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Africa’s first Fairtrade certified gold co-operative offers hope to gold miners living in poverty

Syanyonja Artisan Miners’ Alliance (SAMA) has become the first artisanal small scale mining co-operative in Africa to become Fairtrade certified, bringing much needed hope to impoverished communities who risk their lives to mine the rich gold seam that runs around Lake Victoria.

SAMA is one of nine previously informal groups from Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania which has benefitted from a pilot project launched by Fairtrade in 2013. This innovative program aims to extend the benefits of Fairtrade gold to artisanal miners across East Africa.

In that short time, SAMA has undergone training in business and entrepreneurship, as well as safe use of mercury, internal control systems, labour rights and better working conditions, health and safety and more. Previously, daily contact with toxic chemicals used to process gold meant members risked disease, premature births and even death.  Fairtrade gold was first launched in 2011, and SAMA now joins Fairtrade certified gold mines MACDESA, AURELSA and SOTRAMI in Peru.

The co-operative produces just 5 kg gold per year, but nevertheless has the potential to significantly benefit many people in the local community through better conditions through certification. It is expected that Fairtrade and organizations like Cred Jewellery will support the miners, ensuring their gold can be refined and made available to jewellers in the UK and other markets.

Gonzaga Mungai, Gold Manager at Fairtrade Africa said: “This is a truly momentous and historical achievement and the realisation of a dream that is many years in the making. Gold production is an important source of income for people in rural economies. Congratulations to SAMA, it sets a precedent which shows that if groups like this can achieve certification, then it can work for others right across the African continent.”

The Fairtrade Gold Standard encourages better practice and changes to come in line with international regulation around the production and trade of so-called ‘conflict minerals’. Under the Standard, miners are required to:

  • Uphold a human rights policy preventing war crimes, bribery, money laundering and child labour
  • Clearly represent where the minerals were mined
  • Minimise the risks of conflict minerals through robust risk assessments and collaboration across supply chains
  • Report to buyers and trading partners regarding the risks of conflict minerals

Now in its second phase, the programme will focus on supporting other mining groups in the region to access affordable loans and explore a phased approach to accessing the Fairtrade market, allowing more mining co-operatives across Africa to participate in the programme.

Gonzaga added: “Sourcing African metals from smallscale miners in the Great Lakes Region is the responsible thing to do. For a long time companies have avoided buying gold from this region, with devastating consequences for impoverished communities who were already struggling. It has driven trade deeper underground, as unscrupulous buyers pay lower prices and launder illegal gold into legitimate supply chains. That’s why we have chosen to work with these groups to help them earn more from their gold within a robust compliance system that offers social, environmental, and economic protections.”

The Fairtrade gold programme offers a small but scalable solution to sustainable sourcing of gold from the region in line with Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Act in the US, OECD Due Diligence Guidance and recent EU Supply-Chain Due Diligence proposals which could come into effect in 2016. This means that up to 880,000 EU firms that use tin, tungsten, tantalum and gold in manufacturing consumer products could be obliged to provide information on steps they have taken to identify and address risks in their supply chains for so-called ‘conflict minerals’.

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The Advantages and Disadvantages of a Forex Demo Account

The Advantages and Disadvantages of a Forex Demo Account

The Advantages and Disadvantages of a Forex Demo Account

forex demo account

forex demo account

Creating a demo account with a forex broker is free,

and you will be able to trade with virtual funds without risking any money. The advantage of a demo account is that you can learn the basics before making a real money trade. Typically, a broker will have two versions: a desktop version and a mobile version. The desktop version is easier to navigate and will typically offer all of the same functions as the mobile app. A trading terminal that can be accessed via a web browser is compatible with most operating systems and browsers.

If you are new to the market, a forex demo account will give you the opportunity to try out trading strategies before committing to real-money investments. After you have gained some experience with the demo account, you should aim to move to a live account and apply the strategies you’ve developed there. Make sure you set short-term goals and stick to them if you want to make money from the forex market. Remember that practice makes perfect!

While a forex demo account is free, it’s not a good idea to invest your own money in it. There are too many risks, and you might end up losing your entire investment. You need to know that there is no “get-rich-quick” scheme in the forex market. You can use a demo account to test out different strategies before investing real money. And if you do not want to lose money, you can always open another one until your virtual funds are exhausted. This is the safest and most realistic way to learn the market and become a successful forex trader.

A forex demo account is ideal for a beginner to learn new strategies and habits. Once you learn to use a forex trading platform, you can test out your strategies and create your own trading strategy. You can even practice using fake money. You can even make trades with this virtual money. And when you learn to control your emotions, you’ll have more confidence in making the right moves in the market. Then, you can move on to a real account.

A forex demo account is an excellent way to gain confidence in your trading skills.

Since it’s a virtual account, you’ll be able to trade without any risk. It’s also important to practice market entry and exit. In a real-world situation, you may need to exit a trade and re-invest to make a profit. A forex demo account is a great way to practice risk management in the forex market.

A forex demo account will help you decide if you’d like to trade currency.

There’s no need to worry about making the wrong decision, as you can use the demo account to test your strategy. You can always come back to the real-world version later. Once you’ve decided, you can proceed to live trading. You can also practice your skills on your live trading account to learn the ins and outs of forex.

A forex demo account allows you to test out a broker’s services and trading strategies without any risk.

In addition to allowing you to test trading strategies, a demo account also lets you evaluate broker services. It is an excellent way to learn about a new broker and develop your own personal trading style. Once you’ve chosen a broker, you can start practicing in the real market. You’ll be glad you did! You’ll be surprised at the number of benefits that a forex demo account has to offer.

While a forex demo account can be a valuable tool for learning new trading strategies, it should also be used for practice. In addition to testing new techniques and strategies, a demo account should also enable you to brush up on your trading skills. While a demo account can be a helpful tool for developing your trading style, it should never be your primary source of income. In fact, a forex demo can be a great source of profits and knowledge.

Using a demo account is beneficial for a number of reasons. It gives you a chance to experiment with the different strategies and learn the differences between them. By utilizing a demo, you can get a feel for what works and what doesn’t. Often, a trading simulator is a great way to gauge your skills. The more experience you have, the better you’ll become at trading. It’s a great way to develop your forex skills.

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Daily Financial News

Monero Price starts the Selloff, BitcoinCash and Cardano struggle

Monero Price starts the Selloff, BitcoinCash and Cardano struggle

Monero Price (XMR) tumbled at a double-digit rate today and is likely to continue to fall somewhat , extending its declining trend for a third day straight after hitting a two-month high earlier in the week.

The broader selloff in cryptocurrencies impacted XMR price; the fresh wave of downside volatility in digital currencies was pinged by regulators and the surprise drop in trading volume.

Before the latest crypto market crash, Monero price gained substantial momentum in the last couple of weeks.

it even climbed to the 10th spot in its market capitalization.

n the middle of this month( if launched on time) a spin off or fork of the monero coin called MoneroV will be launched MoneroV affect the monero price in a positive way, people that have monero coins can get 10 moneroV coins for every monero coin. this is always good for the market and Monero went on a small rise. this is now behind us and the prices settled before this announcement was made returning more to its original value.

But for traders and brokers these were a few interesting days where people that saw the market the correct way made good profits

Still Trader’s sentiments overall turned bearishbearish monero price

the main reasons for this are:

crypto exchanges registration with SEC

The U.S. SEC has informed all the domestic cryptocurrency exchanges to get the registration certificate or wait for a crackdown on them.

a crackdown on Japanese exchanges

Japanese authorities are now closely watching digital currencies to protect crypto traders from adverse events, such as Coincheck hack – which resulted in the loss of $500 million worth of coins.

declining trading volume

Lower trading volume is a major factor behind the broader selloff in digital currencies, while the decline of 80% in Google searches indicates the waning popularity of cryptocurrencies.

harsh comments from European regulators.

Regulators started taking actions against cryptocurrencies exchanges to evade illegal activities and price manipulation techniques.

this affects the markets as the hype has settled down.

this affects other currencies in a similar manner as Cardano (ADA), which is the eighth largest cryptocurrency based on market capitalization, plunged more than 6% today to the lowest level since mid-December.

Its market capitalization stands around $5.9 billion, slightly higher from Stellar’s (XLM) capitalization of $5.8 billion.

And Bitcoin Cash (BCH) traded in the range of $1200 in the last of couple week before falling to $1000 level today.

it could be assumed that this will continue to go down till another hype cathes the markets. cryptocurrencies have become already something that is less sexy and more mainstream ,this is good for its development but for those that only invest not so much.

still as a trader you see a volatile market where enough fluctuations happen mostly based on news to make some good trades. good luck

 

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Supreme Court Sides With Bits of Gold in Bank Dispute

Supreme Court Sides With Bitcoin Broker “Bits of Gold” in Israeli Bank Dispute

Upon appeal, the Israeli Supreme Court has rejected the closure of Bits of Gold’s banking facilities at Leumi bank, Tel Aviv.

The Israeli cryptocurrency brokerage’s appeal followed a previous ruling against it that has now been set aside by the higher court.

As Israel and many other countries struggle with the accelerated phenomenon of virtual currencies, Leumi Bank recently made the news for being a particularly blunt in its rejection of Bitcoin.

We should of course not be surprised with the banks attitude towards bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency for that matter. keep in mind that the banks become more and more obsolete because of them. Bits of gold versus leumi

They will keep on loosing money which now they make with ridiculous commissions of work that is fully automated. so they will try to see how they are able to make the operation and acquiring cryptos  as hard as possible knowing that they will never be able to stop them.

There is widespread anticipation that the upcoming G20 Summit in March 2018 will produce a global, moderate framework for a regulatory approach. Set against that are persistent hostile stances the world over from banks, asset managers and even governments towards cryptocurrencies.

Now that the countries understand there is money to be made with Taxation in cryptocurrencies they might want to make sure that the banks stay within their lane. 

Apart from the Israeli revenue service opting to tax cryptocurrency assets as “properties” and other more positive developments dating back to mid-2017, Israel remains a strange mix of genteel acceptance alongside wildly opposing voices.

There is thus Hope But no decision

Bits of Gold has fought a David and Goliath battle since their banker decided it wanted to steer clear of all cryptocurrency-related business.

On record as recently telling another bitcoin-related trader that they simply don’t want the business, Leumi Bank’s hard-line stance is accumulating bad press. The second-largest bank in Israel appears as discriminatory when analyzing virtual currency traders and other digital coin businesses.

During 2017, a customer made a bank transfer to the Kraken exchange site for buying bitcoin worth $1000. The bank identified the request, halted it, and started investigating.

The elated CEO of Bits of Gold, Youval Rouach said that “The court’s decision enables us to focus on the growth of the Israeli cryptocurrency community.”

 

The February 26 Supreme Court ruling granted Bits of Gold a temporary injunction against their account closure pending further scrutiny by the bank and other parties. The presiding bench declared that the company had “acted transparently and did not violate any provision of law.”

Calling the bank’s concerns “speculative” and turning an unsympathetic ear to the plaintiff, the ruling does, however, allow for the bank to still close the account on any small technical detail that defies legislation. As a record of a public spat around cryptocurrency’s right to be recognized in many ways, the ruling is seen as a victory for the local cryptocurrency community.

One Small Step Forward

Although not as absolute as nations like China that has opted for draconian bans, Israel is a front line for digital coins’ right not just to exist, but also become assets in the true sense of the word. The Supreme Court noted in its written ruling that Bits of Gold had not made itself guilty of the violation of any standing laws since opening its doors for business.

 

The Bits of Gold v. Leumi Bank case might become something of a test case once the bank applies its mind in scrutinizing the company’s accounts against the backdrop of existing legislation. The outcome will also be informed by sentiment post the G20 Summit due in March as well as other global regulatory trends.

Now that the countries understand there is money to be made with Taxation in cryptocurrencies they might want to make sure that the banks stay within their lane.

This was First Published by coindesk

 

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