Bitcoin Reaches $7,300, Bounces Back
Today, Friday August 3, the price of bitcoin (Bitcoin) has fallen even further. At 7:15 (GMT+1), the main cryptocurrency is trading at $7,302.5 on BitForex, at $7,326 on BitMEX and $7,309.64 on Binance cryptocurrency exchanges. Its weighted average price stands at $7,347.13 (-4.32%), and its market capitalization is $126,000 million.
The price of bitcoin went below $7,500 for the second time in a week: the fall on Wednesday has presumably followed the news that South Korean authorities are considering the possibility of suspending tax benefits for cryptocurrency exchanges. Currently, bitcoin is under pressure due to the fact that the situation in South Korea has not been clarified.
Philippines' SEC Proposes Draft ICO Regulations
Draft rules were formed based on international experience and published for public discussion before adoption. The SEC of the Philippines invites banks, investment funds, crypto community and other sides that want to get involved to submit remarks on suggested regulation until August 31. Based on the document, new rules will consider all tokens issued via ICO as securities, unless otherwise proven.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
1. The rules presented are still a project. The main goal of the document is to clear the industry from scammers.
2. The SEC of the Philippines is consistently fulfilling its promise to adopt regulatory framework given at the beginning of the year. This year, the Philippines central bank recognized Bitcoin as a legal payment instrument. In January, the SEC urged investors to be cautious about participating in ICO. A few months later, the country decided to license 10 crypto companies that will be allowed to work in a special economic zone with a preferential tax regime, an amount now raised to 25.
3. In April, the regulator recognized contracts for cloud-based mining as securities
South Korea to Develop Blockchain-based Stock Trading System
South Korean Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) is encouraging local regulators and financial companies to develop an integrated system for stock trading on the blockchain. FSS has conducted a detailed analysis of blockchain technology used by operators on foreign stock exchanges: in particular, Korean supervisory authority is studying the experience with distributed registry technology in the U.S., Japan, Britain and Australia.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
1. This week the South Korean government announced that under the new law, bitcoin-exchanges will no longer be eligible for corporate tax deductions, while authorities are also considering the introduction of a tax on income from cryptocurrency sales.
2. While tightening the rules for the crypto sphere, South Korea invests heavily into the development of blockchain. Last month, the Ministry of Science and Computer Technology of South Korea presented a development strategy for blockchain industry, allocating $9 million (10 billion Korean won). The funds will be used to develop a number of blockchain projects that emphasize advantages of the technology in several areas: international exchange of electronic documentation, logistics, real estate registration, online voting, customs clearance, agriculture and livestock.
McAfee's Bitfi Wallet Hackable? John Raises the Bet
John McAfee has recently announced on his Twitter, that he is ready to pay compensation to anyone who is able to crack his company’s development - cryptocurrency wallet Bitfi. Now McAfee stated that he is ready to pay $250,000, and also concretized the task. Programmers are offered to purchase a wallet that already contains cryptocurrency and has unknown password. It is required to extract tokens from the device, and only then it will be considered as hacked. The key used to access the cryptocurrency is not stored on the device itself.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
McAfee published a series of video messages, where he continued to insist that Bitfi is "unhackable" because it "uses blockchain" as well as the device has "no memory" and there is nothing to break. That’s why getting root access, in his opinion, is absolutely useless and does not help to steal money from the wallet. In addition, he called everyone who uses two-factor authentication idiots (and told how easy it is to perform a SIM swap attack these days, or basically to, re-issue the victim's SIM card by contacting the operator and applying social engineering or cloning the SIM).
2. Previously, information security experts stated that the "unhackable” Bitfi is built on the basis of the primitive Android smartphone, with some components removed (generally directly responsible for cellular communication). It turned out that Bitfi operates on the basis of Mediatek MT6580 and device, in fact, repeats the structure of many smartphones. At the same time, Bitfi costs $150, while in reality, such hardware can hardly cost more than $35. Later, specialists managed to get the root access to the device, and hacked wallet continued to work, contacting the back-end and allowing to enter the Bitfi account. In response to these publications by IB-specialists, John McAfee first called all the allegations groundless and said that these are the machinations of monopoly competitors.
Walmart Strives for a New Blockchain Patent
The American retail giant filed a patent application for managing smart applications using blockchain. The document describes the management of smart appliances using the blockchain technology. It is assumed that the new system will manage smart devices such as media players or even newspaper kiosks through distributed ledger technology. The user will store on his wearable device a private key that will be used to confirm the transaction.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
1. The new application continues the trend of previous applications from the American corporation for blockchain patents.
2. Walmart is actively introducing distributed ledger technology. In recent months, the corporation has filed several applications for various blockchain systems, for example, a delivery management system and a package tracking system.
Welcome World's First TV-miner
The world's second-leading producer of mining equipment Canaan Creative, announced the release of a new device, which will allow to mine the crypto at home. TV AvalonMiner Inside is designed for mining bitcoins.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
1. The novelty has already faced criticism. AvalonMiner Inside did not impress many market participants. Some experts noted that the production of the TV-miner rather resembles the advertising course of the company.
2. Release of the world's first TV with a mining function took place after Canaan Creative applied for an initial public offering (IPO) on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX). It is known that the company intends to attract $1 billion.
At 20:00 (GMT+1) total cryptocurrency market capitalization stands at $268,5 billion
IOTA (+7,46%) showed the best growth in the top-10
Neblio (+16,08%) showed the best growth in the top-100
Market Dynamics
The trading volume of cryptocurrencies for 24 hours reached $13,3 (-0,1 billion per day)
Mining Profitability
- BTC $3,2 for 10 TH/s
- ETH $0,3 for 10 MH/s
- BCH $0,35 for 1 TH/s
- LTC $3,9 for 1 GH/s
- DASH $0,49 for 1 GH/s
Ongoing ICOs:
Expected ICOs: