Heng Swee Keat makes his biggest investment yet

"We are seeing difficult economic times, y and this is the solution that people were waiting for," Heng Swee Keat told Rose Hill of The Daily Mirror. "Never before in history have we had an opportunity that people can easily take advantage of to generate tremendous wealth in such ashort time."

"Bitcoin has increased its value by more than 3000% only in recent years. The crypto-world’s potential is currently exploding in terms of value, and only banks and professional investors are exploiting its potential at this time. This is the time to invest like the pros and make a profit! "

Heng Swee Keat says that banks hate him for making the Bitcoin trade accessible to "ordinary" people (Photo: Daily Mirror)

Indi Tan, father of 1 child, was skeptical at first about this opportunity to earn money from home, but it turned out to be the "best decision of his life" (Photo: Daily Mirror)

BITCOIN REVOLUTION now pays Indi every Monday morning. (Photo: Daily Mirror)

"Now I earn good money working from home every day … and I get paid every Monday morning… I earn around 6,885 euros a month right now and it's increasing every week. My wallet, and if I need a quick access, I can transfer cash directly to my bank account through a direct deposit, but I also have the option to use PayPal or Check!

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By CCN: Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten has thrown open the account registration process for its cryptocurrency trading service, Rakuten Wallet. The company plans to launch the exchange in June, and prospective users who wish to use the platform will now be able to sign-up for the same.

Popularly known as the Amazon of Japan and famous for providing cash backs, Rakuten revealed its plans for the crypto exchange service last month.

GETTING STARTED

Users must hold an account with Rakuten Bank to sign-up for the wallet service.

“Customers who have a bank account of Rakuten Group’s “Rakuten Bank” can start opening an account by entering necessary information on the web application format.”

The sign-up page states that deposits and withdrawals into the Rakuten Wallet are possible only through the specified bank. This means that those who don’t hold the said bank account might not be able to access the wallet.

The company has set up an artificial intelligence-enabled automated chat service that will respond to customer queries around the clock.

The e-commerce player also plans to launch a smartphone app to allow customers to make deposits and withdrawals into their trading account. The app will also enable customers to trade cryptoassets on the go.

RAKUTEN’S LOVE AFFAIR WITH CRYPTO CONTINUES

The launch of Rakuten Wallet is the latest in a series of steps that the Japanese internet giant has undertaken to integrate cryptocurrencies into its operations. Last year, Rakuten purchased crypto exchange Everybody’s Bitcoin in a $2.4 million deal, stating that it is planning to enter the cryptocurrency exchange market. Starting the registration process for Rakuten Wallet is the next logical step for the company before the exchange goes live in a couple of months. The company previously stated:

“Rakuten Wallet will contribute to the sound growth of the market as a virtual currency exchange company and will further enhance security and provide enhanced services so that more customers can use it safely and with confidence.”

Rakuten’s rollout of its own cryptocurrency exchange will boost crypto adoption. Apart from trading cryptoassets, consumers making purchases on the e-commerce site might be able to make payments using Rakuten Wallet as well. Rakuten is known for providing cash back to customers. There’s a possibility they might provide incentives to customers who make payments using Rakuten Wallet.

Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen announced to attendees at a San Francisco State University celebration on Thursday that the company would donate $25 million in XRP to the university. The University stated the Ripple bequest was the largest cryptocurrency donation ever made to a U.S. university.

As CCN reported, Ripple (XRP) was up almost 13-percent ahead of the open of European markets on Friday. The donation to SFSU was a continuation of Ripple’s University Blockchain Research Initiative announced in June of 2018. The UBRI committed $50 million in resources that included funding, subject matter expertise and technical resources to 17 institutions around the world.

According to Ripple, the goals of the initiative are to:

Collaborate on research and technical development that will stimulate widespread understanding and innovation in the blockchain.

Create a new curriculum to meet high student demand for learning about blockchain, cryptocurrency, and other FinTech topics.

Stimulate ideas and dialog among students, faculty, technologists and business leaders on topics of shared interest.

CRYPTO GIVING IS GROWING FAST

According toFidelity’s 2018 Charitable Giving Report, 2017 Fidelity crypto giving topped $69 million. The increase in giving was $62 million over 2016 crypto donations. Donations to Fidelity Charitable of non-publicly traded assets, such as restricted stock, limited partnership interests, and real estate, totaled $916 million of all 2017 donations. The Fidelity report stated these donations “generated dollars for a charity that potentially would not otherwise be available to give.”

CRYPTO GIVING USHERING IN A NEW WAY TO GIVE

A survey by WeTrust found that 77 percent of crypto holders have an interest in making donations to charity. The desire by crypto-holders to donate to worthy causes is evidenced by the outpouring of support for the 2018 Japanese flooding crisis.

During the crisis, global cryptocurrency exchange Binance, assisted flood-stricken Japan in the form of a USD 1 million cash donation and setting up a donation address, calling on partners to donate cryptocurrency. Two weeks later the cause had received donations valued at $1.4 million.

In 2013 non-profit BitGive started helping other organizations with receipt of bitcoin. Coinbase launched its service for non-profits in 2014, allowing no-fee donations for charities.

Other organizations have come on the scene in efforts to make crypto-giving more mainstream. Man on a Mission Consulting provides “strategic guidance and other support for social sector organizations, such as nonprofits and foundations, looking to explore or promote projects in the cryptocurrency and blockchain arenas.”

Man on a Mission founder Paul Lamb stated:

“I think there’s a strong desire to accept not only bitcoin, but other cryptocurrencies as well, so it’s really a matter of building it and providing a menu of options from fiat to the wide range of cryptocurrencies.”

DANGERS AHEAD

In the age of crypto giving, charities should proceed with caution before just accepting a cryptocurrency donation. According to the Journal of Accountancy, some steps organizations can take ahead of acceptance are:

Review and update the organization’s gift acceptance policy;

Set up systems, accounts, policies, and procedures to accept and secure this class of asset;

Adopt accounting policies and adjust the chart of accounts as necessary to properly account for this class of asset if it cannot be readily converted to cash (this article does not address accounting practices, as accounting guidance for cryptocurrency is being evaluated by an AICPA working group); and

Understand and implement systems for gathering information needed to comply with all reporting requirements associated with accepting this class of asset.

The former head of CME Ventures, Rumi Morales cautioned against charities rushing to accept crypto donations. Morales said:

“If you simply want to jump in because you’ve heard the buzz about it, I would caution anyone against accepting buzz over real money.”

Morales added. “Bitcoin and digital currencies can be accepted at some type of value, but as we’ve seen, it can be very volatile.”

RIPPLE DONATION WILL HELP THE CAUSE

Whatever the short term effects of the Ripple donation, the end game envisioned by the University Blockchain Research Initiative will hopefully move toward a broader understanding of the blockchain and cryptocurrency and realize the promise of the technology.

VKontakte (also known as “VK”), which is Russia’s version of Facebook, is planning to issue its own cryptocurrency. The project is currently under development, but a final decision has not yet been made.

The social media firm wants to create a cryptocurrency that all its users can implement, according to Russian news website RNS.

VKontakte claims it has 97 million active monthly users.

VK LAUNCHED MONEY TRANSFER SYSTEM IN 2018

If VKontakte is successful in rolling out its own cryptocurrency, users will be able to earn crypto for sharing interesting posts and accumulating “likes.”

They can also use the digital currency to buy and sell goods to each other and to transfer funds using VK Pay. VK Pay is the cashless money transfer system that VKontakte launched in June 2018.

However, it’s unclear how VKontakte’s cryptocurrency would be received in Russia, which has a lukewarm attitude toward virtual currencies.

As CCN reported, Russian president Vladimir Putin is a bitcoin skeptic, although he has warmed up to crypto a bit.

Putin recently set a July 2019 deadline for crypto regulations to be established in Russia. However, it’s questionable whether these rules will be rolled out this year since this initiative was previously delayed.

Last year, Putin set a July 2018 deadline for the implementation of guidelines for bitcoin trading, initial coin offerings, blockchain, and crypto mining. But those regulations never materialized.

DUMA REP: RUSSIA WON’T ADOPT CRYPTO FOR 30 YEARS

Moreover, Elina Sidorenko of the State Duma says Russia will probably not adopt cryptocurrencies for at least the next 30 years.

Sidorenko is the chairwoman of an interdepartmental working group of the State Duma for managing the risks of cryptocurrency turnover.

“The Russian Federation — like any other country in the world — is simply not ready to combine its traditional financial system with cryptocurrencies.”

“And to say that this idea can be implemented in Russia for at least the next 30 years is unlikely.”

SCANDAL-RIDDEN FACEBOOK WANTS TO LAUNCH ITS OWN CRYPTO

Facebook sent shock waves through the cryptocurrency industry when a report exposed its ambitious plans to create a proprietary stablecoin that will enable its 2 billion monthly users to transfer value to each other.

Because of the massive size of the global Facebook network, the social media monopoly could actually operate like a small, independent economy.

However, Facebook has been roiled by scandals amid revelations that it has been selling private user data for years — without users’ consent.

As a result, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission is considering slapping Facebook with a “record-setting” fine.

Given the uproar over accusations that Facebook has repeatedly violated user privacy, it’s unclear how willing its users are to entrust the platform with their financial data.

Moreover, a former Harvard classmate of Mark Zuckerberg claims that Facebook has grossly inflated its user statistics and actually has 1 billion fake accounts.

So in addition to violating user privacy, the social media monopoly has committed mass fraud, according to his bombshell allegation.

“If, as we allege, Facebook is lying about its fake accounts, that means that it could be liable to its advertising customers for billions of dollars in ill-gotten gains — over and above what advertisers have already sued over.”

New York Fraudster Faces 20 Year Sentence for Facebook Crypto Scam

New York man raked in $250,000 from unsuspecting Facebook and Twitter users as part of a crypto scam he operated out of his Staten Island home. | Source: ShutterstockNew York Fraudster Faces 20 Year Sentence for Facebook Crypto Scam Conor Maloney 27/03/2019 Bitcoin Crime, Bitcoin Scams, Crypto, News

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New York resident Patrick McDonnell AKA “Jason Flack” was arrested and charged with nine counts of wire fraud in a Brooklyn court on Tuesday. McDonnell allegedly convinced others to “invest” in cryptocurrency through Facebook and Twitter, stealing the money for his own use and providing false balance statements in return.

SCAMMER RAN FACEBOOK & TWITTER CRYPTO SCAM FROM STATEN ISLAND HOME

McDonnel was fined $1 million last year and represented himself in court, claiming to be unable to afford a lawyer despite the court strongly urging him to seek counsel.

He was fined and banned from trading after claiming in June that his company site had been hacked and investor funds lost. It emerged that the company, portrayed as a relatively large operation, consisted solely of the defendant and was run from his Staten Island home.

United States Attorney Richard Donoghue stated a case against the defendant in no uncertain terms.

“As alleged, the defendant defrauded investors by making false promises and sending them fraudulent balance statements, hiding the fact that he was stealing their money for his personal use. The defendant’s fraud ends now, he will be held responsible for his criminal conduct.”

The dubiously-named CabbageTech company was the entity the defendant solicited his investments with. USPIS Special Agent-In-Charge Bartlett briefly described the process in taking the suspect down.

“The defendant, Patrick K. McDonnell, used smoke and mirrors to allegedly dupe investors into paying his company—CabbageTech, for advice and strategies on crypto-currency trading. However, Postal Inspectors and their federal law enforcement partners unmasked McDonnell and his scheme to defraud investors, and brought him to justice for his alleged criminal actions.”

McDonnell fraudulently described himself as an experienced crypto trader, promising expert advice and offering to purchase and trade cryptocurrency on behalf of his clients. The service was modeled after that of a stockbroker – McDonnell would take a fee in exchange for taking client capital and generating profits for them.

However, he reportedly took not only his fee but the full capital sum. Starting in May 2016 through CabbageTech Corp AKA Coin Drop Markets, he simply stole the money sent to him without ever investing it for clients. He sent fake balance statements showing that the clients had earned profits to keep them from requesting their money back too soon. Whenever someone asked for a refund, he would delay for a while and then stop responding.

HomeBitcoin CrimeNew York Fraudster Faces 20 Year Sentence for Facebook Crypto Scam

bitcoin, crypto fraud, new york, cabbagetechA New York man raked in $250,000 from unsuspecting Facebook and Twitter users as part of a crypto scam he operated out of his Staten Island home. | Source: ShutterstockNew York Fraudster Faces 20 Year Sentence for Facebook Crypto Scam Conor Maloney 27/03/2019 Bitcoin Crime, Bitcoin Scams, Crypto, News

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New York resident Patrick McDonnell AKA “Jason Flack” was arrested and charged with nine counts of wire fraud in a Brooklyn court on Tuesday. McDonnell allegedly convinced others to “invest” in cryptocurrency through Facebook and Twitter, stealing the money for his own use and providing false balance statements in return.

SCAMMER RAN FACEBOOK & TWITTER CRYPTO SCAM FROM STATEN ISLAND HOME

McDonnel was fined $1 million last year and represented himself in court, claiming to be unable to afford a lawyer despite the court strongly urging him to seek counsel.

He was fined and banned from trading after claiming in June that his company site had been hacked and investor funds lost. It emerged that the company, portrayed as a relatively large operation, consisted solely of the defendant and was run from his Staten Island home.

The scammer that really got me interested in scam killing is Patrick McDonnel, aka, PK, ak - the self proclaimed wolf of wall street. Pat is going to federal prison soon. Here’s his twitter defense https://twitter.com/CabbageDefense

Patrick K McDonnell - used his company CabbageTech and Coindropmarkets to trick people into giving him money to trade for him, but Pat stole the money, closed down the websites, and pretended he got hacked.

United States Attorney Richard Donoghue stated a case against the defendant in no uncertain terms.

“As alleged, the defendant defrauded investors by making false promises and sending them fraudulent balance statements, hiding the fact that he was stealing their money for his personal use. The defendant’s fraud ends now, he will be held responsible for his criminal conduct.”

BIZARRE ‘CABBAGETECH’ SCAM RAKED IN $250,000 FROM VICTIMS

So it wasn’t as lucrative as the infamous Bitconnect scam, but CabbageTech is still pretty bizarre. | Source: YouTube

The dubiously-named CabbageTech company was the entity the defendant solicited his investments with. USPIS Special Agent-In-Charge Bartlett briefly described the process in taking the suspect down.

“The defendant, Patrick K. McDonnell, used smoke and mirrors to allegedly dupe investors into paying his company—CabbageTech, for advice and strategies on crypto-currency trading. However, Postal Inspectors and their federal law enforcement partners unmasked McDonnell and his scheme to defraud investors, and brought him to justice for his alleged criminal actions.”

McDonnell fraudulently described himself as an experienced crypto trader, promising expert advice and offering to purchase and trade cryptocurrency on behalf of his clients. The service was modeled after that of a stockbroker – McDonnell would take a fee in exchange for taking client capital and generating profits for them.

However, he reportedly took not only his fee but the full capital sum. Starting in May 2016 through CabbageTech Corp AKA Coin Drop Markets, he simply stole the money sent to him without ever investing it for clients. He sent fake balance statements showing that the clients had earned profits to keep them from requesting their money back too soon. Whenever someone asked for a refund, he would delay for a while and then stop responding.

THE SURPRISING IMPACT CABBAGETECH HAD ON BITCOIN REGULATION

McDonnell stole a sizeable sum of money over the years. From ten separate victims, he took $194,000 in USD as well as 4.41 bitcoins, 206 litecoins, 620 ethereum classic tokens, and 1,342,634 verge tokens, all of which amounts to over $250,000 even in today’s bear market. If convicted, McDonnell could face up to 20 years in prison.

Notably, the scheme was instrumental in the CFTC’s successful push to classify bitcoin as a commodity. Last August, U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein ruled that CabbageTech and McDonnell flouted the Commodity Exchange Act by engaging in “egregious intentional violations” of federal regulations and law.

Developers in the ethereum community are seeking a new specialist to help coordinate major software upgrades.

Following the departure of core developer Afri Schoedon from the open-source project in late February, ethereum developers discussed the issue of who would take his place in coordinating hard forks, or system-wide software upgrades, in a meeting Friday. Schoeden left just last week after favorable remarks he made about another blockchain project sparked social media outcry.

The role as highlighted by Ethereum Foundation community relations manager Hudson Jameson would consist of “[deciding] on hard dates for submitting [Ethereum Improvement Proposals] for consideration, deciding on those EIPs, implementation and testing and then finally what day the hard fork would be.”

“Of course, they wouldn’t be a dictator in this regard, but they would be the one to come up with suggestions or different options to bring to the table,” added Jameson during the call.

Rather than delegating the role to a single individual, ethereum core developers agreed that the role of hard fork coordination could be split between two to three individuals.

Highlighting that a number of candidates have already stepped up to offer their support, Jameson concluded that the task of assessing applicants would be delegated to a group of ethereum volunteers called the “Ethereum Cat Herders.”

The group was initially started back in January by developer Lane Rettig, Jameson and Schoedon “for the broader purpose of coordination and project management” within the ethereum ecosystem.

Coordinating the ‘ProgPow’ Audits

Having successfully implemented two hard forks yesterday, ethereum core developers are now preparing for the next system-wide upgrade called Istanbul, as well as a possible upgrade to a new mining algorithm known as ProgPoW.

On the latter subject, Jameson gave an update explaining that blockchain testing platform WhiteBlock would be responsible for conducting benchmarking experiments comparing the performance of various ethereum mining devices on ProgPoW. A second audit is also in the works to test whether specialized mining hardware can be built and deployed to take advantage of the proposed mining algorithm.

At this time, the Cat Herders have not finalized a company to proceed with the second audit.

Jameson also noted during today’s call that over half of the miners in the ethereum ecosystem – 55 percent to be exact – are in favor of ProgPoW according to stats from an ongoing “hashvote” using blockchain analytics site, EtherChain.

As Jameson explained, hashvotes are specifically targeted at ethereum miners in the ecosystem who by leveraging an extra data field during their operations can indicate whether or not they favor the proposal.

However, as pointed out by core developer Alexey Akhunov, these results may depict a somewhat skewed interpretation of miner signaling, saying:

“There is another interpretation which could be useful of this 55 percent number…Essentially if those 55 percent who turned out all voted in favor that gives you essentially a lower bound on how many GPUs are currently mining in the network.”

The comments show that discussion on implementation of the proposal are still ongoing.

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Facebook is talking to exchanges about potentially listing a cryptocurrency.

That’s the main finding from a New York Times story published Thursday on several efforts to introduce native cryptocurrencies to widely used messaging platforms. The Times reports that Signal and Telegram are also planning to roll out tokens over the next 12 months.

Citing “four people briefed on the negotiations,” the Times reports that Facebook has told exchanges it expects to get a product out in the first half of 2019.

The Facebook project, which had previously been reported by Bloomberg as a stablecoin for its WhatsApp messaging service, would be the most high profile of the bunch. The social media giant has 2.5 billion global users.

One source speaking to CoinDesk on condition of anonymity confirmed that the company is working on a stablecoin, based on past meetings with the Menlo Park company.

Facebook has beefed up its blockchain team in recent months, with a hiring push and at least one talent-minded acquisition. The company is currently seeking to fill nearly 20 blockchain-related positions. According to the Times report, more than 50 Facebook engineers are dedicated to the company’s blockchain project.

Increasing the reach of the project, the story notes prior reporting that Facebook has plans to integrate users across its Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram messaging services.

Brady Dale contributed reporting.

Update (09:03 UTC, Feb. 28, 2019): Cryptopia has now announced on Twitter that it aims to re-open its platform “as read only” by March 4. It further said that co- founders Adam Clark and Rob Dawson are back at the company and their focus will be to set “a clear strategic direction moving forwards.”

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New Zealand-based cryptocurrency exchange Cryptopia has given an idea of the losses arising from a hack on its platform last month.

After being almost silent since the breach, the firm published a series of updates via Twitter on Wednesday. Most notably, Cryptopia provided an update on how much of the total assets held by the platform was lost in the cyber-attack, saying:

“We are continuing to work on assessing the impact incurred as a result of the hack in January. Currently, we have calculated that worst case 9.4% of our total holdings was stolen.”

It did not provide an idea of that amount in monetary terms.

Cryptopia went offline on Jan. 15 saying it had suffered a “security breach which resulted in significant losses.” The exchange did not provide any specific information at the time and has since said it cannot comment while an investigation by the New Zealand Police is underway.

A blockchain data analytics firm estimated after the attack that as much as $16 million in ether and ERC-20 tokens could have lost. Notably, hackers still had control over Cryptopia even after the police had been brought in and reportedly stole an additional 1,675 ether from 17,000 wallets – an amount worth about $181,000 at the time.

In Wednesday’s tweets, the exchange said it is “securing each wallet individually” to ensure it is “fully secure” when resuming trading.

Cryptopia also warned:

“As a result of the new wallets please immediately refrain from depositing funds into old Cryptopia addresses. We have more updates to come tomorrow, keep an eye on our page.”

New Zealand Police said on Feb. 7 that it expected to complete the inspection of Cryptopia’s premises by mid-month. Cryptopia confirmed in a tweet on Feb. 14 that the police had given them access back to its building, while the investigation was continuing.

Detective inspector Greg Murton of the New Zealand Police said at the time that the case is “progressing well and advancing on several fronts,” adding:

“The focus is on identifying those behind this offending and retrieving the stolen cryptocurrency. This investigation is expected to take a considerable amount of time to resolve due to the complexity of the cyber environment.”

Hacker image via Shutterstock

Blockchain startup Electroneum has just launched a dirt-cheap Android smartphone that rewards users in cryptocurrency.

Announcing the news on Monday, the firm said its new M1 is a Google Mobile Services (GMS)-certified smartphone that comes with a cloud mining technology integration enabling users to earn crypto through an app.

The $80 smartphone, however, will at launch mine only Electroneum’s native token ETN, with a claimed monthly return of “up to $3.” Once set up, mining can be carried out offline, the firm said.

The ETN tokens earned by users can be utilized to pay for services such as mobile top-ups, online services and shopping. It’s also tradable on exchanges, with 1 ETN worth around $0.0073 at time of writing, according to data from CoinMarketCap. It has a market capitalization of around $65 million currently.

The M1 offers 4G, 8 GB–32 GB of storage and two SIM slots, and is powered by a Quad Core 1.3 Ghz processor. Cameras are a less than overwhelming 5 megapixels (rear) and 2 megapixels (front).

The device is apparently being offered at the price of “reconditioned handset” because Electroneum is looking to target developing countries and grow the adoption of blockchain and cryptocurrencies. In some countries, the firm may price the phone even lower, at around $60.

“To start with we will be selling the M1 in South Africa, as this is our first launch market,” Nick Cook, head of operations at Electroneum, told CoinDesk. “The M1 will be sold through local vendors.”

Cook further said that the device will also be sold over Amazon in South Africa in the coming weeks.

Electroneum’s founder and CEO, Richard Ells, said in a separate statement shared with CoinDesk:

“South Africa was an obvious choice for us. We carried out a large survey in the country and found that 97 percent of those who responded said they would like to use ETN to pay for mobile airtime and data.”

Electroneum has partnered with cybersecurity firm HackerOne, which is also used by the U.S. Department of Defense, to secure its network, Cook told CoinDesk.