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eToro Signs Bitcoin-funded Sponsorship Deals with EPL Clubs

Posted on August 22, 2018August 21, 2018 by Martin S.

Bitcoin is making yet another entry into the mainstream world through sports. Soon, teams and clubs may be able to buy football players using bitcoin thanks to recent sponsorship deals between seven English Premier League clubs and renowned online trading platform, eToro.

The Premier League Clubs – Tottenham Hotspur, Leicester City, Southampton, Cardiff City, Brighton, Newcastle United and Crystal Palace – are set to begin participating in cryptocurrency trials on Monday and this will be facilitated by eToro. The goal of the trials is to have bitcoin being used in place of the pound sterling for player transfers in the Premier League. The online trading platform also paid the clubs (in bitcoin) to have them participate in the trials.

The sponsorship deal will also see eToro appear on in-game advertising boards at the homes of all the seven clubs as well as within their advertising spaces.

“As a global multi-asset platform where you can purchase the world’s biggest crypto assets alongside more traditional investments, we are excited to be partnering with so many Premier League clubs and make history by being the first company ever to pay for a Premier League partnership in bitcoin,” Iqbal V. Gandham, UK Managing Director at eToro.

In most of the sponsorship and partnership deals with sports clubs, the extent of digital currency involvement is often limited to payment. However, eToro believes that the blockchain will have a pretty significant impact on the future of various sports operations very soon.

“The blockchain technology that underpins cryptocurrencies like bitcoin brings transparency, which we believe can improve the experience for everyone who loves the ‘beautiful game’, from fans being targeted by ticket touts, or a club negotiating a transfer, we believe that blockchain will revolutionize the world of football,” Gandham explained.

The move certainly marks another huge milestone for blockchain and digital currency integration in mainstream football. As is stands there have been a couple of experiments that bear similarities to this one such as the one in Turkey where, in January, Harunustaspor hired a professional player for Bitcoin. The clubs involved in the eToro sponsorship deal are also quite excited about the new venture and the path it could take from here on out.

“We are pleased to welcome eToro to the club as an Official Partner, it is exciting to be working with such an innovative industry leader. Much like Leicester City, eToro is an ambitious brand with a significant global reach and we look forward to working together throughout the season,” Jonathan Gregory, the commercial director for Leicester City said.

Indian Government Considering Crypto Tokens for Transactions

Posted on August 15, 2018August 15, 2018 by Laura P.

Following the recent ban on cryptocurrencies by Reserve Bank of India, it was assumed that the country would take a more partial stance as it reflects further on the issue of cryptocurrencies altogether. Well, as it turns out, the country has set up an inter-governmental committee called the “Inter-Ministerial Committee” (IMC) which has been tasked with drafting regulations and a roadmap for the concept of tokenization in both the public and the private sector.

“The committee is examining if crypto tokens can be used to replace smart cards such as metro cards in the public sector to start with. Similarly, in the private sector, it can be used in loyalty programs such as air miles where its use is limited to buying the next ticket and can’t be converted into money.”

Yes, that’s right. The India government may soon allow its citizens to pay for airline tickets and metro cards with crypto tokens regardless of the fact that the ban on decentralized digital currencies in the country is still ongoing.

Slight Delay

The government had previously planned to submit the proposal for the crypto regulations last month but according to a senior official close to the matter, the regulatory framework had experienced some minor setbacks and are therefore likely to be pushed forward to the end of the year. The official further revealed that the reason for the delay was because the “finance ministry panel is still evaluating how to treat blockchain and cryptocurrencies separately.”

“Blockchain is an interesting thing. We definitely want to milk it effectively for financial transactions. So all officials are really trying hard to understand how to separately use blockchain, without cryptocurrency… And understanding a new software takes time,” the official clarified.

Government Issued Crypto Tokens

News about this new development was made public on August 10 through a DNA India report that stated that the Indian government has been “considering launching crypto tokens for financial transactions in the country, even as the existing ban on cryptocurrencies is likely to continue.”

Even though the aforementioned tokens will be based on blockchain technology, they will not form a currency of their own – instead, they will be a mere representation of real money and not its replacement. Heading the committee is DEA Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg who has categorically denied that the government has allowed the use of cryptocurrency in a manner including payment systems – crypto is very poular in India and this was bound to come up.

“The committee is studying the possibility of using cryptocurrencies or the crypto technology (distributed ledger technology) for financial transactions and also what kind of regulations are needed for that. [While] the currency is totally banned, the committee is discussing its other usage and how it can be mainstreamed in India,” he said.

Goldman Sachs Reportedly Considering Crypto Custody Service

Posted on August 8, 2018August 7, 2018 by Martin S.

Having launched bitcoin futures trading in May, New York-based multinational investment bank, Goldman Sachs, is reportedly pondering taking the next step in the cryptocurrency market that will involve the launch of a crypto custody service. If the report, which was filed by Bloomberg, is true the move would make the investment bank the first large and credible institutional player to offer custody for cryptocurrency funds – this is exactly what the crypto market in the United States and the rest of the world have been waiting for.

If attainable, such an asset securing guarantee are at the very “least elusive in such an unregulated and fledgling market.” However, if realized, Goldman Sachs’ cryptocurrency custody services will certainly be a game-changer. In fact, it safe to say that just the talk of the offering itself is enough indication that there is growing demand for such services, and if they materialize they may even encourage more investors to participate.

Furthermore, supposing the offering gets the go-ahead, it will buff up the credibility of the cryptocurrency market, by acting as a vote of confidence of sorts for crypto. This would eventually pave way for the legitimization for the legitimization of the cryptocurrency index and hedge funds in as far as the institutional players are concerned.

According to Bloomberg’s anonymous source(s), deliberations on the matter are on-going but no timeline has been set for when the Wall Street giant will roll out the custody services. Goldman Sachs released a statement recently neither confirming nor denying the existence of such a move.

“In response to client interest in various digital products we are exploring how best to serve them in this space,” a spokesman for Goldman Sachs said. “At this point, we have not reached a conclusion on the scope of our digital asset offering.”

Goldman Sachs has been taking its time with its crypto-related projects – despite announcing a crypto trading desk in May, it is yet to set-up a full-fledged desk for the same. Still, sources close to the company have confirmed that the services are being worked on in the background and will be availed to customers once they are ready.

Still Wary About Bitcoin

Despite Goldman Sachs plans to launch various crypto-related projects, the firm is not going to begin making any bullish bitcoin price calls anytime soon.

“Our view that cryptocurrencies would not retain value in their current incarnation remains intact and, in fact, has been borne out much sooner than we expected,” a recent Goldman Sachs report stated. “We expect further declines in the future given our view that these cryptocurrencies do not fulfill any of the three traditional roles of a currency: they are neither a medium of exchange, nor a unit of measurement, nor a store of value.”

Bitcasino.io Intensifies Focus on Mobile and Adds Ethereum

Posted on July 25, 2018July 24, 2018 by Laura P.

Leading bitcoin-led casino operator Bitcasino.io has made yet another pioneering step forward with some neat features that are tailored specifically to improve its user experience by integrating both a new mobile-first cashier and Ethereum as a payment method alongside bitcoin.

Bitcasino.io’s new mobile-first cashier function is fully optimized and therefore works seamlessly with all mobile or handheld devices. This will allow the operator’s customers to easily track deposits and withdrawals. Also, now that Ethereum has also been added to the mix as an accepted payment method, players who prefer to use the digital currency, which is, by all means, the second most popular cryptocurrency in the world, can now use it on the platform without worrying about any form of conversion. In addition to this, the players will also be able to take advantage of BTCXE, an industry-first fiat-to-bitcoin currency converter that is available on the platform.

“Mobile betting has never been more popular, so it makes sense for us to cater for players to offer the best service possible. We’re always looking to innovate and stay one step ahead of our rivals, and that’s exactly what we are doing with the launch of our mobile-first cashier and addition of the world’s second most valuable cryptocurrency. We are positive players will love both additions,” said Tauri Tiitsaar, the Head of Casino at Bitcasino.io. “We are positive players will love both additions.”

Both of these new features have been introduced in a rather timely fashion as they are now going to be key defining features of the platform especially because it is at a time where mobile gaming is at an all-time high and cryptocurrencies are becoming even more popular. In essence, the move to launch the two features will give players more control over their gaming experience while at the same time keeping in line with the company’s goals of providing a fun, fast and fair casino experience.

Still the Best

Bitcasino.io was founded in 2014 as part of the Coingaming Group. Its unique approach involved a focus on bitcoin, something that has paid off quite well considering the extent to which digital currencies have grown since then. The platform features an extensive, expansive and quality casino product offering that consists of over 1,400 games. These games include a number of the most popular and fan-favorite table games, slots, and live dealer casinos from some the gaming industry’s leading casino software suppliers.

The games are hosted on Bitcasino.io’s proprietary platform that has been developed by some of the best designers and software engineers in the industry. The result is an optimized and outstanding experience that every player will certainly appreciate.

The casino operator also takes pride in being one of the most enjoyable and trustworthy casino gaming services, with withdrawal times of about 1.5 minutes which is amongst the fastest in the gaming industry as well a neat set of the latest and greatest security measures.

Bitcoin Rises Above $7,000 As BlackRock Eyes Crypto

Posted on July 18, 2018July 17, 2018 by Martin S.

After more than a month of some very low lows, bitcoin’s price has finally spiked and crossed the $7,000 mark. Generally speaking, this week has been a great one for both bitcoin and the entire cryptocurrency market as it has been highlighted by some pretty significant developments that will certainly have a lasting impact on the industry.

Bitcoin’s price yesterday rose by nearly 10 percent in just one hour – this came in the wake of a raft of positive news for the industry. Several reports have suggested that some of the biggest venture capitalists and investors are beginning to gain more interest in digital currencies. As expected, bitcoin would benefit the most as it is still, without a doubt, the reference point for all other cryptocurrencies. With the news, bitcoin’s value increased by nearly $600 yesterday and thus added about $9 billion to its market cap in just a few minutes. Other digital currencies have also begun to take a positive a trend thanks to the great news.

As far as the developments go, one of the most talked about is the move by billionaire investor Steven Cohen to have a hedge fund established for the sake of nurturing cryptocurrencies and blockchain-based companies. Elsewhere in Europe, Switzerland’s securities exchange has also announced plans to create a trading platform specifically meant for digital currencies and assets.

BlackRock’s Interest

BlackRock, which is considered to be one of the world’s biggest asset manager has also been eyeing the crypto space but they are taking everything slow and steady. The company has since set up a working group that has been tasked with investigating the best ways that it can make the most of the available opportunities in the rapidly growing bitcoin and crypto market.

BlackRock’s CEO and chairman, Larry Fink, has seemingly had a change of heart since he has previously rallied against bitcoin citing concerns that the digital asset is an “index of money laundering.” However, according to Bloomberg, Fink and company will be venturing into the crypto space as it is certainly an opportunity they cannot afford to miss. However, BlackRock will be leaning more towards the blockchain technology instead of actual cryptocurrencies.

“We are looking at it and as I have said in the past, we are very excited about blockchain technology. That is where we are looking at it even in the Aladdin universe with what we are trying to do there so we are looking at blockchain technologies. We are studying it and we are looking at how they perform and we are looking at that type of data as we understand it as we think about other products but right now, worldwide I have not heard from one client that needs to be in it right now,” Fink commented. “When it becomes more legitimatized, when it has a true open nature of it that you can identify who the players are on both sides, that’s when we’ll probably look at it.”

CoinGate Launches Bitcoin Lightning Network Trial

Posted on July 11, 2018July 10, 2018 by Laura P.

Cryptocurrency payment service provider CoinGate has just launched a trial program that will allow 100 merchants to test transactions on their service’s variant of the Bitcoin Lightning Network. According to the July 10 blog post that announced the news, some of the merchants who will be participating in CoinGate’s trial program will include online stores with crypto-based merchandise, adult entertainment websites, and sports betting websites as well as server and hosting services. In fact, according to the post, the bitcoin Lightning Network payments service has been available since July 1.

For the 100 lucky merchants who will be enjoying all the benefits of the Lightning Network through CoinGate’s service, this is not only a chance to try out the new technology risk free but it also represents move forward in the right direction as they have one less obstacle to accepting payments in bitcoin or any other digital currencies.

What The Pilot Entails

Similar to what the company’s standard service offers, CoinGate’s Lightning Network service will handle all the finer details of the crypto-to-fiat exchange. As mentioned earlier, the initiative will be risk-free and this means that the company will be covering all the costs in case any of the merchants lose funds due to the relatively young nature of the software. Still, this is a great advancement considering the fact that many of the lightning network applications are yet to reach the beta stage.

Many experts argue that the Lightning Network has not yet reached its full potential and is therefore not ready to support significant or large-scale commercial transactions. Rytis Bieliauskas, the CoinGate CTO is of a different opinion though.

“It’s a very new technology. Inevitably there will be some bugs, either in our implementation or in the Lightning Network. It will help, not just us, but the whole community because the bugs we find might help the whole protocol,” he said in an interview with CoinDesk. “…so it will take 1-2 years for consumer applications to develop and probably more for merchants to start adopting this more actively.”

Bieliauskas believes that CoinGate is headed to a great place by being one of the first payment platforms to test the waters of payments using the Lightning Network.

Support Is Mounting

Most of the merchants who applied for the trial were businesses like collectible maker Bitgild which offers gold coins and silver engraved with QR codes for real digital currencies – they, therefore, cater to customers who are already familiar with and fascinated by the Lightning Network’s potential.

Also in the mix are a number of adult entertainment providers including the Romania-based LiveJasmin which boasts of up to 40 million daily visitors and is arguably the biggest mainstream merchant to experiment with the Lightning Network.

“Instant payments are the most important from our point of view,” Tamás Szerencse, head of payments at LiveJasmin, said about the platforms decision to join CoinGate’s trial.

Over 800 Digital Currencies Go Down the Drain

Posted on July 4, 2018July 3, 2018 by Martin S.

A number of cryptocurrency projects have popped up in the past 18 months and for the first time since then, the cryptocurrency markets are in a rally mode but it is sort of bittersweet. In what many critics have labeled as the beginning of the crypto bubble burst, a downtrend in the crypto space has been causing quite the stir while at the same time leaving a significantly huge number of casualties in its wake.

According to an analysis of market data by Dead Coins, there are now more than 800 digital coins that are essentially dead. Even bitcoin which is without a doubt the bearer of the digital currency market has seen a 70 percent fall from its $20,000 record high in December 2017.

As it turns, this shake-up of the crypto market was expected after all. Blockchain veterans such as Joseph Lubin have been advocating for the consolidation of the industry for months – the Ethereum co-founder even once told CNBC that having many ICOs is worthless, a sentiment that was echoed by Ripple Chief Brad Garlinghouse, who pointed out the existence of a “gray area” that would allow ICOs to operate until regulation finally “catches up.” Apparently, this is exactly what is going on.

There will certainly be no love lost between the crypto community and the numerous failed projects that range from software that has been previously abandoned to the fraudulent schemes that have been rife on the internet of late. CoinSchedule reports that there has been an explosion in the number of ICOs in the recent past with some companies having raised up to $3.8 billion in ICOs last year alone. The number went on to shoot up this year and the total amount of money collected now hangs around the $11.9 billion.

Hundreds of these crypto projects are now either officially dead or at the brink of taking the same routed because they were either scams or the product has not materialized in the way the people behind them envisioned. Deadcoin, the website that lists all the digital currencies that are either in the gutters or are headed there confirms the number mentioned above – the majority of the 800 coins are worthless and trade at less than 1 cent.

This Might Be a Good Thing

Considering how turbulent the crypto market has been, teams behind most of the digital coins have just given up, used the money to raise funds or cash out during peak market movements. Even so, there is a still a lot of optimism as the proponents of cryptocurrencies believe that the regulations are certainly going to get better in the future as regulators such as SEC begin to keep a watchful eye on crypto. This will eventually boost market participation among many other benefits.

Cryptos Struggle to Regain Momentum after Bitcoin Hack

Posted on June 13, 2018June 12, 2018 by Martin S.

On Sunday, June 10, renowned South Korean-based cryptocurrency exchange, CoinRail, announced that they had been victims of a hacking attempt. According to the cryptocurrency exchange’s official website “70% of the coin rail total coin / token reserves are safely stored” and, “Two-thirds of the coins confirmed to have been leaked are covered by freezing / recalling through consultation with each coach and related exchanges. The remaining one-third of coins are being investigated with investigators, relevant exchanges, and coin developers.”

Following the cyber-attack and its subsequent announcement, the cryptocurrency market suffered a loss of a whopping $42 billion of its market value. The tweet that announced the hack also triggered a $500 drop in the crypto space in a little over an hour – bitcoin, for one, suffered a 10 percent drop to a two-month low. Many other digital currencies including Ethereum were dragged down as well.

The hack has further triggered a lot of debate regarding the safety of crypto as a whole. Global policymakers, for instance, have warned investors to be cautious in trading cryptocurrencies citing the lack of regulatory oversight.

“CoinRail is not a member of the group that promotes self-regulation to enhance security. It is a minor player in the market and I can see how such small exchanges with lower standards on security level can be exposed to more risks,” Kim Jin-Hwa, a representative at Korea Blockchain Industry Association pointed out recently.

Unexpected Impact?

Ideally, since the hack was on a relatively small crypto exchange, there is no reason for cryptocurrency holders, investors and even speculators to panic over such an occurrence. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Added to the fact that CoinRail is just one of the growing list of crypto-related companies that have been hacked in the past few years, the fact that many people are switching to crypto represents a much bigger concern.

The hack might not be the absolute cause of the plummeting price of digital currencies but it remains to be a key concern that should be addressed soon if the crypto future that we are hoping for will come to be.

Already, 14 major cryptocurrencies in South Korea have adopted necessary measures that are aimed at protecting crypto users – these include restrictions that allow the users to have no more than a single account. As for CoinRail, cryptocurrency trading has been suspended for now as the exchange collaborates with the local authorities as they investigate the hacking. Hopefully, once the CoinRail issuer is resolved, we will see a reversal in the downward trend in the prices of crypto – that is, if it indeed had something to do with the price drops.

Slovenian Shopping Mall Transitioning into ‘Bitcoin City’

Posted on June 6, 2018June 5, 2018 by Laura P.

By now it is quite clear that cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology are here to stay. Already, they have both contributed to a number of great developments in the world of finance, a trend that is catching on with more and more businesses embracing the rapidly evolving technology.

Slovenia’s largest shopping mall has caught the attention of the world owing to its unique strategies that are now being implemented and will see it become the world’s first genuine “Bitcoin City.” Aptly named BTC City, the shopping complex stretches 475,000 square meters and boasts of 500 retail stores.

BTC Company was founded in 1954 as a warehouse and logistics enterprise before it gradually added many more warehouses. The complex was repurposed as a commercial shopping destination in 1990 and renamed BTC City. Since then, more commercial ventures including a sports complex, a hotel, a casino, a multiplex cinema and even a water park have been added to the mall. In addition to this, it also happens to host Slovenia’s tallest building.

Introducing Eligma

Powering the new crypto-focused initiative is Elipay, an AI-driven and blockchain-based cognitive commerce platform that is used by the shopping complex’s retailers. Elipay is a crypto-based point-of-sale system that was created by a Fintech startup known as Eligma.

BTC City has proven to be the best testing ground for the startup, particularly because the complex provides a controlled environment in which they can slowly introduce Elipay into each and every business operating in the shopping center.

“The shopping center presents a micro snapshot of global commerce because it encompasses a large number of very different establishments that present an array of challenges for Eligma on a scale, manageable in our first development phase,” commented the Eligma team.

More and more retailers in BTC City are embracing the platform and are implementing Elipay into their stores. With Elipay, the customers who visit the shopping destination now have the option of paying for their purchases with Bitcoin as well as Eligma’s own token.

The Eligma team, of course, has very big plans for their platform – it would be very exciting to see that the transformation of BTC City into a unified online platform is replicated in many other parts of the world so that they too can enjoy the simplified payment systems and business processes that were only previously possible in central warehouses. This will greatly reduce the retailer’s ownership costs by ensuring that they only have the essential items in stock.

Recently, Miro Cerar, the Prime Minister of Slovenia made a visit to BTC City during which he was treated to a cup of “crypto coffee” that was bought by Slovenian State Secretary Tadej Slapnik using the Elipay transaction system.

“The purpose of his visit was to open the Beyond 4.0 international conference, dedicated to digital society and blockchain, as well as to get acquainted with BTC City’s strategy to become Bitcoin City,” explained Eligma.

Way to go!

Lightning Network Developers Working on New & Improved Twist

Posted on May 30, 2018May 29, 2018 by Martin S.

The biggest challenge for bitcoin this far has been becoming more mainstream in the financial world which in many ways stems from the fact that it has always had issues with scalability. Before bitcoin can reach the heights of mainstream adoption and use, it will certainly need to deal with the very pressing issue of scalability which has always been a core concern of enthusiasts.

This is where the Lightning Network comes in – this new technology, though fairly young, has facilitated thousands of new payment channels which signals a bright future for bitcoin as well as many other digital currencies.

The Lightning Network allows bitcoin users to open direct payment channels for transactions between one another on a global scale. As of January 19 this year, the Lightning Network only had 89 channels but this has since grown immensely – by May 24, the network had grown to over 6,600 direct connections which might seem small in comparison to the mainstream financial sector but represents a huge leap forward.

While there is a significant level of genuine interest in the technology, the fact that the Lightning Network is yet to be fully developed makes the adoption of the revolutionary technology relatively low. Among the issues that need to be addressed by the developers are double-sided funding and no watching for offline transfers. However, a more pressing one lies within the Lightning Network itself and the developers are quite keen on this one.

A Major Upgrade

The platform has just begun its journey towards global adoption but the developers are already considering a significant upgrade that will involve major architectural changes to the technology.

The key issue is that the Lightning Network requires the users to store a significant amount of data which, in turn, makes it very difficult to download and run it. In an effort to provide a viable solution to this problem, the developers have recently published a new proposal that presents an alternative and simplified way of making the off-chain transactions. The proposed alternative, called “eltoo”, was co-authored by several lightning developers including Lightning Labs co-founder ‘Laolu’ Osuntokun and Blockstream’s Christian Decker and Rusty Russell.

Eltoo not only aims to condense the amount of data the users are required to provide but also ensures that their bitcoin is safe. A major setback for the existing Lightning Network is that it depends on “toxic information” which means that in the case that a user broadcasts older data, there is a possibility that they will lose money.

“This actually happened to me,” Decker said. “I had an old lightning node on my laptop. I restored it. I didn’t know I didn’t have the newest state. The guy closed the connection because they knew it was an old state! Because he could steal it. Which he did, by the way.”

With eltoo, only the most recent off-chain transaction data is stored thus solving the “data symmetry” problem. Eltoo is a phonetic spelling of “L2” which stands for layer-two and is used to describe technologies like the Lightning Network which offer off-chain transactions.

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