Day: January 8, 2018

Cryptocurrencies may be in a market mania, but that interest will spark a new wave of blockchain growth according to Deloitte’s top blockchain lead.

2018 looks set to see a significant increase in the number of smart contracts developed and deployed. But for anybody who thought self-executing contracts might be soon be putting lawyers out of work, Brave New Coin’s discussion with Yoran Gill, Roy Keidar and Noa Mayer from Israeli law firm Yigal Arnon indicates the opposite is more likely to be true

It’s dot-com mania all over again, as the SEC suspends trading of a zero revenue Blockchain company with a market cap exceeding $800 mln. The regulator cites “unusual and unexplained market activity.” #NEWS

South Korea’s financial regulators began inspecting commercial banks to monitor their compliance with new cryptocurrency exchange rules.

The post Cardano Lists ADA Futures on BitMEX appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s Fort Worth branch joked about the recent fad of companies adding “blockchain” to their names on Twitter.

Investors invited to participate in €10m token sale to fund the ambitious expansion of the SKARA – The Blade Remains multiplayer combat game franchise

 Unique opportunity to engage with game that already has 350k users and a wider SKARA IP that encompasses eSports, blockchain-based in-game betting and book publishing

SKARA, developer and publisher of the eponymous free-to-play competitive team-based melee combat game, has announced a token sale that promises to introduce both innovative gameplay and disrupt established business models for video game publishers.

The company has created SKARAT (SKARA Token), an ERC-20 token based on the Ethereum blockchain, which can be traded on the open market.

SKARA aims to raise a maximum of €5m during the pre-sale period, which is open now until January 21^st, 2018.

The Token Sale itself will start January 23^rd, 2018 at 5 pm CET (11 am ET) – The hard cap, and the absolute greatest amount of funds SKARA will raise, is €10m.

SKARA’S ultimate aim is to use SKARAT to introduce a new gameplay mechanic to players and to shake up the way in-game currencies have been used historically in the video games industry.

SKARA has adopted blockchain technology to decentralise the in-game economy, allowing players to keep real ownership of their hard-earned in-game assets, including SKARATS, safely and securely outside of the game’s control.

This disrupts the prevailing model whereby games publishers reap the rewards of in-game transactions, pushing gamers towards risky black markets if they want to cash in on their hard work.

As such, SKARA players will be free to buy, sell or trade these assets for a profit in external markets, such as Counterparty, where SKARA has already placed some of these assets, which are already being traded.

SKARA is also making it possible for players to win monetary prizes and for spectators to bet, all within the game.

And the opportunity for investors is enormous. Since inception in 2012, the Alpha release of SKARA – The Blade Remains has clocked up more than 30 awards, 350,000+ installs via the market-leading Steam PC games platform and tens of thousands of in-game transactions.

2018 will be a pivotal year for the franchise, with key roadmap developments to include:-

• The multiplayer version going into Beta on January 23^rd via Steam
• The introduction of SKARAT cryptocurrency – Token Sale begins on January 23^rd
• The January launch of the first novel based in the SKARA universe via book publisher Planeta
• The creation of a SKARA eSports league, beginning March
• Competitive tournaments with SKARAT prizes
• An in-game betting platform
• A companion mobile offering
• A series of single-player games
• Releaser of the game on console platforms
• In-game trading of assets

A team of 20 are currently working on realising the game’s product roadmap.

Skara Co-Founder Cesar Ortega said: “Game economies are big and getting bigger. Accessing those economies requires a black market or a powerful intermediary that absorbs all the profit. Blockchain can disrupt that.”

“Some of our players have put hundreds of precious hours into perfecting their fighting style. Time is valuable, should be rewarded and games have tried rewarding their players in various ways. But until now turning that time into something valuable has required bending the rules.”

“We believe that our SKARAT token sale offers investors a unique and exciting opportunity to engage with an already established IP. We are eager to explore with them the infinite possibilities that cryptocurrency and blockchain technology have to offer.”

Learn more about the SKARA token sale and download the White Paper here: https://www.skaratoken.com
Learn more about SKARA – The Blade Remains here: https://playskara.com
Watch the SKARA – The Blade Remains token sale video here:

About Skara

Skara is a Free-to-Play competitive team-based melee combat game for up to 6 players set in a fantasy world. Skara is now available for PC on the Steam Store. Easy to learn, hard to master, only the best can be legendary, remembered forever in Skara lore. Will you be among the next Skara heroes? For more information, visit https://playskara.com

About the Skara token sale

A SKARAT (SKARA Token) is an ERC20 cryptocurrency that represents a unit of value that will be created to self-govern our business model, empowering SKARA users to interact with other products, while facilitating the distribution and sharing of rewards and benefits to all of our community and stakeholders.

SKARA Token Pre-Sale will end on 21st January 2018 at 5 pm CET (11 am ET) when the Token Sale starts. SKARA Token Sale starts on 23rd January 2018 at 5 pm CET (11 am ET). It will end on 23rd February 2018 at 5 pm CET (11 am ET) or when the CAP is reached. There will be a total maximum of 20,000,000 SKARA tokens.

Press Contacts

Stuart O’Brien – Mimram Media
[email protected]
+44 (0) 7732 114 067

Cesar Ortega
Co-Founder – SKARA
[email protected]

The post SKARA TOKEN SALE PIONEERS NEW VIDEO GAMES & ESPORTS BUSINESS MODEL appeared first on NewsBTC.

Central banks all over the world are looking for ways to counter the Bitcoin “threat” these days. Although the issuance of Bitcoin regulation will not do much in this regard, it’s still an option being considered. The Bank of England had plans to issue its own digital currency not that long ago, but it seems this idea has been put on ice indefinitely. That’s due to the potential instability such a currency might cause.

Bank of England Reverses Course

There have been various rumors regarding the Bank of England issuing its own digital currency at some point in the future. This financial institution is not the only one in the world attempting to do so. On paper, it makes a lot of sense for central banks to issue their own digital currencies, especially now that society is slowly moving toward digital-first payments.

However, it seems the Bank of England will not go ahead with its plan to issue a digital currency after all. This news comes as a big surprise to a lot of people, considering that this currency’s launch seemed imminent about a week ago. Something changed between then and now, although no one is exactly sure what. For now, the institution will continue to research cryptocurrencies and their impact on the markets.

According to a spokesperson, the digital currency plans were canceled due to “instability concerns”. It is evident that it is one thing to create a digital currency, but gauging the full impact on the banks and other institutions will not be all that easy. Apparently, the Bank of England is concerned that its digital currency would cause consumers to withdraw funds from commercial banks in short order. Should that happen, none of those financial institutions would have the necessary cash reserves to cope with the demand.

It is no secret that commercial banks keep very little of their customers’ holdings in cash reserves. If every customer of a specific bank were to withdraw all their money at the same time, the institution would collapse immediately. A similar incident could happen if the Bank of England were to issue its own digital currency. Such havoc is the last thing the British economy needs right now. Furthermore, the BoE fears this digital currency could reduce the impact of its interest rate policy. The banking system is a lot more brittle than most people think; that much is rather evident.

While these plans have been put on ice for the foreseeable future, the central bank’s governor remains enthusiastic about such digital currencies. More specifically, he feels central bank digital currencies offer plenty of positives. The blockchain technology underpinning such currencies is the main selling point in this regard, although it can easily be integrated into central banks without issuing a digital currency per se.

Bank of England still has high hopes for transforming the financial sector in the coming years. Whether or not issuing a native digital currency will ever play a role of significance in those plans remains to be seen. In a way, this is perhaps the smartest decision the institution could make at this point in time. After all, it’s not worth risking an entire nation’s economy just to try out a new “toy”, so to speak.

New week, new..volatility wave? #PRICE ANALYSIS

Developers of major cryptocurrencies spend a lot of time and effort polishing code and adding new features. While a lot of people contribute to projects on a voluntary basis, there is always a desire for more consistent funding. In the case of Bitcoin Cash, one Reddit user recently tipped the developers over US$2,000 to keep the development going. This is quite different from how Bitcoin Core operates, to say the least.

Funding Bitcoin Cash Developers

In the world of Bitcoin, there is the Bitcoin Core development team. Although a lot of people contribute code to this project without getting paid for it, there are several full-time coders on board. People who spend most of their days writing code to improve and polish Bitcoin’s infrastructure need to get paid for their efforts in one way or another. However, there have always been some negative associations with how Bitcoin Core developers were funded in recent years.

More specifically, most cryptocurrency enthusiasts will recall that the involvement of Blockstream has always been somewhat problematic. Many people feel this particular company is paying developers to shape Bitcoin in its image, regardless of what the rest of the world wants. Although these claims have never been proven, they are a topic of debate which rears its head every so often.

Funding developers in the absence of ulterior motives is a lot more challenging than people would think. After all, there is no steady income to be found in the world of cryptocurrency development, unless a big player steps in to keep things going. We have seen some efforts to do things differently, though. In the case of Monero, the community funds most of the development proposals themselves, rather than looking for external funding. It’s an approach which seems to work quite well, although it would be nearly impossible to take a similar approach where Bitcoin is concerned.

In the case of Bitcoin Cash, it seems some community members are more than happy to share their wealth with the development team. One Reddit user tipped the developers more than US$2,000 through the popular Tippr bot. This goes to show that people are more than willing to help fund the development of a cryptocurrency in which they firmly believe. Although such a thing is more of an exception than the rule, it is important to highlight such generous donations regardless.

How all of this money will be used exactly remains to be seen. It is a more-than-valuable contribution to the future of Bitcoin Cash, although the amount is probably not sufficient to fund one developer for a full month. If enough people pool together for such a cause, however, the community can keep funding the development of Bitcoin Cash without any external influences steering things in a controversial direction.

It is always interesting to see how developers of various cryptocurrencies are funded. It costs a lot more money to do so when it comes to full-time developers; that much is rather evident. Relying on community donations is not necessarily a valid approach for a lot of currencies out there, although it would force more people to show some “loyalty” to their favorite currencies. It will be interesting to see how that particular aspect of cryptocurrencies evolves in the future.

A new social media platform powered by Blockchain is looking to tokenize users by empowering them to own the data they share. #SPONSORED