BITCOIN GOES TO WASHINGTON – TRUMP MAY HIRE MORE DIGITAL CURRENCY LEADERS

President-elect Donald John Trump seems to have a lengthy to-do list when it comes to “making America Great Again.” This apparently includes meeting with, and potentially hiring many Bitcoin advocates and executives to join him in his administration.

Yesterday, Trump met with two more people aligned with Bitcoin and its supporters for potential positions in Washington.

This movement started with Peter Thiel, PayPal co-founder (with Tesla’s Elon Musk), and initial financier of Facebook, who has been a part of Trump’s political Transition Team since the election last year.

Thiel has been on the record saying that Bitcoin was what PayPal was supposed to be, as it pertains to being a future online medium of exchange itself, not necessarily envisioned as the online fiat currency clearing house that it has become. Theil has invested millions in Bitcoin businesses over the years.

Thiel is closely linked to the two men Trump met with yesterday, who are both being interviewed for potential roles in the Food and Drug Administration, and both have been critical of the FDA’s leadership recently.

Jim O’Neill was once a former Health and Human Services official under President George W. Bush, and he currently works at Mithril Capital Management, where Thiel is also a co-founder. His recent commentary about the FDA has raised eyebrows in Washington, and this seems to have attracted the interest of Trump.

“We should reform FDA so that it’s approving drugs after their sponsors have demonstrated safety and let people start using them at their own risk, but not much risk of safety,” O’Neill said back in 2014. “But let’s prove efficacy after they’ve been legalized.”

BITCOIN STARTUP CEO UNDER CONSIDERATION

The other gentlemen under consideration is Balaji Srinivasan, who is an executive at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, and founder of 21.co. The startup made headlines last March when it set a record for venture capital funding for a Bitcoin start-up, generating $116 million USD in capital.

The company creates Bitcoin mining computers, among other components. He has tweeted about his displeasure of the FDA in the past.

OTHER BITCOIN-FRIENDLY, FRIENDS OF TRUMP

Next week could be the finalization of these roles under consideration. Trump has already tapped known Bitcoin advocate Congressman Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) to run the Office of Management and Budget. Mulvaney has been a fixture on any discussion on Capitol Hill dealing with blockchain, digital currencies, and fintech. He has been seen teaching other politicians about the benefits of these new technologies to the future of American economics.

Btc is stabilizing, hopefully lower a bit sota 700$ to be able to buy a little more

It gets interesting, it seems to be strong

I think it could reach 1500$ in 2017

Every bank should just purchase Bitcoin so everything is backed up by Bitcoin instead of nothing or precious metals. This will allow banks to work well with Bitcoin, they can fire a ton of employees, then we will just use Bitcoin and fire the banks.

Up for Grabs: Hidden Bitcoin Treasures in Streets of Barcelona


Christmas is here and it certainly feels that way. In alignment with the spirit of giving, two Bitcoiners originating from Barcelona decided to gift virtual coins to the citizens of the famous city.

But watch out! These guys created a challenge to be overcome by the people willing to achieve the valuable prize. The challenge consists of finding a total amount of 25 paper wallets spread across several iconic or emblematic locations in Barcelona.

These wallets contain rewards ranging from 0 BTC to 0.1 BTC. Possibly, more than one reader has gone in search of the hidden treasure as they began reading this article. The good news is that you are still on time!

The organizers, in order to provide more information about the challenge, divulged a video detailing images of the locations marked with dots, intended to help the seekers find the approximate location of the wallets.

In addition, they provide some simple recommendations to make this game more appealing.

As long as we find an empty wallet, we should keep it to avoid disappointing other people who may come across it.

On the contrary, if we are the lucky ones who find a wallet with Bitcoins inside, why not share it on Twitter through a video to let the others know that the wallet has been taken. 

The organizers of this challenge have allowed all participants 10 days before they retrieve the non-taken wallets. If that was not enough, this may not be the first Bitcoin challenge - the organizers are thinking of conducting similar challenges as long as the Bitcoin community is mobilized.

Bitcoin Becomes Venezuelans’ Last Resort, Even When Buying Food


Amidst the worsening economic crisis and financial turmoil, Venezuelans are in search for alternative assets and stores of value to finance their daily living. The imposition of excessive regulation on physical assets such as gold has pushed the demand for Bitcoin in the struggling country.

The death toll of starving Venezuelan children is rapidly increasing in Venezuela, to the point where military personnel resort to trafficking food into the country and residents are struggling to acquire basic necessities like medicine.   
Bags of money

In December of 2016, the New York Times provided extensive coverage on the devastating financial and the economic state of Venezuela. Some of the stories including Nicholas Casey’s article entitled “Hungry Venezuelans Flee in Boats to Escape Economic Collapse” accurately demonstrated the collapsing economic and monetary systems of the country.

Earlier this month, the Associated Press released a report on the severity of cash shortage, which has disallowed Venezuelans to purchase enough food and medicine to support their families. As a result, people escaped the countries in boats across borders to migrate to neighboring countries such as Colombia and military personnel were trafficking food into the country to feed the hungry population.

Associated Press’s coverage of the military food trafficking case demonstrated the level of corruption and unlawful operations led by the government. Military personnel that had specific orders from President Nicolas Maduro to distribute food to the general population of Venezuela were profiting from the national financial crisis, selling food from butter to flour on the black market at a price that exceeded the government-set price by 100 times.

Jose Campos, a grocer interviewed by AP stated:

    "The military would be watching over whole bags of money. They always had what I needed."

People are turning to Bitcoin

Venezuela is a small market for the Bitcoin industry. It accounts for a tiny fraction of the global Bitcoin exchange market due to the current financial situation in the country.

However, an increasing number of people are turning to Bitcoin in an attempt to obtain a currency that has an actual real-world value in order to obtain basic necessities.

Individuals from students to company owners have reported their success in mining Bitcoin and using the digital currency to purchase items like food and medicine through online marketplaces that accept Bitcoin. Some students were ordering food through Amazon using Bitcoin accepting service providers like Purse.io.

Some outlets also reported that Google searches for the keyword “Bitcoin” in Venezuela increased exponentially over the past few months, as people sought out for alternative currencies or assets to support their living.

In consideration of the current financial trend of Venezuela, it is entirely possible that a currency like Bitcoin could replace the national currency, which does not have any significant value anymore. A decentralized currency does not require permission from the authorities to settle transactions and send payments from one another.

Banking on Bitcoin” Film Released in Hopes of Attracting Millions of New Users

Films or series that discuss cryptocurrencies are vital to bringing about awareness and ultimately mainstream adoption, says Zach LeBeau, producer and mastermind behind both the SingularDTV decentralized entertainment platform and a soon-to-be crowdfunded Singular television series.

SingularDTV is a Blockchain entertainment studio, smart contract rights management platform and video on demand portal that places intellectual property in the form of film, television and software projects onto the Ethereum Blockchain.

LeBeau believes film projects are a sure way to spread the message of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, a borderless, permissionless currency controlled by no government.

Zach LeBeau mentions their new project, “Banking on Bitcoin,” a film that covers the digital currency as the most disruptive invention since the Internet:

The film, which according to its makers took three years to make, has an in-depth coverage of key players in the space including Charlie Shrem, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, Barry Silbert, Erik Voorhees, Nathaniel Popper, Alex Winter among others. They share their thoughts on how the revolutionary cryptocurrency technology will shape lives.

The documentary was released in select theaters and VOD on Jan. 6.
Other films on crypto

Other films and TV shows that have been produced in the last few years with the digital currency featuring include the 2015 American crime comedy-drama, “Dope,” “Mr. Robot,” “Deadpool,” “Deep Web” and recently, “StartUp,” which is built around the use of digital currency on a business scale. There is also “Bitcoin: The End Of Money As We Know It” which traces the history of money from the ancient world to the trading floors of Wall Street.

On its path to an all-time high earlier this year, the top digital currency gained more interest in the popular media with known publications and broadcasting stations covering the development.

Is above 0.01

Bitcoin is Still Volatile, But That Doesn't Mean It's Not Viable

Noelle Acheson is a 10-year veteran of company analysis, corporate finance and fund management, and is a member of CoinDesk's product team.

The following article originally appeared in CoinDesk Weekly, a custom-curated newsletter delivered every Sunday, exclusively to our subscribers.

After teasing us for most late 2016, bitcoin *almost* reached a new all-time high in the first week of 2017. That is, before startling everyone with a sharp crash, rally and correction.

The headlines were gripping, and transmitted that edge-of-your-seat feeling that something big was going on.

But was there?

I don't want to imply that price movements aren't important. A steady increase sends a message, as does a sharp plunge. But the messages sent mask the real news – bitcoin is becoming a valid alternative to fiat currencies, not because of its price, but because of its relative lack of volatility.

Outlook unchanged

Yes, I do mean "lack of".

A 20% slump in one day is severe, certainly, and has no doubt caused short-term traders considerable stress. But, in the big picture, it's not material.

We need to remember that, after the initial slump, bitcoin’s price ended up roughly where it was at the beginning of the week. No one can deny that bitcoin has performed well.

Whether the performance is due to fundamentals such as geopolitical uncertainty or monetary turbulence (neither of which are going away any time soon), or to market dynamics (which fluctuate, as always), the outlook of bitcoin is still the same as it was a week ago.

Sure, China accounts for most of bitcoin’s trading volume, and so has a strong influence on price movements, but the fundamentals are still there.

Sentiment is still bullish. Experts polled by CoinDesk at the end of last year predicted end-of-2017 prices of between $1,400 and $3,000.

While the eventual performance is not that relevant for bitcoin fundamentals, it does signal enough robust support to withstand short-term fluctuations.

Volatility, in context

Much more important than the price is bitcoin’s volatility.

Over the past few months it has fallen to levels generally considered "acceptable" for fiat currencies. This week's performance will no doubt push bitcoin's volatility index up a notch, but it's still less than half of what it was six months ago.

Over the past three months, bitcoin's volatility (30-day vs the US$) has on occasion been lower than the South African rand, the Brazilian real and even gold. It has been close to that of the yen, the British pound and the euro.

And here’s the kicker: it has achieved this without central bank intervention.

This is what we should be focusing on: bitcoin’s volatility, in spite of this week's movements, is approaching that of supposedly stable fiat currencies. And it’s doing so on its own.

No fiat currency can say that.

Stability ahead

And so, whatever the price movements, bitcoin is successfully showing the world that its value as an independent alternative is strong.

As any economist will tell you, one of the basic requirements of "good money" is that its value be relatively stable.

Low volatility does not produce dramatic headlines, but it is a much more important metric for investors, entrepreneurs and developers. And as new entrants join the market, volumes will continue to increase, sources will diversify, and bitcoin’s volatility will continue its downward trend.

Indeed it doesn't. When one exchanges RMB for XBT on a Chinese exchange the transaction has no affect on the value of the Forex value of the RMB relative to any other forex currency. Bitcoin isn't traded in the forex at all.

When one exchanges RMB for XBT inside China, the total quantity of RMB doesn't change, only the ownership of that the RMB exhanged chages. If that XBT is then exchanged for USD on an exchanged in the U.S., then once again the total of USD in the USD doesn't change, only the ownership of the amount of USD exchanged does. There's no forex market effect either as no FX market activity occurred.

On the other hand, when one exchanges RMB for USD in order to effect a wire transfer of said USD to a destination outside China, the effect is quite different.

While the quantity of RMB may not change, the quantity of USDs held inside China has to decrease by the amount remitted abroad. This has an effect on the value of the RMB relative to the USD in the FX markets.

Bitcoin transactions have no such effect. Indeed they have no direct FX market effect at all, making bitcoin remittances a very good way for China to allow its population to

$11 Trillion Bet: DTCC to Clear Derivatives With Blockchain Tech

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DCTT) has selected a series of firms to help integrate distributed ledger technology into its first large-scale, real-world application.

In the single, complex deal involving a distributed ledger consortium, a stock exchange, a tech startup, a legacy computer firm and an international collection of bulge bracket banks, the post-trade financial services company has begun the process of moving a significant part of its $1.5qn-worth of transaction workflow to a distributed ledger network.

With a contract announced today, IBM will help manage the process of moving $11tn worth of credit derivatives to a custom distributed ledger built by VC-backed startup, Axoni, under the advisement of banking consortium R3CEV.

The CEO of the DTCC's derivatives service subsidiary, Chris Childs, explained to CoinDesk how a network of nodes run by the counterparties of a transaction will be linked together to not only streamline post-trade processes, but save money as well.

Over the course of the next year, the partners will work collaboratively to "re-platform" the DTCC's existing Trade Information Warehouse (TIW) for post-trade processing to a distributed ledger custom-built for cleared and bilateral credit derivatives.

For an idea of the scale of this operation, the TIW covers all major global derivatives dealers and 2,500 buy-side firms in 70 countries, according to DTCC data.

The DTCC hasn't shared the exact amount of money it believes could be saved by moving the transactions to a blockchain or distributed ledger, but a 2015 report by Santander estimated the global savings to banks more generally speaking could be as high as $20bn a year.

If this first large-scale implementation of a distributed ledger proves successful, there’s plenty of room to expand. The entire global credit derivatives market in 2016 was $544tn, according to the Bank for International Settlements, much of which is processed by the DTCC.

The momentum is strong

The Bitpay Visa: a Bitcoin-Debit Card Review

Bitcoin debit cards have become more popular over the past two years with various choices on the table for consumers to choose from. Cards enable a user to load the account with bitcoin reserves and spend the funds where major credit cards are accepted.

Bitcoin.com decided to review two popular bitcoin debit cards that are currently available to cryptocurrency supporters. The Bitpay Visa card and the Xapo debit card are from two well-known bitcoin companies and both offer different features. We hope to explain in detail how these loadable cards work so our readers can get an idea of what it’s like to utilize these types of cards.

Just recently I ordered the Bitpay bitcoin Visa card, available to U.S. residents in all fifty states. The card cost me $9.99, and you have to pay for the product in bitcoin. There wasn’t much to fill out for verification purposes. Registration required my social security number, email, and current mailing address. Other than those requests nothing more was required from me for identity. After registration, I paid for the card with a Bitpay invoice and was told I would receive the card in 7-10 business days.

Five days later I had received my card, including a PIN and references to card fees. The PIN is used like a traditional debit purchase and also for ATM access. After getting my card and reviewing the fees, I went to the Bitpay Visa card activation page. The page asks for the credit card number, three-digit CVV, and your email. As soon as the information is processed, you now have access to an account page.

The account page is where you load bitcoins onto the card. There is a button that says “add funds, of” and you type in how much money you want to load in USD. I decided how much I wanted to add to the card and entered the amount, which then processes a new Bitpay invoice. Like any Bitpay invoice you have 15 minutes to pay and I scanned the address with my phone’s wallet, thereby paying the amount. Immediately the invoice is marked as received, but funds are not accessible until the transaction receives one confirmation. It must have been a busy day because I had to wait for my transaction to confirm. When it did, my card was loaded with funds.

I did not get to get 0.015, it would drop to 0.005?

Yes Bank Develops Blockchain to Digitize Vendor Finance in India

Yes Bank, a prominent private sector bank in India has announced the implementation of a multi-node blockchain to digitize and automate vendor financing solutions for a regional client.

Vendor financing is essentially the lending of money by a company to one of its customers, so the latter can purchase products from the company, driving sales for the former.

To develop the solution, Yes Bank sourced technology from the Linux Foundation-led open-source blockchain project, Hyperledger. The blockchain solution made use of smart contracts developed by Fintech startup Catenia Technologies to deliver a vendor financing solution for major Indian electrical equipment manufacturer Bajaj Electricals.

Bajaj’s business interactions that include discounts and disbursal of funds to its vendors will be digitized over the blockchain, allowing for faster, more efficient record keeping and increased transparency. Yes Bank’s anchor client (Bajaj Electricals), will see automatic debits from its account at the bank, as a part of the automated smart-contract enabled blockchain transaction.

“The entire process cycle for bull discounting reduces from four days (owing to manual intervention and transit) to almost real-time,” a press release from Yes Bank read.

The blockchain implementation was heavily facilitated by technology partner IBM. Hosting the blockchain over its “Hybrid Cloud” platform, Yes Bank also leveraged IBM’s “Watson Conversation” a cloud-based cognitive service to further enhance the user experience of participants (bank, the vendor and borrowers or purchasers) in the blockchain.

Bajaj managing director Shekhar Bajaj sees blockchain as the solution to digitize supply chain financing.

The blockchain implementation in Indian business finance comes during a time when other similarly notable efforts start to take shape in the country. IBM has also partnered major Indian conglomerate Mahindra to bring supply chain financial solutions in the country for small and medium-sized enterprises.

Tech giant Microsoft launched its Azure Blockchain as a Service toolkit to Indian customers in December 2016, soon after the announcement of a partnership with consulting giant KPMG to push blockchain adoption among clients in India.

Barry Silbert Optimistic of Global Bitcoin Exchange Volumes
Barry Silbert, the co-founder and CEO of Digital Currency Group (DCG), stated that trading volumes of global bitcoin exchanges are growing at a rapid rate. Exchanges in regions such as the Middle East and Mexico have demonstrated record breaking volumes amid bitcoin’s recent price rally.
As arguably the most active investor in the bitcoin industry, Silbert collaborates with leading bitcoin exchanges including Japan’s Bitflyer, Mexico’s Bitso and South Korea’s Korbit. Silbert and the rest of the DCG members direct and lead companies globally, to expand their services and operations.

DCG invests in a wide range of bitcoin and blockchain startups, ranging from bitcoin exchanges to blockchain solutions providers. In early 2016, DCG closed multiple deals with multi-million dollar blockchain startups, to provide necessary infrastructure to the financial market and banking industry that are seeking to implement and commercialize the blockchain.

Yet, despite the hype around blockchain that existed throughout 2016, bitcoin exchanges have seen the largest commercial success.
Rapidly Rising Trading Volumes of Bitcoin Exchanges

Several bitcoin exchanges under the portfolio of DCG including Bitso and BitOasis have reported record-breaking volumes. Bitso, for instance, saw more trading activity in one month during December than in 2014 and 2015 combined, amid the end of the year price rally.

In an interview, Bitso president and cofounder Daniel Vogel stated that the rising demand is directly attributable to the lack of financial infrastructure for the general population in Mexico. The limited amount of banking services and financial systems led to the search for alternative solutions, such as bitcoin.

Middle East’s BitOasis also reached record breaking volumes, as the demand for bitcoin rose rapidly over the past few months amid global economic instability and financial troubles.

“December has been our best month yet since launch. We broke new daily volume records,” said Ola Doudin, co-founder and CEO of BitOasis.

Silbert Assures Investor: It Is Just the Beginning

Silbert reassured investors and traders that it is only the beginning. As an investor of 19 bitcoin exchanges, Silbert has access to the trading volumes and private data of exchanges globally. Observing the rapidly increasing volumes of exchanges, Silbert said:

“Best part of having invested in 19 bitcoin exchanges around the world is we get to see their monthly volumes. Folks, it is happening.”

Also, countries like India, Venezuela and China have tightened currency controls and imposed various financial regulations, which have led to the devaluation of their national currencies. India, for instance, is currently dealing with a severe cash shortage issue, which has proven to be a disastrous situation for average workers, businesses and households.

If this global economic slump and financial instability continue, the demand for bitcoin will continue to rise. Inevitably, many bank consumers and traditional financial services users will migrate to bitcoin to avoid excessive control from banks and governments.

Vitalik Buterin: Bitcoin More Likely Than Ethereum To Intentionally Fork In 2017

Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, believes bitcoin is more likely than Ethereum to have an intentional split in 2017, according to a tweet he posted in response to a tweet about the United Arab Emirates choosing Ethereum over bitcoin for a real estate pilot program. Ragnar Lifthrasir, chairman of the International Blockchain Real Estate Association, had tweeted the UAE is being irresponsible by using Ethereum because it is too unproven, too mutable and unstable compared to bitcoin to be used as a real estate database.

I do not see massive increase, I do not understand, it will be time to buy?