QuadrigaCX fails, the troubled Canadian cryptocurrency exchange, has failed to locate millions in customers’ missing cryptocurrency assets since the company’s owner died suddenly in December of 2018. On Monday, Nova Scotia Supreme Court Judge Michael Wood ruled that Quadriga Fintech Solutions Corp, the holding company, can begin bankruptcy proceedings.
Approximately 115,000 customers are owed $195 million USD in cash and cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, following the death of Quadriga’s founder Gerald Cotten. The exchange says Cotton did not reveal to anyone in his organization the private keys that access the cryptocurrencies on his private wallet. To those who did not know the details of the founders death, he died in India following complications from Crohn’s disease.
Quadriga’s court-appointed auditor Ernst & Young issued an April 1 report, asserting that creditors may benefit from the bankruptcy proceedings with the potential sale of the company’s assets, including but not limited to Quadriga’s operating platform.
In March, Michael Wood granted the Canadian crypto exchange a 45-day extension to find more than $100 million in lost Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin SV and Bitcoin Gold.
The court also approved a freeze on accounts held by Cotten’s widow, Jennifer Robertson, and the Cotten estate, including Robertson’s trusts and businesses.
Robertson says that her husband’s death was “sudden and unexpected”, refuting conspiracy theories that Cotten is still alive and that his death was a ruse to escape financial troubles.
QuadrigaCX was believed to be Canada’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, but following the death of Cotten, Ernst & Young says the company’s cold storage wallets are empty.
The next hearing is scheduled for April 18 to address issues involving credit protection and third-party payments processors.
This just goes to show that leaving your private keys on an exchange is very risky business. Do yourself a favor and store them on a trusted hardware wallet that is under YOUR control. Click here to see the latest offers directly from Ledger for an entry level hardware wallet.
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CryptoTrader.Tax Review (2020) | Don’t Let The IRS Steal Your Crypto! (Discount Below)
CryptoTrader.Tax Review – A Detailed Look At This Crypto Tax Reporting Platform Crypto tax coverage can be a difficult and also taxing procedure, with individuals generally making purchases throughout numerous various systems and also complication over crypto tax policies.Nonetheless, it’s critical that individuals obtain their tax obligations done promptly to stay clear of fines and also future effects. When finishing their crypto tax obligations, individuals have a couple of various alternatives readily available to them.
Now, as you know, I believe that taxation is theft. I do not believe that my money spent (crypto or otherwise) should be paid to the government so they can piss it away and give to someone who isn’t willing to create a life for themselves. Having said that, we all know that taxes are unavoidable (for now) and to continue to run a business and maintain any semblance of order in this world, It’s better to correctly calculate your own taxes via this tool, as opposed to letting the government do them for you.
In fact, they don’t even know what their own regulations and rules are, as they left open to interpretation. I am telling you, do this for our own good!
What Is CryptoTrader.Tax And Why Do I Need It?
These consist of computing and also submitting their tax obligations themselves working with an accounting professional or making use of a specialized crypto tax reporting system One such crypto tax reporting system is CryptoTrader Tax which defines itself as the most convenient and also most trusted means to prepare your cryptocurrency tax obligations To figure out if it meets these cases I examined out the system and also have actually given a comprehensive testimonial for our viewers listed below Import Your Trades From Any Exchange.
One of the intricacies of attempting to compute your crypto tax obligations alone is taking care of the substantial quantity of purchases made throughout numerous crypto exchanges. A buck worth for each and every profession have to be developed in order to compute any kind of gains or losses properly.
Therefore when managing a great deal of professions this comes to be a lengthy and also laborious job with mistakes usually made CryptoTrader Tax permits you to promptly import your professions from any kind of exchange by either making use of the API import device or posting your profession background documents.
CryptoTrader.Tax vs. CoinTracking: Which Is Better?
This will certainly allow you to successfully take care of every one of your trading information on one specialized tax platform. Also, when you post your professions, CryptoTrader.Tax instantly develops a reasonable market price and also price basis for them making use of historic information. This substantially raises the rate of computing your tax obligations and also dramatically minimizes the threat of errors.
On top of your profession information, you can additionally include various other crypto revenue from points like airdrops, presents, and also mining. Generating a Tax ReportAfter importing every one of your information, you after that examine your professions prior to creating your record.
For each and every tax year, CryptoTrader.Tax creates an Audit Trail Report, Cryptocurrency Income Report, Short & & Long Term Sales Report, IRS Form 8949, and also an End of Year Positions Report.Generating Tax ReportCryptoTrader.Tax sustains the FIFO, LIFO, and also HIFO accountancy approaches, indicating individuals from nearly throughout the globe can utilize this system for their cryptocurrency tax obligations.
Customers can additionally have their gains and also losses computed in any kind of cryptotrader.tax vs bitcoin.tax fiat money When Cryptotrader.tax price computing your tax obligations CryptoTrader Tax makes use of the very same approaches that tax specialists make use of.
It makes sure that you are paying the right quantity and also not paying too much on your tax obligations. CryptoTrader.Tax has integrated tax-loss harvesting devices to aid you minimize and also counter your resources gains.The system additionally permits you to import your resources gains and also losses straight right into the online or desktop computer variations of TurboTax and also various other tax systems.
Is CryptoTrader.Tax Compliant With The IRS?
CryptoTrader.Tax is Level 1 PCI certified and also makes use of SSL security to make sure that your information on the system is secure.CryptoTrader.Tax PricingCryptoTrader.Tax costs for records as a single settlement per tax period. It has a tiered rates framework in position indicating the even more professions you made throughout the tax period the a lot more you pay this permits those with a handful of professions to pay a marginal quantity and also also for those that call for the cryptotrader.tax vs bitcoin.tax Unrestricted rate the rates is still really affordable.
When you have actually acquired a record, you can make unrestricted alterations to it for that year. CryptoTrader.Tax’s rates alternatives are as adheres to: CryptoTrader.Tax Pricing Plans Users can spend for CryptoTrader.Tax making use of a Visa, MasterCard, or American Express credit/debit card. Nonetheless, it’s crucial to recognize that you just need to spend for CryptoTrader.Tax when you prepare to create your tax record.
This indicates you can develop an account, import your information, and also examine your purchases for free.
Note: If you require records for 2017 or in the past, you can obtain a 15% price cut off the regular record price.
CryptoTrader.Tax Final Verdict
CryptoTrader.Tax uses a complete money-back warranty on any kind of acquisitions. That indicates if you are not pleased with your record you can obtain a complete repayment as long as you request it within days of acquiring How to Create an AccountIt s fast and also very easy to cryptotrader.tax vs bitcoin.tax develop an account at CryptoTrader Tax with the alternative to develop either an Individual Account or a Tax Professional Account. To develop an Individual Account, customers merely require to include an e-mail address and also develop a password.
Tax specialists require to supply their name e-mail and also develop a password CryptoTrader Tax Signing up for an Individual AccountThis procedure takes secs and also when you have actually developed your account cryptotrader.tax price you can promptly begin incorporating the exchanges you make use of publishing your information and also making use of the systems various devices.
You do not require to supply any kind of bank card or settlement information when developing an account OverviewCryptoTrader Tax permits any individual to conveniently take care of cryptotrader.tax price and also compute their crypto tax obligations at an affordable rate. What can take hrs or perhaps days can be carried out in mins on the CryptoTrader.Tax system.
Is CryptoTrade.Tax Legit?
In addition to that, CryptoTrader.Tax makes sure that your Bitcoin tax record is exact and also certified, alleviating the threat of blunders and also paying too much on your crypto taxes. CryptoTrader.Tax Overview. CryptoTrader.Tax’s CEO David Kemmerer was also a visitor on Anthony Pompliano’s ‘Off the Chain’ podcast, where he went over the intricacies of cryptocurrency tax obligations. For those that want to pay attention to this meeting, you can locate it here.
If, at any kind of factor, a customer requires help throughout the tax reporting procedure, CryptoTrader.Tax has a specialist assistance group in position that will certainly obtain your questions solved swiftly. Generally, CryptoTrader.Tax is an exceptional selection for both people and also tax specialists that are seeking to make the tax reporting procedure a lot more reliable.
What do you think? Is there a better tax tracking software for Crypto taxes out there? Let us know in the comments below!
Cheers,
The Crypto Renegade
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How Do We Gain Mass Adoption For Cryptocurrency? Let’s Start With Merchants, First.
How Do We Gain Mass Adoption For Cryptocurrency? Let’s Start With Merchants, First.
Cryptocurrencies have a high barrier to entry.
The underlying technology is complicated, and some claim Bitcoin was initially designed to be inefficient for the sake of providing a trust anchor – creating challenges for smart contracts platforms looking to expand the capacity of blockchains to the world of applications.
As a result, Dapp user numbers continue to remain endemically low. Despite trending narratives like decentralized finance garnering more attention than blockchain-based games and other apps, the road to mainstream adoption remains an arduous task.
Cryptocurrencies, specifically Bitcoin, remain an invention of money more than anything else.
Mainstream app users are not familiar with the advantages that ‘unstoppable applications’ that run on Ethereum offer, nor do they care.
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are not explicitly payment technologies, but fostering more widespread adoption of them by merchants and e-commerce stores might serve to supplement their growth well.
E-commerce is enormous and only snowballing. Retail e-commerce sales are projected to reach nearly $5 trillion globally by 2021, and the advent of better technology, more mobile phone commerce, and dominance of international providers like Amazon will only accelerate that trend.
Fiat payment rails are more than sufficient for the current iteration of e-commerce as payment processors like Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal are integrated with virtually every major e-commerce platform.
If the opportunity for a turning point in the adoption of cryptocurrencies presents itself, it will be because of some monetary advantages they have over conventional payment methods.
For example, according to Shopify, PayPal-enabled merchants accept 79.1 percent of their payments via PayPal.
For domestic payments, PayPal charges a 2.9 percent fee based on the transaction amount plus a fixed fee based on the currency used. For international business, the fee raises to 4.4 percent of the transaction. Fees are not surprising, and consumers and merchants have become accustomed to them with nearly every purchase.
Kroger – the popular supermarket chain – recently announced that they would no longer be using Visa in select stores due to transaction fees. Moreover, Bloomberg reported that retailers pay approximately $90 billion in payment processing fees per year.
Some crypto fans say that cryptocurrencies can provide potential advantages in both fees and censorship, even though they also come with limitations.
First, they have minimal fees as no third-party payment processor is taking a percentage – fees only consist of on-chain transaction fees which are usually a few cents.
Second, since Bitcoin is decentralized and there is no third-party controlling the legacy cryptocurrency, there is no censorship. As the saying goes ‘not your keys, not your Bitcoin.’ If you own your private keys, you don’t have to worry about your transaction not going through, being delayed, or reversed.
So, what’s holding back Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies from being widely accepted among merchants?
Well, we can basically break that down into three primary categories: not enough awareness/users, high barrier to entry, and inconvenience in converting between fiat and crypto.
Reducing the barrier to entry by building better payment solutions with crypto will eventually lead to more awareness and users. Web extensions for using Bitcoin’s LN like Lightning Joule and Casa are already available for easy and instant payments over the web, and BTCPay Server is compatible with leading e-commerce platforms as a plugin – such as WooCommerce, Magneto, and Drupal.
“Accepting cryptocurrency payments leaves more money in the pockets of artists and fans, who’ve been unjustly extorted for too long”, says EventChain CEO, Ashton Addison. “When other retailers realize they don’t need to pay outrageous processing fees. by tapping into a global decentralized payment network, they will adopt crypto payments as well.”
That leaves the biggest problem: the inconvenience of converting between fiat and crypto.
Most merchants do not wish to ‘hodl’ long-term digital assets, and would instead prefer quickly turning received crypto payments back to fiat. Merchants typically have to go through cryptocurrency exchanges, which charge fees themselves, do not have good security track records, and are another third-party in an ecosystem predicated on reducing the roles of third-parties.
Self-hosted payment processor BTCPay Server has a fiat-conversion functionality on their roadmap, but for now, the problem is a marked impediment to further merchant adoption of cryptocurrencies. However, Bitpay has been pioneering an easy way for merchants to easily gain access to accept cryptocurrency payments and instantly convert to fiat for only a 1% fee.
Cryptocurrencies cover a lucrative opportunity of potential technical solutions in everything from advanced privacy to decentralized finance. However, at the industry’s core, Bitcoin remains the flagship cryptocurrency that is empirically an invention of money.
Payments may not be its most attractive property, but more merchant adoption in an increasingly connected globe of e-commerce is sure to be a critical gauge of furthering its mainstream adoption.
One of the most notable realities is that regulation is needed before any sides of the marketplace can switch their payment system completely.
Please sound off below! What do you think the best way to gain merchant adoption’? Do you think we need to focus on something else first? Let me know in the comments.
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D’CENT vs Ledger Nano X (2020) | Which Bluetooth Hardware Wallet Is Safer?
D’CENT vs Ledger Nano X! In this comparison, we are going to do a head-to-head of two of the most competitive and popular new cryptocurrency hardware wallets in this edition of the hardware wallet roundups.
I am going to dive into which of these bluetooth hardware wallets is better and more secure. How big is your portfolio? Do you need mobile AND desktop support? Do you use any 3rd party wallets for integration? Do you need web-based access instead of a required download?
These are all questions you will need to consider when deciding which of these wallets will be best for you. At the end of the day, the coin support is one of the most important factors (besides security) when deciding which hardware wallet is best for you.
Ultimately, if it doesn’t support the coins you want to store offline, it won’t work for your particular situation. So keep that in mind as we dive into what I consider to be the most important factors when making such an important decision, such as choosing a cryptocurrency hardware wallet.
Ledger Nano X: Overview
The Nano X comes beautifully packaged with the device itself, a USB-C cable, a set of instructions and recovery seed cards. The previous bulky buttons that were on top of the device are now seamlessly integrated on it in a way that’s even a bit hard to notice. All in all a beautiful design. The primary features of this device are the bluetooth connection which allows you to manage this device using your smartphone via the iOS and Android app.
Additionally, you can now hodl, store, or manage up to 100 cryptos simultaneously, all without access to your desktop or laptop computer. This is easily it’s best new features, but aside from the upgraded storage capacity and the wireless connectivity, the device itself is now larger, has an integrated 2-function button, and an overall larger screen for verifying transactions. With a trusted device and a more universal charging cable, this makes it much more compelling to spend the extra money to store more coins and one that you can easily take with you as you travel.
Ledger Nano X: Security
Ledger is at the forefront of developing the industry’s device security. How? And in what ways?
CC EAL5+ SECURE ELEMENT
Only Ledger’s devices can claim the French cybersecurity agency ANSSI’s full certification.
The Nano X and Nano S both feature what is called a ‘secure element’. The chip seen below is the next generation chip that comes in the Nano X:
The secure chip meets the CC EAL5+ certification and run’s Ledger’s proprietary BOLOS operating system.
A Secure Element is a secure chip that…embeds intrinsic countermeasures against many known attacks. This kind of chip is tamper-resistant and protects your device to a range of different attacks.”
Ledger Nano X: Coin Support
The Ledger Nano X utilizes the “Ledger Live” dashboard which is a desktop application that allows you to manage all of your coins, portfolio, and potential trades in an easy to use application. You can use this on both an iOS or Android app as well as a desktop.
This app allows you to manage up to 1,100 coins that are supported by the device. However, only about 200 of them are “native” apps. This means that you can manage them directly within the Ledger Live app, without having to connect to a 3rd party wallet, such as MyEtherWallet or MyCrypto. I will leave a link HERE with a list of fully supported coins.
Ledger Nano X: User Experience
Honestly, the user experience is a massive upgrade from the Ledger Nano S. With that said, It has a few usability issues that I find to be quite difficult to overcome. Although this device is physically larger than its predecessor, it still has a fairly difficult to use early experience.
For example, the screen is still fairly small and still cannot accommodate a QR code for scanning. This may not seem like a big deal, but after using several hardware wallets, it really does make a big difference. Using a QR code is not only safer (because it removes the chance of error from manually typing in a wallet address), but it is incredibly faster and makes the entire of transacting offline, a much easier experience.
Although this device has stepped up the quality considerably from it’s latest iteration, I still feel that utilizing an all new form factor could have been beneficial and a little more innovative than replicating their 1st generation device with a few small tweaks.
D’CENT Wallet: Overview
The D’CENT is a mobile and bluetooth connected wireless hardware wallet device. With additional biometric security and the ease of use, this is a contender for the easiest to use mobile and wireless wallet. So how is it different than Ledger Nano X or other bluetooth devices? The Biometric security is a large differentiator here. It’s super convenient and makes it easy to sign and authenticate transactions on the go.
This means if you want to move your crypto from cold storage to a hot wallet, it can be done quickly and easily. A common scenario here would be if you are trying to pay a friend or you’re shopping and want to pay for a product in store very seamlessly. Let’s take a look at the security, features, and price below to go into a little more detail.
D’CENT: Security
The flagship feature of D’CENT is hands down the biometric security feature of the fingerprint sensor. There are some other hardware wallets that communicate with mobile, and can utilize Face ID or Touch ID for extra authentication with their mobile app, but this gives your authentication on the physical device as well. This is a unique and very secure feature that is not used by any other hardware wallet currently on the market.
The hardware wallet features a built-in fingerprint scanner that manages access to the hardware wallet. This security process improves the convenience for the users and enhances the security during access control. It also provides the wallet with fast transaction signing.
- Multi-IC architecture design
- Bank grade EAL 5+ Secure Element (This is the same security chip used in the Ledger Nano X)
- Secure OS embedded on microprocessor
D’CENT: Coin Support
The coin support is varied. The D’CENT can store and support Bitcoin, Ethereum, ERC20 tokens, RSK, RRC20 (RSK tokens), Ripple (XRP), and MONACOIN. To many, this may not seem like it is very much, however, a majority of the major tokens are ERC-20 tokens and all can be supported natively on this device, which is good. I have not come across a hardware wallet yet that supports RSK and RRC20 tokens yet natively, so that definitely makes this an exclusive hardware wallet first for the D’CENT wallet!
D’CENT: User Experience
One of the main features I like here is the option to generate a valid QR code on the large OLED screen of this device as a way to send funds directly from your smartphone to your D’CENT wallet. This is super convenient and truly makes this a wireless and independent device that can be used on the go via the D’CENT app, which also includes a market price section and of course all of your wallets and current fiat amount stored within each one.
What’s also nice is you no longer need to backup and restore this device for firmware upgrades like you do with other devices (although you can, since this device can also support bluetooth and USB connectivity if you choose). This makes this a very convenient choice when considering the ease of use and security when choosing how to secure your private keys.
D’CENT vs Ledger Nano X: Conclusion
Truth be told, these hardware wallets each have their own unique selling points (as you’ve seen above). It really depends on your situation. For example, if I only wanted to “HODL” the main market cap coins and wasn’t looking to build an expansive portfolio, I would choose the D’CENT wallet.
Why? Because the user experience in form factor is better (in my opinion) for ease of use, and overall security and the fingerprint authenticator gives me peace of mind. The Ledger Nano X is a solid device with a great track record and a trusted development team behind them. However, the screen size is not much bigger than their 1st generation device, and the form factor and user experience is much the same.
Overall, if I had to choose between these devices, it would really depend on which coins and the number of coins I needed to hold securely offline. They are both very high quality and fun devices in their own unique way. Having a bluetooth and wireless hardware wallet is really convenient and provides users a way to start using their hardware wallets in real-world scenarios. However, having that extra biometric security is really a game changer.
What do you think? Would you choose the KeepKey over the Ledger Nano X? Let us know down below in the comments!
Cheers,
The Crypto Renegade
NOTE: This post may contain affiliate links. This adds no cost to you but it helps me focus on giving as much value as possible in every single post by being compensated for recommending products that help people succeed.
