Backpage CEO Pleads Guilty To Laundering Millions In Crypto
NEWS
Listings site Backpage CEO Carl Ferrer pleaded guilty to conspiracy and three counts of money-laundering, in part via cryptocurrencies, in a plea agreementunsealed in federal court in Arizona on April 12.
Ferrer admitted he was aware that the “great majority” of the site’s ads were for prostitution services, and had conspired to conceal their true nature. He further admitted to laundering the site’s allegedly $500 mln revenue through “seemingly unconnected” bank accounts and “crypto-currency [sic] processing companies, including CoinBase, GoCoin, Paxful, Kraken, and Crypto Capital,” among others.
The deal comes three days after Backpage was seized and a 93-count federal indictment was obtained against seven of the site’s operators, but in which Ferrer’s name was not included.
In combined state-level deals, the company also pleaded guilty to human trafficking in Texas, with Ferrer pleading guilty to money laundering, and to conspiracy and money-laundering in California.
Ferrer must now permanently shut Backpage down, which Attorney General Xavier Becerra described as “the world’s largest brothel.” He is also required to hand over the site’s data to officials and to cooperate in the prosecution of his co-founders, Michael Lacey and James Larkin, who have both pleaded not guilty. In exchange, Ferrer will face a maximum five years sentence.
Legal authorities in over 30 countries worldwide are investigating the misuse of cryptocurrencies for illicit ends. Earlier this year, the Chief of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) highlighted the need to develop anti-money-laundering(AML) strategies for cryptocurrencies within a global framework.
Ah yes, the call for what I call “decentral bank”.
Instead of having a central bank which creates money for the big banks, and those then use it for manipulating stock prices instead of letting it trickle down, give those credits right to the small business who need it to finance their production (that is what money is really for: A medium to make all the real goods transactions fluid. For production, you need to invest, and when your customers pay, you can settle your credit and keep the profit).
BTW: The Chinese weren’t always that strict. The invention of the paper money through Tang and Song dynasty were private banks creating those notes first, and only in late Song to early Ming dynasty, the state did that; late Ming to mid Qing dynasty had paper money created by banks only, not by the state. You don’t need the money creation to have power.
Crypto Trading Series (5 part series — PART 2)
As a trader, it is important to get trading ideas from time to time. The current crypto market is extremely volatile. If you are not up to the new trading ideas or don’t know where to get them, you will not fair well in the market long term.
For beginners, it is very important to understand the importance of getting access to good trading ideas periodically. It is advisable to learn how to create charts, but it is also important to know where you can get new ideas and improve your trading on a regular basis.
In this article, we will share places where you can get trading ideas. Let’s get started.
Trading View
Tradingview is a network where traders exchange ideas and help each other. It is a unique community with all the tools that a trader will ever need to do successful trading. To get started, you first need to create your TradingView account. Once created, you can check their markets section. They cover almost everything, ranging from the currencies, stocks, futures, indices, bonds, CFDs and of course cryptocurrency.
When you visit the site, type your favorite cryptocurrency in the search bar. It will find the page for you. Let’s type “BTC.” You will land on the following page.
Here you will see interactive charts, technical analysis summary, and a brief intro about BTC. You can also go in-depth and check the technicals in the time interval of 1 month, week, day, an hour or 15 minutes.
Moreover, you can also follow other traders on the TradingView.com. They are shown in the later section of the same page. You just need to scroll down and check them out.
If you like a trader’s chart or opinion, you can follow them, and you will receive an email whenever they share their valuable opinion. The homepage also shares important news and opinion from the top traders on the platform.
Join Facebook Groups
Surprisingly, Facebook groups can be a great source of trading ideas. There are many good cryptocurrency groups that you can join. Most of them are run by experienced people who love to share their ideas, opinions and technical analysis. However, be warned that it is very common to see scammers in these type of groups. If you are not sure about a group, it is advisable not to join at all.
Cryptocurrency Investing
Crypto Warriors
These two groups are really good, and we have verified them. However, it is advisable to leave any group that you don’t feel safe. Also, don’t share important details with anyone.
Medium
Medium is a gold mine when it comes to finding new and novel information. As an investor, you need to always stay at the top of things and read about the coins that you are investing in. You should also follow the coin medium page to look out for signals and growth prospects. A good coin will push up when a positive news breaks. However, that might not be the case everything.
Steemit.com
Steemit is another great place to find new information and trading ideas. It is driven by steem cryptocurrency and have an excellent ecosystem when it comes to awarding good content. You can find any topic there. However, we are only interested in cryptocurrency. You can also follow individual traders on steemit as they use the platform to share their trading ideas. One of the most popular cryptocurrency trader that shares coin charts is haejin. He is very popular in Steemit.
Conclusion
Keeping yourself surrounded by useful information can be an important factor in your success. In this article, we shared popular ways to get new trading ideas and also keep an eagle eye view of what is happening around the crypto world. If you think that this post helped you, don’t forget to share the article. Also, don’t hesitate to share your source of cryptocurrency trading ideas. We are listening!
CRYPTO TRADING SERIES — PART 1: The Golden Rules of Cryptocurrency Trading
CRYPTO TRADING SERIES — PART 3: 5 Top Crypto Trader Social Influencers
CRYPTO TRADING SERIES — PART 4: Top 5 Cryptocurrency Exchanges for Trading
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Best Places To Get Cryptocurrency Trading Ideas was originally published in Good Audience on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
My Journey Through BlockChain Time
The global economic, political, and technological system is going through a quantum leap in evolution. For a long time, we were willing to accept the corruption that comes with governments and banks. We were willing to accept the lag times, the bureaucracy, and the endless paperwork. We were willing to subject ourselves to the long lines, rude service, and a multitude of scheming powerbrokers.
We were willing to wait because we didn’t’ value our time.
We were willing to pay an arm and a leg to middlemen for pretty much everything. In short, we were willing to get screwed by “The Man”.
However, the masses are evolving from having a low self-esteem peasant mentality, to that of a global sovereign citizen — who values himself and his time.
Only now, (with blockchain technology) do we have a trustless system which can eradicate corruption. Due to misaligned incentivizes and the design of institutions, corruption siphons energy from the base population to the most selfish parasites of society. Therefore, if blockchain can reduce corruption, it can irreversibly change the collective societal personality.
Power is no longer in the hands of bureaucrats, middlemen, and powerbrokers. It’s in the hand of anyone with a smartphone. And it all starts and ends with time.
I’m not a communist, but I remember learning that Karl Marx looked at economics from the standpoint of a hierarchy of people who own the means of production and the workers below them who charge for their time. He noted that humans could not activate their creative potential because their time was not their own. Ironically, the top one percent blended this ideology with authoritarianism to force workers into communist jobs without a choice.
But with advances in blockchain technology, humans are moving closer and closer to owning their own time…with free-market capitalism!
I was first introduced to time as a currency when I lived in Ithaca, New York 12 years ago. Ithaca has a local currency called “Ithaca Hours”. It is one of the most successful local currencies in the world because one community organizer named Paul Glover and his cohorts rallied the community businesses to accept the currency. It is based on the idea that everyone’s time is equal. One “Ithaca Hour” represents one person’s hour of labor.
I realized that if everyone in Ithaca only used “Ithaca Hours”, then money would not leave the community. It wouldn’t go to Walmart shareholders or Chinese manufacturers. It would go into the pockets of Ithacan citizens, constantly enriching the community.
Years later, I cofounded the Happy Valley Time Bank, which is a system for community citizens to trade their time on a website.
With every financial crisis and every Wall Street bailout, I wondered with anger when humanity would figure out a way to democratize economics.
And now the great decentralizer — blockchain is here, but… it doesn’t consider time. Luckily, there are several prominent startups which are innovating time concepts with the blockchain. And I’ve found myself working at one of them named ChronoLogic.Network. ChronoLogic has partnered with Piper Merriam of the Ethereum Foundation to finalize and realize his creation of the Ethereum Alarm Clock, a decentralized application which finally allows people to schedule future transactions on Ethereum. This opens up a world of possibilities, such as recurring subscriptions, ethical and easy ICO’s, streamlined HR payments and processes, and so much more.
ChronoLogic’s mission is to make the blockchain run on time. Literally.
If you think about it, time is integral to every economic decision and transaction. Smart contracts are begging for time-based solutions.
The biggest time-based crypto in terms of market capitalization is Time New Bank. Based in Singapore, their concept is to create a global exchange and securitize people’s time so that it can be traded on secondary markets. Yet another is Latium. Advised by legendary John Mcafee, Latium aims to be the “Upwork” or “Fiverr” of the blockchain, allowing remote workers to charge for their time in a competitive marketplace.
The blockchain is perfect for verifying information. So, when a person spends time, logs work time, completes a job, has a credential, a business relationship, a contract, or a review, it can all now be immutably verified via the blockchain.
That means the system will be fair so that its harder to exploit laborers through discrimination, cronyism, and falsifying information.
People’s time and skills will stand on their own in a competitive, yet fair marketplace. Now a refugee can compete with a Harvard graduate if they really have the skills. Now borders, jurisdictions, distances, and even language differences are being removed as barriers to economic cooperation as technology helps us figure out how to get people to work together easily.
In conclusion, time is the ultimate value. And now humans are starting to love and value themselves and their time.
This evolution in consciousness coincides with an evolution in technological advancement. The blockchain is a democratic force. When combined with technology which considers time, it takes the power away from the corrupt, and into the hands of anyone with a cell phone connected to the internet who truly values himself and his precious time on Earth.
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The Ticking Time Bomb Of BlockChain Evolution was originally published in Good Audience on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
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