Friday, June 26, 2015
New York Releases 31-Page BitLicense Application Form
Trezor, We Have a Problem: Interview with Case Wallet Creator Melanie Shapiro
JUN 26 DIGEST: Blythe Masters Acquires Hyperledger and Bits of Proof; Seals With Clubs Operator Agrees to Plea Deal
UK’s First Licensed App-Only Bank Still Reliant on Tradition
Visa Exec: Bitcoin Won’t Grow ‘Unless there is Trust in the System’
Thursday, June 25, 2015
The Financial Needs of Banked and Unbanked Meet in Bitcoin
Nasdaq Selects Bitcoin Startup Chain to Run Pilot in Private Market Arm
Nasdaq has partnered with San Francisco-based bitcoin API startup Chain to implement the Bitcoin blockchain technology in its newly launched marketplace, Nasdaq Private Market.
Previously reported by Bitcoin Magazine, Nasdaq announced its plans to implement Bitcoin’s blokchain technology into its pilot test, where shares of private companies are handled and traded as smart assets on the blockchain.
Unlike other decentralized asset trading platforms, Nasdaq plans to utilize the colored coin protocol Open Assets based on the Bitcoin blockchain instead of developing an alternative blockchain or digital currency.
“I am a big believer in the ability of blockchain technology to effect fundamental change in the infrastructure of the financial services industry,” said Bob Greifeld, CEO of Nasdaq. “Clearinghouses are a wonderful invention, but if you have a public ledger that is trusted, you can evolve back to a bilateral (trading) world but proceed with instantaneous settlement. We currently settle at T+3 [within 3 days]. Why not settle in 5-10 minutes?”
Chain Bitcoin API
Bitcoin API startup Chain is set to provide Nasdaq with the infrastructure and simplified API for the Bitcoin blockchain. Its easy interface to transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain will simplify the process of trading shares and assets in Nasdaq’s pilot test.
“It currently costs a lot of money to make sure there are no mistakes, even when you’re using [software], because there are human factors involved in the transfer, recording and valuation work around securities,” explained Adam Ludwin, CEO of Chain.
Stock exchanges have spent millions of dollars in handling transactions and shares of private companies over the last decades. The process of trading shares on the stock exchanges has always required labor-intensive operations, from managing spreadsheets to the completion of documents and the approval of lawyers. With the help of Chain and Nasdaq, Bitcoin may prove to be the solution to the long-time problems of stock exchanges.
Chain has rasied $15 million USD in funding from Khosla Ventures, RRE Ventures and SV Angel. Within its first year of launch, the Chain API has been used by more than 3,000 developers creating Bitcoin apps and platforms.
With the growing popularity of Chain’s API, the Bitcoin startup’s shares are set to be the first to be traded on the blockchain upon the launch of the project later this year. The issued shares of Chain is set to be coded into a very small amount of bitcoin with metadata that states necessary information for shares trading: number of shares being transferred, receiver, and seller.
Photo: Times Sq. still weird even after all these years / Photopin
Introducing BitINKA, South America’s First Universal Bitcoin Platform
BitInka, a bitcoin platform that operates in Peru, Venezuela, Bolivia and Brazil will soon expand its services throughout Argentina, Colombia and Chile, to become South America’s first universal bitcoin platform targeted for the unbanked.
Founded in 2013 by Roger Gabriel, BitINKA is one of the only companies in South America which implemented bitcoin trading to create a bitcoin exchange that allows its users to convert/withdraw bitcoin for many local currencies of South America, including the Peruvian Nueva Sol and the Argentinian peso.
Through its international and instant bitcoin exchange platform, the bitcoin startup aims to penetrate mainstream bitcoin adoption by implementing bitcoin in day-to-day finances and to provide a platform for users without any prior knowledge about the currency.
Since 2013, BitINKA has partnered with local banks, financial institutions and local collection agencies including Banco de Crédito del Perú and Banco de Crédito de Bolivia to enable a fast and easy withdrawal processes for its users. For some regions, BitINKA’s bitcoin exchange and wallet platform will be the first bitcoin-related application to be introduced.
Targeting Mainstream Bitcoin Adoption and the Unbanked
According to the BitINKA team, the biggest market of South America is based on day-to-day expenses, which includes e-commerce, convenience stores, taxis, kiosks (small stores), etc. However, credit card penetration is substantially low in South American countries and thus, is often not used apart from e-commerce platforms. Furthermore, banks and financial institutions require a long list of documents and qualifications for bank accounts, and credit cards including two government approved licenses, tax income of at least two years, and financial statements from at least two different financial institutions.
Pierna Caballero, the co-administrator of BitINKA told Bitcoin Magazine “In some countries where Bitinka operates, people are educating themselves recently to use Bitcoin and they are realizing that is something very easy and also is a currency that people themselves control. In Peru for example this is something new and gradually has captured the public interest, in Bolivia it is prohibited Bitcoin as a payment method, so Bitinka works as a virtual wallet for businesses and users affiliates.”
Bitcoin is widely used in countries like Argentina, where well-established bitcoin payment processing startups and exchanges like BitPagos are based in. BitPagos is one of the most prominent bitcoin merchant payment platform which raised over US$600,000 in a funding round participated by Tim Draper and Barry Silbert. The startup is already close to processing US$1 million per month.
However, bitcoin is still unfamiliar to a large number of people in the continent. BitINKA aims to help those unfamiliar with the benefits of the digital currency to easily accept, trade and receive payments using bitcoin.
Caballero explained, “Brazil is a country that already use Bitcoin in different ways, as an investment, savings, etc. in Peru just a few people know Bitcoin, Peru is a country where new things are more difficult to be accepted so what we are doing with Bitinka is helping Bitcoin to incorporate in people’s lives.”
Andreas Antonopoulos and Pamela Morgan Join C4’s Board of Directors
The CryptoCurrency Certification Consortium (C4) has added two high-profile names to its Board of Directors: Andreas M. Antonopoulos and Pamela Morgan.
Antonopoulos’ role will be to assist in both the Certified Bitcoin Expert (CBX) and the CryptoCurrency Security Standard (CCSS) projects. The popular speaker and author of Bitcoin’s definitive book, Mastering Bitcoin, will work to ensure that C4’s more technical projects achieve their requisite levels of quality.
“C4 fosters the cryptocurrency community’s effort to develop standards, through an open, transparent and participatory organization,” says Antonopoulos. “These standards provide a benchmark by which organizations and individuals can demonstrate their professionalism. I have contributed to and implemented these standards myself and I am delighted to join the board of C4 to further advance these efforts.”
Pamela Morgan, legal expert and co-founder with Antonopoulos at Third Key Solutions, has joined C4 as its director of education.
“C4 has proven itself to be a community-centric nonprofit that actually gets things done,” says Morgan. “Though it’s a young organization, C4 has already established two professional certification standards, the CBP (Certified Bitcoin Professional) and CBX, and one organizational security standard, CCSS (which is still open for community comment). I’m thrilled to join the C4 board and use my experience in higher education and training to curate and build educational tools to support these standards.”
“As C4’s initiatives continue to grow and mature, our committees and board need to grow as well,” Michael Perklin, CEO of C4, told Bitcoin Magazine. “C4’s certifications and standards depend on the collaborative efforts of our industry’s best and brightest professionals. I look forward to working alongside Andreas and Pamela to further C4’s core mission.”
C4 has also added Gem CEO Micah Winkelspecht to the CCSS Steering Committee, following a recent pull request led by Gem’s Senior Software Engineer, Matt Smith. The enhancements and feedback provided by Gem include definitions and clarifications of many technical terms used throughout the standard.
“We’ve watched several blockchain companies suffer from large-scale security compromises in the past few years, which erodes consumer confidence in the technology as a whole.” says Winkelspecht. “By sharing security best practices and building a common security standard we can help the entire blockchain ecosystem by giving companies a clear roadmap for success, and ultimately boost consumer confidence in the technology.”
Rounding out the new additions to the C4 team is Ethan Wilding who will be chairing the CBP Exam Committee.
The CryptoCurrency Certification Consortium is a non-profit organization that provides certifications to professionals who perform cryptocurrency-related services. In awarding certificates to Bitcoin professionals and businesses, the Consortium ensures that recipients have demonstrated comprehensive knowledge in various disciplines ranging from basic cryptography to low-level cryptocurrency development.
‘Future of Money’ Poll: 1 in 3 Australians Would Ditch Bank for Bitcoin & Fintech
Bitcoin Brings ‘100% Mathematical Certainty’ to Comply With Islamic Law
European Banks Rumored to be Monitoring and Reporting Transactions Related to Bitcoin
An anonymous Reddit user who self-identifies as bank employee posted a warning saying that his bank received a memo from the national financial institute, with instructions to report anyone who receives more than €1,000 that may be linked to Bitcoin.
The five-page memo outlines how surveillance works, how the network is monitored and says that some bitcoin exchanges have been unwilling to cooperate with the authorities. The memo is accompanied by a report, issued by E.U. law enforcement agency Europol, stating that 84 accounts in the country (which hasn’t been disclosed) have been flagged as suspect, and 52 are under surveillance and investigation.
The poster says that an earlier related report from the national financial institute is available online. The report is in Dutch and was released on May 21, 2015 by the Dutch Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) — which likely implies that the undisclosed country is The Netherlands.
The report mentions that bitcoin is used by technology enthusiasts and speculators, but also by criminals who use the digital currency to fund illicit activities and launder money. The report mentions terrorism and child pornography. In 2014 the FIU investigated 75 cases in which bitcoin plays an important role. The results, which led to new investigations, have been shared with foreign financial intelligence units.
The poster says that the bank received a list of IBAN accounts that are already constantly monitored because they belong to high-volume traders and exchanges such as Kraken, Bitstamp and BitcoinD. The bank has to report any transfer above €1,000 that involves those accounts. The bank must also report accounts that receive more than €10,500 per year (outside of salary) if it suspects that the funds originate from bitcoin exchanges.
Of course, anonymous reports should always been taken with a grain of salt, but this warning is substantiated by the openly available report by the Dutch FIU, and it makes sense. Now that governments have taken notice of the fact that bitcoin exists and is used by the people, it seems evident that they are trying, or will try, to force the banks to monitor and report transactions to and from bitcoin exchanges, as well as any other transactions that may be linked to bitcoin.
The stated objective of the governments is to fight money laundering and organized crime, and of course they use hot trigger words such as “terrorism” or “child pornography” to persuade the citizens that what they do is right. Almost everyone hates terrorism and child porn, and most people don’t condone money laundering and large-scale tax evasion. But it seems odd that relatively small transfers of €1,000 should be considered suspect.
All bitcoin users should know that if they transfer more than €1,000 to or from a bitcoin exchange they could be investigated or monitored. That’s likely to annoy those who are paid in bitcoin (for perfectly legitimate work) and must cash out to pay bills and buy food. A better way to avoid surveillance, which is becoming easier, is to pay directly in bitcoin for goods and services wherever possible.
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