Court in China reaffirms Bitcoin’s virtual property attribute

Willmen Blanco
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Court in China reaffirms Bitcoin’s virtual property attribute

They emphasize that citizens could change the cryptocurrency game in China. The virtual property is legally protected by the laws of the Asian giant.

A court in China on Thursday, July 18th, 2019, reaffirmed Bitcoin’s virtual property attribute, that is, it recognized it as a virtual property with value.

Via Twitter, Dovey Wan, said on Thursday: “Today ended the trial of the first property dispute case regarding Bitcoin in a Chinese local court. The court confirmed Bitcoin’s ‘virtual property’ attribute. “

However, although the source claims that it is the first time that the Chinese justice recognizes virtual property, nine months ago the Shenzeng Court of International Arbitration assured that Bitcoin “should be considered property with economic value.”

Regarding Thursday’s ruling of the Court, it was learned that someone bought 2.6 bitcoins in 2013, which were in the custody of the seller, but the latter closed the deal without any notice and did not deliver the cryptocurrencies to the buyer, who then proceeded to sue him.

The Meaning of this Decision

This trial became an important milestone, since it was stated that Bitcoin is really legal in China. In this regard, it should be noted that Bitcoin has property attributes: valuable, scarce and available. Consequently, it must be recognized as virtual property.

According to “General Civil Law”, virtual property is legally protected by the laws of the People’s Republic of China.

Specialists warn that, although keeping Bitcoin as private property is legal, it does not necessarily mean that the Bitcoin trade is systematically legal. Despite cryptocurrency exchange is legal in China, “there is still a long way to go.”

China Could Change the Game

Internet users were satisfied with the decision and indicated that Chinese citizens could change the cryptocurrency game if legality is widely accepted.

The China Securities Daily highlights that Bitcoin’s virtual property attributes were first recognized by the Chinese judiciary.

The daily states that, on July 18th, “the first dispute case” regarding infringement of Bitcoin property was declared at the Hangzhou Internet Court. They said that this trial court had “confirmed Bitcoin’s ‘virtual property’ attribute” and that it was “the first time” that Chinese courts have determined the virtual property attributes of a digital currency such as Bitcoin.

Similarly, regarding the attributes of Bitcoin’s virtual property, the Hangzhou Internet Court held that Bitcoin has the value, scarcity and availability of property as a subject of rights, and so its virtual property status should be recognized.

Experts told the daily that this was “the first” full discussion on Bitcoin’s virtual property in a Chinese court. The determination of the judiciary in the judgment has an extraordinary meaning when dealing with current disputes and others that may arise in the future regarding virtual currencies.

Background

In November 2018, it was learned that despite the refusals to resort to cryptocurrencies in commercial transactions in China, the Shenzeng Court of International Arbitration asserted that Bitcoin should be qualified as “property with economic value.”

The judicial authority in financial cases of the commercial city of Shenzeng released a statement in which it ruled that Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Diamond should be validated as a property.

By Willmen Blanco

Dark Web Drug Dealer Ordered to Return BTC Funds and other Assets after Plea Deal

Andres Chavez
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Dark Web Drug Dealer Ordered to Return BTC Funds and other Assets after Plea Deal

The dark web, they say, may be an interesting place to interact, with things and services not found on regular search engines and browsers. However, it can also be the host of illegal activities, scammers, money laundering, and drugs, not to mention other things that can get people in trouble.

In recent hours, a drug dealer performing his operations in the dark web has pleaded guilty to several charges, such as conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and money laundering, and has been ordered to forfeit $4 million in funds in total, including some in Bitcoin.

Several Pseudonyms

The Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York, via a press release, showed the piece of news to the world. According to the document, the criminal in question goes by the names “Chemsusa,” “Chems_usa,” “Chemical_usa” and “Jagger109,” but his actual name is Richard Castro.

The man in question, allegedly, has sold several illicit substances over the dark web, including carfentanil, fentanyl, and a fentanyl analogue called phenyl fentanyl. He has offered them in various markets, such as AlphaBay and Dream Market in a span that ranges from November 2015 to March 2019.

Bitcoin (BTC) was among the payment methods accepted by Castro in his illegal sales. He used several different methods to engage in money laundering, ranging from BTC wallets and, oddly, acquiring “100 quadrillion Zimbabwe bank notes.” Per the document from the Attorney’s office, Luis Fernandez is a known associate to Castro, and he sent narcotics and related substances from several locations, including the city of New York.

The Dark Web as a Mean to Distribute Powerful Opioids

The Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman stated that “as he admitted today, for years, Richard Castro used the dark web to distribute prolific quantities of powerful opioids, including fentanyl and carfentanil.  Castro thought he could hide behind the anonymity of the internet, and use online pseudonyms to deal drugs – like ‘Chems_usa’ and ‘Chemical_usa.’  Thanks to our law enforcement partners, ‘Chems_usa’ is now in U.S. prison.”

The indictment also informs that more than a year ago, in June 2018, “Chemsusa” had told clients that he would be migrating from the dark web to the encrypted email platform to sell his opioids.

By using the “Chems_usa” alias, he then prompted clients to pay a set amount of money for the email address. However, that proved to be the turning point in the case, as an undercover law enforcement officer caught and arrested him after paying the mentioned fee. The agent received the encrypted email address and proceeded to place an order of drugs, and that is how he was discovered.

Thousands of Transactions

Richard Castro had quite a business set up: it was reported that he managed to complete more than 3,200 on the deep web, on the Dream Market platform alone, although the number is probably bigger than that.

The press release explains that the substances that Castro was dealing with were highly dangerous: in fact, Fentanyl is said to be “significantly stronger” than heroin, and carfentanil is roughly 100 times stronger than fentanyl. Carfentanil is considered to be a “chemical weapon” by specialists in the area.

The plea deal details had Castro agreeing to give more than $4 million in illicit earnings, most precisely $4,156,198.18. Included in the number are the funds of his seven different BTC wallets.

By Andres Chavez

Thailand Will Seek to Compete with Libra and Establish a New Crypto-Regulation

Maria Rodríguez
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Thailand Will Seek to Compete with Libra and Establish a New Crypto-Regulation

The “sandbox” regulation will allow changes to the laws in isolated places, in order to verify their impact on the economy

It was recently announced that the Thai Parliament is evaluating a possible change to the laws that regulate the use of cryptocurrencies in the country. It is for this reason that they propose a radical change in which a new set of “sandbox” rules would help stimulate the growth of the crypto industry in the country.

In order not to be far apart in the commercial technological steps, the possible launch of Libra by the social network Facebook generated a reaction in Thailand. The country understood that it should stimulate the growth of the crypto-industry and not paralyze it. For this reason, they have expedited the bills that would stimulate the birth of possible national cryptocurrencies. “All the platforms we use are all foreign. If this is a war, I can conclude that we are close to lose it”, Pakorn Wutudomphipatsakul, a Thai parliamentarian said.

The comment took place last July 27th, when the issue of cryptocurrencies and the changes they have produced in global markets were discussed in the Thai Parliament. It is believed that the possible early launch of Libra has been the main reason why the issue of crypto assets in the Parliament has been discussed so quickly.

During the first discussion of this topic, participants reached the first concession in which they accepted that Thailand does not have a legal system according to the new advances in technologies. So this may be the main reason why there is no new foreign investment in the country, and that transnational companies decided to invest in a country like Korea, which although they have strong legislation, is updated to the new financial changes of this century.

“Why don’t foreign investors invest in new Thai companies? Don’t say it’s alien. The large capital in Thailand created a startup fund to invest in foreign companies. The main reason is our ecology. It is not conducive to the creation of companies. The first obstacle is the law that does not catch up with technological changes. The effective solution is to obtain obsolete laws”, Pakorn concluded.

Once they reach the first consensus those changes must be made in the legislation, the Parliament began to discuss the changes that must be made, reaching the conclusion of creating the “sandbox regulation”. This determines that for a period of time isolated tests should be conducted on the modifications to the law to measure its impact, without this having repercussions on the economic stability of the country.

Pakorn also considered that in order for there to be a good drive towards the new economy, the step should be taken to have a digital entrepreneur. He commented that a startup company or organization that drives these advances is necessary.

However, he mentions that there is nothing specific for the establishment of this idea in Thailand. It is important to emphasize that some senators from Thailand are evaluating the possibility of requesting a partnership with Libra to help boost a national cryptocurrency project.

The possible launch of Libra by the social network Facebook has alerted global economies and aroused the interest in the impact that cryptocurrencies can generate in the financial world in the future.

By María Rodríguez

LibertyX exceeds 1,000 Bitcoin ATMs in the US

Willmen Blanco
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LibertyX exceeds 1,000 Bitcoin ATMs in the US

The ATMs are in some gas stations and stores in the country.

LibertyX, the company that launched the first Bitcoin ATM in the US, will expand to 90 retail stores in Arizona and Nevada, according to a statement this week.

With this move, LibertyX now operates more than 1,000 Bitcoin ATMs throughout the country. The latest additions are configured at service stations AMPM, ARCO and Chevron, as well as at some Family Dollar stores.

A partnership with Desert ATM, a provider of non-bank ATM services, will allow access to Bitcoin through user’s debit cards at street level. Chris Yim, CEO of LibertyX, said that the convenience and simplicity of Bitcoin ATMs eliminates some of the obstacles to the incorporation of consumers into cryptocurrencies.

Several Milestones

This is not the first milestone that the company has reached since its creation. In 2014, the company launched the first cryptocurrency ATM in the United States at the South Station in Boston. Then, in 2016, it hired the first in-person Bitcoin cash service. Later, in 2019, it became the first to enable debit card transactions at traditional non-bank ATMs without a hardware upgrade.

Regarding then latest development, Yim said that it was a natural evolution of what they had started almost 5 years before. He noted that their goal was to make Bitcoin available anywhere in the United States.

LibertyX had offered in-person cash services in the Southwest before, but this move is the first time that the company integrates with the Genmega machines in Arizona and Nevada.

Genmega operates “approximately half” of the non-bank retail ATMs that would be compatible with the cryptocurrency transaction that allows the update of the software designed by LibertyX. Yim states that there are more than 100,000 non-bank ATMs in the US and it is hoped that consumers can buy LibertyX Bitcoin in all of them.

Increase

Transaction limits are set at US $3,000 in Bitcoin per day, for customers who pass the Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements.

In the past, Desert ATM had tried to operate its own cryptocurrency machines, but it discovered that LibertyX had the experience to implement the function effectively, according to the company’s announcement.

Yim said stated that they were delighted with the demand and enthusiasm that they saw in ATM operators who had been desperately waiting to have access to a scalable, compatible and efficient Bitcoin solution for capital. He explains that there are not many encryption companies yet since 2014 and that they are proud of both having survived and having thrived over the years. He highlights that they have grown from one (1) ATM in South Boston Station in 2014 to thousands of retail stores across the country.

In June 2019, the Bitcoin ATM competitor DigitalMint expanded to 20 locations in Arizona and Nevada. Now more Bitcoin users have access to the use of that crypto asset at stores that provide different kinds of products and services. Once more Bitcoin proves to have advantages that are attractive to future investors: it is very stable, it can be used almost anywhere and it has ATMs especially designed for it.

By Willmen Blanco

Grin’s Scheduled Fork Successfully Occurs to Override Mining with ASIC

Willmen Blanco
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Grin’s Scheduled Fork Successfully Occurs to Override Mining with ASIC

It is the first of the four forks that has been executed within Grin’s first two years of life. The update did not lead to a split of the network into two chains.

The Grin project, one of the cryptocurrencies focused on privacy using the MimbleWimble protocol, successfully completed the anti-ASIC hard fork scheduled for July 17th, 2019, at the height of block 262,080.

One of the main objectives of the scheduled fork is to avoid the development of ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit) equipment mining for one of the algorithms of this cryptocurrency, which is only compatible with processors (CPU) and graphics cards (GPU).

According to a release shared by developer John Tromp’s last May, there is no evidence that users are mining with ASIC equipment. However, Obelisk launched an ASIC set for mining Grin approximately six months ago.

For this reason, to stop the development of ASIC for the Cuckaroo29 Prof-of-Work (PoW) algorithm, the update included changes to it. This version will offer greater resistance to the mining with this equipment and will favor the mining with CPU and GPU. However, it should be remembered that Grin works with the Cuckatoo31+ algorithm, which is compatible with ASIC architecture hardware.

The hard fork also allowed making some changes to the API (Application Programming Interface) of the node and to the Grin wallet. According to the developers, this generates a minor incompatibility that only affects wallets prior to version 2.0.0.

Before the fork occurs, the miners, nodes and exchange houses supporting the cryptocurrency only had to update the software and the wallets to version v2.0.0 or higher. These changes were made by activating the Grin anti-ASIC fork in the project’s test network. There the new version 2.0.0 of the network was launched on June 23rd at the height of block 185,040.

There remain 3 ASIC forks

It is worth noting that because of the fork, Grin’s previous network stopped working; therefore, the fork did not result in two different networks. The reason for this is that the code does not accept new blocks that surpass the height scheduled for the update, so the old blockchain stops.

The proposal for this first scheduled fork was announced on June 5th. The team’s plan is to work at regular intervals every six months, reaching 262,080 new blocks. Therefore, this is the first of four hard forks planned by the Grin development group for the project’s first two years. The other three hard forks are scheduled to match the height of blocks 524,160, 786,240, and 1,048,320.

Grin’s mainnet was activated last January 15th, 2019. The cryptocurrency shares most characteristics with Beam, although they have some differences, one of which deals with the management of two mining algorithms. Besides, there are no plans to limit the issuance of currencies. Consequently, Grin will have no halving (reduction in half of the reward per block mined).

Over the course of last week, the price of Grin in the market ranged between US $3.06 and US $3.82. Its value has registered a decrease in the course of the month of July. At the beginning of the month it was even quoted above US $4. On July 18th, it was quoted at about US $3.01.

By Willmen Blanco

Venezuela Refines Incorporation of Government’s Cryptocurrency to National Banking System

Willmen Blanco
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Venezuela Refines Incorporation of Government’s Cryptocurrency to National Banking System

There is a need for a strategic partnership between authorized exchange houses and banks. The regulatory bodies of the financial sector and the operations with crypto assets revealed some digital tools that will allow acquiring Petros.

The regulatory bodies in Venezuela, the National Supervisory Authority of Crypto Assets and Related Activities (Sunacrip) and the Supervisory Authority of Banking Sector Institutions (Sudeban) are refining the incorporation of operations with the government’s cryptocurrency, the Petro, to the national banking system.

Actually, on Tuesday, July 16th, 2019, they exhibited before the representatives of the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV), the Ministry of Economy and Finance, and public and private banking institutions, an agenda with the purpose of incorporating operations with cryptocurrencies in the national banking system.

Sunacrip and Sudeban emphasized that there is an urgent need for a “strategic partnership between authorized exchange houses and banking institutions to capture potential customers, as well as defining guidelines for a joint resolution authorizing hybrid points of sale to make payments with cryptocurrencies,” reviewed the Supervisory Authority of Banking Sector Institutions in a press release.

The Petro

It is worth remembering that, in the middle of a critical economic situation, Nicolás Maduro’s Government announced the operation of Petro as a centralized government cryptocurrency, which entered into force on February 20th, 2018.

Mr. Maduro’s administration resorted to this instrument as a financing source because of the decrease in revenues due to the low production and the reduction in the prices of oil, the main source of currency inflows to Venezuela.

To this situation it must be added that some financial sanctions imposed by the United States prevent Venezuela from issuing new debt or refinancing through the institutions of the North American country.

The regulatory bodies of the financial sector and the operations with crypto assets in Venezuela revealed a series of digital tools that will allow acquiring the crypto currency, the Petro, through the national banking.

They indicated that, for this purpose, they have “PetroAhorro” (PetroSaving), a mechanism that will work through the Patria system and will provide users with the support of their income in Petro. Similarly, they noted that PetroPago also created a tool that will allow payments to be made to legal entities.

Besides, they unveiled the PetroApp, “a multi-currency wallet that allows users to reliably perform transactions with cryptocurrencies,” says the press release.

During these days, the technical teams of the national banks, as well as the representatives of Sunacrip and Sudeban are meeting in order to examine the progress of the implementation of that agenda.

It is well known that each Petro has as a reference value the price of a barrel of oil, of which Venezuela is considered the country with the largest proven reserves worldwide.

According to the White Paper, the offer is initially fixed, but it is also said that Petro will be able to be mined if users agree to do it. The document also states that when someone wants to change their Petro, it will be paid at the price of the barrel of oil in bolivars, which is the Venezuelan national currency.

By Willmen Blanco

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