Tuesday, June 30, 2015
France Creates National FinTech Program to Rival London, New York
Puerto Rico’s $72 billion in Debt ‘Unpayable’ as Island Seeks Bankruptcy
Digital Currencies a Silver Lining in the Dark Cloud of Greece’s Economic Crisis
As the world watches nervously, Greece, under pressure from the European Central Bank, takes the serious step of imposing capital controls: Banks are closed, ATM withdrawals are limited and funds cannot be sent out of the country.
Capital controls will be in place at least until July 7 after Sunday’s citizens’ referendum that will ask Greeks if they want to remain in the European Union and accept their creditors’ terms.
Will Bitcoin benefit from the current crisis?
There’s lots of speculation that the rate of adoption of digital currencies may increase more rapidly as a result of the current crisis in Greece.
CNN makes the case noting:
“The world’s largest Bitcoin exchanges tell CNNMoney they’ve seen a surge of business from Greece.” and
“Ten times as many Greeks are registering to trade bitcoins on the German marketplace Bitcoin.de than usual, according to CEO Oliver Flaskaemper. Bitcoin trades from Greece have shot up 79% from their ten-week average on Bitstamp, the world’s third-largest exchange.”
In an article on CNBC , Brendan O’Connor, CEO of digital currency-specialists Genesis Global Trading says:
“(Bitcoin) had been middling around the $235-245 range for several months, and all of the sudden this crisis escalates and you’ve gotten yourself a nice 10-point pop…Greece was likely the only factor behind the digital currency’s upward momentum.”
Daniel Roberts, writing in Fortune Magazine, disagrees and makes the case that the small spike in the price of bitcoin would have happened anyway:
“There may be a growing global interest in purchasing bitcoin that is coinciding roughly with the Greek crisis — the currency’s 2013 mega-spike coincided with a similar financial crisis in Cyprus — but the hike this summer began before the situation grew so dire in Greece.”
Eli Dourado, a research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University says:
“I think we are seeing a boomlet in global demand as a hedge against any kind of uncertainty, not just [the uncertainty] in Greece. I think the value of the concept is being affirmed.”
As Bitcoin Magazine reported yesterday, there are indications that some Greeks have been buying up bitcoin for some time now.
For Greece’s European neighbors, particularly in Italy, Spain, Portugal and even France, there is growing anxiety about the effects of Greece defaulting on the euro and the subsequent impact on the value of the euro and their savings.
In the wake of such economic uncertainty, it would seem more likely that Europeans will be looking more closely at digital currencies as an alternative to fiat currency.
Capital Controls for Cyprus – So How Did That Work Out?
In 2013, Cyprus was near bankruptcy and the ECB and IMF had proposed a deal that would see banks in Cyprus lose substantial funds. These caused a run on the banks, and the government subsequently imposed capital controls.
This devastated Cyprus’s economy, and the controls remained in place for almost two years with the last restrictions lifted in April 2015.
In a recent article in Bloomberg Business, Katia Porzecanski says about imposing capital controls: “Unfortunately for Greece, history suggests it hardly ever works.”
“While dozens of countries from Mexico to Iceland and Thailand have imposed such measures since World War I to boost revenue, prop up currencies and hold down interest rates, the International Monetary Fund found that only those few with sound economies and strong institutions succeeded in slowing capital flight.”
Some Bitcoiners weigh in on the crisis
When Andreas Antonopoulos was in Toronto earlier this year he told the audience:
“I often get asked why I don’t recommend Bitcoin as the answer to Greece’s economic problems. I tell them the citizens of Greece should have the choice to use both digital currencies and fiat currency. Bitcoin alone isn’t necessarily the answer but it can be part of the solution.”
If people in Greece want to use bitcoin, they can and will. All these calls for bitcoin as a “solution” for Greece miss the point of bitcoin
— AndreasMAntonopoulos (@aantonop) June 22, 2015
Erik Voorhees, CEO of ShapeShift.io, sees a huge opportunity for bitcoin in the current crisis. In a series of tweets yesterday, using ChangeTip, Voorhees gave away $5 in bitcoin to people concerned about the future of the euro.
Banks frozen in Greece? Try Bitcoin instead… here is $5 @mtvgreece $5 @ChangeTip #GreeceBitcoinDrop #grexit #euro #eurozone
— Erik Voorhees (@ErikVoorhees) June 29, 2015
Roger Ver is also optimistic that bitcoin can only benefit from the current situation:
Thanks to the invention of Bitcoin, the era of government caused misallocation of resources due to manipulating money will soon end. #Grexit
— Roger Ver (@rogerkver) June 29, 2015
Traumatic as the current economic crisis is for Greece and Europe, this may be an unprecedented opportunity for bitcoin to “take it to the next level.” As the old saying goes: “When one door closes, another door opens,” and the open door may be a brighter future for digital currencies.
Coinkite Announces TOR-enabled ‘Bitcoin Pay Button’
The Fear of Capital Controls May be Spreading from Greece to Italy
Yesterday, Bitcoin Magazine reported that Greece had closed its banks and imposed capital controls to prevent financial chaos after the breakdown of bailout talks with its international creditors. The decision came at the end of a weekend that brought Greece closer to “Grexit” – the potential exit from the Eurozone and perhaps the European Union (EU) itself – and confronted Europe with a serious crisis.
Today, Jose Pagliery, the author of “Bitcoin – And the Future of Money,” reports on CNN Money that Greeks are rushing to bitcoin. The article includes testimonials from top bitcoin exchanges such as bitcoin.de, Bitcurex, and China-based LakeBTC, stating that they are seeing a surge of business and inquiries from Greece.
This is, according to Pagliery, a pivotal moment.
“Bitcoin was created as an independent, computerized money in 2009 to provide a stark alternative to government-issued currency held at banks,” he says. “This could be its moment to shine.”
The introduction of capital controls is likely to push people, not only wealthy investors but also ordinary people, to the conclusion that governments and banks couldn’t be trusted with their hard-earned savings. They may then start looking for alternative ways to store their savings, out of reach of predatory central banks, and choose bitcoin as the best alternative.
With limited access to their bank account and no legal way to transfer money abroad, the Greeks are likely to experience difficulties in buying bitcoin at the moment. But while it’s late for the Greeks who waited until now to act, other less optimistic Greeks have been buying bitcoin for some time now.
In other countries, especially in neighboring European countries with troubled economies, it seems likely that people will begin to realize that the government can – and will – impose capital control and cut them from access to their savings if the economic situation worsens.
Based on real-time reports collected by The Wall Street Journal, Zero Hedge notes that the contagious fear of capital controls may already be spreading from Greece to neighboring Italy. Several Italian banks reportedly failed to start trading on Monday as fears over a Greek debt default induced many investors to shed peripheral stocks, including Italian, with banks suffering the most.
Sales orders on Italian stocks, in particular financial stocks, piled up before the market opening. At the start, the sales orders were so numerous that the system couldn’t manage to process them, something that often happens when specific news causes a sell-off on a stock.
Speaking to Italian daily La Stampa, University of Chicago economist Luigi Zingales noted that a psychological contagion could spread immediately to Italy, because the Italian economy is not growing. “The question is: Would [Italians] too think to withdraw their money from the banks or not?”
La Stampa also reports that “The Bitcoin fever rises in Greece,” and mentions the recent April Fool’s joke of Greek Finance Minister Varoufakis: “Greece Will Adopt the Bitcoin If Eurogroup Doesn’t Give Us a Deal.” La Stampa describes similar scenarios as “unlikely, but potentially disruptive for Western economic culture.”
Photo Mārtiņš Bruņenieks / CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported
Bitnet Partners with Computop to Offer Bitcoin Payments for Over 3000 Merchants
Bitnet, a bitcoin payments processor and the developer of the largest payment gateway (CyberSource, acquired by VISA) has entered into a strategic partnership with Computop, a leading payment service provider, to allow global merchants to accept bitcoin on Computop Paygate.
Since its launch, Bitnet has focused its services to provide an enterprise-grade digital commerce platform with security, reliability and scalability standards demanded by global businesses.
Through the Computop and Bitnet partnership, however, the multi-national bitcoin merchant processor is attempting to implement its technologies to allow businesses of any size to accept bitcoin in a simple, safe and secure manner.
Bitnet bitcoin processors will be integrated in Computop Paygate, which will allow merchants to expand their businesses globally without cross-border fees. Furthermore, with offices spread throughout California, Northern Ireland and Singapore, Bitnet will fund its merchants with any local currencies of their choice.
“We recognize that the bitcoin ecosystem is growing throughout the world and are excited to be the first European PSP to partner with Bitnet to enable merchants to accept payments in bitcoin,” said Ralf Gladis, CEO of Computop. “Through this partnership, retailers don’t have to worry about the management of this evolving payment method. They can simply accept bitcoin as payment from customers, and know that the process will be smooth and risk-free for them.”
Computop Paygate, the platform which will support the Bitnet integration, is a Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard-certified platform which offers service providers and merchants with secure and fraud-proof payment processors for international standards. Computop Paygate enables international retailers and merchants to access more than 60 payment methods, which include – MOTO, mobile payment solutions, PoS solutions, e-commerce, etc.
Computop Paygate is also supported by leading e-commerce solutions such as Demandware, hybris, Intershop, Magento, IBM Webspehere and SAP Business ByDesign, which all recommend Paygate as a preferred payment service service for international payment processing. Furthermore, Computop Paygate handles more than $100 million USD worth of transactions annually, and supports more than 3,000 internationally recognizable retailers, such as TSamsung, Fossil and C&A.
With its global support and extraordinarily large user base, Bitnet hopes to see a rapid increase of bitcoin-accepting merchants in Europe in the near future.
“Our partnership with Computop enables us to extend our bitcoin payments processing functionality to merchants globally,” said Akif Khan, chief commercial officer at Bitnet. “We look forward to working with Computop to enable merchants throughout Europe, the U.S. and Asia to accept bitcoin payments from their customers.”
Despite Bitnet’s partnership with one of Europe’s most popular payment processing platforms, it still has to compete against international bitcoin processors that have recently expanded services throughout Europe, including Netherlands-based bitcoin gateway BitPay, American bitcoin service provider Coinbase and bitcoin exchange/merchant platform Coinzone.
Photo Mobiles Bezahlen mit der Vodafone Wallet / Photopin
BitGo Announces Launch of Solvency Proofs Verified by BitGo
BitGo announced today the release of its latest product offering, Verified by BitGo, a product that provides a real-time view of bitcoin assets owned by a company.
Whereas in the past, verification attempts were slow and often had security risk concerns, BitGo hopes that this will be a verification that allows it to publicly share all of its assets. Further, it will be able to cryptographically display that it is in a solvent state.
When dealing with brokerages and wallets, knowing that the provider is solvent can go a long way toward making a decision on using a service. This service will enable end users to analyze what the company’s assets are and compare that to its liabilities, even drilling down to ensure that the user’s own account is included in the total liabilities.
“We’re offering Verified by BitGo to selected partners as part of our unified platform offerings. The first step needed is to use a BitGo wallet for storing the business’ bitcoin,” Ben Davenport, CTO and co-founder of BitGo, said in an interview with Bitcoin Magazine. “It is not yet available for general self-service signup, but we’re interested in working with other Bitcoin businesses to help their security & transparency.”
ChangeTip the First to Use
In the announcement, it was revealed that ChangeTip was the first business that would be using the Verified by BitGo service.
“Building trust is critical to expanding our user base within the Bitcoin community and beyond, and using BitGo to demonstrate our Proof of Reserves goes a long way to achieving it,” said ChangeTip CEO Nick Sullivan.
According to an email exchange with Bitcoin Magazine, Sullivan believes that, “having the Verified by BitGo logo gives users an extra sense of security.”
However, BitGo is opening up its operation to anyone who uses the BitGo platform offerings. As Davenport said in a statement, “Today we are launching our Verified by BitGo service, bringing the era of unverified funds to a close.”
It Could Have Prevented MtGox
MtGox is the perfect example of a business that was operating in an insolvent state for a significant period of time. Users had no idea that the amount of bitcoin they believed existed on the exchange was far more than actually existed.
The team at BitGo believes that if Verified by BitGo had been around when MtGox was operating that its service would have been able to alert users far sooner to the problems at the exchange.
“Yes, we believe it could have,” Davenport said. “Based on the information that’s been made public, we believe MtGox was effectively operating in an insolvent state for a very long period. While a regular audit like this would not have eliminated the possibility of a business going insolvent, it should help detect it far sooner, dramatically reducing the magnitude of the ultimate losses.”
In an internal crisis management document that was leaked, it was revealed that the company had lost 744,408 bitcoin in a theft that had taken place years earlier. Had a service like Verified by BitGo been around, it is feasible that many users would not have continued putting their bitcoin onto the exchange.
“We are already working with several other companies interested in the product, but don’t have specific names to disclose yet,” Davenport told Bitcoin Magazine.
JUN 30 DIGEST: Coinbase Waves Fees for Europeans; BnkToTheFuture Passes $10 million Investment Mark
Tim Swanson on the Rise of Blockchains without Bitcoin
Monday, June 29, 2015
New Bitcoin Skill & Strategy Physics Game “Crypto Collider” Offers Unique Hedging System
Bitcoin Press Release: Just launched Crypto Collider is a new and unique, first-of-its-kind Bitcoin Game played with skill and strategy. The game features a transparent “GameChain” ledger and supports most popular digital currencies including Bitcoin, Dogecoin, Peercoin, NXT, Primecoin, LTC and more. It is fun, innovative and an excellent multi-functional hedging tool / trading platform.
How it Works
Collider is a peer-to-peer game so fees are generated only as transfer fees when coins are passed between players as a result of game-play. Play occurs with a variety of high-quality industry leading cryptocurrencies which allows players to win, trade and hedge between their different coins as their strategies play out.
The game takes place in a virtual physics world where crypto coins take on a virtual physical presence as they enter the Collider Arena in the precise sequence, location, velocity, angle and spin created by the players using their mouse or touch-screen. Each “coin-throw” has a different amount staked on it. The sum dollar value of that throw determines its in-game “weight” in both the physics calculation (ie. influence on the game objects) and percentage of winnings (when they win).
The end result is a first-of-its-kind Bitcoin skill based hedging game that is exciting and unpredictable while also fair and winnable with many second and third chances to profit.
How to Use as a Fun Hedging Tool
Users simply deposit some of the coin they would like to hedge OUT of and play with that coin in many little pieces, just not all at once, and keep playing as long as they can while playing only with that coin type. Once it’s all gone, whatever they have won in that time in other coins, is effectively what they have hedged their original deposit into.
The game points they earn playing can also be converted into Collider Coin, a core product of the game that unlocks special features and strategic ability. Collider Coins can be played in-game for strategy but can never be lost and generate a percentage from every game fee for every holder.
How to Play For Profit
Crypto Collider is easy to get started and difficult to master. Player’s winning percentages tend to improve over time with practice and understanding. Ask questions and watch replays frame-by-frame from the beginning to really understand what each player has attempted and who was successful.
Collider Coin’s can be played but never lost, they are a specifically engineered game strategy tool with many unique and invaluable properties. Players can experiment with Collider Coin to find more ways to improve their rate of success. Learning Collider is similar to any skill based game based on the laws of physics and predicting opponents moves. It’s a first-of-its-kind “E-Money-Sport”.
Crypto Collider’s “GameChain” – Innovation Under The Hood
Inspired by Bitcoin, Collider uses open source decentralised client-side physics code as a logarithm to create and confirm all results with complete transparency. Each game creates a chain / record in the resulting ‘GameChain’, which is a permanent public ledger of all game activity with many similarities to a blockchain. The game itself is the visualisation of this data. When replaying and watching a game players are both visually and mathematically confirming its results with other players at the same time all seeing the same precise movements. This creates a dynamic, exciting game with a new higher level of transparency, fairness, opportunity, innovation and entertainment.
Music Video Feed
The innovation continues with a spectacular user-driven background music video feed. Payers can enter the game and press the “Video” and then the “Play To Sync” button and enjoy this simple yet ingenious feature. Sharing, music, culture and entertainment are intertwined into the game experience as players create, watch and comment while playing and watching their favourite music videos in the synchronised background video display (powered by youtube). Players can adjust the video volume, size and visibility and also play their own choice of video (on their machine only) instantly at any time.
News and Market Monitoring
Crypto Collider is also a great tool for monitoring industry news and market data. A news panel aggregates multiple major Bitcoin news feeds and data on all supported coins including price, difficulty, supply and hash rate are quickly accessible via the coin-info panel. Collider provides a sleek gaming experience that also has some pretty powerful market monitoring capability.
Crypto Collider supports the majority of leading cryptocurrencies, and has been quietly refining and innovating with a small team dedicated to creating a good experience; the most fun, fair, innovative, and useful game in Bitcoin. A unique creation with many benefits for crypto traders, competitive gamers and mainstream gamers alike with many plans for the future.
To learn more please go to: http://ift.tt/1vyTlKU
Media contact:
Name: Clint Jones
Email: admin(at)cryptocollider.com
About Bitcoin PR Buzz:
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Gallippi and Killeen Represent Bitcoin Community at UN 70th Anniversary Celebration
Friday, June 26, marked the 70th Anniversary of the signing of the United Nations Charter in San Francisco. Along with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, California Gov. Jerry Brown, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and other dignitaries, a cohort of 70 digital leaders were invited to celebrate the historic event. Included among the 70 was BitGive Foundation founder Connie Gallippi and Alyse Killeen of March Capital, both representing the Bitcoin industry.
“It was a true honor and pleasure to be invited to join the United Nations 70th Anniversary Celebration and luncheon for the Top 70 Bay Area Tech Leaders,” Gallippi said. “Attending this event and representing Bitcoin’s philanthropic foundation was truly an inspiring and educational experience.”
After the formal public ceremony at City Hall, which included speeches and the presentation of the Key to the City of San Francisco to the U.N. secretary-general, there was a luncheon followed by a group discussion among the digital leaders.
“Our #UN70 Digital Leader peers generally came from two camps: 1) sophisticated technology innovators and investors, and 2) social impact entrepreneurs and funders,” said Killeen. “What was most exciting was the overlap that existed between these groups. The technologists were highly socially aware, and the social impact leaders were technically savvy. Bitcoin and blockchain further connects the two camps, and, as a result, was a popular topic of discussion.”
Killeen also noted that there was a good deal of diversity among the members. The list of leaders in the consortium included men and women from around the world.
“I met so many top-notch entrepreneurs and tech leaders with a common passion for making a positive social impact,” Gallippi added. “Everyone was very positive and open-minded, and many were curious and inspired by the possibilities for Bitcoin to help drive change on important issues.”
To everyone’s surprise, the secretary-general introduced a special guest at the leaders’ luncheon: Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai. She had asked particularly for the opportunity to speak with the digital leadership group.
“Meeting Malala was the highlight of the event for me,” said Gallippi. “She is such an amazing inspiration.”
She added that Malala spoke “off the cuff” about the potential impact of technology on empowering girls and women in the developing world, but that tech companies must be sensitive to the needs of the people they are trying to reach. The existing infrastructure also needs to be taken into consideration and adequate support must be offered.
Other highlights of the conference included the introduction of The Global Goals initiative which will roll out in September.
This ambitious collection of 17 goals, developed by U.N. representatives from all over the world, include ending extreme poverty, fighting inequalities and tackling climate change.
“It was quite exciting to see the perfect alignment of these Global Goals with the mission of the BitGive Foundation,” said Gallippi. “I look forward to leveraging bitcoin, blockchain technology, and the Bitcoin industry to help reach these universal goals for a better world for all!”
Killeen echoed Gallippi’s enthusiasm after the event: “I’m excited to take the next steps to work with other U.N. Digital Leaders on blockchain-based project ideas born at SF City Hall on the U.N.’s 70th birthday!”
The BitGive Foundation, the first U.S.-registered Bitcoin charity, is currently soliciting donations for its 2nd Anniversary online auction to be held next week. Thus far, the Foundation has collected items and services from individuals and companies alike, including autographed books from Zapchain and Purse, jewelry from Overstock, and getaways from Gem COO Ken Miller and Airbitz CEO Paul Puey, among others. All funds raised through the auction will support the foundation’s work to support various philanthropic efforts on behalf of the Bitcoin community.
Both Gallippi and Killeen will be presenting at the upcoming Inside Bitcoins conference in Chicago on July 10-11th, where the conference will also be hosting a fundraising campaign for BitGive.
For more information about the BitGive Foundation and its charitable mandate, visit http://ift.tt/1aEjhgc.
Photos courtesy of Connie Gallippi.
How to Fight Capital Controls in Greece
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