CoinSpectator Blog

The minimum fund cap was reached within hours of the pre-sale launch on 7 October 2017.

CRYPTO20’s goal is to bring peace-of-mind cryptocurrency investment to mainstream investors. It is an index fund that holds and autonomously rebalances a data science proven portfolio of the top 20 cryptocurrencies.

Actively managed funds have consistently failed to beat the market index despite decades worth of data, billions of dollars and hundreds of analysts at their disposal. When they have, their fees dilute investor returns to less than if they had simply held the index.

Due to rising crypto prices, the fund value per token exceeded the price of tokens being sold. Pre-sale investors were able to acquire $1.10 of underlying crypto assets for $0.95 per token.

The CRYPTO20 pre-sale is now over, with over 2000 backers from 93 countries and $5 million in total funds raised. The main ICO starts on the 16th of October 2017 at 18:00 GMT and ends on the 30th of November at 00:00 GMT.

A Finished Product Offering Value Now

The fund’s token, C20, is a representation of an investor’s share of the fund, and the fund’s value is equal to the combined value of its assets. CRYPTO20, unlike many of the other offerings in the marketplace today, is a finished product and not a platform.

As evidence of this fact, CRYPTO20 has released trading tools and insights that are generated live from the 8 exchanges connected to the system via API. The trading tools are available here and include information on slippage, the best price and trading pair to acquire assets with and the volume by exchange.

Token-holders are able to liquidate the C20 token for their share of the underlying assets via the smart contract. By going directly to the end-user as a cryptocurrency itself, CRYPTO20 gives investors the ability to sell or exchange their tokens at will. The fund is fully AML/KYC compliant and operates as a registered LLC in the Cayman Islands, a popular fund jurisdiction.

The CRYPTO20 fund mitigates risk and volatility and historically has provided better returns than the market cap leader, bitcoin, alone.

Discover more at https://www.crypto20.com.
Join the CRYPTO20 Slack channel and chat with the founding team directly.

The insurance industry is days away from a technological and business milestone. The Aigang Network’s token sale on November 15th brings together Internet of Things devices and Autonomous Insurance, promising self-paying insurance claims on a subset of the 55 billion IoT products forecastto be produced over the next eight years. Aigang has created Proof of Concept products on the Ethereum blockchain that detect faults or failure dates (initially in mobile phones) and pay insurance claims to the user without the requirement for any human oversight. In other words, we are creating an insurance DAO; a Distributed Autonomous Organisation.

The Aigang insurance software, which includes all policy details, can be bundled with a device so that it is active when started-up or opted-in during configuration. The software detects imminent failure of components and triggers a payment automatically if insurance conditions are met.

Candidates for this solution include phones, drones, fitness trackers, gaming consoles, home electronics, white goods, cameras and watches.

Autonomous Insurance is not limited to completely automated use cases, since Aigang’s protocols provide for aspects of a product’s insurance policy to be passed off to conventional reinsurers. In other words, some claims for your self-driving car might require manual oversight, some may be automatically dealt with. This enlarges the universe of products that can access Aigang’s insurance.

The Proof of Concept app, on the Ethereum Testnet platform, has more than 7000 downloads and around 2000 smart insurance contracts have been issued. Aigang has deployed smart contracts that issue policies, conduct risk assessment and process claims. It has also deployed smart contracts that perform insurance profit calculations, create reserves and tokenise the insurance risk pool. The protocol architecture is able to integrate other insurance products.

There are a number of other innovative aspects to the Aigang Network, including the use of prediction markets to evaluate the viability of insurance products. Aigang are incentivising insurance industry experts and business analysts to participate in these prediction markets by rewarding successful predictions with status and tokens.

Internet connectivity is becoming the default for new products. All these devices, vehicles, appliances and systems are potentially insurable. Automating insurance will drive down policy costs, increase the diversity of insurance products and disintermediate inefficient insurers. Aigang is positioned to be a leading player in this space.

Advisors to the project include Bok Khoo (blockchain) and Niv Calderon (IoT). The team comprises longstanding insurance industry executives based in Europe and Asia, as well as developers with experience on all relevant technology platforms.

Aigang has already raised 10% of its total target funding. 60% of funds raised in the token sale will be applied to protocol development, with 15% allocated to security, 15% to operations and marketing, and 10% to legal and consulting expenses.

The token sale is individually capped during the first 24 hours and early-stage contributors can register here prior to Token Sale which is on November 15th, 13:00 UTC.

Renowned businessman and security analyst John McAfee has partnered with and will sit on the advisory board of BitIndia, an open source blockchain wallet and exchange for the streets of India.

With less than 0.5% of indians currently utilising Bitcoin, the company aims to educate and promote cryptocurrencies to directly take on the very real and growing issue of high banking rates that currently plague over 1.2 billion of the country’s people.

John McAfee talks about Bitindia & its Potential https://t.co/1BMYM2N5iG … @officialmcafee @Applancer_pro @Cointelegraph #bitindia #india

— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) October 9, 2017

This is to be achieved through an easy to use cryptocurrency platform that takes away the complexities of cryptocurrencies and replace them with an intuitive system which not only allows the average layman to store and use Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple currencies but to also trade them against the national currency, the Indian Rupee.

Plans also include for seamless integration on a local level allowing users to access terminals that allow for everyday and recurring purchases such as groceries, bills and dining out.

Given the size of the Indian population and its urgent need for a decentralised and fairer economic system if executed properly BitIndia is in a prime position to spearhead and develop the Indian Cryptocurrency space into a major global player, one that will shortly rival China and South Korea.

John Mcafee’s no stranger to business, his role at Bitindia will bring a great deal of unparalleled expertise and guidance.

Bitindia is currently running an initial coin offering (ICO) which allows anyone to invest in the exchange and make a share of the profits, find out more here https://bitindia.co/ or read the whitepaper https://bitindia.co/whitepaper.pdf

This year we’ve seen the launch of many ICO’s, with the majority just being blatant scams or just down right useless.

That said every so often a project comes along that not only only has a genuine purpose but also thrives in a blockchain environment. This week that project is Upfiring, a blockchain company aiming to revolutionise the P2P file sharing industry as we know it.

Utilising the Ethereum Blockchain, Upfiring has created a decentralised autonomous P2P network that allows anyone to easily share files regardless of if they are on a desktop computer or smartphone.

File-sharing is currently seen as an unrewarding process for both seeders (due to little to no return for sharing) and frustrating for downloaders (due to the lack of seeders and slow speeds).

Upfiring has a solution to address this. The company has developed technology which solves many of the current problems we see today with P2P file sharing such as seeding, searching, downloading, ratings, and peer evaluation.

In layman’s terms the Upfiring process is as follows:

1. A seeder shares a file through the Upfiring network
2. The file is encrypted by the platform
3. A downloader requests access to the seeded file but can only download once they have paid using the currency of the network which is UFR tokens.
4. Once downloaded and paid for in full the file can be decrypted.

The above is a seamless process that requires no technical; knowhow on the user’s part. Given that UFR is also a tradable currency allows both seeders and downloaders to utilise exchanges to buy and sell the tokens as and when required.

Despite file sharing existing since the early days of the internet recent statistics show that the industry has continually grown over fifty percent since 2008. With no sign of this slowing down the industry has long been overdue a technology overhaul to speed up and improve efficiency.

Some of the Issues with current file sharing platforms:

• Lack of seeders
• No benefit to seeders
• Risk for seeders
• Snooping/ privacy concerns
• Massive disparity between file download and availability ratio.

Benefits of incentivised file sharing:

• Seeders are compensated (resulting in more high quality seeds)
• Larger variety of seeds
• Seeds can be rated more effectively
• Faster access and downloads
• A self sufficient system that settles payment publicly

Upfiring is currently running an initial crowd offering where anyone can invest in the technology in exchange for Upfiring tokens. You can find out more about the project and support it at: https://upfiring.com/

Their whitepaper can be accessed here: https://upfiring.com/Upfiring_Whitepaper.pdf

The UK’s financial regulatory body has issued a press release warning consumers about the risk of investing in Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs).

ICOs are very high-risk, speculative investments.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said ICOs are very high-risk and that anyone investing should be prepared to lose their entire stake.

The FCA does not have the power to regulate a high majority of ICO’s as they fall outside of their legal boundaries, but some may be conducting regulated activities including the exchanges selling the tokens.

We have issued a consumer warning about the risks associated with Initial Coin Offerings (‘ICOs’): https://t.co/UorniFOQdI

— FCA (@TheFCA) September 12, 2017

If you are not aware of how ICO’s operate they work similar to normal crowd funding events but instead of investors paying in fiat they are paid for with a token or coin e.g Ethereum or Bitcoin in return for a project token.

It has been estimated that around £1bn in fiat has been invested into ICO’s so far and this number is growing exponentially.

The FCA’s warning issued today swiftly follows the People’s Bank of China who have allegedly issued similar warnings and have recently “banned” some ICO’s although experts say this ban was temporary.

You should be conscious of the risks involved and fully research the specific project if you are thinking about buying digital tokens.

As with any ICO’s we recommend carrying out your own independent research to ensure the legitimacy and that it’s worth risking your own money. Common red flags include no whitepaper, unverifiable team members (missing Linkedin profiles or social profiles), projects in the very early stages without any prototype. ALl in all the best policy is to just use common sense when assessing each project and remember if something sounds too good to be true then it probably is.

After a laborious nine-week search Uber’s management board has voted to appoint crypto-friendly Dara Khosrowshahi as their new chief executive – a potential win for Bitcoin Ethereum.

Under Dara’s 12 year run, Expedia was one of the first major organisations to accept Bitcoin as a form of payment (back in 2014) and subsequently legitimising it. So much so that both Microsoft and Dell followed suit shortly after. Dara is also a personal investor in Bitcoin startup 21 inc and has been an influential promoter of blockchain technology and its uses in real world projects.

With Bitcoin dominating the early days it made sense for Expedia to start accepting the cryptocurrency, however three years down the line it would seem Ethereum would be a better all round solution.

Bitcoin has also encountered a number of issues of late, many of which have stemmed from its slow confirmation times and increased transaction fee’s. With neither of these issues being appropriately addressed it is impossible to use this currency in any time critical use cases. Ethereum however with its lightening fast conformations (which are soon to get even faster) and low transaction fees would be a well equipped contender. It only takes around 15 seconds for a transaction to be confirmed on the Ethereum network making it easy to pay as you pop out of the cab, as opposed to Bitcoin which would require you to… well we’re not quite sure how that would work.

Rumours around Uber accepting cryptocurrencies have long circulated but until now they been nothing more than internet chatter, with Dara’s appointment however it may well become a reality. These are exciting times for the cryptosphere.

Will you be paying for your next uber with Ether?

WannaCry Bitcoin on the move as hackers cash out

Bitcoin linked to the infamous WannaCry malware attack which held thousands of computers ransom around the world is now on the move according to security experts.

Since the attack three Bitcoin wallets have been sitting idle with roughly 52 Bitcoin, but as of today they have been split into multiple tiny amounts and distributed to various other wallets and exchanged for a more anonymous cryptocurrency, a common tactic used by hackers to disguise and obfuscate trail. At this stage it is not yet known if the coins movement is related to the perpetrators or a law enforcement agency.

Victims were asked to pay between $300 and $600 to get their systems back.
According to various security firms the Bitcoin has been exchanged for Monero on a swiss-based cryptocurrency exchanged named ShapeShift which facilities such transactions with minimal if none AML or KYC checks for small amounts.

Monero is the choice cryptocurrency for anyone looking to remain completely anonymous as it offers superior privacy and tumbling features. The link between the two currencies will be almost completely untraceable allowing the perpetrator to use the laundered Monero without any red flags.

Many people are still blaming the NSA for the thousands of victims computers being held ransom due to the 0day exploit used in the WannaCry attack originating from leaked NSA skyware.

It’s safe to say that despite the best efforts of security experts and government agencies it is likely the trail will now go cold.

Jersey-based Global Advisors has just closed a $5 million altcoin and ICO investment fund. The fund caters to investors by smoothing the complex methods and issues people encounter when investing in cryptocurrency, enabling access to a rapidly growing ICO market which has raised around $1 billion since May.

The firm was previously behind the world’s first officially regulated bitcoin investment strategy, GABI which became the first regulated bitcoin fund to be listed on any exchange worldwide when it was listed on The International Exchange (TISE) in December of 2016.

Global Advisors is now applying its success in the Bitcoin space to alternate cryptocurrencies.

Each funding proposal is expected to adhere to strict compliance with the team performing due diligence for each ICO offered to clients. The fund while structured to invest broadly, will focus first on ICOs where tokens are integral to powering the protocol and secondly as a vehicle to invest in other viable, alternative cryptocurrencies which are emerging, in addition to bitcoin.

Speaking to Coin Desk chairman Daniel Masters said an ICO “calls for a team of experienced, motivated and technically savvy founders”

Source: Pressat

Atlanta-based Storj Labs announced today it has partnered with popular open source FTP client FileZilla to bring drag and drop file uploading to the masses.

FileZilla is one of the most popular FTP clients rocking around 100 million downloads per year, lightyears away from its high school project foundations.

Over the last couple of months Storj’s future looked far from bright with a prominent member of the team leaving the company, but in a recent blog post the firm made changes to the executive team which settled investors. Amidst the internal storm, the firm have quietly been developing a highly requested feature to bring drag and drop uploads to users, the partnership with FileZilla opens the distributed cloud storage that to an additional 15 million monthly users.

The feature is currently still in BETA testing but interested users can join the Storj community chat https://community.storj.io/ for access to the group.