Day: April 12, 2018

Undoubtedly, the public’s awareness of crypto is increasing. News about the major currencies such as Bitcoin are published every day as are stories about the exciting new cryptocurrencies that are constantly being launched. However, while awareness is increasing, engagement with crypto isn’t increasing at the same rate. The main reason for this is that the general public perceives that there are barriers preventing them getting involved. Traditionally, people had three main ways of making money from cryptocurrency, but even today, with an increased awareness of crypto and the blockchain, these aren’t engaging the general public.

Mining

Mining is the use of your computer’s processing power to ‘mine’ electronic currency. In the early days of cryptocurrency, this could be done easily from a regular home laptop or PC. However, these days, to have any chance of doing this effectively, it now requires a huge amount of processing power, and in places such as China, there are mining farms that have thousands of computers all mining for crypto. In the face of such processing power, the average person simply cannot compete.

Getting in early

Getting in early can potentially be a good way of making money from crypto. Taking Bitcoin as an example, these could have been bought for just a few dollars when it was first introduced and has since peaked for a time at over $20,000. However, with a plethora of new cryptocurrencies being introduced all the time, which ones are the best to take a chance on? Most people simply don’t have the money to risk by speculating on multiple cryptocurrencies.

Trading

The most popular way of making money from crypto, some savvy traders have made millions. However, many people find trading complicated, and because of the volatility of some cryptocurrencies, it’s potentially very easy to lose (or make) a lot of money in a matter of minutes. For this reason, it’s not something that the average person partakes in.

The fourth way: miBoodle

miBoodle is the revolutionary new platform that will bring crypto to the masses. The miBoodle platform is simple to understand and easy to use. Built on the blockchain, it is set to eliminate all of the barriers for the average person to enter the world of crypto. The idea behind miBoodle is simple. It’s a platform that allows people to earn money from becoming a micropublisher and earning money (or miBoodle tokens) from social media. The platform lets people create up to ten news sites, based on whatever they are interested in. Then, they sync their social media channels to the sites, and regular, informative and engaging content is posted across the networks driving traffic back to the them. The more traffic the sites receive, the more money the user makes.

Users can choose to be paid by Paypal or they can choose to be paid in miBoodle tokens. The more of these that a user earns, the rate at which they can make money is increased. Because miBoodle is built on the blockchain, it’s highly secure, and because it is free to use, it requires no investment from users making it risk-free. Over time, users can potentially make a regular and sustainable income from their use of social media.

If you’ve always wanted to engage with cryptocurrency and the blockchain (and make some extra money too), why not sign up to miBoodle today?

The post miBoodle: Bringing Crypto to the Masses appeared first on NewsBTC.

Most people are aware that Backpage.com has been seized by the US Justice Department. This development has caused quite a stir, although a lot of unsavory evidence has surfaced in the past few days. It seems the owners of this platform have engaged in money laundering involving cryptocurrency. It’s not a positive development for this nascent industry either.

The Backpage.com Plot Thickens

What is happening to Backpage.com is quite interesting. After the website found itself in the crosshairs of the Justice Department, things have been unfolding at a rapid pace. With the website now being seized, it seems things will only continue to unravel from here on out. Backpage.com made a name for itself as a place for prostitution ads, including activity involving children.

It is not, however, necessarily the most popular platform among law enforcement officials. That is only normal, as the platform has gained an unsavory reputation over the years. With seven of the individuals responsible for building this platform receiving federal indictments, things are continuing to go downhill. A total of 93 criminal counts have been filed, ranging from conspiracy to facilitating prostitution and money laundering.

This latter point is quite worrisome, as it seems the Backpage.com team laundered money using various cryptocurrencies. Even though Bitcoin doesn’t have the best of reputations in this regard, there’s little evidence to suggest cryptocurrency is used for money laundering. It will be quite interesting to see how these charges pan out, as proving that cryptocurrencies were used may be a challenge.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions commented on the situation as follows:

For far too long, Backpage.com existed as the dominant marketplace for illicit commercial sex, a place where sex traffickers frequently advertised children and adults alike. But this illegality stops right now. Last Friday, the Department of Justice seized Backpage, and it can no longer be used by criminals to promote and facilitate human trafficking. I want to thank everyone who made this important seizure possible: all of our dedicated and committed professionals in the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section and our U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Arizona, the FBI, our partners with the IRS Criminal Investigation, our Postal Inspectors, and the Texas and California Attorney Generals’ offices.

One thing no one will deny is that Backpage.com made a lot of money from its business model over the years. The US Justice Department claims “hundreds of millions of dollars” have been earned. These criminal charges were only a matter of time, as the platform has quickly become a forum where the well-being of women and children was only a secondary priority. From this point forward, the platform will no longer facilitate human trafficking and other illicit services.

How all of this will play out in the long run remains to be determined. It seems the Justice Department is mainly interested in bringing the people running this platform to justice. For now, it is unclear whether any funds have been seized. Rest assured this is not the last time we will hear about the Backpage.com case, although its connection to cryptocurrency remains murky at best.

A lawsuit has been filed on JPMorgan Chase and Co in a Manhattan Federal court accusing the bank of overcharging clients who purchased cryptocurrencies using their credit cards.

In January, JPMorgan Chase prohibited the buying of cryptocurrencies using credit cards and levied extra charges, treating the purchases as cash advances.

Customer and Idaho resident Brady Tucker has filed a suit against the investment banker for overcharging him for fees and interest for two payments of USD 143.30 and USD 20.61 for cryptocurrency transactions. It suggests that possibly thousands of other customers have also been overcharged. The investor bought USD 2,301 worth of cryptocurrencies between 15 January and 2 February and maintains that he called Chase’s customer service line to dispute the charges but the bank refused to move them.

A spokesperson for the bank, Mary Jane Rodgers, wouldn’t comment on the lawsuit but pointed out that the reason for halting credit card crypto purchases was due to credit risk.  JPMorgan’s CEO, Jamie Dimon, has previously called cryptocurrency a “fraud”, saying that he’d fire any employee “stupid” enough to trade in it.

Attorneys for Tucker, Finkelstein & Krinsk LLP, a San Diego-based law firm, suggest that customers did not receive fair notice regarding the banks proposed changes, incurring “millions of dollars of cash advance fees and sky-high interest charges on each and every crypto purchase”.

The lawyers are seeking the fees returned and damages “in an aggregate amount of USD 1 million” in a class action hearing. Although the size of the class has yet to be established, it could be as many of “hundreds or thousands of members”. They accuse JPMorgan Chase of violating the US Truth in Lending Act, which requires credit card issuers to notify customers of significant changes in terms.

Several banks in the US and UK, including Lloyds Banking Group Plc, Virgin Money and Citigroup banned the use of credit cards to purchase cryptocurrencies earlier this year after Bitcoin plunged from about USD 20,000 to USD 13,000.

The post JPMorgan Chase Faces $1 Million Class Action Over Crypto Fees appeared first on BitcoinNews.com.

Blockchain startup ChromaWay and India-based Tech Mahindra have partnered to bring new solutions to the Indian market.

Santander unveils Ripple-based money transfer service #NEWS

Even though public interest in cryptocurrency is growing, it is not always for the right reasons. Criminals have taken a strong liking to crypto, especially when it comes to mining them with other people’s computer resources. It seems there has been a growing number of cryptocurrency mining-oriented Kodi add-ons. As such, the developers are cracking down on this activity and will remove all of these add-ons in the near future.

Malicious Crypto Mining Add-ons for Kodi

It is quite disconcerting that criminals are trying so many different tactics to illegally mine cryptocurrencies. We have seen an increase in malicious mining software, as well as the embedding of code within browsers, web pages, and so forth. All of this activity gives cryptocurrency an even worse reputation than it already had.

It now seems criminals have taken this approach one step further, as they are targetting users of the popular Kodi platform. For those who are unaware, Kodi is an all-in-one media streaming solution for videos, photos, and music. It can run on many platforms and accommodate most types of hardware due to its lightweight nature.

This is partially what makes Kodi so appealing to criminals, by the look of things. Their recent course of action involves developing rogue add-ons for this media solution, but ones that do not serve peoples’ needs. Instead, these add-ons mine cryptocurrencies using a device’s resources, which can lead to a slowed experience, as well as potentially damage the device in question.

The Kodi team has always made it clear they do not allow for monetization of Kodi add-ons at the expense of end users. Some add-ons require a subscription, which is perfectly fine. Purposefully hijacking users’ device resources for cryptocurrency mining is absolutely unacceptable. As such, these add-ons will be removed from the Kodi Store in the very near future.

One of those add-ons seemingly uses the Coinhive script. This particular Kodi add-on was indexed through an unofficial add-on library, which makes it easier for developers to distribute new creations. Thankfully, someone caught wind of what this particular tool was doing and quickly reported it to the Kodi team. Removing it seems more than warranted at this stage.

From this point forward, cryptocurrency mining using Kodi add-ons will not be tolerated. Anyone violating this rule will be permanently banned from the community, regardless of previous tools being distributed. The project also has its own malicious script blocker, which can disable add-ons on a global scale once they are blacklisted. All of this goes to show criminals will not hesitate to explore new ways of mining cryptocurrencies without user consent.

Bitcoin rallied over $1,000 in an hour this morning, having spent a better part of the last two weeks trading sideways.

Vietnamese authorities are investigating two allegedly fraudulent initial coin offerings (ICOs) which may have affected as many as 32,000 investors, losing up to USD 660 million.

The ICOs, Ifan and Pincoin, according to Vietnam’s Tuoi Tre News, are reported to bear some of the hallmarks of Ponzi schemes, alerting authorities and sparking an official investigation in the Southeast Asian country.

Investors protesting against the ICOs on the weekend gathered outside Modern Tech’s Ho Chi Minh City headquarters demanding refunds. Modern Tech, which claimed to be the authorized agent for both Ifan and Pincoin, was based in Ho Chi Minh City’s Vietnamreal building which had been cleaned out by its owner a month prior to the events.

The ICOs were launched through conferences in Hanoi and remote areas of the country in order to lure in customers. Investigators grew suspicious when commissions began to be paid in digital coins rather than fiat currency. Investors were then unable to withdraw their cash despite observing their investments accrue value.

Singapore-created Ifan described itself as “the most advanced social network [for] celebrities and artists enabling a better connection with fans”. Pincoin, initiated in Dubai, simply described itself as an “investment opportunity” promising up to 40% in monthly profits.

The police chief of Ho Chi Minh City commented that “all cryptocurrencies and transactions in cryptocurrencies are illegal in Vietnam… we haven’t officially launched an investigation until we receive accusations from any of the alleged victims”.

Reuters claims to have seen a copy of Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc’s directive instructing the State Bank of Vietnam to cease allowing financial services that relate to cryptocurrency. The directive included measures to counter money laundering and counter terrorist activity through cryptocurrency.

Last year, Vietnam announced that it was considering a legal framework for the management of cryptocurrencies due to their increased popularity in the country. These moves have been reflected in other Asian countries in order to alleviate the risks of fraud.

The post Vietnam Tightens Crypto Laws After ICO Scams 32,000 Investors appeared first on BitcoinNews.com.

Positive surprises are not all that easy to come by in the world of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. This is especially true when it comes to the Bitcoin price, which is often making headlines for all of the wrong reasons. For some unknown reason, the Bitcoin price is rebounding pretty strongly in the past handful of hours. As such, we are now looking at a value of $7,769 for the first time in nearly two weeks.

The Bitcoin Price may Have a Solid Run

Throughout most of 2018, there has been no positive Bitcoin price momentum whatsoever. Most of the time has been spent catching a falling knife, as the value continued to decline pretty quickly for several months on end. Although we now have an uptrend in place, it is evident there is still a long way to go until this can effectively become a solid reversal. As of right now, we are looking at a net 13.33% gain in value.

While that is rather impressive for many different reasons, it is also a worrisome sign. Considering how the Bitcoin price is bouncing back in vertical fashion, one has to consider how this trend will evolve. It is due time the value per BTC goes up again, but sudden spikes like this one will effectively result in a steep correction at some point as well.  Given the correction we have had in the Bitcoin industry throughout this year, it is possible things will get pretty ugly in the months to come.

Even so, the 13.33% decline seems to come up with all kinds of momentum. Not only will it fuel more interest in Bitcoin trading, it is also pushing the Bitcoin Dominance Index back above 43.7%. Although there’s a lot more to cryptocurrency than just Bitcoin, it is evident all other currencies need the world’s leading cryptocurrency to go up in value as of right now.

The Bitcoin trading volume is also – finally – showing some signs of life again. After a few days of being stuck around $4bn, it is now back to $7.32bn where it belongs. While this is still well below the volume most people would like to see, it does indicate the demand for Bitcoin has not necessarily slowed down over the past few weeks.

This increased trading volume does not originate from just one exchange, by the look of things. More specifically, Bitfinex is still dominating the market, as it has always done. OKEx is claiming the second spot, with Binance in third and fourth position. Upbit closes to the top five, which means we have just two fiat currency pairs in the top 10. The two USDT pairs are also interesting to keep an eye on. Surprisingly enough, Upbit’s Bitcoin price is $300 lower compared to the West.

How all of this will play out for the Bitcoin price, remains to be determined. While one can appreciate the current spike, it may not last all that long, depending on how the market responds. A lot of people will take quick profits after buying in at $6m500, which is only to be expected. Even so, there are a lot more people waiting for the Bitcoin price to return to $12,000 and more just to break even.

Cryptocurrency startup Carbon has raised $2 million in seed funding, the company revealed to CoinDesk, Thursday.

Blockchain could boost efficiency and cut costs in a housing sector that’s due for a digital overhaul, says Moody’s.