Day: May 25, 2018

Charity-aimed Slovenian blockchain startup CHERR.IO, which made headlines recently when they won the coveted winner’s award for the inaugural Davos 2018 FutureHack competition, is now in the midst of a much-anticipated public pre-sale, which ends on May 24th, 2018.

The surprise entrant in this year’s World Economic Forum event has also partnered with one of Slovenia’s largest charity organization, Caritas Maribor, and conducted its first charity campaign.

Seeking a clearer path for charitable organizations

CHERR.IO’s blockchain platform intends to tackle the highly complex world of global charity. As a fundraising platform, it aims to expand on the processes of existing donation structures to increase transparency and improve efficiency, eventually elevating the levels of public trust in charitable organizations, which have seen worrying dips in recent years owing to widely perceived issues of transparency and bureaucracy.

Utilizing the Ethereum blockchain, the CHERR.IO platform allows for all donations to achieve high levels of traceability, giving full auditability of every transaction. This can be witnessed already on their minimum viable product (MVP) with live charity campaigns ongoing. Their most recent focus was to assist two young children living with cerebral palsy to help them walk again, as immortalized in this video.

Apart from these achievements over the last two months, the rest of the experience continued to be a whirl of activity, for the team, marked by a widely receptive sentiment from the community and wider public. The acknowledgement of its debut in the Dabos FuteHack’s winning performance has also come via the Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar who honorably dubbed CHERRI.IO as “the most inspirational project from Slovenia”. This paid tribute to its ultimate goal that helps address the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), through its charity solutions.

Investors and business leaders around the world have given CHEER.IO the same endorsements, noting them to be the first to introduce the concept of gamified rewarding mechanisms on charity platforms. This proves that it was no fluke that it won the ICO Demo Day award after being invited by the ‘Business Angels of Slovenia’ to present the project to local investors, the CEE Region and elsewhere.

Via its partnership with Caritas Maribor – itself a member of Caritas Internationalis and Caritas Europe – CHEER.IO have proven that its embrace of blockchain technology has enabled a fulfilment of its dream to assist and care for people in need, and this traditional charity their first partner of its kind.

Exceptional leadership

While recognizing the immense contribution of its own community of supporters, CHEER.IO also benefits from the support of a diverse board of advisory, comprising the likes of Jacob Papageorgiou, Giovanni Lesna, Vladimir Nikitin, Melinda Woolf, Niko Slavnič, Grey Jabesi, each with glittering credentials.

Co-founder Aljaz Straser stressed their belief in that the community should choose how their donations are used, for whom and to where: “For us charity work is all about people. That is why we gave them powers to decide. Our community, chooses who and where their donations will go towards.”

CHEER.IO firmly believes that its incentive model will attract users from the cryptocurrency world, encouraging them to donate to charity and participating to help others. Its team comments:

“With the support of our community we are confident that we can improve and save many lives. This also means truly reaching the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).”

To learn more about CHEER.IO, visit the website and view the CHEER.IO team. To join the community discussions, connect with them on Telegram, Twitter, BitcoinTalk and Facebook.Follow BitcoinNews.com on Twitter at https://twitter.com/bitcoinnewscom

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The post FutureHack Davos’ “Most Inspirational Project”, CHERR.IO, Brings Blockchain to Charity appeared first on BitcoinNews.com.

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In June, a Czech gas and energy company will begin accepting crypto to crowdfund infrastructure projects and as payment for services

There can never be enough competition in the world of blockchain technology. The people responsible for creating the Tari protocol certainly seem to agree. This new solution will enhance the digital asset experience by introducing increased convenience, security, and liquidity. It is a tall order, although the project has some significant people backing it.

The Purpose of the Tari Protocol

It is always interesting to see how existing cryptocurrency and blockchain developers are trying to bring major changes to these industries. In the case of Tari, the new digital asset experience protocol aims to bring positive changes in the coming months and years. This particular venture was created by a team of veterans, including the lead maintainer of Monero, the CEO of a music merchandising company, and the co-founder of Ticketfly.

The project is an open source blockchain protocol designed specifically for digital assets. Tari is not just for developers or corporations, as it targets consumers as well. Given the increasing interest in digital assets, there is a growing need for more convenient solutions when it comes to managing these assets. Tari wants to make that happen, as the project is mainly interested in digital assets outside the realm of cryptocurrency.

More specifically, the current focus ranges from event tickets to in-game items and loyalty points. Although blockchain-based solutions exist in this regard already, there are still restrictions to contend with. Corporations and service providers currently struggle to control assets after distribution, mainly because there is no adequate infrastructure in place to make this process easier.

The negative side of that approach is that it prevents companies and consumers from reselling or transferring digital assets. It leaves a potential revenue stream completely untapped and causes unnecessary friction. Tari is designed to change this by letting businesses and companies manage and transfer digital assets in a flexible manner. It should also help reduce the number of fraudulent digital assets, which is extremely important where event tickets are concerned, for example.

Tari’s co-founder, Riccardo Spagni, comments:

I’m excited to draw from my experience to build something on top of Monero, and to create a modern digital assets-focused protocol that leverages the Rust programming language. We have the resources to expand Monero’s world-class developer community, and I look forward to launching and stewarding a next-generation protocol that is truly useful.

It is evident that bringing blockchain technology to major industries will be challenging. It seems to be an ideal solution for digital asset management, but most existing projects aren’t suited for this specific purpose as of right now. Whether or not Tari can make a meaningful impact in this area remains to be determined. It is good to see more competition in this regard, especially when it is an open source platform rather than a proprietary implementation.

Signet Jewelers, the world’s largest diamond retailer, announced yesterday that it will be the first to join the blockchain Tracr pilot program run by diamond miners De Beers.

Proof of Conflict-Free Diamonds

Signet will join other industry leaders in trialling the Tracr platform in its pilot phase and will expand the pilot to include traceability all the way to the diamond store itself. They will also provide input on catering for the retail side of the project and will focus on the tracking of diamond jewellery rather than on the diamonds themselves.

The aim is to create a digital certificate for every diamond registered on the platform. This certificate will be stored on the blockchain and will contain its key attributes and transactions. The benefits of this is that consumers can check that the diamond is natural and conflict-free. In May, De Beers reported that it had successfully tracked 100 diamonds across the supply chain using this technology.

In an announcement, Bruce Cleaver, CEO of De Beers Group, said:

“Tracr is focussed on bringing the benefits of blockchain technology to the full diamond value chain – providing consumers with confidence, the trade with increased efficiency and lower costs, and lenders to the industry with greater visibility.”

De Beers is an American-owned diamond mining company that provides one-third of the global supply of diamonds.  Earlier this month they reported that the global consumer demand for diamond jewellery had hit a record high of $82 billion in 2017, up two percent from the proceeding year.

Virginia C. Drosos, CEO of Signet Jewelers, said:

“We are joining the Tracr pilot because we believe the project not only has strong potential to facilitate increased transparency and confidence within the industry, but it can also foster much-needed digital transformation.”

Tracr is a means for the diamond industry to track diamonds from the mine to the customer using blockchain technology. The pilot project was launched in January 2018 and is set to fully launch later this year. BCG Digital Ventures, who are supporting the platform, is a corporate investment and a business incubator.

Blockchain technology for supply chains is effective because it uses public ledgers that cannot be altered. This allows businesses and consumers to scan the item and check its entire history with the knowledge that this has not been altered and is publicly accessible.

For Tracr, the technology allows customers to check that the diamonds have been produced in a conflict-free environment. Diamonds have been known for funding wars in countries including Angola, Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Global Witness were behind a campaign that resulted in an international government certification scheme, but they acknowledged that this did not solve the problem.

NewsBTC reported that Coca Cola are looking into blockchain technology to end supply chain forced labour. Blockchain technology could be used to drastically reduce child and forced labour. U.S.-based fintTech company Emergent is aiming to create a gold-backed coin that is focused on responsible gold mining and processing.

OSA DC is a blockchain and AI marketplace which is designed to help retailers manage their inventory. It aims to allow retailers to manage their shelf space and ensure they have a constant supply of products available for customers. Using the blockchain based software enables them to identify inefficiencies and gives them the knowledge to know where to improve.

Featured image from Shutterstock.

The post World’s Largest Diamond Retailer Joins Blockchain Tracking Solution Pilot appeared first on NewsBTC.

Blockpass, which offers users a service to pass a one-time “Know-Your-Customer” procedure for usage in a variety of blockchain services, has announced that it will be integrating its solution into BnkToTheFuture, a global platform for professional investors. Blockpass has a fully functional application released for iOS and Android and has announced several major partnerships in recent weeks. The company will hold a Token Distribution Event of its own PASS tokens starting May 31, 2018.

The blockchain industry is becoming increasingly regulated with governments implementing new rules, and anti-money laundering (AML) compliance is becoming a standard for token distribution. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has gone into effect in the European Union on May 25, signifying the consumer need for greater data protection regulation. There is a growing demand for the improvement of KYC procedures across blockchain companies.

Meanwhile, current identity solutions are usually not easy to use because users have to go through a complicated authentication procedure for each new service. User data is stored in centralized third-party databases, which makes it vulnerable to external incursions. To solve these issues, the Blockpass has released a universal identity application for both users and services to make the KYC procedure easier, safer, and cheaper.

Blockpass mobile application features

Blockpass has released its app for Android and iOS that removes the need for users to repeatedly go through complicated identification procedures. Instead, users just need to create a profile, submit their documents and digital identity to service providers to pass a one-time KYC verification, and then they will be able to access Blockpass-enabled services, sign crypto-asset transactions, and access third-party DApps.

All third-party services that use Blockpass as their identity solution are listed in the app’s special section, separated into two groups: those for which the user has provided sufficient information to onboard, and those for which the user needs to provide more information before proceeding.

Service providers may also perform additional verification checks with the help of certificates. When a user meets certain requirements, an issuer can push a certificate to the Blockpass user, who must then either review and accept the certificate content before it is added to his profile or reject the certificate.

Services utilizing Blockpass can also integrate one-click verification through a QR code on the website. Upon scanning a code, the Blockpass app prompts the user to submit any necessary profile information necessary to gain access.

The app is designed to meet global KYC, AML, and GDPR requirements.

New partners

A new milestone for Blockpass is its partnership with BnkToTheFuture, a platform that allows qualifying investors to invest in financial innovation including fintech companies, funds, and other alternative financial products. BnkToTheFuture conducts rigorous KYC checks and will integrate the Blockpass Identity app as a method of automating and streamlining the customer onboarding process as well as achieving greater cost efficiency.

“This partnership is another step made by Blockpass in delivering seamless, efficient and effective KYC verification to businesses and financial service providers in the blockchain ecosystem”, said Blockpass CEO Adam Vaziri.

“The more control and the easier it is to share required data securely with us in a way still compliant with our regulatory requirements, the better”, said Simon Dixon, CEO and Co-Founder of BnkToTheFuture.

Blockpass recently announced its collaboration with the AgeChecked project, which will allow their users to access age-restricted goods and services or sign legal documents without having to provide their personal information. Among other Blockpass partners are Infinity Blockchain Labs, Myki password manager, and Holdex ICO platform.

PASS token

Blockpass will issue the PASS token with the function to obtain a discount on Blockpass verification services. PASS tokens are so-called “KYC tokens,” meaning that in order to transfer a token to another party, the token holder must first undergo a Blockpass KYC check.

The initial PASS Token Distribution Event will take place between May 31 and November 30, 2018.

The post The Universal KYC Solution Comes to Investment Platform for Professionals appeared first on NewsBTC.

ZeppelinOS wants to incentivize developers to create smart contract libraries which they can then improve, stamping out bugs and standardizing code.

TheStreet.com

Bitcoin Today: Prices Continue to Slump Heading Into Weekend TheStreet.com The bitcoin community has another treasure hunt on its hands. This time it comes in the form of a word search of sorts. An image was posted this week on a Reddit thread by user "cryptogreetings," who claimed that one whole bitcoin was up for grabs. and more »

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have always been appealing to criminals. Whereas most of the illegal activity takes place online, that is not always the case. In South Africa, a kidnapping of a 12-year-old child is making headlines. This is mainly because the kidnappers have demanded a 15 Bitcoin ransom prior to releasing the child.

Another Bitcoin-related Kidnapping

In the world of criminal activity, covering one’s tracks is not all that easy. This is especially true when dealing with payment methods which are far too easy to trace these days. For criminals, this means that using traditional payment methods is pretty much out of the question. That is why Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are so appealing these days, as they seemingly provide a more anonymous option.

In South Africa, a very worrisome trend has begun to emerge over the past few years. It seems there has been a major increase in kidnappings involving a Bitcoin ransom. Given the perceived anonymity of Bitcoin, criminals consider this payment method far more appealing than other solutions. Even so, it doesn’t mean they will be successful in their attempts to obtain the world’s leading cryptocurrency.

An ongoing kidnapping in South Africa is making headlines right now. Three individuals have been taken into custody for their alleged involvement in the kidnapping of a twelve-year-old child. This abduction took place several days ago, yet the matter has not been resolved as of yet. It is unclear if these three individuals have any connection to the kidnapping or are innocent bystanders at this point.

So far, no official arrests have been made, and no charges have been filed, according to local sources. Additionally, the kidnappers have not been in contact with the child’s parent ever since making the 15 Bitcoin ransom demand. According to the kidnappers, failure to comply with their request will result in the child being hung and decapitated.

No further instructions regarding the Bitcoin ransom have been provided at this point. While the parents received this ransom note personally, it remains unclear if they will buy the cryptocurrency amount required to satisfy the kidnappers’ needs. Even so, paying 15 BTC is not a guarantee that the kidnappers will release the child.

All of this shows that criminals continue to favor cryptocurrency, even though it won’t serve their purposes whatsoever. That’s because various blockchain analysis firms keep close tabs on the Bitcoin network to monitor suspicious transactions. As such, they can identify senders and recipients of money. Bitcoin is not an anonymous payment method by any means, yet stories like these continue to give the world’s leading cryptocurrency a bad name.

Russia is about to test an initial coin offering (ICO) technology at its central bank’s regulatory platform, which was launched in April 2018 to pilot unregulated technologies.

The project aims to conduct the first transaction involving tokenized assets and assess the specifics of these transactions, mitigate associated risks, and get feedback from the Bank of Russia.

Russia Tests Initial Coin Offering at Central Bank

Sberbank CIB, the corporate and investment banking business of Russia’s state-owned bank, and National Settlement Depository (NSD), Russia’s financial market infrastructure, have announced they will soon be piloting ICO technology at the Bank of Russia’s regulatory platform. It’s expected that this will conduct the first digital asset transaction by the end of the summer.

NSD, Russia’s central securities depository, will record tokens and carry out settlements related to their issue and circulation as well as be the transaction’s custodian by keeping and registering the assets. Sberbank CIB will coordinate the issuance and be the anchor investor in tokens issued.

Once Sberbank CIB and NSD are able to assess the blockchain transaction and get feedback from the central bank regarding the transaction mechanisms, the bank will be able to bring more transparent ICO to the Russian market, which can bolster adherence from traditional investors and make such transactions more mainstream.

Russia’s Federal Assembly, the State’s Duma, has passed two bills: ‘On Digital Financial Assets’ and ‘On Attracting Investments via Investment Platforms.’ These will enable Sberbank CIB and the central securities depository to scale this blockchain pilot and enlarge the issuance of digital tokens to a wider circle of clients. The bank has found great demand for digital tokens, according to Igor Bulantsev, Senior Vice President of Sberbank and Head of Sberbank CIB.

“Sberbank CIB considers the Russian ICO market to be very promising. Many Sberbank clients are interested in this type of investment, and we plan to promote this service proactively once the appropriate legislative framework comes into effect; we will be one of the drivers to institutionalize and popularize this type of transaction.”

Eddie Astanin, Chair of the Executive Board of Russia’s central securities depository, is leading his team to create the necessary infrastructure to record digital tokens.

“Our end goal is to create the fundamental basis for the development of the digital economy in our country, for the emergence of a new type of asset for investors, for ICO ecosystems, and for the circulation of digital assets on the secondary market. In conjunction with market leaders, we are implementing a project to create an infrastructure to record digital assets. The existence of this infrastructure is a crucial condition based on which institutional investors come to our market, the market develops rapidly, and its capitalization grows.”

In March, the Russian Parliament passed a draft bill saying that digital tokens are to be considered as assets, but not money. They can, however, be converted into fiat currency only through licensed exchanges of digital financial assets and existing trading platforms.

Featured image from Shutterstock.

The post Russia to Pilot ICO Technology as Investors Want Digital Tokens appeared first on NewsBTC.

The Palazzetto in the Palazzo Albertoni Spinola is being auctioned on a blockchain in a historic moment for the 200-year-old property.

Earlier this week, NAGA Coin gained a high-profile listing on the popular US-based cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex.

‘Another Day, Another Exchange’

NAGA Coin (NGC) achieved new listings on the popular cryptocurrency exchanges Bittrex and UpBit.

Following NGC’s listing on the US-based exchange, Bittrex, the token’s price spiked from roughly $0.60 to as high as $1.05 — before expected profit-taking and a prolonged market-wide downtrend pushed the token back down to what some may consider a very buyable $0.54.

Immediately after being listed on Bittrex, the exchange garnered more than 30 percent of NGC trading volume — with the rest being shared by Upbit and OKEx. The Asian cryptocurrency market has thus far shown significant support for the European-based fintech company.

What is NAGA?

For those unaware, NAGA is a diverse yet unified cryptocurrency ecosystem which offers the world’s first crypto-gateway to trade any sort of financial instrument and virtual good in a secure and transparent way.

NAGA currently has a number of big projects in operation, including its NAGA WALLET, NAGA TRADER, NAGA CARD, NAGA COIN (NGC), and several others. The ecosystem is already one of the largest and most fully-realized in the cryptocurrency space. The addition of trading support on Bittrex will only further push the project deeper into the consciousness of mainstream cryptocurrency investors.

More Good News

NAGA Coin’s listing on Bittrex follows another major announcement from the all-encompassing coin earlier this month.

On May 3, NAGA announced a high-profile partnership with Ontology — another one of the most exciting projects in the cryptocurrency market today.

The joining of forces is a long-term strategic partnership which aims to effect “significant and powerful change” in the way business is conducted. Together, the two projects plan to bring high-performance public blockchains to the gigantic financial-technology (fintech) market, along with a series of complete distributed ledgers and smart contract systems.

The post NAGA Coin (NGC) Gets Listed on Bittrex appeared first on NewsBTC.

Bitcoin Press Release: CoinMetro, the all in one platform crosses another milestone to becoming a fully regulation-compliant crypto exchange as it gets license to trade in Estonia.

17th May, Tallinn, Estonia: The small northern European country of Estonia is currently a hotbed for all crypto related activities as the nation is one of the most crypto friendly countries in the world. Many decentralized platforms, which offer trading services, are currently heading to the nation to acquire licenses that will help them in accepting and exchanging both fiat and cryptocurrencies. CoinMetro leads the way as it has now acquired a trading license in Estonia.

An Estonian License For CoinMetro

CoinMetro has already expanded its operations in Estonia and has recently received a trading license from the Estonian government. With this, the soon-to-be-launched one-stop exchange platform takes another step toward bringing crypto services to the masses. The license allows CoinMetro to offer services such as exchanging fiat for crypto, crypto for fiat and crypto for crypto.

With this license, users will be able to wire money or use their credit cards to buy cryptocurrency on the platform. The reverse, allowing users to cash out their digital money for fiat, will also be possible. With crypto to crypto trading, users will be able to trade just like they would on a traditional forex platform.

Compliance at its Core

CoinMetro will be a platform for everyone, and has a firm belief that, though blockchain-based currencies are a disruptive technology in the banking sector, the easiest and most acceptable way of bringing cryptocurrencies to the public is to comply with laws and regulations. This strategy is paying off, as the company has now been successful in gaining major regulatory licenses to operate its crypto trading services. This latest feather in its cap reflects the strategy and vision of the forthcoming decentralized platform.

Offerings of CoinMetro

CoinMetro will be a single marketplace for all kinds of cryptocurrency services. The platform will offer different services that suit the needs of people from all walks of life:

• The everyday user: When launched, the platform will not only offer an eWallet, but a crypto debit card which users will be able to use to spend their crypto balances, just like a regular debit card.

• The serious trader: From individuals to institutional investors, the platform will comprise ETCFs, Tokenized Asset Management (TAM) and an exchange to satisfy even the most experienced of traders.

• The ICO visionary: By taking care of the whole ICO launch process, including KYC, distribution and listing on its own exchange, CoinMetro will release developers of the burden of coin offerings, allowing them to concentrate on their core objectives of providing blockchain based services.

With the virtual currency wallet service permission granted, CoinMetro can now successfully provide its users with an e-wallet within its platform. The wallets will be encrypted and the private keys are either held by the users or kept on their behalf, allowing users to store, trade or transfer their digital assets.

To learn more visit the Website: https://coinmetro.com/
Read the Whitepaper: https://coinmetro.com/whitepaper/
Connect on Telegram: https://t.me/CoinMetro
Chat on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CoinMetro/
Meet up on Medium: https://medium.com/@coinmetro
Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/27019423/

Media Contact
Contact Name: Alex Corkhill
Contact Email: [email protected]

CoinMetro 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. Cryptocurrencies and tokens are extremely volatile. There is no guarantee of a stable value, or of any value at all. Token sales are only suitable for individuals with a high risk tolerance. Only participate in a token event with what you can afford to lose.

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