Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies

After the Moolah mishap, here comes another event that has a great potential to tarnish the entire cryptocurrency sector. If sources are to be believed, it seems that EquinoxCoin, an altcoin recently distributed via multiple ICOs, is a scam after all.

Announced on August 19th this year, EquinoxCoin was launched as an economic project whose distribution took place in multiple phases, which contains two ICOs that sold 1.3m and 8m units and a free distribution of 1.1m units as well. The first ICO batch was sold for 185 satoshi each through an escrow, while the second one was recently sold for around 800 satoshi per unit through Bittrex, a US-based cryptocurrency exchange. In the meantime, over 13.5m units were destroyed in absence of buyers.

The cryptocurrency was propagated as a fast and decentralized medium to send money to family and friends, or to pay for goods or services anywhere in the world. Upon the launch of their website, EquinoxCoin developers promised that their product will make an impression in the crypto currency market. They further added: “After the long-term analysis of the market we identified the main factors that facilitate progress and regress of the economic structure for such projects. Based on the information obtained our design team has established a new organization called Equinox Management.”

At this point of time, the Equinox Management developers seem to be missing with investors’ money. Their last public interaction is amusingly a couple of fancy images, in which they are holding a champagne at some strip-joint.

The most shocking fact however is related to cryptocurrency reviewing website CoinSource that awarded EquinoxCoin a 6/7 Trust Index Rating. We cannot imagine how many investors considered this rating before investing their money on this scam coin. This whole incident really has jeopardized CoinSource reputation by a notable extent.

Moral of the story: Don’t invest in just any coin with a fancy name and speculative features.



More...

Bank of Canada Says Currently, Bitcoin Does Not Pose a Risk to Stability in Country


When a lot of governments are banning Bitcoin as they consider that the digital currency is illegal and may cause instability in their economies, the statement from an official from the Bank of Canada has come that says that it is not a concern at least for now. The top official from the national bank said electronic money does not currently pose a risk to stability in Canada.

It has come out that the bank official is Senior Deputy Governor Carolyn Wilkins. She outlined the risks that e-currencies can pose to consumers, such as a lack of recourse if money is lost or stolen or if an exchange fails, as in the high-profile case of Mt. Gox earlier this year. However, it looks for now, she is not bothered much about Bitcoin’s disturbing role.
Talking to media professionals the official gave her opinion wherein she admitted that the evolution of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin bears close watching for any threats to the financial system that could arise from more widespread use. However, according to her electronic money does not currently pose a risk to stability in Canada.

Wilkins believes that there could also be ramifications for the central bank if e-money were to gain more widespread acceptance since changes in the benchmark interest rate would have less effect on a system that uses cryptocurrencies alongside the Canadian dollar. Canada was the first country that had got the first Bitcoin ATM at Vancouver.

Bitcoin is not a Reliable Investment Option

Though Bitcoin is popular in Canada, Wilkins believes that in the unlikely situation in which cryptocurrencies were used broadly, a significant proportion of economic transactions would not be denominated in Canadian dollars. Putting her views at Waterloo, Ontario, she said this would reduce the bank’s ability to influence macroeconomic activity through Canadian interest rates.

However, she clarified it that Canada is nowhere near that point that it can be alarming. She believes that as money and payment technologies progress, the Bank of Canada is helping the federal government modernize oversight frameworks. According to her the central bank is also undertaking research on the merits of issuing e-money.

Wilkins said Bitcoin was not a reliable store of value, as its worth soared from pennies to more than $1,100 and then fell back to $300 in just four years.


More...

Second Bitcoin Auction Wraps Up

The US Marshals Service (USMS) yesterday received more than two dozen bids for 50,000 Bitcoin seized during the FBI’s raid on Silk Road wallets. Lynzey Donahue, a spokesperson of USMS, revealed that that government received 27 bids from a total of 11 bidders. The winning bids will be announced today. Till date, Feds have seized a total of 173,991 BTC, in which 144,336 units belonged to Ross Ulbricht, the alleged owner of Silk Road.

MasterCard Official Goes Harsh on Bitcoin

The MasterCard President for Southeast Asia Matthew Driver played a dirty corporate trick on Bitcoin, when he appeared in a video with an aim to blast out the cryptocurrency from people’s mind. The irresponsible official suggested that cryptocurrencies are too risk to success, whilst also criticized Bitcoin security infrastructure to be severely flawed. He further called Bitcoin’s anonymity “troubling” and said:

“Trust and security, a stable form of value, are incredibly critical if you’re going to be able to gain acceptance for the services you’re looking to provide. The challenge for cryptocurrencies, like bitcoin, is that they’re unstable in terms of their intrinsic value.”

US Congressman Introduces Bill to Protect Cryptocurrencies

Steve Stockman, a Republican Congressman from the State of Texas, recently introduced a pro-cryptocurrency bill, known as Cryptocurrency Protocol Protection and Moratorium Act (or CryptPMA). According to the available reports, this bill not only demands an extension in terms of protection but also require government to classify cryptocurrency as a normal currency.


More...

CoinJelly, Bitcoin Exchange and Wallet Closes all Users Accounts within 24 Hours

As the ownership of the company changes, CoinJelly’s founder and director Ash King has said that CoinJelly is closing the accounts of users within 24 hours. It has surprised many a users as this has come suddenly as not many of them had thought of any such decision. Interestingly, Ash King does not want to disclose any other facts about the decision.
However, talking to media King said that CoinJelly would not take the wallet down until the company has exhausted all avenues over the coming days to contact users. Also, according to him already, 95% of the Bitcoin owned by the company’s users have been withdrawn, with no one wallet now containing more than 2 BTC.

He also cleared that his company has a small fund to cover any people who may be occupied this week or cannot access their email or phones. CoinJelly, the Australia-based company was launched earlier this year with a lot of fanfare, sent emails to its customers wherein it mentioned that it will need them to remove their coin from their wallet within the next 24 hrs.

The news came to public when a lot of customers started tweeting about the mail and wanted a response from the organization. They showed their concerns about the abrupt decision to stop the services. According to the email sent to existing customers the CoinJelly site would be taken offline at 12:00pm (AEST) on December 12th.

Unprofessional Handling of the Situation

The email further makes it clear that after that point, customers’ coin will not be accessible for anyone including of the company; therefore, they must take the same out. However, at the same time the official website of the company does not display information about the account closures on the home, FAQ or support pages, this is disappointing the users.
Several existing users have complained that they are unhappy about the handling of the situation by the company as according to them giving just 24 hours warning ‘or else lose the Bitcoin’ is not really great and extremely unprofessional. The number of disgruntled customers has gone up as well because a lot of them feel mishandled.

Though CoinJelly marketed itself as “the world’s first insured Bitcoin wallet“, this has proven difficult to verify. After the unprofessional handling of the situation wherein users can lose their Bitcoin, the company says that it may come with any decision regarding future course of action in the next couple of months.


More...

Bill Gates says that if Bitcoin supporters are excited about the potential of the digital currency systems like these as a way to keep fees low and have the system work robustly in the global sense, they should know this won’t be the dominant system. He was talking at the occasion of the promotion for his Annual Letter.

Putting his views on Bitcoin Bill Gates said, “There’s a lot that Bitcoin or variants can do to make moving money between countries easier and getting fees down pretty dramatically. But Bitcoin won’t be the dominant system. When you talk about a domestic economy, you must have the idea of attributed transactions, where if you sent it to the wrong person you could actually get the transaction reversed.”

He further added, “A traditional system doesn’t have this huge fluctuation where the value of your account is going up and down by a factor of two. We need things that draw on the revolution of Bitcoin, but Bitcoin alone is not good enough.” Nonetheless, the critical views from Bill Gates have received mixed reactions from stakeholders.

Bitcoin Could be the Easiest Way to Transfer Money

Bill Gates is not new to Bitcoin. His views about the digital currency have been around for quite some time. He appreciates the revolutionary technology and says that the need to move money from place to place – the cost to do so: the overhead, as anyone puts it – makes him think, believe it or not, of Bitcoin.

According to Bill Gates he believes that some people saying that Bitcoin is the answer to those problems sound right as well. He says that Bitcoin is exciting because it shows how cheap it can be. Also, Bitcoin is better than currency in that anyone does not have to be physically in the same place and of course for large transactions currency can get pretty inconvenient.
Talking about the digital currency Bill Gates says that the customers he is talking about aren’t trying to be anonymous.

In fact, they are willing to be known, so the Bitcoin technology is key, and everyone could add to it or could build a similar technology where there’s enough attribution that people feel comfortable this is nothing to do with terrorism or any money laundering.


More...

FundedByMe, Swedish crowdfunding platform, launching Bitcoin pilot program

According to an announcement by FundedByMe, a Swedish crowdfunding platform, the company is going to launch a Bitcoin pilot program soon wherein it will allow investors to use the digital currency to purchase stakes in a Bitcoin trading company. The news regarding the development came through a press release from the company.

The press release informs that the company aims to check the interest of paying in the Internet currency. The test will take 45 days and according to Daniel Daboczy, CEO and cofounder of FundedByMe the company sees that among the investors, a great many of them are early-adopters wherein it also knows Bitcoin users are familiar with new inventions at an early stage.

He further adds that this is why the company thought that it may offer both groups something interesting. Nonetheless, the press release also clears that the project would be the first of its kind to be hosted by a major crowdfunding platform and under the pilot project, Safello, a trading company, will accept Bitcoin from investors during its 45-day campaign.

Daniel Daboczy is of the view that FundedByMe is probably the most flexible crowdfunding platform at least in Europe which according to him means it supports investors whoever they are, wherever they are and whatever form they want to transfer their money. Thus, he seems to have sound understanding about the entire venture.

Nonetheless, the Stockholm-based crowdfunding platform, claims that in the last four years it has collected more than 100 000 000 SEK for entrepreneurs based in almost all European countries and some Asian nations. Also, as Daboczy says that the company knows that Bitcoin users are familiar with new inventions at any early stage.

The Decision will further Help Bitcoin Reach to New People

He further makes clear that as the digital currency is still at nascent stage it may offer both groups something interesting. The press release says that the Bitcoin pilot project with the launch of an equity-crowdfunding campaign for Safello, the Bitcoin trading platform, brings greater compliance and security to the Bitcoin industry.

Additionally, as this company also transfers the Bitcoin payments during the pilot project, the press release claims that the pilot project also accommodates the Bitcoin community. Frank Schuil, co-founder and CEO of Safello, in the release says that his organization has already done it in previous rounds of raisin funds.

More...

BitGo to Provide Seamless and Secure Bitcoin Trading Infrastructure with TradeBlock

In a press release, BitGo, the leader in Bitcoin security, announces that it has entered into a partnership with online cryptocurrency data provider TradeBlock. The purpose behind the partnership is to take assistance from TradeBlock’s execution and analysis tools to provide a complete security and transaction solution for private and institutional Bitcoin traders.
At the occasion TradeBlock CEO Greg Schvey said that today’s trading environment demands flexible, responsive and highly connected infrastructure. At the same time it also wants to remain completely secure and in such a situation the two companies that are known in the industry for their solution can serve the purpose well.

He says that the combination of TradeBlock’s execution and analysis tools with BitGo’s class leading multi-signature security creates the most powerful of feature set available to traders today. Nonetheless, the agreement entered into provides that BitGo and TradeBlock will work to create seamless interoperability between the companies’ product suites.

The two companies will be working on to get an easy to integrate system for private and institutional customers. The press release informs that now institutional and individual traders can manage their over-the-counter trading activity and portfolio in a single system that is not just secure but user-friendly as well.

Sharing his views BitGo CEO Mike Belshe said that the increasing pace and heightened stakes of the crypto currency markets is demanding a modular approach to infrastructure. According to him gone are the days when a new startup could spend a year building isolated, one-off transactional infrastructure.

He admitted that BitGo and TradeBlock’s solutions together represent the cutting edge of modular, managed infrastructure. Formed not long ago, BitGo pioneered multi-sig technology in 2013 and since then it has developed a wide range of products and solutions that set the bar for Bitcoin security.

Bitcoin Security will be Higher Priority

At the time when Bitcoin security is becoming a prominent issue, BitGo offers Security as a Service products targeted towards both the consumer and enterprise markets that include API-based security. The Bitcoin management infrastructure and insurance-backed Bitcoin theft and loss prevention is emerging as a popular trend.

Nonetheless, as BitGo and TradeBlock also plan to begin automating other aspects of the trading process, the dream of safe and secure Bitcoin trading would become easy. It will not just be easy for any user to trade Bitcoin but stay assured about the safety and security of their digital currencies.

More...

The battle to control how people pay for stuff is heating up and Goldman Sachs wants a piece of the action.

In its first publicly announced bitcoin-related investment, Goldman said on April 30 that it co-led a $50 million financing round for Circle, a bitcoin startup led by serial tech entrepreneur Jeremy Allaire. The startup offers a new digital wallet meant for everyday consumers. China’s IDG Capital Partners was the other lead investor on the round, which brings Circle’s valuation to what Fortune estimated at $200 million.

Allaire says nefarious behavior among early bitcoin adopters drove away mainstream consumers from the crypto currency. But every new investment from Wall Street bigwigs like Goldman Sachs, “brings more legitimacy to the space,” Allaire tells Quartz. (It doesn’t hurt that Circle and Goldman share a board member.)

“We want to get people to think of transferring value as something as easy and utilitarian as sending an email,” Allaire says.

The recent cash infusion, Allaire says, will focus on international expansion and greater adoption of the service for both bitcoin and other currencies, such as the US dollar and Chinese yuan.

Circle offers free money transfers for people who download the app by hooking up their bank accounts or bitcoin wallets to the service. Unlike services like Venmo and PayPal, the app can send money to people with any digital wallet, not just Circle account holders. While money transfers at traditional banks can cost $15 to $60 and take two to three days to clear, Circle transfers the money instantly.

But by offering the service for free, there’s little prospect for turning a profit anytime soon—a point Allaire shrugs off with little concern. “When [venture capitalist and early Facebook investor] Jim Breyer invested in Facebook, he wasn’t focused on generating revenue,” he says.

the source

After two years of debates and revisions, the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) today released BitLicense, the world’s most awaited Bitcoin regulatory framework that many experts believe could be a prototype for other state regulators.

Mr. Benjamin Lawsky, the soon-to-be former Superintendent of NYDFS, dictated the law during a speech in Washington DC. The new rules, as said by the regulator, were focused on businesses which hold customers’ funds, and also those which offers digital currency to fiat exchange services. As per the speech,*these kind of firms*are told to obtain a special DFS license, and are further asked to keep their license up to date with regards to the laws related to consumer protection, anti-money laundering, change of ownership, and amongst others.

BitLicense meanwhile brought some optimistic amendments for the technology-centered businesses, ensuring a space for innovation that most of the earlier critics questioned. Lawsky acknowledged Bitcoin as a never-seen-before technology which cannot be caged into the traditional money-transmission laws. He therefore excused tech firms from obtaining permissions when it comes to introducing software updates and organizing capital funding rounds.

Lawsky further excused students and innovators from obtaining the Bitcoin license, until and unless they become a financial intermediary. “There is a basic bargain that when a financial company is entrusted with safeguarding customer funds and receives a license from the state to do so – it accepts the need for heightened regulatory scrutiny to help ensure that a consumer’s money does not just disappear into a black hole,” he added.

No Duplicity

Lawsky meanwhile also excused the Bitcoin companies from submitting Suspicious Activity Reports (SAR) to NYDFS, saying that such information can also be obtained by the federal regulators.

“Our goal is to avoid duplication where possible,” he said. “And we generally already have access to that information when we need it through information sharing arrangements with federal regulators.”

The BitLicense comes at a time when Wall Street is already showing immense interests in experiment with the digital currency technology. In last few months, America’s leading stock exchanges Nasdaq and NYSE has joined the Bitcoin club, while the investments into the sector has also surged impressively from last year.

More...

Digitsy Inc. announced cloud based service namely EscrowBytes. This service is going to enable any person with phone to make money by selling videos to news institutions around the world. The posters do not need credit card or bank account to get paid because they will get paid before buyer gets the video:

"No need for a credit card or bank account. You get paid before buyer gets your video. Upload a video, EscrowBytes will do the rest."
"EscrowBytes reduces the risk of fraud for both buyers and sellers. As a trusted third party, EscrowBytes stores digital video files uploaded by sellers, and releases those files to buyers after payment is confirmed. The process is very fast, allowing real time processing of breaking news stories from around the world."


more...