Archive for the ‘Crypto News’ Category

NiceHash Will Initiate Reimbursements to Users Starting February 2nd

31, Jan 2018

NiceHash has announced its plans to start reimbursing all users that were affected by the security breach that happened on December 6th last year starting this Friday, February 2nd. The NiceHash Repayment Program will initially reimburse 10% of the old balance amount to all users that were impacted by the security breach. NiceHash will continue to periodically repay the remaining amount to all users in the coming months until the full amount from the old balances is paid back. The old balance will be repaid in Bitcoins (BTC) and not in the fiat value or any other cryptocurrency…

Repayment program for internal wallet users
Users that were registered on the NiceHash platform before December 6, 2017 can log in to their account and can see their old balance tab under the Wallet section on their Dashboard. The old balance shows the total amount of Bitcoins (BTC) that users had on their wallet address prior to the attack. This balance will be fully reimbursed by NiceHash to users current balances, starting with the initial ten percent of the total amount on Friday, February 2, 2018. Registered users should enter the Repayment program by clicking the “Enter repayment program” button on their Dashboard. Users will be notified about all future payments in advance.

Repayment program for external wallet users
Users who were not registered with NiceHash at the time of the attack and were using the NiceHash service with their external wallet address will also be reimbursed in the same way as internal wallet users. External wallet users can go to the dedicated page and enter their external wallet address (that they were using at the time of the attack) to see their old balance. This balance will be fully reimbursed by NiceHash to users external wallet addresses, starting with the initial ten percent of the total amount on Friday, February 2, 2018. Users will also be able to monitor repayment progress on the miner page.

Conditions for payment to external wallet addresses do apply with the Repayment program. When you reach 0.01 BTC you are eligible for payment. NiceHash will include your old balance in this amount. For example, if your old balance (that is going to be reimbursed) is 0.009 BTC, you still have to mine an additional 0.001 BTC to this external wallet address so you reach 0.01 BTC in total. Once the combined balance shows 0.01 BTC, payment will be made to your external wallet address.

– For additional details about the NiceHash crypto mining platform and their services….

WaveCrest Terminating Prepaid Crypto MasterCards as Well

24, Jan 2018

It seems that WaveCrest is also terminating their prepaid MasterCard cards powered by crypto currencies, but unlike the sudden surprise at the beginning of this year with their Visa issued cards, now at least it is not entirely “effective immediately”. There is 1 month grace period for users to either use the funds or withdraw them, though loading up money to the card has been stopped effective immediately. Below is a quote of the official email that WaveCrest has been sending to its customers regarding the situation…

Dear Cardholder,

We regret to inform you that from the 27 February 2018, we will no longer be able to service your MyChoice Prepaid Debit Card.

You should, therefore, use up or remove any balance on your card before that date. We will block the loading of new funds to your card effective immediately to help avoid any balance remaining on your card. You will be able to request that any remaining balance on your card after 27 February 2018 be refunded to you in line with the Cardholder Agreement.

Unverified cards must be verified in order to be eligible for a refund. Please note that any funds that remain on your account after this date will continue to be subject to the terms of the Cardholder Agreement (other than as set out in this email). You can find the Cardholder Terms here.

Please also note that we have taken the decision to set new daily ATM limits to EUR 1000/USD 1000/GBP 800 for transaction inside the SEPA region; transaction outside of SEPA will be limited to EUR 500/USD 500/GBP 400.

We apologize for any inconvenience caused. If you have any questions, please contact us at support15@xxx.com.

Kind regards,
WaveCrest

It seems that the crypto services offering prepaid MasterCard bank cards powered by Bitcoin and/or other crypto currencies will need to find an alternative issuer for their customers, just like the ones affected by the WaveCrest VISA ban form earlier that month. It is a fact that the main issuer for most of these services, at least in Europe, was WaveCrest using Visa along with some using MasterCard. The services that were surprised at the start of the year are reporting that they are already working with new card issuers to restore their functionality, though it could still take up a few more months. Meanwhile other innovative financial services that are not originally crypto oriented may use the opportunity to gain a lot of new users by providing attractive and useful services and maybe even slowly introducing cryptocurrency support.

bitFlyer, The Largest Japanese Crypto Exchange Now in Europe

23, Jan 2018

bitFlyer, the largest Japanese cryptocurrency exchange has been granted payment institution (PI) license to operate in the European Union (EU) and is now accepting registrations for users from EU. It is interesting to note that this has become the first Bitcoin exchange to be regulated in Japan, the US and Europe, making it the most compliant virtual currency exchange in the world at the moment. The Japanese crypto market is booming and thanks to bitFlyer users from Europe and USA should be able to get access and trade Bitcoins on that market.

The not so good news at the moment is that bitFlyer’s initial product offering is only the BTC/EUR pair, though the already has company plans to add support for other virtual currencies such as Litecoin (LTC), Ethereum (ETH), Ethereum Classic (ETC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) later in the year. bitFlyer Europe is offering zero percent trading fees as an introductory promotion until the end of February 2018.

There are two account classes available at bitFlyer at the moment, one is Trade and the other one is Trade Pro with the difference being the limits you get. The catch with the standard Trade account is that your virtual currency deposits will be put on hold until your make your first EUR deposit. The Trade Pro option does require an ID and residential proof and unlocks unlimited deposits and withdraws of crypto and EUR. It is not yet know how much time a verification will take with the recent peak of registrations of new users in pretty much every open crypto exchange on a daily basis. Our experience however has shown that it is a good idea to register early and avoid possible issues later on, even if you do not start to use an exchange immediately.

– To check out the European branch of the bitFlyer cryptocurrency exchange…


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