24th January 2018 | Daily Business Digest

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Tussle and Triumph

7 min readJan 24, 2018

#Indian Startup News

#TOPNEWS: PM Modi Meets 40 CEOs At World Economic Forum In Davos

Davos: a sleepy town in the Swiss Alps, which also serves as a popular ski resort. Despite heavy snowfall, more than 2,000 business leaders and 70 heads of state and governments, including Indian PM Narendra Modi, have made their way to Davos for the annual World Economic Forum (WEF).

#6. Microsoft Brings The Era Of Immersive Gaming, Launches Xbox One X In India

One of the world’s leading platform and productivity, company for the mobile-first and cloud-first world, Microsoft launched the Xbox One X in India. The product is said to be the world’s most powerful console according to Microsoft and will bring a new era of immersive 4K gaming and 4K entertainment to local gamers.

#5. RoC Forbids Cryptocurrency Exchanges From Registering Under Companies Act, 2013

While South Korea has asked Bitcoin traders to reveal their identity, India has gone all out to shut all doors pertaining to cryptocurrency trading in the country. As part of the latest move, the Registrar of Companies (RoC), MCA has stopped registering cryptocurrency exchanges under the Companies Act, 2013, reports Business Standard.

#4. Kishore Biyani Takes Inspiration From Alibaba To Promote Republic Day Sale

A regular critic of online retail, Kishore Biyani, CEO of Future Group, plans to entice customers with online games, Facebook live shows etc as forms of entertainment with shopping.

#3. Cab Aggregator, Auto Hailing Contributed 15% GBV Of Online Mobility Sector In 2017

The Indian online mobility market, which encompasses cab aggregator and auto hailing segments, saw a substantial growth last year. As per a recent report by RedSeer Consulting, the two categories contributed over 15% of the industry’s overall gross book value (GBV) in 2017.

#2. Amazon India Speeds Up Amazon Prime Music Launch, Partners With Saregama

Ahead of the launch of its music streaming service in India, multi-national retail giant Amazon India has signed into a partnership with Saregama, an Indian music label, to stream its catalogue of 117,000 tracks spread over 15,000 albums on its upcoming Amazon Prime Music portal.

#1. Just Dial Reports A 23.7% Q-o-Q Decline In Net Profit For Q317, Up 4.2% Y-O-Y

The hyperlocal search engine Just Dial has reported a 4.2% YoY increase in net profit for its third fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2017. However, the net profit has dropped by 23.7% in Q317 to $4.48 Mn (INR 28.6 Cr) from the previous quarter.

#CryptoNews

#1. GPS Based Blockchain For 100Million

TIM is GPS based distributed blockchain.The token supply is designed in a way to achieve “perfect equality” on Lorenz curve. The generation rate, crypto impact fund, pre-mined sizes, ICO size, etc are derived by Lorenz curve simulations. This was a very important step for us because there are almost nill best practices in blockchain fraternity. Unlike bitcoin, which was designed for short supply, and thus led to fame of blockchains but also high entry barriers for many.

#2. More than Half of Russians Know About Bitcoin Now

More than half of Russians have some knowledge about bitcoin, according to a new survey. Awareness is higher among young people and in major cities.

#3. Cryptocurrency Prices Rebound But Uncertainty Still Lingers

After the past few weeks of bearish market sentiment within the cryptocurrency economy, a wide variety of digital assets are starting to gain higher values.

#4. Onecoin Offices Raided in Sofia, Servers Shut Down

Bulgarian law enforcement agencies have raided the offices of Onecoin in Sofia as part of a multinational effort to neutralize what authorities call a “centralized cryptocurrency pyramid scheme”.

#5. Bitcoin.com Launches Bitcoin Cash Notary Service

Back in April of 2017 Bitcoin.com launched a notary service that was based on top of the bitcoin core BTC blockchain.

#6. B2Expand Launches Its Ethereum-Based Game Asset Store

Gaming startup B2Expand has launched the beta version of its game store. The shop is the first in the video gaming space to leverage blockchain

#7. The Rise and Fall of Ripple is a Case Study in Mass Hysteria

Through late 2017 and early 2018, ripple was the darling of cryptocurrency. Mainstream media couldn’t get enough of it, South Koreans couldn’t get enough of it

#8. Indian Crypto Traders Getting Notices From Tax Authority Due to Unreported Investments

The Indian tax authority has sent notices to cryptocurrency investors after discovering that some crypto investments are not reflected on tax returns.

#9. Bill Introduced to Make South Korean Officials Declare Their Crypto Investments

A bill has been introduced in South Korea to require public officials to declare their investments in cryptocurrencies including bitcoin.

#10. Blockchain Rolls Out Trading Feature for 22 States in the U.S.

This week the UK-based company Blockchain has announced it has begun to roll out buying and selling features for U.S. residents.

#11. Game Machine — Game Investments That Connect to the Cryptoworld

Over the past decades, the gaming market has grown dramatically. And PC games section remain as the huge part of the industry.

#12. U.S. Rating Agency to Issue Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Grades Wednesday

Additional Wall Street money might start making its way into cryptocurrency investments soon.

#13. Coinbase to Reopen the GDAX Bitcoin Cash-Euro Order Book

Many European cryptocurrency investors are about to get another venue for investing in bitcoin cash with their regional fiat.

#14. Grayscale Will Launch Stock Split for Bitcoin Trust Shares

This week the sponsor of the Bitcoin Investment Trust, Grayscale Investments has announced the launch of a 91-for-1 stock split of the Trust’s issued and outstanding shares.

#15. Consumer Protection Association Slams Bank for Blocking Transfers to Bitcoin Exchanges

From Israel to Australia, commercial banks in various parts of the world have tried preventing people from entering the cryptocurrency market by blocking money transfers to bitcoin exchanges.

#16. Korean Crypto Exchanges to Share Data with Banks in New Account System This Month

The South Korean government has announced that six major banks will be ready to provide services to cryptocurrency exchanges this month.

#17. Senior Figures Clash as the Tezos ICO War Heats Up

Tezos, last year’s most notorious ICO, is back in the news and once again it’s for all the wrong reasons.

#18. Samourai Wallet Introduces Bitcoin via SMS Text Message for Censorship Resistance

Bitcoin privacy wallet pioneers Samourai Wallet have announced a new proprietary app called Pony Direct, a transaction payment method or to act as a relay to send bitcoin via short messaging service

#19. Russian Bill Requires Deputies to Declare Their Cryptocurrency Investments

The bill for the regulation of cryptocurrencies in Russia submitted by the finance ministry and the central bank requires State Duma deputies to declare their cryptocurrency investments.

#20. South Korean Exchange Korbit Stops Serving International Citizens

South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges implementing new infrastructure systems that comply with the country’s financial regulations.

#21. 10% of Funds Raised in ICOs Lost or Stolen

Close to $400 million USD raised from initial coin offerings have been lost or stolen, a new research has found.

#22. Nvidia Tries to Limit GPU Sales to Cryptocurrency Miners

After years of enjoying the increased demand from cryptocurrency mining, GPU manufacturers have begun to signal they might not be too thrilled about miners overcrowding the market.

#23. South Korean Card Companies Block Transactions to Overseas Cryptocurrency Exchanges

South Korean card companies are reportedly working on blocking payments to overseas cryptocurrency exchanges. Currently, 20 major crypto exchanges are blocked but that number is expected to increase.

#24. Northern European Bank Nordea Confirms Bitcoin Ban for Employees

As News.Bitcoin.com learned two weeks ago, one of Europe’s largest banks, Nordea, will enact a company-wide policy to effectively ban its employees from owning or trading in cryptocurrency

#25. Bitflyer Launches in Europe — Now Licensed on Three Continents

Japan’s leading cryptocurrency exchange Bitflyer has launched in Europe after obtaining a license to operate in the European Union.

#26. Hydro-Quebec Unable to Meet Energy Demand From Cryptocurrency Miners

Hydro-Quebec, the largest state-owned utility in Canada, appears unable to meet the electricity demand from cryptocurrency miners seeking to establish operations in the energy-rich province.

#27. Tax Loophole Closing For South Korean Cryptocurrency Exchanges

The South Korean government is working on taxing cryptocurrency transactions.

#28. Tezos Swiss Foundation Concept is “Old, Inflexible and Stupid”

The drama from Tezos just keeps coming. A top attorney in the cryptocurrency space, once involved with setting up the Tezos Foundation, has issued sharp cautionary notes

#29. As Blockchains Grow Bigger, Full Node Counts Increase

Back in 2016, the number of full nodes within the Bitcoin core network was dropping.

#30. Trend Analysis Reveals the Most Loved and Hated Cryptocurrencies

For investors trying to predict market movements, the more data that can be analyzed the better.

#31. IOTA Attacked for Subpar Wallet Security Following $4m Hack

The IOTA project is again the target of public anger and criticism. This time the issue is a feature of the technology that apparently allowed scammers to steal around $4 million

#32. There Are At Least Twice as Many Bitcoin Traders in Brazil as Stock Investors

Bitcoin critics try to attack the cryptocurrency from all angles, but one thing no one can deny is that BTC has now completely captured the attention of the masses.

#33. Your Taxes Paid for a Lot of Blockchain Surveillance Last Year

Governments worldwide have been ramping up regulations for cryptocurrencies and hiring research and blockchain surveillance teams.

#34. Trend Analysis Reveals the Most Loved and Hated Cryptocurrencies