A London property developer is to allow its tenants to pay their deposits in bitcoin – the first time the virtual currency has been used in the UK residential homes market.

Co-living pioneer The Collective has announced that prospective tenants can pay deposits from Monday in bitcoin. By the end of this year it will also accept rent payments in the cryptocurrency. This is the first time in the UK a major property developer has enabled bitcoin payments. The Collective said it was in response to demand predominantly from international customers.

The price of bitcoin hit a record high of $4,700 (£3,627) last week, having risen by 350% since the beginning of the year. Bitcoin is the world’s first decentralised currency and is not controlled by any government or bank. While increased global recognition is leading to mainstream adoption, critics warn that – as a vehicle popular with speculators looking to make a quick buck – it is volatile, risky and potentially dangerous.

However, from Monday The Collective’s online booking form for its Old Oak co-living scheme – the world’s largest co-living development,with 550 rooms, which launched last May and where rent starts from £178 a week for a 10 sq m space – will accept bitcoin deposits. The standard deposit is £500 – for all unit types and sizes – and The Collective has pledged “spot conversion”, which means it will bear any financial risk while holding the deposit, returning it at the original value when the tenancy finishes.

Tenants will have the ability to pay their rent using bitcoin from this autumn.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/sep/04/london-rental-tenants-deposits-bitcoin-collective-rent

QWang Chun, the owner of F2Pool, the fifth largest bitcoin mining pool in the market behind AntPool, BTC.TOP, ViaBTC and BTC.com with 9.3 percent of the global bitcoin hashrate, claimed on August 30 that Bitmain sued a company he invested in for $4 billion.

“Haven’t got indictment from Bitmain, but earlier this month they sued a company I invested in & demanded $4 billion. Scared out of my pants,” said Chun.

Bitmain, the parent company of Antpool, the world’s largest bitcoin mining pool operator which controls 16.8 percent of the global bitcoin hashrate, and arguably the most influential bitcoin mining equipment manufacturer in the market, has been criticized by many experts in the sector including Blockstream executive Samson Mow and Alan Silbert for pursuing legal action against companies within the bitcoin sector and threatening startups with large-scale lawsuits.

According to Mow, in April, Bitmain employees also threatened LightningAsic CEO with “violence,” which Bitmain founder Jihan Wu was unaware of.

When Cryptocoinsnews reached out for comment, Bitmain declined to provide any statement on the matter. Understandably, if the company is pursuing legal action for a company invested by Wang Chun, it is not permitted to disclose details of the lawsuit. In contrast, even if Bitmain is currently not pursuing a lawsuit against the company mentioned by Chun, it is likely that Bitmain is refusing to comment on a sensitive subject matter that could lead to more controversy within the community.

More Criticism Toward Bitmain on Empty Blocks

In addition to the ongoing $4 billion lawsuit controversy involving F2Pool’s Wang Chun, Bitmain has also received criticism from Bitcoin Core supporters, the community and Bitcoin Core contributor Eric Lombrozo for its questionable actions over the past two weeks. According to Lombrozo, Bitmain has been mining empty blocks, which ultimately led to severe bitcoin blockchain network congestion and significantly bloated bitcoin mempool.

In regard to a comment from bitcoin researcher and programmer David Noriega on Antpool’s consistent mining of empty blocks, Lombrozo stated, “If this kind of thing continues I will throw my full support to a campaign to brick all their hardware.”

In response, Jihan wu of Bitmain said in a statement:

“[Bitcoin Cash] BCC / BTC mining together caused lots of error in the mining pools and empty block is a fall back security measure. It is solved now.”

In a previous coverage, Cryptocoinsnews revealed that bitcoin fees are likely to decrease significantly with the rapid integration of the Bitcoin Core development team’s transaction malleability fix and scaling solution Segregated Witness (SegWit). In an article entitled “Bitcoin Fees Are High, But They Will Decrease With SegWit Soon,” Cryptocoinsnews explained that bitcoin fees remained abnormally high due to several factors including the empty blocks from major mining pools like Antpool and instability in mining between bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash.

Already, the size of the bitcoin mempool has decreased from 100 million bytes to 5.5 million bytes. Transactions are being confirmed with an average fee of 10 satoshis per byte, which equates to a fee of less than $0.1 with SegWit-enabled transactions. Despite the recent surge in bitcoin price to $4,740 and substantial increase in demand, the network is sustaining relatively low fees.

More importantly, as Ledger and Trezor, the two most widely utilized bitcoin hardware wallets stated, with SegWit-enabled wallets, fees will decrease by an additional 35 percent.

“Segwit introduces the concept of block weight which changes the way the transaction size is computed by splitting the signatures in a different area — you can typically save 35% of the fee paid when sending a transaction immediately,” said Ledger.

It is still not clear whether Bitmain did go through with the $4 billion lawsuit against a company invested by Chun. It is also not certain that Bitmain intended to threaten companies like LightningAsic in the past and if Jihan Wu’s statement on empty blocks are inaccurate. But, it is important for Bitmain to communicate with the community with more clarity to avoid controversy in regard to its operations, activities and actions.

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/f2pools-wang-chun-bitmain-demanded-4-billion-in-lawsuit/

Chinese media has reported that the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has determined the majority of initial coin offerings (ICOs) to be in violation of fundraising laws, prompting the cancellation of at least one major cryptocurrency event previously scheduled for September. The report has emerged following recent revelations that the PBOC has been in discussions regarding regulatory measures designed to curb the proliferation of ICOs in China.

The PBOC Is Alleged to Have Determined That  “More Than 90% ICO Projects Could Be Violating Illegal Fundraising or Fund Fraud Laws”

Citing an anonymous source, Caixin has reported that Chinese regulators have deemed initial coin offerings to be in violation of fundraising laws. Caixin alleged that the People’s Bank of China has concluded that “more than 90% ICO projects could be violating illegal fundraising or fund fraud laws”, alleging that “the percent[age] of projects that [are] actually raising funds for investments is less than 1%”.

According to Caixin’s source, the PBOC’s determinations mark the imminence of a crackdown on ICOs. Caixin’s source described the the ICO industry as resembling a “flock of sheep” stating that the crackdown will be designed to target the “leading sheep of a flock” and that “there will be some exemptions for people who are just following the flock” – suggesting that authorities will pursue individuals who seek to conduct unlawful initial coin offerings, and that consumers who participate in ICOs may not be the subject of legal recourse.

Caixin Has Reported That Major Cryptocurrency Event, the 2017 DACA Blockchain International Summit, Has Been “Abruptly Halted”

Caixin reports that the 2017 DACA Blockchain International Summit scheduled for September 2 was “abruptly halted” just one day prior to the commencement of the cryptocurrency event as a consequence of the PBOC’s determinations. Caixin states that “all Blockchain events that supposed to be held in September in Beijing should postpone or be held in another city”, and suggests that the 2017 Global Blockchain Summit organized by Huobi scheduled for the 23rd of September will also likely be deferred. The 2017 Shape The Future Conference that was to be held on September 10 in China may be postponed, according to people familiar with the matter and an announcement on the matter should follow in a few days.

Last week, it was reported that China’s central bank was in discussions regarding a range of regulatory measures designed to curb the proliferation of ICO, including the consideration of a total suspension of all ICOs occurring in China. According to a report prepared by China’s National Internet Financial Security Technical Committee, 65 Chinese ICOs have raised approximately 2.6 billion yuan ($400 million USD) from 105,000 citizens so far during 2017.

Do you think that China will be able to effectively regulate and control the ICO industry? Share you thoughts in the comments section below!

Read more: https://news.bitcoin.com/chinese-blockchain-conferences-cancelled-in-fear-of-ico-crackdown/

BTC-e, the long-running and controversial bitcoin exchange targeted by US authorities last month, has claimed that users will be able to withdraw their funds beginning tomorrow.

As previously reported, BTC-e – after its original domain had been seized by law enforcement following the arrest of a Russian national and the levying of a $110 million fine for money laundering violations – said it had secured "55 [percent] of the funds" originally held by the exchange, with the rest being confiscated. Yesterday, BTC-e renewed access through a new domain, allowing users to check their balances and communicate through the chat box.

In an update, the exchange said that users would be able to withdraw the portion of their funds still available – provided that they accept a deal which would see BTC-e issue a debt token aimed at making up for the confiscated funds.

The statement reads:
   Users that elect to keep their funds on the site, the statement goes on to explain, will have their funds transferred to an as-yet-unrevealed domain that will serve as the home for the newly-launched BTC-e.

"On the day the site is launched, the balance will be recalculated at the market rate and will be credited to accounts with a higher ratio than 55/45....Tokens will be credited to your account balance, which you can use for bidding and releasing codes," the exchange said.

https://www.coindesk.com/btc-es-big-claim-bitcoin-withdrawals-begin-tomorrow/

Personally i go to evangelic church in my native city. But i must admit, that people are very dependent from money even there. I would like to find a girl there, but a lot of ladies look at my appearence, my clothes, social status.

I know one guy from USA, he has same problem, he is a believer, work with children as a coach, but cannot find a woman, because he is not handsome or reach. So money above most of things, except selfless family love.

The crypto markets rang in the beginning of September by setting a flurry of records. The bitcoin price crossed yet another milestone, soaring past $4,800. The ethereum price continued to inch toward $390, while the litecoin price surged to a record $79. This market rally lifted the total value of all cryptocurrencies from $169 billion on August 31 to $175 billion today, setting yet another all-time high for the total cryptocurrency market cap.

Bitcoin Price Soars Past $4,800

As the month of August waned, the bitcoin price broke past $4,700 to set a new all-time high. The advance continued on Friday, thrusting the bitcoin price over $4,800. At the time of writing, the global bitcoin average price was $4,820 according to CoinMarketCap, but several exchanges priced BTC much higher. On Bitstamp, the bitcoin price was $4,844, while Poloniex’s LTC/BTC pair priced bitcoin at $4,903.


Altogether, the bitcoin price rose 3% for the day and has risen 10% over the past week. Bitcoin’s market cap is now just a few hundred million short of $80 billion.

Ethereum Price Edges Toward $390

The ethereum price joined bitcoin in its rally, rising another 2% to come within pennies of $390. Although the ethereum price has not had any jaw-dropping single-day rallies over the past week, it has consistently trended upward, bringing its 7-day rise to 17%. At the time of writing, the ethereum price was $389, which translates into a $36.7 billion market cap. Ethereum is now just $20 away from the all-time high it set in mid-June.

Price Charts: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/175-billion-record-bitcoin-price-lifts-crypto-market-cap-new-heights/

Recent comments from a senior Russian official sparked reports this week that Moscow's premiere stock exchange is about to start trading bitcoin – but it's not true, the exchange's operator has said.

A representative for Moscow Exchange told CoinDesk that reports about the firm being on the cusp of launching cryptocurrency trading are inaccurate. They were prompted by comments by Alexey Moiseev, Russia's deputy finance minister, who earlier this week opined that cryptocurrency trading in the country should be limited to certain investors who participate through regulated exchanges, later mentioning the Moscow Stock Exchange as an example.

"Deputy Finance Minister Alexey Moiseev indeed proposed allowing trading of cryptocurrencies, but only by qualified investors and on a regulated platform," the representative said.

Still, Moiseev's comments suggest that trading participation limits could become a reality one day, suggesting that proposals are being discussed – though it's not clear when any rules might be developed, given continued work on past legislative initiatives related to cryptocurrency.

"I hope that we will soon submit this concept to the government, and in case of support we will write a draft of normative acts," Moiseev said in an interview with RSN.

Moscow Exchange has pursued blockchain-related initiatives in recent months, however. As previously reported by CoinDesk, the exchange operator has been developing projects related to proxy voting and corporate record-keeping.

https://www.coindesk.com/moscow-exchange-no-plans-launch-bitcoin-trading/

The ‘utility settlement coin’, a digital currency token developed by UBS has gained the interest of six of the world’s biggest banks as it shifting gears to a new phase of development ahead of a planned limited launch in 2018.

Per a Financial Times today, Swiss banking giant UBS – the developer of the utility settlement coin – is in talks with a number of central banks toward adoption of its digital currency tokens.

First reported in late 2015, the ‘utility settlement coin’ was developed as digital token that enabled financial institutions to swap value including equities, bonds and payments in digital tokens without the actual transfer of fiat cash. These digital tokens are designed to be convertible into different fiat currencies directly at their corresponding central banks, with all transactions recorded on a blockchain.

A year ago, three global banks joined UBS’ endeavor to develop and introduce a digital token geared for settlements in the global banking industry. BNY Mellon, Deutsche Bank and Santander came onboard the blockchain-based project to “dramatically enhance the payments experience,” as BNY Mellon put it.

Today’s report reveals six additional big banks joining the working group, namely: Barclays, Credit Suisse, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, HSBC, MUFG and State Street.

Central Bank Talks

According to UBS head of FinTech Hyder Jaffrey, the project is now moving into a new phase of development where its member banks are in talks with central banks around the world toward supporting the digital token.

Jaffery told FT:

   
The UBS executive also revealed details of the immediate application of the digital currency following its launch next year. Participating banks will be able to use the utility settlement coin to pay each other, almost instantly, in different currencies. ‘If one bank owed $100 million to a rival with a £50 million debt in the other direction, the two institutions could transfer the money almost instantly using the new coins,” an excerpt from the report explained.

For settlement in securities trading, Jaffery insists that the securities would need to be transferred and accessible over a blockchain first before utility settlement coins are introduced to settle bonds and more. This necessity points toward a lack of compatibility toward existing infrastructure, hinting at the need for a complete overhaul before the settlement coin gains adoption.

Further, a number of central banks have already started developing their own digital currencies. After announcing plans toward a blockchain-based interbanking payments platform last year, Singapore’s central bank revealed details of its digital dollar trial over an Ethereum blockchain in June this year. China’s central bank also completed its digital currency trial over a blockchain this year, after publicly stating its intention to issue its own digital currency “as soon as possible” in early 2016.

The UBS executive admits that central bank digital currencies could prove a death kneel for the bank’s utility settlement coin. However, he sees the introduction of national digital currencies to take “many years” due to many “public policy questions” he believes will surface before the issuance of a central bank-issued digital currency.

Read more:https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/six-global-banks-join-ubs-digital-currency-project-aims-go-live-2018/

Exactly four weeks since Bitcoin split into bitcoin and bitcoin cash, the original digital currency hit a record high versus the US dollar on Tuesday, while the offshoot fell to its lowest in more than a week. Now the question is whether or not we could see a BTC/USD pullback after this surge.

When Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies first make an appearance a few years ago, many people — including myself– dismissed them as a fad. But now, here we are, with an estimated 5 to 10 million unique active users of crypto currencies. Now BitCoin has even found a way in the luxury market. Some people are buying goods and services with Bitcoin, but many are simply holding it as an asset, like gold or art.

One could say Bitcoin may have turned into a safe haven; a precautionary trade which investors trade under heightened uncertainty. The ultimate safe haven trade for investors has been gold, however, Bitcoin also stands tall in that basket. The acceptance of Bitcoin has been phenomenal especially this year

With that, it is no surprise that we saw yet another surge of BTC versus the USD on Tuesday, hitting a record high near $4,700. This comes after Litecoin hit an all-time high versus the US dollar on Monday.

Technical Points

While BitCoin has generally been growing in price, hitting an all-time high does not mean that we won’t see a retracement in the near future.

BTC/USD has continued its journey above the daily Ichimoku cloud since it broke above it in July. In most other time-frames longer than the 4-hour chart, the cryptocurrency hasn’t really lasted below the cloud, which is an unlikely behavior for a currency pair. With this, even the technical analysis indicates that the Bitcoin market participants are viewing it more as an asset rather than a day-trading opportunity.

Analyzing the daily chart, the key level that BTC/USD could most likely fall back to before further hikes, is the 23% Fibonacci retracement and key support level of 4,000. In the past, BTC/USD has retraced all the way back to the 50% Fibonacci level so if history is bound to repeat itself, a temporary pullback towards 3,250 is also possible. Long term investors could take advantage of these pullbacks to grow their portfolio.

BTC/USD mostly consolidated after the surge on the hourly chart. This indicates indecisiveness in the market for now as the volatility has also cooled down.

Here are calculations for important approximate levels to keep an eye on:

Support Levels: $3250, $3589

Turning Points: $4000, $4463

Resistance Levels: $4626, $4900

Read more:http://www.newsbtc.com/2017/08/30/levels-btcusd-pullback/

Bitcoin and ethereum continued to rally on Wednesday, pushing the total value of all cryptocurrencies higher even as the wider markets were mostly red. The bitcoin price punched through $4,500 to set a new all-time high, while the ethereum price looks poised to make a record-setting run of its own.

The bitcoin blockchain and artificial intelligence are being used to help parents of sex traffic victims locate their missing children.

Rebecca Portnoff at the University of California, Berkeley, and her colleagues have developed a tool to ferret out sex traffickers from legal advertisers using machine learning to spot common patterns in suspicious ads. The tool also uses public information from bitcoin, which is used to pay for the ads, to help determine who placed the ads, according to New Scientist.

Portnoff said sex traffickers use the internet to reach customers without having to reveal much information about themselves.

Carrie Pemberton Ford at the Cambridge Center for Applied Research and Human Trafficking said the tool will assist in investigations of sex traffickers and support prosecution in areas where funds move rapidly across financial instruments.

Sex Traffickers Use Backpage

About 4.5 million people have been forced into sexual exploitation. In the U.S., many are advertised on Backpage, the second largest classified advertising website. The typical sign that an advertisement involves trafficking is that the advertiser places numerous other ads on the site.

Normally, the tell-tale sign that an ad involves sex trafficking is that the person behind it is responsible for many other advertisements across the site.

AI Examines Writing Styles

Portnoff’s tool examines the way ads are written. Artificial intelligence highlights when similar styles are used.

Each bitcoin transaction gets logged on the blockchain, which does not store identities, but every bitcoin user has a wallet recorded next to their transaction. The AI tool searches the blockchain to identify the wallet corresponding to each advertisement.

Portnoff said it is easy to see when each ad was posted. She looks at the ad’s cost and time stamp, then ties it to a specific individual or group, giving the police a good candidate for investigation.
The tool narrows the number of ads that the police need to read for their investigations.

Tool Proves Effective

The researchers tested the tool on 10,000 advertisements in a four-week period, correctly identifying close to 90 percent of ads with the same author. The test yielded a “false positive” rate of only 1 percent. One bitcoin wallet was responsible for $150,000 worth of sex advertisements.

Backpage did not respond to New Scientist’s requests for comment at the time of this report. Portnoff’s team is working with various police departments and non-government organizations.

One trafficker who drugged and beat a 13-year-old girl was caught and sentenced to five years in prison.

Read more: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/researchers-use-blockchain-and-artificial-intelligence-to-trace-sex-traffickers/

After initiating withdrawal controls on Chinese cryptocurrency exchanges, Chinese regulators are now shifting their focus to Initial Coin Offerings.

China to Crack Down on ICOs?

According to a new draft legislation, Chinese regulators have expressed their intentions to implement stricter regulatory measures for Initial Coin Offerings or ICOs.

China Securities Regulatory Commission is currently in talks with a few Blockchain enterprises. The Commission has expressed their particular concern with pyramid schemes in the form of ICO projects. The parties are now in the process of gathering expert advice and public comments.

Currently, most ICOs have only blocked United States’ citizens from participating in their fundraising process. However, some ICO-based projects are already starting to block Chinese citizens from taking part following the news.

One such project is Red Pulse, a platform specifically tailored for the Chinese market, which today announced it will discourage Chinese citizens from investing in its ICO.

The regulatory rumblings have become all too common for cryptocurrency users, however. Last year, Chinese regulators have forced Chinese cryptocurrency exchanges to upgrade their KYC/AML systems for user withdrawals, which many argue makes the environment safer for investors and encourages fintech innovation in China.

“Today’s story is just part of a bigger picture,” explained Andrew McCarthy, CSO of LakeBanker, which is planning its own ICO in September. “China is fighting hard against pyramid schemes and other sorts of financial fraud often associated with organized crime. If you’re not yourself a criminal you should be happy they’re doing this. ICOs are really a tiny part of the overall problem.”

    "The Chinese government is doing its job: they go after the bad guys and give the good guys some space to work and to make progress. LakeBanker is one of the good guys."

Read more: http://bitcoinist.com/china-regulators-pyramid-ico/

Bitcoin miners in Russia are in for a break as power companies are looking to sell their excess energy off at a substantial discount.

One of the more interesting regions in cryptocurrency today is Russia. There have been some ups and downs over the last few years. Russia had banned Bitcoin but reversed that policy in late 2016. Burger King Russia is now taking Bitcoin as payment and is even issuing its own digital currency.

Now Russian Bitcoin miners are getting some good news as it’s being reported that power companies in that region are looking to sell their extra energy to them at a pretty good discount.

Russia’s Power Companies Looks To Bitcoin Miners

The Vedomosti daily newspaper broke the news that companies owning power plants in Russia are looking to make deals with Bitcoin miners. The biggest energy company, EuroSibEnergo, has apparently been contacted by dozens of miners looking to take advantage of this opportunity.

EuroSibEnergo manages 18 power plants and produces 9% of all the electricity in Russia. It also has a 41% energy market share in Siberia. A company spokesman has said,


The thought of being able to buy excess energy from power companies at cheap prices is giddy news for Bitcoin miners. It’s estimated that about 30% of mining expenses is due to power costs. While no deals have been officially made public, there are reports that miners are able to purchase the excess energy for 2 rubles per kilowatt instead of the standard 4.5 rubles.

Only an insane person wouldn’t be thrilled with having one’s power cost cut by about 55%. Plus, there’s plenty of energy to spare. Russia has 20 gigawatts of extra power capacity.

Russia Looking to Make Waves in the Crypto Market

This news concerning the power companies and Bitcoin miners comes on the heels of Russia looking to go toe-to-toe with China over Bitcoin. It was just a few weeks ago that a Putin ally, Dmitry Marinichev, announced that his company, Russian Miner Company, was launching an ICO to raise $100 million to challenge China.

A significant portion of the funds are to be used to develop more efficient processors for mining. The tokens offered will give their holders 18% of the revenue generated by the company’s mining equipment.

Marinichev believes that Russia has the potential to capture up to 30% of all global cryptocurrency mining in the future. Whether that’s true or not remains to be seen, but Russia does have some advantages in having plenty of extra power along with cheap prices for that electricity.

In this situation, it makes perfect sense for power companies to sell off their excess product to those who desperately want it, and both sides profit from the exchange.

What do you think about the Russian power companies willing to sell off their excess power to Bitcoin miners? Will Russia make a run against China in the cryptocurrency arena? Let us know in the comments below.

Read more: http://bitcoinist.com/russia-power-sell-energy-bitcoin-miners/

The TUI Group, the world’s largest tourism company, is a firm believer in blockchain technology and is already moving some of its hotel technology to its own, in-house blockchain.

Based in Germany, the TUI Group is a multinational travel and tourism giant, the largest of its kind in the world. The group, which has some 67,000 employes, owns over 1,600 travel agencies, over 30 hotels, cruise ships and multiple airlines with a fleet of 150 planes. With a reported revenue of nearly $20 billion in 2016, the travel giant is led by chief executive Friz Joussen who is a keen, enthusiastic proponent of blockchain technology.

Joussen revealed details of BedSwap, an in-house private blockchain-powered project that sees TUI place its owned hotel inventory on a blockchain to assess demand and shift inventories between different points of sale in real-time. As reported by tech publication Tnooz, the next phase of the BedSwap could potentially see the firm’s entire property management system, down to individual hotel rooms, integrated onto the blockchain.

In conversation with Skift, Joussen revealed that TUI had invested less than €1 million ($1.29 million) on blockchain development. That’s a small spend, particularly when the group sees potential cost savings around €100 million ($129 million) per year.

Speaking to the publication in a recent interview, Joussen said of the group’s blockchain endeavor:

    "It’s a smart contract blockchain. So, we have all our contracts on the block chain, and we use it for hotel swapping. We have embedded it, we have coupled it to our yield systems, so the yield system determines where we want to sell the beds."

Joussen is also convinced that blockchain technology will fundamentally reshape the business-to-business (B2B) space over the next decade. Aside from significant cost savings, the executive sees blockchain technology breaking the wheel of the monopolistic hold of travel intermediaries like Expedia, Booking.com on the travel and tourism industry.

As a decentralized database that is continually updated real-time, blockchain’s distribution technology could fundamentally render the likes these travel accommodation companies and agencies redundant.

Joussen also discussed the possibility of turning its currently-private blockchain, into a public chain that could be openly accessible by anyone, anywhere in the world.

“[Y]ou can start in territories like China where we don’t have a distribution. You start publishing stuff. Making it available where it doesn’t hurt your sales,” Joussen added.

Read more: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/the-worlds-largest-tourism-company-goes-big-on-blockchain/

Pro-Bitcoin Expedia CEO Picked to Run Uber

Uber has reportedly chosen Expedia chief Dara Khosrowshahi as its new CEO. Under Khosrowshahi’s lead, Expedia started accepting bitcoin. He is also a personal investor in Bitcoin startup 21 Inc.

Uber Picked Bitcoin-Friendly Chief

Uber Technologies Inc reportedly chose Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi as its new CEO on Sunday, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter. Bloomberg reported:

       
Khosrowshahi began serving as the CEO of Expedia in August 2005, helping the company extend its global presence to more than 60 countries. “Under his leadership, Expedia, Inc. has grown to become the largest online travel company in the world,” his business profile shows. The Brown University graduate became the highest paid CEO in the S&P 500 in 2015, with compensation totaling $94.6 million, according to a report compiled by Equilar and the Associated Press.

In March 2015, he personally invested an undisclosed amount in the $116 million Series B fundraising round for 21 Inc. In addition, his Linkedin profile shows that he is a member of the professional Bitcoin P2P Digital Currency group.

If Khosrowshahi accepts Uber’s offer, he would be replacing founder Travis Kalanick, who resigned after a shareholder revolt. At press time, he has not yet accepted the offer.

Read more: https://news.bitcoin.com/pro-bitcoin-expedia-ceo-picked-to-run-uber/

Estonia is seriously thinking about creating its own digital currency called the estcoin. This move could bolster the country’s digital residents to almost ten times its actual population.

There’s no denying the stellar rise of cryptocurrency. What many initially scoffed at has now become a major economic force. Large financial institutions, such as Goldman Sachs and Fidelity Investments, have jumped onto the cryptocurrency bandwagon. Now a major seismic shift may occur as a country, Estonia, is considering creating its own digital currency: ESTcoin. Will this new currency become the Baltic Bitcoin?


Actually, the thought of Estonia creating its own virtual currency isn’t far-fetched. The small country occupies a unique position and is known for being extremely tech-savvy. It has the sixth-highest level of mobile broadband penetration in the world. In addition, the Wall Street Journal and Heritage Foundation have ranked Estonia as the sixth-freest country in the world, and the World Bank has ranked the country as number 12 in its Doing Business in 2017 report. The country’s income and corporate tax rates are very low as well, which does help draw in entrepreneurs.

Another point in Estonia’s favor when it comes to cutting-edge technology is its e-Residency program, which was started back in 2014. This program allows anyone in the world to become a digital resident of Estonia and gain specific benefits. All residents of the country (digital and real) are issued an ID card that allows them to use public and private sector services, encrypt files, and remotely sign documents. Digital residents can open and run a company online, conduct their banking online, declare taxes online, verify the authenticity of signed documents, and have access to international payment service providers. So far, over 20,000 people from around the world have become digital citizens of Estonia. Basically, a person sitting in Ghana or Brazil could become a digital resident, open a business in Estonia, and enjoy quite a few benefits of the country’s economic climate.


The goal of Estonia’s estcoin is to raise funds to help expand the country’s economy and increase its global presence. The estcoin would be usable to purchase goods and services in the country and could be used to power domestic startups. Another thought is that the estcoin could be used to strike a blow for independence as more than 90% of the country’s market is controlled by foreign firms.

It appears that the estcoin could be based upon Ethereum, and Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, offered his opinion. He said, “An ICO within the e-Residency ecosystem would create a strong incentive alignment between e-residents and this fund, and beyond the economic aspect makes the e-residents feel like more of a community since there are more things they can do together. Additionally if these ESTcoins are issued on top of a blockchain (they could possibly be issued in multiple formats at the same time, nothing wrong with this) then it would become easy and convenient to use them inside of smart contracts and other applications.”

There are some proverbial flies in the ointment to consider. First is that all holders of estcoins will have a say in how the overall fund is used, which could mean that digital residents could have greater sway than the actual citizens of Estonia. It’s expected that the Estonian ICO would add 10 million digital residents, which would far outnumber the country’s 1.3 million current population. Another issue is whether an Estonian cryptocurrency would cause economic disruptions with their current currency, the Euro. Still, this plan is still in the early stages, but it’s exciting to see a country leaning towards creating its own digital currency.

Read more - http://bitcoinist.com/viberate-com-launches-venue-and-event-profiles/

Public records reveal the large Chinese electrical appliance manufacturer, Midea Group, recently applied for a patent that enables bitcoin mining through household appliances.


The Chinese corporation Midea Group is a major appliance manufacturer headquartered in Beijiao, China. Midea has been listed on Shenzhen Stock Exchange as a publicly traded company since 2013 and has plants and logistics centers across 200 countries. The company has done well for itself over the past two years as it was listed in the Fortune Global 500 in 2016 and 2017.

The patent published this past spring, describes bitcoin miners powered by everyday household devices, like an air conditioner, one of the company’s biggest products. Last November the firm applied for the patent called a “Method and system for digging [mining] bitcoins by using household appliances,” through Midea’s Wuhu Meizhi air conditioning company. The inventor of the patent is an individual named Chen Junji and the author of the concept states;

“The invention particularly relates to a method and a system for digging [mining] bitcoins by using a household appliance,” explains the patent found at China’s trademark office. “The method comprises the following steps: controlling network access of the household appliance, and logging in to a bitcoin account via the household appliance.”'


State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) patent application.

Read more - https://news.bitcoin.com/chinese-manufacturing-giant-midea-seeks-household-appliance-mining-patent/

The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) has described the development of national cryptocurrencies as ”too risky” for the central bank to consider. The statement has been made during a period of increasing development of national cryptocurrencies on the part of authoritarian governments.

“For the Central Bank to Issue Virtual Currencies or Crypto-Currencies in an Open System Will Be Too Risky” – Francois Grope, Deputy Governor of the South African Reserve Bank

During a recent keynote address at the 2017 Strate GIBS Fintech Innovation Conference, Deputy governor of the South African Reserve Bank, Francois Grope, has described the possibility of developing a national cryptocurrency as “too risky”.

During his address, Grope acknowledged the immense disruptive potential of bitcoin and cryptocurrency, and the transformations that contemporary fintech technologies are driving upon traditional banking processes. “We are witnessing the disruption of financial services”, Grope stated. “Over the past decade or so, fintech’s attention and publicity has continued to intensify and increase. It is continuing to usher in completely new ways of banking. Developments in the fintech space are part of an evolutionary process driven by innovations… Virtual currencies have the potential of becoming widely adopted. However, for the central bank to issue virtual currencies or crypto-currencies in an open system will be too risky for us. This is something that we really need to think about.”

The statements come at a time of increasing development of national cryptocurrencies and blockchains, particularly on the part of authoritarian governments. In recent months, Belarus, Singapore, Russia, and China have taken significant steps toward the development and issuance of state directed virtual currencies.

Last month, the central bank of Belarus announced the implementation of blockchain technology into its banking sector, and unveiled plans for future applications for blockchain in the nation’s financial system. Belarus’s central bank revealed that blockchain technology will initially be used as the basis of transnational information transfers. “The new mechanism of maintenance of the register of bank guarantees will ensure the mutual access of the economic entities of the states being members of the Eurasian Economic Union [Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia] to the procedures of the government procurements of goods (works, services).” From there, Belarus intends to utilize blockchain technology as the basis for the issuance of securities and the development of the centrally administered national smart contract network. Belarus’s central bank has explicitly stated that it does not intend to utilize the national blockchain for virtual currency transfers.

Read more - https://news.bitcoin.com/south-african-officials-consider-national-cryptocurrencies-too-risky/

This past weekend South African bitcoin trading saw the establishment of a new all-time high for trading volume, in addition to new price highs. The rise in trading volume further evidences the significant growth that South Africa’s bitcoin markets have enjoyed this year.


South Africa’s bitcoin markets experienced a giddy weekend, with major exchange Luno reporting record trading volume of approximately R128m (97m USD) between Friday and Sunday.

Farzam Ehsani of RMB has attributed the successful implementation of segregated witness to the surge of South African bitcoin trading in a recent interview with Techcentral. “There was a lot of disunity in the bitcoin community leading up to the fork. Given the decentralized nature of blockchains and the difficulty in making protocol upgrades, many people divested from bitcoin not knowing how the fork would pan out. But the fork went relatively smoothly and there is now more clarity on how bitcoin and bitcoin cash (the forked blockchain) plan to scale. This clarity has drawn people back into the cryptocurrency, and as there’s a limited supply of bitcoin, the price is going up.”

The surge in South African bitcoin trading has resulted in pressure being placed on regulators to develop a clear regulatory framework pertaining to bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. In response, the government announced that will initiate testing of a ‘regulatory sandbox’ working exclusively with blockchain solutions provider, Bankymoon.

Read more
https://news.bitcoin.com/south-african-bitcoin-trading-sets-record-volume/

   Australia plans to strengthen its anti-money laundering laws and regulate digital currencies such as bitcoin in the wake of a financial scandal involving its biggest bank, Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

Under reforms published on Thursday, Canberra would bring digital currency exchanges under the remit of Austrac, Australia’s financial crime fighting agency.

New legislation would also bolster the investigation and enforcement powers of Austrac, which earlier this month initiated a civil legal action against CBA for alleged breaches of laws on money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

“Stopping the movement of money to criminals and terrorists is a vital part of our national security defences and we expect regulated businesses in Australia to comply with our comprehensive regime,” said Michael Keenan, Australia’s justice minister.

He said the reforms were balanced, dealing with the threat of organised crime and the financing of terrorism while ensuring that excessive regulation did not hinder legitimate financial sectors.

The proposed regulatory shake-up marks the first stage of a reform process aimed at updating Australia’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing law. It follows a high-profile money laundering scandal involving CBA, which was accused by Austrac this month of more than 50,000 breaches of the existing legislation.


   Please use the sharing tools found via the email icon at the top of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found at https://www.ft.com/tour.
   https://www.ft.com/content/4cd5cc3c-8309-11e7-a4ce-15b2513cb3ff

   Australia’s move to regulate cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, follows a similar move by Japan. Under new rules introduced by Tokyo this year any bitcoin or “alternative coin” exchange or money transfer business that wants to operate must come under the regulatory supervision of the Japan Financial Services Agency by October 1.

In Japan, which was the first national government to take such action, exchanges may be given annual audits and are subject to “know your customer” anti-money laundering regulations.

Tokyo’s decision to regulate bitcoin follows the 2014 bankruptcy of Mt Gox — the world’s largest virtual currency exchange. Some 850,000 bitcoins from Mt Gox disappeared before its collapse — worth almost $3.5bn at today’s price of $4,080.

By regulating the currency, Japan has officially recognised bitcoin as a legal method of payment, a move that analysts say has helped the price of bitcoins surge to record highs.

The Australian reforms will also increase the search and seizure powers of police and customs officers at the border.

Mr Keenan said they would also provide regulatory relief to industry through the deregulation of low-risk industry sectors.

“The bill provides net regulatory relief to industry of A$36m annually, with the digital currency exchange sector being regulated for the first time, while deregulating low-risk industries such as cash-in-transit, which is already subject to state and territory licensing requirements.”

https://www.ft.com/content/4cd5cc3c-8309-11e7-a4ce-15b2513cb3ff

NTT Data, Japan’s largest IT services firm, has announced a new blockchain consortium with members representing a number of varying industries.

In an announcement this week, NTT Data unveiled details of the working group which will see 13 founding members unite to explore use cases for blockchain technology. The companies represent industries such as insurance, logistics and import & export trade, NTT data revealed.

Due to be established on August 30 with an official launch, the consortium is expected to last until March 2018. Its objectives include tackling issues in the lead-up to practical applications of blockchain technology, validating the feasibility of blockchain applications before planning a sweeping systemization of the innovative decentralized tech for the future.

Found among the 13 participating members are all three of Japan’s ‘megabanks’ in the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Mizuho and the Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation. The three banking giants are also investors in Tokyo-based bitFlyer, one of Japan’s largest bitcoin exchanges.

Other notable participants include logistics giant Nippon Express, conglomerate Marubeni Corp and insurer Tokyo Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Co, among others.

The consortium’s members will look at tapping blockchain technology to forego traditional paper-reliant business procedures and the operational inefficacies that come with written procedures. The establishment of the consortium comes after a successful proof-of-concept trial by NTT Data wherein blockchain technology was deployed in a trade finance transaction.

NTT Data’s effort to launch a new blockchain consortium only furthers its foray into the blockchain development space, having been one of thirty founding members of the open-source Hyperledger consortium in early 2016. With over 100 members, the open-source Linux Foundation-led blockchain initiative is one of the largest of its kind in the world.

The launch of the new consortium also occurs during a time of other notable blockchain-related developments in Japan. The government of Japan is primed to test a blockchain powered platform for processing government tenders this year, foregoing traditional centralized IT systems vulnerable to cyberattacks and data theft. The Japanese government is also planning to unify all of its property and land registries from across the country into one viewable data record over a blockchain.

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/japans-largest-firm-ntt-data-unveils-blockchain-consortium/