Private Equity Moris Beracha Wuani

By Moris Beracha .-  Cryptocurrency mining is a process that exceeds electricity consumption. This is known by bitcoin mining companies and the authorities of the different countries of the world and therefore they have set to work, in order to drastically reduce the amount of energy to be used. An example of this reality includes Soluna, a Bitcoin-mining company, which plans to start the construction of a 36 megawatt wind farm in Morocco in January 2019. According to a company statement, southern Morocco enjoys the ideal conditions to produce wind energy, which will help relieve the country’s electricity system and deem cryptocurrency mining much more comfortable. Soluna acquired the rights to a 37,000 acres of land, with over 900 MW of wind power potential available for development, so it does not rule out the storage of the remaining energy in devices as soon as wheather conditions are not fully effective. Likewise, the Brookstone Partne...

By Moris Beracha .-  After a nasty drop in the price of Bitcoin, it seems that the currency is climbing back to its price of last December. Some experts believe that it could increase significantly. However, several things must be done. Firstly, they say, the currency must adopt rates as a store of value and be a medium of exchange, two common functions among conventional currencies. For that to happen, Bitcoin must become a better security infrastructure. “Assuming that Bitcoin will be used in the future as a store of value going forward (e.g., digital gold), a better security infrastructure overarching the entire crypto ecosystem will be needed for people to place trust in this new financial medium and start using it,” says Christian Ferri, President and CEO of BlockStar. “Once this happens, more people will jump in, so a scalable infrastructure will be crucial.” While a better security infrastructure is an important factor that will hel...

By  Vildana Hajric| Bloomberg Greg Tusar, the former global head of electronic trading at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., is excited about digital assets despite the horrific year for cryptocurrencies. “It feels like being at the early days of trading equities electronically,” said Tusar, who serves as chief technology officer and is a co-founder of Tagomi Holdings. “It’s early stage, there’s a lot of opportunity to build great businesses and have impact.” Tagomi, which bills itself as the first live electronic brokerage offering prime services, has begun executing client trades. Tusar is working alongside co-founders Jennifer Campbell, who is serving as chief executive officer, and Marc Bhargava, the company’s president. The platform combines liquidity across different exchanges and offers more trade reporting and transparency to customers such as hedge funds and high net-worth individuals, the trio said in an interview. Crypto invest...

By  William Suberg The  central bank  of  Egypt  wants to introduce a digital version of the Egyptian pound to reduce costs, local English language news outlet  Amwal Al Ghad  reported Dec. 16. Ayman Hussein, sub-governor of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), told an Abu Dhabi conference on Sunday that “feasibility studies” were currently ongoing. In line with various authorities in the vicinity, Egypt believes a  blockchain -based digital version of its  fiat currency  can help keep issuance and transaction costs to a minimum compared to coins and banknotes, Amwal Al Ghad notes. The move is one step in the journey to a cashless society. “A number of international institutions” are involved in the studies, Amwal Al Ghad reported Hussein as saying, “without disclosing names or specifying whether the anticipated currency would be traded for banks only or between banks and clients.” Egypt has traditional...

By  Adrian Zmudzinski A conservative member (MP) of the United Kingdom’s ( U.K. ) Parliament has said that making payments to local authorities and utility providers with Bitcoin ( BTC ) should be possible. The MP’s statements were reported by local news outlet Express.co.uk on Dec. 10. The article notes that Eddie Hughes, a member of the U.K. Parliament for the Walsall North constituency, described himself as a “crypto enthusiast with amateur knowledge.” He notes that blockchain gets a lot of attention and members of the parliament “have a duty to understand it.” Hughes further explained that he recently met with the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, which accepts cryptocurrency donations, and that the encounter made him think: “What’s to stop us [from] being able to pay council tax and other bills with Bitcoin?” Those declarations come shortly after, as Cointelegraph reported at the end of November, the United States state of Ohio announc...

New cryptocurrency exchange has reportedly raised $27.5 million from investors which include NASDAQ Ventures and Fidelity Investments. The platform will offer cryptocurrency trading on spot and future markets starting next year.  Nevermind the Bear Market Seemingly unphased by the current bleeding conditions of the cryptocurrency market, Fidelity Investments and NASDAQ Ventures have reportedly taken part in a funding round of new cryptocurrency exchange ErisX. The total amount raised is $27.5 million,  Reuters  reports . According to the report, Nasdaq has already confirmed its participation while Fidelity is yet to respond to the requests for comment. The new cryptocurrency exchange will purportedly enable investors to trade Bitcoin (BTC) $3786.42 +0.14% , Litecoin (LTC) 0 0 , and Ether (ETH) 0 0 on both spot and futures markets. It is expected to launch in 2019 following regulatory approval. Speaking on the matter was Thomas Chippas, CEO ...

By Max Yakubowski     A South Korean financial authority has warned two major domestic banks about their lack of management of cryptocurrency transactions and Anti-Money Laundering ( AML ) regulation, local online media outlet The Daily reports Dec. 4. The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) has reviewed Kookmin Bank and Nonghyup Bank and found “unreasonable elements related to virtual [currency] handling business.” However, the article notes that the regulation standards are not clear, and the FSS’s order applies only to some accounts that have been contracted with a real-name verification service, not crypto counterparty (exchange) accounts. The banks have also received orders for improvement and must submit the measures to the FSS within three months. The article notes: “If the FSS considers that the content is insufficient, the FSS will be able to impose more direct sanctions in the future.” In addition, the article states that there is a prob...

Analysing and handling massive amounts of data is a tedious task but blockchain can help add another layer of protection to the big data analytics process. BY  Vikash Kumar      We have already started living in a Big Data generation. Every day, massive volumes of data are generated by different networks in different industries. This large amount of data includes the records, messages sent and received, uploaded videos, GPS signals, online data transactions, and many other sources. For some top valued industries such as healthcare, educational and banking, high-quality security and maintenance should be provided to protect this data from malware or spy. Regular analysis of this large data leads to more innovation and growth for every economic aspect. Organisations analyse the data for an optimised client engagement and individual decision-making process, which allows them to predict future trends among the others. Analysing and handling such massive a...

The Chinese tech giant has announced the universal accessibility of its Blockchain Service (BCS) platform, following its debut in China, to deploy blockchain apps at scale Huawei has announced that its Blockchain Service (BCS) platform, which has been designed to support and enable business to develop blockchain-based applications, has been made available on a global scale following its commercial launch in China in October. According to Huawei, the BCS platform, hosted on the Huawei Cloud website, offers decentralization, tamper resistance, traceability and transparency in transactions, providing businesses with the ability to "create, deploy and manage blockchain applications quickly and at minimal cost on Huawei Cloud". The BCS platform can be used for various use cases such as data, IoT and finance-related applications, as well as data transactions, identity authentication, proof of information (such as real estate and education), remote healthcare, food sou...

by   Nick Chong North Korea Still In Love With Bitcoin, Crypto Due to the decentralized, borderless, and censorship-resistant nature of  Bitcoin  and related technologies, North Korea, the world’s most well-known hermit state, has taken a liking to this decade-old innovation. But some would argue that North Korea has taken its crypto penchant a bit too far, with a multitude of reports indicating that the nation is leveraging cryptocurrencies for dubious financial gain. As reported by  Ethereum World News  in mid-October, Lazarus, a supposed North Korea-based hacker consortium, was found to be responsible for five cryptocurrency exchange hacks, including the now-infamous $500 million breach of CoinCheck. A report from cybersecurity firm Group-IB, who first divulged this information, indicated that Lazarus’ constituents used social engineering, phishing, and malware to forcefully visit pertinent databases and access points. Now, per the  South Chi...

 By Adrian Zmudzinski The  G20  countries have called for the taxation of cryptocurrency, as well as its  regulation  to combat  money laundering , Japanese news outlet Jiji.com  reports  Dec. 2. According to Jiji.com, the final text of a document jointly delivered by G20 leaders calls for “a taxation system for cross-border electronic payment services.” The article then specifies that under current laws, foreign companies that do “not have a factory or other base in Japan” cannot be taxed by the local government. The publication then cites that the G20 leaders seek to “build a taxation system for cross-border electronic services.” The member states, which gathered this weekend in Buenos Aires,  Argentina , are reportedly at work on the system and “will consider the issue during 2019 when Japan will be the president of the summit.” A final version of regulations, after considering proposals from each member state, is reported...