Day: January 8, 2018

Chinese bitcoin mining pool ViaBTC has announced that it will close its marketplace for mining contracts this week.

Although cryptocurrencies became a lot more popular last year, they also pose a big problem for regulators. Most recently, the Israel Securities Authority proposed a ban on trading shares of cryptocurrency-related companies. This is a rather interesting development, especially when considering that no other country around the world has done so.

Israel Takes an Aggressive Stance Toward Cryptocurrencies

When it comes to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, opinions are still divided. Governments and regulators don’t always see eye-to-eye on this front, which is anything but surprising. After all, the concept of regulating cryptocurrency itself is ludicrous, since no one can control these currencies. Nor is there a centralized entity to be regulated either, which makes the job of government officials a lot harder. The only thing they can do is take some sort of stance against companies involved in cryptocurrency.

In most cases, this would mean that cryptocurrency-related trading platforms would face additional scrutiny. They might have to introduce stricter KYC and AML regulations, which is not necessarily the worst thing in the world. In some countries, exchanges may need to keep a specific amount of funds in a domestic bank account at all times to ensure liquidity. Again, that’s not the biggest hurdle to overcome. In Israel, however, things are moving in a very different direction.

It seems the Israel Securities Authority has no love for Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. Nor does it like the concept of domestic companies dealing with cryptocurrencies. Its current plan involves a ban on trading shares of cryptocurrency-based companies listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. It’s a rather problematic development which could set a huge precedent for the rest of the world.

This decision comes at a rather interesting time for Bitcoin and all other cryptocurrencies. Considering the surge in the popularity and value of Bitcoin last year, one would expect a more open-minded approach to such publicly-traded companies. Instead, the ISA wants to ensure that such companies can no longer trade on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Moreover, the listing of such shares would be forbidden by law altogether. Any currently-listed shares would be suspended immediately as well.

Unsurprisingly, the proposal has already been approved by the ISA’s board and will be made available for public comment soon. It will be interesting to see how the general public feels about this rather controversial development. The proposal was made after a company by the name of Blockchain Mining saw the value of its shares surge due to its new focus on cryptocurrency mining. 

Assuming the proposed amendment is enacted, it will set a very dangerous precedent for the rest of the world. The last thing we need is more governments banning cryptocurrency companies from public stock exchanges. At the same time, it is one of the few options governments have to impose regulation in the world of Bitcoin these days. It will be very interesting to see how this situation plays out in the coming months.

There have always been concerns that governments could backdoor existing technology to spy on consumers and enterprises. Although such claims have always been considered conspiracy theories, there may be a lot more to them than originally assumed. A person claiming to work for Intel confirms there is such a thing as a backdoor in the Intel Management Engine. It’s a very problematic development, assuming there is any truth to such claims.

What is Going on With the Intel ME?

It is important to put statements like these into their proper perspective. A random person on the internet claims to have been working for Intel for at least 15 years. After getting somewhat bored with the workload, he asked to move to a different department. The company’s Management Engine team seemed like a perfect fit, and he eventually got accepted after obtaining the required security clearance.

While this may all seem a bit far-fetched, there are some aspects to this story to take into account. The person claims the security clearance was needed because there is a backdoor in the Intel Management Engine. More specifically, he claims he helped develop and integrate multiple backdoors during his three-year stint. This Management Engine is on a separate CPU of every Intel processor and cannot be disabled.

Moreover, it seems this backdoor exists on a level below the operating system. With the help of intelligence agencies, this “solution” was put in place with relative ease. Going after the hardware side of things removes the need to look for OS-based weaknesses. What makes this backdoor so intriguing is how it has full access to memory. Moreover, it can access all connected peripherals as well as the TCP/IP stack, even when the machine is hibernating.

Considering that this backdoor works regardless of the operating system being used, it is evident this is a very big problem to contend with. It is unclear for which specific purpose this backdoor may have been used in the past, although it is safe to say the total damage is impossible to grasp at this point in time.

At first, many people dismissed these comments as “bullshit”, but it turned out they were absolutely true. Last year, evidence surfaced about the Intel ME backdoor and how it could be disabled by users manually. Given the recent headlines regarding major “bugs” affecting both Intel and AMD CPUs, it is evident that these revelations back in March of 2017 were a warning that people more-than-willingly ignored.

At the same time, this revelation also confirms that federal involvement with computers and hard drives is very different from how it is portrayed to the public. There is a lot more going on with CPUs than we know about, yet we may never uncover the whole truth.

A state legislator in Vermont has proposed a bill to create a regulatory framework for blockchain tech, including a transaction tax payable in crypto.

e-Chat is a promising startup that has already run a number of ICOs and managed to get love and appreciation from millions of user, followers, and investors from all over the world. The additional round of ICO starts on January 8 and lasts until February 15, 2018! This is the first ICO run by the e-Chat team that provides the system of flexible discounts throughout the whole presale period.

Depending on the day of the coming ICO, ECHT tokens are sold with different discount, starting from the most favorable deals in the first days and ending up with a bigger price paid for 1 ECHT.

– January 8-15, 1 ECHT costs $1.05 (30% discount).

– January 16-21, 1 ECHT costs $1.125 (25% discount).

– January 22-31, 1 ECHT costs $1.20 (20% discount).

– February 1-8, 1 ECHT costs $1.275 (15% discount).

– February 8-15, 1 ECHT costs $1.35 (10% discount).

The e-Chat team has prepared a big plan of activities for the coming ICO that will please both the users and the investors. One of the point of the plan is the coming redesign of the app. The e-Chat designers and software engineers worked hard to bring to life the enhanced functionality and intuit interface. To get to know how the e-Chat app will look like, click here.

You are welcome to download the application on  Google Play or  App Store.

The advising board of e-Chat startup has also been strengthened. Right now it is made up of 9 professionals who are skilled in various business fields and have extensive experience in nourishing Blockchain startups. Having nine board members among advisors is are not the final number as the e-Chat team keeps receiving new consultants joining the project.

Unit 25A,

Wing Hing Commercial Building,

139 Wing Lok Street,

Sheung Wan, Hong Kong

+8 (528) 009-06441 – Hong Kong

https://investors.echat.io

The post Get Ready to Be Surprised During the Additional Round of e-Chat ICO appeared first on NewsBTC.

The top 16 cryptocurrencies have all plunged between three and 39 percent today as altcoin bubble fears loom and Bitcoin feels the pinch. #ANALYSIS

The team at Nav Coin have just released NavPay – the world’s first mobile wallet that allows users to send private payments.

At a time when governments around the world are cracking down on internet freedoms – such as a few weeks ago with the U.S. repealing net neutrality – it’s more important than ever for users to have access to tools that safeguard their rights.

Nav Coin is a cryptocurrency that takes this right to privacy seriously. Having been around since 2014, Nav Coin has built a second blockchain (NavTech) for transactions to be routed through, which completely disconnects the person sending from the person receiving.

NavPay is the latest product to be released by the team and aims to be the quickest and easiest way to safely store NAV outside of an exchange. There is no blockchain to download, just download the app and users are able to take control of their private keys.

Aside from the benefits of owning your private keys, NavTech’s private transactions have been integrated into the wallet, making it the first mobile wallet in the world to do so. It’s as easy as clicking a button, and your transaction will be split up, sent through the NavTech network, and recombined at the other end with no way of tracking to see where it came from.

Forked off the CoPay wallet – it also provides other features such as multi-signature wallets, the ability to save your friends addresses, and more features on the way such as the ability to swap/exchange coins within the app.

Visit navcoin.org/navpay for more information and download links.

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.

The post CFTC to Discuss Digital Currency Futures Certification Process appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

In the world of cryptocurrency, a lot of people have had some sort of experience with the Electrum wallet. It is a convenient solution which works well on most devices. Unfortunately, it seems a major flaw was discovered in the Electrum wallet software which could expose funds to malicious entities. This seemingly also affects all “copied” versions of Electrum, which has put a lot of funds at risk all of a sudden.

Electrum bug could Become a Major Problem

It is not the first time a popular cryptocurrency wallet has suffered from a bug that could potentially cost users millions of dollars. In the case of Electrum, most people use it because it is convenient and lightweight. Unlike more traditional solutions, Electrum is an SPV client, which doesn’t require a download of the full blockchain to start working. This is a blessing for people who just want a wallet capable of sending and receiving funds in a quick and secure manner.

Moreover, Electrum has become a go-to solution for altcoin developers who want to build mobile wallets for specific currencies. Electrum has solid source code in this regard, and there are many different versions of this code out there as of right now. Sadly, all of these versions are potentially at risk of having funds stolen by third parties. This bug was reported on Bitcointalk yesterday, although it remains to be seen how bad things really are.

To be more specific, there is a vulnerability in the Electrum wallet code. If you’ve used an Electrum wallet – or any of its clones – with no wallet passphrase, there is a good chance your private key has been exposed. This is only a concern if you had a webpage open at the same time which used some form of JavaScript. This bug affects all Electrum wallets prior to version 3.0.4, and thus upgrading to the latest version is the best course of action for the time being.

Do keep in mind that there is no guarantee that your specific Electrum wallet was not compromised due to this weakness. Anyone who still uses an older client may want to ensure all funds are moved to a newly-generated wallet just to err on the side of caution. People who have not used their Electrum wallets for weeks or months shouldn’t open them until they’ve upgraded to the new client. It is evident this bug could be very problematic for the cryptocurrency community. Even so, there is no indication that anyone actually had funds stolen because of the bug.

Thankfully, the new version comes with a fix to address this flaw. Once the Electrum developers were notified about the problem, they quickly released a new version which keeps user funds safe from future harm. It is best to always protect wallets with a passphrase of some sort, preferably something unique. Anyone who still uses a cryptocurrency wallet without setting up additional authentication will eventually fall victim to theft of some sort. 

Incidents like these need to be taken very seriously in the world of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. It is never a good sign that one of the most popular clients can be compromised by JavaScript code. At the same time, the speed at which the developers released a new and secure version deserves a lot of praise as well. Upgrading to the latest Electrum version should be the top priority right now, especially for those people who are concerned about any funds they keep in this wallet or any of its clones.

CoinMarketCap, perhaps the go-to source for cryptocurrency market data, has sparked an uproar after it moved to exclude South Korean exchanges from its price average calculations. The unannounced move to remove data from Bithumb, Coinone and Korbit from its average calculations sparked confusion given that its front-page suggests a broad decline in the cryptocurrency market, […]