While cryptocurrency mass adoption in the Middle East may still take a little more time to take place, there are several countries in the region that are truly taking notice.

From the UAE to Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Lebanon, some private and public entities are willing to take the risk by embracing the new technologies earlier than the others. However, there are also other countries that decided to crack down on anything involving cryptocurrency.

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That being said, one of the focal points that should be taken into consideration when analyzing the nascent industry is that adoption in this region is mainly driven from the top down. Government agencies and traditional banks, though historically known as the slowest technology adopters, are the main players diving right into crypto transformation.

The region boasts some of the wealthiest nations in the world, with GDP per capita, ranges from $50,000 to $130,000 in the Gulf states, thanks to large reserves of oil and other lucrative natural resources. However, the spending on the digital economy and its share of Arab countries GDPs is a mere low single-digit. Conventional sectors, such as real estate and stocks, are still monopolizing private investments, spending, and conversations.

So it could be a bit frustrating for crypto enthusiasts to watch the slow pace at which Arab investors are reacting to the crypto phenomenon.

But with such a hype surrounding cryptocurrencies, the virtual asset class may have enticed retail investors, with many utilizing cryptocurrency as a speculative asset to take advantage of price fluctuations.

All in all, the innovation and private investments in the crypto space have been and will remain lagging far behind other regions, including emerging nations, as in fact, they are nowhere. However, regulators, caught up with the much-hyped vision of crypto, have likewise others begun to investigate blockchain and cryptocurrency technology. And while they are expected to continue to push ahead with regulations, this may ultimately wake up the wealthy investors base to the opportunities that the new business offers.

Various countries in the Arab world have emerged as early adopters, and theyre poised to become even more influential in the near future.

Currently, at the frontier of Fintech adoption, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have announced plans to launch a digital currency to serve both countries. Dubbed Aber, it was announced in November on an experimental basis to facilitate financial settlements between the two Middle Eastern nations, which have a combined economy of over $1.2 trillion.

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The government of Dubai has also revealed details of its own digital currency, called emCash, which will be used to pay for government and private services in the city.

Ripple, a US-based crypto payments company, is already working with Saudi and Emeriti banks to legitimize cryptocurrencies further. It has inked partnerships with Saudi Arabias de facto central bank to pilot instant cross-border payments. According to Ripple, more than fifty financial institutions in the Middle East revealed their interest in its solutions that enablecross-border money transactionsin a faster and cheaper way than the current systems allow.

Regardless of the regulatory stance, policymakers in the Middle East are aware that the adoption of the cryptocurrencies appears inevitable. Those going bigger on this track are wary of the combination of the potential benefits and risks, as well as factors that determine policy openness or aversion.

The UAE has already taken steps to regulate the way that blockchain start-ups are raising money initial coin offerings though the nations regulators continue to warn of the many risks involved. The watchdog proposed a fit-for-purpose regulatory framework that effectively recognizesdigital tokens as securities.

Under the guidelines, startups wishing to execute anICOmust approach the SCA to see if it falls under the bodys regulation. Also, market intermediaries and secondary market operators dealing with ICOs must be approved by the regulator. ICO operatorswill have to publish a prospectus, just like a firm would for an IPO on the stock market. And if an ICO has the characteristics of a security, such as giving a person ownership of shares in a company, then the SCA will regulate it.

In addition, Abu Dhabis financial regulator granted approval for Arabian Bourse, which allows the startup to operate a full-fledged crypto-asset exchange and digital custodian in the emirate.

Bahrain is also establishing itself as a blockchain pioneer in the region. Indeed, the smallest Middle Eastern nation isnt too far behind with its numerous initiatives to attract cryptocurrency business. On the one hand, Bahrain Central Bank has approved the crypto-asset exchange Rain Crypto Exchange to go live, post their partnership with global exchange Bittrex. Rain received its node after a two-year regulatory sandbox process under the central banks supervision.

Other countries like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Kuwait are also said to have taken notice.Their regulators have drafted different bills allowing central banks to issue rules regulating cryptocurrency activities and blockchain-based finance. The new rules reflect a U-turn from last years crackdown that said that cryptocurrencies are an entirely non-sharia compliant business.

Meanwhile, there has been a lot of debate on the use ofvirtual coins as a legitimate formof currency and investment as Islamic law emphasizes real economic activity based on physical assets and without pure monetary speculation.

All economic activity in Islamic finance must be compliant with Sharia law, which has stringent rules to ensure certainty and immediacy of transactions. Islamic law also prohibits the acceptance of interest or fees for loans of money.

See the rest here:
Cryptocurrency in Arab World: Clock is Ticking, But Pace is Slow - Finance Magnates

Nikolai Mushegian, a computer scientist who specified some of the core mechanics behind the blockchain financial services platform MakerDAO has decided to give 10,000 in MKR, currently worth just over $4.2 million, to his alma mater, Carnegie Mellon, Pennsylvania.

He wants to set up a research program for decentralized apps (dapps), protocols, and game-theoretic mechanisms to fight an industry that has been corrupted by rent-seeking behavior.

In days gone by, Mushegian wrote, research in the web3 space [was]done by players who automatically put their work into the public domain without a second thought...Nobody wanted to deal with lawyers, everyone wanted to build stuff.

He added, There was no threat from the established networks of banks and tech giants because they did not take us seriously.

Is the arrival of big banks into blockchain bad for the industry? Image: Shutterstock.

But this has changed. Major banks like Santander are using blockchain technology. JP Morgan has even created its own digital currency. It is clear that era has passed, he wrote. Some of the patents being filed make a mockery of IP law and are an insult to the developers that built the underlying technologies that enable them. Get ready for a years-long multimillion-dollar battle over whether send crypto over email is patentable.

Mushegian wrote that the fund sponsors graduate and post-graduate students at the university. Carnegie Mellons specialty, wrote Mushegian, is in designing algorithms; critical to the development of the blockchain industry.

In a post on his website, Mushegian wrote that he donated 3,200 MKR ($1,363,584) on New Years Eve, and has informally committed another 6,800 MKR, which hell give to the university in the next one to three years.

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Mushegian cites good karma as his motivation, as well as the increasing rent-seeking behavior from some of the big players in this space, and also from existing banks and tech giants.

By creating the fund, Mushegian hopes to fight off rent-seekers and those who are better at filing patents than writing working code. Hes banking on the fact that universities are not easily bullied by corporations, and so are less motivated by bottom lines. But will his donation be enough to battle the will of the banks and their well-funded warchests?

Read more:
Why this scientist is donating $4.2 million in cryptocurrency - Decrypt

Following the celebration of the new year/2020s, Coinbases Co-Founder and CEO, Brian Armstrong, revealed his thoughts about cryptocurrencys progress over the past decade. He observed the following:

Its easy to forget, but throughout much of the decade, it was a frequently debated question about whether Bitcoin would even survive. Maybe a flaw would be found in the protocol, maybe it would be outlawed, or maybe it would all go to zero since it had no intrinsic value (of course, we crypto folks were quick to point out that the dollar isnt backed by anything either). There were over 379 articleswritten, prematurely declaring the end of Bitcoin. Not only did Bitcoin survive, it thrived, becoming thetop performing asset of the decade. The naysayers were proved wrong and we learned an important lesson about human nature: most big breakthroughs are contrarian ideas that people dismiss and ridicule at the start.

When I was thinking about starting Coinbase, a few people told me I was crazy to try creating a custodial crypto wallet and exchange. The best hackers in the world were trying to break into crypto exchanges, and MtGox along with many others had suffered breaches. Through a combination of luck and skill, Coinbase managed to weather the barrage of attacks, and created many novel methods of key storage which improved with every passing year. We made cryptocurrency easier to use in the process and introduced tens of millions of new people to this new technology. This allowed us to build a cash flow positive company with 800 employees, weather the ups and downs of the crypto markets, and continue to invest in new products to help the ecosystem grow.

For a new industry, there was a lot of infighting as protocol changes were debated and new coins were launched (via fork, or entirely new projects). Many groups became radicalized and splintered off into their own echo chamber. I believe what made this more vitriolic than other technology debates Ive seen (emacs vs vim, iOS vs Android, etc) is that once people own a particular coin they have an inherent conflict of interest and emotions take over. We stop trying to seek the truth and start talking our own book. On the plus side, having a number of competing groups drove a lot of innovation vs having a monoculture or a one coin monopoly. The race is still very much on to see which blockchains will reach the next 100M or 1B users, and I would expect cryptocurrency to eventually see some consolidation, following a similar path to other industries.

The industry went through a period of five bubbles, followed each time by a crash (settling at a higher point than the previous low). In other words, the industry kept growing in an upward channel, but it was a very bumpy ride. This meant that a lot of the discussion and media attention was on the price of crypto, and the day trading attracted short term thinking that bordered at times on gambling. At the same time, investors who took a long term approach saw incredible returns.

We saw how much latent demand there was for startups to raise money from unaccredited investors when the Initial Coin Offering boom kicked off. All the previous crowd-funding records were obliterated, and now 8 out of the top 10 largest crowdfunding projects of all time are crypto-related. The ICO trend attracted the ire and attention of the SEC, who slowly but surely started making enforcement actions in the space. A debate raged on about which crypto tokens were securities, and which werent. Organizations like theCryptoRatingCouncil (CRC) came out, with industry participation, to start to provide clarity. Finally, as often happens with startups that raise too much money, it can actually harm the company. Many ICO projects failed to ship real-world products while sitting on huge piles of cash (some of them began to resemble investment firms over time, rather than real product companies).

Perhaps with the exceptions of the protocols themselves, the best business models in the past decade in crypto tended to be exchanges and brokerages who sold shovels during the gold rush to trade this new asset class. Some crypto miners had decent outcomes as well, but the volatility of crypto prices made it very difficult for them to survive the whims of the market. A large number of high quality teams and startups entered the space in the past few years, and there is a lot of venture capital money still flowing into crypto startups (our own small fund, Coinbase Ventures, has invested in 60 crypto startups in the last few years, for instance).

One of the challenges holding crypto adoption back (in addition to scalability and usability) was volatility. While volatility is great for investors/speculators, it isnt great for people who want to use it as a medium of exchange. Bitcoin volatility has trended down over time, which is a promising long term trend, but it seems people want stable cryptocurrencies sooner. Stablecoins saw a lot of adoption in the past few years. In part, this allowed the blockchain not bitcoin mindset that is more common amongst banks and governments, to find an outlet, with everyone from JPMorgan to China announcing efforts to launch stablecoins. It also allowed questionable stablecoins like Tether to provide trading pairs on exchanges without fiat rails, and crypto backed stablecoins like Dai to see increased adoption.

Crypto started the decade with purely retail activity amongst hobbyists and early adopters, but by the end of the decade there was a clear trend of institutions starting to come on board. Not necessarily the large traditional institutions, although they all seem to have teams who are exploring it, but hundreds of smaller crypto forward institutions. A couple hundred crypto funds were created (fun fact: the big three, Paradigm, Polychain, and A16Z Crypto, were all founded by former Coinbase employees or board members).

The decade started off with cryptocurrency being totally unregulated. Coinbase was (as far as I know) the first crypto company to really take regulation seriously because we felt it would increase adoption long term. We started applying for money transmitter licenses in the U.S. starting around 2013. From there, we got an eMoney license in Europe, the Bitlicense in NY, registered as an MSB with FinCEN, and started pursuing additional licenses with other agencies. We have interactions with multiple regulators, all over the world, every week at this point, seeking to be an educational resource. At the close of this decade, I can confidently say that that cryptocurrency is a regulated industry (at least in first world countries), although it will continue to evolve rapidly.

Armstrong went on to conclude his observation with a nod towards Coinbases growth and development over the years:

Overall, being in the crypto industry was a hell of a ride in the past decade. There were a number of ups and downs, and it was a very volatile industry to manage through. Im really proud that Coinbase has stayed financially healthy during this period, growing to more than 800 employees, and has helped build the infrastructure to enable the industry to keep growing. Weve continued to focus on trust and ease of use with all of our products, believing this will help bring in the next 100M and then 1B users to cryptocurrency.

The rest is here:
Coinbases Brian Armstrong Looks Back at Cryptocurrencys Progress Over the Past Decade - Crowdfund Insider

When someone in the mainstream media berates Bitcoin, it often becomes an emotional alarm call for the cryptocurrency news squadron.

Suddenly, all the failed novelists who occupy cryptocurrency news desks spring into action, spewing forth endlessly optimistic and hopeful refutations. With all the sassy pride of Hillary Swanks Freedom Writers, their optimism, while hollow, manages to reassure those on the inside.

But what if one of those outsider mainstream folk we love to demonize so much happened to be right?

Recently in the pages of Yahoo Finance, Chief Economist for Lending Tree, Tendayi Kapfidze called Bitcoin a pyramid scheme.

According to Kapfidze, Bitcoin is a solution in search of a problem, and the only way to get rich off it is to dupe others who come in after you. Kapfidze said:

Its a pyramid scheme, you only make money based on people who enter after you. It has no real utility in the world. Theyve been trying to create a utility for it for ten years now. Its a solution in search of a problem and it still hasnt found a problem to solve.

How can Bitcoin be a pyramid? Didnt you see how it pumped all the way through 2017? It achieved X,XXX% gains in one year! It obviously has utility, right?

Lets be serious: everyone knows why the cryptocurrency market pumped in 2017, and its not because everyone started using Bitcoin. Nor is it because the mythical institutions rode in on horseback to save everyone with their fat fiat injections.

The (small group of) people who pumped the market in 2017 are the same people who sat back and profited from its drop in 2018.

But before you settle on those market pumpers as your enemy of convenience, ask yourself wouldnt you do the same?

Arent you too attempting to buy low, so that you can later sell high? Even the founders of major cryptocurrency projects offloaded hundreds of millions worth of their coins onto naive investors during January 2018s peak.

Bitcoins vocal proponents often fall back on the following argument: Bitcoin, unlike fiat, cant be manipulated by fractional reserve bankers to help fund illegal wars.

But cryptocurrency holders apparently dont see how much they have in common with the bankers and money-lenders.

Bitcoiners scramble to buy their assets early, with the single, sole intention of selling them later for a profit. As landowners, the name of the game is to dump on later generations who are obliged to pay more simply because they arrived later.

Money-lenders accrue money early, then farm it out for profit. Cryptocurrency holders who sell at the top often buy their coins back when the price inevitably dumps again. Thus they keep their coins and the profit.

Back to the Yahoo article, even the pro-crypto voice who was brought in to offer a counter-argument appeared skeptical. Bruderman Asset Management Chief Market Strategist Oliver Pursche compared investing in cryptocurrency to a lottery:

I own five if Im lucky one of them will become an all-star. Pursche added: You go into it very soberly understanding that you can lose all of your principle and that this is purely speculative.

How high will the pyramid grow before people realize the bags theyve been holding are actually limestone and granite blocks?

This article was edited by Samburaj Das.

Read the rest here:
Bitcoin, a Pyramid Scheme? Pick Up Those Blocks and Ill Tell You - CCN.com

South Korea officials are reportedly causing some confusion with the latest drafted legislation that will tax individual crypto profits. According to Cointelegraph, South Koreas officials stated that under current law, the government cannot impose income taxes on individual profits that are from cryptocurrency transactions.

South Koreas previous Ministry of Strategy and Finance confirmed it will levy taxes on virtual assets through a tax code revision bill, but at a later date. The officials further declared:

In the case of a corporations virtual currency transaction, all transactions that increase the entitys net assets are subject to taxation under the current law, so it is taxable, but it is practically impossible to produce tax revenue results by distinguishing only virtual currency transactions.

The officials also noted that they are preparing measures to impose taxes on virtual currencies by reviewing cases of taxation by major countries, which is consistent with accounting standards, as well as trends, in international discussions of money laundering prevention.

Although the South Korean government it is holding off on imposing taxation on earnings from digital asset trading, legislation is in the works.reportedly does plan to create a bill that will address taxable cryptocurrency transactions by the first half of 2020.

The plans for crypto transaction taxes come just after the National Tax Service (NTS) of South Korea confirmed that it will be withholding taxes worth an estimated 80.3 billion Korean won (appr. $70 million) from digital asset trading platform, Bithumb. As previously reported, Bithumb Holdings largest shareholder, Vidente, which operates Bithumbs Korea division, confirmed the withheld amount and noted that the tax would be imposed on the exchanges overseas clients. The companysstated:

Bithumb Korea is planning to take legal action against the tax claim so the final payment can be adjusted in the future.

The amount of tax to be withheld was determined by taking into account miscellaneous income, meaning irregular revenue sources such as lottery gain

Continued here:
South Korea Officials Cause Confusion With Drafting Legislation to Tax Individual Cryptocurrency Profit - Crowdfund Insider

On Friday, December 27, 2019, Chinese regulators issued a joint regulatory warning on the rise of virtual currency trading activity in the country. The Beijing Local Financial Supervision Bureau, the People's Bank of China Business Management Department, the Beijing Banking and Insurance Regulatory Bureau, and the Beijing Securities Regulatory Bureau noted that the uptick in activity is the result of the promotion of blockchain technology.

Indeed, on October 25, Chinese President Xi Jinping issued a statement for Chinese companies to seize the opportunity offered by blockchain technology. The markets reacted with a surge in the price of bitcoin and an increase in internet searches for the term blockchain on WeChat. The positivity on blockchain coming from Chinas leader is not new as he has in the past referred to blockchain as ten times the importance of the discovery of the Internet.

BEIJING, Nov. 7, 2019 -- Jing Xiandong, CEO of Ant Financial, introduces the blockchain platform of ... [+] Ant Financial during the fifth World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, east China's Zhejiang Province, Nov. 7, 2018. (Photo by Chen Yehua/Xinhua via Getty) (Xinhua/Chen Yehua via Getty Images)

The approach of being tough on virtual currency trading platforms while encouraging blockchain technology might seem at first to be complicated - particularly if public platforms such as Bitcoin or Ethereum are used that has a native token or cryptocurrency used as an essential part of the blockchain or distributed ledger technology. Of course, for China, with the imminent release of a Central Bank Digital Currency, and its wish to maintain control over the types of digital or cryptocurrencies traded similarly to the way it has controlled the spread and use of the Internet, a policy coming down hard on cryptocurrency trading platforms makes sense.

Many in the United States have noted the focus should not be on cryptocurrencies, but rather blockchain technology. Indeed, the cryptocurrency and blockchain community seems to swing like a pendulum. When Bitcoin goes up, its all about the cryptocurrency and the focus on blockchain gets blurred. When Bitcoin goes down, the industry and developers are quick to note that finally, there can be a focus on the real gem in all of this technology - a distributed ledger technology that will fundamentally change the way people, processes, and organizations operate.

Indeed, a recent Forbes article noted how Chinas approach to Blockchain was winning and notes the U.S. should pay attention. The U.S. has similarly started to pay attention, more as the result of Project Libra, that forced Congress to pay attention to both cryptocurrency and blockchain at the same time. While many Members of Congress became quickly adept at some of the finer distinctions in the marketplace, cryptocurrency and blockchain still seem to be words quickly conflated, where an increase in blockchain is the same as an increase in cryptocurrency, and so the U.S. runs a much higher risk than China in stopping cryptocurrency trading and also significantly impacting the development of blockchain technology in the country.

The notice from China harped on how the virtual currency trading platforms were creating the potential for investor harm in a variety of ways. As stated in the joint risk release, They launch zero-interest loans, dual currency financial management and other projects through digital currency mortgages. In other words, Decentralized Finance or DeFi, meet the Peoples Republic Of China.

And therein lies the issue for China - which is that there is very little interest in decentralization, and much more interest in seeing the development of blockchain technology and its central bank digital currency as a way of spreading its influence around the globe to push its own agenda.

Meanwhile, for the virtual currency trading platforms, The release, seriously warn institutions and personnel in Beijing that carry out related activities. They must not publicize and promote relevant virtual currency projects or platforms, they must not conduct virtual currency business sales or transactions, they must not engage in virtual currency transactions or disguised trading operations with investors, Acting on domestic and overseas virtual currency issuance and trading activities, financial institutions and non-bank payment institutions within its jurisdiction shall not provide services for any virtual currency transaction.

HONG KONG - 2019/04/06: In this photo illustration a cryptocurrency electronic cash Bitcoin logo is ... [+] seen on an Android mobile device with People's Republic of China flag in the background. (Photo Illustration by Budrul Chukrut/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Thus, the seriousness of this warning makes it clear virtual currency trading is not welcome in China, and finishes by noting that investors should, maintain rationality ... beware of being deceived, and promptly report relevant clues about violations of laws and regulations. So, investors are then part of the regulatory structure as well in China, encouraged to provide tips to authorities if violations in the marketplace are noticed.

So, as China continues to pour money into the blockchain technology and prepares the release of its central bank digital currency, the country continues what was likely the inevitable, which is to push back on any other virtual currencies that might compete with its national currency.

The U.S. should take note, at a minimum, of the level of proficiency and understanding regulators in China have regarding cryptocurrency and blockchain, particularly in its ability to note how the promotion of blockchain technology can lead to cryptocurrency schemes as a result.

Read more from the original source:
Chinas Dichotomy Between Cryptocurrency And Blockchain - Forbes

While Bitcoin (BTC) has had a harrowing past few months, tanking by 50% since the June peak, XRP has been having it worst.

The third-largest cryptocurrency, which trades behind Ethereum in terms of market capitalization, has collapsed by 50% since the start of 2019, a period which saw Bitcoin gain 95%.

It should come as no surprise then that analysts are currently fearing the worst.

Per previous reports from Ethereum World News, Joe Saz, a cryptocurrency trader and regular guest on BlockTV, went as far as to remark that XRP is floating in outer space and in a serious downtrend, drawing attention to a descending channel that has formed on the assets chart.

That begs the question: where will XRPs price bottom after the harrowing downtrend that has been seen this year?

According to a recent tweet from il Capo of Crypto, a trader closely analyzing assets in the cryptocurrency space, XRPs closely notable level of support is around 30% below the current price of $0.195 at around $0.15. This means that the cryptocurrencys downtrend is still a ways from ending.

Capos analysis that a bottom is likely to form in and around $0.15 lines up with that of other analysts.

Perprevious reports from this very outlet, analyst Magicrecently argued that the cryptocurrency is printing what appears to be a bear flag breakdown, which has a measured target of $0.15 per XRP. Magic added that the $0.15 target could easily be hit if Bitcoin starts to slip once again.

That has been echoed by Jacob Canfield, a prominent cryptocurrency trader who recently stated that XRP will need to fall to the $0.10 to $0.15 rangebefore he even considers a long position.

Michael Van De Poppe has claimed that as long as the $0.14 to $0.17 range is held by the popular altcoin, there will be a base for a strong rally to take place in 2020.

The CoinTelegraph contributor and Amsterdam Stock Exchange trader specifically said that if that level can hold and the price action plays out as it did during the previous macro bottom in the XRP price, the price of each token could hit $0.473 a pop by mid-2020, which is currently 175% higher than the market price:

Broke down of this range for the first time in a year, similar to the period in December 2015. Still expecting that period to be synonym for the current market. Area around $0.14-0.17 is must hold zone.

Link:
XRP Price Still 30% Above Support, Price Could Tank: Heres Why - Ethereum World News

Disclaimer: This a paid post, and should not be treated as news/advice.

The current decade is approaching its summation and it is fair to say that the cryptocurrency ecosystem has been one of the largest growing sectors during this period. Bitcoin and other major assets have received massive attention in the economic landscape as the digital asset ecosystem transcended into a $200 billion industry.

The growth of digital assets and their distribution was obviously facilitated via crypto exchanges and over time, the competitive nature between such organizations has only increased. Although the likes of Binance, Kraken, and Coinbase are some of the popular ones in the frame, other exchanges have also risen in terms of activity over the past few years.

TAGZ, an Australian Cryptocurrency Exchange launched earlier in March 2019, has taken the industry by storm and at press time, it was the largest exchange in terms of adjusted volume according to CoinMarketCap. The exchange is licensed by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC).

The growth exhibited by the exchange is commendable and considering TAGZ has been around for only 9 months, the accomplishment is noteworthy. It was also reported that the exchange ousted BitMEX, the largest BTC derivatives market, in terms of 24-hour volume by a reported volume of over $3 billion, whereas BitMEX registered around the mark of $1 billion.

TAGZ: How does it function and why was it getting so popular?

Just like any other major exchange, TAGZ facilitates crypto transactions on its platform where users can buy, sell, send, receive, and trade with their favoured assets. However, some of its attractive features explain its meteoric rise in the crypto space.

The majority of the exchanges in the space included a trading fee on their platform. Coinbase has a fixed fee of $2.99 for transactions up to $200 within the platform, whereas Binance charges a 0.1% fee for all trades. On the TAGZ platform, there is zero trading fee and there are no hidden charges after any transaction. The exclusion of trading fees has seemingly gained the attention of crypto traders around the world and given the exchange a definitive edge over its competitors. However, the platform does include a slightly higher withdrawal fee but the users are able to access instant withdrawals without the need for any processing delay or manual approval.

The cryptocurrency industry currently has thousands of exchanges hence legitimacy is a major concern to avoid the least credible ones. In that regard, TAGZ is the first exchange in Australia, that is fully regulated and consists of KYC/AML compliance. Users information is secured with the AUSTRAC, inline with AML policy, which indicated that user privacy is a top-notch priority within the organization.

Digital assets are usually famous for dealing with high volatility hence it is important that certain transaction takes place rapidly in order to avoid losses. TAGZ reported that the exchange currently had the fastest trade engine in the business, outperforming the likes of NASDAQ. Such a statement would sit well with traders, as the platform is also able to facilitate over 70,000 transactions per second. The exchange also provides maximum liquidity to its traders as 20% of the companys profit are allocated to the liquidity pool. However, according to CoinMarketCap, the exchange is currently not present in the top 50 liquid exchange.

Hacks and Online thefts are a common thing in the crypto industry hence it is of utmost importance for major exchanges to avoid loss of user funds. According to TAGZ, the asset funds are always kept in cold storage custody solution, so that the exchange is able to prevent any unsolicited activity.

The platform also boasts a security foundation by adopting a routine awareness program. The exchanges AI detects the security threat in real-time and then the IP is temporarily blocked and the threat is neutralized. If the threat is substantial, the exchange goes under protection mode to eliminate the occurrence of any illicit activity.

It is important for any exchange to be user-friendly and the TAGZ user interface has been identified by industry experts to be extremely easy to operate. The exchange also has an implemented SHA-384 layer encryption, which promotes multi-server cross-referencing. Users also have to option to access their account 24 hours a day to access their asset trading and balances.

TAGZ Affiliate Program

One of the key initiatives promoted by the platform is TAGZ Affiliate Program. People who become members of the affiliate circle are rewarded with significant commissions, which is in line with some of the highest in the industry. The members are paid every 30 months and it is stated that members could earn up to $10,000 per month.

The structure is fairly simple as TAGZ profits from customers transactions by charging a fee on each buys and sells conducted by the customer. A part of that fee is collected and affiliate members are offered 25% of the net fees that are collected by the exchange.

Future Road Map

The platform indicated that the major goal for the coming year is to improve liquidity on the platform, Bryan Seiler, CEO of TAGZ, stated,

The focus for us is in 2020 is to increase the liquidity on our platform even more which in return will bring on board more traders and users of our exchange. We are also working on releasing our new mobile app for iOS and Android devices which will be released shortly.

Conclusion

The plan of action and features exhibited by the exchange are recommendable. The exchange has been on the rise in 2019 and the recent volume spike over the likes of other major players is a positive sign. In order to reach a higher level of credibility, it is necessary for the exchange to focus on liquidity as mentioned earlier, which could bring in more users on their platform.

For more information and further queries, please check TAGZ official website.

See the article here:
TAGZ ends 2019 as the largest cryptocurrency exchange and sets major goals for 2020 - AMBCrypto

Dan Hallett is vice-president and principal of Highview Financial Group

I have often criticized the investment industry for pumping out products designed to sell rather than build wealth for investors. I have also worked to raise investor awareness of how gimmicky products destroy wealth. The battle against such products took a step backward recently with an Ontario Securities Commission panels decision to allow the launch of a bitcoin investment fund.

The OSCs Investment Funds Branch was initially opposed to the fund; citing several concerns pertaining to public interests. The panels decision document clearly lays out the OSCs legal limits when it comes to approving products that are considered risky and speculative. Ultimately, the panel concluded that the fund will be able to reliably value the funds assets, secure the holdings (from hacks/theft) and complete a full financial audit.

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Many look to bitcoin and other assets such as gold and other commodities to provide diversification from traditional financial assets. An investment must meet two basic conditions for it to effectively diversify a portfolio. First, it must be weakly correlated with other investments. Second, it must produce a positive return. Bitcoin passes the first test with flying colours. But the second a positive return is quite a leap of faith, and violates the warning attached to virtually all investment products.

Regulators have long required every investment fund prospectus to be stamped with a statement reminding investors that past performance is no indication of the future. And yet, it seems that any assumption that bitcoin offers portfolio diversification is implicitly based on bitcoins performance during its one decade in existence. This is a drop in the bucket of financial market history. But there are two problems with this assumption.

First, we have no idea even using history how bitcoin will behave in a recession, financial crisis or bear market. History can be useful to gauge behavioural patterns and worst-case scenarios. But bitcoin hasnt existed through any such environment.

Second, by claiming that bitcoin can diversify portfolios, I wonder what basis is used for assuming positive future returns. As I stated for a Globe and Mail article on the panels decision:

We design client portfolios to achieve a specific goal a specific long-term return target. I can take each component of the portfolio and give you a very good ballpark estimate of how each piece will contribute to achieving that long-term goal. I have no idea how anyone can do this with bitcoin or any cryptocurrency. It cant be done.

We have designed an algorithm to forecast long-term asset-class returns. (The method is summarized in a 2012 blog post and has been pretty accurate.) But bitcoin doesnt fit into this or any other sensible model that facilitates a confident return forecast. Im certainly not comfortable blindly relying on 10 years of data to form any type of future return expectation; particularly since that decade overlapped a very long economic recovery and bull market.

Bitcoin and other crypto or digital currencies are likely to have a future. And blockchain technology seems destined to change some industries e.g., the way we handle legal documents. But investment assets require fundamental characteristics upon which to base some value assessment and, in turn, return expectations. In the absence of such characteristics, buying bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies either for attractive returns or portfolio diversification is speculating not investing.

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Cryptocurrency is a tool for speculation not an investment - The Globe and Mail

If you start buying cryptocurrencies, you will need a wallet. It will allow you to store your cryptocurrency, but also to send, receive, buy or sell it. The different types of online cryptocurrency wallets. Before choosing your Bitcoin Profit New Domain, you need to determine the type of wallet you want to use. There are several, all with their own features and benefits.

The first type of wallet is the one that is on a cryptocurrency trading platform. These platforms, such as Coinbase, therefore allow you to trade different cryptocurrencies but also to benefit from a wallet. These are very simple to use wallets. They are installed automatically when you create your account and you just have to go to your wallet to be able to instantly generate a new address. Supported cryptocurrencies differ across platforms. So do not hesitate to consult the cryptocurrencies available on each interface before creating an account.

You will find multi-wallet portfolios. These are versatile wallets that allow the use of multiple cryptocurrencies. Although they are a little more complex to use than the portfolios of the platforms, they remain however more complete and practical to use than the simple portfolios that we will describe to you later. If you are using multiple cryptocurrencies and you are not necessarily new to cryptocurrency, this might be the perfect cryptocurrency wallet for you. Among the most used multi-wallet wallets, you will find Jaxx.

Finally, you will find many wallets valid for a single currency. Although they are less complete than other types of wallets, they will provide you with many advantages. The most important is increased completeness compared to the various versatile purses. For example, you will have the official wallets of each cryptocurrency.

Portfolios of cryptocurrency trading platforms

Multi-wallet portfolios

These multi-wallet wallets are very interesting because they offer many options while being versatile. Here are our favourites:

Jaxx is a wallet that will allow you to receive, send and receive your cryptocurrency in a simple way while taking advantage of many options. You can, for example, choose if you want to download the blockchain or not, take advantage of an attractive and simplified blockchain, and many other options. You can also use it both on your computer and on your mobile phone, which makes it possible to benefit from your cryptocurrency in all the places where you are.

The Coinomi wallet works in the same way as Jaxx since it will allow you to receive and send your different cryptocurrencies. However, it is a wallet that highlights security since your private key will be encrypted and stored on your computer. It also has a fluid and intuitive interface that will allow you to enjoy easy navigation.

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How to choose and create a cryptocurrency wallet - IndiaPost.com