The 24 hours from March 17 - 18 produced over $1 bln in trading volumes across cryptocurrency, likely the most ever recorded.

Erik Voorhees, ShapeShift CEO, reported the figures on Twitter, quoting analysis resource Coincap.io. The volume beat the previous 24 hours’ figures, responses suggest, themselves having set a new high. However, CoinCap’s data transaction volume data for the period is no longer available publicly.

Trading volumes accompanied a sudden 16 percent drop in Bitcoin’s price on Friday as exchanges signaled behavioral trends which would result from a Bitcoin hard fork.

The cost per coin briefly dipped below the psychologically-significant $1000 barrier, before stabilizing at around $1040.

Additional trading activity came from China ahead of the likely cementing of regulatory plans for exchanges and cryptocurrency businesses.

The week ending March 18 saw LocalBitcoins narrowly set a new all-time high for the Chinese market, with 60.69 mln yuan changing hands.



Ahead of a potential hard fork scenario, meanwhile, US exchange and wallet service Coinbase has told its customers not to store funds on its accounts.

In a blog post on Sunday, the company said:

“We may provide support for Bitcoin Unlimited in the future depending on market conditions and stability of the protocol, but we cannot guarantee whether or when such support may be available. Customers who wish to access both blockchains at the time of the hard fork should withdraw their BTC from Coinbase since we cannot guarantee what will happen during the hard fork or when this access may be available.”

https://cointelegraph.com/news/hard-fork-rhetoric-sparks-1-bln-cross-crypto-trading

Bitcoin, an idea that originated in 2008, has since become a popular digital currency the world over, amassing a market value of under $20 bln. Since 2008, though, it hasn’t been an easy ride for the currency, which has experienced many highs and lows on its journey to acceptance.

Let’s take a seat then as we revisit some of Bitcoin’s major crashes up to the present day, with this handy infographic from Investoo, a learn to trade website.

According to legend, it’s believed that Satoshi Nakamoto initially began working on the idea of Bitcoin in 2007. However, it wasn’t until 2008, that a paper by the elusive Nakamoto, Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System, was published.

On Jan. 3, 2009, the Genesis Block was mined, while the first Bitcoin transaction in block 170, took place between Satoshi and Hal Finney, on Jan. 12, 2009, kicking off what has been a roller coaster ride for the currency.

2011: Mt Gox hacking
It wasn’t until Feb. 9, 2011, however, that Bitcoin achieved parity with the US dollar, costing $1 per Bitcoin at Mt Gox. Yet, despite the Bitcoin.org website struggling to handle traffic at the news of Bitcoin’s parity, on June 19, 2011, the Bitcoin price fell $3 within minutes to less than $16 after the Mt Gox hacking.

February 2012: Paxum
A repeat incident took place again on Feb. 11, 2012, when the Bitcoin price dropped by $2 to around $4 after Paxum ceased accepting the currency.

March 2012: Linode
Several weeks later on March 1, the Bitcoin price plunged to $4.89 after 46,000 Bitcoin were stolen in the Linode hacking, at the time worth just under $230,000.

August 2012: Priateat40
Even though the currency rose slightly in the proceeding months of 2012, on Aug. 17, 2012, the Bitcoin price dropped by $3 to less than $11 after Priateat40 stopped Bitcoin payments.

April 2013: DDos attack
Over the proceeding months, Bitcoin price steadily rose as interest in the currency increased. However, on April 10, 2013, the currency crashed $60 to just $122 in what was reported to be an apparent distributed denial of service attack.

December 2013: China’s ban
Later in the year, on Dec. 5, 2013, People’s Bank of China bans Bitcoin transactions, causing the currency to nosedive $300 to $840.

February 2014: Mt Gox closure
On Feb. 7, 2014, Bitcoin records a $100 drop as major exchanges experience widespread DDoS attacks. Bitcoin miners and developers block size debate on Feb. 21, 2014 sees the currency plunging $30. While the announcement of the closure of Mt Gox on Feb. 24, 2014, causes Bitcoin to drop by around $57 to $550.

March 2014: IRS judgment
After the IRS declares Bitcoin as a property on March 26, 2014, Bitcoin plummets by $150 to $453.

August 2015: Scalability question
The currency continues to rise and fall over the next year and on August 19, 2015 Bitcoin price declines by $45 to $214 after the release of new client software XT Fork, in a bid to resolve the scalability question.

November 2015: Unicode
Despite a slight increase in price, it then fell by $50 to $334 as its sign was accepted into Unicode on Nov. 3, 2015.

January 2016: Hearn effect
After Mike Hearn terms Bitcoin a ‘failure’ on Jan. 14, 2016, the Bitcoin price records a $40 decline.

August 2016: Bitstamp hack
This was followed by the currency crashing $175 to $198 after it was reported that unknown hackers had stolen 18,866 Bitcoins from Bitstamp on Aug. 2, 2016.

2017: PBOC intervention
Fast-forward to 2017 and on the Jan. 5, Bitcoin plunges 31 percent to $889 as Chinese officials mull restrictions on Bitcoin transactions.

While it certainly hasn’t been an easy ride for the currency, the fact that it’s still here is a testament to the fact that people believe in the currency despite the setbacks it experiences.



https://cointelegraph.com/news/top-13-major-bitcoin-price-crashes-endurance-of-an-idea

Australia's top securities watchdog is looking to boost its engagement with companies working with blockchain by publishing new materials related to the tech.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) published an "information sheet" today that offers a way for businesses and startups to assess whether their uses of distributed ledgers would bring them under the agency's jurisdiction.

Information Sheet 219's purpose, according to ASIC, is to spark additional dialogue between regulators and the private sector, in a bid to "fast track any discussions those entities choose to have with ASIC about their potential regulatory obligations".

The agency said in an explainer released alongside the documentation:

"Although DLT is still an emerging technology, we have given, and will continue to give, considerable thought to regulatory issues that may arise if you are contemplating using DLT for your business. This information sheet is designed to help you better understand the regulatory considerations we have identified."

Additionally, ASIC detailed a 12-month exemption for eligible small businesses that serve up to 100 retail clients. These businesses will not be required to apply or hold any Australian Financial Services (AFS) license during those early stages of operation, the agency said.

The release is perhaps unsurprising, as it comes more than a year after ASIC chief Greg Medcraft remarked that blockchain "will have profound implications for how we regulate".

"As regulators and policy makers, we need to ensure what we do is about harnessing the opportunities and the broader economic benefits – not standing in the way of innovation and development," Medcraft said at the time.

http://www.coindesk.com/australia-securities-regulator-closer-ties-blockchain/

Fears of a network split have shaken bitcoin while boosting ethereum, dash and monero

Call it the schadenfreude trade.

Bitcoin’s price is taking a beating, having shed about one-fifth of its value over the weekend. At the same time, its biggest rivals in the cryptocurrency space are ascendent: The price of a single ethereum token, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, touched an all-time high above $50 over the weekend just as bitcoin’s losses were beginning to accelerate.



Bitcoiners have widely attributed the drop to fears that the bitcoin network might split in two, which is ironic: Ethereum suffered that exact fate over the summer when a contingent of its users refused to accept a mandatory software update that would’ve, among other things, amended the ethereum blockchain to return some of the $50 million worth of tokens stolen during the DAO hack.

Read: Price of bitcoin plummets over threat that virtual currency will split

Bitcoin US:BTCUSD  traded as low as $947 a coin on Saturday, down from around $1,260 a coin on Thursday. That was its highest level since March 10, when the Securities and Exchange Commission rejected a proposed rule change that would’ve allowed for the creation of the first bitcoin exchange-traded fund, sparking a brief selloff.

The two moves are likely interrelated: Data provided by CryptoCompare, a company that supplies data and analytics about the cryptocurrency market, suggest that ethereum has largely benefited from bitcoin’s decline: The bulk of trading in ethereum has been conducted in bitcoin, trading volumes show, suggesting that worried investors are swapping their bitcoins for ethereum.



CryptoCompare
Ethereum isn’t the only cryptocurrency benefiting from bitcoin’s selloff: Dash, the third-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, broke to an all-time high above $100 a coin on Monday. Monero, the fourth-largest digital currency, touched an all-time high above $20.

The bitcoin selloff started around the time that AntPool, the largest collective of bitcoin miners, on Friday adopted a controversial software update known as bitcoin unlimited. The proposed update is what's known as a “hard fork,” meaning that, once it receives a certain baseline of support, everyone running the bitcoin software will either need to accept bitcoin unlimited, or risk being shut out of the bitcoin network.

As of Monday, bitcoin unlimited has the highest level of support among any of the proposed solutions to what’s known as the scalability problem: The fact that the bitcoin network is extremely limited in terms of the transaction volume that it can handle.

Critics of bitcoin unlimited feel it would strengthen the control that a small group of miners have over the network.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/bitcoin-takes-a-beating-while-rivals-soar-to-all-time-highs-2017-03-20

Bitcoin price began the week riding a swell that began during the late hours of Sunday evening, registering a high of $1,063 on the Bitstamp Price Index (BPI).

The uncertainty and ongoing debate surrounding bitcoin’s scalability solutions with Segregated Witness or SegWit and Bitcoin Unlimited has contributed to significant volatility in the price of the cryptocurrency in recent days.

A hardfork statement toward the end of last week by 18 major bitcoin exchange revealed a contingency plan of listing Bitcoin Unlimited as an alternative cryptocurrency, with its own token. In the immediate aftermath of the collective stance, bitcoin sunk to a 30-day low, losing nearly a fifth of its value as price struck a low of $938 on Saturday.


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Bitcoin prices largely lingered below $1,000 till Sunday afternoon, before signs of a recovery. BPI data shows bitcoin price reaching $998 at 15::30 on Sunday, before gaining $30 over the next hour. The swell stuck, rising to a high of $1063 at 20:00. While it’s still too early to tell if $1,000 is the new support level, price tailed off briefly toward $1,010 in the early hours of Monday.

At 09:00, bitcoin price stood at $1,011.72 before a busy period of trading helped price reach a high of $,1053 at 13:15 on Monday. At the time of publishing, trading has remained steady with price hovering at $1,047.



March continues bitcoin’s dramatic year in 2017, beginning the month with a then all-time high of $1,230 and surpassing parity with gold. By the end of the first week this month, bitcoin exceeded $20 billion in market cap, before briefly taking a dip to $1,150 after Chinese exchanges postponed the halt of bitcoin withdrawals indefinitely.


Chart from TradeBlock.
On March 10, bitcoin rose to an unsustainable all-time high of $1,350 in the lead-up to the SEC’s bitcoin ETF decision, before crashing below $1,000 in the aftermath of the rejection.

At press time, bitcoin is just below $1,050 on average at the major exchanges but the recent volatility is expected to continue as the hardfork debate about scaling solutions between SegWit and Bitcoin Unlimited rumbles on.

For a live Bitcoin Price chart, click here.

All time references are in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).

Swamp waters image from Shutterstock. Chart from Bitcoin Wisdom.

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/newsflash-resurgent-bitcoin-price-tops-1050-amid-hard-fork-talk/

BITCOIN

Notwithstanding that brief drop last night on kraken (What the hell was that?  Did someone fat-finger an order?) it seems that the 4 hour chart is going to close above the 1st arc. If so, this will be both a buy signal on the the Gann chart, and also give us another “higher high”, suggesting that the trend has turned up.

ETHEREUM


Ethereum is challenging a medium-term fib spiral for the 2nd time in the past day.  While we have not yet been given a buy signal from this tool (as this is being typed), it would seem that one may be forthcoming soon.  Stay sharp.

LITECOIN


As indicated in the weekend update, litecoin is approaching a likely turning point in the next week or so.  This is shown above in the Gann chart, which also indicates the challenge of the long-term resisting trend line (pink). Watch for a possible breakout soon.

DASH


As indicated in the weekend update, Dash ran into serious resistance. In the weekend update I suggested closing longs, if not going short.  Well, the tide has definitely turned since then.  When/if we see a close below the 1st arc (highly likely) we will likely see a fall to perhaps the 3rd arc shown below.  Wait for the close below the 1st arc before shorting though (imho).

MONERO


With the exception of a brief penetration that failed, Monero has not been able to conquer a medium-term fib spiral.  It is not clear whether or not (the short-term) trend is higher or lower from here.  My play would be to take profits and wait to see a trend develop before opening another position.  Your mileage may vary.

Remember:  The author is a trader who is subject to all manner of error in judgement.  Do your own research, and be prepared to take full responsibility for your own trades.

https://hacked.com/price-analysis-bitcoin-litecoin-ethereum-monero-dash/

Edgeless casino has just released its beta version of Black Jack with one day left to run on its ICO crowdfund. Black Jack will be the first game released to market when the Ethereum blockchain casino officially launches in autumn. Edgeless casino is offering a unique combination of fully transparent gaming with 0% house edge. Its highly competitive business model aims to attract more gamblers to the cryptocurrency whilst re-introducing trust back into online gaming. With the release of Black Jack beta, gamblers can now trial Edgeless’s unique features using real ETH cryptocurrency.

Online gambling is a growth market. The global online gambling market today stands at $45.6 billion and this figure is expected to more than double by 2024, according to TMR Analysis. Online gamblers are increasingly turning to cryptocurrencies with gambling accounting for more than 60% of all Bitcoin transactions. Edgeless hope to now popularise Ethereum as a currency of choice. Cryptocurrencies have some great features that lend themselves to online gambling such as the speed and immediacy of transactions, low barriers to entry and lower transaction fees. Edgeless plans to extend these features with the addition of fully transparent gaming to demonstrate that it is not possible to cheat the system.

‘Typically the transparency mechanism for online casinos are inside their servers meaning they can easily influence every variable without being noticed – and they frequently do! At Edgeless a tamper-proof smart contract will connect the casino’s server to the blockchain – this will reveal the inner workings of our games for everyone to verify.’ Tomas Draksas Co – Founder, Edgeless.io

The casino plans to launch with its flagship game Black Jack followed shortly by other skill+luck games such as Lunar Poker and Russian Poker. These games will all have a unique 0% house edge that the team anticipate will attract the attention of the gambling community. Edgeless will then diversify into pure luck games such as Roulette and Dice and finally Sports Betting.

Alongside these, Edgeless will run ‘Edgeless Lounge’, a special game reserved for EDG token holders. Every month 40% of casino profits will be sent to the Edgeless Lounge prize pool and the profit sharing lottery will give token holders the opportunity to win back a proportion.

To date, Edgeless casino has raised over $2.5 million from over 800 individual investors in the sale of its EDG tokens. The ICO is live until 21st March at 4 PM GMT at https://edgeless.io.  The Black Jack tutorial is available here: https://medium.com/edgeless/edgeless-beta-0-1-announcement-8c3ca97de2c0#.cbwa58t6q

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/edgeless-casino-launches-black-jack-beta-0-edge/

Ethereum has risen to new heights in the past 24 hours, reaching an all-time high of around $24. Up from around $16 in what appears to be a bull run over the past two days.


Ethereum reaches all-time high – image from cryptowatch
The currency has further reached a market cap of more than $2 billion, the highest ever achieved by any digital currency except for bitcoin, giving ethereum a more than 10% share of bitcoin’s market cap.

The rise began shortly after the surprise decision by the SEC to reject the bitcoin ETF, leading to a steep price fall of around $350 to then somewhat recover, now standing at just under $1,200.


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At the same time, it appears traders started buying eth, suggesting the currency is being used as a hedge against bitcoin movements, just as bitcoin is being used as a hedge against monetary mismanagement.

This inverse correlation may indicate the market is not sure on the values of the two currencies in relation to each other, with bitcoin losses apparently leading to eth gains. Interestingly, bitcoin gains have led to eth gains too recently, showing a non-consistent correlation.

That is probably because ethereum has its own factors that affects its price beyond bitcoin’s movements. Specifically, the recent announcement of Enterprise Ethereum, a collaboration of many giant banks, tech companies and start-ups, seems to have turned the mood towards optimism.

Moreover, the now somewhat distant DAO memory may allow for consideration that it was handled quickly while the resolution to the exploitation of a DDoS attack during autumn may show the competence of the development team.

The air, therefore, seems bullish, but some are urging caution. Ethereum likes to apply Silicon Valley’s mantra of moving fast and breaking things. Development wise, as far as the protocol is concerned, the community is waiting for the implementation of Proof of Stake.

This is a re-organization of the way transactions are validated, moving responsibility from hardware based miners to coin holding stakers that only need a node and a certain amount of eth to join the process.

Its deployment, expected sometime this year, would be a milestone for ethereum, adding clarity on certain aspects, such as inflation rate and block times. However, things may, of course, go wrong temporarily as you can never be initially sure with code.

After that, the protocol is to have an even bigger re-organization, sharding. This is a method which allows nodes to validate only some transactions, rather than all transactions.

If successfully deployed, it may provide the currency with as good as unlimited scalability, as well as block times in two or three seconds, maintaining the network’s promise of as good as instant and nearly free payments.

After that, and at this point the timeframe would be maybe in 2020, the protocol might perhaps be set in stone, with small optimizations here and there, unless some clever person comes up with something new.

Until then, temporary set-backs should be expected. Things might be broken and then hopefully fixed, there may be losses just as gains. Diversification is the key according to common wisdom.

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/ethereum-surpasses-time-high-reaches-2-billion-market-cap/

Bitwala, a blockchain-based a crypto-to-SEPA service that allows fiat currency transfers towards settlements from users who pay in cryptocurrency, now allows users to send bitcoin to any MPesa account for free using company’s new service, according to an announcement on the Bitwala website. The service will remain free forever, according to the post.

Bitwala users can send money to MPesa holders in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Nigeria.

Users open their Bitwala account and click “send money.” They choose “mobile money” and select the payout currency of choice. They enter recipient details and the amount of money to be sent.


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An Easy Process

A Bitwala invoice appears at checkout where the sender can pay in bitcoins. They can check “payment status” on the dashboard once the invoice is paid.

“We want to be a part of the mobile money revolution, and we’re stepping it up a notch by enabling anyone to send money to any MPesa account using bitcoins,” according to Jörg von Minckwitz, CEO of Bitwala, in a statement on the website.

The website noted that fast, inexpensive and secure money transfers are still not widely available to many people. As a result, much of the unbanked population has to physically carry money, which can carry risks.

Bitwala claims it is on a mission to provide everyone with the safest, fastest and most affordable way to send and receive money.

Safaricom Steps Forward

Safaricom, a mobile network operator in Kenya, in partnership with Vodafone, a global telecom, introduced MPesa in Kenya in 2007.

Safaricom recently released its MPesa API after upgrading its MPesa platform. The old system, which the company described as G1, could only handle payments through what is known as Instant Payment Notification or IPN. To enable IPN, the system had to create a number of workarounds to automate the payments. However, with the new system known as G2, they have solved this issue.

MPesa was designed to allow foreign workers to send remittances back home. It was also designed to provide the unbanked an easier and more affordable payment system.

More than 96% of households outside of Nairobi, Kenya have at least one MPesa account, according to Bitwala.

Also read: Safaricom releases the MPesa API — Possibilities for bitcoin?

A Major Factor In Kenya

In 2015, at least 25 million Kenyans transacted $28 billion through MPesa. This is equivalent to 44% of Kenya’s GDP for that time period.

Bitwala launched as Europe’s first bill payment service that allows users to pay bills with bitcoin. The service makes it possible to use bitcoin for paying for anything from credit card bills to utilities.

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/bitwala-allows-users-to-send-bitcoin-free-to-mpesa-accounts/

PayPal Europe, the National Research Fund (FNR) and the University of Luxembourg signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) earlier this week on the creation of a FNR PEARL chair in the field of FinTech.

In an announcement from the Luxembourg government, the chair will be established at the University of Luxembourg’s Interdisciplinary Center for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT) and will be funded jointly by the FNR and PayPal Europe over a period of five years.

The purpose of the new chair is to clarify digital technologies and to improve the link between users, regulators and industries.


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Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, who was there for the signing, said that PayPal’s decision to invest in Luxembourg was a pivotal step in the country’s partnership with PayPal and proof to the university’s academic excellence.

He said:

With PayPal, we have found a reputable partner to help create an international fintech center of excellence within the University of Luxembourg.

The Luxembourg government is aspiring to position the country as a global leader in innovative digital financial services and to make it one of the most important areas for FinTech. To achieve this, the government is pushing for developments by increasing closer relationships such as the one between PayPal Europe, the FNR and the University of Luxembourg.

This collaboration is key to the country’s economy with a sector that is undergoing change where new digital technologies can provide opportunities for improved services.

Luxembourg’s FinTech Friendly Stance

Located in western Europe and landlocked by Belgium, Germany and France, Luxembourg with a population of just under 600,000 people, is considered a FinTech friendly location.

So much so, that Luxembourg-based bitcoin exchange Bitstamp became the world’s first nationally licensed bitcoin exchange last year.

By gaining the license it can operate as a payment institution across the European Union’s (EU) 28 countries. As per the EU’s passport program, financial service providers that are legally established in one member state, are legally allowed to operate in the rest of the member states within the EU.

As the latest addition to Luxembourg’s FinTech ecosystem, this presents a massive boost to the country as it continues to develop the sector.

With its favorable conditions and attractive location, Luxembourg is presenting an ideal environment for startups to grow their firms. Not only that, but for those within London who are concerned about the eventual removal from the EU, Luxembourg could be a place of consideration to move their business while remaining in the single market.

Featured image of University of Luxembourg from Facebook.

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/paypal-europe-partners-university-luxembourg-fintech-chair/

Multinational services firm and one of the so-called “Big Four” accounting firms Deloitte has announced the completion of its latest blockchain endeavor. The firm scrutinized permissioned blockchain protocols and applications with professional auditing standards.

The aim of the project, Deloitte said, was to “enhance the utility and trust of a permissioned blockchain system” by putting it through both professional audit and assurance standards.

If 2017 is the year of blockchain prototypes and proof-of-concepts turning into real-world applications, auditors will have to keep abreast with technological changes to scrutinize and pore over protocols and data from new innovations like blockchain technology.

“[W]e need to get ahead of the curve on quantifying and defining how an auditor could provide a level of assurance on a permissioned blockchain application” said Will Bible, a partner at Deloitte. Further, he revealed that it was merely a “matter of time” before which Deloitte’s clients started switching portions of their businesses onto blockchain-based infrastructure. The oncoming wave of adoption further underlines the need for Deloitte’s audit and assurance project.

Deloitte’s Rubix – a team of professionals exclusively researching and developing blockchain applications in the firms Toronto offices was involved in the project. Bitcoin enthusiasts will remember Rubix for their effort to purchase and launch a bitcoin ATM now installed in Deloitte’s Toronto office.

“We thought it was really important to show people how to get access to bitcoin, because it is really the entry point to understand the broader implications of blockchain,” stated Rubix strategy lead and co-founder Iliana Oris Valiente at the time.

In order to understand and explore the project, the Rubix team applied existing guidance from attestation standards, to the permissioned blockchain application. The development team also devised procedures specific to the requirements of a loyalty points blockchain application built on Ethereum technology.

Valiente stated:

For the purposes of this project, we selected an internally-developed loyalty points blockchain application built by our Rubix by Deloitte team on a permissioned Ethereum network as a test case.

Big on Blockchain

While all four services firms are known to be engaging in researching and developing blockchain applications and protocols for clients alike, Deloitte is arguably leading the pack with a multitude of developments in the blockchain-specific Fintech space.

The firm’s ‘global blockchain team’ now consists of 8000 professionals across 20 countries, who have developed over 30 blockchain-related prototypes in areas including digital banking, payments and rewards programs.

Deloitte deemed 2017 the “make-or-break” year for blockchain adoption when opening its blockchain lab in New York in January. The occasion was promptly followed by the launch of its second blockchain lab in Dublin, Ireland, to cater to clients in Europe and the Middle East.

Deloitte has also partnered or worked with government institutions in lending expertise toward Fintech research and development. For instance, the services firm partnered the city of Rotterdam to launch a blockchain pilot project to record lease agreements in real estate. More notably perhaps, Deloitte was consulted by the People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, to discuss the frameworks required for the issuance of a national digital currency.

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/big-four-giant-deloitte-completes-successful-blockchain-audit/

New research has shown that Chinese mobile payments were around 50 times greater than those within the U.S. in 2016, thus illustrating that China’s FinTech market is a strong contender in the market.

China Dominates the Mobile Payment Market

Research from iResearch in China has found that Chinese third-party mobile payments more than tripled in 2016 to $5.5 trillion. WeChat Pay and Alipay, operated by Ant Financial, dominated the market. Recent research found that Alipay received the biggest investment in 2016 at $4.5 billion as FinTech funding increased in China.

Whereas, in the U.S., mobile payments increased by 39 percent to $112 billion, according to Forrester Research.

However, it’s thought that China dominates the mobile payment market because credit card use in China is small compared to the U.S., according to a report from the Financial Times. Not only that, but the scanning of a QR code on a smartphone through Alipay or WeChat Pay makes payments more efficient in China.

Continuing the upward trend, Forrester predicts that by 2019, China will continue to lead the mobile payment growth race. In the U.S., it is estimated that this will increase by 2.6 times their 2015 value while China will rise by 7.4 times during the same period.

The Growth of China’s FinTech Market

The FinTech market in China is reportedly dominated by two major markets: payments/remittances and insurance. In a December report, it stated that 40 percent of banking services customers rely on FinTech platforms and applications to settle domestic and international payments. A further 35 percent of bank customers are reported to employ smart artificial intelligence FinTech services to handle insurance needs.

The growth of Chinese mobile payments has increased due to the rise in online shopping as the improvement of online financial services. This has also been intensified by the fact that many retailers are now providing platforms for individuals to pay for services.

In 2015, WeChat Pay announced that it was planning on making life easier for people in China by announcing that it was accepting bitcoin for its concierge services. Designed to help expats in China, individuals can make purchases from Taobao, the biggest e-commerce store in the world. By setting up an account, residents in China can access airport concierge services, mobile phone charging, directions and translation services for bitcoins.

At the beginning of the year, Starbucks revealed that it would also start accepting WeChat Pay at its China stores.

According to Zennon Kapron, principal at Kapronasia, a Shanghai-based fintech consultancy, digital payment platforms are an important component of the FinTech infrastructure in China.

But [they] are also an important source of transaction and financial data that is increasingly being leveraged by the payment companies for new fintech platforms, products and services.

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/research-china-fintech-booms-mobile-payments-outpace-us-50x/

Thailand’s largest bank by revenue, Kasikornbank Pcl, has unveiled that it is planning to introduce a new FinTech platform by the end of the year as it attempts to prevent fee income from its rival banks.

In a report from Bloomberg, Kattiya Indaravijaya, one of the four presidents at the Bangkok-based company, said that the goal was to produce faster, easier and lower-cost online banking transactions. There are also talks with overseas companies to create the digital payments platform.

According to information from the Bank of Thailand, Thai mobile and Internet banking transactions increased by 26 percent between April and September in 2016.

Warut Siwasariyanon, head of research at Asia Wealth Securities Co. in Bangkok, said:

Digital-banking platforms will be the major infrastructure for domestic banks to maintain their competitiveness.

Thailand’s FinTech Ramps Up

In recent months, FinTech in Thailand has been ramping up as it embraces the technology that other countries are getting involved with.

At the end of last month, a new report came out that illustrated that there will be a sweeping adoption of blockchain technology in a number of areas including finance within Thailand by 2018.

An increase in adoption can already be seen with a number of blockchain projects taking shape. A successful remittance pilot in November saw more than 100 migrant workers sending money to their homeland, Myanmar, using the Ethereum blockchain.

Alex Tapscott, chief executive of Northwest Passage Ventures, a blockchain business consulting firm, has recently come out and said that Thailand should embrace FinTech to improve quality of life while speaking at a seminar.

Aversive to Bitcoin

In the past, Thailand has been averse to the adoption of bitcoin. So much so, that the Bank of Thailand has issued several statements as to their feelings on the digital currency.

Yet, while the bank has certainly taken a cautionary view of the currency in the past, it seems that the country is keen to embrace its underlying distributed ledger, the blockchain. Not surprising consider the technology is experiencing an increase within many sectors around the world.

The country certainly has a long way to go compared to the likes of London, Singapore, or New York, but the fact that its benefits are being realized now could mean that the country may end up becoming a hub for the technology in the future.

The FinTech sector is producing a big impact on many industries, which is only going to continue its upward trend. It makes sense, therefore, for countries such as Thailand to jump on board.

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/thailands-largest-bank-launch-new-fintech-platform/

Less than a year after raising ¥3 billion ($27 million) in a record funding round by a bitcoin and Fintech company in Japan, Tokyo-based bitFlyer now sees all three of Japan’s ‘mega-banks’ as investors in the bitcoin exchange.

In an announcement today, bitFlyer, Japan’s largest bitcoin exchange and blockchain services company, revealed fresh funding from Mizuho Capital and SMBC Venture Capital, both of which are the investment arms of the Mizuho Banking Corporation and the Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation respectively. The two banking corporations join Mitsubishi UFJ as investors in bitFlyer. Mitsubishi UFJ Capital participated in a ¥510 million ($4.5 million) round of funding in August 2015.

Altogether, all three of Japan’s megabanks have now invested in the country’s leading bitcoin exchange.

Interest in Bitcoin Grows

Investments and interest in Japan’s burgeoning bitcoin industry have quickly gathered pace in the lead-up to new regulations to be put into effect in June this year.

In March last year, the Japanese cabinet recognized virtual currencies like bitcoin to have the same properties as money as a means of payment and settlement. The Japanese legislature passed the bill to regulate virtual currency exchanges in mid-2016.

In a recent email to CCN, CoinCheck’s business development chief Kagayaki Kawabata credits Japan’s regulatory moves for bitcoin’s booming popularity in the country.

Bitcoin Japan
Japan’s bicameral legislature passed bills to recognize bitcoin as the equivalent of money last year.
With the upcoming regulations, norms that were encouraged by the local bitcoin industry, 2017 is deemed as “the first year for virtual currency” by bitFlyer. ResuPress, the operator of Japanese bitcoin exchange CoinCheck predicts a frenzied growth in bitcoin adoption by storefronts and merchants across the country. By the end of 2016, there were over 4,200 bitcoin-accepting merchants, more than quadrupling the total from 2015. That trend is expected to continue into 2017, with ResuPress estimating that number to quintuple to 20,000 merchants  this year.

In January 2017, bitFlyer laid claim to being the largest bitcoin exchange in the world by volume. The company revealed trading volumes exceeding ¥320 billion ($2.81 billion) with over 400,000 users in the first month of the year.

Bitcoin Company Delivers Technology to Japan’s Biggest Banks

The three megabanks had previously partnered bitFlyer in 2016 to test domestic money transfers over a blockchain, with technology provided by the bitcoin company. The proof-of-concept experiment ran for nine months through September 2016 and clocked 1,500 transactions per second on the blockchain, beating the peak speeds of the existing interbank wire system.

The PoC experiment used bitFlyer’s proprietary blockchain which the exchange refers to as “miyabi.”

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/japanese-megabanks-invest-bitcoin-exchange/

The trading vacuum created by the stringent measures and close scrutiny by the People Bank of China’s (PBoC) upon the country’s bitcoin exchanges has led to traders flocking to alternative platforms.

According to Coin.Dance, bitcoin trading volumes on prominent peer-to-peer (P2P) exchange platform LocalBitcoins reached an all-time high during the past week. The same week that saw two of the biggest Chinese bitcoin exchanges., OkCoin and Huobi, freeze withdrawals for up to a month.

Other smaller exchanges have since followed, with the likes ofYunbi, BTC100 and BTCTrade strengthening withdrawal norms. Other exchanges have either suspended bitcoin withdrawals until verification or stretched the withdrawal process for up to 2-3 days.



A total of ¥6.6 million yuan was traded last week. That figure represents a four-fold increase of bitcoin trading in yuan compared to the previous week which totaled under ¥1.5 million.

Predictably, the demand to buy bitcoins without any regulatory oversight by the PBoC has driven price for the cryptocurrency at a premium. The lowest cost for purchasing a bitcoin from a trader on LocalBitcoins is over ¥7000 at the time of publishing. Data from BTCChina’s charts show bitcoin to the Renminbi at ¥6700.



https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/chinese-bitcoin-investors-switch-p2p-trading-exchanges-pause-withdrawals/

The Securities and Futures Commission, an independent statutory authority that regulates the securities and futures markets in one of the world’s major financial hubs in Hong Kong is joining the R3-led financial blockchain consortium.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the Hong Kong regulator is working with R3’s numerous members that includes banks and technology developers to test blockchain ledgers to record and settle securities and futures transactions.

The collaboration is yet another example wherein banks and regulators are coming together to push blockchain prototypes out of the lab environment to real-world financial systems.

“Both sides need to understand why this tech works and what needs to be changed to make it comply,” stated R3 managing director Charley Cooper as quoted by the publication.

Bringing Fintech into a Financial Hub

Widely known as a traditionally technology-forward country, Hong Kong’s regulators are being pressed into making moves toward a friendlier climate for Fintech innovation and development. A recent report by services giant KPMG encouraged local banks to pursue research and development of financial technologies like blockchain.

In late 2016, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) – the country’s defacto central bank – established a ‘Fintech Innovation Hub’ and a supervisory sandbox to boost the development of financial technology in the financial services sector. Blockchain technology, in particular, was heralded as a game-changer in the financial industry by prominent Hong Kong technology hub Cyberport in a Fintech conference in mid-2016.

Testing of blockchain platforms have already taken shape in Hong Kong, according to Oliver Bussmann, blockchain advocate and former technology lead at UBS Group AG. Similar regulatory moves in Singapore, the United Kingdom and Canada have left the United States trailing in testing the technology. Compared to these countries, “the U.S. is about a year behind” Bussmann added.

Costs incurred to run some blockchain programs and prototypes using the HKMA’s sandbox are also being covered by the authority, making for an encouraging environment for development and trialing of new financial technologies.

Notably, Hong Kong’s financial secretary John Tsang Chun-wah pledged HKD $17B (approx. USD $2.19 billion) early last year toward building the necessary infrastructure to support Fintech startups and development in the country. More recently, the HKMA and the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority signed an agreement toward reciprocal cooperation between the two financial markets, particularly toward Fintech innovation.

More recently, New York-based Nasdaq offered its proprietary blockchain technology to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. A number of market operators around the world are turning toward blockchain technology. Examples include developments in Australia, South Korea, multiple efforts in  Japan, Canada, the UK among several others.

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/hong-kong-financial-markets-authority-joins-r3-test-blockchain-transactions/

Bitcoin fell sharply a few days ago, just hours after we warned of this likelihood in the last column.  The fall was dramatic but stopped much sooner than I expected.  I have spent the past few days looking for either a sign the fall was about to resume, or that the bull market would resume instead.

First, I note that the 2-hour chart shows a bear setup as follows:



After a long rally from the swing low, the market fell sharply upon reaching THE END OF THE 4TH SQUARE IN TIME. It found support precisely at the 2×1 Gann angle and the bottom of the 2nd square.

That support would be found there would not be a great surprise, but still, it seems “not enough” of a correction.  I have been waiting for the next shoe to drop, but to date that hasn’t happened. Instead, the same 2-hour chart has a bull setup as shown below:



With a successful close above the 2nd arc it seems that the rally is likely to resume for a bit longer at least. The next resistance on this short term setup is ~ $1030.

However, there is the possibility of a trap lurking.  Look at this 4 hour chart:



The pink line is the “1 line” from a pitchfork.  It is very close to the (red) 1×2 Gann angle, and they are both very close to the current position of pricetime.  Further, the vertical red dotted line is warning that this is a moment in time something might be expected to happen (an energetic point in time, so to speak). This is not a guarantee of anything of course.  Price might successfully get through the resistance.  But it could also be a trap.  Caveat emptor…

Happy trading!

Remember:  The author is a trader who is subject to all manner of error in judgement.  Do your own research, and be prepared to take full responsibility for your own trades.

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/bitcoin-correction-sharp-short-lived/

In the past, the bitcoin community was engaged in a controversial debate about the existence of a fee market and whether bitcoin was designed to operate as digital gold or a settlement system like VISA. These discussions emerged as bitcoin transactions began to fill up 1 mb blocks and raised average fee of bitcoin transactions.

In contrary to many claims, the optimal bitcoin transaction fee as shown in 21 Inc’s Bitcoin Fees platform is 31,640 satoshis, or US$0.32. That is, a $0.32 transaction on virtually any bitcoin transaction sent to a single recipient.

Currently, most financial service providers like Paypal or financial institutions that provide bank account or credit card services rely on a percentage-based fee. For Paypal, fees usually add up to 10% if a sender sends a Paypal payment using a bank account or a credit card. For bank transfers, fees amount to $30 or even up to $50 on a single bank transfer.

If a Paypal user was to send a US$1,000 payment to a user, the user most likely will have to pay in the range of $50 to $100 to complete the transaction. Same goes for international credit card payments made to merchants or on e-commerce platforms, which eventually add up to 6% of the total payment.

In contrast, bitcoin’s average fee of $0.32 allows users to pay a similar fee regardless of the amount of the transaction. A user sending $100 may pay the same amount of fee with a user sending $30,000 and still have a transaction verified and broadcasted onto the network at a similar rate.

In an online bitcoin community, a user posted an image of a $800,000 transaction broadcasted to the public bitcoin blockchain network. The user who sent $800,000 worth of bitcoin sent a fee of $1, 3x of the optimal fee of $0.32. Users can pay a larger fee if they prefer to have a transaction verified and accepted by miners at a faster rate. Also, the fees become more expensive if the transaction enlarges in size.

If the same user opted to send a $800,000 payment via Paypal or remittance networks, the user would have had to deal with a $40~$50,000 transaction fee composed of an initial transfer fee, conversion rate, credit card withdrawal fee, etc.

Ultimately, these comparisons boil down to the debate of whether bitcoin was designed to be digital gold or a settlement system. A settlement system should be able to settle transactions cheaper at a faster rate while digital gold can be used to make payments that couldn’t have been made before. Currently, bitcoin works more as digital gold. Users are utilizing the bitcoin network to make payments that weren’t previously possible. A payment worth $800,000 can’t be transferred via traditional methods within a few hours after initialization and with a transaction fee of $1.

In the future, as bitcoin activates innovative scaling solutions and micropayment-enabling technologies like Lightning, bitcoin will be able to operate as both a settlement system and digital gold. Even then, the definition of bitcoin truly depends on the usage of it and its users. If a user opts to utilize bitcoin as a safe haven asset, wealth protection tool and digital gold, then it doesn’t have to be used a settlement system for that particular user. If another user would like to use bitcoin to make daily payments to purchase a cup of coffee or items on an e-commerce platform, it can operate as a settlement system.

Bitcoin is still at an early stage wherein solutions like Segregated Witness, TumbleBit and Lightning are being introduced. The activation of these three technologies alone will significantly scale the bitcoin network and allow it to become a more efficient settlement system which doesn’t result any potential issues when it comes to bitcoin transaction fees.

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/high-transaction-fees-arent-big-issue-bitcoin/

As blockchain technology becomes more widely used, some researchers are recognizing that cooperation and collaboration among all stakeholders, including government, is critical to enable the technology to deliver the efficiencies it promises.

A report [PDF] from the C.D. Howe Institute by Thorsten Koeppl and Jeremy Kronick, “Blockchain Technology – What’s in Store for Canada’s Economy and Financial Markets?” identifies challenges facing policymakers and regulators.

Koeppl is an associate professor and RBC Fellow at Queen’s University while Kronick is a senior policy analyst at the C.D. Howe Institute.

It is not clear how the technology’s benefits will be realized in a way that ensures they are delivered to the economy as a whole, the authors noted at the outset of the 28-page report. The three major challenges for policymakers and regulators are:

1. Design a principle-based regulation system that provides high safety standards, legal certainty and a stable environment for transactions.
2. Ensure that the technology leads to end-user cost efficiencies rather than only a redistribution of profits among intermediaries.
3. Identify areas where government involvement is helpful, such as the role of facilitator for a public or private or public distributed ledger, or as a direct central node that applies the technology but retains a monopoly in managing the ledger entries.

Also read: Bank of Canada sees potential for fintech, sets high bar

Safety And Accuracy

Because public ledgers have traditionally been run by neutral third parties, the key challenge has been how to ensure that a public ledger is safe and accurate. A blockchain can be used to solve this problem. Based on cryptography and a peer-to-peer network, the technology creates an online ledger that, once distributed among network participants, can verify transactions without needing a trusted third party.

While regulation should not stifle experimentation, it can be beneficial for creating a legal framework and putting standards into place that offer stability and safety.

Policymakers must ensure that blockchains do not reshuffle rents at the expense of users, but really create cost efficiencies. One way to do this is to engage in public-private partnerships to create systems that are stable, solve start-up problems associated with network externalities, and support competition by ensuring access to blockchain-based systems.

The technology can improve existing systems, but applications in areas of critical infrastructure will often require direct government involvement.

Policymakers will have to decide to what degree small private networks can provide services based on blockchains and how governments should engage with these networks. Examples include the Bank of Canada’s Project Jasper exploring an interbank settlement engine along with several foreign government projects to streamline online identities.

Blockchains’ Cost Duplication

One concern is that many costs in a distributed ledger are often duplicated. A major flaw in bitcoin, the first application of a blockchain, is that it duplicates the costs of updating the ledger. When network nodes compete for the right of updating the ledger, resources are wasted, which is not always the case when a neutral third party handles the task.

Other costs arise when a proof-of-work protocol is used, since confirmations take some time to be produced.

But over the last few years, these costs have been partially alleviated. Verification and confirmation times have been reduced by alternative applications while maintaining the proof-of-work protocol. Second, alternative protocols have been introduced that avoid the duplication of effort.

Deploying central nodes to update and maintain the ledger combines existing infrastructure with distributed technology. Blockchain protocols can enable a cost-efficient processing of transactions that is often not possible with existing payments infrastructures.

Blockchains Evolve

An important challenge is how a blockchain evolves dynamically over time. Potential participants have to coordinate on its design and who will be granted access. As a distributed system, a consensus is needed among a critical number of participants to make changes or adjustments.

There is no guarantee a ledger will continue to be distributed. When some participants gain enough power within a network, they can determine how it is run and updated. This creates a public system where only a few members retain all the power or reverts back to a centralized one where one node acts like a third party administering the ledger.

A restricted blockchain with a limited number having direct access to the chain can alleviate many of these concerns. One can imagine hybrid forms of a distributed ledger in which access is tiered among participants. The core of the network would be in charge of the ledger’s design.

Payment Sector Lessons

The payments sector is an area where blockchain technology has already been deployed.

Cryptocurrencies are being used for retail transactions since the costs can be much smaller than traditional payment systems. Examples include using bitcoin for person-to-person international money transfers and the Ripple Transaction Protocol, which enables banks to move money across borders without needing correspondent financial institutions.

Such developments have already created turbulence in the financial sector. Intermediaries are being pressured to make retail and cross-border payments easier, safer and less costly. Settlement and communication platforms such as Western Union, SWIFT, Visa and MasterCard face the risk of becoming obsolete once cryptocurrencies for cross-border payments become more common.

What has kept blockchain technology from being more broadly adopted for payments, in addition to security concerns, are limits on transaction throughput, a high confirmation latency and variability of confirmation times with high transaction volumes.

Startup enterprises are working on resolving these issues.

It is less clear how blockchain technology can benefit the large-value wholesale payments sector. This is because payments cannot be real-time with immediate finality and zero risk for the counterparties.

One reason is the period of time between processing the transaction and confirming its finality. Second, with blockchain technology, forks can occur. Previously confirmed transactions may no longer be valid. In state-of-the-art, large-value payment systems, a third party like a central bank guarantees immediacy and finality of payments.

Permission Blockchains

Permission-based consensus ledgers offer an alternative to a traditional blockchain. A small network of nodes maintains the ledger so that faster consensus protocols can reduce latency and allow greater scalability. Settlement finality in such a system is more achievable since the central nodes are known and inconsistencies can be resolved faster.

Blockchains can revolutionize corporate governance. Governance traditionally takes place in the form of annual shareholder voting, often via proxies. Maintaining a distributed ledger makes it possible to have votes more often with direct shareholder participation.

Corporate decisions can be pre-programmed and automatically executed via a voting scheme. A blockchain implementation would give users tokens to transmit to specific addresses by a deadline to cast a vote on an issue.

Attempts are also under way to use distributed ledgers to allow the exchange of financial securities. Cryptographic keys can be used as a messaging system to sign trade agreements within a ledger for transactions later confirmed by central nodes.

In addition to trading of financial instruments, the technology holds promise for achieving real-time processing of financial transactions. The post-trading requirements of settling and clearing transactions often involve cumbersome procedures. Using smart contracts for trading, traders could calculate exposures and margin calls right up to the automatic transfer of cash and securities in a delivery-versus-payment mechanism.

Recently, blockchain solutions have been tested to link several ledgers that keep information on asset, collateral and cash positions of market participants. In the U.S., the Depository Trust & Clearance Corporation in partnership with Digital Asset has demonstrated the potential for settling and clearing repurchase agreements via a distributed ledger.

Safety And Accessibility

The biggest concern is that a ledger is safe and accessible. Users must be able to rely on the accuracy of the information in the distributed ledger to be able to use it reliably to engage in transactions. A similar critical aspect is that users can easily and cheaply access the information when necessary.

Over time, standards will have to be developed to protect consumers from unsafe implementations. This requires a continuous dialogue among developers, regulators and users in creating applications. It also needs a certain degree of monitoring to ensure cybersecurity and stability protocols are followed.

Coordination issues and network considerations raise the question of whether distributed ledgers can be developed in a decentralized fashion for critical infrastructure.

Applications are also likely to be driven by new or existing businesses. Hence, it is reasonable to expect that future blockchain applications will rarely be fully public networks where every user has unrestricted access. Consequently, private networks that retain the distributed nature of the ledger, but restrict the right to modify update it, are thus the most likely outcome.

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/what-role-does-government-play-in-blockchain-technologys-future/

Should the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approve the Winklevoss Bitcoin ETF on March 11, expect a speculative rush on bitcoin, according to Rob Curran, writing in The Wall Street Journal.

Once approved, an easily accessed ETF would provide a chance for average investors to participate in the bitcoin market, bringing droves of new investors.

Fears Over Irrational  Exuberance

Christopher Burniske, blockchain products lead at ARK Investment Management, which invests in an ETF-like fund that trades over the counter, said he is concerned that a bitcoin ETF could bring irrational exuberance if bitcoin’s price significantly appreciates.

SEC approval will allow the Winklevoss Bitcoin ETF to trade on the BATS Global Market exchange.

Two other bitcoin ETFs, the Bitcoin Investment Trust and the SolidX Bitcoin Trust, have also filed with the SEC to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange and would also give ordinary investors more access to bitcoin investing.

Most bitcoin observers say a bitcoin ETF is inevitable.

Bitcoin Owners Stand To Profit

The Winklevoss twins, who filed the application, would gain from any price increase the ETF brings as they are among the largest individual bitcoin holders. The same is true for Barry Silbert, the entrepreneur who operates the Bitcoin Investment Trust.

Neither the Winklevoss twins or Silbert would comment.

The SEC has raised questions about bitcoin since the Winklevosses applied for approval in 2013. Could robots hijack most of the mining capacity and disable the system? Could the fund be hacked? Could bitcoin split into two rival currencies?

Needham & Co. analyst Spencer Bogart said the Winklevosses have addressed security questions, including keeping private keys locked in offline computers. Different individuals in various locations would need to grant access at the same time to a bad actor seeking to see the keys.

Bogart nonetheless said the SEC could deny approval since the Winklevosses have kept many fund functions private.

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/analysts-ready-trading-frenzy-sec-approves-bitcoin-etf/