By Talha Dar on Feb 06, 2019 04:56 pm
 Iran banks have launched a gold-backed cryptocurrency dubbed PayMon, reports the Financial Tribune. The report claimed that four Iranian banks including Bank Melli, Parsian Bank, Bank Mellat and Bank Pasargad have joined hands with blockchain startup Kuknos for the above-mentioned project. Moreover, it has been reported that a billion PayMon will be issued at the first stage. These will be used to tokenize banks’ assets and properties. An over-the-counter (OTC) crypto exchange named as Iran Fara Bourse is expected to use the token. Previously, in July 2018, reports came out claiming that Iran was looking to launch its own national cryptocurrency. Iran sees cryptocurrencies as a mean to bypass new economic sanctions imposed on it by the US government. The new cryptocurrency is expected to back and tokenize Iran’s national fiat currency, the rial. Thereby, cross-border and domestic transactions will be facilitated. However, last week, the Central Bank of Iran stated in a draft report that it is considering to block the use of unapproved cryptocurrencies for payments. On the other hand, lawmakers in the US have presented bills against Iran’s attempts to develop sovereign cryptocurrency. In a bill introduced by Mike Gallagher (R-Wisc), the Blocking Iran Illicit Finance Act demanded an investigation into Iran’s crypto efforts. Furthermore, in another bill, sanctions against those who provide Iran any technical or financial support to develop its cryptocurrency (digital assets) are demanded. The said bill was presented in the Senate by Sen Ted Cruz. Follow BitcoinNews.com on Twitter: @bitcoinnewscom Telegram Alerts from BitcoinNews.com: https://t.me/bconews Want to advertise or get published on BitcoinNews.com? – View our Media Kit PDF here. Image Courtesy: bitcoinnews.com The post Iran Banks Launch Gold-backed Crypto “PayMon” appeared first on BitcoinNews.com.
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By Talha Dar on Feb 06, 2019 01:54 pm
A joint digital currency project has been joined by six commercial banks from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), as reported by Saudi Arabian financial news portal Argaam. The UAE central bank (UAECB) stated that the project would utilize cryptocurrency for facilitating transactions between the two nations. This development followed reports in December 2018 that the two countries were looking to develop blockchain-based cross border payments solutions. At the time, the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) and UAECB declared that both countries want to use digital assets for the cross-border transactions. The interbank digital currency project, Aber, will now be joined by six unnamed commercial banks. The project is expected to be functional by next year. Moreover, the report states that the feasibility of the currency’s practical applications will be decided by the UAECB and Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA). The outcomes of the “proof of concept” stage will determine official issuance. In the previous month, both countries issued a statement that they have agreed upon the development of a joint cryptocurrency in order to better understand the potential of blockchain technology. Furthermore, reports claimed that Dubai is also looking to use cryptocurrency supported by the state (pegged to the state’s fiat currency) for utilities payments. Follow BitcoinNews.com on Twitter: @bitcoinnewscom Telegram Alerts from BitcoinNews.com: https://t.me/bconews Want to advertise or get published on BitcoinNews.com? – View our Media Kit PDF here. Image Courtesy: bitcoinnews.com The post Saudi, UAE Banks Join Cross-Border Crypto Project appeared first on BitcoinNews.com.
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By Manuel on Feb 06, 2019 10:53 am
The Isle of Man has launched a blockchain office as well as a sandbox for the tech set up by the self-governing British dependency to foster the development of an international blockchain hub, as reported by FSTech. The authorities have said that the primary function of the office is “to facilitate a dialogue between businesses and regulators”, such that an adequate regulatory infrastructure can be structured in such a way as to provide flexibility in order to help the development of the emerging technology on the island. The sandbox, on the other hand, will help businesses with access to an “environment where they can develop and test blockchain platforms”, the report reads. It would also seem that the sandbox will be open to international forums and will garner expertise to help strengthen cross-border initiatives. As an invitation, Lyle Wraxall, chief executive of Digital Isle of Man has said, “We are looking to attract premium blockchain businesses and the world’s top exchanges to the Island.” In its own way, the island is doing what only a handful of jurisdictions have been committed to in the few years that blockchain made mainstream. The island may have been among the first to establish favorable legislative framework for cryptocurrencies as opined by Daphne Caine, political member for Digital Isle of Man, who said that the island has been home to leading exchanges since 2013, and is the headquarters of blockchain businesses including CoinCorner, Quanta, Luckbox, and Qadre. More so, by “creating new tech-agnostic regulation inspired by best practice” from other “high-quality” jurisdictions around the world, the island is setting itself up for traction from many blockchain startups seeking non-hostile environments to run their businesses similar to the occurrence in Malta. Malta is another jurisdiction working towards achieving the blockchain island status. Although it had come under criticism from within as well as cautionary notes from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on its rate of adoption of blockchain technology, however, it wants to stay the course and become a major landmark for the industry. For most jurisdictions, the process to regulating cryptocurrencies is either slow or undecided as most of them are waiting for comprehensive data to better manage the space without stifling innovation. Others like China have long banned cryptocurrency transactions and while its has formulated regulations for blockchain-based projects, many have ascribed the development as hostile to the industry. Follow BitcoinNews.com on Twitter: @BitcoinNewsCom Telegram Alerts from BitcoinNews.com: https://t.me/bconews Want to advertise or get published on BitcoinNews.com? – View our Media Kit PDF here. Image Courtesy: bitcoinnews.com The post Isle of Man Introduces Sandbox to Promote Blockchain Hub appeared first on BitcoinNews.com.
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By Harold Vandelay on Feb 06, 2019 08:37 am
ScienceMatters, a Swiss-based scientific online publishing platform, is now developing a peer review process based on blockchain technology. Plans are currently underway to utilize Eureka, a publishing platform that uses the Ethereum blockchain, which will also enable reviewers of submitted work to be compensated for their efforts with Eureka tokens. The tokens can then be exchanged for other currencies. ScienceMatter’s editorial director Tamara Zaytouni claims, “Eureka’s crowdsourced scoring will provide researchers as well as publishers with a new metric that can be used to evaluate the work swiftly, thus speeding up the publication process.” The platform should prove to be a trusted and immutable research management service according to the founder of both Science Matters and Eureka, Lawrence Rajendran, who is also a neuroscientist at King’s College London. Although, as yet ScienceMatters doesn’t actually use Eureka, little will drastically change due to the thoroughness of the peer review process, Rajandran suggests. Once Eureka is employed, however, reviewers will be unknown to one another (with reviewers crowdsourced from Eureka users), although their activities and reviews will be logged for all to see. The only downside, according to some current users of the platform is that upfront fees are liable for manuscript processing, and this doesn’t come cheap at USD 595 and with no guarantee of publication save a partial refund if turned down. ScienceMatters is not the only publication of its kind using blockchain tech. ARTiFACTS in Cambridge, Massachusetts, presents research which produces a wealth of interesting material — such as data sets, single observations, and hypotheses. ARTiFACTS provides a forum in which researchers can upload almost anything that they deem worth sharing, logging their finds to a blockchain. Jim Tate, president of EMR Advocate, a health-care technology consultancy based in Asheville, North Carolina, and a member of a working healthcare blockchain group, is positive that there is a future in the new technology in the sharing of research information. He commented: “The underlying blockchain technology of Artifacts has directly increased the speed and efficiency of our entire project.” With many other publishers using blockchain now, it is clear this technology has found a place among researchers who need to share their findings and store them safely for posterity. Follow BitcoinNews.com on Twitter: @bitcoinnewscom Telegram Alerts from BitcoinNews.com: https://t.me/bconews Want to advertise or get published on BitcoinNews.com? – View our Media Kit PDF here. Image Courtesy: bitcoinnews.com The post Open Access Publisher ScienceMatters Turns to Blockchain appeared first on BitcoinNews.com.
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By Manuel on Feb 06, 2019 06:29 am
A sell transaction of over USD 318 million has been uncovered, according to leaked screenshots of transactions and order book data shared on GoxDox.com of transactions between BitPoint cryptocurrency exchange and Nobuaki Kobayashi, the trustee of now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange Mt Gox. GoxDox is a site that has supported the cause of the victims of the defunct exchange. The site suggested that the funds may indeed have had something to do with an alleged liquidation of 60,000 Bitcoins and Bitcoin Cash, as the funds were transferred from BitPoint exchange to the trustee’s account, noting: “Unless BitPoint is being really generous, we’d wager the reason they are depositing billions JPY into the trustee’s bank account is because they were hired to sell the Mt Gox Estate’s BTC/BCH.” It appears that the trustee may have approached Kraken’s CEO Jesse Powell on the matter of liquidation, who however, advised against the move, suggesting that the trustee should do it in an auction or over the counter (OTC) desk considering the volume of BTC to be sold in order for it to have minimal effect on the market. “Instead of taking Kraken’s advice, the trustee decided to (1) sell, (2) not tell us how he sold, and (3) hire a different so-called ‘cryptocurrency expert’ to sell the BTC/BCH,” the source said. Kobayashi had been accused of similar actions in 2017 and 2018 and was allegedly the cause of the price decline at the time when he sold off USD 400 million worth of Bitcoins and Bitcoin Cash. However, he denied he was responsible for the price crash saying that: “Following consultation with cryptocurrency experts, I sold BTC and BCC [BCH], not by an ordinary sale through the BTC/BCC [BCH] exchange, but in a manner that would avoid affecting the market price, while ensuring the security of the transaction to the [greatest] extent possible.” Still, he hasn’t disclosed how he managed the liquidation of the asset. He further said: “The method of sale of BTC and BCH was approved by the court as well – I would like to refrain from explaining the details of the method of sale.” In his opinion, saying more would affect the future sale. According to the source, Redditors had pointed out that “the trustee’s withdrawal of BTC from the MtGox estate’s wallets correlate to Jan/Feb drops in BTC;s price”, with supporting documents. Moreover, after Kobayashi sold USD 400 million of Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash from December 2017 through February 2018, Bitcoin News reported that no more bitcoins will be sold off, which at the time was good news to the creditors as the civil rehabilitation enable them to share BTC 137,891 reserved. However, it remains to be known what led to the recent sell-off if true, and why protocol had been broken with respect to the counsel provided by Powell. For the creditors, the filing of claims was extended last month for those who didn’t meet the initial deadline. Meanwhile, Mt Gox CEO Mark Karpeles awaits the court’s final verdict with regards to embezzlement and exchange data manipulation charges which netted him USD 3.1 million belonging to customers during the latter months of 2013. The long trial is expected to end on 15 March 2019. Follow BitcoinNews.com on Twitter: @BitcoinNewsCom Telegram Alerts from BitcoinNews.com: https://t.me/bconews Want to advertise or get published on BitcoinNews.com? – View our Media Kit PDF here. Image Courtesy: bitcoinnews.com The post Mt Gox Trustee Allegedly Sold $318 Million Worth of Creditor BTC, BCH appeared first on BitcoinNews.com.
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By Peter on Feb 06, 2019 04:13 am
What happened two days after the previous analysis? The buyers and the sellers continued to trade in small volumes. Yesterday’s daily volume was BTC 5,000. In the past, such volume could be normaly traded within an hour. The market seems to be grinding to a stop. At the moment, consolidation in the range of ISD 3,480-3,580 has been formed. Within two days, the price is traded near the bottom of the consolidation line. On a shorter timeframe, you can see that sellers do not allow buyers to fix above USD 3,500. At the moment the weakness of buyers is striking: However, to make sure conclusions now, when trading is at very low volumes, would be unwise. In such cases, the market is easy to manipulate. Therefore, we expect a breakthrough of the critical points to confirm the likely scenario of the price movement. To work out the target in our main scenario, a break through the critical point of USD 3,480 is needed. In this case, we expect a continuation of the fall in the price zone of USD 3,230-3,330 in which sellers also confirm the lower trend line of the wedge, which was formed on 13 January: The alternative scenario will come into effect after breaking through the price zone of USD 3,560-3,580. In this case, the fall which began on 24 December will be ended and a new wave of growth will begin. Marginal buyers positions are systematically decreasing. This does not happen sharply and aggressively but the basic mood of buyers is clear: Sellers also closed their margin positions: Sellers and buyers do not believe in the perspective and have taken an expected position. This is the only smart decision at the present moment since the movement after such consolidations and stopping prices is always strong and unpredictable. Therefore, we do not advise you to make trading decisions at a time when the market is the least predictable and it is advised to expect an increase in volumes and breakthrough of critical points of USD 3,480 and USD 3,580. Follow BitcoinNews.com on Twitter: @bitcoinnewscom Telegram Alerts from BitcoinNews.com: https://t.me/bconews Want to advertise or get published on BitcoinNews.com? – View our Media Kit PDF here. Image Courtesy: Bitcoin News The post BitcoinNews.com Bitcoin Market Analysis 5th February 2019 appeared first on BitcoinNews.com.
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By Talha Dar on Feb 06, 2019 03:18 am
CEO and co-founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, has reaffirmed his belief that Bitcoin will be the default currency of the internet. His opinion comes during an interview, where he said, “[Bitcoin] was something that was born on the internet, that was developed on the internet, that was tested on the internet… It is of the internet.” The CEO of the microblogging platform has made similar comments in the past, last time in May 2018, where he also said that he saw Bitcoin ruling online payments. He is also the founder and CEO of Square, a mobile payment platform that supports Bitcoin. When asked if he would consider adding other cryptocurrencies to the platform, he clearly said no. Square, despite its rigid approach to entertaining only Bitcoin, was still declared as the financial company of the year by Yahoo Finance. Square did record business in Q3, 2018, with revenue generation of USD 43 million from Bitcoin payments alone. On the question of Bitcoin experiencing backlashes, Dorsey said to “look at some of the major banks and their considerations on Bitcoin”. On blockchain, the technology behind Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, he said that through its censorship resistance and decentralized structure, data stored online would be permanent: “We’re moving to a world in which anything created exists forever, that there's no centralized control over who sees what, that these models become completely decentralized and all these barriers that we, that exist today, aren’t as important anymore.” Twitter is a major social platform for crypto-related community. It is plagued with issues, such as fake giveaways and scams involving unauthorized use of pictures of celebrities and leaders to attract susceptible people into funding fake crypto projects. Dorsey has come under fire after his comments, however. Twitter has recently banned accounts such as that of the famous far-right website host, Alex Jones. Follow BitcoinNews.com on Twitter: @bitcoinnewscom Telegram Alerts from BitcoinNews.com: https://t.me/bconews Want to advertise or get published on BitcoinNews.com? – View our Media Kit PDF here. Image Courtesy: bitcoinews.com The post Twitter CEO: Bitcoin Will Be Currency of Internet appeared first on BitcoinNews.com.
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By Manuel on Feb 06, 2019 01:17 am
In a report yesterday by news outlet Fortune, San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange Kraken made an M&A move towards British trading firm Crypto Facilities in a “nine-figure” deal, a reassuring gesture of the coming of high-profile investors into the crypto space. Recently, Bitcoin News reported on how an expected full-fledged institution uptake has slowed down, most likely due to regulatory and infrastructural shortcomings. However, “institutional investment” clauses continue to pool millions of US dollars into the cryptocurrency market, as revealed by more frequent mergers and acquisitions (M&A). According to Kraken CEO Jesse Powell, the deal had been in the works for about 10 months and was only awaiting approval from UK’s financial regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Kraken, which is currently on the cusp of a USD 100 million funding round from its larger customers made up of accredited investors, has made this move in order to provide trading facilities for institutional clients. Although it made it clear that this service will not be available to the US customer base. At press time, Kraken is #43 on a 24-hour volume rankings of exchanges and has seen over USD 42 million trading volume in the past 24 hours from 72 trading pairs, according to CoinMarketCap data. The acquisition move means Kraken has positioned itself to be the first cryptocurrency exchange with both a spot and futures trading service in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ripple, making it a one-stop shop for crypto trading and derivatives. The report further highlights other acquisitions made in the past by the exchange to include smaller exchanges, crypto research, and digital wallet firms. This achievement puts it on par with other exchanges to include Binance and Coinbase looking to scale up operations for the prospective market. The previous year saw quite a number of acquisitions and mergers such as BitGo’s acquisition of the Kingdom Trust Company as well as Kingdom Services to provide institutional clients with regulated custodial services. Early this year, Intercontinental Exchange’s Bakkt said it had acquired certain assets of Rosenthal Collins Group (RCG), an independent futures commission merchant. The recent spike in mergers and acquisitions brings back memories from the age of the internet boom, which saw an instrumental bear market that reshaped the industry. Smaller companies were being absorbed by larger corporations and the consolidation of internet firms solidified the place of infotech in today's economy. Perhaps, similar occurrences await the crypto boom and bust as with the early internet days, and if so, there's a fierce competition for the future-grade blockchain and cryptocurrency market – which so far, paints a picture with institutional investors being pivotal to that reality. Follow BitcoinNews.com on Twitter: @BitcoinNewsCom Telegram Alerts from BitcoinNews.com: https://t.me/bconews Want to advertise or get published on BitcoinNews.com? – View our Media Kit PDF here. Image Courtesy: Pixabay The post Kraken Acquires Crypto Facilities in “Nine-Figure” Deal appeared first on BitcoinNews.com.
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By Talha Dar on Feb 05, 2019 11:14 pm
The US financial regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has announced it wants blockchain expert firms that can provide it data on the “most widely used” decentralized ledgers, based on transaction volume. This, according to the regulator, is needed for it to study and “monitor risk and improve compliance” in the cryptocurrency sector. The agency has laid down specific requirements for the information, such as easy readable data, how the information was compiled and the methodology used for extracting transaction details. The US regulator is known for its tough stance on the legality of cryptocurrencies. However, it has recently announced it will be prioritizing the study of digital assets so that it can counter “concerns related to custody and safekeeping of investor assets, valuation, omitted or misleading disclosures regarding the complexities of the products and technology, and the risks of dramatic price volatility”. Interested parties, according to the announcement, can respond to SEC by 14 February. To that effect, SEC has already setup a dedicated department, known has FinHub, that helps financial technology startups to understand and comply with the legalities, especially when it comes to initial coin offerings (ICOs). The SEC has finally realized that many of the startups face immense difficulty in navigating through legal jargon, often making it extremely complex for the organizations to understand what laws are broken. For this, it has announced it will be releasing guidance that will comprise of “plain English”, where any crypto organization can determine if their cryptocurrency falls under the classification of security or not. The SEC’s interest in studying more about DLTs comes in parallel with Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), another regulatory body’s December 2017 announcement that it would be looking into Ethereum’s workings to ensure derivative markets are compliant. Follow BitcoinNews.com on Twitter: @bitcoinnewscom Telegram Alerts from BitcoinNews.com: https://t.me/bconews Want to advertise or get published on BitcoinNews.com? – View our Media Kit PDF here. Image Courtesy: pexels.com The post SEC Posts Ad for Big Data of "Most Widely Used" Blockchain Ledgers appeared first on BitcoinNews.com.
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Recap - Day in Crypto - BitcoinNews.com for 02/06/2019