Chain Accelerator Opens Its Doors to Blockchain, Crypto Startups in France
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Bitcoin Magazine, 1/1/0001 12:00 AM PST \Chain Accelerator has launched in France. It is the first startup acceleratordedicated to the blockchain that can call Europe its home. Among the organization’s chief operators are Hyperloop Transportation Technologies chairman Bibop G. Gresta, former SWIFT CEO Leonard Schrank, and Ledger president Pascal Gauthier. The company will assist startups with initial coin offerings (ICOs), business development plans, marketing and public relations. In a statement, co-founder Nicolas Cantu explained, “At a time when the President and the Government want to make Paris the capital of the ICOs, Chain Accelerator is positioning itself as a key player. By setting up a global and operational network in Paris, it brings together the best talent, extends the circle of contributors, and prepares for disruptions to help blockchain projects develop protocols in all sectors.” France has been relatively mixed when it comes to blockchain and cryptocurrency culture. Bruno Le Maire, the Minister of the Economy and Finance, has been particularly wary of cryptocurrencies in the past, and has called on regulators to implement strict rules when it comes to governing and controlling their activities. In May, however, Le Maire expressed a drastic change of heart in a blog post for a French startup, writing: “A revolution is under way, of which Bitcoin was only the precursor. The blockchain will offer unprecedented opportunities for our startups. I was a neophyte a year ago, but now I’m passionate. Let us show a lot of pedagogy with our fellow citizens to make France the first place of blockchain and crypto-active innovation in Europe.” The integration of Chain Accelerator in France could help Paris become a major hub for blockchain development. Currently, the executive board of Chain Accelerator consists of over 30 individuals who will serve as mentors to Europe’s growing list of crypto-based startups, thus increasing the company’s potential to succeed and expand. In addition, as blockchain technology and cryptocurrency garner more acceptance throughout the continent, more startups may arise, seeking the company’s aid. National Assembly for Paris member Pierre Person states, “In France, as everywhere in the world, blockchain projects face many uncertainties and complexities, whether financial, legal, or technical. Yet this technology will revolutionize our daily lives. As such, it is essential today to have both a legislative framework enabling its full development and structures enabling the emergence of such projects. Our country must become a leader in the blockchain. I am convinced that Chain Accelerator — the first blockchain incubator — will contribute greatly to this.” Despite its hard work, France will face competition with countries like the U.K. and Switzerland, which have positioned themselves as some of Europe’s primary fintech and cryptocurrency centers. According to U.K. Secretary of State for International Trade Dr. Liam Fox, the country’s fintech space has already attracted over $2.4 billion in investments in 2018 alone, while Switzerland was recently home to four of the world’s largest ICOs. Chain Accelerator will be headquartered in Paris’s Station F, a large startup campus that opened in the summer of 2017. Station F director Roxanne Varza commented, “The blockchain universe, inherently decentralized, stands out for its global and international nature. Innovation comes from everywhere, talents are rare, the need for support is exacerbated. We are pleased to welcome Chain Accelerator.” This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine. |
Bitcoin Is 'Not For Me' Says Goldman Sachs CEO
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CoinDesk, 1/1/0001 12:00 AM PST For Lloyd Blankfein, bitcoin just isn't his thing. |
Digital Future Council Assembles Roster of Industry Leaders in Media, Tech
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Bitcoin Magazine, 1/1/0001 12:00 AM PST The Digital Future Council made its public debut on June 18, 2018, at the 2018 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. With founding members from such organizations as IBM, Vice, CNN, Lego and Warner Bros., the council was formed as an informational intermediary to find common ground between creative and technological industries. The Digital Future Council will be introducing a fresh batch of founding members with its official launch. These names include Meltem Demirors, CSO of CoinShares; Charles Manning, CEO of Kochava; Chad Andrews, global solutions leader at IBM; CNN’s Head of Content and Strategy Danielle Lauren and VP of Digital Strategy and Revenue Robert Bradley; Swen Graham, SVP of global marketing at Foursquare; and James Poulter, Head of Emerging Platforms at The LEGO Group. During the festival, the council is hosting roundtables, dinners and town hall discussions on blockchain technology and how it may fit into legacy industries, particularly in the media and creative sectors. These talks will particularly emphasize the role blockchain technology could play in reimagining digital advertising models and consumer-controlled data, and they will challenge those from without the industry to envision how the technology could positively impact brand-consumer relations. “The Digital Future Council was established to provide a forum for media, advertising and technology leaders to convene and communicate openly about areas of their businesses that could be enhanced by emerging technology,” David Wachsman, founder and CEO of the Wachsman blockchain PR company, told Bitcoin Magazine. “The Digital Future Council gives Wachsman a platform to have eye-opening conversations about how blockchain can transform businesses, specifically in media and advertising, as the proliferation of digital advertising, rising adoption of technology, and shifting consumer habits are changing the business of advertising.” A blockchain-focused public relations company and one of the founding members of the council, Wachsman is positioned, along with other crypto industry representatives like Po.et, Gifto and CoinShares, to offer tutelage and guidance to council members who are less acquainted with blockchain’s relevance with their respective industries. “Through the dozens of blockchain companies our firm has worked with to date, we’ve seen firsthand what works and what doesn’t and I hope that I can relay some of these learnings to the members of the council so that these legacy companies can truly understand blockchain’s potential impact, in a way that is tailored and specific to their businesses,” Wachsman said. “For example, blockchain can address prevalent issues and challenges related to data management. Privacy and security concerns are major issues in the creative industries, especially with recent developments such as GDPR, and with blockchain, consumer data can be stored privately and securely. Blockchain can also help advertisers more effectively target and engage with consumers.” As a media company with ties to the tech, Wachsman will likely act as an arbiter between the tech-oriented and the creative personalities that the Digital Future Council hosts. Others, like IBM, will look to offer the perspective of tech industry veterans who are learning the landscape of a new front. “Because IBM took an early lead in investing in blockchain and launching an enterprise blockchain platform, we are approached almost daily by new companies exploring how the technology can improve or create new value,” IBM’s Global Solutions Leader Chad Andrews told Bitcoin Magazine. “Our primary interest is in reforming the media-buying supply chain, which is rife with inefficiencies … Blockchain's ability to remove frictions and build trust is tailor made to close the distance between advertising buyers and sellers, and to hold intermediaries (particularly in Digital) to new standards of openness.” Like Wachsman, Andrews expects that the most important categories of use cases will include advertising, rights and royalties, and content exchange. “Founding members are walking the walk in each of these [sectors], spanning creatives, technology innovators, thought leaders and great business minds from brands, media companies, agencies, artists, consultants, platforms and, to our delight, a few technology and services companies.” Beyond Cannes, the Digital Future Council plans to host quarterly events around the world. These events will hone in on the value and impact of emerging technologies for established enterprises, and they will feature debates and discussions like those at this year’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity on topics like blockchain technology, AI and Big Data. This is the Digital Future Council’s vision, but as Chad Andrews said to Bitcoin Magazine, “Vision is one thing. Execution is another.” Wachsman reiterated this sentiment in his own interview. The council’s introduction at Cannes, he hopes, will set the conversational stage for concrete developments in the future. “The first meeting is kicking off with blockchain based on demand from everyone participating and I think these initial meetings will debunk some myths and plant some seeds about ways that businesses can more effectively utilize bleeding edge technologies such as blockchain,” he said. “In the long term, we want to turn these conversations into tangible action. We hope to set a precedent for how the creative community and technology industries can better work together, create meaningful and sustainable business relationships.” Down the road, this includes “[publishing] educational papers that summarize the DFC’s quarterly meetings so that we can share the insights gathered with the wider industry and enable the masses to benefit from this knowledge,” Wachsman revealed. To learn more about the Digital Future Council and the founding players involved, visit the consortium’s website. This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine. |
New Crypto Mining Service Hashbyte Fighting Bitcoins Carbon Footprint and Offering Huge Returns
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CryptoCoins News, 1/1/0001 12:00 AM PST This is a submitted sponsored story. CCN urges readers to conduct their own research with due diligence into the company, product or service mentioned in the content below. HashByte is a new eco-friendly cloud mining company which has been involved in the cryptocurrency space since its inception in 2009. Utilising hash power, users can utilise technology The post New Crypto Mining Service Hashbyte Fighting Bitcoins Carbon Footprint and Offering Huge Returns appeared first on CCN |
'The reckoning will come in 2 waves:' The president of a major stock exchange explains what should keep the crypto world up at night
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Business Insider, 1/1/0001 12:00 AM PST
Chris Concannon, the president of Cboe Global Markets, is one of Wall Street's biggest crypto advocates. But the trading veteran thinks investors should lay awake at night worrying about the uncertainty hanging over the market for initial coin offerings, the popular crypto crowdfunding method. "The reckoning will come in two waves," Concannon said in an interview with Business Insider. First, the SEC will go after ICO market participants. Then, class-action lawsuits against the teams behind ICO projects will surge. Crypto investors cheered when William Hinman, the SEC's director of corporate finance, said last week that ether transactions would not fall under the agency's regulatory purview. Still, Hinman's remarks did not give the greenlight for companies to run an ICO, which enables a company to issue its own token in exchange for ether or bitcoin (which ideally would go towards building a product or business). The market, which is known for its fair share of both fraud and big dreams, has allowed some tech startups to raise billions of dollars from a wide-spectrum of investors. In total, more than $7 billion has been raised via the fundraising method in 2018, according to data from Token Report. ICOs are traded on dozens of exchanges across the world and are popular investments among the more than 200 crypto hedge funds. Pantera Capital, one of the largest crypto investors, has two ICO funds, for instance. If the SEC ultimately decides that the lion share of ICOs are unregistered securities, then many players in the market could find themselves in a legal quagmire. "The actual party that offered the unregistered coin, they could have been involved in issuing an unregistered security," Concannon said. "Anyone who sold that off could be deemed an unregistered underwriter." To be clear, the SEC could come up with an entirely new designation for ICOs. And it's not clear to some market observers whether the agency would retroactively go after all market participants. Robert Hockett, a securities law professor at Cornell University, said you would likely only see the SEC take legal action in certain circumstances. "I don't think it is the case that people involved in the business are going to be prosecuted against as if they have been violating the law," Hockett said. "But there is a little bit of a room for exception with something particularly egregious." That could mean a company misled investors about a certain offering or claimed that it would never fall under the auspices of the SEC. Either way, the story doesn't change for investors. If the SEC deems ICOs as unregistered securities, then their holdings would be rendered valueless. This, according to Concannon, would trigger the second wave of reckoning. "If you sold someone an unregistered security you are liable to them if they decide to take them to court," Concannon said. The market has seen a number of class-action lawsuits. Business litigation firm Silver Miller in late 2017 filed a class-action suit against Monkey Capital, a crypto hedge fund. The firm alleges the fund promoted its ICO that violated US securities law. Silver Miller also has pending cases against crypto exchanges Kraken and Coinbase. Law firm Polsinelli, which is advising clients to approach the ICO market cautiously, said it has "only likely begun to see the beginning of class action lawsuits filed relating to blockchain-related companies or companies that participated in ICOs." Some of those suits could have merit, said Cornell's Hockett. "If they can prove investors were frauded and misled by people who were better suited to understand the regulatory framework, but still instilled in investors a — no pun intended — false sense of security, then some suits would have merit." For Hockett, the move indicates a shift in the market that is not without historical precedent. Crypto, he says, is moving out of the "Wild West" phase into a "regulatory security phase," which in the short term will see the rise of funds to launch class-actions and increased litigation. But in the long term, it will see a cleansing of the market. "It is a a legal life cycle of every new asset that becomes highly popular," he said. "It was true for tulips, and mortgage-backed securities, and now crypto." |
CoinFalcon Lists Tether (USDT) with BTC Trading, Offers Euro Access to Currency
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CryptoCoins News, 1/1/0001 12:00 AM PST This is a paid-for submitted press release. CCN does not endorse, nor is responsible for any material included below and isn’t responsible for any damages or losses connected with any products or services mentioned in the press release. CCN urges readers to conduct their own research with due diligence into the company, product or service mentioned The post CoinFalcon Lists Tether (USDT) with BTC Trading, Offers Euro Access to Currency appeared first on CCN |
Bitcoin Price Outperformed Crypto Hedge Fund Pantera Capital Last Month
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CryptoCoins News, 1/1/0001 12:00 AM PST Sometimes it doesn’t pay to diversify — just ask cryptocurrency hedge fund Pantera Capital, whose fund underperformed the bitcoin price last month. According to Bloomberg, the firm’s Digital Asset Fund underperformed bitcoin during May as the cryptocurrency markets continued to decline further from the all-time highs they set in late December and early January. Pantera The post Bitcoin Price Outperformed Crypto Hedge Fund Pantera Capital Last Month appeared first on CCN |
Bitfury Integrates Java, Allows for Private Chain Anchoring to Public Networks
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Bitcoin Magazine, 1/1/0001 12:00 AM PST Mining firm and blockchain software service company Bitfury wants to expedite blockchain development for traditional enterprise and business. Working toward this goal, the company announced today that it’s introducing Java binding for its blockchain service, Exonum. The soon-to-be-available binding comes with a software development kit that will allow developers to build private chains on Exonum that can be anchored to public blockchains, the press release notes. In computer science, binding allows a library of data written in one coding language to interact with libraries written in another coding language. For Exonum, which is written in Rust, it means that developers can now build on the network using Java. Ultimately, this will allow Java developers to create private blockchains on top of Exonum’s framework. Java binding will provide businesses, enterprises and other organizations with the tools they need to tailor private blockchain networks to fit their needs. If they so choose, enterprises can anchor these private chains to a public chain’s mainnet, giving them the privacy and versatility of a permissioned network with the transparency and reliability of a permissionless one. The Java binding feature also enables developers to integrate third-party applications with Exonum’s blockchain. With Java binding and its contingent software development kit, Exonum’s head Gleb Palienko hopes that the two additions to Exonum’s suite of offerings should attract more coders to its network. “Java binding is meant to make it easier for enterprises and businesses to implement blockchain applications,” Palienko told Bitcoin Magazine. “Java has the largest developer community and is the de-facto standard for large enterprises, while Rust is not as widely used, so this move will generally make Exonum more accessible to more people. Getting the Java develop[er] community on board is a big step toward making Exonum the most developer-friendly framework.” With Java enabled, Exonum users can now launch smart contracts, Palienko added. The Exonum head expects that this initial step will clear the way for Bitfury’s blockchain to bind with the Java Virtual Machine’s auxiliary programming languages, as well. “No other languages are supported at this time, but in the future, Java binding may support other JVM-languages, such as Kotlin, Groovy, Clojure or Scala. However, Java binding is only the first step. We hope to make blockchain application development accessible to all developers, regardless of the language they are familiar with.” Exonum’s Java binding comes a month after Amazon launched its own blockchain-as-a-web-service, Kaleido. Like Exonum, Kaleido allows enterprises to set up their own private blockchains while also giving them the option to synchronize it with a public chain. Developed with assistance from Ethereum incubator ConsenSys, Kaleido can be anchored to Ethereum’s network. Unlike, Kaleido, however, Palienko stressed that Exonum can be anchored to any public chain, be it Ethereum, Bitcoin or any other. There’s no concrete date for Exonum’s Java binding 1.0 release, but Palienko indicated that it’s not too far off and that the Bitfury team plans “to give an update on this soon.” This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine. |
Bitcoin Betting Juggernaut Cloudbet Is Offering the Highest 2018 World Cup Betting Limits for Any Site
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CryptoCoins News, 1/1/0001 12:00 AM PST This is a paid-for submitted press release. CCN does not endorse, nor is responsible for any material included below and isn’t responsible for any damages or losses connected with any products or services mentioned in the press release. CCN urges readers to conduct their own research with due diligence into the company, product or service mentioned The post Bitcoin Betting Juggernaut Cloudbet Is Offering the Highest 2018 World Cup Betting Limits for Any Site appeared first on CCN |
CRYPTO INSIDER: Central bankers claim bitcoin could break the internet
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Business Insider, 1/1/0001 12:00 AM PST
Welcome to Crypto Insider, Business Insider's roundup of all the bitcoin and cryptocurrency news you need to know today. Sign up here to get this email delivered direct to your inbox. The Bank of International Settlements on Sunday said bitcoin is "a poor substitute for the solid institutional backing of money." But critics in the crypto world say they're missing the point, and that bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are still in development and shouldn't be judged just yet. Here's what you need to know. Here are the current crypto prices:  In the news: New to Crypto Insider? Business Insider has a ton of articles to get you caught up to speed, including:
What other questions do you have about crypto? Ask them in Business Insider's Crypto Insider Facebook group today to discuss with readers from all over the world, as well as BI editorial staff. SEE ALSO: Sign up to get the most important updates on all things crypto delivered straight to your inbox. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: This $530 Android phone is half the price of an iPhone X and just as good |
CRYPTO INSIDER: Central bankers claim bitcoin could break the internet
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Business Insider, 1/1/0001 12:00 AM PST
Welcome to Crypto Insider, Business Insider's roundup of all the bitcoin and cryptocurrency news you need to know today. Sign up here to get this email delivered direct to your inbox. The Bank of International Settlements on Sunday said bitcoin is "a poor substitute for the solid institutional backing of money." But critics in the crypto world say they're missing the point, and that bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are still in development and shouldn't be judged just yet. Here's what you need to know. Here are the current crypto prices: In the news: New to Crypto Insider? Business Insider has a ton of articles to get you caught up to speed, including:
What other questions do you have about crypto? Ask them in Business Insider's Crypto Insider Facebook group today to discuss with readers from all over the world, as well as BI editorial staff. SEE ALSO: Sign up to get the most important updates on all things crypto delivered straight to your inbox. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: This $530 Android phone is half the price of an iPhone X and just as good |
Crypto Shill John McAfee Blames SEC for Shutting ICO Pump
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CryptoCoins News, 1/1/0001 12:00 AM PST Cybersecurity pioneer and sometime cryptocurrency shill John McAfee said that he will no longer promote initial coin offerings (ICOs) on his Twitter account. The eccentric McAfee, who promised that he will “eat my d–k” if the bitcoin price fails to reach $1 million by 2020, wrote on Twitter that he must cease his public support The post Crypto Shill John McAfee Blames SEC for Shutting ICO Pump appeared first on CCN |
Bag Week 2018: The Bitcoin Genesis Block backpack will centralize your belongings
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TechCrunch, 1/1/0001 12:00 AM PST Welcome to Bag Week 2018. Every year your faithful friends at TechCrunch spend an entire week looking at bags. Why? Because bags — often ignored but full of our important electronics — are the outward representations of our techie styles, and we put far too little thought into where we keep our most prized possessions. […] |
Bitcoin-Friendly Square Hits All-Time High Market Cap after Earning Bitlicense
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CryptoCoins News, 1/1/0001 12:00 AM PST The market valuation of Square, the multi-billion dollar payments company of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, surged three percent overnight after the company obtained the BitLicense from the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) to operate as a cryptocurrency platform. BitLicense is Difficult to Obtain New York is considered to have the strictest policies and The post Bitcoin-Friendly Square Hits All-Time High Market Cap after Earning Bitlicense appeared first on CCN |
Europe gets its first blockchain accelerator
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Business Insider, 1/1/0001 12:00 AM PST This story was delivered to Business Insider Intelligence "Fintech Briefing" subscribers. To learn more and subscribe, please click here. Chain Accelerator, a startup accelerator focused on the blockchain sector, has launched in France. This marks the establishment of the first blockchain accelerator in Europe. The accelerator is working with 30 people with technology and finance backgrounds, including Hyperloop Transportation Technologies’ chairman, Bibop G.Gresta; SWIFT’s former CEO, Leonard Schrank; and Ledger’s president, Pascal Gauthier.
Chain Accelerator will offer startups help with initial coin offerings (ICOs), other funding methods, marketing and public relations, and business development, among other things, to make setting up their businesses easier. Here is what this means for France and the blockchain industry:
This might help France emerge as Europe's blockchain center. While the UK will arguably remain Europe's key fintech center, there is room for other countries emerging as specialized areas for particular technologies or fintech segments. The launch of Chain Accelerator and its efforts to create and ICO framework indicate that France may have found its niche in the competitive fintech industry. As many countries remain uncertain about the new technology, it seems likely that a plethora of blockchain companies will seek out France to receive the help and support they need to launch their businesses. However, it will have to contend with Switzerland, which has been making a name for itself in the crypto space for some time. Of the many technologies reshaping the world economy, distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) are among the most hyped. DLTs are most often associated with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, but such coverage sidelines the broader use cases of DLTs, even though they stand to make a far bigger impact on the broader the financial services (FS) industry. DLT's value lies in its ability to centralize record-keeping, while cutting out the need for authorization by an overseeing party, instead allowing a record to be confirmed by multiple parties with access to the database. This means DLTs have the potential to streamline financial institutions' (FIs) operations, boost data security, improve customer relationships, and drastically cut costs. But many FIs have struggled to implement DLTs and reap the rewards, because of organizational obstacles, but also because of issues rooted in the technology itself. There are a few players working to make the technology more usable for FIs, and progress is now being made. In a new report, Business Insider Intelligence takes a look at what DLTs are and why they hold so much promise for FS, the sectors in which DLTs are gaining the most traction and why, and the efforts underway to remove the obstacles preventing wider DLT adoption in finance. It also examines the few FIs close to unleashing their DLT projects, and how DLTs might transform the nature of FS if adoption truly takes off. Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:
In full, the report:
Subscribe to an All-Access pass to Business Insider Intelligence and gain immediate access to:
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Former Indian Politician Declared ‘Offender’ in $1.3 Million Bitcoin Extortion Case
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CryptoCoins News, 1/1/0001 12:00 AM PST An absconding former Indian politician and lawmaker has been declared an ‘offender’ by an Indian court after his involvement in a criminal kidnapping case complete with extortion in bitcoin. According to a report by the Indian Express on Monday, a local sessions court in Ahmedabad, a city in western India, has allowed a request by The post Former Indian Politician Declared ‘Offender’ in $1.3 Million Bitcoin Extortion Case appeared first on CCN |
Bitcoin, DLT and Bank Ledgers: A Central Banker's View
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CoinDesk, 1/1/0001 12:00 AM PST The man in charge of China's quest to research and deploy distributed ledgers outlines his view on the breakthroughs of bitcoin and potential of DLT. |
Former Indian Lawmaker Declared 'Offender' in Bitcoin Extortion Case
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CoinDesk, 1/1/0001 12:00 AM PST A former Indian politician allegedly involved in a $1.3 million bitcoin extortion case has been declared a "proclaimed offender" by a local court. |
EOS Freezes Seven Accounts Following Mainnet Snafu
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CryptoCoins News, 1/1/0001 12:00 AM PST EOS, an altcoin blockchain that was halted by a bug that prevented transactions two days after going live, has frozen seven EOS accounts that were subject to a phishing scam, according to a blog on a site called EOS42 on Steemit. Developers discovered the bug that caused the mainnet to pause unexpectedly on June 16 The post EOS Freezes Seven Accounts Following Mainnet Snafu appeared first on CCN |
$7k? Bitcoin Price Looks North After Six-Day High
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CoinDesk, 1/1/0001 12:00 AM PST Despite the bearish chart setup, bitcoin rose to a six-day high on Monday, putting a corrective rally to $7,000 back on the map |
Central bankers claim bitcoin could break the internet — the crypto world thinks they're missing the point
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Business Insider, 1/1/0001 12:00 AM PST
The BIS, which is often dubbed the central bank of central banks, released a chapter from its upcoming annual report on Sunday dismissing bitcoin as "a poor substitute for the solid institutional backing of money." "Trust can evaporate at any time because of the fragility of the decentralised consensus through which transactions are recorded," the report said. "Not only does this call into question the finality of individual payments, it also means that a cryptocurrency can simply stop functioning, resulting in a complete loss of value. "Moreover, even if trust can be maintained, cryptocurrency technology comes with poor efficiency and vast energy use. Cryptocurrencies cannot scale with transaction demand, are prone to congestion and greatly fluctuate in value." Much was made of the energy usage point. Bloomberg ran a headline stating that bitcoin could "break the internet" if used at a national scale. Energy usage is a serious issue for bitcoin, which requires ever greater levels of computing power to validate transactions on its network. Bitcoin mining currently uses about as much electricity as Switzerland, according to BIS. But crypto advocates say that this — and BIS's other criticisms of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies — misses the point.
"They're looking back at stuff that's year's old, they're not looking at what's actually going on in terms of the real R&D in this space. It's just really poor research." To bitcoin adherents, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are still a work in progress. Yes, its energy usage is an issue but it's one that developers are aware of any trying to solve. One blockchain professional I spoke to on Thursday compared the BIS report to saying the world would be in trouble if a baby was put in charge. Babies tend to grow up before they are given any responsibility and crypto developers are hard at work helping bitcoin and other digital currencies grow up. "I don’t think many people appreciate just how early stage this technology is," Jamie Burke, the founder and CEO of specialist bitcoin and blockchain VC fund Outlier Ventures, told the Blockchain Alternative Investment Conference in London on Monday. Something like 98% of bitcoin's original code base has been rewritten since it was first created in 2009 and developers around the world continue to work on new ideas, solutions, and technology. Allarie said: "I'm deep, deep in it and I'm a pretty technical person and I cannot keep up. There's so much. I'm not even close. There's just so much activity and so much innovation happening. I've never seen anything like it, it's just happening at such a pace." Matthew Newton, an analyst at eToro, which is a trading platform that supports cryptocurrencies, said: "Cryptocurrencies remain an emerging technology, albeit one that is moving towards the right infrastructure for everyday use." Newton and Allaire both pointed to the bitcoin Lightning Network and other so-called "Layer 2" projects that are built on top of existing cryptocurrencies and allow for greater volumes to be processed without sucking up huge amounts of energy but still ultimately rest on the underlying trust of the bitcoin blockchain. Allaire said: "There's a lot of infrastructure work going on and I think it's really, really key because I think the consensus within the industry is that if we can solve some of those issues in the next year to two years, then we can have products that are actually used by a billion people. That's when this gets to be a lot more interesting." Other solutions are being looked at include ethereum's proof of stake protocol, which would make transaction validation more like a shareholder voting register rather than simply about computational brute force. Newton said: "While it is far from guaranteed that these developers will troubleshoot all of the problems, the fact of the matter is that the work of these talented developers is coming on in leaps and bounds, and we have to be patient to see how things develop over time." DON'T MISS: Ethereum cofounder: Blockchain has the same 'dynamics' as the dotcom boom and bust Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Learning to celebrate failure at a young age led to this billionaire's success |
"It was a really shallow report," Jeremy Allaire, the CEO of Goldman Sachs-backed crypto company Circle, told Business Insider. "They haven't done much research at all clearly.Investors Turn Bullish as Cryptocurrency Market adds $12 Billion 24 Hours
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CryptoCoins News, 1/1/0001 12:00 AM PST Over the past 24 hours, the cryptocurrency market added $12 billion, as major cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, and Bitcoin Cash experienced a short-term corrective rally. Breathing Room, But Not Entirely Optimistic The Bitcoin price rebounded from $6,300 to $6,700, breaking a descending trendline since May 3, when BTC achieved $10,000. While it is too The post Investors Turn Bullish as Cryptocurrency Market adds $12 Billion 24 Hours appeared first on CCN |
Investors Turn Bullish as Cryptocurrency Market adds $12 Billion 24 Hours
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CryptoCoins News, 1/1/0001 12:00 AM PST Over the past 24 hours, the cryptocurrency market added $12 billion, as major cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, and Bitcoin Cash experienced a short-term corrective rally. Breathing Room, But Not Entirely Optimistic The Bitcoin price rebounded from $6,300 to $6,700, breaking a descending trendline since May 3, when BTC achieved $10,000. While it is too The post Investors Turn Bullish as Cryptocurrency Market adds $12 Billion 24 Hours appeared first on CCN |
One Mathematician's Mission to Boost Bitcoin's Privacy (And Soon)
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CoinDesk, 1/1/0001 12:00 AM PST Blockstream researcher Andrew Poelstra's efforts to create a more private bitcoin aren't about extremes, but about protecting the everyman. |
Paris Hilton’s Hotel Mogul Father to Sell $38 Million Mansion for Cryptocurrency
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CryptoCoins News, 1/1/0001 12:00 AM PST Richard “Rick” Hilton, chairman of Hilton & Hyland and father of American socialite and reality TV star Paris Hilton, is selling the $38 million Palazzetto mansion through a cryptocurrency auction. The 16th century mansion is located in Rome and has 11 bedrooms and 15 bathrooms. $38 Million Mansion for Sale: Bitcoin Accepted One lucky winner will get The post Paris Hilton’s Hotel Mogul Father to Sell $38 Million Mansion for Cryptocurrency appeared first on CCN |
Bitcoin Price Will Hit $60,000 This Year: Fund Manager
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CryptoCoins News, 1/1/0001 12:00 AM PST Phillip Nunn, chief executive officer of Manchester-based investment firm Blackmore Group, is standing by his bullish prediction that the bitcoin price will reach $60,000 in 2018, according to BusinessCloud. Nunn, who also advises initial coin offering (ICO) projects, told the news outlet he believes the flagship cryptocurrency see both $6,000 and $60,000 this year. Speaking The post Bitcoin Price Will Hit $60,000 This Year: Fund Manager appeared first on CCN |
Blockchain-Based Community Currencies to Be Launched in Kenya
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Bitcoin Magazine, 1/1/0001 12:00 AM PST Bancor has announced today it will launch a network of blockchain-based community currencies in Kenya. The new project is expected to combat poverty through the stimulation of local and regional commerce and peer-to-peer collaboration. By using the Bancor Network, disadvantaged communities in Kenya will be able to create digital currencies that can hold one or more balances in a connected way such that integrated currencies can be swapped for one another without needing a counterparty. Bancor will launch the new currencies by contributing capital from the proceeds of its $153 million token sales in 2017. In correspondence with Bitcoin Magazine, Galia Benartzi, Bancor’s co-founder, said, “Bancor will serve as one of several donors in the program providing initial capital to fund the token balances contained within each of the community currencies. In addition, Bancor will provide in-kind operational support, including technical and integrations work, marketing and hardware to get the currencies distributed and operational.” The company will partner with Kenyan nonprofit foundation Grassroots Economics, who has experience developing community currency programs in Africa. Grassroots Economics founder Will Ruddick, who is also the newly appointed director of community currencies at Bancor, will oversee the launch of the community currencies from Nairobi. The team will use Bancor Protocol to expand the current paper currency system used by local businesses to reduce poverty and create stable markets. Ruddick believes that when “communities have the same right as nations to create and manage currencies, they will unlock their full potential.” Kawangware and Kibera are the focal points for the pilot launch. These communities, which happen to be the largest slums in Kenya, will be used to circulate the currency by incentivizing customers to use it. Bancor expects that as more people in the community buy and hold the local currency, its market cap can increase, which will create more wealth and a higher purchasing power for the holders. Community members and supporters of the initiative will have the option to buy and sell the local currencies via the open-source Bancor Protocol using any of the popular cryptocurrencies or a major credit card. Before its partnership with Grassroots Economics, Bancor had launched a similar program in Israel. The pilot program, aimed at mothers, was processing over 1,000 daily transactions before activities peaked due to the difficulty of transferring wealth outside of the community. This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine. |
