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‘Fiat and Money Printing’ Street Mural Earns $500 in Bitcoin Donations in Five Days

11/07/2020 by Idelto Editor

A Parisian street artist is receiving hundreds of dollars every day in bitcoin donations from his painting that speaks about “fiat and money printing.”

Pascal Boyart’s latest mural, “Confessions of a Red Jester”, is a modern interpretation of the 1862 painting “Stańczyk” by Polish romanticist painter Jan Matejko. The original depicts a lonely jester against a lively ball in the background.

Boyart said he has earned about 0.0514 bitcoin (BTC) or around $500 in the five days to July 10. Since 2017, the artist, famed for his practical graffiti frescoes, has received over 1.3 BTC or $12,100 in donations from various artworks. His website also accepts donations in ethereum, litecoin and monero.

The latest piece, which can be seen on Paris’ rue de Montmorency, features a QR code, together with a “spray-painted Bitcoin logo and a wallet address”, allowing for direct BTC donations from admirers.

Boyart’s rendition takes the crypto-angle a step further, with fiat money littering the floor around the solemn jester’s feet.

The French artist’s past work has examined the relationship between art and money. In an interview published on Medium in 2018, Boyart said that digital financial assets represent a type of “freedom that’s reminiscent of the early days of the internet.”

He stated that bitcoin’s decentralization is a “good thing for creativity”, – and, therefore, good as a means for facilitating donations. Boyart said the top cryptocurrency provides a “more direct relation with the people who love art” and “more horizontality in the business of art.”

What do you think about Boyart tying art to bitcoin? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Bitcoin Script and Onchain Contracts: Two High-Level Programming Languages for Bitcoin Cash

11/07/2020 by Idelto Editor

Last May, the software developer and creator of revoke.cash, Rosco Kalis, released Cashscript version 0.4 that included a number of optimizations. Cashscript’s new website highlights the high-level language that “offers a strong abstraction layer over Bitcoin Cash’ native virtual machine, Bitcoin Script.” Additionally, the developer Tendo Pein recently announced the “high-level smart contracts programming language for Bitcoin Cash” called Spedn now has a new website.

Cashscript Version 0.4.3 and Cashscript.org

Rosco Kalis is a software developer who is involved with a number of different cryptocurrency projects. For instance, Kalis created revoke.cash, a platform that allows people to inspect certain decentralized app (dapp) contracts that they approved to spend ERC20 tokens in the past. The tool provides people with the ability to revoke access for the ones they no longer need.

Kalis is also a software engineer for the General Protocols team and he’s contributing to the Anyhedge project. Moreover, Kalis has also been working on a high-level language for Bitcoin Cash called Cashscript. Our newsdesk spoke with Kalis in May 2019 when he told our readers about the Software Development Kit (SDK) and the syntax of the language which was inspired by Ethereum’s programming language. A year later, Kalis revealed Cashscript version 0.4 on May 25 and a new website called cashscript.org.

On July 10, Kalis released Cashscript version 0.4.3, “which includes some smaller bytecode optimisations,” according to the developer. The initial release of Cashscript version 0.4 came with Bitwise operators, Variable size NUM2BIN, a Fluent Transaction interface, Manual UTXO selection, among other improvements. The website cashscript.org’s about section says:

Cashscript is a high-level programming language for smart contracts on Bitcoin Cash. It offers a strong abstraction layer over Bitcoin Cash’ native virtual machine, Bitcoin Script. Its syntax is based on Ethereum’s smart contract language Solidity, but its functionality is very different since smart contracts on Bitcoin Cash differ greatly from smart contracts on Ethereum.

The High-Level Programming Language Spedn Has a New Homepage

In addition to Kalis’s recent 0.4.3 release on July 6, the software developer, Tendo Pein, explained that the high-level programming language Spedn now has a new website. “Spedn has got a new homepage: spedn.pl,” Pein tweeted.

News.Bitcoin.com reported on the Spedn project on October 25, 2018. The sleek new purple colored website explains that Spedn is a “high-level smart contracts programming language for Bitcoin Cash designed for explicitness and safety.”

The website notes that Spedn offers static typechecking, which offers the detection of many errors at compile time. Pure functions that are free of side effects, the common source of bugs. Explicitness, which means no guessing what the expression is supposed to return and Curly braces which is similar to C#, Dart, or Rust.

Spedn is also used by the General Protocols team, Flipstarter, Karol Trzeszczkowski’s recurring-payment Electron Cash plugin, the mistcoin project, and the synthetic derivatives Anyhedge concept.

Both programming language projects are very meaningful to the Bitcoin Cash ecosystem and BCH supporters look forward to projects that leverage them. Right now these projects are offer insight into the start of the fascinating world that can happen with Bitcoin script and onchain contracts.

Additionally, Rosco Kalis has published a comprehensive analysis in regard to the vast difference between the Turing-complete smart contracts offered on Ethereum, and the contract capabilities using Bitcoin script.

What do you think about Cashscript and Spedn? Let us know what you think about these Bitcoin Cash programming languages in the comments below.

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Bitcoin Prize For Winners Of South Africa Mountain Bike Race

11/07/2020 by Idelto Editor

About 150 mountain bikers will compete at this year’s edition of the Munga MTB race in South Africa. The race will commence in the first week of December. The top three finishers in each category will share the 1.5 bitcoin in prize money.

The Bitstamp sponsored race was launched in 2015. Bikers from South Africa, as well as those from around the world, will take part in the event. Alex Harris is the director of the Munga MTB.

At last year’s event, the prize money was 1.5 bitcoin that was divided into three categories; men, women and the development category. The third category features non-white bikers.

Each category is awarded 0.5 bitcoin that will be split between the top three finishers. According to Harris, the prize money for this year’s race has not changed.

The Munga MTB race runs over a little more than 1000 kilometres through the semi-desert karoo, and there are 5 race villages where riders can rest, eat and get mechanical assistance.

There are also several water points placed between 60 and 90 kilometres apart.

Harris explains that it was Bitstamp that approached them with the idea of “using bitcoin as prize money.” Consequently, the prize money at the time was “converted into the equivalent in bitcoin.”

Meanwhile, Harris also explains the process of distributing the prize money to winners. He says since the South Africa Reserve Bank (SARB) has not formulated cryptocurrency regulations, the 1.5 bitcoin “goes to a Munga Bitstamp account.”

The prize winners can “elect to hold onto to their bitcoin, or instruct us to sell.” If winners choose the latter, an exact amount of the South African Rand currency gets transferred from the Munga to their account.

What do you think about Munga’s idea of giving bike racers bitcoin as prize money? Tell us your thoughts in the comment section below.

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Japanese Broker Monex Launches Crypto-Based CFDs With 2x Leverage

10/07/2020 by Idelto Editor

The Japanese online securities company Monex has revealed the launch of cryptocurrency-based contract-for-difference (CFD) services that went live on Wednesday. The new derivatives products offered by Monex will include bitcoin, XRP, ether, and bitcoin cash pairs with 2x leverage.

Japanese digital currency exchanges are getting into leverage products as the firm Monex has revealed a derivatives product otherwise known as a contract-for-difference (CFD) service. Basically a CFD acts as the net difference depiction of either losses or gains that stem from the trading of specific assets.

CFDs are popular investment vehicles in the world of derivatives and they are also well known in crypto markets.

Monex now offers 2x leverage for ETH, BTC, BCH, and XRP against the yen as markets opened on July 8, 2020. Monex Group is also well known for acquiring the exchange Coincheck which still sees consistent volume to this day.

Because Monex Group is offering crypto-based derivatives, Monex had to register with Japanese regulators as a Financial Instrument Business.

“Crypto-asset-related OTC derivatives transactions were included under the Act to protect customers and create risk management regulations for financial instruments business operators,” Monex revealed in an issued statement. The company added:

Since the birth of the Bitcoin, the crypto-asset market has grown steadily, and the number of cryptocurrencies and crypto-asset derivative transactions are increasing. With the expansion of transaction categories under the amendments to the above-mentioned Act, Monex has decided to begin offering crypto-asset CFD services.

The Monex crypto-based CFDs are available all day long for trading and every day of the year. Traders, however, need to register for a Monex general brokerage account which can be done using the Monex Trader Crypto app.

The Monex issued CFDs can be traded via the app but the user also needs to register for a CFD account. Last summer, the exchange Liquid launched contract-for-difference (CFD) services using cryptocurrencies with 100x leverage.

When the product first launched, Liquid’s Chief Product Officer of Liquid, Mario Gomez Lozada, explained the exchange launched the CFDs due to “rising demand.” Of course, the new offering by Monex is much less leverage with only 2x as opposed to 100x.

The CFD services provided by Monex will stem from Monex Inc, Kabucom Securities, Rakuten Securities, Matsui Securities, and SBI Securities.

What do you think about Monex offering crypto-based derivatives for 2x leverage? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

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Bitfinex Must Face New York’s Accusations Over the Loss of $850M in Co-Mingled Funds

10/07/2020 by Idelto Editor

The popular digital currency trading platform, Bitfinex must deal with the New York Office of the Attorney General (NYAG) over the alleged hiding of over $800 million in client and corporate funds. The NY state Supreme Court’s Appellate Division overruled an appeal on Thursday, after the company put forth the argument that tether (USDT) was not a security or traditional commodity.

Last year in April, New York prosecutors alleged that Bitfinex lost $850 million of co-mingled customer and corporate funds. The charges stemmed from accusations coming from the NYAG and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Recently the case was heard by the NY State Supreme Court’s Appellate Division, and the company attempted to claim that tether (USDT) was not a type of commodity or security. Basically, if tether wasn’t a commodity or security, then the court and the NYAG would have zero jurisdiction over the companies involved.

Additionally, Bitfinex attempted to argue that because the company was not a U.S.-based firm, NY jurisdiction would also not apply. Essentially, when news.Bitcoin.com reported on the subject in May 2019, the NYAG demanded that Bitfinex must show transparency by turning over documents tied to the firm Tether.

With the jurisdiction arguments used in the appeals court, Bitfinex claimed that the NY officials had no authority over documents. However, since the appeals court rejected the claims that argued against jurisdiction, Bitfinex must now answer to the allegations stemming from New York State.

“The trial court properly rejected the attempts by respondents to limit petitioner’s lawful authority to protect New York residents,” the latest ruling notes.

In an email to the financial columnist, Jaspreet Kalra, Bitfinex’s General Counsel Stuart Hoegner said: “We will respect the court’s order. We have no further comment on this matter at this time.”

New York Attorney General Letitia James was thrilled with the decision against Bitfinex. “Today’s decision validates our office’s ability to use its broad and comprehensive investigative powers to protect New Yorkers,” James told the press this week.

“Not even virtual currencies are above the law. We are pleased with the court’s decision, and will continue to protect the interest of investors in the marketplace,” she added. Bitfinex, the parent company Ifinex, and Tether Limited are also involved in another ongoing lawsuit as well.

What do you think about Bitfinex having to face allegations for the loss of over $800 million? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

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