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Trading / Japanese Cryptocurrency Exchanges Demand Tax Reforms Tailored to Digital Assets

« on: July 30, 2019, 05:19:31 PM »

Despite a favorable regulatory framework, cryptocurrency exchanges in Japan view the country’s tax regime as detrimental to their organic growth. More so now than ever that a recent amendment to Japanese financial laws categorized digital currencies as bona fide assets.

The Japan Virtual Currency Exchange Association (JVCEA), which represents all licensed cryptocurrency exchanges in the country, sent a letter to the authorities earlier this month demanding appropriate changes to the tax guidelines for decentralized digital assets.


source: https://beincrypto.com/japanese-cryptocurrency-exchanges-demand-tax-reforms-tailored-to-digital-assets/

Meanwhile, do you think cryptocurrency exchanges  in other countries should take a leaf out of JVCEA’s book and put up a united front to push for favorable regulations?

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Trading / Untouched Bitcoin Volume Reaches All-Time Highs — Two Major Factors at Play

« on: July 28, 2019, 04:34:45 PM »

The amount of Bitcoin (BTC) which has not been transferred in more than five years has reached a new all-time high. This statistic is coupled with overall stability in the price of Bitcoin when compared to the majority of altcoins, leading to a number of suggestions for the cause.

A million bitcoins remain in the possession of its elusive creator, Satoshi Nakamoto. New statistics, however, show that as of July 19, there is a total of 3,847,859 BTC that has remained untouched for more than five years. A number of conjectures about what these statistics actually mean for the Bitcoin network as a whole have been offered.

source: https://beincrypto.com/untouched-bitcoin-volume-reaches-all-time-highs-two-major-factors-at-play/

Do you think the increasing number of untouched bitcoins comes from loss or from HODLers? Will these factors have any significant impact on the price in the long term?

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Scam Reports & Crypto Crime / South Korea Has Lost $2.3 Billion to Cryptocurrency Crimes in Past Two Years

« on: July 24, 2019, 05:41:41 PM »

The Justice Ministry of South Korea has disappointedly reported that its economy incurred losses worth approximately $2.3 billion in cryptocurrency-related hacks and thefts between July 2017 and June 2019.

Furthermore, the ministry said that roughly 420 criminals have been indicted for their involvement in fraudulent and illegal cryptocurrency-related activities over the course of the past two years, with many also being physically detained.

Poor security practices at major cryptocurrency exchanges within South Korea has been a crucial driving force behind the steady rise of offenses. According to a report released by a non-governmental organization, The Korea Financial Investors Protection Foundation, there had also been an increase in the number of South Koreans investing in cryptocurrencies. In a video report released this past April by local news outlet Arirang Daily News, the average investment made by a South Korean national cryptocurrency investor has gone up to $6,000.

complete at: https://beincrypto.com/south-korea-has-lost-2-3-billion-to-cryptocurrency-crimes-in-past-two-years/

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Crypto Products & Services / Dish Will Launch ‘Internet of Things’ Network in Early 2020

« on: May 22, 2019, 02:14:38 AM »

Dish Network has announced to its employees and partners that it plans to launch a network for the ‘Internet of Things’ in early 2020. It will go together with the company’s plans to become the first standalone 5G provider in the United States, that same year.

Dish Network will soon be unveiling its 5G network. However, it won’t be mainly for phone services — like for many of its competitors. Instead, Dish Network is imagining the future more broadly and hopes to utilize 5G for the Internet of Things (IoT).

The company’s chairman, Charlie Ergen, told Bloomberg last December that 5G will be Dish’s “Manhattan Project.” Dish plans to spend some $10B to make this happen.

The company’s 5G is looking to connect many different technologies under one roof. From smart cars to medical equipment, the Internet of Things promises the digitization of every major device.



Does Dish Network Need Distributed Ledger Technology?
Dish’s 5G project is an ambitious one, but likely won’t be possible without another necessary component: blockchain technology.

Indeed, organic and decentralized systems will be necessary to connect all these disparate devices under one greater network. 5G will definitely be necessary to process this information in real-time — but without a distributed ledger, the information will be incredibly difficult to manage and process.

Although we have not heard mention of blockchain technology from Dish, the company is no stranger to the cryptocurrency world. For example, the company added Bitcoin Cash (BCH) as an option for its customers via BitPay. It was also the first model pay-TV provider to accept Bitcoin (BTC) back in 2014.

The Internet of Things, 5G, and Blockchain
Both 5G and blockchain technology may be required to make the Internet of Things a reality. That’s partly why so many blockchain-related projects have sprung up in the past few years to address this exact problem.

The most popular, IOTA (MIOTA), recently announced it would be working with Jaguar to include its cryptocurrency wallet into the automobile company’s Land Rover series. That’s just one small example of how cryptocurrencies and IoT technologies are quickly merging.

Dish Network is definitely setting the stage for the IoT by focusing on 5G. It remains to be seen, however, how the rest of the necessary infrastructure will play out. 5G is only one piece of the puzzle.

source: https://beincrypto.com/dish-internet-things-network-early-2020/

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Crypto Discussion / Ford Cuts 7,000 Jobs, Turns Towards Emerging Technology

« on: May 22, 2019, 02:11:58 AM »

American automotive giant Ford has just announced that it will be cutting 7,000 positions from its payroll.

The firings will all be white-collar positions within the company — such as those within product development, marketing, information technology, logistics, and other jobs within the company’s bureaucracy.

Ford CEO Jim Hackett said in a statement that the move was to allow for speedier decision-making and to keep the company competitive in the automotive industry.

The change is expected to save some $600M for the company and is a part of a longer, two-year process of cost-cutting as sales slow around the world.


Ford Turns to Emerging Technologies
Ford’s announced firings are in line with the company’s new embrace of automation and emerging technologies. The company is effectively trying to cut out the ‘dead’ weight’ present in its bureaucracy. It hopes to flatten the chain of command, thus making it possible for faster decision-making.

However, the cost-cutting on the management side is complementary to Ford’s push into new technologies. Recently, the company revealed its $11B investment into electric and autonomous driving technology.

source: https://beincrypto.com/ford-cuts-7000-jobs-emerging-technology/

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Crypto Discussion / Is This Bitcoin Rally Just Capital Outflow From Cryptocurrency Exchanges?

« on: May 22, 2019, 02:10:15 AM »

The recent Bitcoin (BTC) rally might simply be the result of Tether (USDT) sales and capital flight from major cryptocurrency exchanges.

Despite the latest bull run of digital assets, capital outflows from the world’s major cryptocurrency exchanges have recently exceeded inflows by about $622 million, Bloomberg reports — citing the blockchain data provider TokenAnalyst.

more completed :https://beincrypto.com/bitcoin-rally-capital-outflow-exchanges/

Do you believe that the latest Bitcoin rally was fueled by Tether?

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Crypto Discussion / Will European Union Regulations Impede Blockchain Development?

« on: May 20, 2019, 01:23:17 AM »

Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, allegedly believes that regulations by the European Union could impede technological development. If he is right, blockchain research and development within the content may be hindered.

For example, Ma criticized the European Union’s plans to define and articulate ethical guidelines for the development and usage of Artificial Intelligence (AI). His assumptions, however, seem based on a capitalist model of development.

more complete: https://beincrypto.com/european-union-regulations-blockchain-development/

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Trading / Why Is Bitcoin Rising?

« on: May 20, 2019, 01:13:31 AM »

After the crypto winter of 2018, it seemed that Bitcoin’s day in the sun had ended. Yet, against all odds, the cryptocurrency has more than doubled so far in 2019. At the time of writing, the price is hovering just below $8,000. This extraordinary growth has prompted some investors to ask the simple question: ‘Why is Bitcoin rising?’

more complete: https://beincrypto.com/bitcoin-rising-3-reasons-spring-2019/

What do you think? Why is Bitcoin rising? Do you think BTC has just begun to increase due to the factors above, or will this current increase simply be another bubble?

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Trading / Despite Plummeting Towards $7,000, Bitcoin’s Rally May Not Be Finished Just Yet

« on: May 18, 2019, 05:44:32 AM »

The crypto markets incurred a significant amount of selling pressure late-yesterday that sent them reeling downwards, surrendering a decent portion of the recent gains they have incurred as a result of the massive rally that has been taking place since early-April.

Despite the recent drop, some analysts believe that Bitcoin’s rally may not be done just yet, as a bout of coordinated selling may have sparked this temporary downwards movement.

Bitcoin (BTC) Plummets Towards $7,000
At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading down 11% at its current price of $7,100, down significantly from its 24-hour highs of over $8,000.

Over a one-week period, Bitcoin is still up significantly from its lows of $6,300 but is down slightly from its highs of nearly $8,400 which were set this past Wednesday.

Although this latest move downwards has drastically shifted the market’s sentiment for the worst, it is important for investors to keep in mind the fact that the latest pullback comes on the heels of a massive rally that put a significant amount of distance between Bitcoin’s current price and its 2018 lows of roughly $3,200.

As for what may have caused this latest pullback, Dovey Wan, a popular figure on Twitter and a founding partner at Primitive, explained that this recent drop was sparked by a large sell order of 5,000 BTC on Bitstamp, which may have sparked the downtrend.

“This is what happened: 1. A jackass put up an aggregated sell of 5000 $BTC on stamp. 2. Stamp poor depth + algo glitch? 3. Bmx index is 50% on stamp. 4. Massive Bmx liq tanked the mkt. 5. Despite all BTC quickly bounced back to $7000… This might be the best chance to BTFMD,” Wan said, bullishly concluding that now may be the time to “buy the dip.”

more complete: https://www.newsbtc.com/2019/05/18/despite-plummeting-towards-7000-bitcoins-rally-may-not-be-finished-just-yet/

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Useful Cryptocurrency Resources / Inverse Chart Demonstrates Bitcoin Price Following Bear Bottom To Bull Market

« on: May 18, 2019, 05:41:06 AM »

The leading cryptocurrency by market cap has only been around for just over a decade. Due to this, there isn’t much history in Bitcoin price charts to attempt to discover historical repeating patterns that can be used to help determine future movements.

The best example of a previous bear into bull market cycle playing out, can be found in the charts of the 2014-2015 bear market bottom, where the price of Bitcoin bounced hard into a new bull market after the final capitulation candle occurred. According to an inverse Bitcoin price chart, the current bear market bottom transforming into a bull market pattern is closely following a fractal from the 2014-2015 bear market, and it could help crypto analysts predict the upcoming price action as bullish momentum picks up steam.

Last Bear Cycle Fractal Shows Bitcoin Price Has More Runway Ahead
When there’s an air of bias across the market, either due to extreme FUD or FOMO, many crypto analysts and traders will flip a price chart upside down, in order to remove any preconceived bias from their analysis. These inverse price charts can often lead to the discover of new patterns.

In a pair of inverse Bitcoin price charts shared by crypto analyst FilbFilb, the two images compare the last bear market bottoming into a bull market transition cycle, and how it stacks up against what’s currently happening across the crypto market. The two charts are eerily similar, and show a parabolic rise coming out of a bottoming structure

https://twitter.com/filbfilb/status/1129432250809032704

At the height of the parabolic rise is a long wick, showing that the price reversed and fell sharply from the local high, much like what happened overnight last night, as Bitcoin fell from near $8,000 to $6,600 in the matter of a few minutes.

After that, the price of the first-ever crypto asset took a pause for consolidation, then went back on a parabolic tear, causing Bitcoin price to grow more than 1,000% from the cryptocurrency’s bottom over the next nine months.

Should a similar spike occur, and the price per BTC grow 1,000% from the Bitcoin price bottom of the recent bear trend, it would take the asset 50% above its previous all-time high of $20,000 and set a new record for the cryptocurrency at above $30,000.

Fractals are patterns that repeat on the charts of a financial instrument, like Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. These fractals are usually a result of how humans emotions repeatedly play out, or are due to trading bots and their algorithms executing repeating trading strategies that are effective.

source: https://www.newsbtc.com/2019/05/18/inverse-chart-bitcoin-price-bear-bottom-bull-market-fractal/

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Crypto Discussion / The Changing Face of Cryptocurrency Exchanges in 2019

« on: May 18, 2019, 05:36:13 AM »

In the past, cryptocurrency exchanges have typically been associated with risk — largely owing to the fact that the great majority of all Bitcoin (BTC) ever stolen was taken from exchange wallets.

However, while centralized exchanges have gotten a bad reputation in the past, they are also largely responsible for the overall success of the cryptocurrency industry. By allowing both retail and institutional investors to easily buy, sell and trade cryptocurrencies, these platforms provided the liquidity necessary to support a booming economy.

Beyond this, with more new exchanges springing up than ever before, more established platforms have their feet held to the fire and are forced to improve their services amidst growing competition.

In light of this, let’s take a look at some of the positive ways cryptocurrency exchanges have changed for the better as demand has grown.

more complete: https://beincrypto.com/the-changing-face-of-cryptocurrency-exchanges-in-2019/

What changes do you hope to see from exchange platforms in 2019 and beyond?

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Crypto Discussion / IPO Market Exhaustion Mirroring ICO Failures of 2018

« on: May 17, 2019, 01:04:35 AM »

Uber’s recent high-profile Initial Public Offering has been met with significant losses since it went public. The current IPO slump bears some resemblance to the collapse of the ICO market which took a turn for the worse near the end of 2018.

The recent Uber and Lyft Initial Public Offerings reminded many investors of the wild days of the dot-com bubble. However, these elated expectations have come crashing down as of late. This year’s high-profile IPOs promised the world to investors, but despite big plans, have largely fallen flat.

Uber, for example, plummeted this past Friday and continued to slip throughout the week. The stock fell 11 percent under its $45 IPO price — a massive blow to a company promoting itself as the biggest public offering of the decade. Similarly, Lyft has fallen 30 percent below its IPO price. What exactly is going on?

IPO Exhaustion From Investors
After a roaring stock market, investors were clearly greedy for higher returns. However, the recent big tech IPOs have not produced the optimism that they had hoped. Instead, the current big tech wave is being eclipsed by an unstable political situation and declining returns, making many investors too cautious to jump in.

The highly-publicized IPOs of today are facing investor exhaustion. Few people are buying the hype anymore. The situation might conjure up memories of the fallen ICO market, once a sector of extreme hype and absurd returns. Yet, due to the 2018 bear market and legal uncertainty, ICOs have plummeted in funding. Many of the largest ICOs in 2018 have gone bust, and there have been few, if any, bold enough to reassert confidence in the dying market.



more complete: https://beincrypto.com/ipo-exhaustion-mirroring-ico-failures/

Do you believe IPOs can reinvent themselves and reinstill confidence in investors?

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Useful Cryptocurrency Resources / Tor Makes Launching Bitcoin Lightning Nodes Easier for Users, Casa Finds

« on: May 14, 2019, 12:31:34 AM »

The privacy-minded network Tor helps users to leapfrog one of the trickier aspects of setting up a bitcoin and lightning node, according to bitcoin startup Casa.

Casa CTO Jameson Lopp addressed this point during a talk at CoinDesk’s Consensus 2019 conference, where he discussed what Casa has learned about its product – a plug-and-play bitcoin and lightning node that aims to make it easier for users to run the software.

People often funnel their node network traffic through the Tor network to improve privacy, as the network shields the IP address of the node (which can show where it is located). Tor’s usefulness in this scenario is interesting because, in addition to this, such an approach helps users blast through some of the thorny networking hurdles that come with setting up a node


source: https://www.coindesk.com/tor-makes-launching-bitcoin-lightning-nodes-easier-for-users-casa-finds

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Trading / Bitcoin Jumps 30% for the Week as the Dow Jones Declines

« on: May 14, 2019, 12:16:15 AM »

Although the Dow Jones Industrial Average recouped some of its losses in Friday's closing, the index had a rocky week due to the escalating trump war between the U.S. and China. Bitcoin, on the other hand, has been on a massive bullish run the entire week.

source: https://beincrypto.com/bitcoin-jumps-30-week-dow-jones-declines/

Do you believe the cryptocurrency market is a better bet than the stock market currently?

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Crypto Discussion / IMF Seeks to Reassert Itself Globally with a $6B Bailout to Pakistan

« on: May 14, 2019, 12:14:09 AM »

Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have reached an agreement on a $6 billion bailout for the country. Although Prime Minister Imran Khan initially opposed the loan, he has now reluctantly agreed to the agreement.

source: https://beincrypto.com/imf-seeks-to-reassert-itself-globally-6b-bailout-to-pakistan/

Do you believe the $6B bailout to Pakistan will come with strings attached at the country's expense? Is this an effort for the IMF to reassert itself on the world stage?