Another Crypto Milestone: Japanese Company Offers To Pay Employees In Bitcoin

Less than a year after Japan legalized bitcoin as legal tender, part of the country’s effort pioneering effort to develop a comprehensive regulatory framework for incorporating - and regulating - digital currencies, one Japanese company is offering employees the option to be paid in bitcoin.

Because what employee wouldn’t jump at the opportunity to see their weekly paycheck fluctuate by 30% or more. Though given the digital currency’s staggering appreciation so far this year, we imagine most of the company’s workers will instead see it as an opportunity to lock in a raise every week.

The company, Internet service provider GMO Internet, plans to offer workers up to 100,000 yen (about $890) per month in the digital currency, according to Russia Today.

"Employees can receive salaries in bitcoin if they want to. We hope to improve our own literacy of virtual currency by actually using it," company spokeswoman Harumi Ishii said.

The company said the offer would be available to nearly 4,000 of its domestically-based employees. As a further enticement, the workers will reportedly get an extra 10% of their salary if they choose to receive it in digital currency.

This detail certainly piqued our interest. Bitcoin is, of course, tremendously volatile. But for the past 18 months, that trend has been mostly one-directional (which isn’t to say there haven’t been many significant downturns).

While the company has depicted itself as a bitcoin evangelizer, offering employees a 10% bonus - a significant sum spread across 4,000 employers - seems suspiciously generous.

The company said it’s interested in promoting bitcoin after joining a trading and exchange business in May and is planning to launch a new cryptocurrency mining operation next year.

“We will operate a next-generation mining center utilizing renewable energy and cutting-edge semiconductor chips in Northern Europe,” a representative for GMO said, according to Russia Today.

The firm, which is headquartered in Tokyo, operates over 60 companies in 10 countries. Given the group’s size and financial power, the bitcoin salary initiative may potentially boost the mainstream adoption of similar practices worldwide.

While many skeptics argued that bitcoin would never work as a currency (indeed, transactions can sometimes take hours to clear). Segwit 2x, the bitcoin software hard fork that was intended to relieve some of the strain on the bitcoin network, was proposed specifically to remedy this problem.

Earlier this week, we highlighted a listing on real-estate site Redfin.com where the owner of a Miami condo specified that he would only accept payment for the property in bitcoin. Redfin said it was the first time it has observed such a demand on its platform, though twitter users quickly pointed out other examples dating back to 2013.

Given the digital currency’s performance this year, bitcoin has firmly broken into the mainstream. And with the Cboe having launched its new bitcoin futures products, firms like GMO will find it easier to hedge their positions. CME Group will launch a suite of similar products next week.

Indeed, two years ago, the notion that a mainstream company would offer employees the option to be paid in bitcoin was almost unthinkable.

But barring a major crash, we imagine this trend will continue.

Sweden Wins Award For 'Best Country To Be A Migrant'

We have written frequently on the topic of migrant crime in Sweden over the past several months.  From attacks on journalists and cops, to the development of so-called "no-go zones" where basic police and postal services have been suspended due to soaring crime levels, parts of the otherwise quite Nordic country have been literally transformed by an influx of migrants over the past several years. 

So, what"s attracting the droves of migrants to the frozen tundra of northern Europe.  Well, luckily U.S. News & World Report has an official ranking to help answer that question and turns out it"s not just the allure of Swedish soccer, or their fans...

As US News points out today, 80 countries around the globe were ranked based on their appeal to migrants and Sweden "won" the coveted top spot.  Criteria for the ranking ranged from economic stability and income equality to the availability of language training and the amount of remittances that migrants sent back to their home countries.

To determine the Best Countries to Be an Immigrant, U.S. News assessed international perceptions of a country, as well as immigration policy and economic data.

More than 21,000 people from all regions of the world participated in the Best Countries survey, in which they assessed how closely they associated 80 countries with specific characteristics. Four of these – "economically stable," "good job market," "income equality" and "is a place I would live" – were included in the Best Countries to Be an Immigrant ranking.

Countries also were scored in relation to others on the share of migrants in their population; the amount of remittances the migrants they host sent home; and graded on a United Nations assessment of integration measures provided for immigrants, such as language training and transfers of job certifications, and the rationale behind current integration policies.

Scores for these eight factors on a 100-point scale were averaged together for an overall score.

Of course, we suspect that not everyone in Sweden is excited about this new honor, including that Swedish police officer who recently offered up a little more truth than people are used to when he posted an epic rant on Facebook about immigrant crimes plaguing his police department and his country.  Here is a small taste of the rant (full post here):

"Here we go; this is what I’ve handled from Monday-Friday this week: rape, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, rape-assault and rape, extortion, blackmail, assault, violence against police, threats to police, drug crime, drugs, crime, felony, attempted murder, rape again, extortion again and ill-treatment."

“Suspected perpetrators; Ali Mohammed, Mahmod, Mohammed, Mohammed Ali, again, again, again. Christopher… what, is it true? Yes, a Swedish name snuck in on the edges of a drug crime. Mohammed, Mahmod Ali, again and again."

“Countries representing all the crimes this week: Iraq, Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia, Somalia, Syria again, Somalia, unknown, unknown country, Sweden. Half of the suspects, we can’t be sure because they don’t have any valid papers. Which in itself usually means that they’re lying about their nationality and identity.”

As the Washington Post points out, Sweden wasn"t the only Nordic country to fare well in the ranking, with Norway, Finland and Denmark all winning a spot in the top 10 largely due to favorable perceptions found in the survey about their economies and commitment to income equality. Other countries, such as Canada and Switzerland, were given positive marks not only for their economy but also integration measures for immigrants, such as language training.

Meanwhile, the U.S. scored well because of the large numbers of remittances. Britain ranked even lower — 17th — despite its strong economy, because its immigration policy specifically favored its own nationals. U.S. News noted that it was one of only six countries that had similar policies, including Saudi Arabia and Myanmar.

To summarize, the countries with the best economies and highest entitlement spending per capita allow their migrants the greatest opportunity to export domestic wealth and are therefore the "winners."

"Massive" Ransomware Attack Goes Global: "This Is Huge"

We earlier reported in the disturbing fact that hospitals across the United Kingdom had gone dark due to a massive cyber-attack. The situation has got significantly worse as The BBC reports the ransomware attack has gone global.

Screenshots of a well known program that locks computers and demands a payment in Bitcoin have been shared online by parties claiming to be affected.

It is not yet clear whether the attacks are all connected. One cyber-security researcher tweeted that he had detected 36,000 instances of the ransomware, called WannaCry and variants of that name.

"This is huge," he said.

There have been reports of infections in the UK, US, China, Russia, Spain, Italy, Vietnam, Taiwan and others.

The BBB details a number of Spanish firms were among the apparent victims elsewhere in Europe.

Telecoms giant Telefonica said in a statement that it was aware of a "cybersecurity incident" but that clients and services had not been affected.

Power firm Iberdrola and utility provider Gas Natural were also reported to have suffered from the outbreak.

There were reports that staff at the firms were told to turn off their computers.

In Italy, one user shared images appearing to show a university computer lab with machines locked by the same program.

Bitcoin wallets seemingly associated with the ransomware were reported to have already started filling up with cash.

"This is a major cyber attack, impacting organisations across Europe at a scale I"ve never seen before," said security architect Kevin Beaumont.

According to security firm Check Point, the version of the ransomware that appeared today is a new variant.

"Even so, it"s spreading fast," said Aatish Pattni, head of threat prevention for northern Europe.

Several experts monitoring the situation have linked the attacks to vulnerabilities released by a group known as The Shadow Brokers, which recently claimed to have dumped hacking tools stolen from the NSA.