Spanish banking giant BBVA has completed a pilot that issued a $91 million corporate loan using two different blockchain technologies.

Japan’s SBI Holdings has invested in regulated ICO platform Templum, after earlier this year buying into a Taiwanese hardware wallet #NEWS

After hemming and hawing in its strange relationship with cryptocurrencies and the businesses they imply, the Philippine government decided to make room for a set aside economic zone. The scheme is offered in hopes of generating more tax income, employment for its people, and perhaps a dedicated crypto university.

Also read: Telegram Urges Paper Airplane Protest, Pussy Riot Activist Arrested

Philippines Allows Crypto Companies to Operate Economic Zone

Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA) spokesman Raul Lambinos told Reuters, “We are about to licence 10 platforms for cryptocurrency exchange. They are Japanese, Hong Kong, Malaysians, Koreans. They can go into cryptocurrency mining, initial coin offerings, or they can go into exchange.” Exchanges providing onramps to the nation’s fiat money, on the other hand, are encouraged to launch offshore to avoid running afoul of Philippine law.

Such zones offer advantageous tax regimes in the hope of creating more employment for Filipinos. Early this year, the country legalized such zones for crypto, which appears to be more welcoming to digital assets than other countries in the region.

Local authorities estimate over two years crypto companies will invest more than $1 million, with ten percent of that going toward building a tax base. Ambitious plans also include a possible blockchain-based financial technology university to help feed workers to surrounding businesses in the zone.

A Strange Relationship with Crypto

The government appears to be responding to popular sentiment regarding cryptocurrency, as it has not been very supportive of late: its Philippine National Police arrested bitcoiners, accusing them of running a Ponzi scheme, and the country’s Securities and Exchange Commission came down against cloud mining, asserting such contracts are too close to securities.  

And, as we wrote recently, opposition “leader senator Leila M. de Lima thinks that the legislative chamber needs to prioritize Senate Bill 1694, a proposal she filed a month ago. The recent Ordonio Ponzi scheme has compelled her to call upon her colleagues.’I hope that this occurrence will push my esteemed colleagues in the Senate to take my proposed bill seriously and help pass it into law soon.’”

Slightly before that, the SEC “revealed to the public that it plans to enforce securities regulations against cloud mining operations. According to the SEC’s statement, the regulatory agency believes these types of contracts should be defined as ‘securities,’” News.Bitcoin.com reported.

Acceptance, however, of an economic zone for crypto is a positive first start for the industry, and might signal a slight change of heart on the government’s end.

Do you think this initiative will be imitated by other governments in the region? Let us know in the comments section below.

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The post Philippines Welcomes Crypto Economic Zone appeared first on Bitcoin News.

Any media is a combination of channel and information. Media uses platform to build the channel to communicate with its audience. An audience chooses the media based on a suitable platform and the information it provides. Traditional media used to control their platforms completely. With the growth of social media, their pages became one of many on the platform. Those platform changes affected income source. Here are the media evolution milestones based on those two determining factors.

The infographic demonstrates the evolution of media platform and revenue source.

Print media

It was a long age of print media dominance. There was no other way to distribute information and to connect with each other, other than through publications in newspapers or magazines. The media brand was influential, and subscribers and advertisers were its income source.

Internet media

The emergence of Internet prompted print media to create their own web pages. While the subscription-based part of their income reduced, their business models didn’t change. Banners and sponsored articles became their main source of revenue.

Social media

The struggle between the media and the platform started with the introduction of social media. Internet media use platform to attract an audience and to lure it to visit their web pages.

This does not align with platform goals.

The biggest asset of social media is user data and user-generated content. Their main source of revenue is highly targeted advertisement. While traditional internet-media also have become an element of the advertising networks, they have to share their revenue with content creators. The targeted ads generate too little revenue, that is also cut by an intermediary. Media just can’t produce high-quality content with this source of income alone.

Meanwhile, social media have demonstrated the influence of individuals.

Next generation media

Closer and more instant interactions have become the main trend developing in the new media. This leads to the growth of messenger-like media and streaming functions. With our friends, we prefer to chat in messengers. To experience more, we go to specialized platforms, which display videos, photos, streams or blog posts.

The influencers are rising and claim their share of income. Traditional social platforms manipulate feeds and content to increase their revenue while authors of good content and active communities receive no support. The new revenue model of social media has to involve direct payments. Let’s dive into the future of media and understand how it will benefit all of us.

Trends

How is social media landscape changing? Major platforms introduce a multitude of ideas and approaches with the ultimate goal – to stay influential and increase revenue.

Money has to be shared

Targeting used to be the goldmine for both advertisers and platforms. Companies just reaped customers who were ready and willing to buy. The art of targeting has become popular and now it is a very sophisticated process, while an audience is an object of interest for many companies. Within the traditional model it is becoming more difficult for brands to stand out there. They need influencers to create engaging stories for the brand audience. A creative approach will be more compelling for advertisers.

Media implements many options such as paywall, subscriptions and micro-payments. Direct payments for the specific content or to the user also become more and more popular.

The infographic shows trends in targeting. The bid competition increases and customer acquisition costs become higher. Companies are trying to target more precisely to reach potential customers. While the customers who are ready to buy attract the most attention, the top of the pipeline stays untreated. Brands can cover them by storytelling through different media, platform, and influencers and make real fans of these customers.

Outstanding content breakthrough

The business model of social platforms affects the content quality too. The requirements for content have become low, it just has to grab attention quickly. The channel has become more important for all the parties of social interactions: if you can attract the audience you can earn, regardless of the content quality.

Nowadays social media and other web sites are flooded with low-quality content. Platforms apply different approaches to handle it: moderators, AI, censorship. For example, YouTube introduces manual moderation and additional requirements for partnered channels. Huffington Post announced it will no longer work with contributors on its U.S. site.

The best way to identify quality content is to let users pay for it directly. Experts, educators, and outstanding showmen would thrive eventually.

People build trust

Don’t forget the reason why we all gather here: to communicate openly with someone we like. Social media platforms want us to stay more on their pages and to click adds. For example, Facebook applies algorithms to make people stay longer there, at the same time audience engagement decreases. Facebook has become less social, more media: we scroll feed looking for stories, entertainment and news, and don’t spend the time to comment, like or share.

The personal interactions move to other mediums, such as messengers and streams. Influencers gather people in communities and use group chats, streams, and comments. Communities motivate people to interact, rather than be merely informed.  Information, news, memes, and other content spread very fast across communities, while algorithms address long-term processes.

The new business model

While most traditional networks and media are trying to catch some new trends, the new business model arises. It is that pivotal moment when media just can’t use additional attributes to stay on the top. The new model would not complement traditional platforms, it substitutes them as they don’t change their primary source of revenue based on targeting ads.

The social network, which wins the future, has to combine new business model, new technologies and the new type of content which attracts the young audience. Young people change their preferences fast. Currently, the most popular global social network is just number four in their top and tends to become even less popular. And this list is changing continuously.

Let’s take a closer look at the new business model of media and the example that illustrates it. Monoreto is the social platform which brings together all trends and illustrates the upcoming model. This platform is based exactly on the new principle – direct payments to support excellent content creators.

The core of the platform is content, personal communications, and instant feedback. The platform allows to easily launch live broadcasts, create stories with photos and 10-second videos with overlaid text, and publish different types of content including photo and video.

Influencer: produces content and interact with users. Tells a brand’s story.

Direct donations are the basis of the new model

The donation model of Monoreto implements blockchain technology. The minimum transaction is equal to 5 cents in Monoreto tokens (or more, up to donator), which users transfer with their likes.

There are several reasons why users already donate and will continue to do so:

They want to interact with a public person and to attract attention. During live streams donations have become a very popular way to interact with a broadcaster, to ask him to say or do something. This kind of interactions with influencer become a valuable experience.

Gamification: there are a plenty of ways to turn gratitude into entertainment. In Monoreto these are quizzes, lotteries, and competitions. For example, a world-famous sportsman is able to publish a post and announce that top 3 active donors to the post will get the opportunity to meet him (for dinner, at a training club, etc.)  Millions of followers and fans crave to win the prize. The media easily and transparently conveys the procedure, and winners will gain recognition by everyone and will get their moment of glory.

They also want to be stars, so they explore the platform, interact with influencers and gradually become more active and start to donate. Donations help to stand out for users and even for brands, because accounts who “donate” likes promote their posts in the newsfeed. Brands are encouraged to tell their stories directly to the audience. By liking quality content of other users, a business account climbs upwards on Monoreto’s smart feed and gives information to potential consumers through their content. A business owner thereby gets a real return on advertising investment and his money ends up going to his favorite photographer, blogger, actor, or even another business he decides to support instead of some advertising intermediary.

Find out more at the Monoreto Telegram Channel here.

Monoreto demonstrates a new vision for the social platform model. While the amount of content increases overwhelmingly, it is very important to highlight the best of it and put it on display. The platform distributes revenue from both users and advertisers directly to the content authors. Their motivation to create and form active communities increases. The social platform of the new generation benefits all parties: users, authors, and advertisers. The changes promise to be disruptive.

The post The Future of Social Media appeared first on NewsBTC.

Samsung has seen record growth in quarterly operating profits – an increase driven in part by strong demand for cryptocurrency mining chips.

Rumors denied: Nexon Korea is not in the process of buying crypto exchange Bitstamp, according to a press conference by Nexon Korea’s CEO #NEWS

Coindesk

Bitcoin Risks Deeper Pullback After Drop Below $9K Coindesk After an overnight drop, bitcoin looks to have found acceptance below $9,000 and risks a deeper pullback, the technical charts indicate. The cryptocurrency hit a one-week low of $8,652 on Bitfinex earlier today and is now trading at $8,700. The 10 ...

After hitting a one-week low today, bitcoin risks a deeper pullback if support at $8,459 is breached, the technical charts indicate.

IBM has teamed up with major jewelry businesses to bring transparency to the industry’s supply chain with blockchain technology.

Bitcoin markets are now experiencing a correction that caused BTC/USD prices to rbeach below USD 9,000 again. The rbeach is coming only a couple of days after this level was achieved. Trading volumes are currently booming as crypto markets go in red.

The Day’s Signals

• BTC/USD markets are now experiencing losses reaching over 5% over the past 24 hours.
• Bitcoin markets explode in trading volumes amid the sentiment change
• Aell orders that lead to the breach below USD 9,000 are holding a substantial share of the trading session’s volumes.

GDAX BTC/USD charts are showcasing how prices followed a downward trend while selling pressure was gaining strength. In the earlier hours of the trading session, bitcoin markets seemed to be having a more possitive outlook. Prices peaked at USD 9,750 levels. However, only shortly after that peak prices were pushed below USD 9,300 by large sell orders. One could say that profit taking took on driving the market down. From there on, sell orders begun being responsible for the greater part of the day’s trading vovlumes.

OKEX BTC/USD weekly futures charts reveal that futures traders were holding a much more positive sentiment prior to the crash. Futures markets exaggerated the positivity through a positive divide between them and live markets. Yet, the day’s price crash came in to quickly change that. Futures markets were intially not reflecting the bearish signals of live markets in full, something that slowly changed through the span of the day. Futures are now showcasing a rapid shift in their market’s sentiment taking effect. Traders  effectively changed direction after the crash with futures going from sustaining a positive divide to slowly being driven to the opposite.

In summary, the bearish breakout in today’s trading session was followed by quite a bit of profit taking and ultimately selling pressure. Markets gave in to the pressure and prices are now trading but there’s no reason to believe that all hope is lost. Thankfullly, bitcoin markets were quick to recover from prices levels that were deviating even further below the USD 9,000 price point. After falling to USD 8,750 levels, prices went on to recover, now trading at around USD 9,150 levels/

 

The post Bitcoin Price Analysis, 25 April 2018: BTC/USD Markets Correct Below $9000 appeared first on BitcoinNews.com.

Bitcoin Press Release: VTOS, A decentralized content sharing and social network is proud to announce that its token sale will begin on May 28th, 2018. VTOS has been built with an infrastructure which embraces the full application of blockchain technology. One of the key infrastructures for the VTOS platform is decentralization.

April 19th, 2018 Monterrey, Mexico: It is estimated that about 2.5 billion people around the world participate in some form of social networking. The internet came with the promise of ensuring people could be seamlessly connected through the sharing of information, knowledge, and interests. The major social media tech giants such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Reddit, and Quora have dominated the social media landscape for the last decade; they have billions of users generating high volumes of content and connecting people globally. As a result, of this explosive growth, market valuations of major social media corporations have soared; mostly due to the ability to tap into and commercialize user-generated content. Check out the VTOS video here

The VTOS Platform

The decentralized VTOS platform has native browser support, ANTI ISP, live streaming encryption, mobile support, client-side encryption, Smart P2P upload control and CROSS platform P2P, IOS and Android SDK. VTOS aims to be the leading video, live streaming, and data sharing website. With an aim to decentralize video and blog content to give value to creators and contributors in a way that has not been done before. VTOS technology is self-engineered and powered by a Masternode system so others can use it to store data, video and stream content.

P2P Network & VTOS Masternodes  

The VTOS network has been based on an elastic, distributed and resilient hybrid CDN/P2P technology which provides a low latency and an expandable buffer solution to the ever-increasing social network content sharing sites. The VTOS Masternode system will support the platforms ecosystem and therefore will make video streaming and data sharing more efficient. Users will be able to run their own master node and get monthly rewards with only 1000 VTOS Tokens.

VTOS has developed their own master node to be user-friendly with no setup needed, these masternodes will run on the ethereum blockchain supported by smart contracts, using our dAPP users will have the ability to manage their tokens freely. VTOS aims to deliver low-cost storage, allowing users master node hosting in exchange for rewards, creating a virtuous circle within the user community.

The VTOS Mission

VTOS aims to be the leading video and data sharing website, with an aim to decentralize video and blog content to give back to creators and contributors. VTOS technology is self-engineered and powered by WebTorrent so others can use it to store data, video, and stream content.

Using the underlying blockchain technology, VTOS is aiming to be the first content aggregator to unify these advanced technologies. The underlying VTOS technology is top-notch allowing almost free hosting of videos. The VTOS team believes that they have the opportunity to connect people from all races, creeds, and backgrounds around the world, improving their experiences either as a content creator or as a user and reward them for it.

The VTOS Family
Juan Carlos Ruiz – CEO
Angelo García – CFO
Enrique Sandoval – CTO
Armando Monroy – CMO
Adrian Garza – Head of Risk Management
Miguel de la Torre – Lead Developer
Edgardo Aguirre – System Developer
Ruihe Ruan – Blockchain Developer
Naveed Iqbal – Blockchain Developer
Arturo Placencia – Marketing Specialist
Cecilia Cuellar – Community Manager
Rom Siquijor – Advisor
Emilio Califa – Advisor
Chris Mugendi – Advisor
Sameep Singhania – Advisor

The VTOS Token Generation Event
Name: VTOS
Ticker: VTOS
Compliance: Ethereum ERC20
Total Token Event Supply: 330,000,000 VTOS
TGE Start Date: May 28th, 2018
TGE End Date: August 6th, 2018
Accepting: ETH, BTC
Starting at 0.15 USD

Visit the VTOS website: https://vtos.io
Read the Whitepaper: https://vtos.io//public/downloads/whitepaper.pdf
Subscribe on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vtos.io
Chat on Telegram: https://t.me/vtosofficial
Follow on GitHub: https://github.com/vtosfoundation
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/vtos-foundation/
Join VTOS on Medium: https://medium.com/@vtos
VTOS Platform Video: https://social.vtos.io/index.php/video?_id=24

Media Contact
Name: Armando Monroy
Location: Monterrey, Mexico
Email: [email protected]

VTOS is the source of this content. Virtual currency is not legal tender, is not backed by the government, and accounts and value balances are not subject to consumer protections. This press release is for informational purposes only. The information does not constitute investment advice or an offer to invest

About Bitcoin PR Buzz -Bitcoin PR Buzz has been proudly serving the PR and marketing needs of Bitcoin and digital currency tech start-ups for over 5 years. Get your own professional Bitcoin Press Release. Click here for more information about Bitcoin PR

The post PR: VTOS: A Decentralized Content Sharing Network, Announces Token Generation Event, Beginning May 28th, 2018 appeared first on BitcoinNews.com.

Parity Technologies has said it has no plans to move forward with a code change that would result in an ethereum blockchain split.

The new owner of Japan’s Coincheck exchange, Monex Group, says creating its own blockchain with an ICO to follow is on its radar.

Libra Credit Receives Over $16 Million Dollars to Democratize Lending and Bring Liquidity to the Crypto Marketplace

Libra Credit, co-founded by ex-PayPal executives Lu Hua and Dan Schatt, announced the receipt of over $16 million during its most recent token sale. Libra Credit’s products offer low-interest lending products to investors of cryptocurrencies and crypto assets.

Institutional investors participating in Libra Credit’s (LBA) most recent token sale include 500 Startups, DHVC, GBIC, Alphabit Fund, Dekrypt Capital, FBG Capital, DFund, BlockTower, Signum Capital, 8 Decimal Capital, Crypto Parency and Block VC. Libra Credit is transforming the lending industry by leveraging its proprietary credit scoring algorithms with blockchain technology.

 “We are excited to have the support of leading blockchain investment companies such as 500 Startups, DHVC, GBIC, Alphabit Fund, Dekrypt Capital, FBG Capital, DFund, BlockTower, Signum Capital, 8 Decimal Capital, Crypto Parency and Block VC. These valuable partnerships allow us to continue to shape the lending industry. Our goal is to harness blockchain technology to revolutionize the lending industry, bringing inclusive financial services to the world.” – Dan Schatt, President of Libra Credit

About Libra Credit

LIBRA CREDIT is a decentralized global lending network that facilitates open access to credit anywhere and anytime. Founded by former PayPal technical and financial experts, Libra Credit is a leader in the lending industry, specializing in blockchain technology. Using a suite of decentralized lending smart contracts, Libra Credit allows its borrowers to choose from two forms of lending denominations: stable cryptocurrency or fiat money. Libra Credit is set to revolutionize the lending industry by merging an established global lending network, a diverse team of entrepreneurial leaders, and the power of blockchain technology.

More information about Libra Credit is available in the project’s whitepaper.  Join the Libra Credit community for updates on Telegram at https://t.me/libraofficial.

Other Community and Social Media Links:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LibraCredit
Telegram: https://t.me/libraofficial
Medium: https://medium.com/libracredit
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Libra_Credit/
Official Site: https://libracredit.io/
For media inquiries, please contact [email protected]

The post Libra Credit Raises over $16 Million from Leading Institutional Investors and Token Sales appeared first on NewsBTC.