According to a recently published opinion piece, France’s finance minister Bruno Le Maire revealed that the country plans on creating a legal framework for initial coin offerings (ICOs) in a bid to become a leading ICO hub.

In the opinion piece, published on French website Numerama, Le Maire claims he asked former central bank official Jean-Pierre Landau to draft a proposal for a legislative framework on cryptocurrencies. In the article, he wrote:


Landau has the notorious nickname “Monsieur Bitcoin,” and was last month chosen to chair a cryptocurrency task force in France. The taskforce, as covered by CCN, is responsible for “proposing guidelines on the evolution of regulations.”

Le Maire further revealed that an action plan to be presented to the country’s government “in a few weeks” will propose seeing French market regulator Autorité des marches financiers (AMF) have the option to authorize companies to raise funds through ICOs, as long as they respect specific criteria that’s set on protecting investors.

The minister touted that blockchain technology will offer the country’s start-ups unprecedented opportunities, as they will be able to raise funds by issuing tokens. He said:


According to him, France has a tradition of financial innovation, and its new goal is to “enter the world of finance of the 21st century by guaranteeing all players the necessary security for their development.” In his op-ed his piece, Le Maire wrote that “[France] should not miss out on the blockchain revolution.”

The country, along with Germany, notably called for cryptocurrencies to be discussed at G20. During the summit, in Buenos Aires, Argentina Le Maire highlighted the importance of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. The G20 communique revealed a crackdown on cryptocurrencies may not occur, although regulation proposals are set to come by July.

https://www.ccn.com/frances-finance-minister-plans-ico-regulations-in-bid-to-attract-crypto-startups/

This weekend many bitcoin cash supporters gathered in Japan for the Bitcoin Unlimited event, Satoshi’s Vision Conference. The three-day conference was filled with synergy as the event was the largest bitcoin-centric conference to-date in Tokyo.

Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System

Over the last three days, an event was held in Tokyo Japan aiming to bolster the adoption growth of bitcoin cash (BCH) and on-chain scaling called Satoshi’s Vision Conference (SVC). The event was hosted by the Master of Ceremonies Taariq Lewis, the founder of Aquila, and saw many special guests including Bitcoin Unlimited’s Peter Rizun and Andrew Stone, Bitcoin ABC’s Amaury Sechet, Nchain’s Craig Wright, the Satoshi Nakamoto Institute’s Daniel Krawisz, Centbee’s Lorien Gamaroff, and many more bitcoin cash evangelists.

The night before the event saw an extremely large BCH Tokyo Meetup at the bar Good Heavens which was so packed there was another bar across the street to attend to the overflow. The following day Satoshi’s Vision began with registration and talk by Jerry Chan the president of SBI Holdings subsidiary SBI Bits. Chan greeted the crowd with a speech about how individuals can make bitcoin cash the best money in the world and how SBI Bits is helping fuel the cryptocurrency landscape.

Following Chan’s opening talk participants listened to Daniel Krawisz discuss how BCH proponents can entice him to support BCH alongside how they can entice others as well. Basically, Krawisz describes what would entice him to split his old UTXOs and sell BTC for BCH. Krawisz explains some of the key methods of persuasion:


Participants also saw Cornell professor Emin Gün Sirer talk about scaling bitcoin x100000, Bitcoin.com’s Emil Oldenburg discuss colored coins, and other guests like the founder of Yours.org Ryan X Charles, and bitcoin XT developer Tom Harding among other on-chain scaling evangelists throughout the afternoon. Alongside that, the audience listened to a panel discussion which talked about tokens and colored coins, another hot subject right now within the BCH community. Following the day of speakers, BCH fans met up for another social held by the Bitcoin Cash Fund.

Read more: https://news.bitcoin.com/satoshis-vision-2018-bolstering-the-future-of-bitcoin-cash-adoption/

Days before legalizing crypto activities, Belarus has adopted a new accounting standard that deals with cryptocurrencies. It classifies digital tokens according to their acquisition and intended use. The document defines the information companies will be required to share with authorities. The presidential decree regulating the crypto sector comes into force on March 28.

Goods, Investments, Settlements

The Ministry of Finance in Minsk has developed a new standard that specifies the procedures for keeping accounting records of crypto transactions. The document does not explicitly mention cryptocurrencies, which are not regarded as legal tender in Belarus. Nevertheless, it effectively regulates the reporting of cryptocurrency flows.

The obligations of organizations conducting token sales and the exact approaches to assessing the cost of “digital tokens” are also defined in the Ministry’s decree. The rules apply to private entities and not the state-owned banks or government institutions, the department clarified in an announcement quoted by Belta news agency.

The new standard classifies cryptos according to their acquisition and their intended use. Tokens acquired through initial coin offerings (ICOs) are referred to as investments. They should be debited as either “Long-term financial investments”, if their circulation period exceeds 12 months, or as “Short-term financial investments”. Their amounts must be credited in the accounting balance under “Settlements with different debtors and creditors” and “Other income and expenses”.

If the tokens are purchased for subsequent sale, by a trader or an exchange, they have to be reported in the “Goods” debit account and under the following credit accounts: “Settlements with suppliers and contractors” and “Income and expenses for current activities”. Digital tokens acquired as a result of mining operations or as remuneration for verification of crypto transactions are to be recorded under the “Finished goods” debit account and also as “Main activities” in the credit section of the balance.

Read more: https://news.bitcoin.com/belarus-adopts-crypto-accounting-standard/

U.S. CONGRESS QUIETLY PASS CLOUD ACT TO INCREASE GOVERNMENT ACCESS TO ONLINE INFO

The Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data (CLOUD) Act was passed along with the federal spending bill on Friday, March 23rd, 2018. The act allows law enforcement agencies to demand access to online information from any country in the world.

The CLOUD Act was introduced by Republican Senator Orrin Hatch, with the support of both Republican and Democratic Senators. It allows law enforcement agencies an easier route to access users electronic data such as emails, messages, and files, even if it’s stored on servers in another country. The act also creates a framework for U.S lawmakers to send information from U.S based servers to other countries on a case-by-case basis.

Hatch states:


Bitcoin and Digital Rights Experts Express Concerns Over Privacy

Some, including influential speaker and author of Mastering Bitcoin, Andreas Antonopoulos, have criticized how the act was passed without debate and the act’s implications for privacy.

Digital rights group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) believe the act bypasses the Fourth Amendment which demands that “probable cause”, translating as a high level of suspicion, is required for any investigation. The EFF also argues the act could result in the U.S giving individuals’ data to law enforcement agencies in countries known for abusing the rights of their citizens.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said the law:

Technology companies storing data will have the opportunity to refuse to share user data if they feel requests are not part of a legitimate criminal investigation. Instead, asking for the current legal solution process, a mutual legal assistance treaty (MLAT), to be followed.

Read more: http://bitcoinist.com/u-s-congress-quietly-pass-cloud-act-to-increase-government-access-to-online-info/

This week the bitcoin cash community was surprised to hear that the infamous ‘gold bug’ Peter Schiff is now accepting bitcoin cash, joining a number of precious metals businesses that accept BCH.

The Guy Who Calls the Bitcoin Economy ‘Digital Beanie Babies’ Now Accepts Bitcoin Cash

The economist and notorious ‘gold bug’ Peter Schiff has been a ‘bitcoin hater’ for quite some time. Schiff believes that bitcoin is worthless and considers the cryptocurrency to be much like the tulip or Beanie Babies hype. This past summer Schiff debated Max Keiser and said that “cryptocurrency market signals are wrong.” At the time Schiff stated:   

“[Bitcoin] is being created but there is no real value in bitcoin; it’s all based on faith. If somebody doesn’t want your bitcoin there’s nothing you can do with it, right?” asks Schiff during the debate with Keiser.

However, even though Schiff hates bitcoin he still accepts the cryptocurrency through the payment processor Bitpay. During the Libertycon conference in Washington, DC, Schiff told the audience that he immediately cashes out into fiat during his debate with Bitcoin.com’s Communications Ambassador Sterlin Lujan.

Read more: https://news.bitcoin.com/gold-bug-peter-schiffs-company-now-accepts-bitcoin-cash/

Ребята, не паникуйте, ответ на KYC должен прийти. Если его нет, напиминайте в телеграм менеджеру кампании что не получали письма. Для прохождения понадобятся ID типа паспорт и фото документа об оплате ком. услуг, как доказательство адреса. Успейте сделать это до 29 числа, я не помню точно, но есть крайний срок подачи (инфа в канале телеграм.) Успехов.

Вы представитель команды, или это перевод англоязычной цитаты? Я просто думал что команда англоязычная и удивлен, если в руской ветке находится ее представитель). То что приложение будет выпущено в течении 3 месяцев означает планомерный рост цены, прекрасная новость, может хоть HitBTC порадует объемами, так как на IDEX сейчас идет сплошное накопление китами и отжим у участников баунти.

They`ve been added to several ico tracking services:

https://cryptonext.com/ico/open-collectors-network

https://cryptorated.com/ico-rating/open-collectors-network/

https://icomarks.com/ico/open-collectors-network

Everything has evolved pretty good so far, this interesting project is going from strength to strength every day.

Mark Space will take part in the annual blockchain conference CONTENT TOKYO 2018! The biggest event of it`s kind in Japan. This year 1540 companies are preparing to present their content products, the expected number of visitors is 48 000.

http://www.content-tokyo.jp/en

April 4 (Wed) - 6 (Fri), 2018

Дэвид Сигель, глава проекта, опубликовал заявление, в котором извиняется за задержки в разработке. Пишет, что они больше проводили времени в офисе чем работали, так сказать втягивались в процесс, и поэтому кошелек не будет готов к первому кварталу 2018г. Но обещают подтянуть хвосты, к лету построят сильную платформу, написали 20 000 строк кода, и скоро приступают к тестированию кошелька.

Дэвид говорит что не смотрит на календарь и на рыночную цену токена, для него главное сделать революцию. Подробнее здесь:

https://medium.com/@pullnews/updated-pillar-wallet-road-map-52293065dcae

The world's economic leaders have set a July deadline for the first step toward unified regulation of cryptocurrency.

Speaking Tuesday after the G20 meeting of finance ministers in Buenos Aires, Argentina Central Bank chair Frederico Sturzenegger said the member nations present agreed that cryptocurrencies needed to be examined, but that more information was needed before any regulations could be proposed.

However, during the press conference, he noted that the members had a firm deadline in July for recommendations, saying:


Not every nation is on board with this plan. On Monday, Brazil Central Bank president Ilan Goldfajn said cryptocurrencies will not be regulated in his country, according to news service El Cronista. The outlet further reported that Brazil would not necessarily be following the regulations outlined by the G20, on cryptocurrencies or other issues.

In the meantime, the G20 pledged to apply the standards of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) - an intergovernmental body formed to fight money laundering and terrorist financing - to cryptocurrency.

In statement released Tuesday afternoon, the G20 said:


The discussions were inspired in part by calls for a closer look at cryptocurrencies by France, Germany, the U.S. and Japan over the last several months.

Central bankers and government officials have advocated taking a closer look at the impact cryptocurrencies could have on crime, investors and on the world economy. While finance officials from France and Germany said in a joint letter that cryptocurrencies "could pose substantial risks for investors," U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and an anonymous Japanese government official expressed concerns about their use in illegal activities.

However, where major regulators seem to agree is on cryptocurrency's impact on the global financial system. Bank of England head Mark Carney, who also chairs the G20's Financial Stability Board, wrote on Sunday that "crypto-assets do not pose risks to global financial stability at this time," citing the relative size of the overall market cap.

Cryptocurrencies make up less than 1 percent of the global gross domestic product (GDP), he said, while credit default swaps were equal to the global GDP in 2008.

Some of the officials attending the summit called for a global set of regulations that every country would be able to enforce, but it is unclear how far discussion on possible regulations has gotten.

That being said, a public document released prior to the meeting noted that "the technology behind crypto assets has the potential to promote financial inclusion," but noted that the impact on financial stability and potential uses in tax evasion and illegal activities needed to be understood first.

A second meeting is expected to take place tomorrow, hosted through the G20 President's office.

https://www.coindesk.com/g20-calls-crypto-regulation-recommendations-july/

Venezuela’s oil-backed cryptocurrency, the Petro, was the work of a joint collaboration between Venezuelan and Russian government officials with Putin’s personal approval, Time Magazine said Tuesday.

Citing anonymous sources close to the ‘half-hidden joint venture’ between Venezuelan and Russian officials, Time Magazine is reporting that Russian president Vladimir Putin signed off on Kremlin aiding Venezuela in launching the Petro – the world’s first state cryptocurrency.

As reported previously, the Petro was first announced by Venezuelan president Maduro in December as a payment instrument to evade international economic sanctions and a blockade led by the United States. Maduro officially launched the pre-sale of the 82.4 million Petro tokens on February 20.

Specifically, today’s report points to two key Russians involved as Maduro’s advisers on the Petro, with ties to major Russian banks and billionaires close to the Kremlin. Denis Druzhkov and Fyodor Bogorodsky were reportedly seated in the front row in the presidential palace during the much-publicized launch of the Petro last month. The two Russians were also thanked by the President ‘for aiding his fight against American “imperialism”’, the report added.

“Of the two Russians who also signed agreements with the government to help develop the petro one, Denis Druzhkov, CEO of a company called Zeus Trading, was fined $31,000 and barred from trading for three years by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange for fraudulent trading in futures’ contracts,” read an excerpt from a separate investigative report by the Associated Press. “The other, Fedor Bogorodskiy, lives in Uruguay and was described by the government as director of a company, Aerotrading, whose website consists of a single home page with no company information.”

“According to an executive at a Russian state bank who deals with cryptocurrencies, senior advisers to the Kremlin have overseen the effort in Venezuela, and President Vladimir Putin signed off on it last year,” the Time report added.

The state bank executive reportedly added:


While the Kremlin did not respond to communication from the magazine, Moscow’s Finance Ministry insisted that none of Russia’s financial authorities were involved in developing or launching the Petro. The Venezuelan government did not respond to the magazine for comment either.

The revelations come within a day of US President Donald Trump’s executive order banning American citizens and residents within the country from trading or acquiring the cryptocurrency.

Meanwhile, Maduro congratulated Putin on the latter’s recent re-election victory that confirms Putin’s continuing role as Russia’s President.

https://www.ccn.com/russia-secretly-helped-venezuela-launch-the-crypto-petro-report/

Mark.Space будет учавствовать в выставке CONTENT TOKYO 2018! Самое большое мероприятие подобного рода в Японии. 1540 компаний готовятся презентовать свою контент продукцию, предположительное число посетителей  - минимум 48 000 чел.

http://www.content-tokyo.jp/en

Pecunio offers interesting solutions for institutional and private investors, who are not willing to track their investments 24/7. They have created 3 different type of funds:

- PAV PECUNIO ANGEL INVESTOR FUND

- PICO PECUNIO ICO FUND

- PCC PECUNIO CRYPTO CURRENCY FUND

They are all will be in demand at the financial market, especially considering connections that project` advisor DAVID DRAKE has. All these new funds like Equi, Neufund and Pecunio are very important for the whole blockchain sector, for involving the masses.

Despite he is a full time software developer, Karandeep can work at home during his free time. His offers are not so cheap, this account may be just for taking offers and transmitting it to someone else,  generate passive income from this. Or we may suggest you are right, and he is just not enough loaded with tasks on his main job in GatCoin.

Fresh Updates from Copytrack team:👂
 
"In February, Copytrack Global Copyright Register’s management team visited our development center in Portugal. We topped up our development team & will double the capacity. Also, our management team visited several strategic partners in Japan.

In the beginning of March, Copytrack Global Copyright Register’s Management and Marketing teams had a long meeting about brand communication. Several branding strategies were discussed and we also received useful advices regarding the launch of Global Copyright Register!

We are currently busy to update our webpage including a blog. The development of the Global Copyright Register is in progress until mid 2018 and will be followed by a Token Swap.
We want to emphasise that CPY is an utility token, which means that the value of CPY is expected to increase as soon as it is used at our platform. Please refer to the Roadmap: https://copytrack.io/#section-roadmap

Also, we confirmed that there will be master nodes for CPY tokens and we expect that will start before May."

So the project definitely is under development, i hope team managers will be back into bitcointalk, as a part of their community and investors are being here.

An executive confirms that Mastercard is open to the use of cryptocurrency, but there is a major catch involved.

Banks have notoriously been steadfast in their opposition to cryptocurrencies, and this is for a very good reason. The peer-to-peer economic marketplace of digital currencies is a direct threat to the current financial monopoly held by banks and other financial institutions. Which is why it was surprising when an executive at Mastercard said that the credit card issuer was open to the overall use of cryptocurrency. However, there is a major catch to this announcement.

Crypto Cold Feet

Mastercard has put a lot of time and effort into blockchain technology, but they’re not exactly a fan of virtual currencies like Bitcoin. This was clearly evident when Mastercard and Visa classified the buying of cryptocurrency as a cash advance instead of a purchase.

At the time, the credit card giant stated:


The result was that using credit cards to buy Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies became more expensive. Exchanges charged a higher fee, and users began accruing interest from the moment they used a card.

Read more: http://bitcoinist.com/mastercard-open-cryptocurrency-theres-catch/

Federal Trade Commission Files Lawsuit, Target  ‘Deceptive Crypto Schemes’

The FTC has filed a lawsuit against two companies that have reportedly defrauded somewhere around 30,000 people worldwide, affirming their intent to disallow major cryptocurrency scam projects.

Cracking Down on Crypto Scams

The FTC’s primary focus is to protect consumers and enforce the legal framework that creates a competitive market, and they’re starting to take notice of the cryptocurrency space. There have been many questionable projects and quite a few outright scams. Some have promised absurd returns, but the revenue structure relies on users to recruit more users into the platform, and those users recruit more users.

According to The Washington Post, the lawsuit is targeted at what the FTC calls “chain referral” scams involving digital currencies. The most infamous crypto scam in recent times is Bitconnect, which imploded back in January of this year. Bitconnect is not being investigated in this recent suit, but people users still lost hundreds of thousands of dollars. The price of the coin hovered around the $320 mark and within minutes it dropped over 80%, continuing to fall to $1.62 where it sits today.

Offering Ridiculous Returns to Hopeful People

The FTC claims that the illegal activity has affected nearly 30,000 consumers around the world. Action has already been taken against some individuals involved with these projects, as a federal court has ordered four men to stop their operations in Florida. According to the lawsuit, these men promoted cryptocurrency scams on popular social media platforms such as Youtube and Twitter.

Bitcoin Funding Team and My7Network are the two companies under the microscope of the government, making claims to consumers that they could turn a mere hundred-dollar investment into $80,000 monthly income. While that would be great, the actual payouts never amounted to that much cash.

Steps are being taken by governments and major companies to try and stop the flood of cryptocurrency scams. Earlier this week, Google followed in Facebook’s steps announcing they are no longer allowing bitcoin and crypto related advertisements on their advertisement platform. The technology behind Bitcoin could potentially be world-changing, but at the moment there is a lot of money flying around and that’s always going to attract people looking to strike it rich.

http://bitcoinist.com/crypto-fiat-financial-platform-saifu-make-using-cryptocurrency-easy-using-traditional-online-bank-account/

Yeah, but what is going on with Salt? It`s price has fallen below any reasonable level. When other tokens plunged 2-3 times times during bloodbath, this token plunged almost 7 times. I`m trying to find official Ann thread on bitcointalk forum, but found only this thread. What happens with the price, this project is scam or not?

Visa’s chief financial officer told mainstream media he thinks Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are used by “every crook and dirty politician” March 16.

In an interview, Vasant Prabhu directly linked the assets to crime, saying that other people talking about buying and selling Bitcoin “have no clue” and are “a real shock” to him.

“With a currency issued by the Federal Reserve, I know who stands behind it,” he said. With cryptocurrency, conversely, “Who’s good for the money? Who the hell knows?”

Prabhu joins a seemingly diminishing number of major legacy finance figures decrying the merits of cryptocurrency.

Once-infamous naysayers such as Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon have toned down their criticism, with only Berkshire Hathaway vice-president Charlie Munger and UK Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott launching a fresh offensive against Bitcoin in the past month.

This week also saw a broadly constructive view taken by US regulators in a Congress hearing dedicated to cryptocurrency regulation. One senator, however, described Bitcoin as “harmful” and similarly suggested its main use was in criminal circles, while appearing to stop himself saying it reduced “control” of the government over the US dollar.

“It’s very hard to get dirty money through a banking system. Cryptocurrency is phenomenal for all that stuff… Every crook and every dirty politician in the world, I bet, is in cryptocurrency,” Prabhu meanwhile continued.

Visa has drawn scorn from businesses in the crypto space in recent months, being blamed by the biggest US exchange and wallet provider Coinbase for causing considerable disruption to customer payments.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-investors-have-no-clue-thinks-visas-chief-financial-officer
http://uk.businessinsider.com/visa-cfo-vasant-prabhu-on-cryptocurrency-bubble-2018-3?r=US&IR=T