Day: October 4, 2017

A new partnership in Singapore between a bank and a fintech startup aims to give migrants Blockchain payments

CLOUT is an online platform that will unify the cryptocurrency community, providing investors and enthusiasts alike a home, and one stop shop for all things crypto. CLOUT is the solution to the problem that all people in the cryptocurrency space are currently experiencing; there is no one reliable resource that is dedicated to high quality information as it pertains to the entire crypto space. From ICO’s to how to’s, to breaking news, CLOUT will be this community generated network serving as the #1 home of crypto worldwide.

All users will be rewarded in CLC, CLOUT’s daughter token, based on quality of platform interaction. Posting, commenting, upvoting and being a part of the “crowd wisdom voting polls” all earn users CLC.. This system ensures that only high quality posts, comments, and ICO’s rise to the forefront of the platform. CLC is the fuel that runs the Network, CLOUT tokens are what generate CLC.

Top Level Security

CLOUT is built on Ethereum and is one of the first ever projects to be using the upgraded ERC-223 tokens. These tokens can be stored the same as ERC-20 tokens on MyEtherWallet.com and the Ledger Nano. They also have the added functionalities of preventing lost tokens and uses half the gas of ERC-20’s. ERC-223 is also an evolving standard designed to resist quantum computing attacks.

New Team Additions

The CLOUT team has recently brought on two new major additions to their team:

David Cohen (CEO): David A. Cohen is internationally renowned for his pioneering work in the Decentralized Software industry and recently in the Digital Currency and Blockchain industry. David was a member of the IOTA Foundation during the IOTA Token Cryptocurrency launch which reached a $1.7 Billion market cap on the first day of trading, as reported by Forbes Magazine on June 13, 2017.  David was named as one of the Top 100 Movers and Shakers in the SmartGrid by Greentech Media.  He was the founder and CEO of Infotility where he pioneered the “Grid Edge” unlocking multi-billion dollar software markets and creating the industry’s first artificial intelligence-based software platform – GridAgents™.  David is a thought leader and has spoken at many venues such as MIT, TEDx, Consensus, Blockchain 100X and Singularity University.  He is an expert on Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity, and Edge Computing. David is also an active board member of IOTA.

Ryan Fugger (Chief Advisor): Ryan Fugger is a currency innovator and web/systems developer who founded the original Ripple project in 2004 with the concept of an open, decentralized network capable of routing payments through multiple intermediaries simultaneously. Ripple merged with Jed McCaleb’s OpenCoin in 2012 to form Ripple Inc. (XRP) and this concept is now in the Ripple Consensus Ledger and the Interledger Protocol. His current work consists of consulting blockchain projects and other decentralized systems. Ryan brings his peer to peer expertise and will be involved in the development of the CLOUT platform and its functionality among members.

Investing in the PRE-ICO & ICO

For PRE-ICO and ICO, investors are rewarded with a 1 : 1 free CLC for every CLOUT token purchased, which will both be distributed upon completion of the ICO.

CLOUT’s PRE-ICO is available now until either the sell out of their 3 Million tokens at $1 USD, or October 26th 2017 24:00 CEST. CLOUT’s official ICO begins October 27th.

10 % CLOUT TOKEN DISTRIBUTION METHOD

• PRE-ICO : 3 million tokens (3%) will be distributed during the PRE at $1.00  (USD)               
• TIER 1:     4 million tokens (4%) will be distributed during the ICO at $2.50  (USD)
• TIER 2:    2 million tokens (2%) will be distributed during the ICO at $5.00  (USD)
• TIER 3:    1 million tokens (1%) will be distributed during the ICO at $10.00 (USD)

*CLC will be distributed along with CLOUT tokens on a 1:1 ratio for all tiers above*

Participants in the CLOUT ICO can use ETH or BTC in exchange for CLOUT. PRE-ICO has a minimum of 10 ETH or 1 BTC. Please send your deposit using a wallet (MyEtherWallet).

DO NOT send funds from an exchange.  

MEET THE CLOUT TEAM

Sean Kirtz – Founder
David A. Cohen – CEO

Ryan Fugger – Chief Advisor

Dean James – Co-founder -COO

Frank Lucido – Co-founder

Simon Josef – Co-founder -Design Lead

Serge Nikitin – CFO

Dennard Small         – CMO

Destiny Aigbe – Securities Counsel

Jeff Kirdeikis – Social Media Manager

Bonnie Normile – PR Manager

Vilma Mattila – International Business Counsel

Andrew Zubko – Blockchain Developer

Ihor Pidruchny – Development Team Lead

Jen Buakaew – Marketing Manager

Find out more about CLOUT below:  

Webpage – https://www.clout.io

Whitepaper – http://www.clout.io/assets/v.4-clout-whitepaper-1.pdf

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/clouttoken/

Twitter – https://twitter.com/clout_media

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/cloutnetwork/?hl=en

Telegram – https://t.me/cloutnetwork

This is a sponsored press release and does not necessarily reflect the opinions or views held by any employees of The Merkle. This is not investment, trading, or gambling advice. Always conduct your own independent research.

China’s Xinhua News Agency has defended regulators’ recent decision to outlaw token sales and the exchange closures that followed.

What are the features of a smart wallet for Bitcoins, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies?

Most cryptocurrency enthusiasts will recall how the US Justice Department seized over 144,000 BTC during the Silk Road shutdown. Said bitcoins have always belonged to Ross Ulbricht, who argued the money didn’t belong to the DOJ in the first place. Unfortunately, his appeal was rejected, effectively netting the government institution a US$48 million payday. It’s another major plot twist in the world of Bitcoin and Silk Road, albeit not a positive one.

Silk Road Auction Proceeds Effectively Belong to the DOJ

As most people will remember, the bitcoins seized at the time of Russ Ulbricht’s arrest were sold during two separate auctions. The first auction took place in 2014, with the second one completing in 2015. All 144.336 bitcoins seized from Ulbricht and the Silk Road platform were sold to the highest bidder and netted a US$48 million paycheck for the US government at the time. At today’s prices, said coins are worth over US$620 million, which is a rather large increase.

However, this sale of coins was not to the liking of Ross Ulbricht, for obvious reasons. He challenged the legality of this forfeiture in court. While it appeared he had a fighting chance to see this seizure deemed illegal, things never got to that point. Instead, Ulbricht agreed to drop charges, although no one knows exactly why. The end result is the same as it would have been otherwise, though, as the US government can claim the US$48 million raised during these auctions.

Rest assured the Justice Department will not be too pleased about having sold all of these coins at an average price of US$334. Had it waited a few years longer, it would have received a lot more money for this currency they are still actively attempting to discredit. All of this goes to show Bitcoin is not a fad and the interest in owning this cryptocurrency is more than warranted. Even such a large sell-off didn’t collapse the Bitcoin price back then, nor would it have any major effects today.

For the time being, it remains unclear how these proceeds will be used once they are officially claimed. It is possible some of the law enforcement agencies involved will get some extra funding, even though two corrupt US officials were identified during the Ross Ulbricht case. Somehow, they received a lenient punishment compared to Ulbricht’s life in jail without parole. That verdict still doesn’t sit well with most of the Bitcoin community, as they feel Ross was made a scapegoat without enough substantial evidence to warrant this punishment.

The decision by Ulbricht to challenge ownership of this money was quite an interesting one. His defense lawyers felt the involvement of two corrupt agents from the DEA and Secret Service had “tainted” the money being seized. While neither of these corrupt agents altered the case in any significant manner – according to the prosecution, at least – they did put the ownership of the sold bitcoins into question. Ulbricht’s attempt eventually was retracted, which will continue to be considered a rather controversial outcome.

This is yet another chapter in the long story of Silk Road, Ross Ulbricht, and the US government. Despite chat logs confirming Ulbricht is Dread Pirate Roberts, not everyone is convinced they are one and the same person. There is still a possibility Ulbricht was framed for actions taken by someone else. Whether or not we will ever know the real truth behind Silk Road remains highly doubtful.

Tokens of the first 3-in-1 platform for ICOs, crowdfunding, and crowdinvesting KICKICO became tradeable on EtherDelta exchange – a decentralized trading platform for Ether and Ethereum-based tokens. EtherDelta makes it a perfect solution for people looking to exchange cryptocurrency ICO tokens. A lot of recent ICO tokens are automatically trading on EtherDelta and most of … Continue reading KICKICO Opens for Trades and Raising

The post KICKICO Opens for Trades and Raising appeared first on NEWSBTC.

Europol warned that the virtual currencies Zcash, Monero, and Ethereum are increasingly being used in the digital underground market, following Bitcoin.

Bitcoin’s price growth is seemingly being hampered by worries over SegWit2x.

In the early days, like many successful technologists, budding Bitcoin entrepreneurs experienced more failures.  Few people had heard of cryptocurrencies and exchanges had more security vulnerabilities. So when Nikola Alexandrov and Hristo Tenchev had to shut down their bitcoin exchange Bitcoin7 four months after its founding in June 2011 after its wallet was hacked, they commensurated with Steve Jobs killing off the Apple Lisa Macintosh desktop computer after huge losses. Like the Lisa, the Blockchain technology running Bitcoin exchanges would be a market disrupter, although first a few original concepts would have to fail.

Since this expensive but valuable lesson in Blockchain security, Tenchev has helped educate 100,000 software developers at the software university he co-founded in Sofia, Bulgaria, SoftUni.

Here, the game enthusiast encourages students to acquire software programming skills in the basics and, of course, gaming software and the Blockchain. So when Bitcoin7 partner Alexandrov approached Tenchev with a new Blockchain venture, a hotel booking platform, Tenchev had upped his game in Blockchain security and applications.

Taking on the Middleman Economy

LockChain plans to slash hotel costs through the LockChain.co Marketplace, an online booking agent where the average traveler can save up to 25 percent on hotel costs. Hotel booking middlemen — Booking.com, Expedia, Trivago and AirBNB fight for the top market share — have continuously gained market power since travel booking moved to the e-commerce model in the early 2000s. These intermediaries can add 10–25 percent in commissions to your hotel bill.

So how is hotel booking through the LockChain marketplace different? Transactions on the marketplace are executed by the LOC Ledger, a decentralized open source booking ledger built on the Ethereum Blockchain. Whether your are a Trivago customer seeking to eliminate hotel booking fees, a property management company marketing a large property rental portfolio, or an individual with an apartment to rent out peer-to-peer, the open source LOC Ledger can facilitate your transaction.

The ledger stores the listings and their payment conditions and rules through trustless smart contracts. Let’s say you are planning a week’s vacation to Paris and want to check into the uber-chic new MOB hotel designed by Philippe Starck. A terraced room at 129 euros a night at the “affordable accommodation” hotel in the flea district will cost you 903 euros to book directly with the hotel over the LockChain Marketplace. Your potential savings is 225.75 euros, the 25 percent additional commission on a hotel aggregator website.

The system will automatically convert your currency to LOC tokens when you place your hotel booking. Your payment in LOC tokens will be sent to the smart contract when you book the hotel. The Blockchain would store the smart contract on the established Ethereum network (making copies across the whole network), limiting rising hotel booking fraud. If a hotel wanted to add hidden fees to your bill, such as an unadvertised 50 Euro cleaning fee, the smart contract would make that impossible because it would be pre-programmed with all the terms of your stay. The Ethereum Blockchain is optimized to host such decentralised e-commerce applications by providing more robust and theoretically unlimited computational abilities which can integrate hyper secure security protocols and applications.

The LOC Token

An important difference between the LOC token and bitcoin is the LOC is a utility token used to buy and sell accommodations on the LOC marketplace and its underlying value is connected with the adoption and the development of the booking service itself.

In addition to savings of 20 percent on hotel bills, the LOC Ledger can reduce currency exchange fees. A smart exchange algorithm will eliminate the price volatility of the LOC for hotel owners that would require this. Traveler’s can pay for their accommodations in fiat currencies or cryptocurrencies with credit cards, PayPal and various other payment methods. If, for example, you pay for your hotel booking in London in US dollars, the price spot booking mechanism will buy LOC in exchange of the US dollars, and at the same time will sell LOC in exchange for US dollars to another person from the market. This way the delivery of the US dollars to the hotel will be guaranteed for the specific booking with the only cost being the tiny spread between the two orders.

The currency exchange feature is an example of the value added applications that can be added by the LockChain Marketplace, or hotels, property portfolios and others who can directly connect their systems to the open source LOC Ledger, and provide their own value added services.

How to Participate in the LOC ICO

The pre-sale of the LOC digital token will take place on October 3rd at a discounted price. The main sale will take place on October 29th. However, if the pre-sale hits its hard cap of 50 million LOC before then, the main sale will start early. LOC in circulation will be limited to 155 million. So although LOC is a utility token, the laws of supply and demand dictate that as more people use LOC tokens for hotel bookings, the value should rise.

Disclosure: This is a Sponsored Article

In what some are coining a landmark case, an Israeli District Court recently ruled that Israeli banks are not obligated to provide financial services to companies whose primary business is trading in crypto-currencies, such as Bitcoin or Ethereum. The Court reasoned that banks should not have to assume the risks associated with providing a financial platform to these digital currency businesses when the leading Israeli authorities on the subject, namely the Central Bank, the Securities Authority and the Anti-Money Laundering and Terror Financing Authority, themselves have been struggling to delineate clear measures to minimize them.

Major banks have always had a love-hate relationship with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. As this new form of money is a direct threat to traditional banking, most institutions stay away from Bitcoin. In some cases, they even lock customers’ bank accounts for buying or selling Bitcoin with their own money. Goldman Sachs is the first major entity to finally buckle under the pressure. The company is looking to launch a new service allowing customers to trade Bitcoin and perhaps other cryptocurrencies as well.

Goldman Sachs Makes a Bold Decision

After years of ignoring and attempting to discredit cryptocurrencies, most major banks find themselves at an awkward crossroads. Either they continue to bash Bitcoin in the style of Jamie Dixon, or they start to get in on the action. While it is true some banks probably have a stash of bitcoins already for obvious reasons, Goldman Sachs is trying to take things to a whole new level. In fact, the company may launch a Bitcoin trading service in the near future.

A lot of people are taken aback by this sudden change of heart by the financial institution. After all, it was thought highly unlikely that a traditional bank would ever get involved with cryptocurrency in an active manner. Then again, with firms such as Deloitte publicly showing their support for Bitcoin, this change was inevitable. Knowing Goldman Sachs is exploring the launch of a Bitcoin trading operation is something a lot of cryptocurrency enthusiasts will see as justice served.

Indeed, a lot of the bank’s clients have expressed their interest in obtaining cryptocurrency of late. As a result, the bank had to come up with a viable and convenient solution to address customer needs. That is much easier said than done, to say the least. It is unclear how the company plans to achieve this goal exactly. Moreover, it remains unclear if this will be a full-fledged exchange platform or just a service available to Goldman Sachs customers only. The latter option seems more likely right now, and may even result in an OTC trading operation.

This contrarian stance by Goldman Sachs will certainly score some brownie points among members of the crypto community. Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase have rubbed cryptocurrency enthusiasts the wrong way on more than one occasion over the past few years. Goldman Sachs has always been a “target” for Bitcoin in terms of making financial institutions obsolete, but it may turn out to be a more-than-valuable partner to make cryptocurrency mainstream in the future. Collaboration is always the first and best option, rather than just “going to war”.

It is evident the Bitcoin price action has gotten so interesting even major banks are willing to shift their game plans all of a sudden. Although this venture remains shrouded in mystery for the time being, it is still an important development in the bigger scheme of things. There is a possible world in which banks and cryptocurrency can work together without attempting to exert control or stifle innovation. Only time will tell if things will ever reach that point, though.

Financial institutions are facing a lot of pressure right now, which forces them to make unusual decisions. A lot of companies struggle with earnings and there are very few traditional opportunities left to explore right now. In the US, people are actively moving their retirement savings over to Bitcoin IRA services as a way to ensure they can live comfortably in the future. A major power shift will occur in the coming years; that much is rather evident right now.

Growing a cryptocurrency ecosystem is not easy by any means. One of the first objectives is to get said currency in the hands of as many people as possible. Doing so without an airdrop or issuing free coins is hard to achieve. A tipbot can do wonders for any cryptocurrency, though, as it is a … Continue reading IOTA Finally has its own Fully Operational Reddit Tipbot

The post IOTA Finally has its own Fully Operational Reddit Tipbot appeared first on NEWSBTC.

Korea may be getting strict on ICOs but one of the larger exchanges has just added another altcoin