Category Archives: Cryptocurrency
Chinas Dichotomy Between Cryptocurrency And Blockchain – Forbes
On Friday, December 27, 2019, Chinese regulators issued a joint regulatory warning on the rise of virtual currency trading activity in the country. The Beijing Local Financial Supervision Bureau, the People's Bank of China Business Management Department, the Beijing Banking and Insurance Regulatory Bureau, and the Beijing Securities Regulatory Bureau noted that the uptick in activity is the result of the promotion of blockchain technology.
Indeed, on October 25, Chinese President Xi Jinping issued a statement for Chinese companies to seize the opportunity offered by blockchain technology. The markets reacted with a surge in the price of bitcoin and an increase in internet searches for the term blockchain on WeChat. The positivity on blockchain coming from Chinas leader is not new as he has in the past referred to blockchain as ten times the importance of the discovery of the Internet.
BEIJING, Nov. 7, 2019 -- Jing Xiandong, CEO of Ant Financial, introduces the blockchain platform of ... [+] Ant Financial during the fifth World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, east China's Zhejiang Province, Nov. 7, 2018. (Photo by Chen Yehua/Xinhua via Getty) (Xinhua/Chen Yehua via Getty Images)
The approach of being tough on virtual currency trading platforms while encouraging blockchain technology might seem at first to be complicated - particularly if public platforms such as Bitcoin or Ethereum are used that has a native token or cryptocurrency used as an essential part of the blockchain or distributed ledger technology. Of course, for China, with the imminent release of a Central Bank Digital Currency, and its wish to maintain control over the types of digital or cryptocurrencies traded similarly to the way it has controlled the spread and use of the Internet, a policy coming down hard on cryptocurrency trading platforms makes sense.
Many in the United States have noted the focus should not be on cryptocurrencies, but rather blockchain technology. Indeed, the cryptocurrency and blockchain community seems to swing like a pendulum. When Bitcoin goes up, its all about the cryptocurrency and the focus on blockchain gets blurred. When Bitcoin goes down, the industry and developers are quick to note that finally, there can be a focus on the real gem in all of this technology - a distributed ledger technology that will fundamentally change the way people, processes, and organizations operate.
Indeed, a recent Forbes article noted how Chinas approach to Blockchain was winning and notes the U.S. should pay attention. The U.S. has similarly started to pay attention, more as the result of Project Libra, that forced Congress to pay attention to both cryptocurrency and blockchain at the same time. While many Members of Congress became quickly adept at some of the finer distinctions in the marketplace, cryptocurrency and blockchain still seem to be words quickly conflated, where an increase in blockchain is the same as an increase in cryptocurrency, and so the U.S. runs a much higher risk than China in stopping cryptocurrency trading and also significantly impacting the development of blockchain technology in the country.
The notice from China harped on how the virtual currency trading platforms were creating the potential for investor harm in a variety of ways. As stated in the joint risk release, They launch zero-interest loans, dual currency financial management and other projects through digital currency mortgages. In other words, Decentralized Finance or DeFi, meet the Peoples Republic Of China.
And therein lies the issue for China - which is that there is very little interest in decentralization, and much more interest in seeing the development of blockchain technology and its central bank digital currency as a way of spreading its influence around the globe to push its own agenda.
Meanwhile, for the virtual currency trading platforms, The release, seriously warn institutions and personnel in Beijing that carry out related activities. They must not publicize and promote relevant virtual currency projects or platforms, they must not conduct virtual currency business sales or transactions, they must not engage in virtual currency transactions or disguised trading operations with investors, Acting on domestic and overseas virtual currency issuance and trading activities, financial institutions and non-bank payment institutions within its jurisdiction shall not provide services for any virtual currency transaction.
HONG KONG - 2019/04/06: In this photo illustration a cryptocurrency electronic cash Bitcoin logo is ... [+] seen on an Android mobile device with People's Republic of China flag in the background. (Photo Illustration by Budrul Chukrut/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Thus, the seriousness of this warning makes it clear virtual currency trading is not welcome in China, and finishes by noting that investors should, maintain rationality ... beware of being deceived, and promptly report relevant clues about violations of laws and regulations. So, investors are then part of the regulatory structure as well in China, encouraged to provide tips to authorities if violations in the marketplace are noticed.
So, as China continues to pour money into the blockchain technology and prepares the release of its central bank digital currency, the country continues what was likely the inevitable, which is to push back on any other virtual currencies that might compete with its national currency.
The U.S. should take note, at a minimum, of the level of proficiency and understanding regulators in China have regarding cryptocurrency and blockchain, particularly in its ability to note how the promotion of blockchain technology can lead to cryptocurrency schemes as a result.
The rest is here:
Chinas Dichotomy Between Cryptocurrency And Blockchain - Forbes
What Is a Cryptocurrency? We Need Clearer Definitions – Coindesk
This post is part of CoinDesk's 2019 Year in Review, a collection of 100 op-eds, interviews and takes on the state of blockchain and the world. Dr Gina C Pieters is an Assistant Instructional Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Chicago, and a Research Fellow at the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance at the University of Cambridge. She has been researching cryptocurrencies since 2015.
There is an unresolved debate over how to define decentralization in a distributed ledger system, even though decentralization of peer-to-peer payments was the motivating factor for bitcoin. Personally I like an approach that defines it as the absence of a named party participants must engage with. Think of it this way: Can someone in North Korea use it if they wanted to (that is, a permisson-less system, like bitcoin) and: Could China prevent me from using it? (a permissioned system, like Libra).
Libras Calibra wallet will only allow users who provide government ID to obtain Libra account numbers wallets, which appears to be how the project will satisfy AML/KYC requirements. The system plans to use a permissioned blockchain, and it is currently unclear which, if any, proof system it will use. Therefore, while Libra incorporates blockchain, it does not strictly require it as it is not fully decentralized: remove the blockchain and the project could find a way to continue substantially unaltered in its function. Despite this, the most descriptive, agreed-upon label we would apply is to call Libra a cryptocurrency on a permissioned blockchain.
This muddy language around cryptocurrency matters. In 2019 we began to see a serious investigation of cryptocurrencies from major, established, politically-connected entities instead of the pure marketing stunts from earlier years (compare the Libra project with Long Island Iced Tea). The regulatory hearings for Libra highlighted that the crypto-community urgently needs to provide linguistic guidance about whether we should allow projects that could fundamentally continue without decentralization to be referred to as a cryptocurrency. This moves further than the permissioned/permissionless blockchains distinction. It raises questions about the decentralization of proof, funding, and maintenance systems as well.
Linguistically, we need to distinguish between projects originating from centralized entities that use blockchain for either marketing or optimality, and projects that fundamentally require that any participant can avoid any named agent in the system. Without this distinction, 2019 showed us that projects like Libra and projects like bitcoin will be cast as comparable cryptocurrencies even though they are fundamentally different. In addition to projects like Libra, this matter is brought into focus by the potential rise of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC).
Central banks began to experiment with blockchain tech as early as 2015, leading to breathless accounts that they would soon begin issuing cryptocurrencies. These early experiments were not cryptocurrency projects at all: central banks were testing the use of blockchain (or DLT) as part of a potential upgrade to the legacy payment rails involved in wholesale banking (which moves large amounts of funds between a few, known parties). The most well-known project here is Bank of Canadas Project Jasper, though Hong Kong, Russia, South Africa, and Bank of England are also experimenting in this sphere. So far, these projects have either concluded that DLT technology is not a good fit, or they have significantly scaled back the use of DLT.
Ironically, a surveillance-focused CBDC could be the thing that defeats bitcoin as 'dissident tech'
But some central banks have now begun projects that may issue digital payment tokens. The earliest project, the Venezuelan Petro, is of questionable legitimacy given the fractured government support for it. The next generation includes more credible projects, including ones from the Bahamas (Project Sand Dollar), China (Digital Yuan), Sweden (e-krona), and Uruguay (e-Peso). Central bankers are uniform in referencing these projects as Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) and not as cryptocurrencies (or statecoins) for a very specific reason.
The Central Bank consensus is that decentralization is not a desirable property in a CBDC as it could aid tax avoidance and enable criminal payment systems. Therefore, while they recognize digital money may be an improvement over physical money, a central bank designed digital currency will not resemble a decentralized cryptocurrency. Planned CBDCs are not bitcoin-but-issued-by-the-government. They are more like credit-cards-but-issued-by-the-government, where your transactions can be tracked, examined and linked to your taxpayer-identity.
A CBDC project does not need to be decentralized to differentiate itself from current central bank policies in the manner that some desire. A monetary policy with negative interest rates would simply require disallowing all alternative money forms. Savings accounts at central banks do not require a digital payment token at all. A CBDC is not a requirement for a multinational currency (the Euro is a multinational currency, and the US dollar is accepted in transactions globally). If the intention is government surveillance coupling taxpayer ID with transactions, a decentralized CBDC that allows anyone to join without permission or barriers would never be installed. Ironically, a surveillance-focused CBDC could be the thing that defeats bitcoin as dissident tech, as it could make it impossible to buy-in or cash-out of the system undetected.
The main difference between Libra and bitcoin is that one is centralized while the other is not. The main difference between Libra and a CBDC is that one is a digital transaction token issued by a private company, while the other is issued by a government. There are powerful arguments on all sides as to which project type represents the best (or worst) type of digital money. What we need to realize going into 2020 is that those debates were not the debates legislators and regulators were having in 2019 when discussing Libra. To them, Libra and bitcoin are both cryptocurrencies because we have not provided more precise, differentiating language. At the moment, it appears that this lack of distinction will continue unabated in 2020, when various governments begin to test and perhaps even issue the next generation of CBDCs.
The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.
Read the original post:
What Is a Cryptocurrency? We Need Clearer Definitions - Coindesk
Cryptocurrency This Week: YouTube Removes Crypto Videos; Russia Bomb Threats Over A Bitcoin Fraud And More – Inc42 Media
Malls and courts in St Petersburg were evacuated over a wave of bomb threats related to a Bitcoin fraud
Bitcoin marks 100% growth this year
After Indians lost billions in Bitcoin-based MLM schemes, Kenyans lose KES 2.7 Bn ($27 Mn) In NuruCoin scam
As 2019 comes to an end, when compared to 2018, the year has been better for cryptocurrencies especially Bitcoin in multiple ways despite multiple scams through the year and cases of fraud involving cryptocurrency. Bitcoin started the year at around $3.6K and went on attain, if not the all-time $19.5K, $14K on July 10, this year.
At the time of writing the cryptocurrency is trading at $7.3K, and if the price remains so, Bitcoin will exit the year, marking over 100% growth, this year.
10 years and on, while the dark knight of the dark web, remains the undisputed king among all the cryptocurrencies, stable coins, according to many, may beat Bitcoin in the near future.
Can Facebooks Libra whose unveiling created a lot of buzz this year be that stable coin? Facebooks Libra is slated for July 15 release. However, for Libra to rise to the challenge, first needs to get approval from regulatory authorities across the world which looking at the current scenario may not be easier as Facebooks founder Mark Zuckerberg might have thought.
Barring Libra which will be controlled by Libra Association, cryptocurrencies, based on public blockchains, have been known for their democratic approach. However, we are also aware of how big whales and Ripple developers have influenced various cryptocurrencies and Ripple tokens in the past.
According to a Chinese research report, about 45,000 BTC ($302 Mn) and 800,000 ETH ($102 Mn) were sent by steering pockets of PlusToken to individual addresses that are owned by the frauds themselves. And as a result, 20,000 BTC which is worth over $134 Mn is about to be disposed of. Freezing such large amount of cryptocurrencies that were obtained inappropriately is capable of bringing down the costs of cryptocurrency, said the report.
Last week, Ripple raised Series C funding worth $200 Mn. While the company will use this fund to improve its global payments and to broaden the utility of the digital asset XRP and the XRP Ledger, Tone Vays, a former Wall Street trader and VP of JP Morgan Chase has a starkly different view. In an interview, Vays stated, I think XRP should be in very serious trouble. I want to understand why Ripple is doing a fundraise the Ripple token now more or less act as a security of the Ripple corporation. And I think the people who created it should be held accountable. Everything about Ripple token is bad.
I usually dont like people getting arrested, but if the senior management of Ripple gets arrested Ill actually be happy. Vays
On December 24, VC Chris Dunn who has 210K subscribers on Youtube complained on Twitter that most of his videos pertaining to cryptocurrencies have been taken down by Youtube. He tweeted,
YouTube just removed most of my crypto videos citing harmful or dangerous content and sale of regulated goods,' Dunn wrote, adding hes been making videos on the platform for 10 years and built up 200,000 subs and 7 million views.
Soon it appeared that not only Dunn but a large number of other YouTubers were also affected by the takedowns. Cryptopotate has compiled the list of affected Youtubers.
Responding to the criticism, a Youtube spokesperson stated that the videos were taken down by mistake. The spokesperson said,
With the massive volume of videos on our site, sometimes we make the wrong call. When its brought to our attention that a video has been removed mistakenly, we act quickly to reinstate it. We also offer uploaders the ability to appeal removals and we will re-review the content.
Dunn, in another tweet, has now confirmed that all his videos have been reinstated.
NuruCoin, a Kenyan cryptocurrency which became quite popular in 2018 through its multi-level-marketing has suddenly shut its shop after raising KES 2.7 Bn ($27 Mn) from investors.
According to reports, approximately 11K investors had participated in NuruCoin initial coin offering which was organised by ChurchBlaze. All the ChurchBlaze offices across the above towns have been closed including their main office in a Nairobi suburb, according to reports.
Blockchain Association Kenya along with other organisations has now released a joint statement in order to raise awareness about cryptocurrencies and its differences from Ponzi schemes.
Earlier this week, schools, courts and malls in Russias largest city St Petersburg were evacuated over bomb threats emails screenshots circulated in Russian News Media. Sent from anonymous addresses, senders claimed to had planted bombs across various places and demanded $870K worth of Bitcoin, supposedly stolen from the defunct cryptocurrency exchange WEX, reported Coindesk.
Its not the first time such emails were circulated, in fact since November, there has been a wave of similar email threats with senders accusing Russian businessman Konstantin Malofeyev of Bitcoin fraud. Malofeyev is reportedly under international sanctions over the Ukraine conflict. According to allegations, Malofeyev had stolen $120 Bitcoins from WEX, a now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange.
Message from our partner
Ian Balina, The Controversial Face Of Cryptocurrency – Nasdaq
Ian Balina, a native of Uganda, Africa, is the founder and CEO ofToken Metrics, is Kiana Danials guest today on Invest Divas Diva on the Block.
Ian Balina someone who lost 2.5 million dollars while streaming live on youtube, is one of the most recognized and probably the most controversial personalities in the crypto community. He left behind his data analytics and IT jobs at companies like Deloitte and IBM to become a full-time crypto investor and researcher.
In this episode of Diva On The Block Ian and Kiana talk about:
His journey from Uganda, to the US Why he quit his secure job at IBM to work full time in crypto Why he focuses on ICOs and how he manages his risk His thoughts on transparency How he and his team are using AI, machine learning and data analytics to create investment strategies, and whether hes just using these words as a buzz word, or theyre actually using it I also chat with him about his upcoming project, Token Metrics, an investment, research, and media platform to take cryptocurrency investing mainstream.
After you watch the video,go to the comment sectionand let me know what you think of my discussion with Ian Balina and his new mission with Token Metrics.
Ian immigrated to the United States with his family at eight years old. He attended middle school and high school in the USA and would go on to attend The George Washington University (GWU) in Washington, D.C. on an academic merit scholarship. He would graduate GWU with a Bachelors and Masters in Computer Engineering.
Title:Influential Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Investor, Advisor, and Evangelist, and the Founder/CEO of Token MetricsWebsite:https://ianbalina.com/Linkedin:https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianbalina/Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/ianbalina/Twitter:https://twitter.com/DiaryofaMadeMan(138.5k followers)Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/diaryofamademan/
While at GWU, he got the entrepreneur bug and founded his first startup, Leximo, the worlds first social dictionary. After working on Leximo, he went on to work as an independent software developer, then as an IT consultant for Deloitte, the worlds largest consulting firm.
Ian later joined IBM as an Analytics Tech Evangelist, where he helped evangelize and sell the IBM Cloud and Big Data Analytics Portfolio in North America. Ian helped drive revenues in the millions of dollars per year. He was recognized as one of IBMs top employees by being a member of the IBM Hundred Percent Club, due to achieving more than 100% of his million-dollar sales quota. After four years with IBM, he retired from the corporate world to become a full-time cryptocurrency investor.
Ian Balina is also an influential Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Investor, Advisor, and Evangelist. He has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, CNBC, Huffington Post, The Street, INC and Entrepreneur Magazine for his work in analytics, cryptocurrencies, and entrepreneurship.
According to TheRichest.com, Mr. Balinas net worth is $6 million dollars
Ian started Diary of a Made Man, his video diary of his journal in life and in crypto investing. He became one of the worlds most prolific ICO influencers in 2017 while growing his portfolio from $37,000 to $5.36 million by January 2018. In April 2018, Ian Balina fell off his perch after sustaining a hack of his personal wallets in which he lost almost $2.5 million.
Ian is a founder and General Partner at 100X Advisors, a global blockchain investment and advisory firm,. The firm has made 15 investments in 15 different countries in the last year. He has brought a data-driven, money-ball approach to investing in blockchain startups, called Token Metrics.
Token Metrics is a data-driven cryptocurrency investment research platform that helps retail investors leverage analytics and machine learning to become better investors.
The BTC/USD pas remained below the dailyIchimoku cloud. It now appears to have bottomed out just above the key support level of $6,406.
The pair may even be in the process of forming aDouble Bottom bullish reversal chart pattern.
However, the bearish momentum still appears to be strong. A break below this key support level could open doors to further declines. Could Bitcoin reach the $4,000 again?
What do you think about Ian Balina and his controversial background? Do you think hes a scammer out there to get people? Or do you think he truly has the best interest of people in mind?
Go to thevideos comments sectionand let me know.
This article was originally published on InvestDiva.com.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
Go here to read the rest:
Ian Balina, The Controversial Face Of Cryptocurrency - Nasdaq
How To Really Help Free North Koreans Through Crypto – Forbes
A few weeks ago, the FBI arrested an Alabama-born computer programmer for allegedly helping the North Korean regime evade U.S. sanctions through blockchain technology. According to the indictment, Ethereum developer Virgil Griffith provided technical education at an April 2019 blockchain conference in Pyongyang run by the regime. He also reportedly conspired to send cryptocurrency between North Korea and South Korea and encouraged other Americans to attend another Pyongyang blockchain conference scheduled for 2020.
Many prominent voices in the crypto space condemn Griffiths actions, but there has been sympathy in some corners from those who echo Griffiths line of thinking: He argued that spreading knowledge about blockchain and crypto could help bring peace to the Korean peninsula.
Such thinking is illogical. And it is blind to the nature of the Kim Jong Un regime, the actual nuclear threat, and the high stakes involved in the conflict. North Korea is the worlds most controlled society. Giving its ruling elites new capabilities to circumvent sanctions only helps them better enrich themselves. It increases their stranglehold on power and makes the regime more recalcitrant toward diplomatic engagement. The North Korean people have continued to suffer for decades precisely because sophisticated sanctions evasion schemes help the regime fill its coffers and, thus, maintain the status quo.
If blockchain enthusiasts want financial technology to help liberate those living under oppressive governments, there is a much better way: Assist those who are actually working to uplift and empower those who are truly oppressed. There are many organizations that provide humanitarian aid to the everyday North Korean suffering under the regime.
Cryptocurrencies could play a role in supporting such efforts. And it may not require more than simple collaboration between interested parties in both the crypto space and the NGO community. They should work together to create a campaign for cryptocurrency charitable giving that supports non-profit organizations that rescue North Korean refugees. And it could be done in a way that regulators approve.
International charitable giving is a multi-billion dollar industry, but most of those donations flow into opaque infrastructures where donors are blind to the real-time funding streams of the organizations they support. Blockchain technologys defining features are the transparency of its ledger and the ability to more efficiently transfer value across borders. Donations via cryptocurrencyif orchestrated via credible exchanges and NGOscould bring transparency to donations and widen the pool of givers to many causes.
The following is how such a campaign could work, using the example of a hypothetical donor concerned about helping the North Korean people:
A donor would visit a cryptocurrency exchange website that has partnered with an international charity, such as Liberty in North Korea, which helps North Koreans escape the country to nations that provide asylum (Note: China is no safe haven because authorities there send escapees back to North Korea, where they often are punished severely). Any participating charity that aides North Korean escapees will need to make sure it strictly observes all sanctions guidelines. And the exchange should be a well-established business that has transparent ownership and maintains the highest standards in anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance.
In this campaign, once the user opens up an account at the exchange, he or she would then be given access to provide cryptocurrency funds to a specific Rescue North Koreans wallet. That wallet would belong to the charity. The donations could be set up as one-time or recurring. The wallet address would be visible on the blockchain, so the donor could see the balance of funds and the wallets ongoing activity.
This would be the backbone of a cryptocurrency charity campaign arrangement between exchanges, NGOs, and donors. But additional services could be built upon it. Developers could add third-party applications that offer deeper analysis of the transaction flows for participating charities. And charities could set up wallets for different operations and show when wallet funds are cashed out into regular currency. The cash out wallets should be specified and verifiable on the blockchain.
Of course these measures would not shine much light on how charities use their funds after cashing out, but the real-time insight gained into donations would provide much more accountability than current funding systems. At the same time, all this data transparency should not risk donor privacy. As with most custodial wallets at exchanges, a users originating wallet should be held within the internal wallet structure of the exchange so public blockchain analysis could not unmask individual donors.
The cypher-punks of crypto may not be interested in such a proposal. It lacks the danger and intrigue of venturing to Pyongyang in defiance of the U.S. State Department. It would be a practical use-case, taking advantage of the technology as it is available already to millions of people. It could bring new donors to legitimate organizations reaching the isolated and vulnerable.
A well-regulated cryptocurrency crowdfunding campaign would actually support long-standing U.S. foreign policy goals of pressuring the Kim regime and helping those who flee it. Also, the visibility into funding flows would assist tax authorities and other financial regulators in better understanding the financial landscape of tax-exempt organizations. In conventional finance, authorities rely mostly on self-reporting by nonprofits and financial institutions. Cryptocurrency donations would help regulators, trust, but verify.
Some cryptocurrency enthusiasts actually argue that crypto is most valuable for breaking laws and social constructs. It seems they have a point when much initial adoption involves illicit use. But early crypto use and its image have been shaped more by opportunism than any intrinsic nature of the technology. And the worldview of blockchain programmers like Griffith has driven the opportunities they have sought. Perhaps they have not found practical ways to help the world because they have not been involved in solving the worlds non-technological problems.
Opportunistic illicit use of cryptocurrency is not going away. So those in the crypto space who want to build legitimacy should spend more time away from the virtual space to see how the real world is working. Many people who are trying to bring freedom, economic empowerment, and good governance to those who need it could use their help.
More:
How To Really Help Free North Koreans Through Crypto - Forbes
The Dividing of Bitcoin to shake markets of cryptocurrency – Market Research Sheets
/This post was originally published on Market Research Sheets/
If you were not following the problems experienced by Bitcoin in the preceding years, then you probably, lack a clue of what is happening now or later. Next year, Bitcoin will split its formation of cryptocurrency by 50 percent. This is known as halving.
As the definition goes, cryptocurrency is any currency, which occurs online and works without a central bank. Bitcoin is one of such currencies.
No single person or group has the regulation of the halving method since it is a guideline written into the computer of Bitcoin by its inventor, Satoshi Nakamoto. It was formed more than ten years ago.
The occasion anticipates taking place in May next year (2020). The amount of the new bitcoins will go through a split of exactly 50 percent and then given to Bitcoin extractors. These extractors form the worlds distribution of cryptocurrency by cracking tough questions and expressions of mathematics.
The splitting displays a massive transition in the market, which is worth $120 billion. In each
This post was originally published on Market Research Sheets
Read more at The Dividing of Bitcoin to shake markets of cryptocurrency
View post:
The Dividing of Bitcoin to shake markets of cryptocurrency - Market Research Sheets
The $3 Bilion Bitcoin Dump Isnt Going to Happen – newsBTC
At the heights of last years so-called hash war, Bitcoin SV founder Craig Wright had threatened to crash rival cryptocurrency bitcoin to $1,000.
The threat itself came from the claim that Mr. Wright is Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of bitcoin and that he holds billions of dollars worth of the benchmark cryptocurrency. Mr. Wright even sued people who refused to acknowledge him as the original bitcoin creator.
But the clock turned when he himself got sued for being 50 percent Satoshi. Ira Kleiman, brother of late Dave Kleiman who allegedly helped Mr. Wright mint the first batch of bitcoin, accused him of stealing Daves share of 1 million BTC.
The US court found Mr. Wright guilty. It ordered him to pay half of the BTC valued about $5 billion at the time of judgment back to Mr. Ira. Mr. Wright told the court that he and Late Mr. Dave had locked that bitcoin in a complicated trust. He said he could not retrieve the cryptocurrency anymore.
However, in an interview he gave later to Modern Consensus, Mr. Wright kept theorizing what Mr. Ira could do if he gains access to 1 million BTC.
They might have to convince Ira not to dump it, he told the interviewer. I cant convince him not to dump it. Ira has to do what Ira has to do. And it wouldnt have been me. And I dont need it. He does.
Mr. Wright never refuted the existence of the trust that apparently holds 1.1 million BTC. Nevertheless, he is adamant about not having any access to the private keys to those coins.
With a court order hanging by his neck, the market doubts that Mr. Wright might sell whatever bitcoin he currently holds (supposedly a large amount). He proclaimed after the courts ruling against him that Mr. Ira alone could tank the bitcoin market by $2-3 billion.
If youd left me alone, I would have sat on my f*cking money and you wouldnt have to worry, Mr. Wright said. And the biggest whale ever has to dump because he has to pay tax. Its not a transfer. Florida has an estate tax. Trust me. This is not an outcome I would have liked.
But to this date, Mr. Wright has not paid a penny to either Mr. Ira nor his legal counsels as ordered by the US court. In the last hearing held on December 18, Mr. Wrights lawyers played offense with Mr. Ira, questioning how he managed to pay $400,000 in cash for his home right after his brothers demise.
When Mr. Wright threatened to crash Bitcoin to $1,000 in November 2018, it appeared as he had a huge stash of the cryptocurrency. But since the court ruling, he is not making such threats.
In his latest interview with Bloomberg, Mr. Wright said he does not want to dump his Bitcoin fortune because the move would hurt many people in the industry.
The sum of all events leaves the market with two potential outcomes: Either Mr. Wright has about $3 billion worth of Bitcoin or he doesnt. If the controversial Satoshi has the money, he is bluffing about not having them. And if he does not have the money, he is straightforwardly lying.
The conclusion narrows down to one thing: that $3 billion-dump is not going to happen, after all. One bear at a time!
Visit link:
The $3 Bilion Bitcoin Dump Isnt Going to Happen - newsBTC
Googles YouTube Goes To War With Bitcoin And Crypto – Forbes
Google's relationship with bitcoin and cryptocurrency has long been fraught but it has apparently just taken a turn for the worse.
The search giant previously banned bitcoin and cryptocurrency ads, knocking the bitcoin price, before deciding to allow them again in September last year after three-month block.
Now, Google has decided to remove hundreds of bitcoin and cryptocurrency videos from its video-sharing site YouTube in what's being called a "crypto-purge"leaving many who make bitcoin and cryptocurrency-related videos feeling unfairly targeted by the search giant.
Google's YouTube video-sharing platform is the world's biggest video website, with 300 hours of ... [+] content on everything, including bitcoin and cryptocurrency, uploaded every minute.
The YouTube crypto-purge appears to only be targeting smaller channels and publishers, with crypto-related videos from the likes of bitcoin and crypto news outlet CoinTelegraph and U.S. business news publisher CNBC escaping the cull.
One YouTuber Chris Dunn, who has some 210,000 subscribers on the platform, asked YouTube for an explanation via Twitter.
"YouTube just removed most of my crypto videos citing 'harmful or dangerous content' and 'sale of regulated goods,'" Dunn wrote, adding he's been making videos on the platform for 10 years and built up 200,000 subs and 7 million views.
The number of videos targeted by Google's YouTube is well into the hundreds and "growing fast."
Some in the bitcoin and cryptocurrency industry have vowed to challenge the decision.
"YouTube deleting all Crypto content is a massive blow to the industry," Ran NeuNer, host of the CryptoTrader show on CNBC Africa, said via Twitter.
"YouTube is the go to place for educational video and the first port of call for new people entering the ecosystem to learn the basics. As a community we should challenge this formally."
Meanwhile, others have been searching for a reason for the purge, finding YouTube's citing of "harmful and dangerous content" unsatisfactory.
"So far Alphabet [Google's parent company] has made no attempt to explain the reasons for the culling," Mati Greenspan, the founder of research group Quantum Economics, wrote in a note.
"The first instinct that many had was that perhaps they're trying to protect the consumer from scams. However, this wouldn't make much sense given that Google and Facebook have already had a crypto advertising ban last year that has long since been reversed, likely due to regulatory clarity in the U.S. where it was found that bitcoin and ethereum are neither securities nor scams."
Greenspan added he is now "officially boycotting YouTube" due to the crypto-purge.
Google, along with the likes of social media giant Facebook, has been increasingly looking to financial services to bolster advertisement revenue in recent years, with public opinion moving against ad-funded business models.
Last month, Google, in partnership with U.S. banking giant Citigroup, said it's planning to launch its own fully-fledged "smart checking" bank accounts via Google Paypiling pressure on bitcoin developers to improve user experienceandadoption or face redundancy.
Meanwhile, the bitcoin price has climbed this year,largely due to interest in bitcoin and crypto from the world's biggest technology companieswith others,including the likes of iPhone-maker Apple and online retailer Amazon, branching out into traditional financial services.
The bitcoin price has stagnated recently after surging higher earlier in the year though it remains ... [+] around double where it began 2019.
Google's decision to take action against bitcoin and cryptocurrency-related content on YouTube has caused some to call for an alternative.
"It may be time the crypto community take a stab at its own blockchain-enabled censorship-resistant social media platform," Changpeng Zhao, the founder and chief executive of bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange Binance, said via Twitter.
Original post:
Googles YouTube Goes To War With Bitcoin And Crypto - Forbes
Top five cryptocurrency guides of 2019 – Yahoo Finance
Whether youre new to cryptocurrency or an experienced trader with years of experience, our guides offer you insights, tips, and support.
Below, we take a look at our readers favourite cryptocurrency guides from 2019.
Our readers favourite cryptocurrency guide from 2019 was all about predicting Bitcoins future value. This guide covers how to use a stock-to-flow model as an effective analysis tool for future predictions.
According to the stock-to-flow model, traders could see Bitcoins price mooning around the next halving event. Discover what the model is, how to use it, and how it can inform your trading decisions.
This cryptocurrency guide has proved popular with our readers who are new to buying Bitcoin. With details about how to keep your Bitcoin secure, this guide explains what a private key is, how it works, and why its important that you never share your private key with someone else.
Your private key is essential for securing your Bitcoin. By losing it, or giving it away, you lose access to your wallet and by default your cryptocurrency. Whoever gains access to your private key would control your wallet and coins.
Read this guide to find out how to protect your private key.
Now that the cryptocurrency industry is well established, it seems that there are more newcomers than ever before. Whether they want to start trading or if theyre simply showing an interest in different coins, What is a cryptocurrency? still remains one of the biggest questions asked.
This guide gives you all the answers you need. It explains what a cryptocurrency is, provides a brief history of the industry, and gives an introduction to blockchain the underlying technology powering crypto.
If youre looking for a comprehensive introduction to cryptocurrency without a focus on specific coins, this is the guide for you.
If youre looking to get into trading or if youre looking to enhance your trading abilities, this cryptocurrency guide will help you on your way.
The ultimate key to trading is risk management and choosing the right time to buy, but using tools will help to inform your trading decisions.
Some tools help you to compare orders across exchanges to assess the overall confidence in the market. Take a look at which trading tools you should be using and how they can assist your trading performance.
The over-the-counter trading industry is one thats easily misunderstood. Thats why this is one of our most popular cryptocurrency guides. It explains the OTC procedure, how buy and sell orders are fulfilled, and what role escrow agents play in the trading process.
Discover whether or not OTC deals affect the price on exchanges, how the rate of discounts can be impacted, and whether or not the OTC market can give you any insights into market sentiment.
The post Top five cryptocurrency guides of 2019 appeared first on Coin Rivet.
Read the original:
Top five cryptocurrency guides of 2019 - Yahoo Finance
Cryptocurrency is a tool for speculation not an investment – The Globe and Mail
Dan Hallett is vice-president and principal of Highview Financial Group
I have often criticized the investment industry for pumping out products designed to sell rather than build wealth for investors. I have also worked to raise investor awareness of how gimmicky products destroy wealth. The battle against such products took a step backward recently with an Ontario Securities Commission panels decision to allow the launch of a bitcoin investment fund.
The OSCs Investment Funds Branch was initially opposed to the fund; citing several concerns pertaining to public interests. The panels decision document clearly lays out the OSCs legal limits when it comes to approving products that are considered risky and speculative. Ultimately, the panel concluded that the fund will be able to reliably value the funds assets, secure the holdings (from hacks/theft) and complete a full financial audit.
Story continues below advertisement
Many look to bitcoin and other assets such as gold and other commodities to provide diversification from traditional financial assets. An investment must meet two basic conditions for it to effectively diversify a portfolio. First, it must be weakly correlated with other investments. Second, it must produce a positive return. Bitcoin passes the first test with flying colours. But the second a positive return is quite a leap of faith, and violates the warning attached to virtually all investment products.
Regulators have long required every investment fund prospectus to be stamped with a statement reminding investors that past performance is no indication of the future. And yet, it seems that any assumption that bitcoin offers portfolio diversification is implicitly based on bitcoins performance during its one decade in existence. This is a drop in the bucket of financial market history. But there are two problems with this assumption.
First, we have no idea even using history how bitcoin will behave in a recession, financial crisis or bear market. History can be useful to gauge behavioural patterns and worst-case scenarios. But bitcoin hasnt existed through any such environment.
Second, by claiming that bitcoin can diversify portfolios, I wonder what basis is used for assuming positive future returns. As I stated for a Globe and Mail article on the panels decision:
We design client portfolios to achieve a specific goal a specific long-term return target. I can take each component of the portfolio and give you a very good ballpark estimate of how each piece will contribute to achieving that long-term goal. I have no idea how anyone can do this with bitcoin or any cryptocurrency. It cant be done.
We have designed an algorithm to forecast long-term asset-class returns. (The method is summarized in a 2012 blog post and has been pretty accurate.) But bitcoin doesnt fit into this or any other sensible model that facilitates a confident return forecast. Im certainly not comfortable blindly relying on 10 years of data to form any type of future return expectation; particularly since that decade overlapped a very long economic recovery and bull market.
Bitcoin and other crypto or digital currencies are likely to have a future. And blockchain technology seems destined to change some industries e.g., the way we handle legal documents. But investment assets require fundamental characteristics upon which to base some value assessment and, in turn, return expectations. In the absence of such characteristics, buying bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies either for attractive returns or portfolio diversification is speculating not investing.
Go here to see the original:
Cryptocurrency is a tool for speculation not an investment - The Globe and Mail