The much-anticipated G20 talks on global cryptocurrency regulations took place at the beginning of this week in Buenos Aires. The result of these talks was that no immediate regulation will be put in place and that more information on this sector is needed for any global regulations to be put into place. That should happen at the next G20 meeting in July.
Having said that, it has become clear from statements by several lawmakers that there is no interest in stifling blockchain innovation and that a ban on cryptocurrencies or ultra-restrictive are rather unlikely.
Furthermore, it has become clear that the likelihood of global regulations for crypto assets is also unlikely as all G20 members would have to come to a consensus on how a global regulatory framework would look like. There are ample disagreements over a range of other – more important – issues, so the chance of all nations agreeing on one regulatory framework is unlikely.
For example, Malta’s Prime Minister has that he welcomes the digital currency exchange Binance on its shores while for operating without a necessary local license. This type of regulatory arbitrage will be a likely result if some countries agree to a legal framework while others do not, and that is the most likely outcome.
The rallied on this price-positive news and closed the week 11 percent higher, and most of the altcoin market followed suit.
This week’s contributions have been provided by , , , , and .
Payza is a Montreal-based payment processor that became a subsidiary of a London-based firm MH Pillars Ltd. in 2012. The firm facilitates remittance payments via bank transfers and . The DOJ has dragged Payza to court for allegedly laundering over $250 million generated from Ponzi schemes, pyramid schemes, and other illicit activities.
The had been filed since November 2016 but only got published by authorities some days ago. As stated in the case file, Payza and its Canadian resident owners, Firoz Patel and Ferhan Patel, are operating an unlicensed money transmitter business.
According to the authorities, the crime was committed in March 2012, when Payza and its founders knowingly laundered $250 million connected to various criminal companies. As per the statement, officers arrested one of the co-founders of the service, Ferhan Patel on Sunday, March 18, 2018, in Detroit but Firoz is yet to be stopped.
According to reports, Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) plans to warn the cryptocurrency exchange Binance to cease its operations in the country, where it has been offering its services without FSA approval, or face criminal charges. In order to operate legally in Japan, exchanges must apply to the FSA for licensure.
The Japanese newspaper Nikkei the story on March 22 and later that its information had come from “sources close to the agency.” Bloomberg also its information on the allegedly impending warning to “a person familiar with the matter.”
Contrary to reports from Japanese news outlet , Binance has denied rumors that Japan’s Financial Services Authority (FSA) is planning to issue a warning requiring the cryptocurrency exchange desk to shut down its operation in the country.
Changpeng Zhao, Binance’s CEO, struck back at Nikkei‘s report on Twitter, it to be an example of “irresponsible journalism” and asserting that the exchange is engaged in “constructive dialogue with Japan FSA.” In light of these ongoing talks, he opined, it “does not make sense for FSA to tell a newspaper before telling us.”
Give it another ten years and bitcoin will emerge the single currency of the internet, as opposed to more than circulating today. As for fiat-equivalence, the most widely used cryptocurrency in the world could even overtake the U.S. dollar in importance.
Skeptical as you probably are about the predictions above like many of us, they are coming from the founder and CEO of one of the most popular social media platforms around today (and not some over-optimistic bitcoin evangelist).
In a recent , Jack Dorsey, the serial entrepreneur behind social media giant Twitter and payment company , painted a rather pretty picture about the future of bitcoin.
“The world ultimately will have a single currency; the internet will have a single currency. I personally believe that it will be bitcoin,” Dorsey told The Times.
and crippling student loans, the two things which are defining the financial futures of most college students in America. According to held by Student Loans.net, college kids are using money from their student loans to buy bitcoin and other digital currencies.
The Student Loan report polled over 1,000 students for purposes of this survey and found out that one-fifth of those students put aside money meant for covering their expenses into purchasing digital currencies. The survey was conducted online via Pollfish, which specializes in online polling.
Founder of Student Loan Report, Drew Cloud, said: “Younger Americans are certainly the most enthusiastic about cryptocurrency; they are the most active investors and want to get involved in the space in any way possible. However, I truly thought the percentage would be lower. As a college student, your budget is thin and that extra money could be used on rent, groceries, or books.”
A major security vulnerability has been discovered in , prompting the company to issue an official statement. The security flaw was first detected by a 15-year-old British security researcher, named Saleem Rashid. He discovered a hardware-based attack vector that affected all variants of wallets offered by the company, including the Ledger Blue, in November 2017.
Ledger, in response, released an updated , on March 6, 2018. Saleem Rashid disclosed the attack source code to Ledger with a proper explanation of the exploit. He , “the vulnerability arose due to Ledger’s use of a custom architecture to work around many of the limitations of their secure element.” This shows that even though were said to provide the best security, there is still a possibility that they can be hacked under certain conditions. Open source hardware could be a promising way to mitigate such vulnerabilities in the future.
Ledger hardware wallets have been so popular that the company has failed to meet market demand for its best selling product Ledger Nano S. As a result, people have begun looking up to online to buy the Nano S or other cryptocurrency hardware wallet. The catch here, however, is that there is no way to verify that a purchased wallet is secure. There are chances are that a hardware wallet may have been already infected before the vendor sold it.
Jonathan Hamel, the Canadian technology educator and entrepreneur, has told a parliamentary hearing which took place on March 19 that the forked is nothing but an illegitimate scam.
Calling the currency project a “downright scam,” Hamel was giving testimony at a House of Commons’ Standing Committee on Finance discussion on cryptocurrencies. Hamel described the coin as a “BCash” and disassociated it from , making efforts to ensure the lawmakers’ panel understood that in spite of the name similarities, the two are not comparable.
Unlike , which had transparent aims of revolutionizing currency by the people for the people with anticipated good effects on any economy, bitcoin Cash did not, he said. “Other [cryptocurrencies] are downright scams, like BCash,” Hamel said of the virtual coin.
Hamel was scathing in his testimony, although other observers have called Hamel’s performance a willful attempt to mislead the Canadian government on the coin’s legitimacy, possibly to further his own interests. In across the globe, protesters have smeared Hamel for what they see as a self-aggrandizing cheap shot at a legitimate digital currency.
After several years of success in the Japanese technology space, Yahoo Japan is looking to embark on another exciting adventure into the nascent world of blockchain technology and cryptocurrency.
The Asian internet heavyweight has it would buy 40 percent stake in BitARG, a registered Japanese exchange based in Tokyo. This smart move will enable Yahoo Japan to seamlessly launch its cryptocurrency exchange in April 2019, without getting into trouble with the Japanese regulatory authorities since BitARG has already registered with the country’s Financial Services Agency (FSA).
Although Yahoo Japan exchange will be built from the ground-up, it could make use of some of BitARG Exchange Tokyo’s existing systems.
According to , Google is releasing a blockchain-related product in response to the increasing competition from emerging startups who are implementing new blockchain solutions to rival the company.
The . has also been busy acquiring and investing in startups with expertise in digital ledger and blockchain technology. According to , Alphabet Inc. became a leading investor in 2017, ahead of . and .
While Google started a trial for developers to test blockchain services on its cloud platform in 2016, the company has begun to explore broader uses of the technology. “Like many new technologies, we have individuals in various teams exploring potential uses of blockchain, but it’s way too early for us to speculate about any possible uses or plans,” said a Google spokesman.
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David Drake has sparked a ray of hope in the eyes of bitcoin investors by making a bold prediction. The Chairman of the investment firm, LDJ Capital, says bitcoin could be set for a dramatic rise in value by the end of 2018 –
After the first G20 Meeting of Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors of 2018, he termed the future of cryptocurrency in one line, “a cold winter.” However, he believed the price of the digital currency could reach $30,000.
The digital currency was on the priority list of the , but ministers did not agree on what Bloomberg called “a uniform clampdown on the currency.”
“I’d say this year is a cryptocurrency Wall Street time and like Dorsey said, and we have said that before as well, we think cryptocurrency on the bitcoin will be worth $30,000 at the year end – it is limited,” Drake .
As of March 26, bitcoin’s was estimated price was around $8,400.
bitcoin has had a somewhat tumultuous year. Its value shot up from some $950 in March 2017 to record highs of nearly $20,000 in the final month of 2017.
As news of bitcoin millionaires started flooding the timelines, cryptocurrency newbies jumped to get in on the action. However, multiple governing bodies are skeptical of the decentralized digital currency and have put legal restrictions on the same.
Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey, that bitcoin would overcome problems like scaling and in the process, overpower the importance of the dollar. Dorsey had some comments to this as well which he expressed at the G20 meeting. He said, “The world ultimately will have a single currency, the internet will have a single currency. I personally believe that it will be bitcoin. This would take place over the next decade, but it could go faster.”
Drake said that what he understood from Dorsey’s comments is that bitcoin, rather than being the only form of digital currency, will become an acceptable currency on a global basis as it was the first of its kind. He also emphasized on the fact that, “There will be hundreds. Today you’ve got 1500.”
Most Cryptocurrencies Are Fraud
Drake feels that most of the cryptocurrencies on the market are fraudulent, weird and strange. He strongly feels that bitcoin will keep its place as the reigning king of the digital currencies. As more and more digital currencies are surfacing on the internet, it is getting confusing for the newbies to make a proper investment that assures profits and helps them avoid losses.
Well, if you dream of having a cryptocurrency empire, we would suggest you strike the deal now, while the iron is still hot!
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