BTC.com News Digest

3rd of December 2018: Copernicus, G20 Leaders, Petro, Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA), British Petroleum (BP) and Shell launch a blockchain-based oil trading platform, Nigeria and Thai Securities and Exchanges Commission.

Eléonore Blanc

Published in

The BTC Blog

5 min readDec 3, 2018

Staying up to date with all the latest crypto news can be overwhelming. Just sit back with a cup of coffee, we’re here to digest some of the top crypto news of the week for you.

New Software Copernicus Has Mined Its First Bitcoin Cash Block

This weekend, an unknown mining pool processed the first Bitcoin Cash (BCH) block that was generated using a full node client written in a language other than Satoshi’s original C++ client. The project, called Copernicus, is a BCH implementation written in Golang (GO) and follows the myriad of Go clients released earlier this year. […]

Similar to the other BCH Go-based clients, the Copernicus project developers believe that programming in Go makes the BCH code structure “more concise.” More importantly, because the Go programming language is used a lot these days, the team believes that the coding language reduces the learning curve for programmers. Additionally, the diversity of clients is meant to “ensure the safety of the entire BCH network.”

G20 Leaders Declare Commitment to Regulate Crypto Assets

The G20 Leaders’ Summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, ended on Saturday, Dec. 1, with a joint declaration on fair and sustainable development adopted by the heads of state. The statement affirms that an open financial system is crucial to support economic growth but also calls for international standards to regulate new technologies such as cryptocurrency.

Maduro Orders Price of Venezuela’s ‘Cryptocurrency’ to More Than Double

Maduro has decided to arbitrarily double the price of the Venezuela’s cryptocurrency. However, the Petro lacks basic infrastructure to be used, there are no wallets available to store/send/receive some Petro as Google has removed the wallet app from their Google Play store.

In addition, the Petro code is not available to the public, so independent confirmation of its existence or functionality is impossible. Despite these issues, the regulator in charge of all crypto activities in Venezuela, has been selling the digital currency at its headquarters since the end of October.

Singapore Central Bank Publishes Updated ICO Guidelines

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has updated its guide for businesses that want to raise capital via initial coin offerings (ICOs). The “New Payments Framework” elaborates Singapore’s central bank stance on how certain intermediaries should observe its instructions based on Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Countering Financing of Terrorism (CFT) policies.

Japan’s Financial Regulator to Issue ICO Guidelines: Report

The Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA) is soon to regulate Initial Coin Offerings. Similar to how securities tokens are required to register with the American SEC in the United States, companies which intend to issue virtual currencies in exchange for investments will be required to register with the FSA. It seems the proposed laws and regulations would not only impact ICOs wanting to operate in Japan, but would limit Japanese citizens in their investment into ICOs generally.

Oil Giants BP and Shell Launch Oil-Trading Blockchain Platform

British Petroleum (BP) and Shell have launched a blockchain-based oil trading platform which is hoped will revolutionise the market. The platform offers a more streamlined commodity-trading process, by removing the need for excessive paperwork and centralising the amount that remains.

Nigerian Bank Might Restrict Crypto-Related Accounts

Cryptocurrency is a hot topic in Nigeria. A few days ago, Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar talked about the new technology. He said that the federal government in Nigeria would support blockchain and cryptocurrencies if he becomes the president in 2019. He wants to speed up the economy and argues that blockchain and cryptocurrencies will help his plans to become a reality. […]

Even though Abubakar argues that cryptocurrencies and blockchain is a big part of the economic future, some banks take an opposite stance. Union Bank of Nigeria PLC recently announced that cryptocurrencies are not a legal tender and warned its clients of transactions in them.

Thai Securities Regulator Considers Various STO Classifications for Regulatory Framework

The deputy secretary of the Thai Securities and Exchanges Commission, Tipsuda Thavaramara, has declared that Thai-related Security Token Offerings (STOs) launched in an international market break the law. There is still confusion about how to regulate these kind of offerings, he added: “At the moment, we have not decided whether STOs fall under the SEC Act or the Digital Asset Act, but it depends on the STO’s conditions and the details in its white paper.”

Sources: Bitcoin.com, CCN.com, Toshitimes.com, Cointelegraph.com

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