The U.K. Information Commissioner's Office has fined Vanquis Bank Limited for instigating a spam campaign that included 870,849 text messages and 620,000 emails to promote credit cards. Vanquis was fined 75,000 GBP for relying on indirect consent. The ICO also announced that Xerpla was fined 50,000 GBP for sending nearly 1.26 million spam emails as part of a promotional marketing campaign. The ICO found Xerpla's privacy policy was not "clear and specific enough" to enlist consent from its recipients. ICO Head of Enforcement Steve Eckersley said, "These firms should have taken responsibility for ensuring they had obtained clear and specific consent for the sending of the messages. They didn't and that is unacceptable."
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Friday, October 13, 2017
ICO issues fines for spam marketing campaigns
Thursday, October 12, 2017
The Bitcoin Gold Project Responds to Negative Criticism
Just recently news.Bitcoin.com reported on the alleged hard fork project, Bitcoin Gold, that's supposedly scheduled to take place on October 25. We also investigated the project further, while asking the lead developer some questions concerning this proposed fork. Now with only fifteen days left until the team tries to fork the bitcoin protocol, individuals continue to find sketchy aspects about the project making bitcoin proponents everywhere skeptical.
Bitcoin Gold Project Gains Negative Attention
The topic of the Bitcoin Gold (BTG) fork is once again finding its way throughout the cryptocurrency community. Over the past week, a lot of people have been investigating this proposed hard fork and finding many flaws associated with the project. It's safe to say people are skeptical as there are few written articles highlighting issues with the BTG plan and many unanswered questions. Further, while visiting the team's Slack channel, there are quite a few people there at times asking hard questions and pretty much telling the BTG team that the project is "shady." Alongside this, people are astonished that there is literally no infrastructure or exchange listings showing support for this fork that's coming soon.
This week one individual did a reverse Whois background search on the BTG website and found the owner of the site owns a lot of cryptocurrency domains. The person also discovered the project's new consensus algorithm is unfinished and replay attack protection has not yet been added. Work has also been light as there hasn't been much development with the code for a project that's just two weeks away. Lastly, the project has a premine implemented into the code which means the developers will have a significant amount of BTG if this project actually forks.
Bitcoin Gold Teams Responds to Accusations
Then on October 10, news.Bitcoin.com was sent an official response to all the accusations that currently surround the BTG project.
"Recently we have been targeted and attacked by people who don't understand the importance of decentralisation in the Bitcoin network," explains the BTG team. "This deceptive attack was made by using a snapshot of our site from months ago."
The project developers address each accusation, starting first with the fact that replay protection has not yet been added. "Compared with the PoW change, replay protection is a relatively simpler code change — We have consistently stated that BTG must have replay protection before launch," explains the BTG organization. The BTG team also explains the code hasn't been added yet because "there has only been one volunteer developer working on this project until now."
As far as the unfinished Equihash implementation, the team says it is true the consensus change has not been completed. Its also true a new change to the difficulty adjustment algorithm has not yet been merged into the code, details the BTG team. The projects implemented pre-mine the team says was just a "fundraising idea from July."
"The early fundraising idea did not reflect the collective vision and creativity of the expanded team," explains the BTG team. "That's why the idea the was first described in July was taken down from the website." However, the BTG response says the team might not remove the premine code and emphasizes the project is made up of "volunteer contributors."
We will not completely rule out the possibility of a modest pre-mine to provide a basic level of funding for the project, but if we do so, it will be made transparent to the world and a detailed financial plan describing how those funds would be used will be provided.
A BTG 'Claim' Site Exists That Asks for Private Keys
Another problematic situation for the upcoming Bitcoin Gold fork story is a website that says it allows users to "claim" BTG before the fork takes place. The website "claimBTCGPU," tells people if they enter their BTC seed into the "system" users can pre-claim their BTG; but they can't spend it just yet. The site gives an individual step-by-step instructions on how to find and enter a bitcoin wallet's seed phrase. The platform claims to be a bitcoin gold wallet and says they started their business to create the possibility of making BTG withdrawals a priority.
The "How to Claim" section is well written with pictures that describe how people can find their existing BTC seeds, enter it into their system, and then users are redirected to a wallet with a credited BTG balance before the fork. There are already people online calling this website a "scam" and even a YouTube video that declares the BTG claiming site is fraudulent. Any website that asks users to enter their private seed online before the coin exists and that just appears out of nowhere could likely lead to people losing funds. Because of this risk, news.Bitcoin.com will not provide the link to the BTG claiming website.
What do you think about the bitcoin gold project so far? Do you think it's legitimate or do you think the projects discrepancies make it shady? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
Images via Shutterstock, The BTG Slack channel, The BTG claim site, Github, and Medium.
Bitcoin News is growing fast. To reach our global audience, send us a news tip or submit a press release. Let's work together to help inform the citizens of Earth (and beyond) about this new, important and amazing information network that is Bitcoin.
Wednesday, October 11, 2017
Not Even Putin Can Scare Bitcoin Investors
Bitcoin's having a wild day. It kicked off with a strange flash crash registered by the CoinDesk tracker that momentarily caused the cryptocurrency to appear to plunge by 12 percent. Almost simultaneously, Russian President Vladimir Putin called for regulatory restrictions on digital currencies for the first time. And then, as it does in recent times, Bitcoin's price just went up.
Putin is currently in Sochi for a summit involving multiple international issues, and on Tuesday he finally addressed the future of cryptocurrencies in the eyes of Russia after months of speculation and signaling. According to Bloomberg:
"The use of cryptocurrencies bears serious risks," including money laundering, tax evasion and funding for terrorism, Putin told a meeting of top finance officials including Bank of Russia Governor Elvira Nabiullina, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov and Kremlin economic aide, Andrey Belousov, in Sochi Tuesday.
Putin called for building a "regulatory environment" based on international experience that would defend the interests of business and the state, as well as provide legal guarantees for those using the instruments. "It's also important not to put up too many barriers."
He also acknowledged the concerns that Russia's Central Bank has expressed. First Deputy Chairman of the Bank of Russia Sergey Shvetsov spoke at a forum in Moscow on Monday and seemed to be a bit more pessimistic on the cryptomarket than Putin. According to Interfax, Shvetsov compared what's currently happening in digital currencies to a pyramid scheme, saying: "Obviously, during the growth of the pyramid, interest in this pyramid is fueled by high profitability." In his analysis, "we see that bitcoins from the unit of account are gradually turning into an asset, which is acquired in order to obtain a high profitability in a short period of time, that is, signs of a financial pyramid." Without going deep into specifics, Shvetsov said he "will make efforts to limit the ability for at least the regulated part of the Russian market to operate with such instruments."
This doesn't mean that Russia is initiating a wide crackdown on cryptocurrencies. Just last month, Russia's Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said, "There is no sense in banning them, there is a need to regulate them." This is the position that most pragmatic governments like the and are taking, at least in part, because it doesn't seem like a ban would be very effective anyway.
What Russia will do is still up in the air. What makes the most sense in Russia's oligarchal system is for the government and a select group of lucky private interests to own the cryptomarket that they eventually approve. Russia has already jumped into state-sponsored bitcoin mining and in August, officials were optimistically talking about launching a "cryptorubl," Russia's own version of bitcoin.
As for that mysterious flash crash this morning, it probably doesn't have anything to do with Russia. It only occurred on the most prominent bitcoin pricing index CoinDesk, which simply functions as an average of four prominent exchanges: Bitstamp, Coinbase, itBit, and OKCoin. None of the exchanges showed the dramatic dip that CoinDesk displayed earlier today. When we reached out to CoinDesk to ask what was going on, a spokesperson simply said they "are currently investigating an earlier error" and that it "was an error with our publishing process." After opening at $4,773, bitcoin hit a high of $4,910 today, because nothing makes any sense.
About the author
Rhett Jones
Tuesday, October 10, 2017
Bitcoin Group SE Shares Skyrocket Along with Bitcoin's Ascent
Shares of the company Bitcoin Group SE have skyrocketed along with the rise of bitcoin's price. Its shares have almost doubled since the previous year. Their value moved from EUR 775 ($909.35) to EUR 1,770 ($2076.83) this year, according to a German financial press release. The company is now also trading on Avanza, which is Sweden's largest online stockbroker. The company is expected to continue growing as it adds more cryptocurrencies to its accepted holdings.
What is Bitcoin Group SE?
Bitcoin Group SE is an investment company that focuses on the fintech ecosystem, and helps clients get involved with bitcoin and cryptocurrencies specifically. Their website said:
"Bitcoin Group SE is a holding company focused on innovative and disruptive business models and technologies from the fields of cryptocurrency and blockchain. Bitcoin Group SE holds 100% of the shares in Bitcoin Deutschland AG, which operates Germany's only authorized trading place for the digital currency Bitcoin under Bitcoin.de."
The website elaborated the company sees itself as a capital risk provider that helps new startups reach their growth potential. The site said their aim is to build a portfolio for clients in a diversified manner and pay attention to the risk of risk spreading. This has helped the company's investors maximize returns, which has likewise driven up the firm's share price.
Exceeding Expectations: Bitcoin Group SE's growth Corresponds with Bitcoin's Growth
Overall, the firm has exceeded expectations. It doubled its share price, which has 
corresponded with the dynamic growth of bitcoin's price. Its share price has also corresponded with increased trading volume on bitcoin.de, especially since bitcoin.de is a wholly owned subsidiary of the company. Its earnings before taxes saw corresponding gains.
"Earnings before taxes rose by 240% to EUR 1,220 ($1431.49) thousand in the first half of 2017, compared to EUR 359 ($421.23) thousand in the same period of the previous year."
The dramatic rise in bitcoin's price is the primary factor for the company's success. The financial press release said, "The increase in essential key figures is attributable to the dynamic rise in the Bitcoin price and the associated value of the Bitcoin inventories held by the Group."
What do you think about these Bitcoin funds and investor trading platforms? Do you see their dramatic share increases based on the bitcoin price to be a good thing? Tell us in the comments below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock and Bitcoin Group SE
Bitcoin News is growing fast. To reach our global audience, send us a news tip or submit a press release. Let's work together to help inform the citizens of Earth (and beyond) about this new, important and amazing information network that is Bitcoin.
Sunday, October 8, 2017
Cryptonetix Set For Pre-ICO - Moves To Ethereum Platform For More Flexibility - Features Blockchain Assets Management, Analytics, Funding and Educational Platform - NEWSBTC
Cryptonetix Set For Pre-ICO – Moves To Ethereum Platform For More Flexibility – Features Blockchain Assets Management, Analytics, Funding and Educational Platform
Cryptonetix will be the premier blockchain assets management, analytics, funding and resource platform for the Cryptocurrency markets built on the ETHEREUM Platform.
San Jose, Costa Rica, October 5, 2017, Cryptonetix.com has made a decision to move its blockchain analytics, funding and educational platform from WAVES to the Ethereum platform which offers more flexibility around the funding area of the Cryptonetix application. Ethereum has been widely adopted by ICO's and the cryptocurrency community. Ethereum is one of the most mature blockchains in the cryptocurrency space and industry and innovation continues to be a primary focus. The team is confident Ethereum will be a strong market leader in the blockchain platform arena for many years. The ICO Pre-Sale starts October 15, 2017, and is expected to be a sellout. Any holders of WAVES tokens will be exchanged for ETH by opening a support ticket.
During an interview, a company spokesperson made these comments: "We will provide a web-based application platform in addition to mobile for managing, investing, trading and learning about the Cryptocurrency markets. We will work for our investor and client base to improve on the platform continually and will be highly interested in community feedback and suggestions to improve the platform as it receives updates."
Some of Cryptonetix's outstanding features:
• Dashboard: The dashboard will be a central place for our users to find the optimal blockchain assets for trading and investing. The Cryptonetix platform will feature intuitive heat maps and algorithmic indicators showing you the hottest Cryptocurrency pairs based on price action, volume, technicals, and fundamentals.
• Analytics: The analytics will be based on AI and non-AI algorithms involving heavy technical
indicators to find the leaders in the pack from the mundane, worthless Cryptocurrency assets. They will provide detailed analytics that ties directly into the heatmaps and dashboard areas of our platform. Included analytics include Elliott wave, Fibonacci, Harmonics and more.
• Funding: The funding feature of the platform will harness the ability for Fund managers to create new funds on the Cryptonetix platform so investors can subscribe to the various investment funds on offer, thus being entitled to receive monthly, quarterly or yearly payouts in various currencies for profits obtained.
• Resources: The Cryptonetix resource section of the platform will feature news aggregation, trader education from professional traders and investors including technical chart setups, fundamental
analysis and are also working on a streaming audio news service that will give up to the minute Cryptocurrency news about the blockchain markets.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article do not represent the views of NewsBTC or any of its team members. NewsBTC is not responsible for the accuracy of any of the information supplied in Sponsored Stories/Press Releases such as this one.
easyMarkets Adds Bitcoin CFD Trading to Platform
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