Russia Drafts Bill to Legalize Cryptocurrency Trading on Approved Exchanges
The Russian Ministry of Finance is drafting a bill to legalize cryptocurrency trading at approved exchanges. The ministry is already preparing a list of approved trading platforms.
Also read: Russian Regulators Draft Law to Restrict Crypto Mining, Payments, and Token Sales
Some Exchanges Will be Legalized
The Russian Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseev told reporters that his ministry “supports the legalization of trade in crypto-currencies on official exchanges,” RNS reported on Thursday.
“We do not want to limit and regulate, but we will set some limits,” he emphasized, adding that “nothing will happen” to those already possess cryptocurrencies, the publication conveyed. The deputy minister was further quoted saying:
This is about the fact that buying and selling [of cryptocurrencies] will be somehow standardized. The general idea is that it will be necessary to buy and sell on official exchanges, as it will be declared, it will be legalized.
List of Legal Platforms Being Discussed
The bill for the regulation of cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings (ICOs) was jointly presented at the end of December of last year by the ministry of finance and the central bank, as news.Bitcoin.com previously reported.
“Following the discussion at the public council, a number of comments were made, which we are now finalizing,” Moiseev was quoted by RNS. He clarified that his ministry plans to finalize the bill, “including the development of rules for the circulation of cryptocurrencies,” and submit it to the State Duma in February, Tass reported on Thursday.
Regarding which trading platforms will be legalized, Moiseev revealed:
We will now actively discuss this issue, [list of approved exchanges]. This issue is currently unresolved. The rest is more or less clear.
Putin Emphasized the Need for Proper Regulation
The bill to regulate cryptocurrency and ICOs in Russia is expected to be adopted in March, according to the chairman of the State Duma Financial Markets Committee, Anatoly Aksakov. President Vladimir Putin has mandated the regulatory framework for both cryptocurrencies and ICOs be finalized by July 1 of next year.
In a meeting with the heads of print media and news agencies on Thursday, Putin emphasized that proper “legislative regulation will certainly be needed” for the cryptocurrency market, Tass also reported and quoted him saying:
It is known that there is nothing behind cryptocurrency. It cannot be a means of accumulation, there are no material values behind it, it is not provided with anything, it can be, in a certain degree and in certain situations, a means of settlement, which is quickly done and effectively.
“If we regulate, but not efficiently enough, then the government will be responsible for the difficult situations that people can get into,” Putin was quoted by RT. “Right now it is the responsibility of the person himself and the government can only say ‘you can do this but you can’t do that,’ and if it’s still not clear then there will be some problems that need to be solved.”
What do you think of the bill to only allow crypto trading at approved exchanges? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Chinese Bitcoin Mining Giant Bitmain Establishes Branch in Zug, Switzerland
For centuries Switzerland was known around the world for its tradition of banking secrecy, but now a new financial industry is taking root in the country. Local leaders tried to establish a cryptocurrency hub, and their latest catch is Chinese bitcoin mining giant Bitmain, which expanded to a new location in the picturesque Swiss canton of Zug.
Also Read: Australian Taxation Office Creates Task Force to Go After Bitcoin Traders
Bitmain Switzerland
Bitmain Technologies Ltd., the Beijing-headquartered bitcoin mining machines (ASIC chips) producer, has established a new branch in Zug, Switzerland. The Chinese company explained it chose the Zug location because Switzerland was “one of the most progressive countries”, “with good legal stability” and a skilled workforce. Bitmain says it will employ more employees in Zug in the future and will “actively communicate with self-regulatory organizations (SROs) and the Financial Market Authority (Finma).”
“Bitmain Switzerland will play a key role in our global expansion,” the company’s spokesperson told the German-language Swiss newspaper Handelszeitung. This is the first foothold in Europe for Bitmain which already has branches in the US, Singapore and Israel. “Now is a good time to build a hub in Europe to provide better services,” he proclaimed.
Chinese Global Diversification
There are conflicting reports about the position of the Chinese government with regard to such a move against bitcoin mining, and it’s always wise not to keep all your eggs in one basket, just in case. Switzerland, among other countries, looks poised to benefit from offering a welcoming environment for anyone looking to expand to a more secure location.
Is this a signal for things to come in the Chinese bitcoin industry? Tell us what you think in the comments section below.
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Notorious Domain XBT.com Goes up for Sale at 200 BTC
XBT.com, one of the web’s most desirable domain names, is up for sale. Its current owners, XBT Holding SA, are seeking 200 BTC – or about $2.9 million – for the site. The domain is coveted partially because XBT is the abbreviation that many institutional trading platforms use for bitcoin, and also on account of the site’s notoriety, having been linked to the hacking of the US Democratic Party.
Also read: Hive to Place Its $100Mn USD Bitcoin Mining Operations in Northern Sweden
Buy XBT with BTC
It’s not often a three-letter dot com domain goes up for sale, but when it does, it’s guaranteed to command a premium price tag. XBT.com is of particular interest to bitcoiners, given that the letters XBT are synonymous with bitcoin in some circles. This connection accounts for why the web hosting company in charge of the domain have elected to capitalize on the bitcoin boom and price the domain in BTC.
200 BTC is the starting bid for XBT.com, whose holding page currently shows a “buy now” button or the option to place a bid, complete with the price of bitcoin in real-time, denominated in XBT. There’s more to the site than a cool name and a convenient bitcoin connection though: the backstory to XBT.com is the most enthralling part of the whole affair.
Buzzfeed, Trump, and the Damaging Dossier
In January 2017, Buzzfeed published a story based on information supplied by research group Fusion GPS. It contained a series of allegations about XBT, the Luxembourg-based company currently selling the domain of the same name. XBT, in conjunction with its Webzilla subsidiary, had been complicit in stealing data from the Democratic Party including a damning dossier on Donald Trump, the allegation went. XBT’s former CEO Aleksej Gubarev was named specifically in the report, supposedly abetted by Russia’s Federal Security Service.
Bloomberg quotes Gubarev, via his lawyer, as saying:
This domain has way more value in the hands of someone in the cryptocurrency business. Also, the brand name of XBT has severely suffered due to the false allegations in the dossier, and we are considering re-branding as the result of the reputational damage.
XBT’s loss can be one bitcoin entrepreneur’s gain, but they’ll need to dig deep for the privilege. Aside from the 200 BTC asking price, the auction requires a deposit of $10,000 or 0.5 BTC just to eligible to bid. With no bids received so far, it remains to be seen whether XBT will succeed in shifting one of the web’s most infamous domains.
Do you think XBT.com is a desirable bitcoin domain? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Bitstamp Is Asking Users Who Want to Withdraw a Lot of Questions
Customers of Slovenia’s Bitstamp exchange are being forced to jump through hoops to meet an unprecedented level of compliance. A widely circulated image, purporting to reveal Bitstamp’s enhanced KYC procedure, has been attracting a lot of attention. The document requests screenshots of other cryptocurrency exchange profiles, bank account statements showing fiat deposits to third party exchanges, and signed messages from the BTC and ETH addresses the customer intends to use.
Also read: Dancing With the Devil: ‘Cashing Out’ Cryptos Into Fiat Not So Easy
Bitstamp Wants to Really Know Its Customers
Bitstamp has a generally positive reputation within the cryptocurrency world. With a pedigree dating back to 2011, the site has been around since the time of Mt Gox, and save for a hack of 19,000 BTC in 2015, has emerged from bitcoin’s wild west days unscathed. Europe’s oldest exchange records close to $1 billion in trading volume each day, with bitcoin, ripple, and ethereum the leading currencies. On the surface, Bitstamp is a model in how to run an exchange, with its CEO Nejc Kodrič lauded for his business acumen and entrepreneurship.
You Can Cash Out Anytime but You Can Never Leave
It is Bitstamp though which takes the biscuit for protracted and unnecessarily invasive KYC. Thanks to Bitstamp’s radio silence regarding the document at the center of the debate, it is hard to gauge its authenticity. But wherever the document originated, it illustrates two things:
1) the lack of communication from many exchanges that allows such rumors to circulate unchecked and 2) insane KYC requests from exchanges have gotten so extraordinary that it’s now hard to tell what’s real and what’s a spoof. What is indisputable is that Bitstamp customers have been aggrieved at the exchange’s KYC policy for months. Bitstamp’s Reddit page features numerous complaints from users, who quote official correspondence that is worded very similarly to the screenshot cited earlier, including the use of phrases such as “kindly ask”. One such missive from Bitstamp reportedly reads:
In order to fully satisfy our additional KYC procedure, we kindly ask you to submit any financial documentation which can confirm the origin of your sent funds, such as savings account statement, salary pay slip, tax revenue statement, investment portfolio, property sale contract, inheritance or similar. Thank you for your cooperation.
To which the user reasonably replies: “All my money is taxed and legal, but I don’t look forward spending HOURS of my time getting my financial documents from the banks, copies of my pay checks from my employer and everything they asked for. It will literally take hours over several days do get what they asked for. What happens if I don’t give them the documentation?”
Cryptocurrency exchanges, either out of fear of being shut down or an overzealous desire to prove they’re above board, have created an environment of fear in which everyone is a suspect and innocence must be proven, not assumed. Faced with onerous and invasive KYC requests which often seem to have no basis in the law, it is no surprise that many individuals are taking their custom elsewhere, be it P2P exchanges such as Localbitcoins.com or to crypto exchanges that treat their clients with courtesy and respect.
Have you experienced problems depositing or withdrawing from cryptocurrency exchanges? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Overstock Glitch Gave Customers ‘Discounts’ With Bitcoin Cash
This week security experts found a website glitch on the e-commerce marketplace Overstock that let customers purchase items for a fraction of the price. The reason users were getting such huge discounts is because the system was accidentally allowing bitcoin cash (BCH) purchases in place of items priced in bitcoin core (BTC).
Also read: No, Mainstream Media, That Country Did Not Ban Bitcoin. Again.
‘Big Discounts’: Some Overstock Customers Pay for Items Priced in BTC With BCH
If things couldn’t get any worse, they did: Krebs decided to get a refund for the three solar lamps purchased with BCH.
“I didn’t really want the solar lights, but also I had no interest in ripping off Overstock,” explains the Krebs employee.
So I canceled the order — To my surprise, the system refunded my purchase in bitcoin, not bitcoin cash.
Payment Glitch Lasted for Three Weeks
“After working with a researcher to confirm the findings, that method of payment was disabled while we worked with our cryptocurrency integration partner, Coinbase, to ensure they resolved the issue,” explains Overstock to Krebs. “We have since confirmed that the issue described in the finding has been resolved, and the cryptocurrency payment option has been re-enabled.”
Coinbase revealed to Krebs that the bug existed for “three weeks” and the issue was caused by the merchant partner “improperly using the return values” in the company’s merchant integration API.
What do you think about Overstock accidentally letting people buy items priced in BTC but used BCH instead? Let us know what you think of this story in the comments below.
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Japan’s Most Popular Chat App In Talks to Integrate Cryptocurrencies
Japan’s most popular chat app, with 168 million active monthly users, Line, could soon integrate cryptocurrencies. The company is reportedly in talks with a number of companies to integrate cryptocurrencies into its mobile payment service, Line Pay.
Also read: South Korea Urges 23 Countries, EU, and IMF to Collaborate on Curbing Crypto Trading
Line Could Soon Integrate Cryptocurrencies
According to people familiar with the matter, the Tokyo-based company “is in discussions with multiple companies on using cryptocurrencies for payment services including Line Pay,” adding that:
The broader goal is to create products that keep users within Line’s ecosystem and keep them coming back to the app, increasing ‘stickiness.’
Line Pay is the mobile payments service used in the chat app. Launched in 2014, it has signed deals with over 30 banks across Japan to allow instant transactions using its platform, according to Mobile World Live. In May of last year, Line Pay reached 30 million users in Japan.
Line has a market value of ¥1.2 trillion (~USD$10.75 billion). The app currently has about 168 million monthly active users in its primary markets of Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, and Indonesia.
Speculation of a Collaboration with Kakao’s Upbit
Line has not named the companies it is in discussion with. However, there is “speculation that it was looking to tie up with South Korean bitcoin exchange Upbit,” according to a Bloomberg report. However, a representative for Line declined to comment on a potential alliance with Upbit.
Since its launch in October, Upbit has rapidly gained market share in South Korea. In December of last year, the platform claimed that its volumes exceeded those of Bithumb, South Korea’s largest exchange by volume. There are currently over 120 coins listed on Upbit, thanks to a partnership with the US-based exchange, Bittrex.
Makers of chat apps around the world are starting to take notice. Earlier this week, Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology could potentially be used on Facebook’s platform.
Do you think Line will soon integrate cryptocurrencies? Do you think Kakao’s Upbit is the right partner for Line? Let us know in the comments section below.
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