The National Bank of Ukraine, the country's central bank, has indicated it may soonseek to regulate the use of cryptocurrencies.

While a clear outline for the initiative is still absent, in its latest announcement, the central bank said the legal implications of cryptocurrencies will be discussed at the next Financial Stability Board of Ukraine meeting at the end of August.

The decision comes at a time when Ukraine is seeing increased bitcoin activity, from payments to mining to blockchain development, but also when regulatory uncertainty hasled its law enforcementto take steps to reprimand bitcoin users.

Just days ago, Ukrainian police arrested several suspects who allegedly set up 200 computers to mine bitcoins at an abandoned swimming pool withina state institute in Kiev.

According to local media Kyiv Post, the court documentaccused the suspectsof illegally taking advantage of state property, and producing a currency, which is currently a function only the National Bank is legally allowed to do. Further, the law also states that no other currency besides theUkrainian Hryvnia can be treated as legal payment in Ukraine.

Citing the different approaches taken by other countries in defining cryptocurrencies, the banking authority will now begin itsdiscussion withthe Ministry of Finance, State Fiscal Service, the State Financial Monitoring Service, Securities and Stock Market State Commission and the National Commission for the State Regulation of Financial Services Markets.

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Ukraine's Central Bank Moves Closer to Cryptocurrency Regulation - CoinDesk

Nvidia is riding high on the boom in cryptocurrency mining, according to the graphics card (GPU) manufacturer.

Revealedyesterday, the California-based company'ssecond-quarter earnings wereup 56 percent year over year, with its GPU division taking in $1.9 billion during the second quarter a rise of 59 percent compared to the same period in 2016.

Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang struck a bullish tone about the prospects for selling to would-be miners, tellingVentureBeat:

"Cryptocurrency and blockchain are here to stay. Over time, it will become quite large. It is very clear that new currencies will come to market. Its clear the GPU is fantastic at cryptography. The GPU is really quite well positioned."

The firm's CFO, Colette Kress, echoed the remarks in statements, citing rising values in the global cryptocurrency market as a primary driver for GPU sales.

"Our PC OEM revenue includes GPUs designed for mainstream desktops, notebooks, and cryptocurrency mining," she said. "The recent rise in crypto coin prices resulted in increased demand in OEM GPU sales."

Huang's comments stand in contrast to those from rival GPU maker AMD, however. Last month, CEO Lisa Suindicated that the company doesn't see a long-term future for sales in the miningmarket. That aside, she indicatedthat hercompany would "continue to watch the developments" in the space.

Recent months have seen growing demand for GPUs from cryptocurrency miners, who usethe cards to add new transaction blocks to a blockchain and receive newly minted coins as reward. GPUs are used to mine cryptocurrencies like ethereumand litecointhat use the "scrypt" hashing algorithm. Bitcoin, by contrast, is chiefly mined today using dedicatedhardware called ASICs.

Jen-Hsun Huang image via Flickr/BagoGames (Creative Commons)

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Nvidia CEO: Cryptocurrencies Are 'Here to Stay' - CoinDesk

Nvidia Corp. Chief Executive Jensen Huang summed up the chip makers view of cryptocurrencies in a single phrase Thursday: rock n roll.

Thats how Huang described his companys ability to ride out what he sees as a blossoming market for his companys graphics cards in mining the digital currency.

Crypto is here to stay, and the market will grow to be quite large, Huang said Thursday on the companys second-quarter call with analysts. Its not likely to go away any time soon. There will be more currencies to come, they will come from different nationsWe stay very close to the market, and understand the dynamics very well.

Dont miss: Intel earnings have message for Nvidia and AMD: Bring it on

Nvidia NVDA, -6.07% detailed quarterly results Thursday that beat expectations handily for sales and earnings, but the stock plunged more than 6.5% in after-hours trading following an already punishing day during the regular session. The companys shares are still up more than 50% this year, against the S&P 500 indexs SPX, +0.14% gains of 8.9%, as investors bet on Nvidias artificial-intelligence efforts to pay off in server and autonomous-driving sales.

Huang seemed to think crytpocurrency mining could add another long-term growth area to Nvidias bull case Thursday, and hinted at products developed specifically for those efforts, telling analysts on the call that the company offers the coin miners a special coin-mining SKU that is optimized for mining.

When asked whether the CEOs comment confirmed the rumored development of specific cryptocurrency products, an Nvidia spokesman declined to comment.

Analyst Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights and Strategy told MarketWatch that he didnt believe that Huang was suggesting new cryptocurrency products, but rather offerings that partners in the sales channel were developing with Nvidia chips. Moorhead pointed out that there is at least one card based on Nvidias Pascal architecture that is manufactured by Asustek Computer Inc. 2357, -1.90% and marketed to cryptocurrency miners.

That is a similar approach to how Nvidia rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. AMD, +0.39% is approaching crypto mining, but Nvidia sounds much more optimistic on the long-term prospects for customers seeking to mine digital currencies.

Some of our partners are also offering mining-specific cards that have a different feature set, such that were really segmenting the market between gaming and mining, Su said on her companys earnings call last month. But its important to say we didnt have cryptocurrency in our forecast, and were not looking at it as a long-term growth driver.

AMD also beat earnings expectations thanks to a boom in cryptocurrency mining that uses graphics-processing units. The development of new digital currencies beyond Bitcoin over the past few months, particularly on the Ethereum blockchain, have seemed to drive sales of the two companies GPUs.

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Nvidia is more bullish on cryptocurrency than AMD

Initial coin offerings (ICO) are hot these days. But despite all the excitement and willingness from the masses to invest their money into cryptocurrency, it appears it remains as risky a venture as ever and Filecoin has given us even more reasons to doubt the trend.

Theblockchain-powered data storage service has resorted to temporarily suspending its ICO after the overwhelming inflow of cash caused its systems to partially break down, Finance Magnates reports.

The startup, which offers users a chance to exchange its own cryptocurrency for other currencies like US dollars, Bitcoin and Ether, raised $186 million in under one hour and proceeded to report having received investments totalling at over $250 million.

The sale was paused at approximately 11:10PM on August 10 and continues to be suspended 18 hours later at the time of writing.

Filecoin has provided a series of updates, the latest one of which says that the ICO will resume with notice.

For context, Filecoin is hardly the only blockchain-powered startup to go through a dicey ICO.

Back in June, decentralized messaging app Status raised over $60 million in an ICO, causing its systems to collapse and the Ethereum network to overload. As a result, the company had to deliver the promised coins to their users with a slight delay.

Read next: Medium's new Claps reaction button lets you applaud authors you love

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Cryptocurrency service forced to halt ICO after raising $186M in one hour - TNW

The total value of all cryptocurrencies set a new all-time high today, rising above $126 billion for the first time in history, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

The new benchmark was set at 8:00 UTC and comes just four days after the crypto asset class set aprevious recordabove $116 billion.

At press time, the price increase appears to be driven by a new influx of capital into bitcoin, the markets oldest and perhaps best understood asset. Over the last seven days, the value of one bitcoin is up more than 20%, rising to over $3,500 from $2,854 last Friday.

During that time, the total value of its coin supply also rose, climbing in value to $57 billion from $47 billion a week ago.

Strong gains have also been seen in the top-10 cryptocurrencies by market cap.

Neo (formerly Antshares), a well-publicized project out of China saw its market capitalization pass $1 billion for the first time. Over the past seven days, it has seen its market capitalization rise to $1.7 billion, up from $550 million, as its price per coin climbed to $34, up from roughly $10 seven days ago.

Elsewhere, IOTA also rose to $1.7 billion, up from $1.1 billion, while ether, the native cryptocurrency on the ethereum blockchain, increased its total market cap to $28 billion, up from $21 billion aweek ago.

But that's not to say all cryptocurrencies have seen such big movementsduring the period.

Bitcoin cash, the cryptocurrency created in last week's bitcoin fork, added little new value to its market, inching up to $5.4 billion, from $5.1 billion a week ago.

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$126 Billion: The Cryptocurrency Market Just Set a New All-Time High - CoinDesk

Viacheslav Semenchuk, a Russian entrepreneur, has just launched a cryptocurrency for Jews.

Similar in concept to Bitcoin, it is called BitCoen, "the first Kosher cryptocurrency," as described on the company's Russian website. In the US, Coen and its variant Cohen are common surnames in the Jewish community; in Hebrew, they mean priest.

Semenchuk, according to RT, has invested $500,000 in the project and hopes to raise as much as $20m through an initial coin offering that aims to sell 100m worth of BitCoen digital tokens to investors.

With that much market capitalization, BitCoen would rank at about 115th among the more than 1,000 cryptocurrencies tracked by coinmarketcap.com. Bitcoin's current market cap is about $55bn.

The company began a pre-sale through its website on Wednesday, offering 300,000 BitCoen (under the abbreviation BEN) at a price of $0.75 per token. It expects to launch a wider offering in October.

"Our team came to the conclusion that the Jewish community is the world's only community within the framework of which a full-fledged and self-sufficient cryptocurrency can be created and recognized by the whole community," said Angelika Sheshunova, COO of BitCoen, in an email to The Register.

"We expect that the cryptocurrency will cover all Jewish communities around the world. And the main guarantor of stability here is that the keys from the management of the cryptocurrency will be in the hands of the most respected members of the community."

Sheshunova said there's no way to guarantee that only members of the Jewish community will use BitCoen. "However, the functionality of the system and the inherent features are most appealing to the members of the Jewish community," she said.

Said features include a plan to give 10 per cent of released coins to Jewish organizations as "tzedakah," or charity, and governance by a six-person community council.

Sheshunova explained, "Important decisions in the system are made by the 'council of six.' Each of them is well-respected in the Jewish community, and will represent their preferred course [in] business, politics, finance, technology, public service, [and] culture."

BitCoen will be "a completely new blockchain with its own architecture, its own security and special functionality," according an emailed quote that Sheshunova attributed to Andrei Nedobyolsky, CTO of the project.

That name returned no results in Google, Bing, or Yandex. The Register asked if BitCoen could provide more details about Nedobyolsky's technical qualifications, but has not heard back.

According to Sheshunova, BitCoen plans to make some of its code available, eventually. "In accordance with the ideology of blockchain, we plan to share some of the code that is critical for system users, with requirement specifications of security, transparency and functionality," she said. "However, this will be done after the launch of the main elements of the system."

BitCoen's lack of technical clarity appears to be matched by its muddled public communication. On Wednesday, the firm published a post in Russian on Medium to dispel what it characterized as a fiction about its project.

The post states that BitCoen is still negotiating with the Chief Rabbi of Russia (there are apparently two at present) and Jewish community leaders about potential involvement with the project. It also suggests that the currency will be controlled by those participating in the community and not just Jews.

"All media statements that 'the currency is controlled by the Jews' we consider unconcrete and far-fetched in order to increase the readability and popularity of articles and materials, where these statements are applied," the post says, as rendered by Google Translate.

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At last, a kosher cryptocurrency: BitCoen - The Register

Mumbai: Poland based bitcoin exchange platform Bitbay is all set to open trading in India. The company which allows trading in multiple cryptocurrencies other than bitcoins is planning to expand its technology based workforce in the country as well.

"We will allow six more cryptocurrencies besides bitcoins for trading in India, we wish to associate and work closely with the government to remove all misconceptions around bitcoins and cryptocurrencies of the world," said Chafik Abdellaoui, chief information officer, Bitbay.

The company is planning to start demo operations on August 14 and initiate full fledged trading from August 24. They have a current workforce of 10 people here which they plan to increase to around 50 by end of the year.

At a time when bitcoins are gaining notoreity in this world as a mode of payment for ransomware, Bitbay plans to introduce full KYC norms for traders on its platform along with security applications like two factor authentication to ensure genuine users trade on its platform.

In Europe the platform records 50 million worth transactions on its platform and records around 10,000 to 1 lakh trades per day depending on price fluctuations and allows trading in 17 different cryptocurrencies. The company is also closley working with the Government of Poland to propel wider adoption of cryptocurrency in the country.

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Bitbay to launch cryptocurrency trading platform in India - Economic Times

A Bitcoin company has finally attained the "unicorn" title, an honorific bestowed upon startups valued at more than $1 billion.

Coinbase , a brokerage that established itself as one of the biggest brands in a now-booming cryptocurrency market , has raised $100 million at a private valuation of $1.6 billion that includes the capital raised, the company tells Fortune. The venture capital firm Institutional Venture Partners led the round with participation by Spark Capital, Greylock Partners, Battery Ventures, Section 32, and Draper Associates.

Coinbase had for months been rumored to be raising around $100 million at a valuation of $1 billion or more, as the Wall Street Journal reported in June. That deal, its fourth, is now final.

In previous rounds, Coinbase had raised a total of $117 million at a private valuation approaching $500 million, as Fortune reported . That sum already made it one of the most well financed Bitcoin ventures around, next to Circle and 21.

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Coinbase has been riding a wave of interest in cryptocurrencies in recent months. Virtual currency prices exploded this year with the resurgence of Bitcoin now trading at more than $3,400 per Bitcoin, well above its previous 2013 highs in the $900 rangeas well as the ascent of Ethereum , a rival cryptocurrency network that, for one thing, allows people mint and sell their own digital tokens .

Overall, the total market value for cryptocurrencies and tokens combined has soared to more than $120 billion from just under $20 billion at the beginning of the year. This exuberance has led many industry watchers to warn of a possible bubble .

Founded in 2012, Coinbase started as a Bitcoin wallet service that helped customers stash their digital wealth. The company later moved into the brokerage space, opening online exchanges where traders can swap or sell crypto coins.

This year has been a banner year for Coinbase. According to the company, it has facilitated the exchange of more than $25 billion in digital currency to date, five times more than the total sum it processed from its founding through the end of last year.

On Wednesday, Fidelity Investments, the asset manager, added the ability for customers to view the cryptocurrency holdings in their Coinbase accounts on its own website.

During the recent Bitcoin blockchain fork in which a faction of the network broke off and created a new currency, Bitcoin Cash, some customers blasted Coinbase for saying it did not intend immediately to support the new money. Eventually, Coinbase reversed course and agreed to allow users to access their potential Bitcoin Cash holdings at the start of next year.

Coinbase has also been battling an IRS inquiry in recent months that seeks information about cryptocurrency buyers and sellers for tax purposes. The agency most recently said it would exempt people from the probe who transacted less than $20,000 in digital currency.

These hiccups haven't slowed the company's pace. Coinbase said it would put the newly raised money toward bolstering its engineering and customer support teams, opening a New York office for its professional trading operations, and continuing to develop Toshi, an Ethereum-based messaging and wallet app that it debuted last year.

Coinbase isn't the only recent benefactor from crypto mania that has lately gripped the world. GV, the venture capital arm of Alphabet , formerly known as Google Ventures, recently led a $40 million funding round for Blockchain , a cryptocurrency wallet provider based in London. Other investment firms like Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures, and Sequoia have been backing so-called crypto hedge funds, like Polychain Capital and Metastable , that invest in digital tokens and cryptocurrencies too.

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Coinbase Becomes First Bitcoin 'Unicorn' - Fortune

Blockchain projects listed on Cofound.it will see their tokens automatically approved for integration into Jaxx, a multi cryptocurrency and digital token wallet. A new partnership formed between the two companies is intended to support and promote the best and most innovative projects in the blockchain space by improving their tokens liquidity.

This will mean the crypto community has immediate access to hold, transmit, and swap some of the worlds best cryptocurrencies natively and securely within their Jaxx wallet, said Jan Isakovic, CEO and co-founder of Cofound.it.

Singapore-based Cofound.it provides a blockchain-powered platform that connects startups with investors and experts for funding and advice. It aims to create a full startup ecosystem, using the power of the blockchain to fuel interactions, Isakovic told Reuters.

We believe that the key advantage of token crowdsales are not funds collected, but the fact that the funds come from engaged supporters. They act as evangelists and early adopters, helping fuel very fast initial growth when compared to traditional startups.

The platform intends to become the place where the best startups in the blockchain industry go to expand their potential and find investment. It would also be a venue where experts with proven track records offer their expertise, and where investors go to find the best projects to support.

Cofound.it distributes its own cryptocurrency called CFI, which holders can use to pay for services on the platform such as early access to listed token crowdsales, and project submission. CFI are also used to pay partners and experts who participate and contribute on the platform.

Besides Cofound.it tokens, others that will launch directly into the Jaxx wallet include Santiment, Maecenas, Musiconomi, Digital Assets Power Play, and X8currency, the companies said.

Anthony Di Iorio, founder and CEO of Jaxx and Decentral, said the partnership with Cofound.it gives a stamp of approval to the currencies and projects hosted and trading within our ecosystem.

We are confident that through our partnership with Cofound.it, Jaxx will help to bring greater stabilization and further growth to the entire blockchain community via our universal command center for universal technologies which is needed to mature the nascent crypto market, he added.

Jaxx is currently undergoing a significant platform expansion with more tokens integrations to come in the near future. Jaxx currently supports Bitcoin, Ethereum, DASH, and Litecoin, among other cryptocurrencies.

The wallet also enables crypto-to-crypto exchange with in-wallet conversion via Shapeshift.

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Cryptocurrency Wallet Jaxx Announces Support for Cofound.it-Approved Tokens - CoinJournal (blog)

European cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp will launch new trading pairs for ether next week.

Beginning on August 17, Bitstamp will add markets denominated in US dollars, euros and bitcoin for the ethereum-based digital currency. As part of the release, Bitstamp also revealed a new pricing structure for its markets, which unifies the fees it assesses among the exchange'strading pairs.

In an effort to promote the new markets, Bitstamp will waive trading fees for those pairs until October 1. It will continue to offer discounts through the end of the year.

Bitstamp is one of the last major cryptocurrency exchanges to list ether. In statements, the exchange indicated that it will add support for additional assets, framing the unified fee structure release as part of that process.

Founded in 2011, Bitstamp is one of the world's oldest bitcoin exchanges. According to data from CoinMarketCap, Bitstamp operates the third most voluminous exchange in US dollar terms, reporting about $43 million in trades over the past 24 hours.

The addition of ether comes amid new developments in that digital asset's market. As CoinDesk reported yesterday, ether prices crossed the $300 line for the first time in a month.

Ether markets have subsided somewhat since then, trading at roughly $294 at press time.

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Bitstamp Will Add Ether Trading to Cryptocurrency Exchange - CoinDesk

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Its a marvel to me to witness what is happening on planetEarth as it regardscryptocurrencies. Satoshi Nakamoto, whoever or whatever he/she/zhe is, began a revolution as big as the wheel and the printing press and the Internet that came before it, or so it seems to me.

With cryptocurrency, nobody can implement their preferred change arbitrarily.

MichaelWuensch / Pixabay

Over $93 billion dollars, and counting,have poured into the cryptocurrency market since Bitcoin wasreleased in 2009. Millions of individuals have come together without central direction to build this worldwide phenomenon.

Changes are happening every day that have global ramifications, all of which are happening without permission by governments, and often in spite of governments supposed authority to control other people. That is trulyawesome.

There is governance, to be sure, as it regards cryptocurrencies, but such governance is without centralized structure. Cryptocurrency manipulation must follow specific rules, and changing those rules requires popular acceptance by users and stakeholders of each given cryptocurrency. Nobody can implement their preferred change arbitrarily. The only thing arbitrary about cryptocurrencies is ones desire to get involved in the hundreds of different systems, and once involved, they must follow the rules.

Nobody can implement their preferred change arbitrarily. The only thing arbitrary about cryptocurrencies is ones desire to get involved in the hundreds of different systems, and once involved, they must follow the rules.

I think theres a model here for political governance, or in others words, governance around the idea that people have rights, and those rights should be protected, with physical violence if necessary. While people mostly agree that behaviors such as murder, rape, robbery, assault, and battery are undesirable and we all should be protected from them, theres a lot of disagreement on the smaller stuff, like whos entitled to what, provided by others that havent themselves committing any of the foregoing behaviors (ie. crimes). Thats not to say that people dont disagree on the big stuff, but the disagreement is morea matter of definition than of undesirability.

The only thing arbitraryabout cryptocurrencies is once involved, one must follow the rules.

Who should decide which entitlements should be enforced? The current model says that for a givenarbitrarily-derivedgeographical area, one entity should decide, even when a party to thedispute and that entity may be influenced in any number of ways. In other words,one size fits all, like it, leave it, or hope you get enough popular support to change it.

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What Cryptocurrency Can Teach Us About Political Governance ...

India's government has reportedly completed work on a proposalthat outlinespossible steps for regulating cryptocurrencies.

According to local media sourceBusiness Line,the report, submitted by an intergovernmental body put together in April, has been delivered to the Indian Ministry of Finance.

It's contents are currently unknown, though media reports in recent weeks suggest that at least some of the panel's participants want to adopt a more restrictive stance. Other sources have indicated that India may ultimately move to establish some kind of tax policy for cryptocurrencies.

As previously reportedby CoinDesk, the committee was established in order to examine the current framework in for cryptocurrencies in the country. Startups in India that work with bitcoin or blockchain have called for an inclusive stance from the government, particularly in light of confusion among consumers about the tech's exact legal status.

It's not clear when the Indian Ministry of Finance will publishthe report or in what form that release will take.

Meanwhile, efforts to examine the regulatory environment for the tech continue to expand.

CoinDesk reported earlier this week that theSecurities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has unveiled a broad advisory committee that will research blockchain and other technologies. The goal, according to SEBI, is to see whether the tech could be applied to its own regulatory processes.

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India Close to Finishing Work on Cryptocurrency Rule Proposals - CoinDesk

NEO, formerly known as AntShares, is generally known as the "Ethereum of China." But an even more accurate description of the project would be "China's public blockchain," according to the company. NEO made news this week when it went from being a top 15 cryptocurrency to a top 10 cryptocurrency as of the time of this writing. NEO's token value surged from sub-$10 to more than $20, and its market cap to more than $900 million.

NEO's platform is similar to Ethereum's but has some clear advantages and a different overall mission. First of all, it provides various advanced languages for its compiler, such as Python and Go. Second, and more important, its NEO Contract (which is run through a NEO Virtual Machine) supports various commonly used programming languages, such as C# and Java, which is a major advantage. This makes its barrier to entry for new developers much smaller than other platforms', as they do not need to learn new languages to code.

The big move for NEO is creating an entire smart economy. It has incorporated digital assets, smart contracts, and a digital identity that can be used for real-world applications and become integrated into the real economy. China could (and may) be a candidate for that first real-world application and integration.

NEO is in a spot similar to Ethereum's in early 2017, both cryptocurrency value wise and launch phase wise. Its product is fully operational and does a few things differently from Ethereum, including execution of C# code, which allows NEO to do more things with the platform and attract more developers.

The platform is also primed for running initial coin offerings (ICOs). And I wouldn't be surprised if it continues to be the go-to platform for upcoming Chinese ICOs. As we saw this year with Ethereum, when ICOs launch demand for the token that is hosting them goes up drastically.

I personally am excited to see how NEO's smart economy will start incorporating into the real world. If it's able to integrate physical assets and even intentionally involve government in China, that could be a good thing for the growth of NEO's project, in this case.

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The Ethereum of China Is Now a Top 10 Cryptocurrency and Creating a Smart Economy - Inc.com

News world

An inter-disciplinary committee that was formed to assess blockchain-based currencies has submitted its report to government officials.

The world now watches as Indian members of a government-appointed inter-disciplinary committee have released a report to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on cryptocurrency regulatory standards, according to a report made August 7, 2017, from New Delhi.

As recently as this April, the committee convened to conduct an all-inclusive review of all blockchain-based currencies. After accepting public comments on the subject during the month of May, the group met to deliberate in June, as reported by ETHNews. While the findings in the report have not been made public, it is very likely that they will have an influence on the country's future stance.

Zebpay, which is a founding member of the Digital Assets and Blockchain Foundation of India (DABFI), is pushing for a solution that allows DABFI to act as "a self-regulatory" organization.

Saurabh Agrawal, co-founder and CEO of Zebpay, highlighted a need for oversight and licensing of crypto-exchanges. "We are for some form of a task force or a controlling body that will be monitoring the activities of exchanges," said Agrawal. "We want ultimately exchanges to get licences just as banks are granted licences."

Once the report is made public, ETHNews will provide additional coverage of its regulatory ramifications.

Jeremy Nation is a writer living in Los Angeles with interests in technology, human rights, and cuisine. He is a full time staff writer for ETHNews and holds value in Ether.

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Indian Inter-Disciplinary Committee Submits Cryptocurrency Report - ETHNews

In BriefIn a post-globalized, post-depression, pre-apocalyptic world,traditional pensions have lost the public trust. Howeverunfamiliar, the future of investing may lie in cryptocurrency. The Future of Crypto

Those who have retired within previous decades, or even some who are currently looking to retire, have earned pension funds which allow them to transition out of the traditional working force. This is unfortunately not a reality for many working today. Recently though, experts have suggested that the future of and potential for cryptocurrencies could be this generations supplement for pensions, re-affirming retirement as a viable alternative for working adults.

Ron Ginn, the young founder of Text Event Picsand investor inRipple,et al real estate, said to TheNew York Timesthat This is like getting to invest in the internet in the 90s. Im obviously very bullish, but I expect to make a couple million dollars off very little money. This is the opportunity of a lifetime. Finance is getting its internet.

While cryptocurrency isnt a precise parallel to pension funds, its still a very hopeful and promising investment. At the very least the consensus leans toward its eventual reliability. Nothings carved in stone,but recent developments in financial technology have shown thatpalpable risk is correlated with significant gains.

Money has no value without trust, and this truth holds no less true for investment. Today, with pensions and 401(k)s growing rarer while memories of the recession of 2007-2009 still linger in the air, finding a realistic way to invest in a financially secure future (in the traditional sense) can seem like a lost cause. Consequentlymany see crypto investments as the safer alternative. Gabe Wax, who runs a recording studio in Brooklyn, told The New York Times, I constantly feel like Im looking over the edge. of a cliff [] I dont like the idea of money just sitting in a savings account with the way inflation works and how low interest rates are, youre losing money. Theres less money than theres ever been in the history of recorded music, so that gives me anxiety. Its weird to say that owning cryptocurrency soothes that anxiety, because its counterintuitive, but it does.

As major players like Bitcoinand Ethereum compete against new-name giants like Bitcoin Cash, which advanced to third-biggest in market capitalization in its first 48 hours,the dawn of cyrptocurrency has become an inevitable reality. Looking around, its rapid global proliferation is apparent in everydaywearable technologies,which softens the distinction between financial and digital.

The days of stable, reliablepension funds may be on the proverbial endangered list. Alas, this generations trust in the forces of globalization and traditional financial institutions may again be at low ebb. Consequently, while many in previous generations joined the workforce with implicit trust in traditional institutions, many younger investors will pivot to cryptocurrency. The futures never a certainty in economics, but wed all be remiss to ignore this increasingly viable means for financial security.

Disclosure: Several members of the Futurism team, including the editors of this piece, are personal investors in a number of cryptocurrency markets. Their personal investment perspectives have no impact on editorial content.

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Experts Suggest Cryptocurrencies Could be This Generation's Supplement for Pensions - Futurism

Oaktree's Howard Marks sounded a general alarm last week about the state of stock markets, private equity, credit markets and for good measure new digital currencies like bitcoin and ethereum. Essentially, he wrote in his letter to investors that everything is overvalued.

On the cryptocurrencies, he went further. He stated several times that they're "not real." Furthermore, he said, they are "nothing but an unfounded fad (or perhaps even a pyramid scheme)."

Cryptocurrencies may indeed be in the biggest valuation bubble since the dot-com era.

At the same time, there is undeniable excitement about their potential today among the top tier of venture capital investors.

Former PayPal COO David Sacks, who was also an early investor in Airbnb, Facebook, Palantir, SpaceX and Uber, tweeted last week that cryptos are the best candidate we've had for the next big thing in Silicon Valley (Web 3.0):

When I read Marks' comments about bitcoin not being real, I thought back to an interview I did with the CEO of McEwen Mining four years ago:

Any currency exists only because at least two parties (a buyer and a seller) agree that it represents value. So, what constitutes money? On a South Pacific island, we might agree that chicken bones are a currency. In prison, we might agree that cigarettes are a currency. Today, while we all use fiat or paper currencies as money, a medium of exchange, there is a growing concern about the value of these pieces of paper.

I don't see why Bitcoin can't also grow and become another viable currency, an internet based currency. If enough people accept it, it will be used. It seems to have momentum behind it and it's intriguing how it's truly separate from any country or central banks' manipulation and control.

There will be growing pains, like the guy who lost money out of his electronic wallet because he left his computer on all night. Also, Bitcoin will spawn competitors, alternative digital currencies. I think it's a mistake to write off this currency as a bubble or fad.

Will it threaten gold? I don't think so. I think the two will grow in tandem as alternative currencies to fiat currencies.

In the dot-com era of the late '90s, there were many warning signs of a huge bubble that was about to pop including:

By contrast, few people are quitting their jobs to start cryptocurrency companies (yet). Day trading is rare. Taxi drivers aren't asking about bitcoin.

If cryptocurrencies are a bubble, we're still in the early innings.

But there are signs of frothiness:

Bitcoin in 2017 is as real as Amazon or Priceline was in 1999.

Both those great companies had their stocks get killed when the dot-com bubble burst, but they used the nuclear winter they faced in the next few years to make themselves more profitable and take market share that they would never give back.

Amazon dropped from $76 per share (in today's post-split share value) at the end of 1999 to less than $6 after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Amazon trades now over $1,000/share.

Priceline went from $283 a share at the end of 1999 to less than $8 three years later. Today, it trades above $2,000.

No doubt many of this year's batch of ICOs, as well as dozens of other existing cryptocurrencies, will disappear in the coming years as things settle out.

But if you listen to Marks' advice and tune out the crypto space, you'll miss the ICO equivalents of Amazon and Priceline. Will ethereum be the next Google? Or the next Lycos?

More importantly, what will be the magnitude of growth from here? Bitcoin has grown from nothing to nearly $3,000 today (after a big pullback when it first hit $1,000 a few years ago). But where will it be in five, 10 or 15 years from now? And will it pull back to below $1,000 again before it breaks out to new highs?

To discard all cryptocurrencies as Marks did in his letter would be a big mistake. There is real value in these digital currencies.

Commentary by Eric Jackson, sign up for Eric's monthly Tech & Media Email. You can follow Eric on Twitter @ericjackson .

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Cryptocurrency skeptics warn of another dot-com bubble, but remember: That's where Amazon and Google started - CNBC

A foreign sanctions bill signed into law by U.S. President Donald Trump included a little-noticed provision on cryptocurrencies.

The U.S. Congress cleared thebill late last month imposing sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea. It was a politically controversial development, given ongoing investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, and the stated opposition of the Trump administration to the legislation.

Trump ultimately signed the bill into law last week, though he sharply criticized the measure in an accompanying signing statement.

Notably for the blockchainindustry, however, is that the billincludes a mandate for the development of a national security strategy aimed at "combating the financing of terrorism and related forms of illicit finance."

One provision, which focuses on research into "illicit finance trends," mentions cryptocurrencies asan area of study.

The textcalls for:

"[A] discussion of and data regarding trends in illicit finance, including evolving forms of value transfer such as so-called cryptocurrencies, other methods that are computer, telecommunications, or internet-based, cybercrime, or any other threats that the Secretary may choose to identify."

The initial draft strategy is due to Congress within the next year, according to the bill's text, and is set to include input from US financial regulators, the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security, among others.

In some ways, the new billechoes anothersubmitted in May as part of a wider Department of Homeland Security legislative package.

That measure, as CoinDesk reported at the time, calls for research into the potential use of cryptocurrenciesby terrorists. Like the DHS bill, the new sanctions law doesn't constitute a shift in policy, but rather indicates that Congress is taking steps to explore the issue more closely.

Donald Trump imagevia Shutterstock

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Controversial US Sanctions Bill Calls for Cryptocurrency Research - CoinDesk

With this years incredible gains in the price of bitcoin, the number of hedge funds with exposure to cryptocurrencies is exploding. Fund administrator MG Stover & Co, accounting firm Auther Bell, and law firm Cole-Frieman & Mallon alone have62 in the pipeline.

Also read:Hedge Funds Are Quietly Investing in Bitcoin

As the prices of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies skyrocket, a large number of traders are seeking to launch hedge funds investing in them. Hedge Fund Alert recently reported that the number of hedge funds investing in digital currencies is exploding. The publication quoted CPA Corey Mclaughlin, managing member at Auther Bell, who said:

Ive been in the hedge fund space since 1998, and Ive never seen anything like it in volume of launches in a particular area. Its just crazy.

Matt Stover, founder of MG Stover & Co,shared the sentiment. This is the first time I can remember where we have had a hard time keeping up with the sales calls, he said.

Institutional investors are surprisingly interested in cryptocurrencies, according to hedge fund lawyer Karl Cole-Frieman. I wasnt expecting so many institutional players to be interested in the asset class, he was quoted saying. Recently, news.Bitcoin.com reported that hedge funds are quietly investing in bitcoin. With this years explosive gains in the price of bitcoin, Hedge funds that offer cryptocurrency exposure are seeing windfall gains.

Among client funds administered by MG Stover & Co., 12 of them are running digital-currency strategies. The firm has also made agreements to service 25 more, the publication detailed. Arthur Bell is working with about 15 fund managers on cryptocurrency funds and expects to take on 20 more in the near future. Meanwhile, Cole-Frieman & Mallon has helped set up 7 cryptocurrency funds this year and has 17 more in the pipeline. Altogether, 62 new cryptocurrency hedge funds will be brought the market by these three firms alone.

Among the new entrants, there are both those simply taking long bets on bitcoinas well as those devising hedge fund-like strategies, such as capturing the arbitrage among various currencies, the publication conveyed. Bitcoins value has risen over 200% this year.

I think the majority of these cryptocurrency [funds] are trying to ride the opportunity du jour, noted Neal Berger, founder of investment advisory firm Eagles View Capital. Its an access point for people who cant buy it themselves or dont want to learn how to do it.Former Goldman Sachs executive Matthew Goetz, co-founder at Blocktower Capital, described:

Its a wildly inefficient market where alpha potential is abundant more than anything weve seen in our careers. We think its a rare opportunity for investors. Its not often theres a new capital market being born in front of you.

How do you think the many hedge funds entering the space will affect the price of bitcoin? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock

Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section.

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Hedge Funds Investing in Cryptocurrencies 'Exploding' 62 in Pipeline - Bitcoin News (press release)

"Lust" is an initial coin offering based on the Ethereum blockchain platform, designed for prostitutes and their customers to exchange money for sexual services.

It uses smart contracts and anonymity features to escrow funding of the parties and keep their identities private, in order to avoid law-enforcement scrutiny and public shaming.

Leaving aside the thorny moral and social questions raised by the currency's intended use, there's the technical matter of how well this would work (and this technical matter wraps around to those moral and social questions).

The wireframe drawings of user interface features pictures of sex workers, selected by "elaborate filters based on skill ratings, age, eyes, hair color and other body parameters." The anonymity dimension of this platform is limited to the (presumably male) customers, not the (all-female) workers.

Likewise, the "smart contracts" favor one side of the bargain: the "key has to be scanned later if they make an agreement and meet otherwise the contract gets automatically closed in 48 hours, and the client gets his Etherium tokens back in the wallet" (note that "his" pronoun for the "client"). The game-theoretical aspects of this aren't hard to unpick: if the "client" has sex with the worker, and then does not scan her (sic) token, the client gets to have sex, and the worker gets nothing. Despite high-minded talk about preventing violence against sex-workers, the major threat-model addressed by these smart-contracts is men who don't feel like they got value for money when having sex, not women who perform sex-for-money and don't get paid for it.

Finally, there's the legal question: the people behind this cryptocurrency claim that "our system is not illegal anywhere in the world." That's just not true. There are plenty of territories in which simply using strong crypto is illegal, and others where having a nexus with the procurement of sex for money is itself illegal, no matter how attenuated the connection.

So, in a nutshell: this is a legally dubious platform designed to help men solve the problem of not being embarrassed when they procure the services of a female sex worker, and to protect them in the event that they choose not to pay for her services, but without any real protection for the sex workers' anonymity or ability to get paid.

Escrow deal based on smart contracts

Our escrow deals based on smart Ethereum contracts facilitate, verify, and enforce the negotiation or performance of a contract. An access key is generated from a clients wallet. The partner scans the key and the client gets the service without the intervention of a third party. Etherium tokens are returned back in case of non-performance of the agreement.

Decentralized platform

We are a decentralized online marketplace that enables users to transact without the need for a centralized location or any third-party arbitration. Experience hassle free transactions anonymously without any scams or fake reviews in a completely transparent setup. Decentralisation also implies that it can never be shut down, unlike dedicated servers.

Fully anonymous

You can register without any personal details on our website to connect with most desired body figures in an entirely incognito mode. We defend your privacy with features like cryptography, anonymous mail forwarding systems, digital signatures, and crypto-currencies to ensure smooth transactions.

Law does not prohibit

Whether you live in an extremely conservative country or in one of the most progressive ones, you can access our portal from anywhere at any time in the world. Whats better is, that our system is not illegal anywhere in the world. Since, it can be used everywhere instantly, you can find new partners even if youre visiting some other country or while travelling.

Lust

(via Beyond the Beyond)

Torontos crazy-insane property prices stayed high even through the 2008 crash and its aftermath, but sales volumes of houses of all types plummeted by 40.4% for July 2017-vs-July 2016, new listings are up by 5% over the same period and the average selling price has fallen by 19% since April.

Monsanto is facing over 100 lawsuits in a Federal district court in San Francisco brought by people who attribute their non-Hodgkins lymphoma to exposure to glyphosate in Monsantos Roundup weed-killer, and as part of the discovery process, it submitted internal documents to the court that detailed shenanigans in the companys internal science and its dealings []

Joseph Stiglitz, winner of a Nobel prize in economics, describes the foolishness of enacting further tax cuts for the wealthy in America, and the structural impediments that stand in the way of Trumps pursuit of this foolish goal.

Web technology has matured considerably in the last decade, and developers are continually in demand. If youre looking to add some skills to your resume, or are just interested in exploring the possibilities of the web, check out this Interactive Web Developer Bootcamp.In this course, youll get a comprehensive overview of full-stack development using modern []

Even if you only use your PC for web browsing, media playback, or light document creation, default software can sometimes come up short. To give your Windows PC a bit of a boost, weve compiled a variety of helpful, paid apps that can enhance your user experience and make you more productive.In thePremium PC Power []

Many people find it easiest to learn things by doing them. If youre looking to give a doer in your life an interesting, hands-on project, check out these tech-focused DIY kits:DIY AT-AT Cable Organizer & Card Case ($32.99)With this kit, you get to put together a wooden replica of an AT-AT that keeps cables, pens, []

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A new, dubious "smart" cryptocurrency for prostitution / Boing Boing - Boing Boing

Most readers have probably heard of Bitcoin, the digital coin that dominates the cryptocurrency market. It has gained notice both because of its skyrocketing value (from less than a cent in early 2010 to around $2,600 currently) and because it is frequently a key player in hackingand black-market-related stories, from the looting of nearly half a billion dollars in coins from the Mt Gox exchange in 2014 to the recent demand for payment in Bitcoin in the WannaCry ransomware attack.

But do you know Ethereum, with a total value of coins in circulation of close to $20 billion? Bitcoin Cash, which split off from the original Bitcoin on August 1, lost about half its value within hours, then nearly quadrupled by the next day?

Or, rounding out the Big Four, Ripple -whose currency is known as XRP -which shot up to about 40 cents by mid-May from less than a cent at the end of March? Then there are over 800 lower-value and often creatively named coins among those listed on Coinmarketcap.com.

One can buy FedoraCoin (its jaunty symbol being the Justin Timberlake-approved hat), CannabisCoin (one guess what it looks like) or, to choose one of many bringing up the rear, Quartz, currently priced around three-thousandths of a cent. (Bad news for those who bought it at just under $2 at the end of May).

After years as a niche market for technologically sophisticated anarchists and libertarians excited about a decentralised financial network not under government control, digital coins may be on the verge of going mainstream. "It's the wild, wild West," said Ron Ginn, 35, founder of a private photo-sharing service called Text Event Pics in St Augustine, who has taken all his money out of the stock market and put it into Ripple and real estate."

This is like getting to invest in the internet in the '90s. I'm very bullish, but I expect to make a couple million dollars off very little money. This is the opportunity of a lifetime. Finance is getting its internet."

Cryptocurrency has understandable appeal to millennials who came of age during the 2008 financial crisis and are now watching the rise of anti-globalist populism threaten the stability of the international economy.

"There's a low cost for entry, you don't pay a lot of fees and millennials are the most tech-savvy," said John Guarco, 22, a recent Duke graduate who, like most of the people interviewed for this article, asked that names of the coins in which he has invested not be published for fear of being targeted by hackers.

Unlike previous generations, many of these greenhorn investors don't have pensions, are mistrustful of socking money away in mutual funds and are fully accustomed to owning digital assets that have no concrete properties.

As traditional paths to upper-middle-class stability are being blocked by debt, exorbitant housing costs and a shaky job market, these investors view cryptocurrency not only as a hedge against another Dow Jones crash, but also as the most rational - and even utopian -means of investing their money.

But there are dissenters who are less sanguine about the future of cryptocurrency, arguing that we are in the midst of the biggest bubble yet, fueled by speculative trading in Japan and South Korea, and pointing to previous Bitcoin crashes as justification for their skepticism.

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If grandpa had pension, we have cryptocurrency - Economic Times