Pink Taxis, Red Flags: A Deep Dive Into a Sketchy ICO

No team, plagiarized white paper, McAfee pump, promises of bitcoin-like returns, brand hijacking, a fake blog. Welcome to ICO-land.

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Barclays Testing the Waters for a Cryptocurrency Trading Desk

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While the big banks are usually very skeptical of bitcoin in public, below the radar they could all already be making plans to gain a foothold for themselves in the ecosystem. The latest example is Barclays that is reportedly asking clients about a possible move into the crypto trading space.  Also Read: Coinbase Acquires Earn.com for an Estimated $100 Million Testing the Waters British banking giant Barclays (LSE: BARC) is supposedly considering launching a cryptocurrency trading desk. The bank is trying to figure out if there is enough demand from its clients including hedge funds, big investors and the like for it to enter this new line of business. This would make Barclays the first major bank in London to offer such a service. Although the bank says it still has no specific plans to launch a cryptocurrency trading desk, sources have revealed it has conducted a preliminary assessment of demand and feasibility. “We constantly monitor developments in the digital currency sp...
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UNICEF’s “Hope Page” Mines Cryptocurrency Through Visitors’ Computers

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UNICEF Australia is using Coinhive — a crypto-mining service — to extract cryptocurrency through visitors’ computers and fund its ongoing mission in Bangladesh. The UN branch has long worked to provide humanitarian relief for both children and their mothers in developing nations. The organization has now created what representatives call the “ Hope Page ,” which allows users to donate through cryptocurrency. UNICEF’s Director of Fundraising and Communications Jennifer Tierney explained , “We wanted to leverage new emerging technologies to raise awareness about current humanitarian crises and raise new funds to support children caught up in them. The Hope Page allows Australians to provide help and hope to vulnerable children by simply opening the page when they are online.” Coinhive’s partnership with UNICEF could help to foster a more positive image for the software. Up until this point, Coinhive has widely been associated with a process known as “cryptojacking,” in which the comp...
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The Old New Thing: ICE and the Future of Bitcoin Trading and Regulation

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As reported earlier by The New York Times (NYT) and Bitcoin Magazine , Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), parent company of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), is developing an online trading platform that would allow large investors to trade bitcoin directly. As news about the ICE platform continues to develop, Bitcoin Magazine spoke with lawyers Ben Sauter and Dave McGill of Kobre & Kim, a New York City law firm which specializes in disputes and investigations, to examine the regulatory issues surrounding the launch of such a platform, including swap contracts and the implications the ICE platform might have on cryptocurrency trading in the future. Sauter and McGill are also participating lawyers in the Digital Currency & Ledger Defense Coalition (DCLDC), a coalition of lawyers and academics whose collaborated effort focuses on understanding the regulatory and legal issues surrounding cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology to protect individual constitutional rights an...
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