Day: September 20, 2018

Congressional Committee Calls for Clearer Crypto Tax Code in Letter to IRS

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In an open letter to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the U.S. House’s Committee on Ways and Means argues that the tax collection body is leaving investors in the lurch with its vague cryptocurrency tax codes. Authored by congressional representatives Kevin Brady, Lynn Jenkins, Darin LaHood, David Schweikert and Brad Wenstrup, the letter, addressed to Acting Commissioner David Kautter, calls on the IRS to devise a more concrete cryptocurrency taxing scheme than the one it currently enforces. Opening with reference to a similar letter the Committee sent to the IRS…

Bitfury Reveals New Generation of Bitcoin ASIC Chips

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Bitfury Group has developed a new, more efficient bitcoin mining chip, the firm announced Wednesday. The Bitfury Clarke application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chip “offers the strongest performance among bitcoin mining chips and is unparalleled in efficiency,” the company claims in a blog post. The new chip, according to the firm, is customized for the SHA256 algorithm, boasts power efficiency up to 55 mW/GH and a hashrate up to 120 GH/s. It has 8,154 rolled hashing cores, fully integrated controllable clock generation and an integrated power-on-reset circuit. In a statement, CEO…

US Lawmakers ‘Strongly Urge’ IRS to Update Crypto Tax Guidance

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A group of U.S. lawmakers has called on the nation’s Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to release comprehensive guidance for taxpayers earning gains on cryptocurrency investments or transactions. In an open letter sent to acting IRS commissioner David Kautter, representatives Kevin Brady, Lynn Jenkins, David Schweikert, Darin LaHood and Brad Wenstrup write that the agency has had “more than adequate” time to develop clear rules on how cryptocurrency-related profits would be taxed. Rather than release such guidance, the IRS has instead focused on enforcement actions around preliminary rules released in 2014,…

Up 13%: XRP Jumps By Double Digits for Second Time This Week

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XRP’s price is boasting double-digit percentage growth today for the second time this week as the broader market picks up the bid. At press time, the world’s third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization is trading across exchanges at an average price of $0.37 – a six-week high and 13.60 percent gain from today’s opening price of $0.33, according to CoinDesk’s XRP Price Index (XPI). XRP’s standout 24-hour appreciation makes it the best performer out of the world’s 50 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, data from CoinMarketCap reveals. The bullish price development…

RBS Blockchain Team Jumps Ship to Build New Startups Using R3’s Corda

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A blockchain team from Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has left to start a blockchain “venture studio” called Chorum. Revealed exclusively to CoinDesk, Richard Crook, who headed up the RBS innovation team, takes with him engineers Mark Simpson, Ben Wyeth and Farzad Pezeshkpour. Their move is the latest in a string of departures by enterprise blockchain professionals from financial institutions to startups this year. Others include Amber Baldet, who left JPMorgan Chase to start Clovyr, and Julio Faura and Ed Budd, who quit Santander and Deutsche Bank, respectively, to form Adhara.…

Just a Cycle? Big Bitcoin Miners Stay Positive in Face of Market Slump

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Despite the downturn in the crypto markets so far in 2018, executives from several bitcoin mining firms have said this scenario has been seen before and they are not deterred by current low prices. Speaking on stage at CoinDesk’s Consensus Singapore 2018 event Thursday, Alex Ao, founder of Chinese firm Innosilicon – which launched in 2014 to become one of the first bitcoin ASIC makers – said he believes the mining business has its own cycles and the current bear market is actually a good time for his firm to…

Quick Brew? Bitfury’s Coffee Machine Accepts Bitcoin Via Lightning Network

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Blockchain firm Bitfury has come up with a novel product aimed at making it easier to pay for products with bitcoin. A specialized engineering team within the company has developed a coffee vending machine capable of connecting to the Lightning Network, a second-layer transaction protocol designed to make bitcoin more scalable by processing transactions off the main bitcoin blockchain. As a result, the vending machine can accept bitcoin payments without charging high fees or requiring long transaction times, according to a press release. LightningPeach, the team behind the new vending…

Enigma Delays Release of ‘Discovery’ Protocol on Ethereum Mainnet

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Engima, the startup seeking to bring privacy to the world of public blockchains, is delaying the launch of its mainnet as part of a wider reworking of its developmental roadmap. The company had previously planned to deploy its “Discovery” protocol on the live ethereum network or “mainnet” – it launched on an ethereum “testnet” over the summer – by the end of the third quarter. According to a blog post published Thursday, that plan has changed in the interest of building out the Enigma ecosystem and continuing to work with the…

Crypto Daily News | Crypto Market Rebounds; Coinbase Reponds

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In today’s edition of Crypto Daily News, we’ll cover the details of the crypto market rebound and Coinbase’s official statement regarding the proprietary trading allegations. Crypto Daily News: September 20th, 2018 Crypto Market Rebounds The crypto market is rebounding this morning, after taking a sharp fall last week after rumors spread that Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) wasn’t focusing on a cryptocurrency trading desk. Later, GS confirmed that the news was “fake” and that the desk is, in fact, ready, but waiting for demand. Currently, the crypto market is trading just above…

LINE’s Token-Powered Ecosystem | Plans have been Unveiled

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Plans for LINE’s token-powered ecosystem have been unveiled. The messaging app giant from Japan announced its new venture at CoinDesk’s Consensus: Singapore event this morning. LINE’s plans are ambitious; it wants to launch its new system by the end of 2018. Will it do it? LINE’s Token-Powered Ecosystem It can have such ambition because LINE already has more than 164 million monthly active users across four key countries. It is this user-base that the app giant will capitalize on to launch its token-powered ecosystem. LINE’s token-powered ecosystem centers around its previously announced LINK token. The…