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Investment guru Warren Buffet remains unsold on bitcoin and crptocurrencies. He doesn’t even consider buying bitcoin as investing and compares it to gambling. Interviewed during Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder meeting, Buffet explained his ongoing skepticism about bitcoin in an interview with Yahoo Finance. “There’s two kinds of items that people buy and think they’re investing,” … Continued

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• Basis CEO Nader Al-Naji just got $133 million to fund his stable cryptocurrency startup Basis, from top tier investors like GV (formerly Google Ventures), Bain Capital Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, and Sky9 Capital.
• Al-Naji's passion for cryptocurrencies began with a bitcoin mining rig he built in his Princeton dorm. 
• Al-Naji quit his job at Google in order to work on his cryptocurrency, called Basis, which has a stable value determined algorithmically. In theory, that will make it more useful as a currency, and not just a vehicle for speculation.

Today, Nader Al-Naji is the CEO of Basis — a hot cryptocurrency startup, with grand ambitions to replace regular money, and which recently took in a $133 million investment round from firms including GV (formerly Google Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz.

The origins of Basis, however, go back to Al-Naji's days studying studying computer science at Princeton, when he learned that the university provided students with free electricity. At a friend's suggestion, Al-Naji, who had recently learned about bitcoin, decided to put his dorm room power toward a profitable pursuit. 

"If you built a mining rig for $1000 in 2013, you could make your money back in about a month," Al-Naji told Business Insider. 

Al-Naji went to work building a powerful computer with two graphics cards and then, he said, "I just started mining away." Over the course of the first 6 months, Al-Naji said he mined a total of 22 bitcoins. 

At Princeton, Al-Naji's interest in bitcoin led him to take courses in monetary history, where he spent office hours arguing with his professor about monetary policy, and the potential for decentralized currencies.

The basis of Basis

After graduation, Al-Naji's obsessive study of cryptocurrencies grew only deeper.

Later, while working as a software engineer at Google, Al-Naji revisited an idea he'd stumbled upon with two friends while at Princeton: What if they could create a digital currency that, unlike bitcoin, didn't wildly fluctuate in value?

The volatility of bitcoin has made it more useful as a vehicle for speculation than as a currency, say critics — when the value can change drastically from hour to hour, it introduces undesirable risk for sellers and buyers alike. 

Along with his friends, Lawrence Diao and Josh Chen, Al-Naji began working on a digital currency that used the blockchain as a form of monetary regulation. 

In 2017, Al-Naji posted an early whitepaper for the currency, which is now called Basis, to his Facebook.

The whitepaper described a "stable cryptocurrency" that will maintain a relatively fixed value, so that it can be used to make purchases. Unlike the stable token Tether, which has a steady value that's tied to the US dollar, the value of Basis is controlled algorithmically, on the blockchain.

"It's built on a digital constitution that's very difficult to modify," said Al-Naji. "It's easier to trust the blockchain [as means of monetary regulation] than the government."

Al-Naji's whitepaper received immediate enthusiasm from friends within the cryptocurrency community.

"A lot of people told me, 'This is really interesting, you should really do this,'" he said.

The overwhelming enthusiasm for the project inspired Al-Naji to pursue it more seriously, and, a short while later, he posted to Facebook again, this time saying that he was going to quit Google in order to work on Basis full time.

The future of Basis

At first, Al-Naji and his friends decided that they would use their own money to fund the business, but when investors like GV (formerly Google Ventures), Bain Capital Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Andreessen Horowitz began expressing interest, they reconsidered. And the $133 million investment came to be.

"When you're trying to build a cryptocurrency, you need mind share," said Al-Naji. "One way to get that is by having influential people  buy into the project."

Al-Naji said the money will be used to develop several potential use-cases for the technology, but declined to comment any further. At the time of the investment, Basis highlighted how the technology could be especially useful for those in the developing world, where there's little existing financial infrastructure to speak of.

As for those bitcoins Al-Naji mined back in 2013?

"I'm still HODLing," he said, referring to the cryptocurrency acronym that stands for "hold on for dear life." (At the time of publication, 22 bitcoins is valued at around $200,000.)

SEE ALSO: 3 Princeton grads just got $133 million from Silicon Valley's hottest investors for a cryptocurrency that could actually replace money

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NOW WATCH: We talked to Charles Schwab's investment strategist about what 2018 holds for equities, the Fed, and bitcoin

Earlier this year, the Rungsted Seier Capital ice rink in Denmark was rebranded to Bitcoin Arena by co-owner Lars Seier Christensen and billionaire sponsor Niklas Nikolajsen. The two individuals that oversee the operations of the stadium said that they were keen on rebranding it to spread awareness of bitcoin. Nikolajsen emphasized that he and his

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Romanian bitcoin exchange BTCxChange, which has suffered problems since its launch in 2014, has once again announced its closing, having recently informed customers that it will close on May 1, 2018. A notice dated April 22 from the BTCxChange team on the exchange website told customers to withdraw all balances before May 1. BTCxChange stopped operations

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• Morgan Stanley has done research into online cryptocurrency exchanges.
• The research shows that the majority of trading volume flows through exchanges registered in Malta.
• The United Kingdom has the highest number of legally registered exchanges but accounts for just 1% of trading volumes.

LONDON — The majority of cryptocurrency exchanges are based in the UK, but the vast amount of volume flows through the small island of Malta, new research shows.

Morgan Stanley analyst Sheena Shah and her team sent a note to clients this week examining cryptocurrency exchanges around the world. Exchanges are the venues on which cryptocurrencies trade and the biggest can see daily trading volumes in the billions.

The investment bank's research shows that the majority of volumes flow, at least nominally, through Malta. This is largely down to Binance, one of the biggest exchanges in the world, recently announcing plans to shift its legal headquarters to the small European island.

"The largest exchange called Binance announced intentions to set up headquarters there, so if we take that company out, Malta would be much further down the list," Shah and her team wrote.

"Binance said that it was moving away from Asia (currently registered in Hong Kong) due to more stringent regulation, especially from Japan. The third-largest exchange, OKEx, also recently announced that it was opening an office in Malta as the government markets itself as "Blockchain Island"."

While Malta dominates when it comes to volumes, the United Kingdom is actually the location of the largest number of exchanges — although the UK accounts for just 1% of global trading volumes, Morgan Stanley notes.

"Most are in the UK, Hong Kong and the US," Shah and her team note. "The three countries have relatively large financial centres and the US has a technology focus in Silicon Valley.

"There are six exchanges located in India but many are likely to have to shut down or relocate as this month the central bank ordered commercial banks to close accounts with exchanges."

Cryptocurrency exchanges have come under increasing scrutiny from regulators worldwide as more and more money as flowed into the sector over the last year. While some countries such as India and the US have sought to crackdown on the activity, countries and territories such as Switzerland, Gibraltar, and Malta have sought to attract the nascent industry to their shores.

"The blockchain and cryptocurrency industry is growing rapidly and can have economic benefits for a particular country through the creation of start-ups (good for jobs), research and development and financial transactions," Shah and team write. "Governments are having to consider their regulatory stance quickly."

"Defined but also attractive regulation makes an exchange decide to choose one country over another – a set of laws for companies to follow when handling digital tokens, customer assets, AML policies, taxes, etc. Regulatory certainty is part of the attractiveness for the companies so they can plan for the future as they know what to expect. Low taxes are a benefit."

SEE ALSO: A Goldman Sachs-backed tech company just bought a major crypto exchange for a reported $400 million

DON'T MISS: Crypto exchanges are charging up to $1 million per ICO to list tokens: 'It's pure capitalism'

NEXT UP: A South Korean gaming company is said to be in talks to buy Bitstamp, the world’s oldest bitcoin exchange

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NOW WATCH: The market is about to reach an inflection point — here’s how to predict which way it’s going to go

One of the main critiques about Bitcoin is the digital currency’s troubles offering timely and cost-effective payments. Charlie Lee, the founder of Litecoin, foresaw Bitcoin’s future payment issues, and took action by designing a more payments-friendly blockchain.  After earning the nickname, ‘SatoshiLite’, Mr. Lee earned a job at Coinbase, the large San Francisco-based crypto-exchange. Mr. … Continued

The post Litecoin Payments are Quietly Starting to Catch On appeared first on CCN

One of the main critiques about Bitcoin is the digital currency’s troubles offering timely and cost-effective payments. Charlie Lee, the founder of Litecoin, foresaw Bitcoin’s future payment issues, and took action by designing a more payments-friendly blockchain.  After earning the nickname, ‘SatoshiLite’, Mr. Lee earned a job at Coinbase, the large San Francisco-based crypto-exchange. Mr. … Continued

The post Litecoin Payments are Quietly Starting to Catch On appeared first on CCN