Day: March 8, 2018

GMO Internet Inc., a major Japanese company investing in Internet-related businesses and listed on the first Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, has been publishing monthly reports on its earnings and suchlike from the mining cryptocurrency business it has been conducting since December 20 last year.

Established in 1991, GMO Internet is engaged in the Internet advertising and media, Internet securities, and mobile entertainment businesses across the entire GMO Internet group, centering on the Internet infrastructure business. Furthermore, GMO Internet established GMO Coin, Inc. as a group member, and from May 2017 GMO Coin, Inc. has been providing services that enable the foreign exchange trading of cryptocurrency, and buy and sell transactions of cryptocurrency.

In its monthly report, GMO Internet announces the amount of Bitcoin (the units of Bitcoin and the ticker symbol are BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (the units of Bitcoin Cash and the ticker symbol are BCH) acquired by the company by mining. For reference, GMO Internet also announces the rates as of the end of the month of BTC/JPY and BCH/JPY, and the hash rate, the speed at which a computer completes an operation in the Bitcoin code. GMO Internet reports that these amounts and rates only started to be announced from the 20th in the case of December 2017, and as a result the figures were slightly smaller. However, the hash rate has been increasing from January to February due to the increase in the number of mining computers being operated. In the future, the number of computers being operated will be increased as planned.

December 2017
Bitcoin mining reward: 21 BTC
Bitcoin Cash reward: 213 BCH
Hash rate: 22 PH/s

January 2018
Bitcoin mining reward: 93 BTC
Bitcoin Cash reward: 25 BCH
Hash rate: 27 PH/s

February 2018
Bitcoin mining reward: 124 BTC
Bitcoin Cash reward: 287 BCH
Hash rate: 108 PH/s

GMO Internet also announced that it will start the cloud service Z.com Cloud Mining from August 2018. Currently, GMO Internet is accepting advance applications from those who wish to use the service, and from March 2018 the company has been holding briefings about the service in nine cities around the world. Moreover, to realize a next generation mining board computer for high-performance mining, GMO Internet is moving forward with the research and development of state-of-the-art semiconductor chips (mining chips) together with partner companies that possess semiconductor design technology.

In Japan, many listed companies such as major financial services firms and Internet-related companies are planning to participate in the cryptocurrency business. Japan was the first country to develop various legal frameworks such as registering as a licensed cryptocurrency exchange operator by the Financial Services Agency, and in the future attention will focus on how the major players in Japan develop, along with any future initiatives concerned with Japan’s laws and regulations.

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Even though all cryptocurrency markets are on wobbly legs right now, some altcoins make positive ways at the same time. The NEM price, for example, is going up pretty nicely, thanks to a solid 9.13% gain over the past 24 hours. It is evident the currency still has a long road of recovery ahead as we speak, but things are looking up.

NEM Price Momentum is Rather Surprising

Although no one will be surprised to learn the cryptocurrency markets have taken yet another overnight hit for no good reason, there are a few positive trends to take note of as well. More specifically, the NEM price is moving up quite nicely, even though it remains to be seen how long this trend can be maintained. As of right now, we are looking at a 9.13% NEM price increase, which effectively catapults the altcoin’s value to just over $0.35.

To put this current trend into perspective, the NEM price gain is a direct result of an increase in the NEM/BTC ratio. More specifically, this ratio increased by 14.73% over the past 24 hours, which is only to be expected as the Bitcoin price has hit another major roadblock. For now, all of the uncertainty surrounding the Bitcoin price will certainly send further shockwaves throughout the industry, although it is a matter of time until things improve again.

Even though the NEM price is far from its all-time high as of right now, this current uptrend is not looking all that bad. With the NEM price dropping from $0.42 to $0.28 earlier this week, the current uptrend is all the more impressive when looking at the bigger picture. It also shows how NEM is a very volatile market, which puts it on par with virtually all other cryptocurrencies as of right now.

This current NEM price trend materializes despite just $51.3 million in 24-hour trading volume. It is unclear why the demand for NEM is so low as of right now, even though the overall cryptocurrency trading volume seems to be on the rise again as of right now.  Whether or not the NEM trading volume will increase in the near future, remains to be determined. Anything is possible at this point in the world of cryptocurrency, but for now, NEM seems to be in far less demand than one would expect.

As of right now, Zaif is the largest exchange based on NEM trading volume. Their lead over Upbit and Bittrex is not all that big, though, but very few of the exchanges are generating a lot of volume as of right now. It is good to see tow fiat currency pairs in the top three, although it remains to be seen how that will impact the overall volume in the coming hours and days.

The way things look right now, things are not looking all that great for the NEM price. While the current uptrend is certainly in place, it is evident this momentum will not last all that long. With all other markets still struggling for traction right now, it is only normal we will see a lot more volatility affecting NEM and other cryptocurrencies in the future. What that means for the NEM price over the next few hours, remains to be determined.

Bitcoin has moved back up to the $10,000 mark, but the technical recovery will likely be short-lived, according to the technical charts.

A lot of people made a lot of money out of Bitcoin. Most of them invested in the early stages many years ago and sold recently near the top. Industry experts are predicting the next big thing may not be Bitcoin but Ripple. The company has made a lot of news lately with new partnerships and adoption across the financial industry. But could it really be bigger than Bitcoin?

A number to crypto experts were recently interviewed by Forbes during which they predicted that Ripple and its cryptocurrency, XRP, could be the thing to invest in now. One prediction is that larger gains would be possible due to its low price below a dollar. Bitcoin is already trading at around $10,000 so to go up significantly from there it will need a lot of in-flowing cash.

Ripple Already has a Foot in the Door

With Ripple’s faster transaction speeds and lower fees it offers an easier way for financial institutions to embrace the digital currency, and over a hundred of which already have. That is according to Craig Cole from Cryptomaps who also attributes this to XRP’s monumental rise year on year. This time last year Ripple’s cryptocurrency was trading at just $0.006, it has risen over 14,300% to its current levels today. Cole also went on to say;

“Ripple just might be the catalyst in making cryptocurrency more mainstream. The virtual currency is certainly on the rise and has the potential to be the first token to truly disrupt an industry, and if it does, expect XRP to reach Bitcoin-like levels of ubiquity in the near future.”

John-Paul McCaffrey, Associate Director at Long Island University, added that “Although currently there isn’t a platform to exchange fiat currency for Ripple (XRP) this may change sooner than you think,” fueling the rumors that Coinbase may list the altcoin later this year. Another industry expert, Roman Guelfi-Gibbs, Director of Operations at Pinnacle Brilliance, thinks it will take another year before Ripple makes the big-time;

“Ripple certainly has the potential to move up a notch in 2018, but I think it will be more likely in 2019. As the market observes more projects being coded in other algorithms such as XRP, ETH will likely take a backseat to the next big coin/token. It will take some time for the markets to digest this, so I am projecting 2019 to be the likely time for it to take place.”

Global Block Chain Technologies president, Shidan Gouran, said that the dollar volume separating the top three market capacities would need to be closer for XRP to improve. Additionally consumer awareness needs to increase and it needs to be available to the masses on the same level as Bitcoin and Ethereum which can be bought in fiat.

Company CEO Brad Garlinghouse stated in a separate interview with CNBC that the crypto industry needs to work with regulators to go forwards.

“It’s incredibly important that the entire industry recognizes that we have to work with the regulators, we have to work with the system. The blockchain revolution is happening from within the system it’s not going to happen from outside the system.”

He went on to state that “There are some within the bitcoin community that really advocated not just down with banks but down with governments, we have been a contrarian relatively speaking in that regard,”

Naturally being a private and centralized company Ripple will have a different take on the ethos of cryptocurrencies. However, being of that nature has provided it more partnerships and adoptions than any other similar digital currency. As these continue, its role in the future of blockchain technology and mainstreaming cryptocurrencies will no doubt expand.

The post Will Ripple be Bigger the Bitcoin? Experts Say Yes appeared first on NewsBTC.

Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck has said it plans to compensate victims of its January hack starting next week.

This month a law firm called Polsinelli LLP published a study called “Cryptocurrency Class Action Lawsuits: A New Frontier” which explains that initial coin offerings (ICO) will spark a large number of litigation proceedings against cryptocurrency projects and businesses.

Also read: New Study Looks at the Cost to Mine BTC Across the Globe

‘ICOs May Be Fodder for Lawsuits’

A group of researchers from the law firm Polsinelli LLP published a paper that claims lawsuits surrounding ICO projects will likely grow exponentially in the future. Polsinelli researchers Michael Foster, Mark Olthoff, and Richard Levin explain that bitcoin and ethereum are often used to raise money for ICO projects. ICOs have raised billions of dollars over the past year but have come under scrutiny from regulators for fraudulent behavior and often failing to produce anything of value. “These ICOs, however, have spurred recent class action lawsuits,” the Polsinelli paper explains.

“Because anyone with an idea for a project can gain financial backing without going through the formalities of an IPO, there are obvious chances for the public to be scammed, leading to potential lawsuits,” the research emphasizes.

We believe it is highly likely other issuers of tokens will face class action lawsuits. Any company planning to conduct a token offering using an ICO should proceed with caution. Similarly, anyone looking to invest in a token offering should make sure the offering is conducted in compliance with applicable state and federal laws.

ICO Lawsuits Started Growing in Number Last Year

The law firm also details that several class action lawsuits have been filed against ICO projects near the end of 2017 and in early 2018. For instance, a lawsuit was filed against the Centra ICO in December, the ‘decentralized hedge fund’ Monkey Capital a week later, and two more filed against the companies Gigawatt, and ATB Coin. Throughout October and November 2017 four lawsuits were filed against the founders of the Tezos project and its ICO.

“The thread running through many ICO models is that they are often sold in a manner that may be contrary to state and federal securities laws,” the Polsinelli paper explains.

ICOs, therefore, may be fodder for lawsuits by investors alleging harm by being taken advantage of by the founders and the lack of regulatory oversight.

Other ICO Litigation Questions Need to Be Answered

The attorney’s say that there are a lot more questions to be answered rather than concentrating solely on ICOs that have failed. Polsinelli’s paper says that the public needs to know whether the tokens constitute securities, and whether material facts were misrepresented about the network. For instance, the terms and conditions of an ICO may not allow them to operate in the United States under current regulatory statutes.

What do you think about the research paper that says ICOs will likely foster class action lawsuits? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Images via Shutterstock, and Pixabay. 

Bitcoinocracy is a free and decentralized way to measure the Bitcoin community’s stance on a given proposition. Check vote.Bitcoin.com.

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Japanese government regulators shuttered two cryptocurrency exchanges in the long-awaited aftermath of the massive Coincheck hack when hundreds of millions of dollars in digital currency were lost.

FSA Suspends Two Exchanges

Japanese Financial Security Agency (FSA) released a statement outlining regulatory steps it was taking against cryptocurrency exchanges earlier today. Most prevalent is the order that both FSHO and Bit Station temporarily suspend their business for a month starting today March 8.

The statement alleges that FSHO “does not have a proper system to monitor trading and has not given training to its employees,” and that an employee at Bit Station has used customer funds for his own trading purposes.

In addition, five other exchanges, including Coincheck were ordered to improve their business practices. These steps have been months in the coming and were prompted by the massive Coincheck hack that resulted in the loss of 530 million worth of NEM cryptocurrency.

The hack was ruled in part to have been a result of lax security practices at the company where customer coins were held in online wallets making them easily accessible to cyber-criminals.

At the time Coincheck said it had planned on moving the coins to a more secure offline wallet but were understaffed and hadn’t yet had the time. The FSA searched Coincheck’s offices and handed down sanctions at the time, promising more to come on March 8.

Effects of Coincheck Hack Linger on

Though Coincheck has been promising to reimburse $400 million to all 260,000 customers since the time of the hack nothing has been paid out yet and it is still unclear how the funds will be found to do so.

Cryptocurrency exchanges are required to register with the FSA in Japan but at the time of the hack Coincheck was given an exception to do business while the FSA reviewed it’s application as it had grandfathered the ruling.

In February seven plaintiffs – two companies and five individuals – filed a lawsuit against Coincheck seeking compensation for their lost NEM coins. These actions by the FSA follow a lot of speculation in the country’s crypto community over security issues within the exchanges. Japan has been home to the two largest recorded hacks, Coincheck and the now legendary Mt. Gox. 

A more recent controversy over the amount of advertising that Japanese exchanges are engaged in showed that some companies were earmarking much more for billboards and television advertisements than for personal training and security protocols.

Japan is one of the leading countries implementing cryptocurrency at point of sales with over 10,000 business accepting it. The countries most popular exchange bitFlyer has over a million users.

The post Japan Suspends Trading on Two Cryptocurrency Exchanges appeared first on NewsBTC.

TokenSoft is today launching its white-label ICO solution with built-in regulatory frameworks that flexibly cater for different nations’ rules.

Key Highlights

• Ethereum classic price was under a lot of pressure and it broke the $25.00 support against the US dollar.
• There is a major bearish trend line forming with resistance at $22.40 on the hourly chart of the ETC/USD pair (Data feed via Kraken).
• The pair remains at a risk of more declines as long as the price is below $25.00.

Ethereum classic price fell further against the US Dollar and Bitcoin. ETC/USD is now well below the $25.00 level and it eyes more declines in the near term.

Ethereum Classic Price Resistance

There was no major upside move above $30.00 in ETC price recently against the US dollar. The price started declining and it broke a major support area near $25.00. It ignited further declines and the price even broke the $22.00 support. Looking at the current trend, there is a lot of pressure since the price is well below the $25.00 handle and the 100 hourly simple moving average.

The downside move was such that the price traded close to the $20.00 handle. The recent low formed was $20.27 from where an upside correction was initiated. It tested the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the last decline from the $29.55 high to $20.27 low. However, the upside move was capped and the price seems to be struggling to move above $22.30. There is also a major bearish trend line forming with resistance at $22.40 on the hourly chart of the ETC/USD pair.

The most crucial resistance on the upside is around $25.00. It is also close to the 50% Fib retracement level of the last decline from the $29.55 high to $20.27 low. On the downside, the $20.00 handle is a major support and a buy zone.

Hourly MACD – The MACD for ETC/USD is about to move back in the bearish zone.

Hourly RSI – The RSI for ETC/USD is currently below the 40 level.

Major Support Level – $20.00

Major Resistance Level – $22.40

Charts courtesy – Trading View

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Blockchain technology is a great technological innovation. Any features built on top of blockchain are also of great interest. More specifically, smart contracts are quite popular as of right now. Fujitsu has come up with a new technology to assess any issues or risks associated with smart contracts in their current form.

Smart Contracts are Great but Risky

No one will deny the potential of smart contracts is certainly there. They allow for automating many different aspects of business models being used today. However, there are also some risks associated with this new technology. As we have seen in the past, these contracts can be manipulated by hackers if the code is not secure.

Unfortunately, most of these contracts are not audited in the slightest. That causes a big problem and concern for anyone working with this technology. Addressing such problems at an early stage is of the utmost importance. Surprisingly, it seems Fujitsu has a viable solution in this regard. The Japanese ICT company wants to address risks associated with smart contracts at an early stage.

This is a pretty positive development for the blockchain industry as a whole. With these contracts automating transactions and data sharing on blockchain platforms the potential is virtually unlimited. At the same time, addressing reliability concerns with smart contracts is not easy by any means. The new in-house developed algorithms by Fujitsu will identify risks on the Ethereum blockchain. It is unclear if other blockchain systems will be supported in the future.

A Foolproof Solution is Born?

According to Fujitsu, their new algorithms can detect 100% of the risks associated with Ethereum-based contracts. There are a few exceptions though, but those will be ironed out eventually. So far the solution’s overall accuracy is close to 88%, which is more than respectable. Improving this percentile will be a challenge, but Fujitsu is confident they can keep refining this solution. The company explained their train of thought as follows:

“Because over-identification of risk is rare, this technology will enable more efficient smart contract development, and combined with the risk location identification technology, it is also expected to reduce the workload involved in tasks such as specification comprehension, code evaluation, and fixing the code. This technology will contribute to the efficient application of blockchain technology to a wide variety of fields.”

For now, the plan is to further develop these verification technologies. Fujitsu will continue to focus on Ethereum, but Hyperledger Fabric is also of great interest. It is possible the detection algorithm will be commercialized at some point. Building a more secure blockchain and smart contract environment is a positive development for everyone. Doing so will take a lot of time and effort, though.

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