Day: February 21, 2018

Late last year, it was reported that the Iranian government was interested in utilizing Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as a way of bypassing economic sanctions levied against the country. But the government has apparently changed its mind: Today, the Central Bank of Iran announced that it has never recognized Bitcoin as an official currency and conducts no transactions in it or other cryptocurrencies.

According to Iran Front Page, the country’s central bank has denied ever recognizing Bitcoin as an official currency, along with the idea that it was actively facilitating Bitcoin transactions. The bank also warned Iranian citizens about the high risks of making investments in the potentially volatile market, saying that there’s a chance they “may lose their financial assets.” Moving ahead, the organization is cooperating with other institutions to develop mechanisms to control and prevent the use of digital currencies in the country. The bank put it as follows:

“The wild fluctuations of the digital currencies along with competitive business activities underway via network marketing and pyramid scheme have made the market of these currencies highly unreliable and risky,”

Countries Creating Their Own Coins

Despite all the FUD that accompanies announcements such as these, there are some positive developments. Iran’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Minister Mohammad-Javad Azari Jahromi also declared today that Iran’s Post Bank is working on a locally developed cryptocurrency, which will need to be tested by the ICT. It’s unclear exactly how far into research or development the bank is in creating this new coin.

Iran would not be the first country to develop its own digital currency as a way of bypassing financial blockades. Just yesterday Venezuela launched its new coin, the Petro, which is backed by the South American country’s oil reserves.

Late last week, Europe’s newest digital currency, the Korona — which runs on the Lightning Network and is being touted as more stable, safer, and cheaper to use than its competitors — was launched in Budapest, Hungary. Jean-Marc Stiegemeier, Korona’s CEO, is optimistic about the future of the crypto-industry:

“Over the next few years we are going to see a revolution in the banking sector,” Stiegemeier, said. “Within ten years cryptocurrency will be used and accepted worldwide.”

Although sanctions on Iran are not as heavy as they were before the 2015 nuclear deal with the West, the country is still, for the most part, cut off from major international payment networks like Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal. As is the case in other parts of the world, such as Africa, this economic stalemate is making decentralized payment methods like Bitcoin more and more appealing.

The post Iran: Central Bank Doesn’t Recognize Cryptocurrencies but Plans to Create Its Own appeared first on NewsBTC.

This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine.

After a general upwards trend from Bitcoin following its February 6 low of US$6,000, today marks the first major downtrend from the cryptocurrency. After nearing $12,000, the coin has dropped significantly, and is currently trading close to $10,700. As is usually the case, the significant drop has caused widespread losses among a majority of altcoins.

Of the 1,516 cryptocurrencies listed on Coinmarketcap.com, only 28 have seen USD gains of 1% or more. While a majority of these coins consist of undocumented market caps, as well as coins with negligible volume and market cap, a top performing member of this group is DigixDAO (DGD), which has seen a USD growth of almost 20%, from close to US$275 to just over $325, as well as BTC and ETH gains of over 30%, and appreciated to a market cap of over US$620 million.

What is DGD?

DigixDao represents one of two cooperating cryptocurrencies, along with Digix Gold (DGX) that currently makes up the umbrella ecosystem, Digix Global. The role of Digix Global is to tokenize physical gold on the Ethereum blockchain, so that gold can be transacted in a manner that is both trustless and massively efficient. Digix utilizes a Proof-of-Asset (PoA) protocol to assign a number of values used to identify the physical gold represented by each DGX token. These values include the time stamp of the creation, the stock keeping unit (SKU) of the gold bar, and the purchase receipt, among other variables. The physical gold is provided by ValueMax Singapore, audited by Bureau Veritas Inspectorate, and stored by Malca-Amit. From there, holders of DGX can claim their gold in person or through the mail.

DGD provides several privileges to its holders. Most importantly, DGD tokens are subject to quarterly dividends accrued from the transaction and minting fees associated with gold registry and usage. In the future, it is likely that more services provided by Digix Global will also account towards the quarterly dividends. Additionally, DGD holders maintain the power to determine direction and funding of future Digix projects.

Last week, Digix Global published their developer report, which included a successful audit and confirmation that Digix Gold will launch this quarter. Much of this appreciation can be attributed to growing faith in the system as a successful audit has now been documented. Additionally, as the public launch of the DGX functionality is coming increasingly near, it’s likely that holders and potential supporters are now looking to increase their DGD holdings in preparation for the quarterly dividends.

While the missions DigixDAO vary greatly from many other top market cap cryptocurrencies, which primarily consist of upgraded blockchain protocols and even next-generational cryptocurrencies,  the service it provides certainly has merit, and so far, it appears that the project is carrying out its mission in a proper manner.

The owner of BitFunder, a long-defunct bitcoin investment platform, has been hit with two lawsuits filed by the U.S. government.

On February 16, 2018, Tutor Ninja, a private tutoring operator, held a meeting with the token holders and NTOK ecosystem partners, who backed the $3 million presale of tokens and approved the tokenizing talents blockchain platform concept. The public token sale will start on March 1st, 2018, as planned.

“By the middle of the presale, we have already received the equivalent of approximately $3 million in crypto and fiat coin amounts,” comments Max Shekhovtsov, Tutor Ninja’s CFO and co-founder. “Among NTOK’s early supporters is the Genezis crypto fund and such famous entrepreneurs as the founders of auto.ru and headhunter.ru. After holding dozens of meetings, 10 funds have now purchased our tokens and four more have expressed their soft commitment.”

The recently appointed Tutor Ninja CEO and the NTOK product leader Anton Mishin says: “The goal of the token sale is to collect the equivalent of $15 million, which, as we stated in our White Paper, will be used to finalize the NTOK product development and promote the product in its target markets. We are also hoping that it will help attract new users to our platform, which will fuel the platform’s organic growth in the years to come. Another vital benefit we are looking to obtain via the ICO is creating the Tutor Ninja’s NTOK brand awareness.”

The company’s strategy is to enter new regions and become a true global business over the next 2-3 years. It is envisioned that the massive expansion will be driven by its sought-after product accessible via a user-friendly interface. The platform’s complete transparency and fairness to all users will be ensured by the innovative blockchain technology at the heart of the project.

“We have agreed with the largest token holders that the development of NTOK will progress from our original concept of an educational online aggregator to tokenizing talents, an infrastructure project that will track and reward private tutors and NTOK ecosystem partners for their services, and introduce token ownership for every participant of the ecosystem,” Mishin adds.

The NTOK X ecosystem for tokenizing talents will transform Tutor Ninja, a private tutoring operator serving thousands of users, into a three-level blockchain infrastructure for online education. The NTOK tokenization platform concept includes online schools, an online aggregator of private tutor services, and the services of tutors and NTOK ecosystem partners.

The company confirms its international expansion plans, and envisages South Korea, Japan and China as its primary target regions. The strategy for market entry is based on interaction with mature partners already engaged in similar business pursuits. Foreign customers and partners are also expected to become token holders.

“The partners of the NTOK ecosystem, such as providers of content and educational services, have already expressed their enthusiasm, and by maintaining the NTOK project’s focus we are well on our way to advancing and extending the online education infrastructure,” summarizes Anton Mishin.

For more information on Token Ninja and its ICO please visit https://ntok.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.

Union Catholic High School in Scotch Plains, New Jersey is teaching its students about cryptocurrencies. Mr. Tim Breza’s Business and Personal Finance Class is the focus of a CNBC documentary that is showcasing how cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and associated blockchain technologies are being introduced and taught in high school and college classrooms.

Mr. Breza, a 28-year-old history and financial literacy teacher, first considered adding cryptocurrencies to his Business and Personal Finance class at the beginning of this school year after a few students approached him in September and October. The students were interested in learning more about the industry and began asking him what he knew about Bitcoin and other digital currencies.

“If one student’s talking about it, many of them are talking about it,” Breza said. “So I figured we needed to include it.”

Juniors and seniors are eligible to take his elective course, in which students learn about budgeting, credit cards, taxes, investing, entrepreneurship, and how to create business plans. After receiving approval, Breza has added a section on cryptocurrencies — focusing on the history of cryptography and the applications of blockchain technology.

“I’ve very excited that the students and Union Catholic is being exposed to this… and that the UC administration supported teaching this to our students,’’ said Breza. “Not too many schools are even thinking about teaching about cryptocurrency. We’re not teaching it in the sense that you have to invest it, we are just giving the facts of it. Blockchain is the key to all of this. That’s the revolutionary piece to it.’’

What do the students think?

Despite Breza’s assertion that the class is not teaching about cryptocurrencies from an investing standpoint, some students have chosen to do their own research. Junior Max Berg, for example, chose to buy Bitcoin last year. When the digital currency hit $19,000 in December, he cashed out, using his profits as seed money to start a retail business — buying Supreme clothes and accessories and selling them on to his peers.

“UC is always on the edge of new technology with our laptops and other things, so this is just that next step of teaching what the future of investments are going to be,’’ said Berg. “It’s been a hobby of mine for years now, and it’s cool to see how big it has gotten and that the school is open to teaching about is great.’’

Another student in the class, senior Thomas Monahan, believes his progressive teachers are to thank for introducing the high schoolers to the new technology:

“The teachers and administrators at Union Catholic always find ways to give us an edge and help us learn and make us better than other high schools,’’ said Monahan. “They teach us valuable things about life things that will help us in the future.”

While this subject may be new to high schools, it’s already a popular topic at universities across the country — and the job market for the crypto-space is booming, too.  LinkedIn says there are now 28 times as many people citing “cryptocurrency” skills on their profiles and 5.5 times as many people with “Bitcoin” skills than there were just five years ago.

The post New Jersey High School Offering Lessons In Cryptocurrency and Blockchain appeared first on NewsBTC.

The South American country’s plan to launch its own cryptocurrency has sparked global headlines and a range of commentary on social media.

Western Union has officially confirmed they are trialing Ripple’s xRapid solution. This is big news for both companies, as improving liquidity in the remittance sector is direly needed. Especially if this also leads to lower fees for users and service providers alike, things can only improve from here on out.

Western Union Officially Embraces Ripple’s xRapid

Most people in the cryptocurrency industry have rather mixed feelings when it comes to Ripple and their XRP asset. This company is looking to work with banks and other financial service providers, which is in stark contrast to decentralized cryptocurrencies. Even so, most people acknowledge XRP has some potential, assuming enough financial service providers make use of this asset. It now appears Western Union is officially experimenting with Ripple’s xRapid solution.

A relationship between the two companies has been hinted at for months but was never officially confirmed or denied. Last week, Western Union publicly confirmed they were looking into the xRapid solution for lower-cost liquidity. Being able to settle domestic and international payments in seconds for virtually no fee is of great interest to one of the world’s leading money transfer service providers.

For now, the service provider is mainly focused on new opportunities regarding processing, settlement and working capital optimization. Blockchain technology has been of great interest to Western Union for some time now, even though there are still some concerns over the regulation and compliance aspects of this technology as of right now. Some of their tests are being done with Ripple’s xRapid, yet that doesn’t mean it’s the only partner they are working with in this regard.

Whether or not this means Western Union will ever use xRapid – and XRP – for real-world purposes is difficult to determine. Conducting trials with a technology provider is not a binding contract by any means. It’s possible Western Union may not like what they see after all and decide to use a different blockchain service provider altogether. While xRapid has a lot of benefits, it remains to be seen whether or not this technology will ever make an impact on the global financial system.

This announcement by Western Union comes at an interesting time, though. One of Western Union’s main competitors announced their interest in xRapid earlier this year. MoneyGram officially confirmed they saw merit in both xRapid and XRP for money transmission services, even though there hasn’t been any further communication since these “trials” began. MoneyGram seems closer to actually using this solution than Western Union, but time will tell how things evolve.

No one will deny that financial service providers can profit from faster and more liquid solutions. Whether or not that means they will opt to choose Ripple’s xRapid is a different matter altogether. The technology appears to be very cost-efficient and scalable, which are two main selling points for most service providers. A successful pilot never guarantees an actual use case for any technical solution, though.

As cryptocurrency usage becomes more widespread both above and below the law, various authorities are increasingly required to perform seizures on funds used in criminal cases. Thanks to the various anonymity properties of digital coins, however, it’s proving difficult to track these forfeitures. This lack of transparency leaves critics of the government musing over the possibility that not all digital currency is being sold fairly and through the correct channels. If only there was some way of publicly recording details regarding funds acquired through forfeiture and their sale…

Seizures are Rife, Reports are Less So

There is no shortage of examples of government agencies seizing digital currencies. High profile cases like that of Alexandre Cazes, the ringleader behind global dark web marketplace Alpha Bay, and Ross Ulbricht, the mastermind behind Silk Road have involved huge sums of cryptocurrency being turned over to the government.

More recently, 513 Bitcoins were seized from a seller of counterfeit pharmaceuticals in Utah, and Fortune reports a kidnapping case in which a man was bundled into what he thought was an Uber and was forced to surrender private keys at gunpoint. Those behind the incident were able to make off with $1.8 million in ETH tokens. They promptly converted these to BTC which then soared in price. What remains unclear is who should receive all that extra cash.

There are many more examples of forfeiture involving digital currency making the total amount of seized funds incredibly difficult to work out. This is exacerbated by anonymity properties of digital coins, along with the penchant for secrecy within some of the agencies making the seizures.

A website, Forfeiture.gov, exists that documents cases of forfeiture in the States. However, their records are fleeting. They’re regularly updated and old cases are removed with the addition of new ones. In addition, there are often long periods between the seizure of assets and their appearance in any records and some sales of cryptocurrency aren’t reported at all.

It seems somewhat ironic that the very technology behind digital currency, the blockchain, could provide the transparency needed in such matters. An attorney who has worked extensively on cases of forfeiture, Alex Lakatos, feels that some form of central registry would be beneficial:

“This country is weirdly lacking in central registries… we don’t know how much property has been seized.”

Since there is no law obliging the government to provide such a ledger, one has yet to be created. It’s argued that increased transparency would likely tip criminals off to the methods used by law enforcement and thus undermine operations.

However, there are plenty who feel that this lack of transparency is completely unacceptable and promotes underhand behaviour from those working in government agencies. Clifford Histed, an attorney at K&L Gates spoke to Fortune of the historical precedent for embezzlement in cases of forfeiture:

“I’ve spent 23 years in law enforcement and, unfortunately, I believe as long as police have been seizing cash, some have been skimming it… I don’t think Bitcoin will prove any different.”

Whilst there is no hard evidence to suggest that government agents have been misappropriating funds from seizures, the ease with which it could be taking place concerns lawyers and libertarians alike. An investigation into the Marshals Service last September uncovered examples of the agency using seized funds to pay for such unnecessary luxuries as “high-end granite countertops and expensive custom artwork.” Amusingly, much of this was found at the new Asset Forfeiture Academy in Houston. Surely, with such incidents occurring and the numbers of seizures only set to grow, there should be some effort made to provide transparency to avoid allegations of corruptions.

The post Could US Law Enforcement Benefit from Storing Cryptocurrency Seizures on a Blockchain? appeared first on NewsBTC.

This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine.