ShapeShift’s new identity policy is tearing the cryptocurrency community apart

Cryptocurrency exchange desk ShapeShift recently announced that it’s abandoning its “no accounts” model of trading, and the community is not impressed.

ShapeShift currently allows users to trade digital assets on its exchange without having to register or signup, but it will soon require them to verify their “basic personal information” as part of its new “loyalty program.”

It’s likely that the increasing regulatory hurdles are the reason behind ShapeShift’s decision, but the company hasn’t made any official statement on it. Instead, the company tried to mask the announcement under a “special benefits membership program” — except that the membership is mandatory for all its users.

If you ask cryptocurrency experts on Twitter, ShapeShift would be better off shutting down its business than make such a drastic change to its operating model.

Monero Project Lead Riccardo Spagni (better known as Fluffypony) also criticized ShapeShift’s move. As per him, the purpose of cryptocurrencies is to remove intermediaries from financial transactions. Cryptocurrency businesses running on a centralized model are no improvement on existing financial institutions, and should rather shut down.

At least that’s what Fluffypony says he would have done, if it was his company in ShapeShift’s place.

Some of ShapeShift’s partners are already talking about discontinuing their support in light of the announcement.

Yet, at the center of the criticism is Erik Voorhees, the CEO of ShapeShift. Voorhees has been associated with the industry since its early stages, founding at least two other successful cryptocurrency businesses, Coinapult and Satoshi Dice. Not just that, Voorhees has been a staunch supporter of ensuring that cryptocurrencies can be traded without any intermediaries.

Another twitter user, Vijay Boyapati, pointed out that ShapeShift’s new policy directly contradicts Voorhees’s own critique of centralized cryptocurrency exchanges from a few years ago.

Not everyone is so harsh on Voorhees and ShapeShift though. According to some Twitteratis, all cryptocurrency businesses are giving in to the regulatory crackdowns one by one, and ShapeShift is no exception.

Other users are also pointing out that people criticizing ShapeShift now could end up suffering the same fate. After all, when it comes to cryptocurrency businesses, it is all one and the same for governments.

It definitely seems unfair to target ShapeShift for introducing know-your-customer (KYC), at a time when governments are increasingly cracking down on cryptocurrency businesses. Almost all of the largest companies in the industry have either agreed to abide by the regulations , or shut down their business. But the route ShapeShift has taken is definitely odd.

The company could have simply stated that it’ll now be collecting user information for regulatory reasons, instead of saying that they are introducing a “mandatory rewards program” for all its users — not to mention introducing a new cryptocurrency along with it.

Nevertheless, it’s a severe blow to autonomous and private trading of cryptocurrencies, as the number of reliable exchange desks allowing trade without identity verification grows thinner and thinner.

Microsoft’s Bitcoin ban is likely a temporary measure [Update: It’s back]

Update (January 10, 2018): Australian media outlet newom.au reports that Microsoft has resumed accepting Bitcoin as a mode of payment after temporarily halting cryptocurrency transactions earlier this week. A spokeswoman confirmed the move, saying:

Our original story follows.

Microsoft yesterday stopped accepting Bitcoin as a payment method for adding funds to users’ Microsoft accounts. However, a Microsoft employee with direct knowledge of the matter told TNW the move is a temporary one.

This isn’t the first time the company has temporarily halted Bitcoin payments since it started accepting them in 2014. In a strange series of events in March 2016 the company briefly stopped accepting Bitcoin before retracting what was described as “an errant post” and accepting the popular cryptocurrency again.

There’s still no official word from the company, and our sources wouldn’t cite exactly why the move was made, but news outlet Bleeping Computer reports market volatility may be the cause.

Bitcoin’s volatility has certainly been on display as of late, with the coin’s value fluctuating between $10,000 and $20,000 over the last three months — and no end in sight.

At this point Microsoft hasn’t released information concerning how much Bitcoin the company processes or how many users are affected. According to MSPowerUser , it looks like those trying to complete transactions are seeing the following message:

However, at the time of this writing, the support page for adding Bitcoin to a Microsoft account is still up and unchanged.  If this is by design we can expect the ban to lift sooner rather than later.

South Korea launches training to create the next generation of blockchain experts

The South Korean Ministry of Science and Technology has taken a big step towards training its very first batch of blockchain “specialists.”

The ministry’s Information and Communications division revealed it hosted its very first blockchain-focused lecture yesterday on September 3, local outlet Kinews reports .

This marks the start of a $90 million USD (100 billion won) investment by the South Korean government to roll out its “blockchain technology development strategy” course.

Applicants for the training course were selected through a series of applications, and interviews, there were 42 successfully selected for the course.

The scheme will see students undertake eight hours of daily tuition and training on the tech for the next six months, with the aim of creating experts, who can be put straight to work after graduation.

It would seem that these “experts” will play a vital role in actioning South Korea’s blockchain vision.

Indeed, academic interest in the technology is not limited to government research and teaching. A recent survey undertaken by Coinbase showed that nearly half of the world’s top universities now teach at least one course on blockchain.

Considering how popular cryptocurrencies are in South Korea, it’s good to see the government is trying to ramp up  education in the area. It will be interesting to see what talent the new training program breeds.

Perhaps the first graduates can one day hop over to neighbor North Korea and share their knowledge at the country’s first international blockchain conference.