Month: November 2018

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Hong Kong-based stock market commentator Raymond Yuen has been indicted for misleading web users into investing into a Crypto Mining Ponzi Scheme.

Based on reports on local Hong Kong media outlet The Standard, investors had narrated to the Democratic party how Yuen swindled them of HK$6.9 million in funds for a Ponzi scheme.

According to the reports, Yuen had promised juicy profits to investors who invested in the crypto mining services, he was promoting. Yuen also lured investors into signing agreements, where he recommended a 10-month payback offer, according to the report.

Sham Shui Po district councilor and deputy spokesman for the party’s financial policy panel, Ramon Yuen Hoi-man said Yuen promised them they could get their money back after the 10-months period and make profits afterward. They, however, started getting concerned about their investments as the return being sent to them was reduced on a monthly basis.

While the media outlet remains unclear if some investors had taken out a loan or not, one of the complainants, Chan, according to the Standard, had borrowed HK$200,000, which she used to invest into the mining services for a little yield of HK$7 per day.

Investors who filed the complaint complained about the lack of transparency regarding the contract and the share of profit, which they claim was far less than they expected. They also accuse Yuen of failing to disclose the risks involved in cryptocurrency mining and making false claims about the affiliation of the company with the founder of the cryptocurrency being mined, which he claimed could change the “algorithm to outperform its competitors.”

Shum Wan-wa, a lawyer and a member of the Wong Tai Sin District Council, said the contract signed by the investors was a trap, as it included a waiver to their right to file a class action suit against the company.

Known as “The Young Wizard of Investment”, Yuen, who had shot to prominence in the early 2000s for his analysis of the stock market, had lured investors in with his status as a financial expert, who had built his status through two radio shows on financial investments and authored a book on stock investments.

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Reliance Industries, India’s largest private sector firm, has successfully participated in its first ever trade finance transaction powered by blockchain technology.

In an industry first, Indian oil and energy conglomerate Reliance Industries completed a trade finance transaction with US-based Tricon Energy, a global chemical distributor.

The end-to-end ‘live’ transaction was executed over R3’s Corda blockchain, a press release from HSBC India confirmed. Corda’s blockchain platform is described by the press release as a “single shared application, rather than requiring multiple isolated digital systems across various counterparties, located around the globe.”

HSBC and fellow banking giant ING Bank Brussels facilitated the Letter of Credit – the bank guarantee of a buyer’s payment- of the shipment between the two energy firms in a fully digitized transfer of title. Compared to current timelines of up to 7 to 10 days of processing export documentation, the blockchain solution facilitates the transaction in less than a day.

Pointedly, the announcement boasted:

This transaction validates the commercial and operational viability of blockchain as an alternative to conventional exchanges for paper-based documentation.

Specifically, the letter of credit was issued by ING Bank for Tricon Energy USA as the importer with HSBC India participating as the negotiating bank for Reliance Industries as the exporter.

Underlining the “transformative impact” of blockchain technology in trade finance, HSBC India’s head of global banking and markets Hitendra Dave stated:

“The use of blockchain is a significant step toward digitizing trade…The overall efficiency it brings to trade finance ensures cost effectiveness, quicker turnaround and potentially unlocks liquidity for business.”

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Andreas M. Antonopoulos, the author of “Mastering Bitcoin” and a self-proclaimed “computer geek” who has dedicated his career to bitcoin, has a bone to pick with Bitly, the web-link shortening service.

Bitly has seemingly blacklisted cryptocurrency sites from its service, prompting readers with a warning prior to redirecting to the original website, a Twitter thread between the bitcoin expert and one of his readers reveals.

Antonopoulos is close to publishing his fourth book, which is comprised of hundreds of crypto-related bit.ly links that Bitly is blocking. A reader seemingly brought this to his attention, questioning why Bitly was issuing a warning when the sites “don’t point to any harmful location at all.”  Antonopoulos asks the company for an explanation, threatening to remove and replace all of the bit.ly links with a competitor. The fourth book he references appears to be “Mastering Ethereum”, which comes out in less than four weeks.

Hey @Bitly,

Why are you blocking https://t.co/9gk4wWPQnN links to crypto-currency sites?

I’m about to publish my 4th book and it has about 200 https://t.co/9gk4wWPQnN links in it. If you are going to block links, I will need to remove all 200 and replace them with a competitor https://t.co/Xg4FkemcA7

— Andreas M. Antonopoulos (@aantonop) November 3, 2018

The “Mastering Bitcoin” author went on to canvas the crypto community for a solution, asking: “What (reliable, neutral, established) link-shortening service can I use that doesn’t filter/block links based on a broken blacklisting service? I need to replace all @Bitly links in my book ASAP.” While he wasn’t looking for “roll your own” suggestions, this is largely what he received from the Twitter sphere.

Other followers suggested that Antonopoulos avoid shortening links in his new book altogether, saying that readers aren’t keen on clicking on a link shrouded in mystery anyway. Others still suggested taking a more decentralized approach by using an archive system at the end of the page or chapter to avoid relying on a third-party altogether.

Crypto Ban Deja Vu

Antonopoulos is an influencer in the cryptocurrency community and probably someone that Bitly doesn’t want to alienate, as it would likely trigger a ripple effect among blockchain-content publishers.  He is an early bitcoin investor who previously sold his holdings to pay his rent, in response to which he became in a millionaire thanks to donations by the crypto supporters inspired by Roger Ver.

His books, which also includes “The Internet of Money”, are best sellers. Most recently, “Mastering Bitcoin” has made its way into China’s media programming, though they replaced Bitcoin in the title with Blockchain. Antonopoulos said that “even with a slightly sanitized title…the content is the same.”

Meanwhile, tech leaders including Facebook and Google earlier this year attempted to officially block crypto-related ads but those bans have since been lifted. Investors cried foul at the time, pointing out how tech giants continued to allow ads for other risky sites like gambling. Meanwhile, ads are a key component to the tech revenue model.

It’s unclear if Bitly has taken an official position on crypto-related links, and the company has yet to respond to an email seeking comment.

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If Amazon, Facebook, and Google are nervy and a little confused by Donald Trump’s policies on big tech, then his comments on Sunday will have done little to reassure them.

The US president told “Axios on HBO” that his administration is looking “very seriously” at whether to launch antitrust investigations into the three companies.

Trump’s inspiration: Europe. Or more specifically, the $5 billion fine the EU slapped on Google in July for abusing the dominance of Android.

Trump railed against the fine on the day it was issued, tweeting that the EU has “taken advantage” of the US and is punishing “one of our great companies.” He doubled down on this sentiment on Sunday, saying he didn’t like the EU sanctions.

Read more: Google employees all over the world left their desk and walked out in protest over sexual misconduct

But that doesn’t mean that the US president is averse to stealing the EU’s ideas. His logic is simple: If anyone is going to fine Google, it should be America.

“The European Union takes a lot of money out of our companies and I actually went to my people and said ‘you know, if they’re gonna do it we should be the one doing it, not them.’ These are our companies,” he told Axios.

Exploratory work is already underway, with Attorney General Jeff Sessions meeting with state attorneys general to discuss whether social-media companies are “intentionally stifling” free speech and obstructing competition.

And Trump has shown an appetite for attacking the likes of Google and Twitter for what he sees as their liberal bias, though his agenda against tech pales in comparison to his anger at the media.

Instead, the president is both praising and threatening Amazon, Facebook, and Google. All of which serves to keep these companies in limbo, which, as Axios points out, is exactly where Trump wants them.

Martinsburg Der frühere SPD-Chef Sigmar Gabriel hat vor einem Absinken seiner Partei in die Bedeutungslosigkeit gewarnt. „Das kann man verhindern, das ist nicht automatisch, aber man muss realistisch sehen, dass das passieren kann“, sagte Gabriel der Deutschen Presse-Agentur am Rande eines Besuchs in Martinsburg im US-Bundesstaat West Virginia. „Es gehört viel Anstrengung dazu, das zu verhindern.“

Zu den schlechten Wahlergebnissen und Umfragewerten seiner Partei sagte der Ex-Außenminister: „Ich bin viel zu lange in der SPD – weit über 40 Jahre –, als dass man da nicht mitleidet.“