China’s major exchanges have found a legitimate means through which to continue operations despite the Chinese government crackdown on cryptocurrency exchanges.
Also Read: Satoshi Nakamoto’s Brilliant White Paper Turns 9-Years Old
Okcoin and Huobi Ceased Operations on October 31st, as Mandated by the Chinese Central Government
Huobi has recently launched its P2P trading platform, Huobi Pro. Okex, the international counterpart to the no longer operating Okcoin, has announced the launch of a P2P trading platform. The platform will accept a number of fiat currencies, including CNY. Both Okcoin and Huobi responded to China’s crackdown by relocating much of their operations to outside of China and launching P2P trading platforms via international affiliate companies. The move appears to be intended as a means through which the companies can continue servicing the Chinese cryptocurrency markets whilst evading recourse from China’s regulators.
Lennix Lai, the financial market director for Okex, has stated that the “centralized order-book exchange model is still the mainstream among [the] crypto industry. However, the changing regulatory environment brings uncertainties to crypto market. Some of the countries have already ceased the exchange model.” Mr. Lai states that the decision to launch a P2P trading platform was motivated by a desire “to better serve [its] clients across the globe.” Okex will also provide markets for Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, and Ethereum Classic futures contracts.
Okex claims to have developed a distinct “market maker model” for its P2P exchange, claiming that such “reduce[s]… counterparty risk” when conducting P2P transactions. Okex states that “when the buyer or seller place an order, the market maker would step-in and become the counterparty of buyer or seller – with the consideration to their own net exposure, therefore the counterparty risk is diversified.” The company states that “all accredited market makers will go through a robust selection process by the Okex team.”
Rumors pertaining to Okex’s intentions to launch a P2P cryptocurrency trading platform were first reported by Cnledger, who posted “Okex (and likely, Huobi-Pro) will soon launch P2P bitcoin tradings with various fiat currency support” on the 29th of October.
Huobi First Announced the Launch of Its New ‘Cryptocurrency to Cryptocurrency’ Trading Platform in July
In a recent statement, Huobi’s founder, Leon Li, described the cessation of Huobi’s former cryptocurrency exchange as “not only a milestone for Huobi, but also a watershed in the history of Chinese digital assets.” Moving forward, Huobi has transformed itself into six businesses, including Huobi Pro:
Huobi Exchange (huobi.com) – “will offer trading services between US dollar and digital assets to global qualified investors, after completing full cessation of all digital assets against the RMB’s trading and cleanup of RMB investors.”
Huobi Professional – a “digital asset exchange… [that] offers trading services for ten digital assets and peer-to-peer investment services including legal tender to digital asset transactions. Huobi Professional is headquartered in Singapore and has a subsidiary in Hong Kong, both operated by Huobi Pro team.”
Huobi Korea – “a digital asset exchange… [offering] trading services between Korean won and digital assets. It is headquartered in Seoul, and is operated by Huobi Korea team.”
Huobi China – “will soon… be transformed into… [an] information and research service provider in the… field of blockchain… It is headquartered in Beijing and will continue to be operated by Huobi China team.”
Huobi Wallet – will “provid[e] users with secure… digital asset management services. It is headquartered in Beijing and will continue to be operated by Huobi China team.”
What do you think about Okex and Huobi Pro launching P2P cryptocurrency trading platforms? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!
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via Samuel Haig
Just recently news.Bitcoin.com reported on the company Ledger X swapping over $1M in bitcoin options during its first week. Now 
Bitcoin ABC’s lead developer, Amaury Séchet, told news.Bitcoin.com on Monday that “nodes need to upgrade. Some wallets need to [upgrade], others do not. It depends on the technology powering the wallet.” He believes that the upgrade “is unlikely to result in a split this time, so the overall risk is reduced.” However, the developer suggested that “users should double check their transactions on an explorer such as blockdozer.com or blockchair.com if they have doubts.”
Two development teams in the Bitcoin Cash space that did not submit proposals, Bitprim and Nchain, reviewed the three proposed algorithms. After weeks of testing to judge their performance, Séchet’s DAA was chosen to replace the EDA.
The fluctuation in the time between blocks on the newer chain is so strong that production can jump between one block every four hours to a high of 61 blocks the following hour, like it did on October 12. With such a fast production rate, the Bitcoin Cash chain has lept over 7,800 blocks (55 days) ahead of the legacy chain recently. At that rate, it would be time for the next mining reward halving event much earlier than planned. Once halved, the Bitcoin Cash blockchain would be far less profitable than Bitcoin’s blockchain and profit-driven miners would likely abandon Bitcoin Cash.
On October 31 of 2008, a paper written by a person or group named ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’ released a white paper called “
Yeukai Kasangaya, a representative of 
Mrs. Kasangaya states that Zimbabwean citizens are adopting bitcoin in order to access a variety of international markets. “Some use it to pay for services provided outside the country, such as software. For example, a local software engineer developing an app can use bitcoin to pay for necessary software tools. Others use bitcoin to, say, import a car they can use to run a small business …. The good news with using bitcoin for such purposes is that no foreign currency leaves the country, unlike a situation where the same person was to ask their bank to do a telegraphic transfer… [which] reduces the country’s pressure on nostro balances.”
In a recent interview with 
Mr. Miller’s letter presents a balanced and impartial outlook for bitcoin’s future, describing bitcoin as “a technological experiment that may or may not prove to have any long lasting value.” Mr. Miller states “bitcoin has a market capitalization greater than 90% of the companies in the S&P 500, but it still might fail. I don’t know and neither does anyone else, no matter how certain they are of their opinion… I believe there is still a nontrivial chance bitcoin goes to zero, but each day it does not, that chance declines as more venture capital flows into the bitcoin ecosystem and more people become familiar with bitcoin and buy it.”
Mrs. Avakian stated that the SEC wanted to take the time to address the current priorities of the Enforcement Division and discuss the mandates governing the SEC’s new Retail Strategy Task Force and Cyber Unit.
The co-director stated that the severity of the threat posed by cyber issues warrants the creation of a dedicated Cyber Unit, despite the SEC’s Market Abuse Unit currently investigating many cases involving cybersecurity considerations.
Mrs. Avakian stated that the recently established Retail Strategy Task Force “will look at the many ways that retail investors intersect with the securities markets and look for widespread misconduct.” The Task Force will seek to draw from the past experiences of the SEC “to identify strategies that have worked well,” particularly regarding cases in which “data analytics and technology” is employed.
Japan’s FSA 
If a token issued in an ICO falls under the virtual currency provisions of the Payment Services Act, then businesses providing digital currency exchange services regularly “must be registered with each Local Finance Bureau that is the delegated authority to the Prime Minister,” the FSA wrote. So far, eleven cryptocurrency exchanges have been approved by the agency.
Tech Bureau, which operates the Japanese bitcoin exchange Zaif, launched a platform called Comsa in August. The company described Comsa as a “one-stop solution that includes a creation of multi-language whitepaper, pre-configured token sale dashboard, blockchain integration services and PR services, dedicated for your own ICO.”