Coinbase has announced its intention to support ERC20 tokens on its exchange, reversing previous statements from January, in a blog post published March 26.

In the post, Coinbase said its decision to support ERC20, which is the technical standard used for smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain and the protocol used for many of the thousands of altcoin assets in existence, “paves the way for supporting ERC20 assets across Coinbase products in the future.”

The move comes several weeks after the US’ largest exchange and wallet provider added ERC20 token support to its Ethereum wallet and DApp (decentralized application) browser Toshi.

The announcement came with a conspicuous pledge not to reveal any likely altcoin candidates for future hosting.

A previous post last updated March 17 reiterated new asset additions would be done under stringent controls, a commitment that followed December’s highly controversial addition of support for altcoin Bitcoin Cash, which saw Coinbase accused of insider trading.

A month later, CEO Brian Armstrong stated publicly in the first incarnation of the asset addition blog post that neither Coinbase nor its sister exchange GDAX would seek to offer any new cryptocurrencies.

“As of the date of this statement, we have made no decision to add additional assets to either GDAX or Coinbase. Any statement to the contrary is untrue and not authorized by the company,” he wrote Jan. 4.

“Coinbase will only list assets after they are listed on GDAX,” the latest announcement meanwhile continues, also stating:

https://cointelegraph.com/news/coinbase-paves-way-for-new-altcoin-support-with-erc20-upgrade

Coinbase has launched a new gain/loss calculating tool as part of an effort to help its user base keep up with U.S. tax requirements.

 the calculator can be used to generate a report which outlines their capital gains (or losses) on its platform, using a first-in-first-out (FIFO) accounting method.

The tool comes with a few caveats, however, namely that it's primarily aimed at users who have bought and sold on Coinbase exclusively - and isn't recommended for those who have purchased digital assets elsewhere or participated in an initial coin offering, per the blog.

"This tool provides a preliminary gain/loss calculation to assist our customers, but should not be used as official tax documentation without validating the results with your tax professional,"


https://blog.coinbase.com/new-tax-tools-on-coinbase-4d2598544d9e

Entrepreneurs are starting to doubt that crypto tokens can be used at all in the U.S.

In fact, according to Simar Managt, the co-founder of distributed video streaming startup Stream, the current environment of regulatory uncertainty and rumors of subpoenas is putting such a pinch on projects that many are thinking about "moving elsewhere."

But, while that hasn't happened yet for the Silicon Valley-incubated startup, the threat of regulator action is leading it to overhaul its product roll-out - drastically. Announced Tuesday, Stream is releasing a white paper that outlines its token distribution, but the process is on hold until the team knows how U.S. regulators will permit its tokens to be used.

Launched in October, Stream had planned to give live-streamers, vloggers and online video makers a way to break platform lock-in by building a Chrome extension that allowed fans to tip creators wherever a video appeared, but the firm says its whole project has now been thrown into question.

Mangat explained:

    "If there were a path of how to do things right, that would be so much better."

The problem for Stream is that its strategy relies heavily on using a so-called "utility token" to fuel a distributed network. Not only that, but the ability of tokens to be distributed and traded easily and converted to fiat currency made them ideal for Stream's business plan.

And this fitted with general industry thinking until very recently.

In 2017, startups generally believed that a utility token would be good to issue so long as the platform went live eventually. Even then, many doubted that they could be sold prior to a platform launch to non-accredited investors, but startups have begun canceling public sales amid the uncertainty.

Now, Stream's counsel is questioning if any tokens at all can be circulated in the U.S. without the full know-your-customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) registration of anyone that holds them, or if stream tokens must now be registered as securities.
Spanner in the works

And that determination could dramatically impact Stream's strategy.

According to the white paper, $100 million in tips went to content creators in 2017, but the authors believes more value could have been unlocked through the use of blockchain-based currencies that, like its token, enable tip creators to exchange crypto for real-world value.

In many ways, the idea builds on what YouTube started, giving individual creators a way to build audiences and one-person entertainment businesses. And even Silicon Valley names who have been involved in successful video startups see Stream's model as a natural evolution.

Steve Chen, a YouTube co-founder, is an advisor to Stream today.

"They actually built this idea of a content creator and being able to create that kind of economy," Mangat said of YouTube's originators.

Stream would let creators keep the lion's share of what their tips earned, all driven by the speed and efficiency of the ethereum blockchain. Adoption would take a while with fans, of course, but as long as platforms like Twitch keep 40 percent of tip revenue, creators have an incentive to persuade followers to switch.

However, if Stream can't use its token, it raises questions about whether the company can do anything at all.
'Rebasing' Stream

Borrowing terminology from GitHub, the founders are now doing what open-source coders call a "rebase," aiming to make the best of a difficult path ahead.

That's not to say Stream hasn't shown a willingness to make key changes in strategy, starting with a shift in CEOs in January, with Mangat stepping in for former exec Ben Yu.

The company has also changed how it would distribute tokens over time. For example, it had originally planned to redistribute its increased market cap to creators based on performance, as CoinDesk previously reported. Instead, Stream later shifted to a scheduled release or "airdrop" of its tokens.

Stream would come to decrease its overall token supply as well, dropping the figure from 12.6 billion to 10 billion as a way to repay early backers for some of the unexpected gains made in the value of ether since those early investments.

Perhaps most importantly, the team cancelled plans for a public token sale, choosing instead to raise all the money they needed in private sales to accredited investors. In order to build adoption and buzz for the project, they planned to do an airdrop to early supporters in their Telegram and other channels, as they described on Medium.

The plan was to distribute 500 million of their total 10 billion tokens with an airdrop to different people who'd already shown their interest, rather than offering it for sale.

With so many changes, though, the company sent out a message to everyone who had invested so far, updating them all on the new course and making sure that they are still comfortable with the strategy.

To that end, Stream also gave previous investors until Friday to request refunds on their investment. Two people who had invested as individuals chose to take back funds, including Stellar founder Jed McCaleb. According to Mangat, the investors pulled out because they didn't think that as individuals they knew how to correctly price the risk of regulatory uncertainty.

Institutional investors like Pantera and FBG Capital (among others) stayed in. Michael Arrington, TechCrunch's founder, also remained.
Building a wall?

Finally, late last week, the company decided the uncertainty went further than they thought. The original plan had been to launch the Chrome extension, release a round of investor tokens on the vesting schedule and airdrop tokens to supporters all on the same day later this month.

"It is basically delayed indefinitely with our legal team to make sure we can move forward in the most compliant way possible," Mangat explained to CoinDesk.

The sticking point is whether or not all tokens are securities. If they are, it could be that an airdrop is dangerous. Mangat pointed out that there were cases of companies giving away equity during the dot-com bubble, and securities regulators took action.

As such, the company is in the middle of finding out if all tokens have to be registered or if there's a way they could distribute free tokens under the SEC's "Reg S," which provides for unregistered securities outside the country.

Which raises the question of whether a whole new tech economy could come up outside a firewall around the U.S.

Of course, there is another option. Stream could give up on its own token and just run all the tips on ether, which despite having been issued in an ICO has been free from regulator scrutiny.

Mangat said:

    "It's really easy for us to switch to ethereum, but right now we are trying to figure out how we can make this work with stream token."

https://www.coindesk.com/spooked-sec-video-streaming-ico-halts-token-release/

Lawmakers in South Carolina asked cryptocurrency cloud mining platform Genesis Mining to leave the state due to selling “unlicensed securities” Friday, March 9.

A cease and desist order filed by the South Carolina Attorney General's Office Securities Division claims Genesis, which is registered in Hong Kong, along with Zurich-based partner enterprise Swiss Gold Global, illegally served residents with unregistered mining contracts.

“At no time... was Swiss Gold Global registered with the Division as a broker-dealer, and no exemption from registration has been claimed,” the order reads.

    “At no time... were the securities at issue registered with the Division or federal covered securities.”

The order marks the latest in a string of US state-level requests for various cryptocurrency actors to withdraw their services. Texas and New Jersey have both issued cease and desist requests in recent weeks, these nonetheless pertaining to businesses with questionable reputations and history.

Most recently, the ICO endorsed by Steven Seagal was asked to quit New Jersey’s jurisdiction.

In February, lawmakers at national level promised to continue monitoring the providence of any cryptocurrency-related offering available to US citizens.

South Carolina demands Swiss and Genesis not only halt operations within its borders, but pay an “appropriate civil penalty for the wrongdoing.”

Both companies have yet to provide official comment on the matter.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/south-carolina-wants-to-ban-genesis-mining-over-unregistered-securities

Finnish cryptocurrency exchange and crypto wallet services provider Prasos Oy is one step from being “frozen”, as most Finnish banks will no longer conduct business with them, Bloomberg reports March 9.

Founded in 2012, Prasos has seen a ten-fold spike of transaction volumes reaching $185 mln in 2017, which became a subject of concern among the banks.

Finnish banks do not have a codified set of regulations surrounding cryptocurrencies and the anonymous nature of cryptocurrency transactions could potentially run afoul of current Finnish anti-money laundering laws (AML). As a result, four banks; S-Bank, the OP Group, Saastopankki, and Nordea Bank AB closed Prasos Oy’s accounts in 2017. For now, Prasos has to manage all its clients’ transactions through one bank.

Tomi Narhinen, CEO of Saastopankki, commented that the anonymous character of crypto operations breaches the AML laws of the European Union (EU).

“In most cases it’s practically impossible or at least very hard to do business with cryptocurrency dealers and exchanges, because it can be impossible to determine the origin of the funds,” said Narhinen.

Prasos’ CEO Henry Brade noted that the company is facing a critical situation. “The risk is that we’ll see our last bank account closed before we can get the next one opened,” Brade stated. “That would freeze our business.”

The legal status of cryptocurrencies in the European Union was cast further into question in December 2017, when the EU decided to more closely regulate cryptocurrency exchanges in order to protect banks against money laundering and tax evasion.

Brade noted that the company has fully adapted AML measures, and it expects the authorities to formulate the necessary regulations.

    “We’ve created identification practices, which we have taken into use in March, and they comply fully with anti-money laundering laws and regulations, even though authorities do not even require this from us as our business is not under regulatory obligations.”

https://cointelegraph.com/news/finnish-crypto-exchange-risks-collapse-as-banks-refuse-to-do-business

This topic is NOT NEWS !!! use the forum correctly or you will be punished with negative karma.

topic has been moved to Updates.

http://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?topic=8781.0

PayPal has filed a patent with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), published on March 1, to increase the speed of cryptocurrency payments. The patent describes an “Expedited Virtual Currency Transaction System”, involving the use of secondary private keys to shorten wait times for transactions between consumers and merchants.

The patent’s inventors are listed as Cheng Tian and Sandy Lynn Godsey of San Jose, California, with PayPal Inc. listed as the applicant. According to the patent, PayPal is attempting to solve the problem of slow transaction times for cryptocurrency trades that have led potential crypto users to “instead choose to perform the transaction using traditional payment methods rather than virtual currency:”

“Issues like this have slowed the adoption of virtual currencies despite their advantages” the patent states.

The patent details how the creation of secondary wallets with their own private keys will make transaction times much faster, “practically eliminat[ing] the amount of time the payee must wait to be sure they will receive a virtual currency payment in a virtual currency transaction.” The shortened wait time is due to the reportedly faster process of transferring the private keys associated with “predefined amounts” of cryptocurrency that are equivalent to the amount in the transaction.

http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.html&r=1&p=1&f=G&l=50&d=PG01&S1=20180060860.PGNR.&OS=dn/20180060860&RS=DN/20180060860

Cambodia is considering launching its own crypto project named Entapay, a press release for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Blockchain Summit reported March 2.

The Blockchain Summit, which will be held in Phnom Penh on March 7, describes Entapay as a project based on the “quantum entanglement” of security and encryption, writing that it will use Blockchain technologies to create a fast and secure user experience.

According to the press release, Entapay is “expected to become the connection between integration payment of encrypted currency and the real world”:

    “It has the great potential to even replace VISA as the new mainstream payment mode.”

The press release compares the Entapay project directly with Venezuela’s Petro, which they classify as a digital currency that “assist the country in avoiding the Western world's economic sanctions - while providing a new channel of economic development for a country suffering from severe inflation.” A similar currency in Cambodia, the press release notes, could help the country take advantage of the Blockchain revolution.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cambodia-may-issue-its-legal-cryptocurrency-following-venezuela-300607358.html