Wallet of Satoshi will Facilitate Payments with BTC

Maria Rodríguez
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Wallet of Satoshi will Facilitate Payments with BTC

The Lightning Network platform will allow micropayments safely and quickly from mobile devices

This January 4th was the launch of a new Bitcoin payment platform called Wallet of Satoshi. This application aims to bring Lightning payments to Bitcoin users with little technical knowledge.

The new easy-to-use Bitcoin Lightning portfolios, such as Bluewallet, mark the future of online payments. Users can send and receive Bitcoin Lightning payments from their mobile device.

Bluewallet is one of those Apps. This one in particular now allows users to generate invoices and receive direct payments from Lightning Network (LN) from mobile phones.

Wallet Satoshi is an App aimed at the Australian market. It is one of those Apps with a friendlier interface to benefit users with little technical knowledge on the subject.

This App is able to send Bitcoins (BTC) through LN to pay bills and buy products in participating stores, among which are online services such as Tippin and Brisbane Airport.

Another advantage of making payments through this platform is to make micropayments instantly and at a low cost.

Although Wallet Satoshi facilitates the process of transactions, one of the drawbacks of these wallets is the inability to withdraw satoshis from the LN wallet to BTC wallets, but the developers expect that Bluewallet will soon offer this feature and, of course, also Wallet of Satoshi.

Its Main Advantages

Bitcoin LN promises not only to handle millions of transactions per second, but also to allow sending of payments with fractions of cents or satoshis (something that is not currently possible in the chain) to anywhere in the world.

That is because Wallet of Satoshi works thanks to the Bitcoin Lightning Network scalability solution. However, the creators of the new product thought that the LN technology remains in an experimental state, and only technically competent users could navigate it efficiently. To solve that, they designed this new user interface, which could facilitate sending and receiving of payments.

“We want everyone to be able to participate in the new international economy, so it focuses on ease of use and is available on iOS and Android”, said Daniel Alexiuc, CEO at Wallet of Satoshi Company.

Whilst the use of Bitcoin for small-scale payments remains modest, LN is preparing to increase the number of transactions that Bitcoin’s network can handle. In fact, Lightning now has more than 5,000 nodes, almost 18,000 channels and a total capacity of 543 BTC ($ 2,050,000), according to data from the 1ML online monitoring resource.

“Lightning is the real-world retail payment system we’ve been anticipating for years, and it’s finally here!” said Alexiuc. Currently, Wallet of Satoshi is only available for 1,000 beta users, before the full release, which will take place in the coming weeks.

At the same time, in an effort to make transactions and payments with Bitcoin (BTC) more effective, an API extension allows making payments with the LN from a web browser, such as Google Chrome, FireFox or even Microsoft Edge. Other development teams are trying to take advantage of the market that LN is opening.

By María Rodríguez

“We are for Biscuits, Not Bitcoins”: Gateway Partners Confirm Negative Stance on BTC

Andres Chavez
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“We are for Biscuits, Not Bitcoins”: Gateway Partners Confirm Negative Stance on BTC

As Bitcoin’s price remains trapped in the $3,500 – $4,000 range without few signs of breaking through or fall even further, lots of questions are still unanswered. Will it go up or will it continue to collapse and fall below the $3,000 threshold? The industry seems stuck and many investors are waiting for the market behavior to signal them the new path to follow.

However, Gateway Partners’ CEO V. Shankar provided his opinion about the outlook of the world’s most valuable cryptocurrency. Shankar is famous around the industry for his anti-Bitcoin stance, and his latest remarks, provided this week in an interview with a renowned Asian publication, confirm his traditional view.

 “We are for biscuits, not bitcoins,” he said humorously to show his negative stance towards Bitcoin. Not too long ago, a little more than a year from now, each BTC was worth almost $20,000 after a sudden price surge. However, 2018 was rough from a value standpoint, as it shed a sizable percentage with each passing month.

The Market Crash

After the mid-November market crash, BTC went from being worth nearly $6,500 to as low as $3,300 in a matter of weeks. At the moment of writing this piece, Bitcoin was exchanging hands at $3,876.39; up 2.08 percent in the last 24 hours but still unable to break through the $4,000 barrier.  

More than a year ago, near the end of 2017, Shankar stated that he was against investments in three of the “hottest” developments of the time: Argentina, Tesla, and Bitcoin. At that time, Bitcoin was gaining value at an astounding rate.

Given that BTC suffered a massive collapse in 2018, time passed and Shankar’s predictions came true, at least up until this moment. “I think I have been proven right on all three [warnings],” he recently said.

Just like Jamie Dimon and Warren Buffet, inter alia, have stated in the past that cryptoassets are not worth sizable investments, Shankar’s view is another prominent one regarding the matter.

Gateway Partners is a private equity fund that prefers to invest in firms that offer basic goods, items, or services that are needed daily.

Gary Shilling: “I Won’t Invest in Bitcoin”

Bitcoin recently received yet another share of criticism in the week; this time from renowned analyst Gary Shilling. He stated that he will not be investing in BTC anytime soon because he viewed it as a “black box.”

According to a famous business publication, Shilling referred to Bitcoin as “opaque” and “complicated,” and said that he will not be investing in something that he does not fully understand. He shared that when he tried to learn more about the cryptocurrency’s economic model, he was disappointed to see its lack of transparency, mainly because the entity most commonly associate with its creation, Satoshi Nakamoto, remains unknown.

 “I’m just very suspicious of things that are not very transparent,” these were his words. “And if I can’t understand it, I don’t want to invest in it.”

By Andres Chavez

ConsenSys and AMD Team up to Create Blockchain-Based Cloud Computing Infrastructure

Andres Chavez
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ConsenSys and AMD Team up to Create Blockchain-Based Cloud Computing Infrastructure

ConsenSys, the famous Ethereum development studio, announced a new partnership this week: it will team up with computer chip manufacturer company AMD with the intention of coming up with an innovative cloud computing infrastructure. Of course, to keep up with modern times, the initiative would be based on blockchain technology.

ConsenSys announced through a statement on Friday, January 4th that it was working alongside AMD and Halo Holdings, a renowned investment company, on the development of a product names W3BCLOUD.

Meet W3BCLOUD, the Newest Cloud Computing Architecture to Support dApps

W3BCLOUD is supposed to be a cloud computing architecture that supports decentralized applications (dApps.) W3BCLOUD will be supported by AMD, one of the most influential companies in the computing hardware industry.

The role of ConsenSys in the strategic alliance will be providing its expertise in how to best deploy strategies for processing blockchain transactions. AMD’s Director of product management for blockchain technology, Jerog Roskowetz, recently said that his company is in a position to offer ConsenSys the capabilities to access “high-performance hardware technologies capable of better scaling and proliferating decentralized networks and services.”

The end product is one of the most awaited tools. It has the potential to help entities and organizations of all fields, including multinational corporations and government agencies, in their quest to implement blockchain technology to “support enterprise data centers, supply management, smart identity, health ID tracking, and licensing,” according to Roskowetz.

“Scalable Adoption of Emerging Decentralized Systems”

At the same time, Joe Lubin, who is ConsenSys Founder, states that enhancing the computing capabilities of blockchain networks by using AMD technology will help promote a “scalable adoption of emerging decentralized systems around the globe.”

He also expressed that “the combination of hardware and software will power a new infrastructure layer and enable an accelerated proliferation of blockchain technologies.” AMD has been heavily involved with blockchain ventures for quite some time now, and its chips have become widely popular in running blockchain networks by people with crypto mining intentions. In fact, there was a moment, not so long ago that approximately 10% of AMD’s quarterly revenue resulted from crypto mining affairs, according to the firm.

As the crypto market has crashed; however, interest in mining has decreased somewhat: the company stated in recent weeks that sales to miners had fallen to “negligible” levels by the end of last year.

A System to Fulfill the Needs of both Public and Private Sectors

It could be read in the statement that W3BCLOUD would be “the first” independent cloud computing blockchain infrastructure tailor-made to fulfill needs and requirements of both public agencies and private companies.

Both companies have been involved in blockchain news recently. ConsenSys signed a Memorandum of Understanding with SK Group, a South Korean tech company, to develop a corporate blockchain business model thanks to the use of smart contracts. The alliance includes training opportunities for local developers.

On the other hand, AMD established alliances with seven prominent tech firms to produce eight crypto mining rings.

By Andres Chavez

Thailand Plans to Digitize its Electoral System Using Blockchain Technology

Maria Rodríguez
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Thailand Plans to Digitize its Electoral System Using Blockchain Technology

Performing elections in this way gives speed and security to the process. Japan, South Korea, Switzerland and The US are implementing this initiative

The National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (NECTEC) of Thailand developed a proposal in order to use blockchain technology in electronic voting. With this solution, the Thai government agency aims to digitize the voting in said country.

NECTEC is a government organization that operates under the supervision of the National Agency for the Development of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Science and Technology. This organization promotes the development of information technology, electronics and telecommunications.

Chalee Vorakulpipat, Head of the cybersecurity laboratory at NECTEC, reported: “Nectec developed a block technology for electronic voting that can be applied in national, provincial or community elections, as well as business voting like that of the board of directors. The objective is to reduce fraud and maintain the integrity of the data”.

Vorakulpipat explained that, in order for the system to work, a controller must participate, who can verify the identity of the voters and the qualifications of the candidates. Voters could vote through email and a mobile camera will review their votes. For the time being, technology can be used along with traditional voting as Thais gain more technological knowledge.

The NECTEC is currently looking for partners to conduct tests. In addition, the agency seeks to test the blockchain system on a smaller scale in elections of universities, provinces, and communities.

According to Vorakulpipat, the blockchain voting could be deployed in the short term in a closed environment. For example, Thais who live abroad can go to an embassy or consulate to vote and verify their identity. Vorakulpipat also said that the system could be tested in smaller elections in organizations such as universities, provinces and committee meetings.

In relation to a large-scale implementation, such as for general elections, the agency will require more time since “all voters must have a good mobile internet connection and identity verification”, Vorakulpipat said.

Other countries decided to implement blockchain technology in their voting system. In November 2018, South Korea announced that it would test a blockchain system to improve the reliability and security of online voting.

The municipal government of the Japanese city of Tsukuba also tested a blockchain-based system that allows its users to vote, in order to decide on local development programs. Both the Swiss city of Zug and Tsukuba have conducted chain voting trials in municipal elections.

The US state of West Virginia also plans to launch a blockchain-based mobile application so that military personnel can vote easily from abroad.

Growing Trend

Many countries of the Asian continent also work on other types of blockchain developments to offer solutions to their public administrations.

The Ministry of Commerce of Thailand is studying the use of ledger technology distributed in areas such as copyright, agriculture, and commerce. Pimchanok Vonkorpon, official at the Office of Commercial Strategies, said that blockchain will guarantee “competitiveness and credibility, especially around local companies in the country”.

In mid-September, a blockchain solution was announced in Thailand for the issuance of bank certifications, through the financial institution Bond Market Association. Also, Kasikornbank bank revealed its association with Visa, in order to use its system “B2B Connect” to provide solutions to cross-border transfers backed by the blockchain technology. The near future seems to continue including this technology to achieve various solutions.

By María Rodríguez

Indian Government Carefully Assesses how it Will Regulate Cryptocurrencies

Maria Rodríguez
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Indian Government Carefully Assesses how it Will Regulate Cryptocurrencies

The lower house of the Parliament expects banks to conduct transactions using cryptocurrencies as funds without problems or prohibitions

Pon Radhakrishnan, Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Maritime Transport of India, formally informed, last December, that the Government is evaluating the creation of a series of regulations to monitor transactions with cryptocurrencies in India, but the official believes that this will not happen in the short term. That is a surprise for citizens.

The issue has been debated for some time. However, the Hindu government imposed a prohibition on the national bank about making financial transactions with cryptocurrencies. This considerably affected the industry of that country in terms of international sales that could be made with stable cryptocurrencies, as well as small businesses that seek to diversify their payment methods with international standards.

A counterclaim for these prohibition measures was taken to the Indian National Parliament and discussed forcefully. Lok Sabha (the lower chamber or the first chamber of the Parliament), spoke on the subject: “In the absence of a globally acceptable solution and the need to design a technically viable solution, the department is carrying out the matter with due caution. It is difficult to establish a specific timeline to reach clear recommendations”.

However, the government spokesmen said that: “Important efforts are being made to prepare the draft report and the bill on virtual currencies, and also about the use of distributed accounting technology in the financial system and the framework for digital currency in India”.

Cryptocurrencies are not completely illegal in India; there are no terms that define their impact on the economy. It is hoped that with these fiscal control measures, the use of this financial resource in the country will be normalized and that with the lifting of the prohibition for the banking operation with cryptoactives, the financial flow between Indian banks and international banks will be diversified.

A legal Framework for Cryptoactives

Other governments have introduced laws and promoted the use of cryptoactives. It is the case for the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, which began by announcing, during 2018, the creation of the “Petro”, a virtual currency that has as liquidity reserves oil, gold, gas and diamond, approved by the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV).

Similarly, the President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, reported on the creation of entities attached to ministries dedicated to the development of Blockchain technology and Licensing Acquisition Manuals for currency exchange offices in that South American country. Furthermore, it even invites its citizens to have savings in Petros.

Other countries such as China have taken measures similar to those of India since, at the end of 2013, the Chinese People’s Bank banned financial institutions from carrying out transactions with cryptoactives; however, it does allow people to have cryptocurrencies.

Whilst governments like Spain are promoting to the European Union (EU) to regulate the use of cryptocurrencies and give them a status of legality throughout Europe. In fact, Europe gives a great example of this, because there are entire streets of businesses that sell products and services through Bitcoins in Spain.

By María Rodríguez

The incredible Crypto-Scams Committed During 2018

Maria Rodríguez
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The incredible Crypto-Scams Committed During 2018

During the last 12 months, more than 3,000 million dollars were lost, according to a US research

The criminals’ determination to use cryptocurrencies as a way to obtain profits illegally, and at the expense of other people, was noted during 2018 in different countries. Due to these scandals, some believe that last year the number of robberies beat record.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) of the United States of America estimates that by the end of 2018 approximately $ 3 billion was lost, a truly alarming figure.

1- BitConnect

In 2016, this platform decided to launch its Initial Currency Offer (ICO) to then create its own cryptocurrency. But from the begin there were warning signs that not all users observed.

Among those clues were the vague descriptions about the new digital currency, the high returns, the absence of a White Paper, so that investors could obtain all the information about the new currency and also no details were given on who would be responsible for the development of this alleged cryptocurrency.

But the price of the new cryptocurrency grew so much in 2017 that it seemed to be a real, sustainable and reliable project. But that year it was announced the launch of a loan platform that would give investors gains of up to 480%, a rather unrealistic sum.

Everything fell at the beginning of 2018 when the administrators decided to close the loan platform. With this, the price of the cryptocurrency fell 86% and little by little the exchange houses were eliminating it.

A lot of money was lost; a total capitalization loss of about 2.6 billion dollars is calculated. Some promises were not fulfilled. Currently, several lawsuits are still ongoing.

2- Twitter Bots

It was a wave of false accounts of celebrities and recognized people in the crypto community, such as Elon Musk or Vitalik Buterin. The purpose of these accounts was to deceive the rest of the users so that they gave personal data or their cryptocurrencies to cheat them.

The accounts spread messages like this one: “I am donating 400 Ethereum to the ETH community. The first 200 transactions with 0.2 ETH sent to the address shown below, will receive 2 ETH from the address from which the 0.2 ETH came”.

None of the people who sent part of their cryptocurrencies received anything in return. It is estimated that using this method, fraudsters can earn more than $ 5,000 per day.

3- Modern Tech

It is one of the most recent scams. It is thought that about 32 investors were cheated. This alleged Vietnamese company launched two ICOs for its tokens. The first one was called iFan and it would work as a token for a social network of celebrities and artists. For its part, Pincoin, the second project, was sold as a platform where investors could receive up to 48% of monthly income.

The company managed to raise 660 million dollars. At the beginning everything seemed to be going well, the tokens were working and the investors received their first payments, which were made in cash. But then the operations were done in iFan and finally they just stopped doing it.

When the investors decided to claim for their payments, they discovered that the address given to get communication with the bosses of the company was not real and that the leaders of the company had fled with all their money.

4- Centratech

This ICO raised around 32 million dollars. It used the images of boxer Floyd Mayweather and DJ Khaled to offer Visa and MasterCard debit cards that allowed users to convert cryptocurrencies into fiat money.

The two founders of Centratech were arrested and charged for fraud. Fictitious identities of executives and developers were created, and false promotional material was published on social networks using the names of these celebrities. The project was a big scam for those who trusted in it.

5- OneCoin

It is one of the scams best known for being one of the oldest companies in the field. This company, based in Bulgaria and present in many countries, has been subject to police investigations during the last 18 months. It is a Ponzi scheme in India. In Italy, it received 2.5 million euros.

It is a financial pyramid in which the resources contributed by its members are redistributed. In 2016, the Chinese authorities confiscated 30 million dollars in an investigation of OneCoin’s activities in that Asian country.

It is thought that OneCoin is not a legitimate decentralized cryptocurrency. The company that is behind this scam has used terms related to the crypto world to generate trust and attract unwary.

Real projects offer all the information about the idea and the specific process to make it true. Cryptocurrencies should have a White Paper to show its results to all the participants. In this way, the most reliable projects are recognized.

By María Rodríguez

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