Day: April 14, 2018

YIZOOT has just announced the launch of the first tokenized video geo-platform. Brands, content creators and viewers will be catapulted into the future, one where their interests are aligned without expensive middlemen, and where everyone benefits from rich, location-relevant, interactive user experiences. A limited number of tokens will be available to early participants during the YIZOOT Pre-Token Offer from the 30th April to the 28th May 2018.

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Anyone can buy a geo-channel which is essentially a video channel linked to a discrete hexagonal area on YIZOOT World on the Ethereum Blockchain. Geo-channels can be branded and completely controlled by their owners (no more subjective censorship), and browsed by viewers via an innovative geographic YIZOOT World interface. Video creators tether content to their own and/or targeted third party geo-channels, subject to the latter’s rules. They also have the option to allow videos to be automatically uploaded to the geo-channels in which they were created.

Intelligent ad matching, incorporating advertiser bidding, together with geo-channel owner control, changes the rules of the game of video advertising. All players in the value chain, from the geo-channel owner to the video creator and viewer, share in the proceeds of advertising spend.

What makes this all possible is the YIZOOT Utility Token (the YIZOOT), the only means of exchange in the YIZOOT ecosystem. A fixed supply of up to 200 million YIZOOTs will be minted. Tokens not allocated or sold by the end of the Token Offer will be burned. The blockchain not only provides the transparency, immutability and necessary micropayments to enable a trusted environment for the effective operation of the breakthrough geo-channel and advertising models; it also permits proof of creation and proof of ownership.  

Enriching the experience of all users is YIZOOT’s proprietary Interactive Video Format (IVF) and leading Augmented Reality (AR) capability. The IVF, for the first time, links the videos themselves to geo-relevant supplementary information/entertainment using criteria set by geo-channel owners.

Video creators can also produce imaginative AR videos on their phones using YIZOOT’s groundbreaking app. The app, an industry first, is now available for both iOS and Android.

The Token Offer

Funding will be raised via a Token Offer, to fund the completion of the development of the solution and the implementation of the go-to-market strategy. YIZOOTs will initially be available during the Pre-Token Offer from the 30th of April 2018. 45 million tokens (22.5% of the total to be minted) will be allocated to an Incentive Fund to be used to motivate key role players to come on board. A further 5 million tokens (2.5%) will be used to support a bounty program to promote awareness of the Token Offer.

Leading up to the Pre-Token Offer, anyone interested in staking a claim in the video platform of the future, can reserve geo-channels now, with absolutely no obligation to purchase them later, by visiting yizoot.com/world. Ever fancied owning the top of the Eiffel Tower or the stage at Madison Square Garden? Now’s your chance; reserve your premier locations before someone else grabs your land!

This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine.

Ethereum technology can be used for many different purposes. Rather than develop multiple new cryptocurrencies, Dataeum aims to revolutionize the data generation industry. Putting humans at the center of a data-driven ecosystem is the top priority of this specific project.

The Vision of Dataeum

Finding new use cases for blockchain technology is not as easy as people may think. In the data ecosystem, there is a growing need for secure and immutable solutions, and preferably concepts which do not suffer from centralization issues. This is where Dataeum comes into the picture, as the project uses blockchain technology and crowdsourcing to achieve this goal.

How Does it Work?

The main idea behind Dataeum is to create a solution to collect 100% of any sort of physical data in the world today. Moreover, this must be done with 100% accuracy, which is not easy by any means. With the data market becoming a multi-trillion dollar industry, secure solutions will need to be found to keep all of this information safe.

According to Dataeum’s team, humans are now an instrument of data collection. That’s a rather interesting way of labeling things, although there is some truth to that statement. Dataeum aims to disrupt the existing paradigm to ensure that large corporations cannot exploit data generation any longer.

The Dataeum solution will allow data collectors to be paid for collecting data. This will be done through a mobile app which uses deep learning and AR. All information will be transparent at all times thanks to blockchain technology and smart contracts. Each piece of validated data will be available through a decentralized marketplace, letting token holders retrieve data accordingly.

The Dataeum Token

One cannot have a new blockchain project without a new token or native currency, by the look of things. In the case of Dataeum, the project uses the XDT token, which is to be sold during an upcoming crowdsale. XDT will be used by holders to collect information from the decentralized marketplace. It is also the currency which will be used to reward new and existing data collectors.

Looking Ahead

There is still plenty of work to be done before Dataeum can become a mainstream project. As of right now, the team plans to open the platform to data collection in Q4 of this year, and the marketplace will not go live until Q3 of 2019. There are a lot of interesting things to look forward to, but always do your own research before making any investments.

According to crypto hedge fund Pantera Capital, whose CEO has made only 4 other crypto trade recs in the past, we are now in the “first innings” of a multi-decade trade of BTC. #NEWS

Some of the top platforms in the UK utilized by the users of sports betting sites to compare various betting platforms, have recently introduced a bitcoin and cryptocurrency-focused sports betting tutorial to help users of traditional sports betting platforms in using cryptocurrencies to place bets.

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The most comprehensive overview and tutorial of using bitcoin on sports betting platforms was released by www.bestbettingsites.uk/bitcoin/, providing comparison between bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, explaining the concept of fees and processing time, tutorial on using cryptocurrency wallets, and the volatility of bitcoin as well as the entire cryptocurrency market.

For native users of bitcoin that have utilized the digital currency for many years as a medium of exchange, store of value, and a settlement system, the concept of deposits, withdrawals, fees, storage, and mining should already be familiar. But, for traditional sports betting platform users who have not been previously introduced to the cryptocurrency market, it would be difficult to begin utilizing bitcoin to deposit and withdraw payments, and place bets simultaneously.

Consequently, complex concepts of bitcoin and the difficult user experience of cryptocurrency wallets lead to lower adoption and user activity, especially on platforms that have alternative financial methods. Most traditional sports betting platforms have a variety of payment methods such as bank transfer, PayPal payments, and credit card payments which users can use to place bets.

With fiat currency betting wherein users utilize reserve currencies like the US dollar or euro, funds are protected and value of the currencies remain generally stable throughout the betting process, given the low volatility of reserve currencies. Winnings are funded directly to the bank accounts of users autonomously, without having to undergo a time consuming process.

In bitcoin betting, users have to deal with the volatility of bitcoin, which could surge to 10 percent at times, on a daily basis. Bitcoin, when its mempool is cleared, can process payments within 30 minutes, allowing near-instantaneous cashouts, while bank transfers and credit card refunds generally take 3 to 5 business days to process. In that sense, bitcoin has a strong edge over traditional financial tools and currencies.

But, bitcoin betting comes with its risks. With bitcoin, users have to remain in full control over their funds, and are responsible for the loss or gain of their funds. If users send bitcoin to the wrong address, the funds of the users lost forever, and there is no way to recover the funds once transactions are broadcasted to the public ledger of the Bitcoin blockchain.

Already, several major traditional sports betting platforms like NetBet have started to accept bitcoin as a payment method, to enable users to utilize the cryptocurrency to process deposits and withdrawals after making bets on their platforms.

Comprehensive tutorials and columns will inevitably lead to increasing user activity and adoption of bitcoin within the sports betting space, especially if users of traditional platforms move over to bitcoin from conventional payment methods.

Wall Street banks experience fall in share price as BTC and ETH prices spike. #NEWS

British national Renwick Haddow, 49, has been charged with two counts of wire fraud and extradited from Morocco to the US.

The US Department of Justice charges are connected to two fraudulent startups allegedly defrauding investors of more than USD 36 million.

Haddow was originally charged in the US in June 2017 and arrested in Morroco the following month. Geoffrey Berman, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and William Sweeney Jr, assistant director-in-charge of the FBI’s New York office, reported that Haddow had been extradited from Morocco and is scheduled to appear in a New York court on Friday.

According to Attorney Berman, “Haddow made material misrepresentations… about the management, operations and historical performances of the companies.”

One of the startups under investigation, the ‘Bitcoin Store’, was supposedly led by CEO ‘Gordon Phillips’, who was said to have received a master of science degree in finance from Yale and to have previously been head of global currency and options at HSBC. The FBI investigation showed that neither Yale nor HSBC had any records for Phillips.

According to Haddow, the Bitcoin Store had generated sales of USD 7.6 million whereas the firm’s bank account showed a balance of only USD 500, according to the investigation.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) originally filed charges against Haddow last year for misleading investors. It reported that the Briton had claimed to have had an “experienced team of leading investment professionals” behind the company. The Department of Justice confirmed that “he alone was the brains behind the bitcoins store” and that the “experienced team” was Haddow’s own fabrication.

The Moroccan ministry of justice originally held Haddow to investigate the Bitcoin Shop, Bar Works, and a third startup, In Crowd Equity. He faces jail of up to 20 years for each of the charges.

Morocco’s foreign exchange authority has stated that the use of cryptocurrencies within the country can lead to penalties under existing rules, although the Moroccan exchange regulator, along with the Central Bank of Morocco, state that they will continue to regularly monitor the development of cryptocurrencies around the world.

The post Briton Extradited from Morocco over Alleged $36 Million Bitcoin Fraud appeared first on BitcoinNews.com.

Coinbase’s new VC arm raises thorny questions about the influence the startup wields across the crypto market and potential conflicts of interest.

Russian security services ordered Telegram to hand over access to encrypted user messages, but the messaging application (app) refused. Founder Pavel Durov didn’t bother to send lawyers to Moscow’s Tagansky court in response, and the court dutifully ruled against his company, taking less than 20 minutes in decreeing an immediate ban.

Also read: CBS’s NCIS Los Angeles Weaves Stolen Bitcoin Into Script, LL Cool J Is on the Case

Russian Court Bans Telegram

Dmitri S. Peskov, Kremlin spokesperson, stressed, “There is a certain legislation that demands certain data to be passed to certain services of the Russian Federation.” Judge Yulia Smolina agreed, ruling, “The ban on access to information will be in force until the [Federal Security Service’s] demands are met on providing keys for decrypting user messages,” TASS reported.

Roskomnadzor, a censuring media body responsible for attempting to ban everything from Github to pornography to white nationalist websites, evidently made the most vigorous argument in urging the court to shutter Telegram. Last month, the company appealed before the Supreme Court over Russia’s Federal Security Service’s (FSB) 800,000 ruble fine. The FSB ordered Telegram to decrypt messages in accordance with relatively recent anti-terrorism laws. “We don’t do deals with marketers, data miners or government agencies. Since the day we launched in August 2013 we haven’t disclosed a single byte of our users’ private data to third parties,” a Telegram blog post insisted.

The only comment made at press time by Pavel Durov, regarding 13 April’s decision, came in a post to his personal Telegram channel, and it seemed every bit defiant as the 33 year old known for, “The power that local governments have over IT corporations is based on money. At any given moment, a government can crash their stocks by threatening to block revenue streams from its markets and thus force these companies to do strange things (remember how last year Apple moved Icloud servers to China). At Telegram, we have the luxury of not caring about revenue streams or ad sales. Privacy is not for sale, and human rights should not be compromised out of fear or greed.” Mr. Durov is a native of Russia, but bailed in 2014 after his first enterprise, a social networking site called Vkontakte (VK), he claimed, was taken over by Putin in retaliation to Mr. Durov’s then-refusal to hand over user information as well.

Legal Setback for a Company Thriving

Though Telegram has formal appeal rights, the court ruled with a sense of urgency, allowing the Roskomnadzor to take immediate action against the company. An irony not lost on officials is that they too use Telegram for communication purposes, and that includes President Putin’s own press office. Rumors are that it will move to Viber. 

Telegram’s lawyer, Pavel Chikov, warned, “[Russia has] demonstrated again and again that the court system is devoted to serving the interests of the authorities. They no longer even care about basic external appearances.” Though both Facebook and Google have butted heads with Russian authorities, Telegram is only the second universal platform to be formally banned (Linkedin was the first).

Other than legal woes, the company has been on something of a growth spurt of late. It recently celebrated 200 million users, and is presently raising billions in what is being called the biggest initial coin offering so far.

Do you think Telegram will be impacted by the ban? Let us know in the comments section below.

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The post Russian Court Bans Telegram, Founder Pavel Durov Defiant appeared first on Bitcoin News.

One of the largest crypto assets has been under fire for its technical decisions, with some developers even branding IOTA the coin they love to hate.

In terms of a zeitgeist shift, the change in sentiment towards cannabis as an illegal drug and the distrust towards institutional financial powers is at a fascinating juncture. Individually, both fledgling industries are huge potential disruptors of many industries, but what could they do together?