Day: July 3, 2017

A South Korean politician, Rep. Park Yong-jin of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, is working to create revisions to a bill that will provide Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other digital currencies with a legal framework. The lawmaker commented about this on Monday. According to the Korea Herald, this has been a long awaited move for the purposes of protecting the Korean people. 

Also read: Bank of Thailand Ordered to Relax Strict Rules and Study Bitcoin

This new bill will revise the Electronic Financial Transactions Act. This means that traders, dealers, brokerage firms, and others in the ecosystem will now have to register with the Financial Services Commission in Korea. One of the registration requirements is that each company retains capital worth $436,300. The new bill will also create a strong regulatory environment, which will allow authorities to better grapple with tax evasion and other financial crimes in the cryptocurrency space.

No Legal Framework in South Korea for Bitcoin Trading; Political Skepticism about Cryptocurrency

Currently, South Korea has little to no framework that regulates institutions and businesses. The Korea Herald references the politician’s fears about this issue:

In the proposal, Park cited the need to address ‘the void of a state-led protection that guarantees digital currency’s value,’ ‘digital currency’s nonexchangablilty to other existing currencies’ and ‘the possibility of wreaking havoc on national economy from digital currency bubble burst.’

The article mentions that several of the country’s exchanges, including Bithumb, Korbit and Coinone, are absorbing a large amount of market value. Bithumb is taking up %75.7 by itself. According to lawmaker Park, this is a problem, because there is no oversight or legal structure that informs a business on what action to take.

Legislators in South Korea have been skeptical about cryptocurrencies to date. Officials have considered these assets to be merely speculative opportunities. Officials have been particularly critical of ICO’s, because they seem to be a vehicle for “unreasonable profits.”

Previous Cryptocurrency Legal Considerations in South Korea

The current legal action taken by politicians in South Korea were heralded in June when attorney Kim Kyung Hwan pointed out multiple legal issues surrounding cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin.com provided coverage:

“In an article published in Chosun on June 23, Kim noted how the rise in bitcoin’s price prompted more people in South Korea to get involved. However, the country does not have regulations for the cryptocurrency. This causes uncertainty and “a lot of trouble” for anyone making bitcoin transactions, he said, adding that: It is expected that the regulations will be introduced [in South Korea] like Japan in the near future.”

The article noted that regulations would be enacted this year, but the government and the Financial Services Commission were having difficulty determining if bitcoin was money, a security, or an asset. It is still not clear how South Korean officials resolved this issue.

Do you think more retail investors will start investing in bitcoin soon? Let us know in the comments section below.

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The post South Korea Prepares Bill to Provide Legal Framework for Cryptocurrencies appeared first on Bitcoin News.

State of Delaware proves itself as one of Blockchain-friendly states in the US as it passes historic bill for Blockchain technology to thrive.

The post Cybersecurity Firm Reports All Fortune 500 Companies Exposed on the Dark Web appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

US government announces its plans to hold a US Federal Blockchain Forum on July 18, 2017 to discuss possible applications of Blockchain within the government.

Bitcoin wallet and trading platforms are experiencing an explosive growth in their user bases. In June, Coinbase added one million new users, demonstrating a massive increase in its user base.

Most people who invested time or money in Ethereum are aware of how the project will switch to proof-of-stake in the future. To do so, the developers have introduced a new algorithm known as Casper. Considering how the switch to PoS is getting ever closer for Ethereum, now would be a good time to take a closer look at how Casper works exactly. It is an intriguing system that will change Ethereum forever.

The Casper PoS Algorithm

Introducing a switch from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake requires a lot of work and research by the developers. Casper is one of the more advanced solutions to introduce such a change. It is a security-deposit based economic consensus protocol. That is quite a mouthful, but the concept is simple to explain. Network nodes become “bonded validators” and place a security deposit to facilitate the generation of PoS blocks.

To put Casper into perspective, it will allow any member of the Ethereum ecosystem to participate in creating these new PoS blocks. When the nodes post a security deposit, they can bet on which block will be included in the future. Betting with the consensus will result in a reward, whereas betting against the consensus can result in losses. Attempting to exploit or game the consensus system will result in your security deposit becoming null and void. Casper is designed to create a fair PoS consensus mechanism.

There is a small caveat to the “anyone can participate” aspect, though. It is always possible existing network participants will prevent new validators from entering the ecosystem. While that may not necessarily be the most plausible outcome, it is one factor to take into account. Ethereum users who have more coins than other members may try to throw their weight around a bit by posting larger security deposits. It is unclear how this will play out when Ethereum effectively switches to proof-of-stake.

As we have seen in cryptocurrency as of late, politics play a  big part in any decision-making process. Switching to proof-of-stake may result in more politics taking place as part of the Ethereum ecosystem. The original Casper blog post mentions how the system will be censorship-resistant. This will be ensured by guaranteeing coalitions of validating nodes are made up of 100% of all consensus nodes. Validators who do not to create blocks as prescribed by the Casper protocol will not receive transaction fees and deposits.

The switch to Casper will – probably – result in more transactions per second on the Ethereum network.  The algorithm also accommodates faster block times compared to using the proof-of-work algorithm currently in place. This will also have an impact on the network’s gas prices, which will increase and decrease based on how much the network’s validators can handle comfortably. This particular aspect will have an interesting impact on Ethereum as a whole.

Even though Casper sounds quite interesting, it does not have an official release date at this time. The developers have come across multiple problems while developing this algorithm. A lot of progress has been made these past few months, but there is no official ETA to finalize the algorithm or successfully testing it on a testnet. Peer review of such an important algorithm needs to be conducted before Casper can be released to the masses. The whole Ethereum world will eagerly await this peer review.  

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It is not all that easy to find a legitimate cryptocurrency cloud mining service. Nicehash is one of the few companies people can trust these days. The platform specializes in cloud mining, hash rental services, and multipool mining. It is refreshing to see legitimate companies pop up now and the in the landscape filled with Ponzi Schemes. Now is a good time to look at what Nicehash offers to its customers and why they are so successful.

Nicehash Does a lot of Things Right

Most cryptocurrency cloud mining scams ask users to make a Bitcoin investment, so they can earn a passive income. Unfortunately, a lot of those are Ponzi schemes. However, Nicehash is doing things in a professional manner and without putting users at risk of losing any funds. In fact, they are one of a handful of legitimate companies in the world of cryptocurrency cloud mining.

Nicehash first came to the market in April of 2014 and has quickly grown to be one of the most reliable online mining hashrate marketplaces in the world. The company specializes in added-value services for miners, traders, and investors alike. Providing customer support services helped Nicehash achieve success. So far, the team is doing an outstanding job in this regard, as they have no negative reviews.

What makes NiceHash so unique is how they let users buy and sell hashing power on demand. Contracts can run for as little as one hour, and the maximum duration can be agreed upon by the buyer and seller. The platform’s marketplace is filled with available orders, which can be filtered based on mining algorithm, and geographical locations. Reducing latency between the miner and the mining pool is of the utmost importance to maximize potential earnings.

It is worth mentioning Nicehash is not the only company providing a cryptocurrency mining hashrate marketplace. Mining Rig Rentals is one of their main competitors in this space, as they provide a powerful service as well.  It is good to see competing peer-to-peer mining hashpower rental marketplaces. Competition allows for far more flexibility than one would get through traditional cloud mining.

Nicehash also provides users with their own mining software clients, which is a nice addition. Plus, their own multipool servers allow miners to point their eligible hardware to the pool and earn mining revenue in the process. Nicehash supports a few dozen mining algorithms, including X11, Scrypt, Keccak, Decred, Cryptonight, and Pascal. Pointing a miner at this pool allows users to earn revenue without having to worry about anything, as earnings are calculated and paid out automatically.

The main question is whether or not miners should sell their hashpower or point it to the multipool. It heavily depends on how much risk one is willing to take. Using the multipool means investing in the mined coins, which can be a financial risk.One could always rent out the hashpower and keep mining the multipool as long as the contract is not picked up by a buyer. That way, users can get the best of both worlds.

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Regulatory frameworks for cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin will be released in the upcoming months in South Korea.

Bitcoin trading activities are expected to rise in Japan following the activation of the tax reform bill.

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