Day: March 21, 2018

As at the time of writing, the ETH.TOWN community has grown to more than 6000 followers on Twitter, and nearly 5000 followers on Facebook. Published medium articles have also garnered a total of 3000 “claps” and an overall display of enthusiasm from the community. This show of support, as well as steady progress on gameplay development, has given the team confidence to move on to the next phase of the project. The ETH.TOWN team is pleased to announce that the Pre-Sale of in-game items will proceed as scheduled on March 15, 10 AM EST (2 PM GMT), accessible at https://eth.town.  

Ether will be accepted in the purchase of the following categories of items/content: (i) Level-15 Star Heroes with an open auction, (ii) DAO Hacker’s Floor, (iii) Level-10 Characters and (iv) Custom Floor. The amount of all kinds of items for sale is limited.

The Level-10 characters are sold at 20-80% of what they are expected to cost after the launch. The price starts at 20% and will reach 80% by the end of the sale.

A bonus, personalised Character (based on pictures provided) will also be gifted to contributors who purchase five or more Level-10 Characters. More details on the items can be found at https://hackernoon.com/eth-town-presale-roadmap-team-3ee730acaf23 and sale/auction instructions can be found at https://eth.town. Purchased items will be made available to buyers upon platform launch.

Notably, the Pre-Sale event will be an important milestone in the ETH.TOWN roadmap. This limited opportunity will be the first instance of gameplay interaction between individuals and the platform, with ownership rights of valuable in-game content transferred to supporting contributors. The team will also be utilising the Pre-Sale event as a key avenue of ETH.TOWN Investor Tokens (ETIT) distribution—every 1 Ether spent will entail a token bonus of 200 ETIT, which will be automatically and immediately sent to purchasers’ Ethereum Addresses.

The tokens (i) allow their holders to get a share from closed deals in the game, (ii) is the only accepted means of payment for special in-game items or content, (iii) cannot be bought directly but are rewarded through custom channels, distributing them to early supporters will help deepen rapport between the community and the platform/project team. The Investor Tokens are the in-game currency in ETH.TOWN, and they are designed to be very powerful.

As previously mentioned, Pre-Sale proceeds will be used primarily for advertising purposes, in a focused effort to increase the potential reach of the ETH.TOWN project. A large number of players will allow for more interactive gameplay, increase the stream of payouts to ETIT holders from the game and accelerate the implementation of future platform innovations.

Recent projects such as CryptoKitties and CryptoCountries have demonstrated the significant potential that blockchain based collectible/trading games hold. The team believes that ETH.TOWN will be a new, major player in this space, with its carefully curated concept/graphics/token design. In particular, the project will evolve to constantly incorporate new content, drawing inspiration from latest developments and trends in cryptocurrency and blockchain.     

More details about the ETH.TOWN project can be found at http://eth.town/ and https://twitter.com/eth_town.

About ETH.TOWN: ETH.TOWN is a trading/strategy game developed on the Ethereum platform, which revolves around the purchase and sale of floors for certain crypto-companies in a crypto-business tower. It is developed by On5 Games Development Studio, a veteran mobile games developer which has worked with companies as such as Samsung, Atari, and EA.

Contact:

Vasiliy Stasuk [email protected]

Links:

Website: https://eth.town/

Blog: https://medium.com/@ethtown

Btt Ann: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3062760

Facebook: https://fb.me/eth.town

Twitter: https://twitter.com/eth_town

Instagram: https://instagram.com/eth.town

Telegram: https://t.me/Ethertown

Medium: https://medium.com/@ethtown

Discord: https://discord.gg/qWgw5f9

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.

Every day the set of ICO projects enters the market. It is caused by the opportunities which are given by this type of financing, comparing to the same exit to the IPO. However, not many projects which offer the tokens for sale have a practical implementation of their idea, and suggest to solve actually existing problems connected with cryptoeconomy and its processes and also their impact on our planet and the environment. The Crypterra project has provided in the Whitepaper a large-scale research of the existing problems connected with the cryptocurrencies and their mining. Very few people think about it nowadays. Certainly, creators of Crypterra have proposed the solution – the creation of the independent decentralized infrastructure for cryptocurrencies in the ecosystem of islands format which isn’t depending on the government and precepts of law, electricity prices and rent, from economic conditions and crises and also from many other external factors.

Cryptoeconomy threats in reality and in numbers

The founders of the Crypterra project have allocated the current problems which are found on the way of various participants of the cryptocurrency market which they suggest to solve within the planned infrastructure:

As it was already mentioned above, within the Whitepaper, the founders of the Crypterra project have examined a set of consequences from cryptocurrencies and their mining both for economy, and for the environment. Let’s stop on those striking numbers which are presented within the conducted research. At first it should be noted that by the most modest estimates the crypto economy will make more than three trillion dollars by 2020, and will grow to 10% of world GDP by 2022.

The founders of Crypterra project paid much attention in the Whitepaper to the mining processes, and it is fair as this process will become the primary activity within an ecosystem of islands of the project. Besides, infrastructure of Crypterra will allow to solve many problems interfaced with mining of the most widespread cryptocurrencies. Let’s return to numbers.

The annual mining of Ether and Bitcoin demands more electricity, than Iceland, Jordan and Syria together. The mining process in the countries of Western Europe is a very expensive process as electricity rates are rather high (the most expensive rates are in Germany, Italy and Belgium). The British Power Compare platform has provided data according to which the cumulative energy spent on the mining of the Bitcoin already exceeds the level of energy consumption of 159 certain countries worldwide. In Europe, more than 20 countries consume less energy, than it is necessary for mining of Bitcoin. Nowadays it is about 29,05 TW*h in a year required for the Bitcoin mining that is equivalent to 0,13% of the overall consumed electricity in the world. At the same time, the level of energy consumption for mining this cryptocurrency increases every day with the growth of its mining complexity. Power Compare notes that the process of the Bitcoin mining began to consume about 30% more energy only for the last month. If similar growth rates of electricity consumption remain at the same level, and the technologies used within mining process begin to be popularized everywhere, then shortly it will kill the planet. After all, the most part of crypto-farms uses non-environmentally friendly ways of obtaining energy. At the same time, the fact that the Bitcoin mining will continue to be carried out despite all the expenses, this process remains profitable (electricity cost for the Bitcoin mining process – $1,5 billion a year, and revenue – $7,2 billion) is obvious. Only the governments of the countries will be able to stop this process, having imposed the bans.

That independent decentralized infrastructure for cryptocurrencies from the Crypterra project which won’t be a subject to the state regulations allows to answer similar calls and shortcomings of the crypto economy, it isn’t mentioned by precepts of law, won’t load the main sources of energy, it isn’t a subject to influence of economic and financial crises and within which any project can be realized.  

The advantages of the independent decentralized Crypterra infrastructure

Firstly, the purchase of the own island, and further, the whole system of islands, allows the Crypterra infrastructure be independent from the precepts of law and of the general power supply, taxes, conditions and the prices of rent. Secondly, after purchase of the island, the process of infrastructure construction and its components will be realized so that provides a protection of the equipment and personnel against the climatic and technogenic conditions and the environment against pollution. So, ecologically safe power sources will be constructed (the sun energy, wind and water, waves and inflows will be used). Thus, the generation of energy for the Crypterra infrastructure support and for mining processes implementation will be carried out without harm for surrounding territories at the expense of the independent ecosystem of power supplies, realized using the natural resources. The Crypterra demands a rather large volume of the electricity, so the location of the islands will be initially chosen by the surrounding territories which allow to carry out production of the maximum quantity of energy.

The following stage, the monolithic structures for the farms will be transported to the islands. The thickness of their walls made of the threw and concrete will be around 25-30 cm and they will be equipped with the ventilation and cooling systems. Also, they will be constructed with a full sound, wet and radio isolation. Thus, the equipment brought for mining with the latest software provided with the reliable security systems and backup, will be protected from temperature, climatic and technogenic influences. It is worth noting that communication with the outside world will be organized by VSAT technology which is used by many companies for the communication organization in every place of the globe. The communication will be independent. It won’t require the cable networks. Besides, to exclude an opportunity of any authorities influence the Crypterra founders plan to realize their own offshore crypto-exchange within the infrastructure. Besides, for tokens owners of the project the opportunity of visit of the island to have an evident idea of where the money is invested and as the system works will be organized. Presumably, the tourist direction is planned as a part of organized business within Crypterra in the future from which the holders of tokens will also gain income.

The current stage of the Crypterra project – Private Tokensale

The project carries out fund raising by the ICO mechanism for the realization of the infrastructure. 600 000 000 CPTX tokens are presented for sale, the unsold part will be destroyed after the ICO. Private Sale passes only during 2 weeks (from March 19 to April 2, 2018) is carried out for the strategic partners and investors to provide the minimum launch of the project. The token price during this period is the most attractive and it is only $0.02.

Further the main period of Crypterra tokens sale for all future partners, for development and start of the decentralized system of islands will begin. ICO will last for the three months (from April 2 to July 2, 2018) and will pass in seven stages, within every stage the tokens price will start at $0.06 and will grow up to $0.20, which grows in after the termination of every stage. Thus, the founders of the project stimulate investors earlier to carry out the contribution to Crypterra, getting tokens at the lower price. In addition, within the project, the Bounty program is realized.  Everyone who wants to support the project in one of social networks can earn a reward. More detailed information about the project can be found on the official Crypterra website  where it is possible to get acquainted with the Whitepaper and Roadmap and  to take part in the ongoing Private Tokensale.

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.

SANTA MONICA, CA — March 21, 2018 — Quantm Real Estate (QuantmRE) today announced the first decentralized residential real estate marketplace designed to allow ordinary people to buy into and benefit from a previously untapped sector of the U.S. residential real estate market. The QuantmRE Network will provide a platform for the primary issuance and secondary trading of investment-grade tokens backed by fractional equity interests in single-family residences in the U.S., giving the average person entry to a unique class of property investment opportunities, and new and seasoned cryptocurrency holders an opportunity to invest in tokens with lower market volatility.

Typically, the largest personal asset and investment for households is their home. Until now, the only way to access the equity built up in a home has been to borrow against it, increasing the level of debt against the property and incurring a monthly payment. QuantmRE’s next-generation structure for the industry enables homeowners to unlock this ‘dead’ money without taking on this additional debt.

QuantmRE effectively buys a small part of the member’s home equity in a shared equity transaction. For investors and token-holders, QuantmRE will provide the first real estate asset-backed token whose value is supported by a distributed network of these equity interests in residential, owner-occupied homes. For homeowners, it offers the prospect of releasing cash for their equity without increasing their burden of debt.

“Having to borrow from a bank simply to access the wealth that you have built up in your home is deeply unsatisfactory,” said Matthew Sullivan, CEO and Founder of QuantmRE. “Our ability to digitize the value of a homeowner’s equity and realize the locked-up value will solve a huge problem for homeowners worldwide. It’s time for people to be able to access more affordable homeownership options, flexibility, and less financial risk.”

For members of the QuantmRE Network, the market opportunity for a tradable token linked to a pool of fractional equity interests cannot be underestimated. Within the U.S., single-family residential housing represents a $31.8 trillion asset class, and globally, the market size exceeds $168.5 trillion.

“QuantmRE’s tokenized real estate asset structure solves a problem at the heart of current investment barriers and housing issues,” said Emily Bush, blockchain and real estate investor and advisor to QuantmRE. “By giving homeowners access to the equity capital in their homes without taking on more debt, the QuantmRE Network is enabling people to maximize the returns from the biggest investment they are likely to make in their life. By unlocking the value in home equity, QuantmRE is creating wealth, encouraging and promoting savings and enabling investors around the world to participate in a previously untapped real estate asset class.”

QuantmRE’s investment tokens will be backed by an ever-expanding pool of real estate assets, making their investment token a viable option for people who want to be passive real estate investors and avoid having to deal with “tenants, toilets and trash.”

“The Quantm Real Estate team is democratizing real estate equity for homeowners by giving them a liquidity option other than debt, along with an on-ramp to cryptocurrency,” said Tim Sanders, New York Times bestselling author, technology pioneer and advisor to QuantmRE. “This is the best team with the legal and battle-tested experience to provide opportunities that were once never imaginable to homeowners and average investors, as well as cryptocurrency holders, and I look forward to helping them achieve their full potential.”

QuantmRE’s team is seasoned in real estate, blockchain technology, crowdfunding, and fund management and strategies. Their real estate fund management team hold decades of experience and has syndicated over $500M in commercial debt and fractional equity transactions in the past five years. Their other advisors include David Moss, Founder and CEO of TrueBlock.io and Enzo Villani, Chairman of Millennium Blockchain.

More information on QuantmRE’s Network can be found in their white paper.

About Quantm Real Estate

Quantm Real Estate (QuantmRE) is the network for a membership-based real estate marketplace built on blockchain technology facilitating the primary issuance and secondary trading of investment tokens backed by fractional equity interests in single-family residences. The QuantmRE Network buys a small part of its members’ home equity in a shared equity transaction. The vision behind QuantmRE is for people to digitize the value of their homes and allow people around the world buy into and benefit from previously inaccessible real estate markets by creating investment-grade tokens backed by unique real estate assets. For more information, visit http://quantm.one/, contact us at [email protected] or join us on Telegram, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

QuantmRE Media Contact:

Transform Group, [email protected]

Forward-Looking Statements Disclosure:

This press release may contain “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the federal securities laws. In this context, forward-looking statements may address the Company’s expected future business and financial performance, and often contain words such as “anticipates”, “beliefs”, “estimates”, “expects”, “intends”, “plans”, “seeks”, “will”, and other terms with similar meaning. These forward-looking statements by their nature address matters that are, to different degrees, uncertain. Although the Company believes that the assumptions upon which its forward-looking statements based are reasonable, it can provide no assurances that these assumptions will prove to be correct. All forward-looking statements in this press release are expressly qualified by such cautionary statements, risk, and uncertainties, and by reference to the underlying assumptions.

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.

The NEM Foundation has announced it will no longer track cryptos stolen from the Japanese exchange Coincheck. The Singapore-based organization said it had provided law-enforcement agencies with information from its investigations. It did not explain its decision to end the tracking efforts. According to some estimates, half of the NEM coins that disappeared in the hack have been laundered on the darknet.   

Also read: Coincheck Drops Anonymous Monero, Dash, Zcash

Tracking Provided “Actionable” Data

The NEM.io Foundation, created to promote the NEM cryptocurrency (XEM), has stopped tracking the coins stolen in the Coincheck hack. The Japanese exchange lost some ¥58 billion worth of NEM (~$550 million USD) in January, when it was attacked by hackers. The Singapore-based foundation developed a special technology to identify the accounts the cryptocurrency was sent to.

On Tuesday, the NEM foundation said its efforts have provided some “actionable information” to law-enforcement authorities, the Japan News reported. However, the organization did not reveal any more details about the reasons behind its decision to stop further tracking.

Recent reports suggest that a lot if the missing XEM cryptos are probably lost forever. A cybersecurity expert told the Japan Times the hackers may have converted up to half of the snatched coins into other cryptocurrency or even fiat money. Masanori Kusunoki, Chief Technology Officer at Japan Digital Design, claims they have been laundered through a website existing on the darknet.

Kusunoki also thinks the site is still being used to process transactions. He believes it’s getting harder to trace these transfers and track the stolen coins. A week after the hack the NEM Foundation said no attempts had been made to trade the cryptos on other exchanges.

In Recovery Mode

For weeks, Coincheck has been trying to recover from one of the biggest hacker attacks. The Japanese exchange has already refunded ¥46.6 billion ($440 million) to compensate about 260,000 of its customers who lost NEM funds. It has also prepared a set of measures to improve its security, informing authorities about its plans in that direction.

The trading platform filed an application with Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) in September to register under the revised legislation regulating payment services in the country. Its registration has been postponed by the attack in January, but also by Coincheck’s policies allowing customers to remain anonymous.

Japanese media reported this week that the exchange was expected to discontinue support for three cryptocurrencies providing high levels of anonymity – Monero, Dash and Zcash. According to Japan Times, the exchange has recognized the risks posed by these cryptos that can potentially facilitate money laundering. Identifying the recipients of funds transferred on their blockchains is proving impossible.

Coincheck resumed trading on Monday. Customers cannot purchase XMR, ZEC, and DASH, but the platform may offer them to sell their coins at a fixed rate.

Do you think the stolen NEM coins will be found and returned? Share your expectations in the comments section below.

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Images courtesy of Shutterstock.

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The post NEM Foundation Stops Tracking Coins Stolen from Coincheck appeared first on Bitcoin News.

Blockchain governance is getting a shake-up by a forthcoming blockchain created by one of the co-founders of ethereum.

FinLab AG and Block.one are jointly investing a $100 mln fund to accelerate the development of EOS.IO projects in Europe. #NEWS

Michael Owen follows Manny Pacquiao in joining the Singapore GCOX platform to issue ‘Celebrity Token’. #NEWS

Ethereum-based CryptoKitties game received $12 mln from investors led by Andreessen Horowitz and Union Square Ventures. #NEWS

A Chinese State stock exchange halted trading of a company suspected of manipulating its stock price through a Blockchain project announcement. #NEWS

IBM launches a new beta Blockchain Starter Plan to offer a “cheaper alternative to Big Blue’s current enterprise plan.” #NEWS

Forbes

Bitcoin, Ripple, And Ethereum Investors Should Watch The Fed Closely Forbes Investors in Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum, and other major cryptocurrencies should closely watch the Federal Reserve to get a sense of how fast and how far U.S. interest rates will climb. For an obvious reason: higher interest rates could deflate the ... and more »

This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine.

Hong Kong’s securities watchdog, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), has interfered with the initial coin offering (ICO) of Black Cell Technology Ltd., ordering the firm to halt the sale of its digital currency to Hong Kong buyers.

According to the SFC, Black Cell had engaged in “potential unauthorized promotional activities and unlicensed regulated activities.” In response, Black Cell Technology halted its ICO and agreed to “unwind” ICO transactions for Hong Kong investors by returning the relevant tokens to them by the end of the month.

Securities and Futures Commission

In its announcement the SFC determined that “Black Cell had promoted an ICO to sell digital tokens to investors through its website accessible by the Hong Kong public, with the pitch that the ICO proceeds would be used to fund the development of a mobile application and holders of the tokens would be eligible to redeem equity shares of Black Cell.”

According to the SFC, such an arrangement constitutes a “Collective Investment Scheme” under the circumstances. The agency has previously intervened in the ICO processes of multiple other firms, but this is the first time that the regulatory authority has publicly named a company that it has taken action against.

Black Cell is developing a mobile-based food marketplace named Krops, which they claim will simplify business for both farmers and shoppers. The company’s website describes its business as a platform where users can gain “access to every food source in the world, from the biggest farms to the smallest backyard.” It further states that its mobile app “provides access to supply and demand information to aid farmers in production and assist buyers in purchasing.”

Increased Attention Paid to ICOs

ICOs have increasingly had to restrict access to investors from countries hostile to the business model. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), for example, has in particular been clamping down on ICOs, with detailed investigations underway. Some projects have received subpoenas and suspension notices, and those just entering the ICO space are keen to stay out of the way.

Whilst the development in Hong Kong has taken some by surprise, the action by the SFC has not come out of nowhere. Last month the regulatory body issued a warning to cryptocurrency trading platforms to not involve themselves with tokens that could be perceived as securities. Over the past few months the body has been developing its approach, indicating potential action as far back as September of last year when a statement was issued that some cryptocurrency platforms held features that could class them as securities.

As noted, it’s likely Black Cell was targeted because their token specifically referenced a return for token holders — a move that, in regulators eyes, clearly marked the token as a potential security; other projects have been more ambiguous in their approach and avoided direct regulatory intervention — at least for now.

The post Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission Halts Black Cell ICO appeared first on NewsBTC.

There are abounding misconceptions about what exactly blockchain technology is, and to a lesser extent, what AI technology does. Many experts are already predicting that the two technologies combined could prove formidable, efficient, and ultimately beneficial, and here’s why.

The technologies themselves are in the early stages of exploration, and the overlap between the two at the moment is mostly theoretical, which is precisely why combining the abilities of both allows each to be further strengthened.

We have blockchain tech’s promise of near-frictionless value exchange and artificial intelligence’s ability to accelerate the analysis of massive amounts of data. The joining of the two could mark the beginning of an entirely new paradigm.

TowardsDataScience.com

In short, there are many potential ways to use a blockchain depending on who can access and verify the information stored on it, meaning there are varying levels of security and transparency. Ultimately, a blockchain is a way of recording data, transactions, and information that is immutable and mostly decentralized. AI or machine learning, on the other hand, operates on a centralized, closed system, constantly streamlining its algorithms to better accomplish its task.

As new technologies, both are currently lacking in public trust, a major issue that is slowing innovation but can easily be remedied by combining the two.

Decisions made by AI algorithms are increasingly being utilized, but they must still be audited by humans to ensure the accuracy of those decisions and to verify the efficiency of ongoing machine learning. This is an incredibly tedious task, as enormous amounts of data are fed into AI algorithms to determine the decisions they make. Sifting through each decision point becomes complex, to say the least.

By recording each of these points on the blockchain, the auditing process becomes greatly simplified, making it both more secure (given blockchain’s immutability) and easier to assess. This insight and transparent view into the decision-making process of AI technology is a necessary step in validating AI’s usefulness and earning the trust of the general public.

Likewise, there is much AI tech can do to establish trust in blockchain tech. Being encrypted and secure, it makes sense to store highly sensitive information – medical records, for example – on the blockchain. Data security is always a primary concern for such industries, but reducing exposure to unencrypted data hasn’t been possible until now. New AI tech has the ability to process and operate with encrypted data, meaning information can be safely stored on the blockchain, yet still accessed by AI decision-making processes as necessary.

Just as blockchain technology is being aligned with the Internet of Things (IoT), it is also increasingly being mentioned by those involved in advancing artificial intelligence (AI). Indeed, some – including legacy institutions like IBM and SAP – see a future involving the convergence of all of these technologies.

Nasdaq

Examples of this mutually beneficial marriage of technology include safely storing medical records and checking them against current best practices to make the most accurate diagnoses and treatment plans possible. Another more specific use case includes Walmart’s transactional data, which can be kept safe while using AI to determine what needs to be stocked and where with high efficiency, maximum security, and reduced costs.

Even the way we receive suggestions for what we might enjoy watching on Netflix is determined with machine suggestions, and our preferences and viewing history can be kept safe on the blockchain. There’s simply too much information that needs to be processed, a task made easier with artificial intelligence algorithms, and vast amounts of personal data that needs improved methods of securing.

Combining the abilities of blockchain and AI technologies allows companies to maximize the benefits and strengths of both, establishing public trust in these two different technologies, trust in innovation, and trust in the companies that utilize their potentials.

The possibilities are endless, and this is a topic that we will be revisiting in the future as technology and adoption continues.

 

Most cryptocurrencies are trying to pull back from recent lows. See what orders to place 💫 #PRICE_ANALYSIS