tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34902347199455652832023-11-16T08:03:48.247-08:00Crypto currency news and trends from around the world.Crytpo currencies like Bitcoin,Litecoin,Rippplecoin,Dogecoin,Ethereum, are forms of digital money that is designed to be secure and, in many cases, anonymous. It is a currency associated with the internet that uses cryptography, the process of converting legible information into an almost uncrackable code, to track purchases and transfersUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger81125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490234719945565283.post-48548053496486665282018-03-09T17:27:00.001-08:002018-03-09T17:41:25.141-08:00Bitcoin dips then bounces back after SEC says crypto exchanges must register with agency<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Bitcoin fell below the key $10,000 level after the Securities and Exchange Commission said it will require digital asset exchanges to register with the agency. The statement referred to digital assets that are considered securities.</div>
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The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization dropped nearly 10 percent on Coinbase in a sudden move after the SEC statement stoked fears that tightening regulation could restrict future trading. Bitcoin is hovering around $9400 and $9,500 as at the time of writing.</div>
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According to the SEC statement:</div>
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"If a platform offers trading of digital assets that are securities and operates as an 'exchange,' as defined by the federal securities laws, then the platform must register with the SEC as a national securities exchange or be exempt from registration."</div>
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"The SEC staff has concerns that many online trading platforms appear to investors as SEC-registered and regulated marketplaces when they are not. Many platforms refer to themselves as "exchanges," which can give the misimpression to investors that they are regulated or meet the regulatory standards of a national securities exchange."</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #424858; font-family: "gotham narrow ssm 4r"; font-size: 18.4px;">The statement from the regulatory agency comes after weeks of subpoenas from the SEC in its attempt to establish better control over the many trading platforms and exchanges.</span><br />
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"The SEC continues to draw a line in the sand between securities and non-securities but without going so far as to name names," said Spencer Bogart, partner at Blockchain Capital.</div>
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However, he expects the crackdown will focus more on so-called "alt-coins" than bitcoin, potentially helping the price of the largest cryptocurrency by market cap. "Of all crypto assets, bitcoin seems least likely to be deemed a security — by a long shot," Bogart said.</div>
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Whether securities laws apply to digital coins has remained a matter of much speculation, resulting in firms relying mostly on self-disclosure and attorneys to try to distinguish themselves from common scams.</div>
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Current views on whether an asset is a security tend to follow the "Howey Test," which comes from a 1946 U.S. Supreme Court case. The ruling says a security involves the investment of money in a common enterprise, in which the investor expects profits primarily from others' efforts.</div>
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Bitcoin is down roughly 50 percent from all-time highs near $20,000 reached in December, falling sharply since then as ongoing fears of government regulation plague the cryptocurrency.</div>
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But news of a potential phishing problem on one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges also weighed on the asset Wednesday.</div>
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In a statement on Twitter, Binance.com CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao said that the site was still investigating potential irregularities in trading.</div>
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<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/07/bitcoin-just-tanked-below-10000-after-sec-says-crypto-exchanges-must-register-with-agency.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Source</a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490234719945565283.post-23213352945008098992018-03-06T18:35:00.002-08:002018-03-06T18:35:21.351-08:00Mercedes-Benz Launches Crypto Coin To Reward Eco-Friendly Driving<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://cointelegraph.com/tags/germany" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Germany</a>-headquartered car manufacturing giant Daimler AG, famous for its Mercedes-Benz and Smart brands, presented its own <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/tags/blockchain" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Blockchain</a>-based <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/tags/digital-currency" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">digital currency</a> MobiCoin at <a href="https://www.mobileworldcongress.com/" rel="nofollow,noopener" target="_blank">the Mobile World Congress 2018</a> in Barcelona, Cointelegraph auf Deutsch <a href="https://de.cointelegraph.com/news/mercedes-preps-crypto-coin-to-reward-eco-driving" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">reported</a> on March 5. </div>
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The project, which <a href="https://blog.daimler.com/2018/02/12/mobicoin-testphase/" rel="nofollow,noopener" target="_blank">started in February 2018</a>,
was created to reward drivers for environmentally-friendly driving
habits, i.e. smooth and safe driving at low speeds. The project will be
in its testing phase for the next three months, during which 500 drivers
who follow eco-friendly driving practices will be rewarded with
MobiCoins.</div>
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According to Cointelegraph auf Deutsch, data
from the vehicles will be transmitted to Daimler and converted into
MobiCoins, which will be stored in a mobile app. Participants with the
most MobiCoins will reportedly receive VIP tickets for events such as
the DTM Races, the MercedesCup Final, or Fashion Week in Berlin.
However, it is not known whether drivers will be able to convert the
MobiCoins to fiat currency or other cryptocurrencies.</div>
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Recent
months have seen multiple German auto giants embrace Blockchain tech.
In February 2018, German car manufacturing giant BMW <a href="https://www.financemagnates.com/cryptocurrency/news/vechain-now-vechain-thor-confirms-partnership-bmw/" rel="nofollow,noopener" target="_blank">announced</a>
its partnership with VeChain, the blockchain-based supply chain
enhancement platform. The same month, Stuttgart-based Porsche announced
it has <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/porsche-first-to-test-blockchain-technology-for-cars" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">teamed up</a>
with Berlin-based startup XAIN to use Blockchain technology in
improving locking systems and the capabilities of autonomous cars.</div>
Earlier, in January 2018, Volkswagen’s Chief Digital Officer Johann Jungwirth <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/volkswagen-chief-digital-officer-joins-blockchain-non-profit-board" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">joined</a> the supervisory board of the <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/tags/iota" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">IOTA Foundation</a>, a non-profit Blockchain foundation for the <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/tags/internet-of-things" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Internet of Things</a> (IoT).<br />
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<br />
<a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/auto-giant-behind-mercedes-benz-launches-crypto-coin-to-reward-eco-friendly-driving" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Source </a></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490234719945565283.post-77991283011856376502018-03-05T14:27:00.002-08:002018-03-05T14:32:16.480-08:00The real winners in the game.Crypto Exchanges.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="lede-text-only__highlight">Crypto Exchanges Are Raking in Billions of Dollars</span></h1>
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Digital-asset exchanges are emerging as one of the biggest winners of the cryptocurrency boom.<br />
The
top 10 are generating as much $3 million in fees a day, or heading for
more than $1 billion per year, according to estimates compiled by
Bloomberg using trading volume reported on data tracker
CoinMarketCap.com and fee information on the exchanges’ websites. Fees
in the lowest range of the exchanges’ scale were used for the
calculations.<br />
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The projections are a rough estimate as it’s near impossible to know
what exactly the closely held firms are charging, including discounts
for their most active traders. Based on daily trading volume and fees
listed, annual revenue for the top 10 goes into the billions of dollars.
While the numbers aren’t exact, the order of magnitude shows the boom
in virtual currencies is generating some very real cash.<br />
“The exchanges and transaction processors are the biggest
winners in the space because they’re allowing people to transact and
participate in this burgeoning sector,” said Gil Luria, an equity
analyst at D.A. Davidson & Co, who reviewed the methodology for the
revenue estimates. “There’s a big business there and it would not
surprise me if they’re making hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue
and possibly even billions a year.”<br />
Tokyo-based
Binance and Hong Kong-based OKEx are handling the largest volume of
trading, equal to about $1.7 billion daily. Based on fees of 0.2
percent, which are higher than OKEx’s 0.07 percent for the most active
traders, Binance is likely bringing in the most cash per day.<br />
Huobi,
Bitfinex, Upbit and Bithumb, which are all based in Asia, come next in
the ranking. They process between $600 million and $1.4 billion of
trading volume and charge fees of 0.3 percent on average. More than half
of the crypto currency trading happens in Asia-based exchanges,
according to data compiled by smart contract platform Aelf.<br />
Asia’s
influence in crypto trading can be explained by a concentration of
cryptocurrency mining in the region from Bitcoin’s early days, as miners
took advantage of cheaper electricity costs, said Aelf co-founder
Zhuling Chen. Other reasons include the region’s young population, which
adopts new technology quickly, consumers that are comfortable with
mobile payments, and even a strong gaming culture, which incentivizes
virtual transactions, said Chen. Tightening regulation in the region,
with China and South Korea restricting trading and initial coin
offerings, also means that Asian firms have been forced to become
global, he said.<br />
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Binance’s prominence is notable considering the firm started
operating in July. It shifted headquarters to Japan from Shanghai after
the Chinese government tightened its grasp on the industry late last
year. The firm can process 1.4 million orders per second, which it says
makes it one of the fastest exchanges in the market.<br />
Its loose customer accreditation process may also explain its
growth, said Chris Slaughter, co-founder of crypto investment platform
Samsa. It’s also very reliable, he said.<br />
“They don’t make users go
through the know-your-customer process until withdrawal,” Slaughter
said. “It’s a complicated process. You can lose customers in the two or
four hours that it takes. In Binance, you can go from not having an
account to having funds on an account in less than 20 minutes.”<br />
South
Korean exchange Upbit, which is among the top five in trading volume,
only started operating in October. It’s controlled by Dunamu Inc., which
also owns Kakao Talk, the most popular messaging app in Korea. Upbit is
integrated in Kakao Talk and lists over 120 cryptocurrencies, thanks to
a partnership with the U.S.-based exchange Bittrex.<br />
<br />
<aside class="inline-newsletter" data-state="ready"></aside>All
of the exchanges are privately held and only a few years old, which
often means it’s difficult to find financial information or details on
management. HitBTC, the 10th largest, doesn’t provide any information on
who runs it or where the firm is based, even as customers asked these
questions on the exchange’s <a href="https://forum.hitbtc.com/discussion/2669/hitbtc-where-are-you-located-and-who-is-your-ceo-responsible-traders-want-to-know" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" title="Link to HITBTC Forum">forum</a>. Bit-Z, WEX and EXX, among the 20 biggest by trading volume, are some of the others that don’t provide those details either.<br />
Bitfinex,
among the five biggest, has come under heavier scrutiny as the U.S.
Commodity Futures Trading Commission sent subpoenas to the company in
December.<br />
Potential competition from public companies and traditional financial
firms may push crypto exchanges to be more transparent and even reduce
costs, said Slaughter.<br />
“More conventional businesses like banks
and funds are likely to acquire crypto platforms at some point to make
sure they have a strategic foothold in the market,” he said. “It’s a
no-brainer. Financial services is where all the real business revenue in
crypto is.”<br />
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<br />
<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-05/crypto-exchanges-raking-in-billions-emerge-as-kings-of-coins" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Source</a> </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490234719945565283.post-76427492437137389582018-02-21T05:35:00.005-08:002018-02-21T05:35:59.606-08:00Crypto millionaires have donated $6.5 Billion to research aimed at reversing the aging proccess.Vitalik Buterin alone donated $2.5 worth of ether.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Silicon Valley’s elite is <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/04/03/silicon-valleys-quest-to-live-forever" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">famously fascinated</a> by the promise of extreme lifespan extension—if not outright immortality. Research on these issues has drawn funding from the <a href="https://www.calicolabs.com/news/2018/01/25/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">likes of Google</a>, while the Bay Area’s Unity Biotechnology, which is developing drugs to treat diseases that accompany aging, has also <a href="https://qz.com/878446/unity-biotechnology-cure-for-aging/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">raised a bunch of money</a>. Now, the sci-fi-like cause is attracting a new group of benefactors: cryptocurrency tycoons.<br />
Millionaires whose fortunes stem from the crypto boom are donating to studies that longevity guru <a href="http://www.sens.org/about/leadership/executive-team" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Aubrey de Grey</a> says could extend healthy human lives for thousands of years. Ethereum founder <a href="http://www.sens.org/outreach/press-releases/srf-receives-24m-ethereum-donation-from-vitalik-buterin">Vitalik Buterin recently gave</a>
$2.4 million worth of ether to the nonprofit SENS Research foundation,
where de Grey is chief science officer, to help develop rejuvenation
biotechnologies. An anonymous crypto philanthropy called <a href="https://qz.com/1160997/a-bitcoin-millionaire-is-giving-away-a-fortune-to-psychedelic-research-curing-aging-and-clean-water/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Pineapple Fund</a> has <a href="http://www.sens.org/outreach/press-releases/srf-receives-additional-1m-donation-from-pineapple-fund" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">also contributed</a>.<br />
It’s not surprising the crypto community would take interest in this research, according to de Grey, speaking <a href="https://www.acast.com/dannyinthevalley" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">in a podcast</a>
with Sunday Times reporter Danny Fortson. Early adopters “are bound to
be people who very heavily intersect with people who are interested in
technological progress,’’ said de Grey, 54, who previously worked in
artificial intelligence and has a PhD from the University of Cambridge.
Young people are more open to the idea that aging is “a really
important, solvable problem.”<br />
Buterin, for example, is 24 years old and co-founded the <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">second-most</a>
valuable cryptoasset. In a statement announcing his donation, Buterin
applauded SENS Research’s “focus on creating solutions to the diseases
of aging, one of the greatest problems facing humanity.”<br />
The nonprofit has received a total of about $6.5 billion worth of
bitcoin and ether since mid-December, de Grey said. The foundation
immediately sells its crypto donations, typically for dollars, because
as a nonprofit it’s prohibited from financial speculation. The
foundation has a $4 million annual budget.<br />
For de Grey, the goal is to advance technology fast enough to stay
one step ahead of the aging problem, according to his interview with the
Sunday Times. He thinks there’s about a 50% chance that the foundation
will prove the viability of its efforts using lab mice in the next five
years, which will usher in a “war on aging.”<br />
“It all depends on how soon we make the key breakthroughs,” he said,
describing the research as an all-or-nothing proposition. In the future,
he added, the human lifespan will either be measured in two digits or
four digits.<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://qz.com/1212040/crypto-millionaires-like-vitalik-buterin-are-funding-research-to-reverse-aging-especially-the-sens-research-foundation/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Source </a></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490234719945565283.post-90321529467622415992018-02-19T12:50:00.001-08:002018-02-19T12:50:32.858-08:00Executives from traditional financial firms are trying to fight off crypto by dismissing it as a Ponzi scheme or a scam.Former JP Morgan Trader Tells All.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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LONDON — A former high-flying trader who has embraced the world of cryptocurrencies says there is a "trench warfare" going on between traditional financial services and digital upstarts.</div>
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Danny Masters told Business Insider: "There’s something of a trench warfare going on between what I call analogue financial services companies and digital financial services companies."</div>
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Masters began his career as an oil trader at Shell in the 1980s, rising to become head of JPMorgan's energy trading business in New York. He left in the late 1990s to set up his own commodities fund, Global Advisors.</div>
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Masters became interested in bitcoin and cryptocurrencies around five years ago and pivoted Global Advisors to focus on crypto in 2014. Shortly after,<span> </span><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-jersey-30261976" style="color: #196d8d; text-decoration: none;">Global Advisors' bank HSBC ditched the business over fears that bitcoin could involve money laundering risks.</a></div>
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"We’ve gone from a renegade character to a more confusing animal for people to view," Masters told BI during an interview in London this week.</div>
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"The analogue financial services companies are not in this game at all. They don’t want to touch the core currency, which is bitcoin or ethereum, they’re suspicious about the industry itself. A lot of people think it’s a criminal enterprise and a Ponzi scheme and a scam."</div>
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ECB executive board member Yves Mersch<span> </span><a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/ecbs-yves-mersch-compares-bitcoin-to-ponzi-scheme-in-cryptocurrency-speech-2018-2" style="color: #196d8d; text-decoration: none;">compared cryptocurrencies to a Ponzi scheme last week</a><span> </span>and<span> </span><a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-ethereum-ripple-cryptocurrency-prices-february-8-2018-2" style="color: #196d8d; text-decoration: none;">the president of the World Bank</a><span> </span>and<span> </span><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/06/bitcoin-and-cryptocurrencies-are-ponzi-bubbles-says-bis.html" style="color: #196d8d; text-decoration: none;">the head of the Bank for International Settlements have both called bitcoin a scam.</a></div>
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Masters said: "In my mind, the cryptocurrency landscape is like the fog of war. You might be able to see the few people around you, you can see the hill over there, but very few people can see the whole landscape. We’re in a very fortunate position because we touch so many different parts of it. For us, it is abundantly clear that we are in the midst of a true financial revolution."</div>
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'It is no longer acceptable to dismiss it'</h2>
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Masters thinks that bankers are dismissive of cryptocurrencies because of the threat they pose to traditional banking. The crypto community is built on the principles of decentralization, displacing middlemen, and doing away with legacy systems.</div>
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"At the other end of the spectrum, we saw<span> </span><a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/charlie-munger-on-bitcoin-the-more-popular-it-got-the-more-i-hated-it-2018-2" style="color: #196d8d; text-decoration: none;">Charlie Munger only yesterday call bitcoin asinine</a>. We heard<span> </span><a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-price-jamie-dimon-regrets-calling-it-a-fraud-2018-1" style="color: #196d8d; text-decoration: none;">Jamie Dimon call bitcoin a fraud</a>. There are some very, very high profile — but usually, deeply legacy entrenched — people who are just out-right dismissive," Masters said.</div>
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"[Banks] have gone from dismissive, to unified in their resistance. Why? Why is something they ridiculed three months ago now something they feel the need to unite against and try and kill? There’s been a lot of aggressive things from banks."</div>
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Global Advisors owns a 75% interest in Coinshares, another crypto investment business, and Coinshares announced two new funds in January that have a combined $1 billion in assets under management. Masters argues that stats like this increasingly validate his position and pose problems for traditionalists.</div>
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"The clock has lapsed, it is no longer acceptable to dismiss it. One of the biggest dismissers was Jamie Dimon. JPMorgan recently issued one of the largest reports on cryptocurrency yet seen."</div>
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Bitcoin rocketed over 1,500% against the dollar last year, leading to a surge in interest from professional investors. Exchange operators Cboe and CME both<span> </span><a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-futures-sends-price-up-2017-12" style="color: #196d8d; text-decoration: none;">launched bitcoin futures contracts to tap into the demand</a>, while Goldman Sachs is said to be<span> </span><a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-is-flirting-with-bitcoin-trading-2017-10" style="color: #196d8d; text-decoration: none;">considering setting up a bitcoin trading desks.</a></div>
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"If you’re going to argue for it, fine, if you’re going to argue against it, you better have some good reasons to do so," Masters said. "People are struggling to come up with reasons to argue against it. They’re saying, it’s a load of crap and it’s worth nothing. It’s obviously not worth nothing."</div>
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'Banks have sat on their laurels for 30 years'</h2>
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Masters believes that the crypto world has now reached "escape velocity" and the "analogue" rivals won't be able to catch up or compete. In Masters telling, the new crypto reality will replace our current system.</div>
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"The problem with the analogue financial world is it’s become hamstrung and mired in a billion regulations," he said. "Nobody enjoys working in it anymore, there’s just a tremendous amount of friction. I don’t think you can unpick that ball of knots, you have to start over again.</div>
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"Banks have sat on their laurels for 30 years. I just threw out my chequebook, it looks exactly the same as it did in 1985. Why should I still have it when I’m doing Uber instead of cabs, Airbnb instead of the Sheraton? They have absolutely failed to innovate in any way, shape, or form and now they’re paying the price."</div>
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<a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-cryptocurrency-market-crash-explained-causes-2018-1" style="color: #196d8d; text-decoration: none;">Despite a rocky start to the year</a>, Masters thinks that the run-up in value seen in bitcoin and cryptocurrency last year is a hard-fought victory for all those who have been involved since the beginning.</div>
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"I got to know the crypto-anarchists many years ago and I was one of the very few financial people involved in the early days. It was a little scary actually. I felt a little self-conscious in some circles," Masters said.</div>
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"I’m thrilled for everybody in the space that has stuck to it for the last five years. 2014, after Mt. Gox, was a really miserable year. A lot of people fell off the boat at that time. Guys like<span> </span><a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/r-lead-developer-quits-bitcoin-saying-it-has-failed-2016-1" style="color: #196d8d; text-decoration: none;">Mike Hearn rage quit bitcoin when it was $400</a>.<span> </span><a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/stripe-ends-its-bitcoin-payments-product-2018-1" style="color: #196d8d; text-decoration: none;">Stripe has now given up bitcoin</a>. There have been people who have lost the nerve along the way.</div>
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"You needed to be a true believer and you needed to suck it up for 2014, ‘15, and ‘16. And then ‘17 was just off the charts good."</div>
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<a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/former-jpmorgan-trader-danny-master-on-trench-warfare-between-banking-and-crypto-2018-2" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Source </a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490234719945565283.post-3071139768840796862018-02-17T07:50:00.000-08:002018-02-17T07:50:01.046-08:00Bitcoin owners donated $70 Million to charity Last Year.Do you know why? Tax.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWxPTgvdT5MktJPYTvVoc49ajM70e54rw6r_V5rBB8MuMvQXgeGFp6AUezaozfU2CiicrB7iOK0zE6-MUO0eL3IwyRQ4_lK9TPY0C2FDdO9hcqNC0rslwu-CEo91gHT3dRZIk8oLrBo4A/s1600/charity.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWxPTgvdT5MktJPYTvVoc49ajM70e54rw6r_V5rBB8MuMvQXgeGFp6AUezaozfU2CiicrB7iOK0zE6-MUO0eL3IwyRQ4_lK9TPY0C2FDdO9hcqNC0rslwu-CEo91gHT3dRZIk8oLrBo4A/s640/charity.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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Following Bitcoin's spectacular rise in value, crypto currency traders had a good year in 2017.This reflected favourably on charities as almost $70 million was received as <a href="http://fortune.com/2018/02/14/bitcoin-charity-donations-soared-10-fold-last-year-fidelity-says/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">donations</a> in Bitcoin and other Crypto currencies.<br />
Some of these donation could be normal attempts to spread the wealth among as many people as possible but according to a <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/07/donating-bitcoin-can-have-big-tax-advantages.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">report</a>, donating your Crypto can give you an advantage with the the tax man.<br />
It's no secret that the IRS has <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/07/while-youre-tallying-your-bitcoin-gains-dont-forget-the-taxman.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">kept an eye</a> on the wildly popular cryptocurrency, ruling that bitcoin and others like it are considered <a class="inline_asset" href="https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-14-21.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">property</a>
for tax purposes. This means that if you cash out, you're likely on the
hook to report capital gains to the Tax Man – and those gains <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/07/bitcoin-becomes-a-more-mainstream-investment.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">can be substantial</a>, particularly if you bought bitcoin back in 2010 when one unit was worth less than a dollar.<br />
There's a solution to that: Give your cryptocurrency to charity via <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/06/before-tax-reform-hits-heres-how-to-maximize-charitable-gifts.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">your donor advised fund</a>
– an account that you can fund with highly appreciated assets and use
for making grants to charities -- instead of cashing out.<br />
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This way, you unload assets that could face steep capital gains taxes and you <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/04/year-end-tax-moves-could-help-you-save-ahead-of-tax-reform.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">collect a charitable contribution deduction</a> for your 2017 taxes.<br />
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But rapid fluctuations in
bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies present charitable organizations
with an interesting problem: How do they capture the value of a volatile
asset?<br />
"It's interesting how
volatile cryptocurrency can be in 24 hours," said Eileen Hesiman,
president and CEO of the National Philanthropic Trust. "One gift lost
about 12 percent of its value in a 36 hour period. Our policy is to sell
as quickly as we can."<br />
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A lot of Crypto holders seem to have figured this out and many more will take this route in the days ahead.<br />
Bitcoin has experienced a very good run in the last few days and the crypto traders are emitting positive outlooks on the Crypto market.<br />
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Watch this tax form video.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" src="//players.brightcove.net/2111767321001/default_default/index.html?videoId=5721804818001"></iframe></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490234719945565283.post-33727853622799149732018-02-16T13:54:00.000-08:002018-02-16T13:54:35.520-08:00Why you need to hook up with someone in Venezuela.Bitcoin Mining.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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$14 000 to mine a Bitcoin in Germany, $530 in Venezuela. <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwBRybVWWOzmlu2ztk4FId4U7b1nVGr4pIdWbPsS8kFgSuVuhOW3b6nTKAyH5iZhM8Z2RvoRN_TKbqQ_kYQiUlhcr9PUMToov2Ef_kT6zs0eEOZMJAbsU2AAT3tP-tZezNKUzefZPnP54/s1600/Bitcoin+Mining.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwBRybVWWOzmlu2ztk4FId4U7b1nVGr4pIdWbPsS8kFgSuVuhOW3b6nTKAyH5iZhM8Z2RvoRN_TKbqQ_kYQiUlhcr9PUMToov2Ef_kT6zs0eEOZMJAbsU2AAT3tP-tZezNKUzefZPnP54/s640/Bitcoin+Mining.png" width="640" /></a></div>
</h4>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<a class="inline_quotes" data-gdsid="428130990" data-inline-quote-symbol="BTC=" href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=BTC%3D" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Bitcoin</a> mining is costing <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/south-korea/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">South Koreans</a> a lot of money.</h4>
<div class="group" itemprop="articleBody">
Mining just one bitcoin in one of the
world's biggest digital currency markets costs $26,170, according to
data released by lighting and furniture firm Elite Fixtures.<br />
So-called bitcoin miners
are vital to keeping the underlying blockchain, or distributed ledger,
network tick. A blockchain network is essentially a huge decentralized
database that maintains a continuously growing record of transactions or
other data. Miners solve complex mathematical problems to validate
transactions and add them to the blockchain.<br />
The Elite Fixtures data also showed that <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/venezuela/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Venezuela</a>
is the cheapest country in which to mine bitcoin. It costs $531 to mine
the world's best known virtual currency there. Some Venezuelans have <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/30/venezuela-is-one-of-the-worlds-most-dangerous-places-to-mine-bitcoin.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">turned to bitcoin mining</a> for survival in the economically struggling South American country.<br />
<br />
<div class="group" itemprop="articleBody">
And Venezuela President <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/nicolas-maduro/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Nicolas Maduro</a> is banking on a cryptocurrency called "petro," <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/19/venezeulas-petro-currency-met-with-skepticism-by-investors.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">backed by the country's oil, gas, gold and diamond reserves</a>, as a way to get around U.S. sanctions.<br />
Mining digital currency
uses up a lot of electricity, as miners utilize huge rigs of computers
for the process. However, in return for their work, voluntary miners are
rewarded with a sum of bitcoin as well as a transaction fee paid by
people who transact with the cryptocurrency.<br />
According to
Blockchain.info data, the total revenue earned by all bitcoin miners hit
an all-time high of $53 million on December 17, the same day that
bitcoin notched its highest price ever of $19,783.21.<br />
The Elite Fixtures study
analyzed electricity prices from 115 different countries, using data
provided by governments, utility firms and the International Energy
Agency. It worked out the price of power consumption based on averages
from three popular cryptocurrency mining rigs.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/15/the-cheapest-and-most-expensive-countries-to-mine-bitcoin.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Source,List and Map </a><br />
</div>
</div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490234719945565283.post-56134784325491749942018-02-15T19:30:00.000-08:002018-02-15T19:31:23.362-08:00Bitcoin panic-Banks Forced To Innovate For First Time In 40 Years because of fear of Bitcoin<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-m3pC_BlG4Fa9REHxml18QRllbFBoCTlycRuTB19tIOLFEEd5jvZH_OrHPXnrqK49-lR0T4h8g-17W8RZF9cAGsBC_wTtjLK__cQQ66_8vUXoD9YtOv29WVju271Sgbxaqt_t2ClYMBE/s1600/shutterstock_9964772911.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="620" height="370" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-m3pC_BlG4Fa9REHxml18QRllbFBoCTlycRuTB19tIOLFEEd5jvZH_OrHPXnrqK49-lR0T4h8g-17W8RZF9cAGsBC_wTtjLK__cQQ66_8vUXoD9YtOv29WVju271Sgbxaqt_t2ClYMBE/s640/shutterstock_9964772911.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<strong style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Several banks in Australia started rolling out a new payment system they’re calling NPP, or “New Payments Platform.”</strong></div>
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Until now, sending a domestic funds transfer in Australia from one bank to another could take several days. It was slow and cumbersome.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: lucida_granderegular, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.3; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-top: 0.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<strong style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">With NPP, payments are nearly instantaneous.</strong></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: lucida_granderegular, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.3; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-top: 0.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
And rather than funds transfers being restricted to the banks’ normal business hours, payments via NPP can be scheduled and sent 24/7.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: lucida_granderegular, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.3; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-top: 0.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<strong style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Across the world in the United States, the domestic banking system has been working on something similar.</strong></div>
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Domestic bank transfers in the Land of the Free typically transact through an electronic network known as ACH… another slow and cumbersome platform that often takes 2-5 days to transfer funds.</div>
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It’s pretty ridiculous that it takes more than a few minutes to transfer money. It’s 2018! It’s not like these guys have to load satchels full of cash onto horse-drawn wagons and cart them across the country.</div>
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<em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">(And even if they did, I suspect the money would reach its destination faster than with ACH…)</em></div>
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Starting late last year, though, US banks very slowly began to roll out something called the Real-time Payment system (RTP), which is similar to what Australian banks launched yesterday.</div>
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<em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">[That said, the banks themselves acknowledge that it could take several years to fully adopt RTP and integrate the new service with their existing online banking platforms.]</em></div>
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And beyond the US and Australia, there are other examples of banking systems around the world joining the 21st century and making major leaps forward in their payment system technologies.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: lucida_granderegular, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.3; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-top: 0.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<strong style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">It seems pretty clear they’re all playing catch-up with cryptocurrency.</strong></div>
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The rapid rise of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies proved to the banking system that it’s possible to conduct real-time [or <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">near-real</em>-time] transactions, and not have to wait 2-5 days for a payment to clear.</div>
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Combined with other new technologies like Peer-to-Peer lending platforms, fundraising websites, etc., consumers are now able to perform nearly every financial transaction imaginable– deposits, loans, transfers, etc.– WITHOUT using a bank.</div>
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</div>
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And it’s only getting better for consumers… which means it’s only getting worse for banks.</div>
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All of these threats from competing technologies have finally compelled the banks to innovate– literally for the FIRST TIME IN DECADES.</div>
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I’m serious.</div>
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When the CEO of the company launching RTP in the US announced the platform, he admitted that the <strong style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“RTP system will be <u style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">the first new payments system in the U.S. in more than 40 years.”</u></strong></div>
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That’s utterly pathetic. The Internet has been around for 25 years. Even PayPal is nearly 20 years old.</div>
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Yet despite the enormous advances in technology over the past several decades, <strong style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">the last major innovation in bank payments was back when <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Saturday Night Fever</em> was the #1 movie in America.</strong></div>
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Banks have been sitting on their laurels for decades, enjoying their monopoly over our savings without the slightest incentive to <strong style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">improve.</strong></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: lucida_granderegular, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.3; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-top: 0.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<strong style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Cryptocurrency has proven to be a major punch in the gut. </strong>The entire banking system keeled over in astonishment over Bitcoin’s rise, and <strong style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">they’ve been forced to come up with an answer.</strong></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: lucida_granderegular, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.3; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-top: 0.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
And to be fair, the banks have reclaimed the advantage for now.</div>
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NPP, RTP, and all the other new protocols are faster and more efficient than most cryptocurrencies.</div>
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Bitcoin, for example, can only handle around 3-7 transactions per second. Ethereum Classic maxes at around 15 transactions per second. Litecoin isn’t much better.</div>
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By comparison, there were 25 BILLION funds transfers in 2016 using the ACH network in the US.</div>
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Based on the typical holiday schedule and the banks’ 8-hour working days, that’s an average “throughput” of roughly 3500 transactions per second.</div>
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So, now that banks have finally figured out how to conduct thousands of transactions per second in real-time, they clearly have superiority.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: lucida_granderegular, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.3; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-top: 0.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<strong style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">But that superiority is unlikely to last.</strong></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: lucida_granderegular, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.3; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-top: 0.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
It takes banks decades to innovate. They have enormous bureaucratic hurdles to overcome. They have endless committees to appease, including the Federal Reserve’s “Faster Payments Task Force.”</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: lucida_granderegular, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.3; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-top: 0.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
And most importantly, given that most banks are still using absurdly antiquated software, any new systems they develop have to be carefully designed for backwards compatibility.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: lucida_granderegular, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.3; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-top: 0.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<strong style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Cryptofinance and other financial technology companies have no such limitations.</strong></div>
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As my colleague Tama mentioned in the <a href="https://join.sovereignman.com/2018_02_crypto_main" rel="noopener" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1e439a; display: inline; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">podcast we released yesterday</a>, the cryptocurrency space sort of exists in ‘dog years’.</div>
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Things move so quickly that one year in crypto is like 7 years for any other industry.</div>
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Right now there is almost a unified push across the crypto sector to solve the ‘scalability’ problem, i.e. to securely transact a near limitless number of transactions in real time.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: lucida_granderegular, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.3; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-top: 0.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<strong style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Those solutions will almost undoubtedly come from technologies that you haven’t heard very much about yet.</strong></div>
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Hashgraph and Radix, for example, are two such ventures working on extremely elegant payment solutions that break the mold of previous cryptos.</div>
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Rather than build upon standard cryptocurrency concepts like blockchain, Proof of Work, and Proof of Stake, both Hashgraph and Radix have created their own algorithms from scratch.</div>
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This is the bleeding edge of the bleeding edge of a massively disruptive sector that has existed for less than a decade.</div>
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And there are literally dozens of other companies and technologies aiming for similar heights.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: lucida_granderegular, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.3; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-top: 0.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Some of them will undoubtedly succeed. And still other ventures that won’t even be conceived for years will have yet more disruptive power in the future.</div>
<div class="ttfm1" data-unit="px" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #323232; font-family: lucida_granderegular, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 0.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<strong style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The banks don’t stand a chance. The future of finance absolutely belongs to crypto.</strong></div>
<div class="ttfm1" data-unit="px" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #323232; font-family: lucida_granderegular, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin-top: 0.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<strong style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></strong>
<strong style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-02-14/terrified-bitcoin-banks-forced-innovate-first-time-40-years" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Source</a></strong></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490234719945565283.post-65451149982611231272018-02-13T18:31:00.003-08:002018-02-13T18:31:59.442-08:00Next Bitcoin Bull Run to Occur in 2 Weeks: Pantera<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4JkGMYuLo_tBgFW-7i5Z3AQnUFj2wjcfzckxCN6-7SsiL1JUK94ZqpPCxOSFpw9T0QIKUqOT5sswhyNzrRi3AvOsueNnOt7XHrTJA7pDEyU5JYA8Cwl9o57UDsKKzihR1Eg2JVaadKcg/s1600/bull.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="440" data-original-width="680" height="414" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4JkGMYuLo_tBgFW-7i5Z3AQnUFj2wjcfzckxCN6-7SsiL1JUK94ZqpPCxOSFpw9T0QIKUqOT5sswhyNzrRi3AvOsueNnOt7XHrTJA7pDEyU5JYA8Cwl9o57UDsKKzihR1Eg2JVaadKcg/s640/bull.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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As <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/bitcoin.asp" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">bitcoin</a>, the world’s largest <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/cryptocurrency.asp&source=gmail&ust=1518559909696000&usg=AFQjCNFBZer8FIETk9wu6heFsoYXinKEvg" href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/cryptocurrency.asp" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">cryptocurrency</a> by <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/marketcapitalization.asp&source=gmail&ust=1518559909696000&usg=AFQjCNE-rpnAurpgKV-8ZN5gxVFTydrdnw" href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/marketcapitalization.asp" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">market capitalization</a>, continues to rebound from its lows reached last week, one <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/hedgefund.asp" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">hedge fund</a> manager expects a major price surge right around the corner.<br />
<div>
In an interview with CNBC, Pantera Capital founder and <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/ceo.asp&source=gmail&ust=1518559909696000&usg=AFQjCNFWi13udGkBrOuSQ4lMx_7HUG0VEw" href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/ceo.asp" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Chief Executive Officer</a> Dan Morehead made <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/bull.asp" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">bullish</a>
calls on bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market in general, suggesting
that despite a decline that coincided with a larger market <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/sell-off.asp&source=gmail&ust=1518559909696000&usg=AFQjCNHBad6tHAyZ2TYDGPSYNSyyiGebig" href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/sell-off.asp" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">sell-off</a>, the digital currency space is back on track to rake in returns for investors. (See also: <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://www.investopedia.com/news/berkeley-ca-considers-ico-hedge-against-possible-funding-cut/&source=gmail&ust=1518559909696000&usg=AFQjCNERMvOUCC-8wAXIyfYITABOD_a3xA" href="https://www.investopedia.com/news/berkeley-ca-considers-ico-hedge-against-possible-funding-cut/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><em>City of Berkeley Considers ICO to Raise Funds</em>.</a>)</div>
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“We’re certainly aware that it’s a very speculative market,” said
Morehead. “Its volatile on the upside, but it can be volatile on the
downside.” </div>
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<h2>
71-Day Countdown</h2>
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The cryptocurrency enthusiast noted that bitcoin had a 64% fall
from its peak around $20,000 to its recent trough, “and that’s exactly
the average decline in the bitcoin market over the last seven <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/bearmarket.asp" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">bear-market</a>
cycles.” Adding that while “the past doesn’t predict the future,”
Morehead indicated that the dip seems like the right correction for the
digital currency based on historical price fluctuations. </div>
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</div>
<div>
The hedge fund CEO also said that bitcoin has had an average bear
market of 71 days, and that the current cycle is in its 52nd day. “So it
seems like another couple of weeks and everything will be kind of
normal and it could start grinding back up,” he stated. </div>
<h2>
Further Regulation Welcome</h2>
Bitcoin investors, who are used to major price fluctuations, should also gain from the entrance of <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/institutionalinvestor.asp" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">institutional investors</a>
into the market, according to the Pantera founder. “There’s such an
institutional appetite to get exposure to this. It’s a
half-a-trillion-dollar <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/assetclasses.asp" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">asset class</a>
that nobody owns. That’s a pretty wild circumstance. And it’s also only
got a 0.1% correlation to the rest of the financial markets,” said
Morehead.<br />
<div>
As more institutional investors start trading the “underowned”
digital currency, bitcoin should see its market value rise, according to
the investor. He also notes that while many view cryptocurrency
regulation as a negative headwind, the U.S. has done a “commendable job”
and that more regulation should help the market grow at a healthy pace.</div>
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<a href="https://www.investopedia.com/news/next-bitcoin-bull-run-occur-2-weeks-pantera/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Source </a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490234719945565283.post-452909906609269792018-02-12T18:58:00.001-08:002018-02-12T18:58:17.381-08:00UNIVERSITY STUDENTS RUSH TO TAKE CRYPTOCURRENCY AND BLOCKCHAIN COURSES<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4a4b58; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 17px; letter-spacing: 0.2px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;">The most popular courses on campuses in the U.S. and across the globe are on Bitcoin and its blockchain technology. In parallel, educational institutions are <a href="https://bitcoinist.com/academia-fully-embracing-bitcoin/" rel="noopener nofollow" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0099fe; text-decoration-line: none; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;" target="_blank">creating</a> innovative ways to attract the brightest students. For example, Varna University of Management offers Bitcoin scholarships.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiET-uvSbZSgx4hEXDWL4iLx5NuwRc9LPC5wBCZfC9Os4IG0CfwUbjZ1xI0OOPcKPF9raVFJOw2P63ZCldJyNBsJVGQb3OD0bvsDSvCQc1XXwVBbfEZxpj1qACmzpxK5DbQ2XlYsn0CIvo/s1600/mk7fn3dk-1393203038_opt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="267" data-original-width="400" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiET-uvSbZSgx4hEXDWL4iLx5NuwRc9LPC5wBCZfC9Os4IG0CfwUbjZ1xI0OOPcKPF9raVFJOw2P63ZCldJyNBsJVGQb3OD0bvsDSvCQc1XXwVBbfEZxpj1qACmzpxK5DbQ2XlYsn0CIvo/s640/mk7fn3dk-1393203038_opt.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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BITCOIN’S TECHNOLOGY CAPTIVATES ACADEMIA</h3>
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Student demand for courses on Bitcoin and its underlying technology, the blockchain, is putting elite U.S. universities under pressure.</div>
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Students from all disciplines are rushing to sign up for courses that cover technical concepts underlying Bitcoin and Ethereum, such as decentralized consensus, append-only ledgers, smart contracts, and zero-knowledge proof systems. Students are also seeking to gain working familiarity with cryptocurrencies through practical assignments.</div>
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Nathaniel Popper <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/08/technology/cryptocurrencies-come-to-campus.html" rel="noopener nofollow" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0099fe; text-decoration-line: none; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;" target="_blank">wrote</a> in a <em style="box-sizing: border-box; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;">New York Times</em> an article entitled “Cryptocurrencies Come to Campus,” describing the extent to which courses on cryptocurrencies are attracting students across elite institutions such as Cornell, Duke, Carnegie Mellon, the University of Maryland and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.</div>
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Requests for courses on cryptocurrencies are skyrocketing. According to Popper, David Yarmack, a business law professor at New York University, has been offering courses on Bitcoin since 2014. Most recently, when he booked a lecture hall for 180 students, he found out that 225 students had registered. He had to move to a larger lecture hall.</div>
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Spots to study about virtual currencies are becoming in short supply all over academia. Popper also reports:</div>
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<span style="font-style: italic; letter-spacing: 0.2px;">Last month at the University of California, Berkeley, students were lining the walls and sitting in the aisles for the first lecture of ‘Blockchain Cryptoeconomics and the Future of Technology, Business and Law’</span></div>
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Dawn Song, a computer science professor, consoled his students by saying, “there are bazillion other students who are waiting for your spot.”</div>
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UNIVERSITY ENTICEMENTS AND ONLINE COURSES ON CRYPTOCURRENCIES</h3>
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Demand for cryptocurrency-related jobs is booming. However, there are not enough specialists with the required skills to fill these positions. Consequently, most universities are now offering Bitcoin education. Additionally, universities are creating innovative ways to attract the brightest students. Some universities are even <a href="https://bitcoinist.com/esmt-berlin-university-accepts-bitcoin/" rel="noopener nofollow" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0099fe; text-decoration-line: none; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;" target="_blank">accepting</a> tuition payments in Bitcoin.</div>
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On the other hand, Varna University of Management is offering Bitcoin scholarships. To apply for a scholarship in Bitcoin, read <a href="https://vum.bg/vum-bitcoin-scholarships/" rel="noopener nofollow" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0099fe; text-decoration-line: none; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;" target="_blank">here</a>.</div>
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Online courses are also in high demand. In partnership with Coursera, Princeton University developed one of the most popular courses, “Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies,” which is <a href="https://online.princeton.edu/course/bitcoin-and-cryptocurrency-technologies" rel="noopener nofollow" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0099fe; text-decoration-line: none; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;" target="_blank">delivered</a> online to massive numbers of students.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4a4b58; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 17px; letter-spacing: 0.2px; margin-bottom: 2.3rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;">
Stanford University <a href="https://online.stanford.edu/course/bitcoin-and-crypto-currencies" rel="noopener nofollow" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0099fe; text-decoration-line: none; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;" target="_blank">offers</a> online courses that include topics such as, altcoins, consensus protocols, mining strategies and incentives, and Bitcoin transactions.</div>
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Bitcoin and its blockchain technology are promising new and fantastic business solutions. But, to seize these opportunities, workers with a specialized skillset are required. Therefore, colleges and universities play a crucial role in disseminating knowledge about Bitcoin’s technology, promoting Bitcoin’s adoption, and forming the workers and leaders of the future.</div>
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<a href="https://bitcoinist.com/university-students-rush-take-cryptocurrency-blockchain-courses/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Source</a> </div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490234719945565283.post-42567505229007646382018-02-11T13:16:00.001-08:002018-02-11T13:16:11.058-08:00Litecoin vs Bitcoin.A side by side comparison. (How does a popular altcoin match up to the original?)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCRiFSC8ClsjfB0UUghxvTy-iM4nUJbSkKTDc64mmyAgaDYxUm5DsCctIr7wxXmKdRuXyFcBQQtpugMwOvD79a7T7S0b2gKa4AweIkslqwPtkJOdHoCIUKBK0fapuZlRjtKfpiFDZxWdA/s1600/faceoff.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="573" data-original-width="1280" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCRiFSC8ClsjfB0UUghxvTy-iM4nUJbSkKTDc64mmyAgaDYxUm5DsCctIr7wxXmKdRuXyFcBQQtpugMwOvD79a7T7S0b2gKa4AweIkslqwPtkJOdHoCIUKBK0fapuZlRjtKfpiFDZxWdA/s640/faceoff.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Although Bitcoin remains the flagship cryptocurrency to many, that
hasn’t stopped hundreds of developers from releasing hundreds of
alternative coins over the years. One of the first to hit the scene was
Litecoin in 2011, making it one of the oldest “altcoins” — and a
powerful cryptocurrency in its own right, with a market worth billions.<br />
But what if you pit Litecoin vs. Bitcoin? Is one cryptocurrency
better than the other everywhere, or do they both have their strengths?
In this breakdown, we’ll match the two head to head to see which one
you’re best off buyng, whatever you want to use them for.<br />
<br />
<h2>
As a store of value</h2>
Although making money wasn’t the original idea for cryptocurrencies,
that’s what many buyers and sellers use them for, not least because
almost all have spiked in value in recent months. Many early owners have
made huge amounts of money over the past year. That’s not to say any of
it is a guarantee. Cryptocurrencies of all types are notoriously
volatile, and have been especially so in recent times.<br />
Bitcoin went from being worth around $1,000 at the start of 2017 to
close to $20,000 in December, before settling to around $12,000 at the
start of 2018. <a href="https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/what-is-litecoin/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Litecoin had a similarly meteoric rise</a>.
It rose from just $4 in January 2017 to more than $370 at its peak less
than 12 months later. At the time of writing, it’s corrected to $153.07<br />
This is a pattern that’s been repeated among most cryptocurrencies,
however. With Litecoin at least, there is a lot of name recognition. As
one of the oldest cryptocurrencies, it’s established and has a longer
history than almost all others of retaining its value over time. It’s
also supported by a wide array of exchanges, making it easier to <a href="https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/how-to-buy-litecoin/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">buy and sell Litecoin</a>. With a growing list of avenues where you can spend Litecoin, it is a more useful cryptocurrency than most.<br />
All of the above benefits are also present with Bitcoin. It has the
longest proven record of all cryptocurrencies by virtue of being the
very first. It’s also accepted at the most outlets, and its support
across the globe is strongest. When it comes to name recognition too,
there is no denying that Bitcoin is the most visible. For more
mainstream audiences, Bitcoin and cryptocurrency are synonymous, and
with a topic as complicated as this, that seems unlikely to change.<br />
Bitcoin is still the best store of value. It’s well recognized,
supported by almost all cryptocurrency services, and has a longer
history. Litecoin is <a href="https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/best-bitcoin-alternatives/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">one of the better alt-coins</a> when it comes to storing value, however, so it’s a good pick if you’re looking to try out a different currency.<br />
<h2>
As a transaction medium</h2>
Even if Bitcoin is stronger as a way of storing value over time,
Litecoin clearly has the edge in transferring wealth as payments and
transactions. That shouldn’t be too much of a surprise, as that was the
original purpose of the cryptocurrency. Litecoin’s key developer,
Charlie Lee, realized that Bitcoin was going to find things difficult
when it reached a certain concentration of users. Namely, he saw that
transaction fees were going to go up in the future due to fundamental
problems with Bitcoin’s design.<br />
It’s all about speed. Bitcoin’s block confirmation time is 10
minutes. In comparison, Litecoin’s block time is a quarter of that, with
an average of 2.5 minutes. That means Litecoin transactions are
confirmed faster, and that in turn means there’s less of a backlog, and
fees can be lower.<br />
At the time of writing, Litecoin has maintained that average block time of around 2.5 minutes, with transaction costs for those <a href="https://bitinfocharts.com/comparison/litecoin-transactionfees.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">completing transactions somewhere around $0.30</a>. In comparison, <a href="https://bitinfocharts.com/comparison/bitcoin-confirmationtime.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Bitcoin’s current block time average</a>
is just over nine minutes, with the average transaction fee at $8.50.
This is a marked improvement over recent times, where fees reached as
high as $50 per transaction. Changes being implemented on the Bitcoin
network make it unlukunl such fees will return, but it is possible.<br />
That’s not to say that Litecoin’s implementation is perfect. There is
some debate over whether a faster block time results in a less-secure
transaction system, though that hasn’t manifested in any major problems <a href="https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/what-is-a-blockchain/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">on the blockchain</a>
as of yet. Bitcoin does also have a wider array of purchasable goods
and services online, so if you’re looking to buy something with your
cryptocurrency, bitcoin does have an edge, even if it’s more expensive.<br />
For the time being, Litecoin will be a faster and cheaper way of
transacting online, even if there aren’t quite as many outlets available
for its usage.<br />
<h2>
So which is best?</h2>
With most cryptocurrencies, the question of ‘which is best'(?) isn’t
easy to answer. No cryptocurrency is a sure thing and every single one
of them has potential and features that the others don’t. The best way
to answer that question is to base it on what you want to use it for. In
the case of Litecoin vs. Bitcoin, there are two key points that should
be looked at. If you are looking to purchase for the long term, Bitcoin
is your best bet, and if you’re looking to transfer and spend
cryptocurrency on a regular basis, Litecoin is the better option.<br />
That should be considered alongside a major caveat, however: Both
cryptocurrencies are relatively reliable. Litecoin is a decent store of
value in its own right, and Bitcoin isn’t as bad as it once was for
transacting online. Indeed if you don’t mind the fees,
confirmations aren’t as slow coming as you might imagine, even if
Litecoin’s block time is far faster.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"> <a href="https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/litecoin-vs-bitcoin/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Source</a></span></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490234719945565283.post-67824186036204769612018-02-10T12:38:00.000-08:002018-02-10T12:38:02.094-08:00Bitcoins Worth $4.7 Million Seized in Fake ID Case<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="article content body clearfix" id="article-body">
<div class="padded">
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheyeDkQsu7NcfB8BlgGysYryzyFdCho9xRjW6WPqMynDcALmBKH1mgEA5Jf4wW-7kf3CUAbQODF3YkpFB-gRbEjg0o2GVGCapcsbmetaFsCqh0GwDQkRdIaizVzMXYWih4109kZJCeAok/s1600/police+lite.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheyeDkQsu7NcfB8BlgGysYryzyFdCho9xRjW6WPqMynDcALmBKH1mgEA5Jf4wW-7kf3CUAbQODF3YkpFB-gRbEjg0o2GVGCapcsbmetaFsCqh0GwDQkRdIaizVzMXYWih4109kZJCeAok/s640/police+lite.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
As law enforcement grows increasingly adept at tracking <a href="http://fortune.com/2018/02/08/litecoin-monero-cryptocurrency-bitcoin/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Bitcoin transactions</a>,
federal investigators have seized some $4.7 million worth of Bitcoin in
what has been described as a “large scale” fake ID operation.<br />
That’s according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/02/08/us/ap-us-fake-id-investigation.html" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">the <em>Associated Pres</em></a><em><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/02/08/us/ap-us-fake-id-investigation.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">s</a></em>,
which reports that a district court in Ohio has charged Mark Simon of
falsifying identification documents. Authorities seized the
cryptocurrencies, along with computers, printers, as well as gold and
silver bars inside the home of the alleged fake ID maker.<br />
Still, investigators didn’t find the alleged
ID-maker’s trail using Bitcoin—but rather using Reddit. Simon was
allegedly peddling his goods via Reddit—leaving a trail leading to a
college student who told regulators that a friend bought a falsified ID
using the site.<br />
The news comes as criminals are gravitating toward other cryptocurrencies such as <a href="http://fortune.com/2018/02/08/litecoin-monero-cryptocurrency-bitcoin/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Litecoin or Monero instead of Bitcoin</a>,
as investigators grow more savvy with tracking the “poster child” of
cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrencies in general are thought to be favored
in criminal transactions, as they are pseudonymous and harder to track.
Though even with Bitcoin and its peers, the problem of marketing goods
is still difficult for those hoping to erase their trail.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://fortune.com/2018/02/09/bitcoin-seized-fake-id-case/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Source </a><br />
</div>
</div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490234719945565283.post-42128003641007828382018-02-08T13:37:00.003-08:002018-02-08T13:37:53.719-08:00Those who can’t see Bitcoin’s potential are suffering from a “failure of imagination.” says these Bitcoin millionaires.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkLrCKRFzOR117BUslIcOIrjSrQrJ4KlXKfz5MOtbyV2Pd1AmxmGDITp9pvC-K9S2WLXHZed29xhE8zcroob7mzmhthe7bVcdhDvo9DZPSn-CpMxWI1M5xJX98kBXU_9COdbgTb_onlVo/s1600/twins.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkLrCKRFzOR117BUslIcOIrjSrQrJ4KlXKfz5MOtbyV2Pd1AmxmGDITp9pvC-K9S2WLXHZed29xhE8zcroob7mzmhthe7bVcdhDvo9DZPSn-CpMxWI1M5xJX98kBXU_9COdbgTb_onlVo/s640/twins.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<h1 class="headline heading-content margin-8-top margin-16-bottom">
Winklevoss Twins Say Bitcoin Will Hit $320,000</h1>
<br />
<div class="article content body clearfix" id="article-body">
<div class="padded">
Bitcoin may have had a rocky last couple months, to <a href="http://fortune.com/2018/02/06/bitcoin-price-cryptocurrency-historical-investment-losses/">put it mildly</a>, but some boosters still have their <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/will-i-am-let-s-put-our-optimism-goggles-on/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">optimism goggles</a> on. Case in point: the Winklevii.<br />
Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, the erstwhile <a href="http://fortune.com/fortune500/facebook/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> <a href="http://archive.fortune.com/2009/06/25/technology/founding_of_facebook.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2009062512">power-scrabblers</a> who <a href="http://fortune.com/2017/12/04/winklevoss-twins-bitcoin-billionaires/">made</a> and <a href="http://fortune.com/2018/01/18/winklevoss-twins-bitcoin-crash/">lost</a> a fortune with Bitcoin’s rise and fall, are insisting that the cryptocurrency will appreciate 40 times in value.<br />
“We think regardless of the price moves in the last few weeks, it’s still a very under-appreciated asset,” Cameron Winklevoss <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/07/winklevoss-twins-bitcoin-will-be-worth-40-times-current-value.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">told CNBC</a>. Tyler chipped in that those who can’t see Bitcoin’s potential are suffering from a “failure of imagination.”<br />
The twins’ argument is that people are missing the
point when they try to think of cryptocurrencies in terms of
person-to-person transactions. Instead, they say, the likes of Bitcoin
will be extremely useful when machines trade economic value between
themselves—for example, when a driverless car needs to pay another
driverless car.<br />
<div class="ad ad-container ad-wrapper type-728x90 instream-ad tablet-ad desktop-ad tgx-processed" data-dimensions="728x90" data-tgxlazy="50" data-tgxtargeting="%7B%7D" id="ad-728x90_LL_td_1">
</div>
Cryptocurrencies’ extreme volatility dissuades many
people from using them to pay for things, and vendors from allowing
payments in Bitcoin—it’s too hard to accurately price things in Bitcoin,
and when the value is rising there’s more to gain from hoarding
Bitcoins than from spending them.<br />
The volatility also leads to more transactions, which
leads to higher transaction fees in Bitcoin’s congested network—a big
problem if Bitcoin-based micropayments are to become a serious prospect.<br />
Winklevii aside, other people who stand to gain from
Bitcoin’s success also continue to talk up its prospects. A day ago it
was the exchange Gatecoin, whose APAC business development chief, Thomas
Glucksmann, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/07/bitcoin-price-could-hit-50000-this-year-experts-say.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">said</a> there was “no reason why we couldn’t see bitcoin pushing $50,000 by December.”<br />
At the time of writing, one Bitcoin was worth around
$8,470. The price neared $20,000 in early December before a series of
regulatory moves around the world led to crashes that knocked it as low
as $5,950 earlier this week.<br />
</div>
</div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490234719945565283.post-12891885650280009572018-02-08T13:25:00.002-08:002018-02-08T13:25:13.980-08:00If there was no Bitcoin, there would be no distributed ledger technology.Cryptocurrency is not a bubble.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD1BHfcbK0pentI-_uKUdflqzlloJy5XzBeXauZHkhEuTfDlDf0HYEJxr8qEHxnZzrqtkO86bsHuUyl7BAaAmuMr9NiPfKNlA8zJIaIbgVh1D8heApK1lzgju-8nGElTbpDc7WSis3gdQ/s1600/bitbull.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="900" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD1BHfcbK0pentI-_uKUdflqzlloJy5XzBeXauZHkhEuTfDlDf0HYEJxr8qEHxnZzrqtkO86bsHuUyl7BAaAmuMr9NiPfKNlA8zJIaIbgVh1D8heApK1lzgju-8nGElTbpDc7WSis3gdQ/s640/bitbull.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<h3 class="header" style="text-align: left;">
<b>Crypto receives major recognition from US authorities.</b></h3>
<div class="header" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
Bitcoin and its crypto brethren received an unlikely
lifeline from American trading regulators on Tuesday this week, which
ended in a <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-market-rebound-btc-back-over-8k-top-100-coins-in-the-green" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">complete turnaround after a nasty market crash</a>.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
<a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/sec-and-cftc-hearing-more-legitimate-icos-or-if-there-was-no-bitcoin-there-would-be-no-blockchain" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Commodities and Future Trading Commission and the US Securities Exchange Commission</a>
held a highly anticipated hearing on Tuesday, focused on their stance
towards cryptocurrencies, initial coin offerings and Blockchain
technology.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
The discourse came at a crucial juncture, as the overall cryptocurrency market endured a spiraling sell off which saw <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/traditional-markets-nosedive-following-bitcoins-own-slump-below-7k" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Bitcoin reach lows below $7,000</a>, a figure not seen in over five months.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
Industry
experts and pundits took to social media platforms, posting updates
from the hearing which saw CFTC Chair Christopher Giancarlo and SEC
Chair Jay Clayton make some highly influential statements about the
current stance towards the overall cryptocurrency and Blockchain space.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
With
a prevailing sentiment of fear, uncertainty and doubt, a negative
stance from the two bodies that hold the future of mainstream
cryptocurrency trade could have been as good as a death knell.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
But both bodies unveiled balanced and positive sentiments towards cryptocurrencies and Blockchain technology.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
Giancarlo
delivered an upbeat address saying “if there was no Bitcoin, there
would be no distributed ledger technology,” when he was asked about the
value of Bitcoin.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
<a href="http://www.cftc.gov/idc/groups/public/@newsroom/documents/speechandtestimony/opagiancarlo37.pdf" rel="nofollow,noopener" target="_blank">He also made it clear in his written testimony that cryptocurrencies are here to say</a> and that regulation needs to nurture the sector while protecting investors.</div>
<blockquote>
<div dir="ltr">
“Virtual
currencies mark a paradigm shift in how we think about payments,
traditional financial processes, and engaging in economic activity.
Ignoring these developments will not make them go away, nor is it a
responsible regulatory response. The evolution of these assets, their
volatility, and the interest they attract from a rising global
millennial population demand serious examination.”</div>
</blockquote>
<div dir="ltr">
<a href="https://www.banking.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/a5e72ac6-4f8a-473f-9c9c-e2894573d57d/BF62433A09A9B95A269A29E1FF13D2BA.clayton-testimony-2-6-18.pdf" rel="nofollow,noopener" target="_blank">Clayton echoed the sentiments</a>
of the CFTC chair, but he also produced a discourse that gave credit to
the cryptocurrency industry for adding a new paradigm to the financial
system:</div>
<blockquote>
<div dir="ltr">
“Distributed ledger and other
emerging technologies have the potential to further influence and
improve the capital markets and the financial services industry.”</div>
</blockquote>
<div dir="ltr">
Clayton
also hammered home the importance of fair regulatory frameworks that
will create an environment that benefits all parties involved.</div>
<blockquote>
<div dir="ltr">
“Said
simply, we should embrace the pursuit of technological advancement, as
well as new and innovative techniques for capital raising, but not at
the expense of the principles undermining our well-founded and proven
approach to protecting investors and markets.”</div>
</blockquote>
<h2 dir="ltr">
Markets react favorably</h2>
<div dir="ltr">
The overarching reaction following the hearing has had a <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-market-sees-slight-rebound-during-sec-cftc-hearings" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">positive effect on the cryptocurrency markets</a>.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
Bitcoin and Ethereum had seen 20 percent growth in value, <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/" rel="nofollow,noopener" target="_blank">according to CoinMarketCap data</a>, at the time of writing, and the rest of the cryptocurrency market was in the green.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
This latest development has provided the first bit of positive sentiment in over a fortnight. China has reiterated it’s <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-dips-below-7k-amidst-news-of-chinas-full-ban-of-cryptocurrency-exchanges" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">zero-tolerance of cryptocurrency</a>, <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/interview-with-indias-three-largest-exchanges-cryptocurrency-ban-rumors-are-fud" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">India’s</a> regulatory stance has been taken badly, and a number of<a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/jp-morgan-chase-bans-buying-cryptocurrency-with-credit-cards" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> mainstream banks have ruled out cryptocurrency purchases with credit cards</a>.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
These developments culminated in a highly volatile, <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/traditional-markets-nosedive-following-bitcoins-own-slump-below-7k" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">selling-spree in the cryptocurrency market</a>.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
But,
with regulatory bodies like the CFTC and SEC promising to foster
environments conducive to the growth and development of legitimate
cryptocurrencies, fears have been allayed.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
What remains to be seen is if this is the start of a fresh wave of positive growth in value for the cryptocurrency space.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
The developments have had a number of high profile pundits posting upbeat predictions in response.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
Canadian Twitter user Armin van Bitcoin said that the Mayer Multiple is signaling a strong buy signal for Bitcoin:</div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
Smart <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/bitcoin?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel="nofollow,noopener" target="_blank">#bitcoin</a>
investors capitulate based on long term trends. The Mayer Multiple is a
great example of this, using the 200 DMA to derive its formula. The
multiple is currently signalling a <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%24BTC&src=ctag&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel="nofollow,noopener" target="_blank">$BTC</a> buy. Any questions? 🚀🌖<br /><br />200 DMA: $6,858<br />Current Price: $8,425<br />Mayer Multiple: 1.228 <a href="https://t.co/IPRzWiCCuw" rel="nofollow,noopener" target="_blank">pic.twitter.com/IPRzWiCCuw</a></div>
— Armin van Bitcoin ⚡ (@ArminVanBitcoin) <a href="https://twitter.com/ArminVanBitcoin/status/961621161108000768?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel="nofollow,noopener" target="_blank">February 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
Software
engineer Pierre Rochard quoted Xapo CEO Wences Casares in a tweet that
emphasized patience in the world of cryptocurrencies.<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
“If I am impatient - that’s my problem, that’s not Bitcoin’s problem. Bitcoin has all the patience in the world.” - <a href="https://twitter.com/wences?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel="nofollow,noopener" target="_blank">@wences</a><br /><br />Extreme ownership. That is leadership. 🤝<br /><br />Onwards and upwards! Bitcoin’s greatest days are ahead.</div>
— Pierre Rochard (@pierre_rochard) <a href="https://twitter.com/pierre_rochard/status/961605000316276742?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel="nofollow,noopener" target="_blank">February 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
<a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/sec-cftc-breathe-life-into-floundering-crypto-market" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Source</a><br />
<div class="header" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490234719945565283.post-22304197452367248802018-02-07T05:45:00.003-08:002018-02-07T05:45:46.516-08:00Crypto market bounces up after this happened...Watch closely<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTdvHdjVZk6SWwebuuKx6ELIixiKlHadtFUkASKWO_nvyIcE3uAH2wnxVoU7ho2xqwvoZzIQupVelw8aMCOJIJIKKRrMAC8IG2ewFJOZqOWZyrGYEmUzzc4E3-Dny2mzXYojaOatYDHy8/s1600/bounce.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1200" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTdvHdjVZk6SWwebuuKx6ELIixiKlHadtFUkASKWO_nvyIcE3uAH2wnxVoU7ho2xqwvoZzIQupVelw8aMCOJIJIKKRrMAC8IG2ewFJOZqOWZyrGYEmUzzc4E3-Dny2mzXYojaOatYDHy8/s640/bounce.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<br />
Comments that came from industry observers in the wake of
a hearing held Tuesday by the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing
and Urban Affairs, one that addressed the question of how lawmakers
should consider cryptocurrency regulation were largely positive and the msrket has reacted in like manner.
<br />
Widely anticipated due to its positioning amidst what has been one of the biggest industry bubbles, the event <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/cftc-sec-chairs-strike-open-tone-on-new-crypto-exchange-rules/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">saw</a> the heads of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/crypto-need-new-regulation-us-senate-re-opens-debate/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">testify</a> on a range of topics including market oversight, <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/cftcs-giancarlo-used-volatile-assets-like-bitcoin/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">price volatility</a> and <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/cftcs-giancarlo-used-volatile-assets-like-bitcoin/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">the regulatory concerns</a> around initial coin offerings (ICOs).<br />
However, it was perhaps the measured and sophisticated nature of the dialogue that most stood out to observers queried.<br />
Stephen Palley, an attorney for Washington, D.C.-based law firm
Anderson Kill, said he was impressed at the level of knowledge displayed
by both the committee members as well as the regulators themselves
about such a seemingly esoteric topic as cryptocurrency.<br />
Palley told CoinDesk:<br />
<blockquote>
"It's amazing that nine years after the Satoshi white
paper, you've got senators talking about this shit and not pooh-poohing
it."</blockquote>
Attorney Zoe Dolan struck an optimistic tone in the wake of the hearing as well, <a href="https://twitter.com/ZoeJDolan/status/960915896804958208" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">taking to Twitter</a> to write that "this hearing has made me so bullish I can hardly stand it."<br />
"As a lawyer – and a criminal defense lawyer in particular – I was
heartened to hear acknowledgment that existing laws suffice to address
age-old human conduct," she later told CoinDesk, adding: "Fraud is
fraud."<br />
Berger Singerman LLP partner Andrew Hinkes also highlighted the
admission from both agencies that there is a need for more resources to
keep an eye on a rapidly-expanding industry.<br />
"Although this may stoke fear in the community, more resources may
lead to better, more thoughtful and more facilitative regulation.
Regulation is helpful when it provides useful guidance," he said.<br />
<h2>
More clarity needed?</h2>
Optimism aside, some market observers said they believe the hearing
revealed the need for more clarity on the regulatory front – something
that both agency chairs <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/crypto-need-new-regulation-us-senate-re-opens-debate/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">indicated</a> may be necessary in statements that broached possible action from the U.S. Congress.<br />
Reading between the lines of Clayton's remarks, Carol van Cleef, a
veteran Washington banking lawyer, said a key takeaway was the "need for
clearer jurisdictional lines."<br />
And though he made a point of the fact that the SEC is coordinating
with the CFTC and Federal Reserve, Clayton "kept talking about the
patchwork system," van Cleef said.<br />
"If he didn’t say it specifically," she continued, "he [implied] that it isn't enough for this space."<br />
The subtext, she said, is that "somebody’s got to take control of this at the federal level.”<br />
This could be problematic for businesses, such as bitcoin exchanges,
that have spent the last few years building compliance programs under
the framework of money services businesses registered with FinCEN and
money transmitters licensed by the states.<br />
"I did not hear enough today recognizing those kinds of efforts," van Cleef said.<br />
<h2>
Bigger picture understanding</h2>
Others who took in Tuesday's hearing highlighted another cause for
celebration: that both lawmakers and regulators seemed to agree that
cryptocurrencies are here to stay, risks aside.<br />
Indeed, both Giancarlo and Clayton <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/thered-no-dlt-without-bitcoin-says-cftc-chief/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">remarked</a>
on the possible uses of the tech, with the CFTC head scoring points
among the crypto-community for his comment, "If there were no bitcoin,
there would be no distributed ledger technology."<br />
This sentiment was expressed by several senators in attendance as well.<br />
Coin Center executive director Jerry Brito said of the hearing:<br />
<blockquote>
"Senators and regulators are certainly concerned about
fraud and volatile markets in cryptocurrency, but it was clear from
today's hearing that they also understand, as Senator Warner suggested,
that it may be as transformational as mobile telephony."</blockquote>
According to Palley, the takeaway may ultimately be that U.S.
policymakers "understand the technology" and are willing to engage in
"responsible enforcement and regulation."<br />
<h2>
What comes next</h2>
One of the obvious questions remaining in the wake of the hearing,
however, is what actions – both from Congress and the regulators – is to
come.<br />
Indeed, while Clayton himself remarked that the agencies may approach
lawmakers asking for wider powers or more sophisticated oversight
tools, Congress could, in theory, take the first step on its own. Van
Cleef said she was struck by the way Clayton "made it clear that the
gatekeepers, lawyers and accountants are subject to SEC jurisdiction."<br />
That made her think that "there must be something in the offing" in
terms of regulatory actions against such professionals, she said.<br />
Testimony about coordination between federal and state-based
regulators, aimed at addressing what Clayton characterized as a
"patchwork" of rules, signals that additional steps could be taken on
that front in the coming months.<br />
Perianne Boring of the D.C.-based trade organization, the Chamber of Digital Commerce, pointed to this as a positive sign.<br />
"We're encouraged that the SEC and CFTC are working with others to
address the patchwork of regulation that suppresses growth and consumer
choice, and provide a runway for the U.S. to retain its leadership in
technological innovation," she told CoinDesk in an email.<br />
Likely to come, as suggested by Palley, is a push from both agencies
to step up their enforcement efforts against bad actors in the space.<br />
He remarked:<br />
<blockquote>
"If you're somebody who's an innovator and not afraid of
the law, this was quite positive. If you're running a $200 million ICO
and didn't follow the law you might be a little worried now."</blockquote>
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-crypto-us-senate-hearing-february-2018/amp/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Source </a></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490234719945565283.post-87418883071416798222018-02-05T12:30:00.000-08:002018-02-05T12:30:49.489-08:00Canada banks won't stop credit card transactions for Crypto<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<br />
<br />
Canada’s biggest banks still allow customers to buy Bitcoin and other
cryptocurrencies with debit and credit cards, even as some U.S. lenders
move to block such transactions.<br />
<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/TD:CN" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" title="Geographic Segmentation">Toronto-Dominion Bank</a>,
Canada’s largest lender by assets, permits such purchases using a TD
credit or debit card as long as the merchant is authorized to accept
Visa, Mastercard, Interac or Visa debit and the transaction isn’t
determined to be fraudulent, Julie Bellissimo, a spokeswoman, said
Monday in a statement.<br />
Royal
Bank of Canada, the No. 2 lender, said it allows credit cards to be
used for transactions involving cryptocurrency “in limited
circumstances.”<br />
“We recognize that regulatory, risk and other external
environmental factors relating to cryptocurrency continues to evolve,”
RBC spokesman AJ Goodman said in a statement. “As such, we continue to
review our policies to consider how we can best support clients.”<br />
In the U.S., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. have in the past four days <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-02/bofa-to-decline-all-cryptocurrency-transactions-on-credit-cards" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Bitcoin Ban Expands Across Credit Cards as Big U.S. Banks Recoil">halted</a>
purchases of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on their credit cards.
Canadian banks say they’re watching carefully -- especially with
increasing regulatory scrutiny and the plunge in Bitcoin prices, which
fell below $7,300 Monday to its lowest since mid-November.<br />
“There
is nothing that would generally block a transaction, however we are
carefully reviewing our policy,” Rick Roth, a Bank of Nova Scotia
spokesman, said in an emailed statement.<br />
National Bank of Canada,
the country’s sixth-largest lender, said it allows cryptocurrency
transactions. Bank of Montreal and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce
didn’t immediately provide comment on their cryptocurrency policies.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-05/canada-s-banks-allow-credit-card-crypto-purchases-for-now" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Source </a></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490234719945565283.post-68981625595290855202018-02-04T13:57:00.002-08:002018-02-04T14:32:32.663-08:00China follows in Facebook's steps.Bans all Crypto ads on Baidu and Weibo<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div dir="ltr">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
Cryptocurrency-related advertisements have stopped appearing on <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/tags/china" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Chinese</a> search engine <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/tags/baidu" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Baidu</a>
and social media platform Weibo, amidst reports of China’s government
tightening cryptocurrency and Initial Coin Offering regulations on
Sunday, Feb. 4.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
The Financial Times of the People’s Bank
of China (PBOC) was told today, Feb. 4, that China will further
increase regulatory pressure on cryptocurrency exchange sites and <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/tags/ico" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Initial Coin Offerings</a> (ICOs), Chinese news site <a href="http://finance.sina.com.cn/stock/jhzx/2018-02-04/doc-ifyreyvz9015706.shtml" rel="nofollow,noopener" target="_blank">Sina</a> reported.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
In September 2017, China <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/What-are-the-Causes-of-ICO-Ban-in-China-and-What-Happens-Next" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">banned both ICOs</a> and <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/china-will-heavily-crack-down-on-all-bitcoin-trades" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">cryptocurrency exchanges</a>. Some of those businesses responding by <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/how-chinese-bitcoin-buyers-are-getting-around-government-ban" target="_blank">relocating off the mainland</a> to Hong Kong. Now, Sina reports, Chinese government plans to mitigate that by banning domestic and foreign <i>“virtual currency exchange websites.”</i></div>
<div dir="ltr">
Meanwhile, the South China Morning Post news site <a href="http://www.scmp.com/tech/china-tech/article/2131419/bitcoin-ads-disappear-social-media-china-after-central-bank-bans" rel="nofollow,noopener" target="_blank">reported</a> that when the terms, in Chinese, “bitcoin,” “cryptocurrency,” and “<a href="https://cointelegraph.com/tags/ico" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">ICO</a>” were searched on Chinese search-engine <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/tags/baidu" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Baidu</a> and microblog Weibo, no obvious paid sponsored content came up alongside the expected organic results.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
While Baidu had stopped advertising cryptocurrency-related searches <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/baidu-stops-all-bitcoin-related-advertising" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">back in August 2016</a>,
it is unclear when they started allowing them again, and they have not
confirmed any new crypto-based advertising block. Weibo has confirmed
that they have banned cryptocurrency-related advertising.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
In a similar turn of events, <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/facebook-bans-cryptocurrency-ico-ads-because-of-deceptive-promotional-practices" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Facebook banned ads of cryptocurrencies</a> and ICOs last week, citing the large amount of fintech companies on Facebook’s platform that are <i>“[not operating] in good faith.”</i></div>
<div dir="ltr">
Facebook’s decision to ban these ads was received favorably on the <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/7u3erk/facebook_bans_all_advertising_related_to_bitcoin/" rel="nofollow,noopener" target="_blank">/r/Bitcoin</a> sub-Reddit page, where users commented on the many scams they have seen for crypto on social media.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
In reference to scam Facebook ads, user erisiamk <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/7u3erk/facebook_bans_all_advertising_related_to_bitcoin/dth8qsm/" rel="nofollow,noopener" target="_blank">wrote</a>,</div>
<blockquote>
<div dir="ltr">
“Anyone
who would actually buy because they were convinced by a Facebook ad
will probably not research crypto properly and end up making more bad
decisions and spreading more FUD.”</div>
</blockquote>
<br />
<a href="http://Cryptocurrency-related advertisements have stopped appearing on Chinese search engine Baidu and social media platform Weibo, amidst reports of China’s government tightening cryptocurrency and Initial Coin Offering regulations on Sunday, Feb. 4. The Financial Times of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) was told today, Feb. 4, that China will further increase regulatory pressure on cryptocurrency exchange sites and Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), Chinese news site Sina reported. In September 2017, China banned both ICOs and cryptocurrency exchanges. Some of those businesses responding by relocating off the mainland to Hong Kong. Now, Sina reports, Chinese government plans to mitigate that by banning domestic and foreign “virtual currency exchange websites.” Meanwhile, the South China Morning Post news site reported that when the terms, in Chinese, “bitcoin,” “cryptocurrency,” and “ICO” were searched on Chinese search-engine Baidu and microblog Weibo, no obvious paid sponsored content came up alongside the expected organic results. While Baidu had stopped advertising cryptocurrency-related searches back in August 2016, it is unclear when they started allowing them again, and they have not confirmed any new crypto-based advertising block. Weibo has confirmed that they have banned cryptocurrency-related advertising. In a similar turn of events, Facebook banned ads of cryptocurrencies and ICOs last week, citing the large amount of fintech companies on Facebook’s platform that are “[not operating] in good faith.” Facebook’s decision to ban these ads was received favorably on the /r/Bitcoin sub-Reddit page, where users commented on the many scams they have seen for crypto on social media. In reference to scam Facebook ads, user erisiamk wrote, “Anyone who would actually buy because they were convinced by a Facebook ad will probably not research crypto properly and end up making more bad decisions and spreading more FUD.”" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Source </a></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490234719945565283.post-68465033354689931482018-02-03T17:32:00.001-08:002018-02-03T17:32:07.008-08:00Why Bitcoin may rise sharply again.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<h4 style="text-align: left;">
BITCOIN could be on the up again this week as a meeting of US
government committee could provide clarity on regulations surrounding
the cryptocurrency craze. Lack of oversight has made many institutional
investors sceptical of the industry. </h4>
<br />
<a href="https://www.express.co.uk/latest/bitcoin" rel="tag nofollow" target="_blank">Bitcoin</a> has had a tough start to the year, plummeting to a two month low on Friday, falling as low as $7,700.<br />
But
the cryptocurrency could bounce back with a meeting this week of the US
Senate Banking Committee on regulation of cryptocurrencies in the
country, according to Brian Kelly, the CEO of an investment firm focused
on digital currencies.<br />
Speaking to <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">CNBC</a>,
he said: “Next week we’ve got a big event here in the US, we’ve talked a
lot about the regulatory pressures that have come from South Korea and
from China and other places.<br />
“But we’ve got something coming up in the US that I think could be a big event for us.”<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<section class="text-description">“So on February 6th the Senate
Banking Committee are having a meeting and they’re going to be talking
about what the regulatory oversight role of the SEC and the CFTC should
be when it comes to cryptocurrencies and virtual currencies.”<br />
The
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the
US government which regulates the securities industry and stock and
options exchanges. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)
regulates futures and options markets.<br />
Kelly said the meeting
could provide clarity for institutional investors who have been
sceptical about jumping on the bitcoin bandwagon.<br />
He said: “The bullish part of this is it could give some regulatory clarity.<br />
<br />
<section class="text-description">“One of the biggest problems we’ve
had in this market is institutional investors don’t know where exactly
they stand regulatory wise, what can they do, what can’t they do.<br />
“Because no one agency has really said this is our domain and there’s not one overarching regulatory scheme.”<br />
“So this could be a green light to institutional investors.<br />
“Once
you get that regulatory clarity and we can start to think about what’s
going on here and in particular when you’ve seen the regulations trying
to stamp out bitcoin in other places, here in the US could be a bitcoin
up.”<br />
Bitcoin climbed 4.68 percent to $9,240.72 at 16:43 in London, according to CoinDesk.com</section><section class="text-description"> </section><section class="text-description"><a href="https://www.express.co.uk/finance/city/914010/Bitcoin-price-why-BTC-falling-today-cryptocurrency-news-value-crash-latest-blockchain" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Source </a></section></section></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490234719945565283.post-24516171148743693152018-02-02T15:29:00.002-08:002018-02-02T15:29:16.694-08:00Russia’s top bank to TRADE cryptocurrencies using shock loophole to get around Moscow law <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
Sberbank revealed it will offer cryptocurrency trading to overseas
customers, where the bank will be able to bypass Russian laws.<br />
At
a news briefing on Tuesday, Sperbank’s head of global markets Andrey
Shemetov said the bank “plans to start trading cryptocurrencies outside
Russia in order to avoid violating domestic rules”.<br />
Mr Shemetov
said: “In Russia, we cannot trade [cryptocurrency], but we want to
satisfy the interests of clients, and we believe that we must have
access to a wide range of products.”<br />
In 2014, Sberbank – which is majority-owned by the Russian government – became the third largest bank in Europe.<br />
The bank is aiming to open crypto trading in its Switzerland branch,
which is headquartered in Zurich. Mr Shemetov detailed how Sberbank’s
Swiss subsidiary will be taking on the crypto trading.<br />
Mr Shemetov
said: “Swiss laws allow cryptocurrency trading, and we are working on
infrastructure to start offering these services through our Swiss
subsidiary.”<br />
The bank recognises the volatility of
cryptocurrencies and so that is why they are only focusing on the most
well known cryptos and the most liquid.<br />
Liquidity describes the
degree to which an asset or security can be quickly bought or sold in
the market without affecting the asset's price.<br />
<br />
<br />
<section class="text-description">Mr Shemetov said: “We are looking
at all of the cryptocurrency pairs that are the most liquid, their names
are known. We will see what’s interesting to the clients, where is some
liquidity. Obviously, we will not go into a low-liquidity crypto.”<br />
Earlier
this month, Herman Gref, president and chairman of the board of
Sberbank at the annual Gaidar forum said: “Cryptocurrencies cannot be
banned, it’s a wonderful new technology which has not yet been fully
captured and studied.”<br />
Recently, the Russian finance ministry
published the draft law on the regulation of digital assets in Russia
which include cryptocurrencies. This bill is expected to start being
enforced around September.<br />
Vladimir Putin has mandated regulation
around cryptocurrencies, which include cryptocurrencies, including
registration requirements for miners and the application of securities
laws to Initial Coin Offerings (ICO).<br />
But he has commissioned a national cryptocurrency cryptoruble – which the Kremlin can monitor.<br />
Sergei
Glazev, an economic adviser to the president, told a government meeting
that the cryptocurrency would serve as a "useful tool" to evade western
economic sanctions.<br />
Mr Glazev said: "This instrument suits us
very well for sensitive activity on behalf of the state. We can settle
accounts with our counter-parties all over the world with no regard for
sanctions."<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.express.co.uk/finance/city/912573/russia-cryptocurrency-Sberbank-Vladimir-Putin-third-largest-bank-in-Europe" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Source </a></section></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490234719945565283.post-59559089636027140522018-02-01T13:18:00.003-08:002018-02-01T13:20:18.091-08:00How To Buy Bitcoins At A Cheaper Rate.Crypto Expert Drops Insider 'Secret ' used By Big Companies.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqzB26xJJaQlkwj4fxV7i_Ox-3wJQcgmHzgK6ON6Q7km4A6p8D6yUT4S-qUSsK1v_EgMlFiLxHWHHCRfsaNEI61VhYrs-bqwwtNIkkvoxQno0CJCsHeHz02jqZm9cyaQvH2aMNaevjIqU/s1600/B+K.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="838" data-original-width="1600" height="334" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqzB26xJJaQlkwj4fxV7i_Ox-3wJQcgmHzgK6ON6Q7km4A6p8D6yUT4S-qUSsK1v_EgMlFiLxHWHHCRfsaNEI61VhYrs-bqwwtNIkkvoxQno0CJCsHeHz02jqZm9cyaQvH2aMNaevjIqU/s640/B+K.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<h3>
BITCOIN can be obtained cheaper outside of the USA using certain
exchange mechanisms, according to cryptocurrency investor Brian Kelly,
of BK Capital Management. </h3>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://www.express.co.uk/latest/bitcoin" rel="tag nofollow" target="_blank">Bitcoin</a> has experienced a rocky month amid reports of tougher regulation leading to a mini market crash.</span></h4>
On
Thursday, bitcoin fell below the symbolic $10,000 mark, shedding $975
of its worth as concern over tether – a unique digital coin bought and
valued like-for-like with the US dollar – manipulation and negative
noises coming from India, sending the price south.<br />
However, Mr
Kelly has revealed how tether can be used to buy bitcoin “at a lower
price” in Hong Kong or Japan and then bring it back to the USA.<br />
He told CNBC: “Tether is a big part of this ecosystem, and the real use case for tether is for global arbitrage.<br />
<br />
“So what you’ll see happen, when bitcoin falls quite a bit – it falls
10 or 20 percent in a day – you’ll see the exchanges, the prices get
disconnected.<br />
“And then what will happen is people use tether to
buy bitcoin at a lower price on an exchange, like BitFinex or somewhere
in Hong Kong or Japan, and then they’ll bring it over here and sell it
in the US.<br />
“It’s a simple exchange arbitrage, so that’s the mechanics of what is going on.”<br />
Mr
Kelly added: “In Asia, you can buy it two or three percent cheaper,
sometimes on big, wild days it can be a 10 percent spread.”<br />
<br />
He said this is mostly done by multinational firms or persons with
offices throughout the world, because they need a method of bringing it
back into their home country.<br />
The investor said some people hoping to take advantage of the exchange arbitrage may fall short because of regulatory friction.<br />
He
concluded: “South Korea, very difficult to get money out of the
country, so sometimes South Korea has traded at a 30 percent spread to
the rest of the world.”<br />
However, Imran Wasim, a financial analyst at AMSYS Group, told News
BTC he was far from downbeat about any recent slumps, predicting
cryptocurrency will become “more mainstream” in 2018.<br />
He added: “It has dropped in price, this is good.<br />
“A
lot more money is going to come into bitcoin, bitcoin will go up around
$30,000-$35,000 this year – next couple of years? $100,000.”<br />
While
revealing he had “no idea” when the price could shoot up, Mr Wasim
added: “It is going to happen, because it's a store of value.”<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.express.co.uk/finance/city/913301/bitcoin-price-news-ripple-ethereum-blockchain-cryptocurrency-latest-crash" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Source </a><br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
</h3>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490234719945565283.post-53781878653748431152018-01-30T18:48:00.004-08:002018-01-30T20:00:24.017-08:00Facebook bans Crypto ads and ICO ads.Bitcoin price falls.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWsKfaVpwThpAMC01o802_lqO08B0lKpRCTP0jojXFuMSb4uWXzLnruOCCQ2PI58LFaclWBWjowCildu4dygRju8a8e8DVfLOs3C5L6oVQPkpgxCkUXNpBowDJFP1o-G3XxuBQIj0AfdI/s1600/Big+Mark.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWsKfaVpwThpAMC01o802_lqO08B0lKpRCTP0jojXFuMSb4uWXzLnruOCCQ2PI58LFaclWBWjowCildu4dygRju8a8e8DVfLOs3C5L6oVQPkpgxCkUXNpBowDJFP1o-G3XxuBQIj0AfdI/s640/Big+Mark.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Facebook has taken a step against crypto ads and advertising calling on people to participate in ICO's over its network.<br />
Facebook says the relatively high number of scam ads has forced it to make this choice.<br />
Meanwhile,the crypto market dipped further on tuesday after US regulators subpoenaed popular exchanges Bitfirex and Tether.<br />
Also,an ICO backed by former heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield was shut down after authorities claimed it's coin offering 'Arise Coin' was fraudulent.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/9c1050ca-05f8-11e8-9650-9c0ad2d7c5b5" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Source</a> </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490234719945565283.post-55699979344670309032018-01-29T02:33:00.002-08:002018-01-29T02:33:37.961-08:00Ripple accepted by banks in UAE.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="entry-content">
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ33t9Saq5W08GIK9TQ0aiD7wkVe3qMmxLasPqn6aL6oEieVsoheQji_cDyPP6CncIBytCnwZrtheL3rv4IT_U8c-ur8UXhXIzZXmywvca8dFObkZ3Ivru19gTwvwGvJWo-LWeEV9_TdY/s1600/ripa.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="563" data-original-width="1000" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ33t9Saq5W08GIK9TQ0aiD7wkVe3qMmxLasPqn6aL6oEieVsoheQji_cDyPP6CncIBytCnwZrtheL3rv4IT_U8c-ur8UXhXIzZXmywvca8dFObkZ3Ivru19gTwvwGvJWo-LWeEV9_TdY/s640/ripa.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
BitOasis, Dubai’s
top cryptocurrency exchange, will enable XRP trading later this week.
This news comes on the heels of the UAE’s RAK bank partnering Ripple for
instant blockchain payments in India. The year 2018 may prove to be
very solid for the blockchain company and their XRP asset.<b> </b><br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;">The addition of XRP to </span><a href="https://www.newsbtc.com/2018/01/03/bitoasis-will-list-xrp-near-future/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">BitOasis </span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">is
a big development for Ripple. Their native digital asset has never been
in such high demand before. The Dubai exchange feels now is a good time
to introduce traders to this particular asset. The new trading markets
will go live on January 30th. Customers can buy the XRP token using AED
wire transfers or UAE-issued credit cards. BitOasis raises the bar in
terms of making the purchase of XRP a lot more convenient for its users.
This is the third currency to be supported by the exchange, next to
Bitcoin and Ethereum. </span><br />
<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<b>Ripple Makes Headway in the UAE</b></h2>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">According to BitOasis, there is an increasing demand from customers to trade and buy </span><a href="https://www.newsbtc.com/2018/01/29/ripple-price-technical-analysis-can-xrp-usd-retain-momentum/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">XRP</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.
Considering how this exchange is one of the biggest platforms in the
region right now, they have to set a precedent. Whether or not other
companies will follow their lead by example, remains to be determined.
It is certainly possible other companies will follow this example in the
coming months. Global demand for Ripple’s asset is soaring despite the
current lower price. It’s good to see BitOasis come back so strongly.
Earlier this month, they faced issues with Emirates NBD blocking
transfers to this platform.</span><br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;">This is not the only positive news for
Ripple in the UAE region. More specifically, the UAE’s RAK bank has
also shown a keen interest in this company. Thanks to a new partnership,
both entities will use blockchain technology for instant payments to
India. Ripple’s ecosystem, known as </span><a href="https://www.newsbtc.com/2017/10/01/ripple-eyes-swift-primary-target-overtake/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">RippleNet</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">,
has a lot of promise in this regard. Enabling live retail remittance
payments to Axis Bank users in India is an interesting option to
explore. Furthermore, this is another validation of what Ripple is
trying to achieve.</span><br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;">The world of international payments is
undergoing many different changes. Using blockchain technology is the
next logical evolution in this industry. RAK Bank aims to launch
instant, frictionless, and secure money transfer services to India’s
Axis Bank customers. Only time will tell if they can be successful in
this regard. Axis Bank is also one of Ripple’s partners since January of
2018. They are also using into using RIppleNet for cross-border
remittance.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="https://www.newsbtc.com/2018/01/29/ripple-embraced-uae-based-banks-cryptocurrency-exchanges/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Source </a></span><br />
</div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490234719945565283.post-34243847472472406702018-01-27T14:05:00.002-08:002018-01-27T14:05:23.583-08:00Coincheck will repay victims of Crypto Hack<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwQoVUNaB0D-002pJ2Qbd64WhVlhiF0E8mAkIUDzgMdKJ8i-b6DE2bQvsFh8VBEJ-XQQm8NQ_tVjmGYkxOaIshVxSFBHSpjLh8qorOWDlQWqdps_tQxoGgbiRrWK07lwkbHm-neoPg9Wk/s1600/refund.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwQoVUNaB0D-002pJ2Qbd64WhVlhiF0E8mAkIUDzgMdKJ8i-b6DE2bQvsFh8VBEJ-XQQm8NQ_tVjmGYkxOaIshVxSFBHSpjLh8qorOWDlQWqdps_tQxoGgbiRrWK07lwkbHm-neoPg9Wk/s640/refund.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck, is set to use its own money to pay back victims of a hack of its exchange.
<br />
The Tokyo-based exchange said <a href="http://corporate.coincheck.com/2018/01/28/30.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">in a statement</a>
it would reimburse the 260,000 customers affected by the $400 million
heist of digital currency NEM, "at a rate of 88.549 yen (81 US cents)
for each coin," <a href="https://www.bloombergquint.com/onweb/2018/01/27/coincheck-to-repay-customers-who-lost-money-in-400-million-hack" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Bloomberg News reported</a>.<br />
The company said Friday that more than 500 million NEM coins, the
seventh largest cryptocurrency, vanished after being "illicitly"
transferred off the exchange. Coincheck is still looking into exactly
what happened.<br />
The heist awakened memories of the notorious hack of Japanese
cryptocurrency exchange Mt Gox in 2014, which resulted in more than
850,000 bitcoin being stolen from the now defunct exchange.<br />
As such, most major digital currencies were in the red for much of
Friday's trading session. It appears investors' worries have since been
mollified. Most digital currencies were trading up against the US dollar
during Saturday trading, according to CoinMarketCap.<br />
"Since there is no FDIC or SIPC insurance for crypto the fact that
they are 'trying' to make account holder's whole is a good sign," John
Spallanzani of Miller Value Partners told Business Insider.<br />
Notably, NEM was a tear. The price of the cryptocurrency was up more
than 30% over the last twenty-four hours, trading at $1.11 a coin at
last check. <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/nem/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Check out the chart</a>:<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.de/japanese-crypto-exchange-set-to-repay-victims-of-a-400-million-hack-2018-1?r=US&IR=T" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Source </a></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490234719945565283.post-80526651562251768862018-01-26T09:00:00.003-08:002018-01-26T09:00:56.459-08:00Coincheck Says It Lost Crypto Coins Valued at About $400 Million<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFyyg8BXGB1R7fA7puWdCvfWccR5iTBaCt9m_hjaH1rHwWAi9iMCSfsoOPODefCHbZMVJxWP_Q9sT4csxF9-2eHkPtD9zQSPakd0Vs59D97no7SeFMy1qqrK91kzI71W_FHLKgbwwmhvc/s1600/coindesk.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFyyg8BXGB1R7fA7puWdCvfWccR5iTBaCt9m_hjaH1rHwWAi9iMCSfsoOPODefCHbZMVJxWP_Q9sT4csxF9-2eHkPtD9zQSPakd0Vs59D97no7SeFMy1qqrK91kzI71W_FHLKgbwwmhvc/s640/coindesk.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Coincheck Inc., one of Japan’s biggest digital exchanges, said that
about $400 million of the NEM cryptocurrency was lost after it was sent
“illicitly” outside the venue, spooking investors in a country that’s
still wary of digital-token exchanges four years after the collapse of
Mt. Gox.<br />
Company
officials said during a late night press conference at the Tokyo Stock
Exchange that they didn’t know how the 500 million NEM coins went
missing, but they’re working to ensure the safety of all client assets.
In a series of tweets earlier, Coincheck said it had suspended all
withdrawals, halted trading in all tokens except Bitcoin, and stopped
deposits into NEM coins.<br />
NEM,
the 10th-largest cryptocurrency by market value, fell 14 percent to 81
cents in the 24 hours through 10:07 a.m. New York time, according to
Coinmarketcap.com. Bitcoin dropped 4 percent and Ripple retrea<br />
“Investors and traders are very sensitive to any news involving the
big exchanges,” said Peter Sin, a trader and co-head of the digital
currency sub-committee at ACCESS, a Singapore-based cryptocurrency and
blockchain industry association. “This will accelerate price declines.”<br />
Cryptocurrency
exchanges, many of which operate with little to no regulation, have
suffered a spate of outages and hacks amid the trading boom that
propelled Bitcoin and its peers to record highs last year.<br />
Like
Bitcoin, NEM is a cryptocurrency built on top of blockchain, but it uses
a more environmentally-friendly method to confirm transactions,
according to its website. Bitcoin mining requires significant computing
power, while NEM says it does not.<br />
ted 8.3
percent in that period, according to prices available on Bloomberg.<br />
In Japan, one of the world’s biggest markets for cryptocurrencies,
policy makers have introduced a licensing system to increase oversight
of local venues, seeking to avoid a repeat of the Mt. Gox exchange
collapse that roiled cryptocurrency markets worldwide in 2014. Coincheck
has yet to receive a license, according to the website of Japan’s
financial regulator.<br />
Coincheck, founded in 2012, had 71 employees as of July with
headquarters in Tokyo’s Shibuya district, an area popular with startups
that was also home to Mt. Gox, according to Coincheck’s website.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-26/cryptocurrencies-drop-after-japanese-exchange-halts-withdrawals" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Source </a><br />
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490234719945565283.post-84643579367297090792018-01-25T12:17:00.002-08:002018-01-25T12:17:51.668-08:00Robin Hood App Takes Aim At Transaction Fees In Crypto<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuLH_Wq7ZB6Avi7DIh_qUaSOM_ti2xPSOAdZZ8kyU5Y7quRTxqeQZSIHaZGQD3rWVu6Rt5P6LLbtTxoVDB3rLNJfNBt_0_XSiQBAJvKXsG2LnX3VhT1Q8pmBfnlic9zt6aqX2EH5c2dK0/s1600/robin.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1110" data-original-width="1600" height="442" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuLH_Wq7ZB6Avi7DIh_qUaSOM_ti2xPSOAdZZ8kyU5Y7quRTxqeQZSIHaZGQD3rWVu6Rt5P6LLbtTxoVDB3rLNJfNBt_0_XSiQBAJvKXsG2LnX3VhT1Q8pmBfnlic9zt6aqX2EH5c2dK0/s640/robin.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Robinhood, a no cost app will allow users to trade Bitcoin and Ethereum at no cost starting from February.<br />
Bitcoin transaction fees have been a big obstacle in Crypto trading with transaction fees falling between 0.1% to 4% on popular trading platforms.<br />
Vlad Tenev co-founder of Robinhood says<br />
“We’re planning to operate this business on break even basics and we
don’t plan to profit from it for the foreseeable future. The value of
Robinhood Crypto is in growing our customer base and better serving our
existing customers.”<br />
Robinhood also appears to be driven by Ideology as they also stated “<em>We believe that cryptocurrencies have the potential to
fundamentally reorganize the way money works from the ground up, putting
power previously held by financial institutions directly in the hands
of the people</em>,” </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0