The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has granted an ethereum-based token a Reg A+ qualification, the startup YouNow said Thursday.

Props is an ethereum-based blockchain token that integrates with streaming platforms like YouNow and XSplit to reward users and creators with tokens.

YouNow – which developed the Props blockchain – announced today that it will begin rewarding content creators with Props for in-app activities that “drive community engagement.” Users will also begin to receive tokens for engaging with the platform. YouNow will begin by distributing a total of 187 million tokens to users and creators, according to an SEC filing.

The video-streaming firm will incentive users to earn Props by offering VIP status and boosting their purchasing power of an in-app currency called Bars. Exclusive items and discounts will also be on offer to Props holders.

Reg A+ is a way to reward early investors, as well as galvanize users around a product by giving them a vested interest. At launch each token was valued at $0.1369, according to the filing. However, as the platform grows, demand for the tokens may rise, and token holders may earn a profit. This incentives Props holders to develop the network.

Additionally, tokens are transferable between different applications and wallets, though they cannot be exchanged for fiat currencies. At this point, there are four applications that have integrated with the token network.

TechCrunch reported that Props worked with the SEC for two years before receiving approval to ensure they weren’t misleading investors or inappropriately raising capital.

In fact, the company pre-sold $22 million worth of tokens to investors like Union Square Ventures, Comcast, and Venrock, among others. At the time, the company wrote, “Pending other uses, we intend to invest the proceeds in interest-bearing, investment-grade instruments, certificates of deposit, direct or guaranteed obligations of the U.S. government, cryptoassets or hold as cash,” in its SEC Edgar filing.

The SEC also recently granted the first Reg A+ qualification to a token sale for Blockstack‘s $28 million offering on CoinList. That token sale officially launched on Thursday despite some initial technical problems.

Props screenshots courtesy of YouNow

A bitcoin price indicator is about to turn bullish for the first time since the early stages of the 2016-17 bull market.

The 50-candle moving average (MA) on bitcoin’s three-day chart is in a solid upward trajectory and looks set to cross above the 200-candle MA in the next few days.

That would be the first golden crossover on the three-day chart since early February 2016. CoinDesk reported on a golden cross for bitcoin’s daily chart back in April.

Seasoned traders often refer to that long-term bull market signal as a lagging indicator. After all, the MA studies are based on historical data and tend to lag prices, which also means they have limited predictive abilities at best.

While that is true for most crossovers, the one that is about to happen on the three-day chart has proved its mettle as a reliable bull market indicator in the past.

3-day chart (2016-2017)

The 50- and 200-candle MAs produced a bullish crossover in three days to Feb. 3, 2016, following which bitcoin’s price charted its way to a record high of $20,000 by December 2017.

A closer look at the chart reveals that the low of $360 printed a few weeks before the golden crossover was never put to test again. In fact, the 50-candle MA consistently reversed pullbacks (marked by arrows) throughout the rise from $360 (February 2016 low) to the record high of $20,000.

What’s more, the bullish crossover happened five months ahead of the mining reward halving of July 2016 and 13 months after bitcoin bottomed out near $150.

This time the MAs are about to produce a bull cross at least three quarters ahead of the reward halving, due sometime in May 2020, and seven months after the bear market ran out of steam near $3,100.

3-day chart (2019)

As of writing, the upward sloping (bullish) 50-candle MA is located at $6,566 and the 200-candle MA is flatlined at $7,438.

The golden crossover will likely happen before the month end, unless prices drop all the way back to $5,000, dragging the 50-candle MA lower. That, however, is unlikely to happen anytime soon.

If history is a guide, then the confirmation of the golden crossover could be followed by a rally to record highs above $20,000. Further, throughout the rally, the 50-candle MA will likely serve as strong support.

Disclosure: The author holds no cryptocurrency assets at the time of writing.

Bull’s eye image via Shutterstock; charts by Trading View

Protestors set fire to paramedic-turned-bitcoin entrepreneur Sphelele “Sgumza” Mbatha’s home, following the collapse of his Ponzi-like “investment scheme,” according to Ladysmith Gazette.

Mbatha’s company, Bitcoin Wallet, promised investors 100-percent returns by investing South African rand in cryptocurrencies. Before shutting down the operation on July 4, Mbatha was believed to have been taking in more than R2 million, approximately $140,000, in cash deposits per day.

On July 9, Mbatha appeared on Nqubeko FM in Ladysmith to explain that some investor’s accounts had been compromised by a phishing scam. In an earlier radio appearance he had said Bitcoin Wallets had “no cash to pay out.”

That evening, rumors circulated through social media that Mbatha had been arrested, leading to a 200 person crowd gathering in front of Ladysmith police station, demanding to see the Bitcoin Wallet’s manager. Tensions were high, as investors had reportedly been unable to contact Mbatha since the company shuttered. One investor was pleading for the crowd not overreact:

https://twitter.com/weezywenzile/status/1148822986562187264

The following morning, reports indicated Mbatha had not been arrested, as the police could “only act if investors open cases against the Bitcoin Wallets manager.”

Wednesday afternoon, another crowd formed around Mbatha’s home, presumably to speak to the manager. Following the home’s ignition, a TimesLIVE spoke to an anonymous person on the scene who said that angry investors were seeking vigilante justice.

https://twitter.com/BathuNgcolosi/status/1148958755486347264

It is unknown how many Ladysmith citizens invested in the operation, but at one point Mbatha stopped taking deposits less than R5,000.

Police uploaded a complaints affidavit “for those who have lost money in the scheme. “The completed form should then be handed in at the Ladysmith police station, together with your Bitcoin Wallets receipt, and a copy of your ID,” they wrote.

As it stands, Mbatha appears to be on the run.

Image via Ladysmith Gazette.

Japan’s interminable winter for cryptocurrency exchanges seems to have thawed.

The Financial Services Agency (FSA), Japan’s top financial watchdog, told crypto news site Bitcoin.com that 110 exchanges are in “various stages of registration.”

In 2018, the FSA, did not grant approval for any crypto exchanges to begin operating in the country. The year prior, the agency had approved 16 new exchanges.

Additionally, in 2018 the FSA began issuing “improvement orders” to preempt potential cases of fraud or KYC noncompliance and started conducting on-site inspections.

“BitFlyer, amongst other top exchanges in Japan, received the improvement order based on a changing regulatory climate in Japan,” a bitFlyer representative said. The company voluntarily stopped opening domestic customer accounts for those looking to join the platform, as it worked to meet the FSA’s stricter identification requirements.

Now it appears the climate is changing again.

On July 3, bitFlyer announced it would resume processing new accounts. Additionally, according to Bitcoin.com, in the first six months of 2019, the FSA has granted approval to 3 additional crypto exchanges, bringing the total amount of operators to 19.

While details for the majority of applications for new crypto exchanges are scant, Bitcoin.com reports many are in a preliminary stage.

If approved, these exchanges will need to comply with newly introduced obligations in the Payments Services Act and Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, enacted by the Japanese legislature on March 31 to take effect in April, 2020.

The acts introduce expensive licensing fees as well as extensive protocols for data protection, customer on-boarding, and custodial safeguarding.

FSA image via Shutterstock

Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin, head of the Brooklyn-based venture studio ConsenSys, is moving to appease employees who say they’re fed up with unfulfilled promises about equity disbursements.

Out of seven current or former ConsenSys employees interviewed by CoinDesk, four said they felt misled about the company’s employee share options. Although most employees are verbally and contractually promised they will soon have an opportunity to obtain ConsenSys shares, few receive it or are able to use it, said the sources, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Now, after a year of discontent, ConsenSys is imminently expected to announce an official policy regarding employee share options, according to one of the sources. ConsenSys declined to comment for this article. We will update if we hear back.

“People would bring it up in town halls and Joe would say, ‘We’re working on it,’” one source said about Lubin’s repeated verbal assurances. “I didn’t know how important equity was or that I should fight for it. I definitely felt taken advantage of in that sense.”

With regard to shares for ConsenSys proper, which slightly over 100 early employees have allegedly received but few have tried to sell, another source who did receive equity added:

“If there’s no public offering and there’s no buyback program from the company, then that equity is not valuable.”

According to one source with knowledge of the matter, Lubin owns more than half of the equity in ConsenSys proper, in addition to ownership stakes in the firm’s incubated startups. The source said Lubin is shopping a tenth of that ConsenSys equity around to potential investors such as Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.

As such, few shareholders believe Lubin will be able to close this raise without diluting the value of employee shares or substituting ConsenSys equity for shares in the “spokes,” i.e. incubated projects. It remains to be seen how employee share options will be finalized in writing.

“They’ll have to set up more shares in the company or set up different entities and give people shares in other entities,” one source told CoinDesk. “Promising people spoke equity for spokes that have never launched and don’t have the ability to raise capital, because of the way the cap table is structured, is not valuable.”

As CoinDesk previously reported, some incubated projects have struggled to attract investors due to Lubin retaining the majority share in the nascent startups. (To be fair, one startup that recently managed to spin out despite the equity debacle, 3Box, raised $2.5 million from venture capital firms including Placeholder and CoinFund.)

On the other hand, one current employee had a more optimistic view of the company “maturing” through this equity reconfiguration.

“We get paid on time, when we have issues with bonuses we’re able to resolve them in a timely manner,” he said. “I think [employee share options] will be fair. I’m under no illusions. Given how much we’ve grown, that will result in dilution.”

Out of the seven current and former ConsenSys employees CoinDesk interviewed for this article, six believed the disorganized compensation system is “highly political” and leads to unfair distribution.

Some people work across various projects in “the mesh” and earn bonuses, equity, opportunities or tokens from each.

“It’s chaos, there’s no clear line of authority or accountability,” one former employee told CoinDesk.

Six sources said some ConsenSys executives took advantage of this system to siphon compensation from incubated projects without contributing significant value. The sole dissenter conceded this was happening with a few “short-term” incentives like extra bonuses, but didn’t believe this issue was widespread across the company.

Another source said they weren’t disappointed by the lack of equity, although they added the younger and less experienced employees were “definitely” misled in their onboarding process.

“Nobody is keeping track of these things,” the employee said, referring to who is owed what. “They’ve never gotten to the point where they could make good on that offer.”

The company has seen three executive departures in recent months and rumors continue to swirl about current employees frustrated with disorganization.

“What’s woefully incompetent is the continued promise of equity,” one source who did receive equity told CoinDesk. “Some folks have spoke equity in spokes they don’t even work for. It’s chaotic. There’s no reason to it.”

ConsenSys office photo via CoinDesk archives

IDEO CoLab, a subsidiary of design firm IDEO, has partnered with 20 blue chip and crypto firms to launch a blockchain accelerator dubbed Startup Studio.

Partners include Amazon, Deloitte, and Fidelity, as well as crypto data firm Messari, the Ethereum Foundation, the Stellar Foundation, among others, to build on the distributed web incubator that IDEO CoLab launched in February.

The new initiative will see each of the partners hosting acceleration programs to provide enterprising blockchain entrepreneurs and firms with the tools and funding they need to further the “development, adoption, and impact of blockchain technology,” said Ian Lee, managing director at IDEO CoLab Ventures.

IDEO CoLab believes blockchain gives “users greater access, ownership, and control” over their identities and financial lives, but remains “highly unusable for the average person.” Nearly every facet of the tech, from wallets to key management, and distribution mechanisms to custodianship, are “wide open” to be improved upon, the firm said.

What’s more, it expects the advancements being made in blockchain to develop into “billion — or even trillion — dollar opportunities.”

It’s not only the blockchain industry IDEO CoLab is accelerating, but also the nature of startup incubation.

Lee said:

In comparison to traditional startup accelerators or incubators, IDEO CoLab’s Startup Studio unbundles the startup accelerator model into half and full day workshops run by IDEO and our network of partners focused on a highly specialized need – like product validation, brand design, hiring, user testing, or conflict management. That way, entrepreneurs and startups can quickly get the help they need when they need it, then go back to their home offices to keep building great companies, teams, and protocols.

The studio programs on offer include an IDEO brand design workshop, an organization scaling workshop with Electric Capital, and a legal and regulatory workshop with law firm Perkins Coie.

Longer term residencies, based in either San Francisco or Boston, will range from three to six months alongside IDEO CoLab’s approximately 20 person team.

IDEO began working with startups in 2012, after 21 years of successful design for international corporations such as Apple, Walgreens, and 3M.

It continued to support underdogs when tilting towards distributed web technologies in 2015. Since that time, IDEO has collaborated on over 30 blockchain protocols, co-created 12, and invested in 9 burgeoning startups, including IPFS, ZeppelinOS, Augur, Zcash, Handshake and Grin.

Additionally, the company is looking to invest in approximately 12 new blockchain initiatives every year going forward. The accelerator’s success is seen by the reflexive investment from one of IDEO’s first early stage collaborations – Messari, which has joined Startup Studio.

Lee said:

“We believe we’ve found a sustainable model to support early-stage entrepreneurs, and that our approach and value will lead the best founders to deepen their relationship and align incentives with us.”

Indeed, IDEO has had repeated collaborations with most of the companies in its portfolio, including some that began long before they invested, according to Lee.

Startup Studio has received support from Atrium, Avanta Ventures, Blockchain at Berkeley, Brex, CoinList, CSAA Insurance Group, Electric, GS Group, Hanwha, NEAR Protocol, Oasis Labs, she256, Silicon Valley Bank and Tezos Foundation, in addition to the names listed above.

Amazon image via Shutterstock