Bitcoin Prices Surge Past $770 But Fall Just Short of 2016 High

Bitcoin prices neared $780 during the week through 2nd December, coming within 1% of the 2016 high of $781.31 reached in June.

The digital currency rose to a high of $778.14 amid sustained support. Prices remained above $700 all week and only briefly fell below $725, CoinDesk USD Bitcoin Price Index (BPI) data reveals.

Bitcoin prices have been enjoying sustained support, as they have managed to stay north of $700for more than two weeks, having surpassed that level on 14th November, BPI figures show.

The market is highly bullish, according to sentiment data provided by leveraged bitcoin trading platform Whaleclub. Between 26th November and 1st December, the market fluctuated between 82% and 89% long, maintaining an average of 85% long during the six-day period.

Zivkovski spoke to continued trader interest, telling CoinDesk that he also believes the price rise is fueled by new bitcoin buyers.

"Price has made a series of higher highs and higher lows, which indicates that there is still enough new money coming in to the system to push price to new levels."

Macroeconomic boost

Analysts indicate that bitcoin prices are further receiving support from a handful of macroeconomic developments that have helped drive market participants to the digital currency.

For example, China recently imposed additional capital controls in an effort to reign in outflows and help reduce the yuan's continued slide against the US dollar.

As the Asian nation's efforts to control its currency continue to draw headlines, cryptocurrency fund manager Jacob Eliosoff pointed to data supporting the notion that China is playing a key role in bitcoin trading.

Another development that has stuck out as potentially supporting bitcoin's recent price movements is India Prime Minister Narendra Modi's efforts to take 500 and 1,000-rupee notes out of circulation. While this move has been justified as an attempt to help reduce corruption and black market activity, it could potentially push India into a liquidity crisis.

Modi has pointed to a survey, conducted through a smartphone app, which shows 90% of participants supporting the move to eliminate these banknotes from circulation. However, the move has drawn the opposition of both opposition parties as well as former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Zivkovski made reference to this situation, telling CoinDesk that he believes this situation has boosted bitcoin's outlook.

"The Indian crackdown on cash/rupees has most probably contributed to the rise [in bitcoin prices] with the injection of fresh money and bitcoin users from India," he said.

Ether's struggle

Elsewhere, ether, the digital currency powering the ethereum platform, continued to struggle this week, falling to its lowest price since April.

Ethereum has faced several challenges lately, including undergoing three forks in the space of a few months as the platform attempts to overcome technical challenges.

Ethereum underwent a hard fork dubbed 'Spurious Dragon' on 22nd November, which was an attempt to rectify some complications that stemmed from continued attacks on the network. An attacker had left a significant number of empty accounts in the blockchain, and Spurious Dragon gave developers a way to remove these accounts.

While this hard fork represented an improvement, two major Ethereum clients – Geth and Parity – implemented the code from this fork in different ways. As a result, there came a point where the two clients did not agree on deleting a certain account.

While Geth did delete the account, Parity failed to do so, which resulted in a brief split in the network or "Thanksgiving fork".

In spite of Ethereum's continued challenges, several market observers have spoken out about the network's recent progress, pointing to what they called progress in fundamentals such as mining distribution and unique address growth.

Zcash chills out

Zcash prices have calmed down a bit lately, trading in a range between $60 and $80 for most of the week, Poloniex figures reveal.

The digital currency traded within this range after experiencing far greater fluctuations earlier in the week, falling more than 25% from $89.45 at roughly 12:00 UTC on 26th November to $65.59 at 22:00 UTC on 27th November.

The currency's available supply is now roughly 133,000 ZEC, a figure that represents less than 1% of the 21 million ZEC tokens that are scheduled to be mined over time.

Both Zivkovski and Eliosoff emphasized that at this point, adoption is crucial to supporting the price at current levels, given that supply will continue to increase.

Thus far, Zcash has showed promise by leveraging zero-knowledge proofs called zk-SNARKS to enable counterparties to conduct transactions without revealing themselves. However, the cryptocurrency has thus far obtained little adoption;

Until the digital currency has a viable use aside from trading, its value is highly speculative.

EU Targets Bitcoin, Anonymous Currency In Fight Against Terrorist Financing

European leaders are planning to crack down on the use of bitcoin, prepaid credit cards and other methods of anonymous payment in response to the Paris attacks last week, Reuters reported Thursday. It's part of a crisis plan that aims to dismantle suspected terrorist financing networks after the massacre, claimed by the Islamic State group, killed 129 people and wounded hundreds.

Interior and justice ministers from throughout the European Union are scheduled to meet in Brussels Friday, where they will encourage the leaders to “strengthen controls of nonbanking payment methods such as electronic/anonymous payments and virtual currencies and transfers of gold, precious metals, by prepaid credit cards,” according to a draft obtained by Reuters.

Bitcoin is the most popular form of digital cryptocurrency, with users able to transact in relative anonymity with fees lower than those generally imposed by credit card processors. It's frequently used as part of criminal dealings, though it's not clear to what extent ISIS is doing so. The terrorist group also survives thanks to criminal activity, oil sales and donations from officials and wealthy individuals in Arab countries allied with the U.S.

Russian President Vladimir Putin also set up a commission to fight terrorist financing Wednesday. Putin issued a notice to Russia's central bank, prosecutor's office and regional authorities instructing them to immediately report any suspicious financial activity that could be linked to terrorism. Among those encouraged by Putin's stance was President Barack Obama, who, after years of frosty relations over a number of issues, deemed the Russian leader a “constructive partner” in the global fight against ISIS.

IRS has no strategy for bitcoin, inspector general warns

The IRS doesn't have a tax compliance strategy to address the increasing use of virtual currencies like bitcoin, an inspector general warned in a report released Tuesday.

"It is imperative that the IRS ensures that those who engage in activities using virtual currencies comply with all of their tax obligations," J. Russell George, Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, said in a statement.

Bitcoin and other virtual currencies, a new technology that has been gaining purchase, face an uneven patchwork of federal regulation.

Although the IRS issued guidance regarding virtual currencies and established a Virtual Currency Issue Team, the inspector general said, the agency still doesn't have a plan for ensuring that it fulfills its responsibilities related to the currencies. The IG said a plan is needed in part because bitcoin and other such currencies allow for anonymous payments, raising concerns about money laundering, illicit transactions and tax avoidance.

In particular, the watchdog warned, the IRS isn't ready to ensure compliance from businesses subject to the Bank Secrecy Act that are required to report on suspicious activities. The IRS is responsible for making sure that some non-banks comply with the law.

Additionally, it said the IRS needs to help taxpayers calculate and pay their tax obligations for bitcoin.

Because the agency defined bitcoin in 2014 as property rather than currency, users incur taxes when they spend or exchange them. For instance, if someone bought a bitcoin at $300 and then sold it for $700, they would owe capital gains taxes on $400. More confusingly, if they spent 0.004 bitcoin on a cup of coffee that cost $3 in U.S. dollars, they would have to calculate capital gains realized in that transaction.

The IRS needs to find out how to help individuals and businesses figure out how to calculate their tax obligations for those scenarios, the inspector general said. It noted that the Australian Taxation Office ruled that there would be no tax implications for personal transactions under $10,000 Australian

Bitcoin Startup Blockchain Adds 10 Millionth Wallet

Wallet service Blockchain has registered its 10 millionth bitcoin wallet.

Data shows that, as of today, 10,053,518 wallets have been created by users of the service. That's 7m more than Blockchain reported in February of last year, a significant jump in the roughly 20 months since that time. The service reported just under 9.4m wallets late last month.

Announcing the 10 millionth wallet on its blog, Blockchain cited factors such as the US presidential election, the devaluation of the Chinese yuan and the vote by the UK to leave the European Union as key drivers of interest in bitcoin.

The company said of the milestone:

"While there's still a lot to do, we can't help but pause this week to give thanks for the millions of users who are helping us build an open, fair and accessible financial future. We are excited and honored to be on this path with you all."

Earlier this month, Blockchain said that it was working with payments startup Coinify to create a new in-wallet bitcoin buying option. Currently in beta, the option is expected to see a wider European release in the weeks ahead, followed by a global rollout sometime next year.

Blockchain has raised $30m in venture funding to date from a single Series A round in 2014.

Learn more about Inchain

With so many cryptocurrency related thefts these days (especially with such a large platform that Bitcoin and all other coins are on), it's important to have the right security to defend your money and investment- but what if even that fails? Inchain has provided something never seen before in the cryptocurrency world to ensure that your losses will be mitigated, should it happen- insurance. Inchain has provided a unique service in the form of insurance for anybody wanting it, but you may be wondering- how does it even work and how much does it cost?

The most simple explanation is that Inchain has placed an ethereum contract that allows for almost completely autonomous operation, while still ensuring that almost nothing can mess with the contract in any way, shape, or form. It may even be more advanced than other forms of insurance, with all of the security that has been added in! Inchain has also planned to give out tokens to ensure that the platform itself is stable- similarly to a more popular token, Iconomi. Inchain will work as an asset that distributes part of profits earned from the platform to investors, thus granting investors a small passive profit. Inchain is perfect for those wanting to diversify their cryptocurrency portfolio or just for those wanting to hold tokens.

Investors can also vote to determine investment strategies - these are the choices that can be voted on for now:

• Dividends paid to investors in the DAO?
• Reinvestments made to the investment fund?
• Additional liquidity reserves placed in cold storages for paying out bond coupons and insurance compensations.

Investment returns are spent on bond coupons and then dividends are paid to Inchain DAO investors. As with most newer cryptocurrency services these days, Inchain has, as you can see, involved the community as much as possible in order to make sure that whatever happens is wanted by the community- the most important decisions, like investments and profit distribution, are all resting in the hands of Inchain investors. It's your choice! Inchain has also planned several bounties and a ICO for investors to hop onto the train. 100 million tokens will be distributed in total, with 85 million distributed to users, and 15 million for core activities. There will be no set rate on how much of the Inchain token will be distributed to each user- it will be determined at the end of the ICO once distribution is set to begin- a perfect opportunity for those wishing to make a quick profit to get in. The bonuses for investors is as follows- note that there is no bonus in investing after day 21. You may invest at https://ico.inchain.io/register - you will need to sign up first.

Discounts  for early investors:

• Day 1-7 20%;
• Day 8-14 10%;
• Day 15-21 5%;

Bounties will also be distributed as follows:

• 250,000 for the Inchain Bitcointalk signature campaign
• 350,000 for translation threads and maintaining national Inchain threads
• 400,000 (200,000 for each) for joining the Inchain Facebook group and for following Inchain on twitter.

There are plenty of opportunities for those that don't even want to spend a penny on the platform itself, so if you want to get a foot in the door, now's your chance!

More information about the Inchain project can be found here

Will Bitcoin Have Its Moment in the Trump Era?

History tells us that no international monetary system lasts forever. And as Barry Eichengreen, the leading thinker in this arena, has repeatedly reminded us, those systems tend to collapse very quickly, whether it was the dominance of Rome's coins, the British pound's status as the common unit of international trade, or the various periods in which the world aligned around the gold standard.

The same will be true for the dollar's unofficial status as the international reserve currency. Its hegemony will at some point disappear and, when it does, the fall will be swift as the world scrambles for a new commercial anchor.

Below I will make the case that the trigger for this decline, whether it happens in the next four years or not, could well have been put in place last Tuesday. A Trump presidency could hold the right ingredients for a dollar collapse.

I will also argue that this time, when the dollar system collapses, it won't be replaced by another outdated fiat currency like the euro, yen or Chinese yuan. Neither will we go back to a precious metals standard, however much gold bugs hanker for it.

In the interim, we may anchor world trade to a transitional, multilateral combination of these paper and commodity currencies, but soon enough it will prove to be too unwieldy and out of touch with a changing global economy.

The fact is we now operate in a digital economy in which economic activity is increasingly decentralized, with transactions happening peer-to-peer and, when the Internet of Things is in place, machine-to-machine. That online, decentralized economic architecture will require a digital, decentralized system of monetary exchange that bypasses the inefficient financial intermediaries of a broken banking system.

The solution might not be bitcoin per se, but the distributed, network-run system of value transfer that it represents will, I believe, provide the template for the future model. It's one possible explanation for why the digital currency got a bump on Tuesday evening through Wednesday.

Change is coming

Why might Trump set this chain of events in play? To be sure, we don't know what changes the next president will introduce, but he has definitely stoked uncertainty around the direction of US policy. And uncertainty, the enemy of efficient markets, can often have a self-fulfilling effect.

That's an unsatisfying answer, however. So let's also break down some of the ideas that Trump has floated and how they might change the international perception of America's commitment to the dollar-based international system:

Rights determined by ethnic background

Trump suggests we should discriminate against external foreigners (Muslim visitors to the US), domestic non-citizens (undocumented Hispanic immigrants) and domestic citizens (judges deemed unfit to serve for being of Mexican descent.) This is not just a moral issue; it goes to the heart of whether the law is impartially upheld in the US.

Blockchain: Why the 'Big Guys' Can’t Win

Matthew Spoke is CEO and founder of enterprise blockchain startup Nuco. He is a bitcoin and ethereum enthusiast, who has previously worked with Deloitte with the aim of advancing the use of smart distributed protocols.

In this opinion piece, Spoke looks at moves by tech industry incumbents to capture the emerging blockchain market, and offers a warning for the eventuality that they succeed. 

Chess pieces

There's a seemingly obvious marriage happening right now between two incredibly important Internet technologies, one that promised to make web businesses more scalable and organizations more efficient (which has happened to a large extent), as well as holding decentralization and disintermediation as the ultimate objective (on which the jury is still out).

Earlier this year, I wrote a piece about the "Race Towards Irrelevance" that seemed to be taking place among traditional organizations whose markets and business models stand to lose from the adoption of decentralized systems. Primarily, I was referring to some intermediary companies in the financial services industry who will struggle to redefine their value propositions as blockchains become more commonplace.

What I failed to include in my prior ramblings was that it's not only traditional industries and businesses who face this risk. Similar to the attention and investment that has poured into the "blockchain industry" from financial services firms, there are a number of global scale technology vendors positioning themselves to dominate this market – or, to a skeptic, centralize it.

I'm referring to "the cloud" and "the blockchain", two terms which should more accurately be used in the plural sense.

Decentralization is key

I'm not suggesting that cloud computing is not well suited to underlie blockchain infrastructures.

On the contrary, in many cases, there's an obvious match that allows for efficient scalability, robust node security and light weight onboarding, among other benefits. But (and this is a big but) these benefits quickly become irrelevant if we forget about the need for appropriate decentralization. Naturally, it's no surprise that the same companies who, to a large extent, brought us the mainframe and the PC, want a piece of the blockchain action. It's also no surprise that these same companies are already in the process of capturing large parts of the emerging blockchain market.

As the old adage goes: "nobody ever got fired for buying [insert big tech company here]."

In general, I think the entrance of big tech companies into this domain has had a positive impact. It has helped bring much needed credibility and reaffirm the importance of these new technologies. That said, as markets consider their adoption, we should encourage an objective analysis as to the appropriate implementation of this technology so as to achieve its intended outcome.

Although there are many reasons to trust the competency of  prominent technology vendors and the integrity of their systems, which have been proven for decades in other domains, let's keep in mind that the intended purpose of this paradigm shift is to eliminate the need for trust. Objectively, this means that a blockchain cannot be dependent on a single vendor's infrastructure or security.

Why Israel's Banks Will Unite Over Blockchain

The general consensus is that there is huge potential in blockchain technology. Some say it may be as big as the Internet itself, doing for transactions of value what the former has done for transfers of information.

 

Blockchain could completely alter traditional industries, changing the face of financial transactions, legal contracts, verification mechanisms and even voting procedures. Where consensus is lacking, there possibly lie the future steps of blockchain.

What can we expect to see next? Our hunch: we are entering the phase of the institutionalization of blockchain, and it will be led by the financial system. Yes, by the banks.

The potential advantages to using blockchain are obvious. Most significant is the ability to remove the middleman, and allow for faster, cheaper and more secure transactions. This could prove to be economically beneficial to the financial system which facilitates billions of transactions every day.

 

No less important is the advantage it provides for developing countries, where trust in the authorities is relatively low, and especially for those which suffer from high levels of corruption. There, people are looking for different ways to realize their civil liberties, including voting, identity verification, registering land ownership, etc. Blockchain technology – direct, decentralized, and secure – provides a potentially unprecedented and private alternative to these.

 

Early adoptor

Arguably one of the most vibrant blockchain industries currently is in Israel. A combination of expertise in cryptography and Big Data gained in the world of security and defense, combined with a passionate and talented entrepreneurial ecosystem has led a growing number of companies to lead the way to the next big thing in the blockchain domain.

 

These companies include startups like Synereo (a decentralized communication platform), Simplex (a payments service working on enabling bitcoin purchases with credit cards), Colu (Colored Coins).

Yet, careful observation of the Israeli ecosystem shows that it comprises much more than early-stage startups. Major Israeli financial institutions, perhaps lacking the sheer magnitude and market share of their American and European counterparts, are showing increasing interest in various applications being developed by these younger companies.

 

Several banks (such as Bank Hapoalim, Leumi and Citi Bank) have launched accelerators with infrastructure designated to support early-stage initiatives. They offer much-needed funding, technical support and the opportunity to interact and collaborate with the banking system. This synergy could prove to be extremely valuable, as one of the major hurdles facing entrepreneurs in the field is developing products and solutions that could be adapted for, and used by, the highly conservative, heavily regulated environment such as that in which the banking system operates.

 

In addition, more investors are being drawn into the industry, incentivizing promising ventures and adding fuel to the growing excitement and expectations surrounding the field. Recently, we're also seeing increased involvement of lawyers and accountants in the sphere, discussing implications and working with their clients on some of the challenges associated with blockchain.

 

Regulation driven

One cannot ignore the resemblance between the current growth in the industry and the evolution of the Israeli cyber industry roughly a decade ago. What began as a small group of cyber startups soon became a deluge of hundreds of companies, providing innovative technology and multi-tier services around the globe. Similar, but not the same. Unlike the cyber industry, the blockchain industry is lacking crucial tail-wind from the regulator.

Almost two decades ago, the Israeli regulator came to the understanding that cyber was becoming a major new front. The main driver was the concern surrounding cyber-attacks on critical national infrastructure and security installations. The sharpest minds from the Israeli defense industry convened to discuss a national realignment to ensure Israel's ability to confront future challenges.

 

Eventually the government adapted a combined approach, emphasizing the development of human talent, investment in technology, building institutions, allocating funding and providing a regulatory environment that allowed the industry to thrive. All together this has led to an unprecedented boost to the Israeli cyber industry, a push that Israel is still reaping benefits from to this day.

This is not yet the case with blockchain. Regulators worldwide remain skeptical of virtual coins that circumvent banks and government authorities, and seem prone to criminal exploitations. We've seen that SilkRoad, Mt Gox and the recent Bitfinex scandal has not done anything to defuse this stereotype.

 

But resistance may be more deeply rooted than mere concerns over criminal misuse and consumer protection: a decentralized alternative to centuries-old systems of centralized governance and control is not something any regulator will be able to swallow too easily. Likewise, Israeli regulators are still 'sitting on the fence'. Given that both future uses, and implications of blockchain, are unpredictable, this is to be expected.

 

However, the regulator provides an indispensable support system, including supervision mechanisms and an appropriate legal framework. Such regulatory backing can bolster consumer awareness, understanding and confidence in the new technology and accommodate the move of blockchain from fringe to mainstream. But who will lead the charge?

 

Meeting of worlds

Various businesses worldwide are already beginning to take note of the potential economic value in using blockchain technology in myriad applications. And as competition grows, an even larger circle is beginning to feel the pressure to follow suit. Although the movement is certainly expanding, this grassroots growth may not suffice to live up to the disruptive potential of blockchain. This is where the big banks come in.

 

Looking back at the major developments over the past year, there is no doubt that the ripest industry for blockchain is the financial system. The big financial institutions would have the most to gain – or lose.

 

It is, however, the most highly regulated industry. Therefore, authorities need to deepen their engagement with the various applications of the technology with the aim of creating an appropriate regulatory framework applicable for the technology, whilst increasing consumer confidence, but without undermining the economic model of the financial system.

And who is best qualified for that role if not the financial system itself? It has both the knowledge and capacity to conduct meaningful dialogue with the regulator on the one hand, and the economic incentive to cut down costs by using blockchain on the other. If that happens, we could soon find ourselves in an era of institutionalized blockchain, where cutting-edge technology meets conservative infrastructure to generate a wholly new and fascinating system.

Wings - DAOs Are The Future

A Decentralized Autonomous Organization, which is also known as DAO is run through a set of rules that have been encoded as computer programs. Wings has specifically been designed for the use of DAOs. In other words, Wings can be defined as a smart contract and multi block chain based platform, which can be used for creation, participation and management of DAOs. 

Wings comes along with a variety of features, which have the potential to deliver an excellent support to DAOs. The support of popular block chains such as Bitcoin via Rootstock and Ethereum hold a prominent place out of it. On the other hand, people who subscribe with Wings will be able to implement AI-augmented assistance on top of leading instant messengers out there. While offering these innovative features, Wings tries to create a mass-market oriented DAO platform. They also want to be the owner of the most accessible DAO platform as well. With the help of Wings, both established companies as well as entrepreneurs will be able to launch their new DAO proposals without much hassle. That's because the token owners of the platform would review the submitted proposals and get them involved in promising projects. 

Conversational UX is another impressive functionality that is offered to the users of Wings. This feature is powered by Chatbots technology. Natural language communication has received much attention in the past and Chatbots has taken the maximum advantage out of it. Even leading companies in technological innovation such as Microsoft and Facebook have started creating similar solutions of their own. DAO interaction would take place in the form of a natural conversation through Chatbots. The users will also be able to control the member involvement of the DAO through instant messaging platforms. 

No coding experience is required to use Wings and get the best out of it. The developers have paid special attention towards making the life easy for Wings users. Therefore, users can simply use the friendly interface without having any understanding about EVM coding languages such as Serpent and Solidity. You just need to be the owner of a smartphone in order to use Wings and manage your DAOs. Automatic participation is another impressive feature that is offered by Wings. This helps the members of the platform in order to deposit funds to a Smart Contract controlled wallet. Then they will be able to set up their preferred purchase settings and spend the funds as per it across multiple DAOs. 

Large scale companies and entrepreneurs that are looking forward to launch new DAO proposals will be asked to go through a decentralized KYC process, which is followed by community voting. This method has the ability to minimize the amount of fraud activities that take place within the platform. On the other hand, it can create an ideal platform for the community members to focus on creating innovative products. Wings has a dedicated reputation system as well. Therefore, members who contribute and get a high rank will be able to launch new DAO proposals without much hassle. In other words, they will have to get a lower amount of votes when compared to others. 

These are few of the prominent features that are offered by Wings. It can be summarized as a fascinating project backing social platform, which comes with an array of advanced features. 

Read more about the Wings project here
Download the Wings whitepaper here

The Top 5 Weirdest Alternative Crypto-Coins in Circulation

 

Recently I was asked to compile a list of the strangest crypto-currencies I could find. I had no idea what I was in store for. I’ve tried to compile the Top 5 strangest I could find. Let the countdown begin!

 

Unobtanium (UNO)

UNO is a term for fictional engineering and scientific thought that describes an extremely rare and costly material. Conceptual Unobtanium is the full term; UNO is the short hand version given to this alt-coin by its followers. The UNO community, which is small but regarded as extremely loyal, refers to the coin in kilograms. Currently, only four exchanges are dealing in UNO. A rather small number of UNO coins are to be mined: 250,000 over the course of 300 years. UNO is mined right alongside bitcoin. By doing this it makes the process more secure, and it mines three times faster than bitcoin.

 

Potato Coin (Spuds)

This coin stands out among the rest, not so much for being weird, but for the ambitious idea behind it. First and foremost, the name is out of the norm for sure, even for weird crypto-coins. It’s creators chose the potato because it is a staple source of food in the area where this coin is going to be dispersed. Now for the really cool part. The main idea behind Potato Coin is to help improve the conditions in Africa for the farmers. It will also try to reduce their dependency on the normal fiat currency of the area. So far, 85 percent of the initial pre-mine is done, and going to an African Trust, as well as directly to the farmers themselves. A latin inscription adorns Potato Coin’s logo and translates to “Potato is light, potato is life, potato is love.” That’s weird to say the least, but the entire idea behind this coin is awesome.

 

Coinye (West)

If anyone has ever gotten too much attention by the media, in my opinion, its Mr. West. Apparently the creators of Coinye West feel completely different. In spite of a cease-and-desist letter filed by West’s legal team, the coin was released in 2014. The coin is still being released, but a few changes have been made. The South Park cartoon Kanye fish was substituted for the original Kanye head, and “West” was dropped from its name. The creators admit that other than the name and South Park reference, Kanye had nothing to do with the coin. They did mention on the website that they were avidly seeking Mr. West’s approval at the time. Turns out, though, that West didn’t approve, and sued the alt coin into ruin six short months after its release. It’s still trading on some exchanges, going by the ticker “COYE/KOI”.

 

NyanCoin (NYAN)

When I first heard of NYAN, I thought this would most certainly be number one on the list, but further research depicted a different story. NYAN came out in 2014, and despite its more than off- putting name and logo, it caught on surprisingly well with miners. It was released as the “first officially licensed cryptocurrency”. Creators named the coin after the viral YouTube video titled NyanCat that was uploaded in 2011, and has received over 100 million hits. In my few short years dealing with crypto currency, and cyber security, everything about this coin screams, “scam!” That obviously isn’t the case, though. It is mostly a reference to the 8-bit’esque website design and graphics. The coin has a substantial following still, and a dedicated sub-reddit. Anyone can get started with NYAN by simply going to the site and downloading the software.

 

Wankcoin(WKC)

This is the oddest crypto-coin I came across. It’s most certainly the strangest name so far. Wankcoin is the brain child of porno junkies with consciences. If you couldn’t tell, it was created as a way for porn enthusiasts to buy and trade NSFW porn anonymously. While it’s not the only coin of its kind, with this purpose it stands out from the rest because of its name. Everything about this coin makes me laugh. Any slogan for Wankcoin you ask? Well, it just so happens to be “Bank While You Wank!”. One thing I’ve noticed about the Wankcoin site is the ability to mine Wankcoin by watching porn, and apparently the more you “wank” the more you mine. It uses the same algorithm as Bitcoin, SHA-256.  Of all the alternative crypto-currencies I’ve looked into, this one takes the cake. Just imagine it…nevermind, don’t imagine it.

 

Well, there you have it–some of the weirdest alt-coins I could find. This, of course, is only a small list of what’s out there, so if you have a little extra change and want to do something strange with it, you might as well pick one (hopefully not number one) and see where it takes you.

OKLink Makes US$100 Million of Cross-Border Transfers Free for Global Remittance Companies

Hong Kong, 12 October 2016 – OKLink, the global blockchain money transfer network, announced today that it will subsidize all fees on the first US$100,000 of cross-border transfers for every partner on the OKLink network, up to a total of US$100 million. The initiative incentivizes money transfer companies to offer their customers the cheapest, fastest, and most transparent global remittance services.

Hong Kong-based OKLink empowers transfer and delivery companies to provide senders and recipients a superior experience on low-value transfers in their local currency. OKLink’s platform is built on the trust of the blockchain, using digital assets to settle among participants in an instant, secure, and transparent manner. It eliminates the need for pre-funding by settling every transaction in real-time using stable and native digital assets.

 

OKLink currently offers payouts in fifteen countries across Asia, the Americas and Africa.

Jack C. Liu, Chief Strategy Officer at OKLink, said, “The world's financial transfers run on antiquated technology built nearly half a century ago. Slow, costly, and favoring large sized transactions, these qualities are in contrast to the emerging payment needs of today’s ever-connected global economy. OKLink believes in a future where small-value cross-border transfers will be as simple, fast, and cheap as a text message. “We are thrilled with the reception OKLink has received from industry leading companies and we hope to support their growth further with this incentive promotion.”

 

Starting from today, participating companies on OKLink will be able to service individual payouts at the mid-market exchange rate for the first US$100,000 of transactions. Transactions under US$500 will qualify for the subsidy. Eligible companies must sign up by December 31, 2016 and have until March 31, 2017 to complete the free transfers.

 

Coinsecure, Coins.ph, Rebit, MOIN.Inc, Coinone, Coinplug, Coincheck, Bitoex and BitPesa, are among the early companies to join the OKLink network and take advantage of this initiative.

 

A selection of quotes from OKLink partner companies is provided below.

Mohit Kalra, CEO of Coinsecure in India, said, “India holds the largest share of remittances around the globe with over US$70 billion of inward remittance in 2015 at an average fee of 6 percent.  What Coinsecure and OKLink plan to do - is going to be phenomenal.”

 

Ron Hose, CEO of Coins.ph in the Philippines, said, “We are very excited to allow our existing user base of over 500,000 customers in South East Asia to remit funds to Japan, China and South Korea using OKLink's platform, supporting our joint vision of providing cheaper cross-border payments and remittances across the region."

 

John Bailon, CEO of Rebit in the Philippines, said, “Rebit first pioneered using Bitcoin for remittances. We’re very excited to join the OKLink network, whose resources and influence will create a strong alliance of companies committed to making Blockchain remittances work for any customer, anywhere in the world.”

 

Ian Suh, CEO of MOIN.Inc in Korea, said, "OKLink has developed a new and revolutionary way to solve problems in the traditional money transfer system. MOIN is very proud to be a partner of OKLink. The partnership will enable Korean people to send money abroad cheaper, faster, and more conveniently. OKLink is going to become the future of global remittance, connecting the world much closer."

 

Wonhee Shin, CTO at Coinone in Korea, said, “This is a very meaningful milestone for blockchain technology, which is closely watched by regulators and practitioners from all over the world. Finally the technology has moved away from the concept phase and into the real usage phase.”

 

Joon Sun Uhr, CEO of Coinplug in Korea, said “Coinplug is very excited to work with OKLink in building the next generation global settlement network. We expect the market to grow significantly in micro-sized overseas remittances and we are preparing to be a dominant early mover with this partnership with OKLink.”

 

Koichiro Wada, co-founder of Coincheck in Japan, said, “We are excited to partner with OKLink. We believe blockchain based remittance will have a huge impact on the finance industry especially for people who do small transactions on a regular basis.”

 

Titan Cheng, CEO of Bitoex in Taiwan, said, “OKLink is an important partner for money transfer companies in Asia. Bitoex has more than 5000 locations in Taiwan. Our partnership with OKLink will help us expand the scope of our global remittance offerings and bring an unparalleled customer experience for the 600,000 expatriates in Taiwan."

 

For any questions about the program, please contact partner@oklink.com.

 

- Ends -

 

About OKLink

OKLink is a Hong Kong-based global blockchain money transfer network that gives every remittance and payment company the same cost advantage, global reach, and speed that took Western Union many decades to build. The company leverages the trust of the blockchain to connect and enable transactions between transfer and delivery companies worldwide using blockchain anchored digital assets and multi-signature technology.

 

Launched in August 2016, OKLink is growing rapidly with a payout network that is currently available in fifteen countries across Asia, Africa and the Americas. OKLink is a part of the OKCoin family of companies.  OKCoin is the largest digital asset exchange in China. The company raised US$10 million in its Series A round. For more information, please visit oklink.com or follow the company on Twitter @OKLink.

Can payments firms monetise data and meet new privacy laws?

The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) represents a watershed moment for the payments industry. This is not simply another data compliance headache. GDPR enshrines a new idea: that consumers have ultimate control of their data.

 

This concept will lead to a new model for the payments industry; one centred on the empowered customer and based on informed consent.

 

The impact on the payments industry

Payments industry businesses – from merchants to the financial services organisations that support them – are increasingly looking at how they can monetise their customer data.

Some adopt direct monetisation models, selling their customer data to third parties, whereas others indirectly monetise customer data through analysing payments history to drive up- and cross-sell of new services.

 

Much of this data is unfortunately anonymized given it is personally identifiable information (Pii) and there is a lack of customer knowledge and/or permission for use. As such it has essentially been stripped of a fair amount of its utility to directly personalise and make offers more customized and relevant.

Either in aggregated form or linked to an individual, how can firms continue to monetise data and also meet the privacy demands of GDPR?

 

Putting the customer in control

The challenge can be met through informed consent. Firms must take a customer-driven approach to information sharing, empowering the consumer to share and rescind their consent.

It is not enough to simply ‘ask’ for consent. Organisations must capture gained consent in an auditable workflow. This requires a sophisticated information management platform; one which enables an automated and secure digital communication link with the customer.

 

Once consent is secured, payments industry businesses then need a flexible, secure platform to store and manage the data in customer-driven way. One way firms are looking to build this framework is through digital rights management services that create a digital ‘vault’ for customers to store personal data.

 

This approach enables simplified and streamlined Data Portability and the Right to be Forgotten; empowering customers and meeting the stipulations of GDPR.

 

A new model for a changed world

While GDPR is a significant enabling event for the rollout of consent-driven data management, it is a symptom of a wider change. The sharing, and peer-to-peer economies are already shaking up the world of commerce and changing the payments landscape for good. At the same time people are becoming more aware of their personal rights over their own data.

 

Payments businesses can’t take anything for granted any more. They must proactively enable a customer-driven and customer-centric data framework and provide customers with the tools they need to view and manage their own data. The result will be GDPR compliance, a much better customer experience and a new method for building customer loyalty. It will also mean they can continue to monetise their data.

Korean Credit Card Giant to Integrate Blockchain Identity Service

South Korea’s largest credit card company is set to use a blockchain identity solution developed by local bitcoin startup Coinplug.

The service will be based on what Coinplug calls FidoChain, a “private blockchain technology” aimed at providing a distributed means of verifying and maintaining digital identities. KB Koomkin Card, a subsidiary of KB Koomkin Bank, plans to complete its integration by the end of this year.

 

The startup has been working in the area of digital identity for some time, netting a $45,000 prize last year after submitting a prototype system based on the concept to a competition held by JB Financial Group.

It’s a use case that has been pursued by established enterprises as well as new companies working in the blockchain space. Now, following additional development, Coinplug is pushing ahead with what it calls the “Coinplug Identification System”, or CIS.

According to Richard Yun, director and chief operation officer from Coinplug, KB Koomkin wants to integrate the tool into its credit card onboarding services.

In addition to its enterprise blockchain projects, Coinplug operates a bitcoin exchange service. The tech, launched last month, comes just under a year after Coinplug raised $5m in a Series B funding round. The startup has raised more than $8m to date.

 

Targeting identity pain point

Using FidoChain, the identity solution allows users – in this case, KB Koomkin Card – the ability to add, verify or revoke identities tied to a credit card product.

Yun said the startup wanted to potentially resolve security and user experience problems associated with existing identity solutions in South Korea.

 

“We thought it is very important to provide secure and easy to use identification and authentication service to banking service users, and we believed that private blockchain technology can be very effective to implement secure and scalable identification/authentication service.”

It’s a prospect that, according to Yun, has attracted significant interest from KB Koomkin. The company, which reported $2.6b in operating profit for 2015, is said to be looking at applying the tech to both services it offers now as well as new ones in the future.

“They [are considering whether to] expand the coverage of CIS to other existing and new services,” Yun explained.

KB did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Future of Artificial Intelligence & Ethics on the Road to Superintelligence

The human brain, consisting of roughly 86 billion neurons, rivals the world’s best supercomputers in terms of magnitude, efficiency, and speed, using as little energy as a small 20-watt light bulb. Human evolution took tens of thousands of years to adapt noticeable brain size and architecture changes.

 

Evolution is a slow process that can take eons for changes to occur. Technology, on the other hand, is amazing in terms of how fast it is moving along, blending into the world seamlessly. The technological evolution notably occurs at a faster pace compared to biological evolution.

 

To further understand the situation, imagine a frog in a pot of water that heats up 1/10th of a degree Celsius every ten seconds. Even if the frog remained in that water for, say an hour, it would be unable to feel the minute changes in temperature. However, if the frog is dropped into boiling water, the change is too sudden and the frog jumps away to avoid fate.

 

 

Let's take a gigantic chessboard and a grain of rice, for scale, and place each grain of rice to a corresponding chess square following a sequence: for each passing square, we double the amount. Upon applying this, we get:

 

1) 1

2) 2

3) 4

4) 8

 

And so on. You must be thinking, “What difference does doubling a grain of rice for every box make?” But one must remember that, at some point, the number from which the count started will be totally indistinguishable to the end result. Still on the 41th square, it contains a mountainous 1 trillion grains of rice pile.

 

41) 1,099,511,627,776

 

What started out as a measly amount, barely feeding a single ant, has become massive enough to feed a city of 100,000 people for a year.

 

 

The development of technology over time

In the year 1959, the global output of transistor production of 60 million was huge. It was deemed a manufacturing achievement to produce such an amount. Although looking at the world today, it pales because of how far the transistor development has come. A modern i7 Skylake processor contains around

 

(Skip to 5:15 in the video, to hear the global transistor manufacturing achievement in 1959)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2466CBuOxVg

 

1,750,000,000 transistors. It would take 29 years of 1959’s transistor global production to match one i7 Skylake transistor count.

 

The transistor manufacturing size in an i7 Skylake processor is 14 nm. For reference, a silicon atom is about 0.1176 nm across: 14/0.1176=119 Meaning, a transistor in an i7 Skylake processor is only about 119 atoms across.

 

Therefore, one can conclude that it takes technology to build technology. In the past, civilization was limited to the usage of paper and writing. Calculations done by hand tend to be slow and tedious.

 

 

Whyfuture.com - Lets think about the future

Artifical Intelligence - Artificial Intelligence & Ethics on the Road to Superintelligence

 

Could Bitcoin Be the Future of Blockchain Post Trade?

Conventional thinking about blockchain technology's use in stock markets may be wrong, according to one academic.

The argument was put forward by Professor David Yermack, chairman of the finance department at New York University, this week at Imperial College London's first FinTech-focused academic conference.
There, Yermack presented an unpublished report that argues blockchains will evolve differently in capital markets than widely expected. For example, according to Yermack, functions such as stock settlements will one day be carried out on public blockchains like bitcoin, as opposed to private or premissioned alternatives.

Overall, Yermack, who teaches a cryptocurrency course at NYU’s Stern School of Business, offered a much broader vision for the use of blockchain in finance than what the industry is considering, as well as more critical takes on how incumbents are exploring the tech. Taking a dig at DTCC, for instance, Yermack said its report "Embracing Disruption" did little to show or illustrate how blockchain could change the current state of affairs.

Agents of change
That's not to say that Yermack didn't take a measured view of public blockchains. On the contrary, Yermak acknowledged the limitations of bitcoin's throughput and its proof-of-work consensus system today, but noted that it's something he believes the industry will need to work out better solutions for.

Still, he insisted that the future of finance will be brought about by a real decentralized blockchains that don’t have monopolies that guard access to stocks, bonds and currencies. Speaking of the direction where the disruption will come from, Yermack sees three potential players. These include challengers (complete outsiders looking for disruption); collaborators (like the DTCC and R3); and regulators (countries like the UK, Australia, and Canada).

Overall, he believes that the challengers were the most likely to succeed, but that some regulators (like those in the UK) are better positioned to bring about change than others.

Quick wins
Interestingly, Yermack believes one of the easiest and quickest ways for the industry to move to a blockchain model is by exploring use cases in corporate elections by shareholders, an avenue already being pursued by Nasdaq. Yermack said shareholder voting on corporate elections is currently inefficient when it comes to vote counting, and that the voting results are often plus or minus 5% of what they should be.

Further, in the current model, there are many challenges when it comes to corporate elections, he said. There are various different ledgers of ownership, maintained by the company, the broker, and the market in general, which gives rise to different voting results. Broadridge, which has what he called "a monopoly that is very inefficient" administers corporate elections voting, is also interested in blockchains.

But, Yermack went beyond words, showing that corporate elections are prone to favor management proposals. Such issues, he believes, could be eliminated with the help of blockchain-based voting systems.

In China, Two Cities Mirror Blockchain-Bitcoin Divide

Beijing and Shanghai, China's two most populous and developed cities, are often reminiscent of two siblings. They are similar, but each has its own distinct character.

In this light, some rivalry is as inevitable, and it's now spilling over into the country's blockchain industry.

In Beijing, visitors are likely to meet "bitcoin maximalists", those who shrug at the idea an alternative blockchain or bank consortium could challenge the network effect of a $10bn digital economy. In Shanghai, the difference of attitude is pronounced – there, you are more likely to be told that bitcoin is passé. Metaverse, a company based in the Shanghai's Huangpu district, is in many ways representative of the city's new blockchain startups.

Relatively unknown even in its home country, Metaverse has over 20 employees – no small feat for a blockchain startup that has been around for less than a year, and it recently held a blockchain token crowdsale, raising over ¥10m within weeks. The sight of a roomful of busy developers gives the impression the startup is onto something big – which is exactly what Eric Gu, CEO and co-founder, wanted to convey in interview. But he is also candid about his personal transition and what it says about the state of the blockchain industry.

According to Gu, support from local officials is strongest when they are presented with a project that he said avoids the revolutionary stigma that has surrounded bitcoin. "If you expect the government to back a blockchain project, it will at least be one that they feel more comfortable with," Gu explained.

Not quite a battle
Meanwhile, in Beijing, the city's outlook is defined by the notable startups that call it home, including bitcoin mining giant Bitmain and major exchanges like OKCoin and Huobi. Da Hongfei, CEO of Shanghai-based Onchain, argues that this has made for "a very different community and industry landscape" in each city. The creator of a "universal" blockchain platform that aims at adoption in both public and private markets, he acknowledges his firm would be an outsider in this location. "Beijing is well-known as an established bitcoin center. It enjoys a comprehensive bitcoin ecosystem," he acknowledged.

Like Metaverse, Onchain has also differentiated from the venture-backed startup model common in Beijing, raising more than $4.5m in a public token sale, while inking a partnership with Microsoft and contributing to the Linux-led Hyperledger project. By contrast, Beijing firms have often elected foreign venture capital over the token sale model, sometimes called an initial coin offering (ICO), whereby unaccredited investors back a firm by purchasing cryptographic assets.

Despite this investor approval (and the heated debate around ICOs), Da went on to argue there is still a greater "stigma" associated with bitcoin, one his company has sidestepped. "As for blockchain technology, or DLT, a large extent, it's free from this burden," he said.

Trend or fad
But as for which brand of blockchain is winning, it might be too early to say. Da, for example, hinted he believes other cities are now following Shanghai's lead, in what could be a sign its view on the technology could win out. "Hangzhou is taking the lead in the lower-layer, distributed ledger technology R&D," he said, "not necessarily everything bitcoin."

Companies seem to be following their lead, as well. Metaverse, for instance, is utilizing this strength to tackle the country's collectable calligraphy and painting market, where collectors have been searching for tools to enable them to record their transactions and check previous ownership of art pieces to ensure authenticity. Onchain, on the other hand, is working with Everbright Bank, a major Chinese commercial bank, to build a blockchain-based reputation point system. Both projects see value in enterprise markets, particularly because there have been strong signals of interest from leading domestic firms.

In this way, Da argued that he believes "blockchain" might bring about the most benefits for Chinese consumers, though he sought to stress that there's a larger, more important goal that unites innovators in both Shanghai and Beijing, in bitcoin and blockchain.

Blockchain Surveillance is Accelerating Privacy Tool Development

When it comes to cryptocurrencies one treasured goal is the ability to remain private, which requires both an anonymous and fungible currency. At times, it seems fungibility is the holy grail of the ecosystem. Bitcoin definitely achieves most of the qualities of sound money, but some believe it needs a lot of work in the development of fungibility.

 

Privacy cannot work without the basics of a fungible asset as both fundamentals are mutually exclusive. The rise in popularity concerning both fungibility and anonymity can be seen with the latest trends in market trading and development.

 

Just recently Bitcoin.com spoke with Daniel Krawisz about his new bitcoin shuffler, Shufflepuff. Krawisz explained he was still in the developmental process but had achieved the first shuffled transaction on August 15th. The Coin Shuffle protocol finds other users to tumble their bitcoins as variants of this technology are the most common protocol for mixing Bitcoins.

 

On August 29th, another tumbling protocol called TumbleBit was announced on Reddit, with the post being very popular among cryptocurrency community. The project developers say they are producing a roadmap in the near future. The team gives credit to David Chaum’s ecash for inspiring some of the project’s attributes.

FW: Ways to stay anonymous and protect your online privacy

Now more than ever, your online privacy is under attack. ISPs, advertisers, and governments around the world are increasingly interested in knowing exactly what you’re up to when you browse the web. Whether you’re a political activist or simply someone who hates the idea of third-parties scrutinizing your surfing habits, there are plenty of tools available to keep prying eyes off of your traffic.

 

In this post, I’m going to highlight 19 ways to increase your online privacy. Some methods are more complicated than others, but if you’re serious about remaining private, these tips will help shield your traffic from snoops. Of course, internet security is a topic in and of itself, so you’re going to need to do some reading to remain thoroughly protected on all fronts. And remember, even the most careful among us are still vulnerable to imperfect technology.

 

The Onion Router (Tor)

If anonymity is what you're after, The Onion Router (Tor) is what you need. It uses a vast network of computers to route your Web traffic through a number of encrypted layers to obscure its origin. Tor is a vital tool for political dissidents and whistleblowers to anonymously share information, and you can just as easily use it to help protect your privacy. Get started by downloading the Tor Browser. This customized fork of Firefox automatically connects to the Tor network, and includes some of the privacy-enhancing browser extensions discussed later in this post. This package has everything you need to use Tor successfully, but you'll also need to change your web surfing behavior to retain as much anonymity as possible. Abide by the Tor warnings, and remember this isn't a magic bullet. It still has some significant weaknesses.

 

 

Justified paranoia

You might not think you have anything to hide, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t enjoy the benefits of online privacy. Some of these recommendations are a real hassle to live with — I’m well aware. It’s a lot easier to shove your fingers in your ears, and pretend like the NSA and your ISP aren’t watching every move you make. But what you browse is your business, and your business alone. Now is the time to stand up for yourself, and take back your privacy.

In time for Black Hat and DEFCON, we’re covering security, cyberwar, and online crime all this week; check out the rest of our Security Week stories for more in-depth coverage as the week goes on.

Jeff Garzik: “Blockstream Will Help Bitcoin Grow into The Future”

The world of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency never has a dull moment. Now that Blockstream has officially appointed Adam Back as their CEO, a few interesting things are bound to happen soon. But Jeff Garzik, who runs his own company called Bloq, hinted at a potential partnership between both groups.

Jeff Garzik Remains Keen on Blockstream
The name Blockstream has been a topic of substantial controversy among Bitcoin enthusiasts over the past few years. Even though this group of developers and engineers is looking to improve the Bitcoin ecosystem, there are lots of people in the community who feel they are trying to bring Bitcoin down eventually.

While there may have been some dubious discussions involving Blockstream in the past, they continue to receive a lot of support as well. Jeff Garzik, one of the most prominent people in the Bitcoin world, has high hopes for what the team is trying to achieve. In fact, he feels Blockstream will "help Bitcoin grow into the future".

This is a strong sentiment, and one that will hopefully come true. While Bitcoin is not designed to be steered in one particular direction by a group of coders, somebody has to propose improvements and changes to the code as they see fit. It is still up to the community to accept or reject these changes when they are implemented in a new Bitcoin Core client.

What is rather interesting is how Jeff Garzik openly hinted at "working together with Adam Back", the newly appointed CEO of Blockstream. This does not necessarily mean that Garzik will jump ship to the company, as they are both working towards the same goal. Making Bitcoin better and more robust is the top priority for both men.