https://www.ccn.com/bitcoin-miners-in-chinas-remote-regions-are-undeterred-by-restrictions/Though Chinese authorities have previously taken various measures aimed at curtailing the trading of cryptocurrencies, the mining of Bitcoin has continued unabated in some of China’s remote parts according to a Nikkei Asian Review report.
These regions enjoy excess electricity supply capacity and are considered poor relative to the economic powerhouses of Beijing and Shanghai. They include Sichuan Province, which is fondly known as the capital of Bitcoin mining, and Qinghai Province.
In China’s Qinghai Province one of the large-scale mines is owned by the ‘fuerdai’, a term used to describe the rich kids of the country’s military and Communist Party officials and other elite. While both Sichuan and Qinghai provinces enjoy abundant and cheap electricity, the two neighboring regions are relatively poor due to their heavy reliance on tourism and the mining of ground resources. Qinghai, for instance, plans to develop cryptocurrency as an industry in the hopes of creating jobs and generating revenues for the local government.
While there were reports earlier in the year that Chinese authorities were putting in place measures aimed at severely curtailing the mining of cryptocurrencies this has not materialized. According to Nikkei Asian Review, one of the reasons why a complete obliteration of the sector has not happened is because China is keen on influencing the international flow of money. The United States already enjoys this power through the U.S. dollar and cryptocurrencies could do the same for China.
“Xi [the President of China] desires this power for China, similarly to how the U.S. seeks to retain the dollar’s key-currency status through its network of transactions worldwide,” observes the Japanese publication.
Currently, it is estimated that China’s share of the globe’s cryptocurrency mining capacity is around 70%. Hopefully Quebec and other places will see the light about letting bitcoin mining happen in their areas.
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https://www.ccn.com/gilmore-girls-alexis-bledel-to-star-in-bitcoin-thriller-crypto/Alexis Bledel, known for her performance in the hit television show Gilmore Girls, has signed on to star in a cryptocurrency money laundering thriller titled Crypto. The film will also start Beau Knapp (Seven Seconds), Kurt Russell (The Hateful Eight), Luke Hemsworth (Westworld), Jeremie Harris (Legion) and Vincent Kartheiser (Mad Men).
Directed by John Stalberg Jr., the movie is in its filming stages and set to come out in 2019, according to IMDB. The film is written by Carlyle Eubank and David Frigerio based on an original story by Jeffrey Ingber.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film enters on a young anti-money laundering agent, played by Beau Knapp to investigate a case. Before he knows, he is deep inside a dangerous underworld with a mysterious art dealer played by Alexis Bledel and a crypto enthusiast, played by Jeremie Harris. The film is currently shooting in New York.
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https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-18/bitcoin-miners-facing-a-shakeout-as-profitability-becomes-harderEven with the price back above $8,000, many of the so-called miners that perform the complex calculations to generate the digital currency are at risk of turning unprofitable. If prices drop below that threshold again for an extended period, there will likely be a swifter consolidation to industrial-scale mining. That could knock out the last guy-in-a-dorm-room operations and leave holders of the currency vulnerable to the dictates of the big miners.
“It’s totally different this year than last year,” Silicon Valley venture capitalist Bill Tai said in an interview. “The bitcoin mining industry was this mysterious dark cottage industry, and it’s about to grow up and about to have elements of institutional scalability at all levels."
Smaller miners will drop out, and only five to 10 of the largest will survive and be profitable, said Tai, who serves as chairman of Hut 8 Mining Corp., the capital financing arm in North America for Amsterdam-based Bitfury Group Ltd., one of the biggest makers of crypto-mining equipment. When the price of Bitcoin approached $19,000 last year, Bitfury had to turn some customers away as $1.9 billion of orders streamed in, he said.
More concentration could also hold a lot of sway over Bitcoin’s price. Miners hold between 20 percent and 30 percent of all Bitcoins, according to Lucas Nuzzi, a senior analyst at Digital Asset Research. Bitfury alone has mined more than 1 million Bitcoins, Tai said. The company has already sold coins to defray operating expenses. If miners are forced to sell more, that could depress Bitcoin’s price.
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https://www.ccn.com/chinas-bitmain-gets-approval-for-us-bitcoin-mining-operation/Bitmain, Chinese cryptocurrency mining company, has been given a green light to set up a blockchain facility in Western Walla Walla County, a county in the U.S. state of Washington. Local newspaper Union-Bulletin wrote that the decision was in complete agreement of the three commissioners involved in the situation. Bitmain is opening overseas mining farms all over the place. My guess is that they believe China will ban mining in China and they are diversifying.
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https://www.newsbtc.com/2018/04/12/gmo-internet-group-prepares-to-launch-its-bitcoin-payroll-option/While Bitcoin is an appealing investment vehicle its other use cases are less popular. Fewer people spend it to buy goods and services as of right now. When it comes to salaries, Bitcoin has not made too many inroads yet either. If it is up to GMO Internet Group, that plan will come to change fairly soon.
It is not the first time GMO Internet Group has taken a closer look at Bitcoin. The company made it clear they want to work with the leading cryptocurrency in an official capacity. For now, the main focus lies on incorporating a Bitcoin-related payroll for all staffers. **That means the Japanese internet giant will allow employees to receive a chunk of their salary in cryptocurrency**.
With employees determining the salary cut they want to receive in Bitcoin, interesting options become apparent. The minimum is 10,000 Yen, whereas the maximum is 100,000 Yen. These amounts are still relatively low compared to what GMO Internet Group employees earn, but this is the initial stage of rolling out this feature. There is also an incentive for employees exploring this option, as they receive a bonus of up to 10%.
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https://www.technologyreview.com/s/610786/bitcoin-is-eating-quebec/A Canadian hydropower operation put out the welcome mat for bitcoin miners. Shortly thereafter, it was overrun.
In 2016, Hydro-Québec announced a formal plan to woo data centers like those run by Microsoft and Amazon. Cryptocurrency miners also came calling, and began submitting proposals in September 2017. Interest from them soon became overwhelming, with more requests than the power company could accommodate. Were Quebec to accept even a fraction of them, the province could well become the new global hub of cryptocurrency mining.
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https://news.bitcoin.com/bitcoin-mining-manufacturer-canaan-considering-an-ipo-in-hong-kong-or-the-us/Canaan Creative Co. Ltd, the Chinese company behind the Avalon lineup of hardware equipment which produces ASIC mining chips and rigs, is reportedly considering launching an initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong or the US markets.
The company has faced difficulties with getting its stocks listed on mainland Chinese marketplace in the past and now feels that the process in its home country is just too long. Co-chairman Jianping Kong said: “We … prefer listing outside mainland China as we are in a global business.” Canaan also claims that the harsh approach toward bitcoin taken by the government has nothing to do with its decision to look abroad. Kong added that they may later pursue a secondary listing in China by issuing depository receipts. Usually when companies go public, it means that the founders want to cash out...
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https://news.bitcoin.com/bitcoin-mules-flood-china-as-otc-cryptocurrency-trading-flourishes/Chinese bitcoin mules are buying bitcoin in various markets around the world and smuggling it back in to the country to fuel the flourishing and unregulated OTC (over-the-counter) market, according to a report from the region. However, the business isn’t as lucrative as it was a few months ago.
John DeCleene, an assistant fund manager at Overseas Chinese Investment Management, explained: “The market’s kind of taken a downturn; It is too many players entering this market, but also less of the hype we saw in December-January, when people were paying a 30 percent premium because they expected 10 times gains overnight.”
Reuters has interviewed a mule that admitted to illegally entering the United States with up to $40,000 to buy bitcoin which she then sells on the Chinese OTC markets. “Selling and buying bitcoins on those OTC websites is the same as shopping on Taobao,” she commented.
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http://bitcoinist.com/marathon-launches-massive-bitcoin-mining-operation-quebec/Marathon Patent Group, Inc. has commenced mining operations in Quebec.
According to reports from NASDAQ via Globe Newswire, Marathon had previously announced the purchase of 1,400 Bitmain Antminer S9 miners — commonly known simply as Antminer S9s — on Feb. 8.
A week later, Marathon announced that it had leased 26,700 square feet of space in Quebec to be used as a data center.
Today, Marathon has officially announced the successful installation of its aforementioned equipment. Likewise, Mining operations have also officially commenced, which — as noted by NASDAQ — “are expected to utilize approximately 2.0 MW and deliver approximately 19 Ph/s of ASIC mining capacity.” This is one way of getting a piece of mining action - buying shares in publicly listed bitcoin mining companies.
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https://cointelegraph.com/news/wall-street-analyst-creates-bitcoin-misery-index-for-tradersWall Street strategist and co-founder of Fundstrat Global Advisors Thomas Lee has developed a ‘contrarian index’ that lets investors know how ‘miserable’ Bitcoin (BTC) holders are based on current prices, CNBC reports.
The index is called the Bitcoin Misery Index (BMI) and was designed as a trading tool for investors to take advantage of volatility in BTC exchanges. BMI is calculated on a scale of zero to 100, taking into account factors such as volatility and the number of winning trades out of the total. When the indicator is low, the buying opportunity is at its best, and vice versa.
“When the bitcoin misery index is at ‘misery’ (below 27), bitcoin sees the best 12-month performance. A signal is generated about every year,” Lee explained to CNBC in a Friday report. "When the BMI is at a 'misery' level, future returns are very good."
At the moment, the Bitcoin index is at 18.8, which is an absolute minimum since Sept. 6, 2011, the report said.
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https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/08/qarnot-unveils-a-cryptocurrency-heater-for-your-home/French startup Qarnot unveiled a new computing heater specifically made for cryptocurrency mining. You’ve read that right, the QC1 is a heater for your home that features a passive computer inside. And this computer is optimized for mining.
While most people use laptops, back in the golden days of computer towers, you could heat a room with a couple of desktop computers. And heat is still one of the biggest challenges when you’re building a data center. You have to cool thousands of computers that run 24/7.
Qarnot started thinking about edge computing for data centers back in 2010. The company has built three generations of computing heaters with multiple CPUs and sold them to construction companies looking for heaters for their new buildings.
At the other end of the equation, companies such as BNP Paribas, Société Générale, Air Liquide and Blender rent those servers for their own needs. In other words, Qarnot has built a decentralized data center.
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https://www.ft.com/content/bc48eafc-2301-11e8-ae48-60d3531b7d11The head of the EU’s supervisor of supervisors has struck back at calls to regulate cryptocurrencies in a speech that warned against overly regulating fintech firms.
Andrea Enria, the chief executive of the European Banking Authority, suggested on Friday it would be more effective to prevent banks and other regulated financial institutions from holding or selling cryptocurrencies rather than regulating the digital coins themselves.
His comments come a week after Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England who also chairs the G20’s Financial Stability Board, called time on the lax regulation that cryptocurrencies had so far enjoyed. Mr Carney was just the latest central banker to urge a tightening of scrutiny.
“Recently, several central banks have argued that cryptocurrencies lack the institutional back-up of a central bank and cannot fulfil the traditional functions of money . . . I am yet to be convinced that this is a sufficiently strong argument to attract cryptocurrencies under the full scope of regulation,” Mr Enria said in a speech in Copenhagen, according to prepared comments.
He added that the EBA back in 2014 had suggested a better strategy of limiting regulated companies’ exposure to cryptocurrencies.
Mr Enria advocated not applying the full weight of regulations to fintech firms if they did not perform the same functions of providing liquidity, credit and debit. He also said an EU-wide approach was essential if fintech firms were not to lose out to competition from China and the US.
“An excessive extension of the regulatory perimeter . . . is likely to be a sub-optimal solution. It would risk excessively constraining financial innovation, as the compliance burden placed on banks is not sustainable for small innovative start-ups,” he said.
However, he added that regulators should “never let de facto banks combine deposit-taking and lending outside the umbrella of strict regulatory requirements and effective supervision”.
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https://www.coindesk.com/pboc-governor-we-dont-like-cryptocurrency-speculation/The governor of China's central bank struck a critical tone on cryptocurrency speculation during a media appearance on Friday.
Speaking at a press conference amid the Two Sessions, China's annual political event, People's Bank of China (PBoC) governor Zhou Xiaochuan took aim at cryptocurrency projects that have shifted away from their purported use cases in favor of promoting what is essentially market speculating.
"Lots of cryptocurrencies have seen explosive growth which can bring significant negative impact on consumers and retail investors," Zhou said. "We don't like (cryptocurrency) products that make huge opportunity for speculation that gives people the illusion of getting rich overnight."
The comment may signal an increasing level of scrutiny down the road by the PBoC over initial coin offerings and trading services that are still available for domestic investors, even after regulators issued a ban on ICOs and essentially pushed fiat-to-crypto exchanges out of the domestic market. His comments seem weird to me, given that China closed down all it's exchanges last year. Does the PBoC suspect that Chinese citizens are still trading crypto and that the Chinese govt has lost control?
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Have just discovered the following site: https://www.cryptohome.us/It's just a real estate listings site, but every listing accepts payment in bitcoin. If you click on "inventory" and scroll down, there are some really nice Florida homes listed for several million dollars... |
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https://www.trustnodes.com/2018/03/07/mt-gox-trustee-sold-half-billion-dollars-worth-bitcoin-bitcoin-cashThe MT Gox trustee has sold 35,841 BTC for $362 million and 34,008 BCH for $45 million according to reports coming out of a creditors meeting held earlier today.
Mark Karpeles, MT Gox’s former CEO, said the sums were “sold between December 2017 and February 2018 with the assistance of a bitcoin exchange.”
Little further detail is provided at this stage with a full report by the trustee providing no explanation why the funds were sold or why they were sold at this precise point. A big sale like that could be the reason for bitcoin's downward pressure between Dec 2017 and Feb 2018.
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-crypto-currencies-japan/japan-to-punish-several-cryptocurrency-exchanges-halt-operations-at-others-nikkei-idUSKCN1GJ1AETOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s financial regulator will this week slap several cryptocurrency exchanges with administrative punishment notices and is considering forcing some to suspend their business, the Nikkei business daily reported on Wednesday.
The Financial Services Agency may also tell Coincheck Inc - the exchange targeted by hackers in a $530 million theft of digital money in January - to raise its standards, in what would be the second such order to the exchange, the Nikkei said.
The FSA will mete out the punishments after uncovering flaws in customer protection and anti-money laundering measures during on-site checks at the exchanges, the Nikkei said, without citing the source of the information or specifying what the punishments would entail.
It did not specify which exchanges would be targeted.
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https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-06/grayscale-doubles-offerings-with-four-new-cryptocurrency-fundsGrayscale Investments Inc. announced four new funds Tuesday, each focused on a separate cryptocurrency, effectively doubling the number of its offerings. And there may be more on the way.
Qualified accredited investors will be able to put money into Bitcoin Cash, Ether, Litecoin and Ripple, the investment firm said in a statement. Each fund will operate as a trust, and the shares will be subject to a one-year holding period before they can be resold without restriction.
Grayscale, which manages $2.1 billion in assets, started out in 2013 with Bitcoin Investment Trust, focused on the best-known cryptocurrency. The added funds could broaden the New York-based company’s geographic reach. There’s a lot of interest in Ripple in Japan, for example, according to Michael Sonnenshein, managing director at Grayscale.
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