Day: December 11, 2017

Changetip is the gift that keeps giving. One year after the micro-tipping service shut down, account holders are logging in to discover forgotten bitcoin worth hundreds or even thousands of dollars. The San Francisco-based micropayment platform is no more, but its legacy lives on through forgotten bitcoin shrapnel that is now worth multitudes more.

Also read: This App is Trying to Predict the Bitcoin Bubble Bursting Using AI

Changetip is Changing Lives

When Changetip announced that it was shutting down in November 2016, one bitcoin was worth around $750. With the cryptocurrency now trading for more than 20x that figure, it’s turned a little shrapnel into a whole lot of dollars, as numerous account holders are discovering. All across social media, stories are emerging of bitcoiners logging in to retrieve loose change and finding, to their delight, that it’s no longer change.

One redditor found 0.25 BTC languishing in their account, and there are many more reports of bitcoin worth hundreds of dollars being recovered by individuals. Despite having been sunsetted, Changetip still allows account-holders to log in using social media accounts such as Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit to retrieve their bitcoins.

Tipping Intensifies

There’s just one downside for account holders whose wallets contain extremely low amounts of bitcoin: the fee to send it may now be worth more than the value of the coins. Bitcoin’s come a long way in the past year, but its remarkable appreciation in value has come at the expense of high fees. Bitcoin’s inefficacy as a micro-tipping platform was illustrated last week when someone tried to contribute $1.50 in BTC to Andreas Antonopoulos’ fundraiser, only to be stung by transaction fees of over $13.

Bitcoin’s micropayment days have passed, but bitcoin cash is being trialed for a number of projects similar to Changetip. These include Yours.org, which rewards content creators and curators with BCH. While some Changetip users are delighted to discover the value of their forgotten bitcoin holdings, others are anguished at the realization of the sums they tossed around freely back then – sums which are worth a small fortune today.

Have you discovered long forgotten bitcoin in your old Changetip account? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock.

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

The post People Are Discovering Bitcoin Worth Thousands of Dollars in Changetip Accounts appeared first on Bitcoin News.

The price of bitcoin has pushed back above $17,000, hitting a new all-time high on CoinDesk’s Bitcoin Price Index (BPI)

Blockchain technology is being built into the platform designed by VeChain — a startup that competed at BlockShow Asia — to protect luxury goods.

You may be able to trade the bitcoin cash market anonymously, but you cannot do the same with futures.

According to a recent analysis, investors are dumping gold for Bitcoin, driving down both the gold price and bond yields simultaneously, while cryptocurrencies are up in a big way.

December 11^th, 2017  – After a hugely successful private presale, in which over $5 million worth of KEY tokens were sold, blockchain-based digital identity firm, SelfKey, announced that their public presale of KEY tokens will begin on December 15^th, 2017. It is expected that the public presale will be just as successful.

SelfKey’s working technology platform is live and in use every day by customers all over the world to submit and verify KYC. It was built with the help of Standard Chartered Bank and has facilitated KYC for token sales such as Airswap, Aditus, Gatcoin, AiX, and Hotoken. It is also used by fintech/blockchain startups such as Polymath, Kommerce, ZILLA, Malabar.ai, TitanFx, DollarSmart, and the Hong Kong based exchange, Gatecoin, to name but a few.

It is not only blockchain-based companies that use SelfKey technology to onboard customers. NTL Trust, the oldest and most well-recognized citizenship and residency by investment authorized agent in the world, uses SelfKey to process citizenship and residency applications in over ten countries, through the blockchain.

The next generation of this technology platform is an identity wallet and marketplace powered by Selfkey Tokens (KEY). KEY is a utility token that must be staked to gain access to the network and spent to apply for identity notarizations and marketplace listings.

Through the SelfKey Identity Wallet, users can access their identity documents stored locally on their personal device. Since the documents won’t be stored in any server, database, or blockchain, the SelfKey Identity Wallet prevents security and privacy issues.

Users’ digital identity is cryptographically signed and can only be decrypted by a public key, so if any service provider or certifier attempts to share it with a third party it would be unreadable since it will only be visible as a secure hash on the blockchain.

ID documents can be verified by qualified certifiers, such as an eNotary. These certifications will cost KEY tokens. After their documents are verified, users will be able to reuse their identity certifications to instantly apply for multiple products and services, without the need to repeat the verification process.

The Identity Wallet and the Marketplace allow people from all over the world to apply for citizenship and residency by investment, efficiently start a business by setting up a company, bank account, or a payment processor, and access fintech products such as virtual checking accounts.

Since the SelfKey application is capable of receiving, storing and transferring any ERC-20 token, including ETH, as well as having the ability to allow instant sign up for multiple exchange verified accounts, cryptocurrency enthusiasts will also be able to manage their cryptocurrency portfolio.

According to their published roadmap, the SelfKey wallet will be available in January 2018, coinciding with its public sale.

When asked about the inspiration behind SelfKey, the founder Edmund Lowell Responded, “It all started with the pain of KYC – filling out the same forms over and over again for the business FlagTheory.com. We’d set up a company and then the banks would repeat the work we’d already done. This led me to start KYC-Chain.com, but now I’m more motivated by a larger mission with SelfKey.org. We believe people should own their own identity.”

“There are now lots of global citizens who move between countries often,” he elaborated, “it only makes sense that there is a one-stop marketplace where you can setup an exchange account, access different financial services, apply for a residency or citizenship, and incorporate companies in different jurisdictions without the need for repeatedly filling out the same paperwork and submitting the same forms. SelfKey offers easy KYC onboarding and a one-click application process for these services.”

For full sale information, visit https://selfkey.org/

About SelfKey

Founded by industry leader, Edmund Lowell, and backed by a team of over 60 individuals, SelfKey is a blockchain-based digital identity system that puts individuals and companies in control of their personal data and gives them instant access to a broad range of products and services such as citizenship and residency by investment, company incorporation, bank accounts, fintech products, token sales, and cryptocurrency exchanges, among others.

For more information about SelfKey and their mission, visit https://selfkey.org/ or join in with the SelfKey Telegram community at https://t.me/selfkeyfoundation

The post Self-Sovereign Identity Leader, SelfKey, Announces Public Token Presale appeared first on NEWSBTC.

When it comes to cryptocurrency exchanges, it is often difficult to find the right trading markets. More specifically, most companies use Bitcoin as their primary trading markets. Some exchanges also feature Litecoin or Ethereum markets, but those are harder to come by. ViaBTC runs an exchange service known as CoinEx, which plans to make Bitcoin Cash its primary trading market.

Bitcoin Cash Continues to Make an Impact

While it still seems unlikely that Bitcoin Cash will replace Bitcoin in the short term, the currency continues to make its presence felt in the world of cryptocurrencies. More specifically, it is still the third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. That in itself is rather surprising, given the initial assumption that this was another pump-and-dump coin. Hindsight is always 20/20, and it has become rather clear that BCH is a very peculiar creature which will stick around for the foreseeable future.

Moreover, the supporters of this altcoin have received some interesting news. ViaBTC is a company which has always favored Bitcoin Cash over Bitcoin itself, and it has never shied away from making that clear to the public. As a result, its CoinEx exchange will make BCH the main trading market for all other supported currencies. This means it will become the world’s first trading platform to ditch Bitcoin as the primary currency. It’s an interesting decision that may set a very precarious precedent for the other cryptocurrency exchanges.

Many people will remember CoinEx, as the platform was forced to shut down in late October after the People’s Bank of China banned cryptocurrency exchanges. Unlike what most people assumed, the CoinEx platform isn’t dead or abandoned, as it was migrated only recently to the United Kingdom. Although the platform has yet to open its doors to the public again, the ambition to make this venture a success is certainly palpable. Designating BCH as the main trading market will certainly get some attention.

All of this further confirms that this Bitcoin hard fork will continue its success despite the odds and despite negativity on the part of Bitcoin community members. CoinEx plans to open BCH trading pairs for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Zcash, and Dash. It is somewhat unfortunate not to see Monero on this list, but the company has made it clear that it will enable other currencies in the future. Which currencies those will be remains to be determined at this stage. An XRP/BCH trading market would be another interesting addition, to say the least.

Surprisingly, CoinEx also has no plan to support Bitcoin Gold at this point in time. This recent Bitcoin fork has not been overly successful in any regard, and it seems its struggles will only continue for the foreseeable future. A BTG/BCH trading market would allow both forks to compete with one another, even though Bitcoin Cash is clearly in a more favorable position right now.

All things considered, this is good news for all Bitcoin Cash supporters. It is not an announcement most people expected, but that is also what makes cryptocurrency so exciting these days. A lot of unexpected things have happened throughout 2017, and it seems 2018 will bring more of the same. An interesting future lies ahead for all cryptocurrencies with clear visions and solid technologies to back them up.

Following the launch of Bitcoin futures by the Chicago Board Options Exchange yesterday, Canadian news source The Globe and Mail have reported that a further two fund managers have joined the many existing applications with the SEC for a Bitcoin ETF. The firms in question are REX Shares LLC and Van Eck Associates Corp. Both hope to be the first to offer the financial product and aim to use the futures contracts coming to market to gain access to the Bitcoin price, without having to invest directly in it.

There is widespread optimism amongst many institutional investors that the launch of Bitcoin futures means that an ETF is now a matter of “when” rather than “if”. So far, however, the Securities and Exchange Commission has denied or shelved all similar applications. Proponents of such funds are hoping that the legitimacy that the futures market is bringing to the space could help prompt the SEC to start approving applications.

The most famous of the slew of ETF proposals came from the Winklevoss twins earlier this year. It was denied on the grounds that the currency trades in unregulated markets. Whilst their platform seeks to be the first direct-to-Bitcoin ETF, several other funds presented to the SEC since only seek access to the futures market. This, of course, is regulated, and as such, it’s believed that these stand a much greater chance of being accepted.

Eric Balchunas, an ETF analyst with Bloomberg intelligence told the Canadian news source:

The launch of the futures trading is just one more domino that seems to be falling into place in the approval of a bitcoin ETF.

Meanwhile, in Canada, at least two different firms have publicly filed to launch ETFs. There is growing sentiment from there that they could beat the US efforts to be the first Bitcoin exchange traded fund in North America. This is because their regulatory body are considered more liberal than their US counterparts. Steve Hawkins of Horizons ETFs weighed in on the race to bring the product to market:

“There is an absolute race going on among both Canadian and US players who are scrambling to be the first ETF player in North America… But there is a lot of push back at bank levels, auditor levels, regulator levels and security exchange levels. Much of this push back is around the fact that many don’t know what bitcoin is and that it isn’t your traditional currency, or that it hasn’t actively traded in the market before. Everyone wants to be first doing this in the ETF space, but no one has real experience in the bitcoin market.”

As the futures market settles and more join the CBOE in offering the contracts, there are expected to be many more ETF proposals. In fact, Balchunas believes the number of applications will double or triple by the end of the year:

There’s plenty of space and enough assets that are going to be coming in for issuers to say we want a piece of that and we are willing to compete in that market because there is a big audience in this space and room for several people to thrive.

The post More Firms Push for Bitcoin ETF in Wake of Futures Launch appeared first on NEWSBTC.

Bitcoin’s value is higher than ever before, and the Japanese yen has been the top currency used within bitcoin’s global trade volume over the past year. According to the CEO of the Tokyo-based trading platform Bitflyer, Yuzo Kano, the current bull run is being bolstered by market movers utilizing leverage.   

Also read: This App is Trying to Predict the Bitcoin Bubble Bursting Using AI

Bitflyer CEO Believes ‘Japan Is Leading the Market Higher’

The price of bitcoin has been on fire in 2017 gaining new all-time highs month after month. Every day global exchanges are swapping billions worth of bitcoin, but one particular exchange from Tokyo has been dominating the pack. Bitflyer created in 2014 by Yuzo Kano is one of the world’s top exchanges and usually captures the second and third position among exchanges globally. The Japanese yen has also been dominating the world’s trade volume and at times can be over 60 percent of global BTC trades. At the moment the yen is leading by 43 percent ahead of the U.S. dollar, and the euro. According to Mr. Kano, lots of Japanese traders are fuelling the market by purchasing with leverage of up to 15X based on their initial deposit.

Mr. Kano details in an interview with the Financial Times that a significant amount of demand is stemming from large holders and Chinese mining organizations.

“People who’ve owned them for a long time and have made a fortune — They have ¥10bn, and they’re selling a little,” explains Kano.

I think Japan is leading the market higher

‘No Matter How Big the Position We Can Close It Out’

Out of all the Japanese exchanges, Bitflyer captures the lion’s share of BTC volume compared to other operations within the country. According to global statistics, Bitflyer captures over 70-80 percent of the country’s share of volume at any given time. A few times this year Bitflyer and other trading platforms have also seen far higher prices than the global average. Last week when the price came close to the $17K range, Japanese exchange prices were $1,000-500 higher. Bitflyer’s options and leverage markets trade bitcoin at 75 percent in derivatives and 25 percent BTC which Mr. Kano says is fueled by frequent traders and arbitrageurs.

Even though leverage markets are dominating Mr. Kano’s explains in his interview that he doesn’t fear the risk of a significant market panic which could suck up actual liquidity.

“We have a huge amount of liquidity. No matter how big the position we can close it out. If bitcoin rose 20-fold in a day, then I don’t know. But a day with a 30 percent fall would be no problem,” Mr. Kano emphasizes.

Margin trading and leverage options have been growing increasingly popular over the past few years, and when China dominated the markets, they also dealt with a lot of leverage positions. Mr. Kano also reveals Bitflyer is aiming to cater to U.S. investors and hopes to attract them with the company’s significant liquidity. The exchange recently was approved to receive the Bitlicense in New York and will tend to U.S. customers with its latest cryptocurrency exchange venture.   

What do you think about Mr. Kano saying that bitcoin markets are being pushed higher by leverage and arbitrageurs? Let us know in the comments below.

Images via Shutterstock, and Bitflyer. 

Do you like to research and read about Bitcoin technology? Check out Bitcoin.com’s Wiki page for an in-depth look at Bitcoin’s innovative technology and interesting history.

The post Bitflyer CEO Says Japan and Leverage Is Leading Bitcoin Markets Higher appeared first on Bitcoin News.

CBOE broke new ground with the launch of Bitcoin futures on Sunday, to the point where they even broke their own site with the rush of interest to get involved. Futures look like they are here to shake things up.

CBOE’s chief executive is pushing back at suggestions that the exchange’s newly-launched bitcoin futures market was hastily done.

Wright claims that the major changes on the Bitcoin Cash platform will reap dividends for the cryptocurrency in 2018.