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Millennials, Bitcoin and a Tech Breakthrough to Support the Rest: An End to Drudgery?

A Pew Research Center study shows that millennials have overtaken Generation Xers to become the largest generation in the US labor force.
It is a position that millennials have actually held in the US since 2016, outpacing Gen Xers and Baby Boomers with 56 million working, or looking for work, compared to 53 million and 41 million respectively. The Pew study shows that 35% of the US labor force are millennials.
The Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan American think tank based in Washington DC that provides information on social issues, public opinion, and demographic trends shaping the United States and the world.
The report shows that as Baby Boomers numbers recede so will their influence and their opinions about lifestyle, principally money, and how it’s earnt.

Read full article at https://bitcoinnews.com/millennials-bitcoin-and-a-tech-breakthrough-to-support-the-rest-an-end-to-drudgery/

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More Than 2 out of 3 Crypto Exchanges Don’t Know Their Customers (KYC)

A recent study held among 25 different cryptocurrency exchanges across Europe and the US revealed that only 32% perform full KYC identity checks on their users, writes Bitcoinist.
The study conducted by analytics house P.A.ID Strategies that out of these 25 exchanges, all based in the US and Europe, two-thirds failed to comply the requirements of the so-called Know Your Customer (KYC) procedure. New anti-money laundering regulations are due to come into effect in 2019, and it’s thought that the KYC checks will encourage crypto exchanges to examine their operations more carefully in terms of compliance.

Read full article at https://bitcoinnews.com/more-than-2-out-of-3-crypto-exchanges-dont-know-their-customers-kyc/

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It Could Never Happen! 51% Blockchain Attacks on the Rise

It has been reported that 51% attacks on blockchain networks have become far more frequent events than once anticipated, with at least five cryptocurrencies being hit in the last month, reports Coindesk.
Monacoin, Bitcoin Gold, Zencash, Verge and now, Litecoin Cash have all recently been targeted and, in each case, networks have been severely compromised and transactions have been rearranged, resulting in heists of millions of dollars.

Read full article at https://bitcoinnews.com/it-could-never-happen-51-blockchain-attacks-on-the-rise/

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Bitcoin Dev Corallo Suggests BetterHash Protocol for More Decentralized Mining

A Bitcoin core developer, Matt Corallo, has proposed a new protocol named BetterHash that would make Bitcoin mining more decentralized. He published a draft of the Bitcoin Improvement Proposal on GitHub.
The most widely deployed mining protocol, Stratum, requires pool operators to distribute block templates to pool users. This increases centralization of the Bitcoin mining process since pool operators can choose to selectively ignore protocol changes. The primary goal of BetterHash is to fix Stratum’s deficiencies.
It would be more decentralized if each individual miner could choose their block template, and this would end up covering a broader spectrum of protocols allowing more diversity of transactions into blocks, reducing censorship on the Bitcoin network. As things are, now the only way for miners to select their own block templates is to solo mine, which takes an extreme amount of mining equipment to have any success.

Read full article at https://bitcoinnews.com/bitcoin-dev-corallo-suggests-betterhash-protocol-for-more-decentralized-mining/

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Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Undergoes Biggest Jump in History

Bitcoin mining difficulty increased by 634 billion units on 5 June 2018, from 4.306 to 4.940 trillion units. This is the largest difficulty increase in history, and comes at a time when Bitcoin’s mining hash rate is rapidly accelerating. In the past year Bitcoin mining difficulty and hash rate has increased 728%.
This latest difficulty adjustment represents an increase of 14.71%, the largest increase since January 2018 when the cryptocurrency markets were in a frenzy as Bitcoin hit all-time highs near USD 20,000. There were several difficulty adjustments in excess of 15% during the Bitcoin rally, but the magnitude of the 5 June 2018 increase far exceeds any other difficulty increase on record.

Read full article at https://bitcoinnews.com/bitcoin-mining-difficulty-undergoes-biggest-jump-in-history/

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Bithumb: 43% Investors Say It’s Time To Hodl With Over-50s Going Long Term

A recent survey of cryptocurrency investors by South Korean exchange Bithumb revealed that many intend to ‘hodl’ their funds over a long period of time, according to Bitcoinist.
The survey of roughly 2,500 investors showed a huge 42.8% were in for the long ride, with only 27% interested in short-term profits. It also revealed that13.% had bought cryptocurrency purely as investment, while another 10.5% were focusing on marriage and property-related goals.

Read full article at https://bitcoinnews.com/bithumb-43-investors-say-its-time-to-hodl-with-over-50s-going-long-term/

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Vitalik Buterin Not Worried About Rothschild’s Impact on Crypto

Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum and the Bitcoin Magazine, expressed optimism on the future of finance dismissing claims that the Rothschilds might influence crypto. He insightfully said that the Rothschilds didn’t have enough cash flow to finance their efforts of manipulating cryptocurrency and was confident about the future of Ethereum with the significant changes coming soon to the network.

Read full article at https://bitcoinnews.com/vitalik-buterin-not-worried-about-rothschilds-impact-on-crypto/

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Poland Reaffirms Crypto Exchanges Still Legal Nationally

The Polish Financial Supervision ‎Authority (KNF) reaffirmed the country’s position regarding the legality of cryptocurrencies this week, in reaction to media accounts suggesting Poland is looking to prohibit all activity on cryptocurrency exchanges.
False reports of a crypto ban
While Poland did announce a government-led investigation into cryptocurrencies, allegations reportedly made by mainstream media outlets suggested that Poland was looking to ban all activities on cryptocurrency exchanges.

Read full article at https://bitcoinnews.com/poland-reaffirms-crypto-exchanges-still-legal-nationally/

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Australian Company Loses $6.6M as Crypto Goes Missing

Australia-based Byte Power Party has lost USD 6.6 million after millions of Soarcoin tokens went missing when Singaporean company Soar Labs attempted to purchase a stake in the Australian firm without actually paying for it, reports CCN.
In June 2017, a month prior to Soar Labs’s token sale, Byte Power announced the Singaporean company would acquire a 49% stake in exchange for USD 5 million. Soar Labs paid a total of USD 100,000 in fiat and sent 306 million Soarcoins valued at USD 0.016 each to cover the rest.
In January, a large portion of the tokens was alleged to be suspended according to Soar Labs, as Byte Power was trying to clear debts by selling off the tokens at very low prices. A total of 179.2 million Soarcoins held by the company, plus 34.6 million held by Alvin Phua, Byte Power’s CEO, were frozen.

Read full article at https://bitcoinnews.com/australian-company-loses-6-6m-as-crypto-goes-missing/

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Coinmint to Make Alcoa Smelter One of World’s Largest Crypto Mining Centers

Crypto company Coinmint is to take over a former Alcoa aluminum smelting facility in New York State, a move that would make it one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency mining centers.
The smelting plant located in Upstate New York has signed a deal with crypto-mining company Coinmint, to install one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency mining centers in Upstate New York, reports Bitcoinist. The 10-year lease, with options to renew, will give Coinmint the opportunity to invest USD 700 million into its new facility, expected to bring over 150 new jobs to the nearby town of Massena.

Read full article at https://bitcoinnews.com/coinmint-to-make-alcoa-smelter-one-of-worlds-largest-crypto-mining-centers/

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Stock Analytics Firm Trefis Adjusts Year-End BTC Prediction to $12,500

Stock analytics firm Trefis announced in a 5 June blog post the reduction of its Bitcoin year-end price valuation from USD 15,000 to USD 12,500. It also shared the headline of the article on Twitter, with a link to the original blog post.

Read full article at https://bitcoinnews.com/stock-analytics-firm-trefis-adjusts-year-end-btc-prediction-to-12500/

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South Korean Police Treats Crypto Margin Trading as Illegal Gambling

The Cyber Criminal Investigation Unit of the Southern Provincial police department of South Korea has declared that a margin trading service offered on the Coinone exchange from November 2016 to December 2017 is equivalent to illegal gambling. Three Coinone executives and 20 high-volume margin traders will be arrested and prosecuted.
Coinone is the third largest cryptocurrency exchange in South Korea behind Upbeat and Bitsum, and currently handles tens of millions of US dollars per day of cryptocurrency trading. This is the first time police have investigated Coinone; the investigation process started in August 2017. It took them considerable time to study the law regarding this case.

Read the full article at https://bitcoinnews.com/south-korean-police-treats-crypto-margin-trading-as-illegal-gambling/

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Huobi to Develop as Decentralized Autonomous Organization

Huobi, one of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, has announced that it is offering 30 million Huobi Tokens (HT) to fund the development of the Huobi Chain Project. Its ultimate goal is to move its entire operation onto a public blockchain, so that they become decentralized and autonomous.
Gordon Chen, a senior Huobi executive, says this will be the first experiment of its kind to transform a centralized corporation into a decentralized organization. Chen believes in the future, autonomous organizations will replace modern day corporations and he wants Huobi to lead this transition.

Read full article at https://bitcoinnews.com/huobi-to-develop-as-decentralized-autonomous-organization/

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First Swiss Bank Open for Business to Crypto Companies

Hypothekarbank Lenzburg has become the first Swiss bank in the alpine country to provide business accounts to blockchain and cryptocurrency companies, Cointelegraph reported June 6.
Another financial institution, Zurich’s Falcon Private Bank, had offered crypto asset management services to its clients since last year, but Hypothekarbank has become the first to open company in the fintech sphere. The bank’s CEO Marianne Wildi said:
“As a bank that sets itself up technologically and pursues a cooperative strategy in the field of fintech, it is also a matter of credibility to work together with the young sector of crypto and blockchain companies in Switzerland.”

Read full article at https://bitcoinnews.com/first-swiss-bank-open-for-business-to-crypto-companies/

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CFTC Commissioner: Crypto Will ‘Proliferate To Every Economy’

Rostin Benham, a commissioner at the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), stated that “cryptocurrencies will proliferate to every economy and every part of the planet”, calling crypto a “modern miracle”.
He believed blockchain had the potential to address the world’s most pressing problems like poverty, corruption, food, and healthcare. He made these comments regarding cryptocurrency during a speech at the Blockchain for Impact Global Summit at the United Nations Plaza in New York City on 4 June 2018.

Read full article at https://bitcoinnews.com/cftc-commissioner-crypto-will-proliferate-to-every-economy/

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Giant Investment Firm Susquehanna Begins Offering Crypto Trading

Susquehanna International Group based just outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is one of the largest investment firms in the world, and now is opening up cryptocurrency trading and investments to a small group of 500 clients. It is are looking to expand its cryptocurrency operations to many more clients if all goes well.

Read full article at https://bitcoinnews.com/giant-investment-firm-susquehanna-begins-offering-crypto-trading/

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CEOs Give Massive Thumbs Down to Google’s Crypto Ban

Many finance industry executives have voiced their opinions on the recent decision by Google, following Facebook’s similar move, to ban cryptocurrency advertising.
In March 2018, Google issued a statement announcing that cryptocurrency-focused promotional content would no longer be allowed on all of its platforms. According to the statement, the ban covers adverts for ICOs, exchange platforms, and wallet services.
According to the Independent, CEO of digital banking startup Revolut, Philip Nunn, can only see the hypocrisy in the decision, arguing, “I understand that Facebook and Google are under a lot of pressure to regulate what their users are reading, but they are still advertising gambling websites and other unethical practices.”

Read full article at https://bitcoinnews.com/ceos-give-massive-thumbs-down-to-googles-crypto-ban/

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Circle Attempting US Banking License

Cryptocurrency exchange Circle is seeking a banking license from the federal government of the United States. If successful, this would be the first cryptocurrency exchange that becomes an official bank in the United States, which would be a major milestone for the cryptocurrency world.
Becoming a bank would give Circle some important benefits, such as being able to access the central banking system without intermediaries which would allow Circle to settle with other banks in different markets around the world. Also, Circle would be able to store money in the Federal Reserve, as well as take loans at the extremely low inter-bank federal funds rate of 1.75%, freeing Circle from dealing with higher-cost lenders. These benefits would improve the efficiency and reduce the cost of Circle’s services.

Read full article at https://bitcoinnews.com/circle-attempting-us-banking-license/

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20/20 Central Bank Execs Forum Agrees Bitcoin No Threat Yet to Fiat

At Amsterdam’s Money 20/20 Conference on 5 June, bank representatives from four countries were asked to respond to the question “Can cryptocurrencies spell the end of fiat currencies?”, reports Cointelegraph.
During a panel discussion, representatives from Swiss National Bank, the Bank of Lithuania, the Bank of England, and the Bank of Canada took turns in expressing their views on the topic.
The responses were generally in agreement, with Bank of Canada’s James Chapman suggesting that this situation would only occur in a hyperinflation scenario, with Swiss National Bank’s  Thomas Moser concurring that a poor fiat performance may well invite more cryptocurrency activity, but argued that “as long as central banks do a good job, there is no real for central banks to disappear”.

Read full article at https://bitcoinnews.com/20-20-central-bank-execs-forum-agrees-bitcoin-no-threat-yet-to-fiat/

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Binance Acquires Maltese Bank Account, Plans Fiat Functionality Within a Year

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has announced that it has successfully opened a bank account in Malta. The CEO of Binance, Zhao Chengpeng, says that fiat to cryptocurrency trading will be launched within a year on the exchange.
Binance is the top cryptocurrency exchange in the world by volume with USD 1.5 billion of trading in the last day. This edges out the second biggest exchange OKEx by USD 100 million  and third biggest exchange Huobi by USD 350 million. Of course, these numbers vary from day to day, but Binance has almost always the top cryptocurrency exchange in the world by volume recently, with 343 different cryptocurrencies traded.

Read full article at https://bitcoinnews.com/binance-acquires-maltese-bank-account-plans-fiat-functionality-within-a-year/