Monthly Archives: April 2017

Steps being taken to improve First Amendment rights at ECU – WNCT

Posted: April 19, 2017 at 9:43 am

GREENVILLE, N.C. (WNCT) East Carolina University has come under fire from some who feel as if their First Amendment rights are being violated.

The First Amendment discussion intensified in the Fall after some members of the ECU marching band knelt during the national anthem at a football game. Since then, some students have spoken out about free speech on campus.

On Monday, controversial figure Tomi Lahren spoke to a sold out crowd of 700 people in Hendrix Theatre. The university made the decision to exclude media during the event, prompting more concerns about First Amendment rights.

Later, ECU released a statement on the incident saying, Contracts for speakers do not allow for recordings which is why we asked to have the media availability. Not having media in some events is not unusual at ECU especially for events in Hendrix because its a smaller venue. We did tickets because the venue is small. Our larger venue, Wright was already booked for this date. This event was sold out and requires a valid student ID and ticket to enter.

Lahren was speaking about the importance of free speech to the crowd.

Free speech isnt just saying what you want to say, its also hearing things you dont want to hear, and thats okay, she said before the event.

But some students feel as if this may just be the latest example in their rights being infringed on.

Weve been working with ECU since the fall semester to change these policies, said Giovanni Triana, director of ECUs Turning Point USA.

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) is national group focusing on maintaining, and expanding, individual rights at universities. They rank universities using a red, yellow and green light based on policies relating to individual rights.

ECU was given a yellow light by FIRE, due in large part because students have to get prior permission to assemble, and once permission is granted, are limited in where they can gather.

This really infringes on students rights to free speech because protests and demonstrations are often spontaneous, said Samantha Harris, VP of Police Research for FIRE. You know something happens and part of the message is the immediacy.

Under new regulations set to be released by the university this week, freedoms would be expanded on campus. ECU Provost Ron Mitchelson said one of the changes would deal with prior permission being required to assemble.

Student groups can in fact express themselves at any time, and anywhere on this campus, he said.

Mitchelson said there would be exceptions, especially if the movement turned violent or disrupted classes.

Free speech at universities is also being debated by state lawmakers. A RepublicanHouse Bill would ensure rights of students werent being infringed on.

To read more about FIRE and see how other schools rank, click here.

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Airbnb Sues City of Miami, Alleges Violation of Hosts’ First Amendment Rights – Insurance Journal

Posted: at 9:43 am

The homesharing platform Airbnb is suing the city of Miami, where officials threatened to crack down on hosts who publicly protested regulations prohibiting short-term rentals.

According to the lawsuit filed Friday in Miami-Dade County by Airbnb and five individual hosts, the city violated the First Amendment rights of hosts who spoke up at a March 23 city commission meeting.

At that meeting, commissioners voted 3-2 to reaffirm zoning regulations prohibiting short-term rentals of single-family homes in Miamis residential areas. City Manager Daniel Alfonso then said code compliance officials could start targeting Airbnb hosts who placed their names and addresses on the record to attend the meeting and protest those regulations.

The City is now acting to make good on those threats, the lawsuit said. Airbnb stands together with its Miami hosts in opposing the Citys unlawful efforts, and in particular stands with the brave individuals who have come forward and seek to protect their rights as individual plaintiffs in this action.

Three off the hosts listed as plaintiffs in the lawsuit attended the March 23 meeting. Airbnb officials have said the company has 2,300 active hosts in Miami.

Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado, who opposes Airbnb, told The Miami Herald that Airbnb encouraged its hosts to attend the commission meeting, knowing they would have to provide their names and addresses in order to participate.

There is no First Amendment issue here and there is no retribution, Regalado said.

Regalado said the city attorney plans to send cease-and-desist orders to Airbnb hosts who spoke at the commission meeting. They could face fines of $250 per day.

The lawsuit asks the court to declare vacation rentals legal in residential areas of Miami, to stop the city from adopting new ordinances against short-term rentals, to prevent any legal action against the hosts and to deem unlawful the city commissions policy of requiring personal information in order to speak up at public meetings.

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Eighty-four Years After the Twenty-first Amendment, Are North Carolina’s Liquor Laws Ready for the Twenty-first Century? – The Independent Weekly

Posted: at 9:43 am

On a recent Friday night at Durham's Fullsteam Brewery, founder Sean Lilly Wilson is pointing to a color-coded menu, helping three customers on the opposite side of the bar decide what to order.

"I'm partial to this one," he says, recommending the Brumley Forest porter, "because we all went out and foraged these nuts to make this beer."

Fullsteam is packed with young couples, families, and dogs. And that's just how Wilson, who until recently was president of the N.C. Craft Brewers Guild, wants it. Before opening Fullsteam in 2010, he helped organize the Pop the Cap movement that in 2005 increased the limit on alcohol content in beers brewed and sold in North Carolina from 6 percent to 15 percent, part of a further-reaching effort to make the state's laws more brewery-friendly in order to foster the kind of community that has grown up around his Rigsbee Avenue business.

It's easy to tell here that North Carolina's craft beer scene is alive and well. Since Fullsteam opened, the number of breweries in the state has grown from 45 to 204, making North Carolina eleventh in the nation for beer production. Albeit with less clamor, the state's craft distilling industry has surged as well, from 13 establishments in 2013 to 46 now.

Some craft brewers and distillers, though, say the state's distribution laws are keeping their industries from reaching their full potential. Two bills currently in the General Assembly could change that by putting more leverage in the hands of alcohol producers. HB 500 would increase how much beer breweries can sell without bringing in an outside distributor; SB 155 would give distilleries more opportunities to directly sell liquor to customers. The debate over these bills pits North Carolina's Bible Belt roots against its more progressive metropolitan centers, entrenched political interests against the conservative cry for small government, and the way things were against the way things can be.

"It's economic development, it's innovation, it's tourismit's all the things that North Carolina loves to celebrate," Wilson says. "But at the same time, it comes down to yet another battle between red state, blue city."

In 1908, North Carolina became the first state in the South to ban the sale of alcohol, eleven years before the Eighteenth Amendment was ratified, and it didn't give counties the option to allow liquor sales until two years after Prohibition ended. In fact, when the Twenty-first Amendment came before the states in 1933, North Carolinaalong with South Carolinarefused to ratify it.

It was out of this post-Prohibition era that our current alcohol-control system originated. And like many octogenarians, it does not take kindly to change.

Like most states, North Carolina has a three-tier distribution system for beer sales. Producers and importers are the first tier, distributors the second, and retailers the third. North Carolina breweries that sell fewer than twenty-five thousand barrels of beer per year can get a wholesaler permit and distribute their own product. Once a brewery hits 25,001 barrels, though, it must sell all of its beer through a wholesaler and sign a distribution agreement giving that wholesaler exclusive rights to sell the product in a given territory. HB 500 seeks to raise the cap on self-distribution to two hundred thousand barrels per year, which state representative and bill sponsor Jon Hardister, R-Guilford, says is the middle ground among the fifteen states that allow limited self-distribution.

HB 500 marks the ninth attempt to raise the cap since it was set at twenty-five thousand in 2003. (Before that, it was ten thousand barrels.) With the support of a brewer-backed campaign called Craft Freedom and some suds-loving legislators, HB 500 appears to have momentum. The House Alcohol Beverage Control committee was expected to vote on the bill Wednesday morning.

When the cap was last raised, there were about twenty breweries and one hundred wholesalers to serve them, says Margo Metzger, executive director of the N.C. Craft Brewers Guild. Today, she estimates, there are about forty independent beer wholesalers that each markets about 980 products. For small breweries, this means competing with larger brands for a wholesaler's attention, and therefore tap and shelf space.

Wilson says the barrel cap is "always on my mind" as he projects his company's growth. Fullsteam, which is on track to brew about seven thousand barrels of beer this year, self-distributes and uses a wholesaler, both locally and in three other states.

"The more successful we are as a self-distribution brewery, the more we're actually going to need a wholesaler as well." Wilson says. "Even in our local market, we rely on a wholesaler to penetrate deep because we just don't have those relationships."

For those rallying to raise the cap, HB 500 is a free market issuebreweries should be allowed to decide if and when they want to hire a distributor, not be forced to retool successful business models to make sure the middle tier gets a cut. Indeed, the John Locke Foundation, Americans for Prosperity, and the Civitas Institute have all voiced support for raising the cap, if not eliminating it altogether.

Hardister, the House majority whip, argues that there should be no cap at all.

"Our laws are outdated," he says. "Obviously our laws are not completely terrible, because then there would be no growth in the industry. But there is potential to make these businesses more successful, and that involves getting the government out of the way."

Just three breweries in the stateNoDa Brewing Company, Olde Mecklenburg Brewery (both in Charlotte), and Red Oak Brewery in Whitsettare pushing the current barrel cap. But given the industry's growth, that likely won't be the case for long.

"All you have to do is look at the curvature and the time it takes to change these different complex laws with a lot of entrenched interests to know that you have to be thinking about the future," Wilson says.

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Web2Tor Vs Tor Browser The Merkle – The Merkle

Posted: at 9:42 am

Internetusers who value online privacy and anonymity will often rely on the Tor Browser to access websites. Using this browser, they can also access the so-called .onion websites, which are not indexed by regular internet search engines. However, the Web2Tor service provides an alternative way to access these sites. It is time to look at how both solutions compare to one another and figure out which solution is best.

Although the Onion.cab platform provides a convenient way for users to access Tor Onion sites, there are some drawbacks to using such a service. The protocol used by Onoin.cab is known as a Web2Tor connection, which serves as a reverse proxy to access the Tor network. However, the user does not need to install the Tor Browser to do so, which makes it seem more appealing to less tech-savvy users.

As one would expect, such services are not unnecessarily privacy-centric by any means. All services such as Onion.cab do is listening on port 80 or 443 on a clearnet server and then proxy requests via Tor to access the .onion site in question. There is no end-to-end encryption involved either, which means anyone can snoop on the connection even though it seemingly occurs over the Tor network. For anyone looking for more privacy, that is anything but positive news.

Moreover, a Web2Tor service provider can see what users are doing at all times. They are even capable of injecting content into the browser, without the user content. This does not mean Onion.cab will do so, yet some services have done so in the past. Moreover, internet service providers can see customers use these hidden services to hide their internet activity, which is not beneficial either. Then again, that is the price users pay for this convenient solution.

To make matters even worse, using Web2Tor services means the service provider will set various cookies to track users across hidden services on the Onion network. Even if the users IP address changes, the service provider can still track users as long as they keep relying on the same intermediary service to access Tor sites. All things considered, there is no valid reason why anyone would not use the Tor Browser directly, assuming they care about online privacy at all.

Judging from all of the above, there is no real reason not to use the Tor Browser instead. The browser is designed to protect user information and privacy at all times. While it requires users to download a piece of software, that only needs to be done one time. It is no different than installing Chrome, Firefox, or Opera on a new computer either. Anyone who wants to access Onion sites and retain user privacy is better off with the Tor Browser. After all, it provides end-to-end encryption to all users free of charge.

Since the Tor Browser hides online activist from the internet service provider, users can browse the web in a privacy-centric environment. Do keep in mind the experience will be slower compared tor regular browsing, as all traffic needs to pass through relay points. All things considered, anyone looking to browse the web anonymously or access .Onion sites should stick with the Tor Browser instead of using online intermediary services.

If you liked this article, follow us on Twitter @themerklenews and make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to receive the latest bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and technology news.

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Here’s How to Protect Your Privacy From Your Internet Service Provider – BillMoyers.com

Posted: at 9:42 am

Here is a list of measures you can take to protect your privacy after FCC repeal.

Heres How to Protect Your Privacy [...]

We shouldnt have to take extraordinary steps to limit how our personal information can be used, but that is clearly something that we are all forced to do now, writes Amul Kalia. (Photo by Blogtrepreneur/ flickr CC 2.0)

This post originally appeared at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

We pay our monthly internet bill to be able to access the internet. We dont pay it to give our internet service provider (ISP) a chance to collect and sell our private data to make more money. This was apparently lost on congressional Republicans as they voted to strip their constituents of their privacy. Even though our elected representatives have failed us, there are technical measures we can take to protect our privacy from ISPs.

Bear in mind that these measures arent a replacement for the privacy rules that were repealed or would protect our privacy completely, but they will certainly help.

Pick an ISP that respects your privacy

It goes without saying: If privacy is a concern of yours, vote with your wallet and pick an ISP that respects your privacy. Here is a list of them.

Given the dismal state of ISP competition in the US, you may not have this luxury, so read on for other steps you can take.

Opt-out of supercookies and other ISP tracking

In 2014, Verizon was caught injecting cookie-like trackers into their users traffic, allowing websites and third-party ad networks to build profiles without users consent. Following criticism from US senators and FCC action, Verizon stopped auto-enrolling users and instead made it opt-in. Users now have a choice of whether to participate in this privacy-intrusive service.

BY Peter Eckersley and Jeremy Gillula | March 28, 2017

You should check your account settings to see if your ISP allows you to opt-out of any tracking. It is generally found under the privacy, marketing, or ads settings. Your ISP doesnt have to provide this opt-out, especially in light of the repeals of the privacy rules, but it can never hurt to check.

HTTPS Everywhere

EFF makes this browser extension so that users connect to a service securely using encryption. If a website or service offers a secure connection, then the ISP is generally not able to see what exactly youre doing on the service. However, the ISP is still able to see that youre connecting to a certain website. For example, if you were to visit https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere, your ISP wouldnt be able to tell that youre on the HTTPS Everywhere page, but would still be able to see that youre connecting to EFFs website at https://www.eff.org.

While there are limitations of HTTPS Everywhere when it comes to your privacy, with the ISP being able to see what youre connecting to, its still a valuable tool.

If you use a site that doesnt have HTTPS by default, email them and ask them to join the movement to encrypt the web.

VPNs

In the wake of the privacy rules repeal, the advice to use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to protect your privacy has dominated the conversation. However, while VPNs can be useful, they carry their own unique privacy risk. When using a VPN, youre making your internet traffic pass through the VPN providers servers before reaching your destination on the internet. Your ISP will see that youre connecting to a VPN provider, but wont be able to see what youre ultimately connecting to. This is important to understand because youre exposing your entire internet activity to the VPN provider and shifting your trust from the ISP to the VPN.

In other words, you should be damn sure you trust your VPN provider to not do the shady things that you dont want your ISP to do.

VPNs can see, modify, and log your internet traffic. Many VPN providers make promises to not log your traffic and to take other privacy protective measures, but it can be hard to verify this independently since these services are built on closed platforms. For example, a recent study found that up to 38 percent of VPN apps available for Android contained some form of malware or spyware.

Below, we detail some factors that should be considered when selecting a VPN provider. Keep in mind that these are considerations for someone who is interested in preventing their ISP from snooping on their internet traffic, and not meant for someone who is interested in protecting their information from the government a whistleblower, for instance. As with all things security and privacy-related, its important to consider your threat model.

BY Center for Responsive Politics staff | March 31, 2017

Now that you know what to look for in a VPN provider, you can use these two guides as your starting point for research. Though keep in mind that a lot of the information in the guides is derived from or given by the provider, so again, it requires us to trust their assertions.

Tor

If you are trying to protect your privacy from your internet company, Tor Browser perhaps offers the most robust protection. Your ISP will only see that you are connecting to the Tor network, and not your ultimate destination, similar to VPNs.

Keep in mind that with Tor, exit node operators can spy on your ultimate destination in the same way a VPN can, but Tor does attempt to hide your real IP address, which can improve anonymity relative to a VPN.

Users should be aware that some websites may not work in the Tor browser because of the protections built in. Additionally, maintaining privacy on Tor does require users to alter their browsing habits a little. See this for more information.

Its a shame that our elected representatives decided to prioritize corporate interests over our privacy rights. We shouldnt have to take extraordinary steps to limit how our personal information can be used, but that is clearly something that we are all forced to do now. EFF will continue to advocate for internet users privacy and will work to fix this in the future.

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Weekly Round-Up and Cryptocurrency Markets Update – CryptoCoinsNews

Posted: at 9:41 am

Last week saw Bitfury striking a deal with the Ukranian government to put the latters data on a Blockchain platform. The deal will ensure blockchain recordings for areas like public health and services, state registers, energy and social security.

In a twist, High Tech Private Equity Fund SICAV plc is reported to have acquired nChain, a Blockchain company associated with Wright Craig, the man who once claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto. The company plans to make available their intellectual property assets to the blockchain community via royalty-free licensing and open sourcing.

An initial Coin Offer intended for mining activities to support the signaling of Bitcoin Unlimited has been halted as a result of not reaching its goal. The ICO was allegedly linked to Chinese Angel Investor in Bitcoin and Ethereum Classic, Chandler Guo.

On the Bitcoin Network scaling front, the worlds largest Bitcoin mining pool, F2Pool has declared its support for Segwit. Wang Chun, Owner of F2Pool revealed on Friday that 56 percent of his network members are in support of Segwit.

Eventually, the advent toward mainstream adoption of blockchain gets after Mark Carney, Bank of Englands Governor, claimed blockchain technology can save banks tens of billions of dollars a year. The governor was speaking International Fintech Conference last week in London, where he further revealed that the next generation of Britains interbank wire system will be blockchain-compatible.

Bitcoins current price recovery is outstanding despite the fact that the scaling debate is still raging on. Some experts believe it is being driven by mainstream adoption in Japan. As at 22:00 GMT, Bitcoin has appreciated by 0.22 percentage point and its market value was $1180.73 maintaining the number one position on CoinMarketCap.

Ethereum is still holding on to the 2nd spot and has kept the velocity from the current altcoin rally although it lost 0.82 percent today. Its market price was $48.49.

After a stratospheric rise that resulted in Ripple ousting Dash from number three, it has slow down to some degree. The cross-border transfer crypto with KYC was selling at $0.033308 with a 1.33 percent downward adjustment.

The battle for number four is so titanic. For three days now, Litecoin and Dash has been dislodging each other to take over momentarily. However, at the time of filing this report, Dash was reigning with a 0.21 percent depreciation, posting an exchange rate of $75.23.

Litecoin also took a fall of 1.02% and was being sold for $10.71. It must be stated that the decision to implement Segwit has boosted its price and market cap.

Even though Monero was recently indicted in a finding that found out that some of its transactions are traceable, it doesnt seem to be affected much and is still at the 6th position. It scored a negative 1.76 percentage point and the exchanges listed it for $20.38.

Moreso Ethereum didnt have a good time either. At number seven, it could be bought for $2.65 and dip 0.42 percent.

With a market price of $0.024212 and 0.48 percent upward gain, NEM kept its 8th position intact. The consistency for the Smart Contract platform is impressive.

Angur with the selling rate of $11.52 and a 2.55 percent upward adjustment maintained number 9 as well as the biggest gain on top 10.

In a surprising move, PIVX has pushed Maidsafecoin to the 11th position and it is now counted among the top 10 Cryptos on CoinMarketCap. This anon digital currency in a few months has established itself among the elites. It bagged a 0.93 percent growth and its price was $2.01.

On the top 20, Factom rose by a significant 14.37 percent. It is one of the Cryptos below top 10 that must be watched keenly. Sadly Bitconnect which was at top 10 briefly on Wednesday fell negative 26.63 percent to be the biggest loser.

Disclaimer: The above references are an opinion from our Op-Ed. It is not intended to be investment advice. Seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice.

Featured image from Shutterstock.

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CME Group files patent for comprehensive cryptocurrency derivatives system – Brave New Coin

Posted: at 9:41 am

Formerly known as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group,CME Group is the largest, most diverse derivatives marketplace in the world, handling an average of 3 billion contracts worth approximately $1 quadrillion annually.

The company recently filed a US Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) application describing a comprehensive system for a derivative contracts system allowing cryptocurrency miners to offset risk.

- CME Group

While mining costs are generally known upfront, estimating income generated by a mining operation can be extremely difficult. There is uncertainty involved in predicting how many bitcoins a given mining computer will mine over time, uncertainty in terms of how much the mined bitcoins will be worth in terms of legal tender (e.g. USD), and uncertainty in trying to predict what the Bitcoin difficulty factor will be in the future.

Derivative contracts allow investors to hedge these risk by providing offsetting compensation in case of an undesired event, and can be used to allow miners to hedge risks associated with a virtual currency's difficulty factor or with the expected yield of a computer performing mining operations.

Because the long-term growth rate of the difficulty factor is impossible to know in advance, by taking a long position in the contract, or being long a call option on the contract, a miner can lock in a projected growth rate of the difficulty factor, the patent filing explains. If the network hash rate grows faster than anticipated, the income from mining may fall, but the variation and settlement of the futures or the funds received by exercising a cash-settled call option contract would cover the loss. On the other hand, if the difficulty factor grows more slowly than anticipated or falls, the contract would lose value or the call option premium would expire as worthless, but a miner would make more money than expected on mining operations.

- CME Group

Derivative contracts described in the patent application can be created to estimate the income that a miner can expect to produce based on the operations and configuration of a selected computer system. The value of these contracts at settlement can be tied to an index value that is determined based on the estimated or actual number of virtual currency rewards granted over a designated time period.

The estimated or actual transaction fees associated with all virtual currency blocks generated during a designated time period can also be accounted for. An expected yield can be calculated based on a hash rate, in order to estimate the amount of virtual currency that a virtual currency miner can expect to produce using a given mining configuration. The expected yield can then be converted to a real currency value using a known conversion factor, and this real currency value can be used to generate a settlement value for the associated contract.

The conversion factor can be included in the definition of the contract to be cleared and can be used to determine how much the contract will pay on settlement. For example, the conversion factor may describe a conversion rate from the received difficulty factor to a predetermined real currency (e.g., USD).

A separate example contract can also be used by mining hardware manufacturers to hedge their product inventory. As the difficulty factor rises, mining computers may become less marketable, so taking a long position in the generated contract, or being long a call option on the generated contract, would allow manufacturers to lock in a projected growth rate of the difficulty factor and hedge against the risk of falling hardware prices.

- CME Group

The patent includes far more than derivatives contracts. The filing describes a financial computer system that also lists the contract, receives, and matches orders, prior to settlement by a clearing computer. The contract may take the form of a futures contract, an option contract, an OTC swap contract, or another financial instrument.

The system may also include an electronic trade engine, while a user database may include information identifying traders and other users of financial computer system. A match engine module may match bid and offer prices for contracts configured in accordance with aspects of the disclosure. Moreover, a trade database may be included to store historical information identifying trades and descriptions of trades. Furthermore, an order book module may be included to compute or otherwise determine current bid and offer prices.

The computer network system is only one example of a suitable system and is not intended to suggest any limitation as to the scope of use or functionality of the various embodiments of the disclosure, the patent application states. Aspects of the present disclosure can be implemented with computing devices and networks for exchanging, transmitting communicating, administering, managing and facilitating trading information including, but not limited to virtual currency spot rates, network hash rates, and virtual currency difficulty factors.

- CME Group

CME Group launched a pair of price indexes in November, for Bitcoin reference rate, while the companys digital securities trading platform, CME Direct, was recently chosen to become the home of trading for RMG digital gold, a blockchain-based security product offered by the UKs Royal Mint. Sandra Ro, CME Groups Head of Digitization headed both the RMB and index projects, and is listed as one of three inventors on the derivatives patent.

Despite Satoshi Nakamoto giving Bitcoin and blockchain technology freely to the world through an MIT Open Source license, Bank of America, R3 CEV, BitGo, and Coinbase are just a few of the many companies filing patents on intellectual property in the Bitcoin and blockchain space.

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BitConnect Coin Blasts Off Faster than Bitcoin in Cryptocurrency – Card Trak

Posted: at 9:41 am

In less than one year, the BitConnect online community has gained over 50,000 members around the world. The most dominant and valuable cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, took over two years to reach the same market price of the new altcoin.

BitConnect Coin is designed to offer financial freedom to the masses by reducing if not eliminating the dependency on centralized banking and financial institutions. In addition, the cryptocurrency is also more secure than conventional financial instruments, eliminating the chances of identity theft and other issues that currently plague fiat based electronic payments infrastructure.

BitConnect Coin offers a new level of empowerment to its community members. Members can connect socially and financially to a secure, protected community of investors and lenders. By connecting with the community, BCC users can increase the value of their coins in the wallets as the cryptocurrencys price increases.

BitConnect has also added a news department, engaged with online leaders like Kim Dotcom, successfully launched its own digital currency, added a proprietary Bitcoin wallet, launched an innovative global Bitcoin lending program, and surged from zero traffic to a top 100k Alexa ranking. It is the worlds fastest growing online Bitcoin community.

BitConnect Coin is a Scrypt (PoW/PoS) consensus algorithm based cryptocurrency with a finite number of tokens. The total number of BCCs are limited to 28 million. The limited number tokens ensure constant appreciation of value in the light of ever increasing demand.

BitConnect Coin facilitates quick transactions between wallets allowing people to make instant transactions between each other or to pay for goods or services. Unlike Bitcoin, the block generation time on BCC platform is 2 minutes. These features prevent transaction backlogs and at the same time also proves to be more rewarding during the PoW phase, where miners stand to receive a block reward of 10 BCCs.

As more people adopt the cryptocurrency, it is only going to get stronger to become one of the top altcoins in the market.

BitConnect is an open source platform for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency users to earn, learn, buy and sell bitcoins to other trusted community members directly.

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Cryptocurrency Investment Cues From the South Seas Bubble – CoinDesk

Posted: at 9:41 am

Chris DeRose is a software developer, bitcoin evangelist, public speaker and lead developer of Drop Zone.

In this opinion piece, DeRosedraws parallels between the South Seas Bubble of the 1700s and the current craze for ICOs, warning that the parallels between the two are "uncanny".

***

Ye Fools in Great-Britain, repent in your Folly

Bewailing the Loss of your Money and Lands,

Unto your Vexation, 'tis fled from the Nation,

And Blockheads and Ninnies have got it in hand."

The Bubblers Medley, circa 1720 (Yes, really)

***

The Spanish King, Charles the second, was dead. And there were no heirs apparent to his throne. The War of the Spanish Succession had begun.

With Spain's weakened leadership, and unable to defend its territory, a power vacuum formed through which nearly nearly all European nations vied for control of Spain's undefended land.

The war that started in 1701, raged on for nearly nearly 15years and ended by treaty. The war ended without anyone clear victor, but the treaty resulted in significant changes to European and American territorial boundaries.

What was left of the eviscerated Spanish mainland was given to Philip V, a member of the French nobility who held the closest genealogical claim to the Spanish throne. What was received by Britain and France was the title to 'New World' territory in North and South America. What was received by all participants, was debt and the need to build and rebuild trade routes upon the new redistributed land. Enter Britain's 'South Seas Company'.

The South Seas Company was formed via a partnership between the British parliament and the Bank of England in the year 1711.

The structure of this company was like many others in the 17thand 18thcenturies. The company came into existence through a royal charter, and was given a monopoly on part of the monarchy's commerce. In the case of the South Seas company, this monopoly was granted over the trade in the newly conquered Spanish territory.

At the time of commencement, shares in the South Seas Company were primarily issued by conversion of war debt. The debt from the Spanish War, assessed at 10m, was assigned to the South Seas company for repayment. And at the option of an existing bondholder, that debt could instead be converted into equity into the new venture.

It was a good deal for the state, as the debt was removed from its books and import tax revenues could be collected from the company. And for a while, it was a great deal for debt and shareholders. So, when the Treaty of Utrecht was signed in 1713 by all parties involved in the war,the ship that was the South Seas Company was ready to set sail.

It's tough to say just where the South Seas 'bubble' itself started, as the run up was caused by the culmination of many small decisions, each made with the best of intentions for shareholders.

Marketing for the South Seas Company was unusually aggressive out the gates, with fantastic tales being told about the spoils awaiting export from the new land. Further, there was a complex front-running strategy that enabled legislatively privileged insiders to buy government bonds before the announcement, and 'sell into the pump'.

Later accounts of this time would reveal that the marketers of this security knew the tales of wealth were not sustainable at the time, but felt that, with the capital received, surely some profit would follow. Sure enough, as the claims of surefire returns were being propagated, the South Seas Bubble began its ascent.

Unique to the South Seas company's launch, and for the first time in British history, investors were courted from outside those with close ties to the monarchy. The perceived potential to share in the gains of this elite group were too good an offer for the common man to pass down. And, the buying and selling of the stock developed into a new form of gambling in which the country as a whole began to play.

As the South Seas Company's valuation began to grow, and expectations of great wealth compounded, promoters of the South Seas Company started to realize that they too could emulate itssuccessby creating their own companies and issuing stocks. For the ICO speculators of today, this is where the bubble begins to get significantly more interesting.

Initially, these 'bubble companies' (Yep, that's just what they were called) had plausible enough goals. In a time that preceded the invention of the 'white paper', these companies instead drafted marketing literature that was quick to read and high on aspiration.

The initial companies were fairly benign in their focus. And, at first, most companies were focused on insurance, product and utility endeavors. To quote the canon of buttcoin, these companies could fairly be synopsized as having 'but with the new world' goals for their corporate strategy.

Over time, as the public's appetite for extraordinary investment opportunities continued to grow, the claims of these bubble companies grew equally extraordinary. No regulatory oversight or specialist review was needed at the time, so claimants began to pitch companies which claimed they would achieve: "the making iron with pit coal", "the transmutation of quicksilver into a malleable fine metal", "the making of rape-oil" and, of course, "a wheel for perpetual motion".

At the height of the madness, the most famously ethereal company of the bubble promised, without irony, "a company for carrying out an undertaking of great advantage, but nobody to know what it is".

As the mania grew, promoters and proto-exchange operators began to appear on the streets of London. 'Stock-jobbers', as they came to be known, began to market their paper on the busy streets between london's coffee houses.

The stock-jobbers would buy and sell the newest schemes to passers-by for a commission on the sale. These promoters were notoriously unscrupulous, and as the front men for many of the unsavory offerings, and they would also become the first to be held responsible by buyers whose investments fell short of the promise.

Adjusted for inflation, at its peak, the South Seas Company's market cap would equal $4tnin 'real' (inflation adjusted) terms. Nearly all the country's bureaucracy, aristocracy and businessmen held significant exposure to the scheme. Even Isaac Newton was heavily invested in the company before its downfall. Oracles, it would seem, were equally unable to predict outcomes in times of manic fervor.

As the South Seas company reached its peak valuation, a confluence of events caused its downfall. In December of 1719, having yet failed to achieve any profit, the South Seas company was unable to pay its year-end dividend to shareholders.

This default started a snowball of action amongst politicians and bankers. Some bankers began to realize that increasing valuations could not continue indefinitely. Meanwhile, politicians began to see that investments in bubble companies, which were still technically illegal, competed with investment stake in their South Seas Company holdings.

In January of 1720, a parliamentary commission was held on what should be done about the fervor. Through a series of compromises and scandals, the commission concluded that only companies with a royal charter could be bought and sold. By June of that year, the Bubble Act reaffirmed the illegality of bubble corporations and put an end to the trading of their stocks.

The final nail in the coffin was due to an investor credit program of which thefirst payments were due in August of 1720. At that time, investors began to sell their holdings to make due on the payment, and this started the initial selloff.

What happened next, should be unsurprising. Bankruptcies began, and within months had reached all time highs. As the losses mounted, then compounded, everyone was affected. Notable bankruptcy included that of Isaac Newton, who upon losing the near entirety of his life savings proclaimed:

"I can calculate the movement of stars, but not the madness of men."

By the end of 1720, the price of the South Seas company stock had fallen 90%.

Investors revolted against the stock-jobbers, the company founders, and the politicians who they blamed for losing their wealth. The mobs formed, and justice was demanded. Extraordinary claims that were once pitched and traded as foregone conclusions, were finally tested. Many of those who were responsible for the extreme claims fled the country. Those that remained faced jail and asset confiscations.

Though many of the stock-jobbers escaped prosecution, they faced an inordinate public backlash in the form of mockery, ridicule, and disdain. Famous amongst this backlash is a lengthy written condemnation of their work by Daniel DeFoe (the author of "Robinson Crusoe"), a popular deck of playing cards commemorating the folly, and numerous plays written to ridicule the stock-jobbing profession.

With the resulting contraction of the entire economy's growth, the South Seas Bubble was the great depression of its century, and the Bubble Act remained in effect thereafter for over 100years, restricting the growth of investment markets until it was finally overturned in 1825.

Unregulated, and without peer review, the investment economy had turned into a perverse and unsustainable Keynesian beauty contest. The South Seas Bubble never returned a profit on its operating expenses during the entirety of the bubble, and what little trade it did attempt (mostly in slaves) wasperformed at a net financial loss.

If it's not clear by now, the parallels between the South Seas Bubble and today's ICO market are... uncanny.

As a new class of investor was given access to a securities market for the first time, and without any regulatory safeguards, this market quickly degenerated into a gambling racket where unscrupulous businessmen catered solely to the speculative markets, without any concern for long-term sustainability and non-speculative capital inflow.

Not only that, these pitchmen starved out investment in modest, but actually profitable endeavors. The burden of this environment resulted in substantial externality costs borne by the entirety of the market.

Given the chance, investors will rationally jump at the opportunity to be the second greatest fool. And to promote long-shot schemes over modest and humble endeavors.

Whether bitcoin itself goes the way of the South Seas Company has yet to be determined. But what is certain is that, if and when the SEC chooses to restrict the growth of this sector, much like British parliament's enactment of the Bubble Act of 1720, prices for these 'undertakings of great advantage' will quickly fall to zero.

Sailing ship image via shutterstock

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, CoinDesk.

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Self-Declared Bitcoin Creator Sees Company He Inspired Sold to Private Equity – Investopedia

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Self-Declared Bitcoin Creator Sees Company He Inspired Sold to Private Equity
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In the ever-changing world of cryptocurrencies, Craig Wright has become something of a fixture. The 46-year old computer scientist, who claims to have invented Bitcoin, has garnered both massive praise and skeptical criticism from those on different ...

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