Utocat announces its first fundraising of 500.000€ from Business Angels, BPIFrance and the investment fund Leap Ventures. The objective is to strengthen the API Blockchainiz and to accelerate its commercialization.

Utocat in a few words
Utocat was created in October 2014 by Clément Francomme to help merchants accepting bitcoin payments and converting it directly in euros. In 2015, Utocat joined the EuraTechnologies acceleration program and pivoted to propose Blockchainiz : the dedicated access platform for Banks and Insurance companies. Laurent Koszyczek and Alexis Mévellec partnered with Clément Francomme to improve the technical and commercial aspects.

Blockchainiz API
The platform has been quickly adopted by major Banks and Insurance companies. Blockchainiz simplifies the use of the blockchain : Workflow for non­public shares, interbanking flows, lifecycle for a life insurance or identity verification. Hence, the API enables clients to save costs, reduce delays and increase security especially for their long processes. The customer experience is naturally improved.

After the fundraising
This fundraising will consolidate the platform as Utocat expands its technical team. The commercial team will also be strengthened to accelerate the adoption of the product. The fundraising confirms the position of Utocat as a major actor in blockchain technology for the bank and insurance sector in Europe.

Clément Francomme, CEO: "The Blockchain technology is now a topic seriously taken by banks and insurance companies : it is going forward. Our clients appreciate the fact that our product focus on their activities".

Edward Majerczyk, 28, of Chicago plead guilty to hacking and illegally gaining access to over a hundred people’s private emails and iCloud accounts. Reports say that over 30 celebrities were hacked as well.

Majerczyk’s official charge was computer fraud, and was issued in an Illinois Federal Court. Between November 2013 and August 2014,  Majerczyk operated a phishing scheme by sending fraud emails that appeared to be from the victims’ Internet Service Providers. By doing so, he obtained over 300 username and password combinations for Gmail and Apple iCloud accounts. Over 30 of those accounts were reportedly private celebrity accounts. Personal data along with photos and videos were all stolen from the accounts.

Majercyk’s sentencing has been scheduled for January 10, 2017. He faces up to five years behind bars. Court documents suggest he will likely serve under the maximum time.

A Spokeswoman for the FBI commented:
“The defendant’s acceptance of responsibility for his role in the intrusion of his victims’ accounts and their personal lives is a welcome development in this continuing investigation. All of us who use personal phones or devices must protect our data with strong passwords and two-factor authentication, as well as to be cautious of solicitations that can compromise our private information.

UnoCoin Continues To Attract Attention
It is good to see the UnoCoin exchange raise a lot of funding to improve their services. Bitcoin exchanges have somewhat of a negative reputation, particularly due to a fair few of them getting hacked. The recent Bitfinex incidents go to show that there is no ultimate security when dealing with other people’s money.

Despite that potential drawback, investors see the benefits offered by UnoCoin. With over 100,000 users in India so far, it is clear UnoCoin is driving Bitcoin adoption in the country. Together with ZebPay they are one of the two most popular Bitcoin companies in the region, and both hold an international level of recognition.

UnoCoin has always wanted to become the Coinbase of India, although that is no easy feat. Then again, they have become India’s largest Bitcoin exchange since launching in December of 2013. With this new round of funding the company and its staff can continue to move forward and improve upon existing services.

What is rather interesting are the investors themselves. Digital Currency Group is no surprise to anyone, nor is Boost VC. At the same time, several Indian investors, such as Mumbai Angles and ah! Ventures took part in this fund raising round. This seems to indicate Indian enterprises are slowly warming up to Bitcoin for its innovative purposes.

The story of UnoCoin is quite an interesting one. Back in 2013, there was no option to buy bitcoin locally in a convenient manner, so the team created their own platform. Three years later they have already seen significant successes. Every country could do with one or multiple local exchange platforms, as it can pay dividends very quickly.

Silk Road On The TV Screen With American Greed
Several TV shows have paid attention to Bitcoin and the darknet throughout the years. Nearly none of these spotlights on cryptocurrency has proven to be even somewhat positive, though. The only exception is “Mr. Robot” season two, which seems to paint a very different picture about Bitcoin than most people have been told by the media.

American Greed is a very different creature in this regard, as it is not a Hollywood-scripted TV show. Instead, it puts the spotlight on famous events and collects witness testimonies, as well as the opinions of security experts. This could be a great way to tell the real story about Silk Road and what the FBI and corporate media want one to believe.

At the same time, American Greed may not be the best stage for a Silk Road discussion, either. While the TV show should be on everybody’s watch list– there are plenty of scams out there, trust us–their “angle” to every story is how people steal money. Silk Road, and more importantly Ross Ulbricht, never stole money from their users, so that doesn’t seem to fit the narrative all too well.

That being said, there were multiple thefts related to the Silk Road case. Law enforcement officials stole Bitcoins belonging to Silk Road not once, but twice. It is doubtful that American Greed would pay attention to this aspect, though, as they may get an unwanted visit from the FBI if they tried to do so.

For many of the International Bitcoin users, American Greed has yet to be made available. So far no one has voiced any comments regarding this episode, although it will be a topic of some debate in the next few days.  For American residents who missed the airing, it will be re-airing this Saturday at 9 PM EST on CNBC. 

Moving Away From Deutsche Bank Before The Ship Sinks
Rumors about the demise of Deutsche Bank have been floating around for a few years already. The German financial institution is facing a lot of scrutiny over their practices and fines. Moreover, there are plenty of questions regarding the bank’s financial capacities, as many people feel they have overstretched.

So far there is no real indication Deutsche Bank will be going down anytime soon. At the same time, banks can collapse overnight, which is not putting people’s mind at ease right now. For those who were hoping Germany would bail out its own banks if something were to go amiss, a reality check came in late last night.

The German government has indicated that there are zero plans to provide rescue packages to any failing bank in the nation. Whether it is a small online bank, or even Deutsche Bank, everyone will have to fend for themselves. Such a public dismissal of any help packages will only fuel the fire of speculation regarding Deutsche Bank, though.

This decision comes at an interesting time in which the financial ecosystem continues to struggle. Hardly any bank is achieving projected profits, and customers are withdrawing funds at every possible turn. Many financial experts have always labeled Deutsche Bank as “too big to fail”, but they may be proven wrong shortly.

Things have gone from bad to worse for what once was one of the most successful European players on Wall Street. With multiple lawsuits hitting the bank throughout the years totaling over US$13.5bn, it became apparent that things cannot be maintained indefinitely. Furthermore, DB only barely scraped by the European stress tests conducted to gauge banks’ responses to a looming crisis.  This story will undoubtedly continue over the next few months

Moving Away From Deutsche Bank Before The Ship Sinks
Rumors about the demise of Deutsche Bank have been floating around for a few years already. The German financial institution is facing a lot of scrutiny over their practices and fines. Moreover, there are plenty of questions regarding the bank’s financial capacities, as many people feel they have overstretched.

So far there is no real indication Deutsche Bank will be going down anytime soon. At the same time, banks can collapse overnight, which is not putting people’s mind at ease right now. For those who were hoping Germany would bail out its own banks if something were to go amiss, a reality check came in late last night.

The German government has indicated that there are zero plans to provide rescue packages to any failing bank in the nation. Whether it is a small online bank, or even Deutsche Bank, everyone will have to fend for themselves. Such a public dismissal of any help packages will only fuel the fire of speculation regarding Deutsche Bank, though.

This decision comes at an interesting time in which the financial ecosystem continues to struggle. Hardly any bank is achieving projected profits, and customers are withdrawing funds at every possible turn. Many financial experts have always labeled Deutsche Bank as “too big to fail”, but they may be proven wrong shortly.

Things have gone from bad to worse for what once was one of the most successful European players on Wall Street. With multiple lawsuits hitting the bank throughout the years totaling over US$13.5bn, it became apparent that things cannot be maintained indefinitely. Furthermore, DB only barely scraped by the European stress tests conducted to gauge banks’ responses to a looming crisis.  This story will undoubtedly continue over the next few months

Twitch Wants Its Own Virtual Currency
It seemed to be only a matter of time until Twitch decided to issue its own virtual currency. Rewarding streamers and viewers for their loyalty and activity is a smart business strategy. In fact, avid Twitch users won’t have to set up anything, as the company will take care of every single aspect of issuing and using Stream+.

What these points will be used for remains a bit vague right now. Amazon Game Studios’ Patrick Gilmore told the BBC the Stream+ currency could be used for polls and wagering. Moreover, there are plans to make them usable for items to use within games. No specific titles or items were mentioned at the time of publication, though.

That being said, there is one game that has been confirmed to use the Stream+ currency. Amazon Game Studios will release Breakaway soon, which is a multi-player game designed to compete with the likes of Activision Blizzard, Riot Games, and Valve.
There is one worrisome aspect about the whole Stream+ ordeal. Neither Amazon nor Twitch is keen on releasing critical information regarding the inner workings of this currency. It remains unknown how these points will be issued, how many there are, and whether or not they will use a distributed ledger.

More importantly, gambling regulators are taking a closer look at exports and gaming services. Since bettors can wager on these games through dedicated platforms– including with cryptocurrency — this decision to issue a native virtual currency comes at an interesting time. Whether or not the Stream+ currency can be exchanged against real money remains unknown for now.