Day: February 9, 2018

The SEC’s denial of a FOIA request for records about the troubled blockchain project does not state that Tezos is under investigation.

The pre-sale ICO campaign of Betrium, the world’s first decentralized betting exchange platform, is live now, with 9,198,555 Betrium tokens (BTRM) already sold out. The pre-ICO started on January 30, 2018, will end on February 18, 2018. Hence, if you want to participate in the pre-ICO, it’s the high time to go for it.

About Betrium

Betrium is the platform developed by an intellectual group of entrepreneurs belonging to MIT and MIPT. It is the first partly-decentralized global betting service, including betting exchange and Sportsbook, with zero commission, acceptance of cryptocurrencies and offering a platform for developers, event organizers, franchisee and third-party betting service providers who can create and manage their custom events and earn income from betting.

Leveraging Upon the Industry-Growth Opportunity

Betrium holds the credit for developing the first global sports betting platform operating in the industry that is generating at least $0.5 trillion of revenue on an annual basis. By 2017, the worldwide regulated gambling market generated around $533 billion of revenue. The betting market accounts for $70 billion in total gross yield globally. In addition, the unregulated sector is way larger, with more than 100 million users regularly betting on sports every month.

How it Works?

The bets over Betrium platform take place off-chain and just added when the event takes place so that the outcome cannot be denied. Nevertheless, the bets are broadcasted all over the network immediately for the odds to be addressed. It implies that unlike other similar platforms, Betrium offers higher-speed betting service developed on a decentralized IT architecture.

In view of the volatility stabilization goals, the professional betting cannot be executed without fixed USD amounts. The company is in the process of preparing for Curacao online gambling license.

The Core Features

• Profit Sharing

Betrium distributes 50% of the annual profits among BTRM token holders. Each token holder will get a 50% of the Betrium’s profit on a regular basis. The BTRM tokens are backed by Betrium financial success and its increasing worth.

• No Volatility

The platform offers cryptocurrencies volatility stabilization for the token holders. The platform fixes the balances with virtual USD/EUR so as to protect users from losing in the regular dumps. It will be achieved by integration of exchange functionality and partnerships with local and global exchanges.

• Legal Activity

The company aims to make the platform fully legal. It is in the process of obtaining Curacao license for its online gambling, along with plans to get licenses in UK, Malta, Germany, USA, and Australia as well.

To know more about the platform and participate in its on-going token sale, please visit https://betrium.co/#

The post Betrium, The First Partly-Decentralized Global Betting Exchange Platform Witnesses High Demand as Crowdsale Enters Final Stage appeared first on NewsBTC.

A new platform to increase your mining ROI #SPONSORED

This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine.

Several elite universities in the U.S. have added — or are rushing to add — cryptocurrency courses that teach about Bitcoin and associated record-keeping technologies.

This semester, graduate-level courses are available at Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Duke, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Maryland, among other schools. This helps highlight public interest in the technology across several academic fields, as well as the assumption that it will outlast the current speculative price bubble.

David Yermack, a business and law professor at New York University, began offering one of the first for-credit courses on the topic back in 2014: “There was some gentle ribbing from my colleagues when I began giving talks on Bitcoin,” he said. “But within a few months, I was being invited to Basel to talk with central bankers, and the joking from my colleagues stopped after that.”

Last month, students packed in to hear the first lecture of “Blockchain, Cryptoeconomics and the Future of Technology, Business and Law,” which considered the development of Bitcoin against the history of money. For his class this semester, Mr. Yermack originally booked a lecture hall that could fit 180 students, but he had to move the course to the largest lecture hall at N.Y.U. when enrollment kept going up — he now has 225 students on board.

“This is a very precious opportunity for you to be able to sit in this class,” Dawn Song, a computer science professor, told the students. “There are a bazillion other students who are waiting for your spot.”

The 75 spots in the Berkeley class were divided evenly among the law school, the business school, and the engineering department, and faculty from the three departments are teaching the course together. Ms. Song said she had around 100 students vying for the 25 places set aside for her department.

Because developments in the field are moving so fast, business school professor also teaching the class, Greg La Blanc, said the students would have to forgive the teachers if they got things wrong on occasion. “We aren’t waiting until we perfect it,” he said. “Don’t compare it to the perfect blockchain course. Compare it to having no blockchain course at all.”

The post Elite Universities in U.S. Offering More and More Cryptocurrency Courses appeared first on NewsBTC.

The U.S. Marshals revealed this week it completed the auction that saw the sale of 3,813 bitcoins ($31Mn USD) on January 22. The bitcoins were seized from various civil forfeitures and criminal cases involving U.S. law enforcement agencies like Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Also read: Weiss Ratings Defends its Decision to Give Bitcoin Only a C+ Grade

The U.S. Marshals Complete the Sale of $31 Million Worth of BTC

During the first week of January news.Bitcoin.com reported on the U.S. Marshals announcing the federal auction of 3,813 BTC. According to sources familiar with the matter, one unknown bidder was able to obtain a block of 1,600 BTC ($13.2Mn). Another bidder was the firm Riot Blockchain Inc. (NASDAQ: RIOT) who publicly disclosed the firm had acquired 500 BTC from the U.S. Marshals auction. The company Riot invests in cryptocurrency startups and blockchain concepts, explains the firm’s CEO John O’Rourke in a recent interview. Even though the price of BTC has been in a slump, O’Rourke believes the price will be much higher next year stating:  

I believe we’ll be heading north of $50,000 market price within the next 12 to 18 months — Our strategy at Riot is to accumulate Bitcoin and to provide our investors as much direct exposure as we can, hence we decided to participate in the auction.

The Third Successful Government Auction Involving Seized Bitcoins

The BTC auction prices were based on the January 22 closing price of $10,354 USD per coin. At the time the entire sale was $42Mn, but now the whole lot of auctioned bitcoins is worth $11Mn less than the day of the sale. The U.S. Marshals detail there were a little over 62 different registered bidders looking to obtain the seized bitcoins. The rest of the BTC left after the 1,600 block purchase, were sold in blocks of 200, two sets of 500, and one containing 813. Riot seems to be the only bidder that was willing to disclose winning the 500 BTC bid publicly.

The auction this past January marks the third largest U.S. Marshals sale of seized bitcoins from various forfeitures and criminal cases. The first was the high profile Silk Road case which involved the sale of 50,000 BTC which sold for $365 per coin. The well-known venture capitalist Tim Draper publicly announced that he acquired most of those auctioned bitcoins. The last auction the Marshals held was back in the summer of 2016 which saw the sale of 2,700 BTC confiscated from twelve criminal investigations. According to reports, 100 BTC out of the lot of 3,813 BTC the Marshals auctioned this past January were not sold.

What do you think about the U.S. Marshals recent auction? Would you purchase bitcoins from a law enforcement auction? Let us know in the comments below.

Images via Pixabay, USMS, and Wiki Commons.

Why not keep track of the price with one of Bitcoin.com’s widget services.

The post U.S. Marshals Auction Completes the Sale of 3,800 BTC appeared first on Bitcoin News.

This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine.

MyEtherWallet (MEW) is one of the most well-known wallets for cryptocurrency, and has had a flawless reputation thus far. Now a whole controversy on censorship, a potentially fake “rebranding” is in the works as the MEW team has splintered.

A Social Media Takeover

It all started when MEW co-founder, Taylor Monahan (AKA “tayvano_” on Twitter and “insomniasexx” on Reddit) left the MyEtherWallet team to create her own new version, MyCrypto. The controversy started when she announced MyEtherWallet has rebranded to her new product in this Twitter Post, to the surprise of creator and co-founder, Kosala Hemachandra (“kvhnuke_” on Twitter and “kvhnuke” on Reddit):

Hey all, don’t freak out but we’re no longer @myetherwallet. MEW still exists, but we're now MyCrypto.

Taylor's Statement:https://t.co/ZEDAPdYgUa

— MyCrypto.com (@mycrypto) February 9, 2018

Surprise, Your Fan Base of 78K is Gone!

Without notice or transparency, the Twitter social media account for @MyEtherWallet suddenly became @MyCrypto. In response to the massive amount of questions on the Twitter page, Taylor first put out this response on the co-opted Twitter account, followed by a long post on Medium:

pic.twitter.com/6a8BQIaezF

— MyCrypto.com (@mycrypto) February 9, 2018

Alarm in the Community

The response among the community is mixed. Last night, as members of the reddit community noticed the rebrand, many questioned their wallet safety using MEW. There are some strong fans of Taylor’s statement, but many responses encapsulate this: running a social media account does not give you the right to take it without permission when you launch a new business.

MEW Co-Founder Blind-sighted

The creator of MyEtherWallet, however, didn’t even know this was coming. It has all happened so quickly that he hasn’t even had time to make a response yet. Evidence from this post in r/Ethereum shows he (kvhnuke) was taken completely by surprise.

Censoring the Story

Follow the trails of commentary on Reddit and you’ll find a disturbing amount of downvoting and possible censorship, making it hard to find the true story. Taylor is one of the moderators in r/Ethereum subreddit. It seems she and perhaps others are erasing posts that tell other sides of the story.

MyCrypto also owns and maintains the site etherscamdb.info which recently announced, “We recommend using MyCrypto.com moving forward for any interactions with the Ethereum blockchain. We no longer recommend MEW. Thank you!”, following the social media takeover. The banner has been removed since then and the site is back up now following a server error.

MEW and MyCrypto

Side by side, the two websites for MyEtherWallet and MyCrypto look almost identical. Taylor and the MyCrypto team have plans to build more functionality and compatibility with other cryptocurrencies as the new name suggests.

The argument on team Taylor is that kvhnuke hasn’t been actively coding MEW for the last 6 months. Taylor and other members of the MEW team who left with her argue his lack of involvement meant the project could no longer evolve and led to the decision to launch MyCrypto.

Whatever the reasoning behind a new project, Taylor has certainly caused a lot of panic over wallet safety and created enemies in the crypto community, many of whom were big supporters of her work on MEW.

Hong Kong continues its permissive environment for cryptocurrency despite warnings over the legality of some operators. #NEWS

The entire cryptocurrency world got a rather surprising scare last week. Rumor had it the Chinese central bank would be introducing even more Bitcoin regulation. Some sources mentioned the government was looking to restrict access to foreign exchanges altogether. It now turns out this was a pure hoax, as someone had hacked into the central bank’s mailbox to issue a fake email. It’s a very worrisome development, as it hints not only at clear cryptocurrency manipulation but also at weak email security for China’s central bank.

Cryptocurrency Manipulation Hoax Unveiled

It is not uncommon in the world of cryptocurrency to see attempts at manipulating markets. Especially when it comes to hints at regulatory measures, the Bitcoin and altcoin markets tend to be rather twitchy. Just last week, we saw all cryptocurrencies suffer losses of 35% and higher due to fake news coming out of China. According to some local sources, the central bank was planning to block access to foreign cryptocurrency exchanges. Such a decision would have spooked all markets and crippled the cryptocurrency industry as a whole.

The recent press invitation sent out by China’s central bank has turned out to be a complete hoax. The institution never sent out such an invitation, nor does it have plans to further crack down on Bitcoin trading in Hong Kong. Instead, it seems a group of hackers successfully breached the mail server of the central bank to send out this fake information. As the details were subsequently mailed to the US media, it is evident most of them picked up on the “news” and assumed the new measure was genuine.

According to the email, the PBoC and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority would introduce additional anti-money laundering regulations in Beijing. This “decision” would extend the country’s cryptocurrency regulation to all virtual currency services and activities of individuals and businesses. It did not take long before both the PBoC and the HMA acknowledged they never sent out such an email, nor do they plan to make any such regulatory decisions regarding Bitcoin.

Considering that this email was sent from the PBoC domain name and an official mailbox, an internal investigation is more than warranted. The person who owns this mailbox is an official working at the Hefei branch of the central bank. He claims to have had nothing to do with this email, and says he didn’t send any information to US press agencies. It seems safe to assume his email account was compromised by a third party, although few details are known right now regarding such a breach. With proper security measures in place, a hack would be pretty much impossible.

Unfortunately, it is not the first time we’ve seen the spreading of fake news regarding cryptocurrency regulation. While it is the first time the PBoC has been compromised in this regard, it may very well be the beginning of what is yet to come. Stealing cryptocurrencies no longer seems sufficient for a lot of hackers. Thus, they have attempted to cripple the industry as a whole. Another possibility is that this was another state-sponsored hacking attempt by a foreign country, although the investigation will have to point out who is to blame for this email breach.

Thankfully, most cryptocurrency markets are recovering as we speak. This latest scare knocked off nearly US$150 billion from the total cryptocurrency market cap in the span of a few days. Most of those losses were recovered on Wednesday, but there is still plenty of work to be done. It is unclear why regulatory measures in China – fake or not – would even impact the markets in any way. China has become a non-factor in the world of cryptocurrency, thanks to its negative stance toward this industry.

Over the past year, Bitcoin’s meteoric rise has captivated the financial world, but the political world has had trouble catching on. Washington, for the most part, remains ignorant of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. Fortunately, that may soon change, with Brian Forde running for Congress in California.

A roster of prominent crypto investors has come together to support first-time Democratic congressional candidate, Brian Forde, who is hoping to unseat the incumbent Republican in Orange County, California. A pivotal race could determine which party controls the House of Representatives in November’s midterm elections.

Forde is running in an area that has long been considered a Republican stronghold. The district’s current representative is Mimi Walters, who was first elected to Congress in 2014. Her Orange County district is one of about two dozen congressional districts considered “top targets” for Democrats as they fight to regain majority control.

The 37-year old former digital currency director at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab is one of several candidates in the race, but he’s already attracted the attention of a number of prominent crypto investors who have been impressed by his knowledge and support for cryptocurrencies and related technology. Forde has emphasized his technology experience, citing the district’s reliance on new tech innovation for economic growth: “Tech is one of the fastest-growing economic sectors in the district. In addition to our fair share of unicorns — from Broadcom to Blizzard Entertainment — Amazon, Google, and others have offices here, too.”

Bitcoin enthusiasts such as Pete Briger of Fortress Investment Group, Brad Burnham of Union Square Ventures, and Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss of Facebook fame have come forward to support Forde. “Brian understands the power of emerging technologies and how to foster and shape them in a way that has a positive impact on people and organizations,” says Tyler Winklevoss.

These donors — and many more — have contributed actual Bitcoin to his campaign rather than write a check or transfer cash. In fact, Federal Election Commission records indicate that although his campaign is just six months old, Forde has already amassed more Bitcoin contributions than all previous congressional candidates combined.

Forde has been outspoken in his desire to see government strike the right balance between consumer protection and regulatory flexibility, to ensure that regulations don’t force the booming industry to migrate to another country that offers a more suitable environment to grow: “You have to protect consumer rights and consumer safety. But we also need to allow for innovation. You want to create ‘regulatory sandboxes’ for these emerging technologies to grow. My concern is that when you apply strict regulations to small startups, they’ll be forced to apply so many resources to compliance that they won’t have the resources to build and innovate.”

The post Meet Brian Forde: Californian Congressional Candidate and Crypto Enthusiast appeared first on NewsBTC.

4NEW, Powerledger, Wepower, Jibrell Networks, Earth Token, KWHCoin are some of the players within the energy sector to have entered crypto over the past six months. One could argue that Bitcoin may have triggered the Energy arms race as each company attempts to redefine how energy should be accessed by the community in the most scalable manner.

Crypto-markets have experienced quite the turbulent journey over the past year. Not only has it risen sharply, it has also fallen sharply sparking fears of bubble bursts. With price volatility comes energy spikes given the increased transactional volume that occurs over the networks. Therefore it’s not out of the ordinary for a number of entrants to try to solve the energy consumption issues.

Most people within the crypto community are well aware of the drain proof of work transactions are having on energy consumption. However, while solutions relating to proof of stake take time to evolve, assuming they won’t create other new issues and dilemmas to deal with, we still need to resolve the energy crisis currently in motion. This is because the new wave of cryptocurrency adopters are most familiar with bitcoins and its store of value. Therefore, their appetite continues to be for proof of work coins.

To add fuel to the fire, conventional power plants are shrugging away from crypto miners given the heated regulatory debates and uncertainty around government’s stance on legitimizing crypto globally.

While we wait for the proof of work or proof of stake or the government’s view on crypto debates to play out, a number of companies have decided to combat the energy crisis in real time. Since 2017, some of the most successful ICOs have been Energy exchange platforms. Each version of these energy exchanges seems to keep pushing the limit closer and closer to the utopian concept of free energy, however, there are crucial flaws very few can address.

Firstly, conventional power plants are still skeptical about cryptocurrency in general, therefore, how can we expect rapid adoption from power producers to embrace these energy exchanges. This would mean that these energy exchanges that have coins backed by electricity without the electricity already in place are a lot like selling empty vases, with no certainty or assurance that power plants will back them in the future.

Secondly, very few have addressed the issue of liability. For example, power outages happen from time to time. In the event these outages were to occur, there is no thinking or protocols in place as to who is responsible for the liability of the coins that have already traded on these energy exchanges.

While there are plenty of other logistical and practical challenges to overcome with exchanges that are technically middlemen in the transaction, one company has emerged as the clear leader in the ongoing epic saga of the energy arms race bringing us closer to free electricity.

4NEW is a waste to energy power plant entirely integrated on the blockchain network. Therefore, the power they produce they own it, unlike exchanges that rely on power providers such as 4NEW. Varun Datta, the founder of 4NEW commented “The pace at which energy evolution is occurring is remarkable. The demand for bitcoins will globally cause energy companies to release their power for free taking us closer to the utopian reality.” 4NEW is also an extremely feasible concept as it generates power from the pressurized combustion of waste, thereby solving two global problems. Waste to Energy plants have been around for decades and are proven power plant technologies. 4NEW’s ICO is currently ongoing, slated to end March 31st, 2018. It’s no surprise that 4NEW has received significant institutional and wholesale buying demand for its coin and concept. 4NEW  also recently announced Dr. Moe Levin to its advisory committee, to help develop a scalable and marketable solution dedicated to the crypto community.

The post Bitcoin Has Triggered the Energy Arms Race appeared first on NewsBTC.

This Friday the Japanese exchange Coincheck has announced the resumption of yen (JPY) withdrawals will begin next week. The news follows the trading platform halting operations on the 26th of January. That day Coincheck was hacked and lost a total of 523,000,000 XEM, but the exchange promised to pay back the 260,000 customer accounts that were compromised. JPY withdrawals will be enabled for the trading platforms users beginning February 13, 2018.

Also Read: Japanese Crypto Exchanges Strengthen Self-Regulation Following Coincheck Hack

Coincheck Plans to Resume JPY Withdrawals Next Week

According to the Japanese exchange Coincheck, the platform will resume yen withdrawals next week. The exchange says that a temporary suspension of JPY operations was put in place to protect the assets of Coincheck customers. The company says that “outside experts” are working with the trading platform to ensure withdrawals are ready for February 13th. Right now Coincheck reveals customer assets are being held by another party.

“Currently, all customer JPY assets are being stored in a customer-specific account in a major financial institution,” explains the Japanese exchange.  

We plan to resume normal operations for JPY withdrawals from the following date and will process customer requests in the order in which they come in.         

The Resumption of JPY Withdrawals Is Unrelated to XEM Reparation Payments

Coincheck also notes that the withdrawals of JPY and the date mentioned is completely “unrelated to reparation payments for the XEM.” Just before the first of February Coincheck had announced that approximately 260,000 affected accounts ($423Mn USD) would be reimbursed. Balances will be repaid in JPY via the Coincheck Wallet the firm has stated and will be valued at approximately $0.81 USD per token. At the moment that price is much more than the current rate XEM tokens are being sold for as the spot price is $0.56 per coin.   

Withdrawal requests will be initiated on a first come — first serve basis, and Coincheck says the company may contact certain customers separately in order to confirm withdrawal details. As far as cryptocurrencies operations are concerned the exchange plans to lift withdrawal restrictions as soon as the company feels they are “able to guarantee the secure resumption of operations for each feature.”     

“If further complications preventing the safe resumption of withdrawals are discovered, the resumption date may be extended in order to guarantee customer asset security,” Coincheck concludes.

What do you think about Coincheck preparing to resume operations after the recent hack? Do you think the exchange will fulfill its promise to pay back the XEM at $0.81 per coin? Let us know your thoughts on this story in the comments below.

Images Shutterstock, Coincheck and the NEM/XEM logo. 

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