Day: March 24, 2018

Yahoo! Japan has acquired 40% of the already well-established local exchange BitARG, hoping to open a full-scale exchange operation within 12 months.

All set to roll out in April 2019, the new exchange will be built upon the BitARG system. Yahoo! Japan is set to make additional purchases in BitARG, which will register with the Financial Service Agency (FSA), early 2019.

Yahoo! Japan made the purchase through Tokyo’s YJFX, a foreign exchange transaction subsidiary that operates foreign exchange transactions services. Its cost has been reported to be JPY 2 billion (USD 19 million) for a 40% stake in BitARG. Newly-issued stock has been purchased to cover any outstanding shares.

YJFX has already planned the next stage of this business execution, sending executives and engineers to be dispatched to BitARG, where they will look in depth into the systems and administration over the next 12 months till the official platform is launched.

A statement published by the FSA on Friday suggested Binance was being held under the microscope and was about to receive an official warning, given its lack of registration with the FSA.

Zhao Changpeng, Binance CEO stated: “No need to worry. Some negative news often turns out to be positive in the long term. Chinese have a proverb for this. New (often better) opportunities always emerge during times of change.”

This latest developmentcould give the community a clearer outlook on the future of cryptocurrency, but could as easily be the pullback before the market moves forward. The speculation is that imposing regulations could present opportunities for big conglomerates to buy in at low prices before a parabolic rise within the ecosystem.

The post Yahoo! Japan to Launch Crypto Exchange appeared first on BitcoinNews.com.

After releasing the first BTC value analysis in 2013, Wedbush Securities exec has left the company to co-found a Blockchain startup. #NEWS

It is evident blockchain technology will continue to make headlines for quite some time to come. Whether or not that will lead to innovative projects is a different matter altogether. Huawei, the smartphone manufacturer, is looking to build a blockchain-ready smartphone in the future. It’s an ambitious project, albeit one that won’t make sense to most people on the planet today.

The Blockchain-ready Smartphone

While one has to commend Huawei for taking an innovative approach in the world of smartphones, this new business venture may not make much sense to most people. Considering that Huawei is the world’s third-biggest handset maker, any decision it makes will certainly be scrutinized.  

The Huawei blockchain-ready smartphone can run blockchain apps. This doesn’t sound innovative by any means, as virtually all current smartphones can run blockchain apps and cryptocurrency wallets already. The bigger question is how Huawei will differentiate itself in this regard, as it seems that will require a bit more work.

Under the hood, this new smartphone contains the Sirin OS. That is the current plan of action, anyway, assuming Huawei can execute the necessary licensing agreements to do so. Sirin Labs’ operating system is designed for running blockchain applications alongside the Android ecosystem.  This hybrid approach sounds pretty interesting, but it remains to be seen if users will take a liking to it.

Assuming this device ever comes to market, it will be the first major smartphone to tap into the blockchain market officially. As we have seen in the past, however, there is very little interest in using operating systems other than Android and iOS right now. Even Blackberry and Windows for mobile have not been overly successful, and thus it remains to be seen how Sirin OS will fare.

Additionally, one has to wonder how many people are looking for ways to access blockchain applications from their smartphones. Right now, such demand seems to be rather small, as the blockchain industry is still in the very early stages of development. Until we see more real-world use cases for this technology, it seems doubtful Sirin OS will make an impact outside of the cryptocurrency community.

This news comes at an interesting time, as Sirin Labs is also working on issuing its own smartphone, known as the Finney. This phone will cost as much as $1,000, which would make it even more expensive than the iPhone X. For a niche market, it seems that price is quite steep, although it remains to be seen how things will play out. For now, the demand for blockchain-ready smartphones seemingly isn’t there, but things can always change.

Cryptocurrency advocates woke up to the good news that bitcoin is trading for around $8,900. Bitcoin is expected to break $9,000 by next week as markets and regulators alike appear to be taking on a more bullish stance.

Bitcoin spent nearly 24 hours hovering in limbo. Stuck at the $8,600 mark, traders were unclear about whether the short, sporadic price hikes Fundstrat’s Thomas Lee recently spoke of would occur in the immediate future. Now, it appears the analyst’s predictions are inching closer to reality.

There are many alleged reasons behind the sudden price jump. A large one stems from French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, who recently did a “180” degree turn on his stance regarding bitcoin, cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.

On the eve of the recent G20 summit, Le Maire, much like his British counterpart Mark Carney, penned a letter to the summit leaders in Argentina addressing his sentiment on the presence of cryptocurrencies in Europe. Unlike Carney, however, who’s letter contained a voice of newfound enthusiasm, Le Maire’s words possessed an air of worry, saying that they likely bore risks for both “novice investors” and the global economy.

Le Maire now appears to be sitting on the opposite side of the viewing table. He has since commented that he wants France to be at the forefront of digital currency study, and that he doesn’t want his country to miss out on the blockchain revolution. Hence, further recognition of bitcoin’s benefits has grown amongst European regulators.

In addition, China – which has been particularly stringent in its attitude towards cryptocurrencies as of late – shocked the world early this month when then governor of the People’s Bank of China Zhou Xiaochua explained at a press conference that digital currency was “inevitable,” and likely to take over the world of finance. He commented that cryptocurrency could very easily become the go-to form of money in the future, and that banknotes and physical coins could “shrink” or even “disappear one day.”

One source suggests that weaknesses in the stock market are potentially assisting bitcoin in its current price streak. Recent news struck that the Dow had dropped over 400 points, leading to what some are calling the worst week in two years. Ironically, the drop comes at a time when the market is finally turning around for bitcoin, thereby suggesting proof of a long-held ideal that bitcoin’s success may depend on slumps in traditional investing strategies.

Perhaps the biggest reason for the jump comes out of Africa, where bitcoin and related virtual currencies have remained hugely popular despite several up-and-down weeks. Long derailed by government and financial corruption, Africa’s economy has prospered from decentralized assets, and many bitcoin startups now call the continent home.

Finding work or a sustainable income of any kind is not always easy in Africa, and many enthusiasts claim that the money they’ve made on bitcoin allows them to live freer, healthier lives. Granted its popularity within the 54-country region, bitcoin’s price appears to be making a solid comeback.

During the early morning hours, bitcoin’s price seemingly increased by six percent, and cryptocurrency has added $20 billion to its overall market size.

Misinformation has become all too common in the world of cryptocurrency over the past few months. This industry has increasingly attracted a lot of new users who tend to spread half-truths and wrong details. In the case of Binance, the company is not facing specific scrutiny from the Japanese government, despite what some media outlets may claim.

The Binance Plot Thickens

Over the past few days, we have seen quite a few reports claiming that the Binance exchange is in troubled waters. More specifically, rumor has it that the exchange is under investigation by Japan’s FSA and may be forced to shut its doors in the future. So far, this information has been based on interpretation first and foremost, which often leads to people drawing the wrong conclusions.

According to the exchange’s CEO, those stories are anything but correct. He does acknowledge that Binance has received a simple letter from the FSA, but there is no indication that the company faces additional scrutiny or will need to explain itself. There are, however, some concerns about the exchange’s recent issues which saw people attempt to manipulate some of its markets and gain unauthorized access to company funds.

We received a simple letter from JFSA about an hour ago. Our lawyers called JFSA immediately, and will find a solution. Protecting user interests is our top priority.

— CZ (not giving crypto away) (@cz_binance) March 23, 2018

Although the intrusion attempt ultimately failed, it is evident the Japanese government is keeping close tabs on all exchanges. Over the past few weeks, it has also cracked down on Coincheck, after the exchange lost 500 million NEM due to a hack. Additionally, Zaif is facing scrutiny due to people being able to “buy” Bitcoin for $0 due to a system glitch. Any irregularity will be investigated, which is only normal.

For the time being, it remains unclear what will happen to Binance in this regard. As the company has not suffered a hack and no funds have been stolen, there is nothing to be overly concerned about. An open dialogue between this exchange and the JFSA can be beneficial in the long run. Both parties want to ensure consumers are protected at all times, but doing so is not all that easy. It will be interesting to see how this situation evolves.

In the long run, it is good to see Japan’s FSA keep close tabs on trading platforms linked to cryptocurrrency. Considering that Bitcoin and altcoins are legal tender in the country, it is only normal that users of service providers will receive all the protection they possibly can. This means government agencies need to investigate any incidents which can lead to loss of customer funds. It helps legitimize this form of money further, which can only be considered a good thing.

It does not appear as if Binance will be forced to halt any of its services moving forward. Instead, it will continue to operate as normal, although we may see some changes behind the scenes in the near future. For the end user, this “investigation” will be beneficial in the long run, as it shows the Japanese government truly cares about the well-being of the cryptocurrency industry in general.

LONDON, 24th March 2018

LiveTree – the world’s first blockchain-powered, end-to-end production and distribution platform for TV & film – has raised over $11m and counting from their token sale.

Growing from strength to strength since the token sale started in December, LiveTree’s soft-cap was swiftly reached and surpassed. With a total of $11m raised so far, and just over a week remaining for the token sale, this ICO is set to grow even further.

“LiveTree has been making headway in the entertainment industry for the last two years, with it’s existing crowdfunding business capturing 5% of the UK entertainment crowdfunding market share. With a network of film and TV industry partners engaged already, it has further bolstered its offer by gaining even more key strategic partnerships during the ICO launch.” said Ashley Turing, CEO, Livetree.    

Several major partnerships have been announced since their token sale began; the biggest being their $10m partnership with investor Token Communities. As well as that, Token Communities’ CEO, Alex Lightman, has joined LiveTree’s advisory team to advise on business strategy and investor relations. Token Communities’ extensive connections in the broadcast sector make this partnership fruitful.Additionally, a strategic partnership with cryptocurrency investment bank, Almora was announced, and the Seed token sale was underwritten for $3m. Almora’s engagement also includes providing strategic support for the tokenomics and marketing of the token sale for Seed. The Almora team includes Evan Luthra who is a Blockchain expert and serial entrepreneur.

Ashley Turing has been engaging the crowds globally by participating in blockchain events talking to investors as well as providing thought leadership as part of various panel discussions.

LiveTree are on a mission to revolutionize the film and TV industry, using blockchain technology to reimagine the way film and TV content is created, funded and distributed. The token sale for Seed is now on, and ends on 1st April, 23:59 UTC.

ABOUT LIVETREE

LiveTree is revolutionizing the entertainment industry with the world’s first blockchain-powered, end-to-end production and distribution platform for TV and film. Established two years ago with a mission to give control back to content creators, LiveTree has captured over 5% of the UK market share in entertainment crowdfunding.  

For press enquiries contact Cheryl Clarke:

[email protected]

Reva Malhotra at Almora.io on:

[email protected]

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.

Ripple has made a lot of headlines over the past 18 months. The company is intent on disrupting the financial sector with digital ledgers and its XRP asset. Santander has confirmed they will carry out cross-border payments with Ripple’s technology this year.

Another Notch in the Belt of Ripple

Various financial service providers have taken a keen interest in what Ripple has to offer. The growing focus on distributed ledgers and digital assets is very tangible. Especially when it comes to cross-border transactions, there’s plenty of room for improvements. Making this concept faster, cheaper, and more reliable is no easy feat, though.

As such, various banks – mainly in Asia – have partnered with Ripple. Their goal is to develop pilot projects and test the viability of the company’s technology. It now seems the first major bank to implement this technology is none other than Santander. The UK branch of this global bank will carry out cross-border payments at scale. A remarkable decision few people expected to hear at the International Fintech conference in London.

This international money transfer solution is big news for Ripple. The company has seen the great interest in its xRapid and XCurrent offerings. However, no company or bank has implemented this solution for real-world solutions as of yet. Outside of a few internal tests, no real progress has been madly in this regard. That makes the decision by Santander UK all the more important for the company.

Santander has Always been Confident

The relationship between Santander and Ripple dates back to 2015. At the time, the institution made its first investment in this distributed ledger outfit. One year later, they doubled down on that investment. It quickly became clear Santander had high expectations for Ripple. So far, it seems the company has been right all along. Only time will tell if this integration will be successful, though.

For now, the focus lies on Spain, Brazil, the UK, and Poland. This launch will occur at some point in the next three months. No further specifics have been announced just yet. We do know all transactions will be settled within 24 hours or less. It is a big step up from how cross-border transactions are handled as of right now.

More importantly, this new solution offers unprecedented transparency. Users can figure out the exact transaction cost beforehand, which is rather impressive. For now, we have to wait and see if this new solution will make use of XRP as well. There is no official indication that will effectively be the case, but the details are scarce. Assuming the project is successful, the appeal of Ripple will only continue to increase.

The post Santander Confirms Ripple-based Cross-border Payments are Coming “Soon” appeared first on NewsBTC.

There have been a lot of concerns regarding specific altcoins as of late. In the case of Verge, its recent publicity stunt is backfiring in quite spectacular fashion. It goes to show that good intentions can often result in criticism, mainly because the campaign’s overall approach leaves a lot to be desired.

Stirring the Verge Hornet’s Nest

To put all of this into perspective, the Verge team has tried to make a social campaign come to life. While that is not uncommon in the world of cryptocurrency, this particular approach raises a lot of questions which can’t be answered in a quick manner. More specifically, the project’s team is excited about a new partnership, yet they will not be able to reveal it without community involvement.

According to their tweet, it seems the Verge team needs quite a bit of funding to make their partnership stick. Doing so requires donations from the community, as the team needs 75,000,000 XVG to meet the necessary threshold for this mysterious partnership. One would expect the developers to cough up this money themselves, but instead, they are relying on community engagement.

** IMPORTANT UPDATE! ** An opportunity for Verge to have the largest partnership in crypto to date! https://t.co/5bmNLM4X2J pic.twitter.com/Hz6NNhISeW

— vergecurrency (@vergecurrency) March 22, 2018

At the time of writing, over 65 million XVG had yet to be raised for the goal to be met. At the current price, this means the developers need to cough up nearly $3 million for a partnership no one knows anything about at this point. What makes this even more worrisome is that the message on Twitter talks about a “potential partnership” rather than something that is set in stone.

The tweet makes reference to an organization with a “vast network of high traffic sites”. It remains unclear what this means exactly, yet it is clear the mystery company has no ties to cryptocurrency as of right now. Moreover, this company wants to use Verge as its main payment method, which seems somewhat dubious. In this day and age of shenanigans and exit scams, very few people see this opportunity as a legitimate venture.

It is certainly possible there is a big company out there which sees Verge as the go-to payment method of the future. At the same time, Verge is a currency which has not made much of a market impact other than for speculators. Combining this with the fact that the company remains unknown and a total of 75 million XVG needs to be raised before the partnership can even be announced, things are understandably not adding up for a lot of people.

For the time being, we will have to wait and see how successful this campaign becomes. With the window for raising the money ending on March 26, it does not appear as if this particular venture will be successful. Only time will tell whether the goal gets met, and if so, whether or not it was worth the money and effort. Rest assured a lot of people will remain cautious regarding this “opportunity”, as the lack of information alone is a reason for concern.

Nigerians have been warned away from crypto by a member of a gov’t-linked regulatory body, since they’re not backed by a “physical commodity”. #NEWS

Few days ago, SEER announced its cooperation with RISE, a top-level kickboxing event in Japan. As the founder of RISE, Mr. Ito Takashi will participate in the research of the combination and development of the blockchain and sport as technical adviser of SEER.

Integrating into sportsdom for years long, Mr. Ito Takashi is sophisticated in this field, especially in aspects of the global sport events and the prediction market. He insists that SEER is not gambling but rather a prediction game suitable for the masses, whilst it can promote academic research on prediction markets.

The letter of appointment for Mr. Ito Takashi

Mr. Ito Takashi Giving Prizes to the Fighters of RISE

Mr. Ito Takashi and Tenshin Nasukawa, the Child Prodigy of Kickboxing

With the cultural atmosphere of martial arts, Japan has always played a leading role in the field, where many of the world-class wrestling tournaments like K-1 and Pride FC were founded. Among the lightweight divisions, RISE is well-known as the most competitive and exciting one. Ranking first in world’s 55-kilogram division, Tenshin Nasukawa is a signed featherweight in RISE, whose matches are always attracting a great number of audiences.

Since the blockchain technology have been all the rage, Japan is believed to be a great place for innovations and developments in blockchain industry.

Tenshin Nasukawa winning the gold belt in RISE

Although there are continuing progresses in technology development of blockchain, the pushing of capitals and markets has made it a key issue to utilize techniques and develop feasible applications.

Built on Graphene toolkit, SEER is a decentralized prediction market platform that allows users to express their judgments about future events by means of the market mechanism and makes effective predictions by gathering intelligence and ideas. With blockchain-based encrypted privacy and limitations of token, the security level of prediction market accounts can be high enough to prevent trust issues and enable the mass to take guesses safely and easily.

Graphene-based blockchain projects, including EOS, BitShares, Steemit and YOYOW, manage to achieve high performance and efficiency by processing and confirming transactions within a second. Likewise, SEER is capable of supporting frequent transactions, offering a perfect platform for DApps to run smoothly.

A beta version of SEER has been under development and will be released later this month. The PowerFans team, who operates a community of more than 3 million users, will participate in SEER as an investor, and they will work on DApp developments based on SEER chain.

Buakaw with PowerFans in Chengdu, China

SEER’s investor Wu Gang with Buakaw in Thailand

So far, SEER team have established independent operating offices in Osaka, Bangkok, Moscow and Taiwan, who are busy promoting the project locally and each made progress in cooperation with multiple agencies.

The token of SEER is tradable on the following exchanges:

Lbank.info;

Xbrick.io;

HelloBTS.com;

OTCBTC.com;

uncoinex.com;

idax.mn

For more information, please refer to the official website of SEER: https://www.seer.best,

or join the telegram group of SEER: https://t.me/seerchain.

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.

Santander will be using Ripple’s Blockchain cross-border payment technology for a new mobile payments app #NEWS

The number of blockchain-based projects is slowly becoming ginormous. Whether or not that is a good thing remains to be seen, as not all of these ventures require a blockchain per se. Zohem is a very different type of project, as it focuses on becoming an open-source user behavior data exchange protocol.

The Concept of Zohem

It is evident the digital advertising industry is still growing, yet the underlying technology needs to evolve. With Google and Facebook maintaining their duopoly over 74% of the industry’s growth, things need to change sooner rather than later. This is where Zohem wants to make an impact, as they aim to decentralize the concept of user behavior data through blockchain-based smart contracts. For online publishers, a venture on this scale can be quite significant in the long run.

Leveraging Blockchain Technology

Disrupting the user behavior data and digital advertising industries will not be easy by any means. Zohem aims to use smart contracts so online publishers can pool their data and be rewarded with the native Zohem Data Token in the process. It is a very different take on the data economy as we know it, as there is no longer any need for a centralized entity to control the market.

Publishers can monetize their user data effectively by embracing this decentralized data layer. For advertisers, it improves specific targeting requirements, as the user data is accurate rather than generalized. As for users, anyone can audit transactions concerning their own data, which will provide a lot of valuable insights as to how people use the data you share with the network.

Under the hood, Zohem uses a three-layer data exchange protocol mechanism. Validating the raw data and compensating contributors occurs via the Core layer. The Mantle processes this data and turns it into information people can understand. There is also the Crust, which provides APIs to build third-party apps. It all seems to work together quite well, at least on paper.

The Zohem Data Token

As has become customary these days, the Zohem ecosystem has a native cryptocurrency, the Zohem Data Token. This token will be used to compensate contributors. Advertisers can buy these tokens to make inventory buying decisions. The Zohem Data Token will – hopefully – generate more interest in the platform, which will lead to higher data demand and a greater value for ZDT.

The Road Ahead

There is always work to be done when it comes to blockchain projects, and Zohem is no exception in this regard. As of right now, the focus lies on the public ICO and open-sourcing the code on GitHub. The main net will enter the alpha stage in July. Later this year and throughout 2019, we will see more data points per day to improve the overall use and appeal of Zohem.