Private Equity Moris Beracha Wuani

  By Jeff Kauflin A new movement is pumping oxygen into the cryptocurrency industry despite asset prices that remain 75% lower than where they were in late 2017. It’s called DeFi, short for decentralized finance—it’s the notion that crypto entrepreneurs can recreate traditional financial instruments in a decentralized architecture, outside of companies’ and governments’ control. And with fresh allegations of misused funds against the centrally controlled cryptocurrency tether, the argument for decentralized applications has become even more relevant. Bitcoin and Ethereum are the original DeFi applications. Both are controlled by large networks of computers, not central authorities. Many investors use bitcoin like gold, as a store-of-value investment that protects against inflation, while Ethereum has been instrumental—and controversial—in helping startups crowdfund their operations. But newer apps are dominating the DeFi...

  By Ana Alexandre Hardware cryptocurrency wallet manufacturer Ledger has detected malware targeting its desktop application, according to a tweet on April 25. Ledger warned its users that the malware locally replaces the Ledger Live desktop app with a malicious one, and advised to follow security practices published on its blog. The company’s Twitter announcement specifically reads: “WARNING: we’ve detected a malware that locally replaces the Ledger Live desktop application by a malicious one. Users of infected computers are asked to enter their 24-word recovery phrase after a fake update.” In the comments to the post, Ledger revealed that the malware is infecting only Windows machines, although the company has reportedly detected only one affected device. Ledger further noted that the malware cannot compromise users’ computers or digital currency, but only represents a phishing attack in a bid to lure users to enter their 24-words recovery phr...

By Yogita Khatri A case involving millions of dollars in bitcoin and Western Union payments has resulted in New York State’s first conviction for cryptocurrency money laundering. The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office announced Wednesday that defendants Callaway Crain and Mark Sanchez, both 35, laundered $2.8 million earned through sales of controlled substances carried out over the internet. Between 2013 and 2018, the two men sold steroids and other drugs including Viagra across the U.S. via their website “NextDayGear” and on the dark web. They sold over 10,000 packages and accepted payments in cryptocurrency and fiat currency via Western Union, which they then laundered. Customers usually paid in bitcoin, the Attorney’s Office said, with the defendants laundering the proceeds via one or more “intermediary” cryptocurrency wallets to obfuscate the source of the funds. The bitcoin was then converted to U.S. dollars using a cryptocurrency ...

Blockchain technology has the potential to upend the credit card, banking, manufacturing, and voting industries. By  Marcia Wendorf Over the last several years, you may have heard the term, "blockchain," and you may know that it's a part of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin . You may also know that blockchain is some kind of a database, and that a lot of very smart financial people and tech types are looking into it. What is blockchain? The first mention of the term "blockchain" appeared in 2008 when someone writing under the pen name Satoshi Nakamoto, published a paper entitled, "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System." This document described the basis for a cryptocurrency called Bitcoin, and it defined how a new type of database called a blockchain would store Bitcoin's transactions. In this database, a set number of transactions are placed i...

By Thomas Simms JPMorgan Chase (JPM) is expanding the use of its blockchain technology to help reduce the number of global payments rejected by errors, the Financial Times reported on April 21. The United States financial giant is adding new features to its Interbank Information Network (IIN,) which is now used by more than 220 banks around the world. The technology was initially designed to help institutions share payments data in real time — cutting delays in processing times. John Hunter, JPM’s head of global clearing, said it has built a new feature that can instantly verify whether a payment is heading to a valid bank account. At present, transactions can be rejected days after they were sent because of typos in sort codes, account numbers and addresses. He told the FT: “Banks straight through processing rates are in the mid-80s to mid-90s. It’s that gap — the 5 to 20 percent of payments — that have to be assessed by operations where we’...

By Moris Beracha .- Years ago, Artificial Intelligence (AI) left the realm of science fiction to enter our lives and, although it is still in the early stages, its rise will lead to a boom comparable to the advent of the Internet in the past. According to experts, this technological innovation “is the combination of algorithms to create machines with human-like skills”. Faced with this reality, the leader in delivering enterprise software, IFS, announced the connection of new AI-enabled and collaborative integrated systems with tailor company systems to gain the crucial intelligence of larger financial markets and industries in real time, delivering massive financial and strategic value by 2019. “Systems like IFS Enterprise Operational Intelligence (EOI) will become essential as large corporations become more entwined with world markets and the pressure to turn data investments into value increases,” said Steve Treagust IFS Global Industry Director for Finance, HCM ...

Author Coin Idol A survey has been successfully conducted by Digital360 Group, Blockchain4Innovation and EconomyUP, aimed at measuring the level of knowledge and information, as well as ascertaining the perception of blockchain in Italy, both in terms of opportunity and criticality. The research shows that the revolutionary technology will galvanize the Italian economy. The result of the survey dubbed “From cryptocurrencies to Made in Italy: the image and potential of the blockchain” have been officially presented during the Blockchain Business Revolution event. More than 200 companies and 850 people from Italy, participated in the research. Bitcoin & Blockchain are Inseparable  According to the research, around 54% of the population (respondents) have some knowledge of  smart contracts and blockchain. However, the research shows that the technology subject isn’t “exotic”: as compared to around 62% of Italian citizens that claim that they have neve...

By  Moris Beracha .- There are food and sweet vending machines all over the world. Therefore, this market has become the target of some developers, who are working to enable people to pay for products into vending machines with cryptocurrencies. It can be highlighted that the energy drinking company “Red Bull” installed the first energy drink machine that only accepts bitcoins (BTC) in 2016, amid the Paralelni Polis congress of hackers in Prague, the Check Republic. Then, the price of tokens dropped and many companies that planned to develop this type of technology decided to turn a blind eye, until in 2019 they decided to take up said systems. In this sense, it is important to mention that a Brazilian programmer and hardware hacker created a Coca-Cola vending machine accepting payments in BTC. The machine also accepts Lightning Network (LN) transactions. According to the  TheNextWeb  site,  “this machine has been assembled by using a water pump, a to...

By  Krystle M In Australia, there has recently been substantial debate over the regulations that need to govern cryptocurrency locally. This confusion ultimately led the authorities to issue clear regulations that would motivate growth of cryptocurrency, which much of the community was pleased with. However, the major banks in the country have maintained a cautious policy regarding bitcoin and cryptocurrency, considering the potential risk that these businesses bring to banks. Even so, there are multiple institutions allowing their customers to use their credit cards for cryptocurrency purchases, according to reports from Bitcoin.com. The second-largest back in Australia by capitalization, Westpac, commented that they do not prevent customers from making crypto asset purchases with their credit cards, with the stipulation that it has to coincide with “our legal obligations and terms and conditions.” These policies line up with the same requirements at Westpac-o...

By Adrian Zmudzinski Charity-focused organization Bitcoin Venezuela tweeted on April 10 that the so-called Lightning Torch had reached its final destination, with all accumulated Bitcoin ( BTC ) donated to the group. By the time it got to the organization, the Lightning Torch had grown to exactly 0.4108021 BTC, which is currently equivalent to over $2,000. The Torch is an experiment first initiated by anonymous Twitter user Hodlnaut . The Lightning Torch is passed by sending the same BTC from user to user adding a little every time via the scalability solution, Lightning Network (LN). Bitcoin Venezuela is reportedly responsible for the humanitarian initiative “Bitcoin for Venezuela,” recently reporting it had given away meals to people in the country during a power outage. The organization also seemingly partnered with the donation-funded Locha Mesh Network development initiative . The project aims to develop cheap and open source do-it-yourself device...

By Paul Lilly It wastes energy and pollutes the environment, China says. The government agency that is in charge of China's macroeconomic planning is recommending new rules that would effectively ban cryptocurrency mining in the country, or at least make it very difficult, provided the measures are actually enforced. China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) outlined the proposed decree in a draft amendment to the Catalog for Guiding Industrial Restructure, as reported by South China Morning Post . It's sort of an outline of economic policy that groups industrial sectors into three main categories: ones the agency wishes to encourage, restrict, or eliminate. The amendment recommends eliminating "virtual currency mining, such as the production process of Bitcoin" right away. Residents in China have until May 7 to submit feedback on the draft proposal, sometime after which the rules would be finalized (or scrapped). B...

The Financial Stability Board has detailed how its member countries regulate crypto assets, who the regulators are, and the scope of their oversight. Most countries have more than one government body monitoring and regulating different aspects of crypto activities. Among the board’s Asian member countries, India is the only one with no legal mandate to directly regulate crypto assets. India Three regulators — the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and the Ministry of Finance — regularly attend the Financial Stability Board (FSB) meetings and G20 summits. The FSB is an international body that monitors and makes recommendations about the global financial system. It has listed only the RBI, the country’s central bank, as the regulator of the Indian crypto space, clarifying in a report published Friday: RBI does not have a legal mandate to directly regulate crypto-assets. RBI’s current mandate permits it to assess financia...

By Moris Beracha .- Credit cards are financial instruments that allow users to perform certain operations from an ATM and pay for goods and services in installments. When speaking of credit payments, we must name Visa and Mastercard, two major credit card networks in that global market. Visa has publicly supported cryptocurrency and blockchain as part of the future, while Mastercard has patented in the US a method to “manage cryptocurrency fractional reserves in blockchain”. It means that Mastercard wants to create means for easing payments combined with the benefits of traditional payment systems. Also, it is highlighted that Visa and IBM announced their partnership as part of their new Ethereum payment platform initiative. Their role in what is also known as economy 4.0 can be essential for their development, since payment methods could become quicker, easier and safer processes. The blockchain designers are ready to work with any project requested by...

Pindar Wong There is a crisis in governance. I’m not talking about bitcoin, but Brexit. Britain’s exit from the European Union (EU) is not so much a technical crisis between a ‘hard fork’ and a ‘soft fork’ but a legitimacy crisis. Yet the solution to its core dilemma — politically deciding between a ‘Hard Brexit’ and a ‘Soft Brexit’ — may actually lay in harnessing blockchain technology’s great potential as an economic governance system for the digital age. One thing’s clear: the current system is failing. The impasse in Britain requires a radical rethink. Unless even more time is requested by the UK, and unanimously granted by all 27 member states of the EU, the default option is for the UK to chaotically crash out from the European trade bloc, by leaving without a legal agreement, on Friday, April 12. As laws have borders, this lack of ‘legal certainty’ is particularly troubling as it risks disrupting cross-border supply chain networks which would be ba...

Is it better for you to store your cryptocurrency tokens in a hot or cold wallet? What is the difference between the two? In this, we explore. Written by Becky Leighton Before we look at the different types of storage methods available for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, we should define what a “cryptocurrency wallet” is exactly. What is a cryptocurrency wallet? A cryptocurrency wallet is a method of ‘storing’ cryptocurrency. Kind of. The term “wallet” might be a bit deceptive, as it doesn’t house cryptocurrency tokens in the same way that a normal wallet – or even regular bank account – does for your money. You can’t “get Bitcoin and put them in your wallet” but you can get Bitcoin and hold them securely using your wallet. Essentially, a wallet doesn’t keep your tokens safe, but it does look after  the key  you use to get your tokens. How does a cryptocurrency wallet work? A cryptocurrency wallet stores both the private and public keys of a c...