Bitcoin Investor Sues Huobi Over ¥400,000 in Losses
A bitcoin investor sued the Huobi exchange to recover 400,000 yuan he lost while trading.
Also Read: Thailand’s Regulators Allow Bitcoin Futures Trading
Too Much Pressure Trading Bitcoin
Wang Tieliang filed a lawsuit against Huobi and its two partners in Beijing to invalidate his bitcoin trades on the exchange. According to Wang, he deposited 1.4 million yuan at Huobi to speculate on bitcoin in October of 2016. But within a few months, he couldn’t handle the pressure to see himself losing money, and cashed out once and for all.
The plaintiff told the court that his trades at Huobi should be invalidated because bitcoin doesn’t exist:
Bitcoin does not exist and is not a legal tender. Marxism says that a commodity should have price and value and clearly bitcoin can not be classed as a commodity. Besides, bitcoin is not a real currency for it is not issued by the central bank. Therefore, it shall not be used to trade or as a payment method.
Huobi argued that Wang doesn’t understand what bitcoin is. And it’s not Huobi that traded with him, it’s other users at the platform. Huobi only serves as a third-party platform that has been operating lawfully. Huobi added that the price of bitcoin is decided by the market, not by the platform.
Another two Beijing-based companies pleaded that they only help Huobi receive users’ deposits. As such, they have nothing to do with Wang’s losses.
The Court Judgement
The People’s Court of Haidian District, Beijing dismissed the lawsuit, saying investors should be responsible for their own losses. The court judgement explained:
When users trade bitcoin they are supposed to fully understand relative risks concerning it. They should invest only the amount they can afford to lose and undertake all responsibilities.
The court judge noted that bitcoin is not a commodity. It has no use value. The PBOC has no right to define bitcoin as a virtual commodity. And Huobi has no right to trade bitcoin. It can only offer trade services.
What do you think of the lawsuit? Do you agree with the judge? Leave your thoughts below.
Images via Shutterstock, China Judgement Online.
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Goldman Sachs Recognizes Bitcoin’s Future Potential
First, Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan Chase says he regrets calling bitcoin a fraud. Now, legacy bank Goldman Sachs is formally recognizing how cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin could act as global money. 2018 might be shaping up to be the year bitcoin gets more mainstream than ever.
Also read: Huge Bitcoin Conference Stops Accepting Bitcoin
Goldman Sachs Considers Bitcoin as Money
Bitcoin as Money, a proprietary research paper published internally by Goldman Sachs, argues, “Our working assumption is that long-run cryptocurrency returns should be equal to (or slightly below) growth in global real output—a number in the low single digits.” Eventually, “digital currencies should be thought of as low/zero return or hedge-like assets, akin to gold or certain other metals,” they claim. As a money in the way most people understand it, Goldman is open to the idea “in theory.”
The US legacy bank of banks, Goldman Sachs has been around 150 years. It existed decades before the Federal Reserve, and it has withstood many financial fads. Goldman employees go on to run the world, occupying the highest offices in governments. When it speaks on a subject, markets listen.
Goldman researchers Zach Pandl and Charles Himmelberg explain how their findings reveal in “recent decades the US dollar has served its purpose relatively well,” however, “in those countries and corners of the financial system where the traditional services of money are inadequately supplied, Bitcoin (and cryptocurrencies more generally) may offer viable alternatives.” Use cases aplenty can be found, from Zimbabwe to Venezuela.
“The widespread use of the dollar,” they continue, “outside the US — and full dollarization in some countries — suggests there is already demand for an internationally accepted medium of exchange and store of value.” Bitcoin ripeness.
Heavy Yoke of Government Money
Missing from their analysis is the yoke, heavy and planetary in reach, of the US greenback as the world’s reserve currency and store of value. It’s key to understanding the entire cypherpunk reasoning behind cryptographic money. With the US dollar comes the Fed system. That apparatus in turn is propped up by the US Treasury, which itself is kept insulated from monetary competition by the US military and judicial structures.
Treaties and global realism make fiat currency appear much more “stable” and “valuable” than it might be otherwise without institutions of coercion. Goldman’s authors consider exactly none of this. The two researchers actually predict bitcoin’s acceptance by Goldman and other institutions mean laws and regulations are coming. This will spur adoption, they believe. Bitcoin, they argue, needs to compete ultimately with the dollar’s transactional low cost.
It’s easy to wax about three decades of US currency hegemony, as the authors do, when ignoring reality. Low inflation and trade-weighted exchange rate stability, which buttress their argument bitcoin/crypto is no match for fiat beyond emerging economies, are maybe less desirable relative to the actual costs – if only they were stated side-by-side. Indeed, a supermajority of foreign exchange reserves are in US dollars, and one third of all exchanges settle in its dead presidents. Crypto has a long way to go.
The authors do acknowledge bitcoin’s potential to serve unbanked populations. In countries like India and China where widespread dissatisfaction with domestic currencies is growing, so will bitcoin, they write. At present the authors view bitcoin as being “more consistent with a classic speculative bubble.” That fact doesn’t seem to be stopping their employer from setting up its own crypto trading desk, however.
Is the Goldman Sachs research correct? Let us know in the comments below.
Images via Pixabay, Goldman Sachs.
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Blockexplorer.com Declares a Preference for Bitcoin Cash Over “Blockstream Fork”
Blockexplorer.com has announced that it will henceforth refer to Bitcoin Cash as Bitcoin only and the “Blockstream fork of bitcoin” as Bitcoin Legacy.
Also Read: Michael Novogratz $400 Million Bet: Form Giant Crypto Merchant Bank
An Evolutionary Dead End
Blockexplorer.com, which provides detailed information about bitcoin blocks, addresses, and transactions, will be supporting Bitcoin Cash over Bitcoin. Blockexplorer CEO Rick Falkvinge wrote in today’s announcement that the web tool is to change the default Blockexplorer.com to show Bitcoin (Cash) over Bitcoin Legacy. He explained that the current version of bitcoin is an evolutionary dead end:
The Blockstream fork of bitcoin diverges so radically from the ideas presented in the Bitcoin white paper, that it is an evolutionary dead end. While it may still have high trading value, as a mere collectible of curiosity, the Blockstream fork of bitcoin is not part of building any future financial infrastructure, which is what Block Explorer is about.
“The Blockstream fork of Bitcoin” is subject to high fees and low transaction confirmation speeds, making it unqualified to be called a currency of the future, according to the announcement.
A Currency of the Future
Blockexplorer.com believes that a currency of the future should have “subcent optional usage fees and instant transactions”. They think that “the Blockstream fork of Bitcoin” is too deprecated, and support it as legacy technology only. “Rather, we have made the decision to support the only bitcoin fork with a positive utility momentum, which is Bitcoin Cash,” said the website’s CEO.
Blockexplorer.com will go further, and remove future support for “Bitcoin Legacy”, which it plans to deprecate entirely at some future point in time to be determined.
BCH remains a contentious topic so far. A Chinese public figure told news.Bitcoin.com that though Blockexplorer.com refers to Bitcoin Cash as Bitcoin, it cannot force the rest of the world to think so. The website ranks within the top 10,000 sites in the United States. It has already deployed a Bitcoin Cash block explorer and will continue to roll out related services.
What do you think of the announcement to declare Bitcoin Cash as Bitcoin on Blockexplorer? Leave your comments below.
Images via Shutterstock, Blockexplorer.
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Calvin Ayre Launching Bitcoin Cash Mining Operations
Online gambling entrepreneur and billionaire Calvin Ayre has announced his next business venture to be cryptocurrency mining operations. According to Ayre the mining facility will dedicate its hashpower to the bitcoin cash blockchain only.
Also read: Miami Bitcoin Conference Stops Accepting Bitcoin Due to Fees and Congestion
A Mining Facility Dedicated to Bitcoin Cash Only
The Antiguan businessman Calvin Ayre is well known for founding the Bodog entertainment brand and gaming platforms. Ayre is also known for his passion for cryptocurrencies particularly bitcoin cash (BCH) and was recently appointed the Antigua and Barbuda region’s Economic Envoy for Technology Development. “Mr. Ayre will advise the Government on the effective implementation of new technological developments in cryptocurrency and Bitcoin,” explained the government’s Director-General of Communications.
On January 10, Ayre has revealed he has dedicated significant amounts of his investment funds towards creating a bitcoin cash mining operation. The entrepreneur explains he’s purchased both hardware and software in order to help build the BCH hashrate. Ayre believes bitcoin cash is the “one true bitcoin” and his mining facility will only mine BCH.
The Mining Operation is the First Among Many Announcements This Year That Will Focus on Bitcoin Cash
According to Ayre, the new venture will have the same name as the recent media outlet he just purchased, Coingeek.com. Coingeek will focus its efforts on both the news surrounding BCH, securing the currency with hashrate, and the firm is also launching an e-commerce website. Coingeek’s commerce operation will focus on bictoin cash-based commerce and will be named “Bcomm.” Bitcoin cash is the only technology positioned for this function,” the Antiguan explains.
“This is the first step in a whole host of activity in the BCH space that we are rolling out this year — For instance, we are also embarking on a full merchant adoption marketing program,” Ayre details during the announcement.
This will help educate not only those who have already embraced the now-dysfunctional, legacy Segwit Coin but also those who are thinking of taking the plunge for the first time; that BCH is the only option for low-fee micro-payments. This will include the industry’s first Bcomm merchant adoption conference in Hong Kong, May 18th at the Four Seasons.
The new Coingeek operated mining facility will join the eight known mining pools dedicating hashpower to the BCH chain. This includes pools such as Antpool, Viabtc, Bitcoin.com, BTC.top, 58coin, BTC.com, Hashbx, and Bitclub. At the moment there is 2 exahash worth of hashpower pointed at the BCH chain and it’s 1.5 percent more profitable to mine. Ayre and Coingeek hopes to bolster the hashrate even more with its new mining facility.
What do you think about Calvin Ayre starting his own mining operation dedicated to BCH? Let us know in the comments below.
Images via Shutterstock, and Calvin Ayre.
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Korean Regulators Launch Investigations of Bithumb and Coinone Crypto Exchanges
The South Korean regulators have started investigating two major cryptocurrency exchanges. The country’s National Tax Service has conducted an on-site investigation of Bithumb and Coinone. In addition, Coinone is also being investigated by the Korean police for allegedly offering illegal gambling services to investors.
Also read: South Korea Urges 23 Countries, EU, and IMF to Collaborate on Curbing Crypto Trading
Tax Authority Investigating Bithumb and Coinone
“The Seoul Regional Tax Office is investigating books and related materials including sales figures,” the news outlet described. Investigators were sent to Bithumb’s headquarters in Gangnam-gu and Coinone’s headquarters in Yeouido.
“It’s true that the NTS has come out with an investigation, but it is difficult to confirm the details of the investigation,” Bithumb was quoted by the Hankook-Ilbo. The publication elaborated:
The investigation is related to the virtual currency taxation industry analysis. The government is considering ways to impose a capital gains tax on virtual currency investment returns.
The Korean regulators are actively discussing ways to tax cryptocurrencies. Last week, they announced that some taxes are possible under the current law such as corporate tax, as news.Bitcoin.com previously reported.
Coinone Also Investigated by Police
The police believe that Coinone is a kind of gambling [business] that provides members with a margin trading service that predicts the market price after a maximum of one week and chooses the number of short sales and makes profit or loss according to the result.
However, a Coinone official contested, stating that “We have already reviewed the law [to ensure] that there is no illegality before starting the service, and we have already stopped the service from concerns of the financial authorities.”
What do you think of the Korean government launching investigations of Bithumb and Coinone? Do you think more crypto exchanges will be investigated? Let us know in the comments section below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Bithumb, Coinone.
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Bitcoin Becomes A Trendy Way to Buy New Homes
While some people still feel hesitant to accept cryptocurrencies, we see an increasing trend in the real estate markets. Over the last few months the number of sales of houses and land properties conducted in bitcoin have risen considerably.
Also Read: Fantasy Market Porn Coin CEO Ghosts, ICO Folds, Investors Lose
A New Way of Transferring Money
One businessman in Sabah, Malaysia agreed to be paid in bitcoin for a piece of land in Sabah’s Libaran Island.
Alexander Yee, one of Sabah’s top tourism entrepreneurs, has made a land deal with his friend Polycarp Chin using Bitcoin. Yee agreed to sell 1.219ha of land on Libaran Island to Chin for half a bitcoin ($5,758). The transaction was sealed this Monday with a 10% deposit paid via 0.05 bitcoin, or $588 at the time the deal was signed.
At the signing ceremony, Chin transferred the money from his Luno wallet directly into Yee’s wallet. “It is about a new way of transferring money,” said Yee. He added that this was just an ordinary sale that was paid in bitcoin and the remaining 0.45 bitcoin would be paid once the transfer was completed.
Another Way to Sell Property
Property developer Go Homes last December successfully sold two luxury homes in the UK using bitcoin currency.
The first property sold was a four-bedroom detached £350,000 family house in Colchester. The unnamed buyer is a bitcoin miner who made an early killing on the cryptocurrency. He bought the new house as an investment property in hopes of renting it out in bitcoin. The buyer of the second property, a £595,000 four-bed townhouse in Hertfordshire, is also a bitcoin miner.
“This re-writes the rule book and shows there is another way to sell property,” said Ed Casson, group sales director of Go Homes. He believed that selling homes for bitcoin will become common in the next five years as it benefits both buyers and sellers due to transactions being swift. “Because bitcoin is so volatile purchasers buy a property outright, with no deposit,” added Ed Casson. “They exchange and complete at the same time.”
The Early Days of the Internet
This trend is seen globally. An Australian vendor planned to sell a family house in Melbourne’s outer east and was willing to accept Bitcoin as payment.
Rob, an experienced builder, whose latest project, 1411 Mountain Highway, The Basin, is up for sale with its listing declaring the “owner is agreeable to accept part payment in Bitcoin”.
“I see cryptocurrency at the moment as like the early days of the internet dot com era,” said Rob. But at the same time, he is also aware of the financial risks involving in trading bitcoin.
A day in bitcoin is like a week or a month in the real world. It’s volatile, and in volatility there’s a lot of money to be made and a lot of money to be lost.
Will bitcoin and its alternatives penetrate the real estate industry? Do you think this will raise questions about legalities? Leave your thoughts below.
Images via Shutterstock, CASCADENEWS.CO.UK, The Star Online.
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Source: https://news.bitcoin.com/