier disobedience to established laws. Romney stated at the recent hearing “ wonder whether there should not be some kind of effort taken in our nation to deal with cryptocurrency.” What are your thoughts on Romney and the FBI’s remarks? Let us know in the comments section below. Image credits: Shutterstock, Aaron-Schwartz, fair use. Did you know you can buy and sell BCH privately using our noncustodial, peer-to-peer Local Bitcoin Cash trading platform? The Local.Bitcoin.com marketplace has thousands of participants from all around the world trading BCH right now. And if you need a bitcoin wallet to securely store your coins, you can download one from us here. The post FBI Says Bitcoin Concern Is Getting ‘Bigger and Bigger’ appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

During our last market outlook, cryptocurrency prices had found new foundations after the massive rally on Friday, October 25. Since then digital currency prices have been meandering roughly in the same positions after coins like BTC failed to break upper resistance on various occasions. Also read: China Removes Bitcoin Mining From Unwanted Industries List Crypto Prices Hold Foundational Support But Fail to Break Upper Resistance At the time of publication, the market capitalization of all 3,000+ digital assets is hovering around $260 billion on Thursday, November 7. Currently, the top 15 coins with the largest market caps are down a few percentages between 1-5%. BTC is currently trading for $9,240 per coin and the market has an overall valuation of $166 billion today. The digital asset is down 1.44% in the last 24 hours but it’s up +0.16% for the week. There’s around $22.7 billion in global trades today with BTC and 76% of those trades are paired against tether (USDT). ETH is swapping for $187 per coin and is down 1.74% today but ETH is up 2.3% over the last seven days. ETH has a market valuation of around $20.3 billion and roughly $9.1 billion in trade volume worldwide. XRP has lost more than 3% on Thursday and 1.11% for the week as each coin is trading for $0.29. Lastly, the stablecoin tether (USDT) is holding the fifth-largest market cap today and is capturing roughly two-thirds of all trades within the cryptoconomy. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) Market Action The fourth-largest market valuation is held by bitcoin cash (BCH) on November 7 and each BCH is swapping for $291 per coin. BCH is down 3.3% today but is up around 2.7% over the course of the last seven days. There’s about $2.28 billion in global BCH swaps and the cryptocurrency has a market cap of around $5.28 billion. Yesterday digital currency analyst John Isige noted that BCH prices re-entered the $300 range and after conquering that price point “bitcoin cash has changed focus to $400.” “In the meantime, [BCH] is trading at $304 after a 4% gain on the day. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) breaching 70 to show that the bullish action’s momentum is at its peak,” Isige wrote on November 6. “The Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) also puts emphasis on the bullish action.” The following day on November 7 shows 62% of the BCH trades are being swapped with tether (USDT). This is followed by BTC (16.8%), USD (13.8%), ETH (3%), and KRW (2.6%). Whale Watch Over the last two weeks, there’s been a lot of fear uncertainty and doubt (FUD) surrounding the topic of whales. First, there was a research study that was widely debunked concerning one single BTC whale allegedly manipulating the market in 2017. Then many others have been watching giant whale wallets and onchain movements that showcase massive BTC transactions. The latest bitcoin whale discussion is centered around the Twitter account @whale_alert which has noticed a dormant BTC address housing 80,000 BTC. “That address alone — if that is actually a whale who’s been holding their coins for so long without doing anything with them — if they decide, ‘Okay, let’s go sell them,’ it would crush the market completely,” Whale Alert explained in a recent interview. “But it’s really hard to say anything about the status of that address: Are those keys lost? Is that person even still alive? … It’s just waiting to see if anything happens with those addresses,” the Twitter account added. Meanwhile according to data stemming from the crypto analysis site Coin Metrics, the Bitcoin Rich List (BTC holders with 1,000 or more) has grown by 30% in the last year. China Embracing Blockchain Could Be Bearish or Bullish As news.Bitcoin.com’s Lubomir Tassev reported on November 6, the new edition of China’s Industrial Structure Adjustment Guidance Catalog has removed bitcoin mining from the unwanted industries list. Since the General Secretary of the Communist Party, Xi Jinping, lauded blockchain in a recent speech, digital currency markets have seen a massive boom and many people believe the new outlook from China is optimistic. There has been a huge shift from Chinese residents transitioning from the over-the-counter marketplace Localbitcoins to Paxful after localbitcoins.com published strict KYC/AML policies. Moreover, Chinese traders are using other avenues like Localethereum and local.Bitcoin.com as well. However, various pundits believe that China will build a digital currency that will hurt public cryptos like bitcoin in the future. Gold bug and economist Peter Schiff believes a gold-backed digital currency stemming from China will be “bearish for bitcoin.” Schiff tweeted his opinion on November 1 saying: According to Max Keiser, I’m an idiot because I think gold is better money than bitcoin. He also claims China is about to launch a cryptocurrency backed by gold. This is bullish for gold and bearish for bitcoin. A crypto backed by gold is much better than one backed by nothing. ‘BTC Is Not a Great Medium of Exchange’ Says Facebook’s Crypto Boss On November 6, the head of Facebook’s cryptocurrency subsidiary Calibra, David Marcus, told participants at the New York Times Dealbook Conference that BTC is an investment and not a currency. Facebook’s crypto boss, David Marcus says BTC is not a good medium of exchange. “I don’t think of bitcoin as a currency — It’s actually not a great medium of exchange because of its volatility — I see it as digital gold.” Moreover, Marcus highlighted that BTC basically conformed to the traditional status quo investment environment because it’s not considered a medium of exchange. Marcus said a key reason that Bitcoin has not been regulated out of existence is because it is not perceived to be a medium of exchange. “It’s an investment class that’s decorrelated from the rest of the market — Why feel threatened by that?” Will Bullish Markets Continue or Are We Seeing a Fake-Out? Overall cryptocurrency fans and observers are watching market movements, but things have been quiet lately as far as big price movements are concerned. Some people believe crypto markets will break through the upper resistance and continue the bullish trend that started on October 25. I am being asked about a Head Fake on the six hour $btcusd chart. The setup up is near perfect all that is needed is completion, a hard down bar. https://t.co/6GmgDiy3yz I'll be talking about these in Milan for Swissquote this Friday. @Swissquote_it — John Bollinger (@bbands) November 5, 2019 Others believe the current jump could be a fake-out, and after a few attempts, BTC’s market value could see the $7-8K price ranges again. Digital currency markets are seemingly at a pivotal position once again as traders hope and pray they played their positions correctly. Where do you see the cryptocurrency markets heading from here? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. Disclaimer: Price articles and market updates are intended for informational purposes only and should not be considered as trading advice. Neither Bitcoin.com nor the author is responsible for any losses or gains, as the ultimate decision to conduct a trade is made by the reader. Always remember that only those in possession of the private keys are in control of the “money.” Cryptocurrency prices referenced in this article were recorded at 9:15 a.m. EST. Images via Shutterstock, Trading View, Bitcoin.com Markets, Getty, Coinlib.io, Wiki Commons, bitcoinblockhalf.com, and Pixabay. Want to create your own secure cold storage paper wallet? Check our tools section. You can also enjoy the easiest way to buy Bitcoin online with us. Download your free Bitcoin wallet and head to our Purchase Bitcoin page where you can buy BCH and BTC securely. The post Market Outlook: Crypto Whale Tales and China’s Blockchain Hype appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Trade wars, sanctions, fear from private and decentralized cryptocurrencies. Regardless of the motive, a number of governments have recently taken the path of creating their own digital money. Turkey has become the latest country to announce plans for the issue of a “blockchain-based” national currency. Also read: China Removes Bitcoin Mining From Unwanted Industries List Digital Lira to Be Tested as Ankara Builds Fintech Ecosystem The project to develop a digital lira has found a place in Recep Erdogan’s Annual Presidential Program, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported. According to the recently published document, Turkey is set to launch the coin as soon as it completes the design, development and testing phases. The program explicitly notes that a “blockchain-based digital currency” will be introduced. Tests with the Turkish crypto are expected to commence as early as 2020 but the leadership in Ankara doesn’t stop there. The wider plan is to adopt a roadmap for the development of а full-fledged fintech ecosystem in the country. As part of these efforts, the presidential program envisages the establishment of a “financial technopark” in Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city and economic capital. Istanbul The digital lira initiative comes at a time when Turkey is facing mounting economic and financial challenges. Soured relations with the U.S. over Ankara’s rapprochement with Moscow and other independent moves by Erdogan’s administration have even led to a threat from President Trump to “totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey.” Over the past few years Turkey was also struggling with high inflation of the paper lira, which has greatly increased the popularity of decentralized cryptocurrencies in the country. A fifth of the Turkish respondents in a study conducted this year stated they owned digital coins. The inflation trend has been reversed in the past months, however, with the rate dropping from over 20% in January to below 9% in October. Last month, the Central Bank of Turkey cut interest rates to 14% from 16.5% in September and is expected to announce another cut in December. The issue of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) fits in with Ankara’s broader objective to improve and strengthen the country’s economy as well as to build a more stable financial sector with plans for Turkey to become a global financial center. These goals have also been specified in the new presidential program. States Competing to Issue Digital Currencies The Turkish government is not the only one working on a digital version of its fiat currency. According to a report published earlier this year by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), 70% of 63 surveyed central banks are exploring options to introduce CBDCs. According to another report by the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum think tank, as part of which officials from 23 central banks were polled, the first CBDC will be produced within five years, as news.Bitcoin.com reported. The BIS study was quoted in a letter sent by two congressmen to the Chair of the Federal Reserve Jerome Powell in September. The lawmakers, democrat Bill Foster and republican French Hill, urged the Fed to consider creating a national digital currency, noting that 40 countries are already looking into developing CBDCs. Pressure on the U.S. government to put out a digital dollar has been mounting amid fears of possible decline of the greenback as the world’s reserve currency in competition with private and government-issued digital currencies. Similar concerns have been expressed in the European Union as well. A recent report by Reuters quoted a draft EU document stating that the European Central Bank should think of introducing a public digital currency to counter Facebook’s project to issue a private coin for users of the social network. The document, prepared by the Finnish presidency for next month’s meeting of EU finance ministers, also urges the Union to develop a common approach and increase regulatory efforts regarding cryptocurrencies. Meanwhile, the Chinese government has been working on a digital yuan for some time, with the People’s Bank of China recently posting a recruitment notice for six professionals with cryptographic and related experience. A project to issue a Chinese digital currency is part of the recently prioritized blockchain development of the country. A digital yuan would potentially give China an edge in the intensifying competition for global dominance with the U.S. and other major geopolitical players. Do you expect Turkey to launch a digital version of the lira as early as next year? Share your thoughts in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Did you know you can buy and sell BCH privately using our noncustodial, peer-to-peer Local Bitcoin Cash trading platform? The local.Bitcoin.com marketplace has thousands of participants from all around the world trading BCH right now. And if you need a bitcoin wallet to securely store your coins, you can download one from us here. The post Turkey Becomes the Latest Nation to Work on Digital Fiat appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

“WikiLeaks has kicked the hornet’s nest, and the swarm is headed towards us.” With those 13 words, Satoshi Nakamoto stepped into oblivion, leaving a blizzard of unanswered questions that would enshroud his disappearance. That ominous message was to prove his penultimate forum post, dispatched a day before his final entry. What happened to put Wikileaks in the crosshairs of Bitcoin’s creator? Also read: Bitcoin History Part 18: The First Bitcoin Wallet Wikileaks Shines a Light on Bitcoin Satoshi’s words were freighted with such a sense of foreboding that many believe they signified the writing on the wall; a sign that Nakamoto’s tenure as Bitcoin figurehead had reached its inevitable end. His remark that Wikileaks had “kicked the hornet’s nest” referred to the possibility of the controversial whistleblower website turning to bitcoin, after the U.S. government forced companies like Visa, Mastercard and Paypal to blockade the organization. According to an earlier post by Satoshi, the bitcoin project needed “to grow gradually so the software can be strengthened along the way,” and the association with Wikileaks came too early in its development. As a disoriented Julian Assange attempts to fight extradition to the U.S. in the British courts, having earlier claimed to have made a 50,000% return on bitcoin in the years following Satoshi’s disappearance, it’s interesting to look back to that period – December, 2010 – when Satoshi’s retreat began and Wikileaks’ investment in bitcoin started being seriously discussed. This was a true fork in the road, significant not only to the history of bitcoin but also to state surveillance and those who would kick back at it. The Man Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest You might wonder why Bitcoin’s founder was so alarmed by the news that Wikileaks was seeking to raise funds using the decentralized payment system. After all, bitcoin was designed to bypass gatekeepers and obviate the need for a central authority – and here was a perfect use case to prove its merits. In response to a forum member positively touting Wikileaks’ embracement of bitcoin, published exactly one week before his final forum post, Satoshi said: “No, don’t “bring it on”… Bitcoin is a small beta community in its infancy. You would not stand to get more than pocket change, and the heat you would bring would likely destroy us at this stage.” The problem was very clear, as Satoshi saw it: unwanted government interest in the nascent digital currency was the last thing it needed at that point in time. And since just about every other payment gateway was refusing to process donations to Wikileaks, Julian Assange’s solicitation of donations via bitcoin seemed to be a matter of time. At the very least, Satoshi wanted such a move to be discouraged – and he conveyed as much to Assange, as recounted by the latter in a 2014 Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) session and also in his book “When Google Met WikiLeaks”: WikiLeaks read and agreed with Satoshi’s analysis, and decided to put off the launch of a Bitcoin donation channel until the currency had become more established. WikiLeaks’ Bitcoin donation address was launched after the currency’s first major boom, on June 14, 2011. Interestingly, the besieged organization opened the floodgates for bitcoin donations just two months after Satoshi’s last ever correspondence – an email to collaborator Gavin Andresen. The rest, as they say, is history: Wikileaks received tens of millions of dollars in bitcoin donations between 2011 and 2018 (the exact figure continues to be disputed), Assange spent years in London’s Ecuadorian embassy before being arrested, and in Satoshi’s absence, Bitcoin was to kick many more hornets’ nests only to emerge, each time, stronger. Bitcoin History is a multipart series from news.Bitcoin.com charting pivotal moments in the evolution of the world’s first and finest cryptocurrency. Read part 18 here. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Did you know you can verify any unconfirmed Bitcoin transaction with our Bitcoin Block Explorer tool? Simply complete a Bitcoin address search to view it on the blockchain. Plus, visit our Bitcoin Charts to see what’s happening in the industry. The post Bitcoin History Part 19: Wikileaks and the Hornet’s Nest appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission has established a new regulatory framework that allows crypto exchanges to opt-in to be licensed and regulated. Starting Wednesday, centralized trading platforms can apply for a license, providing they meet certain requirements including adequate measures for the safe custody of assets, insurance, hot and cold wallets, and private key management. Also read: 23 Central Banks Divulge Their Digital Currency Requirements An Opt-In System The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) published a new regulatory framework for crypto exchanges on Wednesday. CEO Ashley Alder explained that the commission met with a number of crypto exchange operators after unveiling a conceptual framework that could be used to regulate crypto exchanges last year. “After an in-depth examination of the unique technical and operational features of these platforms, we finally concluded that some could be regulated by us,” he remarked. SFC CEO Ashley Alder The commission has been focusing on whether to regulate crypto exchanges. Alder elaborated, “We saw this as a priority because this type of platform has proliferated in Hong Kong and up to now has largely escaped any form of regulation,” adding that it is largely because crypto assets fall outside the legal definition of securities and futures contracts. Since bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are not securities and “nothing in our new framework alters this position,” he admitted that the SFC can only regulate those platforms that choose to include at least one security crypto asset or token for trading. “But once this happens our new rules will apply to all platform operations, even if the vast majority of other virtual assets traded on the platform are not securities.” The CEO clarified: So this, essentially, is a framework allowing a platform operator to opt-in to regulation … Once licenses are granted to those platforms which choose to opt-in, investors will then be able to distinguish easily between properly regulated platforms, and all the rest. What the Regulation Entails The SFC detailed in its “Position Paper” published on Wednesday the rules and requirements for crypto trading platforms to be regulated. The commission also emphasized that only centralized platforms in Hong Kong that provide crypto trading, clearing, and settlement services will be considered for licensing. Applications from peer-to-peer marketplaces will not be accepted at this time. The SFC confirmed: As from 6 November 2019, a firm which operates a centralized virtual asset trading platform in Hong Kong and intends to offer trading of at least one security token on this platform may apply for a license from the SFC for Types 1 and 7 regulated activities. The Type 1 license is for dealing in securities and the Type 7 is for automated trading services (ATS) activities. The commission also requires all trading activities of its licensees, including those conducted by their group companies, to be carried out under a single, SFC-licensed legal entity. The regulator explained that not only will it allow for comprehensive oversight, but it also “minimizes any uncertainty about which parts of the business are licensed and supervised by the SFC.” Further, licensees are required to obtain prior written approval from the SFC for any plan or proposal such as for introducing or offering a new or incidental product or service, or to make a material change to an existing service or activity. Licensees must also provide monthly reports to the commission and engage an independent professional firm to review their activities and operations annually. The Position Paper also outlines licensing conditions, the first of which details who can trade on licensed platforms. The SFC noted: The licensee must only provide services to professional investors. The definition of a professional investor is extensive; it includes an individual, a partnership or a corporation with a portfolio of at least 8 million HKD (~$1 million) or equivalent, or a trust corporation with total assets of at least 40 million HKD or equivalent. For the safe custody of assets, the SFC requires licensees “to ensure that an insurance policy covering the risks associated with the custody of virtual assets held in both hot storage (full coverage) and cold storage (a substantial coverage, eg, 95%) is in effect at all times.” Licensed platform operators and their associated entities must also store 98% of client crypto assets in cold wallets and limit the amount stored in hot wallets to 2%. The commission also expects them “to set up and implement strong internal controls and governance procedures for private key management to ensure all cryptographic seeds and keys are securely generated, stored and backed up.” Moreover, the SFC added: A virtual asset trading platform operator, upon becoming licensed, will be placed in the SFC Regulatory Sandbox. This would typically mean more frequent reporting, monitoring and reviews. There are many more conditions that must be met, including complying with the SFC code of conduct and having adequate measures for know-your-client (KYC), anti-money laundering and counter-financing of terrorism (AML/CFT), preventing market manipulation and abusive activities, accounting and auditing, and risk management. What do you think of Hong Kong’s opt-in regulation for crypto exchanges? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock and Asianinvestor. Did you know you can buy and sell BCH privately using our noncustodial, peer-to-peer Local Bitcoin Cash trading platform? The local.Bitcoin.com marketplace has thousands of participants from all around the world trading BCH right now. And if you need a bitcoin wallet to securely store your coins, you can download one from us here. The post Hong Kong Now Offers Opt-In Regulation to Crypto Exchanges appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Bitcoin Cash development has been growing wildly over the last year between third party services and infrastructure. Since the inception of BCH, there’s been a number of full node clients that not only distribute important binary data but offer a variety of different features as well. One such project is the Bitcoin Cash validator and database created by Tom Zander called Flowee the Hub, a BCH client that aims to be a multi-service node that offers a myriad of functionality. Also Read: Video: Will Bitcoin Crash or Double in Price After the Halving? Miners Have Their Say Flowee the Hub When Satoshi Nakamoto published the Bitcoin codebase in 2009 he wrote the protocol using the programming language C++, but Bitcoin itself can conform to any language and any full node implementation that follows the consensus rules. Bitcoin Cash has 1,525 public nodes running BCH and there are five different BCH full nodes, according to Coin Dance statistics. At the moment there’s Bitcoin ABC, BCHD, Bitcoin Unlimited, Bitcoin Verde, and Flowee the Hub. The project Flowee is a BCH validator and database created by blockchain developer Tom Zander. The full node client validates BCH transactions so users and organizations can verify the data as factual. The software can forward transactions and provide a record of incoming transactions as well, giving the Flowee user real-time data. Beyond the full node operations, Flowee also offers foundational support for applications. Essentially Flowee’s ‘Hub’ is a full suite of application program interfaces (APIs) or a set of routines, protocols, and tools for building with Bitcoin Cash. When Zander introduced the platform to the BCH community he explained how he created Flowee in order to produce an infinitely scalable client that can “talk to the blockchain in an easy to understand API.” “No fussing with other people’s software or unreliable third parties,” the platform’s website explains. “Flowee lets you process or create Bitcoin Cash payments within your own applications.” The developer known as ‘Imaginary Username’ described Flowee in a very succinct way when the project was first established. The software engineer stated: For the people needing a TL;DR: Tom Zander is looking to build a “full-service” BCH node that integrates various useful functions at a more basic level (that make explorer et. al. easier to deploy and run), has native multithreading to get over the block/tx validation problem, has memory-mapped blocks to reduce RAM usage (so gigabyte blocks can be deployed painlessly) and can be easily managed. Imagine having the Bitpay infrastructure under one roof, on a GPL license. Bitcoin Cash Can Scale Flowee has four different paths: the hub, an indexer, a transaction ‘vulcano,’ and a point-of-sale system called the Flowee Cashier that’s under construction. Essentially, the indexer allows people to obtain indexes from the BCH chain in a fast manner. “Indexer is a stand-alone service you can deploy on one (or more) machines and they create an index of the most important details of the transactions database that the hub stores,” the indexer documentation details. “This allows you to ‘follow the money,’ as it were. Any department that wants to do any sort of client followup towards payments will want to have access to an indexer.” The transaction vulcano (txVulcano) is a test tool designed to “create massive amounts of transactions.” According to the documentation, the transaction vulcano’s main focus is to mine blocks and use the block reward to create more transactions with more inputs. The vulcano process continues in a repetitive cycle in order to process extremely large blocks. In March, the Flowee developer revealed that the project was “stress tested and used to create big blocks for a week.” Zander added: 1.2 million transactions in 400MB processed in 45 seconds. Flowee the Hub is open source and the code can be found on Gitlab and reference documentation is available on docs/hub. Just recently Flowee published the 2019-09 release, which offers APIs and features support for the November 15 upgrade. The latest Flowee version specifications can be reviewed here and people are urged to upgrade the software as soon as possible before the upgrade. Zander noted on November 6 that installing the latest Flowee release was a breeze. “I installed Flowee the Hub on a simple server last night and the initial block sync took only 2 hours,” the developer tweeted. “Processing the entire 11-year block history — I think this is a good prove that Bitcoin Cash can scale already very well, thanks.” Flowee is a BCH implementation that has been out for quite some time and the software aims to bolster scaling while also offering a suite of services. While Bitcoin ABC and Bitcoin Unlimited are the dominant nodes, other BCH clients offer people a choice while providing different sets of features as well. For example, BCHD is a full node BCH implementation written in Go (golang) that provides an advanced API, adjustable blocksize cap, BIP 157/158, BIP 68, and other features. Bitcoin Verde is a full node client that was built from the ground up and offers a block explorer and library. Multiple clients like Flowee and other BCH implementations can provide developers creating BCH apps and other types of platforms the tools they need to create robust products and services while speeding up their workflow. If you are interested in what Flowee has to offer, check out the project’s getting started page. What do you think about the Bitcoin Cash platform Flowee the Hub? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. Image credits: Shutterstock, Flowee the Hub, and Pixabay. Are you a developer looking to build on Bitcoin Cash? Head over to our Bitcoin Developer page where you can get Bitcoin Cash developer guides and start using the Bitbox, SLP, and Badger Wallet SDKs. The post Meet Flowee the Hub: A Feature-Rich Bitcoin Cash Validator appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

In 2017, Kim Dotcom, the founder of the now-defunct file hosting service Megaupload, revealed a similar service called K.im that planned to give anyone the ability to upload files, documents, code, videos, and music files and get paid in crypto for their work. Since then, Dotcom’s team disclosed there would be an exchange sale for Kimcoin token on the digital asset exchange Bitfinex. However, Bitfinex and the K.im platform team say that “regulatory uncertainty” has caused them to postpone the sale. Also Read: Bitcoin Cash Captured 90% of October’s Crypto Spending in Australia Kim Dotcom’s K.im Token Sale Delayed Indefinitely The token sale for the K.im platform is being postponed according to a blog post from the cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex. K.im is a project that was created by the notorious Kim Dotcom, the New Zealand resident who once operated the popular file-sharing site Megaupload. In 2012, the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) seized the website and charged Dotcom with copyright infringement. Since then, Dotcom has been a popular socialite on Twitter and is well known for his appreciation for cryptocurrencies like BTC. During the crypto bull run of 2017, Kim Dotcom announced his content monetization platform called K.im. For instance, on October 31, the 11th anniversary of the Bitcoin whitepaper, Dotcom tweeted that “crypto is all about freedom.” Over the last few years, the former Megaupload boss has been working on a project called K.im, a platform designed so users can upload content and be rewarded with small fractions of bitcoin micropayments. News.Bitcoin.com was invited to privately demo the application in August 2017 but the K.im project hasn’t been officially released and people can only demo the app. Dotcom’s team also used the fundraising platform bnktothefuture.com and raised $1,061,696 from 330 investors. The project’s elevator pitch explained that Dotcom’s blockchain platform would aim to provide better privacy and leverage the BTC chain to glue the foundation together. Additionally, the K.im platform and Bitcache would use other blockchain solutions like storj and maidsafe. In September 2019, the project’s whitepaper disclosed that the K.im project would use a native token called Kimcoin to facilitate access to the content held on the network. The whitepaper revealed that Kimcoin was not going to be mined but minted using the Liquid network, a federated sidechain developed by Blockstream. The file-sharing platform would allow users to utilize BTC payments but Kimcoin was said to have more of an advantage because it’s less cumbersome. Kimcoin would also have other perks and a rewards program. Bitfinex and the K.im Team Mutually Agree Not to Hold Token Sale at This Time Kimcoins were supposed to be sold on Bitfinex on October 22 and the coin would eventually be listed on the exchange in Q3 2020. However, on November 5, Bitfinex told potential investors that the token sale would be delayed because of regulatory concerns. “Since we announced the debut of Kimcoin on the Bitfinex Token Sale platform, the regulatory environment has rapidly evolved,” the exchange wrote. “The risks associated with raising funds for the K.im token sale have become clear, and we must put our community’s best interest first and foremost.” The news follows the recent SEC fines given to projects like EOS and Siacoin. The project Igobit and its founder was charged by the DoJ on November 6 for “participation in an investment scheme tied to a purported digital coin offering.” The Kimcoin token sale organizers may have decided to cancel after the domino effect of ICO-based criminal charges and court settlements in recent weeks. “After careful evaluation, we regret to announce that Bitfinex Token Sales and the K.im team have mutually agreed not to hold the token sale at this time,” Bitfinex disclosed. “K.im will defer any decision on whether to create tokens on, or undertake a token issue in relation to the K.im platform until it is fully functional,” Bitfinex added: In the meantime, the K.im platform project itself will continue and it is likely that an equity-based offer will be made some time in the near future to qualifying investors who wish to become involved at this stage of the project. K.im platform roadmap according to the whitepaper. Dotcom’s platform has been in the making for a very long time and has seen quite a few hurdles along the way. For three years, people have been waiting to see the project unfold but now have to wait even longer because of the regulatory opacity. The project’s roadmap shows that with the token sale being pushed off, it may delay other projected accomplishments like Liquid network integration slated for Q1 2020, K.im application services and prototyping, and the official Kimcoin launch that was supposed to happen in Q3 2020. What do you think about Kim Dotcom’s K.im token sale delay? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not an offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or as a recommendation, endorsement, or sponsorship of any products, software, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article. Image credits: Shutterstock, Independent, Wiki Commons, Fair Use, the K.im platform, and white paper, and Pixabay. Enjoy the easiest way to buy Bitcoin online with us. Download your free Bitcoin wallet and head to our Purchase Bitcoin page where you can buy BCH and BTC securely. The post Kim Dotcom Token Sale Postponed Over ‘Regulatory Uncertainty’ appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Privacy can assume many forms and occur on many levels. The technologies that blockchain architects originally envisioned for privacy coins are now being utilized by an array of crypto stakeholders, from enterprises to exchanges. What began as a means of transacting anonymously has spawned a burgeoning industry, built upon technologies designed to conceal, but which can also be programmed to reveal to a select few. Also read: Chinese Communist Party Reportedly Filling Roles at Top Exchange Huobi zk-Snarks zk-Snarks are best known for their use in privacy coin protocols such as Zcash. These “zero knowledge proofs” have far broader applications than simply masking the sender and receiver when transmitting crypto via a public ledger. A zero-knowledge proof allows one party to prove to another that a statement is true, without revealing any information about the statement itself. To break this down into a simple analogy, imagine that Farmer Bob is selling some livestock at the market. He wishes to prove to the auctioneer that there is a cow in his trailer, but without opening the door (cos then the creature would escape). Using a heat sensor installed inside the trailer, Bob can prove that there is a living, breathing animal inside, but the auctioneer will have no way of knowing which cow it is, or even whether the animal is a cow (unless it moos and gives the game away). That, essentially, is how a zk-Snark operates: proof that something is true, while disclosing zero knowledge about the thing in question. As for how zk-Snarks can be deployed outside of privacy coin transactions, look no further than smart contracts. Quras, for example, is using the technology to provision privacy-enabled smart contracts that run on its eponymous VM. Applications include concealing information pertaining to credit history; enabling healthcare and medical information from IoT devices to be shared confidentially; and facilitating sealed auctions that are executed using smart contracts. Mohammad Mazen is the CEO of Burency, a cryptocurrency exchange and blockchain research and development platform. Expounding on why private smart contracts are desirable, he told news.Bitcoin.com: “Smart contracts have the potential to automate business processes ranging from calculating insurance premiums to powering decentralized synthetics markets, but for this to happen, there needs to be privacy built in. Broadcasting information on-chain nullifies any benefits that might otherwise have been gained through using blockchain, since publicly verifiable smart contracts enable observers to frontrun markets and steal competitors’ proprietary algorithms. Privacy technology provides a means to conceal the secret sauce that’s in a smart contract, while still enabling its integrity to be verified.” Mimblewimble zk-Snarks aren’t the only privacy technology whose applications extend far beyond those originally envisioned by its pseudonymous creator. The origins of Mimblewimble don’t need retelling again, but its evolution does. Although utilized by both Grin and Beam – and soon Litecoin too – it is the Beam iteration of Mimblewimble that has applications for the broadest range of users. Understanding how Mimblewimble works isn’t easy, unless you’re au fait with elliptic curve cryptography. Even Beam’s attempt at explaining the process via a series of dumbed down metaphors takes some digesting. What’s relevant here isn’t so much the way in which Mimblewimble works, but the fact that it can provide complete transactional anonymity between parties while being compatible with implementations such as Beam that enable optional audibility. Digitally signed documentation can be attached to transactions, giving an approved auditor permission to view the transactions associated with a particular key. For cypherpunks intent on concealing their activity from snooping governments, that ability will be of little interest, but for businesses that wish to conceal their day-to-day affairs from the public (paying staff, contractors, and purchasing goods) while still remaining compliant from an accounting perspective, it’s extremely useful. Bulletproofs Bulletproofs are actually part of the zero-knowledge proofs family and allow multiple range proofs from different parties to be aggregated into one proof. What this means, in practice, is that bulletproofs allow for information to be significantly compressed without compromising its validity. When integrated into Monero last year, for example, bulletproofs slashed transaction fees through reducing the average size of each transaction. There is a number of interesting applications for bulletproofs outside of facilitating confidential transactions. They can be used in proof of solvency, for instance, with one research paper noting: “A Bitcoin exchange with 2 million customers needs approximately 18GB to prove solvency in a confidential manner … Using Bulletproofs and its variant protocols … this size could be reduced to approximately 62MB.” The same paper lists a total of eight use cases for bulletproofs, including smart contracts and crypto derivatives. Privacy coin tech follows the same adoption curve as other disruptive technologies: first it’s used by criminals, outlaws, and geeks. Then by enterprises, ordinary end users and even governments. Just as it was with encryption, so it is proving to be with privacy-preserving tech: from unknown to ostracized to indispensable in under a decade. What other privacy technologies have broad applications beyond simply enabling anonymous transactions? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Did you know you can verify any unconfirmed Bitcoin transaction with our Bitcoin Block Explorer tool? Simply complete a Bitcoin address search to view it on the blockchain. Plus, visit our Bitcoin Charts to see what’s happening in the industry. The post Conceal and Reveal: The Evolution of Privacy Coin Technology appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Inspired by its new fascination with blockchain, China now seems to have changed its mind about cryptocurrency mining. The latest version of a national macroeconomic plan indicates that the government in Beijing has given up intentions to suppress the bitcoin mining industry, in which Chinese companies have become global leaders. Also read: Another Chinese Lender Bailed Out After Bank Run Mining Not to Be ‘Eliminated’ The Industrial Structure Adjustment Guidance Catalog, issued by China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), has lost a reference to crypto mining activities. This is actually good news as a draft released earlier this year had mining among industries that Beijing wanted local administrations to get rid of. “That doesn’t mean mining is legal, but it is less illegal,” a Chinese miner contacted by news.Bitcoin.com remarked confirming the news. The final version of the document, which was published this week, will enter into force in January 2020. The catalog lists industries that regional authorities are advised to encourage, restrict or eliminate. The initial policy proposal prepared by the central government agency in April reportedly mentioned virtual currency mining in the ‘eliminate’ category. NDRC, formerly the State Development Planning Commission, is responsible for macroeconomic management. It operates under the State Council, which is China’s main administrative authority controlling the country’s economy. The commission formulates policies for economic and social development and guides restructuring efforts. With around two dozen departments and agencies under its umbrella, it effectively functions as a mini version of the Chinese government. China’s Dominance in Bitcoin Minting Cheap electrical energy and suitable climate have turned China into a hotspot for the business of minting digital coins. The People’s Republic is a global leader in bitcoin mining with Chinese pools controlling around 70% of the BTC network’s collective hashrate. The most populous country is home to the world’s largest mining operations and mining hardware manufacturers such as Beijing-based Bitmain. The Chinese government has treated various crypto-related business activities differently. While cryptocurrency exchanges and coin offering projects were effectively banned from the mainland, authorities have largely turned a blind eye to digital currency mining. What’s more, in regions such as Sichuan, mining farms utilize electricity from state-owned hydropower plants even under contractual arrangements, as news.Bitcoin.com reported during the rainy season this summer. This year’s crypto market recovery made bitcoin mining profitable again and anyone can participate without having to acquire mining equipment thanks to services offered by platforms such as the Bitcoin.com Pool. China’s role, both in the traditional economy and the crypto space, has been growing for years but the ongoing trade war with the U.S. forced the country to intensify the search for alternative paths of development. A recent Politburo speech by the General Secretary of the Communist Party, Xi Jinping, indicated that Beijing has decided to put blockchain in the focus of these efforts. And although China has never been particularly friendly to decentralized cryptocurrencies, it’s developing a digital yuan instead, and crypto markets have reacted positively to the move that many in the industry view as a bullish step. Do you expect the removal of crypto mining from the list of unwanted industries in China’s macroeconomic plan to have a positive effect on the bitcoin mining industry? Share your thoughts on the subject in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Did you know you can earn BTC and BCH through Bitcoin Mining? If you already own hardware, connect it to our powerful Bitcoin mining pool. If not, you can easily get started through one of our flexible Bitcoin cloud mining contracts. The post China Removes Bitcoin Mining From Unwanted Industries List appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

With all the talk about investing in digital assets new people to the scene might not know that cryptocurrency is still being used as peer-to-peer electronic cash as it was intended. The latest video from Bitcoin.com shows how BCH is used to buy anything from drinks at the bar to equity in a venture safely and easily. Also Read: Video: Will Bitcoin Crash or Double in Price After the Halving? Miners Have Their Say Using Cryptocurrency at the Bar The Bitcoin.com team recently attended a bitcoin cash meetup at Brewdog in London to sample some of the BCH-fueled nightlife the British capital has to offer. A short video with highlights from the event showcases how cryptocurrency is used by real people to make payments today for everyday purchases such as drinks at the bar. The London meetup also gave a chance for new people to learn about using the Bitcoin.com Wallet for fast, cheap and reliable payments firsthand. They got on the spot, real money demonstrations from the team including the company’s top leadership of Executive Chairman Roger Ver and CEO Stefan Rust. Watch the video on the official Bitcoin.com Youtube channel, subscribe and make sure to leave a comment to join the discussion. Equity for Punks One interesting highlight from the Brewdog meetup video is seeing how CEO Stefan Rust bought shares in the craft brewer with bitcoin cash right at the bar. In July of this year Brewdog, which had already been selling beers for BCH since 2018, revealed that the public can also invest in the company using cryptocurrency. It has a crew of over 1,500 employees, 80 locations worldwide with two breweries in Ellon, Scotland and Columbus, Ohio that export to 60 markets globally. The brewery’s crowdfunding project, “Equity for Punks,” has been extended until April 2020 and accepts bitcoin core (BTC), bitcoin cash (BCH), omisego (OMG), qtum (QTUM), augur (REP), 0x (ZRX), bitcoin SV (BSV), ether (ETH), litecoin (LTC), and ripple (XRP). Shares in Brewdog cost £25 each and can be redeemed through the company’s website. It had already raised over £72 million from more than 114,000 people around the world before opening up the crypto option. James Watt, Captain of Brewdog, stated at the time: “Our Equity Punks are our community, our shareholders and our friends and the driving force behind our business. The growth BrewDog has shown over the last decade could only have been achieved with their encouragement and support and together we have shown the city slickers what can be achieved with taking charge of something you believe in. Cryptocurrency is exactly the same. If you embrace change to subvert the mainstream we are in your corner; whether your weapons of choice are malt, hops, yeast and water or blockchain.” Join a Bitcoin Cash Meetup If you want to join a similar event, you’ll find many local bitcoin cash meetups available all over the world at Bitcoin.com’s Events page. You can use the map tool to zoom in on your area to see what meetups are available nearby, or just search the directory listing them by continents, countries, cities and so on. You can also create a new bitcoin cash meetup yourself. If you need help with this, on the same page you have the option to contact the Bitcoin.com team for support in setting up your new group and getting more people to join meetings based on their experience. Offering drinks for crypto can probably help with getting more people onboard. An additional way to find bitcoin cash meetups or to see how successful ones are organized is to follow @BCHMeetups on Twitter. This profile routinely publishes posts on BCH gatherings happening in many different countries, information on where people can find meetups in their area, as well as pictures and stories from events that have already taken place. What do you think about using cryptocurrency as a payment method to buy equity at a bar? Share your thoughts in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Verify and track bitcoin cash transactions on our BCH Block Explorer, the best of its kind anywhere in the world. Also, keep up with your holdings, BCH and other coins, on our market charts at Bitcoin.com Markets, another original and free service from Bitcoin.com. The post Video: Bitcoin Cash Lets You Buy Equity Over the Counter at a Bar appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Simple Ledger Protocol (SLP) is a protocol for token creation on the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) chain, promoting tokenization of assets in a simple and effective way. The Simple Ledger Protocol provides electronic wallets, block explorers, social media bots, token faucets and back-end infrastructure, as well as protocols for token creation and consulting for token resources and development. Simple Ledger Protocol (SLP) and Simplified Tokenization As tokenization is slowly but steadily gaining in popularity thanks to transparency and increased functionality in terms of storing and distributing value, the Simple Ledger Protocol offers a simplified and efficient way of tokenizing assets with greater integrity as opposed to traditional forms of asset trading and accounting. Any value can be tokenized and SLP offers the right tools for the tokenization of gaming assets, gift cards, digital media rights, company stocks and shares, creating a highly functional digital market. SLP tokens are created on the Simple Ledger Protocol that is built on the Bitcoin Cash chain, enabling prompt and efficient management, token creation and trading. SLP tokens on the Bitcoin Cash chain are equivalent to ERC20 type tokens on the Ethereum network. SLP provides efficiency, integrity and transparency through enabling support for light wallets, full audibility for on-chain transactions, simplified token systems with user-friendly tools, token loss prevention, flexible issuance, multi-signature addresses and peer-to-peer exchange of tokenized value within a permissionless environment. Tokens.net is Joining the SLP Alliance Tokens.net exchange is proud to be a part of the development of tokenized assets and a decentralized digital market by becoming one of the first cryptocurrency and token exchanges to adopt the SLP protocol. Through this implementation, Tokens.net is joining the broader market of digital assets with SLP implementation, towards bringing tokenization to broad masses. Tokens.net is partnering with Bitcoin.com in order to bring SLP tokenization to mainstream markets and towards mass adoption. About Tokens.net Tokens.net is operating under the slogan “Trusted European Crypto exchange”, justifying their principal motto with top safety, high-security standards, utmost reliability, and 100 per cent transparent trading volume. Founded by crypto pioneers, the exchange represents a trusted platform for trading, backed by a team of professionals with a proven reputation. Based in the UK, this European crypto exchange takes pride in transparency, security and unique user-friendly design with various trading tools for experienced traders and beginners. Contact Email Address sebastjan.ivanusa@tokens.net Supporting Link https://www.tokens.net/ The post Tokens.net Seals Partnership With Bitcoin.com as an Official SLP Partner appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

A source has reported to news.Bitcoin.com that the Chinese government is attempting to directly manage the crypto exchange industry in the country. According to the source, this could lead to frozen assets for U.S. account holders and others. Notably, Huobi Global’s website has announced that U.S. accounts “have been gradually disabled” due to compliance issues, and that they “will freeze all US user accounts from 13 November 2019 (GMT+8) onwards.” The anonymous source maintains the motivations for the move go deeper than mere compliance with U.S. standards. Also Read: China Now Censors Anti-Blockchain Sentiment, Educates Public on Bitcoin Huobi Global Freezes Accounts As Huobi Global and Chinese crypto investment community Bishijie.com recently reported, U.S. accounts on the exchange will soon be frozen. The company had already begun disabling user capabilities prior to the notice. Traders have until November 13 to move their assets from the exchange, and the Huobi blog post details the protocol as well as how to sign up for the U.S.-compliant version, Huobi US. While the creation of and migration to U.S.-specific exchanges for compliance purposes is not unusual, a Hong Kong-based source and OTC trader informs news.Bitcoin.com that there is more to the story, and it is not only U.S.-based traders who should be concerned. Announcement on Bishijie.com of impending Huobi freeze. Government Management of the Crypto Industry The source most notably told news.Bitcoin.com that according to an insider, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is stepping into managerial positions at popular crypto exchange Huobi: It’s the fact. Already have CCP members take role as huobi management. A Volatile Backdrop As previously reported, the Chinese government also appears to now be censoring criticism of ”blockchain”. President Xi Jinping’s recent public promotion of the technology, coupled with a focus on development of the nation’s own central bank digital currency — known as the digital currency electronic payment (DCEP) system — adds further context to the Hong Kong trader’s reports. “Also president Xi announced China will put more resources into crypto space,” he noted. With the situation in Hong Kong volatile, fear among crypto traders is pronounced and some worry markets will be overtaken. According to the anonymous source, the CCP is moving to: Take every leading company in the [financial] industry. Alibaba. Tencent. The statement hearkens to events in early October, when Alipay tweeted: “There’re several reports about @Alipay being used for bitcoin transactions. To reiterate, Alipay closely monitors over-the-counter transactions to identify irregular behavior and ensure compliance with relevant regulations.” Do you think Chinese exchanges will be, or already are, compromised by the CCP? Let us know in the comments section below. Image credits: Shutterstock, fair use. Did you know you can buy and sell BCH privately using our noncustodial, peer-to-peer Local Bitcoin Cash trading platform? The Local.Bitcoin.com marketplace has thousands of participants from all around the world trading BCH right now. And if you need a bitcoin wallet to securely store your coins, you can download one from us here. The post Chinese Communist Party Reportedly Filling Roles at Top Exchange Huobi appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

India’s Central Bureau of Investigation has reportedly raided over 190 bank locations nationwide in an effort to crack down on fraud involving at least 15 banks. As many as 1,000 officers were involved in what is now one of the largest coordinated searches in India this year. Also read: State Bank of India Chief Says Crypto Regulation Is a Must Major Bank Fraud Crackdown The Indian Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) carried out searches at over 190 bank locations nationwide on Tuesday, local media reported. An officer of the bureau said that the CBI has registered 42 new scam cases involving Rs 7,200 crore (~$1 billion). PTI reported that CBI’s teams knocked on doors of the accused to collect evidence and question them, elaborating: The operation was spread across 16 states and union territories with as many as 1,000 officers of the agency involved in it making it one of the largest coordinated searches this year. “Out of these 42 cases, there are 4 cases of more than Rs 1,000 crore and 11 cases of fraud amount of Rs 100 crore to Rs 1000 crore,” a statement issued by the CBI reveals. “During searches, incriminating documents have been recovered so far.” The statement further details that most of the loan fraud cases were detected at 15 banks, including the State Bank of India (SBI), the country’s largest government-owned lender. The other banks involved were Andhra Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Indian Overseas Bank, Allahabad Bank, Canara Bank, Dena Bank, Punjab & Sind Bank, Punjab National Bank, Central Bank of India, Union Bank of India, IDBI Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of Maharashtra, and Bank of India, Business Today detailed. The searches were conducted throughout Tuesday, most of which were in Maharashtra where 58 bank locations were raided, followed by Punjab with 32 branches searched. Other searches were carried out in New Delhi, Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Chandigarh, Kerala, Telangana and Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Gujarat and Haryana, Karnataka and Uttarakhand, and West Bengal. PMC Bank Fraud Case Continues A recent, widely-publicized fraud case involving one of the largest cooperative banks in the country is still ongoing. Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank, with 137 branches in multiple states, was put under regulatory restrictions by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in September, limiting customer withdrawals to 100 rupees for six months. The withdrawal limit has been increased several times, following protests and court petitions. On Nov. 5, the central bank raised the limit to 50,000 rupees, but some depositors are still battling with the central bank to gain access to all of their money. In the PMC fraud case, bank officials allegedly created more than 12,000 fictitious accounts to cover up bad loans worth approximately Rs 4,300. Last year, India’s second-biggest state-controlled lender, Punjab National Bank, was hit by a $2 billion fraud scandal. The RBI said in June that over 6,800 cases of bank fraud involving an unprecedented Rs 71,500 crore (~$10 billion) have been reported in 2018-19. What do you think of bank fraud cases in India and the nationwide crackdown? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Did you know you can buy and sell BCH privately using our noncustodial, peer-to-peer Local Bitcoin Cash trading platform? The local.Bitcoin.com marketplace has thousands of participants from all around the world trading BCH right now. And if you need a bitcoin wallet to securely store your coins, you can download one from us here. The post 190 Indian Bank Branches Raided in Massive Fraud Crackdown appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The British Columbia Securities Commission has taken control of a cryptocurrency exchange which allegedly owes customers over $12 million. Einstein Exchange had planned to shut down amid complaints, lawsuits, and money laundering investigations. The Canadian regulator has also taken action against another crypto exchange after receiving multiple complaints. Also read: OSC Commissioner Debunks Arguments Against Bitcoin, Green-Lights Bitcoin Fund Exchange Seized The British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC) has taken control of a Vancouver-based cryptocurrency exchange. The regulator announced Monday that the Supreme Court of British Columbia has granted its application for “an order appointing an interim receiver to preserve and protect any assets of Einstein Exchange.” Grant Thornton Ltd., the court-appointed interim receiver, entered and secured the premises of Einstein Exchange on Nov. 1, the commission revealed. The documents filed in court detail that the BCSC had received numerous complaints about customers being unable to access their assets on the exchange. BCSC Executive Director Peter Brady told CBC News, “We had sent some requests for information to the exchange twice and we didn’t get an answer,” adding that on Oct. 31: We were then talking to the company’s counsel and learned that the exchange intended to shut down within 30 to 60 days due to a lack of profit and subsequently that legal counsel stepped down, so that raised concerns for us. Brady noted that the commission has also notified federal law enforcement regarding concerns about possible money laundering at the exchange. The commission started investigating the exchange in May. The BCSC is the independent provincial government agency responsible for regulating capital markets in British Columbia. The regulator emphasized that it has not authorized any company to operate as a cryptocurrency exchange. However, it has granted registration to a fund manager to operate a crypto investment fund and approved a bitcoin trust. The Investigation Einstein Exchange was established in December 2017 by British Columbia resident Michael Ongun Gokturk, the sole director of the exchange. Einstein offered the trading of 19 cryptocurrencies against the USD and accepted customer deposits in CAD, USD, and cryptocurrencies. In an affidavit, Sammy Wu, Lead Investigator with the BCSC Enforcement Division, said that “In the view of BCSC staff, the trading platform operated by Einstein involves trading in securities.” Pursuant to the Securities Act section 144, Wu requested financial information from the exchange, including its fiat and cryptocurrency balances, as well as the locations where its fiat and cryptocurrencies are stored. The exchange provided neither, and two hours after Wu made the request, the exchange’s counsel notified Wu that he no longer represented Einstein. Nonetheless, Wu learned of the exchange’s shutdown plan and its failed attempt to sell itself to a U.S. company, his affidavit details. He believes that Einstein improperly used its customers’ assets. Unable to obtain needed information from the counsel, Wu proceeded to personally visit the exchange’s office only to find the elevator locked for all floors, the affidavit further describes. “I called Gokturk’s phone number listed on their website and the recording said all their agents are not available. I called Gokturk and his voice mail said that he is unavailable and to send a text message since he does not check voice mail. I sent him a text message,” Wu recounted. The BCSC staff has determined that Einstein Exchange owes customers more than $16,322,705 Canadian dollars (~$12,398,726), including more than $11 million CAD in cryptocurrencies and about $5 million CAD in cash. While Einstein Exchange claimed it had “sufficient crypto assets to satisfy withdrawal requests from customers,” the regulator pointed out that the exchange’s lawyers refused to specify the location of those assets. Complaints and Lawsuits According to CBC News, Einstein Exchange is also facing a pair of civil suits filed last month, which Gokturk has yet to file responses to. The first suit was filed by Hong Kong-based Sino Allied alleging that Einstein Exchange repeatedly failed to pay the $1 million owed for the purchase of tether. The second suit was filed against Gokturk by Vancouver technology entrepreneur Scott Nelson who said he was not paid for the transfer of 50 BTC. The entrepreneur claimed that Gokturk told him he would wire the money, but “repeatedly blamed technical issues for the failure,” then said he would give him a bank draft but none was ever delivered. Moreover, the news outlet reported that a default judgment was issued in April against Gokturk and his exchange in relation to money owed on an American Express credit card. Besides Einstein Exchange, the BCSC is reportedly investigating complaints against another crypto exchange, the Nanaimo-based Ezbtc. A BCSC spokesperson told the press that the regulator has taken action against the exchange because “customer assets are at risk,” noting that several complaints have been received about this exchange. What do you think of the BCSC seizing Einstein Exchange and taking action against another? Let us know in the comments section below. Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not an offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or as a recommendation, endorsement, or sponsorship of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article. Images courtesy of Shutterstock and the BCSC. Did you know you can buy and sell BCH privately using our noncustodial, peer-to-peer Local Bitcoin Cash trading platform? The local.Bitcoin.com marketplace has thousands of participants from all around the world trading BCH right now. And if you need a bitcoin wallet to securely store your coins, you can download one from us here. The post Canadian Regulator Seizes Troubled Crypto Exchange appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Just recently the web portal Bitcoinbch.com reported that the number of bitcoin cash (BCH) Australian retail transactions throughout the month of September outshined every other digital currency by a wide margin. After the study, the researchers analyzed transactions for the month of October and once again BCH overshadowed the competitors when it comes to retail spending. Also Read: UK-Based Electric Bike Company Launches SLP Reward Token October’s Australian Crypto Retail Data Bitcoin Cash supporters take pride in merchant adoption and the great utility behind a peer-to-peer electronic cash system. Throughout the world, there are a number of countries that have seen widespread BCH adoption like Japan and Slovenia. Another country that sees a significant amount of BCH usage is Australia, and a good number of merchants stem from the North Queensland region. Across the entire country there’s a total of 197 BCH accepting merchants in Australia according to map.Bitcoin.com’s merchant page. Bitcoinbch.com’s last report, covering the month of September, had shown that BCH accounted for more than 92% of the total amount of cryptocurrency expenditure in the country between two payment processors Travelbybit (TBB) and Hula (Hockings Underwriting Logistics App). The numbers have been tallied again, but this time covering the month of October and BCH outpaced the competition by a landslide. “Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is by far the most useful cryptocurrency with Australian retailers — Bitcoin Cash [has trounced] all other cryptocurrencies combined with a staggering $19,450 (90.74%) of the total October cryptocurrency retail spend,” the study explains. “The data indicates a collapse in retail sales for most of the minor coins: LN shrank from $1,224 in September to $941 in October, BNB shrank from $913 to $457 and BTC from $744 to just $251.” Further, the number of BCH retail transactions in October combined was roughly 264 transactions or about 75% in Australia. Lightning Network (LN) saw about 50 transactions (14.2%) combined with BTC’s 16 onchain transactions making a total of 18.8%. ‘The BCH Juggernaut’ The Travelbybit point-of-sale (PoS) processor also saw a decline in market share as well, dropping from September’s $3,737 to only $2,041 in October. “[The underwriting firm] Hula is in effect amplifying BCH circulation by reducing the time it takes to put coins back into the community,” the report details. “In contrast, the Travelbybit PoS has the double disadvantage of both instantly extracting supported coins from the community and lowering the density of adoption with their policy of hosting multiple coins.” The report adds: Australian retail data is indicating that, in order to compete with the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) juggernaut, other cryptocurrencies are best to go it alone – they are advised to win over merchants directly to their coin and avoid multi-coin PoS systems altogether. The study concludes that retail cryptocurrency usage in Australia is primarily bitcoin cash transactions and utility is bolstered when the system is focused on a single cryptocurrency. The effects are amplified with circulation and regions like Bitcoin Cash City showcase how network effects spread. The researchers further stress that BCH is “firmly entrenched in Australia and will be virtually impossible to dislodge.” The name of the game is for BCH to ultimately disrupt the market share of fiat systems and foster billions of users in the future. “Upcoming improvements targeting compliance, along with major projects, will likely allow further BCH penetration into the Australian economy,” the end of the Bitcoinbch.com report underscored. What do you think about bitcoin cash transactions used in retail outshining BTC transactions spent in Australia? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. Image credits: Shutterstock, Bitcoinbch.com, October cryptocurrency expenditure report, Fair Use, Wiki Commons, and Pixabay. Enjoy the easiest way to buy Bitcoin online with us. Download your free Bitcoin wallet and head to our Purchase Bitcoin page where you can buy BCH and BTC securely. The post Bitcoin Cash Captured 90% of October’s Crypto Spending in Australia appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The United States Federal Reserve is looking to employ a Manager, Retail Payments, part of whose responsibilities will be to oversee the research of digital currencies and distributed ledgers. The job ad has been published amid pressure from Capitol Hill to explore the possibilities of issuing a digital dollar. Also read: Why Central Banks Are Not Designed for Democracies Federal Reserve to Hire Retail Payments Manager Geopolitics is a fast paced, high stake game and no major player can afford to ignore the surprising moves of their opponents. The Chinese leadership is now betting on blockchain while the People’s Bank of China is working on a digital yuan. Calls for a digital greenback, still the world’s main currency, have been issued in the corridors of power in Washington. This is all happening on the backdrop of a raging trade war with Beijing in which global dominance is at stake. The potential benefit of integrating digital currencies into retail payments has caught the attention of the Federal Reserve. A job opening posted on Nov. 4 shows that the U.S. central bank is now planning to expand research in the field. The Fed’s Board of Governors is seeking to hire a professional who will be in charge for overseeing its Retail Payments Section. Facilitating financial and digital innovation is part of the job description. Candidates must bring at least a bachelor’s degree but a master’s or other advanced degree is preferred. They are also expected to have at least seven years of relevant experience. The position is based in Washington, D.C. and the Fed provides support for relocation. Although it’s a regular job, it involves a decent amount of travelling – 25% of the time according to the ad. The new Manager, Retail Payments will direct the section’s routine activities and will be tasked to lead, develop and execute administrative supervisory duties for its staff. The annual salary for the managerial post will be between $120,600 and $250,700. The federal salary grade is low 28 – high 29. The job posting further details that the Retail Payments Section oversees the Federal Reserve Banks’ check and automated clearinghouse services and deals with policy and regulatory issues concerning retail payment systems. Its head will be responsible for “Facilitating and contributing to innovations research including digital currencies, stable coins, distributed ledger technologies, and broadly financial/digital innovation in retail payments,” among other duties. US Dollar’s Primacy in Jeopardy The job announcement, which indicates the Fed’s interest in digital currencies, comes after recent media reports that America’s central bank is exploring the idea of developing a digital version of the dollar. Furthermore, at the end of September two members of the U.S. Congress sent a letter to the Chair of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, urging the Fed to look at creating a national digital currency. Bill Foster (D-IL), chair of the AI Task Force and Congressional Blockchain Caucus co-chair, and French Hill (R-AR), ranking member on the AI and Fintech Task Force, expressed concerns that “the primacy of the US Dollar could be in long-term jeopardy” in competition from digital fiat currencies and their private sector equivalents. They asked a number of questions about the Fed’s current activities and plans regarding the potential development of a U.S. dollar digital currency. The two congressmen cited a study by the Bank of International Settlements which found that 40 countries around the world are looking into developing or have already developed a digital currency. Their letter provides examples such as Sweden’s e-krona and Facebook’s Libra project while highlighting expectations that the Chinese central bank is going to launch a digital yuan as early as this year. According to an ad published in October, the People’s Bank of China is looking to hire six professionals with a background in cryptography and other tech disciplines to work on a digital national fiat. Do you expect the U.S. Federal Reserve to develop a digital dollar? Share your thoughts on the subject in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Enjoy the easiest way to buy bitcoin online with us. Download your free bitcoin wallet and head to our Purchase Bitcoin page where you can buy BCH and BTC securely. The post New Hire to Head Digital Currency Research at the US Fed appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

On November 5, Cryptophyl.com, the SLP-centric trading platform, announced a commercial partnership with the bicycle company Toba Electric Bikes using SLP technology. Toba sells electric bikes for bitcoin cash and the company’s SLP token will be used for customer rewards. Moreover, Cryptophyl plans to list the token called ‘toba’ on the exchange for trading on November 15. Also Read: Billion Dollar Bitcoin Lawsuit Continues as Craig Wright Breaks Settlement Cryptophyl and Toba Electric Bikes Partner to Bolster SLP Technology A collaboration between Cryptophyl.com and Toba Electric Bikes has invoked the first SLP token that’s redeemable for physical goods. On Tuesday, the two companies announced the commercial partnership which aims to bolster both BCH and SLP technology. Toba Electric Bikes is a two-year-old company that has helped strengthen the electric bike industry in Europe and was once known as 50 Cycles. The team has sold more than 30,000 electric bikes and Toba is now designing its own bike called the model BH TOBA-T that’s set to release next year. The TOBA token created on top of the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) network using SLP will be rewarded to customers cycling on Toba-sold bicycles. Toba is exclusively accepting digital assets such as BCH, BTC, and toba (TOBA). The company says that toba users will get a 10% discount on Toba products and bicycles using the token. “Toba is using cutting-edge technology to deliver long term value to users,” the founder and CEO of Cryptophyl Semyon Germanovich explained. “We’re delighted to be the exchange of choice for listing their token and to be working with another UK-based company with an innovative business model, made possible by the Simple Ledger Protocol.” Applied Tokenization and Accelerated Adoption Germanovich further detailed that toba will be listed on the exchange with other SLP tokens such as spice, honestcoin, and drop. According to Toba Electric Bikes, the toba token will be spendable with the company on December 16. The reason for the wait is so the token can gain a one-month period of market price discovery. Additionally, Cryptophyl disclosed $35,000 worth of toba tokens will be airdropped to drop holders “Cryptophyl is the most exciting exchange to launch this year because it is dedicated to the trading of Simple Ledger Protocol Tokens (SLP),” Scott Snaith, founder and CEO at Toba Electric Bikes, said during the announcement. Snaith added: Cryptocurrency is entering a new phase of adoption with SLP. Cryptophyl is becoming a real contender in the world of applied tokenization, accelerating adoption over the coming years. 2019 has seen the SLP token infrastructure grow quite mature and many tokens now have utility and have seen price discovery. Tokens like USDH, spice, merits, flex, and ACD coin now have real-world value. With new SLP tokens created every day and a few gathering traction, it shows the nascent token economy built on top of Bitcoin Cash is just getting started. What do you think about the Toba Electric Bike token created using the Simple Ledger Protocol? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. Image credits: Shutterstock, Cryptophyl, Toba Electric Bike, and Simpleledger.info. Did you know you can verify any unconfirmed Bitcoin transaction with our Bitcoin Block Explorer tool? Simply complete a Bitcoin address search to view it on the blockchain. Plus, visit our Bitcoin Charts to see what’s happening in the industry. The post UK-Based Electric Bike Company Launches SLP Reward Token appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Popular among politicians, media, and central bankers alike is the claim that in spite of all the quantitative easing (QE) and zero-leaning or negative interest rates of current times, inflation is under control. As the statistics show, nothing could be further from the truth. There are some very sly ways governments attempt to mask inflation and these are hidden in plain sight. Should the refusal to look at this ballooning elephant in the room continue, dire economic consequences may become unavoidable. Also Read: Bad Loans at Big British Banks Jump Over 50% in a Year No Small Problem The best hiding places are sometimes right out in the open. While central banks like the U.S. Federal Reserve, financial media and global monetary policy groups often point to metrics like the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index (PCE) and consumer price index (CPI) as basic metrics for inflation, this approach is argued by many to be inadequate. There are several types of inflation affecting the money supply, as it is not an isolated phenomenon only touching select consumer purchases. In fact, the foundational mechanics of fiat money itself (government issued and mandated money like the U.S. dollar) are inflationary at base, and the issue is compounded outward from there in virtually endless permutations. Before the advent and widespread use of inflationary paper money by governments and rulers, inflation took the form of monarchs diluting coinage. The value was thus reduced. This practice had serious limits though, and paper currency provided a much more exploitable system. In similar fashion to the mixing of metals, inflation occurs today in hidden places, while prices and face values of the “diluted products” remain the same. Target Inflation The Fed has set a target inflation rate of 2%, stating: The FOMC [Federal Open Market Committee] noted in its statement that the Committee judges that inflation at the rate of 2 percent (as measured by the annual change in the price index for personal consumption expenditures, or PCE) is most consistent over the longer run with the Federal Reserve’s statutory mandate. The mandate referenced is the 2012 institution of a target inflation rate. In spite of the rate and stable appearance of charts and data, however inflation is hiding elsewhere. Shrinkflation and Spun Stats Whether it’s the shrinking size of Little Debbie snack cakes or the measurements of toilet paper, the effects of inflating the money supply can be seen everywhere. Companies are forced to lower the quality or quantity of their products to keep up with an inflating — and thus weakening — currency. This phenomenon is known as shrinkflation. The gradual loss of value is born by the business (imagine replacing newly inflated stock according to old prices on the books) and the consumer. No matter how stable the inflation rate may be said to be by officials, a real value hemorrhage is occurring. Further, while politicians and financial media often point to the increasing affordability of tech, losses in affordability of critical goods and services hide inflation in plain sight. Education, healthcare, housing and food have all become markedly less affordable over the past two decades. But hey, at least you have an iPad. Assets Tell a Darker Tale At the Federal Reserve’s meeting on October 30, Fed Chair Jerome Powell stated: The reason why we raise interest rates, generally, is because we see inflation as moving up, or in danger of moving up significantly, and we really don’t see that now. Powell may not see it, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t there. While popular figures such as American presidential candidate Andrew Yang may say things like “The federal government recently printed $4 trillion for bank bailouts in its quantitative easing program with no inflation,” this simply is not the case. Newly created stimulus money lurks in banking reserves and often remains confined there, or limited to financial markets, thanks in part to interest rates set by the Fed designed to discourage banks loaning out the reserves to the wider market. As the New York Fed website details: The other component of IOR [Interest on Reserves] is Interest on Excess Reserves (IOER), which is the interest paid on those balances that are above the level of reserves the DI [depository institution] is required to hold. Paying IOER reduces the incentive for DIs to lend at rates much below IOER. However, this is much like telling a child to guard a bag of marshmallows and not eat them. Fed policy moves slower than the market, and if IEOR isn’t set appropriately to encourage banks and lending institutions not to lend, that excess cash can come out in a deluge before the Fed can raise rates to discourage it. Thanks to inflation, the money is most useful to the first holders and the expanded monetary based is dammed up and ready to burst anytime on a populace who will be further down the line in the inflation scheme, and thus easy to trap into agreements with the new “cheap” money. While economists, politicians and other government talking heads say we’re doing alright, it just isn’t the case, as the Federal Reserve’s own data show. The graph below shows a growing household net worth in spite of massive QE in the wake of the global downturn beginning in 2007. Since the Great Recession, the monetary base has increased by around $3.5 trillion. It shot up to all time highs in 2014, tapered off again down to 2013 levels, and, not producing the effect the Fed wanted, is being given another shot in the arm in this latest round of “not QE.” While the high pressure of massive and prolonged Fed stimulus pushes on the doors and seeps through the cracks of lending institutions, commercial real estate prices have doubled since 2009. Asset values have rapidly grown, inspiring lending institutions to provide more loans at lower rates with these inflation-distorted assets as collateral. The bubble created by inflation, in other words, is ready to burst. Round After Round In his book “The Constitution of Liberty,” renowned Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek writes: Inflation is probably the most important single factor in that vicious circle wherein one kind of government action makes more and more government control necessary. For this reason all those who wish to stop the drift toward increasing government control should concentrate their effort on monetary policy. The very idea that an increase in money supply would not devalue that same money is asinine on its face. Government cites deflation and other pressing matters — problems centralized economic meddling itself has created — and refuses to let the market correct failure and reward success organically. In the end, it’s like watching a man with a terrible hangover go on binge after binge to cure his pounding headache. He only finds himself in a worse position the next day. If the man is the Fed, then he further blames his sober friends for the imposition. There’s nothing non-existent about that coming pain after stimulated stupor, it’s just waiting to strike the following day. In the Fed’s case and that of the world economy, the next time may be more of a visit to triage than a mere headache. What are your thoughts on the supposed lack of inflation after more than a decade of QE? Let us know in the comments section below. Image credits: Shutterstock, Keith Homan, fair use. Did you know you can buy and sell BCH privately using our noncustodial, peer-to-peer Local Bitcoin Cash trading platform? The Local.Bitcoin.com marketplace has thousands of participants from all around the world trading BCH right now. And if you need a bitcoin wallet to securely store your coins, you can download one from us here. The post No Inflation? Here It Is – Hidden in Plain Sight appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Secularization is the process of converting something from a religious status to a nonreligious one. In its usage here, the word “religious” has no necessary connection to a deity. The word refers to the mystification of a thing in order to elevate it to the status of the divine where it becomes unquestionable. Also Read: The Big Lie Perpetuated by Central Banks Mystifying Money The state is mystification on overdrive. Past governments have sanctified themselves through “the divine right of kings,” by which monarchs claimed to be chosen by God to rule. Rebellion against the king, therefore, was rebellion against God himself. Contemporary states use more modern concepts like “democracy” or “the motherland” to justify their status. These concepts arouse feelings of awe and reverence, which further sanctifies the state and discourages dissent. The state’s goal is to usurp power and wealth from society—the productive sector. Taxation is the most visible way it does so, but the state’s ability to issue fiat that becomes mandatory currency is equally or more important. To do so successfully, however, the state needs society to accept and use the paper money. Some people will comply out of fear of being punished, but it is far more efficient if society conflates fiat with real wealth. If fiat can be mystified as legitimate, then the resistance is sidestepped. Much of fiat’s perceived legitimacy comes from its source—the state—because the state is still seen as a rightful authority. Fiat is further cemented into society through state-validated means like legal tender laws and the Federal Reserve System. “High finance” is removed from average, unlicensed people and channeled through bureaucracies like the SEC and the central banking system. And, in case some people still question, tax-paid academics and experts provide the state with intellectual ammunition. Like court historians of the past who rewrote history to glorify their monarchs, the experts present convoluted economic theories that support the state’s monetary policy, using as much math and arcane language as possible. As long as money is “created” by politicians, bureaucrats, and experts, society and individuals will never control their own wealth—at least, not in a sanctioned or safe way. A heresy is growing, however. Call it private money or cryptocurrency, nothing is more heretical than free-market money that the individual decides is of value to him. Free Market Money vs Inflationary Paper The state calls private money “the enemy.” Crypto is new, and it moves like the wind. The state cannot compete with it; the state does not even understand how to reproduce or to regulate it. Nor is this likely to happen in the future because blockchain-crypto is antagonistic to the mindset and mode of statists. Blockchain-crypto is the individual’s control of his own assets according to his own judgment. It is the secularization of wealth. The fastest way to speed along the secularization of assets is to delegitimize fiat by exposing the intentional damage it does to society and individuals. In 1963, the Austrian School Economist Murray Rothbard wrote an influential book entitled What Has Government Done to Our Money? (An advocate of private money, Rothbard’s use of the word “Our” is notable.) The short book springboards off the insights of other Austrian School thinkers, such as Ludwig von Mises, who argued that money originated spontaneously due to the need of individuals to exchange on a more complicated level than barter. Money is a free-market phenomenon that the state appropriates through force. Fiat and the free market are antithetical. Rothbard’s book explains one way in which free-market money and fiat cannot coexist: inflation, by which the first recipients of an increase in fiat money are enriched at the expense of the end recipients for whom the money has been debased. In short, the end recipient is robbed. Rothbard refers to inflation as “counterfeiting” because it is a creation of new money that is backed only by the false sanctity of the state, and its guns. But even the state cannot prevent its paper money from decreasing in value. Rothbard writes: “Suppose the economy has a supply of 10,000 gold ounces, and counterfeiters [the state]…pump in 2000 ‘ounces’ more. What will be the consequences? First, there will be a clear gain to the counterfeiters [the state]. They take the newly-created money and use it to buy goods and services. In the words of the famous New Yorker cartoon, showing a group of counterfeiters in sober contemplation of their handiwork: ‘Retail spending is about to get a needed shot in the arm.’ Precisely. Local spending, indeed, does get a shot in the arm…As the new money spreads, it bids prices up—as we have seen, new money can only dilute the effectiveness of each dollar. But this dilution takes time and is therefore uneven; in the meantime, some people gain and other people lose…The first receivers of the new money gain most, and at the expense of the last receivers. Inflation, then, confers no general social benefit; instead, it redistributes the wealth in favor of the first-comers and at the expense of the laggards in the race.” Describing inflation as “counterfeiting” is a charming departure from the usual legitimacy granted to fiat; it nicely captures the idea of inflation as theft and the state as illegitimate. Most people have some understanding of the effect of direct inflation on prices because they see their own cost of living rise. But other, more subtle effects are as disastrous. One is a market distortion that Rothbard calls a “keystone of our economy: business calculation.” This calculation occurs when a business compares the cost of operation to the expected demand by customers. The calculation is one of the main cost-benefit analyses without which the free market cannot function well. The impact of crippling business calculation is rarely noted, however. Inflation Distorts Critical Economic Calculations Since prices do not all change uniformly and at the same speed, it becomes very difficult for business to separate the lasting from the transitional, and gauge truly the demands of consumers or the cost of their operations. For example, accounting practice enters the “cost” of an asset at the amount the business has paid for it. But if inflation intervenes, the cost of replacing the asset will be far greater than that recorded on the books. As a result, business accounting will seriously overstate their profits during inflation—and may even consume capital while presumably increasing their investments. Similarly, stock holders and real estate holders will acquire capital gains during an inflation that are not really “gains” at all. But they may spend part of these gains without realizing that they are thereby consuming their original capital. The illusory profits also “suspend the free market’s penalizing of inefficient, and rewarding of efficient, firms.” Equally, inflation distorts people’s personal lives by punishing economic virtues like thrift. If $100 borrowed today can be repaid tomorrow with money that has a lower purchasing value, then at least three consequences are likely to follow. People will embrace borrowing rather than saving. They will spend the money they borrow or earn; “people will say: ‘I will buy now, though prices are high, because if I wait, prices will go up still further’. As a result, the demand for money now falls and prices go up more, proportionately, than the increase in the money supply.” Lenders become tight fisted. The state typically addresses this “money shortage” by cranking up the printing press again, and the cycle of inflation continues. At some point, the entire system of fiat begins to break down, and individuals—even those inclined to obey—seek out alternative currencies or stores of value. At this point, the state’s veneer of sanctity also starts to crack. To maintain its monetary hold, it must either ban the alternatives or control them. Either tactic carries danger, however. Just as legitimization of the state makes individuals obey, the blatant misuse of power makes them resist. Leaving the Church of Force-Based Money The best time to resist and demand financial freedom is right here and now before the system goes any farther off the rails. The rebellion comes when a nexus of at least three factors occurs. The first is when people fully grasp the monetary scam being committed by the state. In this endeavor, What Has Government Done to Our Money? is invaluable. The second factor is when they realize the state and society cannot peacefully coexist. The state destroys all of value in society such as voluntary exchange, respect for rights, and a reputation built on honesty. The battle against monetary statism is not against any particular politician or public policy like inflation. The issue is deeper. The battle is against an entrenched tolerance of the state’s aggression. The 18th-century anarchist William Godwin expressed the human importance of rejecting aggression. “Force is an expedient, the use of which must be deplored. It is contrary to the intellect, which cannot be improved but by conviction and persuasion. Violence corrupts the man who employs it and the man upon whom it is employed.” If Godwin is correct, as I believe he is, then sanctifying the state is an act of inhumanity. The third factor in the nexus is the existence of practical alternatives to fiat. Without alternative forms of free-market currency and wealth, those who stand up for financial freedom can all too easily become martyrs crushed by the state. And religions have already produced enough of those. What are your thoughts on the “church” of fiat money? Let us know in the comments section below. Op-ed disclaimer: This is an Op-ed article. The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own. Bitcoin.com is not responsible for or liable for any content, accuracy or quality within the Op-ed article. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the content. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any information in this Op-ed article. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Did you know you can buy and sell BCH privately using our noncustodial, peer-to-peer Local Bitcoin Cash trading platform? The Local.Bitcoin.com marketplace has thousands of participants from all around the world trading BCH right now. And if you need a bitcoin wallet to securely store your coins, you can download one from us here. The post Crypto Secularizes Wealth by Returning Power to the People appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Finland’s crypto regulation is now in full effect. The first five crypto service providers have been approved to legally operate in the country, the Finnish financial regulator confirmed to news.Bitcoin.com. The grace period for operating without registration has expired. Also read: Finland Begins Regulating Crypto Service Providers Only Five Registrants Finland’s Financial Supervisory Authority (FIN-FSA) announced on Nov. 1 that it has granted registration to five crypto service providers. The registrants are Localbitcoins, Northcrypto, Prasos, Prasos Cash Management, and Tesseract Group. A spokesperson for the FIN-FSA confirmed to news.Bitcoin.com Monday: Starting from 1st of November these five virtual currency providers are the only ones allowed to operate in Finland. Localbitcoins operates a global peer-to-peer bitcoin marketplace. Northcrypto provides an exchange service for BTC and LTC for EUR. Tesseract Group, formerly Whalelend, provides asset management, OTC trading, and lending services. Prasos offers crypto exchange and asset management services under four different brands. Coinmotion is an investment platform for BTC, LTC, ETH, XRP, and XLM, which also offers private crypto banking, white label solutions, and merchant services. The others are Bittiraha, a Bitcoin community and broker; Denarium, a physical bitcoin manufacturer; and Bittimaatti, a bitcoin ATM network. “The registration process requires significant effort from the applicants, for example concerning customer due diligence and written documentation of activities,” the FIN-FSA explained. During the registration process, the regulator assessed whether the applicants have adequate measures in areas such as preventing money laundering (AML) and terrorist financing (CFT), holding and safeguarding client assets, as well as having adequate management structure. The registrants have submitted written statements to the FIN-FSA describing how they are complying with the requirements. Going forward, the regulator will monitor them for compliance such as by requesting clarifications and performing inspections. The FIN-FSA emphasized: From 1 November 2019, only virtual currency providers who fulfill the requirements provided by legislation may practice activities in Finland. Finland’s Crypto Regulation The Act on virtual currency providers (572/2019) entered into force in Finland on May 1, installing the FIN-FSA as “the registration authority and supervisory authority for virtual currency providers,” the regulator’s website details. The law is based on the EU’s anti-money laundering legislation. Crypto issuers, exchanges, marketplace operators, and wallet providers are required to register. The FIN-FSA defines a “wallet provider” as “a natural or legal person who holds virtual currency for the account of some other party or provides for the transfer or storage of virtual currency.” Traders who provides crypto services within a limited network or occasionally are exempt from registration, as are professional activities that require some other authorization by other authorities. The regulator reiterated that “New providers of virtual currencies may not start the provision of services in Finland before their registration application has been approved,” adding: If the virtual currency provider does not comply with the requirements, its activities will be prohibited and the FIN-FSA will impose a fine on the provider. What do you think of the FIN-FSA approving these five crypto service providers? Let us know in the comments section below. Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not an offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or as a recommendation, endorsement, or sponsorship of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article. Images courtesy of Shutterstock and the FIN-FSA. Did you know you can buy and sell BCH privately using our noncustodial, peer-to-peer Local Bitcoin Cash trading platform? The local.Bitcoin.com marketplace has thousands of participants from all around the world trading BCH right now. And if you need a bitcoin wallet to securely store your coins, you can download one from us here. The post Finland Approves First 5 Crypto Service Providers appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

There’s been a resurgence of blockchain discussion this year, especially after China’s President Xi Jinping lauded blockchain and told Chinese citizens the country needs to accelerate distributed ledger technology development. Despite the lack of producing anything worthwhile, for some odd reason mainstream pundits believe government-endorsed blockchains will destroy legacy cryptocurrencies. Also Read: Billion Dollar Bitcoin Lawsuit Continues as Craig Wright Breaks Settlement ‘The Future of Digital Money Being Shaped by National Governments’ Is a Lie It sure seems like 2015 again, as the mainstream media continues to promote blockchain technology that’s backed by large corporations and governments. Well before digital currency projects like Facebook’s Libra and Telegram’s Gram have even launched, corporate media outlets claim these projects will annihilate assets like BTC and ETH. It seems people who believe this absurdity think that just because a blockchain project is backed by Facebook, has a development team and produced a whitepaper it will be better than a network that’s been running for more than a decade. Commentators and columnists include Bloomberg’s Lionel Laurent who recently wrote that “the future of digital money is being shaped increasingly by national governments.” However, this is not even close to being a reality as a great majority of governments and central banks still don’t understand the technology to this day. Telegram and Facebook have yet to prove anything with the blockchain projects they are working on, yet mainstream media says these protocols will destroy legacy cryptos. There are a few governments and central banks that have said publicly that they plan to experiment with a digital currency that represents legal tender. But there’s really only one nation-state so far that has completed this mission and Venezuela’s petro is more like an awful joke. Despite what Sunacrip (the Venezuelan entity in charge of cryptos) says, the petro is not accepted widely across the country. “Nobody uses the petro and only people close with government use it to skip out on U.S. sanctions,” a student from Bogata, Colombia told news.Bitcoin.com in September. “Sunacrip is really only for miners — they have installed crypto point-of-sale (POS) systems around some stores, but the POS only accepts bitcoin, litecoin, and BNB, so if you have petros, you need to exchange that.” The Venezuelan petro is no better than the Onecoin scam, but promoted by a socialist government. No one trusts Maduro’s pet blockchain project the petro and the only people using it are government employees trying to bypass sanctions. Projects Like China’s Digital Yuan, Libra, R3, and Hyperledger Have Produced Nothing Mainstream media has made it seem like state-issued currencies that are not even here yet will dominate legacy cryptos almost immediately. Bloomberg’s Lionel Laurent assumes that vaporware (a heavily advertised concept that has yet to work) like a digital yuan and Google’s quantum computer are threats to existing cryptocurrencies. Again both concepts have not been seen in the real world and it’s akin to saying a newborn baby could pummel a 10-year-old in a boxing match. China’s censored internet and the communist government thinks a digital yuan will outpace public, uncensored blockchains. The slew of blockchain ideas from governments, major banks, and corporations such as R3 and Hyperledger have not produced any real-world value. These projects don’t stand on enough credibility to deserve mass mainstream headlines but they are promoted by the old guard regularly. They want people to believe that nothingness, vaporware, and whitepaper promises will surpass legacy digital currencies that exist in the wild today. If you are looking at blockchain as the cure, you are looking in the wrong place. Blockchain projects promoted by banks, corporations, and politicians are snake oil. They do not cure the financial ailments global citizens are dealing with because they are meant to manipulate the public even more. For hundreds of years, the same bankers and the same families have controlled the world’s finances and resources. The reason cryptocurrencies matured a great deal faster than most financial concepts is because they remove the need to depend on the state and central banks. There is no blockchain project produced by a corporation or the old guard that even comes close to being a speck on the current cryptoconomy’s radar. These blockchains really resemble the antiquated databases used today with a few fancy bells and whistles like proof-of-stake, timestamps, and hashing. The question remains: When will media pundits give up on lauding vaporware and things that don’t even exist yet? Central banks and governments want you to believe the FUD is so bad that only central planners can succeed. Right now, at least for the time being, the propaganda they spread couldn’t be further from the truth. What do you think about the resurgence of hyped up blockchain discussions and concepts? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. OP-ed Disclaimer: This is an Op-ed article. The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own. Bitcoin.com is not responsible for or liable for any content, accuracy or quality within the Op-ed article. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the content. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any information in this Op-ed article. Image credits: Shutterstock, Peter VanValkenburgh ‏@valkenburgh, Wiki Commons, Fair Use, and Pixabay. Did you know you can buy and sell BCH privately using our noncustodial, peer-to-peer Local Bitcoin Cash trading platform? The local.Bitcoin.com marketplace has thousands of participants from all around the world trading BCH right now. And if you need a bitcoin wallet to securely store your coins, you can download one from us here. The post Central Bank Blockchains and Corporate Ledgers Are Still Vaporware appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article