Category Archives: Bitcoin

Forbes

What Will It Take For A Bitcoin ETF To Get Approved? - Forbes Forbes The Bitcoin ETF proposal was probably doomed from the start. Here's one fintech executive's take on why -- and what must happen next. USA, Reed Smith, SEC rejects second Bitcoin ETF due to lack of ...Law.com (subscription) all 3 news articles »

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What Will It Take For A Bitcoin ETF To Get Approved? - Forbes - Forbes

An Indian politician who has previously raised his concerns on the growth of bitcoin in the country has, once again, urged the Indian government to weigh in on the cryptocurrencys legality. More pointedly, the bitcoin critic is urging the Indian government to deem the cryptocurrency illegal.

Kirit Somaiya, a member of the Indian Parliament who belongs to the BJP, Indias conservative ruling party at the center, questioned if bitcoin is a pyramid ponzi scheme during a session of the Indian parliament on March 24. At the time, the politician cited unnamed experts to base his concerns of the worlds largest cryptocurrency now a legal method of payment in Japan being a pyramid scheme and called for Indian financial authorities to regulate bitcoin.

In response, the Union Minister of State if Finance revealed a written reply to Somaiya, one that triggered much of the Indian media to falsely report that bitcoin was deemed illegal by the government.

A local report has since surfaced pointing to the formation of an inter-ministerial committee installed by the Indian Parliament to study the legality of the popular cryptocurrency. It is speculated that the committee is tasked to give an initial announcement about its findings on April 20.

However, not content with these developments, Somaiya has once again raised his issue with bitcoin in India in the parliament on Wednesday afternoon. The bitcoin critic spoke during the zero hour, a session that starts at 12 noon wherein members of parliament are allowed to raise important subjects in the house.

In the Lok Sabha (the Lower house of the Indian parliament) session today, Somaiya opined that bitcoin was growing without any restrictions in the name of blockchain technology. Unlike earlier, however, the politician has matter-of-factly stated that bitcoin is illegal as a parallel currency. He then urged the government to ban bitcoin immediately, before drafting regulations for the industry.

Somaiyas translated statements read:

Bitcoin trading worth 2000 crores (approx. $300 million, a day) has been initiated. This can also be used in underworld trading. Last week some students were caught dealing with drugs and LSD. In the name of block chain and crypto currency these kind of schemes are growing without any restrictions. The government has made a committee to address this. I urge them to declare this parallel currency illegal, and make rules and regulation to deal with it as soon as possible.

As it stands, the bitcoin industry remains unregulated in India with the Indian central bank issuing a public notice stating bitcoin companies in India were not recognized or approved by the authority. The notice, a rehash from December 2013, has spurred the Indian bitcoin industry to establish its own self-regulatory body and watchdog in February, one that approached Indian authorities but has yet to receive a response.

The Indian bitcoin industry has also launched a petition urging Indian lawmakers to declare the legality of bitcoin. Launched last week, the petition now sees over 10,000 signatures.

Featured image from Shutterstock.

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'Bitcoin Should be Declared Illegal' Demands Indian Politician - CryptoCoinsNews

Here's a look at what we are focusing on in the bitcoin price this morning.

The regular readers out there will be aware that for the last few days, weve been looking at the 1100 and the 1200 levels as key forward looking levels. What we mean by this is that the way the bitcoin price responds to the reaching of these levels will give us some degree of insight into what we can expect near to medium term going forward. For example, if we see a break of the 1200 level, we expect price will run up to in and around the 1250 mark relatively quickly. Not right away, but it will get there. Conversely, if we see a correction form that level post-hit, price will probably run down to the 1150 region before it breaks again.

The same is true at the 1100 level, and the latter is pertinent right now, as were trading in and around said level at present.

Were hoping the bitcoin price can hold above 1100, as it will also indicate some degree of longer term support in this region.

Whatever happens, well be ready for it.

So, as we move into the European session today, heres a look at what we are going for, and where we are looking to get in and out of the markets according to the rules of our intraday strategy today.

As ever, take a quick look at the chart below to get an idea of whats on before we get moving. Its a five-minute candlestick chart, and its got our key range overlaid in green.

As the chart shows, the range weve got in place today is defined by support to the downside at 1110 and resistance to the upside at 1127. A close above resistance will put us in long towards 1140. Conversely, a close below support will signal short towards 1100 flat. Stops just the other side of the entries define risk on both positions.

Charts courtesy of SimpleFX

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Bitcoin Price Watch; The Importance Of 1100 and 1200 - newsBTC

For serial entrepreneur Amit Bhardwaj, bitcoins and blockchain held interest while he was still doing anine-to-five job and he continued to explore these areas even after launching his first venture in 2009. Not many were familiar with bitcoins and blockchain as far back as 2013, when Amit started HighKart.com, an E-commerce platformfor accepting payment in bitcoins for products.

A digital currency, bitcoin is not supported by any countrys government or central bank. Also known as cryptocurrency, this money is usually exchanged among users through a network which is called block and the bitcoin miners confirm these transactions.

But Amit shut down HighKart and founded GBMiners in August 2016 to foray into the mining space. He explains,

When I started HighKart in 2013, the bitcoin space was very small and nobody was ready to listen to the concept. Thats when I realised that people were using bitcoins as a commodity for investment and not as a transaction mechanism. We stopped HighKart and we ventured into the mining space.

Amit by then had a decent exposure to the bitcoin mining mechanism and was fascinated with how transactions were verified. He recalls, I was convinced enough to buy a miner for myself and set it up at home.

Delhi-based GBMiners is a bitcoin mining pool where collectives of bitcoin miners pool in resources and share their hashing power to solve a math problem or a block, the reward for which is distributed among users based on the proportion of work done.

An alumnus of MGMs College of Engineering in Maharashtra, Amit is building an ecosystem of products based on bitcoins and blockchain and other cryptocurrencies. Having worked with companies like Infosys and Reasoning Global as an IT specialist, he had a fair understanding of various aspects of business and product developmental cycle. The accumulative experience that he had gathered served him well and gave birth to his first venture NexGen Facility Management, which he ran for four years before starting HighKart.com. He exited HighKart.com after operating it for more than three years.

In 2016, he started Amaze Mining & Blockchain Research, CoinBank Wallet, and GBMiners. Amaze Mining & Blockchain Research is the parent company of GBMiners and Coinbank Wallet. Amit is currently operating three ventures, which is a testimony to his passion for the technology of bitcoin and blockchain.

GBMiners currently has 12 employees and more than 1,000 users. It mines around 80-100 bitcoins everyday. Once the miners mine a block, the coins are distributed amongst them equally with a small fee going to GBMiners for hosting the pool. Amit says that today one bitcoin is worth nearly Rs 1 lakh, which was around Rs 45,000 three months back. They have also mined over 5,400 bitcoins since then.

Bitcoin mining pools are a way for bitcoin miners to pool their resources together and share their hashing power while splitting the reward equally according to the amount of shares they contributed to solving a block. Bitcoin mining in pools began when the difficulty for mining increased to the point where it could take years for slower miners to generate a block.

Amit says that by pooling their resources miners could generate blocks quicker and thus receive a portion of the bitcoin block reward on a consistent basis, rather than randomly once every few years.

Bitcoin witnessed a slow beginning in India. However, banks are now acknowledging its advantages. According to an analyst, Bitcoin trade in the country has grown rapidly, at an estimated Rs 500 crore per year, with 50,000 bitcoin wallets and over 700-800 bitcoins being operated every day.

India is still getting there, but before the full-fledged acceptance of bitcoins, we will need a policy-level framework to come into existence. People need to know that these transactions hold legal tender before they can start using bitcoins at scale. Once the government or RBI recognises it, then there will be no looking back as the talent pool in India is so huge that within weeks we will have multi-fold adoption of blockchain technology in various fields which will pave the way for cryptocurrency to be integrated seamlessly, says Amit.

Website: GB Miners

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Meet Amit Bhardwaj, who's living his dream around bitcoins and blockchain - YourStory.com

Bitmain, the major Chinese ASIC producer, has launched a third mining pool: ConnectBTC opened to the public today. AntPool and BTC.com already belong to the Bitmain group of mining pools. This new pool is part of Bitmains Israeli research and development (R&D) center, Bitmaintech Israel, and as such, is the first mining pool based in the Middle-Eastern country.

There is a very strong tech and cryptocurrency industry in Israel, and were proud to now open the first Israeli Bitcoin mining pool, ConnectBTC manager Gadi Glikberg told Bitcoin Magazine.

ConnectBTC

Glikberg was previously the vice president of sales for Spondoolies Tech, the Israeli ASIC producer that shut down in mid-2016. Bitmain CEOs Jihan Wu and Micree Zhan decided to set up the R&D center in Tel Aviv shortly after, where Glikberg took on a managing role.

Glikberg believes the new pools main differentiator is that ConnectBTC provides detailed real-time information and analytics to connected miners (or hashers). This should give them a better understanding of their machines performance without having to develop custom internal monitoring tools themselves.

Think of miners as servers that are working at 100 percent CPU 24/7, Glikberg explained. Modern data centers use expensive monitoring tools to monitor the status of the servers, so they can respond quickly when a server goes down or doesn't perform as expected. Most miners don't have such external tools and they rely either on the pool or on a proprietary tool such as a script that they build themselves.

ConnectBTC will instead be providing this to miners as a standard service, Glikberg said:

ConnectBTC provides a high detailed user interface, specifying real-time detailed information about the status of each miner, so miners can review and quickly identify any potential problem with their unit.

ConnectBTC has been operating in closed beta since December and has amassed a small amount of hash power since. Glikberg expects that level to grow over the coming months.

Block Size and Scaling

Bitmain and its pools have been at the center of Bitcoins scaling debate lately. The companys co-CEO Jihan Wu in particular is a vocal supporter of Bitcoin Unlimited, an alternative protocol implementation designed to let miners and users change their block size settings.

AntPool is currently the largest mining pool on the Bitcoin network, representing some 15 percent of all hash power, and started signalling support for Bitcoin Unlimited several weeks ago. BTC.com represents an additional three percent, but hasnt signalled support for Bitcoin Unlimited as of yet. Its been suggested that Bitmain effectively exerts influence over the hash power of other Bitcoin Unlimited signalling pools as well though this is has so far been denied by Bitmain and the pools.

ConnectBTC was fully developed by Bitmaintech Israel, independently of any other pool. Glikberg expects the pool will operate fairly independently for now, similar to BTC.com. This also means the pool wont signal support for Bitcoin Unlimited for the time being, nor for other scaling solutions such as Bitcoin Cores proposed Segregated Witness soft fork.

For a lot of us, it seems like the block size debate is the most important topic in the world, but for miners, the most important thing is to keep their machines running with minimal down time, he said. Miners have a vast interest in stability, just like most players in the industry. I think that's why we are seeing a lot of hashing power staying on the fence. At the moment, the pool is not voting either way. I think that large part of the miners are still undecided about the best way to go.

Though, as for a potential future direction, Glikberg didnt exclude the possibility that his pool may decide to support a block size limit increase later on.

We are talking to many miners, and we hear more or less the same thing miners want to see bigger blocks and at the same time dont feel comfortable with any proposed solution. I'm sure that once miners feel comfortable enough with any proposed solution, they will signal for it.

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Meet ConnectBTC: Bitmain's Newest Bitcoin Mining Pool - Bitcoin Magazine

BitPay in its blog jokes about Bitcoin holidays, yet it may be something worth exploring. Read more...

BitPay, the leading cryptocurrency payments company on April 1, 2017, reported on its blog that it is going to declare few days each year as Bitcoin holidays, where they are going to work on blockchain maintenance or a short vacation. The post rightly timed on April Fools Day, says that the company is going to take a leaf out of traditional banking system to conduct the so-called dedicated maintenance of the Bitcoins underlying distributed ledger.

The post declares January 2, April 1, April 5 and October 31 every year as Bitcoin Holidays. This post, which might actually get some people believing in the maintenance part, opens up a new stream of thought about the involvement of cryptocurrency businesses in furthering the development of Bitcoin technology. Provided that the companies, irrespective of their size start contributing towards solving the issues faced by cryptocurrency users owing to delays in significant improvements in the technology.

The Bitcoin network is yet to get a reliable solution to address the current scalability issues. The debate on block size increase has been going on for over a year now, and the community members are still unable to reach a consensus. Many Bitcoin Improvement Proposals have come and gone. Bitcoin Unlimited was one such proposal put forward by one of the famous personalities in the cryptocurrency sector. The conflicting ideologies and approaches adopted by Bitcoin Core and Bitcoin Unlimited have also divided the Bitcoin community to an extent.

The use of Segregated Witness protocol as a scalability plan is gradually receiving recognition among many mining communities, but the transition is not expected to happen as smoothly as one would have wished for. All this while, the community members have been putting up with delayed transactions due to clogged mempool and increased miner fees per transaction.

However, these issues can be a thing of the past if all crypto-businesses start contributing their resources and workforce for few days in a year to ensure Bitcoin meets the changing needs of the community. Also, by working together, all the businesses and developers might find it much easier to reach consensus about incorporating new improvements to the Bitcoin network.

Joke or no Joke, BitPay has a point here, and it is something worth exploring if the community decides to join forces for a better future.

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BitPay Announces Bitcoin Holiday Schedule! A Joke or Not? - newsBTC

Starting April 2017, Bitcoin in Japan receives the recognition of being a form of money. Read more...

Bitcoin has finally gained the recognition of a mainstream currency along the lines of other fiat currencies. The privilege follows the implementation of a new law in Japan which categorizes Bitcoin as a legal payment option within the country. The much-awaited law went into effect on April 1, 2017 (beginning of a new fiscal year in many countries).

With the new laws implementation, Bitcoin exchanges will also come under additional regulatory scrutiny. The recognition of cryptocurrency as a legal tender also means the applicability of regulations governing banks and financial institutions to cryptocurrency exchange platforms. They will be required to comply with strict anti-money laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements, along with annual audits. Other requirements include meeting the stated capital and cyber security requirements to ensure consumer protection.

The recognition of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as legal payment instruments is good news for the global cryptocurrency ecosystem. Adoption of cryptocurrency is expected to increase among people, which will, in turn, drive demand and price.

However, reports indicate that the cryptocurrency platforms are still trying to figure out ways to achieve compliance with the new regulations. Recognizing the exchanges needs, the Accounting Standards Board of Japan has announced that it has started working on creating an accounting framework for both user and businesses dealing with cryptocurrencies.

It might take a while before companies and individuals get acquainted with the accounting practices, which has raised concerns about legal implications of inaccurate reportings/filings due to lack of understanding. Also, few publications have raised concerns about the volatility of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies and how it might impact those making cryptocurrency transactions.

The new developments are expected to drive the cryptocurrency usage in Japan to over $9 billion in the next three years (2020), which is more than five times the 2015s $1.7 billion worth of cryptocurrencies in circulation.

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Japan Officially Recognises Bitcoin as Currency Starting April 2017 ... - newsBTC

Bitcoin price after a sharp correction against the US Dollar found support near $960, and now BTC/USD is trading above $1000 with a positive bias.

Bitcoin price after a sharp correction against the US Dollar found support near $960, and now BTC/USD is trading above $1000 with a positive bias.

This past week, we saw a dive in BTC price towards $980 against the US Dollar. Later, the price found support and managed to recover above $1000. However, there was a major hurdle near $1040, as highlighted in this past weeks analysis. The same level represented the 61.8% Fib retracement level of the last decline from the $1120 high to $889 low. Moreover, the 100 simple moving average (4H) was aligned at $1030. The price was able to break these hurdles for an upside move.

The most important break was above two bearish trend lines with resistance near $1010-1030 on the 4-hours chart (data feed from SimpleFX) of BTC/USD. It has opened the doors for more gains in the near term. The price is lacking momentum at this moment above $1100. So, there is a chance of a minor dip towards the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the last wave from the $889 low to $1104 high.

The same broken resistance near $1040-20 might now act as a support and prevent losses. Buying dips may be a good idea as long as the price is above the 100 simple moving average (4H) and $1020.

Looking at the technical indicators:

4-hours MACD The MACD is now well placed into the bullish slope.

4-hours RSI (Relative Strength Index) The RSI is comfortably moving above the 50 level.

Major Support Level $1020

Major Resistance Level $1100

Charts courtesy SimpleFX

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Bitcoin Price Weekly Analysis BTC/USD Breaks Higher - newsBTC

Fred Wilson , the venture capitalist known for backing Twitter ( twtr ) and Tumblr, has made a big bet on blockchain cryptocurrencies including Bitcoinand he thinks regular investors should buy some too.

Speaking Thursday at a conference hosted by StockTwits , the social network for stock traders, Wilson said the equivalent of a Wall Street bank now exists for the digital currencies, in what is otherwise a Wild West: Coinbase, the Bitcoin and Ethereum brokerage that has recently come under fire for the apparent failure of its investors to disclose their profits to the IRS .

Coinbase was Wilson's very first investment in Bitcoin and now has a reported valuation of more than $400 million . "They're like J.P. Morgan or Goldman Sachs for blockchain," he said at the event, called Stocktoberfest East.

Not only has Wilson's Union Square Ventures backed several blockchain companies, but the VC has also personally bought cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin and Ethereum as well as a bit of Litecoin, representing "some small percentage of my net worth," he said.

If I were a trader, a stock trader or hedge fund person, I might think of having 5% of my assets in something like this, Wilson added. Its still early days; I dont think you want to go all in on it, but I think you want to be in it.

Earlier that day, he said, a retail investor had emailed him wanting to invest in private startups, wondering how to put money into Union Square Ventures. But Wilson had to inform the man, who made $50,000 a year, that he was not wealthy or experienced enough to qualify as an accredited investor and was therefore prohibited by law from investing in startup companies before they went public.

Wilson was able to give him an alternative recommendation: Buy Bitcoin instead. The cool thing, Wilson said about Coinbase, is that anybody can buyaccredited or not.

The accessibility of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, however, has also raised questions as to whether the average investor should own the assets, which are not only unusually volatile but vulnerable to risks including theft via cyberattack, leaving many Bitcoin buyers burned.

Yet that's where Coinbase has an advantage, and why blockchain investors will see it as a safe haven akin to Goldman Sachs ( gs ) or J.P. Morgan ( jpm ) in a world of robber barons, Wilson said.

"If you look at what they are world class at, it's security, trust, safety, fraudall these things that frankly banks are good at," he said. "If you go back to the 19th century, banks got robbed a lot, and the truth of the matter is, most companies like Coinbase have gotten robbed, because it's pretty easy to rob these companiesyou hack in, you take the Bitcoin, and you get in the car and you drive away."

That's not to say that other problems won't arise among Bitcoin traders on Coinbase, just as they did in the early days of Wall Street, and still continue to a lesser extent. "Were going to have all the same things that happenedwere going to have pump and dump, front-running, all the things that people did," Wilson acknowledged. "There are some people who are going to use it as a way to defraud people. But I think a lot of people should do it for the right reasons."

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Bitcoin: Coinbase Is Like Goldman Sachs, VC Fred Wilson Says ... - Fortune

Bitcoin allows anyone in the world to pursue their dreams. Some people prefer to do graphic design for companies all around the world and get paid in bitcoin, whereas others will take the photography route. Stanislav Beloglazov is the director and photographer of photo studio MAGNET, and he started accepting bitcoin payments not too long ago.

People all over the world are starting to pay close attention to bitcoin. Slowly but surely, the masses start to realize cryptocurrency has unlimited potential, especially when it comes to dealing with international clients and payments. Moreover, bitcoin allows people to create a budget for tasks they need to have completed, regardless of where their employee is located. Using traditional finance for international payments is expensive and time-consuming, whereas bitcoin solves all of these problems.

Keeping all of that in mind, it makes sense for photographers to look into bitcoin and even accept it as a payment method. That is exactly what Stanislav Beloglazov has done, as he saw the potential presented by bitcoin payments. It allows Beloglazov to attract more clients from all over the world, as photography is not limited to operating in ones native region by any means.

Moreover, Beloglazov no longer has to deal with converting foreign currencies and so forth. Bitcoin is a global form of transferring value, regardless of country borders. For anyone who ventures into the world of photography and art, bitcoin opens up a whole new world of potential clients. Stanislav accepts bitcoin for his photo shoots, photo art, and skills learning services. It is refreshing to see artists do what they love without being bogged down by the traditional financial ecosystem.

It has to be said, Beloglazov takes photography to a whole new level. His work can be found on Instagram and Facebook, where he shares some very beautiful photographs with the rest of the world. He also has over 4,450 followers on Instagram, indicating he is quite the upcoming talent in the photography world. A picture says more than a thousand words, and truer words have never been spoken.

It is also worth nothing Beloglazov is the director of photo studio MAGNET. This goes to show a full-fledged professional photo studio has seen the benefits provided by bitcoin, which is a significant nod of approval for cryptocurrency in general. Even though bitcoin has been off to a somewhat rocky start, this new form of conducting finance continues to gain traction on a global scale.

In the end, it is good to see professionals and freelancers give bitcoin credit where credit is due. Combining ones passion with a limitless payment solution creates an invaluable experience. Whether it is photography, art, or any other type of business activity, exploring the bitcoin option is more than worth it. Stanislav Beloglazov is leading the charge in this regard, and we can only hope more creative people see things from his point of view moving forward.

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Photo Studio MAGNET Director Stanislav Beloglazov Sees Merit in Bitcoin - The Merkle