Cryptocurrency – Page 5 – Bitcoin Slots.us

JPMorgan Chase & Co. Venturing into the Cryptocurrency Space

Posted on May 19, 2018 by Aaron Decker

In September last year, JPMorgan Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon referred to bitcoin as a “stupid” and “dangerous” thing and that he would fire in a second anyone caught selling or buying the decentralized digital currency. Like many of his prominent counterparts in the global finance industry, his sentiments about crypto carried a lot of weight. The perceived threat that bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies pose to the financial world has been a knee jack reaction that can mostly be attributed to the rapid growth and subsequent widespread adoption of crypto.

However, Dimon’s stance appears to have changed. JPMorgan is now looking into the applications of cryptocurrencies despite their purported threat to the financial industry’s business model. The move begun with a high-level reshuffling that involved the shifting of Oliver Harris to a cryptocurrency strategy position within the investment bank – Oliver Harris is a former Fintech and In-Residence initiative head. In his new role, Harris will be looking into the risks and rewards that are associated with digital assets and blockchain technology.

Just recently, Goldman Sachs got into crypto by setting up a bitcoin trading desk and hiring Justin Schmidt, a trader specializing in exchanging cryptocurrencies. To many, this seems to be the motivation behind JPMorgan’s surprising change of heart, especially when putting into consideration its CEO’s harsh remarks towards bitcoin just a few months ago.

“The Bitcoin to me was always what the governments are gonna feel about Bitcoin as it gets really big, and I just have a different opinion than other people. I’m not interested that much in the subject at all. The blockchain is real. You can have crypto yen and dollars and stuff like that. ICO’s you have to look at individually,” Jamie Dimon recanted his previous statements during an interview with Fox in January 2018.

JPMorgan ranks as the world’s 10th largest financial services company by revenue which makes it one of the financial industry’s biggest names alongside the likes of Goldman Sachs. As such, their entry into crypto will certainly have a profound avalanche effect as far as the adoption of crypto among Wall Street companies goes.

Huawei to Offer BTC.com Bitcoin Wallets to Users in China

Posted on May 12, 2018May 12, 2018 by Aaron Decker

According to a report by Bloomberg, Huawei, the third largest phone maker in the world will be installing bitcoin wallets on its phones in a bid to tap China’s brisling cryptocurrency market. Regardless of the stringent rules imposed by the Chinese government to crack down on crypto trading and Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), the cryptocurrency market continues to thrive since owning the digital currencies has not been deemed illegal.

The bitcoin wallet will debut on Huawei’s newly launched app store known as the Huawei AppGallery – it will, however, come pre-installed in all the new smartphones that the company will release. It is anticipated bitcoin wallet app will have the most impact in China where Huawei happens to be the leading smartphone seller.

People in China have little to no access to apps from other parts of the world because the country’s government has blocked access to the Google Play Store and parts of Apple’s App Store, a move that has limited access to a vast array of crypto-related services. Well, not anymore.

“BTC.com is democratizing Bitcoin by breaking down barriers to entry and ensuring new users can access Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash in a simple, secure and trusted environment,” said Alejandro de la Torre, VP of Business Operations at BTC.com. “China is almost a ‘cashless economy’ today, accounting for almost 62% of all global mobile transactions. This dwarfs the estimated $49.3 billion in total mobile payment transactions in the United States in 2017, which highlights the amazing opportunity cryptocurrencies have in replacing fiat currency as the currency of choice for mobile payments. Huawei is leading the way in terms of adoption of blockchain technologies, and we’re excited to bring BTC.com to Huawei’s user base for the first time.”

BTC.com is a platform that allows users to safely store their private keys thus granting them full control of their cryptocurrencies. A huge chunk of the world’s population uses mobile devices to access the internet, something that has propelled the popularity of cryptocurrencies and mobile payment services.

In China, for instance, 95 percent of the internet users access online services on mobile smartphones. This new partnership between Huawei and BTC.com is a well-timed move that will get more internet and crypto users on board. The bitcoin wallet both companies will be bringing to the users will allow users to easily and securely send and receive Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash.

“Cryptocurrencies have recently expanded the human understanding of digital economy at a large scale. From our leadership position in China, the tip of the spear of mobile payments, we expect to see massive growth in global cryptocurrency adoption habits in the near future. That is the reason why Huawei selected BTC.com as our recommended quality app to manage digital currencies. In addition to being simple and secure to use, BTC.com offers an exclusive reward to all AppGallery users by gifting a starting amount of cryptocurrency,” Dr. Jaime Gonzalo, VP of Huawei Mobile Services said about the partnership.

Crypto Gambling Watch Dog Ramps up Its Operations

Posted on May 8, 2018May 8, 2018 by Abe Efe

It has been a remarkable past few months for cryptocurrencies as they have rapidly grown to be quite popular in nearly all corners of the globe. In essence, this can be likened to the present day gold-rush and no one wants to be left behind. One of the areas where crypto has seen heavy adoption and usage is the gambling industry.

According to a statistical report, since 2014 approximately 4.0 million BTC has been placed on bets that equate to about $37 billion. This, when compared to the global statistics, is a just a fraction of what the cryptocurrency gambling industry is capable of. Clearly, the gambling industry is the winner here.

However, one of the most pressing issues when it comes to gambling is regulation which also extends to the crypto gambling space as well. That is where leading crypto gambling affiliate site Gamble.io comes in. It serves as a regulator that screens and reviews cryptocurrency-oriented gambling services and site so as to ensure they are safe and trustworthy to play on.

A month ago, the watchdog site completed its review of a bitcoin-based sports betting site known as Cloudbet – the review not only confirmed that Cloudbet’s solid reputation is not a fluke but also pointed out some of the aspects that needed to be improved. This review was a clear indication of how serious Gamble.io is about ensuring that gambling in crypto is safe for everyone.

Gamble.io has recently laid down its regulations on another crypto gambling operator known as BitStarz which also happens to be known for being a reputable gambling operation. Gamble.io has put BitStarz on its casino of the month spot thanks to the operator’s unique approach to merging the use of both fiat currency and crypto. The full review also points out some of BitStarz’s best attributes that include great overall play selection, reliability as well as mobile compatibility.

“Due to the fairly large number of new players in the game, we were not able to conduct our studies as quickly as we had hoped. Our reviews and studies consist of multiple phases from depositing, game selection, customer service and anything else worth knowing for a crypto player. For example, testing the various games from different casinos took a little longer than expected. However, now we’ve completed the task and are proud to present our findings. We continue to be on the lookout for new crypto casinos,” said Matt Beardsley, the Gamble.io spokesperson.

Twitter Briefly Shuts Down @Bitcoin Sparking Big Schism

Posted on April 10, 2018May 16, 2018 by Abe Efe

Over the weekend, Twitter suspended the @Bitcoin Twitter account that is run by an anonymous user. The account was then briefly handed over to a user who claimed to be Turkish before it was taken over by another user who claimed to be Russian. However, the account was restored to its previous owner on Monday afternoon, but this has sparked a whole lot of conspiracy theories.

A Twitter spokesperson said that there was nothing to share as the company does not “comment on individual accounts.” Not many people are buying this excuse though:

“That’s some bullshit if you ask me,” the user behind @Bitcoin tweeted. “I’d like to know why my account was given to someone else, and then when it’s reinstated I’m missing 750,000 of my followers.”

Before its suspension, the @Bitcoin Twitter account had over 821,000 followers. Twitter is already making efforts towards restoring all the followers that disappeared even though this will not take it out of the bitcoin community’s spotlight especially considering the vast number of conspiracy theories that the suspension has spawned.

The @Bitcoin account has always been supportive of Bitcoin Cash, the bitcoin fork that was founded by a group of miners, developers and members of the bitcoin community who split off in August 2017 citing a disagreement over how the network’s growing scaling issues would be addressed. The result of this move was a duplicate of the bitcoin blockchain as well as totally new digital currency.

Twitter Has Always Been the Battleground

The relationship between Bitcoin Cash and bitcoin, which is sometimes referred to as a Bitcoin Core, has always been rather rancorous, to say the least. Both cryptocurrencies’ most fervent supporters have always gone head to head against each other with Twitter being one of their favourite battlefields. The @Bitcoin Twitter account is just the latest victim.

Many Bitcoin Cash supporters suspect that the Bitcoin Core supporters had something to do with the suspension of the @Bitcoin Twitter account – they suspect the Bitcoin Core supported falsely reported the account to Twitter for harassment or spam. In general, there has been a lot of back-and-forth online battles pertaining to the two digital currencies which implies that there is more to come.

A deeper conspiracy theory suggests that the @Bitcoin account was suspended because the social media site’s CEO, Jack Dorsey, is a Bitcoin Core supporter. Dorsey happens to have invested $2.5 million in startup known as Lighting Labs that builds technology for Bitcoin Core.

These are all just speculative rumours and theories but regardless of the fact that Twitter recently banned cryptocurrency-related ads, the company has confirmed that it does not have any content rules that are specific to cryptocurrencies.

Taiwan Central Bank Poses Money Laundering Rules for Bitcoin

Posted on April 3, 2018May 16, 2018 by Abe Efe

The Central Bank of Taiwan has recommended new rules that are meant to bring bitcoin under the island’s Department of Justice’s anti-money laundering regulations. In October 2017, Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) openly showed support for Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), cryptocurrency, and blockchain adoption and innovation in the country.

However, the situation has since changes especially due to the concerns that have been raised about bitcoin’s recent price plunges. In response to these concerns, the central bank governor, Yang Chin-long, said in a meeting with Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan Finance Committee that some of the banks “response measures” to the “opacity” of bitcoin transactions would include reminding investors about the risks. This will be followed by anti-money laundering regulation of bitcoin.

As it stands, the central bank has been diligently monitoring the volatile movements of bitcoin prices. This move was, however, partially prompted by parliamentary enquiries pertaining to the digital currency. It is still too early to tell if the ministry will support the introduction of anti-money laundering rules for bitcoin but it is still a great milestone for Taiwanese authorities in their bitcoin regulation agenda.

The Taiwan Central Bank’s proposed regulations came just a month after Sheu Yu-jer, the island’s finance minister, expressed his opinion that cryptocurrencies should be taxed. The minister further added that the agency is currently evaluating ways to implement relevant taxation rules. A number of neighbouring Asian governments have already put in place cryptocurrency regulations under anti-money laundering rules that are primarily meant to prevent financial crimes.

South Korea, for instance, officially prohibited its domestic banks from providing virtual and anonymous accounts for cryptocurrency exchange users. It further mandated a new real-name verification process that took effect in February 2018. On a similar note, in early March, Malaysia ushered in an anti-money laundering policy that stipulated that know-your-customer processes have to be adhered to in all cryptocurrency activities.

Enjoy Two-Bitcoin Weekly Tournaments at Bitcoin Casino US

Posted on March 31, 2018May 16, 2018 by Aaron Decker

While online casino businesses have certainly grown immensely and are now more competitive than ever, customers no longer get to enjoy some of the deals, promotions, freebies and offers that were once a norm in the gambling industry. Well, there are a few of these perks but not many enough to get customers excited about joining a new casino. Predicting whether or not everything will go back to how it used to be is rather difficult and as such, the only way for online casino players to keep benefiting from the huge perks is to look in the right places.

BitcoinCasino.us is one the select few online casinos that continue to offer amplified customer benefits instead of cutting back just like most other casinos have. The online casino has rapidly risen to prominence and become one of the fastest-growing ones thanks to the multitude of features it offers. These include amazing deposit and withdrawal methods, the inherent fun players are treated to as well as lucrative money lines.

The highlights of the casino’ offerings are the 2-bitcoin weekly slots tournaments – these tournaments have resonated extremely well with its customers from all around the globe especially because it is currently the only online betting site offering something as valuable as these tournaments. In addition to being an indicator of the site’s commitment to its players, there are no hidden requirements for both weekly slot tournaments. Enrolling for the tournaments is also quite easy and anyone within the legal gambling age is allowed to do so.

At the end of every week, the tournament winner is crowned and his or her BitcoinCasino.us account is credited with the specified two bitcoins. In case there is a draw, the specified 2 bitcoins will be split among all the winners.

Generally, BitcoinCasino.us is a great place for any player that is looking for an engaging and hassle-free online gaming experience. All of the site’s customers are treated to a healthy selection of top-notch games and a variety of tournaments that offer just as many mind-boggling prizes as the two-bitcoin weekly tournament.

Crypto Exchange Binance Set to Exit Japan amid New Troubles

Posted on March 27, 2018May 16, 2018 by Abe Efe

Turbulent times are becoming a norm for the world of cryptocurrency and it seems the members of this community, such as Binance, and its followers have grown resilient to the ups and downs that are witnessed on a daily basis. Regardless of the impeccable grit that members of the crypto world have portrayed in a bid to ensure its survival, sometimes it really does not pay off as expected. There are a lot of different factors that affect the crypto ecosystem one of which is state laws existing in different countries – the officials of any given country usually have more power than anyone else when it comes to digital currency. Binance’s woe in Japan is a great example of this unfortunate circumstance.

The exchange, which happens to be the largest digital currency exchange in the world has been experiencing a bit of turbulence in Japan, where it is based – not for long though. The exchange is now planning to move to Malta following a formal warning from government officials.

Binance is one of the financial entities that are under the oversight of Japan’s Financial Services Agency which serves as the country’s financial field regulator. As it turns out, the Financial Services Agency officials’ attention was attracted by Binance’s lack of an operational license. However, Binance officials clarified that is was not the company’s fault – in reality, it has been looking for ways of receiving registration in Japan, but this is yet to be issued. The Financial Services Agency, on the hand, does not seem to be buying the excuse and it even plans to partner with the law enforcement and file criminal charges if Binance refuses to cease its operations in Japan.

Moving to Malta

Binance had hoped to keep operating in Japan after acquiring licensing but once the formal warning was issued, the final decision was to move to Malta. The exchange announced that it would officially be relocating to the island of Malta, one of Europe’s most popular online gambling hubs. Malta has been quite welcoming to this new development especially because it presents a great opportunity to develop the blockchain-based businesses that operate in the country. Furthermore, the move will serve to greatly improve the already thriving iGaming industry as well as provide more opportunities for development for the licensed operators.

LetBet Forks Its Own Blockchain to Beat the Competition

Posted on March 24, 2018May 16, 2018 by Aaron Decker

For people who have been following the blockchain betting revolution and have an interest in gambling as a whole, finding the perfect combination of the two is certainly on the horizon. Soon, you might be parting with your traditional bookie in favour of the new and more improved ways to gamble. In fact, the online gambling market is gradually edging towards the $600 billion mark in terms of revenues. This is likely to be realized by 2020 and is almost entirely thanks to the stiffening competition among blockchain gambling operators to provide their customers with new and innovative gambling experiences.

Differentiation is definitely an important factor for the dozens of new blockchain gambling operators. As it stands, differentiation in this day and age entirely depends on technology in one way or the other and thus speed and innovation as well fairness are the pinnacles of the blockchain gaming revolution. But thanks to competition, it is going to keep getting better.

LetBet Disagrees

LetBet, a decentralized gambling exchange, however, believes that innovation, speed and fairness are limitations of the Ethereum blockchain and that more can be achieved with the right blockchain. LetBet’s solution to the limitation of the Ethereum blockchain was the development of its own blockchain referred to as the “Libertas Chain.” Libertas Chain is basically the Ethereum blockchain on steroids, that is, it is free of the Ethereum blockchain’s limitations and supports many other non-gambling activities.

Libertas Chain is also a zero chain – no transaction fees are charged and it remains free for life. In addition to this, it is fast, extremely secure and it does a great job at creating the proven fair gambling system that defines LetBet’s gaming experience.

Fast processing speeds and real random number generators (RNG) are, of course, the core concern when it comes to online blockchain-powered gaming platforms. Libertas Chain achieves all these easily and still gives its users the added advantage of being easy to integrate with other gambling games and non-gambling products that the platform will be hosting. Libertas Chain’s Integration Model gives gamblers an expanded breadth and depth of data.

Dutch Court Considers Bitcoin a Licit “Transferable Value”

Posted on March 23, 2018May 16, 2018 by Abe Efe

According to a court document that was published a couple of days ago (on March 20), a Dutch court classifies bitcoin as a legitimate “transferable value”, a ruling that was made in favour of a plaintiff who was owed 0.591 BTC by a private company.

The petitioner, Mr J.W. de Vries filed the claim on February 2 this year against Koinz Trading BV which is a non-public company that had been previously ordered by a lower court of Midden-Nederland to 0.591 BTC worth of mining proceeds owed to Mr Vries, or risk a €10,000 worth of penalty payment. Since the company had already defied the initial ruling from the lower court that required it to pay the required amount in BTC, the Dutch court ordered the company to either follow the directive or be declared insolvent.

The court judgement went further to state that bitcoin exhibits all the characteristics of a property right. As such, any claim to transfer bitcoin under property rights is considered to be valid under existing laws.

“Bitcoin exists, according to the court, from a unique, digitally encrypted series of numbers and letters stored on the hard drive of the right-holder’s computer. Bitcoin is ‘delivered’ by sending bitcoins from one wallet to another wallet. Bitcoins are stand-alone value files, which are delivered directly to the payee by the payer in the event of a payment. It follows that a Bitcoin represents a value and is transferable. In the court’s view, it thus shows characteristics of a property right. A claim for payment in Bitcoin is, therefore, to be regarded as a claim that qualifies for verification,” the court judgement read.

The findings of the court included an undisputed contract between Koinz Trading BV and Mr Vries and since the initial undertaking was in bitcoin, the amount was also to be paid back in the same way. This legal relationship was qualified as a civil obligation to pay.

This particular event is one of the many milestones, most of which are yet to come, of the crypto-ecosystem that will see bitcoin through to mainstream acceptance as a standard mode of payment alongside the government-issued fiat currencies. It certainly won’t be too long until this happens but in the meantime, a number of issues, such as the recent unintended content found on the bitcoin blockchain that must be sorted out.

John Oliver Says Crypto Is a Gamble Not an Investment

Posted on March 17, 2018May 16, 2018 by Aaron Decker

Photo Credit:youtube.com

If you have not seen it yet, John Oliver gave his audience a detailed introduction of cryptocurrencies in this week’s episode of Last Week Tonight. Well, it was not going to be long before the cryptocurrency buzz caught onto such platforms – in fact, a number of celebrities and television show hosts have talked about it in the recent past. Therefore, it is no longer a matter of crypto discussions crossing over to some of these platforms and people should be more interested in what is being said about crypto.

There are literally hundreds if cryptocurrencies in virtual circulation around the world at the moment – more than 1,500 to be precise. You will be forgiven for not knowing that since all of them seem to have been overshadowed by Bitcoin, which for very many reasons is regarded to be the mother of cryptocurrencies. During the episode of the Shows that aired on Sunday, John Oliver explains the people have been trying to get into the bitcoin and crypto fervour without knowledge of what exactly they are getting themselves into or the risks that are involved. He elaborated this by describing cryptocurrencies as “everything you do not understand about money combined with everything you do not understand about computers.”

John Oliver covered the hugely publicized rise of bitcoin while in comparison to the public perception of the decentralized digital currency just over a year ago. “Just a few years ago you’d only hear about bitcoin from that one guy in your office who wouldn’t shut up about it,” he said.

He went further on to point out the hiccups that bitcoin has been subjected to in the past, one of which was a bitcoin conference that stopped taking bitcoin. Obviously, a red flag that he likened to an instance where he allegedly tried to “pay for access to the Republican National Convention using Ronald Reagan’s dusty skeleton bones.”

While the show, that also features a guest appearance from Keegan Michael-Key, seems to be more of a sceptical piece that is geared towards paralleling the enthusiasm of bitcoin ambassadors, there is one clear message – when it comes to cryptocurrencies in the present, only invest what you can afford to lose. There is, of course, a lot more to learn from that episode of the show. Follow this link to see for yourself.

Category: Cryptocurrency