roadrunner

The grassroots yellow vest movement in France has been participating in protests for weeks on end. Just recently, high profile yellow vest members have been promoting a “bank run” on financial institutions and automated teller machines in Paris. According to reports, the scheduled bank run began in phases, the first of which started on Jan. 12 and since then a few ATMs have been shut down due to “glitches” while some banking offices have allegedly closed shop temporarily. Also Read: Embracing Utility in 2019: Unreliable Crypto Networks Will Lose to Hyperbitcoinization Reports of ATM Glitches and Bank Closures Spread After Yellow Vest Movement’s Bank Run Begins Over the last nine weeks, Gilets Jaunes, otherwise known as the yellow vest movement, have caused quite a stir in regions like Bordeaux and Paris, France. The political movement has been upset about high taxes, fraudulent banking practices, and a higher cost of living. Protesters specifically blame bureaucrats like the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, and the French banking system. A few high profile yellow vest leaders have been promoting a run on French banks and ATMs in order to show the opposition they mean business. A bank run occurs when a large number of customers of a bank withdraw their deposits simultaneously, which can easily threaten a bank’s solvency. For instance, the bank run proposals have been called the “Tax Collectors’ Referendum” and French activists Tahz San and Maxime Nicolle, also known as “Fly Rider,” have been telling protestors in videos to withdraw their funds on Saturday. The activists say people should continue to “scare the banks” without any violent provocation. One of the videos has since been scrubbed from the Youtube platform. A bank run occurs when a large number of customers of a bank withdraw their deposits simultaneously which can threaten a bank’s solvency. “For Act IX, we will scare this state legally and without any violence and through the Référendum des percepteurs [Tax Collectors’ Referendum],” explained one of the yellow vest members on Youtube. “We all know that the power of a country is not in the hands of the government but in those of the banks — If the banks weaken, the state weakens immediately.” Maxime Nicolle added: On Saturday, at 8 a.m. we will all vote by withdrawing our money. A dismantled ATM in Bordeaux, France. News.Bitcoin.com spoke with a correspondent residing in France, who wished to remain anonymous, who said the Gilets Jaunes have been pressing people to run on the banks. “They [yellow vest participants] said to scare the government and go to the ATMs and withdraw the most money as possible,” a person familiar with the matter told our newsdesk Tuesday. Interestingly enough on Saturday reports of ATMs having “glitches” and alleged “bank closures” were described by the journalist Gilbert du Motier. The reporter explained that the glitches were similar to the situation in Greece a few years ago when banks implemented withdrawal limits of 60 euros per person. According to the report, the French government is also planning to implement withdrawal restrictions as well as laws to make sure the protests end. Photo of an out of service ATM in France after Saturday’s scheduled bank run phases. While discussions of a massive bank run heat up, many Bitcoin proponents have been vocally supporting the run on these financial institutions and hope the money will funnel into the crypto economy. High profile cryptocurrency advocates like Max Keiser and many others have been telling their Twitter followers the French should buy bitcoin. One thing for certain is that if thousands or millions of French activists simply removed their funds from their bank accounts then the “fractional reserve” banking scheme used in France would be exposed, along with many of its EU extensions. Bitcoin, on the other hand, cannot be stopped by a central banking system as financial executives and bureaucrats like Macron are powerless to limit withdrawals or produce systemwide technical glitches on account of the cryptocurrency’s decentralized design. What do you think of the yellow vest movement’s proposed bank run phases? Do you think they should move funds into cryptocurrencies? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. Image credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Lucas Barioulet, Gilbert du Motier, and Pixabay. At Bitcoin.com there’s a bunch of free helpful services. For instance, have you seen our Tools page? You can even lookup the exchange rate for a transaction in the past. Or calculate the value of your current holdings. Or create a paper wallet. And much more. The post French ATM Glitches and Bank Closures Reported After Scheduled Bank Run appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

On Jan. 8, the World Trade Organization (WTO) published a dispute settlement request that was filed by the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela with regards to executive orders and sanctions maintained by the United States that target Venezuela and the nation’s cryptocurrency, the petro. The document was filed with the WTO on Dec. 28. Also Read: Malaysia Starts Regulating Cryptocurrencies Today Venezuela Files WTO Request for Consultation With the United States Regarding Sanctions The document, titled “United States — Measures relating to trade in goods and services,” has revealed that the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela seeks consultation with the United States regarding “certain measures imposed by the United States in relation to trade in goods and services,” including sanctions that target Venezuela’s oil-backed cryptocurrency, the petro. The measures in question include an executive order from 2015 that blocked property and suspend the entry of “certain persons contributing to the situation in Venezuela,” and subsequent executive orders issued in 2017 and 2018 that further target the Venezuelan economy. Venezuela asserts that the U.S. sanctions breach the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994 and the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). United States Accused of Imposing Discriminatory Trade Measures on ‘Venezuelan Digital Economy’ The request asserts that the U.S. has unilaterally imposed “coercive trade-restrictive measures … on the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela,” including “Discriminatory coercive trade-restrictive measures with respect to transactions in Venezuelan digital currency.” Venezuela claims that the US sanctions subject Venezuelan financial service supplies to treatment that is “less favorable than that accorded to like services and service suppliers of WTO Member States not subject to the measures.” The document states that “inasmuch as digital currencies originating in the United States are not subject to the same prohibitions as Venezuelan digital currencies, the United States is according less favorable treatment to Venezuelan financial services and service suppliers than to like domestic financial services and service suppliers, in violation of Article XVII:1 of the GATS.” The request seeks the “modification, replacement or amendment” of the aforementioned U.S. sanctions targeting Venezuela. What is your reaction to Venezuela filing a consultation request with the World Trade Organization regarding U.S. sanctions targeting the Venezuelan digital economy? Share your thoughts in the comments section below! Images courtesy of Shutterstock At Bitcoin.com there’s a bunch of free helpful services. For instance, have you seen our Tools page? You can even lookup the exchange rate for a transaction in the past. Or calculate the value of your current holdings. Or create a paper wallet. And much more. The post Venezuela Files Complaint With WTO Regarding US Sanctions Targeting Petro appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Over the last two years, as cryptocurrencies gained mainstream attention, scammers have become far more prevalent. One particular social media scam that can be found on prominent websites like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram is the impersonation of well-known crypto industry executives and blockchain luminaries. Unfortunately even a verified account means nothing these days and these giant corporations have allowed fraudulent acts to flourish giving criminals the opportunity to rake in millions. Also read: Analysis: Using Technical Indicators to Trade Crypto in 2019 Rampant Crypto Impersonation Continues to Plague Social Media Channels We’ve heard all about the milestones in 2018 and all the crazy cryptocurrency market action but one thing that happened and pulled in record revenues last year was social media impersonation. Miscreants were allowed to flourish in great number, creating phony Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook profiles. They have copied profiles such as Vitalik Buterin, John McAfee, Elon Musk, Barry Silbert, Erik Voorhees, and many more. They have even cloned businesses such as the Binance Exchange, and other major cryptocurrency infrastructure providers. A fake Elon Musk account scamming Twitter users for ETH on a Donald Trump tweet. Notice that another phony Elon account had liked the tweet and a fake Vitalik profile as well. The swindlers usually present a “giveaway promotion” asking a user to send 1 ETH in return for 10 ETH but these addresses never see any outgoing transmissions. Other copycat chisellers actually pretend they are well-known individuals and message people directly asking for money in exchange for phony services. All of the major social media platforms have been riddled with impersonation scammers and even when provided with evidence of wrongdoing and proof of a verified account these corporations have yet to produce results. A phony John McAfee profile scamming for ETH on Twitter. Last February, social media cryptocurrency community member impersonators were making $5,000 a night in ethereum on Twitter. By the summer of 2018, it was recorded that millions of dollars worth of digital assets were taken from impersonation scams. On June 9 John Backus reported that 468 known scammer addresses collected 8,148 ETH which was worth $4.9 million at the time. Vitalik Buterin begs the cryptocurrency community not to trust impersonators. One particular person sent $18,000 to a fake Erik Voorhees account. Even the Maltese Prime Minister was impersonated by scam peddlers last August. Lots of Good Samaritan crypto users have flagged some of the known addresses with a message that says “Fake Phishing.” The CEO of Bitcoin.com and other members of the company (including the author of this post) have been impersonated by scammers on social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Bitcoin.com’s CEO Roger Ver shares a list of copy cat impersonators who fraudulently use his name and profile pictures still to this day. Verified Accounts and Evidence Does Nothing As Fraudulent Twitter, Facebook and Instagram Profiles Continue to Scam for Millions After submitting screenshots of these malicious scoundrels in action and even sending in identification, these companies still do not delete these accounts. Last summer I had submitted daily complaints to Twitter concerning impersonators and evidence of the wrongdoing and all the platform did was send an auto-response. Even though Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey (a Bitcoin supporter and Lightning Network investor) promised to get rid of these scams they haven’t stopped and impersonation is still rampant on the social media platform. In fact, it takes weeks and help from multiple friends reporting these impersonators or otherwise, the social media giants will do nothing. Even at the end of 2018, after Twitter CEO promised users the platform would crack down on these accounts, they continued to be prevalent. Wired columnist Nicole Kobie explained the situation in great detail on Nov. 17 stating: Verified Twitter accounts – including Google’s G-Suite and Matalan – are getting hacked and pretending to be Elon Musk. The bitcoin scams are making thousands but why can’t Twitter do anything about them? Instead of dealing with obvious fraudulent activities, even when users verify their accounts, the social media giants have spent millions on annoying cosmetic updates, censoring and deplatforming right-wing pundits, and sold people’s profile data to firms like Cambridge Analytica. A portion of crypto investors lost significant sums of money after last year’s digital asset market volatility, and alternatively, copycat social media profiles did extremely well scamming people. What do you think about the fraudulent impersonation scams on social media platforms? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. Images via Shutterstock, Twitter, and Bitcoin.com’s CEO Roger Ver. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Crypto Impersonation Scammers on Social Media Raked in Millions in 2018 appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The St. Louis branch of the Federal Reserve bank has published a report seeking to examine the long-term prospects of BTC as an investment. The paper is highly critical of bullish outlooks for bitcoin, asserting that a “flood” of altcoins will deflate the price of all cryptocurrencies relative to fiat currencies over time. Also Read: Marshall Islands Updates 2019 Roadmap for Sovereign Cryptocurrency Economic Research Arm of St. Louis Federal Reserve Assesses Bitcoin’s Prospects The St. Louis Federal Reserve has published a paper that seeks to assess the prospects of bitcoin as a long-term investment. According to the paper, the bullish argument for bitcoin core is that it will appreciate “indefinitely” due to its “capped supply and an ever-growing demand.” The bearish case for bitcoin, the St. Louis fed asserts, is that “Bitcoin’s price will fall to zero, as it’s an intrinsically worthless asset.” Ultimately, the paper predicts that the future price action for bitcoin is likely to remain bounded between the aforementioned “extremes.” St. Louis Fed Argues ‘Ever-Expanding’ Altcoin Supply Will Diminish Bitcoin Prices The St. Louis Federal Reserve describes the bitcoin bull scenario as “too optimistic,” emphasizing the expectation that the “ever-expanding supply of alternative cryptocurrencies” will drive down the price of BTC relative to fiat currencies. The paper asserts that the bullish outlook for bitcoin “assumes that the nominal exchange rate between bitcoin vis-a-vis other cryptocurrencies will adjust in proportion to their relative supplies,” adding that “Bitcoin is expected to appreciate relative to its competitors or, equivalently, its market capitalization share will stay constant over time.” St. Louis Federal Reserve Claims Bitcoin ‘Has No Fundamental Value’ The bearish outlook is predicated on the assertion that “Bitcoin has no fundamental value” and that the market will “recognize this fact” sooner or later. While appearing to make concessions for the possibility that bitcoin will not crash down to zero, the paper notes that “one can accept that bitcoin trades above its fundamental value without claiming that its fundamental value is zero,” adding that “many securities trade above what might be considered their fundamental value.” In concluding, the paper asserts that the price dynamic of an unbacked asset will likely produce significant volatility and is “inherently unforecastable.” While the St. Louis Federal Reserves adds that the price of bitcoin is “not likely” to fall to zero, the paper repeatedly emphasizes the authors’ expectation that the proliferation of altcoins “is likely to place significant downward pressure on the purchasing power of all cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin.” What is your response to the St. Louis Federal Reserve’s predictions regarding the long-term outlook for bitcoin? Share your thoughts in the comments section below! Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Wikipedia At Bitcoin.com there’s a bunch of free helpful services. For instance, have you seen our Tools page? You can even lookup the exchange rate for a transaction in the past. Or calculate the value of your current holdings. Or create a paper wallet. And much more. The post St. Louis Federal Reserve Predicts ‘Flood’ of Altcoins Will Drive Down BTC Prices appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

IBM recently unveiled its Q System One at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2019, with the company describing the quantum computer as being developed for “commercial use.” Despite numerous media outlets again decrying the imminent death of Bitcoin, IBM’s quantum system is not the game-changer that many are heralding it to be. Also Read: Japanese Regulator Clarifies Stance on Bitcoin ETFs and Derivatives IBM Unveils Quantum Computing System IBM’s commercial launch of its new quantum computing system has fueled reports claiming that the technology may spell doom for bitcoin and cryptocurrency. The reports are based on a long-standing fear that the advent of quantum computing could break contemporary encryption practices, undermining the security of distributed ledger technologies. The Q System One uses IBM’s 20-qubit chip, with the company claiming that the unit is “designed for commercial use.” At launch, Arvind Krishna, director of IBM Research, described the system as “critical in expanding quantum computing beyond the walls of the research lab as we work to develop practical quantum applications for business and science.” Despite IMB implying that the computer can be physically purchased, the device is only accessible via the cloud due to the extreme delicacy and climate required to operate quantum chips. According to Gizmodo, IBM also “already offers cloud-based access to its [quantum] experience, which includes the 20-qubit chip.” Experts Doubt Practical Uses for IBM’s 20-Qubit System While a number of analysts have noted the commercial significance of IBM’s Q System One, many onlookers are skeptical of the capabilities of the system, instead suggesting that 50-qubit chips are likely to have a greater array of practical applications. Helmut Katzgraber, principal researcher at Microsoft Quantum, similarly described IBM’s announcement as a “historical milestone to be able to commercially acquire a digital device, even though the technology,” but anticipates that the system will be of little use beyond research and PR. IBM Q System One Comprises Commercial Rather Than Computational Milestone Despite describing the increasing accessibility of quantum computing as “significant,” Andrew Childs, the co-director of the Joint Center for Quantum Information and Computer Science at the University of Maryland, expressed skepticism regarding IBM’s device, stating: “Ultimately though, I think figuring out how to make a lot of low-noise qubits is a lot more important than figuring out how to put them in a beautiful package.” “It’s more like a stepping stone than a practical quantum computer,” stated Winfried Hensinger, professor of quantum technologies at the University of Sussex. “Don’t think of this as a quantum computer that can solve all of the problems quantum computing is known for. Think of it as a prototype machine that allows you to test and further develop some of the programming that might be useful in the future,” he added. What do you think of IBM’s Q System One and the purported threat quantum computing poses to cryptcurrency? Share your thoughts in the comments section below! Images courtesy of Shutterstock, IBM Research At Bitcoin.com there’s a bunch of free helpful services. For instance, have you seen our Tools page? You can even lookup the exchange rate for a transaction in the past. Or calculate the value of your current holdings. Or create a paper wallet. And much more. The post No, IBM’s Quantum Computer Won’t Break Bitcoin appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

A major utility in the U.S. state of Washington, Grant County public utility district, and its commissioners are facing a lawsuit filed by nine cryptocurrency firms. The suit alleges that they “acted inappropriately in creating and approving a new rate that raises electricity costs” for cryptocurrency miners. Also read: Indian Supreme Court Moves Crypto Hearing, Community Calls for Positive Regulations Lawsuit Filed Grant County public utility district (Grant PUD) in Washington state has revealed that nine cryptocurrency firms have filed a lawsuit against it and its commissioners relating to the increased electricity costs imposed on them for mining cryptocurrencies. At a meeting which took place on Jan. 8, the commissioners agreed that “Grant PUD would cover the cost of legal defense for commissioners Tom Flint, Dale Walker and Larry Schaapman, as well as former commissioners Terry Brewer and Bob Bernd, and 10 PUD employees,” the meeting note reads, adding: All are co-defendants in a suit filed against Grant PUD in U.S. District Court of Eastern Washington by nine cryptocurrency-related firms who allege Grant PUD, its commissioners and some employees acted inappropriately in creating and approving a new rate that raises electricity costs for them and other new ‘evolving industry’ customers. Grant PUD serves over 50,510 customers throughout the county, its website claims. According to Ifiberone publication, the utility released a statement about the lawsuit on Thursday. “We are aware of the litigation and plan to file a response to the notice of complaint in federal court before the end of the month.” Higher Rates for Crypto Miners Starting on April 1, cryptocurrency miners will have to pay “the first of a three-year, graduated increase to a new, above-cost electric rate designed to protect Grant PUD from risk and preserve below-cost rates for core customers,” the utility explained. The commissioners of Grant PUD unanimously approved “the new Rate 17 for evolving industries” on Aug. 28, the utility announced at the time. Noting that currently “all Grant PUD customers in the evolving-industry profile are miners of cryptocurrency, including bitcoin,” the PUD detailed: Rate 17 customers will receive a 15-percent increase next year, a 35-percent increase in 2020 and a 50-percent increase in 2021, when the new rate will be fully in effect. Grant PUD revealed when it approved the rate hike that it had received new service inquiries for more than 2,000 megawatts of power since summer 2017. This accounted for “more than three times the electricity needed to power all Grant County homes, farms, businesses and industry” and approximately 75 percent of those requests were from cryptocurrency miners. What do you think of these cryptocurrency miners suing Grant PUD over increased electricity rates? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock and Grant PUD. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post 9 Cryptocurrency Firms Sue Washington State Utility Over 50 Percent Rate Hike appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Despite being just one week old, Izabella Bowles carries great expectations upon her tiny shoulders. The baby, born on Jan. 6, will go to college when she’s older, if parents Wioletta and Peter can help it. What’s more, her future tuition fees will be paid for using what many believe to be the future of money – bitcoin. Also read: Thai Startup Atomicpay Launches Non-Custodial Crypto Payment Platform Wanted: Donors to Support Bitcoin Baby’s College Fund The listing in The Times looks a little different from those adjacent to it on the births, marriages and deaths page. Aside from the prominent black box delineating it, there’s the unusual title – “Bitcoin Baby” – and the string of 33 multi-case letters and numbers running across the bottom. Appearing in the same newspaper from which Satoshi famously derived his encoded genesis block headline (“The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks”), the ad’s placement appears to have been a knowing nod from Izabella’s parents. Just three days earlier, Bitmex used the same British newspaper to take out a double-page ad marking Bitcoin’s 10th anniversary. Izabella’s BTC college fund address While the Bowles family are not the first to attempt to solicit donations for their child’s education, their methodology is certainly novel. There are signs that their college campaign has been successful so far, with little Izabella’s BTC address having amassed 0.84 BTC from 75 transactions in the past few days. Interestingly, the address in question, 1ZAB5XeKMdvax2S8eZT7GQ6Nj4xjbsw1Y, bears more than a passing resemblance to the name of the child who will one day inherit it. Mixed Opinions About the Bitcoin Baby’s Fund With the average cost of a four-year British university education priced at $52,000, Izabella’s fund is already 7 percent of the way there. Given the difficulty associated with manually typing in a bitcoin address, the donations that have arrived so far are likely to have come from the address being shared online rather than extracted from the print edition of The Times. On Reddit, opinion has been divided about the bitcoin baby’s college fund, with one describing the parent’s initiative as a “disguised way to beg.” Others applauded the parents’ ingenuity, but took issue with the fact that the baby’s real-world identity will be forever tied with a BTC address. Predicting how much bitcoin will be worth 18 years from now is all but impossible. If past performance is anything to go by, however, Izabella’s 0.84 BTC might already be enough to fund her college tuition in 2037. What are your thoughts on the bitcoin baby’s college fund? Should her parents be applauded or criticized for their actions? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock and Reddit. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Newspaper Ad Seeks Donations for Bitcoin Baby’s College Fund appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

In today’s edition of The Daily, we feature a couple of stories that show how, despite the current downturn in the cryptocurrency markets, different locations in the U.S. are competing to attract the industry. We also cover a new bitcoin investment trust application with the SEC and a rebranding of a crypto exchange. Also Read: Bitwise Asset Management Files With SEC for New Bitcoin ETF NYC to Launch Blockchain Center The New York City Economic Development Corporation has announced it has selected Future\Perfect Labs and Global Blockchain Business Council Future to launch and operate the NYC Blockchain Center meant to help foster the continued growth of the local industry. The center will be located in the Chelsea neighborhood where it will provide entrepreneurs with a working shared space, business support, and access to mentors. It will also provide access to public education resources about blockchain technology to all New Yorkers. Additionally, the center is said to bring together industry, government, investors, innovators and academia to discuss how the city can foster a regulatory environment that will support both consumer safety and innovation in blockchain. “We are seeing increasing startup activity amongst our students in the blockchain and crypto sectors across NYU. We are excited about the addition of the NYC Blockchain Center to the NYC tech ecosystem and look forward to collaborating,” commented Frank Rimalovski, Executive Director at NYU Entrepreneurial Institute. Wyoming Advances Industry-Friendly Bills The State of Wyoming is continuing to advance the creation of a local legal framework meant to attract crypto businesses. In recent days, members of the State Legislature have reportedly passed two new industry-friendly bills, a critical part of the process of enacting them as law. The Wyoming Utility Token Act-property amendments bill is meant for legally establishing that certain tokens are properly classified as intangible personal property under Wyoming law and, therefore, do not require an exemption from securities laws. The Financial Technology Sandbox Act is meant for creating a legal sandbox for the testing of financial products and services in Wyoming. The bill notes that: “The state of Wyoming currently offers one of the best business environments in the United States for blockchain and financial technology innovators, and should offer a regulatory sandbox for these innovators to develop the next generation of financial technology products and services in Wyoming.” New Bitcoin Investment Trust Seeks SEC Approval Wilshire Phoenix is an investment management firm from New York which partnered with Coinbase a few months ago to establish a $500 million fund meant to offer institutional investors exposure to digital assets. On Friday, the company announced, as the sponsor of the United States Bitcoin and Treasury Investment Trust, that the trust has filed a registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) relating to the proposed initial public offering of its common shares. According to the announcement, the purpose of this trust is to seek to provide investors with exposure to Bitcoin in a manner that is more efficient, convenient and less volatile than purchasing stand-alone Bitcoin. The trust will only hold BTC, short-term duration U.S. Treasury Bills and/or dollars, in proportions that seek to closely replicate the exposure of a custom index to Bitcoin. HBUS Cryptocurrency Exchange Rebranded as Huobi Huobi Group has announced that HBUS, its American strategic partner which launched in San Francisco last year, has licensed its brand and rebranded the digital asset marketplace with the Huobi name. “From a branding perspective, it simply makes sense to ensure that the Huobi name is present in the United States,” said Huobi Group Founder and CEO Leon Li. “This transition will allow Huobi to extend its brand presence around the globe.” HBUS Holdco Inc. will continue to be the company operating the U.S. trading platform but it will migrate its trading platform to huobi.com, which will be open to U.S. users. Huobi Global will continue to serve the international market under its own name at hbg.com. “The name ‘Huobi’ is a powerful brand in the digital asset world, representing dependability and security for more than half a decade. HBUS’s enhanced partnership with Huobi Group will also bring with it a reputable brand that will help HBUS increase trading,” said Frank Fu, CEO of HBUS. “Leveraging our exclusive partnership with Huobi Group in this way will allow us to grow the Huobi brand together.” What do you think about today’s news tidbits? Share your thoughts in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Verify and track bitcoin cash transactions on our BCH Block Explorer, the best of its kind anywhere in the world. Also, keep up with your holdings, BCH and other coins, on our market charts at Satoshi’s Pulse, another original and free service from Bitcoin.com. The post The Daily: NYC to Launch Blockchain Center, Wyoming Advances Industry-Friendly Bills 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. Tired of blockchain projects that hoard your money without delivery? Fed up with the infinitesimal winning chance of traditional lotteries? What if there’s a Lottery even you can win? Not just chances, but also predictable income. Now, there is a Blockchain Lottery that doesn’t hoard your money, but actually redistributes almost ALL incoming Ether back at lucky players. And there are four ways to make money from it. Are you ready to Fomo-2-Moon? On Fomo2Moon (F2M), in each Lottery round, you can buy Tickets to win Grand Prizes of up to 6,000 Ether in total, and Side Prizes of up to 3,000 Ether in total. It’s super simple: you buy Tickets, wait for the 1 of the 2 countdown clocks to reach zero and, bingo, some lucky you win! The best thing is, besides chances, every round you can also earn predictable income by buying Tickets very early each round, for up to 300% return; buying Tokens anytime for dividend income and expected profit after 30 days; helping your friends join to earn commission; checking the website when a round ends to claim bounties, for up to 100 Ether in total. This might be the beginning of a revolution called “Making Money On-Blockchain” (or MMO-B). But how much it takes to join? Only a bread’s worth of $0.2. Plus you need to install Metamask or Trustwallet. Above all, this might be the only Lottery you can trust. Because you don’t need to trust any Human. This is a decentralized application (DApp) so you only need to trust the immutable code deployed on the Ethereum network. Have you heard of Fomo3D? It’s a Mega-Millions on Blockchain, and a massive success in 2018, with its smart contracts handling over 500,000 Ether! Unfortunately, Fomo3D is already past its glory, following a series of shortcomings. Such shortcomings have been overcome by Seizo Noneed Team with a series of innovations to make Fomo2Moon a fairer, more advanced, exciting, and sustainable Blockchain Lottery. Each Lottery round’s prizes come from a portion of the previous round. Round 1 prizes are funded from the token purchases in Round Zero, when dividend Tokens will be offered in a very limited quantity equivalent to 800 Ether (purchases capped at 1 Ether per account) and at the lowest price (around one fourth of the price when Round 1 begins). Please check the website https://Fomo2Moon.io to subscribe for newsletters and count down until Round Zero by January 15, 2019. Meanwhile, please read the documents, watch the videos inside, and communicate on our channels. Document: https://bit.ly/F2MdocEnglish Telegram: https://t.me/Fomo2Moon Discord: https://discord.gg/w3sfJ3b Contact Email Address seizo.noneed@gmx.com Supporting Link https://t.me/Fomo2Moon 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: Fomo2Moon – A Blockchain Lottery for Everyone appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Japan’s top financial regulator has clarified to news.Bitcoin.com its stance on bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), cryptocurrency derivatives, and upcoming regulatory changes. This follows reports that the agency may be considering approving an ETF that tracks cryptocurrencies. Also read: Indian Supreme Court Moves Crypto Hearing, Community Calls for Positive Regulations Bitcoin ETFs and Derivatives Following recent reports claiming that Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) may be considering approving one or more bitcoin ETFs, news.Bitcoin.com asked the country’s top financial regulator to confirm its plan regarding this type of investment instrument. A spokesperson for the agency clarified on Friday: There is no such fact that we are considering approving ETFs which track crypto-assets at present … we are not currently considering approving them. The FSA also confirmed its position on cryptocurrency derivatives. Regarding “the listing of bitcoin futures on the financial instruments market,” the regulator said, “We are not considering that at present.” The agency explained its reasoning to news.Bitcoin.com, stating that based on findings of the Study Group on the Virtual Currency Exchange Services: Taken it into consideration that it is difficult for us to find constructive and social significance of trading crypto-assets derivatives at present, we think that there is no need for trading crypto-assets derivatives at financial instruments exchanges where many market participants are able to trade. New Regulatory Direction The FSA has recently published newly-proposed rules for crypto operators based on discussions and conclusions from 11 study group meetings. Self-regulation will play a major part in the ecosystem. In October, the agency approved the Japan Virtual Currency Exchange Association (Jvcea) as a self-regulatory organization (SRO). The association is expected to “perform self-regulatory functions in a flexible manner, considering issues we have identified so far,” the agency told news.Bitcoin.com. The FSA proceeded to outline the issues it expects the SRO to focus on. They are “insufficient risk assessment of crypto assets to be handled, inappropriate sales of crypto assets issued by providers themselves, excessive advertisement, over-emphasis on profit generation, no check and balance by directors and auditors, no internal audit, insufficient internal management control, insufficient AML/CFT measures and segregation of customer asset, and reluctance to disclose corporate information.” ICO Regulation Coming Soon When Japan legalized cryptocurrencies as a means of payment in April 2017, initial coin offerings (ICOs) and their tokens were not included. However, with the growing interest in token sales as a fundraising method, the FSA has turned its attention to the matter. The agency recently published a document outlining key areas which will be addressed in upcoming regulations. The FSA will focus on “investment-type ICOs” and will “clarify that soliciting investments by funding virtual currency is subject to financial regulations,” the document reads. Specifically, “When soliciting 50 or more investors,” the agency plans to “require the issuer to provide public disclosure initially and subsequently.” Brokers and dealers of investment-type ICOs will be regulated “on the same level as securities firms.” They will be required to “examine the business and financial conditions of the issuer.” Furthermore, both the current “unfair trading regulations” and rules to prevent insider trading will apply. There will also be restrictions on “solicitation to retail investors in the same manner as the restriction on unlisted stocks.” For other types of ICOs, the FSA plans to require crypto exchanges that deal with them “to provide information including the feasibility of the project.” What do you think of Japan’s approach to cryptocurrency regulation? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Japanese Regulator Clarifies Stance on Bitcoin ETFs and Derivatives appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Malaysia’s government still hasn’t made up its mind on what to do with cryptocurrencies. The country’s finance minister last year warned companies not to issue new tokens, while waiting on the central bank to give clear advice. But Malaysia’s Federal Territories Minister this week said that the government is undecided on whether cryptocurrencies are legal or not. Also read: Mongolia’s Cheap Electricity Draws Japanese Bitcoin Miners Seeking Profit A Legal Gray Area Khalid Abdul Samad, Malaysia’s Federal Territories Minister, has said using cryptocurrency is “neither legal nor illegal.” The government is still considering the matter, he added, saying he could not push for a decision to be made. “People have asked me if these currencies are legal or illegal,” local media quoted him as saying. “At the moment, the answer is neither legal nor illegal as the situation is still unclear.” Samad was involved in the invention of the harapan coin – a token invented to raise political funding for Malaysia’s ruling party, Pakatan Harapan, in preparation for the 2019 general elections. The country’s central bank, Bank Negara, still needs to approve the initiative. But despite being a proponent of crypto, Samad said he could not sway the government either way. He added: “Yes, I was involved in the launch of harapan coin. However, I was not appointed as finance minister. Instead, I became federal territories minister. As the matter is not under my jurisdiction, I cannot push too much.” Legislation Being “Put in Place” Malaysia hasn’t been clear on the status of cryptocurrency for some time now. Currently bitcoin and other digital currencies aren’t recognized as legal tender in the country, but as they aren’t banned, individuals or companies trading them are not protected by law. In November last year, Lim Guan Eng, the Finance Minister, gave a warning for people and companies not to issue new cryptocurrencies until the central bank issues legal advice, saying: “Don’t do it without Bank Negara’s guidelines or directive on the matter to avoid doing something wrong and against the law.” He added that the government was open to new forms of virtual money – but only as long as they adhere to the law. Politicians have previously raised concerns over the status of cryptocurrencies in one of south-east Asia’s most prosperous economies, citing concerns that it could pose a threat to the functioning of the national currency, the ringgit. The manner in which the harapan coin raised funds without the approval of the country’s central bank was also a gripe of an MP during a parliamentary session. In December, the country’s central bank and finance regulator issued a statement saying legislation on cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings was being “put in place.” What do you think about Malaysia’s position on bitcoin and cryptocurrencies? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Cryptocurrency Still a Gray Area in Malaysia After Government Deems It ‘Neither Legal nor Illegal’ appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Atomicpay, a Thai-registered payments startup, has officially launched its non-custodial cryptocurrency payment terminal for merchants throughout the world. Founder and developer Benz Rif said the platform, which supports BTC, BCH, LTC and other cryptos, eliminates the involvement of a third-party processor, allowing merchants to accept payments directly from their customers. Also read: Mongolia’s Cheap Electricity Draws Japanese Bitcoin Miners Seeking Profit A P2P Payment Solution With Payment Processor Benefits “Cryptocurrency itself is decentralized, but blockchain payment processors continue to be centralized,” Rif told news.Bitcoin.com on Jan. 12. “This resulted in the same old problems with high processing fees, hidden charges, slow settlements, hacks, foul play, privacy and censorship issues.” The technology behind Atomicpay allows shop owners to obtain immediate custody of funds whenever a user makes payment. The platform does not work as a financial custodian like Paypal or Bitpay, Rif said. From the start to the end of a payment, no funds will go through Atomicpay and neither does the processor hold any funds belonging to retailers. “It is an entirely peer-to-peer payment solution, with the convenience and benefits of a payment processor,” explained Rif. News.Bitcoin.com tried out the platform, whose account creation process proved to be fairly straightforward. Provide a full name and email address, and, once you’ve authenticated your email address, you’re good to go. A wizard on the site helps you set up the wallet addresses of your choice into which payment will be made. Atomicpay is not a wallet service – nor is it an exchange or cryptocurrency swapping service. Rather, it is a payments platform built for merchants, but unlike custodial solutions does not store or hold their money. When everything is set up, the site asks you to generate an invoice, indicating your preferred fiat currency for processing payment (156 fiat currencies are supported). After that, the user is prompted to scan a QR code, or enter an existing bitcoin wallet address where payment is made directly from the wallet to the merchant. Featured payment buttons include Quickpay and Pay URL. More Than 1,700 Merchants Onboarded Benz Rif said more than 1,700 merchants from different parts of the world including Thailand, Venezuela, Turkey and Colombia have been onboarded to the platform. The processing fee is charged at a flat 0.9 percent per transaction, but that can go lower to 0.8 percent with full know-your-customer compliance. Discounts are offered for heavy users. “Atomicpay does not have access to the merchant’s private key and money goes directly to their cold wallet,” Rif noted. “Our service allows merchants to receive payments directly from their customer bypassing a third party, hence fees are not deducted from transactions. Our plans are based on a post-paid charging model. Merchants only pay for their usage at the end of the month.” What do you think about Atomicpay’s crypto payments platform? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Disclaimer: Bitcoin.com does not endorse nor support this product/service. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the mentioned 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 this article. The post Thai Startup Atomicpay Launches Non-Custodial Crypto Payment Platform appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Back in October news.Bitcoin.com reported on the influx of development tied to Drivechain, a project initiated by software developer Paul Sztorc. At the time we also covered the project’s extension applications coded by the programmer Andreas Brekken. One of those applications Brekken conceived allowed any Drivenet coins to be swapped between any blockchain protocol. On Friday, an application called Sideshift.ai was used to demonstrate a bitcoin core (BTC) to tether (USDT) swap using the Lightning Network. Also Read: A Look at Some of the ‘Next Generation’ Bitcoin Mining Rigs Available Today Introducing Sideshift Jan. 11 saw a demonstration of Sideshift.ai, an application that allows users to swap cryptocurrencies between chains. Sideshift was first revealed last year by Andreas Brekken among the suite of applications he created for the Drivechain project. Brekken is the chief executive officer of the review site Shitcoin.com and the infamous coder who once held the most BTC ($220,000) on the Lightning Network last year. The Sideshift platform allows people to convert coins for a small fee with a processing time of under five seconds. Developer Andreas Brekken (right) designed the Sideshift application and made headlines for having one of the largest nodes on the Lightning Network back in July. Brekken is also known for his review website Shitcoin.com. In the demonstration, Sideshift, processes a swap between BTC held on the Lightning Network and tether (USDT) using the Eclair mobile wallet for Android. At the moment the Sideshift application is in its very early stages, but users can experiment with the “test pilot stage.” However, in order to access the testing stage, a special code is required and Sideshift’s Twitter handle will only give codes to eager testers who have a Bitcointalk.org account that’s more than two years old. The Sideshift.ai platform. Furthermore, the Sideshift application is not accessible to residents living in North Korea or the United States. Of course, the U.S. ban is likely due to the overreaching financial laws in the country. U.S. law enforcement agencies and regulators could potentially prosecute individuals and organizations by threatening them with criminal charges for performing financial transactions. Sideshift forbids access to two countries. Cross-Chain Swapping Platforms Are Still Very Experimental In order to view Sideshift, we changed our proxy to an EU-based server and got a glimpse of the platform that operates similarly to Shapeshift, but without involving know-your-customer (KYC) guidelines. Looking at the past transactions recorded on Sideshift’s main page, testers have been swapping very small fractions of cryptocurrencies. Sideshift’s rate table shows the prices of all the cryptocurrencies paired against each other. The platform shows all the currencies that can be swapped, which include BCH, BTC, LTC, ZEC, USDT, XMR, DASH, ETC, ETH, DAI, and SPANK. Sideshift further lists the conversion rates for each digital asset paired against the other listed coins. At the time of publication, the last shift was seven hours ago using the Lightning Network with 0.0003 BTC for 0.008601 ETH. There’s also a swap between 0.0149022 BTC and 0.9805 ZEC that doesn’t involve the Lightning Network. In order to use Sideshift an access code for the test pilot period is required. Over the last few months, after Shapeshift adopted KYC, cryptocurrency enthusiasts have been in search for platforms that offer anonymous crypto swaps. Since then a bunch of digital asset ‘shifting’ applications have popped out of the woodwork. Cross-chain atomic swaps have also been a trending topic among digital currency proponents as many veterans have little trust in third party exchanges. Even though Sideshift does provide quick cross-chain trades, testers should remember the platform is still in its infancy. So those who do obtain the access code from Sideshift administrator should probably only use small fractions of cryptocurrency. What do you think about the Sideshift.ai application? Let us know your thoughts about this subject in the comments section below. Disclaimer: Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the mentioned company or any of its affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com and the author are 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 this article. This editorial is for informational purposes only. Image credits: Shutterstock, Twitter, and Sideshift.ai. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Sideshift App Demonstrates a Trade Between Lightning Network BTC and Tether appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Simon Morris, who was Bittorrent’s chief strategy officer until July 2018, has expressed his doubts about the capability of the Tron blockchain to process the vast number of transactions that the popular file-sharing platform will demand. Morris believes there’s more marketing than technology behind the launch of the new crypto token. Also read: Iran Labels Telegram’s Coin a Threat to National Security BTT Transactions Will Melt Tron’s Blockchain Bittorrent is planning to become one of the first projects to offer its coin on Binance Launchpad, a platform developed by the leading cryptocurrency exchange to facilitate fundraising. The upcoming launch of the Bittorrent Token (BTT), a digital coin based on the Tron protocol, has delighted Tron investors who saw the price of TRX jump from around $0.02 to over $0.03 in the week following the announcement. It has since dropped to almost its previous level. Not everyone is excited about the new crypto, however, as some skeptics doubt the peer-to-peer file-sharing platform needs the tokenization in the first place. After all, it has been operating for years without a dedicated digital coin. Others, like Simon Morris, think a token is a good idea but note that Tron won’t be able to handle the enormous transaction volume that’s needed to tokenize the Bittorrent network. At Bittorrent, Morris was responsible for exploring the potential benefits of the implementation of blockchain technologies and cryptocurrency. In an interview with Breaker Magazine, he shared that when he was the company’s chief strategy officer (CSO), his team realized that tokenization could potentially make the platform significantly faster, for example, though automated auctions to prioritize download queues. The former executive believes Tron is trying to implement a similar concept but he thinks there’s “no way” the capacity of its network would be sufficient. The transactional capacity we were looking at was needing hundreds of transactions a second just to get started. It’s simply not there. You hear all the bullshit out there, oh, this does 10,000 transactions a second. It’s all crap. We were going to melt Tron. Literally destroy it. Marketing Machine on Thin Veneer of Technology Simon Morris expects Tron to proceed with the plan to tokenize Bittorrent, regardless of the outcome, seemingly doing what his team was trying to achieve. “But what’s very clear is that they’re going to say they’re going in the same direction, come what may, because that’s what Tron does … it’s basically a marketing machine layered on a very thin veneer of technology,” he said. The former Bittorrent executive who left the company after its acquisition admits that Tron’s CEO Justin Sun is very strong at marketing: “He has a very nice personality from a marketing point of view. He doesn’t have a technical bone in his body. He wouldn’t understand, technically, anything,” said Bittorrent’s former CSO. That’s why Morris believes that the new BTT coin will be issued on a different platform. “I suspect that what they’re really going to do is they’ll do it on some central server, they’ll wave their hands and say, ‘Oh, it’s a Lightning Network for Tron,’ or something, and pretend it’s Tron-based, but it’s not really Tron-based,” he elaborated. In the interview, Simon Morris talks about the accusations from last year that Tron’s developers released a plagiarized whitepaper and used code without proper attribution. He also claims Tron’s chief executive Justin Sun dismissed his suggestion to admit that’s what happened before moving on. What are you expectations about the tokenization of Bittorrent? Share your thoughts in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Express yourself freely at Bitcoin.com’s user forums. We don’t censor on political grounds. Check forum.Bitcoin.com. The post Tron Can’t Handle Bittorrent’s Transaction Volume, Former Exec Claims appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

How much is one bitcoin worth? In fiat currency terms, that’s a constantly shifting answer, but ever since the beginning, the following has held true: one bitcoin is worth as much as the buyer is willing to pay. Today, that’s likely to be a few thousand dollars, but back in the day, the reverse was more likely to be true: for one dollar, you could buy several thousand bitcoins. Also read: Bitcoin History Part 7: The First Major Hack Calculating Bitcoin’s Exchange Rate Once an asset has a universally agreed exchange rate, tracking its rising and falling price thereafter is a simple matter. But when no one’s really sure what the market is willing to pay for an emerging asset, it can be hard to reach consensus on valuation – especially when there are no exchanges to facilitate price discovery. This was the dilemma that early Bitcoin adopters faced in early 2010. ‘We are in a sort of “chicken and egg” situation at the moment,” noted Bitcointalk forum member The Madhatter. “In order for an exchanger to sell bitcoins … to someone, they need customers who have dollars and want coins … I mean, why would an exchanger sit around and accept bitcoins that are generated on your computers? They are going to just blow out their float of dollars and fold.” A couple of months prior, the first rudimentary exchange rate for BTC had been calculated by influential forum user “NewLibertyStandard” (aka NLS). Their pricing system was based on the amount of energy required to mine BTC – or “BC” as it was still often referred to at the time. A Simple Model to Get the Ball Rolling “New Liberty Standard is doing fantastic and logical work to help ‘set the ball rolling’,” praised forum user “BitcoinFX” on Feb. 5, 2010, adding: “I’m currently compiling a Neural Network model that takes into account other factors such as the finite number of Bitcoins, daily Gold and Silver fixings, other currency pairs and daily exchange rates and the average number of Bitcoin users etc. I’m of course factoring in the New Liberty Standard. This will be a very adaptable model to help calculate and predict future exchange rates and I will share it with our growing community.” Today, the pricing models used to predict future bitcoin prices have become infinitely more sophisticated, but even in 2010, it’s evident that some adopters were thinking beyond mere extraction costs, and trying to envisage a world in which Bitcoin broke away from its power pegged price and attained a value determined by an array of external forces. Bitcoin prices, as quoted on the New Liberty Standard website in 2009 While NLS’ methodology has long since been retired, an archived web page reveals the BTC prices their system set back in 2009, explaining: Our exchange rate is calculated by dividing $1.00 by the average amount of electricity required to run a computer with high CPU for a year, 1331.5 kWh, multiplied by the the average residential cost of electricity in the United States for the previous year, $0.1136, divided by 12 months divided by the number of bitcoins generated by my computer over the past 30 days. In Dec. 28, 2009, according to NLS, $1 would have gotten you 1,578.77 BTC. Not bad. Bitcoin History is a multipart series from news.Bitcoin.com charting pivotal moments in the evolution of the world’s first and finest cryptocurrency. Read part seven here. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Bitcoin History Part 8: When 1,500 BTC Cost Less Than $1 appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

OTC crypto platform Genesis Global Trading has increased its annual trading volume by 50 percent and we’ve got the details in this edition of The Daily. We also feature an announcement by Bittrex which sought to calm traders who spotted 130,000 BTC being moved, and the launch of an offers bot by P2P exchange Hodl Hodl. Also read: Critical Bug Found in Beam Wallet, Wirex Adds Another Cryptocurrency Genesis Trading Reports 50% Increase in OTC Volume Over-the-counter (OTC) digital asset platform Genesis Global Trading has recently reported a 50 percent year-over-year increase in its trading volume, despite the continuing bearish trend on the markets which started last year. In a correspondence to its customers, Genesis also noted that the total of crypto loans it gave to institutional clients has reached almost $1 billion in less than a year since the launch of its lending arm, Genesis Capital. The company began giving loans in bitcoin core (BTC), bitcoin cash (BCH), ethereum (ETH), ripple (XRP), and other cryptocurrencies in March of last year. The entities that borrow the digital money, usually financial institutions such as hedge funds, use the assets to hedge investment positions and against dropping crypto prices. Genesis Global Trading, which is part of crypto entrepreneur Barry Silbert’s Digital Currency Group, is registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). In May 2018, the company was granted Bitlicense approval by the New York Department of Financial Services, which allows it to operate under the strict regulatory regime in the state. Crypto Exchange Bittrex Expands Cold Storage U.S.-based cryptocurrency trading platform Bittrex announced it’s reorganizing and expanding its cold storage. The exchange explained in a tweet that the process results in the moving of funds between its cold wallets. The company published the notice to reassure its customers, who’d observed 130,000 BTC being sent in a single transaction, they had nothing to worry about. The crypto exchange, the 50th most popular by 24-hour trading volume, also made a couple of announcements regarding coins available for trading on its platform. Bittrex users can now trade paxos standard (PAX) with fiat money, after the stablecoin was recently added to its USD market. Unfairly cheap.https://t.co/Cxj2GzVc3d pic.twitter.com/5vjd3jtC1a — Antoine Le Calvez (@khannib) January 11, 2019 “On Jan. 17, we’re launching a US dollar (USD) market for digibyte (DGB). Eligible Bittrex accounts are auto enabled for USD trading,” the platform tweeted on Thursday. In both cases, users who want to deposit or withdraw U.S. dollars via wire transfers should submit an application in advance. Hodl Hodl Introduces Offers Bot Peer-to-per crypto exchange Hodl Hodl has introduced a new feature, in the form of an offers bot. From now on every offer created on the platform will be automatically posted on its Twitter account and Telegram channel, the digital asset trading platform said in a post on Medium. The list of offers will be refreshed every 30 minutes and their maximum number will be three. Private OTC offers will not be posted. “In 2018 we created a separate Twitter account with the idea to connect cryptocurrency buyers and sellers to the latest and best offers at Hodl Hodl. We have operated this Twitter account manually up until now, and we decided to automate this process,” the developers explained this week. They have created a new Twitter account but the name remains the same – @offershodlhodl. In the past months, Latvia-based Hodl Hodl has made a number of announcements about new features, including the introduction of non-custodial OTC trading and support for Russian ruble pairs with BTC and LTC. The exchange is also planning expansion in Asia and recently sealed a partnership agreement with Coins OTC, a company operating in the Asian over-the-counter sector. What are your thoughts on today’s news tidbits? Tell us in the comments section. Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Trading, Hodl Hodl. At Bitcoin.com there’s a bunch of free helpful services. For instance, have you seen our Tools page? You can even lookup the exchange rate for a transaction in the past. Or calculate the value of your current holdings. Or create a paper wallet. And much more. The post The Daily: Genesis Trading Doubles OTC Volume, Bittrex Moves 130,000 BTC appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

A combination of cheap electricity and cold weather has started to draw a growing number of Japanese bitcoin miners to Mongolia, a country sandwiched between China to the south and Russia to the north. Amid falling mining revenues in other regions of the world due to the current crypto bear market, companies that have set up shop in Mongolia have found they can still run profitable mining operations. Also read: China Announces New Regulations for Blockchain Companies to ‘Promote Healthy Development’ Business Environment Harsh But Mongolia Is Still Profitable Tokyo-based e-wallet company Ginco is operating two mining farms in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia’s capital city. One facility is located at an underground structure in a condominium complex .The company launched the business in October, a time when its peers throughout the world were considering winding down operations as a result of declining bitcoin prices, which rendered mining unprofitable. Altogether, Ginco now operates 600 mining machines and is planning to increase that number to 1,000 units in this quarter. “The business environment is increasingly harsh, but we can still produce a profit,” Yuma Furubayashi, chief executive officer of Ginco Mongol, told Japanese publication Nikkei Asian Review on Jan. 11. The market has been unforgiving for companies involved in cryptocurrency mining over the past year. During that period, the price of BTC has plunged more than 80 percent from its all-time high of almost $20,000 in December 2017, leaving some miners on the brink of collapse. Coupled with the price decline, bitcoin extraction is becoming less profitable as a result of the network’s rising hashrate. For example, Japan’s bitcoin mining hardware manufacturer GMO Internet Inc. wound down operations at the end of December after posting a loss of 24 billion yen ($218 million). The company, which will nonetheless continue to mine in-house, also announced that it is moving its mining center to a region with cleaner and less expensive energy. In November, U.S.-based bitcoin mining firm Giga Watt filed for bankruptcy at a court in the Eastern District of Washington, revealing that it still owes its biggest 20 unsecured creditors nearly $7 million. Other medium-sized miners in China were recently forced to sell their mining rigs as scrap, to curb further losses. Mongolia’s Freezing Weather and Cheap Electricity Attract Crowds But with freezing weather and cheap electricity, Mongolia – one of a few countries where bitcoin miners can still generate a profit, along with the U.S. and Sweden – is slowly developing into a destination of choice for Japanese miners. The cooler temperatures help to reduce the need for cooling systems for the mining hardware. Energy costs are a key factor in the profit equation of crypto mining. Electricity prices in Mongolia run at around a third of Japanese rates and lower than in China, which has been home to many crypto miners, the Nikkei Asian Review reported. Another Japanese entity, iTools, began mining operations in Mongolia last summer. It says although the market is down, mining in Mongolia still returns a profit. The company has currently put on hold plans to expand its fleet of mining equipment, but CEO Tamir Bayarsaikhan indicated that the business has the capacity to deepen its expertize in blockchain technologies and create new business. iTools rents its gear from Tokyo-based advertising group Unimedia. Statue of Genghis Khan Crypto mining is an attractive year-around business for companies in Mongolia, whose core industries like mineral mining, agriculture, and tourism slow down during the harsh winter. The government is actively nurturing the country’s information technology sector, noted the article. Last year, the Central Bank of Mongolia approved crypto-friendly legislation, and Mobicom – Mongolia’s largest telecoms network – decided to create its own cryptocurrency, known as “Candy”, whose value is pegged to Mongolia’s fiat currency, the tugrik. This year, Mongolia has just announced a partnership with Terra, a blockchain payment system that is backed by exchanges such as Binance and Houbi. According to a recent Forbes report, the program will launch with two features: a peer-to-peer payment system to allow transfer among users of different banks, as well as a mobile payment system. What do you think about bitcoin mining in Mongolia? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Mongolia’s Cheap Electricity Draws Japanese Bitcoin Miners Seeking Profit appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

It has been over a year since Japan’s Financial Services Agency last approved a cryptocurrency exchange to legally operate in the country. Coincheck, which was hacked early last year, has become the 17th fully-registered crypto exchange in the country. The exchange has made numerous improvements after it was acquired by Monex Group. Also read: Indian Supreme Court Moves Crypto Hearing, Community Calls for Positive Regulations FSA Finally Approves Coincheck Japan’s top financial regulator, the Financial Services Agency (FSA), announced on Friday that it has approved the registration of Coincheck as a cryptocurrency exchange. Under the country’s Payment Service Act, all crypto exchanges must register with the FSA. The exchange’s parent company, Monex Group, also issued a press release on Friday with registration details. The announcement reads: Coincheck Inc … announced today that it has registered with the Kanto Financial Bureau as a cryptocurrency exchange agency in accordance with the Payment Service Act, effective January 11, 2019. According to the FSA’s website, Coincheck handles nine cryptocurrencies: BTC, ETH, ETC, LSK, FCT, XRP, XEM, LTC, and BCH. After it was hacked in January last year, Coincheck suspended certain services “to focus on enhancing governance and internal controls by developing business improvement plans and carrying them out,” the company explained. On Nov. 26, services for tradable cryptocurrencies were resumed including depositing, remitting, purchasing and selling. Coincheck originally applied for registration with the FSA in September 2017. While the regulator approved 16 crypto exchanges throughout that year, it continued to evaluate Coincheck. The exchange was classified as a deemed dealer, which means it was allowed to operate while the FSA reviewed its application. Needed Improvements Made In Friday’s announcement, Coincheck outlined six areas it had addressed in order to comply with the FSA’s registration requirements. The exchange has “improved governance fundamentally,” “revisited the business strategy and ensured customer protection,” “strengthened governance control by the board,” “clarified risks on cryptocurrencies being offered by the company,” “implemented measures on anti-money laundering (AML) and countering the finance of terrorism (CFT),” and “revised organizational structure to ensure validity.” Monex Group made an announcement on Dec. 25, explaining to investors that neither it nor Coincheck offers “cryptocurrency mining-related business including cryptocurrency mining itself.” This clarification followed the announcements by GMO Internet and DMM.com regarding their own mining operations. GMO Internet said it will no longer develop, manufacture, and sell mining machines. DMM.com is reportedly exiting the cryptocurrency mining business altogether. Furthermore, the company assured investors that it “does not conduct cryptocurrency transactions on its own account,” adding: Coincheck Inc. does conduct cover transactions with domestic and overseas cryptocurrency exchanges speedily for the positions that resulted from the selling and buying transactions with customers. The approval of Coincheck comes more than a year after the last cryptocurrency exchange, Bitocean, was approved by the FSA on Dec. 26, 2017. The hack of Coincheck in January prompted the agency to slow down the rate of approvals and began tightening its oversight of crypto exchanges, forcing 13 out of 16 deemed dealers to exit the market. Nonetheless, the FSA told news.Bitcoin.com at the end of last year that more than 190 crypto exchange operators have expressed their intention of market entry. What do you think of the Japanese regulator finally granting registration to Coincheck? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock and Coincheck. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Japan Approves 17th Cryptocurrency Exchange – Its First in Over a Year appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Over the last year, cryptocurrencies have lost a lot of value yet bitcoin miners continue to process transactions and earn block rewards. A bunch of new mining rigs were announced in 2018 that packed some serious hashrate. As the new year begins, some of the top devices that process between 28-76 trillion hashes per second (TH/s) can be now be purchased from ASIC manufacturers and third party vendors. Also Read: Nick Szabo: Central Banks May Turn to Cryptocurrency Reserves Over Gold The Top SHA-256 Mining Rigs of 2019 Last year there was a ton of new mining rig announcements. Many of the new devices announced claimed to have next generation 10 nanometer (nm) and 7nm semiconductors produced by famous chip foundries like Samsung and the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). Other machines purported to offer more efficiency, quieter sound, and some of the mining rigs offered a water cooling system as well. Some new releases didn’t fare so well, like when the Japanese manufacturer GMO Group announced it “will no longer develop, manufacture, and sell mining machines.” Then there was the controversial Halong Mining, a startup that was supposed to be the new up and coming manufacturer in the crypto industry. T the firm was accused of rebranding Innosilicon miners and the company’s website says people who want new machines need to subscribe to a waiting list. The Antminer Hydro uses a water cooling system. Other mining machines like the 8 Nano have also employed water solutions. Then, towards the end of the year, a slew of other mining manufacturers, some of which have been reputable companies for years, announced new machines as well. Now that some of the next generation devices are available to the general public, through either the manufacturer or a trusted vendor, these machines will likely boost the network hashrate significantly. What follows is a preview of the top four mining machines that process large amounts of raw terahash and can be purchased today. Ebang Ebit E11++ Last September news.Bitcoin.com reported on the China-based Ebang Communication announcing its Ebit Miner E-11 series that claimed to boast hashrate speeds between 30-44 trillion hashes per second (TH/s). Right now according to data from Asicminervalue.com, the E11++ miner is the most profitable SHA-256 miner (BCH & BTC) on the market, pulling in $1.12 per day with current bitcoin prices. When the new series was announced last year, the rigs were not available to the general public at the time but the devices can be purchased today directly from the manufacturer. The E11++ miner is $2,024 and the next batch of E11 series units will be delivered by March 2019. The machines boast a DW1228 10nm chip with an ideal hashrate of around 44 TH/s. Moreover, both the E11+ and the E11++ machines’ electrical consumption pull about 1980-2035W from the wall. So far the miner has consistently been the top machine in the world as far as earning daily profits since it was announced, but that may not be the case in March. The company’s two lower tier machines that process 30-37 TH/s are currently sold out. Asicminer 8 Nano The Asicminer 8 Nano is another rig that mines the SHA-256 algorithm at 44 trillion hashes per second. However, the difference between the 8nm equipped miner and Ebang’s E11++ is that the former consumes about 2100W of power. Because of this difference, the Asicminer 8 Nano processes 44 TH/s but currently takes in around $0.75 per day in profit. The Asicminer company claims the machine boasts 189 8nm custom AM0813 and processes roughly “16384 hash cores on a single die.” The 8 Nano is cheaper than the Ebang device, at $1,790 per unit, but is way bigger than the average machine manufactured today. The 8 Nano weighs about 60 pounds and measures approximately 500 x 500 x 235mm in size. The machine’s fans also radiate a neon red glow and the device features a noiseless water cooling system. Customers can purchase machines today and the website states there are only 48 machines left at present. Because the miner was released last October, units have shipped to some customers and there are various 8 Nano reviews on Youtube and other forums. Innosilicon Terminator 3 (T3) Innosilicon has done well over the last year with its mining rigs powered by Samsung’s low power 10nm semiconductor technology. The Terminator 3 model, otherwise known as the T3, can be purchased as well and the first batch of shipments should be delivered by the end of January. The T3 specifications say the machine will mine at 43 TH/s with a power consumption of 2100W, giving the machine a profit of around $0.58 a day at current prices. The T3 is more expensive than the 8 Nano and the E11++ as it is currently selling for $2,279 per unit. The first batch of T3s are limited, the company’s website explains, and the limited second batch won’t be delivered until March. Delivery times are “first pay, first served” Innosilicon emphasizes and all products are also “Asic Boost enabled with a proper license.” Bitmain Antminer S15 The latest Bitmain Antminer product offers customers a maximum hashrate of 28 TH/s with a power consumption of 1596W. The S15 costs $1,249 per unit and the first batch of rigs are shipping between Jan. 11-20. The miner features two types of mining modes and is equipped with Bitmain’s custom 7nm chip. Like the Asicminer 8 Nano, the S15 doesn’t look like the average miner as it employs a parallel fan design to improve heat dissipation efficiency. Currently, according to data stemming from Asicminervalue.com, with current BTC and BCH prices, the S15 is profiting by $0.15 per day. Bitmain is also selling a lower tier S15 that produces 1 terahash less at 27 TH/s and will save the customer $45 in comparison to the 28 TH/s model. Bitmain says that customers utilizing the S15’s next generation 7nm chips and custom semiconductor packaging technology coupled with the new heat dissipation mechanism miners will save on electricity costs. Asicminer 8 Nano Pro The Asicminer manufacturer also has a machine called the 8 Nano Pro that claims to produce a whopping 76 trillion hashes per second. The mega-device pulls roughly 4000W from the wall and costs $11,600 per unit. Furthermore, customers must buy a minimum of five units per order. Still, at current bitcoin prices, the Asicminer units with 8nm custom AM0813 chips still scrapes by with $0.13 per day in profit. Again, like the company’s previous model, the 76 TH/s machine is huge at 500 x 1000 x 240mm and weighs about 150 pounds. The 8 Nano Pro also has a noiseless water cooling system, which has a noise level of about 48 decibels. However, unlike the firm’s 44 TH/s machine, the 76 MH/s Pro version doesn’t seem like it has done well as there are no resellers online or reviews on this specific device. Bitcoin Mining Facilities Hurting for Profits May Try to Leverage Next-Generation Machines So far, both the BTC and BCH networks which utilize the SHA-256 algorithm have seen significant drops in overall hashrate. The current Bitcoin Core (BTC) network hashrate is roughly 40 exahash per second (EH/s), while Bitcoin Cash (BCH) miners have around 1.5 EH/s today. Moreover, many of the older machines that produce far fewer hashes per second are in the red these days and are seeing significant daily losses at current market prices. Even the Ebang, Bitmain, and Innosilicon lower tier models that have been recently announced in the last three months are not profiting at all due to the depressed prices across crypto markets. New mining machines might give large facilities and even smaller miners enough edge to stay in the game, though, if they can get these products on time. What do you think about the top mining rigs in 2019? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. Disclaimer: Bitcoin.com does not endorse these mining products or services. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the mentioned mining company or any of its affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com and the author are 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 this article. This editorial is for informational purposes only. Images via Shutterstock, Ebang, Asicminer, Innosilicon, and Bitmain. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post A Look at Some of the ‘Next Generation’ Mining Rigs Available Today appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

“When will the bear market end?” is the refrain of bored and frustrated traders across crypto Twitter. “Soon” is the answer suggested by Delphi Digital’s latest report. “Bitcoin Holder Analysis Through Cycles” seeks to determine when selling pressure that has deflated BTC prices over the past 12 months will alleviate, signaling that market recovery could be imminent. Also read: BTC Gets a Health Check in ‘The State of Bitcoin’ Searching for Signs in Bitcoin’s UTXOs There’s a myriad of narratives buried in Bitcoin’s UTXOs, the unspent transaction outputs that are combined every time BTC is sent. The inferences that analysts are able to draw from this information are growing ever more sophisticated, with Delphi Digital’s new supplementary report the perfect case in point. The 14-page document, which complements the research boutique’s original report, outlines the evidence to support the notion that the current bear market may be reaching its nadir. Because each UTXO corresponds to the date when those coins were last moved, it’s possible to determine the age of bitcoins held in wallets by examining the blockchain. The frequency of UTXO movements can be used to identify cycles that turn hodlers into sellers. While selling sounds like it should be synonymous with downward price pressure, that’s not necessarily the case. Dormant BTC wallets being used for the first time in a long time may indicate that prices have climbed high enough to incentivize long-term hodlers to send their coins to an exchange. Delphi Digital’s report draws three largely bullish conclusions: Selling pressure from long term holders, primarily those holding between 3-5 years, is almost exhausted. We’re seeing another accumulation process by longer term holders begin, similar to the one at the end of 2014. Using the timing of previous price bottoms relative to different bitcoin accumulation points, we are able to use current UTXO dynamics to strengthen our forecast of a rough date for a price bottom (sometime in Q1 2019). Who’s Selling Bitcoin? This might seem like a bad time to be selling bitcoin, with BTC currently languishing in the $3,600 territory. But while that represents a 74 percent drop from one year ago, that doesn’t mean that current sellers are offloading their coins at a loss. Adopters who acquired their coins up until early 2017 could sell them now for a minimum 3x profit – and potentially multiples more. The report notes “we can assume … older [BTC] owners have exhausted much of their selling efforts, evident in the flattening of … older UTXO bands, coupled with the 1 year UTXO band reaching a floor and staying flat through the first half of 2018.” It continues: In the second half of 2018, the 1 year UTXO band began to exhibit a positive growth trajectory directly in tandem with the 1-2 year band as older UTXO bands remained flat. We’re seeing an accumulation process now similar to the one at the end of 2014. This would imply a bottom is in sight. Using some clever calculations, based on historical analysis of the Bitcoin blockchain and the activity of UTXO bands, grouped by age, Delphi Digital has endeavored to predict when BTC is likely to next peak. The date it’s arrived at is April 2020. The authors believe this conclusion is bolstered by positive exogenous events such as “the scheduled launch of Bakkt (Early 2019) and Fidelity’s custody solution (being made generally available in early 2019).” Should Delphi Digital’s prediction come to pass, UTXO analysis will gain newfound respect among traders trying to time market cycles. What are your thoughts on Delphi Digital’s UTXO report and 2020 price prediction for BTC? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post UTXO Analysis Points to a BTC Price Bottom in Q1 2019 appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Russian-born entrepreneur Pavel Durov is liquidating Telegram Messenger LLP, the Britain-based company behind the popular messaging service Telegram. The same entity is registered as the messenger’s operator in the Russian Federation, where Telegram is currently banned. Also read: 5 Crypto Exchanges Have Been Licensed in Gibraltar Since Regulation Application for Voluntary Strike Off Filed in the UK The application to strike the limited liability partnership off the U.K. register was signed by Pavel Durov on Dec. 19, 2018 and filed about a week ago, Russian media reports. The First Gazette notice for the voluntary strike off is currently being processed and will be issued on Jan. 15, 2019, the Companies House website shows. Telegram Messenger LLP was established in February 2014 by two companies – Dogged Labs Ltd. (British Virgin Islands) and Telegraph Inc. (Belize). In May 2018, however, Dogged Labs was substituted for Telegram Messenger Inc., which is also registered in the British Virgin Islands. Durov has previously identified Telegram Messenger LLP as the main entity behind the messaging app, although he has never revealed the exact legal structure of his corporate group. According to RBC, the same company has been added to the Russian register of platforms “disseminating information on the Internet” in July 2017. By law, these operators – messengers, email providers, and other platforms facilitating the online exchange of messages – are obliged to share information about their activities with the country’s telecom operator, Roskomnadzor, and data allowing the decryption of users’ correspondence with the Federal Security Service (FSB). They are also expected to keep records in Russia of all voice, video and text messages for up to one year. Failure to comply with these requirements may lead to the blocking of their services in the Russian Federation. The attempts to block Telegram in Russia started when its operator refused to hand over its encryption keys to the FSB. In April last year, the Tagansky District Court in Moscow imposed a ban on the messaging service following a request from Roskomnadzor. In June, the Moscow City Court rejected an appeal against the decision filed by Telegram Messenger LLP. Possible Reasons for the Company’s Liquidation Telegram and its various applications are registered by several different companies including Telegram Messenger LLP, Telegram LLC, and Telegram FZ-LLC. Together with his brother Nikolai, Pavel Durov also owns Telegram Group Inc. and TON Issuer Inc. RBC claims Durov did not respond to its questions about the closure of Telegram Messenger LLP. However, the news agency quoted Pavel Chikov, head of the human rights organization Agora representing Telegram in Russian courts, who said the move was not associated with the blockade. According to other legal experts quoted in the article, the liquidation of the company, which is registered with Roskomnadzor as the operator of Telegram, will not change the status of the messenger in Russia. Alexander Pohomov, partner at Law and Business, said the creation of another company makes no sense as a new entity would be obliged to fulfill the same requirements as the current one. Pohomov believes that the decision is part of а fundamental restructuring of Durov’s business that includes a number projects beside Telegram. One of these projects is the Telegram Open Network (TON) which is aimed at providing Telegram users with a digital payments system. All of them, around 200 million globally, will get a TON wallet and the platform’s developers hope to make its native coin, the Gram, the “world’s most adopted cryptocurrency.” An ICO to finance the project was canceled last year after Telegram reportedly raised $1.7 billion from private investors. According to the publication, TON developers plan to launch the platform by the end of 2019. Other reasons for the reorganization may include recently introduced changes in the legislation of the British Virgin Islands, where one of the partners in Telegram Messenger LLP is registered, or the upcoming Brexit. A number of businesses focused on the EU market have been preparing to leave the United Kingdom and according to Yuri Borisov from Legal and Financial Creative Solutions, the voluntary strike off is a “painless” way to terminate a company’s presence in Britain. What are your thoughts about the liquidation of the company that operates Telegram? Tell us in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. At Bitcoin.com there’s a bunch of free helpful services. For instance, have you seen our Tools page? You can even lookup the exchange rate for a transaction in the past. Or calculate the value of your current holdings. Or create a paper wallet. And much more. The post Pavel Durov Closes UK-Based Company Telegram Messenger LLP appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

In recent cryptocurrency exchange news, Huobi’s EOS exchange has entered trial operations, Sharespost has facilitated a secondary trade of the BCAP security token, and Bithumb has obtained South Korean Information Security Management System certification. Also Read: Bisq DEX Launches DAO on Testnet as Developers Seek to Decentralize Governance Huobi Launches Trial of EOS Exchange In the last 24 hours, Huobi has announced the company’s EOS exchange has entered trial operations, which includes support for EOS/BTC, EOS/ETH, and EOS/USDT pairings. The exchange will be launched and operated by Huobi Pool, the mining arm of the company. Earlier this month, Cao Fei, the chief executive officer of Huobi Pool, stated: “As an EOS super node, Huobi Pool has placed [EOS] ecological development high on its list of priorities. Launching this EOS exchange is simply the next logical step in our support.” On Dec. 28, Huobi also announced support for EOS on the Huobi Derivative Market. The EOS derivative contracts support leverage of up to 20x, with the platform imposing maker fees of 0.02 percent and taker fees of 0.03 percent. Sharespost Facilitates Secondary Transaction for BCAP Security Token On Jan. 10, the Sharespost alternative trading system announced that it had executed its secondary transaction of Blockchain Capital’s BCAP security tokens. The chief executive officer of Sharespost, Greg Brogger, described the transaction as “an important milestone for the digital securities ecosystem,” emphasizing the company’s expectation that tokenized securities will “join preferred and common stock as the mainstays of the private capital market.” While the company has described the transaction as the first secondary transaction involving BCAP, alternative trading system Openfinance launched support for BCAP trade during December 2018. Sharespost will also provide secondary liquidity and custody services to users of its marketplace. Currently, Sharespost only support Over-The-Counter (OTC) trade of security tokens, but the company has announced its intention to later support real time trading via digital order book. Bithumb Obtains Certification from Korea Internet & Security Agency Bithumb, the largest cryptocurrency exchange by reported trade volume, has received Information Security Management System (ISMS) certification from the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA). According to local news, ISMS is the “highest” ISMS certification system in South Korea, comprising “12 items from 5 stages of information security management processes and 92 items from 13 areas related to information security measures.” Last year, South Korea’s government mandated that cryptocurrency exchanges receive more than one million visitors and generate more than 10 billion Korean Won (nearly $8.95 million) in profit within a three-month period to obtain ISMS certification. What is your reaction to the purported promise of security tokens? Share your thoughts in the comments section below! Images courtesy of Shutterstock At Bitcoin.com there’s a bunch of free helpful services. For instance, have you seen our Tools page? You can even lookup the exchange rate for a transaction in the past. Or calculate the value of your current holdings. Or create a paper wallet. And much more. The post Exchange News: Huobi Trials EOS Exchange, Sharespost Enables Security Token Trade appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Decentralized cryptocurrency exchange Bisq has upgraded its open source software. The revamped platform includes a new user interface in addition to marking the launch of the Bisq Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) on testnet. Also Read: Indian Bank Forcing Customers to Agree to Anti-Cryptocurrency Policy Bisq Launches Decentralized Autonomous Organization on Testnet The latest version of Bisq’s software, v0.9, has seen the decentralized exchange launch its DAO on testnet. The upgrade will allow Bisq users to experiment with the DAO. The software is designed so as to facilitate rewarding developers who contribute to the project in the form of the platform’s native token (BSQ) without centralized administration. BSQ tokens are layered on top of the BTC blockchain as colored coins. Since launching in 2014, Bisq has received more than 25 BTC in donations which were used to back the creation of 2.5 million BSQ tokens. The first batch of tokens is planned to be distributed among the project’s 144 earliest developers and contributors. When the DAO launches on mainnet, the platform’s users will be able to vote on prospective contributions and upgrades to the protocol, receive compensation for development, and pay for trading fees in the form of BSQ rather than BTC. Developers Hope DAO Will Solve Problems of Centralized Governance Bisq’s current developers have described the DAO as a means through which to decentralize the operation of the exchange. Currently, Bisq’s website asserts that the platform’s “technology is fully decentralized, but its governance is not.” The documentation highlights a number of shortcomings with the current governance model in which “the project founders” carry out “most maintenance, operation, and administration duties,” in addition to making “virtually all major decisions.” This model, the website asserts, “does not scale; project founder have become bottlenecks incapable of addressing all user needs,” and introduces “censorship risk” as a result of operational responsibilities being “centralized in a small group of people.” According to Bisq’s website, the model of token distribution employed by the DAO establishes the Bisq DAO as a “meritocracy” in which “those who have contributed the most value to the project in the past are those who have the most say over its future.” Do you prefer to trade using decentralized or centralized exchanges? Share your thoughts in the comments section below! Images courtesy of Shutterstock. At Bitcoin.com there’s a bunch of free helpful services. For instance, have you seen our Tools page? You can even lookup the exchange rate for a transaction in the past. Or calculate the value of your current holdings. Or create a paper wallet. And much more. The post Bisq DEX Launches DAO on Testnet as Developers Seek to Decentralize Governance appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Many would argue that comparing cryptocurrency trading with forex is like comparing apples and oranges, but that’s not entirely accurate. On closer inspection, there is a number of similarities between the two. For example, the underlying market dynamics of supply and demand will usually govern the prices of the respective assets. Here traders share their thoughts on the mechanics of each. Also read: Faced With Cash And Forex Shortages, Zimbabweans Turn To Bitcoin – Even When It’s Banned Crypto vs Forex It takes a certain type of savvy trader to navigate unpredictable market conditions and emerge in profit. Let’s start with the pros and cons to be found from trading both crypto and forex. Alex Mashinsky, CEO of Celsius Network, notes that crypto and forex both represent a digital store of value and can be purchased and sold with ease. They both have high volatility which creates an opportunity for quick profits going long or short. “The pro of trading crypto and forex is that these are global markets dominated by large financial players who have algorithmic trading capabilities. Most individual players cannot compete or match the trading and speed of hedge funds and large banks which swim in these markets,” said Mashinsky. He explained that the biggest difference between forex and BTC markets is that unlike forex, bitcoin started and scaled via global retail trade and not via institutional players. This makes the BTC markets behave in a very different pattern than traditional forex markets. Kyle Cox, senior investment analyst at Invictus Capital, stresses that bitcoin has an ultimately finite supply of 21 million coins, with protocols that control new issuance meaning there is little room for manipulation. “Therefore, trading in bitcoin would be purely focused on demand, which in turn would be based on adoption and in turn the quality of the project,” Cox explains. “Higher adoption of bitcoin essentially increases the size of the network, which means more users, higher utility and an increasing price. The lack of outside or centralised influence is unique, and a benefit of the genesis crypto asset.” Fair Amount of Skill and Luck Is Involved Fiat currencies, on the other hand, have potentially unlimited supply, as each currency’s supply is determined by the monetary policy of the specific issuing country. “Each country’s central bank (typically) regulates the supply of that currency available through various policy mechanisms linked to its repurchase or interest rate, which can, essentially, be defined as the opportunity cost of holding cash in that economy. These policy decisions are conducted with an acute awareness of domestic and global macroeconomic conditions and imperatives, and thus result in fluctuations in both supply and demand,” said Cox. Currency traders looking to profit will, essentially, look to buy currencies that show signs of macroeconomic improvement through the selling of currencies that show the opposite. “There is a fair amount of skill, and it must be said, luck involved in this process, as any honest trader would attest to,” Cox noted. BTC Involves Little Cost Another factor to consider is the nature of the bitcoin blockchain means that BTC is traded on a peer to peer basis, which in its raw form involves little cost. Cox pointed out that this is due to the fact there are no intermediaries in the classic sense, as is the case in the foreign exchange market where brokers and aggregators facilitate transactions between participants, which can often add a layer of fees. “Where intermediaries come into bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies, is through cryptocurrency exchanges,” explained Cox. “These exchanges act as central repositories of assets, facilitating transactions and levying fees on this basis. So yes, this aspect can be seen as somewhat of a similarity [to forex] however with different mechanics. In truth, it is difficult to make a generalized comparison of actual fees as they vary widely depending on exchanges, currency pairs, volume and many other factors.” Forex Markets Have Deep Levels of Liquidity Another crucial fact to note is that forex markets have deep and entrenched liquidity as a result of a long history of activity. Cox explained: ”The phenomenon of globalization and technology have boosted activity in the trading of foreign currencies, as a result of ballooning cross-border transactions and wide availability of trading means and infrastructure. [Forex] is by far one the largest marketplaces on the planet, with daily trading volume in the trillions of U.S. dollars. Most of this volume is attributed to established, developed country currencies, such as the U.S. dollar, which serves as the reserve currency for the world.” There are some similarities here with bitcoin, which can be considered as the dominant reserve cryptocurrency, and which most trading volume can be attributed to. That is where the similarity ends however. “Bitcoin’s daily trading volume, which currently ranges in the mid-single digit billions of U.S. dollars, pales in comparison to that of the forex market,” said Cox. A drop in the ocean, some might say. Bitcoin’s volatility is also considered to be far higher relative to that of the most dominant currency pairs in terms of volume. Cox explained that trading in emerging market currency pairs, which can show elevated periods of volatility, would be a far better comparison to trading in bitcoin. Only a Small Percentage of Traders Extract Profit Crypto traders faced a tough year in 2018. After riding the highs of 2017, the low points in the current bear market have been tough to navigate through. Cox said: “Trading, particularly that of a short-term nature, is a difficult practice that only a small percentage of players have ever managed to extract profits from, regardless of the asset in question.” He added: Of course, we often hear the success stories in the media, however, the many losses that have been incurred by participants seeking to time the market have been swept under the carpet. Black Wednesday: George Soros Bet Against Britain One high profile success case involved billionaire currency trader George Soros who made history when he bet against the pound sterling in 1992 and made $1 billion in one day. There are a number of lessons which can be found by analyzing the underlying causes of this crisis and how they led to such problems. Cox pointed out that Soros is one of the few exceptions who has had multiple successes trading against central banks over many decades. Also known as the man who broke the Bank of England, Mr Soros stands out as having been involved in several lucrative currency trades that span decades. He is credited with playing a pivotal in the British pound crashing out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM), which basically pegged the pound to the Deutsche mark. Cox commented: “[George Soros’] strategy was simple yet brilliant. Britain at the time was suffering from high inflation and exchange rate versus the U.S. dollar was under pressure due trade with the U.S. Soros quickly realised that the Bank of England would not be able to maintain its peg, sold the pound short through a systematic series of trades. Following this strategy, he profited as the pound decreased in value and some estimate that he made $1 billion in the process. Undoubtedly a simple, and profitable, application of a sound knowledge of macroeconomic forces.” In conclusion, while there are, in certain areas, extreme differences between the bitcoin and forex markets, there are also similarities and the potential for more convergence as digital assets cement themselves in the global financial system. As Soros himself observed: Markets are constantly in a state of uncertainty and flux and money is made by discounting the obvious and betting on the unexpected. What are your thoughts on trading crypto versus forex? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post The Differences Between Forex and Crypto Trading appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

In Friday’s edition of The Daily, we cover the news about a vulnerability found in the Beam Wallet days after the launch of the Mimblewimble-based coin. Also, crypto card provider Wirex has added waves to its list of supported cryptocurrencies, and digital asset exchange Exmo has registered an increase in the number of Belarusian users following Binance’s move to restrict their access to its platform. Also read: Trust Wallet Adds BCH, 35,000 Merchants Get Access to Crypto Payments Critical Vulnerability in the Beam Wallet The developers of Beam, a new privacy-centric coin based on the Mimblewimble protocol, have found a critical vulnerability in their Beam Wallet. The bug affects all previously released wallets in both the desktop and the CLI version, the company behind the project announced on Twitter. The problem has been fixed and Beam said in a post on Medium it’s currently working with providers to upgrade their systems. In another tweet, the Beam dev team asked all users to stop currently running Beam Wallets immediately. However, according to the message, they should not delete the wallet’s database, as the bug does not affect wallet data, secret keys or passwords. Instead, they need to uninstall the wallet, download it again from the website beam.mw/downloads and install the new application. Beam was launched on Jan. 3, becoming the first coin based on Mimblewimble, a protocol originally developed in 2016 to improve the scalability of the Bitcoin network and enhance the privacy of its users. The cryptocurrency is already available for trading on the decentralized platform Bisq which promised to also add Grin, another Mimblewimble coin expected to launch on mainnet by the end of this month. CRITICAL VULNERABILITY IN BEAM WALLET 9.1.2019 20:20 GMT Critical Vulnerability was found in Beam Wallet today. Vulnerability was discovered by Beam Dev Team and not reported anywhere else. Vulnerability affects all previously released Beam Wallets both Dekstop and CLI. — @Beamprivacy (@beamprivacy) January 9, 2019 Wirex Adds Support for Waves The popular online bank and crypto debit card issuer Wirex has added another coin to its list of supported cryptocurrencies. Users of the Wirex platform in the European Economic Area (EEA) can now buy, store, convert and spend waves with their Wirex Visa cards, the U.K.-based company announced in a blog post. The service also supports bitcoin core (BTC), litecoin (LTC), ripple (XRP) and ether (ETH). “The introduction of the waves wallet to Wirex is an exciting development for both crypto-investors and our globetrotting Wirex Visa card users,” co-founder Pavel Matveev commented. “For travel, welcoming waves to your portfolio means that you can enjoy a wider choice of currencies to exchange from and store,” his partner Dmitry Lazarichev added. Last month Wirex completed the introduction of Iban support for all EUR accounts. EEA users can now fund their account by bank transfer and receive euro payments. The fintech startup also raised the funding limits for account holders in the EEA to £15,000, €16,000 and $20,000. The company is now planning an expansion into North American markets. Belarusian Traders Migrate From Binance to Exmo The analytics department of Exmo, the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in Eastern Europe, has detected a six-fold increase in the number of registered users from Belarus in December, crypto news outlet Let Know reports. Exmo’s team attributed the influx of new traders to Binance’s decision to restrict access to its platform for the residents of a number of countries under sanctions, including Belarus. In late November, Binance, which is currently the largest digital asset exchange by daily trading volume, informed its Belarussian users that its services will no longer be available in their country. In correspondence to customers from Belarus, the exchange urged them to read the latest version of its Terms of Use. Under the new ToU agreement, traders acknowledge and declare they are not on any trade or economic sanctions lists, such as those prepared by the U.N. Security Council and the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the U.S. Treasury Department (OFAC). Since its launch five years ago, Exmo has registered 1.5 million users. According to the report, its daily trading volume reaches $40 million. The exchange, which supports trading pairs with fiat currencies such as the Russian ruble and the Ukrainian hryvnia, is currently 56th in Coinmarketcap’s volume rankings, with a daily volume touching $20 million. What are your thoughts on today’s news tidbits? Tell us in the comments section. Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Beam, Wirex. At Bitcoin.com there’s a bunch of free helpful services. For instance, have you seen our Tools page? You can even lookup the exchange rate for a transaction in the past. Or calculate the value of your current holdings. Or create a paper wallet. And much more. The post The Daily: Critical Bug Found in Beam Wallet, Wirex Adds Another Cryptocurrency appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article