Blockchain Firms Ripple, R3 File Dueling Lawsuits Over Crypto Contract Dispute

Blockchain Firms Ripple, R3 File Dueling Lawsuits Over Crypto Contract Dispute

Distributed ledger startups Ripple and R3

have become embroiled in a new legal battle, with both startups filing lawsuits related to a contract dispute between the two firms. Ripple alleged in a complaint filed today in the Supreme Court of California that R3 failed to honor an agreement that included an option to purchase 5 billion XRP, the cryptocurrency of Ripple's distributed ledger network. According to Reuters, R3 asked the Delaware Chancery Court to uphold the deal, which would have allowed it to buy the XRP at a price of $0.0085 per token before September 2019. Currently, XRP is currently trading at roughly $0.21 apiece, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

A copy of R3's complaint was not available at press time. According to Ripple's complaint, R3 and Ripple allegedly struck a deal to create a joint commercial venture, which would have followed an earlier test, centered around XRP, that involved a number of banks involved with R3's consortium effort. In the complaint, Ripple accused R3 of failing to uphold its end of the bargain as its fundraising efforts picked up steam, ultimately concluding with a $107 million funding round announced this spring. Ripple also accused R3 of hiding the fact that several of its consortium members, including Goldman Sachs and Banco Santander, among others, were looking to exit the group despite promises of advancing XRP to the banks involved.

A spokesperson for Ripple told CoinDesk in a statement:

"Our filing is straightforward – R3 misrepresented their ability and intent to deliver on their commitments. Given XRP’s ~4000% increase over the course of the year, R3 suddenly wants to tap into the value of XRP, though the facts are clear that they did not earn any option based on our agreement. We wish them well as they continue to try and build their consulting practice. In the meantime, Ripple is focused on serving our ecosystem of nearly 100 customers and signing up more."

When reached, a representative for R3 declined to offer specifics on the case but struck an optimistic note about the firm's prospects in court. "R3 does not discuss the details of pending litigation," the spokesman said. "We are confident in our position and hope for a speedy resolution of this matter." The suit is a notable one, given that R3 and Ripple are two of the industry's best-funded startups and both focus their products primarily toward financial institutions. R3 and Ripple have raised $107 million and $96 million, respectively, in venture capital to date.

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Equifax Hack: 3 Investors Sold $18 Mln Shares in Unclear Transaction

Equifax Hack:
3 Investors Sold $18 Mln Shares in Unclear Transaction

Three Equifax investors sold $17.8 mln in shares

days before the company announced it had suffered one of the biggest hacks in history. As Reuters reports Friday, the shares sold three days after Equifax knew of the hack, and it was as yet “not clear whether these transactions were part of a pre-arranged sales plan.”

The credit giant has said that hackers gained entry to sensitive information from an unprecedented 143 mln accounts between May and July. Data such as names, social security and driver’s license numbers fell into the hands of malicious parties, along with 209,000 credit card numbers. Larger than any comparable attack in the US, Equifax is due to publish a report into the events in the coming weeks, while commentators highlight the vulnerability of centralized information storage.

“On a scale of 1 to 10, this is a 10,” an analyst told Reuters.

“It affects the whole credit reporting system in the United States because nobody can recover it, everyone uses the same data.”

Senate Select Committee on Intelligence vice-president Mike Warner went even further, describing the breach as “representing a real threat to the economic security of Americans.” Legacy infrastructure is becoming an increasingly difficult topic to avoid as hackers launch ever more sophisticated attacks affecting hundreds of businesses and other organizations at once. WannaCry, the Bitcoin ransomware attack which appeared in May, partly achieved its international success due to the inadequate and outdated software still used by prominent entities.

Bitcoin Congressman Polis Legislation Abolishes Tax For US Crypto Payments Below $600

Bitcoin-friendly congressman Jared Polis has introduced legislation

that could allow US citizens to pay in cryptocurrency without reporting it for tax. The Cryptocurrency Tax Fairness Act, a bipartisan effort with Republican David Schweikert, aims to give everyone a $600 leeway to use crypto without needing to submit a tax return to the IRS later.

Bitcoin and virtual currencies are still classed as property in the US, obligating users to report any form of gains or losses on holdings each tax year, regardless of amount. The issue is especially poignant in 2017, as the US’s largest exchange Coinbase battles the IRS in what consumers and politicians alike have criticized as an “overly broad” tax investigation. “To keep up with modern technology, we need to remove outdated restrictions on cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin, and other methods of digital payment,” Polis said in a

press release Thursday.

“By cutting red tape and eliminating onerous reporting requirements, it will allow cryptocurrencies to further benefit consumers and help create good jobs.”

Washington is currently home to the Blockchain Caucus, a joint initiative begun in February by Polis aiming to increase education and awareness of virtual currency among the echelons of US politics. Commenting on the new act, Coin Center CEO Jerry Brito, who worked with Polis on the Caucus, said it would create a “level playing field.”

“We applaud Representatives Polis and Schweikert for their leadership in introducing the Cryptocurrency Tax Fairness Act, which would treat cryptocurrencies similarly to how foreign currency is now treated and relieve users from having to keep track of small personal transactions,” he said. “Not only will this create a level playing field for digital currencies, it will also help unleash innovation on applications like micropayments, which can consist of dozens of transactions per minute and thus are difficult to square with the current law.”

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How Blockchain Technology is Taking Gambling Industry to New Level

Blockchain technology has been slowly creeping into our lives,

and today its presence can be felt like never before, with Google search trends showing new records and the collective cryptocurrency market cap being at its highest. However, there are certain industries with which Blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies have been able to connect with on a deeper level, and gambling is one such industry. The symbiosis between crypto and gambling doesn't seem to be getting weaker either. Malta, a country that is known as a pioneer in the gambling industry, is planning to legalize the use of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies at online casinos, and is currently exploring the best options to do so. Yes, the future looks bright for these two, so let's take a look at how Blockchain technology is changing the gambling industry today.

Private, cheap, legal and accessible

Using cryptocurrencies for gambling has become a widely popular solution for casinos, either as a main payment system or as an alternative to fiat-based ones. The advantages are many and well documented. Using cryptocurrencies allows the user to gamble anonymously, without the need to hand over copies of documents or even create an account, depending on the platform. Smaller fees and almost-instant deposit times, have also made cryptocurrencies ideal for gambling, especially when it comes to small to medium movements. Lastly, cryptocurrencies have also been able to make online gambling accessible again, providing a low entry barrier for new players and allowing them to circumvent gambling regulations that apply to fiat only.

Probably fair

We all know that the house always wins. That’s why people build casinos in the first place, right? It’s all about making a profit in the long run, while the customer gets to enjoy himself and win big sometimes. Over time, however, the casino is always sure to make a profit and gamblers have grown to accept this.

Problems arise, however, with the lack of transparency that is prone to online casinos. If the gambler cannot be sure that the casino is indeed playing by the rules, he may not want to enter the game at all. However, cryptography has made it possible for gambling platforms to prove that they are indeed honest. Although this concept was not made possible by Blockchain technology itself, but rather by cryptography, Blockchain technology and smart contracts have taken it to the next level, allowing for more complex systems.

Decentralize everything!

Although Bitcoin is not the first cryptocurrency in history, it was the first one to provide a decentralized structure. This model allows not only for immutability and security, but also for a democratization of value creation. In Bitcoin, anyone can become a miner, profiting from newly issued coins, something that only bankers knew prior to Satoshi's masterpiece.

Blockchain technology brings this same characteristic to gambling, allowing anyone to be a member of the casino itself. Although some Bitcoin casinos allow users to fund the casinos and profit from a share of the house edge, these concept has been taken to the next level by crypto platforms like Ethereum, where projects like vSlice and many others have created a system where token holders receive automatic dividends from the profits generated by the platform. Wager, on the other hand, employs its own Blockchain network to provide a decentralized sportsbetting platform in which event outcomes are reported by a network of oracle masternodes.

The wisdom of the crowds

The wisdom of the crowds is a concept that is currently under the spotlight in the cryptosphere. Several projects leverage Blockchain technology to create decentralized prediction markets where users can bet on the outcome of an event, and having data from the event outcome introduced in a trustless manner. Although prediction markets were around before the Blockchain, their centralized structure grew far too problematic. Not only do these markets allow users to bet on pretty much anything, from the weather to sports events and elections, the data generated by the collective bets can also create a fairly accurate forecast on the outcome of that event. Magos, a complex forecasting model, leverages neural network technology to mine this data and filter it, creating highly accurate forecasts and positive returns for token holders.

Saving the day

As we can see, cryptocurrencies and their underlying technology, the Blockchain, are changing the very fabric of online gambling. This affinity can be partially explained by human nature. Blockchain tech has come as a highly disruptive solution to problems that are inherent to many systems in our society and economy. In the gambling industry, these problems were heavily felt and crypto came just in time to save the day.

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Banks are finally preparing to use cryptocurrency to move money between them

The world’s biggest banks aren’t immune from cryptocurrency euphoria,

with a range of projects underway to explore how traditional financial firms can benefit from the innovation. Swiss banking giant UBS and 10 other companies say that they plan to use the technical idea behind bitcoin—a distributed ledger called a blockchain—for their own digital currency (paywall). This could show the way for the world’s biggest central banks to do the same. Banks like Barclays and HSBC are the latest to join the “utility settlement coin” project, started by UBS and Clearmatics Technologies in 2015. The idea is to develop a new, streamlined payment mechanism for institutional purposes. According to CoinDesk, it could potentially replace clearinghouses and other back-office plumbing that sits between buyers and sellers of assets.

Alex Batlin, who heads BNY Mellon’s blockchain projects, led work on utility settlement coin at UBS at its inception. For him, it’s an example of blockchain technology’s promise to remake finance. “Blockchain is a really good, resilient system,” he said in an interview earlier this summer. “The interesting thing about bitcoin is since its inception, no one’s cracked it. Yet it’s completely in the open.” BNY Mellon is also involved in the utility settlement coin project. The hope is that the UBS group will come up with something faster, cheaper, and more reliable than existing systems. Each settlement coin would represent fiat currency like euros and dollars on a one-to-one basis, and would thus be 100% backed by collateral at the domestic central bank, according to UBS. The idea is that exchanging the digital currency as payment for assets will be a more efficient means of exchange.

Because the digital coins will be backed by cash at a central bank, which cannot default (they can always print money if they have to), the crypto tokens are free from credit risk. UBS says transfers and ownership could be settled instantly—the promise of blockchain technology. There are still questions, like whether the technology could handle the volume necessary for the scale of institutional markets run by big banks. Central banks from Beijing to Washington have a similar idea, and are investigating whether they can issue their own digital currencies. While bitcoin was developed to disintermediate such centralized monetary authorities, the Bank of England believes it could use the technical ideas behind it to impose more control over its currency and provide new ways to stimulate the economy. Far from making mainstream finance obsolete, right now blockchain and cryptoassets appear to be one of the industry’s preferred new inventions.

The Bank of England published research last year (pdf) suggesting that a digital currency issued by a central bank could bolster financial stability, boost economic growth, and generally make monetary policy more efficient. A model for this is emerging in the private sector: The project involving UBS and other financial firms is far from complete—a limited launch could take place at the end of next year—but the momentum behind it suggests that cryptocurrencies are entering the mainstream.

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How Blockchain Is Redefining the Future of Commerce

How Blockchain Is Redefining
the Future of Commerce

Probably the most significant benefit of blockchain

in commerce is cost reduction.“Blockchain will do the same to banking what the internet did to media” seems to be the phrase this year. In fact, like the internet was the first native digital medium for information, blockchain is the first native digital medium for peer-to-peer value exchange. Therefore, blockchain it is set out to revolutionize numerous industries, including banking, cyber-security, commerce and much more.Vitalik Buterin, the creator of cryptocurrency Ethereum, says that the technology is so convenient that it can be applied for years in future industries beyond our current imagination.

As of today, the cryptocurrency hype is real. There is an increasing number of new emerging startups based on blockchain driven solutions, that seek to improve the way variety of industries have been operating for decades. Then there are the skyrocketing prices of Bitcoin, Ethereum and other alt currencies.Such activities may indicate that this is something more than just public hype. However, the general public still treats it as another fad. So the question remains: Is it?

Blockchain and commerce

In the recent Global Ecommerce Summit, it was stated that cryptocurrencies together with blockchain are the future of online payments. Jasmin Battista, leader of e-commerce in the European Commission’s DG Connect project, has emphasized that smart contracts are especially important for the traders.The Ethereum based system may be the following natural step for transaction processing, order tracking, supply chain management or tracking management activities. Many entrepreneurs and industries already work with the technology adapting it to their needs and people’s problems.

For example, a startup Monetha is set to create an Ethereum payment solution which resembles a combination of PayPal and Trustpilot. Just a day ago they landed a strategic partnership with Pigu.lt, the largest online retailer in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. The interest in the company is peaking just a few days before their first ICO on August 31.What makes blockchain such a promising medium for the future of commerce? Here are the key advantages of what it offers.

Low cost

Probably the most significant benefit of blockchain in commerce is cost reduction. Today, business transactions run through a complex network of vendors, including credit card networks, banks and payment processors. Blockchain removes all the unnecessary middlemen allowing for cheap, quick and reliable peer-to-peer transactions.Regular costs can add up to additional 7% for every online purchase. These costs are passed on the buyer most of the time. People have already shown that they are becoming increasingly aware of the extra cost by switching and supporting banking alternatives such as the unicorn TransferWise or Revolut.

A large number of stakeholders makes e-commerce transactions unnecessarily complicated. The involved parties slow down the process by series of bureaucratic steps, creating additional friction.Payment billing and processing used to take up to a week, but blockchain makes it happen almost in real-time.Its decentralized approach disentangles the processing to a simple interaction between buyer and merchant. There is no need for central authorization entities, so the money can travel almost instantly and without resistance.

Security

Commerce security in blockchain derives from its immutable nature and decentralized structure. It prevents fraudulent transactions simply by removing the ability to alter the data.So even if the customer encounters falsified goods, it can be tracked and recorded. Such implication could prevent future business with untrustworthy sellers.

Accessibility

According to the latest Global Findex report, 2 billion people and 160 million small businesses still don’t have formal access to banking. While these are mostly poor people, 37% of the world’s population is still an astounding number of unbanked people. Due to its digital nature, blockchain is easy to integrate.It may be too early to claim that blockchain will end poverty, but its digital solutions are easy and less costly to implement and has lots of potential to empower the excluded people to become the participants in the global economy.

Future is now

While most of the population are still skeptical about their future, many bright minds are sweating day and night to bring the best possible solutions to the public.Blockchain offers all of what our current commerce system does, except that it is cheaper and faster. Making commerce and finances more transparent is a huge step towards democratizing the economy and capturing the power from the authorities by bringing it back to the people.

Chuck Reynolds

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Cryptocurrency Trading Helps Make Traditional Wall Street Traders Millionaires

Smart Investment

Wall Street’s traders Mike Komaransky and Chase Lochmiller have achieved greater financial success by trading cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. They’re the only ones withdrawing their funds from stocks. In fact, CNBC reports that many stock traders are pulling out their billions from the stock market. One of the traders, Komaransky, has reportedly done so well that he already announced his retirement at the age of 38 in the summer of 2017.

How Komaransky discovered Bitcoin

Komaransky became interested in Bitcoin after reading George Mason University economist Tyler Cowen’s blog about the digital currency in 2010. Komaransky was working in London, England during that time. In late 2013, the price of Bitcoin started its upward mobility following the collapse of the biggest Bitcoin exchange, Mt. Gox. Due to the continuous rise of Bitcoin’s price, high-frequency trading company DRW Holdings founder and chief executive officer (CEO), Don Wilson, has ordered Komaransky to establish cryptocurrency trading currency subsidiary Cumberland Mining in 2014.

Cumberland Mining was able to exploit the volatile era of Bitcoin trading as it was successful in making notable trades such as gaining the bulk of tokens auctioned by the US Marshals Service. The coins were seized by the service from dark market operator Ross Ulbricht and the illegal online black market he established, Silk Road. Cumberland Mining has sustained its success and is now one of the biggest digital currency market makers. The company currently has 12 employees, who are mainly involved in trading cryptocurrencies such Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Lochmiller’s story

For the past 10 years, Lochmiller has worked for the largest high-frequency trading companies on Wall Street such as Jump Trading and Getco. In July 2017, however, he resigned at Jump Trading to join hedge fund Polychain Capital, which is mainly involved in trading virtual currencies like Tezos and Ethereum.

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Oraclize, Digital Identity to Develop Financial Applications of Ethereum Blockchain

Oraclize has closed on €500,000 in their seed round led by Digital Identity SA,

a growing firm delivering services for the Fintech industry. The company believes that Blockchain technology opens many opportunities in a variety of areas, including Fintech and cryptocurrencies. With its primary focus being on financial companies, cryptocurrency wallets, and decentralized exchanges, among others, Oraclize represents a strategic investment securing development of the layer on top of which these financial applications are built.

Natale Ferrara, director of Digital Identity SA, commented:

“Oraclize provides an infrastructure tool essential for Blockchain applications to grow and have a concrete impact. I believe that our investment in Oraclize will support the talented team with its activities and ultimately benefit the Blockchain ecosystem as a whole.”

In the Blockchain context, the company provides a safe data-transport-layer enabling decentralized applications (dapps). Since 2015, it has served over 200,000 requests on the Ethereum mainnet and several million on test nets, backing its claims with authenticity proofs based on a variety of cryptographic techniques. It aims at developing Blockchain applications in order to overcome common limitations while minimizing additional trust lines. For this reason, the authenticity proofs rely on independent attestors, leveraging both software and hardware-enforced security technologies.

Thomas Bertani, CEO of Oraclize, comments:

“Since launching in March 2015, the Oraclize concept has evolved and reshaped according to the needs of the market. Today, Oraclize is the longest running Oracle service across a multitude of Blockchain platforms. Our activity goes beyond that, we have developed a powerful technology securing different kinds of processes. This funding will enable us in bringing our technology to the next level.”

Chuck Reynolds

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Maximum Impact Of Blockchain Will Be Felt In Africa, Not In The West, Just an Opinion

Maximum Impact Of Blockchain
Will Be Felt In Africa,
Not In The West, Just an Opinion

Maximum Impact Of Blockchain Will Be Felt In Africa, Not In The West: Opinion

“Central Banks and Monetary Authorities world over have turned on their antennas to pay rapt attention to the disruption pervading the financial service industries by digital currencies, which are enabled by Blockchain technology,”

said Musa Itopa Jimoh, the Deputy Director, Banking & Payment System the Central Bank of Nigeria CBN, at the first ever Blockchain conference held in Nigeria. The two-day event which took place at the Civic Centre, Ozumba Mbadiwe Way, Victoria Island Lagos was organized by the Blockchain Nigeria User Group with Chimezie Chuta as national coordinator. Chuta explains that having to reconfigure the prevailing mindset of the majority of participants who see Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as some MLM and Ponzi schemes was an aspect of the event which required a lot of resources.

However, he is confident that the presentations by the participating Blockchain organizations and the continued effort of his group through educational materials and future events will go a long way in correcting the people’s perception and set the nation on the pedestal of Blockchain revolution.

There is no alternative to the Blockchain

In his opening address, Jimoh emphasized the need for collaboration between Blockchain solution providers and government institutions. According to him, some countries have come out with specific directives and stance on the adoption of the digital currency and Blockchain technology while others are still reviewing their positions to enable them to decide on which way to go. But whether they like it or not, it will just be a matter of delay tactics and being cautious, because all central banks and monetary authorities will eventually and very soon, give legitimacy to the use of Blockchain technology to drive financial services including the issuance of digital currency.

Jimoh says:

“Nigeria’s position is very clear. We cannot stop the tide of waves generated by the Blockchain technology and its derivatives. However the Central Bank has the responsibilities of ensuring price and financial system stability. This is why digital currency issuance becomes a major concern to the central bank of Nigeria. To this end, the central bank of Nigeria has kick started several initiatives and research works to identify the various use cases of Blockchain technology including the issuance of digital currency using the Blockchain technology.”

Jimoh acknowledges the Blockchain Nigeria User Group as being on the right path and poised to raise awareness on Blockchain technology and cryptocurrency in Nigeria. “This event is one of such measures to raise the awareness amongst stakeholders including the regulatory authorities,” he concludes. The keynote speaker at the conference, Dr. David Isiavwe notes that the reality of the world today, particularly in Nigeria, is that the Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), Blockchain and cryptocurrency are facts that must be confronted.

“We cannot wish this reality away. It is made worse when we realize that we are still grappling with current challenges of e-commerce and other electronic payment systems but technology development and advancements are not waiting. In this dynamic age that we find ourselves, the only mantra to survival as is propagated by the Information Security Society of Africa – Nigeria (ISSAN) is: ‘Innovate or Die!," says Isiavwe.

How To Open Cryptocurrency Exchange: Practical Tips

Crypto newbie

The cryptocurrencies boom forced analysts to talk about bubbles, and late "miners" to buy up video cards. Meanwhile, many people have already earned enough money on the trend: someone did it on the appreciating prices, and someone, as in case with nVidia, profited on the growing demand for related issues. There are a lot of debates over cryptocurrencies’ potential, about possible sell-offs, and the time in which the bubble may burst.

However, while the market talks, it’s worth looking around to understand the way to profit on the trend. If there is a demand for cryptocurrencies, it means the trade venues for these assets will be popular as well. Today, there are already about 200 cryptocurrency exchanges and exchangers in the world. And it is not a limit has been reached yet. So, what if the next stage of the crypto market evolution is the boom of cryptocurrency exchanges. If so, how can we profit on that? Perhaps open your own exchange.

How to open a cryptocurrency exchange

First, you need to resolve a legal issue. It is necessary to obtain a license. This is possible in several ways.

1. It is possible to obtain a Japanese license, but it will cost a lot. Investments may amount to at least $110K, and there is around $30K more for office expenses in Japan.

2. It is possible to register the company in jurisdictions, where there is no legal base for crypto exchange, but at least it’s not banned. It all depends on what you can afford and on available resources, but even with sufficient capital you still need to find a director complying with regulators’ requirements, lawyers who know all the details of licensing process, and much more.

Secondly, you need to develop the required software.

1. User Personal Account. It’s a profile for client registration and verification, with deposit/withdrawal options available. To write such a program you will need to invest effort, time, and money.

2. Trading platform. This is a place through which investors and traders can open, close and manage market positions. You’ll also need to think about each nuance, such as the development of gateways, connectors and bridges for platform connection. Writing the platform will consume time and money. There are major vendor lease providers of trading platforms in the world – you can choose, launch, customize and get services for the best of them.

3. Aggregator. It will allow you to connect new partners, other exchanges and even to become a market maker for some of the tools (e.g. if you create a cryptocurrency/token and want to add it to the list of trading assets at your crypto currency exchange). You must consider that your aggregator needs to process huge data volumes every second. At a rough estimate the cost of such a solution will be impressive, considering the number of expensive specialists and the time spent on development, therefore even large companies prefer not to write software, but to pick something available in the market.

All in all, the scope of work and investments required is considerable. However, there are cases when it’s worth going along a streamlined path rather than searching for your own original way. Where there is demand, there is supply. Even now at the start of this new crypto era some companies already offer the development of turnkey trading floors and exchangers, taking into account customer desires. Such services can considerably reduce your time, efforts, and expenses.

Chuck Reynolds

Marketing Dept
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Please click either Link to Learn more about -Bitcoin.

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Bank of America Files 9 More Blockchain Patent Applications

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

has released nine more blockchain-related patent applications filed by Bank of America. Data collected by CoinDesk shows that the applications – which relate to conducting and settling transactions within a payment network – were all filed February 22. To date, Bank of America has filed more than 30 known patent applications related to the technology, including as many as 18 during 2016 alone. Combined, the breadth of the applications suggests that work is being done on blockchain-based payment systems within Bank of America. At the same time, the bank has issued no definitive statements on the subject to date, and it's not clear whether any of the proposed inventions will see the light of day.

Yet past announcements from the bank hint at where some of the intellectual property may come into play. Last September, Bank of America and Microsoft announced a joint initiative aimed at applying blockchain tech to the area of trade finance. Working with Microsoft Treasury, which handles the tech giant's corporate payments and strategic investments, the project is aimed at building a new blockchain-based system to facilitate transactions between the two companies. Still, it remains to be seen whether the project turns into something at commercial scale. And given the pace of patent applications seen thus far during 2016, Bank of America could be pursuing other intellectual property avenues as well.

Bitcoin Prices Bounce Back Above $4,400

Bitcoin prices have once more climbed past $4,400 following days of generally sideways movement within the $4,100–$4,200 range. Starting to pick up from around 22:00 UTC yesterday, prices across global exchanges opened the session at $4,362, and had reached a high of $4,420. Prices were again at that level at press time, a rise of 1.33 percent, according to the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index. Those figures put prices around $85 short of the all-time high achieved on August 17, when bitcoin topped $4,500 for the first time ever.

Elsewhere in the markets, ethereum is up 3.49 percent for the day at $332.65, according to CoinMarketCap. New cryptocurrency bitcoin cash is down 2 percent, however, with prices at $642.95 at press time. A notable strong showing for privacy-oriented cryptocurrency monero today sees its price up over 14 percent, with one token now worth $98. Reflecting continued positivity in the digital asset markets, the market capitalization across all cryptocurrencies is once again at a record high, at just over $155 billion.

Chuck Reynolds

Marketing Dept
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David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

Top Cryptocurrency Investors Share Their Favorite Long Term Picks

There’s a lot of focus right now on short-term speculation

in the cryptocurrency space. But at some undefined future point, a reversal from speculation to value is going to happen. And when it does, you’ll want to be in the right positions.Investing exclusively in tokens with real world value creation is the philosophy that my crypto hedge fund, General Crypto, is predicated on. Unless you’re a skilled day trader and don’t mind incredible stress levels, it’s wise to buy-and-hold coins with game-changing value rather than just jumping to and from the flavor of the week.Analyzing the validity of that value isn’t easy. So I thought it would be interesting to hear what some very smart people who dedicate themselves full-time to crypto are betting on in the long-term.

Here are each of their top three picks that they intend to hold (and not decrease position size) for at least the next two years, and why they believe in them so much.Food for thought: there is estimated to be around 100 crypto hedge funds currently spinning up in Q3 and Q4 2017. 100! Our fund was featured on Forbes as one of 15. This means a massive on-ramp of institutional capital — the likes of which crypto has never seen before — is about to be opened. And smart money is going to pick the smart cryptos. Here is what myself and nine others think they are going to back.

Logan Kugler, Managing Partner at General Crypto

RIPPLE (XRP) —
Ripple is going after SWIFT, and their token XRP could entirely change the way we send money internationally. Why? Currently money takes days to move internationally, and the fees are enormous. There’s literally no way today to send money from one country to another same-day, other than by boarding a plane with a suitcase full of cash. XRP can transfer value (read: money) anywhere in the world in four seconds, at a cost of pennies. And unlike other coins, it doesn’t get bogged down when hit by huge volume.

Why am I bullish? The market size is as big as it gets (SWIFT moves $5 trillion USD per day), the technology is already built (Ripple has been working on it since 2012), their team is world-class, and nearly 100 banking partnerships are already in place with pilots running or about to start. The CEO of SBI Holdings believes XRP will become the global standard in digital currencies.Bitcoin maximalists like saying that XRP is not a true crypto because it’s not decentralized. The reality is Ripple is working towards making XRP even more decentralized than Bitcoin. It could take a while, but they’re already off to a good start.

What some people miss about XRP is the timeline. Ripple stands to revolutionize the entire banking industry. That’s not going to happen overnight. It will have its rallies and its steep corrections, but I expect it to consistently go up. Don’t buy this one expecting big things to happen as fast as other coins. (And don’t get cold feet when it drops half.) The key difference is that XRP is predicated on an extremely strong use case, team, and technology. Be willing to buy now and hold this token for minimally the next five years and I think you’ll see an incredible return on investment. If you want a simple way to think about Ripple: XRP is going to let us move money across borders in the same way that we move information across them today. And that’s an astronomical upside.

FACTOM (FCT) —

Factom offers the promise of immutable records. This could be huge for the (trillion-dollar) mortgage industry, banks and audit records, retail with huge databases like Target, studios with enormous catalogs of movies like Warner Bros., and governments for historical documents. Factom’s competitions are currently bounded by only proving the positive (e.g. “can we show X has existed in the chain?”), which would pertain to proof of existence, integrity, ownership, etc. — which is limited for the overall problem they are trying to solve. Factom can prove both the positive and the negative and see if a piece of information didn’t exist at a certain period in time, or whether it’s the latest version. Factom could change how major record keepers keep records and ensure eternal existence of all records.

MONERO (XMR) —
One of the original promises of Bitcoin was anonymity. It turns out it’s not quite as anonymous as a lot of people initially think. While who owns a particular wallet address is unknown, the transactions can be easily followed. So if your identity gets associated with a wallet address, some analysis can essentially turn your transactions into public bank statements. Enter anonymous coins (or “anon coins”), of which XMR is leading the field in privacy. It scrambles your address automatically each time, so you don’t have to worry about leaving a trail. I can see Monero XMR becoming very popular among those seeking anonymous transactions. What’s still up in the air is whether or not it can scale. Within hours of writing, XMR experienced a 50% price surge, which saw vastly extended transaction times.

Spencer Bogart, Managing Director and Head of Research at Blockchain Capital

BITCOIN (BTC) —
Bitcoin has proven its ability to efficiently serve a few use cases that represent giant market opportunities. Amazon first proved it could efficiently sell things online and it focused on this ability before growing into other opportunities. I think the same will be true of Bitcoin.

MONERO (XMR) —
If I were forced to pick one thing that I was most concerned about for Bitcoin, it would be a lack of privacy. Each Bitcoin should be worth as much as any other Bitcoin, regardless of who owned it before you or what they did with it. For now, this isn’t a big problem. But Monero is a good hedge against this risk, since it’s more private than Bitcoin and therefore doesn’t have the same degree of fungibility risk.

LITECOIN (LTC) —
Silver to Bitcoin’s gold. The code is so similar to Bitcoin that Litecoin is able to leverage Bitcoin’s developer network and improvements. This is a big advantage over other coins that try to build a developer community from the ground up. If anything catastrophic happened to Bitcoin, a decent portion of the capital would likely flow to Litecoin.

Rafe Furst, Chief Investment Officer at The Crypto Company

DASH (DASH) —
Bitcoin’s reign as the gateway cryptocurrency is coming to an end. The question is, what will replace it? Arguments can be made for Litecoin, Zcash, Ripple, or Monero. I like Dash because of its focus on consumer-friendliness and its flexible, decentralized governance protocol. For example, it took just 24 hours for the Dash community to approve a proposed blocksize increase back in 2016, while the Bitcoin community took three years to address its scalability problems, and the debate ended in a hard fork.

ETHEREUM (ETH) —
While Ethereum won’t replace the function of Bitcoin, it will continue to play the important role it currently does as a smart-contract engine, and as a master blockchain to spawn new application tokens.

STEEM (STEEM) —
Imagine if your social media posts could earn you money based on how popular they were. Imagine if you could get paid as tastemaker and curator of content published by others. Now what if the content creators kept 100% of the ownership rights to their content, and there were no advertisers or special interests getting between creators and fans? Steem is the first utility token that is truly being used for this function. Platforms like Reddit, Medium, and even Facebook should be nervous.

Brad Mills, Fund Strategist at Alphabit

BITCOIN (BTC) —
I’ve been holding Bitcoin since 2011 when I started mining in my basement, and I will keep holding until it’s at least $100,000 per coin, which I expect in three to five years. Fundamentally strong, this is the original blockchain that is and was designed to be money.I get excited when I see Bitcoin becoming legal tender in countries like Japan, South Korea, and India. It’s only a matter of time before a Bitcoin ETF is approved, and we see sovereign wealth and endowment funds allocating money into Bitcoin as a new asset class.

METAL (MTL) —
Metal is one of Alphabit’s core positions that we will be holding long-term. Currently it sits at only an $80 million market cap, which we think could grow to $1 billion or higher over the next year.Metal has the dual-use case of being not only a crypto-rewards token and peer-to-peer payments app like Venmo, but also an FDIC-insured fiat on-ramp bank for high-risk merchants who are currently having trouble acquiring and keeping banking relationships. (Think legal marijuana dispensaries in California; Metal has 140 already on board.)

WAVES (WAVES) —
Waves is Russia’s largest blockchain project. At it’s core, it’s a decentralized exchange and user-created token fundraising platform, forked from the NXT codebase. An ICO was held in 2016 that raised $16 million, which has grown to a market cap of over $300 million.This month, a partnership was announced between Gazprombank and Waves. The partnership focuses on holding ICOs for Russian mining and metals companies, bringing a lot of legitimacy to the platform.

CryptoYoda, well-respected cryptocurrency trader on Twitter

LITECOIN (LTC) —
It’s the second oldest and most trusted blockchain to date, and in addition to being about four times faster than Bitcoin, it has successfully managed to activate Segwit well before any blocksize debate, which to me is a sign of positive adaptability. For being a fork of Bitcoin with only minor differences in algorithm, trading at about 1.5% of Bitcoin’s value is utterly insane, given it’s a more convenient payment coin. Bitcoin will primarily be a store-of-value, just as silver versus gold.

ETHEREUM CLASSIC (ETC) —
The reason ETC’s price is so low compared to Ethereum (ETH) is the confusion about what happened during the hardfork a year ago. In July 2016, the community decided to hard fork the Ethereum blockchain in order to restore lost funds of DAO investors by rolling back the blockchain to a point in time before the hack.There was huge resistance in the Ethereum community because of their devotion to the immutability of blockchains. Part of the community decided to violate that “law” to bail out those affected by the DAO hack, creating ETH. ETC is currently trading at 14.3% of ETH’s value, which is a severe undervaluation in my eyes, given it’s loyalty towards the core principle of cryptocurrency.

ZCASH (ZEC) —
There are many undervalued coins offering anonymity to users, with Zcash and Monero being the most prominent. I think Zcash is positioned to be one of the biggest winners. It has huge interest, is elaborately designed, and has a high-security creation process and very limited supply. Its lack of recent price advancement indicates to me that traders are accumulating it.

Romano, well-respected cryptocurrency trader on Twitter; also the lead developer of Viacoin (VIA)

STRATIS (STRAT) —
Stratis makes blockchain easy for enterprise. They offer simple and affordable end-to-end solutions for development, testing and deployment of native C# blockchain applications. Ever see an article that talks about a bank starting to use blockchain technology? They don’t use the Bitcoin blockchain, but a private chain like Stratis. Stratis makes it easier than ever before for organizations to deploy private blockchains. They’re in talks with many huge companies like Microsoft, Jaguar, Reuters, Cashaa, AIA Group, RBC Capital Markets, Deutsche Bank, etc.

DECRED (DCR) —
Decred will soon get the Lightening Network. Which means you can send small transactions for almost no fee, instantly. The Lightening Network is a big thing which many underestimate. Notable about Decred is that they’ve learned and implemented a lot from the success of Dash. But whereas Dash has a lot of outside funding (and is accountable to investors), Decred is self-funded via block subsidy (accountable only to its users) and they are entirely transparent about the allocations. Decred has decentralized voting, Charlie Lee (Litecoin’s lead developer) on their team, and their code looks clean and is beautifully written.

ZCOIN (XZC) —
While a lot of other anonymous coins bill themselves as completely anonymous, they are not, as this video explains. This is also a great article explaining why most anon coins aren’t actually completely anonymous. Only ZCoin is completely anonymous and I think at some point the market will recognize that and it will be in the same league market cap wise as Monero. Right now, ZCoin looks very undervalued to me as their market cap is only $26 million (compared to Monero’s $1.2 billion). Also worth noting: Roger Ver has said good things about ZCoin (and I don’t like Roger Ver at all, but he has very deep pockets).

CryptoVisionary, founder of the Phoenix Trading Group

RIPPLE (XRP) —
Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), the technology that powers Ripple and its associated coin XRP, allows anyone anywhere in the world to transact money in the same way as sending data (at fractions of the cost). For markets such as international remittance, this means monumental change is underway. ($500 billion is transacted yearly in the remittance sector.) Many of the largest banks in the world (more than 100) have plans to leverage DLT and Ripple to cut costs for their payment servicing. In fact, even the Federal Reserve and the Central Bank of England are testing out Ripple for real-time payment capabilities.

AUGER (REP) —
Businesses around the world pay a high premium for actionable intelligence for their own internal and strategic needs. With Augur, anyone in the world can obtain information on the probability of a future event. Think of it as the Google search for future events, peering into the future using a fascinating principle known as wisdom of the crowd. Such a technology could drastically impact many industries, including trillion-dollar or larger industries like gambling and sports betting.

QTUM (QTUM) —
Think of Qtum like an Ethereum for China, except that it’s a Proof of Stake coin. It’s a more environmentally friendly way to secure the network, with a drastic reduction in the consumption of electricity compared to Proof of Work systems like Bitcoin. Like Ethereum, Qtum will host a number of applications developed by independent third parties, has an all-star cast in terms of advisors (one of their co-founders was recently cited in Forbes China’s “30 Under 30” list.)

notsofast, well-respected cryptocurrency trader on Twitter

BLOCKNET (BLOCK) —
Of all projects competing to release a decentralized, native cryptocurrency exchange, Blocknet’s technology is far and away the strongest, easiest to implement, and closest to market.Blocknet removes the third-party risk in sending your coins to trade on an exchange. You can collateralize 5,000 blocknet in a service node, run any wallets you want on the same machine as that node, and earn BLOCK in trade fees whenever someone trades a currency your node supports. The blocknet protocol will fundamentally advance the use of blockchains the way IE or Netscape standardized and unlocked the World Wide Web.

UBIQ (UBQ) —
The DAO philosophical failure and Ethereum network split opened the door to competitors on smart contract blockchains. Ubiq is the strongest: immutable unlike ETH, and with a brand focus away from experimentation and toward corporate professionalism. Once the Ethereum ICO craze breaks and that platform loses trust, Ubiq’s secure network and failure-free track record will present it as a viable smart contract competitor.

PARKBYTE (PKB)
(Soon to be ParkChain; PKC) — Parkbyte is my appcoin bet. It’s a simple premise to disrupt a ubiquitous and unsexy industry with better tracking, standardized UX, and lower costs and efficiency throughout. Via industry experience, the developers acutely understands exactly what needs to be pitched to whom in order to disrupt existing pay-to-park systems with a blockchain implementation.

Squeeze, well-respected cryptocurrency trader on Twitter

CIVIC (CVC) —
Civic is a secure identity platform that uses the Civic tokens for identification purposes. Vinny Lingham is the CEO of Civic and he’s one of the “Sharks” on Shark Tank South Africa. Civic has both the concept and the team. With Vinny’s connections and influence, many sites have already integrated Civic. For this type of identity verification, user adoption is very important. Without adoption, there’s no use case.

TEZOS (TEZ) —
By far, the biggest ICO funding, with $230 million. It has huge names backing it like billionaire Tim Draper. Their algorithm runs on a delegated proof of stake system. It is also capable of anonymous transactions which utilizes the Zcash’s proof circuit on a side token. They have plans to replace this process with a better option in the future. It is also possible to create applications on Tezos similar to Ethereum. I have no doubt that it will hit a multibillion market cap in a year.

LISK (LSK) —
This is one of the underdogs that a lot of people missed. It’s currently at $233 million market cap. Lisk (similar to Tezos) is utilizing the Delegated Proof of Stake system, where “delegates” verify the transactions and have voting capabilities that steer the direction of Lisk.The main development plan this year is to create an SDK for developing and deploying blockchain applications (smart contracts). They have a strong development team and they have sufficient funds ($62 million) to keep it going for tens of years.

sicarious, well-respected cryptocurrency trader on Twitter

DECRED (DCR) —
Decred is perhaps the most innovative Proof of Stake coin on the market today, and boasts an impressive (and production ready) decentralized governance system. In addition to governance solutions, Decred is preparing to throw their hat into the ring of anonymous transactions later this year. The Bitcoin scaling debate and increasing government scrutiny of the cryptocurrency ecosystem emphasize the importance of both governance and anonymity, setting the stage for Decred’s growth through the end of 2017 and 2018.

UBIQ (UBQ) —
Ubiq has an upgraded codebase, newly-designed difficulty algorithm, monetary policy, and several million-dollar projects running as tokens on its chain. Additionally, it was launched in a spirit of fairness with zero ICO or developer premine. Currently valued at less than 0.5% of ETH’s market cap, Ubiq provides a top-tier alternative to ETH at a dramatically cheaper rate.

BASIC ATTENTION TOKEN (BAT) —
The free and open internet as we know it runs on advertisements, and yet adblockers are seeing increasing adoption among internet users. BAT seeks to solve this problem by creating a mutually beneficial common ground between advertisers and users, centered around their internet browser, Brave.

Chuck Reynolds

Marketing Dept
Contributor
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David https://markethive.com/david-ogden