Wednesday, August 17, 2016

CCEDK Exchange

 

The launch of Bitcoin in 2008 was more than just an experiment in the financial realm. It was a
silent outcry against the injustices committed by the financial elite leading to the recession,
scripted in code. Satoshi’s creation laid the foundation for what would soon be the world’s
financial future. Unlike earlier, it wasn’t restricted to royalty or the elite to decide how this new
financial system would work. Rather, emperors of the new world, the innovators, entrepreneurs
and developers with the know how to build upon the blockchain were the ones that pushed this
new system to the frontier. Inspite of the massive attention given to it by the media, Bitcoin is
predicted to only have around 5 million users, by 2019. Considering a global population of 7
billion, and an unbanked population of 5.5 billion, this level of penetration will barely make a
dent in the financial realm. With an intent to solve these problems of market penetration and
creating products that are user friendly on the blockchain a new generation of entrepreneurs
have come forth with solutions that work faster, cheaper and at better levels of scale.

CCEDK in collaboration with Beyond Bitcoin have launched btstip.io with the intent of bringing
expriences on the blockchain to the average retail user. The company’s goal is to create product
offerings that are easy to use for internet consumers around the globe. Leveraging the speed of
Bitshares Blockchain which is able to process transactions at 60,000 transactions per second
and the relatively low transaction fees, which runs at 1/4th the fee of Bitcoin, the new system is
able to empower users and enterprises to experience what it feels like to remit via the
blockchain without having to go through the nuances of utilizing a bank or a bitcoin exchange. In
the first iteration of the product, the Tip Bot empowers existing users of the cryptocurrency
community to disperse digital tokens to individual contributors or groups on varying platforms
such as forums, reddit, twitter and facebook. In comparison with Bitcoin confirmation times that
take anywhere between ten to thirty minutes, the new system paves way for a large amount of
user cases by confirming transactions in a matter of seconds.

By creating active integrations with various social media platforms and empowering enterprises
to disperse digital tokens to the retail consumer, brands will now be able to reward consumers
directly for certain behaviour. The platform intends to bring the power of sharing economies and
social media into the age of digital, decentralized currency. While social media has empowered
people around the globe to share their thoughts, photos and lifestyles with anyone across the
globe, it is yet to help us come closer financially. Systems are still largely restricted, either due
to lack of an infrastructure or stringent fees imposed by banks upon international remittance.
The new platform, allows anyone with say, a facebook, reddit or twitter account, finding a post to
be valid to tip the author without having to go through a bank at a fraction of the cost. Similarly,
instead of paying advertisers hefty amounts, the new system allows enterprises to issue tokens
or financial rewards directly to the end user for following certain behaviour.

The core system at btstip.io will be drastically different from existing tipping systems as a result
of its close integration with CCEDK and it Nanocard. As a result of the nanocard, users will now
be able to “withdraw” the amounts they have received in terms of tips at any local ATM across
USA and Europe. This further enables the company to create a dent (albeit minor initially) in the
remittance market as freelancers, artists and individuals will now be able to charge money for
their work and withdraw it from their banks without having to go through multiple loops and third
parties. The system itself is built upon one of the most transparent exchanges in the world,
touted to be a “truly” decentralized system, open and auditable to anyone in the world openledger.
info

Although, the short term implications of the product are largely focused on empowering the
average user to experience the blockchain, the long term goals of the company are to create a
dent in the way money in itself is remitted around the globe. With a key focus on
microtransactions
and remittance, CCEDK, the banking partner for the project is working
towards creating a global banking infrastructure to enable individuals to convert their digital
takens to fiat and vice versa. The company intends to go beyond just tipping and evolve into pay
gateways, mobile remittance, ingame
economies and music.

In an age that believes money is power, digital currencies have lead the frontier when it comes
to giving it back to the people. While democracy and free speech have empowered individuals
to practice their rights and choices, restrictions in the financial realm have largely stopped
capital inflow to places that could truly use it. The founders of the system, believe, they can
change the situation by slowly building upon the product. While looking at any of the innovations
that truly changed the globe, it becomes evident that they were able to make a dent, solely
because they were created to be of use to the retail consumer. Projects like these, are an
attempt to truly take the power of decentralized currency to the average joe.

Friday, August 12, 2016

Anti-Money Laundering Software to Help Banks Prevent Illicit Transfers

 

A pair of entrepreneurs has developed a solution to help banks reduce the risks involved in remittances. Route Trading Ltd., launched by Musa Jammeh and Taimoor Iqbal, will introduce Money Router, a software solution, to London, U.K. banks to prevent illicit money transfers.

Money Router, to be introduced in September, is designed to improve the safety of global payments, enabling financial institutions to set parameters in accordance with anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism financing regulations.

Developed in London by a team led by a compliance officer employed at a major U.K. bank, and a tech entrepreneur with a background in money transfer, Money Router is designed for both banks and money service businesses (MSBs).

The banks need to monitor the money coming into their accounts from the MSBs customers. By integrating the bank accounts with the money transfer system, banks can manage the end-to-end anti-money laundering (AML) compliance of the money transfer transactions in one place. They can achieve this by using regularly updated and compressive AML databases and regulatory registers such as the FCA Payment Services and HMRC Money Services Business registers.

Overseas workers often transfer part of their earnings to families abroad. As migration has increased worldwide, the total value of these "home remittances" to emerging economies has doubled that of direct foreign aid. But since much of the sector is unregulated, it has been linked to money laundering and terrorism.

Banks Are Constrained
Banks, fearful of fines, have been missing out on significant revenues and contributing to financial exclusion by exiting the remittance sector for the following reasons:
1) Inadequate visibility over MSB activities of transferring money on behalf of their customers;
2) Lack of anti-money laundering (AML) monitoring systems to deal with MSB on-boarding and real-time transaction monitoring;
3) Increased regulatory emphasis on the risk-based approach to AML monitoring;
4) Lack of awareness among MSBs about money laundering regulations and techniques used by criminals to launder money in the remittance industry;
5) Terrorist attacks by returning Islamic State fighters.

R3, 15 Consortium Members Complete Prototypes on Using Smart Contracts for Trade Finance

 

The R3 consortium has disclosed that it has worked with over 15 of its member banks to complete two distributed ledger technology prototypes. They demonstrate how the technology can address the key challenges facing the $45 billion global trade finance industry.

R3 is a financial innovation firm that leads a consortium partnership with over 50 of the world's leading financial institutions. These prototypes validate distributed and shared ledger technology as a faster, more reliable, and cost-effective digital alternative for trade financing.

Participating banks designed and utilized smart contracts on R3's Corda distributed ledger platform to process accounts receivable (AR) purchase transactions (or invoice financing or factoring) and letter of credit (LOC) transactions.

The banks involved in the trials include Barclays, BBVA, BNP Paribas, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Danske Bank and ING Bank. Others are Intesa Sanpaolo, Natixis, Nordea, Scotiabank, UBS, UniCredit, U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo.

According to R3, the Corda platform does not allow unnecessary global sharing of data. Rather, only parties with a legitimate need to know can see the data within an agreement. It choreographs workflow between firms without a central controller and achieves consensus at the level of individual deals between businesses.

Other features of Corda are that it directly enables supervisory and regulatory observer nodes. It records an explicit link between smart contract code and human language legal documents. Its transactions are validated by the parties to the transaction rather than a broader pool of independent validators. Yet, it has no native cryptocurrency.

The CEO of R3, David Rutter, points to the transformational approach that the initiative will bring to the trade financing sector.

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Bitfinex Offers $3.6 Million Bounty in Bid to Recover Stolen Bitcoin

 

Bitfinex is reportedly offering a reward worth up to $3.6m for the recovery of bitcoins stolen from its exchange last week.

The Hong Kong-based startup lost nearly 120,000 BTC in the incident (an amount worth roughly $71m at press time), and now suggests it's willing to offer 5% of these funds (or about 6,000 BTC) as a reward should they be found and returned.

The news came social media today in a post by Bitfinex community director Zane Tackett. In response to a question about the existence of such a program, he stated that a bounty would be awarded to anyone who had information that helped the exchange recover the funds.

Tackett said:
"[Five percent] of recovery and for information leading to recovery (but no bounty if no recovery); if multiple persons lead to recovery, share pro rata."

Bitfinex resumed trading earlier today, just over a week after it shut down in the wake of the theft

Friday, August 5, 2016

Kim Dotcom Explains How Megaupload 2.0 Will Take Bitcoin To The Moon

 


Bitcoin is coming off a rough week in the community and in the press, but you know what they say: "Thank God it's Friday!"
Count me among the many who are looking for a much better story to stew over besides another Bitcoin theft, and Kim Dotcom comes to the rescue, just in time for the weekend.
This morning, on Twitter, Kim revealed much more about his upcoming Bitcoin-based Megaupload 2.0 release, so let's see what's coming for the New Year.

The launch date has been set
Today, Kim set a launch date for Megaupload 2.0 of January 20, 2017. It will come with many interesting little features like offering a white-label option, so you can tie into their hosting service while adding your own domain name for free.
Capture obscure files that aren't on your server, but that you are linking to and want to add to your Megaupload account. For those who favor increased privacy, or even anonymity, Dotcom tweets that he has you covered.

That is great for the proletariat, but what is there for the Bitcoin lover in you? Dotcom says Megaupload additions can be linked to Bitcoin microtransactions. Think YouTube with Bitcoin as the payment modality.
If you upload files that are popular downloads, it sounds like you can earn some 'digital gold.' This should help Bitcoin prices more than triple after the first year, according to Kim Dotcom.

Bitcache, a potential Bitcoin wallet
Dotcom is coining a term within Megaupload 2.0 called Bitcache, a potential Bitcoin wallet for your Megaupload account.
He believes this Bitcache design is a new solution to Bitcoin's current blockchain limitations. His tweet states that he is targeting 100,000,000 Bitcache wallets for the program.

Something to look forward to in 2017
So, to recap, a late January release of an anonymous cloud sharing, anti-surveillance video hosting, Bitcoin-caching online service that will serve the population of the Philippines (approximately 103M.)
Kim Dotcom is not afraid to dream big, and most didn't have him getting this far. The Bitcoin community does have something innovative and positive to look forward to in 2017, so for that he deserves a note of gratitude.
Now, all he has to do is pull it off. Kim seems as confident as ever.

Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Brazilian Bitcoin Market Consolidates With Exchange Acquisition

 

Brazilian bitcoin exchange Foxbit has acquired payment processor BitInvest in an acquisition worth less than $1m.

With the sale, the exchange said it is seeking to acquire new users and reinforce its position in Brazil's nascent bitcoin market.

Foxbit said BitInvest founder Flavio Pripas, the former founder of the social network Fashion.me, will serve on its board. All BitInvest accounts will be converted to Foxbit accounts as part of the deal.

The acquisition is notable given the early traction seen by BitInvest, which inked a deal in 2014 with Tecnisa, a domestic real estate firm that was Latin America's largest merchant to accept bitcoin at the time.

Still, Foxbit chief blockchain officer João Paulo Oliveira said he expects additional acquisitions as the Brazilian market matures.

According to data from Bitvalor, Foxbit sees about 310 BTC (or $189,000) in bitcoins trade daily on its exchange, a figure that accounts for roughly 55% of the market.

Oliveira said Foxbit aims to continue its momentum from the acquisition by launching a debit card for users and a consumer wallet later this year.

Foxbit said no additional employees will join the startup as part of the deal.

Is Bitcoin a Currency?

 

The question of whether or not bitcoin is really money has gained attention in light of recnt events in the bitcoin world. Even the Torah, the traditional Jewish law, has weighed in on what defines currency, according to a recent post in Chabad.org, a website dedicated to empowering Jews worldwide with knowledge of their 3,300-year-old tradition.

Does Judaism consider bitcoins to be money? The question was addressed in an article under that very heading by Rabbi Yehuda Shurpin, who responds to questions posed to the website.

Monetary Value Is What Counts
As long as something has monetary value, it does not make a difference in Jewish law whether it is actual "currency" or not in most instances, Shurpin noted.

The question of how to define currency is addressed in the context of a law governing lending money and merchandise.

According to Jewish law, a Jew cannot lend money with interest to another Jew, Shurpin noted. The law applies not only to money, but to merchandise. One is allowed to borrow, but in some cases, even borrowing was forbidden because the value of the merchandise can increase by the time it is repaid.

Rule On Loaning Merchandise
Loans of merchandise have to be based on the value of the merchandise at the time it is borrowed. When returning the merchandise, it must be returned in an amount equivalent to its value when it was borrowed.

There are three exceptions to the rule on borrowing and returning merchandise in equivalent amounts.

1) When borrowing a small amount, it can be returned in an equivalent amount since any change in the price will be insignificant.
2) When the borrower has a small amount of what he is borrowing, he can borrow more of that merchandise.
3) If the merchandise carries a fixed market price and is easily available, one can borrow and return an equivalent item.


What Is Currency?
Currency in Jewish law is defined as something having been decreed as legal tender by the sovereign government and accepted as the currency in the given locale.

Based on this definition, bitcoin is not currency, Shurpin noted. Instead, it is considered a commodity, like most foreign currency. Hence, if you borrow bitcoins, you have to return them in the same value you borrowed them at.

Because usury laws are complex, the sages warn the prohibition against usury is more serious than that of other monetary prohibitions. The law notes that in the merit of being meticulous, Jews will merit entrance to the Promised Land.

The question has gained a lot of interest in the bitcoin community recently since a Florida judge dismissed charges against a man accused of violating an anti-money laundering law when he tried to launder bitcoin to an undercover detective. The judge ruled that the cryptocurrency was not "tangible wealth" and not considered money since it wasn't backed by any bank or a government.

Friday, July 29, 2016

KPMG: DAO Failure Won't Hinder Private Blockchain Progress

 

 

As major financial institutions began to show interest in blockchain earlier this year, many were vocal in their praise for ethereum, a public blockchain-based platform for decentralized application development.

But as has been illustrated by high-profile issues such as the collapse of The DAO and the recent contentious hard fork, the second most popular public blockchain platform is still showing signs of growing pains, ones that could lead to new questions of its underlying technology despite enterprise interest.

 

However, KPMG US blockchain lead Eamonn Maguire says he doesn't believe enterprise clients see the events as an impediment to progress for the industry at large.

While he acknowledges events like the DAO collapse and the hard fork could create poor market optics, he said it hasn’t yet happened as a result of recent events with ethereum. Rather, Maguire said KPMG sees the issues as learning experiences, as well as indications that more attention needs to be given to the security of private blockchain projects.

 

Specifically, Maguire said this means developing better standards on how blockchain data is secured and accessed, including potentially applying more conventional or previously tested protocols for use in blockchain environments.

Maguire went on to stress that it perhaps remains too early to tell what specific issues were at play and how future projects implementing similar concepts can be improved.

 

However, Maguire said that the ethereum platform "is not in question", while stating that any client relationships have not been impacted by these events.

"I see it as more of a hiccup. It’s one that I wish had not occurred, [but] we're not seeing it have impact in market confidence," he said.

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Ethereum Classic, Yes I do!

 

I got this email (see under) today and after reading it thorougly and that for a few times, i found the motivation plausible and acceptable, which is why I am supporting it.

Ethereum made a big mistake taking the lead with the DAO, while it was buggy not tested well, odd since the market cap was #5 on CMC.

Now they made a mistake and the same way like a child would do, they just reversed it. Reserving it such easily means 1 thing, and 1 thing only.

Whatever you made do in the future, your money with Ethereum is not safe, because they already proved to be opposite to decentralization.

Ethereum Classic Listing
Hello everyone, this is quite unexpected but I will get straight to the point. I support Ethereum classic - in an effort to make sure that blockchains do not become centralized databases we must secure networks and create a large amount of network security.

Nick Szabo was the first one to comment on smart contracts - but in an effort to make sure we do not go the same path as our financial past we must support chains that are for the people.

I urge you to support Ethereum classic - I cannot forget where I came from - pure decentralization and immutability is what this technology is about. Please support this network.

Bitcointalk Thread
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1559630.0

Community
http://www.ethereumclassic.org
https://www.reddit.com/r/EthereumClassic/

Russian
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1563268
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1563328

There are no bounties at this time

Exchanges
https://poloniex.com/exchange#eth_etc
https://poloniex.com/exchange#btc_etc

Press
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/rejecting-today-s-hard-fork-the-ethereum-classic-project-continues-on-the-original-chain-here-s-why-1469038808
http://www.forbes.com/sites/francescoppola/2016/07/21/a-painful-lesson-for-the-ethereum-community/

Ideology
We believe in decentralized, censorship-resistant, permissionless, IMMUTABLE blockchains. We believe in the original vision of Ethereum as a world computer you can't shut down, running irreversible smart contracts. We believe in a strong separation of concerns, where system forks are only possible in order to correct actual platform bugs, not to bail out failed contracts and special interests. We believe in censorship-resistant platform that can be actually trusted - by anyone.
Code is law.

More: https://medium.com/@bit_novosti/a-crypto-decentralist-manifesto-6ba1fa0b9ede

Motivation
Ethereum Foundation responded to DAO debacle in the worst way possible. Special interests controlling the Foundation are ramming through DAO bailout hardfork against principled opposition of a significant economic minority of Ethereum stakeholders. According to (diligently hidden, pro-fork) coin vote on Carbonvote, 19% of ETH holders oppose this hardfork. Also, about 22% of Ethereum miners voted against the previous 'DAO softfork' and would logically oppose hardfork as well. Such a significant minority of stakeholders should not be silenced or intimidated into submission - they should be given a clear choice.

If we want to continue to move forward and guarantee survival of the original Ethereum vision, we must fork Ethereum. This will lay the foundation to build secure decentralized applications that are actually censorship resistant.
More: 
https://github.com/ethereumclassic/freeworldcomputer-project

Goals
The main goal of the project is to ensure survival of the original Ethereum blockchain. We will strive to provide alternative for people who strongly disagree with DAO bailout and the direction Ethereum Foundation is taking their project. Anyone opting to remain on the original chain should have such opportunity.

Development
We fork Ethereum and maintain upstream patches similar to the relation between Redhat and CentOS, until a community can form around the project and create a road map. Until this happens we can fork multiple existing clients to help prevent a monoculture of clients. We plan to follow 
https://github.com/ethereum development except for any features they introduce into existing clients that violate the key principles of openness, neutrality and immutability.

Code: https://github.com/ethereumclassic

What can I do?
Please help us spread the word about this project in Ethereum community!

Volunteers
If you feel strongly about the cause, please get involved. With just days before the planned hardfork, we need your support to ensure original Ethereum survival. We need more developers, website designers, people who can write and advocate the need for Ethereum Classic. Please let us know what are your skills and how you would like to contribute. Redditors, please reply here. Github users, please open new issue.

Users
In order to remain on the original Ethereum chain, just don't upgrade to hardfork client version pushed by Ethereum Foundation. We will maintain non-fork versions of all major Ethereum clients (as well as other key software), so going forwards all the improvements will be available to you.

Fun fact. If you keep ETH under your direct control (not in a 3rd party wallet or exchange account), you will have two sets of coins instead of one post-fork. You could then install a forked Ethereum client in addition to Ethereum Classic, copy your private keys there and use your coins on both chains! You won't be so lucky if your ETH are locked with 3rd party going into the fork - some exchanges already announced that they will only return one type of coin post-fork to its users.

Miners
Miners supporting the original chain should just keep mining with current version of software for now, without upgrading to client version introducing the hardfork code. It will be always possible to download and build latest non-fork version from
https://github.com/ethereumclassic.

The difficulty of the original chain will be quite high post-fork, but it will adjust to actual hashrate shortly (just 2048 blocks, a few hours). Since it is expected that most hashrate will move to hardfoked chain, post-adjustment it will be possible to obtain decent mining rewards in classic ethers even with solo mining.

We have mining pools supporting Ethereum Classic:
http://ethc.epool.io
http://pool.ethereumclassic.com

Because the difficulty adjusts quickly, it will be also quite possible to solo mine soon after the fork. If you intend to mine Ethereum Classic, please don't upgrade to geth 1.4.10 just yet, due to potential vulnerability. We will inform you when it's safe to upgrade. For now, just solo-mine with geth 1.4.9 or any earlier version, or use Classic pool.

Traders
https://bitsquare.io/

Most important question for traders is 'will ETHC have market price'? There are all reasons to believe that it will. Essentially, ETHC is an Ethereum 'spinoff coin' with a wide user base of all current ETH users. Some of them will see the value of transacting on a censorship-resistant chain, some won't. This creates interesting arbitrage opportunities for smart traders. Additional reasoning why EHTC is very unlikely to be 'worthless'.

Both Poloniex a Bitfinex announced that they will assign their users both ETH and ETHC after the fork. This is a step in the right direction, now it's up to these major exchanges to enable ETH/ETHC trading that will no doubt be demanded by users. Decentralized exchange Bitsquare announced ETHC trading right after the fork. Other trading venues will follow since there is a strong business case. We are in touch with several other exchanges to add ETHC trading to their platforms. If your exchange is interested in ETHC trading, please contact us.

Let's make sure original Ethereum vision doesn't just "go gentle into that good night"!

 

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Ethereum Just Showcased the Full Power of Public Blockchains

 

In just one month, ethereum has managed to code, deploy, implement and adopt a decision while fully upholding minority rights without one metaphorical shot being fired, showcasing the full power of public blockchains and first class blockchain governance. 
In just one day, ethereum dispelled all myths and arguments against public blockchain’s inherent guarantee of rights – hard forks. The main argument, that controversial hardforks are a tyranny of the majority, was proven wrong when Ethereum Classic was provided with a market, thus giving the minority their full freedom.  Likewise, any suggestion that the decision was centralized can not stand when pure free choice is given to all and, technically, the argument that immutability was breached is incorrect as the thief chain continues.


Bitcoin’s Dictatorship vs Ethereum’s Democracy Mix
These arguments have been used in bitcoin’s land for more than a year, turning all concepts on their head. Specifically, the unspoken but implied argument that where there is a controversy a minority should decide upon the majority which is only possible by instituting dictatorship and, of course, as we have seen, leads to a never ending debate, a bitter split, and a community in paralysis, unable to make a decision and move on to real things.

Ethereum, on the other hand, achieved in one day what bitcoin could not achieve in more than a year. Instead of the community turning against each other into a prolonged and paralyzing civil war, ethereum’s community just allowed everyone to choose in a free market way, ending the episode and moving on towards building stuff and advancing this space.

As the chains have now fully separated and cannot be re-joined, ETC has nothing to differentiate it except for the harboring of a thief, making it just another altcoin in a sea of altcoins, with as good as no developers, with social promises of immutability it can not technically enforce as anyone can chain fork any blockchain and, overall, just a clone of Ethereum, no different than Expanse. Most, therefore, will probably just ignore it and move on to real things.

However, the listing of ETC is significant as it shows that ethereum and public blockchain’s inbuilt governance mechanism presents a real choice. Neither the majority nor the minority can force either or tell either what to do. Instead, they are both free to follow their own path and compete on equal terms.

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

And now also finance falls in love with Bitcoin

 
The cryptocurrency is "a commodity like gold," he reports the American authority. But it is also a coin, say the judges. That's how it is transforming the virtual currency and how risky the saver
Born in 2009, Bitcoin has officially become a "commodity" like gold or oil or grain. The decision was made ​​a few days ago, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in the United States, after investigating two online platforms - Coinflip and Derivative - selling options to buy or sell at the end of some bitcoins. But they did so without the slightest respect for rules of "trading" imposed by the CFTC for all other commodities.
The reprimand the two operators because in the future futures contracts, swaps, and the whole family of "derivatives" involving bitcoins to happen with the procedures required by regulators, opens the door to a series of consequences.
The first is that the "cryptocurrency" invented in 2009 by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto (his identity has not been established), and allows payments to private individuals without the intermediation of banks, is in some way promoted in the financial world so far he has kept at a distance and view with suspicion. So much to want to imitate some technological aspects, as we will see later.
The second is that after having seduced millions of people around the world, which in part also used to purchase illegal goods, now digital currency is likely to infect savers, attracted by the fact that it is cleared by an authority.
The third is that the combined provisions of finance and authority come out like rabbits from the hat of a magician products to bet on the bitcoins market, to make real money on virtual money, a perverse and dangerous building.
The proof is that it is already to be launched an ETF that bets on the performance of Bitcoin (called ARK). Finance is thirsty for new emotions, and Bitcoin is exactly what he does for her, even if it requires strong nerves: the volatility of the virtual currency has been crazy since birth. Before rose by six thousand percent, coming to quote $ 1,250, then collapsed, and today is around $ 230 value "face." With a volume of about 10 billion total value.
The failure in Japan of a leading exchange platform, Mr. Gox, should have taught us that the system is very vulnerable. The Japanese case is obvious: the manager of the Exchange has denounced the disappearance of $ 480 million in bitcoins belonging to its customers. Perhaps stolen by hackers, since they resided not in a physically safe, but in the form of bits in a computer. And he never found.
Also for customers of a hedge fund Texan in bitcoin awakening, it was bitter when the SEC found that applied a Ponzi scheme (a scam based on species of Saint Anthony of new clients chain that guarantee the gains of the previous ring chain). The fund defended himself by saying that because the Bitcoin is not money, not touching the SEC deal: the judge ruled that conversely also that virtual currency is.
And what about the case of "Silk Road", a site that was offering drugs and various narcotics, payable in bitcoins? The owner, once caught, he has also defended saying that the charges (money laundering, the sale of banned substances and other illegal activities) were unfounded because he ran a business based on something that you could not even define "money." It ended up in jail for life.
It was precisely the Bitcoin that the Greeks have decided to turn while their economy is screwed towards the precipice: the exchange sites between common currency (in this case the euro) and the virtual currency were bombarded by questions of their information from that country, reflecting a fascination beyond reason.
The question of "what is" exactly the Bitcoin is not nominalistic, although very reminiscent of the arguments of Don Ferrante on the plague in the Betrothed: being neither substance nor accident, did not exist for him, and yet he was infected and died. It is not nominalism because the various authorities try this road to bring to light and tame the phenomenon, which has had a boom in a few years, has created a network of trading companies around the world and had legions of fans. Just to say: if money must be tied to income, and therefore should be taxed.
Something good, however, the Bitcoin system has taught him. It's called "blockchain", and it is precisely the system that keeps track of transactions, distributed through the joint effort of many different computers of the user community. Every time a transaction occurs, its details are translated into a code and transmitted to the rest the population: those who can decrypt the message, share it with others to test it, and if it is ok, the effort allows you to earn a certain number of bitcoins in return. But above all, that message becomes part of a chain of information where several computers act as sentinels to report any discrepancies, for example, the use of the same bitcoins twice.
So the blockchain technology makes the system a difficult test for hackers (unless Mr. Gox).
This has pulled in the consideration of a portion of the Most powerful financial institutions in the world, from Goldman Sachs to Barclays at UBS, who have just announced that it has entrusted to a company in New York, the technological R3, the task of developing the chain of a block. To make a product for themselves and the market.
Will this road that cryptocurrency will eventually earn immortality?

Sunday, July 17, 2016

UK Parliament Hearing to Highlight Government Blockchain Applications

 

A UK House of Lords committee will meet next week to hear testimony from academics and representatives of the blockchain industry.

 

Parliament announced today that the Economic Affairs Committee of the House of Lords (Parliament's upper house) will meet on 19th July to discuss blockchain and potential applications for the UK government. The committee will notably feature testimony from Ben Broadbent, the deputy governor of monetary policy for the Bank of England who remarked this past March that a central bank-issued digital currency could have a major impact on banking.

 

In addition to Broadbent, witnesses set to speak include Digital Asset Holdings CEO Blythe Masters; 11:FS co-founder and director of blockchain Simon Taylor; Imperial College Centre for Cryptocurrency Research associate director Dr Catherine Mulligan; Gresham College professor of commerce Michael Mainelli; and PwC transformation and assurance director Lord Spens.

 

According to Parliament’s announcement, the hearing will focus in part on public sector blockchain applications for the UK government, a topic that has seen interest from both within and outside of the government.

 

Specifically, the hearing will look into whether the technology could "be used to collect taxes or pay benefits", a question that comes after the UK Department of Work and Pensions began a blockchain welfare payments trial. The trial has since stoked concerns among privacy advocates, according to the Financial Times.