Day: December 25, 2017

Many analysts expect the bitcoin price to surge rapidly throughout 2018, in consideration of the increasing adoption of the cryptocurrency by major financial institutions, service providers, and individual investors across the world.

Cboe, NYSE, and Goldman Sachs Bitcoin ETF / Trading

By early 2018, the global finance market’s largest futures exchange, stock market, and investment banks the Chicago Board Options Exchange (Cboe), New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), and Goldman Sachs plan to introduce bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and cryptocurrency exchanges.

This week, after demonstrating a successful launch of bitcoin futures, Cboe filed to list six major bitcoin ETFs in major US stock markets:

1. First Trust Bitcoin Strategy ETF
2. First Trust Inverse Bitcoin Strategy ETF
3. REX Bitcoin Strategy ETF
4. REX Short Bitcoin Strategy ETF
5. GraniteShares Bitcoin ETF
6. GraniteShares Short Bitcoin ETF

NYSE, the largest stock market in the world, also filed two bitcoin ETF applications to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) named ProShares.

Cboe spokesperson stated that the organization has come to a decision to provide more efficient and accessible investment tools for investors to utilize in trading bitcoin, given the increase in demand for bitcoin on both Cboe and CME Group futures exchanges.

“Given the success of the launch of our bitcoin futures, several partners are very interested in moving forward with the development of an exchange-traded product,” said the Cboe spokesperson.

Jeff Sprecher, the chairman of NYSE, publicly expressed his regret in not listing bitcoin futures ahead of Cboe and CME Group at an investor conference sponsored by the Goldman Sachs.

Seeing the exponential increase in the demand for cryptocurrencies by institutional, retail, and individual investors in the traditional finance market, Sprecher stated:

“We may be stupid for not being first on that… I don’t have the answers, I wish I knew… I don’t know what to make of cryptocurrencies.”

In the near future, based on the high trading volumes of the Cboe and CME bitcoin futures, NYSE will likely launch a bitcoin futures trading platform on its own, subsequent to launching its ProShares bitcoin ETFs.

Unlike futures, which are aimed for large-scale institutional investors and retail traders, ETFs provide a more efficient and seamless channel for individual investors. Earlier this year, billionaire investor Mark Cuban revealed that he has invested in bitcoin through an exchange-traded note (ETN) in the Nordic Nasdaq, a stock market based in Sweden, because it was the only regulated bitcoin investment instrument apart from Digital Currency Group’s Bitcoin Investment Trust.

“It is interesting because there are a lot of assets which their value is just based on supply and demand. Most stocks, there is no intrinsic value because you have no true ownership rights and no voting rights. You just have the ability to buy and sell those stocks. Bitcoin is the same thing. Its value is based on supply demand. I have bought some through an ETN based on a Swedish exchange,” said Cuban at the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit in Los Angeles, as reported by LiveBitcoinNews.

Bitcoin $40,000

Billionaire investors and highly respected analysts including hedge fund investor Mike Novogratz, prominent financial analyst Max Keiser, and Fundstrat’s Tom Lee stated that the price of bitcoin will likely surpass the $40,000 margin by the end of 2018, and achieve a $1 trillion market cap.

The post Bitcoin Price is Expected to Surge Rapidly in 2018, Potential Factors to Consider appeared first on NEWSBTC.

Since purchases made with cryptocurrency are dispositions, you better keep a record of dates, amounts and details of those dispositions too. Expert Robert Wood explains why. #EXPERT BLOG

South Korean Government Concerned With Scams in Bitcoin Market as Fake Exchanges and Ponzi Schemes Emerge. #REGULATIONS

The challenge is huge. For the last ten years, dozens of billions of euros went under the radar, evading taxation in the European Union. One might recall, for instance, that Google was recently held to owe 13 billion euros to Ireland for “undue privilege” by the EU. We are also rendered speechless upon learning that Airbnb paid less than € 93,000 of taxes in France in 2016 for an estimated 120 million euros in profits, equating to less than € 775 of taxes for every million made.

During the Tallin Digital Summit, European leaders failed to reach an agreement to harmonize GAFA’s tax rates. Some European States (i.e. Luxembourg, Ireland…) did not support the French initiative led by Bruno Le Maire (the French Minister of Economy) to tax companies’ yearly earnings, country by country. It remains, nonetheless, both a political debate and a technological issue.

As a matter of fact, even if the concept is appealing on paper, its actual execution is much more uncertain. Practically, it means creating a common base of taxation at a European level – which is a challenge. To begin with, months of debates will be necessary to arrive at – in the best-case scenario – a political consensus. European States will be hesitant to lose their fiscal sovereignty. This is followed by the inherent difficulties in applying this solution: just considering the issues raised by harmonizing the data streams or synchronizing fiscal calendars. After which comes the consideration for security requirements. How is it possible then to imagine that such a solution, revealing GAFA’s yearly earnings country by country, including all attached fiscal information, won’t arouse some hackers’ appetite, or even cause a Fiscaleak?

In short, tremendous tenacity and ingenuity will be required for this idea to become concrete. And even at a break-neck pace, many years will be required for it to be operational. Let’s be clear: it is more time than would be necessary to allow GAFA, champions of fiscal optimization, to adapt their strategy.

Choosing this path is choosing a dead end. Facing GAFA we’ll have, at worst, a European taxation “Maginot”: after having put forth a tremendous amount of effort to build it, it will be useless when it is at last ready.

What if you discovered that it is now possible to use a faster and less expensive solution, just as reliable and completely decentralized? Furthermore, this solution complies with all expectations with no requirement that any European State reveal or share its fiscal data? And finally, it doesn’t require any party to challenge its sovereignty?

That is exactly the function of a particular form of Blockchain called “Zero-Knowledge Blockchain”. The Zero-Knowledge Blockchain combines Blockchain’s greatest strength – decentralized sharing of information – to the Zero-Knowledge Proof properties for protecting confidential data.

In concrete terms, this technology will allow aggregation at a European level of the rate for a global taxation of international firms without unveiling fiscal information, as well as maintaining the confidentiality of every country. No need to tax results: it is now possible to evaluate the global taxability of GAFA at a European level and act accordingly. By introducing an aggregated fiscal indicator at a European level, technology can properly contribute to the democratic debate about taxation.

A technologic fantasy? Certainly not! Distributed management of certificates and of reputation, operational risk management of a partner, deep visibility on the efficiency of a supply chain: this type of solution is already set up in ecosystems willing to share information in real time without revealing any data, as major European and American banks, leading industrial players, are currently testing this technology and making it practicable.

Rest-assured: it is possible to beat GAFA at their own game, through fiscal and technological flexibility. If we should choose to do so, it is now within easy reach.

Jonathan Rouach & Ruben Arnold

Co-founders of QED-it

About QED-it :

Founded by a world class team, QED-it has developed the Zero-Knowledge Blockchain. Combining two advanced technologies, zero-knowledge proof cryptography and enterprise blockchain, ZK Blockchain solves the coordination between actors in the same industry, eliminating the necessity of sharing their confidential data. In practice, Zero-Knowledge Blockchain provides proof for all parties, without disclosing their underlying confidential data.
Press officer (Mots-Clés Agency):
Graziella Tekle
[email protected]
+33 7 62 70 62 50

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 a long time the ultra wealthy and their money managers have been able to access a level of return on investment previously out of reach of the average person. The larger the amount being invested, the better the fund manager can be hired, and the better the deal that can be got.

Disclosure: This is a Sponsored Article

This is a fact of life in standard centralized investment markets. But just as the dawn of the internet opened up the possibility for regular private individuals to start investing in stocks, the rise of blockchain technology can allows these investors to compete with the wealthy and elite in the investing game.

Tech levels the playing field, and blockchain makes community investing possible while artificial intelligence (AI) reduces the edge that experts have over novices.

One blockchain startup that is combining these two innovations to challenge the status quo is trade.io. Their platform, underpinned by their TIO token, allows holders to earn from the gains made by the trade.io community simply by holding their tokens in their wallet. The community is made up of experts and also the investment choices of the machine learning models they use.

An unequal playing field

Many financial instruments or favorable deals are completely inaccessible to most people because they either require administrative processing, high barriers to entry, or complex computer modeling to execute. Trade.io want to leverage strength in numbers to democratize investing, enabling users to cash in or out when they please, having possibly gained from the time they spent having held the TIO tokens. Smart contracts underpin the system, ensuring efficiency and transparency.

For more proactive investors, the platform allows choosing of investing strategies as well as making your own trades. The company are hoping that aside from the professional investors taking part in the trading for the benefit of all token holders, they can benefit from partnerships that give them the edge.

Partnering for success

The company, which is based on Switzerland, believe that forging partnerships with key players will bolster the in-house knowledge they have. Most notably, they have partnered with Modulus (a tech company so well regarded that they sell software to Google) to obtain cutting edge financial technology. Trade.io CTO Erik Voltron Voltron said this of the recently announced deal:

“In working with Modulus previously on a few projects, I can vouch for the fact they are best of breed in terms of financial technology and innovation, and our entire development team is excited to be working with their company going forward” Voltron said, “While blockchain development in finance has grown by leaps and bounds, we’re still in its infancy stage, and trade.io is becoming more and more one of the preeminent firms in this space.”

Trade.io have also started an incubator at the University of Nicosia, which could result in further best of breed innovations.

Most recently, trade.io announced a partnership with Civic, whose identity verification services they will use to qualify clients for the liquidity pool and trade.io exchange. By offering Civic’s services, it will be able to cut down the time to onboard clients in an AML-compliant manner significantly.

The Trade.io ICO is currently underway.

The price of Bitcoin seems to have found some stability after its free fall into the festive period. No doubt there’ll be some conversations over lunch today with smug relatives who “told you so” about that “dodgy internet money”. After such a severe a drop in price, Mums, Uncles, and Grandmas across the globe will be relishing the opportunity to let you know how silly you were to have faith in Bitcoin. However, in times of extreme volatility, it’s important remember that nothing has fundamentally changed about Bitcoin, and that’s the most valuable thing about it.

If you’re still a believer in the technology, instead of getting frustrated by the attacks you’re almost certainly going to receive between mouthfuls of turkey and stuffing from all sides of the table, use the opportunity productively. This is your chance to convert your nearest and dearest to the virtues of cryptocurrency. You’re representing Bitcoin here, so stay composed!

Standard Swings

Firstly, seeing as most people enjoy talking about the price so much, and the lion’s share of the critiques coming your way will be based on today’s sub-$14,000 BTC versus the almost $20,000 price of less than a week ago, it might be useful to remind folk that Bitcoin started the year off at around $1,000. After such a huge run up, corrections are natural and healthy. No one thought the price would continue to rise in straight line, that’s not how markets work. Good traders are aware of this and just as the $10,000 price was tested multiple times before it was eventually broken, it appears that this will be the case for $20,000 too. Such psychological barriers might seem trivial but if they’re real in the minds of enough market participants, then they become real resistance points.

Good News Incoming

It might take a bit of good news for all that money that’s sitting on the sidelines to pour back into the market but there are plenty of potential developments that could provide the necessary catalyst. A devoted team of the best blockchain developers on the planet are frantically working towards providing necessary scaling solutions that will allow greater functionality without compromising security. Improvements such as the Lightning Network will almost certainly drive the price up again when they’re ready to be deployed.

In the shorter term, moves are being made to provide institutional investors a platform on which they can buy, sell and store cryptocurrency. Exciting rumours kicking around the Goldman Sachs offices could easily create enough of a stir to blast past the $20,000 price point when official announcements are made about the trading desk proposal.

Despite the the likes of Morgan Stanley suggesting that the practical value of Bitcoin might be zero, such sentiment stinks of fear. Huge banks should be scared too. They’ve essentially been the masters of the planet for more than the last seventy years. Bitcoin could change this. If the team of developers can sufficiently overcome the issue of scaling, there would be no need for banks in the world of tomorrow. One day, humans will flick through history books and find the notion of gifting such great power to a group of people who were never elected to be absolutely absurd.

Keep the Faith…

Bitcoin presents something that the world has never known before. It’s impossible to control by external forces and has been designed in such a way that participants needn’t ask permission from any centralised entity to use it. Users can send and receive payments across borders without needing identification or even traditional banking facilities. This is incredibly democratising. Network congestion might be limiting the efficacy of Bitcoin right now but those developing scaling methods are thinking long term, rather settling for a quick fix. Security is one of the most valuable things the Bitcoin network provides and the core team sensibly refuse to compromise on this quality. A slapdash solution that compromises Bitcoin’s security would destroy its revolutionary potential overnight.

As you go in to bat for Bitcoin this holiday season, remember that every single game-changing technology in the history of humankind had strongly opinionated naysayers arguing against it. The motorcar, the internet, mobile phones, the list could go on. Whilst they eventually become integral to the lives of billions across the globe, they all had rough starts. Of course, if all else fails, just ask Granddad what the dollar is backed by. If he mentions the gold standard, refer him to the image below, and it’s game set and match to you…

Image credit: DailyReckoning

The post Bitcoin Price Finding Stability After Frightening Free Fall appeared first on NEWSBTC.

China’s renewable energy sector wasted more than 60 TWh of electricity in 2016 owing to inadequate transmission infrastructure to transport power to its energy hungry big cities and industrial hubs. Meanwhile, power-hungry Bitcoin miners were stealing processing power from computers to meet their annual demand for 32 TWh of electricity. Envion has a smart solution to match global energy supply and demand—Mobile Mining Units (MMUs) that can easily be transported to a renewable electricity generation source in China, or elsewhere in the world.

Disclosure: This is a Sponsored Article

Accessing stranded power via portable cryptocurrency mining operations is a solution to a critical affordable power shortage. The computationally and power intensive mining process is used to produce new Bitcoins and cryptographic proof of transactions. Bitcoin mining makes up 90 percent of Bitcoin rising production costs. Cryptographic puzzles are becoming more complex and requiring more processing power to solve, but the reward is high. The first miner to solve the puzzle creates the new block in the Blockchain. A block is worth 12.5 Bitcoin, plus a mining fee. In mid-December, one BTC was worth around $16,000.

A miner’s gold – renewable processing power

The high demand and cost of power in cryptocurrency mining operations has led to the bold and widespread theft of computer processing power, ranging from mining malware hidden on Showtime and other high trafficked websites to Tesla car owners stealing processing power from the electric car recharging system. As security experts crackdown on mining malware taking computing processing power hostage, the demand for viable low power mining solutions is high.

With a complete mining system in a box with maintenance and security services provided, deploying an  Envion mobile mining unit could be easier than taking computing power hostage. The smart algorithm connects to the smart grid to access energy flexibly and at the lowest costs, such as during low electricity demand times. An advanced cooling system uses less than one percent of the total energy consumption.

Redeploying with shifting regulatory winds

Besides affordable electricity, virtual currency miners face changing regulation towards pollutant emissions standards, and cryptocurrency mining and trading. China has become a Bitcoin mining center due to its low-cost coal-fired power generation while the country is decreasing its coal generation each year to comply with CO2 emissions reductions. With half of Bitcoin mining being powered by China’s low-cost coal, miners also need to start transitioning to a cleaner power source. The carbon footprint per Bitcoin transaction is estimated by Digiconomist.net to be 115 kg per CO2, based on 235 kWh of energy consumed per transaction. That is equivalent to the carbon emissions generated from one year of desktop computer usage.  

Modular, portable mining operations can easily redeploy to the cheapest renewable energy source. Over the last two years, wind and solar power prices have become competitive with those of fossil fuels selling into the grid. However, policy changes and technological improvements will continue to stoke the competition to be the lowest cost energy source. Advancements in energy storage solutions, for example, could change the competitive dynamics.

A mobile mining unit can also easily relocate in response to shifting regulatory winds. The recent ban on Bitcoin trading in China placed an ominous cloud over the future of Bitcoin mining operations. In Japan, some trading exchanges decided to close down rather than comply with the new regulated cryptocurrency exchange model, a trend being adopted elsewhere around the globe. Mobile Bitcoin mining operations can move to markets where the policies are the most favorable.

Investing in Mobile Crypto Mining 

Investors can buy the Envion EVN token (ERC-20) token during the initial coin offering running from Dec. 15th, 2017 to Jan. 14th, 2018. Seventy percent of mining operation earnings are paid out in the form of dividends to investors and 25 percent reinvested. For mining by third-party operations, investors receive 35 percent. 

$5 MILLION CONTRIBUTION FROM MAJOR INVESTOR CAPS OFF ENVION’S BLOWOUT $30 MILLION WEEKEND & UP TO NINE FIGURES TPO DEAL

A major investor made a massive splash with a $5M ticket to lead this weekend’s USD 31,000,000 combined investment, eyeing a third-party-operations deal up to nine figures after the ICO and boosting envion’s ICO fast towards its goal. The 20%-discounted second investment round has already begun. Be a part of the change and invest NOW in one of the most exciting and valuable tokens: www.envion.org

DASH/USD

DASH drifted a bit lower over the holidays, dropping from the $1200 level. However, I suspect that there is a significant amount of support at the $1000 handle. What’s interesting for me is that we could be forming a bit of a descending triangle, or a descending channel, so I think we are going to have a bit of a fight on our hands at that $1000 level. Because of this, I am on the sidelines but if we break down significantly below the $1000 handle, I would be willing to start selling. Otherwise, that could be an excellent opportunity to buy on the cheap.

LTC/USD

Litecoin has been rather lackluster after its founder admitted to being completely out of the digital coin. We now have support at $250, but that has been broken a few times, only to turn things back around. The question is whether we can continue to build up momentum to the upside, or does the support finally fall apart? If we break down below $200, it could be lights out for Litecoin in the short term. Otherwise, these dips could offer short-term scalping opportunities.

Thanks for watching, I’ll be back tomorrow.

The post DASH and Litecoin Analysis December 26, 2017 appeared first on NEWSBTC.

ETH/USD

Ethereum rallied a bit over the weekend, but continues to struggle at the $760 level. I think the market is simply consolidating in this area, and therefore we will probably drift back down towards the $630 level. At that point, there seems to be supported in the region, giving us a potential buying opportunity. If Ethereum breaks down below the $600 level again, we could fall as low as $500.

ETH/BTC

With Bitcoin falling as hard as it has been lately, it’s no surprise that this market continues to gain. The question is how much farther can we go? At this point, I don’t have the answer, but I do realize that if we are above the 0.05 level, there is going to be a certain amount of psychological support from that fact. Because of this, buying on the dips in small increments might still be the best way to deal with the ETH/BTC pair.

Thanks for watching, I’ll be back tomorrow.

The post Ethereum Analysis December 26, 2017 appeared first on NEWSBTC.

As the Internet gets older and its users get wiser (hopefully), there is a growing desire to strengthen personal information security. Not only is there a concern that malicious actors, black-hat hackers, and criminals may have unimpeded access to personal data, but citizens of the world over are beginning to distrust their governments’ intentions. Edward Snowden, the infamous NSA contractor and defector – living in Russia of all places, not known for its devotion to digital or human rights – has developed an app called Haven to alert users to clandestine activities.

What is Haven?

Haven is an app developed by Edward Snowden that monitors one’s device for signs of tampering. While software tampering and remote tampering are still threats, we tend to forget about physical tampering with a phone, which can be incredibly effective.

Haven can be installed on Android devices (there’s currently no iOS support, but the project’s team suggests buying a cheap Android smartphone to benefit from the app), and utilizes the phone’s own hardware and sensors to track and monitor unwanted, unexpected, and uninvited guests. Haven uses light sensors, accelerometers, cameras, power, microphone, and the phone itself to detect and track disturbances.

It also utilizes Tor for remote access to the device and Signal to alert the user of disturbances for added data security.

Who would benefit from using it?

It is a sad world, but human rights activists, investigative journalists, and others are often at risk of forced disappearances. This app can directly help them by i) offering insight into who is either in their space or who frequents their space when gone (they’d know if someone were waiting for them to return) or ii) more morbidly, providing a record of their disappearance.

While I’m less convinced that Mr. Snowden needs an app like this to protect him from some sort of American, extra-judicial hit squad, I can see the value that it may have to others – particularly individuals who oppose the Kremlin.

Not just for making sure people don’t “disappear”

This project was recently announced and opened to the public. While I am sure that many people will vastly augment their personal safety and security, I also wonder how many people will use this device to spy on others. It’s pretty easy to hide a phone in order to collect data and just remote in via Tor. I wonder how many unfaithful significant others will have a rude awakening as a result, or how many relationships will end because devices are found.

In short: practical and intended use cases are often misaligned, and I bet this will end up being used to further clandestine activity just as much as to prevent it.

Still worth checking out

If you’re into code at all, I suggest you take a look at Haven’s github repo – the code is pretty nifty, and it’s cool to me that this project was open-source. At the very least, it is good that it brings information and personal security to the forefronts of our minds for a little bit, if only ephemerally.