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De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) head of research Jakob de Haan has issued new responses to pointed questions about the role of bitcoin in global finance.

The Dutch National Police have taken an interest in Blockchain-based cloud services. A presentation given over the summer reveals a new focus on Storj and Filecoin.

Members of the Dutch National Police and UNIJURIS gave a presentation in July titled “Technical and Legal Challenges of Criminal Law Enforcement in the Digital Age .” This is an update of a presentation given in 2013 titled “The merits & challenges of distributed least authority data storage .”

The presentations explain how cloud storage and file hosting "Data is cut up in a hundred pieces. Pieces are spread over a hundred servers, in dozens of countries, over a multitude of hosters.”

Both presentations explain how Mega (Mega Limited) replaced the controversial Megaupload cloud storage service. Megaupload was seized and shut down by the United States Department of Justice in January 2012 over copyright infringement claims.

Extradition hearings are currently underway for Megaupload founder Kim DotCom in New Zealand. When the original Megaupload site was seized, federal prosecutors stated, “This action is among the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought by the United States and directly targets the misuse of a public content storage and distribution site to commit and facilitate intellectual property crime.” However, Kim DotCom, founder of Megaupload and Mega, recently distanced himself from Mega, stating over the summer that he would not trust Mega with user data and that he intends to create a third version of the site.

How would you like a new Internet that can't be controlled, censored or destroyed by Governments or Corporations? I'm working on it #MegaNet

— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) February 16, 2015

As the Dutch presentation explains, next-generation technologies such as Mega make it more difficult for law enforcement to seize: “Never mind reading it. Data cannot even be located without the key.”

The presentation from this year was updated to include both Filecoin and Storj (pronounced “storage.”).Filecoin, according to its website, is a “data storage network and electronic currency based on Bitcoin. Users can “Earn Filecoin by renting disk space.” Filecoin was named by both Business Insider and Coindesk as Bitcoin projects to watch in 2015.

Storj, according to its website, is “based on blockchain technology and peer-to-peer protocols to provide the most secure, private, and encrypted cloud storage.” It will allow users to rent out extra hard-drive space and bandwidth using MetaDisk . It is built on top of Bitcoin with the Storjcoin X “SJCX” Counterparty token. According to CoinMarketCap , SJCX has a market capitalization of approximately $735,000 at time of publication.

Bitcoin Magazine spoke with Storj founder Shawn Wilkinson, who said that the presentation did a good job on half the picture:

“Traditionally, law enforcement could knock on the door of a third-party provider for access to information. As this is abused and data becomes more and more abstract and distributed (for economic and reliability) this will become almost impossible. This should lead to a decrease in cybercrimes as well. If governments can't get access to it, neither can attackers.”

Further, he noted that it missed some of the benefits to law enforcement:

“[It] Misses the possible use cases with this type of system in law enforcement. For example, handling of digital evidence in a public and verifiable way. “[This was] Not possible before.”

For example, in a popular dashcam video of a phone theft on Youtube, the detective assigned to the case was eventually provided with a signed (with an indelible ink pen) DVD by the person who captured the video. This seems like an antiquated way to prove authorship.

The presentation offered the following “solutions”:

Regarding Jurisdiction: “Legal duty (based on a warrant, of course) for third parties (companies) to hand over data locally in countries they offer their services in.”

Regarding Enforcement: “Seizure and acquisition moves back to the [end user or] client (not the hoster [or company].) [This creates a] New legal paradigm regarding the ‘location’ of data.”

Wilkinson said that the “P ossible solutions portion won't work at all as these solutions become more and more distributed.” While he disagrees with solutions, he thought the presentation was very forward-thinking and they are “asking the right questions.”

The distributed platform such as that which Storj will provide is a paradigm shift away from traditional centralized services. The past year saw very high-profile hacks of SONY , the Office of Personnel Management and even Ashley Madison . The breadth and scale of these kinds of data breaches are made possible though centrally stored data. While decentralized solutions may make law enforcement’s job more difficult, there must be thoughtful regulation because it might be a service such as Storj’s that will prevent a “cyber Pearl Harbor ” from happening.

Indeed, the authors note that:

“When these technologies, and others like them, converge in the … not so distance future, cloud based security will take a large step forward towards the multi granular least authority approach required for true in-depth cloud security….When looking at the public-order and security aspects of law enforcement, these developments can only be seen as a blessing.”

They also note: “When looking at the same developments from the prosecution and forensics viewpoint however, we see major technological and legal obstacles and challenges arising …”

The Dutch Police have had their hands full lately with a Supermarket Bomber making ransom demands in bitcoin. Earlier this year, The National High Tech Crime Unit of the Netherlands’ police and Kaspersky Lab announced that they would help victims recover from CoinVault ransomware. Earlier this month they arrested two young adults believed to be involved in the CoinVault campaign. They have been playing whack-a-mole with several Silk Road copycats . The Dutch National Police Agency also created a fork on GitHub of John Ratcliff's blockchain: A minimal parser for the bitcoin blockchain .

UNIJURIS, also located in the Netherlands, is a research group on unilateralism and the protection of global interests and has a section on its website called “Extraterritorial jurisdiction on the Internet .” This includes a research paper “The end of territory. The re-emergence of community as a principle of jurisdictional order.”

The post Dutch National Police Set Sights on Blockchain-Based Cloud Services appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

What do women think about the WSJ's article regarding what's holding women back in the workplace? This question was originally answered on Quora by Jane Chin.

In a new interview, Fredrik Voss, head of blockchain strategy at Nasdaq, expands on his organization's developing thesis on the emerging technology.

This week's headlines have mostly been about banks' love for blockchain, sparked by R3CEV's announcement that 13 new banks had joined its project.

A survey by the World Economic Forum says the tipping point for bitcoin and blockchain adoption will happen by the year 2025.

The majority of 800 executives and experts surveyed by the World Economic Forum (WEF) put the 6-year-old currency bitcoin, as well as the underlying blockchain technology, 10 percent of the world’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) running through the two technologies by 2025. The WEF was a bit more cautious with its own prediction and put 2027 as year they would reach the “tipping point.”

The WEF described the use of apps such as Smartcontracts.com, a website that allows people to issue programmable contracts that pay out sums of bitcoin when certain factors (set by the creator of the contract) are reached and verified, without the involvement of any middleman, as a “Shift In Action” in society. “These contracts are secured in the blockchain as “self-executing contractual states,” which eliminate the risk of relying on others to follow through on their commitments.”

“[By 2025] 58% of respondents expected this tipping point to have occurred. Bitcoin and digital currencies are based on the idea of a distributed trust mechanism called the 'blockchain,' a way of keeping track of trusted transactions in a distributed fashion. Currently, the total worth of bitcoin in the blockchain is around $20 billion, or about 0.025% of global GDP of around $80 trillion,” read the report.

Positive impacts of bitcoin and blockchain technology reaching a critical tipping point listed by the WEF included: more direct financial transactions with less and less middleman; brand new assets that can be traded; better property records, and more financial inclusion in emerging markets; blockchain-based contacts and legal services used as unbreakable escrow or programmatically designed smart contracts; and increased transparency.

Technological Shifts that Will Change the Future

World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Future of Software and Society gathered to identify 21 changes in society caused by software that would shape the future. They then survey business and technological leaders about when the “tipping point” for these technologies would happen and what the possible positive and negative effects of them would be, and published the results in a report titled Deep Shift: Technology Tipping Points and Societal Impact .

The committee featured 18 thought leaders and executives in the technology industry, which included several familiar, or involved, in the bitcoin/blockchain industry. Ron Cao, managing director of Lightspeed Venture Partners, a venture firm that invested in American bitcoin exchange CirclePay and Chinese exchange BTCC (formly BTC China); Primavera De Filippi, research fellow at Berkman Center for Internet & Society, France, and early explorer of bitcoin’s and blockchain’s effect on modern law, among others.

The report also included the “sharing economy,” 3D printing, smart cities, wearable devices, the Internet of Things (IoT), among the list of future-shaping technologies.

“Now comes the second machine age. Computers and other digital advances are doing for mental power – the ability to use our brains to understand and shape our environments – what the steam engine and its descendants did for muscle power,” wrote Council Vice-Chair and Director at MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy at Massachusetts Institute of Technology Erik Brynjolfsson in the report.

Blockchain use by governments was another trend that was included in the list. Possible uses by governments included recording land registries, tax collecting schemes, and other improvements in governmental processes. The tipping point decided by the WEF was the first time that tax is collected through a blockchain application and expected it to happen by 2023.

“[By 2025] 73% of respondents expected this tipping point to have occurred. The blockchain creates both opportunities and challenges for countries. On the one hand, it is unregulated and not overseen by any central bank, meaning less control over monetary policy. On the other hand, it creates the ability for new taxing mechanisms to be built into the blockchain itself (e.g. a small transaction tax).”

The WEF remained neutral on whether this would be a net positive or negative, citing corruption, real-time taxation, and unclear role for government in the process, including a state’s central bank, were reasons it could “cut both ways.”

An example given by the report as already underway was a 2016 mayoral candidate of London who has suggested implementing blockchain technology to upgrade the city’s’ ledger for land, as well as for its finances and budget. (Similar experiments are going on in Honduras and the Isle of Man.) “Because these records are kept permanently, there is a strong possibility (without the blockchain) for them to be altered or faulted.”

“The Internet is driving a shift towards networks and platform-based social and economic models. Assets can be shared, creating not just new efficiencies but also whole new business models and opportunities for social self-organization. The blockchain, an emerging technology, replaces the need for third-party institutions to provide trust for financial, contract and voting activities,” concluded the report.

The post WEF Survey Predicts Bitcoin 'Tipping Point' Happening By 2027 appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Coinplug, a Korea-based bitcoin exchange, wallet, card and payment processor targeting the Asian market, recently received $5 million in Series B funding, according to CrunchBase. The exchange has received $8.3 million in funding from four rounds from nine investors. In addition to providing a bitcoin exchange, a bitcoin wallet and payment processing, Coinplug also provides a two-way ATM and payment processor and offers a bitcoin gift card called “okBitcard” which is available at supermarkets. Coinplug's Nine Investors Mirae Asset Venture Investment is Coinplug's lead series A investor. Other Series A investors include Bokwang Investment, Capstone Partners Korea, DSC Investment and […]

The post Korean Bitcoin Exchange Coinplug Receives $5 Million In Series B Funding appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Large-scale, efficient infrastructure is a must-have for any economy to function competitively.

And that infrastructure needs to be maintained and even updated if a country wants its economy to run smoothly.

However, over the last few years since financial crisis, the infrastructure quality deteriorated in many developed countries, including the US, Germany, and France, according to the recent report by the World Economic Forum.

As a result, they're not leading the way in terms of infrastructure quality.

We took a closer look at the 11 countries with the highest quality infrastructure, according to data in the WEF's report. Check them out below.

11. United States

The United States ranked 1st overall in terms of available airlines seats, and 5th for quality of air transport structure.

However, the US came in 99th place for mobile telephone subscriptions. Additionally, it is only 15th for railroad infrastructure and 14th for quality of roads.

"Infrastructure quality deteriorated in the United States" and other developed economies over the last decade since the financial crisis, according the report.

Source: World Economic Forum

10. Spain

Spain saw the 4th best railroad infrastructure and was 9th best overall for available airline seats.

However, both its port infrastructure and quality of air transport infrastructure were ranked 12th, and the quality of its electricity supply came in 24th.

A few years ago, Spain went through "reckless public spending of ill-thought out projects that left the country crippled with debt" and several "ghost" airports, which go completely unused.

Source: World Economic Forum

9. United Kingdom

The UK ranked 3rd for available airline seats, and 9th for quality of electricity supply.

However, it came in 29th for quality of roads, and 19th for air transport infrastructure.

The UK infrastructure has one of the most developed infrastructures in the world, even when compared to other developed economies. However, the UK's rail networks are the most expensive in Europe and faces constant delays.

Source: World Economic Forum, Business Insider

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London is the front line of a global taxi war right now, with local drivers desperately trying to stop the rise of Uber.

Black cab drivers hate Uber, which undercuts them on price and they claim the ride-hailing app is given favourable treatment by London's transport regulator, Transport for London (TfL).

Trade body the London Private Hire Car Association (LPHCA) has been putting pressure on TfL to crackdown on Uber and Business Insider has seen documents that show the LPHCA has drafted in heavyweight, "Magic Circle" law firm Clifford Chance to present a legal case to get the taxi app banned in London.

Copies of evidence submitted to the Greater London Authority's Transport Committee by private hire car operator Addison Lee as part of an ongoing consultation on taxi regulation in London have been passed to Business Insider. The submission includes evidence submitted to TfL by the LPHCA in June.

The LPHCA, which represents 15,000 minicab drivers in the capital, and Clifford Chance call for an immediate ban on Uber in the app until big changes are made that could cripple its business model.

"We’re not surprised by the points raised in the LPHCA submission," Uber said when reached for comment. "These accusations are simply repetitions of previous complaints, all of which have been addressed numerous times."

Here's a summary of the big five arguments the LPHCA makes against Uber.

1. Uber doesn't have valid insurance

Uber requires individual drivers to ensure their cars themselves, rather than hold a fleet-wide insurance policy as is the norm in London. The taxi industry argues that this means Uber is putting public safety at risk, as it can't guarantee all its drivers are insured.

The LPHCA uses a Schrodinger's Cat-style argument to say that this is inadequate: because Uber only checks documents when driver signs up, LPHCA claims Uber can't prove at all times that its drivers are insured. They could have cancelled their policy since signing up. Though there is no evidence that this is the case. 

The industry also argues that because TfL allows Uber to operate without fleet-wide insurance, Uber gets an unfair price advantage as these policies are costly.

And by passing the saving on to the customer but still requiring the driver to buy a policy, the taxi industry argues drivers are being incentivised to cut corners on insurance to save money.

Here's Clifford Chance, on behalf of the LPHCA: "Uber's operating model facilitates and encourages increasing numbers of uninsured drivers onto the streets of London by allowing drivers to cancel their policies after registration with Uber."

The taxi body argues that the checks on these documents are flawed in the first place, pointing to a report in The Guardian on the ease of tricking the system with faked documents.

2. Uber doesn't pay tax like it should

Uber processes its UK fares through Dutch subsidiary Uber BV, meaning it gets around charging customers UK VAT at point of sale. 

By processing revenue through Uber BV, the company also pays a lower rate of corporation tax. Taxi companies say this tax set-up gives Uber another unfair advantage. This issue has already been referred to the UK taxman, HMRC, which is probing Uber's tax set-up.

Business Insider has highlighted Uber's tax set-up before. A spokesperson for Uber told Business Insider at the time: "Uber complies with all applicable tax laws, and pays taxes in all the jurisdictions it operates in, including the UK."

3. It's unsupervised and unsafe

The LPHCA tells the Transport Committee in its submission (emphasis ours):

As a direct consequence of the flaws in Uber's operating model Uber drivers loiter, ply for hire, park illegally and create a public nuisance in areas of high demand such as at airports and stations, undermining London’s profile as one of the safest taxi markets in the world.

Clifford Chance backs this up with some recorded complaints:The LPHCA also argues that taking bookings in-car and taking bookings without an operator's license is in breach of the law and unsafe. Clifford Chance says it: "undermin[es] the important role of the operating centre in promoting safety."

And because jobs are routed through Holland, Clifford Chance argues "those service elements are beyond effective regulation by TfL," which again it claims is in breach of the law.

4. Driver and passenger data isn't safe

The LPHCA claims Uber "fails to take seriously its obligations to protect customer and driver data."

Clifford Chance points to reports of Uber accounts being hacked, such as a data break in February that left 50,000 driver details exposed, and says Uber London is not registered in the UK as a data controller, another breach.

5. Uber's flaunting the law

The LPHCA accuses Uber of "knowingly, willingly and intentionally flouting local regulation for profit in France, Germany, Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands - almost every European market in which it operates."

Uber founder Travis Kalanick advocates a strategy of “principled confrontation” with regulators and lawmakers around the world, according to an interview with Vanity Fair.

Clifford Chance says also: "Uber London fails to record destination information as required under the Act, undermining an important feature of the private hire framework in London designed to protect the public."

'The risks are increasingly clear'

As the battle progresses, neither either side looks close to backing down. 

A spokesperson for Uber told Business Insider over email: 

We’re not surprised by the points raised in the LPHCA submission. These accusations are simply repetitions of previous complaints, all of which have been addressed numerous times. In the UK Uber abides by all private hire regulations and tax requirements, and in London is fully licensed and regulated by TfL. Over the last few days we have seen overwhelming support for Uber, with over 120,000 Londoners signing a petition to keep the service as it is. 

Black cab drivers have been putting pressure on TfL to crackdown on Uber. News broke this week that TfL is considering introducing tough new restrictions designed to hurt Uber that appear to have been shaped by taxi industry pressure.

Uber mobilised its huge customer base in London in response to the draft TfL changes, gathering 90,000 signatures on an online petition within just 24 hours.

Clifford Chance and the LPHCA, meanwhile, are both calling for Transport for London to immediately revoke Uber's license:

Clifford Chance concludes in its report: "These are not simply technical infractions. As Uber expands the risks associated with its operating model are becoming increasingly clear.

"Uber currently has approximately 17,000 registered drivers and has stated an intention to recruit 42,000 drivers by March 2016.

"However, when confronted by issues in relation to its drivers Uber disclaims responsibility for them on the basis that they are self-employed. In practice, the quality of regulation, oversight, and therefore the safety of the London private hire market is disintegrating rapidly as Uber expands."

It's war.

Join the conversation about this story »

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 A newly discovered malware, called Linux.Wifatch by security firm Symantec, has been found to compromise at least 10,000 Linux-routers. Unlike other malware, however, Wifatch protects the router from other infections, protecting victims instead.

The post Linux.Wifatch: Vigilante Hacker Infects Routers with Malware to Fight Bad Malware appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Coinkite, a bitcoin platform that transacts more than 400,000 BTC per month, has reported a bitcoin malleability attack that requires users to be careful about zero confirmation receipts since there are two versions of a transaction (low S high S). Coinkite is requiring one confirmation for deposits before it uses them in a new transaction. Transactions have been modified and rebroadcast with new transaction numbers, indicating a malleability attack. The attacks have occurred over the last 24 to 48 hours. Almost all transactions on the network have suffered the attacks. Customer Funds Not At Risk The company noted in a […]

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As you read this, thousands of refugees are just making for land on the island of Lesbos on the Aegean Sea off the coast of Greece. And the image of a young Syrian man rhythmically leading protests at the Budapest train station is still firmly etched in my mind. The stories of refugees in the media have been mostly ones of tragedy. It seems, however, that there may also be an opportunity for developing cash transfer solutions in the midst of such human tragedy. This is in part to the work of ELAN, or the Electronic Cash Transfer Learning Action […]

The post Overcoming the Challenges of Cash Programs for Refugees on the Block Chain appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Anti-virus software pioneer John McAfee is now accepting bitcoin in his 2016 presidential campaign.

South Korean bitcoin services company Coinplug has closed a $5m Series B funding round.

Google search data can predict the price of bitcoin, new research has found.

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At this time it appears that the next bitcoin price wave is breaking to the upside. If the bullish mania is not too eager, price could still make a penultimate or final wave to support at the lower grey trendline (and red 200-period moving average) before the surge continues. A cautious reminder in the chart is explored. This analysis is provided by xbt.social with a 8 hour delay. Read the full analysis here. Not a member? Join now and receive a $29 discount using the code CCN29. Bitcoin Price Analysis Time of analysis: 15h14 UTC Bitfinex 1-Hour Chart From the […]

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