Day: March 8, 2018

Everyone got very excited a few years ago about blockchain technologies, the ledger system that was spawned by the arrival of bitcoin in 2009. It allows the recording of transactions to be automated and completely trusted, as the ledger system is tamperproof. The resulting excitement was that this could therefore replace many systems of contracts that are paper-based with smart, digital contracts.

The SEC sweep of ICOs does not mean that the regulator is taking issue with the concept of the Sale of Future Tokens (SAFT) per se, but rather with several specific issues that have become associated with the structure. David Weisberger explains important principles of securities laws that many SAFT launches and public ICOs potentially violate. Taken as a whole, adherence to these principles could create a better market for both entrepreneurs and investors, he argues.

Japan leads the cryptocurrency world both in trading volumes and crypto-friendly regulation. Now, sixteen crypto exchanges in Japan will establish a self-regulatory body to prevent hacks.

Regulatory Body For Cryptocurrency Market

Japan is the largest cryptocurrency market in the world, boasting 61% of global trading volume for Bitcoin, which is held by 2.7% of the country’s population. Its crypto-friendly regulation has allowed many businesses to emerge, including the first Bitcoin exchange in the world – a Bitcoin Market set up in 2010.

But where there’s money, there’s risk. That first Bitcoin Market was quickly brought due to a scam in the same year. As time went by, the crypto market in Japan flourished, as well as scams and hacks.

Four years later, the famous Mt. Gox heist was covered by the news media worldwide. The exchange went bankrupt after having approximately 850,000 bitcoins, belonging to customers and the company, stolen. In 2014, the hack was worth $450 million. Those bitcoins are now valued at $9.6 billion.

The Mt. Gox scandal led to an amendment to an existing law which required banks as well securities firm from allowing Bitcoin transactions for customer accounts that were unregistered. Coming into effect in April 2017, the amendment also recognized virtual currencies as a method of payment.

The amendment, however, didn’t keep criminals from stealing approximately $534 million in NEM tokens, transferred through a total of nineteen accounts. The security breach, in January 2018, was caused by the lack of strong security measures of Coincheck. Japan’s financial watchdog, Financial Services Agency, ordered the exchange to improve its security practices. The company announced it would repay all 260,000 users affected in Japanese yen using its own capital.

After the hack, NEM announced it has created an automated tagging system: “This automated system will follow the money and tag any account that receives tainted money. NEM has already shown exchanges how to check if an account has been tagged. So the good news is that the money that was hacked via exchanges can’t leave.”

In the wake of the Coincheck hack, Japan Cryptocurrency Business Association and Japan Blockchain Association, representing Japan’s sixteen FSA-regulated crypto exchanges, have merged into a new self-regulatory organization, following a request by the FSA. The new body will aim to improve security measures and develop standards for activities around initial coin offerings.

Without a name for now, the new self-regulatory body announced it has appointed its Chairman, Taizen Okuyama, president of Forex trading firm Money Partners Group and Chairman of the JCBA. The newly appointed Vice Chairman is Yuzo Kano, CEO of bitFlyer and head of the JBA.

The post Japan Creates Regulatory Body to Prevent Cryptocurrency Exchange Hacks appeared first on NewsBTC.

BitcoinCasino.us has long been respected among cryptocurrency gaming enthusiasts. Their dedicated customer service team has them being called, among many in the crypto gaming community, one of the most enjoyable gaming experiences on the web. Of course there is no physical bitcoincasino.us casino. All of their games and weekly tournaments are on the internet. Regardless, this online gaming magnate has continued to gain trust with cryptocurrency casino gamers.

There are many reasons for bitcoincasino.us being called the top bitcoin casino around. Their industry leading customer service has been long respected as responding to customers questions and concerns quickly, most of the time immediately after the query is placed. This is important to many crypto gamers seeing as there are, most of the time, large sums of money being won and lost on bitcoincasino.us, and other similar platforms. Another reason that bitcoincasino.us is being called a top notch gaming website is it’s standing with popular gaming portals and casino review sites.

Bitcoincasino.us has proven through tested reviews that it’s services are second to none in crypto gaming.

The website has a very high conversion rate. This means that when players use bitcoincasino.us to satisfy their crypto gaming needs, they return more often than they do to other websites which offer similar services. This brand popularity has contributed greatly to the growing reputation bitcoincasino.us has earned. This reputation for many of it’s customers, and those familiar with cryptocurrency gaming, is that bitcoincasino.us is veritably a premium gaming institution with high end customer service. It’s professional player retention team works hard to keep their customers happy. It appears that customer service is the most important aspect of bitcoincasino.us’s business model.

Another reason that bitcoincasino.us has been called the best bitcoin casino around is it’s payments never being late. On time payments are a guarantee at bitcoincasino.us. Their customers rest assured that they will be payed in bitcoin or in their cryptocurrency of choice on the first of each month, without delay. Bitcoincasino.us accepts payments in many different cryptocurrencies, these include: bitcoin, bitcoincash, litecoin, and dodgecoin. Withdraws are also available in a variety of cryptocurrencies, including: bitcoin, bitcoincash, litecoin, and dogecoin. While everyone is probably familiar with bitcoin, bitcoin cash, litecoin, and dogecoin are slightly lesser known cryptos. Bitcoin cash was intruduced in August 2017 after concerns were raised about the scalability of bitcoin. It’s current market cap is 19.7 billion USD. Litecoin is a cryptocurrency similar to bitcoin. It was introduced in 2011 and has a current market cap of 12.7 billion USD. It’s original author is Charlie Lee. Dogecoin was originally developed as a “joke” currency but gained popularity due to it having the logo of the doge dog internet meme. It surprisingly quickly gained a market capitalization of 60 million USD within a month. Dogecoin’s currenct market cap is 500 million USD.

With bitcoincasino.us making all of these currencies available for deposits or withdrawals it is easy to see why it is chosen by most crypto gamers as their online cryptocurrency casino of choice. Not only can you deposit and withdraw in a variety of crypto curriencies, but your earnings in all of these currencies are unlimited. This is not common with online crypto currency casinos. Not only are your earnings unlimited by they are also completely anonymous. All you need to sign up for bitcoincasino.us is an email address and a bitcoin address to process your payments.

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.

Diversifying a US retirement portfolio with digital assets is growing in popularity and a nascent industry is emerging — cryptocurrency IRA and 401k providers. BitcoinIRA, CryptoIRA and BitIRA are some of the big names in the space but what exactly do they do?  

Want to get into cryptocurrency but the volatility and exchange fees put you off? This startup might have the ideal solution – a credit card that pays customers Bitcoin instead of other rewards.

Spend Inflationary Currency, Get Deflationary Currency

Typically, credit card companies offer incentives to get customers to use their cards. These might be cash back on purchases, or air miles, or some form of reward points. One new company are trying to transfer this model to the world of cryptocurrency. Thomas Harrison of Blockrize is hoping to reward his customers directly in Bitcoin or Ethereum.

Despite being barely out of the “drawing board” phase of planning, 25-year-old Harrison claims there is already interest in the idea. He told MarketWatch that there is currently a 2,000-person list of customers eager to receive one of the first cards from Blockrize. This is impressive, particularly when you consider the company is lacking a card issuer at present.

The idea is simple. Use the card for purchases in store or online and receive 1% of the value spent back in crypto. Customers will be able to decide whether they want paying in Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), or a 50/50 split of the two. The plan is to find a suitable banking partner and to launch by the end of the year.

Harrison explained to MarketWatch that he started investing in digital currencies in September 2017. Despite finding it “an exhilarating experience”, the young entrepreneur was put off by the steep fees he faced at the likes of CoinBase and other exchange services. It was in response to these charges that he came up with the idea for Blockrize.

Nick Clements, a personal finance expert at MagnifyMoney and former credit card company employee agrees that a crypto rewards scheme is a good idea. He likened Blockrize’s model to existing reward programs such as flyer miles. He went on to state that many people wanted exposure to cryptocurrency but were scared off by the volatility or the complexity of getting involved. Such a rewards program could help get the lay person familiar with using cryptocurrency without any immediate cost (or risk) to them.

For now, Harrison is the only full-time employee at Blockrize. He is, however, looking for more team members. The young company are currently receiving advice from Zak Allen of fintech company Shogun Enterprises, Alex Atallah from OpenSea.io, a peer-to-peer crypto market, and financial services advisory company Card Linq’s Jonathan Gelfand.

One potential stumbling block for the startup will be taxation. It’s unclear whether the crypto rewards will be subject to capital-gains or another form of taxes. However, the company have appointed a legal team to help figure that one out.

It seems likely that the accruing gains made on such a card would need to be taxed in some way, particularly as Uncle Sam seems keen to take as large a slice of the crypto pie as possible. However, as with any cutting-edge technology, legislation and regulation is lagging behind the rapidly evolving space. As such, there is no precedent or law governing the tax obligation of such a reward structure for now.

The post Forget Air Miles, This Credit Card Firm to Give Customers Cryptocurrency appeared first on NewsBTC.

McAffee issued a report linking North Korean hackers with a recent cyberattack on the Turkish financial sector. #NEWS

A few weeks ago, American actor and martial arts expert Steven Seagal endorsed a potentially sketchy cryptocurrency startup called “Bitcoiin.” Bitcoiin — an Etheruem-based token that is not associated with Bitcoin — markets itself as the “next generation of Bitcoin” and is selling tokens to investors after recently completing an initial coin offering (ICO) that the startup claims raised $75 million.

Seagal’s contribution to the press release announcing his endorsement was, “Flow with whatever may happen and let your mind be free. Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the ultimate.”

Cease and Desist

Yesterday, Wednesday, March 7th, New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal and the Division of Consumer Affairs announced that the state’s Bureau of Securities had issued an emergency Cease and Desist Order against Bitcoiin, also known as Bitcoiin 2nd Generation, Bitcoiin 2Gen, or B2G. In the Cease and Desist Order, the Bureau finds that Bitcoiin is violating the State’s Uniform Securities Law by offering investors unregistered securities in its ICO of its cryptocurrency.

The Bureau also found that Bitcoiin violated the law by failing to disclose key material facts to prospective investors, including the identities of its principals, the physical address of its business, and the risks associated with the Bitcoiin investments.

Further, Bitcoiin failed to disclose key information about its “brand ambassador” Steven Seagal — including whether he owns any Bitcoiin coins. The entity does not disclose what expertise, if any, the celebrity has to ensure that the investment is appropriate and in compliance with federal and state securities laws. Also, there are no disclosures regarding the nature, scope, and amount of compensation paid by Bitcoiin for the celebrity’s promotion of the cryptocurrency.

Although Bitcoiin attempted to shield itself from securities regulators by stating that any price gains would come from market dynamics alone and not the efforts of the Bitcoiin team, even indirectly — a key part of the test for determining if a digital token is a security or not — the New Jersey regulators state that the startup offers no evidence to back this claim up.

In conclusion, the order asserts, the Bitcoiin team are offering unregistered securities, “engaging in fraud in connection with the offer or sale of securities,” and making “materially misleading statements” to potential investments.

Celebrity Endorsements 

Seagal’s endorsement comes as many celebrities are attempting to get involved with cryptocurrencies — both fresh startups and main contenders like Bitcoin. Perhaps most active in lending his celebrity to crypto-projects is Mr. Money, Floyd Mayweather Jr. In July 2017 he was the spokesman for Stox.com’s ICO and a month later came out in support of the Hubli Network.

Other celebrities have endorsed Bitcoin specifically, including Katy Perry, Richard Branson, and Iron Mike, Mike Tyson.

The post Steven Seagal-backed “Bitcoiin B2G” is Cracked Down by New Jersey appeared first on NewsBTC.

Columnist Michael J. Casey on how men in the cryptocurrency and blockchain community can do more to advance the engagement of women in the space.

Sierra Leone uses Blockchain to track votes in presidential elections, Swiss company Agora contributes technology and expertise. #NEWS

Wednesday of last week, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) executed a search warrant at the Bureau of Meteorology in Melbourne. According to ABC, people familiar with the raid said two employees were questioned regarding the use of the bureau’s powerful computers to mine cryptocurrencies. The rest of the bureau’s IT team was held in a conference room and told to wait while the two were questioned, they said. At least one of the employees who was questioned by the AFP has since gone on leave. As of yet, no one has been officially charged, but the investigation is continuing.

Cryptocurrencies are created by computers that have been tasked to solve complicated mathematical algorithms in a process known as mining. Over time, the equations become more difficult to solve, requiring miners to harness more computational power. Just last month, a group of scientists at a Russian nuclear research center were arrested for allegedly using the facility’s supercomputer to mine cryptocurrencies.

While mining cryptocurrency is not illegal, use of the bureau’s computers to carry out the process could be an illegal use of government resources. A spokesperson for the bureau and the AFP declined to answer questions, citing the ongoing investigation. This news comes just a month after the Bureau of Meteorology apologized for hosting fake ads that directed people to a Bitcoin scam, though it seems there is no connection between the scam and the current investigation.

If the employees were mining cryptocurrency, they may have been using the bureau’s computers to either avoid the significant electricity costs associated with mining, or they may have been taking advantage of the bureau’s powerful computational power, said Dr. Chris Berg, from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology’s Blockchain Innovation Hub.

“One possibility is that they’re trying to use some of the equipment that the Bureau of Meteorology have. The Bureau of Meteorology has some very fast computers. Another possibility, though, is that they’re just trying to get the Bureau of Meteorology to pay for the electricity. Mining is a very electricity-intensive task and they probably didn’t want to pay for it themselves,” said Dr. Berg.

With the dramatic rise in the value of cryptocurrencies over the past year, there have been several high-profile cases of dubious mining operations. One was in the form of YouTube ads which hijacked the computers of unsuspecting viewers to mine cryptocurrencies. Cyber-hackers also installed crypto-mining software onto a Tesla cloud account, and even more recently, 11 people were arrested for stealing computers from data centers in Iceland for mining.

The post Australia: Two Bureau of Meteorology Employees Questioned About Cryptocurrency Mining appeared first on NewsBTC.

A new “light paper” says the token could face “significant restrictions” should the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) deem it a security.

Is crypto market turning bearish?😳 #PRICE_ANALYSIS