Bitcoin News Roundup – 11 Oct. 2015
Posted by: DeepDotWeb
October 11, 2015
Recapping the week’s biggest Bitcoins stories from around the web.
Gemini bitcoin exchange is live. As P.H Madore of CryptoCoins News writes, the Winklevoss Twins have announced in the company’s blog that their long-waited bitcoin exchange has officially opened its doors to institutional and retail investors on October 8th. Gemini offers the four pillars of business, product, security, licensing and compliance. Through the Gemini Trust Company, LLC, Gemini becomes a fiduciary, accepting customers under New York Banking Law, and it is exempted from registering with FinCEN for anti-money laundering.
The U.S. government rosters final bitcoin auction from the Silk Road. As Nate Raymond of Reuters writes, the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) plans to sell 44,341 BTC (approximately $10.6mιn current exchange rates) seized during the arrest of Ross Ulbricht, the creator of Silk Road online black market. The online action is scheduled for November 5th.
Yandex expresses interest in integrating the bitcoin in its financial platform. As Joseph Young of Bitcoin Magazine reports, Russia’s largest ISP and search engine, Yandex.Money seeks to integrate the digital currency in its platform, allowing merchants to accept payments in bitcoin. According to the company’s CEO Maria Gracheva and Media Relations Manager, Nora Kirkizh, the digital currency fits perfectly to the payment methods already offered by Yandex.Money and it’s expected to further facilitate business for more than 76,000 online merchants, e-wallets and more.
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS)is testing in-house cryptocurrency. As Yessi Bello Perez of Coin Desk writes, commenting on the potential of blockchain technology, RBS Head of Technology, Neil Bellamy stated that “it’s a pipe dream, but the actual process and the sentiment behind it could be very exciting.”
Regulation
Commonwealth central bank governors require a closer look into the bitcoin. As Stan Higgins of Coin Desk writes, in a meeting held on October 6th, 30 central bank governors from the Commonwealth have decided to investigate how the digital currency affects a monetary policy in order to decide on their final stance towards the cryptocurrency technology. Furthermore, the central bank governors have discussed bitcoin cross-border payments and the negative impact of regulation on remittances.
The National Bank of Ukraine issues a warning about the bitcoin. As Joseph Young of Coin Telegraph writes, following an investigation of the development and use of emerging payment systems, the National Bank of Ukraine has notified the regional banks and global financial institutions about the risks related to the use of the bitcoin.In fact, the National Bank focuses on the risks associated to the decentralization of the digital currency and the impact on transactions using the blockchain technology. The warning was issued as a joint initiative with the EU BTC warning.
California introduces a law requiring warrants for online data.Laura Hautala of CNET reports that California Governor Jerry Brown signed a privacy bill into law, which requires law enforcement agencies in the State of California to obtain a warrant before investigating online data. Silicon Valley tech companies advocate the new law, resisting government collection of customer data,following privacy activist Edward Snowden’s investigation leaks.Google, Facebook and Twitter as well as the San Diego Police Officers Association are in full support of the law.
Payments
Unbanked people in Tunisia are using the blockchain technology through Monetas. As Sarah Jenn of NewsBtc writes, the Swiss software startup Monetas supports blockchain payments on its mobile payments platform, addressing the lack of convertibility of mobile money issued by a telecom company to another. Furthermore, Monetas joins forces with DigitUs for the development of eDinar-Plus, a mobile money payments system that will introduce a card-based system allowing the Central Bank of Tunisia, La Poste Tunisienne and DigitUsto act as intermediaries.
Updated: 2015-10-11