roadrunner

Blockchain conference season is here, the industry’s equivalent of Hollywood’s awards season. It’s an opportunity for crypto celebs to tread the red carpet and for everyone from minnows to whales to mingle, network, and learn. But if you’re not careful, it’s also a chance to get your devices pwned and your cryptocurrency swiped. Also read: Xapo Estimated to be Housing 6.25% of Total BTC Supply May Is the Month for Blockchain Conferences There are cryptocurrency conferences all through the year, but May is when they reach their zenith. Last weekend saw Futurama in Dubai, a glitzy event whose guests included Brock Pierce and whose closing party took place on a yacht in the Gulf. Next week it’s the turn of Consensus NYC, the industry’s largest event that will welcome 7,000 attendees and hundreds of delegates. The cumulative value of the portfolios swilling around inside New York’s Hilton Midtown will comfortably run into the billions of dollars. The vast majority of that wealth will have been left at home on hardware devices and paper wallets stashed in secure vaults, but that doesn’t mean attendees will be immune from thieves. For one thing, you probably have more of your crypto holdings on an exchange, readily accessible via the 2FA app in your pocket, than you’d care to admit. And for another, hackers don’t have to strike at the event. They can phish or social engineer now and strike later when you’re on the other side of the world, or when you’re on the long-haul flight home and unaware that your SIM card has just been swapped. Keep Calm and Be Prepared The first rule when attending any public conference, especially one as high profile as Consensus, is to avoid insecure wifi networks. How do you know if a network’s insecure? You probably don’t, which is why you’re best relying on mobile data only. That wifi point named after the conference you’re attending could just as easily be a honeypot. If you must connect via wifi while at the conference or your hotel, be sure to use a VPN. In addition, keep your cellphone’s bluetooth and NFC turned off and don’t plug it into a USB point to charge. You don’t know what’s on the other end of that cable, and while it could be innocuous, it could just as easily be extracting your data. Be Careful What You Share and Who You Share It With The best thing about blockchain conferences isn’t the panel discussions and it certainly isn’t the ICO pitches. No, the best part is the after-parties. All those networking opportunities and chances to bump fists with crypto bros you’ve previously only known as an avatar in a Telegram group. Some words of caution are necessary though. Literally anyone can whip together a business card purporting to be an investor or OTC broker, pull on an expensive shirt, and extend a firm handshake. Due to the public nature of crypto conferences, there is no means of vetting participants, and no easy means of telling who’s legit and who’s a snake. That ICO whale who’s befriended you and returned to your room for drinks could be the real deal…or they could just be waiting for an opportunity to slip something in your vodka and pilfer your laptop once you’ve passed out. Crypto People Are Good People This advice isn’t intended to be alarmist. Crypto people are some of the friendliest and most generous people you could ever hope to meet IRL (the less said about their Twitter personas the better). Provided you follow basic op-sec, you will be able to relax at the conference, enjoy yourself, and forge friendships that will last for years. Be careful, though, not to brag about gains, share portfolios, or engage in any other behavior that could mark you out as a target. If possible, leave your primary laptop and smartphone at home and travel with a burner. That way, whatever happens, you’ll wake up regretting nothing more than that last shot of tequila. Be discrete, conceal your wealth, and remember that there’s no such thing as free wifi. Do all that and you’ll be sure to have a ball. What other precautions do you think conference delegates should take? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post How to Survive a Blockchain Conference Without Getting Hacked appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

This week the CEO of Bitcoin.com Roger Ver sat down with the One Championship female mixed martial artist (MMA) Mei Yamaguchi from Japan to discuss her fighting career and the innovative technology we all love called bitcoin. Yamaguchi will be fighting on May 18th in Singapore against the Atomweight World Champion Angela Lee for the next One female MMA Championship in a match called ‘Unstoppable Dreams.’ Bitcoin.com is thrilled to announce that our website will be sponsoring Yamaguchi’s fight next weekend. Also Read: A Brief History of Hidden Messages in the Bitcoin Blockchain Bitcoin.com Sponsors One Championship MMA Fighter Mei Yamaguchi MMA fighting is an extremely popular sport these days and some of our own Bitcoin.com team members practice martial arts techniques like Jiu-Jitsu regularly. This week our CEO Roger Ver sat down in a video chat with the acclaimed championship female fighter Mei Yamaguchi to discuss her successful career, and introduced her to Bitcoin Cash for the first time. During the video, Yamaguchi downloads her first BCH wallet and our CEO scans her wallet’s QR code and sends her $1,000 worth of bitcoin cash instantly. The One Championship ‘Unstoppable Dreams’ event. Bitcoin.com will be sponsoring Mei Yamaguchi on May 18, 2018. After being sent some BCH, Yamaguchi seemed pleasantly surprised to see how fast it took to receive the funds. Upon getting her first BCH, Yamaguchi began to explain how she got started as a female MMA fighter and kickboxer. She started training in Los Angeles California when she was young, saying, “I always wanted to be like Jackie Chan.” I watched his movies and I wanted to do something like that so my parents took me to the fighting academy. At nine years old I moved back to Japan and now I teach MMA. When I was learning Karate one of the instructors taught me Jiu Jitsu and I said this is pretty interesting — I found out Jiu Jitsu is wonderful. Mei Yamaguchi already fought Angela Lee last year. The May 18th bout will be a re-match. Bet on the Internationally Acclaimed Fight Using Bitcoin Cash The championship fighter explains to Ver that she has fought in 27 professional fights and she also practices submission grappling and shoot boxing. Yamaguchi’s fight will headline the One Championship in Singapore and the bout will be a rematch against One Women’s Atomweight World Champion Angela Lee. Yamaguchi already went against Lee in an internationally acclaimed fight last year. Depending on where you live, it is even possible to bet on the fight using Bitcoin Cash at this betting website here and here. Left: Mei Yamaguchi. Check out the rest of the video with Mei Yamaguchi and Roger Ver as they talk about MMA and Bitcoin Cash. Moreover, make sure you check out the headline bout next weekend on May 18 as the Bitcoin.com sponsored Yamaguchi takes on Lee for the championship. What do you think about mixing MMA and bitcoin? Will you tune into the fight next weekend? Let us know in the comments below. Images via Shutterstock, Pixabay, MMAJunkie, and the One Championship Website. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post One Championship MMA Fighter Mei Yamaguchi Sponsored by Bitcoin.com appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Over the past few years since the launch of the Ethereum network and other blockchains that can create tokens, initial coin offerings (ICOs) have been all the rage as all of these token projects have raised billions of dollars in ether, bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies. A great majority of the ICOs today are ‘ERC-20 tokens’ created by the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) with no more than a few hundred lines of code. Unfortunately, there’s a big misconception that a bunch of nerdy geniuses created these blockchain-based tokens, and today we’re going to show you just how easy it is to create an ERC-20 token — In less than thirty minutes. Also read: Introducing the ‘Do Nothing Technologies’ Blockchain-Based ICO Posternut (PNT): The ERC-20 Token Created in Less Than 30 Minutes Today we decided to create a contract using the programming language Solidity, in order to create a custom token using the Ethereum network. We want to demonstrate just how easy it is for anyone with very little coding knowledge to launch a coin. There are lots of ICOs out there in the crypto-space and a great majority of them are ERC-20s derived from the public Ethereum blockchain. Essentially an ERC-20 token is a contract written in Solidity that sets the parameters of the coins attributes, like where the tokens are stored, the token’s name, ticker symbol, supply, and more. We used this code here found in the walkthrough written by Moritz Neto and the code was developed by an Ethereum developer called ‘BokkyPooBah.’ The Necessary Requirements Finding out how to create a token only takes a minute with a quick Google search on the subject. We followed a short walkthrough written by Moritz Neto, and watched a quick video filmed by the Youtuber Ivan on Tech. Both instructions detailed the creation of an ERC-20 token that can be done in less than 20 minutes, and we created a token called ‘Posternut (PTN) in 25 minutes. In light of our first time creating a Solidity contract, we used ETH testnet tokens on the Ropsten Network so no real funds were lost. Using a text editor to modify the copied Solidity code is helpful as you can find the lines of code that need to be updated more easily. The max supply, token name, address output, and token symbol are just some of the things you can change within the code. Next, we decided to download the Metamask Chrome extension Ether wallet, a fairly smooth platform but still in beta. Other wallets can be used to create a token contract as well, like Mist and the My Ethereum Wallet (MEW) platform. You are also going to need some testnet ETH for the ‘gas’ (network fee) to create the contract on the Ropsten Network, and there are a bunch of Ropsten faucets that dispense testnet ETH. We stocked up on some coins and then found a contract which we got in Moritz Neto’s guide, but there are all types of solidity contracts that can be re-written. Basically, we left this page open in the browser to copy and paste the Solidity contract, and all that is needed next is some slight modifications. Using Remix to set the parameters of the code, double check it and deploy on the Ethereum Ropsten Network. This entire process can also be done on the ETH mainnet with real funds. Then we went to a website called remix.ethereum.org which is used to launch the contract. This process can also be processed on the aforementioned wallets above as well, but we used the Remix Solidity IDE platform. After copying a token contract you need to paste the code into the Remix platform and edit a few parameters. This is when you want to choose the tokens name, the token’s symbol, the max supply, and the Ethereum address to deposit the tokens. After all of that is chosen and changed within the copy and pasted code, the next option is to ‘run’ the codebase you edited. If there are any warnings that are ‘critical’ the Remix platform will tell you something is wrong. In the ‘run’ section choose ‘Injected Web (Ropsten)’ and the name of your contract. Deploying the contract and confirming it using Remix and Metamask. After this step simply wait for an error or wait for the transaction to confirm and when it does your token will be complete. From here the Metamask address is also tethered to our account and we simply pressed deploy. If something is wrong with the contract then it will display warnings in yellow or red and you may need to fix these issues before deploying the code to the Ropsten Network. After pressing ‘deploy,’ the transaction will be sent across the network. As soon as the transaction confirms the contract should be complete as long as there were no errors. After Posternut (PTN) token was created we then sent the newly minted coins to another Metamask wallet address. Things Needed to Deploy a Token Contract on the ETH Network in Thirty Minutes: An Ethereum wallet. (Mist, MEW, Metamask) Testnet Ethereum or real ETH can be used for gas. A Solidity token contract. A platform to deploy the contract either on testnet (Ropsten, Rinkby) or mainnet. (Remix, MEW, Mist) The Simplicity of Launching an ICO The name of our token is called ‘Posternut (PNT)’ and there are 100Mn tokens now in existence on the Ropsten network. Creating the token took only 25 minutes and the same thing can be done on the main Ethereum network with less than $20 USD worth of real mainnet ETH for gas. Most of the time-consuming parts of the process is basically studying the directions on how to create an ERC-20 token, and following each step. After creating the Posternut tokens we decided to send the 100Mn PTN to another address which was sent with no issues. The Posternut (PTN) token was created on May 10, 2018, on the Ethereum Ropsten Network by Jamie Redman. As we stated above, it doesn’t take a genius to build an ERC-20 contract and now that you have seen the different Solidity contracts that make this process work, you can also see if an ICO project used this same method. Simply look at the contract code to see if it resembles something copied from another project, as you’d be surprised to find quite a bit of them. After creating the Posternut tokens there are only a few other things needed to launch an ICO. Observers will find that all a team needs to push a project, is a website, and a white paper. We all know that these ICOs raise a lot of money as token sales have raised over $5.6Bn in 2017 alone, and continue to raise funds this year. If all it takes is a website, 25 minutes of coding, and a white paper this may be why over 46 percent of ICOs fail. Before Investing in Token Sales, Do Yourself a Favor and Research These Projects So before investing in an ICO do some research on the project and make sure it is not some ‘fly by night’ guy who coded a coin in less than thirty minutes. The fact is just because a person(s) can build an ERC-20 token doesn’t mean the project is worthy, and investors should diligently research ICO teams and the tokens they are selling. Otherwise, you could be purchasing a quickly made coin, and buying into a word salad white paper written to make you believe Posternut (PTN) tokens are the future of decentralization. What do you think about launching an ERC-20 in less than thirty minutes? Let us know in the comments below. Disclaimer: Walkthrough editorials are intended for informational purposes only. This is a guide using testnet coins as real funds could be lost experimenting with this method. There are multiple security risks and methods that are ultimately made by the decisions of the user. There are various steps mentioned in reviews and guides and some of them are optional. Neither Bitcoin.com nor the author is responsible for any loss of funds, mistakes, skipped steps or security measures not taken, as the ultimate decision-making process to do any of these things is solely the reader’s responsibility. For good measure always cross-reference guides with other walkthroughs found online. Images via Shutterstock, Twitter, and Jamie Redman. Want to create your own secure cold storage paper wallet? Check our tools section. The post Launching an ICO Token on Ethereum in Less Than Thirty Minutes appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s prohibitive policies regarding India’s cryptocurrency industry has reportedly comprised the catalyst for a migration of Indian cryptocurrency entrepreneurs in search of more amenable regulations. Also Read: Indian Ponzi Scheme-Funded Cryptocurrency Mine Raided by Police RBI Crackdown Drives Crypto Businesses Overseas The crackdown on cryptocurrencies initiated by the RBI has reportedly comprised a catalyst for the migration of numerous Indian cryptocurrency companies and ICOs seeking favorable regulatory jurisdictions. With India’s banking sector prohibited from providing financial services to businesses dealing in cryptocurrencies, many of India’s crypto companies have been left with no choice but to relocate overseas. Estonian E-Residency Program Attracts Indian Crypto Entrepreneurs According to a report by Factor Daily, Estonia has emerged as a popular destination among Indian cryptocurrency entrepreneurs. Launched in 2014, Estonia’s e-residency programme provides a simple avenue through which companies can become based in the eastern-European nation. Estonia also offers favorable taxation and regulatory apparatus for cryptocurrency and blockchain companies. Nilesh Trivedi, the founder of Indium, is currently completing his e-residency application for Estonia Mr. Trivedi states that he would “ideally like to diversify from India given the way things are moving here in regard to cryptocurrency and the blockchain space. It’s too uncertain.” Mr. Trivedi states that the e-residency “will just cost me 100 Euros for three years and I can renew it again after that,” adding that “the tax regime there is good.” Mr. Trivedi also notes that “Being registered [in Estonia] will also allow [him] to offer other services and conduct business in the EU.” Analysts Warn of ‘Crypto Brain-Drain’ Joel John, an analyst at Outlier Ventures, has warned that the RBI’s prohibitive policy regarding cryptocurrency companies risks creating a brain-drain among India’s cryptocurrency and blockchain specialists. Mr. John stated “We are having talented people and companies from the blockchain space move out of India. There are enough countries out there who realize the importance and want to take a lead in the blockchain ecosystem.” Mr. John added that “Companies moving abroad is not a new trend but the regulatory complexities faced by blockchain companies have accelerated [the trend].” A number of other jurisdictions perceived to be hubs of innovation within the cryptocurrency and finance sectors have also been cited as popular destinations among India’s migrating crypto industry, including Singapore, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and Japan. Do you agree that the RBI’s policies will lead to a ‘brain-drain’ among professionals specializing in the breakthrough industries of cryptocurrency and blockchain? Share your thoughts in the comments section below! Images courtesy of Shutterstock Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post RBI Crackdown Triggers Migration of India’s Cryptocurrency Industry appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

A gala held by Tipping Point, a non-profit organization that seeks to invest in efforts aimed at breaking the poverty cycle in the San Francisco Bay Area, has raised more than $14 million USD. The gala comprises the time that Tipping Point has accepted cryptocurrency donations, with the event being attended by the respective chief executive officers of Coinbase, Ripple Labs, and Pantera Capital Management. Also Read: A Brief History of Hidden Messages in the Bitcoin Blockchain CEOs of Cryptocurrency Companies Attend Tipping Point Gala Tipping Point has raised over $14 million during a gala in San Francisco that saw the non-profit accept cryptocurrencies for the first time. As such, the event saw attendance from many leading figures from the cryptocurrency sector. “It’s great to see in the Bay Area because this is all about making sure that wealth is getting to people who need it most, and this helps lubricate that goal,” said Chris Larsen, the chief executive officer of Ripple. “It’s a productive and worthwhile application from a nonprofit that’s driven by some of the most innovative minds in San Francisco,” said Dan Morehead, the CEO and founder of Pantera Capital Management. “I think a lot more charities will be accepting crypto in the future,” said Brian Armstrong, the CEO and co-founder of Coinbase. Donors Give ‘Crypto Gifts’ at Gala Tipping Point spokeswoman, Marisa Giller, has indicated that all “crypto gifts” received will be converted into fiat currency and spent within the next financial year. Cryptocurrency donations were encouraged through a page in the event’s programme hosting QR codes facilitating donations in the form of BTC, ETH, and XRP. “Trust me, no one is doing this in New York yet,” auctioneer Lydia Fenet stated of the cryptocurrency donations accepted by Tipping Point. Cryptocurrency Drives Innovation Among Charities The cryptocurrency revolution has inspired numerous innovative fundraising efforts on the part of charities and non-profit organizations. In recent weeks, Unicef Australia launched The Hopepage – a website that the company states will “allow Australians to provide help and hope to vulnerable children by simply opening the page while they are online.” The Hopepage uses Authedmine, an opt-in version of Coinhive’s API to divert donors’ computing power to mining XMR on behalf of the organization. News.Bitcoin.com also recently covered ‘eat BCH’, a charity using Bitcoin Cash donations to relieve hunger among Venezuelan children and citizens. Have you ever donated cryptocurrency to a charity, organization, or random stranger on the internet? Share your experiences in the comments section below! Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Tipping Point Community, Bloomberg Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Tipping Point Gala Accepts Crypto Donations, Raises $14 Million 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. Sydney, Australia – LEEKICO, a one-stop-service ICO platform, successfully supported Skrumble Network (SKM), a project aiming to solve the data ownership crisis with a secure blockchain and application, in completing its highly anticipated token sale on May 5th, 2018. With LEEKICO’s support, Skrumble Network (SKM) reached their hard cap of 20,000 ETH, securing about $15 Million USD. Following the incredible success of their public sale, Skrumble Network announced via their 48,000 members Telegram group that they’ll be exclusive main board listing on the Gate.io exchange starting on May 10th, 2018. Skrumble Network (SKM) is a completely new and innovative blockchain and application that centers on creating the most secure connections for communication possible. Skrumble Network addresses the issues with current centralized communication systems that pose data security challenges, solves issues with data ownership and creates a safe haven for marginalized communication who seek free discussion and trusted connections. “Our users desire a secure community where they can feel comfortable enough sharing their personal data and won’t need to worry about who else has access to it, because no one else will,” says Skrumble Network Co-Founder Eric Lifson. “It is our mission to give users back ownership of their data, and we could not have done it without the incredible support from our partnership with LEEKICO to help us run the token sale while we focus on this mission.” Skrumble Network is an open source community-driven blockchain and application which will allow users to perform communication and financial transactions more securely as well as build their own application using the network. The project is spearheaded by experienced innovative communication technology specialists David and Eric Lifson, supported by a team of 40 people behind their existing infrastructure. The LEEKICO platform has successfully helped over 30 projects to complete successful crowdfunding campaigns. Thanks to its strict KYC/AML policies, comprehensive and convenient service as well as friendly customer support, some remarkable blockchain companies chose to cooperate with LEEKICO. The platform offers exclusive crowdfunding channels for both ‘Early Bird’ and main ICO services for highly rated projects, including NKN and SKM. LEEKICO’s unique services attract more high-quality ICOs to raise funds via their platform. The next project the LEEKICO team is supporting is Befund (Beefund.io), coming on May 16th, is a decentralised cryptocurrency fund service platform which is built on blockchain technology and uses smart contracts to improve the various processes of fund services, investment, and fund management. LEEKICO not only provide services to the project team, but also to investors. The LEEKICO team selects project after they undergo a rigorous due diligence process, ensuring the quality of each project it supports. Their customer service helps investors understand the project both during the ICO stage and post-ICO stage and use the platform. The LEEKICO platform now boasts a user base of over 35,000 people across the world. About LEEKICO LEEKICO shares the belief of asset decentralization and commits to promoting the wave of global cryptocurrency start-up companies. LEEKICO aims to build an initial coin offering platform with ensured security, integrity, fairness and transparency for both start-up companies and investors. LEEKICO provides cryptocurrency and blockchain start-up companies with crowdfunding services, and provides investors with comprehensive cryptocurrency consulting services, pre-ICO, and post-ICO management service. Both start-up companies who are planning to go through an ICO process and investors who are involved in ICO projects will enjoy the best experience with LEEKICO’s one-stop service provided by the LEEKICO platform. www.leekico.com About Skrumble Network Skrumble Network (SKM) is a completely new, innovative blockchain and application that centers on creating the most secure connections for communication possible. It will be a blockchain uniquely optimized for secure communication-centric connections and transactions, a decentralized social media communication application, and a communication layer for developers to build into any application. With no middle entity or centralized server host in between to censor, block or manipulate any data, Skrumble Network’s blockchain and application will be a catalyst for data privacy and help to truly democratize communication on a global scale. Learn more about Skrumble Network by visiting skrumble.network or visit their Telegram group at https://t.me/skrumble Contact Email Address simon@inmatt.com Supporting Link www.leekico.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: Skrumble Network Crowdfunding Sells out in 1 Hour with the Help of LEEKICO and Announces First Exchange Listing appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The mining operation of Japan’s internet giant GMO has resulted in over 900 bitcoins and 537 bitcoin cash so far, as the company roughly doubled its hashrate last month. Meanwhile, its crypto exchange reported a first-quarter loss after the country’s financial regulator ordered it to improve. Also read: Yahoo! Japan Confirms Entrance Into the Crypto Space Over 900 BTC Mined So Far Japanese conglomerate GMO Internet released its cryptocurrency mining business report for April this week. “We are currently mining bitcoin (BTC) and bitcoin cash (BCH),” GMO wrote. The company mined 373 BTC and 0 BCH in April. In March, it mined 295 BTC and 12 BCH and in February 124 BTC and 287 BCH. Overall, GMO has mined 906 BTC and 537 BCH so far since it began operation. The group revealed that its “Hash rate rose due to the increase in the number of computers we are operating as planned.” In April, the hashrate was 241 PH/s, up from 129 PH/s in March, 108 PH/s in February, and 27 PH/s in January. The announcement details: Hash rate is an important indicator for estimating our mining share. Our goal is to see the hashrate reach 3,000PH/s this year. The company announced the launch of its mining business in September last year. In October, it outlined plans to launch an initial coin offering (ICO) for the sale of its “next-generation mining boards.” In January, GMO announced that it had succeeded in developing a 12nm ASIC mining chip. GMO Coin’s Earnings Performance GMO Coin is the cryptocurrency exchange subsidiary of GMO Internet. It is one of the 16 fully licensed crypto exchanges in Japan. The company has launched a service to allow customers to lend their bitcoins to the company as well as set up a bitcoin salary payment system to pay its employees in the digital currency. However, the Financial Services Agency (FSA) has issued the exchange a business improvement order. The only other government-approved exchange to have received such an order is Tech Bureau which operates Zaif exchange. GMO Financial Holdings recently released GMO Coin’s earnings report which shows an operating loss of 760 million yen (~US$7 million) in the first quarter of this year. The cost of operating the crypto business rose by about 560 million yen (~$5.1 million) for the group from the previous quarter. What do you think of GMO’s mining operations and exchange? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock and GMO Internet. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Japan’s GMO Has Mined Over 900 Bitcoins – Hashrate Doubled Last Month appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

It has been estimated that approximately 6.25% of the total bitcoin supply has been deposited with Xapo – a Hong-Kong Based company providing bitcoin wallet, cold storage, and bitcoin-based debit card services. Xapo claims that BTC deposited with company are held in underground vaults located across five continents. Also Read: Ethereum Founder Responds to Charges of “Insane”, “Plutocratic” Governance Approximately 1,000,000 BTC Estimated to be Held by Xapo According to Bloomberg, two customers of Xapo have estimated that the company “houses roughly $10 billion” USD worth of bitcoin. According to data from coinmarketcap, the estimate would mean that Xapo holds slightly more than 6.25% of BTC’s $159.5 billion market capitalization, or approximately 1,067,140 BTC. If the estimate is correct, within five years of having been founded, Xapo has received more deposits than 98 percent of banks in the United States. Xapo was founded by Wence Casares, and Argentinian entrepreneur who became involved with cryptocurrency after recognizing the potential for bitcoin to provide a means for Argentinians to bypass the extreme hyperinflation besieging the country. Xapo’s Fast Rise to Prominence After purchasing his first bitcoins in 2011, Mr. Casares built a ‘vault’ in order to securely store is coins. Shortly after, friends of Mr. Casares, and eventually financial institutions, would ask if they could store their bitcoins in the vault, laying the foundations for what in 2013 became the Xapo company. Reid Hoffman, Linkedin co-founder and partner at Greylock Partners, described Xapo as “the first folks who recognized custodial and security functions would be key.” In 2014, Greylock Partners made a $20 million investment in Xapo, with Mr. Hoffman recounting that Mr. Casares “made the pitch in the morning and in the afternoon I called him with an offer.” Ryan Radloff, chief executive officer and board member of Coinshares, stated that “Everyone who isn’t keeping keys themselves is keeping them with Xapo.” Coinshares currently houses more than $500 million USD worth of Bitcoin stored with Xapo, with Mr. Radloff stating “You couldn’t pay me to keep it with a bank.” Xapo is currently reaching out to institutional clients, including pension funds, asset managers, private banks, and hedge funds. “A fraction of that kind of institutional money flowing into the space would be a tidal wave,” said Xapo’s recently hired Peter Najarian. Advanced Security “Every part of [Xapo’s] DNA is geared to security,” said Sean Clark, founder of Xapo client, First Block. First Block chose to enlist Xapo’s services after touring a vault comprising a decommissioned Swiss military bunker – where they noted the vault’s biometric scanners are equipped with a pulse reader to prevent against the use of amputated limbs to gain access. “Whenever we make big transfers they Face Time us, we have duress words, if it’s big enough they’ll fly out to see us,” Mr. Clark added. As a consequence of the company’s intensive security measures, making withdrawals from Xapo takes approximately two days. The withdrawal process requires the verification of client’s identity, after which Xapo manually sign the transaction with private keys from numerous vault locations – as transactions will not be authorized without approval from three separate vaults. What security precautions do you take or storing your coins? Share your favorite methods in the comments section below! Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Wikipedia Want to create your own secure cold storage paper wallet? Check our tools section. The post Xapo Estimated to be Housing 6.25% of Total BTC Supply appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Well-known hedge fund manager Michael Novogratz has launched a cryptocurrency benchmark index in partnership with Bloomberg. The index, designed to track the performance of the largest, most liquid coins, consists of 10 cryptocurrencies at its inception. Also read: Yahoo! Japan Confirms Entrance Into the Crypto Space New Crypto Index Michael Novogratz. Galaxy Digital Capital Management and Bloomberg announced on Wednesday the launch of a cryptocurrency benchmark index called Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index (BGCI). Galaxy Digital Capital Management LP is an asset management firm dedicated to the digital currency and blockchain sectors founded by Michael Novogratz, a former Principal and Chief Investment Officer of the Fortress Macro Funds and a former Partner at Goldman Sachs. Citing that “the BGCI offers the first institutional grade benchmark for the cryptocurrency market,” the announcement details: The index is designed to track the performance of the largest, most liquid portion of the cryptocurrency market. The BGCI is market capitalization-weighted and measures the performance of ten USD-traded cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, ethereum, monero, ripple, and zcash. “The index constituents are diversified across different categories of digital assets, including stores of value, mediums of exchange, smart contract protocols, and privacy assets,” the companies explained. “The index is owned and administered by Bloomberg Index Services Limited and is co-branded with Galaxy Digital Capital Management.” About the Index At its inception, the BGCI contains 30% bitcoin and ether, 14.13% ripple, 10.63% bitcoin cash, 6.11% EOS, 3.77% litecoin, 1.67% dash, 1.66% monero, and 1% ethereum classic and zcash. Novogratz set out to launch a crypto hedge fund originally but he halted this plan in December and unveiled Galaxy Digital instead. He said on Markets Now that “we are hoping that this index becomes the bellwether and benchmark for the whole crypto space that hedge funds are compared to it… and that is seen as a watershed moment where crypto starts to become an investible asset class from an institutional perspective.” He also asserted: The Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index brings unprecedented transparency to the crypto markets. “It’s almost essential for every investor to have at least 1% to 2% of their portfolio” in crypto, he emphasized. In November last year, Novogratz said on CNBC’s Fast Money that “Bitcoin could be at $40,000 at the end of 2018. It easily could,” adding that “Ethereum, which I think just touched $500 or is getting close, could be triple where it is as well.” What do you think of Novogratz’s crypto index? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Galaxy Digital Capital Management, and CNBC. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Novogratz Launches Benchmark Index of 10 Cryptocurrencies appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Good news for American bitcoin companies, someone who wants much lighter Bitlicense regulations is in the running to be the next New York attorney general. And in China, a bitcoin mining hardware producer is planning a $1 billion IPO. These stories and much more in today’s edition of Bitcoin in Brief. Also Read: Stripper Explains Bitcoin to Adult Industry, Facebook Explores Blockchain Bitcoin Supporter for NY AG A bitcoin supporter wants to replace New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who recently resigned after four women complained about non-consensual physical violence by him. Manny Alicandro has announced his candidacy on the Republican ticket. He is a stock market lawyer, former stand-up comedian, and a bitcoin enthusiast as the Wall Street Journal reports. Alicandro expects his campaign to highlight the current harsh regulation of bitcoin. He said he’d like to see lighter rules for cryptocurrency businesses, arguing that the Bitlicense is hurting jobs and stifling innovation. He serves as an adviser to several blockchain startups and is a small investor in bitcoin and several other cryptocurrencies himself. The report adds that the AG candidate is currently checking if it is permissible for his campaign to accept donations in bitcoin. Canaan Seeks $1 Billion IPO in Hong Kong Canaan Creative Co. Ltd, the Chinese company behind the Avalon lineup of hardware equipment which produces ASIC mining chips and rigs, is now reportedly planning to launch an IPO in Kong Kong and raise up to a billion USD. As we previously reported, the company was also eyeing the US for a possible IPO market but has now ditched that option according to people familiar with the matter cited by the South China Morning Post. Warren Buffett Produces Bitcoin Mining Hardware? Warren Buffett, the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, has recently attacked bitcoin by saying among other things that the cryptocurrency is “probably rat poison squared.” Therefore he would probably be very surprised to find out that he is involved with it in some way. According to reports from Canada, Climate Solutions TMI, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, has begun producing “portable cryptocurrency mines” for Montreal-headquartered data-centers firm Kelvin Emtech. These “portable mines” are containers with specialized ventilation systems needed to keep 1,200 rigs cool inside a metal box. They are said to be deployable anywhere in the world in two days, each consumes 2 MW of electricity, and can generate around $1 million in cryptocurrency revenue each month. “We wanted it to be easily transported by truck, boat or train. The goal is not to move them all the time, but rather to eliminate the problem of access to electricity. We want to bring these cryptocurrency mines as close as possible to the hydroelectric plants and the remote areas where Hydro-Québec has excess electricity to sell,” explained Fooad Nejad of Kelvin Emtech. “We get to recover between 80 and 97% of the heat produced. Containers could be placed near marijuana greenhouses or community centers, for example, and provided free of charge to partners. It’s like saying, ‘I’m scratching your back, you’re scratching my back’,” he added. The company also believes that this order will create about 200 jobs in the area. Amana Capital Adds Cryptocurrency CFDs Amana Capital, a Middle Eastern financial services group, is the latest online trading brokerage to add cryptocurrency-based contracts for difference (CFDs). The company explains it took the move due to “the increased demand for cryptocurrencies.” As a first phase, Amana will offer its clients the option to trade BTC, ETH, LTC, and XRP on its MetaTrader 5 platform, with additional cryptocurrencies promised to be added in the future. Ahmad Khatib, CEO of Amana Capital, said: “Making cryptocurrencies available for CFDs traders across the world, falls in line with our strategic mission to further diversify our financial offerings and services, according to the latest financial innovations. Hence, we believe that entering the cryptocurrency market is a strategic move that propels our efforts on that end.” Blox Releases “Quickbooks for Crypto” Blox.io, a Tel Aviv-based startup formerly known as Coindash, has announced it launched Blox Business – an enterprise solution for managing, tracking and reporting crypto assets. The new platform is already being used by several ventures such as eToro, Wings, CIVIC, Coinsilium, Aeternity, Chainlinker capital, Startup Token and others. It features integrations with multiple exchanges and wallet accounts so that companies will be able to have a single dashboard with all their cryptocurrency holdings in one place. This solution is meant to help executives manage their books and finances by keeping an eye on stuff like cash flows, payments and salaries. Dash CEO Hacked Hackers continue to target victims in the cryptocurrency space, and the latest one revealed to be hit is CEO of Dash Core, Ryan Taylor. According to an announcement by the group, his Twitter account, LinkedIn account, and personal cell phone SIM card have all been compromised. After a few hours of it posting nonsense, Taylor has now regained control of his Twitter account. Last week we reported that hackers had taken over the official Vertcoin Twitter account. Bitcoin on the Late Show With the cryptocurrency now routinely featuring in hit shows like HBO’s Silicon Valley, its not that exciting to see bitcoin on TV but it’s still a good opportunity to reach a wider audience. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert recently hosted Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian who spoke about the promise of bitcoin for protecting wealth from government misuse. If you missed the segment, check it out bellow. What do you think about today’s news tidbits? Share your thoughts in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Do you agree with us that Bitcoin is the best invention since sliced bread? Thought so. That’s why we are building this online universe revolving around anything and everything Bitcoin. We have a store. And a forum. And a casino, a pool and real-time price statistics. The post Bitcoin in Brief Thursday: Bitcoin Supporter Might Be Next NY Attorney General 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. Manchester, UK – 10th May 2018: Energi Mine, the AI-based energy company, today announced the beta launch of its Energi Token rewards platform. Energi Mine is revolutionising the global energy market through decentralisation and blockchain technology with the ultimate goal of reducing global energy demand and carbon emissions. It is creating a global ecosystem that provides financial incentives for businesses and consumers to save energy with a new rewards system. Energi Mine provides its utility token, EnergiToken (ETK) to consumers in exchange for engaging in energy saving behaviours such as using public transportation, purchasing energy efficient appliances to reducing energy consumption. ETK can then be used though the ETK app for paying energy bills, charging electric cars or even exchanged for fiat currency. As ETK has financial value it creates a ‘profit’ motivation for consumers to conserve energy, resulting in people who are naturally motivated to save energy due to the financial reward. It’s a wholly different and unique approach to the problem of excessive energy consumption. The initial phase one of the ETK rewards app, which remunerates consumers for energy efficient behaviour, will enabled owners of electric vehicles to upload proof of purchase documentation to claim tokens. The phase one EnergiToken app will be released on 10th May in English, with the Korean version following by the end of May. The underlying blockchain technology and use of smart contracts ensures complete transparency and trustworthiness for all Energi Mine users. The company is currently streamlining the technology interface with the help of various partners to make the platform accessible globally in their effort to foster a community that supports small energy producers and companies wishing to decrease their energy costs. Omar Rahim, CEO of Energi Mine said: “In a market flooded with theoretical blockchain projects, Energi Mine is delivering a physical solution to a real-world problem at the heart of the energy sector. Energy companies the world over are broken, locked into a spiral of consumption that seems them sell as much energy as possible for as high a price as possible. To sustain this volume of selling, consumers are driven to use more and pay more. This is terrible for the environment. Instead of changing the system, governments are locked into a similarly futile battle, discouraging waste through taxation and levies. While this approach can successfully dissuade wasteful behaviour to some extent, it does not encourage long-term positive change. This can only be achieved through positive behaviour changes. A carrot rather than a stick.” “Energi Mine will enable individuals to make a positive environmental impact trade through both the ETK rewards programme and blockchain-based P2P energy platform. Through these two key pillars Energi Mine will greatly change consumers’ behaviour patterns around energy consumption for the better, and present a viable alternative to the broken traditional energy market system” Based on the app’s reward mechanism, Energi Mine has begun building partnerships with major corporations and organisations, to help them reduce their energy consumption and financially reward their employees for doing so. One of the current UK partners, the Energy Manager’s Association, works with some of the largest companies and energy consumers in the UK, including Network Rail, who will be involved in the trials of Energi Mine’s Ethereum-based blockchain platform. In addition to the rewards app, Energi Mine enables P2P energy transfers using Energi Tokens as a medium. This process allows Energi Mine users to buy energy from other small scale renewable energy generators (such as solar or wind) or to sell their surplus energy to members of the Energi Mine community. Get involved today, help be a part of the change! For more information about EnergiToken and its energy-saving reward scheme or to become a partner, please visit www.energitoken.com, follow on twitter at @EnergiMine or join the Energi Mine Telegram group Contact Email Address dan@brightbee.co.uk Supporting Link www.energitoken.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: Energi Mine Launch Phase 1 of EnergiToken Rewards Platform appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum’s cofounder, is increasingly finding himself target of very public rumors about his role in the project’s supposed love of secrecy. Charges of lacking transparency are equivalent to mortal sins in the cryptocurrency space. Ethereum too is particularly sensitive about accusations along these lines, especially in the ongoing light of a possible US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) crackdown. Mr. Buterin and his supporters are fighting back. Also read: Venezuela’s President Launches Crypto Funded Youth Bank, Encourages Mining Farms Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin Responds to Critics And there it was, as Mr. Buterin, skeletal boy genius behind Ethereum, took to Twitter: “[…] it was organized without my permission or even involvement [….]” The turn of phrase, without my permission, might well haunt him in the days and months to come. It presupposes his benevolence, of course. What was it organized sans Mr. Buterin’s blessing or presense? The “it” was a recent meeting in Toronto, Canada of Ethereum players, promptly blasted by Catallaxy co-founder and Satoshi Portal CEO (Bylls) Francis Pouliot. He described the event as a “Secret meeting of Ethereum management committee,” in a Tweetstorm for the ages, continuing about how “blockchain governance rules were decided by the stakeholders.” The entire Ethereum project of late has come under ecosystem scrutiny due to SEC regulators in the United States set to determine its legal fate. Judged a security, and therefore subject to regulatory jurisdiction as a public company, could conceivably rock much of the crypto world. A healthy majority of initial coin offerings (ICOs) and smart contract platforms are dependent upon ERC20 tokenization. The not even three-year-old tech is many a developer’s choice, allowing for ease of integration and largely trusted. It is unclear, as of this writing, exactly what implications are carried with an unfavorable SEC determination, but most analysts believe it to be negative at least in the short run. Indeed, most ICOs openly forbid US citizens’ participation in anticipation of odious regulations and subpoenas. Ethereum as an Insane, Plutocratic Government “This is insane,” Mr. Pouliot insisted. “They are establishing a plutocratic government. This has provably failed with Bitcoin (UASF/NO2X). Does anybody even care?” The evidence marshalled for the slam came from a lone news source, which described the event in worrying terms, according to Mr. Pouliot’s reading. And it does appear discussions about decentralization, mining, scarcity, and the infamous cases of frozen funds were had in Toronto. However, the cryptosphere seemed unconvinced about a cabal, and took Mr. Pouliot to task. Principal Lane Rettig argued “The event was not secret, in fact we livestreamed a lot of it. We also did a public AMA. There is no ‘Ethereum management committee’ and no rules were made. Please get your facts right. Your message is intellectually dishonest.” Mr. Pouliot shot back paraphrasing attributed to Mr. Rettig, and the thread continued along those lines. Vitalik Buterin was eventually compelled to address the issue as it gained traction among the other rumors and news surrounding Ethereum. “I was not at this meeting,” Mr. Buterin tweeted in response, “it was organized without my permission or even involvement, and I honestly don’t really know much about what happened there.” In what might be considered a classic Twitter tangent, Mr. Buterin was sucked, then again, into another side argument about privacy coins and the phenomenon of maximalism. Asked his opinion of Monero, he insisted, “If I was doing anything seriously privacy-demanding I’d probably go for Zcash first.” This brought further rebuke from privacy coin guru Rhett Creighton, himself the subject of much derision lately, who snarkily wrote in response, “Says the paid Zcash advisor,” landing him in a strange bedfellows situation with polemicist Whale Panda. News of potential regulation and very public Twitter flames might have also contributed to an immediate dip of roughly a 5% in the price of ether, but it seems to have recovered at time of publication. Is this much ado about nothing, or is Ethereum in real trouble? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Ethereum Founder Responds to Charges of “Insane”, “Plutocratic” Governance appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Japanese exchange Bitflyer is on a hiring spree, trying to tap talent from Wall Street. The company says coders can make $100,000, and plenty of employees earn $200,000. Besides already operating in three regions, the exchange is expanding into additional countries and adding more services. Also read: Yahoo! Japan Confirms Entrance Into the Crypto Space Number One Goal Japan’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume, Bitflyer, is on a hiring spree. The company is eyeing traders and bankers from Wall Street, including from its CEO’s former employer, Goldman Sachs, according to Bloomberg. With over 2 million users on its platform, the number of Bitflyer employees “has doubled to more than 150 people in the past six months and is on pace to top 300 before year-end,” the news outlet detailed. “At Bitflyer, we are actively recruiting talent in many occupations,” the company tweeted this week. CEO Yuzo Kano said in an interview: My target is to be number one in the world…To get there, I need to grow headcount. And those with the best skills come from global banks. Bitflyer is among the 16 crypto exchanges that have been approved by the Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA). Last month, the exchange strengthened its user verification process after reports of a discussion with the regulator. Finding Talent and Expansion Plans Yuzo Kano. Kano believes that Bitflyer’s ideal finance recruits are either experienced bankers in their 40s tired of corporate bureaucracy or younger associates in their 20s. The CEO explained that former traders and bankers are ideal for crypto firms because they understand how to operate in regulated markets, the publication noted, adding that coders “with a high school — or even middle school — education if they’ve got a track record of success at hackathons or coding tournaments” can make $100,000 at the exchange. According to Kano, “there are plenty of people at Bitflyer who earn more than $200,000 a year” and all full-time employees receive stock options which can be cashed out at any time. Razin Ashraf, head of Tokyo-based recruiting firm Divine Solutions Japan, was quoted describing: Crypto companies need finance guys to fill roles across the board: business development, sales, account management, operations, and compliance just to name a few. Bitflyer currently operates in Japan, the US, and Europe. The company plans to expand into “Africa, South America, Australia and other parts of Asia,” the news outlet conveyed, adding that the exchange is also “expanding beyond crypto trading to businesses that include digital payments and a brokerage-advisory service for investors and startups interested in initial coin offerings.” Without giving a timeframe, Kano confirmed that Bitflyer is also planning an initial public offering (IPO). What do you think of Bitflyer’s expansion plans? Do you think they will succeed in becoming the number one exchange? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Ascii, and Bitflyer. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Bitflyer on Hiring Spree – Discusses Multiple Expansion Plans appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

People have been hiding messages in the bitcoin blockchain ever since the genesis block was mined. While most aren’t as famous as Satoshi’s Times headline of January 3 2009, each one will live for as long as bitcoin does, testaments to mankind’s obsession with steganography, spam, and unorthodox marriage proposals. Also read: No, There Isn’t Child Porn on the Bitcoin Blockchain The Bitcoin Blockchain Is Riddled with Messages There are six ways to encode messages in the bitcoin blockchain, using such fields as the coinbase parameter and OP_RETURN. Over the years, every single one of these has been used to encode cryptic messages, some frivolous, some practical, and some extremely dubious. For example, bitcoin miners have used this ability to signal support for protocol changes such as the acceptance of Segwit. The message that started it all You don’t have to be running a bitcoin miner to encode your own messages in the blockchain for all eternity – or for as long as humanity exists, for even if bitcoin were to inconceivably die, copies of the blockchain would remain. With over 100,000 backups distributed around the world, someone’s bound to retain a copy. There are detailed guides to encoding your own messages in the blockchain. Alternatively, for those who don’t relish setting up a Bitcoin Core client, Eternity Wall does all the hard work to deliver “messages lasting forever”. It promises “Even if this site goes down or disappears, your message is guaranteed to persist [in the bitcoin blockchain] for generations to come.” Memorable Messages Buried in the Blockchain As Nic Carter recently pointed out, there are at least six marriage proposals embedded in the bitcoin blockchain. In keeping with tradition, all appear to have been posted by men. Whether their significant others ever saw the messages while idly parsing hexed blockchain data is unknown. These inscriptions – plus many more – can be found simply by typing the desired keyword or phrase into Blockchair’s blockchain explorer. Predictably, adding profanities to the blockchain has proven more popular than marriage proposals. The N-word has appeared over 60 times to date, most of which surface in the bitcoin cash blockchain for some reason. The F-word appears over 1,000 times, around the same number of times as “Satoshi”. By default, messages that are encoded in the blockchain don’t stand out – the human eye isn’t programmed to decode hexadecimal – but a number of tools and projects have been developed to unshroud the mysteries that lie within the bitcoin ledger. Messages from the Mines A Florida design agency has created an interactive art installation for decoding blockchain messages and bringing them to life. Messages from the Mines reveals the “cryptic poems, ASCII art, signatures, eulogies and more” that form “a creative misuse of the Bitcoin transaction protocol, a form of digital graffiti…cultural artifacts forever embedded in one of the most contemporary digital technologies.” Ascii art revealed by Messages from the Mines Real world graffiti fades through time or is pressure washed into oblivion by killjoy municipal departments. But on the blockchain, every inscription, no matter how profound, political, or crude, remains forever, free from censorship, just as bitcoin was made to be. Have you ever encoded a message in the bitcoin blockchain? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Blockchair, and Messages from the Mines. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post A Brief History of Hidden Messages in the Bitcoin Blockchain appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The Chairman of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission of Ukraine has indicated the regulator favors a decision to recognize cryptocurrencies as financial instruments. Timur Khromayev thinks it’s time to take the matter to the country’s Financial Stability Council. The point of no return has been passed, he says. Also read: Ukraine to Legalize Crypto Mining as Economic Activity Beyond the Point of No Return Ukraine’s securities regulator is expected to raise the question about the status of cryptocurrencies during the next meeting of the Financial Stability Council in Kiev. The chairman of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission of Ukraine, Timur Khromayev, thinks that they should be recognized as financial instruments. A decision to do that would effectively legalize digital coins in the country, although not in all of their possible functions. “I think it is very timely to consider the recognizing of some crypto units as financial instruments during the upcoming meeting of the Financial Stability Council,” Khromayev wrote on his Facebook page. He also insisted that the body should lay out approaches to regulating crypto-related activities and initiate corresponding legislative procedures. Timur Khromayev noted the active development of the crypto industry in Ukraine, which, in his words, has already established certain standards and rules for conducting business. He also stressed: The point of no return is already in the past. The crypto industry is becoming an integral part of economic and financial relations. Therefore, Khromayev thinks, some adaptation and legal recognition by financial regulators is necessary in order to solve the existing issues. The chairman of the NSSMC proposes to consider crypto assets and operations within the framework of the existing regulations, “based on principle and substance, not form.” He also called for formulating new rules in response to the dynamic development of the industry. Khromayev thinks that the international community is far from adopting common standards. That’s why he believes that regulations will be determined by national legislations. No Real Progress towards Regulation Yet Three pieces of legislation have been introduced in Ukraine’s parliament since last October – the draft law “On the Circulation of Cryptocurrency in Ukraine”, the bill “On Stimulating the Market of Cryptocurrencies and Their Derivatives”, and a supplementary draft amending the Ukrainian tax code to regulate taxation of crypto incomes and profits and introduce some exemptions. No real progress towards adopting the long-awaited legislation has been reported so far. In November 2017, the NSSMC said that the use of the term “cryptocurrency” in the new legislation was “unjustified”. According to the regulator, digital coins are the result of financial engendering and are not currencies. “Therefore, it is more expedient to use the term ‘crypto unit’,” the Commission said. At the time, NSSMC proposed to legally define digital currencies as either financial instruments, investments assets, or goods. Its representatives noted that under the current Ukrainian legislation, cryptocurrencies could not be accepted as electronic money, foreign currencies, securities, or money surrogates. In March this year, the executive branch of power in Kiev took steps to legalize crypto mining as an economic activity. Ukraine’s Minister of Economy ordered several ministries, agencies, and the National Bank to prepare the necessary documents to include mining in the state register of economic activities. Do you think the recognizing of cryptocurrencies as financial instruments could be the first step towards full legalization? Tell us in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Yarcube, Wikipedia. Do you agree with us that Bitcoin is the best invention since sliced bread? Thought so. That’s why we are building this online universe revolving around anything and everything Bitcoin. We have a store. And a forum. And a casino, a pool and real-time price statistics. The post Ukraine’s Securities Commission Chief Seeks Legalization of Cryptocurrencies as Financial Instruments appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Just recently the Bitcoin Gold (BTG) developers announced the project’s consensus algorithm Equihash was “threatened” in a blog post called “A Response to the ASIC Threat.” In the post, the BTG project’s team members explain that they might change the cryptocurrency’s current Equihash algorithm due to the recent launch of the Antminer Z9 mining rig. The firm Bitmain Technologies has once again produced a device that breaks the mold of digital currency networks that claim to be ‘ASIC resistant.’ Also read: Researchers Find Bitcoin Network 3X More ‘Evil’ Than the Public Internet The Bitcoin Gold Project Aimed to be a ‘Better Bitcoin’ by Trying to Remain ‘ASIC Resistant,’ but the Idea Failed Miserably With the Launch of the Z9 Mini Last year a project called Bitcoin Gold (BTG) forked the Bitcoin Core (BTC) protocol in hopes of creating a more fair and decentralized mining environment that would remain ‘ASIC resistant.’ The BTG project basically cloned the BTC codebase (Segwit included), and changed the consensus algorithm from SHA-256 to the Equihash algorithm, a popular mechanism used by the digital asset zcash and others. This week the Bitcoin Gold development team wrote a blog post that detailed a new Equihash mining rig that’s been released to the public “threatens” their dream of a “one CPU one vote” network. The mining rig manufacturer Bitmain has caused a stir throughout multiple cryptocurrency communities, by launching various miners this year that process algorithms most thought were ‘ASIC resistant.’ The latest Antminer Z9 mini was announced on May 3 and costs $1,999 USD per unit and the machine processes an Equihash hashrate of about 10k Sol/s ± 5%. “We are pleased to announce the Antminer Z9 mini, an ASIC miner to mine Equihash-based cryptocurrencies — To prevent hoarding and to let more individuals worldwide get one, we’ve set a limit of one miner per user,” explains Bitmain the day they launched the Z9 mini. The Antminer Z9 mini mines the Equihash algorithm and has caused trouble for the Bitcoin Gold (BTG) team. After Feeling ‘Threatened’ by the Z9 the BTG Development Team Plans to Modify or Change the Current BTG Equihash Algorithm The announcement has shaken development teams who believed their blockchain consensus models would be free from these high-efficiency semiconductors. But now that Bitmain has released the Equihash mining Antminer Z9, the BTG project may attempt to modify or change its consensus algorithm. “This week, we learned that the dominant specialty crypto mining hardware maker (Bitmain) has released an “ASIC” miner for Equihash, which means it would be able to mine BTG if we were to allow that to happen,” explains the BTG organization. The Bitcoin Gold dev team is now working to fix this. We’ve been planning to do this for some time – either by modifying how the Equihash algorithm is implemented, or by changing to an entirely different algorithm. Perhaps we’ll do each, over time. Due to the launch of the Antminer Z9 mini the BTG team plans to change or modify its consensus algorithm. Is ‘ASIC Resistance’ a Pipe Dream? Bitcoin Gold isn’t the only project that attempted to create an ‘ASIC resistant’ cryptocurrency that failed to meet that goal. The Litecoin (LTC) network utilizes a different hashing algorithm called scrypt, and when the project first launched everyone thought it would never see ASIC miners processing the LTC’s blocks. However, the once claimed ‘ASIC resistant’ Litecoin scrypt algorithm turned out to be minable by application-specific semiconductors and at the time when this was discovered in 2013 it was quite controversial. Last month Bitmain released its Antminer E3 that processes the Ethhash (an ethereum, ETH) hashing algorithm. The launch of this device sparked a discussion between Ethereum users who wanted to become ASIC resistant quickly. One Ethereum proponent writes “a regularly scheduled PoW change, like Monero” is needed. The Monero (XMR) development team ran into the same situation as a Bitmain produced mining rig was launched before the E3, that mined cryptocurrencies that utilized the cryptonight algorithm. As far as different types of Proof-of-Work algorithms there hasn’t really been a cryptocurrency yet that has maintained full ASIC resistance. Most people believe the goal to produce an ASIC resistant PoW is a mythical pipe dream as there are warehouses full of ASIC machines that mine these digital currencies that once claimed to be immune from ASICs. What do you think about the goal to create an ASIC resistant PoW cryptocurrency? Is this goal attainable without going full PoS? Let us know what you think about this project in the comments below. Images via Pixabay, Shutterstock, Bitcoin Gold blog, and Bitmain Technologies. Have you seen our new cryptocurrency market caps page Satoshi Pulse? It shows live updated price feeds and market caps for the top 500 coins and there’s no need to refresh for prices. Check out Satoshi Pulse today! The post Cryptocurrency Projects Aiming to be ‘ASIC Resistant’ Have Little Success appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Cryptocurrency prices have dropped significantly over the past 72 hours after reaching new highs on May 5. When Bitcoin Core (BTC) prices touched a high of $9,940 USD this past Saturday buyers met resistance and the price tumbled to a low of $8,975. BTC prices today are hovering along between $9,100 and $9,400. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) market values touched a high of $1,829 on May 5, but have subsequently dropped to an average of $1,625 during today’s trading sessions. Overall most cryptocurrency markets are seeing some gains today after suffering from three days of losses. Also read: Court Orders Chilean Banks to Re-Open Crypto Exchange Accounts Bitcoin Cash Markets See 4% Gains Today Cryptocurrencies have lost value over the past 72 hours but are starting to rebound at the time of publication. Currently out of the 1,595 different digital assets, the entire cryptocurrency market cap is around $437Bn today with $22Bn in 24-hour trade volumes. Bitcoin Cash markets today are up over 4 percent and have seen 14.3 percent worth of gains over the past seven days. BCH trade volume during the May 9 trading sessions is around $1.2Bn over the past 24 hours. The top five exchanges swapping the most BCH today are Okex, Upbit, Bithumb, Bitfinex, and Huobi. In terms of price compared to Bitcoin Core values, BCH is worth Ƀ0.1770 at the time of writing and has been slowly approaching the Ƀ0.2 region. BTC captures 35 percent of today’s BCH trades and this is followed by tether (USDT 22.8%), KRW (20%), the USD (17%) and the euro (1.3%). Bitcoin Cash (BCH) May 9, 2018. Technical Indicators Looking at charts shows BCH bulls are trying hard to push past resistance at the moment. The 4-hour chart reveals the two SMA trendlines still have a decent gap between the 100 SMA and the 200 SMA. The short-term 100 SMA is well above the 200 SMA indicating the path to resistance should be on the upside. MACd is dipping southbound at the moment while the Relative Strength Index oscillator is holding around 55 indicating some consolidation forming. Bitfinex BCH/USD markets on May 9, 2018. Bollinger Bands are extremely tight during the day’s trading sessions as a breakout could be imminent. Looking at order books shows that bulls have some thick resistance ahead up until $1,700, and then another large mountain of sell orders between $1,750-1,850. If things turn for the worse then foundations can be found on the backside between now and $1,550. A break below $1,550 will lead to another solid pitstop around $1,460. At the moment it doesn’t look like bears will take the reins anytime soon. The Top Cryptocurrencies Today Overall cryptocurrency markets are doing pretty well today. Looking at the number one market valuation shows Bitcoin Core (BTC) markets are up 1.4 percent and 1.99 percent over the course of the last week. Currently, one BTC is trading for $9,343 and has a 24-hour trade volume of about $7.2Bn. Ethereum (ETH) is the second largest market cap and its currency is averaging around $754 per ETH. Ripple (XRP) is down today around 0.53 percent and 5.2 percent over the past seven days. One XRP is trading at $0.80 cents per coin. Lastly, the number five position below BCH is the digital asset EOS which is down 1.9 percent today and is priced at $17.91 per token. Cryptocurrency market caps via Satoshi Pulse on May 9, 2018. The Verdict: Market Sentiment Remains Optimistic Over the past week, most cryptocurrencies have seen some negative decline but a lot of traders are positive this month will be a turning point. Data from the past three years just before the Consensus conference and this year’s charts make Tom Lee think that BTC will rally by 70% next week. Nearly every year for the past four years just before the Consensus conference in New York BTC prices and other cryptocurrency values have rallied significantly. Fundstrat advisor Tom Lee thinks the same thing may happen during the event in mid-May stating that BTC and other digital assets could rally more than 70 percent soon. Even after three days worth of dips, market sentiment is still optimistic. Where do you see the price of BCH and other cryptocurrencies headed from here? Let us know in the comments below. Disclaimer: Price articles and markets updates are intended for informational purposes only and should not to be considered as trading advice. Neither Bitcoin.com nor the author is responsible for any losses or gains, as the ultimate decision to conduct a trade is made by the reader. Always remember that only those in possession of the private keys are in control of the “money.” Images via Shutterstock, Trading View, and Satoshi Pulse. Want to create your own secure cold storage paper wallet? Check our tools section. The post Markets Update: Cryptocurrency Prices See Relief After Three Day Losses appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Several films featuring Bitcoin are coming out before the summer. The main character in “Superfly”, a remake of the 1972 crime drama “Super Fly”, is now “swapping cash for crypto.” Director X’s debut movie is scheduled for release on July 15. And in Russia, two college students are chasing a hard disk storing a fortune in Bitcoin, after they sold the wrong PC to a pawn shop. The film should be ready by the end of May. Also read: Cryptocurrency Gets Its Own Comedy In “Bitcoin” – the Movie Superfly – Swapping Cash for Crypto, Redefining the Hustle Have you heard of the “Exploitation” genre, exploitation film or fiction? It was created by authors tempted to, well, exploit themes that some might consider taboo. Others won’t, but in any case, exploitation works are often pushing against the limits of “the appropriate” in their respective times. Sex, drugs, and violence are all part of the “exploitation” intended to attract attention. It’s basically the pulp fiction of the second half of the 20th century. Blaxploitation is a subgenre, which for the first time placed African-American characters and communities in the spotlight. The 1972 crime drama “Super Fly” is a good example which has been recently remade. The 2018 version exploits the usual taboos, but also a modern hot topic – digital cash and crime. “Superfly” is the debut movie of Director X, or Julien Christian Lutz, best known for the music videos he made for Drake, Jay-Z, and Rihanna. Sony Pictures just released a full-length trailer of his remake of the Blaxploitation classic. The action now takes place not in Harlem, but in Atlanta. Actor Trevor Jackson plays the main character, a drug dealer who wants to quit the dirty business. In the meantime, the 21st century Youngblood Priest would rather be paid with… cryptocurrency. “I swapped cash for crypto, and redefined the hustle,” he says. We’ll see how successful “Superfly” will be in exploiting crypto, when the movie hits theaters mid-July. Chasing 6,000 Bitcoins on a PC Sold to a Pawn Shop While some heroes are making money, others are losing it. A movie whose storyline revolves around a bitcoin-related plot, is being shot in Russia. Two young guys from the city of Kazan are chasing a crypto fortune. While trying to trace and retrieve a hard disk with the keys to 6,000 bitcoins, the main characters – college students Igor and Artur – find themselves in a series of comic adventures but also life-threatening situations. The boys may have lost the crypto cash forever, when they made the fateful mistake to sell the wrong PC to a pawn shop. 6,000 in Bitcoin is about $55 million in dollars and a staggering 3.5 billion in rubles. With big money comes big trouble and there is always someone willing to stand between you and that kind of money. The film should be ready by the end of May. By the way, a movie theater in the Russian city of Yaroslavl is now accepting cryptocurrency. The “Neft” cinema club currently sells tickets for Bitcoin, Bitcoin Gold and Zclassic. “Bring your crypto wallets,” its founders tell their guests thanks to a partnership with the local Blockchain Institute. They had to solve a small problem in order to take advantage of the digital payments – cryptocurrencies are not yet legal in Russia. The project has been officially announced as a marketing campaign tailored to attract crypto-savvy viewers. Tickets are free for those who want to “experiment” with digital transactions. Unable to defeat even “Telegram”, the state will eventually legalize cryptocurrencies, the organizers say. It’s Funny When They Feature Bitcoin A couple of comedies are also featuring Bitcoin. In an episode of HBO’s series Silicon Valley, one of the characters reveals to his colleagues that he mines the cryptocurrency. Gilfoyle, the systems architect of the Pied Piper startup, has created a price alert that blasts out the death metal song “You Suffer” by Napalm Death whenever the price of Bitcoin rises above or drops below a certain value, so that he can remotely toggle his rig at home to mine only when it’s efficient. Hilarious! Bitcoin can be very volatile, as Gilfoyle says. A comedy titled “Bitcoin” tells the story of a suburban father who, after losing his job, sets off with his deadbeat brother to convert an anonymous bitcoin account into the hard cash he needs to support his family. The two brothers from Arizona get their hands on a Bitcoin wallet worth $20 million and try to sell the crypto on the black market. “Bitcoin” is the debut feature of filmmaker Christian Cashmir. It’s produced by Lauren Cribb and starring TV comedian Theo Von. The shooting was expected to start by the end of April, in New Mexico. According to IMDb, the comedy is still in pre-production. Do you think movies featuring bitcoin popularize cryptocurrencies? Tell us in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Yarcube, Wikipedia. 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 New Movies Featuring Bitcoin Hitting Theaters Soon appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

A crypto Youtuber is launching his own television series that is fully paid for by bitcoin. They will air on CBS, the CW, and Roku. The first 13 episodes will air on CBS in selected areas, featuring topics such as crypto security, exchange trading, initial coin offerings, crypto crashes, mining, and the future of cryptocurrency. Also read: Yahoo! Japan Confirms Entrance Into the Crypto Space Crypto Crow Show Jason Appleton. Youtuber and investor Jason Appleton announced on Monday that he is launching a bitcoin-funded television series “on CBS, the CW and Roku to over 47 million homes.” CBS, a flagship property of CBS Corporation, is one of the three major traditional commercial broadcast television networks in the US, alongside ABC and NBC. The CW is operated by the CW Network, a joint venture between CBS Corporation, the former owners of United Paramount Network (UPN), and Warner Bros. Roku provides streaming content to set-top devices and apps. According to the announcement: This will be the first time a cryptocurrency Youtuber has launched their own television series fully paid for by bitcoin. All promotional sponsors, features and the like are paid by bitcoin. Appleton is known on Youtube as Crypto Crow. At the time of this writing, he has 73,005 followers on Youtube. He began publishing videos on the site in November last year. While emphasizing that he is not a licensed financial advisor, his videos include Initial Coin Offering (ICO) reviews and investment tips. 13 Episodes on CBS Appleton has signed an agreement with CBS Television Networks “to air 13 episodes of the Crypto Crow Show in select markets as a test market in hopes of spreading nationally.” The first season is scheduled to begin in the week of June 25 on the CBS New York WLNY network, serving approximately 7.3 million homes, the announcement details, adding: Each episode will feature educational information focused on helping newcomers to the crypto space such as researching, investing and how to stay secure in their efforts while featuring ICO and cryptocurrency companies and how they affect the industry. The 13 episodes planned are on topics such as what are cryptocurrencies, crypto security, exchange trading, ICOs, bot trading for profits, swing trading, crypto cycles and crashes, crypto mining vs investing, crypto predictions and the future of cryptocurrency. Crypto Shows Gaining Popularity The number of television shows featuring cryptocurrencies is growing. Last month, news.Bitcoin.com reported on the cable network Cheddar launching a 30-minute show about cryptocurrencies called Crypto Craze. In February, Krypton Capital announced the launch of Crypto TV which focuses on breaking crypto news, panel discussions and live interviews. Eight pilot episodes of this show are being produced. Regular TV shows have also featured cryptocurrencies in selected episodes. Award-winning CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory, for example, aired an episode in November called “The Bitcoin Entanglement.” USA Network’s Mr. Robot has also made many references to bitcoin. This week, HBO’s Silicon Valley featured an ICO while Showtime’s Billions featured a Ledger Nano S hardware wallet. What do you think of this crypto TV series? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock, CBS, Ledger, Twitter, and Jason Appleton. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Crypto Youtuber Launching Bitcoin Funded TV Series on CBS appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Humans of Bitcoin (HOB) is off to a rousing start in its second season on the Bitcoin.com Podcast Network, diving deeply into Bitcoin pioneers over two installments. The current episode features crypto evangelist Jeffrey Tucker, Editorial Director at the American Institute for Economic Research, in a fast-moving interview exploring his intellectual development and discovery of bitcoin. Friday, May 11th, HOB will release a fascinating and compelling discussion with these pages’ CEO, Roger Ver, revealing a personal side to the man few have heard. Tying them both together, interestingly enough, is Shapeshift’s founder Erik Voorhees. Also read: Venezuela’s President Launches Crypto Funded Youth Bank, Encourages Mining Farms Revealing, Deeply Personal Interview with Roger Ver Released This Friday, May 11th Arguably the definitive history of bitcoin’s early years is documented in Brian Patrick Eha’s, How Money Got Free: Bitcoin and the Fight for the Future of Finance (Oneworld). Its detailed and cinematic style make for great reading, but more than that it informs: principals such as Roger Ver and Erik Voorhees get their due, warts and all. So it’s fitting Humans of Bitcoin podcast, a non-technical dive into the real life world of crypto, host Matt Aaron would choose Mr. Eha’s document to guide his interview of Bitcoin.com CEO, Roger Ver (set for airing Friday, May 11th). Mr. Ver (rhymes with ‘beer’) has been interviewed a zillion times, from pasty dudes’ lowly Youtube channels to giant, worldwide media conglomerates. There seems to be nothing more to learn about Mr. Ver, aside from maybe his investment advice; but that can be found, too, elsewhere. Indeed, Mr. Aaron is also an employee of Mr. Ver’s, so that makes it doubly hard in terms of entertainment: how to craft a listenable show without coming across as a sycophant or toadie. On this score, Mr. Aaron is wildly successful. He asks questions listeners might have been intensely curious about, but never had the chance. Imagine asking a boss about their prison experience, and why Mr. Ver was known to advise “Never enter prison on a Friday.” The answers are both hilarious and harrowing. Mr. Aaron then brings in Erik Voorhees of Shapeshift fame, asking about his and Mr. Ver’s complicated and at times heroic history. The episode really gets moving as the two weave headlong into the assorted controversies Mr. Ver presently finds himself embroiled: being personally hacked and then having his person and family threatened, bitcoin core’s deviation, whether noobs are really confused about what Bitcoin.com is, how many coins has he lost through hacks over the years, why he continues in crypto even though he’s financially well off, and even his famous bets. Ultimately he compares his life to a science fiction novel, and this excites Mr. Ver to no end. There’s so much more to the episode, and it premieres this Friday, May 11th, here. Jeffrey Tucker’s $27,000 Bowtie While waiting for the Roger Ver episode, readers are encouraged to click the HOB current offering with Jeffrey Tucker. He too is well known within the ecosystem, and gives of his time generously to all manner of interview formats. Like Mr. Ver he is an easy guest to promote, along with being someone who can draw out answers in an interesting way. The problem, again, is how to make the interview enjoyable for listeners both new to and familiar with Mr. Tucker. Mr. Aaron shines here, again. The hook he uses is how badly bitcoin back in the day needed an economist to endorse the project. It had code slingers and tech geeks. Mr. Tucker gives an air of respectability to crypto, and that starts with his dress, his iconic style, right down to his bowtie. Careful not to turn the discussion into a fashion segment, Mr. Aaron gets the scoop on how Mr. Tucker came about his formal dress, and it makes for pretty cool listening. From there, the two discuss Mr. Tucker’s varied and terribly compelling career prior to being known for bitcoin and crypto evangelism. His enthusiasm for sound money goes as far back as the early 1980s, and lands Mr. Tucker as a research assistant for then-congressman Ron Paul (who would later run for US president twice). The conversation returns to crypto and bitcoin with a recounting of just how Mr. Tucker was given his first coins. Back in 2013, Erik Voorhees and cohorts cornered him, demanding he listen to their bitcoin pitch. They set him up with a wallet, and asked he sell them something in return for the decentralized currency. Mr. Tucker offered his famous bowtie, which he pegged at roughly $45. Mr. Vorhees then zapped him 3 bitcoin, and Mr. Tucker describes his own acceptance of the transaction as something of a revelation. It was instant. No third party. No onboarding. No minder. Mr. Tucker believed he had been given a vision of the future. Oh, and that 3 bitcoin for one bowtie? That’s now a $27,000 tie at current prices. Just stop whatever you’re doing and click the episode for goodness sake. Who is your favorite bitcoin/crypto pioneer? Share your thoughts in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Do you agree with us that Bitcoin is the best invention since sliced bread? Thought so. That’s why we are building this online universe revolving around anything and everything Bitcoin. We have a store. And a forum. And a casino, a pool and real-time price statistics. The post New HOB Podcast: Ver’s Sci-Fi Novel Life, Voorhees Buys Tucker’s Tie for $72k 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. SPINDLE, which instantaneously became the largest ICO in Japan , will launch its first crowdsale. The crowdsale will be held globally for one week only (except for residents in Japan / USA / China). In this Crowdsale, only ETH and BCH will be accepted from strategic implications. SPINDLE is a project to connect general users and crypto hedge funds with fairness and transparency by applying Blockchain technology. SPINDLE is now developing an advanced platform, ZETA. ZETA-1, which will be released at Stage 1, is a monitoring & reporting service platform that builds on Blockchain technology currently under development by BLACK STAR&CO., Inc. ZETA-1 offers freemium services to cryptocurrency exchanges, crypto hedge funds, and cryptocurrency investors. For details, please refer to the video The SPINDLE team is composed of seasoned experts in the financial industry including professionals on Blockchain technology and marketing. GACKT, the famous artist and entrepreneur in Asia, is also our member to support our marketing activities, so I am getting aware of one out of many ICOs. Crowdsale will be held from 9th May / 00: 00 (GMT) to 15th May / 00: 00 (GMT). The fixed rate of 0.00033 ETH is applied to all the transactions, and up to 30% of bonus will be provided for early applications. You are kindly requested to read the WP 2.0 and learn about SPINDLE. If you have any queries, we are making active exchange in the Telegram community, so please visit there and ask questions if any. Also, we kindly invite you to visit our SPINDLE crowdsale Website and create an account as soon as possible. Application will be closed on 15th May / 00: 00 (GMT). SPINDLE Information Website: https://spindle.zone White Paper: https://spindle.zone/spindlewp_2.0_en.pdf SPINDLE Telegram: https://t.me/spindlezone Crowdsale Information Website for Token Sales: https://ico.spindle.zone Payment accepted: Bitcoin Cash / Ethereum Starting of CrowdSale before listing (GMT): 9th May / 00:00 Ending of Crowd Sale before listing (GMT): 15th May / 00:00 Token Sales support on Telegram chat: https://t.me/spindlezone ( https://t.me/spindlezonechannel ) Token Sales support by E-mail: support@spindle.zone Unqualified users: ・People who live in Japan / USA / China ・People who don’t have the mentioned eligibility of investment Lockup period for SPD Tokens which are sold in Crowdsale: 60 days Schedule for granting tokens: Within 30 days after completion of Crowdsale Amount of Crowdsale before listing 1,200,000,000 SPD Token sales price (1 SPD price) and Bonus Rate: All 0.00033 ETH (9May–15May, 2018) | Bonus: 9th 30% Bonus | 10th 25% Bonus | 11th 20% Bonus | 12th 15% Bonus | 13th 10% Bonus | 14th 5% Bonus | 15th No Bonus | Crowdsale after listing: To be announced | (Moving Strike Discount Lock-up Model) SPINDLE Information Website: https://spindle.zone White Paper: https://spindle.zone/spindlewp_2.0_en.pdf SPINDLE Telegram: https://t.me/spindlezone Contact Email Address media@spindle.zone Supporting Link https://ico.spindle.zone 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: SPINDLE to Launch Crowdsale – One Week Only (Until May 15) appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

A U.S. state has issued emergency cease and desist orders to two companies and related persons purportedly engaged in cryptocurrency investment schemes. The first company posted videos of three mining farms composed of online stock images, according to the order. Both companies made numerous materially misleading claims and violated U.S. securities laws. Also read: Yahoo! Japan Confirms Entrance Into the Crypto Space Bitcoin Trading & Cloud Mining Limited Texas State Securities Board. The Texas State Securities Board has issued “an emergency cease and desist order” to London-based Bitcoin Trading & Cloud Mining Limited, also known as Btcrush. Also included in the order are the company’s sole director and shareholder Jaylon Cross, founder and CEO Bruce Rodgerson, Chief Marketing Officer Robin Lozinski, and sales agent Thomas A. Johnson. Btcrush is self-described on its website as “a cloud-based cryptocurrency mining company that mines bitcoin and altcoins and profits from selling altcoins for bitcoins.” The company promises an investment return of 4.1% daily interest regardless of the profitability of its mining operations, adding that its main principle is a “100% satisfaction guarantee for [its] customers.” The company claims: A principal investment of $10,000.00 for a term of 365 days returns approximately $17.08 per hour, $410.00 per day and $149,650.00 per year. In addition, the company has been recruiting investors as sales agents, promising them a commission of 15% of the principal deposited by the new investors that they recruit. Bogus Mining Farm Videos According to the order, Btcrush had posted videos of its three mining farms on its website. The first mining farm the company claims to operate is the Maverik Farm, which it describes as the “most powerful farm” located “in the mountains.” The second is the Hephaestus Farm, which Btcrush claims to be the “most reliable and secretive farm located in a bunker of the Second World War times.” The third is the Rebelpower Farm, located “at the former power station.” However, the Securities Commissioner wrote: Although the Btcrush website represents these videos depict the Maverik Farm, the Hephaestus Farm and the Rebelpower Farm, they do not actually depict mining farms operated by respondent Btcrush. Instead, respondent Btcrush created these videos by manipulating stock footage available for sale on the internet. Forex EA & Bitcoin Investment LLC The second company to receive an emergency cease and desist order from the Texas State Securities Board on Tuesday is the New York-based Forex EA & Bitcoin Investment LLC, also known as My Forex EA. Also included in the order are James Butcher and Richard Dunn who market the company’s Forex and Bitcoin trading program targeting Texas residents, the Securities Commissioner detailed. They advertise: An investment of $500.00 in the Forex and Bitcoin trading program will return $5,000.00 in twenty-one calendar days…[and] an investment of $1,000.00 in the Forex and Bitcoin trading program will return $10,000.00 in twenty-one calendar days. Similarly, an investment of $20,000 will yield $20,000 and $5,000 will yield 50,000 in the same time period, the order describes. They also claim that the investments involve “no risk” and their returns “are 100% assured and that there is no possible way investors can lose money.” Violating Securities Laws The Texas State Securities Board’s order explains that the investments both companies offer are securities and their sales are in violation of the Securities Act since neither the companies nor their agents have been registered with the state’s Securities Commissioner. Btcrush also asks investors to agree to a “private transaction rule” of the US Securities Act of 1933 and related acts when signing up. “This statement is materially misleading,” the order shows, adding that the public will likely be deceived into thinking that the company is offering regulated securities in the state. Furthermore, Btcrush asks investors to agree at signup that they “are investing at their own risk” and that the company “reserves the right to amend…. fixed interest rates… without agreement with investors.” The order says that these statements are also materially misleading given the advertised guarantee of 4.1% return regardless of the company’s profitability. In both cases, the Securities Commissioner concluded that: Respondents [both companies] are engaging in fraud in connection with the offer for sale of securities…[and] are making offers containing statements that are meterially misleading or otherwise likely to deceive the public. What do you think of Texas issuing cease and desist orders to these two investment schemes? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock and the State of Texas. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post US State Issues Emergency Cease and Desist Orders to Two Crypto Investment Firms appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Just recently a research group called Rapid7 published a report that reveals over a year’s worth of research regarding malicious activity tethered to Bitcoin Core (BTC) full nodes. By utilizing data collected from a network called ‘Project Heisenberg,’ and its internet scanner ‘Project Sonar,’ alongside intelligence from Bitnodes, the team had found quite a lot of exploits being shared between full blockchain nodes. Also read: The Hitchhikers Guide To The Invisible Internet Study Finds Bad Actors Throughout Bitcoin Network’s Public Nodes Bitcoin full node operators connect usually connect by default to a TCP service on port 8,333, but there are also over 600 alternative ports available. Rapid7’s recent research used data from the team’s Project Sonar which revealed the top three countries with the most port 8,333 nodes stem from the U.S., China, and Germany. The researchers began the blockchain surveillance back in August of 2017 and found more than 11,000 nodes per day. Moreover, the researchers collected data from more than 144,000 unique full nodes during the course of the study. In addition to the Project Sonar intelligence over 900 nodes connected to Rapid7’s honeypot technology Project Heisenberg that revealed interesting and some malicious activities like the distribution of MS17-010 a critical Microsoft operating system vulnerability. “Investigations into these interactions showed familiar patterns. Port scans and active reconnaissance with tools like Nmap were rampant, as was repeated attempted exploitation of MS17-010, largely from China,” explains Jon Hart a Rapid7 researcher. 17 hosts, mostly from the China IPv4 space, were actively slinging exploits for MS17-010. The Bitcoin Network Three Times More Evil Than the Public Internet As mentioned above most of the shady activities derived from confirmed malicious nodes with the most amount of connections the U.S. (178), China (154), and Germany (132). While the researchers note that not all of the findings found in full nodes can be deemed harmful the group observed the nodes used “curious scanning and probing behavior in the Bitcoin peer-to-peer network.” The report concludes that the absolute number of bad actors found within the cryptocurrency’s network is fairly low on ‘bad days’ these nodes can account for up to 2 percent of the BTC network. Now the researchers say that the data collected may be considered low but compared to the “background noise” of malicious activity found on the entire IPv4 internet the figure is pretty alarming. “Therefore, on a typical day, the Bitcoin network is approximately three times more ‘evil’ than the rest of the internet. On particularly active days, we see ten times as many malicious nodes in the Bitcoin network as we see on the regular internet, by volume,” explains the Rapid7 report. If you are actively participating as a bitcoin miner, one takeaway is to recognize that there are a small number of participants in the bitcoin network actively taking hostile action against otherwise innocent nodes on the public internet. What do you think about the research that states the BTC network of nodes is three times more “evil” than the entire IPv4 internet? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments below. Images via Shutterstock, Bitnodes, and Rapid7’s research report. At news.Bitcoin.com all comments containing links are automatically held up for moderation in the Disqus system. That means an editor has to take a look at the comment to approve it. This is due to the many, repetitive, spam and scam links people post under our articles. We do not censor any comment content based on politics or personal opinions. So, please be patient. Your comment will be published. The post Researchers Find Bitcoin Network 3X More ‘Evil’ Than the Public Internet appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Today’s edition of Bitcoin in Brief showcases the continued rapid pace at which the cryptocurrency revolution is disrupting all segments of the business world, from the adult entertainment industry, to stock exchanges and even social networks. Also Read: Details Emerge on Foxconn-Manufactured Ultra-Secure Crypto Phone Stripper Promotes Bitcoin for the Adult Industry Brenna Sparks, the exotic dancer last featured in the news about a Las Vegas club where strippers accept bitcoin payments via QR tattoos, has published a blog post in an adult entertainment industry portal explaining the advantages of cryptocurrency to her colleagues. While she notes it can help with privacy, fixing piracy and other issues, the main advantage is helping people in the business avoid paying almost 50% to middlemen. Sparks writes: “Every time you perform or make content and distribute it, you’re losing up to half of your earnings to who-knows-what on fees alone…Nothing is more discouraging than to watch yourself give up nearly half of your earnings ‘just because’…Although greed does play a role, what plays an even bigger role is discrimination. The reason this issue exists is because common payment processors like Paypal, Google, Stripe, etc. will not allow you to perform a transaction related to any adult work, and Banks like BofA or Chase will close your account if they suspect you do adult work…Cryptocurrency offers a simple solution – ultra-low fees, no discrimination, and instant transactions anywhere in the world. No bank, company, or government can tell you what you can or cannot use your money on or where you can use it, and no more ultimatums that studios and performers have grown accustomed to.” Facebook Explores Blockchain Facebook has formed a new team of top executives to explore the uses for blockchain potentially available for the company to improve its business. This according to multiple sources familiar with the matter cited by Silicon Valley media recode. The team is headed by David Marcus, the former head of Facebook Messenger until this move. The company did not provide any details about the applications they will be working on, however, Marcus is former president of Paypal and currently seats on the board of Coinbase, so speculating about cryptocurrency-enabled payments via messaging is not totally out of the question. Kin Forks Stellar While Facebook is just exploring, other social app developers are already implementing. The Kin Ecosystem Foundation, the governance body for Kin which will be integrated into Kik as the primary transaction currency, has announced that it will build its own blockchain based on Stellar. This while continuing to use ethereum for security and liquidity to token holders. “Most crypto projects to date have been technology-driven first and product-driven second. Kin has always been the opposite,” said Ted Livingston, Founder and CEO of Kin and Kik. “After working heads down alongside the best minds in the industry we came to the conclusion that a hybrid solution of Ethereum and our own fork of Stellar would benefit the Kin Ecosystem, both short and long-term. Our goal is for Kin to be the most used cryptocurrency in the world, and this will help get us there sooner.” Kik Messenger has over 300 million registered users, and is mostly popular with teenagers. It is known for features preserving users’ anonymity, such as allowing registration without a telephone number. Kin was meant to be an ERC20 token but the developers were frustrated with Ethereum’s performance and ditched the plan. Its ICO last year raised nearly $100 million from more than 10,000 investors from 117 countries. ICE to Launch Bitcoin Platform? Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE: ICE), the parent company of 23 regulated marketplaces including the New York Stock Exchange, has reportedly been working on an online trading platform that would allow big investors to buy and hodl bitcoin. This according to The New York Times, citing emails and documents viewed by the newspaper and four people briefed on the effort who asked to remain anonymous because the plans were still confidential. Details of the platform that Intercontinental Exchange is working on have not been finalized and the project could still not come to fruition, however, this news serves as another signal for Wall Street’s strong desire to tap into the bitcoin market. Sex Scandal Brings Down NY AG Speaking about New York, the state’s Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has resigned just hours after the news about a violent sex scandal broke. As you may recall, Coinbase recently applauded the investigation into the operations of bitcoin exchanges launched by the NY AG in sharp contrast to the rebuke by Kraken CEO which took a brave stand against the American regulatory overreach. The New Yorker magazine reported that four women complained about non-consensual physical violence by the AG. “In the privacy of intimate relationships, I have engaged in role-playing and other consensual sexual activity,” Schneiderman said in a statement. “I have not assaulted anyone. I have never engaged in non-consensual sex, which is a line I would not cross.” CZ Defends ICOs ICOs have gotten such a bad reputation recently that many projects today do their best to call their token crowdfunding by any other name. But now Changpeng Zhao , the  Binance CEO, has come to the defense of initial coin offerings. The main argument by CZ is that ICOs enable many more projects to get funded than by traditional VC means, thus accelerating the pace of innovation. They also allow entrepreneurs to create solutions instead of wasting time on trying to raise funding in the old ways, and smaller investors can get in on the action that is normally reserved for accredited investors only. Regarding the issue of fraud, CZ writes: “Scams exist everywhere, in every industry. I still receive phone calls and SMS telling me I won a grand prize, but I need to make a bank transfer to someone first. Does that mean we should stop using phones, SMS, and banks? The same law enforcement dealing with scams in traditional industries still applies in new industries. We don’t need to re-invent the wheel here.” And as for failures, he adds: “Most ICOs are new startup projects, and have a high rate of failure, just like in traditional startups. This is nothing new. Most ICO investors already know this.” What do you think about today’s news tidbits? Share your thoughts in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Do you agree with us that Bitcoin is the best invention since sliced bread? Thought so. That’s why we are building this online universe revolving around anything and everything Bitcoin. We have a store. And a forum. And a casino, a pool and real-time price statistics. The post Bitcoin in Brief Wednesday: Stripper Explains Bitcoin to Adult Industry, Facebook Explores Blockchain appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The U.S. Federal Reserve system has been very interested in bitcoin lately and has released a bunch of reports from Federal Reserve leaders and researchers from different offices. This past Monday, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and a professor from Stanford University published a paper that concludes that bitcoin-based futures markets affected the cryptocurrency’s price patterns since Cboe and CME launched the products. Also read: How to Shuffle Your BCH Coins Like a Boss Study Concludes That BTC Futures Markets May Have Helped Push the Cryptocurrency’s Price Down Have you ever wondered why BTC markets dipped in value over the past four months of 2018? Well, researchers from Stanford University and the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco believe bitcoin future markets played a role in BTC’s market behavior. The study was published under the central bank’s economic research reports website and written by Galina Hale, Arvind Krishnamurthy, Marianna Kudlyak, and Patrick Shultz. The Fed researchers say that the bitcoin derivatives markets introduced this past December suggests a correlation with the decline in the cryptocurrency’s value just like many other markets affected by futures products in the past. The paper states that throughout BTC’s inception the value of the coin remained under $4,000 but climbed “dramatically to nearly $20,000, but descended rapidly starting in mid-December,” explains the Fed’s economic study. The researchers go on to state: The peak price coincided with the introduction of bitcoin futures trading on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. The rapid run-up and subsequent fall in the price after the introduction of futures does not appear to be a coincidence. Rather, it is consistent with trading behavior that typically accompanies the introduction of futures markets for an asset. The researchers’ comparison of three largest bitcoin price declines in 2017. Source: Bloomberg, central bank report authors’ calculations. Short-Selling Pressure from Pessimists Leads to a Sharp Decline in Value The price decline following the issuance of bitcoin futures on the CME is “clearly larger” than in the previous two reversals says the report. “Additionally, the two earlier decreases in prices returned to pre-crash levels in about a month — As of late April, the bitcoin price had not returned to its pre-futures peak,” explains the San Francisco Federal Reserve report. The paper emphasizes why this was the case by saying: We suggest that the rapid rise of the price of bitcoin and its decline following the issuance of futures on the CME is consistent with pricing dynamics — Once derivatives markets become sufficiently deep, short-selling pressure from pessimists leads to a sharp decline in value. The researchers also note that they understand there are other fundamental factors tethered to the overall value of the cryptocurrency and “transactional benefits” will likely quantify the currency’s long-term price. “As speculative dynamics disappear from the bitcoin market, the transactional benefits are likely to be the factor that will drive valuation,” the paper concludes. What do you think about the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco’s study about bitcoin futures markets affecting the price of BTC? Let us know in the comments below. Images via Pixabay, and the San Francisco Federal Reserve. At news.Bitcoin.com all comments containing links are automatically held up for moderation in the Disqus system. That means an editor has to take a look at the comment to approve it. This is due to the many, repetitive, spam and scam links people post under our articles. We do not censor any comment content based on politics or personal opinions. So, please be patient. Your comment will be published. The post San Francisco Fed Says BTC-based Future Markets Played a Role in Price appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article