Struggle between the Last Two Bitcoin Forks to Maintain the Fourth Position

Alexander Salazar
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Struggle between the Last Two Bitcoin Forks to Maintain the Fourth Position

According to the CoinMarketCap, the two proposals of the last Bitcoin fork of November 2018 have taken advantage of the possible start of a bullish rally for the market in general, which has achieved double-digit growth in their prices of the main altcoins driven by the recovery of prices of the leading asset.

Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Roger Ver’s proposal, is trading at a spot price of USD 326.17, with an increase of + 21.99% at the time of writing this article, while Bitcoin Satoshi’s Vision (BSV) has dramatically increased its price up to USD 327.97, a surprising + 91.27% that has driven it to the fifth position of the general ranking, with just 18 million dollars apart from its closest competitor, in terms of market capitalization.

BCH has maintained the fourth position for a few months thanks to the gains reported during the market price increase last July, when the cryptocurrency gained more than + 6% of its value on the last day of that month, which allowed it to quote an intraday high of USD 337.00, making it the fourth-largest digital asset by market capitalization with about USD 5.8 billion to date.

Since then, the cryptocurrency has won, despite the low prices, about USD 1,943 million, which have allowed it to remain in the fourth position for more than a semester, at 50% of the total value of the Ripple (XRP) token, which is in the third position.

BSV Seems Ahead of BCH

If the growth of Bitcoin Cash came to a halt for a few moments, its closest rival Bitcoin SV could successfully overtake it once again in the fourth position, after a similar event occurred temporarily in November 2018.

In the past few days, Bitcoin SV already boasted of entering the top ten of the market, dethroning Binance Coin (BNB) from the sixth position. Now at such a small difference in market capitalization of BCH and with the exponential growth of almost three digits in a single day, it seems a matter of time before BSV takes the place currently occupied by its direct rival.

To make matters worse, the market capitalization of BSV has almost increased by another 90 percent in recent days, which has allowed the 18 million circulating BSV coins to now have an estimated value of USD 5.925 billion.

Bitcoin SV is building its successful path and it seems a matter of time before the cryptocurrency, which was once censored by some exchange houses and mocked by influential people in the crypto space, manages to displace Bitcoin Cash as the most important Bitcoin fork in terms of capitalization.

For the moment, the cryptocurrency is demonstrating that a good moment of the market means a high return for the investors that entered during low prices, and many are already beginning to look at the altcoin season, which could generate good feelings for those that have do Hodl.

In general, the crypto market has grown + 8.52% in the total market capitalization of the entire ecosystem by reaching USD 235.72 trillion, where 82 percent of the currencies are on the rise as the Bitcoin dominance decreases below -1.36%.

By Alexander Salazar

Colombian Blockchain Projects Will Be Financed with USD 5.5 Million

Willmen Blanco
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Colombian Blockchain Projects Will Be Financed with USD 5.5 Million

The call for the reception of proposals will close on February 14th. The selected initiatives will receive up to 70% of financing to develop the government’s plan.

Colombian companies developing projects with blockchains are candidates to submit their proposals to receive financing, between 70% and 75% of the cost of the initiative, in the Colombian government’s plan to promote the development of distributed ledger technology (DLT).

The call is a joint campaign of the Ministries of Information and Communications Technology (MinTIC) and the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, through the Colombia Productiva and SofisTICa program.

The reception process will end on February 14th and startups dedicated to the development of Big Data, the Internet of Things (IoT), data analysis, virtual and augmented reality and Artificial Intelligence (AI), among other technological fields, may also participate. The authorities expect to receive about 220 companies, 70 dedicated to developing software or information technologies and 150 from other productive sectors.

The total amount for the co-financing of all projects is budgeted at 18,420 million Colombian pesos (COP), equivalent to about USD 5.5 million. Companies, strategic economic sectors, electronic commerce technologies, marketplace solutions, and online business expansion are the five categories considered for the nominations of proposals.

Sylvia Constaín, who is in charge of the MinTIC, says that the plan is intended to know the needs of each sector of the Colombian economy to support the projects accordingly.

Requirements and Participation

According to Colombia Productiva, the call is aimed at companies developing software or those related to information technologies, as well as companies from other economic sectors. The startups interested in participating must submit their projects to be co-financed in alliances comprised of at least one development company and at least one from another sector, that is, a combination of the two lines.

Regarding the requirements for participating, the following are the most prominent: companies must be legal entities with at least two years’ existence at the date of submitting the proposal, projects must commit to increasing at least 10% of the level of employment in software and IT companies, the project must ensure that its development will have an impact on the exports of the companies, besides the fact that the alliance of the two companies must be supported by a commitment letter.

It should be mentioned that Colombia has become a pioneering Latin American country regarding the development of blockchain-based. In April 2019, the South American nation opened a center for studies on this type of decentralized networks and new technologies. This is the first Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution in Latin America, located in Medellín, an initiative promoted by the World Economic Forum.

The interest in distributed accounting technology is not only from Colombia since there are also nations like Spain or China that are aiming to know and develop projects on this original Bitcoin technology. In the Iberian nation, for example, a call was opened, through Santander Scholarships, to educate 2,500 students about blockchain. In the case of the Asian nation, President Xi Jinping himself has said that the country must assume leadership in this field.

Distributed ledger technology was born from Bitcoin, the world’s first blockchain, in which two or more people can conduct transactions of any kind, through the Internet, without the participation of intermediaries or trusted third parties.

By Willmen Blanco

Conditions for Executing Soft Forks in Bitcoin to Be Improved under Discussion

Willmen Blanco
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Conditions for Executing Soft Forks in Bitcoin to Be Improved under Discussion

The discussion considers possible contradictions regarding community participation. There were no conclusions after the proposal and further discussions are expected in the future.

Bitcoin developer, Matt Corallo, submitted on the Bitcoin-Dev mailing list a proposal with his considerations to improve the conditions for the execution of soft forks in the Bitcoin blockchain.

The Bitcoin Optech newsletter issued on January 15th reviews Corallo’s proposal, which is based on five elements that he considers as desirable in this type of upgrades. Unlike hard forks, a soft fork introduces updates to the software without making it incompatible with previous versions. The idea is to make aesthetic changes, and add features not affecting the network’s structure, among other aspects.

However, among these new attributes is the ability to abort the process if a “serious objection to the proposed changes is found in the consensus rules,” the definition of “enough time” for most nodes to be updated after the launch or “the expectation that the network’s hash rate will be approximately the same before and after the change, as well as during any transition.”

The proposal also includes preventing as much as possible the creation of invalid blocks under the new rules. According to the newsletter, this could lead to false confirmations in non-updated nodes and SPV (simple payment verification) clients, a Bitcoin implementation that relies on information from a trusted node for the validity of transactions.

Another desirable feature, according to the developer, is to ensure that it is not possible to “misuse abortion mechanisms to retain a widely desired update without known problems.”

Activation Process

Regarding the inclusion of the features that he proposes, Corallo expressed some doubts. He considers that if the update is implemented under the BIP9 mechanism, with good community participation, the first four attributes can be ensured. But it would not guarantee the fifth, related to “following the will of the community, regardless of people or objections, but never canceling any reasonable objection.”

The counterpart would be to use the BIP8 mechanism, with which the latter criterion could be met but there could be conflicts with the rest. Another concern regarding this mechanism is that its use “gives the impression that node software developers can decide system rules,” as the newsletter highlights.

In response to Corallo, Luke Dash Jr. and Jorge Timón propose the implementation of the fork through a mechanism that provides the mandatory implementation date. However, this would contradict some of the five attributes mentioned, according to Corallo.

The debate around the issue did not lead to a definitive conclusion, so it will continue. Therefore, the newspaper indicates that “a continuous discussion” on the subject is expected.

Continuous Development in Bitcoin

Bitcoin developers keep proposing advances and new features to optimize the network’s operation and capacity. Among the proposals recently highlighted, there is the implementation of Tapscript, Schnorr, and Taproot signatures, whose intention is to improve privacy and scalability in Bitcoin.

The proposals for new technologies for Bitcoin point to the constant development of the network. Lucas Nuzzi, director of Technology Research at Digital Asset Research assured last December that Bitcoin is a constantly evolving technology and innovation.

By Willmen Blanco

Canada Issues New Crypto Guidance for Exchanges

Maria Rodríguez
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Canada Issues New Crypto Guidance for Exchanges

The guide establishes clearer concepts about the world of cryptocurrencies, values, and exchanges.

The securities regulator in Canada, the Canadian Securities Administration (CSA), issued new guidance regarding crypto trade in the country.

In this way, the CSA explained new provisions in the “Guidance on the Application of Securities Legislation to Entities Facilitating the Trading of Crypto Assets”, published on January 16th.

In general, the agency explained the differences between trading platforms that make immediate delivery of crypto assets to its users and those that hold the transaction of crypto assets until the user makes a later request. These are some concepts that the guide should have defined.

This 2020, Canada shows to be one of the most interested and active countries in regulating these new assets.

Matt Burgoyne, head of the Cryptocurrency and Blockchain group at McLeod Law, announced the information. “The Canadian Securities Administrators released additional guidance on securities law and crypto exchanges today”, he said.

Security Laws Don’t Cover the Crypto Industry

The goal of the regulator was to clarify when crypto trades require a different regulation than the country’s current securities laws. This happens since these laws do not cover all instances in which cryptocurrencies can be used.

CSA analyzed crypto trading techniques on different platforms. In this way, the entity concluded that some of the platforms only provide their users with a contractual right or claim to a crypto asset, and do not immediately transfer it to a user.

Such crypto trading platforms are subject to securities legislation and thus fall under derivatives laws.

The guidance detailed: “Potentially, there will be ongoing reliance and dependence of the user on the Platform until the transfer to a user-controlled wallet is made. Until then, the user would not have ownership, possession, and control of the crypto assets without reliance on the Platform. The user would be subject to ongoing exposure to insolvency risk (credit risk), fraud risk, performance risk and proficiency risk by part of the platform”.

Are Cryptocurrencies Securities?

The CSA will not apply securities laws to crypto exchanges on which the underlying crypto asset is not a security or derivative, and crypto assets are delivered to a user immediately. However, the regulator pointed out that, in some cases, crypto assets are securities. As such, they should abide by securities laws.

The CSA Chair, Louis Morisset, stated: “The evolving landscape of the industry prompts us to clarify our regulatory framework to better support fintech businesses, seeking to offer innovative products, services, and applications in Canada”.

In late December 2019, the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) said that cryptocurrency investment is among the top five investor threats for 2020.

NASAA’s President, Christopher Gerold talked about this aspect: “It is important for investors to understand what they are investing in and who they are investing with. Don’t fall for promises of guaranteed high returns with little to no risk or deals pitched with a false sense of urgency or limited availability”, he recommended.

In 2018, the Security Exchange Commission of the US (SEC) explained that Bitcoin and Ether were not considered as securities since they are not treated as securities or currencies but as a property. They are treated similarly to gold and oil but they are not centralized. However, most of the ICOs are securities centralized.

This piece of advice is important for all investors. Sometimes cryptocurrencies could be considered securities or not. But the most important part is to read about the subject and differentiate the characteristics of each case.

By María Rodríguez

Blockchain Dispute Resolution Firm Plans to List London Stock Exchange

Josselyn Avila
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Blockchain Dispute Resolution Firm Plans to List London Stock Exchange

The Proof of Trust is a digital protocol powered by distributed consensus, designed to manage arbitration or dispute resolution that could exist in smart contracts.

This Friday, January 17th, local media in London reported that Proof of Trust, a firm that works to solve issues with smart contracts, aims to float on the London Stock Exchange’s (LSE) Main Market.

“We at the Proof of Trust are excited at the prospect of a full listing on the main market of the company’s shares and we look forward to providing investors with the opportunity to share in this groundbreaking project”, said lawyer and Proof of Trust CEO, Dean Armstrong.

The blockchain firm has not released any financial detail or timetable for the listing, but something true is that this company is targeting the main market (the London Stock Exchange), which is very ambitious for a young firm working with blockchain technology. This step will bring more success to the company.

As local media reviewed, achievements such as the aforementioned are generally reserved for larger companies with a proven track record. Also, said achievements set a higher threshold of requirements for listing. Smaller and newer firms more often attempt to float on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) market.

However, Proof of Trust has the opportunity to list the London Stock Exchange, despite being a smaller company.

The company that works in partnership with IBM gave more details about the project on its official website, theproofoftrust.com. There it explains that they are building a protocol using distributed consensus to “manage arbitration or dispute resolution for smart contracts”.

About Proof of Trust

The main objective of the “anti-collision algorithm” is to validate the authenticity of data with “trusted and verified experts”. It is done before it is recorded on the blockchain platform and used to execute smart contracts.

“As smart contracts and blockchain technology reshapes the way that customers and businesses interact, the more we need to redefine how
we treat disputes between businesses and customers”, explains the website.

Last October 2019, the firm partnered with IBM blockchain. In this way, the solution may ultimately be deployed across IBM Cloud, Redhat Openshift, Azure and AWS.

The Proof of Trust is a digital protocol powered by distributed consensus, designed to manage arbitration or dispute resolution for smart contracts.

It helps reach “a fair, transparent, timely outcome for all parties involved”, whilst limiting exposure, according to what the company assures on its official site.

Proof of Trust focuses on multiple aspects as risks, influence, time and fairness since smart contracts require reliable data during all the process for the understanding of the parties involved in the contract.

This firm claims that the protocol has come to the attention of major governments and corporations globally, and has been presented to several prime ministers.

Crypto and blockchain-related firms seek a listing on the LSE because of the air of respectability that such a listing adds. It would help increase the reputation of cryptocurrencies and blockchain platforms in traditional financial circles to boost the crypto world.

By María Rodríguez

Bill Will Allow to Exempt Small Crypto Transactions from Taxes in the US

Maria Rodríguez
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Bill Will Allow to Exempt Small Crypto Transactions from Taxes in the US

The bill would establish an exemption for virtual currency expenditures that qualify as personal transactions.

Although taxation for capital gains takes place in the United States of America, a new bill seeks to exempt personal or small cryptocurrency transactions from the obligation to pay taxes if the calculated gain in question is less than $200. Taxpayers would have to report their gains if these are over $600. This bill has been introduced again in the Congress of the United States for its evaluation.

The idea is not to affect day-to-day cryptocurrency purchases. The name of this bill is Virtual Currency Tax Fairness Act of 2020 and was published recently by Washington, D.C.-based crypto advocacy group Coin Center.

This bill was introduced by Congresswoman Suzan Delbene (Washington) and Congressman David Schweikert of Arizona on January 16th. Schweikert introduced a previous version of this bill in 2017 that featured a substantially larger exemption.

About the Bill

If said bill is approved, users will not have to report when they spent cryptocurrencies, whose value had changed relative to the US dollar on day-to-day expenses, to the authorities.

Some current crypto laws are not very clear because of the behavior of some cryptocurrencies. Sometimes these assets behave as investments, commodities, and like other currencies. It is for this reason that the new bill seeks to simplify the rules for crypto traders and users.

The bill addresses an issue that arose from the IRS’s determination in 2014 that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies constitute a form of property so transactions both big and small trigger a taxable event that leaves prayers on the hook for capital gains.

Currently, the IRS could hold crypto users responsible for paying taxes on gains earned and realized unknowingly, based solely on the value of their crypto at a time of purchase. A system like that would make use of crypto as currency incredibly cumbersome within the US, the community consider.

Those who criticize these affairs say that it impedes the use of cryptocurrencies as a form of payment due to the tax burden involved.

“Gross income of an individual shall not include gain because of changes in exchange rates, from the disposition of virtual currency in a personal transaction, as it is defined in section 11 988 (e). The preceding sentence shall not apply if the gain which would otherwise be recognized on the transaction exceeds $200”, the bill explains.

The project of law would insert a new category within existing IRS exclusions from classification as gross income.

Other Issues with US Taxation

Taxing cryptocurrencies has proved a major sticking point in the US. Last December, eight congresspeople sent a letter to the IRS asking the tax agency to clarify rules for reporting income due to hard forks.

Last year, before the tax reporting deadline which took place on April 21st, representatives sent a similar letter to the IRS, likewise dissatisfied with current clarity.

The crypto community waits for the evaluation of the new bill that would intend to benefit those who execute small transactions.

By María Rodríguez

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