Day: November 7, 2017

It’s the latest large site seen to be running up site visitors CPU to crank out cryptocurrency.

Cryptocurrency users all over the world are prone targets for cybercriminals. While that is a scary thought, it is also the harsh reality we have to deal with. We have seen various types of malware, Trojans, and wallet stealers surface over the past few years. CryptoShuffler is a Trojan horse which may prove to be even more dangerous than anything else we have come across so far.

CryptoShuffler is a Very Serious Threat

While most people may dismiss reports regarding cryptocurrency-stealing malware, there is no reason to do so whatsoever. In fact, there is good reason to pay attention to these developments. For all you know, you may be the next person to see money stolen due to some form of malicious software. Especially when it comes to the CryptoShuffler Trojan, there is a legitimate reason to grow concerned over what the future may hold for cryptocurrency enthusiasts.

More specifically, it seems this particular Trojan has been a cause of concern for Kaspersky Labs. The world-renowned security firm doesn’t issue warnings like this one if it doesn’t have a good reason to do so. Virtually every cryptocurrency wallet in the world is susceptible to CryptoShuffler right now, and no currency is safe whatsoever. Moreover, this Trojan has netted criminals at least US$150,000 worth of Bitcoin alone so far.

What this particular piece of malicious software does is replace the address on the user’s clipboard with a different cryptocurrency wallet address. For example, if you are sending money to and from an exchange, you may copy its address to your clipboard before entering it in your wallet. It is this copied address which is at risk of being replaced by the CryptoShuffler Trojan. As a result, once money is sent, it can’t be recovered unless there are no confirmations for the transaction yet. Even then, it becomes very difficult to negate transactions or overwrite them with the correct information.

So far, it seems this Trojan is capable of affecting both software clients as well as web-based interfaces. That in itself is pretty worrisome and should dissuade people from using their clipboard to transfer money in the first place. Cryptocurrencies are known for their QR-code based transactions, but it seems this functionality is being used less often than it should be. Not getting infected with this Trojan is also a good strategy, of course, but that is much easier said than done in most cases.

Detecting the malware on one’s computer isn’t easy either. Unlike most other malware, the CryptoShuffler Trojan doesn’t generate any suspicious system processes. Nor does it appear to use a lot of CPU power or memory either. To most people, it will simply go by unnoticed, which is exactly what makes this malware so dangerous. It is a very troublesome development in the world of cryptocurrency, yet there doesn’t appear to be a fix for this problem as of right now.

The most worrisome aspect of CryptoShuffler is that it completes its job in mere milliseconds. It seems this malware has been around since 2016 but is only now gaining traction, for some unknown reason. It is also a bit unclear how the malware is distributed exactly, although malicious email attachments seem the most likely culprit right now. It is evident we will only see more threats against cryptocurrency users in the future.

That’s another day complete in our bitcoin price trading efforts and – once again – we’ve had a pretty volatile day as far as price is concerned. Things are moving at pace now based on a variety of fundamental inputs and – as more and more of these inputs become relevant – expectations are that increased volume will translate to a parallel increase volume and – by proxy – momentum.

Momentum can be a good thing, of course, especially as far as our breakout strategy is concerned. What we don’t like to see, however, is choppy action in and around our key levels. This sort of action is a rapid route to stop loss driven trading and can really take the edge out of any accumulated net gains.

Anyway, we don’t know what sort of action we are in for near term, so we’ve just got to ensure that our risk management principles are solid and hope that we can avoid chop-outs as and when they arise.

So, let’s get to tonight’s key levels.

As ever, take a quick look at the chart below before we get started so as to get an idea where things stand. It is a one-minute candlestick chart and it’s got our key range overlaid in green.

As the chart shows, the range we are looking at for the session this evening comes in as defined by support to the downside at 7071 and resistance to the upside at 7131. We are going to initially lookout for a close above resistance to validate an upside entry towards a target of 7175. Looking the other way, and if we see price close below support, we will jump into a short trade with a downside target of 7000. A stop loss on both positions just the other side of the entry points will ensure we are taken out of the trades if things turn against us.

Charts courtesy of Trading View.

The post Bitcoin Price Watch; Here’s What We Are Looking At Tonight appeared first on NEWSBTC.

Today’s market is flooded with cryptocurrencies, thanks to the ease of creating them and the rise in the number of ICOs organized by projects, both big and small. However, not all of these new tokens solve the issues revolving around the use of digital currencies for everyday transactions. And then, there is always the issue of volatility which is hindering its widespread adoption.

NetCents Technology Inc., a next-generation payment processor supporting both fiat and cryptocurrency payments has decided to take it upon itself to solve these issues. In order to do so, the platform has created a new coin that overcomes various shortcomings exhibited by the existing cryptocurrencies.

The NetCents Coin allows consumers to make fast and secure transactions that are independent of any one singular authority or trusted third party, making it a truly decentralized alternative. Earlier this month, NetCents Technology Inc. issued a whitepaper unfolding the NetCents Coin which it will be releasing November 30^th. Download the whitepaper here.

The NetCents Coin is constructed on the following pillars:

• Widely held and circulated
• Tradable
• Backed by a Treasury Reserve Account
• Operating under a structured coin release to prevent price speculation
• Highly secure and private
• Counterfeiting prevention and fraud risk detection structured with next generation algorithms
• A global coin, with initial releases in Canada and the UK

The NetCents Coin will be distributed through a non-profit partner organization, domiciled in Switzerland; the NetCents Coin Foundation (NCCF). The introduction and eventual mass-adoption of the aforementioned coin will assist NetCents in accomplishing their mandate of revolutionizing the payment processing sector.

The release of the NetCents Coin, is structured much differently than other cryptocurrencies. Unlike existing cryptocurrencies, the NetCents Coin will be issued over time from the NCCF treasury at market rates with a transparent release mechanism. New coins will be released in tranches based on the coin’s market value. Any value received from the sale of treasury coins by NCCF will remain in NCCF’s Treasury Reserve Account, where it will support the value and fund the development and continued maintenance of the NetCents Coin.

100% of Treasury NetCents Coins proceeds in reserve account to support the coin

“The NetCents Coin is a true transaction coin and not an instrument of speculation. A coin structured to appreciate over time, in a controlled way with minimal volatility. To have real value with asset backing and scalable to absorb any amount of capital. In essence, a real global blockchain based cryptocurrency to be used by the masses for everyday transactions.” – Jean-Marc Bougie, CEO, Hillcore Group

The NetCents Coin is filling the gaps and picking up where Bitcoin failed. No more unpredictability, lack of control, or rampant speculation. We’re providing a stable cryptocurrency, one that is widely held and has affordable transaction costs.

Download the NetCents Coin whitepaper here.

The post The NetCents Coin, A Better Cryptocurrency for Day-to-day Transactions appeared first on NEWSBTC.

Global insurer Allianz has unveiled a new blockchain prototype focused on “captive” insurance policies.

We have seen many interesting cryptocurrency ICOs so far. Most of these business models seem to have some form of merit. There are also currencies which are clearly designed to have no value, with their teams being transparent about this fact. It is hard to fit GoldenShield into either of these categories, as it almost appears to be a scam project. Its business model revolves around North Korea. It’s not something anyone should get involved with or invest in.

GoldenShield Sounds Like a Scam

First of all, it is perfectly possible the GoldenShield team has nothing but honest intentions with their initial coin offering. At first glance, that certainly doesn’t appear to be the case, though. The website is pretty sparse and it seems their “objective” will raise a lot of questions. In fact, one could argue this business model doesn’t even warrant an ICO in the first place. Nor should anyone partake in this investment either, based on what little information we have available.

We know there are state-sponsored hacking collectives all over the world. Governments in various countries hire specialist hackers to target the infrastructures of their “political enemies”. North Korea certainly seems to play its part in this regard, even though most relavent information remains somewhat incomplete. Attacking North Korea through an ICO-funded hacker collective simply makes no sense whatsoever. It will only create legal issues for anyone involved in this project.

After all, that seems to be the main objective of GoldenShield. The website claims that the project aims to “open up the North Korean network”. Decentralizing activism is a noble thought, but it shouldn’t be achieved by purposefully hacking regimes which will only retaliate in a much larger capacity. No one knows what North Korea is capable of exactly, especially in the world of cyber espionage and hacking. The country seems to target virtually everything, from the US government to South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges.

While it is commendable GoldenShield wants to be the first activist cryptocurrency, there is no real reason to create such a token. After all, activists can use any of the existing cryptocurrencies or digital tokens in circulation already. GoldenShield’s token will offer no additional value in this regard whatsoever, nor does it seem to have any chance of appreciating in value. Without any business model whatsoever, demand for these tokens will not increase in the slightest.

Under the hood, GoldenShield claims to use the IPFS network and the Ethereum blockchain. This mainly pertains to the native token rather than any infrastructure used by the project itself, though. It is unclear what people can really expect from this project or what its long-term goals are exactly. With so many questions and very few answers, the future is shrouded in shadows for this particular ICO. It’s not the most appealing investment model whatsoever; that much is certain.

Styras arises from the necessity of staying connected, anywhere and everywhere we go. Was created to fulfill the neverending demand for better and more affordable Internet for All.

Styras is the first decentralized mobile app based on Ethereum blockchain technology, which offers: Internet connection anywhere on the planet. Using Smart Contacts, Styras customers maintain Internet connection oversees with low costs. Enables users to transfer Internet credit to friends and family around the globe.

Styras is consisting of 3 segments: Styras Wallet, Application and the router.

Styras Wallet: there are three separate wallets, for Styras, Bitcoin and Ethereum. All three are high encrypted and completely safe to use. You can buy Internet packages with Styras, Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Styras App: With the App you will have Internet access anywhere on the planet, without a router, only with your cellphone. Also if you buy Internet packages with Styras, you will get additional bonus of 15% more of Internet balances.

When you start the application, it will detect your location and mail it to our system.  Smart contracts are detecting where the closest Hotspots are available. While buying MB for navigation we receive your payment through the blockchain and after the first confirmation of the transaction, we will send a signal to our system to enable a particular Hotspot near you. Styras App receives the signal and will link you to those particular Hotspots which will be activated after the payment has been processed.

Styras will hire main HotSpot Internet services around the world, in main cities and countries. So you can stay connected everywhere!

Styras Router: It will allow you to connect up to 10 devices thru Wi-Fi. Supports Telephones, Notebooks, Tablets, Gaming Consoles.

The Router integrates a SIM CARD completely free of charge and aimed to receive Internet Signal. This way we are able to distribute the signal to devices like notebooks, tablets or gaming consoles.

It offers a secure internet connection and you can recharge internet packages with Styras, Bitcoin or Ethereum.

Token Sales Information

Maximum supply is 200 millions (Hard Cap) of Styras token (STY) and would be Available for purchase 180.000.000 STY. 180 millions of STYRAS token will be sold at the ICO, which equals 55800 ETH at current rates, with PRE ICO token Price of USD 0.077 and ICO Public Sale of USD 0.101. Exchange rate Pre ICO: 1 ETH = 4000 (STY) it includes the bonus of 33% and ICO Public Sale 1 ETH = 3000 (STY) – this may change with ETH exchange rates. The ICO Pre-Sale will start on November 21st, 2017 at 15:00:00 GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) and end on November 27th, 2017 at 23:59:59 GMT, then ICO Public Sale will start on November 28th, 2017 at 00:00:00 GMT and end on December 30th, 2017 at 23:59:59 GMT. Some of the numbers may change with ETH/USD exchange rates and volatility, but numbers are best eff ort estimates as of October 2017.

20.000.000 of STY, Reserved tokens by the company to incentivize community, beta testers, marketing and strategic partners.

Coin distribution: Contract will distribute coins/tokens instantly upon receiving ETH

Minimum goal: 840.000 STY

If minimum not met: Refunds will be issued via the smart contract

Unsold tokens during the ICO are burned.

COMPANY NAME: STYRAS LTD

TOKEN SYMBOL: STY

Website ICO: http://styras.io/

Registration for ICO Pre-Sale: https://styras.io/presale.html

E-mail: [email protected]

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StyrasGlobal/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/styras_global

Whitepaper: http://styras.io/assets/styras_whitepaper_en.pdf

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.

The central bank of India is against virtual cryptocurrencies but supports Blockchain, which is the technology behind the cryptos.

Trademarks and patents often lead to heated exchanges of words in the Bitcoin and cryptocurrency world. More specifically, anyone trying to trademark existing names or terms is often scrutinized by the community, as they should be. It seems an entity in the United Kingdom is trying to trademark Bitcoin Gold and Bitcoin Cash. It’s an interesting gambit, although it is doubtful such a venture will be successful.

Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Gold as Trademarks?

It is always interesting to see how people try to capitalize on the success of existing projects or currencies. In the case of Bitcoin, one could argue every cryptocurrency created after it is trying to ride the coattails of the world’s leading cryptocurrency. Things are never black and white, though, especially not in the world of finance. One thing everyone can agree on is how filing for trademarks for existing terms or currencies is just not done whatsoever.

Indeed, there is no reason for anyone to trademark names that already exist in the cryptocurrency world. For some reason, a UK entity registered in Middlesex named The Sun & Sand Foundation is attempting to do exactly that. A Reddit user discovered two trademark filings pertaining to Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Gold. It is unclear who exactly is behind this, or why it’s being done now. The applications were filed on October 3rd of this year, which is a rather interesting detail. The Sun & Sand Foundation has no ties with either of these currencies as far as we know.

It is remarkable to note this company has just two trademark filings so far: one for BitcoinCash and the other for BitcoinGold. While these are not the correct spellings of either currency as most people know them, this is still quite worrisome. After all, a lot of people will confuse BitcoinCash for Bitcoin Cash and BitcoinGold for Bitcoin Gold. The last thing we need in cryptocurrency is people filing for confusing trademarks which may redirect people to the wrong information in the process.

With both trademarks being filed for on October 3rd, it is unclear whether or not Sun & Sand Foundation will receive them. In most cases, filings such as these are either retracted or simply rejected because a similar name already exists as part of the public domain. Moreover, it is unclear what the company hopes to achieve with these filings, as there is no reason for filing for these trademarks whatsoever. Given the company’s nonexistent history with cryptocurrency, a very confusing situation is created.

One important thing to keep in mind is that no one has officially trademarked either BitcoinGold or BitcoinCash so far. There are always loopholes which may allow for companies to be granted these trademarks regardless of how they plan to use them exactly. For the time being, it is unclear when we will find out more about these filings. If the trademarks are granted, however, it is certainly possible Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Gold may find themselves in a bit of a pickle. All exchanges supporting either currency would have some legal issues on their hands as well.

Behavior like this is absolutely not appreciated by the general cryptocurrency community. Both Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Gold are designed to be open-source projects, which means trademarks shouldn’t apply to either of them whatsoever. However, some people will always try to make money from trademarking existing products if they aren’t covered by trademarks already. This is an interesting, albeit confusing situation well worth keeping an eye on.

CME Group Chairman Emeritus Leo Melamed said he believes in the future of bitcoin and expects major investment in his company’s futures contracts.

Affiliate marketing on the blockchain could do for marketing what intercontinental rocket flights are promising to do for commercial air travel. While you may have to wait until 2022 before commercial rocket travel is available, ultra fast affiliate marketing over the Blockchain is here today.

Disclosure: This is a Sponsored Article

A More Efficient Affiliate Network

The next generation of performance marketing is on the Blockchain. Bitcomo, an affiliate network supporting smart contract projects and ICOs,  is the first CPA network to run on smart contracts. But in the same way friction can slow down hypersonic vehicles, affiliate networks need to eliminate friction to operate at faster speeds.

Bitcomo’s network is both frictionless and fast. Like all Blockchain solutions, Bitcomo is improving a business process—in this case, affiliate marketing—by reducing intermediaries. If using a traditional CPA (cost per action) marketing model, at least four intermediaries are between the advertiser and lead generation. Marketing dollars could be eroded at each node in the network through friction caused by costs, errors, data transmission losses and fraud.

The smart contract creates frictionless affiliate networks. Transactions are performed directly between the advertiser and affiliate through  a transparent blockchain. Errors and fraud by intermediaries are eliminated and, if they do occur, transparent and traceable. The smart contract tracks and encrypts each action—be it a click, conversion or payment—in a block changeable only by permission by all parties to each block on the chain. Crucially, all these actions are viewable, making it impossible for affiliates to create false traffic or sales without being seen.

These efficiencies allow the network operator to provide affiliate services at significantly lower commissions. On the Bitcomo network, the commission is 5 percent. Payment can be processed instantaneously at agreed upon nodes (actions) in the affiliate marketing process.

Bitcomo co-founder Ivan Karadzhov is an innovator in online advertising. He is also CEO of pop under ad shop AdPop, a less intrusive advertising method that opens ad windows underneath the active window. Its advisory board is comprised of startup and marketing technology experts including Constantin Gorshkov of AdCombo.com, Glen Nikitin of MediaSniper, Oleg Donovan of AD.ru, Maksim Mukhorrtov of AdNow and Aleksey Voronin of Icolab.fund.

The Hypersonic Blockchain

Bitcomo delivers your marketing messages through affiliate networks at a zippier speed via a reengineered blockchain platform called the TraceChain. The TraceChain can log clicks and leads in the blockchain at 10,000 qps, which is an impressively 10 times  faster than other blockchain providers.  

Consider the highly trafficked e-commerce shopping cart space. One of the oldest and highest paying affiliate networks, online e-commerce giant Shopify, which by the way accepts bitcoin, has 13,000 affiliate partners in its network. Speed could increase efficiency, but not if the speed bumps of the traditional pay-for-performance system persist. As noted above, smart contracts remove friction.  The current Blockchain can process two million crypto currency transactions per day, whereas the TraceChain can handle five billion daily. As affiliate networks grow in number and size, more capacity will be required. Gleb Nikitin and Sergey Raylyan, the inventors of the TraceChain protocol, are Bitcomo advisors.

The Bitcomo Token (BM) Sale

The on-ramp to Bitcomo’s faster and more secure affiliate network is its upcoming ICO. In the future Internet marketing will take place in a secure eco-system in which all transactions are done with tokens, but no need to wait. The Bitcomo affiliate network will be open in alpha mode in January. The Bitcomo token BM is the currency for all marketing transactions, while bitcoin and ethereum will be automatically converted. The utility token is used to pay for the leads by the advertiser and as payout to affiliates. The BM tokens will be listed on all major exchanges. Investors can acquire the tokens through the ICO.  

The pre-ICO runs for 30 days starting on November 20th.  The main ICO runs from January 16 to February 16, 2018. In total, 170 million tokens will be offered at $0,30 with a hard cap of $51 million.  An early bird offer will sell 27.2 million tokens at a 10-25 percent discount. During the ICO period, a 20 percent bonus will be offered on 30 percent of the remaining 108.8 million tokens.

You may have to wait for hypersonic air travel, but ultra-fast affiliate marketing on the blockchain is arriving now.  

No one can deny initial coin offerings have become increasingly popular as of late. While a lot of companies have successfully raised money this way, regulators all over the world are looking into the matter as well. This has forced some companies to label their ICOs in a creative manner. However, any professional company will call a spade a spade and not a tool used to dig dirt out of the ground.

A Polished ICO is still an ICO in the end

No matter how creative some ICO projects get with their wording, no one can deny what an initial coin offering is exactly. It is not just the money-raising aspect that matters here. Anyone can do a perfectly legitimate crowdfunding campaign using cryptocurrencies without being considered an initial coin offering. It is the way that investors are rewarded which makes a project either a crowdsale, a crowdfunding campaign, or an initial coin offering. The differences may be subtle, but they can’t be dismissed whatsoever.

What makes an initial coin offering an ICO is the way teams or projects create a new digital token out of thin air and attribute some value to it. Investors are rewarded these digital tokens in exchange for their monetary contributions. This concept has been around even before Ethereum was created. A few years ago, we saw various companies raise Bitcoin and reward users with new colored coins that were proprietary to the platform or service being created. ICOs are a lot “older” than most people assume, and it doesn’t matter which blockchain is used to create the tokens either.

One recent Facebook conversation shared on Reddit shows how creative some teams are getting. In this particular case, it seems the team – Paragon, by the look of things – is trying to tell people that they are not an ICO whatsoever. Rather, they conducted a pre-sale and a crowdsale later on. This juggling of words means very little when the method utilized is still that of an ICO. Just because they may not officially use that wording doesn’t mean regulators or the general cryptocurrency community won’t label these activities as initial coin offerings.

After all, the definition of an ICO revolves around creating native tokens and offering a prospective return on investment. An ICO and a crowdsale are virtually the same thing, although not every crowdsale will be an ICO. Without making things too confusing, issuing a new token and selling it in exchange for investors’ money will always be considered an ICO. That doesn’t mean the token in question is a security, but that is a different debate altogether.

In a way, it is not entirely surprising most ICO projects don’t wish to be associated with the initial coin offering world. With regulators taking a very close look at every company in this space and the money they raise, projects are trying to distance themselves from this industry. Using different words will not achieve this goal whatsoever. To avoid the ICO label altogether, projects would have to raise money from traditional VCs or bankroll their own operations. For some reason, they are far less inclined to explore either of those options right now.

Purposefully trying to mislead investors by claiming one’s investment model is not an ICO will not sit well with the general public. In fact, it is a potential sign of a scam. While it is understandable that some teams are trying to find creative solutions to ditch the ICO label, the way they’re going about things needs a lot of work. Regulators will eventually crack down on projects like these, as they rightfully should. Those claiming to run a model different from an ICO while still using the same technique deserve special scrutiny and punishment.

An unknown amount of user funds on the ethereum network have been frozen due to a code issue with the Parity wallet software.

The post Qchain’s Forward Advancement Amid the Changing World of ICOs appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.