TL;DR Competent, organised, compliant – the best combination the crypto world has to offer So far we’ve covered Waves, a massive, well-funded and highly-organised crypto project; and TurtleCoin, a tiny grassroots coin with an extremely active following. This time, we’re looking at a unique crypto initiative that sits somewhere between the two: Crown Coin. Crown is a regular, mined crypto with an established track record (founded 2014), a small but active community, and some competent devs who are passionate about bringing a new approach to decentralised applications. The fact that it’s a Masternode coin that pays out regularly if you make the investment and effort to set up a node really doesn’t hurt either. Crypto investment is risky and the markets can be highly volatile. Do your own due diligence before buying. No responsibility is accepted for investment decisions made on the basis of this analysis. At first, Crown is a little hard to get your head around without some help, but it’s essentially about connecting regular applications with blockchain technology. Whilst Ethereum allows you to build decentralised applications (dapps) entirely on the blockchain, Crown aims to take a smarter and more scalable approach to this by allowing ordinary applications to hook into the blockchain. Businesses will be able to register identities and run applications, plus use an instant payment API, all on the blockchain. It’s a smart approach and the team has already signed up its first real-world businesses. Compliance is a huge concern for the Crown team, who are committed to doing things in a way that is sustainable in a climate of evolving regulation. It’s a mined coin – there was no ICO, avoiding future issues that may arise around securities legislation – and because it’s merge-mined with bitcoin the hashrate is huge, making it an extremely secure blockchain. There’s a firm emphasis on working tech over hype, so ‘marketing’ is not something large amounts of money are being thrown at until all the pieces are in place. The community is relatively small but active, and there are frequent meetups in various locations around the world. Masternodes and System Nodes are critical to the Crown ecosystem. Originally a DASH fork, the team has created a model where there are layers to the network: the miners, who receive part of the block rewards, and then the Masternodes (10,000 CRW requirement) and System Nodes (500 CRW requirement) who will process transactions and support the payment and business APIs. The price of CRW (around $2.40) means that these are currently a very attractive price, and although a Masternode will be out of reach for many investors, System Nodes are much cheaper and have a better ROI from staking income. At current prices, a Masternode costs about $24,000 and nets the holder about $540 per month. There’s a handy calculator at https://crowncentral.net. A slice of block rewards is reserved for bounties, and Masternodes can be used to vote on proposals which automatically pay out a respectable chunk of CRW for these at regular intervals. This is an excellent way to fund development and avoids the need for either a controversial ICO or donation campaign. Crown is one of those jewels in crypto: an overlooked project that looks like it’s doing everything right and has a firm vision for the long term – in terms of tech, compliance, marketing and strategy. If the team succeed in delivering that vision (and there is every indication they will) then there is no reason to doubt that Crown will be integrated in a wide range of business applications. It’s one that rewards holders in the short-term via Masternode staking, but also has amazing potential beyond that. Assessment: Already profitable due to Masternode and System Node payouts; significant room for additional growth on the basis of comparable projects. Approach: Acquire an initial stake (possibly over time to average costs) sufficient for a Masternode or one or more System Nodes; sell revenues to de-risk or hold them to compound in new System Nodes. For more information, visit https://crown.tech. Red hot news, scorching wit and searing opinion pieces from Crypto Inferno. Join us on Telegram: https://t.me/crypto_inferno Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoInferno/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/CryptoInferno_ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CryptoInferno/ Show less

Since the impressive Bullish market across many of the cryptocurrencies we have seen two outliers really set themselves apart from the rest. Though I doubt anyone was surprised by this, Ethereum (ETH) and Bitcoin (XBT) saw some truly staggering growth and resilience during this time. While Bitcoin’s price is about ten times that of Ethereum, Ethereum’s pace of growth could leave Bitcoin in the dust. Bitcoin is king. We all know this. However, the security of its reign may not be as untouchable as it once appeared. In the past, no one thought that Bitcoin may ever be anything but top dog among cryptocurrencies. One of the reasons for this is that it was first to market with the idea of the Blockchain. In fact, many of the first altcoins were either direct clones of the coin or heavily inspired by the technology backing up Bitcoin. It was the original, it is the most widely accepted of the cryptocurrencies, and it has the most brand recognition associated with it. But even all of this may not secure Bitcoin’s crown as the king -or queen- of crypto forever. Coins need to fight and stay competitive to not only stay in power, but also to stay relevant. While Bitcoin is the originator of the Blockchain and thus it has already left an impression of its innovation for the foreseeable future, some users and traders feel that it is not keeping pace innovation wise with some of its main competitors. Most will cite Ethereum as the main threat to Bitcoin’s hegemony. This is because Ethereum is one of the most innovative Blockchain solutions that is available to the market right now. Ethereum made a name for itself in innovation from the start. Since then, many ICOs have tokens that are associated with Ethereum and its smart contract system means it can do more that Bitcoin currently can. Many investors and traders have taken notice of this and have begun buying into Ethereum. This, coupled with its track record of innovation have given Ethereum the gas for a truly staggering bull run. At the time of writing this article, it is closing in on $400 a token. While Bitcoin is innovative and has incredible potential to expand that innovation, it currently is not competing as well against Ethereum in that regard. I believe that a lot of this has to do with the in-fighting that exists in the Bitcoin community. As many of you are well aware, there is an extremely divisive debate raging in the Bitcoin community now. And it is raging, as the dialogue between the two sides has devolved into making the other evil. All of the community agrees that something needs to be done about the crippling speed and transaction fee issues, but no one can seem to agree with how to address this. While I think it is important to have well rounded discussions and challenging discourse in communities, what we have now in the Bitcoin community seems counter productive. I enjoy holding both ETH and XBT so I want to see both of them do well, but I worry that Bitcoin may be blinding itself to its competition by lack of compromise -on both sides- in this argument. Bitcoin may be entering the phase where it needs to decide which is more important, being right or staying King. Disclaimer: This is not trading or investing advice, but rather an op/ed. If you liked this article, follow us on Twitter @themerklenews and make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to receive the latest bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and technology news. Dariusz is a Digital Anthropologist who has been closely following the world of cryptocurrencies since 2014. He has been somewhat of a crypto-evangelist, trying to educate more people on the exciting realm of cryptocurrency. During his time at University College London, his Master's dissertation focused on how communities inhabit, modify, and create virtual places via social media. Show less

Thinking about purchasing a Ledger Nano Hardware Wallet? Browse their official website: https://www.ledgerwallet.com/r/67efWant to join coinbase to begin your crypto journey? Here’s a link to get free $10: https://www.coinbase.com/join/558828d... Find me on Steemit: www.steemit.com/@heiditravelsTwitter: @blockchainchickInstagram: @hheidiannIf you’re looking for an app that tracks the price of BTC & ETH and many other coins, check out the CoinView App: https://play.google.com/store/apps/de...Donation Addresses:Bitcoin (BTC): 16gwMprXw5ss8Nk23CU8Jc6XtVf7KYF621Ethereum (ETH): 0xac5223209791820b4c37f6f6b4b5d249d25d55acDash: XuvS5TzRSRGbNZM2va9KXYxF6QBqQ4tVQpLINKS FOR ADDITIONAL READING FOR THIS VIDEO & ALL INFO IN TEXT DOWN BELOWLet’s talk about master nodes. Master nodes are more than just another way to invest in an alt coin. They allow you to be an integral part of the improvement and advancement of that coin. By holding a master node you have the ability to vote on proposals meant to improve the coin. You also are taking an amount of that coin out of circulation, this helps to increase demand by reducing the supply.The very concept of masternodes has long term value in its core. The investors who have masternodes are the investors who have put their money where their mouth is and have chosen to commit to that coin for the long term. Holding a master node benefits the investors also. In addition to seeing capital gains by just holding the coins, you will also be paid in that coin. Payouts can occur anywhere from multiple times a day, to weekly or bi-weekly payouts. If you invested in a master node before the coin really starts to take off then your profits can increase exponentially.I should note that there are some potential downsides with masternodes that you should be aware of before taking part in one.They are vulnerable to DoS attacks if they are hosted on weak hosting accounts.If you invest in a master node at the peak price, the chance you’ll get a decent return of investment can be bleak if the price drops.The more masternodes that are created means a reduced revenue. However, more masternodes also means a better spread of the servers, which increases the security of the coin. More master node holders also means an increase in votes for proposals that can benefit the coin.There are only a handful of coins that offer masternodes, I suggest looking into Dash, PIVX, and Crown.The price of dash increased roughly 300% in the past month and has been holding steady just around $100 per coin. But it’s PIVX and Crown coin that have been making huge positive moves most recently. So if you’re looking for a coin that offers a master node and is starting to gain traction, I suggest checking out PIVX and Crown on your own and decide for yourself.Investin.com Article: https://www.investitin.com/masternode/DIY Dash Masternode: https://dashpay.atlassian.net/wiki/di... More About Dash Masternodes: https://www.investitin.com/invest-das...PIVX PIVX Masternode Explained: https://pivxmasternode.org/what-is-a-...PIVX Masternode Setup: https://pivxmasternode.org/masternode... PIVX Masternode Payouts:http://178.254.23.111/~pub/DN/DN_mast...PIVX Masternode Philosophy: https://pivx.org/2017/03/21/why-shoul...)Crown Coin Info: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/...Crown Coin website: http://crown.tech/ Show less

2016 held many pivotal moments for the crypto community and industry. The Bitcoin scaling debate enjoyed periods of exposure and collective anguish, retreated into the background, then opened a new chapter by integrating Segregated Witness into Bitcoin core. The block reward halved again, but the hashrate continued to grow. Early in the year, the price of Ethereum jumped an order of magnitude, ushering in a period of enthusiasm and optimism for smart contracts and a distributed world computer. The now infamous DAO Wars followed in spring and summer; Ethereum hard forked; and then a series of attacks and upgrades dogged the protocol, coinciding with a drop in price near the end of the year. Several foundational protocols launched to much acclaim, including Lisk and Waves. ICOs and app tokens raised millions from investors around the world. Large banks moved forward with private blockchain pilots. It was undoubtedly a big year for cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. It was also a big year for Smith + Crown. Smithandcrown.com Our company finally launched our website early in the year. Care, sweat, and tears went into the design and all the elements we wanted to provide. Our vision was a research and data focused group that brought sober analysis and commentary to the cryptocurrency community. We see immense potential in this technology, with implications across business, social institutions, and governments. We also see immense hype and a disturbing tendency for discussion to devolve into irrational, vindictive, and manipulative word slinging. This environment of complex topics and prevalent misinformation raises the barrier to entry for anyone interested in this technology. We wanted a place where some of the best third-party analysis could take place and people who wanted to learn about these technologies could do so. The website is our vehicle for that experience. Markets and the Smith + Crown Index Serving up market data from across multiple exchanges in real time is not trivial. We have worked hard to build one of the few public systems that provides market insight from first-party data across all the major exchanges and all currency pair for both fiat and cryptocurrencies. We are rolling out additional features to our markets page and our index. Stay tuned in 2017 for more! Initial Coin Offerings: Tracking Whats Important One thing that struck us early this year was a lack of intelligent objective coverage of the many initial coin offerings (ICOs) and crowdsales. We provided the first summary of the rapid Lisk ICO, and the first English-language overview of the Antshares ICO. When we started looking into these sales, several things struck us. Learning about them was difficult but rewarding. There was nowhere to find in-depth third-party analysis of existing ICOs. The signal-to-noise ratio is very low, and many projects are doomed to not get off the ground. We provide an overview of major ongoing and upcoming ICOs. We are selective in what we list, objective and data driven in what we say, and research every ICO that comes across our radar. We also go deep on certain ICOs we see as pivotal in the emerging industrythey are proving a new model, have significant hype around them, or stacked with an impressive team. We dont take projects at their word and we are critical in how we approach them as technologies, businesses, and sale structures. We have covered a variety of ICOs and maintain a database of the major ICOs in cryptocurrency history. Milestones, Partners, Accomplishments 2016 held many twists and turns for us. We will have a similar post that will forecast 2017. In the interim, wed like to highlight some other notable developments that make us proud of the past year. Worked with Reuters to provide data from our research on ICOs and crowdsales. Collaboration with CoinDash, winner of the hack.ether.camp global hackathon. Following CoinFund, which has organized a smart, insightful community around a wide range of topics. Independent analysis of several major ICOs, including Golem, ChronoBank, and BitGirls. Expect more of this work in 2016. Summarizing the tumultuous split of the core Synereo team. This was a difficult task but we realized no one was providing a third-party summary of the controversy. We look forward to updating you with a roadmap for 2017! Show less

"If criminals believe they can hide their ill-gotten assets online they are very much mistaken." That was the warning from Nick Price, head of the UK Crown Prosecution Service's proceeds of crime unit, who told The Register the agency had "already secured" a confiscation order for digital currency assets and "would expect more to follow". Yep, crims' cryptocurrency can now be seized by the fuzz. A CPS spokesperson told The Reg it defines digital currencies as intangible virtual currencies whose ownership can be transferred instantaneously, including old-school E-gold or Liberty Reserve and the modern Bitcoin, Ethereum and Monero. The Evening Standard reported in 2016 that the CPS was calling for new legislation specifically for seizing digital currencies. Now it turns out that the CPS has in total gleaned five restraint orders for assets including digital currency. In those cases, it has received permission from the Crown Court to require suspects to disclose the digital currency particulars and repatriate any assets held abroad to the UK. The CPS also has permission for the digital currency assets to be converted into pound sterling. One of those cases is a confiscation order for £2.2m. About £26,000 of it is held in Bitcoin, but the order has to be paid up in pounds. Risk advisory firm Camdor Global's Bob Swarup, author of Money Mania, told The Reg: "Technically speaking, they can seize any assets – the main thing is liquidating and converting back to pound sterling." He said he was "not surprised" about the "growing interest in digital currency". "Many countries are suspicious of digital currencies and almost certainly, there is no [know your customer] involved in their purchase, which automatically makes them suspect in the eyes of most policymakers when it comes to money laundering." David Wall, a criminology professor at Leeds University who studies cybercrime, told El Reg the CPS would "have to prove it is money that is illegally obtained or the proceeds of crime. I would assume that this could be done via the Bitcoin wallets and the transaction codes on the blockchain." He added: "It is interesting because it is more evidence of the trend that criminals are increasingly using cryptocurrencies." However, based on the evidence he's seen: "Much of criminal use of Bitcoin is related to investment type scams, rather than its use in actual everyday transactions – with of course the exception of use as a payment method in dark markets and ransom payments to ransomware and data hackers." A National Crime Agency report (PDF) on money laundering and terrorist financing published in October said: "The NCA has assessed the risk of digital currency use for money laundering to be relatively low; although NCA deems it likely that digital currencies are being used to launder low amounts at high volume, there is little evidence of them being used to launder large amounts of money. "By contrast, from a cyber crime perspective, the threat posed by digital currencies is higher, owing to their role in directly enabling cyber-dependent crime." A spokesperson for the Serious Fraud Office told The Reg: "The SFO has not obtained any confiscation orders for funds in a digital currency or decentralised virtual cryptocurrency." ® Minds Mastering Machines - Call for papers now open 'Continuous Lifecycle London 2018 - Early Bird Tickets Now Available', 'Minds Mastering Machines - Call for papers now open' Show less

Smith + Crown previously and informally advised CoinDash. We do not currently have a financial relationship with CoinDash, and are not official or unofficial advisors in any capacity. Smith + Crown is excited to announce a collaboration with CoinDash, which is developing portfolio tracking tools and is currently a leader in hack.ethercamps virtual accelerator. Both companies see a future of more investors in cryptocurrency, a more diverse crypto-token market, and more capital overall. Making crypto-finance more user friendly helps the entire industry. Realizing this future requires tackling a couple challenges that face existing and would-be investors in cryptocurrency. Smith + Crown: Understanding the Market A couple important things distinguish crypto-assets from traditional financial assets. They vary widely in what they do: stocks, bonds, deposits, and currencies follow familiar formats, but crypto-assets vary widely in what they provide to their holders. Some give certain access rights in a distributed protocol, some are means of payment, some function like shares in a distributed autonomous organization, and others are difficult to categorize. Holders need unbiased, in-depth information on the crypto-assets in their portfolio. Regulation is ambiguous and there are no reporting standards: crypto-assets have different legal designations in different countries, and despite growing regulatory awareness, there is significant and justified confusion about who regulates what and how. Tracking developments in regulation is important, but its also critical to get unbiased, third-party information about what these projects really are. Unfortunately, information is distributed across various forums, slack channels, and subreddits, and the signal-to-noise ratio is very low. Smith + Crown addresses these issues by providing insights into existing and emerging crypto-asset projects, original market data, and a unique market index tracking the development of the entire crypto-asset market.Smith + Crown also currently provides in-depth coverage of existing crowdsales/initial coin offerings (ICOs). Such events have raised over $270 million to date, and many have offered order-of-magnitude returns. We publishthird-party assessments of these projects, so potential participants can understand the types and sizes of risk involved. Smith + Crown is starting to launch a series of offerings that involves frequent analysis of different cryptocurrency projects. CoinDash: ASocial Network for Crypto Investors There are precious few tools for tracking ones cryptocurrency holdings currently. Many investors today resort to spreadsheets, sometimes augmented by scripts to grab current price information. CoinDashs measuring tools help compare the portfolios performance against the market, calculate risk scores and measure diversification. Users simply connect their trading accounts (bitcoin, ethereum, and exchanges) to CoinDash, which will automatically track portfolio performance. Screenshot of CoinDash: portfolio performance (tan) relative to Bitcoin as a benchmark (green) A strong performance-measuring engine coupled with a powerful social engine will enable traders to compare themselves to other trades, discover new opportunities, find superstart investors, get automated trading signals from them, and even copy-trade them. The cryptocommunity currently shares information across a variety of channels, ranging from bitcointalk.org forums, subreddits, twitter, and myriad slack channels. To complete the social graph, CoinDash wants to create one place for people to discover other enthusiasts and interact with them. Our Collaboration: Information + Insights In this collaboration, Smith + Crown will make research available to users of Coindashs platform. CoinDash users can watch their portfolios alongside selections of relevant Smith + Crown research. User can weigh whether to change positions based on new insights into the crypto-token projects. They can acquire new tokens in ambitious and disruptive protocols. They can follow when some projects experience near-death challenges, like Synereo did recently. Stay tuned for Smith + Crowns upcoming pilot project and demos from CoinDash. For now, go show support for CoinDash in the global Ethereum-focused hackathon. Show less

About Me (from this idiot with the crown to entrepreneurship)prosirius (56) in introduction 10 months agoHello, I am Tom. I was born on 3th January in Austria, exactly 20 years before BTC Genesis Block. The year should not be 1989 - it should be 20 BBTC (BeforeBTC) :-) I had a bad childhood, i was the clever but fat kid every cool kids laughing at and my father drunk much alcohol since he lost his job and got often angry and hit my mum. After that i kicked him out of our home. So i started drinking and taking drugs to forget about this shit, but that was not the best idea. I quit programmers high school after 3 years (repeated 1 year just for fun) and started apprenticeship. Since then my life was only about working, drinking with friends and having sex with older women. OMG i cant believe i was that fat drunken idiot with the crown At the age of 22 i woke up and realized that my life is bullshit. I started to live different, healthier and reduced the alcohol consumation. With the new energy i started a second job as salesman, selling telecommunication hardware and contracts. I earned some money with that and it was very funny at the beginning. But like every other job in the 21st century it changed into a modern slavery - if you dont fullfill the quote - you wont earn any money and the quote will get higher every year. Beside this i started Network Marketing and learned from one of the best guys. Eric Worre So i quit the job as a salesman and started in Network Marketing and earned exactly nothing - because i had more expenses than income and i really wanted to get my drunken friends and my family into this business - I failed multiple times trying it In my main job i changed from maintenance to mining and one year after that i heard the first time in my life (2 and a half years ago) from cryptocurrency. It sounds very interesting so i asked my mum for 4000$ (that was most of her lifetime savings at that moment and i was broke) and bought about 19 BTC with that. The real big mistake was i put them all into Mining Pools at BCN. I had no idea at that moment how mining works and just got greedy from the promises my upline made to me like "you will get 5 times more BTC out of the mining in 3 years" Now its 2 years and 3 months and i got out about 4 BTC from 19 BTC i invested. So i took me 3 months to realize thats not the big deal and i started studying cryptocurrency, made mistakes again, lost money in trading and continued studying and practice this things every day for 6 - 8 hours beside my job since 2 years. I stopped drinking in January and started to make some workshops for other people to help them get into cryptocurrency. Since this moment i am really on fire and i made more than 120 000 $ out of 3000 $ at the beginning of this year. Last Friday i quit my job, now i have to stay another 8 weeks and then i start spreading out to the world my knowlege and give courses in cryptocurrency, wallets, trading and Mining (yes i found a contract where you get more coins out that you put in in 2 years) That was my first big stage event in front of 200 people, teaching the benefits of cryptocurrency against banking system At that moment i found my passion in teaching cryptocurrency I love my life Tom Elias introduction cryptocurrency teaching mining freedom 10 months ago by prosirius (56)$0.14Past Payouts $0.14 - Author $0.13 - Curators $0.0215 votes+ theroliyogi+ linardis+ rulesforrebels+ mitchyb+ prosirius+ rawresearchlabs+ blisscom+ robinmathew+ ubg+ clemdane+ gbonikz+ kayleigh-alesta+ bridget17+ bvbowhunters+ ascheurenReply 9 Show less

TechJuice > Cryptocurrency > Bitcoin will pass cryptocurrency crown to Ethereum in 2018If you were thinking that Bitcoin will continue to rule for a long time, you might be wrong. The cryptocurrencies have just begun their journey and the competition is going to be a lot much harder in coming years. The year 2017 was Bitcoins year and the next one could be Ethereums.Jez San, CEO of FunFair Technologies, an Ethereum backed casino platform, wrote in a blog post for Coin Desk. He explained that platforms like Ethereum are an operating system for decentralized finance and commerce. They are widely used for powering up applications. He also draws a critical comparison between Bitcoin and Ethereum.Read Also: How to buy Ethereum?San points towards Ethereum as a better, more flexible and more advanced alternative for Bitcoin. As he says,While theres no shortage of old and new believers to keep the party going, along with plenty of developers working to create better, forked versions of bitcoin, Im betting my chips on a more flexible alternative.San portrays Bitcoin as DOS, and theres nothing wrong with it, as it was the base of the computers success. And he calls Ethereum as Windows or Mac OS which is the advanced form of that foundation.Although Bitcoins developers worked un-tiringly to acquire the crown of cryptocurrencies, yet Bitcoin appears to be a product for elitist few with high transaction fees and far from the common mans reach. This may result in a technical dead end.Also Check: Buy Bitcoin in PakistanRecently held Ethereum developers conference further affirms the fact that Ethereum is the future. Around 2,000 developers were there, arrived after bearing expenses of over $1,000 aiming to deliver a more innovative blockchain future in the face of Ethereum.In coming years, Ethereum will be the main platform for blockchain application development. Meanwhile, a mistake on user end is always expected in every advanced platform. Back in November, $280 million worth of Ethereum locked up due to a users mistake.Bitcoin Crown Cryptocurrency Ethereum News Show less

Adding to the number of false schemes and scams in the cryptocurrency space, a scheme reportedly run from Argentina and Ukraine has been outed for falsely claiming their investment product was endorsed by Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, guarantAdding to the number of false schemes and scams in the cryptocurrency space, a scheme reportedly run from Argentina and Ukraine has been outed for falsely claiming their investment product was endorsed by Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, guaranteeing to make you rich in seven days, as reported by The National, June 30, 2019.. The post by Ashwath Balakrishnan appeared first on , Bitcoin, Blockchain & Cryptocurrency News\ Show less

Reuters Staff3 Min ReadCOPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Introducing a digital version of the Danish crown currency would pose risks to financial stability without improving payment solutions for Danes, the central bank said on Friday. Its view contrasts with the Riksbank in neighboring Sweden, which said last year it may become the first big central bank to create its own digital money as the use of cash declines. (A) central bank digital currency would present challenges to financial stability and would not provide any new opportunities for monetary policy, the Danish central bank said in a statement. In a Danish context, it is unclear what central bank digital currency would be able to contribute that is not already covered by the current payment solutions. Digital currencies allow users to make online transactions across borders instantaneously and have surged in popularity this year because of their eye-watering price rises. Bitcoin, the best-known, has increased in price by more than 1,700 percent since the start of the year. Decentralized digital currencies like bitcoin are still not widely accepted, however, and critics say they can easily be used for money laundering and that the fact that they are unregulated makes them risky to use hence the idea of an e- version of a physical currency that still has a central controlling authority. Danes use cash in 23 percent of in-store buys compared to an average of 79 percent in euro zone countries. Issuing e-crowns would also make the central bank a retail bank for households and businesses and make the central bank a direct competitor to the commercial banks, it said. Denmark is home to Scandinavias largest payments service provider Nets NETS.CO which is in the process of being taken over by U.S. private equity firm Hellman & Friedman. The Bank of England is also looking at the merits of introducing a digital currency for use by businesses and households. The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) said in September it was too soon to determine whether central banks should issue their own cryptocurrencies, as the risks could not yet be fully assessed and the technology underpinning them is still unproven. Reporting by Stine Jacobsen; Additional reporting by Jemima Kelly; Editing by Catherine EvansAll quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. 2018 Reuters. All Rights Reserved. Show less

A recent local report in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) describes a new cryptocurrency fraud on Facebook that pretended to be nothing less than the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed. The scammers did not just stop there, but went further to claim that they will be helping investors to gain large profits from trading Bitcoin.Apparently, the scam did succeed in tricking many unsuspecting users by using the crown prince name as well as his multiple titles such as the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, and claiming that he had earlier invited people to invest in a crypto scheme (whose cost is Dh1,000 or about $270) that would make them rich within seven days of investment.An endorsement by the crown prince himself was more than enough for thousands of people to immediately get lured into the Bitcoin scheme whilst interested participants did not mind sharing their phone numbers as well as email addresses with these criminals.Accordingly to the report, Facebook ultimately decided to act after many submitted complaints by deleting the crypto scams page that was operating from both Argentina and Ukraine. The page had operated freely for weeks, and apparently as a Facebook ad as well, before it was finally shut down.While all the investigation is still ongoing, finding out all the details about this fraudulent activity, citizens have been advised to check the genuineness of any campaign they come across. These kind of shady campaigns usually ask for either donations or pledges, while they usually operate online and on social media platforms without an actual physical location.How the Crypto Fraudsters Operated As expected, first of all they made use of a promotional post (advertisement) that aided in directing people to the fake story which was clearly unsolicited in the news feed of UAE residents.This post had the crown princes picture and was marked as being sponsored. Also, it included a fake quote which was surely not real, yet it claimed to be made by the crown prince saying that the Bitcoin scheme was actually his way of giving back to his beloved people. The scam also directed users via links to other scams, which unsuspecting victims did not only like or comment on, but they also went further to share the post on Facebook, increasing the scope of the fraud.After Facebook brought the page down, the government of Abu Dhabi made its own responsible move to educate and remind its citizens that they will need to be much more cautious of fraud, especially those that take place on the web. Residents were also urged to verify whatever information that comes their way by checking with some official channels before responding and investing in such schemes.A digital marketing expert based in Dubai said he was surprised at the way people responded to the scam without suspecting a thing. He has been residing in Dubai for roughly two years, and he also made mention of Facebook stepping up in being more vigilant with every content the social network promotes.Everything about the scheme was fake, including the name of the author that told readers his success story of making Dh26,000 within three days. Instead of the picture of Michael Alvarado (the person who claims to be the writer), the picture he used was that of a United States based freelance journalist known as Timothy Seppala.This is not the first time that crypto fraudsters use the name of celebrities and known figures to entice users. Previously, the name and photos of renowned actor William Shatner , famous tech entrepreneur Elon Musk and even New Zealands Prime Minister were exploited to promote similar cryptocurrency scams.Sharing Is Caring:Related Posts: Abu Dhabi Ports Explores Blockchain-Based System for CargoAlternative Data Explains Why Bitcoin SuddenlySony and Fujitsu to Combat Fake Japanese ProficiencyMultiple Fake Twitter Accounts of Elon Musk PushBrazilian Presidential Candidate Haddad Puts Show less

Contributors at CROWN, a blockchain-as-a-service DAO, are working withCYBR, a blockchain-focused holistic cybersecurity platform, to helpstrengthen the security of the CROWN PLATFORM and its users, as well asexploring ways of deploying a NFT security certificate framework for CYBRs services.CYBRs Ecosystem is made up of multiple systems which protect the integrityof smart contract transactions, recognize and neutralize threats, andidentify security flaws in almost any IP-enabled device. Whencombined, these components provide a state-of-the-art cybersecuritysuite that can learn and adapt to new threats and vulnerabilities.CYBR Founder ShawnKey:Crown is a perfect example of the type of collaborative ethos that drives blockchain development forward. Im excited to work with the CROWN community to help make the platform more secure for its end users and customers.Jose, Community CCO atCrown:At the heart of Crowns success lies the security of our Platform and its infrastructure. Partnering with CYBR gives us both the ability to analyse and verify the robustness of our systems while exploring ways of deploying security certificates for CYBR in form ofNFTs.Both CROWN and CYBR have built functioning ecosystems, allowing businesses or individuals to start securely using blockchain services.ABOUT CYBR:The CYBR Ecosystem is a holistic, cyber security solution for theblockchain which ensures secure smart transactions occur via a portaldesigned to provide real-time safeguards, countermeasures and threatintelligence to the CYBR community as well as other crypto entitiesand exchanges who rely on their cybersecurity solutions. CYBRcommercializes and monetizes emerging threat intelligence by turningthe data into actionable intelligence. Show less

Radio Prague reports that a new digital currency called Czech Crown Coin (CZC) will be made available in the Czech Republic in September as the country’s local alternative to other, global cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. CZC was launched by a group involved in broadcast media, including Ladislav Faith, a cameraman at commercial TV broadcaster TV Nova, who said the project was fully supported in the Czech Republic and the currency would be reserved for Czech citizens. In practice, half of the reported total allocation of 100 million coins will be reserved for Czechs, dependent on registration. The remainder will be released later, over the next four to 10 years. Faith said he expected CZC would eventually be traded internationally. Not everyone is convinced the new digital currency is a great idea, questioning whether CZC will garner enough interest to truly take off. On the day CZC was announced, it did not take long for hackers to try to hit the currency’s website, czechcrowncoin.com. Fatih said that hackers from Russia and the Czech Republic had launched attack, but they had been successfully defeated; additionally, security was further enhanced. However, the site was not fully functional in the early afternoon on Thursday as had been planned, according to sources. As a cryptocurrency, CZC falls within a grey area without regulation and support by institutions such as the central bank, which is not thrilled by the prospect. The Czech National Bank warns consumers of prospective risks, such as price volatility, and called the name chosen for the digital currency misleading and unfortunate, altogether too similar to the name of the republic’s official currency, the Czech crown. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Enter your email address to subscribe to CoinReport and receive latest news notifications in email. Show less

By Darren Allan 2018-02-09T15:46:46.39Z Internet   Bitcoin is becoming a less popular virtual coin among cybercriminals and other users that inhabit the dark web, with other lesser-known alternative cryptocurrencies starting to usurp it, according to a new report. Once the firm favorite of ransomware peddlers everywhere – with demands inevitably made in Bitcoin – the currency’s mainstream success means that it’s now being eschewed by criminal types. As Recorded Future, a threat intelligence outfit, observes, the overall growing popularity of Bitcoin is bad news for two reasons: more users means slower transaction times and also higher fees, both of which dampen profitability. Slower transactions are a particular pain point for criminal types, because the longer the delay in the payment being processed, the more chance there is of things falling through or someone being ripped off – given the (unsurprising) rife distrust among the dark web community at large. Therefore, while Bitcoin still remains the most-trafficked cryptocurrency on the dark web, cybercriminals are currently moving away from it. Recorded Future reckons that in as soon as six months – or possibly up to a year away – Bitcoin will no longer be the most popular virtual currency. Instead, the firm reckons that Litecoin is likely to claim the throne as king of dark web transactions, as it’s the second most accepted virtual currency right now (30% of all vendors on the dark web accept it). This is according to an analysis of some 150 of the most prominent dark web message boards and marketplaces. Recorded Future’s research stems back to mid-2016, when criminals apparently first began airing dissatisfaction with Bitcoin. At that time, it seemed like Dash would be the alternative coin to steal the latter’s crown, but the researchers soon changed their opinion to Litecoin. Although Dash still remains the third most accepted cryptocurrency on the dark web right now (it’s happily received by 20% of all vendors on the dark web). Note that Bitcoin won’t disappear entirely from the dark web, according to the researchers. It will still remain one of the ‘main payment’ cryptocurrencies, just with a ‘significantly’ smaller market share. What does all this mean in a broader sense? Well, it potentially brings up some interesting pointers as to which cryptocurrencies may be due for an upward spike in the future, for those willing to tread into the volatile minefield of virtual currencies. Other than that, going forward, if you’re unfortunate enough to suffer the ravages of ransomware, you might just find a demand for Litecoin or an alternative currency rather than the traditional Bitcoin. Whatever the demand, though, it would likely be unwise to pay it, as we’ve discussed previously. This buyers guide focuses on the red hot market of ruggedised mobile computing, covering laptops, 2-in-1 devices, smartphones as well as storage and software. TechRadar is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site. Show less

Alex Dovbnya (aka AlexMorris) is a cryptocurrency expert, trader and journalist with extensive experience of covering everything related to the burgeoning industry — from price analysis to Blockchain disruption. Alex authored more than 1,000 stories for U.Today, CryptoComes and other fintech media outlets. He’s particularly interested in regulatory trends around the globe that are shaping the future of digital assets, can be contacted at alex.dovbnya@u.today. ", "sameAs": ["https://twitter.com/alexmorrisut","https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-dovbnya-894527174/","https://www.facebook.com/alex.dovbnya.56"] } ] } BitMEX Failing to Win Back Its Bitcoin (BTC) Futures Crown: Research Tue, 04/21/2020 - 14:38 BitMEX continues losing its market share after the March 12 Bitcoin (BTC) price collapse that shifted the balance of power in the futures market Cover image via stock.adobe.com Contents In its freshly printed “State of the Network” report, cryptocurrency research firm CoinMetrics has dissected the downfall of cryptocurrency derivatives giant BitMEX.  The exchange is still struggling to get back on its feet after the “Black Thursday” of March 12 when BTC lost nearly half of its value.  BitMEX played a very special role in the historic Bitcoin (BTC) price collapse. As explained by FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, its liquidation engine was on the verge of sending the price to zero, but the exchange went offline due to a DDoS attack when BTC staged a massive comeback.  According to CoinMetrics, the amount of BTC held by the platform of the leading future witnessed a massive decrease in one month since the dramatic even.  image by coinmetrics.substack.com Despite stabilizing recently, it still has significantly fewer coins in its coffers compared to the pre-crash levels. The report states that traders were withdrawing their idle capital en masse.   BitMEX’s share of volume and open interest in the Bitcoin futures market has also declined precipitously, which also explains the exchange’s shrinking Bitcoin holdings. Binance, the leading crypto-to-crypto exchange, thrived off BitMEX’s failures. As reported by U.Today, it pushed BitMEX out of the top three biggest futures trading exchanges by volume in late March.  This is a new crude reality for BitMEX, which commanded a whopping 80 percent of the market back in September 2018.      Alex Dovbnya (aka AlexMorris) is a cryptocurrency expert, trader and journalist with extensive experience of covering everything related to the burgeoning industry — from price analysis to Blockchain disruption. Alex authored more than 1,000 stories for U.Today, CryptoComes and other fintech media outlets. He’s particularly interested in regulatory trends around the globe that are shaping the future of digital assets, can be contacted at alex.dovbnya@u.today. Show less