Crypto law firm Silver Miller announced on Wednesday, 26 Dec, the start of a new federal court lawsuit against Jeremy Spence, the alleged operator of a crypto Ponzi scheme.The law firm continues fighting alleged investment scams and fraudulent cryptocurrency operations. Silver Miller currently has pending actions against the Coinbase, Kraken, BitConnect, and Cryptsy exchanges as well as ICO promoters Tezos and Monkey Capital.Spence is alleged to have sold investments through a “sham entity” named Coin Signals. Pretending to be a cryptocurrency trader managing a set of hedge funds, he is accused of soliciting numerous investors worldwide. However, the lawsuit claims that he did not invest the collected money. Instead, he is alleged to have distributed the funds obtained from new investors as investment profits while keeping large sums for personal use, thus operating a Ponzi scheme.According to Silver Miller, Spence “purported to be managing investor assets valued at more than $5,000,000.”

Bitcoin, which was looking to break bearish in the past week, rejected yet another attempt to fall below $9000. The price of Bitcoin at 5: 30 hours UTC on 20th August 2019 is $10,796. It is trading 2.83% higher on a daily scale.BTC/USD 1-Day Chart on Bitstamp (TradingView)The Bakkt announcement has had a significant positive effect on market sentiments. Moreover, Bitcoins primary utility at this time is a safe haven, hence, the rise was being attributed to the growing unrest in Hong-Kong. However, there are significant concerns about whether the correlation is real or just speculation.Jeremy Allaire, CEO at Circle mentioned in a recent interview that the ideology of Bitcoin as a safe haven surely gets a push in areas where intense concern about capital control is there. However, one cannot measure at any given time the correlation to speculation or actual buying from the affected regions.Moreover, he also added that last week was a significant kind of risk-off week for equities, meaning that investors seemed to be moving to less risky assets. While this can again be a positive signal for Bitcoin, he also warned that Bitcoin is already up about 200% in the last 9 months, therefore, they might look to book their profits there as well.G7 Expectations: Good or Bad?The G7 Conference will convene on the 24 August, 15 nations along with the FAFTFinancial Action Task Force (on Money Laundering) will discuss on the matter.The FAFT recently implemented the travel rule guidelines for crypto exchanges and service providers to tackle the problem of money laundering through crypto.Moreover, any restrictive law imposition or negative view of Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies could adversely affect the price.Joe Kernen asked Jeremy about the focus on crypto that can be expected in it. He said,Crypto as an agenda item is absolutely on the docket. Its becoming obviously an agenda item Not just because of the growth in Bitcoin, but also stablecoin like the US dollar coin and LibraNevertheless, he does not expect any specific policies to be announced. He only expects them to reveal their perspective on it.Will the perspective be positive or negative? Please share your views with us.The post Jeremy Allaire Analyses Recent Growth in Bitcoin and Expectations from G7 appeared first on Coingape.Source: coingape

The largest AMA event in Bitcoin history started a little while ago, and some great questions were asked. Both Gavin Andresen — Bitcoin Geek and Bitcoin Core developer — and Jeremy Allaire — CEO of Circle — took their time to answer any and all questions coming their way. We have listed some of the most interesting questions and answers below. Also read: Bitcoin’s Security in the Internet of Things One of the more obvious questions would be whether or not Gavin Andresen knows who Satoshi Nakamoto is, or whether he and Satoshi are one and the same. It became crystal clear this is not the case, although that doesn’t diminish Gavin’s passion for Bitcoin in the slightest. However, that doesn’t mean Bitcoin’s technology will be interesting enough in x amount of years from now. “Eventually the technology behind Bitcoin will stop being interesting to me– and that’s when I’ll wander off and try to find something else to keep me busy.That might surprise some people– after all, if I believe that Bitcoin will have a positive impact on the world, why not work on it forever? I’ll feel comfortable stepping away because Bitcoin gets the incentives right– there are lots of people with strong incentives to see Bitcoin succeed, and any one person’s ability to help make Bitcoin succeed becomes smaller and smaller over time.” Bitcoin could benefit from various technological innovations, but bringing these features to this popular digital currency is a different matter altogether. When asked which feature Gavin would love to bring to Bitcoin, assuming it can be done bug-free and without impacting performance, he answered “better transaction privacy.” Quite an interesting choice, which will undoubtedly spur many future discussions. On the topic of how we need to push Bitcoin adoption over the next few years: “How will an ordinary person, going about their everyday business of living their life, obtain some bitcoin? Or what will motivate them to go out of their way to get some? I don’t know the answer, but until there IS an answer I think pushing more merchant adoption for brick & mortar merchants will be mostly a waste of time (there’s a better case to be made for online merchants who want to sell their products to a worldwide audience).” All in all, there were a ton of interesting questions being asked, and it is well worth your time to check out the Gavin Andresen AMA thread on the Bitcoin.com forum. It is positive to see the general success of this AMA event so far, even though this was just the first of many days. Even companies like Circle find themselves talking to major ecosystem players at regular intervals. Keeping in mind there is an ongoing debate regarding Bitcoin and the block size issue, these discussions are of great importance to all companies active in the digital currency ecosystem. Jeremy Allaire stated it as follows: “I think companies and projects that have built on the bitcoin network would really like to see these issues addressed. We’ve publicly said we think that the BIP 101 proposal is a reasonable solution, though we’d be happy to see another consensus proposal emerge soon. The bigger issue is what this lack of results represents, which is a complete breakdown in the ability of the ecosystem and development community to meaningfully iterate on and improve bitcoin, and highlights the weakness of not having a more formal standards process for the evolution of this platform.” Most of the questions asked revolved around Circle and how the company is positioning itself towards customers. With all of the regulatory requirements to take into account, Circle recently defaulted their online wallets to USD balance, rather than denominating it in Bitcoin. Some people feel the company wants to “distance itself from Bitcoin,” although this is just a way of creating a consumer payment app to make storing and using money easier. On the topic of the newly formed Blockchain Alliance, Jeremy Allaire stated: “I think a lot of the reaction to this org being formed were / are overblown, implying some kind of secret operating relationships, or sharing customer records, and a lot of other crazy stuff. My understanding is that every quarter or so compliance and risk staff from companies can meet with law enforcement counterparts to share what they are learning.” Make sure to read through the entire thread on the Bitcoin.com forum to see what else you have missed out on. A lot more questions were asked regarding various topics, and all of them were answered by Jeremy Allaire. All in all, the first day of this Bitcoin AMA event has been eventful, and there is much more to come! By the time you are reading this article, Wences Casares, Oron Barber, and Kristov Atlas will have been answering dozens of questions on the Bitcoin.com forum. To keep the show trucking along, there will be three more prominent names making appearances over the next two days. Up first, Juan Garavaglia — CEO of RootStock.io — will be gladly waiting for any questions our amazing Bitcoin community might have. On November 5th, there will be a double header, as both Ben Davenport and Bruce Fenton will partake in this Bitcoin AMA event. BitGo has been the frontrunner regarding Bitcoin security, and it will be interesting to see what kind of questions Ben Davenport will be facing during his AMA slot on the Bitcoin.com forum. The name Bruce Fenton will need no further introduction; this person is known well by the entire Bitcoin community. 2015 has been a slightly turbulent year for the Bitcoin Foundation, and you can rest assured Bruce Fenton will have a thing or two to say about that, assuming is brave enough to ask the right questions. Who are you looking forward to over the next few days? Let us know in the comments below! Images courtesy of Bitcoin.com, Gavin Andresen, Jeremy Allaire https://t.co/lhsBTbpv8p #bch pic.twitter.com/5vE55uBMXo This week, the text messaging platform Cointext announced the public launch of its feature service that allows anyone with a mobile phone to transact with bitcoin cash (BCH) without internet services… read more. https://t.co/vRHIpxTpKd #bitcoinjobs #jobhunt #cryptojobs pic.twitter.com/4gs4muoiiP News.Bitcoin.com is Hiring Editorial Staff – In Tokyo, Stockholm and Your Town. Are you an experienced news editor or a news reporter with a nose for crypto? We are on a roll – increasing our readership every day – serving millions of readers each month… read more. Introducing the Simple to Use and Robust https://t.co/UtJJm8netW Wallet https://t.co/w5xA4uDpU9 #bitcoinwallet pic.twitter.com/hB4KCBzqjL Download the Bitcoin.com Wallet right to your device for easy and secure access to your bitcoins. Perfect for beginners, the Bitcoin.com Wallet makes using and holding bitcoins easy. No logins required. Facebook has recently made some changes to show you less news and more family-oriented pics and videos – even though you’ve previously subscribed. Here’s how to make Facebook show you our content again; Facebook has recently made some changes to show you less news. Here’s how to make Facebook show you our content again; a. Visit our Facebook Page https://t.co/d5QIuhCFPt b. Click the “Follow” button under our cover image. c. Select the “See first” option. pic.twitter.com/tFmrF73WQ7 — Bitcoin News (@BTCTN) February 19, 2018 1. Visit the Bitcoin.com Facebook Page. 2. Click the “Follow” button under our cover image. 3. Select the “See first” option. Get the latest price charts, statistics and our news feed on your site. Check out our widget services. We also deliver bite-sized news to your favourite messaging app; join our Telegram channel.

The drama surrounding the Bitcoin community reached a fever pitch a couple of weeks ago when the Asicboost “exploit” was revealed by Gregory Maxwell. This revelation exacerbated infighting between Bitcoin Core and Bitcoin Unlimited, especially since some have claimed that BU supporters have tried to block Segwit activation in order to take advantage of Asicboost’s 30% performance hike. However, many people reject claims that Asicboost is a “hack” or “exploit,” and instead they call it an optimization.  Also read: Developers Clash Over Accusations of “Exploit” and Secret Core Organization Bitcoin.com has had the opportunity to speak with a developer that has been researching Asicboost. We reached out to Jeremy Rubin to get his professional take on whether Asicboost is an exploit or an optimization, because he recently penned a fascinating article explaining its ins and outs. We also asked him to clarify for our nontechnical readers the differences between a hard fork and a soft fork. Bitcoin.com (BC): Tell me a little about your background and history with Bitcoin and cryptography? Jeremy Rubin (JR): I graduated MIT in 2016 with an SB in Computer Science and Engineering and a Masters of Engineering in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. I wrote my thesis under Professor Ron Rivest. I first got into Bitcoin in 2011. In 2013, I did a project called Tidbit which aimed to replace ad-monetization with cryptocurrency mining. We became embroiled in a legal battle with the State of New Jersey. In 2014, I launched a project to distribute $100 in Bitcoin to every MIT undergrad. In 2015 I co-founded the MIT Digital Currency Initiative (the DCI) which, at its launch, employed Wladimir, Cory, and Gavin. That year I also co-founded the Scaling Bitcoin conference series and served as the first Program Chair. I am currently a freelance Bitcoin developer, contributing to Bitcoin Core, doing basic research on cryptocurrency, as well as teaching. BC: What exactly is Asicboost and what is your history with it? JR: I heard about Asicboost a while back, but didn’t pay much attention to it. I then read Greg’s email more recently and spent some time working through all the claims; I published my notes on the subject here. I have no other history with Asicboost. Previously I did participate in an effort (led by Patrick Murck, Kat Walsh, and Elizabeth Stark, and others if memory serves) to coordinate opening up the patent space in Bitcoin. I don’t think that our patent system is very compatible with an open standards based technology community like Bitcoin. But I don’t recall anyone being aware of Asicboost at that time (the year prior to the announcement of Asicboost). BC: Is Asicboost an optimization or exploit? JR: In my opinion, Asicboost is primarily an optimization. This is not mutually exclusive with it being an exploit; the difficulties around utilizing Asicboost and implications of certain ways of using Asicboost might lend itself to compromising the balance of hashpower on the network, but that is a separate, more involved, discussion. It’s a little bit like asking if a knife is a tool or a weapon. In either case, it is a tool, but it’s weapon status is dependent on what it is used for. BC: Judging by your article, it appears that Asicboost could be used by miners in a fair and useful way. Did I read this correctly? JR: Yes. Asicboost, in both it’s overt and covert (I actually dislike that terminology) can be used in a reasonable way. But I think Asicboost interacts with our understanding of Bitcoin in unexpected ways. I dislike the terminology overt and covert. I find that dichotomy to be disingenuous to the problem underlying Asicboost. In my opinion, it is completely acceptable to have something like Asicboost covertly or overtly. I prefer terminology such as Gnostic and Agnostic Proof of Work because I think that is closer to the heart of the matter. The chief consideration is the extent to which the optimization interferes with Bitcoin protocol development and Bitcoin’s consensus guarantees (i.e., if the Proof of Work is agnostic to the underlying protocol). If that bears out to be the case that the way Asicboost works is gnostic to the protocol, it’s going to require much more careful thought on how to compromise. I believe Greg Maxwell’s proposal has a lot of the right ideas if miners use Asicboost in a protocol upgrade incompatible way, but I think that the suggested solution forces Asicboost to be more overt (by modifying the version bits) is deficient. I’d like to see a solution that keeps Asicboost covert while making it compatible with protocol changes, but I know that Greg spent a fair amount of time making his proposal to be minimally disruptive to Asicboost so it’s unclear there is a better compromise. I threw together a quick diagram. The current state of affairs, according to Greg’s e-mail is the black dot. Greg’s proposal moves it to the white dot. I’d like to see a solution that is the red dot. I can’t imagine wanting a solution like the ‘X’! BC: What are the differences between a hard fork and soft fork? JR: I think an easy way to think both hard and soft forks are like going to sleep and waking up in a Twilight Zone episode. In both situations, there’s something off or unexpected about how everyone is acting. A hard fork is a bit like waking up to everything being in a new language. You’ll obviously not be able to communicate. A soft fork equivalent would be eliminating double negatives from the language–you might not even notice that anything was different (until you try to tell someone, “I don’t want nothing”, and they don’t understand what you are asking for). So both bear risks, but in general a soft fork is designed to be less surprising and cause less network disruption. Both soft and hard forks are on a continuum, some soft forks look a lot more like hard forks, but the distinction I laid (hard fork: changing the rules; soft fork: tightening the existing rules) is generally accurate. Do you believe Asicboost is more of an exploit or an optimization? Let us know in the comments below! Images courtesy of linkedin.com, Jeremy Rubin, and Shutterstock Do you want to talk about bitcoin in a comfortable (and censorship-free) environment? Check out the Bitcoin.com Forums — all the big players in Bitcoin have posted there, and we welcome all opinions. https://t.co/MEllI7R6jt #bch pic.twitter.com/5W0utZBfYP This week the Bitcoin ABC developers officially announced the much anticipated Bitcoin Cash network hard fork on May 15… read more. https://t.co/vRHIpxTpKd #bitcoinjobs #jobhunt #cryptojobs pic.twitter.com/4gs4muoiiP News.Bitcoin.com is Hiring Editorial Staff – In Tokyo, Stockholm and Your Town. Are you an experienced news editor or a news reporter with a nose for crypto? We are on a roll – increasing our readership every day – serving millions of readers each month… read more. Introducing the Simple to Use and Robust https://t.co/UtJJm8netW Wallet https://t.co/w5xA4uDpU9 #bitcoinwallet pic.twitter.com/hB4KCBzqjL Download the Bitcoin.com Wallet right to your device for easy and secure access to your bitcoins. Perfect for beginners, the Bitcoin.com Wallet makes using and holding bitcoins easy. No logins required. Facebook has recently made some changes to show you less news and more family-oriented pics and videos – even though you’ve previously subscribed. Here’s how to make Facebook show you our content again; Facebook has recently made some changes to show you less news. Here’s how to make Facebook show you our content again; a. Visit our Facebook Page https://t.co/d5QIuhCFPt b. Click the “Follow” button under our cover image. c. Select the “See first” option. pic.twitter.com/tFmrF73WQ7 — Bitcoin News (@BTCTN) February 19, 2018 1. Visit the Bitcoin.com Facebook Page. 2. Click the “Follow” button under our cover image. 3. Select the “See first” option. Get the latest price charts, statistics and our news feed on your site. Check out our widget services. We also deliver bite-sized news to your favourite messaging app; join our Telegram channel.

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Circle:What : Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire will be the lone crypto-industry representative testifying before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs during a hearing titled, Examining Regulatory Frameworks for Digital Currencies and Blockchain.When : Tuesday, July 30, at 10 am ETWhere : Dirksen Senate Office Building 538. You can watch the livestream here.Testimony: You can now read Jeremys testimony HERE.About Jeremy Allaire :Jeremy Allaire is a technologist and entrepreneur who has built and led multiple global internet technology firms with thousands of employees, hundreds of millions of consumers served, and multiple successful public offerings on NASDAQ. Today, Mr. Allaire is the co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Circle, a global crypto financial services company that provides individuals, institutions and entrepreneurs with a platform to invest in, store, trade and use digital assets, and raise capital through online securities offerings.Mr. Allaire has provided expert testimony on cryptocurrencies and digital assets before US Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Government Affairs, he has been named to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) High-Level Advisory Group on FinTech by Managing Director of the IMF, Christine Lagarde, and has provided testimony and policy recommendations at the highest levels inside of key financial regulatory and law enforcement agencies across the US, UK, Europe and Asia. Mr. Allaire frequently participates in international forums focused on the future of the international monetary and economic system.About Circle :Circle was founded in 2013 on the belief that public blockchains and crypto-assets would replace the worlds closed, proprietary financial systems, allowing everyone everywhere to participate in an economy that is fairer, more inclusive, and more accessible.Circle is the most regulated crypto company in the world, with an E-Money Issuer License to operate in the European Economic Area, Money Transmitter Licenses in 48 US states, and the first BitLicense to be awarded by the New York Department of Financial Services. Circle also operates and is licensed as Broker-Dealer and Alternative Trading System by FINRA, and recently received a comprehensive Digital Assets Business License in Bermuda for its international operations.Contacts SutherlandGold for CircleYalda Rafiecircle@sutherlandgold.com

Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire Links Bitcoin Surge to US-China Trade War 2 min readPosted by August 7, 2019News by Altcoin Buzz: Jeremy Allaire, CEO of crypto financial services firm Circle, believes that the sudden rally of Bitcoin relates to the US-China Trade War. The CEO called Bitcoin a safe haven during economic turmoil.In an interview with CNCBs Squawk Box, Jeremy Allaire discussed why Bitcoin climbed over the weekend. According to Allaire, investors are embracing Bitcoin as a safe haven amid the US-China trade war.When talking about the sudden surge of Bitcoin, relating it to China devaluing its currency, the yuan, Jeremy Allaire praised bitcoin as a reliable store of value during stock market turmoil. Allaire said:Humanity has now created a non sovereign, highly secure mechanism to store value that can exist anywhere that the internet exists. Its uncensorable, its unseizable.Andrew Ross Sorkin, co-anchor of CNBCs Squawk Box, questioned if the Bitcoin rally is really caused by Chinese investors diverging money in other assets like Bitcoin. According to Sorkin, it is not easy to buy Bitcoin in China. Allaire responded:There is a lot of Chinese national participation in this market. There are many large offshore exchanges, he added, which people are using to bet on the industry.Allaire furthermore explained that despite Chinas crypto crackdowns, theres a significant amount of crypto activity in China through offshore platforms. Therefore, it is not strange to see Chinese investors flooding money into bitcoin.

In an interview with CNBCs Squawk Box, Jeremy Allaire expressed his optimism regarding Bitcoin, which according to Allaire can still be a safe haven for investors amid the US-China trade war.Jeremy Allaire said to CNBC:Clearly, a non-sovereign digital asset like Bitcoin is attractive to people who are interested in moving capital into a place where they can control it themselves. That underscores a lot of interest thats been there over time. Its the digital gold thesis, and I think a lot of both institutional accumulators of Bitcoin, individuals, very specifically individuals in jurisdictions or environments where the intense concern about capital controls are there. Thats an underlying thesis that I think has had an impact on it for the last eight years.Allaire further commented around some causes for thevolatility of the Bitcoin and said:Obviously, Bitcoin is up over 100%, almost 200% over the past 9 months or so, thats a place to take some gains as well. Depending on the type of holder, so to speak, youre going to see slightly different behaviors during these market moves.Its not the first time that Allaire discusses Bitcoin as a safe haven for investors. Earlier this month, the Circle CEO told CNBC the same thing.See the full interview with Jeremy Allaire here:

By CCN.com: Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire says humanity can’t survive the digital age without crypto because its decentralized nature and resiliency make it indispensable. Allaire made the remarks at the 2019 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.Allaire says cryptocurrency skeptics are merely that way because they’re unfamiliar with the new technology.“People throw around ‘crypto’ like it’s a bad thing — it’s scary,” Allaire said January 23. “Guess what? Cryptography is at the foundation of protecting modern society, human privacy. It’s a fundamental tool of our cyber defenses. It’s a fundamental tool of every corporation.”Allaire pointed out that modern society relies on digital infrastructure. Accordingly, humanity ultimately won’t be able to survive the digital age without digital currencies.“Crypto is fundamental to the future,” he said. “We need tamper-proof, resilient, decentralized infrastructure if we want society to survive the digital age.”We see this as much more transformative even than the web. We think this has a long arc that will have a far greater impact on our civic institutions and our economic institutions.Circle CEO made the case for cryptocurrencies at the 2019 World Economic Forum in Davos.Some believe that traditional bankers love to trash crypto because they’re secretly threatened that cryptocurrencies will render legacy financial institutions obsolete. However, Jeremy Allaire insists that central banks and the crypto ecosystem can co-exist.“We’re huge proponents of central bank digital currency and we believed in that for a very long time,” Allaire says. “Our view is that the creation of cryptocurrencies that are based on central bank money is happening in the private sector first. We launched USD Coin last fall. It’s growing rapidly.”Allaire says cryptocurrencies are versatile because they can run over a blockchain that works interoperably with tens of millions of digital wallets around the world.It can be used in lending transactions, in payment transactions. It allows you to make dollar payments, globally, at pennies and in seconds to minutes. It’s a really powerful innovation.Jeremy Allaire basically double-downed on his bullish outlook from December 2018. At the height of the bear market, Allaire predicted that the bitcoin price will rocket over the next three years.Regardless of its daily price, Allaire believes bitcoin has a “very significant role” to play as a scarce, non-sovereign store of value.Bitcoin Price Will Soar over Next Three Years: Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire https://t.co/cJAQFUEzrjHowever, not everyone at Davos is bullish about cryptocurrencies.As CCN reported, Huw van Steenis — the senior adviser to Bank of England Governor Mark Carney — trashed crypto as worthless.Crypto is Worthless, Fails Basic Financial Tests: Bank of England Adviser https://t.co/tDsyv1wk7TSimilarly, PayPal CEO Dan Schulman is skeptical that bitcoin will achieve mass adoption by merchants because he says it’s not a currency and it’s inconvenient.“We’re not seeing many retailers at all accept any of the cryptocurrencies,” Schulman said.Some on Twitter reacted to Schulman’s anti-bitcoin shade by noting that less than 1% of the world used PayPal when it first launched. And look at it now. So the moral is: Revolutions take time.https://t.co/OhdHMUyHXv Please just SHUT UP with your blurbs, are you just pretending to be stupid? I remember when less than 1% of the world used Paypal, however after years of adoption of their tools and concepts they eventually grew. #decentralize #CoinLogiq #DASH pic.twitter.com/o4BDhna7xWSamantha Chang is a politics writer at BizPac Review and a financial editor. She is a law school graduate and an alum of the University of Pennsylvania. You can follow her on Twitter at Samantha_Chang.

Bitcoin price has lost more than 9 percent of its value in the past 24 hours. But according to Jeremy Allaire, the cryptocurrency is a winner in the long term.The Circle CEO said Thursday during a Reddit AMA that bitcoin would become more significant as a store of value than as a payment and settlement protocol. He predicted that there would be millions of different crypto assets in the future and each one of them will serve a specific purpose. Fiat currency assets and stablecoins, for instance, will be used for payments and settlements while commodity assets will act as a fuel for utilizing protocols, networks, and applications.“Our view,” explained Allaire, “is that crypto assets will continue to increase in all their forms […] We [think] SOV assets like Bitcoin will become much much larger and more broadly adopted and those other crypto assets will be used in an incredibly broad array of everyday transactions.”Critics argue that bitcoin would be anything but a store of value unless it becomes stable. Janet Yellen, the former chief of the Federal Reserve, said last year that the coin was not an efficient mean of processing payments. Financial service firm Allianz also dismissed Bitcoin in its 2018 report, saying that the cryptocurrency had no intrinsic value in contrast to the fellow store of value assets like sovereign bonds, equities or paper money.Bitcoin price dropped more than 9% Thursday in corrective sell-off | Source: TradingView.comHowever, believers counterargue by saying that even the US Dollar has no intrinsic value: that the only reason why people trust the greenback is that they have faith in their government. That also helps clarify the nostalgia for the Gold standard, when the government papers had their supply measured by the amount of the precious metal they held.“Dig a bit deeper, and it becomes clear that gold itself has no intrinsic value,” wrote Zachary Karabell, the head of Global Strategies Envestnet. “Its supply is limited (as is bitcoin, a strength of the digital currency), creating a relationship between supply and demand that cannot easily be manipulated.”‘Big Four’ audit firm KPMG also believed that bitcoin could attain a store of value asset, providing institutions start backing it in large scale. But unless then, the cryptocurrency will likely remain speculative owing to its broader exposure to volatile retail markets.Allaire hinted that focus from bitcoin had to be shifted to enable crypto ecosystem for real-time user adoption. He said that stablecoins like Circle USD (Ticker: USDC) are more attractive, providing they innovate to scale the throughput and reduce transaction costs to zero. Setting their agenda for 2019, Allaire confirmed that Circle would expand USDC’s adoption among retailers.“Centre’s initial release of the USDC smart contract and scheme relies on ERC-20 tokens, which right now means that there’s a bit of a burden on the end-user to have wallets where they pay gas fees and the like,” stated Allaire. “We believe that we need Layer 2 approaches that can radically scale the throughput and lower the cost to closer to zero for USDC payments, combined with much much better consumer payment UX than what you see in crypto wallets today.”Allaire also announced that would seek support from payment processing companies and merchant acquirers to integrate USDC into their solutions.Yashu Gola has been working as a cryptocurrency analyst/journalist since 2013. He is an information technology graduate, a cryptography junkie, a filmmaking enthusiast, and an avid reader of Jon Erickson, Agatha Christie, JK Rowling, and Isaac Asimov.

Circle CEO, Jeremy Allaire, opined that China has the most open-minded way to deal with CBDCs (central bank digital currencies) to date. Further, Allaire said in a recent interview on Phoenix Chinese News that Chinas national bank has the most forward-thinking considering Central Bank Digital Currencies.Chinas Phoenix TV interviewed Circle CEO @jerallaire on CBDCs, the internationalization of the Yuan, the rise of USD Coin and the rapidly growing global stablecoin phenomenon.Full interview: https://t.co/Ru29jhLUTjpic.twitter.com/bxTtqk7Ktb Circle (@circlepay) September 10, 2019As per Allaire, Peoples Bank of China (PBoC) is the only worldwide central bank that is dealing with the CBDC starting from Research and development point of view. Moreover, the Circle CEO proclaimed that the PBoC gives off an impression of being the most noteworthy central bank to initiate a digital currency commercially, summing up that there is nobody else on the planet that is anywhere close to this project.Regardless, Allaires positive declaration about the PBoC activities in the CBDC space comes in the midst of the launch of another Chinese yuan-pegged stablecoin, CNHT, by Tether, a major stablecoin firm. The organization authoritatively reported the news recently, clarifying that the new stablecoin is secured to the offshore yuan, which will allegedly make it free of the fiscal policies of Beijing.Allaire further showed interest in the potential exchange of the PBoCs CBDC with stablecoins pegged to the United States dollar. Also, he stated:For us, weve been working for multiple years on the US Dollar coin thats been growing very fast. And I think that were excited to see how things like the Chinese central bank digital currency could eventually interact or be traded with things like US Dollar coin.Besides, as indicated by unconfirmed reports, the Peoples Bank of China is allegedly setting up its first-ever CBDC with Alibaba, online retail giant, Tencent, Internet Giant, five financial associations and one unknown element, as announced in late August. Further, a local news office also affirmed a month ago that the nation is right to step its foot into digital currency space before the end of the current year as the national bank is practically ready with the eagerly anticipated launch of its Facebooks Libra-motivated digital currency.Over and above, the US dollar coin has seen enormous development potential until now, and besides, the Chinese national banks coin might need to face a severe conflict to challenge it, moreover, there will be a question that individuals, in the end, will use the US dollar coin to trade, opines Allaire with a trace of interest.Source link Continue ReadingYou may also like...Thai Oil and Gas Firm Develops Blockchain-Based Renewables PlatformBinance U.S. to start accepting account registrations; will initially support six assetsCEO Jamie Dimon Says that JP Morgan is Preparing for Risks from Zero Interest in the USPrice Analysis 11/09: BTC, ETH, XRP, BCH, LTC, BNB, EOS, BSV, XMR, ADARelated Topics:Allaire, approach, Blockchain, CBDCs, CEO, China, Circle, Crypto, Cryptocurrency, Ethereum, ICO, Jeremy, Openminded, statesClick to commentThis site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

More than $1 billion worth of cryptocurrencies have been staked through Kraken’s staking service, the crypto exchange announced on Wednesday. A third of that amount is in ether, roughly more than 300,000 ETH, according to a spokesperson from the San Francisco-based crypto exchange. Other popular cryptocurrencies on Kraken’s staking services include tezos (XTZ) and polkadot (DOT).

Kraken’s users have staked about 58 million DOT (approximately $580,000,000) and 45.5 million XTZ tokens (about $22,500,000), according to data provided by Kraken.

The fast growth of the staking value reflects the many long positions of investors and traders in cryptocurrencies, according to Jeremy Welch, Kraken’s vice president of product.

“Staking’s popularity is the natural outcome of an asset class growing in maturity,” Welch told CoinDesk. “Whereas three years ago holders were mainly interested in securing short-term gains, many are now confident locking up tokens to earn passive income. Why? Conviction is growing in the longevity of crypto assets as a respectable new asset class.”

Kraken also provides staking services for five other cryptocurrencies, including kava (KAVA) and cosmos (ATOM), with yearly rewards varying between 0.25% and 20%.

“Staking” refers to locking up one’s cryptocurrencies to receive rewards for participating in transaction validation on a proof-of-stake blockchain. Many crypto exchanges offer staking services so users do not have to stake their coins directly from their wallets.

Kraken started providing the Ethereum 2.0 staking service on Dec. 3. It warned its users in a blog post at the time that staking is mostly for “long-term ether holders” because “staking ether cannot be unstaked and, along with staking rewards, cannot be transferred for an unknown period of time.”

The total amount of ether locked in Ethereum 2.0 has recently surpassed $2.58 billion, less than a month since ether’s value broke the $1 billion landmark, according to data from Etherscan. As of press time, ether was trading at $1,145.22, a gain of 8.55% in 24 hours. It is close to its all-time high at $1,448.18, according to CoinDesk 20 data.

Correction: Kraken’s announcement was Wednesday, not Tuesday.

Former Top Gear host and current face of Amazon Primes, The Grand Tour, Jeremy Clarkson has been promoting a dodgycryptocurrencyproject on several social media timelines and the best part? He didnt know anything about it.Celebrity Scam The general idea of the scam remains the same as all the other scams that have graced the internet. By hooking in gullible users, it shows false endorsements from politicians, businessmen, and in this case, A-list celebrities such as Clarkson which are now all over social media.After the leadingcryptocurrencytook off in 2017, these scams have been ten a penny with every scammer trying to in on the action of stealing peoples hard-earned cash. So people who arent as clued up on crypto can easily fall victim to these kinds of scams, in pursuit of big and fast returns.This isnt the first time, people have fallen prey to such scams.Asreportedby u.today:X Factor judge Simon Cowell also ended up among big-name individuals whose reputation was tarnished by Bitcoin Revolution ads. Earlier, this sham site also targeted Singaporean billionaire Lim Oon Kuin and the Norwegian Ministry of Finance.Its a shame that things like this still happen in the crypto space. As we go into 2020, we hope to see less of these scams and especially fewer people falling for them!FeaturedUp NextThrowback! One Year Ago, 50% Bitcoin Price Dump to $3,000 BeganDon't MissBitcoin Turns Out to be a Disgrace as it Tests Imminent SupportsClick to commentBitcoin might plunge in the medium-term Hash Ribbons see a bearish crossover If history repeats itself, Bitcoin price might plunge by 50 percent Bitcoin News Today Bitcoin (BTC) is still struggling below the $9k level. The $9k level has been its major resistance for some days now. Bitcoin (BTC) is currently trading around the $8,600 range, after a decrease of about two percent over the past day. However, chances are the digital currency might plunge even further very soon. An indicator that keeps track of the health of the Bitcoin mining ecosystem just flashed bearish for the first time this year, which signals a forthcoming capitulation.Bitcoin Hash Ribbons Make a Bearish Crossover A few weeks ago, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) increased by 42 percent from $7,300 to around $10,500 in one day. That was the fourth-largest upward movement the digital currency has ever experience since its emergence. Unfortunately for the bulls, this massive upsurge in the price of the digital currency did not do much to reverse a medium-term bearish trend that has formed over the past couple of months. Despite the massive upsurge, a key selling signal just flashed.Bitcoin (BTC) Price Today BTC / USDRecently, Cole Garner, a digital currency commentator, pointed out that an indicator tracking the health of the hashrate of Bitcoin the Hash Ribbons has just seen a bearish crossover. This might not mean much at the moment. However, the last time the bearish crossover was seen was just before the price of Bitcoin (BTC) broke below the $6k level. Hence, this is a bearish signal.Will Bitcoin (BTC) Miners Give Up? Preston Pysh Bitcoin bull and industry podcaster recently tweeted a chart to better illustrate the importance of miners surrendering. According to the chart of the Bitcoin (BTC) bull, the mining capitulation was seemingly what pioneered the massive plunge in the price of Bitcoin from $6k to $3k late last year. The decrease in the price of the digital currency was drastic, as it lost 50 percent of its value in a short timeframe.If history repeats itself, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) would likely fall by 50 percent in the coming weeks to find a bottom. This is even more likely to happen as miners are beginning to shut down their operations and sell their stashes to keep the light on. The news about the forthcoming capitulation in the Bitcoins miner market comes after the BTC network saw a huge difficulty plunge of about 7 percent. This is the largest difficulty drop seen since the last capitulation of 2018. In fact, according to mining indicators, we are seeing a redux of last years Crypto Winter.News SourceContinue Reading The Bitcoin price slips below the $8,500 level for the first time since briefly touching $10,000 at the end of October .The Bitcoin price has nose-dived to the $8,470 after failing to conquer the $9,000 level earlier today. The top coin by market cap is down by more than two percent at the time of writing. With its latest move, Bitcoin has once again tricked chartists who were looking for a perfect long opportunity based on the assets technical setup.Earlier today, crypto traderThe Wold of Wall Street pointed out that BTC formed a golden retracement, which would make perfect sense to go long. Trading expert Josh Rager was quick to weigh in the most recent drop, claiming that a weekly close below the $8,235 level would lead to more selling pressure. He also says that low-time frame BTC charts look ugly. Bitcoin definitely has a penchant for unexpected moves that cannot be predicted bytechnical analysis (TA). As reported by U.Today, the top coin by market capitalization surged bymore than 30 percenton the same day it formed a death cross on its daily chart. News SourceContinue ReadingBitcoin [BTC] bulls record another failed attempt at a break-out. This time, forming a bearish candle in the process a shooting star.The selling pressure has been increasing consistently as we come close to a break-out. While bulls seemed to take charge earlier today, the price failed to break-out.On the four hour chart, the bulls protected the slump this morning. However, with the market leaning towards longs, it records a shooting star at 8: 00 hours on 15th Nov. The wick of the candle found resistance at the level of the cross. However, it failed to break-out.In the event of a bullish break-out, $8800 will act as the stop loss level.On the daily chart, the price held on to support at $8500.Tone Vayssuggests that, currently, the $8500 is the last stand for the bulls with the 50-period moving average.Nevertheless, there is some support, along with the volume profiles at $8200-8300, as well.Moreover, one of thetwo critical death crosseshas occurred, as well.Sawcruhteezwho alarmed about the bear cross on the four-hourtweeted,$BTCjust had a death cross with the 50 and 200 EMAs on the 4h chart while the majority of the market is long. I entered short following the death cross and have orders to add at resistance (red horizontals).The bullish resistances, according to Sawcruhteez, are at $8750 and $8950.Nevertheless, the traders seem to be inclined towards longs as Bitcoin continues to hold $8500. About $30 million in short orders were liquidated at BitMEX and BitFinex as the price broke bullish with a $200 rise during the day.Currently, the market is inclined towards longs atBitMEXin the ratio of 51% to 49%. The long to short ratio atOkexandBitfinexis even higher at 1.9 and 5. The funding and premium rate on BitMEX and the basis on Okex also suggest bullish inclination among traders.The price of Bitcoin [BTC] at 12: 45 hours UTC on 15th November 2019 is $8630. It is trading within the wick of the shooting star.News SourceContinue Reading