The Prime Minister of India Comments on Blockchain

While global views remain largely divided when it comes to cryptocurrencies, it seems that almost everyone agrees upon the effectiveness of blockchain technology and how it could help redefine the world as we know it.

Contributing to this pattern, the latest name to join the proponents of blockchain technology is of Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India, who did not only identify the technology as a positive advancement but also encouraged its adoption in various sectors within the country.

Blockchain will have a profound impact on our way of life

While speaking at the World Congress of Information Technology (WCIT), Modi expressed his views on blockchain technology along with the Internet of Things.

He stated:

“Disruptive technologies such as Block-chain [sic] and the Internet of Things, will have a profound impact in the way we live and work. They will require rapid adaptation in our workplaces.”

Modi’s action of sharing these views during the WCIT was received positively by the IT industry, since blockchain has lately established its various use cases across multiple industries, and is currently being adopted by global organizations left, right, and center.

While the Indian government has not made any significant new announcements regarding using blockchain technology with this statement, rumors within the local industry suggest that it might do so shortly.

In any case, these positive comments at the WCIT hold great importance, as it is an event that holds participants from over 80 countries and includes sponsors from the likes of Google, IBM, and Cisco.

Blockchain is already being pursued through various initiatives

While Modi’s statement represented the government’s stance which may or may not translate into tangible efforts in the near future, the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), a private non-profit organization comprised of institutions from the IT industry, also one of the hosts of WCIT, had previously announced its own plans of working towards the establishment of blockchain technology usage within the country.

Last year, NASSCOM had announced the formation of a Service Interest Group (SIG) focusing on blockchain technology, which focuses on educating the general public about blockchain, and also works for the study and analysis for real-world use cases, especially in the Indian market.

In addition to the above, multiple institutions from the government of India have previously announced various initiatives that are aimed towards the advancement of blockchain technology, including its central bank’s efforts for developing a finance-based blockchain platform, which very recently was close to deployment to be used for multiple applications in the sector.

The comments and recent advancements hold great value for blockchain’s future

The IT community in India has long established itself as having one of the most prominent segments of the global IT movement, which is why the recent statement from the country’s prime minister holds great promise for the technology’s advancement.

While the future of cryptocurrency regulations remains unclear in the country, it would be safe to say that blockchain’s future is pretty clear: it will be thriving within India with various companies adapting it to fit the workings of the local market.

All in all, it will be very interesting to see the use cases developed from such initiatives, since India holds a diverse population from various walks of life when it comes to business solutions, and each of them could have significant suggestions for the usage of blockchain technology.

It would be exciting to witness how the involvement of India within the blockchain industry could revolutionize it further.

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Cyber Insurance Companies Look Towards Cryptocurrency Exchanges as Premier Business Opportunities

To say that cryptocurrencies noted unforeseen achievements in the last year would be an understatement.

Bitcoin made its historic bull run during the last two months of the year, Ethereum helped launch hundreds of new tokens and businesses through its platform, while Ripple forged partnership after partnership with some of the most renowned organizations in the world, to name a few.

However, even in the midst of all of these positive aspects, one cannot forget about the multiple hacks that took place across various exchanges, wallet providers, and other entities belonging to the cryptocurrency world.

With a $70 million hack alone on NiceHash, the mining exchange, 2017 certainly proved to be memorable in both positive and negative perspectives.

However, while the industry simultaneously celebrates its achievements and licks its wounds from those hacks, it needs to put its affairs in order and devise a proper plan of action to protect companies and their consumers who are prone to hacking incidents even after employing the best security measures that they could.

While decentralized exchanges are in the works and would certainly work towards a long-term solution, having a contingency plan in place would not hurt these entities either.

That is what a certain sector that is expanding from the financial markets to cryptocurrency is suggesting,  and it cannot be said that its proposal is anything less than interesting.

Cyber insurance to the rescue

One of the fastest growing market segments in 2017, cyber insurance capitalized on the multiple hacks that ranged from the likes of Equifax to the ones involving WannaCry.

With premiums that were already higher than other segments, cyber insurance saw such an increase in its demand that it deemed incomparable to recent years, and it then seemingly decided to expand its horizons further, starting to develop specific products that would deem to be lucrative to cryptocurrency enterprises.

It looks like cyber insurance companies are looking at cryptocurrency exchanges as premier business opportunities.

Wasn’t it already in place?

Most of the popular cryptocurrency exchanges are already associated with such providers, but the policies that are offered by these companies are now evolving further due to the risks that are associated with holding cryptocurrencies and how the holders of these assets are looking at solutions that would serve a benefit to them, even if it seems to be of slight advantage at first glance.

This particularly precarious situation and air of uncertainty have created an area of competition between these providers that include the likes of AIG, Chubb, and XL Group.

While one of them offers discounted premiums in which even a percent could mean a difference of thousands of dollars, the other one could just as easily offer a clause that provides more coverage for an added incident.

As a result, this leads to what seems like a bidding war between these providers, and while this makes the process beneficial for cryptocurrency enterprises, it would not be long before the “cryptoinsurance” industry matures enough to have policies that are set in stone, at which point it would get interesting for cryptocurrency enterprises as well.

Isn’t cryptoinsurance complicated enough in the first place?

Much like the cryptocurrency industry itself, cryptoinsurance is still in its infancy and will need time to mature. Therefore, the answer to that question would be yes.

The policies that are being offered still leave a lot to be desired. For instance, in terms of a hacking incident, it sometimes remains unclear during the first few drafts whether the claim will be filed in the cryptocurrency in which the amount was compromised, or in fiat at the day’s value (since volatility and evaluation are some of the most important factors to an insurance company).

These details are discussed and finalized before the companies enter into an agreement, but this is just an example of how far the cryptoinsurance industry has to go to get everything in place from the get-go.

The purpose of covering this topic was to turn the community’s attention towards this growing market segment and how it is intending to act as an “emergency exit” when all precautionary and security measures against hacking attempts get failed.

Furthermore, it would only be logical to ask your exchange or wallet provider if they have such policies in place, as that might help you stay vigilant in securing your assets with the best possible provider.

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Forbes’ Richest People in Cryptocurrency

Forbes’ Richest People in Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency is changing the world, one day at a time.

The most recent constant that it has influenced to change is the Forbes’ list of the richest people in the world.

Known for its popular list, Forbes thought it best to dedicate a separate list this year to the personalities that especially influenced 2017 when it came to investment and finance, and aptly named it “Forbes’ Richest People in Cryptocurrency.”

Ranging from the likes of Ethereum’s creator Vitalik Buterin to Binance’s CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, the list is full of people who took the initiative to redefine how everyday processes worked before cryptocurrencies came into light.

The list requires people to hold at least $350 million in cryptocurrencies to have their name on it. However, it is clear by a quick glance at the list that it was not made up entirely of people who simply chose to “hodl” their cryptocurrencies, but went on to do more with their time, their minds, and the willingness to make their name in what they thought would one day be a booming market (even if they did not have any idea of just how booming the market will be).

According to Forbes’ staff, the list was created to record the most influential people present at the inception of the financial phenomenon that could very well change the world as we know it.

It also has the agenda to help the cryptocurrency community to have its voice heard.

Forbes’ statement read:

“Our list provides a snapshot of a pivotal moment, part of the transparency needed to pull crypto away from its provenance as the favorite currency of drug dealers and into the adolescence of a legitimate asset class.” 

Why do we recommend reading the list?

For starters, the list is interesting to read.

It contains information that an avid reader on the cryptocurrency community would like to know, since it helps in understanding where these influential people came from, what were they thinking when they made the shift to the cryptocurrency world, and if they plan to do anything further to establish it as a respectable market in the future.

Secondly, and more importantly, the list should be read because it inspires one to do something with this opportunity that is still very much in everyone’s hands.

While the list has people that created the cryptocurrencies, or ones that started their cryptocurrency exchange when it did not involve that much capital, it also tells the stories of individual investors that came from nothing and still created a mark for themselves just by trusting their instincts.

By reading up on their stories, an everyday individual can draw inspiration from them and move ahead to achieve something similar.

Lastly, it is not a waste of time. It will only take about 8 minutes for an average person to read the complete list while getting ample knowledge out of it.

Therefore, we recommend going through it.

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$4.7 Million in Bitcoin Seized from Fake ID Operation

The more popular that cryptocurrencies and their usage gets, the more creative ways to exploit them are brought to light – even if said operations had been going on for years before discovery.

In the latest instance of such a nature, it was reported that a fake ID ring that accepted payments in Bitcoin was busted by the authorities, and $4.7 million in Bitcoin were recovered and seized from the operation.

According to an AP report from The New York Times, the fake ID ring that was based in Toledo, Ohio, allegedly marketed itself on Reddit where it reached out to college students and offered its fake IDs in exchange for Bitcoin.

Mark Simon and Sarah Alberts, the alleged head honchos of the operation, were arrested and charged with manufacturing fake IDs as well as money laundering from Simon’s home in Toledo.

During the raid, several silver and gold coins and bars were also recovered in addition to several different computers. The computers are believed to have been utilized for the creation of fake IDs.  Around $7,000 were also recovered in cash.

Details on the operation

According to court documents, the ring utilized the Reddit handle “TedDanzigSR,” through which everyday users – mostly college students – initiated contact to obtain fake IDs.

The operation first came to light in late 2015, when local authorities stumbled upon multiple fake IDs through a bar in Springfield, Ohio.

Upon further investigation, an Ohio resident, who had obtained once such fake ID as a student, informed the authorities that he had gotten it from a user on Reddit.

The Reddit account linked to the operations also provided detailed instructions to follow to obtain the fake IDs, including details on how to make anonymous purchases over the dark web which would also cover the process for these fake IDs, as well as “pricing” and “shipping” details for them.

Absurdly, the instructions also explained a rewards program, which included leaving positive reviews for the IDs purchased and received by users.

The investigators had since begun to follow the trail and were eventually able to pinpoint the operations to Simon.

This is the first news of its kind in recent times

Cryptocurrencies have had a bad reputation due to their usage in such operations in the past, thanks to the anonymity that they provide as one of the core features of the medium.

However, ever since Bitcoin’s bullish pace brought them into the limelight, news of such operations had since grown out of focus. While regulators and other authorities kept speaking of these instances that had been recorded in the past, everyday users were informed by the cryptocurrency community to believe in the financial asset’s evolution into legitimate means of transaction.

Now, this news of such a large scale fraudulent operation that was funded through Bitcoin is bound to be utilized by the naysayers of cryptocurrencies, which will no doubt allude towards the asset’s usage in illegal means.

However, it should be remembered that any technology or invention is misused only because the people involved in them find ways to do so. Having cryptocurrencies involved in these operations does not represent the “ethics” of the medium itself, just how having the dark web and the illicit operations available on it does not undermine the benefits of the internet throughout the world, or how “cash” dealings in illegal operations do not define the usage of fiat.

The usage of cryptocurrencies depends only on the people who are using it. It can be utilized in means as selfless as donating large amounts to the needy in another part of the world, and it can also be used by these illegal operations to fund their criminal activities.

It simply depends upon the humans who use the technology, not on the invention itself.

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Harbour Makes It Easier to Identify Trading Regulations and Comply with Them

Despite the growing interest in initial coin offerings (ICOs), the now vastly adopted method of fundraising for startups and recognized businesses alike still have a hard time establishing its credibility with the authorities.

The authorities insist that they have their reasons when it comes to taking this approach towards ICOs, stating that they do not just put investors at risk due to being unregulated, but are a very easy way of having unlawful entities to partake in money laundering activities as well.

To counter this, more and more reputable companies – such as TZero that is backed by Overstock.com – are looking towards having their ICOs closely regulated by authorities like the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

However, with the number of ICOs that are opened each day, having each of them closely regulated in this manner would take weeks at the very least, which causes the problem to stay right where it was.

Here comes Harbour

Harbour addresses this very evident problem by providing its blockchain-based solutions along with its Regulated Token Standard (R-Token) protocol, which has functionalities built within the token to identify that the token being provided has gone through regulatory requirements such as anti-money laundering (AML) and know your customer (KYC).

The R-Token is going to be a standard ERC20 token with additional capabilities to check its required functionalities from chain to chain whitelist. That whitelist will provide it with information about any enforced requirements such as tax laws, and the token will only get traded after verifying that those requirements have been met.

It will also allow customization of requirements so that anyone trading in the R-Token can leverage from its capabilities to ensure that they are meeting the regulatory requirements set by their jurisdiction.

It does not only want to work for ICO’s, but aims for larger assets

With these capabilities, one of R-Token’s main goals is to revolutionize the medium of asset tokenization.

R-Token aims to target traditional investors to bring them to blockchain so that any large assets such as real estate properties or bonds can be tokenized, and their regulatory requirements can be tracked easily by R-Token’s regulatory capabilities.

The team behind R-Token is very confident of its venture and aims to redefine the way that conventional trading works in today’s day and age.

Its successful funding round has been promising

The team behind R-Token is very confident of its venture and aims to redefine the way that conventional trading works in today’s day and age.

What alludes towards its success is the team behind it, which among other names, also has the former COO of PayPal, David Sacks – who also incubated Harbour for a year.

Harbour held its seed-funding round recently and raised $10 million from multiple investors such as Valor Equity Partners, Fifth Wall Ventures, Vy Capital, and Sacks’ venture fund, Craft Ventures.

While sounding ambitious, the project certainly addresses an existing problem and could very well provide a solution to it. It will be interesting to see how it can achieve this feat, and if it gets to revolutionize asset trading the way that it intends to do.

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Coinbase Rolls out Test Version of Payment Solutions

Despite what people may say to the recent drop in Bitcoin’s value and the discussion that it has sparked, the supporters of cryptocurrencies wholeheartedly believe that the revolutionary methods which these digital assets bring to the table have a lot of potential in them.

One such supporter of these claims is Coinbase, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the U.S., which believes that cryptocurrencies will gradually become the primary method in performing online transactions.

It is not only a belief that Coinbase propagates with just its words, but it believes in the notion so much that it has developed its cryptocurrency payment system, which it hopes will be utilized side by side with online credit and debit card payments and other popular methods such as PayPal.

How will it work?

This payment system which Coinbase dubs as its Merchant Services will allow regular business owners to integrate payment buttons on their website just like they do with PayPal and other online payments, and that will allow them to accept payments in cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum, Bitcoin, and Litecoin.

The payments are sent to Coinbase exchange where they are converted into regular currency, and that payment in fiat is then credited to the business owners’ account to save them from the risk of fluctuation. This is to ensure that business owners are not hesitant in going with this payment method and feel confident enough to adopt it.

By this payment method, customers will be able to pay these businesses by going to a dedicated payment page by Coinbase through their shopping cart, just like they do for other payment methods such as PayPal.

Due to hosting these payment solutions on its own, Coinbase will ensure to provide the utmost security to anyone who uses the method to complete their transaction in cryptocurrency.

Coinbase currently supports popular platforms such as WordPress, WooCommerce, and Magento. A complete list of supported platforms can be seen here.

The plugins are also open-source, and Coinbase encourages anyone to develop further solutions through them that could help the community benefit from added functionalities and support.

By providing these services, Coinbase aims to bring cryptocurrency usage to mainstream and encourage more and more people to use their digital currencies while making purchases over the internet.

The system is currently rolled out on a few sites, reports suggest.

Competition for other providers

This creates competition for PayPal in an indirect manner since Coinbase will be exclusively using cryptocurrencies.

However, it also creates direct competition to payment vendors such as BitPay, the whole purpose of which depends upon converting and facilitating fiat-to-cryptocurrency transactions for businesses.

While the long-term effects that this will have on Bitpay and similar providers remain to be seen, it will create an air of competition. This, in turn,  might work in favor of users concerning better services and added features, that these companies might integrate to present their services as being superior to the other.

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Are ICOs Really a Security Offering?

“I believe every ICO I’ve seen is a security.”

These were the words of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Jay Clayton during his statement to the Senate Banking Committee, coverage of which was released last week.

Clayton had been referring to how initial coin offerings (ICOs) need to be regulated as securities by federal regulations. He mentioned that only then can they be observed the way their definition asks for them to be measured.

This particular line of thought created a buzz in the cryptocurrency community, who immediately started presenting ideas on whether Clayton’s statement held true according to observations made by experts within the industry.

So what is the essence of a security?

The very definition of a security is that it is a financial instrument holding monetary value.

It also refers to the holder’s ownership rights in the company or asset to which the financial instruments belongs.

Now, think about it.

The first point defines a token, while the second one defines the ownership stake, which in case of most ICOs, is also very true.

This covers the broader definition of securities, which now brings us to ICOs being traded as that asset class, and the issues that doing so might pose.

Possible issues on hand

First and foremost, if ICOs are deemed as securities, then more than half of currently running ICOs might be deemed as not meeting the minimum regulatory standards since all securities need to be registered under the Security Act of 1933.

The regulations that will need to be met are extensive and will take some time for each of the company to go through. With the number of ICOs that come about every day, it goes without saying how much time it will for one ICO to get passed through proper regulations before the next ICO could get its chance.

However, at the same time, if any company is being formed from scratch with a long-term objective in mind, then it would very certainly want to ensure that its employees and stakeholders do not wake up one day to news of its questionable corporate standing due to a new regulation.

Therefore, it seems that while it is not necessary for such companies to go through regulations at the moment, it would certainly be prudent of them to have everything in check in case the SEC and other authorities change their mind and work towards passing a law that terms such stakeholder tokens as securities.

But some tokens describe themselves as utilities

During 2017, the year that ICOs went through an unprecedented rise, most of the tokens were marketed through the same perspective. You buy the token, and you get a share in the company or a say in governance. If not, then you get to use the token later to utilize functions from the company’s blockchain, thus calling them as utility tokens.

These tokens would prove trickier to regulate as securities because they are not directly providing a share in the company but selling its services in a way at a discounted rate.

That being said, if a regulation passes later that terms all ICOs as security offerings, then this may cause an issue for these utility token providers. They might need to go through specialized “Blue Sky” securities law to determine and finalize their standing as non-security tokens.

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Pineapple Fund Contributes to Psychedelic Drug Research

Cryptocurrencies have largely been associated with illegal activities in the past, which is something that the medium’s critics like to bank upon in present-day debates.

However, one thing that such naysayers do not bring to notice is the fact that while cryptocurrencies can be susceptible to illegal usage as with any other medium of exchange such as fiat or gold, they have also been largely involved in humanitarian and philanthropic initiatives due to their ability to facilitate cross-border transactions and to transfer large sums of money at once.

Once such philanthropic initiative is the Pineapple Fund, a non-profit, anonymously led project that was conceptualized with its plan to give away 5,057 Bitcoins to charity – valued at $86 million when the initiative had come to light in December 2017.

Ever since its inception, the Pineapple Fund has supported multiple charities and causes with generous donations, and keeps adding to its list of supported entities to help as many entities as it could.

In its latest attempt at doing so, it was recently announced that the Pineapple Fund will match donations of up to $4 million to the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), which is a non-profit organization that focuses on research and education of developing legal and effective uses of psychedelics and marijuana towards the treatment of various diseases.

 For phase 3 trials of PTSD treatment

The move was announced by the Pineapple Fund to aid MAPS – which it has donated to in the past – in its latest plan to start Phase 3 clinical trials that aim towards the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with MDMA-assisted psychotherapy.

Since the approach by MAPS is unconventional, the Pineapple Fund looks forward to aiding by gaining as much funding as it could. Therefore, it hopes that its announcement to match donations by $4 million in Bitcoin will help encourage more people to donate to MAPS for this program.

It was explained that if the donation amount is met by these additional donors, it will provide MAPS with enough funds to go through with completing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Phase 3 trials.

As per MAPS, the Phase 3 clinical trials could require around $26 million. It already has $17.3 million in donations and pledges, and with the additional $8.7 that it could raise with Pineapple Fund’s offering, it would be able to go through with the trials as planned.

Both the Pineapple Fund and maps hope this to work

Dr. Rick Doblin, the founder and executive director of MAPS, explained that the required funding is imperative to the success of this segment of research that currently receives no public financial support.

Dr. Doblin stated:

“With no funding available for these trials from government agencies or major medical research foundations, legally available MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD will indeed be a gift to the world from the psychedelic science and cryptocurrency communities.”

The Pineapple Fund’s anonymous donor, called “Pine,” hopes that the initiative would help encourage more people to join in and help MAPS in taking its research forward.

Pine explained:

“PTSD is a severe condition that affects everyone from sexual assault survivors to military veterans.”

They added:

“Existing treatments have so much room for improvement, and MDMA-assisted psychotherapy has shown great promise. We’re offering the matching grant because we think the psychedelic and cryptocurrency communities can work together to finish funding Phase 3 clinical trials.” 

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