roadrunner

Since exchange.Bitcoin.com launched, our premier trading platform has seen a significant influx of users from Asia and Europe. So far, the grand opening of Bitcoin.com’s exchange has led to more than 18,000 registered traders. Moreover, exchange.Bitcoin.com’s Chief Operating Officer, Danish Chaudhry, explained that the exchange launch and the last two weeks of trading have been a success, and account signups continue to grow. Also Read: Plans to Build $50M Bitcoin Cash Tech Park Revealed Bitcoin.com’s Premier Crypto Exchange Captures 18,000 Users Bitcoin.com recently launched a new trading platform on Sep. 2, and so far our team has seen positive results and significant growth. Exchange.Bitcoin.com is an easy-to-use trading platform that offers world-class security and a powerful trading engine. Furthermore, the exchange has a wide variety of trading pairs like litecoin (LTC), ripple (XRP), tron (TRX), zcash (ZEC) and denominated markets with base currencies such as tether (USDT), bitcoin cash (BCH), and bitcoin core (BTC) as well. Traders using exchange.Bitcoin.com can rest assured they are trading in a safe environment as our exchange offers the very best in institutional-grade encryption. On top of that safeguard, traders benefit from two-factor authentication (2FA) and IP whitelisting, so they can keep their accounts secure at all times. Bitcoin.com’s exchange offers the most professional trading experience out there, in the fast-paced, crypto market setting. Danish Chaudhry, exchange.Bitcoin.com’s Chief Operating Officer, explained that the grand opening of our trading platform two weeks ago was a great success. “We have more than 18,000 registered users so far and we’re just getting started,” Chaudhry said. “The days leading up to the event were stressful because we want to offer the very best products and trading experiences for our customers. Before launching we worked day and night to bring exchange.Bitcoin.com to fruition and we continue to focus our efforts on the bright future ahead.” Danish Chaudhry, exchange.Bitcoin.com’s Chief Operating Officer said BCH/BTC pairs are the most popular right now. Chaudhry remarked that exchange signups were stemming from a variety of different countries worldwide. “Right now Europe and parts of Asia are using the Bitcoin.com’s exchange the most thus far. There’s been a number of popular cryptocurrencies traded on a daily basis,” Chaudhry added, and noted that the BCH/BTC market is the most popular trading pair. Chaudhry also highlighted that exchange.Bitcoin.com is meant to provide the most optimal trading experience in this world of fast-paced crypto markets. Out of all the registrants so far, Chaudhry says there’s a lot of signups from Europe and Asia. Crypto Newcomers and Veteran Traders Can Expect More Features from Exchange.Bitcoin.com Going Forward “Newcomers just stepping into the crypto space should choose exchange.Bitcoin.com because of our trusted brand, our professionalized security, and ease of use. Users can buy bitcoin cash from any one of our other satellites, and can trade for a number other popular digital assets on the exchange — Our trading platform provides a fast, safe environment with low fees,” exchange.Bitcoin.com’s COO said. Chaudhry further opined: On the same token, veteran traders should choose to trade at Bitcoin.com’s Exchange for the same reasons above. And because we will be introducing amazing new features like SLP token listings, which is exciting because the Simple Ledger Protocol universe has been bolstering relentless BCH innovation over the last six months. Chaudhry insisted that there’s a lot of new features being prepared at the moment for future services to be added to the exchange. For instance, in addition to the SLP token listings, Chaudhry said that down the line people will be able to make a purchase on exchange.Bitcoin.com with a credit card. At a future date, Bitcoin.com’s exchange will also offer fiat pairs and premier listings, he added. If you haven’t signed up for exchange.Bitcoin.com yet, the process takes less than a minute and after you register you can immediately start swapping digital assets. Chaudhry concluded by detailing that the last two weeks have been a successful start to a far bigger vision, and his team aims to serve millions of traders moving forward. What do you think about the new exchange.Bitcoin.com? Have you signed up for our exchange yet? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. Image credits: Shutterstock, exchange.Bitcoin.com. How could our Bitcoin Block Explorer tool help you? Use the handy Bitcoin address search bar to track down transactions on both the BCH and BTC blockchain and, for even more industry insights, visit our in-depth Bitcoin Charts. The post 18,000 Traders and Growing – Bitcoin.com’s Crypto Exchange Shines Brightly appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The Indian crypto community has made progress towards influencing the government’s crypto policies. Some industry leaders have met with an influential lawmaker who has agreed to help bring about positive crypto regulation in the country. Also read: India’s Popular ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’ Show Gives Crypto a Boost Parliament Member Agrees to Help Since the Indian government published the draft bill to ban cryptocurrencies, the crypto community has united to convince lawmakers that the bill is flawed in hope that positive regulation will be introduced instead. This week, the community has made notable progress, as its efforts have caught the attention of an influential member of parliament (MP). Representing the state of Karnataka, Rajeev Chandrasekhar is a member of Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the parliament of India, and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Chandrasekhar met with some crypto industry leaders and stakeholders on Monday. Among those he met with was Nischal Shetty, CEO of local crypto exchange Wazirx, who told news.Bitcoin.com: He’s agreed to help us with the case for blockchain and crypto innovation in India. “He’s given us some great guidance on how to approach positive regulations,” the CEO recalled, emphasizing that “It’s a good step forward” for the “India Wants Crypto” campaign, which he started 320 days ago. The campaign, which calls for positive crypto regulation in India, is growing in supporters every day. As of Sept. 16, the hashtag “Indiawantscrypto” has been tweeted and retweeted over 56,600 times. An entrepreneur with experience in technology, finance, and the economy, Chandrasekhar founded BPL Mobile in 1994 and Jupiter Capital in 2005. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2006 to represent Urban Bengaluru, after serving on several committees including the Prime Minister’s Council on Trade and Development. He has also been on various parliamentary committees including defense, finance, telecom, urban development, GST, and real estate. Additionally, he has advocated and intervened on a number of issues including governance, regulatory reforms, policymaking, institution building, freedom of speech, net neutrality, privacy, the protection of children, and national security. “He understands blockchain and crypto and how they’re innovative technologies,” Shetty remarked. Ecstatic that Chandrasekhar is helping to bring about positive crypto regulation in India, he opined: Massive win for us. Especially since he’s been a leader for achieving net neutrality in India previously. As for the next step, “he’ll help us connect with more leaders who can be helpful in this cause. He’s going to help and guide us … We’re going to be setting up some meetings next month with his help,” Shetty shared with news.Bitcoin.com. The MP has previously explained that he has the ability to create documents with the industry’s inputs and have them “presented either in parliament or to the government.” To effectively convince lawmakers, a survey has been set up by a group of crypto enthusiasts for Indian crypto users to participate. Noting that “some analytical data would help us present better instead of just statistics,” Sathvik Vishwanath, CEO of local crypto exchange Unocoin, asserted that the “Crypto community in India has … another chance to get their voices heard.” Vishwanath also met with Chandrasekhar on Monday. India Should Not Sit on the Sidelines During Monday’s meeting, Chandrasekhar also discussed how India should take action to not fall behind other countries. Shetty conveyed the MP’s opinion to news.Bitcoin.com, stating: When other countries are innovating in this technology, India cannot be sitting on the sidelines. The Indian government is currently deliberating on the draft bill entitled “Banning of Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill 2019.” It was submitted by an interministerial committee (IMC) tasked with studying all aspects of cryptocurrencies and providing recommendations. The committee was constituted under the chairmanship of former Secretary of the Department of Economic Affairs Subhash Chandra Garg. The 108-page IMC report containing the aforementioned draft bill is dated Feb. 28 but was made public on July 22. The Indian government has told the country’s supreme court that this bill may be introduced in the next parliament session. Countries Studied by Interministerial Committee Prior to drafting the crypto bill, the IMC studied the regulatory approaches to cryptocurrencies of a number of countries ⁠— Russia, China, Switzerland, Thailand, Japan, the U.S. (New York), and Canada. Among them, China has taken the toughest stance against cryptocurrencies. While the report states that “Countries like China have completely banned virtual currencies. It does not allow any sort of legal transactions in virtual currencies,” holding crypto is not banned, however. In addition, bitcoin has since been legally recognized by a Chinese court as digital property. In the U.S., several regulators oversee the crypto industry. While evaluating several proposed rule changes for bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), the Securities and Exchange Commission has green-lighted some token offerings. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has allowed several companies to offer bitcoin derivatives. Each regulator has its own guidelines for crypto assets including the Internal Revenue Service and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. Some U.S. states also accept cryptocurrency for tax payments. Another country the IMC studied was Russia, which is slowly progressing towards finalizing its crypto regulation. The government has drafted a few crypto-related bills, incorporating FATF’s recommendations. President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly directed the government to finalize the country’s regulatory framework for crypto assets. The IMC also studied Switzerland, one of the most crypto-friendly countries, home to cities such as Zug which has attracted many crypto businesses. Also highlighted in the IMC report is the regulatory approach of Japan, the country at the forefront of crypto regulation, having legalized cryptocurrency as a means of payment back in April 2017. The country’s top financial regulator, the Financial Services Agency (FSA), has approved 20 crypto exchange operators, and over 110 companies have expressed interest in market entry. The agency regularly holds meetings to discuss crypto regulation with industry experts and stakeholders. A new crypto bill has been passed and will go into effect next year. Japan also has a self-regulatory body, which works closely with the FSA. Another country the IMC looked at which has adopted positive crypto regulation was Thailand. The Thai government started regulating crypto assets in May last year and has legalized four cryptocurrencies to trade against the Thai baht. Since the regulators started licensing crypto service providers earlier this year, five exchanges, three brokers, one dealer, and three ICO portals have been approved. There are also other crypto-friendly countries the IMC did not examine. For example, catching up to Japan is the Philippines, which also started regulating its crypto industry in 2017. The country’s central bank, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, has registered 13 crypto exchanges so far. The Philippines also has a special economic zone, managed by the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA) which has independently licensed 37 offshore crypto exchanges as of June. Portugal is another country that has emerged as the crypto hub due to its attractive tax regimes. Recently, the Dutch central bank announced that it will soon start regulating crypto service providers. Furthermore, some laws pertaining to cryptocurrency have changed worldwide since the IMC report was compiled. In June, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) released its new guidance for crypto assets and service providers, and the G20 countries, including India, met and declared their commitments to following the FATF standards on crypto assets. Despite examining several countries with positive crypto regulations, the IMC still recommended a blanket ban on cryptocurrencies for India. Meanwhile, the country’s supreme court is scheduled to resume hearing the writ petitions against the RBI ban on Sept. 25. The court will hear the case relating to the government’s crypto policies in January next year. What do you think of the Indian parliament member helping the crypto community? Do you think the community can successfully influence the government’s crypto policies? 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 Indian Parliament Member Helping Crypto Community Influence Regulation appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The delisting of privacy coins like monero, zcash, and dash is becoming something of a trend in Asia, and could soon expand elsewhere. In the wake of the intra-governmental Financial Action Task Force (FATF) issuing new global standards, Korean exchanges Okex and Upbit have announced they will delist and put warnings on several privacy coins in the immediate future, with Okex to axe the tokens in October. The progressive abandonment of such coins in “crypto-friendly” Asia is a warning call to all privacy advocates: you can’t have your regulations and privacy, too. Also Read: European Countries Step Up Response to Facebook’s Libra A Growing Trend Prior to the issuance of FATF recommendations, one of Japan’s largest exchanges had already swung the axe. Coincheck delisted four major privacy coins in 2018 thanks to pressure from the Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA). An outright ban on Japanese exchanges dealing in privacy coins followed soon after. Further, very few privacy coins are set to be listed on Binance’s upcoming U.S.-compliant exchange, making the concerted effort of regulators worldwide to put the brakes on privacy very clear. According to a September 10 blog post by Okex, the widely used exchange will cease trading of XMR, DASH, ZEC, ZEN and SBTC for Korean customers as of October 10, 2019 17:00 KST. Users will be able to make withdrawals of the tokens until December 10, 2019 17:00 KST. The announcement, translated from Korean, states in part: According to the statement corresponding to FATF R.16 … We decided to take measures to end the trading support of stocks that are privacy-oriented cryptocurrency, aka dark coin. The Okex blog post specifically details the necessity of knowing both sender and recipient information as per the FATF guidelines, something privacy coins can make exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, for exchanges. Okex Korea will cease trading of privacy coins on October 10. In similar fashion, Korean exchange Upbit has now listed several privacy coins under an “investment warning” status, informing traders that the tokens are under review and may be removed if they are not found to meet FATF recommendations. A September 9 notice on their English website reads: “The amendment to the FATF R.15 states companies handling virtual assets must hold the standard equivalent to that of financial institutions and to register/report its legal business of operation. Particularly applicable in R.16, it states that the collection and retention of information related to the sender and the recipient of the virtual asset.” An update is expected soon as to the final fate of the coins. Binance’s U.S.-Compliant Exchange The upcoming U.S. legal compliant iteration of trading behemoth Binance won’t be a haven for privacy seekers, either, judging by the looks of things. With registration beginning on September 18, users will be greeted with a whittled down assortment of trading pairs, and the assets under consideration conspicuously do not include regulator-shunned monero. Candidates under consideration for Binance’s new U.S.-compliant exchange. In deciding which assets will be supported, Binance lists criteria for qualification including: Whether trading the candidate asset will affect Binance.US’s ability to comply with applicable legal requirements, including, without limitation, US AML/CFT and securities laws and their implementing regulations … Whether the candidate asset’s community has a record of reaching compromises and consensuses to move the project forward. The notice is authored by former Ripple executive Catherine Coley, who is overseeing the rollout of the platform as CEO of Bam trading services, the operator of the upcoming Binance U.S. exchange. Privacy’s Not Dead Compliance, delistings, and compromise are not exactly thrilling prospects for the Satoshi Nakamotos of the world who got into the crypto game to take back financial sovereignty. With privacy coins being gutted, it seems crypto might be losing itself in order to fit in with the big boys of legacy finance. Problem is, the whole idea of bitcoin was to give the financial bullies on Wall Street the middle finger, and not a goofy, submissive thumbs up. In spite of all the pressure, though, the embattled class of privacy coins is far from dead. XMR ranks number 10 for market cap with a slice of $1.3 billion at press time. DASH is in the 16 slot, and ZEC sits at 28. There is, furthermore, the continued capacity for various “standard coins” to implement new privacy protocols that make regulatory pigeon-holing even harder. Litecoin, for example, may support confidential transactions (CT) in the future according to talk early in the year from Charlie Lee. Developments in that arena seem to be moving forward, if slowly. In the BCH community, the privacy enhancing Cashshuffle protocol is being improved with a proposed anonymizing feature called Cashfusion. The Github project spec states: Cashfusion provides high levels of privacy via a flexible scheme that allows an arbitrary number of inputs and outputs of non-standard amounts. It provides anonymous, trustless coordination with usually zero-knowledge of linkages revealed to other players or the server. Where some privacy coins have anonymizing features baked right into the source code, a new generation of protocols like Cashfusion and CT are emerging to afford even “standard” coins a kind of toggle switch allowing for greater anonymity. This way, both mainstream onboarding zealots and philosophically grounded privacy advocates could theoretically get behind the same assets. The trouble this might create for the big-government-doting exchanges would be interesting to watch. Cui Bono? When it comes to tokens being banned, blackballed, or delisted, it stands to ask who benefits. As news.Bitcoin.com has reported in past articles, if the concern surrounding these assets was truly about the prevention of terror and crime, the USD fiat scheme should be priority number one for overhaul, but it’s not. In a Reddit thread from August discussing Coinbase’s delisting of zcash in the U.K., user sathound remarked sardonically: Remember children, tax avoidance and moral bankruptcy is only for the rich. @zcash @ElectricCoinCo @coinbase what’s going on with Zcash in the UK? pic.twitter.com/6GWS9CuIoH — Alex (@heskavich) August 8, 2019 Asia and Japan are commonly hailed as crypto meccas thanks to adoption, regulation, and active use cases. Many in the space view this acceptance of crypto as a very bullish sign and a product of forward thinking societies. To those old-fashioned curmudgeons still intently focused on “a purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash that would allow online payments … without going through a financial institution,” all this talk can ring hollow, however. Of course, exchanges can do as they please, and time will tell which are going to kowtow to the FATF, and which DEXs, OTC platforms, and private traders won’t. What are your thoughts on the delisting of privacy coins? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of 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 FATF-Driven Delistings Capture the Criminalization of Privacy appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Low and negative interest rates have been a burden for account holders across Europe for some time. And it’s only getting worse, as the European Central Bank just announced a new rate cut to a record low of -0.5%. Private and corporate customers in many countries on the continent don’t have a lot of options to preserve the value of their holdings, at least not in the fiat money world. However, cryptocurrencies which have seen a revival this year offer a real alternative – one that can bring income instead of losses. Also read: Big Banks Won’t Touch Crypto Clients – But These Smaller Banks Will Interest Rates Freezing Deeper The European economy never fully recovered from the 2008 global meltdown. What started as a subprime mortgage crisis in the U.S. the previous year, eventually grew into a large-scale international banking crisis followed by a worldwide economic downturn. On the Old Continent, it sparked a debt crisis which hurt countries using the common currency, the euro. Governments and central banks embarked on massive bailouts of financial institutions and other policies — such as a never-ending cutting of interest rates — to prevent a collapse of the traditional financial system. These monetary and fiscal measures did not help countries such as Italy, Spain and Greece to get out of the debt swamp. The Italian economy, the eighth-largest by nominal GDP, slowly caught up with the generally weak Eurozone growth indicators, but it continues to suffocate from its huge public debt accumulated through excessive government spending for decades. At least a third of Italians live in poverty or risk of social exclusion. Italy’s projected growth for 2019 is only 0.1%, according to the IMF, and the national institute of statistics, Istat, found the economy stagnating in the second quarter. Economic growth has been slowing down across the rest of the Eurozone, largely due to the looming trade wars and the Brexit saga which hurt international commerce and economic prospects. Eurostat revealed that gross domestic product of the group’s 19 countries grew just 0.2% during the same three-month period, compared to Q1 of 2019 when the bloc’s economy expanded by 0.4%. The annual growth registered in the second quarter was 1.1%. Between April and June, the German economy, the largest in the monetary union and the EU, shrank by 0.1% quarter-on-quarter and slowed to 0.4% year-on-year. ECB Announces More Quantitative Easing On this backdrop, the European Central Bank (ECB) made good on its plans to implement new measures to stimulate Europe’s sluggish economy. Actually, these measures are nothing new, per se: a deeper deposit rate cut, by 10 basis points to an all-time low of -0.5%, and a fresh open-ended round of quantitative easing. In November, the bank will start purchasing 20 billion euros’ worth of bonds each month. That’s a commitment which will continue indefinitely, or at least until ECB decides to raise interest rates. The “new” in these moves obviously applies to the fact that the benchmark interest rate hasn’t been lowered in the past three years, and QE hasn’t been implemented since last December. This decision came from an ECB conference in Frankfurt last week. Later, Eurozone’s central bank clarified that the interest rate, at which European banks deposit funds, will remain at the newly introduced level until inflation reaches the 2% target. The institution also said it’s planning to exclude some European banks from the subzero rates. Negative interest rates have already caused adverse reactions in European countries. A political initiative in Germany, for instance, aims to legally prohibit banks from imposing punitive interest on savings of up to 100,000 euros. The new record low rate is being introduced as Mario Draghi is preparing to step down as the head of ECB. Draghi, who will soon vacate the post, has never raised the interest rate during his eight-year term. He will be replaced by Christine Lagarde, the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund who will assume the new office on November 1 this year. Some predict a rough start to her term as analysts believe 2020 will be the year when the next big financial crisis may hit. Cryptocurrencies Are a Safer Bet for Europeans In the current situation, where residents of many countries in the Eurozone and its periphery are forced to accept the burden of negative interest rates, decentralized digital currencies are becoming a viable alternative for savers, spenders, and investors. That’ll be even more so if predictions of a new major crash in the fiat system come true. This year’s rebound of crypto markets is a proof of that, and the number of crypto proponents in the region is likely to grow. Banking is important for both businesses and private individuals. And while cryptocurrencies were invented in part to avoid third parties in financial relations, demand for banking services in the crypto space has been growing in the past months and years. In most cases, traditional financial institutions have been unable or unwilling to provide them. Fortunately, a new generation of fintech companies have been filling the gap, offering competitive financial products for the cryptocurrency user. Some of them, like Cred which is a partner of Bitcoin.com, allow customers to earn interest on their crypto holdings. The rates are as high as 6% on bitcoin cash (BCH) and 10% on bitcoin core (BTC) invested with the Credearn product. Thus, keeping your digital assets with Cred will bring you much higher returns than converting the coins into fiat and depositing the money into a bank account. That wouldn’t be a smart decision in Europe because of the extremely low and negative interest rates on savings in central bank-issued currency. No Need to Sell Your Crypto if You Want Some Fiat If you need fiat liquidity but also want to keep your crypto investments intact, companies like Nexo extend loans backed by a number of major cryptocurrencies. Using digital coins as collateral, you can get an instant credit line in more than 45 fiat currencies, in over 200 jurisdictions. Clients can borrow from as little as $500 and up to $2 million. Nexo charges between 8% and a maximum of 16% per year. They also offer saving options and you can earn up to 6.5% interest on stablecoins such as USDC, TUSD, PAX, DAI, and USDT, with plans to add other cryptocurrencies in the future. A compounding interest of up to 6.5% is paid out on euro holdings as well. Just for comparison, a Swedish bank recently imposed a negative interest rate of -0.40% on euro accounts. London-based Cashaa is a company that helps crypto businesses and users open a bank account for both traditional and digital money, still a challenge in many jurisdictions. They operate globally with a few exceptions like the United States and some sanctioned countries. The platform allows customers to accept payments in fiat currencies such as euro and British pound as well as in a number of cryptocurrencies. The Cashaa U.K. current account comes with a Mastercard which lets you spend your coins while shopping and withdraw funds at ATMs around the world through crypto-to-fiat conversion. You can also make and receive local and international money transfers. Debit cards with crypto features can be ordered from two other platforms based in Britain as well — Wirex and Revolut. Bitwala is another major European crypto banking and payment provider. The German company is now offering residents of the European Economic Area bank accounts with an integrated bitcoin wallet, a debit Mastercard, and a mobile app. You can use its services to conduct your daily banking activities in both crypto and fiat currency. Customers can also trade digital assets directly from their bank account with Bitwala’s regulated partner, Solarisbank. Bankera stands out among fintech firms based in Eastern Europe as it has become a leading provider of services to crypto customers in the region in the past six years. The Lithuanian company is currently working to establish an online bank and offer loans backed with digital assets. Its ambition is to become a “one-stop store for all financial services, in the same way traditional brick and mortar banks are.” To achieve that, Bankera plans to use technology to limit counterparties and lower the cost of banking for the end user, while providing innovative solutions. If you are new to the crypto space and you are looking for a safe and secure way to acquire your first digital coins, you can purchase bitcoin cash (BCH) among major cryptocurrencies at buy.Bitcoin.com using a credit card. You can also freely trade your crypto assets on our noncustodial, peer-to-peer marketplace local.Bitcoin.com, which already has thousands of users around the world. Also, try our newly launched premier trading platform, exchange.Bitcoin.com. Registered users can access it right now. What’s your opinion about crypto banking as a viable alternative to services offered by traditional financial institutions? Share your thoughts on the subject in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Do you need a reliable bitcoin mobile wallet to send, receive, and store your coins? Download one for free from us and then head to our Purchase Bitcoin page where you can quickly buy bitcoin with a credit card. The post Here’s How Europeans Can Deal With Negative Interest Rates appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Since the Bitcoin Cash upgrade in May 2018, software developers have unleashed a slew of microblogging protocols that utilize OP_return transactions. One application called Member is a BCH-based browser that makes use of these types of transactions and the extra space added to the data carrier size. While still in its infancy, the Member platform has matured into a censorship-resistant Reddit but with geolocated posts, reputational ratings, and native BCH tipping. Also Read: At Least 19 Central Banks Give Way to Monetary Easing As Economy Slows The Member Client Continues to Grow Years ago, Reddit was an interesting online place that allowed many groups to connect, share news and content, and discuss in a forum-like atmosphere. These days, Reddit is synonymous with mass censorship and deplatforming as the corporate entity has banned a variety of subreddits this year. The crypto community caught wind of Reddit censorship last year when the company removed the subreddit /r/darknetmarkets. Reddit users can’t even trust the company’s founder and CEO Steve Huffman who was forced to apologize when he got caught altering pro-Trump related thread comments. Reddit censorship has increased significantly in recent years. Bitcoin supporters have seen severe forms of censorship on the subreddit /r/bitcoin as the owner and moderator Theymos and his minions deleted thousands of comments from visitors and suppressed the conversation during the block size debate. Last May, a former moderator who worked alongside Theymos told Bitcoin.com’s podcast host Matt Aaron how he was removed from the group of administrators after he failed to toe the line. Censorship like this has driven the BCH community to foster censorship-resistant microblogging communities like Memo. In tandem with Memo, another application called Member could push the Reddit-like forum concept to new heights using the BCH chain. Member has been around for some time now but the application has matured a great deal since news.Bitcoin.com reported on it last year. The application’s creator, a developer called Freetrade, describes the platform on Github, calling it a BCH blockchain browser. “It reads and allows users to create actions in the Memo/Member protocol — The client is an HTML5/JS BCH blockchain browser app with no outside js dependencies and it can be run from a website, or from a local file system,” Freetrade’s Github repo details. “Currently it connects to the Member server to get content, and uses Bitbox to get utxos and broadcast transactions.” Member treats topics like subreddits Getting Acquainted With the Member App In order to use Member, you need to have an account with the social network and microblogging app memo.cash where all posts are permanently recorded to the Bitcoin Cash chain. You can sign up for Memo here and it’s a good idea to fund your Memo wallet with a small fraction of BCH so you can post on memo.cash and the Member platform as well. To access Member, go to the website and press the “Login” tab at the top right side of the screen. You can also sign up directly from the Member Login page by pressing the “Create New Account” tab. Creating a new account with a Memo private key. Member will tell you to connect your wallet address to get started so you can post. After pressing “Ok,” Member will direct you to a page that shows your new BCH address so you can send a small fraction of funds. If you already have an account or started by signing up for memo.cash using the link mentioned above then Member asks you to paste your Memo private key (compressed WIF format, starts with ‘L’ or ‘K’) into the Login window. After these steps are complete, you are free to explore the Member app but also to create posts, upvote, tip people BCH, and initiate a geolocated post. Creating a new account without a Memo private key. To create a new post on Member, simply press the “New post” tab on the upper left side of the user interface. The platform will open a window that allows you to customize a new post with a title and text. You can also post a memorandum or post directly to the memo.cash feed. After creating a post, other Member users can reply to the thread just like a traditional Reddit post and they can “like” the post as well. Moreover, you can be tipped bitcoin cash as Member offers a native BCH wallet that allows for tipping users. If you observe Member’s main feed, it’s set up similarly to the front page of Reddit and there’s a large variety of threads and discussions hosted on the feed. Additionally, you can check the most recent posts on the Member feed by pressing the “Posts (new)” tab on the upper left side of the screen. Creating a new post on Member. Geolocated Posts, 2,000 Characters, and a Reputation System You can also tether your location coordinates to a custom message using the Member app. At the top left side of the screen simply press the “Map” tab and the website will take you to a map of the world. Like a traditional geolocation map, your browser will ask you if you want to give the Member map your location coordinates so you can get a visual look at your area. The choice is optional but if you do, you can tie a special message to your location that’s written on the BCH chain. Essentially you or anyone can tether a message to any location in the world for less than a U.S. penny at any time. Just click the map with your mouse pointer to select the message location, write it and post it to the Member map. After a few minutes of exploring the Member app’s features, the platform is relatively easy to understand and use. Member users can tie a message to a geolocation from anywhere in the world at anytime for less than a penny per message. Member’s creator Freetrade has been hard at work adding more services to the application like reputational ratings and increased character limits for messages. The software engineer recently made it so Member users can reply with much longer character limits. “Member now allows 2,000 character replies by chaining transactions together — Member also treats topics more like subreddits,” Freetrade told BCH supporters on September 15. This announcement got the /r/btc community on Reddit pumped due to their intolerance of censorship. “Wow, now we’re talking,” a BCH proponent opined after Freetrade revealed the 2,000 character extension. “Reddit is slowly dying because of censorship and abuse from admins — If we could create a decentralized alternative on BCH that would be huge,” he added. In addition to the character extension, Freetrade has introduced a web of trust infrastructure to the Member platform. The new idea allows you to rate other Memo profiles using the Member app by giving them a public trust rating. Freetrade has shown that as the reputation system matures, robust trust graphs could be created. (Right) bootstrapping memo.cash ratings. (Left) An example of a more mature trust graph initiated by Freetrade’s ratings. There’s been a lot of development within the BCH ecosystem and Member’s improvements have bolstered a microblogging and censorship-resistant Reddit-like experience. As with most peer-to-peer and decentralized blockchain applications, Member needs to gather more users over time. Memo and Member have seen a lot of lively users since they were created and both have grown a great deal. While projects like Blockpress have fallen to the wayside and are now defunct, the Memo and Member apps have remained strong after the long crypto winter and the blockchain split in November 2018. One difference between the two clients is the Memo protocol browses both BCH and BSV blockchains but the Member app only browses the BCH chain. Freetrade continues to work on making the Member client more robust and has put together a list of certain elements of the project he could use help with. What do you think about the Member client? Let us know what you think about this project in the comments section below. Image credits: Shutterstock, Member, and Pixabay. Do you need a reliable bitcoin mobile wallet to send, receive, and store your coins? Download one for free from us and then head to our Purchase Bitcoin page where you can quickly buy bitcoin with a credit card. The post BCH Microblog ‘Member’ Shows the Future of Reddit-Like Forums appeared first on Bitcoin News. 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Liven, the lifestyle rewards app that lets users spend and earn cryptocurrency rewards in over 1,000 restaurants across Australia, is introducing Bitcoin Cash into the LivenPay ecosystem. Meanwhile, Liven’s native token, LVN, gets listed on ZB.com after a successful completion of its oversubscribed ZB UP Launch. Up until now, diners using the Liven app at participating restaurants have been able to settle their bills with a single button tap, using major credit and debit cards, as well as the LivenPay cryptocurrency (LVN), earning rewards between 10% and 30% of their bill, paid in LVN. The LVN earned is the diner’s to keep, send to friends or, of course, spend at any other restaurants within the Liven network. With support for LVN or ‘old-fashioned’ fiat currency, and soon to be Bitcoin Cash, LivenPay aims to make the day-to-day use of cryptocurrencies both attractive and accessible to the everyday people, resulting in a global loyalty rewards program that will eventually support a plethora of cryptocurrencies. “With LivenPay as the ‘on-ramp’, we want to entice users and businesses around the world to enjoy the benefits of using frictionless, global cryptocurrency payments. With our future pipeline of cryptocurrency integrations, Bitcoin Cash is the next step to expanding cryptocurrency support and being truly blockchain and currency agnostic” said CEO and Co-Founder William Wong. LivenPay’s existing ecosystem makes it simple and straightforward to integrate new cryptocurrencies into its growing network of over 1,000 participating businesses and 500,000 tech-savvy consumers. “The integration of Bitcoin Cash is a logical and exciting step for LivenPay, given that their popular and current business model is going fully global in 2019. With the support of Bitcoin Cash, LivenPay will soon create a perfect entry-point for hundreds of thousands of people into the wider blockchain and digital currency ecosystem,” said enthused cryptocurrency legend and Bitcoin.com Executive Chairman Roger Ver, who is also LivenPay’s official advisor. Liven users will soon be able to pay for their meals with Bitcoin Cash through the Liven app. The team soon hopes that paying with LivenPay will just be as ubiquitous around the world as taking an Uber, whether you are in Shanghai or St. Petersburg, as Wong’s take-away comment surmises: “LivenPay enables people to grab a bite wherever in the world their feet may fall, whether it is a celebratory meal out or a burger joint for lunch. It also allows for the mass adoption of crypto from fiat, whether that be from Chinese Renminbis or Russian Rubles.” Website: https://livenpay.io Whitepaper (English): https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/livenpay.io/LIVEN-WhitePaper(EN).pdf The post PR: Liven Announces Strategic Partnership with Bitcoin.com appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Comparing cryptocurrency trading to gambling is like comparing crypto tribalism to religion: the analogy is correct, but it’s also tired. What bears emphasizing, then, isn’t that crypto trading and crypto gambling are often indistinguishable, but the extent to which the two disciplines permeate the cryptosphere. From the most popular dapps to the leading hacks, everything of interest within the space can be interpreted as a form of gambling. It’s the reason why crypto is so fascinating and so addictive. Also read: HTC Adds Native Bitcoin Cash Support to Its Flagship Smartphone The Whole World Is a Game The gamification of everything is the endgame of life itself. Soon it will be impossible to go for a jog without receiving a high score or being showered in shitcoins for your efforts. Competition is what drives us as humans. The desire to be better than one’s fellow man or woman is the reason we’re here today on the internet, and not still living in mud huts. Combining money, mathematical puzzles, economics and copious amounts of game theory, crypto is a heady concoction of all the things that spur a man to get out of bed in the morning and conquer the world. And the use of “man,” on this occasion is deliberate. There are many reasons why crypto has been historically male-dominated, some of which are too contentious or tangential to delve into here. This much, however, needs said: men are greater risk takers in life. It’s why their fortunes are more likely to fall in the extremes than in the mean: atop the mountain or in the gutter, but rarely in between. It’s also why crypto’s greatest success story so far has been letting men do what they were gonna do anyway: gamble, both literally and loosely, while striving to stack more sats than their peers. Gambling on a Future for Dapps What is altcoin trading if not a game to end up with more BTC than you started out with? Whether you get there through charting ichimoku clouds or rolling high-low in a crypto casino seems immaterial. To understand the extent to which gambling dominates the cryptosphere, there’s only one place to start – the dapp store. Hit up your favorite dapp tracker (Dappradar or State of the Dapps are probably best) and take a look at the most popular decentralized applications on each chain. Top 10 dapps according to Dappradar State of the Dapps notes six of the dapps in its top 10 as being gambling. Dappradar, which records more crypto networks, including Tron, also has six gambling applications in its top 10. Leading the pack is Wink, the betting platform that uses the same principles as Bitcoin.com’s Cashgames: instant wins, micropayments, and provably fair gambling. Wink can be accessed as a conventional casino or on a game by game (i.e dapp by dapp) basis. In most respects, Wink is indistinguishable from any other crypto casino, with the primary difference being the way in which it’s accessed. Online casinos can be banned and geo-restricted, as often occurs at national level. Dapps, while not the censorship-resistant paradise their proponents would have them, are a lot harder to block. It’s no surprise that many of the most popular gambling dapps have struck gold in Asia, where download links are shared in Wechat groups and where wagering on life is a way of life for many. Trading or Wagering? Not all gambling dapps can be neatly filed into the gambling category. How to interpret Bulls vs Bears for example? Like many of the leading dapps on Tron and EOS, it’s dubbed as gaming, rather than gambling, and as a skill-based endeavor, that’s technically correct. Players don’t compete against the house, and since the game calls for predicting crypto market trends, there’s skill involved. With talk of a “dynamic wagering environment” and large jackpots, though, it’s clear who the dapp’s target demographic is. Like many new dapps trying to bootstrap, Bulls vs Bears relies on giveaways (in this case TRX tokens for signing up) as a means of getting bodies through the door, or rather users on the protocol. In condensing the act of trading into basic binary options – high/low, bull/bear, the dapp bestows the same duality that bifurcates so many other domains in life, from U.S. politics to dead rappers. Are you a bull or bear? Republican or Democrat? Biggie or Tupac fan? Somewhere out there is a dapp for that, where you can wager on binary options for all the things you love and hate. Further blurring the lines between what constitutes gambling and what’s trading is Guesser. Built on Augur, it’s technically a prediction market that uses crowdsourced wisdom to determine probable outcomes. In reality though, it’s a betting dapp, and a very neat one at that. Guesser appears to have given up all pretences of operating a prediction market, inviting users to “Bet up to” a certain amount on each market. There’s More Than One Way to Beat a Dapp While crypto users have been filling Telegram and Wechat groups with gambling dapp strategies, a handful of more enterprising individuals have been working on their own means of beating the system. In crypto, as in everything else, there’s always a way to fast track your way to riches, provided you don’t mind breaking a few rules along the way. Eosplay usage briefly dropped to zero after an attacker found a way to drain the pool of EOS. Eosplay is the sixth most popular gambling dapp on EOS. For a short while, over the weekend, it was also the most profitable for whoever rented a bunch of resources and used them to clean out 30,000 EOS from the contract. Call it genius, cheating or a bit of both, it was an effective case study in unorthodox ways to beat the house. Just to summarise, someone rented a load of resources from REX and is using it to exploit a gambling dapp called EOSPlay. They seem to have walked away with about 30k EOS so far. Don't panic, just wait and resource usage should go back to normal. — rektkid (@rektkid_) September 13, 2019 People can moan about the rough edges around defi protocols, the unreadability of bitcoin addresses, and the complexity of wallet recovery, but not everything in crypto is quite so wonky. Gambling has been a mainstay since the beginning of Bitcoin, and developers have gotten extremely efficient at it. If crypto builders can approach other ecosystem verticals with the same gusto with which players and devs have approached gambling dapps, mainstream adoption is just a UX breakthrough away. Where there’s a will to innovate, there’s a way, and when there’s money wagering on it, no problem is too big to solve. From casinos to bitcoin, formerly fringe interests have now been normalized, thanks to those willing to put a punt on them when no one else would. Where gamblers lead, the mainstream tends to follow. Do you think gambling is one of the best use cases for crypto to date? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Did you know you could win big with bitcoin gambling? Choose from a range of BCH games including BCH poker, BCH slots, and many more. All games are provably fair—good luck! The post How Crypto Became a Gambler’s Paradise appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The European Central Bank (ECB) and a number of countries in the region have stepped up their efforts in response to Facebook’s Libra, which has revived a competing ECB project for instant payments. As Facebook engages Switzerland’s financial regulator, the ECB clarifies how Libra can be regulated under EU laws. Also read: India’s Popular ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’ Show Gives Crypto a Boost A Wake-Up Call and ECB’s Project Revived Facebook’s proposed Libra digital currency has given governments worldwide a run for their money. European Central Bank board member Benoit Coeure calls Libra “a wake-up call,” after discussing it at last week’s meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Helsinki. Amid concerns over a sovereign threat, 26 regulators worldwide, including the Bank of England and the U.S. Federal Reserve, reportedly met with representatives of Libra in Basel on Monday to discuss the scope and design of Libra. Coeure told the press Friday that Libra had revived efforts of an ECB-backed project for real-time payments in the eurozone, the Target Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS). The project could allow consumers to use electronic cash, directly deposited at the ECB without the need for bank accounts, financial intermediaries or clearing counterparties. Just like with Facebook’s plans, financial intermediaries will be unnecessary in this new ECB system. “TIPS offers final and irrevocable settlement of instant payments in euro, at any time of day and on any day of the year,” the ECB described. The project was launched last year and could last months or even years, Coeure revealed, adding that the technical feasibility remains to be seen and opposition from banks is likely. In addition, “We also need to step up our thinking on a central bank digital currency,” he suggested. France’s Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said last week that the European Union should create a common set of rules for cryptocurrencies to counter the risks posed by Libra. Strong Opposition by France and Germany France and Germany have reportedly agreed to block Libra due to the risks the digital currency could pose to their financial sectors, the French finance ministry said. The two countries jointly issued a statement Friday, stating: France and Germany consider that the Libra project, as set out in Facebook’s blueprint, fails to convince that those risks will be properly addressed … We believe that no private entity can claim monetary power, which is inherent to the sovereignty of nations. Le Maire believes that Libra should not be allowed to operate in Europe while concerns persist about sovereignty and persistent financial risks. “We encourage European central banks to accelerate work on issues around possible public digital currency solutions,” he added in the joint statement with Germany’s Finance Minister Olaf Scholz. The two countries further called on banks to work on improving European payment systems at the European level. Swiss License for Libra, New Stablecoin Guidance Meanwhile, the Libra Association has engaged the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (Finma). The regulator has confirmed that the association has requested an assessment of how Finma would classify its planned Libra project including the issuance of a stablecoin under Swiss supervisory law. Finma revealed that, based on information provided so far, such a project would fall under financial market infrastructure regulation and would require its payment system license, under the Financial Market Infrastructure Act (FMIA). The requirements under the Principles for Financial Market Infrastructures would also apply to the management of cyber risks. Swiss payment systems are subject to the Anti-Money Laundering Act. Moreover, the FMIA sets out additional requirements for services that increase the risks of a payment system. “Due to the issuance of Libra payment tokens, the services planned by the Libra project would clearly go beyond those of a pure payment system and therefore be subject to such additional requirements,” the regulator clarified, adding: A necessary condition for being granted a licence as a payment system would be that the returns and risks associated with the management of the reserve were borne entirely by the Libra Association and not – as in the case of a fund provider – by the ‘stablecoin’ holders. In addition, Finma has updated its stablecoin guidance, which supplements its existing guidelines for initial coin offerings (ICOs). The regulator has acknowledged the rising number of stablecoin projects since mid-2018. Finma detailed that the requirements for stablecoins may differ based on which assets they are backed by — such as currencies, commodities, real estate or securities — and the legal rights of its holders. “Money laundering, securities trading, banking, fund management and financial infrastructure regulation can all be of relevance,” Finma elaborated. ECB Clarifies Libra’s Regulatory Challenges European Central Bank executive board member Yves Mersch outlined the ECB’s approach to regulating Libra earlier this month. He described some “extremely concerning” differences between Libra and other cryptocurrencies. Firstly, he explained that “Libra’s ecosystem is not only complex, it is actually cartel-like,” citing several key areas that the Libra Association will have control over the coin’s functionalities. Unlike the decentralized and disintermediary nature of cryptocurrencies, he said that “similarly to public money Libra will actually be highly centralized, with Facebook and its partners acting as quasi-sovereign issuers of currency.” Yves Mersch Mersch raised several concerns regarding Libra such as its lack of a global lender of last resort and the limited liability of the Libra Association members. It is also devoid of the equivalent of a deposit guarantee scheme to protect its holders’ interests during a crisis, the executive detailed. He further pointed out that “the fact that Libra is backed by a basket of sovereign currency-denominated assets appears to defeat the very purpose of its issuance as a private currency.” Mersch then proceeded to outline some legal and regulatory challenges of Libra: The first challenge concerns Libra’s fundamental legal nature. The choice is, essentially, whether to treat Libra as e-money, as a financial instrument or as a virtual currency. In his view, Libra does not appear to qualify as e-money, as it does not embody a claim of its holders against the Libra Association. The second option is to treat it as a transferable security or a different type of financial instrument, which means that both the Libra Association and any entities providing investment services through Libra coins would fall within the remit of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive. Lastly, if it were to qualify as a virtual currency then both Calibra and its authorized resellers would become subject to the obligations and registration requirements under the Anti-Money Laundering Directive. Another challenge is to ensure that the relevant EU and member state regulatory and supervisory authorities can assert jurisdiction over Libra and its network, Mersch conveyed, adding that there is also the need for cross-border cooperation and coordination. “Because Libra will be used across borders, it is a matter of international interest.” He elaborated: Its global nature would also call for a global regulatory and supervisory response to avoid regulatory arbitrage, ensure consistency of outcomes and guarantee the efficiency of public policy responses to Libra. Mersch pointed out the joint efforts by the global community to mitigate risks associated with Libra, including efforts by the G7 countries, the G20 countries, and the Financial Stability Board (FSB). In its recently published report on how Libra could disrupt the financial system, the European Parliament wrote that “an international agreement is needed on harmonizing existing rules for crypto tokens.” The legislative body of the European Union believes that “Co-regulatory oversight of the Libra operation scheme by both state-operators and stakeholders would be needed to prevent money laundering, illicit transactions and consumer fraud.” What do you think of how the ECB and European countries are responding to Facebook’s Libra? 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 European Countries Step Up Response to Facebook’s Libra appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

World’s leading telecom manufacturer strikes a partnership to support wallets and Bitcoin Cash on flagship products to be sold worldwide Taipei, Taiwan — September 16 2019 – Bitcoin.com, one of the world’s oldest and most established cryptocurrency innovators with over 4.5 million wallet holders worldwide, and leading telecommunications manufacturer HTC have announced the beginning of a long-term, mutually beneficial partnership to drive innovation and adoption of crypto technologies. HTC is known for pushing the boundaries of technology with cutting edge, futuristic smartphones, and they have done it again. HTC’s flagship EXODUS 1 smartphone is now the first phone that provides Bitcoin Cash (BCH) support without having to download a BCH wallet from an app store. For existing EXODUS 1 users, updating the software on their devices will provide users with a Bitcoin.com wallet app pre-loaded on their devices. Phil Chen, Decentralized Chief Officer at HTC said, “The EXODUS vision has always aligned itself towards public blockchains and its fundamental transformative nature of the future of money and the Internet. The Zion Vault is happy to support BCH natively in hardware for security to go hand in hand with the BCH blockchain as an alternative to dominant payment rails and platforms.” For Bitcoin.com and HTC, this is the first step in a long journey together. Future plans include rolling out to offer special discounts when paying for phones in BCH, to sell the EXODUS phones on store.bitcoin.com, and many more. Bitcoin.com’s CEO Stefan Rust said, “There are so many synergies between Bitcoin.com and HTC. We are very excited to be on this incredible journey together.” Bitcoin.com’s Executive Chairman Roger Ver also added, “Bitcoin.com’s partnership with HTC will enable Bitcoin Cash to be used as peer- to- peer electronic cash for all the EXODUS users around the world.” About Bitcoin.com Bitcoin.com is supercharged to change the world with Bitcoin Cash (BCH). Our suite of developer tools has been downloaded 36,000+ times from over 100 countries. Our team is the heart and soul of the Bitcoin Cash industry. We’re committed to making BCH available to all people, whatever their age, gender, nationality or financial status. For more information: visit https://www.bitcoin.com/ Contact Email Address press@bitcoin.com Supporting Link https://www.bitcoin.com/ About HTC EXODUS & Zion Vault: HTC’s Project EXODUS is a smartphone solution that will power the decentralized web. For more than 20 years, HTC has created foundational technology for worldwide mobile and virtual reality technology. Through EXODUS, HTC is investing in the development and implementation of blockchain technology that will usher in a new area of secure data storage and transactions and take blockchain technology mobile for the first time. Zion, your private vault on the blockchain, allows you to conduct crypto transactions, view and manage your crypto collectibles, and manage your crypto life while maintaining ownership of your keys. With your Zion Vault, store, send, and request bitcoin, ether, litecoin, stellar, selected ERC-20 tokens, and ERC-721 collectibles. https://www.htcexodus.com/ @HTCEXODUS You can keep up to date with Phil’s Vlog The post PR: Bitcoin.com Announces Partnership With Telecommunications Manufacturer HTC appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The bitcoin cash community now has a new way to secure and transact its digital money, as HTC adds native BCH support to its Exodus 1 smartphone. A key reason the technology manufacturer has chosen to do so is that many consumers are using BCH as a payment method and HTC wants to see a future where merchants use the Exodus to receive BCH payments. Also Read: David Chaum’s Elixxir Invites Smartphone Users to Test Private Messaging HTC Exodus 1 Now Supports Bitcoin Cash Taiwanese consumer electronics manufacturer High Tech Computer Corporation or HTC (TWSE: 2498) has added native bitcoin cash support to its flagship smartphone, Exodus 1. The device’s killer feature for cryptocurrency users is the Zion Vault, a digital asset wallet with an easy-to-use software interface integrated with onboard hardware security. This secure built-in wallet is now capable of conducting bitcoin cash transactions, so users can easily buy, receive, spend and store BCH on the phone without the risk of remote hacking. HTC has announced the support for BCH as part of a new partnership with Bitcoin.com, which will include pre-loading the company’s popular wallet app on the Exodus 1. Moreover, Bitcoin.com will also offer the smartphone, as well as the upcoming lower priced device HTC Exodus 1s, for sale on its online store. The Exodus 1s will feature the same native BCH support available to Exodus 1 users right now when it launches later this year. Bitcoin.com CEO Stefan Rust commented: “There are so many synergies between Bitcoin.com and HTC. We are very excited to be on this incredible journey together.” Bitcoin.com Executive Chairman Roger Ver added: “Bitcoin.com’s partnership with HTC will enable Bitcoin Cash to be used as peer to peer electronic cash for the millions of HTC smartphone users around the world.” Bringing Users Full Control Over Their Data and Assets To understand how HTC sees the promise of cryptocurrency and why it has added bitcoin cash support now, we talked with the company’s Decentralized Chief Officer Phil Chen. Explaining the importance of the new partnership, Chen said: “Smartphones are everywhere and have proliferated across the planet. It’s very important for the adoption of crypto that it is easy to store and use, no matter which cryptocurrency is preferred by people. So the fact that BCH, one of the biggest cryptocurrencies, is now easy to use on our smartphone is very important for us. Together, HTC and Bitcoin.com are helping to bring crypto to the masses.” Regarding its support for the crypto community in general, HTC sees this as an important part of its vision to empower users in the face of Big Tech. “True power is ownership of, control of and ability to transact with your digital assets. Cryptocurrency is the best place to start on this journey to allowing users to own their own data. It is a scary prospect for many of the big players in both Silicon Valley and in the smartphone maker space. If users are allowed to own their own keys and data, this will have a significant impact on the business models and revenue of these powerful firms,” explained Chen. He added that HTC built the Exodus 1 device to drive the movement to a fully decentralized web where users have full control over their data and assets. “The first step is to allow the crypto community to hold their own keys; this will be a learning curve for many. So the crypto community is so important as we look to the mass adoption of both decentralized devices and crypto/blockchain in general.” As for why users need a crypto-focused smartphone such as the Exodus 1, the developer says it provides usability for cryptocurrency. “While cold storage wallets are the ultimate in security, it can be hard and slow to use and transact your crypto. Live centralized exchanges, although fast, do not provide the security or afford you true ownership. It was important for HTC to find the right balance between the deadlock security of cold storage and the ease of use of live centralized wallets. You no longer need to have hardware wallets that then need something like Metamask and then a browser for instance. All the transaction and security capabilities are available using just your Exodus device.” HTC is the developer of the groundbreaking Vive virtual reality headset The company’s Decentralized Chief Officer explained that HTC has developed the Zion Vault to achieve this. It’s an all-in-one secure vault that allows users to keep their own keys and operate through a highly-secure Trusted Executive Environment (TEE), but also the ability to easily transact with those keys. “All keys and passcodes are stored in TEE directly in users’ Exodus 1 device. The user will always own their own keys. HTC or the Android OS will never have custody,” Chen said. “Operating independently of the Android OS, the vault will protect the entrusted crypto-keys with stringent security. When authorizing your BCH transactions, Zion Trusted UI will create a safe zone through Trusted Executive Environments (TEE) that block possible malware attacks. Zion does not record any user information at any stage.” The Key Reason for Supporting Bitcoin Cash HTC sees crypto as a new paradigm for consumer electronics, after smartphones have seen a plateau in terms of global device development and innovation. They expect that smartphones of the future will be the core of your digital identity and the way to keep your digital assets and data. “It is part of a longer roadmap but the HTC Exodus 1 marks a new beginning for users and their data,” explained Chen. “Only when users have full ownership of their own keys can we enact true decentralization, which is a vital first step toward protecting users. We see this as a stepping stone to how people will carry their own digital assets and digital identities in their pockets, in the very way we carry phones today.” He added that the upcoming Exodus 1s will be able to operate as a full node on the BTC blockchain. “That’s another industry first and we also expect more of this innovation as it is the only truly trustless way to transact using your crypto assets.” HTC’s Decentralized Chief Officer added that BCH users have a lot to look forward to from the company’s cooperation with Bitcoin.com going forward. “This is only the beginning of what the decentralized world can offer, so the possibilities and potential are endless. We can see a future where merchants are using their Exodus device to receive BCH payments at their point of sale (POS). That’s a key reason we’re supporting BCH; it’s great to see so many consumers using BCH as a payment method.” Future plans for the partnership include offering special discounts when paying for goods in BCH, and the sale of future Exodus phones on store.Bitcoin.com, with further collaborations to be announced in due course. What do you think about HTC adding native bitcoin cash support to its flagship smartphone? Share your thoughts in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock and HTC. 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 HTC Adds Native Bitcoin Cash Support to Its Flagship Smartphone appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

In a coordinated fashion, more than 18 central banks worldwide have or plan to cut interest rates, sparking a domino effect of monetary easing. It’s been 10 years since the world has seen central planners orchestrate such harmonization in an attempt to save the economy from a deep recession. Also Read: Money and Democracy: Why You Never Get to Vote on the Most Important Part of Society A Large Number of Central Banks Slash Interest Rates Economists have been saying for a while now that the global economy is headed for a severe wakeup call that could be worse than 2008’s financial crisis. The news started heating up at the beginning of 2019 and more than half of U.S. economists from the National Association for Business Economics (NABE) said they believe an economic downturn is coming by 2020. Financial forecasters think in the midst of a macroeconomic storm from elections, trade wars between the U.S. and China, and a no-deal Brexit that it’s only a matter of time. Tumultuous geopolitical events have caused the world’s central banks to awaken from their slumber and start slashing interest rates. As the end of the year draws near, many central banks have started a rate cut frenzy. Usually, when the economy is consistent and considered ‘strong,’ central banks keep interest rates higher. On the other hand, when the economy doesn’t look so hot, central banks cut rates so smaller financial institutions can borrow at a better rate. The concept is derived from Keynesian economics, the economic theory of total spending in order to stave off inflation. The goal of interest rate cuts is so the smaller hive of banks below the central banks can give the savings from better rates to consumers. However, instead of trickling down to the people, the excesses usually stay with the wealthy. While keeping the hard assets to themselves, the banking cartel also starts to lend at an alarming rate. They don’t care if individuals and organizations don’t pay up and they know they will have to deal with delinquencies and foreclosures. At the end of the day, all those issues just give the bankers another way to pillage hard assets like homes, land, boats, cars, and anything people can’t afford. Unfortunately, this cycle continues every few decades and generations who haven’t even been born yet are left with more debt. Traditionally when central banks cut rates en masse it is a warning sign that the economy is likely headed for troubling times. In the past, people have always hedged their savings by using safe haven assets like gold to escape the wrath of rapid inflation and fiat currency devaluation. Nowadays, precious metals and cryptocurrencies are both benefiting from the doom and gloom financial forecasts. The following is a look at central banks that are currently planning for monetary easing and stimulus packages or have already approved financial inducement and slashed interest rates. Japan The Bank of Japan (BOJ) has an accommodative stance toward monetary easing these days. In July, BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda explained to the press that he was positive about keeping long-term interest rates at 0% and short-term rates to -0.1%. When negative rates were first introduced in Japan in 2016, the move was considered shocking. The following month, after the Federal Reserve cut rates this year, Deputy Governor Masayoshi Amamiya said the BOJ was also fully prepared to offer more easing. One of the central bank’s board members also mentioned that Japan’s banks might start charging fees for savings accounts as well. This September, the BOJ is considering deep negative interest rate cuts to respond to global risks facing the economy. BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda. The U.S. The Federal Reserve has already cut the U.S. interest rate by a quarter-point in July hoping to spur more lending and spending. When the Federal Open Market Committee and Fed Chair Jerome Powell sliced the rate for the first time since the 2008 financial crisis, the group noted economic “uncertainties” remain. Now reports detail that Fed officials will lower rates by another quarter-point by the end of September. U.S. President Donald Trump has encouraged the Fed to cut rates even lower. “The Federal Reserve should get our interest rates down to zero, or less, and we should then start to refinance our debt,” Trump declared on September 11 on Twitter. “Interest cost could be brought way down, while at the same time substantially lengthening the term — We have the great currency, power, and balance sheet.” During a conversation with Thomas Jordan, Chairman of the Swiss National Bank, on September 6, the Fed’s Jerome Powell said: “We are not forecasting or expecting a recession.” Europe On Thursday, September 12, the European Central Bank (ECB) approved a new stimulus package and cut interest rates. Just like the BOJ and the Fed, members of the ECB are afraid of “worrisome inflation.” According to the ECB, the deposit rate dropped from -0.4% to -0.5% and this November the bank plans to begin €20 billion a month worth of bond purchases. “The Governing Council expects (bond purchases) to run for as long as necessary to reinforce the accommodative impact of its policy rates, and to end shortly before it starts raising the key ECB interest rates,” the ECB said. ECB President Mario Draghi’s growth and inflation projections have been dreary. China The economy in China has been floundering according to economists and the country has also been dealing with a trade war with the U.S. China’s People’s Bank of China (PBOC) revealed on September 6 that the bank would cut its reserve requirement ratio by 50 basis points. The PBOC also announced that a few specific banks might be entitled to a ratio reduction of 100 basis points if they qualify. China’s new bank cuts will start on Monday, September 16 and the PBOC claims the cuts will provide roughly 900 billion yuan ($126.35 billion) into the Chinese economy. Like Japan, China has an accommodative stance toward monetary easing and this is the third time this year the PBOC has made changes and the seventh time since the financial crisis in 2008. The head of the PBOC just got his job last year as China named Yi Gang its first central bank chief in 15 years. Yi Gang is very comfortable with monetary easing tactics. South Korea In a surprise move in mid-July, the Bank of Korea (BOK) announced reducing the country’s benchmark interest rates. The BOK also told the press that economists predicted rapid inflation forecasts and slashed the seven-day repurchase rate from 1.75% to 1.5%. “Economic circumstances have deteriorated since April … With the rate cut, we took into account the effects of Japan’s trade restrictions,” BOK governor Lee Ju-Yeol explained during a press conference. Seoul has had conflicts with Japan and just like China and the U.S., the two countries are locked in a trade row. “As low growth may continue for a considerable period of time, the Bank of Korea will support economic recovery by maintaining an accommodative monetary policy,” Governor Lee Ju-Yeol has stated in the past. Russia The Bank of Russia has been a friend of monetary easing and rate cuts making its third interest rate reduction on September 6. Bank of Russia Governor Elvira Nabiullina and members of the board told the public that “If the situation develops in line with the baseline forecast, the Bank of Russia will consider the necessity of a further key rate reduction at one of the upcoming board of directors’ meetings.” Russia’s benchmark rate was trimmed down to 7% from 7.25%. Russian forecasters believe the inflation rate of 4% could drop to 3% and the Minister of Economic Affairs Maxim Oreshkin believes the bank should continue easing even further. Russian President Vladimir Putin with finance minister Maxim Oreshkin. Oreshkin wants deeper interest rate cuts. India In August, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) decreased rates for the fourth time in 2019. The rate cut this summer was the largest since 2010, shaving 35 basis points, and the RBI will now lend to banks at 5.4%. Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman stood by the rate cut and insisted that a “significant rate cut would do a lot of good for the country.” Members of the RBI and government officials plan to meet this October and the country could see further rate cuts in the near future. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman doesn’t have issues with monetary easing and announced yesterday the RBI and the government would fund the real estate and export sector while also offering a ₹10,000 crore special window for unfinished development projects. Thailand Central bankers in Thailand are scared inflation is growing out of control and surprised the world on August 8 by cutting repurchase rates from 1.75% to 1.5%. The Bank of Thailand cited slow economic growth, trade wars, and economic uncertainty. The trade war between the U.S. and China was highlighted during the announcement. According to reports, five panel members voted for the cut and two wanted the interest rates to remain unchanged. Two weeks prior to the quarter-point cut, the seven members of the central bank committee unanimously voted to keep the rates untouched. (Left to right) Supant Mongkolsuthree, chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries, Predee Daochai, chairman of the Thai Bankers’ Association, and Thai Chamber of Commerce chairman Kalin Sarasin. “Additional measures may be needed to cope with the stronger baht,” Supant Mongkolsuthree said on September 5. “Those measures include imposing a withholding tax, outbound investment promotion and tapering the bond supply. These are ultimately the regulators’ decisions.” 10 More Central Banks Participate in Monetary Easing All of these banks are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the large number of other central banks participating in monetary easing. Other financial institutions include central banks from England, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Mexico Hong Kong, Indonesia, South Africa, Turkey, and the Philippines. Despite decades of poor central planning, these financial institutions retain full power over the monetary system. The people have absolutely no say in how the system is adjusted, tightened and eased. However, as the years pass, more individuals and organizations are growing tired of the banking cartel’s practices. A great number of people have sought alternatives like cryptocurrencies so they can protect their wealth from the financial system that’s clearly rigged. Individuals who are sick of bailing the banks out and paying for their mistakes believe that at some point the scales will tip. It merely takes enough people to opt out of the monopolized monetary system. At the rate at which people are learning about a new wave of monetary innovation, at some point there will be a mass exodus whether banks and governments like it or not. If you are interested in joining the counter-economy and purchasing digital assets like bitcoin cash, you can check out buy.Bitcoin.com, local.Bitcoin.com, and exchange.Bitcoin.com. What do you think about the cascade of central banks unveiling rate cuts and monetary easing methods? Do you think the central banks know what they are doing when it comes to monetary policy? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. Image credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Kim Hong-Ji, Wiki Commons, Fair Use, and Qilai Shen. Do you need a reliable bitcoin mobile wallet to send, receive, and store your coins? Download one for free from us and then head to our Purchase Bitcoin page where you can quickly buy bitcoin with a credit card. The post At Least 19 Central Banks Give Way to Monetary Easing As Economy Slows appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Mining pools grow and shrink, and rise and fall altogether. Today there are more extinct mining pools than there are active ones. The hashpower of the survivors secures hundreds of PoW crypto networks, from major coins such as BTC and BCH to obscure altcoins such as monero classic and “zelcash.” The following guide provides an insight into the origins of the world’s largest mining pools including their founders, geography, and ideology. Also read: Big Banks Won’t Touch Crypto Clients – But These Smaller Banks Will Mining Pools Near Their Nine-Year Anniversary Mining pools have been in operation since late 2010, when they emerged as a means for solo miners to share their computing resources and increase their chances of discovering blocks. While a lot has changed in bitcoin mining since then, including the introduction of dedicated ASIC mining rigs and the rise of huge mining farms, the basic premise of pools remains the same. Save for a handful of privately operated exceptions, pools are open to anyone to join. BTC mining pool hashrate distribution for the last four days In addition to the dominant SHA-256 mined coins such as BTC and BCH, there are dozens of altcoins that can be mined using algorithms such as the popular equihash. Mining pool 2miners.com, by way of example, records the hashrate and profitability for scores of equihash coins, its layout showing the sort of metrics that cryptocurrency miners have become accustomed to crunching in their quest to determine the most profitable coins. As mining pools near their nine-year anniversary, an examination of the nine largest BTC pools – most of which also mine coins such as BCH and ETH – captures the state of pooled mining today. 2miners.com stats BTC.com Founded: 2015 Owner: Bitmain BTC hashrate (four-day average): 17.7% Coins mined: BTC, BCH, ETH History: Originally created by Bitrail to serve as a web wallet, BTC.com still provides mobile and desktop wallets as well as a block explorer and Bitcoin API. It’s best known for its mining pool though, which has been in the hands of Bitmain since being acquired by the mining manufacturer in July 2016. Trivia: In June 2017, BTC.com appealed for the sender of a transaction with an 80 BTC fee attached to come forward, with the pool offering to return the accidental fee. F2pool Founded: April 2013 Founders: Discusfish and Wang Chun BTC hashrate: 13.8% Coins mined: BTC, LTC, ETH, ZEC, SCC, SC, DASH, XMR, DCR, XZC, AION History: F2pool is China’s oldest bitcoin mining pool, and the second largest BTC pool in the world today after BTC.com. It also operates the third largest ethereum mining operation. As the Bitcoin Wiki explains, the F2pool was once known as Discus Fish on account of its coinbase signature of 七彩神仙鱼 (Discus Fish), the nickname of one of the operators. Today, F2pool captures 12.38 EH/s on the BTC network, 50.36 TH/s on LTC and 21.42 TH/s on ETH. The pool also provides Android and iOS apps and a range of tools including mining revenue comparisons. Decoded coinbase field for a block mined by F2pool Trivia: In 2014, F2pool controlled 25% of the BTC network and 31% of the LTC, leading to fears that it could launch a 51% attack. Poolin Founded: 2017 BTC hashrate: 13.3% Coins mined: BTC, BCH, BSV, ZEC, LTC, DCR, DASH, XMR History: Started by the founders of BTC.com, Poolin.com is another Chinese pool that’s overseen by a company called Blockin. One of the more innovative mining pools, Poolin has developed tools such as an auto-switch feature that alternates between BCH and BTC depending on which network is more profitable. It also operates a rather basic Lightning Network shop, mining profit calculator, and scores of other mining apps and tools. Trivia: In June 2019, it was revealed that Bitmain was suing three former employees for violating a non-compete agreement by launching Poolin. Antpool Founded: 2014 Founders: Jihan Wu and Micree Zhan BTC hashrate: 10.2% Coins mined: BTC, BCH, LTC, ETH, ETC, ZEC, DASH, SCC, XMC, BTM History: Another Bitmain-owned operation, Antpool is Jihan Wu’s original mining pool. It provides an array of advanced tools for experienced miners, particularly those who are mining at scale. Sub-account mining to a depth of three levels and anonymous mining are all supported, along with same-day payouts. Trivia: Despite being accused of contributing to mining centralization, Bitmain launched Antpool in 2014 with a “commitment to help decentralize the bitcoin network … and put the majority of hashing power into the hands of consumers.” Viabtc Founded: 2016 Founder: Yang Haipo BTC hashrate: 7.8% Coins mined: BTC, BCH, BSV, LTC, ETH, ZEC, DASH, XMR, DCR History: Like most mining pools, Viabtc provides a block explorer and wallet. Yet another Chinese pool, Viabtc has since expanded to offer staking services, enabling holders to earn a passive return on their PoS coins. Trivia: Viabtc is famed as a major supporter of bigger blocks and in 2016 mined the first Bitcoin Unlimited block. It also proposed the name for Bitcoin Cash. Slush Pool Founded: 2010 BTC hashrate: 6.7% Coins mined: BTC, ZEC History: As the world’s first mining pool, Slush can trace its history all the way back to November 2010, when it was first proposed under the name Bitcoin Pooled Mining Server. Slush, which began as a one-man operation, has gone on to mine over 1 million BTC. Trivia: In March 2018, Slush Pool mined the first BTC block using Asicboost technology. BTC.top Founded: 2017 Founder: Jiang Zhuoer BTC hashrate: 5.6% Coins mined: BTC, BCH History: One of the more inscrutable Chinese pools, BTC.top operates as a private mining pool, and as such is off-limits to ordinary miners. While other Chinese pools attempt to translate their services into English, BTC.top doesn’t see the need, making the pool something of an enigma to westerners. Trivia: In July, BTC.top CEO Jiang Zhuoer debated Craig Wright, calling BSV’s path “extreme” and the concept of locking the protocol back to the original 0.1 version “ridiculous.” Bitfury Founded: 2011 Founder: Valery Vavilov Coins mined: BTC History: Bitfury is an industrial mining company that created some of the earliest ASICs, and by 2014 was mining in a pool simply known as pool.io. By early June 2014, this pool, about half of whose hashpower came from Bitfury ASICs, controlled more than 51% of the BTC network, prompting the company to remove some of its power from the pool. Trivia: Bitfury is a widely mistrusted company that has willingly collaborated with law enforcement to deanonymize bitcoin transactions and erode privacy. Bitcoin.com Founded: 2016 BTC hashrate: 0.6% Coins mined: BTC, BCH History: Bitcoin.com’s mining pool has been operational for three years, having launched on Sept. 21, 2016, with a mandate to push for bigger blocks. From day one, the Bitcoin.com pool could process blocks of up to 16MB, but would only mine 1MB at the time as that was all BTC’s consensus rules would accept. Today. Bitcoin.com offers hardware and cloud mining, with the latter manifesting as contracts ranging from six months to two years. Bitcoin.com provides its own mobile monitoring software, while the Bitcoin.com Wallet is a major product in its own right with over 4.7 million installs. Trivia: Bitcoin.com mined the first BCH ABC block on Nov. 15, 2018 following the split with SV. What are your thoughts on the various mining pools highlighted here? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock and Blockchain.com Do you want to maximize your Bitcoin Mining potential? Plug your own hardware into the world’s most profitable Bitcoin mining pool or get started without having to own hardware through one of our competitive Bitcoin cloud mining contracts. The post A Short History of the World’s Largest Bitcoin Mining Pools appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

There’s a small team of committed researchers and activists called the Ryver Bitcoin Cash group surveying Venezuelans, and giving them educational resources about the benefits of bitcoin cash. The Venezuelan country has been suffering from rapid inflation and many people distrust the sovereign bolivar. Unfortunately, most Venezuelans are not getting any exposure to digital currency use cases, and according to Ryver’s community manager, Sofia Corona, some people spreading the crypto message are doing it all wrong. Also Read: Developer Reveals Token Reward Platform Fueled by Bitcoin Cash 88% of Venezuelan Respondents Don’t Trust Their Currency This week news.Bitcoin.com spoke with Sofia Corona, the community manager of a Ryver Bitcoin Cash group. Sofia lives in Bogata, Colombia and was attracted to the project because “South American countries have a lot of problems.” The Venezuelan people have been dealing with extreme hyperinflation and central planners have destroyed the economy. Sofia joined the group because of the “bad decisions made by governments” and the team’s work is a form of independence for her. Sofia and her team members. “Listen to people’s needs, and try to do things with simple terms — [Venezuelans] do not want to know how big BCH blocks are, they want something else besides bad government decisions and bank interest,” Sofia said.The group has been surveying 100 or more Venezuelan citizens on a weekly basis and asking them all sorts of questions. “I studied in Venezuela and emigrated from there,” Sofia told our newsdesk. “We started the survey because it is the best research strategy and you can share information shoulder to shoulder with the people and face to face.” So far, news.Bitcoin.com has seen two weeks’ worth of survey responses from 100-150 people living in Venezuela and dealing with hyperinflation. Survey week one – 100 people. (Right chart) 68% said they do not know of any cryptocurrencies, while 32% felt that they did. (Left chart) 88% of the Venezuelan respondents do not trust the bolivar as a method of savings and investment. The first week’s survey was comprised of 100 Venezuelan citizens, surveyed by Sofia and the other team leaders Mr. Tank, Jena, and Jorge. The group visited malls and stores with a lot of foot traffic, specifically in Puerto la Cruz, Maturin, Guayana and Venezuela’s gold mining zones. Survey one shows the “participants do not currently rely on the national circulation currency (bolivar) as a method of savings and investment.” “This situation is caused by high levels of exposure inflation, which causes rapid loss of consumer purchasing power — In the face of this reality Bitcoin Cash emerges as a necessary alternative, at a time when the country opens the doors to the legalization of cryptocurrencies, an option that would allow supporting the wages and economic assets of the citizens of this country,” the report details. Additionally, out of the first 100 people surveyed, 68% did not know of the existence of cryptocurrencies, while 32% felt they did. A staggering 88% of respondents replied that they do not trust the bolivar. Sofia and members of the Ryver Bitcoin Cash group surveying Venezuelan residents from Puerto la Cruz, Maturin, and Guayana. Inflation and Gold Dealers Sofia remarked that when people explained they did not trust the bolivar, they smiled when asked about it. “Last year the government printed new cash money — This year nobody can use it or accept it because of inflation and low salaries,” she explained. Sofia also spoke about some pictures she shared of Venezuelans waiting as long as six hours to withdraw 20,000 bolivares cash ($0.94). “The banks have limited the people with restricted amounts by day and they do not have enough printed money to deliver to people, so the lines are huge and people waste a lot of time there,” Sofia, said, adding: They want this money to pay for bus tickets or sell to miners or the mafia — The mafia will pay you 100% value of cash money — Cash money is scarce. In Venezuela, gold dealers from the mines run rampant in congested areas like shopping centers. Sofia said there are a lot of gold dealers and they are “everywhere and they have the control of the authorities and cash money.” After hearing about the gold dealers, news.Bitcoin.com asked the Ryver group community manager why her team thinks most Venezuelans are not getting exposure to digital currencies. Venezuelans in line for hours to use an ATM to withdraw 20,000 bolivares cash ($0.94) on Sep. 12, 2019. The Wrong Strategy “The Ryver team thinks that the South American strategies to spread cryptocurrency have been wrong so far,” Sofia insisted. “Some spreaders here act like supreme people or want to share this technology like it’s the first world. We have contacted people and specialists to do some live talk forums or activities with people and they have very high costs to share the message. So we took it upon ourselves to go to the streets and talk with the people.” Sofia further stated: Many of these specialists want to copy strategies used in first world events in this region and have another heritage. We need to resolve simple problems, not have amazing events or restrict some people because they think different, we need it so people can feel the power in their hands. Do not make people feel like you are the owner of the brand or the message. Survey Results:#Venezuela Do you trust in your currency? Yes= 12% NO= 88%#BitcoinCashRyver #BCH pic.twitter.com/L7n9A2Ohp1 — Sofia Corona BCH (@VainilaMarket) September 2, 2019 Sofia continued by explaining that people should educate before giving Venezuelans something they don’t know how to use. “Listen to people’s needs, and try to do things with simple terms — They do not want to know how big BCH blocks are, they want something else besides bad government decisions and bank interest.” “Share the economic freedom and take the lead by providing them with the knowledge to make their own decisions about the money,” the community manager added. “You can share rocket science with people but it no makes sense if you do not teach them how to turn the power on.” Survey week two – 150 people. 69% of respondents have had canceled purchases with points of sale, followed by bank transfers canceled representing 16% of respondents. Points of sale are the most efficient option for the population, but the researchers say it is common for platforms to be faulty “due to electrical problems, or inconveniences with the chip.” Petro Propaganda Sofia also told our newsdesk about the usage of the Venezuelan government’s Petro network as we’ve heard reports from Sunacrip (the Petro’s regulator) that the state-issued crypto is popular. She says that the positive Petro headlines and stories are only for “promotional” purposes. “Nobody uses the petro and only people close with government use it to skip out on U.S. sanctions — 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,” Sofia asserted. The cryptocurrency known as the petro is “promotional” and not used by the common Venezuelan Sofia opined. “Only people close with government use it to skip out on U.S. sanctions,” she said. Genuine Ideas and Helping People Take Control of Their Destiny Sofia has talked to a lot of people and living in Bogata she’s seen refugees from Venezuela crossing the Simon Bolivar International Bridge daily for goods and services. The community manager said the team is also aware of other projects in Venezuela like nonprofit food drive @eatbch_VE. “They [@eatbch] are a genuine idea and supporters of BCH and we like that we can share their actions, the people need food to think, and to be educated to make their own decisions,” Sofia said. Following a long discussion with Sofia, she explained what drives her to do what she does. “I believe that we can do something to help the people that have their families far away,” Sofia concluded. “I believe that we can try to build a new way to do things, I believe that the people can take the lead of their destiny, and I will try to help them.” What do you think about what the Ryver Bitcoin Cash group is doing and Sofia’s efforts? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. Image credits: Sofia Corona, the Ryver Bitcoin Cash group, Twitter, and Pixabay. Venezuela.bitcoin.com is also making strides in Caracas, Maracaibo, and throughout the rest of the Latin American country by bolstering Bitcoin Cash merchant adoption in Venezuela. The post Distrust of the Bolivar Prompts Venezuelans to Seek Sound Money appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Prime brokerage firms are coming for crypto in what’s likely to be a race of winner-takes-almost-all. Goldman Sachs is synonymous with institutional wealth and power, even to those who’ve never purchased a financial product in their life. Like the eponymous tower it occupies in Jersey City, Goldman Sachs dominates the prime brokerage trade. What will happen when crypto gains its own Goldman Sachs – an institutional investment company whose AUM grant it unprecedented sway? Also read: Crypto Facilitates Money Transfer for Restricted China Prime Brokerage Is Coming for Crypto Prime brokerage is a term that’s synonymous with financial markets, but never with crypto. Used to describe the sort of bundled services that investment banks offer, it has little application to the cryptosphere, because there are no bitcoin investment banks. At least not in the traditional sense. For all its innovation, however, crypto has a habit of borrowing from the world it was meant to have deviated from. Think custodial services for cold storage of digital assets, which evoke banks with their dusty vaults and safety deposit boxes; or consider annualized interest from defi platforms that mirrors that once offered by personal savings accounts. The more things change, the more they stay the same. It should come as no surprise, therefore, to learn that HNW individuals will soon have their own all-in-one firms willing to manage their wealth across a range of verticals, altcoins, blockchains, and sectors. If you’re willing to trust a third party to custody your crypto – as many investors are – you might as well trust them to invest your assets into the bargain, putting them to use in a manner that will generate the best return. It’s a world away from the financially sovereign one that Satoshi and Hal Finney envisaged, but then a lot has changed in Bitcoin in a decade. Goldman Sachs Tower, Jersey City (left). The Quest to Become the Goldman Sachs of Crypto Troy Trade is one company eyeing the lucrative prime brokerage market, with the sort of all-in-one service that will be familiar to traditional investors: institutional-grade trading, including margin and OTC, together with quant strategies, and a suite of dynamic data tools. Having secured $10 million in funding from the likes of Block VC and Consensus Labs, Troy is now promising institutional investors direct market access to all tier-one exchanges such as Binance, Huobi, and Bitfinex. Newcomers such as Troy will face competition from several of the same exchanges whose liquidity they’re tapping into. In the last two years, virtually every major U.S. and global exchange has courted institutional investors through laying on services such as custody and OTC, and slashing trading fees for high volume traders. Binance and Huobi have made significant headway in provisioning turnkey services tailored to the needs of institutional investors, but have struggled to shed their reputation as retail trading venues. It’s one thing to offer a suite of services under one roof; it’s another to successfully be all things to all people simultaneously, as the needs of distinct investor groups are very different. What Institutional Investors Are Looking For In crypto, as in traditional finance, institutional investors are seeking certain provisions before they’ll bring their money, and that of their clients, to the table. These include: Deep liquidity Advanced trading interface Sophisticated data analytics High speed order execution Competitive rates and trading fees Wide range of quantitative solutions This latter caveat is particularly important, as institutional traders demand more comprehensive and sophisticated datasets from which to base their trading decisions. This includes detailed historical data, plus tools to facilitate the construction of proprietary trading systems. In addition, low latency, to maximize the performance of high frequency trading algorithms, is a must. Looking around the cryptosphere, there aren’t many companies that can meet these sorts of demands. When reputable exchanges such as Kraken are experiencing $4,000 wicks, like the example below, it’s safe to say that institutional-grade liquidity still isn’t there, or at the very least, it’s beyond the reach of any single exchange right now. Holy shit at Kraken. This is the biggest holy cross yet. Wick from $8000 – $12000 pic.twitter.com/xHoji6PWHx — Squeeze (@cryptoSqueeze) September 14, 2019 Candles of this extremity are unusual, it’s true, but their very existence shows that the cryptosphere still has work to do before it can open for business to the big boys. Combining the liquidity of multiple exchanges, as brokerage services such as Troy Trade, Tagomi, and Caspian are doing, is a start, but institutional demands run deeper. What they’re really seeking is a prime broker they can trust, and that’s something which can’t be bought or acquired by plugging in to the trust of others. It will take time and flawless service for any of the emerging institutional brokers to become crypto’s own Goldman Sachs. Until then, expect to see intense competition among crypto brokers and established exchanges to woo Wall Street. What Prime Brokerage Will Do for Crypto The rise of prime brokerage firms may be good for institutional investors, but what will it mean for the rest of the market? Lower volatility: When Cboe and CME launched BTC futures in late 2017, the talk was of big money “taming” bitcoin, but as history has shown, bitcoin doesn’t like being told what to do. As more money enters the market from institutional coffers, some of the intra-day moves should be flattened out, but lower volatility should not be mistaken for low volatility. This bronco will still buck. Greater protection: Bitcoin, to all practical intents and purposes, cannot be killed. As such, it doesn’t need institutional investors to park their wealth in it to prevent the U.S. government from overregulating it. That said, the deeper crypto roots itself into the financial system, the harder it will be to weed out. By the time it’s a trillion-dollar asset class, the Federal Reserve and the IMF can bump their gums all they like – crypto won’t be going anywhere. New products: Why trade an asset when you can trade derivatives of it, gaining exposure without the risk of custody? It won’t be retail investors who drive the innovation of new synthetic instruments for trading BTC, ETH, BCH, and other leading assets. The demand for new crypto derivatives will come from institutional investors, and as synthetic assets catch on, more money will flow into crypto. At the moment, there are limits on what you can do with bitcoin as an institutional investor, save for going long or short and playing around with leverage. Expect more levers to be added in future, and more complexity added, for the benefit of sophisticated traders with an appetite for such things. For retail investors seeking a means to buy and sell cryptocurrency, platforms such as exchange.Bitcoin.com are more than up to the task. Institutional investors, however, tend to demand more bespoke solutions. For these entities, prime brokerages are the answer. The question is, which broker will be the first to step up and claim that crown? Do you think the arrival of more institutional money will be good for the crypto market? Will there be any downsides to greater institutional participation? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. You can now purchase bitcoin without visiting a cryptocurrency exchange. Buy BTC and BCH directly from our trusted seller and, if you need a bitcoin wallet to securely store it, you can download one from us here. The post How Prime Brokerage Will Affect Crypto Markets appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

In a recent tweet, U.S. president Donald Trump delved into an explosive, all-caps-loaded mini-rant about the necessity of getting “interest rates down to ZERO, or less.” The bombastic politician stressed the need for America to refinance its debt, trailing off with some superficially conservative speak about the U.S. and its “great currency, power, and balance sheet,” and calling the Fed “boneheads” for refusing to inflate credit bubbles further. Sycophantic support of the leader aside, negative interest rate policies (NIRP) are slowly but surely gaining prominence worldwide, setting everyone up for a fall that can only be solved by sound money and sound economic principle. Also Read: Market Outlook: Uncertainty Builds With Thin Trade Volumes and Bitcoin Futures Launch Pretty Vacant As the popular idiom goes, talk is cheap and lies are expensive. When it comes to national interest rate policies worldwide, the story is the same. While slashing rates may create short-term growth in a given economy, the long-term effect is to inflate credit bubbles which ultimately have to burst if not paid for. With the U.S. national debt currently sitting at over $22.5 trillion, it’s hard to imagine anything being paid up on. Ever. While Trump’s tweet is worded to please the ears of an openly conservative-identifying support base, the underlying implications of what is being suggested are about as “conservative” as deciding to spend one’s entire paycheck at the strip club, and then selling plasma to fund a Maoist commune of unemployed California college hippie kids, all in order to receive their moral support later for help paying one’s bills. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso grin happily at a meeting of the IMF and World Bank in Washington D.C., in April. NIRP policies are racking the world with more debt than ever recently, and while the flowery talk may sound pretty, it’s the common individual who always eats the dirt. Take Japan, for example. The current consumption tax was set to 8% in April, 2014. Next month, on October 1, it will jump to 10%. This is spite of the Bank of Japan’s (BOJ) current quantitative easing-friendly (QE) national interest rate of -0.1%. As Investopedia’s Sean Ross accurately surmises: Wherever they have been tried, chronically low-interest rates and huge monetary expansions have failed to promote real economic growth. Quantitative easing (QE) did not achieve its stated objectives in the United States or the European Union (EU), and chronic low-interest rates have been unable to revive Japan’s once-thriving economy. To deal with the hike and mask the downward spiral into recession, some Japanese businesses are simply changing price displays to not include tax, in a desperate bid to soften the perceived impact of the gutting. Denmark and the 2008 U.S. Housing Crisis As news.Bitcoin.com has reported previously, negative interest rates in Europe are “saving” local economies and value holders to the tune of more debt, illiquidity, and negative yielding bonds. Taking out loans for housing is now very cheap in Denmark, with some mortgage financing even dipping into the negative territory. Thanks to the fact that borrowing has never been cheaper, Danes are expected to take out more and more loans. For Americans and others familiar with the housing crisis and collapse of 2007-08, all of this sounds eerily familiar. Prior to the U.S. housing crisis and ensuing global recession, the American government was — as per Trump’s current prescription — slashing interest rates. The federal funds rate was lowered from 6.5% to 1.75% in December 2001, and the liquidity that followed attracted borrowers without adequate income or assets to seek out low-quality loans. Lenders and banks were happy to oblige. Interest rates in the U.S. are experiencing a continuing downward trend. House prices shot up thanks to the new money on the market, and by June 2003 the interest rate was cut further to 1%, which was the lowest in 45 years. Sub-prime loans were then being repackaged and sold to investors as collateralized debt, and when people began to default, the whole house of cards imploded. The government’s solution? Just print hundreds of billions of dollars to buy the bad loans, further devaluing the U.S. dollar and increasing the national debt. For those with eyes to see, this is all a game being played with Monopoly money, where the banker can simply create more cash willy-nilly at any time. Trump may call bitcoin a “thin air” currency, but the truth is that his beloved USD is the real vapid scam being pushed here. Nature Abhors a Vacuum – Sound Money As a Hedge These days, more and more investors are talking about hedging against a global liquidity crisis with crypto and gold. The foundational reasons are fairly simple: both assets are limited (supply and demand dynamics thus protect against inflation), and both assets can be controlled privately, without the approval of third parties like governments or major banks. This is in stark contrast to the fiat model, where money is created arbitrarily, and the supply adjusted by self-interested third parties with little to no incentive to serve the currency’s larger userbase. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) recently released a letter to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on September 12, announcing they are “self-certifying an increase of the spot month position limits for the Bitcoin Futures contract (the “Contract”), commencing with the October 2019 contract month and beyond.” Intercontinental Exchange’s (ICE) Bakkt has announced they will launch daily and monthly bitcoin futures on September 23. Bakkt Warehouse custody is live. Now accepting customer bitcoin deposits and withdrawals. Only 17 days until the Bakkt Daily and Monthly Futures contracts launch on Sep 23. — Bakkt (@Bakkt) September 6, 2019 For the everyday investor not interested in high-falutin, leveraged futures as a hedge, simply holding and investing in gold and bitcoin serves the same basic purpose, and often with less risk. In today’s volatile economic climate where major governments — even in traditionally anti-negative interest, Five Eyes Alliance (FVEY) countries — are chopping rates like there’s no tomorrow, an action as simple as holding sound money quietly is a move that could potentially save much financial heartache down the road. Japan, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, and major banks like the European Central Bank and UBS are already employing negative rates. Australia, New Zealand and the U.S. are experimenting with slashing rates consistently. President Trump’s wild proclamation that this is just what the doctor ordered comes at a time of worldwide skepticism, when more and more individuals are waking up to the fact that no matter how much money is printed, resources are limited, and supply and demand is a reality that must be faced. Should the vacuum seal of negative rates and Keynesian QE crack, rest assured that the oxygen of free market principles and sound money will rush in to fill the gaps immediately, but there may not be enough to go around. In this light, Trump’s call for more credit can be seen as a call to individuals worldwide to invest in sound money as soon as possible, and with importunity. What are your thoughts on Trump’s tweet? 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, Fair Use. You can now purchase Bitcoin without visiting a cryptocurrency exchange. Buy BTC and BCH directly from our trusted seller and, if you need a Bitcoin wallet to securely store it, you can download one from us here. The post Nature Abhors a Vacuum: Why Trump’s Proposed Negative Rates Bode Well for Bitcoin appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Crypto is not illegal in China, but it is illegal for banks and financial institutions to deal in crypto. It’s also illegal for nationals to send over $50,000 in fiat money in a day, without government permission. Restrictive banking regulations, international trade wars, and a surveillance state in the midst of political unrest mean that transferring money can be difficult. In spite of bitcoin’s somewhat precarious legal standing, Chinese are nonetheless finding a ready avenue of non-draconian, free market exchange using crypto channels to prosper even in the face of economic oppression. Also Read: Local.Bitcoin.com Gathers 56K Accounts and $200M Worth of Trades Initiated The State of Crypto in China Since a series of government bans in 2017, there’s been a lot of debate and misunderstanding as to the actual nature of crypto regulation in China. The long and short of it is that crypto is not illegal, per se, but is viewed as property under Chinese law. ICOs, non-OTC exchange of crypto, and brokerage services involving cryptocurrencies are all illegal. Basically, any transaction directly connecting government fiat like the yuan, and cryptocurrencies, is off-limits. Banks may not deal with bitcoin, and exchanges cannot facilitate the purchase or selling thereof. As for mining, a proposal to ban the activity was made in April, but hard action in this area has not been taken. In spite of all this, the legal gray area of OTC trading is still alive and well, facilitated largely via offshore exchanges, VPNs, and stablecoins like Tether’s USDT. Some large, since-relocated exchanges like Huobi, continue to make trading possible by functioning as OTC fronts, with messaging and payment apps like Wechat being used to facilitate settlement after traders are connected via the Huobi platform. As China continues to crackdown on secure, decentralized digital assets, the state is also preparing to launch its own centralized asset, a kind of digital yuan, very soon. Other Financial Restrictions Not only are crypto transactions heavily regulated in the economic powerhouse, Communist nation, but fiat transactions as well. Chinese nationals are prohibited from international transfers of over $50,000 per day without special permission. Some have found a way around this by simply making numerous smaller transfers with several different parties assisting in the process. Unofficial brokerage firms also employ this method. Expats living in China have no such monetary amount limitations technically, but must prove that their income is legal before making transfers, which can be a cumbersome and sometimes impossible task. According to Josh Summers at travelchinacheaper.com: For those who want to transfer money out of China, there are quite a few more regulatory hoops you’ll need to jump through … Even if you’ve paid all the necessary taxes, it’s common for people to run into roadblocks at the bank. Users of Local.Bitcoin.com in China use the peer-to-peer platform to trade crypto and fiat without government restriction. Circumventing Transfer Limits and Regulations With Crypto The sea of murky, potentially prison-sentence inducing regulations still isn’t enough to deter users of crypto and advocates of economic freedom. Bitcoin is just too convenient where nation states are sluggish and incompetent. Overseas exchanges can still be accessed using VPNs, and though the Chinese government is cracking down in this area as well, use continues. In fact, the use of VPNs must be allowed for major corporations to do business in the restrictive cyber atmosphere of China’s “Great Firewall.” Even the iron-fisted People’s Bank of China (PBOC) knows this, and won’t starve the economy with such impositions. According to one local source: Whether or not it is legal or illegal to use a VPN in China is a very grey area, and the government deliberately make it so … many businesses in China need VPN. Chinese residents can also use a VPN to access peer-to-peer, OTC trading sites like Local.Bitcoin.com and exercise economic autonomy freely, buying and selling BCH and fiat currencies via a large array of diverse payment channels. Trade volume on sites like localbitcoins.com remains steady as well, proving that regardless of government restriction, crypto, like nature, will find a way. The Tether Pipeline Stablecoin Tether (USDT), with a market cap that just recently surpassed $4 billion, is the dominant crypto tool utilized these days by major Chinese traders. Tether Holdings has also launched a Chinese yuan stablecoin called the CNHT. While some question the wisdom of competing with the Communist giant in the field of currency issuance, others are supportive of the effort, thanks to the liquidity and relative stability the USDT stablecoin is already providing. Of course, still others are more concerned that pegging anything to a tanking world reserve USD, which has been steadily devaluing for well over a century, is not a good idea. This notwithstanding, USDT is still a superhighway currently for getting around restrictive government regulations. Crypto network data provider Coin Metrics reported that in July USDT accounted for 40% and 80% of transactions on Binance and Huobi, respectively, according to reports. Should the dollar finally meet its demise in the face of expanding negative interest rate policy worldwide, and unremitting irresponsible fiscal policy, however, it will be the true free market, decentralized options that remain. Tech Brings Free Market Solutions For those who call the vast country of China home, and who appreciate its diverse beauty and culture outside of the foul taste of government meddling, leaving the country to pursue financial freedom may not be a desirable option. Thankfully, technological innovation has made much of the antiquated and force-based practices of legacy finance obsolete. Utilizing tools like VPNs, chat apps, legal gray areas, and emergent crypto transfer protocols, even as governments continue to restrict freedoms, crypto finance expands and affords users natural solutions. The momentous deluge of a powerful river can’t be stopped by an ad hoc network of sticks, or a sign reading “no water.” In this same way, crypto continues to flow above, under, and around unnatural barriers, worldwide. What are your thoughts on the financial climate in China? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of 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 Crypto Facilitates Money Transfer for Restricted China appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Three months ago, Bitcoin.com launched its over-the-counter BCH marketplace on June 4. Since then, Local.Bitcoin.com has aggregated more than 56,000 accounts, gathering traders from all over the world executing thousands of BCH trade offers. Also Read: Plans to Build $50M Bitcoin Cash Tech Park Revealed 56,000 Local.Bitcoin.com Accounts and Growing Since launch the peer-to-peer marketplace Local.Bitcoin.com has seen steady growth when it comes to registered accounts and liquidity. At the time of publication, the noncustodial trading platform has more than 56,000 accounts stemming from cities and towns all around the world. Some of the most popular Local.Bitcoin.com trading regions include the U.S., China, Venezuela, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, and various countries throughout Europe. Since the launch on June 4, accounts that have successfully traded have risen to 2,612% as of Sep. 12, 2019. The number of active offers continues to rise and the marketplace has seen an 8.7% increase since the marketplace launch. Global trade volume on Local.Bitcoin.com has expanded by 2,917% over the three months as well. Since June 4, 2019, Local.Bitcoin.com trade volume has increased by 2,917%. This month new accounts have been coming from Russia, Venezuela, the U.S., Canada, and Great Britain. The local fiat currencies tied to these regions are some of the top currencies traded for, or used to sell, BCH every day. Other popular domestic currencies traded on the peer-to-peer marketplace include CNY, EUR, INR, NGN. Since the inception of Local.Bitcoin.com, there have been $200 million trades initiated. There are a lot of traders with diverse methods of exchange as many active traders choose to use payment transfers through banks and Paypal, while you can also find lots of traders utilizing in-person cash trades. Other prevalent methods of trade include cash deposits, Western Union, Money Gram, gift cards and Venmo. Users can set up active trades for other cryptocurrencies and stablecoins and even trade BTC for BCH through Square’s Cash app, as well. Sign Up Today and Check Out the Benefits of Over-the-Counter Trading If you haven’t yet, the process to sign up for Local.Bitcoin.com takes less than a minute. After getting an account you can access a BCH marketplace that fosters privacy with encrypted communications and over-the-counter traders in nearly every region. You can immediately create offers or trades on Local.Bitcoin.com in no time at all. The exchange is protected by two-factor authentication, a wallet backup, and a blind escrow system for secure trading. The blind escrow allows people to trade without worrying about a third party or even Bitcoin.com touching the funds. You release the funds when you want to settle a trade and it’s technically impossible for our website to spend BCH held in escrow. Local.Bitcoin.com can provide mediation for dispute resolution but the blind escrow system ensures only the buyer or seller authorizes a withdrawal. There are many benefits to using an OTC marketplace like Local.Bitcoin.com and one of the most important to a lot of people is that it’s a private way to purchase bitcoin cash. Another reason to use our BCH trading platform is that it offers a large variety of payment methods and more so than the traditional crypto exchange today. For instance, some exchanges will let you purchase crypto through your bank or a credit card but that’s about it. Local.Bitcoin.com has a variety of payment options to choose from and traders can use any payment route they desire. Another unique attribute of Local.Bitcoin.com is that it’s available in hundreds of countries and in some global regions, it’s the only avenue people have to purchase bitcoin cash. Peer-to-peer trading platforms can offer better arbitrage opportunities than traditional exchanges as well. Arbitrage is an approach to buying bitcoin cash at cheaper OTC rates and then selling the BCH later when the price is a few percentages higher. Essentially, at Local.Bitcoin.com, you make the rules as to how you want to trade, and you can always rest assured you’re in control of your money with our professional noncustodial services. What do you think about Local.Bitcoin.com? Have you signed up for our peer-to-peer trading platform yet? Let us know what you think in the comments section below. Image credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, and Local.Bitcoin.com How could our Bitcoin Block Explorer tool help you? Use the handy Bitcoin address search bar to track down transactions on both the BCH and BTC blockchain and, for even more industry insights, visit our in-depth Bitcoin Charts. The post Local.Bitcoin.com Gathers 56K Accounts and $200M Worth of Trades Initiated appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Cryptocurrencies undoubtedly bring new business opportunities. The expanding industry around digital assets and its customers need more and more services that traditional sectors can provide. Banking is often a bottleneck in the crypto space as most traditional institutions are still reluctant to get their feet wet. Smaller banks, however, are more willing to occupy this niche and reap the rewards. Also read: Crypto Banking Expands With Positive Interest Rates and New Services Aiming for a Reward That Justifies the Effort Navigating the regulatory maze, in the midst of which most crypto companies operate these days, is not easy. Organizations from other industries which work with crypto firms have to deal with the same obstacles. It’s often hard to do business and make a profit. But the current situation also creates opportunities, for there’s a margin to be made in this kind of environment. And it’s usually the small, young and hungry businesses that accept the challenge, hoping that the reward will justify the risks and efforts. Most big banks have been shying away from the cryptosphere, be it because of the regulatory uncertainty, the volatile nature of the market, or maybe they just see a threat to their good old ways of banking. But small-size financial institutions and representatives of the nascent fintech industry cannot afford to be so shy. In the fast-moving cryptoconomy, every opportunity the growing sector offers is worth exploring and exploiting. The case of the German WEG Bank illustrates this very well and shows that banks and crypto companies can cooperate in a mutually beneficial way. In the summer of 2018, as part of a partnership deal, the crypto payment provider Tokenpay Swiss AG acquired a 9.9% stake in the bank with plans to increase its share in the future. And this spring, Nimiq, a provider of browser-based payment solutions, also bought 9.9% in WEG Bank. The two now work on a crypto-fiat product called Nimiq Oasis. A Bridge Between Two Financial Worlds WEG Bank is now promoting itself as an institution that bridges the gap between traditional banking and digital currencies. According to an announcement posted on Twitter, it has recently secured “full access to a crypto trading and custody license in Estonia.” The bank noted that it’s also applying for a securities trading and custody license in Germany. The licensed Estonian vehicle, WEG Bank later clarified, is WEG Blocklink OÜ, which is its sister company that will act as a servicer to WEG Bank AG. Estonia has been a leading force in Europe when it comes to creating a favorable business climate for crypto companies. However, it’s been reported that authorities in Tallinn have started tightening some of the rules applicable to the sector. The new regulations oblige locally registered entities to keep their headquarters in the jurisdiction, while foreign companies are required to maintain an office in the Baltic country. Fiat Products Backed With Crypto Assets Having crypto companies among stakeholders is not a mandatory prerequisite to being a crypto-friendly financial institution. Since the launch of its crypto business six years ago, San Diego-headquartered Silvergate Bank has established itself as one of the few banks in the United States that is readily providing services to the digital asset industry. It serves more than 500 entities dealing with cryptocurrencies. Silvergate has announced its intentions to offer loans collateralized with cryptocurrency. In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the lender describes its Silvergate Exchange Network (SEN) and explains that “an exchange client could hold the digital currency collateral, we could use the SEN to initially fund the loan from our balance sheet, and in the event of a collateral deficiency, we could immediately sell the digital currency collateral through our exchange client and use the SEN to bring the resulting funds back to our balance sheet.” Further elaborating, the bank points out: We believe there may be attractive opportunities to provide digital currency borrowing facilities to deepen our high quality customer relationships and further enhance our interest income. Other crypto-friendly banks operating in the United States include New York-based Quontic, which is now providing services to crypto companies in its strictly regulated jurisdiction. Elsewhere in the U.S., businesses from the industry can manage their finances with the help of institutions like Simple Bank and Ally Bank. In Europe, corporate and private clients can rely on the banking services provided by a new generation of online and mobile banks such as Revolut, Wirex, Bankera, and Bitwala. Fintech startups have immensely helped the expansion of crypto banking. Their platforms turn your smartphone into a bank office or a crypto exchange, challenging the traditional understanding of what banks should look like. They are willing to experiment and cater to the needs of crypto businesses and users. In the face of this competition, large financial institutions have yet to integrate digital assets into their business models and strategies. Banks working with cryptocurrencies and companies specializing in crypto-related banking are likely to see more regulatory clarity in the future with the adoption of comprehensive national legal frameworks. Along with Estonia, Malta, Gibraltar, and Switzerland form a group of nations where crypto businesses can operate in a friendly regulatory environment. For example, financial authorities in Switzerland recently licensed two companies, SEBA Crypto AG and Sygnum AG, to serve as banking institutions for the country’s growing crypto industry. And under increasing pressure, old Swiss banks like Zurich-based Maerki Baumann are turning towards the crypto market. “We suddenly had 400 people wanting to talk with us. And they were exactly the kind of people we had been struggling to access for 10 years with traditional private banking offerings,” CEO Stephan Zwahlen told Swissinfo last month. “We found that they were typically between 30 to 40 years old, very well educated and with an entrepreneurial mindset,” he added, speaking about how his bank found an alternative revenue source in the Swiss crypto sector. Expanding banking services are sure to attract more investors and users. If you are looking to safely and securely enter the crypto space, you can do so by purchasing bitcoin cash (BCH) and other major coins with a credit card at buy.Bitcoin.com. You can also freely trade your cryptocurrencies on our noncustodial, peer-to-peer marketplace local.Bitcoin.com, which already has thousands of users around the world. Also, check out our newly launched premier trading platform exchange.Bitcoin.com. Registered users can access it right now. Do you expect to see large banks offering services to clients dealing with cryptocurrency in the future? Tell us in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Do you need a reliable bitcoin mobile wallet to send, receive, and store your coins? Download one for free from us and then head to our Purchase Bitcoin page where you can quickly buy bitcoin with a credit card. The post Big Banks Won’t Touch Crypto Clients – But These Smaller Banks Will appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Outside of exchanges, few cryptocurrency industries are as prosperous as custody. At this stage in Bitcoin’s lifespan, trading crypto and storing crypto appear to be the most popular use cases for crypto – in that order. As a result, a thriving aftermarket for crypto storage solutions has sprung up, both custodial and non-custodial, hot and cold, online and offline. Card Wallet from Coinfinity is the latest product to enter the fray, providing a secure way for storing BTC and ETH offline. Also read: Developer Reveals Token Reward Platform Fueled by Bitcoin Cash Cold Storage Is Hot Right Now As the dangers of storing funds online in custodial wallets and exchanges have been emphasized through a plethora of hacks and exit scams, the cold storage business has boomed. From hardware wallets resembling fancy thumb drives to devices disguised as calculators and credit cards, the range of ways to self-custody digital assets seems endless. The simply named Card Wallet by Coinfinity does exactly what it sounds like. On the surface, this plastic card looks like an extremely low-tech way to store bitcoin core or ether, but its unprepossessing exterior is deceptive. Peer a little closer at the credit card-shaped wallet and you’ll notice some interesting details. The Coin Wallet arrives inside a slender cardboard sleeve. There are all kinds of anti-counterfeiting measures at play on the Card Wallet’s service, including microprinting and continuous color gradient techniques, giving it a look more akin to cash. The banknote-based design makes sense once you learn that Coinfinity – Austria’s first Bitcoin company – developed this device in conjunction with the Austrian State Printing House. They’re best known for printing passports, a skill they’ve refined over the course of 200 years, and thus know a thing or two about anti-counterfeiting. Forgery-Proof Crypto Storage The notion of forgery sounds strange in a crypto context. After all, bitcoins are impossible to falsify. The reason why the Austrian State Printing House has gone to town on the anti-forgery techniques they’ve used is to prevent fake cards from entering circulation and to provide guarantees that the private key, which was generated offline, remains offline. The private key for the cryptocurrency address printed on the card is concealed beneath a hologram on the back. It’s accompanied by a warning not to scratch this area – not even a little, just to test it – as to do so would be to risk the security of your funds. The Card Wallet is basically a modern version of the Casascius physical bitcoins that have become collector’s items today. Save for the wallet address printed across the center, the BTC and ETH wallets look identical. The code printed beneath the Card Wallet’s seal can be thought of as Schrödinger’s key: until the moment it is observed through scratching off the protective covering, it effectively doesn’t exist. The manufacturer has no record of it. As a result, you can send funds to the address printed on the front of the card, but you can’t retrieve them until you reveal that seal, and doing so will essentially penalize you to the tune of the $67 the Card Wallet retails for. Think of it as an extremely high BTC network fee, and use it as an incentive not to dip into the funds stored on the card, save for an emergency. Of course, technically nothing is stored on the card: it simply holds the secret code needed to send the bitcoin from the address in which it is currently locked on the BTC network to a new address on the network. To all intents and purposes, though, Card Wallet might as well physically hold those coins, since without it to hand, you’ll never be able to move those coins again. Testing the Card Wallet Unlike a hardware wallet, there’s nothing to power up or plug in here, but that doesn’t mean that testing the Card Wallet is an entirely analog experience. There is, after all, the QR code printed on the wallet, which, when scanned, reads the BTC address printed along the center. In testing, I scan the code using the Bitcoin.com Wallet and am prompted to select the amount of BTC I wish to send. When I drag the slider, the funds are released and that’s it: the first satoshis prepare to wing their way to my Card Wallet. When the time comes to move or sell that bitcoin, I will remove the security seal and import the private key that’s revealed underneath into a noncustodial wallet such as Electrum. In theory, you could continue to use the wallet address securely, even with the seal scratched off, provided you destroyed the exposed private key. There would be little advantage to doing so, however, and it makes sense to view the wallet as compromised once the key has been revealed. On the reverse of the card, there’s another QR code that can be scanned, marked Chainlockcode (CLC). This requires installation of a dedicated mobile app, which will display the balance of the card – and of any other Card Wallets you wish to integrate into it – allowing you to manage all your cards within one app without revealing their private keys. Most people are unlikely to need this, since typing the wallet address into a block explorer achieves the same result, but if you’re a serial Card Wallet collector, it might prove useful Alternative Cold Storage Solutions While Coinfinity doesn’t support BCH at this time, bitcoin cash holders have the option of generating their own paper wallets, which can be printed at home. This theoretically provides the same security guarantees, and with the wallet folded and sealed correctly, it is effectively tamper-proof, albeit without the same allure as Card Wallet’s impressive shiny hologram. Cold storing cryptocurrency isn’t about showing off, however, and the winning wallet is the one that keeps your funds the safest. Some bitcoiners will balk at paying $67, in the Card Wallet, for a cold storage solution they could roughly replicate at home for the cost of a sheet of printer paper. Others will appreciate the imperviousness of the Coinfinity card, its convenient credit card shape, and its superior tamper-proof seal. As such, its value is really in the eyes of the beholder. For the same price you could pick up a basic hardware wallet, which will allow you to send, receive, and store a range of cryptocurrencies. That said, there’s something magical about the seal on the Coinfinity that challenges you not to sully it, but rather to sporadically send funds to it, building up your nest egg over time. What are your thoughts on Coinfinity’s Card Wallet – would you use it? Let us know in the comments section below. Disclaimer: Bitcoin.com does not endorse or support claims made by any parties in this article. None of the information in this article is intended as investment advice, as an offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or as a recommendation, endorsement, or sponsorship of any products, services, or companies. Neither Bitcoin.com 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. Do you need a reliable bitcoin mobile wallet to send, receive, and store your coins? Download one for free from us and then head to our Purchase Bitcoin page where you can quickly buy bitcoin with a credit card. The post Review: Coinfinity’s Card Wallet Provides Tamper-Proof Cold Storage appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

This is a paid press release, which contains forward looking statements, and should be treated as advertising or promotional material. Bitcoin.com is not responsible for or liable for any content, accuracy or quality within the press release. Thursday, September 12th – The Bitcoin logo (₿) will appear on the shirt sleeve of Premier League football club Watford this season, as part of an educational drive led by the innovative sports betting brand Sportsbet.io. The logo is part of a wider campaign to improve awareness around Bitcoin and educate the public on the benefits of using cryptocurrencies. It is led by Watford FC’s primary shirt sponsor, Sportsbet.io, which announced a landmark deal with the Hornets team in June. Justin Le Brocque, Head of Sportsbook.io Marketing, said: “The crypto community have been hugely supportive of us since we began, so putting the Bitcoin logo on the sleeve felt like a fun way to give something back while also showing them our support.” The sponsorship will be crowd-funded, allowing anyone who holds Bitcoin the exclusive opportunity to share in the perks granted to Watford FC sponsors. Contributors can bid for public LED space shown live during matches, use of the Bitcoin box for eight people and exclusive Watford FC merchandise. “Some of the biggest challenges we and others like us face is raising awareness, dispelling common myths around cryptos and educating the public on the advantages and opportunities presented by cryptocurrencies,” added Le Brocque. “Our partnership with Watford marks a major disruption in the world of traditional sports sponsorship, and by adding the Bitcoin logo we hope this world’s first partnership will create even more buzz around cryptocurrencies.” Scott Duxbury, Hornets’ Chairman & CEO, added: “Placing the Bitcoin logo on a Premier League shirt is something that challenges the accepted norm. We’re excited about the partnerships and the potential for new global conversations that it could help start for our club.” To celebrate the Bitcoin sponsorship with all Bitcoin holders, Sportsbet.io is also giving away a 2 mbtc Free Bet to all Sportsbet.io players if Watford scores against Arsenal this coming Sunday. More information on the amazing offer can be found https://sportsbet.io/promotions/free-bet-giveaway. Last month, Sportsbet.io announced a pioneering three-year partnership with Watford, marking the first time a company known for blockchain and cryptocurrency expertise had appeared on the front of a Premier League shirt. The announcement was accompanied by the launch of Sportsbet.io’s ‘Know No Borders’ campaign, which highlights the brand’s commitment to putting players at the heart of the action, no matter their country, sport, team or currency. Sportsbet.io accepts a range of fiat and cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, to deliver the very best in fun, fast and fair gaming. To get involved, all you need to do is visit the site http://bitcoin.watfordfc.com. ENDS About Sportsbet.io Founded in 2016 as part of the Coingaming Group, Sportsbet.io is a leading multi-currency sportsbook operator that has redefined online sport betting by combining cutting-edge technology with cryptocurrency expertise and a passion for offering its players with the ultimate fun, fast and fair gaming experience. Sportsbet.io provides an expansive range of betting action across all major sports and eSports, offering players more than 350,000 pre-match events per year, as well as comprehensive in-play content and one of the industry’s most diverse array of both crypto and local currencies. It is the first sportsbook of its kind to introduce streaming across all major sports and a cash out function with Sportsbet.io recognised as being a rising star within the online sports betting world. Sportsbet.io prides itself on its secure and trustworthy betting service, with withdrawal times of around 1.5 minutes among the fastest in the industry. For more information about Sportsbet.io, please visit https://sportsbet.io Lucy Thomas, Head of PR & Sponsorship, Coingaming Group, lucy.thomas@coingaming.io Supporting Link https://sportsbet.io This is a paid press release. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the promoted company or any of its affiliates or services. 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 content, goods or services mentioned in the press release. The post PR: Sportsbet.io and Watford FC Drive Bitcoin Awareness appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

There’s a new crypto platform called Honeypoints that just released for beta testing on Apple’s Testflight. The digital currency application created by two former Bitcoin.com employees aims to fuel merchant adoption with loyalty rewards. The Honeypoints app is meant to stimulate retail acceptance by rewarding customers with unique crypto tokens when they make a purchase or show loyalty. Also Read: SLP Developers Publish Specs for a Unique Type of Non-Fungible Tokens Honeypoints: An SLP Token Reward Platform Built on the Bitcoin Cash Network Last week at the Try Swift conference in New York, former Bitcoin.com software engineer Jean-Baptiste Dominguez unveiled a new crypto-based rewards application powered by the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) chain called Honeypoints. The latest SLP project was also designed by Bitcoin.com’s former developer Alfonso Rocha, and both cofounders aim to “make cryptocurrencies available to everyone.” The new application is currently in beta for iOS devices and the Honeypoints team plans to launch worldwide on Sep. 30. Basically, the Honeypoints platform acts as a crypto wallet that allows users to store BCH and Simple Ledger Protocol (SLP) tokens. But the application’s main feature allows anyone to construct a loyalty program that rewards patronage with SLP token rewards. At the Try Swift conference, attendees got their first glimpse of the powerful SLP protocol combined with BCH and Dominguez told the audience how retailers and brands can create Honeypoint reward programs. “We empower businesses and individuals to retain their customers through a crypto-currency reward token — Coming soon,” the honeypoints.cash website reads. After creating a custom Honeypoints card system merchants can reward crypto tokens to customers who make purchases in-store or online. Retailers and brands could also reward patrons who share social media posts on Twitter, handle a specified task, and even be rewarded for simply visiting a website. Dominguez and the Honeypoints team hopes to see the SLP token system mature greatly with tokenization bringing the same value to the table as it did with Ethereum. While demonstrating the new platform, Dominguez told the Try Swift attendees that “you don’t need a development team to have your enterprise-grade system for your most loyal customers.” The software engineer added: We don’t want anybody to be confused or scared by the concept of cryptocurrencies. We just want them to enjoy the benefits of the technology. Everything that we’ve done, from the concept to the app itself, is designed to be useable for everyone instantly. Software engineer Jean-Baptiste Dominguez at the Try Swift event in New York. Testing Honeypoints Beta Version Using the Honeypoints application is intuitive for anyone who has used a crypto wallet before, but it’s also simple enough for crypto newcomers as well. The wallet side of the app can store send and receive BCH, alongside the ability to store SLP tokens in a noncustodial fashion. Honeypoints uses a four-digit PIN to secure the wallet and a mnemonic seed phrase for backup and restoration purposes. The PIN is needed if you want to access the mnemonic’s 12-words and initiate a wallet restoration process as well. Right now, the beta wallet shows you balances in BCH and SLP tokens and also lets you purchase BCH for gas. If someone randomly sends you a token to your Honeypoints wallet, you can choose if you want to add it to the wallet’s balance or not. On the bottom right there’s a compass icon that says Discovery which shows how people can earn reward tokens by tweeting something from their Twitter account or handling another task. For instance, on the Honeypoints beta version, there’s a “Spice Must Flow” task available and if you share a meme from the Spicefeed on Twitter you get 200 spice. A look at the beta version of Honeypoints. The beta version also gives you the ability to forge a new SLP token from the wallet interface by pressing the “Create token” tab. You can customize the SLP token’s name, ticker, quantity, number of decimals, tether a document URL, and choose if the minting baton will be active or not. Just like the rest of the SLP applications out in the wild today, a small fraction of BCH (gas) is needed to create tokens and send them as well. The Honeypoints beta release from Apple’s Testflight also allows users to toggle between the BCH livenet and testnet. ‘Bitcoin Cash Development and Awareness Is at an All-Time High’ The SLP ecosystem has become very popular since the summer of 2018 and there’s a whole universe of ideas and token projects in the making. There have been thousands of SLP tokens created onchain and developers have even figured out how to create nonfungible SLP tokens and pay BCH dividend payments to token holders. At the Try Swift event in New York, Dominguez exposed the benefits of SLP tokens fueled by the BCH chain to a global audience. HoneyPoints is now in public beta. 🐝 Get crypto rewards from your favorite places by downloading the iOS beta from: https://t.co/423Zw42SNQ pic.twitter.com/YWnGWCFznr — HoneyPoints (@honey_points) September 7, 2019 The Honeypoints founders believe the demonstration has shown attendees a real-world use case that leverages cryptocurrency solutions. The Honeypoints engineers explained in a press release on Sep. 12 that the team chose BCH because it’s “20X cheaper” than using token systems that stem from Ethereum. “Recent tests of the Bitcoin Cash blockchain also proved that it can handle more transactions than Ethereum while keeping its costs low,” the press release highlights. Moreover, the startup emphasized that a Honeypoints token rewards system is friendlier to the environment than creating paper rewards programs. Seeing the SLP system mature significantly, and after the Bitcoin Cash City conference in North Queensland, Australia, the Honeypoints creators Dominguez and Rocha believe “Bitcoin Cash development and awareness is at an all time high.” To them, it’s the perfect time to launch the crypto rewards platform and the team is currently onboarding their first retailers and brands via the Honeypoints beta Telegram group. You can follow the Tokyo-based startup’s Twitter page for upcoming announcements on when the application launches at the end of the month. SLP platforms are appearing left and right these days, and the rewards system is another token project built using the BCH chain in a unique manner. What do you think about the Honeypoints application? Let us know what you think about this application in the comments section below. Image credits: Shutterstock, Honeypoints, Pixabay, and Twitter. Did you know you can verify any unconfirmed Bitcoin transaction with our Bitcoin Cash Block Explorer tool? Our block explorer can also search the SLP universe of tokens too. Simply complete a Bitcoin Cash or SLP token address to view it on the blockchain. Plus, visit our Bitcoin Charts to see what’s happening in the industry. The post Developer Reveals Token Reward Platform Fueled by Bitcoin Cash appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

During the crypto bull market of 2017, everybody was happy. It wasn’t just the BTC maximalists, BCH enthusiasts, or proponents of ETH. Privacy coins like monero were doing great, and even charity-supporting “comic relief” coins like doge were riding high. Since that enchanted time, however, the diverse class of tokens known as altcoins has somehow faded into obscurity. Just recently though, the tectonic plates of alt-crypto deadlock appear to be rumbling, and change might be just on the horizon for the spare change of the crypto world. Also Read: David Chaum’s Elixxir Invites Smartphone Users to Test Private Messaging The Lost Altcoin Conversation On December 17, 2017, BTC reached an all-time high of over $20,000. Three days later, on December 20, BCH would peak at almost $4,000. In the same general time period ETH, XRP, LTC, and other market cap leaders would also achieve apogee, with the at-press-time-valued $0.0024, dogecoin then being worth well over a penny. While it’s clear to see why interest in the 2000+ altcoins on the market has waned since 2018 shattered so many crypto fantasies, market activity last week indicates something new may be on the horizon for crypto’s forgotten class. Weekly numbers are up for many non-BTC tokens. In the past week, a slight dip in BTC dominance has gotten some in the space excited about their altcoin pet projects, announcing with gusto to crypto Twitter that alt season is back. Others are not so sure, and remain understandably wary of the recurrent hype. Regardless, at press time EOS, ETH, and XMR are all up significantly over the last week, with EOS enjoying a seven-day price surge of over 12%. Though not merely an “altcoin” by the standards of many, BTC competitor bitcoin cash has also experienced a significant rally. Crypto Twitter in a nutshell: ____#altseason $btc $alts pic.twitter.com/TsHJyDlYdK — CryptoLeee 🍜 (@CryptoLeee) September 10, 2019 The Forgotten Fun of Hunting Longshots Time was that folks used to find interesting, fledgling projects, research them, and then load up on mounds of tokens for fractions of a penny. The excitement of this heavy bag holding for nascent projects was intoxicating. “If this even hits one dollar, I’m gonna be rich!” While investors are still doing this, the focus at large in the crypto space has shifted to the narrow world of BTC maximalism and basic religious hatred for anyone, not into the “right” crypto, or dominant ones. Still, Twitter accounts like that of Crypto Seer are holding out hope: #Altcoin Marketcap Dominance. If you’re not too zoomed in it’s not that hard to really be patient. You just gotta wait for 2-3 months of sideways and you’ll know where we’ve bottomed. pic.twitter.com/1h5ciVmzxg — Crypto Seer (@crypto_seer) September 4, 2019 Financial experts and other Twitter commentators, however, are speculating that until BTC hits a new all-time high, nothing much should be expected from the legions of hopeful tokens in the shadows. RT host and well-known BTC maximalist Max Keiser doesn’t mince words when it comes to his own views on the matter. Citing a still steady and growing BTC dominance, the bombastic crypto influencer tweeted on September 3rd: Alts never coming back… Sorry. How Altcoins Can Gain Traction In the fast-moving, oft-sensationalized world of crypto, there is no shortage of scams. Unfortunately, this reality has led to a kind of polarization in the space, where sometimes, no matter how good an idea is, if it ain’t BTC, it often isn’t going to be well-received. The tendency of money in economics is to consolidate into the most saleable good. For students of the Austrian school, this fact is well understood. The money that is most useful and liquid globally, will be the one most people want to use. On top of this framework, though, micro-economies and unique demand for various customized projects and initiatives still exist. This is where altcoins and unique tokens like those of the Simple Ledger Protocol (SLPs) can come in and provide flexible utility to major players. Interesting projects like Augur, an incentivized system for predicting future events accurately, and dividends for anonymous bearer shares on BCH using SLPs, are illustrative of the continuing innovation the crypto space encourages. Stablecoins and exchange coins like USDT and BNB are also an emergent force, and are molding the market in unique ways, with a tendency to be viewed as more respectable and reputable than other alts. The number of coins on the market has proliferated exponentially over the past years, so sifting through the heaps obscure tokens to find a winner can be a daunting task. Back in May, 2018, there were around 1,500 altcoins on the market. At press time there are well over 2,300. Deciding which are gems and which are shit takes time, so in a sense the migration to major tokens and the proportional, contemptuous distaste for alts is understandable. This shift could bode well for SLPs, however, and tokens built on top of established and reputable chains, providing unique functionality to already well-respected blockchain eco-systems. USD: The World’s Biggest Shitcoin If all the world is a crypto market, and Carl Menger’s monetary theory was correct, there will eventually be a clear winner as the top dog, used-for-almost-all-transactions money of the world. Viewing the current global reserve currency under the lens of a crypto perspective, the USD fails to pass the test of a good token. It’s centralized, built on extremely shoddy and dysfunctional “code” (violent laws and fiat mandates), and, in the words of Donald Trump, is created not from market demand but from “thin air.” Whether alt season is upon us or not is anybody’s guess. That notwithstanding, many crypto advocates are happy to see their beloved class of tokens reemerge from the shadows a bit, and step back into the mainstream conversation. Polarized and venomous as the space may be, there is still one thing many agree on, and that’s the fact that the broken fiat system is rapidly becoming obsolete, and a new system is on the way. Which long-shot alt or top market cap player will finally upset the apple cart is worthy of some popcorn-munching attention, either way. What’s your favorite token? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. You can now purchase Bitcoin without visiting a cryptocurrency exchange. Buy BTC and BCH directly from our trusted seller and, if you need a Bitcoin wallet to securely store it, you can download one from us here. The post Crypto’s Forgotten Altcoins Re-Emerge: A Look at What’s Happening appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Saving planet Earth is a noble goal with many different dimensions. Climate change needs to be addressed vigorously as our world warms up faster than ever. Economic development needs a higher degree of financial freedom to provide everyone access to opportunities and wealth. A teenager from Scandinavia, dubbed a “next generation leader,” has once again challenged governments and politicians. “If we can save the banks, we can save the world,” Sweden’s Greta Thunberg told those who always find money to postpone the problems but often claim real solutions are too expensive. Also read: Initiative to Curtail Negative Interest Rates Gains Traction in Germany The Greta Thunberg Effect Greta, a 16-year-old student from Stockholm, has become a loud voice for bold action against the looming “climate crisis” as she calls it. Last year, the self-made environmental activist began her “school strikes” to protest the inability of decision makers and the current generation of grownups to tackle the issue. Handing out leaflets stating “I am doing this because you adults are shitting on my future” outside the Swedish parliament during school hours was how she chose to send her message. She started her campaign before Sweden’s general elections in September 2018, after the hottest summer in over two centuries brought heat waves and wildfires to the Nordic country. Greta missed school for three weeks to sit down in front of the Riksdag and demand that her government take steps to reduce carbon emissions in accordance with the Paris Agreement. After the election, her “Skolstrejk för klimatet” protest continued on Fridays, inspiring similar actions by thousands of students around the world in what has been dubbed the “Greta Thunberg effect.” She is now participating in demonstrations throughout Europe as well. The strategy eventually gave her a world stage where she told business leaders their financial success comes with an unthinkable price tag, warned politicians all their parties have failed, and told media not enough has been done to create broad public awareness about climate change. Her blunt manner and the way she puts the problems of global warming in perspective made her a coveted public speaker for the cause of all scientists and activists who point out we have only about a decade before our mistakes become irreversible. Not content with limiting herself to protests and speeches, Greta Thunberg has set a personal example for how everyone can reduce their carbon footprint, including giving up flying and switching to a meat-free diet. She also managed to convince her own parents, Swedish opera singer Malena Ernman and actor Svante Thunberg, to implement these life-style changes in their family. Her efforts won support from academics and global leaders, while philanthropists and investors donated funds to the grassroots movement Extinction Rebellion and school strike groups in various countries. We Have Money, We Lack Will Thunberg’s latest mission took her on a sail across the Atlantic this past August. The 16-year-old crossed the ocean from Plymouth in the U.K. to New York in a 60-foot racing yacht, a vessel equipped with solar panels and underwater turbines. The trip was announced as carbon neutral and was organized to demonstrate Greta’s commitment to the goal of reducing CO2 emissions. It started on August 14 and took about two weeks. On the other side of the pond, the young activist will be attending the United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York City and the COP 25 climate change conference in the Chilean capital Santiago. Greta Thunberg arrived in America ahead of the September 20 global climate strikes which are expected to bring to the streets millions of protesters in over 150 countries. They are scheduled to coincide with the UN summit on climate change which kicks off on September 23. Greta’s relentless activism helped inspire the protests. “I want September 20 to be a tipping point. I want world leaders to feel like they have too many people watching them,” she said during an event on Monday, directly confronting elites as usual. And her strongest message was addressed to those who insist it’s too expensive to deal with the climate crisis by adopting comprehensive new policies: If we can save the banks, we can save the world. Quoted by the Common Dreams portal, Greta further noted that “If there is something we are not lacking in this world, it’s money. Of course, many people do lack money, but governments and these people in power, they do not lack money.” The Swede believes we also need to have the polluters pay for the damage they are causing. “So, I would not even respond to that argument, because it has been said so many times, the money is there. What we lack now is political will and social will to do it,” she stressed. Indeed, the last global financial crisis showed governments are willing to spend billions to save financial institutions deemed too big to fail, despite the wrong decisions of their very well paid managers. According to a paper authored by Deborah Lucas, finance professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, the total direct cost of crisis-related bailouts during the 2008 financial meltdown in the U.S. alone was about $498 billion on a fair value basis. That amounted to 3.5% of the country’s gross domestic product in 2009. Lucas also found the main beneficiaries were the large, unsecured creditors of financial institutions, big institutional investors, pension and mutual funds, insurance companies, and sovereigns. Calculating the cost of bank bailouts correctly is important as their real price tag often remains hidden from taxpayers whose money is spent to rescue wealthy bankers. That’s even more important now when the next financial crisis seems to be on the horizon, with central banks preparing for new interest rate cuts and planning for more quantitative easing. Just as Greta points out, the funds are there and they are definitely more needed elsewhere. Supporting the limiting of factors that lead to intensified climate change is worth more than financing policies which simply postpone the problems of the traditional financial system for the next generations to solve. While inventing Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto must have thought about these matters. We know the creator of the world’s first decentralized cryptocurrency inscribed into the genesis block the Times headline “Chancellor on Brink of Second Bailout for Banks” from the Jan. 3, 2009 issue. It’s difficult to know exactly why Satoshi did so, but he was likely worried about the continued wasting of people’s money on saving failed corporations that under normal market conditions would have been left to go bankrupt, just like thousands of homebuyers, for instance. If a decade later, with another crisis approaching, you are more convinced about the need for a financial alternative to fiat money and want to invest in cryptocurrencies, you can do so safely and securely by purchasing bitcoin cash and other major coins at buy.Bitcoin.com. To freely trade your crypto assets, visit our noncustodial, peer-to-peer marketplace local.Bitcoin.com, which already has thousands of users around the world. Also, check out our newly launched premier trading platform exchange.Bitcoin.com. Registered users can access it right now and over 10,000 have already signed up. Do you think the world would have enough money to adequately address the problems of climate change if it didn’t spend so much on bank bailouts? Share your thoughts on the subject in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Do you need a reliable bitcoin mobile wallet to send, receive, and store your coins? Download one for free from us and then head to our Purchase Bitcoin page where you can quickly buy bitcoin with a credit card. The post Greta Thunberg Joins Satoshi in Questioning Bank Bailouts appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Cryptocurrency mining leaders to speak include: Jihan Wu (Bitmain Co-Founder), John Ge (Matrixport CEO), Marco Streng (Genesis Mining CEO), and more. HONG KONG, JULY, 30 2019 – The World Digital Mining Summit (WDMS) hosted by Bitmain – the world’s top 10 and China’s second largest fabless chipmaker – is set to return on 8-10 October in Frankfurt with a focus towards industry investment and innovation for the mining sector. The second edition of the WDMS will expand its mining agenda to include various financial solutions into digital mining, mining optimization solutions, and showcase top mining and blockchain companies. Over the two-day mining summit, attendees will have the opportunity to undertake workshops, hear keynote speeches from the industry’s leading minds, and meet new and old acquaintances from the mining industry. Thought leaders confirmed to speak include Jihan Wu (Bitmain Co-Founder), John Ge (Matrixport CEO), Marco Streng (Genesis Mining CEO), amongst others. A full and updated list can be found here. The 2019 WDMS will also provide attendees a chance to network with key industry decision makers, mining experts, investors and entrepreneurs. The summit comes at an important time for the development of the cryptocurrency mining industry as the sector matures and demand for new and innovative ways to enhance digital mining grows. WDMS continues to be the ideal setting for global miners to gather, share ideas and shape the future of the mining industry. The full event agenda and ticket details for attendees can be found here. Members of the press can apply for a pass by sending an email to media@miningconf.org Supporting Link https://blog.bitmain.com/en/category/bitmain-news/ The post PR: Bitmain Announces Highly Anticipated World Digital Mining Summit appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

A member of the upper house of the Indian parliament has given the crypto community some advice on what can be done to influence the government’s crypto decisions. He encourages anyone to reach out to him and discuss their concerns, including issues related to the draft bill to ban cryptocurrencies in India. His words and suggestions have given the crypto community hope. Also read: India’s Popular ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’ Show Gives Crypto a Boost Rajya Sabha MP Ready to Discuss Crypto Indian Member of Parliament (MP) Rajeev Chandrasekhar has given the crypto community some advice in Tuesday’s episode of the Blockworks Group’s Untold Stories podcast. He discussed various crypto-related topics, ranging from the Indian government’s policies and the draft bill to ban cryptocurrencies to the banking restrictions by the central bank and the supreme court hearing. The MP is scheduled to meet with some members of the Indian crypto community next week. Chandrasekhar is a member of Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the parliament of India, and the ruling party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He represents the state of Karnataka, of which Bengaluru is the capital. BJP MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar During the podcast, the MP was asked about the report and draft bill to ban cryptocurrencies, submitted by an interministerial committee headed by former Secretary of the Department of Economic Affairs Subhash Chandra Garg. The question came from Nischal Shetty, CEO of local crypto exchange Wazirx, who was a guest on the podcast. He informed the MP that this bill proposes a ban on cryptocurrencies in India without involving or consulting any industry experts. “Can we expect industry participation to make the report more positive, and better for our crypto ecosystem in India?” the CEO asked the MP. “Those of you, who have a view on crypto and believe that there is sufficient room, in the public policy space, for the policies to evolve and be inclusive of innovation, and at the same time, address the security and other concerns. They should just reach out to me,” Chandrasekhar replied, elaborating: I have the ability to create, let us say, documents with your inputs, and have that presented either in parliament or to the government. “So, don’t worry about what goes on in government, and that is one particular point of view,” he remarked. “India is a fairly vibrant democracy in the sense that you can still approach people like me, and evolve an alternate view and have that alternate view be discussed, narrated, and debated within government. I can do that, you know, I’d encourage you to reach out to me.” First Step to Influencing Government’s Policies Chandrasekhar further detailed how anyone can get in touch with elected representatives and discuss their concerns, adding that many are already doing so on all kinds of issues. He reiterated that India is a vibrant democracy and there are many MPs like him who would listen. Many of them can be contacted via Twitter or Facebook; some have even posted their mobile numbers online, he said. The MP proceeded to encourage the crypto community to reach out and meet with him to discuss their concerns, declaring: I actively encourage people to come, sit with me, and believe in my ability to articulate their positions, and their points of view to people in government and their leadership of the government, and hopefully persuade them to do the right thing. As for the pending crypto case at the country’s supreme court, he admitted that he has not studied the case and has only read about it in media reports. Nonetheless, the MP emphasized: “I’m happy to look at it, I’m happy to even suggest an approach that is workable, if there is any room for that. I am happy to engage. I never say no to having a conversation with anybody on any issues related to technology.” Sathvik Vishwanath, CEO of local crypto exchange Unocoin, tweeted that he felt “super pumped” after listening to Chandrasekhar. He is scheduled to meet the MP next week. Noting that the lawmaker “acknowledges innovation and can also influence policymaking,” Vishwanath is now convinced: Banning need not be the destiny of crypto in India. MP Wants to Help Crypto Community Shetty is also meeting Chandrasekhar next week to further discuss the issue concerning crypto regulation in India. He has also been running an “India Wants Crypto” social media campaign, calling for positive crypto regulation in the country. The campaign has entered its 315th day. Besides being an MP, Chandrasekhar is an entrepreneur with experience in technology, finance, entrepreneurship, and the economy. He founded BPL Mobile in 1994 and Jupiter Capital in 2005. The latter is an investment and financial services firm headquartered in Bangalore, with a presence in nine countries. Bangalore, known as a high-tech hub of India, ranked number one in the country for crypto jobs, according to job listing site Indeed. In 2006, Chandrasekhar was elected to the Rajya Sabha to represent Urban Bengaluru, after serving on several committees including the Prime Minister’s Council on Trade and Development. He has also been on various standing and select committees of parliament including defense, finance, telecom, urban development, GST, and real estate. The MP has advocated and intervened on issues such as governance and regulatory reforms, policymaking, institution building, freedom of speech, net neutrality, privacy, protection of children, national security and the welfare of the armed forces personnel. Wazirx CEO Nischal Shetty Shetty told news.Bitcoin.com Wednesday: He said he wants to help. And the best thing is that he’s previously helped with net neutrality in India and with making privacy laws better for people. I’m looking forward to the meeting and knowing his background I’m confident he’ll help us. “He has a tech background and that will help crypto immensely as he understands technology really well,” the Wazirx CEO elaborated. “He has been an entrepreneur who has been instrumental in the telecom revolution of India. It is natural for him to understand cutting edge technologies such as crypto. We’re going to discuss the way forward with him, get his inputs and chart out our next path under his guidance.” Chandrasekhar Asked RBI to Develop Framework The Rajya Sabha MP has previously urged the government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to develop a framework to handle new innovations and trends. In December 2016, he wrote a letter to the late Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, detailing some issues he expected to emerge as the government and the RBI moved to increasingly digitize the Indian economy. Particularly, he suggested that the banking and payments ecosystem would need to be transformed. Citing a surge in domestic bitcoin trade, a “move of black economy to the dark internet,” and how “The surveillance and policing requirements are challenging,” he wrote: I suspect the government and RBI are ill-equipped currently to deal with this … I am drawing your attention to the need to be ahead of the curve on this rather than behind and so the RBI must develop the capabilities on this urgently. However, the duo did not create any framework. The RBI and the Ministry of Finance independently dealt with the rising interest in cryptocurrencies by issuing several warnings to the public about the risks associated with them. When interest did not wane, the central bank issued a circular, banning regulated financial institutions from providing services to crypto businesses. The ban went into effect in July last year, and banks subsequently closed the accounts of crypto exchanges, forcing some of them out of business. Chandrasekhar shared his thoughts on why the RBI decided to issue a banking ban instead of setting up a framework to deal with crypto assets. He asserted that there are two ways of addressing a problem in any governmental system. One is to stay ahead of the curve, which he said is hard for a government to do, while the other is to shut down the threat. While maintaining that he himself does not want “innovation to be trampled by a paranoid approach to regulation,” the MP acknowledged that the RBI has chosen this path. During last month’s supreme court hearing of the writ petitions against the RBI ban, the court gave the central bank two weeks to answer the representation filed by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) regarding measures crypto exchanges could take. The hearing is scheduled to resume on Sept. 25. Do you think the Indian crypto community will succeed in convincing the government to introduce positive crypto regulation with the help of MP Chandrasekhar? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, and Nischal Shetty. 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 Indian Lawmaker Raises Hope of Positive Crypto Regulation appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article