Category: Countries

Dubai Government to work on citywide Blockchain payments system

Posted on | by [email protected]

When it comes to infrastructural development for citizens or technological innovations for smooth governance, Dubai has always managed to strike the perfect balance. One such live example is the advent of the use of blockchain Technology even before any other world government has realized its full potential. With the crowned prince of Dubai focusing heavily on Fintech, one of the leading oil producers is now all set to revolutionize the payments territory.  The government has partnered with a blockchain firm to launch citywide payments based on blockchain technology. Let’s dive into the details of how Dubai has come this far and what is the future of blockchain looking like in the country:

Dubai puts government documents on blockchain:

The Crown Prince of Dubai recently announced strategic plan that would see all government documents secured on blockchain by 2020. The prince revealed that the goal of this initiative is to open the platform to other cities around the world. The main objective of this move is to speed up government transactions and be able to provide transparency to public. The transparency will also set in for governments of other countries who are coordinating in this process. All in all the overall result would be the increase in the efficiency of government operations.

The Blockchain Payments system:

The Smart Dubai Office, a government-backed initiative has partnered with a FinTech specialist firm to implement a citywide payments platform built on blockchain technology. The firm Avanza Solutions, signed a MoU in the presence of Hamdan bin Mohammed, the hereditary Prince to the crown of Dubai. The citywide project planned by the Smart Dubai Office will see a rollout of the blockchain payments platform to all existing 38 partner government entities, financial institutions and other departments in the city of Dubai. Avanza’s proprietary blockchain ‘cipher’ has been chosen for carrying out the initiative.

“Smart Dubai Office plans to roll out Cipher across all its existing 38 partner government entities, partner financial institutions and Departments to set up the first blockchain based building block within its financial plumbing.”

Influence of Bitcoin and Blockchain on the Middle East:

Very recently the Bitcoin p2p transaction volumes in Saudi Arabia reached an all-time high, with an increase of over 280%. Dubai’s fintech initiatives have been promising with the crowned prince actively looking into the fintech developments of the state, the ledger based technology has clearly gained traction. With government documents already made available through blockchain, it’s only a matter of time before blockchain finds its place in governance.

Indian Government forms committee to examine framework for Bitcoin: Bitcoin most likely to be made legal

Posted on | by [email protected]

India has never legally banned Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies but traditionally employed a hands off approach towards them. They have always maintained that they are not currently versed with the technology required to monitor digital currencies and would take sufficient time before formulating a framework that enables them to do so. With increasing Bitcoin volumes on Indian exchanges and circulating petitions to legalize Bitcoin, the Indian Government has now been put in a position where inventing a framework to regulate Bitcoin has now become a necessity. Let’s look into how Indian Government is planning to formulate the framework:

The perfect set-up:

In November 2016, when the Prime Minister of India banned higher denomination currency notes and took a good couple of months before bringing new denomination into circulation. During this period, the government’s initiative has been to motivate the populous into shifting more towards digital payments. Digital payments application companies that enable micropayments like Paytm and Freecharge have enabled this transition and helped for more centralized regulation of transactions. However, a byproduct of this move was the rise of Bitcoin transactions within and in and out of the country. The BTCINR trading prices were over 20% than the premium depicting the boost the cryptocurrency received during this period. This has laid down the foundation for consistent adoption  of Bitcoin in India and forced the government into finding ways to regulate it.

The proposed committee:

The Inter-disciplinary committee established by the Indian Government includes the Central Bank, prominent members from the ministry of Finance and other prominent financial bodies to delve into the framework requirements of Bitcoin regulation. Earlier in February, India’s Bitcoin ecosystem consisting of young companies and Bitcoin businesses established a private self-regulatory body to proactively prevent illegal use of the cryptocurrency. The formed government committee would produce a report on Bitcoin basing on the underlying technology, its usage in India and regulations across the world. If India goes down the path of legalizing Bitcoin, it would be a valuable addition to the Bitcoin adoption space. The Asian Bitcoin ecosystem is already enriched with Japan and Philippines embracing the cryptocurrency and giving it a legal status. With Russia and India looking forward to regulate the cryptocurrency, things seem very positive for the cryptocurrency.

Task order for the committee:

The announcement from the Indian Government had the following excerpt:

“The circulation of Virtual Currencies which are also known as Digital/Crypto Currencies has been a cause of concern….Reserve Bank of India [the country’s central bank] had also cautioned the users, holders and traders of Virtual currencies (VCs) including Bitcoins, about the potential financial, operational, legal, customer protection and security related risks that they are exposing themselves to.”

The task order laid out for the committee in the next three months are as follows:

  • Checking on the present status of Virtual Currencies both in India and globally
  • Examining the existing global regulatory and legal rules of compliance governing Virtual Currencies
  • Suggest measures for dealing with such Virtual Currencies in areas such as consumer protection, money laundering, etc; and
  • Examine any other matter related to Virtual Currencies which may be relevant.

Russia to Recognize Bitcoin in 2018

Posted on | by [email protected]

Asian countries are paradoxical when it comes to cryptocurrency. Though most of them are far away from regulating digital currencies, they are actively using it. China has actively rejected Bitcoin’s legality but has continued to boost the currency’s volumes and prices in phases. The Southeast Asian countries account for a good chunk of the global remittance industry. They have begun using Bitcoin for instant cross border transfers which otherwise generally involve high third party charges. Now that Bitcoin transactions are on the rise, Russia has decided to regulate Bitcoin despite previously challenging the digital currency’s legality. Let’s dive deep into why and how Russia is planning to monitor Bitcoin.

Russia and Bitcoin

 

In recent years, Russia has showcased an alternating personality when it comes to Bitcoin. While at times Russia’s central bank admired the numerous advantages of a cryptocurrencies, they have also been hands off and cynical when it comes to adopting them. In 2014, Russian authorities issued warnings against Bitcoin citing uses like money laundering and financing terrorism before declaring the use of Bitcoin as illegal. They were even considering an outright ban of cryptocurrency in the country punishable by jail time for holding any bitcoins. By May 2016, Russia’s central bank revealed plans to create its own cryptocurrency banning the existing ones. However, the air cleared when a federal tax service letter released in December of the same year implied that cryptocurrencies are not illegal and are yet to be regulated.

Plan to acknowledge Bitcoin

Russian Deputy Finance Minister Alexey Moiseev said that Russia plans to recognize Bitcoin as a legitimate financial instrument in 2018, in order to fight money laundering, as per Bloomberg’s release. The central bank is coordinating with the government over consolidating their position over crytpocurrencies. The need for monitoring Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies arises from the fact that the traditional monitoring methods won’t suffice for Bitcoin monitoring.  The need also stems to the fact that money moved abroad through illegal methods like fake trades and loans has been cut down by nearly half last year and amounted to $771 million.

How Bitcoin is faring in Russia

 

While it is still unclear whether Bitcoin would be treated as cash or security or commodity, the digital asset’s trading volume has increased over the last couple of weeks. The trading volumes on Local bitcoins alone exceeded 342 Million rubles which is worth roughly $6 Million and is high for a country that has made the cryptocurrency illegal.

Lack Of Bitcoin Regulations See Pyramid Schemes Rising In India

Posted on | by [email protected]

Edited by Munpriya Samra

Bitcoin could be one of the hardest cryptocurrencies to regulate but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to regulate it. In India, Bitcoin pyramid schemes and hyper investment are on the rise due to inadequate regulations to protect consumers.

Most pyramid schemes are not legitimate and do not pay the return on investments users inject in them. They usually are schemes which are only legitimate for some time and soon they fail to sustain the scheme and abruptly close down in most cases leaving many users at a loss. In recent years underdeveloped and developed countries of Asia and Africa have seen a rise of these schemes. There are other schemes which promise an extremely large return on investments sometimes going beyond 100%. Unemployed youth are the most vulnerable groups affected by organized extortion.

Are Some of the Bitcoin Pyramid Scheme Real?

Recently the biggest hyper investment scheme named MMMindia launched in India promising its users a whopping monthly 30% return on investment. Although MMM India is still operating in a lot of countries, including Indonesia and east Africa, the collapse of such scheme would leave hundreds of users at a loss.  Brett Russell  Founder BIGbtc, Ltd – Bitcoin Integration Group had this to say about the Bitcoin Pyramid scheme.

“Are you referring to HYIP? To be honest I don’t invest a lot of time exploring them, mostly because I don’t have any confidence in them. I have been around bitcoin since 2012 and have seen a lot. As far as HYIP and ICOs, I can only offer “The bitcoin and alt space is home to some really great people and some really bad hombres.” Take care and good luck!”

How are these schemes operated and marketed?

Many governments have failed to protect their citizens from getting exposed to these hyper-investment schemes. A proper understanding and a clear definition of these schemes can be of much help. The most important means of uprooting a bad scheme is by knowing their servers, their location, and how they are marketed. Bitcoin pyramid schemes always use the capabilities provided by social networks such as Facebook and Skype to market the schemes to would be clients so stay aware and go with Bitcoin companies that are known to be legitimate after some research.

How does the scheme sustain itself while paying huge sums of money to its users?

For business to be able to sustain itself a clear definition of the source of income and business plan is paramount. Most of these schemes are lacking in one or two prerequisites of a proper business helping them operate for a short while and collapse so ask lots of questions. The schemers involve themselves in a lot of activities so as to remain operational and win the minds of the masses. Some Bitcoin schemes go up to the extent of mining their own bitcoins so as to pay funds to their customers!

 

Bitcoin Price Analysis: End of the Sideway Movement and Bitcoin All Set for the Next Big Launch

Posted on | by [email protected]

Anyone who has followed the Bitcoin price closely in recently would see a pattern Bitcoin prices have been following.  From the second half of 2016, the month over month price of Bitcoin has been increasing steadily, irrespective of the type of negative fundamentals the currency had to deal with. Momentary price dips have been countered effectively to keep the Bull Run going up until the start of the New Year. However, the scenario changed from the start of 2017 with Bitcoin prices remaining predominantly sideways in between the $1000-$1250 range. Irrespective of the fundamental reasons, Bitcoin has consolidated enough in terms of volumes to prepare for a good run. Let’s look into how fundamentally and technically Bitcoin stands in terms of an impending run.

Fundamental Analysis

Bitcoin has been contained between $1000-$1250 by various fundamental factors which include the consecutive ETF rejection and the scalability debate. Now that the Bitcoin community seems to have come to some kind of compromise over the block size, the prices have stabilized. More importantly, the block size increase would now accelerate the transactions and increase the Bitcoin’s utility by a great margin. Things look more favorable now for a Bitcoin bull run owing to the dynamics in Japan and Mexico. Japan has legalized Bitcoin as a digital asset and a valid way of transfer starting from April 1st. With 260,000 Japanese vendors all set to accept the digital currency, things are looking very bullish for Bitcoin.

In the western part of the world, Mexico has introduced a bill to legalize Bitcoin which would in turn fire up the remittance market and increase cross-border Bitcoin transactions. With strong adoptive fundamental factors driving the prices, Bitcoin looks charged up for the run.

Technical Analysis:

Technically, Bitcoin has been in a trend and has fallen into a temporary sideways pattern. While the market players are testing the $1200 psychological barrier (at the time of writing this article), the Bollinger bands suggest that a breakout can be expected, and, given the trend it can very well be in an upward direction. While the market still has the potential to drop till $1,100 before making a final launch, it would be wise not to short in such a market.  Even the RSI Indicator is in the mid region showing that there is still buying potential in the market and it’s not advisable to short recklessly in the market.

You heard it here first.

Japanese Bitcoin Exchanges Implement Stricter KYC Requirements

Posted on | by [email protected]

The amended Payment Services Act has long been discussed in Japan, but the date which it would enter into force was not previously set. Recently, the Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA) finally announced a date on which this act would become law.

As part of Japan’s amended Payment Services Act which would be enforced on April 1st, the Act on prevention of Transfer of Criminal Proceeds has also been revised. This act requires Japanese Bitcoin Exchanges to Implement a Stricter Know Your Customers (KYC) process. Japanese financial Experts believe that this move would reduce the options of using Bitcoin to finance criminal activities in Japan.

What are KYC requirements

KYC Requirements are guidelines used to prevent banks from being used intentionally or unintentionally by criminal elements for money laundering activities. It also enables banks to better understand their customers and their financial dealings. This way banks or Bitcoin exchanges can investigate any unusual transactions being carried out through the bank. Recently a lot of Bitcoin critics have soiled the image of Bitcoin claiming it’s responsible for funding terrorism across Europe. This claim, however, has been rebuked by a large majority of experts in the Bitcoin ecosystem citing that these claims are baseless and politically motivated.

How KYC applies to Banking and Bitcoin Exchanges

The Japanese law amendment mainly affects Bitcoin exchanges across the country. KYC is a process by which banks obtain information about the identity and addresses of their customers. This ensures that banks’ services are not misused and it is to be completed by the banks while opening accounts. This move might not be a very good news to most Bitcoin users given the fact that many Bitcoin users enjoy the anonymity Bitcoin provides. But that same anonymity greatly hampers a country’s tax base since transaction carried out using Bitcoin are off the grid and basically cannot be taxed. Meanwhile, it’s a known fact that most users of Bitcoin don’t use the currency for any illicit activity but Bitcoin has gained the reputation as the currency of the dark web. Intelligence services across the world believe that a major crackdown on Bitcoin will badly hamper the operation of the dark web known for illegal trades and services.

Is the KYC requirement enforcement a long term solution

shutterstock_601196534

The major point of KYC is to prevent money laundering, combat financing of terrorism, to manage risk by creating risk profiles and assigning risk categories to customers. Banks can monitor any possible financial frauds and loan defaults. Additionally, KYC can help to check identity theft. With the current massive development in IT, hackers would be able to bypass these restrictions.  Soon, free online tools would be available to carry out Bitcoin transactions undetected on a stochastic scale and the attempt might turn out to be a guard rail, if not a complete masker, for the government authorities.

Week in Review: Bitcoin has Positive Start for the Month, Scalability Tackled

Posted on | by [email protected]

The last couple of weeks towards March’s end saw Bitcoin fighting off scalability issues and ETF rejections that staggered prices. Just when things picked up from the Winklevoss ETF rejection and prices were looking optimistic, the blocksize debate has slipped up the prices again bringing the price to just under $1000 levels. However, in the first week of April, things look very optimistic for the cryptocurrency as Bitcoin prices have increased by 8% with the digital asset trading over $1,100. (Read more reviews about Bitcoin investments here.) Fundamentally there have been many positive re-enforcers during the week for the change in the winds. Let’s dive deep into the most significant positives for the week.

Mexico recognizes Bitcoin as a digital asset

Mexico has had problems arising due to unstructured economic planning. Added to that, it is also the 4th highest country for inflow of remittances. These characteristics have created an ideal environment for Bitcoin to step up and thrive constructively on these positives. While the idea is certainly positive, the Mexican Government has signed a bill that classifies Bitcoin as a ‘Digital Asset’ and sets forth rules for Bitcoin exchanges. The wide consensus has been noticed in support of the bill among disparate political parties with an eye towards benefits for the economy triggering more foreign investment to help local industries and businesses grow.

Bitfinex redeems its tokens

 

On August 2nd, 2016, the leading bitcoin exchange by USD volume Bitfinex has suffered a major hack where 119,756 bitcoins were stolen. This forced the exchange to issue “Recovery Rights Tokens” as an IOU to customers. These tokens were set to be traded as BFX tokens and are to be paid back as soon as they hit $1 which is their underlying value. Bitfinex has made good on their promise and as of 4th of April, the exchange announced that it is now paying off debts in full. Redemption started late last year with BFX tokens trading well below the $1 value and being termed as a scam to buy more time. However, the exchange intermittently reimbursed hacked customers, proving their commitment towards the services they provide.

Forking has reached consensus

After two years of heavy debating, the scalability issue that has plagued Bitcoin in phases has finally found a solution. Bitcoin developers both from Core and Unlimited will merge within two weeks to a maximum block size increase to 4MB.  This will then further increase by 25% yearly until 32MB. 4th of July is the designated date on which Bitcoin will hard fork and any node left on the original Bitcoin network would be cut off. All the nodes are expected to upgrade by this date with the requisite hardware that makes this possible set in place. Since the debate has now become harmless, bitcoin prices are now soaring high and look good for weeks to come.

Bitcoin Businesses in India Petition to Make Bitcoin Legal, Can India Become the Next China?

Posted on | by [email protected]

India is a country with a good amount of smartphone and technology penetration. Traditionally, India has been the back office for most of the multinational companies owing to its time zone advantage, cheap and skilled labor and  diligent technical skills. With  the recent outburst of cheap and affordable smartphones in India, there has been a good amount of smartphone penetration leading most of the upcoming Indian e-commerce startups to go completely app-based rather than investing much on the traditional website. India is potentially one of the countries where with a good amount of adoption, Bitcoin volumes can inflate exponentially. However, the Reserve Bank of India has had a neutral standpoint towards the digital currencies. RBI has stated that they are not regulating Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies yet and would like to observe and understand the technology better before adoption. However, Bitcoin businesses in India have filed a petition to make Bitcoin legal. Let’s dive into the details of the petition and the impending effects.

Bitcoin booms in India

While Bitcoin transactions in India initially were considerably low, Bitcoin mining activity has been very high since 2012. GB Miners group have 9% hashing power of the Bitcoin network, paralleling their western counterparst, making them the largest Bitcoin mining group in the country. With the Indian Government’s demonetization move, the country was forced to go cashless and this saw a rise in Bitcoin transactions and Bitcoin prices. The demonetization ended at the start of 2017, but the effects are still persistent with lower cash withdrawals being observed at banks and ATMs. This has built the required momentum for Bitcoin adoption in India.

The petition

The petition comes at a time when Bitcoin is making regional headlines due to statements from policymakers and politicians who have raised concerns about the lack of regulation surrounding the bitcoin industry. As the government is sticking to the hands off approach, big players in the Indian bitcoin industry who welcome regulation have banded together to launch a self-regulatory body to ensure adherence to KYC and AML norms called The Digital Asset and Blockchain Foundation of India (DABFI). DABFI has launched a petition calling for the explicit legality of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in the country. Their main motive is to develop an amicable environment for the development of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

What can India do to Bitcoin?

India is the second most populated country in the world relying heavily on micropayments. This is especially true for the small scale and medium industries that play a vital role in the country’s economy. With sustained adoption, Indian Bitcoin adoption can be a game changer for the cryptocurrency. Unlike China where the Bitcoin is only now a speculative vehicle, India can do justice to the true stature of Bitcoin and nurture the currencies through large scale adoption and eventually using its massively brilliant technical force for Bitcoin engineering. The verdict for Bitcoin’s legality in India might be set sometime in April. How the Indian government’s judgment would impact Bitcoin is to be seen.

 

Japan Recognizes Bitcoin as a Method of Payment, Accounting Operations to be Finalized

Posted on | by [email protected]

2017 has seen a monumental shift in Bitcoin volumes as Chinese exchanges have banned withdrawals for their customers. Due to this, trailing countries in terms of Bitcoin volumes have stepped up to restore and maintain the price levels of the Bitcoin ecosystem. This was facilitated due to the increase in adoption levels and the kind of encouraging regulations that were put in place to promote digital currencies. Topping the list of countries that are committed to this cause are Japan and South Korea. Recently Japan has passed a bill to officially recognize Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as a method of payment on par with fiat currencies. This can be heralded as a very important instance where Bitcoin has seen the light of mainstream adoption. Let’s look into the details of the bill and what might be the further implications.

How Bitcoin became a method of payment

In February 2016, Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) which is the country’s financial regulator, looked into proposals to recognize bitcoin and digital currencies as equivalents to conventional currencies. This means, if approved, the revisions imply that Bitcoin would be getting the status of fiat currencies. In March, the Japanese cabinet passed a set of bills that deemed virtual currencies to have asset-like value. Owing to their transferable nature, they can be used to make payments like gold.

The accounting problem

shutterstock_610981676

While cryptocurrencies are legalized and would be effective as payment methods starting from April, there is a catch here for Bitcoin businesses and transactions. The Japanese Government has not come up with a regulatory or accounting framework to monitor the transactions. The set date for proposing and finalizing an accounting framework is due in six months  leaving cryptocurrency businesses in a limbo as any further movement on their part might turn out to be adverse for their business.

What this would mean for Japan and for Bitcoin

shutterstock_608548262

Japan has already moved into the Top 4 countries list of cryptocurrency exhanged and bought by volume. The Japanese government has made the first move towards mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies when they abolished the 8% sales tax on Bitcoin purchases. With this move, things look positive for Bitcoin proponents as the adoption has already paced up in Japan to  catalyze the growth of the cryptocurrency and set up a foundation for other countries to build their regulation on.

BTC-China launches Multi-currency wallet, looks to increase adoption by Social Media Integration

Posted on | by [email protected]

February saw an iconic change in the functioning of Bitcoin markets after the Chinese Exchanges stopped withdrawals from their exchanges citing regulatory reasons. Bitcoin has been historically powered by any adverse movements in the Chinese Markets and has been majorly been a hedging ground and speculation vehicle. With the Chinese Government imposing strict restrictions on ‘Capital Flight’, Bitcoin has come under major scrutiny that prompted a closed door meeting of PBOC with top Chinese Bitcoin Exchanges. The Chinese government is skeptical that people are banking on Bitcoin to get the money out of the country and hence have enforced exchanges to stop withdrawals till the exchanges have a regulatory set up in place.

The PBOC intervention:

shutterstock_479656702

While the exchanges are taking sufficient time to set up the required monitoring system, they have extended the suspension of withdrawals. The dwindling Bitcoin volumes from China were an indication of how automated traders were flushed out from Bitcoin Markets and pseudo Chinese volumes were avoided. This has allowed Bitcoin’s perceived value to move closer to its real value and gave the market participants a good glimpse of the adoption status of the cryptocurrency and its true market presence. BTC China, famously known as BTCC has been optimistic about the cryptocurrency despite all the hurdles.

The wallet features and social media adoption:

shutterstock_602682824

BTC China’s CEO, Bobby Lee recently tweeted his prediction placing Bitcoin’s price in the range of $5,000-$10,000 by the end of 2020. To pace up the adoption and promote the cryptocurrency, the exchange has come out with interesting features for Bitcoin users. The exchange which already mints physical Bitcoins for usage, has now entered the mobile payments market. The platform- Mobi is a multi-currency mobile wallet that enables bitcoin storage and conversion. One can convert to over 100 currencies including gold and silver. The wallet has no registration process and enables users to register with the phone number associated with their mobile device.

The app enables customers to transfer every currency the platform supports to Twitter and through SMS text as well. With cryptocurrencies’ adoption relying heavily on social media publicity, this was a premeditated attempt to use it to integrate the platforms for better and comfortable usage.

“With Mobi, we are taking Bitcoin mainstream”, stated the Bitcoin start-up.

Let us help you get started with BitcoinIRA, click to get started.