Petro Coin Raises $735 Million!

Blockchain professionals have advise the petro is not likely to draw huge investment. opposition leaders have stated the sale constitutes an unlawful debt issuance that circumvents Venezuela's majority-opposition legislature, and the U.S. Treasury branch has warned it could violate sanctions levied last 12 months.

860K+ People Are Mining Venezuela PETRO Cryptocurrency

Venezuela's Cryptocurrency Is Going Well But Seems Under Shady Management

There is a flurry of information coming this week about its federal cryptocurrency, the petro, though a picture of the job has yet to emerge.

Really, regardless of the media conferences and Twitter campaigns, among the noteworthy questions to emerge concerning the first-of-its-kind cryptocurrency is precisely who is building it, which technologies are now being utilized and which private companies are involved (if any).

The most notable amongst named in the latter category is a comparatively little-known consulting firm named Aerotrading, which describes itself as "the largest blockchain consulting firm" on its own official site.

The social media drive from the Venezuelan authorities highlighted the arrangement together with the consultancy and has included photographs of its representatives meeting with the country's president, Nicolas Maduro.

A Twitter accounts connected to Aerotrading has many tweets posts, all from now, including one which reads: "We're very happy to welcome the #Petro cryptocurrency to the #blockchain ecosystem."

Yet questions remain, such as what role the firm will perform in the launching and use of this metro. Press time is not returned emails delivered to addresses associated with Aerotrading.

As previously mentioned, Maduro introduced that the "petro" back in December, and on Tuesday the government launched a presale which it claims has raised a whopping $735 million over the initial day. Still, the sale was allegedly marred by perplexing messaging, and political figures in the nation have decried the move as prohibited.

No involvement is said by NEM

1 group that has confirmed it's not involved with the petro is that the NEM Foundation, which oversees development of this open-source NEM protocol. After documents published by the government indicated that the NEM network would be utilized as the platform where tokens would be 33, the NEM Foundation was linked into the story.

"The NEM technologies is open to any individual or organization that wants to use it. The NEM Foundation abstains from endorsements. We can confirm that the Venezuela Government intends to use the NEM Blockchain," the team said in an announcement posted to Twitter.

A representative to the Foundation advised CoinDesk within an email the team "is not involved with this project and we're not in a position to control any open source projects."

"The NEM Foundation has a very clear goal to introduce, educate, and foster the use of this NEM blockchain technologies platform on a global scale to all businesses and institutions," the rep included.

Confusion within the Foundation's involvement was triggered by a tweet by the Venezuelan government that inaccurately cited them. Chatter on societal networking implies that the exchange in question is ZeusExchange, which will be based in Russia.

A representative to the trade suggested that its code could be utilized in connection with the project when contacted for comment.

"The part of Zeus Exchange code will be utilized for the upcoming crypto exchange and as part of NEM Blockchain Alliance to most Mercosur nations, Venezuela added," the rep said.

Other uncertain links

Info about other groups linked to the petro project is clear right now.

According to a source, the group supporting cryptocurrency market MonkeyCoin is. MonkeyCoin was launched in according to media statements at the time, and mails were not returned by press time.

A December report from news service El Cooperante joins an additional cryptocurrency project, the loan system OnixCoin, to the petro initiative. As the website recorded on Dec. 13, OnixCoin "is in charge of carrying out the generation of Venezuelan cryptocurrencies."

Additionally, according to Reason that same month, OnixCoin creator Angel Salazar is part of a team that is advising the Venezuelan government on cryptocurrency regulation.

What Are Bitcoins And How Do They Avoid Taxes?

Japan Is Set For Massive Explosion In Bitcoin Acceptance!

Japan is set to for a massive explosion in Bitcoin acceptance. This is after a new law that authorizes the use of digital currency like Bitcoin came into force on April 1, 2017, the text of which was released by Japan’s Financial Services Agency on March 24, 2017. The way is now clear for Japanese merchants to start accepting Bitcoin at stores to make purchases.

Japanese Crypto Investors May Pay Up To 55 Percent of Tax

Japanese crypto traders will pay between 15% and 55% on their profits announced on their annual tax filings this season, Bloomberg reports Thursday, Feb. 8.

The Japanese National Tax Agency had already ruled "last year" that capital profits on transactions of digital currency are considered "miscellaneous income," Bloomberg writes.

The taxation on cryptocurrency profits is higher than the around 20 percent tax levied on profits from stocks and foreign currencies, with the greater percentage taxation applying to those who earn greater than 40 mln yen a year (about $367,600).

In comparison, South Korea had declared in Jan. which crypto exchanges will be taxed 24.2 per cent, in line with the existing tax policy for corporations.

Based on Bloomberg, around 40 percent of Bitcoin (BTC) trading recently has been against the yen, meaning the nation will be given a massive revenue from taxing crypto.

Bloomberg reports that the National Tax Agency is creating a database of teams that are keeping, as well as cryptocurrency investors, possibly to ensure enforcement of the tax laws in Tokyo and Osaka to observe trading.

The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) also reported now that they had created a ten-person team of researchers directed at tracking down crypto consumers that failed to report their profits in their tax declarations.

Japan had recognized Bitcoin as a lawful means of payment back in April 2017, a step towards helping the authorities prevent unregulated trades from hacks and mismanagement such as the Mt. Gox meltdown in 2014.