USA

When one wants to get a big loan, to buy a car for example, no one will think that a bank is doing something bad and unethical by giving him a loan. But if someone needs to buy a microwave, people might think that this microcredit was given to him with a very bad intention. Why does this happen? Why do all these myths about the microfinance business still exist – we asked Anton Dzyatkovsky, co-owner of MicroMoney, a company which specializes in microfinance in Asia, to help us understand why there are so many myths and superstitions about small loans. This is what he told us.

It’s hard to catch money nowadays.

The largest Russian cryptocurrency exchange, BTC-e, froze all transactions soon after the arrest one of its co-owners. BTC-e user funds may be lost.

The SEC (The Securities and Exchange Commission) has decided to regulate Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) in the same way as Initial Public Offerings (IPO) of traditional shares. Now, each organization using distributed ledger or blockchain technology that wants to offer and sell its own digital token in the US will be required to be registered.

The American multinational retailing giant, Walmart, has filed a patent application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for a new Blockchain-based delivery management system that would use drones.

To safeguard itself against Israel interference, Palestine Monetary Authority consider creation of local digital currency within 5 years.

The twin-island country of Antigua and Barbuda in the Caribbean may soon adopt Bitcoin as an official currency.

A new technology called RAIDA (Redundant Array of Independent Detection Agents), used to detect the authenticity of a new cloud-based cryptocurrency – CloudCoin, has received a provisional patent in the US, and now aims to challenge the technology standing behind Bitcoin.

Customers of one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, Poloniex, have recently received messages stating that this cryptocurrency exchange has to shut down all operations in Washington state, US. Washington residents have only two weeks to close any open orders and withdraw funds from Poloniex.