Tag: Crypto

Daily Crypto Review, May 29 – Bitcoin above $9,500; Goldman’s Criticism vs. Grayscale’s Optimism

Post author By Ilija Rankovic
Post date 29 May, 2020
No Comments on Daily Crypto Review, May 29 – Bitcoin above $9,500; Goldman’s Criticism vs. Grayscale’s Optimism

The crypto market has spent the day gaining some more value, with Ethereum performing the best out of the top10 cryptos. Bitcoin is currently trading for $9,512, which represents an increase of 4.15% on the day. Meanwhile, Ethereum gained 7.92% on the day, while XRP gained 2.24%.

Bancor took the position of today’s biggest daily gainer, with gains of 33.09%. Theta lost 6.56% of its daily value, making it the most prominent daily loser.

Bitcoin’s dominance stayed at the same place since we last reported, with its value currently at 66.39%. This value represents a 0.02% difference to the downside when compared to yesterday’s value.

The cryptocurrency market capitalization increased when compared to yesterday’s value, with its current value being $265.5 billion. This value represents an increase of $9.18 billion when compared to the value it had yesterday.

What happened in the past 24 hours

Goldman Sachs vs. Bitcoin investors

Goldman Sachs announced in its most recent conference call with investors that Bitcoin is not an asset class and that people shouldn’t invest in it. However, Bitcoin investors seem to not follow this advice, as the largest crypto by market cap increased from $8,800 to over $9,500 since then.

The rise may be somewhat related to recent news from Grayscale, a financial institution that believes in Bitcoin. Grayscale Bitcoin Trust analysis has shown that Grayscale has bought 150% of the newly-mined Bitcoin since the halving.

_______________________________________________________________________

Technical analysis

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Bitcoin

The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization came back above $9,000 yesterday, only to break out again and push for $9,500 today. The move was stopped by $9,580 and Bitcoin went down slightly since. However, the outlook seems quite bullish and the possibility of breaking $10,000 in the short-term is incredibly high.

Bitcoin’s volume is returning to normal after a surge during the big price increase, while its RSI on the 4-hour chart approaches 66.

Key levels to the upside Key levels to the downside

1: $9,580 1: $9,250

2: $9,735 2: $9,120

3: $9,870 3: $8,980

Ethereum

Ethereum has finally gathered enough bullish pressure to attempt a break of a long-time resistance of $217.6. The push was successful and Ethereum is now trading at $220 after being stopped by the $225.4 resistance. This move is very important for Ethereum as it shows that its moves do not fully rely on Bitcoin’s initiative (or that even if they do, they can do better than Bitcoin).

Ethereum’s volume is above average for the whole day, while its RSI level on the 4-hour chart is at 72.3.

Key levels to the upside Key levels to the downside

1: $225.4 1: $217.6

2: $240 2: $198

3: $251.4 3: $193.6

Ripple

XRP’s chart shows that the third-largest cryptocurrency (XRP retook the third place from USDT with its most recent move) by market cap is in a pretty important stage. While the most recent move broke it from the loop of constantly making new lower highs, the move got stopped by the horizontal $0.2 resistance level.

XRP’s volume is higher than average for the whole day, while its RSI level is just under 60.

Key levels to the upside Key levels to the downside

1: $0.2 1: $0.19

2: $0.205 2: $0.1785

3: $0.214

Tags bitcoin, BTC, Crypto, Crypto Trading, cryptocurrency, Daily Brief, ETH, Ethereum, Fundamental Analysis, Ripple, Technical Analysis, trading, XRP

Crypto Market Analysis

Daily Crypto Review, May 28 – “We Are All Satoshi” – Craig Wright Exposed?

Post author By Ilija Rankovic
Post date 28 May, 2020
No Comments on Daily Crypto Review, May 28 – “We Are All Satoshi” – Craig Wright Exposed?

The crypto market has spent the day trying to reach new highs (and mostly succeeding in doing that). Bitcoin is currently trading for $9,229, which represents an increase of 4.22% on the day. Meanwhile, Ethereum gained 3.04% on the day, while XRP gained 1.67%.

Electroneum took the position of today’s biggest daily gainer, with gains of 17.25%. Theta lost 0.97% of its daily value, making it the most prominent daily loser.

Bitcoin’s dominance increased quite a bit since we last reported, with its value currently at 66.41%. This value represents a 0.74% difference to the upside when compared to yesterday’s value.

The cryptocurrency market capitalization increased when compared to yesterday’s value, with its current value being $256.32 billion. This value represents an increase of $7.2 billion when compared to the value it had yesterday.

What happened in the past 24 hours

Craig Wright exposed?

The Kleiman estate legal team has announced that they have submitted evidence of 145 addresses so far claimed by Craig Wright are not controlled by him at all. They said that the new evidence proves the “CSW Filed List” is definitively not a list of Wright’s Bitcoin addresses, but instead a “purposeful fabrication” by Wright.

May 24 brought us a Bitcoin transaction signed by the private keys that belong to one of the CSW filed list addresses, saying, “Craig Steven Wright is a liar and a fraud. He doesn’t have the keys used to sign this message … We are all Satoshi.”

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Technical analysis

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Bitcoin

The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization came back above $9,000 yet again as bulls came into the market. The price increase was most likely caused by the confirmation that the message sent from one of the CSW list addresses (which is supposedly owned by Satoshi Nakamoto) claiming that he is a fraud.

Bitcoin’s volume returned to normal after a surge during the big price increase, while its RSI on the 4-hour chart approaches 61.

Key levels to the upside Key levels to the downside

1: $9,250 1: $9,120

2: $9,580 2: $8,980

3: $9,735 3: $8,820

Ethereum

Ethereum has spent the day following Bitcoin’s initiative and pushing towards the upside. The second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization managed to reach $209 before losing momentum. While the uptick Ethereum has made is good, the fact that ETH has created another lower high does not look well as far as mid-term analysis is concerned.

Ethereum’s volume doubled during the uptick, while its RSI started reverting after reaching the value of 58.

Key levels to the upside Key levels to the downside

1: $217.6 1: $198

2: $225.4 2: $193.6

3: $240 3: $185

Ripple

XRP’s chart looked a lot like Ethereum’s chart yet another time. The fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap has created another lower high after a move up that brought it (briefly) to just above $0.2. However, the movement lost momentum, and XRP seems to be in a downturn at the moment.

XRP’s volume increased to several times its average during the uptick but quickly returned to its average levels. Its RSI on the 4-hour chart is currently at 54.

Key levels to the upside Key levels to the downside

1: $0.2 1: $0.19

2: $0.205 2: $0.1785

3: $0.214

Tags bitcoin, BTC, Crypto, Crypto Trading, cryptocurrency, Daily Brief, ETH, Ethereum, Fundamental Analysis, Ripple, Technical Analysis, trading, XRP

Crypto Daily Topic

How to Cash Out Your ICO Proceeds

Post author By Edith M.
Post date 27 May, 2020
No Comments on How to Cash Out Your ICO Proceeds

Almost every week, we hear of another new crypto project being launched that will solve an existing problem or fill a gap in the crypto ecosystem. Even if it’s not geared towards the crypto space, entrepreneurial types may be interested in starting a crypto-related business.

The common practice to raise funds is through an Initial Coin Offering (ICO). An ICO is a lot like an Initial Public Offering through which traditional companies raise funds. In an ICO, a project sells freshly minted tokens so as to raise capital to start the project. People can invest in the project by receiving the tokens and giving away other cryptos such as Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin, and so on.

Of course, after receiving the funds, the next step is to cash out and inject it into the project by paying for bills, talent, PR campaigns, legal processes, office equipment, and so on.

None of the above things would be an issue in a normal environment. However, in a world where cryptocurrency is still treated ambivalently, things have to be done differently. There is also the issue of cryptocurrencies not being accepted for everyday use.

Cashing out cryptocurrency for Fiat can be daunting, least of all, when doing so in large amounts. We’re going to take a look at why this is, as well as explore the best strategies to use when cashing out your ICO proceeds.

Why is the Process so Complicated?

As blockchain continues to occupy more space in finance, a lot of banks and financial institutions are exploring ways in which to incorporate the technology in their operations. While this may be so, the vast majority of banks are not exactly lining up to embrace cryptocurrencies. Not only are cryptocurrencies in direct competition with banks, but they were also created to replace them. As such, it’s only natural that banks will treat cryptocurrencies with suspicion.

Reports are rife that banks are reluctant to do business with crypto-related businesses. Influential figures in the traditional finance space have been on record calling cryptocurrency a fraud. And for the few banks that are willing to engage crypto projects, paperwork upon paperwork and jumping through countless legal hoops is to be expected.

The reason for this is banks have to comply with Anti Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations. Banks will be trying to ascertain your source of the funds – and whether it’s legitimate or not. Also, every single transaction has to undergo rigorous verification.

After all these procedures, it is not guaranteed that you will have a smooth sailing relationship with the bank. Due to the regulatory uncertainty of cryptocurrencies, your account will always be at the risk of being shut down. Some words such as Bitcoin, cryptocurrency, ICO, Ether, BTC, and so on can get your transactions flagged and your account shut down.

Also, cashing out via a crypto exchange may have fewer obstacles, but it’s also complicated. Assuming you find a legitimate exchange that’s also legal in your jurisdiction, the first thing you should do is ensure you have a bank account that you will withdraw your money to. You also need to undergo layers of verification processes in both the exchange and bank. Then you’ll have to contend with long wait times and high transaction fees.

Storing your funds in a crypto exchange wallet is not an option, either. Crypto exchange wallets are custodial, meaning you’re not in full control of your funds. Also, exchange wallets constitute online wallets – which are prone to hacking and other types of fraud.

Withdrawing Small Amounts

Now, if you were to try cashing out the entire amount of funds, not only would it be a logistical nightmare, but it would also raise eyebrows with the bank and the authorities. The best approach would be to withdraw the amount of money that you actually need for various steps of the project, once in a while.

Here are a few ways to go about it:

Exchange the right amount of crypto for Fiat in an exchange and withdraw the money to your bank account
Make use of peer-to-peer exchanges (exchanges that don’t utilize a third party), e.g, LocalBitcoins and LocalEthereum. Such exchanges provide high security for your funds and protect you from transactions censorship.
Skip the bank altogether by using payment processors such as CoinPayments, CoinGate, SpectroCoin, BitPay, SpicePay, and others. These processors allow you to take things through direct crypto to bank transactions.
Get a prepaid Visa or MasterCard that will allow you to load crypto and directly and use it for payments online and offline payments. These can be obtained at com, Tenx, Bitwala, and other blockchain banking services.
Pay your staff in crypto and instruct them on how to cash out in Fiat

Taking advantage of relaxed jurisdictions

Currently, there is no solution that directly allows you to withdraw large amounts of crypto. But some while cryptocurrency is frowned upon in many countries. Some countries have a rather open approach. In these jurisdictions, it’s possible to open a bank account and operate with crypto without being censored:

Singapore
Malta Islands
Switzerland
Estonia
Germany
Bermuda
Cayman Islands
Luxembourg

Tags Cashing out on ICO proceeds, Crypto, Crypto-friendly countries, Education, ICO, icos, localbitcoins

Crypto Videos

The Satoshi Nakamoto Controversy! Has He Been Discovered?

Post author By Keiran
Post date 27 May, 2020
No Comments on The Satoshi Nakamoto Controversy! Has He Been Discovered?

https://youtu.be/ni-GoHl3W_E

The Satoshi Nakamoto Controversy: What Happened to his Crypto?

The past month has been very interesting in terms of Satoshi Nakamoto-related news, and it all started with someone mysteriously moving $1.6 million in Bitcoin from the address that could be one of Satoshi Nakamoto’s.
While most experts believe that the cryptocurrency transfer was done by one of the first-month Bitcoin miners rather than Satoshi themselves, others believe that there might be something else in play. However, this is not the complete story, as often-called Faketoshi Craig Wright came into the limelight and stirred up more uncertainty.

Wright vs. Kleiman

The case between Craig Wright and Ira Kleiman has been lasting for quite some time, with its final jury trial set for July 6. Craig Wright has announced that he is the real Satoshi Nakamoto, and claims that he has the private keys to the Bitcoin addresses that Satoshi should have access to. However, Kleiman’s side does not believe he is the real Satoshi Nakamoto, claiming that Wright might have access to these addresses, but that he cannot show the court that he has the access, as the addresses contain a proof of partnership between him and late Dave Kleiman.

The Encrypted File

Kleiman’s legal team said that Wright’s refusal to open the encrypted file suggests he knows that its contents will certainly include partnership records between Wright and Kleiman. The contents of the file will, as they said, show that 820,200 Bitcoins belong to the partnership rather than just to Craig Wright.
While this case unfolds, the public is waiting to see how everything resolves as they are looking for any clues on who Satoshi Nakamoto might be.

Tags bitcoin, Crypto, Ethereum, Satoshi Nakamoto

Crypto Market Analysis

Daily Crypto Review, May 27 – BTC Transaction Fees Down More Than 50%

Post author By Ilija Rankovic
Post date 27 May, 2020
No Comments on Daily Crypto Review, May 27 – BTC Transaction Fees Down More Than 50%

The crypto market has spent the day slowly testing out immediate support and resistance levels. Bitcoin is currently trading for $8,836, which represents a decrease of 1.28% on the day. Meanwhile, Ethereum lost 0.37% on the day, while XRP gained 0.08%.

SOLVE took the position of today’s biggest daily gainer, with gains of 15.32%. Theta Fuel lost 10.48% of its daily value, making it the most prominent daily loser.

Bitcoin’s dominance decreased quite a bit since we last reported, with its value currently at 65.77%. This value represents a 0.34% difference to the downside.

The cryptocurrency market capitalization decreased when compared to yesterday’s value, with its current value being $249.12 billion. This value represents a decrease of $0.87 billion when compared to the value it had yesterday.

What happened in the past 24 hours

BTC transaction fees

After spiking to Feb 2018 level-highs just a week ago, the average Bitcoin transaction fee has dropped by more than 50%.

The data shows that Bitcoin’s average fee fell from $6.65 on May 20 all the way down to $3.07 on May 25, representing a nearly 54% decrease.

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Technical analysis

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Bitcoin

The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization had quite a slow day of testing its support and resistance levels. As it failed to break $8,980 resistance line, Bitcoin started dropping towards the downside and only stopping at the $8,650 support level. However, the bounce from the $8,650 level was strong enough to put Bitcoin back to where it was, practically nullifying all efforts made by both the bulls and the bears.

Bitcoin is still trading between the $8,820 support and $8,980 resistance. Breaking above the resistance level could trigger another strong push towards the upside, while a break below the support is less valuable as a signal (unless accompanied by a strong volume and goes below $8,650).

Key levels to the upside Key levels to the downside

1: $8,980 1: $8,820

2: $9,120 2: $8,650

3: $9,250 3: $8,000

Ethereum

Ethereum has spent most of the day dropping towards the $198 support line and testing its strength. The level held strong, and ETH bulls came in and picked up the slack and struck when bears were weakened from the push. Ethereum has, over a couple of hours, managed to reach $205 levels.

Ethereum’s volume is still incredibly small, while its RSI is in the middle of the value range.

Key levels to the upside Key levels to the downside

1: $217.6 1: $198

2: $225.4 2: $193.6

3: $240 3: $185

Ripple

XRP’s chart looked a lot like Ethereum’s chart yet again. The price has fallen slightly as bears tried to take over the market, but it then corrected to the upside and came back to the previous levels. Out of the three cryptocurrencies we are covering, XRP was the only one that ended up in the green today.

XRP’s volume decreased slightly when compared to yesterday, while its RSI stayed just below the middle of the value range.

Key levels to the upside Key levels to the downside

1: $0.2 1: $0.19

2: $0.205 2: $0.1785

3: $0.214

Tags bitcoin, BTC, Crypto, Crypto Trading, cryptocurrency, Daily Brief, ETH, Ethereum, Fundamental Analysis, Ripple, Technical Analysis, trading, XRP

Crypto Videos

Reddit’s Co Founder Says We Are In Crypto Spring! #Buy

Post author By Keiran
Post date 26 May, 2020
No Comments on Reddit’s Co Founder Says We Are In Crypto Spring! #Buy

https://youtu.be/i3llyrE0CTg

Reddit’s Co-Founder Says We Are In ‘Crypto Spring’

Alexis Ohanian, Reddit co-founder, has described the cryptocurrency ecosystem as a sector currently in the “crypto spring,” emphasizing the application of the technology as well as the talent working on it.

His interview with Yahoo Finance revealed his positive outlook on the cryptocurrency industry, especially in terms of top-tier engineers, designers, product developers, etc. that are building real solutions on top of this technology.
“We’re seeing top-tier talent building on this infrastructure, and that to me is the most interesting part,” he said.

Crypto won’t go away

Ohanian also stated that he had held a portion of his wealth in cryptocurrencies for quite some time now. When asked about the most recent price development, he said that he still feels pretty good about his holdings and that he doesn’t want to change much of it. He also described cryptocurrencies as a “prudent hedge.”

Reddit and Cryptocurrencies

Reddit has launched its cryptocurrency-based Community Points reward system on the Ethereum testnet called Rinkeby, with the intention to move to the mainnet by the end of 2020. Reddit is yet another company that is slowly but surely accepting cryptocurrencies as a concept rather than shying away from it due to the regulatory uncertainty.

Tags Crypto, Crypto Trading, cryptocurrencies, cryptocurrency, Education

Crypto Videos

Russia Is Outlawing Crypto! Dasvidaniya!

Post author By Keiran
Post date 26 May, 2020
No Comments on Russia Is Outlawing Crypto! Dasvidaniya!

https://youtu.be/kYG3LetUAj0

Russia Making Crypto Illegal?

Russian lawmakers have recently suggested punishments of up to 2 million rubles (around $27,800) as well as seven years in prison for illegal crypto or digital asset turnover. The law is not set in motion yet, but the government is considering it.

How bad are the fines?

The punishments suggested in the bill are on a sliding scale that starts from around $300 for using digital or cryptocurrencies for transacting goods and services, all the way up to 2 million rubles and seven years in prison for organizing illegal digital or cryptocurrency turnover.
They also proposed a penalty for buying digital assets for cash on Russian soil, as well as for transferring funds from cryptocurrency to any Russian bank accounts.

What will crypto companies do?

Yuri Pripachkin, president of the Russian Association of Crypto-economics and Blockchain, said that the new package of laws would act as a complete ban on cryptocurrency. By doing that, Russia will stop benefiting from this technology anymore. He believes that if the new rules were to be put in motion, many companies would simply move out of Russia and relocate to neighboring countries with a better approach towards cryptocurrencies.

While the companies have the opportunity to move from Russia to other countries that are more crypto-friendly, the Russian population that uses cryptocurrency will be cut off from the cryptocurrency world.

Tags Crypto, Crypto Trading, cryptocurrencies, Education

Crypto Exchanges

Bitmex Vs. Deribit Vs. Bybit: Which one is the Best Crypto-derivative Exchange?

Post author By Edith M.
Post date 26 May, 2020
No Comments on Bitmex Vs. Deribit Vs. Bybit: Which one is the Best Crypto-derivative Exchange?

Cryptocurrency derivatives are an ideal investment option for individuals looking to generate more returns from the crypto market. Although they appeal most to experienced traders, trading derivatives is the less risky alternative to the standard cryptocurrency trading.

Derivatives are used to hedge against risks or to speculate the price of the underlying asset. Investors are, therefore, protected from price fluctuations since they only buy the asset at the fixed price stipulated in the derivative contract. Additionally, investors don’t have to worry about asset theft/loss as they aren’t required to hold the underlying asset itself.

Given the intricacies of derivative trading, it’s highly recommended to choose a platform that’s uniquely designed to support this type of crypto trading. That said, Bitmex, Deribit, and Bybit are among the most preferred derivatives trading platforms by investors.

In this comparative guide, we pit them against each other and reviewed their ease of use, security, and liquidity to find out which one gets the job done efficiently:

Platform Stability and User Experience

When choosing a crypto derivatives trading platform, you will want to vet its ease of use and the complexity of its sign-up process. Avoid platforms with a complex user interface as they cam prove intimidating, especially to first time users.

The sign-up process for the three platforms is rather simple since all you require is a username, password, and country of residence. Bitmex doesn’t, however, process registration requests from residents of such countries as the US, Seychelles, Cuba, Iran, Syria, among others. Of course, the geo-restriction can be bypassed using a strong VPN to hide the IP address. With the other two platforms, Deribit and Bybit, users from anywhere around the world can sign up without any restrictions.

Bitmex is best operated on its official website thanks to its smart and simple layout. What’s better, users can customize the web layout and change such features as themes, text colors, and integrate different trading tools. The platform, however, has neither developed its own mobile app nor optimized its website for mobile use. Deribit, on the other hand, has a user-friendly mobile app, which is a good compensation for its relatively clunky website.

Bybit wins on all fronts as far as user-friendliness is concerned. Their desktop user interface is easy to navigate and rarely experiences downtimes, which is a common case with Bitmex. Recently, Bybit released its own app available to both iOs and Android users.

Liquidity

Liquidity in derivatives trading entails a lot more than just cash flow and the ability to sell options/futures in the shortest time possible. However, this is not to diminish the importance of these two factors. In fact, the two are an integral part of any trading platform since they are an indication of a healthy supply and demand.

High liquidity for derivatives allows for ultra-tight bid-ask spreads and reduced risk of slippage when executing orders. For the derivatives market to achieve high liquidity, it must have high trading volumes and create room for intense price competition between sellers and buyers.

Bitmex boasts of higher trading volumes compared to both Deribit and Bybit. In fact, as of this year, the exchange posted higher trading volumes than other top exchanges that process standard cryptocurrency trading. Due to its high liquidity, Bitmex has the tightest spread and least slippage, meaning your orders will always be filled just at the right amount. On top of that, the exchange offers a variety of futures contracts, including BTC futures, ETH futures, ETH perpetual, XRP futures, LTC futures, ADA futures, TRX futures, EOS, and Bitcash futures. This further increases its trading volume, increasing liquidity.

Deribit trades an upward of 0.5 billion daily, so its liquidity is relatively high. Perhaps if the exchange offered more trading options than just BTC futures and BTC perpetual, its liquidity would increase substantially. Launched two years ago, Bybit often struggles with liquidity issues. But the team behind this exchange, which comprises of leading crypto trading experts, is continually working to increase the trading volume and liquidity. Moreover, as the exchange gains traction in the market, it’s liquidity is bound to increase over time.

Security

Exchanges often fall victim to cyber hacks resulting in loss of investors’ funds. When choosing an ideal derivatives trading platform, you want one that prioritizes the security of your funds.

Since it was established in 2014, Bitmex has grown to become one of the largest exchanges in the market. Due to its size, the platform is arguably a more attractive target for hackers. Impressively though, the exchange has never been hacked for the six years the platform has been active, an achievement that can be attributed to its high-level security measures.

The platform stores investor’s funds and crypto reserves in an offline and multi-signature wallet. About 95% of the funds are stored in a cold wallet to deter theft by cybercriminals. The remaining amount is stored on the platform’s hot wallet to facilitate daily transactions.

Additionally, Bitmex allows users to secure their accounts with the Google-powered two-factor authenticator.

In its short life, Bybit has managed to meet the industry-standard security protocols. Similar to the other two, Bybit maintains cold wallets where the bulk of the clients’ funds are stored. The rest of the funds are stored in a hot wallet to facilitate daily transactions. A multi-signature system is employed every time the funds are moved between the cold wallet and a hot wallet.

The three exchanges are arguably at par as far as security is concerned. But Bitmex takes the lead due to its once-per-day withdrawal policy, which reduces the risk of hackers’ interception.

Conclusion

The fact that the three exchanges are exclusively designed for derivatives trading makes them ideal for any investors looking to get into crypto futures contracts. However, Bitmex has the upper hand, having laid a strong foundation on all fronts since it was established. At the same time, both Deribit and Bybit give Bitmex a good run for its money, an indication that they can be trusted by investors.

Tags Crypto, crypto derivatives exchanges, Crypto Trading, cryptocurrencies, Cryptocurrency derivatives, investment

Blockchain and DLT

What Are The 5 Key Challenges Facing Blockchain Today?

Post author By Edith M.
Post date 26 May, 2020
No Comments on What Are The 5 Key Challenges Facing Blockchain Today?

Blockchain is one of the most disruptive technologies of the last decade, from powering cryptocurrencies to dizzying heights of success to industry after industry racing to incorporate it into their processes.

david-shares-4_41-79dHvE-unsplash

It would be ideal if blockchain was a problem-free technology providing problem-free solutions. But this is not the case.

These are the core five issues that are the bane of blockchain’s current existence: unsatisfactory privacy and security; and regulatory, legal, and ethical issues.

1. Security Issues

One of the defining features of public blockchains is their decentralization. This means that they are not controlled, nor can they be shut down by anyone. Decentralization helps keep the blockchain secure since thousands of computers from the globe are participating in maintaining and securing the network. Even if someone managed to shut down some of the computers, the rest would carry on operating the network.

But it is still this decentralization that’s potentially an Achilles heel for the blockchain. While it’s safer than a centralized network, which has a single point of control – and hence a single point of attack, the decentralized model is not perfectly secure. A public blockchain is vulnerable to a 51% attack.

A 51% attack describes an occasion when an entity or a group of people manages to take control of over 50% of a blockchain’s computing power. This would allow them to tilt the blockchain’s operations in their favor. For instance, they could double-spend coins, block transactions, or stop miners.

Smaller blockchains, in particular, are more susceptible to attacks. This is because they have fewer miners securing the blockchain, making it easier for an entity to take control of a bigger percentage of the network’s computing power. For instance, for the IOTA blockchain, a bad actor would only need to take control of 34% of the total network’s hash power.

Luckily, such an attack is extremely rare and unlikely. It is prohibitively expensive for someone to attempt to take control of over 51% of a blockchain network. The sheer financial and time resources needed to pull it off are enough to make one perish the thought.

2. Privacy Issues

Transparency is another defining feature of public blockchains. The history of transactions is available for everyone to see. While your personal credentials are not made public (or even required for you to conduct a transaction), your public address can be used to link back to you. This state is known as pseudonymity.

In an era of ubiquitous internet when privacy is highly valued, pseudonymous transactions do not exactly fly with many users. To address this problem, several privacy-oriented blockchains have sprung up to fill the gap. Examples include Monero, ZCash, Komodo, and DASH.

3. Legal Issues

While blockchain technology has increased in popularity and is being embraced across industries, its legal standing is still very much grey. Some of the legal issues are as follows:

Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs): these are organizations that are much like traditional organizations in terms of function, except they are governed by computer code, and commands are executed by computers without the intervention of humans or central authorities. But let’s say, for example, in the event of a conflict, how will it be resolved? Who bears responsibility?
Smart contracts: Blockchain-based smart contracts are a new kind of contract that is self-verifying and self-executing. This removes the need for costly intermediaries and saves time. Given that smart contracts are pure lines of code, it’s debatable whether they can really be considered as complete contracts, at least in the traditional sense. It’s all well and good if all parties meet their end of the bargain. But in the event of a dispute, would a smart contract be legitimate in the eyes of the law? At the very least, ensure that you have a conflict resolution procedure encoded in the smart contract.
Leaving a blockchain: Let’s imagine you’ve been using a blockchain to record sensitive data such as your company’s financial records or employee data. What happens if you stop using the service, and you do not possess copies of the ledger? Before you sign up for a blockchain service, ensure there are provisions in place to ensure that a blockchain service provider surrenders your records back to you at the end of the contract.

4. Regulatory issues

Cryptocurrencies were the first application of blockchain. They are defined by features such as decentralization, distributed, and immutability. This decentralized feature does not particularly fly with the majority of governments and regulators all over the world. This creates a state of regulatory uncertainty.

Governments have taken different approaches to this. Some governments such as Bolivia, Colombia, Iran, Algeria, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Ecuador have entirely banned cryptocurrencies. Other countries, such as the United States, the UK, Canada, Slovenia, and South Africa, have accepted them. Acceptance can mean anything from cryptocurrencies being accepted as means of payment but not as legal tender, to them actually being used as legal tender – like is the case in the Marshall Islands.

Too strict regulation can stifle innovation. On the other hand, a total lack of regulation could create undesirable circumstances such as market manipulation and unlawful use.

5. Ethical Issues

Blockchain gives rise to some ethical issues, with the most problematic ones being 1) its environmental impact and 2) criminals taking advantage of it.

Blockchain networks utilize cryptography to maintain security and process transactions. The amount of power that goes into this is jaw-droppingly enormous.

Check out the statistics:

If bitcoin was a country, it would be the 41st highest electricity-consuming country in the world.
Every year bitcoin produces 34.76 megatonnes of carbon dioxide, similar to that of Denmark.
Just one bitcoin transaction consumes more energy than 100, 000 Visa transactions, and as much as a US household consumes in 22 days.
The estimated global mining costs for Bitcoin is $1.5 billion.
Bitcoin mining uses more power than 12 states (Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming).

In an era when environmental concerns are more relevant than ever, the staggering use of energy is alarming. For this reason, crypto developers need to come up with more environmentally friendly ways of releasing new coins and processing transactions.

Then there is the issue of blockchain enabling criminal activities such as drug peddling, child trafficking, sex trafficking, tax evasion, money laundering, and so on. Cybercriminals take advantage of the pseudonymous and anonymous nature of cryptocurrencies to engage in such activities. Even cyber attackers want to be paid in cryptocurrency and not other types of money.

Final Words

Blockchain is a powerful technology that has revolutionized certain facets of our society. However, at this stage, the world has to contend with its less-than-perfect implications. While some of the issues require a shift in attitude, others are inherently blockchain’s own. Whether any of these is set to change in the future is anyone’s guess.

Tags Bitcoin privacy, Blockchain and regulation, Blockchain and security, Blockchain issues, Crypto, Crypto regulation, cryptocurrencies, Education

Crypto Daily Topic

Where to Discuss Bitcoin: Top Bitcoin Forums You Should Join

Post author By Edith M.
Post date 26 May, 2020
1 Comment on Where to Discuss Bitcoin: Top Bitcoin Forums You Should Join

Bitcoin is not just a currency. It’s a revolution that has inspired an entire movement of believers, enthusiasts, and diehards. These groups of people have carved out spaces online and offline to exclusively talk and discuss everything about Bitcoin from the present, to the future, to prices, market trends, and everything in between.

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Anyone – from dilettantes to serious investors, to developers, to entrepreneurs, to startups can join and participate in these spaces.

In the highlighted places, feel free to join fellow Bitcoiners and engage in everything Bitcoin.

Online

Online places include social media, IRC channels, and forums. Below are links to the discussion boards on those places.

Forums

Bitcointalk – This is currently the biggest bitcoin forum. It was founded by Satoshi Nakamoto – the creator of Bitcoin.
Bitcoin.com — This is a forum formed by the Bitcoin.com news website.
Bitcoin Garden – This is a small Bitcoin forum, but fast establishing itself in the space
Bitcoinforum – One of the ‘mainstream’ Bitcoin forums, and associated with the bitcoin.org website
Bitco.in Forum – This is a forum where developers, academics, and business-minded Bitcoiners gather to share ideas and promote Bitcoin
CryptoCompare Bitcoin page – This is a forum by CryptoCompare where users can discuss and monitor prices, market volumes, and trends in the Bitcoin market.
Investing.com Bitcoin page – This is a page on investing.com dedicated to Bitcoin trading and investing.
StackExchange Bitcoin page – This is a Bitcoin dedicated page on the StackExchange website, keeping with the question and answer formula for cryptocurrency enthusiasts.

On Reddit, there are several Bitcoin dedicated pages.

r/Bitcoin – This is the main Bitcoin subreddit.

Others include:

r/BitcoinMarkets – A subreddit for Bitcoin trading.
r/BitcoinStocks – A subreddit for discussions about Bitcoin stocks.
r/Jobs4Bitcoins – A subreddit where individuals can provide their talents and skills in exchange for Bitcoins
r/BitcoinMining – A subreddit where users can discuss everything mining
r/BitMarket – A subreddit where people can sell and buy Bitcoin
r/BitcoinSerious – A subreddit for ‘reasonable discussion relating to Bitcoin’
r/BitcoinBegginers – A subreddit where Bitcoin beginners can learn things and freely ask questions
r/LocalCommunities – A list of the major Bitcoin communities, per country

IRC Chat

Below is a list of Bitcoin dedicated channels on Freenode:

#bitcoin – a general chat for all things Bitcoin
#bitcoin-dev – a chat dedicated to technical and development issues for Bitcoin
#bitcoin-otc – an over-the-counter Bitcoin exchange
#bitcoin-market – a chat dedicated to live quotes about the market
#bitcoin-mining – a chat for all things crypto mining

There are more Bitcoin-related IRC chats that you can find here. These chats include Bitcoin projects, local communities for different countries, mining-related communities, more communities on Bitcoin exchanging and trading, and more Bitcoin and crypto-related communities.

The following are some of the most popular Bitcoin-related Telegram channels:

Whale Team – A Bitcoin group with a focus on trading
Bitcoin Chat – A chat for all things Bitcoin
Dash Knights 2.0 – A chat for all matters digital money
Bitcoin Core Community – Chat for discussions on Bitcoin
Bitcoin Earnings – A chat where users can post and engage on Bitcoin-related ads

Social Networks

The following links will lead to Bitcoin discussion places on these social media forums:

Offline

Bitcoin discussions and related engagements do not just happen on the internet. In the physical world, there is a lot of Bitcoin-related conferences, events, meetups, and so on.

By joining these places, you can increase your knowledge for Bitcoin – from its technicalities to trading to price behavior. It’s also one way to take part in the Bitcoin movement.

Tags Bitcoin forums, Bitcoin reddit, Bitcoin telegram, Crypto, Crypto forums, Crypto Trading, cryptocurrencies, Education, Places to discuss Bitcoin

Crypto Market Analysis

Daily Crypto Review, May 26 – Tether (USDT) now Third-Largest Cryptocurrency by Market Cap; XRP Down to Fourth

Post author By Ilija Rankovic
Post date 26 May, 2020
No Comments on Daily Crypto Review, May 26 – Tether (USDT) now Third-Largest Cryptocurrency by Market Cap; XRP Down to Fourth

The crypto market has spent the day trying to slowly regain the lost value. However, most of the cryptocurrencies failed in doing so, which triggered a small pullback. Bitcoin is currently trading for $8,893, which represents an increase of 0.52% on the day. Meanwhile, Ethereum lost 0.4% on the day, while XRP lost 0.06%.

THETA took the position of today’s biggest daily gainer, with gains of 16.53%. Theta Fuel lost 19% of its daily value, making it the most prominent daily loser.

Bitcoin’s dominance increased quite a bit since we last reported, with its value currently at 66.11%. This value represents a 0.22% difference to the upside.

The cryptocurrency market capitalization decreased when compared to yesterday’s value, with its current value being $249.89 billion. This value represents a decrease of $5.87 billion when compared to the value it had yesterday.

What happened in the past 24 hours

Tether

Tether (USDT) has managed to overtake Ripple’s XRP and became the third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. Ripple has, as a consequence, fell to fourth place.

While many explain this event with XRP’s failure to gain adoption amongst retail investors, Tether’s insane volume, as well as constant total market cap additions, made this “dethroning” event possible.

_______________________________________________________________________

Technical analysis

_______________________________________________________________________

Bitcoin

The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization tried to recover from its most recent bear push which brought it under $9,000. It tried to revitalize and go for the $9,000 push even though the volume was quite low. As expected, the move got stopped at $8,980 and Bitcoin retraced to $8,820, where the support stopped the move.

Bitcoin is currently trading between the $8,820 support and $8,980 resistance. Breaking above the resistance level might trigger another strong push up, while a break below the support has less of a chance of turning into a sharp move down.

Key levels to the upside Key levels to the downside

1: $8,980 1: $8,820

2: $9,120 2: $8,650

3: $9,250 3: $8,000

Ethereum

Ethereum has, after bouncing from the $198 level, started to recover and gain a bit of value slowly. However, the most recent Bitcoin move stopped Ether from freely rising even more, triggering a stagnation (or a slow retracement) phase.

Ethereum’s volume is incredibly small, while its RSI is in the middle of the value range, both suggesting that there is no independent move on the horizon.

Key levels to the upside Key levels to the downside

1: $217.6 1: $198

2: $225.4 2: $193.6

3: $240 3: $185

Ripple

XRP’s chart looked a lot like Ethereum’s chart in the past couple of days. The now-fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap was slowly rising towards its $0.2 resistance, when it was stopped by Bitcoin’s retracement after failing to break $9,000. XRP retraced just slightly, and is already stabilizing.

XRP’s volume decreased slightly when compared to yesterday, while its RSI stayed in the middle of the value range.

Key levels to the upside Key levels to the downside

1: $0.2 1: $0.19

2: $0.205 2: $0.1785

3: $0.214

Tags bitcoin, BTC, Crypto, Crypto Trading, cryptocurrency, Daily Brief, ETH, Ethereum, Fundamental Analysis, Ripple, Technical Analysis, trading, XRP

Crypto Videos

The BTC Halving Has Cost Us! But For How Long?

Post author By Keiran
Post date 25 May, 2020
No Comments on The BTC Halving Has Cost Us! But For How Long?

Bitcoin Halving Aftermath – What Comes Next?

The 2020 Bitcoin Halving that happened in May did not go quite as well as some people expected. While most crypto enthusiasts were very optimistic about the aftermath of the halving event, things turned out to be far from good. A substantial number of miners stopped mining on their equipment as the halved reward made them unprofitable. As a consequence of fewer miners working, transaction fees became considerably higher, the hash rate managed to decrease by up to 40%, while the new blocks are generated at unimaginably low speed.

Hash rate

One of the most significant post-halving trends is the decreased hash rate, The mining profitability of the older generation mining units has dropped substantially (or even turned into negative) as the block rewards got halved. At the moment of writing, an Antminer S9, which is a previous generation mining unit, is estimated to generate a negative $2 per day.

Block time

With a third of the miners turning off their mining units, it was only to be expected that the block generation speed would drop. The Bitcoin daily block generation metric fluctuated between 100 and 120 blocks per day before dropping to only 95 blocks on May 17. This amount of blocks generated per day was last seen during the 2017 Bitcoin-lows.

Fees

While the hash rate and block generation time are very significant, the most significant metric out of these are the Bitcoin transaction fees, as they affect not only the BTC infrastructure but the consumers as well. While people who transact in Bitcoin won’t mind a bit slower transactions, they will most likely be frustrated by the increase in transaction fees.
Transaction fees went up by more than one-third just three days after the halving, resulting in an 800% monthly transaction fee increase.
How long will this last?

Everyone is asking if this change of circumstances will affect Bitcoin negatively in the long run. However, experts believe that the latest adjustments, though negative, were not big enough to make a long-term negative impact. Most of them believe that it might take three to four difficulty corrections before miners could return to their “business as usual.”
The situation seems to be coming back to normal as all the parameters are returning to their previous levels.

Tags bitcoin, Crypto, cryptocurrencies, Education, halving, hashrate, transaction fees

Crypto Videos

China Gets Wrecked! Who Will Take The Bitcoin Mining Throne?

Post author By Keiran
Post date 25 May, 2020
No Comments on China Gets Wrecked! Who Will Take The Bitcoin Mining Throne?

https://youtu.be/W1cPV2NB5hE

China Destroys 10% of the Global Bitcoin Mining Hashrate

epa06062677 (06/26) Tibetan Bitcoin mine manager Kun walks in between aisles of mining machines in a Bitcoin mine in Sichuan Province, China, 26 September 2016. Kun is the mine’s manager as well as one of its investors. He learned about Bitcoin through a friend and started investing in 2015. China, the world’s leader in Bitcoin mining, is dominating both the currency’s generation and the global trade in the currency. Sichuan has become known as ‘the capital of bitcoin mining’ as entrepreneurial Chinese set up ‘mines’ there due to its abundance of hydropower, perfect for the high electricity needs of the large number of computers required for Bitcoin mining. Bitcoin mines are buildings with warehouse-like structures equipped with massive numbers of microprocessors with which ‘miners’ solve complex math problems and are rewarded in the digital currency. The industry exists in a legal gray zone in China, and the miners in this story, concerned about attention from the government, asked not to have their full names or the names of the villages where their mines are located mentioned in this story. EPA/LIU XINGZHE/CHINAFILE ATTENTION: For the full PHOTO ESSAY text, please see Advisory Notice epa06062671

The Chinese provincial government of Sichuan has stamped out 10% of the global Bitcoin hashrate due to, as they announced, illicit cryptocurrency-related activities.
According to Cambridge University estimates, the province of Sichuan is responsible for almost 10% of the global Bitcoin hashrate. As a comparison, this single Chinese province has more mining power than then the entire United States or Russia. However, it is unsure what will now happen to the miners in this province.

What can we expect?

It’s not clear whether the recent issues will effectively destroy mining in Sichuan, as China’s crypto community was always strong, even despite governmental constraints. With that being said, many believe that, even though Chinese miners were never felt “comfortable” and “safe” when mining, this event has made the situation the worst it has been.

The question we have to ask is: Who will mine if the Chinese government shuts down Sechuan miners?

Philip Salter, Genesis Mining head of operations, said that the main advantage of mining in China is cheap production costs, but that it doesn’t come without disadvantages. The main disadvantage of mining in China would be that they use coal to create energy, which makes operating costs not so good.

People started speculating on who will pick up the slack: The big Sechuan miners by moving to other provinces or some other mining power that will come from the western part of the world. We have seen mining giants such as Bitmain creating facilities in western countries, so it might not be too far-fetched to believe that the era of China-dominated mining market might come to an end.

Tags bitcoin, bitcoin mining, Crypto, cryptocurrencies, Education

Crypto Daily Topic

The Best 6 Crypto-Lending Platforms And Their Pros And Cons

Post author By Edith M.
Post date 25 May, 2020
No Comments on The Best 6 Crypto-Lending Platforms And Their Pros And Cons

Most crypto holders believe trading is the only way to make money from their crypto holdings. On the contrary, cryptocurrency today offers many possibilities for individuals to boost their crypto savings and grow their investments. One of these is via crypto lending, whereby you loan out part of your crypto assets and earn interest.

Another is to deposit your credit funds and let them grow passively.

Via crypto lending platforms, individuals can also get fast access to loans. Unlike traditional lending platforms that require a good credit score, conduct KYC checks, and are at the whims of state regulation, crypto lending platforms allow users to access credit as painlessly as possible.

Thanks to the unregulated nature of cryptocurrency, however, virtually anyone can get access to a loan as long as they have internet connectivity. (This, at least, is the standard, but some crypto lending platforms will restrict use in certain jurisdictions depending on their regulatory requirements. As such, before considering any lending platform, always check whether your country is supported).

How Does Crypto Lending Work?

Crypto lending is a fairly straightforward process. The lender deposits crypto funds on a lending platform. The lending platform then makes the funds available to borrowers at a rate set by the lender.

To take a loan, borrowers create an account and take out a loan for a specified period. When that specified period expires, the borrower returns the funds, along with the pre-set interest rate.

To eliminate risks such as borrowers being unable to pay back the loan, crypto lending platforms usually institute guarantees or require borrowers to set up collateral or some other type of loan-backing system.

Most borrowers take out Crypto loans for two purposes: personal expenses or for margin trading. The personal expense borrowing is similar to the loan services in traditional finance.

Borrowers who take out the loan for margin trading do so because they don’t have enough capital for placing a trade. If they make a favorable trading decision, then they make a profit and pay back the loan easily. If the trade goes awry, they have no choice but to meet the loss and pay back the loan out of their pocket.

The Advantages of Crypto Lending

Very favorable transaction fees, especially when compared to the traditional lending system
Borrowers do not need to have a bank account (for the 1.7 billion unbanked people, crypto lending is likely their only option)
Quick confirmation time
No byzantine procedures so prevalent in the traditional lending system
Diversified loan options
No discrimination based on nationality

The risks with crypto lending

A higher default rate when compared to traditional loans
The lending platforms are prone to online attacks
The volatility of cryptocurrencies that can cause lenders to lose profits or force borrowers to pay more than they borrowed

With that, let’s look at some of the best crypto lending platforms in the industry.

1. CoinLoan

Coinloan is an Estonia-based peer-to-peer lending platform where borrowers can take out crypto-collateralized loans. Clients can also earn interest simply by “parking money” on CoinLoan and letting it work for them.

CoinLoan imposes no credit history checks or KYC procedures. The loan repayment period goes from 7 days up to 3 years, and the platform doesn’t impose any extra fees or penalties. Everyone’s funds are put under the maximum security possible – with cold storage wallets and distributed key storage being the standard.

Coinloan’s lending process is as follows: Borrowers deposit part of their cryptocurrency portfolio as collateral. Borrowers are furnished with the exact figures for the loan contract beforehand. They’re also granted flexible lending conditions, are not submitted to any credit checks, and are offered convenient withdrawal procedures.

Lenders are offered with these guarantees: First, the platform is licensed in the EU and is subjected to various checks and compliance. As such, lenders on the platform are guaranteed repayment of their loan, and their transactions are fully protected with SSL-encryption.

2. YouHodler

This is a crypto-lender based out of Cyprus and Switzerland and lends both crypto and fiat loans backed by crypto.

Its Turbocharge service allows borrowers to take out additional crypto and use it as collateral for other loans. Its MuliHODL feature allows users to boost their holdings by “playing with their crypto and finding the right balance,” which means making small and careful trades with calculated risk. YouHodler also has a wallet available for iOS and Android.

Another thing YouHODLER has going for it is their service which allows borrowers to access instant cash from the platform’s fiat-base funds. This eliminates the need for borrowers to search for a compatible lender, saving time and allowing them to access cash quickly.

3. SALT Lending

Launched in 2016, US-based SALT Lending was one of the first crypto lending platforms in the space. The platform is one of the trusted around and for a good reason. Borrowers can take out crypto-backed loans on a peer-to-peer platform, while also using crypto as collateral.

SALT’s lending procedure is straightforward. Users don’t need to undergo any background verification, and can usually receive the loan the same day. Loan terms are also tailored according to the borrower’s needs, from loan-to-value ratio to loan length.

When it comes to security, SALT Lending goes the whole nine yards. From backing all crypto assets with insurance, to keeping crypto funds in cold wallets. Currently, SALT services loans are available in a select 35 US states, plus Bermuda, Brazil, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Vietnam, the UK, UAE, Switzerland, and Hong Kong.

4. BlockFi

Launched in 2017, US-based BlockFi offers two products; an interest account and crypto-backed loans. The BlockFi Interest Account lets your crypto work for you by putting it up for monthly interest. Users can earn compound interest on their crypto, boosting their savings in these cryptocurrencies; Bitcoin, Ether, and Gemini Dollar (GUSD).

For crypto-backed loans, BlockFi clients can use their crypto holding as collateral and unlock up to 50% the value of their assets in US dollars. Moreover, borrowers get the funds on the same day through bank wire or stable coin.

Individuals can use the BlockFi loans for pretty much any use, from paying off credit card debt to paying school fees or a home. Small businesses can take out loans to expand their business or to help them pay employees. Currently, BlockFi supports 46 states and all other countries except those with US sanctions.

5. Com

Launched in 2016, Hong Kong-based Crypto.com is a crypto lending platform that also offers exchange-based crypto trading, investment options, and crypto payment gateway services for merchants.

Crypto.com clients can get instant loans without going through convoluted background checks. There also are no fixed repayment schedules or deadlines or late payment penalties. You can repay at your own pace at any time, and any amount, in the 12 months upon the start of the credit period.

Crypto.com also allows users to earn interest on their deposits. Currently, investors can earn interest on the following cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Binance, Chainlink, Maker, Pax Gold, TrueUSD, Paxos Standard, USD Coin, and Tether.

6. Celsius.Network

Celsius.Network was founded in 2017 with the aim of leveraging blockchain technology to empower individuals with “unprecedented economic opportunities, financial freedom, and income equality.”

Customers can receive loan facilities on collateral-based credit lines on loan terms of 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, or 3 years. The platform imposes no penalties for defaulted loans – failure to pay back the loan within the specified loan term will also lead to the liquidation of your collateral.

Like many other crypto loan platforms, Celsius.Network does not conduct credit checks, and loans are approved within minutes. The platform lets borrowers deposit their collateral in either Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Ethereum, Ripple, and DASH. Loans are given in Tether, Fiat, some stablecoins, and Celsius’s own native token – the CEL token.

Users can also deposit CEL, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Ethereum, OMG, Bitcoin Cash, EOS, and other crypto-assets and earn interest.

Bottom Line

As you can see, there are options aplenty for crypto-based lending services. With these platforms, anyone from anywhere can access a loan regardless of their location, credit history, nationality, and whether they’re banked or not.

While all platforms offer the same kind of service, there are the subtleties with each service that differentiates it from the others. These differences lie in loan repayment schedules, supported currencies, loan terms, loan-to-value ratios, and so on. As such, you need to read the fine print and discover which platform works for you.

Finally, ensure to read and understand any terms and conditions for any platform, and check the legality and tax requirements for crypto-based loans in your jurisdiction.

Tags Crypto, Crypto borrowing, Crypto lending, Crypto lending sites, Crypto loan platforms, Education, Peer to peer crypto lending

Crypto Market Analysis

Daily Crypto Review, May 25 – Bitcoin Under $9,000; Goldman Sachs Hosting a Conference Call on Crypto

Post author By Ilija Rankovic
Post date 25 May, 2020
No Comments on Daily Crypto Review, May 25 – Bitcoin Under $9,000; Goldman Sachs Hosting a Conference Call on Crypto

The crypto market has spent the weekend retracing as Bitcoin fell under $9,000. Bitcoin is currently trading for $8,790, which represents a decrease of 5.05% on the day. Meanwhile, Ethereum lost 3.15% on the day, while XRP lost 3.4%.

Theta Fuel took the position of today’s biggest daily gainer, with gains of 59.67%. DxChain Token lost 19.32% of its daily value, making it the most prominent daily loser.

Bitcoin’s dominance decreased quite a bit since we last reported, with its value currently at 65.89%. This value represents a 1.16% difference to the downside.

The cryptocurrency market capitalization decreased when compared to Friday’s value, with its current value being $256.67 billion. This value represents a decrease of $5 billion when compared to the value it had on Friday.

What happened in the past 24 hours

Goldman Sachs hosting a conference on crypto

Goldman Sachs, the largest investment bank in the world, will host a conference call titled US Economic Outlook & Implications of Current Policies for Gold, Inflation, and Bitcoin on May 27.

The event will be hosted by Sharmin Mossavar-Rahmani, the Chief Investment Officer of Goldman Sachs’ Investment Strategy Group, Harvard economics professor Jason Furman, as well as Goldman Sachs’ chief economist Jan Hatzius.

_______________________________________________________________________

Technical analysis

_______________________________________________________________________

Bitcoin

The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization had quite turbulent weekend as its price dropped below $9,000. The 4th failed attempt of going above $10,000 on May 20 confirmed the appearance of another bearish turn for Bitcoin. However, the most recent events regarding Bitcoin mining, Satoshi Nakamoto and many more made bulls scared and bears more eager to sell their Bitcoin.

The price found support at the $8,650 level, with it currently pushing towards $8,820.

Key levels to the upside Key levels to the downside

1: $8,980 1: $8,820

2: $9,120 2: $8,650

3: $9,250 3: $8,000

Ethereum

While Ethereum did follow Bitcoin in its move towards the downside, it did not quite match its intensity. The second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap retraced as bears took over the market, but only fell in price up to the $198 support level. It has consolidated since and even made moves towards regaining previous highs.

Ethereum’s volume increased greatly during the price drop but normalized as the price found support.

Key levels to the upside Key levels to the downside

1: $217.6 1: $198

2: $225.4 2: $193.6

3: $240 3: $185

Ripple

XRP was, just like the aforementioned Ethereum, matching Bitcoin in price direction, but not in intensity. The third-largest cryptocurrency by market cap entered a short bull period, which brought it to $0.19 levels before recovering to a price closer to $0.195.

XRP’s volume was normal throughout the price drop, while its RSI level bounced from the oversold territory to (at the time of writing) 37.7.

Key levels to the upside Key levels to the downside

1: $0.2 1: $0.19

2: $0.205 2: $0.1785

3: $0.214

Tags bitcoin, BTC, Crypto, Crypto Trading, cryptocurrency, Daily Brief, ETH, Ethereum, Fundamental Analysis, Ripple, Technical Analysis, trading, XRP

Crypto Daily Topic

Top 10 Crypto Traders And Blockchain Experts To Follow On Twitter

Post author By Edith M.
Post date 23 May, 2020
No Comments on Top 10 Crypto Traders And Blockchain Experts To Follow On Twitter

The world of crypto trading can be murky. To a large extent, this is attributable to the still-novel nature of cryptocurrencies and blockchain. It can also be due to the sheer volatility of the markets that can catch even the most experienced trader off-guard at any time.

What’s the beginner crypto trader to do?

Well, crypto enthusiasts can always turn to Crypto Twitter. In this context, Crypto Twitter refers to accounts that have dedicated themselves to providing trading analyses, rationale, and making sense of crypto market moves in general.

In this piece, we provide some of the best crypto trading and analysis experts on Twitter.

Here are their twitter handles:

1. Bitcoin Jack @BTC_JackSparrow

Bitcoin Jack is a crypto trader and a market analyst who offers his analysis in the form of visually stunning charts. If you are a fan of charts and graphs and not so much into theory, then his views on the market are worth following.

2. Mayne @Tradermayne

Mayne is a crypto trader who uses price action as the basis of his analysis, trading insights, and market moves. And he’s happy to share his ideas with his 64k+ Twitter followers. Having been involved in cryptos since 2013, he’s more experienced in the ins and outs of crypto trading than your average crypto investor.

3. Philakone @PhilakoneCrypto

Philakone is also referred to as ‘Philakone Sniper Day Trader.’ On his Twitter page, you’ll find high-quality research and trading resources in the form of videos and charts. He doesn’t shy either from sharing how trading is affecting his personal life.

4. Crypto Rand @crypto_rand

217k+ followers have seen reason to camp at Rand’s Twitter timeline. He regularly shares his technical analyses and connections between crypto and the real-world economy.

5. Luke Martin @VentureCoinist

Luke Martin is one of crypto Twitter’s most-followed figures. His followers are treated with regular technical analyses, charts, and market commentary.

You can subscribe to his daily live webinar, a favorite among traders, for $50 per month. If you want an in-depth analysis of price movements of altcoins, then his account is a must-follow.

6. @filbfilb

Twitter user filbfilb regularly tweets about crypto charts, his trading analyses, and ideas, as well as his predictions on Bitcoin’s future performance. He also writes a weekly newsletter that provides further insights, and he maintains a free journal on Telegram that anyone can access.

7. Anondran @AnondranCrypto

Anondran is a crypto trader, investor, and analyst who has been around since 2015. On Twitter, his fans can expect frequent commentary on what’s happening in the crypto space, as well as his predictions on the most popular cryptocurrencies.

8. Alvin Lee @onemanatatime

Lee is a crypto trading expert who has been around the block for a while. He runs the Aluna Crypto Currency and Trading (LINKKKM) blog, on which readers gain access to different trading/market analysis strategies and tactics. On Twitter, he provides his take on future price movements as well as his own technical analyses.

9. Vinny Lingham @VinnyLingham

Lingham is the co-founder of Civic, a blockchain-based identity management startup. He’s known to provide surprisingly accurate price forecasts on Bitcoin. Lingham is also a frequent fixture at crypto events, where he’s invited to share his insights on the current and future crypto landscape.

10. CoinDesk Markets @CoinDeskMarkets

This isn’t an individual trader. It’s CoinDesk’s official crypto markets Twitter account where they provide commentary on crypto-related events, analyze signals, and follow market moves closely. It’s one of the best accounts to follow if you don’t want to miss the price action of the most popular cryptos.

Final Thoughts

While these crypto trader accounts provide highly relevant and useful insights on what’s happening in the market, remember no trader is infallible or always correct. If you take everything they say and blindly replicate, it’s one way to lose money. These accounts, and any other similar accounts, should aid you in your own research, not replace it.

Tags Crypto, Crypto Trading, Crypto trading experts, Crypto trading Twitter accounts, Crypto Twitter, cryptocurrencies, Cryptocurrency trading bots

Crypto Guides

Formal Verification – A Method That Makes Smart Contracts Extra Secure!

Post author By Reddy Shyam Shankar
Post date 22 May, 2020
No Comments on Formal Verification – A Method That Makes Smart Contracts Extra Secure!

Introduction

The smart contracts are now used extensively in the crypto and blockchain space for various use cases, especially for transactions involving a very high volume of money. Hence, it has been more critical than ever to check out smart contracts for any vulnerabilities. These vulnerabilities are the reasons for hacking some of the cryptocurrency platforms, even though the blockchain network is very secure. Hence the timely audits and formal verifications are must both concerning hardware and software to ensure optimal security.

What is Formal Verification?

Formal verification is a method used to check whether the software of hardware systems matches the intended requirement. A particular type of mathematical technique is used to know the intended requirement matches or not. Using these mathematical techniques to check the level of the algorithm of correctness as per the requirement is known as formal verification.

Testing hardware or software with formal verification can be broken down into 2 phases, validation, and verification. Validation determines whether the product meets the user’s needs while verification is testing whether the product works as per the specifications provided.

While formal verification used to be done mostly for the hardware components, it is increasing the testing in software components as well. As there is no third-party involvement in vast transfers of the money, these are autonomous transfers. Hence, smart contracts should be robust enough without any faults.

Why is Formal Verification used for Smart Contracts?

Ethereum is a Turing complete machine, started utilizing the concept of smart contracts. Hence an analysis has been done on around one million smart contracts of Ethereum to check their robustness. It has been found that nearly around 32,000 contracts are faulty. The contracts are seen to be flawed because they were found to either lock the funds indefinitely or release the funds to arbitrary users, and anyone could kill the contract.

Given the nature of the immutability of smart contracts, if these problems aren’t detected before the deployment of the agreement, it will create serious issues once the code is deployed.

Platforms using formal verification

Many platforms that are using smart contracts robustly are trying to integrate formal verification into their platforms. Let us see some of them below:

Cardano

Cardano’s smart contract language is Plutus, which is based on Haskell. Cardano is basically written in Haskell. Cardano is designed with the Cardano computational layer, which by default consists of two layers while one allows formally specified languages used for checking the code of the smart contract, and the other is a defined officially virtual machine and language framework. The default layers’ goal is to check the smart contracts to avoid severe vulnerabilities in smart contracts without any additional requirements.

Ethereum

Ethereum has been trying to incorporate formal verification for a long time now since it has many smart contracts functioning on the platforms. They have even come up with a publication called “making smart contracts smarter.” This publication focuses on smart contracts bugs and mainly focuses on ways to mitigate them. This includes the change in operational semantics of Ethereum to inbuilt formal verification.

There are certain challenges in implementing formal verification in the Ethereum platform. One is gas limits, and the other one is its solidity programming language. To understand solidity, it should be compiled into bytecode. The compiler changes rapidly, so the verification tools should be in tandem with the speed of the compiler.

Conclusion

Measuring the positive impact of formal verification in the smart contracts will take some time since the adoption is slow. Many are realizing just yet the vulnerabilities of smart contracts, and given its substantial financial transactions, the weaknesses should be captured effectively and curtailed at the very beginning to restrict the losses.

Tags Blockchain, Cardano, Crypto, Crypto Guides, cryptocurrencies, cryptocurrency, Education, Ethereum, formal verification, Smart contracts, Vulnerabilities

Cryptocurrencies

Ethereum 101: Here Is Everything You Need to Know About Ethereum Blockchain

Post author By Edith M.
Post date 22 May, 2020
No Comments on Ethereum 101: Here Is Everything You Need to Know About Ethereum Blockchain

Any newcomer in the crypto sphere will soon notice the fuss around Ethereum – being one of the most talked and written about cryptocurrencies and the second most popular after Bitcoin. After breaking out in 2015, Ethereum has inspired not just crypto but the entire tech space for its novel offerings, which showed everyone that blockchain could be used for more than just digital money.

This article shines a light on the most nagging questions about Ethereum for crypto veterans and novices alike. From “what is Ethereum?” to “how do I mine Ethereum?” to why you should care about Ethereum, we cover it all.

What is Ethereum?

Ethereum is a public, distributed, and blockchain-based platform that allows individuals to create smart contracts and decentralized applications (DApps). Smart contracts are just like traditional contracts involving two or more people who come to an agreement on something. Except, smart contracts are self-verifying and self-executing and hence do not need intermediaries. Decentralized applications are a new kind of application not owned or controlled by third parties and, for this reason, are uncensorable.

How is Ethereum Different from Bitcoin?

Bitcoin was the first blockchain. It originated the idea of a public, open-source, decentralized, and immutable ledger system to verify, secure, and replicate transaction data across thousands of computers around the globe.

Ethereum takes the concept of Bitcoin and expands it. While Bitcoin was created solely as a peer-to-peer electronic cash system through which users can transfer value, Ethereum allows developers from anywhere to run code atop the network and create amazing applications. Applications can be of any nature really: be it voting, games, health records, finance, prediction markets, and more.

How Does Ethereum Work?

Ethereum is a decentralized platform, meaning no one owns it, and no one can delete records or censor it. It is decentralized courtesy of being distributed. The distributed status of Ethereum means anyone can access, see, and download the Ethereum ledger.

Think of a ledger that’s operated by several people with equal access and control. Each maintains a list of all transactions, and all records must be pre-approved by all parties. In this way, no one can modify, steal, or manipulate the data. The Ethereum blockchain operates much the same way, except that it’s thousands of people involved this time.

Transactions are verified by ‘miners’ who check the authenticity of transactions before adding them to the blockchain. Once a transaction goes on the blockchain, it’s immutable, meaning it can’t be deleted or reversed – by anyone.

The Ethereum blockchain and others like it, such as Bitcoin, have one security flaw known as a ‘51% attack.’ This is a scenario in which an entity takes control of more than 50% of the computing power of the network.

This would essentially be holding the network hostage – and it would allow the perpetrator to double-spend coins, prevent transactions, and stop miners. While a 51% attack is plausible, it’s extremely rare. This is because for one to control over 50% of the computing power of a blockchain network, they would require an enormous amount of resources that are too expensive. Even the most funded person would find this an extremely tall order.

What Is Ether?

Ether (ETH) is the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum blockchain. Developers use Ether to pay for the execution of commands on the Ethereum network. It’s also a tradable cryptocurrency and a digital store of value.

Where does Ethereum Derive Value?

Ethereum derives its value from its ability to support smart contracts and a variety of decentralized applications. Although multiple other blockchain projects are taking after its model and are its direct competitors, Ethereum has the headstart advantage – courtesy of being the pioneer smart contracts and DApps blockchain.

Ethereum enables fast, secure, and inviolable processes – from contracts to voting, to record-keeping, and more. Usually, these processes would take days and significant amounts of money. Ethereum proposes to change this.

How Can I Mine Ethereum?

Ethereum mining utilizes a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism for verifying and confirming transactions.

PoW involves miners generating a random string of numbers (running the ‘hashing script’) until one of them finds the correct one. When that happens, they will broadcast the proof to the rest of the network, which will then allow them to confirm the next block of transactions. The idea is to ensure that anyone who gets to verify blocks has invested significant computational power (proof of work).

The PoW process involves miners competing with each other to find the solution first. The more guesses your machine can make per second, the better your chances of finding the solution fast and earning a reward – known as ‘miners reward.’ Currently, the successful mining of a block on the Ethereum network gets a miner rewarded 2 ETH. The reward was 3 ETH up until the Constantinople upgrade in 2019.

Ethereum mining is a straightforward process as long as you have the right equipment. First, you need to install two software packages. One of these is an Ethereum client that connects you to the Ethereum network and synchronizes the whole ledger, allowing you to see real-time the activities of all other network participants. It also avails all the data you need to start mining.

Ethereum clients are written in Geth and Parity, which are the blockchain’s most popular programming languages. The client’s come equipped with comprehensive instructions for installation.

The next thing is to install the mining software. The mining software is responsible for handling the guesses, while the client is responsible for updating the ledger – in real-time.

Beginner miners may find it more profitable to join a mining pool rather than go solo. A mining pool is a group of miners who combine their hashing power so as to improve the chances of finding the correct guess faster and earn rewards. The rewards are then split in proportion to the computational power each contributed.

Ethereum will not rely on mining forever, though. The network plans to ditch proof-of-work and transition into proof-of-stake (PoS). Unlike proof-of-work, which relies on computational power, proof-of-stake relies on stakeholders to secure the network and achieve consensus. PoS is not only faster but also consumes far fewer resources than PoW.

How to Buy Ethereum

Ethereum is the second most popular cryptocurrency, and so grabbing some Ether for yourself should be pretty straightforward.

One of the most popular ways to buy any cryptocurrency is to do so via a crypto exchange. Exchanges are platforms where people can buy and sell all manner of crypto. As of now, there are countless crypto exchanges available. Always ensure to purchase your crypto from a trusted and verified exchange. Some options include Coinbase, Binance, Huobi, Kraken, CoinEx, eToro, Coinswitch, BitMex, Changelly, Kucoin, BitStamp, Poloniex, and so on.

Alternatively, you could use peer-to-peer services, such as LocalCryptos, which allows you to transact directly with a local person selling crypto.

Once you grab yourself some Ethereum, you’re going to want to guard it jealously. This means keeping it in a safe place where hackers cannot reach. The best option is a hardware or paper wallet – which is both offline and impossible to get hacked, fall prey to phishing scams, and so on. Storing your coins in an exchange is a complete no-no. Exchanges are notorious for getting hacked, and there is no guarantee that you will get your money back should this happen to your exchange.

How Much Does Ethereum Cost?

Like any cryptocurrency, Ethereum is subject to volatile and unpredictable price changes, making it impossible to predict a definitive price for the currency at any given time.

As of May 19, 2020, Ethereum is trading at $210.16. This is a far cry from its all-time high of $1432.88 on Jan 13, 2018. But it’s a marked improvement from its all-time low of $0.420897 in 2015.

Buying Ethereum involves speculation, just like for any other crypto. If you have the money now, but it’s not enough to quite hit the mark, you can wait until the price fluctuates down and swoop in.

Fascinatingly, Ethereum is divisible up to 18 decimal places. This means you can buy as little as 0.000000000000000001 Ethereum. You can buy whichever amount you want, whether it’s 1%, 40%,50% and so on.

Why Should I Care about Ethereum?

You should care about Ethereum because it has the potential to revolutionize how we do things across industries. Ethereum is also one of the stalwart cryptocurrencies – not “making a splash today and gone tomorrow.” What’s more, organizations such as the Ethereum Enterprise Alliance are designed to drive the adoption of Ethereum blockchain technology across industries, pushing it closer to the mainstream.

For this reason, you can be assured the currency is a guaranteed, long-term store of value. Despite competitor projects emerging, Ethereum has the star and pioneer power to keep it ahead of the curve.

Tags Crypto, Crypto education, Decentralized applications, Ethereum beginners, mining Ethereum, Smart contracts

Cryptocurrencies

What is The Difference Between ASICs vs GPU Mining?

Post author By Edith M.
Post date 22 May, 2020
1 Comment on What is The Difference Between ASICs vs GPU Mining?

After Bitcoin entered the scene 11 years ago, the word mining took a new meaning altogether. Cryptocurrency mining is the mechanism through which new coins are introduced into circulation, and transactions are processed. The appeal of crypto mining is that miners are rewarded with crypto tokens, or transaction fees, depending on the network. While some miners do it for the thrill, others see it as a valid and even full-time investment.

What is Crypto Mining?

Crypto mining is the process through which specialized computers are used to discover new blocks on a crypto network by ‘guessing’ a random string of numbers until you find the right combination. (A block is a file of transactions plus the metadata of those transactions) This process is known as ‘proof-of-work.’ By discovering new blocks, miners get the right to verify the transactions and add them onto the blockchain. This process is crucial because it removes the possibility of double-spending coins.

Mining becomes harder as a cryptocurrency network becomes more popular, and the miners in a network increase.

In the early days of Bitcoin mining, anyone could mine Bitcoin as long as they had a computing component with sufficient processing power. But as more users trooped to the network, mining difficulty increased, and the average computer no longer cut it. This started a race into the manufacturing of more powerful and efficient hardware.

Graphic processing units (GPUs) were among the first machines that went into crypto mining. These virtually wiped out CPUs. While you can still mine using a CPU, it will largely be of no use since the cost of electricity that you will consume will far outweigh any meager profits you might (yes, might – since discovering new blocks is a game of chance) realize.

Over time, developers came up with mining equipment known as application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). However, some cryptocurrencies are ‘ASIC-resistant’ (more on that later) and can only be mined with GPUs.

Let’s start with ASIC mining.

What is ASIC Mining?

Before we plunge full form into ASIC mining, let’s get a snapshot of what it’s about:

ASICs are algorithm-specific, meaning they are designed to mine just one type of coin. E.g., a Bitcoin ASIC cannot be used to mine Siacoin and vice versa.

They are highly efficient albeit very costly.
They consume less power.
They are easy to set up and start mining right away.
Their profitability declines fast as mining difficulty increases.
In the case of a hard fork, they are rendered obsolete to mine the new coin.

Now, let’s get into the intricacies of ASIC mining, starting with the definition. An integrated circuit is basically a microchip. An IC is one of the biggest technological advances today. Pretty much every electronic equipment uses one, from televisions to phones to GPS trackers to computers to ID cards.

The term application-specific implies that the microchip has been designed for a specific purpose. In this case, that means the IC has been designed to run an algorithm for mining a particular cryptocurrency. Seeing as the ASIC has been designed specifically for that particular coin, that means it’s highly customized, and hence efficient, for that end. Hence, any miner that possesses it has an edge in the business.

The thing with ASICs is that they can be risky. First, the cryptocurrency market is pretty unpredictable, with fortunes quite easily changing overnight. Cryptocurrencies are known to gain or lose up to 10% in just one day. Now let’s say a coin drops in value and stays there forever. Or a cryptocurrency developer decides to change the hashing algorithm. These events would render the ASIC machine useless.

Second, as with any technology, newer ways of doing things get discovered all the time.

Thirdly, as more miners join a network, the mining difficulty increases, and so does profitability.

ASICs and Centralization

Since ASIC miners are known to dominate the game for every cryptocurrency they touch, when the ASIC for a particular coin is made, it becomes almost the only viable way to mine it. Even if profitability drops, they remain the most profitable way to mine the crypto until a new and more powerful ASIC is developed. This results in centralization since it edges out the miners with less powerful mining equipment. This presents a problem since cryptocurrencies are supposed to promote decentralization and democratization in finance.

Cryptocurrency enthusiasts are, understandably, concerned with this state of affairs, and have taken steps to search for alternatives. One of the initiatives has been developing new hash algorithms that render cryptos ASIC-resistant. Another has been hard-forking, like in the case of Monero, in a bid to block ASICs. This doesn’t mean ASIC companies will not try and make equipment that’s compatible with the new algorithm. But that means they would need to change equipment every other time, which is not just expensive but also pointless.

GPU Mining

Before we delve into the intricacies of GPU mining, let’s get a rough idea:

Can mine any cryptocurrency
Can be expensive
Setup may require special consideration for cooling, motherboards sizes, etc
More cryptocurrency developers are making ASIC-resistant coins
GPU mining proceeds are more stable
Can be utilized for non-crypto-mining tasks and, they have a higher resale value

While ASICs are still the most dominant crypto-mining equipment, the anti-ASIC sentiment is now becoming rife in parts of the crypto community. Cryptocurrencies, e.g Ethereum, are now using memory-hard functions or the X16R algorithm – which uses 16 different algorithms at random, making it hard to settle on one algorithm at any time. These initiatives make it possible for alternative mining methods, and GPUs fill in the gap.

However, there are a few downsides to GPU mining as well. First, they can be expensive and require a lot of cooling maintenance. Users also need to make sure that a GPU machine has enough RAM memory and a reliable motherboard. The electricity used is also high. Also, their scope is pretty limited since they can’t really compete with ASICs for some of the coins, such as Bitcoin.

As we’ve noted before, GPU mining is more flexible than ASICs since it can be used for any cryptocurrency. This flexibility can come in really handy, especially with the volatile cryptocurrency market when the fortunes for any cryptocurrency are pretty unpredictable. Also, since they are used for graphics processing, they can be channeled for multiple other uses were crypto mining to stop being viable.

Final Words

In terms of profitability, ASICs unquestionably take the lead over GPUs. Since ASICs are optimized for particular crypto, it means they are the only option that can conceivably mine that crypto with the most efficiency possible. Also, for cryptocurrencies that can be mined with ASICs, the machines completely dominate the space, rendering GPU mining profitability nearly impossible.

However, in terms of the decentralization philosophy of cryptocurrencies, ASICs don’t fit the bill. It’s very likely that ASICs might become obsolete in the coming years. Also, it’s not cheap to invest in ASICs, with a considerable investment but uncertain profitability, thanks to the volatile nature of crypto prices.

This, plus the fact that the crypto community continues to shift towards ASIC-resistant coins, makes the future of ASICs is uncertain. GPU mining, although not nearly as effective as ASICs, makes crypto mining attainable for everyone. It’s likely that GPUs are the future of the industry.

Tags ASIC mining, ASICs vs GPU mining, bitcoin mining, Crypto, cryptocurrencies, cryptocurrency, cryptocurrency mining, GPU mining

Crypto Daily Topic

15 Best Bitcoin And Cryptocurrency Podcasts To Follow In 2020

Post author By Edith M.
Post date 22 May, 2020
No Comments on 15 Best Bitcoin And Cryptocurrency Podcasts To Follow In 2020

The blockchain and crypto space can be quite intimidating for anyone trying to find their way for the first time. Granted, most people want to get straight to the basics of crypto trading, selling, and buying.

The crypto and blockchain space was intriguing from the start. From Bitcoin’s enigmatic creator to the 2017 boom that turned crypto traders/investors into overnight millionaires as well as the crypto market becoming the most traded in 2019.

Blockchain, the technology powering cryptocurrencies, is now one of the most sought-after technologies across almost every industry. And how could we forget Bitcoin’s defying of doom predictions to be the most successful asset of the decade?

The industry is becoming a bigger force to be reckoned with every day. It’s natural to want to stay tuned to how events are unfolding in this space. Of course, there are numerous websites documenting everything, but if listening is more your speed, then podcasts are the way to go.

Here are some of the top-rated crypto and blockchain podcasts:

1. The Bad Crypto Podcast

The Bad Crypto Podcast is nothing like its name. On the contrary, the podcast is an impressively done and light-hearted take on crypto and crypto trends. It’s hosted by Joel Comm and Travis Wright and launched mid-2017.

By the sixth month, the duo had released its 100th episode and, within a year, 200 episodes.

The Bad Crypto Podcast is an easy listen – delightfully devoid of the technical jargon and complex market analyses. This podcast can be great for newcomers who want to slowly ease into the world of crypto while not missing out on the important details.

2. Unchained

This is a crypto podcast hosted by former Forbes reporter Laura Shin and is one of the most popular crypto education space.

The Unchained’s audience regularly gets treated to in-depth conversations with some of the leading personalities in the blockchain and crypto space. Past guests include Binance’s Changpeng Zhao, Monero’s Ricardo Spagni, and Bitcoin developer Jimmy Song.

While it may at first sound intimidating, especially to novices, it’s one of the best resources around to learn about what blockchain’s all about and get a first-hand look into the thinking of influential figures and thought leaders in the crypto space.

3. Off the Chain

This is a podcast hosted by Anthony Pompliano, a finance and crypto analyst and writer of ‘The Pomp Letter’ – a crypto newsletter.

Like Unchained, Off the Chain provides a platform for blockchain entrepreneurs and technologists to share their insights about the present and future of blockchain.

Past guests include Bill Barhydt (creator of Abra wallet), American technology investor Keith Rabois, and crypto analyst Murad Mahmudov.

4. What Bitcoin Did

This is a podcast by Peter McCormack, who also runs a blog by the same name. The podcast airs two times per week, thanks to increased demand from the crypto community.

McCormack uses an interview-centered approach to discuss the hottest happenings in cryptoverse. McCormack has talked to some interesting personalities in the crypto space, including Luke Martin from Venture Coinist, crypto celebrity Jameson Loop – the guy who investigated the infamous Mt.Gox debacle Kim Nilsson, and Unchained host Laura Shin.

5. The Bitcoin Podcast

Launched in May 2015, the Bitcoin Podcast set the pace for Bitcoin/crypto podcasts. It’s a one-episode daily podcast with each episode taking at least one hour.

Listeners can expect a variety of host guests from varying backgrounds and hence a rich variety of content. Guests typically include people of interest in the blockchain and crypto space.

The podcast has grown in popularity over the years – and prompted the launch of the Bitcoin Podcast Network.

6. The Crypto Street Podcast

The Crypto Street Podcast is another podcast that takes an interview approach. The show’s guests are typically well-versed crypto traders and miners. Mostly, the guest is a well-known Twitter figure, invited to share their experiences, expectations, and ideas.

The show is hosted by three influential crypto enthusiasts (K1llerWh4le, CryptoDale, and Prince). And if Twitter’s your go-to source of crypto insights and news, then you’re in good company with the podcast.

7. Let’s Talk Bitcoin

When talking of crypto podcasts that started the game, Let’s Talk Bitcoin features among the pioneers. The podcast went live in 2013 and currently has 400+ episodes to its name.

Fans can expect up to two or three episodes per month.

Bitcoin Evangelist and bestselling author of Andreas Antonopoulos co-hosts the show alongside Antonopoulos – the author of several industry-leading books including Mastering Bitcoin, The Internet of Money, and The Internet of Money Volume Two.

8. Ledger Cast

Ledger Cast went live in 2017 and is one of the top crypto and blockchain podcasts available today.

The podcast, which is hosted by Josh Olszewicz and Brian Krogsgard, involves the hosts making sense of events in the crypto space.

Some of the topics have included: “Can Doge take alts to the promised land?” “The IRS wants to know if you bought crypto” and “Ethereum’s hard fork.”

9. Epicenter

This podcast is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain, Sebastien Couture, and Meher Roy.

The podcast was originally called Epicenter Blockchain before re-branding into its current moniker. The show focuses on startups that are incorporating cryptocurrency and/or blockchain into their business model.

Show guests are picked from the business, academia, crypto, and blockchain arenas.

10. Unconfirmed

If you prefer short and snappy content rather than long-winded monologues, then Unconfirmed is your go-to podcast. The show takes place once a week and runs for no more than 20 minutes.

The show features some of the most influential names in the blockchain and crypto arena who are invited to interpret the week’s biggest headlines.

11. Steal This Show

Steal This Show is not strictly a crypto-themed podcast, but listeners can expect the hosts to dive into the in-depth blockchain topics from time to time. The show is hosted by American filmmaker Jaime King and has previously explored topics such as the connection between file-sharing peer-to-peer protocol BitTorrent and cryptocurrency, BitTorrent’s acquisition by Justin Sun’s Tron, and the regulatory gray area of cryptocurrencies.

12. Magical Crypto Friends

This show is hosted by industry heavyweights Monero’s Ricardo Spagni, Litecoin’s Charlie Lee, Blockstream’s CSO Samson Mow, and anonymous trader WhalePanda. Fans of the show can expect a new episode every month.

The team has, in the past, tackled topics such as regulation, decentralization, and the evolvement of Bitcoin since its groundbreaking launch more than ten years ago.

13. Blockchain Insider by 11:FS

This London-based podcast is hosted by Simon Taylor and Colin G. Platt, and it tackles the week’s most talked-about headlines in crypto and blockchain verse. The show’s enthusiasts can expect at least an episode each week.

14. The Trader Cobb Crypto Podcast

This podcast is hosted by Trader Cobb’s, a crypto trading trainer and one of the most sought-after crypto industry-leading voices. And listeners can tune in to get a first-hand look into his insights about the crypto market.

15. The Blockchain Show

Los Angeles-based The Blockchain Show is hosted by Ethan Kinderknecht, going live at least once a week. Kinderknecht’s approach is more blockchain rather than cryptocurrency and cryptocurrency markets. The show typically takes the form of an interview.

Final Words

Hopefully, by catching up with these shows, you will be acquainted with the blockchain and crypto space faster than you thought. Their insights will be handy in helping you gain a deeper understanding of both the blockchain and cryptocurrency topics as well as how to perfect your trading/investing skills.

Tags Blockchain education, Crypto, Crypto and blockchain podcasts, Crypto and blockchain shows, Crypto podcasts, Crypto Trading, cryptocurrencies, Cryptocurrency influenceers

Crypto Market Analysis

Daily Crypto Review, May 22 – Bitcoin at $9,000; Craig Wright Has The Keys to 820,000 BTC?

Post author By Ilija Rankovic
Post date 22 May, 2020
No Comments on Daily Crypto Review, May 22 – Bitcoin at $9,000; Craig Wright Has The Keys to 820,000 BTC?

The crypto market has spent the day following Bitcoin’s spike down, most likely due to the fear of Satoshi Nakamoto moving their funds (which is most likely not true, as the more likely scenario would be that one of the miners was moving the BTC). Bitcoin is currently trading for $9,091, which represents a decrease of 4.2% on the day. Meanwhile, Ethereum lost 4.38% on the day, while XRP lost 0.55%.

OmiseGO took the position of today’s biggest daily gainer, with gains of 65.98%. THETA lost 16.34% of its daily value, making it the most prominent daily loser.

Bitcoin’s dominance stayed at the same place since we last reported, with its value currently at 67.05%. This value represents a 0.03% difference to the downside.

The cryptocurrency market capitalization decreased when compared to yesterday’s value, with its current value being $251.67 billion. This value represents a decrease of $10.92 billion when compared to the value it had yesterday.

What happened in the past 24 hours

Kleiman vs. Wright getting heated

Ira Kleiman’s legal team announced that Dr. Craig Wright already has keys to the encrypted file that is believed to contain more than 820,000 Bitcoin. The Kleiman estate is currently suing Wright over the Bitcoin he allegedly mined by partnering with the late Dave Kleiman. On the other side, Wright claims there was no partnership.

_______________________________________________________________________

Technical analysis

_______________________________________________________________________

Bitcoin

The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization had quite a price drop in the past 24 hours. Most likely sparked up by news of someone moving Bitcoin mined in the first month of Bitcoin’s existence, as well as new information on the Craig Wright case, investors have started to get cautions and exit their positions, bringing BTC to under $9,000 at one point. After falling to $8,800, Bitcoin bulls woke up and lifted the price above $9,000, where it is standing at the moment. Bitcoin is currently trying to pass the $9,210 resistance level.

Key levels to the upside Key levels to the downside

1: $9,250 1: $9,120

2: $9,580 2: $8,980

3: $9,735 3: $8,820

Ethereum

Ethereum followed Bitcoin and dropped in value quite a bit over the past 24 hours. The second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap even fell to $190 at one point, before being picked up by the bulls. It is currently trying to establish its position above the $198 support level, which it seems it will succeed in doing.

Ethereum looks like it might make a head and shoulders pattern, which will be a safe trade (if it plays out correctly). However, it is too early to speculate on such things.

Key levels to the upside Key levels to the downside

1: $217.6 1: $198

2: $225.4 2: $193.6

3: $240 3: $185

Ripple

Even though XRP was the most stable cryptocurrency out of the top3 in the past couple of days (including today), it is far from being completely stable. The third-largest cryptocurrency by market cap dropped below its $0.2 support level (now turned resistance). XRP has since consolidated and is trying to pass $0.2 to the upside.

Key levels to the upside Key levels to the downside

1: $0.2 1: $0.19

2: $0.205 2: $0.1785

3: $0.214

Tags bitcoin, BTC, Crypto, Crypto Trading, cryptocurrency, Daily Brief, ETH, Ethereum, Fundamental Analysis, Ripple, Technical Analysis, trading, XRP

Crypto Guides

What are Sidechains & What is their Purpose?

Post author By Reddy Shyam Shankar
Post date 21 May, 2020
No Comments on What are Sidechains & What is their Purpose?

Introduction

Sidechains are mechanisms that enable the transfer of existing tokens or digital assets from a blockchain platform to another blockchain platform. The tokens or digital assets can be transferred back to the original blockchain if required. The primary platform from which we transfer the assets is called the parent chain or main chain, while the other platform is called sidechain. Ardor blockchain calls the sidechain as childchain.

Sidechains have enormous potential to transform the existing issues of scalability in the blockchain platforms. The transfer need not be only digital assets or tokens, but we may transfer computing or for speeding purposes as well, depending on the processing requirements. We can have many sidechains for a single parent chain.

How do they work?

Sidechain is indeed a separate blockchain platform connected with the leading blockchain platform using a two-way peg. The two-way peg is a method to convert one digital token to another type of token like BTC to ETH. The two-way peg facilitates the transfer of digital assets at a predetermined rate. A user on the parent chain first sends coins to an output address so that they can be blocked.

To ensure that these coins aren’t spent elsewhere, a protocol is followed. Once the transaction is complete, the information is sent to all the chains. Some extra period is used to wait as well to increase security. Once this is done, the same number of coins are released in the sidechain for user access and spending. The same process can be repeated when the tokens are to be sent from sidechain to the main chain. Some other entities come into the picture to run the sidechains seamlessly. They are as below.

Federations

A federation can be called as a group or server which acts between the main chain and a side chain. The sidechain creators can decide federation members. They decide on when to lock the coins and release the coins for spending and vice versa.

Security

The core reason for anyone to move to the blockchain platform is security. So, one may question what about the security aspects in the sidechains. Even though they are connected, they are on their own in terms of security. Both platforms are individual blockchain platforms and are very secure individually.

Further, if there is any disturbance in one platform, the disturbance will not be carried out to the other. The sidechains use separate miners from the main chain. They are incentivized using merged mining. Merged mining refers to the mechanism of mining two or more cryptocurrencies at the same time based on the same algorithm.

Platforms using Sidechains

Rootstock or RSK

RSK has two-way peg connectivity with the Bitcoin platform. RSK’s vision is to enable smart contracts functionality for bitcoin blockchain, increase scalability, thus faster transactions. Miners are rewarded through merged mining. As of now, the platform supports 100 TPS.

Liquid

Liquid sidechain proposes instant movement of funds between exchanges without waiting for the delay in confirmation from the bitcoin blockchain. This is the first commercial sidechain developed by Blockstream.

Advantages of Sidechains

Enhances the scalability of the mainchain, thus increasing the number of transactions per second.
Need not create a sidechain again and again; once created, they can be used for any purpose.
They enable the communication between two different coins, which helps in the testing of beta coins in the sidechain before the official launch.

Conclusion

The scalability issues of blockchain technology are addressed in different ways, but sidechains are very promising. The communication between two different cryptocurrencies paves ways to multiple features. Transactions costs and time will be reduced as the burden is less for the mainchain. The concept is going to create a massive change in the blockchain technology in the upcoming future.

Tags Blockchain, Crypto, Crypto Trading, cryptocurrencies, cryptocurrency, cryptos, Digital Assets, existing tokens, Rootstock, RSK, Scalability, Sidechains, Technology

Crypto Daily Topic

12 Most Popular Telegram Channels for Crypto Trends, Investing, and Trading

Post author By Edith M.
Post date 21 May, 2020
No Comments on 12 Most Popular Telegram Channels for Crypto Trends, Investing, and Trading

Crypto subjects are not for the faint of heart. They’re sometimes highly technical by nature, and with the unpredictable prices of the crypto market, it can be harder to keep up with what’s going on. Of course, when it comes to crypto trading, every latest piece of news of your favorite crypto is important. This is true for the traditional stock market, but even more so for the crypto market, which is affected by the smallest events.

One of the best places to keep on top of things is Telegram. The Durov brothers’ end-to-end encrypted platform has 400 million+ active monthly users and has become a crypto community favorite, with discussions on any and everything, from trading and investment tips to market behavior, to industry news, to memes and everything in between.

It would be ideal if all Telegram crypto channels were worth their salt. Unfortunately, you’re more bound to come across a Telegram channel full of inane content and even spam. That doesn’t mean all Telegram channels are like that.

We combed the internet to bring you the top telegram channels that are worth your time and attention.

1. UK Crypto

Though it currently only has 1632 members, UK crypto focuses on quality over quantity, with a regular mix of educational content, trading insights, and the latest trends.

If you would like to learn how to expertly employ technical and fundamental analysis in your crypto trading, then UK crypto is your go-to telegram channel.

2. Cointrendz

If swing trading is more your jam, then you’ll be at home with Cointrendz. In the channel, you will receive a regular stream of updates on which cryptos are going bullish. If you are one for monitoring volume trends and taking what’s on the top, then Cointrendz has you covered.

Cointrendz currently has 5,951 members.

3. Trading Signals for Free

A trading signal is an indicator to buy or sell. A signal could indicate that a resistance or support level has been broken, that the volume for a cryptocurrency is on an uptrend, a new pattern is emerging, and so on.

With 578 members, Trading Signals for Free is a Telegram channel that provides reliable crypto trading signals, unlike other channels that claim to do so but, in actuality, are pump-and-dump schemes.

4. CoinMarketCap

CoinMarketCap has established itself as one of the best platforms for checking crypto prices, circulating volume, market position, chart history, and so on.

And Telegram users can find the website’s channel, providing them with a supply of the current statistics of the top 10 cryptocurrencies, including price changes, market cap, 24-hour volume, price history of the last seven days and so on.

5. Whale Club Bitcoin Traders

Wait, a group for whales?! Not so fast. If that were the case, everybody would troop there to get the insider whale strategy. Whale Club Bitcoin Traders is a regular crypto channel with occasional tips on trading and analysis of what’s going to happen in the crypto market. 1, 714 people have subscribed to the channel currently.

6. ETH Trader

Unlike other crypto telegram channel groups, ETH Trader is a channel where Ethereum traders can receive regular updates on what’s happening with their fave crypto. Both novice and experienced traders can learn something every day from this channel. The channel has 4, 765 subscribers.

7. AirDropAlert

A cryptocurrency airdrop is an event where developers of a new currency distribute free coins to existing wallet addresses to promote its awareness and inspire/reward loyalty.

As people receive the tokens, they talk about it on social media and other forums, helping it gain traction. You can find info on upcoming airdrops in many places, including websites, Twitter, Facebook, and crypto forums.

However, if you like to stay updated on upcoming airdrops (who doesn’t?) and prefer Telegram, you need to join the AirDropAlert channel. Presently, the channel has 4, 560 members.

8. Crypto News

Crypto News may have only 335 members, but that small number has no bearing on the quality of the content that you will find on the channel. In fact, fewer members on a Telegram channel makes the platform more organized and manageable, improving the overall experience. On the other hand, a massive Telegram channel can feel cluttered and confusing just for the sheer amount of messages.

Crypto News is a telegram channel that provides a steady stream of news on the most relevant happenings in the crypto space. Members can share their insights and perspectives on these events.

9. ICO Countdown

Initial coin offerings (ICOs) are the cryptocurrency industry’s equivalent of IPOs. Through ICOs, upcoming crypto projects can raise money in order to fund their vision.

ICOs are another way through which to secure new tokens, and they are massively popular in the community. In the first half of 2019 alone, ICOs had raised a total of $1.97 billion. If you want to be in the know about upcoming ICOs, ICO Countdown is a great platform to join. The group has 5, 628 members.

10. Venture Coinist

Venture Coinist is run by crypto Twitter influencer Luke Martin, who is one of the leading voices in crypto trading technical analysis. If you find thrill in technical analysis charts and spotting potential market entry points through them, then Venture Coinist is your go-to channel.

Martin breaks down the most popular altcoins but dedicates much of his time and effort to the top 10 cryptos by market cap. There is also a decent amount of educational content, including old charts. Through this, you can identify price patterns and see what triggered what event.

The channel currently has 3, 366 members.

11. Cointelegraph

Cointelegraph is the official Telegram channel by the crypto website Cointelegraph. The channel currently has 66, 127 members.

While the numbers seem daunting to keep up with, there are a few advantages to huge telegram channels. First, you are guaranteed to always find people online to chat with. Second, every single piece of information will always be taken apart and analyzed to the bone. It’s also hard for such an enormous number of people to fall victim to fake news, which is uber-common in crypto.

On the Cointelegraph channel, you will find the latest and most relevant crypto news, research on the newest and hottest trends, and market data and analysis.

12. The Crypto Room

The Crypto Room is a Telegram channel where you can interact with other members and interpret the goings-on in the crypto space. What you get is focused on discussions that are backed with evidence and are easy to follow.

The channel currently has 2, 057members.

Tags Crypto, crypto news, Crypto Telegram channels, Crypto Trading, Crypto Trading on Telegranm, cryptocurrencies, Telegram

Crypto Daily Topic

Future Ready Economies: 5 Countries With a National Cryptocurrency

Post author By Edith M.
Post date 21 May, 2020
No Comments on Future Ready Economies: 5 Countries With a National Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency is an internet-based currency that’s faster, has lower transaction fees, prevents the problem of double-spending, and facilitates confidential transactions. These features have a massive appeal for any currency.

The solution of the double-spending solves a long-running problem that prevented digital currencies from taking form before Bitcoin. And confidential transactions have never been more relevant than now – in this era of ubiquitous internet.

With that in mind, it’s easy to see why cryptocurrency has developed such an allure, so much that some countries have developed a national currency, or are tinkering with the idea.

Along with that, the concept of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in which a country’s digital currency is issued, controlled, and managed by the Central Bank has emerged.

This article takes a look at countries that have adopted a national cryptocurrency.

Venezuela: Petro

In February 2018, the Venezuelan government launched a cryptocurrency by the name Petro – short for Petromoneda. On television, President Nicolas Maduro announced that his government would issue a cryptocurrency backed by Venezuela’s oil, gold, and mineral reserves.

According to Maduro, several Fiat currencies such as Russian ruble, the Chinese yuan, Turkish Lita, and the Euro would be convertible with the currency. The president also stated that the currency was made to mitigate the adverse effects of sanctions imposed on the country by the US government. In March 2019, President Donald Trump issued an order that effectively barred US investors from participating in the currency’s ICO sale.

With all this intrigue, though, it’s important to note that Petro was meant to be an alternative to Venezuela’s extremely unstable currency, which has seen a freefall since the country entered into a political crisis in 2016.

Critics have, however, been unforgiving towards the currency. To begin with, its white paper was without any technical oversight and was modified several times after its release. Additionally, the government’s claim that the currency would be backed by oil reserves is hollow at best, since the cryptocurrency’s code describes no such mechanism.

So far, the cryptocurrency has not enjoyed any support in Venezuela itself, let alone anywhere else. As reported by Mary Anastasia O’Grady for the Wall Street Journal in a wittily titled article: “Venezuela Puts the Crypt in Cryptocurrency,” Venezuelans would rather stick to the dysfunctional and hyper-inflated national currency Bolivar and the US dollar than embrace the all-smoke-but-no-fire cryptocurrency.

Dubai, UAE: emCash

In 2017, Dubai announced a national “encrypted digital currency” called emCash through which people could “use to pay for various government and non-government” services, as well as “varied payments, from their daily coffee and children’s school fee to utility charges and money transfers…”

The project was overseen by the Dubai Department of Economic Development, UK’s Tech Grp LTD, and Dubai’s Emcredit as well as the Pundi X crypto company.

In the statement, Emcredit CEO Muna Al Qassab said: “Customers can choose between two payment options on the emPay platform – the existing dirham payment or emCash. While the dirham payment goes through normal settlement procedures, intermediaries, and costs, emCash payments are settled directly between the user and merchant.” He also added that “emCash provides real-time value movement and merchants can pass the cost-benefit to the emCash holder. It also reduces inflation since the currency is issued in real-time based on demand.”

Senegal: eCFA

Senegal was one of the first countries to adopt a national digital currency. In December 2016, the country launched eCFA, a digital currency named after CFA, the country’s national Fiat currency. eCFA takes the concept of CBDCs, and as such, it’s controlled and issued by the country’s central bank.

eCFA was brought to life through the collaboration of Senegal’s local bank Banque Régionale de Marches and Ireland-based crypto company eCurrency Mint Limited. eFCA is meant for distribution alongside the country’s Fiat currency as legal tender.

BRM and eCurrency released a statement stating: “The eCFA is a high-security digital instrument that can be held in a mobile money and e-money wallets. It will secure universal liquidity, enable interoperability, and provide transparency to the entire digital ecosystem in WAEMU (West African Economic and Monetary Union.”

The Marshall Islands: SOV

The small country located in Oceania already adopted a national cryptocurrency known as SOV – for Sovereign. The country has a population of about 59,000 people as of 2020. It has a close relationship with the US and has been using the US dollar as its official currency.

However, since March 2018, the country went the way of cryptocurrency, implementing SOV as the legal tender. SOV’s maximum supply will cap at 24 million to prevent inflation.

The island’s government passed a Declaration and Issuance of the Sovereign Currency Act, effectively making the currency the national tender. Speaking to Reuters at the time, minister-in-assistance to president David Paul said: “As a country, we reserve the right to issue a currency in whatever form it is, whether in digital or fiat form.”

He added that SOV would be designed collaboratively with Israel-based fintech company Neema, and would be publicly released through an Initial Coin Offering. CEO Barak Ben-Ezer told the media that the currency is “completely decentralized and the government cannot control the money supply…”

China: Digital Yuan

China is known to have somewhat of a love-hate relationship with cryptocurrency. It has previously banned crypto exchanges and crypto-related platforms. It has also previously clamped down on social media posts that talk about Bitcoin. In October 2019, however, the country suddenly took a U-turn and started doing the exact opposite. Any social media posts calling crypto a scam were the ones that were being cracked down upon, instead.

Around the same time, the country introduced a digital currency across four cities as a part of a test program on a homegrown crypto. These cities were Shenzhen, Suzhou, Chengdu, and Xiong’an. The idea was to assess the currency’s functionality.

The launch followed nearly four years of research by China’s central bank. The currency has no official name yet and is dubbed “DC/EP” for “digital currency/electronic payment.” The currency takes after some of the core features of crypto but excludes the touted anonymity and decentralization.

Nonetheless, China’s authoritarian government may not be exactly warm and fuzzy towards the idea of a decentralized currency. A centralized one would be easier to monitor, track, and keep in check.

Closing Thoughts

The idea of a national cryptocurrency is no longer a far-fetched concept. While some countries have flatly rejected the idea of cryptocurrency alone, others have taken the entirely opposite approach. Are we going to see more countries following the path of these countries? Frankly, governments and cryptocurrency have always been a touchy topic. We can only watch it.

Tags China cryptocurrency, Countries and cryptocurrency, Crypto, cryptocurrencies, cryptocurrency, Education, National cryptocurrencies, real-life uses of cryptocurrency, Sovereign cryptocurrency

Crypto Market Analysis

Daily Crypto Review, May 21 – Satoshi Nakamoto Moving Crypto? Crypto Payments Available on Shopify

Post author By Ilija Rankovic
Post date 21 May, 2020
No Comments on Daily Crypto Review, May 21 – Satoshi Nakamoto Moving Crypto? Crypto Payments Available on Shopify

The crypto market has spent the day slightly retracing, with most of its cryptocurrencies being in the red. Bitcoin is currently trading for $9,505, which represents a decrease of 2.41% on the day. Meanwhile, Ethereum lost 1.59% on the day, while XRP lost 1.57%.

THETA took the position of today’s biggest daily gainer, with gains of 29.39%. Steem lost 17.74% of its daily value, making it the most prominent daily loser.

Bitcoin’s dominance moved down slightly since we last reported, with its value currently at 67.08%. This value represents a 0.38% difference to the downside.

The cryptocurrency market capitalization decreased when compared to yesterday’s value, with its current value being $262.25 billion. This value represents a decrease of $4.01 billion when compared to the value it had yesterday.

What happened in the past 24 hours

Crypto payments on Shopify

Shopify platform sellers can now utilize cryptocurrencies in their online stores after a partnership with CoinPayments (a crypto payment processor) reached a deal with Shopify.

“Shopify is a natural fit for us,” said CoinPayments CEO Jason Butcher, and also added that “it just makes sense to create an integration that enables secure, easy, and cost-effective transactions.

Honorable mention

On May 20, Reports show that Satoshi Nakamoto may have shown up and reactivated himself. The news came out as someone tried to move 50 Bitcoin that were mined all the way back in Feb 2009.

What’s more interesting is that the Bitcoin that were moved were actually the ones that Craig Wright said he owns.

_______________________________________________________________________

Technical analysis

_______________________________________________________________________

Bitcoin

The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization spent the past 24 hours in a slight downturn. The drop below $9,735 as well as $9,580 was stopped by the ascending trend, which is being tested at the time of writing. In order not to become even more bearish, Bitcoin has to reach over the trend line and establish itself above some of the horizontal support levels, or to fall within the trend and continue moving like that.

Key levels to the upside Key levels to the downside

1: $9,580 1: $9,250

2: $9,735 2: $9,120

3: $9,870 3: $8,980

Ethereum

Ethereum has been quite inactive when compared to Bitcoin in the past 24 hours. The second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap dropped a few percent on the day but held up quite good within a range bound by $198 to the downside and $217.6 to the upside. More so, the price has held above $200, which is a great show of strength.

Key levels to the upside Key levels to the downside

1: $217.6 1: $198

2: $225.4 2: $193.6

3: $240 3: $185

Ripple

XRP has spent yet another day pretty much doing the same thing. The third-largest cryptocurrency by market cap almost didn’t move throughout the day, only dropping slightly to the $0.2 support level.

XRP’s volume is still incredibly low, while its RSI is at the value of 45.

Key levels to the upside Key levels to the downside

1: $0.214 1: $0.205

2: $0.227 2: $0.2

3: $0.235 3: $0.19

Tags bitcoin, BTC, Crypto, Crypto Trading, cryptocurrency, Daily Brief, ETH, Ethereum, Fundamental Analysis, Ripple, Technical Analysis, trading, XRP

Crypto Daily Topic

Crypto Glossary: Most Popular Crypto & Blockchain Terms and Phrases

Post author By Edith M.
Post date 20 May, 2020
No Comments on Crypto Glossary: Most Popular Crypto & Blockchain Terms and Phrases

The crypto and blockchain worlds are oftentimes referred to as cryptoverse or blockchain verse for simply being an independent and relatively new financial ecosystem. From the concepts to the unique language, it can be overwhelming to play catch up with all the words and phrases, especially if you are new to the trade. For instance, what is a blockchain? What does “HODL” or “mooning” mean?

This crypto glossary helps you familiarizes yourself with the most common terms and phrases that you will almost certainly come across as you navigate the world of cryptocurrency and blockchain.

We cover everything – from the meaningful ones to the slang, and anything in between – here:

51% Attack

A 51% attack is an attack on a blockchain involving a party taking control of over 51% of the network’s hash rate. This would render the blockchain vulnerable, allowing the party to double-spend coins, hijack transactions, prevent the verification and confirmation of transactions, and stop miners from completing transactions.

Block Height

Block height is the numeric reference to any block on a blockchain. The first-ever block is referred to as block height 0.

Halving

The Bitcoin protocol is programmed such that only 22 million coins will ever exist. To control the release of new coins, mining rewards are slashed in half after every 210,000th block. In the beginning, the reward for mining a new block was 50 BTC. That was halved to 25 in 2012 and again to 12.5 in 2016. It fell again to 6.25 a week ago. After the 64th’ halving’, no more bitcoins will be released. That’s estimated to happen around 2140.

HODL

HODL is a meme in the crypto sphere that refers to holding onto your crypto rather than selling. It came into existence in 2013 when a drunk crypto trader wrote ‘hodl” rather than ‘hold’ on the bitcointalk.org forum. See the original thread here.

Lambo

‘Lambo’ for Lamborghini is a popular phrase in crypto lingo. It symbolizes the ultimate dream for a crypto trader: to be rich enough to afford a Lamborghini!

Mooning

This refers to the phenomenon of a cryptocurrency shooting up massively in price, seemingly out of nowhere. It was coined in 2017 when this was a regular trend. The entire crypto market ballooned from $15 billion around January to a jaw-dropping $600 billion by December. Ripple benefited the most from the boom, gaining by 28,963% over the period.

Satoshi

Satoshi is the smallest unit of Bitcoin. It is the hundredth millionth of a single bitcoin (0.00000001).

Flippening

Flippening is when another cryptocurrency will topple Bitcoin from the top of the crypto market. Ethereum and Litecoin have been touted to be potential ‘flippeners.”

Whales

These are individuals or entities with significant holdings of a cryptocurrency. If they sell their holdings, the market will feel the effect – just as whales displace water when they move.

Exit Scam

This is a crypto scam in which scammers launch a promising crypto project. They will then raise funds through an ICO. The business will then exist for a while, all while demonstrating activity and progress in the roadmap. Soon, however, it vanishes into thin air, leaving investors in the lurch.

Shitcoin

This is a worthless cryptocurrency that has mostly failed to live up to initial craze or was never a big deal to begin with—a valueless or a copycat currency.

Cryptojacking

Cryptojacking refers to the act of a hacker using malware to utilize your computer to stealthily mine crypto.

Choyna

A distortion of China, a country with a love-hate relationship with cryptocurrency and one with the largest number of miners.

Shill

Shill refers to an individual who underhandedly promotes a digital currency project while pretending no to, and who is potentially paid to do so.

Weak Hands

Weak hands refer to inexperienced traders who make emotional trading decisions. These traders will usually sell whenever the market takes a bearish trend or in the event of bad news. It’s the opposite of strong hands who in turn, are uber-good in HODLing.

Arbitrage

This is the difference in the price of a cryptocurrency in different exchanges. It allows savvy traders to buy crypto at a lower price on one exchange and sell it at a higher price at another, making a profit.

Bug Bounty

This is a reward offered by software developers for people to identify software vulnerabilities or bugs in code. This allows developers to identify and eliminate any errors in a project before it’s officially released.

DApp

DApp or ‘decentralized app’ is an application that operates in a peer-to-peer, decentralized environment. It’s not controlled by third-parties, and it cannot be censored. Such an application is the polar opposite of applications such as Facebook and Google, which are institutionally-owned and thus controlled by third parties. Examples of DApps included decentralized Twitter alternative Mastodon, popular cat game Cryptokitties, and crypto exchange Etherdelta.

Fork

A fork is essentially a blockchain splitting into two branches. This can happen for any of several reasons: security update, a scalability update, part of the community wanting to go another direction, and so on. There are two types of forks. A soft fork is compatible with earlier versions of the chain. A hard fork is a radical and permanent offshoot that’s not compatible with earlier versions.

Mainnet

Mainnet is short for ‘main network’, and it refers to the actual network on which transactions and other operations will take place. A mainnet is the opposite of a testnet, on which trials are run.

Airdrop

This is a free distribution of tokens to a crypto community. The idea is to promote the project or to thank people for signing up.

Bitcoin Maximalists

These are people that are diehard Bitcoiners. Bitcoin maximalists believe with unwavering conviction that the currency is the most superior cryptocurrency and the only one worth caring about.

ICO

An ICO is short for ‘Initial Coin Offering’ and refers to the process of a cryptocurrency project raising funds by selling crypto. Interested investors can then buy the coins. ICOs are very much like Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) through which traditional companies raise money by floating shares and stocks.

Mining

Mining is the process of verifying, confirming, and adding transactions to the public ledger. The cryptographic nature of cryptocurrencies means this process will require massive computational resources. People who provide these resources are called miners. In exchange, a blockchain network rewards miners with crypto coins or part of the transaction fee for the services.

Permissioned Ledger

Permissioned ledger is another term for private ledger. These are blockchains in which only authorized participants can access and initiate transactions. Permissioned ledgers are mostly found in private organizations since they can’t store sensitive data on public blockchains such as the Bitcoin blockchain.

Private Key

A private key in cryptocurrency is like your bank passcode. It allows you to access, send, or withdraw coins. If someone gets their hands on your private keys, they can access your funds. Crypto transactions are irreversible, implying that if someone withdraws your funds, they’re gone forever. It also means you have to take every available safeguard to protect your private keys.

Public Key

A public key is an address through which you receive cryptocurrency, either from people or a crypto exchange. A public key is very much like your bank account through which people send you money. Sharing your public key does not compromise your funds.

Cold Storage

In the context of cryptocurrencies and the blockchain network, cold storage refers to the keeping of your private keys offline. This makes it immune from hacking, malware, phishing attacks, and other online vulnerabilities. Cold storage is by far the safest option for storing your crypto funds. It’s highly recommended to keep especially large crypto holdings in cold storage.

Blockchain

A blockchain is a cryptographically secured, distributed, immutable, and time-stamped series of data records. There are two types of blockchains – public and private. Public blockchains are publicly available, and anyone can participate. The Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchains are examples of public blockchains. Private blockchains are owned and managed by private enterprises.

Altcoins

Altcoins is the name given to all other cryptocurrencies apart from Bitcoin. An altcoin can have its own independent blockchain or be built atop a blockchain that supports smart contracts such as Ethereum, Stellar, and NEO.

Tags Crypto, Crypto course, Crypto terms, cryptocurrencies, Cryptocurrency phrases, Education

Crypto Videos

Making Bank With Hashrate Bitcoin Futures!

Post author By Keiran
Post date 20 May, 2020
No Comments on Making Bank With Hashrate Bitcoin Futures!

https://youtu.be/pJ49weJvSg4

Hashrate Bitcoin Futures Introduced – Another Profit-Making Opportunity?

People interested in cryptocurrency and Bitcoin trading now have a brand new tool they can use to generate profit. FTX, a derivatives trading platform, announced the launch of a futures product that tracks not Bitcoin’s price, but rather Bitcoin’s hash rate.

What are Hashrate Futures?

Hashrate futures are contracts that track Bitcoin’s average mining difficulty each day from the start to the end of each quarter.
As measuring hash rate is virtually impossible, the tracking parameter used here is the mining difficulty. However, as difficulty adjustments attempt to maintain 10-minute block times, the average hash rate will be proportional to the average difficulty in the long run.
Hash rate is the computing power dedicated to the Bitcoin network. The more hash rate Bitcoin has, the more secure the network is. The mining difficulty, on the other hand, is the complexity of the equations which validate Bitcoin transactions.
Both the hash rate and the mining difficulty were hovering near the all-time highs, but the hash rate slowly tailed off after the halving.

How does this affect the market?

The introduction of a new crypto-related financial product is almost always a good thing, mostly because it attracts more investment. On top of that, crypto enthusiasts can use their knowledge to leverage one more thing and create a profit-making opportunity for themselves. However, whether this financial product will be net-positive, net-negative, or neutral for the crypto community, only time will tell.

Tags bitcoin, Crypto, Crypto Trading, cryptocurrencies, Hashrate bitcoin futures

Crypto Videos

Bitcoin CME Options Interest is Skyrocketing!

Post author By Keiran
Post date 20 May, 2020
No Comments on Bitcoin CME Options Interest is Skyrocketing!

https://youtu.be/C_its45QQb4

Bitcoin CME Options Interest Skyrocketing Post Halving

Chicago Mercantile Exchange Bitcoin options increased in popularity by a great deal over the past few days. The interest grew so much that the volume managed to hit $142 million as of May 15. This number doesn’t mean anything until compared to the previous volume this market had, so let’s compare the current volume with the past month’s volume. Data published by Skew shows a gain of over 1000% at the end of April when the market’s open interest reached just $12 million.

The reasoning behind the increase in interest

CME recorded an initial spike in options volume before Bitcoin halving, around May 5 and May 6. Both these days were close to $10 million by themselves. As we approached the halving, the volume died down as people didn’t know what to expect.

However, ever since the halving occurred, the volume skyrocketed, with days after the halving reaching $30 million and $40 million.

Institutional investor interest on the rise

Institutional investment in Bitcoin has continued to rise as we approached the halving, as well as after it. Companies such as Grayscale and Fidelity Digital both reported increased interest, while hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones claimed that almost 2% of his total equity is held in Bitcoin.

The bottom line

It looks like the Bitcoin halving is slowly starting to get attention from both institutions and retail investors. With the reduction of supply of Bitcoin as well as an increase in demand, we may look at Bitcoin’s price as possibly undervalued at the moment.

Tags Bitcoin cme options, Crypto, Crypto Trading, cryptocurrencies

Crypto Daily Topic

Why You Shouldn’t Join Crypto Signal Groups And What To Do Instead

Post author By Edith M.
Post date 20 May, 2020
No Comments on Why You Shouldn’t Join Crypto Signal Groups And What To Do Instead

The allure of cryptocurrency has drawn millions into the craze. The stories of people becoming millionaires overnight during the 2017 boom are too irresistible. As such, it’s easy to have an unrealistic view of how people make money off crypto trading.

When getting started with crypto trading and digging for helpful resources, you’ll likely come across “signal trading groups.” These groups promise to help you maximize on your trades by providing you with winning buy/sell signals. However, you need to take these promises with a grain of salt.

What are Crypto Signals Groups?

These are communities/groups where the creators publish live trades that members can use to enter into trades. The essence of a crypto signal group is for the members to ease into crypto trading by following these guides/signals that dictate to them where and when to buy crypto and when to rope in profits.

Crypto signals groups can be paid or free. Usually, paid crypto groups offer deeper insights, more regular signals, and in some cases, trading advice. Free groups, on the other hand, are more likely to merely churn out signals without much thought paid to the process.

In an ideal environment, a crypto signal group should guide traders to make profitable decisions backed by actual market analysis and accurate interpretation of market trends. Instead, we have unoriginal info being packaged as new, overly expensive subscriptions not worth the penny, and other undesirable practices around the art that should have you questioning the need to join.

Here are some compelling reasons why you shouldn’t join crypto signals groups.

1. Targeting of the Inexperienced

Usually, crypto signal groups target beginner traders who are still looking to gain a foothold in the world of crypto trading. Since they’re still familiarizing themselves with even the tiniest of details, they’re willing to fork out cash for the promise of handholding.

But that’s hardly the problem. The thing is, these traders are likely to accept any and all information coming their way and trust it as the gospel. One of the surest things in crypto trading is doing your own research and verifying information. If you’re not doing this, you’re risking money. In crypto trading, no one can look out for your interests better than you can.

2. No Learning Here

Some crypto signals groups, especially paid ones, provide in-depth analysis of crypto trends, what’s triggering what in the crypto world, and how you can better optimize your knowledge for smart decisions.

But these groups are the exception, not the norm. Most crypto signal groups typically spoon-feed traders, who then never get to learn why certain calls were made, why the crypto market is moving a certain way, and how to base future trading decisions.

3. Bank-breaking

As we’ve noted before, some crypto signal groups are free. But for the most part, these groups are low-effort.

Paid groups, for their part, cost money. Some go for up to hundreds of dollars per month. Most crypto traders are just trying to make money. If they follow trade signals blindly, it can lead to their entire savings going up in smoke.

4. Pump and Dump Scams

Some crypto signal groups are run by individuals who do the right thing. Others are pump and dump scams. Usually, the group leader will hype up some low-cap coin and sing praises of how it’s going to be the next big thing (pumping). This will cause the coin’s demand to shoot up as more people rush to invest in.

After the price soars, the group leader will then offload their holdings. This is what’s called ‘dumping’. After offloading, the coin floods the market again, losing value. Investors will then be left with a worthless coin in their hands, one which they might never get an opportunity to offload profitably.

5. Work of Copy

Most of the time, the ‘novel’ innovation presented in these groups is anything but novel. On the contrary, many of the group leaders of these groups are actually following other crypto signals groups. Then, they will gate keep the best of the info and present the rest.

Other group leaders will relay buy and sell signals without a single shred of analysis on how they arrived at a particular decision. They make it look like the market is ripe for amazing profits anytime. The truth could not be more different.

6. Manipulation and Lies

Quite often, these groups will say anything just to get more subscribers. But without you going back to their posts and comparing them with actual market figures, it’s very easy to get duped. It’s not uncommon to see signal groups making unrealistic claims about the massive profits they stand to gain, while in actual sense, they’re manipulating figures.

7. Copycatting

It’s exactly as it looks like. The information these groups are peddling – you too can find it where they’re sourcing it from. Many of the most successful traders post their analysis on forums like Facebook and Twitter.

The thing is, this info is freely available. Its originators aren’t charging for it, so why should you? Moreover, when you go to the original source, you get to learn so much more than just responding to signals.

8 Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

Again, there’s no catch here. Most of these group leaders are in it for the money, and guess what? There’s the chance they’ll be gone as soon as they figure they’ve made enough of it. And, of course, if they disappear, chances are high the group will too and with it, your money.

What You Can do Instead

Instead of joining crypto signal groups, which are rarely worth the money, what can you do instead? One of the surest strategies you can look into is social trading. Social trading is not a new thing by any means. Going back centuries, people have always looked upon each other to be guided on critical decisions. By listening and taking cues from others, we can always make wiser decisions on many things.

The same applies to modern trading. Experienced traders make better decisions than beginners primarily due to their exposure in the game and continued mastery of the skill. Some platforms such as eToro allow traders to leverage the knowledge of experts in the community so as to improve on decision making and portfolio and asset choices. Social trading can either be copy trading or relying on social forums for trade ideas.

Copy Trading

Copy-trading allows inexperienced traders to copy the moves of more experienced and seasoned traders. This strategy gives traders the opportunity to participate in the markets when they don’t have the time or experience to do so.

New traders get to rely on others’ experience while acclimatizing to the trade. They also get the chance to learn new strategies from others and, in the process, become better traders themselves.

Social Forums

Social Forums are avenues where you can talk to other traders and exchange trading ideas and knowledge off each other. These forums are on platforms such as Reddit, Telegram, Twitter, and Facebook. Other forums were made with the sole goal of building reliable crypto communities.

Topics in these communities are exclusively dedicated to discussing trends in crypto, trading, market movements, mining, and other crypto trading technicalities. Some of the most popular crypto forums include Bitcointalk.org, Altcoincommunity.net, Mastersofcrypto.com, and Cryptocurrencytalk.com.

Final Thoughts

The ideal crypto group signal should be reasonably priced, provide original and profitable ideas, and provide insightful market analysis. Even then, these kinds of groups are not necessary for your path as a crypto trader. Following the moves of actual industry experts and learning from the insights of fellow traders can prove to be a far more fruitful approach.

Tags Bitcoin forums, Copy trading, Crypto, Crypto forums, Crypto signals, Crypto Trading, cryptocurrencies, Education, Social trading

Crypto Guides

Can Blockchain Be A Potential Solution For Personal Data Leaks?

Post author By Reddy Shyam Shankar
Post date 20 May, 2020
No Comments on Can Blockchain Be A Potential Solution For Personal Data Leaks?

Introduction

Personal identity has been a matter of concern in this digital world. Wherever you go, you have to prove that you are indeed the person whom you claim you are if it is a physical world with some government-issued ids. Mostly all the banks in the world have to have the customary Know Your Customer (KYC)/Anti Money Laundering (AML) laws if you have to open a bank account. The government mandates this.

This process is very costly and time consuming for the banks but is of no personal benefit for the organization. If we have to log in to a website, we input our details or login using Google or Facebook account, given all our personal information to these websites. By this, we are entering our details into a server that we don’t have any control over. Which means they can do anything with our data.

All this process creates a lot of siloes of data, with different government or private organizations around the world. Most importantly, we never have control over what they can or cannot do with the data they collect.

Can Blockchain be a solution for our data?

Instead of giving access to our data to anyone and everyone as the government or organization demands to use their services, what if we create a central repository of data in a blockchain platform. Can this be a solution to secure our data? We can say it’s a yes.

Let us examine how using a Hyperledger Indy project which is a platform being developed for identity management.

Hyperledger Indy

Hyperledger Indy is a decentralized ledger platform for Identity Management. Works on the plenum platform, which is similar to smart contracts but tuned for verifying digital identity. Uses Redundant Byzantine Fault Tolerance as a consensus algorithm. Trust anchors play the role of miners and verify transactions in the platform.

Let us understand Hyperledger Indy using an example.

Let’s say Bob is required to apply for a job, and he needs an academic transcript for the same. Bob gets in touch with his university by creating a unique DID, Distributed Identifier using her public key. This DID verifiable by the trust anchors ascertaining that the request is indeed coming from Bob. If the trust anchors accept the transaction, then only a unique pairwise relationship is formed between Bob and the university. Hence Bob gets the academic transcript using this unique pairwise relationship using DID.

Bob applies for the job by creating a new DID with the company and produce his academic transcript. Again, a unique pairwise relationship is formed in this case because Bob doesn’t want his academic transcript to be leaked. Here the employer can verify the academic transcript with the university with Bob’s consent. But the information cannot be leaked with the same DID to some other employer or some other institution because the DID is already used, and Bob didn’t give his consent to share the information with anyone else. Trust anchors reject the transaction.

This is how unique pairwise relationships can be formed using DID’s and personal data can be protected without leaking the data with the owner’s consent.

Self-Sovereign Identity

A self-sovereign identity, i.e., a user should have complete control over his or her identity. If the user has self-control, then how to prove that the identity being shared is indeed true or not without any third-party intervention? Blockchain is the solution. A platform that is publicly available but individually confidential can be created with issuing authorities given permission to authenticate the identity.

Blockchain stores only cryptographic hash functions, and the concerned authorities can verify even without knowing that it is you who they are validating, they have to cross-check if they indeed issue the proof. If we have to submit an age proof, only age can be authenticated without giving away any other details. A project called Sovrin is already working on this type of identity management.

Blockchain is going to be the future for Identity Management. It has already been proven with the platforms described above.

Tags Anti Money Laundering, Crypto, cryptocurrencies, Cryptography, Education, Fault Tolerance, hash functions, Hyperledger Indy, ID's, Identity Management, Redundant Byzantine, self-sovereign identity

Crypto Guides

Applications of Blockchain In The Publication industry

Post author By Reddy Shyam Shankar
Post date 20 May, 2020
No Comments on Applications of Blockchain In The Publication industry

Introduction

The publication industry is again an age-old industry that is struggling to find its place in the digital world. Like many industries, the industry has turned towards blockchain to figure out a solution for their woes. Many people are switching to digital for their reading purposes, say it books, newspapers, journals, or anything of that kind.

Hence the publishing industry’s revenue model, traditional distribution, is just not working anymore. Thus, many content creators are turning to digital, but with a lot of piracy and free content available digitally, it has proved robust to generate money. Using smart contracts to publish and make money using blockchain is one viable option.

Problems grappling the publication industry

When we say publishing, for a lot of people, only newspapers and books may come into mind. But publishing is not just tagged to these two, any content like software, videogames, apps, songs that can be created and shared for consumption can be said as publishing.

⚫ Intellectual Property & Copyright Management

This is the first and foremost problem the publication industry is currently facing. No one wants to publish anything without involving money. Once the content is out, anyone can make copies of it and distribute stuff for a lesser price than the original content. Blockchain can quickly solve this issue if the material is published in blockchain. If this technology can do one thing for sure, that is, its capability to store who owns the data.

⚫ Production

Once the work is completed, many people will be involved in publishing the work, like Publication company, editors, design, marketing, management, etc. These days anyone can print a book on their own if required, but high-quality books aimed at right people with proper marketing still need big publication houses. Instead of following the centralized way, if the content is published and shared using blockchains before making it to the market, many freelancers can gain if different works like design, editing, and stuff can be shared through the platform.

⚫ Revenue Generation

Digital copies will generate money based on the traffic to a particular blog or website. Ads will increase if the traffic is more. The content creators will be paid accordingly. But, in reality, we are relying on and trusting the third-party channel on the payments. This is not working out for most of the content creators. Blockchain solves this issue by generating views using transactions. Every view can make a transaction costing the consumer for the view. Even the consumers will be happy to pay the actual content creators instead of duplicate providers.

⚫ There’s More

Apart from general problems, let’s talk about education journals. Many academic researchers, Ph.D. students, professors of the best universities have to contribute their work on their field of study in the form of some papers. Only then, they can climb the ladder and earn some fame for their work. These papers are published in very high-priced journals, which in turn don’t pay anything for the job, but the authors agree to give away their work for absolutely nothing because that’s the only way to get published.

Blockchain can create a platform for these academicians and help them get paid. Orvium is such a platform founded by former CERN and NASA employees. Reviewers of the work may charge for their services using the platform, as peer review is a must for academic publications. In turn, academicians can charge for their work to be viewed by the general public or can choose to make it completely free.

There are many startups in the publishing industry on the blockchain. Publica is for book ICO’s. Many publishers depend on the publication houses for advances when they have to start a book, but this platform allows the users to pay in advance in the form of some tokens where they will get their copies once the work is completed.

Blockchain can be used in the publishing industry in different ways as per the above for much-needed respite for the industry.

Tags benefits of blockchain, Blockchain, Copyright Management, Crypto, cryptocurrencies, Education, Intellectual Property, Production, publication industry, Publishing Industry, Revenue Generation

Crypto Market Analysis

Daily Crypto Review, May 20– Will BTC reach $20,000 in 2020? Option Traders Say No

Post author By Ilija Rankovic
Post date 20 May, 2020
No Comments on Daily Crypto Review, May 20– Will BTC reach $20,000 in 2020? Option Traders Say No

The crypto market has spent the day moving towards the upside. While most of the market is in the green, the majority of cryptocurrencies didn’t move much. Bitcoin is currently trading for $9,757, which represents an increase of 1.23% on the day. Meanwhile, Ethereum gained 0.87% on the day, while XRP gained 1.12%.

Steem took the position of today’s most prominent daily gainer, with gains of 23.81%. Electroneum lost 12.87% of its daily value, making it the most prominent daily loser.

Bitcoin’s dominance moved up slightly since we last reported, with its value currently at 67.46%. This value represents a 0.03% difference to the upside.

The cryptocurrency market capitalization increased slightly when compared to yesterday’s value, with its current value being $264.26 billion. This value represents an increase of $0.02 billion when compared to the value it had yesterday.

What happened in the past 24 hours

Bitcoin options market speaks about the BTC price

The Bitcoin options market spoke about Bitcoin’s price in the future (or at least their prediction). The options market, which is mostly dominated by Deribit and CME, predicted a 9% chance of Bitcoin reaching past its all-time high of $20,000 by the end of the year.

As Bitcoin has a tendency to prolong its rally six to eight months after its halving event, Bitcoin options traders exercise cautious trading in the medium-term.

_______________________________________________________________________

Technical analysis

_______________________________________________________________________

Bitcoin

The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization spent the past 24 hours being indecisive in terms of where its future path will be. It reached past the $9,735 resistance line, turning it to support once again. However, the main trend isn’t decided quite yet, as these small support and resistance levels aren’t strong enough to determine a trend.

Bitcoin’s volume dropped over the past 24 hours, while its RSI level stayed pretty stable around the 55 mark.

Key levels to the upside Key levels to the downside

1: $9,870 1: $9,735

2: $10,010 2: $9,580

3: $10,505 3: $9,250

Ethereum

Ethereum didn’t make any major moves in the past 24 hours. The second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap is taking its time to consolidate and prepare for the next move (to either side).

Ethereum has recently gained most of its value based on fundamentals. ETH traders should take that into consideration before doing any trading just based on technicals.

Key levels to the upside Key levels to the downside

1: $217.6 1: $198

2: $225.4 2: $193.6

3: $240 3: $185

Ripple

XRP is proving that it has become a relatively stable cryptocurrency day in and day out. The third-largest cryptocurrency by market cap almost didn’t move at all, hovering around the $0.205 level. While it has spent most of the day below it, $0.205 level is now acting as slight support.

XRP’s volume decreased slightly in the past 24 hours, while its RSI level currently stands at the value of 56.

Key levels to the upside Key levels to the downside

1: $0.214 1: $0.205

2: $0.227 2: $0.2

3: $0.235 3: $0.19

Tags bitcoin, BTC, Crypto, Crypto Trading, cryptocurrency, Daily Brief, ETH, Ethereum, Fundamental Analysis, Ripple, Technical Analysis, trading, XRP

Crypto Videos

The US is Printing Trillions of Dollars! How Will That Effect Bitcoin!

Post author By Keiran
Post date 19 May, 2020
No Comments on The US is Printing Trillions of Dollars! How Will That Effect Bitcoin!

https://youtu.be/d8mlzIzXkSk

The U.S. is Printing Trillions of Dollars – Is Bitcoin the Key?

The United States Senate recently approved a $2 trillion stimulus package in late March as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic and rising unemployment. On top of that, the House of Representatives has accepted a House Democrats’ proposal for another $3 trillion. The Federal Reserve had to evaluate the steps it will take and start a wave of quantitative easing unparalleled in size so far in history.
The Fed’s use of quantitative easing is meant to bring liquidity back to the market by printing more money and injecting it into the financial system.

Comparison

NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 16: Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on September 16, 2008, in New York City. The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) met today and announced they will hold the federal funds rate at 2.0 percent, despite the recent turmoil among investment banks on Wall Street. U.S. stocks were mixed following yesterday’s Dow Jones Industrial Average plunge of 4.4% or 504 points, being the worst single-day loss since the terrorist attacks of September 2001. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Source: The tokenist.io

To understand the scale of this endeavor, we need to know a bit about the previous economic meltdown. The Recession of 2008 started when the Fed brought up more than $1.2 trillion worth of assets just so it would pump capital into the market. When compared to what it plans right now, the $1.2 trillion number sounds small and almost insignificant.
Over the past three months, the Fed purchased around $2.8 trillion worth of assets. However, unlike in 2008, it decided to buy riskier assets such as municipal and corporate bonds as well.

Where do Cryptocurrencies fit in?

The U.S. expects this bailout money to be spent on recovering the economy by preserving the financial health of public companies and not to be saved up, as the soon-to-be negative interest rates, as well as inflation, will eat it up in the long run. Since most Americans don’t own assets, the only actual result of the money “injection” will be a very short-term increase in purchasing power, followed by a long-term weakening of purchasing power.

Many analysts believe that this is a great opportunity for Bitcoin to establish itself as a store of value. Bitcoin, as well as the rest of the cryptocurrency market, could prove to be the key to people preserving their holdings amid the incoming inflation.

Tags Crypto, Crypto Trading, cryptocurrencies, Fundamental Analysis, USA

Cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin Mining Pools: Here Is All You Need To Know About Bitcoin Mining Pools

Post author By Edith M.
Post date 19 May, 2020
No Comments on Bitcoin Mining Pools: Here Is All You Need To Know About Bitcoin Mining Pools

Any new Bitcoin user will tell you they’ve heard words like “miners,” “mining pools,” and “ASICs” being thrown around. But it’s not immediately clear what these terms mean, or whatever role they play in the Bitcoin ecosystem.

Photo by Dmitry Demidko on Unsplash

On the other hand, we have aspiring Bitcoin miners who are usually torn between going solo and joining a mining pool and are yet unacquainted with the latter option.

In this guide, we delve into the intricacies of Bitcoin mining pools and answer some of the most burning questions surrounding the topic.

What is Bitcoin Mining?

Bitcoin mining is the process of adding new blocks and transactions on the Bitcoin public blockchain. It involves miners guessing or playing with a random string of numbers and alphabets (known as a hash) until they arrive at the correct hash for the next block. A ‘block’ is a file that consists of transactions that have to be verified before being added to the blockchain.

Bitcoin miners utilize mining equipment known as “application-specific integrated circuits” (ASICs) that are designed to make a massive number of guesses per second. In the early days of Bitcoin, anyone could mine bitcoins on their PC from the comfort of their home. However, as the network became uber-popular and more miners joined the network, the mining difficulty (how hard it is to find new blocks) increased, rendering the average computer unsuitable for mining bitcoins.

What’s a Mining Pool?

A mining pool is a group of miners who come together and combine their computational power in a bid to find new blocks faster. With the combined hashing power, the odds of finding new blocks are multiplied. If a pool succeeds in finding a block, the block reward is shared among the pool participants according to how much processing power each contributed. The more processing power a miner contributed, the more block rewards they will receive.

What is Block Rewards?

In Bitcoin mining, a block reward is what the bitcoins miners receive for discovering new blocks. This reward is halved after mining 210,000th block, which is roughly every four years.

In the beginning, mining a block got a miner rewarded with 50 BTC. That figure was halved into 25 BTC in 2012. It was then halved again in 2016 to 12.5 blocks. It was again halved a few days ago to 6.25. This was Satoshi Nakamoto’s idea of avoiding inflation.

Mining Pool Methods

Bitcoin mining pools do not have a standard operating procedure. Each pool has a different approach to the sharing of block rewards, and so on. Still, many of the most popular pools have certain protocols in common. Let’s get a look at the most common below:

Proportional mining pools: In these pools, miners earn shares up until the pool finds a block, after which each miner receives block rewards in proportion to how much shares each has found.
Pay-per-share pools: These pools operate a lot like the proportional mining pools, only this time, a miner is guaranteed of a payout regardless of when the pool collectively finds a block. Miners are paid with the existing balance in the pool, and they can cash out at any time.
Pay On Target: In these pools, a miner is paid based on the difficulty of work that they plough back to the pool, rather than the difficulty served by the pool itself.
Capped Pay Per Share: This is a reward system through which miners receive as much as possible from discovering blocks while also ensuring the pool never goes bankrupt.
Bitcoin Pooled Mining: This system entails giving more weight to recent shares than to older shares. Each new round starts when a new block is discovered, and not before. This reduces the chance of miners switching pools during a round so as to maximize profits – which is considered cheating.

Why Mine Bitcoin in a Pool?

As we’ve noted before, Bitcoin mining is a game of chance. Thus, it pretty much depends on luck. Hence, even if a miner controls a significant amount of computational power, it doesn’t mean they’ll find blocks proportional to that power. Instead, today they might find three blocks, tomorrow none, the next day one, and on and on.

Mining in a pool allows miners to combine their hash power, so they represent one large mining machine. With the combined hashing power, it’s easier to find the right hash sooner. This way, miners can get a more regular and consistent pay instead of a sporadic and less certain one.

What are the Disadvantages of a Mining Pool?

Mining pools represent a more sustainable income for miners since it multiplies the odds of them finding new blocks. At the same time, it has a downside for both miners and what cryptocurrency stands for.

When a miner participates in a pool, they relinquish some of their power and autonomy. They’ve got to adhere to the terms and conditions of the pool, even if unfavorable.

They also have to share block rewards, meaning they earn significantly less than if they received the entire block reward by themselves.

Another drawback of mining pools is that some mining pools have an enormous amount of combined hash power to the extent of dominating much of the Bitcoin mining process. In a way, this centralizes the Bitcoin mining protocol, which betrays one important tenet of cryptocurrency: decentralization.

How to Choose a Bitcoin Mining Pool

Before you sign up for a Bitcoin mining pool, do a background check, and see whether it works for you. These are some of the factors you need to look out for:

1. Infrastructure Compatibility

Every pool has its own requirements that miners must meet before being incorporated into the pool. Before getting started with any pool, check the following:

Whether your mining equipment is compatible with the pool requirements
Whether your mining software is supported by the pool
Whether your internet connection meets the minimum bandwidth required by the network

2. Task Assignment Mechanism

Any decent pool should have an algorithm that enables it to distribute tasks evenly to all participants without discriminating against the ones with less powerful devices.

3. Transparency

How transparent is the pool operator? For instance, is the hash rate declared by the pool the actual hash rate? Are the payouts being manipulated in some way? Some pools have a real-time dashboard that displays activity, eliminating any cause for doubt. You want to join such a pool.

4. Payment Threshold and Frequency

This has to do with the type of mining hardware you have. High-end mining devices mean more computational power and hence more and frequent earnings for you. Hence, if you have low-end devices, best to avoid pools that make payments based on the output threshold.

5. Pool Stability and Security

Before joining a pool, check out its commitment towards security. Does it offer a secure connection? Is it vulnerable to the all-common denial of service attacks? Is it sufficiently robust against potential attacks?

6. Pool Fee Structure

The pool fee is the amount you pay for utilizing a mining pool’s services. Some pools charge no fee at all while others charge a nominal fee. Others incorporate the fee in the payout. Others offer free entry, after which they’ll start charging after a given period. Finally, some pools will require you to run the software on your own device instead of on their servers – which is usually expensive for the miner.

What are some of the Best Mining Pools?

After Bitcoin exploded, the currency’s mining industry is proliferated by all manner of mining pools. Some have made a name for themselves for having a winning combo of certain features. Let’s take a look at a number of them:

F2Pool

Launched in 2013, Chinese-based F2Pool uses a stratum mining protocol – a Bitcoin mining protocol that facilitates improved mining and efficiency. F2Pool also supports Litecoin, Ethereum, and Zcash mining and features three languages (Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, and English) to accommodate a more diverse background of miners.

com

Launched in 2015, BTC.com is a mining pool owned by Bitmain, which is a dominant player in the ASICs manufacturing industry. BTC.com also runs on a stratum mining protocol and supports its own wallet known as the BTC.com wallet. The site supports English and Chinese.

AntPool

Also owned by Bitmain, Antpool is one of the most dominant mining pools in the Bitcoin mining space. Alongside Bitcoin, the pool also supports Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Ethereum, Dash, Siacoin, ZCash, and Ethereum classic. Antpool supports tens of languages, including English, Amharic, Zulu, Welsh, Urdu, Thai, Bosnian, Arabic, and Turkish.

ViaBTC

Launched in 2016, ViaBTC is relatively new in the industry but has managed to claw its way to the top. The pool uses a stratum mining protocol and also supports merged mining. ViaBTC supports the mining of other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Ethereum Classic, Dash, ZCash, and Monero.

Tags bitcoin mining, Bitcoin mining pools, block rewards, Crypto, cryptocurrencies, cryptocurrency mining, Education, mining

Crypto Guides

How Do ‘Ring Signatures’ Increase The Privacy Of A Crypto Network

Post author By Reddy Shyam Shankar
Post date 19 May, 2020
No Comments on How Do ‘Ring Signatures’ Increase The Privacy Of A Crypto Network

Introduction

Cryptocurrencies are the primary application of blockchain. Transparency and Privacy are two terms that go side by side concerning cryptocurrencies. Users of cryptocurrencies are looking for more and more Privacy with more adaptability of cryptocurrencies. Anyone can open the bitcoin ledger and check the ongoing transactions and find out the users who are transacting and the amounts of the transactions as well. Hence to increase the Privacy of the cryptocurrency network, Ring Signatures have been introduced to cryptocurrencies.

What are Ring Signatures?

Ring signatures are nothing but digital signatures performed by anyone from a group of members but not possible to know who has done the signature. We can add any group of members without any additional setup. The concept was initially developed to leak the information, especially from high ranking individuals. This way, we will not know who leaked the news, but one can ascertain the information is authentic. The concept is developed by Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir, and Yael Tauman and announced at Asiacrypt in 2001.

Since then, there have been certain developments made in the ring signatures called traceable ring signatures to overcome vulnerabilities raised due to malicious or irresponsible people. The modification or further development of this is what is used in crypto note coins developed to overcome the weaknesses of bitcoin. By this development, the ring signatures were effective enough to obscure the sender’s information in the peer to peer transactions.

Now the concept is further developed called Ringed Confidential Transactions (Ring CT’s), which obscures the transaction amount as well instead of obscuring only the sender’s information. Monero Labs formally announced this in 2015. We all know that Privacy is strictly entitled when it comes to the transactions in the Monero platform, and now we know why, i.e., because of the concept of ring signatures.

How Do They Work?

Cryptocurrencies work on the principle of digital signatures. Ring signatures are digital signatures, which are group signatures. Ring signatures require multiple partial digital signatures of different users who may be part of the network already to form a single digital signature, which is used to sign the transaction. Thus, to validate the signature, multiple private keys are required, which wouldn’t be possible to obtain. The name ring came up because of the use of various users’ output to generate a single digital signature.

Let us see an example of a transaction in Monero blockchain and see how the concept of ring signature works.

⭕ A intends to send 50 coins to B in the Monero network basically to B’s Monero crypto wallet and initiates a transaction.

⭕ In general, this transaction would be signed using A’s private/public key combination, but in this case, a unique one time spend key is generated that starts with the output from the sender’s wallet.

⭕ The other signatures are picked up randomly from the users in the ring from the past outputs in the network to create a unique digital signature, which wouldn’t be possible to determine the original signer.

⭕ Even though the public key of the original sender is used, since the signature is created using different users’ previous outputs, it is not possible to determine the sender’s identity.

Ring signatures have started to become vital, especially where Privacy is a matter of concern in cryptocurrency networks. CryptoNote coins are the most well-known coins for Privacy. Monero and Bytecoins are excellent examples which use ring signatures and Ring CT’s.

Tags Blockchain Privacy, Crypto, Crypto Security, Crypto wallet, cryptocurrencies, cryptocurrency, digital signatures, Education, Ring Signatures, security

Cryptocurrencies

Zilliqa Blockchain: What Is Ziliqa And How Is It Turning Blockchain Upside Down

Post author By Edith M.
Post date 19 May, 2020
No Comments on Zilliqa Blockchain: What Is Ziliqa And How Is It Turning Blockchain Upside Down

Anyone that’s transacted on the Bitcoin blockchain is aware of how long transactions take to be confirmed. In fact, Bitcoin transactions can take anything from 10 minutes to one day, depending on traffic. One of the things a digital currency is supposed to accomplish is speed. This is one goal that’s yet to manifest for Bitcoin and, indeed, the majority of blockchains.

Many blockchains are remodeled after Bitcoin’s blockchain, one way or another. The result is the same, slow transactions and waiting times. Zilliqa changes this by deconstructing the current blockchain concept.

Let’s delve into the interesting way that it does this.

What’s Zilliqa?

Zilliqa is a scalable blockchain with the ability to process thousands of crypto transactions every second. This is made possible by its adoption of the sharding technique. Sharding is by no means a new concept, nor was it invented for blockchain. The technique has been around for a while and is majorly used to partition databases to make workloads more manageable.

Blockchain’s Scalability Problem

The current blockchain, as we know it, uses the consensus mode of transaction confirmation that has faced scalability issues since its inception. This is due to thousands of nodes in any blockchain network that makes it harder to reach consensus. The speed of a network is inversely related to how large it is. The bigger the network, the more nodes that have to reach a consensus on transactions, slowing their confirmation.

Consider Bitcoin’s blockchain. As more users use the network, confirmation time is slower, and the transaction fee increases. Moreover, those who want faster confirmation are forced to pay more in order to get first priority. This is not only expensive, but it also goes against the democratic nature and accessibility-for-all of cryptocurrency.

The Ethereum blockchain, the second most popular, also has an inherent scalability problem. This is best illustrated by the Cryptokitties fiasco, whereby the game’s developers had to increase the transaction fees in order to at least reduce network congestion. This demonstrated how the network couldn’t handle massive amounts of traffic.

Right now, both Bitcoin and Ethereum, with their transaction throughput of 7 and 15 transactions per second respectively, are unable to compete with traditional payment systems such as Visa, which handles as much as 1,700 transactions per second.

The problem with proposed scalability solutions

Now, solutions that have been proposed for the blockchain scalability issue are not sustainable for the long haul. One of these is moving part of the transaction data off the chain. Others are increasing the block size so that consensus can be established for each round of transactions.

These are band-aid solutions that don’t fix the fundamental problem. The ideal solution would be overhauling the entire architecture so that the rate of nodes giving consensus is positively correlated with the network size.

Zilliqa’s Scalability Answer

Zilliqa proposes to solve this problem by re-imagining the entire blockchain from the ground up. This new model involves implementing a hybrid consensus that will grow the network’s throughput with every 600 new nodes that join.

Theoretically, for every 600 new nodes, Zilliqa’s throughput increases by dividing the work. In practice, an ever-increasing network (let’s say 1 million nodes) can present broadcast issues.

However, no network as yet has reached 1 million nodes. Both Bitcoin and Ethereum currently have tens of thousands of nodes. Even with that number, they’re still only able to process an average of 3-15 transactions per second (TPS). By contrast, with only 1800 nodes, Zilliqa has a throughput of 1218 TPS. When this number is doubled to 3,600 nodes, Zilliqa can handle up to 2, 488 TPS.

Zilliqa’s Sharding Protocol

So, what’s Zilliqa’s plan to achieve this scalability? It does this by utilizing a process known as sharding. The Zilliqa protocol divides the nodes on the network into groups of 600 each. Each group is called a shard. For instance, if a network has 2400 nodes, the nodes will be divided four times, with each group getting 600 shards.

So, as more nodes join the network, they are automatically distributed to create shards. Each shard will process a small part of each transaction. For instance, if there are ten shards on the network, each processes a tenth of the total transaction. Thus, the more shards you get, the more work you have, the faster the workload, and the faster the transaction throughput.

Every shard processes the transaction the parallel shard is working on. A parallel process is known as a ‘DS epoch.’ After every epoch, the blocks will come together and form a full block.

The DS Committee

Zilliqa has a “DS committee” that manages shard allocation. For each DS epoch, nodes are randomly selected to manage the shards. These nodes are the ones known as the DS committee, and they decide which shards the nodes are allocated to.

Finding Consensus: Proof-of-work and Byzantine Fault Tolerant Mechanism

Zilliqa utilizes a hybrid consensus mechanism that works as follows:

The first stage of the mining process involves proof-of-work (PoW). The PoW involves completing a hash to prove and establish identity, making it impossible for a bad actor to create multiple identities and overwhelm the network. After a node’s identity is proven, it’s assigned to a shard.

In the shards, Zilliqa applies a Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance consensus (PBFT). Now, this mechanism has a finality, meaning the majority of the nodes in a shard must reach consensus on a mini-block. Once a block is verified by the shards and the DS committee, it becomes the only block that can be linked to the one before it.

Zilliqa’s Scilla

The Zilliqa team has developed a new programming language known as Scilla. Scilla is an intermediate-level language that separates the programming and communication aspects of smart contracts. It helps to differentiate between functional contracts compatible with Zilliqa’s blockchain, and state-dependent contracts that are not yet supported by Zilliqa.

Zilliqa Token

Zilliqa has a native token known as ZIL. ZIL token acts as an incentive for miners, gas for fueling smart contracts, and for covering transaction fees.

As of May 8, 2020, Zilliqa is trading at $0.006985 and ranks at #75. It has a market cap of $101,107,215, and a 24-hour trade volume of $23, 583, 984. A total of 10 billion ZIL tokens are in circulation. The coin has a total supply of 13 billion and a maximum supply of 21 billion. ZIL’s all-time high was 0.231489 on May 19, 2018, and its all-time low was $0. 002477 on March 13, 2020.

Who’s the Team Behind Zilliqa?

The Zilliqa team mainly comprises of people with a computer science background. CEO Xinshu holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the National University of Singapore. Chief Scientific Advisor Prateek Saxena holds a Ph.D. in the same field form the University of California, Berkeley. Head of Research Amrit Kumar has a Ph.D. from Université Grenoble-Alpes, France, as well as an Engineer’s diploma from Ecole Polytechnique, France.

The project’s advisory board comprises of notable figures in the blockchain sphere. These are Loi Luu, co-founder of Kyber Network; Vincent Zhou, founding partner of digital asset management firm FBG Capital; Nicolai Oster of Bitcoin Suisse AG, and Strong Hold Labs CEO – Alexander Lipton.

Where to Buy and Store Zilliqa

You can find Zilliqa at any popular exchanges, including Binance, Huobi, Coinbase Pro, Gate.io, Kucoin, BitFinex, Coinswitch, OKEx, and YoBitNet.

Zilliqa recommends the following trusted wallets for storing your ZIL: Ledger, Trust Wallet, Zillet, ZilPay Wallet, Infinito Wallet, Math Wallet, Atomic Wallet, Zil Cli, and the Zil Wallet. Different wallets exist in different forms, such as iOs, Android, web browsers, and hardware.

Final Thoughts

Despite the current proliferation of blockchains, Zilliqa managed to come up with a unique solution for a persistent problem in the blockchain. While many existing blockchains scramble to integrate sharding, Zilliqa has the headstart of implementing it from scratch. We can expect to see many more blockchains being launched with this technology in the future.

Tags bitcoin’s scalability, Blockchain alternatives, Blockchain Cryptocurrency, Blockchain's scalability, Crypto, cryptocurrencies, Education, Sharding, Zilliqa

Crypto Daily Topic

12 Best Crypto Wallet for iOS: The Most Secure Multicurrency Apps

Post author By Edith M.
Post date 19 May, 2020
1 Comment on 12 Best Crypto Wallet for iOS: The Most Secure Multicurrency Apps

About eleven years since we had the first cryptocurrency, the asset class is more popular than ever. Millions of people are using cryptocurrencies as a store of value, as a trading instrument, and still, others are using the asset class as an exchange of value.

Photo by Nab Visuals on Unsplash

Unlike traditional money, cryptocurrency does not exist on a physical medium; neither is it regulated or overseen by a central authority. Transactions are peer-to-peer, control is solely the owner’s, and the safety of your crypto is in your hands.

There’s also another caveat. Crypto transactions are irreversible, meaning once you hit the send button, the funds are gone for good. There’s also the not-so-small matter of digital currencies being a high target for hacking and other types of fraud.

Hence, potential crypto users need to find a reliable wallet that’s secure enough to guard their digital assets against these attacks. Other features to look for in a sturdy wallet are flexibility and the number of cryptocurrencies it supports.
However, it can be a tasking exercise rummaging through the web to look for a wallet that fits these and other relevant needs.

In this piece, we came up with a list of the best wallets in the market for iPhone and iPad users. Looking for an iOS crypto wallet? Read on.

1. Bread Wallet

Launched in 2013, the Bread wallet is a crypto wallet app. The app is one of the most popular crypto wallets and one of the easiest to use. Bread features a minimalist yet functional interface that allows you to send and receive crypto without much hassle.

You can purchase Bitcoin via the app using a variety of methods, including credit card, in-person at Bitcoin ATMs, or at the convenience store. Bread also allows you to convert Bitcoin into cash, Ethereum, or to any of multiple ERC-20 tokens.

Bread also runs a loyalty program called BRD rewards. When you hold tokens at BRD, you get a 50% waiver on all your in-app crypto trading fees.

2. Green Wallet

Launched in 2019, Green is a wallet that puts security at the forefront so that you don’t have to choose between security and convenience.

When setting up a Green wallet, you will be required to undergo a two-factor authentication process via SMS or Google Authenticator, and/or email. A two-step authentication process is also required for every transaction you carry out.

The wallet also does not store your private keys, encrypted or not. This gives you utter control over your crypto funds. Green also ensures complete anonymity for users by allowing them to sign up without KYC procedures and proceed to trade right away.

3. Coinomi

Coinomi is a crypto wallet that lets you safely store, manage, and interact with Bitcoin and other 1770+ crypto assets. Funds are secured with private keys and state-of-the-art cryptography, ensuring your crypto is always under water-tight security.
Coinomi also ensures user anonymity by not having KYC or due diligence procedures or transaction tracking. Also, it doesn’t link your identity to transactions or traces your IP address.

For those users willing to fork out a bit more cash, Coinomi offers more options such as multi-seed support, unspent transaction output (UXTO) control, and cold storage.

4. Jazz Liberty

Jazz Liberty allows you to send and receive Bitcoin, Ethereum, and 90 other cryptocurrencies. On Jazz, you can check your crypto balance anytime as well as track individual coins and their price changes over the last month up to the latest hour. This also includes updates on the performance of the top 100 coins and markets and market trends. You also get access to the latest crypto news and updates from the app’s news module.

Jazz also provides a 12-word mnemonic phrase that you can use to recover your private key, so you never lose your funds. The phrase also allows you to access your funds anywhere in the world, ensuring utter convenience.

5. Abra Wallet

Launched in 2014, Abra prides itself of simplicity, instant investment, and accessibility – with support available in more than 150 countries.

Abra allows you to buy, sell and exchange over 100 cryptocurrencies, including big hitters such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin SV, as well as other less known ones like Aeon, Ardor, BURSTcoin, and Blackcoin. To get started, simply deposit crypto or Fiat via MasterCard, Visa, or bank transfer.

Abra users can also move between various coins and tokens as well as withdraw to an external wallet at any time.

6. DropBit

DropBit allows you to “send and receive Bitcoin as easy as sending a text or tweet.” It calls itself the “Venmo for Bitcoin” – allowing you to send Bitcoin to friends via text message or Twitter, even if they don’t have DropBit or any crypto wallet at the moment.

DropBit also allows you to maintain anonymity in your transactions by ensuring server requests for sending addresses are signed by your wallet at a ‘derivative path’ unassociated with your Bitcoin address. DropBit also does not keep your contact(s) on their servers. Instead, it uses a cryptographic hash of your phone number when verifying transactions. And in case you lose your wallet, you just need to input your 12-word recovery phrase to recover your private key.

7. TrustWallet

Trust wallet is a multi-coin wallet that allows you to store Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tron, Binance Coin, XRP, and so on. You can instantly trade cryptocurrencies on Trust wallet, thanks to its seamless integration with both Binance Dex and the Kyber Network protocol.
Trust wallet also protects your privacy by keeping your private key only locally and surrounded by many layers of security.

The wallet also supports ERC20 tokens and BEP2 tokens for the Binance Chain. It also allows you to interact with decentralized applications (DApps) on its Web3 browser.

8. Edge Wallet

Formerly known as Airbitz, the Edge wallet allows you to store, trade, and buy dozens of cryptocurrencies. This includes the ability to swap one crypto for another, as well as buy crypto with Fiat.

Edge has also partnered with some of the top blockchain services around the world, e.g., Moonpay, Bitrefill, Wyre, and Safello, to enable you to purchase mobile top-ups, gift-cards, and other services.

Other notable features of Edge include a seed phrase backup feature, PIN code feature for added security, QR code support to allow you to spend funds, an estimation of transaction fees so you can account for every coin, the ability to add ERC-20 tokens and Segwit support for Bitcoin and Litecoin.

9. Copay

Copay wallet is an off-shoot of BitPay, a trusted crypto payment gateway for 10,000+ merchants and businesses around the world. It’s a non-custodial wallet app that’s easy to use, with support for Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash.

Copay facilitates multi-signature use, allowing more than one user to use the wallet. You can also create multiple private keys in the same Copay wallet, e.g., one for you and another for your friend.

Other unique selling points of Copay include: 150+ Fiat currency denominations for conversion, multiple language support, email and push notifications, and QR code support.

10. Ledger Nano X

This is a wallet by industry favorite Ledger. Nano X features remarkable ease-of-use and flexibility while ensuring your crypto is protected with the highest level of security, with your private key tucked away in a certified secure chip. Ledger Nano is a hardware wallet and, thus, a cold storage wallet – the safest option for storing your crypto funds.

The wallet is Bluetooth enabled, which allows smartphone users to sync the device with the Ledger Live Mobile app to safely interact with your crypto from your smartphone.

11. Blockchain Wallet

Blockchain wallet is one of the most popular crypto wallets, available in 140+ countries, and featuring 25 languages. It currently supports Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Stellar, and USD Digital (USD-D).

Blockchain wallet supports two-factor authentication for maximum security as well as a 12-word recovery phrase that allows you to access your funds even if you lose your wallet.

12. BitPay

BitPay is another wallet app under the purview of crypto-exchange BitPay. The wallet’s apparent simplicity and accessibility, along with its high-level security involving multisig and key encryption, have made it a favorite among crypto users.

BitPay currently supports Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, and other tokens. You can create multiple wallets on the wallet, meaning you can share your wallet with family or friends.

You also get to receive instant email and push notifications for any transaction, helping you stay in control of your funds at all times.

Final Words

When looking for a good crypto wallet, you’re looking for one that does more than hold your funds. You want security, privacy, options, and a good user experience. These wallets offer that, and more. As usual, before settling for any wallet, Do Your Own Research; look for user reviews, check its security history, and so on. As well, choose a wallet that suits your personality.

Tags Crypto, crypto payment gateway, Crypto wallet apps, Crypto Wallets, cryptocurrencies, cryptocurrency, Education, iOS crypto wallets

Crypto Guides

Can we Improve Our Forecasting With The Help of Blockchain?

Post author By Reddy Shyam Shankar
Post date 19 May, 2020
No Comments on Can we Improve Our Forecasting With The Help of Blockchain?

Introduction

Blockchain forecasting is something that is picking up momentum these days. We can use Blockchain for both demand forecasting as well as general views of the public, where polling used to be the case for decades now. One of the critical factors of cryptocurrencies is its unpredictability. It’s the reason for its popularity among the retail investors, but at the same institutional investors stay away due to the very reason. Hence using Blockchain for forecasting is a bit of irony, but it has started proving its mettle in the prediction as well.

Demand Forecasting

Creating a demand forecasting is being proved to be a really tough deal because of the quality of the data. At the enterprise level, demand forecasting is done mostly based on the old data. For example, due to the COVID19 situation worldwide, demand has been slumped to almost zero other than essential goods.

If we consider this data for next year’s forecast, we will be doomed with the figures that come as a result. Hence, we need quality data when it comes to demand forecasting. Many enterprises have different sets of data internally and externally as per their requirement for forecasting. Enterprises using ERP and CRM systems have the code inbuilt, and it would be very tough to change the logic as per the recent evolutions in the market.

When we take FMCG companies, each company have their own set of data, but they won’t share the data with other FMCG companies due to various constraints. If they come together on a blockchain platform and share only essential data leaving inventory, pricing, and other confidential details, it would be beneficial for the whole industry. The data should be immutable, permissioned so that only people with access can view it.

If we combine the blockchain technology with Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, we can extract more value from the data set. Using AI, we can know why the demand was deficient this time when we check the forecasting for next year. Alternately based on geographical conditions, weather, any external factors like elections period, if we input these fields demand that particular, region, or for a store can be easily predicted with these combined new technologies.

Predictive Data

Often during election times or with some programs as well, people or audiences of the program are asked questions to know the opinion of the people. Usually, a huge amount of data is received, which is a strength in numbers. One’s opinion on a given topic depends on the personal experience, prejudice, bias with the information available to them, which may be correct or wrong.

But what if the individuals have more data? With better quality and quantity of data, people might come up with more accurate predictions. Blockchains are, of course, made for collecting a large amount of data on a decentralized platform. Hence a blockchain prediction project can take multiple data points and come up with an accurate forecast on the input generally like prices would go up or down, consumption is likely to increase or decrease. Usually, precise predictions on what is going to happen next can be known.

Hence Blockchain is foraying into forecasting and gives more reliable forecasted figures when combined with AI/ML than any other forecasting model we have today.

Tags benefits of blockchain, Blockchain, Blockchain applications, Crypto, cryptocurrency, Demand Forecasting, Forecasting, Predictive Data, Unpredictability

Crypto Market Analysis

Daily Crypto Review, May 19 – Bitcoin Not Producing Enough Blocks?

Post author By Ilija Rankovic
Post date 19 May, 2020
No Comments on Daily Crypto Review, May 19 – Bitcoin Not Producing Enough Blocks?

The crypto market has spent the day either stagnating or slowly moving to the downside. Bitcoin is currently trading for $9,643, which represents a decrease of 2.5% on the day. Meanwhile, Ethereum lost 1.02% on the day, while XRP lost 0.6%.

SOLVE took the position of today’s most prominent daily gainer, with gains of 20.58%. Crypterium lost 12.01% of its daily value, making it the most prominent daily loser.

Bitcoin’s dominance moved down slightly since we last reported, with its value currently at 67.43%. This value represents a 0.05% difference to the downside.

The cryptocurrency market capitalization decreased slightly when compared to yesterday’s value, with its current value being $264.31 billion. This value represents a decrease of $0.9 billion when compared to the value it had yesterday.

What happened in the past 24 hours

Bitcoin produced less than 100 blocks in a 24h period

Data presented by Bitcoin analysts known as digitalik.net shows that Bitcoin’s network generated only 95 blocks on Sunday. Bitcoin’s network generated less than 100 blocks in a 24 hour period only eight days in the last ten years, mostly in 2017.

The block time is mostly attributed to the Bitcoin halving, as the event decreased the profit margins of many miners.

_______________________________________________________________________

Technical analysis

_______________________________________________________________________

Bitcoin

The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization had a bearish outlook throughout the past 24 hours. It fell below the $9,735 support level (which is now acting as resistance) and established its price there. The price started going up and tested the level, now as resistance, but failed to break it. The whole day was accompanied by low volume

When it comes to trading Bitcoin, breakout traders should either wait for a big bull run that will break $10,000 or some form of a heavy volume drop towards the downside. As we stated yesterday, traders that like trading ranging moves might use leverage to scalp a few dollars here and there on moves such as the one that happened today.

Key levels to the upside Key levels to the downside

1: $9,735 1: $9,580

2: $9,870 2: $9,250

3: $10,010 3: $9,120

Ethereum

Ethereum spent the day consolidating after the move towards the upside. After failing to reach past $217.6, Ethereum retraced slightly. Due to the extremely low volume, ETH currently has no potential to go up or down in any significant way.

Ethereum gained most of its value based on fundamentals. ETH traders should take that into consideration before trading just based on technicals.

Key levels to the upside Key levels to the downside

1: $217.6 1: $198

2: $225.4 2: $193.6

3: $240 3: $185

Ripple

XRP has been the most stable cryptocurrency out of the top3 in the past week. The third-largest cryptocurrency by market cap moved only slightly to the downside in the past 24 hours, breaking the $0.205 support level. The low volume currently makes XRP almost untradeable.

The volume increased slightly during yesterday’s spike but returned to its usual low levels today. Its RSI level currently stands at the value of 50.

Key levels to the upside Key levels to the downside

1: $0.214 1: $0.205

2: $0.227 2: $0.2

3: $0.235 3: $0.19

Tags bitcoin, BTC, Crypto, Crypto Trading, cryptocurrency, Daily Brief, ETH, Ethereum, Fundamental Analysis, Ripple, Technical Analysis, trading, XRP

Cryptocurrencies

Exodus Wallet Review 2020: Is it safe & What are its Fees?

Post author By Edith M.
Post date 18 May, 2020
No Comments on Exodus Wallet Review 2020: Is it safe & What are its Fees?

Despite launching its services as recently as 2016, the Exodus Crypto wallet has gained a lot of popularity mainly because it supported multiple currencies and in-app exchange. The crypto wallet is a late entrant into the crypto space, which has mastered the common faults of the established crypto wallets and sought to improve on them. For instance, most crypto wallets that rival Exodus have paid too much attention to the security of their sites at the expense of ease of use. This software wallet seeks to address this by providing one of the easiest sites to use.

In this review, we look at these Exodus crypto wallet features and benefits in detail. We’ll also vet some crucial aspects of the crypto wallet like safety, cryptocurrencies supported, and fees.

Exodus Wallet Key features

Versatile design: One of Exodus crypto wallet’s biggest selling points is its highly versatile design. It is one of a handful of crypto wallets that allow for the full customization of the user interface, including changing theme colors. The information is also displayed in a well-thought-out, organized, and easy-to-use manner.

Mobile app available: Exodus started out as a desktop wallet but has since launched the Exodus crypto wallet app. It has all the features of the Exodus desktop wallet safe for portability.

Pairs app and Desktop apps: The software wallet ensures that you don’t have to create separate user accounts for your desktop and mobile apps. You can easily pair them and gain absolute control over your digital asset portfolio both at home or office behind your desktop and on the smartphone while on the move.

Features a built-in exchange: Most crypto wallets are stand-alone, forcing you to register with two separate entities – the exchange and wallet provider. Exodus, on the other hand, provides you with both a secure wallet and a built-in exchange featuring all the popular coins.

Compatible with popular OS: The Exodus desktop app is available for all types of operating systems. From macOS to Windows and even Linux.

Compatible with Hardware wallets: Exodus is also compatible with some of the most popular and highly secure hardware wallets like Trezor. Integrating your Exodus app with a hardware wallet not only adds an extra security layer over the wallet but also exposes you to 1000+ coins.

Features a portfolio tracker: Most wallets have fallen short of the investment and trade aspect of crypto trading. Exodus hopes to change this by providing wallet users with a portfolio-tracking tool that helps them keep track of their digital assets in real-time.

Lite wallet: Exodus is a lite crypto wallet, meaning it doesn’t download the entire blockchain to your phone or desktop. As such, it won’t drag the performance of either device.

Security features

Password protection: The Exodus crypto app is password protected. You will create the password during account creation, and you will need to provide it every time you want to log into your account or authorize a transaction.

Recovery phrase: In case you forget the password or lose your phone, you can still recover your Exodus crypto wallet account and private keys therein, if you have the recovery phrase. This is a 12-word seed provided to you during account creation.

Semi-Open sourced protocol: Exodus has also open-sourced the most crucial parts of its wallet protocol. Most of the open-sourced aspects of the wallet relate to security, but it holds onto proprietary rights for most of functionality and user interface designs.

Anonymous trading: You don’t need to complete a user profile to open an Exodus crypto wallet. Neither do you need to confirm and verify your identity before making a transaction. The fact that Exodus will only support crypto-to-crypto exchanges leaves much room for anonymous trading.

Biometric Touch and Face ID authentication: Exodus crypto wallet is one of the few web-based crypto wallets that have a biometric security system. You can use the Face ID as well as Touch ID to access your wallet.

Currencies supported

Exodus crypto wallet currently supports up to 102 cryptocurrencies. Among them, the most popular coins and tokens like Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Dash, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Ripple, Tether USD, True USD, and more. Integrating it with popular hardware wallets like Trezor or Ledger Nano also boosts the number of currencies you can access.

The wallet company is continually updating its list of supported tokens. Their full and updated list of supported currencies is accessible from their FAQ section, under ‘Assets’ and ‘Supported Assets and Links.

Exodus Wallet cost and other fees

You will not be charged a fee to download, install, and interact with the Exodus crypto wallet. You will nonetheless be charged a small transaction fee when you send coins from the Exodus wallet to another or transact within the Exodus built-in exchange. The transaction fee for both cases varies depending on the transaction amounts.

Setting up the Exodus Wallet:

How to install Exodus Wallet:

Step 1: Download the Exodus desktop app on the Exodus website. The smartphone app is available at the Android and iOS app stores.

Step 2: Install the app, during which you will be required to set up the crypto wallet password.

Step 3: After verifying the password, Exodus will provide you with a 12-word recovery seed phrase. Copy the seed phrase or write it down and store it in a safe place offline

Step 4: Though not advisable, you can also choose to use your email as the backup for your exodus wallet.

Step 5: Proceed to the app customization part where you get to change such factors as the app themes or the base currency for your portfolio.

Step 6: You are now set to start receiving and sending coins and tokens.

Sending and receiving coins:

To receive funds into your Exodus Wallet:

Step 1: Log in to your wallet

Step 2: Click on the receive icon, and the app will display all the available wallets

Step 3: Click on the wallet of the cryptocoins you wish to get the wallet address and QR code that you can send the sender.

To send payments from your Exodus Wallet:

Step 1: Log in to your Exodus crypto wallet

Step 2: Click the wallet icon on the left side of the desktop app screen.

Step 3: Scroll down to find the coin/token you would like to send and hit the ‘Send’ icon

Step 4: Enter the recipient’s address and the amount you wish to send and hit send.

Step 5: On the confirmation window that appears, check if the wallet address and amount are correct and send

Exodus Wallet hardware wallet pros and cons:

Pros:

It has multiple security features, including an email and offline backup for your wallet.
It’s a highly versatile wallet that’s compatible with multiple desktop and smartphone operating systems.
The desktop/mobile app integration makes it easy to access your portfolio while on the move.
The app is highly customizable and easy to use and thus beginner-friendly
Its compatibility with hardware wallets gives it a security boost.

Cons:

One may consider their transaction fees to be relatively high.
The wallet doesn’t support the more secure two-factor authentication feature.
Doesn’t support crypto-to-fiat transactions

Exodus Wallet compared to competitors

In comparing Exodus to both hardware wallets like Trezor or Ledger Nano and online crypto wallets eToro and Coinbase, there are clear differences. The hardware wallets beat Exodus wallet hands-down when it comes to keeping your private keys secure. For instance, unlike Exodus, which only has limited security features and no two-factor authentication, hardware wallets have multiple security layers like keeping your keys offline under passcode. Their devices also have buttons that must be long-pressed to authorize transactions.

The web-based crypto wallet is not any different from most online and exchange-backed crypto wallets like eToro. They serve the same purpose and have pretty similar features. But in addition to making it possible to store private keys offline or copying them on a piece of paper, Exodus has gone a step further and introduced the face and Touch ID features.

Customer support:

Exodus crypto wallet maintains a responsive customer support service that’s available over via the live chat option on the company website. Similarly, wallet users can access help on the site’s FAQ page or by contacting the support team via different social media platforms.

Verdict: Does Exodus Wallet live to its reputation?

Exodus cryptocurrency wallet is a newcomer, and much of this project is still a work in progress. The wallet has already hit impressive milestones in consistent security upgrades and the incorporation of newly supported currencies. Moving forward, one can only expect the wallet to increase the number of its security features and measures taken to keep the wallet contents safe. It is our opinion that Exodus cryptocurrency wallet is appropriate for use by beginners and active traders looking for an online wallet that’s supportive of fast transaction processing.

Tags best crypto wallets, Bitcoin wallet, Crypto, Crypto Wallets, cryptocurrencies, cryptocurrency wallets, Exodus crypto wallet

Crypto Guides

Importance of ‘Interoperability’ In The Blockchain Technology

Post author By Reddy Shyam Shankar
Post date 18 May, 2020
No Comments on Importance of ‘Interoperability’ In The Blockchain Technology

What Is Interoperability?

Interoperability is the ability of software systems or two different systems to connect and exchange information. In this connected world, there are always different systems that would connect so that the required data is provided as needed. The best example of interoperability can be termed as a web page working on a web browser if they are of the same standard.

Why do we need interoperability in blockchain?

In today’s world, we use different software, which essentially integrates to provide the resultant output. In the case of varying blockchain platforms are being developed for various purposes. Often in the same industrial space, different platforms are built, and these platforms do not know another platform.

For example, the bitcoin blockchain has no information about Ethereum blockchain. This creates a lot of siloes in the industry. Often new platforms come into picture claiming there more secure, scalable, immutable competing with the rivals. This creates a wastage in terms of resources, money, and energy of different teams.

Why is it crucial for blockchain?

To make mass adoption possible for blockchain technology. Every other platform is competing with each other to increase the scalability of blockchain. The original bitcoin blockchain was capable of sending only seven transactions per second. Later new projects came up and eventually achieved around 40,000 TPS. While Visa, Mastercard achieve approximately 24,000 TPS, but in reality, they need only 1700 TPS as per the real-world stats to be viable even with the ever-present demand.

Hence 40,000 TPS is not essential at all. Instead of concentrating on scalability, it would be better to consider improving the technology as such. Even if scalability is achieved as required in case of no interoperability, one cannot use the blockchain tech wherever needed as we use a MasterCard/visa as they can be used anywhere across the world. Hence interoperability is essential for blockchain for mass adoption.

Let us see some of the examples of platforms which allows the blockchain interoperability below:

Polkadot

Polkadot was developed by Gavin Wood, a co-founder of Ethereum. Polkadot is essentially a multichain or cross-chain technology that allows different blockchain platforms to be plugged into a more extensive system. Technically, Polkadot accomplishes parachains i.e., it will enable the processing of transactions parallelly between different blockchains and relays to the main blockchain through bridges. Polkadot not only transmits transactions between blockchains but also data is transferred. Information is transferred in the form of smart contracts and the abilities that come up with them.

Cosmos

Cosmos is just like Polkadot; it also follows a cross-chain principle. The essential difference between cosmos and Polkadot is that it only concentrates on facilitating transactions between blockchains but not data across them. Cosmos doesn’t require the blockchains to forfeit their consensus algorithm when plugged into the network. It establishes inter blockchain communication (IBC) to establish blockchain interoperability. The IBC serves as a TCP/IP like messaging protocol for blockchains.

Though these startups are at a very early stage of development in their roadmap, we have to wait and watch how it plays out. Blockchain is a niche technology, but many big players are coming into the picture to incorporate blockchain to achieve more success, and the interoperability of blockchain will make that. For any technology to gain momentum, adaptability is essential where interoperability is one thing to be achieved for the mass adaptability.

Tags Blockchain, Cosmos, Crypto, cryptocurrencies, cryptocurrency, Education, Interoperability, Mass Adoption, Polkadot, Scalability

Crypto Guides

Understanding Merkle Tree & Its Importance In Blockchain

Post author By Reddy Shyam Shankar
Post date 18 May, 2020
No Comments on Understanding Merkle Tree & Its Importance In Blockchain

Introduction

Merkle tree is the essential component of a blockchain. Data entered into the blockchain is immutable, and this is a critical future of blockchain. Even though there are many futures, many deploy blockchain for this one significant future. This future is primarily achieved using the concept of a Merkle tree. Before dwelling into further about the idea, it is essential to understand cryptographic hash functions.

What are cryptographic hash functions?

Cryptographic hash functions are another integral part of blockchain technology. Cryptography is often used for military purposes. In war zones, the data is shared between two parties of a country at different places using cryptography.

Cryptographic hash functions are algorithms that transform any input given to the algorithm in the output of fixed length. The outputs change drastically, even if a single letter of the input is changed. At the same time, the same input gives the same output all the time. It is highly unlikely to determine the output based on the input unless one has a set of public/private keys. Any length of the input gives a fixed-length output; this feature is handy when a large amount of data sets is used. To check any set of data is modified or not, we can check the fixed-length hash.

Let us see the usage of cryptographic hash functions in the bitcoin blockchain network. Blockchain is essentially a series of blocks of transactions joined together using cryptographic hash functions. Each block has header data and transactions associated with it. Header data contains the previous hash, nonce, Merkle root, block hash.

Data of the complete block, including the header data, is hashed, and this hash is stored in the present block and also in the next block as the previous block hash. This previous block hash represents the entire state of the blockchain at any given point of time. Hence if we make any changes to the transactions in the last block, the hash of all the blocks up to the present block will be disturbed, which is why it is highly impossible to change the transactions and hence the concept of immutability.

Now how do we verify the hashes to check the data integrity? It is highly inefficient and time consuming to check the hash of every block. Hence the concept of Merkle tree is used as it is efficient to check the data integrity.

What is a Merkle tree, and how is it used?

Merkle tree developed by Ralph Merkle is also called a Binary hash tree. It is a data structure used to store hashes of individual data in an extensive data set in a way to make the verification of the date set efficient.

An example of the Merkle tree is as below.

It would be easy to understand the Merkle tree with the example above. It is essentially a tree of hashes with branches of individual hashes. These hashes come from the transactions of the blockchain platform when it comes to a cryptocurrency platform.

In the above figure, we have transactions from T_Arepresents a transaction, while H_A represents a hash of that transaction. All the transactions are hashed to produce a hash value of its own transaction. Then adjacent transactions are hashed together to form a hash of both transactions. Like H_ABis the hash of transactions A and B. If there are an odd number of transactions, then the transaction is combined by its own, and a hash value is created. The same process is repeated until the last hash value is generated, which is called the Merkle root. In this case, H_ABCDEFGH is the Merkle root of transactions from T_A to T_H. This is how a Merkle tree is formed.

Hence because of the tree, it would easy to find if any transactions are tampered with, uses very few resources to check any fraudulent behavior, and easy to add new transactions to the block.

This allows for simple payment verification, and the new nodes need not download the entire blockchain but only the block headers of the longest chain. Thus Merkle trees help to maintain the immutability and integrity of the blockchain.

Tags Blockchain, Crypto, Crypto Basics, Crypto Guides, cryptocurrencies, cryptocurrency, Education, hash functions, Immutability, Merkle Tree

Crypto Daily Topic

Ripple Payment Network: 11 Popular Stores and Brands that Accept XRP in 2020

Post author By Edith M.
Post date 18 May, 2020
No Comments on Ripple Payment Network: 11 Popular Stores and Brands that Accept XRP in 2020

Ripple arguably is one of the most popular cryptocurrencies and the third-largest by market capitalization. The blockchain network is, however, best known for its facilitation of ultra-fast and near-instant cross-border money transfers through its real-time gross settlement system (RTGS). Here, transactions are powered by the Ripple (XRP) token, which acts as the mediator between currencies.

Apart from playing that role, what else is Ripple used for? If you hold Ripple, where else can you spend it?

It turns out, you can spend Ripple to buy goods and services from many places around the world.

For instance, Spend, a company that provides worldwide banking solutions, now allows Ripple enthusiasts to pay with XRP via its Spend Wallets in 40 million+ locations in 180 countries.

In this article, we take a look at some of the places that accept Ripple; from apparel, to technology, to automobiles, to coffee, to privacy-oriented phone companies.

1. Digitec Galaxus

Galaxus is the largest online retailer in Switzerland, selling everything between IT products and consumer electronics in beauty, gardening, toys, sports, and leisure, office, pet supplies, and more categories.

The store uses crypto payment gateway Coinify, which supports Ripple along with other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin SV, Binance Coin, NEO, DASH, and NANO Litecoin. The transaction processing time is about 15 minutes, and Coinify charges a conversion rate of 1.5%. Galaxus accepts crypto for its online shop only.

2. Cryptoshopper

This is crypto-related merchandise that sells crypto-labeled items from mugs to T-shirts, shoes, stickers, and so on. The retailers’ products are reasonably priced and make great collections for the crypto enthusiast. Shoppers can pay for the merchandise with their favorite crypto. Cryptoshopper accepts over 50 cryptos that are supported by CoinGate – its payment gateway, including Ripple, Bitcoin, and Litecoin.

3. Redeem

Redeem is an online platform through which people can trade gift cards at a 10-30% discount. Customers can trade 24/7 with cards for a host of brands, including Amazon, Nordstrom, Whole Foods, Macy’s, iTunes, Starbucks, Walmart, Best Buy, Nike, eBay, Netflix, Target, and Home Depot. Users can redeem the gift cards for a myriad of products from any of these retailers.

Redeem accepts Ripple payments as well as other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, Gemini Dollar, NEO, EOS, DAI, Bitcoin Cash, Tron, Tether, Steem, and several others.

4. Ledger

Ledger is a technology company that provides solutions for cryptocurrency and blockchain applications. It’s known for its reliable range of crypto wallets, including Ledger Nano S, Ledger Nano X, and Ledger Blue. The three are hardware wallets – one of the safest wallet options in the crypto space, and they each support thousands of cryptocurrencies.

Ledger also provides Ledger Vault, which provides security solutions for crypto companies with the same level of security as the wallets, but at a larger scale. Ledger Vault supports 1000+coins, and currently secures funds for the biggest names in the industry, including Bitstamp, Uphold, and Crypto.com.

Ledger allows you to pay for products using Ripple, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and several other cryptocurrencies.

5. StakeBox

This is an off-shoot of a small computers’ company Raspberry Pi that provides customized staking and mining hardware and such other digital products as hardware wallets and accessories.

The company sells Proof-of-stake devices for some altcoins, including Reddcoin, Neblio, Cloakcoin, and BitBay. On top of that, it provides cold storage and a myriad of other crypto-related products.

StakeBox accepts Ripple, Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, and several other cryptocurrencies.

6. Blockchain Coffee

This is a Mexican coffee grower that sells “gourmet coffee” that’s described as “an extraordinary and sensorial experience that seeks to leave a legacy…creating a unique atmosphere that leads us to always enjoy the moment and invites us to enjoy our present.” The company sells coffee beans from the “world-renowned place for being a reference in high-quality coffee for its topography, climate, and soils.”

You can pay with cryptocurrencies such as Ripple, XCash, Monero, DASH, Ethereum, Litecoin, Doge, and more.

7. Purism

Purism is a company that manufactures “laptops and phones that protect the privacy of your family and the security of your business.” Each device comes packed with a myriad security and privacy features that you wouldn’t ordinarily find somewhere else.

For example, their laptops have hardware kill switches that render it impossible for third-parties to switch on the microphone and webcam remotely. The company’s products are eye-catching too – they’re made from sturdy components and feature a sleek and black aesthetic. Purism accepts a range of cryptocurrencies as payments, including Ripple, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, NEO, and DASH.

8. BitCars

BitCars is an automobile crypto-only company that sells antique and premium new cars alongside other products such as yachts, off-road vehicles, and bicycles. The dealership accepts Bitcoin and altcoins, including Ripple, Ethereum, Litecoin, Monero, and Bitcoin Cash through its BitPay payment processor plugin.

9. Lord Underwear

Lord Underwear is an online retailer of men, women, children, and infant clothes, including swimwear, socks, t-shirts, tank tops, pajamas, and underwear. Some of the products feature a ‘micromodal’ material known to be extremely soft and breathable. The store accepts Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, and Ethereum payments.

10. bidali

This is an online store that sells all manner of gift cards from brands such as Target, Xbox, Apple Music, Chipotle, Marks and Spencer, American Airlines, Tesco, Best Buy, Amazon, Currys PC World, and hundreds more.

The site accepts tens of cryptocurrencies, including Ripple, Bitcoin, Digibyte, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Komodo, Tron, Bitcoin SV, Litecoin, Basic Attention Token, Tezos, and Stellar. Giftcards.bidali also accepts stablecoins, including USDC, Gemini Dollar, QCAD, Paxos Standard Token, and more.

11. TorGuard

This is a service that provides anonymous VPN, proxy, and email encryption services for individuals and businesses. TorGuard provides some of the most trusted and well-known open-source firmware, including DD-WRT router models from some of the leading brands such as Cisco, Linksys, Airlink101, D-Link, and Asus.

TorGuard has partnered with crypto payment gateway CoinPayments, which supports cryptocurrencies, including Ripple, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Beam, Bitcoin SV, DASH, Decred, Digibyte, EOS and more.

Final Words

Thanks to a number of crypto payment gateways supporting Ripple, the crypto’s fans can now use it to pay for a whole lot of services across a variety of stores and service providers. Hopefully, in the next future, we can see many more merchants adopting the currency.

Tags Buy using crypto, Crypto, Education, Places you can use Ripple, Ripple, what to buy with Ripple, What to buy with XRP

Crypto Videos

Negative Interest Rates & Bitcoin! Place Your Bets!

Post author By Keiran
Post date 18 May, 2020
No Comments on Negative Interest Rates & Bitcoin! Place Your Bets!

https://youtu.be/7acDJRlALhg

Negative Interest Rates and Bitcoin

With US President Donald Trump announcing that he wants to implement negative interest rates, people are starting to think of how that will affect the economy.
A report published by Stack Funds shows that negative interest rates in the US will force market participants to seek alternatives to traditional assets they were investing in before. This could be a great opportunity for both Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market, as institutions, as well as the retail sector, would have to turn to something more lucrative.

Negative interest rates
It is important to note that there is no single interest rate that is adjusted, but rather many interest rates. The interest rate Stack Funds is talking about is the Federal Funds Rate, an overnight rate at which depository institutions lend their funds to each other in the US.

A negative interest rate is used when a central bank has to boost a weakening economy. When the economy is weak, people (as well as businesses) keep their cash and save up instead of spending it. A negative interest rate is used to encourage spending money, as keeping it in the bank will make you lose it anyways.

Alternatives

When low or negative interest rates are introduced to the economy, it makes investing quite difficult as the yield on every single traditional asset will be drastically lower than before. For that reason, investment managers have to look for alternative investments in order to seek acceptable returns. Bitcoin is surely one of the assets that will pop into the mind of investment managers first.
Even now, the institutional interest in Bitcoin was rising, with many notable people in finance joining the crypto bandwagon.

Tags bitcoin, Crypto, cryptocurrencies, Education, negative interest rates, trading

Crypto Videos

CRYPTOKITTIES Breaking The Internet & The Winklevoss Twins Part In It?

Post author By Keiran
Post date 18 May, 2020
No Comments on CRYPTOKITTIES Breaking The Internet & The Winklevoss Twins Part In It?

https://youtu.be/my7ysUqvCtw

CryptoKitties breaking the internet again

Two years ago, CryptoKitties broke Ethereum by so many people playing this collection game. Two years later, the launch of a new CryptoKitties’ “Catterina” token has, once again, caused havoc. The net token launch overwhelmed the Winklevoss-backed NFT exchange Nifty.

The surprise CryptoKitties drop sold out in mere minutes

Nifty experienced service disruptions in the countdown to the tokens’ launch. The platform has posted that a massive number of users have joined their platform, which resulted in it being significantly slower. One Hundred “Catterina” tokens sold out just 3 minutes after launching.

Nifty couldn’t handle the traffic

Nifty’s service issues persisted, which was confirmed in their post: “Our systems have experienced unanticipated volume during this surprise drop, and some payment issues happened. Anyone who had their card charged but did not receive a kitty will be refunded automatically. Anyone who tried to pay with Ethereum but didn’t succeed will be refunded as well.”

Even Tyler Winklevoss tweeted about the CryptoKitties boom, saying: “Wowzers. That drop was intense.”

Right after the sale has ended, Nifty posted that one of the ‘Catterina’ NFTs managed to sell for $450 on a secondary market.

Why is this news important?

This news can be considered important because it implicates a couple of things. First off, it signifies how NFTs can revolutionize gaming through tokenizing items and allowing them to be privately owned and traded. There are several games that are embedding NFTs into their gaming experience already in development, which shows great promise towards progress in this direction.

The other important segment of this news is the conclusion retail investors can draw from this. As we mentioned in our previous videos, there are certain people that make a good amount of profit by just playing this game. Even while doing something people wouldn’t consider lucrative, they manage to earn a profit. This is just another indicator of the crypto sector growing and becoming a place where people can seek fun as well as profit.

Tags Crypto, crypto kitties, Education

Crypto Guides

How Blockchain Can Significantly Contribute To The Agriculture Industry

Post author By Reddy Shyam Shankar
Post date 18 May, 2020
No Comments on How Blockchain Can Significantly Contribute To The Agriculture Industry

Introduction

Agriculture is the backbone of many countries. Often many countries export and import agricultural products based on their requirement. But when it comes to trade concerning agriculture till day age-old methods are used. It is often said that billions of dollars’ worth of food are wasted not because there are not people who want food but because food doesn’t reach their plates at the right time.

Why do we need Blockchain in Agriculture?

📌 Provenance Tracking

Big giants like Amazon, Walmart used to struggle to pick up any product from their shelves and know the provenance of the product. It might even take days to understand sometimes. Walmart had to recall an entire batch of pork in China as it was not able to find the whereabouts of the product, and the product was not in a condition to consume. This resulted in millions of dollars of loss.

📌 Supply Chain

Given COVID 19 situation worldwide, many industries are hit very severely. Out of all the industries hit, Restaurants/Dining out would be the worst hit since even after the lockdown is lifted, people wouldn’t be willing to dine out. To gain the trust of the customers that food is treated with utmost hygiene, one would like to know the whereabouts the food served. Hence supply chain plays a crucial role in the same. Accordingly, if the information of the product is stored in blockchain right from its origin, the trust could be gained quickly.

📌 Organic/Inorganic

It is easy to pass in organic food as organic these days. Blockchain helps to trace the origin of food.

How can we leverage Blockchain technology in Agriculture?

Farmers for either organic or inorganic food can deal with big players directly without the involvement of mediators. With the help of smart contracts and IoT sensors, right from the very initial stage of sowing the seeds to harvesting to sending the crops to the warehouses of the vendors, everything can be achieved using blockchain.

This way, the vendors will have a clear picture of where their goods are coming from, payments are made on time with no loss to the farmers. With the help of IoT sensors, the adequate temperature can be maintained for the goods which will be tracked through blockchain, ensuring the crops are not spoiled during transportation.

Companies leveraging this technology

🏭 Walmart, in partnership with IBM, developed Food Trust blockchain for tracking the provenance of food from different vendors. Walmart has asked all its vendors to get into their blockchain platform to do business with them to ensure the success of the Food Trust blockchain.

🏭 Coco-Cola built a blockchain platform to ensure ethical sugar production.

🏭 Tony’s Chocolonely – The chocolate industry is labor-intensive, and a lot of child labor is employed for the same. Cocoa farmers are impoverished as the cocoa beans supply chain is extremely complicated, and hence, they cannot decide the price for their beans. Thus, Tony’s Chocolonely has agreements directly with farmers and even pay 40% more since they know the provenance of their seeds.

🏭 Unilever (HUL) is working to check the provenance of tea in Malawi.

🏭 Dreyfus used blockchain to close a deal of Soya beans with a Chinese Supplier. The deal was finalized smoothly, cutting transaction time drastically.

Implementing blockchain in the agriculture domain is not easy. The technology should be combined with IoT for precise tracking along the supply chain. Big players though actively trying to engage the technology it takes time for the farmer to be benefitted from the same. Many platforms are being built from different players, and interoperability remains a concern. Thus it takes time to evolve to the requisite level to reap maximum benefits, but it is inevitable to use the tech in agriculture widely.

Tags benefits of blockchain, Blockchain, Coco-Cola, Crypto, Dreyfus, HUL, Organic/Inorganic, Provenance Tracking, Supply Chain, Tony’s Chocolonely, Walmart

Cryptocurrencies

Jaxx Liberty Wallet Review 2020: Is It Safe & What Are Its Fees?

Post author By Edith M.
Post date 18 May, 2020
No Comments on Jaxx Liberty Wallet Review 2020: Is It Safe & What Are Its Fees?

Jaxx Liberty, a multi-currency wallet, is the updated and feature-rich version of the Jaxx wallet by Decentral Inc. Launched in 2016 as Jaxx Classic wallet, it has, over the years, been subjected to several updates and operational adjustments, which turned it into a cryptocoin ecosystem.

Jaxx has such advanced features as an inbuilt exchange, real-time news monitors, and market data/portfolio trackers. It also boasts of an experience-laden development team, led by Anthony Di Iorio. The Canadian Entrepreneur was the first executive director of the Chamber of Digital Commerce in Canada, as well as the Ethereum co-founder. His guidance has been instrumental to the ever-growing popularity and reputation of the Jaxx Liberty wallet. And all these distinguish Jaxx Liberty from other multi-currency crypto wallets that only serve as vaults for digital currencies.

In this Jaxx wallet review, we will be exploring some of the wallet’s key operational and security features, pros, and cons, vetting its setup process, and ease of sending/receiving coins into the wallet.

Jaxx Liberty Wallet Key features

User-friendly interface: Jaxx Liberty wallet has one of the friendliest user interfaces. And one of its key features includes a unified dashboard system that makes it possible for users to view and interact with all the key wallet features and digital assets on one screen.

Shapeshift integration: Unlike most of the other wallets -that require multiple transfers in and out of exchanges every time you wish to convert your coins to another currency- Jaxx Liberty integrates shapeshift technology. Shapeshift refers to an in-built exchange that allows Jaxx Liberty wallet users to convert their digital assets from one coin to another within the wallet app.

Multi-platform support: Jaxx Liberty is highly versatile and integrates with virtually all popular operating systems. There are different versions for Windows, macOS, and Linux desktop operating systems. The wallet is also available in both Android and iOS smartphone app versions as well as via a chrome browser extension.

Market data tracker: One of the most valuable additions to the Jaxx Liberty wallet not available with its predecessors, is the market data tracker. This allows you to follow market trends, compare price changes, and monitor the market capitalization for different coins in real-time within the app.

Features a portfolio tracker: The unified dashboard doesn’t just provide a view of your crypto assets but also features portfolio tracking tools. These make it possible to monitor the value of your portfolio in real-time without leaving the wallet app.

Newsfeed integration: Traders and investors don’t have to leave the app to source for the crypto industry news and research. Jaxx Liberty has a special section dedicated to the most recent news and events that relate to and impact the crypto industry.

Integration with third party exchanges: In addition to Shapeshift, the Jaxx Liberty wallet also integrates with the all-popular crypto exchange – Changelly.

Security features

Anonymous trading: Jaxx Liberty collects as little information about their Crypto wallet users as possible. The wallet, for instance, doesn’t ask for any of your sensitive user information like national identification number, full names, or address. This ensures that even if the platform was breached, their user’s privacy is guaranteed.

Password protection: You get to set up a strong password upon activating the Jaxx Liberty Wallet. The password is unique to your wallet, and you will need it every time you want to log into the app or confirm a crypto transaction.

Recovery seed: Like virtually every other crypto wallet, Jaxx Liberty has a 12-word backup seed. You get to generate this during the app setup, and it comes in handy in helping you recover your private keys, should you misplace/lose your device, or forget your password.

Hierarchical deterministic: A hierarchical deterministic wallet is a wallet whose design allows it to generate different random addresses for different transactions. It implies that every time you transact with the Jaxx Liberty wallet, it will generate a random public key. This goes a long way in masking your real public key and swaying off hackers.

Automated updates: You will receive automated wallet patches and updates. The automation is key here, as it provides protection and seals off any wallet vulnerabilities as soon as they are discovered, effectively minimizing the risk of manipulation.

Currencies supported

On their website, Jaxx Wallet claims that their wallet makes it possible for you to send, receive, and manage 90+ cryptocurrencies on their platform. These include all the popular coins like Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Dash, Dogecoin, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, and numerous other tokens.

Jaxx Liberty Wallet cost and other fees

Both the desktop and smartphone Jaxx Liberty Crypto wallet apps are free to download and install. You, however, will be charged a small transaction fee every time you send coins from your wallet or use the inbuilt exchange to convert your assets from one coin to another.

There are three classes of fees that include low, typical, and higher fees depending on the number of currencies being transacted, and the speed at which you would like the transaction completed. Interestingly, however, these fees all go to the blockchain miners confirming the transactions.

Setting up the Jaxx Liberty Wallet:

How to install Jaxx Liberty Wallet:

Step 1: Start by downloading and installing the desktop or mobile app from the Jaxx Liberty wallet website.

Step 2: Select the ‘Create New Wallet’ option and agree to the wallet’s terms and conditions.

Step 3: Proceed to create a strong and multi-character password for your wallet – the longer the password, the better.

Step 4: Atop the wallet interface will appear the ‘Backup banner’ requesting you to create a backup for your wallet. Click here and write down the 12 seed words provided. Keep these words safe as you will need them to recover your private keys if you ever forget your password.

Step 5: The app will have a default address for bitcoin, and you can proceed to create wallet addresses for other coins you wish to receive.

Step 6: You can start sending and receiving digital coins, monitoring your portfolio, and tracking the crypto markets.

Sending and receiving coins:

To receive funds into your Jaxx Liberty Wallet:

Step 1: Click on the receive icon on the wallet interface page.

Step 2: Proceed to select the coin you want to receive and wait for the hierarchically deterministic wallet to generate a wallet address.

Step 3: The wallet will present you with an address that you can copy and send to your sender as well as a QR code that you can print and send to the person from whom you wish to receive the digital coins.

To send payments from your Jaxx Liberty Wallet:

Step 1: Click on the Send icon on the wallet interface.

Step 2: Select the coin you wish to send.

Step 3: Input the receiver’s wallet address and the number of coins you wish to send.

Step 4: Confirm that the details are correct and hit the send button.

Jaxx Liberty Wallet hardware wallet pros and cons:

Pros:

The wallet is compatible with virtually every operating system.
Jaxx embraces a raft of security features, including the fact that it is hierarchically deterministic.
The wallet is user friendly and easy to interact with, for both beginners and experienced crypto-traders.
The Jaxx Liberty wallet is feature-rich, and you don’t have to leave the app to transact or get market information.
Acquiring the Jaxx Liberty wallet is free and maintains inexpensive transaction fees.

Cons:

Jaxx wallet was breached in 2017, and hackers made away with over $400,000 worth of coins.
The wallet is incompatible with hardware wallets. One may consider the number of digital currencies supported by the broker to be quite low
It’s a hot wallet and, therefore, requires you to maintain powerful antivirus software to keep malware out, which might be costly over time.

Jaxx Liberty Wallet compared to competitors

Comparing Jax Liberty against most other hot wallets like Coinbase, eToro, and Electrum, we note that it has its fair share of strengths and weaknesses. Unlike the smartphone Electrum wallet, for instance, Jaxx Liberty isn’t compatible with the more secure hardware wallets and also supports a fewer number of crypto coins. Similarly, Jaxx is not as secure as the exchange linked hot wallets like eToro and Coinbase, which store their clients’ crypto assets in cold wallets. It can, nonetheless, be said to have more sophisticated operational features compared to most of these other crypto wallets.

Customer support:

Jaxx Liberty has one of the most responsive customer service desk. And while this team isn’t accessible via the phone, they are readily available via email and on all social media platforms.

Verdict: Does Jaxx Liberty Wallet live to its reputation?

Given the wallet’s association with De Iorio, a renowned blockchain specialist, and Ethereum co-founder, one would expect Jaxx Liberty to be one of the most formidable wallets out there. Its support for just handful currencies, a history stained with a significant security breach, and subsequent loss of clients’ funds, as well as the lack of solid security features like the 2FA or face ID, dents its reputation. We, however, would like to appreciate it’s easy to use and feature-rich platform, which makes Jaxx one of the best crypto wallets for beginners and low-volume traders.

Tags best crypto wallets, Crypto, Crypto Wallets, cryptocurrency, Jaxx Liberty wallet

Crypto Market Analysis

Daily Crypto Review, May 18 – Robert “Rich Dad Poor Dad” Kiyosaki predicts $75,000 BTC

Post author By Ilija Rankovic
Post date 18 May, 2020
No Comments on Daily Crypto Review, May 18 – Robert “Rich Dad Poor Dad” Kiyosaki predicts $75,000 BTC

The crypto market has spent the weekend mostly trying to break its resistance levels, which it did to a certain extent. Still, Bitcoin is under $10,000, and the general trend direction is not completely bullish. Bitcoin is currently trading for $9,778, which represents an increase of 2.62% on the day. Meanwhile, Ethereum gained 5.91% on the day, while XRP gained 1.17%.

Numeraire took the position of today’s most prominent daily gainer, with gains of 11.28%. Electroneum lost 14.78% of its daily value, making it the most prominent daily loser.

Bitcoin’s dominance moved down slightly since we last reported, with its value currently at 67.48%. This value represents a 0.73% difference to the downside.

The cryptocurrency market capitalization increased slightly when compared to Friday’s value, with its current value being $265.23 billion. This value represents an increase of $6.13 billion when compared to the value it had on Friday.

What happened in the past 24 hours

Robert Kiyosaki bullish on Bitcoin

Robert Kiyosaki, a famous businessman and best selling author (most famous by his book “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”) has announced his bullish stance on Bitcoin and even made a prediction regarding its price.

Kiyosaki tweeted that BTC’s price is heading towards $75,000 in three years. He also mentioned that he holds gold and silver besides Bitcoin.

_______________________________________________________________________

Technical analysis

_______________________________________________________________________

Bitcoin

The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization spent the weekend mostly testing new resistance levels and then retracing slightly to the most recent supports. All in all, the weekend was net-positive for Bitcoin as its price increased slightly. The $9,735 resistance level was broken, and Bitcoin is consolidating above it.

When it comes to trading Bitcoin, breakout traders would either wait for a big bull run that will break $10,000 or a heavy volume drop towards the downside. On the other hand, traders that like ranging moves might use leverage to scalp a few dollars here and there, as Bitcoin is currently moving within a few narrow support-resistance levels.

Key levels to the upside Key levels to the downside

1: $9,870 1: $9,735

2: $10,010 2: $9,580

3: $10,500 3: $9,250

Ethereum

Unlike Bitcoin, Ethereum did not move slowly to the upside. The second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap rushed to the upside, reaching the $217.6 resistance level where it lost the momentum. However, the gains ETH made over the weekend were greater than Bitcoin. The sudden surge in price was mostly due to good news and ETH-based events during this weekend.

Without the additional boost in terms of fundamentals, or Bitcoin breaking $10,000, Ethereum will have a hard time going above $217.6 level.

Key levels to the upside Key levels to the downside

1: $217.6 1: $198

2: $225.4 2: $193.6

3: $240 3: $185

Ripple

XRP spent the weekend moving sideways for the most part, with the exception of one slight move to the upside, which brought it above the $0.205 resistance. The third-largest cryptocurrency by market cap has finally broken the pattern of going above and below the $0.2 support, but only up to the $0.205 level.

The volume increased slightly during the spike, while the RSI level currently stands at the value of 60.

Key levels to the upside Key levels to the downside

1: $0.214 1: $0.205

2: $0.227 2: $0.2

3: $0.235 3: $0.19

Tags bitcoin, BTC, Crypto, Crypto Trading, cryptocurrency, Daily Brief, ETH, Ethereum, Fundamental Analysis, Ripple, Technical Analysis, trading, XRP

Cryptocurrencies

Coinbase Wallet Review 2020: Is It Different Coinbase Exchange?

Post author By Edith M.
Post date 17 May, 2020
No Comments on Coinbase Wallet Review 2020: Is It Different Coinbase Exchange?

Coinbase wallet is a standalone crypto vault developed by the San Francisco based tech-startup and one of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchanges – Coinbase. The wallet is online-based and free to all. The wallet has gained over time a reputation and massive following in the crypto industry not just because of its close association with the Coinbase Exchange but also due to its safety, accessibility, and support for numerous digital coins. Coinbase wallet is also is one of the few hot wallets that have never been hacked.

In this Coinbase wallet review, we take a look at some of its key operation and security features that make it one of the most popular crypto wallets. We also explore the ease of using the wallet – from the registration process to sending and receiving coins to the wallet.

Coinbase Key features:

Straightforward and user-friendly interface: The Coinbase crypto wallet has a friendly and easy to use interface. It is also overly simple, making navigation easy for both experienced and beginner crypto traders.

Seamless transfers to other wallets: Sending digital assets from your Coinbase wallet to another Coinbase wallet or a different cryptocurrency vault is easy and straightforward.

Free to acquire: The Coinbase crypto wallet is free. And unlike the Coinbase exchange that is only available in a handful number of countries, virtually anyone in the world can download and use the Coinbase crypto wallet.

Highly customizable wallet addresses: When creating a Coinbase wallet account, you will need to come up with a unique username. And instead of sending coins to the complex and lengthy wallet addresses, the uniqueness of these usernames has made it possible for Coinbase users to send coins to usernames instead of addresses when exchanging cryptos from one Coinbase wallet to another.

Non-Custodial wallet: Coinbase is a non-custodial crypto wallet implying that the coins aren’t held on Coinbase servers but stored in the app in your device. You, therefore, have real-time access and full control over your private keys.

Integration with other online wallets: The Coinbase wallet easily integrates with some online crypto wallets like MyEtherWallet and Metamask with ease.

Security features:

Password protected with 2FA features: The most important security feature for any crypto wallet is arguably its password. But Coinbase seeks to enhance this further by introducing the two-factor verification security option, which uses your mobile phone number.

Biometric and auto-lock security options: In addition to the passcode and 2-step security protocols, the Coinbase mobile app wallet also supports other biometric security options such as the Face ID and fingerprint security systems. It also has the timed auto-lock system that closes the wallet app after a few minutes or hours of inactivity.

Double encryption: Coinbase further argues that the data held in the Coinbase wallet app, especially the private keys and passwords, are highly encrypted. According to their website, the wallet app employs the 256-bit encryption and has also received the Federal Government approved FIPS-140 certification.

Recovery seed: When signing up for the Coinbase wallet, you will be provided with a 12-word recovery seed. You can use this to recover your private keys if you ever lose the phone or forget the password to the wallet.

Currencies supported

Coinbase wallet is a multi-currency wallet that supports all the popular cryptocurrencies, ERC-20 tokens, and ERC 721 collectibles. These add up to around 100 coins, which include Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethreum, Ethereum Classic, Litecoin, Ox, and QTUM.

Coinbase wallet cost and other fees

Whereas acquiring the crypto wallet is free, you will be charged for its use. Sending coins from the wallet to another attracts highly variable transaction fees.

Additionally, the Coinbase wallet doesn’t maintain a transaction fee structure. You, therefore, won’t know how much you will be charged for the coins transfer until after you have initiated the transaction.

Setting up the Coinbase wallet:

How to install a Coinbase wallet app:

Step 1: Start by downloading and installing the Coinbase Wallet App: Google Play Store for Android phone users and the iOS App Store.

Step 2: If you are new to the Coinbase wallet, select the “Create a New Account” option to create a Coinbase wallet app. If you already have a Coinbase wallet app and are you are looking to recover lost private keys, use the “Recover account” option.

Step 3: Choose a unique username.

Step 4: Choose a login option. You can either choose to create a six-digit passcode or the Biometric Face ID login option.

Step 5: The app will then present you with a 12-word recovery phrase as your account backup. Write these words down on a piece of paper and store it safely. You will need them to recover your private keys should you lose access to your phone or forget the wallet app password.

Step 6: You can now start transferring digital currencies in and out of the Coinbase wallet app.

Sending and receiving coins:

To receive funds into your Coinbase Wallet:

Step 1: Open and log in to the Coinbase wallet app.

Step 2: Open the coins and tokens icon and click on the type of coins you want to receive.

Step 3: Click on the receive option and copy the wallet address, or print the QR code provided and present it to your sender.

To send payments from your Coinbase Wallet:

Step 1: Open and log in to the Coinbase wallet app.

Step 2: Open the coins/Tokens tab and click on the coins/token you wish to send.

Step 3: Select the send payments icon.

Step 4: On the send payments tab, enter the receiver’s wallet address, scan their address QR code, or key in their Coinbase username.

Step 5: Enter the number of coins you wish to send, confirm the address or user name, and click send.

Coinbase hardware wallet pros and cons:

Pros:

The Coinbase wallet app has one easy and straightforward registration process.
The wallet has multiple security features that include a passcode and biometric features such as Face ID.
The wallet app is free of charge
The wallet integrates with other third party hot wallets like MyEther Wallet and Metamask
The wallet has the backing of one of the safest and most reputable cryptocurrency exchanges

Cons:

One may consider the number of coins supported by the Coinbase wallet app relatively limited
The wallet doesn’t support anonymous trading
It is hosted online, and this compounds the threat of a possible breach
The wallet is institutionally owned, implying that they may track how you invest and spend your coins
The wallet app isn’t hierarchically deterministic

Coinbase wallet compared to competitors:

Comparison with hot wallets:

The Coinbase wallet app is more secure than most wallet apps. It has many advanced security features like Biometrics, supports two-factor authentication, and is also highly encrypted. Additionally, whereas most hot wallets have suffered varied extents of security breaches, the Coinbase wallet app has never been compromised. The downside to the use of Coinbase is that unlike most crypto wallet apps like Mycelium that integrate with hardware wallets to add a layer of security and broaden the number of cryptos they can support, Coinbase doesn’t.

Comparison with hardware wallets:

Hardware wallets like Trezor and Ledger Nano S are more secure and have hardier security safeguards than Coinbase. The wallet app is, for instance, a soft target for remote hacks where anyone who gains access to your device remotely can easily clear your accounts. Hardware wallets have on-device buttons with the sole purpose of authorizing transactions. Plus, they tend to support more crypto coins than most wallet apps.

Customer support:

Coinbase customer support is relatively average. On their website is a quite elaborate FAQ page addressing some of the most common user queries. You, however, can only contact their support via social media or email. The wallet app doesn’t have phone support or the live chat feature.

Verdict: Is the Coinbase wallet app safe?

Three primary factors make the Coinbase crypto wallet a must-have for a budget cryptocurrency investor/trader. First, it is free to acquire. Secondly, it has some of the most advanced security features, including biometrics: fingerprint, and face ID. Lastly, it is closely associated with one of the most reputable cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. It is mostly ideal for low-volume crypto traders. But ensure that you also invest in solid antivirus software for both your phone and computer before installing the wallet app.

Tags best crypto wallets, Bitcoin wallet, Coinbase wallet, Crypto, Crypto Wallets, cryptocurrencies, cryptocurrency, Crytocurrencies

Cryptocurrencies

Guarda Crypto Wallet Review: Features, Security, And Ease Of Use

Post author By Edith M.
Post date 15 May, 2020
No Comments on Guarda Crypto Wallet Review: Features, Security, And Ease Of Use

Guarda is a multi-currency non-custodial cryptocurrency wallet launched to the crypto community in 2017. It is developed by Guardarian OÜ Company, a blockchain technology startup based in Estonia. And while Guadarian has come up with several technological products, the Guarda wallet has received the widest reception in the crypto world because of its versatility and security.

Other factors that make Guarda wallet stand out include ease of use and transparency in fees. Additionally, Guarda is registered and regulated by the Financial Intelligence Unit of Estonia and licensed to offer cryptocurrency exchange services.

In this Guarda crypto wallet review, we will be taking an in-depth look at the multicoin, multiplatform wallet, exploring its key operation and security features as well as its pros and cons.

Key Features:

Multiplatform: Guarda is a multiplatform wallet accessible on multiple devices and operating systems. The most popular are its iOS and Android apps for mobile device users and the web-trader, plus Linux, Windows, and macOS desktop apps for their desktop clients.

Inbuilt exchange: Guarda has an elaborate in-built exchange where the wallet users can trade and swap one crypto for another or for fiat currency. It supports both fiat-to-crypto as well as crypto-to-crypto exchanges.

Supports credit cards: Guarda wallet with its inbuilt exchange is one of the few cryptocurrency wallets that do not just support fiat-to-crypto exchanges but also allow for the purchase of cryptos using credit cards. The Guarda wallet’s parent company is also in the process of rolling out a prepaid debit card that can be integrated into the Guarda cryptocurrency ecosystem.

Integration with hard wallets: Guarda crypto wallet integrates seamlessly with the Ledger Nano X hardware wallet. This not only boosts its security but also amplifies the number of supported currencies.

Chrome extension and DAPP ecosystem: Guarda wallet also has a Chrome extension that you can use to control your wallet. Recent improvements to the extension have also made it possible for Guarda wallet holders to access the EOS ecosystem, where they can create and interact with the different DApps.

Token generator: By acquiring the Guarda wallet, you also gain access to its parent company’s blockchain network and token generator tool that you can use to create, popularize, and issue your own token.

Security features

Password: First, in your Guarda wallet’s line of defense is the app/web-trader password that you set during installation.

Seed backup: Like any other non-custodial cryptocurrency vault, Guarda wallet furnishes you with a seed backup for your wallet. You will need it to recover the wallet and private keys therein should you forget the password or lose the phone hosting the wallet.

Non-custodial: Guarda is a non-custodial platform, and this means that the private keys are stored on your device and not on the company’s servers. This minimizes exposure to risk should the wallet company be breached.

AES data encryption: All the data collected and stored in your Guarda wallet, including the private keys, is further secured using the AES data encryption tool.

Open-sourced code: The Guarda wallet source code is open-sourced. This means that it has been availed to the public and internet security experts; who have audited it to ensure that there are no loopholes that make it susceptible to external hacks or malicious codes that give its developers access to the private keys stored in your wallets.

Ease of use:

The Guarda crypto wallet is very easy to use. It has a highly simplistic and friendly user interface that’s easy to interact with; it is also easy to execute different commands for beginner traders and veterans alike. The app is also highly customizable, allowing you to change such aspects of the wallet app like themes and opt for light or dark mode.

Additionally, while it will only have a few default wallets on the user dashboard upon signing in, the creation of additional coins or tokens is instant. You only have to click on the coin or token you wish to create a wallet from the supported cryptocurrency list and tap ADD.

Supported currencies and countries

Guarda crypto wallet currently supports over 47 major currencies: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Gold, Bitcoin Cash, Dash, Ripple, Litecoin, and more. It also supports hundreds of ERC 20 and BEP 2 Tokens.

It has established a global presence and currently supports residents of 100+ countries across the world, including 28 member nations of the European Union.

Guarda crypto wallet cost and fees

Acquiring the Guarda wallet and most of the accompanying products like the token generator tool are free.

You will, however, incur variable transaction fees when you exchange or swap cryptocurrencies and cash within the platform. Credit cards, particularly, tend to incur relatively higher fees than other transactions. The wallet app nonetheless lets you know the transaction fee before executing the order.

Customer support

Guarda website has a dedicated FAQ section where clients can get answers to some of the most common questions on how to use the wallet. Personal challenges with the app can also be directed to Guarda’s customer support team by opening ticket support on their website, via email or through their social media handles.

Setting up the Guarda crypto wallet

How to install the Guarda crypto wallet:

Step 1: Head over to the Guarda wallet website and download the app for your specific device, desktop, android, or iOS and install.

Step 2: Launch the app and select “Create New Wallet.”

Step 3: Create a strong password for your account and memorize it or write it down on paper.

Step 4: Click on the download backup to download the 12 words recovery seed.

Step 5: The app will then redirect you to your user dashboard, where you can start buying and selling crypto.

How to buy cryptocurrencies using your Guarda wallet:

Step 1: On your user dashboard, click on the “Buy” tab.

Step 2: On the drop-down menu, select your country of residence.

Step 3: On the buy menu, enter the amount you wish to buy in the “FROM” section and the type of crypto in the “WALLET” section.

Step 4: Choose the preferred payment method and click next (debit/credit card or bank wire).

Step 5: Recheck the purchase details and hit ‘Confirm.’

Step 6: You will then be redirected to the Simplex Payment Gateway to complete the transaction.

How to send cryptos into your Guarda wallet:

Step 1: On your Guarda wallet user dashboard, choose ‘Send.’

Step 2: Enter the number of cryptos you would like to send and the recipient’s wallet address.

Step 3: Review the wallet address and amounts before hitting ‘Confirm.’

Guarda crypto wallet pros and cons:

Pros:

A highly innovative and feature-rich crypto wallet that includes a token generator and an in-built exchange platform.
Guarda wallet is easy to use as it features a friendly user interface.
The wallet is non-custodial and compliments this with multiple security features like the open-sourced code.
The chrome extension lets Guarda wallet users interact with a wide range of DApps and the EOS ecosystem.
The Guarda wallet can be on multiple devices using different operating systems.

Cons:

The in-wallet swaps and exchange fees are higher than the charges at most exchanges
The number of cryptocurrencies supported on the platform is considerably limited
It doesn’t support biometric security features or the 2FA

Comparing Guarda wallet with eToro crypto wallet:

eToro and Guarda are both hot wallets. Unlike Guarda, the eToro crypto wallet is custodial, implying that it holds the coins on behalf of the account holders. And in addition to the crypto wallet password used by Guarda wallets, eToro has gone a step further to store the client deposits in cold storage. The fact that eToro is exchange-linked means that the crypto exchange and swap fees are more competitive and that it accepts more withdrawal and deposit options. Guarda, on the other hand, supports more cryptocurrencies than eToro and further exposes its client to DApps.

Comparing Guarda with Trezor hardware wallet

Trezor T hardware wallet supports more cryptocurrencies and stores your digital assets offline away from remote hackers. This makes it a safer option for a crypto investor. On the other hand, while the hot wallet nature of Guarda exposes it to more security threats, it is more user-friendly, more versatile, and cheaper.

Verdict – is Guarda wallet safe?

Several factors lead us to believe that Guarda wallet developers have taken adequate measures to make a secure crypto wallet. These include its open-sourced code, the strong password, and downloadable backup seed, as well as its non-custodial nature. We are, nevertheless, alive to the fact that more could be done to make it safer, including the integration of biometric security features for the mobile apps and enabling the two-factor authorization. Guarda wallet is safe for use for low volume traders and beginners, but you must first invest in good antivirus software for your device.

Tags best crypto wallets, Crypto, crypto walle, cryptocurrencies, Crytocurrencies, Education, Guarda crypto wallet