Blockchain technology has revolutionised the modern world. Transactions and exchanges on a global scale have never been easier, as we begin to unlock the full potential of the blockchain. The implementation of blockchain technology has completely revamped a number of industries. However, so many different blockchain systems are incompatible, interoperability has previously been impossible. ARK is an innovative blockchain startup that seeks to bridge this gap. By incorporating an all-encompassing blockchain network ARK is beginning to realise the potential of the blockchain through "smartbridge" technology.

ALL-IN-ONE BLOCKCHAIN SOLUTIONS

ARK is offering users, developers and blockchain startups a way to communicate across platforms. Using smartbridge technology users from one blockchain can trigger an event in another blockchain such as sending compatible tokens. Once the user from the initial chain executes an order, ARK will transfer the information to the other chain, which is then immediately recorded. This allows for an easy and efficient environment, without the confusion of transferring between different chains for every transaction or smart contract.

ARK is already has fully functioning models with Ethereum, Bitcoin, and Litecoin blockchains, and is rebuilding the ARK block system to allow compatibility. They also offer one-click blockchain deployment which allows other companies to start an ARK clone and build on its pre-compatible chain.

ARK IN CONSENSUS 2018

ARK has the potential for mass adoption by delivering services that consumers and developers equally need. Their aim to create an entire ecosystem of linked chains makes ARK highly flexible, scalable and adaptable. With such a platform, ARK is keen to spread the word. They are now participating in and sponsoring Consensus 2018, one of the largest blockchain conferences in the world.

ARK wants you to get involved! By sponsoring Consensus it will network with some of the the most established players in the sector. By attracting even more innovative minds and enthusiasts, ARK looks to to establish themselves as a market leader and a figure head in the blockchain community.

This year, Consensus will have its 4th annual meeting, which is to be held at Hilton Midtown, New York City, between 14th and 16th May. The event has a real buzz around it, with an expected attendance of over 5,000 people. During the three day event, more than 250 experts will weigh in on various aspects of the blockchain sector. The attendees will be a collection of industry startups, financial institutions, academic groups and tech leaders. These bright minds are welcomed to engage with ARK's all-in-one blockchain solution.

The ARK team are set to be a key figure in the conference, with a booth to accommodate visitors. The team will also provide a meeting room for one-to-one meetings and discussions. The entire event will fully showcase ARK as the team networks with the community. The first day will start with a presentation from ARK, followed by Blockport. These are then follow by a technical presentation from the team, who will fully explain the benefits of ARK.

The second and third day will be filled with insightful meetings and unique presentations. These will take place all day, thanks to the committed ARK team. Some of these discussions will offer great insight into ARK's vision and how they are set to revolutionise the blockchain world. The ARK team can be found in booth #113 and visitors are encouraged to engage in one-to-one meetings or public discussions.

ARK is proud to announce their new chapter that is set to usher in a new era for the blockchain sector. With a fast, decentralised platform the full potential of the blockchain will be unlocked. Don't miss out on ARK at Consensus 2018 and join the ARK community on their exciting expedition.

Do you want to support UNICEF's goal of making the world a better place for less fortunate kids? Turns out now you can, just by visiting a website and volunteering your computer's processing power. UNICEF Australia has turned to crypto mining to fund its humanitarian causes, and it's counting on support from the public. While there have been widespread cases of people's computing power being used to mine cryptos, this initiative is different, as it's dedicated to funding UNICEF as it endeavors to provide humanitarian assistance to children and mothers.

THE HOPEPAGE

UNICEF Australia has launched The Hopepage, a website with a simple interface that calls on visitors to "Give Hope, Just By Being Here." Once one visits the site, he or she is prompted to click a 'Start Donating' button that lets them start donating their computer's processing power right away. One also gets the option to determine just how much of their processing power they will donate, with the maximum allocation being 80%. (It can be dangerous to donate too much of your processing power to mining, as it's a very energy-intensive process.)

The site also explains how the process works. Once you agree to donate your processing power, your computer automatically starts solving algorithms (mining) which earns UNICEF cryptos that it trades to raise funds for its causes. Those funds are used to buy life-saving supplies like vaccines and safe water for millions of children.

For those who would like to contribute to the cause but are wary of mining, the site has an assuring message for them:

Mining is perfectly safe for your computer. If you're ever worried about power consumption, turn down the amount of processing power you're donating.

The site uses Coinhive, a crypto mining service which has in the past been widely associated with cryptojacking, a process in which unscrupulous internet users mine cryptos using people's computers without their knowledge or consent. This is, however, a very noble undertaking for Coinhive, and will have the secondary benefit of restoring some faith in the service, which has gained notoriety for being used to target users of YouTube, Google, and even UK government sites.

A GROWING TREND

While UNICEF Australia is pioneering the use of people's processing power for humanitarian causes, other companies have also turned to using the processing power of their users to mine cryptos, some legally and many more illegally. Among those doing it legally and openly is Salon, a media outlet that is exploring using its visitors' computing power in place of ads. This offer is optional, and one can opt out and instead view ads if they wish.

Among those that have been caught using Coinhive to illegally harvest processing power from users include The Pirate Bay, a digital repository for media content and software. After users found out that the site had been cryptojacking their computers, the site apologized and proposed a more open harvesting of processing power in place of ads. Most of the people who responded to the proposal were supportive of the initiative just so they could avoid ads. Showtime, an American television network, was also found to have been doing the same thing; it had been mining Monero, a privacy-focused crypto, using Coinhive's software.

Bitcoin forks are invariably contentious, but the latest batch could be the most controversial yet. Bitcoin Prime and Anonymous Bitcoin have been labeled as shameless cash grabs that are little more than pump and dumps orchestrated by opportunistic developers. The projects' architects of these schemes, naturally, have hit back.

New Forks Fuel a Furore

The Most Controversial Bitcoin Forks Yet Are ComingRhett Creighton has always been a polarizing figure, but his latest stunt has united a swathe of the cryptocurrency community in condemnation. EOS' Dan Larimer is synonymous with jumping from project to project, but his flitting looks like a lifetime of faithful service compared to Rhett's itchy feet. Having announced a dual fork of bitcoin and zclassic last December, which inflated the price of ZCL and enriched Rhett and his cronies no end, he's now following suit with bitcoin and primecoin to create Bitcoin Prime.

Meanwhile, a separate project is doing another fork of zclassic and bitcoin to create Anonymous Bitcoin which aims to "become the new standard for truly private banking". This means that zlassic will now have forked twice with bitcoin to create a pair of zk-SNARK-based privacy coins – three times if you include zencash, which was also born from a ZCL fork. Zen, to its credit, has since gone on to forge its own community and to differentiate itself from its parent coin. Bitcoin Private, on the other hand, has done little more than infuriate ZCL bagholders, many of whom lost money on the deal. ZCL has now died and been reborn more times than anyone can count, and is currently up 242% in a month.

A Prime Way to Pump a Dead Coin

Primecoin was trading at 80 cents until Rhett Creighton bought a bunch, announced his plan to fork it, abandoned the Bitcoin Private project, and pressed ahead with his latest money-maker. Many of Rhett's claims have stuck in the craw of the cryptocurrency community, who recognize a snake oil salesman when they see one. Some figures, including bitcoin developer Jimmy Song, believe that BTC forks are little more than altcoins or airdrops and don't deserve to be categorized under the bitcoin banner.

Regardless of their status, the approach that developers such as Rhett Creighton have taken to merrily forking coins has come in for censure. He's played heavily, for example, on the fact that Vitalik Buterin once considered building ethereum on top of primecoin, as if this somehow legitimizes the creation of Bitcoin Prime. With primecoin up 350% since the fork was announced, those who got in early – like Rhett Creighton – will profit handsomely whatever happens. At least Rhett is able to see the lighter side of the furore he's caused, tweeting the following:

A Wild Bitcoin Fork Appears

Another bitcoin fork emerged this week, turning up in the unlikeliest of places – Bitfinex. Most major exchanges have given bitcoin forks short shrift ever since bitcoin gold and bitcoin diamond but for unknown reasons, Bitfinex has decided to support Bitcoin Interest (BCI). The coin forked from bitcoin back in January, and Bitfinex intends to issue BCI later this month before launching trading. The utility provided by BCI remains to be seen, whose defining feature is the provision of interest to holders who stake their tokens. Whatever its fate, Bitcoin Interest wasn't born out of a shameless pump of an existing coin, and for that reason alone should prove less controversial than the likes of Bitcoin Prime.

The bitcoin cash (BCH) community understands key principles: Bitcoin should be a peer to peer Electronic Cash system; most users can use SPV wallets instead of running their own node; "second layer" scaling solutions are often unnecessary and problematic. While important, and it places the BCH ahead of others, education isn't only about the scaling debate. It's important to understand all aspects of Bitcoin.

Bitcoin Cash Knowledge is Power

If I were to ask a question: "Why did Bitcoin (BTC) fail its mission to become Peer to Peer Electronic Cash?" — you would likely hear many answers.

Some would say "censorship". Others would point to "centralization of protocol development" or "apathetic, complacent miners"… or even "Nakamoto Consensus doesn't work".

Those answers may be correct to a certain degree. I'll address each of them throughout this series, but there's an overarching principle that connects all of these.

And that principle is this: Not enough people in the Bitcoin community actually understood how Bitcoin is supposed to work.

I say that humbly — it's not that I'm so smart that I can explain how it's all supposed to work, but here's the point: Bitcoin is like a school of fish. We all have to be swimming together. Maybe not in perfect unison, but at least in the same direction.

Isn't it amazing how a school of fish can move together with coordinated body positions and synchronized movements? Scientists do not fully understand it, but it's believed to be rooted in genetics.

So how can we, the BCH community, be like the school of fish, and move together toward our destination without getting chewed apart by predators? Ultimately it boils down to this: Knowledge is power. The most important tool for liberty has always been a well informed populace.

Another word that means the same thing, is: Education.

A Deeper Problem than the Blocksize Debate

Many in the BCH community understand key principles… like how Bitcoin should be a peer to peer Electronic Cash system. Or that most users can use SPV wallets instead of running their own node. Or that "second layer" scaling solutions are often unnecessary and problematic.

Those things are very important. By understanding those (and other) fundamental principles, the BCH community is already well ahead of other communities, and that understanding goes a long way toward the goal of all swimming in the same direction.

But education shouldn't stop with knowledge of the scaling debate. We should understand all aspects of Bitcoin. Technical, economic, social… everything. The more we know, the better prepared we'll be against whatever form a future spectre takes to try to destroy Bitcoin.

As individuals, we should first take the responsibility to educate ourselves, and then educate others. And, perhaps education about the importance of education is the widest-scope principle we can formulate. It's a meme-worthy idea.

In Part 2, we'll take a closer look at consensus, decision making, and the social aspect of Bitcoin.

Written by Jonald Fyookball

Jonald Fyookball (pseudonym) is a cryptocurrency enthusiast, best known as the project leader of the Electron Cash wallet, and for a series of hard hitting articles on the Bitcoin scaling debate. Jonald is a computer scientist, businessman, investor, libertarian, and Bitcoin advocate.

The CEO of Nasdaq said that the stock market could become a platform for trading cryptocurrencies in the future, if the market becomes more regulated, CNBC's Squawk Box  reports Wednesday, April 25.

Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman said during an interview that "certainly Nasdaq would considering become a crypto exchange over time." Friedman believes that cryptocurrencies "will continue to persist," the only caveat being the amount of time it will take for the crypto sphere to mature. Once that kind of institutional regulations set in, according to Friedman, Nasdaq can say:

"'It's time, people are ready for a more regulated market, for something that provides a fair experience for investors."

Nasdaq has already entered the crypto sphere, as earlier today the stock exchange and the Gemini crypto exchange owned by tech investors the Winklevoss twins announced a partnership. Gemini will be able to use the Nasdaq's SMARTS Market Surveillance Technology to alert the exchange to suspicious trade behavior, potentially preventing market manipulation.

Friedman also told NBC that she considers Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) to be securities, a point much debated in the crypto world:

"ICOs need to be regulated. The SEC is right that those are securities and need to be regulated as such."

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) launched a cryptocurrency probe earlier this year. The SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) had also held a cryptocurrency hearing that concluded that while ICOs needed stricter regulations, cryptocurrencies needed smart policies to promote innovation.

The Indian bitcoin community keeps fighting for their rights to operate freely in the country like any other industry. The latest show of defiance is a petition to the court against the actions of the Reserve Bank of India by the operators of a local exchange.

RBI Ban Unconstitutional

Indian Exchange Takes Central Bank to Court Over Bank BanKali Digital Eco-Systems, the company behind the upcoming cryptocurrency exchange Coin Recoil, has appealed to the High Court in Delhi against the recent crackdown on banks providing services to bitcoin related companies by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

According to the petitioner, the RBI directive is arbitrary and a violation of the Constitution of India and the court should therefore quash it. The document presented to the count, which news.bitcoin.com has obtained, explains that due to the RBI Circular the company will not be able to secure banking services that are imperative for the business' operations rendering it "stillborn." It argues that the ban is unconstitutional on two main grounds.

Freedom of Occupation

Indian Exchange Takes Central Bank to Court Over Bank BanArticle 19 of the Constitution of India guarantees citizens' rights to carry on any occupation, trade or business. But by preventing exchanges' access to baking services the government is in affect preventing people from engaging in the business of their choice.

Article 14 prohibits discrimination based on arbitrary and unreasonable classification. The petition explains that the RBI did not provide a clear definition of what constitutes 'virtual currency' and that this ambiguity dilutes any reasonability in what may be alleged as a classification. For instance, reward points such as airline miles may also be unreasonably construed as virtual currencies.

Two months ago the Supreme Court of Israel issued an injunction order forbidding one of the biggest banks in the country from halting the account activity of a local bitcoin exchange. This was a major victory for the Israeli cryptocurrency industry that set a precedent for other bitcoin businesses struggling to get banking services in the country. Hopefully the Indian high court will follow this example, even though there is a difference between the authority of a commercial bank and a central bank. Meanwhile, over 42,000 Indians have now signed an online petition that against the RBI directive.

Kraken, one of the longest-operating cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, is pulling out of Japan. Kraken attributed the exit to the rising cost of doing business in the country, but said that it might return in the future. The exact dates for suspending trading and funding have not been determined yet, and the San Francisco-based exchange promised to contact its clients residing in Japan when this happens.

THE EXODUS FROM JAPAN

Japan has been a pioneer in the cryptocurrency industry, having been the first country to recognize Bitcoin as a legal mode of payment. However, the script has been gradually changing since the hacking of the Coincheck exchange, which saw over $500 million worth of crypto stolen. The nation's Financial Services Agency has since clamped down on many crypto exchanges, which has led to the closure of a couple of them including Mr. Exchange and Tokyo Gateway.

Perhaps the biggest exchange to come under scrutiny from the FSA has been Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange by daily trading volume. Binance had been operating in Japan ever since China outlawed crypto exchanges but was unable to secure a license with the FSA. This has led the exchange to seek alternative locations in which to set up operations, with Malta being the preferred option. According to Japanese media reports, the FSA feared that Binance did not have adequate control measures in place to prevent illegal activities, especially given its large anonymous crypto holdings.

SHIFTING FOCUS TO OTHER AREAS

According to Kraken's statement, which was leaked on Twitter, the suspension of services for Japanese residents will allow the company to shift its focus to other geographical areas and use its resources to improve its services in those areas.

The statement also expressed the company's regret at having to suspend its services for Japanese residents, having served them since October 2014, as well as its hope that in the future, it will reintroduce its services in Japan. However, the consideration of revenue against the costs required to maintain services made it impractical to continue offering them at this time.

While no official dates were offered, the statement indicated that the last day for deposits would be in mid-May, while the last day of trading would be in mid-June. The last day of withdrawals was indicated as being towards the end of June. The suspension of service only affects residents of Japan and will not affect Japanese residents or businesses that are domiciled outside Japan.