Munich Security Conference: U.S. Govt. Nowhere Close to Regulating Bitcoin
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, the White House cybersecurity coordinator has stated that the U.S. government is nowhere close to regulating Bitcoin. He particularly emphasised the need to better understand the cryptocurrency’s risks and benefits before embarking on any sort of regulatory regime.
Hundreds of world leaders and security chiefs are gathered at Munich’s luxury Hotel Bayerischer Hof this weekend in what’s been called the “Academy Awards for security policy wonks.” The Munich Security Conference comprises three days of debates, speeches, and sideline meetings regarding international defence policy, and is attended by top world leaders, as well as CEOs, human rights campaigners, and environmentalists.
Speaking with CNBC, Rob Joyce, special assistant to the President and White House cybersecurity coordinator, said there’s a long way to go before the U.S. government starts regulating Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Joyce emphasized the need to better understand the cryptocurrency’s risks and benefits before moving forward with any sort of regulation: “I think we’re still absolutely studying and understanding what the good ideas and bad ideas in that space are,” he said when asked about the potential for government regulation. “So, I don’t think it’s close.”
Bitcoin is a decentralized and digital, and unlike fiat currencies such as the dollar it’s not backed by a central authority. And as transactions are anonymous, the coin has been accused of making it easier for those engaged in illicit activities to hide their money. But this ability that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies offer to avoid traditional restrictions on money and assets is part of what makes it so popular to those who use it. That decentralization is also much of the reason its price swings so wildly.
“We are worried. There are benefits to the Bitcoin concept — digital cash, digital currencies,” Joyce said. “But at the same time, if you look at the way Bitcoin works after there is a criminal act that takes place, you can’t rewind the clock and take back that currency.” Joyce described the inherent problem with this lack of a trail, noting that in the case of credit card theft, for instance, individuals or companies can contact their banks and purchases can be undone and the cash retrieved.
Business and policy leaders are divided over the future of cryptocurrencies and associated technology. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said it will have to be regulated, while South Korea’s threat of regulation in early 2018 sent waves across the crypto-world. France and Germany are said to be working on their own regulatory structure, as European Union lawmakers call for some sort of control over a currency that has the potential to be used for drug trafficking, money laundering, and terrorism. Further, governments are more uncertain still over what “regulation” would actually look like — from more subtle restrictions to an all-out ban.
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Who Needs a Lawyer or Accountant When You Have Blockchain Technology? This Project Is Making Private Investment Easy and Transparent
Accountants, lawyers, bankers, bookkeepers, and VC firms: these are just some of the intermediaries and support staff that are needed to allow private startup companies to take on private investment in their early stages (Pre IPO). This incurs a lot of overhead and lead time, and can completely price out some types of investor from getting in on the ground floor of the next Uber or Palantir technologies. Even platforms like Kickstarter fail to give anything close to the amount of legal protection to the investor that legit private investment should offer.
This results in a situation where nascent companies have limited access to cash and investors have limited access to promising investments. The only people profiting from this setup are the middlemen who tick the bureaucratic boxes for high fees.
A new blockchain startup, OnPlace, is building a platform to use the transparency, security, and detail of decentralized blockchains to eliminate the need for manual input and allow more people to privately invest in more companies.
Protocols for investment
OnPlace uses their PATS token to power their system and grants complete and legally binding shares of a company to investors. The token “will allow the community of investors to make decisions in a decentralized manner in regards to the further distribution and motion of tokenized assets. The use of the protocol will mean that each decision in connection to transactions over tokens will be recorded in a network with its own blockchain and will not be subject to change,” according to their whitepaper.
The importance of a fluid market
The lack of a marketplace where startups can access private funding easily is of great detriment to the industry. By virtue of power-law dynamics, only a small percentage become successful, making a diversified portfolio important for investors. As the OnPlace team said: “The reasons for these are simple – the same economic laws operate in a world of crypto-currency venture investments just as in the sphere of traditional classic startups: 90% of all beginnings are going to be closed because of a number of reasons such as; lack of
financing, absence of necessary experience and skills in the team, while sometimes just the irrelevance of the product or service in the market.”
But if there is access to fewer companies, there will be less opportunity to diversify. So the OnPlace market could change investing completely – imagine being able to buy private shares as easily as buying Fortune 500 stocks? This is only possible with automation and digitization of shares.
Roadmapped Out
The team elaborated on the life cycle of an investment project, wherein their token is “a protocol created by the OnPlace team, which allows investors (the holders of issued tokens) to monitor and control operations over tokenized assets. After completing the project selection stage OnPlace legislates legal preparations
and develops an agreement, within the limits of which property rights over a part of private company shares (an underlying asset of a token) are transferred to future holders of the created tokens.”
On February 10 the pre-sale came to its end, during the 10 days of which OnPlace successfully raised its soft cap! OnPlace made a short pause in order to send all the bonuses to participants and make an update on the crowdsale page. Now, since all early investors have gotten their bonuses, OnPlace has decided to expand its community and resume the pre-sale in order to reach the hard cap of 15,000 ETH (as it was stated at the start of the campaign).
The contributions were made in all major cryptocurrencies such as BTC, ETH, LTC, and BCH. Besides the amount collected in various cryptocurrencies during the pre-sale, the OnPlace project also successfully funded the campaign through the crowdfunding platform https://www.crowdfunder.com/Onplace/invest .
“Resuming the pre-sale is a step forward towards speeding up the development phase, attracting additional leading experts to our project, and in this way allowing our idea to come to life faster. We are currently working on some updates for the roadmap that we plan on providing for the community ASAP. Listing OPL on exchanges is also in progress. We expect to have this ready during Q2.
We invite everyone to visit our updated pre-sale page at https://crowdsale.onplace.io and to join our Telegram community at https://t.me/on_place_chat ,“ says the OnPlace team.
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The BitCoen Token Sale Is Complete
On February 15, 2018, the Bitcoen project completed itstoken sale, having successfully reached the declared hard cap of$2.5 million.
The BitCoen team is working to get the Bitcoen token listed on popular crypto-exchanges.
“TheBitCoen token will undergo all the necessary checks, and we expect that in mid-March it will be traded on Bitqi.com,” commented Vice-President of BitCoen David Dyshko. “Later the token will appear on other exchanges. We want to thank all those who supported the BitCoen project.Your trust is very important tous. During the token sale, we realized that BitCoen is more than a Jewish blockchain project. The idea of BitCoen was supported by different communities: ethnic groups, travelers – all who havea need for a single crypto currency that can be used in different countries. So now we can say that Bitcoen is the first Community Open Exchange Network.”
The project’s geography covers more than 200 countries. According to the company’s representatives, most of the requests to purchase BitCoen tokens came from Israel, Russia, Germany, Italy, Spain, England, Turkey, Ukraine, India, Venezuela, Vietnam, Indonesia and Pakistan.
Blockchain 3.0
The BitCoen ecosystem includestheBitCoen token and an offline and online payment system that allows BitCoen to be used in everyday life:the international loyalty program BitCoen (“BitCoen Loyalty”), the BitCoen wallet (“BitCoen Wallet”),a marketplace for businesses (“BitСoen Platform”) and an advertising platform (“BitCoen ADV”).
“The BitCoen blockchain is our own development,” says Dyshko. “Its uniqueness lies, first, in the speed of 1,000 transactions per minute.Now it is the fastest blockchain in the world. The second unique feature is the absence of a commission for transactions. Third, the BitCoen blockchain is sustainable: it does not involve mining of proof of work or proof of stake. Confirmation of transactions occurs through the protocol of proof of time.That is, high transaction speed is a guarantee of its reliability.”
The project team has already started developing a mobile application for the BitCoen wallet. Together with this, negotiations are continuing with potential partners of the project, which will soon become part of a single Bitcoen ecosystem.
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Source: https://www.newsbtc.com/