Day: April 16, 2018

The hacked Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck has officially been acquired by one of Japan’s largest online brokerage firms. Monex Group has outlined its plans of reviving Coincheck and the risks associated with the acquisition.

Also read: Yahoo! Japan Confirms Entrance Into the Crypto Space

Acquisition Completed

Coincheck has officially become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Monex Group on April 16, local media reported after the leading online securities firm agreed to invest 3.6 billion yen (~US$33.55 million) in the acquisition of the exchange. Monex is among Japan’s largest online brokerage firms, whose competitors include SBI Securities, Rakuten Securities, Matsui Securities and Kabu.com.

In a press conference on Friday, Monex disclosed Coincheck’s financials for the fiscal year ending March 31. The exchange’s revenue was 980 million yen (~$9.13 million) and its net operating income was 719 million yen (~$6.7 million). Moreover, the exchange has approximately 1.7 million user accounts and 71 employees.

Monex CEO Oki Matsumoto told Coincheck’s employees, as reported by Business Insider Japan, “There are no personnel changes,” adding that Monex will respect the salaries and treatment of Coincheck’s employees and will not “change the company name or logo, and emphasizes continuity.” Citing that he believes the Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA) will grant the new Coincheck registration “within two months,” he reiterated at the press conference:

We will restart Coincheck business within two months.

Key Executive Changes

The business improvement order issued by the FSA under the fund settlement law mandates both key executives of Coincheck, CEO Koichiro Wada and COO Yusuke Otsuka, to resign from the company’s Board of Directors.

“While leaving is the requirement of the Financial Services Agency, Mr. Wada and Mr. Otsuka remain as executive officers,” the news outlet noted. Executive officers make day-to-day management decisions. For important matters, the Board of Directors, consisting of Monex staff, holds the decision making power.

Monex COO Toshihiko Katsuya will be appointed the new president of Coincheck while Matsumoto will also serve as the director.

Wada announced:

I and Otsuka will retire as of April 16, but I will continue to fulfill my responsibilities as an executive officer for the development of the industry and the protection of customers’ assets.

Considerable Risks

In January, Coincheck was hacked and lost 58 billion yen (~$541 million) worth of the cryptocurrency NEM, which the exchange has paid out from its own earnings, Wada detailed. However, as customers were paid in Japanese yen, some have filed lawsuits against the exchange for the return of their cryptocurrencies instead.

Refuting reports that Coincheck was “bought cheaply,” the CEO of Monex Group was quoted by Nikkei:

Coincheck is a company that is not a registrant of the FSA with litigation. From the common sense of listed companies, the acquisition is a considerable risk.

However, he further explained, “The risk of litigation has been discussed with lawyers and it ranges from 1 billion to 2 billion yen [~$18.6 million] at the most,” adding that the cost will be borne by existing shareholders and the burden of Monex will be limited.

What do you think of Monex’s plans to revive Coincheck? Do you think Coincheck will become popular again? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Monex Group, and Coincheck.

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The post How Monex Plans to Revive Hacked Japanese Crypto Exchange Coincheck appeared first on Bitcoin News.

Since the internet generation, the marketplace became darker and darker with every year. Plenty of scammers, the reality is that stealing became way easier through a keyboard and a screen. Selling and buying aren’t really safe since forever and it’s preventing you from using the real technology’s features; deals with people all around the world without worrying about being scammed.

Dynatiq is your solution, not just another solution; a real one bringing what was always supposed to be but wasn’t.

Decentralized marketplace built on blockchain for domains and websites. Connecting a huge industry with $400m annually worth, mixing with the blockchain technology and planning the best for the future. A huge amount of money is coming into this industry with not any promises to secure your deals with random people all around the people. Dynatiq bringing the safest marketplace with their own special token which has a staking process with more tokens to you when you participate in partnership merchants.

Along with escrow use based on the blockchain based marketplace which provides the variety of features to the people who are seeking for the way to make transactions with no fear. Regardless the fact that it is a decentralized service with 0% fee and bringing the solution on a gold tray straight to every single person around the world. In addition, with no doubt a high-quality rating and feedback system which makes you know who you are selling to or buying from and preventing from any thief to make a mess in the marketplace.

With a solid team and development behind this project along with transparent roadmap which focused on making the best for everyone. Aiming for all the people around the world through all the platforms that exist, making safe deals happily through your little device that sits in your pocket. A high dominance in the industry with press releases and conferences involved making sure Dynatiq is here and not going anywhere with the real solutions. With its many unique advantages and serious development behind this ideal idea and effort that was put into this; nowadays ICO is coming with your chance to become part of this and make an influence, a change and not just to watch from the corner.

Using their own exclusive ERC-20 token which will be available to be stored on the most popular wallets and making touch with the biggest exchanges around the market. Only a few millions of tokens also known as DTQ, to establish it as the standard token in the marketplace for domains and websites. Along with its own features and exclusive uses, having an actual value which will be used in the platform and drive a smooth and direct traffic among the merchants and the people. In conclusion, the beta version will be released this year to the general public with all the promises bringing an actual working product with use in the near future and already start a revolution in the marketplace that everyone needs, so here we go.

Website: https://dynatiq.com

Soft Cap: 1000 ETH

Hard Cap: 5000 ETH

Currencies accepted: BTC, ETH

ICO start: 25 April 2018

ICO end: 9 June 2018

1 ETH = 2000 DTQ

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.

Lockchain (LOC) is the only Blockchain company that has been aiming and succeeding at providing people with statistically significant discounts from booking prices. This European company is quickly gaining traction by providing their clients with a workaround for the exorbitant commissions that increase the hotel prices with (+20% on average) offered by booking oligopolists such as Agoda, Booking.com and Airbnb. Just recently the team at Lockchain has announced that they were able to successfully cut hotel prices all over the world by an average of 20%, sometimes even more. Seems like Lockchain is not only talking the talk, but walking the walk as well.

They’ve established themselves

Now that they’ve succeeded in gaining a significant amount of the entire industries’ hotel and property portfolio, it’s time to put their promises to a fair analysis. Cutting out middlemen and intermediaries, they’ve promised to be 20% cheaper than any of their current market competitors. Let’s do some price analyses and see how well they are performing so far. All results are based on the data in the following spreadsheet, which is open for anyone to peer review. More than 800 hotels are compared in the document, divided over Asia, Europe and the United States of America. Hotels that are rated 5, 4 or 3 stars are included. Point of view is based on Booking.com’s cheapest room, then compared to Agoda and Lockchain. In their figures, they use the average of all hotels listed within one city or region.

Asia: 4% to 25% average cheaper

With a population of over 4 billion people, Asia is a truly big destination. Taking in account their current economic boom and social growth, they will become one of the largest travel destinations for work or leisure in the upcoming decades. Offering prime locations in Tokyo, Bangkok, Bali and more Lockchain has already secured an important part of the market with their partnerships. Being between 25 to 29.5% cheaper than their competitors in Tokyo and Bali, they create an interesting offer for anyone willing to experience Asian culture or looking for an opportunity to become part of Asia’s growing economy.

Middle-East and Turkey: 11 to 20% average cheaper

Almost always warm in the Middle-East, it’s a perfect location to get away from the cold and harsh winters you experience almost everywhere else in the world. Qatar and Dubai are the epicenter of middle-eastern culture and are a must experience for everyone. Closer to Europe, Turkey, can still be considered nicely warm with average temperatures varying between 6 degrees to 24 degrees celcius winter to summer. Hitting the 20% cheaper margin in Turkey is something Lockchain is especially proud of, as it is one of the more famous holiday locations for Europeans.

Europe: around 17% average cheaper

We cannot talk about cultures around the globe without mentioning Europe. The beauty of Europe is in the vast variety of cultures; move 300 kilometers in any direction and you’ll find yourself in a completely different environment. Many foreigners and Europeans alike start a round-trip in Europe to catch as many cities in as small amount of time as possible. With fairly cheap flights between cities and countries in Europe, the biggest expense has always been accommodation. For those kind of explorers who love to hop countries, Lockchain takes away a big hurdle of expensive locations and free the explorer to truly focus on what he loves most: Capturing the romance in Paris, partying in Germany, laying on the coasts of Croatia and drinking beers in Eastern Europe. Life’s too short not to catch it all, the guys at Lockchain will help you achieve it. A steady 17% cheaper average all around Europe shows they are on the right track. The most favourable tourist spots give even better results: Paris 27%, Amsterdam 18% and Rome 31% cheaper.

United States of America: 22 to 25% cheaper

By far the biggest travel location is the US. Not because of their interesting offer of cities, wide range of beautiful nature, interesting design of architecture and vast amount of cultural hotspots. Although they surely contribute, they are not the prime reason of America’s importance in the online booking industry. Americans tend to travel more inbound than outside of the US, spending a large part of their time in US hotels and properties for business or leisure. With the global hotel industry valued at close to

$500 billion for 2015 and expecting to grow to 1 trillion in 2020, America’s own industry takes 2/5th of that value in account. That makes America the number one market for online booking companies looking to offer real value. Penetrating this market has been a real strategic benefit for Lockchain, enabling a steady amount of bookings on the platform. With a range between 22% and 25% cheaper over a large offer of hotels and properties they’ve secured their target in this market.

What the figures tell us

The figures show a significant amount of locations where Lockchain performs far above their goal to be 20% cheaper. There are some items in the portfolio that drag the average down, as can be seen in the raw data. While we’ve focused on expanding as wide as possible whilst maintaining integrity, there’s been no price exclusion from their portfolio for hotels. In the future they aim to be more strategic price-wise in the partners they seek, as they keep their promise to be 20% cheaper a core objective. They’ve tried to establish this data as objectively as possible to be transparent in their road to success, and hope this reflects in their community being well informed about their performance.

Join them on their path

All with the use of an engine powered by blockchain technology, their own LOC token, and a service offered under fair use, they’re heading towards disrupting the hotel and property booking industry enabling travelers all around the world to travel and explore. Read up on their mission in their whitepaper, visit their website, check out their team and their affiliation with other great projects. If you haven’t done so yet, join their Telegram. They invite everyone to become a part of this great journey. Make a booking on their platform, and start discovering the world with Lockchain.

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.

Cryptocurrencies are regularly accused of causing “deaths in a fairly direct way” (as Bill Gates put it). A report released by The Foundation for Defense of Democracies found that less than one percent of Bitcoin is used for illegal purposes.

Bitcoin Not as Criminal as Some Might Think

Aaron Shamo, a 28-year-old Bitcoin enthusiast who became a millionaire since the cryptocurrency rally in late 2017, was found to be a drug dealer, according to the police. Shamo has allegedly trafficked fentanyl, a powerful opioid, which may have caused 28 fatal overdoses and is now in prison awaiting trial. He has pleaded not guilty as he faces a mandatory life sentence if convicted.

The modus operandi of the alleged drug ring used Bitcoin as the means of payment. “We have switched to bitcoin payments only. Now you will enjoy a 10 percent less price tag on all products. Good part is that paying by bitcoin you can order as much as you like with no limit”, said an e-mail from the dealer.

Law enforcement found six websites offering fentanyl and all of them listed Bitcoin as the preferred method of payment. “Because it’s anonymous, it’s the currency of choice for these drug traffickers,” said Ohio Republican Rob Portman, head of a Senate committee investigating the matter. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has called the use of Bitcoin on the dark web “a big problem.”

Most cryptocurrency advocates dismiss the argument that Bitcoin is a problem. “Blaming Bitcoin for this crisis would make as much sense as blaming the internet or cars that drug traffickers have to use”, said Perianne Boring, president of the Chamber of Digital Commerce.

The anonymity argument is also problematic as buying Bitcoin requires real money and cryptocurrency exchanges now collect personal information from users, who also need to convert their Bitcoin back into fiat for consumer spending. “At some point, Bitcoin is only as good as where you can spend it. You look at where the currency enters the mainstream financial system in order to get spent”, said a Justice Department official.

The Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a foreign policy think tank, released a report that found less than one percent of Bitcoin is used for illegal purposes and almost all of the illicit activity came from transactions on the dark web;

“Better privacy may be a critical feature for legal cryptocurrency use to grow, but this must be balanced with the need for law enforcement to be able to trace transactions in some circumstances,”

Tom Robinson, Chief Data Officer at Elliptic, said the report

“demonstrates the transparency of the Bitcoin blockchain, and the analytical techniques that can be used by law enforcement to trace and apprehend cybercriminals, and by financial institutions to prevent the reintroduction of this dirty money into the mainstream financial system.”

Crime has existed long before Bitcoin and will continue to leverage new technologies to its own benefit.

Image from Shutterstock

The post Report: Less Than 1% of Bitcoin Used for Illegal Purposes appeared first on NewsBTC.

International insurance brokerage and risk management firm Marsh is collaborating with IBM to create the first commercial Blockchain solution for proof of insurance. #NEWS

Coincheck and Poloniex, the recently-hacked crypto exchanges that lost millions to cyber theft, were recently acquired by other financial companies, one of them a listed Japanese firm. Are distressed crypto exchanges becoming attractive acquisition targets?

Ripple urges UK regulators to find a balance between “capturing risk and enabling innovation”, claiming good regulations will help the crypto market mature. #NEWS

The Reserve Bank of India’s recent ban on financial institutions transacting with companies using or offering cryptocurrency services will certainly have consequences for the nation. However, thanks to peer-to-peer exchanges like Paxful, one of these is unlikely to be cryptocurrency usage and adoption in general.

Paxful Offers Users Exposure to Cryptocurrency Whilst Completely Bypassing the Banks

On April 5, the Reserve Bank of India issued a statement which banned the the nation’s banks from dealing with cryptocurrency exchanges and other similar services. Thankfully for India’s crypto enthusiasts, it didn’t drop any hint of a pending government crackdown on digital currencies though.

According to Sathvik V, the CEO and founder of Unocoin – one of India’s largest wallet and exchange platforms – the statement will leave the “legality status of Bitcoin or other crypto-currencies in India unchanged”. He believes the RBI move is to protect people and companies from the risks associated with such volatile assets.

Whilst exchanges like Unocoin plan to continue their businesses, the fact that users will no longer be able to deposit and withdraw from exchanges directly to their bank accounts will surely impact their bottom line. However, there are other forms of exchange that will be able to provide off and on ramp services for those wishing to enter or exit the market.

Peer-to-peer exchanges such as Paxful allow users to organize trades and pay for crypto with a variety of different methods. These include PayPal, Western Union, and even various gift card sellers such as Amazon or OneVanilla. Peer-to-peer exchanges also sit more logically with the entire idea behind cryptocurrency. Surely, the antithesis of a decentralized system such as Bitcoin is using a hugely centralized institution such as a bank. The oft-repeated, unofficial slogan of Bitcoin being “be your own bank” seems downright silly if having a traditional bank account is a prerequisite for using the system in the first place.

What’s more, peer-to-peer trading rose dramatically in China following the government’s crackdown on exchanges last autumn. There is no reason to believe that the same will not happen in India too. With less draconian internet regulation, online, peer-to-peer markets like Paxful will likely flourish in the nation.

Whilst the RBI’s statement presents opportunity for services like Paxful, and doesn’t represent a direct threat to Bitcoin users in India, it’s believed that it will have some negative consequences for the whole space in the nation. Raj Chowdhury, the MD of HashCash Consultants feels that the move was poorly thought out. For him, the decentralised nature of cryptos make them virtually impossible to police with bans. He believes that rather than protect users, the RBI decision will be detrimental to India:

“The move will stifle innovation in the country and companies will look to move to greener pastures. The government will also move on crucial tax money that they could have earned by regulating the market.”

Image from Shutterstock

The post India’s Crypto Crackdown Presents Opportunity for Peer-to-Peer Exchanges appeared first on NewsBTC.

Coinbase has acquired Cipher Browser Dapp to incorporate its features to its own Toshi Ethereum browser and wallet. #NEWS

There is little guidance from the IRS on how to treat a token offering or SAFT for tax purposes. Determining how to do so is a fact-intensive process.