Day: April 11, 2018

The Philippines securities watchdog has warned that it will regulate cryptocurrency cloud mining contracts under existing securities rules.

Coinone CEO wants to use his company’s success to expand and secure cryptocurrency markets against ignorant regulation in South Korea.

Coinone CEO Wants to Help Korean Regulators

During the 2017 Bitcoin boom, South Korea made a name for its self as the little country with a big appetite for digital assets. The country of 50 million became one of the largest markets for Bitcoin and Ethereum last year and the cryptocurrency exchange Coinone had a lot to do with that.

Cha Myunghun, CEO of Coinone, saw his exchange grow from 20 employees at the beginning of 2017 to over 100 presently. Coinone serves 643,000 users and reached 23.4 billion Won in revenue during December 2017 according to Forbes. Cha admits that the mass popularity of Bitcoin in 2017 may not have been good for the market but it was great for his company.

Now Cha wants to ensure the healthy growth of his company and the market by expanding his services and working with other exchanges to help guide regulatory practices in the country.

Cha realized the potential of blockchain technology after reading Bitcoin’s white paper more than four years ago. As a white hat hacker and cybersecurity engineer, he immediately saw the opportunities in the remittance market for cryptocurrency as a cheap way to transfer money abroad.

He established Coinone in 2014 and since then has kept ahead of rival exchanges by setting strict technological standards for and making public the technological aspects of listed coins.

As the sharp rise in the cryptocurrency market in late 2017 became the steep slide of early 2018, South Korean regulators began to make extreme and often conflicting comments about what might happen with the local market. There have been rumors that cryptocurrency trading and ICO’s will be banned altogether while regulators find their footing.

Speaking to Forbes Cha said he is confident that the country will not ban cryptocurrency trading, saying that;

“It’s inevitable for the government to be concerned with cryptocurrency. But extreme measures such as the shutdown of exchanges would be going too far against the global trends,”

Expanding Services and Self Imposed Regulation

Cha sees the origin of the regulatory problem is that those making the decisions don’t know enough about the technology behind cryptocurrency. Which is why he and other South Korean crypto leaders have taken an active role in educating government officials as well as setting self-imposed rules on their own exchanges like Know Your Customer (KYC) tactics and limits to how many accounts users can open.

Closer to home Cha plans on growing Coinone into a diverse fintech company that provides a host of services including exchange, remittance, and insurance. The first of these expansions will launch in May as part of a joint venture with other Southeast Asian crypto exchanges.

In regards to his future plans for Coinone Cha told Forbes “Last year was a good year for us, with the investment boom. But we need to show the value of blockchain technology, and I want Coinone to keep progressing over the next 10 years,”

The post Coinone Boss Sees Self Regulation as Key to Crypto Industry Expansion appeared first on NewsBTC.

When it comes to cryptocurrencies, the economic establishment suggests prudence to people, but now a real revolution has emerged in the sector, represented by the Rocati, which has its strength in bricks, a timeless asset that has always meant security for investors

It is time for cryptocurrencies to make a real leap in quality. The ROCATI concretizes this need by distinguishing itself from other types of electronic money riding the wave of Bitcoin’s success: this digital currency will grow through a concrete good: bricks and mortar. Its value will be consolidated with real estate transactions, and this means that there is no risk of the kind of speculative bubble that finance experts fear with other cryptocurrencies.

From now on it will be easier to buy a house. A cryptocurrency has been born that will help young couples to buy a property and to transform old apartments into modern homes, revaluing them and reducing energy consumption. The Rocati is a currency that does not need an enormous use of electricity for its production, as is required by Bitcoin, and also through the project of restructuring houses, it helps to reduce energy waste by protecting the environment. All this is possible with this new currency, which will see its debut on the market in April. The project stems from the intuition of Emanuele Pinzi, a young graduate in engineering with a specialization in interior architecture in the United States, who has brought together the needs of ordinary people and those of the real estate market: a new form of investment that anticipates the future.

The other cryptocurrencies have a purely speculative origin and it is normal that they are perceived as a high-risk investment. The ROCATI has the function of disengaging people from the banking intermediaries that with their own behavior have proved to be an unreliable channel. This currency is a financial instrument that has within it a social soul that is useful to the community.

The real estate sector is the most important lever of the economy, and restarting it is fundamental for all countries. Creating added value in this sector is essential to deliver into the hands of citizens the security they have lost in investing their savings. The ROCATI, in addition to defending the resources of workers and retirees, also beckons to investors who want to diversify their portfolios. The dream of young couples to create a family by sidestepping all the banking bureaucracy to get a mortgage is becoming a reality. This new method will significantly affect real estate transactions, increasing the GDP of countries, and redistributing wealth in a healthy way to consolidate the future of citizens.

The ROCATI is linked to Itarco, a network of real estate agencies supported by a company that will guarantee credit through the transferable compromise, a form of rent to buy that makes your home unassailable and will eliminate the rent charges paid by the majority of citizens in every country. This act makes the asset acquired inviolable, respecting the great value that the property represents. This procedure secures the financial resources of the buyer, ensuring full enjoyment of the property purchase. The person intending to buy a property will receive a mortgage equal to 100% of the value. The transparency of the operations is guaranteed by a software program through which the notary can register the deed directly on the blockchain of the currency. Those who buy ROCATI know that the currency’s appreciation is linked to real estate transactions, not to speculation, and this brick of security will create conditions for a peaceful future.

In 2017 the value of real estate transactions in Italy amounted to € 118 billion, with an increase of 14%, while in the world, this asset reaches the sum of 217 trillion dollars. According to surveys by real estate observatories, the Italian housing stock is rather obsolete, and only a quarter of households are contemplating renovation work. The ROCATI allows you to buy a house that will be revalued in a short time thanks to a restructuring carried out through a team of architects, at a cost divided into convenient installments within the thirty-year mortgage.

The post The ROCATI, a Brick to Build the Future appeared first on NewsBTC.

ICOs are maturing as an asset class. Last year the market was booming, with token sales raising about $3.9 billion, up from less than $300m in 2014-2016. This year has seen negative news flow with core cryptocurrencies’ prices falling and setbacks from bodies such as the SEC, Facebook and Google. But despite these headlines, ICOs have gathered even more steam, raising nearly $6 billion in the first quarter of 2018 alone.

While ICOs’ growth doesn’t yet show signs of slowing there is a new species stalking the cryptoverse – Venture Capitalists. While Silicon Valley VC firms such as Andreessen Horowitz have been in the crypto space for a few years already, their European counterparts are just now joining the fray. Firms such as Balderton Capital ($375M fund), 83North ($250M), Mangrove Capital ($170M), and Nordic VC ($110M) to name just a few.

While some original crypto community founders may dismay at the entry of “suits” into the sector, overall their presence is a reason to celebrate. Such VCs are highly skilled at due diligence – i.e. looking under the hood of a project to see if there is any potential gremlins. In many ways the recent actions of the SEC and other regulators merely reflect the fact that it’s dangerous to have no experienced professional analysts around when it comes to investing. Even the most conscientious of us can sometimes fall in love with a project and miss out on some key detail that means we’re essentially guaranteed to lose our money. This weakness is evidenced by the fact that almost half of last year’s ICOs have already failed. Thus VCs are beginning to play an important signalling role – if the big boys have “kicked the tyres” on the project and decided they want to invest their own money, then it’s highly unlikely the project is a scam.

The VCs are also less likely to fall for “tokenization of everything” stories. Their work is to seek out concrete business cases which may be less eye-catching than Dogecoin but are likely to be far more profitable.

One example of the less sexy (but more financially beneficial) side of fintech is payment services. Such companies aren’t the most exciting but if you held Visa, MasterCard or PayPal stock you wouldn’t be complaining.

Payment services are also a necessary element of the cryptoverse and leading Luxembourg Venture Capital firm Mangrove Capital Partners recently announced its investment in DreamTeam, the world’s first infrastructure platform and payment gateway for the esports and gaming industry (generated over $100bn of revenue in 2017). The project successfully conducted the first stage of its ICO, raising $6M, and is currently preparing for the second phase.

DreamTeam is the first platform launching Blockchain User Wallets & Smart Contracts to allow esports teams to pay their players in tokens. It also aims to improve recruitment conditions and analytics/coaching tools with the help of a reliable and secure decentralized database.

DreamTeam is the most recent addition to Mangrove’s impressive portfolio, that includes Skype and Wix.com among other successful investments. It is also the first ICO project for the prestigious VC firm.

David Waroquier, Partner at Mangrove Capital commented on the DreamTeam investment:

“In addition to providing an all-in-one solution for hundreds of millions of gamers to build, grow, manage and monetize their teams, DreamTeam has the potential to create the de-facto payment gateway for the esports industry by leveraging blockchain and smart contracts technologies. The combination of an integrated esports platform with the ease and transparency of token-based smart contracts makes it probably the most powerful and scalable esports solution available globally.”

Mangrove’s investment in DreamTeam reminds us of one crucial reality. While Bitcoin’s weakness in recent weeks has led many to claim we are seeing a replay of the dotcom bubble, the reality is that while there were famous flops such as Pets.com there were also new titans created such as Google. With VC investment in crypto on course to surpass 2017’s tally of nearly $1 billion, new titans are beginning to emerge.

Image from Shutterstock

The post When it Comes to ICOs – it Pays to Follow the Smart Money appeared first on NewsBTC.

Image ‘strengthening’ and data sharing are first and foremost among Australia’s aims as it launches crypto exchange license. #NEWS

Bitcoin continues to trade sideways in an increasingly tight range, but could be setting up for a major move in either direction.

When the common goal is the same, in this case financial decentralization, collaboration can often help to achieve it faster. MakerDAO and OmiseGO have teamed up to consolidate their roadmaps towards achieving a financial revolution.

OMG and Maker Going Forward Together

Announcements came from both teams yesterday confirming the partnership and continued efforts to work towards their common objective. Maker, a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), offers a cryptocurrency, DAI, which is price stabilized against the US dollar in a similar way that Tether is. The Dai Stablecoin System is a decentralized platform that runs on the Ethereum blockchain, and its creators seek to minimize price volatility.

OmiseGO is a currency-agnostic decentralized exchange which will allow users the freedom to exchange and manage any digitized asset. There have already been a number of successful partnerships in Southeast Asia where the OMG team are based. By working together the two projects intend to use a stablecoin to avoid the wild price fluctuations many of the other cryptocurrencies endure.

Unlike most regular stablecoins which are centralized, Dai is decentralized with its issuance and value transparently linked to assets held in smart contracts. It provides the perfect opportunity for OMG which is striving to provide a decentralized crypto exchange.

In a blog post the OmiseGO team stated;

“We’re thrilled to say that Dai will be available on the OMG DEX. OMG network users will have the option to hold, send and trade against Dai from day one, gaining the benefits of a stabilized asset without having to rely on a centralized third party to guarantee its viability. With a decentralized stablecoin held on a decentralized exchange, your funds can’t be lost or revoked due to a single third party’s error, fraud or failure to thrive.”

Maker meanwhile shared the sentiment and posted on their Medium page;

“OmiseGO shares our passion for building a robust ecosystem and is in the process of developing a wallet SDK and DEX that will be vital to the utility of the overall network. The live OMG network will be a performant and secure proof-of-stake network which will enable high transaction throughput at a low cost. Today, we are excited to share two announcements on developments between Maker and OMG.”

The OMG token will also be used as collateral for issuing Dai and be part of the foundation for the stablecoin in its ongoing milestones. Currently only Ether can be used to create Dai. The marriage of philosophies between these two organizations emphasizes the real drive behind the cryptocurrency industry – total monetary freedom and decentralization from financial institutions and profit driven exchanges.

Image from Shutterstock

The post OmiseGO and MakerDAO Collaborating for a Decentralized Financial Future appeared first on NewsBTC.

In a conversation with Bitcoinist, Max Keiser, American broadcaster, filmmaker and Wall Street Veteran, has said that he envisages that the crypto giant Bitcoin “will top USD 100,000”.

Timothy Maxwell ‘Max’ Keiser currently hosts the Keiser Report on Russian state media channel RT. Until 2012, Keiser anchored the news analysis program On the Edge on Iran’s Press TV. Elsewhere, he has hosted business analysis programmes for BBC Radio 5 and BBC World News and produced the TV series, People and Power, for Al-Jazeera.

Keiser was quick to point out in the interview that his show was the first to cover Bitcoin back in 2011, arguing that it “fulfills Aristotle’s 4 conditions of money nicely”.  It must be durable, portable, divisible (have fungibility) and it must have intrinsic value.

Keiser maintains that with extremely low interest rates prevailing around the world, there is absolutely no incentive to save. Thus, due to poor investment practices and a “horrendous capital allocation trend”, an unsustainable bubble has been created: “an economy of artificially inflated stocks, bonds, property, and art”. He maintains that Bitcoin, along with gold, remain outside this bubble, although he sees altcoin Bitcoin Cash as “dodgy”, riding on the back of Bitcoin’s success.

Recent developments and comments surrounding investor and magnate George Soros and The Rockefellers were seen by Keiser as evidence that futures contracts could be used to build much bigger positions. He sees George Soros attempting to “corner” the bitcoin market, borrowing at 0% and accumulating “a huge position”.

In this scenario with the added financial impetus offered by big players, Keiser says Bitcoin can only go “a lot higher”, predicting a long-term target for the virtual currency of USD 100,000, based on “a Soros dump”.

Apart from Keiser’s appearances he has appeared as a financial pundit on a number of news networks. He was the creator, founder and CEO of HSX Holdings/Hollywood Stock Exchange and co-invented the Virtual Specialist platform on which the Hollywood stock exchange operates. The technology allowed traders to exchange virtual securities such as the Hollywood Dollar.

The post Bitcoin at over $100,000 Says Wall St Veteran Max Keiser appeared first on BitcoinNews.com.

During the European Commission Digital Day 2018 yesterday, 22 countries signed a declaration for a European Blockchain Partnership. #NEWS

It is rather surprising to see most cryptocurrencies in the green over the past 24 hours. While this momentum is more than welcome, it still remains to be seen how long all of this will last. If the previous weeks are any indication, things will turn around quickly. For now, the Ethereum price is one of the stronger gainers on the market, pushing its value back to $416.6.

Ethereum Price Turns Bullish

It is not uncommon for cryptocurrencies to note some temporary upward momentum over the past few months. Unfortunately, most of those trends quickly turn into a net loss, as the bearish sentiment still reigns supreme. For the time being, the Ethereum price is noting some decent gains, as it seems we now have a stable support level at $400. Only time will tell if that is the case, though.

Even so, the positive trend needs to be taken in stride. With the Ethereum price rising to $416.67 once again, things look rather promising, for the time being. This is a net 5% increase over the past 24 hours, which is a bit higher compared to most other top 10 cryptocurrencies. It is the first time in a while we see the Ethereum price rise sharper than Bitcoin’s value, which may hint at better things to come in the future.

Speaking of which, Ethereum has gained 3.13% over Bitcoin. Although that is positive, it remains to be seen how this situation will evolve in the coming hours and days. Ethereum has been battered all year long and suffered from steeper declines compared to Bitcoin for the most part. If that trend were to reserve at this crucial time, fireworks are on the horizon. It is still too early to draw any proper conclusions in this regard, though.

With $1.28bn in 24-hour trading volume, it appears the global interest in Ethereum is on the rise once again. That in itself is another promising sign when looking at the bigger picture. After all, most cryptocurrencies have suffered from a decline in trading volume, and it seems that particular trend is not improving just yet. This rise in Ethereum price also reduces the Bitcoin Dominance Index, which has dropped below 44% for the first time in weeks.

As of right now, Bitfinex is the leading exchange when it comes to Ethereum trading. Its ETH/USD pair is well ahead of Huobi’s USDT market and Binance’s BTC pair. All three listings are pretty close to one another in terms of overall volume, though, which is rather interesting to note. OKEx has two pairs in the top five as well, although neither of those is linked to fiat currencies.

How all of this will play out for the Ethereum price, remains to be seen. More specifically, the cryptocurrency industry needs a positive trend to remain in place for a lengthy period of time, although it seems that will be pretty difficult to maintain. Even so, today may prove to be a decent day for all cryptocurrencies, as things finally start to look up again.

A lot of things are changing in Australia. This is especially true when it comes to cryptocurrency. A new law has been introduced to bring additional regulation to this industry. Service providers need to adhere to the new guidelines introduced by the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC). It is the first time such regulations have been introduced to this industry.

AUSTRAC and Cryptocurrency

In a way, it is not surprising AUSTRAC introduced additional cryptocurrency regulations. More specifically, the institution has kept a close eye on this booming industry. Rather than try to oppose it, they seem to bring more legitimacy to cryptocurrencies. Introducing additional guidelines for providers and exchanges will help achieve that goal.

All digital currency exchanges providers need to register with AUSTRAC. This measure is quite similar to how Japan’s FSA approaches the cryptocurrency industry right now. Anyone not registered with the organization will be in violation of this new regulation. Additionally, companies have to meet governmental AML and CTF (anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing) compliance. That also includes reporting strange activity taking place on their respective platforms.

These new laws are not designed to prevent cryptocurrency from succeeding. In fact, AUSTRAC aims to achieve the completely opposite goal. They want to strengthen compliance in this industry and bring criminal activity to an end once and for all. As of right now, the connection between cryptocurrency and crime still remains rather apparent.

The Future of Bitcoin in Australia

While this is the first type of regulatory effort by AUSTRAC, it may not be the last. It is all part of an ongoing reform to help protect digital currency exchanges from money laundering. Moreover, the agency seeks to gain a better understanding of how Bitcoin and altcoins are used in Australia.

These developments come at a critical time for the industry as well. Various countries are cracking down on Bitcoin and altcoins as of right now. This has become rather apparent in India and China, among other regions. Australia is positioning itself as an open-minded country when it comes to cryptocurrencies. It is also one of the few countries with proper taxation guidelines for digital assets.

Any information reported to AUSTRAC will directly benefit the industry. Cryptocurrencies can be a valuable ally to end the fight against financial crime altogether. However, this can only work when service providers adhere to the new guidelines as soon as they are introduced. For local exchanges, these new requirements should not disrupt their existing business model in a negative manner.

Image from Shutterstock

The post Australia Rolls Out New Cryptocurrency Regulations appeared first on NewsBTC.

The Bank of England is examining how to maintain data privacy over a DLT network while still allowing a regulatory window into transactions.

Protocol Labs, the company behind Filecoin and other projects, has announced a research grant program worth $5 million initially.