Author: Anna Galvez

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Crypto News

New EU Crypto Regulations Come With Stricter Anti-Money Laundering And Anti-Anonymity Regulations

Today, the European Union (EU) approved new crypto regulations aiming new anti-money laundering legislation which, among other things, aims to combat anonymity in the cryptocurrencies market transactions and to facilitate access to information on the real owners of the cryptocurrencies companies.

The 28 Member States took the final steps towards approving the new rules on this Monday, May 14th, which were approved by the European Parliament in mid-April. These rules will be published in the Official Journal of the EU and countries will have 18 months to transpose them into their national legislation.

In particular, the new crypto regulations in the EU oblige cryptocurrency exchange platforms and coins issuers, including companies running ICOs, to apply due diligence controls similar to those currently required from banks, such as verification of their customers.

In addition, these crypto-related platforms and services must be registered, including the cryptocurrency exchange platforms, check cashing offices, or trusts, as well as any other company offering crypto-related services.

The new EU crypto regulations bring in stricter anti-money laundering and anti-anonymity regulations while lessening others

However, in the case of prepaid cards, the amount from which cardholders will be demanded to get verified will be reduced from 250 to 150 Euros.

Other modifications included in this fifth reform of the directive is the right of any citizen to access information on the actual owners of companies operating in the blockchain technology and/or offer crypto-related services.

The aim of this measure is to eliminate the opacity of so-called ‘mailbox companies’, which are often used to launder money, hide funds and evade taxes.

The directive also includes stricter crypto regulations criteria for assessing whether countries outside the EU pose a risk of money laundering and closer monitoring of transactions involving countries at risk. It also includes provisions to enhance the protection of persons who disclose information on money-laundering, such as the right to anonymity.

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Crypto News

Bitcoin (BTC) And Bitcoin Cash (BCH) Cryptocurrency Payments Accepted By A Tax Office In A Florida County

The Seminole County tax collection office in the state of Florida announced that it will begin accepting Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) as payment methods through the BitPay platform, making it the first US government tax office to allow citizens to pay in cryptocurrency.

In a statement released by the government agency, Joel M. Greenberg, the county’s tax collector, noted that blockchain technology could provide all county residents with more optimal and modern payment services, increasing transparency as well as the accuracy of settlements, and lowering the high costs of credit or debit card fees.

As a result, the office partnered with the international payment platform and cryptocurrency exchange, BitPay, to accept settlements in Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) for the payment of driver’s licenses, identification cards, title, and property taxes.

Alan Byrd, the spokesman of Seminole’s office, confirmed that the cryptocurrency payment will be available next June. In this way, the government agency will receive payments directly from BitPay.

Florida implements Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) cryptocurrency payments via BitPay for taxes

Furthermore, the authorities do not believe that there is any risk of price volatility since users only have to send the exact amount of money in Bitcoin (BTC) or Bitcoin Cash (BCH) to pay the bills, for example, a transaction that in turn only costs a fee of 1%, considerably less than the fees required by banks.

In this regard, Byrd also confirmed that the tax collection office is not interested in the cryptocurrencies market but in offering more varied and convenient payment services to the citizens.

“We are not speculating in the market but we are excited to see more payment options being offered to our customers,” he said.

While Seminole County, Florida, is the first US government agency to open up to Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) cryptocurrency payment, other government offices have been evaluating the possibility of making digital assets an effective method of payment.

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Crypto News

John McAfee Got Involved In Cryptocurrency And Blockchain Technology And Thinks Cryptos Will Change Everything

2/3/15 11:57:39 AM -- Opelika, AL, U.S.A -- John McAfee, founder of McAfee Anti-Virus, talks about his latest venture, FutureTense, in Opelika, Ala. Photo by Michael A. Schwarz, USA TODAY contract photographer ORG XMIT: MS 132524 McAfee 02/03/2015 [Via MerlinFTP Drop]

Politics, ethnicity, and religiosity could be some of the acceptable themes to talk over with John McAfee. However, if you are suspicious of Fintech in general and blockchain in particular, it would be wise to stay quiet.

McAfee, the computer developer and entrepreneur behind the multi-million dollar computer software company that carries his name, strongly trusts that cryptocurrency and blockchain, the technology that keeps all cryptocurrencies function, will utterly wipe out life as we understand it.

The blockchain is a gateway that can safely authenticate transactions and entities via a network of many decentralized repositories. It’s a brand-new approach to dealing with each other as the gateway can confidently track who you’re trading with and trace the source and the path of anything you’re trading.

Over the past 10 years, a number of bizarre occurrences have involved McAfee (the man) in a wide range of contentious issues, from outrageous allegations of murder in Belize to a short-lived run for the United States presidency.

John McAfee, knee-deep into cryptocurrency and blockchain technology world, think cryptos will change everything from jobs to governments

Now, he has embarked with all his energy on a journey within the universe of blockchain and cryptocurrencies and sells promotional tweets on his official Twitter account for just $105,000 dollars per tweet. McAfee has mentored or partnered with about 17 cryptocurrency businesses but its newest project is Docademic.

Docademic is John McAfee’s business that is dedicated to giving virtual access to clinicians worldwide by using artificial intelligence and blockchain technology for free.

Furthermore, McAfee thinks that, somewhen in the future, blockchain and cryptocurrency will force all the countries’ governments in the world to struggle for raising tax money for their budget. He meant that cryptos will take over fiat and governments “will not know where the money is, who has it and where it’s been transferred to.”

John McAfee also considers that blockchain technology and cryptocurrency will change how the jobs will be done in the future as many people will have no bosses, no banks to work with, no retirement. Cryptos will replace everything we know today, according to McAfee.

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Crypto

Ripple (XRP) Gone Silent, Lately – Something Big Might Be In Store For Ripple Enthusiasts

Ripple (XRP) holders and enthusiasts were fast to notice that Ripple has not appeared in the news with new partnerships in the last period. Accordingly, the last big news on Ripple was the partnership with Santander which signed up to use Ripple xCurrent. Now, many XRP holders started to question this silent period coming from Ripple. However, there might be a few good reasons why Ripple team is so quiet, lately.

What has Ripple (XRP) achieved so far, in terms of partnerships?

In fact, Ripple partnered up with about 50 central banks and approximately 100 regular banks, from every corner of the world. Additionally, Ripple (XRP) has also partnered with dozens of financial institutions and cryptocurrency exchanges.

Among the biggest deal Ripple has ever signed, noteworthy are the partnerships with MoneyGram and Western Union, both choosing to work with the xRapid platform, as well as the partnership with the Mexican payments processor, Cuallix, which brought to us another clear evidence of the Ripple (XRP) cross-border payments platform’s advantages.

Accordingly, recent real-time tests showed that xRapid reduced fees by 70% in cross-border payments between Mexico and the US, while it fulfilled the transactions in 2 minutes, on average.

Ripple (XRP) price

At this moment, XRP trades at $0.72, showing a 6.75% appreciation in the last 24 hours. Also, XRP seems solid on its third place on cryptocurrencies market, by market cap, despite the fact that Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is coming from behind fast and now approached at only about $3 billion behind Ripple crypto coin.

Despite the momentum BCH is experiencing now, it will have to struggle more to surpass XRP, in terms of market cap. But it wouldn’t be a surprise, whatsoever.

Why is Ripple team so quiet lately?

Well, Ripple devs are working on many projects as we speak, therefore, it could be possible that Ripple stores something stunning in its bag.

Many Ripple enthusiasts talked lately about new announcements on the upcoming Rippled 1.0.0 RC1 release which has been announced recently. Other think it could be something about a new huge partnership involving one of the Ripple’s renowned platforms.

What is clear is that Ripple (XRP) and its team have something major in store for us. What it is, however, we’ll definitely find out in the next couple of days or so.

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Crypto News Tech

Blockchain Voting Platform Has Been Successfully Tested During West Virginia Local Election

This week, in West Virginia, United States, the 2018 local election ended, being the first voting session in the United States to be held on a blockchain platform. The pilot test was carried out on the Voatz blockchain platform which was built on the set of applications developed by the Hyperledger Project.

The participants of the test chose their candidates for the Senate elections which will be held in November. However, the test of the blockchain voting platform was limited to the foreign-based military and their families.

Blockchain voting platform received positive feedback from the officials of West Virginia

The pilot test was conducted only with foreign military personnel from Harrison and Monongalia Counties and, at the moment, Voatz and the West Virginia’s IT and Security department, are still auditing the data obtained in the test, so results and announcements are expected in the coming weeks.

In this regard, the office of West Virginia Secretary of State, Mac Warner, says the state government believes that “blockchain technology provides a higher level of security in this type of voting application.” Warner, therefore, hopes that the blockchain voting platform will soon be available to all the US military voters from all over the world.

It is important to note that Voatz is a native mobile platform that combines blockchain with biometric technology for identity authentication and is working together with West Virginia authorities since March 2018.

The West Virginia blockchain test has also received negative critics

A professor of computer science at the University of South Carolina, who specializes in voting systems and electoral integrity, says that one of the main problems with this idea is the fact that the code lines are not visible, so, according to him, Voatz can’t be fully trustworthy.

However, the blockchain voting platform is based on the code developed by Hyperledger Project which is an open source initiative with very positive feedback.

West Virginia is the first state in the United States to consider holding its elections on a decentralized and encrypted blockchain voting platform. A digitization of the votes that, according to a Benenson Strategy Group survey, almost 50% of the millennials consider more pleasant.

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