Day: March 16, 2018

Washington Hearing: Industry needs clear regulation, Congress conflicted. #FOLLOW_UP

Marketplace promises to allow small and medium entrepreneurs to start online selling on global market in just 1 hour. #SPONSORED

Longing Bitcoin is anti-apocalypse hedge, Peter Thiel implies. #NEWS

CoinPhone, the first smartphone with an integrated safety environment and functionality for settlements in cryptocurrencies was announced during GSMA Mobile World Congress 2018 on March 1.

Currently in order to carry out any operations with cryptocurrencies one has to connect a cold wallet on a physical medium to a laptop with Internet connection. Naturally, one can’t even dream about immediate transactions in such a situation. The emphasis here is put on safety, not on speed. Mobile devices, on the contrary, secure high operation speed by have much lower safety levels. Lots of news about the users of banking apps that lose their money in hacker attacks are published almost every day.

CoinPhone (to be developed by the international brand Just5 is expected to solve all these problems. It is going to be a mobile device protected from hacker attacks on several levels. The phone will have an in-built cold wallet to provide maximum security of transactions. For additional protection the device will have a fingerprint scanner, and the hot wallet function will allow its user to pay for purchases with cryptocurrencies via the NFC module.

Payments both in fiat money and in cryptocurrencies will become safe, and the only thing you will need for all operations will be one portable device.

Just5 telecome company chose CoinPlace as its partner for the implementation of this innovative project. CoinPlace is the first p2p platform for buying ICO tokens and cryptocurrencies. All models of the range (and there will be three of them, aimed at different pricing categories) will have the CoinPlace app preinstalled. The application will make the process of buying and exchanging cryptocurrencies and ICO tokens even easier. The operations will be carried out via the CoinPlace platform from any location.

Later on several useful functions are expected to be added to CoinPlace, namely:

• a service for safe immediate payments in cryptocurrencies between the users of the CoinPlace platform;
• a terminal allowing small businesses to accept payments in cryptocurrencies or tokens issued by them via a convenient app.

CoinPhone will become a single point for all operations with cryptocurrencies. It will be available for wide audience and make access to the cryptocurrency market easy and convenient for the wide public.

CoinPlace Chief Development Officer Stanislav Teo believes that project would satisfy the needs generated by future changes: “In the near future the volume of settlements in cryptocurrencies will grow in the world. Decentralization, absence of intermediaries, and migration of all services to mobile devices are global tendencies. More and more payments are made directly, but such transactions require storage media. Currently, cold wallets are used for these purposes, but they are useless without a laptop. This sounds weird – like yet another intermediary! And the very idea of blockchain is to get rid of them all.”
Just5 is developing a line of smartphones – Coinphone Lite, Coinphone Pro, Coinphone Pro Note with 5.5″ to 6.2″ diagonal and up to IP68 protection level (including impact and water resistance). The phones will be equipped with a fingerprints scanner, face ID, NFC tag for contactless payments, and special safety software requiring the approval of the user for sending out any data. When connected to a laptop or a PC, the phone can serve as a cold wallet.
The basic version of Coinhone will cost 99 EUR, and the top version price will amount to approximately 499 EUR.

Note

Just5 has been manufacturing smartphones for mass market for 9 years and is an owner of trademarks and patents, as well as the awardee of many prizes including Effie, Reddot and IF. It is also a partner of Google.

CoinPlace is the first P2P platform for cryptocurrencies and tokens trading. Currently the platform trades Bitcoin and tokens of several third party ICOs. Five more cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Ethereum Classic, Dash, Tether) will have become available by the end of May. By late 2018 the platform will be supporting over 13 currencies (incl. Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Ethereum Classic, Dash, Tether) as well as tokens of over 50 ICO-проектов. The history of CoinPlace started in April 2017 года, and its main idea is to make the world of cryptocurrencies available to the mass market. By September 2017 the company had set out the model of its own tokens, and in December the sake of CPL tokens was launched in the framework of the Pre-ICO round.

On March 20 the platform will start selling its own tokens in the course of the main ICO round.

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.

A January investigation that revealed a transfer of customer crypto funds into the bank accounts of exchange managers led to a raid on three South Korean exchanges last month. #NEWS

Whenever the topic of Bitcoin regulation comes up, things often deteriorate rather quickly. That situation is no different where House Financial Services subcommittee meetings are concerned. Their most recent get-together raised a lot of questions and showed there is a massive bias toward cryptocurrencies.

The Subcommittee Hearing’s Purpose

On paper, the recent meeting of the House Financial Services subcommittee had positive intentions. The goal is to get an overview of the cryptocurrency landscape. based on that information, regulatory measures may be introduced in the future. Unfortunately, the members of this subcommittee are rather divided on cryptocurrencies altogether. It seems there is a very strong bias toward this form of money, which is not entirely surprising.

Representative Brad Sherman of California is convinced cryptocurrencies are a “crock”. He is not a fan of how people can make a lot of money from buying, selling, and trading cryptocurrencies. At the same time, most stock market traders make good money by sitting at home in their pajamas as well. It seems the bias against cryptocurrencies is mainly because it is cryptocurrency. An unregulated form of money that makes people millions is a thorn in the side of Sherman.

Airing these concerns during a subcommittee hearing is always positive, though. Everyone’s opinion matters when these groups get together. However, Sherman is not a big fan of the ICO business model either. In his opinion, ICOs are a “lie to the public” and a way to disguise unregulated IPOs. Again, this shows there is some need for regulation of sort sorts, albeit that is much easier said than done.

Regulation is Coming Eventually

Even though the bashing of Bitcoin is clearly visible, the regulatory discussions are far from over. Instead, we will see further subcommittee meetings to discuss the regulatory aspect of the “crypto craze”. Protecting investors is one of the main objects of this subcommittee. Things will move along rather slowly, though .The lack of understanding cryptocurrencies is a problem which is difficult to solve.

It seems a study on the ICO market will be published rather soon. Whether or not that study will be as biased as this subcommittee’s meeting, remains unknown. It is evident a ruleset needs to be put in place for both ICOs and the cryptocurrency at some point. What those rules will entail exactly, has yet to be determined. Once the report is published,  the subcommittee will “move in” to establish some new guidelines.

Luckily, not everyone is as biased to cryptocurrencies. Representative Tom Emmer of Minnesota is in favor of a hands-off approach, for the time being. Finding the balance between regulation and innovation is not all that easy. A mixed bag of responses from this House Financial Services subcommittee, with conflicting interests as well. All of this seems to indicate a unified regulation of cryptocurrency and ICOs is still far away.

The post Recent House Financial Services Hearing Bashes Bitcoin, Illogical Arguments appeared first on NewsBTC.

Congress’ 2018 Joint Economic Report includes a chapter on cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology, advocating for wider understanding of the tech.

After yesterday’s market slump most likely caused by Google crypto ad banning FUD, BTC and ETH are slowly inching up in price. #NEWS

Lesser-known cryptocurrencies like Binance Coin and VeChain managed to score gains this week, despite the broader market sell-off.

Depending on whom you pose the question to, Bitcoin will either rebound or meet its demise. As of right now, some analysts are convinced the Bitcoin price will drop well below $5,000 pretty soon. If Market Securities Dubai’s Paul Day is to be believed, we will hit $2,800 in the not so distant future.

The Bitcoin Price Decline So Far

Anyone who has paid attention to Bitcoin this year may have noticed a peculiar trend. After hitting nearly $20,000 in late 2017, that same Bitcoin is now worth just over $8,200. Such a price trend is not uncommon in the world of cryptocurrency, though. The Bitcoin price goes through a bearish cycle virtually every year. Each time this happens, the value retraces from an all-time high by up to 90%. Right now, we are looking at a 53% decline with little improvement in sight.

Despite this negative trend, some speculators remain optimistic. John McAfee is a permabull when it comes to the Bitcoin price. His prediction of a value of $500,000 in the next two years still holds true to this date. Whether or not such a price goal is even remotely possible, is a different matter altogether. It will depend on merchant adoption, payment integrations, and new regulatory measures being deployed all over the world.

Speaking of regulation, things remain uncertain in this regard. South Korea still keeps an open mind, which is good to see. Additionally, we see India contemplating regulation of cryptocurrencies, yet no one knows how things will play out. In the US, cryptocurrency remains largely unregulated as well. The European Central Bank has no intention of intervening in this regard, which is rather interesting. A mixed bag of regulatory measures, as one would come to expect at this point.

The Bearish Bitcoin Price Outlook

Despite there being no real reason for it, the Bitcoin price is still struggling for traction. Bloomberg analysts are concerned this may only be the beginning “of the end”. More specifically, a prediction is made which puts the Bitcoin price at $2,800 in the very near future. This trend is known as a “death cross”, although it remains to be seen how things will play out.

According to the analysts, the chart trend paints a worrisome outlook. The “bubble” of 2017 has triggered a massive sell-off, although this trend could have materialized without such a big bull run last year as well. Market Securities Dubai’s Paul Day fears a  major Bitcoin price dip is looming just ahead. That is, assuming the current trends of 2018 will continue to repeat themselves in the coming weeks and months.

This prediction does not take any of the positive Bitcoin developments into account, though. A lot of things are happening behind the scenes. All of those developments can have a positive impact on the Bitcoin price in the long run. Charting and technical analysis are valuable tools, but they only tell part of the story. For now, we have to wait and see where the Bitcoin price will head during the remainder of 2018.

The post Bearish Analysts Expect a Bitcoin Price Drop to $2,800 appeared first on NewsBTC.

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Disclosure: This is a Sponsored Article

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A new Fundstrat report points out that the current market slump is making BTC mining temporarily unprofitable, as low BTC prices come close to mining costs. #NEWS