TOM LEE: “BITCOIN WILL REACH NEW HEIGHTS IN 2020”

The founder of the company Fundstrat Global Advisors and well-known cryptocurrency enthusiast Tom Lee said that next year bitcoin will reach new heights.

In an interview with CNBC, Lee said that the first cryptocurrency did not complete the upward movement and will reach new heights in 2020. According to him, this is indicated by 11 signs, which were observed only in the “bull” market. He also reiterated his opinion that “a new cycle of the bull market is beginning”.

Lee said that 3 out of 11 indicators are technical indicators, trading volumes and blockchain indicators. All of them signal the end of the market decline cycle. In January, his team found that year-on-year trading volumes began to increase, and in April, the bitcoin exchange rate crossed the 200-day moving average. In addition, volumes are increasing on the stock exchanges, where large and institutional investors trade.

“I think that you can see the improvement of fundamental factors and technical indicators, and now the activity of cryptocurrency owners has begun. So I think bitcoin will reach the $14,000 mark,” Lee said.

At the end of last year, Tom Lee expressed the view that the fair price of bitcoin is in the range of $13,800-$14,800.

 

The post TOM LEE: “BITCOIN WILL REACH NEW HEIGHTS IN 2020” appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News https://www.cryptocynews.com/tom-lee-bitcoin-will-reach-new-heights-2020/
via Bitcoin News
via Bitcoin News Today

NASDAQ HAS ADDED AN INDEX TO TRACK XRP

Today the second largest stock exchange in the world Nasdaq will begin to display the index on the basis of the third capitalization of the digital currency XRP. The index was developed by the New Zealand blockchain company Brave New Coin.

XRP Liquid Index (XRPLX) will be based on the spot prices of the XRP token denominated in the us dollar. Information on the market value of the asset will be delivered in real time “from the most liquid markets”.

“The current components for XRPLX will be Bitfinex, Bitstamp, Poloniex,” representatives of Brave New Coin said.

According to them, Kraken and Coinbase will be added to this list later.

The index will be available on the Nasdaq Global Index Data ServiceSM (GIDS) platform. It will help to track the price dynamics of XRP since 2014.

In February, Nasdaq launched Bitcoin and Ethereum-based indices from Brave New Coin. Already in March, the Nasdaq Global Index Data Service, Thomson Reuters Eikon (Refinitiv) and the Stuttgart stock exchange began displaying indices from the CoinMarketCap service.

The post NASDAQ HAS ADDED AN INDEX TO TRACK XRP appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News https://www.cryptocynews.com/nasdaq-added-index-track-xrp/
via Bitcoin News
via Bitcoin News Today

LOGISTICS GIANT FEDEX IS CALLING FOR THE STANDARDIZATION OF THE BLOCKCHAIN

Director of information technology American logistics company FedEx’s Rob Carter called for the establishment of uniform standards in the industry of the blockchain.

Speaking at the conference Global Revolution Blockchain, he said that mandatory standards will help to create uniformity for the blockchain, which is used in the supply chain. Carter also noted the potential of technology that could improve traceability and simplify the delivery process.

FedEx, along with two other major international shipping services, DHL Express and UPS are part of the Blockchain in Transport Alliance. In addition, in September, the company joined the blockchain consortium Hyperledger to create industry applications, platforms and hardware systems based on blockchain.

Recall that in March, a major us postal operator UPS together with e – Commerce company Inxeption launched a blockchain platform Inxeption Zippy to track supply chains.

The post LOGISTICS GIANT FEDEX IS CALLING FOR THE STANDARDIZATION OF THE BLOCKCHAIN appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News https://www.cryptocynews.com/logistics-giant-fedex-calling-standardization-blockchain/
via Bitcoin News
via Bitcoin News Today

THE NUMBER OF INFECTED WALLETS ELECTRUM REACHED 152 THOUSAND

Experts of the company on cybersecurity Malwarebytes said that the owners of digital storage have become victims of intruders. Total losses are estimated at $4.6 million. They managed to find a new software called Trojan.BeamWinHTTP, which is involved in the distribution of the botnet ElectrumDoSMiner, previously identified.

According to experts, the largest number of infections occurred in the Asia-Pacific region, Brazil and Peru. It is known that the main part of the hosting infrastructure ElectrumDoSMiner is located in Ukraine. New PCs are mostly attacked.

Hacking the infrastructure of the Electrum wallet began in late December 2018. Then, users lost more than 200 bitcoins (slightly less than $1 million at the rate of that time). At the beginning of this month, there was data that the Electrum system is under a DoS attack, it is 140 thousand bots. Clients of the service are redirected to compromised versions of the SOFTWARE, which instantly steal their funds.

The post THE NUMBER OF INFECTED WALLETS ELECTRUM REACHED 152 THOUSAND appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News https://www.cryptocynews.com/number-infected-wallets-electrum-reached-152-thousand/
via Bitcoin News
via Bitcoin News Today

How to transact and spend BTC anonymously with a Bitcoin Mixer

Are you tired of always looking at your back when transacting online with Bitcoin? Do you want to become anonymous and do your business without any worry? If so, the solution lies in bitcoin mixing.

Services such as https://mixertumbler.com Bitcoin Mixer have come up to give bitcoin user the safety and freedom they want in online transaction. This could not be so if Bitcoin were truly anonymous. Unfortunately, it is not.

Many people, especially those new to the blockchain tech often assume bitcoin is anonymous. However, the true nature of bitcoin is described as pseudonymous.  Since the transactions are recorded on a public ledger that is freely accessible, anyone can find and track a transaction. As long as they can figure out the input and the output, noting can stop them from identifying you in real life.

The good news is, you don’t have to suffer so. Bitcoin mixing service have become a vital part of such transactions. They offer an easy way for users to stay under the radar and avoid being noticed by hackers and prying eyes. With them, you no longer need to fear transacting as many bitcoins as you desire.

How do Bitcoin Mixers work?

The easiest way to describe the working principle behind bitcoin tumblers is that they confuse your transactions. Instead of having a direct link between the input and the out, they cut such links so that not one can understand how they started or ended.

They take you Bitcoins, store them for a while and give someone else’s bitcoin with the same value. The sites have been set to do everything automatically so that things are perfect in the end. It does not involve people who may perhaps steal your bitcoins.

You don’t even need to create an account to use bitcoin mixing services. All you have to do is log onto a website, enter your desire output address and choose the delay time. Here, you need to choose a good delay time to makes your transaction is fully secure.

Once you are through with this, wait for the tumbling to take place, after which you receive a confirmation. With such a process, not one can tell where you have transacted from or to.

How many times can you mix bitcoins?

There is no specific number of times set as the maximum for bitcoin mixing. You can use the services as many times as possible.

Some people use bitcoin tumblers for every transaction because they are more secure. It does not matter how much coins you are moving too. As long as it feels secure, it is ok.

Is it safe?

This is a very important concern for many people. Bitcoin Mixers are safe. However, you need to start by picking a service you can trust.

Understand that Bitcoin Mixers are very volatile. There are many with have closed down just when they begin to make a mark. But there are many who have set in place initiatives to ensure your coins are safe.

The post How to transact and spend BTC anonymously with a Bitcoin Mixer appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News https://www.cryptocynews.com/transact-spend-btc-anonymously-bitcoin-mixer/
via Bitcoin News
via Bitcoin News Today

OKEX EXCHANGE HAS ITS OWN TOKEN

The OKEX cryptocurrency exchange announced the launch of its own OKB token in the public blockchain. From April 29, users were already able to withdraw OKB tokens to wallets that support the ERC-20 standard, or to the cold storage in the exchange application.

In total, 300 million OKB tokens entered the public network.

The developers also confirmed that they expect to launch OKChain in June. After confidence that OKChain is stable, coins OKB migrate with standard ERC-20 to a core network of the new blockchain.

OKB tokens are intended primarily for the future decentralized exchange: they can be used to pay transaction fees, as well as in decentralized applications based on OKChain. In addition, OKB will be used in token presales, for voting and payment of service fee to supernodes.

Of the 1 billion OKB CURRENTLY blocked 700 million tokens. Of these, 300 million coins were originally to be distributed to OKEx users as part of a loyalty program. The remaining 400 million OKB will remain under the management of OK Blockchain Foundation and the exchange team. The blocking period will end in 2022.

The post OKEX EXCHANGE HAS ITS OWN TOKEN appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News https://www.cryptocynews.com/okex-exchange-token/
via Bitcoin News
via Bitcoin News Today

MATI GREENSPAN: “FOR THE GROWTH OF THE BITCOIN ETF IS NOT REQUIRED”

Mati Greenspan, a senior analyst at eToro, expressed the view that bitcoin growth does not necessarily require approval of bitcoin ETFs from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

According to the analyst, approval of ETFs for bitcoin will be only an addition to what has already been achieved by the first cryptocurrency, but will not be a determining factor for the growth of bitcoin. In addition, Greenspan doubts that the SEC will still solve something with several already filed applications for the launch of funds. He noted that the bitwise application is the best among them. It should solve the main problems that prevent the approval of ETFs — the issues of market manipulation and fictitious trade volumes.

Note that the SEC has repeatedly postponed decisions on ETF to bitcoin, citing various reasons for this. The next consideration of the application should be held on May 19 this year. The emergence of bitcoin ETFs is expected to allow institutional investors to gain access to the cryptocurrency market. Many believe that this will give a new impetus to the growth of the entire industry, as it will pour a lot of money.

 

The post MATI GREENSPAN: “FOR THE GROWTH OF THE BITCOIN ETF IS NOT REQUIRED” appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News https://www.cryptocynews.com/mati-greenspan-growth-bitcoin-etf-not-required-mati-greenspan-senior-analyst-etoro-expressed-view-bitcoin-growth-not-necessarily-require-approval-b/
via Bitcoin News
via Bitcoin News Today

IOTA CAN BE INTEGRATED INTO JAGUAR LAND ROVER CAR

Jaguar Land Rover has started testing smart contracts, the participants of the new program will be able to earn IOTA tokens for providing certain data. According to the recent information, the company is developing a “smart wallet” that will be installed in its cars. Drivers will be able to use altcoins, for example, to pay for parking or charging electric vehicles.

The main goal of the program is to reduce pollution, accidents and congestion. The technology is implemented by the Irish division of the automaker to develop various software solutions. The new system is being tested in Jaguar F-Pace and Range Rover Velar. At the moment, it is unknown when the SOFTWARE will be available for the mass consumer.

Over the past day, the average market rate of IOTA increased by 18% to $0.32. Trading volumes altcoin increased more than four times. Now this figure exceeds $50 million, although 24 hours earlier it was at the level of $12 million.

The post IOTA CAN BE INTEGRATED INTO JAGUAR LAND ROVER CAR appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News https://www.cryptocynews.com/iota-can-integrated-jaguar-land-rover-car/
via Bitcoin News
via Bitcoin News Today

BITMAIN LAUNCHES ASIC MINER ANTMINER T17 SALES

The manufacturer of mining equipment Bitmain announced the sale of a new device based on the 7-nm chip Antminer T17. According to the developers, this is the first model of the 17 series, which is capable of issuing a hashrate of 40 TH/s and has an energy efficiency of 55 J/TH. The device is designed to mine coins on the SHA256 algorithm such as Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash.

Bitmain team has improved the design of the device, the new case prevents dust. Miner also uses dogtramadol technology of heat dissipation. Unlike previous ASICS, the Antminer T17 reduces the distance between the air inlet and outlet by half. According to experts, this will have a positive impact on the performance of the miner and will reduce the cost of its maintenance.

The Antminer 17 series also includes two other models: Antminer S17 Pro and Antminer S17. Their sales started on Tuesday, April 9, and a day later all the devices were sold out.

The post BITMAIN LAUNCHES ASIC MINER ANTMINER T17 SALES appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News https://www.cryptocynews.com/bitmain-launches-asic-miner-antminer-t17-sales/
via Bitcoin News
via Bitcoin News Today

THE  TV SERIES “MINERS” WILL BE SHOWN ON BERLIN WEB FESTIVAL

On the eve it became known that the Russian TV series “Miners” from Director Alexander Bezzubtsev will be shown at the webfest. The event will be held in Berlin on September 12-14, 2019, and will introduce the audience to innovative technologies, as well as the latest market trends in the format of short series. It is also worth noting that the channel RVISION has already released a long-awaited sequel to the series.

With each new miracle the story becomes more interesting. An intriguing plot and a relatively young genre will entice a simple viewer, and the familiar atmosphere will not leave indifferent technologically sophisticated audience.

 

The post THE  TV SERIES “MINERS” WILL BE SHOWN ON BERLIN WEB FESTIVAL appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News https://www.cryptocynews.com/tv-series-miners-will-shown-berlin-web-festival/
via Bitcoin News
via Bitcoin News Today

JOHN MCAFEE ANNOUNCED THE RELEASE OF HIS OWN BITCOIN DEBIT CARD

Well-known programmer, entrepreneur and bitcoin enthusiast John McAfee has announced the release of a debit card for Bitcoin. According to the teaser, it can be used to pay for goods and services wherever visa cards are accepted.

On the front side of the map is a picture of McAfee on the background – the American flag with broken chains on the bands and symbols of modern technology in place of the stars. In the lower left corner – the inscription “Freedom lover”.

The reverse side of the card contains a QR code for the bitcoin deposit address. If the claimed product is implemented, the owners of the cryptocurrency will be able to make purchases using the card tied to the wallet. The report says that the card will be issued “soon”.

Although in 2018, McAfee was recognized as the most authoritative and influential figure in the crypto space, the entrepreneur has a reputation for being prone to shocking antics and not always fulfilling his promises. Therefore, some experts doubt that the announced map is a real project.

The post JOHN MCAFEE ANNOUNCED THE RELEASE OF HIS OWN BITCOIN DEBIT CARD appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News https://www.cryptocynews.com/john-mcafee-announced-release-bitcoin-debit-card/
via Bitcoin News
via Bitcoin News Today

E-TRADE LAUNCHES CRYPTOCURRENCY TRADING

The brokerage company E-Trade Financial Group plans to provide clients with the opportunity to trade cryptocurrencies on its platform.

According to the last information the company will first offer bitcoin and ether trading, but later other cryptocurrencies will be added to the platform. Representatives of E-Trade refused to comment on this information.

E-Trade is one of the largest brokerage firms in the market. The company serves almost 5 million customer accounts. Over the past year, according to a report of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), E-Trade earned $9.6 billion, and the total amount of assets of the company exceeds $65 billion. The appearance on the platform of digital currencies is a sign of the adoption of the digital assets in the financial industry.

Note that last year one of the competitors of E-Trade – Robinhood platform – announced the provision of cryptocurrency trading in five states of the USA, and earlier this year the company received BitLicense to provide services related to crypto assets in New York state.

The post E-TRADE LAUNCHES CRYPTOCURRENCY TRADING appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News https://www.cryptocynews.com/e-trade-launches-cryptocurrency-trading/
via Bitcoin News
via Bitcoin News Today

THE BANK OF THAILAND WILL USE BLOCKCHAIN FOR INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS

The Bank of Thailand Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) and the state oil company PTTEP announced the successful testing of the use of blockchain for international transfers.

Last year, a large commercial Bank of Thailand launched a project aimed at optimizing operational efficiency between enterprises. According to representatives of the Bank, within the project payments are made within one minute, while usually their verification takes several days.

According to SCB international banking operations specialist Wasin Saiyawan, the bank is ready to establish a new standard for the industry.

Note that in September 2018, the Bank of Thailand for the first time applied RippleNet technology for international transfers.

The post THE BANK OF THAILAND WILL USE BLOCKCHAIN FOR INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News https://www.cryptocynews.com/bank-thailand-will-use-blockchain-international-transfers/
via Bitcoin News
via Bitcoin News Today

TETHER SUDDENLY EMITTED $ 300 MILLION USDT TOKENS

Tether, the company issued 300 million new USDT tokens. Attention to this information was attracted by Whale Alert — a popular service for tracking the movements of large amounts of cryptocurrency on Twitter.

This data is confirmed by the transaction browser of the Omni Protocol, which operates on the basis of the bitcoin blockchain. Tether actually credited 300 million new USDTs to its vault. At the moment, it is not known exactly how the company will dispose of new tokens.

Already there were versions from users who were divided into two groups. The first believe that someone decided to make Fiat money in cryptocurrencies through the purchase of stablecoin. This is a bullish scenario, however, there are also negative community representatives who claim that someone is leaving the cryptocurrency in the USDT.

According to CoinMarketCap, the issue of USDT today is 2.827 billion tokens. Obviously, the new 300 million tokens is a significant amount.

The release of a new portion of tokens on Omni looks somewhat strange against the background of plans for a partial transfer of USDT to the Tron blockchain and the addition of support for a new cryptocurrency format by some exchanges. So, this morning, Huobi and OKEx announced the start of depositing USDT-TRON deposits. Some users suggested that adding a new blockchain to the USDT system would help to reduce the issue of the token based on bitcoin, but at the moment the opposite situation is observed.

 

The post TETHER SUDDENLY EMITTED $ 300 MILLION USDT TOKENS appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News https://www.cryptocynews.com/tether-suddenly-emitted-300-million-usdt-tokens/
via Bitcoin News
via Bitcoin News Today

COINME AND COINSTAR HAVE INSTALLED MORE THAN 2,000 KIOSKS (GROCERY STORES) IN THE US TO BUY BTC FOR CASH

Coinstar has expanded its network of cash withdrawal kiosks – more than 2,000 new kiosks have been installed in stores in 19 different US states.

This week, the company announced that thanks to a partnership with blockchain startup Coinme, which allows customers to convert cash into bitcoins, the Coinstar network has expanded from 70 to 2,100 kiosks. In addition, while the partnership initially included kiosks at Albertsons and Safeway stores, they are now also installed at Jewel, Shaw and Save Mart stores, according to a press release.

Coinstar CEO Jim Gaherity stated that his company has received “overwhelmingly positive” response to the initial announcement of the collaboration with Coinme in January 2019. At the time, Coinstar said that within the partnership in kiosks, you can buy bitcoins worth up to $2.5 thousand.

A press release released on Wednesday explains that the collaboration led to a 15% increase in the number of Coinme users per week. In addition, the first quarter of 2019 was “one of the most successful in the five-year history of Coinme”: the volume of transactions increased by 92%, and the number of processed transactions increased by 109% compared to the first quarter of 2018.

The post COINME AND COINSTAR HAVE INSTALLED MORE THAN 2,000 KIOSKS (GROCERY STORES) IN THE US TO BUY BTC FOR CASH appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News https://www.cryptocynews.com/coinme-coinstar-installed-2000-kiosks-us-buy-btc-cash/
via Bitcoin News
via Bitcoin News Today

BINANCE LAUNCHED A CRYPTO-FIAT PLATFORM IN SINGAPORE

The largest in terms of trading volume, the cryptocurrency exchange Binance announced the launch of a crypto-fiat trading platform in Singapore. So far, only one trading pair is available on the platform – BTC/SGD.

Earlier, the exchange launched two more crypto-fiat platforms – in Uganda and in Jersey. However, if previous platforms supported trading pairs with ETH, only bitcoin is available for trading in Singapore.

To trade on the exchange, users need an account with the local payment service Xfers, which provides a cryptocurrency wallet approved by Singapore regulators. After registering on Binance Singapore user links your Xfers account and can start trade.

“Binance is happy to provide world-class technology for Singapore users. The BTC/SGD pair will be the initial one, but in the future it is possible to add other trading pairs, subject to their approval by regulators,” the exchange representatives said.

Note that Binance methodically executes its plan to launch ten local cryptocurrency platforms, where crypto-Fiat trading will be available and the next such platform should be the exchange in Malta.

The post BINANCE LAUNCHED A CRYPTO-FIAT PLATFORM IN SINGAPORE appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News https://www.cryptocynews.com/binance-launched-crypto-fiat-platform-singapore/
via Bitcoin News
via Bitcoin News Today

BITFURY HAS ENTERED INTO A PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT WITH A SWISS INVESTMENT FIRM TO LAUNCH A BITCOIN MINING FUND FOR INSTITUTIONAL INVESTORS

As confirmed by the company’s executives on Twitter, Final Frontier, in which Bitfury owns a minority stake, has received approval for the launch of the fund from the regulatory body of Liechtenstein.

The fund will focus on institutional investors. The fund will provide “whales” with access to the mining industry. Bitfury described the creation of the fund as a profitable initiative for the developing sector. The company will provide equipment for the project, which will also use various Bitfury mining centers to provide acceptable mining costs.

“Given that the price of BTC dropped significantly from record high levels, and the institutional interest is growing every day, now maybe it’s time to think about investing in mining bitcoin,” said Imraan Moola, co-founder of Final Frontier.

This initiative is being implemented at a good time for Bitfury, which was previously included in the list of blockchain companies-billionaires, compiled by Forbes. However, not all cryptocurrency mining business is profitable. Recently it became known that the Chinese construction company Huatie sells its mining business, which for the year brought her $23.5 million in losses.

 

The post BITFURY HAS ENTERED INTO A PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT WITH A SWISS INVESTMENT FIRM TO LAUNCH A BITCOIN MINING FUND FOR INSTITUTIONAL INVESTORS appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News https://www.cryptocynews.com/bitfury-entered-partnership-agreement-swiss-investment-firm-launch-bitcoin-mining-fund-institutional-investors/
via Bitcoin News
via Bitcoin News Today

SAMSUNG PLANS TO RELEASE ITS OWN CRYPTOCURRENCY

The South Korean Corporation is probably developing an altcoin based on the Ethereum blockchain and wants to add it to public trading platforms.

At the moment the system is at the stage of internal testing. Sources of the publication claim that later the token will appear on public trading platforms, but the direction of the project has not yet been determined.

About two months ago, Samsung released its flagship cellphone, the Galaxy S10, which features a cryptocurrency private keys storage and other features such as support blockchain-based digital signatures.

Last month, the company unveiled a cryptocurrency wallet, which is compatible with ether (ETH) and ethereum-based ERC20 tokens.
Although preinstalled in the S10 series, the wallet is still not yet active in some jurisdictions.

 

The post SAMSUNG PLANS TO RELEASE ITS OWN CRYPTOCURRENCY appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News https://www.cryptocynews.com/samsung-plans-release-cryptocurrency/
via Bitcoin News
via Bitcoin News Today

LIGHTNING LABS HAS RELEASED A DESKTOP APPLICATION FOR THE MAIN BITCOIN NETWORK

Lightning Labs, one of the main developers of solutions based on Lightning Network scaling technology, has released the first desktop application for the main bitcoin network.

Previously, the desktop version of the wallet worked with the bitcoin test network, which is accessed by BTC that do not have real value. The new version of the app is running on the main bitcoin network for the first time, so it can be used to send and receive real bitcoins. At the same time, wallet users can fully control their bitcoins.

An article in the blog devoted to the new application, which was created by developers Lightning Tankred Hase and Valentine Wallace said:

“The release of this app reaffirms our commitment to supporting the scaling of the principles that underpinned Bitcoin: privacy, security, and self-determination. To do this, we need to go beyond the usual solutions and guides for enthusiasts and provide each user with a great networking experience.”

There are other Lightning-enabled wallets that work with real bitcoin, including Bluewallet, Zap, and Zeus. But Lightning Labs, originally founded by the creators of Lightning technology, is arguably the largest company to release a technology-enabled app for the mainstream Bitcoin network. The application works on MacOS, Windows and Linux devices.

At the same time, the developers noted that although the wallet works with the main network, it is still intended for “advanced users” who want to try out the promising technology. The risk of losing funds still exists because Lightning Network is still in the testing phase.

Another important part of the release is that the application uses Neutrino’s “light client” technology, which requires the storage of a much smaller amount of bitcoin blockchain data to authenticate transactions. Although there are other light customer technologies, Neutrino is considered to be one of the most confidential solutions. In 2017, Lightning Labs introduced a wallet for the Lightning Network with a graphical interface. In the future, Lightning Labs plans to release a version for mobile devices.

Last month, Lightning Labs released a solution to simplify accepting bitcoin payments, which will give Lightning Network users the ability to receive more BTC without having to open and close a new payment channel.

The post LIGHTNING LABS HAS RELEASED A DESKTOP APPLICATION FOR THE MAIN BITCOIN NETWORK appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News https://www.cryptocynews.com/lightning-labs-released-desktop-application-main-bitcoin-network/
via Bitcoin News
via Bitcoin News Today

ANTHONY POMPLIANO: “BITCOIN COULD RISE 20 TO 50 TIMES IN FIVE YEARS”

The founder of Morgan Creek Digital Assests Anthony Pompiano believes that bitcoin can show parabolic growth for five years.

“Bitcoin is the only asset with a capitalization of $95 billion, which I believe has the potential to grow 20-50 times over a five-year period. Sometimes the best deal is the easiest,” Pompliano wrote on Twitter.

If the capitalization of the first cryptocurrency will grow by 50 times, it will reach $ 5 trillion. This is comparable to the capitalization of gold, which is about $8 trillion. Note that a similar opinion was expressed by Mike Novogratz who is saying that within 20 years the capitalization of bitcoin will easily exceed the capitalization of gold.

Quite a large number of analysts agree that bitcoin has already passed the bottom and is now preparing for a new parabolic growth. Pompliano also noted that the next “cycle of the bull market” will be based not on speculation, but on fundamental factors and market development.

Pompliano noted that in recent years bitcoin has shown itself much better than any traditional assets. Thus, over the past two years, the bitcoin exchange rate increased by 450%, while the S&P index showed an increase of 19.9%, and gold – only 1.3%.

Anthony Pompliano is a well-known cryptocurrency enthusiast. He has repeatedly urged the public to buy bitcoins, including pension funds.

The post ANTHONY POMPLIANO: “BITCOIN COULD RISE 20 TO 50 TIMES IN FIVE YEARS” appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News https://www.cryptocynews.com/anthony-pompliano-bitcoin-could-rise-20-to-50-times-in-five-years/
via Bitcoin News
via Bitcoin News Today

The Necessity of Blockchain PR

Is Blockchain PR Necessary?

 

The cryptocurrency industry was born as a counterculture movement against the economic status quo established by big banks and sovereign states. Bitcoin was created shortly after the financial crisis of 2008, in what most people consider a reaction to the hubris, costs, and inefficiencies of the global system of capital.

 

Yet ten years later the cryptocurrency industry has transformed beyond recognition. Startups with wealthy investors and tech giants with innovative blockchain projects tend to capture all the media attention. Developer events are overwhelmed with inexperienced entrepreneurs relentlessly trying to plug their products. The industry is as crowded and noisy as ever, with a new project being launched every other day.

 

Thousands of token projects and blockchain startups now compete for the ultimate prize in the cryptocurrency industry – mass adoption. By design, blockchain-based platforms need a lot of users spread across the world to add value. Decentralized lending platforms, dApps, social gaming platforms, and distributed file storage solutions need a network that spans the globe and includes thousands if not millions of nodes.

 

Even the most basic crowdfunding project or initial coin offering requires widespread awareness of the project. Raising money to take the project forward is nearly impossible without a core base of supporters willing to pitch in with their talent or cash.

 

That’s what makes blockchain PR such a necessity for authentic entrepreneurs and teams trying to make a difference. Traditional marketing and public relations strategies can help a project stand out from the crowd and establish a network of users and developers early.

 

While it’s easy to assume that the best projects will have grassroots support and simply create their network of users organically, in reality even the best projects with the most experienced teams can be overshadowed by a mega corporation with money to spend on event promotions and roundtable dinners with hedge fund investors.

 

The best blockchain PR agencies can help an authentic team streamline their message and get it across to the early adopters and developers need the product the most. These professional service providers can help ordinary teams extend their resources and reach their target market efficiently, educating potential users about the benefits and unique features of each platform.

 

Meanwhile, lack of a robust PR strategy could kill a project before it even launches. Lack of communication from the founding team and backend developers can frustrate new users. Misunderstandings about the project or the underlying platform could be perpetuated by traditional media outlets and social media users causing irreparable damage to a startup’s brand. Most importantly, lack of a professional PR strategy allows rivals to set the tone and control the public discourse about a unique and innovative product that threatens their core operations.

 

With this in mind, it seems traditional public relations and marketing strategies can add genuine value to innovative startups in the cryptocurrency space. Entrepreneurs should consider reaching out to experienced professionals that can help them fine-tune their message and ultimately deliver their solutions to the widest possible audience.

The post The Necessity of Blockchain PR appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News https://www.cryptocynews.com/necessity-blockchain-pr/
via Bitcoin News
via Bitcoin News Today

RUSSIAN BITCOIN SCAM

Two of the Russian Federal Security Service agents were recently accused and charged of a BTC scams, as a result of an operation to eliminiate cyber-criminals from the agency.

Sergei Belousov and Aleksey Kolbov were charged of fraud of $1 mln, based on reports. However, the most interesting thing is, that the earlier mentioned agents were responsible for anti-fraud investigations.

A case against the former director of FBI, Erast Galumov was being investigated by the two. He was secretly arrested in 2018, however, in his family’s mind, he was away for business. The two corrupt agents blackmailed the man for $1 mln. The former FBI director was accused of participating in a $675,000 fraud, although his lawyers repeatedly dismissed the allegations.

The two agents contacted his son, Alexander, as Kolbov used a false identity and required him to leave Russia, if he didn’t want to face his father’s fate. Stating that the money was required for the father’s bail, Kolbov demanded $1 mln. After Erast and his son, who were at the time cooperating with FSB in order to find corrupt agents, made the payment. The BTC transaction was traced.

This fraud case is handed over to court for further investigation, however, many believe that another 15 FSB agents were involved in the scam.

The post RUSSIAN BITCOIN SCAM appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News https://www.cryptocynews.com/russian-bitcoin-scam/
via Bitcoin News
via Bitcoin News Today

AMAZON ACCEPTS CRYPTOCURRENCIES THROUGH MOON

Amazon, the world-famous e-commerce, now allows usage of Bitcoin when making payments via the lightning network.

Moon, a crypto payment processing startup, announced that from this point crypto asset payments are enabled in shops like Amazon. The transfer of funds will occur through a browser extension in BTC, ETH, LTC or BCH. Almost 250 beta users tested the payment option by connecting the browser extension to accounts such as Coinbase. This payment method is meant to be quick and consistent.

“A QR code, which has the lightning invoice, will appear and you will have the ability to pay with your lightning wallet of choice,” explained the startup’s CEO.

However, he refused to say which financial institutions will convert the crypto assets into FIAT. Currently, the company works only with Amazon, although it schedules to cooperate with sites like Domino’s, Target, eBay and Ali Express. By next year, the feature will efficiently operate with all e-commerce sites.

“No direct merchant integration occurs, since we’re integrating with Mastercard and Visa networks and getting a share of fees that are paid by merchants each time they accept a credit card transaction.” The CEO said further.

Moon, the crypto startup, started operating in NY in 2018.

The post AMAZON ACCEPTS CRYPTOCURRENCIES THROUGH MOON appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News https://www.cryptocynews.com/amazon-accepts-crypto/
via Bitcoin News
via Bitcoin News Today

BINANCE DEX IS NOW LIVE

Binance DEX, the company’s decentralized exchange, is now live. Currently, it is not possible to trade on the platform, however, transactions will be allowed immediately after the first pair is listed.

The CEO of Binance stated: ‘In our mind, DEXs create fresh opportunities, providing a transparent and trustless exchange platform. Bincance’s decentralized exchange gives you great deal of supervision over your own funds. We believe that this will convey fresh sense of freedom in the crypto asset community. This ecosystem will develop greatly, as we plan to cooperate with teams and projects.’

The launch of the DEX was announced earlier today and, as of now, users only have access to its interface and have the ability to connect Binance’s BEP2 token wallets to the DEX.
In a Twitter statement, the company said that the date that the trading will be initiated, is not announced yet. However, according to CoinDesk, it will start in a few day.

The launch of the DEX followed the announcement of Binance Chain, the firm’s native blockchain. Right now, this blockchain supports numerous wallets, such as Enjin, Exodus, Coinomi, Ledger and Trust Wallet, which is owned by Binance. Before its launch, the DEX was being tested for 2 months, during which, 8.5 mln tradings occurred.

Other large crypto asset exchanges, like OKEx, are looking into launching their own decentralized exchanges.

The post BINANCE DEX IS NOW LIVE appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News https://www.cryptocynews.com/binance-dex-now-live/
via Bitcoin News
via Bitcoin News Today

BLOCKCHAIN USED FOR TRANSPARENT DONATIONS

In favor of citizens living in the area, The British Virgin Islands cooperated with blockchain company Lifelabs.io, in order to develop a crypto-based payments system. The creation of this system was accounted during a BVI gov. press release.

This cooperation is mainly concentrated on the usage of digital infrastructures for supporting the dependable and quick money transfer and access to money in case of disasters.

The British Virgin Islands authorities are planning to apply the blockchain company’s PaaS that allegedly can cut transaction costs by more than 50% and at the same be more time efficient.

Moreover, this implementation will be able to support LifeWallet, an app that supports Bitcoin, Ethereum, ERC20-compliant tokens and the company’s native tokens, life.

The British Virgin Islands government and Lifelabs emphasize that implementation of a Blockchain payments system will guarantee that citizen have access to their funds during hard times.

After a natural disaster in 2017, the territory suffered significant losses of over $3 bln, which was 3X higher than its estimated GDP. Thus, a crypto charity, Life Rapid Response Cash Fund, was created with the purpose to encourage effectiveness and transparency during donations, providing that those in need will receive it.

As noted earlier, blockchain possesses ability to promote further honest donations and this was acknowledged by organizations like the UN that utilized ETH to provide help to refugees from Syria in 2017.

The post BLOCKCHAIN USED FOR TRANSPARENT DONATIONS appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News https://www.cryptocynews.com/blockchain-for-donations/
via Bitcoin News
via Bitcoin News Today

ZAIF WAS BOUGHT BY FISCO

Zaif, a Japan-based crypto asset exchange, that was a victim of a cyber attack in 2018, now has new owners.

On the website Zaif stated that on the 22nd of April the exchange will be signed over to Fisco, an investment company and will be functioning fully from April 23. This deal cost Fisco around $44.675 mln and was first considered in October 2018.

Zaif lost $62.5 mln in BTC, MONA and BCH, in the 2018 hack. After that, usage of MONA was stopped since October 10, 2018 and registration was put to stop. However, tomorrow this will no longer be an issue. The cyber attack occurred on September 14, when BTC, BCH and MONA were stolen from Zaif’s hot wallets major harm was caused to the company. Users that experienced loss from the cyber attack were now refunded. A the company reported users of Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash, however, a problem occurred with Monacoin, as holders received only 60% of the sum due to the highly volatile nature of the coin.

According to last November reports, security firms have discovered some information about the hackers responsible for the Zaif attack.

Following the investigation of the stolen MONA started and Japan Digital Design reported that it detected the “source” of the hackers and shared the information with authorities.

The post ZAIF WAS BOUGHT BY FISCO appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News https://www.cryptocynews.com/zaif-bought-by-fisco/
via Bitcoin News
via Bitcoin News Today

SERENA WILLIAMS INVESTS IN COINBASE

Serena Williams, the infamous professional tennis player, brought to light her Coinbase digital asset investments.

She announced in an Instagram post that Serena Ventures, an investment company founded in 2014, has investments in over thirty companies with Coinbase among others. Serena Ventures is an investment fund focused on giving opportunities to founders in difference fields. It has worked with clothing, food, women’s health and fitness startups. The company’s market cap is approximately $12 bln.

“We invest in startups that accept diversity, personal empowerment and creative spirit,” the athlete said in her Instagram post.

As reported by the Forbes, Serena Williams was the highest paid female athlete in 2018 earning around $18.1 mln.

The tennis player is a four time Olympics gold medal and all-time 13 Grand Slam singles titles record winner. Williams started her own clothing line and is involved in business. In 2009, her sister and her bought a stake in Miami Dolphins.

Coinbase, the digital currency exchange that Williams invested in, has raised $546.6 mln over 8 rounds in funding. The latest one was on the 21st of December, 2018. The San Francisco-based exchange was founded in June 2012 and now is brokering BTC transactions in 190 countries around the globe.

It was recently reported that fund investment in crypto industries may reach an all-time high this year.

The post SERENA WILLIAMS INVESTS IN COINBASE appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News https://www.cryptocynews.com/serena-williams-invests-coinbase/
via Bitcoin News
via Bitcoin News Today

KRAKEN WILL ADD TWO COINS PER MONTH

Kraken, a US-based crypto asset exchange, announced that from May, 2019 they are going to start listing two coins per month.

This exchange chose to list Cosmos (ATOM), a Proof-Of-Stake crypto asset, which was founded upon the Tendermint consensus protocol. This digital asset will start trading on the 22nd of April, today. Also, the currency is going to be presented in ATOM/USD, ATOM/EUR, ATOM/CAD, ATOM/BTC and ATOM/ETH.

However, this announcement doesn’t appear to have a significant good influence on the worth of ATOM. The currency, experienced a negative change in value by 17% during the past day. ATOM’s market cap decreased from $1,2 bln to $1,06 bln.

After the launch of Cosmos on March 13th, on the 20th of March, ATAM was ranked as the third biggest Proof-Of-Stake crypto asset following EOS and Dash with Tron, Tezos and NEM sitting below it.

Kraken was recently involved in a large controversy when it announced delisting BSV, which was launched by self-proclaimed Satoshi, Craig Wright. The claim about Wright’s identity was taken as a joke by the crypto asset community and he resolved to take legal action against those, who dismissed his claims. Resulting in this, numerous exchanges, as well as Kraken delisted Bitcoin Cash Satoshi’s Vision. The mentioned exchange conducted a Twitter survey that discovered that users believe Bitcoin Cash Satoshi’s Vision to be toxic. All of this was a cause for a great BSV value collapse.

The post KRAKEN WILL ADD TWO COINS PER MONTH appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News https://www.cryptocynews.com/kraken-will-add-coins/
via Bitcoin News
via Bitcoin News Today

WILL AMAZON ACCEPT CRYPTO?

In the crypto asset sector, the next big development should be mainstream use of crypto assets.

Bitcoin was already proof that crypto asset payment transfers via Blockchain are possible. Internet giants like Facebook and Twitter have shown their positive attitudes towards digital currencies. Facebook, also, announced their desire to create Facebook coin.

Recently, Rakuten, the Japanese Amazon, openly expressed their desire to integrate a Crypto asset trading service in June 2019, following attainment of licenses for the exchange. Rakuten is a market for selling goods like electronics, clothes, games, credit card services and etc. In order to sign up for the wallet, users should open a Rakuten Bank account, which can be done by typing the needed info on the format.

As of now, Amazon showed resistance towards the idea of crypto asset payments, but if Amazon integrates Bitcoin, a large amount of money will enter the crypto sphere. Last year, a net sale revenue of around 232 bln was recorded by Amazon. This is more than all the money in the Crypto space as reported by Coinmarketcap.

Although it is obvious that Rakuten is still not equal to Amazon, their crypto asset exchange can open the flood gates to other marketplaces to take into account this option.

The post WILL AMAZON ACCEPT CRYPTO? appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News https://www.cryptocynews.com/will-amazon-accept-crypto/
via Bitcoin News
via Bitcoin News Today

ANDREW YANG WANTS TO REGULATE CRYPTO

American presidential candidate, Andrew Yang, issued a statement yesterday, in which he talked about his view of crypto assets and the desire to control crypto assets supposing that he gets elected.

In case Yang wins the presidential race next year he has a desire to encourage financial growth and innovation through establishing guidelines for crypto assets. In his opinion, businesses and regular citizen must be capable of investing money with no worry about unexpected regulation shifts.

Yang thinks that the main problem is the vagueness of the countries present crypto asset regulations. The presidential candidate indicated that some federal agencies in the US took the responsibility of regulating the market. In Yang’s view, if the US has a desire to compete in the crypto space with countries such as China and Europe, the country’s regulations should improve.

He continues, saying that the government of the United States has to do a better job of creating a framework for countrywide regulations. He will be collaborating with Wyoming legislators and also the Token Taxanomy Act.

“It is time that the government establishes clear guidelines for the treatment and regulation of crypto asset markets,” Yang announced.

Of course, many politicians don’t follow through with their words, however, Yang is surely capturing hearts of many US crypto investors and hodlers.

The post ANDREW YANG WANTS TO REGULATE CRYPTO appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News https://www.cryptocynews.com/andrew-yang-regulate-crypto/
via Bitcoin News
via Bitcoin News Today

SATOSHI’S IDENTITY MAY BE REVEALED

Conceivably the biggest enigma of the digital asset community is the identity of the person that on 18 August 2008 brought about Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto. The first cryptocurrency was launched almost 10 years ago and since then more than 2k cryptocurrencies have been launched. Nevertheless, the person behind Bitcoin still remains anonymous, which gave many the chance to claim issuing Bitcoin.

This person, surely, cooperated with others in order to create the technology, so some of the first developers were referred to as Satoshis. Yet, this isn’t proof that any of these people could be the mysterious Satoshi.

Despite that, seemingly the mystery of Satoshi’s identity may be disclosed. John McAfee, founder of McAfee Associates claims to know who exactly is Satoshi Nakamoto. His statement was made with confidence and certainty, however, there’s no proof that he had any association with the infamous Satoshi.

The disclosure of Satoshi’s identity will be fascinating. Yet, this could cause another conspiracy theory among the cryptocurrency community. The fact that the identity of the father of cryptocurreny will be unknown, however, the news can lead to changes.

There are many theories as to why Satoshi wanted to hide his identity, some of which involve his need for privacy, desire to shield traders from the government or even his death.

If McAfee possess the knowledge of Satoshi’s identity remains unknown, however, either way this will cause yet another wave of conspiracy theories.

The post SATOSHI’S IDENTITY MAY BE REVEALED appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News https://www.cryptocynews.com/satoshis-identity-revealed/
via Bitcoin News
via Bitcoin News Today

BINANCE LAUNCHED BLOCKCHAIN

On the 18th of April, Binance, a global exchange, launched blockchain. This exchange is intended to support decentralized exchanges (DEX) and is called Binance Chain.

As reported by CNN, next week Binance is launching a DEX. The newly launched exchange has proficient protocol for decentralized applications that request a high transaction rate.

“Binance chain was launched in order to support cryptocurrency exchange. On this exchange any new tocken can be issued and add existing ones that aren’t dependent on smart contracts can move here and gain advantages from the network,” reported the Binance team.

“Financial freedom will be inspired by this and new projects in the exchange will assist the long-term development of crypto asset trading,” they added.

Binance is also going to add BNB to the blockchain platform. Earlier the company’s native token was trading on the Ethereum network and the company assumes that the change will motivate many projects to move to the newly-launched exchange. It is also rumored that the token will be issued with a 200 million offer on Binance Chain.

The company’s team stated, “The first batch of 5 mln Binance Coins will be stored into a Binance.com address for the purpose of converting for current owners the ERC20 Binance Coin. The company will also burn 5 mln ERC20 Binance Coins, in order to keep the supply of Binance Coin stable.”

The post BINANCE LAUNCHED BLOCKCHAIN appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News https://www.cryptocynews.com/binance-launched-blockchain/
via Bitcoin News
via Bitcoin News Today

BINANCE NOTRE DAME DONATION CHAM

Binance, one of the largest global crypto exchanges, began Notre Dame crypto donation.

After the horrifying Notre Dame fire of the 15th of April, Binance announced in a tweet that the company launched a donation program called “Rebuild Notre-Dame,” calling the crypto community to assist the restoration of the infamous cathedral which barely escaped complete distraction. In the earlier mentioned Twitter post, the exchange declared that the occurrence was a “colossal time of loss for global history.”

On April 15, 2019, a fire broke out on the roof of the historic Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France

We call on our colleagues in the crypto space to show your support for our campaign to #cryptorebuildNotreDame #rebuildnotredame @BinanceBCF
Donate https://t.co/rknItqdgeM pic.twitter.com/lUCDLy2osK

— Binance (@binance) April 17, 2019

The company’s social project BCF started the donation program on the company’s charity platform. At this time the Notre Dame campaign has amassed donations with the value of $7577 in BTC, BNB and ETH.

Notre Dame Fire

The fire started on April 15 and, as officials believed, was an accident. The extent of the damage was huge and could cause the building to collapse if it was dealt with later. Currently, the estimated cost of the damage is uncertain, however the budget is set to be €150 million.

Large fundraising campaigns started worldwide with companies such as Bouygues SA, LVMH and L’Oreal SA making large donations. At this point the fund hit over $700 million. As reported by the British media two Parisian bookstore owners invited the publishers of Victor Hugo’s “Brokeback from Notre Dame to join this donation campaign.

The post BINANCE NOTRE DAME DONATION CHAM appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News https://www.cryptocynews.com/binance-notre-dame-donation-cham/
via Bitcoin News
via Bitcoin News Today

WINKLEVOSS TWINS AND SHREM LAWSUIT IS SETTLED

Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, known as the Winklevoss twins, finally settled the lawsuit against American BTC entrepreneur Charlie Shrem over $26 mln. The twins claimed that Shrem owed the twins money.

Based on a court filing which occurred on the 5th of April, Judge Jed Rakoff threw the case out of the court, since it was revealed by both parties that they had come to a settlement.

Although documents clearly illustrate that the case can be reopened in a span of 30 days, none of the parties expressed a desire to do that. As stated in a different filing by Winklevoss Capital Fund (WCG), Shem and the fund both are going to pay costs individually by themselves. However, as specified by Charlie Shrem, the terms are confidential.

The cause of the problem was an alleged bitcoin purchase that Shrem was requested to make by the Winklevoss. In 2012, the brothers allegedly gave Shrem $1 mln to make a purchase, however, as interest in BTC significantly rose, the lawsuit involved $26 mln.

Overall, both Shrem and the Winklevoss twins are supporters of crypto assets. The Winklevoss twins stated the previous year that they think that the market cap of Bitcoin will reach $5 tn, and the BTC enterpenuer also said that he considers Bitcoin to be his future.

The post WINKLEVOSS TWINS AND SHREM LAWSUIT IS SETTLED appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News https://www.cryptocynews.com/winklevoss-shrem-lawsuit-settled/
via Bitcoin News
via Bitcoin News Today

PAYPAL IS FIGHTING AGAINST CRYPTO RANSOMWARE

PayPal, American online payment company, was granted a patent for a crypto ransomware detection method.

The patent was originally filed in 2016 and granted Tuesday by USPTO, the patent defined ways to benefit from current system data catches may assist in detecting malware and stop it from irreparably locking up victims’ files.

Malware has an ability to encode what’s inside a hard drive or other files making the data unavailable, so that a system user that doesn’t have enough decryption keys won’t have the ability to access his/her data.”

The online payment company is, subsequently, attempting to stop this from taking place with a technique that involves identifying original content loaded into a cache, keeping second copy of the content there and contrasting the two. After this, it avoids the removal or modification of the original piece.

The patent reads: ”By identifying that a malware occurred on a device, the adverse results of the malware can be prevented.”

This way, users will be able to prevent data loss by backing it up. However, even in this case data loss is possible when dealing with ransomware.

PayPal stated that by identifying malware early on, the damage done to victims can be decreased.

The post PAYPAL IS FIGHTING AGAINST CRYPTO RANSOMWARE appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News https://www.cryptocynews.com/paypal-fighting-crypto-ransomware/
via Bitcoin News
via Bitcoin News Today

BITCOIN MAKES THOSE, WHO CHALLENGE IT ‘LOOK REALLY STUPID’

Max Keiser believes that, as nations start fighting for domination in mining, BTC prices are going to hit record high.

Keiser began by announcing that he will be a speaker at a future bitcoin event and then carried on saying: “BTC is on a unique track and it possesses an ability to make those, who defy it, seem very stupid. Of course, in the BTC world there are people like Craig Wright, Mike Hearn and Roger Ver, who are infected with BTC derangement syndrome. Over the last years, some people such as Paul Krugman and Nouriel Roubini, seem very stupid as they didn’t once attempt to make sense of BTC.”

By saying this, he responded to Stacy Herbert, his co-host, who drew attention to the fact that the increase of Bitcoin value had come to a stop lately, presumably after the Federal Reserve’s position on rate hikes.

Keiser, on the other hand, continued, saying that he thinks that “state actors” shortly will be mining bitcoin for “strategic reserve purposes.” The host also thinks that soon countries will be battling for hash power attempting to take control of the BTC sytem.

“On a country level hash wars are going to occur and that should lead to a new record breaking high.”

The post BITCOIN MAKES THOSE, WHO CHALLENGE IT ‘LOOK REALLY STUPID’ appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News https://www.cryptocynews.com/bitcoin-makes-them-look-stupid/
via Bitcoin News
via Bitcoin News Today

MUFG INVESTS IN A CRYPTO STARTUP

Japan’s biggest bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, invested $6 million on crypto startup Chainalysis.

On Tuesday, Chainalysis announced that the investment was from MUFG’s venture capital unit.

This additional investment means that the cryptocurrency startup will have $36 million for its second round of financing, seeing that $30 million were raised in February in an initial round. Chainalysis stated that it wants to expand its Asia-Pacific business as well as open a new office in order to achieve that. The startup declared that it had already experienced major growth in the region, stating that the number of clients has doubled and expanding contracted revenue by 16x the previous year.

“The startup is planning to advance engaging with entities including MUFG and Sozo that will provide essential marketing insights.”

Chainalysis raised $16 million in the first round of financing and, consequently, launched Chainalysis KYT, a cryptocurrency compliance tool, which, as they claim, offers real time transaction analysis.

In yesterday’s announcement MUFG Innovation Partners CEO and president said: “Chainalysis’s compliance technology is crucial in offering anti-money laundering controls and the insight to create next generation compliance framework.”

Chainalysis, which was established in 2014, particularly assisted with investigating the Mt. Gox bankruptcy case, attempting to find lost bitcoins of the the crashed exchange.

The post MUFG INVESTS IN A CRYPTO STARTUP appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News https://www.cryptocynews.com/mufg-invests-crypto-startup/
via Bitcoin News
via Bitcoin News Today

BITCOIN SV DELISTED BY KRAKEN

Kraren along with several other major exchanges delisted Bitcoin SV. Earlier Shapeshift and Binance have taken similar measures.

The rupture between Craig Wright, a notable Bitcoin SV supporter, and prominent members of the digital asset community has already had an adverse effect on the coin’s value. The currency has decreased in value by 80% compared to the previous week.

Kraken asked their user’s view of delisting Bitcoin SV through an online poll. The crypto community has turned against the currency after legal bullying and threats by Wright and others. The poll resulted in the majority of 70000 voters electing delisting. However, it was interesting that a large portion of the voters showed lack of interest in the subject seeing that less than 10% were opposed to the move.

By all means, this is not the first delisting of Kraken, with other notable ones being Iconomi and Namecoin. The delisting of these digital assets occurred as a result of low volume as well as a change in protocol. However, in the case of Bitcoin SV, this is the first delisting done by a major exchange that didn’t involve the digital asset’s performance or management.

Since crypto community members are happy to see the crypto asset getting delisted from exchanges, it appears that Bitcoin SV has a rough future ahead.

The post BITCOIN SV DELISTED BY KRAKEN appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News https://www.cryptocynews.com/bitcoin-sv-delisted-kraken/
via Bitcoin News
via Bitcoin News Today

RIPPLENET IS EXPANDING

Asheesh Birla, the Senior Vice President of Product at Ripple, announced in a YouTube video that there are plans for expanding the company’s RippleNet solution system.

She described all the details of the process in a 13-minute video interview by Ripple’s Senior Director of Product.

Based on Asheesh’s words, since the 1960s there have been no global changes in money spending and she considers this to be a major issue. Continuing her statement, she talked about the ways in which Ripple was aiming to find a solution to the issue. In her words Ripple is “cooperating with payment providers, central banks and banks worldwide in order to make an improved and up-to-date financial system to spend funds internationally.” This partnership launched RippleNet, a coalition of several financial institutions, who are attracted to the idea of utilizing technology for financial transaction with the purpose of making them perfect.

But what does RippleNet do?

It creates safer cross-border payments based on XRP. Responding to a question, Asheesh clarified that XRP was made for payments and, thus, they settle in a couple of seconds. Hence, volatility isn’t a problem whilst using XRP for international transactions.

The system is currently also available in Mexico and the Philippines and is going to branch out to other destinations soon. The following framework assures faster, easier and less expensive payment solutions, minimizing fees up to 70%.

The post RIPPLENET IS EXPANDING appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News https://www.cryptocynews.com/ripplenet-is-expanding/
via Bitcoin News
via Bitcoin News Today

CRYPTO REGULATIONS IN EU

France is trying to urge EU countries to release digital asset regulations. This was announced by the French Finance Minister at an event regarding blockchain technology.

The parliament of France had recently approved a financial bill that concerned some portions of the cryptocurrency market. The country is illustrating its will to attract crypto asset investors by being the first large country to employ such regulations. These will ensure that the country won’t be scammed and that the investors with pay taxes.

“I will suggest to my European partners that a single regulatory framework should be set up on digital assets,” the minister said at the blockchain event.

The newly approved digital asset bill gives the government room to know who operates a trading platform or issues coins and check whether companies comply with anti-money laundering laws. It will also enable firms, that aspire to make cryptocurrencies and trade existing ones, to request certification.

The European Commission has not long ago launched a study on cryptocurrency market regulations, however, no bill is anticipated to pass until the end of this year.

Other reports about the regulatory bill say that it will cover investors against scams, but they won’t be repaid in case of loss.

The post CRYPTO REGULATIONS IN EU appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News https://www.cryptocynews.com/crypto-regulations-eu/
via Bitcoin News
via Bitcoin News Today

BLOCKCHAIN USED BY BLUE CROSS

On Tuesday, Hong Kong based insurance firm, Blue Cross, announced becoming the first in the city to use blockchain in order to advance medical insurance claims and avoid scams, adding that the new technology will assist the company in cutting costs.

Bowtie Insurance, HSBC Life and Rivals Prudent have begun selling insurance products and handling insurance claims online during the past year, however, they haven’t yet started using blockchain for processing.

An online insurer from Hong Kong makes use of blockchain in order to process claims and verify records. Yet, it only offers the following services on the mainland.

The managing director of Blue Cross, Patrick Wan, during the launch of the firm’s two new products said that with the use of blockchain technology, the danger of scams is eradicated and insurance claims can now be processed so much faster for the customers. Wan also added that Blue Cross will cut expenditures as a result of the use of Blockchain technology, however, he didn’t provide detailed information saying that the company spent 10-20% more in the past.

Buying health insurance is encouraged by the country’s government by reducing up to US$1,020 in tax every year.

William Yeung, the co-founder of a Hong Kong start-up that develops blockchain-based medical apps, said “The proficiency and advantages of blockchain will attract many doctors to Blue Cross”.

The insurance firm is owned by Bank of East Asia, since it bought out Aetna Group’s stake in 1999.

The post BLOCKCHAIN USED BY BLUE CROSS appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News https://www.cryptocynews.com/blockchain-used-by-blue-cross/
via Bitcoin News
via Bitcoin News Today

BITCOIN SCAMMERS FAILED

Bitcoin (BTC) scammers have finally failed. A “robocall” fraud was ignored by Hawaiian Electric customers, as the scammers requested them to pay Bitcoin value in exchange for their electricity supply to continue operating.

As reported by Hawaiian Electric, from the 70 customers that received calls, no one paid any amount of money, which was a promising sign that the fraudsters were simply ignored by customers. The calls, made to businesses and individuals, occurred last week on Tuesday and Wednesday. During these, the scammers informed the customers about their power supply ceasing if they didn’t pay in half an hour. A majority of the phone calls requested customers to call another number and press 1 in order to make a payment.

A customer stated that he dialed the number and was instructed to pay at a local retailer. After that, he was told to pay $700, but, fortunately, the customer refused and didn’t make the payment.

According to Hawaiian Electric, up to 200 fake calls were reported the previous year causing thousands of dollars being stolen from customers.

This news makes evident that citizens are highly cautious and vigilant when it is a question of identifying scammer and less probable to make such payments with no proof.

The post BITCOIN SCAMMERS FAILED appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News https://www.cryptocynews.com/bitcoin-scammers-failed/
via Bitcoin News
via Bitcoin News Today

BLOCKCHAIN USED BY US ENERGY DEPT.

The United States Department of Energy is planning to use blockchain technology to build a defense line in order to hinder cyber attacks that aim for the US power stations.

DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory affirmed that Phase II of an electricity system safety scheme initiated in cooperation with a cyber security startup Taekion.

The startup, using the given $1 million grant, is researching methods to utilize blockchain technology with the purpose of exploiting it for security. As the storage of the necessary information is decentralized, no source of error exists.

Other employments of the technology will be used for allowing safe energy transactions to preserve data, raise grid stability, as well as incorporate a more decentralized energy infrastructure, the energy agency declared.

Accurate data regarding the condition of power plants is crucial for electricity system security.

One technique of cyber attacks includes jeopardizing the system in such a way to make it seem operational, while in reality it was disabled by hackers.

A similar attack occurred in Ukraine in 2016, leaving a large portion of people without power through winter.

The National Energy Technology Laboratory stated that the applications, which are being generated, possess the capability to halt comparable assault through stopping hackers from modifying operational information.

This attempt to secure power generation infrastructure is a portion of DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy Sensors and Controls program.

The post BLOCKCHAIN USED BY US ENERGY DEPT. appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News https://www.cryptocynews.com/blockchain-used-us-energy-dept/
via Bitcoin News
via Bitcoin News Today

CEO OF GOLDMAN SACH: “WE NEVER INTENDED TO OPEN A CRYPTOCURRENCY TRADING DESK. “

The CEO of Goldman Sach came to light refuting rumors about the bank aiming to launch a crypto-focused trading desk. The statement was made on April 10 during the US House of Representatives Financial Service Committee.

Previous reports expressed that the bank was planning to start a cryptocurrency trading desk prior to the end of June 2018. The detailed information about the plans were released in December 2017 in a report by Bloomberg. In September of 2018, a report, written by sources associated with Business Insider, said that the idea was deserted. The CFO of the bank declared that these statements were “fake news”.

As stated by the the CEO of Goldman Sach, David Solomon: “The first [Bloomberg article] wasn’t correct. Similar to others, we are observing and working towards understanding the cryptocurrency market as it grows, however, we had never intended to open a cryptocurrency trading desks.”

Nevertheless, Solomon did not claim that they are eliminating the notion of involvement in crypto markets: “We might, at some point, but there’s no question, when you’re addressing cryptocurrency, it’s a new field, it is unclear from a regulatory perspective, it’s unclear whether in a long run, as a currency, those technologies are going to operate properly and be viable.”

The post CEO OF GOLDMAN SACH: “WE NEVER INTENDED TO OPEN A CRYPTOCURRENCY TRADING DESK. “ appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News https://www.cryptocynews.com/ceo-goldman-sach-never-intended-open-cryptocurrency-trading-desk/
via Bitcoin News
via Bitcoin News Today

CRYPTOCURRENCIES DECREASED IN PRICE AGAIN

During the last twenty four hours, 8 of the top 10 digital assets decreased in value from 3.33% to 7.29%. Bitcoin Cash a loss of 3.32%, in addition TRON and XRP represented a negative shift around 4.34%. Ethereum Classic dropped 6.93%. Furthermore, Binance Coin and ZCash rose in price around 1.15% and 1.46%, accordingly.

BTC

The current value of Bitcoin is $4997.98 with a decline of 3.27% in price in a 24-hour period. In the BTC/USD market an exchange worth above 345 million occurred portraying a 13.07% portion of the daily exchange volume. The BTS/USDT pair depicts a 72.43% share.

ETH

The current price of Ethereum sitting at $164 illustrated a loss of 4.02%, with over $30 million worth of exchange in the EOS/USD portraying a market share of 5.95% of the worldwide daily amount. The ETH/USDT pair depicts a 49.81% share.

EOS

The EOS price dropped 5.51% presently sitting at $5.32. In the EOS/USD, EOS worth over $30 million of exchange took place. The EOS/USDT pair depicts a 42.10% share.

LTC

The value of LTC demonstrated an adverse change of 8.4% now sitting at $77. An exchange of more than $60 million worth of LTC occurred in a 24-hour time period presenting a market share of 5.62%. The LTC/USDT pair, being the largest LTC pair, depicts a share of 49.65%.

The post CRYPTOCURRENCIES DECREASED IN PRICE AGAIN appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News https://www.cryptocynews.com/cryptocurrencies-decreased-price/
via Bitcoin News
via Bitcoin News Today

CRYPTOCURRENCY INVESTMENT COMPANIES AND FUNDS SWITCH TO THE LENDING MARKET

Some cryptocurrency investment companies and funds from China have switched to the lending market, as it brings a steady income even in a bear market.

In the list of the companies, there are well-known names like FBG Capital, Bixin Capital and DGrouр. These companies together with the Babelbank startup, have issued loans of $60 million, in the past 5 months. Moreover, the huge part is cryptocurrency. However, one fund works also with the Yuan, which carries with it increased risks associated with regulatory issues.

Representatives of the companies reported that such services are especially popular among local retail investors, hedge fund traders and even crypto miners, who rely on the fact that Bitcoin price will rise over the next few months, so they borrow money in USDT, which is then transferred to the Yuan to pay the electricity bills.

Xi Wang, head of financial markets at Bixin Capital, “The situation in the cryptocurrency market does not have a very noticeable effect on personal loans, so in a bearish cycle it is more profitable to get stable income by issuing loans”.

All of the above companies provide a slightly different service than traditional financial institutions. “If traditional banks look at the borrower’s education, credit rating, stable income and other variables, for us the only important thing is mortgage-backed security. This kind of system allows to intelligently control risks”.

The post CRYPTOCURRENCY INVESTMENT COMPANIES AND FUNDS SWITCH TO THE LENDING MARKET appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News https://www.cryptocynews.com/cryptocurrency-funds-switch-lending-market/
via Bitcoin News
via Bitcoin News Today

TELEGRAM GIVES ACCESS TO TON NETWORK’S TEST VERSION

Some professional teams got access to TON network’s test version.

It looks like TON network’s final version soon. This is reported by Vedomosti, citing the information of 2 sources. Indeedt, teams the network node was established. The news reporting companies’ leaders mentioned that it is early yet to speak about any results.

Vedomosti quoted: “Initial results show a very high transaction rate. The code of the blockchain is only being tested so far, thus, specific speed indicators are silent”. However, bone of two sources provided more information. The other interviewee mentioned that this testing will help them to find out the network bandwidth. Alexander Filatov who is the Managing Director of TON.labs, gave no comments on this.

It is worth to mention that in early February the 1st news about TON test network’s early launch appeared. At that time, the project was ready for 90%, the TON virtual machine was ready for 95%. However, basic smart contracts and their samples were actively been worked and were ready for only 20%.

Developers underlined that the priority is to launch a test network which will support the simplest smart contracts. in February, there was also an information that TON Gram’s own network tokens purchase agreements could be canceled if the project not be launched before October 31 of this year.

The post TELEGRAM GIVES ACCESS TO TON NETWORK’S TEST VERSION appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News https://www.cryptocynews.com/telegram-gives-access-ton-networks-test-version/
via Bitcoin News
via Bitcoin News Today

HEALTHCARE SYSTEM BASED ON BLOCKCHAIN IN POLAND

Poland will create a unified system of medical records based on the blockchain technology.

Wojciech Zavalsky, the member of the blockchain working group at the Ministry for the Implementation of Digital Technologies, told that Poland intends to use the blockchain technology in the Healthcare sector.

According to him, because of the need for additional expenditures and the complexity of the perception of existing IT-programs in the country, there is no unified system of electronic medical records (EDM).

In addition, Janusz Teshinsky, the Under Secretary of State for Healthcare, said that the paper document circulation underlying medical records is outdated and does not correspond to reality.

He mentioned: “The use of the blockchain technology will allow the introduction of a national Unified Medical Record system in Poland, like in Estonia and some other countries”.

Janusz Teshinsky also noted the ability of technology to generate and store data from a large number of objects and underlined the importance of fully secure storage. “In cases when the data is scattered across several objects and requires a long-term storage, the blockchain technology works fine based on data distribution”.

The post HEALTHCARE SYSTEM BASED ON BLOCKCHAIN IN POLAND appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News https://www.cryptocynews.com/poland-based-blockchain-healthcare/
via Bitcoin News
via Bitcoin News Today

BITSTAMP GRANTED NEW YORK BITLICENSE

Bitstamp was granted a special license – BitLicense by the New York State Department of Financial Services, after which the exchange can provide services to the state residents.

Bitstamp representatives announced this in an official statement: “We hava always met regulatory measures focused on transparency and accountability, which can help to expand the industry. Getting this license a crucial element in expanding our presence in the US, especially when it comes to working with institutional investors.”

Getting BitLicense is a fairly complicated process that requires companies to comply with lots of customer protection requirements. Many representatives of the cryptocurrency industry are critical about BitLicense.As Bitstamp representative say, the license simply confirms that the company operates in accordance with “the same high standards as traditional financial institutions.”

Bitstamp also mentioned: “Since we opened in 2011, we have been striving to become not only the safest and most reliable cryptocurrency exchange in the world, but also to form new borders for the industry, developing best practices in the field of security and self–regulation. We always look forward to the opportunity to transfer the knowledge gained in Europe from across the ocean, and help to create a better environment for all digital assets companies, not only in the US, but also around the world.”

The post BITSTAMP GRANTED NEW YORK BITLICENSE appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News https://www.cryptocynews.com/bitstamp-granted-new-york-bitlicense/
via Bitcoin News
via Bitcoin News Today