Day: March 3, 2018

This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine.

This week the private bank headquartered in the Principality of Liechtenstein, Bank Frick, announced its customers will now have the ability to directly invest in cryptocurrencies. According to the financial institution, the company will offer account holders the means to purchase fives different cryptocurrencies that will be held in cold storage using the bank’s platform.

Also Read: Australian High School to Host Information Night on Cryptocurrencies 

Bank Frick Offers Direct Crypto Purchases Held in Cold Storage for Euros, Dollars, and Swiss Francs

Bank Frick is a banking firm based in Liechtenstein that offers private financial services for a wide array of international clientele. On February 28 the bank announced it was enabling direct cryptocurrency investment for customers and the digital assets will be kept in cold storage under the bank’s supervision. Bank Frick is initially offering five cryptocurrencies including bitcoin core, bitcoin cash, litecoin, ripple, and ethereum.

“Starting today, professional market participants and financial intermediaries are able to invest in the five leading cryptocurrencies,” explains the Liechtenstein bank.  

The cryptocurrencies can be bought using euros, US dollars and Swiss francs. Trading takes place once a day.

‘Crypto-Banking and Traditional Banking’

Bank Frick hopes it can offer institutional traders and market makers stronger protection from theft alongside traditional regulations that are applied to other asset classes. For instance, the bank says all the funds will be “physically separated from the Internet” by utilizing cold storage devices. Moreover, the company will make sure its cryptocurrency trading activities and account holders follow Liechtenstein and European (EU/EEA) laws. Bank Frick explains that all interested parties will have to initiate the verification process.  

“Clients can only invest in cryptocurrencies once they have been fully identified and verified,” the bank details. “The verification and identification process also involves checking the origin of the money used to invest in them.”

The bank’s Chief Client Officer Hubert Büchel adds:

Our services are in demand from companies across the whole of Europe. This is because they know that we can offer them reliable support in implementing their business models with cryptocurrencies and blockchains in line with the existing regulatory framework — We aim to place crypto-banking on at least the same level of quality as traditional banking.

The Liechtenstein Bank’s Future-Oriented Digital Strategy

Bank Frick details the business move is in line with its “future-oriented digital strategy.” Back in September of 2017, the company became the first financial institution to offer regional CHF basket trackers based on BTC and ETH. These investments have increased in value exponentially following the rise of cryptocurrency spot markets last year as the trackers surpassed 360 percent on January 10th.

What do you think about Bank Frick offering direct investments into cryptocurrencies like ethereum and bitcoin cash? Let us know your thoughts on this subject in the comments below.

Images via Bank Frick websites, and Pixabay.

At Bitcoin.com there’s a bunch of free helpful services. For instance, have you seen our Tools page? You can even lookup the exchange rate for a transaction in the past. Or calculate the value of your current holdings. Or create a paper wallet. And much more.

The post Liechtenstein Bank Offers Account Holders Direct Crypto Investments appeared first on Bitcoin News.

Dubai plans to launch a Tourism Blockchain Marketplace by 2020, giving travellers broader, more transparent access to the city’s tourist inventory #NEWS

ConnectJob Announces Launch of Main Token Sale

ConnectJob, a blockchain-based platform for freelance workers, has announced the launch of its main token sale — going live on February, 12th 2018. This is following a two-month long presale that began in the beginning of December 2017 and ended on February 11th of this year.

Disclosure: This is a Sponsored Article

The startup has already raised over $7 million USD, surpassing the soft cap goal it set for itself at the onset of its fundraising efforts. The team hopes to continue its early success as it begins its journey to revolutionize the 900 billion dollar gig economy.

Piecework is more popular than ever, with the contractor job market exponentially growing in size ever since the advent of the internet. By leveraging the advantages of digital matchmaking, workers are now able to offer their respective skill sets to a much larger pool of potential employers.

This fact makes it easier than ever for freelancers to find work and for individuals and organizations who need certain errands or jobs performed to find skilled people to execute them. However, some problems have begun to emerge in the this new gig world — problems that are yet to be solved: insecure work hours and pay, untrustworthy reviews, identity theft, and high commission fees.

Improving the Gig Economy with Blockchain Innovation

ConnectJob wants to augment the current gig job market by eliminating these problems all together. Through the use of smart contracts, the platform hopes to eliminate problems that have to do with pay uncertainty  — allowing contractors to be paid automatically once they complete their designated task.

Thus, with ConnectJob, a freelance worker never has to worry about clients not paying them once a job’s complete. This is assuming they satisfy the conditions outlined by the client and agreed to by the workers themselves.

Given that ConnectJob is built on top of the Ethereum blockchain, it is decentralized by nature and works on a peer-to-peer basis — removing any and all middlemen. The startup has developed a tamper-proof escrow system that removes centralization by avoiding single points of failure. 

Furthermore, the ConnectJob platform implements a reputation and identity system that attempts to reduce identity theft and disincentivize bad actors. It also helps prevent underperforming workers from getting more jobs in the future — creating a more efficient world by promoting a more effective workforce.

Using geolocation and smart contracts, the ConnectJob network allows users from anywhere in the world to engage professional and skilled jobbers in their local region or offer their services as one. Every engagement is backed by smart contract and each smart contract has been integrated with the local work insurance laws.

The ConnectJob CMO stated that:

“The insurance model will work according to local work insurance laws. For example in India we will work with a local blockchain-based insurance company that is endorsing the local regulation. In Dubai, same but with different laws. Every signed jobber will be covered by ConnectJob 100%, for all kind of purposes”

CJT, ConnectJob’s Native Token

ConnectJob’s native toke CJT is a dynamic utility token that will help meet the needs of users and create an effective incentive mechanism for decentralized piecework coordination.

Offering a 10% discount on all service engagement when paying with CJT, Access to VIP and Premium service, Priority access to highly-rated jobbers during peak time, priority access to specific/exclusive services with high liquidity and top referencing with a reward distribution for milestone achievements.

ConnectJobs main token generation event is live, offering 2400 CJT per ETH with a 12% bonus on every purchase with no minimum purchase. Users can contribute to the sales using Ethereum or in Fiat.

Because once you have enough money, money doesn’t matter, is the motto of charity fund started by an anonymous donor of 5,057 Bitcoins #EXPERT_TAKE

From tech flaws to regulatory interventions, a document sent to prospective investors in Telegram’s $2.5 billion token sale spells out the risks.

Japan’s 16 registered exchanges have come together to create a new self-regulatory body, operations to begin in April #NEWS

CoinDesk data shows that the gap between South Korea’s bitcoin prices, and those shown by the global market, closed over the course of February.

With all cryptocurrency markets in a very odd state once again, it will be interesting to see what the future holds. The Bitcoin price is moving up, yet half of the top 15 markets are losing value as of right now. The Litecoin price is one of the few rare exceptions in this regard. More specifically, we see the Litecoin price rise by 3.73% in the past 24 hours, pushing the value to just over $214.

Litecoin Price Tries to Note Positive Momentum

So far, it seems as if this weekend may turn out slightly catastrophic for most cryptocurrency markets once again. Even though the Bitcoin price is performing surprisingly well, most other top currencies are stuck in limbo as of right now. Litecoin is one of the few positive exceptions in this regard, although it seems to mainly mimic Bitcoin’s momentum as of right now. The Litecoin price gains over the past 24 hours are virtually identical percentage-wise to that of Bitcoin.

That does not have to be a bad thing per se. After all, Litecoin still gained 0.35% over Bitcoin in the LTC/BTC ratio, although that difference may be neglectable when looking at the bigger picture. For now, it is good to see Litecoin not lose value over Bitcoin unlike all of the other altcoins on the market right now. Whether or not this means we will see some further solid Litecoin price gains, remains to be determined. Anything is possible at this stage,  depending on how the LTC/BTC ratio evolves in the coming hours and days.  

As of right now, we are now looking at a Litecoin price of $214. That is a rather solid trend, although the same LTC was worth $226 just a few days ago. All markets are still pretty volatile as we speak, as can be seen from the Litecoin price chart over the past week. With the value ranging from $196 to $228 over the span of just seven days, it is evident there’s good money to be made if you can time the highs and lows correctly.

With $703.86m in 24-hour trading volume, things look pretty solid for Litecoin as of right now. This trading volume is a lot higher compared to most other altcoins on the market right now, but things may effectively change in the right direction once again. For now, Litecoin is relatively strong in its own way, although it would be nice to see this trading volume surpass $1bn once again. It is possible this may happen later today, but for now, there is no reason to even remotely concerned about how things are evolving as of right now

Few people will be surprised to see how OKEx is the world’s leading exchange in terms of Litecoin trading volume. Their BTC and USDT pairs combine for over 44.5% of all trades, which is pretty significant. GDAX completes the top three with its LTC/USD pair, and their lead over Bitfinex is pretty big as of right now. With two fiat currency pairs in the top four right now, things are certainly looking pretty good for Litecoin, but it remains to be seen if this situation undergoes any major changes later today and tomorrow.

For the time being, things look pretty good for the Litecoin price. If this trend keeps up, we may effectively see LTC surpass $220 later today. Considering how the weekend is rather notorious for its cryptocurrency market volatility in general,  the current uptrend can easily turn into a massive Litecoin price dip in a matter of hours.  It will be interesting to see how this particular market evolves in the next few hours. If the trading volumes just a bit, things will get a lot more interesting, for obvious reasons.

Browsing the latest cryptocurrency projects, it would be easy to conclude that decentralization is a panacea; a cure for humanity’s financial woes. It must be, surely, given that it’s a key tenet of every other new cryptocurrency and ICO. Without the gospel of decentralization, there would be no point in launching a blockchain version of Uber/Facebook/Airbnb or whatever web 2.0 platform is due for tokenization this week. Censorship-resistance is now reason enough to place a product on the blockchain it seems – even if that product has never been censored in the history of mankind.

Also read: Most Cryptocurrencies Are More Centralized Than You Think

Crypto Startups Are Craving the D

It’s hard to say when the decentralization meme kicked in. Like all trends, it occurred gradually; insidiously. It wasn’t in Satoshi’s white paper, that’s for sure. Words such as “decentralize” and “censorship” don’t get a mention. The first use of the term in regards to cryptocurrency appears to have occured on the Bitcointalk forum in February 2010. In response to a post from Satoshi announcing the first automatic adjustment of the proof-of-work difficulty, forum member Sabunir replied: “How do you adjust this difficulty, anyway? (Administrating a decentralized system?)”

Eight years later and decentralization is the prefix for all things crypto. It’s a word so powerful that simply uttering it is justification enough for seeking $20 million in a crowdsale. The magic word may not have appeared in Satoshi’s white paper, but it has become a defining trait of cryptocurrencies…or at least it has to the ones that do more than pay lip service to the concept. It’s no coincidence that one of the most heated recurring arguments in the cryptoverse concerns the extent to which major cryptocurrencies are centralized.

Centralization is a dirty word around these parts, synonymous as it is with bankers, governments, control, and censorship. What’s the point in creating an IoT cryptocurrency with its own Direct Acyclic Graph if it’s reliant on a central coordinator? Or a Chinese smart contract blockchain that can be shut down by a kill switch? That doesn’t sound very true to the spirit of cryptocurrency, with all its promises of sidestepping oppressive regimes and facilitating peer-to-peer transactions. Put it this way: if bitcoin came with an off button or was mined by a single entity, shutting down darknet markets would have been a lot quicker and easier.

The State of Decentralization Today

The crypto space has come a long way since the dark web days of 2013, and while the need for censorship-resistant currency and platforms is as important as ever, many ICOs seem to be missing the point. If a token is reliant on the project’s founders staying alive or continuing to pay for their web hosting, it’s not decentralized. A truly decentralized cryptocurrency is one that ideally has as many nodes and validators as possible and which will continue to be usable come what may; subpoenas; death; hacks; schisms.

Of the 200-odd ICOs scheduled to take place in the coming weeks, there are some interesting “decentralized” projects to look forward to. Shopin, for example, is “the world’s first decentralized shopper profile built on the blockchain”. There’s also a decentralized lending and borrowing network (Datarius), video platform (Viewly), business data network (Loyakk Vega), and Git hosting (Ellcrys). Not all crowdsales claim decentralization as their USP in fairness. Cryptoflix, for example, aims to become a movie streaming and funding platform on the blockchain. Crypto and chill, anyone?

Decentralization isn’t the be all and end all of crypto. Many tokenized projects make no mention of it in their official documentation. Any ICO that does trade on the D-word, however, deserves close scrutiny to see whether it has any intention of making good on its promise. Talking about decentralization is easy. Delivering it is hard work.

Do you think decentralization matters? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock.

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The post Talking About Decentralization Is Easy – Achieving It Is Hard appeared first on Bitcoin News.