The future of blockchain in Canada and Voting, Ripple and Bitcoin making moves | CRYPTO NEWS #9

Hello, this is Benjamin Davis with cointelegraph's Blockchain News. Voter turnout, it's one of the biggest problems we face every election, especially in elections like this last year, where sitting on the couch with a bag of Cheetos feels a lot more productive than having to actually put pants on and go vote. But what if you could vote pantsless, covered in what I'm sorry to say is not cheese? Well, that's the question that Kapersky Lab has decided to start trying to answer. Using blockchain technology, they've created a secure online system called Polis for people to vote. The company released a statement on their website which read that voting imposes extremely stringent requirements on the security of every aspect of voting. We believe that the blockchain technology is the missing link in the architecture of a viable online voting system. This technology hopes to make it so that on election day, you can just roll over, close that fake news article that Russia just sent you, and vote. You can try this technology out now by clicking the link below. Canada has decided to embrace blockchain, and they're not sorry about it. They're creating an instantaneous and secure way for Canadians to prove their ident. So how will this work? Well, all of your data will be stored on one device in one place and accessible by using a private key, which only you have. When you need to share this data, you simply give the private key through the blockchain to an institution. Then they can verify everything instantly. Companies will not have any internal storage, so your information will remain safe with you. So how does this help? How does it change your life? This system provides a simple solution for customers who want to keep all of their data in one place. So no matter what company gets hacked, no one will have access to your information. So, to give you an example, say if you want to sign up for a credit card at a store, all you have to do is give your secret key and the company can confirm all of your data right there and then without it being sent through a potentially hackable system and then stored in a potentially hackable central database. Now, for our tip of the day. As with all things, we hope for people to be generally decent. Unfortunately, the combination of anonymity and the potential to make money can lead to multiple obstacles. When getting into cryptocurrencies, there are many, many scams out there. But for today, we're going to focus on what's called a pump and dump, and more importantly, planned pumps and dumps. This is when a group of people inflate the price of a coin and then dump it all while the price is high, causing the coin to crash. It appears on Telegram. There's a lot of these planned pumps and dumps happening. There are these groups being created where people subscribe and they're given information about certain pumps. They get subscribers to buy a certain coin, pumping up the price. Then they go out and they get more and more people on social media to buy until the price is sufficient. Then they announce it to the group to sell all at once. And when they do, there's a massive panic. Everyone sells and that causes the coin to plummet. And those who've been roped in are the ones left holding the empty bag. It's an unfortunate reality that schemes like this exist, but it's important to be aware when something is too good to be true. Especially on the Internet. With all of these wild success stories surrounding crypto, it's easy to get roped into a potentially lucrative investment. But watch out or you might get dumped. They do it so, so skillfully. So sneaky. Did you think it was your id? And now for financial news. With adoption of cryptocurrency into regulated markets becoming more and more of a reality, Amex has announced a partnership with Ripple. For now, it is specifically for business to business payments for US and UK customers. Banking with Santander uk, which will provide real time trackable payments. So even if we can never agree on comedy or spelling, common ground can always be carpeted in money. It's aluminum. Amex wants everyone to know that they have no plans to be left behind. In a quote from Amex CEO Mark Gordon. Hey, American Express has a long history of integrating with new technologies. This collaboration with Ripple and Santander represents the next big step forward in our blockchain journey, evolving the way we move money around the world. This connection is not only good for Amex and their customers, but also for Ripple, since they've seen XRP price increase by 17% by press time. There is a lot happening in the bitcoin world right now. After the CME declared its intention to open up Bitcoin futures trading, people rejoiced. Bitcoin has continued to climb as hedge funds have made their intentions to get into the crypto scene known. And trading is set to begin. But there's always a negative Nancy, and that's nothing against Nancy. Nancy's great. We need Nancy sometimes. But it's important to know when Nancy is just a friend having a bad day or the Interactive Brokers Group chairman Thomas Peterflatt who said in a letter that Bitcoin has no fundamental basis. He went on to say that as a CME clearing member, we are deeply concerned with the proposals that would allow Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies currency derivatives to be cleared in the same clearing organization as other products. Because Bitcoin's price can vary from one day to the next and has no basis for valuation, he believes the concept will not work. While this Nancy sounding voice might get drowned out in all this excitement surrounding the new and exciting prospects, it might be important to take a look at all sides of this argument. You can find a link to the full article and copy of his letter in the link below. What do you think? Is this just a negative Nancy trying to ruin the party or is this a reasonable concern? Five years ago I had a friend mention Bitcoin to me and he said, hey man, this is cool. And I looked at it and I said, you're an idiot. I can't help remembering that moment as I'm reading this story about young crypto millionaires buying houses for bitcoins at the exact moment my landlord is calling me looking for rent. Sure, it might be a gimmick to get your house media attention, and sure it might be a bit ridiculous to sell such a stable investment for something potentially volatile, but at the same time, this story is a solid reminder of how much this market has grown and how much potential it has to grow into something so big that by the end of my life, the only thing I'm going to remember in my final moments is that time I turn to my friend and said, you're an idiot. We didn't listen In a survey done by Lendu, 564 Bitcoin investors gave some insight into their future plans, but the kicker being that the average price they'd sell their bitcoins at is 196,000. This is about 30 times what it is now and you can't help but want to go running out to your closest bitcoin exchange. Mouth watering the survey reveals that many of these investors have no plans to cash out anytime soon. Soon with 21% are planning to hold on for at least 7 years and 11% planning to hold on past 10 years. There's been a lot of chatter about bitcoin as a store of value or speculative investment, but what lendedu found was a bit more surprising. According to them, the most popular selection, chosen by 40% of the respondents was I believe Bitcoin is a world changing technology. It is interesting to see that the plurality of bitcoin investors are backing the technology as the primary reason for investing. Often, financial professionals speculate that bitcoin investors are out chasing a big payout. Well, basing your opinion on the investment profile on one survey is not recommended. This report should calm down the rhetoric of accusing crypto investors of dropping their money down a pipe, hoping there's a dream sitting at the bottom. It's always important to remember to make your own informed decisions, and you can start by reading our full report on the survey on Cointelegraph.com thank you for watching. 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