New York-based Bitcoin exchange itBit has revealed that it won't use Bitcoin for its upcoming Bankchain project, the New York State Department of Financial Services has so far received 22 BitLicense applications, and more top stories for August 14.
itBit Reveals it Won't Use Bitcoin for its Banking Project
New York-based Bitcoin exchange itBit has revealed that it will not use Bitcoin for its upcoming Bankchain project. itBit's so-called Bankchain is a private shared ledger system for financial institutions, which borrows from Bitcoin and the blockchain, but is said to be different to them.
itBit’s senior vice president Steve Wager explained:
“Financial services firms cannot use the [Bitcoin] blockchain and that is primarily because of the validation protocol, meaning that a company like JP Morgan for example, wouldn’t be able to allow new risk into current processes by having unknown parties clearing their transactions for them or validating their transactions over the blockchain and as a result there’s the need for [permissible] ledgers.”
The exchange also announced that US National Security Agency veteran Ed Giorgio has joined its board of advisors.
22 Bitcoin Companies Have Applied for the BitLicense
The New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) has revealed that it has so far received 22 applications from firms seeking to engage in virtual currency business activity in the US state. NYDFS deputy superintendent for public affairs Matt Anderson indicated that the agency believes this filing total shows there is substantial interest in complying with the BitLicense, and that the BitLicense will ultimately lead to broader adoption of the technology.
Anderson:
“In the long term, we think this is going to be helpful and I think there'll ultimately be some sort of shaking the wheat from the chaff. We think that those companies that want to do business with strong consumer protections and strong regulatory requirements will continue to submit applications.”
Vaultoro Goes BnkToTheFuture for Crowd Investment
Vaultoro, a “Banking 2.0 platform” that enables users to trade bitcoin and physically assigned gold, is now selling a slice of the company through global crowd investment platform BnkToTheFuture.com. After only 24 hours of launching its campaign, the startup has already raised well over US$50,000.
Joshua Scigala, Vaultoro’s CEO and Co-Founder, commented:
“I’m really happy about crowd investing because it offers qualifying investors the chance to invest in startups and actually profit from their success that wasn’t available before.”
Interpol Conducted Dark Market War Game Using its Own Cryptocurrency
International police organization Interpol organized an interactive training seminar in Singapore last month that utilized an internally developed cryptocurrency and a mock dark market. The cryptocurrency is developed by the organization's Global Complex for Innovation specifically for exercises like this one.
Interpol's Global Complex for Innovation researcher Christian Karam said:
“We took great care in explaining the concepts in such a manner that police officers do not feel alienated by darknet, bitcoin or cryptocurrencies in general and look more towards accepting these innovations as part of the Internet and try to incorporate them in their daily strategies and tactics.”
Law of Bitcoin Editor Stuart Hoegner: ‘Innovation is Like Toothpaste: It Can’t Be Put Back in the Tube’
The Law of Bitcoin is a recently published book that provides legal guidance on Bitcoin issues in four countries; Canada, Germany, United Kingdom and the United States. Cointelegraph spoke with Stuart Hoegner, the editor of The Law Of Bitcoin, on his experience in being part of the team behind the project as well as his opinion on bitcoin regulation around the globe.
According to Hoegner:
“Law should always be the handmaiden to innovation. Innovation is like toothpaste: it can’t be put back in the tube.”
California Assemblyman Responds to EFF Critique on Bitcoin Bill
California assemblyman Matt Dababneh, who penned California's AB-1326 bill seeking to regulate virtual currency businesses, has defended his proposal against criticism from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). The EFF said that the bill threatened the future of digital currency experimentation and innovation in the state.
Dababneh now stated:
“First, EFF has little expertise in the area of financial regulation and is generally beyond its depths on the appropriate levels of safety and soundness regulation required of financial service providers. [...] EFF argues that the language in AB-1326 is vague, making it unclear who should be licensed and that it contains requirements that it will stifle innovation. The language in the bill is very clear and has been negotiated with the companies that actually develop platforms in the virtual currency ecosystem.”
Tau Chain Aims to Introduce ‘Decentralized App Store’ with Greater Flexibility than Ethereum
Tau Chain is a decentralized peer-to-peer network that claims Ethereum’s Turing completeness is the wrong direction as it is indecisive logic and missing an intricate part: proof of language. Cointelegraph spoke with Tau Chain developers HunterMinerCrafter and Ohad Asor of the Tau team on the project and how it differs from other decentralized networks such as its ability to prove assertions about code using “decidable logic”.
According to Tau developer HunterMinerCrafter:
“Tau is a blockchain for abstract protocols, coordinating both their definition and execution.”
Gemini Sends Out Invites to Institutional Customers
Gemini, the upcoming bitcoin exchange founded by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, has sent out invites to selected institutional investors who signed up to the exchange's early access list. As such, the New York based exchange is inching closer to its launch.
On reddit, Cameron Winklevoss explained:
“The emails sent out today were sent to institutional customers (who signed up to our early access list) in order to begin the process of setting up their account -- there’s more KYC work to do to get institutions on-boarded than individual customers, hence why we have started to get the process started with these folks earlier. We’ll be sending out invites to individuals once we’re ready to launch, which we expect to be quite soon.”