Day: March 5, 2018

Bank of England Governor and consistent critic of cryptocurrency Mark Carney once again called for regulatory oversight of the market in a speech at Bloomberg’s European headquarters in London on Friday.

Carney Calls for More Regulation

Carney who is also head of the Financial Stability Board added his voice to the chorus of those calling for more regulation of Bitcoin and the overall alternative currency market.

Carney cited the extreme volatility of the crypto market and once again referred to the use of bitcoin to buy drugs and other contraband. While in the same speech saying that young investors don’t remember the pain of the 2008 market crash.

The accusation that Bitcoin is or has been used to buy drugs and other contraband has been addressed and dismissed as part of the function of every currency already.

The referencing of the 2008 housing market crash as a reason for more regulation of the crypto market, on the other hand, is the height of hypocrisy.

The 2008 crash was brought on by institutions trading in supposedly regulated commodities. A crash that saw governments bailing out banks and firms that created it but spawned little new regulatory measures and saw almost no prosecution.

Carney told the audience that outlawing or isolating the new forms of currency as China has is not the answer.

“A better path would be to regulate elements of the crypto-asset ecosystem to combat illicit activities, promote market integrity, and protect the safety and soundness of the financial system. Being part of the financial system brings enormous privileges but with them great responsibilities.” He said. 

He then went on to endorse the U.S. SEC’s steps to regulate the way cryptocurrency are issued and traded in order to reduce the amount of fraud. To hold cryptocurrency exchanges to the same standards as the institutions that trade securities.

Those would be the same institutions that perpetrated the events leading up to the 2008 financial meltdown by selling fraudulent loans just down wall street from the SEC.

Perhaps Mr. Carney doesn’t remember that Bernie Madoff who ran the biggest Ponzi scheme in history, to the tune of 50 Billion dollars, once sat on the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association. A regulatory association founded to curb fraudulent practices.

Moving Towards the Future

Carney talked about the future use of the technology behind Bitcoin as it will eventually be used by banking systems. Noting that if centralized banks issued digital currency it may lead to the destabilization of the quality of currency but that the Bank of England remains open to its possibilities.

“For many reasons, the crypto-assets in your digital wallets are unlikely to be the future of money …But that is not meant to dismiss them. Their core technology is already having an impact. Bringing crypto-assets into the regulatory tent could potentially catalyze innovations to serve the public better.” Said Mark Carney

Promoting blockchain technology while dismissing cryptocurrency is becoming a common argument among those against the core principles of decentralized currency. Which sounds a lot like once established banks adapt blockchain to handle centralized currency everything will be fine.

The post Bank of England Says Cryptocurrencies Will Fall, With False Claims appeared first on NewsBTC.

The price of the XRP cryptocurrency, overseen by startup Ripple, has jumped 16 percent on speculation a major U.S. exchange could add support.

NFL Star cornerback and infamous trash talker Richard Sherman went on Business Insider to put crypto-haters in their place. “Have you lost money in stocks … in real estate?” He challenges the camera before adding “You will make money in Bitcoin, and other cryptocurrency. So invest, intelligently please.”

Talk of investing in Cryptocurrency is everywhere but how do you invest intelligently? Is it the biggest scam ever perpetrated or the easiest get rich quick scheme imaginable?

Invest Intelligently

The truth is it’s a currency market that works, at least as far as the investor goes, much like the stock market. There are ways to invest longterm for slow gains as well as day trading to make fast money on speculation.

“At the end of the day, cryptoassets are just like every other asset. You need to have a firm investment thesis, and you should reevaluate it as more information becomes available.” Emin Gün Sirer  Prof. Cornell University

Just like any investment, in buying and selling cryptocurrency the best infromed are most likely to succeed. The following are some basic steps to get started.

Once you have an understanding of the way the crypto market works the first step is setting up an account with an exchange. Make sure the exchange lists the preferred coin(s). Also, check the exchanges fee structure and make sure you can move your investment in and out of the exchange safe and easy.

There are now countless alternatives to Bitcoin on the worldwide market. For the first time buyer choosing either Bitcoin or one of the other large cap coins like litecoin, ethereum, Ripple or Bitcoin cash is an easy and relatively safe way to get into the system.

Price is important but it’s not the only factor when deciding when to buy. Knowing the valuation, available coin supply, what technology uses the coin meets and what is the targeted market are all important factors to success.

Like any investment, the old adage of buy low – sell high works the same in the cryptomarket.

If investing in one of the major coins this strategy probably doesn’t matter so much as the price will follow the market trend.

With lesser known, low valued coins be wary of pump and dumps.

which is when a coin is being artificially inflated by someone (or some group) in the position to create an artificial value in order to dump their holdings at a large profit at the expense of followers.

Know Why to Buy

There are a few important factors that will generally determine whether a coin will succeed once it is launched.

• What market or technology is the coin going to service or advance?
• Does the technology behind the coin make sense?
• Who is behind the coin? Check out the team that created the tech and strategy of the coin, make sure the claims they make are realistic.

There is a lot of news about hackers stealing coins in the news. This happens when investors leave their coins on the exchange after purchase.

An offline wallet with 2-factor authentication, like google authenticator, is a must to keep assets safe.

There is another old adage associated when investing; beware of need, greed, and speed. Do the reading, get at least a basic understanding of the market and technology. Invest only amounts that can be comfortably lost.

The post NFL Star Richard Sherman: Invest in Cryptocurrencies Responsibly appeared first on NewsBTC.

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has been hit by a class action lawsuit over alleged insider trading during its launch of bitcoin cash trading.

A member of China’s top political advisory board proposes that the country launch a national crypto exchange. #NEWS

Bitcoin price is flirting with key resistance on the technical charts and a move in either direction could be on the cards.

Roger Ver is quite an intriguing and somewhat controversial figure in the cryptocurrency world. As a notorious early Bitcoin investor, he has also kept close tabs on other currencies. During a recent interview, Roger mentioned how Ethereum will eventually overtake Bitcoin. A remarkable thought, even though Bitcoin is not without flaws by any means.

Roger Ver Sees Little Future for Bitcoin

In the world of cryptocurrency, virtually everyone knows the name Roger Ver. He is one of the earliest Bitcoin investors and made a lot of good money doing so. He is also a  very strong [financial] supporter of the Bitcoin Cash venture. This Bitcoin hard fork has made quite the impact on the overall cryptocurrency market in recent months. Diversification is key in the world of cryptocurrency, as there is a lot more to check out than just Bitcoin.

Unsurprisingly, Roger Ver is not too convinced Bitcoin will remain the “top dog” for much longer. In a recent interview, he mentions how Ethereum will overtake Bitcoin in the near future. Given the recent price surge of Ether, Ethereum’s native token, it is evident things will only get better from here on out. A lot of innovation is coming to Ethereum, as are some much-needed network improvements.

According to Roger Ver, Ether is well underway to surpass Bitcoin. All it takes is doubling in price one more time to effectively reach this goal. That is, assuming the Bitcoin price doesn’t increase further. Rest assured BTC is not done just yet in this regard either. An interesting battle has been going on between both of these currencies. Market cap is just one of the metrics people need to pay attention to when it comes to these cryptocurrencies, though.

The Future of Ethereum

More specifically, Ether has surpassed Bitcoin in a few other key metrics. It is cheaper to use most of the time, and a lot faster in terms of confirmations. Ethereum’s throughput has also surpassed that of Bitcoin on multiple occasions in the past. All of this may change with improved SegWit adoption and the Lightning network launch in a few months. Until that happens, it seems Ether will remain in the lead regarding the metrics that actually matter.

Roger Ver is also impressed with Ethereum’s developers, by the look of things. In his opinion, Bitcoin no longer holds the top spot in a lot of regards. Once people start to realize that is exactly the case, things will get very interesting across all markets. Especially Ethereum’s switch to proof-of–stake will be pretty significant for the network as a whole. When Ethereum will overtake Bitcoin, remains to be determined, though.

All of this paints an interesting outlook for both Bitcoin and Ethereum. Assuming Roger Ver is correct in his assessment, we will either see a major Ethereum price increase of a big Bitcoin price dip. Right now, the latter seems almost impossible, as the Bitcoin price has been moving up as of late. Ethereum, on the other hand, has been stuck in sideways momentum for several weeks now. It will be interesting to see how things unfold in this regard. Anything is possible in the cryptocurrency world.

The post Roger Ver Says Ethereum May Overtake Bitcoin in Market Cap appeared first on NewsBTC.

Bitcoin was born on the internet but destined to end up in court. Where there’s money, there’s a trail of gold-diggers, scammers, and slighted plaintiffs, and as bitcoin has risen in value, so have the court cases. With lawsuits, threats of litigation, subpoenas, and regulators sending gavels slamming in courtrooms across the land, this week’s got it all. Get your popcorn at the ready as we prepare to chew over the highlights from This Week in Bitcoin.

Also read: Highly Organized Crime Blamed for $2mil Bitcoin Mining Burglaries

Crypto Goes to Court

The biggest winners in cryptocurrency this week seem to be the lawyers – unless you’re one of the attorneys the SEC is reportedly chasing for issuing dubious advice to ICOs. The number of crypto startups subpoenaed by the SEC could be anywhere from a dozen to 80 depending on who you believe. The truth is, no one, outside of the Securities and Exchange Commission, seems to know. Techcrunch founder Michael Arrington is confirmed to be one of the lucky winners of an SEC subpoena; the remainder are keeping schtum for now.

Rarely a week goes by when the SEC doesn’t loom large the cryptocurrency news cycle, which has more to do with the spate of dodgy ICOs than it does with the agency’s love of the limelight (though it’s certainly not publicity shy). This week’s second most popular story also involved the SEC, indirectly at least: Poloniex exchange is being bought by Circle – possibly with the approval of the SEC, if the contents of a leaked slide from a Circle employee is accurate.

Craig Wright Goes to Court

The other legal bombshell that dropped is of the salacious kind. The Craig Wright case has got it all – stolen bitcoins, billions of dollars at stake, Satoshi Nakamoto, forged signatures, fake wallets. The lawsuit, should it come to court, is sure to provide high entertainment for everyone captivated by the sideshow that is Craig Wright and his claim to have been Satoshi Nakamoto, even though technically that’s not what this case is about. We wrote:

It is put forward that Mr. Wright conspired against the ignorance of Mr. Kleiman’s family after his death in 2013. Because Mr. Kleiman’s heirs were unaware of their family member’s bitcoin efforts and potential bounty, “Craig perpetrated a scheme against Dave’s estate to seize Dave’s bitcoins and his rights to certain intellectual property associated with the Bitcoin technology”.

There’s a very high chance this case won’t proceed any further, in which case the juicy morsels to be found in the 38-page lawsuit are the closest we’ll ever get to the truth; i.e not very. We now live in a time where blockchain governance is possible, and while the likes of Kleros can’t intermediate in real world disputes, it will be interesting to see whether the crypto community can eventually deal with its dirty laundry in-house.

As the value of crypto assets continues to escalate, it’s inevitable that there will be more cases of this nature, and indeed of every conceivable nature: if it’s not early adopters suing the living daylights out of one another, it’s federal agents indicting bitcoin sellers for the “crime” of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. Bitcoin is as great as ever, but humanity could seriously use a better algorithm. Proof of Heart.

File Under WTF

If the Craig Wright story wasn’t weird enough for you, get a load of Bill Gates and his damning indictment on Killer Crypto. Or how about the hacker who stole 37,000 ETH from Coindash last year…and has now given most of them back? Curiouser and curiouser. Not so much weird as odd is the story of Bitpay banning the sale of “explicit sexual content”. We wrote: “Bitcoin was originally created to free people’s money from the control and censorship of regulators, banks and governments. Companies in the ecosystem are supposed to be infused with this ethos, but as they strive to become more mainstream some, like Bitpay apparently, adopt the more prevailing standards in the business world.”

Speaking of vice, this week’s most popular story concerns Las Vegas strippers getting bitcoin tattoos. Because your spouse might explore your credit card statement, but she’s never gonna explore the blockchain. The final story we’ll squeeze in from this week’s roundup concerns NEO. Beating up on IOTA is so passe – this week everyone’s taking shots at NEO, and unlike IOTA, it doesn’t fight back. The Chinese blockchain is either the best thing ever or the worst thing ever, we reported. Then Bitcoin.com’s trading tip columnist Eric Wall waded in. Then Jameson Lopp got involved.

Which altcoin will be next in the firing line? Submit your suggestions below and we’ll reconvene next week in This Week in Bitcoin to find out.

What was your favorite story from this week? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, and Twitter.

Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section.

The post This Week in Bitcoin: Courtroom Drama appeared first on Bitcoin News.

PayPal files patent to increase the speed of crypto transactions. #NEWS

People who keep a close eye on the cryptocurrency markets will have noticed the XRP price is currently on the rise. With a solid 16.6% gain over the past 4 hours, things are certainly looking pretty interesting. Whether or not this current price trend cna remain intact, is a different matter altogether.

XRP Price Rise is Quite Interesting

This latest XRP price increase comes on the heels of further speculation of how either Coinbase or GDAX will enable trading of Ripple’s native asset. It has become evident these rumors tend to surface every now and then, although they have been proven wrong every single time to date. While it is not impossible to think XRP will effectively make its way to major exchange sin the future, there is no official indication that will happen in the near future.

Even so, these current XRP price rumors are effectively fueling the XRP price spike and pushing it back over $1. Given the issues this market has seen over the past few weeks, returning to above $1 is pretty significant for XRP price speculators as a whole. Over the past seven days, we have seen the XRP price drop as low as $0.89, although that is still a lot higher compared to its value in early 2017.

With this current XRP price trend in place, we are looking at an uptrend the may elevate this value to well above $1.15 in the coming hours. At the same time, more and more people realize Coinbase is not adding XRP anytime soon, although it is possible things will improve in the future. Even so, things are slowly coming together for RIpple as a company. and the real-world use cases for XRP will continue to increase in the future. That will undoubtedly affect the XRP price in the future as well.

With $1.642bn in 24-hour trading volume, things are not looking all that back for the XRP price as of right now. It is evident this increased trading volume is mainly fueled by speculation over the Coinbase addition, which will not materialize anytime soon. Even so, this current trading volume should be more than sufficient to keep the XRP price going for quite some time to come.

As of right now, the vast majority of XRP trading volume originates from the Bithumb exchange. That is not entirely surprising as of right now, as South Korean exchanges tend to inflate the trading volume of specific currencies every now and then. Binance is in second place, albeit they only have a very small lead over Upbit in this regard. It will be interesting to see how all of these markets evolve in the future, as we see three Korean markets in the top five right now.

For the time being, it remains to be seen what the future holds for the XRP price as of right now. With the current momentum in place, things are looking pretty interesting, but maintaining this trend is pretty difficult when looking at the bigger picture. At the same time, it is a matter of time until all markets turn into full-on bullish mode once again. Whether or not that will result in positive momentum for the XRP price, remains to be determined.

There are always interesting developments to take note of in the cryptocurrency world. Right now, the XRP price is surging once again. Thanks to solid gains over the past few hours, the XRP price surpassed $1. Most of this excitement is fueled by speculation and hype, though.

XRP Price is Soaring

No one will deny the XRP price is moving up quite nicely as of right now. Its 17% gain over the past 24 hours should not be taken lightly whatsoever. As is usually the case in this industry, the current price jump is primarily fueled by hype, speculation, and expectations. That doesn’t mean Ripple is not a solid project, though, but it is evident all things need to be put into their proper perspective at all times.

This time around, it seems most people expect Ripple’s asset to be added to the Coinbase exchange. It is not the first time such rumors surface. Last time around, the information was completely bogus, eventually triggering a massive market sell-off in the process. It is not unlikely history will repeat itself in this regard.

There is no indication Coinbase will list XRP anytime soon. The company has made no official announcements as of right now. That doesn’t mean the digital asset will never find its way to this exchange in the future. For now, however, the company is seemingly not interested in dealing with XRP.  Situations like these are always subject to change, though. For now, there is no indication such a listing will occur anytime soon.

The Positive Momentum for Ripple

Although speculation fuels the XRP price right now, parent company Ripple has made positive strides. Their xRapid solution is of great interest to major remittance providers. Some of the world’s biggest names have signed up to trial this technology. It is unclear if this will lead to real-world integration in the future, but the tone is set. xRapid makes use of XRP for cross-border liquidity, thus the use cases for this asset will eventually increase in number.

Even so, it remains unlikely either Coinbase of GDAX will enable XRP trading. While anything is possible in this industry, nothing is true unless an official statement is issued by the company in question. So far, that has not happened in any official capacity as yet. With positive things happening to the company, the value of its native asset will increase eventually. Unfortunately, a lot of people want to get rich quick in cryptocurrency, which often leads to awkward price momentum.

On paper, XRP has a good chance to become a major player in terms of real-world adoption. Unlike traditional cryptocurrencies, this asset can effectively make a positive impact right now. If xRapid turns out to be a success for players such as MoneyGram and Western Union, the world of remittance will look very different very soon. That would be a much better reason for an XRP price rise compared to fake Coinbase rumors.

The post Ripple Price Rises as new Fake Coinbase Listing Rumors Appear appeared first on NewsBTC.

NewsBTC is known to conduct interviews on a regular basis, covering some of the interesting blockchain projects. This time, we came across ORS — a company with an ambitious vision for the future… to empower 1 billion new (small) entrepreneurs and enabling them to compete with big corporations. It is enabled by the use of Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain.

We interviewed Fabio Zoffi, the CEO and Chairman of the Board at ORSSA (Switzerland) to know more about the platform.

NewsBTC: What made you want to build such a global community of entrepreneurs through technology?

Within a few decades, robots and A.I. will run almost all business and unless our children become scientists, there will not be enough jobs for a population of almost 10 billion people. Brilliant minds like Stephen Hawking are very worried that the owners of the robotic plants will not want to share the productivity gains and therefore a dystopian scenario might occur: a very few giant corporations and extremely wealthy individuals will dominate and control almost all assets. I don’t want this for my children, I envision instead a planet with billions of small, and independent companies trading and working together, coordinated through what I call the ABC building blocks of technologies: Algorithms, Blockchain, Cryptocurrency.

NewsBTC: Why that?

Fabio: Well, billions of entrepreneurs mean billions of financially independent people, free in their life and free in their mind. This network of people will create a completely new social contract, a much better one and with much less unhealthy concentration of money and power. That’s why ORS has entered the crypto space. (video)

NewsBTC:  Fabio, how can these three technologies (Algorithms, Blockchain and Cryptocurrency) help small business to survive and compete against big corporations?

Fabio: Let’s imagine an extreme use case, like that of a farmer working somewhere in a small Southeast Asian country and struggling to competitively sell his produce and make decisions on volumes of crops to be planted, timing, logistics of deliveries, etc. We, at ORS, can empower such a farmer to run his enterprise optimally through collecting data (so-called Big Data) from various sources such as weather forecasts and soil quality and run algorithms for predicting crop yields(video) and for dynamic pricing optimization (even linked to commodities futures exchanges, if meaningful), that would help in such decision making.

The blockchain can be used to give transparency about the whole food chain, giving him an advantage due to consumers’ sudden possibility of easily checking the uncorrupted quality of the farmer’s biological products. And if he can get paid via cryptocurrencies, no distributor will ever again be able to abuse his position of power when not paying him in time. This is only one such example of how the ABC technology building blocks can be used by the “small guy” to keep and run his business successfully against large players. This approach can help us create a much more equal society. This is our vision for the future.

NewsBTC: Let’s take a step back and talk about the history of ORS. From the website, it looks like the company has been delivering AI and algorithm-based software solutions to large customers worldwide for a long time.

Fabio: That’s right. Our visionary CTO Pierluigi Riva founded ORS some 20 years ago, following his Ph.D. in Operational Research, the science of optimization through math. During his study, he discovered the value in providing software and to help various businesses optimizing their operations and processes. Since then, we have been offering such products to a large international client base. Our team of over 100 scientists and IT developers includes mathematicians, econometricians, physicists, economists and other experts in the fields of science.

NewsBTC: Could you tell us more about your clients? Which industries do you mostly work in?

Fabio: We have customers among Fortune 2000 enterprises and we work across industries including retail, energy, finance, and manufacturing – we have calculated that our software solutions save our clients over $1 billion yearly.

NewsBTC: OK, but what made you think that ORS needs to enter the blockchain industry?

Fabio: When it occurred to me how powerful the combination of A.I. with blockchain and cryptocurrency could be for helping businesses achieve what I am calling efficiency singularity. What I mean by that is the theoretical maximum efficiency and productivity achievable.

I asked our developers to start working on creating intelligent connectors of these three technologies, which is what we now call “Hypersmart Contracts.”

Simply put: any value chain is basically composed of three major flows: (i) the flow of goods/services; (ii) the flow of information; (iii) the flow of payments. ORS, thanks to its algorithms, is already able to “extract” extremely high efficiency — conditioned upon data availability — from the processes related to the movement of goods/services within a value chain, by synchronizing the activities of all the participants, even independent ones. However, the flows of information, documents, and payments are still very slow, cumbersome, and somehow stuck in the past.

The Columbus’ egg was to understand that blockchain can be used for collaboratively collecting and sharing information and that Ethereum smart contracts are very useful for executing instant payments without financial intermediaries.

NewsBTC: Hypersmart Contracts? What are they and what makes them different from the smart contracts we are used to hearing about?

Fabio: Our Hypersmart Contracts are intelligent connectors, which activate A.I. algorithms (off-chain) to solve complex efficiency/optimization problems utilizing data stored on-chain by independent, decentralized organizations; and they can also release instant crypto payments. We are thus making all our algorithms and solutions available to the community at large – providing the ABC technology building blocks: Algorithms, Blockchain, and Cryptocurrency to entrepreneurs.

NewsBTC: Can you give us an example of one such contract?

Fabio: We have sealed a deal with our partners at Eidoo Wallet in Italy to offer their users our Crypto-Robo- Advisor(video). Such A.I.-based Hypersmart Contract takes into account every users’ investment preferences and risk profiles and on the basis of that makes portfolio rebalancing and diversification recommendations. Please check out what our partners said about the agreement.

NewsBTC: Great! How can one purchase such Hypersmart Contracts and Algorithms?

Fabio: All our solutions and software will be available on the Platform we are building and can be purchased using the ORST, our Utility Token.

NewsBTC: Your company is already so well known in Europe and beyond. So why go through the trouble of launching an ICO?

Fabio: Because I discovered this is a fantastic way to create a community of developers, entrepreneurs, crypto enthusiasts worldwide. That’s a good starting point for our goal of empowering 1 billion of new entrepreneurs thanks to our technologies.

NewsBTC: Let’s talk about the ICO in a bit more detail then. When is the token sale taking place?

Fabio: The Main Token Sale will start on April 28^th and ends on May 26^th.

NewsBTC: Has there been a pre-sale already?

Fabio: We have successfully closed the pre-ICO at EUR 10 million and are aiming to collect another 15 million during the main token sale. So, the hard cap on the whole ICO is at 25 million euro. It should be noted that our pre-ICO investors have received no bonus or discount thus creating a level playing field for all ORST purchasers.

NewsBTC: What is the price of an individual token?

Fabio: The tokens are priced at EUR 0.05.

NewsBTC: Do you require all ORST purchasers to pass a KYC procedure?

Fabio: Of course! We are committed to conducting business in the most transparent and law-compliant manner. We thus require all ORST purchasers to register on the ICO Engine in order to pass the KYC requirements. We are, unfortunately, excluding any Chinese and US citizens from participating in our ICO due to legal requirements.

NewsBTC: OK thanks a lot, Fabio! What is the best way to follow ORS and stay up-to-date on all the news?

Fabio: We will, of course, be publishing all the major news on our website: www.orsgroup.io. In addition, we are present across all the major social media platforms including Telegram / Facebook / Twitter / YouTube / Medium.

NewsBTC: Thanks! Can I join your community of 1 billion new entrepreneurs?

Fabio: That’s what the ORST is for

The post ORS Group Is on a Mission to Empower 1 Billion New Entrepreneurs by 2040 — Thanks to AI & Blockchain appeared first on NewsBTC.

At China’s annual “Two Sessions” political event, policy advisors have made a wide range of comments on the future of blockchain in the country.