SUMMARY
Important Happenings From The World Of Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, ICOs And More [ 4 -10 March]
The crypto community is getting bigger by the day despite the mixed reactions from corporate and regulatory authorities, as Bitcoin has got fans sharing a stronger covalent bond than that of ‘Apple fans.’
In India, amid growing demands, leading cryptocurrency exchanges have expanded their offerings which include other leading cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin and Ripple. Owing to the latest P2SH Segregated Witness (SegWit) adoption, the exchanges have also brought down the Bitcoin transactional charge by significant margins.
While critics and authorities across the world have largely termed Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as ‘private currencies’, cryptocurrency enthusiasts are calling it the real ‘democratic currency’ ever created. However, in this debate of private vs public, the truth appears to lie in between.
The question is, how can a cryptocurrency that is entirely based on public blockchain be termed fully ‘private’?
Similarly, if cryptocurrencies – as termed by many – are fully public, what can justify the ownership of a majority of Bitcoin (980K) and 61% of Ripple coins by their founders and founding companies?
Chris Larsen’s company Ripple owns 61.3 Bn Ripple out of the available 100 Bn Ripple coins. Happened in the past, the numbers are more than enough to play with the volatility of the coins.
The shortcomings that make a capable few enough to disrupt the entire market hold true for conventional assets or currencies too. For instance, in Pakistan, the government, in 2017, had controlled the Pakistani Rupee price despite the fact that the actual price of their rupee was below than the trading price.
Let’s take a look at the recent developments from the world of Cryptocurrency!
Goldman Sachs Sends Notice To Jaipur-Based Bitman Sachs For Trademark Violation
Multinational investment firm Goldman Sachs has sent a notice to Jaipur-based cryptocurrency exchange Bitman Sachs accusing the later of infringing intellectual property rights and violating trademark norms, reported ET.
The exchange registration is done under the name of Bitman Sachs LLP which operates on the url Bitsachs.com.
Ashish Agarwal, founder of Bitman Sachs stated, “We are not using Goldman anywhere in our brand name and Sachs is a very common surname in Germany. So, I don’t know how this could be an infringement of intellectual property or trademark.”
However, Goldman Sachs maintained that it provides extensive financial services for clients in currency, cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies.
Malaysia Releases Policy Documents On Bitcoin
Taking public feedback into the account, Bank Negara Malaysia has issued the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Financing of Terrorism Policy for Digital Currencies (Sector 6).
The policy aims to ensure that effective measures are in place against money laundering and terrorism financing risks associated with the use of digital currencies and to increase the transparency of digital currency activities in Malaysia.
The Bank reiterates that the invocation of reporting obligations on digital currency exchange business does not in any way connote the authorisation, licensing, endorsement or validation by the Bank of any entities involved in the provision of digital currency exchange services. Where relevant, these matters have been further elaborated in the policy document.
As envisaged in the policy document, the Bank will continue to monitor developments in this area through data submitted to the Bank and the Bank may publish information that is relevant to inform the public on risks associated with digital currency activities.
Arizonans May Pay Taxes in Cryptocurrency
Arizonans may soon be able to pay their taxes in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. According to the Senate Bill 1091, an act amending section 43-505, ARIZONA revised statutes; relating to income tax payments, passed recently,
A taxpayer may pay their income tax liability using a payment gateway, such as Bitcoin, Litecoin or any other cryptocurrency recognised by the department, using electronic peer-to-peer systems. The department shall convert cryptocurrency payments to the United States dollars at the prevailing rate after receipt and shall credit the taxpayer’s account with the converted dollar amount actually received less any fee or costs incurred by the department for conversion.
Netherlands May Regulate Cryptocurrencies
“Banning cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin is unfeasible but the Dutch government wants to regulate the trade in cryptocurrency internationally to address the improper use of these digital coins, Minister Wopke Hoekstra of Finance wrote in a letter to parliament,” reported dutch daily NL Times.
As per the reports, Hoekstra wants to bring cryptocurrencies into an “appropriate regulatory framework” without jeopardising the technology’s potential.
The letter asserted exchange platforms and providers of cryptocurrency leading storage vouchers need to be covered by anti-money laundering directives. The Minister hopes to implement these rules by the end of 2019.
PayPal Files Patent For Cryptocurrency System
Leading global digital payments company PayPal Holdings has filed for a patent pertaining to Bitcoin. Filed for an ‘expedited virtual currency transaction system’, the patent relates to virtual currency processing and more particularly to using private keys to improve processing virtual currency transaction systems.
The patent might help improve the latency period of Bitcoins.
Meanwhile, the Bitcoin mining crime is growing fast. After it was reported that Russian Supercomputers placed at its nuclear sites were hacked by none other than their own nuclear scientists to mine Bitcoins, some 600 powerful computers in Iceland that were originally used to mine Bitcoin have been stolen for reportedly the same purpose.
Last month hackers had hacked Tesla Kubernetes console to mine cryptocurrencies. The details pertaining to mining software and more have not come out yet, as the attackers hid the true IP address of the mining pool server behind CloudFlare, a free content delivery network (CDN) service.
