Arbistar will freeze withdrawals and “reinvestments” until further notice. On social networks and Telegram, users demand answers about their funds.

Arbistar, an alleged Ponzi scheme, announced the closure of its community bot, the freezing of withdrawals, and the suspension of new “reinvestments” on its platform. Arbicorp, the parent company of the Spanish-based organization, reported that an alleged undetected failure in its system had allocated higher-than-expected earnings for almost 1 year.

In theory, there was a deficit of 28% in the funds of the company due to the surplus, which forced the temporary closure. Through a briefing note, Arbicorp argued that the implementation of the profit settings in the bot since October 2019 had been poor.

It is worth mentioning that Arbistar is an automated service to conduct an abitration with cryptocurrencies and other assets. A bot buys cryptocurrencies on one exchange and sells them on another at a higher price. Users obtain profits whose distribution in Bitcoin (BTC) is proportional to their investment, but no one knows exactly which exchanges they use for these operations.

The detection of the alleged error reportedly occurred on August 1^st, but Arbicorp had not announced it until last September 12^th. Arbistar’s parent company said that they continued to process the withdrawals, even though they knew that they were paying more than they should, which has raised doubts about what happened.

People would not suffer losses as the arbitration service would return the capital to the accounts that show a negative balance until leveling it. In the statement, Arbicorp reported that Arbistar would star daily payments in a few days, but it is not clear how they will return the bitcoins (BTC).

They would not do anything with the accounts that have obtained profits but they would study how to proceed with those related to the referral plan. On this last point, they stated that the users’ referral links will continue to be active to “recommend” the rest of the bots in the system that also cover forex (currency market) and commodities.

What happened would be affecting a total of 120 thousand users of the platform. Arbicorp also warned those users who decide to file lawsuits, by saying: “In the event that there are customers who file complaints about this fact, we will stop their payments until the judicial resolution is determined.”

Users in Spain and Complaints to Arbistar

There was unease among the users of the system, who wanted to know where the funds invested were, as a consequence of the announcement of the partial closure of Arbistar’s operations. One of them, Diana Ruiz, complained to the company from her Twitter account.

Affected people have already comprised at least three groups in the multimedia messaging service Telegram. In the discussions, the users also requested an explanation and the reimbursement of their investments. For example, “Luis” or “Verónica” regretted what happened as they had invested 3 BTC and 1.2 BTC, respectively.

A month before what happened with Arbistar, another Bitcoin-related service, 2gether, announced the theft of more than EUR 1 million worth of cryptocurrencies. In this case, users are also waiting for the return of their funds.

By Alexander Salazar

A South Korean government official proposed to implement blockchain technology for electoral processes. This technology would allow ensuring security and transparency in the democratic system.

In recent days, South Korean government official Cho Eun-hee proposed to use a blockchain platform for the electoral processes in the whole country. That Asian nation is one of the most advanced in the handling of blockchain technology, Artificial Intelligence, and other advanced technologies.

The official also stated that democracy would receive an unprecedented boost through this technological implementation. Likewise, he praised Seoul’s advances in technology.

The local medium UpDown Korea, as well as other dozens of news portals, spread the information on this initiative. At the same time, the politician requested the authorities of other areas of the country to join the process to improve their democratic system.

Improvement of Democracy through Blockchain Technology

Blockchain technology can provide a solution to the deficiencies of democratic systems. The aforementioned South Korean official proposed a solution to the structural flaws that his country’s political system has.

He explained that they must apply blockchain technology right now so that citizens can easily express their opinions. He said that, given the potential of South Korea, this “is the right time” to start to work on this implementation.

An important factor is that the official works in one of the richest regions in Seoul. It is the Seocho sector, where people have greater possibilities of accessing new technological advances.

A New Era for a New Technology

The South Korean official that proposed this initiative highlighted another important aspect. He said that blockchain technology represents much more than people believe.

Citing theories of leading economists like Klaus Schwab, Eun-hee states that all this is the “Fourth Industrial Revolution.” If South Korea completes the project, the country would become a spearhead alongside China in the usability of blockchain technology for social and political purposes.

Seocho would become the first area in the country to allow citizens to make collective decisions on political issues. Of course, all this would be possible with the help of blockchain technology.

Evolution of the Political System

The official also stated that democracy is a system in constant evolution, so applying blockchain technology means taking a new step forward.

“In the future, we plan to develop a direct democracy that everyone can trust. It would have the confidence of citizens thanks to the introduction of blockchain technology. This would ensure security and transparency,” he specified.

He explained that there, several companies have already assumed this challenge. In that sense, he mentioned the creation of an academy that combines the use of blockchain technology with public administration.

Likewise, he explained that the work that his district develops could become a scale base to apply throughout the country. The South Korean official initially proposed the use of blockchain technology for electoral matters, but it could eventually go further.

Cho Eun-hee’s proposal is only one of the many possibilities of the use of distributed ledger technology. For example, sectors such as insurance, digital identity, cybersecurity, and healthcare have adopted it to improve their operations.

By Willmen Blanco

The European Central Bank needs to be competitive in cross-border payments. There must be a correction in Europe’s high dependence on non-European payment services, according to the ECB.

The European Central Bank (ECB) is against stablecoins and other digital currencies, such as Facebook’s Libra, that Big Techs issue. The institution believes that these assets are a risk for the maintenance of its financial policies and that they could eventually compete with the euro.

It also considers that the digitization of the economy has allowed the development of easier-to-use instant payment solutions. For this reason, they invite the banks in the region to collaboratively design a response in this regard.

François Villeroy de Galhau, the governor of the Bank of France, warned that a third actor would emerge within the traditional financial system as a consequence of stablecoins and other digital currencies. In the conventional model, only two entities are capable of printing money: central banks and commercial banks.

The issuance of stablecoins “does not offer the same guarantees in terms of credit risk, liquidity, continuity of service and neutrality” as commercial or central bank money, according to Villeroy. However, their considerable facilities for cross-border payments lead him to believe that they will not disappear from the market.

Until quite recently, the European Central Bank has applied its financial policies by issuing cash. However, the COVID-19 crisis has caused an increase in cashless transactions and the use of commercial money.

The governor of the Bank of France considers that central banks must design a joint strategy to address these issues: the deficiency in cross-border payments, the issuance of cryptocurrencies and stablecoins by Big Techs, the development of a European payment initiative, and the potential benefits of a central bank digital currency (CBDC).

Stablecoin Scenarios for European Banking

Villeroy thinks that Big Techs could take advantage of their global reach to build a private financial infrastructure and a “monetary” system that competes with public monetary sovereignty. This situation would position themselves as issuers and managers of universal “currencies” (stablecoins), which would make the CBDC simply an endorsement of those “currencies.”

The official also believes that some jurisdictions would consider responding to the wave of private payments by issuing and distributing their CBDCs worldwide, like in the case of China. This could set precedents in terms of the characteristics of CBDCs and their articulation with private projects, leaving other central banks without a voice.

Technology and Innovation as a Symbol of Power

Villeroy stated that “digital payment solutions are a proof that the European financial system has become critically dependent on non-European actors.” These include credit card providers such as Visa and MasterCard, Big Techs such as Facebook and Amazon, and decentralized solutions such as Bitcoin and DeFi.

In this scenario, the ECB has little control over business continuity, technical and commercial decision-making, as well as data protection, use, and storage. This situation causes extremely strong concerns in Europe.

Discussions on cross-border payments have not had this institutional framework in Latin America. However, many people make international payments through US financial entities, which serve as intermediary banks.

At least in terms of remittances and cross-border transactions, the highest adoption of stablecoins and other cryptocurrencies is in Latin America. Unlike Europe, Latin America could innovate in this regard, or its Central Banks could take the first step in transforming the region’s financial system.

By Alexander Salazar

Tyler Winklevoss believes that the DeFi revolution is near. For that reason, the Gemini co-founder has decided to bet on decentralized finance.

Right now, there is a fever of excitement about decentralized finance (DeFi) in the crypto market. For that reason, Tyler Winklevoss, one of the most influential figures in the crypto world, believes that the DeFi revolution is imminent.

The crypto world has made technological and financial advances that have not only revolutionized people’s environment. These improvements have also allowed users to have access to new concepts and innovations.

The most relevant founders of the ecosystem are now focusing their attention on DeFi. They believe that decentralized finance will allow the market to reach new boundaries.

Gemini Will Now Include Tokens on Its List

The Winklevoss brothers created the Gemini platform in 2015. It became the world’s first licensed Ethereum Exchange in June 2016.

The users of the platform can trade cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies in an open market, at reasonable prices. They can also make transfers to banks, which was an innovation that the members of the ecosystem acclaimed.

Some people claim that the disadvantage of Gemini is its small selection of currencies. However, its creators have announced that they are planning to add three other tokens. This will allow Gemini to reach the deepest part of the DeFi space.

For this reason, the co-founder of this platform, Tyler Winklevoss, announced on Twitter that “the DeFi revolution is upon us.”

In the same way, he explained that the cryptocurrency exchange will now accept deposits for AMP, PAXG, and COMP. Users will be able to start trading those tokens in mid-September of this year.

DeFi Activity in the Market Is Growing

Last June, decentralized finance started with the launch of Compound (COMP), a token based on the Ethereum blockchain. In addition to COMP, another DeFi token on the Gemini list is Synereo’s AMP.

There has been questioning why the founders of Gemini decided to make this bet on DeFi tokens.

The platform’s decision to expand its list with three DeFi tokens occurs immediately after the SushiSwap scandal, which threatened to give a bad name to the emerging market segment.

Finally, everyone seems to be learning a lesson from all these projects that are beginning to emerge. The DeFi space is still very young and an experiment that is to a great extent in constant growth.

Nyan Token Also Adds to DeFi

The creation of many new projects, such as Nyan Finance, indicates that the DeFi revolution is near.

In this regard, CoinMarketCap also added the Nyan token to its rankings on September 12^th. This DeFi token is a pseudo hedge fund that targets beginners to decentralized finance.

Users can have access to the Nyan token on Uniswap on the ETH/NYAN pair, where it has total liquidity of USD 139.64 and a trading volume of nearly USD 3.045 million at the time of writing this article.

By Alexander Salazar

The addresses belong to hackers seeking to interfere in the upcoming presidential elections. The US Treasury seeks to give a warning signal to Russian hackers with the ban.

In recent days, the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) added 24 addresses of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to its blacklist. According to this state agency, the addresses belong to Russian hackers who sought to interfere in the US presidential elections this year and used cryptocurrencies to finance their activities.

Four people, in particular, have links to the addresses: Anton Andreyev, Darya Aslanova, Andrii Derkach, and Artem Lifshits. These hackers mainly used addresses of Bitcoin (BTC), but also those of other cryptocurrencies such as Dash (DASH), Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Zcash (ZEC), and Bitcoin Satoshi Vision (BSV).

According to the Treasury Department, Russian hackers use “a variety of powers to influence voters as part of [their] broadest efforts to undermine countries and democratic institutions.”

Russian hackers’ actions would be based on “creating false and baseless narratives about the American officials who will participate in the next presidential elections.”

The Treasury considers that the decision that they made concerning the Bitcoin addresses is a clear signal to Russian cybercriminals that the United States will not tolerate this activity.

Russian Hackers Also Used Bitcoin to Finance Attack in 2016

Russian cybercriminals had reportedly attacked with a similar objective in 2016. The US Department of Justice accused a group of Russian intelligence officials of infiltrating the computers of people and institutions to interfere in the presidential elections of that year.

The investigation revealed that the spies financed at least part of the operation with Bitcoin. The agency also accused them of having laundered money of USD 95 thousand, taking advantage of the pseudo-anonymity that cryptocurrencies offer.

SDN, Blacklist Including People, Organizations, and Bitcoin Addresses

The blacklist, known as the SDN List (Specially Designated Citizens and Blocked Persons List), includes firms, organizations, and individuals considered to be a threat to US national security and foreign and economic policy.

No US citizen or company has permission to keep business links with those appearing on the SDN List.

It is not the first time that addresses of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have appeared on this list. Since November 2018, this has been a decision that OFAC has frequently made when the situation has required it. However, it was not clear at the time how they would enforce this restriction. The same thing still seems to be happening.

In 2018, attorney Joe Ciccolo said that “miners may be required not to confirm, or block, transactions involving the listed addresses, which is against mining itself.”

Some Bitcoin selling companies, such as Bitcoin ATM Company Athena, do not allow sending cryptocurrencies to the blocked addresses. However, this is a decision that the companies make as a preventive measure since there is no specific regulation on the matter.

By Alexander Salazar

More and more Africans are joining to use cryptocurrencies as an exchange tool, putting aside fiat currencies. A recent study by analytics firm Chainalysis revealed data that shows that local stocks and businesses use cryptocurrencies to stay away from high fees, regulatory complications, and unstable currencies.

Every month, Africa makes around 600,000 cryptocurrency transfers. Since the beginning of this year, the number of transactions under $ 10,000 increased by 55%. They reached a total value of $ 316 million. The nations that use crypto the most are Nigeria, South Africa, and Kenya.

Abolaji Odunjo, the owner of a cell phone shop in Lagos, Nigeria, started using Bitcoin to pay his Chinese providers. During an interview with Reuters, he explained why he abandoned fiat money: “Bitcoin is very useful to me protect my business from currency devaluation and, at the same time, it also allowed me to grow.”

According to a study carried out by the World Bank, making remittance in sub-Saharan Africa leads you to to pay an average commission of 8.9%: South Africa is at the top of the ranking of the most expensive countries, rates in South Africa can reach an amazing amount of 20 %. with Bitcoin, it’s a very different story, bitcoin has fees usually lower than 3%.

Odunjo remarked that Bitcoin allows you to consolidate business on an international league without having to use any single U.S. dollar, which price is extremely expensive and inaccessible in the region. The currencies of many African countries tend to be worrying because of its instability: this process increases the demand and then the price of the USD. In the past decade, the value of some currencies, such as the South African rand, has more than halved against the dollar.

South Africa is now a cryptocurrency hub too

Nigeria has always been the dominator in the continent when it comes to trading volume. The report also stated that South Africa possesses the highest number of cryptocurrency ownerships. Globally, South Africa ranks fifth for crypto adoption. This number came to light because of their connected citizens. Last week, South Africa posted its second solid weekly volume on the Localbitcoin (BTC) market, the strongest volume reached to date, with nearly $ 1.65 million worth of BTC changing hands.

 On the one hand, African citizens trust crypto assets, even with the inadequate infrastructure and regulatory policies that could make the path more manageable to travel. On the other hand, there is noticeable growth; the continent is getting very interested.

 A lot of heavy players in the cryptocurrency eco-system are turning their eyes to the African markets, the founder of the world leader in cryptocurrency exchanges Binance, Changpeng Zhao, said in a recent “ask me anything” session that Africa is a very juicy market for crypto and the exchange is looking for a very wide expansion on the entire continent for the next years.

By: Jenson Nuñez.