Verizon implements Ethereum Blockchain to track press releases

Verizon announced that it is launching a new tech that will record press releases through Ethereum blockchain. This news took the community by surprise, but it’s a step in the right direction. According to Verizon, their new system is called Full Transparency, and it is based on blockchain technology.

The work of the press release recorder is to ensure corporate accountability and help build trust in the community. Full Transparency system bounds every press release cryptographically to the blockchain.

It will also track and contextualize every edit made on the press release afterward.  This Verizon new system is open-source software that makes it accessible to anyone who may wish to use it for their business.

So, once any user integrates Verizon tech, they can log each press release on the blockchain. Full Transparency, as we gathered, is built on the MAD network, which is also built on ETH/USD.  We also gathered that MadNetwork project lead Adam Helfgott, Huge and AdLedger, collaborated with Verizon in building this product.

Full Transparency implications on Ethereum

This new product is necessary for achieving transparency and the trust of the community. However, it also means that every company using the system won’t have the chance to update their posts anymore. So, if they have made any mistake in their initial press release, it remains visible to the readers. This system also verifies if any participating company has altered its press in any way.

But Full Transparency is not the only technology with the same capabilities. There’s the Everipedia that was launched as Wikipedia based on blockchain technology. This wiki version hit the community in 2018, and it records every new edit on each post for the readers to see. 

Apart from Everipedia, there was also another attempt to transparency systems, which later failed in June 2020. Civil developed this system on Ethereum blockchain to record articles from all the websites that participate in the newsrooms. The focus of the developer in building the system was also to ensure transparency & trust. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out well.

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Chinese Digital Yuan to get featured in upcoming Huawei smartphone

Huawei is set to release a new smartphone that will offer a wallet for users of China Digital Yuan.  They made this announcement yesterday the 30^th of October through the Huawei Post and it has put the crypto community in a state of anticipation.

This new smartphone from Huawei is part of its Mate40 series of smart devices that comes with hardware-level security. The company is giving out this Mate40 Pro for free to any Weibo users to forward their posts to a higher number of people.

The Mate40 smartphone for digital yuan is the first of its kind. There hasn’t been a smartphone with a hardware wallet and users of China’s central bank currency can perform their transactions on the go. With the smartphone, users of the digital Yuan can perform double offline transactions and also control anonymity.

They can do everything they want with their digital yuan even when they’re offline. Users can transfer yuan by touching two devices together and that’s it. They don’t need to have active internet to facilitate the transfer. Also, users will no longer have issues with protecting their identities. This device gives them more control to perform their transactions without revealing their identities.  

Huawei Smartphone to facilitate smarter payment with Digital Yuan

According to the telecom giant, their new Mate40 smartphone is providing a more convenient and safer way to make payments with yuan. This smartphone is special and unique because it’s the first one with 5nm chip technology. This feature makes it possible for developers to pack billions of transistors on one single chip. With such development, the device becomes more powerful than others.

This technology was first introduced by Apple in their iPhone 12 and it’s amazing that Huawei is also replicating it in this new entrant. But the challenge now is how the telecom company can sustain the production of this phone.

With the trade restrictions from the USA, they can no longer import chips from their suppliers in the US. Huawei can only depend on their present stock but what happens when it runs out. However, China Yuan will soon hit the market because it’s already undergoing the necessary testing as of date.

From what we gathered, there’s a rush to release the digital currency as there seems to be a race amongst many countries to achieve their own Central bank digital currency. Also, China aims at reducing the domination of the United States dollars in international trade. From all indications. the trade war between the two countries seems not to be dying down anytime soon.

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Swiss Authority approves Russian bank’s request to launch cryptocurrency custodial service

The Russian Government seems to frown at launching cryptocurrency custodial service in Switzerland. That’s why some of the private players in the banking sector depend on their subsidiaries to launch abroad. On the 29^th of October, one of the privately-owned banks in Russia announced that the Swiss financial regulator has given them the approval to launch crypto services.

This means that the bank can launch the crypto services through their Swiss Subsidiary However, this approval means that they can only offer the services to corporate and institutional clients. For now, the bank will focus on offering services to a group of clients and will only use Bitcoin and no other currency.  

TheGazprombank Swiss is a subsidiary of the Russian Gazprombank bank. The bank has been planning the launch of their crypto services through this subsidiary since 2018 and now they’ve gotten the approval they needed to carry it out.

Gazprombank on launching cryptocurrency custodial service

According to Gazprombank bank, they will start with BTC/USD but will later integrate more cryptocurrencies plus other products & services. The CEO of the bank Roman Abdulin in his statement disclosed that they have high hopes that the asset will become very important to their potential and current clients as well as to the global economy.

Roman further states that the bank is regulated in its operations. As a result, they’ll abide by the rules of the Swiss financial regulations. He mentions that the country has both Know-Your-Customer laws and Anti-Money Laundering regulation, which they must abide by, for a sustainable operation. Furthermore, he states that the bank will also implement due diligence in its procedures & software.

It is no longer a secret that the Russian Government is not happy with the major cryptocurrency operating in the home country. Let’s recall that one of the members of the Russian State Duma and a high-ranking representative of the legislation on crypto raised some arguments against cryptocurrencies in the country. According to what he said, there’s no future for decentralized cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

Even amidst all the antagonism towards decentralized cryptos, the banking institutions in Russia are entering the crypto markets outside their home country.

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The U.S. may soon adopt blockchain in military weaponry operations

Given the increasing popularity and adoption of Blockchain technology, it’s not surprising that world power may soon adopt it. The DoD organized a competition in a bid to improve its military weaponry and infrastructure.

Many big companies in the industry participated in the entry competition but SIMBA Chain won the first position over other competitors. According to our findings, the company used blockchain to develop wargame solutions which they presented to the DoD.

Blockchain to alleviate the current defense system

The U.S. Department of Defense was not just organizing a competition for nothing. The department is planning to innovate the processes involved in manufacturing and supplying their weaponry & infrastructure.

They are looking for ways to be abreast with the ongoing technological innovations that facilitate contemporary warfare. According to what we gathered, the department wants to equip the U.S Navy and U.S Air Force with better and technologized weapons.

So to achieve this aim, the DoD organizes Advanced Manufacturing Olympics to select the best technology. Moreover, it tends to allocate technology for developers, DoD contractors, and academics that can use new technologies such as 3D printing technology to facilitate the manufacturing and supply of important parts to the military.

The Virtual Advanced Manufacturing Olympics

Furthermore, DoD organized and held this competition from the 20^th to the 23^rd of October. After the presentations, SIMBA Chain won the prize of $100,000 which was researched for the first position.

Arguably, winning the prize was not a simple feat. The DoD created a war-game scenario that mandated the participants save an island under siege. The participants were asked to deploy the addictive manufacturing of weapons on-demand using the 3D technology and to create a delivery network and secure communications network for frontline medical personnel and military units.

According to what Joel Neidig, SIMBA Chain CEO, stated, they had only 6 days to create the war games solution. However, they achieved their goal against other major players such as Stratasys that won the second position, and Boeing that got the 3^rd place. They attributed their success to blockchain because they used it to ensure the security of the whole network.

From what we gathered, the DoD is taking a step farther by continuing the collaboration with SIMBA Chain. Right now, the company is already working with the Navy and U.S Air Force. Lastly, they’re hoping to be a part of the department operations in improving the military weaponry of the United States.

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What are the best cryptocurrencies in the privacy sector?

Privacy coins have an enhanced focus on security and are designed to keep users’ identities as private as possible. In this piece, we look at the challenges that privacy coins are facing today and what are the best privacy-oriented cryptocurrencies at the moment. 

Fundamental analysis: Europol and the DOJ mark privacy coins as top cyberthreats

European Union’s law enforcement agency Europol marked altcoin Monero (XMR) as one of the biggest cyberthreats. Monero is known for improved privacy as it works to make transactions harder to track.

Europol has been working together with EU member countries, third-party nations as well as with the private sector to investigate altcoins and wallet services. The research focused on areas such as cyber-dependent crime, child sexual exploitation, and payment fraud. The European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) releases its most common report on major threats in cybercrime – the Internet Organized Crime Threat Assessment (IOCTA)

This latest IOCTA report showed that privacy-focused altcoins are a growing cyberthreat. Bitcoin is still the most used cybercrime payment method but that’s mainly due to its wide adoption, status, and ease of use. 

Apart from altcoins we’ve already mentioned, Etherum (ETH) and Litcoin (LTC) are also becoming increasingly popular for cybercrime services. The report also found that cybercriminals widely use the “privacy-enhanced wallet services using coinjoin concepts” as well as centralized mixers that help them hoard and launder their money. 

These coinjoin services are used to mix several different transactions from unrelated actors into a single transaction, making it much more challenging to track down even though they don’t delete the transaction history. 

According to the report, dark web users are also using these privacy-improved wallets to conduct underground payments. In summer, Europol published a report which found that cybercriminals have placed more than $50 million worth of privacy coins into these wallets.

Apart from finding that altcoins are widely used in cybercrime, the Europol report also pointed to the greater use of cryptocurrencies in legitimate transactions. More specifically, the criminal use of altcoins amounts to only 1.1% of all transactions. 

Elsewhere, the U.S. Department of Justice also published a report on privacy coins and cybercriminal which reiterated that privacy altcoins are widely used in “high-risk activities.”

“The Department considers the use of AECs to be a high-risk activity that is indicative of possible criminal conduct,” the report said. “AECs are often exchanged for other virtual assets like Bitcoin, which may indicate a cross-virtual-asset layering technique for users attempting to conceal criminal behavior.”

The report also said that owners of privacy coins are able to cloud the origin of their tokens utilizing mixers, tumblers and chain hopping, compromising AML and CFT.

The report said that ‘chain hopping’ is “frequently used by individuals who are laundering proceeds of virtual currency thefts.” This service is based on exchanging one’s crypto assets for others operating on a different network such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum.

Among other mixing and tumbling services used by cybercriminals to cover their trace, the DOJ report pointed out the privacy tool named Helix, whose high official was arrested in February for laundering over $311 million in Bitcoin.

“Operators of these services can be criminally liable for money laundering because these mixers and tumblers are designed specifically to ‘conceal or disguise the nature, the location, the source, the ownership, or the control’ of a financial transaction.”

3 best privacy-focused cryptocurrencies 

Monero (XMR)

Judging by the market capitalization, Monero is the largest privacy-focused digital asset. Monero’s Ring Confidential Transactions (RingCT) helps protect the transaction amount, which makes it very useful for a wide range of activities. 

This week, Monero price logged a 2-year high near the $140 mark after it managed to break above the $120 resistance line. The XMR buyers are now likely to push the price movements towards the next resistance line near $160.

Dash (DASH)

Dash currently ranks as the 29th biggest digital asset globally. Dash offers its users to choose whether or not they want their transactions anonymous. Using this feature will increase the transaction fee but will help you protect your privacy.  

DASH/USD had been trading mostly sideways since March and pandemic-fueled sell-off. However, a break above the $85 would pave the road for the DASH investors to test the $125 target. 

Zcash (ZEC)

Zcash, the world’s 33rd largest digital asset by market cap, is another cryptocurrency that takes pride in enhanced security and privacy features. Its feature “Zero-Knowledge Proof” allows users to protect transactions, addresses and amounts. 

Zcash has seen its value double in 2020. The price action printed a 1-year high in August, before the correction took place to allow new ZEC buyers to jump in to test resistance around $75.

Summary

Europol and the U.S. Department of Justice have recently published reports that found that privacy-oriented altcoins are a growing cyberthreat. Monero, Zcash and Dash are some of the biggest and most popular digital assets due to their ability to shield transactions.

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Report shows governance of most DeFi projects is still centralized

In a recent report by Monday Capital and DappRadar, the top holders in many Defi projects still control higher amounts of the token. Their analysis of governance proposals and token distribution revealed the same in most of the prominent Defi projects.

One of the high points of DeFi projects is the decentralized system of control which everyone believes to be the order. Although it seems that top projects with stronger venture capital supports are highly centralized. This is contrary to the efforts of the pioneers to achieve decentralize control in its yield-farming stage.

Most Defi Projects are not decentralized

While trying to uncover the operations of the Defi projects, the researchers conducted an in-depth analysis of Curve, MakerDAO, Uniswap, and Compound. They discovered that these projects arrange their token distribution to favor the largest holders of tokens.

For instance, MakerDAO has always been a decentralized project which allows holders of all level to participate in forum analysis and discussions. This project is one of the oldest to launch and the community believes that it is highly decentralized.

However, it seems that while everyone can participate in discussions on the forum when it comes to actual voting, the large holders control the process. According to Monday Capital and DappRadar, the top holders control about 24% percent of token supply. Thus researchers still believe that the distribution is not bad when they compare it with other projects.

During the analysis of the Compound, the researchers came to notice that people with more control are the top holder of COMP. This group includes team members, venture capitalists, Dharma & Gauntlet which are independent blockchain projects.

After these top holders, others who can participate in governance are only the remaining 2.3% holders which may not be real due to the aggregated addresses. Also, they discovered that the supply of tokens also leans more towards to top twenty addresses.

As for Curve & Uniswap, the researchers discovered the same thing. For instance, the Curve has one top address with 75% voting power while Uniswap is battling with accusations of insider influence on governance.

Causes of centralization issues?

According to the Monday Capital and DappRadar, there are three main causes of this centralization process with Defi projects. The first is that they are not using the governance tokens as their voting tools. Instead, they see them as yield.

Secondly, the people who design these systems are following the plutocracy system. In such a system wealth determines the level of power which a holder welds.

The last reason for this centralization issue is that the people with the highest initial investment usually have the highest stakes. According to the researchers, when this is the case, other people may not be willing to pursue governance power. Given all these scenarios, Monday Capital and DappRadar conclude that these projects can’t help but operate under a centralized control system.  

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Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple price analysis roundup

October has been a very positive month for the cryptocurrency market, all major cryptocurrencies have advanced and the price of Ethereum, Litecoin and Ripple is also supported by this situation. It is also important to mention that Bitcoin price has briefly broken $14,000 resistance this Saturday but the price was not able to stay above this level.

Ethereum (ETH) price is very close to the $400 resistance level

Ethereum (ETH) has found strong support around $350 but the price is still not able to stabilize above $400 resistance. The price of Ethereum is still far away from the ETH price predictions but if the price jumps again above $400 that could be a very good opportunity for the short term traders.

Data source: tradingview.com

On this chart, I marked important resistance and support levels. The important support levels are $350 and $300, $400 and $450 represent the resistance levels.

As long the price is above this trend line this cryptocurrency is in the “buy” zone and there is no indication of the trend reversal. If the price falls on the trend line and if we get a “bullish” confirmation candle it would be a very good entry point for short-term traders who are trading with “stop-loss” and “take profit” orders.

If the price jumps above $400 it would be a signal to buy Ethereum and we have the open way to $430. There are also some obvious risks when it comes to buying Ethereum (ETH) and investors should have in mind that the price could also fall in the upcoming period.

The trend line represents a very strong support level, if the price breaks this trend line it would be a very strong “sell” signal and we have an open way to $300.

Litecoin (LTC) price has stabilized above $50 support

The price of Litecoin (LTC) has advanced from $43 above $60 in the last several weeks and the current price stands around $55. If you are looking for virtual currencies with a good return, Litecoin can be a profitable investment option according to estimates.

Litecoin is a very popular cryptocurrency to monitor since it appears to hold a number of advantages over Bitcoin. Litecoin provides faster transaction confirmations (2.5 minutes on average) and Litecoin’s transaction fees are, on average, considerably lower than that of Bitcoin.

Litecoin has found strong support above $50 and the technical picture implies that the price may advance again above $60 in the upcoming days.

Data source: tradingview.com

On this chart, I marked important resistance and support levels. The important support levels are $50, $45 and $40, $60 and $70 represent the resistance levels. If the price jumps again above $60 it would be a signal to buy Litecoin (LTC) and we have the open way to $65.

Rising above $70 supports the continuation of the bullish trend and the next price target could be located around $80. On the other side, if the price falls below $50 it would be a “sell” signal and we have the open way to $45.

Ripple (XRP) is still not able to surpass the $0.30 resistance

Ripple is holding above the key $0.20 support level against the US Dollar but the price is still not able to surpass the $0.30 resistance. In my opinion, Ripple has a very good risk/reward ratio on the cryptocurrency market currently and investors in this cryptocurrency stand to gain a lot more for taking a comparatively smaller risk.

Data source: tradingview.com

According to the rules of technical analysis, the current trend of this cryptocurrency is neutral-bullish. The current resistance levels are $0.26, $0.28 and $0.30, $0.22 and $0.20 represent the strong support levels.

If the price jumps above $0.26 it would be a signal to buy Ripple (XRP) and we have the open way to $0.30. Rising above $0.30 supports the continuation of the bullish trend and the next price target could be located around $0.35.

If the price falls in the upcoming period, every price in a range from  $0.15 – $0.20 could be a very good opportunity to invest in Ripple.

Summary

October has been a very positive month for the cryptocurrency market, all major cryptocurrencies advanced and the price of Ethereum, Litecoin and Ripple is also supported by this situation. Given that Bitcoin dominates the overall cryptocurrency market, it’s no surprise that major altcoins are following BTC’s lead. Bitcoin price has briefly broken $14,000 resistance this Saturday and some analysts believe that BTC may start trading even higher in the upcoming days. This is certainly positive news for the future price of Ethereum, Litecoin and Ripple.

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Charles Hoskinson suggests hosting next elections on Cardano blockchain

The founder of Cardano and co-founder of Ethereum aims to achieve blockchain voting on the Cardano network. He believes that his network can provide a solution that will make it possible even down to national voting processes. According to Charles Hoskinson, they have been building an infrastructure that’ll make it happen.

Even though Charles Hoskinson is positive that such a possibility can become real. He still admits that achieving such a feat will not be an easy task. The mathematician discloses that to ensure the efficiency of such a solution. The developers will carry out numerous experiments before launching.

According to Hoskinson, the network may first be open to third-parties to conduct their primaries before the state, municipal, and eventually for national elections.

Cardano blockchain hosting next elections

In his statements, the founder of Cardano states that in a span of 3 to 5 years, after testing the solution on different levels of electoral processes, they can withdraw it and sell it to the government.

He asserts that this blockchain voting solution will be very suitable for countries that face a lot of legacy issues. Thus his company can sell the solution to the government of Georgia and Ethiopia that are always looking for innovative voting systems for their elections.

Charles Hoskinson further points out that IOHK built a team in Lancaster England that publishes different e-voting research. The founder of Cardano, however, admits that building such a system will be very complicated. As per Hoskinson, a voting system on the blockchain will require lots of cryptographic overhead.

In his explanation, Hoskinson states that an election that doesn’t prioritize the voter’s privacy. Although it only focuses on counting votes will be easier to achieve even if you have a billion people to count.

However, when it comes to an election that prioritizes the privacy of the voters. This may sound like a verification, plus a paper ballot to back up the votes. It will not be easy to achieve a lot more without a strong system in place. That’s why Charles Hoskinson is sure that achieving blockchain-based voting will be tasking.

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Crypto News Cast For October 31st 2020 ?

Crypto News Cast 📮 31-10-2020

News Source

Welcome to The Crypto News Cast: A Complete Cryptocurrency News letter For Today

24hours Cryptocurrency Market Cap:

📈MarketCap:          $402 B
📊24h Mcap %:        4.38%
⚠️Bitcoin Dom:        63.70%
📌Active Coins:       4,493
📍24h Vol %:          -15.49%
💲24h Vol:                $81 B

Crypto News Updates :

• Cardano's Goguen Mainnet To Be Launched In March 2021
  
• Raoul Pal Predicts Apple And Microsoft Will Buy Bitcoin ‘Within Five Years’
  
• EU Investing Heavily On Blockchain Technology
  
• Willy Woo: Bitcoin's Decoupling From The U.S. Stock Market Has Began
  
• Square Crypto Gives Grant To Bitcoin Developers For Boosting Bitcoin Adoption
  
• Bitcoin Hits 33 Month High As The Price Breaks Above $14,000
  
• Report: Bitcoin Booming On Ethererum Network
  
• Russia's Major Bank Subsidiary Will Offer Bitcoin Services in Switzerland
  

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- Cardano's Goguen Mainnet To Be Launched In March 2021

IOHK fired up the Cardano community by releasing details of the Goguen roadmap yesterday. The roadmap puts the Goguen mainnet launch at around March 2021. Goguen is a significant leap forward in the capabilities of the Cardano network. With it comes the ability to build decentralized applications and a whole host of other features, including a multi-asset ledger. IOHK released Goguen’s details via the Cardano Development October Update. The update also featured live demonstration of the ERC-20 convertor, which encourages Ethereum ERC-20 projects to port over to Cardano. Read Full on NewsBTC

- Raoul Pal Predicts Apple And Microsoft Will Buy Bitcoin ‘Within Five Years’

Former Goldman Sachs hedge fund manager said he thinks some of the world's biggest companies are gearing up to add bitcoin to their balance sheets. Raoul Pal Founder and chief executive of Global Macro Investor said in a recent video published on YouTube that he wouldn't be surprised if within five years time Apple, Microsoft, and others don't have cash in bitcoin. Pal pointed to U.S. business intelligence MicroStrategy's two-pronged bitcoin purchase earlier this year as the first steps toward wider corporate adoption of bitcoin. Read Full on Forbes

- EU Investing Heavily On Blockchain Technology

A vehicle of the European Union called the European Investment Fund (EIF) has signed six equity agreements with venture capital funds to support businesses under the EU’s InnovFin Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain initiative. These agreements amount to more than $800 million available to support blockchain and AI startups across Europe through the equity funds. EIF’s Chief Executive Alain Godard said “It is a priority for Europe to be at the forefront of the development of artificial intelligence/blockchain technology in order to remain competitive and improve people’s lives, bringing major benefits to our society and economy. Read Full on Trustnodes

- Willy Woo: Bitcoin's Decoupling From The U.S. Stock Market Has Began

Bitcoin has started to decouple from the U.S. stock market index S&P 500 according to crypto statistician Willy Woo. Referring to Network Value to Transaction Ratio (NVT), an indicator Woo introduced in 2017, the analyst said that Bitcoin’s NVT price has shown clear price support despite the S&P falling sharply over recent days. Two days ago, Bitcoin’s NVT price (price support) crept into new all-time-highs above $11,000. Woo added that the indicators suggest Bitcoin could begin reclaiming its status as a “safe-haven” asset as stocks continue to fall. Read Full on cointelegraph

- Square Crypto Gives Grant To Bitcoin Developers For Boosting Bitcoin Adoption

Payments company Square today announced that it will be giving a grant to a Bitcoin developer who wants to make wallets more user-friendly. The crypto arm of Square, Square Crypto, twitted that, “Giving trick-or-treaters Open Dimes and Square Crypto grants this year. Speaking of which, this one goes to Maggie Valentine, a designer working to simplify wallet onboarding flows by reducing technical jargon and increasing user education.” It's encouraging Bitcoin adoption by giving grants to developers in the space. Read Full on Decrypt

- Bitcoin Hits 33 Month High As The Price Breaks Above $14,000

Bitcoin has carved out a 33-month high, currently trading above $14,000 USD, the highest level since January 2018 and showing resilience amid growing instability in the traditional markets. Earlier this week, bitcoin (BTC, +3.84%) narrowly missed breaching the June 2019 high of $13,880 and faced selling pressure as global stock markets registered sharp losses as concerns over the resurgent coronavirus spiked. Bitcoin's defense of $13,000 and a quick rise to 33-month highs is perhaps not surprising. Read Full on CoinDesk

- Bitcoin Whitepaper Turned 12 Today

The Bitcoin whitepaper is 12-years-old today. Twelve years ago, on October 31 2008, a narrow circle of cypherpunks, cyber security engineers and other programmers received a chain e-mail from an anonymous called Satoshi Nakamoto. Satoshi presented a 9-page document which presented a new peer-to-peer electronic payment system with a modest title Bitcoin which doesn't require any third parties like banks or financial regulators, each BTC holder can be their own bank by holding private keys. About 2 month after white paper launch On January 3, 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto mined the genesis block of Bitcoin. Read Full on u.today

- Report: Bitcoin Booming On Ethererum Network

According to the latest data from metrics site Dune Analytics, there’s now more than 150,049 Bitcoin which is worth more than $2 billion on the Ethereum network. This is equivalent to 4.32% of Ethereum’s market cap, or $2.021 billion. In mid-September, that figure stood at just 80,000 Bitcoin, valued at just under $1 billion at the time. The price of Bitcoin has gone up by $3000 since then. The most popular Ethereum-based versions of Bitcoin is called Wrapped Bitcoin—it holds almost 80% of the market share and has a market cap of $1.5 billion all on its own. Read Full on Decrypt

- Russia's Major Bank Subsidiary Will Offer Bitcoin Services in Switzerland

The Swiss-based subsidiary of russia's third largest bank Gazprombank, has been granted regulatory approval to roll out its crypto offering to institutional customers. Banks subsidiary Gazprombank Swiss has been authorized to offer crypto custody and trading against fiat currencies to selected institutional and corporate customers. Customers will be able to trade BTC and store their holdings using the bank's corporate custody solutions. The bank intends to add more cryptocurrencies, products and services over time. The bank's CEO, Roman Abdulin, expects digital assets to become more important to the global economy in the future. Read Full on U.Today

Bitcoin price returns to $14k for the first time since January 2018

Ever since the largest crypto bull run in history, when Bitcoin climbed up to $20,000, the coin has been struggling to go back to these levels. So far, this has not yet happened. However, BTC made a major move in the right direction earlier today, when its price suddenly surged, attempting to breach the $14k barrier.

Bitcoin just breached $14k

The leap was sudden, and it allowed BTC to climb back up to the levels not seen since January 2018. The coin did not only reach $14k per unit — it exceeded it, ultimately reaching a new high of $14,100.

This is nearly $300 above the previous annual high of $13,863, reached three days ago, on October 28th.

Of course, after the surge led the coin to this peak, Bitcoin price started seeing a correction that took it down to $13,680.

However, as soon as the coin reached this price, it started going up again, which led it to its price at the time of writing, which is $13,900.

In other words, it would seem that the coin is launching yet another attack on the $14k resistance, as it appears ready to continue the growth which started all the way back in mid-March, after the crash caused by the fears of COVID-19.

What happens next?

From a technical perspective, BTC seems to be in an overbought zone. Its RSI sits above 70 points, meaning that a sell-off might be expected in the near future. Investors should, therefore, be very careful about how they are going to proceed from this point forward.

But, it is also possible that the price will simply continue growing. The market sentiment is certainly bullish, and the recent announcement from PayPal and other large financial institutions has contributed a lot to this.

For example, Microstrategy and Grayscale have been accumulating hundreds of millions in BTC for their clients throughout this year, indicating that institutions have developed a strong interest, and that they are not letting go.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the US presidential elections are in only a few days, and that this event could reflect strongly on Bitcoin’s behavior over the next week or two.

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Latest IRS draft shows how to file taxes on your cryptocurrency transactions

IRS Tax forms have a new filing method for cryptocurrency transactions, and they announced it a few days ago. The internal revenue service tax forms are used by organizations, individuals, and other taxpayers to report their financial information’s in the traditional finance systems.

It is also used by tax-exempt organizations to report all their financial transactions in the US. The report captures total income, calculates total tax, and discloses every other financial information required by the IRS. Currently, in 2020 there are more than 800 types of schedules and forms with the IRS.

Controversy with cryptocurrency

There have been major controversies around how cryptocurrency holders are to pay tax. Although, there is a new guideline that addresses how cryptocurrency holders would carry out tax payments. This new rule does not affect cryptocurrency holders who did not actively trade in the last year.

According to the new tax forms, they are mandated to tick the “No Box” on the IRS tax forms. The “no Box” form implies that the crypto holder did not carry out any form of trading on their platform.  Here is a breakdown of what the new internal revenue form specifies

• The new Internal revenue form cares more about transactions, whether cryptocurrency or traditional finance.
• Airdrops are taxable, but personal transfers from wallet to a wallet do not need to be disclosed and are not taxable.
• The new IRS form does not adopt an ambiguous process. Every transaction that passes through “pass-through entities” would have to check the yes box.

Latest IRS draft

In the latest IRS US draft for personal income tax in the USA. The IRS has clarified its stance about transactions and cryptocurrencies. The information is in form 1040, which was released by the internal revenue service on Friday. It does not mandate cryptocurrency holders to trade; rather, it requires any trader to pay tax. The IRS form contains a key question which is: Did you exchange, receive, or sell digital assets through any virtual system? You would have to Tick the No check box if you did not carry out any of the above.

This means you do not have to pay any tax if all you did was to transfer your cryptocurrency between your wallets or you carried out no action.  However, you must pay tax if you carried out a digital asset transfer from your wallet to a third parties wallet. It also states that airdrops from platforms such as Uniswap are also taxable, including stable coins and other tokens.

What about cryptocurrency frauds?

You would have to prove that your account was hack if a transfer occurred from your cryptocurrency wallet to another by a scammer. You would be liable to pay tax if you can’t prove it. Cryptocurrency holders must report their income correctly to the IRS, and you would also report to the IRS if you lost your Keys.

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TRON goes to off-chain data thanks to new JustLink oracle

The TRON network just got its first blockchain oracle, JustLink. The project — a decentralized oracle developed by JUST Foundation — recently went live, and it will allow exploration of potential blockchain applications deeper into the off-chain data.

TRON’s first oracle sees its launch

The DeFi sector has skyrocketed in 2020, not only when it comes to the number of projects, but also interest from investors, and even prices of the emerging tokens.

This new trend has taken the crypto world by storm. Thanks to oracle networks, such as the newly-launched JustLink, smart contracts will no longer be limited by its inability to access data from outside systems.

To put it quite simply, oracles are a one-way digital proxy, that can request and verify data from the real world. This data can then be introduced to smart contracts in its encrypted form.

Why did TRON need a decentralized oracle?

One issue with oracles is that the large majority of them are centralized, and using them would expose smart contracts to a single point of failure. All the benefits that come from decentralized smart contracts would therefore be compromised and possibly nullified.

This is why the JUST Foundation decided to create JustLink — a decentralized oracle built on the TRON network. Since it is decentralized, JustLink removes the risk that comes from the use of centralized oracles, while keeping all the benefits.

Basically, JustLink is TRON’s version of Chainlink. The project also arrives just in time, as the demand for external data within TRON smart contracts is growing. Furthermore, JustLink is also a safer, more convenient option for developers. They will be able to deploy a greater variety of dApps.

Lastly, the TRON ecosystem will benefit from this, as well. It will be able to expand exponentially thanks to this new contact to the world outside of its own ecosystem, and further fuel the growth of its own projects.

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Bitrump sees a major surge in new user registrations

One of the largest crypto exchanges in the UAE, Bitrump, recently reported a massive surge in the number of new users on its platform. According to the company, the surge took place over the course of one month.

Crypto exchange Bitrump’s user count on a sharp rise

The crypto industry has seen massive amounts of activity over the past several months. The DeFi sector became a massive new trend, central banks around the world started researching crypto and creating their own CBDCs, regular banks started offering crypto services, and even PayPal announced adding support for Bitcoin and a few other coins.

It is safe to say that the crypto industry is bigger and more popular than ever, and the last 30 days at Bitrump are certainly proving it. The company announced that the total number of sign-ups during this period is a new personal record.

This serves to show how the exchanges, both locally and globally, continue to see more traction and much greater and faster crypto trading across the globe.

Why is Bitrump attracting users?

Bitrump’s director, Xavier Perry, noted that the exchange was created with the idea to present the traders with a user-friendly platform. It has a simple architecture to fulfill the users’ exchange requirements, and so far, the response from the users has been great.

Bitrump even engaged in expanding its list of altcoins, which came in addition to regular updates that the exchange performs. Of course, it doesn’t plan to stop there, as the idea is to add even more cryptos, with its focus on utility coins, and diversify users’ trading options.

Not only that, but it also has quite favorable prices, at least compared to other local exchanges. Then, there is the fact that Bitrump has some of the best security in the region, as it employs multi-signature technology, key encryption, 2FA verification, protection from DDoS attacks, and more.

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Cryptocurrencies are here to stay, says Jack Ma

The founder of Alibaba, Jack Ma, states that cryptocurrencies are the future of finance. In his speech, he said that digital currencies are here to stay. And global regulation of digital coins is bad for the world’s economic stability. Regulators are stiffing the role of financial innovation, which is not good, according to the Chinese Billionaire.

Jack Ma asserts on embracing cryptocurrencies

Over the weekend, Jack Ma was at the Bund Financial Summit in Shanghai. Jack says that financial regulators in China and all over the world should embrace cryptocurrencies. Furthermore, he cites the approach deployed by traditional finance systems to pull down cryptocurrencies around the world.

His comments came about the planned setup of a global series of financial regulations known as the Basel Accord. According to Jack Ma, the Basel accord proposes a financial regulation that does not serve the future of the world economy and China. He further likened the Basel accord to a club of older people looking to solve the modern financial system with outdated methods.

Given Jack Ma’s success as a businessman and influence across the world, he believes that the world needs to adopt a modern technology that can drive financial innovations. The Chinese businessman also believes that the country needs to adopt new technology to drive innovation. Chief among these tech innovations is the cryptocurrency and blockchain systems.

Cryptocurrencies and stablecoins

“Cryptocurrencies and stable coins would create good value and financial freedom for people. Therefore people should adopt the new financial innovation with open arms,” said Jack Ma. 

Jack Ma aimed his comments at the global financial sector, and he expressed his displeasure toward the current regulations. A lot of cryptocurrencies have done well all around the world. But unfortunately, there is apathy towards digital currencies in many parts of the world.

China is one of the major countries that have enacted bans on cryptocurrencies and other digital coins. However, in 2019 BTC/USD got legal status, but it can only serve as virtual property.

Today Bitcoin is the only major cryptocurrency that is partly legal in China. But at the same time, the China Arbitration commission still bans the use of cryptocurrencies as legal tenders. They cannot serve as money, rather people see them as digital property.

China’s Adoption of blockchain technology

China has adopted blockchain technology, but it has a distaste for cryptocurrencies. Despite this, China has created its own central bank digital currency, which has brought about a lot of criticism. Although, it seems Jack Ma is winning the race in the advocation of a fully functional cryptocurrency due to his leverage and worldwide support.

Jack Ma said that the acceptance of digital currencies could drastically overhaul the way people in China and worldwide carry out a financial transaction with one another. He also stated that digital currencies could enable small and micro-businesses access loans that they would ordinarily not access.

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Crypto News Cast For October 30th 2020 ?

Crypto News Cast 📮 30-10-2020

News Source

Welcome to The Crypto News Cast: A Complete Cryptocurrency News letter For Today

24hours Cryptocurrency Market Cap:

📈MarketCap:          $394 B
📊24h Mcap %:        1.28%
⚠️Bitcoin Dom:        63.50%
📌Active Coins:       4,485
📍24h Vol %:            8.96%
💲24h Vol:                $100 B

Crypto News Updates :

• Casa Launched ‘Bank-to-Wallet’ Bitcoin-Buying Service
  
• Mastercard And Grainchain Collaborate To Inovate Agriculture Sector
  
• Iran Will Use Cryptocurrency Fund For Imports
  
• 10 Year Performance Proves That Bitcoin Is A Once-In-Lifetime Opportunity
  
• Microstrategy CEO Michael Saylor Personally Owns $240 Million In Bitcoin
  
• Huawei Unveils New Smartphone With China's Digital Yuan Wallet
  
• Thailand's Siam Commercial Bank Will Bridge Gap Between Banks and DeFi
  
• Fidelity Expanding Its Crypto Custody Service To Asia

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- Casa Launched ‘Bank-to-Wallet’ Bitcoin-Buying Service

Cryptocurrency custody platform Casa’s users can now purchase bitcoin (BTC) on the platform using their bank account. It is currently rolling out the service for its U.S. customers, and the bought Bitcoin (BTC) would be directly deposited to a user’s wallet. Casa said users can buy a maximum of $20,000 worth of bitcoin per month using this service and that platform levies a fee of 0.99% on every purchase. According to Casa CEO Nick Nueman, the BTC is procured via partner platform Wyre. He said that because all BTC purchased with Casa is being sent on-chain directly to users' wallets, every purchase also includes a mining fee. Read Full on CoinDesk

- Mastercard And Grainchain Collaborate To Inovate Agriculture Sector

Global payments giant Mastercard announced a collaboration with GrainChain, a technology company that enables supply chain visibility, empowering suppliers and farmers while reducing risks to buyers in the US, Mexico and Central America. Together the two companies plan to register commodity data digitally via blockchain. Mastercard and GrainChain intend to provide end-to-end visibility and allow all participants of the process to track commodities all the way from harvest to delivery to buyers. Read Full on U.Today

- Iran Will Use Cryptocurrency Fund For Imports

Strapped for international currencies, Iran is turning to cryptocurrency to allow imports to continue to flow. Country's cabinet has amended recent legislation on digital assets to allow cryptocurrency to be used for import funding by the Central Bank of Iran (CBI). Crypto miners in the country can now sell Crypto directly to the central bank. The Central Bank of Iran will use cryptocurrency from miners in foreign trade deals. Cryptocurrency has become increasingly important in Iran as the nation suffers from economic woes brought by U.S. sanctions and the coronavirus pandemic. Read Full on coindesk

- 10 Year Performance Proves That Bitcoin Is A Once-In-Lifetime Opportunity

When we talk about Bitcoin, we are talking about a true monetary revolution that will change the future of the world in terms of money. Despite this, some still doubt that Bitcoin is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. For example, if you had invested $1,000 on Bitcoin in October 2010, you could have gotten 8,000 BTC since its price at the time was $0.125 which is now equivalent of $108,800,000. Never in history has an investment offered such a return in such a short period of time. Read Full on medium.com

- Microstrategy CEO Michael Saylor Personally Owns $240 Million In Bitcoin

Following a $425 million bitcoin purchase by his billion-dollar company, MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor has revealed how much Bitcoin he personally owns. In a tweet, Saylor said "I personally #hodl 17,732 BTC which I bought at $9,882 each on average." Running the numbers, that means Saylor has spent $175,227,624 on Bitcoin, which is currently worth a cool $236,291,312 at today's Bitcoin price. "I informed MicroStrategy of these holdings before the company decided to buy Bitcoin for itself," he added. Read Full on Twitter

- Huawei Unveils New Smartphone With China's Digital Yuan Wallet

Huawei has announced that its forthcoming Mate40 smartphone series will include an integrated hardware wallet for China’s central bank digital currency, the digital yuan. The users will be able to control and protect their anonymity and perform dual offline transactions. These allow mobile phone users to transfer funds simply by touching their devices together, even if both are offline. The Mate40 is the first Huawei smartphone to utilize 5nm chip technology, as recently debuted on Apple’s iPhone 12. Read Full on cointelegraph

- Thailand's Siam Commercial Bank Will Bridge Gap Between Banks and DeFi

Siam Commercial Bank, one of the largest commercial banks in Thailand, is making moves in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space. SCB 10X, the bank's venture arm, is working with DeFi ecosystem Alpha Finance Lab to attract users to DeFi. Kaweewut Temphuwapat, head of venture builder SCB 10X, said, SCB 10X is committed to embracing emerging technologies with Alpha Finance Labs to create a unique suite of products that bridges the gap between the traditional and decentralized financial sectors. Read Full on Decrypt

- Fidelity Expanding Its Crypto Custody Service To Asia

The cryptocurrency-focused arm of financial services giant Fidelity Investments is teaming up with Singapore-based Stack Funds to cater to the growing demand for cryptocurrencies in Asia. A new partnership will bring Stack’s regional clients access to the secure custody services provided by Fidelity Digital Assets. Stack Funds co-founder and chief operating officer Matthew Dibb told, firm is utilizing the custody services of Fidelity as they are seeing a large uptick in demand for digital assets from traditional investors across Asia. Read Full on CoinDesk.

Here’s a level at which you should buy Bitcoin (BTC) in November

Bitcoin (BTC) price is fighting to secure the largest amount of monthly gains since April. The price action is trading about 3% higher this week after tagging the key short-term resistance near $13,900.

Fundamental analysis: High transaction fees

Bitcoin transaction fees climb to a 28-month high as the blockchain sees the worst congestion since 2018. The average Bitcoin transaction cost since Wednesday was 0.00086764 BTC, or $11.66, the highest in more than two years.

Over the last 12 days, average Bitcoin fees surged by 573% together with the increase in price from $11,200 to $13,800.  

“Bitcoin mempool [memory pool] is back in focus in the wake of rising transaction volumes, causing congestion in the network and consequently driving fees higher,” said Denis Vinokourov, helm of research at the prime brokerage Bequan.

Mempool refers to the bunch of unconfirmed transactions and when a BTC transaction is carried out, its first destination is the mempool, where the transactions wait for miners approval. Bitcoin is able to process just 1 megabyte (MB) worth of transactions per block mined around every 10 minutes. 

Upon a surge in traffic, the blockchain experiences delays and a backlog of transactions and in instances where demand is higher than supply, miners boost their revenue by focusing on high-fees transactions. As a result, users offer higher fees to skip long queues. 

Sharp price rallies are usually followed by high network congestions and as Bitcoin price substantially rose over the last 12 days, network congestion also soared by 1,800% during that period. 

As of Tuesday, there were in the mempool with a total block size of 66.8 MB. According to data source blockchain.com, that’s the highest level since the bull market frenzy of December 2018.

From October 29, Bitcoin mempool accommodated 121,340 unconfirmed transactions including a block size of 66.8 MB. Crypto data provider blockchain.com said this is the highest level since the wild bullish rally recorded in December 2018.

Technical analysis: Profit-taking facilitates a correction lower

Bitcoin (BTC) price corrected lower is trading around 3% higher on the week after profit-taking pushed the price below $13,500. The bulls have hit their near-term target at $13,900, which allowed early BTC buyers to exit their winning positions. 

Going into November, the price action may continue to correct from these levels. In this case, investors looking to get on the long side should wait for the price action to approach the $12,500 area before committing to a trade. 

Any move below $12,000 invalidates this trading setup, while the first target on the upside in this scenario is $14,150.

Summary

Bitcoin (BTC) price is heading towards a strong monthly close as transaction fees hit the highest levels in 28 months as the network deals with the worst congestion in over 2 years. 

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DLT-based solution to help banks digitise financial instruments

The International Trade and Forfaiting Association (ITFA) has released dDOC specifications to help banks digitise their financial instruments, such as guarantees and bills of exchange. ITFA FinTech Committee’s chairman, André Casterman, shared this information through a brief report on DLT in action.

In the publication, Casterman went on to disclose details on the progress of the DNI initiative since its launch in Q3 2019. According to him, dDOC specifications describe how to use advanced document technology to produce, manage, and share digital original documents.

Explaining why it is necessary to publish dDOC specifications, ITFA’s chairman, Sean Edwards said,

“As the leading trade finance association, ITFA encourages regulators to open up to new technologies such as cloud computing, digital signatures and distributed ledger technology. We publish today the dDOC specifications as a vendor-agnostic framework to digitise guarantees and negotiable instruments using a mix of advanced technologies. We are working with early adopter banks and with an initial set of regulators around the world to adapt policies to the digital practices.”

Combining three technologies

ITFA designed dDOC specifications around three building blocks. These are the digital container, which is developed using Ricardian contracts and JavaScript Object Notation (JSON), electronic signatures and stamps, and shared public distributed ledger technology (DLT), which acts as a digital notary.

Per ITFA, merging the above technologies results in the production of portable, original documents that are compatible with any existing or future software capability and transport mechanism. The organization went on to note that dDOC specifications would frequently embed the blockchain, but only as proof of truth, not as storage business data.

Explaining how dDOC specifications work, Casterman said banks need technologies that integrate seamlessly with the existing ones such as back-office applications, front-office portals, and communication channels.

He added that SMEs will like dDOC specifications as they prefer adopting technologies that their chosen banks offer them. Additionally, digitising bills of exchange and guarantees through e-banking portals is a low-hanging fruit for SME-focused originators. As such, any dDOC-compliant technology provider will help achieve this feat in a white-label method.

A strategic partnership with Enigio

Reportedly, ITFA needed a partner that would provide the technical requirements to underpin their technology. As such, the organization joined hands with Enigio to leverage the firm’s trace:original product as a solution that helps trace and secure the ownership of original documents.

Commenting on the viability of their technology, Enigio’s CEO, Göran Almgren said,

“We are confident that our DLT-based trace:original solution provides the most effective upgrade path from physical documents to digital originals, as our technology not only mimics today’s physical document flows but also offers the highest levels of security, integrity and traceability.”

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Tax expert claims reporting is key in the process of filing crypto taxes

Wendy Walker, a solution principal at Sovos, a tax compliance firm, has come out to describe reporting as the most important part of filing crypto taxes. She disclosed this information during an interview on October 30, noting that crypto adopters should always report details of their transactions even if they don’t owe income taxes. Walker shared this information after the IRS recently updated the 1040 income tax form to focus on cryptocurrencies.

Reportedly, the IRS added a new question to the 1040 tax income form asking US taxpayers about their financial interests in virtual currencies. The agency now requires US citizens to disclose whether they handled cryptocurrencies during the filing year. The question is, “At any time during 2019, did you receive, sell, send, exchange or otherwise acquire any financial interest in any virtual currency?”

While the question is simple to answer, checking the box for crypto adopters would be the first step in a thousand-mile journey. This is because handling crypto involves numerous transactions, including buying, selling, fees, multiple storage locations, and a wide range of information that may apply to filing taxes. As such, filing crypto taxes is currently an onerous task. While intricate, Walker believes the IRS can help simplify the process. However, the agency would have some catching up to do before achieving this feat.

The IRS is yet to understand crypto

According to Walker, the IRS has not fully understood the crypto sector despite releasing and enforcing tax guidance rules. She added noted that the agency has introduced several attempted clarifications and rulings around the taxation of cryptocurrencies since 2019. However, these efforts have only served to prove that the IRS lacks adequate knowledge of the nascent industry.

Walker added,

“While they’re doing all this enforcement, they’re also kind of learning about it at the same time unfortunately.”

She went on to state that the tax guidelines are flawed. This is because they lack related documentation when it comes to crypto transfers between exchanges. On top of this, they have a gray area regarding the taxation of digital currencies categorized as commodities and securities.  Although US regulators have come a long way when it comes to classifying cryptocurrencies, many assets reportedly lack proper definition.

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Chengdu, China wants to adopt blockchain for urban governance

China’s acceptance of blockchain has been growing rapidly, ever since its president, Xi Jinping, publicly praised it back in May 2018. Since then, the country has even developed its own digital currency, popularly called digital yuan.

In fact, when it comes to developing blockchain-based ecosystems, the country’s former vice-minister for Science and Technology, Wu Zhongze, believes that China is as advanced as Europe or the US.

Now, one of its cities plans to adopt blockchain technology for a number of different use cases.

China’s city has a plan to adopt blockchain technology

According to a recent report published by a local media outlet, the authorities of Chengdu, China aim to adopt blockchain for urban governance, smart manufacturing, international trade, and more.

The plan was published during the city’s first International Blockchain Industry Expo, known as the 2020 Chengdu Global Innovation and Entrepreneurship Fair. During the event, the Party Group of the Chengdu New Economy Committee’s secretary, Lu Tiecheng, released the Chengdu Blockchain Application Scenario Supply Action Plan.

The plan aims to allow contributors in numerous different fields to submit their own blockchain adoption applications. The fields include anything, from education and healthcare, to financial services and intellectual property.

What do the authorities wish to achieve?

The authorities’ goal is to form two or three larger blockchain cluster development areas over the following two years. The plan also sees the use of blockchain in legal compliance, noting that the government officials with to improve the process of collecting data.

They also wish to promote control, risk prevention, and management of different urban operations.

As mentioned, the officials also believe that blockchain could have some major appliances in the medical field. The secretary stressed these use cases particularly, suggesting that it could be used for electronic medical records, material verification, electronic prescription circulation, data sharing, and more.

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Iran started using Bitcoin as a legal medium of exchange

According to a recent report citing the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), Iran has just become the first country to use Bitcoin (BTC) as a legal means of exchange. The country made this move due to the most recent wave of sanctions by the US’ Treasury Department.

The Treasury Department pushed a new wave of sanctions against the country only days ago, and Iran has already reacted. The country now hopes to use Bitcoin for international settlements, according to yesterday’s reports.

Iran’s government moved quickly to amend its cryptocurrency regulations in order to allow crypto miners to redirect their coins to the country’s finance mechanism for international trades.

While the sanctions are undoubtedly the biggest factor in the decision to shift to Bitcoin, Iran also made the move due to the fact that its fiat currency suffered a lot as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Iran has strict rules regarding which coins can be used

While a shift to Bitcoin is a major move for the crypto industry, Iran’s new legislation stresses that only those BTC coins that were mined legally can be used for financing imports from abroad.

In other words, anyone who mines BTC in the country is under obligation to sell the coins to the Central Bank of Iran (CBI). The report also notes that there is an authorized limit under which the new coins need to arrive.

Each miner will have a legal cap, based on how much electricity they have to consume to conduct their mining operations.

Iran did not always appreciate cryptocurrencies and their potential. Many may remember that the country only made Bitcoin trading legal in August last year. However, since then, the country became much more open-minded regarding digital currencies.

The government started providing the miners with energy in order to encourage mining BTC legally. It issued over 1,000 licenses for mining gear in January 2020, and only a month ago, it offered as many as three power plants to the country’s miners.

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