Day: December 22, 2017

Most people who live in Australia will have come across the Coinspot cryptocurrency platform. It is an interesting company which facilitates the purchase of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and a few other cryptocurrencies as well. Unfortunately, the company is dealing with some significant issues which are affecting AUD deposits. It seems these problems will not be resolved anytime soon either, according to a new update. This is not good news for the company or its customers, but it’s something people will have to deal with for the time being.

Coinspot Deposit Restrictions Remain in Place

Anyone who has tried to use Coinspot this week may have noticed the service isn’t operating as it should be. There are restrictions in place affecting all AUD deposits, which means users can only buy small amounts of cryptocurrency through the service right now. This does not affect withdrawals in AUD or cryptocurrency balances, though, which is a positive sign. At the same time, if people can’t buy cryptocurrency, there’s still a problem which needs to be resolved sooner rather than later.

For Coinspot, it is a bit unclear what is causing the deposit issue. It appears the Australian banks are to blame for this problem, but no one knows the underlying reason at this point in time. It is not the first time issues like these have arisen in Australia, mind you, as the country’s banks are unwilling to work with the cryptocurrency community in any way. It has caused a fair amount of friction, but there is no real change to be expected in the future.

According to Coinspot, the situation has grown so dire that bank account closures are almost becoming the new normal. It is evident a lot of financial institutions around the world have taken an aggressive stance toward Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, even though no one knows for sure why that is the case. Perhaps they feel threatened by this new form of money or they don’t want people to spend their money on anything that could negatively impact bank operations.

With the demand for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on the rise in Australia, deposit restrictions are the last thing companies like Coinspot need right now. All they want is to provide an optimal service to their customers, yet they are unable to do so with these restrictions in place. Since the restrictions will not be lifted until the first week of January or later, it is evident the situation has become rather problematic. It would certainly help if the banks were to collaborate with cryptocurrency experts in this regard, but for now, that seems highly unlikely.

While it is understandable that the government and banks would want to limit consumers’ exposure to unsafe vendors, Coinspot should never be counted among the latter. The company has built up a very solid reputation over the years, and it is complying with all existing regulations. On paper, there is no reason to prevent it from offering its services properly, yet for some reason, the Australian banking sector has decided to do so regardless. It is a very uneasy situation, but Coinspot is working toward a long-term solution.

For now, its course of action is to establish relationships with new banking partners. Which financial institutions will be of assistance in this regard remains unknown for now. It is good to see the Australian cryptocurrency service provider be so transparent regarding this matter. Most other companies wouldn’t go in-depth about their problems and would keep customers partially in the dark. We can only hope Coinspot can resume its normal operations sooner rather than later.

The post Bitcoin Price Analysis: Expect Some Lower Lows Before the Next Bounce appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Not a day goes by without some interesting development in the world of technology. Especially when it comes to robotics and their capabilities, there’s still room for improvement. Although most of these machines make humans look lazy, there is now a robot capable of doing crunches and push-ups while breaking a sweat. It sounds pretty unusual, but there is a certain appeal to this concept as well.

Sweating Robots Working out Like Humans

On paper, there is absolutely no reason for a robot to perform either crunches or push-ups. After all, a robot doesn’t have fat to burn, muscles to train or a mind capable of feeling the enjoyment of working out. All of this begs the question, why would engineers even explore the idea of creating a device capable of exercising? The most logical answer to this question would be “because they can”.

More specifically, researchers at the University of Tokyo have created a robotic humanoid which looks a lot more lifelike than some other contraptions we have seen this year. In fact, the connection between human and machine has never been as obvious. Not only does this device look like a human, it also successfully mimics the movement of its human counterparts. That is quite an intriguing development, considering humanoids often stomp around like mechanical bulls in a china shop.

Known as Kengoro, the robot is pretty interesting to behold for many different reasons. It plays badminton, makes you look bad while working out, and sweats more buckets than the average person in a sauna. The latter feature is rather mystifying, considering there’s no apparent reason for any robot to sweat. At the same time, it’s only natural they’d do so, as it would make their integration into our society go a lot smoother.

Replicating a human body is a very difficult task, even for the most advanced robotics experts. Kengoro, which is the latest iteration of the Kenshiro line of humanoids, is slightly heavier and a bit older than the first generation. Moreover, the ratio of foot length to shoulder height has been tweaked slightly. For all intents and purposes, you wouldn’t know it was a robot if it had human skin.

Kengoro’s movements are exceedingly fluid thanks to the use of actuators in its joints. With 116 of these actuators present in Kengoro, it can mimic the movements of human muscles surprisingly well. While there is no 1:1 exact copy of human musculature right now, the progress made by the team is pretty significant. It’s also the actuators which cause Kengoro to sweat, due to the heat these parts produce. It’s an interesting take on things that will certainly send shockwaves throughout the robotics industry.

Even though Kengoro is more human-like than any other robot, it still remains alien. For one thing, its higher number of degrees of freedom makes it move and bend in angles some people would never be able to achieve. While all of this is pretty significant, the big question is whether or not Kengoro will serve any real-life purpose in the future. It is still a noteworthy development in the robotics sector, though.

Amidst today’s market drop, several cryptocurrencies reported gains during the afternoon trading session.

December​ ​22,​ ​2017​ (SAN​ ​FRANCISCO​) ​- CanYa has recently announced the purchase of Bountysource, a global peer-to-peer (P2P) open source software bounty system. CanYa, as a blockchain-based decentralized autonomous organization, fits well with Bountysource’s business model and will build an international community where any number of digital services can be provided.

At a time when ICOs are often underdeveloped and lack any substantive business plan, CanYa has already built a substantive system where digital gig economy freelancers are able to interact. CanYa has now added a fully functional and successful new system to further develop their user base.

Because Bountysource is currently functioning with 46,000 active participants and is the world’s largest open source P2P bounty platform, it provides a huge new connection for CanYa into the broad bounty world. The company has 13 years of success and has many of the most important cryptocurrency experts have participated including Ripple, Jihan Wu and Andreas Brekken who have all interacted with the platform.

For CanYa, the acquisition is perfectly timed, given the clear success of the ICO and the potential for exponential growth. John-Paul Thorbjornsen, the CEO of CanYa, said, “The CanYa team are aggressively accelerating blockchain technology adoption in a meaningful way, and we see the acquisition of Bountysource as pivotal in growing fast and introducing more communities to cryptocurrencies. This is the perfect timing to double-down on open-source software. With blockchain protocols soon to power the world, there is now a huge expectation that software be open and to be contributed to by a wide variety of users. Bountysource will be the portal and a major repository of open-source software.”

CanYa is planning for Bountysource to begin adding some of the many cryptocurrency payment choices for participants, particularly the CanYaCoin (the ERC-20 token for use on the CanYa system). Further, the cooperation between CanYa and Bountyspace will also include a refreshing of the user experience, substantial lowering of fees and, of particular note to the cryptocurrency community, the addition of a portal for ICOs and blockchain platforms to add new bounties for smart contracts.

CanYa’s ICO will progress, already raising 8,600 of it’s 19,333 ETH hard cap. Further cooperation with platforms like Bountysource will create ways for CanYa to increase market awareness and scope, particularly as the global digital services economy grows.

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.

US tax reform bill no longer allows crypto-to-crypto exchanges to be exempted from taxation under the “like kind exchange” rule, and Russian tax authorities are coming after citizens who convert digital currency to fiat. #NEWS

Don’t let Mr. Grinch take away your Crypto Christmas!