“The news brings big-name competition to the ASIC space, which is dominated by China’s Bitmain and Canaan Creative, both of which work with Taiwanese giant TSMC. Indeed, the crypto explosion is said to have added $350-$400 million to TSMC’s (already impressive) quarterly revenues.”
Read more: https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/31/samsung-confirms-asic-chips/
“Line has created a new financial company that will offer cryptocurrency trading on top of staples like insurance and loans. It’s not saying what currencies will trade or when the virtual money service will be an option, but it plans to make all the services available within the Line chat app. This isn’t as far-fetched as it sounds. Japan is one the largest cryptocurrency markets, and it still has a huge user base even when you don’t include its other products.”
Read more: https://www.engadget.com/2018/01/31/line-plans-cryptocurrency-trading/
“It’s like someone figured out how to monetize the awful Flash ads everyone used to hate for eating CPU cycles. A true win-win! And now it’s even hitting YouTube. TrendMicro has released an updated report, showing a sharp rise in ads served by Google’s DoubleClick service being infested with mining software. Like other attacks, this one uses a Javascript miner to mine Monero via Coinhive.”
Read more: https://www.extremetech.com/internet/262934-youtube-serving-covert-cryptocurrency-mining-ads
“Facebook has said it will block any advertising promoting crypto-currency products and services. Facebook urged users to report any ads the company’s security measures missed. It admitted it would not always catch every ad for a crypto-currency. ‘We want people to continue to discover and learn about new products and services through Facebook ads without fear of scams or deception,’ wrote Rob Leathern, product management director for Facebook Business.”
Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-42881892
“JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. said they’re halting purchases of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on their credit cards. JPMorgan, enacting the ban Saturday, doesn’t want the credit risk associated with the transactions, company spokeswoman Mary Jane Rogers said. Capital One Financial Corp. and Discover Financial Services previously said they aren’t supporting the transactions. Mastercard Inc. said this week that cross-border volumes on its network — a measure of customer spending abroad — have risen 22 percent this year, fueled partly by clients using their cards to buy digital currencies.”
“India’s government said it doesn’t consider cryptocurrencies as legal tender and will take all measures to eliminate payments using them. The South Asian nation’s income tax officials had started investigations into transactions at various illegal bitcoin exchanges in December, soon after the country’s central bank cautioned users about potential risks. The federal government had also set up a panel to decide on India’s stand on virtual currencies, people with knowledge of the matter said on Dec. 12.”
“Hayes is just one of many finance pros leaving the world of banking and plunging into a largely lawless industry. They’re putting their expertise into constructing a marketplace for virtual currencies with all the features found in traditional finance, including derivatives, leverage, short-selling, and cryptocurrency price indexes.”
“Dozens of entrepreneurs, made newly wealthy by blockchain and cryptocurrencies, are heading en masse to Puerto Rico this winter. They are selling their homes and cars in California and establishing residency on the Caribbean island in hopes of avoiding what they see as onerous state and federal taxes on their growing fortunes, some of which now reach into the billions of dollars. They want to build a crypto utopia, a new city where the money is virtual and the contracts are all public, to show the rest of the world what a crypto future could look like. Blockchain, a digital ledger that forms the basis of virtual currencies, has the potential to reinvent society — and the Puertopians want to prove it.”
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/02/technology/cryptocurrency-puerto-rico.html
“Viktor Prokopenya started Viaden Media in 2006. After selling the company in 2011, Prokopenya founded an investment company called VP Capital. He is now an investor in the two of the best-performing companies in High Tech Park. Prokopenya played a key role in developing the new law on Digital Economy.”
“Switzerland has an open policy towards cryptocurrencies. Indeed, Sberbank has decided to open a cryptocurrency exchange in Switzerland and not in Russia because of the regulations and prohibitions. The report explains that Sberbank is not planning to offer its services to retail investors but it will be for institutional investors. That means that only legal entities will be able to use the cryptocurrency exchange.”
Read more: https://usethebitcoin.com/russian-state-bank-will-open-cryptocurrency-exchange-europe/
