Philippines Releases New Rules to Regulate Digital Asset Token Offerings

Andres Chavez
-
0
Philippines Releases New Rules to Regulate Digital Asset Token Offerings

The Philippines, as a country, has demonstrated time and time again that its interest in blockchain technology, cryptography, and cryptocurrencies is extremely high. In recent days, the government took a step forward in securing fair rules for everyone involved in crypto-related activities and services.

The Asian nation published a new set of regulations that will govern DATO, or Digital Asset Token Offerings. The information was made public via an official press release by the Asia Blockchain and Crypto Association (ABACA) on Monday, February 4th.

The rules were issued by the Philippines’ Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA,) and were made with the intention of safeguarding investors and regulating the crypto universe in the country, in the midst of a bear market price-wise, but also enjoying a boom in popularity and media presence as well.

The roles of CEZA and ABACA

The regulation touches sensitive subjects such as the acquisition of cryptocurrencies and related assets (utility and security tokens qualify.) Therefore, the CEZA will become the primary “watchdog”, whereas the ABACA will act as a self-regulatory organization in order to enforce the newly-created legal instructions.

According to the release’s instructions, each Digital Asset Token Offering will need to fulfill a series of requirements to perform its activities in the country. They all need to have proper offering paperwork detailing the issuer and the project at length, with advice and experts’ certification. The tokens will also need to be listed on the licensed Offshore Virtual Currency Exchange (OVCE).

The legal instrument is split into tiers. The first one covers assets that do not surpass $5 million made in digital coins, the second ones contains those that fall into the $6-$10 million range, and the final one governs those investments that surpass $10 million.

The administrator of CEZA, and also its CEO, Raul Lambino expressed his thoughts about the recently created regulations. “It is our goal to provide a clear set of rules and guidelines that will foster innovation yet ensure proper compliance by actors in the ecosystem. It is our hope that these set of regulatory innovations will take the digital asset sector one step closer to adoption and acceptance by institutions and the traditional financial system.”

What about ICOs?

The report does not directly mention the ever-controversial Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) and their regulation in the Philippines. However, the country’s Securities and Exchange Commission (PSEC) has been mentioning them for quite some time now, and the new norms can show the way to achieve common ground on that front.

The PSEC started taking matters into its own hands in August 2018, when it published several rules to be reviewed by the public. The organism proposed that any business venture or company registered in the country that wanted to perform an ICO was required to submit a document called “initial assessment request” to the Commission with the intention of trying to determine where the project would fall in the “security” or “not a security” debate.

And whilst the PSEC was bound to release the ICO regulation in September 2018 (after working hand to hand with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas,) the institution informed at the start of 2019 that the draft was not yet ready because of a request by several stakeholders to further review the regulations.

By Andres Chavez

Bitwise’s Matt Hougan: “95 % of Cryptocurrencies Will Die”

Andres Chavez
-
0
Bitwise’s Matt Hougan: “95 % of Cryptocurrencies Will Die”

Analyzing Bitcoin’s fall from grace is a tough task. Numerous opinions are floating around the industry, and experts seem divided when discussing the future of the world’s most prominent cryptocurrency and the reasons behind its marked collapse, one that saw its price go from nearly $20,000 in January 2018 to less than $3,400 at this time.

According to Matt Hougan, who currently acts as the global head of research at Bitwise, the bull market that took Bitcoin to be worth that much at the start of last year was a bubble that burst in the following months. However, he states that it may not necessarily be a bad thing, as the events that took place attracted lots of attention, money, and talent to an emerging industry.

“It was a massive run-up and a massive pullback. It was a total bubble,” he observed in Bloomberg’s Barry Ritholtz podcast. It is understandable that the word “bubble” brings a negative tone, but Hougan clarifies that the fact that the collapse of Bitcoin brought so much media attention is positive for the blockchain and crypto fields.

Comparing Bitcoin with the Internet Bubble

In fact, Hougan compares what happened to Bitcoin and altcoins’ prices to 1996’s Internet bubble, which caused similar collateral benefits. “It did the same thing that happened with the Internet, which is it attracted a huge amount of talent. It did bring a lot of capital and interest in development to the ecosystem. Hence, I do think interesting things will be born from that. But, yes, it was a difficult year in 2018,” he conceded.

Hougan also made it clear that he thinks Bitcoin is “the next dotcom. Remember, the dotcom bubble created Pets.com, but it also created Amazon.”

However, the specialist warned society, investors, and the community in general about one of his predictions: he thinks that 95% of the cryptocurrencies that populate the market today will disappear, and that it would be a positive outcome.

“There are 2,000 cryptocurrencies out there; 95% of them are useless and will die a painful death. The sooner that happens, the better. But from those ‘ashes,’ will merge important things. Just like from the dotcom ashes emerged Amazon, Google, and Facebook, etc.” Hougan’s words imply that the crypto markets need to eliminate all the useless digital assets, so that the worthy ones can flourish.

Bitcoin is “Millennial’s Gold”

The expert also referred to millennials and their approach towards cryptocurrencies: they are fond of them as a way of investment, and prefer them to gold, for example. “Every generation has an asset that they love or a way of getting exposure that they love. The Greatest Generation love gold, then people loved active mutual funds. Gen X loved hedge funds. Millennials love crypto,” he recognized.

According to Hougan, younger generations like the primary benefit of crypto, which is the opportunity of cutting off the middle man and managing their assets themselves, which is a result of crypto’s decentralized nature.

Speaking about the recent market’s fluctuations, Hougan says that the most widely recognized enterprises, such as General Electric, Apple, and Amazon, had to endure significant stock market swings on the way to being successful.

He says that Bitcoin is far from dead.  “Bitcoin’s gone through six or seven, 70 percent-plus drawdowns in the past. And each of those has set the stage for a new rally. I’m not saying that will necessarily happen here, but it’s down 70%. It’s up 300% over last two years. So it depends on your perspective.”

By Andres Chavez

Electrum and MyEtherWallet Users Suffer Phishing Attack

Andres Chavez
-
0
Electrum and MyEtherWallet Users Suffer Phishing Attack

Cryptocurrencies have come to improve the way we manage and use or money, tokenizing our assets and protecting them with cryptography’s best attributes. However, wallets and exchanges are not immune to vulnerabilities and security flaws that can be exploited by hackers and cybercriminals around the online universe.

Unfortunately, that is precisely what Electrum and MyEtherWallet users are enduring at the moment. Several users on social media networks, most frequently on Twitter and Reddit, complained about a current phishing attack that is threatening the security people’s tokens. In fact, the wallets used the mentioned social media outlets to provide more details about the incident.

Phishing Attacks Explained

For reference, a phishing attack involves an attempt made by a malicious agent to “fish” a naive user and trick him or her into providing details about his or her account for the hacker to gain full access to it. In a more general view, a phishing attack asks the victim for sensitive data whilst the person thinks he (or she) is providing the information to a trusted entity. The method is illegal in most countries and can result in cybercriminals breaching banking, crypto wallets, social media, and e-commerce accounts, among others.

The usual modus operandi involves the attacker sending the user an email or a message containing a malicious link. Once the victim clicks on it, the link will ask for personal data or will provide the green light to install malware on its device.

On Monday, February 4th, MyEtherWallet warned its user base by tweeting about the ongoing phishing attack that the hacker sent a sizable community of users, asking them to provide personal and account information.

The message said:

“Attention #MEWfam,

There’s another phishy email going around asking users to give up personal information. Don’t believe the hype!

#1. We will never email you first (only reply to support).

#2. We will never ask for your private key (or other sensitive info).

#3. Be skeptical!”

A Reddit user discovered that a phishing scam that was actually trying to pass as a security update (a common modus operandi of these attacks) was trying to take data from users of the Electrum wallet. Redditor exa61 showed a picture to the world in which the “scammer” was requiring the system to update to Electrum 4.0.0. when the most recent version is Electrum 3.3.3, and it is configured to let users know when a new release was available.

“The latest version of Electrum (version 3.3.3) will notify users when a new release of Electrum is available. Release announcements are signed by us, and verified by Electrum using a hardcoded Bitcoin address. This feature is optional and can be disabled,” the company tweeted through its official account, @ElectrumWallet.

Warning!

A warning posted on Electrum’s official website followed, letting people know that “versions of Electrum older than 3.3.3 are vulnerable to a phishing attack, where malicious servers are able to display a message asking users to download a fake version of Electrum.” The digital wallet warned people not to acquire any software updates from different sources, as it represents a high security risk.

Acquiring software updates from third parties brought problems recently, when a hacker or group spotted vulnerability in the LocalBitcoins forum and linked it to a phishing site. The mentioned company informed that the vulnerability was present on software from an external source, and that six users were affected by it.

By Andres Chavez

Ripple’s CTO ensures XRP is more Decentralized than BTC and ETH

Maria Rodríguez
-
0
Ripple’s CTO ensures XRP is more Decentralized than BTC and ETH

Banking institutions and even Coingate rely on this cryptoactive and its platform to realize international payments more economically and faster

In the cryptocurrencies’ world, digital assets decentralization is one of the main attractions for those who wish to enter this financial world. But stability and the speed of the different blockchain platforms to make transaction processes possible is also very desired by users.

Ripple’s centralization is one of the cases that continue to be a matter of controversy and debate because some users are still skeptical about its nature.

The XRP token, which belongs to the fast money transfer network Ripple, has been harshly criticized since its creation. However, David Schwartz, the company’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO), says that XRP is in the process of being as decentralized as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH).

In fact, during an episode of The Ripple Drop, the web series which talks about Ripple, the panel of experts sat down to discuss with Schwartz, who is considered one of the main architects of the XRP network. Speaking about the major changes witnessed during the past year, the CTO said that XRP increased its decentralization level.

Schwartz, who is also a programmer and cryptographer with two decades of experience and participated in the creation of Ripple’s book, commented that this increase in decentralization was observed during 2018 because XRP is “operationally decentralized” in a way that other cryptocurrencies cannot be.

According to Schwartz, BTC and ETH cryptocurrencies have several problems due to their Proof-of-Work (PoW) algorithm, which has not fulfilled its promise of decentralization, especially in the case of Bitcoin.

Faster International Payments

Some critics of the king of cryptocurrencies commented previously that Bitcoin is not scalable enough to eternally maintain its position as the first one in the cryptocurrency market. Another interesting aspect is that some Bitcoin blocks are ten minutes long, which delays the completion of transfers to more than an hour in some cases.

Regarding this issue, Prajit Nanu, InstaReM’ CEO –a company which offers cross-border digital transfers-, added that many financial institutions are focused on making international transactions work as fast as national payments, an aspect that Ripple handles very well by ensuring interoperability between multiple markets and making it easier for banks to process payments more quickly.

Thanks to this advantage offered by Ripple, different banks in the world are implementing this technology in their operations. Among these cases is the National Bank of Kuwait, which recently launched its direct remittance service, in order to allow international bank transfers to be processed almost instantaneously.

Ripple’s objective is to offer all those traditional financial institutions (banks, debit and credit cards, or services such as PayPal) an alternative to their closed ecosystems and full of commissions.

Brad Garlinghouse, also CEO of Ripple, made a comment very similar to that said by Schwartz. The expert once again joined Ripple’s YouTube channel and said there is a lot of misinformation about Ripple’s nature. He believes that, in many aspects, the XRP Ledger is “more decentralized than Bitcoin”.

These comments are positive for Ripple and its ecosystem, which many institutions already use. Even Coingate enabled the XRP payments for the merchants associated with it.

Jim Chauncey-Kelly, Ripple’s team manager, revealed that they are currently interested in adding more integration engineers to implement their products globally.

By María Rodríguez

Binance Customers Can Now Buy Cryptocurrencies with Credit Cards

Maria Rodríguez
-
0
Binance Customers Can Now Buy Cryptocurrencies with Credit Cards

The company expects to continue increasing the exchange flow by adding this new payment tool, which is already available on its platform

The global cryptocurrency exchange platform, Binance, thinks in its customers. It recently enabled the option of buying cryptocurrencies through the use of credit cards. This was announced by the platform on its official website, last Thursday, January 31st.

The company with the highest movements of cryptocurrencies exchange has improved its platform to offer its customers an option in which they can make the purchase of some types of cryptoactives, using credit cards like Visa or Master Card.

According to company spokespersons, the main intention is to improve the customer’s experience, expand its sales system and optimize the transaction platform. Allowing the purchase of digital assets is one of the main goals the company set for this year.

In the company’s official statement it was informed that the payment platform will allow buying only four types of cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC) and XRP. However, the letter explains that the client has the option to exchange these assets for any of the more than 150 cryptocurrencies Binance offers through its platform.

“As part of Binance’s larger mission, which is about increasing the adoption and widespread accessibility of cryptos, Binancians can now use Visa and MasterCard to buy BTC, ETH, LTC, and XRP, and start trading on Binance.com in a matter of minutes”, says part of the writing.

Binance partnered with an Israeli startup company called Simplex, in order to adapt its platform to receive payments in the new modality. Simplex is a payment processing company which will allow a key adaptation in the new Binance payment platform.

It is announced that the platform enabled for the processing of the payment will adapt to the waiting times. This particularity will allow the exchange in the shortest possible time, due to the dynamism in the different digital markets.

The company has placed special emphasis on the processing times of the purchase. Workers of this company mentioned that, once the transaction has been completed, the waiting time for the cryptocurrencies to be reflected in the wallet is approximately 10 to 30 minutes. The commission for the transaction is 3 to 3.5%, depending on the flow and size of the purchase.

Changpeng Zhao, CEO of the company, spoke about the progress of Binance’s platform. During an interview, the expert explained that the crypto market is in full growth and these advances are just the beginning of many more possibilities that will bring the near future.

“The cryptography industry is still in its early stages and most of the money in the world is still in conditions. What we need now is to build fiat gateways to grow the ecosystem, increase adoption and introduce cryptography to more users”, Zhao concluded.

On some exceptions, the statement explains that this service will not be available to clients in countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Cuba, Congo, North Korea, Eritrea, Iran, Cote d’Ivoire, Sudan, Lebanon, Kyrgyzstan, and Libya. At the moment, customers operating in some areas of the United States, such as Washington, Connecticut, Hawaii, Georgia, New York, and New Mexico, are also excluded. The crypto-community expects to know when citizens of these regions will receive this advantage.

By María Rodríguez

Company Sells Luxury Products to Crypto-Millionaires and Earns USD 250 million

Maria Rodríguez
-
0
Company Sells Luxury Products to Crypto-Millionaires and Earns USD 250 million

Managing large sums of money only in purchases with cryptocurrencies represents a great future for this market, as mentioned by spokespersons of The White Company

The White Company issued a statement where it declares that during the past year this business managed more than 250 million dollars among its customers, who use this corporation to make purchases of luxury goods, using Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.

These luxury products range from fine works of art, gold watches to expensive automobiles. High-end products can be paid in cryptocurrencies anonymously for security and even delivered anywhere in the world.

The large volume of money that the company handled in 2018 is due to the fact that The White Company has dedicated itself to selling different luxury products through multiple platforms. These online spaces allow users to buy high quality products using different types of payment, including cryptocurrencies.

Elizabeth White, CEO of this organization and who is also one of the founders of the company based in New York, said they seek to focus on generating the “opportunity for customers who have wealth in cryptocurrencies to buy luxury products”.

During a recent interview White offered to Forbes magazine, she mentioned that since Bitcoin’s birth she became very interested in technology. She explained that, for her, the idea of ​​being able to manage a decentralized digital currency which allowed the direct sending of assets without using intermediaries, instantaneously and safely, could become the technology of the future, something like an “investment in counterculture”.

With the increasing popularity and use of cryptocurrencies in 2017, many enthusiasts bet on crypto-business and mining. In this way large sums of money were generated in cryptocurrencies, turning these people, mostly young technologists, into millionaires and all this in a short time.

However, as commented by White, at that time these investors did not have so much access to the free exchange of all their riches in cryptocurrencies into fiduciary money, so the purchases of some types of items became a big problem.

In addition, Elizabeth White observed that there was certain nervousness on the part of the new crypto-millionaires since “they had the feeling that their money could disappear as quickly as they got it”. For this reason, investors decided to acquire goods and take advantage of the luxuries that cryptocurrencies offered them at the time.

As a solution for this new high-level sector, The White Company partnered with the company Apis Capital Management to solve the liquidity and currency exchange needed by the company to pay its suppliers in fiduciary money. With this solution they were able to offer those customers a stable option according to their needs.

“The cryptocurrency speculative bubble is over, which is good, since it allows the community to focus on more serious long-term projects and probably there will only be a handful of cryptocurrencies that will continue to be relevant in a few years.  The market will focus on transactional transactions to simplify global payments, as well as on the use of blockchain technology to simplify the management of real-world investment assets (such as real estate, hedge funds, among others)”, said Elizabeth White, referring to the growth of blockchain technology.

Apart from offering a broad payment mechanism so that their customers can pay in the way they want, the company has exchanges services and a wallet. In fact, it developed a payment platform which allows the protection of these assets. According to Elizabeth White, this application offers what the company has as a rule and philosophy: the anonymity of its customers.

It is vital for the company to protect, first of all, the privacy of its users and meet its customers’ needs.

By María Rodríguez

1...1,5761,5771,578...1,654Page 1,577 of 1,654