Why Israel's Banks Will Unite Over Blockchain

The general consensus is that there is huge potential in blockchain technology. Some say it may be as big as the Internet itself, doing for transactions of value what the former has done for transfers of information.

 

Blockchain could completely alter traditional industries, changing the face of financial transactions, legal contracts, verification mechanisms and even voting procedures. Where consensus is lacking, there possibly lie the future steps of blockchain.

What can we expect to see next? Our hunch: we are entering the phase of the institutionalization of blockchain, and it will be led by the financial system. Yes, by the banks.

The potential advantages to using blockchain are obvious. Most significant is the ability to remove the middleman, and allow for faster, cheaper and more secure transactions. This could prove to be economically beneficial to the financial system which facilitates billions of transactions every day.

 

No less important is the advantage it provides for developing countries, where trust in the authorities is relatively low, and especially for those which suffer from high levels of corruption. There, people are looking for different ways to realize their civil liberties, including voting, identity verification, registering land ownership, etc. Blockchain technology – direct, decentralized, and secure – provides a potentially unprecedented and private alternative to these.

 

Early adoptor

Arguably one of the most vibrant blockchain industries currently is in Israel. A combination of expertise in cryptography and Big Data gained in the world of security and defense, combined with a passionate and talented entrepreneurial ecosystem has led a growing number of companies to lead the way to the next big thing in the blockchain domain.

 

These companies include startups like Synereo (a decentralized communication platform), Simplex (a payments service working on enabling bitcoin purchases with credit cards), Colu (Colored Coins).

Yet, careful observation of the Israeli ecosystem shows that it comprises much more than early-stage startups. Major Israeli financial institutions, perhaps lacking the sheer magnitude and market share of their American and European counterparts, are showing increasing interest in various applications being developed by these younger companies.

 

Several banks (such as Bank Hapoalim, Leumi and Citi Bank) have launched accelerators with infrastructure designated to support early-stage initiatives. They offer much-needed funding, technical support and the opportunity to interact and collaborate with the banking system. This synergy could prove to be extremely valuable, as one of the major hurdles facing entrepreneurs in the field is developing products and solutions that could be adapted for, and used by, the highly conservative, heavily regulated environment such as that in which the banking system operates.

 

In addition, more investors are being drawn into the industry, incentivizing promising ventures and adding fuel to the growing excitement and expectations surrounding the field. Recently, we're also seeing increased involvement of lawyers and accountants in the sphere, discussing implications and working with their clients on some of the challenges associated with blockchain.

 

Regulation driven

One cannot ignore the resemblance between the current growth in the industry and the evolution of the Israeli cyber industry roughly a decade ago. What began as a small group of cyber startups soon became a deluge of hundreds of companies, providing innovative technology and multi-tier services around the globe. Similar, but not the same. Unlike the cyber industry, the blockchain industry is lacking crucial tail-wind from the regulator.

Almost two decades ago, the Israeli regulator came to the understanding that cyber was becoming a major new front. The main driver was the concern surrounding cyber-attacks on critical national infrastructure and security installations. The sharpest minds from the Israeli defense industry convened to discuss a national realignment to ensure Israel's ability to confront future challenges.

 

Eventually the government adapted a combined approach, emphasizing the development of human talent, investment in technology, building institutions, allocating funding and providing a regulatory environment that allowed the industry to thrive. All together this has led to an unprecedented boost to the Israeli cyber industry, a push that Israel is still reaping benefits from to this day.

This is not yet the case with blockchain. Regulators worldwide remain skeptical of virtual coins that circumvent banks and government authorities, and seem prone to criminal exploitations. We've seen that SilkRoad, Mt Gox and the recent Bitfinex scandal has not done anything to defuse this stereotype.

 

But resistance may be more deeply rooted than mere concerns over criminal misuse and consumer protection: a decentralized alternative to centuries-old systems of centralized governance and control is not something any regulator will be able to swallow too easily. Likewise, Israeli regulators are still 'sitting on the fence'. Given that both future uses, and implications of blockchain, are unpredictable, this is to be expected.

 

However, the regulator provides an indispensable support system, including supervision mechanisms and an appropriate legal framework. Such regulatory backing can bolster consumer awareness, understanding and confidence in the new technology and accommodate the move of blockchain from fringe to mainstream. But who will lead the charge?

 

Meeting of worlds

Various businesses worldwide are already beginning to take note of the potential economic value in using blockchain technology in myriad applications. And as competition grows, an even larger circle is beginning to feel the pressure to follow suit. Although the movement is certainly expanding, this grassroots growth may not suffice to live up to the disruptive potential of blockchain. This is where the big banks come in.

 

Looking back at the major developments over the past year, there is no doubt that the ripest industry for blockchain is the financial system. The big financial institutions would have the most to gain – or lose.

 

It is, however, the most highly regulated industry. Therefore, authorities need to deepen their engagement with the various applications of the technology with the aim of creating an appropriate regulatory framework applicable for the technology, whilst increasing consumer confidence, but without undermining the economic model of the financial system.

And who is best qualified for that role if not the financial system itself? It has both the knowledge and capacity to conduct meaningful dialogue with the regulator on the one hand, and the economic incentive to cut down costs by using blockchain on the other. If that happens, we could soon find ourselves in an era of institutionalized blockchain, where cutting-edge technology meets conservative infrastructure to generate a wholly new and fascinating system.

Smart contracts for bitcoin

 

As we approach the release date for the SEGWIT (Segregated Witness) update to the blockchain, we were pleased to see a complete update from the BitcoinCore team about how this update will affect the network, what will change and where are we going to proceed in the future.

 

For those of you who don’t know what SEGWIT is software that is used to produce transactions for which it separates the TxID transaction signatures from the rest of the data, thus Segregated Witness. This allows miners to place the transaction signatures outside of the block-chain.

 

Pros and cons

There are benefits that we will immediately be able to enjoy once the update has been complete. The first benefit is that malleability will be ultimately eliminated, and third-parties won’t be able to interfere with the transaction process, and transaction ID’s will be hidden from everyone, while at the same time allowing the transaction software to calculate the transaction without reference to the witness. This update will open up development paths for Bitcoin, by eliminating security holes and lowering the complexity of smart contracts for Bitcoin.

 

The second benefit is that capacity of transactions will modestly increase. New-style blocks can hold more data than current versions, which means that the amount of transaction data will increase per block. That doesn’t mean that witness data is stored off-chain, but rather following this soft-fork, the data will start being signed on the new-style blocks (which include the old-style block and extra space).

Overall this update will simplify things for developers to produce new features for Bitcoin use and it improves the efficacy of running full nodes. We are happy to see that long-term benefits will come out of this update.

 

According to the blog post that the BitcoinCore team released on June 24th, 2016, SEGWIT has been extensively tested by Bitcoin developers, and this was necessary because of the way SEGWIT changes parts of the Bitcoin system. One of the most important change happens to the consensus rules that full nodes use to agree on the current state of the ledger. That shift is the primary reason for such tests to be performed, because if we come to a position where the network stops agreement on the current state, Bitcoin transactions become dangerous.

 

Other notable changes happened to the peer-to-peer code that’s used by the network to distribute blocks and transactions. (This was all included in the 0.13.0 BitcoinCore Update, but it’s not going to happen be accepted on the main network until at least ver. 0.13.01) SEGWIT blocks and transactions are different from previous versions, so it’s important that the network is capable of distributing both SEGWIT and old-style data.

The complete update added about 7800 lines of code to the proprietary software, with the majority of lines relating to the SEGWIT capabilities. A large part of the code update related to the automated testing system, which enabled Bitcoin developers to test out the features on a separate network extensively, promptly called “testnet”.

SEGWIT was initially implemented by the Elements Project, led by Pieter Wuille. This initial implementation was happening in April through June of 2015. It was never intended for the main blockchain but is actually considered a side-chain. A few months later in October 2015, Luke Dashjr describes a method that allows SEGWIT to be implemented by using a soft-fork and they team up with Wuille to work on the implementation that is going to be completely compatible with the main blockchain.

 

The first version of this new code comes out in December 2015, close to the end of the year. (New year, new updates!) It’s implemented and tested extensively for the whole duration, ranging from the beginning of the year to August 23rd, 2016, when the BitcoinCore team launched the update.

 

Within this update, SEGWIT is completely implemented, but it’s sitting there in a passive state, only used for testing purposes. Like I mentioned before, it will become operational with the next update! The Bitcoin Core developers are finally convinced that implementation of SEGWIT will not cause any adverse effects and it won’t negatively influence Bitcoin, it’s value and reliability.

 

SEGWIT won’t change a lot about how you perceive Bitcoin transactions happening, well… There is one pretty perceptive change, but I’m sure you’re not going to mind it.

 

Transaction fees are going to get a little bit cheaper.

I’m sure we all can appreciate spending a little bit less on our transactions. But wait, what about Bitcoin smart contracts?

Yes, I’ve mentioned them. Well SEGWIT will not introduce any smart contracts, but it’s the first step allowing the development of the capability to support these.

 

It solves a crucial problem that currently is affecting the creation of smart contacts and script functioning. It opens up the doors to new development paths and creates new opportunities that were previously inaccessible due to security loopholes and visibility of transaction identifiers. In the future, smart contracts and scripts will use MAST, an acronym for Merkalized Abstract Syntax Trees.

 

A short description of MAST is that it allows the creation of conditional Bitcoin scripts to be utilized. For now, it’s being reserved for the extremely tech-savvy people, the developers to use these tools and potentially make them available to Bitcoin users. MAST is going to be available for use following the SEGWIT update in the future.

Wings - DAOs Are The Future

A Decentralized Autonomous Organization, which is also known as DAO is run through a set of rules that have been encoded as computer programs. Wings has specifically been designed for the use of DAOs. In other words, Wings can be defined as a smart contract and multi block chain based platform, which can be used for creation, participation and management of DAOs. 

Wings comes along with a variety of features, which have the potential to deliver an excellent support to DAOs. The support of popular block chains such as Bitcoin via Rootstock and Ethereum hold a prominent place out of it. On the other hand, people who subscribe with Wings will be able to implement AI-augmented assistance on top of leading instant messengers out there. While offering these innovative features, Wings tries to create a mass-market oriented DAO platform. They also want to be the owner of the most accessible DAO platform as well. With the help of Wings, both established companies as well as entrepreneurs will be able to launch their new DAO proposals without much hassle. That's because the token owners of the platform would review the submitted proposals and get them involved in promising projects. 

Conversational UX is another impressive functionality that is offered to the users of Wings. This feature is powered by Chatbots technology. Natural language communication has received much attention in the past and Chatbots has taken the maximum advantage out of it. Even leading companies in technological innovation such as Microsoft and Facebook have started creating similar solutions of their own. DAO interaction would take place in the form of a natural conversation through Chatbots. The users will also be able to control the member involvement of the DAO through instant messaging platforms. 

No coding experience is required to use Wings and get the best out of it. The developers have paid special attention towards making the life easy for Wings users. Therefore, users can simply use the friendly interface without having any understanding about EVM coding languages such as Serpent and Solidity. You just need to be the owner of a smartphone in order to use Wings and manage your DAOs. Automatic participation is another impressive feature that is offered by Wings. This helps the members of the platform in order to deposit funds to a Smart Contract controlled wallet. Then they will be able to set up their preferred purchase settings and spend the funds as per it across multiple DAOs. 

Large scale companies and entrepreneurs that are looking forward to launch new DAO proposals will be asked to go through a decentralized KYC process, which is followed by community voting. This method has the ability to minimize the amount of fraud activities that take place within the platform. On the other hand, it can create an ideal platform for the community members to focus on creating innovative products. Wings has a dedicated reputation system as well. Therefore, members who contribute and get a high rank will be able to launch new DAO proposals without much hassle. In other words, they will have to get a lower amount of votes when compared to others. 

These are few of the prominent features that are offered by Wings. It can be summarized as a fascinating project backing social platform, which comes with an array of advanced features. 

Read more about the Wings project here
Download the Wings whitepaper here

A few reasons why you should invet in bitcoin

During the last couple of months, bitcoin has had numerous ups and downs, yet the number of total investors has increased exponentially. Judging by this practice, it seems like there is a clear demand for the digital currency. In fact, the year of 2015 represented the year of venture capitalists, especially on the blockchain, after the number of investments in both bitcoin and its underlying technology has increased. As there is clearly some risk associated with the practice of trading and investing in bitcoin, numerous potential investors are staying away from it.

 

The supply of bitcoin is fixed

Since the currency was first released back in 2009, its value has increased from next to nothing, up to 1,100 and its current value of around $600 at the time of writing. However, not many people are aware of the fact that the digital currency has a strict, limited maximum supply, of 21 million coins. Judging by this aspect, once all of the coins will have been mined, the coin will have the potential to increase in value a lot. While it will surely go through numerous more price fluctuations until the limit is reached, if the number of investors and adopters of the digital currency continues to increase, then this will likely bring the value of one bitcoin to astronomical numbers.

 

A larger number of individuals and businesses are turning to bitcoin

While the digital currency was still fairly new, numerous businesses had started accepting bitcoin as a form of payment. As time passed, however, other companies began paying their salaries in the digital currency, whereas others simply stopped using fiat and just moved to bitcoin altogether.

 

Bitcoin is entering a trend where it’s being adopted for more and more practical reasons

Using the digital currency as a form of payment only is surely beneficial. Yet, adopting it for its practical reasons can yield much better results over the years to come. To put things better into perspective, with each day, bitcoin is getting more ingrained in our society. Thanks to this, it’s also being built within the back bone of numerous products and services. Judging by this trend, companies and individuals will need more of the digital currency to take part in the online and offline markets with ease.

 

When it comes down to moving to a digital currency, most people choose bitcoin

As it is by far the most popular cryptocurrency available on the market, it yields an impressive advantage to new-comers. Based on this, people who are just getting started with the world of digital currencies are much more likely to invest in bitcoin, rather than other altcoins such as Ethereum, Litecoin, Dogecoin etc.

 

Higher prices increase transaction volumes, which in turn boost prices even more

This is an interesting trend in the world of bitcoin, thus creating a circle of benefits for its adopters. With this in mind, as soon as the price increases, trading data has shown that the number of transactions increase as well, which in turn, act as a catalyst for higher prices. In case no event shakes the world of bitcoin, then this could lead to a continuous price increase, which would further be boosted after reaching the limit of coins, as mentioned above.

 

Governments take it lightly

While there have been a couple of government talks on regularizing bitcoin and the use of the blockchain alongside with other digital currencies, no harsh practice has been imposed so far, apart from 2-4 countries. Most governmental agencies are open to the use of the digital currency, whereas others even encourage it (the United Kingdom, for example). Taxes have been imposed on both individuals and businesses in the past, yet many of these regions decided to remove the taxing, and regard bitcoin as a commodity, asset, whereas others talked about it as real money.

 

It’s easy

Chances are that the most pragmatic reason on why you should consider investing in bitcoin, is that doing so, is extremely easy. To put things better into perspective, it could be as easy as simply buying a number of coins, and holding onto them through the price fluctuations. Of course, there are also slightly more difficult practices that you could get into, such as trading, which can turn out to be extremely profitable, especially if you have some experience as a trader. Practices such as margin trading, lending bitcoin, and simply speculating on the price can result in higher profits for those who do this constantly, and have a good judgment of the short and long-term future.

 

Based on everything that has been outlined so far, the 6 reasons mentioned above, should have convinced you about the profit potential that bitcoin offers, and should have encouraged you to consider the idea of investing. There are of course, also a couple of disadvantages, which we will cover in the next articles to come. Based on everything that has been outlined so far, what do you personally think about the reasons mentioned above? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.

Can payments firms monetise data and meet new privacy laws?

The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) represents a watershed moment for the payments industry. This is not simply another data compliance headache. GDPR enshrines a new idea: that consumers have ultimate control of their data.

 

This concept will lead to a new model for the payments industry; one centred on the empowered customer and based on informed consent.

 

The impact on the payments industry

Payments industry businesses – from merchants to the financial services organisations that support them – are increasingly looking at how they can monetise their customer data.

Some adopt direct monetisation models, selling their customer data to third parties, whereas others indirectly monetise customer data through analysing payments history to drive up- and cross-sell of new services.

 

Much of this data is unfortunately anonymized given it is personally identifiable information (Pii) and there is a lack of customer knowledge and/or permission for use. As such it has essentially been stripped of a fair amount of its utility to directly personalise and make offers more customized and relevant.

Either in aggregated form or linked to an individual, how can firms continue to monetise data and also meet the privacy demands of GDPR?

 

Putting the customer in control

The challenge can be met through informed consent. Firms must take a customer-driven approach to information sharing, empowering the consumer to share and rescind their consent.

It is not enough to simply ‘ask’ for consent. Organisations must capture gained consent in an auditable workflow. This requires a sophisticated information management platform; one which enables an automated and secure digital communication link with the customer.

 

Once consent is secured, payments industry businesses then need a flexible, secure platform to store and manage the data in customer-driven way. One way firms are looking to build this framework is through digital rights management services that create a digital ‘vault’ for customers to store personal data.

 

This approach enables simplified and streamlined Data Portability and the Right to be Forgotten; empowering customers and meeting the stipulations of GDPR.

 

A new model for a changed world

While GDPR is a significant enabling event for the rollout of consent-driven data management, it is a symptom of a wider change. The sharing, and peer-to-peer economies are already shaking up the world of commerce and changing the payments landscape for good. At the same time people are becoming more aware of their personal rights over their own data.

 

Payments businesses can’t take anything for granted any more. They must proactively enable a customer-driven and customer-centric data framework and provide customers with the tools they need to view and manage their own data. The result will be GDPR compliance, a much better customer experience and a new method for building customer loyalty. It will also mean they can continue to monetise their data.

Could Bitcoin Be the Future of Blockchain Post Trade?

Conventional thinking about blockchain technology's use in stock markets may be wrong, according to one academic.

The argument was put forward by Professor David Yermack, chairman of the finance department at New York University, this week at Imperial College London's first FinTech-focused academic conference.
There, Yermack presented an unpublished report that argues blockchains will evolve differently in capital markets than widely expected. For example, according to Yermack, functions such as stock settlements will one day be carried out on public blockchains like bitcoin, as opposed to private or premissioned alternatives.

Overall, Yermack, who teaches a cryptocurrency course at NYU’s Stern School of Business, offered a much broader vision for the use of blockchain in finance than what the industry is considering, as well as more critical takes on how incumbents are exploring the tech. Taking a dig at DTCC, for instance, Yermack said its report "Embracing Disruption" did little to show or illustrate how blockchain could change the current state of affairs.

Agents of change
That's not to say that Yermack didn't take a measured view of public blockchains. On the contrary, Yermak acknowledged the limitations of bitcoin's throughput and its proof-of-work consensus system today, but noted that it's something he believes the industry will need to work out better solutions for.

Still, he insisted that the future of finance will be brought about by a real decentralized blockchains that don’t have monopolies that guard access to stocks, bonds and currencies. Speaking of the direction where the disruption will come from, Yermack sees three potential players. These include challengers (complete outsiders looking for disruption); collaborators (like the DTCC and R3); and regulators (countries like the UK, Australia, and Canada).

Overall, he believes that the challengers were the most likely to succeed, but that some regulators (like those in the UK) are better positioned to bring about change than others.

Quick wins
Interestingly, Yermack believes one of the easiest and quickest ways for the industry to move to a blockchain model is by exploring use cases in corporate elections by shareholders, an avenue already being pursued by Nasdaq. Yermack said shareholder voting on corporate elections is currently inefficient when it comes to vote counting, and that the voting results are often plus or minus 5% of what they should be.

Further, in the current model, there are many challenges when it comes to corporate elections, he said. There are various different ledgers of ownership, maintained by the company, the broker, and the market in general, which gives rise to different voting results. Broadridge, which has what he called "a monopoly that is very inefficient" administers corporate elections voting, is also interested in blockchains.

But, Yermack went beyond words, showing that corporate elections are prone to favor management proposals. Such issues, he believes, could be eliminated with the help of blockchain-based voting systems.

Newbium – Bringing New Tools to the Cryptosphere

NEWBIUM has begun its evolution in the Digital Currency space to provide a service to Crypo Experts, Traders and Investors in this field with smart tools to be able to make smarter decisions. Using cutting edge technology and precision marking data that anyone involved will be able to access in order to generate more wealth.

Knowledge is power and this is what makes Newbium as the new kid on the block, both attractive as an investment and as a tool for investors. Whether you are a Novice or a Pro, you will be able to take full advantage of the information tracking and educational platforms that Newbium will bring to the Altcoin scene.

Breakdown of the coin distribution:

40% – crowd sale

9% – rewards for bounties, campaigns, swaps & strategic partnerships.

51% – shall be held and distributed over the long term.  The distribution method and process shall be determined through voting by the Nxttycoin community.

Data Analytics for Crypto Currencies is a must project that needs to be expanded and it is this market of over three million Crypto currency enthusiasts that NEWBIUM is reaching out to. It will build a platform in stages and will bring value and intrinsic wealth to all of its token holders as it will be providing services on its platform that will generate income from subscriptions and various other activities.

The World’s Fastest Cryptocurrency Creditbit Offer Ten Times Faster Transactions Than Bitcoin

Launched in 2015, Creditbit follows the decentralized model like many other digital currency platforms to revolutionize the monetary system. With the platform,Creditbits ultimate goal is to reach out to every individual on the planet, offering them banking and financial services over the blockchain. The conventional banking system comes with its own challenges, which makes it almost impossible for everyone to have his/her own bank account. The challenge is mainly due to the centralized nature of the operation, where there are people and organizations who make the decision for their customers. These decision makers are also the ones who decide whether to provide these aforementioned services to a particular segment of people.

Creditbits open source approach makes it easy for anyone to join the community to use and further develop the Creditbit protocol. Moreover, setting up a Creditbit addresses and making transactions over the platform is completely free. The open source nature of Creditbit doesn't confine its users to one particular model decided by its creator but it also allows developers to run, modify, copy and even distribute the modified versions of the software. The strong developer community ensures that the platform by itself is constantly evolving, in turn increasing adoption by offering a great user experience. Creditbit is built as a robust platform, with all its source code available on main repos on GitHub.

How is Creditbit Different from Bitcoin
Creditbit has recognized the challenges faced by Bitcoin and implemented the changes to prevent such issues from repeating on their platform. Creditbit uses a Proof of Work (PoW) hybrid, solving the no-stake-at-stake problem generally faced by the Proof of Stake (PoS) systems. The PoW – PoS hybrid also makes it impossible to use ASICs to mine Creditbit tokens.

The block generation time for Bitcoin protocol is 10 minutes, which has significantly increased the time taken to confirm transactions. Also, the rate of transactions processed by the Bitcoin protocol is also less due to the same issue. Creditbit has prevented such issues from happening by making it capable of processing transactions ten times faster than the Bitcoin network. The time taken for an average Creditbit transaction to be confirmed is less than 30 seconds, making it the world´s fastest digital currency.

About Creditbit
Creditbit is an open source cryptocurrency protocol released under MIT/X11 license. The protocol enables implementation of financial services over its blockchain to make it accessible to everyone. Creditbit has gained a lot of traction since its launch and the Creditbit wallets are currently available for almost all platforms. Creditbit is currently being traded on 7 different exchanges viz., Bittrex, Livecoin, YoBit, C-Cex, Cryptopia, Bloombit, and Bitsquare. Creditbit has also been added to Coin Payments.

Creditbit users can contribute to the network by keeping their wallets open in a process called staking. Staking is rewards with up to 8 percent of the Creditbit holding every year. Staking helps the platform optimize the speed of transactions. With increased adoption among individuals, traders and merchants; Creditbit has taken their first steps towards mass adoption.

IPO’s at BTCPOP

Bitcoin Press releases: BTCPOP first introduced the ability for users to create an Initial Public Offering (IPO) in December 2015, however, you might not know about this marvellous feature and why you should be using it.

An IPO is created when a company decides to sell shares to the general public. This means that the company transitions from private (no shareholders) to public (with shareholders).

IPO's are great for new businesses; selling shares is a way of raising funds for the business and these funds can be used to create more of the product you're selling, buy a bigger office or increase staff numbers! Of course, IPO's offer the same benefits to older companies who are looking to raise much-needed funds, but for a start-up, it can make all the difference – an idea turned into reality.

BTCPOP have made it so easy to create an IPO. All you have to do is register at www.btcpop.co, verify your account and click 'create IPO' and just fill out the details. BTCPOP recommend that you spend a bit of time writing, re-writing and improving your IPO description, making sure it's very detailed and of the highest standard. This improves your chances of users investing in your brilliant idea!

New Blockchain Initiative Bitland is Putting Land on the Ledger in Ghana

Blockchain technology is extremely powerful, offering huge advantages of cost, transparency and reliability thanks to the immutable nature of decentralised ledgers. However, these benefits often fail to resonate due to the markets targeted and the way in which they are communicated.

Bitland puts the human element back into the decentralisation movement by bringing blockchain technology directly to the people, face to face. The organisation will provide services to allow individuals and groups to survey land and record title deeds on the Bitland blockchain – providing a permanent and auditable record – as well as acting as liaison with the government to help resolve disputes. The project is being piloted with 28 communities in Kumasi, Ghana, with the intention of expanding across the African continent.

Education and infrastructure
Bitland is both informing citizens about blockchain technology and about how the technology can change their lives for the better. Bringing clarity to land ownership rights will not only reduce corruption, but will open up trillions of dollars in locked capital, since land that doesn't have a functional title cannot be used as capital, and securing a mortgage to build or purchase homes is not possible. In low-income countries like Ghana, people are concerned with basic needs and infrastructure such as running water and paved roads. The Bitland team will use blockchain technology to help accelerate infrastructure development by freeing up capital – without the corruption and abuses of power that have plagued such projects in the past.

Bitland cannot rely on existing local infrastructure, since rolling blackouts are the norm. They therefore plan to set up solar-powered Bitland centres that will function as hardware hubs for the Bitland Wireless Network. These hubs will double as education centres for locals to learn about digital solutions and how to get involved in the project.

OpenLedger and ICOO
As the OpenLedger platform is developed further, it will add the capacity for a voting system to be part of the Bitland project – enabling communities to become directly involved in decision-making.
Continues Boesing. Now, the infrastructure of the OpenLedger system will grow to include real estate, commercial property investments, and development of third world countries as part of its future plans.

May 20 will also see the launch of the crowdfunding campaign for a new initiative, ICOO. This innovative new asset will allow holders to benefit from future ICOs, by investing in them and making proxy tokens available to trade before they launch. The fund will purchase assets from supported ICOs and create tokens representing these on OpenLedger in the period before the official release of the project. As with other new projects, a proportion of ICOO assets are reserved for OBITS – a catch-all asset representing all current and future initiatives in the CCEDK network.

Since the Decentralized Conglomerate establishes intra-DC support, 5% of the proceeds from the sale of ICOO will go towards the purchase of Cadastrals. Since the future plans for Bitland are to establish a network of smart contracts that back land, Cadastrals will be seen as a digital token representing land for the portfolio of ICOO. The Cadastral community becomes a pillar of ICOO alongside Digix and DAOHub.

Government Contracts
As Bitland plans to work with governments around the world to register land titles on the OpenLedger blockchain, the ecosystem will represent not just smart contracts, but smart cities. The OpenLedger platform will help bring transparency to nations where corruption has been the main impedance to progress, and further it will allow remittance and investments to flow into underdeveloped areas without big companies taking a large cut. The Bitland project is about more than registering land titles: this is the first step to bringing true democracy and meritocracy to the world.

Ultimately, people will be able to use their mobile devices to register a plot of land with GPS accuracy, file a claim, register a dispute, sell or purchase land. As well as the transparent and immutable nature of the blockchain, OpenLedger allows smart contracts. This removes the need for trust, so that microloans can be issued and government contracts fulfilled on a platform that tracks progress and distributes funds accordingly. After the first phase of the project is complete, the idea is to use Bitland to encourage governments and private organisations to offer smart contracts to give people the chance to invest in development. Organizations such as Kiva already have established methods of issuing microloans, and realise rates of over 90% repayment.

An Interview with OXBTC.com and the CEO

Recently, we got a very good chance for an exclusive interview with Mr. Weicheng, GUO, CEO of the young cryptocurrency investment platform – OXBTC to share with us some in-depth ideas on cloud mining industry. Now let's see the details of the interview:

Who are you? What does OXBTC do?
OXBTC (www.oxbtc.com) is an integrated cryptocurrency investment platform with the world's highest ROI. Founded by several well-established investors in China, OXBTC has an experienced R&D team who has been in the cryptocurrency industry for many years. Our long-time experience in Bitcoin mining and farm deployment support our success and leadership in China's Bitcoin mining industry. Meanwhile, we have many reliable partners to make the best of global resources and deliver the most cost-efficient hashing power.

OXBTC provides Bitcoin/Litecoin deposit and GHS/MHS/ETH cloud mining services for all cryptocurrency enthusiasts. You can purchase, trade cloud hash power and invest in Bitcoin/Litcoin deposit to enjoy the world's highest Bitcoin/Litecoin ROI.

Where are your mining operations?
Located in 3 different regions in China (Sichuan, Ordos and Inner Mongolia), OXBTC's mining farms cover a total area of over 200 acres, running away 10 PetaHash Bitcoin cloud hashrates and 30 GigaHash Ether cloud hashrates.

Benefited by a very competitive electricity cost as low as 15 cents per kWH in the mining areas, and a fast business expansion, OXBTC is able to deliver the most cost-efficient cloud mining services to its global customers, the number of which is about to surpass 80,000. We welcome all of you if you'd like to pay a visit to our farms.

Is cloud mining profitable? What do you see about cloud mining?
I can't say on others' behalf but cloud mining with OXBTC is undoubtedly profitable and will continue to be as the mining rigs keep updated and OXBTC will continue to introduce the best miners to guarantee a highest ROI for our users. And we have a big advantage in electricity cost as we established a partnership with local governments where our mining farms are located to support the most cost-efficient and sustainable power.

We believe cloud mining will keep up with its momentum as it provides another way – convenient and profitable for Bitcoin enthusiasts to mine on their own and be freed of all the trouble of maintaining.

How does it work for Ether cloud mining?
To follow the new trend for Ethereum in the community, OXBTC fulfils its dedication in providing the world's best cloud mining services and preempted to introduce the brand new Ether cloud mining, with a very competitive price at only $37.9 per ETH MHS. The 1-year mining contract is FREE of maintenance fees which means you can achieve ROI and start to mine profits within only a couple of months.

What's your next plan? Will you stick to cloud mining or are you considering other business in the industry?
Currently, deposit and cloud mining are our main services. We will be dedicated to providing more investments products for our users in the future to make more returns in cryptocurrency. We are also working with other industrial participants to explore other opportunities in the industry. We have a very open mind and we welcome any kind of partnership as long as it'll benefit our 80,000 users globally.

Tell us something about yourself and your experience in the industry, Mr. GUO?
I'm less than 30 years old but I've carried out quite a few start-up projects on my own, in different industries. I like to try new things and I own vision and entrepreneurship. I got to know Bitcoin only 2 years ago. Now you see I'm running three of the largest mining farms in China. I saw great opportunity in the industry even though I knew nothing about it back then. And I wanted to share my expertise with more Bitcoin lovers so that you can benefit too from what we have won, and won hard. We share the same enthusiasm, and I'd like to share with you the same ROI too. OXBTC will work even harder in this regard.

The DAO Push Ethereum Mining Profitability to the Moon

Coinwarz, a service that provides mining profitability information for cryptocurrencies, has just launched an Ethereum mining calculator that shows the profitability of Ethereum mining. The launch was made possible via the partnership with Genesis Mining – Ethereum’s largest mining company in the world.

This service is perfectly timed with the DAO crowdfunding project, the largest crowdfunding in the history of any cryptocurrency. The DAO has raised more than $140 million and is a landmark in the history of the Ethereum protocol. The currency price has increased more than 60% since the beginning of the crowdfunding project.

With this activity, Coinwarz reinforces itself as one of the most innovative and reliable services in its market. Operating since 2013 with more than 400 cryptocurrencies listed and currently showing mining profitability for 77 cryptocurrencies, Coinwarz has helped thousands of people to make good cryptocurrency mining investments.

The most important part of calculating mining profitability is being able to calculate how much money can be made mining one cryptocurrency versus another cryptocurrency. Since Bitcoin is the leading cryptocurrency, mining profitability comparisons are made against mining Bitcoin. And now, with THE DAO pushing the Ethereum price to the moon, mining Ethereum is three times more profitable to mine than Bitcoin with a new $ 1,000 mining rig.

The mining calculator for Ethereum was made possible by the partnership between Coinwarz and Genesis Mining, which helped and sponsored development. Genesis Mining is the world’s largest mining company for Ethereum and has worked to publicize Ethereum to the mainstream public and offer services that are invaluable to its users.

This strategic partnership between the largest solution provider for mining profitability and the world’s largest mining company is strategically important for investors in decision-making.

ExeBTC Launches Online Platform to Serve Investors Worldwide

Offering Basic, Standard, and VIP investment packages to clients through their home page, ExeBTC promises surprising returns, ranging from 125% to 220% in between one to three months. An intuitive interface makes the process simple and straightforward, while also bringing unparalleled access to the financial resources that are most needed. The Basic package allows new investors to get in on the ground floor with a .2 BTC investment, making substantial returns available to all who are interested. At the other end of the spectrum, the VIP package requires a 20BTC investment but promises greater total returns.

A company spokesperson for ExeBTC offered their thoughts on their newly-published online platform, “We at ExeBTC are overjoyed to be taking to the web and offering our full range of services to the people who need it most. While drawing from years of experience in the financial sector, this new venture will allow us to move forward with the 21st century and tap into new resources that will promise growth to both us and our clients. Never before have our company’s prospects looked so bright, and we are eager to see what new opportunities await us in the coming years.”

Since 2009, Bitcoin has taken the worlds of both finance and technology by storm, introducing itself as the premier “cryptocurrency” available to a mass market of investors. This means that transactions happen between users, using advanced online security protocols to ensure the safe and accurate transaction of online resources. The currency itself is purely digital, though an active market makes it a fluid investment that can be easily bought and sold with any major worldwide currencies.

Today, one bitcoin is worth approximately $450 USD and has been steadily rising since 2015, when it was worth only about half that. Prices are expected to rise to $600 USD and beyond near the end of 2016, encouraging investors to take advantage while they can. As forward-thinking online investors continue to watch price trends for Bitcoin rise, the world grows steadily more confident in the currency’s future success and stability.

ExeBTC ( www.exebtc.com ) is an online resource for the world’s leading Bitcoin investors, providing risk management and advisory services on an individual and institutional basis. With a team of experts prepared to offer comprehensive advice and a range of investment solutions, we are equipped to offer first rate services to public and private clients across the globe.

247exchange.com Now Allows Users to Buy Bitcoin through Card Payments in 5 Different Currencies

247exchange.com, the international cryptocurrency exchange, managed by InterMoney Exchange has updated the list of supported currencies for credit and debit card purchases. With the addition of AUD and CAD support, users from Australia and Canada now have a unique opportunity to buy Bitcoins using their local currencies, saving them time and money.

Earlier this year, 247exchange.com started its services in Canada by accepting payments in CAD through local bank transfers, INTERAC Online, and EFT/eCheck. Similarly, the platform started operating in Australia recently by accepting payments in AUD through bank wire transfers. Now, users from both countries can pay instantly with their debit/credit cards. 247exchange.com is now working on making the transactions between the platform and its users more convenient by integrating instant payments and withdrawal methods. In addition, the platform also intends to offer cash vouchers (prepaid cards) and local bank transfer options to its Australian customers sometime later this year.

The platform currently supports 8 different currencies viz., USD, GBP, AUD, CAD, CZK, RON, and ZAR, out of which 5 currencies – USD, EUR, GBP, CAD, and AUD have credit and debit card support.

247exchange.com is a cryptocurrency exchange platform operated by InterMoney Exchange™, a banner comprising of many financial companies. The platform allows customers to buy and sell Bitcoin and Altcoins using any of the multiple available payments/withdrawal methods, based on their convenience. People can purchase cryptocurrency on the platform using VISA, MasterCard and Maestro debit and credit cards. The easy-to-use, user-friendly interface makes it easier, even for newbies to interact and make purchases on the platform.

As the InterMoney Exchange team works hard to enhance the platform’s user experience, its founder Anton Vereshchagin shares his vision for 247exchange.com.

BTCPOP offer Collateral Instant Loans!

BTCPOP are renowned for being a unique and innovative bitcoin lending platform, however, over the past year, they have strived to become the first bitcoin bank. In December 2014, BTCPOP started with just P2P loans; by December 2015, they had added features such as Instant Loan, Coin Exchange and IPO’s.

The introduction of Instant Collateral Loans will come as no surprise to the 18,000+ users of BTCPOP, who often expect this pioneering behaviour from Lee Bartholomew, CEO of BTCPOP. Mr Bartholomew said “Since the beginning, I’ve wanted to push BTCPOP far beyond the boundaries of what people thought a bitcoin company could do. The digital currency still has a far way to go before it becomes integrated into everyday society, but I want to show my users that the possibilities with bitcoin are endless; I will continue to add and develop new features to show that using BTCPOP as your everyday bank is not beyond the realms of possibility.”

With a standard P2P loan on BTCPOP, all borrowers must be Ardeva Verified, however, this is made much simpler with Collateral Instant Loans, as borrowers do not have to be verified. Instead, you can choose which shares or Altcoins you offer for collateral. This is also a great feature for investors as they will see an even bigger return into their BTCPOP Instant Account. A BTCPOP Collateral Instant Loan can be taken out for up to 30 days and during this time, borrowers can make part payments.

This is an exciting time for bitcoin, bitcoin users and BTCPOP. The company is ever evolving and adapting to meet its audience’s needs.

Zebpay raises $1 million to promote Bitcoin in India

Regardless of its massive potential in the region, bitcoin awareness in India is still somewhat low. Zebpay, a bitcoin wallet and exchange aims to change this. In fact, recent reports indicate that the company has managed to raise $1 million private investors, which will be used to support the digital currency in the region. According to the company, the chief managing director of Claris Life Sciences has offered Rs 3 crore, the managing director of Jindal Worldwide has invested Rs 1 crore, whereas the chairman of Triangle Engineering has invested Rs 1 crore.

Zebpay will use a significant part of the currency to develop the blockchain system in the region. This will be achieved by setting up a dedicated blockchain laboratory, which will allow the company to use the technology’s power to come up with innovative authentication and authorization measures. According to the company, another part of the investment will be used to promote bitcoin, while also enlisting e-vouchers on their mobile platforms, to expand their user base from 25,000 to 100k within one year. While the legal status of Bitcoin in India is still uncertain, it’s worth pointing out that while the Reserve Bank of India considers that Bitcoin poses risks, they agree with the blockchain, and believe that it can greatly improve the current state of the world’s financial system, by lowering t

Based on this, will Zebpay manage to properly raise awareness on Bitcoin in India?

What Does The Interledger Protocol Mean For Digital Currency Adoption?

Altcoins have been a bit of a plague in the digital currency industry throughout the years, as various developers feel the need to do their own thing when Bitcoin doesn’t offer a specific feature. As a result of that approach, there are a few thousand different forms of digital currency in existence, and most of those are no longer maintained or developed. Wouldn’t it be better if all of these currencies could talk to one another without the need to create even more digital currencies?

The Interledger Protocol Opens Up Interesting Opportunities
Let’s assume for a moment that every blockchain of every digital currency in existence could communicate with one another. While we have that picture in mind, add the prospect of sending funds to other currencies without any hassle. Sounds good in theory, right? It might become a reality in the near future.

If the interledger protocol came to fruition, one global network for all digital currencies in existence would be created. Also, this project would create a direct connection between all companies and individuals using any type of service based on any blockchain. Some people would refer to this idea as creating global standards for payments. The topic of private blockchains has been kicked around in the Bitcoin community quite a few times. Even though financial institutions show a keen interest in blockchain technology, community members are worried they will create a private version of the public ledger, which would defeat the entire purpose of this technology.

As one would come to expect from such a concept, there will be a third-party involved in the process. Connecting two different ledgers to each other is not all that difficult, but when it comes to exchanging value, someone or something will have to validate the transactions. However, the individual ledgers don’t need to trust the third-party validator per se. This type of operation can be completed by using cryptographic algorithms, allowing for the creation of an escrow service to hold the funds. No details would be observed by the third party directly, allowing the interledger protocol to work between any ledger system in existence today, and in the future.

Who Will Adopt This Technology?
One of the major concerns regarding the interledger protocol comes in the form of who will adopt the technology. While there are clear advantages to having every different ledger talk to a different one, banks may still favor the option of creating their private blockchain in the long run.

However, the interledger protocol is gaining a lot of interest from major parties, such as Microsoft and even the World Wide Web Consortium.But at the same time, the entire interledger protocol seems to be aimed at disruption the financial sector, and established players in that industry are less likely to embrace this solution. 

Gem Raises $7.1 Million in Series A Funding Round

Gem, a blockchain API solutions provider based in California, starts the new year with a $7.1 million Series A funding round. The company previously raised $3.3 million from various investors in the past two years, but this funding round is the biggest one yet. This round featured some of the biggest names in the blockchain space such as Silbert’s Digital Currency Group, Pelion Venture Partners and First Round Capital.

    “We are proud to introduce Pelion to the Gem family as well as KEC Ventures, Blockchain Capital, Digital Currency Group, Birchmere Labs, RRE Ventures, Tamarisk Global, Drummond Road Capital, Tekton Ventures, Amplify.LA, Danmar Capital and angel investor James Joaquin.”

Bend Dahl, partner at Pelion Ventures Partners, will take a seat on Gem’s Board of Directors. CEO at Bitium, Scott Kriz, was also named as one of the new appointees to the board. Gem saw great success with their multi-sig bitcoin developer API, but this funding round will allow the company to leverage its blockchain expertise across a variety of industries.

    “we are expanding our API to develop a modular platform for blockchain applications that can be applied to a variety of use cases across multiple industries.”

Howard Morgan, co-founder of First Round Capital and Jeff Parkinson, partner at KEC Ventures, will also take a seat on Gem’s Board of Observers.

Losing Bitcoins Through Theft Is A Crime

One thing people seem to be confused about is what will happen if someone loses their Bitcoin balance due to a theft. Keeping in mind how the digital currency is not an official currency, it is always possible to file a report with one’s local police department. But whether or not they will investigate the matter, remains to be seen. Proving ownership of stolen coins is not all that hard, but the technical aspects are a mystery to law enforcement in most regions.

Bitcoin Theft Is A Crime
First and foremost, stealing someone else’s Bitcoin balance is an obvious theft. You take money that doesn’t belong to you by any means and defraud another person in this world. Even though many people assume Bitcoin is anonymous, it is rather easy to see where the funds are being transferred to.

Granted, there is no direct link between somebody’s identity and their Bitcoin wallet address, but that doesn’t make the popular digital currency anonymous all of a sudden. The main issue arises when people want to recoup their stolen funds, as Bitcoin transactions can not be reversed or disputed. In fact, the only way to get the funds back is if the thief decides to refund the money out of goodwill. Filing a report with the police will not do much good either, as they are not inclined to investigate the matter for tiny amounts. Due to a lack of understanding of how Bitcoin works, there is no incentive for law enforcement to help out citizens when their digital currency is stolen, even when it is a clear case of theft.

This is one of the reasons why it is so important to keep in mind that, when dealing with bitcoins, the end user is in full control of the funds. That also means they bear the sole responsibility for any wrongdoings or theft. The Bitcoin protocol on its own is incredibly secure, but the end user is responsible for taking the necessary security precautions. For those users storing their bitcoins on a mobile device, adding a password to the wallet is an absolute must. Or even better, using an old phone to set up as cold wallet storage might be a better idea. Doing so will keep the coins safe even if something were to happen with your current phone, although nearly every wallet provider will let users recover their balance on a different device by using the mnemonic seed.

Computer users, on the other hand, can protect their Bitcoin software with a strong password, and install antivirus software, as well as malware protection. For those who want to take their security to the next level, investing in a separate device such as a Ledger or TREZOR might well be worth the effort. 

FirstBank and Entersekt Address Banking Security With Digital Certificates

With so many different banks focusing their attention on the mobile space right now, proper security measures will need to be implemented sooner rather than later. Instead of trying to develop additional layers in-house, several banks are outsourcing the security aspect of their mobile apps, which is what FirstBank is doing through Entersekt. Third parties stacking on top of third parties makes it hard to see who will be responsible for the loss of funds if something goes wrong, and this lack of transparency could be a critical issue.

FirstBank and Entersekt Join Forces
Multi-factor authentication is a major factor in bringing additional security features to the mobile banking sector. Entersekt is a company specializing in authentication protocols, and their Transakt product will be used to enhance the safety of the mobile banking app provided by FirstBank. FirstBank is not one of the major US banks by any means, as they are only in operation in Colorado, Arizona, and California for the time being. Because this is such a small bank, they need to take security measures to the next level, as they could end up becoming a more appealing target for hackers compared to major banks. After all, FirstBank holds US$15.6bn in assets.

By integrating the Transakt SDK into their mobile app, FirstBank will provide its customers one-touch authentication. Contrary to what people might assume, there will be no fingerprinting involved in the process, as Transakt uses digital certificates to verify users’ identities. Furthermore, these same transactions are used for signing off on transactions. Entersekt CEO Schalk Nolte explained this partnership as follows: “The US market demands exceptional usability on the mobile channel, together with absolute peace of mind. We are extremely pleased to be working with FirstBank to enhance its mobile app security while delivering a best-in-class user experience.”

Various financial services are using the Transakt SDK to provide a secure environment to their customers. Not only can Entersekt’s flagship product be used for mobile banking, but it applies to e-commerce, call center interaction, and various other purposes as well. Plus, Transakt can be downloaded as a stand-alone security app from all the main app stores as well.
Taking Things One Step Further With The Blockchain. While it is commendable to see companies like Entersekt take a different approach to authentication security, there is still a lot of centralization going on. Using digital certificates for authentication and verification is a significant step in the right direction, but all of the information is still controlled by Entersekt and its partners.

Blockchain technology would be a great addition to this form of authentication, as it would allow for information to be distributed across various locations. Furthermore, this takes away any remaining central points of failure in the authentication process. With so many banks exploring the boundaries of blockchain technology, authentication firms such as Entersekt could benefit a lot from exploring these options as well.

Crypto Facilities Will No Longer Service US Customers

With the multitude of Bitcoin-related trading platforms in existence, it becomes increasingly easy to get involved in the world of digital currency. Especially US citizens seem to have a leg up over their European and Asian counterparts n that regard, but that situation is slowly starting to change. Crypto Facilities will no longer service any of their US customers as of tomorrow.


Crypto Facilities Offers Various Digital Asset Tools
People who have been active in the world of trading, hedging, and insuring digital assets may have heard of the name Crypto Facilities before. This company has been making a name for itself in the digital currency world by focusing a lot of their attention on Bitcoin and the blockchain. But that is not all, as the team wanted to provide client protection and transparency to all of their users as well.

Thanks to a strategic partnership with KPMG-accredited blockchain security firm Elliptic, Crypto Facilities has been able to to insure all client accounts and provide daily settlements on the blockchain.  This relation also provided additional security features for users, as they can enjoy the benefits of multi=signature and cold storage solutions provided by Elliptic Vault. Employing this technology effectively protects the USD value of customers’ bitcoins.

To keep things as transparent as possible, Crypto Facilities user accounts can be verified on the blockchain in real-time, giving traders an overview of their portfolio and wealth at any given time. All of the daily portfolio values are settled at 17:00 UTC, and users can immediately verify what has happened to their portfolio throughout the day.

It goes without saying such a powerful service has attracted a lot of attention from traders active in the world of Bitcoin and digital currency. But for some unknown reason, Crypto Facilities will be halting their services in the US, effective as of tomorrow, February 12, 2016. All users are advised to close their position by the end of tomorrow, and account holders will receive a US$10 bonus for every open Forwards. Balances must be withdrawn as soon as possible, although no cut-off date is mentioned so far.

Part of the reason why Crypto Facilities is pulling out of the US could be due to impending Bitcoin regulation. With New York maintaining their BitLicense guidelines – and other states expected to come up with their own requirements – it is not always feasible to run a Bitcoin business in the US.  

Bitstamp Needs To Start Encrypting Emails

Although bitcoin exchanges are doing what they can to ensure customer data and funds are being kept safe at all times, the same cannot be said for the way they communicate. Emails sent by Bitstamp are not subject to encryption, neither by the exchange owners themselves nor when the email is in transit. Kraken, on the other hand, uses GPG to encrypt all of their email communication. Is this is a situation Bitcoin exchanges will need to address in the future?

Encryption is Important, Bitstamp!
Every time someone receives an email from Bitstamp, the information contained in this message is not encrypted. While this may not be much of an issue for confirmations regarding deposits, it could prove to be a major problem when withdrawing funds from the Bitcoin exchange.

Similar to how most exchange platform in the world, users who withdraw funds will receive a confirmation via email regarding this action. Bitstamp asks users to click a particular link to confirm withdrawal requests. And having this information unencrypted could allow hackers to gain more information about the account holder’s balance and Bitcoin address on Bitstamp. Not the kind of information users wants out in the open.

But there is an even bigger worry regarding this scenario, as this also means password reset emails aren’t encrypted by Bitstamp either. This would allow hackers to use a man-in-the-middle attack and intercept the email. Or if they prefer to do so, they could send fake emails to the account holder redirecting them to an entirely different site in hopes of obtaining account information.

None of these scenarios might take place in the near future, but Bitcoin exchanges will need to step up their communication encryption game sooner rather than later. Not encrypting the information related to one’s account is not acceptable in this day and age, and should be resolved quickly.

Not setting up encryption for emails on behalf of Bitstamp is a threat when sending documents to the company as well. Submitting a scan of an ID or utility bill to the company will have to be unencrypted as well, allowing assailants to intercept this data without spending much effort to see the information contained in the message or its attachments.

BitPay announces partnership with blockchain service provider Bloq

Bloq has been around for a while, and they’re popular for delivering enterprise-grade blockchain technology, to companies from all around the world.

According to a recent blog post, published by BitPay, the company announced that they’re partnering up with Bloq, to provide clients with better services, and new features. Based on this, Bloq will now offer an improved implementation of their services, alongside with 24/7 support for companies that currently use BitPay’s development platform and full node to develop Bitcoin and blockchain-related applications.

For those who do not know, Bloq, also referred to as BitPay’s “preferred commercial partner for Bitcore” is a company founded earlier this year by a Bitcoin Core developer and BitPay advisor, to provide development services for individuals and companies willing to employ blockchain technology.

Additionally, companies using the cross-platform will also get access to native utilities, and the intuitive Node.js libraries, which can be used for further extending the functionality offered by the platform. Together with this, those who use Bitcore will be allowed to make direct function calls to the blockchain, but also create various blockchain services, for whichever purposes they desire. An example of a powerful application for Bitcore is the Bitcore Waller service, which allows wallets to make queries to the blockchain, at speeds that are often 20 times faster than conventional json-RPC API calls.

Based on everything that has been outlined so far, what do you personally think about this implementation and partnership? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.

Microsoft Azure Adds Five New Blockchains to its Developer Ecosystem

In his most recent post, Marley Gray, Director of BizDev & Strategy of Cloud and Enterprise at Microsoft, announced the addition of five new cryptocurrencies/blockchains to the Microsoft Azure Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform; Ethereum-based prediction market Augur; JavaScript private blockchain platform Lisk; open-source digital asset platform BitShares; decentralized marketplace cryptocurrency Syscoin; smart contract platform Slock.it.

The Azure BaaS platform has become so diverse in the past several months that Marley Gray now refers to it as a “distributed ledger ecosystem”. The Augur addition will give Azure developers the capability to launch their own private prediction markets. While this may not sound very impressive at first, the implication here is that companies can avoid the hefty regulatory costs and risks associated with running public prediction markets.

Ron Bernstein, Advisor to the Augur project and Founder of the now-defunct prediction portal Intrade, knows the regulatory risks of running a centralized public prediction marketplace in the US. In 2012, Intrade was forced to shut down after the CFTC filed a civil suit against the site. Gray also mentioned that companies can leverage the power of Augur to crowdsource intelligence from their own internal pool of people, “Employees could even be incentivized to predict by rewarding accurate forecasters with internal or external perks.” said Gray.

According to a recent Forklog article, Syscoin is planning to launch their decentralized marketplace on the Azure platform at some point in the future: “Blockmarket is an open source, cross-browser web experience which is also fully mobile compatible. It allows anyone to easily create a decentralized marketplace with one click and customize the shopping experience to fit the needs of their market,”

This is the 6th addition in the ever-expanding Azure developer sandbox, and many other unique blockchains are expected to be added in the coming months.

Red Hat Launches Initiative for Blockchain Developers

Open source developer Red Hat, Inc., has announced the launch of the OpenShift Blockchain initiative, which is aimed at software developers and fintech companies looking to build financial applications using this innovative new technology. The OpenShift platform was initially launched in 2015 to provide a flexible developer environment for container applications to software developers, while Red Hat’s technicians maintained the back end of the platform.

In February of this year, Red Hat decided to join the burgeoning blockchain space by signing up for Linux Foundation’s Hyperedger project. Julio Tapia, Director of the OpenShift platform, told CoinDesk that Red Hat is looking to bring the innovations in the blockchain industry to the enterprise market, “We want to position ourselves with not only customers and partners, but leverage solutions developed in the entire ecosystem, taking all the innovation going on in the industry, maturing it for an enterprise market and making sure all the solutions can be launched and supported.” said Tapia.

According to Tapia, OpenShift is currently available only on Amazon, but Red Hat has plans to bring the platform to Google and Microsoft Azure at some point in the near future. The official release notes that Red Hat’s decision to join the HyperLedger project – as well as the launch of the OpenShift Blockchain initiative – are only the first steps in the company’s strategy to advance and contribute to the rapidly-growing blockchain ecosystem: “Through this upstream work, Red Hat is contributing to the development of distributed ledger technology that is well-suited for a variety of industries including: finance; manufacturing; banking; insurance; and the Internet of Things.“