Day: March 28, 2018

Thailands new Royal Decree on regulating the transactions of digital assets was passed on March 27, granting potential ICOs an additional 30 days to inform the SEC of their plans while raising the capital gains tax and adding 7% VAT to all digital trades.

Thai Crypto Traders Face 22% Tax Penalty

As was covered two weeks ago in NewsBTC, the Thai Revenue Department had sent an amendment asking for a proposed 10% capital gains tax on profits from investing in cryptocurrencies to the cabinet for approval.

The tax was part of a Royal Decree intended to give the SEC comprehensive regulatory powers over all aspects of cryptocurrency markets including proposed ICOs. On Tuesday a new draft of the decree was approved by the cabinet which contained a few surprises for the day trader as was reported by the Bangkok Post. 

Firstly, there is a general inconsequential redefining of digital assets by the ministry as only cryptocurrencies and digital tokens leaving out the previously mentioned electronic data.

Then comes the hit, the new draft contains a 7% value-added payment (VAT) on top of a 15% withholding tax on any crypto related capital gains. This comes with the caveat that the 7% VAT is added to all digital trades regardless of whether there is any profit or not.

Not only is the 7% VAT a new edition from the previous draft from two weeks ago but the capital gains tax has gone up 5% from 10 to 15 in that time adding an almost unbearable amount of instant percentage cut to any traders win-loss formula. This makes cryptocurrency trading in Thailand pretty much unfeasible as its military junta continues to crack down.

ICOs Gain 30 Days

In addition to the double tax hit the new draft of the decree extends the time period issuers of initial coin offerings (ICOs) have to inform the SEC of their plans from 60 to 90 days.

The amendment was made after market participants complained 60 days was not a reasonable amount of time, said Finance Minister Apisak Tantivorawong.

Thai regulators have raised concern about the volatility of ICO fundraising. Noting that naive investors could be taken advantage of by unscrupulous bad actors. Some cited the Asian financial meltdown of 1997 as an example of what can happen when investors jump into a trend without doing their due diligence.

Mr. Tantivorawong said;

“the decree will provide a wide regulatory framework allowing the SEC the ability to pass laws and create regulation that will both protect the retail investor and supervise the big players”.

Technology pundits have urged the government to encourage ICOs as a path to ensure startups see Thailand as a place to do business. However, Finance Minister Tantivorawong has countered that any business with a sound plan can get funding without resorting to crowdsourcing. The law is expected to come into force this month.

The post New Taxes Could Spell End of Cryptocurrency Trading in Thailand appeared first on NewsBTC.

Sweetbridge’s CEO met face-to-face with the SEC and came away with a sense the regulator is open to figuring out the best rules for the industry.

The Bank of England in cooperation with payment solutions developers will examine whether the renewed RTGS gross payment service supports DLT settlement models. #NEWS

Bram Cohen — the inventor of file sharing service BitTorrent — is behind an up and coming cryptocurrency called Chia. Chia, which doesn’t require massive amounts of electricity like Bitcoin does, has raised almost $3.4 million without the help of an initial coin offering (ICO).

The money will help the startup build its coin and blockchain, which is powered by Proof of Space (also known as Proof of Capacity) and Proof of Time instead of Proof of Work. Developers plan to launch Q1 2019.

“This may be the first fully compliant public offering for a crypto company,” a Chia spokesperson writes.

Mini-IPO

The company is not interested in utilizing a sometimes controversial ICO, a process which comes with “a lot of issues with regulatory uncertainty and investor protection,” according to Chia president Ryan Singer. Instead, Chia is working with its general council and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to hold a mini-IPO (initial public offering) later this year through the JOBS Act’s Regulation A+ equity crowdfunding rule. This will permit Chia to raise up to $50 million.

“People who buy in an ICO are uncertain of how the company will spend the money and how they’ll get the things they were promised,” says Singer, who was COO of cryptocurrency exchange Tradehill and has started several other blockchain companies.

“We’re going to operate the company with the transparency and accountability expected of a public company, which is very different than most ICOs.”

Chia will do a pre-mine of its currency, but initially retain ownership of 100% of the coins, using the mini-IPO to foster a community of investors. “We’re planning on issuing a dividend of Chia to our shareholders in advance of the network launch,” says Singer. “This ensures we can get it in people’s hands to use on the network without marketing and selling it as a security or investment opportunity.”

How will it work? Chia will use an auction where investors choose how much they’ll bid for how many shares. In turn, the more popular it is and the higher people bid, the less equity Chia will have to sell to get the $50 million. Once a clearing price is locked in, everyone who bid below it will get no shares and receive a refund of their deposit, while those who bid over get their shares plus a refund of the difference between their high bid and actual price.

Proof of Space & Proof of Time

Despite the popularity of Cohen’s BitTorrent, mismanagement plagued the platform. In efforts to avoid this with his coin, Cohen is keeping his team small, with only 5 others involved in the company at present. That number is set to grow, though, as Chia is actively hiring engineers with experience in decentralized network protocols, math, and cryptography to lay the code for its coin launch.

Further, they’ll be working on an alternative to Bitcoin’s Proof of Work, which requires computers and Graphic Processing Units (GPUs) that drain huge amounts of electricity in order to verify the blockchain. Instead, Chia will rely on file storage space that people often have sitting around unused on their computers and can use for free. Further, Chia will layer on Proofs of Time that thwart a range of attacks on Proofs of Space.

The post BitTorrent creator Bram Cohen Developing Cryptocurrency Chia Without ICO appeared first on NewsBTC.

CRED (CX) is a new state of the art universal cryptocurrency with its own mobile app that is dedicated to supporting renewable energy and solving the pesky issues posed by other cryptocurrencies.

Denver, CO. March 2018. A new unique cryptocurrency is set to introduce a historic chapter in the digital currency space. For the first time it will not just be about an investment—rather, it’s an “investment with a purpose.” Titled as “CRED” with CX as the ticker, the state-of-the-art cryptocurrency is on a futuristic mission to support GREEN energy and provides app-based mobile mining.

The launch of CRED ushers in a new era in the cryptocurrency space by enabling the investors not only to enhance their financial portfolio, but also to proactively contribute towards a greater good. The latest cryptocurrency is dedicated to advancing sustainable, eco-friendly projects like solar and wind farms as well as agricultural efforts.

CRED is presently in its pre-ICO stage. The Pre-ICO price is 200 CRED = 1 USD ($0.005). The price during the ICO will increase to $0.01.

Credits Cryptocurrency and its platform app will give users the opportunity to utilize mobile mining technology in order to mine CRED.  Furthermore, users are able choose their mining power, such as “High”, “Medium” or “Low.” The Credits app boasts an intuitive interface to make sending, buying, and receiving CRED fast and simple. The purchase and usage of CRED will support renewable energy and sustainable projects, which will help promote a “greener” planet.

“Many of the members on our team have been dealing with Bitcoin as well as with other cryptocurrencies for several years. When I was approached to join the team after hearing the details behind the coin and project, I couldn’t come onboard fast enough.  To be involved with ‘a crypto with a purpose’ was something that inspired and impassioned me to go all-in. How many coins on the market have a ‘purpose’ or a ‘cause’ or are backed by something that’ll make the world a better place? Supporting green energy with wind and solar while being involved in sustainable agricultural projects will make the world a better place—not just here, but globally, and that excites me. As a result CRED was born, and shortly after a fantastic team of professionals dedicated to the project and the cause came together to bring this vision to life!” (Rick Floyd, Director of Product Development for Credits.Energy)

Rick adds that cashing out in Bitcoin or other crypto is confusing and can be time-consuming.

“We solve all of these issues with our unique design and features:

• CRED comes with its own dedicated network servers that provide lightning-fast transactions.
• CRED relieves its users from memorizing complicated wallet addresses. You can send to users directly through the app via email address.
• CRED is specifically designed to lessen the crypto-volatility by investing in green energy and sustainable projects which earn residual income to stimulate the CRED ecosystem.
• CRED will ensure easy, intuitive cash-out shortly after the ICO.”

CRED uses a decentralized blockchain which enables participants to keep tabs on their CRED transactions without the worries of centralized monitoring. Moreover, for additional user safety, they use the cutting-edge CryptoNight algorithm that is anonymous outside the platform for optimum security.

The new cryptocurrency’s team has already developed the app for Android users, and the Apple app is in the making. Windows and Mac wallets are being developed as well.

Interested investors can purchase CRED with Bitcoin, Ethereum, or PayPal. For more information, please visit https://credits.energy.

Contact Email Address

[email protected]

Supporting Link

http://www.credits.energy

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.

Nectar token (NCT) will facilitate global threat detection, replacing outdated antivirus models

SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO — MARCH 28, 2018 — Decentralized antivirus marketplace PolySwarm (www.polyswarm.io) today announced the completion of its Nectar token sale, raising $25.94 million from 3,297 participants in both presale and crowdsale. Prominent backers of the project included Science Blockchain.

“People are clearly responding to PolySwarm’s capacity to be a next-generation threat detection  model and the corresponding value of the Nectar token to that capacity,” said Steve Bassi, CEO of PolySwarm. “Part of PolySwarm’s mission is to bring global security experts and their anti-malware software together to protect users and enterprises.”

PolySwarm recently announced partnerships with the makers of marquee security tool suites including Cyber Triage, Binary Ninja, and Bremer Computer Security B.V., the enterprise supplier of Cuckoo Sandbox, which will produce PolySwarm’s first Arbiter, kickstarting PolySwarm’s roadmap for early adoption.  

“PolySwarm is unlocking talent from regions with less access to opportunities and leveling the playing field in the industry. Regardless of location and education history, experts get paid entirely on their ability to detect new threats accurately and in a timely manner,” said Bassi.

PolySwarm’s founders built the company out of Narf Industries, LLC, an information security firm that recently completed a blockchain-based identity management project for the Department of Homeland Security, as well as cutting-edge information security projects for DARPA. PolySwarm’s advisory board includes former McAfee, Inc. CIO Mark Tonnesen and Dinesh Dhamija, deputy treasurer of the United Kingdom’s Liberal Democratic Party and ebookers.com founder, alongside renowned information security experts Dan Guido, Chris Eagle, Dr. Sergey Bratus, and Carl Hoffman.

ABOUT POLYSWARM

PolySwarm is the first decentralized marketplace allowing security experts to build anti-malware engines that compete to protect consumers and enterprises. PolySwarm incentivizes a global community of information security experts to disrupt the $8.5 billion cyber threat intelligence industry, providing enterprises and consumers with unprecedented speed and accuracy in threat detection. The PolySwarm market runs on Nectar (NCT), an ERC20-compatible utility token. For more information, please visit https://polyswarm.io.

MEDIA CONTACT: [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.

BitRewards, the blockchain-based rewards and loyalty system for e-commerce businesses, is proud to announce a partnership with AdHive – the world’s first AI-controlled influencer marketing platform.

Influencer marketing is now a huge part of how e-commerce brands and businesses win new customers. One of the biggest challenges for businesses is reaching a large enough audience organically to ensure enough of them convert into customers. Instead of working with dozens of influencers or an expensive agency, AdHive allows to place advertising and social content with one AI-powered smart platform.

Blockchain-based AdHive platform is to improve the organic networks of social influencers by facilitating the creation and scaling of marketing strategies and enhancing monetization.

Working together to amplify e-commerce marketing

In accordance with our partnership plan, BitRewards will give AdHive access to thousands of e-commerce businesses connected to the BitRewards platform (almost 5,000 to be connected by 2021). This opens up a wide range of opportunities for working with large advertisers and brands that are interested in a high-tech solution from AdHive.

The mechanics of the above mentioned process is as follows: influenсer takes the order in the AdHive system, receives the task and promo-code (marker) from BitRewards, according to which the audience of the influencer can get some bonuses in the partner loyalty program. Influence marketing market is growing by leaps and bounds as in the U.S. alone native display ad increased by over 36% in 2017. Online stores connected to BitRewards will create an incredible demand for influencers’ marketing solution provided by AdHive.

Besides, AdHive will consult BitRewards with regards to AI implementation. BitRecommendations AI-driven recommendations system is designed to supply SMBs with an advisory system which, other things being equal, would not be accessible to them due to the lack of a necessary amount of data. Being a pioneer in the use of distributed ledger technology and AI, the AdHive team will help to achieve a high degree of accuracy and reliability in collecting, storing and processing the retail data using deep learning algorithms.

With the combined power of AdHive and BitRewards, e-commerce brands will benefit from influencer marketing that will win them new customers and market share. The resulting synergy is a clear win-win situation for both companies, e-commerce businesses and regular shoppers. The companies have agreed on a revenue-sharing model that benefits both companies and the influencers connected to the AdHive network.

We look forward to working together and welcome AdHive to the BitRewards network and platform.

About AdHive:

Creating a global native Advertising platform with AI and Blockchain Technologies. AdHive is  The first platform that fully automates ad placement with influencers. Placement of the ad with 1000 influencers takes as much time as placement with only one.

Website: https://AdHive.tv

Telegram: https://t.me/AdHivetv

Bitcointalk: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2542041.0

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AdHivetv

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AdHiveTv

About BitRewards:

BitRewards is a blockchain rewards and loyalty system for e-commerce businesses. It enables online stores to reward their shoppers with a cryptocurrency “BIT”, which helps to increase sales by an average of 17%. Because of the blockchain, and our unique business model, this cutting-edge loyalty system is offered to businesses free of charge.

Website: https://www.bitrewards.network  

Telegram: https://t.me/bitrewards   

Bitcointalk: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2409919.0  

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bitrewards.network  

Twitter: https://twitter.com/bitrewards

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 inline casino industry needs a real VR Casino project that would be able to tackle the main deficiencies that it faces. Online casinos use a specific algorithm that determines the win or loss while betting, and the transparency of these systems is totally questionable.

Another important issue that online casinos face is the lack of a software interface that would create a great atmosphere for the players. The passion that casino players feel when they bet, sometimes cannot be imitated by online casinos.

VR Casino OKO is one of the most interesting projects that aims to challenge these two deficiencies. VR Technology is the company that is behind this project and the founder of the OKOIN.

The other two projects conducted by VR Technology are VR Platform OKO and OKO Pay. The first is a platform that distributes interactive VR adult movies, while the second one is the payment system for VR Technology partners that accept OKOIN tokens.

VR Casino OKO – What is it About?

VR Casino OKO is a project that combines two of the most important things that casino players want. It creates an atmosphere similar to the game in real casinos, with the possibility of online gambling but with the transparency of blockchain technology.

The project has been designed for the VR OKO helmet which have been incredibly successful selling over 70,000 unites. At the same time, VR Technology is going to make the system available for other VR devices like Oculus Rift or HTC Vive.

As Casinos are forbidden in many countries all over the world, there is an important niche that online casinos are trying to take. According to Newzoo, the gross profit of online casinos is increasing between 8% and 10% per year! In 2017, the industry moved more than $43 billion Euros and the numbers keep growing.

While some VR Casinos are able to offer a better user experience, they do not completely solve the visualization problem. The user still experiences virtual reality computer rendering in the helmet. Furthermore, the winning of bets is still determined by a computer program.

Here is where VR Casino OKO distinguishes itself from other VR Casinos. With VR Casino OKO, users will be using the VR helmet which will display a live broadcast from the VR cameras that are installed at the casino. As the cameras have 180 degrees viewing angle, they are able to show the table, the croupier and everything inside. More details about the technology can be found in their whitepaper

Finally, in addition of the effect of presence, the customers of VR Casino OKO have the possibility to place bets in real time. The OKOIN will place an important role because it will be used as casino chips. Smart Contracts will complete the experience by adding transparency to the game.

Casino OKO ICO – The Best Offers

The ICO will be held in parallel with the ICO project OKOIN between March the 25th to April the 25th. Accordingly, the affiliate program, the bounty program and the played tickets for the private party OKO Stars are equally relevant.

 Offer #1

Valid March 25 to April 10, 2018

Add yourself to the “List of the First” and buy OKOIN tokens for more than 20 ETH at a starting price of $1.

Important: other sales do not apply for the list of the first!

Offer #2

Valid March 25 to April 25, 2018

Buy OKOIN tokens and get bonuses:

1 ETH and more: +30% bonus

3 ETH and more: +40% bonus

5 ETH and more: +50% bonus

15 ETH and more: VIP ticket to the OKO Stars party as a gift

Contact

Telegram : https://t.me/okoinico

Bitcointalk: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2694503

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

Twitter: https://twitter.com/okoin_io

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.

SAN FRANCISCO, March 28, 2018 — Superbloom, a global platform to facilitate the buying and selling of pre-sale cryptocurrency tokens, is releasing a set of tools to help syndicate leaders manage investment allocations, and give users the opportunity to take part in vetted Token Sales

Superbloom

Built on the Stellar public blockchain, Superbloom offers a safe and secure way for both crypto-fluent and non-crypto-fluent members to access vetted Token Sales, and explore the ability to trade on crypto assets beyond the big four that currently dominate the market: Bitcoin, Ethereum, BitcoinCash, and Litecoin.

Following the launch of the platform at the end of Q1, participants in Superbloom’s Token Sale (“Superbloom Members”) will receive SEED tokens. Members get access to the Superbloom platform along with a range of benefits, including early bird access to Token Sale opportunities and 5 percent pro-rata airdrops from the top pre-sales transacted on the Superbloom platform.

The Superbloom Token Sale is a credible, safe and secure way for investors to gain exposure to alternative digital currency. The platform is set to solve three key problem areas with the current alt-coin market: lack of access and identification of upcoming Token Sales, a lack of a standard for curating/vetting Token Sales, and overall market inefficiency. High volatility in cryptocurrencies are the result of these issues.

Superbloom’s platform solves these issues by heavily vetting and evaluating pre-sale Token Sales; Superbloom and its members perform due diligence to analyze the team, technology and token economics before facilitating a token sale.

“Last month, more blockchain companies raised capital through Token Sale pre-sales than public sales. But pre-sales are incredibly difficult to navigate. Our new syndication tools provide early access to vetted pre-sales. We’re democratizing access to research and pre-sales – it’s a game changer for cryptocurrency.” – Emmie Chang, CEO of Superbloom

Superbloom is currently focused on non-U.S. citizens and residents, however, the company will open up the platform to U.S. citizens and residents pending regulatory licenses which are expected to by mid-2018.

The Superbloom team is comprised of Y-Combinator Alumni, who have worked in venture capital and have technical experience building enterprise solutions for companies such as Google and Visa. Notable partners include founders of Bancor – Eyal Hertzog and Guy Benartz, plus Jed McCaleb and Boris Reznikov from The Stellar Foundation.

About Superbloom

Superbloom is the easy and secure way to buy, manage and trade tokens, starting with pre-sale vetted Token Sales. Buying into a Token Sale is often intimidating. Managing and trading tokens can be a security risk, and evaluating good projects is difficult. Superbloom’s San Francisco and Caymans-based team relies on a network of established syndicate leaders, fund managers, and intelligent cryptocurrency investors to provide its members with high-quality deals at great bonuses.

The Superbloom White Paper is available at: https://www.superbloom.com/whitepaper

To discuss opportunities, test the syndication tools, and gain further details about Superbloom, please get in touch with:

Superbloom: [email protected]

Press inquiries: [email protected]

Related Images

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Superbloom Cryptocurrency Trading Platform

superbloom.png 
Superbloom

Related Links

Superbloom Website

Superbloom White Paper

SOURCE Superbloom

Related Links

https://www.superbloom.com

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.

DALLAS, TX – Organizers of the Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Blockchain Super Conference (which took place in Dallas in February) and the up-coming Future Tech Expo in September are hosting a cryptocurrency- and technology-themed Easter egg hunt. It will officially kick of this Easter Sunday. Prizes on offer include an Amazon Echo Dot, a Ledger Nano S Hardware Wallet, a complimentary VIP ticket upgrade to the Future Tech Expo in September, and – of course – $500 of cryptocurrency.

This $500 of cryptocurrency has been specially selected by Richard Jacobs, who is the author of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Blockchain: Surprising Insights from 200+ Podcast Interviews of Industry Insiders and organizer of the above conferences.

These specific cryptocurrencies have been hand-selected because, according to Mr. Jacobs’s analysis, they are poised to explode within the next year. In other words, if the lucky winner of the Easter egg hunt doesn’t cash in their chips, so to speak, they could be worth considerably more this time next year. (If they were to see the same kind of action that Bitcoin saw in 2017, they would be worth $5,830 in twelve months; if they followed Ethereum’s trajectory, they would be worth $38,311.)

Everybody who successfully completes the Easter egg hunt – i.e. they reach the end of the trial of clues – before midnight will be entered into a raffle and could win this cryptocurrency windfall. There are also prizes for first, second, and third place. More importantly, their family will have bucket loads of fun too.

“In my family, we always do an Easter egg hunt every year”, said Mr. Jacobs. “If you have kids too, maybe they’d love spending a few hours traipsing over the Internet looking for clues and solving riddles related to cryptocurrency, blockchain, and future tech. It could give you a few hours of peace and provide them with a sneaky crypto and future tech education – courtesy of their savvy investor parents.”

Here’s how to enter the Future Tech Crypto Easter Egg Hunt:

1. Purchase a ticket to the Future Tech Expo – the next generation cryptocurrency, blockchain, and future tech conference that’s taking place in September, where more than 100 industry insiders will be coming together to give you the inside scoop on opportunities that are currently “off limits” to the Average Joe investor. (The usual ticket price is $897. If you get yours before midnight on Good Friday, it costs just $597. Plus, you also get a limited-edition Crypto Easter Bonus Box.)
2. Wait for your Crypto Easter Bonus Box to arrive. Inside that box, along with other goodies – including a bag of chocolate Bitcoins for your kids (or you) – is a sealed envelope containing the first clue you need to start the crypto Easter egg hunt. (HINT: it’s a URL and password.)
3. The Future Tech Crypto Easter Egg Hunt kicks of on Easter Sunday at 10:00 am Eastern. Follow the instructions in the sealed envelope to get started.

Ready to purchase a ticket and take part in this Easter egg hunt? Tickets are available here:

https://www.bftexpo.com/register/

Want to find out more about this conference? Join the free notification list over here:

https://www.bftexpo.com/notification-list/

Press contact:

Richard Jacobs

[email protected]

(888) 448-4590

About the Future Tech Expo:

The “blockchain revolution” is no longer just about blockchain anymore. In 2018-19 and beyond, blockchain tech is converging with quantum computing, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and other emerging technologies – and driving what economists call the “Fourth Industrial Revolution”.

The Future Tech Expo is the only conference that gives attendees the full picture on how “smart money” is betting on the fourth industrial revolution. That’s because it is bringing together more than 100 of the most respected developers, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and “smart money” investors from all the most important emerging technology fields – not just blockchain tech.

This three-day conference will be held at the Dallas Convention Center, close to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, in September. We are expecting more than 5,000 attendees, 100 headline speakers, and 150 exhibitors – with talks from founders, developers, and early-stage investors in blockchain, quantum computing, artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality, cybersecurity, and other emerging technologies that are set to disrupt almost every sector of the global economy.

More information is available at: https://www.bftexpo.com/register/

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.

March 28, 2018 Cleveland, OH – Votem is releasing its Proof of Vote protocol (POV), a blueprint for end-to-end voter verified (E2EVV) digital voting systems that uses blockchain to ensure the verifiability, security, and transparency of an election, to members of the public for review and comment.

POV will serve both as Votem’s own platform and as an open-source specification for blockchain-based voting events and elections all over the globe.  POV provides the operational and technical framework for operating a fully E2E verifiable election, from contest creation to individual vote tallying. POV leverages an ElGamal re-encryption mixnet for anonymity, a multi-signature scheme for voter authentication and authorization, and verifiable distributed key generation and verifiable decryption for vote encryption and decryption.

As it is Votem’s hope that POV will be the international standard for blockchain voting systems, the company is opening the protocol to certain members of the public for review.  Votem is seeking professionals from either the blockchain or elections security spaces to read and comment on their protocol individually to help build the most accessible and functional platform possible.

Those who are interested in reading and contributing to Votem’s Proof of Vote protocol can fill out this survey and the Votem team will reach out with a copy of the protocol for the applicant’s review along with a feedback form.

About Votem

Votem is a blockchain mobile voting platform enabling citizens around the world to easily vote online with a level of verifiability, accessibility, security and transparency that does not currently exist. Founded in 2014 by CEO, Pete Martin, Votem’s mission is to change the way people vote and believes that mobile voting will lead to positive change in the world by providing voters with complete transparency, thus shaping the future of democracy. Having conducted nine elections for both private and public clients, Votem has received praise and accolades from various institutions including the Cleveland Technology Awards and OHTech Best of Tech Awards. The mobile voting platform is in its public pre-sale of Simple Agreement for Future Tokens (SAFT) for its VAST tokens that is currently only open to accredited investors. The public pre-sale is scheduled to close on March 29th, 2018.

For Votem Press Inquiries, contact: Aleck Silva-Pinto, [email protected] | (216) 930-4300 x 1016

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.

At the Finance Forum in Vaduz, the Prime Minister of Liechtenstein announced a new blockchain law to be considered this summer. #NEWS

Newegg, a leading online retailer of computer hardware and consumer electronics in North America, announced that is accepting bitcoin from Canada customers.

Newegg Accepts Bitcoin From Customers in Canada

The company started accepting bitcoin payments from its U.S. customers in August 2014, but the cryptocurrency market has grown into a trendy asset class since then. The bitcoin option used to represent only a small stream of purchase transactions back then, but the increasing mainstream awareness has encouraged Newegg to extend the option beyond the U.S. and into Canada.

Danny Lee, Chief Executive Officer of Newegg, commented: “In 2014 Newegg was among the first major companies to offer customers a bitcoin payment option.

“Since that time the value of bitcoin has skyrocketed and customers holding bitcoin have considerably more purchasing power. We believe the time is right to broaden our acceptance of bitcoin to our customers in Canada.”

Most of the company’s 36 million customers reside in North America, which explains the focus in the region. BitPay, the global bitcoin payment service provider, is Newegg’s longstanding partner and will remain that way, managing all bitcoin-related transactions in both countries.

Newegg uses BitPay’s API to create and manage invoices, issue refunds, manage bills, retrieve real-time rates information, and view merchant ledger entries. The enterprise-grade merchant tool achieves 99.99% uptime.

Stephen Pair, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of BitPay, said: “Newegg was an early e-commerce adopter of bitcoin, and that leap of faith the company took in 2014 put Newegg on the map as a bitcoin-friendly place for tech enthusiasts to shop. We’re seeing a lot of traction in Canada, and we’re happy to see Newegg extend its bitcoin payment option north of the border.”

BitPay will process an estimated amount of payments worth $4 billion in 2018. This week, the company announced a partnership with Bithump Exchange to enable businesses in South Korea to issue invoices in Bitcoin and get settled through BitPay.

The world’s leading bitcoin payment processor has recently introduced support for Bitcoin Cash as an extra currency, while it doesn’t extend to transactions and payment processing.

Since December 2017, BitPay started charging two fees to complete bitcoin transactions. The second charge is a network cost, which won’t get refunded either.

The company is headquartered in California, United States, but it is owned by Chinese group Hangzhou Liaison Interactive Information Technology Co. Ltd. Earlier this year, Newegg notified its customers that it had failed to collect sales tax on purchases in the past three years. Facing a choice between collecting such tax in the future or turning over customer information to the government, the company chose the latter.

The post Newegg Extends Bitcoin Payment Option to Customers From Canada  appeared first on NewsBTC.

This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine.