Bitfury to Ukraine, ETC Independence and Russian Mercy. Cryptospace News, August 8 – 14
The return of Bitfinex and the never-ending story of Ethereum Classic have become the main news of the week. Also featuring in ForkLog’s weekly overview are new initiatives in blockchain realm, and other cryptocurrency-related news.
Bitcoin Price
Bitcoin’s price managed to do without calamities this week, and no extraordinary fluctuations were there to be seen. It peaked on Thursday when Bitfinex went back online, however, it couldn’t get back to the values preceding Bitfinex hack. Nevertheless, some analysts and experts suggest that the lull is coming to an end, and we should expect yet another rally any moment now. Current market cap of bitcoin stands at $9.2 million.
The Saga of Ethereum Classic
Ethereum Classic has officially presented what the team calls the Declaration of Independence. In particular, the document states that the original Ethereum was presented as a decentralized platform for apps that run “exactly as programmed without any chance of fraud, censorship, or third-party interference”. However, the latest affairs, as the declaration’s authors say, have caused the community to spontaneously joint efforts to protect Ethereum from its own creators, especially Ethereum Foundation.
Ethereum Foundation’s group known as Robin Hood, in the meantime, is accused of organizing the theft from the DAO. According to Cointimes, the team transmitted 500,000 ETC to Poloniex accounts, and 250,000 ETC to Kraken accounts. The exchanges’ rapid actions allowed them to freeze all the money in question.
David Seaman, a well known crypto-blogger, stated on Huffington Post that Barry Silbert of DCG might be linked to the recent events around Ethereum Classic. Referencing to an unknown source, he also stated that CoinDesk, a publication purchased by the DCG earlier this year, is engaged in promoting Ethereum Classic.
The community also discusses possible defrauding of user money by three exchanges, being Exmo, Livecoin, and BTC-e. ForkLog has analyzed the discussion in a special feature.
Notwithstanding all the rumors and statements concerning Ethereum Classic, the ETC token is still extremely popular. This week, Korbit, South Korea’s biggest crypto-exchange, has announced the token’s addition. This would allow the exchange’s customers to exchange it for Korean wons and back.
By the end of the week, ETC is traded at around 0.0033 BTC ($1.95).
Bitfinex Is Back
August 10, Bitfinex has announced it goes back online by activating depositing and withdrawal. As a reminder, the Hong Kong-based exchange halted operations last week after a hack and subsequent theft of nearly 120,000 BTC. The exchange stated that the return had been preceded by serious security efforts. Bitfinex said it was willing to pay a bounty to those who help them return the stolen bitcoins.
Zane Tackett, speaking on behalf of the exchange, promised 5% of the amount (6,000 BTC, or upwards of $3.5 million) to be handed to the one who helps. Meanwhile, customers of the exchange have withdrawn nearly 90,000 BTC within the first two days of its renewed operation.
Silk Road Auctions Again
The US Marshall Service has announced a new auction to sell bitcoins seized over the course of the Silk Road case. The auction is to be held August 22 to sell 2,719 BTC (around $1.6 million at current exchange rate).
Mycelium Wallet’s Roadmap
Colu. Crypto-wallet Mycelium’s team has published the project’s updated roadmap, which features several phases of implementation, including integration of Dash, Waves, and Colu colored coins.
Jaxx Welcomes Dash
Canada-based company Decentral has also announced it integrates Dash in Jaxx. Apart from Bitcoin, Jaxx currently supports Ethereum and The DAO tokens.
Bitwala Messenger
Cryptocurrency payments service Bitwala has announced the release of its own messenger app enabling users to communicate and send each other money. The application would be useful when payments require some comments or clarifications, like a reminder or personal message.
Bitfury Goes to Ukraine
BitFury Group, which now positions itself as the world’s leading provider of blockchain infrastructure, selected Juscutum, a law firm from Ukraine, as its official representative in the country. The company will have to accompany BitFury’s developments and promote blockchain technologies.
“We will be persuading the authorities not to spend on yesterday’s technologies, but to build a blockchain-based management system,” said Artiom Afian, managing partner at Juscutum.
Blockchain and the Fintech
Russia-based payments processor QIWI has announced it transfers its processing onto blockchain. The terms in question are, however, somewhat dubious, as they state the year 2021 as the final date of the works’ finalization. By that time, the technological train is likely to will have gone far ahead.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore has announced it adds international finance stars like Blythe Masters of Digital Asset Holdings, Daniel H. Gallancy of SolidX and Tim Grant of R3CEV to its advisory board on technology. The organization’s objective is to advise the directorate as to international achievements in fintech and possibility of implementing new technologies in Singapore.
R3CEV has announced it finished testing blockchain technology in international settlements, which involved 15 leading banks.
European Commission Payment Systems Market Expert Group (PSMEG) has published the poll of European residents concerning their attitude towards blockchain as a payments tool. 90% of them turned out to believe that the technology will have dramatically influenced the payments industry by the year 2025.
The Isle of Man’s government has announced a new project involving blockchain technology to create a prototype solution for identification of the Internet of Things’ devices. The project is being implemented in association with local fintech startup Credits.
August 11, New York hosted the ConsenSys-powered meeting of the Audit’s Big Four, featuring Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG and PwC, whose purpose was to discuss establishment of a blockchain consortium. The parties seeked to understand what the audit market players might do to implement blockchain in the industry, and how the technology may influence their work.
The Australian post is researching at least three areas of possible application of blockchain technology to enhance the customer identification procedure, create registers of different kinds, and provide electronic voting services.
Finally, Kolionovo farm in Russia, which uses blockchain and its own cryptocurrency, has reported that the implementation of crypto-technologies enabled them to halve retail prices for loyal customers.
Blockchainization of Kolionovo Farm Halves the Prices for Its Products
Regulation
Out of the blue, all of a sudden, and unexpectedly like the Spanish Inquisition, Russian authorities have abandoned their plans to penalize cryptocurrency, still the reporting of bitcoin operations is recommended by the federal tax authority. Even though no official statements have been made so far, the news came from Interfax’s own source at the government of Russia. Whether it’s true or not, will become clearer in the short run.
Meanwhile, bitcoin community of California also has an excuse to drink champagne. Their lobbying caused the state to revoke the new revision of crypto-companies regulation bill. The document faced fierce resistance in the community due to ambiguous definitions that might seriously affect local companies and startups.
The European Bank Association called for providing more detailed info as to the plans to impose stricter controls on cryptocurrency exchanges and digital wallet providers. The EU Directive, proposed this July, seeks to prevent using the financial system for funding of terrorists by establishing a centralized database of cryptocurrency users’ personal data.
Meanwhile, Australia sided with other cryptocurrency-hating countries: it intends to tighten controls over cryptocurrency. The country’s financial intelligence believes that anonymity of cryptocurrency payments makes them attractive to terrorists and their sponsors. We may only remind the haters that most known cryptocurrencies do not imply full-fledged anonymity, and may offer only pseudonymity.
Digital Revolution
ForkLog has already announced the decentralized content sharing platform DECENT’s forthcoming crowdsale of tokens. This week, we contacted one of the platform’s founders Matej Michalko to find out first-hand about the project’s concept and further plans.
Founder of DECENT Content Distribution Network: The Digital Revolution is About to Begin
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