Ministry of industry and information technology, China has released public blockchain ratings and surprisingly, bitcoin is not #1 on the list. The top 5 coins are Ethereum, Steem, Lisk, Neo and KMD. This is followed by Stellar Lumens, Cardano, IOTA, Monero and Stratis. Bitcoin ranks #13, trailing behind Qtum and Bitshares.
BTCPay Server has added support for Bitcoin Gold (BTG) in the latest update, v1.0.2.11. While it is not yet available in the docker, it will soon be enabled and people will be able to use Bitcoin Gold for making payments. BTCPay server is an open source payment processor that is written in C#. It allows easy migration of your code base to self hosted payment processor.
LocalBitcoins allows users to buy / sell bitcoins directly from other users. There is no company or organization involved and LocalBitcoins acts just as an escrow. The portal has made big changes to privacy policy and terms of service which will come into effect on May 25th 2018.
Coinbase is the most popular cryptocurrency exchange for buying Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin. The company has received E-Money license from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in UK and have thus updated their privacy policy and user agreement. The E-money license lays the foundation for future product improvements that will be available to customers outside the US/EU. Coinbase has also taken this opportunity to make our terms more accessible and easier to read.
BlackRock is world’s biggest asset manager and since they are late in the Bitcoin race, they took no time to rip Bitcoin. In a report, their chief investment strategist said that while they do see cryptocurrencies becoming more widely used in future, they are currently too risky and should only be taken seriously by those who are ready for complete losses.
Chinese government has made it clear that it wants to block access to all portals and websites that are relegated to bitcoin, cryptocurrencies and ICOs that are located OUTSIDE China. This report came from Financial News, which is a publication managed by PBOC which said that in order to prevent financial risks, China will be stepping up its efforts to remove offshore / onshore platform related to cryptocurrency trading. Baidu, which is China’s Google, has stopped showing any ads related to cryptocurrencies.
Bank of America has just made an announcement that it will be banning bitcoin and other cryptocurrency purchases issued by their bank. BOA says that there is big risk linked with the cryptocurrency purchases. There is big possibility of fraud as well. People are criticizing their decision on social media. They say if one can get a cash advance inside Las Vegas-casino, then banning users from buying cryptocurrency makes no sense.
Finance Minister of India, Arun Jaitley mentioned in its budget speech today that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies (Ripple, Litecoin, Ethereum etc) are not a legal tender. He added that the government will be taking all steps to eliminate the use of crypto assets. Mr Jaitley said that people who are indulging in such transactions are doing it at their own risk. The government is examining the matter and committee under chairmanship of secretary, department of economic affairs is working over issues concerned with the cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin was the first Blockchain currency that was created in 2009. Since then Blockchain and its use have expanded exponentially. Shortly thereafter, Bitcoin received some competition with the release of Ethereum, which is also a Blockchain-based cryptocurrency. After a few years of growth, let us find out which currency will be more profitable in the long run.
Peter Thiel is a well known name in the Silicon Valley and a billionaire. He is also the founder of PayPal and well known for making early investments in companies like Facebook. His company, Founders Fund bought 15 million of Bitcoin last year and told the investors that the firm’s value increased hundreds of millions of dollars due to rapid rise in Bitcoin’s price. However, it was not made clear whether the Founders Fund has sold any bitcoins or not.