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British Millionaire And Facebook Come To Agreement About Bitcoin (BTC) Scam Ads

Many in the cryptocurrency community were ecstatic to find out that Facebook had reversed its crypto ad ban last year in 2018. Obviously, many believed that cryptocurrency markets could never truly grow unless there was an increased amount of exposure to potential investors and traders.

While the platform might not advertise every company now, and there are strict rules surrounding the advertisements; it still means that cryptocurrency-related companies can reach a fraction of the platform’s 2.2 billion monthly active users, which is a significant part of the world’s population. However, Martin Lewis, a British millionaire, was displeased to find out that his face was being used in advertisements in 2018, and took action against the company. The lawsuit has now been dropped.

Lawsuit Dropped

A millionaire who sued t Facebook because ads had featured his likeness has actually dropped his lawsuit against the global social media platform. This millionaire is none other than Martin Lewis, the founder of MoneySavingExpert.com. The announcement was made in a press conference on Wednesday, January 23, 2019.

It took eight months for the parties to come to an agreement. Lewis did not accept a sum of money as a settlement, but instead, Facebook will be donating 3 million GBP to Citizens Advice in the UK. Citizens Advice is a network of over 300 charities that provides free information to individuals with all sorts of issues, whether it’s legal or financial.

Next Steps

Facebook appears to be taking action against future issues such as this. Specifically, a button will be provided for UK users to immediately report an ad that they believe to be a scam. A representative for the company stated that if the feature proved effective, it could be expanded to other countries, as well.

Lewis praised Facebook for the decision, and also seemed to hint that Google should take notice. He even stated that he would not rule out the possibility of suing Google, as well.

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UK Cryptocurrency Company Data Released

This year has been tough for all sorts of cryptocurrency companies who had high hopes in 2017. As one can imagine, the idea of cryptocurrency had a much more different sentiment a year ago today, when Bitcoin was in the middle of a huge cryptocurrency bull run that took it over $19,000.

Even though the past few days has seen a nice rally for the digital asset, there is still plenty of hesitation, given the fact that Bitcoin and Ethereum lost the vast majority of its value, and the cryptocurrency markets have lost hundreds of billions of dollars in market capitalization. A new report has detailed which blockchain-related and cryptocurrency-related companies have been affected in the UK.

About The Report

 

A Sky News article recently elaborated on how data has shown that over 300 companies have closed in the sector this year. Of course, not every business survives for various reasons, but the markets obviously are a huge factor. For some context, only 139 companies closed in the sector in 2017, and at least 340 companies related to cryptocurrency closed this year.

The data was gathered by OpenCorporates and Companies House. One blockchain entrepreneur and early Bitcoin adopter by the name of Hugh Halford-Thompson spoke about how the influx of inexperienced investors concerned him.

He stated: “There was a lot of people getting in, and I think for the first time I felt there were a large number of people who really didn’t understand what they were getting into as well.

“So every Uber driver I had either had invested or was thinking about it. I had people asking me genuinely which coin to put their children’s university funds into. That’s not good. I didn’t follow up with them, but I hope they didn’t.”

Overall Downturn

The data isn’t that surprising, given the fact that the UK is not the only country in the world with cryptocurrency companies or blockchain startups. One recent story that has grabbed headlines within the cryptocurrency community is the fact that Brooklyn-based blockchain startup Consensys is laying off a large percentage of its workers. The company is founded by cryptocurrency enthusiast Joe Lubin, a co-founder of Ethereum. Lubin recently took to Twitter to assuage fears about his company, as well:

Interestingly enough, regardless of the 2018 bearish sentiment, there are more jobs associated with blockchain and cryptocurrency than ever. Specifically, Linkedin stated that “blockchain developer” was the fastest-growing job in the United States.

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U.K. MP Thinks Taxes Should Be Able To Be Paid Through Bitcoin (BTC)

All over the world, there are influential politicians that are arguing about cryptocurrency regulation and how it should be executed. There are those that praise blockchain technology and believe that regulation should spur innovation, and there are other politicians that believe that the sector is rampant with fraud, and that regulation should be postponed until the sector is more understood.

The U.K. is no exception, and for some time now, there are lawmakers that have argued that some kind of cryptocurrency regulation is necessary, because the sector is a “Wild West”. Nicky Morgan, a British conservative and current member of Parliament (MP), stated: “Bitcoin and other crypto-assets exist in the Wild West industry of crypto-assets. This unregulated industry leaves investors facing numerous risks.”

It appears as though another MP has an opinion regarding Bitcoin, but it doesn’t have to do with regulation; it has to do with taxes. Eddie Hughes has described himself as a “crypto enthusiast with amateur knowledge”, and believes that members of the UK government have a “duty” to learn about and understand blockchain. He stated about Bitcoin: “It feels like it gets talked about a lot, where you go in the UK.”

He also pointed out that he had just met with an organization with the RNLI, which accepts Bitcoin. He is referring to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, which began accepting Bitcoin in donation form in 2014, before many other organizations were even considering Bitcoin as an option.

The charity is a rescue service that is dedicating to saving the lives of those at sea. The organization has actually saved over 140,000 lives since it was founded in 1824. It has the distinction of being the first major charity that accepted Bitcoin as a donation, and still does, at rnli.org/bitcoin.

He stated: “Only recently I met with the RNLI which is now accepting charitable donations through cryptocurrency – if we can do that, what’s to stop us being able to pay council tax and other bills with bitcoin?”

Ohio recently made waves around the world with regards to cryptocurrency, as it now officially allows Bitcoin to be used to pay for tax bills.

Hughes elaborated that the UK’s decision to innovate has to be made soon: “You’re either ahead of the curve or you’re behind the curve, and our country is in an interesting position right now – we need to be seen as a progressive country.

“We are at a crossroads and we’re about to determine our future – one in which taking the lead in this field could prove very beneficial.”