Roundup – 11/12/2018 – Bitmain Shuts Down Development Center in Israel & more

Bitmain Shuts Down Development Center in Israel

Bitmain has to shut-down its development center in Ra’anana, Israel. The center opened just this year. However, the current bear market and the, so far, negative consequences of the hash war for the Bitcoin Cash ABC faction have led to this harsh decision. So far, it is not clear whether the shutdown of the development center is only a temporary solution. The company’s plan to start an IPO in 2019 is not off the table yet. Prior to Bitmain, several other bigger players in the crypto space had to lay off parts of their staff as well, among others e.g. ConsenSys, Coinbase and Steemit.

Bithumb to Offer Democratic Voting Platform Pickthumb

Some Crypto exchange users have been raising concerns about the listing of dubious and questionable Digital Assets in some platforms. It is critical to note that listing of unpopular Cryptos can not only threaten the integrity of a network but also expose investors to a myriad of risks such as closure by authorities, bad reputation, and even a security breach. To protect itself from such possibilities of risks, Bithumb, a major Cryptocurrency exchange platform in South Korea, is launching a beta public voting system that will be screening startup Tokens ahead of listing them on the exchange. The new platform is labeled Pickthumb.

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Japanese Crypto Committee Recommends Easing Crypto Taxation

A crypto committee of the Japanese government recommended to ease cryptocurrency taxation in the country. During the rally of 2017 only 331 persons filed their taxes on cryptocurrency gains with a profit of over $1 million. However, taking into account the scale of the bull run, the number seems way too low for a country with about 127 million inhabitants and that is generally rather enthusiastic towards cryptocurrencies. Many people seem to have decided to not file their taxes. Therefore, the committee decided to change the current cryptocurrency taxation in several points. The tax on gains is currently 55%, the committee recommends a lower taxation of 20%. Investors should also be able to account their profits against their losses over the course of several years. Furthermore, there should be no tax on small crypto payments and crypto-to-crypto trades at all.

Tether in the Top 5 on Coinmarketcap.com

Tether has moved into the Top 5 on coinmarketcap.com. Despite Tether’s bad name and the fact that it has lost more than 20% of the general capitalization in the stablecoin market to other stablecoins. The major reason for this is, of course, the bear market. Bitcoin and the Altcoin market have fallen steadily in their price. And people either cash out or exchange their cryptocurrencies for stablecoins.

The People’s Bank of China Declares STOs Illegal

Pan Gongsheng, a deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), has declared that issuing STOs are “illegal financial activities”. STOs (security token offerings) are tokens that represent traditional securities. However, they owners can move and exchange them faster, easier and decentralized. Meaning that they do not necessarily need a middleman to exchange them. The last point might be decisive for the PBOC’s decision to declare them illegal.