Day: November 25, 2017

British company BitCoen is opening up an international blockchain market. The company declared about its strategic goal – to help interaction between representatives of the Jewish communities around the world. The BitCoen ecosystem is a system of services, qualitatively improving the life of the Jewish community.

Jewish communities from different counties demonstrated their interest to the project at the pre-sale period. Yet before the start of Token sale the audience of the project was more than 25,000 people from 124 countries. Project’s geography covers the whole world: states of North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. According to the company’s representatives, most requests for the purchase of BitCoen tokens came from Germany, England, Spain, France, Italy and, of course, Israel. As previously reported, Vyacheslav Semenchuk, founder and CEO of BitCoen, invested $ 500,000 of his personal funds in the development of the project. Project’s pre-sale was held to strengthen on the market and to confirm the interest of the audience. More than $150 000 were raised during the pre-sale without a single shekel spent on marketing.

Team

The blockchain project BitCoen was created by a young and ambitious businessman – Vyacheslav Semenchuk. Under the age of 30 he has already created and sold more than 10 start-ups, including in the fintech industry. Lifepay, with turnover amounted to 2,5 billions, was the largest project created by the entrepreneur, it was sold to a bank subsequently. For this project’s creation Vyacheslav Semenchuk managed to get the title of “Entrepreneur of the Year” according to YE. Yet before the emergence of a mass interest in the technology of blockchain Vyacheslav Semenchuk was engaged in its implementation in bank sphere.

“The blockchain project BitCoen was originally conceived as a system of services, qualitatively improving the life of the Jewish community,” explains Vyacheslav Semenchuk.” This is a fairly closed community, existing Worldwide. This community has needs in internal mutual settlements, to help their own businesses, oriented only for Jews; and has a big culture of charity. And all theese needs must be accomplished in the most transparent and profitable way. The ideal target audience for a blockchain project! So we came up with the BitCoen ecosystem idea, which integrated the useful mechanics from the world of the blockchain.

The team members work all over the world. “The development of Internet technologies allowed us to create an international team,” says Vyacheslav Semenchuk. “The BitCoen team includes the most experienced blockchain programmers, crypto marketers and other experts in crypto-economics, who got interested in creating an ambitious, high-quality and interesting project.”

What does it have inside

The blockchain project consists of several parts, each of these parts logically complements the ecosystem.

BitCoen Token (BEN), which can act as a payment method between community representatives.

BitCoen loyalty program. Program users get BEN’s after purchases/services from the program partners and accrue BEN’s instead of abstract loyalty program points. BEN’s are accumulated and their duration isn’t limited. Unlike existing loyalty programs, that can have various restrictions for users, and often have unlimited opportunities for scammers, BitCoen Loyalty is completely transparent. No small fonts and asterisks in the program description. BEN’s do not burn after time, and can’t be canceled by anyone.

BitCoen Pay – payment system for online and offline purchases for private persons and businesses in points that accept payment by BENs. We have experience in creating payment systems (Life.Pay, PayQR) and we know how to make them even better so that the BitCoen project participants can use the most convenient payment services.

BitCoen Platform is a marketplace for Jewish businesses. A businessman can expand the number of customers, including at the expense of consumers from other countries.

BitCoen ADV – an advertising platform for the popularization of Jewish businesses, we already collected a huge target audience and we can do almost any targeting.

BitCoen blockchain technology

BitCoen is based on the source code of the izzz.io platform and uses a consensus that is based on Limited Confidence Confirmation Proof-of-Activity (LCPoA) and a trusted node system (Thrusted Nodes) to speed up the network. It is also planned to create a BitCoen compatibility layer with the ERC20 standard, for easy integration with exchanges. The choice of the izzz.io blockchain-platform is justified by the characteristics of this system, which exceeds the analogs for a number of parameters.

LCPoA blockchain algorithm is one of the most important features of Bitcoen blockchain. This algorithm reliably protects the network from spam and false transactions, while it does not require large expenditures of computing resources. There is a lack of mining in the system, all transactions within the platform network – are free. The technology provides a high network speed (up to 25,000 transactions per second). “BitCoen Blockchain is a new generation blockchain, which does not require participation in the “arms race” for the power of computers that spend an enormous amount of electricity. It is reliable, fast and free in terms of blockchain transactions. We can say that Bitcoin is a first generation blockchain (Blockchain 1.0), Etherium is Blockchain 2.0 and BitCoen – Blockchain 3.0,” explains Vyacheslav.

Token Sale

Since the BitCoen blockchain project is designed for a mass audience, it is very important to prove it with maximum transparency and legality. BitCoen legal team provided different options for the development of events and could create the most stable and secure system. BitCoen is a token, not an investment tool, it does not imply receipt of passive profit and does not have any signs of a stock. BitCoen doesn’t hold ICO but Token Sale only, which basically is a token pre-sale.

November 28, 2017 is the official start of the Token sale of the BitCoen blockchain project at http://bitcoen.io, which will last until December 26, 2017. Up to 20 million BENs at the price of $1 per one BEN are available on the Token sale. The emission of BitCoen is 100.000.000 BENs.

Development prospects of BitCoen

After the completion of Token sale, the platform makes a listing on the global crypto-exchange. According to Vyacheslav Semenchuk, placement on the exchange is one of the marketing tools that allow us to expand the audience of the project.

As is known, the value of any cryptocurrency is determined by the audience’s interest in it and the real functional behind the token. The functionality of the BitCoen project allows Jews around the world to develop their business, staying within the framework of cultural traditions.

It should be noted that the creators of the project managed to attract not only experienced cryptocurrency users, but also an absolutely offline audience. “We understand that nowadays only a small percentage of the world’s Jewish communities use cryptocurrencies, the potential of blocking technologies is not yet appreciated,” says Vyacheslav Semenchuk. “That’s why we used al of the advertising channels and tried, first of all, to train a new audience and tell about the advantages and easy ways of access to technology.”

According to the auditors’ estimates, the capitalization of the BitCoen will be about 1,5 billion dollars after the realization of all components. According to independent experts, in the future, the capitalization of BitCoen can grow 10 times. “We are the largest jewish blockchain project for now, oriented to b2b and b2c audience. Even before the start of Token sale, we made partners with more than 700 large stores (among them OZON.ru, Aliexpress and others), which will add points in BEN’s when buying from them,” says Vyacheslav Semenchuk.

Moty Cristal, an international negotiator and an active member in global Jewish affairs, stresses that: “BitCoen project is a breath of fresh air which can further support the close relationships between  Jewish communities worldwide, in this time of dynamic financial challenges and innovative opportunities”.

The post November 28, 2017 – the Official Start of the Token Sale of the First “Kosher” (Jewish) Crypto-Token and Blockchain Ecosystem BitCoen.io appeared first on NEWSBTC.

You asked to add #Dash price analysis as well, we did it.

At 04:00 am UTC on Friday, November 24, 2017, Hacken will launch an unprecedented additional weekend bonus. Please visit blackfriday.hacken.io for details

Hacken, an ecosystem for white hat hackers and a bug bounty marketplace with a focus on blockchain security, announces an unprecedented additional bonus weekend inspired by John McAfee. The bonus weekend will start at 04:00 am UTC on Friday, November 24, 2017, and last until 23:59 UTC on Sunday, November 26, 2017.

“Recently, we’ve seen some great customer traction with our token sale. It intensified after John McAfee joined Hacken as our product advisor. Currently Hacken is en route to a successful completion of its token sale, with more than $3.2 million raised in the fiat equivalent. Our team has also completed the development cycle for the HackenProof cybersecurity marketplace, our flagship product,” — Hacken Co-Founder Dmytro Budorin said.

During the extended bonus weekend our forthcoming community members will be able to join the Hacken Ecosystem and buy HKNs with a discount. The discounts will be distributed in the following manner: 20% discount from 4:00 to 7:59 on November 24, 2017, then the bonus amount will decrease 1% each 4 hours until 07:59 UTC on November 26, 2017. Please see blackfriday.hacken.io for a table explaining each time slot.

The bonus weekend will be a culmination of the Haken token sale, scheduled to end on November 30, 2017. We developed the extended bonus weekend in cooperation with John McAfee to accommodate his supporters and fans. We also would like to make this Thanksgiving Weekend, which is very special for our project, even more thankful and more giving.

Previously Hacken held an online video conference featuring John McAfee and Dmytro Budorin. John and Dmytro discussed the current token sale, the upcoming release of HackenProof cybersecurity marketplace and the reasons why John decided to join Hacken. The event was hosted by Simon Cocking – Editor-in-Chief of Crypto Coin News and top-10 in world’s most influential fintech voices on Twitter. The recording of the video conference is available here.

Visit hacken.io to buy HKN. Follow us on Twitter or ask your questions via Telegram or on our Facebook page.

The Hacken Ecosystem is a community-based business organization consisting of the HackenProof bug bounty marketplace, Zero-day Remuneration Platform, Hacken Accelerator and Cybersecurity Analytics Center. The Hacken Ecosystem utilizes its own cryptocurrency HKN — a dedicated cryptocurrency for white hat hackers, to incentivize users to interact with its ecosystem. Hacken’s vision is to launch a movement that in several years will become one of the main driving forces deterring and countering international cybercrime.

Contact for media: [email protected]

The post Hacken Announces A Special Thanksgiving Weekend Offer – Get Up to 20% Bonus appeared first on NEWSBTC.

Things are still unfolding as far as the Confido ICo is concerned. It is evident the developers raised money for a project they never intended to finish. However, it seems investors may still get their money back. A new letter has surfaced which may be either legitimate or completely fake. In the letter, there is a claim of how the ICO funds are frozen in a trust fund until further notice.

It is difficult to say whether or not this letter is genuine. It bears all of the marks of an official law firm. Then again, we have seen scams fake such paperwork in the past. It wouldn’t be beyond the Confido team to pull people’s leg in this regard. Moreover, the letter itself seems somewhat professional, but it still raises a lot of questions. Assuming this letter is fake, the team is getting themselves into a whole new sort of trouble. Impersonating a law firm is absolutely not done.

The Confido Plot Thickens

Then again, it does appear the Confido ICO investors will get refunded. This letter claims there is a concern over the “rumors” regarding this project. Moreover, they claim the project is not feasible within the scope of the results of the ICO. A strange way of putting things, as it confirms this project should have never been created in the first place. Anyone doing a bit of research saw that coming when the project was first announced.

It also appears the team has received some death threats. That is not entirely surprising, as people are quite displeased with this scam. For all intents and purposes, that is the only way to describe this ICO until investors are refunded. The team also took down the website and all social media accounts. More evidence of pulling an exit scam more than anything else. It also makes this letter seem even more dubious.

How things will unfold for Confido, remains to be seen. While this may have been an overly ambitious team, a lot of money is still missing right now. It is unclear how and when the money will be refunded in the coming weeks and months. The updates will be posted on the website, which was taken offline a few days ago. A very strange way of resolving this matter, to say the very least. Investing ICOs remains a big risk, that much is certain.

Header image courtesy of Shutterstock

The post Confido may Refund ICO Investors After all, According to Dubious law Firm Letter appeared first on NEWSBTC.

It pains me to write on this subject as often as I have to. Some of you may have been wondering where I’ve been in light of the latest news that President Trump’s FCC has set a date for the attempted repeal of net neutrality. I drafted many articles on this development for our readers, but none seemed to carry the necessary weight given the gravity of the situation. I guess I’ll just have to be blunt and hope that my message approaches the appropriate magnitude of what is happening.

If this goes though, it will suck. A lot.

Despite massive, vocal opposition from the public and private sector, Ajit Pai and the FCC have announced their plan to kill net neutrality and have finally chosen their time. Come December, we may see the end of net neutrality in the United States.

You would think that a decision that will be as disruptive as this one would have been reached incredibly scrupulously. That has not been the case in the slightest. The entire pro-repeal side of this debate has been surrounded by a plethora of corruption. Countless pro-repeal comments on the FCC’s website have likely been faked. The co-opting of both living and dead American identities is nothing short of a felony, and these faked comments are being used to quell the very obvious public opposition to repealing net neutrality. In addition to these faked comments, the real voices of actual citizens and consumers opposing this have gone silenced. The Washington Post’s motto on its site is “Democracy dies in darkness.” Worryingly, we may be in for darker times than ever before.

Please understand, I realize that it may appear I am shouting eschatological cries from my keyboard, but net neutrality is one of the things that allows you to read my words and the words of all of us here at the Merkle. Independant journalism such as ours is built on the fact that all data on the internet is treated the same by ISPs. The moment that stipulation is taken away, prepare for having to pay even more than you already pay your ISP to access certain content. Companies will have to pay ISPs to have their content accessible at speeds that make sense. The only people who win here are the elite and the big telecommunications companies. Literally everyone else loses.

That’s because this is a direct assault on our freedom of speech and our digital rights. When companies – possibly colluding with agencies – can all but shut down access to certain websites, they can exert control over what is seen. Content consumption will become prescribed, not elected.

There is still time

Fighting this will be exhausting. It will happen between two holidays Americans love, and in a season where everyone is generally busier. But we must continue to call our representatives and let them know how much we hate this. What is wild to me is that we have to tell our representatives that we don’t want our rights taken away.

We have to keep calling because, well, it is kind of working. The first Republican lawmaker has publicly come out against the repeal of the Obama-era regulations. However, we will need to turn more to make this happen.

In the end, these are your rights. We cryptocurrency users love our rights. Let’s remind our lawmakers that the internet is and was always meant to be open and fair. Keep your voice equal, and keep your content yours. Don’t pay more than you have to in order to read the articles you love or watch the videos you enjoy. This affects all of us.

Serenity Financial  has already started the pre-ICO: It began on November 15 and will last till November 30. “Within Pre-ICО period we are planning to get not less than $500 thousand, and after that we’ll start to prepare for ICO and launch a strong campaign,” says Kulagin.

The developers plan to carry out the ICO in one stage issuing 3,500,000 tokens. While 420,000 will be given to the team, 105,000 will go to other partners. At the time of sale value of tokens will be 0.1 ETH. In total, the project aims to receive $19 million for generation and full development of the platform and $50 million for hedge fund creation.

 Serenity Financial platform acts as an intermediary which uses blockchain technology to regulate dealings for Forex market.

The advantage of blockchain is that it makes everything transparent and guarantees security. This is what we need to solve the issues that have come to light in the giant Forex industry, which involves over 4 million traders.

Nearly 20 years of development in Internet technology have fired up private investors to trade in financial markets. These technologies have opened up opportunities to make money, but have also provided openings for fraud.

During all this time, while Western countries tried to look for effective ways to regulate the Forex market, but the lack of progress or expectations that the market’s fundamental issues will be resolved to serve as a stimulus to honest brokers to take the situation under control themselves.

Currently, about 90% of brokers are not subject to any regulation, which creates an environment where fraudulent schemes can spread rapidly, client funds can be misused, and new companies to the industry face significant barriers to entry. And blockchain is the technology that can address these issues of trust, transparency, security, and regulation.

This Is Where Serenity Comes In

That was how the Serenity Financial project came to be. It is basically a system for controlling and storing data on trading and non-trading transactions. It is an independent depository with a system of segregated accounts. Each statement is recorded in blockchain and stored for the necessary amount of time. A cryptographic signature will guarantee the immutability and integrity of all the data.

Now all statements can be simultaneously stored with the broker, in the Serenity Financial depository, and with the trader. And in all cases the data will be signed, so that all three participants can confirm that their copy is authentic and not falsified.

Why Serenity Tokens?

SERENITY tokens are being sold during the Pre-ICO at a big discount (up to 50%) relative to their nominal value, and once the system has been launched they will be accepted for their nominal or market value if the latter is higher.

This way, token value growth will be guaranteed by constant market demand, since Serenity will accept payment for its commissions in tokens. Tokens will have to be used to pay for 50% to 100% of the service. If clients have no tokens, they will have to buy them on the market. An order book always full of bids ensures the price will rise. The tokens used to pay for services will be destroyed.

Serenity Financial will generate profit through several avenues at the same time. The first is through commissions for the issuance of tokens internal to the system. The second is through subscriptions to an A-level broker service package, including technology and liquidity. The third is through commissions for arbitration done by hand.

The math is simple. The target market for the project consists of brokers providing Internet trading services through the MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 platforms. There are approximately 6,000 such brokers in the world today. Only 10% of them are subject to regulation, which means that our potential market is 90% of brokers. Even for the regulated 10%, being in the system has its image-related advantages.

Now a word about traders. There are approximately 4 million of them right now, with an average monthly deposit/withdrawal of about $400-600,000 per broker. If we take into account that the system has a minimum of 1,000 brokers and 10% of deposits pass through the system, the average monthly trading volume could be around $50 million.

The fee for creating this kind of contract and moving it through the system is 1%. This is comparable to the average commission charged by payment systems that accept cryptocurrency. This kind of activity would generate $500,000 of monthly profit.

Who and When?

Serenity Financial is supported by a team with vast experience in the financial industry. It has already launched several successful projects, including the brokerage company Grand Capital, with $4.7 billion in monthly average trading volume, and the tech company UpTrader, which develops software for brokers around the world.

The company has already started the pre-ICO: It began on November 15 and will last till November 30. “Within Pre-ICО period we are planning to get not less than $500 thousand, and after that we’ll start to prepare for ICO and launch a strong campaign,” says Kulagin.

The developers plan to carry out the ICO in one stage issuing 3,500,000 tokens. While 420,000 will be given to the team, 105,000 will go to other partners. At the time of sale value of tokens will be 0.1 ETH. In total the project aims to receive $19 million for generation and full development of the platform and $50 million for hedge fund creation.

“ICO is an opportunity to put into practice the idea that the branch has been in need of for a long time. We hope to solve many problems with this project coming from a lack of trust in Forex brokers, derivatives markets, fraud on the market, problem of choice of fair intermediary, problems of small brokers with liquidity and getting clients,” Kulagin says.

The developers also note that blockchain was used in the project not because it’s a hot trend right now, but because it is the only opportunity to solve the problems of the Forex market.

Companies like IQ Option, Grand Capital, Financial Commission, B2Broker, and NasBroker have already supported the project.

Want to know more? Visit the project’s site: https://serenity-financial.io

The post Solving Forex Market Issues with Blockchain appeared first on NEWSBTC.

SINGAPORE, NOVEMBER 25, 2017 – iXledger is a ground-breaking alternative marketplace for insurers, reinsurers and brokers to trade insurance products directly and has announced that it has entered into a strategic partnership with fidentiaX, the world’s 1st marketplace for tradable policies powered by blockchain technology.

Both companies are building blockchain solutions to democratize the insurance industry and to streamline the opacity and byzantine operating standards of the sector. fidentiaX’s marketplace empowers Policyholders to monetize their existing insurance policies for higher value and Buyers to invest in an asset class not easily available previously.

This new Strategic Partnership will create synergy between iXledger and fidentiaX platforms to deliver a secured, transparent and efficient end-to-end experience for Businesses (Insurers, Reinsurers, and Brokers) and Consumers (Policyholders).

As part of the partnership, iXledger will be allocating resources towards fidentiaX’s development of its Tradable Insurance Marketplace as well as technology collaboration between the two disruptive marketplaces. fidentiaX’s core team’s experience in the consumer segment strategy and wealth management knowledge will provide iXledger with insights which will enhance the customer experience and delivery of its platform.

“We are excited at the prospect of working with iXledger, their input and experience in the “up-stream” of the insurance lifecycle, will enable us to enhance fidentiaX’s marketplace services and accelerate our objective of empowering policyholders to extract higher value from their policies.”  Alvin Ang, Co-founder of fidentiaX

 

“It is a great opportunity for us to collaborate with fidentiaX with their expertise in the consumer market and their ground-breaking technology. We have already identified a number of synergies and having a partner in a different region with similar goals is a huge advantage.”  Ingemar Svensson, Founder/CEO of iXledger

About iXledger

iXledger is a groundbreaking alternative marketplace for insurance. The blockchain based platform facilitates improved customer service, fuels new efficient business models, drives faster transactions and reduces risk through data access and collaboration.

About fidentiaX

fidentiaX is a Singapore-based fintech startup that was launched in 2017 to disrupt the insurance market by leveraging blockchain technology to create an active market for tradable life insurance policies. The fidentiaX founding team consists of industry veterans with more than 35 years of experience in the banking and insurance industry. To develop the platform, fidentiaX has partnered up with blockchain development company Blockchain Zoo.
Media Contact

If you want to find out more about fidentiaX please visit www.fidentiaX.com or contact the company at:

Contact Email: [email protected]
Location: Singapore
Phone: ++65 6908 0071
Facebook: www.facebook.com/fidentiaX
Twitter: www.twitter.com/fidentiaX
Telegram: www.t.me/fidentiaX

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.

For the people who assumed we were done with ridiculous Bitcoin fork names, the reality looks very different. More specifically, the launch of Bitcoin Diamond is almost upon us, and it will serve as yet another airdrop for existing Bitcoin users. After Bitcoin Gold and Bitcoin Diamond, there are still a lot of precious metals to use for new fork names. This is all a bit immature, but if it makes people money, no one will complain too much.

Bitcoin Diamond is a Privacy-oriented Bitcoin Fork

There are many things we do not find in Bitcoin in its current form. That shouldn’t really surprise anyone, as Bitcoin was never designed to be the perfect cryptocurrency. It has gotten a lot of attention over the years for being the first major cryptocurrency of its generation, but there are still a lot of glaring issues which need to be resolved. First of all, there is no such thing as anonymity or privacy when using Bitcoin. For many people, this is perhaps the biggest issue to deal with right now.

Bitcoin Diamond, another hard fork of Bitcoin, claims to solve this problem. The soon-to-be-released altcoin will fork once the Bitcoin network hits block height 495,866. By the time you read this article, that network block should have been discovered by miners already. It is the third major airdrop Bitcoin users will receive this year, not counting the B2X coins from the borked SegWit2x launch. It has been a profitable year for BTC holders in many different ways; that much is certain.

What Bitcoin Diamond claims to offer is privacy first and foremost. It seems this fork’s developers have found a way to encrypt the transaction amounts and balances of all BCD users. It sounds somewhat similar to Monero, but it is doubtful the Bitcoin Diamond implementation is even half as competent. A GitHub repo has yet to be created for this altcoin, but that may change once the correct block is found on the Bitcoin network.

Bitcoin Diamond boasts it will provide fast transactions thanks to its 8MB block size limit. This means the new fork has copied some code from Bitcoin Cash in this regard. On-chain scaling will always be debatable, as there are many reasons why it is not a long-term solution whatsoever. At the same time, it can alleviate network congestion until a more future-oriented solution can be implemented. It does not appear as if Bitcoin Diamond has plans to further increase the capacity of blocks.

What is rather worrisome is how there will be 210 million BCD in circulation. This supply is 10 times as large as Bitcoin’s, further confirming this is not a direct hard fork. It is another altcoin riding the coattails of Bitcoin in an attempt to net the developers a lot of money in short order. It uses the X13 mining algorithm, which should give GPU miners something to do. Surprisingly, Bitcoin Diamond also supports SegWit, according to its website. That’s quite remarkable, although this is not necessarily a currency capable of dethroning Bitcoin.

The website also mentions that Bitcoin Diamond will be supported on several exchanges right out of the gate. That’s very suspicious, as it indicates that exchange owners are colluding with these developers to make a quick buck. It remains to be seen whether or not entities such as Huobi, OKEX, and ZB.com will actually support this currency. Moreover, the list of supported wallets seems very dubious as well. BitGo has not indicated it will support any other currencies, and certainly not Bitcoin Diamond. Be very wary of this project, as the number of lies is quite high.

Coingather, a tiny cryptocurrency exchange, has disappeared from the web, alarming customers who fear their funds are gone. The Coingather.com domain has been offline since Wednesday November 22, and with no word on Twitter from customer support, there are fears the site’s operators have pulled an exit scam.

Also read: Trustless Payment Startup Confido Makes Off with $375k of ICO Funds

What’s the Matter With Coingather?

Few cryptocurrency traders will have heard of Coingather; it’s an obscure exchange even by the standard of obscure exchanges. It’s not so small as to be able to disappear from the web unnoticed however, and the site’s disgruntled users have wasted no time in voicing their concerns. Coingather might be one of the world’s smallest exchanges, but it’s nevertheless listed on Coinmarketcap complete with 92 trading pairs that are matched with BTC, LTC, DOGE, and HTML5. The site’s admin, who goes by the name of Rapta on the Bitcointalk forum, has been offline for a week.

Most of the coins the exchange features are what many traders would call shitcoins. Coinmarketcap lists Coingather’s 24-hour trade volume as being just 11.32 BTC, or around $93,000 – but those figures were last updated days ago, before the site disappeared. The majority of the most recently traded coins on the site comprise Infinity Economics, HTLMCOIN, Ethereum, and LevoPlus. It is hard to assess the total amount of funds that were held on Coingather, but judging by the volume of complaints that have been tweeted over the last few days, the losses could be substantial.

“I️ will find you guys, that’s a lot of people’s money you ran off with you got 24 hours!” raged one customer.

Fear and Loathing

Coingather, which was founded in 2014, appears to have soldiered on, attracting little attention for the first couple of years of its existence. The only cause for complaint until recently was the site’s exorbitant withdrawal fees, which were as much as 10x higher than other exchanges. In summer of this year however the first signs that something was amiss surfaced in posts on the Bitcointalk forum. One user wrote: “Just wanted to thank everybody for the heads up about Coingather. *sigh* and the search for an exchange that isn’t being run by drug addicts or gangsters continues.”

A month later, another forum user labeled the site a scam which permitted deposits but not withdrawals. Upon trying to retrieve their holdings, they’d been greeted by a “process error” message and found that their coins were gone. The individual, who lost 5 million Sprouts (SPRTS) coins, added:

the support don’t help and just make jokes by sending pictures of sprouts

In the absence of any tangible news to go on, fear, uncertainty, and doubt has set in, with Coingather’s customers fearing the worst. Given the size of the exchange, it’s possible it may have been a one-man operation, in which case anything from illness to arrest could have caused the current timeout. As the hours turn into days however, it’s hard to shake the feeling that Coingather is gone for good. Whatever the outcome, it’s another nail in the coffin for centralized exchanges and another footnote in a week full of heists, hacks, and scams.

Do you trust cryptocurrency exchanges to look after your coins? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock.

Keep track of the bitcoin exchange rate in real-time.

The post Coingather Exchange Has Been Offline for Days and No One Knows Why appeared first on Bitcoin News.

BitClave, a blockchain startup developing a decentralized search ecosystem, has completed a very successful private and public pre-sale token event raising almost $22 million. BitClave is also excited to announce the start date for the highly anticipated crowdsale of their Consumer Activity Token (CAT) is November 29th, 2017. BitClave is expecting to reach $25.5 million during the crowdsale.

BitClave, a software company led by former LG Electronics CSO Alex Bessonov, is using blockchain to eliminate ad service middlemen and create a direct connection between businesses and customers. BitClave is building a decentralized search engine that helps its users truly find what they are looking for and get compensated every time they search privately for products and services from their favorite brands, making third-party advertising networks unnecessary and annoying ads a thing of the past.

The BitClave Active Search Ecosystem (BASE) is a unique platform where users can perform a search and then opt-in to relevant advertisements, earning CATs for each ad with which users engage. Customers have control over their own data and can choose whether to reveal their identity and personal information to retailers. Customers can decide who has access to their data and are “paid” each time businesses “use” their data to make them offers. Businesses have a direct connection with customers and can offer a uniquely targeted promotion. For example, if a user searches for a new car, that user will be presented with car offers from businesses where the user’s preferences and the business’s target audience match. Users can then engage with each offer, earning CAT tokens for their time and the data they have decided to share with each business.

“We are extremely grateful for the support of our community and to everyone who participated in the presale. Our goal as a team remains: to conduct a successful crowdsale event for our community and to deliver on a project vision with the potential to redefine how online search works by prioritizing user privacy and control,” said BitClave’s founder and CEO Alex Bessonov.

BitClave recently announced the invaluable partnerships with Bancor, Qtum, Storj and Carnegie Mellon University.

To learn more about BitClave and how to participate in the crowdsale, please visit the website www.bitclave.com or reach out at [email protected].

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.