On a day where confusing news continues to emanate from South Korea and China on new proposed bans and restrictions on Bitcoin, a member of the board of Germany’s Bundesbank has called for a united global regulatory front.

Joachim Wuermeling of Bundesbank believes there is very little chance of containing this digital global phenomenon with differing national rules across the globe. With international co-operation in regulating Bitcoin comes a chance for regulators to take control, says Wuermeling.

The effect of regulation
There has been increased regulatory pressure on Bitcoin and the entire cryptocurrency market recently, which has been felt across the board. The confusion that began in Korea caused a major dip, and even the retraction of those statements helped the market grow.

Within these regulatory moves, from individual national countries, there are often powerful moves seen across the entire global cryptocurrency market. However, they are never really big enough to bring it under full control.

These are case-by-case regulations, and these instances are not strong enough on their own for the free running cryptomarket to be constrained by.

“Effective regulation of virtual currencies would therefore only be achievable through the greatest possible international cooperation because the regulatory power of nation states is obviously limited,” Wuermeling said.

Two sides to the digital coin
The issue is that there are two very different views to regulating Bitcoin, and these views can differ from country to country.

Japan is one of the strongest supporters of the digital currency market, giving Bitcoin currency status last year. However, just across the Sea of Japan, on the mainland, China has been the lead actor in the war against Bitcoin.

First there was the ICO ban, then the ban on exchanges, and now there is more bad news for those who even deal in exchange-like services.

It is hard to find an agreeable position on digital currencies for nations with so many torn between different ends of the scale. This is one of the reasons why regulation is so difficult.

Is it needed?
There is also the discussion of the need for regulation as it seemingly flies in the face of what Bitcoin is trying to accomplish with its decentralized nature. Cal Evans, an International Technology Lawyer from London, says:

“As the cryptocurrency “grows up” it has had to overcome some serious compliance and regulatory problems internationally. These regulatory issues are numerous in nature depending on which country you read this in. Yet one problem seems to slip under the radar time and time again. Money Laundering.”

Adding to the devious nature, an unregulated currency brings London’s Kingston University economics professor Steve Keen echoes similar sentiments.

“You can’t be deregulated in a system where there will be criminal attacks. The code itself is clearly not foolproof. People will find their way in, forks will be forced upon them, whether they want them or not. In that situation, regulation may be the only future.”

Is it possible?
It is clear that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies will continue to exist in ways that many regulators disapprove of unless there is a united front on wresting the digital currency economy under global control.

Even banning the stuff in countries in China has only proved to be a speed bump in the road, Bitcoiners, and the likes can always find a way.

Following recent reports that Chinese e-commerce conglomerate Alibaba launched its own cryptocurrency mining platform, the company has issued an official statement Tuesday, Jan. 16, denying that its platform is related to either virtual currencies or their mining.

According to the official statement, published on the microblogging platform Weibo, Alibaba’s recently launched platform ‘P2P Nodes’ has been mistakenly reported as cryptocurrency-related.

The statement further clarifies that the platform is actually a peer-to-peer (P2P) Content Delivery Network (CDN) service provided by Alibaba Cloud designed to allow users to improve their network speed by sharing unused broadband connections with each other.

P2P Nodes credits users with points for validating data on its network, a concept which might sound similar to how Bitcoin miners earn bitcoins for processing transactions.

However, according to Alibaba’s statement, the points in P2P Nodes are not cryptocurrency-based, cannot function as a currency and can only be exchanged for items in the platform’s own gift shop.

The company’s statement further reads:

“We reiterate that Alibaba Cloud has never issued a Bitcoin-like virtual currency, and it will not host any [cryptocurrency] mining platforms”

Amidst continuing reports of Alibaba’s new “mining platform”, the P2P Nodes website is no longer online, according to the CnLedger news outlet.

CryptoKitties, the massively popular Ethereum-based digital kitten breeding app and collectibles marketplace, has surpassed major decentralized cryptocurrency exchange EtherDelta to become the largest decentralized application (dapp) on the Ethereum protocol by gas consumption.

Crypto Kitties Surpass Ether Delta Cointelegraph

According to ETH Gas Station, the CryptoKitties Ethereum smart contract accounted for 13.94 percent of Ethereum’s transaction volume over the last 1,500 blocks, surpassing non-custodial cryptocurrency exchanges EtherDelta and ShapeShift.

Reason behind the success of CryptoKitties
CryptoKitties allows anyone within the Ethereum network to purchase or sell breedable cartoon kittens. The decentralized structure of the Ethereum network disallows the alteration of ownership or production of fraudulent kittens, providing value to the kittens as collectibles with scarcity and rarity.

ProductHunt founder Ryan Hoover explained that CryptoKitties is essentially the first Ethereum-based decentralized Pokemon-like game, in which users can collect and breed digital kittens. The key difference between CryptoKitties and other games like Pokemon and Tamagotchi is that through a decentralized marketplace, users can purchase or sell breedable kittens with Ether.

Whatis Crypto Kitties Cointelegraph

As shown by Crypto Kitty Sales, three of the rarest and expensive digital kittens on CryptoKitties were sold for $114,573, $81,549, and $69,600 respectively, amounting more than 572 Ether.

The CryptoKitties dapp gained popularity amongst Ethereum users and members of the global cryptocurrency community primarily due to its unique model and its strategy. The CryptoKitties #DevelopmentTeam  noted that the platform was created for everyone in the cryptocurrency sector, and it is not limited or exclusive to a handful of users and organizations.

“The future is exciting. And we believe that Blockchain is the future—but Blockchain is about as approachable as a bunch of ones and zeroes. We want a future for everyone, not one exclusive to Bitcoin miners, VCs, ICOs, and other equally fun acronyms,” said the CryptoKitties team.

Is CryptoKitties sustainable?
Techcrunch reported that $1.3 mln worth of cartoon kittens on the dapp have been traded. Users have spent more than a million dollars on purchasing cartoon kittens on the platform over the past few weeks. The growth rate of the CryptoKitties platform has increased to a point in which it had led to an Ethereum network congestion.

“Due to network congestion, we are increasing the birthing fee from 0.001 ETH to 0.002 ETH. This will ensure your kittens are born on time! The extra is needed to incentivize miners to add birthing txs to the chain. Long-term solution will be explored very soon,” said CryptoKitties on Dec. 4.

As Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam stated, Ethereum-based dapps like EtherDelta have the potential to target and penetrate a multi-trillion dollar industry in the long-term, given that Ethereum’s scaling issues can be solved within the next few years. The cryptocurrency exchange market alone is already a multi-billion dollar industry. Soon, Ethereum-based exchange protocols will be able to provide infrastructures to compete with leading financial institutions in the global market.

In contrast to such ambitious projects, dapps like CryptoKitties serve a much smaller purpose, to simply entertain the cryptocurrency community with a collectibles-based game. But, CryptoKitties has utilized the Ethereum Blockchain network to create the first successful decentralized game, and in the long-term, developers in the traditional gaming industry could explore and evaluate the success story of CryptoKitties.

KuCoin cryptocurrency exchange announced a launch of new BCH trading pairs. The trading started on Jan. 17, 2018 at 22 p.m. UTC+8, reports the company’s press release. The exchange management decided to open new trading pairs for BCH as a response to their community requests.

Six pairs to start with
The KuCoin, a multi-cryptocurrency exchange based in Hong Kong, recently revealed its plans to add Bitcoin Cash Market enabling users to trade using BCH pairs. All KuCoin traders will have access to the six trading pairs: KCS/BCH, ACT/BCH, DAT/BCH, XAS/BCH, UTK/BCH, DENT/BCH.

KuCoin states that it’s the first cryptocurrency exchange to offer this. In the first week of 2018 KuСoin's traffic has tripled, currently at half a million users, as reported by Anything Crypto on Jan. 11.

Previously Bitstamp Bitcoin exchange based in Luxembourg started trading BCH/BTC, BCH/EUR and BCH/USD on Dec. 5, 2017. CoinEx exchange based in the UK announced similar plans in early December 2017.

The KuCoin exchange also revealed plans to launch the following trading pairs: BCH/RPX, BCH/QLC, BCH/DBC, BCH/BNTY, BCH/DRGN, BCH/LTC, BCH/PRL. The exact date of the start of trading is being specified.

Big promotion campaign
Along with the trading pairs launch, the KuCoin exchange announced a huge promotion for all traders with giveaways of more than $250,000 worth of tokens plus and five BTC in giveaways. Any trader has a chance to win a reward in relevant tokens. There are four kinds of competitions listed in the announcement text.

The exchange created a special telegram chat to support traders: https://t.me/Kucoin_Exchange.

About KuCoin
KuCoin was launched on Sept. 15, 2017, and it operates on a crypto-to-crypto basis, which means that no fiat currencies are supported. Its digital assets portfolio is pretty extensive and besides, the platform uses KuCoin Shares (KCS) in a similar way to Binance, says Capitancoin website in its review.  KuCoin does not offer margin trading and have not disclosed whether there is any minimum investment required. The exchange offers 24/7 customer service and it is known for posting coin pairs before they hit other major cryptocurrency exchanges.

The founding team of KuCoin Exchange has carried out research on Blockchain technology as early as in 2011 and achieved the technical architecture of KuCoin exchange platform in 2013, says the exchange’s official website.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released a staff letter on Jan. 18, directed at two Wall Street trade groups that are interested in opening ETFs and mutual funds based on Bitcoin (BTC). The letter makes the case that companies offering cryptocurrency-based investment products are not yet able to comply with SEC regulations.

Dalia Blass, the SEC’s director of investment management, wrote in the letter:

“We appreciate that proponents of cryptocurrencies and related products have identified a range of potential benefits. We are also aware that critics of cryptocurrencies have raised various concerns regarding transparency of information, trading, valuation and other matters related to the nature of the underlying assets.

In light of these considerations, we have, at this time, significant outstanding questions concerning how funds holding substantial amounts of cryptocurrencies and related products would satisfy the requirements of the 1940 Act and its rules.”

The Investment Company Act of 1940 is the source of regulation for all mutual funds, closed-end funds, hedge funds, private equity funds, and holding companies.

The letter contains questions that the SEC believes must be answered in order for them to consider supporting the idea of a cryptocurrency-based fund. Blass writes that the valuation of crypto portfolios at the end of each day will be difficult due to the volatility of the market and the nature of Blockchain protocol:

“For example, how would they address when the blockchain for a cryptocurrency diverges into different paths (i.e., a “fork”), which could result in different cryptocurrencies with potentially different prices?”

The SEC also sees liquidity as a potential problem since, according to the 1940 Act, a fund must be able to allow its investors to easily liquidate their holdings at the end of each day.

The risk of fraud and market manipulation, already brought up in an August 2017 SEC bulletin in relation to Initial Coin Offerings (ICO), is again repeated in this letter in relation to exchange-traded funds (ETF).

In early January 2018, the SEC had asked two Bitcoin-related ETF proposals to be withdrawn, citing the same concerns over liquidity and valuation underlined in the most recent letter.

The SEC’s final position on the possibility of Bitcoin-based funds is currently unfavorable. Until the questions posed in the letter are “addressed satisfactorily”, Blass writes:

“we do not believe that it is appropriate for fund sponsors to initiate registration of funds that intend to invest substantially in cryptocurrency and related products, and we have asked sponsors that have registration statements filed for such products to withdraw them.”

Bitcoin meetups are becoming very popular these days as the cryptocurrency economy has grown exponentially during 2017 and into the new year. A lot of individuals find out about bitcoin online, but many people like to attend meetups so they can talk with like-minded individuals who believe in decentralized currencies and may even have some knowledge to share. One particular application people use to come face to face with other bitcoiners is a social media platform called “Meetup,” created by Brendan McGovern, Matt Meeker, and Scott Heiferman in 2002. The platform Meetup is used for various groups of people that want to meet others with common interests, and there are quite a bit of bitcoin-based Meetup groups.

Local Bitcoin Meetups Are Booming Worldwide

The Social Media Platform Meetup Has 3,727 Bitcoin Related Gatherings
As of January 6, 2018, there are 3,727 groups on the platform Meetup pertaining to bitcoin with 959,622 members worldwide. Currently, the most abundant bitcoin gatherings on the website Meetup include the Hackers and Founders in Mountain View California with over 15,000 members. The group Bitcoin NYC has 7,431 bitcoiners, San Francisco 6,292, Bitcoin Wednesday in Amsterdam 5,076, Bitcoin Argentina 4,976, Coinscrum 4,858, and the Paris Bitcoin group 4,762. That’s just the top ten largest groups on Meetup, and there are many more that are very active.

Lots and Lots of Noobs
Other large gatherings include the Seoul Bitcoin Meetup in South Korea run by Ruben Somsen with 2,000 members. Some of the groups have been around for quite some time like the Cryptocurrencies & Decentralized Innovation Meetup in Ghent, Belgium initiated in 2013. Another big Meetup is held at the Sacramento’s Hacker Lab co-working space that’s been seeing lots of new attendees looking to learn about bitcoin by meeting other people with knowledge about these technologies. Just recently the regional news outlet the Sacramento Bee detailed how 60 men and seven women attended the recent Sacramento meeting and more than half were “noobs.” According to the Sacramento Bee’s account, many of the participants had different stories to tell regarding their relationship with bitcoin.

“It’s borderless, and I can send money to my family in Thailand — I don’t need Western Union,” explained the Sacramento bitcoin group attendee.

Well-known Cryptocurrency Meetups Still Thriving and New Ones Popping Up Every Day
Other favorited groups worldwide include the Tokyo bitcoin meetup, the Miami International Bitcoin community, Bitcoin Saigon, Silicon Valley Bitcoin Users, Crypto Valley Forum, Bitcoin Budapest, and the West Palm Beach Government Blockchain Association. There are also a bunch of new groups forming every single day like a cryptocurrency beginners gathering in Den Haag, Netherlands; a trading group started in Milton Keynes, United Kingdom, and many more. One thing’s for sure, as cryptocurrencies continue to become popularized on the global level, meetups like these will continue to grow.

Crypto Card Holders Are Locked Out
On Thursday, news.Bitcoin.com reported on a sudden crackdown on crypto cards within Europe, orchestrated by Visa subsidiary Wavecrest. The report explained how “the prepaid cards, which have become extremely popular in the crypto community, provide a means of indirectly paying for goods and services using cryptocurrency.”

Bridging the gap between fiat and crypto is one of the biggest challenges cryptocurrency platforms face. Hybrid cards, which allow a debit card to be funded with crypto and then used to make purchases in the local fiat currency, were seen as a smart solution. That all changed this week when hundreds of thousands of European crypto-holders found their cards had been rendered useless.

Crypto Card Issuers Seek Solutions In the Wake of a European Ban

Tenx was one of those companies affected by the ban. The company’s co-founder, Dr. Julian Hosp, told news.Bitcoin.com that around 200,000 customers had been impacted, but signaled that a resolution is on the horizon:

Tenx was prepared for this, as the company has recently entered partnership  with a new card issuing partner and is in the process of getting the new cards live to replace the old ones as soon as possible. Meanwhile, Tenx customers will be able to withdraw their funds from their accounts as of Monday evening (January , while they await developments.
Dr Hosp also appeared on a live Hangout on Saturday to explain more about the current situation. The company’s co-founder seems upbeat, telling news.Bitcoin.com of plans to introduce a “live virtual currencies card” and obtain a banking licence for better fiat currency integration.

The Hunt for a New Issuer
Wirex is another crypto card firm that finds itself without a payment processing partner after Visa slammed the door. The company claims to be Wavecrest’s largest client, with over one million customers – most of whom don’t use crypto cards, it should be noted. Nevertheless, the effects of the Visa veto were still dramatic: around 600,000 Wirex plastic or virtual card holders were left without service after the ban.

Crypto Card Issuers Seek Solutions In the Wake of a European BanInterestingly, Wirex CEO Pavel Matveev asserts that Visa are blameless in this, insisting that the blame lies solely with Wavecrest. He told news.Bitcoin.com: “Wavecrest have been violating Visa rules for months…it’s 100% Wavecrest’s fault and they knew it was coming a couple of months ago.”

Like Tenx, Wirex is confident the situation won’t leave its European customers serviceless. Pavel says they have four alternative issuers to choose from, one of which is based in Europe. “For us,” he said, “it’s a question of switching issuer and re-issuing cards, so it’s just a temporary problem; but for a lot of companies it’s the end of their business – they don’t have an alternative issuer and finding one plus integration might take anyway from 6 to 18 months”.

Who’s to Blame?
Crypto Card Issuers Seek Solutions In the Wake of a European BanSome in the cryptocurrency community were swift to point the finger at Visa in the aftermath of the ban, though there is no evidence as yet that the order came from up high. Given that it processes more than 100 billion transactions a year versus bitcoin’s circa 130 million, it’s premature to assert that Visa is feeling threatened by cryptocurrency. Whatever bitcoin is, be it a store of value or a medium of exchange, it is not, as yet, a Visa killer. Nor is Visa, or its subsidiary Wavecrest, a crypto killer.

It seems likely that the majority of European card issuers will be able to resume service in the near future. Customers will be wary, though, of putting all their faith in one crypto card, in the knowledge that a repeat of the Wavecrest incident could see service suspended at any time.