Day: May 4, 2018

OIN SPACE, the blockchain-based consumer trust ecosystem allowing to confirm authenticity of any purchase, today announced its plans to conduct a $ 30M ICO. OIN SPACE will allow the confirmation of authenticity of any purchase – such as, but not limited to, clothing and footwear, alcohol, essential consumer goods, tickets, medicines.

In the OIN SPACE ecosystem, the authenticity of products will be warranted by a blockchain protocol, eliminating the chance of counterfeiting, copying or bypassing the security system.

OIN mobile app users will receive the OIN tokens for each authenticity confirmation and purchase of the original products from the manufacturers. OIN tokens then can be used by consumers as a mean of exchange for the authentic products of the ecosystem participants, or withdrawn and transferred to the bank card account.

“Anything can be counterfeited, and there is no such person that hasn’t fallen victim to counterfeit goods, regardless of age and social status – comments Anatoly Smorgonskiy, the OIN SPACE ecosystem CEO and co-founder, – Manufacturers spend an annual $127 bn to design and introduce new technologies protecting against counterfeits, while the counterfeit goods global market is now estimated at unthinkable $1.2 trln. Manufacturers need a universal scalable system capable of providing protection against counterfeits once and for all.
Under the OIN SPACE ecosystem, we will develop a universal and simple authenticity verification tool secured by blockchain technology. We believe that OIN SPACE will lay the foundation for the radically new relationships between the manufacturer and the consumer based on trust and loyalty to the authentic brands”.

The OIN SPACE solution implies the QR-codes protected by OIN’s decentralized platform’s algorithms and the system of smart contracts eliminating the chance of counterfeiting. A blockchain-protected QR code is a simple, user-friendly, universal protection system. The OIN SPACE ecosystem will provide customers an opportunity to have a single authenticity verification tool.

“2017 can no doubt be considered the ICO year for the whole industry: we have witnessed the global scale of the projects successfully attracting their initial funding within the cryptocurrency market. Hundreds of projects that require significant primal investment, which they in other circumstances would have craved from business angels, foundations and venture investors – they do now have the opportunity to quickly test and implement the idea by enlisting the support of crypto-community” – comments Maria Lapuk, the OIN SPACE ecosystem co-founder.

OIN SPACE aims to lay the foundation for the consumer trust economy based on loyalty to authentic manufacturers, direct interaction and mutual respect between brands and consumers, free from fakes and counterfeiting.

OIN SPACE gears up for a 1-stage ICO, which will start in mid-June. The exact date is yet open and will be announced in a temporary manner, with sufficient timing and respect for the crypto-community. OIN SPACE is planning to reach the $ 30M hard cap to develop, implement and scale the universal authenticity confirmation system.

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.

Weekends are usually nefast for cryptocurrency markets. In virtually every case, we see unexpected losses materialize for no good reason. The past two weekends have been rather different, yet it remains to be seen what these next two days will bring. For now, the Bitcoin Cash price remains in a good place, but that momentum can quickly turn around.

Bitcoin Cash Price Remains at $1,600

It has been a pretty interesting month of May for virtually all cryptocurrencies out there. Although there’s still plenty of room for future gains – or losses – it seems most markets will not see any major setbacks moving forward. The Bitcoin Cash price, for example, is going through a pretty solid period right now, with its value remaining around the $1,600 level for the time being.

This current uptrend is pretty significant for BCH, and one that most people didn’t expect to last this long. With the Bitcoin Cash price rising from just over $700 to $1,600 in such quick succession without too many setbacks, the future looks pretty good. Even so, there will be some form of setback to contend with at some point, as the markets have grown quite spectacularly for several weeks now.

Thanks to another 8.04% increase over the past 24 hours, the Bitcoin Cash price momentum remains firmly in place. It is also interesting to note how BCH gained another 6.64% over Bitcoin, as the world’s leading cryptocurrency is suffering from a mild sideways trading lull right now. With the weekend in front of us, a lot of weird things can happen in cryptocurrency, although that doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing at this stage.

Bitcoin Cash successfully generated over $1.162bn in 24-hour trading volume, excluding OTC markets. It is a very liquid market, although still well behind both Bitcoin and Ethereum in this regard. As long as the trading vole remains close to this level, interesting things are bound to happen for BHC sooner or later. For now, the focus lies on maintaining the $1,600 price level, which will be challenging enough.

As has been the case in the past, OKEx is in the lead when it comes to trading volume. Huobi is not that far behind, and Bitfinex successfully claims the third spot right now. With one fiat currency pair in the top three, things might not look all that impressive to the untrained eye. However, it isn’t all doom and gloom either, as there are some interesting things happening in the world of cryptocurrency as we speak.

Whether or not the Bitcoin Cash price will maintain its $1,600 level, is a tough question to answer. Given all of the momentum in the market right now, it is certainly possible this price level can be sustained, although some people will begin taking profit at one point or another. For now, the short-term future for BCH looks pretty good, although the long-term picture needs to be kept in mind at all times.

FOMO Moments

Entering the weekend crypto markets have remained bullish and are continuing to climb. Total market capitalization has crossed $450 billion and is marching upwards for the time being. Bitcoin has crept towards the critical $10k barrier but has failed to break it rising 2% on the day to trade at $9,800. Altcoins are largely mixed during Asian trade this morning with most of the top ten in the green but many of the others retracting slightly. One showing the biggest gains in the top 25 at the moment is Litecoin.

LTC is rarely featured as the top performing coin of the day as it is a relatively slow mover compared to some of the others. Coinmarketcap however is reporting an 8.5% rise for Litecoin which has enabled it to retake sixth spot in the market cap charts from Cardano. Currently Litecoin is trading at $172, up from $158 this time yesterday. A couple of clear ‘steps’ can be seen in the chart where LTC has pumped in the past 24 hours. Over the week Litecoin has made a 16% gain from $148 this time last weekend. The monthly picture has shown steady gains but nowhere near that of other altcoins. LTC is currently 43% higher than its $120 level this time last month. Against BTC Litecoin has lifted 6% at 1750000 satoshis from just over 1645000 sats this time yesterday. Over the week gains against Bitcoin have been around 7.5% from 1628000 satoshis this time last week.

Rumours that founder Charlie Lee will be leaving the Litecoin team for the sake of decentralization have been floating around the crypto sphere. This followed a conversation on Twitter during which Lee said that he would eventually leave Litecoin but gave no time frame. His actions can be seen to be in the interest of the coin which, without a leader or controlling figure, could become truly decentralized. Other news that crypto-debit card provider Wirex has just added Litecoin support would have further lifted the coin.

Most of the action at the moment has been on Hong Kong exchange OKEx which has almost 30% of the total Litecoin volume. Daily trade volume has been pretty stable and is currently around $660 million. Market cap has increased 9% over the past 24 hours and is currently at $9.7 billion however LTC still has a long way to go to catch EOS in fifth with over $15 billion.

Total market capitalization for all cryptocurrencies has climbed once again and is up 3.1% on the day to $464 billion signaling that the uptrend has been solidified and recovering is in full swing. Other altcoins posting solid gains during the morning’s Asian trading session include Bitcoin Cash, VeChain, and Aeternity.

More on Litecoin can be found here: https://litecoin.com/

FOMO Moments is a section that takes a daily look at the top 25 altcoins during the Asian trading session and analyses the best performing one, looking for trends and possible fundamentals. 

The post Asian Cryptocurrency Trading Update: Litecoin Lifted as Rumors of Lee Leaving Emerge appeared first on NewsBTC.

“Traditional brick & mortar banks should completely revamp their business models, but they don’t know how – this is where revolutionary banks and platforms like ours have the chance to step-up and offer a complete set of benefits for the consumers!” says Mitja Vezovisek, CEO and founder of one of the hottest new banking endeavors, the MoneyRebel Platform (LINK: www.moneyrebel.com).

Banks are killing their consumers with fast-growing fees, while the sprouting of new banking and financial platforms shows that minimizing fees, or even paying customers to get on board is possible – while they, at the same time, offer completely new sets of services that focus on the customers and growth of their assets and satisfaction!

When was the last time you checked to see how many fees you pay to your bank on a monthly or annual basis? The fact is, that the fees have been growing like crazy, and among the wildest weer the overdraft and ATM fee. They are not usually limited by regulation, so banks only need to look at other banks and adjust accordingly. As such, it is usually in their common interest to up the fee, as the global economic trends currently don’t enable banks to earn a lot of money with interest rates. ATM withdrawal fees can even reach the average of about 5 USD in USA, and top banks make billions in these fees only!

Stop the fees from running wild with two-digit growth

Consumers, on the other hand, have become used to paying for everything regarding banking, and they don’t even check what the price of their banking services is. Hundreds of dollars or euros per year are spent just to maintain the accounts – the average being $ 158.88, according to the MoneyRates.com Checking Account Fee Survey, and banks have been known to make fat profits based on those. Just in 2017, the ATM fees were up by 10.7 percent, and monthly maintenance fees rose by 8 percent.

But what do the consumers really expect?

However, the fact is that times are changing, and banks should actually be looking into paying their customers to stay with them – as the customers are actually the ones that enable a certain bank’s existence!

Consumers also do not want to put up with growing fees anymore – instead, they expect a modern bank to offer everything in one place, with a transparent and easily understandable business model. Not just a mobile financial app for accessing their banking services, but also virtual assistants, artificial intelligence in the background, and an occasional advice from a top-level financial advisor when needed; not to mention cryptocurrency services should be part of the package, too!

Revolution for people who don’t want to lose time or money

Therefore, a plethora of new banking incentives and services is arising from the creative fintech (short for financial technology) think-tanks that are looking into how to use the newest technology in order to conduct the oldest business in history – transfer of value from one person to another.

Among the new breed of financial institutions that want to provide extremely easy to use, multi-purpose and insightful new services, is the revolutionary new banking project called the MoneyRebel Platform. They have went a few steps further in order to differentiate from the already advanced trendy banking platforms and seem to really have thought of everything a person needs – without the high cost attached to options!

An extremely clever financial platform

MoneyRebel will soon be providing a highly developed artificial intelligence driven financial platform that will enable its users to transfer their traditional (fiat) and crypto money, as well as spend it with free credit cards, offer conversion and crypto buying services, personal highly secure crypto wallets, and a complete 360-degree personal financial portfolio overview. On top of all that, they will also provide functionalities for users to manage and grow their funds and investments overnight, as well as have handy robo and live advisors available real-time. All this with the power of artificial intelligence, developed in collaboration with one of the most advanced AI labs in the world – the Jozef Stefan Institute in Europe, that already previously worked with Bloomberg, NY Times, Microsoft, British Telecom and other market-leading companies. More …

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.

ICOs brought with them a new revolution of how people invest in cryptocurrencies. While a majority of traders still holds Bitcoins and top cryptocurrencies, a large number of investors now invest their money in new cryptocurrency projects. However, this is not without challenges. Governments all around the world have been competing to regulate the ICO industry, sometimes hurting it badly.

Why Regulate the Industry?

When the first ICO was held in 2013, few people thought the initial coin offering industry would grow. In 2015, Ethereum held one of the highest grossing ICOs of all time, and startups began to approach the financial model in a different way. The new financial model provided startups with several benefits:

• The ability to raise funds online and easily
• Funding a new project without issuing company shares
• Involving investors from all over the world while paying little or no taxes
• Creating awareness about an upcoming ICOs

Perhaps because of the ease of starting an ICO project and the few regulations involved in the process, some people started taking advantage. Scam ICOs increased. Nearly every month between 2015 and 2017, a scam ICO exited the stage with investors’ money intact. Onecoin, one of the most recent scam ICO, allegedly went down with more than $350 million worth of investors’ money.

In 2017, countries around the world started issuing tough warnings about investing in ICOs.  Some countries started taxing the industry, enforcing regulatory measures and taking action on those who disobeyed.

Timeline of ICO Regulations

The US

On July 25th, the US Securities and Exchange Commission warned US investors of exercising caution when dealing with ICOs. SEC further stated that they interpreted some ICOs to be securities and startups had to comply with strict regulations in the country.

Following the statement, ICOs seeking incorporation in the US reduced. In the following weeks, SEC began toughening their rules again. In early 2018, SEC enforced ‘Reg D’ rule which allows startups to only sell tokens to investors after conducting anti-money laundering procedures on them. Consequently, the number of startups offering investment opportunities to US citizens has reduced. The new SEC rules all pay attention to the type of investors a company works with, which negatively affects them.

Today, US-based startups are taking advantage of an SEC rule which allows startups to crowdfund not more than $50 million with slightly fewer regulations rules. Some of the best ICOs today are being launched thanks to this fact.

Canada

Barely one month after the US warned local investors about ICOs, Canada issued a statement regarding their stance on the industry. Like the US, Canada viewed some ICOs to be securities. However, ICOs would be regulated on a case by case basis. Canada also stipulated the consequences of any startup failing to follow the set-out rules. Fortunately, the country went ahead to offer clear guideline that should be followed for an ICO to involve Canadian citizens.

China & Hong Kong

In early September 2017, the Chinese government implemented a blanket ban on ICOs in the country. In a statement issued jointly by major government agencies, China made it clear that no ICO would be held in the country henceforth. In their statement, the country cited a high number of scam ICOs as reason enough to ban all ICOs in the country.

China’s ICO ban had a damning effect on investors in the country. For starters, countries that had only started accepting ICO funds were forced to make refunds. Secondly, trading on cryptocurrency markets went down by 39%, with exchanges delisting some tokens.

A day after China placed a ban on ICOs; Hong Kong made a statement reinforcing the need to regulate the industry. However, Hong Kong did not offer a total ban like China. Hong Kong’s statement clarified that only particular type of startups would be regulated and exchanges where such tokens were traded.

Thailand

On September 14, 2017, the Republic of Thailand issued a heart-warming message to ICO startup, noting the potential benefits of the industry. At the time, Thailand viewed ICOs as an answer to startups’ funding need. Thai’s SEC also issued a warning about scam ICOs.

lately, however, Thailand has changed its stance on ICOs. The country is approaching the financial set up with more caution. The Thailand government has already stated that they will soon regulate ICOs and cryptocurrencies in the country. With new regulations, Thai-based startups will be subjected to a 15% capital gains tax and another 7% VAT (value added tax).

South Korea

25 days after China banned ICOs; South Korea made a similar move. Like China, South Korea blamed a rise in scam startups for enforcing a total ban on initial coin offerings. The country’s law affected lots of startups in the country, especially noting that South Korea is a major market player in the industry.

With new reports from South Korea, however, it seems like the country could ease their rules on ICOs. This follows the realization that many South Koreans still invest in foreign ICOs. South Korean Financial Service Commission chairman recently reported that his country’s government had plans to advance blockchain technologies in the country. South Korea also planned to partner with Japan and China to help prevent money laundering through ICOs.

The Eurozone

European countries generally have lax regulations against ICO startups. Countries in the EU tend to welcome ICOs as long as they follow anti-money laundering regulations and local banking and taxation rules. However, some countries are more ICO friendly compared to others. Switzerland, for example, cooperates with genuine ICOs to ensure they succeed as much as possible. Lithuania, Estonia, and Gibraltar also have less-strict rules aimed at attracting legitimate ICOs into the country.

Some countries like Germany, however, have strict regulations. Startups planning to hold an ICO in the country have to pass several rules before being allowed to involve German investors. Other countries such as Italy and France have measures in place to ensure each startup follows a set of rules and regulations before being allowed to hold an ICO.  

Singapore

As one of the most popular ICO hubs, Singapore doesn’t have tight rules regarding ICO startups. However, Singapore has clear and specific guidelines for starting an ICO in the country. The country’s initial ICO assessment was to regulate those startups that appeared as equities. In March 2018, however, Singapore Monetary Authorities started offering contrasting statements about the country’s plans to regulate digital assets.

What’s the Future of ICOs?

So far, China, North Korea, and India are the only countries where ICOs are totally prohibited. However, considering that there are 197 countries in the world, most of which enforce little to no ICO regulations, the industry has a higher chance of succeeding in the future. Some countries have also proven they have intent to offer ICO startups ideal environment for doing business.

Top ICO Friendly Countries

• Singapore- the country is home to more than 10 of the top 100 most successful ICOs
• Switzerland- the European nation boasts of an estimated 16.9% of the most successful ICOs
• Estonia- allow startups to set up a business and comply with local regulations without even visiting the country physically
• Gibraltar- though the country has plans to regulate ICOs, it has helped many startups hold successful ICOs
• The US- offers fairly strict regulations to startups but is also home to the largest ICO market

ICO Outlook in 5 Years

In the last six months, there have been plenty of meetings held in regards to ICOs. The G20 countries have already met severally, and they have plans to regulate cryptocurrencies in July 2018. In late March 2018, leaders from Great 20 countries held a meeting in Argentina, the main theme being ICOs and technology in general.

According to reports, the leaders disagreed on how to approach ICO and blockchain startups. While some countries were of the opinion of regulating ICOs, some countries disliked the idea of “endorsing the industry. However, the July deadline was set to ensure there was a clear regulatory framework for blockchain startups. So, what will be the effect of an acknowledged and regulated ICO industry?

Fewer Scams

As it’s noted with the presence of regulations worldwide, there are few scam ICOs where governments make it harder for them to exist. While regulating blockchains won’t be received kindly by everyone, it will at least keep in check startups holding ICOs. The US and most of Europe have already proven that scam ICOs can be eliminated by cooperating with startups.

Institutional Investors will Increase

By acknowledging the potential in ICO startups, G20 countries and the world by extension will give the industry the much-needed legitimacy. Governments working together with startups to tap into the benefits of the industry may not be a bad thing after all. With the industry gaining recognition, institutional investors will play a bigger role in funding startups.

This can already be witnessed in ICOs held by companies like Telegram. While Telegram’s ICO has already raised more than $850 million, most of the funds come from institutional investors.

Higher Startup Success Rate

As the ICO industry gains acceptance and more serious startups replace scams, investors will begin to experience higher ROI. It’s highly likely that in the coming years, only the most serious startups will gain meaningful funding. This will help streamline the industry and help investors to invest in the most likely to succeed companies.

Conclusion

All signs point to a legal but regulated ICO industry in the future. At present, countries are regularly enforcing measures to regulate the industry, but lots of startups are able to run ICOs without seeking registration and certification. That may change in the future and investors will only invest in registered and certified companies.

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.

• Bountie’s Initial Coin Offering (ICO) pre-sale launched on 29th April 2018
• Amalgamating eSports with blockchain technology to revolutionize the industry’s top-heavy monetization model with their own cryptocurrency, Bountie Coins
• Connecting gamers on Bountie platform, enabling them to get paid to play their favorite games

Singapore, 04 May 2018 – Bountie, a Singaporean gaming platform that connects gamers in Asia, will be launching their Initial Coin Offering (ICO) pre-sale on 29th April 2018. Helmed by a team of passionate gamers, Bountie seeks to disrupt the current top-heavy reward scheme in the gaming industry and fill the monetization gap in the market. The platform does this by seeding incentivized competitive matches and tournaments and paying out gamers in their own cryptocurrency, Bountie Coins. Bountie has already garnered phenomenal support from the gaming community, with more than 50,000 sign-ups on the platform to date.

The platform is already in partnership with the biggest names in gaming, such as DXRacer, MSI Global and the Singapore Cybersports & Online Gaming Association (SCOGA). In support of the local eSports scene, Bountie is also sponsoring Team Impunity and all-girl team Girlaxy, both Singapore-based e-sports teams. Currently, the Bountie team is focused on the Asia market, targeting gaming communities in Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia.

How It Works: Incorporating Cryptocurrency and Gaming for Players Around the World

Players can make a living while playing their favorite games by participating in weekly tournaments and completing daily achievements to win Bountie Coins. The Coins are backed by the Ethereum’s ERC20 Token Standard, as it enables the implementation of smart contracts, verification of transactions and elimination of fraud transactions. These Coins can also be cashed out, saved in e-wallets or used to purchase gaming peripherals. Additionally, there is a free-to-play element on the platform where gamers can participate in tournaments without upfront costs or buy-ins to win Bountie Coins.

Tapping on the Potential of Disruption in eSports with Bountie’s eSports Ecosystem

Revenue from eSports are expected to grow to US$1.49 billion by 2020 and global revenue from the gaming industry rose from $194 million to $463 million between 2014 and 2016, according to game-market research firm Newzoo. “In this burgeoning eSports landscape, the Bountie platform creates a contemporary ecosystem between players, gaming partners and game publishers,” said Lex Na, co-founder and CEO of Bountie. “With a dearth in established payout architectures in the current gaming scene, Bountie is capitalizing on the rise of cryptocurrency to legitimize gaming income for even casual gamers.”

About Bountie:

Established in 2017, Bountie is a platform for gamers in Asia to make a living while playing their favorite games. Players are rewarded through participating in online tournaments and can use these rewards to purchase gaming products. By using the latest technology in blockchain, Bountie will reduce the chances of fraud while increasing transparency. This decentralized platform creates exclusive gamer profiles where rankings, stats, and earnings are readily available for public viewing with high data integrity and accuracy.

More information can be found on their website at https://bountie.io/.  

For further inquiries, please email the company at [email protected].

ICO Information

Name: Bountie ICO

Website: bountie.io

Pre-ICO Dates: 29th April to 9th May 2018

Token Sale Dates: 10th May to 20th May 2018

Total ICO Amount: USD 8 million

Start Bonus: 15%

Personal Cap: Min. 1ETH / Max. 10ETH

Token Information

Price of Token: 1 ETH = 4000 BOUNTIE

Token Name: BOUNTIE

Token Utility: Underlying currency for gaming platform Bountie

Token Type: ERC20 Token Standard

Token Sale

– Hard Cap: 37,500 ETH
– Soft Cap: 8,750 ETH

Total Token Supply: 200 million Bountie Coins

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.

Gathering separate mobility services into a single incentive-based blockchain mobility ecosystem to ensure data transparency

Singapore, 4 May 2018 – MVL (pronounced “em-buh l”, Mass Vehicle Ledger) is a Singapore-based blockchain mobility ecosystem company set to revolutionise the way the mobility industry and its related services are connected by allowing for the transparent sharing of a mobility lifetime data.

The MVL Ecosystem does this by recording all core data related to driving, accidents, repairs and any other mobility-related transactions on the blockchain. Participants can access this via the MVL mobile application, connecting all businesses, services, and people in the mobility industry. It will also solves the problems faced by consumers in the existing regulation-based mobility ecosystem where information is often fragmented, misleading and worst of all, inaccurate.

Kay Woo, Founder of MVL, said, “Building trust in the traditional used-car trade industry has always been difficult. A car owner has no way of proving that his or her car has been highly maintained and get a good price. On the other hand, the potential buyer has no way of checking if the repair history is accurate. Therefore, with MVL, data transparency is key as it ensures that information exchanged is accurate and trustworthy.”

Solving Long Standing Problems in the Automobile Industry Through Blockchain

With the advancement of technology, more players are entering the mobility industry – from cab drivers, to mechanics and used-car dealers. This has grown to include various digital innovations related to repair, insurance, carpooling and ride hailing. Within this complex ecosystem, MVL has identified three main issues within the industry to tackle:

• Regulation based vehicle industry – Leading to a lack of motivation for people to drive well, as the baseline is simply not to get caught.

• Independent tech-based ride hailing services within the market – This benefits investors, shareholders and founders most, although it is drivers and users who fuel the services’ growth.

• Disconnectedness of various platforms (e.g. different ride sharing apps globally) – These inconveniences consumers as they are not able to cross platforms and access their data.

By applying the blockchain technology which tracks a vehicle’s activity and continuously collect data, MVL addresses these issues through gathering transparent data becomes the foundation which leads to a higher level of trust in the industry. For example, mechanic shops and individual mechanics who provide good service and record repair data accurately will receive incentives. Moreover, professional or regular drivers will be fairly rewarded for driving safely and recording driving data. Subsequently, since customers who want to buy used cars can see its maintenance, repair, and driving data, they will be less concerned about being overcharged as there is clear data on the car’s state.

Participants in the ecosystem who provide data will receive MVL Points (MVP), a reward system used to encourage contribution to the ecosystem. The MVL Points collected by these participants can be converted into MVL Coins (the cryptocurrency used in the MVL Ecosystem). Participants can actively trade in this trust-based ecosystem to allow the value of MVL coins to increase accordingly.

Kay added, “MVL practices a distributed economy, or deconomy, where safe drivers, friendly chauffeurs, honest mechanics and other diligent data providers are fairly rewarded. In the future, MVL plans to broaden its horizons to connect services such as bike or motorcycle sharing services and collect different types of data.”

MVL is under the full ownership of easi6. Over the past five years, easi6 has been providing online & offline connection (O2O) services to travel agencies, car rental companies and taxis in 10 major Asian countries including China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea and Vietnam.

Easi6 participated as an O2O traffic service provider in the ‘Go PyeongChang’ app, a traffic information app for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games, providing convenient access to the visitors and staff. Also, Kay Woo, CEO of MVL/Easi6 was awarded by South Korea’s Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport for his contribution to the development of land transportation last December.

The MVL pre-ICO began on 26 April 2018.

About MVL

MVL (MVL Foundation Pte. Ltd) is a new incentive-based blockchain mobility ecosystem. It records key data such as transactions, movements, accidents, and maintenance of people and vehicles in many fields, connecting them together in a single ecosystem. MVL is a wholly-owned subsidiary of easi6 and is a Singapore private limited company. Over the past four years, MVL has acquired the know-how to provide mobility O2O services to travel agencies, car rental companies, taxis in major Asian countries such as China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea and Vietnam.

For complete information, please visit:  https://mvlchain.io/

Email: [email protected]

Telegram EN: https://goo.gl/GxsNic

Medium: https://medium.com/@mvlchain

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mvlchain

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mvlchain

See video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4gcY7pmWRQ

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.

Waves – one of the world’s fastest, most secure and user-friendly open blockchain platforms, with a wide range of effective tools for everyday use by enterprises and individuals – has released the first iteration of its smart contracts on testnet, with activation expected in early May.

A smart contract is a computer protocol intended to digitally facilitate, verify, or enforce the negotiation or performance of a contract while allowing for the completion of credible, trackable and irreversible transactions without third-party intervention. They automatically execute exactly as intended, and are secured by the entire network with absolutely no risk of downtime.

“Waves’ smart contracts will initially include account and token controls, providing functionality for implementing the most-needed scenarios like multi-signature wallets, atomic swaps, 2-factor authorization as well as more elaborate protections for coins,” commented Ilya Smagin, head of development for smart contracts. “We will also introduce a data transaction – a way to post oracle data to blockchain, which will be available from within our smart contracts code.”

Waves’ initial release will allow the community to test non-Turing complete contracts, which will enable various account controls and other functionality.

After a series of high-profile problems with Ethereum’s smart contracts, Waves has taken a carefully-considered approach to implementation, with phased rollout, predictable computational overheads and fixed fees.

“It is really important to do this right. Non-Turing complete contracts will cover a large proportion of use cases, including smart accounts and smart tokens. These will be available from the Waves client for all users and will not require any specialist knowledge or expertise,” added Waves CEO and founder, Sasha Ivanov

Only when these features have been thoroughly tested and activated on the main net will fully Turing-complete contracts follow.

Smart contract functionality will be activated in May, pending approval of the new code by miners under the Waves Feature Activation Protocol. You can find out more about Waves’ implementation of smart contracts at https://wavesplatform.com/developers/smart-contracts.  

For press enquiries please contact:

(Moscow) Kim Neroda [email protected] +7 926 085 6703

(London) Anthony Burr [email protected] +44 7766 459 469

notes to editors:

The Waves Platform is a global public blockchain platform, founded in 2016. Waves Platform’s mission is to reinvent the DNA of entrepreneurship around the world by providing a shared infrastructure, offering easy-to-use, highly functional tools to make blockchain available to every person or organisation that can benefit from it.

Smart Contracts + Waves

Smart contracts will bring a slew of new additions and added benefits to the Waves ecosystem.

For starters, smart contracts will allow for multi-signature wallets, which cannot be controlled by simply one person alone. In order to make a transaction, the necessary parties must provide their private keys at the same time. Additionally, two-factor authentication will also be introduced — meaning private keys will also be combined with hardware devices or secondary private keys.

Unlike other similar blockchains, Waves smart contracts do not use gas for non-Turing complete smart-contracts, which means that fixed costs are always known upfront. Compared to Ethereum, which people mainly use for Initial Coin Offerings because of its ability to create tokens, Waves is significantly more simple, efficient and cost-effective — for essentially the same service.

Additionally, with Ethereum, tokens aren’t actually held in users’ Ethereum addresses. Rather, they’re registered to a smart contract and every time you move them, you’re really just updating the information that smart contract records. Waves tokens, however, are like WAVES itself  — meaning they are treated exactly the same and are held in your address, while the platform still supports token creation in the core and from the standard Waves wallet. In layman’s terms, Waves makes life lot easier for end users.

Furthermore, the tokens you create can immediately be distributed and traded on Waves decentralized exchange, DEX, with no further work. All-in-all, it’s a far more streamlined and useful approach.

Atomic swaps will also be added, which will allow parties to exchange cryptocurrencies hosted on different blockchains without the need for trust. The Waves team is already prepping for the implementation of currently-in-development atomic swap functionality and is actively recruiting the best researchers for the project. Once complete, integration of atomic swaps will allow ERC-20 tokens to be traded on the Waves decentralized exchange, DEX.

Additionally, smart contracts on Waves will allow for token freezes, meaning users will be able to introduce parameters which prevent buyers from selling or transferring tokens from their address for a specified amount of time — effectively freezing the token. This will be possible for any type of transaction.

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.

The Blockchain revolution is upon us. Meet German Kaplun, Artyom Inyutin, Julian Zegelman and Igor Shoifot. They have created TMT Blockchain Fund.

One of the most successful tech focussed venture capital firms in the world has made a move in to the decentralized blockchain and cryptocurrency space.  

TMT Investments, a phenomenally successful venture capital fund traded on the London Stock Exchange – which has previously invested in companies including Taxify and Pipedrive – has announced the birth of its crypto focussed sister company TMT Blockchain Fund to “embrace a new economy with its new kinds of assets and new mechanisms of wealth growth.”

TMT Blockchain Fund is a separate firm which has been co-founded by four of the biggest names in Angel Investment, all boasting success as serial entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and angel investors. The new $60 million fund will focus on investing in firms that focus on blockchain and cryptocurrencies, with a portion of the fund available to invest in with crypto itself.

Check the Track Record  

The very nature of a background in venture capital means that TMT Blockchain Fund will impose a stress tested approach to deal sourcing, scaling and exiting portfolio investments. Backed up by a proven track record of a $1B unicorn and dozens of successful start-ups with up to 17,000 percent revenue growth, TMT Investments’ returns have been in the top 10% of global VC funds.

The co-founders of TMT Blockchain Fund are serial entrepreneurs, VCs and early blockchain supporters who have invested in incredible fast-growing companies, shipped products to tens of millions of users and scaled to triple digit revenue growth across multiple industries. Between them they boast more than 60 Companies funded, with 18 profitable exits. There have been $70m funds managed by the fund’s partners and $300m follow on funds raised by portfolio companies.

All four are proven early trend spotters. Previous investments were followed by Google and Microsoft and some of their portfolio companies were sold to the likes of AOL, Yahoo and Cisco to name a few.

As well as Taxify and Pipedrive, the co-founders were early investors in Backblaze, Sixa, Wrike and Protocol Labs (Filecoin).

See the Vision

TMT Blockchain Fund is aiming to harness the synergy between blockchain technology and venture capital to gain fast liquidity with digital assets. The firm plans to invest in blockchain start-ups in the traditional venture capital fashion by offering cash in return for equity, before any potential ICO. Specific companies have yet to be announced, but targeted companies will be at the intersection of blockchain and fintech, large decentralized applications and various private blockchain infrastructure opportunities. The aim is for investment in 20 to 40 start-ups.

By helping companies in the period prior to their ICO’s, TMT Blockchain will aim to teach the companies how to build a sustainable business model.

Where TMT Blockchain’s fundraising stands apart is with its cryptocurrency component. Of the fund’s $60 million total, $45 million will come from traditional investors or limited partners. It is the raising of the other $15 million which is the differentiator as TMT will do this by selling its own cryptocurrency tokens to outside investors. Those investors could then potentially buy and sell those tokens on public exchanges.

“We want to give both smaller individual investors and large traditional LPs an equal opportunity to participate as it is not economically feasible to accept small fiat investments in a traditional VC fund. The ICO process provides an efficient channel for smaller investors to participate. Because we are a blockchain-focused fund, we want to tokenize a portion of the fund and go through the process that many of our future portfolio companies follow,” commented Founding Partner, Artyom Inyutin.

The Fund, through the combined networks of its partners, advisors and portfolio companies, has early access to wide-ranging investment opportunities before they become known to the wider public.

TMT tokens will be used as a traditional security only sold to officially accredited investors. Unlike the case with the typical ICO start-up, that stance would allow TMT to know the names of its investors. Three key advantages of the TMT token include its leverage, in that it gets better terms on pre-sales than individual investors with smaller checks.  Secondly, it is fully transparent and compliant with SEC regulations and other relevant regulatory requirements. Thirdly it is risk diverse – the fund offers a portfolio of investments for potential higher return and larger diversification of risks than exposure to individual cryptocurrencies.

Meet the Experts

The four experts who co-founded TMT Blockchain Fund have picked the best applications of blockchain that serve large market needs, successfully investing in high-profile blockchain projects and launched numerous key blockchain ecosystem service providers.

German Kaplun, Founding Partner is also the co-founder of TMT Investments PLC.  German co-founded of RosBusinessConsulting (RBC) in 1993 which launched over 70 start-ups. In April 2002, RBC successfully conducted Russia’s first IPO on Moscow’s MICEX and RTS stock exchanges with its market capitalization reaching $1.7bn at one point. German is one of the most renowned media managers in Russia and he holds a PhD from the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics.

Artyom Inyutin, Founding Partner is also a co-founder of TMT Investments PLC. With more than 14 years’ experience in investments, Artyom is a prominent IT and media entrepreneur, who has launched dozens of highly successful start-ups.

Julian Zegelman, Founding Partner is an experienced corporate lawyer, serial entrepreneur and angel investor. He is a Managing Partner at Velton Zegelman PC, a boutique corporate and securities law firm focussing on corporate law, securities, venture capital and cryptocurrency law. He is currently acting as the company’s counsel in numerous high profile global token sales. Julian is also a co-founder of BitFin Capital, a blockchain focused VC fund and an advisor to numerous blockchain companies. He is a multiple winner of the prestigious California SuperLawyers® award.

Igor Shoifot, PhD Founding Partner co-founded Fotki.com which boasted more than 25M users and later sold vInternship.com to the Manhattan Institute of Management. He has started and has run more than a dozen start-ups and incubators in Europe and Asia and consulted many top funds. Igor has written a chapter in the book ‘Masters of Corporate Venture Capital’, co-developed a Stanford graduate course ‘Recreating Silicon Valley’ and has been a lecturer at UC Berkeley and New York University.  

Realise The Future

Although TMT Blockchain Fund is a nascent company, the combination of a proven track record, with a straightforward vision and nurtured by an insightful team promises to be an exciting development for blockchain and crypto start-ups across the globe.

“We don’t just write a cheque, we get involved. By providing unique scaling expertise, deep reach into distribution channels and access to top talent we are keen to demonstrate that the future of the new economy is incredibly bright,” said Founding Partner, Igor Shoifot PhD.

“You only have to look at the lack of big guys involved at the moment to see we why we are moving so fast,” added Founding Partner, Julian Zegelman. “There were only 50 VC Investments in Blockchain in 2017. Put that next to the 8,000 total VC investments in the same year and the opportunity is obvious.”

“It is estimated 4 billion people use the internet. Of that, only 11 million hold crypto wallets. That number will only go one way and that’s exponential increase,” concluded Founding Partner, German Kaplun.

TMT Blockchain Fund will be holding its ICO in Summer 2018

For Press enquiries please contact:

Anthony Burr

[email protected]

Tel: +44 7766 459 469

Notes to editors:

TMT Blockchain Fund is a $60M investment fund focused on investments in early stage blockchain driven start-ups. TMT Blockchain Fund is the second fund from the founders of TMT Investments PLC, a publicly traded venture capital fund on the London Stock Exchange, performing in the top five per cent of global VC funds. Founding partners German Kaplun, Artyom Inyutin, Igor Shoifot and Julian Zegelman successfully invested in numerous high profile blockchain projects in the past three years, built a $1B+ tech unicorn in Eastern Europe and launched a number of key blockchain ecosystem service providers. Investments include Protocol Labs (Filecoin), ShapeShift, Bitso, Cindicator and Telegram. 

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.

Virgin Group founder and renowned investor Richard Branson has expressed his concern at the growing number of scams involving Bitcoin that steal his likeness to promote fraudulent activities.

In a post written by Branson on Virgin’s official blog on Thursday, he condemned the scammers for taking advantage of his praise of Bitcoin, and its potential to shake up the international financial system.

Branson wrote: “Some of the most regular and worrying fake stories currently spreading online are false endorsements of Bitcoin trading schemes. While I have often commented on the potential benefits of genuine Bitcoin developments, I absolutely do not endorse these fake Bitcoin stories.”

The scams in question will frequently involve fake news stories that erroneously claim Branson has either endorsed or invested in a specific cryptocurrency, product, or company.

Such as the above example spotted by CCN, where the article indicates the publishing source as Yahoo. Upon closer look, however, the domain that it directs users to is entirely unrelated.

Similar scams include BitcoinTrader, an example singled out by Branson in the blog post. As reported by CoinDesk, one particular advertisement of this scam poses as a CNN Tech article, complete with a replication of the outlet’s logo and formatting.

While the BitcoinTrader scam is certainly more sophisticated than the above example shared on Twitter, these scams tend to target prospective investors that are less tech-savvy, utilizing the language of ‘get rich quick’ schemes.

Branson noted Virgin’s legal team has been required to deal with hundreds of such fraudulent impersonations online. The company has pressured social media platforms to be more vigilant in recognizing and removing fake stories.

The blog post reads: ”We also contact the social networks where the fake stories are being spread and urge them to take the stories down and do more to proactively stop them appearing in the first place.”

The post Richard Branson Says Bitcoin Scams Impersonating Him ‘Worrying Trend’ appeared first on BitcoinNews.com.

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