Category: Crypto

Mandatory Kyc Verification May Contradict Privacy Laws In South Korea

South Korea falls among the most stringent law bearers of their citizens, globally. Hence, they’ve been trying out various ways to control and study their population, keep a track of the number of citizens doing certain kinds of work and there are hundreds of other reasons to implement KYC. KYC can be expanded as Know-Your-Customer. The South Korean Govt has been trying to implement this particular law for a prolonged time but due to certain obstacles, they couldn’t. They have also proposed to implement AML or anti-money laundering compliance processes along with KYC. The issues for implementing both come when experts figured out various applications in implementing both the laws together.

The existing Personal protection act will be contravened if the new laws are implied on the citizens. This stipulates that no local companies will be able to legally request a “social security number”. Here comes relief from the stress, according to digital today, the measures will cover the financial institutions, anyhow, one is capable of requesting for it under exceptional circumstances which include major monetary transactions. There are always some ways to make your way out if you follow the laws correctly.

When will the new system be enforced?

System enforcement is speculated to be done by the end of March 2021. The decree is known as the Special Payment Act. To enforce this certain law on citizens, the authorities will require “virtual asset services providers”. This is needed to filter the original identities of the customers who are enrolling their names. The verification of the originality of the data will be done using citizens social security numbers, maybe. There can be other identity proofs too that will do the work.

The law will not grant the virtual asset that operates the dignity and status of financial company operators, nor will they be integrated into institutional financial companies when the revised financial law enforcement bill will be implied. This statement was given by the financial information analysis institution who said that even if the particular AML-KYC is imposed, the virtual asset holders will not be considered a financial institution. Hence the crypto investors might not be quite benefitted by the amendments.

Many financial analysts think that even if the KYC-AML system is imposed, the crypto-industry has a long-lasting way to go even if they are included in the Virtual Asset Business Rights Act. The act is likely to be implemented in the 2021 march and hence, the government has issued various rules and regulations that need to be followed along with various papers that should be presented during the enrollment.

1. Real-name account
2. SMS authentication
3. Report their operations within six months after the law’s implementation

Experts believe that the new system, its merits, and demerits needs to be discussed to the common public who are the investors and are potential investors. The only way to implement a law that will run smoothly is by preparing government officials dealing with the KYC-AML process.

Top Indian Central Banker Says Cryptos Have a Future But Fears Monopoly

Raghuram Rajan, the former governor of the Reserve Bank of India believer neither private nor central digital currencies should come under monopoly. He believes the private digital currencies including Bitcoin and Facebook’s Libra have potential. He says that these digital currencies will remain popular even when central banks roll out their digital currencies.

However, the only concern of Rajan is the monopoly. Rajan, who was also working as a Chief Economist and Research Director at the International Monetary Fund during 2003-2006, said that the digital currencies may have a problem if they hold a monopoly. The platform of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is entirely different from fiat currency.

The private digital currencies will give a tough competition to the digital currencies launched by the government. Although he believes Bitcoin is not just a mere medium of exchange instead, it is a valuable asset just like gold. Facebook’s digital currency Libra will be used as an everyday medium of transactions.

Rajan says if the central banks issue the digital currencies, each transaction may require many types of information. This information can be collected through CBDCs but Rajan has a concern about whether or not people will be willing to share so much information.

There are many sorts of personal payment information involved in banking too. The banks, however, may need to decide which information they want to collect and how they will use this information. Rajan added just the way private digital currencies cannot work efficiently under monopoly, the central bank digital currencies may have no safeguards.

Customer data can be used by central banks and their management without any privacy control. Both types of digital currencies will play a significant role in the market despite being issued by different mediums.

The thought of having digital currency is still an idea among the central banks of India. But it will soon be materialized and there will be a digital version of the fiat currency. While Bitcoin is a decentralized currency unlike the fiat currencies, the idea of having a centralized digital currency can bring many changes in the world of digital currencies.

Rajan concluded that to make the idea of centralized digital currency and still competing with the decentralized one, will be a challenge in itself. There should be some protocols to handle the data of every transaction, he added. To propel the global usage of digital currencies, proper implementation of the digital currency is what banks need to focus on.

Bitcoin Is Ahead Of Bank Of America And New Zealand Dollar At Present By Market Capitalization

The present market-capitalization of Bitcoin (BTC) is just a little higher than a billion USD, having raised 3.2% in the past 2 days. For the time being, the market-capitalization of the Bank of America has shown an unfortunate downfall, around more than 2% that reached down to 224.4 billion USD.

This optimistic behavior coming from BTC shows one thing and that is that the analytics website places Bitcoin in the 25th rank position of the most treasured asset by market cap, just after Paypal that holds the market-capitalization of 230 billion USD.

Bitcoin is Running Ahead

There is a site called FiatMarketCap and it operates to track the rise of Bitcoin against some leading fiat currencies. It has made the statement that the market-capitalization of Bitcoin now has put it ahead of the same as the NZ Dollar. To be exact, at present BTC is ahead of the estimate of the site for the complete count of NZ Dollar in motion at 346.4 billion, which is approximately equal to 227 billion USD. As a consequence, this has made Bitcoin the 34th most precious among all the fiat currencies in the world.

In 2020, the value of BTC has shown a steep rise. The raise was for the Federal Reserve pushing away numerous controversial approaches. It happened for the reduction of the economic effect of the Covid-19 pandemic, giving rise to highlighting figures in finance to take crypto under consideration for the first time.

Popular Billionaires on Crypto

There are famous billionaires who expressed their views on cryptocurrencies. For instance, Warren Buffett has made a statement that cryptocurrencies do not hold any significance basically.

On the other hand, billionaires like Jason Williams made a prediction that Warren Buffett’s company called Berkshire Hathaway has the chance of making a huge investment in cryptocurrencies, BTC to be specific. The “hedge fund Tudor” Investment Corporation’s founder Paul Tudor is also pretty optimistic about BTC as in May, uncovering that the crypto-asset was a part of his portfolio.

There is another probable face in the crypto realm and he is none other than Dave Portnoy, founder, “Barstool Sports”. He recently got connected with the Gemini exchange’s founders, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. He took the help of the twin-brothers buying 200000 USD in BTC and 50000 USD in LINK (Chainlink). These are some of his very first cryptocurrency purchases.

Attorney Ordered to Pay $5.2M for Releasing Bitcoin Funds From Escrow

Another major news is coming from the Cryptocurrency world. As per a new news story, a federal judge from New York has ruled that a New York-based attorney was responsible for paying a crypto investment firm. As per the claims made and the ruling given by the judge, the attorney released escrow account funds and set aside $5 million for investing in bitcoins. 

As per the judge, an Attorney named Aaron Etra was on the hook of paying $4.6 Million to the San Francisco-based firm called Master Fund. As per the judgment, the attorney has to pay $5.255 Million (including interest).

The ruling came after the attorney failed to show for an April court date. His absence was one of the main reasons the judge ruled in the crypto firm’s favor. As per Judge Nathan, who ruled the judgment, the attorney has only himself to blame. As per the judgment, the respondent failed to appear on the present evidence despite having the notice of proof.

What is the case?

This bitcoin case started when Benthos reached out to attorney Etra and asked him to be an escrow agent for the firm’s bitcoin purchase. Both of them signed an agreement, which was a complete bitcoin agreement. The agreement they signed was with the Valkyrie group, which had the task of finding out third parties interested in selling the crypto holdings.

Initially, Benthos wanted to invest $5 million in purchasing Bitcoins. The amount was more than enough to buy 10,000 bitcoin tokens at once. And then, the amount was to be deposited in the escrow account.

But, Attorney Etra without getting the approval of Benthos transferred $4.6 billion of the total bitcoin fund out of the escrow fund over two transactions. Thus, in this transaction, not a single bitcoin was sent to the firm.

The Judgement:

After the court proceedings started, the court ordered attorney Etra to produce complete information and documentation about the missing fund. Attorney produced documents and returned $400,000, and he has also shown his communication with the firm, and the contempt of court charges were denied in the judgment. 

The judgment has asked the attorney to pay a total amount of $5.2 million, including interests. This can be seen as a hidden blessing to Etra as he was liable to pay more than $108 million as per the current value of bitcoin in fiat money.

The Govt Of Russia Puts A Strict Ban On 10 Million Online Wallet Deposits

Recently the Govt of Russia has put a prohibition on several anonymous wallets and that has made millions to talk about. Let’s get into the juicy details.

The Russian Federation has put a strict prohibition on each and every anonymous deposit made to the online wallets in one go. This is something to put a great deal of trouble on above 10 million users who are living in the country. On the basis of the lawmakers, this specific step would be able to put a stop to various unlawful activities, for instance, paying for terrorism and illicit drug dealing.

10 Million Anonymous Online Wallets are Struck

There are various online services such as WebMoney, Yandex, Kiwi, and PayPal through which online wallets operate in Russia. These aforementioned services take control of a minimum of 10 million users who make the usage of the accounts in an anonymous manner by capping them up with money (cash).

There are various users who utilize these anonymous accounts or wallets in order to purchase cryptocurrencies. The accurate count of the crypto buyers is not properly known.

Experts Say the Impact Might be Less

As per the statement made by RBK, an economist named Antonina Levashenko believes that this particular step taken by the Russian Federation will have literally zero effect at first on the field of Blockchain. Nonetheless, as Russia makes strict the procedures of anti-money removal, the ban put at present would become applicable for virtual currencies too in due course.

A development manager at an EXMO crypto exchange company named Maria Stankevich keeps her beliefs in the fact that the ban on the anonymous wallet by the Russian Federation can only have an impact on the exchanges of cryptocurrency that do not carry out conformance in a strict approach. As a result of this, she also has to believe in the matter that any demand for similar facilities might face a fall.

In recent times, a bill on cryptocurrency was passed by the Russian Parliament that states the typical guidelines that should be followed word by word by the industry. The sanctioned form of the bill was a little harsh or a bit oppressive in comparison to the version that was there before.

So, That was All

Hopefully, this elucidation covered up each and every point you needed to know regarding this sudden bad on more than  million online anonymous wallets by the Government of Russia.

How Can You Mine Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is the oldest cryptocurrency. In other words, it is the currency of the Internet by the Internet. This digital money can’t be printed like regular money as it is actually a peer-to-peer network that’s controlled by no single entity. It can also never be created. Only 21 million Bitcoins can ever be created, and this cryptocurrency has to be mined.

What does Mining Mean?

Each Bitcoin transaction is stored in a public ledger called the Blockchain. This is publicly distributed, and thus, all transactions are completely transparent.

Mining is just the process of adding Bitcoin transaction records to this public ledger of Blockchain, which is literally a chain of blocks.

Not getting too technical here, let’s just say that mining is also the process of introducing a new Bitcoin into the network. It basically makes new Bitcoins available to anybody who wishes to be a part of the Bitcoin community.

What the miners are essentially doing is that they confirm every Bitcoin transaction and ensure that every single one of them is above-board. And the miner gets a reward once every block in the Blockchain is ‘sealed off’.

If you want to mine Bitcoin, here are a few things you’ll need to keep in mind:

Hash rate of the hardware

You need to consider something called the hash rate. It is the number of calculations that the hardware can do in a second. A higher hash rate will give your system the ability to mine Bitcoin faster by solving mathematical problems and ‘sealing off’ the block. The hash rate that you should look for is in the range of 336 MH/s to 14,000,000 MH/s.

How much energy will the hardware consume?

Your powerful hardware will require more electricity. So before buying it, calculate how many hashes you will be getting for every watt of electricity used by the proposed hardware.

High-end graphics cards

These can boost your hardware’s Bitcoin mining power. They also consume less power per unit of work.

These graphics cards lead to the development of dedicated mining devices, which increased mining capabilities almost five times and commercialized Bitcoin mining.

The Graphical Processing Unit or GPU is a feature of high-end graphics cards. These can help you hashing mathematics for Bitcoin mining and earning profits. Look for a GPU like ATI 5970, which is one of the most popular graphics cards for mining.

Or better still go for the Field Programmable Gate Array mining or FPGA. These are specially customized for Bitcoin mining.

Do keep in mind though that the graphics cards, GPU and even the ASIC are largely obsolete these days. The next in line for the job is Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC). This is a microchip designed for the purpose of mining Bitcoins at really fast speeds. It reduces electricity consumption too. And this is what you should focus on if you want to mine Bitcoin today.

Mining software

After choosing the hardware, you come to the stage where you need the right software to mine Bitcoin. You also need the Bitcoin client. This is necessary to take the information between your miner software and the larger Bitcoin network.

The Bitcoin mining software instructs the hardware to do the actual mining work, solving savage mathematical problems, in short.

If you are ordering in ASIC miners, you may get everything pre-configured. This will save you the time. We suggest you go for this option.

A few important mining software are-

• Bitcoin miner
• CG Miner
• BFG Miner
• Easy Miner
• RPC Miner

All of them are compatible with windows(except for the last two) and have several features that will make Bitcoin mining easy and profitable.

Deciding on which Mining pool to join

You can go solo or join a Bitcoin mining pool to compete with large corporations mining Bitcoin.

Pooled mining helps you work with multiple users who contribute their computing power to the generation of the block in a blockchain.

This is why a mining pool has a bigger chance of ‘solving’ a block and getting a reward. The flipside is that the reward will get split between all the members.

Go for this option if you want to create a steady stream of income.

How do you join a mining pool?

Joining a mining pool is really easy. It’s like signing up for a web service. Just create an account on the pool’s website. Once you do this, you’ll need to create a single or multiple ‘worker(s)’.

You can create multiple workers and assign them to a specific piece of hardware.

But, be aware of how much the pool will deduct from your mining payments. This normally ranges in value between 1 % and 10 %. A few pools charge nothing at all, too.

Mining for Bitcoins is possible, but it may not really be profitable. We suggest that you also check out crowd mining, which doesn’t require you to buy hardware and software, and you can share processing power from remote data centers. All the best.

Greatest chess player of all time backs bitcoin

Bitcoin crypto and blockchain technology are a response to demand for anonymity in the capital sector. In a conversation with Forbes writer, Roger Huang, on the 23 July Kasparov, states he has found several upsides to the cryptocurrency situation. Bitcoin Garry Kasparov, the Russian cheesemaking man, who confronted the “Deep Blue” IBM computing system, has been able to find a solution. According to him, they provide citizens with more flexibility over their income, which is generally “whether from the State, companies or external parties.” “Bitcoin’s positive thing is people are conscious of the magic number of 21 million,” said the chess maker contributing to the Bitcoin ( BTC) tokens that are ever created. “They don’t know how often these hundreds of billions of dollars will emerge on the market overnight that will destroy their investments if people look the other side of it, for example, the Fed.”

Kasparov is the president of the humanitarian organization, an organization used to protect the freedoms of citizens with a challenge from modern telecommunication innovation. Blockchain technologies and cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin are, as per his study, “simple options” to defend against security and violations of human rights.

Apart from Elo, other statistics have invented similar tactics to rate players prospectively. “Chess metrics” is named Jeff Sonas’s ranking system. This strategy takes into account several games played after the release of Elo’s article and argues that the Elo framework has actually experienced from the rating inflation. One warning is that a ranking of Chessmetrics takes the duration of the game in consideration. “if people go to  play for a month, the Chessmetrics score will begin to fall.” Sonas says.

Blockchain and cryptocurrencies such as bitcoins relate primarily to him a “simple option” to defend against confidentiality and human rights violations. “As a result of the transfer of power from individuals to states or other entities that can act on our privacy without our permission, the stetigned increase in popularity in Bitcoins and other Cryptocurrencies and the blockchain technology is inevitable as a conception. “The Chess of Chess and the cryptocurrency Cointelegraph announced in June that the chess-match between magnificent Men Sergey Karjakin and Algoran is indeed a contest.

Unlike Mr Kasparov, Kajakin expressed curiosity in technological innovations and cryptocurrency. Algorand, a stake blockchain proof tool, according to Micali, could be used to increasingly improve chess acceptance.

Another Crypto Crackdown Hits China amid Tether’s Massive Popularity

Tether is the flourishing cryptocurrency that is gaining huge popularity in the virtual world. There is a lot of capital that is flowing into the network. This is one more time the cryptocurrency market has put into the chaotic situation.

Massive problems and big implications

Many investors are showing interest in buying Tether stable coin (USDT) to hedge their portfolio in various countries where the usage of USD is limited. There is a high growth of stable coin in the market. Its investment is increasing at a rate of 100% since the start of this year. The funds are flowing into this stable coin from China. It is the part that is wondering many investors. With a lot of hedging with USDT, there is a new wave that China wants to create in the cryptocurrency world to keep its money in its country without letting it go outside.

Reignite the fire of Dragons

Based on the reports received from reliable sources, China’s government has zeroed in OTC trading. Many companies are connected to the government have tried hard to put an end to the crypto trading. The primary purpose of releasing USDT in China is to launder money, which is not a good thing to look at.

USD is known for its secure currency. The whole world looks up to the currency as highly reliable. When investors hold this currency, they remain safe even though the economy is turbulent. The best example of such economic chaos would be the COVID pandemic. It has collapsed the world like knocking down the building.

COVID raised the market

Market stability depends on its strength and size. You can gain stability only when the central power bank holds it. The bank’s responsibility is to keep the currency at its peak level. These are a few factors that have made USD currency to be highly stable in the world. Today, it is found to be the largest fiat currency that has not stumbled even with the COVID-19 pandemic

Many citizens of China have embraced crypto-based solutions for hedging their portfolio with the help of stable coins. Tether is gaining is huge popularity in the crypto world. There is a large inflow of traffic for this coin. With the increase in popularity for this type of cryptocurrency in China, this type of cryptocurrency market cap has increased to USD 9.2 billion. However, it was just USD 4.6 billion until the first half of January 2020.

The best part of Tether is that it allows you to use the traditional currency as an electronic currency. These coins are also developed using blockchain rather than using other platforms. It will enable the users to add the currency and withdraw USD using the bitcoin blockchain, which is highly secure and performs the transactions at a brisk pace. It is a promising cryptocurrency for the people who are new to crypto trading and investing. You can depend on customer support to get things done.

DeFi offers potential investment opportunities said HyperChain Capital

For companies, it is necessary to remain technically updated and be a leader in this market to have better prospects. Those who want to create more opportunities in the market with technology bring new features with the help of which better opportunities can be available. For the DeFi investments also, the scenario is something like this only. There is good news for decentralized finance, also called DeFi investments. HyperChain Capital said that DeFi offers good growth opportunities in the long run, and many companies are interested in blockchain-based projects and digital currencies. The overall market for cryptocurrencies is increasing at a rapid pace as more and more investors are getting confidence in such projects. Even companies are looking forward to implementing blockchain-based projects, as this will make it easy for them to scale the projects in the long run.

In a press release, the CEO of HyperChain, Stelian Balta, said that there is good potential with a decentralized financial system as it allows companies to manage digital assets with a lot of efficiencies. Besides, it also provides security for digital assets, and this can be used to make international transactions without worrying about too many regulations. Hence the use of technology can be in the interest of the customers also. It will help them to have stored the assets without any hassle and compromise with their security.

Growing demand for Kyber Network

Kyber Network is one of the big names in the DeFi market, and it has got trading volume of more than $ 1 billion in recent times. Not only that, it has also crossed the $300 million mark when it comes to market cap and this shows the amount of confidence investors are having on this project. Even at this rate, most experts believe that the digital asset is undervalued, and there is good potential for growth in the near future.

Topps trading cards and collectibles

There is a growing demand for Topps, which produces trading cards and digital collectibles in the market. It is especially used for MLB, Star Wars, WWE, and other such popular trades in the market. Such digital games have a lot of digital collectibles that have good value in the market. The platform is making rapid progress in this area, and it is likely to be associated with more such popular sports platforms soon.

HyperChain investments on blockchain projects

Experts in this segment believe that having bitcoin investments in the portfolio is very beneficial as many currencies are giving negative returns in recent months. In this situation, it will reduce the risk by a decent margin, and this has given confidence to the crypto ecosystem. Many investors are now looking at cryptocurrencies for better returns.

Future of blockchain investments

As investors get savvy about using digital currencies all over the world, cryptocurrencies will become the obvious choice for many transactions. It removes so many regulations and provides an opportunity for private transactions. In this way, your identity can stay secure, and you will still be able to make payments for your transactions without any hassles. These benefits are bringing a lot of tech-savvy investors into the cryptocurrency market.

HyperChain has made lots of investments in various cryptocurrency-based projects and blockchain projects. Its recent investment in Fantom that is close to $2 million, has boosted the spirits in the crypto world. It now has the most significant number of Tezos tokens in the world. Apart from that, they are also working on incognito features within the Kyber Network that will provide additional security to users. Hence the users can use it without any compromise to safety.

PayPal Will Support Direct Cryptocurrency Transactions

As per the reports received by CoinDesk, it is being said that the online payment giant, PayPal, would soon allow its customers to transact in cryptocurrencies on its platform. With the client base of over 320 million, PayPal boasts of being one of the largest online payment facilitators globally. Along with PayPal, its affiliate Venmo would be offering the cryptocurrencies as well for the buy or sell option. However, it is not yet clear as to which cryptocurrencies would be supported on the platform. As per the source, the company would be working with multiple coin exchanges to ensure options as well as liquidity for the clients. One of the sources also confirmed that PayPal and Venmo would supposedly have a wallet-like feature that would help with the storage of the cryptocurrency.

While no official announcement has been made from the PayPal front, the sources at CoinDesk reports that PayPal is planning to launch the functionality in the next three months itself, or even sooner. The online payment industry has been gradually waking up to the emergence of cryptocurrencies as one of the mainstream contenders. It has forced PayPal to take note of the changing trends and consider adding crypto offerings for its massive client base. Until recently, Paypal’s stance on the crypto ecosystem was that while the company did support blockchain technology and its advantages, it wasn’t really into cryptocurrencies.

Just last year, PayPal CFO John Rainey, said to the media that the teams at PayPal are closely following and working on blockchain technology as well as for cryptocurrencies. He added that while the company would love to be a part of this ecosystem in any way possible, it would be too early to start trading in Bitcoin. The ambitions of PayPal on the blockchain front took a major blow when it became the first company to pull out from the global coalition of firms associated with the cryptocurrency initiative led by Facebook, the Libra Association.

At the time PayPal left the coalition, it didn’t offer any credible reasons for its decision. However, with time, the company started to drop hints of its interest in the blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies. One of the hints that PayPal dropped recently, showcasing its interest in the cryptocurrencies is the investment it made in TRM Labs, which is a crypto-currency compliance and risk management platform. The payment giant is investing a lot in research and development, and it is seen by the recent patent it filed to make Bitcoin transaction processing time faster through its proprietary cryptocurrency payment system.

As the world of cryptocurrencies gets wider acceptance globally, PayPal doesn’t want to be left behind. It is especially true because one of the major rivals of PayPal, Square Inc, founded and headed by CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, has been involved in the cryptocurrency from much earlier. Square Inc also received the license last year in New York to deal with cryptocurrencies. Another London based company named Revolut that partnered with Bitstamp has been able to collect more than $500 million till February 2020.

As per the rumors, it is being reported that PayPal would likely include multiple crypto-exchanges in its cryptocurrencies’ ecosystem, including Coinbase and Bitstamp. However, nothing has been officially announced by the company. CFO of PayPal, John Rainey, said recently that digitization of financial and payments industry can make a huge difference for over 2 billion people across the globe that doesn’t have a savings or checking account.

It is worth mentioning here that Coinbase and PayPal shared a working relationship since as early as 2016 when the payment giant offered fiat withdrawals on its platform for its US customers. Last year too, PayPal offered its Canadian and EU Coinbase customers to withdraw to PayPal. One more hint that PayPal is venturing into the crypto world is its recent hiring spree. The company has been listing the need for cryptocurrency engineers and technical lead in India. The company reportedly has an in-house Crypto engineering team, which PayPal says is responsible for the development of crypto-based products and features that are viable for its PayPal platform. The crypto enthusiasts world over are excited with the news and believe that it is going to change the crypto market for good as it is would definitely help the retail outreach of the cryptocurrencies.