How CoinMetro is out to change how we buy, and manage crypto...


The team behind it first made waves in the world of FX/Forex trading with their FXPIG platform. If you think about it, the foreign currency game isn't too different from the world of cryptocurrencies.

Their FXPIG platform revolved around bringing transparency, ease of use, and of course profits for their clients.

That's already a big plus when looking into an ICO - it's a company applying what they already do best, in a new space.

CoinMetro is jumping in head first - with what can only be described as a full suite of services.

A decentralized exchange built for power trading and promising cutting edge tech, without losing ease of use.  Instant withdraws allowing instant access to your cash when selling cryptocurrencies and a debit card to pair with this. Along with leverage buying with a hefty 1:50 ratio.

Another huge part of their plan - a "vetted ICO marketplace" promising to feature only legitimate ICO's that pass their strict guidelines.

Something else that may interest both experienced investors who like to follow a pro they trust, and new investors who don't know how or have the time do to the research, TAM investing allows investors to put their trust in someone else - a Token Asset Manager.

Controlled though smart contracts a manager creates a token, the investor buys it, and the manager puts the funds to use in the marketplace - profits are then shared under the terms of the smart contract.

CoinMetro really looks like a company that could appeal to, and get a lot of mainstream adoption.  As Wall Street investors have begin to look towards the cryptocurrency markets, these are the kind of services they'll be seeking.

At launch, CoinMetro will support Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Ripple, and Litecoin.

CoinMetro's main token sale begins Feb 20th, full info and whitepaper at CoinMetro.com

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Author: Adam Lee
Asia News Desk


The Tether debate - can it crash the market, or not? And my conversation with Charlie Lee on the situation...


Back in November of last year I published an article titled 'Did Tether FAKE a hack to cover up crimes? We dive into the conspiracy theory.' (Link)

It outlined the theory that Tether had been 'printing money' and the claims some were making that they faked being hacked - as a creative way to balance their books.

Today Bloomberg published an article that's being shared everywhere in the cryptocurrency world, 'U.S. Regulators Subpoena Crypto Exchange Bitfinex, Tether' (Link)

What's unclear now is - does a subpoena even matter? Bitfinex banned US customers from their exchange last August, so at least on an official basis - they're not operating in the United States.

Now I want to make one thing clear - I do NOT believe if the worst is true, that it would crash the crypto markets.  What could however crash the markets is fears that it could crash the markets. Sounds silly but it's really that simple.

But, there's a difference between what I think, and Litecoin creator Charlie Lee thinks.  I do believe, that there are valid reasons it could slightly adjust the value of multiple coins, but any drop larger than 10% or so would be people selling out of fear. Charlie Lee however believes a Tether collapse, should only effect Tether itself.

We discussed this earlier today on twitter:



For the record - I like Charlie, just a friendly debate.  But the point I think we cannot forget is - Tether is not just another altcoin, because it doesn't function like one.

Other coins value is based on what people are willing to buy and sell them for on exchanges.  Tether however, is given it's value by believing a USD reserve equal in value to Tether's market cap exists.

If that reserve doesn't exist - the value of anything purchased with Tether is thrown into question.

What do you think? Tweet me @RossFM
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Author: Ross Davis
San Francisco News Desk


ROBBED at GUNPOINT for Bitcoin.

Four robbers burst into the home of Danny Aston, and at gunpoint forced him to transfer Bitcoin.

Aston is the former city financier, recently turned cryptocurrency trader and started his own firm 'Aston Digital Currencies' now living in the village of Moulsford in South Oxfordshire.

"We are all obviously a bit shaken up, even though a few days have passed now. It is not what you expect to happen around here." says one of Aston's neighbors.

Police were called at 9.40am following reports of a door being kicked in and armed robbers entering a residence.  Then according to UK news outlet The Mail, the robbers tied up a women with Aston while forcing him at gunpoint to transfer Bitcoin.

Local police issued the following statement:

“Thames Valley Police is investigating an aggravated burglary which occurred at a property in Moulsford on Monday. Officers were called at about 9.40am to a report that offenders had entered a residential property off Reading Road and threatened the occupants. No one was seriously injured during the incident.

An investigation into the incident is underway and officers attended nearby Moulsford School as a precautionary measure. It is not believed there was a threat to anyone at the school.

Officers are particularly interested in speaking to anyone travelling through the village on the A329 Reading Road between 7.30am and 10.30am on Monday who has Dashcam footage or anyone with mobile phone footage.

People in the local community may notice an increased presence of officers in the area while our enquiries are ongoing.  The investigation is in its early stages however initial enquiries suggest this may be a targeted incident."

The robbers are still at large. 

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Author: Ross Davis
San Francisco News Desk


Minnesota murder trial involves Ashley Madison and Bitcoin...


VIA Washington Post:
 Minnesota church elder Stephen Allwine is on trial for allegedly murdering his wife after trying to hire a hit man using bitcoin as payment. Prosecutors say Allwine was engaging in multiple affairs and did not want to lose his position in the church by seeking a divorce. 

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Breaking: It appears the largest cryptocurrency hack ever is now confirmed...

Japanese exchange Coincheck has just confirmed at press conference - a hack has indeed taken place.

Earlier today users were in a panic as XEM tokens were missing from all users wallets. The total amount missing is still unconfirmed - but the exchange held 58 billion yen worth of the currency - a $533 million value.

This would make this the largest hack of cryptocurrency yet  - breaking the previous record set by Mt.Gox of $340 million.

We're watching for further developments.
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Author: Adam Lee
Asia News Desk


Pop star Katy Perry is OBSESSED with cryptocurrency...

About 2 months ago she hinted at her interest in cryptocurrencies, then we published a story (link) where she said she got to meet Warren Buffett and "asked him his thoughts on cryptocurrency".

Now, in a picture of her nails posted to Instagram, she's rocking a different cryptocurrency for each finger - captioning the photo "CrYpTo ClAwS".



This is the second story of the week where cryptocurrency crossed over to the music world, as rapper 50 Cent also revealed he owns 700 Bitcoins.
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Author: Mark Pippen
London News Desk


Popular stock trading app Robinhood adds crypto trading - with no fees!


Beginning February the Robinhood App can be used to purchase Bitcoin and Ethereum - with no fees (for now).

Also, and possibly a sign of other coins they may make tradeable - the app will allow for tracking of Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Ripple, Ethereum Classic, Zcash, Monero, Dash, Stellar, Qtum, Bitcoin Gold, Dogecoin, OmiseGo, NEO, and Lisk.

Robinhood has brought in millions of users with their popular stock giveaway promotion - where you receive a random stock share for signing up.

Some lucky users have scored free shares of major companies like Facebook and Apple - you can try your luck by signing up here. 

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Author: Ross Davis
San Francisco News Desk


Coinbase making over $2 million a day from fees - giving them a huge $1 Billion yearly revenue!

Originally stating they expected their 2017 earnings to be around $600 Million - Coinbase has filed their earnings report for 2017 where they surpassed all expectations and brought in over $1 Billion in revenue.

Coinbase has become so successful, Silicon Valley venture capalitist are dying to get a cut. But Coinbase has a message for those tech investors - we don't want, or need you.

Going so far as to warn their early investors and staff that recieved stock options - don't you dare sell your shares behind their back, stating:

"As a private company, Coinbase does not allow trading of stock on secondary markets for a variety of reasons, including the fact that there is not full and equal information available to the market. We will take appropriate action if we find people have sold Coinbase shares in violation of our agreements not to do so."

According to Coinbase's own statistics, over $50 Billion worth of cryptocurrency has been traded on their platform.

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Author: Ross Davis
San Francisco News Desk


Rapper 50 Cent - a Bitcoin millionaire, after remembering he received 700 Bitcoins in 2014...

"I forgot I did that shit!" 50 Cent said after TMZ reminded him he accepted Bitcoin for online sales of his 2014 album "Animal Ambition".

At the time, it accounted for about $350,000 worth of album sales.

Today, after Bitcoin's drastic price increase - it's worth nearly $8 million dollars!

"Not Bad for a kid from South Side, I'm so proud of me" 50 Cent said on Instagram.

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Author: Mark Pippen
London News Desk


Can blockchain solve Hollywood's streaming challenges? A look at White Rabbit...

For those of us (myself included) who stream virtually everything they watch, streaming has changed how we get our entertainment for the better.  It's almost hard to believe there was a time where I had to catch a show when it aired, or at the least set up a DVR (or, gasp - VCR) if I wasn't home to watch it.

But as we gained convenience, those who own and produce the content actually lost control, and more importantly, income from their work.

White Rabbit is out to see if blockchain technology can help solve the content producers problem - and most importantly - without getting in the way of the viewer!

They outline the following set of problems: Filmmakers left out of digital distribution income, a lack of transparency, pirated content, and a lack of choice outside subscription services selected content.

The proposed solution - a browser plugin, that recognizes what you watch - and doesn't care how you got to it.  Subscription service or pirated - White Rabbit doesn't care.

They explain it like this:

"When streaming their favorite films or series, smart contracts deduct a payment from users and transfer this immediately to rights holders. Utilizing blockchain technology, rights holders are also ensured complete financial transparency.

Thereby, White Rabbit liberates creators and fans from closed server based subscription platforms. In its place, White Rabbit delivers unlimited choice in content for fans, incentives for an innovative streaming industry, a sustainable business model for digital distribution and a fair and transparent future for artists, producers and investors."

White Rabbit believes 60% of those currently pirating content, don't even want to be pirates - and this isn't a crazy theory - we learned from the past, when music pirates were first to master digital music distribution. When iTunes launched, people were skeptical - would users pay for what they're getting for free?  Overwhelmingly - yes!

Then, take things up and notch with the power of blockchain and smart contracts - and you can then make sure the income goes exactly where it's supposed to.

The team consist of people from both the movie, and software industry.  CEO Alan R. Milligan is a film producer with awards from Cannes, Venice, Gothenburg and more than 50 other awards and nominations since 2014.  Artistic Director Hengameh Panahi was part of Mubi, a company that started streaming even before Netflix - just to name a couple.

White Rabbit's Presale is live now, info can be found at https://whiterabbit.one

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Author: Ross Davis
San Francisco News Desk


South Korea issues cryptocurrency announcement: No ban! But a new tax...

The market has been a roller coaster since news that South Korean politicians were considering a cryptocurrency ban in the country, which controls about 15% of the cryptocurrency market.

Just announce today however - no ban!

But there will be a new tax.  Imposed on exchanges is now 22% corporate and 2.2% local income tax, retroactively. So South Korean exchanges will be beginning 2018 with a bill due from 2017.

It's expected these additional costs will be passed on to users existing fees, so it's reasonable to expect less trading coming from South Korea - but at least they're still in the market.

Another part of the government plan: exchanges must share their users info with authorities. Similar to the agreement between the IRS and Coinbase, where after challenging them in court, Coinbase lost and were ordered to turn over customer data for any account with over $20,000 in actvity.
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Author: Adam Lee
Asia News Desk


German Chancellor and French President discussed cryptocurrencies last night in private meeting...

The meeting last night in Paris was off the record with no press allowed access and no transcripts provided to the public. However it has been confirmed that cryptocurrencies were among the topics discussed between the two leaders.

Possible future regulations were likely on the agenda, but based on past statements we believe they would be much less drastic ones than what's going on in places like South Korea - instead of discussing banning cryptocurrencies, the EU government's concerns have revolved around properly identifying traders, preventing illegal activity, and making sure they're taxed appropriately.

Another possible topic of discussion - rogue nations like North Korea using cryptocurrencies to evade UN sanctions, which both nations voted for.

There's no reason (so far) to expect any kind of announcement anytime soon, as representatives for the leaders explained the purpose of the meeting was to begin to prepare issues they would like to present at the 2018 G8 Summit - which is still 10 months away in November.

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Author: Ross Davis
San Francisco News Desk


South Korean corruption - did government officials sell off their coins before announcing possible ban?


South Korean news outlet ChoSun is reporting that SK Financial Supervisory Service has confirmed an investigation has been launched.

The claim is that members and employees within the Financial Services Commission sold off their cryptocurrency assets, hours and minutes before news they were looking into possibly banning cryptocurrency was released to the press.

Director of the Office of the Prime Minister, Hong Nam-ki, said;

"As far as internal transactions are concerned, there are one or two cases of public servants, and they asked me to investigate the facts".


Unfortunately, even if it's the worst case scenario - there wasn't a crime, as laws do not cover virtual currencies the same as cash or stocks.

Still, while not illegal - it is a violation of internal policy.  However, they have not said what the punishment for violating these policies would be if the investigation does find evidence confirming the claims.

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Author: Oliver Redding
Seattle News Desk


Crypto assets managed by artificial intelligence and machine learning - a look at Peculium...


PECULIUM is a revolutionary savings platform developed specifically to benefit from managing a superior cryptocurrency portfolio with the help of artificial intelligence based decision making.

Peculium also offers a variety of crypto-asset management products for individual users and institutions. Peculium offers products with varying degrees of autonomy over the asset management, which range from completely autonomous (suitable for users and investors) to highly customizable (suitable for professional traders, larger corporations, and brokers who are interested in providing customized plans for their clients). The Peculium platform will allow monitoring and management of crypto-assets in real time.

Peculium harnesses the power of big-data analytics and automated machine learning (AML). Peculium utilizes state-of-the-art risk management algorithms to minimize risks while growing portfolios.

Benefiting from decades of research in the field of automated machine learning and artificial intelligence, Peculium has developed the world's first autonomous crypto-asset management consultant and supervisor AIΞVE, who is designed optimize risk management while adapting
most profitable strategies better than any human being could achieve.

Peculium values transparency of the business decisions. Therefore Peculium operates over the Ethereum blockchain by virtue of smart-contracts. With the combined power of smart-contracts and AIΞVE, Peculium ensures reliability, flexibility, and transparency in crypto-asset management.

Since the advent of the first blockchain-based cryptocurrency "Bitcoin" in January 2009, the cryptocurrency market has grown exponentially. According to recent estimates, the global cryptocurrency market capitalization is approximately $150 billion USD. Although in the last few years, the growth in market capitalization has been anything but spectacular, the cryptocurrency market is still in its infancy.

According to the World Bank, global savings have shown consistent growth in recent decades. In the year 2015, the evaluation of global traditional savings was approximately 19,000 billion USD.

Compared to the colossal size of the global market for traditional savings, the cryptocurrency market is immensely undervalued. Considering the groundbreaking utility and global nature of blockchain technology, the cryptocurrency market presents a tremendous untapped potential for growth.

Peculium's ICO is live now and can be found at https://peculium.io

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Information provided via press release.

South Korean citizens rise up to protect their cryptocurrency rights!

South Korean citizens have a full force movement going to protect their cryptocurrency trading rights.

Their online petition has now gathered over 250,000+ signatures, which states in part:

"You think you protect the people, but the people think that the government takes away our dreams." 

They are vowing any politician voting for restrictions against cryptocurrencies won't be re-elected next time they go to the voting booths.

In another strange twist to the story, the Korean government is now saying they may create their own cryptocurrency, speaking to Reuters, Lee Ju-yeol, governor of Bank of Korea said;

 "We have started looking at virtual currency from a long-term standpoint, as central banks could start issuing digital currencies in the future. This sort of research has begun at the Bank of International Settlements and we are part of that research" 

It is estimated roughly 15% of the market value is in the hands of South Korean investors.

South Korea has said they will have an official announcement - possibly as soon as tomorrow!

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Author: Ross Davis
San Francisco News Desk


Blockchain is revolutionizing the loan industry - a look at Valorem...


Smart contracts are providing the solution to the trust issues that are usually the main concerns in the micro loan industry.  Whether it be student loans, cars, or any other kind of micro lending - blockchain technology provides what's needed to move away from the banks, and towards a peer to peer lending model.

Volerem Foundation is building the infrastructure to facilitate exactly this.

One huge advantage of taking traditional banking out of the picture and utilizing a token in the loan process - the entire world opens up.  People and businesses in developing nations that may never get the ear of a banker can give their proposal, and find funding on the Volerem platform.

Founder and CEO Val Kleyman, explains the platform like this;

"You have to create a community for people to interact, and trust eachother. One way we're envisioning to do that is similar to AirBNB, where people trust who their interacting with because they trust the platform they're on. You are able to book and stay at someones place without even meeting.  Then they rate eachother, and based on that you create a profile for the individual. Once you do that, you can continue to trust someone.

In terms of our world, let's say I need a micro loan to expand my coffee shop, so I go on the Valorem platform and I create a loan.  Well on the platform, it doesn't give you everything right away - you have to build trust. After awhile, you've made a certin amount of payments, you've been active on the platform, your profile ranking goes up, to 5 stars or 10 star member.  As that happens, more money is released to you and you can do more on the platform. 

It's a balance between the valuation of the currency compared with bitcoin or the dollar, and how it translates to the platform itself and your ability to use it"

Valorem is also a multi-layered platform, the other major component being traditional payments - aimed at providing payment solutions for things such as landlords, receiving money rent payments from their monthly rent payments from tenants and other goods and services.

The Valorem ICO pre-sale is live now - participate and learn more at https://advalorem.io

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Author: Oliver Redding
Seattle News Desk

Bitconnect scam collapsed, and CLOSED - how the scam worked, and how they made their escape...

A quick vlog I made upon finding out the news.

Being the only reporter to have attempted to confront Bitconnect in person (that story here) it only seems right I cover their final day. The company is in full collapse after announcing closing of their lending platform, their BCC coin value is in freefall - starting the day worth a little over $400, and at the time of writing this worth just $43.

This is a strange feeling.

Sure, feels good to be proven right - but I already knew I was. Whatever gratification I get from that is instantly lost when I think about everyone who just got screwed.

You see, a lot of good people were tricked by some very bad ones.

I'd guess the majority of people who participated in Bitconnect are actual "victims".  People who heard of this amazing thing called 'cryptocurrency' and browsed around Facebook or YouTube, and ended up in the hands of someone trying to build their Bitconnect referrals, and promising the moon.

Innocent confused people.  Bitconnect... Bitcoin... they sound similar enough, to someone who knows nothing about either.

That's why this isn't enjoyable. 

I love the flood of new investors in the cryptocurrency world! I want everyone to do well, and there's no satisfaction gained when I read the stories being posted on social media today of people losing everything.

So here's how their exit strategy ended up working:


- Bitconnect announces they are closing their 'lending platform'.

- Now to divert blame, they blamed US state governments, and 'bad press'.

- Then they say - everyone is getting their investment back!

- But now here's the money grab: They pay back the investment in their BCC coin.  Not in USD, not in Bitcoin - but in their own worthless coin.

- So if Bitconnect owed you $10,000, you received $10,000 worth of BCC coins.

- But just hours later, that $10,000 is only worth about $1000, as the BCC coin is in a sharp dive towards being completely worthless.

They keep the Bitcoin.  They keep the USD.  Their users got BCC.

Now we need to remove the trash from the cryptocurrency world.

So with all this in mind, it's time we unite to take out the scammers that pushed this thing.  People like YouTuber Tevon James and everyone like them.

Anyone who pushed Bitconnect - you're canceled. Your recommendations, your opinions, your posts, your vids, your tweets should be ignored from this day on.

These people will be back, with the next "get rich quick" scam. Let's make sure nobody's listening when they do.

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Author: Ross Davis
San Francisco News Desk


The Mid-January crash - every year, for the last 4 years...

It's happened every year since 2015 and this year is no different.  The theories as to why however always change. 

News stories about countries banning cryptocurrency? Maybe, but those happen so often it's hard to give full credit.

A better theory perhaps, people who made millions the previous year taking funds out as they begin preparing their taxes.  But my point with this post isn't to add more speculation, there's plenty already.

Whatever the reason may be, it's important to note, the January apocalypse has always been followed by a bull run setting new record highs - ALWAYS.

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Author: Ross Davis
San Francisco News Desk


Could Bitcoin's price rise from $100 to $1000 be the work of ONE mysterious person?

In a paper published by Science Direct, researchers Neil Gandal, JT Hamrick, Tyler Moore, and Tali Oberman outline their belief that the USD/BTC exchange rate rose from $150 to $1000 - though the actions of a single person over a 60 day period.

The abstract summary of their finding reads:

"To its proponents, the cryptocurrency Bitcoin offers the potential to disrupt payment systems and traditional currencies. It has also been subject to security breaches and wild price fluctuations. This paper identifies and analyzes the impact of suspicious trading activity on the Mt. Gox Bitcoin currency exchange, in which approximately 600,000 bitcoins (BTC) valued at $188 million were fraudulently acquired. During both periods, the USD-BTC exchange rate rose by an average of four percent on days when suspicious trades took place, compared to a slight decline on days without suspicious activity. Based on rigorous analysis with extensive robustness checks, the paper demonstrates that the suspicious trading activity likely caused the unprecedented spike in the USD-BTC exchange rate in late 2013, when the rate jumped from around $150 to more than $1,000 in two months."

They claim two trading bots did the footwork, named in their paper "Markus" and "Willey" - making fake trades and driving up the price, all while the owner of Mt.Gox was covering up that they had been hacked (That story here) making concealment of their activity especially easy.

You can read their full research paper here.

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Author: Oliver Redding
Seattle News Desk



Blockchain Expo Global - London - April 18th-19th!


Blockchain Expo World Series, the leading global blockchain for business event, is arriving in London Olympia on 18-19 April 2018.

The event features two days of content designed to address key industry verticals, including supply
chain, financial services, healthcare, utilities and more.

Among the six conference tracks is Blockchain for Business and Transforming Financial Services,
which explore the practical applications of blockchain in industry, featuring thought-leadership
keynotes, panels and case-studies led by industry leaders.

Cryptofinance strategies and ICOs are also explored in dedicated conference tracks, reflecting on the
evolving marketplace, including global opportunities, the future of cryptocurrencies, and learning
from recent ICOs.

Confirmed speakers span a range of sectors, including Lloyds Banking Group, ING, Waves,
Hyperledger, Hogan Lovells, London Stock Exchange and the European Commission.

Delegates are also invited to an extensive free-to- attend exhibition hall, where over 300 companies
will be exhibiting the most disruptive technologies across blockchain, IoT & AI.

Learn more, and register for your place, at https://blockchain-expo.com/global

Global Crypto Press is proud to be a media partner with the Blockchain Expo event series - our readers can enjoy a 15% discount by using code 'GLOBALCRYPTO15' when registering!

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The "Fan Controlled Football League" of the future, powered by blockchain...

Quite possibly the boldest project in both sports and blockchain technology today - the Fan Controlled Football League (FCFL).

At first glance, I thought I was reading about an new fantasy league, or video game - but this will be done with real players, on a real field - with the fans calling the shots.

Everything handed over to the control of the masses - from the hiring and firing of players and coaches, and then calling the plays during the game!

"We’re building a real-life video game. That’s really what the FCFL is, a real-life version of Madden for fans to kind of run and control a real team. So in Madden and every other mobile game and video game people have ever played you collect points or gems or gold — all of these digital things where you’re kind of trying to earn more and with those things you can do more in the game.” says Schrob Farudi, founder and CEO of the FCFL.

The league will consist of 10 teams, and instead of taking place in a traditional stadium setting, it all takes place in a fully decked out production studio indoor field. This allows for an experience that revolves around the home viewer.  There will still be a smaller live audience, 500 to 1000 people.

But for those at home a truely futuristic viewing experience.  The indoor studio envitonment allows for them to produce a show using all modern technology - chipped footballs, biometrics, helment cams and drones.

The next thing I thought was - can they actually pull this off? Well, they already are! They've already spent $2 million dollars putting together the first team, building the studio, and developing the software - things are moving forward for a real Summer 2018 launch of the league!

The test runs caught the eyes of both Sports Illustrated, and Twitch, which are now partners in the project.

So for those of us in the cryptocurency world, the only question is: how do tokens come into play?

The currency is called 'FAN' and is an Ethereum ERC20 based token. Fans can of course buy tokens, or earn them by watching games and interacting - the more tokens you hold the more weight your opinion holds. The more you win the more you earn, and the championship pay-off for the first season is $1 Million dollars, paid out in FAN tokens and split between players, coaches, and the fans who helped call the shots.

Football is just the beginning - the company aims to expand their platform to other sports like soccer, baseball, cricket, and more.

More info on the FCFL and their ICO can be found at https://fcfl.io

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Author: Mark Pippen
London News Desk


Kentucky Fried Crypto - KFC Launches the "Bitcoin Bucket"...

KFC in Canada has launched what they're calling the "Bitcoin Bucket" in a Facebook post saying:

"KFC Canada presents The Bitcoin Bucket. Sure, we don’t know exactly what Bitcoins are, or how they work, but that shouldn’t come between you and some finger lickin’ good chicken"

The purchases are done though BitPay, the bucket cost $20 and can only be used when ordering delivery online.

KFC also said they may expand to accept other cryptocurrencies, and in a tweet said:

"We only sell in #Bitcoin right now. Other crypto coins in consideration."

We've been predicting this for awhile - 2018 is the year crypto goes mainstream!
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Author: Mark Pippen
London News Desk


Why South Korean cryptocurrency investors are in a panic - and how it's effecting all of us...

South Korea has played a major role in the cryptocurrency boom that often goes unnoticed to those of us on the English speaking side of things. 

They have their own corner of the crypto world - with their own forums, chat rooms and their own exchanges - where prices can even vary greatly from US/EU exchange rates.

But nonetheless - the volume of money they bring in effects us all. They account for about 15% of the entire market.

Today however, our crypto friends in South Korea are in a panic.  Yesterday their justice minister, Park Sang-ki announced "regulators are preparing legislation to halt cryptocurrency trading" that sent the markets into a nose dive.

So why are their politicians looking to crack down?  It appears what first drew government attention is lack security at two South Korean exchanges.

First, there was the Bithumb hack in July - over 30,000 victims losing their Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Then came YoBit, forced to shut down after suffering two major attacks in one year.

Throw in your standard "it's a bubble" fears on top of these - and we get some very worried politicians.

But democracy, and South Korean politicians fearing backlash at the voting booths may save cryptocurrency trading in the nation.  Chief security strategist at AsTech, a cyber security firm explained to Infosecurity Mag:

“This ban, though, would impact a growing number of citizens and could cause a huge backlash against the government, both immediately and in any voting situation. At this point, it may be too early to guess at what a ban on cryptocurrency trading would do to South Korea, either economically or politically, but as the number of South Koreans who use cryptocurrencies increases, this issue will become more challenging to address at a national level.”

With youth unemployment rates 3x higher than the national average, playing the cryptocurrency markets has taken the place of a job for many young South Koreans.

As of today, an online petition against the proposed ban has over 120,000 signatures - and even crashed the website earlier.

So, that's where things stand now, we're watching closely for future developments. 

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Author: Ross Davis
San Francisco News Desk


Top crypto exchange finally opens again to new registrations!


After a flood of new users in the cryptocurrency wave of 2017, existing customers began complaining about downtime and server issues on the top rated exchange, Binance.

Now after expanding their network capabilities, Binance.com has re-opened to new users.

But get in while you can, they're limiting the amount of new signups each day.  If you can't now, try again tomorrow.  "Demand is so high that the company is limiting new customers" the CEO told Bloomberg on Wednesday.

Visit Binance at https://www.Binance.com

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Author: Mark Pippen
London News Desk


You've heard how cryptocurrencies are bad for the environment, now learn how they may save it...


While lately the only news linking blockchain technology to the topic of energy has been negative, it turns out - blockchain may end up being the solution to the world's energy problems.

The controversy revolves around the amount of power consumed in the process of mining cryptocurrencies. Both Digiconomist and Zero Hedge released papers stating that within the next 3 years, cryptocurrency mining alone would need to use the amount of power the entire world uses by 2020, and already uses as much power as Denmark.

Without going too much into it, since that's not the point of this piece - let me say this has largely been an uneducated media that will repeat anything negative they can get their hands on. They used highly disputed data, as mining rigs can vary greatly in power consumption their estimates may be as much as 3x off, and when it comes to the carbon footprint they claim mining leaves - they used the worst power source in their calculations - Chinese coal.

I bring this up because what's better than making the case "No, cryptocurrencies aren't as bad for the environment as they say"?

Being able to say they're also the solution!

Companies like WePower are leveraging the excitement behind blockchain and cryptocurrencies to put green energy production into overdrive. Putting together a team of energy experts, governments, engineers, and investors together to make it happen.

A huge reason green energy production outlets haven't popped up everywhere is simply how out of reach it feels to the average investor. How do you find them? What will you get in return? Then - how does a company wanting to build one small green energy plant for their local town or city find the investors?

Well, a marketplace and a token tied to smart contracts stating it's value is equal to 1 token for 1 killowatt hour of energy solves this. A green energy producer utilizing solar, wind, water power can gain access to the capital needed selling their future energy upfront - by tokenizing it.

“Currently if you want to finance a set of renewable energy plants, either you have to go to a bank and take on debt, or you go to an investor and issue securities. In our solution, producers are selling energy upfront in the form of a token.” says WePower co-founder Arturas Asakavicius.

WePower is already lining up their partners for launch.  They claim to have 1 gigawatt of power already reserved for the project lined up with 3 solar power producers in Spain. Intitally they're targeting larger, established energy producers, but the long term road map includes the average person with solar panels on their home's roof being able to put their excess power out onto the market and earn tokens themselves.

“The end goal is to produce a true peer to peer energy platform, where people would sell renewable energy and also be able to get energy back from the grid.” says Nick Martyniuk, another one of the company founders.

WePower's ICO begins in February and can be found online at https://wepower.network
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Author: Ross Davis
San Francisco News Desk


Let's remember how wrong Warren Buffett has been about technology before...

With cryptocurrency in the spotlight and a media that loves to push doom and gloom, Warren Buffett's comments today are being picked up and shared by virtually every mainstream and financial news outlet.

For those who don't know, Warren Buffett is one of the most successful investors on the planet and he's made billions doing it.  In 2008 he was the "richest person in the world" - so understand we're not calling him stupid, that's not the point here.

Today speaking to CNBC's "Squawk Box" he said on the topic of cryptocurrencies:

"I can say with almost certainty that they will come to a bad ending."

But we do think some perspective is needed when someone like him speaks on cryptocurrencies, or tech in general.

Buffett made his billions in in old school industries and traditional finance - coal, tobacco, Coca Cola, Heinz, Bank Of America... you get the idea.

On technology, he's the first to admit - it's not his area of expertise.

When asked why he missed out on Amazon, his response was "I was too dumb".  When asked why he hadn't invested in Google - "I blew it" said Buffett.

Buffett is a genius, when it comes to the things he's a genius on. Technology isn't one of them. 

In fact, history tells us, if it's tech and Buffett doesn't believe in it - a bright future is ahead.

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Author: Oliver Redding
Seattle News Desk


JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon "regrets" calling Bitcoin a fraud...

Back in September 2017 Dimon angered the cryptocurrency world by calling bitcoin a "fraud" and said "if you're stupid enough to buy it, you'll pay the price for it one day,"

Regarding those comments now - he says "I regret making them" in an interview on Fox Business.

But Dimon wasn't all cheer about Bitcoin, and also added he worries about how "governments are going to feel about bitcoin when it gets really big." To be fair, a concern shared even by Bitcoin lovers.

Dimon's earlier comments had seemed to be at odds with his own company for months.  In October JP Morgan Chase announced they would be using blockchain technology to speed up their global payments in a project called "Interbank Information Network" and said the tech would increase the speed of these transactions "from weeks to hours."

It seems Dimon is becoming a believer, slowly.

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Author: Ross Davis
San Francisco News Desk


John McAfee's "coin of the week" and nobody cares...

Maybe it's because it's DOGE, and everyone just laughed it off.  But for the first time, John McAfee tweeted his coin choice, and the market didn't react... at all.

It's been a strange road to this point.  First, McAfee started his "coin of the day" tweets - but that went to hell fast.  People even coded bots to automatically buy (pump) and sell (dump) based on what was being tweeted out.

That caused some backlash and McAfee announced the "coin of the day" would become the "coin of the week" (article about that here).

So, this week's coin of the week?
The market's reaction?

 

No noticeable difference.   Please tell me this can be over with now?

John McAfee is best known for creating the worlds first commercial antivirus software, but left the company he founded in 1994 and has since been involved in mobile apps, alternative medicine, and cryptocurrencies.

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Author: Ross Davis
San Francisco News Desk


Ethereum co-founder: Price may TRIPLE in 2018...



Ethereum co-creator Steven Nerayoff appeared on CNBC's "Fast Money" today and shared his extremely positive outlook for 2018, saying: 

"What you're seeing with Ethereum is exponential increase in the number of projects — there are billions of dollars being poured into the ecosystem right now, maybe 10 times more projects this year than last year, which could easily lead to a doubling, probably a tripling in price by the end of the year." 

Stephen runs venture capital firms Maple Ventures and Alchemist Ventures, and was involved in other cryptocurrency projects beyond Ethereum - such as Lisk, Bancor, tZero, ZenCash, ZCash, Veridium, Storm, and Kin. 

Steven is also the Chairman of Global Blockchain Technologies.

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Author: Oliver Redding
Seattle News Desk


An augmented reality ecosystem, powered by blockchain...


Imagine a second version of our planet, another layer if you will where things exist in an augmented reality, on top of our physical world.

Pokemon Go is about as much as the average person may have seen so far of this concept, but Arcona hopes to take this further - way further.

Entire virtual cities built on top of the physical ones we already have. The technology to do it already exists in products like Microsoft's HoloLens and others, and theme parks like Universal Studios and Disney locations are beginning to implement AR into their features, introducing high-end AR to a large audience.

So - this revolution is happening - that's not the question.  The question is: besides multi-million dollar companies creating AR for use in their domains, how can smaller developers, and businesses take part in the AR revolution? What kind of ecosystem can this exist in?

Behold Arcona. A unified platform that will allow developers do buy, hold, and develop AR features on their own land. Picture that park down the street, now imagine buying it in Arcon's virtual world, and being able to develop things on this land that suddenly appear to anyone who puts on an AR headset.

You own this land in the AR world - so your local park could become "Dinosoar park" (lol, wouldn't want to infringe any copyrights but you get what i'm saying).  Now, parents could bring their kids, and their AR headsets and see a T-Rex right in front of them - and since it's all virtual, you can charge an entrence fee!

This is where a token based ecosystem comes in. Users of the Arcona platform will need to spend in a virtual world where you can't hand someone cash, so using a cryptocurrency just makes sense. The use of smart contracts will protect things like land rights, copyright and payments.

Arcon's vision has caught the attention of companies like Google - and they were even awarded a Microsoft Seed Fund Grant.

You can learn more, read their whitepaper, and take part in their ICO which is live now at https://www.arcona.io

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Author: Mark Pippen
London News Desk


This exchange is giving a $500 credit for people try them...

A new exchange launching soon and promising 99.999% uptime, strong security and a large variety of coins.  They're called UPCoin and part of their pre-launch promotion they are offering a $500 credit to new users.

Check them out at www.UpCoin.com

Will it meet the hype? We'll see, but if it turns out to be decent the credit could come in handy.

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Author: Oliver Redding
Seattle News Desk


Chinese government moves towards eliminating Bitcoin miners completely...

China is home to the largest Bitcoin mining operations in the world.  Electricity, the most expensive part of mining is incredibly cheap there, and the hardware needed to do it is manufactured there as well - so it costs less to buy those "made in China" electronics when you're already there.

People’s Bank of China announced plans this week to begin to "enforce local regulators to monitor and even restrict the power use of miners".

While there's been rumors of such actions before - this time it seems like the real deal.

Bitmain is one of these massive mining operations in China - and they have publicly confirmed a plan to "shift operations" to Singapore as a result of these new regulations.

The good news - China said they will allow miners some time to slowly close down their operations, so it won't seem like someone suddenly pulled the plug.  This means the average Bitcoin user probably won't be effected or even notice it happening.

Miners say they're looking at Iceland, Canada and the USA as top potential spots to relocate as the supply of cheaper renewable energy grows in these nations.

This is the latest in what's been an odd year of Chinese regulation - banning ICO's and some exchanges preceded this latest move.
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Author: Mark Pippen
London News Desk


Scammers in PANIC mode: USI-Tech bans US & Canadian users following Bitconnect's legal problems...

A day after the Bitconnect scam was served a cease and desist (full story here) the second most popular crypto scam "USI Tech" has terminated it's USA and Canadian members.

In a laughable move - they're actually blaming their own users for their troubles. Now making the case that even though their entire system functioned off people spamming and referring others - it's the users fault for sharing the links they provided.  Stating in an e-mail shared on Reddit:

We were utterly dismayed to learn that a large number of our sales partners extensively advertise our services on their own websites as well as on social media in a manner which is a breach of contract as well as illegal, and which gives the appearance that our service portfolio violates both US and Canadian law. Despite the measures which we have already initiated, this behavior has even intensified in recent weeks and months. This has already resulted in actions by the respective authorities against various distributors, as well as the first preliminary injunctions in response to this advertising behavior. 

This seems to be the beginning of the end for multiple crypto scam sites that targeted the wave of new uneducated investors.

Experts expect the Federal government of the USA to review the Texas securities board's findings and implement a nationwide ban on Bitconnect in the coming weeks, that is if Bitconnect doesn't ban them first.

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Author: Oliver Redding
Seattle News Desk