More and more people are acquiring, exchanging, and investing in cryptocurrencies, and their uses and their influence is gradually spreading across many economic sectors. Bitcoin, among others, is increasingly solicited by online casinos and players, because of the significant benefits that their use offers players and operators.

What is a Cryptocurrency?

A cryptocurrency is a digital asset designed to function as a securely encrypted medium of exchange aimed at securing financial transactions, controlling the creation of additional units and verifying the transfer of assets. Cryptocurrencies, which can be considered as virtual cash or gold, are decentralised, which means that they are transferred from person to person directly without going through a third party thus without being controlled by any bank or government. This form of virtual currency was born in the early 1980s but was confronted at the time with the double-spending problem posed by the duplicable and falsifiable character of the first digital currencies. To put it simply, it was impossible to know if a virtual currency unit had ever been used in a previous transaction, and it was easy to duplicate the currency since there was still no global ledger to compare operations and know if a virtual currency unit had already been put into circulation. It was in 2009 that Bitcoin came up with a solution, by integrating all transactions to a peer-to-peer network, to this problem and, as a result, gained so much popularity that economists around the world are seriously studying the actual and potential impact of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies on our economy today.

The decentralised control, under which every cryptocurrency operates, works by sharing the records of all transactions made with the cryptocurrency in question, since its creation, amongst all the devices connected to the peer-to-peer networks in which these transactions are carried out. This exchange of data is commonly called the blockchain. As long as trade exchanges continue to be done using a virtual currency, its ledger will continue to grow and build on itself. Since their ledgers are made public to everyone and their information is continuously distributed across all users around the world, and their data is synchronised in real time, every cryptocurrency user will always share the same information on them. The mere fact of transferring the equivalent of $ 10 in the form of a cryptocurrency is recorded on public registers and is visible to all other users of the same virtual currency, which brings us to the next characteristic of cryptocurrencies, self-regulation.

Cryptocurrencies are self-regulated by what is commonly called miners. Miners are computer programs that are dedicated to verifying each transaction carried out with a given virtual currency by using complex algorithms. Once a transactions block is verified and certified legit, it is added to the blockchain and the miner is rewarded with a new unit of the cryptocurrency.

Cryptocurrencies offer their users the possibility of making financial transactions at infinitely smaller costs than with traditional banking methods, without going through any official financial institution and without having the currency under the control of a bank or a government.

Cryptocurrencies Bring Significant Advantages to Online Casino Players

Virtual currencies, or cryptocurrencies, offer online casino players a series of advantages that entice them to adopt this form of payment to fuel their bankroll. The first of these benefits is the increased confidentiality that the use of cryptocurrencies implies. Indeed, since the transactions do not go through a third party but directly between the player and the casino and are recorded in encrypted code only readable by the crypto-wallet peer-to-peer network used to process transactions, it is impossible to identify the sender and receiver of any transactions and is impossible to distinguish that the financial exchanges are related to an online gambling activity.

The second significant advantage is once again related to the privacy inherent to cryptocurrencies. Some countries of the world, the USA in particular, do not prohibit players from playing online casino on their territory per say, but forbid any financial institution to engage in monetary exchanges between players and online gambling platform. The pseudonymic nature of cryptocurrencies preventing the identification of creditors or debtors allows circumventing the jurisdictions imposed in some countries and enables players to play online casinos for real money in countries that ban the use of fiat currencies for gambling online. Although the US legislation is slowly but surely moving towards a relaxation of the laws regulating the gambling in general, online gaming in particular, it will take a few more years before online casinos are wholly legalised on the entire US territory. Today, many online casinos have adopted Bitcoins as a method of payment for the reasons we mentioned earlier.

Last but not least, amongst the many advantages offered by the use of Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies to play online casino that we want to put forward, is the fact that financial transactions between two parties are faster than with the so-called traditional banking methods. Since the exchanges are made directly between the casino and the player without going through a third party, the withdrawals of players' winnings, who can usually take between 3 business days up to 2 weeks, are much faster (+/- 48hours).

Is the Blockchain Technology About to Revolutionise Online Gambling?

In conclusion, we want to bring seasoned gamblers’ attention to a new phenomenon that could potentially revolutionise the online gambling industry. Several start-ups claim to be able to integrate blockchain technology to casino games to offer players 100% random games where the question of whether or not the casino can be trusted to host fair games would not arise anymore because the games would be checked 24/7 in the same fashion blockchain mining operates. We are not going to expand on the subject here, but the integration of Blockchain technology in the online casino business is to be carefully monitored because it could bring online gambling platforms 100% guaranteed fair to online gamblers. Stay tuned for more about blockchain casinos!

As the Annual Summit of the Open Government Partnership was getting closer and closer, the call for organizing remote hubs or local events in OGP member countries launched early October looked into bringing more local voice into the Summit itself.

The aim was to bring together different stakeholders engaged in OGP at country level, discuss and reflect on the progress made as part of the Action Plans (if the country is already implementing one); look at the priorities that should be reflected in the next Action Plan (if the country is at that level); analyze key challenges and lessons emerged out of these processes since joining the OGP; look into future opportunities that are worth exploring in the future and many more … In one word, these events aimed to serve as an evocation to the Summit – they allowed participants to ask/raise questions as well as to get more familiar with the key priorities of the Summit and ways to participate remotely@Summit.

As a result of this call, local events were organized in three OGP member countries! Interestingly enough, each local experience has been different not only by the nature of the discussions and issues addressed, but by the format as well.

In Moldova, a local event was organized by bringing different stakeholders around the table to look into the challenges related to the implementation of OG commitments along with other issues. In Costa Rica, a video was produced which highlights both current situation and future priorities related to OGP. In Guatemala a webinar was organized around Open government and Open Data for Municipalities.

Details about each of these experiences will be shared soon in a separate OGP Blog post, meanwhile, if one would ask me about the lessons learned as a result of this call for local events, these lessons would be the following:

- it is not the quantity but the quality that matters, however, I must admit that I was a little more optimistic about the number of local events that would be organized ;

- it is an indication that much more efforts are needed in OGP member countries to build the momentum around Open Government;

- it is clear that Civil Society organizations need support to be able to keep track of what’s going on with the Open Government Agenda in their respective countries and have practical tools to engage in a much deeper way in these processes;

- it is opportune to think about creating space for national, multi-stakeholder OGP platforms that would be the drivers of the OG agenda regardless of the fact that there is an upcoming Annual OGP Summit or not;

- it is obvious that Open Government is not yet part of the thinking or of the culture in several OGP member countries, and new values take time to be shared and followed in any society;

- it is extremely important to support the work of champions in the field (civil society, Government, private sector, media, etc) and capitalize on their experiences to be able to project the future priorities in the sector.

To conclude, the stories of future remote hubs or so called ‘local events’ might be even more optimistic if they come from multi-stakeholder national platforms which manage to respond to the limited capacity and resources of civil society, which are ‘pressurizing’ for more accountability, ownership and ambition over the Open Government commitments and which ‘externalize’ both the challenges as well as pragmatic solutions for the ways forward.

By being part of OGP we are part of its story as well! The degree to which this story is an optimistic, positive and insipiring one does also depend on each and every one of us!

The data is out there – now it’s time to make sense of it (and have fun)!

Do you want to learn how to extract, analyze, and visualize public data to give your stories the most impact?

If you’re a young journalist, journalism student or a data enthusiast, check out our event website andapply for our data journalism bootcamp!

Our host country for the event, Moldova, became one of the first 16 countries in the world to launch an open data portal in April 2011, and has subsequently released hundreds of datasets under theWorld Bank’s BOOST initiative.

The goal of releasing this data is so that it can become actionable intelligence: a launch pad for investigation, analysis, and improved government accountability and public service.

Open data improves transparency and, transparency mitigates risks of corruption, but, only to the full extent if this data can be analysed and understood by citizens.

Journalists are in a unique position to assist with making data actionable, by distilling complex information to the public in a comprehensive and meaningful format if equipped with the skills to manage this influx of data. This is where we are here to help!

During the week of October 21-25, 2013, Politics and Government Specialist (Europe, Middle East & Africa) @FACEBOOK, Elizabeth Linder, will meet civil society representatives in Moldova to discuss the “Role of social media in Open Government”. Moldova, being a member of the Open Government Partnership (OGP), should explore all possible means to engage citizens in decision-making processes, provide platforms for interaction and exchange of views and opinions, in addition to promoting transparency, accountability and use of technology to improve the quality of public services!

We will look into the opportunities and limitations of social media when it comes to Open Government :

- How citizens and civil society could use social media to keep government transparent and accountable? How citizens could build “online/real time” alliances to advocate for their rights and interests?

- How social media has changed the content of Democracy and Participatory Government?

- How Government could/should use Social Media to increase transparency and deliver better services to its citizens, engage and connect with citizens?

- Is Social Media a way for conducting official business or just an informal communication with the public? Is it for making policy decisions, official public noticing, and discussing items of legal or fiscal significance that have not previously been released to the public?

- How Governments should react to citizens’ voices shared through social media? How ‘serious’ citizens’ feedback becomes once it comes via social media and not through printed, signed and stamped letters?

- Others …

The event is organized by the E-Government Center in partnership with civil society working group E-Government/Open Government (part of National Participation Council), and World Bank.

NOTE: on October 23rd, Veronica Cretu, Coordinator of civil society working group E-Government/Open Government will conduct a session on the Role of Libraries in Open Government, with participation of more than 100 librarians from all around the country as part of the “Citizen engagement – E-transformation@Libraries”, organized by B.P.Hasdeu Municipal Library and Moldova Association of Librarians.

On October 8, 2013 a local event/hub was organized by the E-Government/Open Government working group (part of the National Participation Council) in partnership with E-Government Center and World Bank. This event was crucial in the context of the upcoming Open Government Partnership Summit in London and was seen as an opportunity to bring more input/local voice into the broader Summit Agenda.

Moldova participants salute the Summit Agenda and the efforts put by the UK Cabinet, OGP Support Unit, Steering Committee and other partners in organizing the Annual Summit end of October. It is expected that a delegation from Moldovan Government will take part in the event, thus, Government representatives will have the opportunity to interact and hear from other Governments their best practices, lessons learned, ways forward.

Another positive aspect lies in the fact that several civil society representatives will also have the opportunity to participate in the Summit and learn from their peer colleagues from OGP member countries.

KEY CHALLENGES AND RECOMMENDATIONS SHARED AS PART OF THE Local/Remote HUB IN MOLDOVA

Open Government concept is often misunderstood and misinterpreted and both public officials and civil society representatives use the E-Government term instead of Open Government. This makes the entire work on Open Government related initiatives quite difficult and slow;
There is limited capacity in the Ministries to address the Open Government Agenda, to generate sectorial commitments, to use citizen-centered approaches to consultations/feedback. This often leads to a certain degree of resistance, unwillingness to respond or to get actively engaged in the Open Government related discussions, initiatives, etc;
Lack of practical tools/methodology on how to elaborate or identify specific commitments based on the on values of transparency, accountability, citizen engagement for any of the 5 grand challenges set up by the OGP, makes the work of the Ministries and civil society organizations much more difficult. Often, commitments for the Action Plan on Open Government are nothing but actions taken from the already existent Action Plans of particular Ministries.
There are limited resources for civil society organizations to provide support in both the elaboration of the Action Plan on Open Government, as well as in monitoring the commitments made by the Government. Even if the civil society working group on E-Government/Open Government had a number of meetings with the donor community, embassies, and other international organizations, the issue of Open Government is not yet that present on their agenda;
According to a Soros Foundation Moldova supported report on the implementation of the Actions for 2012-2013, only 55% of the 2012 commitments have been achieved. Actions which were not implemented as part of the Action Plan for 2012-2013 should be further reviewed, analyzed and included in the new plan (should their implementation be still relevant for the overall OG Agenda). So this review process as well as identification of new commitments will go hand in hand for 2014-2015 Action plan;
Open Data policy should be part of the Open Government Agenda in which “open data by default” is at the core of it;
Open Data is seen as a driving element of the Open Government Agenda, thus, it is crucial to consolidate the capacities of public authorities as well as of civil society organizations to use, re-use, visualize open data (example shared in her presentation by Victoria Vlad, as part of Expert-Grup’s Budget Stories), which clearly shows that progress can be made in close partnership between Gov and CSOs – http://www.budgetstories.md /
Even though Open Data has been part of the broader Governance E-transformation Agenda (as of 2010), by joining OGP, Moldova continued to make slow but steady progress on the Open Data Agenda (www.data.gov.md having more than 672 data sets by 39 public authorities), and more efforts should be put in place to build the momentum around OD as part of the next Action plan and not only;
There is little awareness in the broader community on the Open Government Agenda, on Moldova’s membership in OGP, thus, more visibility and action is required to cover this gap.

Moldova OGP Hub in the context of OGP Annual Summit

As the Annual OGP Summit is approaching, more and more discussions are taking place in OGP member countries around the Summit Agenda, opportunities to engage in the discussions, ways to exchange views on critical issues, what works and what does not work when it comes to Open Government, experiences of civil society organizations related to their efforts to keep Governments accountable and many more.

Moldova is going to have its Remote Hub in the context of the upcoming Summit on October 8th, 2013. The event is organized by the civil society working group on E-Government/Open Government (that is part of the National Participation Council) in partnership with E-Government Center (public institution in charge of the Open Government Agenda) and World Bank office in Moldova.

The event will bring together representatives of civil society organizations, Government, developers’ community, media.

The most important objectives of this local event are:

- To share/review the most important aspects to be addressed during the Annual Summit of the Open Government Partnership;

- To discuss the up-to-date progress made on the elaboration process of the Action Plan on Open Government for 2014-2015 – key challenges and difficulties faced by civil society organizations, expected results, role of the central public authorities in the process, results of the sectorial discussions on the new commitments, input from the broader community to the plan provided through survey monkey tool, facebook and other social media, progress made on the Open Data component;

- To analyze ways through which civil society in Moldova can have a greater involvement in the Open Government Agenda – current needs, obstacles, emerging opportunities;

- To formulate specific questions, recommendations, suggestions that will be forwarded to the organizers of the OGP Annual Summit (including session moderators, experts, speakers).

It is expected that up to 25 participants will join the event, while participants in the region will be able to join the discussions via Skype.

Results of the local hub in Moldova will be shared shortly after the event!

NOTE: such local events are expected to happen in several OGP member countries, thus, participants from all around the globe have the opportunity to bring their local perspective, their voice, their ideas and recommendations for future, into the broader dialogue around the Open Government Summit.

Moldova Remote HUB @ Annual Summit of OGP

Ce: Eveniment local organizat in contextual apropierii Summitului Annual al Parteneriatului pentru o Guvernare Deschisa din 31 Octombrie – 1 Noiembrie 2013 care se va desfasura la Londra

Nota: astfel de evenimente locale vor fi organizate in tarile membre ale Parteneriatului pentru o Guvernare Deschisa pentru a oferi posibilitate actorilor cheie la nivel local sa contribuie la agenda internationala ce tine de Guvernare Deschisa, sa vina cu perspectiva locala asupra proceselor de dezvoltare pe acest domeniu. Vedeti mai multe detalii despre conceptul de Remote Hubs.

De catre cine: organizat de Grupul E-Guvernare/Guvernare Deschisa (Consiliul National pentru Participare), in parteneriat cu Centrul de Guvernare Electronica si Banca Mondiala

Cind: 8 Octombrie 2013, orele 9:30 – 12:30

Unde: sala de sedinte, etajul 2, sediul Bancii Mondiale la Chisinau (Str. Puskin 20/1)

Pentru cine: societate civila, Guvern, organizatii internationale, media.

Obiectivele cheie:

- De a trece in revista cele mai importante aspecte care vor fi abordate in cadrul Summitului Annual al Parteneriatului pentru o Guvernare Deschisa de la Londra de la finele lunii Octombrie 2013;

- De a prezenta progresele pe dimensiunea elaborarii noului Plan de Actiuni pentru o Guvernare Deschisa a Moldovei pentru anii 2014-2015: dificultati, lectii invatate, rezultate asteptate;

- De a analiza modalitati prin care societatea civila ar putea avea o mai mare implicare in Agenda pentru o Guvernare Deschisa in Moldova;

- De a formula intrebari, propuneri, recomandari care vor fi transmise organizatorilor Summitului Annual (moderatorilor sesiunilor de lucru, vorbitorilor, expertilor).

Agenda preliminara

Timp/durata	Detalii
9:30 – 10:00	-          Prezentarea participantilor, agendei de lucru-          Scurta prezentare a Agendei Summitului de la Londra – modalitati de participare la Summit  (Veronica Cretu, Coordonator E-Guvernare/Guvernare Deschisa)-          Intrebari/Raspunsuri
10:00 – 10:45	-          Planul de Actiuni pentru o Guvernare Deschisa 2014-2015 – situatia curenta, dificultati, rezultate asteptate (Veronica Cretu, Coordonator E-Guvernare/Guvernare Deschisa);-          Rolul societatii civile in Agenda pentru o Guvernare Deschisa – modele, exemple, opportunitati  (Eduard Mihalas, CNTM)-          Intrebari/Raspunsuri
10:45 – 11:00	Pauza cafea
11:00 – 11:45	-          Cum aderarea Moldovei la Parteneriatul pentru o Guvernare Deschisa a influentat discutiile si progresul pe marginea datelor deschise:-          Pozitia Guvernului (Irina Tisacova, Centrul de Guvernare Electronica);-          Exemple concrete de utilizare a datelor deschise de catre societatea civila (Victoria Vlad, Expert Grup)
11:45 -12:30	Lucru in grup – formularea intrebarilor, propunerilor, sugestiilor pe marginea aspectelor cheie abordate in cadrul evenimentului.Concluzii si stabilirea urmatorilor pasi.

Stimați colegi!

Astăzi, Centrul de Guvernare Electronică în colaborare cu grupul E-Guvernare/Guvernare Deschisă din cadrul Consiliului Național pentru Participare, lucrează la elaborarea unui Plan de Acțiuni pentru o Guvernare Deschisă pentru anii 2014-2015. Acțiunile care vor fi incluse în acest plan vor influența activitatea dvs. direct, iar în unele cazuri indirect. Din aceste considerente, este important să aveți posibilitatea de a vă expune pe marginea a ceea ce considerați că trebuie să fie prevăzut în acest Plan de Acțiuni!

Iar modalitatea în care o puteți face este să răspundeți la următoarele întrebări:

1. Ce v-ar determina, ca cetățean al acestei ţări, să vă implicați activ în procesele de luare a deciziilor lansate de către autoritățile publice locale sau/şi centrale (primăria, consiliul local, Ministere, Agentii, alte instituții publice)?

2. Care sunt, în opinia Dvs., domeniile cele mai importante în administrarea cărora Guvernul ar trebui sa ia în considerație în mod prioritar opinia cetățenilor de rînd?

3. Cum ar trebui să lucreze Guvernul ca Dvs. să aveți mai multă încredere în acesta?

4. Ce informații şi date din sectorul public sunt de interes sporit pentru Dvs. şi ar trebui să fie aduse la cunoștința publicului larg în mod prioritar?

5. Alte comentarii şi sugestii pe marginea elaborării şi implementării Planului de Acţiuni 2014-2015

Vă mulțumim anticipat și așteptăm contribuțiile dvs pînă la data de 30 Septembrie 2013! Puteți lăsa mesajele dvs în rubrica Comments de mai jos!

Doar cu cetățeni activi, implicați și deschiși lucrurile se pot mișca înainte!!!!