Cryptocurrencies are quickly becoming a weapon for many divorcees, according to Financial Times contributor Jane Croft.

The relative anonymity of these currencies provides divorcing parties with a clever way to hide assets allowing them to avoid full disclosure of their monetary property. What should you keep in mind about these currencies when heading into divorce conversations?

Remember to specifically ask about cryptocurrencies Knowing that cryptocurrencies can play a part in your divorce settlement is half the battle. Make sure to ask about them specifically from the onset.

Try to trace the money The fact is, divorcees with money in cryptocurrencies will not always be upfront with these assets.

When possible, try to track the money trail. While the movements of actual cryptocurrencies aren't easily traceable, the conversion of regular assets into these online assets will leave clues try to pinpoint them as proof.

Enlist the help of professionals Dealing with the legalities of these currencies is complex at best. You should enlist the help of experienced lawyers to ensure you are dealing with the existence of online assets as effectively as possible.

Bitcoins: What and how?

So what even is cryptocurrency? The most common version comes in the form of Bitcoins. According to the Oxford Dictionary, Bitcoin is:

"A type of digital currency in which encryption techniques are used to regulate the generation of units of currency and verify the transfer of funds, operating independently of a central bank."

Dealing with online currencies and the division of assets in a divorce settlement is a process that should involve the help of experts.

Here at WGC we have a team of lawyers that can help you navigate these murky waters to ensure you are getting your fair share during your divorce settlement cryptocurrencies or not.

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Advice on cryptocurrency during divorce - Tropic Now - TropicNow

KeepKey hardware wallet now includes Dash to its existing list of supported cryptocurrencies. Read more...

Hardware wallets are one of the safest means to store cryptocurrencies and KeepKey features among the leading providers of such storage devices. The device, which until now was supporting Bitcoin and few other prominent altcoins has announced the inclusion of Dash support.

Dash is currently the sixth largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization. The digital currency with a market cap of over $121.25 million is expecting the demand to surge in the coming days as the platform prepares to launch its full-fledged crypto-payments system codenamed Evolution. With the foundation already laid in the form of recent Sentinel upgrade, the existing community members are bracing for a rise in the cryptocurrencys price.

As the value of Dash increases, the probability of hacking attempts targeting the cryptocurrency is also bound to increase. In such a scenario, the Dash community has convinced KeepKey to offer them a secure means to store the digital currency.

Conceding to the demands of the community, KeepKey recently announced an integration with Dash, enabling its users to safeguard their cryptocurrency stash. The new feature, currently in beta stage allows KeepKey users to receive, store and send Dash on their devices. The limited feature release is expected to include Dashs PrivateSend and InstantSend functions soon.

Darin Stanchfield, the CEO of KeepKey in the companys press release has commented on the new development saying,

Partnering with Dash is the natural next step for KeepKey since our wallet is purely focused on security, mobility, and convenience; attributes that Dash shares. KeepKey protects digital assets from hackers by limiting their exposure to the internet. With this integration, we are extending our utility, and adding one more asset users can transfer to or from directly on our device.

The new integration will not only benefit the existing Dash community members but also encourages other cryptocurrency users to switch to the Bitcoin alternative. The inbuilt ShapeShift function will now enable users to swap their existing cryptocurrency balances to Dash. The list of supported currencies on KeepKey now stands at six. Apart from Dash and Bitcoin, the platform also supports Ethereum, Litecoin, Dogecoin, and Namecoin.

Meanwhile, KeepKey will continue listening to the community and based on the suggestions, requests, and feedbacks received, it will be making necessary changes and feature additions to the hardware wallet.

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KeepKey Hardware Wallet Now Supports Dash Cryptocurrency - newsBTC

Lykke, a Zurich-based Fintech firm that wants to become the worlds first regulated marketplace built on cryptographic technology is offering a one-year forward contract on a bespoke cryptocurrency or Lykke Coin with a 20% discount. Announced last week, Lykke basically will provide a 20% discount on the cryptocurrency if you hold it for a whole year.

The forward contract operates pretty much like other forward contracts except Lykke says it will offer settlement at the run instead of only at the settlement date. The limited offer started on February 9th and continues to February 2th if you are interested. Lykke intends on selling up to 50 million coins with an issue price of CHF 0.04 per coin so an estimated raise of CHF 2 million. Lykke Coins are registered on blockchain and 100 Lykke Coins are said to be entitled to 1 Lykke share.

Lykke is the creation of Richard Olsen who first founded OANDA in 1996, a retail broker serving over 100,000 retail trading clients worldwide. Lykke originally raised USD $ 2.8 million in 2015. Lykke says it is applying to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK for an investment firm license to provide a multilateral trading facility and to offer a non-exchange financial trading venue as part of a broader aim of establishing the worlds first crypto-marketplace offering trade execution on a range of financial instruments.

PhotoJohn Cassidy The Headshot Guywww.theheadshotguy.co.uk07768 401009

Lykke Chief Business Development Officer, Demetrios Zamboglou, commented on the announcement that genuine change in financial services can only be achieved via robust technology that serves everyone better;

rather than just its gatekeepers. Lykke is committed to creating a means for anyone to conduct financial transactions and store their assets in secure digital blockchains, secured from any single authority or counterparty, said Zamboglou. Blockchain-powered crypto-currencies are actively demonstrating their superiority over the fiat-paper status-quo, for so long the bastion of big banks. Blockchain technology is here to show financial services as a sector that there is a better way, and theres no turning back.

Lykke believes its selling-point is better security with a centralized matching engine and decentralized immediate settlement, and an open-source approach to typically closed-loop systems that dominate financial services transactions today.

In the history of Financial Services, it has always been a requirement to have deep pockets to operate on a level playing field. With Lykke, the only requirement to enter a level playing field is an internet connection, stated Lykke founder and CEO, Richard Olsen.

Lykke has already gone public on its own exchange and is said to be building enterprise-scale solutions for large financial institutions. Lykke is also a member of the Hyperledger project.

Lykke has also formed a partnership with ChronoBank to allow users to trade ChronoBanks tokens for other currencies frictionlessly. ChronoBank is in the midst of a crowdfunding round having raised over $4 million in Bitcoin. The Australian Fintech firm is creating a decentralized marketplace, named LaborX, where people can sell labor hours to anyone anywhere. ChronoBank.io wants to totally disrupt HR/Recruitment and finance industries just how Uber is crushing taxis.

. Bookmark the

.

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Swiss Company Lykke Offers Forward Contract with 20% Discount on Cryptocurrency - Crowdfund Insider

A lot of people are starting to show an interest in cryptocurrency trading. While this is a positive development, there are some pitfalls novice traders will need to watch out for. These mistakes are rather common and can end up costing new traders a few thousand dollars worth of cryptocurrency if they are not careful. With the following pitfalls in mind, there should be far less risk when it comes to cryptocurrency trading as a whole.

To put this particular tip into perspective, not every cryptocurrency exchange is designed to be used for various altcoins. There are some clear market leaders who can be trusted when it comes to trading alternate cryptocurrencies, whereas others seem slightly shady. Using the wrong exchange can result in withdrawals not being honored or trading markets becoming inaccessible at the wrong time. Always do your own research before trusting an unknown company with your money, as it can be difficult- if not impossible to get it out again when things go awry.

The world of alternative cryptocurrencies is filled with many opportunities, although not everything is what it seems. Unfortunately for novice traders, it is rather difficult to distinguish between a worthwhile and useless attacking. At the rate at which coins are being developed these days, any new coin should be avoided until it properly establishes itself in the market.

At the same time, investors and speculators want to buy potentially powerful coins as cheap as possible. Getting in at a later stage will decrease the chances of making a big profit along the way. There is a very fine balance to walk between buying coins cheap and investing in a pump-and-dump scam at the wrong time. Most novice traders experience the latter option well before they will make their first major profit.

One thing every cryptocurrency trader needs to keep in mind is how panic can be one of the worst motivators to make the right trade. Markets are very volatile in the altcoin scene, and it doesnt take much volume to send things in either direction. There is nothing wrong with trusting a gut feeling, but panic should never determine how and when one trades. To this day, a lot of novice cryptocurrency traders let their actions be guided by panic and fear.

As strange as it may sound for a market where profits and losses can be made in mere seconds, there is such a thing as compulsive trading. Trading too often during the day can be a big problem for novice traders, as they will make wrong decisions and let panic guide their actions. Monitoring the markets is an absolute must, but one should necessarily jump on every single opportunity when it presents itself. It is difficult to learn a trading style from day one, though, as errors will need to be made along the way until one finds a rhythm that suits his or her needs.

Given the vast plethora of different altcoins one can buy and trade across popular exchanges, diversification is a good idea. At the same time, there is a risk of trading too many altcoins at once, which will take a toll on ones portfolio rather quickly. The best advice is to start with small amounts of one or two coins that seem legit, ate and potentially profitable. As one gains more experience, it is still possible to further diversify the portfolio and trade more currencies.

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5 Most Common Mistakes Novice Cryptocurrency Traders Make - The Merkle

The unique cryptocurrency platform, Byteball is preparing itself to launch the second round of token distribution.

The unique cryptocurrency platform, Byteball is preparing itself to launch the second round of token distribution. The latest round is scheduled to happen on February 11, 2017, at 00:33 (UTC) the next full moon day.

The upcoming release of bytes (the crypto tokens on Byteball Network) is the second of its kind. The platform, which was launched on Christmas Day of 2016 distributed bytes (native cryptocurrency) and blackbytes (untraceable private tokens) to the Bitcoin community. Bitcoin holders, who signed up for the distribution received fresh bytes proportional to their Bitcoin holdings.

According to Byteball, over 70,000 BTCs were linked to the first round of distribution. In the second round, the platform will be issuing bytes to both Bitcoin and Byteball community members. During the process, Byteball token holders will receive 0.1 gigabytes (GB) for every 1 GB of bytes held. Similarly, the platform will issue 0.625 GB for each BTC owned by the eligible community members.

A Byteball representative quoted in the platforms press release said,

In the new distribution, 1 GB holding receives the same share as 1.6 BTC. 1 GB is currently traded at 0.05 BTC.

Byteball is already in the process of building the whole ecosystem around the cryptocurrency platform. Currently, the Byteball ecosystem has cryptocurrency wallets, bot-supported marketplace, private untraceable currency and an exchange platform that allows people to convert their Bitcoin to bytes and vice versa using a chatbot interface.

Byteballs use of a unique Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) instead of blockchain technology gives it an upper hand over its rival altcoins. The absence of blockchain makes it less prone to scalability issues faced by the likes of Bitcoin. The Byteball Network users will not have to deal with delays and problems related to block size and block discovery times. A total of 10^15 bytes will be issued by Byteball, 99 percent of which will be distributed among the community members over multiple rounds.

Byteball has emerged as a promising cryptocurrency platform that can meet the growing industry needs. By offering the huge Bitcoin community an opportunity to take part in the new revolution, the platform is expected to gain widespread adoption in the coming months. It is the ideal time for the existing Bitcoin and Byteball community members to take part in the distribution and watch the value of bytes grow in their possession.

Excerpt from:

Byteball Cryptocurrency Platform Schedules Second Bytes ... - newsBTC

Blockchains are nothing more signed, peer-to-peer, distributed ledger databases. Okay, were all done here.

No?

Alright, blockchains are a bit more complicated than thatand more useful than they might sound. Most will know blockchains from BitCoin, one of the many cryptocurrencies based on them. But cryptocurrencies are only one use for blockchains. Before getting into applications, lets take a look at what a blockchain system looks like and how it operates.

To start, you need to know about public key encryption and digital signatures, because the blocks in a blockchain are digitally signed and the blockchain nodes are authenticated to each other (Fig. 1). This allows them to maintain their copy of the blockchain and determine whether information from other nodes is accurate. Those providing nodes to the blockchain must also have their own encryption keys so they can sign their blocks.

A blockchain is actually a logical entity maintained by a blockchain node. It is designed to be a mostly read-only database that grows over time as blocks are added (Fig. 2). Block payloads are accepted by a node and distributed to its peers. There is an acceptance process and verification of digital signatures, but eventually a block will be validated by enough nodes for the block to be permanently added to the blockchain.

At this point, the added block will be replicated in a majority of nodes, and the rest will eventually catch up. This means that all nodes will have a moving high water mark that the collection of nodes agrees with, but the databases will probably not be identical across all the nodes at any point in time.

The idea is that the payload of a block can be accessed by an external entity and used to generate a subsequent block that will get incorporated into the blockchain. A typical example is where a block contains a logical value that is split in half and assigned to two new blocks. The signatures for these new blocks can be used to allow one of the new blocks to contain this new value. Incorporating the new blocks into the blockchain will mark the original block as used and the two new blocks as active.

The system is robust because the blockchain database is replicated. All nodes can accept new blocks and all nodes do not have to be active or accessible all the time although a quorum is needed to activate new blocks.

The challenge for blockchain systems is to maintain performance and scalability as the system grows. A lot depends upon the frequency of updates and the number of systems involved overall in addition to the network. Many blockchain systems operate on the internet, but that isnt a requirement. They can be used in closed networks as well.

So, back to cryptocurrencies.

A cryptocurrency is a digital asset that can be an exchange medium. These days, cyptocurrencies tend to be implemented using a blockchain. This allows transactions using the cryptocurrency to occur in a decentralized, distributed fashion. Cryptocurrencies are relatively new (the aforementioned Bitcoin started in 2009).

The payload of a block indicates the amount of money involved in a transaction. How these values are created and manipulated depend upon the system being employed and the players involved in the system. Most cryptocurrencies use a timestamping scheme so a trusted third party does not need to be involved in the system.

Most cryptocurrency systems use a proof-of-work scheme to create a new block or BitCoin. BitCoin uses proof-of-work schemes are based on SHA-256. It is also used by LiteCoin. It is also possible to use proof-of-stake schemes as well.

BitCoins are created by mining. This uses the hashcash proof-of-work function that is designed to take a lot of computational cycles but not much else. Specialized hardware has been developed to create BitCoins. The amount of time needed to generate just one BitCoin varies significantly depending upon the hardware used.

Just about any application that requires a registered ledger is a candidate for blockchain support. Many embedded applications simply need a single database, but if there is a need for a more robust solution, blockchains might make sense.

Blockchains have been touted as solutions for all sorts of applications. For example, there are a number of efforts to use them in educational environments. In this instance, the various records, testing, and certifications a person earns are tracked using blocks. This approach allows for the distribution of this information. The blocks normally do not contain all the information, but rather, links to digitally signed packages.

Blockchains can also be used for conventional ledger-based applications. These applications include backend clearing and settlement. They could be used in real estate transactions, for tracking music or other multimedia content, or even for handling contracts.

Blockchain use is still in its infancy. Security remains a key component and it should not be overlooked when considering or using this technology. Incorrect implementations can cause significant security problems. Developers also need to consider the scope of implementation, frequency of updates, and hardware and storage requirements.

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What's the Difference Between Blockchains, Cryptocurrency, Audit ... - Electronic Design

Singer Tatiana Moroz announced the early beta launch of the first cryptocurrency for artists at The Blockchain Event in Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

TATIANACOIN will unite artists and fans through advanced blockchain technology. Fans will be able to steam music while supporting Ms. Moroz, chat with her and other fans, and access unique multimedia content, private concerts and merchandise.

Tatiana Moroz

In a release, Ms. Morozsaid artists struggle in a system that can earn them less than one penny per stream and intense competition for fan loyalty.

After experiencing firsthand the troubles artists face trying to make a name for themselves, I sought a revolutionary way for artists and fans to help each other through incentivized financial support and social connectivity.The only way to achieve this is through the power of the blockchain, a technology that presents countless opportunities for artists and musicians.

TATIANACOIN is the first instance of what we call an ArtistCoin: a digital currency that removes the middleman and smooths contracts, payments and communications. ArtistCoins will enable songwriters, record labels, and publishers to seamlessly register their work, view tamper-proof payment contracts, and distribute songs with all the splits built in.

This will streamline the licensing process and ensure all the parties are fairly compensated.

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Singer Tatiana Moroz launches artist cryptocurrency Bankless Times - Bankless Times

There are hundreds of Cryptocurrencies out there right now and its impossible to know all of them by name. With Cryptocurrency now known by people in every corner of the world, developers are coming with new digital currencies to try and convince the users that their coin offers something new or different to what is being offered by the current coins. This has led to many users and investors falling victims to scam coins. Just because a coin is popular, with a lot of followers, doesnt qualify it to be a genuine cryptocurrency.

A lot of cases involving scam in Cryptocurrencies have been reported. According to Cointelegraph, Solomon Barnabas came out bravely to speak of his experience at the hands of vendors of scam coins. Mr. Solomon is quoted as saying that these scam vendors not only caused losses in terms of money, but also in terms of his credibility. Mr. Solomon is one of the many who have lost their money due to these scam coins who sell referral programs to unsuspecting members claiming that crowdfunding is necessary for adoption. These scam coins are restricting the growth of Cryptocurrency, despite campaigns from the already established coins that Crytocurrency is a genuine and worthy investment.

Moving on to the leading scam coins according to Angelina Lazar, an economist and cryptocurrency revolutionary, OneCoin is number one when it comes to scam coins. Angelina has become a popular figure in the Cryptocurrency world due to herwarwith OneCoin. She claimsthat in a months time she will have conclusive information on OneCoins dealings. After a war between her and OneCoin, Angelina claims that she succeeded in getting all bank accounts belonging to OneCoin shut down. She also claims that Chinas UnionPay is not interested in working with OneCoin anymore. According to Cointelegraph, the main problemthat OneCoin faces is that it is not a Cryptocurrency yet. This is an issuethat always arises once they realize that their product doesnt possess the fundamental characteristics of a genuine cryptocurrency.

S-Coin is another coin that Angelina Lazar thinks is a pyramid scheme. S-Coin, just like OneCoin, offers promise of hope of releasing a Cryptocurrency in the near future. According toCointelegraph, the act of attaching the price of one Euro to it without considering the basics such as demand and supply, raises a lot of questions. Another thing is that they asked the public to pay Bitcoins for S-Coins and claiming to send the coins via mail to their clients.

Cryptocurrencies are digital coins and hence if S-Coin is a real digital currency transactions should be made in a real blockchain.

EarthCoin is the next coin with characteristics of a scam coin. Most of its coins initial supply were generated by the developer. This raises eyebrows because coins should be generated over time through a form of mining. Its website is poor and there is no real information on what the coin intends to achieve and its current volume. All these point to signs of pump and dump schemes. Remember its the responsibility of you the investor to conduct proper due diligence on the coins you want to invest in.

You may also like:Bitcoin: Shut Down in Venezuela!

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Cryptocurrency: Leading Scam Coins - Eastern Daily News

Scientists at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT) of the University of Luxembourg have developed an important mathematical algorithm called Equihash. Equihash is a core component for the new cryptocurrency Zcash, which offers more privacy and equality than the famous Bitcoin. Zcash came into operation as an experimental technology for a community-driven digital currency in late 2016. Competing cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin is by far the most recognised and widely used digital currency. It was introduced in January 2009 and has garnered much attention since then. But it is not the only one of its kind. Wikipedia lists nearly one hundred cryptocurrencies boasting more than 1 million US dollar market capitalisation.

One of the newest cryptocurrencies is Zcash, which can be seen as an update to the Bitcoin protocols. In Bitcoin, the transfer of coins is recorded in a global ledger, the so-called blockchain. The validity of the latest transfers in the blockchain is verified about every ten minutes. Verifying the transfers and creating new blocks for the blockchain (the so-called mining) requires a lot of computing power, which is provided by distributed computers worldwide. The miners who allocate the processing power are rewarded with new coins.

Zcash is trying to resolve two main shortcomings of Bitcoin: its lack of privacy for transactions and the centralisation of transaction verification into the hands of a mere dozen miners who have invested in large amounts of specialised mining hardware: Bitcoin is prone to such centralisation because the computational load of the bitcoin mining algorithm can be split into many different small tasks, which can be conducted in parallel. The algorithm is easy to implement in dedicated, energy-efficient and cheap microchips, but not suited to standard hardware. Bitcoin mining today is therefore done on special-purpose supercomputers which are located in places with cheap electricity and/or cheap cooling. Such supercomputers are expensive, costing millions of euros, but provide much more mining power than if one were to use standard PC hardware of the same price.

New algorithm for cryptocurrency

Prof. Alex Biryukov, head of the research group Cryptolux and Dr. Dmitry Khovratovich at SnT have developed the algorithm Equihash which can resolve this problem. Equihash is a so called memory-hard problem, which can not be split up into smaller working packages. It can be more efficiently calculated on desktop-class computers with their multiple processing cores and gigabytes of memory than on special hardware chips. If 10.000 miners with a single PC were active, in Zcash the investment to compete with them would be 10.000 times the price of a PC, while with bitcoin, the investment would be significantly smaller, says Khovratovich. This creates a more democratic digital currency by allowing more users to contribute to the mining process. Khovratovich adds: The strength of a cryptocurrency comes from the fact that the ledger is globally distributed. Our Equihash algorithm reverses the situation back to this more ideal world.

Equihash was first presented at the Network and Distributed System Security Symposium last year one of the top-5 IT security events. Prof. Biryukov comments: Since Equihash is based on a fundamental computer science problem, advances in Equihash mining algorithms will benefit computer science in general. Equihash is so far unique among all the mining algorithms: it is memory-hard on the one hand and very easy to verify on the other. In other words, while mining new coins with Zcash/Equihash is comparatively expensive, hence posing a smaller risk of monopolisation because it requires large amounts of computer memory and hard computational work, checking that the new coins are genuine is memoryless, fast and cheap.

Understanding these advantages, the creators of Zcash chose Equihash as the algorithm for mining coins and verifying transfers. Equihash itself is not limited to use in Zcash and can be used in any cryptocurrency, including Bitcoin.

With our contribution to Zcash, the Cryptography and Security lab (CryptoLux) has shown its strength in innovative research that has immediate applications in the financial technology industry, says SnTs director, Prof. Bjrn Ottersten. We invite students to follow us in this promising field, adds Professor Biryukov: There are still lots of challenging research problems to solve.

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University of Luxembourg: Researchers develop Zcash cryptocurrency - Science Business

From as high as $1070 recently, the price of Bitcoin fell to as low as $910 today before settling around $985 as of now. This comes afterat least two of the leading Chinese exchanges, OKCoin and Huobi, notified clients of an immediate ban on Bitcoin and Litecoin withdrawals, with RMB withdrawals unaffected, while theyupgrade their AML systems according to the law which is estimated to take a month.

Want to learn more? Bobby Lee, the CEO of BTCC, will be giving the keynote speech about Bitcoin and China atthe iFX EXPO in Hong Kong, register now.

Earlier today,the Chinese central bank officially called on nine of the smaller cryptocurrency trading venues in the country to followKYC/AML rulesbut that failed to make a serious impact to the BTC/USD exchange rate.

Charles Hayter, the CEO of CryptoCompare.com, explained: When China sneezes Bitcoin catches a cold. The PBoC moves to regulate Bitcoin more stringently will bring short term woes but will ultimately strengthen the ecosystem.Volumes can be expected to again slow in China as more friction is incorporated in the form of KYC and AML policies. For the duration of this transition the CNY-BTC pairs can be expected to trade at a discount to other fiat-BTC pairs.

Hayter added: The Chinese authorities momentum has been considered and communicative but past scandals have seen governments make examples although the Chinese Bitcoin exchanges cant be said to be anything other than cowering at present. At the moment bitcoin is in limbo caught between Chinese regulatory moves on the one hand and scaling, the potential for ETF approval with the resultant flow of institutional money on the other. Then there is global uncertainty with bitcoin acting as a form of digital gold.

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Bitcoin Drops as Chinese Exchanges Stop Cryptocurrency Withdrawals - Finance Magnates

There is no shortage in the world of cryptocurrencies, as new coins are seemingly being created every single day. This massive influx of new cryptocurrencies only floods the ecosystem, though, as the number of currencies having any intrinsic value is fairly limited. It is also much harder to come up with a valuable and creative idea, rather than copying code and hoping to raise a lot of money during an ICO.

Ever since alternative cryptocurrencies became a thing, there has been a growing number of new coins. Unfortunately, very few of these currencies offer something new. In fact, most of them copy existing code from a different currency and change a few of the variables. We even have a tutorial on how to create an altcoin in under an hour. A lot of developers create multiple coins along the way, hoping for some people to invest bitcoin into their worthless project. With over 7,000 altcoins in existence today, it is evident the market is oversaturated and running out of ideas.

An often heard sentiment among altcointraders is how there are particular times of the year when alternative cryptocurrencies seem to do well. The phrase alts are back is uttered quite often, even though this statement has no meaning whatsoever. While it is true one can make a good profit from a new altcoin once it hits its first exchange, the successes are short-lived every single time.

This is also one of the biggest dangers when investing in altcoins. Every time a new coin hits an exchange, there will be pump-and-dump cycles which will catch newcomer somewhere. Rest assured the vast majority of outcomes offers no value and only serve to make a select group of people richer every time a new coin is listed on an exchange.

One of the things a lot of people have problems with is just how every new altcoin has to provide some sort of financial benefit to the developers. Either a fixed amount of coins is controlled by the developers, or they organize an ICO to raise money. Satoshi Nakamoto created bitcoin without any financial incentive whatsoever, as running an initial coin offering or creating a pre-mine was never the objective in the first place.

Even though there are projects with a legitimate ICO in the cryptocurrency world, the whole concept of raising money before even showing what the code can do has gotten somewhat of a bad reputation. Investing in an idea is very difficult in the cryptocurrency world, as most of these ideas exist in other currencies already. Moreover, with a growing number of ICOs, there is a bigger chance investors will buy an altcoin that is abandoned by the developer once the money changes hands.

There is no way to ignore the obvious elephant in the room here. Most altcoins, with the exception of maybe two dozen, are scams. Anyone who invests money into these projects will lose funds over time. One could even argue there is no need for additional cryptocurrencies at this point, as even Bitcoin hasnt caught mainstream attention quite yet. Developers are more than welcome to submit their idea for features, privacy, and anonymity to existing branches of cryptocurrency development. Not every new idea warrants the creation of yet another altcoin.

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4 Reasons New Cryptocurrencies Keep Getting Worse - The Merkle

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Will Cryptocurrency Abuse be an Enforcement Focus for the IRS this Tax Season? - JD Supra (press release)

The new Centurion cryptocurrency make digital transactions a walk in the park with faster block- and confirmation times.

London, UK - February 9, 2017 - (Newswire.com)

Centurion is a unique cryptocurrency launching today on February 9, 2017. The new cryptocurrency draws lessons from Bitcoin and other altcoins to offer an efficient and easy-to-use option for the cryptocurrency community. As the Bitcoin network struggles to clear the transaction backlog while waiting for a scalability solution,Centurion can process and confirm transactions in under 6 minutes.

Also, the cryptocurrency protocol has a block size of 2 MB, which is twice the Bitcoin block size. Just like in the Roman saga, Centurion is the protector of children and the cryptocurrency strives to help kids worldwide through its very own charity Centurion4Children; which will receive an initial donation of 5 million Centurions.

Centurion can be used for buying products and services. Readymade merchant payment API libraries can be easily integrated into websites to start accepting the cryptocurrency. The team behind Centurion is already working with some of the big names to ensure adoption. The first adopter of Centurion will be a big online store offering more than 100 e-books and 50 videos on marketing, cryptocurrencies, internet tips, tricks, businesses, etc. The partnerships will be revealed shortly after launch with more stores to follow soon after.

Specifications

X11 Proof of Work (PoW) 3% Proof of Stake (PoS) RPC port: 5555 / P2P port: 5556 1 Minute Blocks Block Size 2Mb Reward Schedule: Blocks until 100 0 CNT (for fair difficulty balancing) Blocks 101 250,100 100 CNT Blocks 250,101 500,100 75 CNT Blocks 500,101 1,000,100 60 CNT Blocks 1,000,101 2,000,100 50 CNT Blocks 2,000,101 2,500,100 25 CNT Blocks 2,500,101 3,500,100 10 CNT Blocks 3,500,101 4,000,100 5 CNT Blocks 4,000,101 5,000,100 2.5 CNT Blocks 5,000,101 19,000,000 1 CNT Total Coin production 250 Million Reserve: 50 Million.

Centurion is already available for traders on the cryptocurrency exchangeExcambiorexfor more specifications please visit theofficial BitcoinTalk thread.

Mining and Mining Pools

Compared to other cryptocurrencies,Centurion has the most advanced and easy-to-use mining pools in place for the benefit of both experienced and first-time miners. The Centurion mining pools do not require miners to sign up and manually withdraw their accumulated share of cryptocurrency. Instead, they will be receiving funds directly in their respective wallets. This setup will not only ensure the ease of use but also reduce the risk of attacks on the mining pools wallets. The auto payouts are set to execute every few minutes.

The cryptocurrency differentiates its users into two distinct groups, the specialist group comprising of experienced cryptocurrency community members who have a better understanding of mining process, software, and various other aspects. The other group consisting of casual users who are not well-versed with the technicalities but are known to use cryptocurrency for transactions and trading purposes.

Centurion understands that casual users are going to outnumber the specialist users, playing an important role in driving the cryptocurrencys adoption. It offers them an opportunity to be part of the mining community by providing simple, pre-configured files that can be readily downloaded to start CPU and GPU mining.

Centurion4Children

In the Roman saga, Centurion was a hero that protected children and just as its namesake Centurion strives to improve the life of children worldwide, one child at a time.

Centurion4Children is donating 5 million Centurion coins to well-established charity organizations. It is also raising funds within the community and through thewebsite. The foundation is already represented in India, as well as Africa and Europe with official charity partnerships being revealed in March, 2017. Centurion4Children is currently raising funds for following causes:

Support a Child and its Entire Family Sponsor a Boy Safe Water for Children in Development Countries Sustainable Schools

Premine/Coin Reserve

To cover promotion costs and to kick-start the donations distributed by Centurion4Children, the coin has reserved 50 Million of its tokens.

The cryptocurrency platform will soon embark on a marketing campaign in association with Cryptonetwork ltd, a Dubai-based entity which has a network of people spread across India, Germany, Italy, Spain and several other countries. They will be involved in various promotional activities, including the sale of products and services for which they will receive rewards in Centurion and Bitcoin. An estimated 20 million Centurion tokens over a period of 5 years has been earmarked for such promotional purposes.

Centurion will donate 5 million of its reserved coins to charity and the remaining 50% will be used to reward early adopters, investors, related projects and talented individuals within the community working to improve the Centurion cryptocurrency.

About Centurion

Centurion is cryptocurrency that focuses mainly on the ease of use, ease of mining and faster transactions. The platform gives importance to existing cryptocurrency users and newbies alike. It has also partnered with Cryptonetwork ltd to increase usage and adoption of Centurion tokens.

Learn more about Centurion at http://www.centurionlab.org

Learn more about Centurion4Children at http://www.centurion4children.foundation

Media Contact

Contact Name:Sharon Kennedy Contact Email:press@centurionlab.org Location:London, UK

Centurion is the source of this content. Virtual currency is not legal tender, is not backed by the government, and accounts and value balances are not subject to consumer protections. This press release is for informational purposes only. The information does not constitute investment advice or an offer to invest.

Related Links Bitcoin PR Buzz Centurion

Press Release Service by Newswire.com

Original Source: Centurion Cryptocurrency Launches Today, Offering Extremely Fast Transactions While Supporting Their Own Children's Charity

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Centurion Cryptocurrency Launches Today, Offering Extremely Fast Transactions While Supporting Their Own ... - Digital Journal

ChronoBank, a blockchain-based initiative aimed at disrupting the short-term recruitment sector, has already raised just over $4 million in cryptocurrency with itscrowdfund which will end in only one week. It recently reached two new partnerships both in the employment and cryptocurrency spaces.

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ChronoBank has established a strategic partnership with Instahire, a team that is launching an app to expedite the recruitment process. Instahire is associated with the Clifford Wallace Agency, which supplies hospitality staffing to corporate events and restaurants and receives around 1,000 job applications per month. ChronoBanks team met with representatives from Instahire last week to discuss the possibility of a partnership between the two organisations. They say that both immediately saw the potential opportunities.

Instahire will launch in February 2017, first locally in Sydney and then to Australia in its entirety. The app is currently in the final stages of testing, ahead of first release, and hospitality businesses are actively being sought and added to the list. The immediate synergy for ChronoBank is to help grow the number of pre-registrations for both jobseekers and businesses.

Once the Instahire app is up and running with sufficient numbers of employers and employees, it will make sense to introduce the LH currency used on the ChronoBank platform. As an added incentive, the team are discussing the possibility of offering a free ChronoBank debit card with $20 credit for every new registered user, charging a 2% wage transfer fee.

ChronoBank has also partnered with theNEM cryptocurrency platform to create a separate wallet for the NEM ecosystem. ChronoBank will also issue Labour Hour (LH) tokens on the NEM network and use on-chain multi-sig, one of NEMs flagship security features.

NEM (New Economy Movement) was originally conceived as a clone of the Nxt blockchain, but rapidly developed into a completely new project with its own codebase. Its ecosystem has since grown with a market cap of around $60 million now, placing it in the top 10 of all cryptocurrencies.

It is important for us to deploy tokens on several blockchains, comments Sergei Sergienko, CEO of ChronoBank.This builds in redundancy and broadens our appeal across many initiatives and communities.

LH will leverage NEMs token asset facility that enables businesses to create blockchain tokens with specific properties and identifiers. The flexibility and ease of use of this system is highly appealing to us, continues Sergienko. NEMs developers have designed a powerful but nevertheless intuitive approach to token operations.

Aside from issuing tokens on the NEM network, ChronoBank is creating a dedicated wallet for the NEM blockchain. This will incorporate another powerful feature of the NEM blockchain: on-chain multi-signature transactions. Up to 32 signatories can be required to sign a transaction and, uniquely to NEM, signatures are propagated across the blockchain as soon as they are created. The developers explain that this means further signatories do not have to worry about an aggregating server going offline there is no single point of failure.

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Tax filing season began January 23rd, and with its arrival the IRS began rolling out its annual list of the so-called Dirty Dozen. The Dirty Dozen list is an educational effort to inform the public about scams, but it also offers insight into the tax enforcement issues on the IRSs radar.

Particular tax schemes often stay on the Dirty Dozen list for years until the IRS devises an effective strategy for combatting them (if it ever does). Changes on the list reveal new schemes or enforcement priorities that have caught the IRSs attention.

Of particular interest this year: whether cryptocurrency abuse will make the list. Cryptocurrencies, of which Bitcoin is the most well-known, are digital currencies not backed by any government. They trade on public markets called exchanges, and their use has grown rapidly in recent years. The IRS taxes cryptocurrency like property, not foreign currency.

The IRS is presently litigating a summons case against Coinbase Inc., a prominent U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange, in the Northern District of California. The IRS uses John Doe summons procedure when it believes some type of transaction is being used for tax avoidance, and it wants to find out the identities of currently-unknown taxpayers who have participated in those transactions. John Doe summonses have used to sniff out the identities of, for example, taxpayers using debit cards linked offshore, or holding accounts at certain banks suspected of abuse.

The IRSs resort to John Doe procedure suggests it views cryptocurrency dealing as a widespread tax evasion strategy. But its evidence to date proves only isolated abuse, not pervasive tax evasion. The IRSs summons is supported by interviews with 3 taxpayers who admitted to using cryptocurrency to avoid or evade taxes. But its demand for records is far broader: all cryptocurrency transactions with a U.S. jurisdictional hook at a large cryptocurrency exchange over a 3 year period.

Based in part on this mismatch of the IRSs evidence and the information it demands, some cryptocurrency users and Coinbase itself are litigating to fight the summons. But such efforts seldom succeed at blocking disclosure.

If the IRS viewed cryptocurrency as a common tool for tax abuse, one might expect it to serve John Doe summonses on other US-based cryptocurrency exchanges or payment applications. But it has not done so, probably for lack of evidence they have been abused. Of course, such evidence could emerge from new interviews or from Coinbase records, once produced and digested.

The IRSs disclosures to date create real questions about just how widespread cryptocurrency-based tax fraud really is. If the IRS includes cryptocurrency abuse on its dirty dozen list, it will be sending a signal that it views the Coinbase litigation not as a one-off skirmish, but the first front in a lengthy war to come.

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Tuesday, February 7, 2017 6:18 AM UTC

KeepKey, a Washington-based bitcoin hardware wallet provider, announced that Dash cryptocurrency is now in public beta on its wallet.

With this addition, KeepKey users can safely store Dash on the device and also can do that with KeepKey client itself. Dash will be joining the likes of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Dogecoin and the cryptocurrency stands in the seventh position among blockchain assets by market cap.

KeepKeys support for Dash also extends to ShapeShift. With the addition of Dash, users can now exchange 20 unique currency pairs in the KeepKey client, the announcement stated.

The KeepKey client will open a new stand-alone window that offers more accessible and user-friendly interface. Unlike the drop-down window, this window can be moved or resized.

Users can download Dash public beta from their chrome web store and must make sure to uninstall or disable any existing KeepKey Chrome Apps or Extensions prior to installing.

The bitcoin hardware wallet stated that it will be continuing to expand its first-class security platform to the digital assets based on the users' demand.

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BSP to watch cryptocurrency exchanges | SunStar - Sun.Star

Tuesday, February 7, 2017 4:35 AM UTC

Ireland-based cryptocurrency exchange platform Bitsane has added the support of AdvCash, DASH and Iconomi transactions. Bitsane users can now trade DASH and Iconomi (ICN) for Dollars and Euro and can also make deposits and withdrawals in AdvCash.

With the addition of more cryptocurrency, Bitsane aims to continue being a fast-growing, easy to use and a reliable solution for trading blockchain assets. Full trading functionalities are open for DASH and ICN and cross-pairs are also enabled.

After evaluating a number of crypto currencies for inclusion on our exchange platform, it soon became clear that customer demand for DASH and ICONOMI was particularly strong. That is why we are excited to be able to respond to our customers requests in this way, Aidas Rupsys, CEO at Bitsane, stated in a release.

Being an open source peer-to-peer cryptocurrency, DASH provides instant transactions (InstantSend), private untraceable transactions (PrivateSend) as well as token fungibility. On the other hand, ICN, a new cryptocurrency, enables investors to invest in the early stages of a project, making it possible for big profits.

Bitsane bitcoin exchange has also introduced the integration of AdvCash, a popular e-wallet service by Advanced Cash company. With this integration, users can deposit and withdraw money to/from their Bitsane account using AdvCash wallet.

The digital currency exchange platform stated that in the coming months, it aims to add more crypto-to-fiat and crypto-to-crypto trading pairs in a move to cater to their users needs.

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In the world of cryptocurrency, there is a lot of focus on bitcoin and other major currencies. However, there are quite a few altcoins who take the concept of creating a scarce supply to extreme measures. Although scarcity alone does not give a cryptocurrency intrinsic value by any means, it goes to show it can create an illusion of value over time.

The current cryptocurrency with the absolute lowest supply of coins to be recorded so far is bitGold. Its supply only has 10.2299 coins right now, all of which are quite valuable. In fact, the market cap of US$14,473 may look small, but it does mean every BTGOLD is worth over US$1,400. Unfortunately, bitGold only had less than US$100 worth of trading volume in the past 24 hours, making this cryptocurrency less than attractive to investors.

Rather than trying to create an altcoin with a fancy name, 42-coin simply illustrates the available coin supply. All 41.9999 coins have been brought into circulation, establishing a market cap of US$32,019. Not necessarily a favorite altcoin either, as its volume is even lower than bitGold right now.

Quite a few altcoins have tried to piggyback on the Bitcoin name, including bitBTC. With a supply of 43,8132 it is almost as scarce as 42-coin and generates slightly higher trading volumes. The market cap of US$46,854 is not bad, considering bitBTC has no real world use yet.

Not every altcoin with a smaller supply is worth next to nothing. Jinn is one of the few currencies bucking the trend as every one of the available 56,703 coins is worth US$6.56 each. This puts its market cap at well above the US$280,000 mark right now. Dont be surprised if you have never heard of Jinn, though, as its use cases are virtually non-existent.

One of the surprise entrants on the list of low-supply yet valuable alternative cryptocurrencies goes by the name Byteball. Under the GBYTE ticket, a total supply of 100,000 coins has been made available. With every coin surpassing the US$87.24 value, the market cap is on its way to surpass US$9m. Byteball also generated nearly US$120,000 in trading volume over the past 24 hours, making it quite successful in its own right.

When ZCash launched not too long ago, it became clear the supply of this currency would remain somewhat limited for quite some time. With just over half a million coins in circulation right now, the price per ZEC found a new home around the U$38.82 mark. It is intriguing to see this privacy-centric currency reach a market cap of nearly US$23m in such a short amount of time, though. ZCash continues to generate a fair amount of daily trading volume as well, making it quite a popular cryptocurrency.

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SibCoin is developed on a fork of Dash cryptocurrency platform. Dash is currently the sixth largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization.

The cryptocurrency industry is flooded with hundreds of altcoins. The open source nature of many cryptocurrency platforms offers an easy way to create and deploy new altcoins. However, unless these altcoins serve a specific purpose or solve a particular problem, they will eventually fade into oblivion.

SibCoin, short for Siberian Chervonets is one such altcoin which is out there on a specific mission meeting the blockchain needs of the Russian community. SibCoin is developed on a fork of Dash cryptocurrency platform. Dash is currently the sixth largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization. The highly successful SibCoin recently broke the record after its masternode network volume surpassed that of its parent coin. With increasing adoption, the gap between Dash and SibCoin continues to widen.

Unlike other cryptocurrencies, SibCoin has a unique advantage. The digital currency is created by a group of Russian developers, for the Russian community. In a country where the Western concepts are taken with a pinch of salt due to decades of mistrust, a home-grown cryptocurrency is much easier to accept.

Also, in Siberia and many other Russian cities, people feel that their contributions to the countrys economy are underappreciated. They are also fed up with corruption and bureaucratic inefficiencies plaguing the system. They believe that blockchain, with its transparency, can be a solution to all these issues.

SibCoin has broken the barrier which Bitcoin was unable to surpass since its inception. The creators of SibCoin have made further improvements to the Dash protocol by employing additional encryption algorithms to make it much better and more adaptable among the Russian population. At the same time, the SibCoin team is also involved in active promotion and awareness campaigns across Russia to familiarize the population to SibCoin and blockchain technology in general.

As the SibCoin community grows, the cryptocurrency could turn out to be the driving force behind the countrys blockchain revolution.

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SibCoin Meets the Needs of Russian Cryptocurrency Community ... - newsBTC