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#USA Startups Weekly: VCs celebrate the new year the only way they know how

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Venture capitalists swore in the new year the only way they know how… by submitting SEC paperwork for new funds! insert party hat/confetti emoji here.

As many of us brainstormed our New Year’s resolutions and let our hangovers wear off, several firms began this week what for some is a long and arduous process of raising a VC fund and for others is as simple as a few phone calls to LPs. What else happened this week? Pokémon GO creator Niantic secured $190 million, Mary Meeker announced the name of her fund and a whole bunch of people played with Popsugar’s somewhat sketchy twinning app.

Fresh funds:

Mary Meeker will raise up to $1.5 billion for Bond, her new VC fund. Union Square Ventures raised $429 million across two new funds. Lightspeed Venture partners announced a $560 million China fund. And biotech firm Atlas Venture brought in $250 million.

AR startups are failing:

TechCrunch’s Lucas Matney takes a look at struggling augmented reality startups and questions some of the larger players, from Magic Leap to Snap and Niantic. And speaking of Niantic, the Pokémon GO developer closed a $190 million funding round this week at a $3.9 billion valuation.

Indian startups start the year off strong:

Startups based in India raised more than $10 billion in 2018, per Venture Beat, a record amount of capital for the country. Already this year one company has closed a round larger than $100 million. CarDekho, an online marketplace for car sales in India, has pulled in a new $110 million Series C funding round this week to push deeper into financial services and insurance.

Future tech:

Boom Supersonic, which is building and designing what it calls the “world’s first economically viable supersonic airliner,” announced a $100 million Series B funding round led by Emerson Capital. Other investors include Y Combinator’s Continuity Fund, Caffeinated Capital, SV Angel, Sam Altman, Paul Graham, Ron Conway, Michael Marks and Greg McAdoo.

A startup disrupting the … bottled water business:

FloWater has raised $15 million for its reusable water bottle refilling stations to produce purified water. Bluewater, a Swedish company that sells water purifiers, among other things, led the round.

VC subsidized vending machines:

Vengo makes wall-mounted mini-vending machines the size of large picture frames that it then sells to vending machine distributors, asking for a small fee per month in exchange for access to its software. Now it has $7 million to build out its business.

A VC gets a second chance:

After SpaceX filed more SEC paperwork as part of its $500 million upcoming fundraise, TechCrunch’s Connie Loizos noticed a familiar name on the document: Steve Jurvetson. Jurvetson is a longtime board member of both Tesla and SpaceX, but after he left DFJ, the venture capital firm he co-founded, in 2017 amid questions about his personal conduct, there was uncertainty around whether he would keep those director positions. Well, it looks like Elon Musk is standing by Jurvetson.

And finally, are you smarter than a TechCrunch reporter?

Let this test decide.

 

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#Blockchain Five Bitcoin Board Games

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Five Bitcoin Board Games

Bitcoin is highly addictive. For those who come to know and love the cryptocurrency, sending, receiving, and hodling often isn’t enough. Soon they crave Bitcoin merch, which leads to other Bitcoin-based accessories, from stickers to hardware wallets. The final endgame, for a handful who get hooked on the P2P cryptocurrency, is to invest in a branded Bitcoin board or card game.

Also read: Cryptocoinopoly Is the Game That Lets You Play the Cryptocurrency Markets with Friends

Bitcoin Board Games Are Still in Their Infancy

Just like Bitcoin circa 2011, Bitcoin board games are still a little rough around the edges. That’s to be expected of a niche pursuit based around what is still a niche asset class. It will take another extended bull run and more all-time highs before the in-laws are receptive to playing Bitcoin board games around the dinner table. In the meantime, a number of niche Bitcoin-based games are available for diehards who aren’t prepared to wait until Hasbro brings out its own crypto board game.

Five Bitcoin Board Games

Bitcoin Empire

One of the first Bitcoin games to gain much traction, Bitcoin Empire is a fast-paced card game in which players compete to collect the most bitcoins. Character cards are equipped with skills covering law, coding, and marketing, while attack cards are branded as Hack, Lawsuit, or Smear Campaign. The latter, if the game were to be re-released today, would probably be dubbed “FUD”. First profiled by news.Bitcoin.com in early 2017, Bitcoin Empire is scarce these days, though determined sleuths should be able to track down a copy on Ebay. Boardgamegeek.com also has a full profile of “the world’s first Bitcoin card game.”

Bitcoin Empire: To the Moon 2.0

Bitcoin Empire must have struck a chord with some, as creator David Thomas is back with a sequel. Like its predecessor, To The Moon 2.0 has been funded via Kickstarter and is set to ship in February 2018. Described as “a card game about bitcoin and a conspiracy that the moon landings are fake,” the game builds upon the character and skill card-based model of the original, but throws in references to popular culture and news events for added zaniness.

Five Bitcoin Board Games

Cryptocurrency: The Board Game

This game raised $15,000 via Kickstarter last year, which is quite impressive for a bear market. With the invocation to “Trick your opponents into buying cryptocurrency scams while you trade, mine and rumormonger to riches,” Cryptocurrency: The Board Game certainly captures the spirit of the scene. The game obliges 2-4 players to take on the role of CEO of a fintech startup looking to trade and mine cryptos. Tasks include hiring experts, dumping shitcoins and solving crypto “mining algorithms.” For some players, the game will provide a pleasing distraction from real-life cryptocurrency trading; for others, a depressing reminder.

Five Bitcoin Board Games

Crypto Millionaire

Surely dreamed up at the height of bull market mania, Crypto Millionaire is yet another Kickstarter launch that’s scheduled to start fundraising this month. The game looks rudimentary, even by the humble standards of Bitcoin board games, with the ICO cards likely to prove too much for some bag-holders to stomach.

Crypto

The simply named Crypto is a strategic board game inspired by cryptocurrencies that’s currently raised over $2,000 on Indiegogo. Playing “requires you to know absolutely nothing about cryptocurrencies,” which will be reassuring to the sort of participants who were stockpiling ripple and tron around this time last year. Rumors, Hacks, Sell-offs, and Hard Forks are the names of the game’s four event cards, while a variety of auction methods – Dutch, English, vickrey, and fixed price – will teach players that there’s more than one way to pay over the odds for an asset.

Five Bitcoin Board Games

In addition to the games featured above, there’s also the unofficial version of crypto Monopoly, which one redditor mocked up in late 2017. As a glance at the selected playing spaces and their respective positions on the board shows, a lot can happen in the cryptosphere in 12 months. For players unimpressed with the current crop of Bitcoin board games, there is an alternative – create your own and then convince the crypto community to buy in.

Would you play a cryptocurrency board game? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock and Kickstarter.

Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section.

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from Bitcoin News http://bit.ly/2scqOBK Five Bitcoin Board Games

#Blockchain Deploying Censorship-Resistance to Uphold Decentralization

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Deploying Censorship-Resistance to Uphold Decentralization

This piece on censorship resistance was written by Jonas Sevel Karlberg. Karlberg advises several prominent projects and is a co-founder of the Nordic Blockchain Association. He is also the founder and CEO of Amazix.

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Governments have attempted to control ideas and information for nearly as long as the internet has existed, but the old social constructs they created are crumbling. State decrees on what information is safe to consume, which services are legal to use, and who is allowed to produce valid knowledge are no longer the policing principles of the internet.

Also read: New Full Node Client ‘Bitcoin Verde’ Joins the BCH Ecosystem

Blockchain and the crypto community are breaking the established norms, advancing a libertarian approach to the internet that champions personal freedoms and enables internet users to express themselves, associate, and interact as they please. What used to be privileges, determined by censorship, are now universal rights demanded by all.

The State of Censorship

The extent and method of internet censorship has varied from country to country. Most democratic countries have moderate censorship, which is based on well-intentioned desires to do things like protect children from unsuitable content, or block extremist, hateful, and violent content.

Other (supposedly) more authoritarian states very deliberately control citizens’ access to information and suppress discussion and debate. Censorship can also occur in response to, or in anticipation of, events such as elections, protests, and riots.

But no matter the motivation, the outcome is always the same — governments block access to web pages they identify as undesirable. Some states go even further, and the Myanmar government allegedly keeps internet cafés under surveillance with computers that automatically take screenshots every few minutes. China has an advanced filtering system, which can search new web pages and restrict access in real time, and its government searches blogs for subversive content and blocks users from visiting them.

Blockchain censorship takes a similar but different form. Users can be blocked from using cryptocurrency exchanges, and currency creators can be prevented from listing. The exchanges are the powerful ones in this scenario, controlling which users can participate in crypto transactions.

Governance changes, including the updating of software, changing of rules, or the forking of cryptocurrencies, are all ways to control transactions. Developers and miners must reach an overwhelming consensus before they can make any changes to the Bitcoin protocol, and while centralized teams swiftly deploy updates, it comes with the cost of censorship. In order to be censorship resistant, cryptocurrencies should possess an immutable blockchain. Transaction fees are another form of censorship, targeted at the least well-off crypto owners.

Opposing Censorship

There are many opponents to internet censorship, including formal organizations with prestigious memberships, and looser, more dispersed groups who sometimes advocate a guerrilla approach to getting around strict policies. Some of these groups are to be found in the crypto community, and they are becoming instrumental players in the fight against internet censorship.

At the heart of the crypto community is a belief in political decentralization — the belief that information on the internet should be accessible by all, and in the control of users. One of the main strengths of blockchain is its ability to resist censorship and operate in trust-less environments.

Resistance to censorship via crypto systems comes through censorship-resistant transactions, which are unalterable. There is no way to rewrite a blockchain’s history. However, if blockchain is to protect the accessibility of information for all, it is imperative that it remains public. Censorship-resistance implies that everyone can transact with the network on the same terms, regardless of their personal identifying characteristics. If true censorship-resistance is to be achieved, then users should not be able to exclude others from information.

The Implementation of Resistance

The question is, how is censorship-resistance implemented on a network without evolving or changing? It is much more feasible for such a feature to be embedded in a network design from the beginning, rather than being based on a governance model that could be altered at some point in the future.

The motivations behind resistance to censorship and decentralization are inexorably linked in a symbiotic relationship. Cypherpunks extol decentralization to hold governments accountable and to pursue social and political change, while at the same time protecting access to information and guarding against interference from third parties.

Decentralized apps and networks are the key to resisting third party influence and control over ownership and access to user information. In a decentralized system, the internet is a community of users and a network of independent machines that power and host information. This not only removes central hands from the levers of control, but also makes systems more resilient to failures and hacks, while ensuring there is no element of vulnerability. This appeals to everyone worldwide, and it is undoubtedly the future of sharing information — it’s only a matter of time before decentralization of information and power becomes commonplace.

Is censorship as big a problem as libertarians and crypto-anarchists make out? How important is censorship-resistance for the future of the crypto ecosystem and how will censorship-resistant technologies ultimately be implemented?  

Images courtesy of Shutterstock

OP-ed disclaimer: This is an Op-ed article. The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own. Bitcoin.com does not endorse nor support views, opinions or conclusions drawn in this post. Bitcoin.com is not responsible for or liable for any content, accuracy or quality within the Op-ed article. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the content. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any information in this Op-ed article.

 

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#Blockchain Despite Supreme Court Ruling, Chile’s Antitrust Court Orders Banks to Keep Crypto Exchange Accounts Open

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Despite Supreme Court Ruling, Chile’s Antitrust Court Orders Banks to Reopen Crypto Exchange Accounts

Following the ruling by Chile’s supreme court that a bank can legally close accounts of a crypto exchange, the country’s Court of Defense of Free Competition reaffirmed that banks must reopen crypto exchanges’ accounts. The Chilean antitrust court continues to hear the case alleging that banks exploit their dominant position to keep crypto exchanges off the market.

Also read: Indian Supreme Court Moves Crypto Hearing, Community Calls for Positive Regulations

Supreme Court’s Ruling Inconsequential

Despite Supreme Court Ruling, Chile’s Antitrust Court Orders Banks to Reopen Crypto Exchange AccountsChile’s Court of Defense of Free Competition (TDLC) rejected banks’ request on Wednesday to vacate the injunction that forced them to keep accounts of crypto exchanges open. Their request was “based on the ruling of the supreme court, issued in early December, which determined that the closure of an account of [crypto exchange] Orionx by Bancoestado was legal,” La Tercera publication wrote. Dario Financiero news outlet elaborated:

The TDLC noted in its resolution that the ruling of the country’s highest court ‘does not constitute a new precedent that will change the resolution.’

Despite Supreme Court Ruling, Chile’s Antitrust Court Orders Banks to Reopen Crypto Exchange AccountsMartín Jofré, a partner at crypto exchange Criptomkt, commented after the ruling: “For us, it is a success since we need bank accounts to operate in the market. In any case, we always rely on Chilean institutions, especially on the TDLC for its role as defender of free competition.”

Despite Supreme Court Ruling, Chile’s Antitrust Court Orders Banks to Reopen Crypto Exchange AccountsCryptocurrency exchanges filed a lawsuit with the TDLC against 10 major banks in Chile last year, accusing them of abusing their dominant position after they unilaterally decided to close their accounts. The TDLC then ordered banks to reopen accounts of the exchanges for the duration of the trial.

Bancoestado and Itau took the case to the country’s supreme court which subsequently ruled that banks can legally close accounts of crypto exchanges. With the supreme court’s validation, the two banks asked the TDLC to cancel its order for them to reopen accounts of the exchanges.

Sound Judgement

Despite Supreme Court Ruling, Chile’s Antitrust Court Orders Banks to Reopen Crypto Exchange Accounts“The resolution of the [TDLC] court seems completely legally sound to us,” lawyer Samuel Cañas, representing local crypto exchange Buda.com, was quoted by Dario Financiero as saying after TDLC’s ruling on Wednesday.

Despite Supreme Court Ruling, Chile’s Antitrust Court Orders Banks to Reopen Crypto Exchange Accounts“On the other hand, the issuance of judgments such as that of the supreme court” against crypto exchanges “should not have legal relevance on the decisions that the Tribunal [Tribunal de Defensa de la Libre Competencia, TDLC]” makes on the subject of free competition, therefore it should be “inadmissible.”

Mario Bravo, legal advisor to local crypto exchange Cryptomkt, said that “the witnesses that we have cited, that is, the finance minister, the economy minister, the president of the central bank, the superintendents of banks, the director of the UAF [Unidad De Analisis Financiero],” will give their testimonies to the TDLC in February. He concluded:

We believe that we will be able to prove that the banks illegitimately expel Buda and Cryptomkt from the market because they are companies that compete with them.

What do you think of the TDLC court’s decision? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, TDLC, Cryptomkt, and Buda.com.

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#Blockchain Owner of Romanian Exchange Coinflux to Be Extradited to the US

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Owner of Romanian Exchange Coinflux to Be Extradited to the US

The Romanian judiciary has decided to hand over to U.S. authorities the founder and CEO of Coinflux, one of the country’s cryptocurrency exchanges. Vlad Nistor has been accused of a number of crimes including the laundering of illicitly obtained funds through his digital asset trading platform.

Also read: Russians See Growing Number of Options to Buy Cryptocurrencies

Supreme Court Approves Nistor’s Extradition

Owner of Romanian Exchange Coinflux to Be Extradited to the USVlad Nistor was arrested in December by Romanian law enforcement officials and Secret Service agents in Cluj, where his crypto business is based. He was released soon after that by the Bucharest Court of Appeal but not allowed to leave the city. The 29-year-old entrepreneur submitted an appeal against the U.S. extradition request. On Dec. 20, the court rejected his objections.

According to local media, the High Court of Cassation and Justice, Romania’s supreme judicial authority, has upheld the decision by the lower instance and ordered Nistor’s transfer to U.S. custody. Nistor is wanted for his participation in crimes committed by other Romanian nationals. Using Coinflux, the group allegedly laundered money from their criminal activities, including defrauding U.S. citizens.

Owner of Romanian Exchange Coinflux to Be Extradited to the US

Last month, the businessman’s lawyer Anatol Pânzaru protested against the extradition and argued that the requirements of the agreement on judicial cooperation between Romania and the United States have not been met. He thinks Nistor is wrongly accused of crimes committed in the U.S., and not in Romania as the American side claims, in which he was not directly involved.

Pânzaru explained that the scammers have initially exchanged their proceeds to bitcoin on U.S. territory and that’s where the actual money laundering occurred. Then other people converted the coins back to fiat currency on Nistor’s exchange in Romania. The lawyer insists his client had no way of knowing these were illicit funds.

‘Trying to Grow a Business’

Owner of Romanian Exchange Coinflux to Be Extradited to the US
Vlad Nistor

In his statement in court, Vlad Nistor said he established the trading platform after working for seven years in the financial sector. “When you try to grow a business, you don’t think of committing crimes, because the value of that business is diminished,” stated the 29-year-old Coinflux owner, as quoted by the Romanian news agency Mediafax.

The exchange was founded in 2015 and has since traded cryptocurrency worth over $229 million, processing more than 203,000 transactions, according to its records. Last year the platform had a turnover of more than $3.4 million and made over 30,000 transactions. A warning on its website now reads “Trading disabled, bank account frozen.”

In a message to its users, Coinflux states that it has been forced to stop all digital currency exchanges due to an “unexpected investigation.” The company informs its customers it’s doing everything possible “to make sure everyone who had money deposited in Coinflux wallets gets it back.” But the team also notes their access to certain parts of the platform has been restricted.

Nistor’s case resembles that of the Russian citizen Alexander Vinnik who was arrested on a U.S. warrant in Greece in the summer of 2017. The IT specialist is the suspected operator of the now defunct exchange Btc-e. He is accused of laundering up to $9 billion through the platform, including bitcoins stolen in the Mt. Gox hack. Vinnik is currently fighting his extradition to the U.S. and to France, where he is wanted for other crimes.

Do you think Nistor and Vinnik will be extradited to the U.S.? Share your thoughts on these cases in the comments sections below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Vlad Nistor (Twitter).

Express yourself freely at Bitcoin.com’s user forums. We don’t censor on political grounds. Check forum.Bitcoin.com.

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#Blockchain Bitcoin Primely Positioned as U.S. Foreign Policy Pushes Rivals to Ditch Dollar

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Bitcoin at Right Side of History as Brazen U.S. Foreign Policy Pushes Rivals to Ditch Dollar

As President Donald Trump presides over geopolitical shape-shifting as the poster boy of separatist politics, the most significant clapback yet may be loss of confidence in the U.S. dollar. The dollar has been politically weaponized in the service of American interests and now other global powerhouses are betting on taking back control of their economies by phasing out the dollar as the de facto medium of international trade.

Also read: Over 900 Retailers Worldwide Now Accept Bitcoin Cash

Rival Countries Gang up to Seek U.S. Dollar Replacement

Over the past year, China, Russia, India, Iran and Turkey, countries predominantly on the receiving end of U.S. economic sanctions and trade conflicts, have either disapprovingly reassessed the hegemony of the dollar as the global reserve currency or started de-dollarizing their trade relationships.

Bitcoin Primely Positioned as U.S. Foreign Policy Pushes Rivals to Ditch Dollar

Although cryptocurrency has not been tabled as an alternative, loss of confidence in the dollar is symptomatic of the political entanglements of fiat currencies and places decentralized digital currencies like bitcoin at the right side of history.

In a recent article, RT profiled a few countries opposed to the dollar and detailed what they are doing to cut back on dollar dependence. Unlike other dollar skeptics, India does not come across as a U.S. rival, but the populous country is taking measures to ensure that American sanctions do not get in the way of its trade partnerships.

According to RT, the Asian giant had to switch from the dollar to the rupee earlier this year for a military procurement from its BRICS partner, Russia, as well as for sanctions-hit Iran’s crude oil. A currency swap agreement between India and United Arab Emirates is part of a trend that China and Russia have also utilized to do away with the U.S. dollar as a medium of exchange.

China Looks to the Yuan

China’s international ambitions include wider circulation of the yuan, which is already on course following the adoption of the currency, along with the dollar, the Japanese yen, the euro, and the British pound into the IMF’s currency basket. China’s gradual de-dollarization may be hastened by the current trade tiff between Beijing and Washington.

Bitcoin Primely Positioned as U.S. Foreign Policy Pushes Rivals to Ditch Dollar

Steps taken to this end include reducing the country’s share of U.S. treasuries, introduction of swap facilities in participating countries to promote yuan use in the developing world, and stronger trade among South East Asian neighbors.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has rapped the US as “making a colossal strategic mistake” by undermining confidence in the dollar. Although the Kremlin, a frequent target of U.S. sanctions, has not made an outright call for ditching the greenback, its finance ministry has been phasing out the currency in favor of the ruble, the euro, and precious metals, which it considers to be more secure.

Online banking solutions Visa, Mastercard, and Swift are also getting replaced in Russia by a national payment system in retaliation against an anticipated round of U.S. sanctions. Mastercard and Visa are not new to complicity with U.S. interests. Interestingly, BTC emerged as a politically agnostic payment alternative after the two institutions froze Wikileaks editor Julian Assange’s accounts.

The Cryptocurrency Refuge

Barack Obama left office with the Iran nuclear deal as one of his masterful diplomatic strokes, and a peace effort for his otherwise war-weary tenure. Trump was not eager to inherit the deal, renewing sanctions against Tehran with a nod from Tel Aviv. In addition to the currency switch arrangement with India for oil exports, Iran has also entered a barter trade arrangement with neighboring Iraq. The Islamic Republic has also spoken about the introduction of a national cryptocurrency to circumvent the sanctions.

Bitcoin Primely Positioned as U.S. Foreign Policy Pushes Rivals to Ditch Dollar

Turkey, which is enduring increasingly frosty relations with Washington, has been vocal about switching to alternative currencies for transactions with Iran. Dollar-free trade with China, Russia, and Ukraine is also being worked out.

In Africa, where issues of aid are tied to a series of often unreasonable demands, the dominance of the United States dollar as a settlement currency is already being challenged by emerging payment methods in financial technology and by native African fiat currencies. In the four years to 2017, fewer people in the continent of 1.2 billion transacted via the U.S. dollar than with their local currencies or mobile money, and perhaps cryptocurrency.

Virtual currency has in the past emerged as a solution to situations where other actors are victims of traditional financial instruments and the complicity of payment processors with powerful state interests. Replacement of the U.S dollar with other fiat currencies may facilitate similar problems in the long-term, all of which quietly makes the case for censorship-resistant cryptocurrency that is immune from international meddling. The only tenable solution that meets that description is, of course, bitcoin.

What do you think about the dominance of the U.S. dollar in global trade? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock.

Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section.

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from Bitcoin News http://bit.ly/2RvoKD6 Bitcoin Primely Positioned as U.S. Foreign Policy Pushes Rivals to Ditch Dollar

#Blockchain Number of Chinese Crypto Lawsuits Doubles in 2018

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According to China Judgements Online, a database of Chinese court documents, half of all lawsuits pertaining to cryptocurrencies were filed last year, highlighting an increase in fraudulent activity despite China’s regulatory crackdown. The database indicates that at least 202 cryptocurrency scams were promoted via more than 3,000 different platforms.

Also Read: Indian Central Bank’s Report Shows Cryptocurrencies Are Not Currently a Threat

Half of All Chinese Crypto Lawsuits Were Filed Last Year

Number of Chinese Crypto Lawsuits Doubles in 2018China Judgements Online, a website that publishes Chinese court documents, has estimated that 202 cryptocurrency scams were operational in China during 2018.

The website found that the scams were promoted across more than 3,000 different platforms and noted a significant increase in the number of pyramid schemes ostensibly associated with cryptocurrency over the last two years.

According to China Judgements Online, approximately half of the 406 lawsuits relating to cryptocurrency that have been filed in China since 2014 were filed last year. The data highlights the increase in fraudulent activity pertaining to virtual currency following the highly publicized cryptocurrency boom of 2017, despite China’s regulatory efforts.

China Advocates Caution Regarding Crypto

Number of Chinese Crypto Lawsuits Doubles in 2018Chinese officials have continued to promote caution regarding cryptocurrencies in recent months, emphasizing concerns that an unbridled cryptocurrency market could lead to systemic risk throughout the domestic economy.

Li Lihui, the head of the state-backed National Internet Finance Association – a self-regulatory organization that collaborates with the People’s Bank of China and “relevant ministries and commissions” – recently emphasized concerns pertaining to the transparency of stablecoins while speaking at an event hosted by Tsinghua University.

“On the platform of the virtual currency exchange, the market value of [stablecoins] is hundreds of millions of dollars. But some stable currency accounts are not transparent enough, and there is no authoritative supervision, there is a risk of trust,” Lihui stated.

Do you think that the number of lawsuits pertaining to cryptocurrencies in China will continue to increase in 2019? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!

Images courtesy of Shutterstock

At Bitcoin.com there’s a bunch of free helpful services. For instance, have you seen our Tools page? You can even lookup the exchange rate for a transaction in the past. Or calculate the value of your current holdings. Or create a paper wallet. And much more.

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#USA Engineers can now reverse-engineer 3D models

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A system that uses a technique called constructive solid geometry (CSG) is allowing MIT researchers to deconstruct objects and turn them into 3D models, thereby allowing them to reverse-engineer complex things.

The system appeared in a paper entitled “InverseCSG: Automatic Conversion of 3D Models to CSG Trees” by Tao Du, Jeevana Priya Inala, Yewen Pu, Andrew Spielberg, Adriana Schulz, Daniela Rus, Armando Solar-Lezama, and Wojciech Matusik.

“At a high level, the problem is reverse engineering a triangle mesh into a simple tree. Ideally, if you want to customize an object, it would be best to have access to the original shapes — what their dimensions are and how they’re combined. But once you combine everything into a triangle mesh, you have nothing but a list of triangles to work with, and that information is lost,” said Tao Du to 3DPrintingIndustry. “Once we recover the metadata, it’s easier for other people to modify designs.”

The process cuts objects into simple solids that can then be added together to create complex objects. Because 3D scanning is imperfect, the creation of mesh models of various objects rarely leads to a perfect copy of the original. Using this technique, individual parts are cut away, analyzed and reassembled, allowing for a more precise scan.

“Further, we demonstrated the robustness of our algorithm by solving examples not describable by our grammar. Finally, since our method returns parameterized CSG programs, it provides a powerful means for end-users to edit and understand the structure of 3D meshes,” said Du.

The system detects primitive shapes and then modifies them. This allows it to recreate almost any object with far better accuracy than in previous versions of the software. It’s a surprisingly cool way to begin hacking hardware in order to understand it’s shape, volume and stability.


from Startups – TechCrunch https://tcrn.ch/2sjJb81

#Blockchain Circle’s Cryptocurrency OTC Desk Swapped More Than $24 Billion in 2018

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Circle's Cryptocurrency OTC Desk Swaps More Than $24 Billion in 2018

Finance company Circle claims its over-the-counter (OTC) cryptocurrency trading desk swapped a notional volume of $24 billion last year. The Boston-based company’s Circle Trade desk reportedly executed more than 10,000 cryptocurrency settlements between 600 unique counterparties in 2018.

Also Read: New Full Node Client ‘Bitcoin Verde’ Joins the BCH Ecosystem

Despite the Crypto Bear Market in 2018, Circle Sees Significant Growth

Circle's Cryptocurrency OTC Desk Swapped More Than $24 Billion in 2018Last year the digital asset company Circle made a lot of moves behind the scenes within the cryptocurrency economy. In a blog post written on Jan. 3, Circle explained how it expanded significantly over the last 12 months and now services over 8 million customers residing in 195 different countries. In 2018, Circle claims to have processed more than 200 million digital asset transactions, adding up to over $75 billion in value. The Boston-based firm says customers stemmed from all over the world, with 30 percent of volume coming from the U.S. This is followed by the EU and U.K. (24%), Asia (24%), and the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America (21%).

Additionally, Circle discussed acquiring the cryptocurrency trading platform Poloniex and emphasized that the exchange’s services have improved a great deal over the last 12 months. “Through expansion in support operations and engineering, we helped customers by reducing nearly 200,000 open tickets at the start of 2018 to fewer than 1,000 by year-end,” Circle noted. Circle also remarked that Poloniex now has enhanced risk and compliance operations which allow the company to onboard customers within minutes of enrollment. The parent company detailed that Poloniex would see more UX improvements this year and the “continued launch of new markets.”

Circle's Cryptocurrency OTC Desk Swapped More Than $24 Billion in 2018
The four flagship products Circle offers and the kinds of services each sector provides.

More Than 10,000 OTC Swaps Worth Over $24 Billion Last Year

Circle's Cryptocurrency OTC Desk Swapped More Than $24 Billion in 2018Circle’s retail investment services saw growth last year as well, explained the company’s founders Sean Neville and Jeremy Allaire. More than 30 percent of customers buy unique collections of digital assets regularly the founders noted. Over 30 percent of all purchases on Circle Invest are recurring and repeat purchases like these have doubled since last September. With the company’s OTC operations, even though 2018’s crypto prices were extremely bearish, Circle’s OTC desk still expanded. Circle Trade saw $24 billion in notional OTC cryptocurrency volume, with its 24/7 coverage in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. By utilizing 36 different digital currencies, Circle Trade facilitated 10,000 OTC swaps between 600 different entities. The corporation detailed that Circle’s clients and partners include asset managers, other OTC desks, family offices, high net worth individuals, endowments, token projects, and exchanges.

The company’s flagship stablecoin offering, USDC, saw “significant penetration” in 2018 and is now supported by 40 exchange platforms. The Circle-backed stablecoin is also being used by over 80 companies like wallets and other types of applications. Despite all the layoffs throughout the crypto economy, Circle’s institutional sales team grew 3x in size. Circle’s 2018 report shows that the ecosystem is still alive and well, but investment providers have somewhat shifted towards catering to institutional clientele. There’s been a huge influx of OTC buyers and institutional customers throughout 2018. Many other large digital currency-based firms like Coinbase, Blockchain and Etoro have announced OTC desks in order to capture these types of customers.

What do you think about Circle processing over $24 billion in cryptocurrency-based OTC volume last year? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Images via Shutterstock, and Circle.  

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from Bitcoin News http://bit.ly/2sdfVzm Circle’s Cryptocurrency OTC Desk Swapped More Than $24 Billion in 2018