Today in Bitcoin (2017-07-03) - Colombia, Goldman Sachs Bullish and Smart Contracts, ICOs

Good Morning Bitcoin.

Today is Monday July 3, 2017

My name is Thomas Hunt

And here’s what’s happening, Today in Bitcoin…

The Bitcoin legal situation in Colombia is complex. Bitcoin is not legal tender, but as an investment, you still must pay taxes on your Bitcoin. However it can be very difficult for the government to prove that you have purchased your bitcoin, especially if you bought them with cash or lost them long ago.

Country by country continues to first develop and then refine their bitcoin regulation as each one realizes, that bitcoin is not going away. Ever.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-is-not-legal-so-let-us-tax-bitcoin-colombian-government

A Goldman Sachs analyst says that there could be a fifth wave in the Bitcoin price rise, driving the value of the cryptocurrency up another 50% to $3,915. Despite current uncertainty in the Bitcoin scaling situation holding back the price, there remains great demand, which could always push the price higher.

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/03/goldman-sachs-says-bitcoin-could-rise-another-50-percent.html

In a speech that almost seems like scripted propaganda, Jihan Wu, CEO of Bitmain and essentially the representative of Bitcoin Miners, chided Bitcoin for not advancing technologically and allowing innovations like Smart Contracts and ICOs to fall to the altcoins.

Jihan failed to mention Bitmain’s role in blocking the Segregated Witness upgrade, which may have allowed for many of the same technologies that he claims were lost. Meanwhile Jihan continued to show support for his own Extension block proposal as a means to scale bitcoin. He did not appear to mention the UASF or Segwit2X and the New York Agreement at the conference. For more on Jihan Wu’s trip to The Netherlands, check out Theo Goodman’s interview with him on BitsOnline, links as always in the description below.

https://coinjournal.net/bitmain-ceo-jihan-wu-bitcoin-needs-smart-contracts-icos/

Previously…

Bitcoin’s own Naomi Brockwell, aka the Bitcoin Girl from the incredibly well made Billy Joel song parody of the same name was featured on Fox News’ Making Money program.

Naomi focused on Bitcoin’s decentralized nature and it’s ability to help people in Venezuela by offering them a solid currency to trade with while their currency has been wracked and destroyed by inflation.

Host Charles Payne seemed very bullish on the cryptocurrency despite his previous beliefs; saying that the coin could rise to $1 million a coin and maybe even $1 Billion.

FBI Says Hackers Managed to Extort $28 Million in Cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin and ransomware were a major topic in the FBI’s International Crime Report. Ransomware was on the rise in 2017 with more than $2.4 Million in ransoms paid and 2,673 reports of ransomware infection.

Tech support fraud continued to be a problem as well, raising $7.8 million, the scams proceeding mostly by the false tech support convincing the user to infect their own machine, then charging them in money or gift cards.

There’s no indication that the FBI has any solutions for these problems based upon the summary of the report provided by The Merkle. One could only assume their support for users updating their machines to the latest version as well as asking the NSA to stop storing dangerous 0-day malware for their own use and to instead inform the companies of the security problems, protecting the public’s data.

Meanwhile a unique case in India of a man scammed for Bitcoins he did not receive has led to a kidnapping situation where the man is now demanding a ransom, in Bitcoin. Bitcoin continues to take off in the subcontinent, in the wake of an alleged ponzi scheme known as Webwork that raised $77M including investments and endorsements from several well known Bollywood celebrities.

A luxury private villa has just sold in Switzerland, for a very affordable 863 bitcoin or around $2 million dollars. It is the very first real estate sold in Switzerland for Bitcoin. The villa is located in the Italian canton of Ticino, built in 1954 with an area of around 165 square meters, including a pool, a garden and a view of the lake.

And finally, a breaking story from Crypto Currency News, reporting that South Korea is preparing to regulate and legalize bitcoin. The bill would mandate regulatory approval for the cryptocurrency as well as addressing corporate and personal income tax laws. The bill is only a draft proposal but does follow on South Korea’s Financial Services Commission's announcement that they hoped to regulate Bitcoin some time this year.

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