We need to find a fairer way of providing Goods and Services to the rest of the people on Earth.Cryptocurrencies and/or Gold Standard of money....maybe the answer to fight hyperinflation caused by too much printing of paper/fiat currencies by Governments and Central Banks all over the World. (https://nomorefiatmoneyplease.blogspot.com)
Analysts, not ECB, to blame for market disappointment, Nowotny says
Markets failed to assess properly the signals the European Central Bank was sending last week, governing council member Ewald Nowotny said on Wednesday, adding that analysts rather than the ECB were to blame for any misunderstanding.
PHOTO: REUTERS
[VIENNA] Markets failed to assess properly the signals the European Central Bank was sending last week, governing council member Ewald Nowotny said on Wednesday, adding that analysts rather than the ECB were to blame for any misunderstanding.
"I think it was a massive failure of market analysts," Mr Nowotny told a news conference when asked if the ECB needed to change its communications policy, adding that those analysts should have paid more attention to economic fundamentals.
In 2009, someone — or some people — using the name Satoshi Nakamoto invented bitcoin, a type of digital currency that uses cryptography to move money and records it in a ledger without the need of a bank. The cryptocurrency was once an obsession among finance geeks, but emerged into more of a mainstream economic obsession. A bitcoin startup even sponsored the Bitcoin Bowl, a college-football bowl game, last year.
Finding the creator of it has been an obsession among bitcoin enthusiasts and journalists alike. In March 2014, Newsweek published a cover story allegingthat Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto, a man living in Southern California who denies having heard of the cryptocurrency, was its mysterious creator.
But Greenberg may have the most compelling evidence so far that points to the Australian genius:
Posts from Wright's blog hint at writing papers about a cryptocurrency, although Wired admits these could have been planted by Wright himself to make himself seem like the creator.
Wright owns two supercomputers, including the most powerful privately owned supercomputer. These aren't on corporate campuses, but wired to his home in Australia.
According to leaked documents, Kleiman had a trust containing the same number of bitcoins that Nakamoto is rumored to own. When he died, that trust was passed to Wright. Those bitcoins, at bitcoin's price peak, were worth more than a billion.
Singapore-based bitcoin startup BitX has raised a round of funding from Venturra Capital, it announced today.
BitX previously raised US$4 million for its series A round in July. That round was led by South African media conglomerate Naspers and joined by investors like the Digital Currency Group, a bitcoin-focused investor founded by cryptocurrency stalwart Barry Silbert.
The amount is undisclosed at the moment. “It’s a substantial amount and what we believe to be the first substantial investment from a Southeast Asian VC into a bitcoin company,” Marcus Swanepoel, CEO and co-founder of BitX, tellsTech in Asia. He does share that Naspers is still the startup’s largest institutional investor.
The funding will allow BitX to speed up a number of activities it started with its series A funding. These include recruitment, product development, and entering new markets. “We’ve seen some really strong growth over the past three months so having additional cash to help drive these initiatives and ultimately result in an even better customer experience is very useful,” Marcus says. He confirms that the funding is 100 percent available to the company.
Venturra, a US$150 million fund for businesses in Indonesia and Southeast Asia, debuted a few months ago and has since announced a number of investments like Indonesian beauty ecommerce site Sociolla and Malaysian services startup Kaodim. Marcus says the VC is an important partner for BitX for its plans, especially when it comes to building ecosystems. “This is where their relationships and access to companies that can help us enable these ecosystems is key,” he says. Additionally, the VC has valuable expertise in helping BitX localize its services for Indonesia, a market it entered in early 2015.
“BitX has an exceptional team that combines deep technical expertise and commercial acumen. They have proven they can build innovative products and strong traction in a rapidly emerging industry,” Stefan Jung, co-founder and managing partner at Venturra Capital, says in a statement.
Going mainstream
BitX’s services include a bitcoin ewallet and business payment solutions. Users of its iOS and Android apps can store, send, and receive bitcoin using their phone without having to pay any fees. The company aims to be at the forefront of bitcoin adoption and usage. Marcus says that BitX reduces the friction of accessing bitcoin and moving it around, and focuses on the customer experience. This can include hiding the nuts and bolts of the sometimes complicated cryptocurrency, so the user reaps the benefits without dealing with the hassle.
The startup also seeks to familiarize its customers with bitcoin use cases, adding more places where people can use it in a given market. The key, Marcus explains, is to help build trust in the technology, which can then encourage adoption and lower costs – allowing, in turn, the space and the company to grow.
Fintech has drawn the attention of most major financial institutions, now interested in bringing previously obscure technologies like bitcoin into the mainstream. Banks like UBS and HSBC seek to harness the blockchain, the tech enabling applications like bitcoin. But Marcus thinks it’s a mistake to ignore bitcoin itself, and thinks startups like BitX have a major part to play here with their expertise and knowledge.
“Given our experience working closely with large financial institutions on various bitcoin and blockchain initiatives since 2013, we’ve realized that the use case for ‘blockchain’ is very, very limited, and that these institutions are potentially making a very big mistake in completely ignoring bitcoin. We are capitalizing on that mistake as we speak,” he says. “We believe the banks of the future will look very different from how they look today, and we are building the foundations for this new future of finance, at record speed and scale.”
Editing by Judith Balea
(And yes, we're serious about ethics and transparency. More information here.)
Image copyrightGetty ImagesImage captionShaun Bridges stole $820,000 (£546,000) of the online currency, bitcoin
A former US Secret Service agent has been jailed for six years for stealing electronic currency while investigating the Silk Road online marketplace, according to the Associated Press (AP).
Shaun Bridges took $820,000 (£546,000) in bitcoin after accessing Silk Road.
He admitted money laundering and obstruction charges in August.
US District Judge Richard Seeborg said Bridges' behaviour was a "shocking and reprehensible abandonment of his public duty".
Passing sentence on Monday, the judge said "This, to me, is an extremely serious crime consisting of the betrayal of public trust by a federal law enforcement agent," the AP reported.
"And from everything I see, it was motivated entirely by greed."
As a member of the US Secret Service, Bridges was part of a task force investigating the Silk Road marketplace, which was used by some to trade illegal items. It was closed in 2013 following raids by the FBI and other agencies.
'Illustrious career'
Having gained access to the online bazaar, Bridges stole the online currency and tried to pin it on a witness who was cooperating with the investigation, prompting Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht to take out hits on the witness' life, prosecutors said at Monday's hearing.
The judge said it was "inexcusable" for a federal agent to put a cooperating witness at risk in that way. Bridges told the judge before his sentencing that he had accepted responsibility for his crime and had not spent any of the money he took.
"I obviously have lost a lot, a very illustrious career," he said. His lawyer sought a three-year sentence, but the judge gave him a jail term of five years and 11 months, the AP reported.
Ulbricht was sentenced to life in prison in May after he was convicted over his operation of the website for nearly three years from 2011 until his 2013 arrest.
Prosecutors said he collected $18m in bitcoin through commissions on tens of thousands of drug sales while operating the site using the alias, "Dread Pirate Roberts," an apparent reference to a main character in "The Princess Bride," the 1987 comedy film based on a novel of the same name.
A Drug Enforcement Administration agent on the Silk Road task force, Carl Force, was charged separately with selling information about the investigation and pleaded guilty to extortion and other charges. He was sentenced to six years in prison in October.
Banks in Singapore are most concerned over crimes and risks linked to technology, a PwC global survey on Wednesday showed.
PHOTO: BLOOMBERG
BANKS in Singapore are most concerned over crimes and risks linked to technology, a PwC global survey on Wednesday showed.
And when asked about the level of preparedness in dealing with risks, respondents' answers out of Singapore led to an overall score of 2.9 out of a possible 5. This is lower than the world average of 3.13.
Singapore's respondents emphasised technology risks as the threats posed to banks by cybercrime, legacy IT systems and reputational damage via social media, showed the survey, which had 23 responses from Singapore.
One risk manager warned of "technology companies taking away profitable slices of banking business and enjoying regulatory arbitrage", while an industry observer noted "an alarming rise in number of cyberattack incidents recently, high cost of prevention".
Banks here are also wary over social media, with one respondent noting that "opinion can be mobilised quickly and in significant numbers" in this digital age.
The Singapore respondents ranked the macroeconomic environment as the third-biggest concern after criminality and technology risks. But the fears over the economic conditions are also clear, as the ranking jumped most notably through the list of worries, from 15th place last year to third spot this year. The top concern for the banks, globally, is the economic conditions, while criminality and technology risk ranked second and fourth respectively.
The poll is based on responses from more than 670 bankers, banking regulators and close observers of the banking industry in 52 countries.
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