Day: April 2, 2018

Blockchain technology has made its mark on the technology industry. Dozens of companies are exploring the new opportunities presented by this revolutionary concept. Line Plus, the subsidiary of the Line chat giant, is forming a new blockchain subsidiary. Unblock is mainly aimed at the South Korean market, at least for now.

Line Sees Merit in Blockchain

This new approach by Line is very intriguing to keep an eye on. It has become evident the chat giant wants to tap new markets to maintain its competitive edge. Blockchain technology appears to be a logical fit in this regard. By forming the Unblock subsidiary, the Japanese giant is preparing to make its mark on the distributed ledger industry.

It is the first time the Japanese company has ventured into this relatively new industry. This subsidiary is only a part of their two-pronged approach. Line will also make strategic investments in blockchain projects moving forward. With the company’s technological experience in the chat industry, it will be interesting to see which opportunities they aim to pursue.

This news comes at a peculiar time for the Asian chat industry. Kakao, one of Line’s bigger competitors, announced similar plans in March of 2018. Their new blockchain subsidiary is based in Japan whereas Line’s Unblock is based in South Korea. This cross-market approach by both companies can yield some promising results in the months and years to come.

Keeping the Momentum Alive

Japan and South Korea are two major regions for cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. WIth local companies exploring new opportunities, a bright future lies ahead. Chat and messaging giants have shown an increased interest in virtual currencies and blockchain recently.

Perhaps the biggest example is how Telegram decided to conduct an initial coin offering. While their business model was criticized due to not allowing the public to invest, it shows a lot of opportunities lie ahead. Forming subsidiaries to specifically explore this technology is a big step forward in the blockchain industry as a whole.

Assuming these companies can work on real-life use cases, good things may continue to happen. The blockchain industry has been on a roll for several years now and the momentum is still firmly in place. For now, it remains unclear what Line’s new subsidiary plans to develop exactly. There are rumors Unblock will issue its own cryptocurrency, and it may also operate as some form of an exchange in the future.

The post Line Subsidiary’s Blockchain Venture Targets the South Korean Market appeared first on NewsBTC.

Lavenir is one of the latest projects set to hit the world of crypto soon. The platform is preparing to launch its monthlong ICO on April 4 and end on May 4, 2018. It seeks to introduce a revolution to the cryptocurrency universe by bringing about a new and innovative digital platform.

As a part of the token sale, the platform will be offering 1000 Lavenir tokens (LVR) per ETH contribution. However, early participants have some interesting bonuses in store for them. The ones taking part in the crowdsale during the first 72 hours will gain 30 percent bonus. Soon after, the bonus will drop to 20% till the 7^th day of the token sale. From day 7 until day 14, the bonus offered will be fixed at 10%.

The Lavenir Business Model

This platform will allow users to lend their digital currency to the exchange against interest payments. However, it is worth noting that this is not intended to be a get rich quick scheme. Users will lend crypto to the exchange and then expect to get some of the profits based on a set interest rate. Unlike other sites, which only accept Bitcoin, this site will accept Dash, Monero, Ethereum, Ripple, Bitcoin, and Litecoin. There is also the possibility that the exchange will add other crypto coins in future.

The platform will be backed by a team of financial experts who have years of experience in the crypto markets. They have also worked with other financial instruments such as bonds and stocks with much success. Their aim is to make cryptocurrency investments profitable; in spite of the level of engagement that the user has with crypto markets.

It Offers a Stable investment Opportunity

Lavenir is a revolutionary platform created with the aim of creating long-term value for investors. There are various investment rates and terms that will be offered. These terms and trades are in line with the platform’s long-term vision of creating a reliable, stable, and secure way of delivering returns from crypto investments. The ultimate goal is to offer a dependable source of income for those who chose to invest in the platform. To ensure that they can create a sustainable business model, the interest rates offered here are low compared to other sites.

Besides that, the interest rates offered on this platform are stable. This is unlike on other platforms where the rate promised may fluctuate with time. The main reason for these fluctuations is that these sites rely on trading bots. However, the Lavenir platform is run entirely by experts.

Learn more about Lavenir at – https://www.lavenir.io/

What do you think about the Lavenir lending platform? Leave us your thoughts in the comment section below.

The post Lavenir: A Visionary Crypto-Based Lending Platform appeared first on NewsBTC.

Japan takes another side step with its relationship to cryptocurrency trading as the Central Bank releases a negative Q&A guide for those seeking information about the markets.

BoJ Publishes Negative Q&A for the General Public

The question and answer page translated from Japanese as “Let’s Think About Cryptocurrency” was released on a financial education site run by the Bank of Japan. The page which is aimed at the general public answers broad questions like ‘is cryptocurrency money’, ‘can normal people profit from them’ and the ‘likelihood of having it stolen’.

It was reported that the page appeared after Japan’s financial delegates returned from the Group of 20 nations meeting in Davos, Switzerland last month where the question of whether cryptocurrency could destabilize financial markets was discussed.

The BoJ’s Q&A explains what cryptocurrency is, how coins are bought and sold on exchanges, and what the country’s regulations are but also explains that there is no central bank for digital coins. Eventually, it asks the question,

 “Shouldn’t we ban something we don’t really understand?”

The Central Bank answered their own hypothetical here by saying that though cryptocurrencies haven’t yet met the ideals of their creators, the underlying blockchain technology may still have the potential to greatly improve peoples lives.

Japan Struggles with Regulatory Balance

The Q&A comes as Japan’s Financial Services Authority is still struggling to create a balance between regulation and consumer freedom in the cryptocurrency market.

Japan was one of the first countries to create a legal framework for cryptocurrency trading platforms and has enjoyed a booming financial success in the industry but recently has gone through a period of regulatory growing pains.

Following the second largest hack in cryptocurrency history when $500 million in digital assets were stolen from the Coincheck exchange, the FSA has created new regulatory guidelines, and sent out a round of official warnings to exchanges and even suspended a few from doing business.

The BoJ’s question and answer sheet could have been bad news for the overall crypto markets as it took on a rather negative point of view of the entire cryptocurrency ecosystem. However early trading in Asia on Tuesday showed a slight rebound in prices with Bitcoin trading up over 6% and all other top digital currencies in the green as of the time of writing.

The post Bank of Japan’s Warning Has Little Effect Bitcoin Bounceback appeared first on NewsBTC.

Bitcoin Price Key Highlights

• Bitcoin price is sustaining its short-term rally since breaking past a descending trend line.
• However, this could merely be part of a bearish correction to the Fib levels on the 4-hour chart.
• Note that bitcoin price is still trading inside a descending cannel and is just approaching the correction area.

Bitcoin price was able to sustain its climb but is approaching a correction zone visible on longer-term charts.

Technical Indicators Signals

The 100 SMA is still below the longer-term 200 SMA to confirm that the path of least resistance is to the downside. In other words, the downtrend is still likely to resume, possibly when bitcoin price tests the Fibonacci retracement levels.

The 38.2% Fib level is at $7450.2 just past the mid-channel area of interest. The 50% Fib is at $7750, which lines up with a former support turned resistance. The 61.8% level is close to the top of the channel at the $8064.3 level and the 100 SMA dynamic inflection point, which coincides with the channel resistance to add to its strength as a ceiling.

If any of these resistance levels hold, bitcoin price could resume the drop to the swing low at $6450 or create new ones closer to the channel bottom at $6000. Stochastic is already dipping into oversold territory to signal that selling pressure is about to return now that buyers are feeling exhausted.

Market Factors

Analysts are pointing to the pickup in the overall cryptocurrency market as one of the factors that propped bitcoin price higher, even though the gains were mostly in other altcoins. Over the past 12 hours, volumes have ticked higher in exchanges like Bitfinex and Binance.

If bitcoin price is able to hold its ground above the $7000 level, analysts predict that it could soon make another test of $8000 and perhaps even break higher if activity stays supported. Note, however, that the US has its NFP report due later in the week and this could strongly impact overall sentiment in the financial markets, including cryptocurrencies.

The post Bitcoin Price Technical Analysis for 04/03/2018 – Just a Bearish Correction? appeared first on NewsBTC.

In the immediate wake of China closing down its cryptocurrency exchanges last year an underground economy of Bitcoin Arbitrage was created. As the practice of ‘smuggling Bitcoin’ loses its huge margins corporate players take over the game.

Rise of the Bitcoin Mule

When Bitcoin surged in late 2017 and some of Asia’s largest markets began tightening security regulations on exchanges individuals were making huge percentages by buying coins in open countries and then re-selling them in China, India and South Korea at large profits.

At the height of the markets rise when Bitcoin was selling for nearly 20,000 buyers re-selling in China could make 30-40% on a sale as investors were expecting 10 fold gains overnight. When the market correction happened the spreads came down as well with ‘Bitcoin mules’ now expecting about a 7% profit on coins purchased abroad.

The simplest form of Bitcoin arbitrage began with people buying cryptocurrency with cash in open markets like Japan and returning to regulated markets like China, India, and South Korea where they would sell them face to face or by using peer to peer networks like CoinCola or retail platforms like Taobao and AliPay to trade over the counter (OTC).

As reported by Reuters – “In early January, when the price of bitcoin was $17,600 on Bitstamp, the Luxembourg-based digital currency exchange, it was being quoted at 25 million won ($23,630) in South Korea, implying a 34 percent “kimchi premium”.”

One such mule who would take $30-40,000 in cash to the US in order to buy Bitcoin that she would sell over the counter in China was quoted as saying;

 “Selling and buying bitcoins on those OTC websites is the same as shopping on Taobao,”

Corporates Move in on the Action

As those big percentage spreads dried up in the first months of 2018 the incentive for the small time arbitrage players withered as well but for those with a lot of capital to move even the smaller percentages proved appetizing.

Hedge funds have seen an opportunity as they can make trades quickly and at much lower costs allowing them to squeeze out the individual players and dominate the game.

Peter Kim who manages a $10 million cryptocurrency arbitrage operation as part of KIT Trading talked to Reuters about cryptocurrency arbitrage, saying;

“In the beginning, when there is 30 percent arbitrage, obviously you can travel to Thailand, buy bitcoins, send them to China, Japan, Korea and sell them. That’s easy, but that opportunity is not going to last very long … there are still many ways to profit from it, especially for someone like me who is used to making 3 basis points on a trade,”

Arbitrage funds operate by buying and selling cryptocurrencies simultaneously on a larger scale on two or more platforms. Profits can still be made especially by moving into other cryptos such as Tether which has a higher demand in China as locals use it to move cash overseas. Many retail traders are now taking this option.

The post Asia’s Bitcoin Arbitrage Boom is Over But Corporate Players Still Profit appeared first on NewsBTC.

Japan-based social messaging platform Line is launching a blockchain-focused subsidiary in South Korea.

Japanese online broker Monex has offered to buy a majority stake in Coincheck crypto exchange for “several billion of yen,” aims to replace management. #NEWS

The US Securities Exchange Commission’s new Cyber Unit task force has taken down boxing great Floyd Mayweather’s sponsor, Centra Tech, alleging their ICO was based on fraudulent products and made up biographies.

SEC Charges Mayweather Sponsor with Fraud

The SEC announced on Monday that it was charging the founders of Centra Tech with fraud based on claims the company made about their suite of cryptocurrency related products such as e-wallets and major credit card backed prepaid debit cards.

Sohrab Sharma and Robert Farkas have been charged with fraud for selling “unregistered securities” related to the $32 million they raised from the ICO of their CTR coin between September 19 and October 5. Both men have been separately charged by criminal authorities of the same crime according to the SEC’s official press release.

The Florida based company that claimed to be “creating a world connected to cryptocurrency” through their products has been charged with violating the anti-fraud and registration provisions of federal securities laws.

The charges were brought when the SEC discovered the company has no agreement with either MasterCard or Visa to support their prepaid cards and also for having falsified impressive biographies and creating false or misleading marketing materials.

Centra Tech paid for celebrity endorsements from both DJ Kahleed and boxing legend Floyd Mayweather who touted the company on Instagram and Twitter to entice customers to invest millions into their ICO. Mayweather Tweeted out this message to his followers on the launch of the CTR ICO.

Centra's (CTR) ICO starts in a few hours. Get yours before they sell out, I got mine https://t.co/nSiCaZ274l pic.twitter.com/dB6wV0EROJ

— Floyd Mayweather (@FloydMayweather) September 18, 2017

Steve Peikin, Co-Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, took Centra and its co-founders practices to task in his press release saying.

“[T]he defendants relied heavily on celebrity endorsements and social media to market their scheme … Endorsements and glossy marketing materials are no substitute for the SEC’s registration and disclosure requirements as well as diligence by investors.”

Cyber Units Effects on ICO Fundraising Felt Already

The SEC let tech companies know they were getting serious about digital securities fraud when it created its cyber unit which is wholly dedicated to the investigation and prosecution of ICO’s and blockchain related companies. They announced in February that an official probe into the market had begun.

Since then 80 subpoenas and more information requests have been issued to cryptocurrency companies and advisors launching ICO’s as part of an ongoing probe into the digital currency market.

The cyber units effect may already be taking hold as cryptocurrency based ICO’s have fallen off since the probe began raising just over $600 million in March which was half the amount of the previous month and the lowest since August.

Hong Kong exchange Binance reacted quickly to the news by posting a warning about the CTR token on its announcements page;

“This is a special announcement about the high risk associated with the CTR token in light of the information released earlier today relating to the controversial and fraudulent acts by members associated with the Centra Tech team.

We will continue to seek more information and monitor the situation closely, and may take further action including delisting. Should we choose to delist the token, a notice period of no less than 72 hours will be provided.”

The post Mayweather ICO Founders Knocked Out by SEC for Fraud appeared first on NewsBTC.

Welcome to Bitcoin in Brief, a new feature debuting today. Breaking stories, crypto drama, exchange updates, and other talking points from the fast-paced cryptocurrency world can all be found in this daily roundup. Bitcoin in Brief is for everyone who’s long on bitcoin but short on time.

Also read: Chinese Engineer Arrested for Stealing 100 Bitcoin From His Own Company

• Bitcoin Bears Are Out in Force

The collective noun for a group of bears is a sleuth, and the bitcoin bears were certainly hunting in packs today. A number of outlets picked up on a research paper published in March that uses Metcalfe’s Law to predict that bitcoin’s value could fall by more than a third before the year is out. Bitcoin price predictions are easy to come by, but this one has attracted attention not only due to its bearishness – which is in stark contrast to the usual tips for $50k BTC – but also the data to back it up. Swiss researchers write:

Looking forward, our analysis identifies a substantial but not unprecedented overvaluation in the price of bitcoin, suggesting many months of volatile sideways bitcoin prices ahead.

• Binance Loves Mondays

Binance seems to have a penchant for pushing out its news at the start of the week. Last Monday, the talk was of crypto companies such as Tron, Monaco, and Bigone exchange joining Binance in its new Maltese home. Today, news of Qlink integrating Binance’s token into its mobile dapp helped push BNB up 11% in an otherwise dreary day for the markets. With a top 20 token based on market capitalization and the number one exchange by trading volume, Binance can’t stop profiting right now.

• Blockchain Wars Heat Up

As EOS eases closer to its mainnet launch, and the price of ethereum sinks lower, there’s been pressure on Vitalik Buterin to act. The ethereum founder has always been uninterested in price, which he sees as a distraction to developing the protocol, but his “meta April Fool’s” proposal to cap ETH’s total token issuance at 120 million could be interpreted as a measure to reassure jittery investors. (The fact that his blogpost plagiarized 20% of Tron’s was a nice touch, even if nobody got the joke).

In the past week, Buterin has also expressed scepticism for EOS’ governance model, while ethereum co-founder Vlad Zamfir asked whether his Twitter followers would support a hard fork to remove EOS tokens from the ETH protocol. All proposals floated on April 1st should be treated with extreme suspicion, but there are signs that the ethereum team won’t be allowing EOS to trample all over its lawn.

• Centra Takes a Tumble

Following the news that two of Centra’s co-founders were arrested trying to leave the U.S. on April 1, its token took a nosedive today, shedding 25%. Centra was the Floyd Mayweather ICO the SEC had subpoenaed on February 9. One of the founders “made flight reservations to leave the country, but was arrested before he was able to board his flight” noted an SEC press release filed today.

• Jimmy Song Sings Bitcoin’s Praises

Jimmy Song’s longread on why bitcoin is different from other cryptos has been getting a lotta love. Sample quote: “Bitcoin is the 7-day week and every other altcoin is a slight variation (Let’s have 4-day weeks! Let’s make the day 18 hours! Let’s rename the days to something different! Let’s vary week lengths according to the whims of a central authority!)” tl;dr: Bitcoin is still king.

Catch the next instalment of Bitcoin in Brief around the same time tomorrow.

What other bitcoin stories caught your attention today? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Images courtesy of Shutterstock, and Coincodex.

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Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section.

The post Bitcoin in Brief: Blockchain Wars and a Sleuth of Bears appeared first on Bitcoin News.

Active crypto traders can qualify for trader tax status (TTS) to deduct business and home-office expenses. And there might be an additional benefit.

FOMO Moments

Markets have been pretty grim viewing over the past few days however they have started to show some signs of life during this morning’s Asian trading session. Bitcoin has remained above $7,000 and is inching towards $7,200, up 3% on the day. Ethereum is still getting crushed but most of the altcoins are in the green again this morning. One or two are doing exceptionally well and the leader of the moment is VeChain.

According to Coinmarketcap VeChain is trading almost 29% higher this morning, leading the way in the top 25 altcoins. From around $2.27 this time yesterday VEN has jumped to a daily high of $3 before falling back a little to $2.90. Over the week it has remained at around the same level and has remade all losses from its weekly low of $2.15. Against BTC VeChain is up 26% to around 41000 satoshis from a level of 32500 sats this time yesterday. Over the week VEN has climbed around 8% against Bitcoin from a level of around 37850 satoshis this time last week.

The recent spike in Southeast Asia has been caused by a new exchange listing which usually has this effect. According to their Twitter feed VeChain is about to be listed on Bithumb, South Korea’s largest exchange.

Followed by Bithumb Pro, we are glad to announce that VeChain tokens will be listed on Bithumb Main in the next few hours! @BithumbOfficial @Bithumb_Korea. #GoVeChain https://t.co/7qrSYTWcIJ

— VeChain Foundation (@vechainofficial) April 3, 2018

Asian traders are getting their daily dose of fomo by getting into VEN before the exchange listing. At the moment it is traded predominantly on Binance which has 60% of the daily volume. That trading volume currently stands at $120 million, or 16,780 BTC. VeChain is ranked at 16^th in the market cap charts with a total capitalization of $1.5 billion.

Crypto markets as a whole are still very bearish however have risen slightly over the past 24 hours. This time yesterday the total cap was around $259 billion, today it has climbed 2% to $264 billion. Other altcoins enjoying double digit gains in Asia this morning include Nem, Binance Coin, Lisk and Verge.

More on VeChain can be found here: https://www.vechain.org/

FOMO Moments is a section that takes a daily look at the top 25 altcoins during the Asian trading session and analyses the best performing one, looking for trends and fundamentals.

The post Asian Cryptocurrency Trading Roundup: Top Altcoin is VeChain appeared first on NewsBTC.

The first quarter of 2018 was marked with continued protocol layer innovations, with heavy declines in prices across the board. Emerging and recurrent themes included transaction fees, microtransactions, increased fiat on-ramps, and regulatory changes. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the U.S., as well as Japan’s Financial Services Agency(FSA), made sweeping announcements or changes to the cryptocurrency milieu.

Bloomberg reported Monday that nine cryptocurrency hedge funds have shut down in the first quarter of 2018.

Decentralized Machine Learning Revolutionize the Use of Untapped Data with Privacy Protection

Decentralized Machine Learning (DML) is developing a decentralized protocol with the aid of blockchain, machine learning and federated learning technology etc. to unleash the potential of privately owned data that are currently not being fully utilized for machine learning and to drive innovation from periphery by forming a developer community in the marketplace.

What is Decentralized Machine Learning (DML)?

DML aims to develop a decentralized protocol that connects potentially billions of smart devices (e.g. smartphones, tablets etc.) for machine learning algorithms to be run on the untapped privately owned data that are stored in each device. The protocol will run machine learning algorithms directly on the device without any data extraction to ensure data privacy protection and also better utilize the processing power of each device.

Not only does DML better utilize the untapped data and underutilized processing power of each device to advance machine learning, but it also aims to drive innovation from periphery for machine learning development. An algorithm marketplace will be created to facilitate talented developers from all over the globe to publish their algorithms, hence machine learning development will not be contributed by a confined group of core developers within large corporations.

How DML changes the Machine Learning Ecosystem?

In this article, we focus discussing the decentralized machine learning from a data perspective, which is one of the critical elements for the success of machine learning development.

Avoid Oligopoly to control Majority of Available Data

Fascinating by the vivid growth in machine learning development, companies have been applying machine learning to their business such as anticipating customer preference and improving media purchase.  Tech giants such as Facebook, Amazon, Google etc. have heavily invested in machine learning research and data acquisition, they gain control and profit from the majority of data that users are unintentionally and passively provided without compensation. Data owners should have the rights to control their own data and be rewarded for contributing their data for machine learning development.  DML protocol allows data owners to have control over their own data by authorizing the machine learning algorithms to be run on specific types of data according to their will and receive compensations according to their contribution.

Unleash Massive Market Potential by Utilizing Untapped Data

Furthermore, the existing data that are acquired by these tech giant and being used for machine learning are just tip of the iceberg. Just count how many photos in your albums have you uploaded to the social media platforms? How many purchasing website or applications will you use to buy different types of products? Although the leading tech giants gain access and control of the majority of available data, there are still a huge amount of untapped data, which is located at the bottom of the iceberg. With the aid of DML protocol, the untapped private data can be better utilized to advance machine learning development.

Privacy Protection through on-device Machine Learning

DML enables on-device machine learning, hence algorithms will be run directly on the devices without the need to extract and store the raw data in cloud or third-party platform. Data privacy can be well protected.

Win-win Ecosystem

Data owners can contribute to machine learning effort and monetize their valuable data with full control and privacy protected, which are currently unfeasible. For corporations or individuals, who wish to apply machine learning to their business, they are given an alternative source of machine learning models with better quality of untapped data to be applied.

Far Beyond Untapped Data Application

DML is far more than a decentralized data project, it also creates a platform to promote innovation from periphery for machine learning evolvement. As a result, machine learning advancement will not be confined to the contributions and creativity of a small group of core developers, who worked in large corporation and bounded by bureaucratic guidelines.

More about DML

To study deeper about DML protocol, you can refer to their website: https://decentralizedml.com, whitepaper, introductory video and other materials.

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 US Securities and Exchange Commission has charged two co-founders of a financial services start-up for a fraudulent ICO that raised $32 mln. #NEWS