About 3 weeks ago we covered the "Bitcoiin" ICO that actor Steven Seagal was promoting (read that article here).

Now, the New Jersey Bureau of Securities has issued them a cease and desist order.

The celebrity endorsement itself may have also been illegal, citing a previous SEC directive that any celebrity endorsement of an ICO should disclose the nature, scope, and amount of compensation paid to the celebrity. 

The statement from the NJ Bureau of Securities reads:

“The Bitcoiin Websites do not disclose what expertise, if any, Steven Seagal has to ensure that the Bitcoiin investments are appropriate and in compliance with federal and state securities laws. Additionally, there are no disclosures as to the nature, scope, and amount of compensation paid by Bitcoiin in exchange for Steven Seagal’s promotion of the Bitcoiin investments.”

While there are no new announcements posted in direct response to the cease and desist, an older post from when Bitcoiin first started receiving criticism titled 'PRESS RELEASE: TO CLARIFY SOME FACTS AND RESPONSE ON ALLEGATIONS' says:

"...we are not an MLM company or any Pyramid Scheme or Scamming people, all of these allegations are false and just an attempt to discourage people from becoming a part of the Bitcoiin2Gen, Crypto-Currencies, and Crypto-economies."

Unfortunately, even if everything they say is true - that leaves plenty of red flags.  The site owners are remaining anonymous (remember Bitconnect?) and they're promoting an Ethereum based ERC20 token but named it after a misspelling of Bitcoin - which appears to be a bold attempt to confuse people new to cryptocurrency.

It's been a rough day in cryptocurrency. There's nothing here worthy of panic, but still, you're probably wondering the reasons behind today's dip, so let's dive in.

First - U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is asking exchanges to register with them, as exchanges.

“If a platform offers trading of digital assets that are securities and operates as an ‘exchange,’ as defined by the federal securities laws, then the platform must register with the SEC as a national securities exchange or be exempt from registration.” the SEC said in a statement today.

Their concern is that when people hear the word "exchange" they associate it with the stock exchange, and all the rules and regulations that come with it. Not even the big ones currently are registered as such.  For example, Coinbase operates by getting money transmission licenses state by state, and Gemini is licensed where it resides, with the New York State Department.

Secondly - fears of a Binance hack. There's two options being debated at time of publishing.  Some saying Binance's API was exploited (this allows for people using other programs, or trading bots, to interact with Binance to facilitate the trades).

Binance however points to a phishing site with a URL that looks very close to the real thing - meaning nothing was hacked, some people were just tricked.

According to Binance founder CZ, the crooks won't get away with it either way, tweeting;

"We have localized the irregular trades, they will be reversed.  All funds are safe, thanks to the fast alarm.  Please learn to secure your accounts against phishing."

Third - Mt Gox comes to haunt us again. For those new to crypto, it was an exchange site that ended up a huge mess with a lot of stolen bitcoin (the full story is much longer, that's the basics).

The bankruptcy trustee for Mt Gox came out today and put some fear into the market, that a lot of the Bitcoin they're sitting on will be sold soon in order to begin paying off their creditors. They're still holding $1.9 Billion worth, and says they plan to offload them soon.

So, it's just one of those days.  While any 1 of these probably wouldn't have a huge effect on the market, all 3 at once has made today a rough ride.

Bitcoin mining costs by country. Image: EliteFixtures

EliteFixtures has released a study (link) using the average electricity costs in each country to show the total power costs to earn 1 bitcoin via mining. 

Their parent company Crescent Electric Supply previously did a study breaking down the costs by US state, which can be seen here.

We think of the internet as vital to anything blockchain related, and it is - but what if that same blockchain technology could also interact with another kind of network?

XYO Network is building that - and to an impressive extent, already has.  They're now operating the largest network of GPS and Bluetooth devices in the world, with over 1 million acting as location beacon devices.

"The need for a difficult-to-disrupt system to complement GPS has been well known for years. GPS is exceptionally accurate and dependable, yet jamming, spoofing, cyber attacks and other forms of interference appear to be growing in frequency and severity. This has the potential for devastating effects on our lives and economic activity." -  says Dana Goward, Executive Director of the Resilient Navigation & Timing Foundation.

That's what the XYO Network will function as, with the intent of using blockchain technology to create a totally trustless method of tracking anything, anywhere. Creating a network that developers can interact with the real world as if it were an API.

So here's how it would be used in the real world.  An online shopping site could build in a smart contract the location (XY coordinates) of the home or business they're shipping something to, with the agreement that funds are not released until the item reaches those coordinates.

They would then track the item every step of the way.  From wearhouse, to shipment and all locations inbetween. Holding the funds within the smart contract, they would be released when the package hits it's destination.  Allowing the shipper to gurantee delivery, and the buyer to never pay for something until it's recieved.

"The XYO Network is the world’s first XY-coordinate bridge between blockchain and the real world” says company founder Arie Trouw.

The XYO Network has a consumer-friendly Web App Interface called "XY Gamma" with developer APIs, and software libraries for a range of popular smart contract languages.

Whitelisting for the ICO is live now at https://xyo.network

PayPal has filed their first patent related to cryptocurrency and blockchain tech. The concept behind it revolves around a system that transfers private keys off-chain to speed up transaction times.  An excerpt from the patent reads:

"The systems and methods of the present disclosure practically eliminate the amount of time the payee must wait to be sure they will receive a virtual currency payment in a virtual currency transaction by transferring to the payee private keys that are included in virtual currency wallets that are associated with predefined amounts of virtual currency that equal a payment amount identified in the virtual currency transaction."

It echos some of the concepts outlined by Microsoft last month (link).  It's becoming a widely accepted idea, that transactions must be confirmed off of the blockchain, then recorded to the blockchain afterwards - otherwise there's no way Bitcoin which is currently processing a maximum of about 7 transactions per second, will ever rival credit cards as a payment system which can do about 50,000 per second.  Lightening Network is a similar off-chain solution.

But also worth noting - a patent filing doesn't necessary mean a company is about to dive into cryptocurrencies head first. PayPal has not announced any specific product or service related to cryptocurrency coming soon.

You can read PayPal's full patent application here.

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File this under 'odd stories in crypto' - a hacker who stole Ethereum valued at over $37 million has given back some of it - twice now.   (Worth noting - $37 million is the value of the Ethereum today, at the time it was closer to $7.5 million).

The story behind how he obtained it goes back to July 2017 and the Coindash ICO.  The hacker broke into their website, and simply replaced the address for investors to send their ethereum to, to one he controled. People who thought they were participating in the ICO we're actually just sending funds to the hackers wallet.

Then, in September - the hacker returned 10,000 ETH back to CoinCash. Then on Friday he popped up again - returning another 20,000 ETH to CoinDash.

"We have notified the Counter Cyber Terrorist Unit in Israel. The hacker’s Ethereum address will continue to be tracked and monitored for any suspicious activity." CoinDash's CEO Alon Muroch said in a company blog post.

As for the rest of the funds, nothing's been spent - the remaining 13,000 Ethereum is still just sitting in the hackers wallet.

For the younger generations raised online, a "travel agent" sounds like something only our grandparents talk about.  We browse online, we compare prices online, and we book online - all without having to speak to another human.

That's great and all, but we also know the problems that have come with it.  If you've ever ended up eating somewhere Yelp users swore was fantastic...and wasn't.  Or worse, booked a few nights at a hotel that had decent reviews and photos - but when you got there, figured out they showed the 1 newly renovated room online... and you're not staying in it.

Well, they've figured us out - it's as easy as creating an appealing image online to bring in customers.  In some of the darker corners of the internet, you can find people who can make it happen. Businesses can buy fake reviews and ratings and make a flop look like a hit.

Don't believe me? Check out this Vice News reporter, who just a couple months ago managed to become London's #1 restaurant on TripAdvisor - except he didn't even have a restaurant.  He showed how the system can be manipulated with fake reviews and hype (check that out here).

Now, think about your traveling experience if you're visiting a friend or family member.  Before you book that room or make dinner reservations somewhere, you may shoot them a text message and ask 'how is it?'.

Okay, now imagine if you were able to do this in every city! Connect with a local who has the inside scoop - but unlike those questionable reviews - this person is rewarded for giving you the straight truth.

This is the concept behind Cool Cousin.  Giving you a 'cool cousin' to hit up in every city.

"Using our friendly app, travelers get on-demand city guidance that matches their style and needs, directly from like-minded locals. Once they’ve connected with a Cousin, travelers can directly reach out to them for personalized city guidance. Every month, thousands of travelers contact our Cousins for advice on timing their visit, where they should stay, tickets for special occasions, current events, customized itineraries and more." explains the company.

The idea is to bridge the gap between a generation that does it all online, and the generation that calls a travel guide for help.  Now, you have that real human guide - but in an app, on your phone!

Another plus - while powering the app with blockchain tech and their CUZ (ERC20) token will be new - the app isn't. It's already gotton some big media attention as well, and mentions in The New York Times, Guardian, USA Today, National Geographic and TechCrunch.

Their ICO is live now, and ends on March 15th.  Full info https://www.coolcousin.com/ico/

Valued at over $2 million USD, the 600 Bitcoin miners disappeared from a data center in Iceland, and police are suspecting an inside job.

Local media has dubbed it the "Big Bitcoin Heist" - which has already seen 11 arrests of those suspected to be involved.  Among those suspects - the security guard in charge of protecting them.

But even stranger - all those arrests, and still no miners recovered.

"This is a grand theft on a scale unseen before, everything points to this being a highly organized crime." says Icelandic police chief Olafur Helgi Kjartansson.

Mining hardware has become a target of thefts worldwide, since those who steal it don't need to resell it to make a profit - they can just use them to mine Bitcoin themselves.

Over the last couple years Iceland's inexpensive electricity has drawn in Bitcoin mining operations from around the world.

Today - data is king.  Businesses both large and small are out to generate more, buy more, and find better ways to utilize it once they have it. They call it "big data" but that doesn't even accurately describe what has become a truly massive global industry.

But just because the data exists doesn't mean it's being put to good use - if used at all.  When someone thinks about "big data" they picture the search engines, social networks, apps, cloud services, etc. 

While small and medium size businesses may be gathering data too - understanding how to analyze it, learn from it, and apply the knowledge gained from it to make smarter business decisions can be an overwhelming task for a company with a couple dozen employees.

Well, imagine a marketplace where big data and small/medium businesses can get together, to help eachother - and actually want to because there's incentive for both.  That's what a company called Repux has built.

Companies are gathering this valuable data but they don't know how to monetize it, in the Repux marketplace, they can now find a buyer.  Businesses can upload anonymized data sets, and through agreements secured via smart contracts, sell those data sets to the developers who need it. The developers can then even choose to sell their work back to small business for them to utilize, completing the circle that never would have been done without this partnership: gathering, analyzing, using. A process the best businesses do continually.

“The RepuX Protocol has the potential to eliminate the ‘digital divide’ between those who have easy access to machine learning datasets and those who don't” explains the company.

Also something we like to hear - Repux is already in motion! The platform is live, and being tested with 4 companies on the pilot program - WorkHQ, FungyuCPA, and Dascom which collectively represent a reach of millions of small/medium businesses.

“Data has always been something that SMEs have struggled to utilize to improve their business. So, in June of 2017 we developed this concept to create a decentralized storage system for SMEs and developers to collaborate together. We then started working on a platform, which is now live.” says Tomasz Tybon, co-founder and chief growth officer for RepuX.

The Repux token is an ERC20 token, and is the only method that will be allowed for all payment exchanges on the platform.

Their ICO is live now until March 9th - full information at https://repux.io