Wall Street Creates Global Cryptocurrency Data Feed
New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) parent Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (ICE) has announced it is creating a global cryptocurrency data feed, active by the year’s first quarter.
Also read: Have Lunch with Bitcoin Jesus!
Wall Street Teams with Bitcoin Developer
“Access to comprehensive price discovery is vital to accurately value the cryptocurrency market,” a newly created ICE landing page reads. “Our Cryptocurrency Data Feed, available on the ICE Consolidated Feed, gives you access to streaming real-time, end of day and historical data for the most actively traded digital currencies.”
Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (ICE) owns several exchanges from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) to subsidiaries in Singapore and Netherlands. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, it’s a Fortune 500 company looking to enter the burgeoning cryptocurrency market. Blockstream is a private company geared toward bitcoin core applications, especially sidechains, and funds many bitcoin core projects, and will act as its partner.
The Feed will include “broad coverage” of six major cryptocurrencies: bitcoin core, ethereum, litecoin, dash, ripple, and bitcoin cash. The collaboration also promises “to offer multi-asset and multi-venue data from cryptocurrency exchanges globally, which will be available in the first quarter of 2018,” capturing “nearly 80% of crypto-exchange trading volume for the most active currency pairs.”
“All crosses are captured and normalized,” ICE explains, “which creates a unique sequence number, details on where the trade took place, and other relevant order book data such as quantity, price, currency and timestamp.” ICE also promises over “two years of Bitcoin (XBT) history; XBT/USD averages over 200,000 updates per day; in excess of 600,000 updates per day across all digital pairs.”
Low Latency, Quality Information
The new feed “initially include data from more than 15 cryptocurrency exchange venues globally,” ICE COO Lynn Martin is quoted as saying, “With the broad array of cryptocurrencies and exchanges, and given the price variances between exchanges, it’s critical that investors have a comprehensive source of pricing information.”
The six cryptocurrencies will be “measured against the U.S. Dollar and other major currency pairs,” the announcement continued. “Blockstream works with cryptocurrency exchanges around the world and consolidates the disparate data sets into a normalized and standardized data source that includes real-time and historical trade information, as well as other relevant order book data such as quantities, prices, currencies, and timestamps.”
The team’s hope is to limit latency in price discovery, providing as close to real-time and quality information as possible. “The ICE Data Services Consolidated Feed provides access to over 450 normalized real-time market data feeds and is part of ICE’s Connectivity service,” they stress.
It’s too early to know just yet if The Feed will compete with Coinmarketcap and other aggregators already established, but perhaps Wall Street professionals will be drawn to the legitimacy and gravitas ICE brings, furthering the crypto mainstreaming trend.
What do you think this teaming will accomplish? Let us know in the comments section below.
Images courtesy of Pixabay, ICE, Blockstream.
Not up to date on the news? Listen to This Week in Bitcoin, a podcast updated each Friday.
The post Wall Street Creates Global Cryptocurrency Data Feed appeared first on Bitcoin News.
Overwhelmed Cryptocurrency Exchanges Are Hiring Staff by the Hundreds
Cryptocurrency exchanges have been overrun for months, as record demand has caused throttling or restriction of service altogether. With exchanges buckling under the strain, a number of platforms have been forced to temporarily shut their books. On Thursday, Bitstamp announced plans to recruit 100 new call center staff as it struggles to feed the crypto frenzy.
Also read: Korean Crypto Exchanges Go on Hiring Spree, Stealing Workers From Banks
Bitstamp Buttresses its Exchange
Our data confirms what was beyond even our most optimistic forecasts for customer growth in the past year. Under normal circumstances this would be cause for celebration, but we are certainly far from feeling in celebratory mood.
He also hinted frustration at having to field so many queries from newbs who lack the slightest understanding of the sector they’re so hastily piling into, noting: “The arrival of so many people who are completely new to the industry means we are also now fielding very different questions about what crypto is”.
Madness and Mania
Bitstamp is also heavily investing in human resources. Nejc Kodrič writes:
Aware that you need real-time contact with us, and much better response times, we will be setting up a call centre with over 100 staff, which will be up and running in the coming weeks. We will also have a new ticketing system in place in 2 weeks from now to expedite the resolution of open tickets.
He finishes: “Don’t give up on us. I promise you that the efforts we are making will soon show results.”
Denial of Service
Other exchanges have also been hit with growing pains, with Bittrex, Cryptopia, Bitfinex, and Binance all temporarily shutting up shop at some stage during the past month. Normal service has since been resumed, and exchanges are reporting record trading volume. On Thursday, Binance published a snapshot of its six-month performance, revealing that it now serves three million active users a day.
From Bittrex’ curious coin delisting policy to Kraken’s record downtime, every major cryptocurrency exchange has been in the news this week. Even Poloniex hasn’t been exempt; gremlins in its trading platform caused users to report a spate of oddities, including massive sell walls and orders disappearing from the books. The problems now seem to have been addressed, but not before Zcash was forced to publish a statement pointing out that the ZEC sell wall on Poloniex was impossible, as at 3.9 million coins it was greater than the total number of Zcash in existence.
From onboarding to uptime, cryptocurrency exchanges are being vigorously stress tested. With only 1% of the world invested in crypto, the avalanche of new users may still have a long way to run.
Do you think cryptocurrency exchanges will ever manage to match demand, or are they destined to be constantly playing catch up? Let us know in the comments section below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock.
Need to know the price of bitcoin? Check this chart.
The post Overwhelmed Cryptocurrency Exchanges Are Hiring Staff by the Hundreds appeared first on Bitcoin News.
Autopsy of the Bitconnect Implosion: Ponzi, Centralization, Governance
Ponzi lending smart bot scam Bitconnect finally did what most sane observers predicted long, long ago. It went splat. And it didn’t collapse due to government pressure, nor flurries of bad press, and certainly not from DDoS hacking attacks. The story is more of a ballad, a great object lesson, and it is the lie proving a greater truth: coin centralization and ”governance” end in fiery crashes and hellish burns.
Also read: Ditch University and High Transaction Fees!
Changes Coming for the Bitconnect System
“Ubitex, MyBitcoin, Bitcoin7, Bitscalper, Bitcoin Savings & Trust, Bitcoin Rain, Gbl Basic-Mining, Butterfly Labs, MintPal, Gemcoin, GAW Miners / Paycoin,” well known developer Jameson Lopp listed, including the latest, “Bitconnect. Scammers have wanted your BTC ever since it had an exchange rate. Learn from history. Don’t be greedy. Don’t be a victim,” he tweeted.
The third week of 2018 brought an announcement, Changes coming for the Bitconnect system – Halt of lending and exchange platform, posted by the anonymous outfit 15 January. “We are closing the lending operation immediately with the release of all outstanding loans,” they claimed.
“In short, we are closing lending service and exchange service while Bitconnect.co website will operate for wallet service, news and educational purposes.” Among the reasons for an abrupt change included “continuous bad press,” “two Cease and Desist letters,” and “DDoS attacks,” according to the scheme’s unnamed authors.
Former believers posting on the subreddit, /r/bitconnect, went apoplectic, as one might imagine (see insets). Their concern now is not with mechanics or figuring what might’ve gone wrong, but is instead purely practical: how to get out. Sober analysis is still important, and maybe it’s a perfect opportunity to pass along an ugly lesson to crytpo’s newcomers in hopes of helping them avoid future tragedy.
Centralization and Governance are Antithetical to Crypto
Putting aside outright scam (which Bitconnect is), a test going forward filtering all coins is their acceptance of centralization and, always with it, governance. To put the formula in basic terms: if there is a “someone” or a “headquarters” to sue, to shakedown, to roust and cajole, then that coin or team isn’t decentralized.
While projects such as IOTA, Ripple, Decred etc. are not scams in the Bitconnect sense, they’re currently embracing centralization and the cocaine of the industry at present, governance. Boards. These are all trappings leading to the rise of the bitcoin ethos in the first place. Crypto was created to fight them. A careful look at once-lauded concepts such as Tezos, and its foundation embroiled in lawsuit after lawsuit, should give pause to anyone long on cryptocurrency. Understanding just why cryptocurrencies matter and how they’re different can better inform new investors.
Bitconnect lost from the start in terms of its basic concept, built on the sturdy credulity of countries not yet familiar with Ponzi. In the west, as Andreas Antonopoulos explains, we’ve had at least a century to be fooled, to have felt the sting of our stupidity. The great thing about bitcoin and crypto is that it’s bringing-in emerging markets, people who’ve in many ways been left out of traditional capital arrangements – and it has done this precisely because it is decentralized and lacking formal governance. In countries with a history of command economics, the age-old lesson of Ponzi appears to be something they’re going to have to learn anew.
Bitconnect failed the Ponzi filter, but it also, and more importantly, failed the decentralization test: it could be given letters of cease and desist. It could be hectored. And because it was centralized, it lacked a robust segment of its team to shake it out of its scam properties. A perfect storm. This isn’t to exactly absolve Bitconnect’s religious believers. They’re guilty too, and as of this writing they’re busy trying to resurrect the dead, pumping their coin (which they insist doesn’t exist) back up even if ever so slightly. If only they knew about feathercoin, and a string of other failed altcoins that are dead, dying, or on life support. The patient cannot be saved.
What do you think about bitconnect going under? Let us know in the comments section below.
Images courtesy of Pixabay, Reddit.
Not up to date on the news? Listen to This Week in Bitcoin, a podcast updated each Friday.
The post Autopsy of the Bitconnect Implosion: Ponzi, Centralization, Governance appeared first on Bitcoin News.
US Sheriffs Welcome $1.7 Million Windfall After Students Plead Guilty to Stealing 5,400 BTC
Two Jacksonville students are facing up to two decades behind bars after pleading guilty to stealing $4 million worth of bitcoin. The pair hacked darknet site Sheep Marketplace in 2013 and made off with 5,400 BTC. Under forfeiture laws, Nassau County Sheriff’s Office will share in a $1.7 million windfall.
Also read: US Marshals Plan to Auction $52M Worth of Seized Bitcoins
LEA Celebrates Another Bitcoin Bonanza
Bitcoin thefts end badly for hackers who don’t cover their tracks, but spell great news for law enforcement. Across the US, federal and state agencies have been treating themselves to new computers and other equipment, all paid for with confiscated digital assets. It’s common practice for law enforcement to keep a portion of the proceeds from major crimes, but bitcoin’s rising value, coupled with the glacial pace at which criminal trials move, has caused payouts to balloon.
This week, Sean Harrison Mackert and Nathan Gibson pled guilty to wire fraud for hacking drug marketplace Sheep in late 2013. The pair, who are in their mid twenties, face a maximum sentence of 20 years in jail, in a case that news.Bitcoin.com first reported on last year. But one legal official believes they deserve to walk free.
“These young men, yes, they stole this money but there aren’t victims in the traditional sense,” said Jacksonville defense attorney Richard Landes. “If there were victims, the federal government would be returning this money to the victims; instead, the federal government is not returning this money. The federal government is keeping this money.”
Officials Divvy Up the Spoils
At a press conference, officials smugly congratulated one another on their stellar work and the multi-million dollar windfall it had brought about. The first major cash boost US agencies received from bitcoin was after auctioning off the 144,000 BTC seized from Silk Road admin Ross Ulbricht. Since then there have been scores of similar cases, including a pending auction of $52 million worth of BTC by US Marshals. The proceeds from this week’s Jacksonville case will be divvied up between the Nassau County Sheriff’s Office, JSO, and the Florida National Guard, who will put the money towards “equipment upgrades”.
How do you feel about law enforcement getting rich off bitcoin seizures? What do you think should be done with the proceeds of cyber crime in cases like this? Let us know in the comments section below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock and Firstcoastnews.
Tired of those other forums on the subject of Bitcoin? Check forum.Bitcoin.com.
The post US Sheriffs Welcome $1.7 Million Windfall After Students Plead Guilty to Stealing 5,400 BTC appeared first on Bitcoin News.
Neo Approaches Record High But Centralization Concerns Persist
After gaining 2,300% in six months and launching a string of eagerly anticipated ICOs, Neo would appear to be quite the success story. The token is currently trading for $150, after peaking at $193 earlier this month. But behind the scenes, everything isn’t as rosy as it seems; the Chinese blockchain faces persistent claims of over-centralization and rumors of US exchange delisting.
Also read: Bitcoin Hardware Wallet Maker Ledger Raises $75 Million from VC Investors
The Neo Kid on the Blockchain
The Key raised $22 million in minutes, and projects such as Aphelion – a Neo P2P DEX – and Deepbrain – an AI platform – have also reported record uptake. Others still to come include Zeepin, Narrative, and Apex, the latter boasting one of the largest crypto Telegram groups and guaranteed to hit its $25m cap. On the surface, everything is going smoothly, but beneath the waters the good ship Neo is sailing on, trouble may be brewing.
Who Controls Neo?
Da Hongfei, Neo’s CEO, is a man of few words and even fewer tweets. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao is loquacious, personable, and approachable; Hongfei, on the other hand, is an enigma. The entire Neo team aren’t known for their communicative skills, preferring to let their community do the talking. One reason for this may be the uncertain regulatory environment in China. Like other crypto companies that originated in the country, Neo is obliged to keep government officials onside, as it walks a delicate tightrope, balancing its goals with its legal obligations. The core team has since relocated, but Neo retains close ties with its country of origin.
One of the biggest concerns regarding Neo, and indeed many other cryptocurrency projects, is the level of centralization. Ethereum, despite its “strong leader” handicap, is at least decentralized in terms of the nodes that secure the network, as a recent study has shown. With the majority of Neo nodes controlled by the project’s inner circle, the blockchain is susceptible to interference, either directly or at the say-so of government officials. Its Github also only has one branch.
Loads of Nodes (Just Not for Neo)
Like many blockchains, Neo seems to be working to a “future decentralization” model: get things up and running first and then, once the teething problems have been ironed out, decentralize. Great if it works, though as history shows, power, once gained, is hard to relinquish. Bitcoin and Ethereum have over 30,000 globally distributed nodes between them; the number of official Neo nodes is less than 10. The Neo blockchain is fast and has high throughput, but speed is of little benefit if it comes at the expense of security. Speaking of security…
Security or Utility?
One of the greatest challenges Neo may face in 2018 stems from a land beyond its reach: the USA. The Chinese blockchain doesn’t need America’s blessing to function, but with the US dominating the crypto market, Neo’s absence would be a major blow to Da Hongfei’s plans for global domination. With Bitfinex having closed its doors to US residents, the number of licensed exchanges where US traders can buy Neo is already limited. The token is currently available on Bittrex, but rumors suggest the US exchange may be poised to delist Neo.
Deposits and withdrawals of Neo have been unavailable at Bittrex for a month, and the exchange recently delisted another token, Mysterium, for no apparent reason. With the Securities and Exchange commission looking closely at tokens that may constitute securities, it is thought that Bittrex may be removing security-like tokens to head off an SEC clampdown.
Neo token holders are paid Gas as a dividend, and while most people wouldn’t view this as a profit share, the SEC may see things differently. As it stands, Bittrex doesn’t pay out Gas to token holders for that reason, whereas Binance does. Even if Neo can shrug off issues on foreign soil, it is a prime target for regulation should China or South Korea come wielding the axe. Delisting from Upbit or Okex would be a major blow.
Plagiarism and Fake Goods
The global counterfeiting economy is valued at half a trillion dollars a year, with the bulk of those fake goods coming from China. The blockchain space isn’t immune from accusations of counterfeiting either, with China accounting for its fair share of imitators. There’s Tron for example, led by Justin Sun, which was shown to have copied entire chunks of its white paper. Then there’s Trinity, a project operating on the Neo blockchain, which has copied its state channel diagrams directly from Raiden. This plagiary is not the doing of Neo – nor is it limited to Asia – but it does indicate that the crypto projects to emerge from this part of the world deserve close scrutiny.
If Neo can overcome its centralization issues, and the ICOs it launches can add value and not vaporware, there is every likelihood that the project will flourish. Many investors though see potential hurdles, from the US to China, at every twist and turn. As the coin continues to rise in value, one of the biggest obstacles it may face is a logistical one.
Unlike other cryptocurrencies, neo is indivisible. You can buy a fraction of a neo on an exchange but you can only send whole units between wallets. Should the token ever attain the same sort of valuation as ethereum, this could present a major problem. Hodlers with half a neo on an exchange would then be faced with a quandary: sell it or shell out another $500 just to be able to withdraw.
How do you rate the Neo platform? Do you think it’s too centralized? Let us know in the comments section below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Coincodex and Neo.
Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency that enables near-instant, low-cost payments to anyone, anywhere in the world. Bitcoin uses peer-to-peer technology to operate with no central authority: transaction management and money issuance are carried out collectively by the network. Read all about it at wiki.Bitcoin.com.
The post Neo Approaches Record High But Centralization Concerns Persist appeared first on Bitcoin News.
PR: PodOne Adds Veteran Industry Insider to Team and Launches ICO to Revolutionize the Contact Center Industry
This is a paid press release, which contains forward looking statements, and should be treated as advertising or promotional material. Bitcoin.com does not endorse nor support this product/service. Bitcoin.com is not responsible for or liable for any content, accuracy or quality within the press release.
PodOne is launching the next global phase in call and contact center services, bringing together employers and agents through its decentralized network while optimizing staff time, reducing labor costs and elevating a new standard in training. The company is launching its Qubicle ICO on January 15th, 2018 to raise funds for the development of their product roadmap.
They also announced the addition of Rob Duncan, the former COO of successful work-at-home call center pioneer Alpine Access to the team of advisors. Rob oversaw operations at Alpine Access until it was acquired by Sykes Interactive, a $1.2B contact center business process outsourcer, for $150M and was rebranded to Sykes Home.
PodOne comes from the creators of Fenero, a well-known provider of contact center software with over 2,200+ call and contact centers using the platform in over 20 countries.
“Call centers have earned a mixed reputation through hit-or-miss customer service and poor quality standards,” says Marlon Williams, Founder and CEO of PodOne and Fenero. “With PodOne, we are on a mission to change this narrative by changing the way the industry works, in the first decentralized network of contact center professionals, with requisite substantive training and by introducing incentives for top-graded customer service representatives.”
Mr. Williams also stated, “With global online sales on a steady upward projection, it is now more critical than ever to have high, consistent standards of customer service through contact centers. Brands need to assure their customers that they can rely on the sales and after-sales call center service.”
As reported previously, the Miami, FL based company also officially filed for a U.S. patent in November 2017 to cover their method for using blockchain-based technology to handle employer-to-agent work requests, pooling excess time in a marketplace, and elastic staffing of human resources.
An Ethereum-based token, Qubicle (pronounced “cubicle”), will be issued during the ICO to serve as an incentive and rewards program for high performing customer service agents and is also the only method of transacting on the network. Publishing content, participating in PodOne University, and facilitating payment for services will all be completed via the QBE tokens in users’ PodOne Wallet. In general, 100,000,000 QBE tokens will be created, with 70% being available during the token sale (January 15th, 2018 to February 15th, 2018).
The team behind PodOne has spent the last 15+ years in the contact center technology industry and brings a built-in demand for PodOne services from its existing customer base. Their token distribution event offers attractive discounted token prices and provides an outstanding investment opportunity for contact center professionals and cryptocurrency investors and enthusiasts alike. Visit https://podone.io/?utm_source=newsbitcoincom&utm_campaign=pr1 to join today!
Contact Email Address
[email protected]
Supporting Link
https://podone.io/?utm_source=newsbitcoincom&utm_campaign=pr1
This is a paid press release. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the promoted company or any of its affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in the press release.
The post PR: PodOne Adds Veteran Industry Insider to Team and Launches ICO to Revolutionize the Contact Center Industry appeared first on Bitcoin News.
Source: https://news.bitcoin.com/