Blockchain

Japan’s Crypto Garage Is Raising the Bar for Bitcoin-Based Cryptofinance Products

Sponsored: At Crypto Garage, innovators are working to create a wide array of specialized cryptofinance tools.

The post Japan’s Crypto Garage Is Raising the Bar for Bitcoin-Based Cryptofinance Products appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Published

11 months ago

March 30, 2020

Republished by Plato

This is a sponsored article provided by Crypto Garage.

At Tokyo-based Crypto Garage, innovators are working to create a wide array of specialized cryptofinance tools to help facilitate a transformation of our financial world into one based on the values of Bitcoin: transparency, security and decentralization.

“We see a world where there is a platform for various types of assets that can be transacted without counterparty risk,” as Justin Dhingra, chief cryptofinance officer at Crypto Garage, put it. “Our service is not here to replace the existing financial infrastructure, but instead give the end customer, ranging from consumers to institutions, a choice to conduct different types of financial transactions on a peer-to-peer (P2P) basis.”

Crypto Garage’s DNA in Bitcoin

Crypto Garage seeks to become the leading architect of products in the cryptofinance space, which it defines as a specialized field that integrates modeling and structuring from financial engineering, cryptography and Bitcoin technology.

In terms of how this vision can interact with the world of Bitcoin, Crypto Garage believes that security is paramount for building a financial infrastructure and that Bitcoin is the only protocol that is suitable for a secure network.

The company has been active since 2018, when it was founded as a partnership between Digital Garage, Tokyo Tanshi and Blockstream. Digital Garage is a Tokyo Stock Exchange-listed company and started its research in the Bitcoin protocol in 2015 in collaboration with some leading Bitcoin Core developers. DG Lab, Digital Garage’s research and development organization, continues to work on advancing the Bitcoin protocol by supporting core protocol developers. Digital Garage is also an early investor in Blockstream. Tokyo Tanshi is a well-established money market broker in Japan with 100 years of history.

Pushing Bitcoin Cryptofinance Applications Forward

Building up a company that seeks to leverage the concepts of financial engineering, cryptography and Bitcoin technology has not been a straightforward or easy task.

“Our approach is to go after long-term tech but still win short-term business,” Dhingra said. “In 2019, we broke ground on the announcement of our digital asset settlement application called SETTLENET on Blockstream’s Liquid Network. With SETTLENET, digital assets can be settled simultaneously using atomic swaps. The instant settlement is an attractive feature for trading purposes where one counterparty no longer needs to worry who pays first when settling a trade. SETTLENET seeks to apply the decentralized, P2P, trust-minimized principles of Bitcoin to the trading community.”

SETTLENET’s expected launch date is set for June 2020.

For the long term, Crypto Garage aims to spread cryptofinance products through Bitcoin, Lightning and the Liquid Network, and one key technology it is working on is the Discreet Log Contracts (DLCs) protocol.

DLCs enable the creation of monetary contracts directly on the Bitcoin blockchain, using an oracle for determining its outcome, but without having to reveal the existence of the contract to the oracle. As with regular contracts, parties first need to agree on the terms, such as the different payouts for the possible outcomes. They then pre-commit their collaterals in a Bitcoin transaction broadcast to the blockchain, and can unilaterally redeem their payouts at contract maturity using a signature from the oracle over the outcome value. Using the Bitcoin blockchain removes the need for an intermediary third party, while also mitigating counterparty risks.

The first natural applications of this kind of technology are financial contracts, such as options, futures and derivatives and Crypto Garage is testing the possibilities of this technology. In 2019, Crypto Garage traded a financial contract linked to the price of BTC/USD with Blockstream and a U.S. equity option settled in bitcoin with Skew, a crypto derivatives data platform company, using DLCs.

From the lessons learned from 2019, Crypto Garage is working on an application based on DLCs called P2P Derivatives that enables trust minimized derivative transactions between two parties. Crypto Garage expects to release an MVP version of the application around May 2020. With the MVP, Crypto Garage hopes to stir interest for further development and usage of DLCs and P2P cryptofinance products.

To continue to push Bitcoin-based cryptofinance applications, Crypto Garage wants to see more progress in the development of best practices for open-source technology within the Bitcoin industry. As one example, the P2P derivative product is based on open-source specifications for DLCs jointly developed with Suredbits. Crypto Garage is actively looking for more contributions to these specifications, so if you are interested, feel free to reach out directly on the GitHub repository. If you have an interest in beta testing its coming P2P derivatives application, contact the Crypto Garage team at info@cryptogarage.co.jp. Crypto Garage will continue to work closely with the Bitcoin developer community and contribute with OSS.

Make History With a Decentralized Trustless Financial Infrastructure

At Crypto Garage, the team believes that the role of a thriving and decentralized trustless financial system will be a hugely transformative force for people all around the world.

The financial market is currently a selective market limited to professional financial institutions and corporations, and derivatives contracts are traded based on the trustworthiness of one party able to pay at the expiration of the contract. A good portion of the world still does not have access to the financial market and financial contracts due to not having a bank account and cannot enter into financial contracts freely with anyone in the world. Crypto Garage hopes features like atomic swaps for instant settlement and DLCs for a more trust minimized financial contract framework will bring us closer to a decentralized financial system.

The post Japan’s Crypto Garage Is Raising the Bar for Bitcoin-Based Cryptofinance Products appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Source: https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/japans-crypto-garage-is-raising-the-bar-for-bitcoin-based-cryptofinance-products?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=japans-crypto-garage-is-raising-the-bar-for-bitcoin-based-cryptofinance-products

Blockchain

Craig Wright Sues Bitcoin Developers Over Stolen BTC Worth $5 Billion

Published

55 mins ago

February 24, 2021

Republished by Plato

The self-proclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto, Craig Wright, has filed yet another lawsuit within the cryptocurrency industry. This time, he has targeted the developers of BTC, BCH, BSV, and BCH ABC requesting that they retrieve access to BTC stolen from his personal computer worth about $5 billion.

CSW Sues BTC Developers Because he was Hacked

Wright has publicly claimed that he is the person behind the Bitcoin network for years – Satoshi Nakamoto. This narrative, which lacks any conclusive evidence, has been highlighted once more by the latest law firm that will represent him in his most recent lawsuit against representatives of the cryptocurrency space.

Ontier, a UK-based litigation law firm, has published a press release asserting that it has informed the developers of Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Bitcoin SV (BSV), and Bitcoin Cash ABC (BCH ABC) of the lawsuit.

With these “ground-breaking legal proceedings,” the firm acts on behalf of Tulip Trading Limited (TTL) – a Seychelles-based company with a primary beneficial owner – Craig Wright. The nature of the lawsuit is somewhat controversial, to say the least.

“In February 2020, Dr. Wright’s personal computer was hacked by persons unknown and encrypted private keys to two addresses, which hold substantial quantities of Bitcoin belonging to TTL, were stolen. These assets were, and continue to be, owned by TTL. The theft is the subject of an ongoing investigation by the Cyber Crime division of the South East England Regional Organized Crime Unit.”

Consequently, the lawsuit has requested that the developers “enable TTL to regain access to and control of its Bitcoin on the grounds that they owe Bitcoin owners both tortious and fiduciary duties under English law as a result of the high level of power and control they hold over their respective blockchains.”

Per their estimation, the sizeable amount has a value of over £3.5 billion or about $5 billion.

More to Follow?

Paul Ferguson, a Partner at Ontier, commented that Wright, the supposed creator of BTC, has “always intended Bitcoin to operate within existing laws.” Moreover, he believes that the Bitcoin developers have the power and obligation to deploy code to “enable the rightful owner to regain control” of his assets.

Should Wright’s lawsuit succeed, others in a similar position could follow suit, added Ferguson.

Craig Wright is no stranger to initiating lawsuits against crypto industry representatives. In his previous one, his lawyers requested two Bitcoin-related websites to remove the BTC whitepaper, which received quite adverse reactions from the community.

Featured Image Courtesy of TheConversation

SPECIAL OFFER (Sponsored) Binance Futures 50 USDT FREE Voucher: Use this link to register & get 10% off fees and 50 USDT when trading 500 USDT (limited offer).

PrimeXBT Special Offer: Use this link to register & enter CRYPTOPOTATO35 code to get 35% free bonus on any deposit up to 1 BTC.

Source: https://cryptopotato.com/craig-wright-sues-bitcoin-developers-over-stolen-btc-worth-5-billion/

Blockchain

All of the Federal Reserve’s wire and ACH systems are down

Published

1 hour ago

February 24, 2021

Republished by Plato

All of the services available through the Federal Reserve’s online portal have been down for more than an hour.

According to the Federal Reserve Bank Services’ website, the bank is experiencing a disruption in its account services, central bank, Check 21, check adjustments, FedACH, FedCash, FedLine Advantage, FedLine Command, FedLine Direct, FedLine Web, Fedwire Funds, Fedwire Securities, and National Settlement — all services typically available — which started at 6:18 PM UTC today. In addition, all the access solutions that the Fed offers, with the exception of FedMail, are also offline.

Washington Post reporter Rachel Leah Siegel reportedly received an alert from the Fed saying its staff were “currently investigating a disruption to multiple services” and would “continue to provide updates as soon as they are available.”

“A Federal Reserve operational error resulted in disruption of service in several business lines,” said Jim Strader from the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. “We are restoring services and are communicating with all Federal Reserve Financial Services customers about the status of operations.”

This story is developing and will be updated.

Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/all-of-the-federal-reserve-s-wire-and-ach-systems-are-down

Blockchain

Why it’s critical to monitor Bitcoin miners’ position over the next 2 weeks

Published

2 hours ago

February 24, 2021

Republished by Plato

The narrative of a bear-led correction is always around, even during the headiest of bull runs. A similar situation is unraveling at the moment, with many still expecting Bitcoin’s performance to take a more calamitous turn.

At press time, while Bitcoin had recovered to climb north of $50,000, some key on-chain metrics seemed to suggest that selling pressure might not be done yet, especially on the miners’ side.

Bitcoin Miners’ Outflow Multiple, Volumes on the rise

Source: Twitter

According to Glassnode data, Bitcoin Miner Outflow Multiple climbed to touch a monthly high after BTC’s decline on the charts. The aforementioned metric relates to the period of time when the amount of Bitcoin flowing out of miners’ addresses is higher than the historical average.

Alongside the same, Outflow volumes of Bitcoin miners also climbed to a 1-month high with over $4.5 million on a 7-day average.

Now, while at first glance that may sound concerning over the short-term, the fact of the matter is that the long-term perspective is still in the green.

Source: CryptoQuant

The Miners’ Position Index is a good example. When the market was correcting back in mid-January, the MPI had surged to a high of 12.65, underlining extremely high selling pressure from miners (An Index reading of over 2 suggests that a majority of miners are selling). On the contrary, the latest drop in Bitcoin’s price pushed the MPI only up to 3.50, with the same down to 2.56, at press time.

Further, additional data seemed to suggest that small miner outflows may have contributed to high outflow volumes since these entities need to balance out their cash reserves on a consistent basis.

Bitcoin hashrate and difficulty is still relatively high

The relative hashrate for Bitcoin has dropped over the course of February, but it is important to note that over the past 3 days, the relative change is very negligible. In fact, the current hashrate is still well above 2020’s highest rate, a finding that means that miners are still active and possibly profitable, despite corrections being the norm for most of the past 24-36 hours.

Source: blockchain

On the question of mining difficulty, the attached chart seemed to suggest that the difficulty was at an all-time high on 23 February with a hashrate of 21.724t. With a difficulty adjustment imminent on the charts, a minor correction would mean that bear-led corrections would not be dragged forward due to miners’ activity.

That being said, it remains critical to monitor miners’ position over the next couple of weeks.

Sign Up For Our Newsletter

Source: https://ambcrypto.com/why-its-critical-to-monitor-bitcoin-miners-position-over-the-next-2-weeks