roadrunner

Bithumb, South Korea’s largest crypto exchange announced on its website that between Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, Korean time, 35 billion won (about 31.5 million USD) worth of cryptocurrencies vanished. Just a few hours later, the announcement was taken down, along with promises of compensation. At press time, it appears Twitter announcements of the heist remain published without explanation. Also read: Bithumb to Lower Withdrawal Limit for Crypto Traders Not Using Real-Name System Korean Bithumb Loses $31.5 Million Less Than 2 Weeks After Coinrail Attack Bithumb is the second Korean exchange targeted by cyber thieves in less than two weeks. Earlier this month, Coinrail, South Korea’s seventh-largest cryptocurrency exchange, announced that it was hacked, losing between $37.2 and $40 million in altcoins, according to local media. Around 9 a.m. on Wednesday, Bithumb informed the public in a Tweet that it was temporarily suspending deposits and changing its wallet system due to increasing safety issues. Bithumb apologized for the incident, asking its customers “not to deposit any funds into Bithumb wallet addresses.” This second attack in less than a month highlights the vulnerabilities faced by cryptocurrency exchanges. “The loss will be compensated by Bithumb’s own reservoir,” the exchange told Yonhap News and also stated that “all of clients assets in safe cold wallet,” which operates on platforms not directly connected to the internet. Markets Momentarily Rocked In South Korea, the price of bitcoin fell 3.88 percent to 7.23 million won as of 11:00 a.m., according to another cryptocurrency exchange, Btrade, Yonhap News reported. Ripple and Ethereum reportedly declined 3.16 percent and 4.22 percent. Bithumb is one of the largest exchanges in Asia, with a daily trading volume of over $330 million, according to Coinmarketcap. A Bithumb spokesman has confirmed over the phone to News.Bitcoin.com that it does not know which virtual currencies exactly were stolen at this point, and did not mention whether it was indeed a hack. Bithumb trades more than 37 different crypto currencies, according to its homepage. Do you think the Bithumb hack spells doom for the coin? Let us know what you think of this subject in the comments below. Images via the Pixabay, Bithumb. Kevin Helms and Jamie Redman contributed. Verify and track bitcoin cash transactions on our BCH Block Explorer, the best of its kind anywhere in the world. Also, keep up with your holdings, BCH and other coins, on our market charts at Satoshi Pulse, another original and free service from Bitcoin.com. The post Major Korean Crypto Exchange: $31 Million Vanishes appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

US Senate candidate Austin Petersen revealed his campaign received, and promptly returned, a giant amount of bitcoin this week, as the donation ran afoul of financing laws. Leading candidate for the Libertarian Party’s national chair, Joshua Smith, has made cryptocurrency a key part of his platform heading into the convention. Candidate for congress, coder Brian Forde, former MIT Media Lab digital currency director, and one-time technology advisor to President Obama, came out strongly in favor of cryptocurrency. The community is divided about political influence generally, but if there must be politicians it’s probably a positive sign some are warming to crypto like never before. Also read: Troll Slayer: Derek Magill Defends Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash Against Defamation US Senate Candidate Austin Petersen Returns $130,000 Bitcoin Donation “To whoever tried to give us $130,276 in #Bitcoin on Saturday,” posted US Senate hopeful Austin Petersen in what had to be a tortuous Facebook message, “we had to refuse your donation. Please donate $5,400 to http://austinpetersen.com/bitcoin in order to comply with FEC regulations. Also, start a PAC or something mate!” Mr. Petersen is a well known figure in liberty circles. His background includes producing Fox political shows, founding influential website The Libertarian Republic, along with coming third in the race for the Libertarian Party’s presidential nomination in 2016. He’s currently mounting an outsider campaign for Missouri’s Republican US Senate nomination. Should he win the nomination this August, he’ll face incumbent Senator Claire McCaskill, Democrat, in November. Mr. Petersen’s embrace of bitcoin is well documented, and he’s openly run on a platform embracing money’s future. It’s actually not the first time his campaign has had to return a crypto donation. Twice before he’s sent back hundreds of thousands of dollars worth. He holds the record as receiving the most legally donated bitcoin, roughly $4,500. If recent polling numbers are to be believed, Mr. Petersen is some 30% percent off the pace for the nomination. Mr. Petersen’s campaign manager told ABC News, “I think it goes without saying we’re going to see a lot more of this in terms of campaign contributions and campaign financing.” Coder Brian Forde’s Run for Congress It started as a slur. Mr. Forde’s opponent branded him a bitcoin apologist for accepting donations, insinuating something sinister. Brian Forde, candidate for Congress, responded, “My supporters didn’t HODL, but they made donations to my campaign in bitcoin because they have faith in the technology. The comments accusing my supporters are completely inaccurate, sensationalist and it is due to my opponent’s lack of understanding of the technology. My supporters wouldn’t have donated to the campaign if they were just trying to speculate.” Mr. Forde wrote some of the earliest and highest-up memorandums for the US government regarding cryptocurrency while in the Obama administration. His accuser was a former SEC attorney, which might explain the hostility and misunderstanding of financial impropriety. Mr. Forde’s campaign was backed by luminaries in the crypto ecosystem such as venture capitalist Mike Novogratz and even the Winklevoss twins. Ultimately, Mr. Forde came in a distant fourth place among six candidates, and so will have to wait at least another two years if he’s inclined to mount another challenge. Joshua Smith Challenges Libertarian Party Insiders for Party Chair The United States’ most viable third party option is the Libertarian Party. In recent years, some have seen the leadership of the party fawn and beckon very mainstream candidates to its national platform. And while there might be nothing wrong with that strategy per se, libertarians such as Joshua Smith wondered what the point of even being a libertarian was if the official party offered up basically the same type of candidates as the two majors. Rather than just moan about it, Mr. Smith threw his hat in the ring, and is running for the Chair position as an insurgent candidate. Among his disagreements with previous, current leadership is how they’ve not done enough to welcome the crypto community, a seemingly natural constituency. “We also need to do a better job of leveraging our membership’s connections within the Crypto community as a fundraising avenue,” he posted. “Right now, there are literally billions of dollars wrapped up in Crypto, with the majority of those currently investing being very Libertarian-minded people. Building coalitions with this community can help change our financial situation immensely, as well as quickly, and serves the added bonus of bringing new members to the party. I have already started building coalitions among libertarians involved with Crypto-community leaders such as Nexus and Vector Space Systems and would continue to build upon these efforts as LNC Chair.” The electoral process will end at the Libertarian National Convention, held this year in New Orleans (June 30th through July 3rd). It promises to be a very interesting battle for the party’s soul. Mr. Smith continues, “It is worth remembering that the millions of people who make up the Crypto and Blockchain communities also make up a large portion of the people in this country who do not vote, as political parties have never made it a point to advocate for their interests. This all changed two weeks ago, when I and others passionate about this issue showed up to an LNC meeting and were able to get a Blockchain Committee voted on and put into place. As a result of that effort, we are now the first American political party actively pursuing blockchain solutions for party issues, as well as continuing to look for creative ways to advocate and fight for causes that are near and dear to the Crypto-community. Continued focus in this area will allow for both the growth of our party, as well as the retention of those who see the promise in this most ‘free-market’ of technologies.” Should bitcoin be involved in politics? Let us know in the comments. Images via the Pixabay, Austin Petersen, Brian Forde, Joshua Smith. Verify and track bitcoin cash transactions on our BCH Block Explorer, the best of its kind anywhere in the world. Also, keep up with your holdings, BCH and other coins, on our market charts at Satoshi Pulse, another original and free service from Bitcoin.com. The post Bitcoin More Influential in US Politics Than Ever appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Turkey’s so called “national” crypto, Turcoin, has turned out to be a classical example of a Ponzi scheme, local media reported. The founders of the “alternative” digital currency are believed to have fled the country with millions of dollars collected from defrauded investors. The company behind the Turkish token stopped distributing dividends earlier in June. Also read: Indian Ponzi Scheme-Funded Cryptocurrency Mine Raided by Police ‘National, Alternative, Rivaling Bitcoin’ Turcoin, presented as a “rival to the global virtual currency bitcoin,” has been exposed as just another Ponzi scheme, after the executives of the project suddenly disappeared, according to local press reports. The Turkish altcoin, advertised as a national alternative digital currency, was launched by the Istanbul-based company Hipper A.Ş. founded by Muhammed Satıroğlu and Sadun Kaya last year. In what sounds like a familiar scenario, every new participant in the network was supposed to bring more revenue to the person who signed them up. And as it happens with most financial pyramids, Turcoin crumbled as soon as growth grounded to a halt amid rising suspicions. Hipper hit the headlines in Turkey with a lavish gala organized to promote the cryptocurrency last year. The event was attended by many Turkish celebrities, Hürriyet recalls. The company has also reportedly given away about 20 luxurious cars to the token’s early adopters. The project suddenly stopped paying bonuses in early June. Since then, desperate investors have been trying to reach its Istanbul office without much success. “I am ruined. I don’t know what to do,” a 38-year-old man, who bought Turcoins worth 560,000 TL, almost $120,000 USD, told the daily. Hipper’s website is still online, currently offering “Cloud mining rental services.” Billion Turkish Liras – Gone? According to Sabah, the executives of Hipper have left Turkey with 1 billion TL stolen from thousands of defrauded investors. Many of them were lured with promises of monthly incomes of 250 TL (~$52) in return for an investment of 1,500 TL (~$315), the newspaper reported. Angry members of the scheme have raided the company’s office in the northwestern province of Kocaeli after their calls remained unanswered. “I was only a mediator. Our company, Hipper, does not even have a single dollar in the bank. All the money went to Sadun Kaya’s company in Cyprus,” Muhammed Satıroğlu, one of Hipper’s founders, told Hürriyet. The daily wrote that he owns 49 percent of the company that issued the Turcoins. Muhammed Satıroğlu and Sadun Kaya Satıroğlu has joined investors in filing a criminal complaint against his partner, Sadun Kaya, who is said to hold 51 percent of the Turkish company and is thought to have fled the country with 100 million TL (~$21 million) taken away from about 10,000 people, according to the numbers quoted by Hürriyet. Satıroğlu claims he has not stolen any money and promises to start refunding Turcoin investors as soon as Turkish authorities unfreeze his bank accounts. Meanwhile, Sadun Kaya, who has reportedly left Turkey, maintains that not he but his partners embezzled most of the money. “Everyone is trying to put the blame on me,” he complained in a conversation with Sabah. Kaya is also chairing the administrative board of Anafis Inc., another company involved in the scheme. Amidst conflicting reports about the size of the fraud, it’s unclear if Turcoin will turn out to be the country’s biggest Ponzi scheme. The record holder for now, according to the online outlet Ahval, was revealed in March, when authorities in the northwestern province of Sakarya launched an investigation against Çiftlik Bank. Its 26-year-old founder Mehmet Aydın fled to Uruguay after reportedly collecting more than 500 million TL (~$128 million USD) from some 78,000 people in just two years. Do you think authorities should take measures to prevent obvious Ponzi schemes? Share your thoughts on the subject in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Ahval, Turcoin. Bitcoin News is growing fast. To reach our global audience, send us a news tip or submit a press release. Let’s work together to help inform the citizens of Earth (and beyond) about this new, important and amazing information network that is Bitcoin. The post Turcoin Ponzi Scheme Exposed, Founders Flee with Millions appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

This week the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) community had found that two trademark filings for the phrase ‘Bitcoin Cash’ were registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) over the past year. One trademark filing was registered with the USPTO on May 18, 2018, but the individual who registered it may be an accused con-artist from Hawaii who was charged with bilking millions of dollars from residents within the Honolulu region in 2001. Also Read: Chainbet Protocol Adds Trustless Multiplayer Bets, Auctions, and Dice Rolls A Bitcoin Cash Trademark Filed Last Month by an Interesting Individual Who Claims to Be Satoshi Nakamoto Following our recent report that detailed how a company from the UK managed to successfully trademark the name ‘Bitcoin’, another odd trademark filing was found tied to the name ‘Bitcoin Cash’ according to public documents. There are two filings with the USPTO that are looking to claim the name Bitcoin Cash for products and goods associated with computer software licensing and online real-time currency trading. The most recent filing, registered on May 18, 2018, applies to computer software licensing and was registered by an individual named Ronald Keala Kua Maria from Hawaii. The USPTO filing also says after Kua Maria’s name ‘AKA Satoshi Nakamoto’ which indicates Kua Maria is claiming to be the inventor of cryptocurrency. Hawaiian Cargo Container Grifting Accusations and the Ownership of Many Bitcoin-Related Domains The name Ronald Keala Kua Maria leads people to a rabbit hole of interesting stories regarding this individual and his mother. According to reports in 2001, Kua Maria and his mother were accused of second-degree theft involving phony cargo containers and the two allegedly grifted millions of dollars by scamming Hawaiian residents. The cargo container scam started in 1979, Honolulu’s regional press explains, where Maria began asking acquaintances for funds to invest in fake cargo containers. Following the 2001 news report, a website was found by the Twitter handle @btcfork called Satoshinakamoto.ws that shows a bit more information about this mysterious trademark filing. The website also contains the trademark copyright notice which states: I Ronald Keala Kua Maria also known as Satoshi Nakamoto inventor of bitcoin and blockchain technology hereby affirm that all my copyrights including an equity-based electronic reserve currency peer to peer electronic cash system. The website further has a copy of the original white paper which shows a copy of the document decoded from the BTC blockchain and Kua Maria has titled the paper ‘The Coin of All Coins’. However what is more interesting is Kua Maria’s statements and claimed ownership of many BCH related website domains which include thesatoshinakamoto.com, bitcoincopyrights.com, bitcoincashcopyright.com, bchcopyright.com, and others. Visiting these sites visitors are re-directed to Kua Maria’s URL, rkm.world, which has a gallery of pictures and interesting services that are allegedly provided by the RKM business like a “free basic income plan”. Funnily enough, these services like the free basic income re-directs again back to the Satoshinakamoto.ws web portal. RKM’s World: “I Own All the Private Keys, Blockchains, Altcoins and Bitcoins Under Copyright Law” “There are no other legal assignees or licensees of my copyrights — Any assignments or transfers are not authorized and may be fraudulent,” explains Kua Maria’s cryptic writings on the website. “I do not authorize any assignees or licensees — I did not publish any part of my TXu002037698 work prior to 08/17/2016 — On or about 09/20/2005 my home (address below) was raided by Federal and State authorities joint task force and my computers, laptops, files, inventions, copyrights, etc. were seized.” I am the real one and only Satoshi Nakamoto — I own all the private keys, blockchains, altcoins and bitcoins under copyright law. In the event of my death, incapacitation, coma, kidnapping, detainment and or incarceration all of my copyrighted works and all related works shall no longer be used by anyone anywhere for any reason at any time subject to change without any notice at any time by Ronald Keala Kua Maria only. I hereby serve legal notice to all users of my copyrighted works to cease and desist all use of my copyrighted works breach subject to copyright infringement. The Basic Income Plan: $800 USD Per Month However, after these statements, Kua Maria casually says that individuals and organizations can contact him for a free license and copy of the notice. He also states that “basic income plan users may be required to pay 2% royalties on transactions over $800 USD to provide $800 a month basic income to all users subject to Copyright law and this Basic Income Plan.” Bitcoin Cash fans and cryptocurrency sleuths are interested in this subject because of all the oddities involved with the story. There’s a chance the community could hear from this individual in the near future especially in regard to the intellectual property and domains this person has claimed ownership over. News.Bitcoin.com has reached out to Ronald Keala Kua Maria for an interview and will follow up with this story if he accepts our request. What do you think about this mysterious story concerning trademarking the phrase Bitcoin Cash and how Ronald Keala Kua Maria claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto? Let us know your thoughts on this subject in the comment section below. Images via Shutterstock, Satoshinakamoto.ws, RKM.world, the USPTO TESS, and Pixabay. Verify and track bitcoin cash transactions on our BCH Block Explorer, the best of its kind anywhere in the world. Also, keep up with your holdings, BCH and other coins, on our market charts at Satoshi’s Pulse, another original and free service from Bitcoin.com. The post “I Am the Real Satoshi” Claims Hawaiian Man After Filing Bitcoin Cash Trademark appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

There’s been a lot of controversy over the past few weeks stemming from the anonymous Twitter handle and co-owner of Bitcoin.org, ‘Cobra Bitcoin.’ The well-known BTC community member has been at the forefront of contentious subjects for many years now, and this week Cobra is claiming that one man has control of more than 51 percent of the BTC network. Also Read: Freedom of the Press Foundation Now Accepts Five Cryptocurrencies The Infamous Snake Twitter Handle ‘Cobra Bitcoin’ Claims Bitmain Controls 80 Percent of the BTC Hashrate The notorious Cobra is at it again stirring up controversial conversations on Twitter, and begging the BTC community to change the protocol’s proof-of-work (PoW) consensus algorithm. Cobra believes mining pool centralization has taken over the network. Cobra’s tweets specifically target the Chinese firm Bitmain Technologies and the company’s CEO Jihan Wu. This is not the first time Cobra has initiated the subject of mining centralization as he has brought the topic up many times over the years, alongside BTC core developer Luke Jr, another staunch advocate of a PoW change. On June 18 the co-owner of Bitcoin.org shared a pie chart of the mining pools processing blocks on the BTC network and stated: Bitcoin simply can’t be censorship resistant long term if the hashing power is controlled almost entirely by one entity — You can’t build ‘digital gold’ on something that can be shut down by one man, and needs rapid massive coordinated response amongst *everyone* to counter. This is the pie chart the Twitter handle Cobra shared on June 18, 2018. Prior to Cobra’s tweet showing the hashrate distribution pie chart, the anonymous individual started tagging big pools that he suspects are directly connected to Bitmain and its CEO Jihan Wu. “Bitmain claims they don’t control the majority of the hashing power behind Antpool, BTC.com and Viabtc and other pools,” states Cobra. These claims and this hashing power needs to be audited, to verify how much is independently owned — Suspect 80%+ of BTC hashrate is Bitmain. Cobra Accused of Throwing Stones from a Glass House BTC.com’s business operations VP, Alejandro DeLaTorre. This specific statement led to a response from BTC.com’s business operations VP, Alejandro DeLaTorre, who scoffed at Cobra’s claims. Following the response, Cobra asks DeLaTorre if he can confirm “how much of the hashing power on BTC.com is owned by Bitmain?” DeLaTorre decides to respond by bringing up another point of centralization, which concerns Cobra’s control over the domain Bitcoin.org, and the recent changes the site has made banning companies that once supported the New York Agreement. “Can you explain me to why the BTC.com wallet is no longer welcome on Bitcoin.org? While we followed all the community guidelines and more?” DeLaTorre asks the co-owner of the website (the other co-owner of Bitcoin.org is Theymos, the owner of r/bitcoin and bitcointalk.org). All the wallet requirements have been met — Where does it state anything about NYA? If you’re going to play politics at least be transparent about it and reflect it on the requirements. Not the First Time a Large Pool Controlled a Great Deal of BTC Hashrate — Ghash.io Surpassed 51% Several Times in the Summer of 2014 Cobra’s following Twitter posts later that day continue to claim that Bitmain is in full control of the BTC hashrate, and he believes other mining pools cannot compete with the Beijing company’s power. “We have waited years for this competition that never arrives — Halong hardware is 1% of the network hashing power, and they don’t sell anything anymore,” Cobra explains. “It seems nobody can compete with Bitmain on cost per J/THs — They will continue to dominate long term, with nothing to stop them,” he adds. The solution is to change the PoW, and end their monopoly, or to at least soft fork in a new algorithm alongside the existing SHA-256. This algorithm is at present a total failure. At the moment, according to statistics from Blockchain.info, BTC.com, and Bitcoinity, data shows BTC.com’s pool currently has around 28-29 percent of BTC’s network hashrate at the time of publication. June 13, 2014 The last pool that grew significantly large when it processed more than 51 percent of the BTC network in the summer of 2014 was Ghash.io. The mining pool Ghash.io surpassed the 51 percent mark a couple of times that year, and held that number for more than half a day on June 16, 2014. However, at the time the pool promised to stay honest and since then the Ghash.io pool had split up into multiple factions. Nothing major ever happened like Bitcoin Gold’s recent 51 percent attack, except a whole lot of FUD spread in MSM headlines that year. Bitcoin Core developer Luke Jr has also been advocating for a hard fork to change BTC’s proof-of-work algorithm. Luke has created a poll for people to vote on the subject on Twitter. As far as Cobra and his recent statements, the snake-like character has relentlessly pushed for a PoW change for quite some time, and due to his bi-polar like statements its difficult for many to take his words seriously. However, his control over Bitcoin.org has allowed his voice to stir up controversial conversations once again. What do you think about the infamous Cobra Bitcoin character and his recent statements? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below. Images via Pixabay, Wallpaper Abyss, and Blockchain.info. Now live, Satoshi Pulse. A comprehensive, real-time listing of the cryptocurrency market. View prices, charts, transaction volumes, and more for the top 500 cryptocurrencies trading today. The post The Anonymous Bitcoin.org Owner Accuses BTC Mining Pools of Centralization 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. On June 29, 2018, Bloomberg will host a half-day, invitation-only “The Future of Cryptocurrencies” event at Bloomberg’s offices in the heart of London, England. The event will focus on the future of cryptocurrencies, where subject-matter experts and leading industry players from the virtual currency market will discuss crypto’s regulatory future, the factors driving its volatility and potential trading strategies. More than 200 industry executives, including attendees from such global giants as UBS, Societe Generale and IBM to name a few, are expected to attend. Bloomberg’s “The Future of Cryptocurrencies” is sponsored by trade.io and is the first event exclusively focused on cryptocurrencies produced by Bloomberg Live. Event speakers include: • John Patrick Mullin, trade.io • Ajit Tripathi, Partner, ConsenSys • Mona El Isa, Melonport, CEO & Co-founder • Oliver con Landsberg-Sadie, BCB Group CEO • Nic Niedermowwe, Prime Factor Capital Co-Founder & CEO • Stijn Vander Straeten, CEO, Crypto Storage Ag With opening remarks from: • Jim Preissler, trade.io When: Friday, June 29th, 8:30-1:00pm GMT Where: Bloomberg Headquarters, 3 Queen Victoria Street, London Jim Preissler, trade.io’s CEO, said, “Bloomberg’s involvement in this event illustrates how crypto and blockchain are becoming more and more accepted by mainstream finance.” “There will be many interesting, thought-provoking panels which will include an opening remark from our CEO Jim Preissler, as well as our Director of Research & Development, John Patrick Mullin,” said Helen Astaniou, trade.io’s Chief Marketing Officer. We view this as a great opportunity to both showcase trade.io’s industry knowledge and technology and bring a greater understanding of the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry and how it can coexist with, and even enhance, traditional finance and the financial markets.” For more information and the full agenda, visit: https://www.bloomberglive.com/the-future-of-cryptocurrencies Contact Email Address marketing@trade.io Supporting Link https://trade.io This is a paid press release. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the promoted company or any of its affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in the press release. The post PR: Bloomberg Hosts “The Future of Cryptocurrencies” appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Cryptocurrency, a technology based upon principles of transparency, accountability, and censorship-resistance, is facing further censorship. Blogging service Medium joins a long list of platforms to have clamped down on crypto content together with Facebook, Google, and Mailchimp. As a service that’s meant to support free speech, Medium’s crackdown is all the more mystifying. Also read: Freedom of the Press Foundation Now Accepts Five Cryptocurrencies Medium Wields the Banhammer on Bug Bounties Medium is the crypto community’s platform of choice for long reads and thought leadership pieces. It’s a place where the latest thinking on tokenomics, hashing algorithms, blockchain scaling and much more can be found. It’s also where ICOs and other cryptocurrency projects publish details of their crowdsale, bug bounties, and other initiatives for the benefit of their community. In the past week, however, Medium has begun inexplicably suspending the blogs of crypto projects. The reasons for its decision are sketchy, but the suspensions seem to be triggered by content discussing airdrops or bug bounties. In a post entitled “Status, Medium, and Censorship”, Ethereum-based messaging platform Status wrote, on June 15: “Medium is currently one of the primary communication channels of the cryptosphere. Blockchain-based visionaries, both affiliated with projects and independent free-thinking technologists, have all made Medium a critical part of how they communicate. Recently, we attempted to publish a blog post announcing our latest Bug Bounty Program. The post was immediately suspended, followed by an automated email noting a general violation, without detailing any specifics, and a link to Medium’s recently updated policy regarding cryptocurrencies.” Status They continued: “Though we had not violated any of these policies, we re-submitted several revisions that carefully edited out any potential trigger words, like “bounty”, “ETH,” and “SNT”. The post was never successfully published.” Status is not the only project to have been suddenly suspended without warning: this week Blockchain.io’s Medium page also succumbed to the same fate. It’s since been restored, but the most recent blog post, discussing its airdrop, has gone. While Blockchain.io’s Medium blog is hosted on the Medium platform, Status’s is self-hosted on their own domain. In each case, the end result has been the same: sudden suspension. Creeping Censorship Is an Attack on Cryptocurrency When Google and Facebook announced that they were calling a stop to ICO ads, few mourned their loss. But when other platforms joined in, including Twitter and, bizarrely, email marketing service Mailchimp, it led to fears that cryptocurrency was facing a concerted global attack. Be it through imitation or collusion, company after company has begun censoring or excluding crypto projects, whilst allowing far more egregious content including affiliate schemes, hate speech, and spam. Evan Williams In its terms of service, Medium states that “We can remove any content you post for any reason” but does not specify what sort of content might give the company grounds to exercise that right. There is nothing that explicitly excludes cryptocurrency, airdrops, or bug bounties. Medium was founded by former Twitter CEO Evan Williams. While fellow co-founder and current Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is extremely bullish on bitcoin, Evans’ only discernible comment on cryptocurrency is a single tweet posted five years ago. “We worry that the seemingly arbitrary decision to suspend our blog is a sign of a troubling trend,” finish Status. “We’re concerned about the creeping censorship around cryptocurrencies. We want our society to be freer for everyone. We believe the forces of censorship and centralization often are closely bound and we worry when we see the power to freely express ourselves so arbitrarily limited.” Why do you think Medium has begun censoring crypto content? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock, and Medium Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Medium Is the Latest Platform to Start Censoring Crypto Companies appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Coinrail has unveiled its plan to resume service despite surrounding controversies. The exchange reportedly removed a key part of its terms of service right before it was allegedly hacked, arousing suspicions. Also read: Yahoo! Japan Confirms Entrance Into the Crypto Space Service Could Resume Around July 15 South Korea’s seventh largest crypto exchange, Coinrail, reported that it was hacked on June 10. The damage is estimated to be around 45 billion won (~US$41 million). Coinrail’s notice. On its website, the exchange states that 70% of its total coins have been safely moved to cold storage. In addition, “about 80% of the coins that have been confirmed to be leaked have been frozen/ withdrawn/ redeemed or equivalent…while the remainder is under investigation with investigators, related exchanges, and coin developers,” the exchange wrote, adding that the coins stolen are NPXS, DENT, BBC, ATX, JNT, and NPER. Coinrail tweeted on Monday that it is in the process of restructuring its business in order to resume service around July 15. The exchange elaborated: Coinrail will resume service before July 15 if it is determined that the service is ready to resume…We are constantly preparing a number of measures to recover the damaged coins and we will be reporting progress on the restoration measure at the end of June. Unhappy Customers Notice outside Coinrail’s office. Photo by Informant. Coinrail says, “We are setting up a recovery plan with various stakeholders such as coin developers,” Sedaily detailed, noting that some customers are skeptical and do not believe that Coinrail will resume service on that date. On Monday, about 50 customers visited Coinrail’s headquarters in Gangnam, Seoul, EKN conveyed. However, there was a notice on the exchange’s front door advising customers that they will not be able to visit the exchange’s office. Customers outside Coinrail’s office on June 18. Photo by Informant. Removal of User Compensation Clause Prior to the alleged hack, the exchange reportedly removed a clause from its terms of service regarding user compensation. Sedaily explained “the controversy over the revision of the terms [of service].” The news outlet detailed, “Coinrail has been suspected a week before the [alleged] hack” of removing the terms of service pertaining to the company’s standard indemnification provisions. This caused some to suspect that the exchange is trying to avoid responsibility for damages caused by the hack, the publication elaborated. However, Coinrail explained: We have been working to strengthen the responsibility of the company in accordance with the government’s policy with the revision of the terms of the contract. In April, the Korean Fair Trade Commission (FTC) examined the terms of use of 12 cryptocurrency exchanges. The agency found a total of 14 unfair terms and recommended corrections. While the country’s largest exchanges such as Bithumb subsequently changed their terms of service to comply, Coinrail removed its related terms of service, the publication revealed. Recently, Chosun reported that some banks detected suspicious activities and closed the Coinrail’s accounts in April. However, the exchange maintains that they were only unused virtual accounts and there was no hacking evidence detected, Hankyung noted. What do you think of Coinrail’s situation? Do you think the exchange will reopen soon and compensate customers? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Informant, and EKN. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Hacked Korean Crypto Exchange Unveils Plan to Restart Service Amid Controversies appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

On June 18 the non-profit organization the Freedom of the Press Foundation announced people can now donate five different cryptocurrencies to the organization that supports free speech, whistleblowers and the freedom of the press. The foundation details cryptocurrency donations in BCH, LTC, ZEC, ETH, and BTC will help fund the various projects that promote freedom including its whistleblower submission system. Also Read: Chainbet Protocol Adds Trustless Multiplayer Bets, Auctions, and Dice Rolls The Freedom of the Press Foundation Now Accepts Five Cryptocurrencies The Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) is a nonprofit organization founded in 2012 that aims to promote free speech and freedom of the press or freedom of the media. The organization’s board members have included well-known luminaries such as Glenn Greenwald, Daniel Ellsberg, Laura Poitras, and one of the world-famous whistleblower Edward Snowden. The FPF is attributed to the open-source whistleblower submission system called Securedrop which was also co-created by the hacktivist Aaron Swartz. Now the FPF is accepting five different cryptocurrencies for donations toward the nonprofit’s active campaigns and promoting free speech. “We are pleased to announce that press freedom supporters and cryptocurrency enthusiasts can now donate to Freedom of the Press Foundation — Your donations support our projects to advance press freedom, including Securedrop, the open source whistleblower submission platform used by more than 60 news organizations worldwide,” explains the FPF. A 1000 ETH Donation Follows the Foundation’s Announcement The organization says they plan on accepting more cryptocurrencies soon and will be including support for zcash shielded addresses soon. Following the announcement to accept cryptocurrencies the blockchain communications firm Mainframe donated 1000 ETH to the nonprofit. “We are deeply grateful Mainframe has made this critical donation to help Freedom of the Press Foundation protect journalists and whistleblowers, and are excited Mainframe, through their technology, shares our commitment to protecting privacy and freedom online,” the FPF emphasized. Decentralized technology has great potential to advance the ability of individuals to resist surveillance and censorship. Cryptocurrency enthusiasts across forums and social media seemed pleased that the nonprofit accepted cryptocurrencies as the foundation was instrumental towards helping break the financial blockade against Wikileaks — Just as bitcoin had helped out Julian Assange and crew before the blockade was lifted. What do think about the FPF accepting cryptocurrency donations like bitcoin cash? Let us know your thoughts on this subject in the comment section below. Images via Secure Drop, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, and the FPF. Now live, Satoshi Pulse. A comprehensive, real-time listing of the cryptocurrency market. View prices, charts, transaction volumes, and more for the top 500 cryptocurrencies trading today. The post Freedom of the Press Foundation Now Accepts Five Cryptocurrencies appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The world loves football (or soccer) and crypto companies won’t let the craze expire without tapping into it. Fans can now make predictions and place bets on a blockchain-based platform with a prize fund in cryptocurrency. Unfortunately, not only legitimate businesses, but also scammers have been trying to take advantage of the emotions surrounding the biggest sporting event on the planet. Check the details in today’s Bitcoin in Brief and read to the end if you want to know why football is good for Telegram, too. Also read: Bitcoin in Brief Monday: From New York to Historic Istanbul Market Predictions and Bets on the Blockchain-Based Cryptocup The FIFA World Cup is underway in Russia and crypto businesses are trying to make a buck on the back of the championship that captivates billions. Cryptocup is a blockchain-based game that allows football fans to make predictions and even bet on the matches. The team behind the project has even announced a prize fund of 28 ether. Cryptocup is a platform based on the Ethereum blockchain and is reportedly among the first Dapps, or decentralized applications, letting users create their own ERC 721 tokens to represent the soccer teams which, in their opinion, would climb to the top of the 2018 World Cup final ranking. Gamers can log into the Cryptocup system with Metamask to create their own tokens, or golden tickets, used to make predictions for the 64 games of the championship, the Russian crypto outlet Bit Novosti reported, quoting Forbes. Players must set a value for each of their tokens which they can trade among each other. The game also features an express mode in which they can bet only on the top four football teams. “The World Cup is the single biggest sporting event. Over 3 billion people, almost half the world, tunes in. I’ve attended two myself,” said Federico Goldberg, CEO and founder of Cryptocup. “We wanted to combine that popularity with blockchain technology in order to build something different than an ICO or collectible,” he explained. Someone’s Mining While You Are Watching the Match Legitimate crypto businesses are not the only ones trying to exploit the football fever. It turns out that internet fraudsters have already developed a number of “thematic viruses” to do that. The web is full of sites with malicious content related to the huge sport event, according to a study by the antivirus software developer ESET. Among the potential victims are mostly users looking for online platforms broadcasting the football matches, Magcity reports. Analysts note that the services these websites are offering are usually full of annoying ads and almost every link leads to dangerous content. Scammers have even incorporated their codes in the video players which install Trojans on your computers. The online security experts have also discovered software that uses the hardware of the devices to mine cryptocurrencies. And, of course, the minted digital money goes straight to the hackers’ wallets. Watching the games on a smartphone is not safe either. Some of the detected malicious programs have been designed specifically to exploit mobile devices, ESET warned. Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears In Russia, and partly continuing the football topic, there has been another turn in the Telegram saga. The Moscow City Court has upheld the ban imposed on the messaging service by the Tagansky District Court on April 13, local media reported. The appeal filed by the legal representatives of Telegram Messenger Limited Liability Partnership has been rejected, which means the decision of the district court has effectively entered into force. The legal drama around the messaging app, popular among crypto enthusiasts, started with Telegram’s refusal to hand over its encryption keys to Russian special services. The Federal Security Service (FSB) says it needs them to “protect the society and the state,” claiming the messenger has been used by terrorists. The arguments were repeated during the last court hearing by the FSB’s lawyers. According to some reports, however, the attempts to block Telegram, which have been unsuccessful so far, are related to its plans to issue its own cryptocurrency. Easing the Pressure, Thanks to Football Despite the negative development, authorities are likely to leave the messenger alone, at least while all eyes are on Russia, which is currently hosting the football World Cup. Two reasons have been mentioned for that: first, Moscow would not want any bad publicity during the biggest international sport event, and secondly, officials surely realize that many football fans are using Telegram. Another indication that authorities intend to loosen the clamp came from President Putin himself. Prohibition is the easiest way to go, he noted during his annual Q&A session with Russian citizens, while suggesting it’s necessary to seek “civilized ways” to solve the problem. His words were interpreted by both the media and the local Telegram community as a signal to regulators and special services to ease the pressure on the messenger. Probably reading the message from above, the Russian telecom regulator, Roskomnadzor, quickly unblocked 7 million IP addresses from foreign hosting providers like Amazon Web Services, which were restricted as part of the attempts to shut down Telegram in Russia. The change was detected by Usher2.club, a platform tracking blocked Russian websites and addresses. Right before the start of the football fest, the number of blocked IP addresses dropped by 11 million to a total of 3.7 million. What are your thoughts on today’s topics in Bitcoin in Brief? Share them in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Bitcoin News is growing fast. To reach our global audience, send us a news tip or submit a press release. Let’s work together to help inform the citizens of Earth (and beyond) about this new, important and amazing information network that is Bitcoin. The post Bitcoin in Brief Tuesday: Crypto Bets, Viruses, Messages, All Because of Football appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

What is a proud college dropout, world traveler, Ayn Rand devotee, and son of an international arms dealer doing artfully, doggedly defending bitcoin as a form of cash? Not even out of his 20s, Derek Magill is many times wiser than his chronological age lets on. In fact, he’s arguably the most important apologist around when it comes to bitcoin cash (BCH). Through rational arguments, funny retorts, solid philosophical foundations, he’s developed quite a following. He’s even started his own think tank, The Nakamoto Studies Institute, to document BCH’s importance in monetary history. News.Bitcoin.com caught up with the troll slayer for an exclusive interview. Also read: UK Financial Game Show Uses Comedy & Bitcoin to Entertain, Inform Derek Magill is the Troll Slayer News.Bitcoin.com (BC): You waded into litecoin for a while, hoping to find a crypto sans excessive fees and mempool nonsense, right? I remember you posting a schematic or something, explaining how it worked to your grandfather. Derek Magill (DM): That’s correct. I gave up on the cryptocurrency community not long after I got my first bitcoin in 2013. I bought bitcoin here and there over the years, but I never liked what I saw as indefinite utopianism in the space — that kept me away from participating. The events leading up to Mike Hearn’s famous exit piece made me glad I’d stayed out of it at the time. But I started getting excited again in early 2017. I liked the fact that, at the time at least, the Litecoin community was committed to litecoin being usable for real-world commerce. There were problems with litecoin’s value proposition from the start that I was aware of (mostly in the fact that the ‘silver to bitcoin’s gold’ analogy sounds nice but is nonsensical), but I hoped it would be able to come out from bitcoin core’s [BTC] shadow as the developers and the community took BTC down a road that seemed increasingly irrational. And in a way, I think I was vindicated for a time. Litecoin grew in price and volume incredibly in mid-to-late 2017, I think in large part because people needed a more reliable way to transfer value than BTC. But when it became clear to me that the Litecoin roadmap was little more than testing ground for BTC’s roadmap, right around the time BCH got off the ground I traded my Litecoin for BCH, which I now think has the only serious chance of challenging BTC’s roadmap. Frankly, Litecoin is still one of my best investments though, funny enough. Argumentum ad Rogerum BC: Your favoritism of bitcoin cash has turned toward advocacy. Is it important BCH proponents be versed in apologetics? DM: Long term, no. You should be able to be philosophically illiterate but still be able to transact with BCH and get value from it. In the short term, I have been totally surprised by the effectiveness of the Core madness, and I suspect the more reasoned arguments we can deliver on the BCH side to counter that will be valuable. That’s why I’ve spent so much time writing. I do think in general BCH/BTC need more communicators, philosophers, writers, salespeople, marketers, and creatives. Developer-only culture is the reason we got into this mess to begin with. Actual footage of the troll slayer in action. BC: One of the first viral essays you wrote about BCH was to separate its more charismatic advocates from the cryptocurrency itself, Argumentum ad Rogerum. Why is that important? DM: That really had two goals. On the one hand, I think Roger Ver is a hero for the work he’s done, and what is being done to his reputation by idiotic internet losers and a handful of genuinely mean people is disgraceful. I wanted to counter that. On the other hand, and related directly to your question, I think it’s a very bad sign for investors if the success of Bitcoin is said to rest on a tiny handful of good or bad actors. The simple fact is that Roger could be a total scammer charlatan and it wouldn’t change my evaluation of Bitcoin Cash. I wanted to point out the stupidity and hypocrisy of making everything about Roger and show how it is not an argument at all. Core’s obsession with the personal character of Roger and others as arguments against Bitcoin Cash is frankly more revealing about their own warped views of Bitcoin than BCH or Ver. Nakamoto Studies Institute BC: The Staggering Lies and Scams of Bitcoin Core is a definitive polemic of its subject matter. What drove you to write it? DM: That was a fun one to write. I suppose it was directly inspired by a rather unlettered rant Saifedean Ammous left me on Twitter about how BCH is a scam run by sociopaths and criminals, the same old nonsense you hear all the time. More broadly though, it was just this question of “scam” in general. You hear it all the time that BCH is a scam but very little evidence is ever given besides the fact that Roger Ver sold some firecrackers on Ebay once and Jihan Wu is from China. Meanwhile, there’s a good deal of evidence that a lot of bad things have been done by people in the BTC community that might be relevant to potential investors. I wanted to make a roundup of the ones I considered most egregious — the puffed up lawsuits against Bitcoin.com by people who claim to be anarchists, the false advertising on Bitcoin dot org that went on for months and months, and the imaginary victims, they claim are ‘deceived by BCH,’ but whom they can never point to, are just a few. These are evil, evil acts and they should be brought to light, especially when their perpetrators are constantly pretending they have some kind of moral high ground. Maybe more importantly, as Roger himself as said, the propaganda and censorship was effective. BTC became a cult, and if we want to prevent that from happening in BCH, speaking out fast and effectively will be one step to doing so. BC: Your advocacy has bloomed to starting an online Institute. It’s attracted at least one of the founders of the original idea. In fact, he’s left (or was booted), and has said he intends to collab with you. You’ve described it as a fork. What are your hopes for the Nakamoto Studies Institute? DM: A lot of the lies in the Bitcoin world today can be addressed by returning to Satoshi’s writings. I want to create the world’s best archive of his writings so that you can easily search them by keyword. Mr. Magill in Serbia. For example, if you want to find Satoshi discussing Moore’s Law (he does) or ‘micropayments’ (he does that too), you’ll be able to click a link and find all the times he mentioned those terms. I think that’s powerful intellectual ammo for people who want to defend themselves against Core propaganda and who want to push the development of Bitcoin in the right direction. Satoshi is not God, of course, but nor are the Core developers (they seem to have forgotten that). Satoshi’s writings are a good reminder to the world of that fact. It’s a good check against the 1984-style rewriting of Bitcoin’s history they’ve been attempting recently. Are game shows and entertainment important to crypto adoption? Let us know in the comments. Images via the Pixabay, Dominic Frisby’s Financial Game Show. Verify and track bitcoin cash transactions on our BCH Block Explorer, the best of its kind anywhere in the world. Also, keep up with your holdings, BCH and other coins, on our market charts at Satoshi Pulse, another original and free service from Bitcoin.com. The post Troll Slayer: Derek Magill Defends Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash Against Defamation 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. New Platform Digitizes The ‘Socios’ Model, Fusing Crowd-Management With Blockchain Technology To Create A New Era Of Fan Engagement & Monetization In Football Mediarex, the Malta-based, Binance-backed fintech and sports company, who recently raised more than $65 million through a private token sale for its blockchain-based sports platform, will launch the world’s first fan engagement and fan monetization platform for the football industry through Socios.com. The ultimate fan engagement tool for the football industry, Socios.com is the world’s first scalable, tokenized voting platform where football fans can buy, trade and execute voting or ‘crowd-manager’ rights for their favourite football teams. Powered by the chiliZ fintech platform and $CHZ token, chiliZ has committed $20 million to the Socios.com venture that will take football fan engagement into the mainstream. The desktop and mobile platform, which is currently being developed for the booming esports industry, was originally inspired by the ‘socios’ or fan-controlled management frameworks of many football teams around the world. Perhaps the best known examples are Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, which are run by their 90,000 and 145,000-strong fan base respectively, but they are by no means the largest – indeed, that title goes to FC Bayern Munich, arguably the biggest and most successful example of this democratic/mutual management, with 290,000 affiliate fans. Portugal’s SL Benfica has 184,000 partners, while Sporting CP has 160,000. The ‘socios’ concept is tried and tested, and has created powerful relationships between the clubs and the fans for decades. Socios.com represents the digitisation of this framework, and the football industry will be encouraged to embrace new technology and fintech innovation. The fully mobile solution means fans will no longer be restricted by geography, with the ability to connect the 4 billion football fans worldwide to the 1000 UEFA clubs and 2300+ professional football teams in existence. Once onboard, teams trade voting rights for management decisions within the Socios.com platform. Each team will operate their own ‘token sale’, from which they will receive funding from fans and investors in exchange for voting rights. Although each team will receive the same number of voting tokens, it is up to the team to decide how the fund is handled to support their vision or what decisions are put up for fan vote. The platform then acts as an exchange, meaning fans can trade and re-trade those voting rights. The underlying blockchain technology is the most practical and eloquent way to unite the needs of maintaining voting integrity and transparency with transforming voting rights into an ‘ownable’ commodity. “We believe that technology and innovation can bring so much value to both the clubs and their fans in the future,” said Alexandre Dreyfus, CEO of Mediarex. “Socios.com will allow football teams to create a completely new economy that can be monetized, whilst building a new fan engagement ecosystem. We understand that this will bring a certain degree of disruption to an established industry, and it will no doubt require require a lot of education, but the first mover advantage will be critical in paving the way for a new democratic, digital, and international standard in club management.” The chiliZ/Socios team is comprised of 25+ industry experts, experienced in regulated gaming and tech. Members of the Advisory Panel include Dr. Christian Mueller, Vice President, Strategy & Business Development, InFront Sports – one of Europe’s leading sports marketing agencies – and Sam Li, Head of Strategic Partnerships for Sina Sports, who leads domestic and international sports content acquisition for China’s largest online media portal. Chief Strategy Officer of Perform Group, John Gleasure, is a shareholder of Mediarex. In addition, Socios.com is backed two of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, providing the liquidity required to create a global fan exchange market. The company will present the Socios.com platform at the World Football Summit in September, with a view to announcing their first strategic partnerships in due course. Contact Email Address emma@mediarex.com Supporting Link www.socios.com 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: Introducing Socios 2.0 – Football on the Blockchain Socios.com appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

In recent regulatory news, the United States Office of Government Ethics has issued a document advising employees of the U.S. executive branch to disclose their cryptocurrency holdings. In other news, Bank of Korea has rejected the notion of central bank-issued digital currencies, Crypto Finance AG has received licensing from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), and France is expected to develop a framework for regulating initial coin offerings (ICOs) by 2019. Also Read: Financial Services Provider Square Acquires New York Bitlicense U.S. Office of Government Ethics Advises Employees of Executive Branch to Disclose Crypto Holdings The United States Office of Government Ethics has published a legal advisory that requires all employees of the U.S. executive branch to disclose their virtual currency holdings. The advisory states that “U.S. Office of Government Ethics (OGE) has determined that virtual currency is ‘property held . . . for investment or the production of income’ for purposes of public and confidential financial disclosure, pursuant to the Ethics in Government Act. […] Executive branch employees are therefore required to report their holdings of virtual currency on their public or confidential financial disclosure report, subject to applicable reporting thresholds for property held for investment or the production of income.” The advisory also makes note of potential conflicts of interest that may arise through government employees owning crypto assets, stating, “Virtual currency is an investment asset and, like other property held for investment, it may create a conflict of interest for employees who own it. Furthermore, it is not subject to the conflict of interest exemptions in 5 C.F.R. part 2640. Agency ethics officials should, therefore, analyze whether their employees’ official duties would have an effect on the value of their virtual currency, just as they would any other property held for investment or the production of income. They should also alert their employees to the potential conflict of interest risk posed by ownership of virtual currency.“ Bank of Korea Rejects Central Bank-Issued Digital Currencies Korea’s central bank, Bank of Korea, has flatly rejected the notion of central bank-issued cryptocurrencies. A report issued by the bank concluded: “It’s desirable that the BOK is the only entity to entirely control issuing money.” In the report, Kwon Oh-ik, a researcher at Bank of Korea’s economic research institute stated: “We reviewed the possible feasibility of digital currencies as currency; however, our thoughts are that digital currencies have been exposed to various categories of risk associated with credit, liquidity and legal management.” Kwon also stated that “Technology improvements don’t mean private sectors will be allowed to have the rights for money issuance. If this happens, the BOK should regulate them but properly.” Crypto Finance AG Gains FINMA Licensing Crypto Finance AG, a Zug-headquartered company providing financial services pertaining to cryptocurrencies, has successfully received licensing from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority. The licensing makes the firm a legitimate distributor of collective investment schemes in Switzerland. Jan Brzezek, the chief executive officer and founder of Crypto Fund AG, stated: “For us, getting the FINMA license is a big step in the right direction, to establish us as the first point of contact for crypto assets.” France Expected to Regulate ICOs by 2019 A forthcoming bill providing regulatory guidelines for initial coin offerings is expected to be delivered to the French Council of Minister this month. A report published by law firm Kramer Levin states that “The proposed legislation would introduce a new chapter to Book V, Title V of the French Monetary and Financial Code, or CMF, which will be renamed ‘Intermediaries in Miscellaneous Property and Token Issuers.’ Chapter 2 of Title V will be titled ‘Token Issuers’ and will detail the rules applicable to ICOs in articles L. 550-6 et seq.” “Chapter 2 provides a definition of tokens, indicating that a token is intangible property representing, in numerical form, one or more rights that can be issued, registered, conserved or transferred using a shared electronic registration mechanism that facilitates the identification, directly or indirectly, of the owner of said property. It also defines an ICO as any offer to the public, in any shape or form, to purchase tokens. However, it excludes offers made to a small number of buyers. Under the proposed legislation, the issuer should notify token buyers of the status of the project the ICO funds were used to finance, and of the establishment of any secondary market for the tokens,” the report continues. Kramer Levin characterizes the proposed regulations as differing significantly from the legislative apparatus adopted by other nations – arguing that France is moving toward the development of a unique regulatory framework from the ground up, as opposed to attempting to apply existing securities laws to the virtual currency sector. Do you think that employees of the U.S. executive branch should be required to disclose their cryptocurrency holdings? Share your thoughts in the comments section below! Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Wikipedia, Finma.ch Want a comprehensive list of the top 500 cryptocurrencies and see their prices and overall market valuation? Check out Satoshi Pulse for all that hot market action! The post U.S. Executive Branch Employees to Disclose Crypto Holdings, French ICO Regulations Coming by 2019 appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The association comprising of 16 government-approved cryptocurrency exchanges in Japan has reportedly provided a sneak peak of its self-regulatory rules. The focuses are on banning insider trading and preventing exchanges from listing privacy coins. Also read: Yahoo! Japan Confirms Entrance Into the Crypto Space Insider Trading Banned The Japan Virtual Currency Exchange Association (JVCEA) has given a sneak peak of the draft self-regulatory rules it has been working on, “in an effort to step up consumer protections and improve transparency,” Nikkei reported on Monday. The main focuses of the new regulations are on “insider trading and the trading of new currencies that cannot be traced easily,” the publication detailed, adding: The proposed rules explicitly ban insider trading. Word has leaked previously that a major exchange would start handling a new currency, which led to a surge in the currency’s value and left many suspecting market manipulation. Such activity would represent a clear violation of the new rules. Representatives of the JVCEA. Privacy Coins and Other Restrictions Previously, news.Bitcoin.com reported that the country’s top financial regulator, the Financial Services Agency (FSA), had pressured exchanges to drop privacy coins. Nikkei soon reported that the agency intended to introduce a rule banning them. Subsequently, Coincheck delisted XMR, DASH, and ZEC. According to the news outlet, the JVCEA has also introduced its own rules on privacy coins, stating: The association also wants to prohibit exchanges from accepting new currencies that cannot be traced to previous sellers, since such currencies could easily be used for money laundering and are hard to monitor. Highly anonymous coins like Monero, Dash and Zcash could be forced out of the mainstream. In order to prevent another Coincheck incident, crypto exchanges must better protect customer assets and report audit results to the association. “Customers’ private keys, which are needed to complete transactions, must also be managed offline to minimize hacking risk,” the publication described. Furthermore, “exchanges will be required to keep their quoted rates from widely deviating from the prevailing market rates. Exchanges would also need to introduce circuit breakers to halt trading should a currency’s value suddenly surge or plunge.” Strict and Costly Compliance All Around Following the hack of Coincheck in January, the FSA has tightened its oversight of crypto exchanges including imposing stricter registration requirements and on-site inspections. The agency has handed out a number of business improvement orders as well as suspended a few exchanges. Out of the 16 registered exchanges, only two were issued business improvement orders – GMO Coin and Tech Bureau. Prior to the Coincheck hack, Japan had 16 “deemed dealers” or those exchanges which were allowed to operate while their applications are pending. However, since the FSA started strengthening its rules, eight of them have indicated that they will withdraw their applications. Taizen Okuyama. The JVCEA was established in March, also in response to the Coincheck hack, in order to regain public trust in the crypto industry. The association consists of the 16 government-approved crypto exchanges. The chairman and president of the organization is Taizen Okuyama of Money Partners. Bitflyer CEO Yuzo Kano is the Vice Chairman, along with Bitbank President Noriyuki Hiroeno. The other two directors are SBI Virtual Currencies’ Yoshitaka Kitao and GMO Coin’s Tomitaka Ishimura. In addition to the JVCEA, Japan already has two older associations: the Japan Blockchain Association (JBA) and the Japan Virtual Currency Business Association (JCBA). According to the news outlet, the JVCEA has drawn up nearly 100 pages of self-regulatory measures which could be costly for crypto exchanges to comply with. An official at one exchange was quoted saying: We’re being subjected to rules almost as tough as the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act. What do you think of the association’s self-regulatory rules? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock and the JVCEA. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post All Regulated Japanese Exchanges to Prohibit Insider Trading and Privacy Coins appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Brave Software, the publisher of an open-source web browser boasting enhanced privacy features, built-in ad blocker, and built-in cryptocurrency (Basic Attention Token [BAT]), has commenced the trial phase of its ad program. Brave users who participate in the trial for the program will be paid a sum of BAT proportional to 70% of the company’s advertising revenues in exchange for viewing ads. Also Read: Six Alternatives to an Initial Coin Offering Brave Browser Begins Trialing Advertising Program Brave Software has commenced trials for its browser’s ads program. The company, which was founded by former chief architect and CTO of Mozilla, Brendan Eich, and former senior software engineer at Mozilla and former software developer lead at Khan Academy, Brian Bondy, claims that its browser offers a number of speed and privacy advantages over its competitors. Brave’s website claims that the browser loads pages up to two times faster than other browsers on desktop, and up to eight times faster of mobile – owing in large part to its inbuilt ad blocker that seeks to eliminate undesired bandwidth expenditure. Once the product is fully launched, the browser will allow its users to choose between either block ads entirely, or earn the browser’s inbuilt cryptocurrency, Basic Attention Token, in exchange for viewing ads. Basicattentiontoken.org describes BAT as comprising “a utility token based on the Ethereum technology that can also be used as a unit of account between advertisers, publishers.” Ad Program Participants to Receive 70% of Advertising Revenues The company’s ad program will see users view a “few relevant ads” several times each day. Each time an advert is viewed, the browser user will earn BAT tokens – with Brave set to distribute 70% of the profits generated through advertising with browser users who opt to view ads. As participants in the trial will have their browsing histories sent to Brave for analysis, the trial may not be appropriate for those seeking to reap the full privacy benefits of the browser. In April, Brave Software announced that they would partner with Dow Jones Media Group. The agreement was described as comprising “Brave [providing] access to premium content from Down Jones Media Group to a limited number of users who download the Brave browser.” Daniel Bernard, the senior vice president of Dow Jones Media Group-owned Barron’s, expressed optimism regarding the deal, stating “Our partnership with Brave is an exciting and innovative step […] As global digital publishers, we believe it is important to continually explore new and emerging technologies that can be used to build quality customer experiences.” What browser do you use? Tell us why in the comments section below! Images courtesy of Shutterstock Want a comprehensive list of the top 500 cryptocurrencies and see their prices and overall market valuation? Check out Satoshi Pulse for all that hot market action! The post Brave Browser Launches Trial for Advertising Program appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Crypto Fund AG has been granted a license to distribute funds on behalf of “qualified investors” in Switzerland. The permission has been issued by the country’s financial market regulator, FINMA. The firm also seeks approval for another crypto-related service. Also read: Zug Tests Blockchain to Decide on Fireworks and Digital IDs First Point of Contact for Crypto Assets Crypto Fund AG, a Zug-based subsidiary of the Swiss Crypto Finance Group (CFG), has received a license to distribute collective investment schemes to qualified investors, Reuters reported. According to an announcement by CFG, this is the first time a crypto business is granted such permission by the authorities in Switzerland. The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) confirmed the decision. However, the financial watchdog did not specify if this was in fact the first license of this kind. According to another important clarification in the report, the permission does not mean the firm is allowed to operate as an asset manager for crypto funds. Nevertheless, the acquired license is a deliberate step, as confirmed by the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Jan Brzezek: Getting the FINMA license is a big step in the right direction to establish us as the first point of contact for crypto assets. Crypto Fund AG is also seeking another permission from financial regulators in Switzerland. This one would allow it to create a passive investment vehicle tracking a bench marked index of up to 10 of the most liquid cryptocurrency assets and digital tokens on the market. The index is calculated and maintained by Swiss bourse SIX. Crypto-Friendly Nation with Positive Attitude In recent years, Switzerland has established itself as a crypto-friendly jurisdiction. The country has its “Crypto Valley” in the canton of Zug, where Crypto Fund AG is registered. Many other crypto and blockchain businesses are either headquartered or represented there, including companies like the Chinese mining giant Bitmain. The Alpine nation has been considering the possibility to issue a state-backed cryptocurrency, although its central bank has admitted through an official that private digital currencies are better than any state-issued coin. Businesses from the traditional financial sector have also benefited from the positive regulatory attitude of Swiss authorities. Hypothekarbank Lenzburg, a legacy financial institution, recently announced it was offering bank accounts to crypto companies, as news.Bitcoin.com reported. The bank’s management expressed desire to work with the young crypto sector, speaking of that as a “matter of credibility.” But not only the private fintech industry and financial sector are interested in cryptocurrencies and the underlying distributed ledger technology. The fully state-owned Swiss Federal Railways, for example, has been selling bitcoin to its passengers for almost two years at over 1,000 ticket vending machines. And the city of Zug, home of the Crypto Valley, is accepting payments in bitcoin and ether for municipal services, including company registrations. Authorities there are also planning to conduct a blockchain-based vote on questions of local importance. Do you think Swiss regulators will issue more licenses for crypto-related financial services in the near future? Tell us in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Financial Club, National Police of Ukraine. 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 Swiss Crypto Company Acquires License to Distribute Funds to Investors appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Just recently news.Bitcoin.com reported on the Chainbet protocol created by the developer Jonald Fyookball, designed to add trustless betting features to the Bitcoin Cash network. Following the launch of this concept, the Openbazaar developer Chris Pacia messed around with the idea and completed the first on-chain atomic bet. Now, this week the Chainbet contributors Fyookball, Pacia, and James Cramer have extended the protocol to include multiplayer bets, auctions, and dice rolls. Also Read: An Inside Look at the Electron Cash Wallet Coming to iOS Bitcoin Cash On-Chain Betting Protocol Chainbet Adds New Concepts The Chainbet protocol has been updated with some more complex trustless betting methods such as auctions, multiplayer bets, and dice rolls. The additional features have been added after the Openbazaar developer, Chris Pacia, utilized the BCH OP_Codes in order to create the first on-chain atomic bet. Bitcoin Cash supporters have been excited about these new concepts and the innovation that’s been happening with the re-enabled Satoshi OP_Codes since the upgrade in May. Multiplayer Betting The newly added multiplayer bet is a wager where the winner-takes-all between multiple participants with even chances, explains the Chainbet Github repository. The readme explains that the wager has the following properties: “It does not allow cheating via collusion, even against an attacker controlling all of the adversaries — And it protects an honest participant from losing money, even if a dishonest participant acts irrationally,” explains the Github page. However, Fyookball notes add the end of the multiplayer bet summary that the betting scheme could also be accomplished with a dice bet and the practicality of the multiplayer bet comes into question. “Due to the large security deposit, the practicality of the betting scheme is in question. The same result could be accomplished with a dice like bet in many applications,” Fyookball details. For example, 6 people betting each other could be simulated by each of them betting on a dice roll, with more flexibility in that not all 6 people would need to be real. However, this scheme may serve as a building block other schemes and give us more ideas for the future. Trustless Auctions and Dice Rolls Fyookball details the auction method is a “trustless version of an open, ascending price auction can be constructed on the BCH blockchain.” This means the seller is guaranteed to receive the funds from the highest bidder in a decentralized fashion. Further, only the highest bidder will pay as all losing bids will be returned to the rightful owners. When the auction ends the seller would claim the funds within the last address used. “This is accomplished using a set of secrets. Each time someone is outbid, a secret is revealed that releases funds back to the losing bidder while the next secret is created for the new high bidder,” the Github page details. Decentralized Betting Protocols Could Revolutionize Online Gambling Lastly, the Chainbet protocol now goes further than the simple coin flip wager with the addition of a six-sided dice roll wager. The Github page details how a simple one-time dice roll but the process could be more complex adding all types of different bets. Although the “result of a dice roll” is already an abstraction derived from large secret numbers, it is fun for players to guess their lucky numbers,” Fyookball emphasizes. It is therefore valuable to include a way for Bob to choose the number he wants. This is done with the “guess” field in the payload, and needs to be implemented in the script, with an IF-ELSE path. If the guess matches the remainder (plus one), the participant taking odds wins the bet, otherwise he/she loses. The additional features added to the Chainbet protocol could be used in multiple ways and could innovate the entire online gambling industry by providing trustless bets without relying on a third party. Gambling portals like Satoshi Dice and other gaming sites could utilize these concepts to create a more robust decentralized betting atmosphere. What do you think about the latest additions to the Chainbet protocol? Let us know your thoughts on this subject in the comment section below. Images via Shutterstock, and Pixabay. Express yourself freely at Bitcoin.com’s user forums. We don’t censor on political grounds. Check forum.Bitcoin.com. The post Chainbet Protocol Adds Trustless Multiplayer Bets, Auctions, and Dice Rolls appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Statistics from leading job search platforms indicate that the demand for cryptocurrency and blockchain specialists in Russia remains strong. Most employers offering these vacancies are either IT companies or banks. The competition for crypto expertise is getting tougher, as the country is preparing to finally regulate the fintech sector. Also read: Crypto Incomes Declared on Tax Returns in Russia Don’t Forget to Mention Crypto Projects on Your Resume Six candidates are currently competing for each vacancy in the Russian Federation, according to data collected by the Index Head Hunter platform, a project monitoring the labor market in the vast country. The ratio indicates a moderate level of competition among potential employees, which is favoring Russian employers. But is this the case in all sectors of the economy? The statistics gathered from Russian online job platforms point to a rise in the demand for experts in blockchain, mining and cryptocurrencies. According to Head Hunter, 387 vacancies in the fintech sector have been posted last month, while their number for the whole first half of 2017 was only 201. That’s 11.5 times more than during the respective monthly period of last year. The majority of employers offering positions in the crypto sector are either IT companies or banking institutions, mostly concentrated in the capital Moscow and Saint Petersburg, the second largest Russian city. Many of these businesses are not even publishing job postings, but are constantly sifting through the resume database, said Natalia Godjaeva, general director of Superjob.ru, quoted by Bit Novosti. Developers and project managers are the most sought after specialists, Godjaeva added. She advised candidates to always mention any crypto and blockchain-related projects on the resumes they submit to job search websites, and assured them, “You will definitely be noticed.” Her comments come at a time when Russia is preparing to regulate the crypto industry with three drafts currently under review in the State Duma. Growing Global Crypto Labor Market By all indications, the crypto labor market in Russia is experiencing growth. Several months ago, the RF Ministry of Labor and Social Protection received a request by representatives of the industry to officially introduce a “professional holiday” for specialists and experts working in the field. That hasn’t happened yet, but the department promised to look into the proposal. Competition for qualified crypto and blockchain professionals has been increasing globally, too. Recently, the social network Linkedin announced that from the start of 2018 until mid-May 4,500 postings on the platform have contained any of the following keywords: blockchain, bitcoin, cryptocurrency. Linkedin said that’s 151 percent more than in the whole of 2017. In December, it reported more than 500 percent increase in the listing of skills pertinent to cryptocurrency. The popular freelancing platform Upwork has also witnessed a spike in the job ads from the blockchain industry last year – a 2,625 percent increase when compared with 2016. According to the US-based platform Toptal, specializing in posting job opportunities for IT specialists, the demand for blockchain developers has jumped by 700 percent. Earlier this year, IBM announced it was hiring 1,800 IT experts, including specialists knowledgeable of blockchain. Both vacancies and applicants for employment in the crypto sector have increased substantially in other corners of the world, as well. This is the case with India, where cryptocurrency and blockchain related job postings increased by 290 percent in the six months to November, 2017, as reported by the Indian branch of the global job site Indeed. During the same period, job searches containing crypto-related keywords rose by 52 percent. Do you think the strong demand for crypto and blockchain experts indicates a positive future for cryptocurrencies? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Bitcoin News is growing fast. To reach our global audience, send us a news tip or submit a press release. Let’s work together to help inform the citizens of Earth (and beyond) about this new, important and amazing information network that is Bitcoin. The post Strong Demand for Crypto Experts on the Russian Labor Market appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

No need to beat yourself up if your cryptocurrency portfolio exhibited less than stellar performance in May. Even the professional traders employed by the big hedge funds active in the space have suffered double digit declines during the previous month. Also Read: Bitcoin in Brief Monday: From New York to Historic Istanbul Market Crypto Hedge Funds Show Weak Performance in May Data provided by three different industry trackers reveals that crypto hedge funds achieved considerable negative growth in the bear market of May 2018. The Eurekahedge Crypto-Currency Hedge Fund Index estimates the losses made by crypto funds to have been 11.66% during May, and 2018’s year to date (YTD) performance to be -22.71%. Market analysis firm, Hedge Fund Research Inc. (HFR), estimates crypto funds to have suffered a decline of 15.48% during May, bringing the YTD performance to -33.3% per the company’s HFR Blockchain Index. And the Cryptocurrency Traders Index of hedge fund data specialist Barclay Hedge shows that the performance of those it is tracking dropped by 19.09% in May, and down 34.57% YTD. The differences between the three benchmarks are due to each following a different number of funds. The weak May figures are in sharp contrast to the strong rebound performance seen the previous month, as Eurekahedge reported an increase of in 52.83% and Barclay Hedge a similar 44.86% in April 2018. Barclay Cryptocurrency Traders Index May 2018 Reasons to Remain Positive in the Long Term Despite the setbacks in May and high volatility from month to month analysts believe there are reasons to remain optimistic such as the recent SEC statement and new institutional money coming in. “I expect the crypto markets to remain volatile for the foreseeable future,” said Henri Arslanian, cryptocurrency lead for Asia at PwC. “Whilst retail investors may see volatility in the crypto markets as a downside, many crypto funds see it as an opportunity.” He added that the “long term positive impact of the number of institutional players entering” is more important than short-term price changes. And interest among Asian investors is surging, according to Josh Gu, director of quantitative research at the HFR index division. “Cryptocurrencies have been very volatile, the topic is still hot in China and Japan.” He explained to the FT that cryptocurrencies appealed to individual investors with a large risk appetite. “However, the [Chinese] regulator has banned some of the crypto trading platforms because of risk, so some investors might have panicked.” Is such a performance justifies paying for portfolio management? Share your thoughts in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Verify and track bitcoin cash transactions on our BCH Block Explorer, the best of its kind anywhere in the world. Also, keep up with your holdings, BCH and other coins, on our market charts at Satoshi’s Pulse, another original and free service from Bitcoin.com. The post Cryptocurrency Hedge Funds Were Down 12% to 19% in May 2018 appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The company Square announced on Monday the firm has been granted the Bitlicense from the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS). The firm and its ‘Cash App’ are now legally allowed to operate and utilize cryptocurrency solutions in the state of New York. Also Read: Cryptocurrency Brokerage Service Genesis Global Granted Bitlicense Square Has Obtained the New York Bitlicense The Square Cash App was offered to most U.S. states this past February and now the company can operate in the state of New York. Users can purchase and sell Bitcoin Core (BTC) from within the app. Square, Inc. is a payment processor and financial services provider that was launched in 2010. The San Francisco based company was founded by Jack Dorsey (also the CEO of Twitter) and Jim McKelvey back in 2010 and the firm has been staunch bitcoin supporters for quite some time. Back in November 2017, the company announced it was implementing in-app BTC buy/sell Options for certain select customers. A few months later in February of 2018 Square rolled out the BTC service for all users. Since then the revenue derived from the cryptocurrency in-app services has added around $8Bn USD to Square’s overall valuation according to data collected last May. Now this week, Square has been granted the official Bitlicense money-transmitter approval from the DFS. “DFS is pleased to approve Square’s application and welcomes them to New York’s expanding and well-regulated virtual currency market,” explained the Financial Services Superintendent Maria T. Vullo during the announcement on Monday. DFS continues to work in support of a vibrant and competitive virtual currency market that connects and empowers New Yorkers in a global marketplace while ensuring strong state-regulatory oversight is in place. Square Joins Eight Licensed Cryptocurrency Operations in New York According to the DFS, the regulators have conducted a review over Square’s business model which includes anti-money laundering guidelines, Know-Your-Customer (KYC), and cybersecurity policies. Moreover, the DFS states the newly licensed Square will be under supervision. The New York regulatory agency has granted the Bitlicense to Circle, Gemini, Coinbase, XRP II, Paxos (formally Itbit), Bitflyer, Xapo, and more recently Genesis Global Trading Inc. “We are thrilled to now provide New Yorkers with Cash App’s quick and simple way to buy and sell bitcoin,” said Brian Grassadonia, Head of Square’s Cash App service. Square and the New York State DFS share a vision of empowering people with greater access to the financial system and today’s news is an important step in realizing that goal. Now New York residents will be able to utilize the Cash App in the state as the region was one of the few states where the cryptocurrency option wasn’t incorporated until today. What do you think of Square receiving the New York state Bitlicense? Let us know in the comment section below. Images via Shutterstock, Square, and Pixabay. Tired of those other forums on the subject of Bitcoin? Check forum.Bitcoin.com. The post Financial Services Provider Square Acquires New York Bitlicense appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Last summer, ICOs could do no wrong. But by 2018, the acronym had been relegated to the realm of the unmentionables, a place normally reserved for the most offensive cuss words and the name of Harry Potter’s antagonist, Voldemort. In many circles, “ICO” has become a dirty word. In its place has come a range of creative alternatives, each designed to improve on the model and nomenclature of the much derided Initial Coin Offering. Also read: This Village Decided to Launch Japan’s First Municipal ICO ICOs Are So Last Year Whenever a new musical movement emerges – punk; nu-metal; emo – bands lumped into the genre rush to distance themselves from it. Something similar has happened with ICOs: everyone’s in them, but no one wants to admit to being in them. Instead, we have the spectacle of projects dressing their ICO up as a “token generation event” and other euphemisms. Some of the alternative nomenclature is an attempt to avoid legal repercussions (“You can’t charge us with running an unregistered ICO if we didn’t call it an ICO!”), but more often it’s an attempt to avoid being tarred with the same brush as the scammy ICOs that have ruined the name for everyone. Then there are the crowdsales whose alternative name reflects a genuine desire to provide an alternative means of raising capital in which everyone gets a bite of the cherry. What follows is six alternatives to the tried, tested, and tired ICO. STO A Security Token Offering (STO) is a fully regulated ICO which proceeds with the SEC’s blessing. These are categorized into various types including Reg D (open to institutional investors only) and Reg S, which is for STOs being held in a country outside the US. The holy grail for companies seeking an STO is Reg A+ as this entitles retail investors to participate. A number of projects including Dexfreight, Gab.ai, and Knowbella are all waiting for Reg A+ approval, but SEC approval is still pending. IICO The Interactive Initial Coin Offering (IICO) was first proposed in a paper by Vitalik Buterin as a fairer model of ICO. It’s designed to prevent the sort of FOMO and gas wars that can result in whales getting all the tokens and squeezing out investors of humbler means. In Fantom’s recent crowdsale, for example, one investor spent 580k gwei, or around $24,000, just to ensure their transaction reached the front of the queue. Decentralized justice protocol Kleros has become the first project to trial an Interactive Initial Coin Offering. Contributors can specify a maximum cap for the sale; if the total raised surpasses that, their ether will be returned to them. This ensures that everyone is given a chance to purchase tokens at a price they deem fair – or at least that’s the theory. Initial Supply Auction Metronome’s crowdsale started today under the banner of an Initial Supply Auction. As the team explain, “The Initial Supply Auction utilizes a descending price auction, where the price starts intentionally high and ticks down incrementally toward its intentionally low price floor as long as the auction is open. The price is not averaged out. Purchasers will receive their Metronome almost immediately after purchase, at the price they purchased. Purchasers should purchase only when they feel the price of MET to be fair.” Various attempts have been made at ensuring everyone gets a chance to participate in a crowdsale including the IICO, the Initial Supply Auction, and variations of the Dutch auction, in which winning bids are not revealed until the sale has been completed. The risk with the latter two methods is that they risk being perceived as a mechanism for boosting the coffers of the project rather than as a more democratic process. SAFT A Simple Agreement for Future Tokens provides a means of overcoming the risk that tokens sold for a project that is under development could be classified as a security. To circumvent this, investors contribute funds on the understanding that they will receive their tokens once the network is operational and the tokens are usable. That way the project benefits from receiving the capital necessary to get building, and investors can sell their tokens to the public at a future date, once the platform has utility. Airdrop Most ICOs now allocate a portion of their tokens to an airdrop – i.e a giveaway – to onboard a distributed community in the hope that these individuals will become users of the platform. It’s standard practice to distribute less than 5% of tokens via an airdrop, but there is a bolder approach: to give away the majority of your tokens in this manner, retain a portion for the team as a reserve, and then hope that the market assigns value to the token once it starts trading. That’s the model being trialed by Everipedia and a host of other EOS-based projects whose tokens will be given away to EOS token holders. No ICO The final alternative to the ICO is to have no ICO whatsoever. That might sound crazy in an era of multi-million-dollar valuations for crypto projects, but it’s actually a much better way to align the incentives of participants. Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Decred are all examples of networks that started life without a fundraiser. If your tokenized idea is genuinely revolutionary, you don’t necessarily need to resort to an ICO: build it and they will come. What ICO alternatives do you think provide a fairer investment model? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Six Alternatives to an Initial Coin Offering 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. The still young GINcoin cryptocurrency continues its ascension in the crypto market. With its rapid development, the project is ticking three important boxes last week: getting listed on Cryptopia, adding PIVX to the turnkey masternode deployment platform, and launching an all-in-one Investor Dashboard, where masternode owners can keep a close eye on all of their masternode investments. PIVX masternodes can now be deployed on GIN’s masternode platform Since its launch, the GINcoin platform has become the go-to utility tool for anyone looking to set up a masternode, regardless of their technological knowledge. By constantly adding coins to the platform, they enabled masternode enthusiasts to easily diversify their portfolio. The team worked out a two-lane highway for listing coins on the platform: one focusing on the well-established projects in the masternode field, the other giving every coin available the opportunity to apply to be listed and afterwards being subjected to a community vote. The first one has led to its first major breakthrough, pushing GIN to reach an important milestone: the famous PIVX was just added to the platform. Cryptopia listing – trade pairs available are GIN/BTC, GIN/LTC, GIN/DOGE GINcoin was launched in February of this year and has developed constantly ever since, by adding more and more altcoins to its masternode deploying platform (https://p.gincoin.io/#!/) and by growing in value steadily. The increase in daily traded volume and the boost of investors’ interest prompted the team to ensure that the coin was more easily accessible. Hence, the natural step to be made was to get the coin to an additional exchange – Cryptopia. Deposits and withdrawals are open, and trading started on 13th of June, at 3 am UTC. The following trade pairs are available – GIN/BTC, GIN/LTC & GIN/DOGE. A new feature on the GIN platform: the Investor Dashboard – a quick access control panel The Investor Dashboard was designed to offer a comprehensive overview on a masternode owner portfolio. It can be accessed through the My Masternodes section on the platform. It contains all the essential information: portfolio value, exits, revenue (24h, weekly, monthly, yearly), number of nodes, investments, earnings, individual masternode breakdown (ID, wallet address, days live, rewards, status). This applies to all the masternodes owned by the user that have been created on the platform. Moreover, the user can easily start a new masternode launching process by clicking the plus sign on the top right of the dashboard. Masternode Investor Dashboard – Short FAQ 1. Why is the information in the Investor Dashboard different from that on masternode.online? The algorithm used to calculate the forecasted revenue and ROI inside the Dashboard is different from that from masternodes.online. While on MNO, the forecast is based on the instantaneous value of rewards in the last 24h, the Investor’s Dashboard uses an algorithm based on your individual portfolio returns in the past 30 days. 2. What exactly are Exits? Every masternode owner is free to choose what he wants to do with the amount of coins gathered from masternode rewards. However, every amount withdrawn from the masternode will be registered as an Exit, regardless of the purpose for which it has been taken out. For example, if someone gathers 1,000 GIN from rewards and decides to re-invest it in GIN by launching an additional masternode, it will still be regarded as an exit. 3. The Exits amount value does not match the rewards value The value of an Exit amount is calculated by taking into account the coin’s value in BTC at the exact moment of the exit. As such, the Exit amount value can seem incorrect, while it is, in fact, accurate. To make it clearer, here is an example: if 500 GIN are taken out at a point where 1 GIN = 1 USD, that Exit will forever be valued at 500 USD, regardless of the ulterior price fluctuation of the GIN coin. About Cryptopia Cryptopia is a cryptocurrency platform that embeds, besides the exchange itself, a marketplace, a lottery, a mining platform, a rewards system, forums, and a Coin Information page for various altcoins. It was created by a company registered in New Zealand and it describes itself as “your one stop crypto shop”. About PIVX PIVX is a form of digital online money using blockchain technology that can be easily transferred all around the world in a blink of an eye with nearly non-existent transaction fees with market leading security & privacy. About GINcoin GINcoin is the first masternode deployment platform meant to be used by the mass market; its mission is to make masternode investments (and subsequently passive income generation through MNs) easily accessible to everyone, regardless of technical skill. Website: http://gincoin.io GINcoin Masternode Platform: http://p.gincoin.io Contact: contact@gincoin.io Telegram: https://t.me/gincoin Discord: https://discord.gg/xgJ5TRr Twitter: https://twitter.com/gincoin_crypto Contact Email Address contact@gincoin.io Supporting Link https://gincoin.io This is a paid press release. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the promoted company or any of its affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in the press release. The post PR: GIN Hits Three Milestones in One Week – Cryptopia Listing, PIVX Addition and Investor Dashboard Debut appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The different prices of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies between countries and exchanges have led investors to seek arbitrage opportunities, a trend noticed by financial regulators around the world. Discussions are underway at the Japanese Financial Services Agency on restricting leverage. Also read: This Village Decided to Launch Japan’s First Municipal ICO Value of Bitcoin up 10% After Sending It Elsewhere Cryptocurrencies are traded in many countries with varying prices. The value of BTC in Zimbabwe, for instance, is currently 80% higher than in Japan. Hyperinflation has made bitcoin popular in the African country because many of its residents do not trust their own fiat currency. In stock markets, investors cannot employ arbitrage because each stock has only one price at a given time. However, digital currencies like bitcoin are financial products that defy the law of the universal price. The change in the price of cryptocurrency doesn’t only emerge across borders but also within borders, between crypto exchanges. Arbitrage is an activity exploited by cryptocurrency traders who spot those price changes to make a profit. The price of BTC in South Korea is relatively high compared to other markets. The gap is known as the “kimchi premium.” When the price of bitcoin went down last January, 1 BTC was worth about ¥2 million ($18,200 USD), and about the equivalent of ¥2.6 million (USD 23,600), in South Korea. It was a “kimchi premium” of 30% at the time. Sometimes the premium reportedly went as high as 50%. Nikkei reported the story of a Korean man in his 20s working in Japan, who made a profit in bitcoin in May 2017, when he repaid a friend from home about ¥500,000 ($4,500) in BTC, because the transaction fees were cheaper that way. The price of BTC in Korean won was 10% higher than in Japanese yen. The man told Nikkei he couldn’t believe that its value would jump as much as 10% “just by sending it” to another country. FSA Research Group Debates Restrictions On Leverage The South Korean man and his friend reportedly developed an automated trading robot that made a profit of several hundred thousand yen in the first month. The men raised ¥100 million from investors and started a crypto asset management company in January 2018. According to Nikkei, they operate around nine crypto exchanges in Japan and South Korea, and carry fees of about 10% per month. The value of BTC across six digital currency exchanges in Japan, including Bitflyer and Bitbank, reportedly varied as much as ¥1,600 ($15) in May. Meanwhile, the members of a research group, formed this spring by the Japanese Financial Services Agency, have started debating restrictions on leverage, as users of digital currencies have the ability to speculate with large amounts of leverage. In the U.S., the Federal Reserve Bank of New York has also taken issue with distorted prices. Cryptocurrency investment has inflated to about ¥70 trillion and about 3.6 million traders annually, mainly retail investors, according to Nikkei. Because the price of cryptocurrencies vary so much, even within a single country, it is believed that they are not yet ready for being used for financial transactions, despite their popularity observed over the last months. Do you expect price differences between trading platforms and crypto markets to decrease over time? Share your thoughts in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Verify and track bitcoin cash transactions on our BCH Block Explorer, the best of its kind anywhere in the world. Also, keep up with your holdings, BCH and other coins, on our market charts at Satoshi’s Pulse, another original and free service from Bitcoin.com The post With No One Price Law for Bitcoin, Japan’s FSA Debates Restrictions on Leverage appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Japan’s SBI Virtual Currencies has added support for two major cryptocurrencies in addition to the one trading pair that its crypto exchange service, Vctrade, launched with. Users who pre-registered prior to the launch can now trade BTC, BCH, and XRP against the Japanese yen. Also read: Yahoo! Japan Confirms Entrance Into the Crypto Space BTC and BCH Trading Now Supported SBI Virtual Currencies, the cryptocurrency exchange subsidiary of one of Japan’s largest financial services groups, has announced support for two major cryptocurrencies. Starting Monday, June 18, customers can start trading BTC/JPY using the exchange’s Vctrade service. This is in addition to the BCH/JPY trading pair which the exchange started offering on June 8. Popular Japanese Twitter user Ihayato, who has 177K followers, tried out the service for BCH and XRP. He tweeted his experience (loosely translated from Japanese): SBI virtual currency exchange, spreads [are] tight. 3 yen for XRP and about 3,000 yen for BCH. He further noted, “I do not think that there are merits to utilize here in the present situation. [But] I expect [there will be] in the future.” Three Trading Pairs SBI Virtual Currencies is one of the 16 government-approved crypto exchanges in Japan. The company launched the Vctrade crypto exchange service on June 4 with just the XRP/JPY trading pair. Currently, the service is only available to a limited number of users who pre-registered; the full launch is expected next month. With Monday’s announcement, the exchange now offers three trading pairs: BCH/JPY, BTC/JPY, and XRP/JPY. For all three cryptocurrencies, customers can trade between 500 yen (~US$5.5) and 5 million yen (~$45,261). Alternatively, they can place their orders in cryptocurrencies of between 0.0001 and 40 BCH, 0.0001 and 5 BTC, or 10 and 70,000 XRP. According to local media, SBI Group said at the company’s third-quarter earnings press conference that there is a possibility of adding ether (ETH) in the future. However, the company also indicated that it would not support smaller cryptocurrencies, Impress Corporation conveyed. To gain market share in the crypto space, SBI Group plans to convert users from its existing securities business, which the group says is already the largest in Japan. SBI Securities “is number one in the share of individual stock trading value, number of accounts, deposits and profitability,” the group wrote. SBI Securities currently has approximately 4.17 million accounts. What do you think of SBI crypto exchange adding the two cryptocurrencies? Do you think many more will be added? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock, SBI Virtual Currencies, and Ihayato. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Japan’s SBI Crypto Exchange Adds Two Major Cryptocurrencies appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Who is the richest person in the world? Who said, “It costs a lot of money to look this cheap?” Where do they drink the most alcohol per capita? Ireland, Scotland, Russia or France? Readers who immediately answered just might be perfect guests on Dominic Frisby’s Financial Game Show, launching in the United Kingdom. Prizes include standard fiat payouts, but the show is also offering prizes in bitcoin cash (BCH) and even silver bullion. Also read: Star Trek Icon Joins Bitcoin Mining Revolution Game Show Offers Prize Money in Bitcoin Cash A recent announcement blogged by famed UK financial guru, Dominic Frisby, explained he “is host and quizmaster in [a] classic gameshow full of fascinating financial facts. Contestants from the audience (willing volunteers only) can win big prizes including £500 in cash – there is £500 to be won every show – solid silver and bitcoin cash. Games range from higher-lower for house prices to to high-pressure quiz questions with the £500 jackpot at stake. Exciting, informative, amusing.” Dominic Frisby is a well known author on things financial, including Bitcoin: the Future of Money? (praised by no less than Sir Richard Branson). He’s also something of a television star, hosting very popular shows on financial literacy such as Let’s Talk About Tax, blending both finance and humor. Indeed, he bills himself as “the world’s only financial expert and comedian.” “I am very excited to be going to the Edinburgh Festival this August,” he posted. “My show is called Dominic Frisby’s Financial Gameshow. It’s at 5pm at the Gilded Balloon.” It’s a triumphant return of sorts, and mostly because it follows his “widely-acclaimed show, Let’s Talk About Tax.” As “the world’s only financial expert and comedian, Dominic Frisby has devised a new game show that mixes The Price Is Right with Mastermind. It’s all about money, finance, economics – you know, boffin stuff but made exciting,” Broadway World Scotland detailed. Reviews have been positive. The Times described the new show as, “Very witty… entertaining and educational… impressive,” while The Spectator mused it was “Funny, absorbing… full of historical insights.” Mr. Frisby notes the show has “some great prizes for the winners: silver bullion kindly donated by Ross Norman at Sharps Pixley; Moneyweek subscriptions (thank you Merryn); bitcoin cash; and a £500 jackpot each show, donated by a mystery sponsor whose name is yet to be announced.” Are game shows and entertainment important to crypto adoption? Let us know in the comments. Images via the Pixabay, Dominic Frisby’s Financial Game Show. Verify and track bitcoin cash transactions on our BCH Block Explorer, the best of its kind anywhere in the world. Also, keep up with your holdings, BCH and other coins, on our market charts at Satoshi Pulse, another original and free service from Bitcoin.com. The post UK Financial Game Show Uses Comedy & Bitcoin to Entertain, Inform appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article