After Seizing Bitcoins worth USD 15 Million, Finnish Authorities Still Refuse to Sell Them

Alexander Salazar
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After Seizing Bitcoins worth USD 15 Million, Finnish Authorities Still Refuse to Sell Them

The organization fears that the cryptocoins will eventually fall into the hands of criminals again. At the time of the seizure, the bitcoins were worth around USD 950,000.

It was reported that Finland’s Customs Agency is still thinking about what to do with several bitcoins that it seized more than 3 years ago.  The organization fears that the crypto assets may eventually fall into the hands of criminals if the sale is made public.

The Finnish customs office, locally known as Tulli, has been trying to dispose of a total of 1,666 BTC since 2016. Two years after the seizure, they developed a plan to make a public auction of the cryptocoins, but then the officials suspended it. They were worried about the possibility that the sale would attract the wrong type of attention and compromise the agency’s security.

When talking to the local press, the director of Tulli, Pekka Pylkkänen, explained that the problems that might arise are related to the risk of money laundering. In his opinion, cryptocurrency buyers rarely use those assets for normal activities, thus leading many people to think that they are usually connected to criminal activities.

It should be remembered that Tulli seized the number of bitcoins after completing a raid on a darknet market in September 2016. At that time, Bitcoin was trading at about USD 570, which means that the 1,666 BTC were worth approximately USD 950,000. With current prices, slightly below USD 9,000, the bitcoins are now worth about USD 15 million. During the period of the all-time of Bitcoin in December 2017, when the value of the cryptocurrency was close to USD 20,000, that reserve would have been worth almost USD 33 million.

It is worth noting that Tulli is not the only government authority that has to decide what to do with the seized bitcoins since their value in US dollars is much higher ​​than when they were first seized. The US government, which has seized hundreds of millions of US dollars in Bitcoin over the years, has organized multiple online auctions for these cryptocoins.

At the beginning of 2019, some bitcoins seized by the Belgian authorities were sold by an online auction house. Later that year, the British police used that same auctioneer to sell more than USD 290,000 in cryptocurrencies that they had seized from a teenage hacker.

In the year 2018, the Finnish government banned customs officials from trying to sell the bitcoins seized at exchanges or trading platforms, ordering that any cryptocurrency seized be kept in a cold storage solution. That poses a dilemma as they still do not know what to do with them.

According to Pylkkänen, most cryptocurrency holders use them for illicit purposes, but that claim is not supported by numbers. In a report by the blockchain analysis firm Elliptic published last November, it was suggested that only USD 829 million in bitcoins, equivalent to 0.5% of all transactions, were linked to the darknet.

By Alexander Salazar

The Ripple and Ethereum Blockchains Will Be Connected through a New Project

Alexander Salazar
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The Ripple and Ethereum Blockchains Will Be Connected through a New Project

The subsidiary of Ripple, Xpring, said that they seek to create a computational layer with smart contracts. Those developers interested in participating have an opportunity to contribute their ideas to the project.

In recent days, the development and investment platform Xpring, a subsidiary of Ripple, launched a project aimed at interconnecting its network with that of Ethereum, which seeks to create a computational layer with smart contracts. Warren Paul Anderson, senior product manager at Ripple, said that efforts are being made jointly with the Ethereum community so that developers will work on this proposal.

Anderson agrees with the community in that the bridge from Ripple (XRP) tokens to Ether (ETH) and ERC-20 tokens is important since XRP is one of the most liquid cryptocurrencies in the world.  However, he explains that it does not have a computational layer to support complex smart contracts for the growing Decentralized Finance (DeFi) market in the Ethereum network.

The executive from Ripple also believes that developers should be allowed to choose the best way to solve their problems. On the other hand, he considers that such interoperability could make a difference in the industry of cryptocurrencies and the decentralized registration networks. It is important to mention that the company plans to promote these types of alternatives to achieve mass adoption for both cryptocurrencies and blockchains.

Ethereum and Ripple developers and enthusiasts from the United States recently held a meeting where some challenges (hackathon) were performed for the interoperability of both networks through the Interledger protocol (ILP). It was reported that the topics of the challenges were Blockchain Trade, Liquidity Widget and New Liquidity Pool Designs, which provides a wide range of options.

Even though the official announcement of Xpring’s plan to interconnect the Ripple and Ethereum networks was not made during that meeting, it was formalized with Anderson’s publication. The challenges of the hackathon can be consulted and the developers interested in participating in the project have an opportunity to contribute their deas to the project.

The announcement made by Xpring attracts attention since XRP and ETH are two of the cryptocurrencies with the highest market capitalization, only preceded by Bitcoin (BTC). At the time of writing this article, both of them together add more than USD 41,000 million. The first network is aimed at offering services to financial institutions, while the second network is a platform for the development of smart contracts.

As Ripple’s financial arm, Xpring has made several investments that seek to promote the use of crypto assets. It was announced in March 2019 that USD 100 million would be invested to promote the development of blockchain-based video games. This and other applications of distributed ledger technology (DLT) will provide an increasing number of developers with the opportunity to use their knowledge and their creativity.

To sum up, it should be noted that Xpring seeks to combine efforts, pool resources and work together with developers to help them build tools on DLT. This attempt to make blockchains interoperable could help this technology improve the adoption and relations between the networks.

By Alexander Salazar

It is Possible to Buy Bitcoin Anonymously with These Two Options

Alexander Salazar
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It is Possible to Buy Bitcoin Anonymously with These Two Options

A new decentralized exchange allows the anonymous exchange of Bitcoin and Ether. A cryptocurrency mixer makes transactions difficult to track.

David Kaye, UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression, notes that encryption and anonymity should be currently offered by States as guarantors of human rights. Therefore, purchasing Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies anonymously can be considered a right. In the following lines of this article, two alternatives for users to keep their funds anonymous are reviewed.

The first option is the one promoted by Incognito, which allows the anonymous exchange of Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) for Monero (XMR), Dash (DSH) or Zcash (ZEC) and other cryptocurrencies, without entering identification data for Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures.

The platform of Incognito does not collect any personal information, which ensures 100% of anonymity to all its users. Without the risk of third parties, the users can control their money and hold their private keys, according to Andrey Bugaevski, the growth leader of the privacy-focused company.

On its website, Incognita specifies that its platform’s transactions are processed in a side blockchain, which it claims to be indecipherable, unlike a public blockchain. It operates on thousands of nodes that feed its network and does not use an order book. Instead, it implements an electronic market-making algorithm that allows instant matches, regardless of how large the order is or how small the liquidity group is.

The Incognito sidechain is building an untrusted gateway to connect to the Bitcoin blockchain. Therefore, the private mode for Bitcoin is issued 1:1, without trust, in the Incognito chain. Through this platform, users can always make anonymous transactions of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, the same as they do with privacy cryptocurrencies such as Monero, Zcash or Dash.

Anonymous with a Mixer

To prevent other people and companies from taking advantage of financial information against the users and to avoid cyber-attacks such as ransomware, the mixers for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies offer to operate anonymously.

These companies mix crypto-asset transactions into groups that include decoys, which make it more difficult to track their source. In other words, those seeking to investigate where the mixed cryptocurrency comes from would have more obstacles to track it to the sending wallet.

Despite being misjudged by many security agencies, which see the tools that promise privacy and anonymity as a way to foster criminal actions related to money laundering and illegal activities, this type of service is still offered.

Several alternatives currently offer support for Bitcoin, Dash, and Litecoin (LTC) and allow operating in a wide range of languages, such as the case of BitMix. It should be noted that it provides support for Clearnet, Tor and NoJS (without JavaScript), which is particularly useful for the most demanding users that work with a wide range of platforms.

The company provides details of the procedure that users must follow to operate on the platform, whose system breaks the connection between the user’s previous wallet and the new one and uses a combo of premixed coins. The user must complete a form and send the required amount of funds, which will be automatically returned, already mixed.

By Alexander Salazar

The Tourism Industry Can Be Changed by Cryptocurrencies

Alexander Salazar
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The Tourism Industry Can Be Changed by Cryptocurrencies

It can be predicted that the integration of cryptocurrencies into the travel industry will change it dramatically. This will also be a great step towards the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies all over the world.

When a country’s national currency has lost its stability, it is natural for citizens to turn to gold or other assets such as Bitcoin (BTC) to invest their savings. These offer their users a sense of financial control in an otherwise unstable market.

It is not just investing what is making an impact on the world of cryptocurrencies, but also the fact that this technology can change the way people live. Everyone should have the freedom to travel and make transactions, which is possible through the adoption of cryptocurrencies.

Traveling around the World

Nowadays, it is easier to travel around the world, but more and more people go to places that are not equipped for tourism. Travelers may be trapped in less developed countries without access to ATMs and with a shortage of reliable ways to pay for goods. Digital currencies and smartphones could become excellent tools to solve this situation.

A study indicates that the number of people who own cell phones worldwide is increasing. Ownership levels in developing economies are higher in Vietnam, where 97% of adults own one of these devices; however, around 90% or more also own one in Jordan, Tunisia, Colombia, Kenya, Lebanon and South Africa.

In the future, there will be more hotels, restaurants, and stores with cryptocurrency wallets on a smartphone or similar device to accept global payments in seconds. Of course, this may occur in developing countries more quickly than in developed countries.

Growing Sector of Tourism

Tourism is the second-fastest growing industry worldwide, with around USD 1.7 billion expected to be spent just this year. Travel companies that accept cryptocurrencies are currently making trips with cryptocurrencies a reality.

The same as with other technological developments, the support by the government and the community is of paramount importance. For example, the Queensland state government in Australia is committed to technological innovation within the tourism industry.

Thanks to them, Brisbane airport has become the first in the world to have 30 traders that accept cryptocurrencies. Queensland is a pioneer in tourism using cryptocurrencies with the regional city of Agnes Water, located in the south of Australia. There, travelers can find over 40 businesses where they can pay in Bitcoin for their accommodation, meals, and even a one-day excursion to the reef.

Helping the Unbanked

About 1.7 billion adults worldwide do not have access to banks, mainly in developing countries such as India, Egypt, and some parts of Africa. The lack of a fixed bank account causes the people in those countries to have difficulty participating in the world economy, in which the adoption of cryptocurrencies can help to change.

Even though they are in the early stages of adoption, cryptocurrencies are much more than mere speculative assets. They can also be used in the same way as any fiat currency.

However, many companies accepting cryptocurrencies for their services will charge a high premium, which might be an obstacle to their adoption. This issue must be addressed and changed as cryptocurrencies must be usable, so it is important to offer incentives to early adopters.

By Alexander Salazar

Reasons for Delay of Decentralized Digital Identity in Latin America

Alexander Salazar
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Reasons for Delay of Decentralized Digital Identity in Latin America

A study states that there are advances in Latin America, but there are still limitations to its development. The region in general lags behind compared to countries in Europe and North America.

According to the second edition of the report “The Decentralized Digital Identity Ecosystem in the Latin American World 2020,” four elements are slowing the development and implementation of projects of this type in the region. The researchers indicate that some global, economic and understanding aspects of technology must be addressed.

The report states that the challenges that must be faced by Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) projects first pass through the existing disconnection between the blockchain world and the SSI world, the rigid vision of the status quo (governments, institutions), technological innovation such as marketing, and the lack of network provides support for the financing of SSI ventures.

The first two aspects not only cover Latin American countries but also have implications throughout the world, while the use of innovation-based marketing and the lack of economic support are regional challenges.

One of the authors of the research, Alex Preukschat, said that traditional organizations have a hard time trying to assimilate this kind of ideas how to monetize them and how to control them in some cases. The entrepreneur believes that blockchain communities, as well as companies and governments, do not participate very actively with the community of digital self-sovereign identity because that knowledge is still lacking.

Preukschat believes that there are interesting proposals in the region such as the DIDI project of the Bitcoin Foundation Argentina and the LACChain ID initiative of the Inter-American Development Bank. According to the report, this blockchain seeks to offer identification and authentication at all levels, following international standards for sovereign digital identity.

Establishing Structures

To change the picture in Latin America, it is necessary to establish structures that encourage the development of proposals among enthusiasts of this technology. The lack of chains that provide financing has reduced the mass of entrepreneurs that might contribute ideas to design alternatives for  decentralized digital identity management.

Besides, a second transformation that must occur is that of large corporations and governments. The report notes that they tend to look at problems through the prism of centralization, which can often be “too rigid for transformative technology.”

According to the researchers, it can be concluded that SSI represents a global technological opportunity. However, they say that its ecosystem is still immature throughout the world, which could open the door to future opportunities.

Sovereign identity can be defined as a form of digital identity in which the user is the one who has control of his or her information. In other words, the person has the power to decide who can have access to those data and under what conditions. It should be noted that it is a decentralized service in which blockchains appear as potential drivers of this type of platform.

In the first edition of the report, up to 20 decentralized digital identity projects were submitted in Latin America, with development plans in Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Uruguay, and Costa Rica.

By Alexander Salazar

Impact of Coronavirus Causes Filecoin to Delay Launch of Its Mainnet

Alexander Salazar
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0
Impact of Coronavirus Causes Filecoin to Delay Launch of Its Mainnet

The Filecoin mainnet will be tentatively launched next July. The company has developed for almost 4 years since it broke collection records in 2017.

Filecoin, a company dedicated to mass data storage, postponed the launch of its mainnet due to the impact that the coronavirus has had in China, among other reasons.

It was reported to the community that the company, which manages a decentralized network based on the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS), delayed the launch of the network for the month of July, approximately.

The decision was made after launching phase 1 of the test network last December 11th, to complete the process in January 2020 and immediately launching phase 2. Based on this schedule, the launch of the main network will be announced in March 2020.

The company’s new roadmap shows that phase 2 would be tentatively executed by April 20th and the mainnet would be activated between June 15th and 17th.

The team indicates that they are working hard towards this launch, being committed to the complete and integral development of its protocol. Besides, Filecoin informed in the document that some members of its community have asked for the delay of the process due to the coronavirus epidemic.

Some of the Chinese members have directly requested Filecoin to postpone launching phase 2 of the test network for at least two or three weeks until they can return safely to their work. The company hopes that this 6-week delay will allow enough time for the situation to improve in China and for the entire community at the global level to participate in the network without compromising their health.

According to the team, the company also attributed the delay to the need for additional time to complete the development of the protocol, as well as cross-implementation interoperability, internal security audit and the refinement of “crypto-economic constructions”. However,   it is mentioned in the media that the developers have made a series of changes in the network since they began testing the efforts last December.

The Filecoin project has undergone a long development process, after reaching popularity by raising USD 252 million in an initial coin offer (ICO), which became one of the largest fundraising events of 2017. Almost 4 years after that, they are approaching the launch of the first test network of a platform designed to provide mass data storage services.

The current delay has led the company to join the growing tendency of some companies to postpone launches or advances in their operations as a result of the coronavirus, an epidemic that has surprisingly affected hundreds of people in several countries of the world.

With that, it is made clear that the impact of the virus worldwide has reached many companies, including those in the cryptocurrency sector. Companies in the ecosystem, such as Binance and Huobi, have been lending their support to the fight against the coronavirus, through donations to the city of Wuhan, in China, where the outbreak had its origin.

By Alexander Salazar

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