Tether releases more tokens and the markets hold their breath, Facebook brings back crypto ads but keeps ICO ads out, and more top news in this week’s Hodler’s Digest
Tether releases more tokens and the markets hold their breath, Facebook brings back crypto ads but keeps ICO ads out, and more top news in this week’s Hodler’s Digest
As an artificial intelligence (AI) bot team developed by Elon Musk’s non-profit AI research company OpenAI defeated a professional team at Dota 2, one of the most popular online video games internationally, technology experts have started to express optimism about the progress that is being made in the AI and machine learning industry. Win of […]
As an artificial intelligence (AI) bot team developed by Elon Musk’s non-profit AI research company OpenAI defeated a professional team at Dota 2, one of the most popular online video games internationally, technology experts have started to express optimism about the progress that is being made in the AI and machine learning industry.
Win of AI Bots in Dota 2 Was Monumental
Dota 2, a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) video game developed by Valve, like its rivals such as League of Legends (LoL), requires players to communicate and cooperate with each other to destroy objectives and ultimately win the game.
Normal bots on Dota 2 and LoL, which still have difficulty levels, have limitations in their skill sets and ability to dominate the game. Some MOBA games provide bots with additional advantages like knowing the position of players on the map at all times, but apart from that, bots are almost always inferior to human players who can outsmart them with various abilities, items, and unique positioning.
Hence, while newcomers and beginner users could lose to beginner and intermediate bots, professional players most often do not lose to normal bots because of the inability of bots to communicate with each other and carry out macro strategies to gain momentum and finish the game.
This month, a team of AI bots from OpenAI was tasked with playing Dota 2 for more than 180 years on self-play and understand the map, mechanics, and objectives of the game by playing it over and over again. Through machine learning and experience, the AI bots eventually developed an understanding of the map and found various strategies that could be utilized to win the game.
“In the first games, the heroes walk aimlessly around the map. After several hours of training, concepts such as laning, farming, or fighting over mid emerge. After several days, they consistently adopt basic human strategies: attempt to steal Bounty runes from their opponents, walk to their tier one towers to farm, and rotate heroes around the map to gain lane advantage. And with further training, they become proficient at high-level strategies like 5-hero push.”
In five versus five matches against professional Dota 2 players, who compete in competitions with $40 million prize pools, AI bots got confused due to the unusual strategies and macro plays used by human players that the AI had not encountered before when playing with bots. After the AI bots lost, the team at OpenAI started to train them by letting the bots practice against human players.
As AI bots started to obtain experience and identify strategies to beat human players on 1-on-1 matches, AI bots began to consistently outperform human players. Inevitably, AI bots started to outperform human players in five-on-five matches as well.
Bill Gates Praises AI
Gates, the co-founder and technology advisor at Microsoft, a board member at Berkshire Hathaway, and a co-chairman at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, publicly expressed his enthusiasm about the monumental win of the AI bots against human players, stating:
“AI bots just beat humans at the video game Dota 2. That’s a big deal, because their victory required teamwork and collaboration – a huge milestone in advancing artificial intelligence.”
AI is still far from being commercialized and from seamlessly communicating with humans. However, progress like the OpenAI-Dota project will streamline the process of AI understanding the way humans think and operate, allowing AI to become more like humans.
Token generation events are often seen as a risk for coin companies as a poor performance can affect the long-term planning and execution of the project as well as public appeal and prestige. While the benefits may outweigh the risks for many, some opt to keep a closed investor circle to help avoid sell-offs, etc. …
Token generation events are often seen as a risk for coin companies as a poor performance can affect the long-term planning and execution of the project as well as public appeal and prestige. While the benefits may outweigh the risks for many, some opt to keep a closed investor circle to help avoid sell-offs, etc. Exchanges are often involved in the token events but their long-term benefits are often seen as debatable in the coin community with only a few of the exchange coins proving successful over time.
Cryptocurrency trading platform EXMO has recently announced that it would be canceling its public token event following the platform landing enough funds to see it through for margin lands and such. EXMO as an exchange is also not going to proceed a sale of its native cryptocurrency as the company could embark on radical changes in the system that may affect the perception regarding the company.
The Reasons behind the Decision
According to the company co-founder Ivan Petukhovsky:
“A stable positive dynamics of all financial indicators of the platform and the incredible user’s number increase (currently, we have more than 1.5 million traders, and there are more than 10,000 people that register on EXMO every day) allows us to fully supply our product business plan”
The EXMO exchange is seeing more and more users join its system and that is now allowing the exchange to proceed without a token generation event. The previously collected funds from the pre token events were meant for the creation of an insurance fund for margin loans and getting all the necessary licenses.
Margin trading is one of the biggest demands of the cryptocurrency traders due to its ability to generate more and more profits without risking much money of the traders themselves. It provides a loan facility to traders who can get them and possibly earn more on currency fluctuations.
About EXMO
EXMO is a registered exchange based in three top cities of London, Kiev and Moscow. It is the most popular cryptocurrency exchange in Eastern Europe especially Russian and Ukraine where its business alone accounts for it being one of the largest exchanges in the world in terms of volume. Overall, there are 1.5 million users on the exchange. It offers 53 trading pairs, 5 fiat currencies and their pairs and has a whopping $50 million daily trading volume.
It appears that there is an international crackdown on darknet marketplaces trading cryptocurrencies for recreational drugs. Soon after American undercover agents exposed dozens of vendors, European forces conducted what Europol calls “Europe’s biggest ever LSD bust.” Also Read: US Authorities Seize Over $20M in Crypto in Massive Darknet Crackdown “Europe’s Biggest Ever LSD Bust” The […]
It appears that there is an international crackdown on darknet marketplaces trading cryptocurrencies for recreational drugs. Soon after American undercover agents exposed dozens of vendors, European forces conducted what Europol calls “Europe’s biggest ever LSD bust.”
The European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol), formerly known as the European Police Office and Drugs Unit, has revealed that Spain’s Guardia Civil and Austria’s Federal Police have raided a network producing and selling drugs on the Darknet. Over 100 different types of psychoactive substances were seized in two labs, including almost 800,000 doses of LSD, making this the biggest ever LSD bust in the EU according to Europol.
The group was also allegedly laundering its profits by selling cryptocurrencies. In total, over four and a half million euros worth of cryptos (mostly BTC, but also IOTA and lumen) were seized by law enforcement. Besides the drugs and crypto haul, eight people were arrested and the authorities also seized a €1.6 million bank account, €700,000 in fiat cash, three real estate properties and ten luxury cars.
Two of the Best Darknet Sites
Boasting about the operation, Europol says that two of the Darknet sites managed by the group were the most known in the world and enjoyed a great reputation among buyers. The group offered the drugs exclusively through Darknet markets where access was restricted only to invited users redirected from online forums.
According to the accusations, the group had been operating in Spain since 2012. It imported the raw materials from Asian countries, mainly China, and had a main production lab in Amsterdam. The two labs in Spain were in charge of packaging and distributing the drugs to the final consumer. Deliveries were sent to buyers in more than 100 different countries around the world, containing narcotic substances camouflaged as other products, such as additives for cement. Among the psychoactive substances on sale were: synthetic cannabinoids, depressants, dissociatives, stimulants such as amphetamines or cathinones, nootropics, psychedelics and synthetic opiates.
Will an international crackdown on darknet markets have any influence on bitcoin adoption? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Europol.
Verify and track bitcoin cash transactions on our BCH Block Explorer, the best of its kind anywhere in the world. Also, keep up with your holdings, BCH, and other coins, on our market charts at Satoshi’s Pulse, another original and free service from Bitcoin.com.
One thousand attendees and nearly 200 speakers gathered last week for LATOKEN’s Blockchain Economic Forum. The five-day event featured headliner Tim Draper, Founder of DFJ Fund, a venture capital firm supporting future entrepreneurs. The conference took place at the Marriott Marquis, in the heart of San Francisco’s financial district, kicking off with a rooftop VIP […]
One thousand attendees and nearly 200 speakers gathered last week for LATOKEN’s Blockchain Economic Forum. The five-day event featured headliner Tim Draper, Founder of DFJ Fund, a venture capital firm supporting future entrepreneurs.
The conference took place at the Marriott Marquis, in the heart of San Francisco’s financial district, kicking off with a rooftop VIP meet and greet, a tour of SFMOMA for VIPs and speakers, and a special “Exponential Future Party” at the California Academy of Sciences.
The scale of the event brought a variety of voices from government, blockchain projects, the press, and social media influencers. Other notable speakers included Bobby Lee of the Bitcoin Foundation, former US Commodities Future Trading Commission (CFTC) Chair Gary Gensler (2009-2014), Former Canadian Finance Minister Joe Oliver (2013-2015), and current European Parliament member Eva A. Kaili.
YouTube personalities Chris Dunn, Mike Vestil, and Michael Gu of Boxmining also attended the event, along with crypto bloggers with a combined reach of more than two million subscribers. Since the event, there have been more than 2,000 social media posts tagged #beflatoken.
LATOKEN founder and CEO Valentin Preobrazhenskiy
Valentin Preobrazhenskiy, founder and CEO of LATOKEN, a token liquidity exchange, graciously hosted the event. Preobrazhenskiy kicked off the opening ceremonies with a special guest, Sophia the Robot. Though Sophia wasn’t using NLP or machine learning to answer questions on the spot, her facial movements were remarkably human.
LATOKEN is an exchange focused on liquidity tokens in new asset classes. Preobrazhenskiy explains, “We release new projects, tokens, and ICO classes. We support projects in real estate, insurance, and other business sectors, making sure we’re compliant with security regulations.”
Preobrazhenskiy is no stranger to event planning, having hosted over 250 meetups and conferences. BEF San Francisco is Preobrazhenskiy’s third event of its kind, with two previous events having taken place in Singapore and New York. These events, he explains, are his “secret sauce to connecting the right people, creating conversations and building an investor base.”
There were moments of genius during the event, the highlight being a debate (full video here) between VC founder Tim Draper and former CFTC chair Gary Gensler. While Draper advocates for open access to venture capital investment in crypto projects, Gensler argues there’s a need to regulate certain venture asset classes, restricting access for non-qualified investors in order to protect them. Preobrazhenskiy commented, “Rights to invest should be the same as universal rights to vote. Education is better than restrictions. Updating regulations will unlock the potential of tokenization to open venture investing for the general public.” Draper’s unbridled optimism was tempered prudently by Gensler’s cautionary concerns.
There were lavish evening engagements and some excellent minds present at the event, though there were moments that felt disorganized. There were also a few speakers who viewed the stage as a personal platform rather than focusing on moderators. One attendee noted, “I’d rather have quality than quantity, but overall, what I attended was pretty good.”
The blockchain industry and various cryptocurrencies’ close correlation to Bitcoin’s price was cited as an important vulnerability. Should Bitcoin’s value continue to dip, it could create impediments to future venture funding, ICOs, and liquidity. Financier Bill Sautter of Galaxy Ventures came away optimistic, saying, “There were some extremely bright people at BEF and a number of very promising ventures.”
One ICO brought in young women dressed in tight dresses to pass out brochures and advertise when a company representative would be speaking. Booth Babes, as they’re called, have been banned from most professional conferences and give a dated view on the role of women as onlookers rather than active participants in the space. While it’s possible LATOKEN wasn’t aware this would happen, they made no move to stop it either.
All in all, the conference was well attended and featured a variety of insights. It’s not easy to get a huge event 100% right, but some panels, including the pitch competition sponsored by Draper University, took place in loud showcase halls, diminishing their effect and reach. Conversations on this emerging technology are important, and with each iteration, we hope they will continue to improve.
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PHOTO: VC founder Tim Draper and former CFTC chair Gary Gensler in discussion at BEF San Francisco.
Blockchain projects are going from strength to strength at an accelerating pace; new and innovative real world-application platforms are emerging and some are making quite a significant impact on the global financial industry. It takes some serious negotiations for a blockchain solution/platform to enter into traditional markets, especially ones that are entering the fintech space. …
Blockchain projects are going from strength to strength at an accelerating pace; new and innovative real world-application platforms are emerging and some are making quite a significant impact on the global financial industry.
It takes some serious negotiations for a blockchain solution/platform to enter into traditional markets, especially ones that are entering the fintech space. One blockchain startup, theHive Project has been demonstrating excellence for some time.
Hive Project
Hive Project is a blockchain-based invoice financing solution, leveraging distributed ledger technology to bring a unique fingerprint to each invoice issued, enabling businesses to automate the invoicing process and edging the far-reaching benefits of blockchain to commercial industries, especially that of the financing market which pushed past EUR 3 trillion in annual volume this year.
Named the best token sale of 2017 at CoinAgenda Global, Hive Project (HVN) has recently struck significant strategic partnership withGosocket, a social business network that connects over 1 Million active users across 12 countries in Latin America.
The partnership has huge implications and is one of the very first successful use-cases of blockchain technology; now, half a billion invoices are ready for funding on the HVN_Anticipos Terminal.
Ugur Yildirim, partner and CFO at Hive Project, stated:
“Today is a remarkable day for our young fintech company, with us completing our token sale less than a year ago.”
The business deal between theHive Project andGosocket has been signed and sealed, giving Hive the coveted status of being one of the first blockchain-startups to enter the established economic framework.
HVN Token and Gosocket
The integration of the HVN token into Anticipos, the Gosocket advance payment solution; Gosocket is a behemoth in Latin America with over 1 million active users, almost USD 7 Billion advance payments made through their platform so far through over half a billion filled e-invoices verified.
Ugur Yildirim went on to explain:
“Merging our revolutionary blockchain-based solution and the HVN token with Gosocket’s Anticipos will not only help catapult our business growth and development in key Latin American markets but also give us the ability to use Gosocket’s technology in Europe. Apart from making a great business case in the global finance industry, this agreement will also create strong organic demand for our utility token (HVN) because all users will need it to access the invoices traded on the HVN-Anticipos Terminal.”
The HVN_Anticipos Terminal will be available very soon in the Latin American markets of Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil.
It’s a turning point for the industry and will revolutionise financial capital for small businesses. Hive Project has demonstrated that the blockchain and fintech worlds don’t need to collide, but can merge and accomplish previously unthinkable feats.
MakerDAO is a stability platform comprised of a stablecoin, a governance coin, and a decentralized governance model. Stablecoins are a potential solution to the volatility of cryptocurrencies, allowing for wider adoption. In this interview, Rune Christensen, Founder of MakerDAO, explains how this project attempts stabilization, exploring topics including security audits, liquidity, market manipulation, and the […]
MakerDAO is a stability platform comprised of a stablecoin, a governance coin, and a decentralized governance model. Stablecoins are a potential solution to the volatility of cryptocurrencies, allowing for wider adoption. In this interview, Rune Christensen, Founder of MakerDAO, explains how this project attempts stabilization, exploring topics including security audits, liquidity, market manipulation, and the importance of a DAO.
Leslie Ankney: Hi Rune, thanks for joining us. MakerDAO has been both applauded and criticized for its complex stablecoin model. How does the MakerDAO ecosystem works to stabilize the Dai?
MakerDAO Founder Rune Christensen
Rune Christensen: MakerDAO works using collateralized debt positions (CDP) on a decentralized platform. People can take out debt positions using our stablecoin, the Dai (1 Dai = $1). The Dai credit system uses tokens or assets to back up their value.
Together, these CDPs create a marketplace of stability seekers and leverage seekers. Leverage seekers, or borrowers, put collateral, like Ethereum, into the system and generate Dai based on that collateral. The borrower wants to purchase additional ETH, and someone on the other side would be selling their ETH, seeking stability in the form of Dai. From this, one person has stability and the other person has a leverage position through the credit platform.
Leslie Ankney: All of this is done through a smart contract?
Rune Christensen: Yes, smart contracts make Dai accessible as an official front end for stability and leverage seekers. There are many new projects building on top of this, such asEasyCDP.com, creating these easy interfaces.
In general, we see Dai and the CDP credit platform as underlying infrastructures on Ethereum that other projects can build on, similar to the way many projects build on top of Ethereum itself. Any project can use Dai as a safe and stable store of value instead of something volatile.
Leslie Ankney: What about your other currency, Maker, and your governance model – how do they work? Why do you think this governance model is an important feature?
Rune Christensen: Maker is the first Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO), predating even The DAO, and our project has been around before Ethereum even launched. Because of this, we’ve spent a long time thinking of worst-case scenarios and designing a DAO model that works in response.
A governance model is what blockchain is all about. Blockchain was born out of a response to the financial crisis. When Wall Street and banks thought they were “too big to fail” and weren’t held accountable for their decisions, blockchain and decentralized governance emerged in response in the form of Bitcoin. As a community, we want to do things differently.
MakerDAO and the MKR token use a decentralized governance structure to bring stability to our stablecoin, the Dai. We believe money and credit systems should be transparent so no one can sneak in their own agenda. An open governance process prevents corruption. If there’s risky stuff going on, like if a mortgage-backed security is being too lenient with credit ratings, anyone can audit that in real time. MakerDAO has a whole framework for making decisions in these situations.
MakerDAO is an open community where people reach consensus on how to safely govern credit and its stability. Sometimes, there will be insolvency, and our governance model holds its decision makers accountable. Members earn money when things are going well, and when there’s insolvency, MKR is autonomously sold off to recapitalize the Dai, and the MKR holders who made the decisions in the first place lose money as a result.
Unlike the financial crisis, where bankers were bailed out with taxpayer money, members of MakerDAO profit from good decisions, but also are held accountable for bad decisions. This model invites new members when things have been mismanaged so they have an opportunity to take control of the system and purchase shares of MKR. This governance model rewards learning from the mistakes over time. We think this is crucial to having a decentralized, stable system. Open governance helps to prevent the danger of relying too much on one single point of failure.
Leslie Ankney: Looking at other stablecoin models, we see some that are fiat-backed, like TrueUSD and Tether, as well as on-chain collateralized or crypto-collateralized, and then most recently, non-collateralized crypto models based on Seigniorage Shares, like Basis. Why did you select your model? What do you see as limitations with these other models?
Rune Christensen:We consider a multi-collateralized, on-chain model the only truly decentralized stablecoin. Nowadays, what used to be called “IOUs” are also called stablecoins.
I think it makes most sense to look at MakerDAO in contrast to something like Tether or TrueUSD, or Circle. These all ultimately rely on a bank, and that really means that this bank ends up holding leverage over an entire system almost like a centralized platform where whatever you build on top of the stablecoin is also built on top of the bank.
For example, TrueUSD is actively managing who can adopt their stablecoin because they have to conform to the demands of their bank. So on one hand, these stablecoins have real collateral behind them, but in the long run they are vulnerable to the “too big to fail” narrative where banks would be the point of failure.
Leslie Ankney: What about elastic crypto-collateralized models like Carbon, Basis, or Fragments?
Rune Christensen: They are the other extreme from the fiat-based models; Dai is in the middle of these two. All of those are basically Seigniorage Shares successors, which believe you can create money out of nothing. When you don’t have anything real backing your stablecoin, they can hold value for a while, like NuBits, but the only thing backing their value is faith and a number of complex algorithms.
Ultimately these algorithms are there to convince people that they should continue to buy this stablecoin for one dollar. Basis is my favorite Seigniorage Shares stablecoin. The problem with Basis is that it’s kind of the same for all of them; there is this circular relationship where the stablecoin is stable because the backing asset has value, and the backing asset has value because the stablecoin has utility, which means it is stable. That makes perfect sense when the backing asset gets more valuable and the stablecoin is more stable, but when you reverse that process you basically get a scenario where if the stablecoin becomes less stable, people start moving out of it, and the backing asset that is supposed to keep its value stable also suffers as a result. You get this death spiral, like a bank run, where suddenly there’s a loss of faith that makes even more people scared of what’s happening and everyone moves out of the market, causing a huge fall. This has actually happened to NuBits several times and they were able to recover once, and they may not be able to recover this time.
Another problem with this model is that it typically also involves using actual reserves. It isn’t actually fully uncollateralized; it’s kind of masquerading as being fully uncollateralized, but it actually has some collateral reserves from its initial ICO. This collateral is what allowed NuBits to stay afloat for so long.
Many other Seigniorage Shares models are planning to do the same thing, claiming that once there’s no longer enough collateral, there will be enough faith in these coins to keep their value. A true stablecoin needs to go beyond that; it should be designed for the worst possibilities and able to survive them. This is the approach we take with Maker. We’re prepared for a massive market-wide meltdown of many different asset classes by diversifying our collateral.
Leslie Ankney: I remember you really focus on black swan events in presentations.
Rune Christensen: Stablecoins have an obligation to look at all the ways a system can fail and really analyze and describe them, and then mitigate them in the best possible way. I think many stablecoin models are completely ignoring this and not thinking about it enough.
Leslie Ankney: What are you doing to test your code to ensure MakerDAO works as planned?
Rune Christensen: We use many external audits. In one case, we found an issue where if we kept using the system for hundreds of years, we’d eventually get rounding errors; we were able to find and catch that thanks to auditing. We haven’t had any major issues, but we’re still super careful and looking for bugs. We invest heavily in formal verification and are developing our own open-source programming language for assisting formal verification so the entire community can learn from this work.
Leslie Ankney: How do you prevent exploitation and market manipulation? For example, on March 18th, very recently, approximately US$4 million was liquidated to repurchase $4 million in Dai. When this auction occurred, the price of Dai spiked from $1.00 to $1.11, which could net someone almost $300K in profit.
Rune Christensen: This is actually a sign the system is working. We are just seeing it on an extreme magnification because we’re running our beta version with a very small ecosystem of participants. In our current beta model, the system buys Dai at a premium as an incentive for people to sell it back, allowing the system to contract its supply. In the short run, if the Dai rises to $1.11, selling it yields an 11% profit as a design incentive. We encourage people to sell their Dai when they see the price go over a dollar, and purchase Dai when they see it go below a dollar, bringing the price up.
Leslie Ankney: Where do you see the mass adoption coming for stablecoins?
Rune Christensen: Both supply chain companies and the unbanked can benefit from blockchain, and especially through stablecoins. Supply chain today is a massive industry based on very inefficient systems ready for disruption. Blockchain brings payment tracking, faster transactions, and lower fees. Stablecoins remove the international currency conversion barrier and lengthy transfer times that make it really hard for cash-strapped small businesses to grow.
Very often, small and mid-sized companies can’t get the kind of loans offered to large companies, and a collateralized credit platform removes this unfair practice by basing loans on collateral, not company size. Solving this imbalance will unlock new efficiency and innovation for healthy economic growth.
Stablecoins can also help the unbanked. For example, we’ve partnered with Bifrost, a charity solution that brings cash directly to crisis zones. Using Dai, Bifrost is able to cut out banks and make a direct transfer through a charity. They purchase Dai in their home country, and then sell it for cash on the ground which they can make immediately available to the people who need it. Not only does this lower fees and decrease transfer times, it also removes the risk of funds getting lost, frozen, or seized by the wrong parties.
We think these two things, like the business focus of supply chain and then the social focus on bank and charity efforts, are strong pillars to direct growth.
Leslie Ankney: Rune, thank you for your time today. Next time, I’ll be interviewing Kain Warwick, the founder of Havven, for yet another approach to creating a stable cryptocurrency.
As the United States starts to get its head around the cryptocurrency space, regulation is still lacking much-needed clarity. The ICO market is carrying on as enthusiastically as possible, raising just shy of $12 billion already this year. But with the mixed messages and questions raised by the SEC, some US blockchain companies are stuck […]
As the United States starts to get its head around the cryptocurrency space, regulation is still lacking much-needed clarity. The ICO market is carrying on as enthusiastically as possible, raising just shy of $12 billion already this year. But with the mixed messages and questions raised by the SEC, some US blockchain companies are stuck in their tracks.
If they want to hold an unregulated ICO, there is still nothing to stop them other than the fear of possible repercussions. But the uncertainty is crippling. Too many potential world-changing ideas are hanging in the balance.
Celebrities are calming down on their endorsements of crypto projects as well. In fact, US rapper The Game is being sued right now for his endorsement of ParagonCoins, an ICO scam. Even bullish Bitcoin advocate and all-around extrovert John McAfee is stopping his vocal support for ICOs on social media.
The Worst Thing for Business Is Uncertainty
At MoneyConf in Dublin earlier this month, I spoke to American citizen and ShapeShift co-founder Jon. His crypto-to-crypto exchange is registered in Switzerland. Why? Because the United States is creating confusion. “What are the rules? Because nobody knows,” he remarks. “What’s needed for everyone is clarity.”
Jon’s not exactly a fan of using existing securities exemptions laws for category-breaking technology. But, at the very least, there should be some guidelines to follow. “If the US wanted to put crypto and blockchain in a certain regulatory bucket and the rest of the world disagreed with it, at least we would know, in the US, you have to operate like that. At least it would bring clarity,” he argues.
While those who can are looking into STOs using existing securities exemptions, raising funds in this way still doesn’t put them completely in the clear. There are still a lot of unanswered questions. For example, where does the token live on your balance sheet, and how should the offering be taxed?
So, while the US tries to figure out the right moves to make, other countries are getting ahead. And here are the top three leading the way on cryptocurrency regulation right now.
3. Germany
One of the US’s biggest problems is labeling everything as a “security” and the somber implications that has. But in Germany, the securities laws are different, and there are two definitions of “security”.
Neufund is a legally compliant equity fundraising platform for blockchain and off-chain companies. They built a legal and technical framework for companies to conduct fully legal ICOs on the blockchain, under German jurisdiction. And they advise German regulators as well, releasing the global Blockchain Policy Initiative with partners including the likes of Kraken.
“In Germany, there are two types of securities,” explains VP of Ventures Agnieszka Sarnecka. “Wertpapiere (stock) and Vermögensanlage (share, investment asset).”
This clarity allows Neufund to create equity tokens and hold Equity Token Offerings (ETOs) as they qualify as investment assets, which are much easier to manage.
Not only has the ICO mechanism of raising funds become popular among blockchain companies there, but it’s spreading to off-chain companies that want to liquidize their assets.
2. Switzerland
To the detriment of the US and other countries, blockchain companies of all shapes and sizes are moving to Switzerland. Even major exchange Bitfinex is considering the possibility. Three of the most lucrative ICOs of 2017 were held in Switzerland, but there’s more to it than that. We’re talking about flexible regulation allowing blockchain companies to raise funds and operate securely.
Swiss-based blockchain startup Smart Valor is designing a platform to tokenize assets and make top-tier investments accessible to all. CEO Olga Feldmeier has a few things to say on the subject of regulation.
“In Switzerland, we’re talking about principles-based regulation, which is a regulatory approach. There aren’t detailed rules for everything, but many things are left to the overall judgment and decided on a piece-by-piece basis. So it’s very flexible when you deal with this new technology.”
Principles-based regulation is also neutral and open, so you don’t run the risk of stifling innovation.
Says Feldmeier, “What happens today is that there are a lot of very promising startups trying to use cryptocurrencies for their global crowdfunding. So they’re trying to hold a utility token offering, which in many cases does not suit their business model; there’s no place for a token.”
Smart Valor will allow these innovative companies that want to raise funds to tokenize their assets and access liquidity. And this is possible when a government works hard not to put what Jon calls “category-breaking” technology into a box.
1. Malta
Malta is looking to lead the way on regulation, and they’re doing some innovative things. As an adviser to the Maltese government, Neufund is extremely impressed with the initiative they are taking and the depth of the government’s understanding of blockchain.
Understanding that uncertainty is the enemy of business, Malta embraces blockchain technology and is striving to craft a framework to provide clarity without quashing innovation. They passed three new laws recently on how crypto exchanges can operate, how companies can raise funds, and on DLT technology in general.
Of course, creating new regulation is potentially problematic, especially for a country operating within the framework of the EU. However, with more and more companies moving to the “blockchain island,” including BitBay and Binance, the EU may just follow Malta’s lead. And the US? That remains to be seen.
Final Thoughts
Many people agree that regulation would be welcome in the crypto space to remove uncertainty and protect investors. But while larger countries are still deliberating on what to do, the smaller ones are winning the race.
Uncertainty will see some innovative US blockchain companies moving offshore. And this could be detrimental to the country in the long term. “The smaller countries enabling innovation will be the winners of the regulatory competition,” Feldmeier says, and so far she looks to be right.
‘Bitcoin’s Unknown Kings’: The Magazine Mystery That’s Got Crypto Guessing Coindesk Bitcoin may be global, but it’s still a small community. This is why a recent Fast Company South Africa story attracted international commentary – and not in a good way. After all, it isn’t every day that relative unknowns get touted as “Bitcoin Kings …
'Bitcoin's Unknown Kings': The Magazine Mystery That's Got Crypto Guessing Coindesk Bitcoin may be global, but it's still a small community. This is why a recent Fast Company South Africa story attracted international commentary – and not in a good way. After all, it isn't every day that relative unknowns get touted as "Bitcoin Kings ...
Should Satoshi Nakamoto ever return, it would probably be bad for bitcoin but great for clicks. The mainstream media (MSM) would have a field day, just as they did when they “identified” Craig Wright as bitcoin’s creator. The search for Satoshi and quest for clickbait intensified this week after Bloomberg asserted that bitcoin’s founder is […]
Should Satoshi Nakamoto ever return, it would probably be bad for bitcoin but great for clicks. The mainstream media (MSM) would have a field day, just as they did when they “identified” Craig Wright as bitcoin’s creator. The search for Satoshi and quest for clickbait intensified this week after Bloomberg asserted that bitcoin’s founder is back – and writing a book no less.
Satoshi Nakamoto is everywhere and nowhere, everyone and no one. Most bitcoin supporters acknowledge that Satoshi did the right thing by slinking off into the digital wilderness in 2010, but will also confess to being fascinated by how his return would play out. In the eight years since Satoshi left, many fake Satoshis – or faketoshis – have sprung up. Jesus Christ warned that imitators and false prophets would appear claiming to be the son of God, and something similar has occurred with ersatz Satoshis.
The website Nakamotofamilyfoundation.org is a plain text affair, as minimalist as the cypherpunk mailing lists where Satoshi’s writings first surfaced. Bloomberg leads the list of MSM outlets touting the possibility of the site being Satoshi’s doing, and that the 21-page PDF on the website (the number of pages perhaps being symbolic) contains the beginnings of his forthcoming book. There are many reasons why the screed is unlikely to be the work of Satoshi, and yet the mere possibility, no matter now remote, has provided the cryptosphere with its latest Satoshi fix.
“Duality” Purports to be an Excerpt from Satoshi’s Forthcoming Book
Duality, the supposed new writings of Satoshi Nakamoto, is an intriguing document. At 21 pages, it’s more than double the length of the original bitcoin whitepaper and far more solipsistic than anything the confirmed Satoshi has ever written. Statistically speaking, it is almost certainly a hoax, and yet there’s just enough of a hook to the writing, including supposed tidbits on bitcoin’s origins and inspirations, to lure hungry Satoshi cultists in.
The cryptogram devised by the author of “Duality”
Whoever composed the website has certainly enjoyed themselves, going so far to create a cryptogram puzzle for readers to solve. The difficulty with discrediting a hoax – or authenticating an original – is that no one ever knew Satoshi Nakamoto. Not in the real world sense at least, and thus his digital footprint – primarily his whitepaper, mailing list writings, and Bitcointalk forum postings – are all there is to go on. Anyone who has done their homework could imitate Satoshi; his spelling, punctuation, grammatical quirks, and cogent, academic tone.
Some Parts of “Duality” Ring True But the Crypto Community is Sceptical
The trouble with analyzing the work of supposed Satoshis is that it simply encourages more copycats, like fixating on school shooters. But paradoxically, debunking them calls for forensically scrutinizing their writings, despite the shot of publicity this gives to all Satoshi wannabees. The Nakamoto Family Foundation website begins:
Announcing the first excerpt to a literary work consisting of two parts. The excerpt is provided. I wanted to include it as a brief glimpse of history. Even for those that can’t read the full book, I wanted to make this available to everyone. A short story if you will, with some of the most brought up questions and answers. I wanted the people and the facts to be known. Or as much of it. I’m still saving most for the books, the best parts hopefully…There will be many new names and individuals appearing throughout the book in any case, as it is a story about my personal life.
Anyone conversant with Satoshi’s body of work will note that the writing does not feel consistent with that of bitcoin’s creator. Gone are his trademark double spacings and in are American spellings (albeit with an explanation for the change of style), typos, and a sudden willingness to position himself at the center of the story. The original Satoshi was notoriously shy about answering remotely personal questions, meticulous about proofing his work, and brushed off all attempts to understand his origins, motivations and character. Now he’s apparently willing to tell all – or as much as he can without doxxing himself. “I still take joy in finding mistakes, be it in code or in writing,” writes Duality’s author, several paragraphs after misspelling the word ‘proficiency’.
Bitcoiners Are Not Impressed
Over the years, the bitcoin community has endured its share of faketoshis, as well as writings such as this effort, all purporting to be the words of the real Satoshi. One commenter who’s given the latest Satoshi claim short shrift is Nic Carter, who tweeted: “For some reason, even though Satoshi is known as a clear and elegant writer, none of the Satoshi imitators bother to write well. This document is horrifically written.”
If Satoshi is still alive, he will be aware that much of his enduring mystery can be attributed to his prior refusal to reveal remotely incriminating information. Duality lays bare such details as the reason for choosing the Satoshi name, his default timezone, and why he chose his original writing style.
It’s an interesting piece of work, but it would take a brave man or a desperate media organization to stake their reputation on it being the work of Satoshi Nakamoto. Especially when the real Satoshi could simply sign a message with one of his original keys or move a coin from his wallet, adding a message to the OP_RETURN field confirming Duality to be his oeuvre. Until such a time, this and all other claims to be Satoshi must be assumed fake. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
Do you think “Duality” could be the work of Satoshi? Let us know in the comments section below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock, and Twitter.
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SlowMist, a Chinese cybersecurity firm, has recently pointed out a transaction that should have some worried, as the user managed to double the value of 694 USDT. SlowMist: User On Thursday, a blockchain centric cybersecurity firm, issued a Tweet which drew attention to a questionable USDT transaction. 交易所在进行USDT充值交易确认是否成功时存在逻辑缺陷，未校验区块链上交易详情中valid字段值是否为true，导致“假充值”，用户未损失任何USDT却成功向交易所充值了USDT，而且这些 USDT 可以正常进行交易。我们已经确认真实攻击发生！相关交易所应尽快暂停USDT充值功能，并自查代码是否存在该逻辑缺陷。 pic.twitter.com/EPzZIsZFzH — SlowMist (@SlowMist_Team) June…
SlowMist, a Chinese cybersecurity firm, has recently pointed out a transaction that should have some worried, as the user managed to double the value of 694 USDT.
SlowMist: User
On Thursday, a blockchain centric cybersecurity firm, issued a Tweet which drew attention to a questionable USDT transaction.
According to the automated translation of the Tweet, originally given in Mandarin Chinese, the user was able to illegitimately add USDT value to the exchange’s server, giving a guise of added funds.
This vulnerability essentially allowed the user to be potentially credited for USDT that was not sent to the exchange.
It is unclear whether the exchange affected, which remained unnamed, has made any actions to amend the issue.
According to the information of the transaction in question, the exchange accepted a transaction that had invalid information, with the exchange marking the 694 USDT “false” transaction as valid.
When the Tweet was first released, it was unclear whether this problem was an unlucky edge-case or a problem that affected all of the 2.75 Billion Tether tokens in existence.
Bug Is Only Pertinent To Vulnerable Exchange
SlowMist later clarified, in English this time, that the issue was not with Tether as a whole, but rather with the unnamed exchange.
A Reddit user who goes by Dacoinminster gave his/her reasoning for the hack. To add to the legitimacy of the reasoning, the user claimed to be a founder of Omni, the protocol which Tether is built upon.
Firstly, the Reddit user noted that Omni-based assets cannot be double-spent without Bitcoin having to be double-spent as well. This comment eased the double-spend worries, as a double-spend attack on Bitcoin is nearly impossible.
If I’m translating this correctly, it appears that what happened here is that an exchange wasn’t checking the valid flag on transactions. They accepted a transaction with valid=false (which they should not have), and then the second “double spend” transaction had valid=true, which they also accepted.
Dacoinminster went on to say that the issue was the result of “poor exchange integration,” pointing an accusing finger at the affected exchange.
OKEx, one of the top cryptocurrency exchanges by trading volume, quickly created a press release regarding the issue, adding to the legitimacy of the issue. OKEx wrote:
We are aware of the vulnerability with USDT deposit. And we confirm that OKEx is NOT exposed to the vulnerability. Please rest assured that your assets are safe and secure with us.
Further adding that OKEx enlisted the help of SlowMist to ensure that OKEx was not vulnerable to the “fake deposit” issue.
Bittrex also confirmed that it was not affected and the processing of all Omni-based assets, like Tether, did not experience any difficulties. The Tweet stated, “Bittrex properly handles the “valid” flag mentioned in the (Omni) integration guide.”
It has become clear that this issue is only pertinent to exchanges who failed to properly integrate Omni assets, most likely smaller exchanges with smaller technical teams. At the time of writing, the unnamed exchange was the only platform reported to be vulnerable to the bug.
Tether Remains The Topic Of Controversy
Despite holding a vital role in the industry, serving as a way investors can find stability in the often volatile crypto market, Tether has had its fair share of problems.
As Tether’s market cap quickly rose over the billion dollar valuation, users began to question the legitimacy of the reserve funds backing the popular stablecoin. Speculation raged, as Tether unexpectedly dismissed an auditor for the “excruciatingly detailed procedures” the auditor firm was enlisting.
Many thought that Tether did not hold the funds to back its growing supply of USDT. However, it was recently revealed that Tether does hold the U.S. dollars to back all USDT in existence.
Although that issue was dismissed, research has pointed out that Tether may be responsible for the manipulation of many Bitcoin price movements. The report, originating from the University of Texas, states that the issuances of Tether may have caused up to 50% of all Bitcoin price increases.
Although not directly addressed by the Tether organization, this report confirms much of the sentiment held by Tether critics.
The recent bug exposed by SlowMint has added to the Tether controversy, which has become increasingly diverse as Tether continues to grow at a rapid rate.
It appears that there is an international crackdown on darknet marketplaces trading cryptocurrencies for recreational drugs. Soon after American undercover agents exposed dozens of vendors, European forces conducted what Europol calls “Europe’s biggest ever LSD bust.” Also Read: US Authorities Seize Over $20M in Crypto in Massive Darknet Crackdown “Europe’s Biggest Ever LSD Bust” The […]
The European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (
Boasting about the operation, Europol says that two of the Darknet sites managed by the group were the most known in the world and enjoyed a great reputation among buyers. The group offered the drugs exclusively through Darknet markets where access was restricted only to invited users redirected from online forums.
Should Satoshi Nakamoto ever return, it would probably be bad for bitcoin but great for clicks. The mainstream media (MSM) would have a field day, just as they did when they “identified” Craig Wright as bitcoin’s creator. The search for Satoshi and quest for clickbait intensified this week after Bloomberg asserted that bitcoin’s founder is […]
The trouble with analyzing the work of supposed Satoshis is that it simply encourages more copycats, like fixating on school shooters. But paradoxically, debunking them calls for forensically scrutinizing their writings, despite the shot of publicity this gives to all Satoshi wannabees. The Nakamoto Family Foundation website begins: