roadrunner

A U.S. state has issued a cease and desist order to a company purportedly engaged in cryptocurrency mining. This order follows a temporary cease and desist order to the company two months ago which it did not respond to. Also read: Yahoo! Japan Confirms Entrance Into the Crypto Space Cease and Desist Order The U.S. State of North Carolina issued a cease and desist order to Power Mining Pool (PMP) last week. After some investigation, the state’s Securities Division declared: The Securities Division found that PMP is violating the Securities Act by: a. offering unregistered securities in the form of ‘mining pool shares;’ b. offering securities while it is not registered to do so; and c. making material misstatements when offering securities. The order mandates the company and any person, employee, officer, director, entity, or independent contractor under its direction or control to permanently cease and desist from selling securities in the state until the security is registered or exempt. They also must not act as a securities dealer, salesman, or agent unless registered with the state. Furthermore, they must not engage in fraud in connection with the offer or sale of any security, or violate other provisions and rules of the state. This order follows a temporary cease and desist order issued by the same division on March 2. However, the company has neither responded to the order nor requested a hearing. Instead, its website, which is its principal place of business, went offline on March 6, the order revealed. Questionable Operations The State of North Carolina described PMP as an online business that is unregistered in any jurisdiction, without a physical place of business and “The individuals who managed PMP are not identified.” The company represents that it owns and operates mining rigs capable of mining seven different cryptocurrencies 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It also represents that these rigs track the profitability of each of the seven cryptos and automatically “switch resources away from less profitable coins.” PMP also offers mining pool shares to investors to mine on their behalf. “Investors who purchase mining pool shares must first purchase bitcoin with their fiat currency, such as the U.S. Dollar or Euro,” the order detailed. “Next, PMP directs investors to deposit their bitcoin into PMP’s bitcoin wallet in order to set up an account on the PMP website.” The company then claims to mine cryptocurrencies on investors’ behalf and purported to pay investors the fiat value of the coins mined. Investors can also “trade the mined coins for bitcoin.” PMP claims that it will pay the investors “on any profits we make in the trading pool” every three hours. The Secretary of State of North Carolina wrote: The mining pool shares are securities and are not registered with the Administrator…PMP willfully fails to disclose material facts when offering the mining pool shares. What do you think of North Carolina shutting down Power Mining Pool? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post US State Shuts Down Cryptocurrency Mining Company appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Cryptocurrencies are seeing some relief during today’s trading sessions just before the weekend, as the top ten digital assets are currently up 3-11 percent. Most of the losses that took place two days ago have been erased as the total market capitalization of all digital currencies now tops $420Bn USD. Also read: Court Orders Chilean Banks to Re-Open Crypto Exchange Accounts Cryptocurrencies Rebound Erasing Most of the Week’s Losses Digital currencies are showing bullish momentum today as the losses 48-hours ago seemed to be a ‘bear trap.’ BTC/USD markets reached a low of $8,647 yesterday but then rebounded back to the $9,380 region earlier this morning EDT. At the moment the current weighted average for BTC/USD prices is hovering around $9,250 per coin and trade volume has been around $7.9Bn over the last 24-hours. Daily BTC/USD values are up 4.6 percent at the time of publication and 9.8 percent over the last week. The top five exchanges today swapping the most BTC include Okex, Binance, Bitfinex, Bitflyer, and Huobi. Out of all 1591 cryptocurrencies, BTC has an overall market valuation dominance today around 37 percent. The Japanese yen currently commands the most BTC trades today, capturing 53 percent of the market. This is followed by the USD (20%), tether (USDT 15%), KRW (4.9%), and the EUR (3.6%). The most popular trade today on the peer-to-peer platform Shapeshift is ETH for BTC swaps. BTC/USD Technical Indicators Looking at the 4-hour BTC/USD chart shows that bulls are trying to muster up the strength to break resistance at $9,500 and above. The two Simple Moving Averages (SMA) show the short term 100 SMA is well above the long-term 200 trendline. This indicates the path towards resistance should head towards the upside after some deep sell walls. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) shows the oscillator is meandering around 56.3, indicating consolidation is taking place. MACd looks poised to move northbound in the short term after dropping very low 8 hours ago. Order Books show BTC bulls need to smash past the $9,400 range all the to the $9,900 territory in order to surpass the $10K mark. At the moment this play could be in the cards unless the weekend brings a bunch of bear action. On the backside if bears do grab the reins again foundations look decent at $9,150 through $8,600, and after that things begin to thin. BTC markets are hovering around $9,250 USD at 11:30 am EDT. Bitcoin Cash Markets See Recovery Bitcoin Cash (BCH) markets are doing quite well today as BCH values are up 3.8 percent. One BCH is hovering around the $1,388 territory and markets are still up by 31.7 percent over the last seven days. Trade volume has dipped a good amount since our last markets update down to close to $1Bn over the past 24-hours. The top exchanges swapping the most bitcoin cash during the April 27 trading sessions include Okex, Huobi, Bitfinex, Hitbtc, and Lbank. The top currency traded for BCH today is BTC as bitcoin core trades account for 35 percent of the 24-hour market volume. This is followed by tether (USDT 26%), USD (21%), the Korean won (11%), and the euro (1.7%). Alongside this, both ETH and BNB represent 1 percent of the BCH trades per coin. BCH/USD Technical Indicators BCH/USD charts show some similar activities taking place looking at indicators. The SMAs have a gap in between them but the 100 SMA and 200 SMA trendlines are not quite as wide as BTC charts. Still, with the 100 SMA above the long-term 200 trendline, the path to resistance for bitcoin cash should also be on the upside. 4-hour RSI indicates the oscillator is hovering around 58.6 while the MACd is around 36. This means currently BCH bulls are facing stiff resistance but should be able to chew through orders. Bulls will face some big sell orders around $1,420 and $1,500 again. Further, there are much tougher walls around $1,550-1,600 and after that is smoother sailing. On the backside, there are strong buy walls between now and $1,300 flat before things get thinner. BCH markets are hovering around $1,388 USD at 11:30 am EDT. The Verdict: The Past Four Months Left Traders Skeptical But Most Proponents Are Optimistic Of course, the spikes during today’s trading sessions have created some confidence among traders today, and many believe some more price highs are coming. Some other notable increases today came from ETH markets, EOS, and Stellar. The past four months of bearish prices have added some skepticism towards price hikes but it seems a good majority of traders believe the bearish sentiment is over. Where do you see the price of BCH and BTC 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 Coinmarketcap. Want to create your own secure cold storage paper wallet? Check our tools section. The post Markets Update: Cryptocurrencies Erase Two-Day Losses appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Japanese exchange Coincheck is still profitable after suffering one of the biggest hacks in cryptocurrency history. The exchange recorded an estimated writedown of 47.3 billion yen (~US$432.56 million) for the funds used to compensate customers. Victims, however, were slapped with tax bills. Also read: Yahoo! Japan Confirms Entrance Into the Crypto Space A Writedown for Coincheck It has been roughly three months since one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in Japan was hacked for 58 billion yen (~US$530 million) worth of the cryptocurrency NEM. Coincheck is now a subsidiary of a leading Japanese online brokerage firm, Monex Group, after a 3.6 billion yen (~$40 million) acquisition. The exchange has repaid roughly 260,000 customers in Japanese yen. The losses afforded the company a tax writedown. Coincheck’s parent company revealed on Thursday, as reported by Reuters: Coincheck Inc recorded an estimated writedown of 47.3 billion yen ($432.56 million) for the year ended in March. Still Profitable Monex also released Coincheck’s earnings on Thursday. The exchange now handles 13 cryptocurrencies and “its primary source of revenue is the commission known as ‘spread,’ or the premium it adds to the purchase price when delivering to customers,” Nikkei described, adding that for the fiscal year ended March: The cryptocurrency exchange’s sales stood at 62.6 billion yen ($572 million) while operating profit came to 53.7 billion yen [~$491 million]. Its operating margin ratio was as high as 86%, indicating the company’s high-margin business model… Its net profit stood at 6.3 billion yen [~$58 million]. Oki Matsumoto. This is after the company posted “an extraordinary loss of 47.3 billion yen [~$432 million]” as it refunded customers for the theft. According to Asahi TV, Coincheck’s sales the previous year were about 980 million yen (~$9 million). “In the future, regulations on the virtual currency exchange industry will be strengthened, and there is a possibility that the cost of necessary measures will be incurred,” Mainichi elaborated. The publication then quoted the CEO of Monex Group, Oki Matsumoto, detailing, “It is possible the profit margin of the virtual currency business [could] goes down…[but] The volume of transactions will increase and the profits as absolute will return to the level before [the hack].” Victims Hit with Tax Bills As Coincheck compensated theft victims in Japanese yen, the country’s National Tax Agency (NTA) added a section to its FAQs entitled “When receiving compensation in fiat instead of virtual currency from virtual currency exchange agent,” Kaikeizine reported. Citing that the compensated yen will be treated as miscellaneous income, Oricon News emphasized: The National Tax Agency considers getting compensation to be the same as selling virtual currency at the same price as compensating money and getting the same result. The tax authorities [say they] do not fall under tax exemptions and are taxed as miscellaneous income. When the compensated amount is lower than the original acquisition price, taxpayers can deduct their losses, the news outlet explained. Nonetheless, “It is not possible to total with other income such as salary.” While taxing capital gains is commonplace, tax accountant Takaaki Tanaka noted that “NEM holders who received compensation will be taxed at an unintended time without regard to the tax payment plan,” the publication conveyed. What do you think of Coincheck remaining profitable despite the hack? What do you think of customers having to pay taxes on the repayments? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock, NTA, Coincheck, and Monex. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Coincheck Recorded Profit Despite the Hack While Victims Hit with Taxes appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Chile’s anti-monopoly court has ordered two major banks in the country to re-open accounts for a cryptocurrency exchange after it filed a lawsuit against 10 banks accusing them of anti-competitive behavior. The two banks must enter into a new contract with the crypto exchange under the same terms and conditions as before. Also read: Yahoo! Japan Confirms Entrance Into the Crypto Space Court Rules in Favor of Crypto Exchange Chile’s Court for the Defense of Free Competition (TDLC – Tribunal de Defensa de la Libre Competencia) has ordered Banco del Estado de Chile (Bancoestado) and Itau Corpbanca (Itau) to re-open the accounts of a local cryptocurrency exchange, Buda, during the course of its lawsuit against 10 banks, local media reported. Earlier this month, Buda (formerly Surbtc) sued 10 banks after they closed the exchange’s accounts, along with the accounts of Orionx and Cryptomkt exchanges. The ten banks named in the suit include Bancoestado, Itau, Santander, Bci, Banco de Chile, Scotiabank, Bice, and Bbva, according to Diario Financiero. The news outlet elaborated on the court’s Thursday ruling: [The ruling is] an unprecedented precautionary measure binding Bancoestado and Itau to enter into a new current account contract with the operator [Buda], while the case is proceeding. The court also added in its order for the two banks to sign the contract with Buda “under the same terms of the contracts described between said parties previously,” the publication conveyed and quoted the court declaring, “the foregoing, inasmuch as the requested precautionary measure is necessary to prevent the eventual negative effects of the conduct submitted to this Tribunal.” Lawsuits Against Banks Buda “also asked the court to punish the 10 banks with the maximum of the fine established in DL211, with costs, and ordered [them] to stop the practice indicated, without prejudice to other measures deemed appropriate to the effect,” the news outlet described and noted that Buda accused the banks of executing: Anticompetitive behavior consisting of abuse of their collective dominance position and by engaging in an abusive exploitation that excludes their dominant position…with the purpose or effect of preventing, restricting and hindering competition in the affected markets. Last month, after a number of Chilean banks shut down their accounts, Buda and Cryptomkt called on the country’s banking association (ABIF – Asociación de Bancos e Instituciones Financieras) to issue a clear position regarding the crypto industry. What do you think of the court’s order? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock and Elquintopoder. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Court Orders Chilean Banks to Re-Open Crypto Exchange Accounts appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

This week cryptocurrency miners had processed the 17 million coins across both Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Bitcoin Core (BTC) networks, marking a great milestone within the history of blockchain technology. Now there are only 4Mn BCH and BTC left to mine but it’s still a very long time away until the very last coins are mined. Also read: Yahoo! Japan Confirms Entrance Into the Crypto Space 80.9% of All Bitcoins Have Been Mined According to blockchain data, today both BTC and BCH miners mined the 17 millionth coin per network, and there are only 4 million left to mine. Now individuals may say that only 4 million coins is not much of a supply since 17 million were mined in less than ten years, so they might expect the last coins to be mined shortly. However, that’s not the case for both networks as mining difficulty continues to increase on both chains, and every four years the mining block reward is cut in half. Right now both BTC and BCH networks produce 12.5 coins after every block found, and when the halving takes place the reward will only be 6.25 newly minted coins. The BTC chain is expected to halve its mining reward in roughly 763 days or May 29, 2020, depending on the hashrate. If the networks hashrate grows slower or faster the halving date could change. Source: Blockchain.info BTC and BCH Halvings and the Last Coin Found Will Likely Be Different Time Frames Further, the mining of the last coins won’t be found very quickly because of mining difficulty changes, which makes it harder for miners to find blocks over time. BTC’s ‘Difficulty’ is a metric used to measure the probability of finding the next block, and the BTC network automatically changes difficulty every 2016 blocks. The BCH chain adjusts difficulty every block to make sure previous 144 blocks take exactly one day. The BTC method of difficulty changes and things like the block reward halving every four years or less, will eventually lead to the last BTC being found on or around the year 2140. The BCH chain may have some different halving times, but as things are today the last BCH may be found around the same year. Although there may be some slight discrepancies on halving and the last coin found time frames between both networks. For instance, the BCH chain had a different difficulty adjustment algorithm (DAA) when the chain first separated. Up until November of 2017, the BCH difficulty was a bit volatile; sometimes processing blocks extremely fast and sometimes super slow. This led to the BCH chain mining a touch more coins than BTC, and it has processed more blocks as well. At the time of publication, the BCH chain is 7568 blocks ahead of the BTC chain, and there are 94,000 more BCH in circulation than BTC. However, since the November bitcoin cash DAA hard fork, metrics have leveled out quite a bit and newly minted BCH are mined roughly at the same rate. Before the fork profitability led to miners bouncing back and forth between chains, but since the DAA change profitability has been consistently level as well. At the moment BCH miners are processing blocks at 13.96% of BTC’s difficulty. Several things could happen in the future where halving and difficulty times could become totally different between both networks. Satoshi’s Vision Has Come a Long Way — Giving the World the Genius of Proof-of-Work and Digital Scarcity Even though it’s going to take more than a century for all of the coins to be found, finding more than 80 percent of them is quite the feat. Over the last six months, both chains have seen a phenomenal increase in hashpower, and if this keeps up it will likely lead to much faster halvings and difficulty changes. Additionally, the 21 million cap created by Satoshi Nakamoto cements the power of digital scarcity, which theoretically will keep demand going strong for ages. The cryptocurrencies are divisible by eight decimals and this means that even though there are not enough ‘whole’ coins to go around for every individual on the planet, people will transact with smaller fractions over time. Unlike quantitative easing and the central banking system bailing out the banks by printing mass quantities of fiat — cryptocurrencies are and will always be scarce. 17 million coins found by a network of incentivized miners is a landmark occasion, and we should all celebrate this feat as it shows how far this technology has come in less than a decade. What do you think about the fact that 80 percent of all BCH and BTC have been mined so far? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments below. Images via Pixabay, and Shutterstock. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post 80% of the 21 Million Bitcoins Have Been Mined Into Existence appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Last time, analysts blamed Mt. Gox and its bankruptcy trustee for pushing hordes of bitcoin onto an already fragile market, crushing its price. Keen monitors of the notorious insolvent exchange’s wallets showed how 16,000 BTC, along with its equivalent in bitcoin cash, were moved, sparking concern the broader market could once again be impacted. Also read: Philippines Welcomes Crypto Economic Zone Market Steadies for Another Possible Mt. Gox Bitcoin Dump By any metric, 16,000 is a lot. At current bitcoin cash (BCH) prices, that translates to almost $21 million. In bitcoin core (BTC), as of this writing, that’s nearly $141 million. What such amounts flung onto open markets might do is anyone’s guess, but economics isn’t kind to prices of assets when their supply outstrips demand. In other words, they’ll probably lower. Cryptoground, which was banned from the subreddit /r/mtgoxinsolvency, shows how four Mt. Gox wallets, each with about 2,000 BTC, were zeroed out today. The equivalent in BCH, in four moves, appears to have been shuffled as well, according to block explorers. Presently, the Mt. Gox crypto exchange’s remaining coins are entrusted to Nobuaki Kobayashi, a lawyer based in Tokyo, Japan. Something like 146K BTC remains under Mr. Kobayashi’s stewardship. The Mt. Gox fiasco of 2014 represents a steep learning curve in cryptocurrency’s brief history. It’s a fascinating subject, one of putting too much trust in a third party, something cypherpunks warned about long ago. Indeed, the very point of bitcoin was to subvert exactly that. Mt. Gox was hacked, funds stolen, some returned or found, and a price slump took months (some say years) for markets to recover. The exchanged was deemed insolvent and formally placed in receivership, and attempts have been made at making creditors whole ever since, dumps included. Future Sale Looms Previously, a 24-page report released by Mr. Kobayashi in Spring of this year, detailing how hundreds of millions of dollars worth of BTC and BCH had been sold, roughly 35k and 34k respectively. “As a result of the consultation with the court, I considered it necessary and reasonable to sell a certain amount of BTC and [BCH] at this point and secure a certain amount of money for distribution resources, and thus, I sold the amount of BTC and [BCH\ above. I made efforts to sell BTC and [BCH] at as high a price as possible in light of the market price of BTC and [BCH] at the timing of sale.” Ominously, he noted, “I plan to consult with the court and determine further sale of BTC and [BCH].” For enthusiasts and investors alike, past Mt. Gox dumps have resulted, they believe, in price downturns, some dipping by as much as over half, as was the case in February of this year. In the case of over the counter markets (OTC), traders might wish to undershoot, arbitrage, the 16,000 coins by several hundred dollars. The traders then might shift those discounted coins to retail exchanges, taking profits at the expense of the ultimate price. Some have latched onto the September 18th, 2018 date as the earliest such coins could conceivably be sold, and that was widely reported. As one enthusiast (岩井洋一（柔術新聞 速報版）) responded, however, “Hi, I’m Japanese. Nobuaki has already authorization to sell BTC. Sep 18 is only schedules of Creditors’ meeting. It’s has not any authorization of selling BTC. Nobuaki says he will sell BTC with court permission.” Still others have suggested the recent drop in BTC price after a short bull run might’ve been caused by such coins already having been dumped. Do you think the coins will be dumped? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Bitcoin Markets Steady for Another Gox Dump, 16,000 Coins Moved by Trustee appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

In today’s Bitcoin in Brief we’re covering disappointing news for the crypto community: the World Satoshi Summit in Delhi has been canceled because of “regulatory issues” according to its organizers. Also, an alleged crypto pump and dump scheme has been exposed. There is more than one opinion on the case, as you’ll see below. Also read: Bitcoin in Brief Thursday: Big Money Wears Big Horns, Claws Are In the Closet World Satoshi Summit Canceled A major crypto conference, scheduled to be held in Delhi in May, has been canceled. “Due to certain regulatory issues in India, World Satoshi Summit currently stands cancelled,” reads a message on the event’s website. All refunds will be processed over the next few weeks, the organizers promise. They encourage participants to reach out on hello@worldsatoshisummit.com in case of any further queries. “I feel very sad to inform you that due to certain regulatory issues in India like crypto ban, our most anticipated event, World Satoshi Summit, stands postponed/cancelled. I deeply regret that we have to make such a harsh decision at the eleventh hour, when we were all set for the conference,” Sanjay Goswami, head of marketing for the summit told the Indian outlet Crypto News. Indian crypto media have asked the organizers to provide more details and clarity on the reasons for the cancelation. In recent months, the cryptocurrency and blockchain community in the country has been targeted by both regulators and banks. While authorities are working on a new bill to regulate the crypto sector, the Reserve Bank of India has prohibited commercial banks from servicing businesses dealing in cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin trade on local exchanges has dropped as much as 90% in a couple of months. Pump and Dump Scheme – Exposed? An alleged crypto pump and dump scheme has been reportedly exposed in a Steemit post. The accusations have been made against the Discord chat group Bitcoin Bravado by a supposed member. The publication contains screenshots of Telegram messages between members of the group. The author claims they indicate a plan for a pump and dump operation on a token called Haven Coin through price manipulation. The whistleblower says he was invited to join the group’s Telegram channel where he saw the messages. According to the screenshots, members of the group discussed how much cryptocurrency would be needed to control 25% of the trading volume, how long it should be held, and when it should be dumped. The blogger, named “cryptomedication”, has contacted the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) regarding the suspicious conversations. “I’m not here to hide at all”, he says providing his twitter account, as well – @CryptoMedicated. In an open letter, Bitcoin Bravado called the publication a “slender article”. It also said that none of the people involved in the conversations from the screenshots write for or have equity in the company. “It’s important for everyone to understand our company’s structure.​ Though a few of the members shown in those telegram chats have been friends​ and supporters​ to Bitcoin Bravado, they write none of the content ​and have no ownership or equity ​in the company. They have their own business, we have ours. They’re almost completely inactive in the day to day operations and have been removed from our Discord channel,” the statement reads. First Ad in the Blockchain TD Ameritrade claims to have become the first company to embed an advertisement in the blockchain. The ad of the brokerage firm is made up of ASCII art. It can be viewed on a landing page, which also links to information about each bitcoin transaction and how the ad was built. The advertising agency Havas New York also participated in the project. The two companies placed the ad in a function of the blockchain called OP_Return, which works like the memo space on a check, Digital News Daily reports. Simple messages and characters can be placed within transactions on the blockchain and the authors decided to create the image by linking 68 individual transactions with 80 characters each. According to Denise Karkos, Chief Marketing Officer at TD Ameritrade, there is “no expectation beyond creating a little buzz for the brand” and enjoying the process. “Wouldn’t it be fun to be the first to advertise in the blockchain,” she said, noting that her company was also the first brokerage to provide access to bitcoin futures. Parity Has No Intention to Split the Ethereum Chain Parity Technologies has reaffirmed its “commitment to ethereum and a decentralized future”. In a blog post, the company said: “We are deeply sorry to those users who remain unable to access their ether as a result of a bug in our code.” The startup has been in constant conversation with affected projects. It also believes that those who have stuck ether through the wallet freeze have a case for attempting to recover the property. In December, the team behind Parity asked for a hard fork of ethereum to overcome the consequences of the bug, which allowed an ethereum hobbyist to break their multi-signature wallet. As a result, an amount of more than half a million ether was permanently locked and the multi-sig functionality was temporarily disabled. The company acknowledges that the debate around the recovery has “clearly shown the importance of a transparent governance process” that can respond to the community’s position on contentious issues such as ASIC resistance, supply caps, and contract restorations. “Let us make clear: we have no intention to split the Ethereum chain […] We have all dedicated a great deal of time and effort to developing the ethereum ecosystem, and have no intention of harming what we have helped build,” its team stated. Its members insist they remain committed to making the etherium platform “open, scalable, and safe”. What are your thoughts on the subjects we’ve covered in today’s Bitcoin in Brief? Share them in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock, World Satoshi Summit, TD Ameritrade, Parity Technologies. Bitcoin News is growing fast. To reach our global audience, send us a news tip or submit a press release. Let’s work together to help inform the citizens of Earth (and beyond) about this new, important and amazing information network that is Bitcoin. The post Bitcoin in Brief Friday: World Satoshi Summit Canceled, Pump and Dump Scheme Exposed appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

A number of significant events have occurred pertaining to the Ethereum ecosystem in recent days. Last week, the code for the proposed first step of Ethereum’s technical transition toward the adoption of proof-of-stake mining, Vitalik Buterin made disparaging comments regarding 2017’s explosion in the initial coin offering (ICO) industry in an interview with Financial Times, and most recently, an Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) seeking to restore a disabled contract to unfreeze 513,774 ETH held in 587 wallets used by Parity Wallet has been rejected. Also Read: New Party in Ukraine to Fund Itself Only with Cryptos Code for First Step in Casper Transition Unveiled Ethereum developers recently announced that code expected to comprise the networks first step towards the adoption of a proof-of-stake (PoS) mining model has been available for public review. The proposed code, described in EIP 1011, states “This EIP specifies a hybrid PoW/PoS consensus model for Ethereum main net. Existing PoW mechanics are used for new block creation, and a novel PoS mechanism called Casper the Friendly Finality Gadget (Casper FFG) is layered on top using a smart contract.” The transition from Pow to Pos has long been a pervasive issue within the Ethereum community, with discussions of such having been present “on the roadmap and in the Yellow Paper since the launch of the protocol.” How to conduct the transition, the EIP asserts, was “an open area of research” until the first paper detailing Casper FFG was published by Vitalik Buterin and Virgil Griffith in October 2017. Casper FFG aims to reduce the energy consumed through mining ETH and provide resistance to ASICs. The EIP’s authors assert that “The Casper FFG contract can be layered on top of any block proposal mechanism, providing finality to the underlying chain,” adding that “the FFG staking mechanism requires minimal changes to the protocol.” Proposal to Unfreeze Over $300 Million USD Worth of ETH Rejected EIP 999, a proposal to implement a patch unfreeze 513,774.16 ETH held in 587 wallets related to the Parity debacle, has been rejected after a vote among the affected wallet owners. The EIP proposed “restoring the WalletLibrary by a patched version to allow the owners of the dependent multi-signature wallets regain access to their assets.” At current prices, said frozen ETH would be valued at over $325.7 million USD. The vote saw 330 ‘no’ votes cast, a ten percent victory over the 300 ‘yes’ votes that were submitted. Nine “don’t care” votes were also cast. Vitalik Buterin Slams ‘Get-Rich-Quick’ Sentiment in Crypto Markets In a recent interview with Financial Times, Ethereum’s co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, lamented the transition of the cryptocurrency sphere from hosting a rebellious and clandestine cypherpunk culture, to that which is dominated by greed and the desire to get rich quick. Of many cryptocurrencies that were baptized in the 2017 crypto bubble, Mr. Buterin states that “There’s projects that never had a soul, that are just like, ra-ra, price go up. Lambo[rghini], vrromm, buybuybuy now!” Vitalik states that “We’ve created a culture where some totally random project raising something like $8m is like, oh yeah that’s peanuts,” describing such as evidence that the cryptocurrency markets are in a “bubble.” Mr. Buterin also argues that the market capitalization and prices witness by many projects are “far ahead of what this space has actually accomplished for the world.” Do you agree with Vitalik’s comments? What are your thoughts on EIPs 999 and 1011? Share your thoughts in the comments section below! Images courtesy of Shutterstock 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 ETH Round-Up: Parity Unfreeze Shot Down, Casper Code Made Public, Vitalik Slams Greedy Market Sentiment 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. Changelly, a popular instant cryptocurrency exchange, has partnered with Binance, TOP-1 trading platform, to bring more tokens, faster transactions and better rates to users. Konstantin Gladych, CEO of Changelly met Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance in Valletta, Malta – on the island recently becoming the new crypto harbor. During the meeting they discussed fundamental industry issues, government regulations and concluded a strategically important partnership. Changpeng Zhao, aka CZ, CEO of Binance has commented: “After meeting Konstantin in person to finalize our partnership, I am confident that Changelly has a professional team with great experience and even bigger potential. We believe that together we will provide users all over the world with a top-class level of service.” Changelly acts as a broker between Binance and users, allowing to exchange cryptocurrency in a simple way avoiding complicated interfaces and processes on the professional trading platforms. Changelly’s integrated algorithm picks up the cryptocurrency rates from Binance and offers them to users in real time. Changelly provides instant exchange API for partners such as Jaxx, Coinmarketcap, Breadwallet, Coinomi, Mycelium, Coinpayments, and other prominent companies. It enables their users to exchange cryptocurrency without using external exchanges. Changelly acts as a mediator between Binance and partners, bringing new exchange options and sharing profit. Binance, in turn, opens up an opportunity for Changelly to add more prospective and popular trading pairs. It is the top exchange when it comes to the quality of coins and tokens listed: you can trade almost 120 of them. Due to this fact, all the cryptocurrencies supported by Binance can be easily listed on Changelly and become available for trading for user and partners. Comparing to other trading platforms, Binance processes transactions in the fastest manner possible and provides more profitable rates. The high-performing matching engine of Binance is capable to process up to 1 400 000 orders per second, making Binance one of the fastest exchanges on the market. This means sped up transactions for all Changelly users. Konstantin Gladych, CEO at Changelly has commented: “This partnership is a huge honor for Changelly: I am sure that it will help us provide even higher-quality service to our users around the world and increase our presence on the crypto market. The top exchange trusts us to have business with – this gives us confidence in what we do, and also responsibility to ensure five-star user experience. We are up for the challenge!” About Changelly Changelly is a popular instant cryptocurrency exchange with 100+ coins and tokens listed. The service processes around 15K transactions daily. Operating since 2015, Changelly has attracted over 2M registered customers from around the world. Changelly offers its API and a customizable payment widget for any crypto service that wishes to implement exchange options. Key partners are Jaxx, Coinmarketcap, Bittrex, Coinomi, Breadwallet and others. About Binance Binance Exchange is the TOP-1 trading platform in the world that performs the fastest transaction processing on the market. The platform is founded by a team of fintech and crypto experts and focuses on security, robustness, and execution speed as well as offering multi-tier and multi-cluster system architecture which ensures high safety stability attracting enthusiasts and professional traders alike. Contact Email Address sasha@changelly.com Supporting Link changelly.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: Crypto Exchange Changelly partners with Binance appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

More than 100 people have bought land plots in the “private city” of Liberstad, Southern Norway. Its founders accept 27 cryptocurrencies. Deals have been sealed already with future residents from Brazil, Sweden and the UK, among other countries. They should be able to move in within two years. Also read: Bitcoin Payments Are on the Rise in the Baltics Liberstad for the Libertarians With slogans like “taxation is theft”, Liberstad is attracting more and more libertarians from around the world, local media reports. According to its website, 112 people have already bought land plots in the “anarcho-capitalist city” established on farmland, not far from Kristiansand in Southern Norway. The buyers come from 28 countries, including Norway, neighboring Sweden, distant Brazil and the United Kingdom. Another 500 potential investors have signed up on a waiting list. The plots are sold for as little as 75,000 Norwegian Kronor, or $9,400 dollars for 1,000 m2, and as much as 375,000 NOK ($47,100 USD) for 5,000 m2. Payments in 27 different cryptocurrencies are currently accepted, including bitcoin cash (BCH) and bitcoin core (BTC). The team behind Liberstad plans to start handing over the purchased plots by 2020, when the first residents will be able to move in. The project, that news.Bitcoin.com told you about during the presale last year, aims to be “a voluntary, profit-based, private enterprise that offers protection of life, freedom and property within a particular area.” Its founders claim that a private city is not a utopian idea but a business model in which the main elements are already known and simply transferred to “the market for living together”. Last summer, John Holmesland and Sondre Bjellås, bought the Tjelland farm in the municipality of Marnardal, where the city is located. Since then they have promoted the project and informed about its progress through social media and the Liberstad’s blog. In December, they announced that local authorities had granted concession and permission for ownership of the agricultural property where the city is being developed. Private Police and Other “Public” Services Planned John Holmesland told the Norwegian outlet Local that Liberstad was inspired by Atlantic Station, a similar project within the city of Atlanta in the US state of Georgia. He and his partner want to eventually set up a private police force, a fire department, and a water utility for the city’s residents. Companies will be invited to provide these and other private (public) services. “The only thing we demand is that you respect the principle of non-aggression and private property rights,” its founders state. According to local media, they may run into some issues in their attempt to achieve all that. Their plans have been dismissed by some Norwegian officials. “It may be that someone comes and settles there, but establishing a state within the state is not realistic,” Labor Party deputy Kari Henriksen told NRK, the Norwegian state-owned broadcaster. Henriksen, who is representing the local Vest-Agder constituency in the Norwegian parliament, believes that the residents of the “private city” will be dependent on the rest of the society in many ways. A similar project is the Free Republic of Liberland established on a disputed territory between Croatia and Serbia. It was proclaimed by the Czech libertarian Vít Jedlička in 2015. Another example worth mentioning is the Seasteading Institute’s plan to develop a floating city in the Pacific Ocean as a “permanent and politically autonomous settlement”. Do you think private cities could exist independently within states? Share your views on the subject in the comments section below. Images and video courtesy of Liberstad. 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 Investors from 28 Countries Own Land in Norway’s “Private City” Liberstad appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The cryptocurrency mining industry is spread all over the world and includes everyone from small miners with a few GPUs at home to vast datacenters with both ASICs and racks of endless GPUs. As such, one of the best ways to get an overall view of the market is via the chip suppliers. And the latest report by AMD shows the demand for mining capacity remained strong in early 2018, despite a slump from the price highs of 2017. Also Read: $350 Million Bitstamp Acquisition Negotiations Denied by Nexon CEO 10% of $1.65 Billion Revenue Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) has announced on Wednesday its revenue for the first quarter of 2018 at $1.65 billion, operating income of $120 million, net income of $81 million, and diluted earnings per share of $0.08. This represents very strong performance by the chip company, which is helped by continued demand for cryptocurrency mining. “The first quarter was an outstanding start to 2018 with 40 percent year-over-year revenue growth,” said Dr. Lisa Su, AMD president and CEO. In the earnings call with analysts following the latest report, AMD shared more about the impact of mining on its bottom line. The company’s Chief Financial Officer Devinder Kumar said: “The strength in Radeon products was driven by both gaming and blockchain demand. We believe blockchain was approximately 10% of AMD revenue in Q1 2018.” PoS Not a Concern With such a significant impact on AMD’s revenue, analysts naturally focused on the company’s position on crypto mining. Answering a question by Timothy Arcuri of UBS Securities, the CEO explained how a drop in demand for mining GPUs for one cryptocurrency will not hurt the company. She said: “I think, most people are comparing sort of this blockchain time period to the last one which was a couple of years ago and I think there are a couple of important differences. I think the first one is that there are multiple currencies and multiple applications that are being used. And what we’ve seen is that people who are mining do go from one currency to another depending on what’s happening.” In a response to John Pitzer of Credit Suisse, who asked about the risk of the market moving from proof of work to proof of stake which might negate the need for mining, the CEO explained how the company keeps its finger on the pulse. She said: “From our standpoint, we stay very, very close to the customer set in the graphics space…We also work directly with the commercial miners, and so, we see kind of what their forecasts are and they work with us and so that we have good visibility on. There is a piece that go through retail that is hard to tell whether that’s gaming or mining, but we believe we have a good sense of what that is.” “And then, to your longer-term question, I do think the blockchain infrastructure is here to stay. I think there are numerous currencies. There are numerous applications that are using the blockchain technology. We don’t see a significant risk of secondhand GPUs coming into the market. I think what you find is that, one, there are number of different currencies, and, two, a lot of these users that are buying GPUs these days are actually buying them for multiple use cases, both commercial and consumer. So they’re not necessarily buying just for mining,” she opined. Do you think all cryptocurrencies should switch to PoS eventually? Share your thoughts in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Make sure you do not miss any important Bitcoin-related news! Follow our news feed any which way you prefer; via Twitter, Facebook, Telegram, RSS or email (scroll down to the bottom of this page to subscribe). We’ve got daily, weekly and quarterly summaries in newsletter form. Bitcoin never sleeps. Neither do we. The post Cryptocurrency Mining Accounted for 10% of AMD’s Overall Revenue in Q1 2018 appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Its seems users who frequent the online encyclopedia platform Wikipedia read the ‘Bitcoin’ article hosted on the site a lot. According to statistics, the Wiki Bitcoin page was the ninth most read article on Wikipedia last year. Also Read: Binance Exchange Founder Sued by VC Fund Sequoia Capital Bitcoin Article on Wikipedia Was the Ninth Most Popular Last Year Last year lots of people were inquiring about the cryptocurrency bitcoin and the word itself was one of the topmost trending words searched in 2017 according to Google Trends data. Another area where bitcoin was searched frequently was the website Wikipedia. The website hosts a free encyclopedia that is openly editable, while educational resources are also provided in 299 different languages. Wikipedia recently published its “Annual Top 50 Report” which includes a curated list of the top fifty most popular articles on Wikipedia throughout 2017. The Wiki Bitcoin article was the ninth most popular last year on Wikipedia. According to Wiki’s data, the ‘Bitcoin’ article was the ninth most popular encyclopedia post last year just below the ‘United States’ articles and just above the Netflix drama series ‘13 Reasons Why.’ Bitcoin stands among other top ten editorials documenting Donald Trump, Game of Thrones, and Queen Elizabeth II. The introduction in the Wiki Bitcoin article states: Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency and worldwide payment system. It is the first decentralized digital currency, as the system works without a central bank or single administrator. The network is peer-to-peer and transactions take place between users directly, without an intermediary. The Wiki Bitcoin article is just below the ‘United States’ article, and above the Netflix original show ’13 Reasons Why.’ Wiki Senior Editor: ‘Bitcoin the Much-Hyped “Future of Money”’ Last year the ‘Bitcoin’ article accumulated over 15 million views and the page peaked in traffic on December 8, 2017. In the annual report Wiki Senior Editor JFG gives the article a bit of an odd introduction. “For our dear readers who can’t make heads or tails of this novelty: Bitcoin is as good as gold, shinier than lead, bubblier than tulips, held deep in the mines, and driving people nuts,” explains the Wiki editor. Gold has enriched adventurers and bitcoin has held fools to ransom. You may dive in a pool of gold, but lose it all at war. Strangely, while you can still buy gold today and forget about it until your great-grandchildren cash it out, the much-hyped “future of money” has turned into the most speculative intangible asset of all time, while proving totally unsuitable as a means of payment. Within the archives of 5,000 most popular articles from last week according to the Wiki page ‘User:west.andrew.g/popular pages,’ Bitcoin ranks at number 354. The page is aggregated from raw data which displays articles with at least 1,000 hits in a seven day period and only the most popular are published through the feed. Ethereum just makes the cut at 3710, Cryptocurrency 1273, and Blockchain slides ahead at 312. All of the data showing how popular digital currencies are on Wiki is derived from the company’s content consumption metrics which shows datasets of raw dump files and page views. What do you think about the Bitcoin article on Wikipedia placing 9th most popular in 2017? How do you think it will fare in 2018? Let us know in the comments below. Images via Pixabay, Wiki Commons, and Wikipedias Top 50, and User:west.andrew.g/popular pages raw data. Bitcoinocracy is a free and decentralized way to measure the Bitcoin community’s stance on a given proposition. Check vote.Bitcoin.com. The post Bitcoin Was the Ninth Most Popular Wikipedia Article Last Year appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

It’s no secret that token sales have grown exponentially since the start of last year. The extent to which the industry has mushroomed, however, can be hard to visualize in a space where figures referencing billions in capital are casually tossed around. Newly released data reveals the astronomical growth of ICOs and shows the rise in securitized token sales. Also read: Philippines Welcomes Crypto Economic Zone Token Sales Are Showing No Signs of Slowing Down Whatever way you measure it – dollars raised; ETH raised; number of projects per month – token sales are proliferating. They’ve been on the up for some time and setting records with every passing month. Newly crunched data by Elementus, which derives its information from blockchain records rather than ICO self-reports, sheds light on the rise of crowdsales. It’s created a visualization that shows the slow and humble beginnings of ICOs, back in 2014, and the explosion which subsequently detonated in mid-2017. The visualization shows three crowdsales in particular which tower over the rest, each of which is controversial for its own reasons. The Petro is a contentious project to put it mildly, and its reported $5 billion raised is hard to verify with absolute certainty given investors’ reluctance to comment publicly on their involvement, and an absence of information on the discounts that were provided. Telegram’s crowdsale has taken place without the crowds, meanwhile, going entirely to private investors, and “Ethereum killer” EOS’ $2.5 billion ICO has amassed over 5 million ETH, which exceeds 5% of the total supply. The Number of Monthly Token Sales Keeps Rising Elementus has also recorded the number of token sales to have raised at least $100k, and found them to have grown every month save for a slight dip in December. In March, 174 token sales were completed, which works out as an average of six a day, and just two more than February’s total of 172. One of the most interesting graphs, arguably, is the one showing the rise of security tokens and SAFTs (Simple Agreement for Future Tokens). A year ago, Reg D token sales were virtually unheard of before suddenly jumping from six in November to 23 in December, and 36 in March. Reg D enables crowdsales to raise funds from accredited investors and has no cap on the amount that can be raised. The drawback of course is that these fundraisers technically aren’t crowdsales as the public are unable to participate. The next explosion that’s being predicted is that of Reg A+ token sales. These are more like a mini IPO and enable projects to raise up to $50 million in a year. Numerous applications have been made to the SEC for Reg A+ accreditation, but due to the time it takes for an offering placement memorandum (OPM) to be scrutinized and approved, the floodgates have yet to open. Once they do, securitized crowdsales will officially be open to the crowds, whereupon U.S. investors will be free to join the march to tokenization. Do you think Reg A+ token sales will eventually become the norm? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock, and Elementus.io. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post New Data Depicts the Explosion in Token Sales appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The St. Louis Federal Reserve has published an essay critically evaluating the notion of cryptocurrencies that are issued by central banks. The article is highly dismissive in presenting what it describes as “the non-case for central bank cryptocurrencies,” concluding that “a central bank will not issue cryptocurrencies in the sense of a truly decentralized and permissionless asset that allows users to remain anonymous.” Also Read: Controversy Looms Over Bithumb Coins St. Louis Fed Argues That Cryptocurrency Comprises Unique Monetary Form In presenting their argument, the research paper’s authors, Aleksander Berentsen and Fabian Schar, first seek to define the unique qualities of bitcoin and articulate the properties that differentiate cryptocurrencies from other monetary forms. Berentsen and Schär argue that different monetary forms are characterized by three dimensions: representation, transaction handling, and money creation. The paper asserts that “the distinguishing characteristic of cryptocurrencies is the decentralized nature of transaction handling, which enables users to remain anonymous and allows for permissionless access.” “In theory,” Berentsen and Schär assert that “a central bank could easily introduce a central bank cryptocurrency.” It is proposed that central banks “could attach additional value components to fractions of existing cryptoassets, such as Bitcoin.” The authors also suggest that “Ethereum’s ERC20 or ERC223 token standards [can] be used to create new fungible tokens that are compatible with the Ethereum blockchain’s infrastructure”, or […] “Finally, a central bank can develop a brand new blockchain.” The paper poses all “approaches are fairly straightforward to implement and would allow for the issuance of a central bank cryptocurrency on a public blockchain.” Decentralization as Defining Quality of Cryptocurrency Despite the many means available through which a central bank could issue a cryptocurrency, the authors state that “the key characteristics of cryptocurrencies are a red flag for central banks. That is, no reputable central bank would have an incentive to issue an anonymous virtual currency.” The article presents several bases for the assertion that the fundamental property of cryptocurrency is at odds with the functions of central banks. Firstly, the authors argue that “The reputational risk would simply be too high,” pointing to the risk of “a hypothetical ‘Fedcoin’ used by a drug cartel to launder money or a terrorist organization to acquire weapons.” Central Bank-Issued Cryptocurrency Unrealistic Furthermore, Berentsen and Schär propose that “commercial banks would rightfully start asking why they have to follow KYC (‘know your customer’) and AML (‘anti-money laundering’) regulations, while the central bank is undermining any effects of this regulation by issuing an anonymous cryptocurrency with permissionless access,” adding that “Once we remove the decentralized nature of a cryptocurrency, not much is left of it.” The article argues that a central bank-issued cryptocurrency would comprise “virtual money that is centralized and issued monopolistically by a central bank is electronic central bank money,” concluding that “calling such a centralized form of virtual money a cryptocurrency is misleading.” Ultimately, the paper argues in favor of central banks issuing a virtual money, advocating for such to be made available to businesses and citizens. St. Louis Federal Reserve “Welcome Anonymous Cryptocurrencies” Regarding central bank cryptocurrencies, the authors conclude that “In general, we don’t think that a central bank should be in the business to satisfy the demand for anonymous payments. We believe that such a demand can and will be perfectly satisfied by the private sector, in particular through cryptocurrencies.” Berentsen and Schär add that “History and current political reality show that, on the one hand, governments can be bad actors and, on the other hand, some citizens can be bad actors. The former justifies an anonymous currency to protect citizens from bad governments, while the later calls for transparency of all payments. The reality is in between, and for that reason we welcome anonymous cryptocurrencies but also disagree with the view that the government should provide one.” Do you agree with Berentsen and Schär’s assertions that central bank money is fundamentally at odds with cryptocurrency as a monetary form? Share your thoughts 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 St. Louis Fed Rejects Notion of Central Bank-Issued Cryptocurrencies appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The European alternative banking app designed for the globally mobile generation, Revolut, has just secured a major infusion of capital. With the new funding at hand the startup will be expanding to new markets around the world and add new features such as support for BCH and XRP to its crypto service. Also Read: Binance Exchange Founder Sued by VC Fund Sequoia Capital Europe’s New Unicorn London-based alternative digital banking startup Revolut has announced today it just raised a Series C investment round of $250 million meaning the company is now valued at $1.7 billion. The new round of funding was led by Hong-Kong based DST Global with existing investors Index Ventures and Ribbit Capital also participating. The startup was only launched in July 2015, making Revolut one of the fastest companies in Europe to reach the coveted unicorn status. Its services include pre-paid debit cards (Mastercard or VISA), fiat currency exchange, cryptocurrency buying and exchange, peer-to-peer payments, remittances, personal loans, travel insurance and international money transfers. To celebrate the successful funding round, the company’s cryptocurrency service Revolut Crypto will be getting two new currencies added to its existing lineup. “We’re extremely proud to announce that we will be adding Ripple (XRP) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH), alongside the current Bitcoin (BTC), Litecoin (LTC) and Ether (ETH).” Global Expansion Besides the founding round, the company also shared today parts of its future roadmap. The first step appears to be hiring a lot of new employees. The team said: “Over the last 12 months, we’ve built up a reputation for moving faster than anyone else in the fintech space, and we don’t want to give up our crown anytime soon. That’s why we’re looking to hire as many talented developers and designers as possible, as we begin to scale the company globally.” Revolut will also be expanding into North America and Asia with the new funding. The service will launch this year in the US, Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand, with many more countries promised to be in the pipeline. The company says that over 100,000 people have signed up to their waiting lists, across the world, with thousands joining every day. They commented: “By expanding overseas, we will be empowering millions of people to take control over their financial lives, and in the process, we will be reducing the cost of international transfers by partnering with the best players in the financial world.” Finally, they also plan to add a new service for securities investments. “Revolut Wealth will be our next milestone, as we expand our services to allow our users to invest their funds into stocks, indexes and exchange traded funds (ETFs), alongside a variety of other financial instruments.” Are you more likely to use Revolut now that it is adding support for BCH? Share your thoughts in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Revolut. Make sure you do not miss any important Bitcoin-related news! Follow our news feed any which way you prefer; via Twitter, Facebook, Telegram, RSS or email (scroll down to the bottom of this page to subscribe). We’ve got daily, weekly and quarterly summaries in newsletter form. Bitcoin never sleeps. Neither do we. The post Revolut Raises $250 Million, Adds Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and XRP appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Germany’s VPE Wertpapierhandelsbank AG (VPE) has announced its institutional investor cryptocurrency trading services and claims them to be the first of their kind for the country. Armed with a Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht (Bafin) license, in expanding its brokerage offerings VPE purports to offer “best-in-class technology” to customers, “secure and regulated.” Also read: Facebook to Be Sued for Defamation Related to Scammy Crypto Ads VPE Launches Germany’s First Institutional Investor Cryptocurrency Trading Services VPE Wertpapierhandelsbank AG spokesperson Katharina Strenski stressed, “Until now, institutional investors have faced high entry barriers to crypto trading. Our cryptocurrency trading services offer a much more convenient alternative.” The world over, institutional investors, or whales, usually control vast sums of capital. They’ve been looking for ways to leverage cryptocurrency markets, but often run up against their own lobbying efforts in wielding government regulatory power to insulate themselves from competition. The consequences thus far include uneven access to a red hot and emerging asset class, arguably the future of finance in one form or another, cryptocurrency. “Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum and others have become a promising asset class in recent years,” Ms. Strenski detailed. “To date, trading digital tokens has been restricted to crypto exchanges and online marketplaces. We are pleased to be the first German bank to offer our customers cryptocurrency trading services.” VPE is a German centric exchange-based OTC trader. Financial corporations, private investors, and institutional investors (whales) get brokerage services, investment advice, and portfolio management. Under that umbrella, the bank offers clearing services, settlement of transactions in securities, contracts for difference, options, and futures. Germany Is an Economic Powerhouse Germany is an economic powerhouse, and so any entry its companies make into the crypto space will undoubtedly move the needle. It ranks as Europe’s economic engine and its largest economy, is a constant innovator, and is a giant exporter of goods. Routinely the country can boast Europe’s lowest employment rate, and its citizens average over $50K per capita. All this could point to a boost for the digital asset sector as German institutional investors are among the most profitable companies in the world. For its part, as a “securities trading bank,” the bank’s press release continues, “VPE has an impressive trading track record and has access to the appropriate networks and technical requirements for processing individual transactions. VPE also meets all necessary KYC (Know your Customer) and AML (Anti-Money-Laundering) requirements.” VPE also offers automated crypto trades, “developed in partnership with Solarisbank, the first banking platform with a full banking license, and with support from leading banking and legal crypto experts. VPE’s virtual currency trading account is held in escrow by Solarisbank. Customers will also receive access to an individual virtual currency wallet hosted by VPE. This will make trading fast and simple while ensuring the highest security standards,” the company insists. Do you think German institutional investors will be a boost for crypto markets? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock, VPE. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Germany Gets Its First Crypto Exchange for Whales appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

DNS attacks can manifest themselves in many ways, all targeted against the Domain Name System that connects the internet. At best they’re an inconvenience, knocking websites offline or preventing access, and at worst they’re costly, as this week’s $150,000 Myetherwallet hijack demonstrated. When you’re interacting in the crypto space, here are a few ways to protect yourself against DNS attacks. Also read: Myetherwallet Servers Are Hijacked in DNS Attack How DNS Attacks Work In the aftermath of Tuesday’s DNS attack, which affected a string of major websites and proved particularly costly to some Myetherwallet users, Cloudflare published a report. “BGP leaks and cryptocurrencies” examines how the attack went down, and how the attackers were able to exploit vulnerabilities in the DNS system. BGP is the Border Gateway Protocol, a standardized gateway for routing information from one part of the internet to another. With over 700,000 possible routes, there’s a lot of ways to get from A to B or Z or any letter in between. Most of the time, all of these chains, operated by different internet providers, communicate just fine, but occasionally things go wrong. Usually these leaks are localized and are the result of a configuration mistake. But as Cloudflare explains, “Sometimes [a BGP leak] is done with a malicious intent. The prefix can be re-routed through in order to passively analyze the data”. It continues: During the two hours leak the servers on the IP range only responded to queries for myetherwallet.com. As some people noticed SERVFAIL. Any DNS resolver that was asked for names handled by Route53 would ask the authoritative servers that had been taken over via the BGP leak. This poisoned DNS resolvers whose routers had accepted the route. Anyone connecting to a DNS resolver that had been poisoned during the attack would have been rerouted to a fraudulent Russian provider instead. How to Detect DNS Attacks The good news is that in most cases identifying the signs of BGP hijacking doesn’t call for a Master’s in internet protocol architecture. The first clue that something is amiss can be found by glancing at the https lock in your browser. It should be green, to denote that the certificate for the website you’re accessing is trusted. If it’s red or you’re presented with a warning message, don’t proceed just because the URL you’re loading is correct. One of the victims of Tuesday’s Myetherwallet attack was shown a warning that their connection to the site was not secure but confessed: “Even though every part of my body told me not to try and log in, I did.” Due to notification fatigue, it’s easy to dismiss warning messages without paying them attention, but not all notifications are spammy: some are vital, and should be overridden at your peril. Cloudflare explains: “If you were using HTTPS, the fake website would display a TLS certificate signed by an unknown authority (the domain listed in the certificate was correct but it was self-signed). The only way for this attack to work would be to continue and accept the wrong certificate. From that point on, everything you send would be encrypted but the attacker had the keys.” Stay Vigilant and Control your Crypto Sites such as Whoismydns.com enable web users to check whether they recognize the name and IP of the server they’re connecting to, which will often be your ISP. Beyond that, unfortunately, there is little that the average web user can do, for the onus is on web admins to monitor their site for evidence of BGP leaks. Given the risks of storing cryptocurrency on centralized exchanges, and of interacting with websites such as Myetherwallet and decentralized exchanges like Etherdelta, both of which have fallen victim to DNS attacks, investors are left with few options. Crypto projects such as REMME are working on technology that will alert users to DNS attacks on cryptocurrency exchanges, but its implementation is still some way off. The only way to ensure your crypto remains your crypto is to store it in a secure hardware wallet that is not connected to the internet. But to acquire those coins in the first place, you have to connect to the internet. For practical reasons, it is essential that you are able to go about your daily business without constant fear of having your web traffic hijacked, poisoned, or spoofed. But when accessing online wallets and exchanges, be sure to check that the https lock is in place. If your gut is telling you something is wrong, trust your instincts and heed the warning signs. It might just save your crypto. Do you think DNS attacks are on the rise? 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 Protect Yourself Against DNS Attacks When Using Cryptocurrency appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

A newly formed party in Ukraine has vowed to rely only on cryptocurrency contributions to sustain its activity and never to accept money from the oligarchs. Weakening state control over economy and expanding civil liberties are among its main political priorities. The party wants to protect the interests of people and companies from the IT sector, as well those of small and medium-sized Ukrainian businesses in other industries. Also read: Ukraine to Compensate a Citizen in Bitcoin – for “Moral Damages” Serious Ideas, Funny Faces Several prominent Ukrainian bloggers have announced the formation of arguably the world’s first political party which will fund its activities exclusively through crypto contributions. The new right-wing, liberal political force, called “Democratic Horde”, intends to achieve its political goals mainly through Internet trolling, as stated on its website. According to its founders, the party will work to weaken state control over Ukrainian economy and fight to expand the civil liberties in the country, Forklog reported. The main PR-strategy comes down to “ruthless banter and playing with the images of modern pop culture”. Members of the party’s so-called “Orc-committee” are some famous Ukrainian bloggers – Yuri Gudimenko, Anton Shvets, Igor Shtedrin, Alexander Noinets, and Victor Tregubov. According to Igor Shtedrin: It is better to carry serious ideas with a funny face than funny ideas with a serious face. It’s necessary to protect the interests of those who work, and not those who collect. Our world views, our methods differ from those of present day politicians. They live solely on money they get from the oligarchs. We have found a way to depend only on our supporters. Shtedrin pointed out that “Democratic Horde” is world’s first party to consider crypto mining as an alternative to political contributions in fiat money. Its members have developed an application, which can be used by supporters to generate cryptocurrency “for the good of the party”. They will be mining “orccoins”. In the future, the digital tokens will also be used in voting within the party. Petition Calls for Moratorium on Regulations Members of the crypto community in Ukraine, and a number of Ukrainian officials, have called for legalizing cryptocurrencies in the country. Several bills have been introduced in the Rada, but no comprehensive regulations have been adopted yet. A cybersecurity meeting in January discussed cryptocurrencies, and the National Security Council set up a working group tasked with finalizing the regulatory proposals. The country’s justice minister and the State Financial Monitoring Service have already expressed their views on cryptocurrencies. The parliament in Kiev, however, has not advanced towards adopting the necessary legal framework. Meanwhile, a petition calling on the government to refrain from regulating cryptocurrencies like bitcoin has been gaining support at Change.org. The author, a female Ukrainian user with the nickname Mary Lee, insists that it’s legally and technically impossible to regulate cryptocurrencies. “Officials will once again regulate investors, traders, entrepreneurs, and ordinary crypto users, but they can’t regulate cryptocurrencies,” she says, calling to “Leave people and their money alone.” Several other petitions have been collecting signatures in Ukraine. One calling for the legalization of cryptocurrencies was registered on the website of Ukraine’s presidency earlier this year. It needs 25,000 signatories to be accepted by the presidential administration. Another petition on the Change.org platform calls for setting up a working group to develop a comprehensive regulatory concept for the cryptocurrency market. Do you believe that political and civic action can change the attitude of authorities towards crypto regulation? Share your thoughts in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Make sure you do not miss any important Bitcoin-related news! Follow our news feed any which way you prefer; via Twitter, Facebook, Telegram, RSS or email (scroll down to the bottom of this page to subscribe). We’ve got daily, weekly and quarterly summaries in newsletter form. Bitcoin never sleeps. Neither do we. The post New Party in Ukraine to Fund Itself Only with Cryptos appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb is reportedly re-evaluating its strategy to launch its own coins through a corporation in Singapore, following news of fraud that could have serious side effects to both companies. Under the current laws, Bithumb coins will still be subject to Korean regulation whether launched abroad or not. Also read: Yahoo! Japan Confirms Entrance Into the Crypto Space Bithumb’s ICO One of South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, Bithumb, had a plan to launch its own coins for institutional investors through a corporation in Singapore. On Tuesday, Bithumb confirmed that it is collaborating with Singaporean company B.Buster to “build a global [crypto] payment system.” The project is known as BTHB. “We received some investment from Bithumb to proceed with the project. Through a contract to use the trademark, [we have] prepared the project name “Bithumb Coin,” B.Buster explained. However, local media reported on Wednesday that the companies are now re-evaluating this strategy. The tokens were going to be issued by B.Buster, according to Sedaily, noting that the company is “re-examining” the project after hearing “news of the issuance of the coins abroad, the coin resale, and investment recruitment fraud” related to the unlaunched coins. As soon as rumors that Bithumb was going to issue its own cryptocurrency circulated in the crypto community, ICO investor recruitment began in the market, Daum described. Etherscan, which provides data about Ethereum-based tokens, currently shows 2 Bithumb coin listings: 10 billion Bithumb Coin (BTHB) and 1 billion Bithumb Coin Point (BTHP). Bithumb denied having knowledge of these listings, the news outlet detailed. Reconsidering Not Terminating Prior to the re-evaluation, B.Buster said “We have limited resale and distribution until the listing on the exchange,” the news outlet noted. However, if B.Buster is selling to general investors and not to institutions, it “would be a breach of contract” with Bithumb, the publication pointed out. “In the meantime, the rumors spread and more investors are getting more and more concerned about the investors’ protection, which is why the ‘reassessment’ position was revealed.” According to the news outlet, Bithumb and B.Buster expect to be “issuing a coin in the end,” calling the project a “reconsideration” rather than a termination. B.Buster reportedly announced on Wednesday, “There will be no public sale for the ‘BTHB’ project. Only selected institutional investors are allowed to participate, excluding citizens/entities of the Republic of Korea and People’s Republic of China, and citizens/entities/residents of the United States of America.” The company noted that “Any sale at this point is only to institutional investors” that it is already in touch with. “Please beware of scammers and impersonators” pretending to be the company or its affiliated entities, B.Buster reportedly warned. Korean Laws Still Apply The financial authorities have warned that domestic cryptocurrency exchanges issuing and promoting their own tokens could have “serious side effects such as internal price manipulation,” Money Today reported, adding: The current law also makes it clear that Bithumb coins are subject to [Korean] regulation. Under the Electronic Money Act coins whose value fluctuates like virtual currency cannot be a means of payment. Recently, Kakao Corp was also rumored to be launching an ICO abroad. The Korean Financial Services Commission (FSC) also warned that the company’s ICO, if launched, would still be subject to Korean laws and could have an adverse impact on its Korean subsidiaries. What do you think of Bithumb launching its own coins? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Bithumb, and Etherscan. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Controversy Looms Over Bithumb Coins 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. With a new focus on security tokens and financial regulation, Blockchain entrepreneurs and enthusiasts are introduced to the World Blockchain Forum in New York. Early bird ticket release ends May 7th. Continuing a remarkable year delivering record-breaking events in Miami and Dubai, the Keynote team have set their sights on the Big Apple to host the first WBF: Security Tokens & ICOs. Shifting from the previous theme ‘ICOs and Investments’, this World Blockchain Forum will introduce New York to fintech industry leaders, inspiring speakers, experts and innovators from around the globe, opening up dialogue that explores security tokens in blockchain. Held at Manhattan’s Metropolitan West, the two day event will feature Keynote’s new ‘ICO Pitch Panels’ where ICOs will use a discussion panel platform to showcase their product moderated by an industry leader. Attendees will also experience a comprehensive introduction from those knowledgeable in not only blockchain and financial regulation, but also Wall Street backgrounds, offering invaluable insight into the future of security tokens. In a saturated environment of blockchain events, Keynote’s reputation for producing the finest and most valuable crypto conferences continues to grow, and so the limited exhibitor places are expected to get snapped up fast as past events have sold out weeks prior to their launch. For latest sponsorship and exhibiting availability please contact Tom Lunn at tom@keynote.ae WBF New York speakers include: Bruce Fenton – Founder & CEO, Chainstone Labs Dr. Moe Levin – Founder, Keynote Trevor Koverko – CEO, Polymath Harry Yeh – Managing Director, Binary Financial Gabriel Abed – Chairman, Bitt Veronica McGregor – Partner, Goodwin Esteban Van Goor – Managing Partner, Megalodon Capital Oliver Gale – Executive Director, Bitt Paul Puey – CEO, Edge Jason King – Co-founder, Academy Tracy Leparulo – CMO, Polymath Steve Dakh – Ethereum, Aeternity, Kryptokit “Though bitcoin and blockchain technology is rapidly becoming more understood, security tokens remain a black-box to most people. Which is strange, because as far as I can tell, the only real way to unlock the next trillion dollars of value in the ecosystem is by digitizing the traditional financial world through security tokens.” said Moe Levin, Founder and CEO of Keynote. “Showcasing the best and brightest in the industry has been the aim of Keynote since 2012, and we’re excited to be bringing the 8th edition of the World Blockchain Forum to New York City.” For a full list of speakers visit: newyork.keynote.ae/speakers/ All tickets can be purchased at: newyork.keynote.ae/tickets/ About Keynote Keynote was launched in 2012 by blockchain strategist Moe Levin. Further information and details about Keynote and their events can be found at keynote.ae For media inquiries, please contact Amandah Hendricks, Keynote’s Chief of Communications at amandah@keynote.ae Supporting Link https://newyork.keynote.ae Contact Email Address amandah@keynote.ae 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: Keynote Lights up New York with Security Token Conference appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The Cabinet of Malta has approved three bills related to cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. One bill in particular, the Virtual Financial Assets Bill, provides a regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings. Also read: Yahoo! Japan Confirms Entrance Into the Crypto Space Crypto Bill Approved by Cabinet The Cabinet of Malta approved three bills on Tuesday, one of which is the Virtual Financial Assets Bill that provides the regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings (ICOs), according to local media. The other two bills are the Malta Digital Innovation Authority Bill and the Technology Arrangements and Services Bill. All three were also presented to the Parliament of Malta for its first reading on Tuesday. The next stage is a debate between both sides of the House before they are passed into law, the Malta Independent explained. The news outlet noted that Parliamentary Secretary for Financial Services, Digital Economy and Innovation, Silvio Schembri, “strongly believes” that: Once new laws surrounding blockchain technology and cryptocurrency are enacted in Malta, banks would be less reluctant to welcome companies working in the industry, presumably due to the legal certainty it would provide. He was also quoted by Malta Winds, saying, “As a government, we think that by regulating this market, it will ensure that the three main principles of financial regulation are adhered to and will be a market that protects the investor and provides market integrity and financial soundness.” About the Three Bills The Malta Digital Innovation Authority Bill establishes a new department named the Malta Digital Innovation Authority along with its duties and responsibilities. It also focuses on internal governance arrangements, explained Mamo TCV Advocates law firm. One of the key roles of the Authority is “the certification of DLT [Distributed Ledger Technology] platforms to ensure credibility and provide legal certainty to users wishing to make use of a DLT platform.” The second piece of legislation, entitled the Technology Arrangements and Services Bill, deals with the registration of technology service providers and the certification of technology arrangements, such as concerning system administrators and auditors. The Virtual Financial Assets Bill, the law firm described, focuses on ICOs “and the regulation in respect of certain service providers which will be involved in activities related to ICOs.” The firm added that “The bill will also outline the regulatory regime which will be applicable to cryptocurrency exchanges,” noting: Malta has witnessed an exponential worldwide interest from exchanges seeking to relocate to Malta and issuers of ICOs wishing to launch from Malta. The proposed bill will further strengthen Malta’s position on the DLT front and solidify its reputation as a blockchain island. Moreover, the bill empowers the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) “with the necessary regulatory and investigatory powers” such as “the powers to issue directives, to adopt and publish rules, to require information…[and] to suspend either an ICO or the trading of a VC on an exchange.” Do you think Malta will become a crypto island? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock and the Malta Independent. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Malta’s Cabinet Approves Cryptocurrency Bill appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The Japanese financial regulator has targeted another cryptocurrency exchange for improvement after an on-site inspection revealed inadequate standards. The exchange must comply and submit a written report next month. Also read: Yahoo! Japan Confirms Entrance Into the Crypto Space Another Exchange Punished The Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA) has issued another “administrative punishment order” to a cryptocurrency exchange. On Wednesday, the Tokyo-based Minnano Bitcoin received a business improvement order from the agency. The exchange’s website says its English name is “Everybody’s Bitcoin Inc.” The order follows an on-site inspection by the FSA after the exchange submitted its system risk management report to the agency. The exchange is a “deemed dealer” of cryptocurrencies, meaning it is allowed to operate while its application is being reviewed by the agency. Based on the report and the inspection, the FSA found problems with the exchange’s “compliance with laws and regulations and proper operation of the business.” For example, the agency found that the exchange was “not performing appropriate verification at the internal audit in addition to the inadequate management and management system.” The agency further detailed: It [the exchange] also has the problem of preventing money laundering and terrorist financing, preparing and preserving statutory books, providing appropriate information to users, [and] effective control over system risks and outsourcers. Minnano Bitcoin has three cryptocurrencies listed on its website: bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), and bitcoin cash (BCH). The exchange is a wholly owned subsidiary of the publicly listed Traders Holdings Co. Ltd. (JASDAQ:8704), which engages in foreign exchange and securities trading in Japan. In June of last year, the exchange signed a business alliance agreement with Debit Inc regarding a fund settlement service using cryptocurrency. The content of FSA’s Order “The following measures [are] to ensure appropriate and reliable business operation,” the FSA wrote. The agency ordered the exchange to improve its business in five specific ways. “Building a business management system; Establishment of a management system for money laundering and terrorist financing; Construction of bookkeeping management system; Establishment of management system related to user protection measures; Construction of system risk management system and outsourcing management system.” The exchange must take care of these business improvement items and submit a written report to the agency by May 14. Responding to the FSA’s order, Minnano Bitcoin apologized to its customers and stakeholders, stating: We take this administrative punishment solemnly and sincerely, [and will] establish a posture for the proper and reliable execution of the virtual currency exchange industry, regulate the virtual currency exchange trader and recover the customer’s trust with full power. High Turnover of Crypto Exchanges in Japan Since the hack of Coincheck in January, the FSA has been actively inspecting and sanctioning crypto exchanges. While only two licensed exchanges have been issued business improvement orders so far, the majority of deemed dealers have been issued the orders. Some of them have also been ordered to temporarily shut down operations while others have voluntarily withdrawn their applications. So far, the agency has issued business improvement orders to the following crypto exchanges: Coincheck, Mr. Exchange, Bitcrements, Bit Station, FSHO, GMO Coin, Tech Bureau, Lastroots, Eternal Link, Blue Dream Japan, Bmex, and Minnano Bitcoin. Coincheck and FSHO have received two orders. Coincheck has also been acquired by a leading Japanese online brokerage firm, Monex Group. Last month, the FSA reportedly revealed that over 100 companies were seeking licenses to operate crypto exchanges in Japan, including Line Corp which operates the popular Line Chat app. Earlier this month, Yahoo! Japan confirmed its entrance into the crypto space by acquiring a stake in a licensed crypto exchange, Bitarg. Do you think there will be many unlicensed crypto exchanges left in Japan? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Minnano Bitcoin, and the FSA. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Another Crypto Exchange Ordered to Improve by Japanese Regulator appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

After hemming and hawing in its strange relationship with cryptocurrencies and the businesses they imply, the Philippine government decided to make room for a set aside economic zone. The scheme is offered in hopes of generating more tax income, employment for its people, and perhaps a dedicated crypto university. Also read: Telegram Urges Paper Airplane Protest, Pussy Riot Activist Arrested Philippines Allows Crypto Companies to Operate Economic Zone Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA) spokesman Raul Lambinos told Reuters, “We are about to licence 10 platforms for cryptocurrency exchange. They are Japanese, Hong Kong, Malaysians, Koreans. They can go into cryptocurrency mining, initial coin offerings, or they can go into exchange.” Exchanges providing onramps to the nation’s fiat money, on the other hand, are encouraged to launch offshore to avoid running afoul of Philippine law. Raul Lambino Such zones offer advantageous tax regimes in the hope of creating more employment for Filipinos. Early this year, the country legalized such zones for crypto, which appears to be more welcoming to digital assets than other countries in the region. Local authorities estimate over two years crypto companies will invest more than $1 million, with ten percent of that going toward building a tax base. Ambitious plans also include a possible blockchain-based financial technology university to help feed workers to surrounding businesses in the zone. A Strange Relationship with Crypto The government appears to be responding to popular sentiment regarding cryptocurrency, as it has not been very supportive of late: its Philippine National Police arrested bitcoiners, accusing them of running a Ponzi scheme, and the country’s Securities and Exchange Commission came down against cloud mining, asserting such contracts are too close to securities. Senator Leila M. de Lima And, as we wrote recently, opposition “leader senator Leila M. de Lima thinks that the legislative chamber needs to prioritize Senate Bill 1694, a proposal she filed a month ago. The recent Ordonio Ponzi scheme has compelled her to call upon her colleagues.’I hope that this occurrence will push my esteemed colleagues in the Senate to take my proposed bill seriously and help pass it into law soon.’” Slightly before that, the SEC “revealed to the public that it plans to enforce securities regulations against cloud mining operations. According to the SEC’s statement, the regulatory agency believes these types of contracts should be defined as ‘securities,’” News.Bitcoin.com reported. Acceptance, however, of an economic zone for crypto is a positive first start for the industry, and might signal a slight change of heart on the government’s end. Do you think this initiative will be imitated by other governments in the region? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Philippines Welcomes Crypto Economic Zone appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

In today’s Bitcoin in Brief we’re talking about big money and big expectations. While the ratio between bulls and bears is constantly changing in the crypto market arena, experts working with venture capital investments and large crypto trades report positive trends and share optimistic sentiments. On that backdrop, “Why is our digital society still using a yellow metal to store value?” is a good question. Bitcoin to Reach $90k in Two Years, Potentially $700k The future of Bitcoin was one of the hot topics at this year’s Sohn Investment Conference. The leading cryptocurrency is the first viable candidate to replace gold according to John Pfeffer, hedge fund manager at Pfeffer Capital. Bitcoin could rise to no less than $90,000 in the next couple of years, and potentially as high as $700,000, Pfeffer predicted during the annual event. “We should think of crypto assets as a venture capital investment. They can go to 0, but there is a chance that they could be worth much more. In the case of bitcoin, it would be worth $90,000 if it became equal to private gold bullion holdings, about $1.6 trillion of total value compared to $150 billion or thereabouts today. It’s a bet, it’s a risk that I’ll be willing to take”, the investor told CNBC. Using a Yellow Metal in a Spacefaring Society “On the higher end – you could get to higher values, if bitcoin becomes a major reserve currency, i.e. if countries begin to take bitcoin in their reserves. In that case, it can reach several hundred thousand dollars,” John Pfeffer added. In order for that to happen, bitcoin will have to replace about 25% of foreign reserves. Currently they are at $12.7 trillion in total, 11% of which is gold, and about 60% of the rest is the US dollar. Other currencies, like the euro, the British pound, the Swiss franc, and the yen make up the rest. “When I think about the displacement argument, I start with gold. It’s kind of silly – we are a spacefaring, digital society and we’re still using a yellow metal as our non-sovereign store of value. At some point we’re going to come up with a better technology for that and bitcoin is the first candidate. We’ll see if it works,” Pfeffer said. In his opinion, there are some advantages to having a non-fiat-based reserve currency for many countries that would see other countries as strategic rivals. Circle Doubles Minimum Bitcoin Trade Size One of the largest liquidity providers of digital assets and cryptocurrency has reported a rising activity, despite the decline in crypto trading volumes across retail exchanges. Circle Trade, the trading operation of Goldman Sachs-backed Circle, has increased its minimum ticket size on bitcoin trades. Jeremy Allaire, Circle’s chief executive, told Business Insider that the size of block trades made by Circle Trade has grown significantly since the start of this year. He also said that the company has doubled the size of its minimum crypto trades from $250,000 to $500,000 USD. “The minimum ticket size has moved up to $500,000 with an average of $1 million dollars,” Allaire said noting that some transactions are even larger than $100 million. “That watermark will continue to rise,” he predicted. Circle, which has recently expanded its operations in Asia, according to Bloomberg, trades more than $2 billion in cryptocurrency a month. It also intends to bring its business to other new markets. Circle has acquired the crypto exchange Poloniex and is also planning to add a number of coins and enable fiat-to-crypto transactions. OTC Trading Helping Growth Platforms like Circle provide high-net-worth crypto-holders and institutions with an opportunity to make large transactions. They are an alternative to crypto exchanges like GDAX and Kraken, boasting better liquidity to support such trades. OTC (over-the-counter) trading has helped the growth of many trading platforms without impacting the broader market. The average trade size of another cryptocurrency trading shop, Genesis, has also increased – to about $300,000 dollars, Business Insider reported, quoting an unnamed source familiar with its operations. Genesis trades $1billion-2 billion USD a month. DRW’s Cumberland and Kraken are also operating similar trading desks. CBOE Lowers Bitcoin Futures Prices Aiming to achieve a positive impact on the XBT futures market, the Chicago Board Options Exchange wants to lower the minimum increment on its futures contracts – from 10 points to 5 points, where 1 point is worth 1 US dollar. In a letter to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the managing director of CBOE Future Exchange, Matthew McFarland, wrote about an amendment that would allow the change. McFarland believes that this would be beneficial to the public and market participants in general. The amendment would affect only transactions involving one contract, and not spread trades which have a minimum increment of 0.01 points, or $0.01. The executive also said the decision to make the change, likely to come into effect in May, was supported by data collected since the launch of CBOE bitcoin futures contracts in December. Do you think the expectations of serious investors are indicative of a positive future for bitcoin? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Make sure you do not miss any important Bitcoin-related news! Follow our news feed any which way you prefer; via Twitter, Facebook, Telegram, RSS or email (scroll down to the bottom of this page to subscribe). We’ve got daily, weekly and quarterly summaries in newsletter form. Bitcoin never sleeps. Neither do we. The post Bitcoin in Brief Thursday: Big Money Wears Big Horns, Claws Are In the Closet 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. A new cryptocurrency has recently become available. It is called RECO, which stands for “reference line coin”. It is the first cryptocurrency that offers the ability to send the recipient an encrypted reference line when making transactions. “This is unique and new,” says Christian Kassler, developer of the RECO cryptocurrency and co-owner of CAD-KAS Computersoftware GbR. “We wanted to create a distinct cryptocurrency, based on its own blockchain, that supports a reference line for transactions,” he says. Kassler goes on to explain that the reference line can, of course, be left blank. But he points out that it is sometimes helpful when the line contains the sender from whom the money is coming or similar information. “Our coin consists of a unique, new, and very advantageous technology that no other coin possesses,” says Kassler. He emphasizes that this coin is the only one that allows an encrypted reference line to be sent to the recipient together with the transaction. Only about 840,000 RECO coins are mined each month, and they can now be bought and sold on the new German-language trading platform https://www.cadkas.com/exchange. These assets are secured by the stringent application of cryptography, which is why they are called cryptocurrency. The technical basis is what is known as the “blockchain”. This means that every transaction is condensed in a data block and attached to the blockchain. Each time, the hash value from the preceding dataset is stored in the following one. The hash value is a computer-technology term used in the area of cryptography and denotes an alphanumeric value. The unique feature of this mathematical function is that it depicts a string of characters of any desired length on a string of characters with a fixed length. Through this cryptographic chaining, the blockchain and thus the cryptocurrency are protected against subsequent manipulation. For more information about the new RECO cryptocurrency, please visit https://www.referencecoin.co . Contact Email Address info@cadkas.com Supporting Link http://www.referencecoin.co 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: First Cryptocurrency with an Encrypted Reference Line Can Now Be Traded (RECO) appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article