Day: October 13, 2017

The managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde has again addressed the topic of bitcoin and cryptocurrency. At a recent IMF event, Lagarde told reporters that virtual currencies will comprise the catalyst for “massive disruptions” within the financial markets and fintech industries.

Also Read: IMF Chief Lagarde Tells Central Bankers: “Not Wise to Dismiss Virtual Currencies”

The IMF Has Been Paying Close Attention to Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies

Speaking at the IMF Annual Meetings in Washington D.C., Lagarde warned financial institutions that “we are about to see massive disruptions” as a result of cryptocurrency and distributed ledger technologies. The IMF head stressed the need for institutions and regulators to “adjust… to the impact of the combined breakthrough technologies that will impact markets.”

The IMF Managing Director indicated that the institution is considering experimenting with applications for distributed ledger technology. Lagarde discussed such in the context of the IMF’s ‘Special Drawing Right’, a currency created and administered by the IMF intended to function as an international reserve asset. Lagarde stated “what we will be looking into is how this currency, the special drawing right, can actually use the technology to be more efficient and less costly.”

Lagarde described bitcoin as a broad and nuanced phenomenon, dismissing those who claim that bitcoin is a ‘fraud’, or a Ponzi ‘scheme’. Lagarde told reporters “I think we should just be aware of not categorizing anything that has to do with digital currencies in those speculation, Ponzi-like schemes, it’s a lot more than that as well.”

The IMF Has Consistently Warned Business Leaders Not to Ignore Innovations in the Virtual Currency Industry

The IMF head described distributed ledger technologies as having the potential to foster more inclusion within the financial sector, advocating for the adoption of such technologies in favor of cash. “I think of women in some of the developing countries that have to carry cash around who are at risk of violence and all the rest of it,” Lagarde stated. “If they can use their cell phone and operate in a much more discreet and efficient way, it would be terrific.”

Whilst there is a myriad of positive applications for distributed ledger technology in the third world, some from within the cryptocurrency community are skeptical of the IMF’s apparent desire to utilize a centralized blockchain as a means to intensify the ‘war on cash’ that is taking place in many emerging economies.

Throughout the press conference, the IMF managing director frequently alluded to the challenges that innovations within the fintech industries may pose to regulators in the near future. Lagarde stated that “a lot of work has been done in the last eight years in relation to financial regulations, trying to keep the banking sector safe and healthy in order to protect us from further risks down the road.”

Last month, Christine Lagarde cautioned central bankers that “it may not be wise to dismiss virtual currencies,” stating that “virtual currencies might just give existing currencies and monetary policy a run for their money”. Lagarde urged bankers not to ignore the innovation borne of cryptocurrencies, advocating that they remain “open to fresh ideas and new demands, as economies evolve.” In June, the IMF produced a report designed to offer regulatory guidance to national governments. The report advocated that “policymak[ers] will need to be nimble, experimental, and cooperative” in their efforts to address cryptocurrencies.

Do you think that the IMF Managing Director is right to caution financial institutions of the potential creative destruction that cryptocurrecy may unleash? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!

Images courtesy of Shutterstock

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Just a day after JPMorgan Chase chief Jamie Dimon said he wouldn’t talk about bitcoin, he issued new remarks about the cryptocurrency.

One of the main providers of software underlying the ethereum protocol has faced delays with its preparations for an upcoming fork.

Unlike Xapo’s decision on SegWit2x, BitMEX received broad applause for refusing to service the hard fork.

If it were not for the human race, the ocean wouldn’t be littered with so much trash. Thankfully, some members of our species are actively working on a solution to ensure this problem gets solved sooner rather than later. Over in the United Kingdom, the nation’s first seabin has been installed. When fully operational, this contraption will be capable of collecting around 80,000 plastic bottles from the ocean every single year.

A Seabin to Pick up Your Trash From the Ocean

Pollution comes in many different forms on planet Earth. While most people currently point the finger at carbon dioxide, we have also successfully trashed most of our waterways and oceans by other means. In particular, pollution caused by plastic bottles is an area which needs to be addressed sooner or later. That is exactly what the new seabin located at Portsmouth Harbor aims to achieve. It is the first device of its kind in the UK.

On paper, the concept of a seabin makes a lot of sense. It is capable of collecting and disposing of different types of debris including bottles, plastic bags, and cigarette butts. It is expected that such a solution can remove over 80,000 plastic bottles from the ocean surface over the course of one year. This may only be a drop in the bucket at first, but if more of these devices are deployed, the oceans will slowly become a lot cleaner again.

To put this into perspective, the seabin can collect 1.5 kilograms of waste per day and is capable of holding a total of 12 kilograms of waste at full capacity. This does mean it will need to be cleaned out on a regular basis, but it is a small price to pay for a cleaner environment. In most cases, cleaning the oceans of debris is done using boats. That is an inefficient and rather expensive way to achieve the same goal, since this seabin is pretty much autonomous until it needs to be cleaned out.

Under the hood, the seabin is made up of a large fiber net and a pump with which floating debris can be collected. Moreover, it seems the contraption can also suck in oil, which will be of great value to marine life all over the planet. Its autonomous operations rely on creating a water flow through the bin and bringing all harmful elements with it. Said items – which can be as small as 2mm in diameter – are then caught in the net and the clean water exits the bin on the other side.

Most people will realize by now this seabin isn’t capable of catching everything floating around on the ocean’s surface. It is an important first step in the right direction, but calling it a perfect solution would be a bit of a stretch. Seeing this project in action is a pretty powerful experience and may lead to more of these seabins being deployed around the globe in the near future. For now, deployment is limited to sheltered harbors and marinas.

The current plan is to make this seabin commercially available next month. That is a positive sign as well, as it shows there is a lot of room for growth when it comes to creating cleaner oceans. If all goes according to plan, these seabins will become utterly redundant in the future, but the company seems to be more than fine with that. Then again, it is evident this firm isn’t doing this for the big money by any means.

A high-profile group of investors are backing an unknown startup’s token sale, in an effort to evolve the “stablecoin” concept.

In a real world, when you become an owner of some kind of commodity, you could expect that this thing will either raise or depreciate its value in years. For example, if you buy the autographed t-shirt of some singer you could resale it at 10 times higher price after a while, if the object of your admiration becomes a superstar of course, and if not, you could sell your merch for $1 at a garage sale.

In a world of virtual items, the market condition is far from that conditional freedom. Only 6% of gamers can buy, sell or exchange their gains. Imagine that you already don`t need that fictitious fan t-shirt and it becomes a dead weight with hundreds of other clothes in your wardrobe. And even if you certainly know that your neighbor or coworker dreams about all those things, you have left nothing to do but to keep all those staff at home.

In the in-gaming world such a restrictions occurred due to the fact that game platforms are not ready to offer their customers a function of trading. It is all about technology and security issues that hang like a double bladed sword of Damocles over the developer`s head. What to say about cross-platform market relations? They are locked for today.

project overcame two main issues of in-game trading, technological and security, by proposing a blockchain based marketplace solution. This platform totally can unite gamers with game developers and publishers with investors.

Technologies used

The DMarket project aims to ensure full transparency in trading operations. That is why blockchain technology is used as a decentralized data storage unit. At the moment, the system is being developed on Etherium, but in the future, this platform will be revised and most possibly replaced with a more economically robust one. Also, DMarket team pays a great attention to the scalability of smart contracts to build our own platform.

How will it work?

DMarket offers to carry out any kind of transactions with virtual items using DMarket tokens and smart contracts. Any gamer could come with his or her in-game capital and become an active member of a new economy. The DMarket tokens are distributed through the token sales. The first sale phase was held in August 2017 and raised 10.8blns in investments. The second phase will start in a month, on November 3rd , and after this, any DMarket token will be sold.

How could gaming industry change?

When gamers will find out that their gains become valuable it will embrace them to spend more time on mining and rare things hunt. Consequently, publishers and game developers will have to focus on attractive in-game products development. DMarket, from its side, is planning to spend 18% of its investments to stimulate the cost-effective and attractive business models creation for the in-game items stored on DMarket blockchain.

What are perspectives for investors?

There are 2.3 bln of gamers which recently are not involved into in-game items trade. DMarket opens the gate to $450bln worth money flow. By the Metcalf`s Law, the value of marketplace will grow to its users as the square of the total number of its members. So DMarket token has a significant potential to rise through the next few years.

Check out DMarket White Paper to find out more about the platform.

Disclosure: This is a Sponsored Article

October 13, 2017 — Santa Monica, California: After spending a month scouring the San Francisco rental market, Alex Lubinsky and Lily Ostapchuk came to the conclusion that the long-term rental industry was in need of a more efficient solution. As a result, Rentberry was born in 2015, and it has been simplifying the industry by easily … Continue reading Rentberry Announces Decentralized Long-Term Rental Platform at Block-Con

The post Rentberry Announces Decentralized Long-Term Rental Platform at Block-Con appeared first on NEWSBTC.

It will take a significant amount of time until we finally know how Russia truly plans to treat cryptocurrencies. Just in this past week, we have seen more conflicting reports on the matter than ever before. It turns out the rumored ban on cryptocurrencies will not entirely happen, although significant restrictions will be put in place. The government is contemplating introducing purchase limits for all Russian citizens, which is a unique take on things, to say the least.

Another Plot Twist in the Russia-Bitcoin Story

If it were up to Russian government officials, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies would be legalized and banned at the exact same time. The fact that so many conflicting opinions regarding cryptocurrencies are out there is pretty intriguing, although it makes the job of coming to a unified solution a lot harder. Then again, it does not appear as if the country’s regulators want to take a unified approach anytime soon. Instead, this conflicting information seems to please some government officials, although it is unclear as to why this is the case.

Anton Siluanov is the Russian Finance Minister. His latest statement is of great importance to the Bitcoin industry in Russia as a whole; that much is certain.  According to Siluanov, the new plan of the Russian government is to curb the amount of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies people can buy. Moreover, the government will control the issuance and circulation of cryptocurrencies. This latter point is pretty vague at best, as it allows a lot of room for speculation.

For the time being, no information has been revealed as to how all of this will be achieved in the future. That’s not entirely surprising, as controlling Bitcoin itself is impossible. Going after the centralized exchanges facilitating the purchase and sale of cryptocurrencies is a different matter entirely. However, it is evident such measures cannot be put in place without officially legalizing cryptocurrencies and their associated mining operations, which is a somewhat positive aspect to all of this.

Considering we have seen some very controversial statements regarding cryptocurrency in Russia, this latest bit of news is rather positive. Although there is no real reason for Russia – or any other country – to oppose cryptocurrencies in any way, there will always be proponents and opponents of innovative financial tools. No one denies that cryptocurrencies pose some risks also found in other forms of financial instruments. However, their decentralized nature makes it impossible for any government to exert any real control over this ecosystem directly.

The Russian state has a responsibility to protect consumers and enterprises from financial harm; that much everyone can agree on. The means by which this should be achieved, however, will always be met with a certain degree of scrutiny. It is difficult to embrace financial innovation and focus on regulation at the same time. In fact, the two concepts may prove to be mutually exclusive when it comes to cryptocurrencies.

For the time being, no one can claim anything has been set in stone as far as Russia is concerned. Government officials there have very different ideas as to what needs to happen regarding cryptocurrencies, and the general public is keeping a close eye on these proceedings. Right now, the tone is more positive than negative, but no one knows what next week will bring. It’s an interesting debate, to say the very least.

düber Technologies Inc., a software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider serving the cannabis industry, is thrilled launch its Initial Coin Offering (ICO). The Pre-sale will start at 15:01 UTC on Oct 11. The ICO will use a SAFT (Simple Agreement for Future Tokens) structure conducted under Rule 506(c) of Regulation D of Section 4(a)2 of the U.S. Securities Act, as amended (the “U.S. Securities Act”) which accredits token buyers as investors.

The düber token (DBR) is intended to incentivize and improve information exchange in the cannabis community, including consumers, retailers, labs, processors, and growers. Examples are rewarding community members for providing product information and photos, submitting product reviews, participation in loyalty programs and interaction with advertising and other communication channels.

Blockchain technology will measure and allocate growth in economic surplus throughout the supply chain as a result of increased information exchange across all network participants. The DBR is an Ethereum (ETH) blockchain cryptocurrency that can be used within the network to pay for goods and services provided by licensed cannabis businesses.

“At düber, we believe that we have the unique opportunity to transform the cannabis industry through incentivizing the creation and sharing of information, which benefits all patients, consumers, and businesses,” said Glenn Ballman, founder of düber. “We have chosen the SAFT ICO structure, and combined it with a broad-based seeding program to enable a wide distribution of the tokens to members of the cannabis community.”

düber is an emerging leader of technology and services within the cannabis industry. The company provides integrated retailer and supply chain solutions including online ordering, supply chain management, retail automation and advertising and has a healthy track record of growing sales for cannabis retailers.

“We began implementing düber’s technology in 2016 and have seen sales and order sizes increase as customers order online, use self-serve systems located in the store and respond to product advertising,” said Nick Antonie, owner of Herban Legends, Seattle. “We believe in the vision düber has for the future of the industry and appreciate how its technology allows us to deliver a superior customer experience.”

To visit düber’s ICO website, including the white paper and the private placement memorandum prepared in connection with the ICO, visit www.dubercoin.com. The private placement memorandum contains information on the offering, including details on purchaser qualification requirements and risk factors.

ABOUT DÜBER TECHNOLOGIES INC.

Headquartered in Seattle, WA, düber Technologies Inc. is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider serving the cannabis industry. düber’s mission is to help small companies compete with large corporations through superior technology. The company currently provides customers with online ordering, self-serve systems, global product search, digital signage and advertising products and has plans to launch several more including retail point of sale and a home delivery engine for retailers. düber operates in state jurisdictions that have legalized both medical and recreational cannabis and assists with compliance of the laws of these jurisdictions. To learn more about düber Technologies Inc., please visit www.duberpartners.com.

ABOUT THE DÜBER SAFT ICO

The SAFTs will only be offered in the United States on a private placement basis pursuant to exemptions from the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act and in Canada by way of private placement exemptions from Canadian prospectus requirements, in each case to qualified “accredited investors” only. All securities issued will be subject to restrictions on re-sales in accordance with applicable securities laws. The SAFTs have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, U.S. persons absent U.S. registration or an applicable exemption from U.S. registration requirements. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities in any jurisdiction where such offer or sale is prohibited or unlawful.

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.

Most European countries have not issued any official guidelines on cryptocurrencies or initial coin offerings. That is only normal, as such decisions need to be made by the European Union first and foremost. So far, it seems, the EU doesn’t consider either of these topics a priority. Lithuania is trying to set the tone in this regard, although its central bank has simply “clarified” its position for the time being. The tone isn’t positive by any means, though.

Bank of Lithuania Doesn’t Like Cryptocurrency

No one will be surprised to learn there is another central bank out there that doesn’t like cryptocurrencies or ICOs one bit. Back in 2014, the Bank of Lithuania warned the public about both Bitcoin and altcoins. In its recent clarification, those words were reiterated. It is evident that the central bank doesn’t want cryptocurrency to succeed in any way, and that it will continue to oppose the concept for quite some time to come.

To be more specific, the Bank of Lithuania confirmed that financial services providers must remain “dissociated” from cryptocurrency activity at any cost. This leaves very little room for interpretation, as it means no bank is allowed to let consumers buy or sell cryptocurrency right now. It is unclear whether many companies will adhere to this guideline, though, as that does not appear to be the case whatsoever.

Bank of Lithuania’s Marius Jurgilas commented as follows:

‘Virtual currency is an instrument involving high risk, while profiteering on it may lead to significant losses of funds. Therefore, in order to protect the customers of financial institutions, financial institutions legally operating in our country and supervised by the Bank of Lithuania must strictly dissociate themselves from this product type in their activities. An illusion that virtual currencies are supervised or safe can in no way be created.”

Moreover, the Bank of Lithuania touched upon the concept of cryptocurrency debit cards. We have seen a lot of problems with such cards thanks to new guidelines proposed by both Visa and MasterCard. It is evident even customers within the EEA will struggle in this regard, as Lithuania’s central bank has decreed that no financial market participants in the country should provide opportunities for customers to pay in payment instruments linked to unregulated financial assets. That’s a very strong statement, to say the very least.

Additionally, the Bank of Lithuania’s statement covered the topic of initial coin offerings. This new business model has received a lot of opposition from governments all over the world of late. Lithuania will not be any less hostile in this regard; that much is rather evident. Such activities are unregulated for the time being and are seen as posing a significant financial risk, as they allow unprofessional investors to help bring new projects to life. The potential for losing money is very real and ICOs need to be restricted in this regard.

All of this goes to show Lithuania doesn’t want to be part of the cryptocurrency ecosystem in any significant way right now. It is still possible these opinions will change, but for the time being, things aren’t looking all that promising for the country. It will be interesting to see if any actual regulation will be drafted to nip cryptocurrency and ICO activities in the bud.

Ethereum startup ConsenSys unveiled 20 new hires today, drawn from a range of notable companies working with blockchain.