What does Particl as a privacy platform have over Monero and other privacycurrencies?

Monero is a decentralised currency that is currently reliant on centralised services for its use. Thus in its practical implementation it is not fully decentralised and there is a central point of failure when transacting.

In contrast under the Particl network and client listings, transactions, escrow services and settlement are fully integrated and decentralised; this includes:

Network security where the nodes can be obfuscated via tor integration.

Transactions security where the buyer, seller and amount can be obfuscated yet verified by RingCT.

Seller security whereby the nature of listed items being sold can be made private and obfuscated to the rest of the Particl network and only viewable if the viewkey is disclosed (i.e. the seller discloses this via private communication to potential buyers).

Communications security. The client nodes have the capacity for sending encrypted messages between each other allowing for truly private communications between individuals on the Particl network.

Settlement security by providing a trustless third party free escrow service (the mutually assured destruction escrow) whereby both seller and buyer deposit a bond that can only be released when both sides agree goods/services have been delivered as specified.

I'd just like to point out that many of Particl's competitors (syscoin, district0x, openbazaar) do not offer this level of security or integration in transacting, listing, exchange and settlement, because they lack one or more features that are already built into Particl by default; this includes the integration of exchanges and direct currency conversions via atomic swaps

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Whilst Monero and other private currencies offer anonymous settlement security with the benefits of decentralisation, they do not provide the other forms of decentralised security I've just listed which Particl and currently Particl alone proposes to.

Yes decentralised marketplaces could accept monero currency but they would have to provide decentralised, trustless privacy centric escrow, communications and private listings to provide the same level of service and flexibility of selling/buying options that the Particl platform intrinsically provides.

This is because in addition to what I've described Particl also enables anonymous or public settlement of public listings.

By:Joske

Zhao Dong, a prominent Chinese early bitcoin adopter and shareholder in Bitfinex, recently posted on Weibo seeking to provide anecdotal evidence as to the integrity of Bitfinex and Tether's financial reserves. The post claims that Zhao Dong and Lao Mao, the chief executive of Big.one, have witnessed first hand the balances of Bitfinex and Tether's respective bank accounts during a meeting with Bitfinex's chief financial officer, Giancarlo Devasini. The post alleges that the combined bank accounts of Tether and Bitfinex hold nearly $3 billion USD.

Zhao Dong

Zhao Dong, a well known Chinese early adopter of bitcoin, has published a post on Weibo claiming that he has personally seen the bank balances of Tether and Bitfinex first hand during a recent meeting with Bitfinex's CFO, Giancarlo Devasini. Zhao Dong is a shareholder in Bitfinex, and has been described as one of China's largest over-the-counter (OTC) traders.

According to a rough translation, Zhao Dong's Weibo post states "Lao Mao (and I) just had a look at the USD account of Tether and Bitfinex in Giancarlo's (Boss of BFX, CFO) room, in which Tether's account holds 1.8x billion USD and Bitfinex holds 1.1x billion USD. The total number of the two accounts is around 3 billion USD, which is beyond the current circulated supply of USDT. This debunks all rumors around USDT."

Lao Mao (left) and Giancarlo Devasini (right)

The chief executive officer of Big.one published a blog post following the trip, in which an interview between Mr. Devasini and one of Lao Mao's associates is made public. In the interview, Bitfinex's CFO claims that the "the team of Bitfinex has around 50 people", and that the "Tether team does not work for money," adding that "As an early bitcoin investor, the team has a sense of responsibility and mission."

Seeking to quell criticisms and concerns relating to Bitfinex and Tether's banking relationships and capitalization, Mr. Davasini also claims that the companies "are not in a position to fully disclose [their] bank accounts" as a consequence of "pressure from [the] US banking industry." The CFO alleges that the "US banking industry is blocking Tether by various means," adding that in future, "Tether may no longer anchor to [the] US dollar," suggesting that the company may "use Euro, Japanese Yen, or other fiats instead." Notably, the comments came just two weeks after Tether launched EURT – an ERC20 token intended to function as a hedging tool pegged to the value of the Euro.

The Big.one CEO concluded the post by stating "we can trust Tether and USDT," also announcing that "Big.one will also list USDT as soon as possible."

Lao Mao Apparently Reverses Opinion on Tether – Crypto Community Not So Easily Convinced

Zhao Dong and Lao Mao 'Vouch' That Bitfinex and Tether's Combined Bank Accounts Hold Nearly $3 Billion USDThe comments comprise an apparent change of heart for Lao Mao, who during November 2017, published a post urging exchanges not to introduce USDT pairings. At the time, Lao Mao stated "we have appointed our partner with Goldman Sachs to conduct research on USDT," describing the results of the research as "shocking." The report criticized the company's lack of banking transparency, and stated that "Bitfinex, the majority shareholder of Tether, arguably has access to Tether's deposits at any time." The report also criticized the internal memorandum issued by Friedman LLP that, at the time of release, Tether had misrepresented – claiming that such comprised an "audit."

Despite the 'vouches' from Zhao Dong and Lao Mao, the cryptocurrency community appears to have remained skeptical regarding the integrity of Bitfinex and Tether's accounts, with one of the most upvoted comments on Zhao Dong's Weibo post stating "You need to present [an] audit report from a third party accounting firm or lawyer. Your word doesn't count."

Concerns pertaining to the opaque accounting practices of Bitfinex and Tether have heightening heading into 2018, following a dramatic explosion in the number of USDT in existence. The number of USDT in circulation grew from less than 10 million on January 1st, 2017, to reach almost 1.4 billion just 12 months later – despite all banking services to Tether and Bitfinex having been cut off by Wells Fargo on March 23rd, and neither company providing definitive evidence that they have successfully restored banking relationships since. Tether has since shown no signs of slowing down its production of new USDT, with 400 million new USDT being produced in four days just one week ago.

Despite the warnings of the Israeli regulator that it won't tolerate bitcoin to get somehow backdoor listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, public companies keep pivoting into the field. The latest example is a firm that focused on oil refineries until now. All of a sudden it announced plans to sell bitcoin ATMs to casinos in Turkish occupied Northern Cyprus, and possibly Nigeria.

Bitcoin Is the New Oil

Oil Company Wants to Sell Bitcoin ATMs to Casinos, Stock Jumps 60%Chiron Refineries LTD (TASE:CHR), a company which focuses on developing oil refineries in Africa, has announced to investors on Tuesday morning that it is entering the cryptocurrency market and its stock price quickly jumped up close to 60%. After an apparent prodding by the regulator the company issued a second announcement at the end of the trading day with extra information about the move.

Chiron, which only on Sunday reported an agreement to build a new oil refinery in Nigeria, has now decided to diversify its business into the "cryptocurrency accessibility" sector. The company signed an agreement with Crypto Technologies Ltd to set up a subsidiary in Northern Cyprus (the Turkish occupied part of the island), to be the sole distributor of its produces in the territory as well as Turkey itself. It also acquired an option to expand the distribution business to Nigeria within 12 months of the agreement.

Every Casino Needs a Bitcoin ATM

Oil Company Wants to Sell Bitcoin ATMs to Casinos, Stock Jumps 60%

Cratos Premium Hotel and Casino, Northern Cyprus, Kirenya (Girne)

Crypto Technologies Ltd is said to develop "a unique technology for the fast and secure selling and buying of cryptocurrency for end users, insured by an American insurance company." Reading through the extended description it seems that the main product is an app which turns mobile tablets into bitcoin ATMs. It will supposedly be ready for distribution by the coming April.

Trying to assuage the regulator's fears, Chiron added that the UI and the trading algorithm via APIs have already been developed, that it is unaware of any legal bans on cryptocurrencies in the intended regions and that it will not hold or mine bitcoin by itself. Additionally, the company explained that the potential clients for the products are not individuals but businesses, like casinos. Asked by Israeli media what connection the oil company has to any of this, Chiron's lawyer explained that one of the owners has connections in Northern Cyprus and experience in the casino business.

Even though most cryptocurrency markets are showing signs of recovery, some altcoins still struggle a bit. Struggling is a term used rather loosely here, though, as a 1.65% dip compared to 24 hours is nothing these days. For the NEO price, the fight for dominance over $150 is still in full effect as we speak. It seems there are plenty of market makers who want to keep the NEO price below this threshold right now. A breakout is expected to occur shortly, by the look of things.

NEO PRICE EYES THAT $200 ALL-TIME HIGH

Before all cryptocurrency markets took a major dip earlier this week, the NEO price was on the verge of reaching $200 at some point. At its peak, the altcoin reached a value of $190.77 and solid momentum was in place to push the NEO price even further. Unfortunately, things went from bad to worse in quick succession, resulting in a massive price decline for NEO. All other cryptocurrency markets were affected by similar trends as well, but it seems those issues are a thing of the past, for now.

Just a few days ago, we saw the NEO price dip below $100 for the first time in weeks. Although the lowest value was still over $97, it is a near 50% retrace compared to the all-time high of $190.77. In most cases, altcoins would struggle severely to recover that lost ground anytime soon. That is not the case with NEO, though, as we are now looking at a NEO price of $148 once again. A strong bounce back, which coincides with all other markets showing a similar upswing right now.

It may take some effort until the NEO price finds solid support the $150 level, though. Despite multiple attempts to break this resistance, the price eventually tricks down again. This is not entirely surprising, as most of the markets are subject to careful manipulation every now and then. This "problem" has been present in cryptocurrency for quite some time now and things will not improve anytime soon either. For NEO holders, this is both good and bad news, depending on how you want to look at things.

With over $646m in 24-hour trading volume, NEO has quickly picked up where it left off prior to the cryptocurrency fire sale earlier this week. It is remarkable how most currencies simply continue their upward momentum even though the Bitcoin price fails to note any major gains these days. Even so, all of these altcoins heavily rely on the Bitcoin momentum and the NEO price is no exception to that rule. For now, things look good, even though there is a 1.65% value decline compared to 24 hours ago.

Surprisingly, Upbit is still the world's largest exchange in terms of NEO trading volume. With close to $212m in the past 24 hours, this exchange is clearly ahead of Binance and Bittrex. Once again, we see three of Binance's NEO markets in the top 5 ranked by volume, which is pretty intriguing. The first non-KRW fiat currency on the list is Bitfinex's NEO/USD pair, which brings in $53m. There are no other fiat currencies to be found in the entire top 40, but that has never hindered NEO's chance of success before.

For now, it is very difficult to guess what the future will hold for the NEO price. It seems the resistance at $150 is rather strong, but that may only be an illusion for all we know. Cryptocurrency markets remain highly unpredictable and interesting things will continue to happen every single day. Right now, no one should expect a new all-time high NEO price anytime soon. It will happen eventually, though, and it will probably be well before the summer of 2018 as well.

This week security experts found a website glitch on the e-commerce marketplace Overstock that let customers purchase items for a fraction of the price. The reason users were getting such huge discounts is because the system was accidentally allowing bitcoin cash (BCH) purchases in place of items priced in bitcoin core (BTC).

'Big Discounts': Some Overstock Customers Pay for Items Priced in BTC With BCH

Overstock Glitch Gave Customers 'Discounts' With Bitcoin Cash According to the company Krebs on Security and the security firm Bancsec, Overstock's marketplace had a serious glitch allowing people to pay for products priced in BTC in BCH. On January 5 a Krebs researcher chose to purchase three outdoor solar lamps from Overstock which added up to $78.27. At the time Overstock's invoices told the researcher to pay 0.00475574 bitcoins to a specific address. Instead of paying BTC, Krebs on Security decided to send 0.00475574 BCH to the specified address. In a matter of minutes, the researcher purchased the three lamps for roughly $12 worth of bitcoin cash.

If things couldn't get any worse, they did: Krebs decided to get a refund for the three solar lamps purchased with BCH.

"I didn't really want the solar lights, but also I had no interest in ripping off Overstock," explains the Krebs employee.

So I canceled the order — To my surprise, the system refunded my purchase in bitcoin, not bitcoin cash.

Payment Glitch Lasted for Three Weeks

Overstock Glitch Gave Customers 'Discounts' With Bitcoin Cash Krebs contacted Overstock and informed the firm that individuals were allowed to purchase lavish items like diamond rings for very little money compared to the real retail price. Overstock says they disabled the payment method glitch immediately after an independent researcher investigated the problem.

"After working with a researcher to confirm the findings, that method of payment was disabled while we worked with our cryptocurrency integration partner, Coinbase, to ensure they resolved the issue," explains Overstock to Krebs. "We have since confirmed that the issue described in the finding has been resolved, and the cryptocurrency payment option has been re-enabled."

Coinbase revealed to Krebs that the bug existed for "three weeks" and the issue was caused by the merchant partner "improperly using the return values" in the company's  merchant integration API.

What do you think about Overstock accidentally letting people buy items priced in BTC but used BCH instead? Let us know what you think of this story in the comments below.

The following is a quick announcement about how Particl (PART) if succesfully adopted could potentially increase the value of all cryptocurrencies:

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Firstly can users only use PART tokens to transact?

 

Short answer: No. Not quite.

Detailed answer: If we understand that Particl is a modular smart contract platform with the decentralised, privacy centric marketplace being the first module to launch then the following responses make more sense:

 

The aim is for the marketplace module to have built-in shapeshift integration. This means any of the (currently 67) cryptocurrencies supported by shapeshift can be transferred to a particl client and automatically converted to the native PART token for transacting on the Particl network.

Furthermore the modular smart contract nature means other widgets and modules can be built to integrate other exchanges (both centralised and decentralised) and services into the Particl network and client e.g changelly integration for USDT:PART integration or widgets that connect direct fiat gateways.

Particl also utilises atomic swaps so any other chain which utilizes atomic swaps can directly interact with the Particl network to exchange/swap PART (foregoing exchanges altogether). Current candidates include LTC, DCR and BTC.

 

To this end its a misconception to think Particle only supports the PART token. It actually supports multiple cryptocurrencies via a mechanic that brings value to the PART token whilst providing a means to buy and sell goods anonymously using those cryptocurrencies.

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There are advantages to this approach:

For one it means Particl can simplify its user interface by driving all core transactions on the Particl network via the PART token.

It makes the Particl platform both a fiat/liquidity magnet as it provides non-speculative value to multiple cryptocurrencies which are sent to it and acts as a liquidity generator since it creates the means for people to buy/sell goods with multiple cryptocurrencies.

 

As the Particl network grows this would strengthen the links between cryptocurrency and fiat whilst simultaneously making cryptocurrency more independent of fiat.

 

This approach creates economic incentives to hold and promote the token and benefits holders as its value increases in a manner proportional to increasing non-speculative use on the Particl network.

Contrast this with systems like syscoin where the native sys token is not essential to transact. It suffers from diminished speculator and thus network effects to propagate spread, promotion and usage of the native token and even if non-speculative use of the syscoin network increases this does necessarily translate to increased buy demand on the sys token.

The PART token is used to secure the Particl network via PoS. Increased non speculative use of the PART token to transact leads to diversification of PART.

 

Those who set their clients to stake to earn a portion of the marketplace/transaction fees + staking rewards thus wind up increasing the node count and diversification which increases the security of the network.

 

The PART token has a dual nature: A public token for where the added cost/verification time of transacting privately is not necessary and where accountability is a requirement (e.g. selling large volume, low cost, high frequency white-hat goods).

 

A large transaction pool is required to make the private ringCT transactions work. If multiple currencies were allowed to buy/sell goods directly (rather than be first converted to the native PART token), the pool of available transactions for RingCT would be diluted and thus the anonymity ringCT provides would be weakened.

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Particl will provide a system where all the economic, network and pragmatic incentives of cryptocurrency are in perfect alignment, something which is not true of many other systems in cryptocurrency and distributed ledger technology.

Perhaps the most important thing I haven't stated is that by integrating all the services it does (the marketplace, the exchanges, the escrow service and the security and privacy features) and allowing for modular expansion under one privacy centric platform, Particl provides convenience and streamlines existing processes for private, anonymous and public commerce independent of traditional fiat.

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In summary cryptocurrencies that choose to integrate with the Particl platform will instantly find non-speculative uses and revenue. This will drive fiat into those cryptocurrencies and perpetuate a tendency to keep it there, increasing both their liquidity and value as these will now be used to buy and sell goods on the Particl platform via its decentralised marketplace and any other services it offers.

By: Joske

Customers of Slovenia's Bitstamp exchange are being forced to jump through hoops to meet an unprecedented level of compliance. A widely circulated image, purporting to reveal Bitstamp's enhanced KYC procedure, has been attracting a lot of attention. The document requests screenshots of other cryptocurrency exchange profiles, bank account statements showing fiat deposits to third party exchanges, and signed messages from the BTC and ETH addresses the customer intends to use.

Bitstamp Wants to Really Know Its Customers

Bitstamp Is Asking Users Who Want to Withdraw a Lot of QuestionsCryptocurrency exchanges are obligated to closely adhere to the law in their jurisdiction. Government agencies are inherently suspicious of bitcoin, and regulators won't hesitate to shut down exchanges that are found to have facilitated money laundering or conducted inadequate KYC procedures. But in their quest to be seen as squeaky clean, some exchanges are asking intrusive and unwarranted questions of their customers, with Bitstamp the most egregious example, as exemplified by a screenshot that reportedly originated from the European exchange.

Bitstamp has a generally positive reputation within the cryptocurrency world. With a pedigree dating back to 2011, the site has been around since the time of Mt Gox, and save for a hack of 19,000 BTC in 2015, has emerged from bitcoin's wild west days unscathed. Europe's oldest exchange records close to $1 billion in trading volume each day, with bitcoin, ripple, and ethereum the leading currencies. On the surface, Bitstamp is a model in how to run an exchange, with its CEO Nejc Kodrič lauded for his business acumen and entrepreneurship.

Bitstamp's Enhanced KYC Takes Knowing Your Customer to the Next LevelThere's just one issue that keeps dogging Bitstamp, and indeed several other exchanges for that matter: withdrawing and depositing fiat currency is fiendishly difficult. News.Bitcoin.com has previously written about the difficulty of cashing out large amounts of money from major exchanges. The situation was best put by a user in one Telegram trading group, who wrote: "Good luck withdrawing anything from Bittrex, it's hotel California".

You Can Cash Out Anytime but You Can Never Leave

It is Bitstamp though which takes the biscuit for protracted and unnecessarily invasive KYC. Thanks to Bitstamp's radio silence regarding the document at the center of the debate, it is hard to gauge its authenticity. But wherever the document originated, it illustrates two things:

1) the lack of communication from many exchanges that allows such rumors to circulate unchecked and 2) insane KYC requests from exchanges have gotten so extraordinary that it's now hard to tell what's real and what's a spoof. What is indisputable is that Bitstamp customers have been aggrieved at the exchange's KYC policy for months. Bitstamp's Reddit page features numerous complaints from users, who quote official correspondence that is worded very similarly to the screenshot cited earlier, including the use of phrases such as "kindly ask". One such missive from Bitstamp reportedly reads:

To which the user reasonably replies: "All my money is taxed and legal, but I don't look forward spending HOURS of my time getting my financial documents from the banks, copies of my pay checks from my employer and everything they asked for. It will literally take hours over several days do get what they asked for. What happens if I don't give them the documentation?"

Cryptocurrency exchanges, either out of fear of being shut down or an overzealous desire to prove they're above board, have created an environment of fear in which everyone is a suspect and innocence must be proven, not assumed. Faced with onerous and invasive KYC requests which often seem to have no basis in the law, it is no surprise that many individuals are taking their custom elsewhere, be it P2P exchanges such as Localbitcoins.com or to crypto exchanges that treat their clients with courtesy and respect.