Day: April 19, 2018

An alleged scam in Japan has resulted in the arrests of 12 individuals accused of defrauding a Tokyo-based businessman of 190 million Japanese yen (JPY) in Bitcoin (approximately USD 1.8 million).

An investigation between Tokyo and Hyogo police revealed that in July 2017, a Tokyo-based marketing executive was approached by a group of “traders” who offered him JPY 200 million for the equivalent of JPY 190 million yen in Bitcoin. After the deal was carried out between the conmen and the businessman’s agent in a Tokyo hotel, the victim suggested that he wanted to trade covertly to avoid paying commission fees while swapping crypto-to-fiat at an exchange.

The seller then transferred his cryptocurrency to an exchange wallet account in Yokohama, although the fraudsters argued that they didn’t receive the Bitcoin. It turned out that the suitcase exchanged mainly contained false banknotes. Two days later they attempted to convert the stolen Bitcoin into JPY 174.2 million yen through the Yokohama exchange.

Seven men, all in their 20s, were arrested by police last week including the alleged mastermind, 24-year-old Kenta Higashi.

Japan has warmed to Bitcoin in a big way in recent years and legislation now acknowledges it as a legal payment method, despite the Bank of Japan’s ‘Let’s think about cryptocurrencies‘ statement where the bank warned about the likelihood of Bitcoin theft. Despite some notable thefts in recent years, this hasn’t deterred traders. Individual cryptocurrency traders in Japan now exceed three million according to the country’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) figures just released.

Despite frequent incidents of investor fraud and the USD 500 million hacking of a Japanese crypto exchange earlier this year, the country still emerges as a Bitcoin haven due to recent supportive regulatory legislation introduced by the government.

Japan has previously suspended operations of several crypto exchanges on security concerns, although individual groups such as the “Tokyo 12” preying on the vulnerability of a single victim are harder to control.

The post 12 Japanese Arrested in Fake Cash for Bitcoin Fraud appeared first on BitcoinNews.com.

Well known London agency Bubbles Escorts announced on Wednesday the 11th of April that it has officiated its partnership with blockchain based payment method BunnyToken.

This move comes as a very logical next step for the agency which was one of the first industry companies to offer crypto payments for its escort services in London. Since 1999 Bubbles Escorts has succeeded with its high quality services and respected work ethic.

“We have seen a number of ideas come and go without making much of an impression. After researching into BunnyToken, listening to their project and hearing from their team, we feel that the time is right to continue expanding with a like-minded business and bring the future to our clients now” the agency wrote on its website regarding the new partnership.

BunnyToken emerged at the beginning of this year and has taken the crypto world by storm with a highly successful token sale and a very clear goal, to revolutionize payment methods for the adult industry. It has announced a number of partnerships since then, the latest being with Bubbles Escorts.

“We were approached by Bubbles Escorts and it didn’t take long before we realized this partnership would be a great fit” BunnyToken Co-Founder and COO Vasilisa Yakubo said “their services are of the highest standard, their work ethic is highly respected and they are just as forward-thinking as BunnyToken from a social and business perspective. Bubbles is the exact kind of business we looked forward to collaborating with”.

BunnyToken launched its pre-initial token sale on the 13th of March after reaching softcap in January of 2018 and starting the development of the payment method. An MVP version of the CRM and payment page was released early on in the project which has encouraged more companies to join the ecosystem and sign up to add BunnyToken as a payment method once the platform is live.

This new partnership is another proof that the future of the adult industry will highly depend on BunnyToken and early investors will reap the benefits once the token is listed on an exchange and used for online purchases.

Bubbles Escorts offers services in London, United Kingdom and can be contacted online through the official website. BunnyToken sale is still live and interested investors can register and buy tokens on the official website.

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.

BitImage is an innovative digital media marketplace project aiming to eradicate painful issues of the most current digital media stocks by employing advanced approaches and technologies, such as blockchain, AI, machine learning, cryptocurrency, and smart contracts.

BitImage is an innovative digital media marketplace project aiming to eradicate painful issues of the most current digital media stocks by employing advanced approaches and technologies, such as blockchain, AI, machine learning, cryptocurrency, and smart contracts. These latest tech concepts together with their efficiency increase-focused expert implementation and a dedicated token will make search, purchase, and generation of unique digital content all the more seamless procedures. The project’s revolutionizing nature lies also in that it would provide the respective parties – both authors and buyers – with never before seen accessibility and benefits of digital content distribution or acquisition and serve as an ultimate bridge over the cumbersome content sales gap. How come?

Let us break it down a bit for you:

• Implementation of blockchain decentralization capacities allows for thoroughly confirming the generated content legitimacy as well as uniqueness. Due to the decentralized content licensing, copyright issues might as well cease to give creators any trouble whatsoever. Currently, there are hardly any platforms to provide such an integral benefit, they usually prefer to not get involved in somebody’s law-based issues.
• Artificial Intelligence makes content validation into a couple-of-minutes affair; provides advanced capacities for painlessly searching the required unique content (as opposed to veritable searching mazes provided by most media stocks), conducting in-depth analyses and analytics of data and trends; allow for constant enhancement of services due to machine learning.
• On-demand content purchase, implying ordering custom content implementation – a non-existent feature for most digital content marketplaces, will open new opportunities for creators and increase a level of satisfaction for clients.
• Involvement of cryptocurrency allows for: reduction of costs, making transactions instant, availability of conducting transactions 24/7/365 without any geographical boundaries whatsoever. Overall, crypto is safer, more reliable, and secure compared to flat money purchases. Smart contracts push the benefits even farther, providing confidentiality of transactions and eradicating any third-party involvement.

The core of the platform is quite complex and technologically interspersed. From the perspective of both buyers and authors, however, everything is quite seamless and accessible: a buyer either searches existing database for the required content or orders a custom, turnkey solution whereas creators, respectively, either post their existing content or take up an order for the creation of a custom solution.

The ultimate BitImage project implementation which is to take place in the nearest future will consist of the development of dedicated iOS and Android apps as well as of a web solution, admin panel, API for integration of external services, and graphic editor plugins. iOS, Android, and web solutions will all feature same functionality.

As to the BIM tokens – 10,000,000,000 of them will be provided in total. The cryptographic tokens are based on Ethereum blockchain’s ERC-20 standard which ensures their proper function in decentralized environments, interaction with smart contracts and correspondence with the security standard. In the confines of BitImage, users will be able to use tokens for easily, securely purchasing or ordering content. 62% of the initially created tokens will be sold during the presale and subsequent crowdsale.

The ultimate goal is collect $21M for the project implementation based on a thoroughly worked-out roadmap.

The presale is to be initiated on April, 26 and will have been ended by May 10, 2018. All the tokens left unsold will be available afterwards, during the public sale.

The pre-sale contributors will be able to purchase 10 million BitImage tokens by contributing at least 0.1 ETH and no more than 500 ETH. The aim is to collect at least 2600 ETH ≈ $1M. The maximum goal of Presale is to collect 7700 ETH ≈ $3M. For more information, please refer to the White Paper that can be found on BitImage website.

BitImage digital content marketplace is a next-generation platform that will make the life of content creators and people looking for unique digital assets online all over the world much easier. The benefits are clear and plentiful. All that is needed now is your help in making this extensively helpful concept a reality. Contribute to the project!

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.

Ethereum price soared during Wednesday’s trading sessions to record a day high of $527.05. The bullish wave continued controlling Ethereum’s market during Thursday’s trading sessions to breach the resistance around $545.17 (76.4% Fibonacci retracement) as we predicted during yesterday’s analysis. Ethereum price continued rising along the new uptrend line, which has been evident since April 10th, reaching $559 at the time of writing of this analysis.

Will ethereum price continue rising during the next 24 hours?

“Three white soldiers” apparent on the 4 hour ETHUSD chart:

Let’s examine the 4 hour ETHUSD chart from Bitfinex, while plotting the 20 period, 50 period, and 100 period SMAs, as shown on the below chart. We will also keep the Fibonacci retracements we plotted during yesterday’s analysis. The orange transverse line represents the 76.4% Fibonacci retracement which corresponds to the $545.17 price level. We can note the following:

• Ethereum price managed to breach the 76.4% Fib. retracement ($545.17) earlier during Thursday’s trading sessions. Note that a strong upwards trend was ignited after a candlestick touched the upwards trend line (blue upwards sloping line).

• A “three white soldier” candlestick pattern has been formed by the last candlestick of Wednesday’s sessions, and the early pair of candlesticks of Thursday’s sessions. This pattern reflects the current bullish sentiment of the market. The pattern is not typical, as the latest candlestick has a relatively long downwards shadow. However, it still represents a significant bullish signal, due to the fact that it was followed by a break through a key resistance level.

• The 20 period SMA has just crossed above the 100 period SMA. This is a strong bullish signal that is sometimes referred to as a (golden cross). Also, the 20 period SMA has crossed above the 50 period SMA on April 13th, which also reflects the current bullish sentiment of the market.

Now, let’s examine the 1 day ETHUSD chart while plotting the RSI oscillator, and the Ichimoku Cloud indicator, while keeping our Fibonacci retracements from yesterday’s analysis. We can note the following:

• After breaking through the resistance around $545.17, the next significant resistance lies around $713.24, which corresponds to the 61.8% Fib. retracement. However, some resistance may face the market’s bulls around $620 as evidenced by historical data from last December.

• Ethereum price has crossed above Ichimoku’s Cloud Base Line (red line), which reflects the market’s bullish momentum. Moreover, the Conversion Line (blue line) has just crossed above the Base Line (red line), which represents another bullish signal.

• The RSI currently values near 60, which means that Ethereum price is still not overbought at the current price levels. The RSI curve is sloping in an upwards direction, so it is not diverging away from the current bullish price movement.

Conclusion:

Ethereum price has broken through a crucial resistance level around $545.17 during Thursday’s early trading sessions. As per our technical analysis, ethereum price will most probably continue rising as it won’t face significant resistance except near $620.

Charts from Bitfinex, hosted on Tradingview.com

The Office of the Chief Scientist of Quebec, who coordinates gov’t research and advises policy-makers on scientific matters, stated that Bitcoin is not a tool for illegitimate transactions. #NEWS

Most of us find digital advertising irritating. When online ads first came to platforms like Facebook, it was something of a novelty. For the first time, we were being shown products and services that were actually relevant to us, based on our likes and preferences – and data. That four-letter word has become a precious commodity. Because valuable data is, in fact, worth its weight in gold.

But as with anything in our rapidly evolving lives marked by limited attention spans, we got bored pretty quickly. And Facebook responded by changing its algorithm to prioritize content from family and friends over corporations. Awesome for users (until they found out their data was being leaked anyway), but a real quandary for online advertisers seeking to reach their targets.

The Point of Audience Fatigue

Elsewhere online, where advertising proliferates, some 40 percent of millennials already use adblockers, and that number is on the rise. As for Gen-Z, their tolerance for ads is next to zero, and Gen-Alpha integrates technology into their everyday lives without so much as blinking – even my three-year-old knows how to skip the ads on YouTube in a fragment of a second.

So, how can online advertising exist in such an environment? How can advertisers reach consumers despite growing apathy and government regulation?

Through blockchain technology, of course.

Its decentralized nature can democratize data, releasing ownership of your personal information back to you. Companies like Facebook and other data middlemen are consequently cut out of the system. Here’s how it works:

Monetizing Micro-Fragments of Data

Thanks to blockchain’s ability to register microtransactions, it is creating new value opportunities. Consumers can maintain control over their data and monetize it if they want to. Because everything about them is interesting to someone. While not many people care how many steps you took with your Fitbit today, you can bet there’s at least one advertiser aching for that information.

ICOs like Sooloox are springing up everywhere, allowing consumers to authorize their own data use and trade directly with the companies which want to buy it. Advertisers get the laser-targeted information they crave, and individuals get compensated. No bothersome banner ads involved, and no data middlemen. The platform transforms consumers from “data providers to data authorizers,” and gives them control over its use.

A similar premise is put forward by Social Cash, which intends to use blockchains to “disrupt digital advertising” and help consumers secure their identities. In what they call a new market (the “attention economy”), Social Cash aims to bring trust and transparency back to digital advertising (if those things ever existed). They also plan to resolve the problem of advertising fraud, which cost the industry around $7.2 billion last year.

Another player in this increasingly competitive space is YouGov Direct, making promises of consumer protection, transparency, and efficiency. These companies want data and are willing to pay for it. But now they can deal with consumers directly, helping individuals avoid ad fraud, abuse of data, and a whole host of underhand breaches of privacy as we move into an era of increased consumer data protection.

Final Thoughts

When we’re hearing about the marvels of blockchain technology every day, about how it will transform industries far and wide and change life as we know it, it’s easy to get caught up in the hype. Will blockchain tech resolve the online advertising industry’s woes? Maybe. But it will be interesting to see what happens during the fallout.

Amazon was granted a patent from the US Patent and Trademark Office on Tuesday, originally filed in 2014, which may conflict with the nature of Bitcoin’s decentralized status.

The patent primarily focuses on the sharing of data with retailers and telecom companies in order to connect transactions and purchases made with the online retail giant to Bitcoin transaction, customer shipping and IP addresses.

Amazon’s patent would allow them to identify participants in Bitcoin transactions and sell the information to law enforcement agencies among others.

It details methods with which Amazon uses its data stores to identify the participants in Bitcoin transactions to sell that information on to subscribers. Data may be stored across multiple availability zones in a region for a set time window. During that window, data is available to be read, re-read, backfilled, analyzed or moved to long-term storage.

This conflicts directly with cryptocurrencies’ guarantee of a high degree of anonymity for its users, a feature that many users find attractive, and partially the reason it has been used to fund criminal activity, a reason frequently cited by governments for its regulation.

Because IP addresses have proven not to convict those involved in illegal internet activity in the past, it appears that this not likely to be Amazon’s gain, although the company sees law enforcement agencies subscribing to transaction data feeds and paying a service fee in order to analyze customer data.

“For example, a law enforcement agency may be a customer and may desire to receive global Bitcoin transactions, correlated by country, with ISP data to determine the source of IP addresses and shipping addresses that correlate to Bitcoin addresses,” reads the patent description.

Cryptocurrency users and supporters are worried in the wake of the Facebook scandal involving Cambridge Analytica. Questions regarding ethical business practices are increasingly being asked of large corporations who have private user data at their disposal.

The post Amazon’s New Patent Reveals Bitcoin User’s Data appeared first on BitcoinNews.com.

Ether Capital is seeking to become a major player in the ethereum ecosystem by investing in startups and holding large amounts of the token.

Following Chilean exchange Buda’s decision to fight the banking blockade, the CEO has questioned these banks’ decision making. #FOLLOW_UP

Despite coming into its first decade of existence, the emerging cryptocurrency market is still considered a new an evolving one, hence still lacking many of the institutions established in traditional markets.

For one, the absence of regulation across exchanges and a persistent volatility have prevented institutional investors from participating in the crypto economy. Those that do venture in continue to do so cautiously, aware that applications of conventional trading instruments have yet to become entrenched in cryptocurrency trading.

Nevertheless, this vacuum has provided opportunities for several blockchain projects that seek to minimize some of the risks that investors are faced with when taking on blockchain and crypto investments.

Cryptics’ AI-based Solution

Artificial intelligence has been proposed as one of those solutions, an idea that trading startup Cryptics is hoping to take to the blockchain, in an attempt to address uncertainties that come with the industry.

Cryptics, A public cryptocurrency analytics platform backed by artificial intelligence (AI)

believes that market participants can be supported by continuous liquidity on exchanges, providing a cushion of safety for retail investors via a connecting platform for market players to develop tested algorithms that accurately predict value changes across cryptocurrencies.

Based on highly sophisticated scoring models using deep machine learning and AI, these types of instruments have been shown to be more consistent in performance than even the most fortunate or most savvy of human traders.

Working of Cryptics Platform

Cryptics employs algorithms that simultaneously analyse an entire spectrum of factors that could influence the price of cryptocurrency, combining modern AI and neural networks to aggregate data from a vast number of open sources, compiling information on exchange rates from exchanges and social networks.

These algorithms quickly map out all trending possibilities, using natural language programming (NLP) analysis to process amounts of data with speed far outstripping that of human analysis.

Cryptics’s AI has assembled the databases of major miners, influencers, billionaires, banks, large companies and state organizations, collecting valuable insight from all these sources to help identify significant entries and meanings in the data.

Via its native QRP token, the Cryptics platform will possess an internal economy, allowing participants to access advanced features using QRP. It believes that these features mean that trading can be taken down to simpler levels while eliminating many of the risks associated with conventional methods.

As the platform develops, it expects its AI to attain forecasting certainty and accuracy, with current rates estimated already at over 70% accuracy. Its platform is built for volume, forecasting 88,000 users by 2021, bringing in an expected revenue of $ 96 million.

Designed and developed by a group of trading and technical experts having previous experience with such names as Intel, Nokia, NEC, and SAP, with its core team made up of mathematics and data science doctorates, Cryptics is the coordinated cumulation of the highest competencies combined with the innovative efficiencies of the blockchain.

To learn more, visit the Cryptics website or read the Cryptics whitepaper. Join the team discussions on the Cryptics Telegram or follow the latest updates via Facebook, Twitter and BitcoinTalk.

The post Trading Platform Cryptics Launches Unique Public AI-Based Crypto Analytics appeared first on BitcoinNews.com.

The key price point for Bitcoin mining profitability is $8,600, according to Morgan Stanley Equity Analyst Charlie Chan and his team. As per their simulation, if the coin can’t recover $8,600 soon, many Bitcoin miners will likely find it unprofitable to keep creating the cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin Mining Profitability

As of today, Bitcoin is trading at almost $8,250 according to Coinmarketcap. The coin is less than half the value it was in late-December, but has improved from early-February numbers, when it hit 2018 lows trading just below $6,000.

“We estimate the break-even point for big mining pools should be US$8,600, even if we assume a very low electricity cost (US$0.03 kW/h),” Chan said. 

Because of the uncertainty expressed in Morgan Stanley’s report, TSMC, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, lowered its 2018 revenue guidance to 10% growth from 10-15%. The firm estimates that about 10% of the Asian chipmaker’s revenue now depends on cryptocurrency mining demand.

Large groups of miners, primarily in China (think Bitmain), work together in mining pools to improve efficiency. But as more miners participate, the difficulty of the process increases.

“We think the injection of new mining capacity will further increase the mining difficulty in 2H18,” the Morgan Stanley analysts said. “Even if the Bitcoin price stays the same in 2H18, we believe mining profits would drop rapidly, according to our simulation.”

Companies that sell specialized ASIC (application-specific integrated circuits) mining chips, on the other hand, appear to have more leeway. The Morgan Stanley model estimates companies that develop ASICs — which are manufactured for the sole purpose of mining cryptocurrency — will break even in two years time if Bitcoin stays above $5,000.

Changing Times

Moving forward, Bill Tai, the chairman of Hut 8 Mining Corp., the North American arm of cryptocurrency mining rig manufacturer Bitfury, expects only 5-10% of the largest miners to survive and be profitable, according to Bloomberg.

“It’s totally different this year than last year. The Bitcoin mining industry was this mysterious dark cottage industry, and it’s about to grow up and about to have elements of institutional scalability at all levels,” Tai said.

The concentration of mining power in the hands of a small number of corporate entities is frowned upon by the large majority of people in the cryptosphere, as it contradicts the very nature of a decentralized network.

A so-called 51% attack, which hit the cryptocurrency Verge earlier this year, would permit a powerful mining pool to effectively steal coins from other users. With the increasing presence of mining pools and ASIC developers, this remains a distant worst case scenario for Bitcoin, although perhaps not as distant as in the past.

Image from Shutterstock.

The post Morgan Stanley: Bitcoin Miners Will Only Profit When Price is Above $8,600 appeared first on NewsBTC.

The human body is a decentralized structure made of organs, sub-organs and sub-sub-organs, all the way to the cells, which themselves have their internal structure. The functionality of the body is pretty decentralized and no cell instructs other cells on what to do. Rather, each cell operates autonomously according to inputs it receives from its environment.

Now, imagine a company without a CEO or hierarchy. Imagine an organization that can essentially run on its own, without managerial supervision, completely autonomously, as if there were a CEO or managerial structure in place. Scary or brilliant?

What Is A ‘Decentralized Autonomous System?’

A ‘decentralized autonomous organization’ (or “DAO”), is a business or organization whose decisions are made electronically, strictly through written code (rules) or by vote of its members. It is a system of hard-coded rules that define which actions an organization will or will not take.

But, what’s the benefit of having a self-running or self-aware company? I mean, let’s face it, this isn’t Tony Stark we are talking about. The idea behind DAO companies is that the rules upon which a company functions are enforced digitally. Those decisions that aren’t hard-coded onto the blockchain platform are made and enforced by shareholders who control a certain amount of tokens or smart contracts.

Examples of rules include the amount of dividend payouts a company distributes, or whether or not a company will engage in or support a certain event.

The issues that DAOs currently face concern the participation of all shareholders as well as the ease of changing the code or a smart contract once it’s deployed in the blockchain. It’s a double-edged sword in that it’s a huge advantage that the code and smart contracts deployed are not easily manipulated or accessed, as this minimizes the risk of fraud and corruption, while at the same time, it makes debugging and changing the code extremely challenging and time-consuming. This challenge was illustrated by the failure of The DAO company, which was drained of all its funds by hackers who simply exploited a bug in the system.

We are now on a pathway that John Connor “once” tried to fix—self-aware technology and organizations, e.g., SkyNet.

What are DApps?

While there isn’t one standard fit-all definition for a ‘DApp’, it can best be described as an open-source, decentralized application that connects users and providers directly. There are three types of DApps: apps that manage money; apps that manage where money is involved, but requires another piece; and apps in the ‘other’ category, which includes voting and governance systems.

How Can a DAO be The Missing Link In The Blockchain?

DAOs are meant to provide a new method of scaling. One company, DAOstack, believes that by providing a toolkit comprised of a multitude of distinct but interoperable DAOs, it will allow for a harmonious ecosystem characterized by compatibility and functionality.

By homing in on three categories—decentralized collaboration, decentralized cooperation, and decentralized curation networks—the company believes that a DAO can be a successful model that the blockchain ecosystem can benefit from and thrive on.

“By providing an open, universal framework, comprised of smart contracts, collective value management, and DApps, we believe interests will be aligned and the result will produce a new web of open collaboration and interoperability among web companies,” says a representative of the company.

“Middlemen are everywhere in our economy; they are there to store records, for agreements over those records, and making decisions,” says Matan Field, the co-founder of DAOstack. These agreements need to sit somewhere, and one should not simply trust the record keeper. Decentralizing these records allows them to sit nowhere, but everywhere. Each computer stores a copy of that ledger, confirming the validity of that code copy.

“The whole magic of blockchain is the ability to maintain that consensus continuously,” says Field.

But, in the economy, we also rely on intermediaries to direct and coordinate—we need the CEO to run a company, the government to collect and distribute taxes, and a mayor to run a city. “As long as power is concentrated, there is unavoidable conflict of interest and great risk for failure,” says Field.

“Blockchain 1.0 was the ledger; Blockchain 2.0 is the network. So, what if we moved to Blockchain 3.0—decentralized governance. No company. No management. Self-organization.”

Europe

Welcome to our weekly roundup of all important blockchain and cryptocurrency news from around the world. Follow the latest developments in the cryptocurrency space continent by continent, country by country.

European Union

$100K prize money set for EU hackathon: The European Union is offering a grand prize of EUR 100,000 to the winning team in an upcoming blockchain hackathon. The ‘Blockathon’ event is going to take place in Brussels this year and will be conducted by the European Commision, the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and its observatory on Infringement of Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO).

EU agencies have worked alongside each other to assemble the event. Organizers say that the event is necessary to tackle counterfeit products in the European market.

United Kingdom

Barclays to test blockchain technology: Barclays UK is testing the blockchain waters by directing its new ventures unit to study “disruptive technology”. Blockchain and decentralization have so far proved to be the top disruptive technologies in the business and this move is seen with great enthusiasm by the cryptocurrency circles.

The new unit will “accelerate the growth of new business lines… working independently of traditional units” and “develop new customer propositions around major areas of disruptive technology”.

While blockchain technology is not directly mentioned, it is understood that this thinly veiled reference is regarding the new technology that is disrupting businesses around the world.

Every fifth adult willing to buy Bitcoin, 1 in 10 businesses accept crypto:An extended survey of over 1,000 people in the UK has revealed that as many as 1 in 5 Britons are willing to invest in cryptocurrencies, and 1 in 10 businesses already accept cryptocurrency payments. The survey was conducted by communications agency Citigate Dewe Rogerson.

But there was another side to the survey too as 67% believed that cryptocurrencies were too volatile or risky and 43% had concerns regarding regulations, and 61% simply cited their ignorance on the matter. These surprise statistics show the growth of the cryptocurrency revolution inside Britain.

FCA to deliver crypto regulation analysis in 2019: Three of the UK government’s top financial entities, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Bank of England and the UK Treasury are working together to author a discussion paper on cryptocurrencies regulations. The paper will form the basis of any future regulations on the cryptocurrency scene. The FCA business plan of 2018/2019 suggests:

“Cryptocurrencies themselves (i.e. those designed primarily as a means of payment/exchange) are not currently within our regulatory perimeter. However, some models of use or packaging cryptocurrencies bring them within our perimeter, making the landscape complex.”

Germany

German stock exchange subsidiary to launch crypto exchange trading app: German interest in cryptocurrencies is growing with a new cryptocurrency app to be released in the autumn to provide traditional stock exchange options. The app is called Bison and is being developed by Fintech startup Sowa Labs, a subsidiary of Boerse Stuggart Digital Ventures. Boerse is Germany’s second largest stock exchange after the stock exchange in Frankfurt.

Sowa Labs also conducted an online survey of German crypto traders found out that the majority of the German traders were male and younger than 35 years.

Spain

Blockchain project powered by 45 MW of solar power launched: Cryptosolartech, a cryptocurrency mining company is relying on 3,000 servers to mine cryptocurrencies on its new 45 MW solar farm. The farm and the mining facility will be located near Malaga in Andalusia and will attract an investment of EUR 42.8 million. The company is currently banking on an initial coin offering to raise most of the funds.

The post Europe: Crypto and Blockchain News Roundup, 13th to 19th April 2018 appeared first on BitcoinNews.com.