Day: December 8, 2017

On November 30, Times Square saw a provocative promotion video, depicting a well-known computer game character Pac-Man, eating up the row of dollar, Bitcoin and Ethereum signs.

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On November 30, Times Square saw a provocative promotion video, depicting a well-known computer game character Pac-Man, eating up the row of dollar, Bitcoin and Ethereum signs.The shown video symbolizes the transition to the so called New Money Order,which Universa is striving to achieve. The video has been uploaded to the Universa official YouTube channel on the 1 of December.

Universa is a new-age blockchain platform introducing a new technology designed to fix the weaknesses of Bitcoin and Ethereum. According to the project WP, this will be done by improving smart contracts and the tokenization process. As the developers claim, Universa is providing an easy, scalable blockchain technology and interface suitable for creating smart contracts and applications based on its blockchain.

The application of technology includes such fields as logistics and cargo tracking, AI financial predictions,agriculture, food and medical supplies control and many more. The platform is intended to satisfy the needs of everyday users as well and has such applications as smart home automation, airbnb, car sharing,etc. providing a system for tokenization of everything that requires decentralization and transformation to the blockchain.

On October 28, the day of the Token Sale launch, the project attracted more than $ 10 million for the first three hours. The company’s goal is to raise $99 million. According to the project’s whitepaper, the collected funds are to be spent on the protocol development, the creation of the Universa fund for investing in the blockchain based businesses, marketing, legal issues and other purposes.

The head of the project is Alexander Borodich, Russia’s well-known angel investor with the history of over 90 start-ups in his portfolio and former marketing director at Mail.ru Group.

Among the advisors there’s John McAfee, the creator of the McAfee Security antivirus and founder of MGT Capital Investments, who is going to use the Universa platform to implement his own blocking project McAfee Coin, with which he hopes to “change the venture capital market”.

As of today, Universa has attracted over $19 million during the token sale and keeps raising the funds very quickly.

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Bitcoin’s monster rally which started on the fifth of December has finally ended, for now, as the digital currency corrected back to under $15,000

There are plenty of reasons to get excited about Bitcoin these days. One is the skyrocketing BTC price, but so is the variety of companies making waves in this industry. BitPay is one of the largest companies active in the Bitcoin world right now. It is currently raising additional capital in order to add support for other cryptocurrencies. It’s a very interesting and somewhat surprising turn of events.

BitPay Plans to Support Altcoins

Most people who have ever dealt with BitPay will acknowledge this company is all about Bitcoin first and foremost. That is not entirely surprising, as Bitcoin has gotten the company most of its business and built its reputation over the past few years. It is the most convenient method of dealing with BTC payments in both an online and offline fashion, even though there are some competitors to keep in mind as well.

However, even BitPay has to acknowledge that cryptocurrency is about so much more than Bitcoin these days. In fact, there are quite a few altcoins which are making a name for themselves. This trend is rather remarkable, considering a lot of people think of altcoins as a test bed for future Bitcoin functionalities. It has become apparent that Bitcoin in its current form is far from perfect, and things have certainly been getting worse as time progresses.

Keeping that in mind, it’s not entirely surprising to see BitPay focus on supporting alternative currencies in the future. Although it is unclear which coins will be supported, it is good to see them branch out regardless. More and more Bitcoin-first companies are working on integrating altcoins as we speak, and payment processors cannot afford to be left behind in this regard. Taking this step will not be easy for BitPay, mind you, as it will need additional capital in order to do so.

This is why the company is currently seeking US$30 million in Series B funding. For now, there is only one entity involved in the process. Aquiline Technology Growth is leading this funding round, but additional investors are uncommitted as of right now. There is a lot of interest in backing this prominent cryptocurrency company, though, which means there should be more than enough support to close out this round in the coming weeks.

It is not the first time we have seen BitPay raise capital to expand its business. More specifically, the company successfully closed a US$30 million Series A funding round back in 2014. At the time, players such as Sir Richard Branson were on board. It is unclear if he will contribute to this round, but it would be good to welcome some new investors as well. With this new round of funding, the company will be able to manage the rapid Bitcoin user growth a lot more effectively than it would otherwise.

No one can deny the cryptocurrency industry is firing on all cylinders right now. More users mean more growth for companies such as BitPay, which is a positive development. It also means there is a growing demand for customer support reps, which is something the company will be focusing on in the coming months as well. Support for the additional currencies and blockchains is what most people are truly interested in, though. The currencies will be selected based upon their market capitalizations and ability to enable payments.

As one would expect, there is already a lot of speculation as to which currencies will be supported in this regard. Bitcoin Cash appears a very likely candidate at this point. Litecoin would be another excellent addition. Ethereum has a solid market cap, but as a currency it’s not exactly cut out to be a payment method. Dash has a decent market cap, but most funds are locked up in masternodes and won’t be used to pay for goods or services. It will be interesting to see what the company decides to do in the coming months.

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Everyone active in the world of cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings knows the SEC doesn’t take kindly to either concept. Now that this agency has cracked down on its first ICO, things will only get more interesting. This makes the launch of Indeco all the more significant, as it is compliant with the SEC’s crowdfunding rules.

Indeco is a Major Development in ICOs

Launching an initial coin offering in the United States is a very dangerous proposition right now. The SEC has started to crack down on any offering which potentially violates securities laws, and PlexCoin is only the first victim in this regard. Indeco thinks it has all the right boxes checked with its SEC-compliant crowdfunding campaign.

It is commendable to see companies and projects focus on being compliant rather than simply raising millions of dollars. Indeco claims to be the first crypto asset pre-sale under the SEC’s rules for Regulation Crowdfunding. This new regulation allows anyone to invest in securities issued by startup companies. It doesn’t matter whether or not one is an accredited investor or has any significant net worth. This regulation is quite interesting, and being compliant should be the first order of business.

Indeco CEO David Levine described his offering as follows:

“We are committed to complying with SEC rules and regulations in this pre-sale period, in our proposed ICO, and throughout secondary market trading. We believe all crypto assets will be subject to regulatory scrutiny, and we plan to create substantial value for our investors by proactively developing a compliant offering.”

It is certainly true there are opportunities ahead for companies looking to follow the initial coin offering route. Complying with the SEC’s regulation is not all that difficult, but projects will need someone with sufficient legal expertise on board to make this happen. Sadly, most ICO projects don’t focus on this aspect all that often and are forced to ask for forgiveness later on. Given the SEC’s stance, forgiveness will be very difficult to come by and an official inquiry is a more likely outcome.

The Indeco token pre-sale is being hosted by StartEngine, a crowdfunding platform regulated by the SEC. It is good to see a more professional approach being taken in this regard, as this industry has gotten a lot of negative attention in recent months. Moreover, with the SEC providing regulated platforms to ensure project compliance, there is no reason not to embrace this solution in full.

It will be interesting to see how the entire ICO industry evolves in the coming weeks and months. The SEC will most likely continue to scrutinize new and existing projects alike, although no one knows for sure if more legal repercussions will be handed down. It is good to see projects such as Indeco take the appropriate course of action in this regard, although not all projects will follow its example.