What's new? - this is a weekly series of the most interesting news from the previous week.
Lloyds Bank from England, blocks cryptocurrency purchase transactions
The main banking institution based in the UK prohibits its clients from using credit cards to buy Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. According to the BBC report, the ban concerns eight million Lloyds Banking Group credit card holders and is effective on 5 February in its subsidiaries, including Lloyds Bank, Halifax, MBNA and Bank of Scotland. Earlier, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase also introduced a ban on the purchase of Bitcoin for customers using credit cards.
Lloyd's decision apparently concerns the fear that users may buy cryptocurrencies for credit in the market euphoria and will not be able to pay off their debts when a bear market hits the market. However, according to the report, the ban will not affect investors who buy cryptocurrencies using debit cards. This means that the bank is not so much against cryptocurrencies, which simply wants to protect its interest.
China actually blocks access to cryptocurrency and ICO stock exchanges
The Chinese government aims to block access to foreign websites offering cryptocurrency trading services and investments in ICO. A report from Financial News, a website linked to the People's Bank of China (the central bank of the country), indicates that the authorities are accelerating the action, which began about a year ago. On the website we can read:
To prevent financial risks, China will intensify its efforts to remove any domestic or foreign platforms related to the virtual trading of cryptocurrencies or participation in ICO.
The decisive actions of state authorities took place a few months after China formally banned investing in ICO, considering the use of blockchain as a form of illegal financing. The local authorities also closed the Internet for crypto-commerce, and the Big Three stock market closed in autumn.
The Italian government consults legal regulations with companies in the cryptocurrency industry
The Italian government is looking for feedback on the proposed rules for cryptocurrencies, which are intended to explain the use of technology in the country. The summary of the proposed rules explains how service providers accepting cryptocurrencies would have to report their activities and earnings to the Ministry of Economy and Finance, and what the government will do with this information. The full decree explains:
Cryptocurrencies are used as a medium of exchange for the purchase of goods and services, are not issued by the central bank or by a public body, and are not necessarily linked to a currency with legal tender.
The main purpose of this decree is to enforce the recently implemented anti-money laundering rules that have been adopted by the European Union, of which Italy is a founding member. In addition, new provisions have been made to combat the financing of terrorism and other criminal activities. To this end, enterprises that carry out transactions with cryptocurrencies will be registered by the organization for agents and mediators in a new database.
$ 20 million to create YouTube on blockchain
Start up from Silicon Valley - Lino, plans to create a blockchain form of YouTube thanks to the decentralized, collective system of distribution of video content, which aims to eliminate brokers to pay more fairly to content creators. The company, which is struggling with competition from Streamspace, Flixxo, Viuly and Stream, all of which develop similar concepts, received $ 20 million from the prominent Chinese seed investor Zhenfund during the private sale of tokens.
Explaining the mission of the company, her website describes that YouTube has "enormous power" over the creators and focuses on maximizing profits, which can lead to conflict with real creators. The page continues:
The solution is to create a collective, decentralized distribution method that ensures that the entire value of the content is directly communicated to their creators and related collaborators without the intermediation of a private entity like YouTube.
Coinbase confirms the blocking of credit cards by 4 banks
Holders of credit cards from four American banks were deprived of the possibility of buying cryptocurrencies using credit cards on the Coinbase platform. According to the latest tweet from the stock exchange, credit card users from JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citi and Capital One are currently deprived of the option of buying cryptocurrencies on the platform.
However, other payment channels, such as debit cards and bank transfers, are still available and are recommended by Coinbase as alternatives to affected customers. This information confirmed the last report that Chase, Bank of America and Citi introduced a ban in early February due to fears that credit card users may incur debt
