Why You’re Always Saying: I’ll Get to It Tomorrow

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Why You’re Always Saying: I’ll Get to It Tomorrow

Posted 8/29/2018 by UHBlog

Chronic procrastination may be behind your muscle fatigue. Don't put off asking us how to get your tasks and health back on track.

The legal brief must be filed at week's end, but you decide to hit the links today. A few days later, you pledge to work from home while tending to a sick child, but watch a Seinfeld TV marathon instead. Upon returning to the office, you spend hours scrolling through emails when the realization strikes: The brief is due tomorrow.

Everybody procrastinates to some extent, says clinical psychologist Jennifer Levin, PhD, but some people have more of a chronic problem with it.

Consider these facts: A DePaul University researcher found that 20 percent of people are chronic procrastinators, while a study at Bishop's University in Quebec discovered a correlation between chronic procrastination and high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease.

Other evidence shows that delaying duties can also lead to ; 

  • Stress and anxiety
  • Fatigue
  • Poor sleep
  • Muscle tension
  • Headaches
  • Emotional issues
  • Absenteeism from work

Why it happens

Dr. Levin says reasons for procrastinating are unique to each individual, but may include:

  • Boredom with a task
  • Anxiety about the ability to complete a task
  • Desire to do other things that bring instant gratification, such as checking social media
  • More serious emotional concerns, such as depression

“It's essentially avoidance,” she says. “Although it feels good in the very short term, your anxiety goes up and gets much bigger as the deadline gets closer. The task hasn't changed, but you have less time to do it and it causes stress.”

Procrastination has impact

There are consequences to putting off thing, Dr. Levin says. This can include coworkers having to do the work for you or getting upset with you because you're not meeting deadlines, Dr. Levin says.

This, in turn, can lead to employees developing physical issues, missing work and worrying about the security of their job. Their employers may see increasing insurance claims and premiums and lower productivity.

Some people who procrastinate at work may also put off taking care of their health. They may not eat a balanced diet, exercise or get necessary medical screenings.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to combat procrastination, but some that Dr. Levin recommends are:

  • Divide projects into small tasks and set a deadline for each phase.
  • Follow the Premack Principle: No prize before completing a hard task. If you enjoy checking emails, but detest assembling the PowerPoint presentation for tomorrow's meeting, don't allow yourself to look at your inbox until you complete a set number of sections of the presentation. If you're a manager, consider granting your team a half-day vacation if they finish a project early and proficiently.
  • Dig in immediately. If you procrastinate because you fear not being up to the task, getting started might boost your confidence. If you run into problems, you'll still have time to seek help.
  • Download a smartphone app to help you stay on track such as the Pacifica app, which can help with goal-setting and stress reduction.

If these strategies don't work, talk to your doctor because an anxiety disorder or depression may be the culprit, she says.

Jennifer Levin, PhD is a clinical psychologist at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center and UH Psychiatry in Beachwood and associate professor of Psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. You can request an appointment with Dr. Levin or any other doctor online; use link below.

Article courtesy of the University Hospital's Blog

Link to Jennifer Levin, PhD

Posted by: Jeffrey Sloe

From Crimefighter to ‘Crypto’: Meet the Woman in Charge of Venture Capital’s Biggest Gamble

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From Crimefighter to 'Crypto': Meet the Woman in Charge of Venture Capital’s Biggest Gamble

Kathryn Haun was the Justice Department's go-to prosecutor for Bitcoin-related felonies. Now she's one of cryptocurrency's most important investors. Here's why her career change is a watershed moment.

Debate

“Let’s settle this!” an announcer rumbles over loudspeakers.

The “this” in question is one of the more important business disputes of the moment: Are alternative currencies like Bitcoin the future of financial services or a 21st-century Ponzi scheme? To get resolution, a Mexican data center company called KIO Networks is hosting a debate in a smoke-filled arena in the graffiti-coated Hipódromo Condesa neighborhood of Mexico City. The atmosphere screams lucha libre, the stylized form of Mexican wrestling that features acrobatic moves and dramatic masks.

On this late-September evening, the main event features two intellectual heavyweights from the United States, both highly credentialed, neither wearing disguises. In one corner is Paul Krugman, the New York Times columnist and Nobel laureate in economics. In the other is Kathryn Haun, an accomplished federal prosecutor recently turned venture capitalist.

Krugman’s position is predictable. He sees the rise of cryptocurrency networks—decentralized digital services that run on computerized money like Bitcoin—as an unnecessary throwback to a distant era, when precious metals made up the money supply. “I don’t believe we’re at the dawn of a new age,” he says. He delivers a smackdown on an investment craze that the likes of Jamie Dimon and Warren Buffett have repeatedly pooh-poohed: “I think 15 years from now, it will look a lot like Pets.com.”

Haun sees things differently. To her, virtual currencies and the technologies that underpin them are society’s saviors: a last great hope at reclaiming power gobbled up by greedy banks and Internet monopolists. “Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google, they control all the rules,” she says. “They have all the users. They have all the power.” The new technology, Haun argues, allows eager, entrepreneurial developers to compete. She throws her weight behind the democratizing dream of the new technology’s acolytes.

Photo by Christie Hemm Klok for Fortune

Cryptocurrency is “in the dial-up days,” says Haun, “and the critics are confusing the current state of innovation with the end state of innovation.”

Haun largely wins over the crowd, a collection of the megalopolis’s tech elite. And they like her visuals too. At the outset of her talk, five giant screens project the mug shots of corrupt U.S. law-enforcement officials she convicted in her previous career. But the audience isn’t enamored of Haun merely because she once was the sheriff in the Wild West of “crypto.” She excites them because now she’s joined their side. As one of the newest partners of the estimable Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, Haun’s job is to find the next big thing in cryptocurrencies—and to help their founders succeed while staying on the right side of the law.

Haun is making her career shift at a precarious time. Cryptocurrency markets have been in free fall all year. A global speculative mania for virtual coins that sent valuations above $800 billion in January has dwindled to $200 billion. Bitcoin has lost two-thirds of its value, and Ethereum, the second-biggest cryptocurrency, is down 90%.

Haun and her new partners are undaunted. Investment crazes often spawn bubbles. But what’s left after they pop, if the true believers are right, are new industries. Firm cofounder Marc Andreessen, after all, parlayed his work developing the first commercial browser into Netscape, the flawed startup that helped beget the World Wide Web—and many billions of dollars in investment returns for the Internet industry. Haun also is unfazed by her lack of professional investing experience. “For entrepreneurs to want to work with you, they need to think you have some strategic vision, some hustle, and an ability to get the job done,” she says. These are the same skills, she posits, that a prosecutor needs to persuade FBI agents and others to work with them.

Bridging worlds, then, is one of Haun’s chief attributes. “She has this rare blend of having been in government and having a business-centric mind,” says David Marcus, a senior Facebook executive who sat on a corporate board with Haun. Adds Anthony Kennedy, the newly retired associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, for whom Haun clerked: “I’m quite reassured that someone with her talents and background would go into this new area.” Her involvement “is a tremendously important link between the law and the cyber age. And she recognizes that.”

A version of this article appears in the Oct. 1, 2018 issue of Fortune with the headline “Jumping The Fence.”

This is just an excerpt; the complete article can be read on Fortune.com. 

ARTICLE written by Robert Hackett 

Posted by: Jeffrey Sloe

Ripple Leads Coallition To Hire Lobby Firm To Promote Friendly Crypto Policies

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Ripple Leads Coallition To Hire Lobby Firm To Promote Friendly Crypto Policies

A significant group of fintechs and businesses related to the industry of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies have decided to start a campaign to promote a legal space that is favorable for the development of the crypto-ecosystem.

According to Bloomberg these companies don’t not go by the wayside, and instead of the traditional awareness and promotion campaigns, the group has decided to hire the services of a major law firm to take the fight directly to the legal field.

The group of companies calls itself the “Securing America’s Internet of Value Coalition” and is currently formed by Ripple Labs, the independent foundation Ripple Works, Coil – a fintech that seeks to facilitate payments in the entertainment and digital content industry, Hard Yaka – a firm with large sums of money invested in digital assets – and PolySign – a startup that seeks to provide crypto custody services.

Chris Larsen, executive chairman of Ripple, said in recent months there has been a growing interest on the part of regulatory bodies and lobbies in general towards the issue of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies:

“We understand this is really complicated, and there is a lot of misinformation out there … The good news is there is a lot of interest in this topic in D.C.” – Chris Larson

Ripple and Klein/Johnson Group: Bringing Together Laws and Cryptocurrencies

It is also important to note that the coalition has hired the services of Klein/Johnson Group, a “bipartisan lobbying and public policy firm” that in recent years has been working to provide advice on financial and technological services.

Ripple is until now the visible head of the group. The success of its payment solutions has made its XRP token the third most important cryptocurrency in the global market cap.

Ripple’s presence is especially crucial as the Coalition is investing a large amount of money in its mission. According to the report, Klein/Johnson will receive a monthly sum of 25,000 USD plus 10,000 XRP, which will be declared as cash at the time of disclosing the payments received.

In this regard, Chris Larsen, explains that this seeks to generate greater interest on the part of the firm, bringing them a little closer to the ecosystem:

“It gives them some upside and gives them some risk … Hopefully, it gives them a taste of the industry in a way that hits home.” – Chris larson

The coalition has good expectations, especially now that the changes of commissioners within the SEC have helped the organization have a more positive view on the issue of cryptocurrencies, especially regarding the so expected Bitcoin ETFs.

ARTICLE Written by Jose Antonio Lanz and posted on Ethereum World News' website

Posted by: Jeffrey Sloe

Cleveland’s blockchain conference Solutions to take place in December

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Cleveland's blockchain conference, Solutions, to take place in December

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Cleveland will host its first blockchain conference, Solutions, Dec. 1-4.

That gives blockchain proponents in Cleveland just over 4 months to find funding, arrange workshops, book keynote speakers and design a program that will attract thousands of coders, public officials and business leaders to the Huntington Convention Center.

Solutions has the full weight of Cleveland car mogul's Bernie Moreno's "Blockland" group behind it, including David Gilbert, CEO of Destination Cleveland.

Moreno hopes to make Cleveland an epicenter for blockchain, an online ledger system best known for hosting Bitcoin and other online currencies. The new, hyped technology can be used many ways, from hosting government records to keeping track of patient records.

Gilbert headed the host committee that brought the Republican National Convention to Cleveland. He's been board with the plan to transform Cleveland to blockchain central since the beginning, flying with seven other Cleveland leaders to visit Toronto's Blockchain Research Institution in June.

Gilbert announced the dates for the conference in a Monday morning meeting, hosted at cleveland.com's offices on Superior Avenue. More than 80 people attended.

Along with Steve Santamaria, a technology entrepreneur who recently moved to Cleveland from Seattle, Gilbert laid out an ambitious timeline for the conference.

By Aug. 6, Santamaria and Gilbert hope to have keynotes confirmed. By Aug. 15, they want to send out save the dates.

Though these dates aren't set in stone, there's very little time to waver.

"We're trying to pull off in about 120 days what most people who put these on start 12 to 18 months out. … 12 months is a tight timeline," Gilbert said. "We can't do it on our own."

Article written by Emily Bamforth, for Cleveland.com

Posted by: Jeffrey Sloe

The Tipping Point

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Have you ever heard of the phrase “the tipping point”?  If you’re working from home, marketing on the Internet, or a member of a network marketing company that phrase, or concept, may be something you already know about. If not, let me explain. 
 
A tipping point is the magic moment when an idea, a trend, or a social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire.

The Tipping Point is also a book by Malcolm Gladwell. (If you haven’t read it, I suggest you do.) Gladwell writes about epidemics and how they get started. Typically, when we think about an epidemic, we don’t usually think about it outside the context of health issues. However, Gladwell uses the example of Hush Puppies (no, not those tasty round things you usually get with a fish fry) to explain how an epidemic can get started. 

He goes on to explain that Wolverine, the company that manufactures the Hush Puppy shoes, was struggling with sales, when a fashion designer, looking to be different (thinking outside the box), saw the shoes some young kids were wearing, and thought they would be a good fit for his models to wear during a fashion shoot.

Little did he know that the shoes would be a bigger hit than his clothes. As it turned out, Hush Puppy sales exploded to epidemic proportions. Who knew that the shoes a couple of young kids were wearing would turn a company, like Wolverine, around.

That fashion designer was looking to be different, if only to sell his clothes. In his mind, he probably thought the shoes would never get noticed. However, it had the reverse effect. People noticed! They liked what they saw, and the rest, as they say, is history.

So how can we relate the story of Hush Puppies to a home business? Well, we might start by asking some additional questions, like are you getting the word out? Are you doing business differently to stand out from everyone else? Are you reaching outside the box, or are you following the ways of the so-called “guru”? Do people take notice of what you’re doing?

I understand that getting the word out is one of the first steps on your path to success. If nobody knows you’re in business, how can you make any money, right? I get that! But many people go about it the wrong way, or listen to the wrong people, and they jump from system to system, or program to program trying find something that will produce a cash flow. However, they usually wind up spending more than they make. Take it from me, I’ve been there and done that!

If you could change your way of doing business, and start using a system that integrates a plethora of inbound marketing tools, would you? If you answered yes, thinking outside the box is a great place to start. It will also get people to take notice, just like in the Hush Puppy story.

The system I’m referring to is called MarketHive. MarketHive has state-of-the-art tools like a blogging platform, email auto-responders, lead capture pages, SEO platform, social media broadcasting, lead management platform, and much more. And, IT’S FREE!!

MarketHive is new to the world of Internet marketing, and in my humble opinion, is on the verge of a tipping point. Remember, the magic moment when an idea, a trend, or a social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire. That’s why I mention thinking outside the box. Being a part of an epidemic does not come along too often; but with the help of the MarketHive Alpha Founder’s, I’m confident this is going to be one!

We never know how far our word, or idea, will spread, but we have to start by getting the word out. We all know one thing for sure, if we don’t start, nobody will ever see, or hear about, what we’re doing.

So let’s get started by thinking outside the box! Let’s all become a part of this Internet epidemic!

Omega-3s from Fish Linked to Healthier Aging

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Omega-3s from Fish Linked to Healthier Aging

22-year study tied higher omega-3 blood levels to better health outcomes

11/01/2018     By Craig Weatherby

Harvard researchers once estimated that the average American’s lack of omega-3 fatty acids from seafood could cause up to 96,000 premature deaths annually in this country.

Out of a dozen dietary, lifestyle and metabolic risk factors, the Harvard team ranked low omega-3 intakes as the sixth most dangerous risk factor for premature death (Danaei G et al. 2009).

In fact, they ranked low omega-3 intake as a bigger risk factor than high intake of trans fatty acids, also known as trans fats. To learn more, see Omega-3 Deficiency May Cause 90,000-Plus Deaths Annually.

Now, the results of an extraordinarily long, reliable study link higher omega-3 blood levels to healthier aging, by reducing the risks for diseases known to cripple or kill people as they grow older.

New study links higher omega-3 blood levels to healthier aging

For the study, Tufts University researchers lead colleagues from the University of Pittsburgh, the universities of Texas, Washington, New Mexico, and Oregon, and more.

The team, led by Heidi Lai of Tufts, looked for any links between blood levels of specific omega-3 fatty acids — three from seafood plus one found only in plants — and healthy aging (Lai HT et al. 2018).

Their analysis was based on blood test and health data gathered from 2,622 adults who’d taken part in the U.S. Cardiovascular Health study from 1992 to 2015.

Among the volunteers — whose average age was 74 years — 63% were women and 11% were from non-white ethnic groups.

At the outset of the original Cardiovascular Health study, the researchers conducting that investigation measured the participants’ blood levels of various omega-3 fats, whose levels were measured again six and 13 years later.

The blood tests measured four different omega-3 fats — EPA, DHA, and DPA from seafood, and ALA from plant foods — whose differences we describe under “Important distinctions among omega-3s”, below.

Based on those measurements, the participants were divided into five groups (quintiles), based on omega-3 levels that ranged from lowest to highest.

After reviewing the participants’ medical records, the researchers found that 89% experienced unhealthy aging over the study period, while 11% experienced healthy aging — which was defined as being free of major chronic diseases and mental or physical dysfunctions.

Comparison of each participants’ omega-3 blood levels to their health status revealed that those with the highest levels of seafood-derived omega-3 EPA were 24% less likely to experience unhealthy aging, compared to those the lowest EPA levels.

In addition, the participants who fell into the top three quintiles of seafood-derived DPA blood levels were 18-21% less likely to experience unhealthy aging.

Surprisingly, neither seafood-derived DHA nor plant-derived ALA were associated with healthier aging.

The authors said that the link between high EPA levels and low risk for unhealthy aging might relate to EPA’s role in regulating blood pressure, heart rate, and inflammation.

However, DHA also plays a key role in regulating inflammation, which is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, dementia, and other conditions associated with aging — which makes the lack of a link between DHA and healthy aging very surprising.

It’s important to note that this was an observational study, and as such doesn't allow any firm conclusions about a cause-effect relationship between omega-3 levels and health outcomes.

And although the results of the analysis were adjusted to account for the known health effects of various social, economic, and lifestyle factors, some of the observed links between omega-3 levels and health risks might be related to other, unmeasured factors.

That said, the study was unusually long (up to 22 years of monitoring), and relied on blood tests, rather than mere estimates of omega-3 intakes based on diet questionnaires.

When all was said and done, the researchers’ analysis linked higher blood levels of omega-3s from seafood — EPA and DPA — to a lower risk of unhealthy aging.

As they wrote, “These findings … support guidelines [that call] for increased dietary consumption of fish among older adults.”

We’d add that the findings also support higher consumption of fish amongst people of all ages, because it takes decades for diseases to develop, and it makes no sense to wait.

New findings fit with those of prior studies

In addition to the 2009 Harvard study described at the beginning of this article, two similar ones verify the anti-aging benefits of omega-3s from seafood.

Five years ago, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health linked higher omega-3 blood levels to reduced risk of death from any cause — especially deaths from coronary heart disease — in older adults (Mozaffarian D et al. 2013).

That same year, a separate study from the Harvard School of Public Health linked higher blood levels of omega-3 DHA and EPA — but not higher levels of omega-3 ALA or omega-6 fatty acids — to reduced risk for cardiovascular disease (de Oliveira Otto MC et al. 2013).

The findings of that second study undermine persistent advice to replace animal fats like butter and lard with vegetable oils, without making important distinctions among various vegetable oils.

Unfortunately, most of the cheap vegetable oils consumed in the US are very high in omega-6 fatty acids — a fact that explains America’s extremely excessive, hence pro-inflammatory, intake of omega-6 fats.

Rather than corn, soy, safflower, and sunflower oils, which are very high in omega-6 fats, it’s better to choose oils that are high in monounsaturated oleic acid and/or omega-3 ALA.

The best choices are extra-virgin olive oil, high-oleic sunflower oil, macadamia nut oil, and canola oil (look for non-GMO canola).

Important distinctions among omega-3s

Seafood is the only good source of EPA, DHA and DPA, while considerably smaller amounts of ALA are found in certain plant foods — especially leafy green vegetables, walnuts, and flax seeds or flaxseed oil.

Omega-3 DHA and EPA are both essential to immune function — especially inflammation control — while DHA is essential to brain and eye function and child development.

Our bodies can only convert very small proportions — one to 10% — of dietary ALA into EPA and can only turn small proportions of that EPA into DHA.

That limitation explains why it’s a very good idea to either eat ample amounts of seafood — especially fatty species like salmon and sardines — or take supplemental fish or krill oil.

While ALA is modestly healthful, studies don’t find it nearly as beneficial as DHA or EPA, which are the only omega-3s the human body requires to survive and thrive.

In fact, virtually all dietary ALA that isn’t used to make EPA and DHA gets “burned” as fuel.

Sources

  • Danaei G, Ding EL, Mozaffarian D, Taylor B, Rehm J, Murray CJ, Ezzati M. The preventable causes of death in the United States: comparative risk assessment of dietary, lifestyle, and metabolic risk factors. PLoS Med. 2009 Apr 28;6(4):e1000058. Epub 2009 Apr 28.
  • de Oliveira Otto MC, Wu JH, Baylin A, Vaidya D, Rich SS, Tsai MY, Jacobs DR Jr, Mozaffarian D. Circulating and dietary omega-3 and omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids and incidence of CVD in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis. J Am Heart Assoc. 2013 Dec 18;2(6):e000506. doi: 10.1161/JAHA.113.000506.
  • Lai HT, de Oliveira Otto MC, Lemaitre RN, McKnight B, Song X, King IB, Chaves PH, Odden MC, Newman AB, Siscovick DS, Mozaffarian D. Serial circulating omega 3 polyunsaturated fatty acids and healthy ageing among older adults in the Cardiovascular Health Study: prospective cohort study. BMJ. 2018 Oct 17;363:k4067. doi: 10.1136/bmj.k4067. Erratum in: BMJ. 2018 Oct 23;363:k4445.
  • Mozaffarian D, Lemaitre RN, King IB, Song X, Huang H, Sacks FM, Rimm EB, Wang M, Siscovick DS. Plasma phospholipid long-chain ω-3 fatty acids and total and cause-specific mortality in older adults: a cohort study. Ann Intern Med. 2013 Apr 2;158(7):515-25. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-158-7-201304020-00003.
  • Zhu Y, Ferrara A, Forman MR. Omega 3 polyunsaturated fatty acids and healthy ageing. BMJ. 2018 Oct 17;363:k4263. doi: 10.1136/bmj.k4263

Original article posted on Vital Choice's website

Article posted by Jeffrey Sloe

Learn more about Omega 3 from fatty fish and BUY Omega 3's Here

Paying with Bitcoin: What You Need to Know

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Paying with Bitcoin: What You Need to Know


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Cryptocurrency, especially Bitcoin, continues to rise in popularity despite its value’s volatility recently; and if you are looking to use bitcoin to pay for things, you have to take due diligence in knowing how to do it, where you can spend bitcoins, and what the risks and advantages are.

How do you pay with bitcoin?

First, you need a bitcoin wallet. There are free bitcoin wallets available for smartphones and all major operating systems. Just like with a physical wallet, you must always secure it – this means being careful with online services, putting backup and encryption, and putting just small amounts in it for everyday use.

What are the advantages?

  • Anonymity. Your purchases are discrete with bitcoin, which means they are never associated with your personal identity. In fact, the bitcoin address generated is different for every purchase you make.
  • Low Transaction Fees. Since there is still no government involvement in bitcoin transactions at this point, the costs of transacting are very low.
  • Mobile. Since paying with bitcoin can be done using an app on your mobile phone, you can pay for our purchases anywhere you are as long as you have internet access.
  • No interruptions. Since the bitcoin system is purely peer-to-peer, it is void of involvement of banks, financial institutions, and the government.
  • No Sales Taxes. One major advantage of paying with bitcoin is that no sales taxes are added in your purchases since there are no third parties identify or track them.

What are the risks?

One thing that you need to understand is that bitcoin, no matter how popular it has become at this point, is still experimental. Getting into bitcoin now can mean that you have to deal with the growing pains as it still at the stage in which it is still improving and such improvements may bring about new challenges.

Bitcoin price very volatile. You should look at bitcoin as a high risk asset and you must not keep your savings with bitcoin at this point.

You must adopt good practices in protecting your privacy as bitcoin is not entirely anonymous. Your identity behind the bitcoin address you’re using may be anonymous, but transactions and balances in your address can be seen by anyone.

Bitcoin payments cannot be reversed, so only transact with people you trust and business that have already established their reputation. Beware of scams, fake ICOS, and fraudulent activities.

Contact us at Hogan Injury for expert legal advice.

None of the content on Hoganinjury.com is legal advice nor is it a replacement for advice from a certified lawyer. Please consult a legal professional for further information.

Original article posted on Hogan Injury Website.

Syndicated article, by permission, posted on Markethive, by Jeffrey Sloe

Colorado State Cracks Down on Unregulated Cryptocurrency Businesses

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Colorado State Cracks Down on Unregulated Cryptocurrency Businesses

Colorado's state Division of Securities issued a cessation order to four cryptocurrency firms for issuing unregistered securities through Initial Coin Offerings (ICO). So far, the state's Securities Commissioner has issued cease and desist orders to twelve ICOs for the same offense.

Four Cryptocurrency Companies Ordered to Stop Unregistered ICOs

According to a publication on the regulator's website, the State's Division of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) instituted an “ICO Task Force” in May to probe possible fraudulent projects aimed at cryptocurrency investors. These recent orders issued to Bitcoin Investments, Limited, Prisma, PinkDate, and Clear Shop Vision Limited are based on the findings of the ICO Task Force.

The four firms are allegedly offering unregistered securities to citizens of the state. In the publication, the securities regulator highlights the alleged fraudulent activities of the four companies.

The Division alleges that the companies offer an unrealistic return on investments ranging from 27% to 95%. Through their separate ICOs namely DB Token ICO (Bitcoin Investments, Ltd), PinkDate ICO, Prismacoin, and ORC Token (Clear Shop Vision Ltd), these companies solicited investment from Colorado citizens despite not being registered with the State's Division of Security.

Bitcoin Investments, Ltd allegedly offers 1% daily returns on investment. The company also claims that in 2017 investors received an average of 95% return on their registered investments.

PinkDate allegedly sought to raise $5 million through the sale of its cryptocurrency. The company did not disclose its business address or employees.

In the case of Prisma, the company purportedly operated an arbitrage and lending platform. Investors had to buy the company's virtual currency – PrismaCoin to use the platform. The firm promises investors returns of up to 27%.

For Clear Shop Vision, the division claims that the company has issued three unregistered ICOs since June.

On receipt of the orders, the cryptocurrency companies are to immediately stop all operations that violate the state's Securities Act, including fraud and issuing unregistered securities.

State Regulatory Agencies Tackle Fraudulent Cryptocurrency Activities

On the Federal level, the US SEC is not stepping down its enforcement efforts against illegal cryptocurrency schemes. State securities regulatory agencies are also making efforts to protect their citizens against fraudulent cryptocurrency investments.

Earlier in the week, the Texas State Securities Board filed a cease and desist order against AWS Mining company for allegedly selling unregistered securities. According to the regulator, the mining company promised investors a 200% return on funds invested in cryptocurrency mining power contracts.

In October, the Commissioner of North Dakota's Securities Department issued a cease and desist order against Crystal Token, Advertiza Holdings (Pty) Ltd, and Life Cross Coin. These three virtual currency firms allegedly offered fraudulent and unregistered securities through Initial Coin Offerings.

Image courtesy CBS Denver.

Original article posted on Ethereum World News and written by Osato-Avan-Nomayo

Posted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe