Day: November 11, 2017

There are many interesting developments in the world of Bitcoin right now. It is evident there are some major changes on the horizon. The Bitcoin network is slowing down, causing transaction delays and higher fees. Most miners have moved to Bitcoin Cash due to profitability reasons. If this “flip” would remain a permanent trend, things are looking pretty bad for the Bitcoin chain. All of this is just a snapshot of the current charts, though.

With the Bitcoin Cash price surging as of late, it is a lot more profitable to mine. More specifically, there is less of an incentive to mine Bitcoin itself. Despite a price of over $6,000, most miners will simply follow the most profitable option. Right now, BCH is 69.4% more profitable. It also means over half of the total hashrate on both networks has switched from Bitcoin to the altcoin. If this trend continues, things will get very problematic in quick succession.

All Systems go for Bitcoin Cash

Without sufficient hashpower, the Bitcoin network will grind to a standstill. Transactions already take longer to confirm right now. Users pay outrageous fees, which often hit double-digits as of today. That in itself is a big problem that needs to be addressed. It is impossible to find a real solution, though. Instead, we see more and more people move over to Bitcoin Cash. It would certainly explain the massive price pump over the past week. This situation will get very tense over the next few days and weeks, to say the very least.

Over the past 3 hours, BCH had more hashpower than Bitcoin. This number has been in favor of Bitcoin over the past 12 hours, but the gap is closing pretty quickly. Seven days ago, Bitcoin had over 5 times the hashpower of Bitcoin Cash. The SegWit2x debacle – potentially orchestrated by Bitcoin Cash supporters – may prove to be the tipping point in this regard. The blockchain with the most hashpower should effectively be Bitcoin, as it always has been. Right now, that isn’t BTC as we know it. An interesting situation, but a problematic one as well.

Although this is just a snapshot, it does show things are changing behind the scenes as well. If more companies switch to BCH instead of Bitcoin, we may see a flippening of sorts. At the same time, if the BCH supporters and creators orchestrated the whole SegWit2x ordeal, it may very well backfire on them. There is always more to situations like these, that much is evident. Everything that has happened over the past week and a half is oddly convenient for Bitcoin Cash. Coincidence doesn’t exist, especially not in the world of cryptocurrency.

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The post Bitcoin Cash Surpasses Bitcoin’s Absolute Hashpower Over the Past few Hours appeared first on NEWSBTC.

A South Korean police officer has been indicted for his role in an operation to bypass China’s capital controls. Using bitcoin to transfer the funds, the case involves the movement of 12 billion won, approximately $11 million, by foreign exchange services in both China and South Korea.

Also read: South Korea Prepares to Tax Bitcoin Use

China – South Korea Operation

The Incheon District Prosecutor’s Office recently announced that it had indicted a police officer of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Department (Mr. A, age 56) “on charges of violating the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act,” according to local publications.

The officer ran an illegal foreign exchange office in South Korea, Gyeonggi Newspaper reported. A Chinese employee of this exchange office (Mr. B, age 55) was also indicted, along with a Chinese deportee (Ms. C, age 43) who had been operating a money exchange office in China.

In China, Ms. C took customers’ yuan, which she then used to purchase bitcoins with and then transferred them to a Korean bitcoin exchange. The police officer then sold the bitcoins and transferred the proceeds into the accounts designated by the clients. In doing so, the officer received a commission as well as the advantage of the higher price of bitcoin in Korea than China, the publication explained, and quoted an official of the prosecution saying:

In China, the large amount of the yuan is not allowed to go abroad…Because of this, foreign exchange clients invested in the yuan in China and came to Korea and took the money.

The case involves a transfer of 12 billion won, which is almost USD $11 million at press time. In addition, the prosecutor also charged a money lender (Mr. D, age 33), who illegally exchanged 5 billion yuan, approximately USD $756 million, to bitcoin and into won using the same technique.

Prosecution Calls for Transparency and Licensing

“Some of the money that came into Korea through these exchange shops was used in domestic casinos,” the prosecution explained, according to the Korea Times. “The anonymity of virtual money is likely to be exploited to steal property abroad, to smuggle property into the country, to voice phishing, to drug trafficking, and other criminal proceeds.”

The publication then quoted an official of the prosecution saying:

We will consider ways to improve the transparency of the virtual currency trading process, such as the introduction of a licensing system for virtual currency exchanges, and then propose the improvement of the system.

South Korea currently does not have a legal framework for cryptocurrencies. However, the government is considering taxing bitcoin uses and is working on a bill to target criminal uses involving cryptocurrencies. Recently, the Bank of Korea said that bitcoin is not a currency but was criticized by the National Assembly for its lack of research on the topic. Meanwhile, initial coin offerings (ICOs) have been banned in South Korea.

What do you think of this operation to bypass China’s capital controls? Let us know in the comments section below.

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The post Operation to Bypass China’s Capital Controls Using Bitcoin Ends up in South Korean Court appeared first on Bitcoin News.

The post Bitcoin Gold Launches Tomorrow appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

A lot of people have all but forgotten about Bitcoin Gold at this stage. This so-called “fork of Bitcoin” has run into some issues launching its mainnet over the past few weeks. We now have an official launch date, as the network is slated to go live on November 12th at 7 PM UTC. Whether or not there is still significant interest in BTG at this point remains to be seen. A few people will still want their free coins, though.

Bitcoin Gold Launch Date is Confirmed

There has been a fair amount of debate and speculation on Bitcoin Gold over the past few weeks. What was originally designed to be a Bitcoin hard fork eventually turned into a completely different altcoin which only barely resembles Bitcoin in certain respects. The thing most Bitcoin holders care about is obtaining their free Bitcoin Gold in the coming days, as the BTG developers snapshotted the Bitcoin blockchain to conduct their airdrop sometime in the future. It seems that future will become reality on November 12th at 7 PM UTC.

While it remains to be seen how many people still care about Bitcoin Gold right now, no one will decline an airdrop of free coins by any means. The actual value of BTG tokens has yet to be determined, but with the launch having been pushed back by nearly two weeks, the project has lost a lot of its initial appeal. Even back then, the general response to this “fork” was pretty lackluster at best. Alas, it is doubtful much has changed in this regard.

On the aforementioned date, the full node client download will be provided on the Bitcoin Gold website. It is expected this client will work on Windows, Linux, and MacOS, although it remains to be seen how everything will play out. The Equihash proof-of-work change has been finalized and should be capable of handling a public stress test at launch. The number of miners directing some of their mining hardware to Bitcoin Gold may not necessarily be all that large, though. Until it is known whether or not BTG is even remotely profitable to mine, no one should expect any major interest in this altcoin off the bat.

More importantly, it seems the Bitcoin Gold developers have finally succeeded in adding proper replay protection to their clone. It is important to have such security in place. Without it, Bitcoin users would theoretically be able to send funds to the BTG blockchain and vice versa. This would result in lost funds, which is never fun to deal with. Bitcoin Gold will use the same address code base as Bitcoin itself, which makes full replay protection a mandatory part of its source code. There has been some controversy over this development as well, but it seems everything has been ironed out as of now.

Additionally, the developers made some last-minute changes to the BTG mining difficulty algorithm. Considering that this difficulty will change from block to block, it is of the utmost importance that it be adjusted to dynamic hashing power increases and decreases. That is much easier said than done, for obvious reasons. Once the network goes live, the whole world will be able to see if these efforts have paid off. We don’t want another algorithm that can be “tricked” into making a currency more profitable, as we have seen how that has impacted Bitcoin Cash in the past.

There is still a fair bit of work to do for the Bitcoin Gold team, though. First of all, there is no real appeal to this altcoin as it offers nothing innovative or unique. Nor can it be used to pay for goods and services in its current stage. The list of exchanges and wallets supporting Bitcoin Gold is also very limited, mainly because the launch of this network was delayed. An interesting future awaits BTG; that much no one can deny.

The ICO boom spells a promising future for cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. It’s creating opportunities with  speed and efficiency unrivaled by conventional financing and venture capital vehicles.

Disclosure: This is a Sponsored Article

Naturally, this phenomenon has also meant that regulators are turning their attention to cryptocurrency, understandably concerned about their legitimacy. Among the first businesses affected were cryptocurrency exchanges, with those based in China forced to shut down from August. Others based in Europe and North America have begun tightening controls on new coin listings, notably through Anti Money Laundering / Know Your Client (AML/KYC) measures aimed to bring them into compliance with their respective financial regulations.

Although the structure of ICOs as a whole is not governed by specific laws, either globally or in Switzerland, some parts of their procedure such as fund collection or repayment without an issuing house are considered to be covered by existing regulations. Thus, it is becoming increasingly clear that mere disclaimers carried by most ICOs stating that they are not securities is not enough to qualify them as compliant.

UTRUST appears to be the pioneer in breaking that mold, as a corporate member of the Swiss blockchain incubator Crypto Valley, and an independent organization with Swiss government support.

Months before its launch,  UTRUST has been working diligently to achieving complete compliance to all relevant rules and regulations by the Swiss Law.

Recognizing the impending need for implementation of compliant ICOs, KYC and AML procedures will soon likely be standard for regulated cryptocurrency ICOs & exchanges. UTRUST is in the process of finalizing initial KYC/AML onboarding procedures – this will also aid acceptance and listing of its tokens on the open market.

UTRUST is also well prepared to abide by any future requirements that may come under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in early 2018.

These pre-emptive and safeguarding measures are consistent with UTRUST’s mission to operate as a legally compliant and future-proof platform to set a strong case study for best practices of future “compliant ICOs”.

Every year, people throughout the world send fewer SMS messages, due to the increase in popularity that social media platforms and instant messaging apps have received. At this time, SMS is still used by companies to send users information on new products and services, confirmation codes, account information, announcement and more.

Disclsoure: This is a Sponsored Article

SMSCHAIN is a blockchain-based platform whose purpose is to help users leverage their SMS messages to make an additional passive income on a monthly basis. Therefore, it helps create an interconnected framework between the world’s telecom companies, which will actively deliver A2P (application-to-person) SMS messages with the help of users who wish to earn rewards. Anyone with an unlimited SMS bundle, or with unused SMS messages can become a member of this movement, and hence increase their monthly income.

Access to the platform is made simple. Anyone who purchases the SMSCHAIN token and installs the app on their Android phones will be able to earn money with no effort whatsoever. Users are free to set the number of messages that their phone will send, but also the type of content. The more messages are sent, the higher the monthly profits are.

The SMSTO tokens will power up, and guarantee the outcome of the SMS campaigns provided by SMSCHAIN. With this in mind, at the start of a campaign, the aggregator will calculate the total cost of the campaign and deposit the required number of tokens into their account, directly on the blockchain network. This amount will then be used as a security deposit and it’ll provide input for the transactions. In the long run, these tokens will also be used for the messaging agreement transactions that are made during the campaign auction.

SMSTO, which is also the currency of the SMSCHAIN platform will also power up the project’s financial side and help with mining and the commission system. Miners who own a larger number of tokens will be able to send more SMS messages per day, and hence earn more money. Additionally, nodes that have a higher balance will also receive a percentage on each transaction, according to their number of tokens.

Due to the economic laws of demand and supply, miners and node owners will be interested in holding more SMSTO for more transactions and commissions, whereas companies that wish to send SMS will use the tokens to pay for their campaigns. Whenever needed, users will be able to trade the SMSTO token for fiat, other tokens or digital currencies, as a method of cashing-out.

To learn more about the SMSTO and the SMSCHAIN platform, feel free to take a look at the website, read the whitepaper and join the Telegram chat group.

LONDON – Nov 11, 2017 – 4NEW, the company operating Waste to Energy treatment plants today announced a giant leap forward. 4NEW has ordered the production of its first Waste to Energy plant for a staggering USD $24.83 Million with delivery and subsequent installation of equipment to occur within 6 to 8 months between May and July 2018.

The first 4NEW plant will have a waste processing capacity of 72 tons per day of RDF, SRF, TDF, tyres, plastics, medical waste, carpets, textiles, wood wastes, oil liquid waste, chemical waste, raw food packaging, animal by-products and any type of hazardous and non-hazardous waste.

The plant will be able to generate 120 megawatts of power per day which totals 43,800 megawatts of power per year. As part of the deal, 4NEW will also procure insurance coverage to secure its revenue from any equipment failure, or unforeseen acts of God.

“What this means for the company and its investors is that the first Waste to Energy site could be operational and in production as soon as July 2018; 5 months earlier than previously anticipated. We are exuberant about the prospects of pleasantly surprising our investors with early production of our goods and services. Additionally, the company’s annual sales will be protected by insurance coverage, thereby securing 4NEW and its investors from any unpleasant, unforeseen events with the plant once its operational.” said Sandeep Golechha, CEO of 4NEW.

The plant will drive annual sales of approximately $5 Million USD under current capacity, however, 4NEW can add additional waste processing lines to their plant as additional funds are raised thereby increasing output by 4 times per site. 4NEW also has options with lenders to explore debt financing in order to complete targeted acquisitions over the next 6 to 9 months.

The plant equipment has been ordered through Eco-Green Power Limited, a UK based plant production company. Eco-Green currently has three sites where their plants are in operational use. These include,  2 sites in Finland and 1 site in Denmark. “With such a seasoned equipment production company acting as our partner, we are confident that expeditious turnaround will be feasible,” stated Mr. Golechha.

Last month, 4NEW successfully secured a $25 million round of funding from Mirach Capital Group, a US based private equity fund. These funds were allocated towards the purchase of 4NEW’s first plant site and equipment installation costs.

“4NEW’s business model has demonstrated significant foundational strength whereby Mirach Capital has observed great interest from other institutional partners to form join venture affiliations in order to invest in the project. To successfully mobilize an investment funding round to the tune of USD $300 Million, usually requires a large percentage of dollars to be raised from institutional investors and then a small percentage from the general public.” stated Mark Ryan, CFO of Mirach Capital.

Although, 4NEW intends to scale operations globally, the initial launch will occur in the United Kingdom. The UK’s waste management industry has a total annual turnover of $11 billion USD with approximately 200 million tonnes of waste processed per year. There are approximately 70,000 people employed in the sector across 3,000 companies. This market sector is under developed as technological advancements seen in other industries have been held back or are slow to materialize. The size of the UK waste market alone is over 120 billion USD annually.

The UK is also facing an unprecedented “energy gap” in a decade’s time, according to the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE). With demand for electricity likely to outstrip supply by more than 40%, widespread blackouts are within the realm of possibility.

About 4NEW

 4NEW, will revolutionize and standardize the industries of Waste and Energy by offering services as a wholesaler within the Utilities sector that is fully integrated onto a decentralized, distributed ledger enabling all actors within the industry to trade waste and energy transactions using the 4NEW Coins towards payments within the 4NEW ecosystem.

The 4NEW coins are utility tokens with built-in smart contract capabilities. They establish a binding relationship between two transacting parties and provide a value for each transaction. The ledger on the 4NEW ecosystem provides an immutable and audit-able journal of all transactions related to the buying and selling of energy and waste. Each transaction is transparent to all parties which allows them to see the same ledger entry and cost of reconciliation thus controlling issues of dispute and revenue leakage to a great extent.

Website: www.4new.co.uk
Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjqcsBQkAwE
Telegram – https://t.me/joinchat/EgIZbBDLYGHlhtbSS58i-Q
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/4newcoin/
Twitter – https://twitter.com/4newcoin
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/4newcoin/
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/4new/

The post 4NEW Initiates Production of Its First Waste to Energy Plant for $24.83 Million USD appeared first on NEWSBTC.

Mark Yusko, investment CEO, has predicted that Bitcoin will reach a dizzying $400,000 in the long term in spite of institutional banking naysayers.