Day: December 1, 2017

As Bitcoin and cryptocurrency markets correct from their previous highs the queue of high-profile bankers lining up to discredit the digital asset gets longer. Both the Federal Reserve Bank and Goldman Sachs bosses took swipes at cryptocurrencies claiming that they were ‘fraudulent’ and a ‘threat to financial stability’.

The newly-installed Fed Vice Chairman for Supervision Randal Quarles raised concerns about how cryptocurrencies would behave in a crisis this week as markets fell by over 20%. During a speech on payments systems, he said that during times of crisis demand for liquidity among bank depositors often shoots up. This will put major financial institutions under strain.

Decentralized cryptocurrencies have no central bank and are exchanged using encryption. Quarles claimed that the ‘currency’ or asset at the center of some of these systems is not backed by other secure assets and has no intrinsic value. A warning for the future followed; “While these digital currencies may not pose major concerns at their current levels of use, more serious financial stability issues may result if they achieve wide-scale usage.”

A large challenge to the system would be posed if digital currencies could not be predictably exchanged for the US dollar or fiat at a stable exchange rate in times of adversity. It is highly unlikely that crypto exchanges receiving fiat have enough to pay out should everybody cash out at the same time.

Jumping on the bandwagon, Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of US investment bank Goldman Sachs, said: “Something that moves 20% overnight does not feel like a currency. It is a vehicle to perpetrate fraud.”

He joins the ranks of JP Morgan chief Jamie Dimon who likened Bitcoin to a fraud that would ultimately blow up, claiming it was only fit for use by drug dealers, murderers and people living in places such as North Korea. Accusations of market manipulation rapidly followed as it was rumored that he bought Bitcoin on the dips his words caused.

According to Blankfein Goldman Sachs did not need to have a bitcoin strategy, stating that the digital currency would need to be a lot less volatile and a lot more liquid to justify closer attention. “Bitcoin is not for me. A lot of things that have not been for me in the past 20 years have worked out, but I am not guessing that this will work out.”

Other banking heavyweights such as Sir Jon Cunliffe, deputy governor of the Bank of England, said that cryptocurrencies were too small to pose a threat to the global economy.

Bankers and financial institutions that profit from control of capital generally sees cryptocurrencies as a threat to their business model. A decentralized currency that is beyond the control of the few can only be a good thing for the many – providing they do their research, invest wisely, and know their limits.

The post Big Bankers Continue to Bash Bitcoin appeared first on NEWSBTC.

India’s finance minister, Arun Jaitley, has said bitcoin is not legal tender in the country and indicated that regulations are under consideration.

While most cryptocurrencies dropped a lot in value over the past two days, the Litecoin price remained largely unaffected. Granted, there was an initial dump to around $78, but things picked up steam again shortly after. Right now, we have a Litecoin price of almost $90 once again, and the push toward $110 is still intact. How things will play out in the next few hours and days, remains to be seen.

Litecoin Price Surges is Still Intact

It is good to see all cryptocurrency markets finally recover after a somewhat rough period. More specifically, the Bitcoin price has a habit of dragging all altcoins with it and it can certainly have some very significant consequences in the end.For the Litecoin price, this turmoil was somewhat limited, as the price went through a brief dip before recovering. Wild price swings are not uncommon in the world of cryptocurrency whatsoever.

More specifically, with a price difference of $6 when the Bitcoin price was losing over $2,000 in quick succession, Litecoin certainly held its own quite well compared to most other currencies. Especially as the price started mounting a comeback to $90 a few hours ago, things were looking pretty significant. Ever since that time, the Litecoin price has struggled a bit and went down to $84, but this trend has started reversing once again.

With the Litecoin price heading back toward $90 in quick succession, it is only a matter of time until we see another push toward $100. As we had expected prior to the Bitcoin dip, the Litecoin price might hit $110 in the near future. Now that all markets are recovering, we may see that projection come true, though. After all, nothing is impossible in the world of cryptocurrency, and we may still see some new all-time highs for a few cryptocurrencies before the year is over.

With over $451m in 24-hour trading volume, the demand for Litecoin is certainly still there. While it is evident this is not the highest trading volume of all altcoins by any means, Litecoin has a habit of generating steady volume for extended periods of time. This is very different for a lot of other altcoins right now, which only further confirms why LTC will continue to stand out among other cryptocurrencies.

One thing that hasn’t changed all that much in this regard is how GDAX is still the leading Litecoin exchange by trading volume. Bitfinex is in second place, and OKEx successfully leapfrogged Bithumb to claim the number three spot. A rather remarkable trend, to say the very least, but it remains to be seen whether or not the South Korean exchange will find a way to mount a comeback.

How things will play out for the Litecoin price, remains to be determined. For now, it seems the way to a new all-time high LTC price is wide open, although it will depend on whether or not Bitcoin will “shit the bed” once again before the week is over. We haven’t seen the biggest correction just yet, but it may never happen for all we know. These are some interesting times for cryptocurrency users all over the world, to say the very least.

As Bitcoin continued to do Bitcoin things, shedding a fifth of its value after blasting past $11,000, people were spun into s fresh bout of panic.

The Bitfinexed twitter account has become somewhat of a cult personality in the world of cryptocurrency. This one account shares a lot of evidence regarding Bitfinex and Tether colluding. Although this is not to the liking of either company, new information keeps coming out regardless. One of the more recent bits of information involves the PR person for both companies. Ronn Torossian is apparently connected to a well-known Ponzi scheme known as Jetsmarter. Another worrisome development if it’s true, although everything needs to be taken with a grain of salt.

Anyone representing Bitfinex or Tether in an official capacity will be scrutinized right now. There has been so much speculation regarding the collusion of both companies, something almost has to be true. While we may never know the exact details, the story keeps unfolding in front of our own eyes. One of the latest allegations involves Ronn Torossian, the PR person for both Tether and Bitfinex.Not only does this confirm another connection between both companies, but Ronn isn’t free of blame either. More specifically, it seems he is involved with the JetSmarter project.

More Bitfinex and Tether Concerns

While that company may not ring a bell, it is worth paying attention to. Not for the right reasons, mind you. It appears Jetsmarter is a clear Ponzi Scheme. The Verge ran an article on this company which shows how the company is not as legitimate as once assumed. While the company’s vision is solid, ensuring it is achievable is something else. In those discussions, Torossian dismissed any allegations regarding the company and their service or lack thereof. However, the jury is still out on whether or not this is actually a Ponzi Scheme.

Hey everyone, so the the PR guy for Bitfinex and Tether, seems to be associated with a possible ponzi scheme known as 'Jetsmarter'

Be sure to see the articles. https://t.co/2ZqC79fcIFhttps://t.co/LiJ4DNKjy0 pic.twitter.com/9nZIJSmbLa

— Bitfinex'ed🔥 #DontGetTethered (@Bitfinexed) December 1, 2017

Jetsmarter has been successful when it comes to raising money. They raised hundreds of millions from private investors in the hopes of seeing the company go through an IPO. That will never happen, though, as there are too many concerns over this company and their product. Rest assured there will be some interesting developments regarding this company in the future. Torossian is the CMO of Jetsmarter, which makes all of this even more interesting.

For Bitfinex and Tether, unfortunately, it may very well be another nail in the coffin. Although there is no evidence of any wrongdoing or illegal activity, a lot of interesting “coincidences” are starting to pile up. It will be interesting to see if any of these allegations are indeed true. One can’t just dismiss these pieces of information even if they are pure coincidence. There are some shady business decisions made by all parties involved, that much no one can deny.

Header image courtesy of Shutterstock

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The bitcoin price is entering sideways trading, but a break above $10,000 could signal a rally back to all-time highs.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies stand on the precipice.

Even though everyone is talking about smart contracts and their advantages over traditional paper contracts, only a handful of people are addressing the elephant in the room: most of the businesses don’t know how to use smart contracts yet. Jincor is among those few who are trying to make smart contracts and other blockchain technologies more accessible to modern businesses. And anyone can chime in by joining the project’s public token sale, which starts today, on the 1st of December.

Jincor is a secure, regulatory compliant, and easy-to-use platform that allows businesses to work with smart contracts and cryptocurrency payments with no legal, technical, or operational complications, in a cost-efficient manner.

As was mentioned in Forbes, leading technology providers like IBM and Microsoft are offering blockchain solutions to enterprise clients. Tech start-ups too are aggressively capitalizing on the boom by building new products and services that depend on the technology. This year alone, blockchain startups amassed more than $3.25 billion in funding through token sales.

For other businesses, however, the big question is how blockchain adoption can benefit them. There is no question that modern business environments require companies to make technology integral to their strategy. But stil, business owners are often struggles with that due to blockchain solutions complexity and high price tags.  And that’s the problem that Jincor’s team is trying to solve.

The project investment potential was estimated as high by ICORATING, rating agency for ICO market. Among notable advisors are Michael Terpin, chairman, and co-founder of BitAngels, and Jason King, co-founder of Unsung.org and School for blockchain development – Academy.

So far, Jincor has successfully launched a closed beta testing its basic functionality – set of features for secure and efficient enterprise interactions  – in cooperation with dozens of companies, and the open beta release that will become available at the beginning of December had already attracted 300+ businesses to give it a try. In open beta, there will be much more features available, including cryptocurrency wallets, built on pre-alpha version of Jincor’s private blockchain, and basic labor smart contract template, that can be easily customized for the needs of businesses of any industry and scale.

By the end of 2018, Jincor expects to have over 10,000 business customers in open beta and develop mobile apps for iOS and Android. Registering at Jincor.com and evaluating the advantages of Jincor’s ecosystem is free of charge for any business. However, if companies want to use digital verification, smart contracts, arbitrage system and other features of the platform, they will be charged in JCR tokens, as it will be a store of value, the sole means of paying transaction fees, and the mean of fueling smart contracts of Jincor protocol. There will be no additional emission of JCR tokens in the future but the demand, most likely, will continue to grow in geometrical progression.

The company has put on sale 76% of its JCR tokens, which will be an integral part of Jincor platform. The token price is $1 per 1 JCR; the ETH/JCR exchange rate is calculated automatically in accordance with the current ETH/USD rate. Earlier in August startup held pre-ICO campaign, selling 4% of JCR tokens emission, and reaching the hard cap in less than a week. The token sale starts today, on the 1st of December, and will last until January 31, 2018, or until all the allocated tokens are sold, and the hard cap of $26.6 mln is reached (the soft cap is $2.5 mln).

The post Jincor Targets to Bring Smart Contracts to 10,000 Businesses by the end of 2018 appeared first on NEWSBTC.

Our more regular readers will likely be familiar with the idea of repeating key levels. That is, the same levels popping up over and over again in the bitcoin price and proving crucial to sentiment when price is in and around them. Of course, major psychological levels such as round numbers fall into this category but we also often see what we might deem slightly less obvious levels being repeatedly influential purely because price has reacted in and around them in the past.

This is what we are seeing today, just ahead of the $10,000 mark.

It should make for some pretty interesting bitcoin price trading, so, let’s get some levels outlined that we can use for the session and see if we can draw a profit from the market going forward. As ever, take a quick look at the chart below before we get started so as to get an idea where things stand and where we are looking to jump in and out of the markets according to the rules of our strategy. The chart is a one-minute candlestick chart and it has our key range overlaid in green.

As the chart shows, the range that we are using for the session today comes in as defined by support to the downside at 9906 and resistance to the upside out 10090.

If we see price close below support, we will enter short towards an immediate downside target of 9840. A stop loss on the position somewhere in the region of 9925 looks like it should do the trick from a risk management perspective.

Looking the other way, and for our upside trade, if we see a close above resistance we will be entering long towards an immediate upside target of 10130. Again we need a stop loss on the position and 10070 looks like it should do just fine.

Let’s see how things play out.

Chart courtesy of Trading View

The post Bitcoin Price Watch; Trading The Repeating Levels appeared first on NEWSBTC.

Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein has said bitcoin is still too volatile for the bank to consider a strategy for the cryptocurrency.

The Russian Association of Blockchain and Cryptocurrency has partnered with representatives of 30 countries to develop a global ratings standard for initial coin offerings (ICOs). The association is also in talks with the Russian central bank to impose limits on ICO investments.

Also read: South Korea Outlines Proposed Legislation for Cryptocurrency Exchanges

Russia Developing Global ICO Ratings Standard

The Russian Association of Blockchain and Cryptocurrency (RACIB) has announced that they will be developing a uniform ratings standard for ICOs, Izvestia newspaper reported this week.

The association was established with the participation of Herman Klimenko, the adviser to the President of the Russian Federation on Internet development. Its goal is to unite blockchain participants as well as owners, miners, and investors of cryptocurrencies and ICOs.

The director of the association, Arseny Shchetsin, told the news outlet that this development “will become the first in the world standard of ratings in the field of ICO,” noting that it will be applicable to not only Russian companies but also foreign ones. Currently, the industry operates on a self-regulation basis with each ratings agency adopting its own ratings system. RACIB decided to develop a standard because there is “a large number of scammers who manipulate the ratings” in the ICO market, using “unknown methodology and for a fee to raise the score,” he explained.

To develop this global standard, RACIB entered into partnership agreements with 30 organizations, which it considers “the largest players in the industry from different countries,” the publication conveyed, adding that:

The association cooperates with representatives of Germany, Switzerland, Australia, Singapore, India, Bahrain, Kazakhstan, Ireland, Poland, Czech Republic, Turkey, Latvia, Indonesia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Estonia, etc. The requirements of the Russian standard are planned to be coordinated with the international community.

Restrictions on ICO Investments

Also this week, Vladimir Putin’s advisor on Internet development, Herman Klimenko, said that the association is discussing ICO investment restrictions with the central bank, Rambler News Service reported. According to him, an investment ceiling as low as $1,000 per project and $10,000 per year are being discussed.

“Collecting an amount of $2-5 million with such restrictions is very easy. The state, naturally, will not legalize the crowdfunding projects in the amount of $200-300 million for one project,” he elaborated. “But some reasonable limitations for medium-sized businesses, I think, are quite realistic for them,” he emphasized and was quoted saying:

What we are now talking about with the central bank is a certain restriction on the maximum amount of attracting, for example, from a person, and restrictions in general per person per year.

What do you think of Russia developing an ICO ratings standard with 30 countries and of the investment restrictions being discussed? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock and RACIB.

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Another billionaire who doesn’t understand Bitcoin has come forward today, calling the cryptocurrency a bubble.

According to the Press Secretary, the President’s staff is now monitoring cryptocurrencies, though no specific statement has yet been made.