Japan: A Forward Thinking Bitcoin Nation
By 2014, Bitcoin was just about ready to hit the mainstream in Japan. Mt. Gox was a Tokyo based bitcoin exchange which boasted 70% of the global turnover of Bitcoin trading. However, in February of 2014 Mt. Gox suddenly closed its website and shut down its exchange when it was discovered that it had been hacked. Approximately 850,000 bitcoins worth about $450 million at the time was missing and presumed to be stolen. The CEO Mark Karpeles was eventually arrestedin Japan and charged with fraud and embezzlement, and the saga was widely broadcast throughout Japan. The true nature of the incident is still a mystery and due to the widely publicized saga, the word “Bitcoin” in Japan continued to have a strong association with fraud, theft, and ponzi schemes for many years to come.
Right around the same time, however, there were some new developments in Japan. Bitflyer was a bitcoin exchange that was started by a group led by an ex-Goldman Sachs trader. QUOINE was another Singapore based company that opened an exchange in Japan. As these exchanges slowly gained a quiet following, some homegrown Japanese cryptocurrencies also emerged. One of them is Monacoin, a popular virtual currency among online gamers that can also be used to buy goods online. Currently Monacoin is ranked the world's 35th largest crypto currency in terms of market cap.
2017 was a watershed year for “virtual currencies,” as the Japanese by now liked to call them. Early in the year China and Korea had cracked down on cryptocurrency exchanges and shut them down. All cryptocurrency related funding activities, called ICOs (initial coin offerings) were also prohibited. It was precisely these events, combined with a very important law amendment, that led to the explosive growth of crypto trading in Japan. On April 1st of this year, the Payment Services Act (which is a part of the Banking Act) was amended to allow “virtual currencies” as a legal form of payment.
Full story at http://bit.ly/2h0Pnw0
Source: Forbes
Why Bitcoin Matters More Than Blockchain
Bitcoin is going to do to banks what email did the post office and Amazon did to retail. Understandably those at the center of the financial system are concerned.
The banker’s mantra of “blockchain not bitcoin” has caught fire on Wall Street – everybody loves blockchain, they may not know what it is, but they love it! Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan, hates Bitcoin, but loves blockchain, Goldman Sachs CEO, Lloyd Blankfein, has embraced blockchain while he is warming to Bitcoin. Admittedly, I suffered from the same love affair with blockchain. As an early adopter of Bitcoin I still had feelings for the currency, but for a period of time I was infatuated with blockchain.
Perhaps I should begin with the journey that lead me to Bitcoin. For more than two decades I was a part of Jamie Dimon's and Lloyd Blankfein's world of traditional finance. I began my career as an equities trader and then spent most of the internet bubble trading merger arbitrage -- for those old enough to remember the halcyon days of "Merger Monday," I was the guy placing bets on whether the deal would go through and who would be next. After the internet bubble popped and in the throes of a recession, I started a brokerage firm that catered to mutual funds and other institutional investors. My clients were the old guard of the financial world. We did well, but I didn't find it very exciting.
Then I began to trade ADR's (American Depository Receipts). These stocks represented shares in foreign companies and traded on the NYSE and NASDAQ. The trick with this type of trading was to watch the foreign currency markets for unusual moves. When currencies moved and the ADR's did not, there was money to be made. These markets were much more exciting than stodgy blue chip stocks. After a few years playing around in the currency markets, I made the leap to global macro investing.
Full story at http://bit.ly/2yQnjFL
Source: Forbes
How to Keep Your Bitcoin Safe and Secure
OWNING CRYPTOCURRENCY ISN'T quite the Wild West experience it was at the beginning of the decade, but investors still face plenty of instability and risk. The threats aren't just abstract or theoretical; new scams crop up, and old ones resurge, all the time. Whether it's a fake wallet set up to trick users, a phishing attempt to steal private cryptographic keys, or even fake cryptocurrency schemes, there’s something to watch out for at every turn.
Cryptocurrencies can feel secure, because they decentralize and often anonymize digital transactions. They also validate everything on public, tamper-resistant blockchains. But those measures don't make cryptocurrencies any less susceptible to the types of simple, time-honored scams grifters have relied on in other venues. Just this week, scams have arisen that divert funds from users' mining rigs to malicious wallets, because victims forgot to change default login credentials. Search engine phishing scams that tout malicious trading sites over legitimate exchanges have also spiked. And a trojan called CryptoShuffler has stolen thousands of dollars by lurking on computers, and spying on Bitcoin wallet addresses that land in copy/paste clipboards.
A few simple steps, though, can help cryptocurrency proponents—be it Bitcoin or Monero or anything between—guard against a swath of common attacks. Just as you might keep your cash out of plain sight, or stash your jewelry in a safe deposit box, it pays to put a little effort into how you manage your cryptocurrency. The following won't defend against every conceivable attack on your digital doubloons, but it's a good place to start.
Full story at http://bit.ly/2iwPSy1
Source: https://www.wired.com
Iranian Government Plans New Infrastructure for Bitcoin Users
In positive news for Bitcoin users, the Iranian government plans to implement a new infrastructure for Bitcoin users in Iran.
Bitcoin is known to start with countries in the west and as the tension rise between Iran and the US, the former is strategizing to incorporate Bitcoin into its system. Iran and the US currently have a problem in their relationship as Donald Trump called the deal with Iran as “the worst deal ever.”
The Islamic republic is still suffering from international sanctions that affect several of its economic sectors, including finance, energy and the shipping industry. International sanctions have also hindered Iranian citizens’ ability to use online payment platforms like PayPal, Venmo and Braintree.
With the sanction, the Iranian government has come up with a way to go around and that is through the implementation of Bitcoin as the main form of online payment. One of the advantages of Bitcoin is the fact that it is a decentralized currency which cannot be controlled by a central identity like a corporation or government; thus countries are not able to sanction payments.
Full story at http://bit.ly/2iwPUpD
Source: CoinTelegraph
New York Preschool Accepts Bitcoin, But Not Credit Cards
While Bitcoin sceptics claim that Bitcoin is only used for speculation and has no actual uses, a New York preschool has shown that Bitcoin can be a convenient and successful method of payment.
In an interview given by Marco Ciocca, the Chairman of The Montessori Schools in Flatiron and SoHo, to Business Insider, he explained that he had a few parents enquiring about the use of Bitcoin as a means to pay the tuition fees.
Since Marco had been following the Bitcoin space for the past few years and was aware of the advantages of using Bitcoin, including ease of payment, low fees and quick and speed of the transactions. Together with other members of the administration, Ciocca decided to add Bitcoin as a payment option.
Full story at http://bit.ly/2iwPW0J
Source: CoinTelegraph
Banks are staying away from bitcoin 'bubble' due to money laundering, Credit Suisse CEO says
Banks have "little or no appetite" to get involved with bitcoin and cryptocurrencies due to fears of a bubble and illicit activity associated with it, the chief executive of Credit Suisse said Thursday.
"I think most banks in the current state of regulation have little or no appetite to get involved in a currency which has such anti-money laundering challenges," Tidjane Thiam said at a news conference, according to Reuters.
The banking executive's comments came as the digital currency surpassed $7,000 for the first time.
Thiam added that investors were only buying into the digital asset "to make money," and described it as "the very definition of speculation and the very definition of a bubble."
Full story at http://cnb.cx/2gZeYVQ
Source: CNBC
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