According to Juan Otero, CEO of the crypto-native travel booking platform Travala, many mainstream companies that attempted to use non-fungible tokens (NFTs) for customer or user loyalty programs may have seized the opportunity prematurely. Otero argued that at the time, Web3 companies had not “even figured out the best ways to use NFTs in loyalty […]
Bitcoin News
From Learning Scientific Communism in the Soviet Union to Pioneering Fintech Entrepreneur – LHV Founder Rain Lõhmus
Rain Lõhmus is the founder of LHV Group, a public financial company listed on the Nasdaq Tallinn Stock Exchange in Estonia. He recently joined the Bitcoin.com News Podcast to talk about his experiences with cryptocurrency ventures as well as the banking business. Rain shared the story of his early days, how he first got interested […]
Bitcoin News
Blockchain Entrepreneur Mykola Udianskyi Sold the LocalTrade Exchange and Focused on Developing Two Regulated Exchanges in England and Austria
In 2021, Forbes magazine published a ranking of the 100 richest people in Ukraine and the 59th place was taken by the crypto entrepreneur from Kharkov, Mykola Udianskyi. His fortune according to the magazine is estimated at $ 180 million. He was one of the first crypto investors in the CIS and today he is the founder of the digital holding Ehold, Bitcoin Ultimatum fork and many other projects.
As a reminder, Mykola acquired LocalTrade in September 2020 after the sale of the Coinsbit exchange in November 2019. Initially, it was planned to transfer LocalTrade under the jurisdiction of Montenegro and repurpose it for futures and OTC transactions, but later the entrepreneur announced the sale of the trading platform. Mykola Udianskyi decided to devote his time to other projects: he focused on the creation of regulated exchanges in the UK and Austria. The entrepreneur’s team is working on the launch of four new exchanges in England and the UAE, Ukraine and Montenegro are next in line this year. In addition, he recently launched the only available regulated exchange in India.
Currently, Mykola’s company is also working on the creation of a Digital Bank, the main feature of which is the simultaneous support of cryptocurrencies and their integration with the traditional banking system. The project is aiming for the implementation of innovative functionality that will make everyday calculations in cryptocurrency as simple as it is now through fiat.
Digital banking is one of the most important development areas in the cryptocurrency industry. Succeeding in this area will combine digital coins with conventional banking, which in turn will erase the line between fiat and cryptocurrencies.
New LocalTrade team and contractors
The new leadership of Local Trade has pledged to turn blockchain and digital finance into understandable notions and revolutionize this field. The head of the company is CEO Aaron Levi Yahal. The new top manager has vast experience in marketing and has supported many financial and cryptocurrency projects. His many years of practice have proven to us that the projects Aaron had a hand on all ended up achieving excellent results. Perhaps the most famous one is PureFi, where he holds the position of RegTech Strategist. This is a unique protocol (unparallelled in the market) that allows AML technologies to be implemented in DeFi.
Alexandra Buimister is the chief operating officer of the exchange. Alexandra has a very rich portfolio: she has international experience in the fintech and financial sectors, in addition, she is the founder of alternative banking services. Alexandra has experience in leadership positions in many global brands: BCA Research (Euromoney PLC), Forbes Latvia & Finland, Supreme Group, etc.
Aaron’s team has ambitious plans for the future of the LocalTrade exchange. In order to implement them, he turned to the time-tested SPACE IT Blockchain contractors. The latter is a leading IT company from the UAE.
The CEO of LocalTrade is confident in the high-quality execution of the technical component of his own ideas since he has already used the services of SPACE IT Blockchain several times and knows from his own experience what high standards are set within the company.
How to get the most out of DeFi?
According to the company’s management, they are planning on not only upgrading the platform, but they also want to create a fundamentally new product, which has no equal in the world. The community’s reaction to this news is overwhelmingly positive, traders can’t wait to test the updated product.
First and foremost, the team will focus on the security and usability of the updated platform. They intend on developing the FinTech industry, as well as integrate DeFi capabilities that will solve the existing problems through blockchain technology.
The implementation of DeFi completely removes intermediaries from the equation and puts smart contracts in their stead, which, in turn, create trusted protocols. In fact, decentralized finance almost completely eliminates the risk of losing funds due to fraudulent activities, since the user conducts all financial transactions through his personal wallet, the private keys of which are only with him.
The boom in decentralized finance came in the summer of 2020. The excitement in this area caused a huge increase in the prices of certain assets: the DeFi token YFI became an absolute record holder, which increased by 1280 times. Therefore, this branch of the digital economy is one of the most promising and important at the moment.
Although the DeFi topic is over a year old, it is still quite difficult to understand, especially for new crypto investors. On the Internet, there are a huge number of investment proposals in plenty of DeFi projects. However, the problem is that the overwhelming majority of market participants cannot conduct an objective analysis of each of them.
In order for non-professional investors to safely invest in this sector, LocalTrade is creating another product – Marketplace. Only verified DeFi projects will be included here, and users will be able to invest in them without restrictions.
DEX’s Launch
Towards the end of summer – early fall 2021, the LocalTrade management plans to launch a decentralized exchange (DEX). The fundamental difference between this service and its centralized counterparts is security and a guarantee of complete anonymity.
The fact is that DEX does not collect nor store any user data on its servers (IP addresses, time zone, screen resolution data, and other digital prints). On decentralized exchanges, there is no need to go through the registration process, let alone verification (KYC / AML). And, most importantly, DEX does not store user funds in their wallets, so clients are the rightful owners of their assets.
Disadvantages of DEX
Despite the many positive aspects, decentralized exchanges also have a number of disadvantages. Perhaps the primary weakness of DEX is the small selection of trading pairs and the lack of necessary liquidity in the least popular tokens.
Market makers and liquidity pools are responsible for trading cryptocurrencies on decentralized exchanges. In order to add a new trading pair to the exchange, you need to create a smart pool contract and lock in it a certain amount of an asset that provides liquidity.
Unoptimized smart contracts lead to various inconveniences:
- long transaction processing time,
- high commissions,
- increased likelihood of canceling the transaction without a refund by gwey (applies to DEX on Ethereum).
Solving the problem of sub-optimal smart contracts from LocalTrade
The LocalTrade team intends to eliminate this deficiency, for this they decided to use the orderbook model. With its help, it will be possible to add new trading pairs without the need to register a separate smart contract for it each time.
For the creation of the DEX protocol, the LocalTrade team focused on optimizing smart contracts, namely, increasing the speed of work and at the same time reducing commission fees. In the near future, performance will be significantly improved by reformatting the system architecture based on Layer-2.
Loss on the course at high volumes
Another problem that worries traders is the significant change in the rate during the processing of large volumes. LocalTrade has a solution to this problem as well: Traders will now set the maximum allowable price range themselves.
All of the above sounded like a fairy tale just a year ago, but now it is already a prospect for the near future. If you look at Aaron’s past and follow the further development of his projects, then we can safely say that the grandiose changes to LocalTrade that he talks about are only a matter of time. We just need to be patient and wait for the best blockchain developers to embody the ideas of Aaron Levi Yahal.
Image: Mykola Udianskyi and Binance founder Changpeng Zhao
NewsBTC
Entrepreneur Calls Ethereum Silver To Bitcoin As Digital Gold, Not Litecoin
Bitcoin is well above its former record, thanks in part to the digital gold narrative taking hold in 2020 with institutional investors. But as those who get into cryptocurrencies consider diversifying beyond BTC, one entrepreneur and crypto trader says that Ethereum is the digital version of silver, not Litecoin as it has long been called.
Here’s this trader’s case for why Ethereum is better crypto silver than Litecoin, but why the comparison favors still favors the early Bitcoin core spinoff.
Bitcoin Bull Breakout Brings In Fresh Crypto Blood, Industry Vet Offers Diversification Advice
Bitcoin is the first-ever cryptocurrency, designed by Satoshi Nakamoto. Nakamoto’s writings referenced gold as he sought to create a digital currency that also had qualities of a commodity that would encourage its users to “collect” it.
Today, there’s a better term for collecting BTC: hold. The limited supply of just 21 million BTC, makes the asset even more finite than gold and beats the precious metal in just about every way possible. Bitcoin cannot be counterfeited, doesn’t need to be physically stored or carried, and can be moved at a fraction of the effort and cost, without any need for security or fear (unless you fat-finger, mistype an address).
Related Reading | Gold Naysayer Turns To Bitcoin: Overpriced, Model Says Max Value K BTC
The digital gold narrative has gained ground on the real thing, and soon, investors might be searching for the digital evolution of silver. Entrepreneur Qiao Wang claims that for those who are wondering which crypto asset best fits that bill, it is Ethereum and not Litecoin.
Litecoin has long been referred to as digital silver, but Wang used a theory borrowed from Paul Tudor Jones that cryptocurrencies can be “precious” or “industrial” assets.
Litecoin peaked alongside Bitcoin in 2017, while Ethereum and other altcoins followed | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com
Which Crypto Asset Is The Better Digital Silver: Ethereum Or Litecoin? Precious Or Industrial?
The analogy itself makes sense, but Wang’s interpretation of it might not match up. There’s no reason to discount Ethereum in favor of Litecoin, and that’s not the point that is about to be made.
Wang says that Bitcoin is “precious” and Ethereum is “industrial,” but that Litecoin is “neither.” But that doesn’t align with what the community has already designated these assets as.
Litecoin has already earned the moniker of digital silver and has worn that crown for years. Ethereum as an “industrial’ crypto asset is correct, which is why it is used as “gas” for transactions.
Silver does indeed have more industrial use than gold, for example, in renewable energy. But the reason it has value is because it is considered a “precious” metal.
The definition of the term precious simply means something of great value or high price, which is subjective to begin with. But in the context of rarity, Litecoin is the closest comparison to Bitcoin, and therefore if the digital gold narrative is to be believed, then there’s no denying that Litecoin is digital silver.
Related Reading | Ethereum Trails BTC, But Fundamental Strength Likely to Drive It Higher
There’s no knock to Ethereum which arguable has far more value than Litecoin, and is why it commands a much larger market cap. But for crypto investors seeking digital silver, Litecoin is the better direct comparison.
Compared to Bitcoin’s 21 million BTC, there are only 84 million LTC. It is currently the cheapest of the four coins listed on PayPal, in which there are roughly 350 users of.
If every single user wanted to buy even one Litecoin there would only be 0.24 LTC per user. If this type of scarcity is one of the things that make Bitcoin the most magical, it makes no sense why it wouldn’t matter for Litecoin as well.
The asset was born from Bitcoin’s code, has a similar block reward halving mechanism, and more. Ethereum has a current supply of 113 million. The total max supply is something that nobody knows, but accounts for a whole lot of gas in the future.
Featured image from Deposit Photos, Chart from TradingView.com
Cryptocurrency Entrepreneur Charged with $8.75 Million Extortion
A cryptocurrency entrepreneur has been charged with extorting an unnamed, Seattle-based digital asset startup. Steven Nerayoff stands accused of threatening to “wreck the company” should the firm not meet his demands of more than million.
Nerayoff was reportedly brought on by the company as an advisor to help form partnerships and attract investors. He was due to be rewarded handsomely for his work, but reportedly ended up demanding a far larger payment accompanied by threats.
Entrepreneur Faces Up to 20 Years for Cryptocurrency Startup Exploitation
According to a report in the Seattle Times, early cryptocurrency entrepreneur and advocate Steven Nerayoff agreed to help the Seattle-based startup, referred to in the federal charges as “Company 1”, in 2017. Nerayoff was tasked with writing the firm’s whitepaper and helping to craft its public image. He was due to receive a massive 22.5 percent of both the total number of tokens issued by the company and the same percentage of any funding raised.
Given that the firm received million from seed funding, Nerayoff should have been paid .7 million for his work. However, he reportedly demanded almost half of all the seed money – .75 million under the threat that he would “sabotage the crowdsale, generate negative press … and use his contacts with influential people to ‘destroy’” the company. The startup reportedly paid up an extra .78 million in Ether (ETH) tokens to Nerayoff at this time.
Later, the complaint states that Nerayoff upped his demands. During the cryptocurrency market crash of 2018, he demanded the firm pay him another 350 million tokens in its own cryptocurrency. He then asked for a loan of .45 million in March 2018, which was eventually paid. Nerayoff reportedly failed to return any of the borrowed funds.
The complaint states that he enlisted the help of his “operations guy”, Michael Hlady, to make further demands. Hlady has a suitably intimidating past, having reportedly served in the Irish Republican Army, the National Security Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Federal Bureau of Investigations. Amongst other efforts at exortion, Hlady is believed to have made threats against the family of the chief operating officer at Company 1. He reportedly said that he knew which school her daughter attended in a threatening context.
Both Nerayoff and Hlady were arrested for the reported extortions on Tuesday of this week. If found guilty, they could face up to 20 years in prison. For now, however, both are out on bail – Nerayoff for 0,000 and Hlady for ,000.
Nerayoff’s legal representation has reportedly refuted the charges, arguing that Company 1 owed their client money and, rather than pay up, they had simply fabricated the story presented to the federal court. NewsBTC will bring you more on this story as it develops.
Related Reading: Pakistan Police Bust Bitcoin Trading Extortionists, Authorities Fear Trend
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Crypto Entrepreneur Pledges Match of Presidential Candidate’s Universal Basic Income Scheme
Justin Sun, the founder of the crypto asset network TRON and CEO of BitTorrent, has just announced that he intends to match a presidential candidate’s unorthodox campaign strategy. The crypto-friendly democratic candidate, Andrew Yang, has stated that he plans to use campaign funds to extend universal basic income of ,000 per month to 10 people for the next year.
In a move clearly supportive of the candidate, Sun has pledged to give ,000 of his own money to 100 people each month for the next year. The crypto entrepreneur has also offered a seat at his lunch date with legendary investor Warren Buffet.
Justin Sun Backs Pro-Crypto Candidate with UBI Match
Earlier today, The New York Times reported on democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang’s announcement that he planned to award 10 people ,000 per month for a year. The move would be a much scaled down version of the universal basic income package he plans for US citizens should they elect him president in 2020.
The legality of Yang’s “freedom dividends” have been called into question since he plans to finance them using campaign funds. However, Yang argues that the payments are not against federal law since they would not exist if it were not for the campaign.
Crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun today pledged to match Yang’s UBI experiment by extending the monthly ,000 to another “100 ppl”. He gave scant few other details of his plans via Twitter:
Yang’s initiative to UBI k to 10 ppl per mth for 1 yr, I'll pledge UBI k to 100 ppl per mth in 2020! I'll pick 1 to attend lunch w/ me & @WarrenBuffett 2020! I'll let Yang assist me in picking the lucky 100! Join us! #YANG2020 @AndrewYang https://t.co/YQFnXwXtuf
— Justin Sun (@justinsuntron) September 13, 2019
Sun does not tell followers if they need to register interest in the competition, if it will be exclusive to US citizens, or if all entries must be a Tron holder. He also does not state if he will be paying the UBI in the crypto asset he founded, TRON.
He does, however, extend an invitation for one of the 100 recipients to join him at his lunch date with Warren Buffet. Yang will reportedly help him select who to bring along. The entrepreneur won a charity auction for the opportunity for him and a handful of others to have lunch with the legendary investor and cryptocurrency naysayer. He paid .6 million for the opportunity to turn Buffet around to his way of thinking. The lunch has already been postponed once due to apparent health concerns of Sun.
Already known to be joining Sun at the dinner is Jeremy Allaire, the CEO of Circle; eToro founder, Yoni Assia; Livio Weng, of Huobi; Charlie Lee, the founder of Litecoin; and a representative of exchange giant Binance. Each gave their agreement to attend the lunch prior to the now postponed date.
Presuming that those five names are still interested, that leaves two of the seven places yet to fill. With one going to the winner of the crypto entrepreneur’s UBI pledge competition, and President Trump looking increasingly like he snubbed his own invitation, it’s unclear who will fill out the table when the lunch is finally rescheduled.
Mr. President, you are misled by fake news. #Bitcoin & #Blockchain happens to be the best chance for US! I'd love to invite you to have lunch with crypto leaders along with @WarrenBuffett on July 25. I guarantee you after this lunch, nobody will know crypto more than you!
— Justin Sun (@justinsuntron) July 12, 2019
Related Reading: Crypto Crisis: Pro Trader Compares Altcoins To Crushing Student Debt
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Tech Entrepreneur: Facebook’s “Cryptocurrency” Libra is a “Big Mistake”
Billionaire tech entrepreneur Mark Cuban is not a big fan of Facebook’s recently-detailed cryptocurrency-of-sorts. He says there may be repercussions from despotic leaders around the world if citizens start to use alternatives to national currencies.
Cuban joins an increasingly noisy chorus of regulators, bankers, and other organisations concerned about the social media giant’s financial ambitions and their implications.
Cuban: Facebook’s Cryptocurrency Could be Dangerous in Authoritarian Nations
According to a report on CNBC, tech entrepreneur Mark Cuban is not fond of what Facebook has in the words regarding its “cryptocurrency” offering. He states:
“I’m not a big fan of what they’re doing there… I think it’s a big mistake.”
Trump slams bitcoin in a tweet saying he is "not a fan". and Mark Cuban tells CNBC that Libra is a "big mistake" by Facebook
We chat here at #Post9@CNBC @jimcramer @carlquintanilla pic.twitter.com/fcfDDViT1s
— Squawk on the Street (@SquawkStreet) July 12, 2019
Rather than focus on the potential regulatory nightmare that Libra is likely to be, as many other have already done, Cuban instead considers the social and political implications of Libra.
Facebook stated last month that it hopes Libra will be used to promote economic freedom in parts of the world where there is extreme currency devaluation and a lack of banking infrastructure. However, the tech entrepreneur identifies that these nations also tend to be those with the most despotic governments. He does not think that such authoritarian regimes will take kindly to their citizen’s use of the social media firm’s cryptocurrency:
“I think globally and in countries where there isn’t a lot of rule of law, or a lot of government stability, or currency stability, then it could be dangerous… There’s going to be some despot in some African country that gets really upset that they can’t control their currency anymore and that’s where the real problems start occurring.”
Cuban is far from a lone voice in expressing concerns about Libra. The “Shark Tank” investor and Dallas Mavericks owner joins the likes of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, the French government, and Bank of England Governor Mark Carney. Perhaps the digital currency’s most high-profile critic, however, is President Trump. The US head of state stated via Twitter yesterday that he has issues with both Bitcoin and Libra.
Trump wrote that if Facebook wants to offer banking services, it will be forced to abide by all necessary regulations that banks currently do.
….Similarly, Facebook Libra’s “virtual currency” will have little standing or dependability. If Facebook and other companies want to become a bank, they must seek a new Banking Charter and become subject to all Banking Regulations, just like other Banks, both National…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 12, 2019
In the following Tweet in his thread, Trump states:
“We have only one real currency in the USA, and it is stronger than ever, both dependable and reliable. It is by far the most dominant currency anywhere in the World, and it will always stay that way. It is called the United States Dollar!”
In the cryptocurrency industry, news of Libra has been taken more favourably. Many analysts have argued that since Libra is backed by fiat currency and is intended to remain stable, it will go toe-to-toe against the fiat currency rather than Bitcoin.
Others claim that the social media company’s plans will make it easier than ever before for people to transition from using fiat currency to a hard digital asset like Bitcoin. Early discussions between cryptocurrency exchange giant Binance and Facebook indicate that the process of on boarding new users may indeed get easier once Libra is listed on digital currency exchanges.
Related Reading: Why Winklevoss Twins Approve Libra as Crypto Despite Concerns
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Focus on Bitcoin, Not Blockchain, Crypto Entrepreneur Proclaims
n Blockchain is misunderstood and focus should shift to bitcoin, according to the CEO of Amber, a crypto microinvestment startupn
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Billionaire Entrepreneur Sues Facebook Over Bitcoin Scam Advertisements
The inventor of the reality television programme “Big Brother”, John de Mol, has sued Facebook over its negligence in policing the advertisements it allows on its platform. The Dutch billionaire has been the face of a fake advertising campaign for a Bitcoin investment platform.
De Mol is not the only celebrity to have had his image usurped to generate trust in a scam investment platform. The scam has become so rife that Dutch authorities estimated that it cost victims almost 2 million euros last year.
John De Mol: Facebook Should be Doing More to Stop Bitcoin-Related Scams Advertising
According to report in Reuters, social media giant Facebook is being sued by the Dutch creator of the “Big Brother” reality television series. John de Mol alleges that the company should have done more to stop a fraudulent campaign advertising a Bitcoin investment platform.
An image of the billionaire entrepreneur was reportedly used alongside various advertisements for a scam Bitcoin investment platform. De Mol’s legal representation told an Amsterdam District Court judge that the company had not done enough to prevent the advertisements and that his complaints were not responded to quick enough.
Jacqueline Schaap, of De Mol’s legal team, argued that her client’s reputation had been damaged since his face was used to lure victims into clicking the advertisement. Many were subsequently defrauded, besmirching the entrepreneur’s name in the process. Del Mol’s lawyers also state that a total of almost 2 million euros have been taken from Dutch investors who believed they were investing in Bitcoin or some other crypto asset-related business.
The billionaire’s legal team states that De Mol was just one of numerous Dutch celebrities used for the Bitcoin-based scam. Previously, NewsBTC has reported on many different versions of the same scam. Often, they involve the use of some respected, high profile public figure with an interest in investment or entrepreneurialism. Common targets are individuals appearing on “Dragon’s Den” or “Shark Tank” style shows.
Previously, Rob Leathern, a manager at Facebook, stated that the company took complaints like De Mol’s seriously:
“We take the issue of misleading ads that violate our policy, and those that feature public figures, very seriously. These include the ads impacting Mr. De Mol.
He went on to state that the company does its best to prevent such advertising but those behind it were persistent, well=funded, and always changing tactics to get around the preventative systems Facebook has in place.
De Mol’s lawyers state that greater efforts by Facebook should have been made block such fraudulent Bitcoin investment advertisements. Schaap argued that the current self-reporting system that the social media website relies on was not enough:
“I don’t know what reality Facebook lives in, but that doesn’t work.”
Related Reading: Remarkably Basic Scam Nets Criminals Million in Bitcoin and Other Assets
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Blockchain Entrepreneur, Ontario Regulators Seek Settlement in Namedrop Scandal
n The Ontario Securities Commission and the CEO of blockchain firm NextBlock are seeking a settlement over allegations of dishonest tactics for attracting investmentn
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