Day: August 6, 2019

Facebook Hires Former Aide to US Sen. Mike Crapo to Lobby for Libra

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Facebook hired former assistant of United States Republican senator Mike Crapo, Susan Stoner Zook, to join the lobbying team for its Libra stablecoin. Facebook doubles down on Libra lobbying News outlet Politico reported on Aug. 5 that Zook had been hired onto Facebook’s team of lobbyists working to win lawmakers over to Libra. Per the report, she wrote in an email that she will focus her work at the company on lobbying Republican senators. As Cointelegraph reported in July, Crapo stressed the importance of building an overarching regulatory framework for…

UK’s Tax Authority Requests User Data From Crypto Exchanges: Report

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The United Kingdom’s tax, payments and customs authority Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has reportedly requested that digital currency exchanges provide it with information about customers’ names and transactions aiming to identify cases of tax evasion. Crypto exchanges come under fire According to fintech-focused media outlet Coindesk, industry sources said that the agency has sent letters to at least three crypto exchanges in the U.K., including Coinbase, eToro, and CEX.io, requesting that they provide lists of users and transaction data. HMRC is reportedly aiming to cooperate with crypto exchanges…

Bitcoin Aversion by Israeli Banks Hindering Crypto tax Payments

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Israeli media sources say bitcoin traders in the country are finding it difficult to pay taxes as banks continue to refuse crypto deposits, August 6, 2019. Banks in many countries refuse to accept deposits from crypto-related activities based on fears of money laundering and other illicit financial activities. Israeli Bitcoiners Can’t Pay Crypto Taxes According to Haaretz, bitcoin and crypto owners in Israel are facing a difficult time paying their taxes. The problem stems from many banks refusing to accept shekel deposits from the gains accrued from cryptocurrency investments. Without…

tZERO Announces Patent for Traditional Exchange Blockchain Integration

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Blockchain startup tZERO, announced that it has been awarded a patent for a technology allowing to anchor traditional trades and exchanges to public blockchains. A blockchain integration for exchanges The company announced the development in a press release published on Aug. 6. The patent reportedly describes an integration by the Time Ordered Merkle Epoch (TOME) methodology. The release’s author explains TOME as “a base-layer technology that uses digital signatures to record and verify time-series data such as trades, executions and settlements.” An auditable record of trades Per the release, the…

Gold or Bitcoin as an alternative to stock markets

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Fear is ruling the markets and investors are searching blindly for a safe haven. Gold clearly comes under that description. Amazingly, there is an immense love for Bitcoin! So much so that over the last 7 days this cryptocurrency has even soared over the 12,200-mark. The year 2019 so far has been fruitful to Bitcoin, just like every other safe haven assets such as gold, especially in the midst of US interest rate cut and trade war. On Monday itself, the S&P 500 plunged 3%, while the Nasdaq Composite finished lower by 4%. On the other hand, Bitcoin…

Trump Freezes Venezuelan Assets Triggering Surge in Local Bitcoin Volume

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President Donald Trump has signed an executive order, immediately prohibiting access by the Venezuelan government to any of its assets within the jurisdiction of the United States. U.S. President Donald Trump appears to be very willing to call out erring nations as he recently revealed a piece of his mind about the ongoing Sino-U.S. trade war. Now in a targeted move against socialist president Nicolás Maduro, Trump has signed an executive order, immediately freezing all assets belonging to the Venezuelan government. Mauduro’s “Usurpation” The executive order, according to reports, was…

Over 50% of Morgan Creek Founder Anthony Pompliano’s Net Worth Is In BTC

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Founder of the capital management firm Morgan Creek Antony Pompliano said on CNBC’s Squawk Box that over half of his net worth is in Bitcoin (BTC). In a video published on Twitter on Aug. 6, channel’s another guest, Canadian businessman and TV personality Kevin O’Leary, called this “a shame”: “That’s crazy. I forbid that, that’s insane, that breaches everything about diversification in investing. […] 50 percent? shame on you! That’s nuts!” In this turn, Pompliano asked how much of O’Leary’s current net worth is in the stock market. O’Leary did…

BlockFi Raises Over $18M in a Round Led by PayPal Co-Founders’ VC Firm

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American cryptocurrency lender BlockFi has secured $18.3 million in a funding round led by Valar Ventures. The Series A funding round saw participation from a number of crypto-focused investors, including Winklevoss Capital and Galaxy Digital, according to a press release shared with Cointelegraph on Aug. 6. Other investors included ConsenSys Ventures, Akuna Capital, Avon Ventures, Susquehanna, CMT Digital, Morgan Creek and PJC. Valar, founded by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, makes its first crypto investment Per the report, Valar, which led the BlockFi’s new funding round, has made its first investment…

Cosmos Will Have 3 Coding Languages. Here’s Why That Matters for Ethereum

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In a move that could compromise ethereum’s long-held dominance as the world’s top platform for smart-contract development, blockchain interoperability project Cosmos will offer users the choice to code in at least three different programming languages. The first language to be supported on Cosmos is called Ethermint, a direct replica of ethereum’s smart contract language Solidity. Aimed at making it easier for ethereum developers to port their applications to the Cosmos network, the Ethermint project has been in the works since as early as 2016, said Zaki Manian of Tendermint, the…

Facebook Crypto Plans Floundering as Regulatory Pressure Mounts

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Following a couple of weeks of outright lambasting by US lawmakers, Facebook’s Libra crypto project appears to be cracking at the seams before it even gets off the ground. A fresh round of regulatory pressure has piled on this week from concerned countries around the world. Facebook Crypto Angst Escalates In the two months following the social media giant’s announcement of its crypto ambitions to become effectively the world’s largest bank, the pressure against it has mounted. According to reports, data protection and privacy authorities in the US, UK, EU,…