Coin News

Staying on the right side of the taxman just got a bit easier for businesses dealing with bitcoin and other digital currencies. On Tuesday, Libra, makers of LibraTax accounting service, introduced two new products in their suite of tax-reporting services. They also announced a new partnership with Bitpay, the world’s largest bitcoin payment processor, designed to help merchants stay on top of their bitcoin-related payment transactions. Libra Business and Libra Pro LibraTax has been offering tax-reporting solutions and helping to educate accountants and tax professionals with digital currencies since early in 2014. With the addition of Libra Business and Libra Pro, both businesses and tax professionals alike can keep track of all their digital currency transactions. With regulatory bodies in […]

The post Libra Launches Enterprise Tax Solution; Partners with Bitpay appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

A senior Hong Kong official has said that the government does not see a need for legislation that would regulate bitcoin.

Bitcoin trading, today pushed price to a new low for the recent decline. A subsequent price wave to the upside has pushed higher despite divergence and resistance levels in its way. This analysis is provided by xbt.social with a 3 hour delay. Read the full analysis here. Not a member? Join now and receive a […]

The post Bitcoin Trading To The Lows And A Bounce appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

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Financial lessons from Game of Thrones (Reuters)

With "Game of Thrones" season five scheduled to debut on April 12, Reuters spoke to money managers about financial lessons learned from the hit series.

According to Gavin Baker, the head of Fidelity's $13 billion OTC Portfolio fund, investors should "be open to evidence that suggests that your view of the world is wrong." In the series this can be compared to those who don't believe in the existence of dragons and white walkers.

Bitcoin is attracting interest from stock exchanges (Bloomberg)

Bitcoin trading platform Noble Markets has entered an agreement to license NASDAQ's X-stream technology. The announcement comes roughly two months after the New York Stock Exchange announced it would invest in digital currency platform Coinbase. 

“It is a vote of confidence in bitcoin the technology,” says Nicholas Colas, chief market strategist at ConvergEx Group. “Now that you are seeing big organizations providing technology, there’s a feeling that bitcoin is here to stay.”

Wells Fargo Advisors eases restrictions for advisors on social media (Wealth Management)

Wells Fargo Advisors has announced it will allow 1,000 advisors to use social media by the end of the year. The announcement comes after a pilot program allowing 100 advisors on Twitter proved a success. The new program will allow between 120 and 150 advisors per month to join LinkedIn or Twitter, with an ultimate goal of having 5,000 members signed up by the end of 2016.   

Advisors are teaming up to build succession plans (Financial Advisor)

Cirrus Wealth Management is welcoming advisors nearing retirement with open arms. Financial Advisor says the firm, "aims to provide a glide path for advisors looking to slowly transition into retirement." Once an advisor decides to call it a career his or her clients will be serviced by other advisors at the firm. As for compensation, Financial Advisor notes, "Those continuing to operate under their own name and in their own space will receive a modest down payment—typically 10 percent of gross revenues—on their practice. Once they retire, Cirrus will generally look to pay them 20 percent a year for the next 10 years."

Five reasons interest rates will remain low (Advisor Perspectives)

Jerry Wagner of Flexible Plan Investments spoke with Advisor Perspectives about Fed policy and why he believes interest rates are likely to remain low. First, "the rate of inflation is moving down not up." Next, the weakness in oil prices is likely to keep inflation in check. Third, the strong dollar will make exports more expensive and imports cheaper, pushing against both aspects of the dual mandate which targets unemployment and inflation. Wagner also suggests a Fed rate hike will make the dollar even stronger when a weaker currency is what is needed. Finally, recent economic data has disappointed, and the Fed will not want to hike rates into a slowing economy. 

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LEOcoin is a good example of what a pump & dump coin looks like, user beware. LEOcoin was ‘launched’ on the 25th of March (2015) and comes forward with bold claims of being the world’s second largest digital currency. This claim seems based on the users, LEOcoin claims to have 100,000 entrepreneurs already using the currency […]

The post LEOcoin Claims to be the Second Largest Digital Currency, after Bitcoin. Bullshit. appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

Should the world go cashless? This subject, which probably would have sounded ludicrous even thirty years ago, is seriously being discussed — at least in the advanced economies of the world.

On a health level, cash is admittedly pretty disgusting — we've developed a system of exchange that requires the swapping of thin pieces of dirty cloth and grubby chunks of metal — gripped in hands, stuffed in sweaty pockets, and stuffed up peoples' noses. Not ideal.

But that's not really a good economic argument against cash. 

Here's Ed Conway, economics editor at Sky News, writing about getting rid of cash in the Times. 

The idea is not as outlandish as it might seem. Think about it: when was the last time you really needed cash? The majority of our day-to-day transactions now take place using credit cards, contactless payment and charge cards (such as Oyster cards). Internet banking means you can transfer money to someone in a few clicks. Nowadays you can even pay people via Twitter and Facebook.

Currency has proved useful but it has just about passed its sell-by date. If the world economy was run by Apple, it would have discontinued cash a long time ago.

Of course, that's an argument that cash is irrelevant, but not that is should actually be banned. For that, Conway leans on rockstar economist Ken Rogoff's recent paper "Costs and benefits to phasing out paper currency".

Here's Rogoff's conclusion:

Nevertheless, given the role of paper currency (especially large-denomination notes) in facilitating tax evasion and illegal activity, and given the persistent and perhaps recurring problem of the zero bound on nominal interest rates, it is appropriate to consider the costs and benefits to a more proactive strategy for phasing out the use of paper currency. 

It's based on two big arguments:

• Monetary policy would be easier. That's because at the moment, it's hard to reduce interest rates below zero — if the amount of money in your bank account is actually shrinking, why not turn it into cash and essentially hide it from banks' negative rates? The central bank might want to try and cut interest rates further to boost demand, and it can only do that if there in't any cash around.
• Cash facilitates crime. According to Rogoff, today the "major uses" of cash "seem to be buried in the world underground and illegal economy." Cash is an easy way to pay for illegal activities without leaving a record (in government currencies, at least). Criminal behaviour would be much harder to hide if only electronic money existed. 

There's more detail on the economic arguments for having an only e-money system over on economist Miles Kimball's excellent blog.

But there are arguments against the move too. Over on Stumbling and Mumbling, Chris Dillow makes that case: 

• There's a civil liberties argument. What business is it of the government to monitor every purchase made by private, consenting citizens? Is that a norm we want to make?
• Lots of people still don't have bank accounts.
• There'd still be a demand for something more like cash. Dillow suggests that people might use gift cards or something similar as a proxy — perhaps the move would be towards bitcoin or some similar crypto-currency.
• Fiscal policy is better than negative rates. Forget negative rates, fiscal policy (simple government spending) is a better option if interest rates are at zero and the economy is still depressed. No need to go to all this trouble.

It might be sooner rather than later that we find out how well these arguments stack up in practice — cash use is dwindling in Sweden and the country has already discussed banning notes entirely. 

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NOW WATCH: Incredible Video Of A Teenager Catching A 440-Pound Shark On A Beach

Bitseed has launched the first plug-in bitcoin node to encourage users to contribute to the bitcoin network, hassle-free.

Whether it’s going to legacy payment technology trade shows or partnering with legacy payment processors, Bitcoin companies have found that there is something to be said for partnering with the old rather than just forgetting it exists. Bitnet today announced that it had joined forces with Cardinal Commerce, a global provider in the remote payments industry. Instantly, all of the companies in the Cardinal Commerce platform will be able to accept payment in bitcoin. These include international retail giants such as Lenovo, Toshiba, GameStop, Tiffany & Co., and Urban Outfitters. It also includes leading travel companies such as Delta Airlines, Orbitz, Travelocity, and Hotwire. As with many of the bitcoin payment processing technologies, merchants will be able to price their goods in […]

The post Bitnet Onboards Cardinal Commerce; Brings Bitcoin Integration Opportunities to Delta Airlines, Toshiba, GameStop, and More. appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

The phrase ‘the fun never stops’ may already be a cliché, but there cannot be any better words to describe what the lone player must have felt when he bagged the 40 BTC prize. One of the growing customer base of Fun Casino recently scored what could be one of the largest Bitcoin wins in […]

The post Fun Casino Pays 40 BTC to Lucky Player from Asia appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

Merchants using CardinalCommerce for alternative payments processing are now able to accept bitcoin through a partnership with Bitnet.

At a time when many other bitcoin miners are shutting down because they can’t afford to continue operating based on current prices, Bitcoin Shop, rebranded as Blockchain Technology Consumer Solutions (BTCS), is moving aggressively into the mining sector in an attempt to take a large chunk of market share. “People are leaving the mining business because it is a sucker’s game,” said Charles Allen, CEO of BTCS, in an interview with Bitcoin Magazine. “But the only way to make money in the next 1-2 years is with mining.” The company is putting its money where its mouth is. It signed a partnership with Spondoolies Tech, a provider of mining hardware, to acquire a significant amount of mining equipment. Spondoolies became […]

The post BTCS Enters Mining Sector in a Market-Share Grab appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Bitcoin wallet and technology provider Coinkite has announced Bitkit, its bitcoin wallet API, is now available on Tor.

Bitcoin wallet service provider Coinapult and Factom, a blockchain applications provider, have announced collaboration plans that they hope will develop the state of applied blockchain technology. Coinapult, which also provides brokerage services that lets users lock their balances to fiat currencies and stable assets, will team up with Factom, which provides blockchain applications in database […]

The post Coinapult and Factom in Deal to Improve Financial Processes appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

Does cryptocurrency provide the right infrastructure to make email postage a reality? A Netherlands-based startup, wrte.io, thinks it has. Anyone interested in finding out if the idea has merit can go to the wrte.io website and register for a wrte.io email address. All one needs to do is register for a free public email address […]

The post Netherlands Startup Launches Email Postage Scheme Using Bitcoin appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

Bitcoin companies Bitrefill and Celery have announced a partnership that will enable users based in the US to send instant mobile airtime to mobile subscribers in more than 100 countries around the world. The partnership was announced at the International Money Transfer Conference held on Tuesday March 23rd, 2015. How It Works A sender who […]

The post BitRefill and Celery Announce Mobile Remittance Service At No Charge appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

Over the past three days, Bitcoin Magazine has featured stories about the BitGive Foundation; how it began and the work that it has done with charities including Save the Children, The Water Project and Medic Mobile. Its founder and sole full-time staffer, Connie Gallippi, has helped the organization grow to become the first registered tax-exempt bitcoin charity, spreading the word about Bitcoin’s potential for positive change in the world. “We’ve continuously put out great efforts,” says Gallippi, “and we have a lot of supporters who like our work. The community has been looking for ways to improve its image and reach a mainstream audience. It would be great if we could leverage what we are already doing to accomplish this […]

The post The Future of the BitGive Foundation: Great Potential Amid Uncertainty appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.