The Blockchain Data Problem Is Bigger Than You Think

https://www.coindesk.com/blockchain-data-problem-bigger-think/

China National Radio Questions Legality of OKEx Bitcoin Futures Trading

https://www.coindesk.com/china-national-radio-questions-legality-of-okex-bitcoin-futures-trading/

Reddit Aims to Relaunch Bitcoin Payments with ETH and LTC Too

https://www.coindesk.com/reddit-aims-to-relaunch-bitcoin-payments-with-eth-and-ltc-too/

Sell In May and Go Away? Not for Bitcoin Bulls

https://www.coindesk.com/sell-in-may-and-go-away-not-for-bitcoins-bulls/

Inclusive Insurance? Businesses See Blockchain As Change-Enabler

https://www.coindesk.com/inclusive-insurance-businesses-see-blockchain-change-enabler/

Majority of Businesses Have No Plans for Blockchain, Gartner Finds

https://www.coindesk.com/majority-businesses-no-plans-blockchain-gartner-finds/

New Ideas Energize Ethereum Though True Signaling Solution Still Elusive

https://www.coindesk.com/new-ideas-energize-ethereum-though-true-signaling-solution-still-elusive/

🚀 WeiX🚀 is a peer to peer crypto exchange specifically designed for new tokens.

Learn More - http://ow.ly/Hc5K30jN8l2

👉 Follow us
✅ Medium: http://bit.ly/2uncdXS
✅ Telegram: http://t.me/WeiCrowd
✅ LinkedIn: http://bit.ly/2pBRVVe

#WeiCrowd #WEIS #Whitelisting

Daily Volatility Decline? Bitcoin Has Seen $1K Range 43 Times In 2018

https://www.coindesk.com/daily-volatility-decline-bitcoin-seen-1k-range-43-times-2018/

$750: Ether's Price Hits Highest Level Since Early March

https://www.coindesk.com/750-ethers-price-hits-highest-level-since-early-march/

BITFENCE ICO

BitFence is advanced cybersecurity solution that will proactively identify hackers and distribute their profile information to the protected community over blockchain.

What is a BitFence and why should I care about HNY tokens?

Using blockchain technology we invented (and patented!) a totally brilliant way to give everyone unfair advantage over hackers. We completely remove hackers from your network, either corporate or home.

HNY Token is a utility token designed to be a proof-of-threat, a token that a person running our hacker-miner (StingMiner) will receive in exchange of hacker's digital fingerprint. We collect, analyze and correlate these fingerprints and provide 0-day thread feeds / blocking lists for our subscribers. Subscription packages and routers priced in HNY tokens beat in quality, speed and price all global threat competition.

When token generation event starts?

✅ Pre-Sale: April 1, 2018; 0:00 UTC
✅ Sale: May 1, 2018; 0:00 UTC - June 30, 2018; 0:00 UTC

Who can participate in the token sale?

HNY token is the utility token and everyone is welcome to participate. Please make sure you read and understand whitepaper and token sale terms before participating.

When the tokens are distributed and do you use escrow?

HNY token sale contract mints and delivers tokens to your ETH address auromatically after receiving your payment, so there is no escrow necessary. HNY tokens for payments made through a ShapeShift with Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, will be distributed withing 24 hours after successful payment confirmation.

Website
Telegram

Venezuela Offers India Discounted Oil to Boost Petro Confidence
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/venezuela-offers-india-discounted-oil-boost-petro-confidence/

Venezuela has reportedly (http://www.business-standard.com/article/markets/venezuela-offers-india-30-discount-on-crude-but-with-cryptocurrency-rider-118042900018_1.html) offered the Indian government a fantastic deal: a 30 percent discount on crude oil imports. The only condition being that the oil must be purchased through the nation’s newly minted cryptocurrency, the Petro.
Venezuelan Crisis  The release of the currency comes as Maduro’s government attempts to address a number of pressing financial issues that have pushed Venezuela into a crippling recession. As a nation heavily dependent on oil exports, the dramatic fall in crude oil price hit the South American country especially hard. The recent fall has been dramatic with increased production and reduced consumption plummeting the world price from above $125 per barrel in 2012 to less than $30 by January of 2016. The IMF predicts (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-25/imf-sees-venezuela-inflation-soaring-to-13-000-percent-in-2018) that, by the end of year, Venezuela will have experienced a GDP decline of nearly 50 percent since 2013. In response to the political controversy surrounding the election of President Maduro and substantial evidence of human rights abuse, the Trump administration in August 2017 announced (https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/Programs/Documents/13808.pdf) additional sanctions against Venezuela and encouraged its allies to follow a similar course. This further hampering of the economy, which is expected to contract 15 percent by the end of the year, turned the situation dire. In November, the government announced (https://www.economist.com/news/americas/21731019-presidents-mysterious-announcement-raises-more-questions-it-answers-venezuela-asks) that it could no longer service its foreign debt of $105 billion, “roughly ten times Venezuelan foreign exchange reserves,” and that a restructuring was imminent.

To add to the list of troubles, the country’s rampant inflation has caused a desperate shortage of paper currency. The USD gained 3,400 percent against the Bolívar in 2017 and is projected (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-25/imf-sees-venezuela-inflation-soaring-to-13-000-percent-in-2018) to gain another 13,000 percent by the end of this year. Banks have been forced to limit cash withdrawals to the equivalent of just a few cents a day, while small businesses have been forced to stop accepting the Bolívar as payment in favor of foreign currencies.The PetroBy the end of 2017, Venezuela found itself in an unfortunate financial position; economic ostracism as a result of U.S. sanctions had closed off access to almost all traditional means of fiscal rescue. Given the nation’s short list of friends and the nature of its economic crisis, it resorted (unsurprisingly) to leveraging its most lucrative and abundant commodity in tandem with the prevailing enthusiasm that continues to surround cryptocurrency. Petro will be an instrument for Venezuela’s economic stability and financial independence, coupled with an ambitious and global vision for the creation of a freer, more balanced and fairer international financial system. – Petro white paperIn December of 2017, Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro announced that his government was planning the release of the world’s first digital currency issued by a sovereign nation. The initial presale on February 20, 2018, saw the release of 82.4 million Petros out of what is believed to be a total purse of 100 million PTR. In theory, the currency is backed by the nation’s oil reserves, the largest in the world totaling nearly 300 billion barrels, with a single coin representing a single barrel on a non-transferable basis.Venezuela has guaranteed its buyers that the Petro will carry the full weight of legal tender, acceptable as payment for fees and taxes and exchangeable for the nation’s hard currency, the Bolívar. Reports (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-30/maduro-sets-venezuela-s-debut-cryptocurrency-sale-for-february) have also stated that Venezuela is looking into the possibility of integrating the currency into its compulsory state ID system, the Cédula de Identidad, which is currently used for claiming government benefits and controlling food distribution. The ReleaseThe lead up to and aftermath of the Petro’s release has been rather chaotic, with poor communication and conflicting reports creating mass confusion regarding the details of the new asset. The Petro’s initial white paper, which seemed to be edited on an almost rolling basis even after the ICO, had the currency pinned as an ERC20 token that would utilize the Ethereum payment rail. The buyer’s manual, however, stated that the coin would be a PTR token that would operate on the NEM blockchain. The discrepancy between the two documents was not clarified until the February 20 pre-sale date when both Maduro (https://twitter.com/PresidencialVen/status/966110687310336000) and the NEM Foundation (https://twitter.com/NEMofficial/status/966145370060279808?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ccn.com%2Feth-nem-confusion-surrounding-venezuelas-petro-token-blockchain%2F&tfw_creator=FranciscoMemor&tfw_site=Cryptocoinsnsews)confirmed via Twitter that the Petro did indeed operate as a NEM application. In March, Time Magazine confirmed (http://time.com/5206835/exclusive-russia-petro-venezuela-cryptocurrency/) the rumor that Russia had secretly worked with Venezuela to design the Petro as a means of circumventing U.S. sanctions. It was suspected that this was the intended purpose, but confirmation that the coin was indeed a Russian collusion greatly injured its international reputation as well as its legitimacy as a financial investment.How the price of the Petro was to be determined also gained criticism. The government set the Petro initial offer against the mid-January price of a barrel of V...

crude oil, around $60 USD, with the price, thereafter, being determined by the barrel price from the day before. The following equation is provided by the white paper:

The most glaring issue with this rationale is that, since oil production is a nationalized industry, the price of a barrel of Venezuelan oil is determined by the Venezuelan government. Though this would in practice follow the world market price, no framework exists to ensure that the Venezuelan government will abide by these guidelines. How current prices are calculated as well as those of the 17.7 million coins that have yet to be released has drawn concern.
The response (http://theconversation.com/dont-be-fooled-venezuelas-petro-is-not-really-a-cryptocurrency-92310) from the crypto space has been less than raving. Despite the underlying technology, most have found it difficult to classify the Petro as anything other than a digital oil security that bears a much closer resemblance to a fiat currency than it does to Bitcoin. In practice, how the PTR differs from the bonds issued by PDVSA, the state-owned oil company, is difficult to understand.The sloppiness with which the Petro was brought to market was best displayed when President Maduro announced that the Petro had raised $735 million in its first day of sale without providing a single means of verification. Many in the press balked (https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/02/venezuela-says-its-cryptocurrency-raised-735-million-but-its-a-farce/) at this statistic, dismissing it as “farcical” and a direct attempt to mislead investors. In his article (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/03/05/venezuelas-cryptocurrency-is-one-of-the-worst-investments-ever/?utm_term=.dcc9bbe33768) “Venezuela’s cryptocurrency is one of the worst investments ever,” Matt O’Brien from the Washington Post voiced the apprehension and skepticism held by many toward the future prospect of this new coin. What Does the Sale Mean?In 2017, 8 percent of India’s total petroleum imports (https://qz.com/1267691/venezuela-woos-india-with-30-discount-on-crude-oil-if-paid-in-its-cryptocurrency-petro/) came from Venezuela at a cumulative cost of $5.5 billion. Though the regulatory status has yet to be clarified, the past several months have shown (https://qz.com/1197541/bitcoin-ban-inside-the-indian-governments-struggle-to-curb-cryptocurrencies/) that the Indian government is far from comfortable with digital currencies, remaining deeply suspicious of its illicit utility. But this is oil: It’s safe to say that, in the past, countries have done much worse than overlook their objections to cryptocurrencies for the chance to get their hands on a few million barrels of discounted oil.  Though the India deal may be the only one to come to public knowledge, it surely is not the only offer of its kind. Venezuela has other oil guzzling partners, particularly China, who might be convinced to overlook the program’s shortcomings by the lure of cheap petroleum. With the amount of skepticism surrounding the Petro, it seems natural that Venezuela would try to bolster confidence and entice involvement using whatever means necessary.



This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine (https://bitcoinmagazine.com/).

Goldman Sachs Plans to Trade Bitcoin Futures Contracts
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/goldman-sachs-plans-trade-bitcoin-futures-contracts/

Goldman Sachs, one of the most well-known investment banking and financial services providers in the world, announced plans to trade bitcoin futures contracts – a Wall Street first. Goldman’s competitors like JP Morgan have so far shunned the risks and volatility associated with trading bitcoin and have yet to make public forays into the space.
What Exactly Is Goldman Trading?In the next few weeks, the firm plans to deploy its own capital to buy and sell bitcoin futures contracts and non-deliverable forwards, or futures with greater flexibility, on behalf of their institutional clients. Futures contracts are legally binding agreements that allow purchasers to buy or sell assets at a fixed price at a specified time in the future. Traditionally, futures contracts are used to hedge exposure or to “go long” on an asset if a trader believes price will increase.It is important to note that bitcoin futures enable Goldman to trade on the underlying bitcoin cryptocurrency, without being directly exposed to it. Goldman will not (yet) come directly into contact with the Bitcoin blockchain.Justin Schmidt, Goldman’s first digital asset trader, will handle the firm’s bitcoin trading efforts. As reported by The New York Times, Schmidt is considering trading bitcoin itself, provided Goldman can secure regulatory approval and mitigate the risks associated with holding cryptocurrency.Why Is Goldman Trading Bitcoin?Goldman cites client interest as a catalyst for their entry into the bitcoin space. Traditional clients have indicated that they would like to hold bitcoin as a scarce commodity, similar to gold. Hedge funds and endowments have also reached out to Goldman asking for best custodial practices for storing and handling newly received bitcoin donations.Since the financial crisis, Goldman has emphasized a technology-first approach and is perhaps trying to gain a strategic advantage over its competitors on Wall Street. The firm, in the capacity of an intermediary, has already helped customers who want to buy and sell bitcoin futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board Options Exchange in the past.Broader Bitcoin TradingGoldman’s competitors have not shared plans to formally trade bitcoin, criticising bitcoin as a “bubble” and a “fraud.” Notably, JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon described bitcoin a “terrible store of value."Goldman, on the other hand, does not view bitcoin as a fraud, though it acknowledges that bitcoin does not have the traditional characteristics of a currency.It remains to be seen whether or not other firms will follow Goldman’s lead. After all, most bitcoin prices are extremely volatile and are derived on unregulated exchanges all over the globe. These factors could potentially expose clients to prices affected by market manipulation and steep losses.As a result of Goldman’s formal entry into bitcoin trading, one key question remains unanswered: What kind of information asymmetry does Goldman Sachs currently possess to confidently trade bitcoin futures contracts for their clients that other firms don’t have?



This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine (https://bitcoinmagazine.com/).

Introducing the 2018 Map of the Blockchain/Crypto Ecosystem
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/introducing-2018-map-blockchaincrypto-ecosystem/

The 2018 edition of BTC Inc’s “Map of the Blockchain/Crypto Ecosystem” has been unveiled. The map provides a visual representation of “the space” in the form of a city skyline with buildings displaying the logos of various entities. While many of the logos were selected by BTC Inc’s editorial staff to reflect the most prominent and successful blockchain and crypto ventures, others were purchased by these projects as sponsorships.
“This map is meant to provide a captivating snapshot of what has become a diverse and dynamic space,” said Peter Chawaga, editor-in-chief of yBitcoin. “It’s proven to be really popular with crypto developers and programmers as well as the larger blockchain companies and entrepreneurs in the space.”Designed by Josh Dykgraaf, who was also the creative hand behind the map’s previous two iterations, the cityscape is subdivided into 10 islands, each depicting a distinct facet of the industry: Mining, Processors, Media & Advocacy, Currencies, Wallets/Hardware, Exchanges, ICOs/Tokens, Enterprise, Blockchain Venture Capital and Blockchain Applications & Projects. With the exception of the ICOs/Tokens islands, which forms the epicenter of the city, each district sits on a separate island connected to the mainland by a series of highways.The ecosystem also includes a number of hidden gems. Upon closer inspection, one will find that the buildings in the Mining district are constructed from server towers. Various travel and recreational amenities can be found as well such as the CoinCart stadium, a Space Chain rocket lunch and a Bitcoin 747. Dykgraaf placed his favorite feature, the “Hodlrcoaster,” in the Currencies district, of course, for those thrill seekers who are brave enough to ride the ups and downs of the crypto markets.“The work is a composite of 3D and photo-manipulation,” said Dykgraaf. “The buildings that appear on the poster are all real-world buildings, mostly in New York, London, Shanghai, Dubai and Chicago. They are mostly based on high-angle, photographic material I've shot and then manipulated into isometric perspective. Some of them were constructed in 3D as sponsors requested certain buildings (e.g. the Burj Al Arab). All up, it represents about 200 hours of work.” The map is a testament to just how far the young industry has come in its development and exploration of all the available niches in the space. It will appear in print as part of the spring issue of yBitcoin, which will be officially released on May 11, 2018. It will also be available as a standalone poster.Note: yBitcoin and the ecosystem map are owned by BTC Inc, which also owns Bitcoin Magazine.



This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine (https://bitcoinmagazine.com/).