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India’s Parliament Proposes Crypto Ban

Posted on February 2, 2021 by Laura P.

Last week, news broke of a proposal by the Indian parliament to ban what they termed as “private” cryptocurrencies. Now, crypto has always been on the sights of several governments around the world but not a lot has been done to threaten the sector in most jurisdictions. India is, on the other hand, a little different hence the attention.

As it stands, the country’s ruling party has control over both houses of Parliament which implies that there is a huge possibility that the proposed bill could become law. Known as the Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill 2021, the new proposal seeks to outlaw the use of crypto in India.

However, this does not mean that India will be completely cutting ties with crypto. Instead of the so-called “private” cryptocurrencies, the Indian government will be shifting its focus to providing a framework for creating an official digital currency. This will be overseen by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) which will not only distribute the currency but also regulate it.

The Industry Reacts

This is not the first time that India has made controversial proposals with regards to the crypto sector and, as expected, the move has generated some buzz. Both local and international crypto investors have already weighed in on the issue.

To begin with, many members of the crypto industry have been very open to the idea of the government developing a central bank digital currency (CBDC). This not only affirms the strength of crypto as a worthy replacement of fiat currency.

However, crypto stakeholders are not too happy about the plans by the country’s parliament to term certain digital currencies as “private”. In essence, any cryptocurrency that is not sovereign, including bitcoin, may be prohibited.

It is worth noting that, as it stands, there is no certainty about which specific digital currencies will be affected. This is because the government is also considering some unspecified exceptions in a bid to promote the underlying blockchain technology.

“The digital currency bill to be introduced in the Lok Sabha is a welcome step. Its success will depend on the details, particularly the definition of what the bill calls ‘private cryptocurrencies’. This is not a common term. Bitcoin is not privately owned by anyone. It is a public good, like the internet,” said Rahul Pagdipati, CEO of ZebPay.

A consensus among industry stakeholders is that these crypto-assets and the government’s digital currency are more than capable of coexisting. Hopefully, more consultations will be conducted to ensure that the new laws can adopt a more forward-looking approach.

Bitcoin Three Months from Having Its Supply Halved

Posted on February 2, 2020February 1, 2020 by Laura P.

In a little less than 100 days, Bitcoin’s long-awaited halving will finally happen, making the digital twice as scarce as it is now. The halving which is considered to be one of the most anticipated events in the world of crypto is expected to happen on May 12. In addition to being a lot scarcer, the digital currency is set to be even more valuable. Mining it will be much more expensive once that happens simply because the rewards have now been cut in half.

What This Means for The Future

The topic of the upcoming halving has been subject to a lot of debate over the past several months. One of the most debated issues is whether the expected price increase will occur before or after the halving. None of the speculations made in this regard are verifiable and this majorly because despite the complexity of the data presented, they are dependent on simplistic comparisons from previous events in the bitcoin space.

Even so, we do not intend to invalidate the significance of the occurrences related to past halvings and how they may give us some insight into the possibilities. It will be an interesting year for bitcoin enthusiasts. That is for sure.

Another thing that is also assured is some serious volatility. The halving is quite important but we have to agree that what comes after is probably what needs more focus. We will just have to wait and see if the digital currency can pick up a fresh round of momentum in the course of the year.

Ambitious Long-Term Projections

According to renowned Wealth Manager Andy Edstrom, the Bitcoin economy is going to reach $8 Trillion in market value within the next decade. Speaking during a recent interview on the Citizen Bitcoin podcast, the wealth manager references a multi-faceted approach that took a number of factors into accounts. These factors included the devaluation of traditional or fiat currencies, speculations, and geopolitics, all of which have affected the global financial systems in one way or the other.

“…I think the total valuation on 10 years that I use is about $8 trillion and that comes from various buckets, whether it’s taking share from gold, or taking share from fiat, or taking share from offshore assets, or slightly demonetizing other stores of value like real estate or new uses that we haven’t thought of or are still under construction,” he said.

As it stands, Bitcoin’s market value sits at about $170 billion – this is rather small especially when compared to other stores of value such as gold and real estate. However, the uptrend of the cryptocurrency has given a number of pro-crypto analysts some optimism about the future of the sector. Bitcoin’s value is expected to skyrocket after the halving and this is perhaps the first step towards its $8 trillion valuation.

Crypto Industry Preparing for Google’s “Quantum Supremacy”

Posted on October 2, 2019October 2, 2019 by Martin S.

Recent reports have suggested that Google appears to have reached an impressive milestone that is known as “quantum supremacy.” This basically means that the company has managed to use a quantum computer to perform calculations that are practically impossible for classical computers to solve. Referred to as Sycamore, Google’s quantum computer was able to perform the fete with only 54 qubits – one of which reportedly failed to work. This is quite impressive especially considering the fact that for quantum computers to really come into their own, they will need up to thousands more qubits.

While this is certainly great news for tech enthusiasts who are interested in quantum computing, it has sent the crypto and blockchain communities into a frenzy. For a very long time, members of the crypto community and cryptography experts have debated endlessly about the potential impact of quantum computing on digital currencies.

In fact, since the first digital currency came to be, researchers, technologists, and governments have developed deep interests in building software that is aimed at mitigating the threat of quantum computing. While still largely theoretical, quantum computers such as Google’s Sycamore, are considered to be able to vastly speed up the process of solving complex computations. This poses a huge threat to existing cryptographic technologies such as cryptocurrencies and the blockchain.

David Chaum Calls for Quantum Resistant Technology

After news of Google’s massive breakthrough hit the airwaves, David Chaum who is considered to be the “godfather of crypto”, weighed in on the issue by calling on the blockchain industry to focus on quantum-resistant technology. According to the cryptographer, the threat may already be quite real since there is no sure way of telling how long various nations have been working on the development of quantum computers. In retrospective, a number of governments have in the past been in possession of advanced cryptographic capabilities for extended periods of time without anyone knowing.

“The news that Google has achieved quantum supremacy strengthens my belief that quantum computing is coming and as a consequence, I believe we should all use approaches that are quantum-resistant,” he said.

Chaum further took the opportunity to share some details about his own digital currency which itself is supported by Praxxis, a quantum-resistant blockchain. The Praxxis protocol utilizes quantum-resistant signatures based on large random numbers while simultaneously overcoming the challenges faced by legacy blockchains. These include such things as scalability, privacy as well as security. Praxxis was developed by a team of cryptographers and developers under Chaum’s leadership and it features a new approach to consensus.

FortuneJack Taking Bitcoin Gambling to the Next Level

Posted on April 2, 2019April 1, 2019 by Martin S.

FortuneJack, an online crypto-based casino that allows its users to enjoy the real casino from the comfort of their homes has been all the buzz lately thanks to its wide array of dice games, different kinds of online slots, betting games and roulette. Having been around since 2013, the gaming platform has built a reputation for itself as a provider of top-notch gaming experiences that have recently been complemented by the launch of their new mobile gaming platform that is definitely going to resonate with the modern breed of gamers who love to do everything on the go.

Being one of the pioneering crypto-powered gaming platforms, FortuneJack has grown to become a household among crypto gamers. To make things even better, the platform has managed to significantly puss up its portfolio of digital currencies – in essence, it allows you to place bets using virtually any mainstream cryptocurrency. The list of available digital currencies includes bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Dogecoin, Zcash, Dash, Bitcoin cash, and Monero.

Other Perks

The impressive number of supported currencies aside, FortuneJack has a ton of other great features that will certainly appeal to almost all kinds of players. In essence, the platform checks all the right boxes and thus it is likely that it will have most of the features that are found in other top online gambling sites.

One of the most notable of these features is the FortuneJack design as well as its user experience, both of which have been improved significantly over the years. Even the recently introduced mobile version of the site is, by all means, just as good or even better than most of the available online casino offerings. Now only does the apps feature an extensive game catalog but it also packs better navigation features that make playing on it a breeze regardless of where you are using a smartphone or a tablet.

More importantly, safety and security are key considerations for players in the modern age especially with regards to financial transactions. FortuneJack features provably fair games that are decided by a truly defined by a truly random RNG (Random Number Generator). Combined with the power of blockchain technology, the platform offers some of the best security features in the online gaming industry.

In addition to all this, FortuneJack also has a neat portfolio of games that are compatible across all compatible devices. More recently, the company recently debuted a Bitcoin Sportsbook that allows players to bet on a wide range of sporting events including basketball, hockey, soccer, volleyball, and football. Moreover, the online gaming platform also offers a ton of promotions such as free spins as well as weekly promotions like cashback and decreased house edge as well as many others.

Cryptocurrency Exchanges Lost More Than $1.5 Billion in 2018

Posted on February 2, 2019February 1, 2019 by Martin S.

2018 was indeed a monumental period for the cryptocurrency community primarily because of the various highs and lows of the industry as well as the many innovations that we got to see. Some of the most notable occurrences were the loss of funds by a number of exchanges all over the world. It was hard to keep track of the amounts but now, thanks to a Q4 cryptocurrency Anti-Money Laundering report that was published by CipherTrace, a blockchain intelligence agency, it has been revealed that criminals stole a whopping $1.7 billion of cryptocurrency last year. The company further pointed out that cryptocurrency theft is still on the rise despite the freefalling prices of cryptocurrencies as well as the savage bear market that the sector has been subject to.

Of the $1.7 billion that was stolen from the crypto exchanges and wallet providers, $950 million went to hackers. This was 3.6 times more than what was recorded in 2017 which further shows there is one increase in theft despite market drops – the price of bitcoin, for instance, has dropped in value by almost 80 percent. Obviously, this is a very worrying statistic especially for an industry that is trying very hard to achieve mainstream adoption.

The Reasons

As it turns out, many of the existing exchanges have been in operation for no more than two years and most of them do not have sufficient safeguards in place to prevent hackers from stealing their funds. The lack of these safeguards makes it possible for hackers to obtain simple files of cryptographic private keys and each can be worth anywhere between $30 million and $500 million. While this is the case with most companies, it is also worth noting that not all crypto-related businesses are not immature in terms of funding, implementation, and training – the tools and methods used by hackers are also becoming more and more sophisticated which means that even established companies that are considered to have better safeguards can lose funds or data due to hacks.

At least $725 million of the stolen crypto funds came from “inside jobs” which included exit scams, fraudulent Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) and Ponzi Schemes.

Proposed Solutions

According to Dave Jevans, the CEO of CipherTrace and co-chair of the Cryptocurrency Working Group at the APWG.org, the cryptocurrency sector needs to implement huge improvement to their infrastructure and increasing education in order to prevent such kinds of attacks. Such measures could involve the use of robust anti-phishing measures, cold storages as well as data sharing and behavioral analytics. Fortunately, thanks to the global wave of regulations that will be going into effect anytime this year, laundering of digital currencies by hackers and criminals will be much harder to do. Hopefully, it gets better from there.

UK Lawmaker Proposes Tax & Utility Bill Payments in Bitcoin

Posted on December 12, 2018December 12, 2018 by Martin S.

Eddie Hughes, a Conservative UK Member of Parliament is calling for local authorities in the country to take the lead and begin accepting tax and utility bill payments in bitcoin. According to the politician, bitcoin and the underlying blockchain technology both have great potential but the lack of reliable or adequate information and knowledge in this regard is one of the things that is preventing wider adoption.

“You’re either ahead of the curve or you’re behind the curve,” he said in a recent interview.

In the interview with the Daily Express, the lawmaker pointed out that the country is in a very interesting position especially because it hopes to be seen as a progressive nation. While the United Kingdom is still at crossroads, the decision to adopt the use of cryptocurrencies could prove to be very beneficial in the near future. If this is to happen, people will first have to understand how the transactions work and see how accessible the technology can be – ideally, the technology needs to appear like an app that can be used to make fast, safe and secure payments.

Being that the technology is talked about a lot in, the member of parliament feels that all the other lawmakers have a duty to understand it, something that will then enable them to make more informed decisions pertaining to the technology. Hughes further cited the Royal National Lifeboat Institution which is currently accepting charitable donations through cryptocurrency – this particular use case proves that bitcoin and other digital currencies can be used for many other services as well.

“The state should focus its attention on using blockchain to enable social freedom, to increase efficiency, and to rebuild societal trust,” Hughes stated.

This is, however, not the first time that Hughes has publicly supported cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. Back in July, he wrote a report that called for the state to appoint a ‘Chief Blockchain Officer.’

Is This Possible?

Accepting taxes and utility bills in crypto would definitely be a good start for the crypto community and the country. However, regulators in Europe have been very skeptical about cryptocurrencies especially because digital currencies are very volatile and risky and are often associated with such vices as terrorism, fraud and money laundering. These European regulator’s alarmist entreaties have mounted quite a lot of pressure on the government of various European countries to implement some very stringent regulations that are supposedly meant to protect the public and investors while at the same time preventing the risk of financial instability.

As it stands, the future of crypto in the UK is even more uncertain thanks to a revelation by the country’s Finance Conduct Authority that it is considering banning crypto-linked derivative products. All these will be looked into in the first quarter of 2019.

Conflux Raises $35 Million into New Blockchain Protocol

Posted on December 5, 2018December 5, 2018 by Laura P.

The cryptocurrency industry, despite having existed for well over a decade and culminated into several innovations, is still in its nascent stage. Needless to say, there have been some very high moments for the industry as well as some very low lows, but cryptocurrency enthusiasts are in no mood to give up their optimism for a bullish future.

Still, we have to acknowledge the fact that the crypto market has been on a downward slope for a better part of this years, a bearish trend that is still going on. One of the major factors that go against digital currencies, more specifically bitcoin which is the flag bearer of the cryptocurrency world, is the sluggish nature of the underlying blockchain technology which makes its an infeasible choice for a real-world ledger. Even though developers have been working round the clock to solve this problem, it remains to be one of the most significant stumbling blocks to the wider adoption of cryptocurrencies.

Well, things, in this regard, are about to change for the better.

Enter Conflux

In a bid to provide the much-needed solution to the problem, a group of university professors and researchers have raised a whopping $35 million for Conflux, a non-profit foundation that will support the development of a new and improved blockchain network. The Conflux project which is being backed by a Sequoia China and a number of Chinese Internet Companies claims to be able to overcome a key limitation of the existing blockchain – this limitation is rooted in the fact that protocols like bitcoin’s can only add a single block to the blockchain at any given time. The addition of multiple blocks at the same time results in the creation of a fork which leads to competing chains.

Conflux’s solution involves the utilization of a system that allows users to simultaneously work on blocks and put them in the chain. This new system will also be able to maintain a decentralized consensus method that prevents any entity from taking control of the blockchain. The general idea is to make the entire blockchain scalable.

In essence, Conflux serves to fulfill Etheruem’s promise of allowing the users to create an execute the so-called “intelligent contracts” in a distributed blockchain library. Unfortunately, even though Ethereum boasts of being a powerful technology, it still suffers from the same speed scaling issues that have hampered the growth of bitcoin up until now.

“Contrary to popular belief, true decentralization isn’t sacrificed to increase throughput, highlighting Conflux as the first example that achieves the best of both worlds. By weaving a Directed Acylic Graph data structure into Conflux’s Proof of Work consensus algorithm, tests on its testnet has achieved a throughput of at least 6,500 Transactions Per Second (TPS), while supporting at least 20,000 nodes,” said the foundation’ press release.

Private blockchains have been able to overcome the aforementioned scaling problems but this has been at the expense of decentralization since they were only able to do this by relying on central authority. Conflux, on the other hand, promises to offer the best of both worlds, that is, both speed and decentralization.

Bitcoin’s Price Dwindles as Its Dominance Increases

Posted on November 28, 2018November 27, 2018 by Martin S.

Bitcoin has been on a steep downward trend for the past few weeks. In general, the market has not been very stable with a number of people hoping that it the market will stabilize very soon and bitcoin can regain even a little of the value that it lost in the past month. Both bitcoin and Ethereum, the two most popular cryptocurrencies have had their prices drop by over 40 percent particular because of the rapidly increasing sell pressure and the declining buy pressure. As a result, the crypto market has been struggling to sustain some sort of momentum in a bid to reverse the downward trend but, of course, it might be a while before this happens.

To put this into perspective, when the price of an asset falls significantly without any significant spike in volume, it is representative of a free fall albeit without much sell pressure. This implies that as big sell volumes continue to hit the market, the price of the said asset will be at the mercy of additional sell-offs in the future.

This Is Not the End

Even though bitcoin has undoubtedly had quite a month, it did not take nearly as much a hit as many other digital currencies. In fact, in November, bitcoin’s share of the total cryptocurrency capitalization or rather its dominance saw a notable increase. Over the course of the month, bitcoin’s dominance has spiked from lows of 51 percent in early November to the prevailing 53 percent, something that goes further to prove the digital currency’s appeal to both miners and investors.

Despite the fact that there have been lots of talk about the demise of bitcoin, especially over past two weeks, it is worth noting that the cryptocurrency’s price is still more than what it was last year in the summer. Furthermore, bitcoin has been building quite a loyal customer base over the past decade and there is still a growing appetite for crypto all over the world.

Institutional Investors Are Still Hopeful

It is not only individuals within the crypto community that are still confident about bitcoin. The traditional financial services industry and a number of institutional investors including New York exchange operator, Nasdaq, are still pursuing ventures involving the digital currency. According to Bloomberg, the company on November 27 announced that it is moving forward with its plan to list bitcoin features, a market that it hopes to officially launch in with the first quarter of 2019.

Sources close to the matter have also revealed that the New York exchange has been working closely with the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to receive regulatory approval for its plans to operate as a compliant bitcoin futures market service provider. There is a huge window for success but knowing how shaky the crypto market can get, it remains to be seen just how far these projects will go.

Socially Driven Crowdfunding Comes to the Blockchain

Posted on November 21, 2018 by Laura P.

Following years of extensive research and one and a half more of development through legal vetting, an A-list team of blockchain, non-profit and crowdfunding experts is proud to launch WHIRL, the global market’s first ever blockchain-powered consumer crowdfunding platform. According to Roel Wolfert (Bancor, VISA) and Martijn Hekman (World Vision, United Nations), WHIRL aims to give the world a whole new way of financing dreams and obligations through the introduction of a revolutionary incentive system designed to maximize success and also encourage charity. Like other revolutionary blockchain-based projects, this one is expected to a great leap forward for the crypto community.

How Does It Work?

WHIRL has been described as a “what goes around comes around” kind of system owing to its unique karma-based model – in fact, the system’s reward concept is literally referred to as a Karma. The platform is not only socially driven but is also deeply rooted in traditional crowdfunding, that is, where individuals, groups organizations come together in a bid to pool resources towards their projects.

WHIRL can reportedly be used to finance any type of venture; ranging all the way from personal goals to medical bills, business ventures, and even scientific endeavors. People can, therefore, get funding by participating in charity instead of taking out loans or sourcing for funds from family and friends. While this makes it a cut above the rest since it is pegged onto the blockchain network, there is more to it than meets the eye.

The platform utilizes a fair and transparent queue system which limits the number of listed campaigns at any given time. Its blockchain is powered by WRL tokens and the concept of Karma, a reward system that supports and facilitates the giving economy within WHIRL. With these, it is able it is able to guarantee a 100 percent success rate to all projects listed under a campaign. However, only those with a history of contribution are allowed to create fundraising campaigns.

Contributions are tracked through the issuance of Karma points – 7 to 20 Karma points are awarded for every dollar contributed on any campaign listed on WHIRL. Consequently, there is a threshold number of points required to launch a campaign and based on the number of points accumulated, the size and duration of the campaign is determined. In addition to this, the campaigns also go into a transparent queue based on the order of submission.

So Many Birds, One Stone

WHIRL is poised to take care of a number of unattended needs in the crowdfunding market which has stagnated over the past decade due to fraud, oversaturation and, of course, the declining rate of success of crowdfunding campaigns. By listing only a limited number of campaigns at any given time and incentivizing backers with a fair and transparent system, the platform definitely takes care of most of these problems.

In addition to that, WHIRL supports 12 cryptocurrencies (including BTC, BCH, DASH, and ETH) at the moment, something that by itself already sets it apart from many other crowdfunding platforms – it also has plans to add more digital currencies in the future. This is great for the crypto community as a whole since it will aid further proliferation of digital currencies into the mainstream market.

Michigan Bans Use of Crypto as Political Campaign Donations

Posted on November 14, 2018November 14, 2018 by Martin S.

The Michigan Department of State has formally barred digital currencies from being used as donations for political campaigns. According to a letter that was published last Thursday by the state’s Secretary of State, the law does not recognize crypto and associated virtual assets as political campaign donations because their values cannot be determined with absolute certainty.

This was in response to a letter from William Baker, a Michigan State Legislature candidate, that outlined some of his opinions on why state politicians should be allowed to receive digital currency campaign donations from their supporters. In the letter, Baker points that cryptocurrencies are a valid way to receive payments and donations and thus political campaigns should be no exceptions. He however also acknowledged that there were such issues as recording the value and utilization of these digital currencies that still need to be resolved.

“With some modest record keeping, donations of digital currencies can be an additional method of raising funds for political campaigns in the coming years, just as the internet first allowed political based websites to collect credit card donations roughly twenty to twenty-five years ago,” Baker’s letter read.

As it stands, Michigan politicians are allowed to accept non-monetary political campaign donations, which, much like most digital currencies rarely hold and a precise or value.

State Department Disagrees

The Michigan Secretary of State, Ruth Johnson, responded to Baker’s letter by stating that bitcoin and other digital currencies may not be used to make political campaign donations simply because “the value of these crypto assets is not fixed, and their volatility makes it impossible to assign an exact dollar value to them in administrative terms.”

“In the context of a contribution under the MCFA, an ascertainable monetary value is one that is exact, precise, and certain or can be determined with certainty. Where it cannot be determined the exact or precise dollar amount for a contribution made with Bitcoin at the time it is given, there can be no ascertainable monetary value,” an excerpt from the Michigan State Department’s letter read.

The State Department’s letter further compared digital currencies, more so bitcoin, to a security – it quoted legal precedents which effectively restricted the use of any financial assets save for those held by banking institutions for use in campaigns. Still, the department did acknowledge that bitcoin is analogous to a security, that is, both cannot be used “in and of themselves to purchase goods or services”, something that many crypto enthusiasts consider to be a highly contestable claim.

The main takeaway from the letter is that the crypto campaign donations are effectively illegal in Michigan mostly because of the reasons stated above and because the reporting requirements do not allow for multiple recordings that are required to capture various values that are likely to be held by digital assets at various points in the process. These include such issues as the date of receipt by the candidate, the date of sale to the donor as well as the date of record on a campaign statement.

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