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Needham: Outlook For Bitcoin ETF Approval Remains Unchanged – CoinDesk

February 13, 2017 | Author: admin

As one of the more high-profile bitcoin ETF efforts edges closer to possible approval, analyst Needham & Co has released a deeper look at the factors that could influence the US Securities and Exchange Commission'sdecision on the matter.

Published Friday, the report doesn't go so far as to alter its outlook for the Winklevoss Bitcoin ETF, positioning its odds of approval at below 25% while continuing to state strongly that any positive outcome would be a substantial boon for the technology.

Perhaps most notably, however, the report offers a wider lens-look at three investment vehicles vying for the title of 'first bitcoin ETF' (including those by startups SolidX and Grayscale Investments), ultimately concluding that none have a substantially better or worse chance of being given the green light by the SEC.

"While there are some interesting differences between the various filings, we dont see any differentiations that drastically increase the probability of one filing over another," the report reads.

Needham goes on to state that it believes the unfamiliarity of bitcoin and the SEC's emphasis on consumer protection is likely to be the biggest hurdle.

"Our sense is that the latter group (questions about bitcoin itself) is the bigger hurdle to SEC approval of a bitcoin ETF," it continues.

In further commentary, Needham said it believes the market is now more realistic about the changes of approval. It cited changes to a contract on a cryptocurrency exchange that enables traders to speculate on the ETF decision. (As reported by CoinDesk, eager traders have largely already built this forecast into their trading strategies). Ultimately, the firm said, the thin trading in the markets coupled with the relative lack of changes to the Winklevoss ETF in a recent filing were both cited as reasons why it was reluctant to change its outlook.

For more details, read the full report below:

Bitcoin ETF - Digging Deeper on Probability and Potential Effect (1) by Pete Rizzo on Scribd

Disclaimer:CoinDesk is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, the owner of Grayscale Investments.

Piggy bank image via Shutterstock

Bitcoin ETFPrices

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Tips for navigating the cryptocurrency maze during a divorce – TropicNow

February 13, 2017 | Author: admin

Cryptocurrencies are quickly becoming a weapon for many divorcees, according to Financial Times contributor Jane Croft.

The relative anonymity of these currencies provides divorcing parties with a clever way to hide assets allowing them to avoid full disclosure of their monetary property. What should you keep in mind about these currencies when heading into divorce conversations?

Remember to specifically ask about cryptocurrencies Knowing that cryptocurrencies can play a part in your divorce settlement is half the battle. Make sure to ask about them specifically from the onset.

Try to trace the money The fact is, divorcees with money in cryptocurrencies will not always be upfront with these assets.

When possible, try to track the money trail. While the movements of actual cryptocurrencies aren't easily traceable, the conversion of regular assets into these online assets will leave clues try to pinpoint them as proof.

Enlist the help of professionals Dealing with the legalities of these currencies is complex at best. You should enlist the help of experienced lawyers to ensure you are dealing with the existence of online assets as effectively as possible.

Bitcoins: What and how?

So what even is cryptocurrency? The most common version comes in the form of Bitcoins. According to the Oxford Dictionary, Bitcoin is:

"A type of digital currency in which encryption techniques are used to regulate the generation of units of currency and verify the transfer of funds, operating independently of a central bank."

Dealing with online currencies and the division of assets in a divorce settlement is a process that should involve the help of experts.

Here at WGC we have a team of lawyers that can help you navigate these murky waters to ensure you are getting your fair share during your divorce settlement cryptocurrencies or not.

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Swiss Company Lykke Offers Forward Contract with 20% Discount on Cryptocurrency – Crowdfund Insider

February 13, 2017 | Author: admin

Lykke, a Zurich-based Fintech firm that wants to become the worlds first regulated marketplace built on cryptographic technology is offering a one-year forward contract on a bespoke cryptocurrency or Lykke Coin with a 20% discount. Announced last week, Lykke basically will provide a 20% discount on the cryptocurrency if you hold it for a whole year.

The forward contract operates pretty much like other forward contracts except Lykke says it will offer settlement at the run instead of only at the settlement date. The limited offer started on February 9th and continues to February 2th if you are interested. Lykke intends on selling up to 50 million coins with an issue price of CHF 0.04 per coin so an estimated raise of CHF 2 million. Lykke Coins are registered on blockchain and 100 Lykke Coins are said to be entitled to 1 Lykke share.

Lykke is the creation of Richard Olsen who first founded OANDA in 1996, a retail broker serving over 100,000 retail trading clients worldwide. Lykke originally raised USD $ 2.8 million in 2015. Lykke says it is applying to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK for an investment firm license to provide a multilateral trading facility and to offer a non-exchange financial trading venue as part of a broader aim of establishing the worlds first crypto-marketplace offering trade execution on a range of financial instruments.

PhotoJohn Cassidy The Headshot Guywww.theheadshotguy.co.uk07768 401009

Lykke Chief Business Development Officer, Demetrios Zamboglou, commented on the announcement that genuine change in financial services can only be achieved via robust technology that serves everyone better;

rather than just its gatekeepers. Lykke is committed to creating a means for anyone to conduct financial transactions and store their assets in secure digital blockchains, secured from any single authority or counterparty, said Zamboglou. Blockchain-powered crypto-currencies are actively demonstrating their superiority over the fiat-paper status-quo, for so long the bastion of big banks. Blockchain technology is here to show financial services as a sector that there is a better way, and theres no turning back.

Lykke believes its selling-point is better security with a centralized matching engine and decentralized immediate settlement, and an open-source approach to typically closed-loop systems that dominate financial services transactions today.

In the history of Financial Services, it has always been a requirement to have deep pockets to operate on a level playing field. With Lykke, the only requirement to enter a level playing field is an internet connection, stated Lykke founder and CEO, Richard Olsen.

Lykke has already gone public on its own exchange and is said to be building enterprise-scale solutions for large financial institutions. Lykke is also a member of the Hyperledger project.

Lykke has also formed a partnership with ChronoBank to allow users to trade ChronoBanks tokens for other currencies frictionlessly. ChronoBank is in the midst of a crowdfunding round having raised over $4 million in Bitcoin. The Australian Fintech firm is creating a decentralized marketplace, named LaborX, where people can sell labor hours to anyone anywhere. ChronoBank.io wants to totally disrupt HR/Recruitment and finance industries just how Uber is crushing taxis.

. Bookmark the

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Tech giant Oracle makes huge investment to bring cloud services to Australia – The Australian Financial Review

February 13, 2017 | Author: admin

US technology giant Oracle is poised tounveil a major investment in its Australian operations, setting up its cloud platform and infrastructure services in the country as part of a global push to try and compete with the likes of Amazon Web Services, Google and Microsoft in selling computing power.

Oracle already sells cloud-based software products in Australia, but previously any local customers wanting to use Oracle to provideits computing capacity or run its applications would have had it hosted overseas.

Recently appointed Oracle Australia and New Zealand managing director Rob Willis declined to say how much it was costing to set up its own data centre infrastructure in Australia, but conceded it was a "huge" investment, which the company felt was necessary in order to expand its local presence and pick up new customers in small and medium-sized operations.

The company has recently faced accusations from rivals, such as cloud software provider Workday, that it has failed to genuinely embrace the cloud computing era, but Mr Willis told The Australian Financial Review the decision to base its services in Australia showed it was going "all in".

"If you are going to open up something like this you have to get to a certain point and that investment is huge," he said.

"You have to secure the facility, then you have to ship in a whole bunch of hardware andpeople to put it alltogether beforeloading in all the software and makingit work. So it is a huge investment, butwe have found elsewhere that what we get back from making that investment is worth it."

Last month Oracle announced it was expanding its cloud services globally, with new regions in North America and EMEA, but the move into Australia will enable it to target the large number of potential clients, which still refuse to have their data hosted offshore due to data sovereignty concerns.

In setting up in Australia, Oracle is going someway to match market leader AWS and Microsoft, which has local data centres for its Azure cloud, and is ahead of Google's Compute offering, which is due to set up in Sydney this year.

Oracle's Australian data centre isbased in Sydney and is already operational, rather than building its own data centre, it is working with a specialist provider, which it declined to name.

Mr Willis said that, while there remained some customers that were unwilling to move to the cloud, the vast majority wanted to and had been waiting for Oracle to make this move. While the company has traditionally attracted larger enterprises for its database systems and products, the software as a service (SaaS) model, where companies pay for usage on subscription has opened up the market to customers of all sizes.

"One of the most exciting things about the cloud is that it meets the typical requirements of our large customers, but also generatesinterest from smaller and medium-sized companies, who wantthe benefits of enterprise style infrastructure," he said.

"We are now veryfocused on trying to do a better job of addressing those customers."

Last week the local boss of one of the company's principal rivals for the medium-sized SaaS clients, Workday, said it was taking market share off Oracle and SAP rapidly, and accused the two older companies of putting modern interfaces on the top of creaking old systems.

Whereas Workday was founded in the cloud era, it was accusing Oracle of seeking to hold on to the past where companies paid more money to have all their software and technology run on their own premises - something Mr Willis refuted.

"There is no doubt that Oracle has a huge history of building software and doing things on-premise,but at the same time there is no doubt that that is shifting very rapidly into being a company where everything it does is cloud first," hesaid.

"Our history is in the on-premise world, but we are in a massive transition and transformation, which is rapidly approaching the stage where we say we are just a cloud company."

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Salesforce Research Reveals Keys to Exceptional Customer Service – CIO Today

February 13, 2017 | Author: admin

Armed with technologies that give them on-the-go access to a world of information, day or night, people today expect fast, smart and responsive service from the companies they do business with. And if they don't get it, they'll take their business elsewhere -- and fast, according to new research from customer relationship management (CRM ) giant Salesforce.

Based on responses from 2,600 customer service professionals across the globe, Salesforce's second annual "State of Service" report identifies four key trends driving the customer experiences expected from companies today.

These trends include a new, company-wide focus on customer experience; an expanding range of tools and technologies for customer service agents; a new view of customer service as an opportunity for sales rather than as a cost center; and the growing use of artificial intelligence and other smart technologies to provide more "human" interactions with customers.

Such changes are helping customers and service professionals alike to become more knowledgeable and more empowered in the decisions they make, according to the Salesforce report. And companies that make the most of these trends are gaining competitive advantages, while companies that don't risk falling behind.

Customers Expect Service Consistency

"Customer experience has become the defining line between companies that grow and companies that fall behind," Adam Blitzer, Salesforce's executive vice president and general manager of sales and service clouds, said in a statement accompanying the release of the report.

In fact, customer service today is no longer just confined to a company's customer service team, the report noted. Every part of a business, from service and sales to marketing and beyond, plays a role in the customer experience, and the highest-performing organizations are those that do this best.

"High performers are more focused on improving service and support through enterprise collaboration," according to the Salesforce report, which added that this approach is taken by 80 percent of top teams, compared to just 45 percent of those deemed underperformers. "Top service teams are 3.4x more likely than underperformers to excel at connecting and collaborating across departments to drive a cohesive customer journey."

Providing consistent service to customers, no matter which part of the company they're dealing with, is especially important considering how easy it now is for consumers and business buyers to take their purchasing power elsewhere. According to the report, 69 percent of consumers and 82 percent of business buyers say their loyalty to a company is influenced to a moderate or major degree by how personalized the service is that they receive.

Predictive AI Enables More 'Human' CRM

For businesses, providing such personalized service is becoming easier, thanks to emerging technologies for smarter, more predictive customer relationship management, the Salesforce report found.

"While it might sound counterintuitive to say 'use technology to be more engaging in your service,' that's exactly the mindset of forward-thinking teams," the report stated. "Rather than replace human contact, AI [artificial intelligence] enhances the experience by adding humanlike intelligence to interactions."

For example, CRM tools with smart analytics can "listen" to the words and tones used during a customer conversation to recommend the best possible next steps an agent should take. In addition to helping to provide better, more responsive service to customers, such technologies also help service professionals to focus more of their time and energies on the most complex customer requests while making other interactions quicker and easier to manage.

Today's top customer service teams are more than twice as likely as underperformers to be putting such predictive tools to use, according to Salesforce. They're also far more likely than underperformers to believe that predictive AI will have a "transformational" impact on customer service by 2020.

"This aligns with our finding that 51 [percent] of consumers and 75 [percent] of business buyers expect that, by 2020, companies will anticipate their needs and make relevant suggestions before they reach out," the report stated.

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Red Hat Stock Could Get Boost From More Cloud Disclosure – Investor’s Business Daily

February 13, 2017 | Author: admin

After a December sell-off, Red Hat stock is back on the upswing this year. (Red Hat)

Red Hat (RHT) stock has rebounded after disappointing current-quarter guidance sent shares in the Linux software provider down in late 2016, and a William Blair analysts says the company is gaining traction in cloud computing.

Red Hat stock is up 13% in 2017, moving above it's 50-day moving average last month and approaching a technical buy point of 82.83 out of a 20-week consolidation.

Shares of Red Hat traded in the 70s most of last year but plunged 14% on Dec. 22, to an 11-month low, after theenterprise software provider forecast current-quarter sales well below consensus estimates. Red Hat stock was unchanged in morning tradein the stock market today, after closing Friday at 79.25.

Jason Ader, a William Blair analyst, says Red Hat should disclose more metrics related to its cloud business. Red Hat, along with Microsoft (MSFT) and VMware (VMW), aims to leverage its existing customer base as cloud computing gains momentum.

IBD'S TAKE:Red Hat has the second highestComposite Rating, a CAN SLIM investing metric, of the eight companies in IBD's Computer Software-Desktop group, which also includes Microsoft and Adobe Systems. The group ranks only No. 119 out of 197 industry groups. Adobe has a CR of 89 out of a possible 99, while Red Hat's CR is 79.

"The reality check from our perspective is that Red Hat's strategic positioning appears firmly intact, midteens revenue growth looks sustainable, operating leverage is around the corner, and management seems aware of the need for greater disclosure on hot-button topics that could shift the narrative in the near term," Ader said in a research report Monday.

Ader, who says he met recently with company management, maintains an outperform rating on Red Hat stock.

Red Hat's Linux software runs computer servers in corporate data centers. The company'sbiggest revenue generator is Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).

Analysts have been looking for traction in Red Hat's public cloud business as customers shift computing workloads to cloud service providers such as Amazon Web Services, part ofAmazon.com and a Red Hat partner.

Red Hat's cloud revenue mainly comes from customers using RHEL software on a "pay as you go," or software-as-a-service, basis. It also aims to sell customers a broader set of software for managing application servers and data storage.

"Management believes that public cloud RHEL revenue and market share is significantly higher than meets the eye, as the cloud access piece of the business is larger than the transactional, on-demand piece," Ader said in the report. "While management is unable to track and quantify the cloud access component, steady RHEL growth in the midteens supports the conclusion that the public cloud is currently more of a tailwind than a headwind to the business."

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Alphabet and Amazon shares are climbing, but their charts show several reasons to be cautious. (Alphabet)

11:19 AM ET Alphabet and Amazon regained recent buy points in the latest week. but their stock charts have some worrisome qualities.

11:19 AM ET Alphabet and Amazon regained recent buy points in the latest...

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Now Available: Bare Metal Cloud Market – Global Forecast to 2021 – Digital Journal

February 13, 2017 | Author: admin

Fast Market Research announces the availability of the new Markets and Markets report, "Bare Metal Cloud Market - Global Forecast to 2021", on their comprehensive research portal

This press release was orginally distributed by SBWire

Boston, MA -- (SBWIRE) -- 02/13/2017 -- Bare Metal Cloud Market by Service Type (Compute, Networking, Database, Identity & Access Management, Volume & Object Storage, Professional, and Managed), Professional Service Type, Organization Size, Vertical, and Region - Global Forecast to 2021

"Critical need for reliable load balancing of data-intensive and latency-sensitive operations is driving the bare metal cloud market"

The bare metal cloud market size is expected to grow from USD 0.87 billion to USD 4.71 billion, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 40.1% from 2016 to 2021. The technological advancements and the proliferation in smart devices and complex customer data are driving the need for reliable balancing of data-intensive and latency-sensitive computing operations in the commercial enterprises. These multifaceted operations create heavy load on the traditional storage devices causing latency and thereby resulting in a low throughput. Moreover, it becomes critical to manage and cope with the associated computing, networking, and database needs required for processing the heavy workloads on a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)-based model. Load balancing improves the distribution of additional workloads across the bare metal cloud servers to enable smooth functioning and allocation of resources to multiple processes. In these scenarios, it is critical to manage load balancing on cloud for its smooth operations, and to enhance enterprises' business operations and to boost revenue growth.

Get More Details on this Report and a Full Table of Contents at Bare Metal Cloud Market - Global Forecast to 2021

"Implementation services to gain maximum traction during the forecast period"

Implementation of bare metal cloud servers is a critical process, as these servers are powerful, high performing, and complex in nature. It plays the vital role of offering various associated services such as compute, database, and networking to the commercial customers in the bare metal cloud. Implementation services initiate with the process of critical examination of business requirements and end with monitoring or maintaining of the deployed services or solutions.

"Asia-Pacific is projected to grow at the highest rate during the forecast period"

North America is expected to hold the largest market share during the forecast period. The major bare metal cloud vendors in this region, such as IBM Corporation, Oracle Corporation, CenturyLink, Inc., Internap Corporation, and Rackspace Hosting, Inc., offer a number of reliable and enhanced bare metal services to cater to the various needs of the enterprises and their commercial clients. Asia-Pacific (APAC) is expected to witness an exponential growth and is projected to be the fastest-growing region for the bare metal cloud market. The region has a competitive advantage over other regions with many players providing local cost-efficient solutions, easy availability of trained labors, and flexible regulations & policies. In addition, these countries are taking aggressive initiatives to upsurge the IT infrastructure, thus enabling the commercial users to adopt the cutting-edge technology. The growing adoption of trending technologies such as SaaS-based application, rising demand for fabric virtualization & DevOps application, and the critical need for reliable load balancing of data-intensive and latency-sensitive operations in this region is also promoting the bare metal cloud market.

In the process of determining and verifying the market size for several segments and subsegments gathered through secondary research, extensive primary interviews were conducted with key people. The break-up profile of the primary participants is as follows:

-By Company: Tier 1 - 30%, Tier 2 - 40%, and Tier 3 - 30% -By Designation: C level - 72%, Director level - 14%, Others - 14% -By Region: North America - 57%, Europe - 14%, APAC - 29%

The bare metal cloud ecosystem comprises major vendors such as IBM Corporation (U.S.), Oracle Corporation (U.S.), CenturyLink, Inc. (U.S.), Internap Corporation (U.S.), Rackspace Hosting, Inc. (U.S.), Packet (U.S.), Bigstep (U.K.), Dell Technologies, Inc. (U.S.), Scaleway Corporation (France), Spotinst (Israel) , Joyent Corporation (U.S.), and Strom (U.S.).

Research Coverage:

The report analyzes the opportunities in the market and the details of the competitive landscape for stakeholders and market leaders. In addition, the research study analyzes competitive developments, such as mergers & acquisitions, new partnerships, new contracts, key strategies, and new product developments in the bare metal cloud market. The research report segments the bare metal cloud market by service type, organization type, vertical, and region.

Reasons to buy the Report

About Fast Market Research Fast Market Research is a leading distributor of market research and business information. Representing the world's top research publishers and analysts, we provide quick and easy access to the best competitive intelligence available. Our unbiased, expert staff is always available to help you find the right research to fit your requirements and your budget. For more information about these or related research reports, please visit our website at http://www.fastmr.com or call us at 1.800.844.8156.

Browse all Computers and Semiconductors research reports at Fast Market Research

You may also be interested in these related reports: -Cloud ERP Market - Global Forecast to 2021 -Telecom Cloud Billing Market - Global Forecast to 2021 -Cloud Computing in Education Market - Global Forecast to 2021 -Finance Cloud Market - Global Forecast to 2021 -Multi Cloud Management Market - Global Forecast to 2021

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.sbwire.com/press-releases/now-available-bare-metal-cloud-market-global-767279.htm

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Deafening silence as Smart Hosting support tickets keep piling up – The Register

February 13, 2017 | Author: admin

Updated Customers of British cloud biz Smart Hosting are furious at the company's radio silence throughout its ongoing support tickets crises.

The business has been left with "an incredibly high volume of support tickets" after merging with Krystal. Smart Hosting has been asking customers to keep non-urgent issues to themselves since the firm first complained of a support tickets backlog on 14 January.

The company has turned off phone comms after merging VoIP systems with the other firm, and has not responded to complaints on its Twitter account for nine days. On 29 January, in its main feed, support bods explained that they were working through support tickets as they brought new hardware online. But a fortnight on, customers are still in the dark.

We spoke to a user whose said several of his customers' websites had gone offline on Saturday morning. Complaints from other users have been stacking up over the lack of communication, with some customers noting on Twitter that they actually seem to be losing their places in the queue.

Smart Hosting recently merged with another hosting company, Krystal. A customer in touch with The Register speculated that their apparently high support ticket number was as a result of Smart Hosting and Krystal merging their systems.

Smart Hosting's new business address of The Apex, Coventry CV1 3PP, is an accommodation address, also housing over 900 other companies, making it impossible for affected local customers to even knock on the door and ask what's happening.

Marcus Stafford, of B2B hosting business Wintercorn, told The Register that the issues have cropped up "exactly one year from the Heart Internet fiasco, which was the reason we moved to Smart Hosting, so it's pretty galling to experience it again.

"I didn't think that the Heart experience could be any worse but at least they communicated with their clients and responded to support tickets. There is an ever-growing queue of over 700 tickets and we have only moved to number 178 since Saturday morning. Some kind of announcement would be appreciated and is the minimum that paying clients expect.

"Fortunately we have moved many clients to Amazon, Google and Digital Ocean since the Heart outage so it's only affecting 30 or so sites but they are important, high-traffic sites and being offline is damaging to them and us."

The Register has contacted both Smart Hosting and Krystal for comment. We will update this article if we receive a response.

Updated at 14.20 UTC to add: The Register spoke to Simon Blackler, who admitted that the company had a severe support ticket issue, and had failed to communicate thoroughly with its customers. He stressed the Krystal was not shuttering the Smart Hosting brand, and was working hard on resolving the backlog of tickets.

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Bitcoin Price Weekly Analysis BTC/USD To Extend Its Slide – newsBTC

February 12, 2017 | Author: admin

Bitcoin price collapsed this past week vs the USD due to Chinese exchanges pausing withdrawals. It looks like BTC/USD may decline further.

Bitcoin price collapsed this past week vs the USD due to Chinese exchanges pausing withdrawals. It looks like BTC/USD may decline further.

This past week there was a strong downside move initiated in Bitcoin price taking it below the $1000 level against the US Dollar. The main reason was the PBOCs warning to Chinese Bitcoin exchanges, which resulted in suspension of withdrawals temporarily. The BTC to USD price dived down, and broke the $1050 and $1000 support levels to trade as low as $916.

However, the price later found support and started a recovery. It moved above the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the last decline from the $1114 high to $916 low. However, the upside seems to be limited near $995 and $1000. There is a short-term bearish trend line formed on the 4-hours chart (data feed from SimpleFX) of BTC/USD. It is acting as a barrier near $995, and preventing gains.

There are a few other hurdles around the same level. Like, the 100 simple moving average (H4) at $998 is positioned to act as a resistance. Moreover, the 38.2% Fib retracement level of the last decline from the $1114 high to $916 low is also near the same resistance. All in all, it looks like the price may struggle to move back above $1000. If there is no close above it, the price may move down once again towards $950.

Looking at the technical indicators:

4-hours MACD The MACD is in the bearish zone with no major sign of a trend change.

4-hours RSI (Relative Strength Index) The RSI is steady below the 50 level, which is a bearish sign.

Major Support Level $950

Major Resistance Level $1000

Charts courtesy SimpleFX

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Airbnb and Bitcoin: An Obvious Match – CryptoCoinsNews

February 12, 2017 | Author: admin

Bitcoin is by default and by nature a currency which shows no respect for borders. One of the less popularized advantages of Bitcoin is that, through the power of encryption, immutable transactions are possible, as well as the ability to withhold funds from seizure. In the nations which are currently producing the most refugees, Bitcoins digitization is another great aspect of it people are less likely to steal what they cannot see. A private key can be written and stored virtually anywhere. For all intents and purposes, Bitcoin is precisely the currency you would want if your world were torn apart by war and famine, provided you had some way to turn it into usable goods.

AirBNB recently entered the political conversation by launching its #WeAccept campaign. The decentralized rental service made a stern political statement, despite having a bright and positive message, with the following commercial:

The sentiments expressed were not long ago what would be considered an All-American attitude. We urge the hungry, the tired, the broken to reach our shores and thrive in the land of the opportunity. For decades gone past, people from all corners of the globe have been able to do as much. Bitcoins resistance to regulatory jurisdiction, at the code level, is less of a political decision than it is a security matter. For it is obvious that if the state can compromise a Bitcoin transaction, someone else can, as well.

But as long as AirBNB is advertising an internationalist message, perhaps it should also adopt an internationally immutable payment method. AirBNB could increase its own take of fees placed on providers, and attract users who may struggle to provide other forms of digital payment. CEO Brian Chesky recently asked Twitter followers:

He then came back and said:

Multiple users had suggested Bitcoin. With things that can require later pull transactions such as rental services, the cryptocurrency has certain limitations that must be worked out within the solution in question.

Its not possible, for instance, to bill a persons Bitcoin wallet for funds previously authorized. The Bitcoin holder must choose to push the funds to the requestor. In implementation, this could mean that Bitcoin users would be required to pay more than the amount of the actual rental via AirBNB, and have the remainder of funds returned to them upon successful closing of the transaction.

But this writer is not here to talk about the technical implementation of Bitcoin for AirBNB. I am here to talk about the philosophical reasons for adopting Bitcoin, and potentially for refusing certain other payment methods which have shown themselves to be diametrically opposed to the views expressed by AirBNB. Credit card companies have willingly shut down freedom-fighting organizations like WikiLeaks as part of the banking blockade. Indeed, this episode in recent history was one of the most attention-bringing for Bitcoin, and one of Satoshis last memos expressed concern about

Credit card companies have willingly shut down freedom-fighting organizations like WikiLeaks as part of the banking blockade. Indeed, this episode in recent history was one of the most attention-bringing for Bitcoin, and one of Satoshis last memos expressed concern about overflow government persecution:

I make this appeal to WikiLeaks not to try to use Bitcoin. Bitcoin is a small beta community in its infancy. You would not stand to get more than pocket change, and the heat you would bring would likely destroy us at this stage.

While the WikiLeaks project deferred to Satoshi at the time, they did later accept Bitcoin when it was flourishing. AirBNB accepting Bitcoin in order to protect the privacy of its users, as well as the peace of mind of its socially conscious board, seems an obvious plus for both parties. Chesky says the company has long considered the idea, but there is no time like the present. Intermingling the idea of a universal currency for a united race of humans would be a plus, but its unlikely anyone expects as much of the company.

Intermingling the idea of a universal currency for a united race of humans would be a plus, but its unlikely anyone expects as much of the company.

Featured image from Shutterstock.

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