PR: Education Ecosystem Announces Token Exchange Listings and Chance to Win Three Tesla Model S Cars

This is a paid press release, which contains forward looking statements, and should be treated as advertising or promotional material. Bitcoin.com does not endorse nor support this product/service. Bitcoin.com is not responsible for or liable for any content, accuracy or quality within the press release.

Education Ecosystem (LiveEdu) has announced that their Education token will be issued to crowdsale contributors and also listed on exchanges this week.

CEO, Dr. Michael J. Garbade had this to say, “As ICO contributors know, due to legal restrictions we could not start work with centralized exchange listings until our ICO Round I was closed. This issue slowed us down but we have made progress with the help of our advisors. We have already closed deals with three exchanges where Education tokens will be listed, namely Bibox, Gate.io and Exchange 3. Exchange 3 will announce the listing themselves due to their policy. Our goal after these three listings is to get listed on two Tier 1 exchanges with whom we are currently in discussion. All of these exchanges will list Education tokens with ETH and BTC pairs.”

Gate.io will list Education tokens on Thursday, March 1, 2018 and Bibox on Friday, March 2, 2018. Both Gate.io and Bibox will give away a Tesla Model S and Education tokens if you participate in the trading and deposit competitions. You can be the owner of a brand new Tesla. Apart from the five centralized exchanges above, you can also trade Education tokens soon on Etherdelta, IDEX, Liqui, and Tidex.

Token name: Education
Symbol : LEDU or EDU
Token address: 0x5b26C5D0772E5bbaC8b3182AE9a13f9BB2D03765
Decimals: 8

Internal Ecosystem Competition
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGXHAoIrYTE
The Education Ecosystem is also running their own internal community competition where people can participate and win prizes.
1st Prize : Tesla Model S
2nd Prize: 50,000 Education tokens
3rd Prize: 50 Nano Ledger S Hardware wallets
4th Prize: Education token cups, tote bags, etc.
Read more about how to enter this competition in their blog article for a chance to win one of the prizes.

About Education Ecosystem
Education Ecosystem (LiveEdu) is a decentralized learning ecosystem that teaches people how to build complete products in future technological fields. They are building the YouTube for online education and professional development. You can also describe their ecosystem as the next-generation Lynda.com. Unlike existing online education platforms, LiveEdu is not focused on beginners, but mainly intermediates to experts. People learn on LiveEdu by watching how peers build real projects and can also download all project resources and files. The new LiveEdu platform is set to launch in 2018 and will start with eight main topics which encompasses several subcategories: Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity, Game Development, Data Science, Cryptocurrencies, Programming, Design, and Augmented and Virtual Reality.

Project creators in the Education Ecosystem will build 10,000 projects for these topics. In 2019, the ecosystem will be opened for all topics. For now LiveEdu is an app blockchain company and using ERC20 smart contracts, but in 2021 LiveEdu will build its own protocol. Simply put LiveEdu is building the Steemit for professional development and targeting the $306 billion professional development market.

Website and Social Media
Website: http://ift.tt/2hQ3fNh
Whitepaper: http://ift.tt/2CvlIET
Twitter: https://twitter.com/edu_coins
Telegram: https://t.me/educoins

Contact Email Address
tokens@liveedu.tv
Supporting Link
https://tokensale.liveedu.tv/

This is a paid press release. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the promoted company or any of its affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in the press release.

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Lawyers Discuss Challenges Posed by Cryptocurrencies During Divorce

Several lawyers have discussed some of the challenges that arise from cryptocurrency ownership during divorce. The anonymous nature of cryptocurrencies creates the possibility for spouses to accumulate wealth that is concealed from their partner. However, this often can lead to parties searching for “pots of gold” that don’t exist.

Also Read: Israeli Supreme Court Forbids Bank From Denying Service to Bitcoin Exchange

Cryptocurrency Holdings Complicate Divorce Proceedings

Several lawyers specializing in divorce have shared some of the issues that are now arising during the judicial separation process as a consequence of cryptocurrencies.

One of the major challenges posed by cryptocurrencies is the ability for an individual to hide assets from their partner, owing to the anonymizing qualities of cryptocurrency. Toby Yerburgh, the head of family law of Collyer Bristow in the UK, recently told media that “Often in a divorce one spouse is looking for a pot of gold that doesn’t exist. But with cryptocurrencies, it’s possible the pot does exist.”

Mr. Yerburgh attests to having begun to receive cases involving one party suspecting that the other is failing to disclose cryptocurrency holdings following the spike in the popularity of virtual currencies last year.

Lawyers Seek to Educate Themselves Regarding Cryptocurrency

Victoria Clarke of UK-based Stowe Family Law, stated “Cryptocurrencies make things complex if you have a spouse who’s determined to hold on to their money, same as if they were hiding assets overseas. We have the tools to trace Bitcoin. The difficulty is that some lawyers don’t necessarily understand it yet — you need knowledge of the asset you’re trying to get hold of.”

The president-elect of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, Peter Walzer, states that many American lawyers are seeking to better understand cryptocurrencies in response to their increasing persistence as an issue during the matrimonial separation.

“I’m getting calls from lawyers all over the US trying to get familiar with the language around cryptocurrencies. We have to learn some new words for old ideas,” Mr, Walzer said. Jonathan Fields of Massachusetts-based firm Fields and Dennis described cryptocurrency as “now” comprising “a standard part of our discovery process. I will make sure I’ve got the right language and questions to ensure a partner discloses their cryptocurrencies.”

Uncovering Evidence of Cryptocurrency Ownership Comprises Long and Uncertain Process

Jo Carr-West of UK-based law firm Hunters stated that cryptocurrencies are “creating another layer of distrust that we haven’t had to deal with before,” adding that “The public perception that there is a lack of a paper trail causes the anxiety.”

Concerns that a spouse may be concealing undisclosed cryptocurrency holdings from their partner can add considerable time and expense to the divorce process, as the services of a digital forensics expert are often required in order to scour for evidence of hidden crypto. However, cryptocurrencies held offline will leave scant digital footprints, resulting in little guarantee that the efforts to evidence concealed holdings will prove fruitful.

“Courts Are Being Faced With a Challenge It Doesn’t Have the Power to Deal With”

Vandana Chitroda, a partner at Royds Withy King, has emphasized that challenges that the significant volatility in the virtual currency markets poses in attempting to estimate the value of cryptocurrency holdings during a divorce. “It’s not as straightforward as valuing your ordinary shares and investments, Mrs. Chitroda said. “There will have to be valuations made at every step in the proceedings. You would then have to agree a value on the date of the final hearing.”

Mrs. Chitroda also stated that “The courts are being faced with a challenge it doesn’t have the power to deal with,” adding that “The courts have only recently started allowing people to send documents to court using email. We’re going to really have to run to keep ahead of all of this. It’s a big challenge for all of us. We’re trying hard to educate ourselves and be ready.”

Do you think that cryptocurrencies pose unique challenges to divorce proceedings? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!

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Report: Crypto Miners Bought 3 Million GPUs Last Year

More than 3 million graphics cards have been sold to cryptocurrency miners in 2017, with sales reaching $776 million, a new report revealed. According to a major manufacturer, prices of GPUs will continue to increase in 2018, despite expectations of decreasing demand in the mining sector.  

Also read: AMD Increases GPU Production to Match Crypto Mining Demand

Rising Mining Costs to Slow Down Demand

Over three million Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) have been sold to cryptocurrency miners last year, Jon Peddie Research announced in its latest report. The total sales of video cards have reached $776 million, according to the market research firm, which does not expect prices to go down in the near future.

The study covers data from the top three producers of GPUs – AMD, Nvidia and Intel. Recently, Advanced Micro Devices acknowledged shortages of its Radeon cards because of their use in mining applications. The company plans to increase their production, as news.Bitcoin.com reported.

AMD’s main competitor, Nvidia, admitted the demand by miners had exceeded its expectations in the last quarter of 2017. In an attempt to guarantee that gamers would be able to get their share, the company asked retailers to limit the number of graphics cards that can be purchased at a time. Miners usually buy the latest GPU’s in bulk, leaving empty shelves.

Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang has said that the company is working to address supply issues. It has been reported that Nvidia may reveal a new “Turing” card dedicated for mining. GPUs are mainly utilized in mining altcoins like ethereum and monero, as bitcoin requires more powerful, specialized hardware.

The report also says that overall GPU shipments in Q4 have decreased by 1.5% from the previous quarter and 4.8% year on year, mainly due to lower sales in desktop and notebook applications. However, the indicator is still above the ten-year average of -3.40%. While the market shares of Nvidia and Intel have shrunk by 6% and 2%, respectively, AMD has seen an 8.1% increase.

GPU Prices to Go Up This Year

According to the president of the market research company, “gaming has been and will continue to be the primary driver for GPU sales, augmented by the demand from cryptocurrency miners.” Dr. Jon Peddie expects a decrease in that demand, as margins drop with increasing utilities costs, while the prices of GPU’s go up because of short supply. He also said that gamers can offset those costs by mining when not gaming, but prices will not drop in the near future.

Nvidia has also stated that GPU prices will continue to go up in 2018, according to some publications. The hardware marketplace Massdrop claims the manufacturer informed them to expect prices to continue rising through the third quarter of the year, as reported by many tech sites.

The availability of memory for the graphics units is another major factor that can influence supply and price rates. Shortages of RAM have already been reported. AMD has announced it would work with suppliers to overcome the deficit, as the two main types of memory used in its RX cards, GDDR5 and HBM2, are in short supply.

What are your expectations about the development of the GPU market? Tell us in the comments section below.

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Digital Currency Group Welcomes Bitcoin-Friendly Bank to the ‘DCG Family’

This week the ‘bitcoin-friendly’ financial institution Silvergate Bank sold 9.5 million shares that raised a sum of $114Mn USD during the common stock sale. Some of the capital injection was provided by the venture capital firm Digital Currency Group who welcomed Silvergate Bank into the company’s growing list of partners and subsidiaries.

Also read: Indians Look to Buy Bitcoin Overseas as Regulations Tighten

‘Bitcoin-Friendly’ Bank Raises $114 Million in Private Placement

Silvergate Bank is a financial institution that has bolstered bitcoin-based companies for quite some time. Silvergate was known for providing banking services to crypto-startups when other banks refused to work with those types of companies. According to the company, the bank has a relationship with fifteen cryptocurrency-focused businesses, and in April of last year, Silvergate collaborated with the blockchain surveillance company Elliptic. Moreover, back in 2014 the president and CEO of Silvergate Bank, Alan Lane discussed bitcoin at California Bankers Association meetings.

On February 26 Silvergate revealed it had raised $114Mn and the funds will promote further growth in a nationwide financial tech deposit initiative. “Our recent private placement is a major milestone in the history of Silvergate, increasing our equity capital by over 120%,” said Dennis Frank, Silvergate’s chairman during the announcement. However, the investors who helped raise the capital were not disclosed throughout the bank’s press statements.

“Our greatly increased capital base will support our growth and enable us to continue making investments in technology and people that will improve efficiency and productivity, and expand the products and services offered to our business customers,” Silvergate’s CEO Lane said yesterday.

A Few Hours Later Digital Currency Group Welcomes Silvergate Bank Into the DCG Family

Then a few hours later the venture capital firm Digital Currency Group (DCG) revealed it had invested in Silvergate’s private placement.

“We are thrilled to welcome Silvergate Bank to the DCG family of companies,” explains DCG to its Twitter followers.        

The New York-based firm DCG created in 2015 has its hands in a lot of cryptocurrency and blockchain based startups within the industry. The company was founded by Barry Silbert, and its 114 investments cover companies like Ledger Wallet, Bitgo, Bitpay, Blockstack, and more. The relationship with Silvergate Bank may help its investment companies with a more robust banking relationship. Many crypto-businesses and bitcoin-based debit card providers have been having difficulties with financial institutions over the past few months. The announcement from DCG concerning investing in Silvergate also follows the venture firm welcoming Poloniex to the DCG family as it has a stake in the company Circle Pay.

“Huge news from DCG portfolio company Circle Pay — We are thrilled to welcome Poloniex to the DCG family,” the company declares.

What do you think DCG investing in Silvergate Bank? Let us know your thoughts on this story in the comments below.

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Images via Shutterstock, Silvergate Bank, and DCG.  

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Bill Gates Says Crypto Has Caused Deaths in a Fairly Direct Way

One of the world’s most affluent persons, Bill Gates, appears to have bought in to the rhetoric of popular media and government law enforcement accounts. Recently, Mr. Gates and his wife submitted to a Reddit Ask-Me-Anything (AMA), and Mr. Gates’ gave some unusual views on cryptocurrency.  

Also read: How To Regain Control From Nanny Zuck

Bill Gates Was Once Pro Crypto

The popular social media billboard platform, Reddit, is famous for its innovative feature, Ask-Me-Anything (AMA). It’s a freewheeling, open (mostly) question and response thread placing constituents or fans in near direct contact with the connected, famous, powerful.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates, 62, for close to a quarter century has occupied the title of Forbes‘ richest person in the world. Estimates in the many tens of billions float about Mr. Gates, as he’s since retired from active corporate and software development duty and instead developed into a philanthropist of the first order. Indeed, he and notorious bitcoin skeptic Warren Buffett derived The Giving Pledge, handing over half their wealth to foundations, attracting other billionaires to do similarly in the process.

Questions during Mr. Gates’ sixth AMA revolved from the silly to topically pertinent, and inevitably headed toward cryptocurrency. Askur1337 put it straight: “Whats [sic] your opinion on Crypto Currencies?” In truth, it isn’t entirely obvious just what Mr. Gates believes. As far back as 2014, he’d lauded the decentralized currency. He insisted to Bloomberg then, “Bitcoin is exciting because it shows how cheap it can be. Bitcoin is better than currency in that you don’t have to be physically in the same place and, of course, for large transactions, currency can get pretty inconvenient.”

A year later, he’d come off such optimism, explaining bitcoin could “make moving money between countries easier and getting fees down pretty dramatically,” but “bitcoin won’t be the dominant system. We need things that draw on the revolution of bitcoin, but bitcoin alone is not good enough.” It was enough to have some crypto news outlets refer to Mr. Gates as a “bitcoin enthusiast.”

Death Caused by Crypto Fairly Direct

It’s pretty clear now such characterization is far, far off the mark. “The main feature of crypto currencies is their anonymity,” Mr. Gates began his rather terse answer in this year’s AMA. The hard truth is, of course, cryptocurrency is largely pseudo anonymous, and truly ghost cryptos are few and far between.

Nevertheless, Mr Gates continued, “I don’t think this is a good thing. The Governments [sic] ability to find money laundering and tax evasion and terrorist funding is a good thing,” repeating cannards long ago discarded by sober analysts. “Right now crypto currencies are used for buying fentanyl and other drugs,” he typed, “so it is a rare technology that has caused deaths in a fairly direct way.”

The qualifier there, “fairly,” allows some wiggle room if Mr. Gates is ever cornered by such a statement. Blaming cryptocurrency as a cause of death because a few have used one to ingest the other is oddly hysterical for Mr. Gates. A simple thought experiment should suffice: consider all the overdoses prior to crypto’s genesis in 2009. Had, at any time, anyone, including Mr. Gates, an intensely public figure asked for comment continuously, ever blamed government fiat paper money? Has anyone ever linked ATM cards, debit cards, the technology of plastic credit cards to have “caused deaths in a fairly direct way?”

What do you think drove Mr. Gates’ change? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Images courtesy of Pixabay, Reddit.

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British Man in Amsterdam Allegedly Laundered €11.5m in Bitcoin Drug Money

A UK man living in Amsterdam is facing up to five years in prison for allegedly helping people by exchanging fiat cash for bitcoin which was used to buy drugs. He supposedly started by growing cannabis himself but soon found the bitcoin business to be more profitable by itself.  

Also Read: US Navy Investigators Bust Bitcoin Drug Ring at Naval Academy

Amsterdam Bitcoin Mule

The Dutch Public Prosecutor has demanded that the court give a 38-year-old British man five years in prison for allegedly laundering about €11.5 million in bitcoin between 2014 and 2016. This money is suspected as originating from illegal drugs deals and the trade of other prohibited goods on dark web marketplaces, the Public Prosecutor said on Wednesday.

According to the allegations, the man living in Amsterdam profited by taking bitcoins from his clients and exchanging them for fiat cash, charging an “unusually high” commission of between 5 to 8 percent. This hefty commission was the price customers paid for anonymity, the Prosecutor said – the suspect carried part of the risk and was paid handsomely for it.

The suspect allegedly used his personal bank account to exchange the bitcoin, and then withdrew cash from ATMs for his clients. Millions of euros were exchanged in this way, the Prosecutor said. The suspect and his spouse earn very little in otherwise legal income, the Netherlands Times reported.

More Profitable Than Growing Weed

The British man is also suspected of growing cannabis plants as the Dutch police allegedly found plenty of plantations photo on his computer at his previous home. “He thought he had seen a gap in the market and jumped into it”, the Public Prosecutor said. “He started with a cannabis plantation, sold the harvest on the dark web and was paid in bitcoins. Soon he noticed that he no longer needed the weed to make a substantial turnover and a fine profit.”

The accused man himself still proclaims his innocence and claims that all his customers were honorable citizens who were not involved in any form of illegal trade. The Dutch court is expected to deliver its verdict in early March.

Does five years sound excessive for such a victimless crime, if proven? Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

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Swiss Stock Exchange Chairman Advocates National Cryptocurrency

The chairman of Switzerland’s stock exchange, Romeo Lacher, has spoken in favor of developing a Swiss national cryptocurrency. Mr. Lacher suggested that the proposed “e-franc” would provide a boost to the Swiss economy, in addition to comprising a payment system offering benefits over traditional systems.

Also Read: Chinese Entrepreneur Warns Against Mining and ICO Bans 

Swiss Stock Exchange Head Advocates Development of “E-Franc”

Robert Lacher, the head of Switzerland’s stock exchange, has spoken in favor of the development of a Swiss national cryptocurrency backed by the country’s central bank.

Mr. Lacher stated his belief that “there would be a lot of upsides” to developing a state-administered cryptocurrency, adding that the stock exchange “would be strongly supportive” of any initiative in favor of such.

“An e-franc under the control of the central bank would create a lot of synergies — so it would be good for the economy,” Mr. Lacher said, adding “I don’t like cash.”

Swiss Central Bank Sees “No Need” for National Cryptocurrency

The chairman described the hypothetical development of a national cryptocurrency as an excellent opportunity for Switzerland to extend its position as a leader in virtual currency innovation and adoption.

In response to Mr. Lacher’s comments, the Swiss National Bank issued a statement asserting that the bank sees “no need” to develop a national cryptocurrency, adding that existing cashless and cash-based payment systems are working smoothly.

Despite Mr. Lacher’s enthusiasm for a state-administered cryptocurrency, the chairman reasserted that the stock exchange and its owners, SIX Group, will not allow trading in cryptocurrency tokens. “We have actually no plans to admit trading of cryptocurrencies or ICOs. But we see a lot of advantages for blockchain across our businesses,” he said.

Switzerland Positions Itself as International Leader in Distributed Ledger Technology

Mr. Lacher also spoke in favor of the Swiss government’s policies designed to position the nation as a global leader in distributed ledger technology, however, acknowledged the risks associated with being a pioneering adopter of a disruptive phenomenon.

“I think the strategic direction is good, but it’s like going into fog,” Mr. Lacher said. “You don’t know what you will see on the other side. Many mistakes will be made, but we will also learn a lot and I am sure, we will be successful.”

Last month, The Swiss Economics Minister, Johann Schneider-Ammann, said that Switzerland should strive to “become the crypto-nation” whilst speaking at the Crypto Finance Conference in St. Moritz. During the conference, Mr. Schneider-Ammann described virtual currencies as comprising “part of the fourth industrial revolution,” but added that “It is too early” to determine if cryptocurrencies require regulatory oversight.

Are you for or against national cryptocurrencies? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!

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Forking Today; Bittrex’ Stance on Bitcoin Private Angers Zclassic Bagholders

In less than six hours, zclassic will fork to create bitcoin private, a new privacy-oriented coin that uses zk-snarks to obfuscate transactions. Holders of bitcoin and zclassic will both be eligible to receive bitcoin private (BTCP) on a 1:1 basis. There’s just one problem: 93% of all zlcassic (ZCL) is on Bittrex exchange, which until today had neglected to pass comment on whether it would support the fork. As the price of ZCL has dropped sharply, bagholders have expressed their anger at Bittrex’ slowness to act.

Also read: Bitcoin Private Fork Aiming to Make Bitcoin More Anonymous

Bitcoin Private Angers the Public

Bitcoin private has been a long time coming, with the fork of zclassic announced back in December of last year. Since then, traders have been steadily accumulating ZCL, causing its price to rise from $4 in early December to a high of almost $200. Everyone knew that ZCL would dump hard, but few expected it to do so before the fork. In the last 48 hours that’s what’s happened though, as the coin has plunged to a low of $73, a drop of 50% in less than a week.

It had been widely assumed – or at least hoped – that Bittrex would support the fork. Given that 93% of the trading volume comes from the U.S. exchange, it has the power to largely make or break the launch of bitcoin private. As ZCL bagholders have vented their frustrations, other traders have crowed about selling the coin days ago, leading to acrimony. There is still time for Bittrex to support BTCP, although with the fork scheduled to take place on February 28 around 5pm UTC, the clock is ticking.

The exchange finally broke its silence just hours before the fork was due to occur. In a statement, it wrote: “Bittrex will NOT be supporting the market for Bitcoin Private but due to issues with the Zclassic wallet, we will offer Zclassic holders on Bittrex partial support through claiming and withdrawing BTCP…Bittrex will suspend the Zclassic market approximately 15 minutes before the snapshot time and perform an on-exchange snapshot of ZCL balances. The market will re-open after 5pm UTC once the on-exchange snapshot is complete.”

The exchange probably won’t be listing BTCP as a tradable coin, it seems, and it certainly won’t be issuing bitcoin private on a 1:1 basis to BTC holders. While ZCL holders were relieved to learn this news, for some traders the announcement was a case of too little, too late.

A Good Idea Badly Executed?

The arguments for and against bitcoin private have been rehashed enough times. Given zclassic’s reliance on Bittrex for trading volume, it seems odd that Rhett Creighton and his team wouldn’t attempt to come to some sort of informal agreement with the exchange in advance. Without Bittrex’ promise of participation, the whole affair was bound to create bad blood and get the launch of bitcoin private off to a controversial start. Nevertheless, there has been nothing preventing traders from withdrawing their zclassic to a wallet or sending it to an exchange that has promised to support the fork in advance, such as Cryptopia.

Historically, Bittrex has been reluctant to support bitcoin forks, with bitcoin gold the last to be listed on the exchange. Other exchanges, including Hitbtc and Kucoin, have announced that they will issue BTCP to BTC holders, but Bittrex – which isn’t exactly famed for its communication – remained silent right up until the last possible moment, before finally caving to public pressure. While zclassic holders are entitled to feel aggrieved at Bittrex’ lack of action, exchanges are not obligated to dispense forked coins like free candies.

For those who truly believe in bitcoin private, the price of zclassic in the run-up to the fork is largely irrelevant. All that matters is that they move their ZCL to a supporting wallet or exchange, sit tight, and let the fork take its course. For traders, simply chasing the pump, going all-in on a coin that was already up 5,000% in three months was always going to be a risky move.

Do you think Bittrex have declared its support for BTCP sooner? Let us know in the comments section below.

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PR: Brahma OS Is the Decentralized Value Operating System Based on Revolutionary Blockchain Technology

This is a paid press release, which contains forward looking statements, and should be treated as advertising or promotional material. Bitcoin.com does not endorse nor support this product/service. Bitcoin.com is not responsible for or liable for any content, accuracy or quality within the press release.

SINGAPORE – The advent of blockchain technology is provoking a revolution of the Internet of Value. In the blockchain world, Ethereum, NEO, EOS and other blockchain-based computing platforms exploit land to run applications. On this land, a variety of application chain of different functions spring up, for example: Rebo network for cross-border payment, CVC with the function of authentication and Distributed File System IPFS. However, in the world of the blockchain, there is a lack of infrastructure with multiple functions which offer a variety of decentralized services. Brahma OS aims to fill that void.

What is Brahma OS?
Taking the widely used mobile Android system as an entry point, Brahma OS builds an underlying architecture of blockchain applications and ecosystem based on Ethereum. As the core of connecting end-users and blockchain networks, Brahma OS offers users services like decentralized authentication, network transmission, storage, app store, asset management, and transaction, also making Brahma OS highly scalable. Through the Brahma OS SDK interface, developers can quickly expand decentralized service components.

Why use Brahma OS?
The operating system as the interface of the user and the computer manages the scheduling, operation, and processing of the computer hardware resource. On the other hand, it also provides the user with a friendly human-machine user interface. In order to offer and utilize computer resources more efficiently, the virtual operating system and the cloud operating system service complement each other.

As operating systems become more centralized, the infrastructure on which they operate is accordingly more centralized. For instance, as brute-force password cracking can pose threat to the identity authentication method based on the “username + password”, people have proposed various two-factor authentication solutions such as Google auth dynamic password, fingerprint authentication, and access control cards. Although two-factor authentication enhances user security, the master key used for authentication is stored on a central server. Once the authentication server is out of order or once the master key is stolen, it will pose a systemic risk and expose user privacy.

The problems described above about centralization of identity authentication also exist in application services such as network transmission, central storage, app store and transaction payment.

In dealing with the trust problem in centralized services, Rebo, CVC, IPFS have solved some service and function trust issues in a real system through the blockchain technology. However, the design ideas for Brahma OS are different. Brahma OS provides users with application services based on blockchain technology from the platform layer and operating system level. In the early planning of the Brahma OS system, Brahma OS will be based on the Android system to provide users with blockchain application components. Using blockchain technology, Brahma OS will solve the trust problem from the operating system platform. From this, Brahma OS is more like a blockchain virtual machine system.

In the future planning, Brahma OS will be deeply integrated with the hardware to give birth to a new smartphone operating system in the world of the blockchain. The network communication chip of Brahma OS and the contact chip of Brahma OS will become a brand new communication protocol which can support many mobile phone hardware manufacturers.

What kind of blockchain services does Brahma OS provide?
In the initial implementation of the Brahma OS system, Brahma OS will provide users with the following blockchain decentralized services by building a sandboxed environment for Native DApp and removing Android’s centralized service components.

To protect user privacy, Brahma OS provides users with identity authentication services based on blockchain addresses and user portraits, and offers privacy protection for user communications, calls and storage through elliptic curve public key algorithm and through Hash algorithm. As the storage and the transmission of data are encrypted, only users with a private key can have access to it. Therefore, there is no risk of data leakage in Brahma OS.

As for blockchain asset management, users can achieve ETHs and various ERC20 tokens management through the asset management components offered by Brahma OS without an extra wallet.

In terms of building an autonomous connected networks, Brahma OS dissociates both the meta-network and the “router” from existing network protocols and expects to build a peer-to-peer OS network that ensures encryption of communication data through protocol confusion from the data transmission level and build an autonomous, connected network from the configuration of the routing role.

In terms of decentralized storage services, Brahma OS offers a functional interface invoking other decentralized cloud services, including services from IPFS, Sia, Storj among many others.

In addition, Brahma OS will provide developers with a rich SDK interface and privacy API for developers to expand blockchain applications. As the DApp software on Brahma OS becomes abundant, a centralized DApp Store market will be established in the future to promote the ecological autonomy of Brahma OS through token support incentives. The appearance of more and more valuable apps like decentralized games will bring unprecedented value to developers and users of Brahma OS.

Brahma OS technical architecture

Brahma OS technical architecture is hierarchical. The entire system is decomposed into a number of higher and lower logic layer like Chain, Runtime, Framework. Taking into account compatibility issues of native Android applications, we separate virtual machine to completely isolate the runtime environment of Android App and DApp. In this way, we can increase security controls of Android App and prevent system crashes.

The current status of the development work on Brahma OS is well underway. In the development planning, the Brahma team has detailed milestones for each stage. In the third quarter of 2018, the team plans to complete the replacement of the Android centralization service and Brahma OS will connect to the Ethernet network for the first test users to operate on the system prototype.

In the blockchain world, if the blockchain platform such as Ethereum, NEO and EOS are regarded as land, and the networks like Rebol, STEEM, and IPFS as houses of different function, the Brahma OS is a beautiful multifunctional district enabled by a decentralized virtual operating system!

About Brahma OS
Brahma OS is an operating system that hosts decentralized networks by enabling the deconstruction of existing services and the use of a wide range of decentralized services and components to ensure that users can safely and easily access services on the blockchain and application.

For more information on Brahma OS
Official Website: http://brahmaos.io
Telegram Channel: https://t.me/BrahmaOS
Twitter: https://twitter.com/brahma_os
Medium: http://ift.tt/2ovG9vz
Bitcointalk: http://ift.tt/2CObLkm
Contact: Lynn
Press contact: brahmabrm@gmail.com

PR-I.CO is a communication service working exclusively for blockchain and crypto companies. Brahma OS is the source of this content; this press release is for information only and does not constitute investment advice.

Contact Email Address
prteam@pr-i.co
Supporting Link
http://brahmaos.io

This is a paid press release. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the promoted company or any of its affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in the press release.

The post PR: Brahma OS Is the Decentralized Value Operating System Based on Revolutionary Blockchain Technology appeared first on Bitcoin News.

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Europol: Hardcore Criminals Are Shifting From Bitcoin to Monero, Zcash and Dash

A multitude of representatives of law enforcement agencies from around the world have talked about the use of bitcoin by criminal elements, sometimes revealing ignorance about cryptocurrencies in the process. Now it appears that Europol at least is trying to go deeper, learning about various altcoins and how they can be used too.

Also Read: Israeli Supreme Court Forbids Bank From Denying Service to Bitcoin Exchange

Criminals Go Alt

The European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol), formerly known as the European Police Office and Drugs Unit, is concerned that sophisticated criminals are switching to alternative cryptocurrencies while investigators are just focusing on bitcoin. Monero, zcash and dash are specifically mentioned as now appearing on the radar of the EU law agency.

Jarek Jacubchek, a Europol cyber-crime analyst, told Business Insider: “We can see a quite obvious and distinct shift from bitcoin to cryptocurrencies that can provide a higher level of privacy. So basically, you can achieve a higher level of privacy using these ‘altcoins’, and these altcoins are either using stealth as the basis, like monero. There are also coins like dash that do not have stealth addresses, they have transparent addresses, but they have a mixing process that is part of the protocol.”

Bitcoin Still Rules

This shift from bitcoin to altcoins is supposedly fueled by two ongoing trends. First, bitcoin exchanges are coming under regulatory pressure to adopt the same anti-money laundering and know your customer (AML/KYC) practices of traditional financial institutions, such as requiring photo IDs to open accounts, which are scaring away criminals. Second, most police forces are already aware of the potential use of bitcoin and are improving their ability to track down BTC transactions by suspects. Additionally, by shifting between multiple cryptocurrencies, people can better hide their tracks from investigators.

Despite all of this, bitcoin as the original cryptocurrency is still the most popular with criminals, just as it is with law-abiding citizens. The co-founder of cryptocurrency analysis firm Elliptic, Tom Robinson, explains that “the vast majority of illicit activity in cryptocurrencies is still taking place in bitcoin, because of its ease of exchange and more advanced infrastructure”.

Do you think criminals are shifting away from bitcoin to more anonymous altcoins? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!

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Images courtesy of Shutterstock.

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Do you like to research and read about Bitcoin technology? Check out Bitcoin.com’s Wiki page for an in-depth look at Bitcoin’s innovative technology and interesting history.

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PR: Viola.AI Announces Worldwide Community-Choice Campaign for the Name, Look and Persona for the World’s Smartest Love Advisor

This is a paid press release, which contains forward looking statements, and should be treated as advertising or promotional material. Bitcoin.com does not endorse nor support this product/service. Bitcoin.com is not responsible for or liable for any content, accuracy or quality within the press release.

The world’s first Blockchain & AI driven Marketplace for love, Viola.AI is the solution to the current dating and relationships challenges worldwide. She will be the first dating and relationship A.I. that evolves with the users to help them in the stages of dating, couple-hood to marriage. Viola.AI will serve users from helping people find love, helping romance blossom, and helping sustain the relationship right till their twilight years.

The team of Viola.AI, who is also behind the dating giant Lunch Actually Group with over 14 years of success record and regional presence in Asia, has sold out their pre-sale 5 days early back in January 2018 and recently clinched The Investors Awards win at the prestigious d10e ICO Pitching Competition in Cayman Islands.

As the next move in a series of major initiatives, Viola.AI announced that it will give the power to the community to choose and vote for the name, look, and persona for its future lifetime A.I Advisor in a campaign targeting the worldwide community.

The campaign is aimed to decentralize and empower the strong and passionate Viola.AI community to decide on the A.I that they will use once the MVP is launched in May 2018.

With this decentralization initiative, the worldwide community will get to choose and vote for the name for their future lifetime A.I Advisor, how she would look, as well as her key personality traits in different cultures and communities.

Co-Founder and CEO of Viola.AI, Violet Lim, said, “Our passionate and growing community is the key driver to the success of our project, and we are thankful to have such dedicated community members who have been very vocal in showing their support and what Viola.AI means to them. We want our A.I to be used by all people from different cultures, different nationalities and different creeds. And that is why we are giving the power and opportunity to our community to let them decide on the name for the World’s Smartest Love Advisor.”

Viola.AI, who is currently gearing towards its public sale on 14 March 2018, will be launching the Community-Choice campaign after the token sale is concluded.

Harnessing on AI, blockchain technology and trustless smart contracts, Viola.AI is equipped with several core capabilities:

The Smartest Love AI: Provides highly personalized matching and discreet relationship advices which evolves according to the user’s relationship status by employing A.I. with personalised machine learning engine and natural language empathy. Viola.AI will be trained by the Group’s 13 years of accumulated service experience, 3500 datasets and 1.1 billion data points.

Real ID verification: Protects users with visual recognition technology. The deployment of decentralized system and blockchain technology enables high security and authentication of users, preventing any identity theft and protecting against data tampering and the infrastructure of Viola.AI.

Community Support: Offers strong community support via crowd wisdom with quality content and advice that addresses user’s enquiry. Viola.AI will reward users for their good and helpful advice.

Recommended-based marketplace: Provides timely recommendations to address each user’s needs for goods and services from merchants, experts and service providers.

Secure smart wallets and contract system: All transactions within Viola.AI are controlled by a secure wallet and smart contracts to ensure that users can interact and transact with contributors and merchants at ease as all parties will receive the agreed-upon revenue share or commissions.

With the strong team of Viola.AI as well as their line-up of ICO Advisors, ranging from serial entrepreneurs, blockchain and investment specialists, to tech investors with huge network, the team is confident to achieve their mission of changing the world, one relationship at a time and positively impacting billions of people worldwide. The company’s co-founders Violet Lim and Jamie Lee have successfully built Asia’s dating giant for the past 14 years and their ICO Advisors include:

• Prakash Somosundram, Serial Entrepreneur, Fintech Influencer, Singapore Government Advisor
• Kenneth Tan, Co-Founder of FundYourselfNow and Blockchain Writer
• Alex Haxton, Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Consultant
• Peter Sin, Co-Founder of Singapore Bitcoin Club
• Caleb Yap, Co-Founder of Singapore Bitcoin Club
• Brian Condenanza, ICO Advisor, Blockchain and Bitcoin Early Adopter
• Phillippe Rodriguez, President of Bitcoin Association in France and founder of Avolta Partner
• Michael Reece, Blockchain entrepreneur and Co-Founder of NicheAdNetwork
• Bruno Vanryb, Serial Entrepreneur who founded Avanquest, a listed and global software publisher
• Hong Ting Wong, early adopter of cryptocurrencies, a serial entrepreneur, founder & CEO of Botbot.AI and 2359 Media
• Lisa Clampitt, Founder and President of Matchmaking Institute in New York
• Dato Larry Gan Nyap Liou, Managing Partner at Accenture for 16 years, invested and worked with innovative technologies
• Warren Whitlock, top social influencer in blockchain space

Community users as well as the public can find out more about the community-choice campaign or about Viola.AI at the next AMA (Ask Me Anything) session on Facebook Live on Friday, 9 Mar 2018 at 9am – 10am (UTC+8) where co-founders Jamie and Violet will answer any questions they might have about the project. Users can join in and ask questions to the team via Telegram or Facebook.

**END**

For more information on Viola.AI and to join the whitelist, visit www.viola.ai

Join the discussion on Viola.AI Telegram: https://t.me/ViolaAI

Contact Email Address
christina@viola.ai
Supporting Link
www.viola.ai

This is a paid press release. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the promoted company or any of its affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in the press release.

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Las Vegas Strippers Accept Bitcoin via QR Tattoos

There has been a lot of talk recently about the missing representation of women in the male-dominated cryptocurrency ecosystem. While Las Vegas strippers are not the representation some hoped for, they are an example of how bitcoin can help working women control their financial affairs and avoid potential problems with prudish banks.

Also Read: Bitpay Bans Payments to Merchants of Explicit Content, Cloud-Mining and Gambling

Bitcoin Dancers

A Las Vegas news show has featured a segment on an adult entertainment venue in the city which enables its dancers to get payments from clients directly via bitcoin transfers. The use of the cryptocurrency was primarily showcased as a privacy enhancing measure (preventing your wife from seeing the payments on the credit card bills) as well as an attraction for affluent bitcoin investors.

The Las Vegas strip club is called the Legends Room and we reported about its opening back in May 2017. The local news team interviewed the founder, Nick Blomgren, as well as a number of the adult dancers at the place. They even explained how visitors can use the in-house bitcoin ATM to buy cryptocurrency at the club. Furthermore, the dancers can choose to wear temporary QR tattoos as wallet addresses that can be scanned on a smartphone.

The Future of Adult Entertainment

Besides the privacy concerns of the patrons, the use of cryptocurrency allows the dancers to avoid explaining to banks where they get large amounts of cash. “I’m not going to name names, but there are certain banks that… will shut down your account and actually deny you from having an account because we work in the adult entertainment industry”, said Summer Chase.

Asked how often customers want to pay with bitcoin, Brenna Sparks answered: “Oh, quite often. Like the people that come here, they are like really into crypto. I feel like it’s very smart. They are really into that.” She says she likes checking her balance a lot, “It’s fun though. Once you invest, it becomes an everyday thing.” The 26 years old dancer became interested in cryptocurrency when she was just 19. Now she and her friends think cryptocurrency may be the future for adult entertainment workers. “It’s peer to peer. It’s anonymous, and it’s instant,” Sparks said.

“When I first heard about the concept, I thought wow this is really something different, you know,” said DJ Saint Clare who gets part of her salary in cryptocurrency.

How do you feel about Las Vegas dancers having tattoos on their bodies to accept payment for services rendered? Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

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Images courtesy of Shutterstock.

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Do you like to research and read about Bitcoin technology? Check out Bitcoin.com’s Wiki page for an in-depth look at Bitcoin’s innovative technology and interesting history.

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