Globe and Mail: Bitcoin ATMs in sex trade
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Globe and Mail: Bitcoin ATMs in sex trade
The past week, I wrote in the Globe and Mail about Vancouver’s potential Bitcoin ATM ban and its disproportionate impact on sex workers.
With report after inquiry after investigation suggesting a crisis of money laundering in British Columbia, the City of Vancouver has decided to tackle the problem by targeting what it sees as its lowest common denominator.
Of course, the ATMs are hardly representative of cryptocurrency, and few investors may be mourning their loss. But lost in the news is the consideration of who exactly is using them: some of whom are often on society’s fringes, especially sex workers.
Also, I wrote an essay in The Tyee on the new book Ben Mezrich’s Bitcoin Billionaires, the sequel to his previous work on Facebook that became the movie The Social Network.
Through the adventures of Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, the world’s first publicly known Bitcoin millionaires, the book lays out the changing of the guard in crypto-blockchain.
The idealistic, outsider mentality of the early adopters is being squeezed by the pragmatic, rule-abiding and regulator-pleasing ambitions of a new breed of entrants.
Price action: onward, but gingerly upward
Bitcoin is on the way up, although it could fall slightly in the short term, analysis says. The world’s largest cryptocurrency is at $9,228 (C$ 12,411) as of noon Sunday, Eastern Time, up almost one-fifth for the week, ahead of the official unveiling of Facebook's cryptocurrency. Bitcoin spent the week on an uptrend, surging particularly on Thursday with news that the exchange Binance was entering the United States, and gaining further ground on Sunday, hitting a yearly high of almost $9,400.
Canada: 3iQ’s Bitcoin investment fund
Toronto’s 3iQ is appealing after after the Ontario Securities Commission slapped down its proposed Bitcoin investment fund. If successful, 3iQ’s fund will allow mainstream investors to profit off Bitcoin’s price changes. The final hearing is set for July 12.
Vancouver’s University of British Columbia has announced a blockchain training program for master’s and doctorate students. Calgary’s Southern Alberta Institute of Technology will issue blockchain-based diplomas.
World: Binance in the U.S.; Facebook coin
Binance, the top crypto exchange by adjusted trading volume, is entering the regulation-heavy United States that it has long shunned. Its U.S. division will have the registration necessary to allow U.S. dollar-to-cryptocurrency trading. But before that is running, Binance is banning Americans from its main platform, which currently allows U.S. citizens to participate informally, trading only crypto to crypto.
Facebook’s cryptocurrency, whose white paper is currently for a June 18 release, will be overseen by fellow technology companies such as Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and Uber through an independent foundation. Originally Facebook had ambitions to get Wall Street involved, but found a lack of interest among institutional giants.
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