Showing posts with label canada. Show all posts
Showing posts with label canada. Show all posts

Canadian Government's Recent Actions Show Why 'We NEED Bitcoin'...

Saagar makes the case for bitcoin and all crypto currency given the Canadian government's financial crackdown of the Trucker convoy and those who helped fund it .

Saagar Enjetia and co-host Krystal Ball formerly anchored The Hill's daily news broadcast, and now own and host the independent platform 'Breaking Points'.

Video courtesy of Breaking Points

ICO founder's accounts frozen, luxury vehicles & assets seized! I tracked down the CEO - he claims CONSPIRACY, and he might be right...

The Canadian government has frozen the personal banking accounts and seized assets of the founders of blockchain technology company Vanbex, which was behind the ICO "Etherparty" which occurred in October 2017. The token behind the project trades under the name "FUEL".

I'll mention upfront - I hold no tokens, never have, and have no ties to the company whatsoever.

With that said, upon starting my investigation it immediately became apparent that this case is a bit different from the busted ICO's I've covered in the past. There's a few areas that need clarification until I can agree with either the Canadian government's accusations, or say that the charges seem unfounded and proclaim Etherparty innocent.

Also important to note, no one has been officially charged with any crimes at the time of publishing this article.

THE CLAIMS AGAINST THEM:

Canada’s Ministry of Attorney General asserts that Vanbex "developed no usable products", and claims the funds from ICO investors went right into the founders pockets and personal bank accounts.

They cite what appears to be "sudden and substantial personal wealth” in the founder's personal lives at the same time their company was raising funds, pointing to over $3 million in real estate and luxury vehicles as evidence.

BUT THERE'S A FEW PROBLEMS:

The case against them sounds believable so far - we've all heard this story before, and unfortunately it's usually true.

Problem is, the claims against them aren't entirely accurate, the company has released a finished product, described as a platform to "help you launch and track a token generation event without needing a development team so you can get your  business off the ground" called 'Rocket' which has even been featured in Forbes.  Currently they're even promoting the upcoming release of version 2.0.

I also found this video which was uploaded while the ICO was underway in 2017, showing their product was in beta at the time of fundraising - in the video they're giving a demo of the software which seems functional.

As far as that 'sudden' wealth - who else in the cryptocurrency world suddenly had a lot of money late 2017?  Literally everybody.


GETTING THE ANSWERS:

Trying to make sense of this mismatch of information I tracked down the company CEO Kevin Hobbs, and that's when things really got interesting.

Hobbs claims "Everything they wrote about us is a lie" saying they're being framed by a paranoid former contractor with a history of irrational behavior and making unfounded accusations.

"He makes his money by lying to start ups and then doing no work and then suing them in small claims" says Hobbs. He also says the same source of his problems is going after Google as well, and is one of Canada's best known 9/11 conspiracy theorists.

I then asked him about the sudden influx of money - Hobbs says like anyone who was into crypto before the 2017 boom, his assets shot up in value, specifying "Personal assets not company assets" he explains "We have been in the crypto space since 2013 and would accept newly minted coins when they were pretty much worthless for our fees. Us just like many people all had sudden wealth with the boom happened."

IT ALL COMES DOWN TO THIS:

I did find one thing I consider a valid criticism of the company, but I doubt it qualifies as illegal - the ICO whitepaper implies the FUEL token will be vital to use their products, but they accept payment in Fuel, Bitcoin, and Ethereum. So the token seems to be totally useless, but nonetheless they do accept it as a form of payment.

So the real deciding factor will be - what was the root of the founder's sudden wealth?

Tokens they had accumulated since 2013 and a powerful bull market? Or did investor's funds make their way from the company accounts, and into executive's personal ones?

Both options are familiar, and believable.

Share your thoughts - tweet us @GlobalCryptoDev If you're an insider with additional information you can reach us and remain anonymous at Newsroom@GlobalCryptoPress.com

-------
Author: Ross Davis
E-Mail: Ross@GlobalCryptoPress.com Twitter:@RossFM
San Francisco News Desk

Canadian banks fail miserably at slowing down cryptocurrency purchases...

With The Bank of Montreal (BMO) now joining Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD Bank) in blocking cryptocurrency exchange purchases within Canada - smart Canadian's are proving their efforts to be useless.

Credit-card based purchases have been blocked in numerous countries for some time now, and that's hardly surprising. While my personal belief is that someone has the right to decide their own risks - I can also see the bankers point that using credit cards (technically loans) to buy cryptocurrency falls under a 'high risk' transaction category, so they can at least make an argument for blocking such transactions.

But these Canadian banks took things a step further - actually blocking people from using their own money - not just credit, but even debit card transactions. Which frankly - is pretty disturbing.

Not surprising - the Canadian cryptocurrency community isn't putting up with it - trade is alive and well in Canada despite these bankers best efforts to interfere.

They're using a number of alternative methods exercize their freedoms.

First, leaving these corperate banks alltogether. Local credit unions and co-operative financial services providers are easy to find and join in pretty much every city across Canada.

Then of course, there's Bitcoin ATM's.  Simply withdraw cash from your bank, deposit it into a Bitcoin ATM and have the cryptocurrency issued to your digital wallet.  Once you have paper cash in hand, the bank loses control over how you use it.

Lastly, sites that connect traders directly with each other like localbitcoins.com and there's even one specific to Canada, cancoin.co.  These sites are reporting usage up 400% in response to these recent moves by Canadian bankers.

Thanks to the strength and wits of the Canadian cryptocurrency community, they're giving the banks a hard pill to swallow - they can't, and won't be stopped.

-------
Author: Ross Davis
San Francisco News Desk