Day: October 19, 2017

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This week two more exchanges revealed their plans for the upcoming Segwit2x fork this November. The London-based exchange CEX.io explains that whether the company supports the split or not customers will receive split tokens if the fork takes place. Further, the Indian exchange Unocoin has revealed it will be supporting the chain with the most “mining/community” support.

Also read: Bitfinex Launches Segwit2x ‘Chain Split Tokens

The Trading Platform CEX.io Closely Observes the Ongoing Transformations and Considers the Measures Taken Under Emerging Conditions

The exchange CEX.io revealed its position towards the Segwit2x fork on Tuesday, October 17. The trading platform’s official statement details that there has been a lot of rumors and concerns about this particular fork. With all that aside, CEX.io believes the security of customer funds should never be at risk “no matter how the market evolves.”

“As for now, we are still closely observing the ongoing transformations and considering the measures to take under the emerging conditions — While tracking the further development of the situation, we will take action to secure the profit and ensure the safety of our existing and future customers,” explains CEX.io’s Helga Danova. “Currently, our team works on the technical side of every expected outcome, including the rejection of the protocol change.”

Whether we support the split or not, add new pairs for trade or not, our existing customers will receive new coins if Segwit2x hard fork happens. We will inform you later about the payout details and the time when additional options will be available on CEX.io.

Unocoin: ‘Only Tokens From the Majority Chain Will Be Supported After a Successful Split’

Following the CEX.io announcement, the well-known bitcoin exchange based in India, Unocoin, also disclosed its Segwit2x contingency plan. First and foremost Unocoin says there is no action required from customers in regard to the upcoming event of fork or split. Additionally, the trading platform will only support the chain that captures a majority of “mining/community support,” in order to utilize trading with INR.         

“All our customers holding any amount of bitcoin in their Unocoin wallet before the event of the fork would be entitled to an equivalent amount of coins on both the chains after the split — There is no action required from customers in this regard either before or during the fork as long as the replay protection is available,” explains Unocoin’s announcement.

However, only tokens from the majority chain would be supported for further trading on the Unocoin platform after the successful split — On determining the stability of each chain after the fork, users will be encouraged to submit their addresses to redeem their coin balance on the minority chain starting within two weeks after the split.

Both Unocoin and CEX.io join the growing list of exchanges who are announcing contingency plans for the Segwit2x fork. The trading platforms both say they will update their customers with a more definitive fork timeline down the road. Over the past two weeks, businesses have also had contrasting differences to how they will handle this particular fork. It will be particularly interesting to see how the entire industry cumulatively deals with the Segwit2x event as it unfolds.

What do you think about CEX.io and Unocoin’s statements about the upcoming fork? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Images via Shutterstock, Bitcoin.com, CEX.io, and Unocoin. 

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The world of crypto is changing with a lot of countries finding a way to embrace cryptocurrencies. The Japan Financial Services Agency recently issued operating licenses to 11 bitcoin exchanges, supporting the thought that projects like Karma are moving in the right direction.

While Japan is one of the key geographic markets for Karma, one of their other key markets is Russia. Karma’s founder, George Goognin, became the Vice Chairman of the Blockchain Experts Chamber to the Russian Parliament. This means Karma will have access to the newest legal developments and changes surrounding the blockchain and cryptocurrencies, impacting Russia, other countries, and their citizens, around the world.

Karma is a decentralized, peer to peer (P2P) platform instrumental in creating social and economic interactions between people all over the world.

Using blockchain technology, all the data is securely stored and automated, including electronic loan agreements and surety bonds, transfer of rights, class actions, deposits or collateral registrations. Karma’s platform processes the scoring of online credit application forms, securely, including the scoring of community members’ performance. Loans are available for the selling goods or services in the future, for example, selling real estate which is under construction.

Community members, or peers, can borrow or lend any assets including crypto assets, fiat currencies, mortgage through API, loans against housing, goods in transit, gold, and other assets. Users can create an infinite number of social and economic interaction options. Community members can choose loan conditions and credit terms, interest and collateral rates, and even cross-border international deals can be undertaken using different types of collateral assets (crypto, real estate, goods). Karma provides a multitude of solutions including loans without collateral, APIs for connecting to banks, credit scoring systems for individuals and businesses, insurance and real estate registers, and legal assistance.

The mission of Karma is to create a powerful impulse to assist in the development of entrepreneurs and grow the spirit of entrepreneurship all over the world, with a supportive society exhibiting the values of trust and assistance. To do so, Karma gives people from countries with inefficient financial systems access to financial and growth enabling resources, while investors from countries with low-interest rates have a possibility to invest in emerging markets.

“For Karma to offer the resources and services planned on our platform, we need to be at the forefront of fintech blockchain development. Karma contribute on a world stage by speaking as experts on panel discussions side by side with institutions like MOEX (Moscow Exchange, Russia’s leading legal exchange), conversing on topics including the evolution of the crypto community and the exchange services. In a couple of weeks, we will also be speaking at the Global Fintech & Blockchain Summit in Shanghai, and releasing our whitepaper. We invite everyone to stay informed with our developments on our Facebook or Twitter social media channels.”

https://tokensale.karma.red

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.

Chinese search engine giant Baidu has become the latest premier member of the Linux Foundation-led Hyperledger blockchain consortium.

Swiss participation in the Bitcoin arena continues at regulatory level as the country awards the first AML/KYC licence to a Bitcoin company.

As Bitcoin SegWit2x opposition grows day by day, pro-choice exchanges and other entities appear to be an increasing minority.

Books are an excellent way to introduce more people to the concept of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. Many such books have been written over the past few years. The recent Humble Book Bundle brought a few of these books to the masses at a more-than-affordable price. It turns out there is a new initiative known as EthBooks which aims to do the same. It’s an interesting concept to keep an eye on; that much is certain.

EthBooks Makes Cryptocurrency Education Easier

It is always good to see more initiatives focusing on cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. It’s especially good when these efforts try to educate the masses on how these industries will change our daily lives moving forward.  Finding proper books about cryptocurrency and blockchain technology isn’t all that difficult, although it may be a bit more challenging for the non-technical crowd. This is where EthBooks comes into the picture, as the initiative focuses on the educational aspect first and foremost.

This online ebook store only carries books and information related to cryptocurrency. Anyone in the world can upload their work free of charge to the relevant section of the store. This means there is a growing library to take note of on this new platform, assuming creators and publishers take the initiative to share their work. There is no real reason not to do so, but one never knows what the future will bring.

What makes EthBooks so interesting is that individuals can upload their creations and be paid for the work. It seems the only way to buy books will be through the native EBK token, which is to be sold during an upcoming ICO. The choice to not allow for Ethereum or Bitcoin payments will be considered a major missed opportunity in this regard, although things may still change in the future.

It does appear the developers want to create both a web-based front end and a mobile application for people to conveniently buy cryptocurrency-related books. That’s an interesting decision which will certainly be appreciated by the tech-savvy crowd. It remains to be seen if non-tech-savvy users will flock to this platform in the future, though. Only time will tell how things play out in that regard.

If this isn’t ambitious enough, the team claims they will build devices for people to read these books on. The EthReader prototype looks very similar to a Kobo or Amazon Fire tablet, with the main focus being on providing access to the EthBooks store first and foremost. That’s an interesting decision, to say the very least. Publishers will be entitled to an 85% royalty, whereas 15% of purchases will be kept by the EthBooks team.

All things considered, the EthBooks initiative looks interesting, although the chances of this project succeeding remain rather bleak. Creating a custom token to provide a service people can access through multiple other means is questionable. One has to applaud efforts such as this one, although it remains to be seen if the concept will gain any traction whatsoever. Running an ICO to build a web store rather than saving up commissions to build the app and hardware later on is an interesting decision, to say the least.

After raising $8 million USD in its private sale period, BANKEX launched its presale on October 8, 2017

BANKEX, the decentralized Bank-as-a-service (BaaS) exchange, has raised $8 million USD in soft and hard commitments as part of its private presale, launched on October 5. Expected to raise 65 000 to 130 000 ETH, the public presale allows participants to use both Ethereum and Bitcoin to partake in the sale.

One prominent partner in the private presale includes Soramitsu, a blockchain technology company based in Japan that creates services to help governments and financial institutions manage digital identities, assets, and contracts. Soramitsu is a member of Hyperledger and the original developer and contributor of Hyperledger Iroha. Through collaboration with Soramitsu, BANKEX hopes to expand into new markets and be able to work with a larger variety of technologies.

With industry-wide support, BANKEX’S partners include Microsoft, Dostavista, a global crowdsourced delivery service that operates in nine countries, Symphony Foundation, a foundation consisting of leading US banks, and the Moscow Exchange, the largest exchange group in Russia. In May 2017, BANKEX was listed by Financial IT’s Pathfinder Ranking as one of the Top-50 fintech companies worldwide.

Deploying smart contracts and powered by tokenization of assets, the BANKEX’s platform enables off-balance sheet crowdfunding and chain finance atop extant infrastructure, creating novel and efficient solutions for banks and other financial institutions.

Despite the initial collaboration between the traditional banking sector and the emerging fintech players, financial markets are still plagued with issues, such as  misleading financial market ratings, scores and audits which leads to distrust among participants. BANKEX aims to solve these problems through its  Proof-of-Asset Protocol, a standard that enables a new generation of assets and contracts creating decentralized capital markets. BANKEX unites decentralized Bank-as-a-Service platforms with FinTech technologies and optimizes the liquidity of non-fungible and traditionally illiquid assets.

Target assets for tokenization are those assets classes that are able to generate cash flows with an approximate capitalization exceeding $100 million USD. However, Proof-of-asset protocol allows for tokenization of almost any asset such as cars or real estate. Tokenization of assets powered by Proof-of-asset protocol and integrated with Bank-as-Service provides undeniable advantages over archaic financial infrastructures. The BANKEX ecosystem helps reach a general consensus between asset owners, creates distributed smart assets, and uses tradable tokens as a means of payment for end products.

With compliance and security as top priorities, BANKEX is in close cooperation with Group-IB to help mitigate cybersecurity risks at all stages of the token sale. In addition to this, all participants must go through an in-depth registration process. Interested parties can register here  https://bankex.com/whitelist. Sensitive personal information is not collected. Once registered participants will receive an email with instructions on how to proceed in the presale, this email will include ETH/BTC address that presale contributions should be sent to.

All stages of the BANKEX pre-sale are now open for public participation, during this period, presale contributors will receive discounts at the following rates:

• Contributions of 500 ETH will receive 788 BKX = 1 ETH, this discount will expire once $20 million USD is raised.
• Contributions of 250 – 499 ETH will receive 700 BKX = 1 ETH, this discount will expire once $40 million USD is raised.
• Contributions of 100 – 249 ETH will receive 625 BKX = 1 ETH
• Contributions less than 99 ETH will be exempt from the presale and will be held in escrow until the token generation event commences

The official date of the BANKEX public token sale will be announced on October 16th, 2017.

BANKEX’s stellar board of advisors, consists of industry experts such as Sergey Sergienko, Founder of Chronobank, Sasha Ivanov, Founder of Waves, Nehemia Kramer, an early stage investor in Ethereum, Chris Skinner, a leading financial markets strategist, and Gabriele Colombo, Executive Director of Symphony Foundation, as well as leaders in education Michael Ostrovsky of Stanford and Peter Cramton of Maryland University.

Whitepaper Link

Company Website

Facebook Page

About BANKEX

Using standardized Fintech solutions, BANKEX, the decentralized Bank-as-a-Service exchange, aims to bridge the gap between the emerging blockchain sector and traditional finance. Deploying smart contracts and enabling tokenization, the platform powers off-balance sheet crowdfunding, chain finance and leverages external infrastructure, creating efficient and time effective solutions. BANKEX’s innovative solutions have far-reaching areas of application, and are posed to have transformative effects upon traditional finance and investment; micro-financing; real estate; as well as illiquid assets, natural resources, and futures markets.

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.

Japanese digital services firm GMO Internet has debuted its latest blockchain project: a “know your customer” app aimed at the banking industry.

While smart contracts are widely considered to be the newest technology to keep an eye on, they are not without their flaws. Indeed, there is a growing demand for auditing of smart contracts. Solidified aims to provide such a service to the cryptocurrency community. Having more platforms focusing on smart contract auditing will elevate the technology to a whole new level.

Solidified Crowdsources Smart Contract Review

There are plenty of people in the world who can look at a smart contract and uncover any flaws that may be present. Some people even specialize in this type of activity, which makes them quite valuable to the overall smart contract ecosystem. Bringing those people together into one unified offering may seem to be a centralized effort, but it is evident Solidified is banking on crowdsourcing more than anything else.

No one can deny there is a growing need for smart contract auditing these days. With mounting numbers of ICOs and token sales, there are a lot of potential flaws which need to be identified before things go awry. No one wants a repeat of what happened to some ICOs which lost millions due to wrong code in their contracts, after all. Auditing services are direly needed, and Solidified is just one of the many contenders in this space right now.

The project focuses on bringing smart contract auditing experts together with the projects and companies that require such services. According to its website, its experts will include blockchain veterans and Solidity programmers. Other interested parties can also apply to get involved, which is pretty interesting. There is a checkbox asking whether or not a given application is “for an ICO”. That is a pretty interesting touch, to say the very least.

As one would expect, Solidified will carry its own certification standard. This scoring system will rate contracts based on how they are designed, the code used, and security practices put in place. Errant smart contracts pose a very real threat to the Ethereum ecosystem, for obvious reasons. Moreover, with smart contract technology coming to various cryptocurrencies in the future, there will be an even bigger demand for proper audits.

Whether or not Solidified can become the auditing platform the world needs remains to be seen. The process is pretty straightforward: developers upload a contract, transfer a bounty over to the Solidified team, and the experts will review the code and identify potential issues. It is then up to the original developer to inspect these notes and make changes accordingly. After a final review, the smart contract will then be “solidified”.

All of this highlights a pretty interesting state of affairs. Audits of smart contracts are direly needed to ensure this technology can be considered legitimate and worthwhile. We can only hope to see more of these solutions pop up in the future, as the industry can’t lean on just one service provider of crowdsourcing efforts. It will be interesting to see how the general public responds to this effort, to say the very least.

Bitcoin Gold is by far one of the most suspicious Bitcoin hard forks to date. With very little to no support from the community and service providers, a lot of questions remain unanswered. However, it seems we now have at least one wallet supporting BTG. Freewallet will support this upcoming hard fork, which is rather … Continue reading Freewallet is the First Service Provider to Enable Bitcoin Gold Support

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Governments today are targeting our basic freedom of expression on the internet. It seems like the only way to squash civil unrest is by cutting off the country from internet access. Government censorship in China has prompted a sizeable number of the Chinese population to switch to Virtual Private Networks. It is unclear for how … Continue reading Privatix: Fighting Internet Censorship with a Fully Autonomous Network.

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