Day: February 13, 2018

In the world of content creation, publishing, and entertainment, everything lies within a centralized walled garden. Po.et aims to change that by letting creators own their content at all times. Using blockchain technology for this purpose is an interesting approach that will bring positive attention to this technology. Now is a good time to look further into the Po.et project as a whole.

What is Po.et Doing Exactly?

It is only normal that people want to focus on blockchain technology for content creators. It is very difficult to claim proper ownership of one’s creations in the era of the internet. With Po.et, that situation will come to change in the near future. Creators can generate immutable and time-stamped titles of creative works by registering their assets on the Po.et network. The metadata attribution remains safe and verifiable at all times, which makes this project well worth keeping an eye on.

How Can Po.et succeed?

Po.et is an open network which bridges the gap between creators and publishers. It makes it possible to easily discover new content or verify the authenticity of existing creations. All of this is authorized through a truly transparent system of attribution. This is partially why blockchain is so exciting, as it allows for immutable data to be recorded while still being publicly verifiable.

The creation and issuance of “copyright” licenses can be done with relative ease. By making use of cryptography, both publishers and creators can automate the licensing process without the need for intermediaries. Owners can either use a pre-existing license template or build their own terms and conditions as they see fit.

With this blockchain-based approach, people can pay a small fee to use any licensed content hosted on Po.et. These payments are fully automated, which makes the platform rather appealing to use. It is also worth noting that Po.et is flexible, and not all content recorded on this blockchain has to be shared publicly. This is a pretty interesting feature which certainly sets this blockchain project apart from the rest.

What About the Po.et Token?

As is customary these days, this blockchain network has its own native currency. Po.et’s native token can be used to join a marketplace and improve overall content discovery, stake tokens to gain a reputation on the platform, and vote on protocol improvements and dispute resolution for the Po.et ecosystem. It is evident there is a lot of potential for this token and the ecosystem as a whole, assuming content creators and publishers take notice.

What Comes Next for Po.et?

The year 2018 will herald the launch of the Po.et publisher API, known as Frost. Additionally, there will be a custom WordPress plugin allowing content creators to timestamp their work. A licensing marketplace will be introduced in April, and revenue sharing functionality will come to market in July. The immutable portfolio tool, which will be of great interest to content creators, will go live in January of 2019. E-book support will go live in 2019 as well.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has claimed that Sergey Sergeyvich Medvedev, a Russian national recently arrested in Bangkok, was the co-founder and second in command of the Infraud group – a notorious international cyber crime syndicate. It has been reported that at the time of his arrest, Mr. Medvedev was in possession of more than 100,000 bitcoins.

Also Read: Japan Cracks Down on Foreign ICO Agency Operating Without License

Accused Cyber Crime Syndicate Co-Founder Arrested in Thailand

Sergey Sergeyvich Medvedev is accused of being the co-founder and second in command of the transnational crime syndicate, Infraud. The dark-web marketplace associated with the group was seized and taken offline by U.S. authorities.

Mr. Medvedev, a Russian national, fled to Thailand six years ago. Thailand’s Crime Suppression Division (CSD) identified the thirty-one-year-old as being located in Bangkok following an investigation prompted by American requests for cooperation with the FBI.

Maj. Nathapol Ratanamongkolsak of the CSD stated that “The United States […] requested assistance from Thai police, and the police commissioner ordered the Crime Suppression Division to work on this case in late 2017.”

Mr. Medvedev in Possession of Over 100,000 Bitcoins

Mr. Medvedev was arrested during a raid on his apartment in the Sukhumvit area, conducted by 30 CSD officers. The CSD officers seized numerous documents and a notebook computer from Mr. Medvedev.

CSD investigators have claimed that Mr. Medvedev was trading illegal products online in exchange for bitcoin. Thai media outlet, Bangkok Post, has reported that “judging by the evidence obtained during the Feb 2 raid, [Mr. Medvedev] had more than 100,000 bitcoin[s]” – at the time valued at approximately $800 – $900 million USD.

Thailand’s Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) chief, Thitiraj Nhongharnpitak, has confirmed that the raid took place. However, the CIB chief has declined to issue further details regarding the operation, stating that such is an international police matter and that more information will be made public soon.

FBI Cracks Down on Infraud

It is alleged that Infraud was created during 2001 by Mr. Medvedev in partnership with Svyatoslav Bondarenko in Ukraine. Infraud has been described as a major hub for credit card fraud, with Deputy Assistant Attorney General David Rybicki stating that the site was “the premier one-stop shop for cybercriminals worldwide.”

Reports have indicated that similar operations designed to arrest 18 members of Infraud have been carried out in over a dozen different countries – expanding on prior efforts by the FBI to crack down on Infraud, which have previously seen the arrest of 32 individuals suspected of criminal involvement with the group.

Maj. Nattapol Rattanamongkol stated “This is an operation by the [US] Department of Homeland Security that involves spontaneous [raids] in 14 countries.”

What is your reaction to the arrest of Mr. Medvedev? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Khao Sod

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The post FBI Claims Arrested Cyber Crime Syndicate Co-Founder Medvedev Worth $800M+ in BTC appeared first on Bitcoin News.

Two new bills introduced to the Arizona legislature would create legal definitions for cryptocurrencies and blockchain if passed.

Bitcoin and all things cryptocurrency have found themselves at the top of a list of most highly demanded skills for freelancers in 2018. Leading freelance marketplace, Upwork, recently surveyed their users and found that skills relating to digital currency were the fastest-growing sector of freelancer talents on their platform. The results were also dominated by emerging technologies. Along with Bitcoin, AI and AR related skills were noted as growing rapidly. Evidently, the appetite for those with skills relating to cryptocurrency is not following suit with the price of a single Bitcoin which recently took a tumble from its all-time highs.

According to reports from Upwork and the Freelancers Union, those independently employed are preparing for the mass upheavals in the way people work with every great technological leap forward in a more effective way than their peers who work for a single employer. The findings of the two mentioned sources indicate that sixty-five percent of freelancers claimed to be keeping up to date with further career preparation in line with evolving technological sophistication and greater machine learning.

According to news outlet Fast Company, the list of skills that clients are seeking from the online talent marketplaces like Upwork are indicative of future work trends in general. This is based on the fact that the number of people working as freelancers is growing three times faster than the rest of the more traditionally employed US workforce. This figure is based on the findings from the survey by Upwork and the Freelancers Union entitled “Freelancing in America”.

Meanwhile, the planet’s top-ranked, private sector think tank, the McKinsey Global Institute, predicts that if freelancing talent platforms such as Upwork continue to grow at the rate mentioned earlier, they could add an additional $2.7 trillion to the global Gross Domestic Product by 2025. The would equate to almost two percent of the nations entire GDP.

The post Freelancers, Attention: “Bitcoin” Is The Most Valuable Skill appeared first on NewsBTC.

Aragon is another one of those cryptocurrency projects intent on making the world a fairer place for everyone. More specifically, the team aims to build an infrastructure which lets anyone create value without borders or intermediaries. Additionally, they hope to democratize governance in the future, although that will not be easy. Decentralized organizations are an appealing business model, but making sure they work in the real world is something else entirely.

Why Does Aragon Exist?

With so many other cryptocurrency and blockchain projects focusing on democratizing governance and autonomous organizations, it may be hard to figure out what makes Aragon unique. By waving goodbye to intermediaries, organizations will be able to create and maintain “unstoppable applications”. There is no censorship or downtime involved, and the decentralized design ensures a borderless and permissionless way of operating. It is an interesting platform which will certainly attract attention from developers all over the world.

Under the Hood

Providing a new framework to run decentralized applications is not something coders do in a few hours. Aragon Core is the main bread and butter of this ecosystem, as it paves the way for dApps, organizational tokens, and new ways of raising funds. By incorporating voting, organizations can achieve decentralized consensus on all matters that come to mind. Plus, the Aragon ecosystem allows for instant payments with just a few clicks. There is a lot to like about this project, especially once all of these features are accessible to everyone.

Whether or not decentralized organizations will resolve the world’s pressing problems remains to be seen. As this project is based on the Ethereum blockchain, it also offers all typical Ethereum-oriented functions, such as smart contracts, to its users. The team is confident they can take this project well beyond organizations as well. It seems there are plans to integrate a decentralized exchange at some point, which is something to look forward to. With its focus on financing open-source projects, Aragon may become quite a big player in this industry over the coming years.

What is Aragon’s Coin?

Most people have come across the ANT token on various exchanges. This is the native currency of the Aragon project and has no use cases as of right now. Once the network officially goes live, ANT will be used to influence the governance of the network, for voting, and more. For now, it is a speculative asset first and foremost, as the Aragon project will need to reach version 0.7 before ANT is useful.

What Comes Next for Aragon?

As one would expect, there is a proper development plan for the Aragon project. We are nearing the release of Aragon 0.5, which adds a new permission system, an organization-wide identity, and a core modules API. It is expected this version will go live in April. Future releases will incorporate even more features, with 0.7 being the major milestone to look forward to. This release will introduce basic network-wide governance, ANT token minting, and a few other things. Future releases will be made available to the public after 0.7 has gone live, which is expected to occur in May.

All eyes are on MediChain now as Keith Teare, a globally-recognized serial entrepreneur with big ideas and an impressive record of winning high returns for the investors joins the MediChain Advisory Board. The recent addition of Teare in MediChain’s team is being seen as one of the greatest achievements of the company, since the executive chairman of Accelerated Digital Ventures has previously advised on the successful ICOBox, Crypterium, FluzFluz and EnergiMine ICOs.

Stating his views about MediChain, Teare said,

“Medichain represents a bold attempt to leverage the blockchain for patient records. It has long been recognized that patient-centric records represent a goal that would make health care far more efficient and enable doctors the benefit of seeing a patient’s entire medical history. Medichain is executing on that vision. Unlike others, it is also using machine learning to allow insights that can be gleaned from aggregate data. If it reaches its potential this will be a significant contribution to humanity.”

About Keith Teare & His Successful Journey

Keith is the co-founder of Archimedes Ventures where Mike Arrington’s TechCrunch was born and incubated along with Edgeio. He and Arrington were co-founders in both companies. Teare ran Edgeio and Arrington ran TechCrunch. He was the founder and CEO of RealNames Corporation and earlier the co-founder and CTO of EasyNet – the first European ISP.

Working at RealNames, he created a multi-lingual naming system, with distinct national namespaces, sitting on top of the DNS. It used natural language keywords, mapped to URIs to allow native language navigation. Teare raised more than $130 million in venture funding and filed for an IPO in 1999. After negotiating a worldwide agreement to include RealNames in the Microsoft browser in early 2000, the company had an implied valuation of more than $1.5 billion. By 2002, it was responsible for over 1 billion keyword navigations per quarter. It had agreements in Japan, China, and Korea, and was responsible for supporting the nascent multi-lingual DNS system run by Verisign.

He was the Seed funder and chair of NetNames, the founder of Clerkswell — a leading UK systems integrator as well as the Co-founder of CYBERIA, the world’s first Internet Café.  Teare also served fotopedia being its founding board member.

Keith Teare Foresees Blockchain as the Future of Most of the Industries

Being a blockchain enthusiast and a start-up expert, Keith Teare strongly believes that moments of change represent the best time to invest in tech. His prediction is based on the fact that blockchain is going to be just everywhere in near future, and that’s what the transition in his professional journey shows:

• In 1981, he was focused on networking and shared data.
• In 1994, he initiated to harness the power of the Internet (EasyNet).
• In 1997, he turned to web services (RealNames).
• In 2005, his focus was on Web 2.0 (Archimedes Ventures, Edgeio, and TechCrunch).
• In 2010, he extensively worked on mobile (Archimedes Labs, Quixey, M.Dot).
• In 2018, he is all set to exploit the Blockchain (Accelerated Digital Ventures and MediChain).

MediChain, leveraging the advisor-ship of Keith Teare, is planning ground-breaking developments on the platform in near future.

To know more about MediChain and Keith Teare being its advisor, please visit https://medichain.online/

The post Keith Teare Joins MediChain as an Advisor – a Headline-Worthy News in the Blockchain ICO Market appeared first on NewsBTC.

Salon announced this week that it would allow users to run a cryptominer instead of viewing ads as part of its revenue-generating efforts.

The increase in the popularity of all cryptocurrencies has not gone by unnoticed. In fact, we’ve seen a lot more opposition from banks and governments in this regard, and it seems this “crackdown” will not relent anytime soon. Most recently, the Bank for International Settlements stated that it wants authorities to prepare additional regulations to curb the spread of cryptocurrencies. It’s a rather interesting statement, although it is evident that regulating this industry will only get people so far.

The Bank for International Settlements Doesn’t Like Cryptocurrency

It is no secret that financial institutions have no love lost for any form of money that they cannot fully control. In the case of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, the opposition from financial institutions has only intensified in the past few months. Major banks actively prevent customers from purchasing Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies as of right now. It is a very troublesome situation, but one that will not change in the near future.

If this situation were left up to the Bank for International Settlements, things would only get worse moving forward. More specifically, the institution has warned regulators all over the world to prepare for an “invasive spread of cryptocurrencies”. In their mind, it is the authorities’ responsibility to protect consumers and investors in a positive way, even if that means resorting to rather extreme measures. It seems the BIS plans to introduce even more cryptocurrency regulation in the future, even though it remains to be seen how that will work out.

While the Bank for International Settlements considers cryptocurrency to be on the same level as most global diseases, it remains to be seen if authorities will heed this warning. We have seen governments and financial institutions take some interesting actions when it comes to Bitcoin and altcoins. In South Korea, for example, cryptocurrency exchanges imposed regulation upon themselves, which was later approved by the country’s government. This goes to show regulation isn’t always negative, even though that is still how most people see it these days.

Cryptocurrency markets experienced a meteoric rise throughout 2017. In early 2018, the value of these currencies has essentially been cut in half, but that is not entirely unexpected at this point in time. After all, the market growth was rather steep, resulting in increases of nearly 2,000% for Bitcoin. Such major gains could not go unpunished, and many people started cashing out their holdings earlier this year. It seems the markets will continue to recover, though, which only makes this warning by the Bank for International Settlements more interesting.

According to the BIS’s general manager, Agustín Carstens, the world doesn’t need new currencies to make payments more efficient. Instead, he wants authorities to focus on ensuring technological advancements cannot result in profits from illegal activities. Allegedly, the time is now to educate investors and consumers alike, especially given the volatility of all cryptocurrency markets in existence. Ensuring that cryptocurrencies do not become entrenched must be the top priority for regulators worldwide, in Carstens’ view.

Moreover, Carstens claims that Bitcoin has become a combination of a bubble, a Ponzi scheme, and an environmental disaster. While all of these labels have been associated with Bitcoin in the past, there is a lot more to it than meets the eye. It is unfortunate that the Bank for International Settlements is rather short-sighted when it comes to crypto, but few people expected anything different at this point. It will be interesting to see if banks and authorities decide to introduce additional regulation in the coming months and years.

South Korea considers introducing a licensing system for crypto exchanges based on NY’s BitLicense. #NEWS

Seven of the largest crypto companies are forming a UK cryptocurrency trade body named CryptoUK, bringing the first self-regulation to the booming industry. This news comes just days after Brian Quintenz, a commissioner with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, advised the crypto industry to form such a group to help regulate itself.

CryptoUK, with members including exchange and trading platforms such as Coinbase, eToro and CryptoCompare, said it had produced the first code of conduct for the industry to abide by. The companies said they hoped the regulations would form the first part of broader UK rules around volatile cryptocurrency trading. CryptoUK chair Iqbal Gandham said there was a risk of “rogue operators,” but the new body had been established “to promote best practice and to work with government and regulators.”

Members are expected to sign up to a code of conduct, which CryptoUK said will ensure greater due diligence against illegal activities and ensure customer funds can pay out in the event of insolvency, as well as safeguards against hacking of customer accounts. Mr. Gandham added: “We hope it [the code of conduct] can form the blueprint for what a future regulatory framework will look like.”

The group said the new body did not include Initial Coin Offerings, or ICOs, which see investors buying digital tokens in startups, often with no guarantees for their investment. It is also seeking buy-in from the government and official regulators such as the Financial Conduct Authority.

CryptoUK includes Coinbase, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges with more than 1 million account holders worldwide. Coinbase UK chief executive Zeeshan Feroz said: “The fundamentals are engaging as a single industry with the government. Regulation is imminent and that’s a good thing.” The trade body will also include cryptocurrency companies BlockEx, CEX.IO, CoinShares, and CommerceBlock.

Both the UK government and EU regulators have threatened to crack down on cryptocurrencies, with the EU issuing stark warnings that investors are at risk of a Bitcoin bubble.

This past Monday, the European Supervising Authorities — which includes top banking, securities, insurance, and pensions watchdogs — issued a warning to cryptocurrency investors that they could lose all their money if Bitcoin enters a pricing bubble: “[Cryptocurrencies] are highly risky, generally not backed by any tangible assets and unregulated under EU law, and do not, therefore, offer any legal protection to consumers,” the agency said in a statement. 

The post CryptoUK: Seven Crypto Companies Form UK Cryptocurrency Trading Body appeared first on NewsBTC.

A cybersecurity firm says Telegram has been exploited for crypto mining by hackers, but the messaging app’s founder says it is not to blame.

Innovative services are not difficult to come by in the world of cryptocurrencies. A lot of projects focus on combining existing technology with this new paradigm of money. CoinText is an interesting example, as it offers a way for users to send Bitcoin Cash through text messages. Although this business model is not entirely new, it does show there is an intriguing connection between existing and new technologies.

Why Does Cointext Matter?

It is evident there is a growing need for solutions which bring cryptocurrencies to the masses. Despite the innovative aspect of this new form of money, it is something a lot of people seemingly do not care about in the slightest right now. Moreover, it is not possible to conveniently obtain Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in every part of the world, which means some big changes will need to be introduced sooner rather than later.

African companies have been experimenting with combining cryptocurrencies and text-based payments. Bitpesa is a great example of this, as it allows users to send Bitcoin through text messages in a few countries. Initiatives like these can be incredibly powerful, even though there is opposition from local telcos and even governments when it comes to cryptocurrencies. It is expected that such opposition will not quiet down anytime soon.

Thankfully, it seems more services are trying to combine text messaging and cryptocurrencies. CoinText is a great example of how both industries can come together in a meaningful manner. Although the service is still in private beta as we speak, the concept of CoinText certainly holds a lot of promise. On paper, the project is all about letting users transact Bitcoin Cash with any mobile phone on the planet today. It is a very interesting strategy which will bring a lot of positive attention to the cryptocurrency industry as a whole.

Making it easier and more convenient to both send and receive cryptocurrency on a global scale can only be considered to be a good thing. CoinText won’t require users to register for an account or download any software, which is a positive development. There is no need for an internet connection either, as a BCH wallet address can be obtained by sending a text message to the service provider. Whenever someone sends BCH to a phone number which doesn’t have a BCH wallet set up yet, it will be automatically created on behalf of the recipient.

Additionally, the service will not hold onto user funds. All transfers are settled on-chain, as this is not a custodial service whatsoever. Nor does the company store any information regarding phone numbers, private and public keys, or transactions made using this new service. That in itself is pretty interesting, as it shows there is a strong focus on privacy and anonymity. With its global availability, things will certainly get interesting for Bitcoin Cash once this new system goes public in the coming months.

It is also remarkable to see that a service such as CoinText prioritizes Bitcoin Cash over Bitcoin. This is another feather in the cap of the popular altcoin, as most people would have assumed such a service would focus on Bitcoin first and foremost. That is obviously not the case right now, as more and more service providers have stopped dealing with Bitcoin altogether. It will be interesting to see what this new service does for the global popularity of Bitcoin Cash once it becomes available to everyone. That’s scheduled to occur next month, although no specific date has been announced as of right now.

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