Category: Crypto

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IOTA (MIOTA) To Be Integrated With The Ledger Nano S Wallet

The IOTA Foundation will integrate IOTA (MIOTA) tokens with Ledger hardware crypto wallets, according to a press release recently released on Cointelegraph. The IOTA Foundation is a nonprofit organization that supports the development and standardization of distributed ledger technology (DLT) and focuses on building ecosystems around IOTA (MIOTA) to facilitate its commercial adoption.

In November 2017, the Foundation had $255 million in tokens as foundation funds, $22 million as ecosystem fund and $20 million as unclaimed IOTA from the sales to the public. After integration with the Trinity and Romeo IOTA wallets, the Ledger Nano S hardware portfolio will allow users to protect their private keys by only accessing to their IOTA (MIOTA) tokens on a particular chip isolating the keys of users from their computers or smartphones.

That will allow users to validate transactions in their Ledger Nano S hardware wallet as part of the security protocol. The Ledger wallet has a chip similar to that used for credit cards or passports. As previously reported, the Japanese ICT conglomerate Fujitsu announced the launch of a proof of concept (PoC) based on IOTA (MIOTA) for audit trail processes in the manufacturing industry.

IOTA (MIOTA) to be integrated with the Ledger Nano S wallet

IOTA and Fujitsu are reportedly working on implementing the IOTA protocol as an “immutable data storage medium” for audit trails in “industrial production environments and supply chains” to improve transparency, data trust, and data security.

Also, in June, IOTA and Volkswagen presented a PoC that uses IOTA Tangle technology for stand-alone cars. The PoC allows Volkswagen to use IOTA Tangle architecture to transfer software updates “over the air” as part of the automaker’s new “Connected Car” systems. IOTA Tangle is another type of DLT explicitly designed for the Internet of Things (IoT) environment.

It is an open-source protocol that facilitates interactions between machines, including secure data transfer, real-time micropayments, and other data. At the moment of this article, the IOTA (MIOTA) token is trading at $0.483, with a market capitalization of about $1.34 billion, according to CoinMarketCap data.

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SiaCoin (SC) Blockchain Upgrade Aims To Combat Centralization Of SC Mining

Yesterday, October 31st, Sia successfully implemented the v.1.3.7 upgrade on its network to the height of block 179,000. With it, Sia has blocked the ASIC equipment manufactured by Bitmain and Innosilicon from mining on its blockchain. The crypto exchanges Binance, Poloniex, Bittrex, and UPbit, have confirmed their support for this SiaCoin (SC) fork.

Sia team indicated on its Twitter account that Bittrex, Poloniex, Binance, and UPbit successfully installed the update. Other exchanges that have been shown in favor of this update are HitBTC, Lbank, Vebitcoin, Bitbns, and Okex. Users who own SiaCoin (SC) on these platforms will have access to the new blockchain.

The team will give flexibility to people who store their files on the Sia platform to upgrade to the new Sia network. However, all hosts who have not updated to the new version will no longer offer hosting services to users who have upgraded to the new Sia blockchain. For SiaCoin (SC) mining, Obelisk will enable a firmware update that will comply with the new algorithm that introduces this fork.

SiaCoin (SC) Blockchain Upgrade Aims To Combat Centralization Of SC Mining

In September, SiaCoin (SC) developer David Vorick announced the arrival of a hard fork in the Sia network to end Innosilicon’s monopoly on the hashrate. The fork established Obelisk as the only authorized ASIC miner for SiaCoin (SC).

However, the Sia blockchain v 1.3.7 upgrade caused controversy in the SiaCoin (SC) community, leading to the creation of two new projects from the previous network. The first of them was called SiaClassic which stated that “there should be no discrimination regarding the ASIC miners.” For SiaClassic, the main concern is the loss of thousands of US dollars in SiaCoin (SC) mining equipment.

For its part, the other resulting currency, SiaPrime, said that it could be mined by all miners, including Innosilicon, Halong and Bitmain. The developers of this cryptocurrency announced that its blockchain is already operational. According to CoinMarketCap, SiaCoin (SC) has registered only a 2.56% drop yesterday and official statistics indicated that in the last 24 hours the hashrate of the Sia network is 75.46 PH/s and the difficulty is 45.63 EH, lower than usual.

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Bitcoin (BTC) Dealer Pleads Guilty for Operating Without a License Across the United States

A US citizen faces up to 5 years in prison after pleading guilty in federal court as an illegal Bitcoin (BTC) dealer, so, without a license. The information emerged through a press release from the US Department of Justice (DoJ). The defendant, named Jacob Burrell-Campos, admitted having negotiated hundreds of thousands of dollars in Bitcoin (BTC) through the peer-to-peer platform LocalBitcoins, with more than a thousand customers across the United States.

The volume of transactions places the defendant’s business in the category of “unregistered Bitcoin (BTC) exchanges.”. Under the US law, such businesses must apply for an operating license from the US Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). In addition to that, such startups must comply with Anti-Money Laundering (AML) measures and Know Your Customer (KYC) policies.

Burrell-Campos signed a plea agreement in which he acknowledged that he evaded legal registration and failed to implement the required guarantees on the source of his clients’ funds. He also advertised on LocalBitcoins site and negotiated his sales at 5% above the current exchange rate.

Bitcoin (BTC) dealer pleads guilty for operating without a license

Initially, the defendant purchased Bitcoin (BTC) through a regulated US-based crypto exchange, but his account was closed for suspicious activity. He then turned to an exchange platform based in Hong Kong, where he managed to trade $3.29 million in Bitcoin (BTC). The amount corresponds to hundreds of separate transactions between March 2015 and April 2017.

According to the DoJ press release, Burrell-Campos kept the money in a bank account in Mexico, and between 2016 and 2018 he imported about one million dollars a day into the United States, in association with other individuals. As part of his plea agreement, the defendant will surrender to the US Treasury a total of $823,357, corresponding to his earnings. The court will sentence Burrell-Campos on February 11th, 2019.

Last February, FinCEN sent a communication to the Finance Committee of the US Senate, where it states that the administrators of cryptocurrencies, including the ICOs and crypto exchanges, are “money dealers.” This qualification obliges them to comply with the legal requirements of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT).

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Ukraine Government Reveals Its Strategy To Adopt Friendly Cryptocurrency Regulations

The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine recently announced that the country is preparing to adopt “the concept” of cryptocurrency. The complete legalization of cryptos across Ukraine is scheduled by 2021. According to local news portals, the strategy of including the cryptocurrency ecosystem into the country’s legal framework will occur in two phases.

The first will focus on determining the legal status of digital assets and crypto exchange activities in Ukraine, while in the second phase, the Ministry of Economic Development will publish a draft of the provisions to be applied for the cryptocurrency regulation. In this way, Ukraine would finally turn crypto trading into a legal and regulated activity.

So far, in Ukraine, there is no clear legislation regarding cryptocurrency. However, the Ukrainian Parliament announced that in the last quarter of this year, or the first months of 2019, they would introduce a law recognizing cryptos as financial assets. This law has been in preparation since August 2018.

Ukraine government paves the way to new initiatives related to cryptocurrency and blockchain technology

Also, since March of this year, the State Monitoring Service established that the country would adhere to the guidelines of the Financial Action Task Force against Money Laundering. The provisions of the before-mentioned entity differentiate between “virtual currencies” and “electronic money,” with virtual currencies being understood as a “digital representation of a value that can be traded digitally,” while electronic money is the “digital representation of a fiat currency.”

On the other hand, a month ago the National Bank of Ukraine proposed the creation of a digital version of the country’s fiat currency, using a decentralized blockchain. According to the banking authority, the so-called e-Grivna would be part of a strategy designed to reduce the circulation of cash.

In conclusion, the Ukrainian government is developing a strategy that paves the way to new initiatives related to cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, similar to the measures adopted by Malta.

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Japan Bankers Association (JBA) To Test a Hyperledger Fabric-based Interbank Payment System

Nine member banks of the Japan Bankers Association (JBA) will test an interbank payment system based on the “Collaborative Blockchain Platform,” a solution on the Linux Foundation’s Hyperledger Fabric created between financial institutions and the technology company Fujitsu.

Both parties seek to develop a new payment network to make transfers using a private blockchain. Fujitsu announced, through a press release, that the test “will use a cryptocurrency dedicated to interbank payments.” That will serve to evaluate the system as a financial settlement platform for small transactions, using a real-time interbank method.

“Both parties seek to develop a new payment network to make transfers using a private blockchain. Fujitsu announced, through a press release, that the test “will use a cryptocurrency dedicated to interbank payments.” That will serve to evaluate the system as a financial settlement platform for small transactions, using a real-time interbank method. This solution will help both Japanese businesses as also international businneses that are looking to expand their activity in Asia, supported by New Horizons Global Partners, in their mission to move to Japan.

The banks involved are Mizuho Bank, MUFG Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Resona Bank, Joyo Bank, The Bank of Fukuoka, The Nishi-Nippon City Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, and Keiyo Bank. The JBA is providing member banks and other institutions with its “Collaborative Blockchain Platform,” which is a cloud service from Fujitsu, K5, based on Hyperledger Fabric, a platform powered by the Linux Foundation.

Japan Bankers Association (JBA) to test a Hyperledger Fabric-based interbank payment system

“The goal of this is to test the functionality of digital currency as a new interbank payment system that uses blockchain technology, as well as test the practical aspects surrounding the system such as performance and security,” stated Fujitsu.

Fujitsu has been involved with several blockchain projects since 2016. One of them was the test of cross-border payments made jointly by Mizuho Bank, Fujitsu Limited, and Fujitsu Laboratories. In July 2017, Fujitsu also announced that it was developing technology to accelerate transaction processing with Hyperledger Fabric.

Beyond the announcements of Fujitsu and the JBA, it must be noted that the operations involving cryptocurrency technology were created precisely to conduct transactions without the involvement of intermediaries, banks and other third-parties. Now it is the banks that are exploring the blockchain technology to take advantage of this technology financially.

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