🔥From Thursday events:🔥

• The new Law on Blockchain in Arizona;
•  The Japanese research group sets guidelines for the regulation of ICO;
•  Unauthorized mining on the outskirts of Washington; 
• Japan strengthens cybersecurity; Small drops on stock exchanges.

• The new Blockchain Act in Arizona:

After the US governor signs a new law, corporations in Arizona can store and share data on Blockchain. Presented for the first time by Representative Jeff Weninger, the Act introduces amendments to the regulations in order to recognize data stored and stored in systems using this technology.

The Arizona Chamber of Representatives passed a bill within eight days of its introduction, and the Senate more or less a month later. While the Senate unanimously voted in favor of passing the bill, four representatives of the House voted against or abstained.

The improvements appeared a year after Arizona began to recognize the signatures registered on Blockchain and intelligent contracts as legal documentation. New regulations arise due to the growing interest in the use of Blockchain technology in US state governments.

Lawmakers in Delaware adopted similar measures in 2017, becoming the first US state to provide a legal basis for share trading using Blockchain. Similarly, the act introduced into the legislature in Nebraska in 2018 allows the state to recognize smart contracts and documents stored on Blockchain. The law will also "authorize and define smart contracts", and also allows the government to adapt DLT technology.

• The Japanese research group sets guidelines for ICO regulation:

The Center for Strategy Development at the University of Tama published a list of guidelines on the regulation and full legalization of initial coinage offers (ICO) in Japan, according to Bloomberg.

The list of guidelines from the government-supported research group includes provisions on anti-money laundering (AML), identifying investors, tracking project progress, and protecting existing stockholders and debtors. The Japanese Financial Services Agency will consider this proposal, which, according to Bloomberg, may become law in a few years.

The document sets out emission rules, such as defining and disclosing how to track progress in the White Paper and disclosing potential impacts on shareholders, token investors and creditors.

In addition, the document defines the rules of trade, including confirmation of the identity and adequacy of the customer (Know Your Customer), the adoption of minimal industry standards at auction auctions, and the reduction of unfair commercial practices, such as the use of confidential information.

The document proposes to apply the regulations to three types of ICO: venture, ecosystem type, joint activities between many corporations or government units, and the type of a large company, for internal financing, high risk.

The report clearly identifies ICO as securities, similar to the position adopted by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

ICO is a breakthrough technology, so if we can implement good rules and regulations, they can become a new way to raise funds.

- said researcher Kenji Marashima.

One adviser to the research group, Takuya Hirai, is a member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and one of the architects of the law legalizing crypto-currency exchanges in Japan last year. The other members of the group are Yuzo Kano, head of the largest Japanese Bitcoin Exchange, BitFlyer Inc., as well as experts from the largest banks in the country.

• Unauthorized mining on the outskirts of Washington:

Commissioners of the Chelan Public Utility District (PUD) ordered the personnel to enforce a moratorium on the extraction of cryptocurrencies after the discovery of unauthorized mining activities, PUD informed.

Enforcement measures include fines and penalties, disconnection of the service, reporting of unauthorized network charges to law enforcement authorities as power theft. The proposed fees can be $ 5,000 for unauthorized operations in residential areas and from $ 7,000 to $ 10,000 in commercial space.

Commissioners became interested in the condition and security of power systems after detecting several cases of unauthorized extraction of the digital currency, including in the flat, house and small warehouses. Each point consumed enough electricity to raise concerns about fire safety, because the facilities were not designed for such a load.

According to the managing director, John Stolla, the monthly energy consumption in the apartment has increased from 500 kilowatt hours (kwH) to over 11,000 kwH, which is well above the norm.

What we are talking about is a person who deliberately tries to shirk and use electricity in a way that the object was not designed and does it without bringing in a need for a service that would meet such needs. Again, I see a reason to support the installation of automatic meters in order to be able to confront these bastards before they burn a residential building, or maybe they will kill their family or children at that time.

- says Commissioner Garry Arseneault.

The move of the PUD commissioners is aimed at addressing security issues related to unauthorized operations, such as overloading network equipment, the risk of fire for neighbors, as well as additional costs related to investigations and monitoring of illegal cryptocurrency operations.

Cryptocurrency miners came to some small American cities because of the lower cost of electricity, which is necessary to obtain profits. As a consequence, many small cities are struggling to meet such energy demand.

• Japan strengthens cybersecurity:

The Japanese Department of Metropolitan Police has opened a new Cyber ​​building and assigned 500 of its agents to the law enforcement unit that will deal with combating cybercrime. Cyber ​​will have six branches and will strengthen the cooperation between previously dispersed organs.

This move took place after the January break-in at the Japanese Stock Exchange Coincheck hailed as the largest crypto theft in history, during which 532 million dollars were stolen. In addition to this single event statistics published by the Japanese National Police Agency (NPA) revealed that in 2017 over $ 6.2 million in cryptocurrencies was swindled or stolen.

Thanks to NEM Foundtion's tracking of the missing NEMs with Coincheck, the Japanese police were able to identify and interview a person in Tokyo who was in possession of Coincheck's loot in February. Sources say that by mid-March 40 percent of stolen funds have been washed out and stolen NEM tokens appeared on the stock exchanges in Japan and Canada, as a result of which they were no longer traced.

The Japanese police received 69,977 reports of cybercrime between January and June 2017. The NPA found 200,000 fake shopping sites after the cybersecurity survey in December 2017.

Last year, an average Japanese company spent $ 10.45 million on the fight against cybercrime. According to the global IBM 2017 report, Japan recorded an increase in average organizational costs by 52% as a result of data breaches.

Despite Coincheck and the notorious fall of the Tokyo-based Mt.Gox, it is estimated that about half of the global Bitcoin trading is used by yen. From 2-3 million Bitcoin owners are Japanese, to which 16 cryptographic exchanges are registered under new licenses issued by the National Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA).

• Small drops on stock exchanges:

In the last 24 hours, the stock markets have been declining, but not so much compared to recent days. Looking at the most important currencies: Bitcoin fell by 2%, Ethereum by 0.1%, Ripple by 2.5% and Bitcoin Cash by 3.11%. Litecoin recorded a small increase of 1%, while the background is distinguished by EOS with an increase of 7.1%. The capitalization of the whole market has decreased by USD 2 billion and currently amounts to USD 255.2 billion. The total turnover on the stock exchanges amounted to USD 14 billion.

Source: btcpolska.com