Navigating the cryptocurrency minefield

Contrary to popular belief, virtual currency is actually extremely secure

The online payments industry is in a phase of change with developments coming thick and fast in how payments are made, on what devices and in what form.

Understandably, many businesses trying to navigate the online payments industry are finding it hard to know which direction to take in these turbulent times.

However, the variety of new payment opportunities also makes it an exciting time for those who are willing to take a gamble and ride the rapids, so to speak.

One of the most intriguing developments in the payments industry is the rise of cryptocurrencies, which have the potential to completely alter the landscape of the industry as we know it.

>See also:Something you didn't notice in the Chancellor's Budget 2015: a step forward for bitcoin

Free from any banking or state authority, and designed for the world of online payments, cryptocurrencies are arguably the next step in the evolution of money. Yet, despite all its revolutionary potential, this is a payment option that many businesses are wary of.

The big concern with cryptocurrency is how secure an investment it is without the same levels of regulations in place, and with no insurance, how can you guarantee your money will retain its value, or be there at all?

Moreover, only years into the short history of cryptocurrency there are already real-life examples of how it can go terribly wrong.

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Navigating the cryptocurrency minefield

Paedophiles sell child abuse images for bitcoin

Bitcoin is completely decentralised, which means that no single authority can prevent trades from being made, or blacklist buyers and sellers. Photograph: Siegfried Layda/Getty Images

Paedophiles are using the digital currency bitcoin to buy child sexual abuse images online, according to the Internet Watch Foundation.

In its annual report for 2014, the group, which is tasked with attacking the problem of child abuse images online, said a number of the most prolific commercial child sexual abuse websites started accepting the currency as a payment for images last year. It discovered 37 websites selling the images for bitcoins between January and April 2014.

The group said that illegal content was being sold in folders on legitimate websites which had been hacked, and that URLs for the websites were distributed via spam emails.

Bitcoin has a number of properties which make it well suited for trading illegal material such as child sex abuse images. The cryptocurrency is completely decentralised, which means that no single authority can prevent trades from being made, or blacklist buyers and sellers.

It is also largely pseudonymous, and there is nothing inherent to a bitcoin wallet that links it to any real-world individual. When the currency is used with care, it can be nearly impossible to discover the people behind online trades a fact which was responsible for bitcoins first major real-world use, underpinning the online drugs marketplace the Silk Road.

But while the currency is often described as anonymous and untraceable, there are a number of elements to its design which law enforcement authorities have been able to use to track down people attempting to use bitcoin illegally. The decentralised nature of the currency means that every single transaction is made in public, and in order to convert bitcoins into a conventional currency, they must typically be bought and sold through a bitcoin exchange. Those exchanges are often legally required to keep detailed records on customers, in order to comply with money-laundering regulations.

The IWF said it was working with several of the worlds largest bitcoin exchanges to share intelligence and develop strategies for preventing the currency being used by distributors of child sexual abuse images.

Emma Hardy, the IWFs director of external relations, said: One area we look at in particular is the commerciality of child sexual abuse images and videos people who want to buy and sell this type of content online.

We noticed for the first time ever last year that cryptocurrency or bitcoin was being used.

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Paedophiles sell child abuse images for bitcoin

BTCnews – Bitcoin & CryptoCurrency News

BTCnews brings you all the very latest news, analysis, and opinions about the world of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, from all the very best sources, updated throughout the day. Stay on top of this exciting new world with BTCnews, the very best virtual currency news application!Features Include:- Coverage of dozens of distinct, top quality news sources with fresh daily content. New sources constantly added- News updated throughout the day - if it's out there, you'll be the first to know!- Tag any item of interest for later reading- Listen to podcasts from within the app- Search for stories about topics that interest you- Share with others via Twitter, Facebook, Whatsapp, email, and more...- Get notified of breaking news and stories of interest- View more articles from a selected source- View Bitcoin-to-$ current exchange rate displayed directly in the navigation bar- Extremely fast, easy to use interface developed for iOS8+ as a Universal application, customised for the latest iPhone 6 as well as other iPhones and iPadMany more exciting features already in the pipeline!We love feedback, suggestions, requests for desirable features!If you enjoy using BTCnews and find it useful, would you please rate or review us? It really helps! For updates and news follow us on twitter: @btcnewsapp

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Bitcoin Alternative NEM (XEM) Officially Launches with 100% Original Codebase Cryptocurrency

DAEGU, South Korea, April 13, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- NEM, is an original blockchain technology platform using a breakthrough innovation for blockchain consensus called Proof-of-Importance (POI). POI is a consensus mechanism that calculates an importance score for an account by taking into consideration its balance, activity of the account, as well as the importance of accounts transacted with.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150413/198087LOGO

This importance score enables accounts to create blocks and "harvest" transaction fees based on the account's importance to the NEM economynot just those who simply have the largest amount of XEM. This encourages use of the currency and discourages hoarding, thus increasing the velocity of money. This helps alleviate many problems associated with Proof-of-Work mining, such as extreme price fluctuation on exchanges, deflation, massive power consumption, and centralization.

With security being a main concern for blockchain platforms, NEM has taken steps to introduce new innovations to both secure the network and an individual's account. One of these innovations is a peer reputation system using Eigentrust++, which helps protect the network. Eigentrust++ measures how well different computers on the network interact with each other and directs network traffic to the most trusted sources. NEM has also integrated an innovative time synchronization service between nodes and a new form of spam protection not seen in a cryptocurrency before.

NEM incorporates a multitude of features to protect the user: blockchain-based multi-signature capabilities to maximize security while also maintaining ease of use, encrypted messaging, and a robust client-server web architecture that accommodates encapsulation of layers within the system.

NEM is built using test-driven development, which is a professional method of software development, and is written in Java and Javascript. The NEM team includes some of the most experienced and passionate developers in the industry, with many holding PhDs. The overall NEM team, including the core developers, includes more than 70 people from around the world. These dedicated members of the NEM team perform the multitude of daily tasks necessary for the development and proliferation of the NEM ecosystem, such as marketing, testing, design, PR, technical support, and more.

The NEM ecosystem has been meticulously designed from the ground up and rigorously tested, with comprehensive stress tests including millions of transactions during the nine months of open alpha and beta testing. NEM is designed for practical use in a variety of applications ranging from personal finance to e-commerce, office automation, and secure, personal messaging; therefore, security and reliability have been a number one priority throughout development.

The NEM software consists of the NEM Infrastructure Server (NIS) and the NEM Community Client (NCC). XEM, the cryptocurrency powered by NEM, is only an incidental part of the NEM ecosystem as NIS and NCC together form arguably one of the most advanced decentralized blockchain platforms in the world. Future releases will include smart property tiles, a decentralized asset exchange, smart contracts, and many more applications that utilize NEM's core blockchain technology in innovative and revolutionary new ways to empower individualssimple concepts, but with infinite expressibility.

NEM's architecture enables the use of "thin clients" that utilize NEM's remote NIS feature. This feature allows for a broad range of devices and opens up access to NEM to a wider audience by allowing full NEM ecosystem functionality on extremely low-cost, low-power devices, like mobile phones, without any intermediary third parties required. This enables a user to have absolute control over using the NEM platform, without fear of a third party escrow taking control of their funds or assets.

The release of NIS and NCC is only the first step towards launching the NEM ecosystem. The platform is designed with simple system integration in mind, which can enable features like high frequency exchange trading, real-world financial integration (e.g., stocks, derivatives, options, and forex), social media and social networking, enhanced and easy-to-use mobile applications, and many more advancements that can be easily integrated with NEM's flexible and robust platform.

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Bitcoin Alternative NEM (XEM) Officially Launches with 100% Original Codebase Cryptocurrency

SoulConfiscator 035 Bitcoin: Winning the Media War FilmMaking Drama CryptoCurrency P2P BTC4 VideoMix – Video


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SoulConfiscator 035 Bitcoin: Winning the Media War FilmMaking Drama CryptoCurrency P2P BTC4 VideoMix - Video

Cryptocurrency Regulation in the International Community …

CoinTelegraph has assembled a research report on the regulatory environment for cryptocurrency across the globe. Already in 2015, we have seen many attempts at regulating new forms of digital currencies by various governments and jurisdictions, and wed like to highlight the general trends and outlook for the readers.

The report will be published in two parts, with the first available below relating to the history and the current regulatory status around the world for 2015.

Bitcoin and cryptocurrency have experienced a rapid evolution of public image over the past three years. From occupying an obscure niche in technology-oriented circles to becoming a major feature of global financial debate, their rise has in many ways been unprecedented.

This rapid transformation has resulted in, and in turn been precipitated by, an explosion in associated socioeconomic activity. Businesses with countless focuses have appeared in order to profit from and innovative on the potential held by Bitcoin and its associated blockchain technology. In fact, an entire ecosystem has taken root, which can be found in the majority of the worlds jurisdictions that has collectively come to be known as the cryptocurrency community.

The practical implementation of cryptocurrency to the point where a certain number of members of this community, as well as lay consumers are using it to transact, has placed it firmly on the radar of international lawmakers. While this in itself is hardly a surprising development, the methods in which jurisdictions are treating cryptocurrency, as well as their overall perspective and degree of permissiveness, vary considerably. In many countries, there are still no clear rules dealing with cryptocurrency at all.

This variability is not simply a reflection of the political situation in respective states; rather, it is seen as a consequence of the challenging nature of cryptocurrency itself. Blockchain technology and the many ways in which it manifests itself in practice create a complex new area for legislators, and the difficulty of regulating cryptocurrency is conspicuous in the fact that, for example, no jurisdiction has so far managed to produce an entirely effective solution.

The challenges presented by cryptocurrency have furthermore been linked by skeptics, sometimes arguably excessively, to illicit activity. A popular belief in March 2015 is that cryptocurrency more easily facilitates achieving of illicit goals by criminals and other bad actors, and even that cryptocurrency by its very nature is somehow bound to heighten criminal activity. While it cannot be said that this is a definitive factor in deciding how policy makers legislate, it is certainly a common argument put forward in government literature on cryptocurrency, as any scan of news resources will confirm.

It is safe to suggest that in considering the concept of effective regulation of cryptocurrency, lawmakers must take into consideration a wealth of factors concerning both consumers and businesses.

The report below considers a number of these factors and provides some background information for perspective on the issue, as well as more in-depth opinion from a range of experts in the field. Long-time CoinTelegraph collaborator Tone Vays also offers his contribution on several important topics, which can be found in the respective sections.

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Cryptocurrency Regulation in the International Community ...