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A new report by a blockchain-focused research company asserts that there has been a spike in people using cryptocurrencies to send remittances. This growth is in part due to the high costs incurred when using more traditional methods such as Paypal. Also read: Seven Cryptocurrency Trends to Look out for in 2019 Easier, Cheaper, Faster The value of remittances being sent overseas from the U.S. is greater than ever. World Bank Data states that over $148 billion was sent abroad from the U.S. in 2017. With an increasingly interconnected world seeing more people than ever moving abroad to work – and send money back home – migrants are looking for easier ways to cut costs and avoid getting ripped off by banks and other middlemen. One effective way of doing so is of course with cryptocurrency. Blockchain research company Clovr has said in its latest report that this new method has become more popular than ever. The report, named Sending Money Back Home, reveals that of to the 707 people surveyed, 15.8 percent use cryptocurrency to send cash home. This makes it one of the more popular methods, ranking in fourth place after using an online service, money transfer service, or traditional wire transfer. According to the report, the use of cryptocurrencies is in part due to the high costs associated with using traditional methods of sending money abroad such as Western Union or Moneygram. When money is sent to countries within Africa with these methods, “super-taxes” are often occurred – especially when sending money within the continent. A remittance going from South Africa to Malawi could see fees upwards of 20 percent, for example. Cryptocurrency can minimize such costs. The report notes: If some of the largest companies in the world, like Microsoft and Starbucks, are comfortable accepting cryptocurrencies as a form of payment, this should instil confidence in using these new forms of payment for sending remittances There is no doubt that using cryptocurrency to send money abroad can save money, as the report demonstrates by looking at the cost of sending $500 abroad. Banks on average would charge 10.41 percent for such a transaction while a post office could set someone back $34. Using bitcoin core (BTC) or bitcoin cash (BCH) to get money overseas could actually see the sender make money. The report states: “By avoiding the high transaction fees and conversion rates typically associated with transferring funds abroad, you can take a few extra steps (including converting the government-issued currency into cryptocurrency and then back again), potentially getting significant savings.” Breaking Down The Figures The report added that men were more likely to have used cryptocurrencies for international transfers than women, and of those interviewed, 85 percent were satisfied with using it as a sending method. The report also revealed that those who weren’t onboard with cryptocurrencies were skeptical because of their lack of knowledge of how they work. Of the 707 people surveyed by Clovr, most of the remittances were headed to Mexico, followed by China, India and the Philippines. The most important reason for sending cash was so family members could buy food, according to the report, with 41 percent of it being spent to ensure the recipient wouldn’t go hungry. When governments wreck a country’s economy – as seen in Venezuela – it makes sense for those who have fled their homes to find work abroad and then send funds using bitcoin. As already seen, people from Venezuela are using cryptocurrency to their advantage in order to send money to the cash-strapped South American nation. With the number of remittances increasing, more people are set to learn of the cost-cutting advantages and ease of using cryptocurrency to send money home to loved ones. What is your opinion on the report and on using crypto to send remittances? Share your thoughts on the subject in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock and Clovr. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Report: Use of Cryptocurrencies for Remittance Is Growing in Popularity appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Despite regulatory uncertainty and banking restriction imposed by the country’s central bank, an Indian cryptocurrency exchange says that it is seeing record trading volumes every month. The CEO of Wazirx told news.Bitcoin.com that the recent uptick in crypto prices has prompted a lot of Indians to start trading again. Also read: Indian Supreme Court Moves Crypto Hearing, Community Calls for Positive Regulations Record Trading Volumes Indian cryptocurrency exchange Wazirx says it is seeing record trading volumes despite a number of conditions that dampen trader sentiment such as the crypto banking ban imposed by the country’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The exchange’s CEO, Nischal Shetty, told news.Bitcoin.com on Monday that “In a flat market coupled with banking restriction,” there is little motivation for Indians to trade cryptocurrencies. However, he elaborated: The recent uptick in the crypto prices has gotten a lot of Indians trading again … whenever there’s volatility people forget the problems and start trading. That’s exactly the reason why we’re seeing our volumes shooting up so fast. The RBI issued a circular in April banning financial institutions under its control from providing services to crypto companies. Responding to the banking restriction, Wazirx launched an exchange-escrowed peer-to-peer (P2P) platform in July, with Shetty repeatedly saying that the response to this service has been “tremendous.” He further shared that his exchange has been “hitting new peaks in volume every month,” adding that this month it surpassed 200 BTC in daily trading volume for the first time. “200 BTC in 24 hours was our record high and the highest by any exchange in India right now,” he claimed. Noting that this record high was achieved within nine months of launching his exchange and during a bear market, he concluded: Considering the banking restriction in place, this is great news for the Indian crypto sector. On Localbitcoins, the number of BTC traded in INR has also been growing, with 302 BTC traded in the week of Dec. 22 as well as in the previous week. Regulatory Uncertainty Subhash Chandra Garg The Indian government is expected to finalize the regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies in the near future. The panel, tasked with providing recommendations regarding crypto regulatory measures, has reportedly submitted its report to the government. This panel is headed by Subhash Chandra Garg, the country’s Economic Affairs Secretary. Commenting on the upcoming crypto regulatory framework, Shetty told news.Bitcoin.com, “I have to remain optimistic,” noting: I believe in our government, that they’ll listen to our voices. I’ve been running a Twitter campaign and it’s gaining traction amongst Indian crypto users. As the campaign grows it’ll be harder to ignore. The CEO started his Twitter campaign on Oct. 31, calling for positive regulations for the Indian crypto space. Meanwhile, the country’s supreme court is set to hear the petitions against the RBI ban in January. What do you think of the crypto ecosystem in India? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Twitter, and Coin.dance. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Indian Crypto Exchange Reports Record Trading Volumes Amid Regulatory Uncertainty appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

According to the Bitcoin Obituaries webpage, the cryptocurrency ‘died’ 90 times in 2018. Since the inception of Satoshi’s great invention, almost a decade ago, economists and financial news publications have informed the public that bitcoin has passed away a grand total of 336 times. Also read: Year in Review: 2018’s Top Cryptocurrency Stories Dead Currencies Have ‘No Chance of Success’ Ever since the general public started hearing about cryptocurrencies, many financial bigwigs, well known pundits, Keynesian economists, and Wall Street executives have explained in great detail how Bitcoin has ‘died’. This has occurred on numerous occasions over the years. Mainstream media outlets have also stated time and again that Bitcoin was officially deceased. The Bitcoin Obituaries webpage hosted on the site 99 Bitcoins has around 336 recorded bitcoin ‘deaths’ over the years. 2018 has claimed 90 of those deaths during a spell when the crypto-economy was extremely bearish all year long. One would think that because cryptocurrency markets did so well in 2017 there would be fewer deaths declared than in 2018. However, the cryptocurrency bull run last year resulted in 125 obituaries for the digital asset. In 2018, most of the top cryptocurrencies lost more than 80 percent of their values since hitting all-time highs last year in December. The last death call of 2018 was a post written by Seeking Alpha author Anthony Garcia titled “Bitcoin: the decline is fundamental, unsolvable, and the end of BTC.” In the post Garcia states: Bitcoin is literally worth nothing — Bitcoin has no chance of success because it’s worthless. It has nothing backing it but an illusion; no gold or silver or even a decree that it’s legal tender. It has no intrinsic value and no one needs it. 2017 and 2018 Had the Most Bitcoin Deaths per Year Before that article, Santa Clara University Professor of Finance Atulya Sarin’s opinion piece on the financial publication Market Watch said that bitcoin is “close to becoming worthless.” Sarin explained in his 1,049-word document that the digital asset was the victim of the infamous “death spiral.” This past October the notorious Nouriel Roubini, otherwise known as Dr. Doom, sparked controversy when he said that “bitcoin represents the ‘mother of all bubbles.’” Roubini, a professor of economics at the New York University Stern School of Business, called digital currency advocates “crypto scoundrels.” The professor emphasized that the bubble is “clear” enough to see and “blockchain technology is nothing better than a glorified spreadsheet or database.” Nouriel Roubini’s post got crypto advocates all upset on Twitter in October. It’s safe to say that as long as financial pundits like Jamie Dimon and Warren Buffet’s opinions are still catching headlines then Bitcoin will continue to die in 2019. To these bigwigs and many others, Bitcoin is a gimmick, and yet some of them like “blockchain technology” as long as it is centralized. One interesting phenomenon is the fact that even though bitcoin has grown immensely in value since 2010, it has died increasingly year after year. Bitcoin ‘died’ the most consecutive times throughout 2017 and 2018 with close to ¾ of the deaths during those years. Otherwise, 2015 was a distant third with 39 total bitcoin deaths. Bitcoin’s oldest published obituary according to 99 Bitcoins was written in 2010, which claimed the asset could never be a currency. When bitcoins were worth $0.23, the Underground Economist author stated at the time: Either it will remain a novelty forever or it will transition from novelty status to dead faster than you can blink. What do you think about bitcoin dying 90 times this year? Why do you think the cryptocurrency has had so many obituaries over the last two years? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. Images Shutterstock, 99 Bitcoins, and Pixabay. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Bitcoin Obituaries Records 90 ‘Deaths’ in 2018 appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Japanese internet giant GMO has announced that it will no longer develop, manufacture, and sell cryptocurrency mining machines. The company will, however, continue to mine in-house but will relocate its mining center to a region with cleaner and less expensive energy. Also read: Indian Supreme Court Moves Crypto Hearing, Community Calls for Positive Regulations Exiting the Mining Equipment Business GMO Internet Inc. announced on Tuesday following a board of directors meeting that it “will no longer develop, manufacture, and sell mining machines.” The company is posting an extraordinary loss of 24 billion yen (~$218 million) related to these activities for the fourth quarter of the fiscal year ending December 2018. “Regarding the current mining machine markets, the environment is increasingly competitive because of the decreased demand mainly due to the decline in the cryptocurrency price, the decline in the sales price, etc,” the announcement reads. After considering changes in the current crypto environment, GMO wrote: The company expects that it is difficult to recover the cryptocurrency mining business-related assets through selling mining machines, so the company has decided to stop the development, manufacture, and sales of mining machines, thereby recording an extraordinary loss. In addition, GMO noted that it has purchased mining machines and paid the costs required to manufacture its 7nm machines. With the decision to exit the manufacturing business, GMO revealed that it will transfer related assets held to MP18 Llc, a special purpose company of Tani Electronics Corporation. GMO first announced the development of its 7nm bitcoin mining equipment in September last year. Miner B2, the first line of its mining equipment, went on sale in June for $1,999. Another line, Miner B3, went on sale in July for the same price. The first batch of B2s was supposed to be shipped at the end of October and B3s in November. However, to date, no mining machines of either type have been shipped. In-House Mining For its in-house mining business, launched in December last year, GMO is posting an extraordinary loss of approximately 14 billion yen on an unconsolidated basis (11.5 billion yen on a consolidated basis) for the fourth quarter of the fiscal year ending December 2018. The company explained that the profitability of its in-house mining business “decreased as the cryptocurrency price declined and our mining share did not increase as expected due to the rise of the global hash rate, which went beyond our initial assumption,” noting: After taking into consideration changes in the current business environment, the company expects that it is difficult to recover the carrying amounts of the in-house-mining-related business assets, and therefore, it has been decided to record an extraordinary loss. GMO mined 696 BTC and 400 BCH in November. Its hashrate has been steadily growing as planned, its latest in-house mining report shows. “We will introduce the mining machine from other manufacturers to the in-house mining. Our plan is to see our hash rate surpass 800 PH/s by the end of December,” the company said earlier this month. In its Tuesday’s announcement, GMO noted that “Depreciation cost of mining machines and electricity cost comprise the majority of operating expenses,” elaborating: In terms of the electricity cost, we will relocate the mining center to a region that will allow us to secure a cleaner and less expensive power supply. What do you think of GMO exiting the business of manufacturing and selling mining machines? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock and GMO Internet. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Japan’s GMO Quits Manufacturing and Selling Mining Machines appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

After an intense 2017, filled with cryptocurrency market spikes, the following year was loaded with letdowns as a great majority of digital assets plunged well over 80 percent in value since their all-time highs. 2018 was also filled with lots of headlines about digital currency regulations, exchange hacks, and postponed exchange-traded funds. Also read: Feed 7 Different Species at the River Forest Farm’s ‘Bitcoin Cash Zoo’ 2018 Saw Hundreds of Billions Shaved Off the Entire Cryptocurrency Market Cap It’s safe to say that 2018 was the exact opposite of 2017 as far as the year-over-year cryptocurrency market price changes. On Dec. 31, 2017, the top ten market capitalizations and the prices of each coin were vastly different than today. The top five coins had considerably more fiat value at the time with bitcoin core (BTC) trading for $13,170 per coin, ripple (XRP) $2.12, ethereum (ETH) $721, bitcoin cash (BCH) $2,459, and cardano (ADA) $0.69. Throughout the entire year, all of the biggest coins by market valuation have lost more than three-quarters of their net worth since December 2017. The entire ecosystem’s market valuation saw an all-time high of more than half a trillion dollars and today that metric is just above $100 billion. South Korean Regulation Throughout most of January and February, talks of digital currency regulation began to heighten across the globe. These two months, in particular, saw a lot of regulatory discussions stemming from South Korea. Headlines deriving from Korean government officials were so frequent and very similar to the countless People’s Bank of China (PBOC) ‘ban’ announcements in the past. At the end of January 2018, for the first time ever a South Korean court ruled that bitcoin has economic value. Moreover, the country introduced a nationwide cryptocurrency account system, which banned the anonymous trading of digital assets in South Korea. After the country became a cryptocurrency hotbed in 2017, the first quarter of 2018 saw a lot of digital currency regulation in South Korea. Compromised Exchanges In addition to all the news about South Korea, the Japanese exchange Coincheck was compromised for $400-534 million USD worth of the cryptocurrency NEM, on Jan. 26. While digital asset proponents witnessed yet another historic exchange hack, the platform’s loss didn’t affect markets that much. Another hack took place this past April, when the Indian cryptocurrency exchange Coinsecure’s wallet was breached for $2.7 million worth of BTC. At the time, the company blamed its CSO Amitabh Saxena for playing a role in the incident. Last September, Indian law enforcement filed charges against a few suspects and explained that an insider had helped facilitate the crime. Coincheck and Coinsecure were the biggest exchange hacks of 2018. Lots of ICOs Fail Miserably 2018’s Q1 saw the beginning of big initial coin offerings (ICOs) having lots of troubles with special agencies like the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). One of the first busts last year was when the Texas Department of Banking Commissioner issued a cease and desist order to an alleged ‘decentralized cryptocurrency-bank.’ The Bitshares-connected Arise Bank was one of the first of many ICOs that started having troubles with the law. In February, the cryptocurrency community had learned that 46 percent of 2017’s ICOs had already failed. All year long, there have been numerous crackdowns throughout the world specifically targeting ICO operations. U.S. regulators charged music producer DJ Khaled and the boxer Floyd Mayweather this past November for failing to disclose payments they took for ICO promotion. Maduro’s Petro Another interesting story this year was the introduction of the world’s first state-issued cryptocurrency in Venezuela. Well, no one’s really sure if the ‘petro’ works yet, but all year long Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro has touted the benefits of the ‘oil-backed’ token. This past November, the Ministry for Communication and Information enacted a new law which established the petro for commercial transactions inside the country. Further, just recently, Maduro raised the petro’s price from 3,600 to 9,000 bolivars. The entire world has been watching the Venezuelan people suffer from economic hardships, while Maduro and fellow associates toy around with a so-called ‘multi-asset backed’ cryptocurrency created in secrecy. Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro is pushing the first state-issued cryptocurrency called the Petro. Delayed Institutional Trading Products Even though markets dumped all year long, cryptocurrencies did see a lot of institutional interest this year. Crypto-advocates will remember patiently waiting for a U.S.-based exchange-traded fund (ETF) approval once again in 2018. Back in July, the Chicago Board Options Exchange (Cboe) filed an application for a BTC-based ETF that will be tethered to the Vaneck Solidx Bitcoin Trust. The same month, the SEC postponed its decision concerning five bitcoin-related ETFs filed by NYSE Arca. US regulators postponed many ETF decisions in 2018. This was the case throughout all of 2018, as Bitcoin ETFs were delayed all year long. U.S. regulators had also asked for public opinion concerning Cboe’s ETF filing and received an overwhelming response. On Dec. 6, the SEC delayed its decision again and explained it will decide on the fate of the Vaneck Solidx bitcoin ETF in February 2019. Moreover, bitcoiners have been waiting for the Bakkt bitcoin daily futures contracts offered by the Intercontinental Exchange, which was supposed to start trading this month, but the product was also delayed. Bitcoin Cash and the Tale of Two Forks The Bitcoin Cash (BCH) network had an interesting year, to say the least, as it underwent two forks in 2018. The first fork in the spring was quite successful, resulting in a bunch of new features like re-enabled opcodes and a 32MB block size increase. Since the upgrade, BCH saw a huge influx of development, including many new applications like Memo.cash, Blockpress, Joystream, Marco Coino, Coinfundr, Akari, Telescope, Simple Ledger Protocol, Wormhole, and more. In the first week of September, the Bitcoin Cash network processed millions of transactions on a daily basis during a week-long ‘stress test.’ Back in May, the BCH protocol upgraded successfully with new opcodes and a 32MB block size increase. However, in November the scheduled fork on the 15th became contentious and led to a blockchain split. On Sept. 1, BCH miners confirmed 2,060,041 transactions (tx) in 24 hours and statistics showed that the BCH chain had processed 85,835 tx per hour, and 23.8 tx per second. However, after the stress tests, the planned hard fork for Nov. 15 became contentious and the fork resulted in a blockchain split. After gaining the most proof-of-work and a majority of the infrastructure support, the Bitcoin ABC side of the fork was rewarded with the “BCH” ticker, and the other network’s ticker is listed as “BSV” across global exchanges. The BCH community is steadily moving on from the split, and the decentralized cryptocurrency saw a 140 percent increase in value over the last week. In 2019 the Crypto-Landscape Is Sure to Be Interesting Most crypto-markets have done much better during the end of this December, and many enthusiasts are curious about what next year will bring. Of course, most cryptocurrency supporters believe the long haul will pay off in the end, and there will always be some hurdles along the way. There was a whole lot of other interesting events in 2018 and 2019 is sure to be just as intriguing. One thing is for certain, no matter what year it is — There’s never a dull day in Bitcoin-land. What do you think about 2018 and cryptocurrencies this year? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. Images via Shutterstock, Pixabay, and Steemit. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Year in Review: 2018’s Top Cryptocurrency Stories appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Despite all efforts, so far businesses haven’t been able to come up with significant applications for private, centralized blockchains as opposed to public distributed ledgers, a new study shows. According to the authors, in most cases corporate blockchain networks are used mainly for database verification and transactions auditing. Also read: Poll Shows 13% of Russians Use Cryptocurrency for Online Purchases Public Ledgers Are Universal and Disruptive The research is part of a report on the development of the crypto sector produced by the Center for Financial Innovation and Cashless Economy at the Moscow School of Management “Skolkovo.” It has been conducted in response to the “growing number of infrastructure proposals, on one hand, and the increasing uncertainty regarding the technological integration and the level of development of distributed ledgers, on the other.” According to the study, in order to make a leap in its development, the crypto industry has to develop different kinds of distributed ledger applications. At present, there are 24 types of private blockchains, the report details. A few examples of “consortium blockchains” exist, such as joint projects between companies with similar activities, and the rest are private blockchains used mainly as support networks that are controlled by their creators. The authors claim there are currently around 50 “unique” fields of implementation of the private distributed ledgers but all of them fit in just three categories: trustless solutions, business logic automation and database verification, Bitnovosti reported. At the same time, there are 21 primary distributed ledgers, and the majority of them, 14 out of 21, are “public, uncontrolled, universal and disruptive.” The researchers further explain: This version of a distributed ledger is most similar to the Internet. It does not have a shutdown button and can be adapted to almost any need. Private Blockchains Are Niche Products “Consortium blockchains,” on the other hand, are far fewer in number, the Skolkovo researchers note. Most of them have been developed to automate business logic between different companies. There are only three such projects that have gained recognition and popularity, the institute points out. According to the study, these are Corda, Hyperledger and Symbiont. The report also emphasizes that these systems usually represent niche products. The Moscow School of Management also concludes: The key value of private ledgers has not been defined yet. It most often comes down to the possibility of creating nodes to review and audit transactions. The Center for Financial Innovation and Cashless Economy has also identified the most urgent tasks facing the blockchain industry. According to the researchers, these have to do with solving issues related to network management, ensuring data security and confidentiality, addressing scalability challenges and matching the speed of development of public blockchains. What is your opinion on the findings in the report? Share your thoughts on the subject 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 Private Blockchains Have Few Applications, Study Finds appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Another year is coming, filled with fresh optimism and newfound determination to make 2019 the year when cryptocurrencies take over. Having gotten their calls badly wrong for 2018, so-called experts will be hesitant to make bullish price predictions for 2019. That’s probably for the best since there are far more interesting things to focus on than price action. Here are seven trends that should dominate the cryptosphere over the next 12 months. Also read: Bitcoin History Part 6: The First Bitcoin Exchange 2018 Didn’t Play Out the Way it Was Promised This time last year, all kinds of bold predictions were being issued for what 2018 would hold for the crypto space. In the event, the biggest trend of the year was one which few futurologists foresaw – stablecoins. 2018 will go down as the year the markets went south and ICOs died off, leaving a new wave of digital assets to shine – dollar-pegged stablecoins. Love, hate or tolerate them, there’s no denying that stablecoins were a recurring motif this year. Whether they will continue to dominate in 2019 depends to a large extent on how conventional crypto assets perform. Should the current bear market persist, or bite deeper still, stablecoins will remain ubiquitous. If more favorable market conditions return, however, stablecoins will be forced to take a back seat, leaving the following trends to joust it out in 2019. New Privacy Protocols Will Gain Traction With the Mimblewimble-powered Grin and Beam cranking into life, the stage is set for 2019 to be the most private year in crypto in a long time. The last few years of encroaching blockchain surveillance have stripped away a lot of the anonymity that cryptocurrency users once took for granted, but the fight back has begun. It’ll take more than a single privacy protocol to restore the imbalance of course, so it’s just as well there’s a host of privacy-minded tools set to come onstream. Aside from the Mimblewimble coins, there’s the prospect of Bitcoin Core getting Schnorr signatures next year, which could open the door to privacy tech such as Coinjoin at some point. Before then, we’ll be seeing a lot of other pro-privacy platforms, apps and protocols gaining traction. Wasabi Wallet, a privacy-focused BTC wallet, will hoover up new users, while Ethereum may get its own take on confidential transactions courtesy of Aztec protocol. Stablecoins could get private too should Zkdai – zero-knowledge DAI transactions – become a thing. Pro-privacy projects like Dust and Loki should also make progress, while new projects such as Resistance, a privacy coin and accompanying DEX, are in the works. STOs Will Replace ICOs 2018 was meant to be the year of security tokens until it wasn’t. That prediction can be rolled over to 2019, however, when it might just come true provided the technical and regulatory hurdles can be cleared by enough applicants. What’s beyond dispute is that 2018 killed the ICO, and no one is tipping the crowdfunded utility token model to rise again. The increased legal and compliance costs of holding an ICO, which now average around $1 million, have put paid to the vast majority of initial coin offerings. The ICO market died off dramatically in 2018. Amazix head analyst Jose Macedo believes the security token offering (STO) will become the standard model most crypto-based projects deploy. “While utility tokens are far from dead, what the industry has now realized is that few of these token economic models actually made sense in terms of long-term value capture,” he explains. “As a result, we’re seeing a lot of projects come to us looking for help in either launching their STOs or restructuring their ICOs as STOs,” adds Macedo. He continues: We’re also seeing a lot more STO infrastructure be built out in terms of quality legal, token sale platforms, book-building firms, exchanges etc … As of right now, we have about $1B worth of STOs partnered with us looking to launch in 2019. While security token projects are poised to launch in proactive territories like Malta and Gibraltar, where regulatory frameworks have been drawn up, slower progress is expected in the U.S., where fundraising options are limited. There, the SEC will likely deem most ICOs to be issuing securities. American crypto-based projects are no closer to being granted Reg A+ approval to launch an STO, despite some, such as Gab, having filed the paperwork over a year ago. Decentralized Credit Networks Will Take Off Decentralized credit networks made huge strides this year in terms of infrastructure development. The tools necessary to facilitate collateralized loans, social credit and open finance have been fine-tuned and proven to work. 2019 will be when they scale up and start to serve the sort of users they were envisioned for – global citizens who’ve been excluded by the current financial system. Crypto debt markets and credit networks will be bolstered by the growth of projects like Dharma Protocol, GEO Protocol, Nexo, and Maker DAO. Maker’s system of multi-asset over-collateralization will be emulated, having proven its robustness through extreme market volatility this year. Multi-collateral dai will see a wide range of applications in 2019, as the number of users grows with the number of assets that can be collateralized. 2018 was all about ETH, but in 2019 Maker will accept BTC, ERC20s and other crypto and non-crypto assets. Other Trends to Expect in 2019 It’s possible that 2019 could be the year when one or more dapps finally sees mass adoption, but don’t count on it. It may also prove to be the year when the first viral blockchain game arrives. At the very least, crypto collectibles and virtual reality projects will attract fresh investment, with non-fungible tokens (NFTs) tethering them to public blockchains to facilitate the trading of digital assets. Once Decentraland’s virtual world launches in 2019, a meeting ground for all kinds of crypto games and projects will be established. The Bitcoin Cash community will continue to find new ways to spend and receive peer-to-peer cash, while the BTC brigade will have optimism that 2019 will finally be the year when the Lightning Network proves its suitability for something more than purchasing stickers. Custodial services for institutional investors will improve, bringing new money into the crypto space (but probably not propelling crypto assets to new highs). NYSE’s Bakkt will launch, bringing physical BTC futures contracts, and there’s an outside bet the SEC might approve a bitcoin ETF. Stripped of much of the greed that characterized the dawn of 2018, and with 12 months of robust infrastructure work completed, 2019 is shaping up to be an exciting time for cryptocurrency users from all tribes, countries and continents. What other trends do you expect to see in 2019? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock and Tokendata. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Seven Cryptocurrency Trends to Look out for in 2019 appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The High Court of Ireland has ruled that 25,000 euros (approximately $28,400) worth of ethereum held by Neil Mannion, a 37-year-old man currently serving out a prison sentence for drug offenses, comprise proceeds of crime. Also Read: Google AI Briefly Describes Bitcoin as ‘Collapsed Economic Bubble’ Irish High Court Rules Crypto Comprises Proceed of Crime In what has been described by Irish media as a case that has “broke[n] new ground,” the High Court of Ireland has found cryptocurrency to comprise a “crime proceed.” The judge presiding over the case, Ms. Justice Carmel Stewart, granted orders pertaining to Neil Mannion’s 2,000 ETH that were sought by Ireland’s Criminal Assets Bureau. The Criminal Assets Bureau also sought proceedings asserting that the funds contained in various bank accounts owned by Mannion were derived from criminal activities. Mannion Unsuccessfully Opposes Criminal Asset Bureau’s Orders Mannion attempted to oppose the orders, claiming that his personal rights had been breached through the investigations into his cryptocurrency holdings. While Justice Stewart noted that the arguments had merit, Stewart dismissed Mannion’s opposition, stating that the investigation had in fact been hindered by the intricate details of the data privacy rights pertaining to cryptocurrency exchanges. Stewart also noted the likelihood that future cases may result in individual rights being breached in investigations into cryptocurrency holdings believed to be associated with crime, advocating that Ireland’s juridical apparatus be prudent in preparing for challenges pertaining to individual rights and cryptocurrency investigations. ‘The Hulkster’ Arrested in 2014 Mannion is currently serving a six-and-a-half year sentence in Wheatfield Prison, a medium security institution in Dublin. He was arrested following a raid conducted by the police service of the Republic of Ireland in November 2014 at premises in Dublin and was jailed during the following year. Mannion confessed to using the property as a distribution center for his narcotics sales in addition to trafficking his products via Silk Road and Agora using the pseudonym ‘The Hulkster’ and was charged for the possession of amphetamine, LSD, and cannabis resin with intent to sell or supply. Proceedings were closed in February 2016. The Criminal Assets Bureau again sought for the ETH to be ruled as comprising proceeds of crime during July 2016 following a review of the case. What is your response to the High Court of Ireland’s ruling on Neil Mannion’s ETH? 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 Irish Court Finds Silk Road Dealer’s ETH to Be Proceed of Crime appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The government of Transnistria has recognized the importance of cryptocurrency mining for the territory’s economy and budget. The unrecognized republic in Eastern Moldova now plans to expand the industry by attracting more miners with a crypto-friendly business climate and favorable regulations. Also read: CEO of Romanian Exchange Coinflux Arrested on US Warrant Tiraspol Plans for 100 MW of Mining Capacity Earlier this year, the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (PMR) adopted legislation that legalized crypto mining and provided incentives for foreign investors to set up mining farms within its borders. Under its provisions, a free economic zone was established for these companies and authorities promised to provide the necessary infrastructure, including unrestricted access to the Transnistrian electrical grid. The new law “On the development of information blockchain-technologies in the PMR” also allowed tariff-free imports of mining equipment and exempted mining incomes from taxation. As a result, facilities with a total consumption of between 5 and 7 MW of electricity are now operating in the country. But the government in Tiraspol doesn’t want to stop there. According to its prime minister, Transnistria plans to increase that number to 100 MW and has already managed to secure the needed investments. In an interview recently broadcasted by two local TV channels, Aleksandr Martynov stated: We adopted a fairly liberal law that stimulates mining activities in Transnistria. We also isolated them from our tax system. The head of the executive power further emphasized that Pridnestrovian authorities do not exercise any control over the revenues from the production of cryptocurrencies and don’t claim any portion of the income generated by entities that operate mining facilities. He added that the main goal set by the government is to sell more electricity to the bitcoin farms, and Transnistria can offer a lot of it at a low price. Miners Utilize Excess Generating Capacity The largest producer of electricity in the region is the Russian-owned Moldavskaya GRES, a thermal power station built on the shores of Lake Kuchurgan on the Ukrainian border. It has an installed capacity of 2,520 MW. The station burns mainly Russian natural gas which the self-proclaimed republic does not even pay. The fuel is billed to Moldova which claims sovereignty over the separatist territory in a frozen conflict with the government in Tiraspol that dates back to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. The $6 billion of money owed by the Kuchurgan power station are considered part of Moldova’s debt to the Russian supplier, Gazprom. Cryptocurrency miners help to utilize the excess capacity of the power plant. And more mining farms means higher revenues for the station, which translates into increased budget receipts for Transnistria, Prime Minister Martynov explained. He added that the projected income, which he described as significant, has already been included in PMR’s draft budget for the next year. What do you think of Transnistria’s policies towards the crypto mining industry? Share your thoughts on the subject in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Make sure you do not miss any important Bitcoin-related news! Follow our news feed any which way you prefer; via Twitter, Facebook, Telegram, RSS or email (scroll down to the bottom of this page to subscribe). We’ve got daily, weekly and quarterly summaries in newsletter form. Bitcoin never sleeps. Neither do we. The post Transnistria Welcomes Crypto Miners, Plans to Expand the Industry appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Reports have documented the recent description of Bitcoin as comprising a “collapsed economic bubble” on the part of Google’s artificial intelligence (AI). The bizarre depiction of the world’s first cryptocurrency came as a result of an edit made to Wikipedia classifying Bitcoin in said terms, with its author justifying such as representing “the majority view.” Also Read: Cypherpunk Godfather Timothy May Was Lightyears Ahead of His Time Google Displays Bearish Description for Bitcoin Screenshots have shown that the world’s largest search engine, Google, briefly described Bitcoin as a “collapsed economic bubble.” The obscure categorization of Bitcoin by Google’s results page was due to the search engine displaying a snippet from the description given on Wikipedia, which at the time asserted that “Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, a form of electronic cash,” adding that “The bitcoin market is widely viewed as a collapsed economic bubble as the price fell by 82% in the year ending December 2018.” Said description of Bitcoin was penned by Wikipedia user “Smallbones’ on Dec. 12, who claimed that his edit greater reflected “the majority view” regarding the cryptocurrency. His edit, however, would not last, with fellow Wikipedia user ‘Bradv’ reversing Smallbones’ revision and requesting that the author stop inserting their personal point-of-view into the lede of the article. Wikipedia Entry Reverted to Previous Version Furthermore, Bradv requested that Smallbones no longer be permitted to make edits to the Wiki page for Bitcoin, asserting that Smallbones’ edit was “inappropriate for any number of reasons, but especially because of Smallbones’ clear point of view.” Bradv also proposed Smallbones no longer be qualified to edit the article, stating that “their edits are clearly soapboxing.” Both Wikipedia and Google’s search engine results page now state that “Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, a form of electronic cash,” adding: “It is a decentralized digital currency without a central bank or single administrator that can be sent from user-to-user on the peer-to-peer bitcoin network without the need for intermediaries.” Wikipedia placed a 24-hour restriction on edits being made to the page for Bitcoin, in addition to barring users from rolling back edits more than once per day on the page. What is your response to the categorization briefly given to Bitcoin by Google? 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 Google AI Briefly Describes Bitcoin as ‘Collapsed Economic Bubble’ appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

In Tuesday’s edition of The Daily, there’s a little of everything in the mix: a story about hardware, in the form of the delayed Exodus 1 smartphone, one about security, concerning the latest crypto exchange ratings, and finally a human interest story. This latter tale concerns a war of words between two passionate figures within the cryptocurrency space. Also read: Cypherpunk Godfather Timothy May Was Lightyears Ahead of His Time HTC’s Exodus 1 Phone Has Yet to Ship Customers who made an advanced purchase of the Exodus 1 blockchain phone are still waiting to receive their devices. The crypto-friendly cell phones, priced at 0.15 BTC or 4.78 ETH, were rapidly snapped up by cryptocurrency proponents, who were promised that the devices would ship in December. While there’s still time for that to happen, manufacturer HTC is cutting it fine with Christmas less than a week away. Figures such as Charlie Lee helped to promote the project, and by early December advance orders for the phone, which features a built-in BTC and ETH wallet, had stopped being taken. In the project’s Telegram channel, buyers have become impatient as they await delivery of their eagerly anticipated phones. “Biggest scam in the history of smartphones,” vented one irate buyer. His assertion, while very wide of the mark, captures the frustration that Exodus 1 customers have felt as they’ve awaited news. Today, Dec. 18, European customers received an email from HTC Exodus that explained, vaguely: We are contacting you to let you know the shipment of your order has been delayed, as we are currently finalizing the last certification for European devices. We are working hard to get your order to you as soon as possible, and will keep you updated when we have a confirmed shipping date. We apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for your patience. Cryptocurrency Exchange Ratings Updated There’s a ratings system for everything within the cryptocurrency space these days, from influencers to coins, and from exchanges to blockchains. In October, news.Bitcoin.com reported on ICOrating.com’s exchange security assessment that deemed 54 percent of trading venues to have security holes of some kind. ICOrating.com has now updated its report to reflect new information and additions that have served to alter its assessment of the top 10 exchanges. Coinbase Pro, which occupied the top spot, has slipped to ninth, while Kraken has leapt from second to first. Binance has dropped out of the top 20 altogether. “Overall, only 16 percent of exchanges fall into the A category. None of the exchanges have received an A+ rating,” noted ICOrating.com. While all ratings systems are subjective to a certain degree, their existence can only be a good thing if it spurs their subjects into improvement. Increased transparency and commitment to adopting better security standards will benefit not only exchanges, but also their customers, who can trade with confidence. Crypto Figures Get Into a Tiff Ran NeuNer as he appears on Twitter A war of words has broken out between Ran NeuNer, host of CNBC’s Cryptotrader, and Larry Cermak of The Block. Cermak, together with his colleague Mike Dudas, published an exposé of a fraudulent ICO called BCT and accused NeuNer of being embroiled in it. The CNBC host hit back with threats of legal action, ordering The Block pair to delete tweets and amend their story, after explaining that he’d done nothing to facilitate BCT’s misbehavior, and was in fact a victim himself. In a rambling blog post titled “An open letter to The Block”, NeuNer wrote: According to Larry, the alleged fraud, scams on investors and employees and a man working in this industry under a fake identity, weren’t the interesting part, but rather my alleged “involvement”. [Larry] went on to make a series of accusations  —  most of which are incorrect, negligent, inaccurate, defamatory and damaging. NeuNer then complained of The Block only giving him six hours to provide his side of the story before Cermak’s publication went to press, which he believes was a deliberate move on their part. He finished: “I was a fan of The Block and a regular reader of its stories, but if I go by my experience of your unethical business practice, false reporting and lack of verification, then The Block is unfortunately not that publication.” Mike Dudas, for his part, has responded to NeuNer’s open letter by stating that The Block stands by its story, and extended him an interview invitation. NeuNer has yet to respond. What are your thoughts on today’s news tidbits as featured in The Daily? 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 Daily: HTC Blockchain Phone Delayed, Exchange Security Ratings Updated appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

In the midst of a sino-U.S. trade war, the People’s Bank of China is working to develop its own cryptocurrency prototype. It apparently believes this centralized digital asset can ultimately trump BTC and perhaps even the U.S. Dollar. Also read: Bibox Buys 100% Share of Decentralized Exchange Dex.top A Love-Hate Relationship With Cryptocurrency The government of China has been infamously hostile towards cryptocurrency-related economic activities like crypto trading, mining, P2P loans, and ICOs. But this doesn’t mean that the Chinese government disapproves of the underlying idea of Bitcoin. Although Xi Jinping’s administration has done much to kill the domestic cryptocurrency market, it’s currently at work developing its own secure, blockchain-based digital currency. Reports reveal that the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) has registered 78 digital currency patents, of which 44 are blockchain related, since at least 2016, ranking the PBoC as the fifth most prolific patenter in the space, as has been reported by China’s IPR Daily. Further, the PBoC has been actively hiring developers and economic specialists for its Beijing-based Digital Currency Institute, whose stated goal is to issue and distribute a blockchain-based currency. Unprecedented Control The project was originally conceived by the PBoC’s deputy governor Zhou Xiaochuan, with the intention of “protecting” China from Bitcoin, an asset it couldn’t control. In contrast with the decentralized digital currencies we know and love, the PBoC’s alternative could, in fact, allow the Chinese government to exert even greater control over the lives of the country’s citizens. The current Deputy Governor of the Bank, Mr. Fan Yifei, announced earlier this year that once implemented, the Chinese-controlled cryptocurrency would replace the country’s fiat currency and would ultimately help the bank curtail risks associated with money laundering and other crimes. Some of the patents filed by the PBoC reveal what the Chinese government has in mind for the future. According to a Bloomberg review of recent patent filings, the government not only wants to track its citizen’s everyday transactions, but aims to force banks to share all data related to potential borrowers before authorizing any type of transaction. Also, the PBoC would be immediately able to prohibit any financial institution from dealing with “blacklisted” companies. Although there is no evidence that the bank intends to deny individuals from accessing financial services, the recent efforts by the Chinese government to establish a social credit system may point to this possibility. Trump’s Administration May Hasten China’s Digital Currency Development With the U.S. unrelenting in its current trade war against China, bankers and politicians alike are becoming increasingly interested in accessing an alternative payment method that would reduce the United States’ dominance of international financial markets, all while rumors of a Chinese-backed crypto are gaining momentum. The recent arrest of Huawei’s CFO Sabrina Meng Wanzhou in Canada at the behest of the U.S. government has rekindled this discussion in China. Meng was arrested under charges of U.S.-imposed international sanctions on Iran, charges that may involve HSBC and the Standard Chartered Bank. As reported by the South China Morning Post on Dec. 17, Richard Jerram, chief economist at Bank of Singapore, declared: President Trump is promoting an ‘America first’ policy, so you cannot rely on America to keep its borders open for trade, or to rely on it to support the World Trade Organization or the International Monetary Fund. So you can understand why countries are looking for substitutes … In a world of fracturing of multilateral order, countries will be looking to reduce their dependence on the US. Even though the Chinese yuan only accounts for 1 percent of the international payments market and 1.8 percent of all reserve assets held by central banks, China contributed 27.2 percent of total global GDP growth in 2018 alone. This performance makes it the single largest contributor to the current global economy despite the ongoing U.S. trade war and depreciation of the Chinese yuan. Its position as an economic powerhouse and the current climate of political tension with the United States may compel the Chinese government to redouble its efforts to end U.S. hegemony by attacking the U.S. dollar. Given that the world’s economy is slowly migrating towards digital systems, it wouldn’t be too farfetched to think that an alternative to the U.S. dollar might take the form of a digital asset much like the Chinese government’s proposed cryptocurrency. Will China roll out its own cryptocurrency? Do you think such a digital asset could end up having consequences in the world stage? Let us know in the comment section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post A Chinese Government-Controlled Bitcoin Alternative Is Reportedly in the Works 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 does not endorse nor support this product/service. Bitcoin.com is not responsible for or liable for any content, accuracy or quality within the press release. EO.Finance has launched a crypto-fiat gateway. Now it is possible to buy cryptocurrencies directly from the wallet using your debit or credit card, the maximum amount per single transaction is $25,000. Right now EO.Finance works with 40 different cryptos, and soon even more currencies will become available for purchase. The introduction of crypto purchases made using traditional fiat payments is much in demand, and will allow EO.Finance to provide ease of access to the crypto market for new and experienced traders alike. Until recently banks were anxious to ban any crypto companies they encountered. Making it almost impossible to purchase cryptos with a traditional bank card. Now those banks have agreed to work to with licensed companies, a sign of how quickly times are changing. EO.Finance which is operated by EOTRADEX, holds European licenses for crypto wallet #FVR000161 and crypto-fiat exchange #FRK000193 The forthcoming update of EO.Finance will introduce even more currencies available for purchase. Whilst the addition of a function allowing traders to convert cryptocurrencies into fiat, and then withdraw those same funds to card are well underway. EO Coin is the heart of the EO ecosystem, which includes numerous products from EO.Finance to the upcoming EO.Trade crypto exchange. Paying commission on transactions with the EO Coin will also come with significant discounts on both EO.Finance and EO.Trade. The Airdrop which has been scheduled to take place on December 20th will see 44 million EO Coins distributed equally amongst coin holders. Then in February the burn will take place with 459 million EO Coins being burnt to further benefit EO Coin Hodlers with a reduction in total circulation. It is now possible to buy EO Coins with your bank card through the EO.Finance wallet. Website: https://eo.finance/ iOS app: https://itunes.apple.com/app/eo-finance-crypto-fiat-wallet/id1415386724 Android app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.eofinance Video on how to buy cryptos with EO.Finance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25oKGgAawn8 Contact Email Address press@eo.finance Supporting Link https://eo.finance/ 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: Buy Crypto with Credit or Debit Card Using EO.Finance appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The crypto world has been mourning the passing of Timothy C. May at the age of 67. While an unknown entity to the general public, to early internet adopters, cypherpunks, libertarians, and cryptography evangelists, May’s writings remain hallowed. The intellectual was an early advocate against state surveillance, privacy erosions, and bête noire of the statist Silicon Valley startups whose tech dystopia has surreptitiously smothered society. May’s legacy lives on through his powerful writings that are as potent today as when they first appeared in the late 80s. Also read: How Crypto Miners Are Adapting to Survive the Bear Market Timothy May: Taken Too Early and Ahead of His Time “Interactions over networks will be untraceable, via extensive re-routing of encrypted packets and tamper-proof boxes which implement cryptographic protocols with nearly perfect assurance against any tampering,” predicted Timothy May in 1988 with uncanny prescience. “Reputations will be of central importance, far more important in dealings than even the credit ratings of today. These developments will alter completely the nature of government regulation, the ability to tax and control economic interactions, the ability to keep information secret, and will even alter the nature of trust and reputation.” The cryptography community has often bemoaned the cryptocurrency community’s commandeering of the phrase “crypto”. In the case of Timothy May, however, both groups can lay claim to the cypherpunk godfather’s legacy. May was crypto in every sense of the word, shaping the nascent cypherpunk movement, which pioneered and pushed for strong cryptographic protocols, while paving the way for the cryptocurrency revolution that would burst into life more than two decades after he published his seminal Crypto Anarchist Manifesto. A Free Bird Who Refused to Be Pigeon-Holed May (left) gracing the cover on a 1993 Wired magazine Timothy C. May, or simply Tim to his friends, was a visionary, a maverick and a free-thinker. The phrase “ahead of his time” has long since been reduced to the realm of cliché, but if ever there was a man to whom the the term belonged, it was May. While it’s easy to compose hagiographies of the recently deceased, it’s hard to look at May’s most famous writings and not feel a sense of awe. Had they been composed in 2018 they would have warranted all the RTs, regrams, shares and faves they would have doubtless received. Tim May was my chief cypherpunk inspiration. His vision is of a cyberspace free from government oppression. I was further blessed to be able to hang out with him and kvetch about our crazy world. Will miss you greatly Tim! https://t.co/cLx5dpiUEF — Nick Szabo [Jan/3] (@NickSzabo4) December 15, 2018 Many of the crypto OGs tweeting out tributes to Timothy May this week weren’t even born when his magnum opus was composed, or even when it was later subsumed into The Cyphernomicon. But for those who previously took the time to read May’s words, their resonance and relevance will have been felt as strongly today as they did upon first perusal. In 1994, most people had yet to even envisage using the internet, let alone conceive the need for electronic privacy and anonymous digital currency. May wasn’t so much ahead of the curve as on another racetrack altogether. “The State will of course try to slow or halt the spread of this technology, citing national security concerns, use of the technology by drug dealers and tax evaders, and fears of societal disintegration,” predicted May with unfailing accuracy. “Many of these concerns will be valid; crypto anarchy will allow national secrets to be trade freely and will allow illicit and stolen materials to be traded. An anonymous computerized market will even make possible abhorrent markets for assassinations and extortion … But this will not halt the spread of crypto anarchy.” He further foretold: Just as a seemingly minor invention like barbed wire made possible the fencing-off of vast ranches and farms, thus altering forever the concepts of land and property rights in the frontier West, so too will the seemingly minor discovery out of an arcane branch of mathematics come to be the wire clippers which dismantle the barbed wire around intellectual property. It wasn’t just what May envisioned that captivated his modest but passionate audience – it was the way he told it. Two decades after Timothy C. May shared his anarchist’s rallying cry to a cryptographic mailing list, a certain S. Nakamoto followed suit. The latter’s decision to share his own manifesto with the world via the same obscure route is no coincidence. What the cypherpunks, led by Timothy May, started, Satoshi propelled to its logical conclusion, sowing the seeds for the anonymous digital currency his forebear had prophesied. Timothy C. May was a co-founder of the Cypherpunks and an influential crypto-anarchist, whose writings helped shape the vision of the "Libertarian in Cyberspace" being built upon every day. Rest in Peace. SNI proudly hosts a number of his essays here: https://t.co/UIYqT0pMyD pic.twitter.com/fB9MkZhrSB — Nakamoto Institute (@NakamotoInst) December 15, 2018 “I can’t speak for what Satoshi intended,” said May in October, in what would be his last major interview, “but I sure don’t think it involved bitcoin exchanges that have draconian rules about KYC, AML, passports, freezes on accounts and laws about reporting ‘suspicious activity’ to the local secret police. There’s a real possibility that all the noise about ‘governance,’ ‘regulation’ and ‘blockchain’ will effectively create a surveillance state, a dossier society.” It is up to those of us who still care deeply about May and Satoshi’s vision to ensure the cryptographic protocols we we’re blessed to possess remain the preserve of the people. All humans are fallible, but Timothy May’s perfections and imperfections made him the natural mentor for the current crypto generation. Don’t follow leaders, but do read the writings of Timothy C. May. Combined with Satoshi’s whitepaper, they form the essential starter kit for any self-respecting bitcoiner. What are your thoughts on Timothy May’s passing? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock and Wired. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Cypherpunk Godfather Timothy May Was Lightyears Ahead of His Time appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Forking within the crypto ecosystem is often a controversial subject. Many crypto-enthusiasts loathe it, taking particular exception to the so-called “contentious hard fork.” They believe hard-forking damages a cryptocurrency, and say it should be avoided at all costs. They also believe forking is detrimental to the market and represents a financial burden. However, this view is limited and narrow-minded. Also read: Lawyers to Help the Russian Crypto Industry Deal With Inadequate Laws Forking for Good, Forking for Bad Contentious hard-forking is how the community manages its systemic health, prevents bad actors from gumming up the infrastructure, and aligns the protocol in accordance with group principles. Forking is thus more than a way to upgrade a protocol. In reality, forking is a way to maintain self-care in governance without resorting to violence. It is about group dynamics and cooperating to discover peaceful solutions. It is as much psychological as technological. Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum’s creator, agrees. In a cogent article called “Hard Forks, Soft Forks, Defaults and Coercion,” he said: “Proponents of hard forks are often derided as trying to effect a “hostile take over” of a network, and “force” users to go along with them. Additionally, the risk of chain splits is often used to bill hard forks as “unsafe”. It is my personal viewpoint that these criticisms are wrong, and furthermore in many cases completely backwards.” Definition of a Cryptocurrency Fork A cryptocurrency hard fork equates to a network chain split. It means stakeholders decide to divide a preexisting cryptocurrency into two competing chains. Both chains share the same transactional history, but become two unique coins that follow different paths. In essence, these splits are how decentralized communities resolve disputes and come to terms with technological and philosophical differences. This is different from a soft fork, which is a coercive protocol change that is backwards compatible, but forces users to comply with its rule set. In a Medium article called Blockchain Forks Explained, Nate Maddrey said, “A blockchain fork is essentially a collectively agreed upon software update.” Maddrey’s definition concisely explains the technological fact of a fork, but as everyone knows, a blockchain “upgrade” is not always necessarily agreed upon. These “contentious hard forks” often cause disputes. Matter of a fact, sometimes “upgrades” in the cryptocurrency space are seen as attacks or political maneuvers by others. This causes natural schisms to crop up. Bitcoin Schisms and Reason for Division Some of these individuals go so far to suggest these “attacks” are an attempt to undermine bitcoin or usurp the protocol, as Vitalik suggested. The original Bitcoin fork, which split off in Aug. 1st, 2017, creating bitcoin cash, is a perfect example of a contentious hard fork. Leading up to this fork, divergent communities argued about how to effectively upgrade the protocol to meet demand. Each camp supported differing views on how to scale the cryptocurrency. On the surface, these differences were purely technological. However, at the center of these opinions rested fundamental philosophical beliefs on the nature and purpose of the cryptocurrency. The Bitcoin Cash camp primarily supported the notion that cryptocurrency should be used as cash for the world. This was also the view shared by the pseudonymous creator of bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto. Conversely, the core camp mainly supported Bitcoin as a digital commodity, something akin to gold. These perspectives ultimately mold popular thinking on the economics and purpose of the technology. If it is cash for the world, it’s a paradigmatic-shifting technology. If it is just “digital gold,” it’s a money-making — or money-destroying — speculative asset. Bitcoin Cash ABC and Bitcoin SV Fast forward another year to the recent Bitcoin Cash ABC and Bitcoin SV split. This split was even more political and less technological. For instance, the Bitcoin SV camp raised the block size immediately to 128MB and rejected the option to add smart contracting functionality. The differences were basically superficial. The Bitcoin Cash ABC camp has always intended to raise the blockchain size to meet market demand. It just wasn’t necessary at this time. Adding the smart contracting implementation via new op-codes was the largest difference, but it makes sense from a market perspective. The fact that Bitcoin ABC sought to enable certain op-code functionality speaks to the idea that the more utility a crypto project has, the more value it will accrue. And this does not take away from its utility as a cryptocurrency at all. At the end of the day, the Bitcoin SV camp pivoted to fork Bitcoin Cash for political reasons, for the purposes of control and power. The beautiful thing about this split was it helped align incongruous ideologies, incentives, and personalities with their proper camps. Cooperation Versus Forking Government When a cryptocurrency forks it means competing groups effectively cooperated to move in divergent directions. “Cooperation” in this context may sound odd, seeing as how a lot of badmouthing and bickering ensued prior to the fork, but it was still a form of capitulation without violence. In my mind, this is synonymous with “cooperation.” At conferences, I always ask the audience what would happen if they tried to fork the federal government. I usually hear crickets, then I respond: if someone disagrees with the U.S. government, they can’t easily fork off. If they try, they would likely end up in a cage or shot in back of the head. In this regard, it is impossible to disagree on fundamentals and create a coexisting but radically different government structure in society. Cryptocurrency blockchains, however, provide a novel remedy for that problem. They allow people to opt in or opt out. They also allow developers to change a given cryptocurrency’s rule set at its core code, and then move it a different direction. This is a massive transformation in the way humankind has traditionally conducted governance affairs. Previously, people settled differences with the truncheon and gun. The Psychology of Forks The psychology of forking is straightforward. If groups have the ability to cooperate and disassociate via a hard fork, they can create nonviolent harmony in the system through exercising the ability to choose a particular blockchain. This functions as a form of ventilation and release. It mitigates the necessity of violence. It lessens the charge of psychic activity that could lead to hostile escalations. At first, the bickering and badmouthing appears as a form of hostility, but it is just words. It’s not akin to physically harming another person. This move also limits the amount of corruption in the space. It allows bad actors to congeal around a certain set of ideals, effectively weeding them out. This never happens via traditional government, because all the players remain in power for years, compounding the corruption and exacerbating misaligned incentives. This is why being attentive to the utility and beauty of forking is of utmost importance. Rejecting Government Violence If the cryptocurrency community internalizes the psychological benefits of forking, all the actors involved will vie to fork when necessary. It’s only when these actors turn to government — in the form of lawsuits and other litigation — that the sacred contract of peaceful forking is rejected and replaced with violence. Forking is an amazing innovation not only in technology, but in human social affairs. It should not be taken lightly, but when initiated for the right reasons, be it due to opposing visions or irreconcilable differences, forking is a welcome divide that can leave both communities stronger and more focused once the dust has settled. Do you think crypto schisms and divisions are a good or bad thing? Does the psychology of forking make sense? Is it healthy to fork off peacefully rather than violently? Images courtesy of Shutterstock OP-ed disclaimer: This is an Op-ed article. The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own. Bitcoin.com does not endorse nor support views, opinions or conclusions drawn in this post. Bitcoin.com is not responsible for or liable for any content, accuracy or quality within the Op-ed article. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the content. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any information in this Op-ed article. The post Crypto Schisms and Fork Psychology appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

It’s the season of giving and many Bitcoin Cash (BCH) advocates will be spending some of their coins on gifts for family and friends this year. With the holidays approaching, we take a look at some of the various methods BCH holders can use to spend peer-to-peer electronic cash. Also read: A Look at Some of 2018’s Most Popular Cryptocurrency Traders Plenty of Places to Spend BCH This Holiday Season This time of the year is known as the season of giving, a spell that’s meant to be infused with a spirit of benevolence. Lots of people give to their family and friends during the holidays and it’s a great time of year to spend some bitcoin cash and help support BCH merchants. Between payment processors and services like Bitpay, Coinbase Commerce, Purse.io, and searchable databases like Marco Coino and Greenpages.cash, people can buy all kinds of things for loved ones using BCH. The merchant directory websites are a great way to find specific bricks and mortar and ecommerce shops that accept BCH. Bitcoin Cash Merchant Directories Greenpages.cash has over 930 total listings for people who want to spend their crypto assets. The site tracks gift card retailers, Openbazaar vendors, products found on Tor and Forra, and physical stores that all accept BCH for payment. BCH fans can find Pokemon cards, restaurant gift certificates, stickers, computers, clothing and much more. Greenpages has a searchable browser so visitors can find a specific location or certain product within the site’s database. The website also shows vendors who accept BTC, DASH, XMR, and ETH for payment. Greenpages.cash is a source to find all kinds of BCH-accepting vendors. Another directory shoppers can use is the Marco Coino website, which lists hundreds of merchants all around the world who accept BCH. Last October, news.Bitcoin.com reported on the BCH directory listing over 500 merchants across the globe and now the site hosts close to 600 vendors. If you want to spend some bitcoin cash in your local economy then Marco Coino will find your geographical location using satellites (with your permission) and show you all the BCH-accepting merchants within your vicinity. Marco Coino also lists restaurants and retail shops where people can use their BCH for holiday gifts. Marco Coino is available for Android, iOS, and common web browsers. Bitpay Merchants Accept BCH Elsewhere, due to the attention cryptocurrencies received over the last two years, the payment processor Bitpay has partnered with various vendors that sell all kinds of wares for BCH. A large majority of merchants that deal with the Atlanta-based firm accept bitcoin cash for payment since the company integrated BCH for merchant processing and Bitpay debit card loads. For example, with Bitpay’s merchants worldwide, BCH enthusiasts can use their coin to purchase various gifts during the holidays. The cryptocurrency can purchase subscription TV services from Dish, precious metals, jewelry, luxury cars and more using Bitpay for processing and bitcoin cash for settlement. You can buy a Bentley or other luxury automobile this holiday season. The dealership Post Oak Motor Cars accepts bitcoin cash through Bitpay for payments. Gift Cards and Swag Bitcoiners can also spend their BCH at the Bitcoin.com Store, which offers all kinds of cryptocurrency swag, hardware wallets, collectibles, and even gift cards. Those who want to avoid the mall and the crowds of sweaty shoppers trampling each other for the latest must-have gifts can simply purchase gift cards from their couch with BCH. People can avoid the malls by getting gift cards. The gift cards offered on store.Bitcoin.com are from leading brands like Adidas, American Eagle, Applebee’s, Best Buy, DSW, HBO, Dunkin’ Donuts and more. Shoppers can buy prepaid gift cards in various denominations and get the whole family gifts in less than 30 minutes. Giving Bitcoin Cash One of the best ways to spread BCH adoption this holiday season – and indeed any time of the year – is by giving people the currency to use and test on their own. BCH proponents can give any increment of bitcoin cash to family members and friends by getting them to download a wallet and giving them some during the family holiday dinner. You can alternatively give people BCH by printing out paper wallets or bitcoin cash-funded tips at the local pub on New Year’s Eve. Furthermore, if your family does a Christmas swap for presents this year you could give the gift of BCH and provide the recipient with a very unique perk during the party. Giving bitcoin cash helps spread adoption. There are plenty of ways you can spend your coins this holiday season including giving the decentralized cryptocurrency away as an endowment. Moreover, there are various charities like the nonprofit Eatbch that accept BCH for donations too. Using the coin to help your fellow humans in need is another great way to express the potential of bitcoin cash and an honorable one at that. The holidays this year are an excellent opportunity to spread adoption in a unique fashion and demonstrate the cryptocurrency’s utility. Will you be giving or spending any cryptocurrencies this holiday season? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. Images via Shutterstock, Bitcoin.com, store.Bitcoin.com, Pixabay, Marco Coino, and Greenpages.cash. Want to create your own secure cold storage paper wallet? Check our tools section. The post How to Spend and Give Bitcoin Cash Over the Holidays appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

In the current crypto bear market, miners have been battered due to the depreciation of digital assets, leaving many operations struggling to generate profit. In some cases, miners have been forced to exit the business altogether. In their absence, a number of experienced miners are capturing the bulk of the market share, according to one expert. Also read: Federal Agents Told This Silk Road Moderator to Fake His Own Death Crypto Winter Is Taking Its Toll This year, a number of mining operations have closed globally and around tens of thousands of mining rigs have been shut down in China. However, the bear market has ignited a wave of creativity among resourceful market participants, allowing their mining operations to thrive by capitalizing on new cost-efficient strategies. Matt D’Souza, co-founder of Blockware Solutions and a consultant at KPMG based in Chicago, also operates one of the largest mining pools for Aion Network. D’Souza acknowledges that while the bear market has caused many facilities to close shop, experienced miners are getting creative and capturing greater market share. It is the miners who built inefficient and large indoor facilities a few years ago and bought mining rigs Q3 2017 – Q2 2018 that are in trouble. D’Souza explains that the mining market participants currently going out of business most likely purchased rigs and signed hosting contracts between Q4 2017 and Q2 2018 while BTC was trading over $9,000. Within that timeframe, S9s sold for over $2,000, and a two-year hosting contract averaged $120+ per S9 per month. Survival of the Fittest According to Blockware in the U.S., under current market conditions the going rate for hosting an S9 is between $60-75 per month, depending on the number of units. “It is just like every market cycle – the inefficient get wiped out but innovative participants observe the incumbents’ mistakes, run lean, cost-efficient operations, and establish long-term competitive advantages. Our mine will be able to still thrive at [a BTC price of] $1,500,” said D’Souza. On average, solo miners pay $0.13+ per kWh to run their rigs at home or anywhere with residential rates. According to Blockware, miners have been able to reduce their total costs by over 40 percent during the BTC correction by contracting with a hosting facility and locking in a $0.06- $0.07 per kWh rate. “Miners locking in a two-year hosting contract at present market rates is analogous to a value investor purchasing BTC at $3,500 with a two-year outlook. They are locking an average rate of $60-$75/month per S9 and paying $265-$340 for the mining rigs they purchase: these hosting rates and mining rigs prices are only available during a suppressed market,” said D’Souza. It is important for new or expanding mining operations to calculate capital expenditures which include the cost of facility build-out and procurement of mining rigs, as well as the operational expenditure of running mining rigs which is primarily a function of electricity rate and capacity. Geopolitics and US-China Tariffs Another key factor is that with most mining rigs coming from China, geopolitical tariffs have become a critical consideration. According to Blockware, several large American miners purchased thousands of new S9s at bulk discounted rates preemptively in anticipation of the enforcement of U.S.-China tariffs. However, their facilities and energy capacity have not grown at the pace expected at the time those purchases were made. “As devastating as this Bitcoin bear market has been, we are optimistic that many large self-mining facilities, hosting facilities and individual miners will survive and radically prosper if and when the market recovers as we believe it will,” concluded D’Souza. Do you think more miners will be forced to drop out before prices start to recover? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post How Crypto Miners Are Adapting to Survive the Bear Market appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The Satoshi Revolution: A Revolution of Rising Expectations Section 5: Saving the World Through Anarchism Chapter 11, Part 9 From Drugs to Gold and Prostitution, the Blockchain Minimizes Violence The most obvious objection to relying on self-defense…and restitution to prevent and rectify rights violations, is that these measures will be inadequate to deter criminals…Most people fail to appreciate the fundamental obstacles placed in the path of crime prevention by the perverse logic of public property, public law enforcement, and public imprisonment. Step one: start with public streets, sidewalks, and parks where every citizen must be permitted unless proved guilty of a crime. Step two: rely on an inherently inefficient public bureaucracy to catch, prosecute, and try those criminals against whom enough evidence of guilt exists. Step three: should they be convicted, subject criminals to the dangerous, unproductive, and sometimes uncontrollable setting of public prisons to prevent them from engaging in further misconduct. Step four: periodically release most prisoners back into the community and then return to step one and repeat the cycle. –Randy Barnett, The Structure of Liberty: Justice and the Rule of Law The state manufactures criminals. Then it centralizes and monopolizes a solution to the problem of crime, for which it is largely responsible. Put aside the manufacture of false criminals–that is, peaceful people who are considered to be immoral or unpatriotic or otherwise living their lives in an unacceptable way. The state factory also creates real career criminals—people who habitually initiate or threaten violence for profit. (For a discussion of fraud, please see the immediately previous articles.) Today’s perverted system of law and justice deliberately produces two types of real criminals. The first and largest group consists of state-sanctified ones who use the veil of legitimacy to plunder the wealth and to control the actions of ordinary people. These are politicians, bureacrats, and other agents of the state, including crony corporations. They are “men of the system.” When the veil of legitimacy falls away and people refuse to obey, the state initiates or threatens open force against them. In this way, violence is legalized and institutionalized across society. The state functions according to a parallel and different standard of morality; society is expected to accept a double standard by which state agents can commit official violence that would be unacceptable if committed by ordinary people. The second group of criminals manufactured by the state system consists of unsanctified or street thugs. They pursue profit in the same manner as the state—the initiation or threat of force—but they do so without the veil of legitimacy or hypocrisy. The brutalization of innocent people for profit is not accompanied by lies. The state manufactures street criminals, for at least three reasons. As long as people believe the state is the thin line between their safety and rampaging savages, then people will accept the comparatively-civilized violence of the state. They will render obedience. The state also profits from the confiscation of the criminals’s wealth, through mechanisms such as civil asset forfeiture, and of their labor in prison factories. The state is able to monopolize and industrialize yet another human need—the need for safety and justice. There is the legislative industry, the regulatory bureaucracies, the police industry, the court system, and the prison industry. This industries are immensely profitable. The payoff comes not merely from the exploitation of people who are processed through the machine but also from taxpayers who pay for the facilities, wages and pensions to men of the system. If a villainous mastermind had deliberately designed a system to create career criminals of both sorts—the sanctified and the not–it would be difficult to imagine an operation that is better suited to the task than the trusted third party institutions of the state. The law-and-justice industries are mirror images of the financial ones against which Satoshi Nakamoto struck a telling blow. The central banking system wears a fabricated mantle of legitimacy, and it declares “I am necessary!” even as it confiscates and regulates private wealth. The banks claim to be the thin line against economic barbarism, crime, and chaos. Crypto exposes that lie. The banks are the barbarians at the gate, just the current distortion of law and justice are the real criminals at the doorstep. It is difficult to believe that any system could be worse. Decentralizing Law and Justice No collection of Mafia or private bank robbers can begin to compare with all the Hiroshimas, Dresdens…and their analogues through the history of mankind. t is illegitimate to compare the merits of anarchism and statism by starting with the present system as the implicit given and then critically examining only the anarchist alternative. What we must do is to begin at the zero point and then critically examine both suggested alternatives. –Murray Rothbard, “Society Without a State” Ground zero of any system is human nature. Human beings are incredibly diverse and driven by free will. Every choice possible to human beings will be pursued by someone. The vast majority of those in society will deal with each other peacefully and exchanges that represent mutual advantage. But violence is an active alternative, and it will be chosen to some degree by some people, whether or not a state exists. The goal of crypto anarchism with regard to violence is twofold: first, to minimize its occurrence; and, second, to make the cost of violence fall upon those who make that choice. Minimizing violence is built into the blockchain. It is not merely that the blockchain epitomizes a society by contract without the corrupting influence of a trusted third party. It is also due to features such as pseudonymity and transparency. Consider drug dealing. In an anarchist society, it would be legal to sell anything that did not violate a person’s body or property, whether or not the good is viewed as moral by others. Bitcoin.com contributor Sterlin Lujan observed, “Those are personal choices that apply to an individual’s own body and mind. Anyone who tries to control a person’s drive to have sex or use drugs is essentially a tyrant trying to subdue another person. It is not the moral high ground to harm someone if they are merely pursuing their own version of happiness. This is referred to as individual sovereignty, and it is important.” But high-priced and portable items, like drugs or gold, would remain especially vulnerable to violent theft. One of the most demonized aspects of the crypto community offers a partial solution. Darknet markets have prevented violence. By providing a means through which people can buy drugs and other high-value items with a diminished risk of violence. For one thing, competing drug-dealers hock their wares without killing each other over whose territory a street corner represents. Under anarchism, darknet markets would be accessible through searches on popular browsers, and drugs would be treated like any other commodity. But such high-value commodities would have a filter against violence, especially commodities that might well attract “immoral” or erratic people. The privacy of the blockchain also offers protection, while providing the value of a transparent exchange. Who wants others to know that they own a fortune in gold and silver—a fortune for the taking? Eliminating the middle man—the trusted third party—eliminates risk factors. Precious metals can be ordered with comparative anonymity and then stored as though they did not exist. The blockchain, or technology in general, does not change what people want from the world: the pleasure of drugs or the safety of gold will still be sought. But technology reduces the risk of violence attached to satisfying such wants. In her article “A Hundred Years of Crypto Anarchy,” Elaine Ou commented, “When Tim May wrote The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto, it wasn’t a call to action or instigation of sorts. It was simply an observation. We now have the technology to create and enforce our own rules, and this knowledge cannot be stopped. We can either rail against the inevitable, or use these tools to build the world we want.” The building block of personal safety is anonymity with transparency. “Public Key cryptography isn’t just for encrypting private messages,” Ou explained, “It also provides proof that the sender is who they say they are. When buyers and sellers conduct transactions, they sign messages with their private keys. The signatures become digital identifiers.” If this seems trivial in preventing violence, skeptics should talk to sex workers who can verify the crypto-identities of “safe” and reliable clients and then share those identities through an online database. Sex workers are among the most vulnerable people in any society to violence because of the privacy and intimacy of the exchange. An often overlooked role of a pimp is to ensure the safety of sex workers by screening customers. In short, pimps are trusted third parties to the exchange; like every trusted third party, they are often more abusive than not. Pimps also take a substantial part of all earnings. Cryptography can change that dynamic to benefit sex workers. The foregoing examples merely hint at how crypto anarchism could revolutionize for the better some areas of human exchange that are most prone to violence. In each diverse case, the risk is minimized in the same manner: control is decentralized into the hands of the direct participants. And self-control is the antithesis of enduring violence. Self-control is almost a definition of living in peace. The other aspect of how crypto anarchism addresses violence is to make the cost of that choice fall upon those who make it. [To be continued next week.] Reprints of this article should credit bitcoin.com and include a link back to the original links to all previous chapters Wendy McElroy has agreed to ”live-publish” her new book The Satoshi Revolution exclusively with Bitcoin.com. Every Saturday you’ll find another installment in a series of posts planned to conclude after about 18 months. Altogether they’ll make up her new book ”The Satoshi Revolution”. Read it here first. The post Wendy McElroy: From Drugs to Gold and Prostitution, the Blockchain Minimizes Violence appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The Financial Services Agency of Japan has resolved to refer to cryptocurrencies as “crypto assets” in order to prevent confusion with legal tender. Also in The Daily, the Justice Ministry in Moscow has confirmed that it classifies digital coins as “other property.” Finally, according to a recent report, stablecoins have seen significant growth over the past few months. Also read: Crashing Crypto Trader Shares Advice, Bitcoin Bandit Extradited Japanese Regulator Renames Cryptocurrencies Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) has decided to call all cryptocurrencies “crypto assets,” the country’s leading daily Yomiuri Shimbun reported. The reasoning behind the decision is to help traders avoid confusing digital coins with legal tender recognized by the government in Tokyo. The regulator notes the price of many cryptos fluctuates wildly, there’s no evidence of value and it’s often unclear who is issuing them. FCA’s advisory panel has produced a report this week in which its members claim the term “virtual currency” could cause misunderstanding, calling for its substitution. According to the document, the regulator’s recommendation is to revise all relevant Japanese laws and regulations. The revision is expected to cover different pieces of legislation such as the Payment and Services Law, which regulates the use of cryptocurrencies in the country. The panel has also emphasized the need to establish a mechanism aimed at protecting users in events such as a “cash outflow,” as reported by Japan Times, the newspaper’s English language edition. To achieve that, the Financial Services Agency intends to oblige Japanese companies operating with crypto assets to implement strict management systems. Cryptocurrency Is ‘Other Property’ Russian Ministry Says Russia’s Justice Ministry has once again confirmed the property status of digital currencies. According to an official statement, “cryptocurrency can be classified as an object of civil rights and be subject to obligations.” The document has been issued by the ministry in response to a request for a legal interpretation of the term and reaffirms a previously declared stance. The query has been filed by a group of traders who have been trying to attract the attention of Russian authorities to the case of the now inactive Wex crypto exchange, successor of the infamous BTC-e. They’ve published a copy of the statement in their Wex.nz Initiative Group Telegram channel. Wex users, who have been unable to withdraw their funds from the trading platform for months, have also filed complaints with the Interior Ministry in Moscow calling for an investigation. The Ministry of Justice further explains that cryptocurrencies cannot be accepted as “electronic money” and notes that the holders of digital coins cannot raise claims against their issuers. Nevertheless, the department states that “cryptocurrency has a property value recognized by its turnover” and falls under the “other property” category as defined by Russian law, an opinion expressed earlier this year by Russia’s justice minister Alexander Konovalov. To this day, cryptocurrencies remain unregulated in Russia, with several draft laws filed in parliament still under consideration. In its latest version, the main bill, “On Digital Financial Assets,” does not have the term “cryptocurrency” among its legal definitions. Members of the crypto community and industry organizations have called for its inclusion but according to a recent statement by the country’s deputy prime minister Maxim Akimov, authorities do not plan to make any significant amendments to the texts. Stablecoins See Rapid Growth, Report Claims Stablecoins have enjoyed growing adoption in recent months, reveals a report published by research company Diar. The transaction volumes of four new stablecoins – USDC, TUSD, GUSD and PAX – have increased by 1,032 percent, the authors claim. In terms of value, the total volume of transactions with the new stablecoins reached $2.3 billion in November, and $5 billion for a three-month period. According to Diar, the paxos standard token (PAX), the most popular among these currencies, has attracted $93 million of volume. Its transactions volume is twice that of USD coin (USDC), a dollar-pegged crypto developed by San Francisco-headquartered digital asset exchange Coinbase in cooperation with crypto payments startup Circle. At the same time, the indicator has decreased for Trusttoken’s trueusd (TUSD) during the month of December. Despite the significant drop in its capitalization last month, the most recognizable stablecoin, tether (USDT), is at the time of this writing the fourth largest digital currency by market capitalization. What are your thoughts on today’s news tidbits? Tell us in the comments section. Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Diar. Make sure you do not miss any important Bitcoin-related news! Follow our news feed any which way you prefer; via Twitter, Facebook, Telegram, RSS or email (scroll down to the bottom of this page to subscribe). We’ve got daily, weekly and quarterly summaries in newsletter form. Bitcoin never sleeps. Neither do we. The post The Daily: Japan Calls All Coins ‘Crypto Assets’, Russia Defines Cryptocurrency as Property appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Increasingly frequent action taken by the SEC against initial coin offerings is expected to lead to more cryptocurrency projects being forced to refund investors. Among those expected to be affected is the first U.S.-based cryptocurrency investment firm, Pantera Capital, with the company bracing to receive refunds on a quarter of its ICO investments. Also Read: BTI Claims Only Two of Top 25 Crypto Exchanges Accurately Report Volume Pantera Capital Anticipates a Quarter of ICOs in Portfolio May Be Targeted for Securities Violations In a letter written by Dan Morehead and Joey Krug, Pantera’s co-chief investment officers announced the company’s expectation that one in four of its ICO investments will be deemed to comprise unlicensed securities. If that proves to be the case, the projects may be compelled to issue refunds to investors. The concerns have been sparked by the SEC’s Nov. 16 announcement that coin offerings Paragon Coin and Carriereq had issued tokens to non-accredited investors in violation of securities laws. The letter states: “While we believe the vast majority of the projects in our portfolio should not be affected, approximately 25 percent of our fund’s capital is invested in projects with liquid tokens that sold to U.S. investors without using regulation D or regulation S,” adding “If any of these projects are deemed to be securities, the SEC’s position could adversely affect them.” Further elaborating regarding the projects of concern, the letter estimates that “about a third (approximately 10 percent of the portfolio) are live and functional,” noting that “while they could technically continue without further development, ending development would hinder their progress.” Pantera-Backed Paragon Coin Targeted by SEC Paragon Coin, an ICO that received backing from Pantera, was fined $250,000 by the SEC on Nov. 16 for having failed to register its token sale with the agency. The company is also required to compensate investors who sold the tokens at a loss, in addition to those who are still holding Paragon Coin. The SEC then described the action as comprising “the commission’s first cases imposing civil penalties solely for ICO securities offering registration violations,” adding that “Both companies have agreed to return funds to harmed investors, register the tokens as securities, file periodic reports with the commission, and pay penalties.” Do you think we will see widespread refunds being issued by ICOs as regulatory pressure mounts? 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 Pantera Capital Braces for SEC Action Against 25 Percent of ICO Investments appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The Blockchain Transparency Institute (BTI) has published its December 2018 “Exchange Volumes Report,” claiming that only two of the top 25 cryptocurrency exchanges by reported volume on Coinmarketcap pairings accurately report their trade volume. The report also asserts that wash-trading is estimated to comprise 99 percent of the purported volume for 12 of the top 25 cryptocurrency pairings by reported volume. Also Read: Cryptocurrency Enthusiasts Can Pay $10 Million for a 12-Night Stay in Space BTI Claims Binance and Bitfinex Accurately Report Volume According to the BTI’s December report, the two largest exchanges by trade volume are Binance and Bitfinex, both of which the report asserts do not distort their volume through wash-trading. According to Coinmarketcap’s reported volume rankings, as of this writing, Binance ranks as the third largest by 24-hour volume, with Bitfinex positioned at 21st place. The BTI estimates that Upbit is the third largest exchange, despite ranking 39th on Coinmarketcap, followed by 27th-ranked Kraken, 34-ranked Coinbase, 41st-ranked Bitstamp, 54-ranked Bitflyer, 62nd-ranked Poloniex, 50th-ranked Bittrex, and 55th-ranked Gate.io. As such, BTI estimates that only one of the top 20 exchanges by reported volume should be ranked in the top 10. The report also takes particular aim at Okex, claiming to have found “just about all of their top 30 traded tokens to be engaging in wash trading.” Wash-Trading Estimated to Comprise 80% of Reported Volume Among Top 25 Crypto Pairings BTI’s December volume rankings report also analyzed the purported volume of the top 25 virtual currency pairings by reported trade activity, again finding Binance and Bitfinex to have accurately reported trade volume. Wash-trading has been estimated to comprise 80 percent of reported volume among top 25 crypto pairings. The BTI also found wash-trading forms 99 percent of trade activity for 12 of the pairings, including Coinbene’s top-ranked BTC/USDT pairing, Oex’s fifth-ranked ETH/BTC pairing, Digifinex’s eighth-ranked BTC/USDT pairing, and Coinbit’s ninth-ranked BTC/KRW pairing. The BTI estimated only one percent of the reported trade volume to be genuine for the top 25-ranking pairings hosted on Coinsbank, Ooobtc, Rightbtc, Dobi trade, Bcex, Simex, and Coinzest. Of Adjusted Volume Rankings by Crypto Pairing, 30% Found to Engage in Wash-Trading Based on BTI’s research, the most-traded cryptocurrencies pairing is Binance’s BTC/USDT pairing, despite ranking third on Coinmarketcap at the time of the report’s publication. The BTI asserts that all of the top five-ranked pairings by adjusted volume to have accurately reported trade activity, with Bitfinex’s then fourth-ranked BTC/USD pairing ranking as the second largest by volume, followed by 33rd-ranked BTC/USD pairing on Coinbase, Bitflyer’s 42nd-ranked BTC/JPY pairing, and Kraken’s 47th-ranked BTC/USD pairing. Despite the BTI finding only a quarter of the reported volume for the BTC/USDT pairings hosted by Hitbtc and Huobi to be genuine, both pairings retained their rankings as the sixth and seventh most traded cryptocurrency pairings. Upbit was found to accurately report the volume of its BTC/KRW pairing. According to BTI, the pairing ranks as the eighth-most traded cryptocurrency pairing, despite ranking 60th according to Coinmarketcap. The purportedly second-ranked BTC/USDT on Okex was found to comprise the ninth most traded cryptocurrency market, despite only 11 percent of reported volume having been found to be genuine. BTI found the then 82nd-ranked BTC/USD pairing on Gemini to comprise the tenth most traded market, also estimating reported volume to be accurate. The BTI warns token projects against paying to list on exchanges suspected of wash-trading, arguing that the tactic is employed to entice aspiring crypto projects into paying exorbitant listing fees. What is your response to the BTI’s December findings? 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 BTI Claims Only Two of Top 25 Crypto Exchanges Accurately Report Volume appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Gab, a social network dedicated to preserving freedom of speech, has announced that its store now accepts BTC directly after banks and payment processors denied the platform service. “Literally no one can no-platform our new crypto shop,” Gab announced. The platform integrated Btcpay Server after it was refused service by Coinbase and Bitpay. Also read: Indian Supreme Court Moves Crypto Hearing, Community Calls for Positive Regulations Gab Begins Accepting BTC Social network platform Gab announced on Thursday that its integration of Btcpay Server has been completed. Its store now accepts payments in BTC and LTC. Launched as a free-speech alternative to Twitter in August 2016, this fast-growing website is currently used by several alt-right and libertarian personalities who have been censored from using popular social networks. Among Gab’s users are Alex Jones, Ann Coulter, Stefan Molyneux, and Milo Yiannopoulos. Gab offers free accounts as well as four levels of pro membership, which are three months for $15, six months for $30, one year for $60, and five years for $200. Gab’s store also sells $25 “Make Speech Free Again” ballcaps. Btcpay is now the store’s only checkout option. The platform tweeted on Thursday, “Literally no one can no-platform our new crypto shop. No one. Not banks. Not the media. Not activists. Not online mobs.” About Btcpay Btcpay is a free and open-source payment processor that allows anyone to directly receive payments in several cryptocurrencies “with no fees, transaction cost or a middleman,” its Github page describes. The software conforms to the same invoice API format as Bitpay, allowing merchants to easily migrate from using Bitpay’s paid service to the Btcpay platform. Merchants can use the app to accept direct, peer-to-peer cryptocurrency payments without requiring know-your-customer (KYC) information, the software’s Github page details, adding: Btcpay is a non-custodial invoicing system which eliminates the involvement of a third-party. Payments with Btcpay go directly to your wallet, which increases the privacy and security. Your private keys are never uploaded to the server. There is no address re-use since each invoice generates a new address deriving from your xpubkey. Recovering From Censorship Gab has been a victim of censorship for most of its existence, often resulting from racist views posted by some of its users. The matter came to a head on Oct. 27 when Gab made national headlines after one of its users, Robert Bowers, killed 11 people at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburg. Bowers was identified as a neo-Nazi who made anti-semitic threats on Gab, posting that he was “going in” just before the shooting. Paypal, Stripe, Godaddy, and Medium all terminated their relationships with Gab soon afterward, along with Gab’s web hosting provider. The platform was subsequently down for eight days as the company searched for a new web host. For about a month afterward, Gab’s only income was from customers mailing checks to the company’s headquarters. Despite the media often painting the platform as an online haven for racists, Gab claims to have staff constantly monitoring all content posted on its platform for violations of its terms of service. Its stated restrictions on expression include threats of violence, promotion of terrorism, child pornography, revenge porn and doxing. On Nov. 20, the company tweeted, “Gab has been denied by multiple banks during the underwriting process for a new payment processor. Multiple processors supported us, their banks did not.” The platform added, “Gab is the supreme example of why bitcoin exists. We will be integrating @Bitpay asap because @Coinbase already banned us.” However, after Bitpay also rejected the platform, Gab took the suggestion of several Twitter users to integrate Btcpay Server. In another tweet, Gab wrote: You will never fully understand the power and importance of bitcoin until you go through the underwriting process with banks trying to get approved for online payment processing. They essentially want your unborn child, an arm, and all of your personal data to get an answer. What do you think of Gab accepting BTC? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Btcpay Server, and Gab. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Free Speech Social Network Gab Starts Accepting BTC appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Bitcoin bull Thomas Lee continues to be confident in BTC, insisting that its current price is wrong and should actually be closer to the $15,000 mark. Along with a number of other bulls, Lee has made several overly hopeful predictions this year. Also read: Markets Update: Bears Continue to Drag Cryptocurrency Prices Down Fair Value Is Higher Than Current Price Thomas Lee, the head of research at Fundstrat Global Advisors, is a major BTC bull. Due to the number of active wallet addresses, usage per account, and other factors, Lee has said BTC should be worth around $14,800, rather than the $3,200 at the time of writing. The executive said: “Fair value is significantly higher than the current price of bitcoin.” “In fact, working backwards, to solve for the current price of bitcoin, this implies crypto wallets should fall to 17 million from 50 million currently,” Bloomberg quoted him as saying. Lee, who has been the most bullish of bulls this year, added that BCT’s price will continue to rise next year due to increasing user adoption and acceptance of it as an asset class. He also said that if bitcoin core wallets approach 7 percent of Visa’s 4.5 billion account holders, fair value will shoot up to $150,000. It’s not the first time the financial expert has been bullish about bitcoin. Lee has said a number of times this year that BTC prices could hit up to $25,000. In November, the crypto bull said BTC would end the year at $15,000. Bulls Will Be Bulls Lee is not the only one who has made big claims during 2018. The year has been full of optimists who have predicted that BTC could surpass the dramatic heights it reached in December 2017. One bull who has tried to compete with Lee’s big predictions is Mike Novogratz. The former Wall Street hedge fund manager who now heads cryptocurrency investment firm Galaxy Digital said in September he thought the cryptocurrency would pick up by 30 percent by the end of 2018 and that it was impossible for the coin not to reach over $10,000. This week the former Goldman Sachs partner – who has lost a fortune in crypto – has continued to maintain that he is undeterred by the recent drop. One of crypto’s loudest voices, antivirus pioneer John McAfee, has been another perma-bull. McAfee said earlier this year that BTC would surpass $15,000 in June. It’s fair to say he was way off the mark. And then there are long-term bulls, such as tech billionaire Tim Draper. The venture capitalist has at times been outlandish but said in September that by 2022, the cryptocurrency would be worth over $250,000 per coin. Only time will tell whether Draper is right. What do you think about the recent bullish price predictions? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Bitcoin Bull Thomas Lee Claims Market Is Wrong and BTC Should Be Much Higher appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The Orion Span project has plans to launch a space station that will be used as a luxury hotel. Its Aurora space station is set to launch in early 2022 and a 12-night stay on the craft will set you back $9.5 million. The space hotel says it has sold out its first six months of reservations and the project is accepting cryptocurrencies that include bitcoin cash (BCH) for 12-night packages. Also read: Tipping App Gitcash Returns With Plans to ‘Make It Rain’ BCH on Github $9.5 Million for a 12-Night Stay in Space Ever since NASA landed on the moon and other governments launched citizens into space, a number of companies in the private sector have sought to send people into orbit. A project called Orion Span plans to develop a space station and use the craft as a hotel so millionaires and billionaires can spend a few nights outside the Earth’s atmosphere. Orion Span hopes it can bring individuals to the Aurora Station by the year 2022 and is charging a whopping $9.5 million for a 12-night stay. Individuals can reserve their stay for a downpayment of $80,000 and the company is accepting digital assets such as ethereum (ETH), bitcoin cash (BCH), litecoin (LTC), and bitcoin core (BTC). Cryptocurrency holders who have millions of dollars worth of bitcoin cash, ethereum, bitcoin core, or litecoin can savor a 12-night stay above the Earth’s atmosphere. Since the project launched in April, Orion Span has garnered 26 reservations from travelers all around the world. Orion Span believes accepting cryptocurrencies is only natural for a forward-thinking project that aims to bring ordinary people into space. According to the project’s creators, the hotel will have 4-6 guests in total at a time and two crew members during the 12-night stay. “Since opening our hotel reservations in April, we’ve been met with great excitement as space enthusiasts from around the world have moved quickly to secure their reservations,” said Frank Bunger, chief executive officer and founder of Orion Span. The Aurora Station Orion Span CEO Sees Market Demand for Passenger Space Flight Bunger has explained that the team created the Aurora Station project in order to give passengers the experience of a lifetime. Guest will be able to have fun in a zero gravity environment, gaze at the northern and southern Aurora, and participate in space experiments according to Orion Span’s reservation details. The hotel will have virtual amenities such as a holodeck and live streaming wireless internet access. “Aurora Station is incredibly versatile and has multiple uses beyond serving as a hotel,” Bunger added. “We will offer full charters to space agencies who are looking to achieve human spaceflight in orbit for a fraction of the cost — and only pay for what they use. He continued: We will support zero gravity research, as well as in space manufacturing — Our architecture is such that we can easily add capacity, enabling us to grow with market demand like a city growing skyward on Earth. More Private Companies Are Attempting to Send Passengers Into Space Private companies hoping to send people into space is not unusual in this day and age. A great example of this is Elon Musk’s Space X project which recently launched the Falcon 9 successfully. The Space X passenger flight already has a billionaire signed up to fly around space with his closest friends when the craft is ready. Further, this past weekend Virgin Galactic made great technological strides with the firm’s Spaceship Two entering space for the first time. “Spaceship Two is now the first crewed vehicle built for commercial service to reach space. (With due credit of course to the amazing Spaceship One prototype for paving the way),” Sir Richard Branson exclaimed in his recent blog post. Virgin Galactic will be accepting BTC for passenger space travel as well. Projects like Orion Span, Space X, and Virgin Galactic seem financially out of reach right now, but they are still a few years away from sending paying passengers into space. “Orion Span is looking towards a bright future of making space more accessible to all,” explains the project’s website. What do you think about the Orion Span space station hotel idea? Do you think private companies will be successful flying paying passengers into space? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. 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 or the author 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. This editorial is for informational and educational purposes only. Images via Shutterstock, Orion Span, Aurora Station, and Pixabay. Have you seen our new widget service? It allows anyone to embed informative Bitcoin.com widgets on their website. They’re pretty cool, and you can customize by size and color. The widgets include price-only, price and graph, price and news, and forum threads. There’s also a widget dedicated to our mining pool, displaying our hash power. The post Cryptocurrency Enthusiasts Can Pay $10 Million for a 12-Night Stay in Space appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) has prepared draft rules designed to regulate digital assets and certain aspects of the country’s crypto industry. The move aims to establish Bahrain as a regional leader in the fintech sector and restore its role as a major banking hub in the Persian Gulf. Also read: New Bitcoin ATM Tracker Site Launches in Russia Addressing Market Demand The regulations have been released for consultation and the bank has set Dec. 31 as the deadline for providing feedback. The proposals have been published on the bank’s website, local media reported. The comprehensive rules cover the implementation of a licensing regime for companies operating cryptocurrency trading platforms. A supervisory mechanism for the providers of other services related to crypto assets has been developed as well. The draft paper addresses the need to introduce measures to safeguard the interests of customers. It also contains technology standards designed to minimize and manage the cyber security risks associated with the nascent industry. In a statement quoted by the Bahrain News Agency, CBB’s executive director of banking supervision Khalid Hamad explained: This regulatory framework will address the demand from the market for these services and the need to recognize this financial innovation. Hamad further commented that the CBB’s experience with the participants in Bahrain’s regulatory sandbox has been “insightful in shaping these rules.” The bank official was referring to Bahrain Fintech Bay, which was established to allow companies from the sector to operate and experiment with new ideas under lighter regulations. Restoring Regional Leadership Authorities in Manama launched the sandbox to boost the development of the fintech industry and increase the number of companies offering related services. At the same time, the initiative was part of efforts to reduce government expenditure through the implementation of new financial technology. In fintech Bahrain sees an opportunity to restore its position as a regional banking and business hub. Bahrain Fintech Bay, which was set up in February of this year, has become home to around 30 companies working with cryptocurrencies, digital payments, blockchain and financial technologies. Other players in the Persian Gulf, including Abu Dhabi and Dubai, are also investing heavily to support the growth of fintech startups. But while Bahrain’s CBB is working to adopt regulations for decentralized, private cryptocurrencies, the central bank of the United Arab Emirates and the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority have announced plans to issue a government-controlled digital currency. The new “blockchain-backed” coin will be used to improve the efficiency of cross-border transactions between the two neighboring countries. What do you think of Bahrain’s decision to regulate the crypto industry? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Make sure you do not miss any important Bitcoin-related news! Follow our news feed any way you prefer — via Twitter, Facebook, Telegram, RSS or email (scroll down to the bottom of this page to subscribe). We’ve got daily, weekly and quarterly summaries in newsletter form. Bitcoin never sleeps. Neither do we. The post Bahrain’s Central Bank Issues Draft Crypto Regulations appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article