Day: December 30, 2017

In recent months the technology and finance industries have been in flux with the activities of new companies finding novel use cases for blockchain technology and the parallel rise in the value of cryptocurrencies. One company is ramping up its plans for a launch of its blockchain lottery platform, which has been a year in the making.

An unprecedented step for Kibo’s token holders

Kibo Lotto is a platform developed by an international team that uses blockchain to make lotteries more convenient and transparent, and in recent days they announced an early Christmas present for their token holders by offering a distribution of $13 mln of their team funds to investors in the platform. Per their blog, the rate of distribution for investors is as follows:

“For example, this means that if you spent $500 to purchase tokens or platform, then, according to the distribution plan, you will be credited with $1000.”

This is essentially a first in the ICO world, meaning that users are making returns on investment even before the platform is launched – as a way for the company to give a “thank you for your support” message to the community. This is feasible since the Kibo team had decided to keep part of the ICO-raised funds in ETH and not convert to fiat. User verification for the distribution is until December 20th, with users being required to process a verification request.

The company discussed the distribution plan they are providing to token holders on the official blog site, saying:

“The distribution plan does not in any way affect the further development of Kibo. As we already mentioned earlier, a large team is working on the project, and in the coming months, we will publish a lot of news. In the same way, this distribution is by no means a purchase of tokens or platforms from their owners. All tokens and platforms in full and without any changes will remain to the current owners.”

In this way, the Kibo team wants to say thank you to everyone who supported them from the beginning. Given that the project is at a high stage of readiness, and today the launch of Kibo is mostly restrained due to unresolved issues of scalability, and this doesn’t depend on the project team in any way. This is really an interesting experience for the entire ICO industry, and it demonstrates the openness and the desire of the team to better consider interests of its partners.

Platform work

The team is also hoping to release the platform for a limited number of users in the 1st quarter of 2018, while the global launch dependents on potential upgrades to the Ethereum network.

The distribution announcement comes as the platform nears completion, with the Kibo dev team on to the testing and code refactoring stage.  The platform allows participants to set up their own lotteries and competition above-board and securely, which will completely decentralize the lottery industry. Until now there were no feasible means for an individual to transparently run such competitions and guarantee trust of their participants.

The Kibo team have been working on the finger details of the platform in recent months, aiming to make it as accessible to users and investors as possible. The largely untested at scale Ethereum protocol has been put under the microscope by the team, aiming to make transactions as cheap as possible for users.

The post Blockchain lottery platform Kibo Lotto builds momentum ahead of launch by distributing $13 million among token holders appeared first on NEWSBTC.

Pesetacoin has gained a lot of traction in the last year, and for the right reasons. The cryptocurrency gained popularity as it helps the Spanish population make use of an alternative currency which is not Bitcoin, which is known for its technical challenges. The Pesetacoin is designed keeping the needs and sentiments of Spaniards in mind, as they dream of having the good old Peseta – the currency of Spain before the introduction of Euro.

In addition, owing to its targeted approach, Pesetacoin community enjoys faster transaction times – which is at least 10 times better than that of Bitcoin. It means, the transactions get confirmed in a minute or so, in comparison with Bitcoin’s ten minutes.

As the team behind Pesetacoin works on further strengthening the cryptocurrency, both in terms of technology and adoption, they have introduced Electrum Pesetacoin. Electrum Pesetacoin is a secure and simple wallet that enables users to overcome the challenges of waiting for hours before the synchronization of their operation with Pesetacoin. This platform makes use of a random 128-bit seed to produce the private keys. There is nothing like losing your Pesetacoin in the event of a hardware failure.

Peseta supports online games

On the 4 August 2017, PesetacoinJS was released to the public, one of its latest release the Pesetacoin Games is a game based on Pesetacoin blockchain. It is a platform where game lovers can play using their Pesetacoin and win amazing prizes. The games available include Pernales, the Camel riders, and Greater Than.

Apart from online games, the Pesetacoin team is also working on expanding the cryptocurrency’s usage by encouraging merchants to adopt it as an additional payment option. In the near future, they expect the cryptocurrency to be widely used for day-to-day transactions across the region. The platform recently launched the Merchant Map on December 15, 2017 and successfully onboarded more than 20 merchants in under 15 days.  The Merchant Map will enable community members to find the outlets that accept Pesetacoin and use it just the way they used to spend Peseta in the recent past.

Peseta has its own wallet

Having its own easy to use wallets is one of the prerequisites of user-friendliness and also a sign of community focused approach to development on the development team’s part. The Pesetacoin project changed hands early this year, as a new team took over and soon followed with the release of Core v.0.9.0. Alongside Electrum, Pesetacoin also has a WebWallet, which was introduced on September 1, 2017.

The cryptocurrency is also listed on six different exchanges – Bittrex, LiteBit, NovaExchange, SouthExchange, TradeSatoshi and Cryptopia. Pesetacoin is traded on the Bittrex.com exchange since November 2014.

Cryptocurrency traders can easily trade Pesetacoin on Bittrex platform and make a lot of gains by doing so. Soon, the platform looks forward to inclusion on other top exchanges, further extending its global reach in the process.

With the year coming to an end Pesetacoin has planned a lot of things for the years ahead. To give an overview of what’s in store for the future, they are launching their 2018-2020 roadmap.

The team has also been organizing various community engagement programs, and one of them includes the designing contest, where people were encouraged to submit designed for Pesetacoin themed t-shirts and wallpapers.

More information about Pesetacoin can be found at http://pesetacoin.info

The post Pesetacoin, One Step Closer to Becoming a Day to Day Currency for the Spanish Population appeared first on NEWSBTC.

It’s holiday fever, but why does the market keep falling down? #PRICE ANALYSIS

US dollar will end 2017 as worst year since 2003, while Bitcoin is up 1,372% year-to-date with strong performance. #ANALYSIS

Dentistry and technology go together very well.  Advances in pain-killing anesthetics took the practice out of the medieval era, and preventive dentistry ushered in Dentistry 3.0.  New advances in body imaging technology and on-demand 3-D printing will completely revolutionize dentistry in a very short time.  Blockchain has a role to play in this next step as well.

Disclosure: This is a Sponsored Article

Dentistry 4.0 will be very different from the dental industry today.  It will provide better care for the most severe dental problems and better preventive care.  Best of all, thanks to the highly automated processes and digitized flows, it will provide the benefits of improved oral health at a much lower cost than patients pay today.

State of the Dental Industry

Dentistry is expensive, and this starts with the cost to start a practice.  One estimate put the cost at $500,000 USD, with a large part of this money consumed by equipment.  This expense is in addition to the cost of attending dental school.  In economics, a large cost to enter an industry is defined as a barrier to entry.

Industries with a barrier to entry have less competition and high prices to the consumers.  This generally means those in the industry, dentists in this case, make large incomes.  The median income for dentists in the United States is about $150,000 USD.  That is over 3 times the national median income in America, and puts dentists in the top 10% of all households ranked by income.

In addition, dentistry is a highly fragmented industry, which means that there are many small practitioners.  According to the American Dental Association over 81% of dental firms employ less than 10 people.  Over 40% employ less than 5 people.  Economic studies show highly fragmented industries are easily disrupted by new technologies.  This opens the doors to Dentistry 4.0.

Lower Costs

Dentistry 4.0 lowers the cost of the most extensive dental procedures.  A clinic in London using this technology can replace missing teeth at a cost 15% lower than comparable treatment in Hungary.  One reason for this lower cost is the ability to create and implant new customized dental structures in a single visit, thanks to the fully digitized workflow – from diagnostics, through planning and dental lab production, to performing the treatment.

Dentistry 4.0 will also lower the cost of routine care.  Dentacoin is a new concept with its custom cryptocurrency that is designed to bring the financial interests of the dentists and patients into alignment through the Dentacoin Assurance program and many complementary tools, as well as concepts for 2 innovative dental clinics, which will be available for the global dental industry.  The Dentacoin tools, as well as the 2 high-tech, fully digitalized clinic concepts all have Blockchain integrated functionalities. This is one of the ways in which blockchain technology plays a part in the new dental practice.

Dentistry 4.0 may even lower the barriers to entry by reducing the capital expenditures required to open a new practice.  By creating a global industry-centric currency, Dentacoin has the potential to increase competition and lower prices for dental equipment, supplies and material.  This will result in lower prices for patients, and will make high quality dental treatments available to more people, despite their income. In addition to that, Dentacoin tools reward users with the custom currency for their value-generating activities and contributing to the mission of the concept. This currency can be spent at dental clinics, which accept the new currency, it can be traded against other currencies or it can be saved, as store of value.

Dentistry 4.0!

People working in the transportation industry when railroads got started could not imagine what their industry would look like in just a few years.  Some probably scoffed because a horse-drawn wagon can go anywhere while a train must stay on the tracks.  Of course, railroads disrupted that industry, and were in turn disrupted by the development of large trucks.

The same thing is happening with blockchain and technology in general.  Dentistry 4.0 is just an example of how these developments impact one industry.  Some probably scoff at the idea of applying blockchain to dentistry.  Those with this mindset would be well advised to go to their local grocery store and ask how many of the items were delivered by horse-drawn wagon.

The characteristics of Ripple’s price performance this week have led to concerns from Bitcoin figures. #BRIEF

The ‘revival’ of the supposed SegWit2x Bitcoin fork seems highly suspicious. #OPINION

Intellectual games are actively presented on the world arena of desktop and mobile platforms. There are many game developers who caught the people’s crave to keeping their grey cells supplied with daily workouts. At present, the global market of mobile intelligent games is up to 4.9 billion USD, and their audience is constantly increasing, which attracts more and more investments in this sphere.

According to the data provided by the mobile app surveys, logical games are occupying top places by the number of downloads and monthly active users.

Northern American and European regions are well-known for their interest to mind games, existing in the form of mini-games collection, covering the following subjects: mental agility, language, memory, attention. Among the most popular ones, according to the Guardian are Peak, Elevate, Lumosity, Fit Brains, Cognito, etc.

Right now, there is not much difference between the countries in terms of games’ popularity but the Asian region stands a bit aside for their love to kids’ games and the introduction of traditional Asian elements in logical games.

I’m sure some of us have spotted their favorite games among the aforementioned ones. Have you ever thought how awesome it could be if you have an opportunity to interact with your favorite logical games kept in one place? IQeon gaming ecosystem provides you with this connectivity!

The benefits IQeon platform brings to the gaming world:

1. All your beloved games are located on one platform.
2. The score gained in the game is easily monetized into IQN, the platform cryptocurrency.
3. IQN could be easily transferred from one game to another to increase the level or buy some objects needed to complete the level.
4. IQN earned through the growth of your intellectual score could be easily exchanged into other cryptocurrencies through the inbuilt system.
5. IQN could be exchanged into fiat and stored on your Mastercard.

Additional bonus to all all game lovers is that IQeon provides the open API. It means that any game which is not enlisted in the platform could be connected to the ecosystem. The players make bets on who is going to win and enter the data into IQeon platform. Smart contract technology guarantees the fair payment to the winner as soon as the playing session finishes. This is the way, IQeon ecosystem could grow and become the hub of any kinds of PvP bets between the players.

IQeon team is expected to run the ICO and the high-skilled team of professionals seeks the partnership through the investments in the platform. Let’s  witness the growing popularity of the IQeon platform and the increase of IQN price. The startup is entering its ICO on January 30, 2018. The funds are accepted in ETH, BTC, and LTC. IQN is issued on Ethereum Blockchain and supports the ERC20 standard, which guarantees its compatibility with many platforms and projects. Support the team and let the world of intellectual games change for the better, not only stretching the players’ brain but also providing them with stable monthly earnings.

Tartu mnt 83-205, Tallinn,
Estonia, Harju maakond,
10115
[email protected]
[email protected]

https://iqeon.io

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.

With the price of cryptocurrencies reaching new highs in 2017, the incentive for nefarious actors to devise innovative methods of acquiring them is also rising. One such technique uses a program known as CoinHive to secretly mine for digital currencies on the machines of unsuspecting users. According to a post on Bleeping Computer, a Google Chrome extension that streamlines the reblogging process for Tumblr users is the latest software to become compromised in such a way.

IBTimes report that as many as 105,000 users of the software have been discovered to be secretly mining the privacy-focused digital currency, Monero. It’s believed that the choice to mine this particular coin was made due to the anonymity features embedded within its code, as well as the fact that regular computers possess sufficient processing power to successfully solve the algorithms which are required to generate additional coins for those behind the attack.

Many users of Archive Poster have taken to the google Chrome web store, lambasting the software with a series of bad reviews. One user wrote:

“Do not use this extension as it comes loaded with a cryptocurrency mining script. Once installed it makes requests to coinhive which eats up your CPU time and slows your computer down massively. Avoid.”

The developers behind the software, Essence Labs, believe that their program was hacked by someone who had targeted an ex-employee. A representative of the company spoke to PCMag:

“An old team member who was responsible for updating the extension had his Google account compromised… Somehow the extension was hijacked to another Google account. In the meantime we have alerted the users to use a safe version of the extension on a different link.”

This example isn’t the first of covert mining software targeting unsuspecting internet users. In recent months The Pirate Bay, Showtime, Starbucks, and even the UFC’s websites have all been reported to be running CoinHive software to mine cryptocurrency without their visitors’ consent.

Programs like CoinHive were intended to provide a way of monetising internet content. When used with express consent, they offer an opportunity for publishers to provide their services without relying on oppressive levels of advertising. However, examples like those listed above show how easy they make it to infect users’ machines without their knowledge. Without consent from the owner of the machine, the schemes such as the Archive Poster hack are morally suspect. Since they use large percentages of the target machines’ processing power, users might mistake the slowdowns they’ll inevitably experience to some other fault with their machine. This can understandably cause great frustration for computer users who are less experienced with diagnosing system faults.

The post Is this Google Chrome Extension Secretly Using Your Device to Mine Cryptocurrency? appeared first on NEWSBTC.

Pavel Lerner has been freed from captivity following his kidnapping this week. The EXMO analyst is physically unharmed and no longer being held hostage, according to a company press release.

Free at Last

On December 26, Pavel Lerner, 40, was wrapping up work at his office in Kiev, Ukraine, where he works as the lead analyst of UK-based cryptocurrency exchange EXMO. Upon leaving work, Lerner was jumped by a group of men wearing balaclavas (ski masks, for our American readers). The assailants reportedly bound Lerner and threw him into the backseat of a Mercedes-Benz Vito and drove away.

After days of reporting, speculation, and unsuccessful search attempts, Lerner is confirmed safe. He was released from the hostage situation after paying a US$1,000,000 ransom in Bitcoin.  

EXMO released the following public statement in response to Lerner’s recovery:

On December 26, Pavel was captured by a group of unknown masked people, and all the connection with him ceased for several days. On December 29, we managed to get a hold of Pavel. At the moment, he is safe, and there was no physical harm inflicted on him. Nevertheless, Pavel is currently in a state of major stress, therefore, he will not provide any official comments in the coming days. The case is currently under investigation of the state security authorities.

Moreover, the company expressed gratitude to the media and community at large for their attention and care:

EXMO team is deeply grateful to the cryptocurrency community and the media for their active support. We promise to timely provide any updates on the situation.

Motives and Extenuating Circumstances

Officials and media outlets have speculated that the kidnappers were looking to leverage Lerner’s position at EXMO for either a payout or access to the exchange’s reserve fund.

News reports have offered myriad job titles for Lerner over the past few days. Some have labeled him a chief executive officer or an operations director, while Lerner’s Facebook page lists him as a managing director. According to EXMO, the “nature of Pavel’s job at EXMO doesn’t assume access either to storage or any personal data of users. All users funds are absolutely safe.”

Shortly after the kidnapping, EXMO fell prey to a distributed denial-of-service attack that left the exchange incapacitated.  Services were temporarily suspended as EXMO responded to the attack. It’s assumed – but not confirmed – that the DDoS attack and kidnapping were linked.

2017: A Dangerous Year for Exchanges

Lerner’s kidnapping is the first of its kind for a cryptocurrency exchange, and his ransom is the first recorded instance of high-crime extortion aimed at a major exchange.

Cryptocurrency exchanges in general, however, have been a hot target for cyber crime over the course of 2017.  

Multiple Korean exchanges, including Bithumb, South Korea’s largest domestic exchange, have been hacked more than once throughout the year. One such exchange, Youbit, was forced to close its doors after filing for bankruptcy following its latest attack.

EtherDelta, a popular exchange for Ethereum and ERC20 trading pairs, was subject to a phishing attack a couple of weeks ago. A hacker tapped into EtherDelta’s domain name server, replacing it with a fake website in order to trick users into revealing their private keys.

Hopefully, Lerner’s kidnapping will be the only physical assault we see on exchange employees.

All of us here at The Merkle wish Pavel Lerner a peaceful and steady recovery, and our thoughts go out to him and his loved ones.