Category Archives: Cryptocurrency

In the first nine minutes of its Initial Coin Offering (ICO) New York-based Starta Accelerator raised more than $1.6 million. This is just one of many successful projects that recently secured investment in the cryptocurrency world. What is the Russian ICO craze all about and why is it proliferating?

Facebook

Pinterest

WhatsApp

This blockchain investment mechanism is rapidly becoming very popular among Russian entrepreneurs. Source: Jens Kalaene/Global Look Press

Facing a shortage of venture capital at home and coming up against wary international investors intimidated by U.S. and EU sanctions, more Russian tech projects are tapping into cryptocurrency markets. In the first half of 2017, a growing number of Russian startups successfully completed an ICO, raising millions of dollars in Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies from backers across the globe.

This blockchain investment mechanism is rapidly becoming very popular among Russian entrepreneurs seeking to raise capital. By the time Starta Accelerator had closed its ICO on July 4, the company had raised a total of about $5 million for 21 startups from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus; each of which is already incorporated and working in the U.S.

One of the most successful recent ICOs in the Russian startup sector was Supercomputer Organized by Network Mining (SONM), which raised $42 million from 8,744 backers in just four days.

The project is described as Airbnb for computers, and SONMs secure and cost-effective fog supercomputer is designed for general-purpose computing, from mobile app hosting to DNA analysis. The project will revolutionize the computing market, claimed Sergey Ponomarev, the companys CEO.

SONM is a blockchain-powered project, but more startups are coming from the real economy. In mid June, ZrCoin, an innovative factory that recycles metallurgical waste, raised more than $7 million from almost 4,000 backers on Waves, a blockchain-based cryptocurrency platform. We raised twice as much funding as planned, commented ZrCoins co-founder, Andrey Nokonorov.

The new factory will consist of two production lines in Siberia transforming industrial waste into synthetic zirconium with a total capacity of 800 tons. Each ZrCoin token is backed with one kilogram (2.2 pounds) of zirconium dioxide.

ICO as a means for Russian tech to raise capital has attracted the attention of the countrys politicians. Boris Titov, the business ombudsman and billionaire, is creating a new incubator for entrepreneurs hosted on the blockchain platform, Waves. The project was founded in 2016 by Russian entrepreneur Sasha Ivanov and is now one of the most popular ICO platforms.

Sasha Ivanov. / WAVES

In June, Titov signed an agreement with Sasha Ivanov to create an ICO Incubator called People of Growth, whose purpose is to help companies in different sectors of the real economy obtain ICO funding.

Russia is one of the most advanced countries in blockchain technology, and thats why Russian founders are behind many ICOs in the world, said Ivanov. The interest in ICO and cryptocurrency is growing rapidly both in Russia and around the world.

According to Ivanov, Bitcoin was legalized in Japan this spring, and the cryptocurrency community is hoping to see a similar process in other countries. Entrepreneurs are also inspired by the success of previous ICOs and the amounts raised, although the lack of venture capital is one of the main reasons this is happening.

About six months ago Titov launched his own cryptocurrency, Upcoin, to promote his political movement, the Party of Growth. The coins were integrated into the party loyalty program to reward supporters with a number of benefits, such as discounts for education.

Titov is authorized by President Vladimir Putin to protect the rights of entrepreneurs in Russia. In 2017, he attended Donald Trumps inauguration in Washington D.C.

See original here:
Russia's tech world embraces cryptocurrency markets - Russia Beyond the Headlines

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has granted blockchain startup LedgerX its formal registration as a swap execution facility (SEF), making it the second company ever to be granted the ability to trade digital currency derivatives.

While a notable milestone, it's the latest in a long process for LedgerX that is still far from over. Still pending approval is the final regulatory milestone to launching what could end up being the first cryptocurrency options firm licensed by the CFTCto do business in any number of cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin and ether.

LedgerX CEO Paul Chou told CoinDesk:

"We are pleased to have received full registration as a SEF from the CFTC for the trading of digital currency derivatives."

Founded in 2013, LedgerX first received a temporary approval to operate as an SEF in 2015, but this latest development makes that decision final. With today's registration, LedgerX is now required to comply with provisions set forth in the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and other regulations specific to the CFTC.

New Jersey-based Tera-Exchange was registered as an SEF last year.

As part of the New York-based startup's push to become the first derivatives clearing organization (DCO) registered to trade cryptocurrencies, the firm earlier this year raised $11.4mled by investors Miami International Holdings and Huiyin Blockchain Venture Investments.

As a result of that capital, Chou believes LedgerX is on the cusp of creating acryptocurrency options market that could increase the number of institutional investors able to invest in the asset class and help stabilize the price of the currency by enabling a more reliable hedges.

"We look forward to working with the CFTC on finalizing the DCO registration," he said.

Editor's Note: This article has been amended to show that Tera Excahnge was registered as an SEF last year.

Image of commodities via Shutterstock

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is an independent media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. Have breaking news or a story tip to send to our journalists? Contact us at [emailprotected].

Read more:
CFTC Formally Registers New Cryptocurrency Swap Execution Facility - CoinDesk

Reader Resource

Apply now to be an Entrepreneur 360 company. Let us tell the world your success story. Get Started

Serial entrepreneur, Rafe Furst, is no stranger to pressure. He played poker at the professional level and stared down other pros to win first place at a World Series of Poker event, netting $350,000 in prize money and a World Series of Poker Championship bracelet. He has co-founded several companies, and personally invested in dozens of others at the early stage. He has also backed a unicorn startup and gotten stuck with dead horse investments, too.

The key to any poker game, and the game of life, Furst believes, is to keep making smart decisionseven if you experience setbacks. Play enough hands where you have an edge and youll come out ahead.

He doesnt merely preach it. Furst faced one of the highest-pressure situations almost any entrepreneur can. In 2011, the online poker company he helped found, Full Tilt Poker, folded after the CEO committed fraud. Furst lost most of his fortune trying to make things right. The episode put stress on his marriage, his friendships and his mental health. But he pushed forward and came out on the other side stronger, wiser and ready to change the world.

Theres no question that Furst bounced back in a big way.

He resumed investing in early-stage startups. And he has used his impressive quantitative thinking to raise millions for cancer research, as well as design the personal investment contract, an innovative way to impact the lives of young people by investing in their future early on.

Now, hes taking what he believes to be the biggest and best calculated risk of his career. Furst believes he has cracked the greatest investment opportunity of a lifetime: cryptocurrencies.

I think its the most important technology since the internet itself, Furst says.

Startup investing is potentially one of the most lucrative bets you can make. Thats if you invest in the right companies. Gary Vaynerchuk recently revealed that had he invested $25,000 into Uber in 2010, his investment would have been worth $300 million today. He passed on the opportunity and wishes he had a time machine.

Furst is a student of investment cycles and he believes that nearly everyone is doing it wrong.

Investors work hard to source the right deals and work with the right people. The result is: they invest in a handful of deals per year. But that isnt enough. Investors try to pick winners, but thats impossible, says Furst.

Furst should know. He did research in cognitive science and artificial intelligence at Stanford University, founded several startups, invested in dozens more, and cofounded Crowdfunder, a leading online equity crowdfunding platform. That platform connects thousands of entrepreneurs, including famous musician Neil Young and NBA star Yao Ming, to millions in crowdfunded capital. Crowdfunder currently has more than 130,000 members who fund millions of dollars worth of deals each month.

Through millions of poker hands, startup investing and his work with Crowdfunder, Furst developed second-to-none quantitative chops. Those chops helped him uncover a powerful investment insight.

Most VC funds do a dozen deals per year and most of them lose money because theyre not diversified enough, says Furst. Modeling data from Right Side Capital, a quantitative VC firm he helped form and invested in, suggests you need over 300 companies in your portfolio if you want to achieve the market average with 85 percent certainty.

Now, Furst is applying that logic to another opportunity, which he believes is bigger than investing in winning startups in the seed stage: cryptocurrencies.

Cryptocurrencies are decentralized digital assets, traded using technology called blockchain ledgers. Bitcoin is one such currency, but there are over 800 in existence. Cryptocurrencies provide a much-needed update to how money and other assets are valued, transferred, and used by both people and governments. And Furst believes this need will cause the market capitalization for cryptocurrencies to skyrocket.

So far, hes right. In the last two years, the overall cryptocurrencies market capitalization has grown almost 30x, minting millionaires many times over. Now, Furst wants to get everyone in on the game.

Fursts love of poker led him to the group that started Full Tilt Poker, one of the biggest online poker forums in history. Despite massive financial success, Full Tilt didnt end well.

Furst was one of 23 investors and one of four board members of the software company that launched Full Tilt Poker. They empowered the CEO with full operational responsibility and were distributed a percentage of profits. This was a gamble that paid off handsomely for four years, until the CEO noticed a gaping hole in the companys balance sheet. Unfortunately for all involved, the CEO hid the shortfall and paid investors with operating capital, not profits, for several months. The CEO ultimately pled guilty to fraud, but not before destroying Full Tilt.

Furst spent untold energy fighting to keep the company afloat, and was rewarded by the U.S. Department of Justice with a civil lawsuit to recover all of his profits. Ultimately, Furst settled and was cleared of any wrongdoing though he lost most of his money in the process.

I have no problem telling the story and being transparent about what happened, says Furst. Every entrepreneur has things that are difficult to tell potential investors. Mine happens to be really public, and whats out there is very one-sided and politically motivated.

This dangerous cocktail of professional pressure, anxiety and public scrutiny had heated Fursts mind to a boiling point far beyond that which most entrepreneurs experience. It led to a mental and emotional breakdown. But, thanks to the support of his family and friends, he bounced back and changed his lifes trajectory.

The experience gave Furst much-needed clarity. He knew he wanted to do something big.

Image credit: Melly Lee

Back in 2011, Bitcoin was the only cryptocurrency in existence. And while Furst took a gamble and invested in it, it was clear to him that it would take the rest of the world a while to catch up in understanding the significance of Bitcoin. So he launched full bore into Crowdfunder for four and a half years. By late 2016, there were hundreds of currencies and he became convinced that the blockchain and cryptocurrencies were getting much closer to the point of changing the world.

Its the decentralization of money and power, Furst says.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are backed by the power of distributed networks, just like many startups and open-source software projects. As such, cryptos (as they are known colloquially) are not burdened by operational inefficiencies of centralized bureaucracies, and can appreciate in value quite rapidly, especially if they prove useful to the marketplace.

But, Furst learned a crucial lesson from his VC and poker days: the more bets you spread out over time, the better chance you have of hitting the jackpot. Thats exactly what hes doing with his new venture, The Crypto Company.

With The Crypto Company, you dont have to worry about the technicalities and risks of buying and selling individual cryptos. We are a holding company for a basket of cryptos and providing a basket of consulting services to other holders of similar assets, Furst says.

Right now, investing in and cashing out of cryptos is a laborious process that often requires bank transfers between multiple online exchanges and parties, and several layers of verifications. Instead of the hassle, The Crypto Company will offer direct and indirect exposure to dozens of different cryptos.

As a result, The Crypto Company has wide exposure to the cryptocurrency market, one which Furst and others believe can be a trillion-dollar market within the next five years, as he expects banks, governments and institutions will jump on-board. For some perspective, the market capitalization for cryptocurrencies has grown approximately 6x in the first half of 2017 to over $100 billion. Furst calls this huge number merely a rounding error compared to the trillions of dollars traded and transferred by financial institutions in commodities, derivatives and gold daily.

Furst was forced to fold a money-making hand in Full Tilt Poker. But he came out on the other side even stronger.

Poker is a great source of entertainment, but in the end its a zero sum game: for someone to win, someone else must lose, explains Furst. Entrepreneurs, on the other hand, are creating whats known in economics as shared value; in other words the startup game is win-win.

He sees cryptocurrencies as elevating the game of startups to a whole new level. In fact, Furst believes that cryptocurrencies are the new startups, but with even bigger advantages: crypto networks are decentralized and the tokens are liquid right away.

This is like when I was in Silicon Valley in the 1990s and saw the first web browser before almost anyone, Furst says. "Blockchain and cryptocurrencies are the future.

The Oracles is an invitation-only brain trust comprised of the world's leading entrepreneurs who share their top advice and success strategies to help others grow their business, live a better life, and achieve success faster. Intereste...

Original post:
From $100 Million to Broke to Betting It All on Cryptocurrencies - Entrepreneur

Its been almost three years since Zack Brown raised $55,000 on Kickstarter for a potato salad. His goal was $10. He wanted to raise the money in order to pay for making the midwestern cookout staple for the first time.

I made that Kickstarter project to get a laugh out of seven people, so the money and attention were a shock, Brown wrote the Observer in an email. The original intent of the joke was more like, This is funny because its not what Kickstarter is for.' But it didnt take long for him to see that hed created a satire of the site on the site itself.

My first two thoughts were This is ridiculous and How can I get in on this?

But when Brown raised far more money than he ever thought he would, the Columbus, Ohio, resident opted to actually do something with the cash and make a cookbook devoted to the staple of Midwestern picnics,The Peace, Love and Potato Salad Cookbook.It came out two years after the campaign ended, which isnt bad considering the fact that he didnt launch the campaign to make a book and hed never made a potato salad before.

The Useless Ethereum Token logo. Thats a cityscape (no its not). Twitter

Today, theres a new, even more ephemeral way to raise money: by creating a new cryptocurrency. Called an initial coin offering or ICO, entrepreneurs have been creating new digital currencies (like Bitcoin) in order to support various projects. Fortunately, just as it starts to crack mainstream attention, ICOs have gotten their own answer to the potato salad campaign. Its called the Useless Ethereum Token(UET), and its creator will absolutely sell you cryptocurrency good for absolutely nothing.

It went on sale yesterday and runs through July 11.

The UET ICOtransparentlyoffers investors no value, so there will be no expectation of gains, its creator, who only goes by UET CEO, writes on its website. Rememberthis is acompletely honestICO, which means I dont want anyone to mistakenlyexpectthe value of the tokens to go up, either. Theyre called Useless Ethereum Tokens for a reason.

We can think of one other cryptocurrency that came out and promised buyers nothing but the digital asset itself: bitcoin. In the end, every new currency of any kind is a satire on the very strange idea of money.

We wrote about a decentralized company, The DAO, which was working well until a security flaw made it collapse horribly. We wrote about the first Bitcoin felons ICO-poweredsecond act after prison, which fizzled (according to a profile in Fortune, hes glad). Recently, we covered the Basic Attention Token designed by a major web pioneer to change the economy for eyeballs online. It sold out almost instantly. Soon, messaging unicornKik is going to have a crowdsale to foster a new venture capital-independent ecosystem of developers.

Its such a buzzy world thatThe New York Times ran a deep dive recently begging the question: how many millions will get raised in this space for the Securities and Exchange Commission starts putting up red flags? UET CEO sees it much the same way.

I saw that people were investing in ICO after ICO, with each having its own slew of problems (both technical and in principle) and still making absurd amounts of money, UET CEO wrote the Observer in an email. My first two thoughts were This is ridiculous and How can I get in on this? I didnt have a product but I realized that people didnt really care about the product. They cared about spending a little bit of money, watching a chart and then withdrawing a little bit more money. So why not have an ICO without a product, and do so completely transparently just to see what happened?

The satire is actually built into the smart contract as well. Buyers get 1 UET for every 0.1 Ether (ETH) invested, plus a bonus. Every UET bought comes with free UET equal to the number of ETH invested. So, as of this writing, someone who paid 0.1 ETH right now would get 1 UET from the base formula plus 52 bonus UET, because people have put in 52 ETH so far.

Plus, the system will also randomly give away some bonus tokens along the way.

This, along with the bonus blocks were completely intentional, both to mirror some of the goofy crap other ICOs have tried to do in the name of fairness or whatever, and to further highlight that these tokens arent meant to be attached to any real value, UET CEO wrote. What good is an ICO if it just gives away tokens right?

Tokens get released right away. Prices dont swing with ETHs value.

Most crypto watchers online like the gag. We liked this exchange on an Ethereum investor subreddit.

This guy gets it. Reddit

The only way to buy in is with Ethereum, which also provides most of the underlying code. So far, UET has acquired 52 ETH, worth an equivalent of nearly $14,000. Over $1,000 worth has gone in since we have been working on this post. The site continuously updates with investments, but it can all also be verified on Etherscan, a third party site that makes the blockchain records a bit more comprehensible.

So whats UET CEO trying to say with this project? Well leave that for readers to decide, but remember that the best jokes tend to be made by folks who care about a subject enough to understand it well.Will the anonymous entrepreneur imitate Brown and do something substantive at the end of the crowdsale? Or would it be more in the spirit of the project if he just took all the money and blew it on an epic night at Applebees?

More:
Cryptocurrency Has Its Potato Salad Moment With the Useless Ethereum Token - Observer

The Hive Project announced last week the launch of its cryptocurrency-based invoice financing platform. This news comes just days before the company launched its ICO. The company boasts itself as the first cryptocurrency invoice financing platform. It notably provides new financial liquidity to small businesses by leveraging blockchain technology and giving them a range of cryptocurrency-based financing options.

Hive (HVE) uses blockchain (distributed ledger) technology to give every issued invoice a unique fingerprint. This enables businesses to automate the invoicing process and make it available to the general public. We create a central data room for all invoices, with a record kept of the issuer, owner and payer. Invoices can therefore be offered to the market for trading. This will rapidly increase the liquidity available to small businesses and create a central database of invoices available for scoring and auditing. In addition to bridging the liquidity gap for small businesses, the technology provided by Hive will help credit checks to be made on companies and facilitate rapid and real-time auditing.

Speaking about The Hive Projects goals,Jure Soklic, CEO and co-founder, reportedly stated:

We want to help small businesses solve their liquidity issues by leveraging blockchain technology to provide financing options previously only available to large companies. Our platform will dramatically streamline invoice issuance and settlement processes, optimizing small and medium-enterprises ability to access liquidity for day-to-day operations and to finance expansion.

Richard Titus, Advisor to Hive Project, added:

The Hive Project helps small businesses automate invoicing and payments, delivering the benefits of blockchain innovation to commercial entities previously deprived of ready access to finances, Hive Projects end state, a marketplace with advanced trading analytics for peer-to-peer lending, will rapidly increase the liquidity available to small businesses and expand todays often mercenary ecosystem of factoring and lending.

The Hive Project is currently seeking to secure initial capital of BTC 2,000 through its crowd sale, which is scheduled to run for the next six weeks.

. Bookmark the

.

See the rest here:
The Hive Project Debuts New Cryptocurrency-Based Invoice Financing Platform - Crowdfund Insider

Gavin Smith is the CEO of First Global Credit, a London-based cryptocurrency capital markets company, who is behind an upcoming ICO for AICoin. He sat down today to talk with Finance Magnates about the idea behind the offering, the value it will deliver to investors, algo trading and how blockchain technology allows for new forms of cooperative organization.

Learn how to buy Bitcoin and Ethereum safely with our simple guide!

The interview was broadcast live and a video recording is available here:

In contrast to the recent wave of ICOs, Gavin explains that AICOIN is a fully functioning investment service (not an idea in development) that leverages blockchain technology to deliver revenue from two different but complementary profit streams.

The coin uses the power of artificial intelligence to generate ongoing profit. These profits are then used to finance investment in early stage companies focused on public blockchain or AI technology. The quarterly selection of start-up companies will use the collective knowledge and experience of all token holders who vote on which companies will receive investment.

Since AICOIN is built on the Ethereum blockchain, the function of the smart contract is to provide transparency to and supervisory control of the voting process.

Gavin has worked in the European financial service industry for over twenty years. His most recent role prior to founding First Global was designing the global risk strategy for one of the worlds largest physical commodity traders. He has the rare set of skills needed to navigate First Global Credit through the volatility of the Bitcoin market..

See the rest here:
Beat the Flash Boys of Cryptocurrency Trading with AICoin | Finance ... - Finance Magnates

Hugh Harsono is a former financial analyst currently serving as a U.S. Army Officer.

Digital currency prices have soared recently, with reports from the past few months showing enormous valuation increases for currencies across the board.

Bitcoin, Ripple, and Ethereum have all experienced exponential growth, with Bitcoin prices rising to $2,588, Ripple reaching a market cap of nearly $10 billion, and Ethereum growing to a total market cap of over $20 billion.

With supply and demand for digital currencies extremely high in both Japan and China, it is no surprise as to why these two countries are helping to fuel the rise in cryptocurrency prices.

Ability to Withdraw in China?

With access to cheap hardware and electricity, China is the prime breeding ground for mining cryptocurencies, with huge mining pools run by exchanges such as BTCC accounting for more than 60% of the bitcoin networks collective hashrate.

However, the beginning of 2017 saw a governmental crackdown of Chinese-based digital currency exchanges, causing a suspension in all withdrawals, causing the market to suffer heavily with China being one of the top bitcoin markets in terms of trading volume.

Recently, Caixin reported potential changes in the governmental regulatory framework to allow withdrawals last month, specifically mentioning top exchanges OKcoin, Huobi, and BTCC. This potential good news has increased consumer confidence in cryptocurrencies, contributing to their associated rise in value.

Japan: Stepping in to Fill the Chinese Void

With cryptocurrency liquidity in China experienced stagnation earlier this year, the Japanese bitcoin market exploded, with demand reaching new heights.

Previously, Japan represented barely 1% of total bitcoin trading volume, but in recent months estimates put this number as high as 6%, with Japan accounting for nearly 55% of total trade volume on some trading days. This increase in JPY bitcoin trading due to the Chinese inability to liquidate has fueled growth in the digital currency market globally.

Solid Alternative Compared to Government Policy

In China, the tightly-controlled yuan is another reason why cryptocurrency prices have experienced their unprecedented rise in value. The Chinese government has total control over the yuans valuation, traditionally devaluing the yuan to give itself an international trade advantage when the government saw fit.

With the growing amount of private independent wealth in China, cryptocurrency has become viable as an alternative asset class. And cryptocurrencies are being seen as more accessible, less volatile, and increasingly stable, contributing to their recent growth in value.

Meanwhile, the Bank of Japans policy of quantitative easing has resulted in very low, and sometimes even negative interest rates, also caused digital currency values to rise.

The Japanese governments QE policy, intended to spur economic growth, has resulted in significant deflation for the yen, causing a similar decrease in investor confidence in this currency. With no end in sight for this form of Japanese monetary policy, digital currencies have and are currently being used as an alternative asset class, driving their rise in value.

Virtual currencies are quickly being seen as a better asset class by local investors, who fear the volatility of government interference in their specific economies.

Institutional Acceptance of Digital Currency

The rise in digital currency values can also be attributed to institutional acceptance of cryptocurrencies. The recent conclusion of the Global Blockchain Financial Summit in Hangzhou saw intense interest from reputable institutions like Peking University, which is creating an Ethereum center to work on direct application use and protocol improvements in China.

The Royal Chinese Mint, a downtrace unit of the Peoples Bank of China (PBoC) dedicated to its electronic banking mission, has even actively promoted the application of blockchain technology, going as far as to allocate resources and developers in experimentation to digitize the yuan.

In Japan, multiple large institutions are now beginning to accept digital currency as a transactional entity, validating its use to the Japanese population as a whole. On the market front,bitFlyer, Japans largest exchange, is currently backed by all three of Japans megabanks: MUFJ, Mizuho, and SMBC.

On the consumer/retail side, influential electronics retailer Bic Camera has partnered with bitFlyer to begin acceptance of bitcoin at its retail locations. Additionally, Recruit Lifestyle, part of HR conglomerate Recruit Holdings, reported a new partnership with exchange Coincheck to use as part of a point-of-sale implementation program. The acceptance of digital currencies by these reputable groups have helped fuel confidence in digital currencies for daily transactions by the Japanese.

This institutional acceptance of digital currencies by powerful organizations in both China and Japan have allowed cryptocurrencies values to rise as a whole.

Governmental Acceptance of Cryptocurrency

It is no secret that the Chinese government has taken steps to regulate digital currency transactions, with their scrutiny and initiatives causing a drop in bitcoin prices to around $1,000 just several months ago.

However, the very fact that the PBoC is seeking to regulate this industry simply proves how viable it is as a legitimate transaction entity, with the Chinese government even taking steps to build their own digital currency.

With the announcement of potential withdrawals of bitcoin on the horizon, the PBoC have just completed a trial run of their own digital currency based on blockchain technology, with participation from major institutions such as the Bank of China and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, as well as Chinas first online bank WeBank.

The Japanese government has also taken huge steps in the acceptance of digital currencies as legal forms of tender, with Japan legally classifying bitcoin as a form of payment just on April 1st.

Ahead of China, Japan has already begun licensure procedures for digital currency exchanges, to be operated under the watchful eye of the governments Financial Services Agency, with market leaders such as bitFlyer already announcing plans to apply for said license, further driving investor confidence in the Japanese market and beyond.

Additionally, the Japanese government announced that the sale of virtual currency under the new Fund Settlement Law would be exempt from the Japanese Consumption Tax (8%), further driving bitcoin growth as an investment vehicle.

The acceptance of virtual currencies by both the Chinese and Japanese governments are driving cryptocurrency growth, with China on the cusp of establishing its own currency, and Japan regulating bitcoin as true legal payment.

Go here to read the rest:
How two countries helped drive the recent rise in cryptocurrency prices - TechCrunch

CoinDash, a blockchain startup focusing on cryptocurrency social trading and portfolio management platforms, has announced a date for itsupcoming crowdfund.

Learn how to buy Bitcoin and Ethereum safely with our simple guide!

The CoinDash Token Sale will take place on July 17th, 2017, and will last for 28 days or until thefunds raisedreach a $12million hard cap.

In JuneFinance Magnates conducted an interview withAlon Muroch, theCEO and co-founder ofCoindash.The interview was broadcast live and a video recording is availablehere:

In the announcement Muroch said:

As of today, we have thousands of community members from all over the world, an amazing group of product testers that help us improve our platform and an impressive group of partners and advisors who assist us in every step of the way. As a technology company, its the best thing we could have wished for.

Our hard work in the past nine months has brought us to this moment. A moment where we open the doors for our community and the public and ask to take a leap of faith with us. In order for CoinDash to scale and build the best product we know how to, we are inviting you, our community, to participate in our funding event and help us executing CoinDashs vision.

I would like to take this opportunity and thank all who took part in the process and make it possible to bring CoinDash to life. Together we will create the future of trading.

Participation in the CoinDash crowdfund will be conducted by sending Ethereum into the token sales smart contract address.

Read more:
Cryptocurrency Social Trading Startup CoinDash Set for $12m Token Sale - Finance Magnates

With cryptocurrency ICOs taking center stage lately, there will be more attempts to scam people as well. It can be difficult to protect oneself against thesescams, butsome basic precautions will keep most people safe. This new digital craze will need to be regulatedsomehow, as the amount of scamscan get out of hand pretty quickly. Below are some basic tips to avoid getting scammed by a cryptocurrency ICO.

The first step investors always need to take is conducting due diligence on a project. Randomly investing in cryptocurrency ICOs can pay off in the long run, but it also greatly increases ones chances of investing in a bogus project. Any ICO that does not have a detailed whitepaper should be avoided, as that is a basic requirement for any serious project. If the company or project cannot convince you of its use cases, you should not give them your money.

Any project that does not want to make the names of its team members public should also raise red flags. If the names and identities are made public, do some research on the people involved in the project. Do not be fooled by big names working as an adviser for a project either. These roles often lack real influence over the direction and execution of projects. Fancy names mean nothing these days, as a lot of information found on the internet is either doctored or utterly fake.

On multiple occasions, we see people spreading fake Ethereum wallet addresses to participate in a specific cryptocurrency ICO. This mostly occurs on Telegram, butSlack can suffer from the same problem. Never trust an Ethereum wallet address given to you by strangers on the internet. Do not ask for these addresses either, as you are only asking to be scammed by doing so. Only use the information provided by the team itself and the address shown on the legitimate ICO website.

Perhaps the biggest threat to cryptocurrency ICOs and potential investors comes in the form of phishing sites. More often than not, we see clone websites for upcoming ICOs appear on the internet. This can affect both CIO and pre-ICO campaigns, which makes it very difficult for novice users to determine which site is legitimate and which one is not. The best course of action is to links spread on Telegram or Slack, other than the ones provided by the moderators and team members.

Since phishing sites look exactly like the real ICO site, investors would almost need to know the official site before it launches. That is very hard to achieve, as most ICO projects want to keep pre-ICO and ICO links undisclosed until the campaign starts. Keeping tabs on projects through platforms such as Tokenmarket will guarantee users will always find the correct URL for a cryptocurrency ICO. It is by far one of the most trusted ICO websites out there.

Even though TokenMarket does a good job to keep track of cryptocurrency ICOs, we will ultimately need a decentralized registry for these types of projects. Adecentralized registry can provide whitelist services to cull the phishing sites from the real platforms. Ensuring people provide the correct information in the first place can be a challenge, though. For some reason, virtually all cryptocurrency ICOs rely on centralized technology, which is problematic to any such efforts.

If you liked this article, follow us on Twitter @themerklenews and make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to receive the latest bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and technology news.

Visit link:
How to Avoid Being Scammed by a Cryptocurrency ICO - The Merkle

In the world of digital currencies, Bitcoin (BTC) paved the way. The original cryptocurrency has continued to dominate the field, with prices reaching up to $3000 or so per coin at its peak. And yet, Bitcoin is no longer as dominant over the rest of the field as it once was: while Bitcoin used to enjoy a share of the total industry market capitalization around 80-90%, it now represents less than half of the total market cap. Other currencies are racing to catch up with Bitcoin, with Ethereum's Ether token appearing to be the most likely to overtake Bitcoin in terms of market cap. And yet, regardless of whether Bitcoin remains on top or if another digital currency surpasses it, Bitcoin's influence on the industry, and on the world at large, cannot be overstated. The cryptocurrency world is continuing to grow: where will it end up?

Bitcoin's success has spawned over 800 other cryptocurrencies in the past decade. Now, the market for Bitcoins is worth about $40 billion, but the total value of the rest of those currencies is worth even more than that, whent hey are taken together. The next biggest players are Ethereum, occupying about $25.7 billion worth of the total market value share, and Ripple, with about $10.5 billion. Litecoin, Dash, NEM, and many others follow after that. The total value of the industry is hovering just under $100 billion at this point, which is roughly equivalent to the combined values of Weyerhaeuser (WY), Ford (F), and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), three of the largest corporations in the United States, according to Business Insider.

One of the reasons that analysts see the cryptocurrency world continuing to grow into the future is Bitcoin's shifting role. For the first time since its founding more than a decade ago, Bitcoin now makes up a minority of the entire cryptocurrency market. For many years the original cryptocurrency completely dominated its competition, but in the past six months or so, Bitcoin has dropped to just 41.6% of the total market. Litecoin, which aims to process blocks at four times the speed of Bitcoin, has been in existence since 2011. Ethereum, launched only in 2015, has ascended through the ranks of digital currencies at lightning speed. And Ripple has made impressive gains thanks to its unique software, which has already been adopted by some of the largest banks in the world in order to increase global liquidity.

At this point, it seems likely that the cryptocurrency world will continue to expand, with more currencies, more customers, more miners, and new technology. Of course, there are also those who speculate that the rapid growth is a result of a bubble, but only time will tell if the digital currency world will come crashing down.

View original post here:
How Much Will the Cryptocurrency World Keep Growing? (BTC) - Investopedia