Showing posts with label January 06. Show all posts
Showing posts with label January 06. Show all posts

Tuesday, 9 January 2018

An Exchange Backed by James Altucher Is Coming Soon

Investor, podcast host, entrepreneur, and writer, and investment and life guru, James Altucher, also known by some as the representative of crypto-bubble, is finding himself as in the investing role as he helps to fund a new cryptocurrency-based company.

The company, which has recently filed with the Securities Exchange Commission has noted in their documents that James, is an investor in its round of financing.

The firm that’s raising funds is based in Delaware and is named Bitzumi, Inc.

The team at Bitzumi states that they are a vertically integrated Bitcoin exchange and marketplace. Their mission is to drive growth to the crypto industry.

Bitzumi

It’s certainly an interesting mission, as one doesn’t necessarily have a purpose to grow an industry unless they are a financial firm which will invest in the industry and help to build other cryptocurrency companies in the blockchain technology sector.

The company seems to be starting with a simple and straightforward newsletter service along with a platform for conducting transactions on their exchange platform.

The Funding Round

Bitzumi is seeking to bring about ten million to bring their company to full operating fruition. At the very minimum, they are looking to raise an amount of one million dollars.

James is stating that he is merely an investor and is an ardent supporter of the new company.

Further on the Filing

According to the filing, the company is located at 55 5th Avenue, Suite 1702 in New York, NY 10003 is seeking to issue 4,000,000 shares of Common Stock with a par value of $0.0001.

The company states that they were able to launch their beta version of their website, www.bitzummi.com, and are in the process of testing their exchange and wallet on a limited basis.

They have further registered with FinCen on the 22nd of September of 2017, to be an official money services business and are also seeking to obtain licenses to serve as money transmitter business in each of the fifty states.

The firm is seeking to have their overall public launch of their site in early 2018. As they state:

“We anticipate having a public launch of www.bitzumi.com by early 2018.”

As of this current moment, their website is live, yet has no existing functionality.

They are seeking to deploy a trusted vault, a single mobile digital wallet, a Bitzumi credit card, processing and escrow and an E-bit news blog or a cryptocurrency publication business.

Their Business

The company states that they are looking to add to the cryptocurrency sector and will be doing so in a phase by phase manner.

“We plan to launch our business divisions with a phased approach. Initially, our primary focus will be to develop a publishing and marketing company to educate potential Bitzumi exchange/wallet consumers, and to gain name recognition. We intend to deliver users to Bitzumi’s and affiliates’ crypto-related offerings and products. Ultimately, we intend for our primary product to be our cryptocurrency exchange and digital storage on www.bitzumi.com. We also plan to develop various educational and information products and newsletters focusing on the cryptocurrency industry.”

Management Team

Scot Cohen
CEO & Chairman of the Board

Mr. Cohen has over 20 years of experience in institutional asset management, wealth management, and capital markets.  Scot founded and served as principal of the Iroquois Capital Opportunity Fund, a closed-end private equity fund which focused on investments in North American oil and gas.  Mr. Cohen also co-founded Iroquois Capital, a New York-based hedge fund which managed approximately $300M across its family of funds.  Before Iroquois Capital, Mr. Cohen founded a merchant bank which actively participated in structured investments in public companies.

Mike Straka
Head of Media & Marketing

Mike Straka is a veteran marketer with over 20 years of experience in broadcast television. Mike began his career at CBS News as a desk assistant and moved on to FOX News Channel in 1996. He eventually became Vice President and Executive Producer for FOX Interactive Media and FOX News Digital, where he was in charge of software and hardware solutions across several verticals of the business, and Executive In Charge of video and studio operations.

The post An Exchange Backed by James Altucher Is Coming Soon appeared first on Getting Started With Cryptocurrencies & Bitcoin - bitGuru.

Venezuela Has Announced an Increase of Signups for Mining the Petro

The President of Venezuela has been rather busy as of late, or, at least his officials in charge of the cryptocurrency department of the South American country have been active in their implementations of their emerging program.

He has gone on record and has made an announcement notifying the world that their cryptocurrency department has been able to attract a substantial amount of miners. He’s stated that they’ve been able to register over eight hundred and fifty thousand young individuals to mine their national cryptocurrency, the Petro.

The country is in a state of disarray and has experienced vast economic turmoil, leaving many of their citizens destitute and searching for various ways to gain ways to survive and thrive.

Thus, the substantial interest may be because many young people are looking for an opportunity in a country that seems to be majorly lacking in it. The new sector has given young and old a chance to be able to afford and a better life through mining Bitcoin and possibly other cryptocurrencies.

Hyperinflation

The aspect of hyperinflation has led their currency, the bolivar to have lack of worth. This has led to people wanting to gain access to food and other resources with no traditional means of exchange to obtain their basic needs.

The country is seeking a revitalization, new life in its economy. Their problems started a while back and has only gotten worse as the years passed on.

The problems may have started with the prior leader Hugo Chavez but continued to decline rapidly when Maduro came into power 

Many turned to the emerging cryptocurrency Bitcoin to be able to mine and generate some valuable income to keep them afloat in their turbulent times.

The government, from an official manner, stayed neutral on the utilization of electricity to mine Bitcoin, yet there were situations where local officials cracked down on miners, soliciting bribes to let the miners conduct their mining practices. Also, the aspect of mining may have been seen as something that is antithetical to the policies of the country.

Thus, the government of the country has progressed to embracing and deploying their national cryptocurrency, the Petro, and many have signed up to officially mine the cryptocurrency.

The Government Issues a Registry

Venezuela has confirmed and has issued a registry for individuals to mine in a legal manner, as it is being done in Russia, China and others. The mining seems to be able to conducted for Bitcoin and the Petro.

There are various frames of mind on the registry. Some believe that the registry can act as a way for the government to know who and how many people are involved in the mining of cryptocurrency, thus allowing them to centralize it in some manner. Others have stated the registry might officially legalize the act of mining, thus bringing in more legitimacy to mining.

Details on the mining

It seems as if the government has set up farms for mining and will streamlining the process in the months to come. They have not released many details as to the economics and the various other aspects of how the Petro cryptocurrency is to work.

The U.S releases further sanctions

It seems that the U.S, in response to these developments, or rather, in general, have released more sanctions on the country of Venezuela.

According to the Miami Herald:

“The Trump administration on Friday slapped sanctions on four current and former high-ranking military officials in Venezuela, saying the men were helping promote “corruption and repression” in the troubled South American country.”

The publication further noted on the statements of the US Treasury Department.

“President [Nicolás] Maduro and his inner circle continue to put their own interests above those of the Venezuelan people. This action underscores the United States’ resolve to hold Maduro and others engaged in corruption in Venezuela accountable.”

Venezuela hopes to circumvent the effects of sanctions and take back control of their finances.

The post Venezuela Has Announced an Increase of Signups for Mining the Petro appeared first on Getting Started With Cryptocurrencies & Bitcoin - bitGuru.

Blocktower Finalizes Their 140 Million Raise

Bitcoin ushered in the way for a larger interest in the field of cryptocurrencies from both retail and institutional investors, from governmental organizations, national officials, technologists and many others.

There are those that shun the world of cryptocurrencies and those that embrace that it. The rise of the leading digital currency has given rise to other digital coins. These other virtual assets may have substance or may not but they are certainly in existence and are receiving attention in trades and contributions from the larger developer community.

The currencies have drawn interest from the investor community due to the fact that there were gains that were realized in these currencies. At the same time, there are expectations of more gains to be made.

As such, different options have arisen, for instance, the appearance of futures contracts for digital assets like Bitcoin, these financial offering expansions allows for further ways for one to invest. While growing the system of cryptocurrencies.

These financial offerings have contributed to financial firms that are focused fully on this space, who seek to invest correctly and reap the rewards from their calculated decisions.

One of these many firms that have popped up over the years is called BlockTower.

Blocktower, a firm based in Connecticut, dubs itself as an Institutional cryptocurrency hedge fund. The firm was recently launched late last year, in August and has been quite vocal while rapidly taking actions to participate in the marketplace.

Fundraising and Recruiting

Their latest action has been to go through an event for fundraising. The cryptocurrency hedge fund has gone through and raised a hundred and forty million dollars over the course of their fundraising event. They were able to acquire these funds from a variety of financial offices, including private equity, specifically venture capital firms.

In addition to conducting their fundraising efforts, they’ve also take the time to recruit. They’ve recently hired a former employee of the Goldman Sachs Group. The new recruit held the role of a vice president the financial institution. The individual will be joining Blocktower as the eighth individual to work for the Blocktower firm.

Visionary Investors

The firm has been able to raise funds from visionary investors like USV or Union Square Ventures LLC, founded in 2003 and headed up by people like Fred Wilson. Union Square is a New York-based firm that manages assets totalling one billion. The firm has invested in companies like Kik which has launched their Initial Coin Offering last year. USV has also invested in firms and companies like Polychain Capital, Blockstack, Coinbase, Protocol Labs, and many more interesting companies.

BlockTower has also received financial support from legendary investment firm Andreessen Horowitz.

They have thus concluded their raise for their initial fund on the first of this year and will now continue their efforts to pursue higher returns.

Increasing Interest

As the opportunities in the sector increases, more firms will seek to get involved and raise funds to pursue greater returns, as this happens we should see interesting happenings in the sector, as funds spill over into interesting projects, tokens, and currencies.

The post Blocktower Finalizes Their 140 Million Raise appeared first on Getting Started With Cryptocurrencies & Bitcoin - bitGuru.

Saturday, 6 January 2018

An Exchange Backed by James Altucher Is Coming Soon

Investor, podcast host, entrepreneur, and writer, and investment and life guru, James Altucher, also known by some as the representative of crypto-bubble, is finding himself as in the investing role as he helps to fund a new cryptocurrency-based company.

The company, which has recently filed with the Securities Exchange Commission has noted in their documents that James, is an investor in its round of financing.

The firm that’s raising funds is based in Delaware and is named Bitzumi, Inc.

The team at Bitzumi states that they are a vertically integrated Bitcoin exchange and marketplace. Their mission is to drive growth to the crypto industry.

Bitzumi

It’s certainly an interesting mission, as one doesn’t necessarily have a purpose to grow an industry unless they are a financial firm which will invest in the industry and help to build other cryptocurrency companies in the blockchain technology sector.

The company seems to be starting with a simple and straightforward newsletter service along with a platform for conducting transactions on their exchange platform.

The Funding Round

Bitzumi is seeking to bring about ten million to bring their company to full operating fruition. At the very minimum, they are looking to raise an amount of one million dollars.

James is stating that he is merely an investor and is an ardent supporter of the new company.

Further on the Filing

According to the filing, the company is located at 55 5th Avenue, Suite 1702 in New York, NY 10003 is seeking to issue 4,000,000 shares of Common Stock with a par value of $0.0001.

The company states that they were able to launch their beta version of their website, www.bitzummi.com, and are in the process of testing their exchange and wallet on a limited basis.

They have further registered with FinCen on the 22nd of September of 2017, to be an official money services business and are also seeking to obtain licenses to serve as money transmitter business in each of the fifty states.

The firm is seeking to have their overall public launch of their site in early 2018. As they state:

“We anticipate having a public launch of www.bitzumi.com by early 2018.”

As of this current moment, their website is live, yet has no existing functionality.

They are seeking to deploy a trusted vault, a single mobile digital wallet, a Bitzumi credit card, processing and escrow and an E-bit news blog or a cryptocurrency publication business.

Their Business

The company states that they are looking to add to the cryptocurrency sector and will be doing so in a phase by phase manner.

“We plan to launch our business divisions with a phased approach. Initially, our primary focus will be to develop a publishing and marketing company to educate potential Bitzumi exchange/wallet consumers, and to gain name recognition. We intend to deliver users to Bitzumi’s and affiliates’ crypto-related offerings and products. Ultimately, we intend for our primary product to be our cryptocurrency exchange and digital storage on www.bitzumi.com. We also plan to develop various educational and information products and newsletters focusing on the cryptocurrency industry.”

Management Team

Scot Cohen
CEO & Chairman of the Board

Mr. Cohen has over 20 years of experience in institutional asset management, wealth management, and capital markets.  Scot founded and served as principal of the Iroquois Capital Opportunity Fund, a closed-end private equity fund which focused on investments in North American oil and gas.  Mr. Cohen also co-founded Iroquois Capital, a New York-based hedge fund which managed approximately $300M across its family of funds.  Before Iroquois Capital, Mr. Cohen founded a merchant bank which actively participated in structured investments in public companies.

Mike Straka
Head of Media & Marketing

Mike Straka is a veteran marketer with over 20 years of experience in broadcast television. Mike began his career at CBS News as a desk assistant and moved on to FOX News Channel in 1996. He eventually became Vice President and Executive Producer for FOX Interactive Media and FOX News Digital, where he was in charge of software and hardware solutions across several verticals of the business, and Executive In Charge of video and studio operations.

The post An Exchange Backed by James Altucher Is Coming Soon appeared first on Getting Started With Cryptocurrencies & Bitcoin - bitGuru.

Venezuela Has Announced an Increase of Signups for Mining the Petro

The President of Venezuela has been rather busy as of late, or, at least his officials in charge of the cryptocurrency department of the South American country have been active in their implementations of their emerging program.

He has gone on record and has made an announcement notifying the world that their cryptocurrency department has been able to attract a substantial amount of miners. He’s stated that they’ve been able to register over eight hundred and fifty thousand young individuals to mine their national cryptocurrency, the Petro.

The country is in a state of disarray and has experienced vast economic turmoil, leaving many of their citizens destitute and searching for various ways to gain ways to survive and thrive.

Thus, the substantial interest may be because many young people are looking for an opportunity in a country that seems to be majorly lacking in it. The new sector has given young and old a chance to be able to afford and a better life through mining Bitcoin and possibly other cryptocurrencies.

Hyperinflation

The aspect of hyperinflation has led their currency, the bolivar to have lack of worth. This has led to people wanting to gain access to food and other resources with no traditional means of exchange to obtain their basic needs.

The country is seeking a revitalization, new life in its economy. Their problems started a while back and has only gotten worse as the years passed on.

The problems may have started with the prior leader Hugo Chavez but continued to decline rapidly when Maduro came into power 

Many turned to the emerging cryptocurrency Bitcoin to be able to mine and generate some valuable income to keep them afloat in their turbulent times.

The government, from an official manner, stayed neutral on the utilization of electricity to mine Bitcoin, yet there were situations where local officials cracked down on miners, soliciting bribes to let the miners conduct their mining practices. Also, the aspect of mining may have been seen as something that is antithetical to the policies of the country.

Thus, the government of the country has progressed to embracing and deploying their national cryptocurrency, the Petro, and many have signed up to officially mine the cryptocurrency.

The Government Issues a Registry

Venezuela has confirmed and has issued a registry for individuals to mine in a legal manner, as it is being done in Russia, China and others. The mining seems to be able to conducted for Bitcoin and the Petro.

There are various frames of mind on the registry. Some believe that the registry can act as a way for the government to know who and how many people are involved in the mining of cryptocurrency, thus allowing them to centralize it in some manner. Others have stated the registry might officially legalize the act of mining, thus bringing in more legitimacy to mining.

Details on the mining

It seems as if the government has set up farms for mining and will streamlining the process in the months to come. They have not released many details as to the economics and the various other aspects of how the Petro cryptocurrency is to work.

The U.S releases further sanctions

It seems that the U.S, in response to these developments, or rather, in general, have released more sanctions on the country of Venezuela.

According to the Miami Herald:

“The Trump administration on Friday slapped sanctions on four current and former high-ranking military officials in Venezuela, saying the men were helping promote “corruption and repression” in the troubled South American country.”

The publication further noted on the statements of the US Treasury Department.

“President [Nicolás] Maduro and his inner circle continue to put their own interests above those of the Venezuelan people. This action underscores the United States’ resolve to hold Maduro and others engaged in corruption in Venezuela accountable.”

Venezuela hopes to circumvent the effects of sanctions and take back control of their finances.

The post Venezuela Has Announced an Increase of Signups for Mining the Petro appeared first on Getting Started With Cryptocurrencies & Bitcoin - bitGuru.

Blocktower Finalizes Their 140 Million Raise

Bitcoin ushered in the way for a larger interest in the field of cryptocurrencies from both retail and institutional investors, from governmental organizations, national officials, technologists and many others.

There are those that shun the world of cryptocurrencies and those that embrace that it. The rise of the leading digital currency has given rise to other digital coins. These other virtual assets may have substance or may not but they are certainly in existence and are receiving attention in trades and contributions from the larger developer community.

The currencies have drawn interest from the investor community due to the fact that there were gains that were realized in these currencies. At the same time, there are expectations of more gains to be made.

As such, different options have arisen, for instance, the appearance of futures contracts for digital assets like Bitcoin, these financial offering expansions allows for further ways for one to invest. While growing the system of cryptocurrencies.

These financial offerings have contributed to financial firms that are focused fully on this space, who seek to invest correctly and reap the rewards from their calculated decisions.

One of these many firms that have popped up over the years is called BlockTower.

Blocktower, a firm based in Connecticut, dubs itself as an Institutional cryptocurrency hedge fund. The firm was recently launched late last year, in August and has been quite vocal while rapidly taking actions to participate in the marketplace.

Fundraising and Recruiting

Their latest action has been to go through an event for fundraising. The cryptocurrency hedge fund has gone through and raised a hundred and forty million dollars over the course of their fundraising event. They were able to acquire these funds from a variety of financial offices, including private equity, specifically venture capital firms.

In addition to conducting their fundraising efforts, they’ve also take the time to recruit. They’ve recently hired a former employee of the Goldman Sachs Group. The new recruit held the role of a vice president the financial institution. The individual will be joining Blocktower as the eighth individual to work for the Blocktower firm.

Visionary Investors

The firm has been able to raise funds from visionary investors like USV or Union Square Ventures LLC, founded in 2003 and headed up by people like Fred Wilson. Union Square is a New York-based firm that manages assets totalling one billion. The firm has invested in companies like Kik which has launched their Initial Coin Offering last year. USV has also invested in firms and companies like Polychain Capital, Blockstack, Coinbase, Protocol Labs, and many more interesting companies.

BlockTower has also received financial support from legendary investment firm Andreessen Horowitz.

They have thus concluded their raise for their initial fund on the first of this year and will now continue their efforts to pursue higher returns.

Increasing Interest

As the opportunities in the sector increases, more firms will seek to get involved and raise funds to pursue greater returns, as this happens we should see interesting happenings in the sector, as funds spill over into interesting projects, tokens, and currencies.

The post Blocktower Finalizes Their 140 Million Raise appeared first on Getting Started With Cryptocurrencies & Bitcoin - bitGuru.