“Trading, which began at 6 p.m. ET (5 p.m. CT), was so intense that halts designed to cool volatility were triggered twice on the CBOE.”
“Two months ago we noted former Fed chief Ben Bernanke’s apparent flip-flop since leaving office as he agreed to be the keynote speaker at a blockchain conference, having warned in 2015 of ‘serious problems’ with bitcoin due to its ‘instability’ and ‘anonymity’…”
Read more: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-10-16/bernanke-backs-ripple-blockchain-conference-tech-promising
“Nasdaq Inc plans to launch a futures contract based on bitcoin in 2018, making it the third exchange operator to plan U.S. derivatives contracts linked to the digital currency, a source with knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday. CME Group, the world’s largest derivatives exchange, and CBOE Holdings, have both said they plan to launch futures products based on bitcoin this year, pending regulatory approval, helping fuel the crypto-currency’s rally. While Nasdaq does not have a hard date set for its product, the transatlantic exchange operator has offered an exchange-traded note based on bitcoin on its Stockholm exchange since 2015.”
“‘Venezuela will create a cryptocurrency,’ backed by oil, gas, gold and diamond reserves, Maduro said in his regular Sunday televised broadcast, a five-hour showcase of Christmas songs and dancing. Ironically, Venezuela’s currency controls in recent years have spurred a bitcoin fad among tech-savvy Venezuelans looking to bypass controls to obtain dollars or make internet purchases. Maduro’s government has a poor track record in monetary policy. Currency controls and excessive money printing have led to a 57 percent depreciation of the bolivar against the dollar in the last month alone on the widely used black market.”
“Welsh IT worker James Howells says he accidentally threw away a hard drive full of Bitcoin which he believes is now worth more than $100 million (around £74 million). He’s been fighting Newport city council ever since for a permit to look for the computer, which contains over 7,500 units of the cryptocurrency and is buried below thousands of tonnes of rubbish on a landfill site. A spokesperson for the council said James has been told ‘on several occasions’ he will not be given a permit despite his offer of a 10% cut.”
Read more: http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/man-offering-welsh-council-74-13993161
“The guardians of the global economy have two sets of issues to address. First is what to do, if anything, about the emergence and growth of the private cryptocurrencies that are grabbing more and more attention — with bitcoin climbing above $10,000. The second question is whether to issue official versions.”
“With one unit of Bitcoin now worth 10,000 times the US dollar, it makes sense that the Fed would begin to feel a bit defensive. Indeed, the speech comes to the defense of the central bank, the existing money, and payment system networks, and calls for the pace of innovation to be controlled by regulators in the interest of ‘prudence.'”
Read more: https://fee.org/articles/fed-official-decries-bitcoin-as-not-backed/
“If passed, the bill would likely have far-reaching effects for users of digital currencies both in the US and abroad.”
“Joseph Stiglitz said that he favours making the digital currency illegal because it does not have a ‘socially useful function’. ‘Bitcoin is successful only because of its potential for circumvention, lack of oversight,’ the renowned economist said.”
“The creators lauded the launch as establishing the first nation to have all of its territory in space, though no countries have acknowledged its statehood. For now, the primary benefit of ‘citizenship’ is being able to store data on Asgardia-1 while it’s in orbit. Only those who support the constitution will have the right to upload data to the satellite. Asgardia will have taxes, though only businesses will be forced to contribute. Individual taxes will apparently be voluntary. The website explains that ‘people can decide what amount of tax they would like to pay.’ The country will also have passports, IDs, a national bank, business regulations, and a cryptocurrency called SOLAR.”
Read more: http://theantimedia.org/new-space-nation-asgardia/