Uber Co-founder Garrett Camp is Launching a Cryptocurrency (CryptoSlate.com)
Uber co-founder, Garrett Camp, has announced that he is planning to introduce a new cryptocurrency called ECO into the global trading market later this year. ECO is being designed to serve as a digital currency that will be usable all across the world for daily transaction purposes. This news comes straight after it was reported that Garrett had taken some time off from his work duties, and had gone on a trip to Africa to do some “soul-searching”. However, in the past few months, he has sketched out a blueprint for a new digital currency that will hopefully fix some of the issues that are being faced by established crypto players like Ethereum and Bitcoin.
Bitcoin Thieves Beware: Super Secure Wallet-Maker Casa Raises $2 Million (Forbes.com)
Casa, a six-month-old startup that helps consumers securely store cryptocurrencies, has launched its first product and raised $2.1 million in new investment. Venture capital firms Lerer Hippeau, Compound and Boost VC participated in the financing round. Founder and CEO Jeremy Welch says Casa is “premium hodl software,” using the crypto community’s preferred term for buy-and-hold investing. Targeted at people who own from $400,000 to $10 million in crypto assets, Casa is a digital wallet that requires users to electronically sign three different devices to move assets.
Pixabay/Public Domain
New Litecoin Core Upgrade Lowers Minimum Transaction Fees On the Network (FinanceMagnates.com)
Towing a solid line as the fifth-largest coin in the world in terms of market cap, Litecoin has announced the release of Litecoin Core v0.15.1. The announcement comes just a few days after the Bitcoin Core development team released Bitcoin Core v0.16.0. While the new Litecoin Core (an optional update) is very similar to the previous version, there are several updates designed to improve block discovery and node resources. Perhaps most significant is the lowering of minimum transaction fees on the Litecoin network to 0.01 lites per kB (0.00001 LTC). The minimum is slated to drop even further in the next release.
New Ethereum Based YouToken Platform Attempts to Change the Blockchain Crowdfunding Market (PR.com)
New York, NY, March 02, 2018 –(PR.com)– YouToken and their unique platform that “allows people to convert human intelligence into a financial asset” seeks to shake up the blockchain crowdfunding market in 2018. The startup is now in the midst of their first pre-sale/proof-of-concept stage which is coming to an end on March 15, 2018. During this stage, users who purchase any amount of YTN receive a 30% “pre-sale bonus.” Currently, the price of YTN sits at $0.10. Yet, YouToken has certain expectations in regards to their marketplace launch and the acquisition of quality entrepreneurs and investors. Using these estimates, YouToken predicts the price of YTN to increase to $0.15 by the time the platform hits their DAICO stage in May of 2018.
Liechtenstein Bank Opens Up Cryptocurrency Investment for Clients (CoinDesk.com)
A Liechtenstein-based family bank has become one of the first banks in the world that allows clients to directly invest in cryptocurrencies. Making the announcement earlier this week, Bank Frick said that the first batch of cryptocurrencies to be available for trading will include bitcoin, bitcoin cash, litecoin, Ripple and ether. The bank said it is targeting institutional and high-value private clients, who can buy in with euros, U.S. dollars and Swiss francs. The crypto assets under the bank’s custody, the announcement says, will be stored in cold wallets – a security measure that keeps private keys to the cryptocurrencies offline and away from potential hackers. Trading activities through the bank’s platform will also be carried out in compliance with know-your-customer procedures required under Liechtenstein and European (EU/EEA) law.
Is Bitcoin Doomed? Why Bankers Hate the Popular Cryptocurrency – Explained (NewsWeek.com)
Why do bankers hate bitcoin? As the most popular form of cryptocurrency, some financial experts complain that it remains too volatile and has ties to cybercrime. As a result, calls are now rising for increased regulation of the virtual cash. Advocates, however, suggest the reason is a fear of the unknown, and loss of control. Last year, the value of bitcoin spiked. Within 12 months, the price of a single coin jumped from $1,000 to $20,000, leading industry veterans to warn it was a bubble. JP Morgan chief Jamie Dimon once branded the digital currency “a fraud” and said it was only useful to murderers, drug dealers and rogue nations like North Korea. On Friday, boss of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, said in a scathing speech during the Scottish Economics Conference that cryptocurrency was “failing.”
Russian Officials Propose Lighter ICO Regulations, Cryptocurrency Income Tax Breaks (CoinTelegraph.com)
Russian officials have considered a number of amendments to the draft law “On Digital Financial Assets” during a meeting of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation that took place Feb. 27. The major modifications proposed by the officials include a digital currency assets income tax break and a tenfold increase of the limit on individual Initial Coin Offering (ICO) investments – from the initially suggested 50,000 rubles, or about $900, to 500,000 rubles, equivalent to about $9,000. The working group also suggested that Russian investors in digital assets should be allowed to open accounts on foreign cryptocurrency exchanges, as well as to buy ICO tokens from abroad. Similarly, non-residents should be allowed to invest in Russian ICO projects, the officials have argued.
Coinbase Has No Immediate Plans to Add Litecoin Cash (LCC) (TheNextWeb.com)
A couple of weeks back the Litecoin (LTC) blockchain split in two to form the new Litecoin Cash (LCC) hard fork. But despite some requests from users, it appears that leading cryptocurrency exchange desk Coinbase has no immediate plans to add Litecoin Cash trading pairs on its platform – at least not for the time being. “We’re always monitoring potential forks from a security/stability standpoint, core developer roadmaps and customers perspective.” a spokesperson for Coinbase told TNW. “Ultimately, we want to do what’s best for customers while still being secure and practical.” While the company refrained from providing more details on its plans for the forked currency, it did not rule out the possibility it might get listed on the exchange desk, saying that it is actively “tracking” LCC’s progress.
Ethereum’s Raiden Network Has New Scaling Competiton (CoinDesk.com)
Yet another ethereum scaling solution is launching a test network. Announced Friday, Liquidity.Network is officially joining Raiden Network as the latest ethereum project to attempt to move transactions off the world’s second most valuable blockchain and into payment channels, in turn, allowing the network to support greater adoption and use. Similar to bitcoin’s better-known Lightning Network, Liquidity.Network aims to enable ethereum users to transact back and forth, without having to pay the cost of moving coins on the blockchain itself. In short, users pay to start channels and to close channels, not for what happens in between. But while Raiden is the furthest along in its development of the concept, it’s still yet to go live, and with ethereum nearing capacity at times, today’s news that another team is working on the challenge marks what many will likely see as welcome competition.
Australians Can Now Buy Bitcoin and Ethereum at Over 1200 Newstands (Zycrypto.com)
Australia is once again making a name for itself in the blockchain world as a country in which the adoption of cryptocurrency is being encouraged by various public and private initiatives. This may make it one of the countries with the highest number of per capita cryptocurrency adoptions in the world. While only weeks ago, Brisbane National Airport said that it has begun the process of making an entire airport terminal crypto-friendly, March seems to be the month of exchanges with the famous www.bitcoin.com.au website on the news once again as a reference in innovation and driving new business strategies.
Test Successful! Banks Pushing To Use Ripple (CryptoDaily.co.uk)
The cryptocurrency community was given some incredible news today, however it did not come from an official press statement. Rather, these words came from a high tier banker within the industry. Recently, a remittance test was conducted testing the applicability of Ripple within the banking industry. There are around 60 banks in Japan participating in this test which will determine if Ripple is a viable option for banking systems. The reason for choosing Ripple is due to the blockchain network already being well established in Japan. Several Korean banks also participated.
