Private Equity Moris Beracha Wuani

By Darryn Pollock Despite Bitcoin being the oldest, most well established, and functional cryptocurrency around, there is no doubting that there are some issues that need resolving. Those issues have been placed under the magnifying glass in more recent times with the emergence of other cryptocurrencies that are looking at being better than Bitcoin. Teenage Bitcoin millionaire Erik Finman has said that the major cryptocurrency needs to resolve some of this issues surrounding it or else it will die. He has pinpointed four issues which he believes need to be fixes, and they range from its complexity with regards to use, high transaction fees, slow processing speeds and in-fighting among development teams. Long term dead   Despite making his fortunes off some savvy and early investing in Bitcoin, Finman said in December last year that he believes that Bitcoin is “Long Term Dead”, but added that cryptocurrencies in general are here to stay. His four issues t...

  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 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...

By William Suberg   Cryptocurrency markets could increase ten times over from 2020, blockchain investment firm and hedge fund Pantera Capital’s co-CIO told Bloomberg Tuesday, Oct. 16. Speaking in an interview, co-CIO Joey Krug said that scalability improvements for Bitcoin (BTC) were essential to spark a shift in the deflated prices seen throughout this year. He told the network: “These are all markets, and so if you don’t have scalability, you don’t have market makers.” The comments came days after new developments on the institutional trading side of Bitcoin markets, with Fidelity Investments revealing it was testing a regulated custody solution for investors and hedge funds. While reactions from finance figures such as Galaxy Digital’s Michael Novogratz were positive, the news failed to shift market sentiment or prices in Bitcoin. For Krug, this is because sentiment requires signs of adoption of Bitcoin in the current climate, which in turn depends on capacity...

By Ana Berman The Swiss Bankers Association (SBA) has issued basic guidelines for banks working with blockchain startups on Friday, September 21. As Reuters reports, the measure was taken to prevent a mass crypto exodus out of Switzerland. The document states that banks see blockchain as an opportunity for Switzerland to house financial and technology startups despite "risks," especially money laundering. Due to a significant increase of crypto-related companies based in the country, the SBA has decided to provide a road map for banks to open their corporate accounts. The guidelines divides blockchain companies into two large groups: those with and those without Initial Coin Offerings (ICO). Blockchain companies without ICOs should be treated like other small- and medium-sized companies, and will be obliged to accept relevant Swiss regulations and apply them to their business models. The second group includes blockchain startups with ICOs who issu...

By Kate Rooney Nearly 50 representatives from U.S. financial giants and cryptocurrency startups are set to meet with Washington lawmakers this week to talk through what some say is an incomplete and murky regulatory landscape. Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, is hosting a roundtable, "Legislating Certainty for Cryptocurrencies," on Tuesday and asking industry experts to weigh in on how to police the new asset class ahead of a House bill he plans to introduce this fall. "Your input is critical to helping us preempt a heavy-handed regulatory approach that could stall innovation and kill the U.S. ICO market," Davidson said in a letter to invitees. The congressman outlined a list of eight questions for the meeting, including: "What is the best way to protect consumers from fraud?" The meeting will also cover private funding disclosures and token issuance laws, a spokesperson for Davidson said. Representatives from Fidelity, State Street, leading venture...

Billy Bambrough Bitcoin has seen quite a heavy sell-off over the last 30 days but that was preceded by a bull run, leaving the bitcoin price more-or-less flat — and reminding investors to take a wider view of market movements. Despite hitting highs of almost $7,500 earlier this month, the bitcoin price has dropped back to just over $6,300 today — pretty much exactly where it was some 30 days ago. There were fears in early September bitcoin, as well as other major cryptocurrencies including ethereum, ripple, and litecoin, were going into freefall as investors panicked over whether the much anticipated institutional money that many have been expecting to be injected into the market will actually appear. That sudden sell-off now seems to have stabilized — with many still feeling positive a major bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) could be approved this month by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Elsewhere, the New York ...

courtesy of Shutterstock By Lubomir Tassev Draft laws employing alternative approaches to regulating digital currencies have been introduced in Ukraine and Russia. In Kiev, a bill that classifies cryptocurrency as an asset, unit of exchange and store of value has been filed in the Rada and it’s supported by both deputies and representatives of the industry. In Moscow, the managers of leading Russian enterprises have prepared their own version of the law on digital financial assets which contains the legal term “cryptocurrency” and differentiates it from tokens. New Crypto Bill Filed in the Ukrainian Rada Alternative Crypto Bills Presented in Ukraine and RussiaA bill that leaves crypto-to-crypto trade outside of the scope of government regulation has been filed in the Ukrainian parliament. The draft has been signed by 23 members of the Verkhovna Rada and is prepared in cooperation with representatives of the industry. News about the filling was announced during a crypto...

Featured image courtesy of Shutterstock By Osato Avan-Nomayo Bitcoin price has risen dramatically in Iran following the government’s decision to grant legal recognition to the country’s cryptocurrency mining industry. Bitcoin Premium Comes to Iran While Bitcoin $6307.03 -0.04% suffered an almost $1,000 drop in the rest of the world, the top-ranked cryptocurrency was reaching new heights in Iran. Buoyed by the government’s legalization of cryptocurrency mining activities, the local price of BTC shot up to more than $26,000 on the localbitcoins platform for Iran. This figure amounts to more than four times than the average spot price around the world. However, there are counter reports that the $20,000+ BTC price in Iran is grossly exaggerated, with the actual value on the street being closer to $8,400. The confusion lies primarily in the difference between the official and black market exchange rial/dollar exchange rate. The license given to cryptoc...

Soluna says its new business model can be good for blockchains and clean energy development. By Mike Orcutt It’s undeniable: Bitcoin’s energy guzzling is a growing environmental problem. It’s been estimated that the network uses nearly as much electricity as all of Ireland, raising alarms about its carbon footprint. In theory, though, it doesn’t have to consume nearly as much fossil-fuel-based power as it does today—and a new renewable-energy company has an ambitious plan to prove it. The firm, called Soluna , has acquired a 37,000-acre wind-farm site in Morocco that it says has the potential to host up to 900 megawatts of power-generating capacity. (A recent estimate (PDF) suggests that the Bitcoin network uses at least 2.55 gigawatts.) Development of the site began nine years ago, but progress stalled under its previous owners. Soluna, which has teamed with the German wind-power developer ALTUS AG , aims to build at least 36 megawatts of capacity by...

By Rachel Wolfson While the world of crypto still very much resembles the digital wild west for big financial firms, there is hope that the cryptocurrency market will “go to the moon” once institutional investors join the ranks of high-net-worth individuals and hedge funds in the space (currently there are over 400 ).  This could happen sooner rather than later, as a number of self-regulatory advancements are being made that are starting to attract interest from institutional investors. Actions centered on regulatory compliance and adding stability to the volatile crypto market are being performed to demonstrate that the crypto market is becoming ripe for large financial firms. 2018: The Year Of Security Token Offerings Regulatory uncertainty around ICOs and the crypto market in general have taken center stage since the emergence of initial coin offerings (ICOs) last year. Not surprisingly, utility tokens (user tokens that are not desig...

By Bernard Marr Even though Bitcoin and blockchain are still in their infancy, they have both been the "talk of the town" as experts contemplate the potential ramifications—good and bad—for virtually every industry. As the leading cryptocurrency, Bitcoin is the first exposure many people have to blockchain technology. Many compare the transformative effect of blockchain to the disruption caused by the Internet, search engines and Google that changed the way we work, shop and communicate with one another. Everyone from world leaders to CEOs, and industry experts to investors are being asked their thoughts about Bitcoin and blockchain. Here are just a few of their opinions. “It’s gold for nerds.” —Stephen Colbert, Comedian “Bitcoin will do to banks what email did to the postal industry.” —Rick Falkvinge, Founder of the Swedish pirate party “Bitcoin is a technological tour de force.” —Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, investor, and philanthropist “Every informed person...

By Moris Beracha/ Crypto.BI According to a quarterly report released by Cipher Trace, the quantitative investment firm, specializing in the systematic trading of cryptocurrencies, in the first half of 2018, more than $760 million in cryptocurrency was stolen from exchanges, nearly three times more than in 2017. The growth in the demand for currency in the industry of services has driven, according to this report, money laundering of coins. Also, the services that clean dirty funds are widely available, said CipherTrace, and some have even advertised through Google AdWords. Likewise, many exchanges, and new ones are opening all the time, have security vulnerabilities. And cryptocurrencies, once stolen, often cannot be returned or even traced to the thieves. “There are so many cryptocurrencies now, and they are worth so much money, and there are so many exchanges globally where you can cash out, that we’ve seen not just traditional cyber gangs, but we’ve seen a new s...

By Alice Tozer / Fortune Starbucks would like to clear up all this Bitcoin confusion. The coffee chain, in an an email to tech and science publication Motherboard, said that “it is important to clarify that we are not accepting digital assets at Starbucks. At the current time, we are announcing the launch of trading and conversion of Bitcoin. However, we will continue to talk with customers and regulators as the space evolves. […] Customers will not be able to pay for Frappuccinos with bitcoin.” What necessitated that explanation? Starbucks announced on Friday that it would be trading in Bitcoin, alongside Microsoft and International Exchange (owner of the New York Stock Exchange), in a partnership called Bakkt. A flurry of news headlines suggested that the announcement meant that customers would be able to pay for their coffees using Bitcoin. The excitement may have come about because, as Motherboard put it, to date “it’s basically impossible to buy anything normal with it [Bit...

By  Moris Beracha .-  Since the arrival of Bitcoin, computers now have another function: to make small amounts of money with cryptocurrencies. However, mining is not as simple as turning on a computer. Your computer hardware is a key factor when mining and will make the difference between making money with cryptocurrency or even losing money. Computer Hoy  explains that to mine Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency your computer must be permanently solving algorithms that will limit the processing capacity of your hardware. The more efficient it is in solving those calculations, the greater the reward. In the case of bitcoins, one or several high-end graphic cards are required to increase mining capacity and computational processing of the computer. To know if the capacity of a hardware is profitable for bitcoin mining, the internet has calculators that will help any user. It is recommended to visit the NiceHash profitability calculator, one of the ...