Bitso resume Bitcoin Cash ABC Commerce

Maria Rodríguez
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Bitso resume Bitcoin Cash ABC Commerce

This lost power a week ago. Bitcoin Cash SV will not be listed for trading in some exchange houses

A Mexican exchange house called Bitso accepts Bitcoin Cash ABC, under the name of BCH. The decision follows the trend of cryptoactive exchanges with respect to the Bitcoin Cash hard bifurcation. The startup also announced that the token Bitcoin Cash SV, the other hardfork product chain, will not be included in the platform for commercialization.

Before the bifurcation, which occurred on Thursday, November 15th, this company reported that there was uncertainty regarding which chain would prevail. Due to these facts, Bitso decided to suspend trading in the BCH / MXN and BCH / BTC books on Thursday, November 15th, 2018. Now, the trade was reactivated.

In Bitso official blog, the corporation explained that it will give support to Bitcoin Cash ABC and will maintain the BCH ticker. Trading, funding and withdrawals from BCH would be restored on November 23rd, 2018 at 10:30 am.

About the resumption of trade with the cryptoactive, the company explained: “In the first hours of trading we will only enable limited orders to avoid extreme movements in the price. Note that during the first week, the processing of BCH withdrawals may take longer than normal”.

In relation to Bitcoin Cash SV, Bitso stressed that the token will not be listed for trading because it does not raise their listing and security criteria. The company added: “We will distribute the corresponding Bitcoin Cash SV tokens to all eligible users. This process could take some weeks”.

To save time, clients will be notified when the operation is ready and enables the withdrawals. However, Bitso will not allow income from Bitcoin Cash SV, so transactions made to BCH addresses of the company will not be credited.

Because of the Bitcoin Cash bifurcation results, Buda, a Chilean exchange house, took a similar decision. Now they are supporting BCHABC as BCH, and they have “no intention” of supporting BCH SV so far.

“As we have said publicly many times, the altcoins that are born from a fork represent a high cost for the exchanges, because, inter alia, they demand two things: first, recovering the altcoins from the new chain, and, secondly, and even more serious, it implies a risk in terms of security because it forces us to access the cold vault where we keep most of the cryptoactive; activity that we try to reduce to the maximum”, the company said on its official web site.

It also clarified that there is not a date to support BCH SV. Recovering those BCHSV means exposing the private keys of Buda’s cold vaults, which it minimizes to the maximum for security reasons. “But the answer is yes, we will return them in their equivalent in BTC at the time of recovery and future conversion”, it affirmed publicly.

A week ago, there were a conflict called “hashes war or hashwar” between the group that supports the ABC chain of Bitcoin Cash and the SV group. The ecosystem witnessed this. In response, both decided to take different directions claiming that they had “better proposals” to improve their platforms.

The war seems to be favoring the ABC version, at least in the markets, because ABC has more power with 2,589 PH / s and SV with 2,318 PH / s, according to recent news.

By María Rodríguez

 

Bitcoin Falls and Breaks the $4,000 Barrier

Maria Rodríguez
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Bitcoin Falls and Breaks the $4,000 Barrier

Others cryptocurrencies follow the same way. Experts affirm that this market will be recovered for early 2019

During the last weeks of 2018, the price of Bitcoin in the crypto market has been more towards the tendency to collapse than to recover its usual rise.

On Wednesday November 14th, the most popular cryptocurrency had a value of USD 6,365 and for the night of 24th, just 10 days later, it fell below the USD 4,000 barrier, standing between 3,813.86 and 3,750; the lowest prices since September of the current year.

The causes of this fact, according to experts, are due to the distrust that still exists in some investors, the speculation by some sellers and the cancellation of Bakkt for 2019.

The digital currency market analyst Willy Woo predicted that there would be some falls during the end of 2018. However, he says the market will recover favorably during the first months of 2019.

“Our most likely path is to break the support of 5,800 with some free falls. The next support is 4,900, which should slow the fall, but 4,400 is the next line of real defense”, the researcher explained.

Looking for Stability

On October 31st Bitcoin celebrated ten years of existence, which have passed between ups and downs. The decline of this Saturday is 11.85% down from the $ 4,211.94 in which it was quoted.

These unfavorable behaviors are observed during short periods of time. This week, the first cryptocurrency in the world fell by 32%, in the last two weeks by $ 40.7, in 30 days by 41.4% and the last year by 54.1%, according to the app with graphs of currency classification, CoinGecko.

During the last 24 hours, the volume of Bitcoin transactions accumulates about 4,298 million dollars. In this sense, the capitalization of this cryptoactive is 66,546 million dollars, while the market capitalization of cryptocurrencies went from 135 thousand to 127 thousand million dollars, which represents a fall of 6%.

For today, Ripple (XRP) fell 6.76%, Ether 7.71%, EOS 7.89% and Bitcoin Cash 11.06%.

Use of Technology Increases

Not everything is negative. While cryptocurrencies continue their way towards stabilization, their technology has reached more and more fields of social organization, thanks to distributed accounting, that allows to store information of transactions made and protects them; once they are verified, to prevent the message or the data being violated.

Blockchain technology has been used to guarantee security in the sending of confidential information and even to verify the origin and correct progress in the distribution network of food products such as chicken reared without antibiotics. On the other hand, Lightning Network experienced a remarkable growth during 2018.

Analysts believe that the creation of Hard Forks leads to the creation of the so-called “existing money”, something that, according to some investors, would lend itself to corruption, as happens with the fiduciary currency.

In as much, the decentralized, safe and reliable system of the cryptoactives continues adding followers, in spite of its occasional intermittency. The increase in hashrate demonstrates the interest that miners have in providing support to the network that will continue to give something to talk about in the coming months.

By María Rodríguez

IDA Blockchain Startup Aims to Consolidate Asset Tokenization

Andres Chavez
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IDA Blockchain Startup Aims to Consolidate Asset Tokenization

The world has seen a handful of era-defining inventions and developments in the last 100 years. Radio, television, personal computers, and Internet are some of the most prominent, but now, it may be the turn of blockchain technology to shine.

That is the opinion of blockchain startup IDA, which defends that assets tokenization is the future of finance and the next relevant hurdle that the approach has to clear in order to be considered part of a worldwide solution.

IDA is helping the industry by creating the platform that will allow people, individuals or businesses, to digitize items in the real world. The initiative itself explains that it focuses on developing links between digital and physical, tangible economies.

Tracking Resources and Preventing Waste

The blockchain technology and digitizing tokens would allow, according to the project leaders, people to track resources and prevent waste while creating a transaction record. The initiative of whitepaper explains that digitized assets will become the most important factor driving growth and evolution in the global economy and financial landscape.

Digitized assets promote easier circulation of goods, which will also provide opportunities for small and medium enterprises to be more involved and to get some much-needed financing. IDA will foster a data-driven ecosystem, merging various emerging technologies and approaches to its digitized asset blockchain.

Some of the mentioned technologies and approaches to be included in IDA’s idea are artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT.) The latter is, according to the project team, “advancing new applications of using sensors to track and gather information from real objects.”

Several sectors can reap the benefits of implementing an asset digitization approach. For example, industries can, according to specialized crypto and blockchain site Cointelegraph, welcome creative business models and welcome innovation via automated processes. The automobile and transportation industries also stand to be benefited, as will academia and education. In fact, the last two have a special meaning to IDA, as the company states that “digitizing intellectual assets has created a strong network effect for knowledge sharing.”

Lowering Entry Barriers

IDA defends its choice of blockchain technology to follow its asset digitization objectives, saying that it can help lower the entry barriers for all actors involved, including businesses and consumers, by driving down costs and making sure users can understand the ecosystem. And, as a bonus, the assets can be tracked and identified easily thanks to blockchain.

There will be two native coins in the IDA ecosystem. One will be the IDA token, which will be the “bridge with the real world,” and the MRT tokens will be the digital assets linked to real-life, physical goods.

The IDA coin will use the Ethereum ERC20 token standard, with the full name of International Digital Asset. The token represents the only mean of settlement on the IDA platform, so demand and value will grow with increased exchange volume. And, as additional real assets anchored to MRT on the platform increase, the augmented circulation will raise the value of the IDA token.

There are similarities between the IDA project as a crypto initiative and the US dollar, because the two currencies are meant to be “insulated” against volatile markets.

By Andres Chavez

Giga Watt, an American Bitcoin Mining Company, Files for Bankruptcy

Andres Chavez
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Giga Watt, an American Bitcoin Mining Company, Files for Bankruptcy

The American mining company Giga Watt could not cope with the changing environment and market conditions, finally declaring for bankruptcy this week. The firm still owes millions to creditors, and its overall condition is severely compromised.

Giga Watt filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday, at an Eastern District of Washington court. According to documents that specialized site Coindesk had access to, the company still has to pay, and pay big: it owes almost $7 million to its largest 20 unsecured creditors.

Besides having to deal with bankruptcy and everything it carries with it, Giga Watt is also facing eviction in the Douglas County. According to several reports, the county’s port has launched the eviction process. Giga Watt owes lots of money, roughly $310,000, to utilities providers in the area, and Neppel Electric, an electricity company, is owed nearly $500,000.

“The Company is insolvent and unable to Pay Debts when Due”

The future outlook of Giga Watt is bleak at best, with its liabilities being estimated between $10 million and $50 million, and assets worth only $50,000, the court documents read.

After a shareholders’ meeting held on November 18th, it was determined that there was no point on pursuing any other option or path other than filing for bankruptcy. “The corporation is insolvent and unable to pay its debts when due. Giga Watt and its creditors would best be served by reorganization of the corporation under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code.”

Andrey Kuzenny arranged the meeting. He is the owner of more than 10 percent of the mining company. However, the firm was actually founded by Dave Carlson, a Bitcoin miner whose initial objective was to pave the way for small scale miners, thanks to the creation and development of the customized mining “pods,” along with a cheap electricity supply in a Washington area.

Giga Watt actually had a promising 2017, organizing an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) in the month of May, raising something in the neighborhood of $22 million worth of crypto assets at that moment. The ICO was made to let investors acquire stakes of the firm’s services.

Decline Phase

Everything went south very quickly, though. In January 2018, Giga Watt was accused of conducting unregistered securities offerings. The plaintiffs wanted the firm to return their investments because Giga Watt did not meet construction deadlines and, after that, dishonored their promises to provide the respective refunds to investors.

George Turner, who acts as Giga Watt’s managing Director, stated that the filing did not pass through his office, and that the piece of news came as a surprise. He had advocated the Chapter 11 “many months ago,” according to his own words and quoted by the Washington-located iFiberOne site.

Carlson, which was a Microsoft software engineer many years ago, formed Giga Watt back in 2012. The May 2017 ICO was held even though Carlson said at the time that Giga Watt “did not need” to register with the SEC, which is the United States’ Securities and Exchange Commission.

By Andres Chavez

Brazil Will Implement Institutional Blockchain in its Fiscal Registry

Maria Rodríguez
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Brazil Will Implement Institutional Blockchain in its Fiscal Registry

The institution will have a government to government system for data management

The Brazilian State will adopt the blockchain technology to speed up the job of collecting taxes in that country. Federal Collection of Brazil (RFB), the institution which is in charge of this activity, published a standard that establishes as a data exchange mechanism a blockchain network authorized by the government.

Official information indicates that the agency will conduct the new fiscal registry of natural persons through a system based on blockchain technology. The traditional process is known in Brazil as Cadastre of Physical Persons (CPF). In order to automatize the operations, a technological solution called bCPF was created, which will become the new register of taxpayers.

The decision was announced this Wednesday, November 21st. According to a press release, it modifies the old data availability procedure through the provision of partial or total replicas.

The regulation establishes a deadline of July 31st for data requests to adapt to the new network based on cryptoactive technology. According to the Brazilian legal framework, the CPF functions as an identification number and the RFB maintains more than 800 data exchange agreements with various State institutions.

According to an investigation, the Federal Collection of Brazil is interested in developing a product that will be used to distribute the information in a safe and traceable way. In order to make this possible, the team will create a Government to Government (G2G) system in partnership with Dataprev.

The project, that is in the pilot phase with the Federal Council of Justice, seeks to use smart contracts to add additional features and controls. This model contemplates three types of participation on the network: for the consumption of the data, for the contribution on certain data fields, and for data modification. The technology is based on free open source software and is expected to be fully operational within 6 months.

About the last case of participation, RFB announced that only institutions with legal authority will be able to use the platform, which will be programmed in smart contracts. The public institution recently also made a public consultation for the development of a new legal framework concerning transactions made with cryptocurrencies, where all citizens are able to detail information on each of the transactions carried out with digital assets.

Representatives of the cryptocurrency industry in Brazil presented some proposals in response to this public consultation, in order to protect the enthusiasts of the digital assets, so that the financial authorities stop their persecutory position. The proposal would be aimed at guaranteeing equal treatment with other economic agents in identical situations, such as financial institutions.

“This aspect must be highlighted even so that Brazil demonstrates, as well as Switzerland, technological neutrality, and does not discriminate identical economic activities just because of the use of new technologies”, said Yure Lira, who represented the group of proponents.

It is still unknown when the new regulations will come into force, which includes fines of up to 1,500 for late payment and up to 3% of the amount of transactions due to the omission of data.

Brazil is not the only country interested in implementing blockchain technology to its government operations. Spain is one of the largest countries enthusiastic with this technology and it is also thinking about implementing blockchain technology in its financial system.

By María Victoria Rodríguez

Norway Will Eliminate Power Subsidies from Bitcoin Mining Farms

Andres Chavez
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Norway Will Eliminate Power Subsidies from Bitcoin Mining Farms

According to a report from Norway’s most prominent publication Aftenposten on November 21st, the country has decided to end electricity subsidies that Bitcoin (BTC) mining facilities were enjoying up until this moment.

Mining farms, as well as other industries with intensive energy consumption, were paying dirt-cheap rates of 0.48 øre ($0.05) per kilowatt. However, in a development that is sure to affect the field in a significant way, the number will go up to 16.58 øre per kilowatt starting from January 2019.

The reason for the change in the cost per kilowatt was an amendment to the state budget pact. The decision was, naturally, supported by prominent members of the Norwegian parliament. Some of the opinions were fairly strong, including that of Socialist Left Party (SV) representative Lars Haltbrekken.

“The Dirtiest Form of Cryptocurrency Output”

The Aftenposten report quotes Haltbrekken as saying that the country cannot afford to “continue to provide huge tax incentives for the dirtiest form of cryptocurrency output […] [Bitcoin] requires a lot of energy and generates large greenhouse gas emissions globally.”

Northern Bitcoin, which is a German-listed company in the crypto mining business in Norway, was the subject of a Forbes report this month, focusing on the effects of the “advantageous” electricity subsidies. Thanks to it, the farms in Norway are (were, starting on January) able to mine BTC at $7,700 as the average cost per coin.

However, the measure, as one would expect, did not come without criticism from some sectors, including the domestic industry interest group ICT Norway. Its Chief Economist Roger Schjerva was adamant on its refusal to accept the new regulation, stating that the parliament decision to take away the subsidies was “shocking” and indicating that changing the “framework conditions without discussion, consultation or dialogue with the industry” was irresponsible.

“Norway scores high on rankings of political stability and predictable framework conditions, but now the government is playing a gambling role with its credibility,” he said in obvious anger and disappointment.

Reducing Crypto Mining in Norway: Possible Effects

The opinions in favor of the government and parliament measure were also numerous, some of them working and revolving around the blockchain field. For example, the CEO of blockchain advisory company Blockchangers, Jon Ramvi, is quoted by Aftenposten expressing that once mining is reduced in the Nordic nation, “it will reduce the prices of electricity for companies and people residing in Norway, meaning that we reap the benefits of these resources locally instead of giving it away to Bitcoin miners.”

The executive also explained that a higher number of miners in the BTC network does not necessarily mean that it will have more scalability or that it will be faster. “The only function of more miners is securing the network further.”

The rising cost of electricity has mainly affected individual, smaller-scale miners, and they have been running negative revenue rates. However, the prominent companies are still making a profit off the activity, according to Diar.

By Andres Chavez

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