Cryptocurrency Round-Up: Ethereum Beats Facebook in Tech Award and Bitcoin ‘Not a Ponzi Scheme’

World Bank releases report saying bitcoin is not Ponzi scheme, while Ethereum trumps Facebook(IBTimes UK)

The price of bitcoin has continued to slump, falling by a further 6% over the last 24 hours to take its value below $360.

Most other major cryptocurrencies have followed in bitcoin's lead, with litecoin, dogecoin, darkcoin and namecoin all falling by between 4% and 6%.

One of the biggest movers across all markets was czechcrowncoin. The unofficial altcoin of the Czech Republic shot up by more than 50%.

Vitalik Buterin, the developer of the bitcoin 2.0 platform Ethereum, has beaten Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to a prize at the World Technology Awards.

Buterin trumped Zuckerberg in the award for IT software, making him the only person from the digital currency industry to win an award this year.

Other winners on the night included Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk and co-founders of Y-Combinator Paul Graham, Jessica Livingston, Robert Morris and Trevor Blackwell.

Finland has broken the conventional EU mould in its approach to cryptocurrency by classifying bitcoin as a financial service.

The classification by the Finnish Central Board of Taxes makes bitcoin VAT exempt under Finnish law.

"By making bitcoins a recognized payment instrument, Finland has pushed it towards being regarded as a formal currency," Richard Asquith, vice president of global tax compliance at Alavara, told theInternational Tax Review.

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Cryptocurrency Round-Up: Ethereum Beats Facebook in Tech Award and Bitcoin 'Not a Ponzi Scheme'