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Showing posts from November, 2018

Estonia to Tighten Rules for Licensed Crypto Companies

Estonia, one of Europe’s most crypto-friendly nations, plans to tighten its licensing regime for cryptocurrency companies. The financial authorities in Tallinn want to introduce stricter regulations for fintech businesses registered in the Baltic country.   Also read: Binance Terminates Services for Users in Belarus Regulators to Increase Oversight The Financial Intelligence Unit, the Estonian regulator issuing the licenses , has made a number of proposals to strengthen the rules for entities dealing with digital assets. The Ministry of Finance is currently preparing draft amendments to the country’s Anti-Money Laundering and Counterterrorist Financing Law, the local news outlet Äripäev reported. The revisions will be presented to the Council of Ministers for approval and then filed in the Estonian parliament for adoption. The ministry believes the anti-money laundering bureau should be tasked with inspecting all companies that provide services in the sector. The monitoring of the
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Thai SEC Explains Two Laws Could Apply to Crypto Securities

Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has reportedly clarified how existing laws can apply to crypto securities. In addition, Thai companies planning to issue securities tokens abroad would be guilty of wrongdoing under the Digital Asset Act for avoiding regulated fundraising channels. Also read:  Indian Supreme Court Moves Crypto Hearing, Community Calls for Positive Regulations Applicable Current Laws On Thursday, the Bangkok Post reported that Tipsuda Thavaramara, deputy secretary of the Thai SEC, revealed that “the regulator will have to consider how to deal with STOs [securities token offerings] for issues such as share ownership, voting rights, and dividends.” Thailand enacted cryptocurrency regulation in May. The country’s Digital Asset Act regulates cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings (ICOs) and installs the Thai SEC as the main regulator of the crypto industry. However, STOs are not included within the scope of any current laws. The publication det
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Bitcoin Mining Startup Envion Ordered to Close by Swiss Court

A court in Switzerland has ordered the closure of bitcoin mining startup Envion AG over concerns of poor corporate governance. The company raised $100 million in an initial coin offering (ICO) in January, but a succession of boardroom wrangles have led to a breakdown in its corporate structure, bringing operations to a halt. Also read:  Canadian Bitcoin Miner Fortress Blockchain Reports $1.16M Loss in Q3 Founding Partners Sue Each Other Founding partners Michael Luckow and Matthias Woestmann have repeatedly gone to court to sue each other over allegations of subterfuge, which supposedly took place at the time of the ICO or immediately after, according to a Handelsblatt Global report on Nov. 28. Among other things, Woestmann, who has since resigned as board chairman, “accused Luckow of manufacturing more coins than agreed on, so he engineered a capital increase that diluted Luckow’s share,” the paper alleged. In the capital increase, Woestmann allegedly issued actual shares, rat
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The Daily: Kucoin Enables Credit Card Payments, Coinbase Pro Adds Zcash

Digital asset exchange Kucoin has partnered with an Israeli startup to introduce credit card payments for cryptocurrency purchases and we’ve covered it in The Daily. Also, Coinbase has added privacy coin zcash to its professional trading platform, while Okex has delisted dozens of trading pairs with low liquidity. And in Ghana, over 100,000 investors have lost millions of dollars in a coin scam.     Also read: Coinbase Launches OTC Desk, Huobi Opens Derivatives Market Kucoin Introduces Credit Card Payments Kucoin has teamed up with Simplex to allow its users to buy cryptocurrencies with credit and debit cards. The Singapore-based exchange’s new service is now available in over 100 countries. Its customers can use U.S. dollars and euros to purchase bitcoin core (BTC), ether (ETH) and litecoin (LTC). Simplex is a provider of payment processing solutions headquartered in Israel. The fintech startup operates globally and has subsidiaries in the U.S., U.K. and Lithuania. Merchants usi
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LCX Now Licensed to Provide Crypto Trading Services in Liechtenstein

Liechtenstein cryptocurrency exchange LCX has been granted a license to provide crypto trading services for utility and payment tokens. The exchange will be offering four main crypto services including a custody service and a fiat-to-crypto exchange in partnership with Binance. Also read:  Indian Supreme Court Moves Crypto Hearing, Community Calls for Positive Regulations A Regulated Exchange LCX announced on Tuesday that it has been granted “a business license of the Liechtenstein Ministry of Economic Affairs to conduct its business in Liechtenstein (Gewerbebewilligung).” An LCX representative told news.Bitcoin.com: With this license, we got the permission from the regulator to provide crypto exchange trading services for utility and payment tokens. So, we can offer an exchange to investors, to safely trade utility and payment coins (stable coins for example), that is approved by the regulator. The representative added that LCX can now offer “services that other crypto exch
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Research Exposes Anti-Bitcoin Bias in Mainstream Media

Recent research on the tone and frequency of cryptocurrency coverage in the mainstream media over the past five years suggests that some news outlets appear to be much more biased against Bitcoin than the norm. The results also indicate that overall sentiment has become more negative with time. Also Read:  Coinbase Launches OTC Desk, Huobi Opens Derivatives Market Price Declines Sparked a Press Frenzy Blockchain-focused research company Clovr surveyed 7,527 cryptocurrency-related articles from 48 media outlets from January 1, 2013, to July 31, 2018. It used an algorithm to assess the broad sentiment expressed in each article. The researchers found that the mainstream media didn’t really pay much attention to cryptocurrencies until they started climbing in value. But what these news outlets really liked was to report about price crashes. Even during the great bull run of 2017, coverage spiked during sudden declines in market value. And the downturn from the peak at the end of the
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Bloxroute Joins the Block Size Debate With New Block Propagation Service

Over the last few weeks, the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) community has been discussing how miners and nodes will handle bigger blocks in the future to encourage mass adoption. A company called Bloxroute has been coming up a lot lately, as it aims to resolve the block propagation bottleneck. Also read:  Growing Number of Crypto Companies Operating From Belarus Bloxroute Claims It Offers Greater Efficiency Bloxroute claims it can provide more efficient block propagation for blockchains. The organization has been discussed a lot in the weeks since researchers noted issues with block propagation after the BCH and BSV chains processed a few big blocks. Bloxroute says it supports any blockchain underneath the system by broadcasting block data in the exact same manner for every user in a neutral fashion. “In particular, Bloxroute propagates blocks without knowledge of the transactions they contain, their number, and the ‘wallets’ or addresses involved. Miners are free to include arbitrary transa
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Honoring Satoshi’s Vision: Toward a Better Crypto User Experience

This post about better crypto UX was written by venture capitalist David Gold. He is the CEO of  Dapix, Inc , which launched the Foundation for Interwallet Operability (FIO) and FIO Protocol. *** Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin whitepaper laid out an intoxicating vision for a “purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash” — free of involvement and interference from third-party intermediaries. Also read:  Outrage Over Union Bank of Nigeria’s Threat to Close Crypto-Related Accounts Ten years later — despite much growth, shrinkage, excitement and hype — Bitcoin, and cryptocurrencies in general, have yet to be put to any significant use in commerce, which is a key reason why crypto markets continue to face such extreme volatility. Crypto is currently too difficult and risky to use. This why it has not achieved mainstream adoption. Many other cryptocurrency and token-utility protocols have been launched to create variations that are faster, cheaper and more able to handle complex trans
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Binance Terminates Services for Users in Belarus

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has informed Belarusian customers that its services will no longer be available in their country. The announcement follows reports of similar restrictions for residents of other nations under economic sanctions, such as the Islamic Republic of Iran and Zimbabwe. Also read: Russian Miners Sell Their Equipment Amid Market Plunge Belarusians Lose Access to Global Exchange The correspondence from Binance, currently the world’s largest digital asset trading platform by daily volume, does not specifically say when the restrictions will go into effect, Forklog reported. However, the exchange notes that they are related to the latest update in its Terms of Use (ToU) and urges Belarusians to acquaint themselves with the changes. Under “Prohibition of Use” on the ToU page , the exchange explains that by accessing and using any of its services, customers acknowledge and declare they are not on any trade or economic sanctions lists, such as those prepared by th
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Canadian Bitcoin Miner Fortress Blockchain Reports $1.16M Loss in Q3

Fortress Blockchain’s net loss worsened to $1.16 million (1.55 million Canadian dollars) in the third quarter, from $202,000 in the preceding three-month period, as price pressure continues to mount in the global bitcoin mining industry. The Canadian company said depreciation of $291,600 and listing expenses of $293,700 wiped away mining earnings. Also read:  Outrage Over Union Bank of Nigeria’s Threat to Close Crypto-Related Accounts Revenue Falls as Bitcoin Plummets Fortress Blockchain, which listed shares on the TSX Venture Exchange in August, sold 179.8 BTC for $1.13 million in the three months to September, at an average price of $6,605 per coin. About 83 BCH was sold for $35,300. The Vancouver-based company extracted much less bitcoin and bitcoin cash during the third quarter, however, as global cryptocurrency prices plummeted. It mined 64.5 BTC and 52 BCH at significantly lower prices compared to the previous quarter. Revenue from its mining operations declined 37 percent
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Chatter Report: Buy Walls, Miner Anonymity and Bitcoin vs. the State

In today’s edition of Chatter Report, crypto influencers debate the importance of buy walls to support crypto prices, reason for and against miner anonymity and ponder the outcome of governments attacking bitcoin. Also read: Markets Update: Bull Trap or Reversal? Traders Question the Recent Crypto Spike Hodlers of Last Resort and Buy Walls Early bitcoin adopter and investor in Kraken, Trace Mayer, argues that crypto market capitalizations are important, but not as important as the hodlers of last resort and “buy support.” Mayer reasons that the combination of investors who don’t panic sell their coins and buy orders that are reflected in order books are what keep crypto prices from sliding further down. However, Eric Wall argues that this is incorrect, because buy and sell orders are just an illusion. The cryptocurrency lead at Cinnober reasons that buy walls can be pulled quickly when market sentiment turns bearish, so data on order books can’t really be trusted. Wall’s distrus
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