Day: May 14, 2018

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has ordered all financial institutions in the country to stop engaging in all cryptocurrency transactions immediately. In a circular issued to institutions, the regulator ordered commercial banks to sever any and all financial relationships with crypto-related firms such as exchanges in the next 60 days. According to local media, the central bank took the measure to protect the public and safeguard the integrity and soundness of the financial system.

Trade Cryptos At Your Own Risk

The circular was explicit as to the activities that will be prohibited henceforth, and they include maintaining accounts and trading with crypto firms. Accepting virtual tokens as collateral when giving loans and receiving or transferring money related to the purchase of virtual currencies will also be illegal. The circular, which was released by the central bank’s registrar of banking institutions, Norman Mataruka, did not disclose the legal actions that will be taken against any financial institution that fails to comply within the set time frame.

According to the circular, the action was necessary as RBZ was responsible for the safeguarding of payment systems’ integrity.

As monetary authorities, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe is the custodian of public trust and has an obligation to safeguard the integrity of payment systems. Cryptocurrencies have strong linkages with standard means of payments and trading applications and rely on much of the same institutional infrastructure that serves the overall financial system.

In a separate statement, John Mangudya, the RBZ governor, reiterated the regulator’s position. He further warned the public against trading in cryptos, saying that those who engage in crypto trading do so at their own risk.

Any person who buys, sells, or otherwise transacts in cryptocurrencies, whether online, or otherwise, does so at their own risk and will have no recourse to the Reserve Bank or to any regulatory authority in the country. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has not authorized or licensed any person or entity or exchange for the issuance, sale, purchase, exchange or investment in any virtual currencies/coins/tokens in Zimbabwe. Exchanges such as Bitfinance (Private) Limited (Golix) and Styx24 are not licensed or regulated by the Reserve Bank.

The Zimbabwean government will continue to monitor international developments in the crypto industry and keep itself updated to inform future policy direction. The move is expected to draw sharp reactions from the crypto industry and the public at large, especially those with significant investments in cryptos.

Hostile Crypto Regulations In Africa

Many African governments have openly criticized cryptos and advised their citizens strongly against trading them. In Kenya, the central bank has frequently warned its citizens against trading cryptos as the industry is not governed and citizens could end up losing a lot of money. This has done little to deter Kenyans from trading cryptos, with peer-to-peer exchanges like LocalBitcoins growing in usage by the day. The South African Reserve Bank was opposed to cryptos as well, but in recent months, it has softened its stand and has expressed its openness to testing out cryptos and blockchain technology.

The Nigerian crypto community has been among the more active in Africa, with the country’s exchanges registering huge growth in the last year. The Nigerian central bank has not been as anti-crypto as most other countries and has established a team to carry out research on cryptos and blockchains to determine how best they can be integrated into the financial system. Some countries have banned the use of Bitcoin altogether, including Morocco, Namibia and Egypt, which declared crypto trading forbidden under Islamic religious laws.

HSBC reportedly completes first ever trade finance transaction on blockchain with soybean shipment

Cryptocurrencies are re-entering popular culture, as demonstrated by the appearance of Ronny Chieng, a senior correspondent from the Daily Show at the Ethereum Summit on Saturday.

Chieng took to the stage alongside ConsenSys founder and CEO Joseph Lubin and Kavita Gupta, founding managing partner at ConsenSys Ventures. His opinions voiced were inherently suspicious of cryptocurrencies but humorous enough to entertain the crowd of Ethereum enthusiasts.

Truth in comedy

Several of Chieng’s comments touched on topics that are indeed garnering contention in the industry. Specifically, Chieng targeted the reasoning behind the resurgence of decentralized technology now, since it has been around since the file-sharing platform BitTorrent.

Responding to this criticism, Lubin interjected, saying, “BitTorrent was attacked in significant ways. It was stigmatized and didn’t come out at a time when there was popular sentiment… Trust is [now] lost in centralized institutions.” Lubin was clear that he thought now was the right time for peer-to-peer technology to succeed.

His sentiment was echoed from various speakers during the conference, several citing the recent Facebook scandal involving third-parties collecting personal data as a reason to decentralize institutions.

The volatile price of cryptocurrencies was also targeted by Chieng, as he stated the fluctuating prices should be a clear indication of a bubble, although he jested he would gladly invest to make money from it.

Speaking specifically on blockchain, Chieng said ”[it is] what dumb people like myself can make money off of in the short term”, although he admitted so far he has been unsuccessful in actually turning a profit on his cryptocurrency investments.

Lubin countered by talking up the benefits of a bear market, noting that they encourage funding and participation from investors and developers. “It’s great when the price goes up because it brings more resources into the ecosystem,” he said.

He also went on to describe the technology behind cryptocurrencies as more exciting and important than the actual value of the digital currencies themselves.

Still dubious, Chieng concluded, “This is either the biggest scam or the most undervalued asset in humanity. It could still be either way.”

Crypto in pop culture

Around 2013, when Bitcoin first began experiencing popularity, popular figures such as Ashton Kutcher used their platform to support the new cryptocurrency. Now, it appears to be re-entering pop culture.

Aside from Chieng’s roast at the Ethereum conference, a crypto-themed short comedy film was just released, entitled Buy The Dip. Written and directed by self-proclaimed cryptocurrency investor Sam Lucas Smith, the film takes a humorous look at a group of friends investing in crypto in the UK.

While making a comedic appearance at a cryptocurrency conference, or releasing a short film on the topic may not influence the market to such an extent as regulations might, it is a sign of the changing times. Entering pop culture is indicative of the sociocultural influence the cryptocurrency industry is gaining.

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At the beginning of 2018, I wrote an article outlining a New Year’s resolution that I thought could help boost cryptocurrency adoption and awareness in 2018, as long as enough people were doing it. Last week was the seventeenth installment of my challenge. This week’s installment is a bit lighter than usual since last week’s was delayed a bit. Let’s dive in!

TRY TO SPEAK TO AS MANY PEOPLE ABOUT CRYPTOCURRENCY AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN

This week I had the great fortune to be interviewed by The Greek Reporter along with a colleague of mine. During the course of the 25 minute interview, we touched on many topics ranging from a high level view of cryptocurrency, how regulation will affect the future of cryptocurrency, and even what digital anthropology is.

1. The interviewer was very interested in the idea of regulation, how regulation will affect cryptocurrency, and whether or not it flies in the face of what cryptocurrency is meant to be. I really enjoyed answering this question, because so many people have so many different opinions on this, but I explained my position: I think that regulation is inevitable, that it is not necessarily a bad thing, and that it most certainly does not negate the point of cryptocurrency. Put simply, regulation will happen. We can only hope that such regulation will include both soft and hard punishments for bad actors in the space while not stifling innovation. Regulation is always playing catch-up with technology, but that does not mean it won’t happen.
2. I was impressed with how little the interviewer focused on price, though he did not avoid it altogether. He did ask my colleague and I whether or not cryptocurrency was a good investment. I explained I wasn’t giving financial advice, but that I do view cryptocurrency as an entirely new asset class – the first new one in a couple hundred years, it seems. As with all assets, though, it is impossible to know the future or time the market.
3. Our discussion (or at least the questions directed to me) was rounded out by discussing what the heck a digital anthropologist is and why one would even be interested in cryptocurrency. I elaborated on my discipline, and how cryptocurrency communities, these networks of people and data build around a distributed, digital item were so incredibly interesting to me from an anthropological standpoint. Price is cool, technology is better, but the communities that build themselves around these digital artifacts are what excite me the most.

LEARN SOMETHING NEW ABOUT CRYPTO

From my interview this week with the Greek Reporter, I learned that even though Andreas Antonopoulos (a Greek) is well known in the cryptocurrency community, he is not all that well known in Greece. I thought that this was kind of disappointing, as the Greek people have a cryptocurrency superstar and not everyone seems to realize that there. Hopefully, continued education and cryptocurrency evangelism in Greece (and elsewhere) will help the space and those within it receive their rightful recognition.

BE GENEROUS – GIVE AND USE YOUR COINS

This week I paid a friend back for some pizza with some Dogecoin that I had in my mobile wallet. While I underpaid by a little bit (I only had so many Doge on me at the time), my friend seemed very into the idea of being paid in Doge. I realize that Doge may be my favorite cryptocurrency to spend for many reasons, not the least of which has to do with reporting crypto on taxes. Sending in pages upon pages of documents to the federal government with “DOGE” on them makes me smile.

What’s your favorite cryptocurrency to spend? If you are Greek, are you helping to spread the word about crypto to your countrymen and women? Tell us in the comments or over Twitter!

As a sensible web user who enables Adblock, you probably don’t encounter many adverts while browsing. And on the rare occasions when you do, you’re smart enough to resist the clickbait’s overtures. But what would happen if you did click to discover “the next bitcoin”? Where would the experience lead you, and could you profit from this esoteric knowledge?

Also read: Research Paper Finds Transaction Patterns Can Degrade Zcash Privacy

I Clicked on a Spammy Cryptocurrency Ad and You’ll Never Guess What Happened Next

Like the homeless, cryptocurrency ads are all around but most people choose not to see them. To the majority of web users, they’re an inconvenience – a distraction to be stepped over when reading Forbes and Vice and similar sites that use clickbait ads to conclude each paragraph like punctuation. While browsing the web on mobile recently, I came across one such ad:

It’s likely you’ve seen this ad or one very similar to it in your travels, and have skipped over it without a second thought. Normally, that’s what I would have done too. But this time was different. Be it out of boredom, curiosity or a need to file a news story, I decided to click. What were these three cryptos that were “better than bitcoin”, and better in what way – faster? More decentralized? Greater network effects? And more importantly, would buying them make me stupidly rich? There was only one way to find out.

3 Cryptos That Are 10x Better Than Bitcoin

After clicking to discover which altcoins I should be buying “right now”, I was forced to enter my email address in return for being signed up to a newsletter called Coin Profits Daily. It would be delivered five times a week with “the most up-to-date information we have to offer on the world of cryptocurrencies”. I wasn’t interested in the newsletter: I just wanted to learn of those bitcoin-beating gems that my portfolio was crying out for.

A couple of clicks later and I found myself reading a PDF emphatically named “3 Cryptos That Are 10x Better Than Bitcoin”. I skimmed through the preamble about how to identify altcoins with potential – I was only interested in the money shot. What were these magical coins I’d never heard of? I didn’t have to wait long to find out. Beneath the heading “The 3 Best Altcoins to Invest in 2018”, I met my first bitcoin beater – monero. That’s right, the 12th biggest cryptocurrency by market cap and the world’s most famous privacy coin was an under the radar gem I should be snapping up.

Sell All Your Bitcoin and Buy This Instead

I like monero, but it’s not the sort of obscure altcoin I had in mind when I clicked on the ad. Thankfully, the remaining coins in the guide proved to be less obvious, even if their inclusion was every bit as baffling. According to Coin Profits Daily, the final two alts that are “10x better than bitcoin” are vertcoin and burst. Reasons stated for buying this pair include the fact that vertcoin’s Instagram followers are over 2,000 “and the account was just created”. Burst, meanwhile, “implements the best technologies available and creates a universal coin with the attributes of many different cryptos”. As a consequence, it is “commonly referred to as a 2.0 cryptocurrency”.

There is nothing inherently wrong with these coins, but bitcoin killers they are not. So there you go: clicking on spammy cryptocurrency ads probably won’t cause your private keys to be stolen or your data resold. But it will fill your inbox with emails about “under the radar” coins from 2017, and that’s reason enough to steer clear.

What sites do you think are worst for showing spammy cryptocurrency ads? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock and markets.bitcoin.com.

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New York’s Economic Development Corporation is launching several initiatives to put the Big Apple on the map as a blockchain technology hub.

According to online media company Cheddar, an anonymous source has reported that social media juggernaut Facebook is considering creating its own cryptocurrency in order to simplify online payments.

This consideration, apparently with little regard to its recent banning of cryptocurrency advertising, is surprising given that insiders have claimed that the company has no plans to hold an initial coin offering (ICO) and will almost certainly not launch any cryptocurrency in the coming year.

What is more likely though, given that large companies are adopting blockchain technology in increasing numbers, is that Facebook takes this direction long before it considers its own cryptocurrency.

Early Bitcoin investor, Messenger’s David Marcus, who has overseen Facebook development since 2014, in a shakeup at Facebook HQ, now heads up group tasked with exploring blockchain technology on behalf of the company. It was reported that an internal post this week announced the company’s blockchain initiative to employees, although it was non-specific.

When questioned, Marcus, who has now joined the board at giant crypto exchange Coinbase, refuted any immediate plans to integrate cryptocurrency into the FB machinery, commenting:

“Payments using crypto right now is just very expensive, super slow, so the various communities running the different blockchains and the different assets need to fix all the issues, and then when we get there someday, maybe we’ll do something.”

Bridget van Kralingen, IBM’s senior vice president of global industries, platforms and blockchain, suggests: “It’s a technology that fits very well with some of the business model challenges that they’re actually facing, and I think they’re very right to take this very seriously.”

Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg last week ordered major administrative changes to the social network, giving more responsibility to his chief product officer and launching the blockchain division.

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Derivatives exchange operator CME Group and U.K. firm Crypto Facilities are partnering to create an ether reference rate and real time index.

BitPay has partnered with a Florida county tax collector to facilitate tax payments in bitcoin and bitcoin cash.