German regulator confiscate an ATM

German regulator confiscated ATMs of Shitcoins Club operator in Germany

In February, the agency asked the parent company KKT UG to stop the activities of the Shitcoins Club in Germany, since the operator of the cryptomats did not have a banking and trading license. However, despite the requirement of the regulator, the CEO of KKT UG, Adam Gramowski, continued to provide services for the purchase and sale of digital currencies through cryptomats in the country. Gramovski declines to comment on the situation.

Shitcoins Club terminals are located in many large shopping centers and retail stores in Europe. In Germany, the Shitcoins Club network owned 17 ATMs, while in the German market there are 67. Using Shitcoins Club machines, users could buy BTC, ETH, LTC and DASH for euros, US dollars, British pounds and Swiss francs.

The German regulator has tightened requirements for cryptocurrency terminal operators after amending the fourth EU Anti-Money Laundering Directive. In February, BaFin clarified that even firms operating outside the country but serving the German market must announce their intention to obtain a license by March 31 and apply for a license by November 30.

In February, more than 40 banks informed the regulator of their readiness to provide custody services to cryptocurrency firms. However, German startups still face problems opening bank accounts. This is due to banks' distrust of the industry and lack of regulatory clarity.

Polkadot Developers Launch Rococo Network To Test Blockchain Interactions

The developers of the Polkadot project launched the Rococo testnet to test parachains and related technologies.

The concept of parachains is at the heart of the project organizers' plan to create a "protocol for protocols", which should become Polkadot. Rococo allows developers to register blockchains based on the Substrate pattern as part of a larger parachain network.

Rococo is the first testnet to test blockchain interactions with backhaul logic support. The testnet uses a Proof-of-Authority (PoA) consensus, meaning it is managed by its creator Parity Technologies.

In the first phase, Rococo will use three parachains. They will be able to transmit messages to the distribution chain and exchange them among themselves through it. In the future, Rococo will be involved in the development of the XCM cross-consensus message format.

In the future, the developers intend to repeatedly restart Rococo to update the specifications and ensure stability. In the current release, many of the planned features for interoperating parachains are not available.

Rococo should be an important step towards launching full sharding at Polkadot, as blockchains are predominantly isolated from each other at this stage.

Chainalysis North American Users Prefer To Trade BTC Over Altcoins

In the report, analysts point out that North Americans "disproportionately favor bitcoin" over other cryptocurrencies, including ETH and XRP. 72% of transactions with cryptocurrencies in North America are made with bitcoin. For comparison, in Africa this figure is 69%, and in Europe - 66%.

Monero and Tari Labs Prepare Guidelines for Listing Anonymous Cryptocurrencies on Exchanges

In July, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong announced that he would like to add Monero to his platform, but fears possible problems with regulators. Monero's developers believe Coinbase is not the only exchange concerned about this issue. In the fall, BitBay announced that XMR will stop trading on the platform from February 2020. OKEx Korea has also stopped trading the confidential cryptocurrencies XMR, DASH, ZEC, ZEN and SBTC, as they do not comply with the recommendations of the International Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF).

“The guide will present a comprehensive and reliable analysis of confidential cryptocurrencies. In addition, issues of concern to regulators regarding cryptoassets and anti-money laundering (AML) regulations will be addressed. We are delighted to be able to contribute to the development of this project, ”said Lewis Willacy, legal advisor for compliance with Tari Labs.