New York ATMs Will Accept Debit Cards for Purchase of Cryptocurrencies

Maria Rodríguez
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New York ATMs Will Accept Debit Cards for Purchase of Cryptocurrencies

For the moment, under this modality, users will only be able to acquire bitcoins. Soon the function will be enabled for other digital currencies

Residents of New York, United States, will be able to use their debit cards to buy cryptocurrencies in selected traditional ATMs in the city, thanks to a license recently granted by LibertyX, the first Bitcoin firm that, together with the manufacturer of ATMs Genmega, works to offer this service.

The objective is to allow the purchase of bitcoins as if it were a traditional withdrawal operation. To achieve this, customers must download the LibertyX application on their smartphones and create an account. Once verified the personal information, users will be able to buy through the cash machines a maximum daily equivalent to USD $ 3,000 in bitcoins (BTC).

This occurs days after the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) granted BitLicense to Robinhood Crypto and LibertyX. According to critics and analysts, the decision by the NYDFS is a great step to make The Big Apple one of the most innovative cities in terms of technology and finance. Even in early January, the government of that state created a group of specialists to study the blockchain technology and the advantages it can offer to the society.

The NYDFS issued a statement which reads: “To date, at NYDFS we have approved 16 licenses for companies in the digital coin market. In New York, LibertyX will provide consumers with mechanisms to buy Bitcoin through debit cards, and becomes the first BitLicense holder to allow its customers to use their debit cards to acquire the cryptocurrency through traditional ATMs”.

The agency said it will review the criteria that will be used to grant BitLicense since, according to the statement, times have changed and the ecosystem of digital currencies has also changed. After the measure, many enthusiasts have shown their support by messages through the main social networks.

About LibertyX

Libertyx has been a key piece in facilitating the purchase of cryptocurrencies through ATMs in the United States. The initiative done by this firm in order to facilitate the purchase of cryptocurrencies has the support of a large part of the crypto community in that country.

In February 2014, LibertyX opened its first ATMs in Boston, before it also managed to open Bitcoin ATMs at Harvard and then at MIT. Currently, thousands of local stores have Bitcoin payment options and there are more than 100 thousand ATMs offering this type of service throughout the country, which is now available to New Yorkers.

In the same vein, the license provides a regulatory certainty for LibertyX to operate in New York, a luxury for many developers and blockchain-based businesses. This clarity has eluded Bitcoin entrepreneurs who operate similar companies in other countries and jurisdictions. In India, for example, police arrested two businessmen in October last year for trying to establish a Bitcoin ATM.

DFS has also granted a license to the Robinhood Exchange, which allows New York residents to buy, sell and store cryptocurrencies using the company’s mobile application.

The purchase of bitcoins with debit cards that LibertyX now offers makes the adoption process much easier for people who have reservations about exchanges and P2P (peer to peer) trading platforms, especially for those who believe that the process is very complicated.

For the moment, under this modality, users will only be able to acquire bitcoins with their debit cards. It is expected that the company will soon enable this possibility for other digital currencies.

By María Rodríguez

Investor Sues High-Profile Israeli Entrepreneur for Alleged Fraud

Andres Chavez
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Investor Sues High-Profile Israeli Entrepreneur for Alleged Fraud

When ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings) became popular in 2017, the world was not prepared for the frequency with which scammers and criminals attempted to take advantage of people’s naivety. Most of the community wanted to be a part of the new phenomenon and did not think about the consequences. The fight to establish regulatory frameworks in different locations and the presence of ‘watchdogs’ has been helping lower the incidence of scams in recent months, but the issue is still ongoing.

The latest controversial case involves a high-profile Israeli entrepreneur and a Chinese investor. The latter is suing the former and his blockchain company, named Stox (STX) for the sum of $4.6 million, according to a report from The Times of Israel on January 25th.

A Sizable Investment

Zhewen Hu is the name of the Chinese investor. Hu is said to have invested a considerable sum of money, approximately $3.8 million worth of Ethereum (ETH) according to the report of the Israeli news outlet.

Stox is a blockchain company based on Ethereum. It is an open source project, designed as a prediction market platform. The name of the founder and the person facing the legal situation at Hu’s request is Moshe Hogeg.

Hogeg is famous in Israel because he is the owner of Beitar Jerusalem, one of the most famous football clubs in Israel, which currently plays in the nation’s top-flight competition. He completed the purchase of the team in August 2018.

In fact, Hogeg is among the most influential personalities in the entrepreneurial landscape in his country. He is known for investing in crypto-related projects, including Sirin Labs (a blockchain phone developing company) and LeadCoin, a decentralized lead-sharing ecosystem based on blockchain technology.

The Lawsuit’s Foundation

The lawsuit’s equivalent in Israel’s currency is NIS 17 million. The foundation of the legal proceeding is that Hogeg and Stox operator, which is STX Technologies Limited, misappropriated a sizable sum of money in US dollars worth of crypto that were invested in the project.

According to the lawsuit, the company’s white paper clearly stated that in the case the firm reached its ICO target of $30 million through the crowdfunding phase (in ETH,) the funds then would be channeled into product development. In turn, if the prediction market platform was successfully developed, the price of the STX coin, the project’s associated token, would rise.

The lawsuit then continues by saying that the target was reached, with the platform raising $33 million worth of ETH by August 2017. After that, only $5 million of those assets were re-invested to the development of the product. According to Hu, Hogeg used the funds to contribute to other ICO projects, causing a commitment breach that resulted in investors selling their Stox holdings and the fall of STX’s price.

It is not the first time that Hogeg faces a lawsuit for a similar motive. In November, he confronted one for alleged misappropriation of funds in his own firm, Invest.com. He denies any accusations.

By Andres Chavez

Eurasian Countries Prepare Report on Cryptocurrencies and Want to Regulate them

Andres Chavez
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Eurasian Countries Prepare Report on Cryptocurrencies and Want to Regulate them

Regulating cryptocurrencies and everything related to them has long been one of the most difficult challenges that governments and “watchdogs” have had over the last couple of years. And, not coincidentally, it is one of the critical developments to foster a smoother path for worldwide adoption of these assets.

The Eurasian Economic Commission, through its executive arm, the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU,) has been working on a report on crypto assets and how to effectively regulate them in the region. TASS, a Russian news outlet, reported the news on Monday, January 28th.

Get to Know Eurasia and the EEU

Eurasia is known around the geographic world as the continental landmass of Europe and Asia. It, then, comprises both continents, and with the division between them being a social construct and not a physical barrier or separation, some communities see Eurasia as the single biggest continent, geologically speaking. However, the EEU was formed five years ago by Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan as a political and economic union.

Tatyana Valovaya, who currently acts as the Eurasian Economic Commission’s minister for integration and macroeconomics, observed that the Eurasian Economic Union wants to develop consolidation in financial markets by 2025, and as blockchain and cryptocurrencies have become mainstream concepts, the body is forced to study them.

According to Monday’s report, the EEC has put together a group of experts from every member country. The commission’s report is focusing on correctly defining cryptocurrencies and identifying countries that have successfully regulated them in recent times, because as Valovaya states, coming up with a proper regulatory framework is a crucial requirement.

A Sizable Impact on Macroeconomic Stability

Acknowledging their potential as an all-around solution provider in numerous fields, the minister admitted that cryptocurrencies are likely to have a substantial impact on macroeconomic stability, and that may happen sooner or later.

Countries around the world are entertaining the idea of launching their own state-based cryptocurrency. The Eurasia region is no exception, and even Russia’s Ministry of Finance has considered the development of a digital token properly backed by the region’s countries in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) by 2020 or 2021.

The only caveat is that the outlined project is supposedly going to function without being related to the blockchain, and rather, as a similar asset than the European Currency Unit, according to Russian authorities. The European Currency Unit is known as the predecessor of the euro, the area’s current exchange unit.

Belarusbank and its Plans to Create a Crypto Exchange

Interest in cryptocurrencies, blockchain technology, exchanges, and other related platforms, tools, and concepts is quickly increasing in the region. For example, on Monday, January 28th (the same day in which it was known that the Eurasian Economic Commission was going to prepare a report on crypto assets), Belarusbank (Belarus’ largest financial institution) published its plans to develop a crypto exchange and issue “virtual credit cards” which would replace the traditional, physical ones in a matter of months.

By Andres Chavez

Chainalysis Report Spots Two Groups that Account for $1 Billion in Crypto-Related Hacks

Andres Chavez
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Chainalysis Report Spots Two Groups that Account for $1 Billion in Crypto-Related Hacks

Hackers do not usually take too long to adjust and regain the “pole position” when it comes to being prepared to bypass the newest security barriers presented by entities, pages, services, or organizations online. They are talented individuals or groups that continually develop their skills and find innovative ways to wreak havoc in people’s accounts, no matter what there is inside of them.

The crypto industry has provided these agents with the chance to make millions of dollars by taking advantage of poor security measures and people’s naivety, in some cases. Crypto hacks have been a problem ever since the assets became popular, and year after year, the frequency of cases and the amounts of funds stolen both increase.

As it turns out, there are two notorious hacker groups that have particularly harmed the crypto industry, having stolen a whopping $1 billion in cryptocurrencies, according to a report made by Chainalysis, a blockchain analytics firm, quoted by widely known publication The Wall Street Journal on Monday, January 28th.

“Alpha” and “Beta” are Still Wreaking Havoc

The two hacker entities are named by Chainalysis as “Alpha” and “Beta,” and between the two, they have gotten the vast majority of funds taken off victims in the most recent cryptocurrency scams. Chainalysis’ chief economist, Philip Gradwell, thinks that both groups remain active at the moment of writing this piece.

There is a caveat in the report, however: Chainalysis seems to leave the door open to the possibility of being wrong in their take, and the firm has failed in its attempts to check the identities of the involved groups.

Get to Know the Two Groups

According to the published text, Alpha is categorized as “a giant, tightly controlled organization at least partly driven by non-monetary goals.” On the other hand, the Beta organization is portrayed as a smaller entity, without the same levels of organization. It is a “heavily sanctioned” association mostly focused on the money.”

The stolen money were, according to the report, transferred an average of around 5,000 times via online exchanges prior to their conversion to cash.

It is quite clear that despite their identities and modus operandi not being officially confirmed, the two hacking groups operate in a different manner. Alpha starts the process by transferring the digital assets from address to address almost immediately, whereas Beta can take as long as a year and a half to do so, after the social and public impact of the scam has faded.

Chainalysis report states that Alpha usually converts three quarters of the funds in cash within the first 30 days on average, while Beta does it with a proportion of around half within days after the mentioned waiting window.

It is not unheard that the funds are processed through regular, traditional exchanges. According to Gradwell, platforms with Anti Money Laundering schemes do not always identify suspicious activity or the reception of hacked proceedings after a considerable number of transfers.

By Andres Chavez

Austria Develops the Vienna Token

Andres Chavez
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Austria Develops the Vienna Token

The blockchain technology serves as the platform in which a cryptocurrency is built over. The latter asset, in turn, can represent an investment opportunity or have a specific use in a particular ecosystem, which is why it has worldwide acceptance and validity as a valuable commodity. A token, if implemented correctly, has the potential to provide solutions in various fields.

Such is the case of Vienna’s latest initiative. The city is well-known across Europe and the world, being Austria’s capital. It is currently working in the development of a blockchain-based project that involves a token that will be used in an incentive program. The news was reported by Trending Topic, a news portal, on January 28th.

The Vienna University of Economics and Business as an ally

It is not the first time that the digital asset has been mentioned around the industry, as it first came up in December 2018. The coin will be developed by city’s authorities and the Vienna University of Economics and Business. Its name will be the Vienna token.

What can people do to opt for Vienna tokens? According to the Head of the city’s Research Institute for Cryptoeconomics, Shermin Voshmgir, the coin will be given in return for providing feedback about Vienna. In addition, other tasks can also result in Vienna tokens’ issuance, such as prioritizing bikes over vehicles or using an app developed to pay for parking privileges around the city. Voshmgir also stated that the obtained tokens can be traded for exciting things, such as theater tickers, for example.

Quoted by Trending Topics, Voshmgir observed that the Vienna tokens and the incentive program will not be the only way in which tokens will be implemented, and that the idea has been in development since last year.

“We are in a very early design phase in which we are considering together with the City of Vienna what such a Vienna token could look like. It is about understanding how we can generate a token that adds value for the city,” she expressed.

Shermin Voshmgir made it very clear that she thinks the Vienna tokens can represent a “killer application” of the blockchain technology that holds the potential of being behind lots of business models and propositions in the short, medium, and long-term.

Under the Vienna token’s reward model, some of the possible future applications of the technology in Austria can be, according to Voshmgir, art and real estate blockchain ventures. She states that it can be a possibility under a fractional ownership system.

The Austrian Blockchain Center

A multi-purpose and multi-disciplinary organism named as the Austrian Blockchain Center was opened in December 2018 in the country, as a way to research and establish future plans and projects related to the technology. The center’s primary objective is to foster development on the Internet of Things (IoT), finance, energy, logistics and public or governmental applications.

The Vienna token is not the first city-based digital coin in the planet, as the idea has been out there for a while. For example, a project in Calgary (Canada) was materialized last year. The Calgary dollar can help people provide payments for services and items at local stores, or even perform donations.

By Andres Chavez

The IBM Food Trust will Broaden its Network of Consumers and Suppliers this Year

Andres Chavez
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The IBM Food Trust will Broaden its Network of Consumers and Suppliers this Year

The blockchain technology has proved time and time again that it has the potential of providing solutions to a wide array of fields, industries, and situations; even those that we do not even imagine. Experts have said in recent times that 2019 will be the year in which its application is seen as an ordinary development rather than news-worthy stories.

A giant company in the food industry was the latest to take one step towards that prediction. Nestle, the Swiss food retail company states that IBM Food Trust, a blockchain based project that has some high profile members, such as Unilever and Walmart, is preparing to host new suppliers and retailers in 2019.

Successfully and Transparently Managing Global Supply Chains

The person in charge of the digital transformation management of the global supply chain at Nestle, Benjamin Dubois, discussed the news during an encounter with a Swiss-based daily paper, named 24 heures, on Monday, January 28th.

The IBM Food Trust blockchain exists as a project since 2016, and Walmart China spearheaded the initial product trials back then, precisely in December. According to the report, Nestle, (known around the world for offering goods and items such as beverages, cereals, chocolate, confectionery and baked goods, foodservice products, frozen food, frozen dessert, healthcare nutrition, infant foods, performance nutrition, petcare, refrigerated products, seasonings, shelf stable, and yogurt, among others) has been testing the feature since August 2017.

Dubois observed that the initiative was created as a result of “consumer demand for more transparency and trust” regarding Nestle products and offerings, which are traits that the blockchain technology can comfortably provide. He spots the approach as an innovative, emerging technology that will help Nestle accomplish its goals.

Ensuring Traceability and Minimizing Risk

According to the project’s overall objective, each of the involved companies must be able to strengthen their ability to spot issues related to food recalls; for example, being able to trace outbreaks and ultimately reduce risk for the customer. The blockchain can swiftly accelerate traceability of all goods as well as every step taken in the supply chain management. The retailers hold the ability to pool data with other associated entities.

The aforementioned information can include processing, transportation data, crops, product labeling, and others. With the system, it can all be tracked and tested in a matter of seconds, with impressive results. The more traditional channels can often take days. The Swiss publication observes that the IBM Food Trust blockchain tool can help retailers promote a trustworthy image to all audiences, and handle data in a decentralized manner.

With just a QR code system, customers have all the information at their hands, but enterprises have the ability to choose how far they want to go with that approach. Clients may know, according to Dubois, “not only the origin and composition of the product, but which farmer participated in the harvest, when it was made, the date on which the food was processed, the identity of the factory that took care of it, even how many employees the agricultural enterprise has and which ethical certificates the producers hold.”

By Andres Chavez

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