Roundup – 22/11/2019 – French Tobacco Shops Will Sell Bitcoin in 2019 & more

French Tobacco Shops Will Be Able to Sell Bitcoin & Ethereum in 2019

Tobacco shops called “buralistes” will be able to sell Bitcoin in France from January 2019 on. The shops can offer to buy coupons with the value of €50, €100 or €250. With these coupons customers can enter a code on the website of KeplerK, the provider of this service, and they will get the equivalent amount of BTC in a wallet that Kepler K provides. However, French authorities including the Central Bank of France have given disapproving statements towards KeplerK’s service. The following weeks will likely show if the can and will take any legal steps against this service. A request of Coinrevolution revealead that KeplerK will also offer an exchange service where their clients can change their cryptocurrencies for fiat money.

Bitcoin will soon be sold at tobacco shops: “The buralist of my grandfather is not in touch with time anymore.”

Government of Singapore Offers Seed Funding to Blockchain Companies

The Startups have to meet certain criteria that the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) outlined. The IMDA is a governmental institution. One of these criteria is that companies need to be able to connect to the global blockchain communities. However, the IMDA did not explain how it envisions this connections exactly. But the program is focused on startups in the media and ICT (information communication technology) sector and should link existing companies in Singapore.

Bank that Offers Financial Services to Crypto Companies to Start IPO

The Silvergate bank is currently offering 483 companies in the crypto sector financial services. The Silvergate Bank exists since 1988 and has discovered the crypto niche only during the ICO craze of 2017/2018. Many crypto companies struggle to find banks that offer them access to financial services. Such services include investing in other strategical assets, resources and or even the access to a check account. Silvergate has been so successful with its strategy that it is marketing itself now as “the leading provider of innovative financial infrastructure […] to participants in the […] expanding digital currency industry.” The bank aims to raise $50 million in its IPO, in a private funding round in January this year the company already sold shares for $114 million.

Hashrate in BTC sinks for the first time

The hashrate behind BTC has sunken significantly for the very first time ever since the creation of Bitcoin. Until only a week before the hash war, the hash rate steadily rose. On average it has been above 50.0E/per day over the past 3 months. However, the hashrate sunk back to the level of 40.0.E/per day as of now. The same development did not happen in BCH (ABC) though. People blame less profitability for this development.

Telegram Open Network Almost Complete

New products and projects are launched almost on a weekly basis in the crypto industry. In a recent investor interview cited by CCN, the new telegram cryptocurrency that is estimated to have a net value of $1.7 billion is 70% complete.

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