Supreme Court Of India Lifts Cryptocurrency Ban, Quashes RBI’s Complete Ban And Allows Trading

Indian cryptocurrency news

Big day for blockchain enthusiasts and cryptocurrency-entrepreneurs in India. In a massive verdict, The Supreme Court of India has lifted the ‘cryptocurrency or other digital assets trading ban’ imposed by Reserve Bank Of India in 2018. In a 2018 circular, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had banned all VCs, including Bitcoin, in the country and stated it does not consider them ‘legal tender’.

The supreme court calls the RBI ban as unconstitutional.

The Supreme Court on March 4 has lifted the complete ban on cryptocurrencies, it will likely come as a big relief to virtual currency (VC) proponents in the country.

While quashing the complete ban on cryptocurrencies, the SC declared RBI’s circular as ‘unreasonable and disproportionate’. It has also set aside the RBI’s ban on banks’ dealing with cryptocurrencies.

The apex court termed that RBI circular, dated April 6, 2018, as unconstitutional. The RBI had in an affidavit in January told the SC it “had not banned cryptocurrencies, but only ring-fenced regulated entities from associated risks.”

The affidavit was filed against a petition filed by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI).

Meanwhile, Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, on February 12 surged past $10,000 mark once again to touch a fresh high for CY20. It was trading at $8,821.07 at 11.05 am.

The government had constituted an inter-ministerial committee in 2017 under the chairmanship of secretary, economic affairs, with Secy (MeiTY), Chairman (SEBI) and deputy governor, RBI as members, to study the issues related to virtual currencies and propose specific action to be taken in this matter.

The draft of Banning of Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2019 proposes 10-year jail for those who “mine, generate, hold, sell, transfer, dispose of, issue or deal in cryptocurrencies directly or indirectly.”

In April 2018, the RBI gave a three-month notice to the banking sector to stop their involvement in any sort of cryptocurrency transactions and thousands of crypto-traders India faced a setback.

In September 2018, India’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Zebpay shut down after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had imposed an apparent ban on virtual currencies. Zebpay, founded in 2014, was primarily responsible for introducing cryptocurrency trading to thousands of people in India.

Unocoin, another leading cryptocurrency trading platform in India, was laying off the majority of its staff amid regulatory uncertainty. The Bengaluru-based startup reportedly scaled down its team to merely 14 employees in April from over 100 people in February 2018.

While the world has found renewed interest in cryptocurrencies after Facebook announced its cryptocurrency project Libra, the company ruled out an entry in India, with sources saying it would not be available in countries where cryptocurrencies are banned.

Siam Commercial Bank Of Thailand To Use Ripple For Cross-border Payments With Easy Pay App

Ripple Siam Thailand Bank

Siam Commercial Bank of Thailand uses Ripple for cross-border payments with the Easy Pay application. That has been confirmed in an update on its website. There has been speculation about this news for several months. Now there is finally clarity. They also provide a complete description of how the technology is used and implemented.

The application allows SBC Thailand customers to easily send money to countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Singapore. Payments to the United Kingdom and Singapore are even made in real time. The SBC has been around for over 100 years and is the third largest bank in Thailand.

A few months ago, the SBC announced that they would use Ripple. At that time, xRapid was named as the company’s technology. This is a payment system in which the XRP token plays an important role. However, today it was officially announced that it is xCurrent. There are no benefits for XRP holders.

This is a point of hate for many people who own XRP coins. xCurrent is just the system that banks can use to commit. Payments where XRP can be used are not included in this piece of technology. Therefore, this collaboration does not immediately lead to an additional demand for the currency. You can see it as a disappointment for fans who had high expectations of this collaboration.

The cooperation between the bank and Ripple goes back to 2016. The chief technology officer, Colin Dinn, says he believes that banks that are not going to use the blockchain technique will have a very difficult time.

We saw that it offers a solution in which the client is central. Offer something our customers want. It was not something that we as a bank wanted to promote. With Ripple we have found a way and a partner in which we can work very differently from what we are used to. We have ambition and we want to do things differently and change. We see that a bank will be less relevant for customers in the coming years.

Data Is The New Oil, Blockchain Company Sets Up AI To Analyze Data

Data Is The New Oil

Blockchain startup Bitfury, the company which has recently hit a valuation of more than 1 billion dollars, launched an artificial intelligence unit (AI) to dig deeper and investigate data.

Blockchain, the decentralised digital ledger, became so important as the application it put up, the virtual currency Bitcoin rose to fame with massive adoption. The technology, that further developed in to the public and private sectors, has attracted worldwide attention for its ability to permanently register and track assets or transactions in all industries. Artificial intelligence is one of the technology sectors that attracted large funds to the technology this year.

The European blockchain company, The Bitfury Group, is setting up its artificial intelligence division (IS), the company’s chief executive officer told Reuters in a recent interview. Data is becoming the next oil, says Valery Vavilov, co-founder and CEO of the firm. He added that the company collected so much information that only 2% of this data could be analyzed so far; 98% is still awaiting analysis.

According to reports, the unit of artificial intelligence is still exploring the range of products it offers, and more details are expected by the end of this year or early next year.

Bitfury is supported by significant investors, who collected $ 80 million from risk firms such as Digital Galaxy, Macquarie Capital and Dentsu. The blockchain company was also exploring the making of an initial public offer or IPO last year, possibly in Amsterdam, London or Hong Kong.

People’s Bank of China To Issue Cryptocurrency? Director Says ‘They’re Ready’!

Chinese Digital Currency

PBoC, the People’s Bank of China has stated that its digital currency can now be considered ready. According to Mu Changchun, deputy director of the bank, a prototype that adopts blockchain architecture has developed successfully after five years of research.

His announcement, made at the China Finance 40 forum, was reported by local Shanghai Securities News on August 10.
Two-level operating system. According to the director, it would be difficult to issue a digital currency using pure blockchain architecture in a country as large as China, as retailers demand high competitive performance.

The digital currency will also adopt a two-level operating system to address “the complex economy of the country with a large territory and a large population”, with the PBoC at a higher level and commercial banks at a secondary level. According to Mu, this will improve accessibility, increase adoption rates among the public and foster innovation among commercial entities.

PBoC executive also mentions that the digital currency is designed to adapt to “high-frequency commercial scenarios for small-scale retail sales.” As reported by Cointelegraph on August 9, the PBoC planned to outperform the US libraries. UU. And Facebook by publishing a national cryptocurrency, while US politicians would curb the stability of the social network for regulatory reasons. However, despite Mu’s optimistic comments, it is difficult to know exactly when the Chinese digital currency will be launched.

FATF To Design Software To Track Bitcoin And Cryptocurrency Transactions

Bitcoin Transactions Tracking

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), said to be developing a tracker system to find digital currency transactions and about 15 countries to be using this to gain personal transactions data from their citizens, says a recent report by Nikkei.

About 15 countries are considering creating a new system to collect and share personal data from people who perform cryptocurrency transactions. The aim is to prevent money laundering, its use by terrorist organizations or its illicit use.

The system would be designed by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an international organization of more than 30 member countries and economies. The goal is to establish detailed measures by 2020 and put the system into operation a few years later.

Once in place, the system would be managed by the private sector. As many countries have not yet established a cryptocurrency regulatory regime, international cooperation could accelerate the development of legal measures. The new system will be developed by some 15 countries, including G-7 members Australia and Singapore.

Japan was the first country to introduce a legal framework for the cryptocurrency trade, creating a record in 2017. But with totally unregulated virtual currencies in some places, developing uniform international rules has been a challenge.

Representatives of the G-20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting in June decided to work on setting up licensing and registration systems for account operators. They also agreed to work together to strengthen surveillance and eliminate loopholes for illicit money transfers.

Ethereum Blockchain Network Crosses More Than 200,000 ERC20 Tokens Benchmark

Ethereum

Regardless of what you think of Ethereum (and altcoins in general), it is a fact that this network has had and had a great impact on the entire industry. While bitcoin is considered primarily as a means of payment, during the huge increases in 2017, the ether was the driving force and the means of payment in many cases.

The Ethereum network was really forced to assume that role: the tokens in the network shot up like mushrooms. Suddenly, everyone wanted to issue the so-called ERC-20 token. Since the launch of the network, more than 200,000 Tokens have been issued on the Ethereum network according to EtherScan.

ERC-20 is a technical standard for implementing tokens in the Ethereum chain. Almost all the coins or tokens issued on this platform belong to this category. The most important example is the ether. That is the fuel of the Ethereum network and it is also an ERC-20 token. With ether, it pays to make transactions, but also to execute smart contracts, for example.

These tokens are issued based on a smart contract. These contracts do not have to be ‘smart’ or super practical, therefore, it is a slightly unfortunate name. However, these smart contracts ensure that the network and tokens must comply with certain rules. Therefore, you can program your tokens in a certain way and give it certain properties.

In 2017, the initial coin supply trend began. Everything and everyone had to have their own record. Often that was only possible with ETH. Which resulted in prices well above $ 1,000 per ether. Current hodlers can only dream of that. Millions could be collected. And if you could make a good marketing talk, you could charge wonderfully. Because investors were ready to push their ETH earned so hard to another new company.

Billions in investments in projects, most of which have never added anything to the crypto space. On the other hand, there are some outliers. If you look at the top 100, most remain an ERC-20 token. The largest token, after ETH, is currently Binance Coin (BNB). But that currency will eventually move to its own chain. But also other currencies that are popular this year, such as Chainlink (LINK) and Basic Attention Token (BAT) have been issued on the Ethereum network.

Broader Adoption Of Bitcoin: Dutch Man Sells House For 30 BTC

Crypto Payments in the Real World: Can You Pay for Coffee With Bitcoin?

A broader adoption of Bitcoin on the way: a Dutch man sells a house for 30 Bitcoin. A Brabant man sells his house for bitcoin, while someone from Arnhem makes his purchases with the largest cryptocurrency. Tim Hanekamp of Eindhoven sells his house for bitcoin (BTC). He tells the Dagblad Brabants about his motives: “I don’t know anyone in Brabant who has done this. But I believe in technology. You don’t have to go to a bank, mortgage advisor or notary.”

The house is for sale for a price between € 250,000 and € 300,000. But Hanekamp prefers to receive hard bitcoins for his house. Hanekamp: “It’s useful because I don’t have to change. There’s a lot involved. You have to go to a mortgage advisor, you have to deal with the interests again.” According to De Brabander, a transaction with bitcoin means that it will mainly have fewer administrative problems. When Hanekamp has sold his house, he goes on a trip to the motor home: “The value could well be one million per coin, so I buy a much nicer house.”

Therefore, Bitcoin is particularly useful in this situation to avoid several intermediaries. Bitcoin is a payment method, but it is by no means suitable for all situations. That does not prevent an Arnhemmer from shopping with BTC. A Redditor proudly shows the receipt of your purchases. The sumBTC user has paid very well through the Bitcoin Lightning Network for, among other things, some nuts and fish sticks.

It is an official payment method in the corresponding supermarket. In many places on the Internet you can already pay with bitcoin, but physical stores do not yet support it. If you still want to pay with bitcoin or other crypto currencies, it depends, for example, on a debit card like Coinbase. In this specific store there is a way to pay directly with bitcoin and the second fast layer called Lightning Network. A scan of the QR code and it’s ready.

North Korean Hackers Stole $2 Billion From Banks And Crypto Exchanges

Crypto Exchange Hack

North Korea spent $ 2 billion stolen from cryptocurrency and bank exchanges through hacker attacks to finance its weapons of mass destruction programs, states a recent report of the United Nations.

DPRK hackers with the help of attacks stole $ 2 billion from exchanges of cryptocurrencies and financial organizations. The funds were used to finance weapons of mass destruction programs. Every year, North Korean hackers use increasingly sophisticated methods to attack financial services, according to the United Nations (UN) report, writes Reuters.

Pyongyang continues to develop its nuclear and missile defense programs, although it has not carried out nuclear tests or intercontinental ballistic missile launches (ICBM), says the UN Security Council sanctions committee. Third-party experts participated in the preparation of the report.

According to the report’s authors, the DPRK “is using cyberspace to launch increasingly sophisticated attacks to steal funds from financial institutions and cryptocurrency exchanges to generate income.” In addition, through cryptocurrencies, North Korean authorities use hackers to launder stolen funds.

“Cyber ​​units of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, many of which are run by the Office of General Intelligence, are raising funds for weapons of mass destruction (ADM) programs, which are currently estimated at $ 2 billion in total “.

According to the report, there are “at least 35 registered cases in which the DPRK cyber units attacked financial institutions, crypto exchanges and mining farms to steal currencies.” Organizations in approximately 17 countries became victims.

The attacks by North Korean hackers in cryptocurrency exchanges allowed “to generate income in a way that is more difficult to track and are subject to less government supervision and regulation than the traditional banking sector.”

“We urge all responsible states to take measures to counter North Korea’s ability to perform malicious cyber activities that generate revenue and are used to finance its illegal programs to create ADM and ballistic missiles,” said a spokeswoman for the State Department of the United States when answering a question about a UN report.

Mastercard To Hire Specialists In Blockchain Development And Cryptocurrencies

Mastercard Hires Blockchain

The payment company Mastercard published on its website three vacancies for managers to develop projects in the field of blockchain and cryptocurrencies, including payments and wallets.

In one of the vacancies, the company indicated that it was looking for a “blockchain solutions engineer”, in another it required a “vice president of blockchain product management”, the third said about “product management: cryptocurrencies / wallets”. The new employees will work in an already formed multifunctional team focused on experimental research, regulation and legal compliance of digital assets, franchises, regions and technologies, with the aim of continuing to develop new products and services.

In addition, candidates for two positions must have experience in the management of cryptocurrency storage products. However, the company does not specify what exactly they will do. They may have to develop a custody solution as part of the collaboration between Mastercard and Facebook.

Also, it needs to be taken in to account that Mastercard is one of the participants of the Libra cryptocurrency project announced by Facebook, which was invited to start developing its own applications for the Libra blockchain, including alternative cryptocurrency wallets.