Categories
Cryptocurrencies

AIRBITZ (EDGE) Wallet Review: Features, Security, Fees, And Ease Of Use

Airbitz bitcoin wallet app recently underwent a major rebranding that saw its name to Edge wallet. In addition to the open-sourced crypto mobile app, it was also subjected to massive structural changes that aim at making it the most secure and easy to use the wallet.

The most visible changes include its shift from a Bitcoin-only to a multi-blockchain wallet and a more intuitive user interface. The Edge development team has also integrated several operational and security features to the highly versatile mobile wallet.

This Airbitz/Edge crypto wallet app review seeks to highlight all these features and examine their effectiveness in making it the most secure wallet. We will also be addressing its ease of use, supported currencies and compare it with other multi-currency wallets before telling you if it really is the most secure crypto wallet app available.

AIRBITZ key features:

Versatile mobile app: Edge is a highly versatile mobile wallet app. It is not only available for the popular Android and iOS smartphone operating systems but is also available for Windows phones.

Inbuilt exchange: Edge features an inbuilt crypto exchange. Therefore, you don’t have to leave the wallet to buy, sell, or exchange cryptocurrencies, which saves time and eliminates unnecessary transaction fees.

Support for fiat purchases: Edge wallet app doesn’t just let you store, buy, and sell cryptos within the app but also lets you make crypto purchases using fiat currencies through either bank wire transfers to the wallet or via credit card.

Bluetooth transactions: Edge crypto wallet app supports Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), which means you don’t need to be online to initiate a transaction. BLE allows you to send cryptocurrencies to other individuals via Bluetooth. 

Address book: The wallet seeks to eliminate the risk of sending funds to the wrong wallet by introducing the in-app address book where you can save a crypto recipient’s address, name, and photo for easy access when sending them digital coins.

AIRBITZ security features

Password and Biometrics: Edge embraces a multi-layered wallet protection feature. When creating a user account, you will first be required to set a strong multi-character password for the wallet. You are then required to set a four-digit passcode for regular logins. Additionally, you have the option of adding the fingerprint or face ID login option.

Open source: Edge is also built on an open-sourced technology and allows for scrutiny from both wallet app users and blockchain experts. The code can be downloaded from the official Edge wallet app website or GitHub.

Hierarchically deterministic: The wallet app is also hierarchically deterministic, implying that the public wallet address is auto-generated for every new transaction, which furthers the wallet’s commitment to user privacy.

Automated wallet backup: Unlike other crypto wallets that require you to save and memorize a lengthy recovery seed, your passphrase for the Edge wallet doubles up as your recovery seed.

Client-side encryption: Client-side encryption implies that any data that your wallet shares with the Edge wallet servers or third party systems is encrypted before it leaves your wallet app, effectively safeguarding it against possible man-in-the-middle attacks.

Anonymous registration: Edge crypto wallet app doesn’t ask for personal information like name or address when creating a user account. Neither does it collect or store any personal information when you use the wallet app.

How to set and activate the AIRBITZ wallet

Step 1: Download and install the Edge crypto wallet app compatible with your phone’s operating system.

Step 2: Once installed, launch the app and create a username

Step 3: Create a unique and multi-character password (with a minimum of 10-characters)

Step 4: Set a four-digit passcode that you will be using for regular on-device logins

Step 5: The wallet will request that you write down this information (username, password, and passcode) on a piece of paper and save it offline

Step 6: Read and agree to the crypto wallet app’s terms of use

Step 7: Clicking finish takes you to your account’s user dashboard, an indication that the wallet is active and ready for use.

How to add/receive Crypto into your AIRBITZ wallet

Step 1: Log in to your edge wallet and click the “Request” button

Step 2: Select the wallet address where you would like the coins deposited and enter the number of coins you wish to receive

Step 3: Copy this information and forward it to the party sending you cryptos.

Step 4: Alternatively, hit the share button if you want to share this information with the individual sending cryptos via SMS or email

Step 5: Wait for the funds to reflect in your wallet.

How to send Crypto from your AIRBITZ wallet

Step 1: Log in to your Edge crypto wallet and app and on the user dashboard, tap on the “Send” icon

Step 2: If you have multiple digital assets stored therein, select the wallet from whence you would like to send the coins

Step 3: On the transfer window, enter the recipient’s wallet address and the number of coins you wish to send

Step 4: Confirm that the transaction details are accurate.

Step 5: Slide the authorization button to authorize the transfer

AIRBITZ wallet ease of use

Edge crypto has a relatively straightforward onboarding process. The processes of sending and receiving cryptos are also easy and straightforward. The user dashboard is also easily navigable and specially designed for both the experienced and beginner crypto investors.

The user interface is also highly customizable and allows you to tweak most of the basic features, including its theme. It also integrates a map of all BTC-accepting stores in your neighborhood.

AIRBITZ wallet supported currencies and countries

Edge is a multi-blockchain and multi-currency wallet for all popular cryptos, including Bitcoin, Ethereum. Litecoin, Ripple, Monero, Bitcoin Cash, Dash, Bitcoin Gold, Dogecoin, and all ERC-20 tokens.

AIRBITZ wallet cost and fees

Installing the Edge crypto wallet is free. However, you will pay a  competitive transaction processing fee every time you send cryptocurrencies to another wallet or exchange. This fee is collected by the different blockchain miners and administrators and not the Edge wallet.

What are the pros and cons of using the AIRBITZ wallet?

Pros:

  • Edge is built on an open-sourced technology and also supports two-factor authentication.
  • The wallet app is highly intuitive and beginner-friendly
  • Edge is a multi-currency wallet supporting 40+ cryptocurrencies and tokens.
  • The wallet gives you absolute control of your private keys and password while simplifying the wallet backup process.
  • The wallet features an in-app exchange and integrates a crypto exchange.

Cons:

  • One may still consider the number of supported cryptocurrencies to be limited.
  • It is a mobile app and not available for desktop or online (web) access.
  • It is not a multi-signature wallet.

Comparing AIRBITZ wallet with other Multiblockchain wallets

AIRBITZ wallet vs. BRD wallet

Edge is similar to BRD (also known as Bread wallet). They both started as bitcoin-only wallets before structural upgrades saw them appreciate and store other altcoins. Both are also easy to use, feature an inbuilt exchange, and have a highly intuitive user interface designed to appeal to experienced and beginner crypto traders. The recent update to the Edge wallet has, however, seen it incorporate more operational and security features when compared to BRD. One may also consider the Edge wallet app’s user interface to be user-friendlier.

Verdict: Is the AIRBITZ wallet safe?

Yes, Airbitz – now Edge – crypto wallet app has incorporated a wide range of security features to keep your private keys safe and within your control. These are highly effective and start with keeping all your sensitive information within the wallet and out of anyone’s (including their servers) reach. This data is also subjected to military-grade client-side encryption. The app’s equally effective security features include hierarchically deterministic address generation, biometrics support, and the all-important two-factor authentication. 

Categories
Crypto Videos

Earn Passive Income With Yield Farming Part 2!

 

Earn Passive Income With Yield Farming – Part 2/2


While the previous part of our yield farming series talked about the definition, threats and opportunities of DeFi yield farming, this part will talk more about specific projects and what they offer, as well as how to choose the right project for you.

Compound and Aave

Compound and Aave are currently DeFi’s primary lending and borrowing protocols. These two platforms together account for over $1.1 billion of lending and $390 million of borrowing. The easiest and most straightforwards way of earning a return in DeFi is lending capital on the money market.

Aave generally has better rates than Compound, as it offers its borrowers the ability to choose a stable interest rate rather than a variable rate. The stable rate is, in most cases, higher for borrowers than the variable rate, therefore increasing the marginal return to lenders.

On the other hand, Compound introduced a new incentive for its users through the issuance of its COMP native token. Anyone that lends or borrows on the Compound platform earns a certain amount of COMP, translating into more rewards.

Security from Financial Risk

DeFi money markets work by employing over-collateralization, meaning that a borrower must deposit assets that have more value than their loan. When the collateralization ratio (which is the value of collateral divided by the value of the loan) falls below a threshold, the collateral is liquidated and instantly repaid to lenders.

Yield Farming Liquidity Pools

Uniswap and Balancer are the two largest liquidity pools in DeFi. They offer liquidity providers a reward in the form of fees for adding their assets to a pool. Liquidity pools are between two assets that are configured in a 50-50 ratio in Uniswap, while Balancer allows for up to 8 assets in a single liquidity pool.
Whenever someone takes a trade through the liquidity pool, liquidity providers who contribute to that pool earn a small fee to facilitate the transaction. Uniswap pools have offered liquidity providers healthy returns over the past year as decentralized exchange volumes picked up. However, optimizing profits requires investors to also consider impermanent loss, the loss created by providing liquidity for an asset that suddenly appreciates.
Balancer pools are somewhat mitigating impermanent loss, as pools don’t need to be configured as a 50-50 split between two assets. They can be set up in a 90-10 or 80-20 allocation to minimize impermanent loss. However, the risk cannot be completely eliminated.

However, there is a liquidity pool that completely eliminates impermanent loss. Curve Finance facilitates trading between assets that are pegged to the same value. As an example, there is a Curve pool with USDC, USDT, DAI, and sUSD: all stablecoins pegged to the USD. There’s also a liquidity pool that consists of sBTC, RenBTC, and wBTC: all pegged to Bitcoin’s price. As all of the assets are worth the same amount, there is no impermanent loss. On the other hand, trading volumes of those pools will almost always be lower than the regular liquidity pools like Uniswap and Balancer.

Incentive Schemes

The Synthetix project first introduced an sETH-ETH pool as the original incentives scheme, offering liquidity providers an added incentive of SNX rewards. While this pool has deprecated, this idea expanded to other liquidity pools.
Taking advantage of these incentives can show to be incredibly lucrative. However, investors should ensure that they aren’t earning a dud token, but rather something that holds value. Nobody wants to take part in an incentive scheme that gives rewards in tokens equivalent to BitConnect tokens.

What to Choose

For the slightly risk-averse investors who just want to earn a yield on their stablecoins, there are many options, with money markets or providing liquidity on projects such as Curve Finance being the best option for lower-risk interest. For those with large cryptocurrency holdings and want to use them to earn even more, liquidity pools such as Uniswap or Balancer are certainly a good choice. Added incentives on top of the regular rewards are just icing on the cake.

That being said, the perfect yield farm is different for each individual varies based on their amount of capital, the investment time horizon, as well as how risk-averse they are.

Categories
Crypto Videos

Earn Passive Income With Yield Farming!

 

Earn Passive Income With Yield Farming – Part 1/2

The hottest buzzword in crypto at the moment is surely “yield farming.” Yield farming allows people to earn fixed or variable interest simply by investing crypto in a DeFi project. As an example, investing in ETH is NOT yield farming, but lending out ETH on the Aave platform for a return IS yield farming. As the newest trend in crypto, investors are still a bit skeptical as they do not understand what it is and how it works.

Yield Farming – Explained

Yield farming is the practice of staking cryptocurrencies in return for monetary gain. While the expectation of earning a yield based on investments is nothing new, the concept of yield farming has arisen directly from the decentralized finance sector. The idea is that individuals can earn tokens in exchange for participating in DeFi applications. Yield farming is often called liquidity mining.

How It All Works

The precise mechanics of yield farming vary based on the terms and features of the individual DeFi application. Most projects started out by offering users a small share of the transaction fees in exchange for contributing liquidity. However, the most common yield farming method at the moment is to use a DeFi application and earn the project token as a reward.

This practice became popular during the summer of 2020 when Compound announced that it would start issuing its COMP governance token to both lenders and borrowers who use the Compound application. This was extremely well accepted, pushing Compound to the top of the DeFi rankings.
Since then, several projects created DeFi applications with associated governance or native tokens and started rewarding users with their tokens.
The most successful yield farmers try to maximize their returns by deploying more complicated strategies. These advanced strategies usually consist of staking tokens in a chain of protocols, intending to generate maximum yield.

Pros/Cons of yield farming

The benefit of yield farming is apparent immediately, and that is profit. Yield farmers who adopted a new project early have the privilege of benefiting from token rewards that can quickly appreciate in value. If they choose to sell those tokens at the right time, they can make significant gains.
Yield farmers generally have to invest a large sum of initial capital in order to generate any significant profits, with even hundreds of thousands of dollars being at stake. Due to the volatile nature of cryptocurrencies and especially DeFi tokens, yield farmers are exposed to the risk of liquidation, which occurs in case their project is plummeting in price. On top of that, the most successful yield farming strategies are extremely complex, meaning that the risk is higher if you don’t know all the yield farming space’s ins and outs.
Another risk of being a part of the DeFi and yield farming space is that the projects you invest in may have bugs that can crash the whole system, therefore rendering your funds non-existent. There have been several examples of such things happening, with the most prominent one being bZx, which suffered a series of hacks due to a single misplaced line of code.

Challenges and Opportunities

Almost every single DeFi application is currently based on the Ethereum blockchain, which creates two problems. The less important one is that, as Andreas Antonopoulos says, is that if projects support only Ethereum-based cryptocurrencies, they are slightly centralized in that manner. However, this is not as important as the next challenge, which is the overload of the Ethereum network. The network is currently struggling with a lack of scalability as it did not anticipate DeFi and its rapid expansion. As yield farming becomes more popular, Ethereum will get clogged up with more transactions, leading to slower confirmation times and skyrocketing transaction fees.

However, with new scaling propositions and alternative DeFi platforms, these problems aren’t fatal to DeFi, and the practice of yield farming could end up being around for quite some time.
Check out the next part of our DeFi passive income guide to learn how certain projects do business, how to earn passive income with them, as well as which project is the right for you.

Categories
Crypto Market Analysis

BTC/USD Chart Overview + Possible Outcomes

In this BTC /USD 1-day time-frame analysis, we will be looking at the most recent events, the current technical formations, as well as discussing possible outcomes.

Overview

Bitcoin has had a week of explosive gains, mostly due to its fundamentals. The US President Donald Trump announced another set of stimulus packages (while he was completely against it just before the announcement), as well as Jack Dorsey’s Square investing $50 million in Bitcoin sparked bulls’ interest and made the largest cryptocurrency by market cap push above $11,700. Bitcoin established support above its previous heavy resistance level, which is certainly another great sign for the bulls. However, one technical formation says that additional correction is ahead before the next push towards $12,000.

Technical factors

Bitcoin has left its triangle formation abruptly and to the upside, breaking not only the formation but also numerous resistances. The price started consolidating in a range bound by $11,300 to the downside and $11,500 to the upside, which was a great trading opportunity for traders that like sideways trading. Taking a look at smaller time-frames, Bitcoin has built a downwards-sloping channel that calls for a slight pullback (and a possible fill of the Bitcoin CME Futures gap) before pushing further up.

There are two most likely versions of this pullback, and both will be discussed above. However, an unexpected price spike or plummet is always a possibility, no matter how slim.

Likely Outcomes



Bitcoin currently has two main scenarios. It can play out, and both involve a pullback before a push towards $12,000.

  1. As shown on the chart, Bitcoin will most likely follow the channel until it finds strong support; it cannot go below, after which it will break the channel to the upside. After finding confirmation above it, it is free to push towards the upside ($11,730, $11,960, or even $12,000).
  2. The other scenario is a bit tricky, and therefore a bit less likely. The premise for this scenario is the head and shoulders chart pattern that started in late April of this year. The most recent high of this scenario is the top of the right shoulder, while the neckline is the black ascending line shown on the chart. In this scenario, the price would move alongside the dotted line until it hit the neckline, after which it would start to go up. In this case, the pullback and confirmation would most likely happen above $11,300, and only after consolidating above this level could Bitcoin push to the aforementioned targets.
  3. The scenario in which Bitcoin suddenly pushes up or down sharply and swiftly is incredibly unlikely and would have to be backed by some major news.
Categories
Cryptocurrencies

Natrium Mobile wallet Review: Is It The Safest Neo Blockchain Wallet Yet?

Natrium wallet is a mobile crypto app developed by Appdito and introduced to the Nano community in August 2018. It is an open-sourced mobile app specially designed to further Nano Blockchain’s versatility while guaranteeing the security of the user’s digital assets. Though the community developed it, the wallet app has been subjected to numerous security audits sanctioned by the Nano Foundation that helped push it up the list of most reliable Nano wallets.

On the Natrium wallet website, the crypto app is described as a “Fast, Robust, and Secure Nano Wallet.” But how true is this bold claim? What features make Natrium safe and robust, and how have they influenced its effectiveness? In this Natrium wallet review, we detail its key features and the security measures in place, gauge its ease of use, provide you with a step-by-step guide on how to use the wallet, and tell you if it is the safest Nano Wallet app.

Natrium wallet key features

Mobile wallet: Natrium is a versatile crypto mobile app available for Android and iOS-powered mobile devices. The app can be downloaded from the wallet’s official website, Google play store, or Apple’s app store.

Multi-wallet: Natrium is a multi-account website implying that there is no limit to the number of wallet addresses you can host on the wallet.

Address book: To eliminate the often-costly errors arising from sending cryptos to the wrong address, Natrium has integrated an in-app address book. This allows you to save the wallet address and name of the wallets you interact with regularly.

Real-time wallet notifications: You can also activate the push wallet notification for the wallet, which pops up a notification on your phone or smartwatch’s screen every time you receive Nano coins into your wallet.

SPV protocol for transaction validation: Natrium is a light wallet that doesn’t require you to download a blockchain to your phone and synchronize it with the Nano Mainnet. Rather, it embraces the Simplified Payment Verification (SPV) protocol in confirming and validating new transactions.

Security features

Passcode + Biometrics: When creating a new user account for your Natrium wallet, you will be requested to set a unique and multi-character passphrase. But you also have the option of activating the app’s biometric security feature that allows you to log in to your Natrium wallet using a Fingerprint or Face ID.

Open sourced: Natrium wallet app isn’t just community-led but also built on an open-sourced blockchain technology. Wallet users and blockchain experts are advised to view the code, audit, and come up with recommendations and are also encouraged to fork it and create more improved versions of the Nano Wallet.

Non-custodial: Natrium wallet is privacy-oriented. It not only limits the amount of client data it collects but also ensures that none of your sensitive information is stored on their servers. Rather, all your private data, including passwords and private keys, are encrypted and stored within your device.

Hierarchically deterministic:  Natrium wallet is also hierarchically deterministic, implying that it will auto-generate a new wallet address every time you transact online. This limits the number of individuals who know your real wallet address and seeks to throw crypto trackers off and mask your crypto activity.

Recovery seed: Natrium has also simplified the process of backing up your wallet by presenting you with a 12-phrase recovery seed that you will need to restore lost wallets and recover lost private keys.

Third-party security audit: In furtherance of Natrium’s transparency guarantee, the wallet isn’t just open-sourced but is also subjected to regular security audits by professional blockchain security audit companies like Red4Sec.

How to set and activate the Natrium Mobile wallet

Step 1: Download and install the Natrium wallet app version that is compatible with your device

Step 2: Once installed, launch the app and select “Create a New Wallet” to start the activation process

Step 3: The wallet will now request you to choose the account’s username and create a password

Step 4: You will then be presented with random phrases that make up your wallet’s recovery seed. Write them down and keep them safe offline.

Step 5: Your wallet is now active and ready to use

How to add/receive crypto into your Natrium Mobile wallet

Step 1: Log in to your Natrium Nano wallet and on the user dashboard, click on the “Receive” tab

Step 2: This opens up the deposit window and reveals your public address and QR Code. Copy either of these and forward it to the party, sending you Nano coins

Step 3: Wait for the funds to reflect in your wallet.

How to send crypto from your Natrium Mobile wallet

Step 1: Log in to your Natrium Nano wallet and tap on the “Send” icon on the user dashboard

Step 2: If you have multiple wallets, select the address from whence you would like to send Nano cryptos

Step 3: On the transfer window, enter the recipient’s wallet address and the amount of Nano coins you wish to send

Step 4: Alternatively, select the recipient’s name from the in-app contacts section

Step 5: Check that the transaction details are correct and hit ‘Confirm.’

Natrium Mobile wallet ease of use

Natrium is a highly intuitive crypto wallet with a clean, easily navigable, and modern interface designed to appeal to both the highly experienced and beginner Nano coin traders. It is also easily customizable and allows you to change the icons’ wallet theme, size, and color.

The process of downloading the app and creating a user account is quite straightforward. So are the processes of sending and receiving Nano coins in and out of the wallet.

More importantly, Natrium is a multilingual crypto wallet app that comes available in over 20 international languages.

Natrium Mobile wallet supported currencies

Natrium is a Nano blockchain specific wallet and will, therefore, only host Nano Coins.

Natrium Mobile wallet cost and fees

Downloading the Natrium wallet, creating a user account, and storing coins therein is free.

The fact that the Nano Blockchain doesn’t charge a network fee to confirm or validate Nano transactions also means that you won’t be charged for sending or receiving cryptos into the wallet.

What are the pros and cons of using the Natrium Mobile wallet

Pros:

  • Natrium wallet doesn’t charge network fees for crypto transfers.
  • It is highly intuitive and features a simplistic and beginner-friendly user interface.
  • The use of the SPV protocol makes transaction processing relatively fast.
  • The wallet has embraced highly effective security and privacy measures, including biometrics and anonymous trading.
  • Natrium is highly transparent. It is open-sourced and subject to vetting by independent bitcoin security companies.

Cons:

  • The wallet doesn’t support the important two-factor authentication and multi-signature security measures.
  • Natrium wallet will only support Nano coins.
  • Their customer support team may be sluggish in responding to customer queries.

Comparing Natrium Mobile wallet with other Nano wallets

Natrium Mobile wallet vs. NanoVault web wallet

Natrium mobile and NanoVault are both Nano blockchain wallets that were not only developed by the Nano community members but also vetted and recommended by the Nano Foundation. They are both light and don’t require you to download the Nano blockchain to your wallet. Rather, they have embraced the ultrafast SPV transaction validation protocol.

However, while Natrium is a mobile app, NanoVault is a web wallet. And though they only host the Nano altcoin and record almost similar transaction processing speeds, Natrium can be said to host more operational features, especially the support for an address book and its highly customizable user interface.

Verdict: Is Natrium Mobile wallet safe?

Well, the mobile crypto app has put in place several highly effective security and privacy safeguards around the crypto app. We were especially impressed by their integration of the Biometrics security feature and hierarchically deterministic wallets, as well as their support for anonymous trading. But the fact that it is online-based means that it is not immune to the constant threats (hacking and malicious malware) dogging hot wallets. 

Categories
Crypto Market Analysis

Daily Crypto Review, Oct 16 – ICO That Raised $257 Million in 60 Minutes Finally Launched; Bitcoin Pushing Towards $11,500

The cryptocurrency sector has spent the day trying to push higher highs but failed as Bitcoin didn’t make it above $11,500. Bitcoin is currently trading for $11,486, representing an increase of 0.65% on the day. Meanwhile, Ethereum lost 0.64% on the day, while XRP lost 1.42%.

 Daily Crypto Sector Heat Map

If we look at the top 100 cryptocurrencies, we can see that Filecoin gained an astonishing 120.78% in the past 24 hours, making it the top daily gainer. ABBC Coin (39.25%) and Blockstack (9.35%) also did great. On the other hand, Aave lost 15.89%, making it the most prominent daily loser. It is followed by Arweave’s loss of 14.13% and Synthetix Network Token’s loss of 8.96%.

Top 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bottom 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bitcoin’s market dominance level has stayed at the same level since our last report, with its value currently being 58.7%. This value represents a 0% difference when compared to when we last reported.

Daily Crypto Market Cap Chart

The crypto sector capitalization has gained a bit of its value over the course of the past 24 hours. Its current value is $362.56 billion, representing an increase of $1.46 billion compared to our previous report.

_______________________________________________________________________

What happened in the past 24 hours?

_______________________________________________________________________

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Technical analysis

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Bitcoin

The oldest cryptocurrency spent the past 24 hours trying to push past the $11,500 resistance. While the fight for it still continues, there is a strong possibility that Bitcoin will actually stabilize its price above it. If that happens, bulls might come in even stronger and push the price towards $11,630, or even $11,730.

If, however, Bitcoin moves back below $11,500, the sentiment won’t change to a lot more bearish one, as Bitcoin is used to trading above $11,300 as of lately.

BTC/USD 1-day Chart

Bitcoin’s technical overview is extremely bullish on every single time-frame for almost a month now, with longer time-frames showing complete bullish sentiment, while the shorter ones are slightly less tilted towards the buy-side.

BTC/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical factors (4-hour Chart):
  • Price is above its 50-period EMA and at its 21-period EMA
  • Price near its top Bollinger band
  • RSI is neutral (60.70)
  • Volume is average
Key levels to the upside          Key levels to the downside

1: $11,500                                 1: $11,300

2: $11,630                                 2: $11,180

3: $12,000                                  3: $11,000

Ethereum

Unlike Bitcoin that tried to push towards its resistance level, Ethereum spent the day fighting to stay above the $378 level it recently fell under. The second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap tested the $371 support level, which held up quite nicely and attempted a push towards (now) resistance level of $378. While the fight for it still lasts, Ethereum will most likely end up above it if Bitcoin’s price doesn’t drop and pull ETH alongside.

ETH/USD 4-hour Chart

Ethereum’s technicals on all time-frames are a varying degree of bullish. While its 4-hour and monthly overviews are a bit more neutral, its daily and weekly overviews are strongly tilted towards the buy-side.

ETH/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical Factors (4-hour Chart):
  • The price is above its 50-period and right at its 21-period EMA
  • The price at its middle Bollinger band
  • RSI is neutral (54.03)
  • Volume is average
Key levels to the upside          Key levels to the downside

1: $378                                     1: $371

2: $400                                     2: $360

3: $415                                      3: $334

Ripple

XRP has spent the past 24 hours continuing its drop towards the $0.2454 support level. XRP is approaching a quarterly price drop of 20% if the price breaks to the downside. However, so far, the $0.2454 support level is holding up, and XRP bears are not able to break it. If the support level break, we can expect XRP to move towards $0.235.

Traders should either wait for a bounce towards the upside (less likely and riskier) or wait for a possible break below $0.2454 to trade alongside the strong move to the downside.


XRP/USD 4-hour Chart

XRP’s technicals have changed the sentiment to quite bearish in the past couple of days. While its monthly sentiment was bearish for a while, its 4-hour and 1-day overviews have turned completely towards the sell-side. On the other hand, XRP’s weekly overview is still slightly bullish.

XRP/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical factors (4-hour Chart):
  • The price is below both its 50-period EMA and its 21-period EMA
  • Price is slightly above its lower Bollinger band
  • RSI is neutral (40.83)
  • Volume is average (except for a couple of huge volume candle)
Key levels to the upside          Key levels to the downside

1: $0.266                                   1: $0.2454 

2: $0.27                                     2: $0.235

3: $0.273                                  3: $0.227

 

Categories
Crypto Daily Topic

What You Need to Know About DigixDao 

Would you have thought that it was possible to own gold even if you’re not a millionaire?  That is now possible thanks to blockchain-enabled tokenization. 

DigixDAO is a blockchain project that wants to make this realization true for many people across the world. Launched in March 2019, DigixDAO has created a cryptocurrency backed by actual, physical gold – which users can invest in and sell off for profit at any time. The Digix team says that it creates “a world where 99.99% fine gold bars are made divisible, transferable and redeemable.”

Why should you care about DigixDAO? Well, for one, you can own actual gold, something that’s long been a preserve for the minority few. Second, you can diversify your crypto portfolio, and third, it provides much-needed stability in the crypto space. 

With that, let’s look into the Digix platform and how exactly it tokenizes gold. We’ll also explore the platform’s dual-token system and the role of each token.

Features of DigixDAO

Digix utilizes Proof of Asset (PoA), which works this way: 

Users record the audit trail of an asset on the Ethereum blockchain to generate POA Asst Cards. Digix says, “the asset cards are certified using sequential digital signatures from the entities in the chain of custody, mainly Vendor,  Custodian, and Auditor, which are further validated with proof of purchase and depository receipts uploaded onto IPFS (IterPlanetary File System) for permanent record.” 

The Vendor in question is ValueMax Singapore, a mainboard-listed company that sells certified gold bars and products like luxury jewelry and timepieces. The auditor in question is a multinational auditing group Bureau Veritas Inspectorate, which checks the gold’s quality and quantity. And the custodian is MalcaAmit, a state of the art vault located in Le Freeport, Singapore. 

A Proof of Asset Cards contains the following info: 

  • Timestamp showing the date when the card was created
  • Stock keeping unit of the gold bar
  • The serial number of bar
  • Digital signatures of the vendor, custodian, and auditor
  • Receipt of purchase
  • Documentation of audit trail
  • Depository receipt
  • Storage fees due 

Digix’s DGX Tokens

DGX tokens tokenize gold in the network. One DGX token represents a gram of gold. Investors can redeem 100 DGX tokens for 100 grams of gold. DGX tokens are based on the Ethereum EIP20 protocol. DGX tokens are made to make gold accessible to the average person. Users can liquidate on their gold holdings at any time. 

Digix’s DGD Tokens 

The DGD token is the other token of Digix. DGD token holders can claim rewards based on how much DGX tokens they’ve used as transaction fees. Again, token holders can vote on network proposals and get rewards. Digix says they can make “active managerial decisions to any proposals submitted to DigixDAO.”

Unlike DGX tokens, you can’t redeem DGD tokens for gold. 

Key Metrics of DGD

On Sep 29,2020, DGD traded at $68.66 with a market cap of $10,220,244 that placed it at #479 in the market. Its 24-hour volume is $69,49.29, while its circulating and total supply is 148,863. The token’s all-time high was $597.66 (Feb 28, 2018), while its all-time low was $4.10 (May 03, 2016). 

Where to Buy and Store DGD Tokens

DGD token is listed as a market pair of ETH, BTC, INR, WETH, and USDT at Huobi Global, Bitrue, Livecoin, HitBTC, Bitbns, Coinbene, IDEX, Radar Relay, and Gate.io.

The token can be stored in any Ethereum-compatible wallet such as imToken, MyEtherWallet, Parity, Guarda Wallet, Trust Wallet, Trezor, and Ledger Nano. 

Final Thoughts

Digix manages to come with an original concept: one to make gold “cool again” with the help of a decentralized, secure blockchain. Anyone anywhere can now own the precious metals and liquidate their holdings at their own desired time. Perhaps this sets a new precedent for the precious metal industry and indeed the crypto and blockchain world. 

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

Argent wallet Review: Is It The Safest Mobile Wallet App Yet?

Argent is a smart contract wallet developed by Gerald, Julien, and Itamar of Argent Labs and launched in 2018. It is a revolutionary crypto wallet that embraces futuristic security and privacy measures in keeping your private keys safe. For instance, instead of the recovery seed synonymous with virtually every wallet’s security, the wallet introduces “Argent Guardians.” 

Moreover, while your average crypto wallet will only help you store, secure, and manage your altcoins, Argent does all these while allowing you to earn interest and borrow against your digital assets. It is also a Defi-centric wallet that features virtually all the most popular decentralized finance apps.

On the official Argent wallet website, Argent is described as the simplest and most secure crypto vault as well as the “Future of Money.” But how safe and convenient is this crypto wallet app? We answer these questions and tell you everything you need to know about the Argent wallet in this review.

Argent wallet key features

No transaction fees: Argent is the lone Ethereum based crypto wallet app that pays the transaction fee (GAS) on behalf of its clients. In effect, you won’t be charged a transaction fee when using the Argent wallet – regardless of the amounts involved.

PoolTogether dApp: Argent features the PoolTogether Defi app, a “No-loss savings game” that allows individuals to pool together and invest their Dai Coins and let the pool earn interest, with one person getting a chance to win the accumulated interest every week. The platform is powered by smart contracts to eliminate bias.

MakerDao: Argent features yet another Defi app – MakerDao. This is a smart-contract-powered service hosted on the Decentralized network that makes it possible for anyone to lend and earn interest on their digital assets or borrow, invest, and pay back with interest.

Compound Finance: Compound Finance is yet another Defi app that lets you lock your funds with the Compound Finance protocol that, in turn, lends these funds to dApp developers and other crypto investors within the Ethereum network while earning you regular interest.

Inbuilt exchange: You don’t have to leave the Argent wallet to buy, sell, or exchange your digital assets. The wallet features an in-built proprietary exchange and integrates the Kyber Network that has a crypto exchange where you can buy, sell, or exchange crypto for free.

Purchase crypto with fiat: Argent wallet makes it possible for anyone to buy crypto via either credit/debit cards or direct bank transfers.

Human readable addresses: Most crypto wallets (hardware, software, and app) use the traditional hexadecimal (a mix of letters, characters, and numbers) wallet address system. Argent, however, allows you to create a human-readable wallet address (forinstance.argent.xyz) that goes a long way in eliminating the costly errors of getting the wallet address wrong.

Argent security features

Password + Biometrics: Argent wallet is secured with a password that you get to set when creating a user account for your new wallet. You also have the option of activating the biometric security features like fingerprint and Face ID for compatible devices.

Argent guardians: In the place of recovery seeds, the Argent wallet has Argent Guardians. These may be people like close family members using Argent, a phone number or email address that you can use to activate two-factor activation, or other wallets (like Trezor or Ledger). Through smart contracts, you can give these people or devices limited power over your wallet, including powers to help recover your wallet should you forget the password or help you recover lost wallets and private keys.

Transaction limits: Argent wallet lets you set the daily/weekly/monthly crypto transaction limits. This indicates that even if a hacker was to gain access to your wallet, there is a limit to how much they can get away with.

Freeze crypto wallet: Should you lose control of your account or suspect that it has been hacked, you can use Argent Guardians to freeze your wallet.

Non-custodial: Argent wallet doesn’t store your private keys or any of your personal data in their servers. Rather, this information is encrypted and stored on your mobile device.

How to set and activate the Argent wallet

Step 1: Download and install the Argent crypto wallet Google Play Store or Apple App Store

Step 2: Launch the installed app and select “Create a new wallet.”

Step 3: Chose a unique username for your wallet.

Step 4: The wallet will ask for both your mobile number and email address. It will then send you a verification code via SMS and also send you the Activation link via email (both are time-sensitive)

Step 5: You will then receive an email stating whether your wallet has been created or if you have been added to the waitlist.

Step 6: If (or when) the wallet is activated, the app will display a message asking you to finish the wallet creation process

Step 7: Create a passcode to secure your wallet and set up the fingerprint login option (optional)

Step 8: Your Argent wallet is now active and ready to use

How to add/receive crypto into your Argent wallet

Step 1: Log in to your Argent wallet and click on the “Add Funds” tab

Step 2: The wallet deposit will present you with your wallet address and QR code

Step 3: Copy either and forward them to the party sending you altcoins.

Step 4: Alternatively, choose to buy coins from the integrated exchanges

Step 5: Follow the prompts to deposit fiat into the exchange and purchase your preferred crypto.

How to send crypto from your Argent wallet

Step 1: Log in to your Argent wallet and tap on the “Send” icon

Step 2: If you have multiple assets in your wallet, choose the wallet from which to send coins

Step 3: On the transfer window, enter the recipient’s wallet address and the amount of crypto you want to send

Step 4: Alternatively, select the recipient’s wallet address from your contacts tab

Argent wallet ease of use

Argent wallet is highly intuitive and embraces a minimalist design that only features a few buttons on the user interface. It also has smooth and lag-free navigation.

The wallet app is also multilingual and available in four languages. And all these make it appealing to both expert and novice traders.

Argent wallet supported currencies and countries.

Argent is a multicurrency but Ethereum-specific crypto wallet app that currently supports more than 70 cryptocurrencies and tokens. These include Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, all the ERC-20 tokens, and the non-fungible ERC-721 tokens.

Argent wallet cost and fees

Argent is a fee-less cryptocurrency, and you, therefore, will not be charged to download, send/receive crypto into your wallet, or to store these coins in there.

What are the pros and cons of using the Argent wallet:

Pros:

  • Argent wallet is truly free as they pay the GAS transaction fees on your behalf.
  • The wallet employs highly innovative and effective security measures.
  • You don’t have to worry about forgetting your recovery seed when you have Argent Guardians.
  • Argent integrates several Defi apps that let you invest and earn interest from your digital assets.
  • Transaction limits and the ability to freeze the wallet minimize the extent of damage a hacker can cause

Cons:

  • Argent is an Ethereum-only wallet.
  • Though built on the Ethereum network, it doesn’t give you access to most dApps or the block explorer.
  • The fee-free approach may not be sustainable in the long run.

Comparing Argent wallet with other Ethereum-based wallets

Argent wallet vs. MyEtherwallet

Argent and MyEtherwallet are Ethereum-specific wallets that will only support altcoins and cryptos built on the Ethereum blockchain network. However, they embrace different operational and security measures in that while Argent is free, MyEtherwallet charges transaction fees for outbound transactions. Similarly, while MyEtherwallet relies on recovery seed to backup your private keys, the Argent wallet introduces the Guardians. Further, Argent also hosts more cryptos and tokens, embraces more security features, and has an easier-to-use interface.

Verdict: Is the Argent wallet safe?

Well, the Argent wallet has put in place adequate security measures aimed at securing the wallet and limiting the amount of harm that a hacker can cause should they gain access to your account. But a recent security report about Argent Wallet described a highly severe vulnerability that could have allowed hackers to use a bug in Argent’s code and access accounts without Argent Guardians and empty their private keys. And while this vulnerability was discovered and patched early enough by crypto security experts, one can’t help but wonder why it went undiscovered by the Argent team for so long and how many other bugs and vulnerabilities are yet to be discovered.  

Categories
Crypto Market Analysis

Daily Crypto Review, Oct 15 – JP Morgan Says Bitcoin is Overvalued; XRP Crashes As it Breaks Major Support

The cryptocurrency sector has spent the day trying to find a point of consolidation. However, most cryptocurrencies did end up in the red. Bitcoin is currently trading for $11,412, representing a decrease of 0.38% on the day. Meanwhile, Ethereum lost 1.28% on the day, while XRP lost 3.36%.

 Daily Crypto Sector Heat Map

If we look at the top 100 cryptocurrencies, we can see that ABBC Coin gained 21.28% in the past 24 hours, making it the top daily gainer. Reserve Rights (19.41%) and Ren (13.61%) also did great. On the other hand, Storj lost 13.98%, making it the most prominent daily loser. It is followed by Uniswap’s loss of 12.63% and Energy Web Token’s loss of 9.94%.

Top 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bottom 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bitcoin’s market dominance level has decreased since our last report, with its value currently being 58.7%. This value represents a 2.54% difference to the downside when compared to when we last reported.

Daily Crypto Market Cap Chart

The crypto sector capitalization has lost a bit of its value over the course of the past 24 hours. Its current value is $360.10 billion, representing a decrease of $1.88 billion compared to our previous report.

_______________________________________________________________________

What happened in the past 24 hours?

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Technical analysis

_______________________________________________________________________

Bitcoin

The largest cryptocurrency by market cap spent the past 24 hours stuck within a range bound by the $11,300 support level and $11,500 resistance level. The price entered a state of enormous volatility at one point, where Bitcoin tried to break both to the upside and downside. However, the move to the upside was quickly shut down, while the move towards the downside took a bit more time but failed as well. This left Bitcoin in a narrow range, which it will come out of as soon as the bulls and bears stabilize. Its decreasing RSI and volume are proof of future possible, sideways trading, as well as a big move up ahead.

BTC/USD 1-day Chart

Bitcoin’s technical overview is extremely bullish on every single time-frame, with longer time-frames showing full tilt towards the buy-side, while the shorter ones are slightly tilted towards the buy-side.

BTC/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical factors (4-hour Chart):
  • Price is above its 50-period EMA and at its 21-period EMA
  • Price is at the middle Bollinger band
  • RSI is neutral and descending (53.49)
  • Volume is average
Key levels to the upside          Key levels to the downside

1: $11,500                                 1: $11,300

2: $11,630                                 2: $11,180

3: $12,000                                  3: $11,000

Ethereum

Ethereum (just like Bitcoin) tried to find a consolidation price but failed to do so. The second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap faced an upward-facing trend line which it could not follow anymore that triggered a selloff and a drop below the line as well as the $378 support level. While Ethereum is still fighting for the support (now resistance) level, the price will most likely stay above this line.

ETH/USD 4-hour Chart

Ethereum’s technicals on all time-frames are bullish, with longer time-frames having a stronger bullish sentiment than the shorter ones. However, its monthly overview’s oscillators are showing indecisiveness, as they are neutral.

ETH/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical Factors (4-hour Chart):
  • The price is above its 50-period and at its 21-period EMA
  • The price at its middle Bollinger band
  • RSI is neutral (51.89)
  • Volume is average
Key levels to the upside          Key levels to the downside

1: $378                                     1: $371

2: $400                                     2: $360

3: $415                                      3: $334

Ripple

XRP had the worst day performance-wise out of the three cryptocurrencies we are covering. The third-largest cryptocurrency by market cap has dropped below its ascending support trend line, which extended the push towards the downside. The price reached as low as the $0.2454 support level, which is where the bulls picked up the pace and pushed the price up slightly.

Traders should pay attention to how XRP’s price moves around the ascending (yellow) resistance line, as well as the $0.2454 support level.

XRP/USD 4-hour Chart

XRP’s technicals are quite inconsistent, with its 4-hour and monthly technicals being tilted towards the sell-side. On the other hand, its weekly overview is bullish, while its daily overview is tilted more towards the bull side, with moving averages still having a hint of bearish sentiment.

XRP/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical factors (4-hour Chart):
  • The price is below both its 50-period EMA as well as its 21-period EMA
  • Price is at its lower Bollinger band
  • RSI is pushing towards the oversold area (38.64)
  • Volume is average (with the exception of one huge volume candle)
Key levels to the upside          Key levels to the downside

1: $0.266                                   1: $0.2454 

2: $0.27                                     2: $0.235

3: $0.273                                  3: $0.227

 

Categories
Crypto Videos

Ethereum Is Still Not Ready For DeFi! – What Does This Mean For Investors?

 

“Ethereum Still Not Ready For DeFi” – Critics Claim

As almost every single DeFi project flocked to Ethereum, experts warn that the network is not yet ready to support the frenzy that is DeFi.
Martin Froehler, a former hedge fund manager, mathematician, and founder of Austrian crypto trading platform Morpher, said that although Ethereum is surely the “best thing the blockchain industry can offer” to DeFi, its current network capabilities are still not enough:
“Ethereum can, at the moment, only handle about 15 transactions per second, and has a block time of 15 seconds, which is an eternity in finance. As people go into DeFi, they have to interact with Ethereum, meaning that everyone interacting with it needs Ether on their wallets. That is a huge barrier to entry, which may slow down mass adoption.”

Froehler considers Ethereum to be the most decentralized smart contract platform. However, because the network still has issues, many developers have had to look for solutions to counter them.  Froehler then added:
“There is cryptographic proof for everything happening on the sidechain on Ethereum, meaning that people are able to trade without actually needing Ether. They don’t pay any fees while enjoying a settlement time of one second, and being completely independent of the many congestions that the Ethereum network may cause.”

Many industry players feel like Ethereum did not anticipate the DeFi hype properly and that even with the much-discussed upcoming network upgrade, Ethereum 2.0, it will still not be ready to service DeFi and its appetites.

Ethereum 2.0 is implemented in order to improve performance, but its high gas prices may just scare off new users. Sergej Kunz, CEO of decentralized exchange 1inch, spoke about the issue and said that the Ethereum infrastructure currently lacks the capacity to host the DeFi environment:

“You will have to rethink everything. It’s true that you can migrate smart contracts to the code, but that’s not scalable. To be able to scale, you would have to create standards and bring new protocols that are based on the new sharded architecture, something like NEAR, which is similar to Ethereum 2.0.”

Mounir Benchemled, founder and CEO of ParaSwap, pointed out that the sheer complexity of explaining how a layer-2 works to end-users “and the risk of not being able to actually pay the funds immediately to these users” cause a lot of concern. Benchemled added that it is not practical for all DeFi projects to instantly swap to Ethereum 2.0:

“For it to work, all applications would almost be required to move towards one single platform. While major projects might have consensus, there are other projects who have their own agendas, and it might be hard for them. New bridges will have to be built to allow interoperability.” Despite all the challenges ahead for the Ethereum blockchain, everyone agreed that “DeFi is here to stay.”

Categories
Crypto Daily Topic

What’s Measurable Data Token All About? 

Living in the digital age means we leave digital footprints every time we log in to an application. This data is very lucrative to the companies behind these applications – it’s like the new oil, and yet the owners of that data do not benefit from it in any meaningful way. Additionally, they have almost no control over their data privacy.

What if data owners had more control over how their data is handled and earned from it? Blockchain can make this possible. The technology’s qualities of decentralization and transparency can help make this a reality. 

Launched in 2017, Measurable Data Token is a token designed to achieve this through a decentralized data exchange ecosystem. It connects data providers, users, and buyers, and ascribes value to data to make economic sense to owners. 

How MDT Works 

#1. Decentralized Data Trading Economy

Through MDT, the team wants to end the era of corporates trading user data without their consent. It wants to create a decentralized data ecosystem that is fair and beneficial to all parties, and it wants to do this by creating a new platform and assigning economic value to data. The MDT token is the unit of data exchange that will connect platform users. 

It will compensate data owners for sharing their anonymous data while offering data buyers and providers a more effective and transparent model. In the MDT ecosystem, data owners can finally reclaim the true value of their data.

On their part, buyers will have a better trading model in terms of security, transparency, and speed. Cryptographically secured smart contracts will eliminate the potential risk of fraud, as will a completely transparent process. Unlike a traditional data exchange model, where buyers are at risk of purchasing invalid data, they can participate in the validation process in MDT. The MDT platform is held together by MDT token – which is the most significant component of the ecosystem. 

#2. MDT Technology and Participants

The MDT platform relies on several technologies to accomplish its big picture. Below, we’ll take a look at the main pieces of technology. We’ll also see the participants of the ecosystem. 

  • Measurable Data SDK 

This is a free software development kit by the MDT team that users, including providers and developers, can use. The kit also includes a wallet address that users can leverage to store and track their rewards. 

  • Data Provider

This is an entity that obtains users’ anonymous data and uses rewards data owners (users) with MDT tokens.

  • User

These are users who share their data in the MDT ecosystem and receive rewards in the form of MDT tokens.

  • Data Buyer 

The entity buys the rights to the use of owners’ data. They could get this data either through accessing the database or by buying it from providers. At the moment, buyers do not get the ownership rights of such data. 

  • Measurable Data Point

This is a data point that results from every transaction. It has a denomination that ascribes value to it in the ecosystem. 

  • Measurable Platform

This is a decentralized data exchange (DEX) that facilitates transactions between data owners, providers, and buyers. It provides for secure and immutable transactions. Initially, those actions would be administered by the MDT platform. However, the network will, in the near future, switch to a purely smart contracts-based model.

#3. MyMDT App 

MyMDT app is a decentralized application (DApp) based on Ethereum through which users can get rewarded for sharing data on the platform. It’s the user-facing part of the ecosystem, and you can join the MDT ecosystem through it. The app currently supports three features: 

  • Allowing users to join the MDT ecosystem and share anonymous data so they can earn MDT tokens
  • Allocates rewards to users 
  • Allows users to earn rewards for completing certain tailor-made tasks for third-party applications

Community Strategy of MDT

The MDT team plans to pursue several strategies in the future to advance its growth. 

Current strategies include: 

  • Carrying out marketing campaigns on various social media platforms
  • Partnering with other industry players such as exchanges in joints campaign efforts including seminars
  • working together with prominent institutions such as Nanyang Technological University of Singapore to hold blockchain hackathons
  • Curating content for various video formats to increase awareness of data rewards
  • Updating community members weekly on the program’s development

Future strategies include the following: 

  • Introduce data reward apps in various data formats to sell the idea to the mainstream
  • Launch an ambassador campaign
  • Work with artificial intelligence companies to increase awareness on data reward responsibility in the public

The MDT Token

The Measurable Data Token (MDT), which has the same name as the platform, is based on the Ethereum blockchain and is used to monetize their own data 

Measurable Data Token was distributed in the following manner: 

  • Seed sale: 15%
  • Private sale: 35%
  • Equity investors: 10%
  • Team tokens: 10%
  • Advisors’ tokens: 1%
  • User growth pool: 15%

Key Metrics 

On Sep 29, 2020, MDT traded at $0.013749, with a market cap of $9,043,789, which placed it at #528. It has a 24-hour volume of $229,322, a circulating supply of 657,790,346, and a total supply of 1 billion. It has an all-time high of $0.858288 (Jan 10, 2018) and an all-time low of $0.001614 (Dec 17, 2018). 

Where to Buy and Store MDT 

There’s no shortage of where to purchase MDT tokens. The token is listed on several reputable exchanges, including Binance, DigiFinex, Gate.io, Poloniex, Bittrex, Uniswap, BKEX, Uniswap, and Bancor Network. You can find it listed against currencies such as BTC, ETH, WETH, TRX, BNB, and USDT. 

Options for storing MDT include Ledger, Trezor, KeepKey, MyEtherWallet, Coinomi, Exodus, and My Data Token Wallet. 

Final Thoughts

The MDT platform is among many blockchain-based platforms that seek to solve the problem of big and powerful companies profiting off user data while the users walk away with nothing. What sets it apart is its MyMDT app that allows users to get on board the platform and start trading data conveniently. The MDT team will need to keep innovating if it’s to go toe-to-toe with similar projects in the space.

Categories
Crypto Market Analysis

Daily Crypto Review, Oct 14 – Analysts Calling for a Bull Market; Bitcoin Back Under $11,500

The cryptocurrency sector has experienced a pullback as Bitcoin went under its $11,500 support. Bitcoin is currently trading for $11,425, representing a decrease of 0.31% on the day. Meanwhile, Ethereum gained 0.09% on the day, while XRP lost 0.52%.

 Daily Crypto Sector Heat Map

If we look at the top 100 cryptocurrencies, we can see that PumaPay gained 13.55% in the past 24 hours, making it the top daily gainer. ABBC Coin (9.05%) and Uniswap (6.64%) also did great. On the other hand, Solana lost 7.81%, making it the most prominent daily loser. It is followed by Loopring’s loss of 6.9% and Kusama’s loss of 6.77%.

Top 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bottom 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bitcoin’s market dominance level has decreased slightly since our last report, with its value currently being 60.24%. This value represents a 0.16% difference to the downside when compared to when we last reported.

Daily Crypto Market Cap Chart

The crypto sector capitalization has lost a bit of its value over the course of the past 24 hours. Its current value is $361.98 billion, representing a decrease of $5.11 billion compared to our previous report.

_______________________________________________________________________

What happened in the past 24 hours?

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Technical analysis

_______________________________________________________________________

Bitcoin

The largest cryptocurrency by market cap went into pullback mode as it couldn’t stay at its daily high of a little over $11,700. Bitcoin’s bull exhaustion triggered a pullback, which then broke the $11,500 support level to the downside, putting the cryptocurrency boxed in between $10,300 support and $10,500 resistance level. With the volume decreasing and RSI dropping down, we may expect sideways trading in the short-term before another attempt of (mostly likely) upwards motion.

Many analysts say that Bitcoin has almost no chance of going under $11,000 and that the most recent break above it has turned Bitcoin’s sentiment into a bullish one. However, if Bitcoin manages to go under $11,000, we may expect that the move will continue downwards quickly.

BTC/USD 4-hour Chart

Bitcoin’s technical overview is extremely bullish on all time-frames, with longer time-frames showing even stronger bull overview than the shorter ones.

BTC/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical factors (4-hour Chart):
  • Price is above both its 50-period EMA and 21-period EMA
  • Price is at the middle Bollinger band
  • RSI is descending (57.23)
  • Volume is above-average (descending
Key levels to the upside          Key levels to the downside

1: $11,500                                 1: $11,300

2: $11,630                                 2: $11,180

3: $12,000                                  3: $11,000

Ethereum

Ethereum also experienced a pullback from its highs as ETH bulls couldn’t go past $496. However, unlike Bitcoin, Ethereum didn’t break any support levels during the move towards the downside. As it bounced off of the $378 support level, it continued moving alongside a very steep upwards-trending line, which is a very bullish short-term sign.

While moving alongside this line is unsustainable in the long-term, Ethereum might experience some more stable gains in the next couple of days.

ETH/USD 4-hour Chart

Ethereum’s 1-day and weekly overviews extreme tilt towards the bull-side, while its 4-hour and monthly overviews show a bit of indecisiveness, though they are still bullish.

ETH/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical Factors (4-hour Chart):
  • The price is above both its 50-period and its 21-period EMA
  • The price slightly above its middle Bollinger band
  • RSI is neutral (60.70)
  • Volume is elevated (descending to average)
Key levels to the upside          Key levels to the downside

1: $378                                     1: $371

2: $400                                     2: $360

3: $415                                      3: $334

Ripple

XRP is known for being less correlated to Bitcoin’s movements than most other cryptocurrencies, which it has shown today as well. The third-largest cryptocurrency by market cap has traded sideways and hasn’t experienced any pullbacks. It has been trading alongside the upward-trending (yellow) line, which will force XRP to either go under it or face its resistance at the $0.26 level. In the meantime, however, we may expect low volatility.

XRP/USD 4-hour Chart

XRP’s technicals are quite inconsistent, as its daily and weekly overviews show quite a bullish tilt, while its monthly overview is almost completely bearish. Its 4-hour overview is leaning towards the buy-side but is quite neutral.

XRP/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical factors (4-hour Chart):
  • The price is above its 50-period EMA as well as its 21-period EMA
  • Price is at its middle Bollinger band
  • RSI is flat (52.19)
  • Volume is average but descending
Key levels to the upside          Key levels to the downside

1: $0.266                                   1: $0.2454 

2: $0.27                                     2: $0.235

3: $0.273                                  3: $0.227

 

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

NEON Wallet Review: Is It The Safest Neo Blockchain Wallet Yet?

NEON Wallet makes it to the list of the most popular wallets designed to store and facilitate your interaction with NEO coins and tokens built on the Neo blockchain. It’s an open-sourced desktop wallet app developed by the City of Zion team and introduced to the world in July 2017. And though it isn’t the official Neo wallet, its code has been reviewed, tested, and approved by the Neo Network developers.

Neon Wallet is marketed as an intuitive, easy to use, and highly secure desktop wallet apps available today. But how true are these claims? What are the factors that make it intuitive and secure? More importantly, how does it compare to other Neo wallets? We answer these questions and tell you everything you need to know about NEON Wallet.

NEON Wallet key features

Cross-platform: Neon wallet is a cross-platform desktop crypto vault that is compatible with all the popular computer operating systems, including Windows, macOS, and Linux. Updated versions of this wallet are available on both the wallet website and GitHub.

Integrates hardware wallets: Neon wallet is compatible with the different types of Ledger hardware wallets. This provides a much-needed boost to not only the number of supported cryptos but also amplifies the security of your private keys.

Multi-coin support: While the Neon wallet is specific to the Neo-blockchain, it supports a host of different coins. These include Neo-blockchain’s native crypto, Neo Coin, GAS, and all the NEP5 tokens.

Lightweight node: Neon wallet is a lightweight, and this means that you don’t have to download the entire NEON blockchain. It, therefore, doesn’t eat into your computer space, speed, or battery life.

Security features

Password encryption: NEON Wallet, like most other desktop-based crypto wallets, is secured with a password, which not only protects the wallet but also acts as an encryption tool for the data therein.

Open source: The Neon wallet is also built on an open-sourced technology. Anyone, including Neon wallet users and Blockchain experts, can view, audit, and propose suggestions on how to best improve the crypto vault. You can view this code from either the NEON Wallet website or the GitHub repository.

Non-custodial: NEON Wallet is a light node desktop client that doesn’t hold your data or store your private keys within their servers. Instead, it gives you absolute control over your private keys by encrypting and saving them in your device.

Backup private keys and history: Neon wallet doesn’t provide its users with a recovery seed. However, they make it possible for you to export and import your decrypted private keys and save them offline in a USB drive or write them down on a piece of paper and store them offline.

How to set and activate the Neon wallet

Step 1: On the Neon wallet website or GitHub, download the updated desktop client that is compatible with your computers operating system

Step 2: Install and launch the wallet.

Step 3: On the startup page, you will be presented with a variety of options; click on the “Create a New Wallet” tab

Step 4: You will now be required to set and verify this password (this protects and encrypts your password)

Step 5: Click on the “Generate Keys” icon to generate an address for your wallet.

Step 6: The wallet will now display the passphrase, public address, private key, and encrypted key. Save this information on your computer or print it and save the copy offline.

Step 7: Hit the‘ Back’ icon to get back to the wallet homepage where you can log in using the saved credentials

Step 8: Your wallet is now active and ready to use

How to add/receive crypto into your Neon wallet

Step1: Login to your Neon wallet

Step 2: Copy the wallet’s public address using the copy clipboard option.

Step 3: Use the copied address to withdraw funds from an exchange or forward it to the party sending you cryptocurrencies

Step 4: Wait for the coins/tokens to reflect on your wallet.

How to send crypto from your Neon wallet

Step 1: Log in to your desktop wallet and click ‘send.’

Step 2: On the ‘Where to send the asset’ section of the transaction details page, enter the recipient’s Neo wallet address and in the amount section, enter the amount of NEO coins you intend to send.

Step 3: Confirm the correctness of these transaction details and hit ‘Send.’

Neon Wallet ease of use

Neon Wallet has a pretty straightforward onboarding process. We also found the wallet to be highly intuitive and beginner-friendly with the send and buy commands strategically placed on the user dashboard. Most of the wallet’s recent upgrades have also been directed towards improving its functionality, as indicated on Neon Wallet’s GitHub page.

For instance, recent updates have ensured that the wallet supports offline signing and authorization of transactions. Additionally, the wallet developers have also introduced multi-lingual functionality to the desktop client and made it available in over ten international languages.

Neon Wallet supported currencies and countries

Neon Wallet is Neo-specific implying that it will only support the Neo coins and any other tokens built on the Neon blockchain.

The supported cryptocurrencies currently include GAS tokens and all NEP5 tokens.

Neon wallet cost and fees

Downloading and installing Neon Wallet or creating a user account is free. You also won’t be charged for storing Neo coins and supported tokens on the wallet.

You will, however, be charged a small transaction fee every time you initiate an outbound transfer. How much you pay in GAS fees is largely dependent on such factors like the number of coins you wish to send and the type of cryptocurrency.

In addition to the transaction fee charged by the Neo blockchain, you might also have to incur additional charges imposed by crypto exchanges.

Note that Neon Wallet will only process whole numbers. Transaction charges will be deducted from the amounts being transferred. For instance, if you wish to send crypto from the Bittrex exchange that charges a $0.1 fee for Neo transactions, you are encouraged only to withdraw a whole number plus the fee. For example, withdraw $28.1 and not $28.5 as the extra $0.4 may be lost.

What are the pros and cons of using the Neon wallet?

Pros:

  • Neon Wallet is highly versatile and compatible with multiple operating systems.
  • The wallet has put in place solid security measures.
  • It is a light wallet that doesn’t require you to download the entire blockchain.
  • The wallet gives you total control of your wallets.
  • The wallet is highly intuitive and has a beginner-friendly user interface.

Cons:

  • It doesn’t support the two-factor functionality.
  • One may consider the number of coins and tokens supported by NEON wallet limited.
  • Neon Wallet stores your private keys in your computer, and this requires that you first invest in quality antivirus that may be costly.
  • One may consider the Neon Wallet’s onboarding process too complicated.

Comparing Neon Wallet with other Neo blockchain wallets

Neon Wallet vs. Neo GUI

Neon Wallet and Neo GUI are both Neo-specific, implying that they will only support Neo coins. Both wallets are also open-sourced, and they have been vetted and approved by the Neon Blockchain development team.

While Neon Wallet is a light node desktop wallet, Neo GUI is a full-stack desktop client. You will need to download the Neo Blockchain to your wallet and synchronize it with the Neo Network main-net if you wish to use Neo GUI. Additionally, the Neon Wallet connects to the Neo Blockchain remotely via nodes, while Neo GUI gives you direct access to the Neo Blockchain user interface.

Verdict: Is Neon wallet safe?

Well, we believe that while Neon wallet has put in place several security measures aimed at protecting your private keys, it has also ignored some key features that would have made the wallet safer. For instance, it doesn’t support two-factor functionality or multi-signature signing. The wallet address generation process is also not hierarchically deterministic. All these, plus the fact that it is an online-based wallet and thus exposed to threats inherent to hot wallets, pierce its security veil. Its ease of use and inexpensive transaction costs nevertheless make it ideal for active smallholder traders. 

Categories
Crypto Daily Topic

Introducing the Standard Tokenization Protocol (STP)

Security issuance in the traditional world is faced with so many challenges. And many of these challenges stem from the centralized nature of the system – from costly intermediaries to inaccurate records to fraud-prone processes.

Blockchain technology provides an opportunity for the industry to rectify these shortcomings. It facilitates the decentralized and peer-to-peer exchange of assets as it does trustless and fraud-free transactions. 

The Standard Tokenization Protocol is a blockchain effort that wants to make this possible. And it has the bonus of making sure these assets are legally compliant, eliminating any potential friction with authorities. 

How does it achieve that? This article is an attempt to answering that question. 

Breaking Down STP

The Standard Tokenization Protocol is a blockchain effort aimed at cross-chain assets tokenization. It wants to differentiate itself from similar protocols by supporting assets in a way that makes them compliant with various jurisdictions. The end goal for STP is to popularize the knowledge and usage of digital assets around the world.

The STP whitepaper describes itself as “a decentralized platform for digital asset issuance powered by the STP token, a new smart contract protocol framework for compliance offerings.” It also states that it aims to “enable the movement of digital assets in a globally compliant manner.” 

STP wants to address the issues of traditional security-issuing platforms. 

The Problems with Traditional Options

  • Security issuance in the traditional system involves intermediaries who add to the bloat and expenses of the process
  • Often, there’s a limit on the scale of participants that can be involved in security issuance and trading at any time, in an attempt to minimize the manual process 
  • The restrictions lead to the securities being less liquid in the market

Benefits of Digital Assets

#1. Digital assets are programmable

Blockchain enables programmability for digital assets. Blockchain-enabled smart contracts can automatically move value in a peer-to-peer manner from one party to another when certain thresholds are met. This massively reduces costs.

#2. Fractional ownership

Fractional ownership enables investors to purchase part of traditionally valuable assets such as rare art and antique cars, and even assets that were previously a preserve of the wealthy such as real estate. This enables such assets to be liquid as opposed to if the process involved looking for one single buyer. 

#3. Increased liquidity

Liquidity is how fast a product is sold once it’s listed on the market. It’s the opposite of illiquidity, which is when a product takes too long to find an exit position once it’s listed. Fractionalization of assets increases liquidity since it increases the number of buyers interested in purchasing a product. 

#4. Peer-to-peer transactions 

At its core, decentralization stands for the transfer of assets between parties without the involvement of overseeing authorities or intermediaries. The STP protocol ensures the peer-to-peer transfer of assets executed via smart contracts. 

#5. Automated compliance

Traditional compliance procedures involve lengthy Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) procedures to ensure trust. On the other hand, blockchain-powered transactions are inherently transparent, making them trustless and legally compliant. 

The STP Standard 

The STP Standard is a protocol that oversees the generation, issuance, and transfer of tokenized assets. The protocol has a Compliance Validator that checks whether token issuance meets all the requirements -whether it’s accreditation, AML, and so on. There’s a validator committee whose work is to ensure this compliance is met. The STP network enables assets to move across geographical borders in a compliant manner. 

Use Cases of the STP Protocol

The STP standard can be applied to several use cases across different industries. Let’s take a look at three of them: 

#.1. Compliant asset tokenization 

Asset owners from anywhere can use the STP protocol to tokenize their assets on the blockchain, increasing their liquidity. 

#2. Mobile platform 

Various users, such as retail investors, can access the STP platform conveniently via their mobile app. Not only will they be able to access wealth management tools, but they can also find projects to invest in, and if they’re the owners of a project, they can find the right audience in the platform. 

#3. Blockchain-based crowdfunding

With the native cryptocurrency, STP, investors will be able to access new financial tools such as blockchain-based crowdfunding via smart contracts. Such onchain crowdfunding is safer, more secure, and more transparent than traditional crowdfunding. 

STP Protocol’s Community Growth Strategies

The STP team plans to implement several strategies in the near future in a bid to build a bigger community. These strategies are as follows: 

  • Team up with various industry players so as to expand its ecosystem
  • Hold airdrops and similar marketing campaigns to build community engagement
  • Engage with the community on various social media platforms
  • Keep the community updated on quarterly initiatives
  • Launch Ambassador Programs to promote the idea of decentralization everywhere

The STP Token

The native cryptocurrency of the STP network is known as STPT. The token will serve several crucial roles in the network, including the following: 

  • Enable users to fractionalize assets or features of those assets
  • As ‘gas’ for powering verification processes and transactions
  • As staking so as to take part in the proof of stake consensus mechanism
  • As a governance mechanism through which to contribute to major decisions of the network
  • As a reward for good behavior 

STP’s token distribution was as follows:

  • Bittrex IEO token sale – 3.75%
  • First private sale – 25%
  • Second private sale – 5%
  • Team tokens – 18.75%
  • Token treasury tokens – 7.5%
  • Token reserve tokens – 40%

Key Metrics of STP Token

If you’re interested in buying the STP token, then you need to know its current standing in the market. As of Sep 22, the token is trading at $0.019297 while ranking at #396. It has a market cap of $15,793,071, with a 24-hour volume of $2,738,104, a circulating supply of 818,409,893, and a total supply of 1,942,420,283. The token’s all-time high was $0.094944 (June 27, 2019), while its all-time low was $0.005800 (Sep 30, 2019). 

Where to Buy STP Tokens

You can purchase STP tokens at any of several crypto exchanges, including Coinone Upbit, Coinone, VCC Exchange, Bithumb Global, BitMax, Huobi Global, Bittrex Poloniex, Bitsonic, Gate.io, and CoinDCX. 

Closing Thoughts

STP is leading from the front to set a new standard for assets issuance. Issuers no longer have to deal with the burden of complying with regulations. All in all, users can expect a more accessible, inclusive, and efficient token issuance platform. 

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

NEO GUI wallet Review: How Safe Is This Full-Stack Desktop Client?

NEO GUI is the Neo blockchain’s official desktop client and was developed by the Neo network developers. It is a full-stack client, implying that you will need to download the Neo blockchain into your computer. It works by synchronizing the desktop client functions with those of the Neo MainNet in real-time. Unlike desktop apps and light node desktop clients connected to the blockchain node via remote nodes, NEO GUI connects to the Neo network’s graphical user interface directly.

On their GitHub download page, Neo GUI is said to support all the Neo network’s basic functions that include providing professional interaction between wallet and blockchain and maintaining high security for the wallet. But are these claims true? Is the wallet as intuitive and secure as advertised? We answer these questions and tell you everything else you need to know about the Neo GUI wallet in this review:

We start by looking at the basic features:

Neo GUI key features

Full-stack node: NEO GUI is a full-stack desktop wallet that requires you to download the Neo blockchain into your computer.

Synchronize with Neo blockchain: One of the critical factors that distinguish Neo GUI from other GUI desktop wallets is its synchronization with the Neo Network. While most other wallets use remote nodes to connect to the Neo blockchain, NEO GUI directly links to the NEO Mainnet’s user interface. It synchronizes with the network to ensure that transactions initiated on the wallet are recorded on the Neo blockchain in real-time.

OS-compatible: NEO GUI desktop client is also pretty versatile and compatible with Windows and macOS operating systems.

NEO GUI Security features

Password encryption: During the NEO GUI installation process and when creating the user account, you will be asked to secure the wallet by creating a password. Note that this not only serves as protection for the desktop wallet but also acts as an encryption tool.

Open source: Neo GUI wallet is built on an open-sourced blockchain technology and is open to scrutiny and critique by the crypto community. Therefore, anyone can access the Neo GUI source code from either the wallet’s official website or their GitHub page to view and audit its effectiveness and commitment to security.

Community-led development: NEO GUI is a community-led crypto project with no central governing body. Instead, updates and upgrades to the wallet emanate from the Neon Blockchain community’s suggestions and are led by blockchain technology experts elected by the community.

Anonymous trading: NEO GUI is committed to promoting user anonymity. To this end, the wallet allows for anonymous use of the platform since it doesn’t ask for your personal information when creating a user account, and neither will the blockchain collect and store information that is personally identifiable to you.

Non-custodial: Though the NEO GUI wallet can synchronize with the NEO MainNet and technically offloads most of its critical services to the Neo blockchain, it doesn’t store private keys on your behalf. Rather, it encrypts them and saves them on your computer.

Offline backup: Like most other full-stack desktop wallets, NEO GUI doesn’t provide you with a recovery seed. It nonetheless provides you with two ways of backing up your data and private keys. For starters, you can download the decrypted version of the synchronized blockchain and save it offline or simply copy your wallet credentials on a piece of paper and save them offline.

How to set and activate the NEO GUI wallet

Step 1: Start by downloading the desktop client to your computer. You can download the updated version of this client from the NEO.org website or their GitHub page.

Step 2: The wallet is downloaded as a zip version. Once complete, unzip this file, and start installing it.

Step 3: The wallet will display the user dashboard once complete. Proceed to create a new wallet by clicking on the “wallet” tab and selecting “New wallet address.”

Step 4: The wallet will now require you to choose the database or folder in which you would like to save the file

Step 5: You also need to create a user name and a unique password.

Step 6: Your NEO GUI wallet is now active and ready for use

How to add/receive crypto into your NEO GUI wallet

Step 1: Log in to your NEO-GUI wallet and access the user dashboard

Step 2: Your public wallet address is visible here. Copy it and send it to the party, sending you Neo coins

Step 3: Wait for your coins to reflect in your wallet.

How to send crypto from your NEO GUI wallet

Step 1: Login into your NEO GUI wallet and access the user dashboard

Step 2: Click on the “Transfer” tab, and the drop-down menu, select the “Transfer” option.

Step 3: If you do not have any saved addresses, click on the “+” button to add a recipient

Step 4: On the pop-up window, enter the recipient’s wallet address on the “Pay To” section and the number of coins you wish to send on the “Amount” section

Step 5: Confirm that these details are accurate and hit “OK.”

NEO GUI wallet ease of use

The processes of installing the NEO GUI wallet and creating a user account are quite straightforward. Its user dashboard is also easily navigable and quite beginner-friendly. Nevertheless, we must mention that synchronizing the desktop wallet with the Neo Network takes time and can be overwhelming for a novice crypto trader/investor. Plus, the wallet is only available in English and Chinese languages.

NEO GUI wallet supported currencies

NEO GUI wallet is Neo-Specific and will only support the blockchain’s native token or any other cryptocurrency built on the Neo Network.

Currently, the wallet only supports NEO coins, Gas, the NEP-5, and NEP-6 tokens.

NEO GUI wallet cost and fees

NEO GUI wallet is free to install and doesn’t charge you for storing private keys. However, you will be charged a network fee every time you send Neo coins from your wallet. The fee is highly variable and depends largely on the type and the amount of coin/token you wish to process.

What are the pros and cons of using the NEO GUI wallet:

Pros:

  • The wallet has transparent based on the fact that it is not only community-led but also open-sourced
  • It has an easily navigable and beginner-friendly user-interface
  • The desktop client can be considered safer than most other desktop wallet apps and web browsers.
  • NEO GUI makes it possible for you to backup your coins offline

Cons:

  • The desktop client is only available to Windows and macOS operating system users.
  • The wallet requires significant storage space and also eats into your computer’s memory.
  • Unlike in the case of wallet apps where processing speed is dependent on the speed of the servers, NEO GUI transaction confirmation speeds depend on your computer’s processing power.

Comparing NEO GUI wallet with other Neo blockchain wallets

NEO GUI wallet vs. Neon desktop wallet

NEO GUI and the Neon wallet are similar because they are both Neo-specific and are also desktop crypto vaults. They are both non-custodial and have put in place similar security features. However, while NEO GUI is a full-stack desktop client, Neon is a light node desktop wallet. Further, while NEO GUI links to the Neo network’s user interface directly, Neon uses remote nodes to access Neo blockchain servers.

Verdict: Is NEO GUI wallet safe?

Well, we recognize that the full stack desktop client has put in place several highly effective security measures aimed at guaranteeing the safety and anonymity of your private keys. These include allowing for the creation of offline backups, allowing anonymous transactions, storing private keys in the wallet owner’s computer, and securing and encrypting the wallet with a password. These, plus the wallet’s commitment to transparency, are all commendable. However, we must mention that it ignores critical security protocols like two-factor authorization to safeguard your wallet against remote hacks. 

Categories
Crypto Market Analysis

Daily Crypto Review, Oct 13 – G7 Will Continue to Oppose Libra; Bitcoin Consolidating After Another Bull Run

The cryptocurrency sector has experienced another surge as Bitcoin moved away from $11,300 and closer to $11,500. Bitcoin is currently trading for $11,434, representing an increase of 0.89% on the day. Meanwhile, Ethereum gained 3.35% on the day, while XRP gained 0.03%.

 Daily Crypto Sector Heat Map

Taking a look at the top 100 cryptocurrencies, we can see that Ocean Protocol gained 21.97% in the past 24 hours, making it the top daily gainer. CyberVein (14.58%) and Synthetix Network Token (11.83%) also did great. On the other hand, Ren lost 14.83%, making it the most prominent daily loser. It is followed by PumaPay’s loss of 8.33% and Uniswap’s loss of 3.33%.

Top 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bottom 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bitcoin’s market dominance level has decreased slightly since our last report, with its value currently being 60.40%. This value represents a 0.26% difference to the downside when compared to when we last reported.

Daily Crypto Market Cap Chart

The crypto sector capitalization has a bit more value over the course of the past 24 hours. Its current value is $366.13 billion, representing an increase of $7.71 billion compared to our previous report.

_______________________________________________________________________

What happened in the past 24 hours?

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Technical analysis

_______________________________________________________________________

Bitcoin

The largest cryptocurrency by market cap has continued its push towards the upside, getting past $11,500 and even close to the $12,000 mark. The move died out when it approached $11,750. Bitcoin is now in the pullback phase, where its price has breached $11,500 to the downside and is testing how low it can go until the bulls step in again.

Traders should pay attention to how Bitcoin handles the $11,300-$11,500 level when looking for their next trade.


BTC/USD 4-hour Chart

Bitcoin’s technical overview on all time-frames is tilted towards the buy-side, with longer time-frames showing an extremely strong bull overview.

BTC/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical factors (4-hour Chart):
  • Price is above both its 50-period EMA and 21-period EMA
  • Price descending from the top Bollinger band
  • RSI is descending from almost-overbought levels (62.46)
  • Volume is above-average
Key levels to the upside          Key levels to the downside

1: $11,500                                 1: $11,300

2: $11,630                                 2: $11,180

3: $12,000                                  3: $11,000

Ethereum

Ethereum has had another bull-run in the past 24 hours, with its price reaching as high as $396. However, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap couldn’t reach past the $400 mark, triggering bull exhaustion, and ultimately a pullback. With volume and RSI dropping, we may expect Ethereum to look for a price to consolidate a bit lower than its current price, and possibly test the $371 support level.


ETH/USD 4-hour Chart

Ethereum’s 1-day and monthly overviews show some signs of doubt in the bullish sentiment, while its 4-hour and weekly overviews are completely bullish.

ETH/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical Factors (4-hour Chart):
  • The price is above both its 50-period and its 21-period EMA
  • The price at its top Bollinger band
  • RSI is flat and nearly overbought (66.74)
  • Volume is elevated
Key levels to the upside          Key levels to the downside

1: $378                                     1: $371

2: $400                                     2: $360

3: $415                                      3: $334

Ripple

Unlike Bitcoin and Ethereum, which both had a strong bull presence today, XRP has been trading sideways for most of the day. Its inability to reach past the $0.26 level has proven to be a problem, and we may expect XRP’s price to collide with the ascending trend line very soon. There is a small probability that XRP will reach past $0.26 and get close to $0.266, but it will most likely happen with Bitcoin’s help (though it is more likely that XRP will face the ascending line first).


XRP/USD 4-hour Chart

XRP’s 1-day technicals show a hint of doubt in its short-term bullish sentiment, while the 4-hour and weekly overviews are completely bullish. However, XRP’s monthly overview is still completely tilted towards the sell-side.

XRP/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical factors (4-hour Chart):
  • The price is above its 50-period EMA as well as its 21-period EMA
  • Price is at its middle Bollinger band
  • RSI is flat (55.33)
  • Volume is average but descending
Key levels to the upside          Key levels to the downside

1: $0.266                                   1: $0.2454 

2: $0.27                                     2: $0.235

3: $0.273                                  3: $0.227

 

Categories
Crypto Videos

Is DEFI Doomed To Be The Next ICO!

 

DeFi is like ‘trying to fly to the moon in a cardboard box’

While DeFi is almost certainly the future, that future may not be today, according to Richard Byworth, the CEO of digital finance company Diginex. He added that the crypto, and especially the DeFi sector, has been bursting with innovation, exuberance, and speculation in recent months. However, the niche is still very much in its infancy.

“I do believe that DeFi is potentially the future down the road,” Byworth said during an interview with the co-founder of Morgan Creek Digital Anthony Pompliano. “But it’s very early,” he added, further elaborating:

“It’s like flying to the moon in a cardboard box. You are going to get yourself into trouble along the way, and things are going to break and burn up, as we have already started to see.”
These dramatic attempts, trials, and failures are not making the industry look great regarding various mainstream entities peering into the cryptocurrency sphere and its emerging DeFi niche.

“I definitely look back to 2017, and the whole DeFi thing is probably not what we all need right now,” Byworth said. “We have MicroStrategy coming in, we have Paul Tudor Jones coming in, we have some really serious hitters slowly but surely starting to pay attention to this industry. I just hope that DeFi doesn’t become just another ICO craze that makes people go, ‘you know what, everyone is crazy in crypto,’ and stay away from it for another couple of years.”

Taking a look back, the entire crypto industry reached its peak bubble status in 2017 due to the uptrend of initial coin offerings (ICOs for short), which were an attempt to improve the IPO model. However, this model turned into a fad and later got stomped out by various regulatory bodies. In recent weeks, DeFi’s growth and optimism surrounding it have given off similar vibes, with many completely random assets spiking in the price for no apparent reason.
Byworth is not the first one who compared the DeFi sector to the now-dead ICO sector from back in 2017. Ryan Selkis, the founder of digital asset data site Messari, recently expressed very similar thoughts.

Additionally, as Byworth mentioned, multiple very important mainstream giants have recently placed big bets on crypto and Bitcoin, possibly putting the industry at a pivotal point in life thus far.

Categories
Crypto Market Analysis

Daily Crypto Review, Oct 12 – Crypto Market Consolidating After a Surge: What’s Next?

The cryptocurrency sector has experienced a surge over the weekend as Bitcoin pushed above $11,000. Bitcoin is currently trading for $11,319, representing a decrease of 0.25% on the day. Meanwhile, Ethereum gained 0.09% on the day, while XRP gained 0.32%.

 Daily Crypto Sector Heat Map

Taking a look at the top 100 cryptocurrencies, we can see that Ren gained 27.02% in the past 24 hours, making it the top daily gainer. Monero (9.75%) and Cosmos (7.98%) also did great. On the other hand, Loopring lost 7.99%, making it the most prominent daily loser. It is followed by StorJ’s loss of 6.76% and PumaPay’s loss of 6.54%.

Top 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bottom 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bitcoin’s market dominance level has decreased slightly since our last report, with its value currently being 60.66%. This value represents a 0.67% difference to the downside when compared to when we last reported.

Daily Crypto Market Cap Chart

The crypto sector capitalization has gained quite a bit of value over the course of the weekend. Its current value is $358.48 billion, representing an increase of $14.33 billion compared to our previous report.

_______________________________________________________________________

What happened in the past 24 hours?

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Technical analysis

_______________________________________________________________________

Bitcoin

The largest cryptocurrency by market cap has continued its push towards the upside on Friday/Saturday, reaching as high as $11,500. The move has died out since, and Bitcoin is now trading in a narrow range between the $10,300 support level and $10,500 resistance level (61.8% Fib retracement). The volume seems to be dying off, while the RSI is descending, which may indicate a short window where traders shouldn’t expect much volatility, but rather trade within this range. However, Bitcoin cannot stay locked up in such a narrow range for too long and will have to make another move in the short future.


BTC/USD 4-hour Chart

Bitcoin’s technical overview is tilted towards the buy-side overall, but its short-term (4-hour and 1-day) technicals are a bit mixed up, with oscillators questioning the bullishness. However, its long-term outlook is completely bullish

BTC/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical factors (4-hour Chart):
  • Price is above both its 50-period EMA and 21-period EMA
  • Price is near the middle Bollinger band
  • RSI is descending from almost-overbought levels (66.90)
  • Volume is descending
Key levels to the upside          Key levels to the downside

1: $11,500                                 1: $11,300

2: $11,630                                 2: $11,180

3: $12,000                                  3: $11,000

Ethereum

Ethereum’s movement over the weekend was similar to Bitcoin’s, with its price skyrocketing on Friday/Saturday, only to consolidate after the move ended. Ethereum bulls reached exhaustion after the price hit the 38.2% Fib retracement, and started consolidating right below it. Just as with Bitcoin, Ethereum is stuck within a range, bound by $371 to the downside and $378 to the upside.

Ethereum’s flat (and nearly overbought) RSI and descending volume indicate that Ethereum is preparing for a move.

ETH/USD 4-hour Chart

Ethereum’s short-term technicals are somewhat unclear, with its 4-hour overview turning to bullish and 1-day overview still being tilted towards the sell-side quite heavily. On the other hand, its long-term technicals are quite bullish.

ETH/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical Factors (4-hour Chart):
  • The price is above both its 50-period and 21-period EMA
  • The price is near its middle Bollinger band
  • RSI is flat and nearly overbought(66.85)
  • Volume is below average
Key levels to the upside          Key levels to the downside

1: $378                                     1: $371

2: $400                                     2: $360

3: $415                                      3: $334

Ripple

While XRP has also moved over the weekend, its move was not as significant as Bitcoin’s or Ethereum’s move. This is simply because it did not break any recent resistances, but rather got stuck at the same one it couldn’t get past on Oct 6. XRP is now consolidating at around $0.255, and we may possibly see a pullback to the orange ascending line as a retest of this upward-facing trend.

XRP has two possibilities now: it will either push towards $0.266 (less likely) or pull back towards the ascending line (more likely). Traders should keep in mind both of these scenarios when attempting to trade XRP.

XRP/USD 4-hour Chart

XRP’s 4-hour, 1-day, and weekly technicals are practically the same and are all tilted towards the buy-side (with oscillators being more or less neutral), while its monthly overview is heavily tilted towards the sell-side.

XRP/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical factors (4-hour Chart):
  • The price is above its 50-period EMA and at its 21-period EMA
  • Price is at its middle Bollinger band
  • RSI is descending (52.16)
  • Volume is average (descending)
Key levels to the upside          Key levels to the downside

1: $0.266                                   1: $0.2454 

2: $0.27                                     2: $0.235

3: $0.273                                  3: $0.227

 

Categories
Forex Course Forex Daily Topic

149. Trading The Fakeouts In The Most Conservative Way

Introduction

Breakout trading is prevalent among all types of traders. Professional traders make a lot of cash by trading these breakouts, while some novice traders fail to effectively trade them. While trading these breakouts, the pretty basic strategy is to pull the trigger when the price breaks above or below any significant level. But many times, the price tends to reverse its direction and cause immediate losses. This is one of the most frustrating experiences breakout traders go through.

Did this ever happen to you, and did you wonder why this happens? The reason is that you have no pre-planned entries. You are just reacting to the price action and chasing the markets purely based on your feelings, but you must accept that the market has no feelings.

How to Trade the fakeouts?

❶ Primarily, find the confluence level on the price chart. This is a place where most of the indicators point towards one direction.

❷ Avoid trading range breakouts as both the parties hold equal power when the market is ranging. In this state of the market, the chance of spikes is very high. So it is always advisable to trade breakouts only in a trending market.

❸ Wait for the price to break above any significant level in an uptrend and break below any major level in a downtrend.

❹ Right after the breakout, wait for the price to test above or below any major level to confirm the breakout’s authenticity.

Trading Strategies

Buy Example

The image below represents a breakout in the EUR/CHF Forex pair.

As you can see in the below chart, we waited for the price action to holds above the breakout line. We have only entered the market after we confirmed the breakout. If the price action fails to hold, it simply means that it was a fakeout, and we can ignore it completely.

In this example, prices held above the breakout, which confirms the validity of the breakout. We took entry at the breakout line and chose to go for a brand new higher high. The exit was purely based on the higher timeframe’s significant resistance area, and the stop loss was just below our entry.

Sell Example

The image below represents a sell breakout in the GBP/NZD forex pair.

In the below image, we can see the price holding below the significant resistance level, which confirms the breakout. Our entry was at the red candle at the significant resistance level. The price sharply rejects to go any higher. Now we can see a brand new lower low forming after our entry.

The stop-loss is placed just above the entry as the seller response was quite aggressive. When the price started to struggle and failed to go down further, we chose to close our trade.

This is one of the best ways to trade the fakeouts in the most conservative way. We hope you got a clear understanding of this concept. Please let us know if you have any questions in the comments below. Cheers!

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Categories
Cryptocurrencies

 DexWallet Review: How Safe Is This Defi-Focused Wallet?

The DexWallet website describes this crypto vault as “the Mobile wallet for decentralized finance.” A platform where anyone can grow a passive income through borrowing, lending, exchanging, and staking cryptocurrencies and tokens.

Created and introduced to the crypto industry by DexLabs in 2018, Dexwallet is a multi-chain mobile wallet and a gateway for the decentralized economy specially designed to appeal to anyone regardless of their crypto experience. Over time, the wallet has incorporated several innovative operational and security measures to make it the most user-friendly, secure, and passive earning crypto project.

But how achievable is this vision? What steps has DexWallet made towards making it a reality? More importantly, is DexWallet safe?

We answer both these questions and tell you everything you need to know about the crypto wallet in this review. We look at the passive income and user-focused features, security measures in place, and tell you how to set up a DeXwallet and its pros and cons.

DexWallet key features

Earn interest on saved funds: DexWallet is a mobile wallet that lets you stake different cryptocurrencies or tokens and earn an annual interest. The wallet has also oversimplified this process and made it as easy as saving as operating an online savings account. Plus, it promises earnings as high as three times what is offered by the traditional bank.

Inbuilt exchange: The mobile wallet has an inbuilt exchange that allows you to exchange different eth-based cryptos. The fact that you don’t need to leave the wallet or send your Crypto to a third-party exchange and back not only speeds up the crypto swap process but also makes it relatively affordable.

Buy Crypto with card: You can also buy any of the cryptocurrencies and tokens supported by DexWallet using virtually any debit or credit card. This purchase is processed by MoonPay fiat-to-crypto exchange that’s integrated into the DexWallet.

Monitor crypto portfolio: The DexWallet lets you view and track your crypto portfolio in real-time via the balance and history tabs. And in instances where the transaction confirmation speeds on the blockchain are slow, it will outline all your pending transactions to help you avoid double-payments.

Integrate Defi apps: DexWallet describes itself as the wallet for Defi apps. It features all the popular Defi apps like Compound, Fulcrum, MakerDAO, and Uniswap. You also have the option of searching for and integrating similar apps from the Dapp browser. These are geared towards helping you stake/lend a portion of/entire portfolio and earn interest in return.

DexPay: You no longer have to go through the laborious process of converting your eth-based tokens to cash or other Crypto when paying for goods or services in Crypto friendly stores. Simply use DexPAY that has DAI as its bass currency but can convert any other token automatically when making a payment.

Import Eth wallets: DexWallet is a highly versatile crypto vault compatible with virtually all other eth-based wallets. This means that you can easily import your MyEtherWallet, MetaMask, and even Jaxx wallets to the DexWallet and view all these balances on a single unified platform.

DexWallet security features

Password + encryption: DexWallet is secured with a password that not only secures your private keys but also serves as the encryption tool.

Open source: DexWallet is built on an open-sourced blockchain technology. Wallet users and others, therefore, can view and audit its source code and seek out possible security loopholes or malicious lines of code.

Hierarchically deterministic: This implies that DexWallet auto-generates a new wallet address for every new transaction. This masks your real wallet address, effectively throwing off crypto trackers and third parties who might want to check your crypto activity and view and monitor your past or future crypto transactions.

Watch only mode: You have the option of activating the watch-only wallet mode that allows you to access your wallet over insecure internet connections. During a watch-only mode session, anyone with access to the wallet can view balances and accept incoming crypto coins but can’t access or alter your app settings, private keys, passphrase, or send Crypto.

Non-custodial: DexWallet does not store cryptos and tokens on behalf of its clients. Rather, it encrypts them and stores them in the root memory of your mobile phone.

Ethereum Name Service (ENS) supportive: DexWallet lets you choose a unique username that serves as your wallet address. This helps eliminate the common and often costly mistakes associated with getting your recipient’s wallet address wrong.

How to set and activate the DexWallet app

Step 1: Start by downloading and installing the DexWalet app from the Google play store, Apple App Store, or the official DexWallet website.

Step 2: Launch DexWallet and chose to “Create a New Wallet.”

Step 3: Create a new and unique username for the wallet.

Step 4: Create a wallet password

Step 5: Copy the mnemonic phrase provided by the wallet and keep it safe offline.

Step 6: Your wallet is now ready to use

How to add/receive Crypto into your DexWallet

Step 1: Log in to your DexWallet, and on the user dashboard, click ‘Receive.’

Step 2: Copy your DexWallet public address or its QR code and forward either to the party sending you cryptos/tokens.

Alternatively:

Step 3: If you have several digital assets, click on the swap tab and exchange them for eth-based altcoins and tokens

Step 4: Wait for the funds to reflect in your account.

How to send Crypto from your DexWallet:

Step 1: Log in to your DexWallet, and on the user dashboard, click “Send.”

Step 2: If you have multiple crypto assets stored therein, select the wallet from which you would like to send cryptos

Step 3: Enter the recipient’s username (for eth-network transfers) or their wallet address for (non-Ethereum network transfers)

Step 4: Enter the amount of altcoins/tokens you want to send

Step 5: Chose the transaction charge.

Step 6: Verify the accuracy of these transaction details and send

DexWallet ease of use

DexWallet is highly intuitive, and most of the integrated features easy to use. It maintains a highly decongested interface and has a smooth onboarding process. It has also simplified sending and receiving altcoins/tokens by introducing the Ethereum Name Service (ENS).

DexWallet is also multilingual and is currently available in four international languages – English, Chinese, Japanese, and Italian.

DexWallet supported currencies and countries

DexWallet is a multicurrency crypto mobile vault that currently supports 2000+ altcoins and tokens built on the Ethereum blockchain network, including Ethereum, Ethereum classic, and ERC-20, ERC-233, ERC-721 tokens.

DexWallet cost and fees

You will incur transaction charges or GAS – charged by the Ethereum network – whenever you send Crypto and tokens to other exchanges and wallets. GAS is, however, dynamic and gives you the option to choose the fee range depending on the urgency with which you want the transaction confirmed.

Pay low transaction fees for non-urgent transactions and the highest charges for the transactions you want to be confirmed instantaneously.

DexWallet customer support

DexWallet’s customer support is available online and ready to help 24/7. You can reach out to them by raising a support ticket on the wallet’s website, email, or direct messaging them on social networks such as Twitter, Telegram, or Discord.

What are the pros and cons of using DexWallet?

Pros:

  • The wallet provides you with a platform to keep your digital assets and earn interest while at it.
  • DexWallet embraces a user-focused and highly intuitive design.
  • It also supports a wide range of Ethereum blockchain-based altcoins and tokens.
  • The exchange embraces a dynamic fee structure.

Cons:

  • It will only support eth-based tokens.
  • DexWallet ignores such solid security measures as two-factor authentication and multi-signature signing.

Comparing DexWallet with other Eth-based wallets

DexWallet vs. MyEtherWallet

Both DexWallet and MyEthereumWallet are highly intuitive eth-based wallets that will only support altcoins and tokens built on the network. They have also made significant strides in making the crypto wallet as beginner-friendly as possible without compromising their security.

DexWallet, however, carries the day when it comes to the number of integrated features and security measures put in place. For instance, the mobile wallet supports 2000+ altcoins and tokens and features premium privacy features as a watch-only mode.

Verdict: Is DexWallet safe?

DexWallet has put in place some of the most sophisticated security and privacy measures around the mobile wallet. The most visible is the replacement of the complicated wallet address system with a memorable username. It does not require you to provide such personal information as name, phone, or address. Not to mention that it is open-sourced and hierarchically deterministic. The only downside to using DexWallet is that it is a hot wallet that doesn’t support two-factor authentication, exposing you to the risk of remote hacks.

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

Crypterium wallet Review: Features, Fees, Security, Pros and Cons

Crypterium wallet is an innovative and custodial crypto vault that seeks to provide users with a safe platform where they can store, manage, spend, and earn from their digital assets seamlessly. To this end, it has integrated several advanced operational and security features that include an AI-powered exchange system, integrated a borderless card, allowed you to earn interest from saved cryptos, and even insured your digital currencies.

Crypterium started as a Bitcoin-only wallet but has, over the years, incorporated more cryptocurrencies. In this review, we tell you everything you need to know about Crypterium, such as the number of supported crypto, how to activate the Crypterium wallet, its features, pros, and cons.

Crypterium wallet key features:

Cross-platform: Crypterium is a cross-platform wallet available as a web vault and a mobile app. You can choose to register online on the official Crypterium wallet website or download the Android or iOS app on the website or the play/app stores.

Built-in exchange: Crypterium integrates ten leading crypto exchanges. More importantly, it features a free artificial-intelligent-powered arbitrage matching system available to every Crypterium user that lets them take advantage of the best crypto exchange rates when swapping currencies.

Integrates Crypterium card: The Crypterium wallet development team has also come up with a borderless Crypterium card and integrated it into the crypto vault.

Buy with card: Most of the exchanges hosted on the Crypterium wallet make it possible for the users to purchase crypto using virtually any debit or credit card.

Pay with crypto: Crypterium wallet users can now deposit cash to the card and use it to pay for goods and services in crypto-friendly stores or withdraw cash at compatible ATMs across the world. The wallet and card also make it possible for you to top up mobile credit, buy redeemable gift vouchers, and even make direct bank transfers.

Fee-free cash transfers: Crypterium is one of the few crypto wallets that make it possible for wallet users to send cryptocurrencies and fiat cash to other individuals using a phone number. They don’t need to have installed a Crypterium wallet as they will get a notification informing them about incoming funds and a link where they can download the wallet to receive the cash.

Earn from savings: The Crypterium wallet roadmap describes a savings plan that allows you to lock digital assets into the crypto vault and get a chance to earn interests of up to 6% annually.

Crypterium wallet security features

Password: The Crypterium wallet is secured with a password that the user sets when creating a user account. 

Two-factor authentication: You can also add another security – the two-factor authentication – to your wallet by adding and verifying both your phone number and email address.

Insured deposits: Crypterium wallet keeps the private keys secure on behalf of their clients. The wallet’s website claims that all the user-funds stored in the Crypterium crypto vaults are insured, implying that should their servers ever be compromised, users will be compensated.

Client-side encryption: The password also serves as the encryption tool for the client-side encrypted wallet. Here, client-side encryption implies that all the wallet communication with the Crypterium servers, exchanges, and other third party systems are encrypted before they leave the wallet.

Hosted service with BitGo: In an attempt to keep your cryptocurrencies safe, Crypterium has partnered with BitGo, a crypto-security services provider. The company specializes in providing safe custody for digital assets.

Block card: Crypterium gives you a near-absolute control of your wallet-linked card. For instance, it makes it possible to control your card spending and even block a lost or misplaced card via the wallet.

How to set and activate the Crypterium wallet app:

Step 1: Download the Crypterium wallet app for your device on either the official Crypterium wallet website or app/play store.

Step 2: Install and launch the app.

Step 3: On the installation page, click on the ‘Create New Wallet’ tab

Step 4:  Enter your phone number and create a password for the wallet.

Step 5: Enter and verify your email address

Step 6: Your wallet is now active and ready for use

How to add/receive crypto into your Crypterium wallet

Step 1: Log in to your Crypterium wallet and tap on the “Receive” button

Step 2: On the deposit window, copy the public wallet address or QR code

Step 3: Send it to the party sending you cryptos

Alternatively:

Step 4: Fund the account by using a debit or credit card to buy new crypto or swap digital assets on either of the ten integrated crypto exchanges.

Step 5: Wait for the crypto to reflect on your Crypterium wallet.

How to send crypto from your Crypterium wallet

Step 1: Log in to your Crypterium wallet, and on the user dashboard, click on the “send” button.

Step 2: Chose the type of coin you wish to send

Step 3: On the transfer window, enter the receiver’s wallet address or phone number and the number of coins you want to transfer

Step 3: Verify that these details are correct and click send.

Crypterium wallet ease of use

Both the Crypterium web wallet and the Crypterium crypto vault have one of the easiest onboarding processes. The wallets are also multi-lingual and available in five international languages, including English, Korean, and Russian. The processes of sending and receiving cryptos into the wallet are also easy.

More importantly, it infuses a wide range of operational features that are easy to interact with, making it an all-in-one cryptocurrency wallet.

It also maintains a highly intuitive user interface that is specially designed to attract both beginners and the most experienced crypto traders/investors.

Crypterium wallet supported currencies and countries.

Crypterium started as a Bitcoin-only wallet. However, it has embraced more cryptocurrencies in the recent past, and you can now store 18 different coins in the wallet.

The exchange service is available to Crypterium users in 180+ countries around the wallet, while the Crypterium card is acceptable in 150+ countries.

Crypterium wallet cost and fees

Crypterium is a free wallet to the extent that you will not be charged to download the wallet or store different crypto coins therein.

Blockchain network fees, however, kick in when you send cryptos to other wallets and exchanges. Other in-wallet charges include the variable commission charged for crypto swaps by the exchanges as well as the 2% charged for card processing.

Crypterium wallet customer support

There are four primary means of accessing the Crypterium wallet customer support team. You can start by raising a support ticket via the Contact Us button on the wallet website, interact with one of their representatives via the in-app chat button feature, call them, or direct message on their telegram channel.

What are the pros and cons of using the Crypterium wallet?

Pros:

  • Crypterium wallet has one of the most responsive customer support teams.
  • The wallet has embraced highly effective security safeguards, including two-factor authentication and insuring customer deposits
  • Cryptereium wallet gives you access to more Crypterium resources, including the Crypterium card.
  • The wallet doesn’t just help keep your digital assets safe but helps you interest of up to 6% annually.

Cons:

  • It is still a hot wallet and subject to threats facing online crypto vaults.
  • It doesn’t allow for anonymous crypto trading.
  • One may consider the number of supported cryptocurrencies limited.

Comparing Crypterium wallet with other multicurrency wallets

Crypterium wallet vs. DropBit wallet

Crypterium and Dropbit are both highly secure and innovative crypto wallets. This innovativeness is demonstrated by the fact they were among the first to allow wallet users to send crypto to mobile numbers, regardless of whether the receiver has a crypto wallet or not. Dropbit has ever taken this a step further and made it possible to send cryptos to a Twitter handle. More importantly, they both are easy to use and quite beginner-friendly.

But while Dropbit is a Bitcoin-only wallet, Cryteroium wallet supports up to 18 leading cryptocurrencies. Similarly, while DropBit has only embraced basic security features around the wallet, Crypterium has gone a step further and insured all customer deposits.

Verdict: Is Crypterium Wallet safe?

Yes. We consider Crypterium Wallet to be safer than the average crypto wallet based on the number of integrated security measures. Like most other wallets, Crypterium Wallet uses a password, encrypts user data, and enables two-factor authentication. But unlike most wallets, Crypterium insures the customer digital assets deposits, ensuring that no one loses their funds even if the wallet or its cold storage servers were hacked. 

Categories
Crypto Videos

How To Use Uniswap In Depth Analysis part 3 of 4

How To Use Uniswap: In-Depth Analysis (part 3/4)

While the previous parts of the guide talked more about the premises of the platform and what it’s used for, this part of the guide will be a bit more practical, as it will explain how to actually use the Uniswap exchange.
How to use Uniswap
Uniswap is an open-source protocol, which means that anyone could create their own application for it. However, most people just use the already created ones, with https://app.uniswap.org and https://uniswap.exchange being the most popular.

While stepping into the DeFi sector might sound daunting, using Uniswap is quite straightforward. First off, you will need to go to the Uniswap interface and connect your Ethereum wallet, such as MetaMask or Trust Wallet. After you’ve done that, you will have the option to select the token you would like to exchange from and to. By clicking swap, the transaction pop-in window will show up.

After confirming this transaction request in the wallet, the transaction will start on the Ethereum blockchain and can be trackable via https://etherscan.io/.
As we mentioned in our previous articles, if you want to earn income from Uniswap, you would need to deposit two tokens of equivalent value to the pool.

Uniswap’s market position

Before using Uniswap, we need to know how does it compare to other decentralized exchanges. Uniswap is by far the leading decentralized exchange in terms of both volume and liquidity, and rivaling even centralized exchanges in that regard. It stands on the cusp of topping $10 billion in monthly traded volume. The traded volume in September only stands at over $9.9 billion, accounting for around 66% of all DEX trading volumes.

Uniswap’s success can mostly be attributed to the ease of liquidity provision. The protocol’s liquidity has steadily increased since the start of 2020, while it has recently seen several enormous spikes due to liquidity mining events from competing forks such as SushiSwap.
Uniswap’s user base has grown in sync with the DeFi boom of 2020, which makes sense as this protocol is a foundational component of the overall DeFi infrastructure due to it having integrations across hundreds of applications.
Despite extremely strong competition from its recently launched fork SushiSwap, Uniswap outperforms SushiSwap from both a volume and liquidity perspective.

Summary

Uniswap is an innovative decentralized exchange protocol built on the Ethereum network. It allows anyone that has an Ethereum wallet to exchange tokens without any involvement of any central party.
While it certainly does have its limitations, this new technology may have some exciting implications for the future of decentralized, trustless token swapping.

For information on Uniswap’s UNI token, check out our next part of the Uniswap in-depth guide series.

Categories
Crypto Videos

Uniswap In Depth Analysis Part 2 of 4

Uniswap: In-Depth Analysis (Part 2/4)

Our previous article on Uniswap touched upon how the protocol works and what it is exactly. This part of our guide will talk about the impermanent loss effect as well as about how Uniswap can make money.

What is impermanent loss?

As we’ve discussed in our previous part of the Uniswap guide, liquidity providers earn fees for providing liquidity to traders that swap between various tokens. However, there is another thing that liquidity providers should be aware of, and that is the impermanent loss.

Impermanent loss is basically an opportunity cost pooling a token that is gaining value. This effect is best illustrated by an example.

Suppose Bob deposits 1 Ether and 100 USDT in the Uniswap pool. As the token pair needs to be of equivalent value, this would put the price of Ether at 100 USDT. At the same time, the pool has a total of 10 Ether and 1,000 USDT. This means that Bob has a 10% share of the pool, which has total liquidity of 10,000.
1 Ether = 100 USDT + 100 USDT = 200 USDT
If the price of Ether increases to 400 USDT, the ratio of Ether and USDT is disrupted. As the total liquidity in the pool has to remain constant, that means that there is now 5 Ether and 2,000 USDT in the pool. Arbitrage traders will add USDT while removing ETH from the pool until the ratio reflects the price.

0.5 Ether = 200 USDT + 200 USDT = 400 USDT
If Bob decides to withdraw his funds at the current ratio, he will get the promised 10% of the pool, which is 0.5 Ether and 200 USDT, totaling 400 USDT. While it seems like he made a nice profit, if he held on to his funds instead of pooling them, he’d have 1 Ether and 100 USDT, which would come out to 500 USDT.
1 Ether = 400 USDT + 100 USDT = 500 USDT
In this case, the impermanent loss is the opportunity cost of pooling a token that suddenly appreciates in price. By depositing funds into Uniswap for the purpose of earning fees, Bob may lose out on other opportunities. This effect works regardless of the price change direction from the time of the deposit.

All that is left to explain now is why this effect is impermanent. If the price of the pooled tokens manages to return to the initial price, the effect is nullified, and since liquidity providers earn fees, the losses from this occurrence should get balanced out over time.
Now that we know how we can earn or lose money, we should know how Uniswap makes a profit. The answer to this is: it doesn’t. Uniswap is a decentralized protocol, where all fees go to liquidity providers.

Founders do not get a cut from the trades through the protocol. However, Uniswap’s UNI token has recently gone live, presenting an opportunity for the founders to earn some money.
At the moment, the transaction fee paid out to liquidity providers is flat 0.3% per trade. These funds are added to the liquidity pool by default, but liquidity providers can redeem them at any point in time. The fees are distributed according to the liquidity providers’ share of the pool.
For more information on Uniswap, its token, and how to use it to earn income, check out the next part of our in-depth guide.

Categories
Crypto Market Analysis

BTC/USD Weekly Overview + Possible Outcomes

This is the BTC/USD 1-day timeframe analysis, where we are looking at the most recent events, the current technical formations, as well as discussing possible outcomes.

Overview



Bitcoin has shown some volatility in recent days after bouncing off of the 100-period moving average (black line). The largest cryptocurrency by market cap bounce off of this line as well as the $10,500 level brought a lot of bulls back to the market, causing another price swing upwards. While it was more likely that Bitcoin would push down towards $10,360, the news surrounding it (many accredited and institutional investors putting their funds in the market at this particular moment) outweighed the bearishness caused by the macro events.

Technical factors

Bitcoin has been building a triangle formation for over a month now, and it was a consensus among analysts and traders that the triangle will most likely break towards the downside. However, the most recent push off of the 100-period MA (mostly due to fundamentals rather than technical factors) has proven traders wrong and decided Bitcoin’s short-term future.

The push towards the upside briefly stopped after breaking the uncertainty area, only to consolidate there and create enough pressure for the next move. After this happened, Bitcoin was free to move towards the $11,000 resistance level . At the moment, the pressure created by the bulls is fading, and we may expect a pullback.

Likely Outcomes



Bitcoin has encountered strong resistance at the $11,000 level, which will most likely cause it to back down towards $10,850. With (as we spoke in our numerous analyses) $10,850 level being the pivot pointBitcoin will choose to either back down towards $10,500 or $10,360 before (most likely) rising again, or to bounce from the $10,850 area and push towards $11,000-$11,300. At this moment, the most likely scenario is that Bitcoin will stay above $10,850 for the time being and that its next push will possibly move its price above $11,000, but almost certainly not above $11,300.

If we are talking about straightforwards pushes towards the upside or downside, it would take a great deal of pressure to either side to break its support or resistance levels, sitting at $10,850 and $11,300.

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

How to Get your Blockchain Startup Featured in the Media 

According to Statista, the worldwide total spending on blockchain technology reached $2.7 billion as of 2019; and is expected to soar up to $11.7 billion in 2022. Its current market valuation stands at $3.0 billion. Blockchain is only slightly over a decade old but shows so much potential for future investment. Little wonder, then, that companies in nearly every industry are rushing to capitalize on blockchain. 

Now, nearly every new company dreams of getting featured on the most coveted media platforms. But for a block-chain startup, this can be several times as challenging as it would for a non-blockchain startup. Most companies that get featured on are usually popular, predominant, unique companies that have made a massive shakeup in the blockchain world. As such, the only certain way to achieve this level of success is through relentless brand popularization. 

Creative marketing gets people in the cryptocurrency community and the general public talking about your business. So if you’re willing to take your blockchain start-up to the next level heights, here are some essential marketing tips to get you started.

#1. Create a Website 

In this digital era, many business ventures have taken advantage of the growing digital market. That said, you will notice most of these businesses have a well-designed website with valuable content about their products and services. 

Setting up an interactive and captivating website for your start-up is a key first step. The website should clearly define your company’s vision and mission. Token details, information about your business, solutions, and your team’s background are some of the info you should include. Other useful info would be visualized data or even frequently asked questions (FAQ). 

#2. Use Influencer Marketing

Partnering with a social media influencer to promote your company is another way to market your blockchain company. 

Influencers do not necessarily need to be a celebrity. Someone with a decent following in the blockchain community can generate enough traction for your business. Additionally, influencers lend credibility to your company. Ensure you are actively involved in creating the content; you can still have them share on their social media platforms.

As a blockchain start-up owner, you can also utilize the exchange marketing strategy (peer-to-peer marketing). This concept exploits the idea of treating users as informal influencers. This could include offering exclusive deals to your customers, such as free or extended access to products and tokenized loyalty rewards. These deals incentivize customers to spread the word about your company and its products to their social groups. 

#3. Build a Community of Followers

Blockchain technology is still evolving and fairly new. However, it’s quickly garnering a decent number of passionate followers. Thousands of enthusiastic users are actively engaging with one another on various social media networks and online forums.

For a blockchain start-up, it is important to update your followers on your company’s progress. One can actively connect with their audience by regularly posting new content about their projects on various online platforms. These may include Reddit, Telegram but not limited to the numerous messaging apps available. A strategy like this helps people understand more about your company and the products you offer. 

This marketing technique takes advantage of the most robust market space in our generation – social media. Social media can be used to effectively syndicate content while increasing your business’s visibility. 

#4. Partnership Marketing

Partnership marketing is a collaboration with a business /company that has a direct relationship with a market you intend to tap into. This marketing strategy is ideally built on a mutually beneficial arrangement for both parties. It is important to ensure the company you partner with is not your direct competitor. Instead, partner with a company that compliments your business.

#5. Publish a White Paper

Before getting involved with your company, prospective investors and clients will set out to gather more information about your business. Publishing a white paper will help them understand the intricate technology your company is built on.

A white paper is an authoritative report issued by a company to promote the features of a solution a product or service offers. Publishing a white paper helps readers make informed decisions, understand an issue, or solve a problem in their space. For a start-up, you can present a problem and publish a white paper explaining how your blockchain product or service will solve it. You can then post your white paper on your website and other blockchain and crypto forums. 

Final Thoughts

Blockchain technology is a relatively young tech. And as such, the general public is oblivious of its existence or how it works. A strong marketing strategy will help you leverage your company’s potential to your target niche, and hopefully, that coveted space in the media. After a successful marketing campaign, your start-up company might very well be a candidate for a popular media feature. 

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

SpectroCoin wallet Review: Is Spectrocoin a Safe Custodial Wallet?

Spectrocoin wallet is the official crypto vault for the larger Spectrocoin blockchain platform. It was launched in 2014, a year after the establishment of the Spectrocoin exchange by Juѕtas Dоbіlіаuѕkаѕ, Vytautas Kаrаlеvіčіuѕ, and Mаntаѕ Mockevičiu.

At the time of going public, the Spectrocoin wallet was a web service that allowed users to store Bitcoins and Euros. However, recent upgrades to the wallet have seen it embrace more crypto and fiat currencies, integrate more deposit and withdrawal methods, and even launch the Spectrocoin wallet mobile app.

This review will detail all Spectrocoin wallet features and querying the security measures it has employed in keeping your private keys safe. We will also provide you with a step-by-step guide on how to interact with the wallet, ease of use, and compare its effectiveness with similar multi-currency wallets.

Spectrocoin wallet key features

Cross-platform wallet: Spectrocoin wallet is a cross-platform wallet currently available as a web wallet and a mobile wallet. You can create a user account on their website or download the crypto vault app on Google Play Store, Apple App Store, and Microsoft Store for Windows phones.

API Integrated exchange: Spectrocoin blockchain platform started as a crypto exchange. The wallet dashboard features an API integration tool that you can use to access and use the Spectrocoin exchange.

Integrates Spectrocoin debit card: In addition to the exchange and crypto wallet, the Spectrocoin blockchain platform also launched a debit card. Wallet users are free to apply for the debit card, allowing automatic crypto conversion to Euro for ATM withdrawal and Point of Sale payments.

Purchase crypto via Fiat deposits: Spectrocoin has also integrated more payment processing methods than most other multi-currency wallets. Deposits into the wallet may be in the form of bank transfers, Cryptocurrencies from other wallets or exchanges, credit/debit cards, electronic wallets like Skrill and Neteller, and even Gold.

Security features

Password: The Spectrocoin wallets (both web and mobile apps) are secured by the passphrase you set when creating your user account.

Two-factor authentication: Spectrocoin embraces two-factor authentication and allows you to verify and authorize crypto transactions on your wallet via SMS notification, Google Authenticator, and Email authentication.

Cold storages: Spectrocoin is a custodial wallet that stores your private keys on your behalf. According to the platform developers, most of these private keys are held in highly secure third-party servers. They also add that only 1% of the total digital assets under their care are held in hot wallets.

Military-grade encryption: All of your private data held by the Spectrocoin wallet, including the wallet’s communications with exchanges and other third-party platforms, is highly encrypted.

How to set and activate the SpectroCoin wallet

Step 1: Start by downloading the Spectrocoin wallet for your respective phone’s operating system.

Step 2: Install and launch the app.

Step 3: Complete the user profile by keying in your wallet’s email and country of residence

Step 4: Create a multi-character passphrase for your wallet

Step 5: Agree with Spectrocoin’s terms of conditions and click ‘Sign Up.’

Step 6: You will now be asked to complete the ‘Know Your Customer’ procedures by emailing them a copy of your email and selfie

Step 7: You will receive an email notification informing you that your SpectroCoin wallet is now active and ready to use

Alternatively:

Create a user account by linking the wallet to your Google Account or Facebook Profile

How to add/receive crypto into your SpectroCoin wallet

Step 1: Log in to your Spectrocoin wallet, and on the user dashboard, tap on the “Receive” icon.

Step 2: Copy the public wallet address or its QR code and forward it to the party sending you coins.

Alternatively:

Step 3: Use the buy option to purchase and swap crypto on the SpectroCoin exchange

Step 4: Follow the prompts to make a purchase and move the coins to the wallet once successful.

How to send crypto from your SpectroCoin wallet

Step 1: Log in to your SpectroCoin and click on the “Send” icon.

Step 2: Since Spectrocoin is a multi-currency wallet, select the cryptocoin you want to send

Step 3: On the transfer window, enter the recipient’s wallet address as well as the amount of crypto you want them to receive

Step 4: Check that the transfer details are okay and hit send.

SpectroCoin wallet ease of use

Spectrocoin wallet has one of the most interactive and easily navigable user interfaces. The processes of creating a user account on the wallet or sending and receiving coins into and out of the wallet are also quite straightforward. Moreover, it is multilingual and available in 10+ languages.

By using the wallet, you technically have access to all the other crypto-related resources offered by the Spectrocoin blockchain platform, including their exchange, debit card, and merchant tools.

SpectroCoin wallet supported currencies and countries.

Spectrocoin is a multi-currency wallet that supports 12 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ripple, Litecoin, Dash, Stellar Lumens, NEM, Tether, TrueUSD, and USD coins. Besides, you can purchase cryptos on the SpectroCoin exchange using 30+ fiat currencies.

The wallet is currently available in over 150 countries across the world.

SpectroCoin wallet cost and fees

Spectrocoin is a free wallet that does not charge you to download or store your crypto therein. Crypto transfers to other Spectrocoin wallets are also free. However, you will have to part with several fees as you interact with the platform, including a network charge imposed on all outbound transfers to non-SpectroCoin wallets and exchanges. These are highly variable and largely dependent on such factors as the type of coin and transaction amounts.

Credit card purchases attract an average fee that amounts to 5.5% of the transaction amounts. And while SEPA bank transfers to the wallet are free, you can only deposit Euros and, therefore, have to cover the currency conversion fees. Electronic transfer fees, on the other hand, range from 2-3% of the transaction amounts. 

SpectroCoin wallet customer support

SpectroCoin has a readily available customer support team available via live chat on the company website, on the phone, via email, and even on different social media platforms. Interestingly, you can also visit their physical address at their offices in London.

What are the pros and cons of using the SpectroCoin wallet?

Pros:

  • Spectrocoin employs such reliable security measures as two-factor-authentication
  • The wallet supports multiple payment processing systems.
  • Spectrocoin is an all-in-one platform that gives you access to both the wallet, crypto exchange, debit card.
  • The wallet has an easy and straightforward registration process.

Cons:                                                            

  • Spectrocoin wallet doesn’t support anonymous user registration or trading.
  • It is not an open-sourced wallet
  • You have limited control over your digital assets as the wallet stores the private keys on your behalf

Comparing SpectroCoin wallet with other Multi-currency wallets

SpectroCoin wallet vs. eToro wallet

SoectroCoin and eToro wallets are similar to some extent in that they both are custodial wallets and part of a larger crypto platform. They both avail such additional services as a crypto exchange in the case of eToro and exchange and debit cards to SpectroCoin users. They also have highly intuitive platforms designed for both experienced and beginner crypto traders. They are widely available in 100+ countries and maintain a readily available customer support system.

But while eToro supports 20+ cryptocurrencies, tokens, and hordes of fiat currencies, SpectroCoin supports 12 cryptos and one fiat currency.

Verdict: Is SpectroCoin’s wallet safe?

Spectrocoin is a custodial wallet that stores and secures private keys on behalf of their clients. And some of the security and privacy measures it has taken to these assets safe include maintaining as much as 99% of these coins in cold storage. It also demands that wallet users pass the KYC requirements to deter and possibly eliminate fraud. Moreover, all crypto transactions, especially outbound coin transfers, must be subjected to two-factor authentication. We consider these measures adequate, and the fact that it has never been hacked is enough testament to their effectiveness.

Categories
Crypto Market Analysis

Daily Crypto Review, Oct 9 – Bitcoin Close to $11,000: What’s Next?

The cryptocurrency sector as a whole has experienced a quick push to the upside. Bitcoin is currently trading for $10,839, representing an increase of 2.44% on the day. Meanwhile, Ethereum gained 2.91% on the day, while XRP gained 1.59%.

 Daily Crypto Sector Heat Map

If we look at the top 100 cryptocurrencies, we can see that UMA gained 31.88% in the past 24 hours, making it the most prominent daily gainer. The Midas Touch Gold (25.91%) and SushiSwap (18.59%) also did great. On the other hand, PumaPay lost 12.87%, making it the most prominent daily loser. It is followed by Zuba Token’s loss of 2.87% and Augur’s loss of 2.32%.

Top 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bottom 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bitcoin’s market dominance level has stayed at the same place since our last report, with its value currently being at 61.01%. This value represents a 0.05% difference to the upside when compared to when we last reported.

Daily Crypto Market Cap Chart

The crypto sector capitalization has gained quite a bit of value over the course of the past 24 hours. Its current value is $343.72 billion, representing an increase of $10.6 billion compared to our previous report.

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What happened in the past 24 hours?

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Technical analysis

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Bitcoin

The largest cryptocurrency by market cap has broken its triangle formation towards the upside after a bounce from the $10,500 support level. The massive bull presence had brought the price just under $11,000 before BTC started to pull back and seek an appropriate level to consolidate at. At the time being, Bitcoin is fighting for $10,850, and staying above, it would be a major precursor to its future possible push towards $11,000-$11,300.

Traders should pay close attention to Bitcoin’s price movement around the $10,850 level, as well as the ascending line (pink), and trade based on how the price reacts to these levels.

BTC/USD 4-hour Chart

Bitcoin’s technical overview has turned bullish overall, with every single time-frame being bullish. While its weekly and monthly overviews were bullish for months now, its daily and 4-hour technicals have turned bullish only after the most recent spike.

BTC/USD 4-hour Technicals

Technical factors (4-hour Chart):
  • Price is above both its 50-period EMA and 21-period EMA
  • Price is near the top Bollinger band
  • RSI is descending from almost-overbought levels (61.39)
  • Volume is descending from above-average
Key levels to the upside          Key levels to the downside

1: $11,000                                 1: $10,850

2: $11,180                                 2: $10,630

3: $11,300                                  3: $10,500

Ethereum

Ethereum has moved towards the upside alongside Bitcoin, but its price movement didn’t do anything as impactful as Bitcoin’s price. While the bounce from the $344 level was significant, it could not reach, let alone pass, the $360 level. Ethereum’s short-term future is certainly within this range, which traders can make use of.

Once again, we will point out an extremely high chance of Ethereum staying between $334 and $360.

ETH/USD 4-hour Chart

Ethereum’s short-term technicals are somewhat unclear, with its 4-hour overview turning to bullish and 1-day overview still being tilted towards the sell-side quite heavily. On the other hand, its long-term technicals are quite bullish.

ETH/USD 4-hour Technicals

Technical Factors (4-hour Chart):
  • The price is above both its 50-period and 21-period EMA
  • The price is near its middle Bollinger band
  • RSI is neutral (54.08)
  • Volume is below average (one-candle spike)
Key levels to the upside          Key levels to the downside

1: $360                                     1: $334

2: $371                                     2: $300

3: $400                                      3: $289

Ripple

XRP has used Bitcoin’s move towards the upside to fuel its own move and established itself above the $0.2454 level. The third-largest cryptocurrency by market cap has bounced off the ascending line (and not the $0.2454 level this time) dating back from Sep 24 and pushed up, reaching as high as $0.253 before ending the move.

Traders should pay attention to any sharp increases in volume, as well as how XRP handles the immediate support and resistance levels. Most analysts are currently quite bullish on XRP, mostly when it comes to 1-hour and 4-hour charts.

XRP/USD 4-hour Chart

XRP 4-hour, daily, and weekly technicals are quite bullish, while its monthly overview is tilted towards the sell-side.

XRP/USD 4-hour Technicals

Technical factors (4-hour Chart):
  • The price is above its 50-period EMA and its 21-period EMA
  • Price is close to its middle Bollinger band
  • RSI is neutral (55.13)
  • Volume is above average
Key levels to the upside          Key levels to the downside

1: $0.266                                   1: $0.2454 

2: $0.27                                     2: $0.235

3: $0.273                                  3: $0.227

 

Categories
Crypto Daily Topic

What’s IoTex All About? 

The Internet of things (IoT) is touted to be the next big thing in technology. IoT is the concept of connecting devices with each other to be of better use to us. It’s not complicated at all: think of your hot shower turning on 5 minutes after you wake up, or your coffee maker starting to make coffee as soon as 20 minutes after that. It’s a concept designed to leverage the technology behind us to make our lives easier. 

Already, IoT is alive and functioning in various forms across the world. The problem is that existing IoT devices are operating in decentralized systems, raising scalability problems, high costs, privacy, and security concerns. 

A blockchain-based IoT system could solve this by facilitating more scalability, better privacy, and cost-effective operations. Storing data in the blockchain reduces the chances of it being hacked or abused. Also, blockchain-powered smart contracts could enable automatic coordination with devices, creating a more seamless and functional system. 

But then there’s also the problem of current blockchains having scalability issues. For instance, the most popular blockchain – the Bitcoin blockchain, can handle just 7 transactions per second, which is way below the threshold of what would be considered a scalable system to support millions of users across the world every single second. 

IoTex is a project that wants to solve this problem. It calls itself “the internet of things, reimagined.” This article explores the IoTex network to unearth what innovations it brings to the space.

Breaking Down IoTeX

IoTex is a blockchain effort that wants to change the entire concept of the Internet of Things by creating a more trusted, worldwide network of both virtual and physical things. 

The IoTex team consists of people with vast experience in cryptocurrency, engineering, and social media giants like Facebook and Google. The IoTex team wants to “drive end-to-end trust throughout the entire life cycle in an IoT network, including data collection, transport, storage, and utilization.” 

IoTex wants to achieve this through four breakthroughs: 

  • A “blockchains-in-blockchain” solution promoting distributedness, scalability, and privacy in the most cost-effective way possible.
  • True privacy supported by a reliable payment model, ring signatures, and ‘bulletproof’ code.
  • Fast confirmation of transactions with instant finality, dramatically increasing the network’s throughput and lowering transaction fees.
  • A lightweight architecture design for the most significant applications across various industries.

IoTex: Highlights

Roll-DPoS Consensus: a variation of Delegated Proof of Stake of consensus designed to handle high scalability without compromising on decentralization and security.

A Layer 2 chain as a service: a technology that utilizes the blockchains-in-blockchain setup to support intense computing and high-level storage. 

Edge trusted computing: a technology that powers the shared economy in a way that supports trust and privacy.

Cross network interoperability: The IoTex core chain is designed for cross-chain interactions with other blockchains, as it does with Layer 2 chains in the larger IoTex network. This creates better privacy of assets on those other chains as well as cross-chain governance.

Roll-DPoS consensus

IoTex utilizes the Roll-DPoS consensus mechanism to provide high levels of scalability. With Roll-DPoS, any node can nominate themselves to be a block producer, with network participants voting for the node of their choice. The mechanism operates in periods known as ‘epochs.’ Before a new epoch starts, the nodes that receive the highest number of votes form a ‘pool of candidates” out of which block producers are selected randomly using a Deterministic Random Bit Generator (DRBG). 

Block producers alternate in proposing and confirming blocks, and use the Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT) mechanism to reach a consensus. In every epoch, around 360 blocks are produced. Black producers are replaced at the beginning of every epoch to promote decentralization and security.

The IOTX Token

IOTX is the native cryptocurrency of the IoTex network. It’s an essential part of the network, playing the following roles and more: 

  • As a governance mechanism – network participants must stake in IOTX to participate in voting for block producers, network referendums, and various network decisions
  • As payment for gas fees: to transact sent execute smart contracts on IoTex, one must pay ‘gas’ fees
  • As payment for operation cost for Layer 2 chains: a network user must stake in IOTX before provisioning a Layer 2 chain

The IOTX token was distributed in the following manner: 

  • Private sale tokens: 24%
  • Community development tokens: 6%
  • Team tokens: 25%
  • Ecosystem development tokens: 18%
  • Roll-DPoS mining tokens: 12%
  • Foundation tokens: 25%

IOTX: Key Metrics

As of September 29, 2020, IOTX traded at $. 0 08097 with a market cap of $39, 059, 090 that placed it at #164. It has a 24-hour volume of $10,474,005 and a circulating supply of 4,823,952,133, a total and maximum supply of 9.7 and 10 billion, respectively. IOTX’s highest price ever was $0.088037 (Jun 02, 2018), while its all-time low was $0.002239 (March 13, 2020). 

Where to Buy and Store IOTX

You can purchase IOTX from any of the following exchanges: Binance, MXC, HotBit, VCC Exchange, CITEX, KuCoin, WazirX, CoinDCX, Upbit, Gate.io, Coinone, IDEX, Bittrex, and Uniswap. The token is listed as a market pair with currencies like BTC, ETH, USDT, WETH, and KRW. 

For storage, options include Trust Wallet, Cobo, IoTex Mobile, IoTex Desktop, and imToken wallet.

Final Thoughts

IoTex is not doing anything groundbreaking, but it’s challenging the IoT game with its trust-based model and a blockchain-in-blockchain model that solves the enduring problem of scalability. Nevertheless, the team will have to keep innovating to remain competitive in both the IoT and blockchain spaces.

Categories
Crypto Guides

Is Tezos The Most Robust Cryptocurrency?

Introduction

Tezos is a decentralized, highly secure, transparent, and smart contract enabled blockchain governed by itself. It is a blockchain network associated with a digital token known as Tez or Tezzie (XTZ). Tezos doesn’t mine Tez. Instead, the token holder is rewarded under the consensus mechanism for participating in the proof-of-stake system.

A digital commonwealth group, sharing common interests and goals, is linked together to govern the Tezos platform. Tezos aims to become the most robust cryptocurrency blockchain by working together with its token holders to build more democratic protocol with the time. 

What is Tezos Attempting to Achieve? 

Tezos team wants to develop the most adaptable cryptocurrency project. It provides a token holder with equal governing power and is trying to avoid a hard fork situation. In which a community splits and starts competing with each other like in Bitcoin cash and Ethereum DAO. Tezos is implementing soft forks in which the community regularly updates the blockchain for constant growth. They are using (DAO) Decentralised Autonomous Organization system where every decision is taken after community discussion. This will make this more self amendable and upgradeable system.  

How Tezos Works? 

Tezos uses a proof of stake algorithm, and it can support 40 transactions/second on the network. It uses the Michelson coding language, which proceeds with formal verification to avoid any bugs in the network. To create error fee smart contracts, they use a mathematically provable code. In this network, the stakers are known as bakers.

To make delegate changes, you need to have 10,000 Tezos tokens and a bond. Most probably to make the system more democratic, Tezos has removed the miners to reduce their control power in the network. It is absorbing good elements from different blockchains to make it self-governing, self-evolving, and adaptable. If you notice anything appealing in any other blockchain, you can propose it to the community that approves the change for the Tezos network. 

Tezos Architecture

The protocol is divided into layers:

Network Protocol  – Here, the peer-to-peer communication is done to broadcast the decisions between the nodes.

Transaction Protocol – Here, the blockchain accounting model is implemented. 

Consensus Protocol – This consensus protocol verifies the agreement to confirm transactions. 

The Tezos Accounts

Implicit Account – It’s the most commonly used account. It has a public key and private key held by the account owner to secure the account balance. 

Originated Account – The formally verified smart contract account with the implicit account is known as an originated account.

Tezos Unique Capabilities

  • Self-amending and on-chain governance
  • Formal verification of smart contracts
  • Liquid proof of stake system 

Is Tezos a Good Investment?

Tezos is the youngest of all existing cryptocurrencies and focused upon the chain governance system. They claim to become a future-proof platform through on-chain governance that attracts a huge number of investors. Thus, Tezos seems to be a good investment. The good news is that most of the popular cryptocurrency investors are getting involved in Tezos. We should also consider that they don’t have a clear road map for the future, but the other dominating cryptocurrencies community is working in a specific direction. To conclude, despite Tezos being one of the most robust cryptos out there, its success or failure depends on active community decisions. 

Categories
Crypto Videos

CRYPTO! A Closer Look At Tether’s $1 Billion Bitfinex To Binance Swap!

A closer look at Tether’s $1 billion Bitfinex-to-Binance swap

A Tether swap worth $1 billion and involved Bitfinex, Binance, and Tron blockchain happened on Aug 20.
Tether stablecoin burned some of its supply on one blockchain only to mint it anew on another one. While this may sound easy enough, in reality, this operation involves quite a bit of planning as well as, more importantly, trust.

How was this performed?

During the six-transaction swap that occurred between two blockchains and took 1 hour and 1 minute to bring to completion, the Tether and Bitfinex side was never at risk. This was due to Binance being the initiating party. On the two occasions – right after the first transaction and then after the fourth one, Binance, as the initiator, was down $400 and $600 million, respectively. This type of risky operation either shows great trust among the involved parties, or perhaps the possibility of some additional mechanisms that were involved and that the public was are not aware of.

Another necessary condition for this swap was the fact that Binance had to have a surplus of $1 billion TRON-based USDT, which it was willing to trade for the equivalent amount of Ethereum-based USDT. Even though Binance has met this criterion, it is unclear whether the funds used belonged to the exchange or consisted of user deposits.

Tether, Binance, and controversy

Tether has been at the forefront of controversies in the cryptocurrency space, as the crypto community knows well by now. On top of that, Binance has been accused of making shady deals with many projects. While this particular example is most likely nothing to worry about, the crypto space has to be aware of centralized institutions traversing the crypto sector.

Categories
Crypto Videos

What Is Uniswap? In Depth Analysis part 1!

 

What Is Uniswap: In-Depth Analysis (part 1/4)

Centralized exchanges have been the foundation of the crypto market for years. They offer extremely fast settlement times, high trading volume, as well as continually improving liquidity. However, it is clear that they defeat cryptocurrencies’ purpose, as they are centralized and hold your keys. Over time, developers have come up with a solution in terms of decentralized exchanges. These exchanges require no custodians or middlemen to facilitate trading.

Due to blockchain technology’s current limitations, building DEXes that can actually compete with their centralized counterparts is extremely difficult. One of the pioneers in the decentralized exchange sector is Uniswap. As a result of the innovation they brought to the sector, Uniswap has become one of the most successful DEX projects.

Uniswap – Explained

Uniswap is a decentralized exchange built on the Ethereum blockchain. To be even more precise, Uniswap is an automated liquidity protocol. What’s important to know is that no order book or centralized party is required to make trades. Uniswap allows its users to trade without intermediaries and provides a high degree of decentralization as well as censorship-resistance. It is also open-source, which is one of the pillars of the decentralized finance space.
Uniswap users can seamlessly swap between many ERC-20 tokens without any need for an order book.
Unlike centralized exchanges, Uniswap protocol doesn’t list certain tokens on the exchange, while denying it for others. Any ERC-20 token can be listed on it as long as there is a liquidity pool available. As a result, Uniswap doesn’t charge listing fees.

So how does it all work?

Uniswap completely leaves behind the traditional architecture of digital exchanges in that it has no order book. Instead, it implemented a Constant Product Market Maker design, an iteration of an Automated Market Maker model.

An automated market maker is a smart contract that holds liquidity reserves that traders can trade against. They are being funded by liquidity providers. Liquidity providers are users who deposit an equivalent value of two tokens in the pool. When trading, traders pay a fee to the pool distributed to liquidity providers, all according to their share of the pool.
If you want to learn more about Uniswap and its token, how it all works, and how the platform makes money, check out the next part of our guide.

Categories
Crypto Market Analysis

Daily Crypto Review, Oct 8 – DeFi Bubble Popped: Token Prices Shatter on Low Trading Volumes

The cryptocurrency sector as a whole has experienced a slight decrease as Bitcoin continued to path towards the downside. Bitcoin is currently trading for $10,525, representing a decrease of 0.47% on the day. Meanwhile, Ethereum lost 0.95% on the day, while XRP lost 1.09%.

 Daily Crypto Sector Heat Map

If we look at the top 100 cryptocurrencies, we can see that Ren gained 11.19% in the past 24 hours, making it the most prominent daily gainer. The Midas Touch Gold (9.72%) and PumaPay (7.65%) also did great. On the other hand, Hyperion lost 66.26%, making it the most prominent daily loser. It is followed by yearn.finance’s loss of 13.34% and Kusama’s loss of 11.08%.

Top 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bottom 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bitcoin’s market dominance level has stayed at the same place since our last report, with its value currently being at 60.96%. This value represents a 0.1% difference to the upside when compared to when we last reported.

Daily Crypto Market Cap Chart

The crypto sector capitalization has lost a bit of value over the course of the past 24 hours. Its current value is $333.12 billion, representing a decrease of $2.28billion compared to our previous report.

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What happened in the past 24 hours?

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While the top cryptocurrencies lost only a fraction of their respective market capitalization value, the DeFi market has deflated drastically. It is estimated that the daily DeFi token trade volumes have dropped by 30% combined, while recent market leaders Sushi, Uniswap, and yearn.finance are among the hardest hit with weekly losses of as much as 51%, 38%, and 31%, respectively. On top of that, the Binance DeFi composite index dropped over 20% yesterday, and 63% from its first trading day in August.

However, this is not the end of DeFi, but rather a small pop of the inflated price bubble. The DeFi market has seen various “whales” accumulating DeFi tokens and using its protocols, which is a great sign that this part of the crypto sector is here to stay.

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Technical analysis

_______________________________________________________________________

Bitcoin

The largest cryptocurrency by market cap has continued moving down and testing its support levels. This time, Bitcoin tested the $10,500 level, which held up nicely (for now). While the immediate sentiment is certainly bearish, there isn’t enough volume to test and break the  $10,360 level, which is crucial for the future price development of Bitcoin.

While short-term traders are mostly tilted towards the sell-side due to both macroeconomic events and technical analysis, investors are quite bullish on Bitcoin simply due to how the largest cryptocurrency develops in terms of usability, adoption, and other fundamental concepts.

BTC/USD 4-hour Chart

Bitcoin’s technical overview follows what we previously said, with short-term technicals being bearish, while the longer-term ones are bullish. Its 4-hour and 1-day overview tilting towards the downside, while its longer-term technicals have remained bullish.

BTC/USD 4-hour Technicals

Technical factors (4-hour Chart):
  • Price is below both its 50-period EMA and 21-period EMA
  • Price is near the bottom Bollinger band
  • RSI is neutral (42.08)
  • Volume is average
Key levels to the upside          Key levels to the downside

1: $10,630                                 1: $10,500

2: $10,850                                 2: $10,360

3: $11,000                                  3: $10,015

Ethereum

Ethereum was moving towards the downside throughout the day, testing its $334 support level once again. Trading volume faded as Ethereum couldn’t break this support, therefore staying above $334. On top of that, the near-oversold RSI oscillator shows that the move might be over for the time being.

As we mentioned many times now, traders should be careful and pay attention to any increase in volume, but should ultimately try to trade Ethereum’s movements between $334 and $360.

ETH/USD 4-hour Chart

Ethereum’s short-term and long-term technical overviews both look very similar to Bitcoin’s. While its short-term technicals (4-hour and 1-day) are heavily tilted towards the sell-side, its weekly and monthly outlooks are still quite bullish (though the bearish sentiment in short-term technicals is stronger than with Bitcoin, while the bullishness of its long-term overviews is weaker than with Bitcoin).

ETH/USD 4-hour Technicals

Technical Factors (4-hour Chart):
  • The price is below both its 50-period and 21-period EMA
  • The price is at its lower Bollinger band
  • RSI is neutral (37.59)
  • Volume is descending
Key levels to the upside          Key levels to the downside

1: $360                                     1: $334

2: $371                                     2: $300

3: $400                                      3: $289

Ripple

XRP did not differ much from the aforementioned two cryptocurrencies, and pushed towards the downside itself as well. The third-largest cryptocurrency by market cap has broken the $0.2454 level to the downside and entered the “safe zone” between $0.235 and $0.2454. However, the fight for $0.2454 is not over yet, and XRP still has a chance to regain this high, even though it is highly unlikely at this point.

XRP will most likely stay below $0.2454, and traders can use that to their advantage when trading as they could trade XRP’s sideways movements.

XRP/USD 4-hour Chart

XRP 4-hour overview is tilted towards the sell-side, while its daily and weekly overviews are completely bullish. However, its monthly overview is just as bearish as the 4-hour one, showing signs of pre-established bearish sentiment.

XRP/USD 4-hour Technicals

Technical factors (4-hour Chart):
  • The price is at its 50-period EMA and below its 21-period EMA
  • Price is close to its bottom Bollinger band
  • RSI is neutral (46.60)
  • Volume is average
Key levels to the upside          Key levels to the downside

1: $0.266                                   1: $0.2454 

2: $0.27                                     2: $0.235

3: $0.273                                  3: $0.227

 

Categories
Crypto Videos

John McAfee Arrested For Tax Evasion! Promoting S**t Coins!

 

 

John McAfee Arrested For Tax Evasion

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has filed suit against the creator of McAfee antivirus and a long-term player in the crypto field, John McAfee. McAfee was charged with allegedly promoting initial coin offerings without ever disclosing that the ICO issuers were paying him. As this is a direct violation of the US securities law, the SEC has filed suit against this eccentric investor on Monday.

When taking a look at what the suit claims, McAfee allegedly leveraged his fame to make over $23.1 million in undisclosed compensation from November 2017 to February 2018. He earned the aforementioned amount by recommending at least seven “initial coin offerings” to his Twitter followers, claiming he was the Chief Technical Officer or Technical Advisor of the projects, or that he at least performed a thorough inspection of how well-built these projects actually were.
The SEC mentions seven unidentified ICOs and their issuers who privately communicated with McAfee’s crypto team to get him to publicly endorse their ICO projects in exchange for payment. The payments were denominated both in the native ICO coins as well as Bitcoin.

This is highly illegal and has previously provoked the authorities to go after celebrities that acted as ICO promoters, such as DJ Khaled and Floyd Mayweather, who both promoted ICOs without ever disclosing their financial interests.
In this case, the SEC’s complaint refers to a time period where McAfee was predicting not only the price of Bitcoin but also which ICO will “pump,” which turned out to be a self-fulfilling prophecy simply due to the following he had.

While the market soon discovered what’s behind McAfee’s ICO promotion scheme, the outlandish Bitcoin prediction stayed. He ultimately walked back on the prediction that Bitcoin will reach $1 million by the end of 2020, claiming he had only been trying to draw the public’s attention to BTC.


Authorities have been quick on their feet for this one, as the Justice Department reported that John McAfee has been arrested in Spain for the tax evasion charges and is awaiting extradition to the US. His arrest came only a day after the suit was filed.

Categories
Crypto Market Analysis

Daily Crypto Review, Oct 7 – Crypto Sector Falls As Trump Rejects Stimulus Proposal

The cryptocurrency sector has declined slightly as Bitcoin returned to the level it was on Monday. Bitcoin is currently trading for $10,591, representing a decrease of 0.88% on the day. Meanwhile, Ethereum lost 3.04% on the day, while XRP lost 3.26%.

 Daily Crypto Sector Heat Map

If we look at the top 100 cryptocurrencies, we can see that PumaPay gained 6.93% in the past 24 hours, making it the most prominent daily gainer. EOS (5.08%) and Ethereum Classic (2.6%) also did great. On the other hand, Elrond lost 17.09%, making it the most prominent daily loser. It is followed by Ocean Protocol’s loss of 15.55% and Aave’s loss of 15.24%.

Top 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bottom 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bitcoin’s market dominance level has increased slightly since our last report, with its value currently being at 60.95%. This value represents a 0.49% difference to the upside when compared to when we last reported.

Daily Crypto Market Cap Chart

The crypto sector capitalization has lost quite a bit of value over the course of the past 24 hours. Its current value is $335.30 billion, representing a decrease of $7.1 billion compared to our previous report.

_______________________________________________________________________

What happened in the past 24 hours?

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Technical analysis

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Bitcoin

The largest cryptocurrency by market cap has spent a day declining in price slightly, with many analysts speculating that it was because of US President Donald Trump’s tweet on his rejection of the most recent stimulus proposal. Analysts that are less concerned about fundamentals saw a potential death cross as well as Bitcoin not being able to confidently pass the ascending trend (pink line), ultimately causing a small crash.

For the time being, Bitcoin will remain range-bound by the $10,360 level to the downside and $10,850 level to the upside as main support and resistance levels.

BTC/USD 4-hour Chart

Bitcoin’s short-term technicals have turned more bullish than yesterday, with both its 4-hour and 1-day overview tilting towards the downside. However, its longer-term technicals have remained bullish.

BTC/USD 4-hour Technicals

Technical factors (4-hour Chart):
  • Price is below both its 50-period EMA and 21-period EMA
  • Price is slightly below its middle Bollinger band
  • RSI is ascending (46.96)
  • Volume is average (after the one-candle spike)
Key levels to the upside          Key levels to the downside

1: $10,630                                 1: $10,500

2: $10,850                                 2: $10,360

3: $11,000                                  3: $10,015

Ethereum

Ethereum was trading on increased volume in the past 24 hours, with the volume starting to ramp up as the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap was unable to break the top Bollinger Band line. This caused a slight crash, which pulled back Ether to its support level of $334, which held up quite nicely.

As we mentioned many times now, traders should pay attention to any increase in volume, but should ultimately trade Ethereum’s movements between $334 and $360.

ETH/USD 4-hour Chart

Ethereum’s short-term and long-term technical outlook looks very similar to Bitcoin’s. Its short term technicals (4-hour and 1-day) are heavily tilted towards the sell-side, while its weekly and monthly outlooks are still quite bullish.

ETH/USD 4-hour Technicals

Technical Factors (4-hour Chart):
  • The price is below both its 50-period and 21-period EMA
  • The price is at its lower Bollinger band
  • RSI is neutral (40.44)
  • Volume is above average
Key levels to the upside          Key levels to the downside

1: $360                                     1: $334

2: $371                                     2: $300

3: $400                                      3: $289

Ripple

XRP had a pullback day, where its price tried to find equilibrium after two days of pushing towards the upside. The third-largest cryptocurrency by market cap traded on increased volume, which indicated that the pullback would be more severe. The price has reached the $0.2454 support level and briefly fell under it as well. It is yet uncertain whether XRP has finished its pullback phase and remained above $0.2454, or if the fight for this level still continues.

XRP/USD 4-hour Chart

XRP 4-hour, daily, and weekly technicals are now tilted towards the buy-side, while its monthly outlook remains tilted towards the sell-side.

XRP/USD 4-hour Technicals

Technical factors (4-hour Chart):
  • The price is above its 50-period EMA and right at its 21-period EMA
  • Price is at its middle Bollinger band
  • RSI is neutral (51.12)
  • Volume is above average
Key levels to the upside          Key levels to the downside

1: $0.266                                   1: $0.2454 

2: $0.27                                     2: $0.235

3: $0.273                                  3: $0.227

 

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

MyCrypto Wallet Review: Is MyCrypto The Most Secure Eth-Based Wallet?

In early 2018, Tyler Monahan – a co-founder of MyEtherWallet – was not pleased with how the wallet was managed. She reacted by changing MEW’s twitter handle to MyCrypto wallet before apologizing for the act and leaving the company to start MyCrypto wallet. Tyler forked off the open-sourced MEW code and used it to create the MyCrypto Wallet, launched in May 2018.

And since it forked off MEW, MyCrypto not only serves as MEW’s greatest competition but has also integrated most of its features. It is open-sourced, allows for easy interaction with the Ethreum blockchain, integrates hardware wallets, and is a client-side tool.

This review will detail these features and tell you if MyCrypto is indeed the safest wallet for storing your Ethereum. We also provide you with a step-by-step guide on how to activate and use MyCrypto wallet and compare its effectiveness with that of its fiercest competitor – MyEtherWalet.

MyCrypto key features:

Cross-platform wallet: MyCrypto wallet is available as a web wallet as well as a desktop app. The app is highly versatile and compatible with virtually all the popular computer operating systems, including Windows, Linux, macOS, Linux, and a Stand-Alone app.

Multi-currency: MyCrypto is a multi-currency wallet that supports a wide range of Eth-based cryptocurrencies and tokens. Moreover, there is no limit to the number of wallet addresses you can create on MyCrypto.

Inbuilt exchange: MyCrypto doesn’t have a proprietary crypto exchange infused into the desktop app. The platform has, however, integrated the Shapeshift exchange that allows users to purchase crypto using Fiat as well a Coinbase Buy Widget where wallet users can exchange cryptos and tokens.

Integrates hardware wallet: You can integrate the MyCrypto wallet app with the more secure hardware wallets like Trezor and Ledger and get to enjoy such additional services as additional coins and wallets.

Track portfolio: The desktop wallet app features a tracking tool for your portfolio that you can use to monitor your crypto inflows, outflows, and available balances in real-time. The tool is versatile and can be tweaked to monitor a single cryptocurrency/token or the entire portfolio.

Integrates MyCrypto debit card: MyCrypto wallet developers recently launched the MyCrypto debit card that allows users to spend their crypto balances in stores and download cash from ATM. The card works at both crypto-friendly and regular stores/ATMs as it auto-converts your funds from crypto to fist currency at the best conversion rate.

Security features:

Password: Your MyCrypto wallet is secured with a password (minimum 8 characters) that you set when setting up the wallet and creating a user account.

Wallet backup and recovery: There are three primary ways of backing up a MyCrypto wallet. First, you will be provided with a recovery seed phrase when creating a user account on either the Web or desktop app wallet. Secondly, you can back up your private keys by moving them to the integrated hardware wallet. Thirdly, you can write the sensitive wallet data (wallet address, private keys, and Keystore files) on a piece of paper and save it offline.

Non-custodial: MyCrypto wallet does not store your information on the company servers. Rather, this data is highly encrypted and stored within your device.

Counter-Phishing feature: A common tactic that is increasingly used by crypto hackers today is creating phishing sites that resemble the actual crypto wallet website. MyCrypto understands this and has since placed a link within the website that you can use to know if you are on the legit MyCrypto Wallet website.

How to set up and activate MyCrypto wallet:

Step 1:  Start by downloading the MyCrypto wallet desktop app from the developer’s official website or GitHub.

Step 2: Install and launch the app, and since you are using the app for the first time, chose to create a new wallet.

Step 3: Click on the “Generate a New Wallet” icon.

Step 4: Chose a backup and recovery option for the wallet. It can be either a mnemonic phrase or a Keystore file. If you decide to back it up with Key Store files, save the private key and paper keys offline, and if you choose a mnemonic phrase, write it down and save it offline.

Step 5: The wallet will now present you with a list of public wallet addresses. Choose your preferred address.

Step 6: The MyCrypto wallet is now active and ready for use

How to add/receive crypto to the wallet:

Step 1: Log in to your MyCrypto wallet and tap on the “Receive” icon on the user dashboard

Step 2: Copy the wallet address displayed and forward it to the party sending you eth-based coins

Alternatively:

Step 3: Click on the Buy tab and choose Changelley if you wish to convert your crypto or Fiat currency into eth-based coins/tokens and load them to MyCrypto.

Step 4: Choose Coinbase if you wish to buy from Coinbase.

Step 5: Follow the prompts to create a user account on either crypto exchange and proceed to make your purchase.

How to send cryptos from the wallet:

Step 1: Log in to your MyCrypto wallet and click on the “Send” icon.

Step 2: On the transfer window, enter the recipient’s wallet address and the number of coins you want them to receive

Step 3:  Confirm that these details are correct.

Step 4: Send

MyCrypto wallet ease of use

MyCrypto is a multi-lingual wallet that’s available in over 20 international languages. It also features a straightforward onboarding process and equally easy crypto sending and purchasing process. You don’t even need to leave MyCrypto Wallet to make a purchase. Just follow the links to Shapeshift for crypto/fiat currency swaps or use the Coinbase Buy Widget.

Supported currencies and countries

MyCrypto, like its Fork, is a multi-currency eth-based wallet that supports Ethetreum, Ethereum Classic, and such eth-based altcoins as the ERC 20 tokens.

Though its parent company has its headquarters in Australia, MyCrypto wallet is currently available in 12 countries.

Wallet cost and fees:

MyCrypto wallet is free to download and use. Fiat deposits and withdrawals are also free, and you won’t be charged MyCrypto card transactions at the point of sale or ATM withdrawal.

Both crypto and token outbound transactions will, however, attract network fees (GAS). These charges are dynamic whereby a higher transaction charge attracts faster transaction fees while reduced fees translate to slower transaction speeds.

Wallet customer support:

MyCrypto wallet maintains an elaborate Help and Support page that outlines different how-to guides, troubleshooting manuals, and general wallet information for both developers and users.

You can also email their support team, raise a support ticket using the contact us button, or direct-message them on social media.

What are the pros and cons of using MyCrypto wallet:

Pros:

  • It has embraced several effective security measures, including anti-phishing tactics.
  • It allows for both fiat-to-crypto and crypt-to-crypto exchanges.
  • It’s a free wallet and allows for free Fiat deposits and ATM withdrawals.
  • MyCrypto has a highly responsive customer support team.

Cons:

  • It will only support a limited range of Ethereum based altcoins and tokens.
  • One might consider the transaction charges higher than on most other wallets.

Comparing MyCrypto wallet with other Ethereum based wallets

MyCrypto vs. MyEtherWallet

MyCrypto was forked off MyEther wallet’s source code. But this is not the only similarity between these two crypto wallets. They both are also eth-specific wallets designed to support coins and tokens built on the Ethereum blockchain. They also share several operational and security features, including integrating hardware wallets and third party exchanges, support for multiple backup options.

MyCrypto wallet, however, takes securing the wallet a notch higher by not only subjecting its users to KYC and AML procedures but also helping them detect and avoid falling prey to phishing attempts.

Verdict: Is MyCrypto wallet safe?

MyCrypto wallet has put in place highly effective measures to help you maintain control over your digital assets. It starts with securing your wallet with a password, providing you with multiple wallet backup and recovery options, and setting up strategies that help you identify and avoid phishing scams. These, plus the fact that you can integrate the wallet with hardware and software wallets, makes MyCrypto a relatively safe eth wallet.  

Categories
Crypto Daily Topic

Serious Crypto Trading Mistakes and How You Can Avoid Them

The crypto market has made people millionaires overnight. It has also caused others to lose a large amount of their portfolio in the same time span. And it’s stories of the former that have newbie traders jumping on the ship every single day. However, the same reason some have gotten uber-lucky is the same one others have found themselves at the cleaners. 

What’s the reason? Well, the sheer unpredictability of the crypto market makes the markets subject to dramatic changes in the blink of an eye. This volatility means when dealing with the crypto market, lots of extra caution is needed. 

In this article, we’ll detail exactly how. It’s an examination of the most serious mistakes traders are not to make, and how you can avoid them to stand a better chance with your trades. 

#1. Relying on too Many Indicators

Trading indicators are one of the most obvious tricks to get ahead in any kind of trading – at least at first. Soon enough, though, you could easily find yourself lost in the myriad of available indicators available. From Bollinger Bands to MACD, to Stochastic, to EMAs, to RSI and plenty more, it’s so easy to get caught up without any tangible benefits. 

Most beginner traders and even experienced ones often make the mistake of thinking that they must understand all these indicators. Apart from indicators of having the ability to contradict each other, some overlap, meaning there’s no need to use so many. 

The reality is, many of the most successful traders get on while relying very little, if at all, on indicators. 

Instead, they observe things like volume and price action – which give them lots of clues on how to make the next move. 

#2. Trading as Much as You Can

In most crypto trading circles, the mantra is the more you trade, the better your chances. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Success in trading arises from strategy and well-executed trades. 

When you don’t overtrade, you can avoid losses caused by, let’s say, the market being down. Also, things like setting for yourself a fixed number of trades that you must meet daily are actually harmful because they force you to make decisions just to tick the list. In such a scenario, it’s very easy for you to take uncalculated risks that could lead to losses. 

What to do instead? Use your well-curated strategy to enter those particularly promising trades. Remember that your strategy need not be written in stone. What worked last week, last month, and so on might not necessarily work next time. So always change up your strategy in response to market realities. 

#3. Going Against the Trend

Trading against the trend is not a no-no. Many successful traders do that all the time. However, it’s harder for a beginner to pull this move successfully. For instance, it would be folly to buy when the market is bearish. While sometimes it can rebound, most times, profitable opportunities are highly uncertain. 

In most cases, when the market is on a downtrend, better to go short than long. When you become more acquainted with the intricacies of the market, you can make bolder moves. 

#4. Placing The Stop Loss Order Too Close

Stop losses are an indispensable tool of modern-day trading. They can help you limit losses in a security position. But in certain conditions, a stop-loss order can actually hold you back. An example is when you place the order too close to the buying price. 

In the highly-volatile cryptocurrency market, the price can go practically any direction in a very short time. As such, it’s very easy to trigger a stop-loss order before the price has stretched sufficiently. The scenario of the market taking a deep before climbing again is all too common. That’s why you need to give room for the price to test both support and resistance levels. 

#5. Acting on Hype

The cryptocurrency space is riddled with hype and “pump and dump” groups, caused by entities who pose as highly knowledgeable in crypto trends when in actuality, they are scam groups. Pump and dump is a crypto scam where a trader(s) hypes a coin as the next big thing, creating excitement about it in the market. 

The idea is to get unsuspecting traders to rush and purchase the coin. When this happens, the hype masters will offload the coin. Because it’s now flooding in the market, it loses value, and the unsuspecting traders are stuck with a valueless coin.

When you spot this kind of hype, take it with a generous pinch of salt. Do your own research before you invest in any coin. Reliable websites and reputable traders’ social media accounts are good places to start. 

#6. Diving Headfirst

You wouldn’t plunge into new waters without knowing the depth, so why would you do it with your money? One of the surefire ways to lose money in crypto trading is to blindly follow a strategy without knowing the mechanics of it. 

Instead, practice your strategy before applying it to real money. Most trading platforms will allow you to conduct demo trading, trading with virtual money instead of real cash. It’s highly recommended that you use these to rigorously experiment before trading in the real world. 

#7. Being Overconfident

The most successful traders will tell you confidence is part of their recipe. Confidence means carefully calculating a move and proceeding to execute it. And while confidence is great, overconfidence is not. 

Overconfidence can cause you to take unnecessary risks and lose money. It can make you enter trades at every turn while ignoring price direction. Fear is not the only emotion causing traders to lose money. Overconfidence is another. And both are detrimental to the process. 

So what should you do? Be confident, instead. One way to cultivate confidence is to study the markets regularly. The crypto market can change in an instant, and when you have beforehand knowledge of what to do in such a scenario, you can make a better-informed decision. 

One thing to know is that what might work when the markets are falling might not be applicable when they’re on an upturn. Another is that the overall market sentiment should outweigh yours at any point. If the market is falling, it makes no sense to go in and make a trade. Better wait for when the trend is more bullish. 

Another way to be confident? By staying on top of the news. The crypto market is highly sensitive to the news – and this means the news of many events – not just finance news. This could be the outcome of a major election, a natural disaster, and so on. And mind you –  this news never has to be true. Even a rumor could send the markets flying in the opposite direction. What does this mean? Sentiment analysis is key, too. If your sentiment analysis game is on top, then you’ll be more confident in your trades. 

#8. Having a Poor Risk-to-Reward Ratio

A risk-to-reward ratio could make the difference between miserable trades and profitable ones. Most beginner traders think scoring more profitable trades than losing ones is what makes a successful trader. In truth, you can lose more than you win and still come out on top. 

For instance, let’s say you have an 80% winning strategy. Even with such a strategy, a terrible risk-to-reward ratio, such as 1:1, will still lose you money. On the other hand, you can have a 40% winning strategy and with a healthy risk-to-reward ratio like 3:1, flip the tables in the best way. 

What does this mean? Better to have a superior risk-to-reward ratio with a lower winning strategy than a huge strategy with a poor risk-to-reward ratio. 

#9. Being Greedy

Humans are naturally predisposed to want it all – whenever possible. This, in its bare bones, is being greedy. And greed in trading is one of the surest ways to lose. 

Every trader will tell you of a time they entered a profitable position and held on for too long – waiting for it to double or triple. Then the markets changed at the flip of a coin, and they lost the position. What this means is sometimes it’s best to lock in a trade even when it’s rising, because a flash crash is an everyday occurrence in the world of crypto. And you simply never see it coming. 

So the key is to be realistic with your trades. Try to increase your portfolio methodically, rather than trying to make quick gains. 

#10. Entering More and More Losing Positions

This is when a trader insists on buying a  digital asset even though it’s clearly falling in value. In cryptoverse, it’s easy to get attached to a particular asset and continue to buy, even though the asset is taking a beating. While it’s good to trust your judgment, let your decision be based on evidence rather than personal bias. 

Go by this rule: if the market is in a general bearish mode, it’s a good idea to ‘buy the dip.’ But if the asset has been on a downtrend for months, even years, better hold out. Generally, buying into a position of strength works better than buying the dip because a currency is dear to your heart.

Categories
Crypto Videos

When Will Bitcoin Push Towards $20,000

 

When Will Bitcoin Push Towards $20,000?

Bitcoin remaining relatively stable above $10,000 despite a major cryptocurrency exchange getting hacked is certainly a positive sign for the market’s maturity. While major volatility was expected several times throughout the past couple of weeks, this didn’t really happen, even with all the macro-economic uncertainty surrounding the sector.
The question remains, is boring price action becoming a new reality for Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is range-bound on the daily chart

Sometimes, charting can be quite simple and straightforward, and this is one of those cases. Bitcoin’s price fell below $11,090 resistance at the start of the month, establishing new support at $10,000-$10,360. The $11,090-11,300 zone that has been lost is now confirmed resistance.
When taking a look at the downside, a potential drop towards the $9,300-$9,600 zone wouldn’t be completely unexpected as the level around the $9,600 mark is still untested with the lingering CME futures gap.

Crypto sector market capitalization looking for support

The 1-week chart of the crypto sector market capitalization is showing a clear pattern by posting a higher high in the previous months, marking the potential start of a brand new uptrend.

After a higher high, the market needs to set a new higher low in which a range-bound structure can be defined. While the new possible higher low might be the $300 billion mark, it is also possible for the sector to pull back to the previous resistance zone, which is between $250-275 billion.
However, the price has possibly found resistance at the $320 billion mark, which is where it hit the 100-day moving average. While this bounce is extremely bullish and unexpectedly high, the move is not over yet, and the crypto sector market cap might end up going lower.

If the given area holds, it also shows how the beginning of a new cycle can be relatively dull. With each new start of a fresh market cycle, levels are flipped as support and resistance, after which we can see months of range-bound trading periods. We can use the price movement of Bitcoin in 2016 as an example, as that year was also a halving year.

During these periods, Bitcoin’s price stabilized in an accumulation range all throughout 2015. After the accumulation range has ended, Bitcoin’s price broke out and pushed towards the next zone of resistance.
This rally ended up with a sideways range that lasted for six months. A new breakout occurred, followed by another sideways range that lasted for six months. The current market sentiment, as well as price movement, is comparable with that period. The real excitement will come only when the total market capitalization of the sector, as well as Bitcoin itself, break into price discovery, as new potential parabolic runs can come back into play at that point.

A Bull case for Bitcoin

It should be noted that the scenarios shown here are based on lower time-frames (specifically the 4-hour time-frame) and, therefore, should be considered a short-term outlook.
As Bitcoin’s price is currently stuck in a range and is currently facing strong resistance, it’s more likely to anticipate a pullback to the $10,360 area, which is the vital area to hold for any form of bullish continuation.
If Bitcoin’s price holds at least that level and creates a higher low, we can expect a strong push towards the upside. If the price decides to just shoot up, the crucial breaker would be the $10,850 area. If Bitcoin breaks that area with confidence, we may see a rally towards the $11,090 or even 11,300 area.
While it would be unexpected to see a massive breakout that would surpass the aforementioned area, that would warrant an even stronger case for the Bitcoin bulls, and even possible highs of above-$20,000.

A Bear case for Bitcoin

The same levels surround the bearish scenario as well. A failure to break the $10,800 zone with confidence would present a potential test of the $10,360 area.
As we discussed in the bullish case for Bitcoin, a potential higher low can fuel the bulls and rally, even more buying power. However, if Bitcoin falls below the $10,360, further downward momentum should be expected, even including the still-open CME gap. However, very few people are expecting Bitcoin to fall below $9,000 any time soon, if ever.

WASHINGTON, DC – SEP. 27: U.S. President Donald Trump reacts to a journalist question during a news conference in the Briefing Room of the White House. Trump is planning for the first presidential debate with Democratic Nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden on Sep. 29 in Cleveland, Ohio. Joshua Roberts/Getty Images/AFP

Bears are mostly making their case based on the economic and political events, such as the U.S. presidential elections, U.S. President Donald Trump announcing that he is ill from COVID-19, as well as events in the crypto space such as the BitMEX platform fallout due to the U.S. government charges against it.

Who is in the right?

While we have no way of finding out who is currently in the right and where Bitcoin will head in the short-term, we can look at its day-to-day price movement as well as fundamentals and sentiment to get a clearer view.
Bitcoin is on track for its best Q3 ever, as Skew’s data shows. According to this on-chain analytics resource, Bitcoin’s Q3 closing price will be stronger than any Q3 before.

BTC/USD traded at somewhere in the $10,700 range on Sep. 30. That number very comfortably beats any other Q3 close on record, with the next highest one being 2019’s close of $8,310. On top of that, Bitcoin has sealed the second-best quarterly close in general, as it beat Q2 of 2019, which had a closing price of $10,590.
On top of that, network fundamentals also speak to Bitcoin’s overall strength, with the network difficulty itself at all-time highs and set for another push towards the upside. Hash rate, a measure of the estimated computing power that is being directed to mining, is also trending back towards its all-time-high levels.

Conclusion

While there are many discussions on whether Bitcoin will retrace to sub-$9,600 levels or push past $11,000, one thing is certain: Bitcoin’s dull price movement will not remain like this for good. Whether its short-term movement will be tilted towards the upside or downside is irrelevant, Bitcoin is here to stay, and good times remain ahead.

Categories
Forex Videos

Nancy Pelosi for President?

Nancy Pelosi for President?

Thank you for joining this Forex academy educational video.

In a shock announcement, President Trump has been tested positive for the Coronavirus, and in a shock, has been moved to a military hospital for further treatment, including….

Receiving the drug Remdesivir in order to try and reduce the viral load and in the hope that it will reduce the length of his illness. The drug has received mixed results in patients, with some having seen no effect at all and others statistically seeming to spend less time in hospital.

Donald Trump was taken to hospital as a precaution, looking pale and tired, while tweeting ‘’it is going well, I think’’, but he 74, and is overweight, and it is well known within his circles that he enjoys a poor diet of hot dogs and burgers and takes little exercise, in which case the odds are stacked against him.
The dynamics of the election has completely changed in just 24 hours, Joe Biden wished the president well and has pulled negative adverts, and the timing of President trump’s illness could not be worse, bearing in mind we are just a few weeks away from the date of the election and that a dozen states have already sent out postal votes to the electorate and many of these will have been returned with votes cast.

But interestingly, the timetable, which is already incredibly stressed, cannot be moved because the day of the election is set in stone by the US Constitution and falls on the 3Rd of November this year. For it to change, both houses, the republicans, and democrats would need to agree to postpone the date of the election, and with the Democrats holding the majority of power in the house, this is very unlikely to happen.

But in a twist, if the votes are not counted, buy a hard deadline in December, and the winning President not be announced, the House of Representatives would need to vote on this and make a decision who would be the next President of the United States. If they were unable to make a decision, in accordance with the Constitution of the United States, the speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, will automatically become President.

The financial markets, as will the rest of the world, be glued to their television screens over the next few days watching this situation unfold. Never before in the history of politics has there been quite such a dramatic theatre, the likes of which would make the most incredible novel or enthralling movie. But in reality, people’s lives and livelihoods are all heavily dependent on how President Trump progresses through this terrible illness. Certainly, all of us here at Forex Academy wish him a speedy recovery.

With regards to financial trading at this most uncertain times, one thing is for certain, we will see extreme volatility, and should the President’s health deteriorate, we might see sell-offs in the stock markets within the United States, which could lead to further sell-offs abroad, this might lead to a strengthening in the United States dollar.

And in another twist, should President Trump become critically ill and then recover the unquestionable dislike that he has for the Chinese, and what he calls the China virus, maybe heightened even further, causing an even greater fallout out between the two Nations.

Categories
Crypto Market Analysis

Daily Crypto Review, Oct 6 – XRP Gains Over 10% As It Announces The Launch Of A New Crypto Exchange

The cryptocurrency sector has had a slow and steady day of mostly slight price increases. Bitcoin is currently trading for $10,707, representing an increase of 1.03% on the day. Meanwhile, Ethereum gained 0.7% on the day, while XRP gained 3.18%.

 Daily Crypto Sector Heat Map

If we look at the top 100 cryptocurrencies, we can see that the privacy coin sector did really well today. Zcash gained 6.86% on the day, making it the most prominent daily gainer. Monero (5.7%) and Quant (3.5%) also did great. On the other hand, PumaPay lost an astonishing 85.58%, making it the most prominent daily loser. It is followed by Uniswap’s loss of 14.37% and Synthetix Network Token’s loss of 11.59%.

Top 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bottom 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bitcoin’s level of market dominance has increased slightly since our last report, with its value currently being at 60.46%. This value represents a 0.16% difference to the upside when compared to when we last reported.

Daily Crypto Market Cap Chart

The crypto sector capitalization has gained value over the course of the past 24 hours. Its current value is $342.40 billion, which represents an increase of $1.16 billion when compared to our previous report.

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What happened in the past 24 hours?

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Technical analysis

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Bitcoin

The largest cryptocurrency by market cap has spent another day by slowly gaining in value. The bulls were patient as Bitcoin approached the ascending trend line, ultimately passing it. Bitcoin’s short-term future will be decided by how he manages the $10,850 level. If the level gets tackled and Bitcoin stays above it confidently, we can expect a push towards $11,000-$11,300, or even higher. However, if that level doesn’t hold up, Bitcoin will return to the $10,360 level. Traders should pay attention to any spikes in volume.


BTC/USD 4-hour Chart

Bitcoin’s short-term technicals are a bit less bullish today, as the majority of the oscillators are neutral/bearish. However, its longer-term technicals have remained completely bullish.

BTC/USD 4-hour Technicals

Technical factors (4-hour Chart):
  • Price is above its 50-period EMA and its 21-period EMA
  • Price is slightly below its top Bollinger band
  • RSI is ascending (60.09)
  • Volume is below average
Key levels to the upside          Key levels to the downside

1: $10,630                                 1: $10,500

2: $10,850                                 2: $10,360

3: $11,000                                  3: $10,015

Ethereum

Ethereum’s price is slowly rising ever since the drop on Oct 2. However, the volume is slowly descending, turning Ethereum’s moves more and more dull. We may expect more slow and sideways movement until the volume picks up the pace.

Traders should pay attention to any increase in volume, as well as to Ethereum’s movement between $334 and $360.

ETH/USD 4-hour Chart

Ethereum’s 4-hour outlook has changed to full-out bullish, while its 1-day overview remains tilted towards the sell-side. On the other hand, its long-term overview seems extremely bullish, as its weekly or monthly technicals are both tilted towards the buy-side.

ETH/USD 4-hour Technicals

Technical Factors (4-hour Chart):
  • The price is above both its 50-period and 21-period EMA
  • The price is slightly above its middle Bollinger band
  • RSI is neutral (52.71)
  • Volume is below average
Key levels to the upside          Key levels to the downside

1: $360                                     1: $334

2: $371                                     2: $300

3: $400                                      3: $289

Ripple

XRP has had another amazing day, where its price moved further towards the upside and reached as high as $0.26. If the price manages to stay at this level, its next resistance will be found at the $0.266 level. However, a pullback is expected, where the area between $0.2454 and $0.251 has strong support.

It seems that the bulls have gathered around XRP on news of the company launching a cryptocurrency exchange on top of the XRP ledger, as well as because of the fact that XRP is very close to reaching a golden cross (50-period moving average crossing the 200-period moving average to the upside).

XRP/USD 4-hour Chart

XRP technicals are now tilted towards the buy-side, with the exception of its monthly outlook, which remains bearish.

XRP/USD 4-hour Technicals

Technical factors (4-hour Chart):
  • The price is well-above both its 50-period EMA and its 21-period EMA
  • Price is at its top Bollinger band
  • RSI is overbought (70.16)
  • Volume is above average
Key levels to the upside          Key levels to the downside

1: $0.266                                   1: $0.2454 

2: $0.27                                     2: $0.235

3: $0.273                                  3: $0.227

 

Categories
Crypto Daily Topic

Blockchain and Sports: A Comprehensive Guide

If you have been following – even in the remotest way possible, advances in banking and investment, you must have heard of cryptocurrencies and blockchain. Indeed, since its invention in 2009, blockchain has extensively experimented with cryptocurrencies, but sports? 

Well, the global sports industry is fast realizing the potential that lies in the adoption of blockchain. Today, startups such as Fight to Fame have come up with interesting use cases for blockchain in the sports industry. 

This article will look at some of these use cases and the benefits of blockchain for sports. We’ll also look at how blockchain can impact different areas of operation in the sports industry. 

Blockchain use cases in sports

#1. Fan Engagement

Continuously engaging fans is key to making them happy and keeping them consuming sports entertainment. Also, without fans, the sports industry would not succeed. Blockchain’s transparency and speed can be leveraged to enhance the customer experience in the sale of tickets and merchandise. 

#2. Smart Contracts 

Smart contracts were designed to enable automated transactions. This is particularly useful when transactions involve complex arrangements. On the business side of sports, there is a myriad of processes that can be automated using blockchain. For instance, sports investors can enter into agreements to finance athletes and, in turn, use them as tokens for future profitability.

#3. Sports Betting

While betting has existed for ages, blockchain ideals can transform the way fans bet. Since betting is similar to investing, digital tokens and cryptocurrency derivatives can be used in place of fiat money. This paradigm shift will not only create new possibilities, but it will also make betting more sophisticated and exciting.

#4. Anti-doping Control

Considering how doping adversely affects gaming, solutions that can intelligently address the issue are most welcome. Blockchain won’t be the panacea to the problem, but it will significantly enhance the integrity of doping tests. This can be achieved by maintaining test results on a public land immutable edger. In such an event, we might begin to see more accountability from athletes and their promoters when it comes to the use of performance-enhancing substances.

#5. Securing Athletes’ Data

Blockchain, being an immutable public ledger, can be used as a secure decentralized database for storing athletes’ information. Allegations of sportspersons changing their particulars over the course of their careers – usually done to gain some form of advantage – are common. But with an athletes’ registry backed by blockchain, such cases will be a thing of the past.

#6. Memorabilia Authentication

Badges, trophies, cups, signed merchandise and other memorabilia have great sentimental value in sports, which makes them prone to counterfeiting. Blockchain can be used to assign identity and verify the authenticity of such memorabilia.

#7. Tokenization of Sports Teams

Blockchain has made it easier for sports teams to tokenize their assets, such that investors can easily purchase these tokens from their favorite teams. Just like with traditional share purchases, this can be used to boost the liquidity of teams.

Benefits of Adopting Blockchain in Sports 

The sports industry will derive the following benefits from blockchain: 

  • The creation of new revenue streams through enhanced watching experiences, team tokenization, loyalty programs, and more
  • Easier crowdfunding for athletes which can be achieved through income share contracts between athletes and their fans
  • The creation of new betting models that might attract new audiences
  • The development of new incentives models that can be used to enhance fan engagement

How Blockchain Will Impact Fan Identity

The idea that fans can have digital identities is exciting. These digital identities can form a basis for crowdfunding, fan recognition, and digital collectibles. With such identities in place, the path to stardom will become clearer to many fans. And since superfans can be verified, there will be much more prestige associated with being a notable supporter. Fans will be more loyal, and teams will be able to better identify and reward such loyalty. As you can see, blockchain will elevate fan identity to a whole new level, where serious fans can be separated from casual followers.

How Blockchain Will Impact Incentivizing and Rewarding Fan Interaction

First, since it will be easier to identify fans, rewarding them for their interaction will be pretty straight forward. We will begin to see the rise of loyalty programs that can both identify and reward high levels of engagement. Tokens earned through loyalty programs can be redeemed for tickets or even exchanged for money. 

How Blockchain Will Impact Memorabilia Authentication

Just like fans, memorabilia can also acquire digital identities. For example, manufacturers can collaborate to create a standard for encoding the particulars of given memorabilia. These particulars can then be maintained on a blockchain ledger. Once this is achieved, verifying the authenticity of a trophy or medal will be as easy as looking upon the blockchain. 

How Blockchain Will Impact Digital Collectibles

Blockchain will give sports organizations the ability to generate digital collectibles and sell them to collectors. The beauty of it is that organizations will have control over the scarcity of collectibles. On the other hand, fans will have the ability to verify the authenticity and reputation of a collectible before buying it.

How Blockchain Will Impact Crowdfunding

With blockchain, crowdfunding will certainly become easier for athletes and sports organizations. Athletes and sports organizations can create tokens and sell them to fans, who can then redeem these tokens in the future for money, tickets, or other available options.

How Blockchain Will Impact Gaming and E-sports

Gaming has significantly grown in the recent past, and organizations are scrambling to satisfy consumer needs with new and exciting innovations. Introducing tokenization in blockchain-based games will change the game as players will now be able to trade the tokens among themselves or in the open market. 

The adoption of smart contracts will also transform betting by reducing payout time and transaction costs. This can be achieved through direct payouts for betting proceeds.

How Blockchain Will Impact the Tokenization of Teams

The tokenization of teams will become easier than ever before. Sports organizations will be able to create tokens that represent company ownership and sell them to their supporters. This will enable teams to grow even without relying on corporate sponsorship, as is traditionally the case.

Final Thoughts

The applications of blockchain are gradually expanding to industries beyond finance. As it’s adoption begins to sip through the global sports industry, changes in fan identity and engagement, loyalty programs, crowdfunding for athletes, and the trade of collectibles are inevitable. It will be a thrill to watch how the two spaces evolve together. 

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

GreenAddress Wallet Review: Is This The  Safest Bitcoin wallet app?

GreenAddress wallet is a bitcoin-only wallet created in 2013 by Lawrence Nahun and Jerzy Kozera. It is run by GreenWallet – a technology company registered in Malta – but was in 2016 acquired by Blockstream. On the GreenAddress website, the company is described as a safe wallet that gives you control of your wallet. It also adds that GreenAddress adopts a multi-faceted approach to keeping crypto coins safe and ease of use doesn’t let you “choose between security and convenience” or “compromise your privacy.”

It has integrated numerous security and operational features, geared towards making GreenAddress the safest and most intuitive bitcoin wallet. But what are these features, and how have they impacted the wallet’s safety and convenience?

We detail the GreenAddress key features here, vet its ease of use, list its pros and cons, and compare it with other Bitcoin-only wallets before telling you if it really is the safest Bitcoin wallet.

GreenAddress key features:

Cross-platform: Though it started with Android and iOS mobile apps, the GreenAddress wallet recently launched a Google Web extension for the wallet.

Address book: The GreenAddress wallet also features an address book for saving wallet addresses for individual and exchange wallets you interact with regularly. It goes a long way in helping you avoid the often-costly errors of getting the wrong wallet address.

Instant confirmation: When sending or even receiving cryptos in and out of your GreenAdress wallet, you will have the option to turn on the Instant Confirmation feature that notifies you immediately a transaction is confirmed, effectively eliminating the possibility of double payment.

Hardware wallet support: You also have the option of integrating the GreenAddress hot wallet with a hardware wallet. This not only boosts the wallet’s security but also increases the number of coins you can interact with.

GreenAddress security features

Password + PIN: When setting up the wallet and creating a user account, you will be required to set a passphrase and a PIN code. The passphrase gives you access to the private access and doubles up as the encryption tool while the PIN code opens the wallet’s watch-only mode.

Two-factor authentication: There are three verification methods supported by the GreenAddress wallet’s two-factor-authentication functionality. You can choose to authorize transactions via an SMS alert, email notification, or a robocall.

Hierarchically deterministic: The process of generating wallet addresses for new transactions is hierarchically deterministic. And this comes in handy when you want to throw off trackers and ensure that the parties you interact with don’t get to view your past and future crypto transactions.

Open source: The wallet address is also open-sourced and open to vetting and auditing by both wallet users and the rest of the crypto community. This privacy guarantee ensures that the wallet is free of bugs, security loopholes, and malicious codes.

Non-custodial: The GreenAddress website claims that the wallet will “Never store your private keys, not even (when they are) encrypted.” They are encrypted and stored within your mobile or computer device, giving you total control.

Watch-only mode: When using public wi-fi or suspicious internet connection, you can access the wallet in a watch-only mode that allows you to view balances and accept transfers in. When using the watch-only mode, you don’t have access to the private keys and any sensitive wallet information, you cannot send coins, and you cannot alter the app settings.

How to set and activate the GreenAddress wallet (web wallet)

Step 1: Open the official GreenAddress wallet website (https://greenaddress.it/en/) and click on the ‘Create Your Wallet’ icon on the upper right corner of the homepage

Step 2: A warning will pop up asking if you want to continue with the registration via the web site or you wish to download the GreenAddress wallet app

Step 3: If you chose ‘Continue Using Webpage’ you will receive the mnemonic backup phrase that forms the recovery seed

Step 4: Write them down on a piece of paper and save them offline. Acknowledge that you have noted them down and press continue

Step 5: Verify that you have accurately written them down and in the right order by filling in the missing words.

Step 6: Activate the two-factor authentication and verify your identity by linking the web wallet with your Google authenticator, adding your email address, or phone number.

Step 7: Enter the verification code you receive on your chosen 2FA method

Step 8: Set the wallet PIN (between 5 and 15) numbers

Step 9: Tap on the “PIN set, ready for step 3” to complete the process

Step 10: The wallet is now active and ready for use

How to add/receive Crypto into your GreenAddress wallet

Step 1: Log in to your GreenAddress wallet and click the “Receive” tab on the user dashboard.

Step 2: If you have multiple wallet addresses, chose the one you want to use

Step 3: Copy the wallet address and forward it to the person sending you Bitcoins.

Step 4: Wait for the coins to reflect.

How to send Crypto from your GreenAddress wallet

Step 1: Log in to your wallet and click “Send” on the user dashboard

Step 2: If you have multiple wallet addresses, choose the one you would like to use

Step 3: Enter the recipient’s address and the number of Bitcoins you wish to send on the transfer window.

Step 4: Review the transaction details and hit send.

GreenAddress wallet ease of use

GreenAddress is a highly intuitive and customizable Wallet. You can easily customize most aspects of the wallet, including themes, set your preferred exchange rate, and change the privacy and notification settings. It also allows you to change the denomination of your wallet’s base currency from Bitcoin to mBTC, uBTC, or Bits. You can also choose between the 12 language settings, determine the daily/weekly/monthly transaction limits, add more user accounts or wallet addresses, and even incorporate advanced wallet security settings.

GreenAddress wallet supported currencies and countries.

GreenAddress will only support Bitcoin cryptocurrency.

GreenAddress wallet cost and fees

GreenAddress is a free wallet. It is free to create a user account and store coins here. You will only have to pay the Bitcoin network fee charged when you send coins to another wallet or exchange.

What are the pros and cons of using the GreenAddress wallet?

Pros:

  • There is no limit to the number of wallet addresses or Bitcoins you can hold in your GreenAddress
  • Allows you to incorporate advanced security settings
  • The wallet is relatively easy to use
  • It can be easily integrated with hardware wallets
  • It gives you absolute control over your private keys

Cons:

  • GreenAddress is a Bitcoin-only Crypto wallet
  • GreenAddress does not give wallet users a choice in choosing the multi-signature partner
  • One may consider the signup process to be laborious and the wallet not beginner-friendly

Comparing GreenAddress wallet with other Bitcoin-only wallets

GreenAddress wallet vs. Blockchain Core

GreenAddress and Bitcoin Core are both Bitcoin-only wallets. But while GreenAddress is a mobile/web crypto vault, the Bitcoin Core is a full-stack desktop client wallet. Additionally, while both wallets are hierarchically deterministic, the GreenAddress wallet generates a new address for new transactions automatically while address-generation for Bitcoin Core is manual.

Although Bitcoin Core may be considered safer as it integrates more effective security measures, GreenAddress carries the day for convenience. It only takes up limited storage space and even more intuitive.

Verdict: Is the GreenAddress Wallet safe?

Well, we consider the security measures GreenAdress wallet has put in place adequate for individuals looking for short-term storage for their coins or active traders. However, we find fault with their multi-signature functionality that does not present users with any other choice of a signee other than GreenAddress itself. Further, GreenAddress is a hot wallet and thus susceptible to the inherent threats associated with online wallets.

Categories
Crypto Market Analysis

Daily Crypto Review, Oct 5 – XRP Skyrockets and Gains Over 9%; Uniswap’s Volume Trumps Coinbase

The cryptocurrency sector is experiencing a slow but steady increase in price as Bitcoin is moving towards the upside after the $10,360 low it hit on Oct 2. Bitcoin is currently trading for $10,613, representing an increase of 0.53% on the day. Meanwhile, Ethereum gained 0.48% on the day, while XRP gained 5.79%.

 Daily Crypto Sector Heat Map

If we look at the top 100 cryptocurrencies as well as their gains and losses, Zilliqa gained 10.87% on the day, making it the most prominent daily gainer. Celsius (8.47%) and XRP (6.45%) also did great. On the other hand, SushiSwap Token lost 9.94%, making it the most prominent daily loser. It is followed by UMA’s loss of 8.93% and Bitcoin Gold’s loss of 8.64%.

Top 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bottom 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bitcoin’s level of market dominance stayed at the same spot since our last report, with its value currently being at 60.30%. This value represents a 0.07% difference to the downside when compared to when we last reported.

Daily Crypto Market Cap Chart

The crypto sector capitalization has gained value over the course of the weekend. Its current value is $341.26 billion, which represents an increase of $5.80 billion when compared to our previous report.

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What happened in the past 24 hours?

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_______________________________________________________________________

Technical analysis

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Bitcoin

The largest cryptocurrency by market cap has dropped in price due to the fundamentals, such as the US President Donald Trump being ill from COVID-19 as well as one of the largest trading platforms, BitMEX, being charged by the CFTC and the DOJ. However, the drop was only strong enough to push BTC to the $10,360 level, not below it. This is an extremely bullish sign as this support holding is key to the future development of Bitcoin.

Ever since then, Bitcoin has been slowly and steadily gaining in value but is being checked by the ascending trend line (pink). Traders should watch how BTC handles the trend line and if it surpasses it or keeps bouncing off of it.

BTC/USD 4-hour Chart

Bitcoin’s short-term technicals have changed to bullish over the weekend. Its longer-term technicals, however, have remained completely bullish, except for the daily outlook, which is just slightly more neutral.

BTC/USD 4-hour Technicals

Technical factors (4-hour Chart):
  • Price is above its 50-period EMA and its 21-period EMA
  • Price is at its top Bollinger band
  • RSI is ascending (56.69)
  • Volume is below average
Key levels to the upside          Key levels to the downside

1: $10,630                                 1: $10,500

2: $10,850                                 2: $10,360

3: $11,000                                  3: $10,015

Ethereum

Ethereum’s price has acted similar to Bitcoin’s movements, with Ether plummeting on Oct 2 and dropping to the $334 support level. However, bulls have taken over the market, and Ethereum has been slowly rising in the past couple of days. The prediction that options traders made regarding Ether trading below $360 and above $340 during October is still valid, and even more likely.

Traders should pay attention to any increase in volume, as that will spark the next move. The current volume is unable to bring any volatility to Ethereum.

ETH/USD 4-hour Chart

Ethereum’s 4-hour outlook has changed to slightly bullish, while its 1-day overview remains tilted towards the sell-side. However, its long-term overview seems extremely bullish, as its weekly or monthly technicals are both heavily tilted towards the buy-side.

ETH/USD 4-hour Technicals

Technical Factors (4-hour Chart):
  • The price is right below its 50-period and right above its 21-period EMA
  • The price is slightly above its middle Bollinger band
  • RSI is neutral (50.85)
  • Volume is below average
Key levels to the upside          Key levels to the downside

1: $360                                     1: $334

2: $371                                     2: $300

3: $400                                      3: $289

Ripple

XRP has had an amazing day and even managed to get in the top3 daily gainers section. The third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization started off the weekend with its price dropping and hitting $0.228. However, the price quickly recovered and hovered below the $0.235 level until it finally broke. The push towards the upside was strong and with high volume, which helped XRP reach as high as $0.254.

XRP is now trying to consolidate above the $0.2454 level, which traders should pay attention to. An additional spark of volatility might be good for trading, regardless of XRP’s direction.

XRP/USD 4-hour Chart

XRP technicals are now quite uniformed and bullish, with both short-term and long-term technicals being completely tilted towards the buy-side. However, its monthly outlook still remains bearish.

XRP/USD 4-hour Technicals

Technical factors (4-hour Chart):
  • The price is above both its 50-period EMA and its 21-period EMA
  • Price is at its top Bollinger band
  • RSI is heading towards the oversold territory (67.36)
  • Volume is above average
Key levels to the upside          Key levels to the downside

1: $0.2454                                 1: $0.235 

2: $0.266                                   2: $0.227

3: $0.27                                    3: $0.221

 

Categories
Crypto Daily Topic

Games to Play and Earn Cryptocurrency

In our real-world, fun and making money don’t always go together. What if that changed? How amazing would it be if you could earn money just playing games in the comfort of your couch? 

Well, that’s now possible thanks to blockchain tech. Blockchain and gaming is the near-perfect combination of amazing gaming experience. If you are a cryptocurrency and gaming enthusiast, you probably won’t need to spend thousands of dollars on ridiculously expensive mining rigs to earn crypto.

We made a list of some of the best games to play and earn cryptocurrency. 

#1.Worldopoly

In 2018, Qubit AG released the first blockchain-driven mobile augmented reality game, Worldopoly. This is a multiplayer strategy board game that resembles Monopoly, but with its in-game economy. It is a real estate simulation game that utilizes DAG (Direct Acyclic Graph), MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer online crypto-coin Game), augmented reality, and geopositioning for a frictionless gaming experience.

Worldopoly turns the whole world into a game of Monopoly. Players can buy cities, streets, build buildings, restaurants, and hotels. The players can equally sell part of their empire, rent out shop fronts to advertisers, and earn crypto-tokens worth real money. Every structure bought can be improved and sold to bring additional income. Gamers can raid or even torch down competing players’ properties. Similarly, players can cooperate with other players to build or buy large projects together. The game uses data from Google Maps and open street maps to give players access to every city and other places of interest across the globe. 

Worldopoly’s game concept uses three currencies; Worldopoly Tokens (WTP), gold, and coins. Gold and coins can only be used in the game. Gold helps players quicken the completion of their projects while coins are used to buy and renovate buildings. Players can earn WTP from selling or leasing their properties. Similar to the real world, the more property a player has, the more profit generated. These tokens can be withdrawn from the game directly to the users’ wallet. One WTP has a per-token value of around $0.12.

#2.Cryptokitties

Cryptokitties is a game that was created as an attempt to deploy blockchain technology for recreation; Cryptokitties was created. Developed by Axiom Zen, the game was launched in 2017. It is one of the earliest blockchain-based games, and it comes packed with impressive animation, huge rewards, and great graphics for an exciting gaming experience. 

Cryptokitties involveS collecting, purchasing, breeding, and selling virtual cats. There are more than 3 million cats to choose from, each with a unique avatar. Users get to create their Cryptokitties and put them up for sale. Players can interact with their kitties either by selling, buying, or breeding them. Different breeds of kitties have different market valuations. 

These breedable cats have unique numbers and different attributes called ‘cattributes’. Cattributes can be passed on to their offsprings after breeding. In total, there are 12 cattributes for any given kitty. Some of these include fur color, eye color, mouth shape, and pattern. A rare breed cat is worth more tokens than the others. 

Trading and breeding cryptokitties unlocks rare cat traits that can be traded for higher earnings. Players can further crack puzzles, create their own cat collections, and play games to earn extra rewards. Until November 2018, developers created a new supply of cats, but since then, new cats were created through breeding by the users.

Gamers earn various rewards, including ETH tokens. The rewards go directly to the players’ wallets and can be later withdrawn for real money.

#3.Splinterlands

Splinterlands is a popular multiplayer, digital collectible trading card game. With over 2,500 users daily, this blockchain-based game is integrated with the Wax blockchain platform. In the game, players can easily sell, buy, and trade digital cards. 

Splinterlands is an epic fantasy card game where gamers battle with monsters to gain control of a world in disarray. Players are expected to collect cards and come up with strategies that will strengthen their deck against their opponents. If a user plays their cards right and scores a win, they will be awarded crypto-tokens. 

Every card in the game is individually owned – not even creators of the game can take a card away from any player. The game enables players to see how many of each card exists in the game. Additionally, different cards in the game possess different elements. Therefore, players are free to buy and sell their cards, depending on what their deck needs.

By trading cards, winning tournaments, quests, and ranked plays, gamers are rewarded in cryptocurrency. A high-level tournament winner is rewarded with Steem tokens. Gamers earn more cryptocurrency trading in cards than winning tournaments.

#4.Privateers Life

The creators of Privateers life developed this game in an attempt to mirror the world’s actual economy. The game is based on the life of a pirate in the 17th century who uses tactics and strategy to survive in harsh conditions. The ultimate goal of this game is to survive by using the resources in the game. 

A player needs to constantly monitor the pirate to ensure his survival – he must be fed regularly. Food can be acquired through hunting, collecting wild plants, fishing, or cultivating their own land. Food gained can alternatively be sold in exchange for cryptotokens worth real money. To earn more, players can manufacture or process products and put them for sale in the premium store. Similar to the real world, raw materials are obtained through harvesting, mining, or foraging on their territories. Alternatively, players can purchase raw materials from the premium store.

A player can buy goods from other players or the premium store using Ludum tokens (LDM), the in-game currency. The goods in the premium store are crafted by other players in the game. Players earn Ludum crypto-tokens from selling their products and ceding their territories.

5.Alien Run

Alien run is another crypto-based mobile game available on Android and iOS which utilizes Bitcoin technology.

Remember those arcade games back in the day? Alien run is built using that same concept. If you enjoyed these classic games, then you should check this one out. A player assumes the role of an alien that needs to run to safety, avoiding obstacles on its path. 

The game is simple and easy to play, but quite addictive. As the player makes progress through the levels, the alien develops new skills. These skills are useful in maneuvering through the game as the difficulty increases as one levels up.

Players receive rewards in the form of cryptotokens after completing each level. The cryptocurrency earned is in Bitcoins, and it goes directly into the players’ eWallet. With the increase in the game’s difficulty, there is an increase in the amount of Bitcoin rewards. 

Final Thoughts

Games like these allow players to interact with the crypto and blockchain world. It’s one of the many shining points about blockchain – the ability to allow people to have fun while earning real money.

Categories
Crypto Daily Topic

How to Buy Bitcoin with PayPal

The crypto community celebrated when it emerged in June that PayPal would be supporting Bitcoin. Bitcoin is the most popular cryptocurrency, representing 57.5% of the crypto market at the time of writing. Thus, when PayPal, one of the biggest payment processes in the globe, announced its support, it was a turned page for the Bitcoin community. 

However, many fans of the currency still do not have an idea of how to purchase bitcoin through PayPal. In this article, we’ll explore ways on how you can do that. We’ll also see the pros and cons of each method so you can decide which one would work best for you.

1. eToro

Buying Bitcoin from eToro with PayPal is one of the simplest methods. This is especially if you’re trying to profit from price fluctuations rather than getting the actual coins. 

Pros 

  • Requires low fees
  • Fully regulated in several nations
  • High-level security
  • If you are a first-time buyer, the limits are quite favorable

Cons

  • It can be quite confusing if you do not have the handle on it. 
  • Not available globally

How to Purchase Bitcoin through eToro

As stated above, buying Bitcoins through eToro is quite simple. After loading the eToro homepage, scout for the ‘Get Started’ button. Next, choose the ‘Sign Up’ option. Here, enter your full details. 

Once you have an account set up and you’re logged in, click on the ‘Deposit Funds’ option. Indicate the number of funds you wish to deposit, then select the ‘PayPal’ option. From here, you will be redirected to the PayPal website to complete the transaction.

You now have funds in your account, move on to scour for the ‘Bitcoin’ option at the very top of your page. Click on the ‘Trade’ option.

You’ll need to fill in the amount of Bitcoin you want in your local currency. After doing so, click on ‘Buy.’ 

2. Paxful

Paxful is known for its simple and friendly interface. Users can purchase Bitcoin on Paxful through a variety of ways, i.e., Amazon gift cards and Skype credits. With PayPal, the steps of acquiring Bitcoin through Paxful take a very short time.

Pros

  • Diverse sellers

Cons

  • A rather high exchange rate

How to Purchase Bitcoin through Paxful

Head to the Paxful homepage. Create an account by filling in your crede. Select your desired payment method – in this case, PayPal. This is after inputting the amount of money you want to spend. 

Now that you have funds available choose your seller. You can either do this manually or let Paxful select one for you.

Once you click on ‘Trade’, the website opens up a window where you can chat with your chosen seller. Here, you will finalize the trade deal by indicating that you have sent your payment. At this point, the seller’s Bitcoins will be held in ‘escrow.’ The seller will then release the Bitcoins into your wallet.

There is an approximately thirty-minute window that allows you to complete this transaction. Failure to do so within this time frame will lead to the transaction getting canceled. 

3. LocalBitcoins

LocalBitcoins allows people from more than 200 countries to sell and buy Bitcoin. Its wide use can be attributed to the more than twenty payment methods it supports, which of course, include PayPal.

Pros

  • Secured – both seller and buyer are protected by escrow
  • Simple sign up process
  • A variety of sellers accept payment from PayPal

Cons

  • Because of the risk the seller might incur, they tend to charge higher rates.
  • Sellers might request your verification credentials. This is largely because of the chargeback risks posed by PayPal. 

How to purchase Bitcoin through LocalBitcoins

Head to the LocalBitcoins homepage and create an account. Once again, you are encouraged to fill in your information as honestly as possible. This is advised in order to find a seller who is willing to accept payment through PayPal. 

With your new account, scour for the ‘Buy Bitcoin’ option at the very top of the page.and click on it. Enter your local currency, then proceed to select the country where you want to buy your Bitcoins from. Once you have secured your country, look for a drop-down box with the option of ‘All Online Offers’. Select ‘Search’. 

A list with varied sellers who are willing to allow payments through PayPal will appear. Here, you will have to make a decision based on the detailed information provided on the sellers. The sellers are ranked by the price that they are willing to accept, the total amount of trades conducted by the sellers, and also the feedback from their previous customers.

Once you select a seller, click on ‘Buy.’ Also, include the rate and the amount you wish to purchase. On the right side, you will see specified information by the sellers. Read through this information and see if you can meet these terms. 

If you do, click on ‘Send Trade Request’. The moment the seller accepts your Bitcoin PayPal request, their coins will be locked in an escrow. A PayPal address will be released to you. As soon as you have done the payment, click on ‘Payment Sent’. 

When the seller receives the payment, the Bitcoin will be released to your LocalBitcoins wallet.

Final Thoughts

It’s exciting that Bitcoin users who also use PayPal can now seamlessly use the payment processor to sell and buy Bitcoin. It’s a milestone for the crypto space that helps push the idea to the mainstream, and it remains to be seen how the two will be useful for each other going forward. If you intend to use PayPal to buy/sell Bitcoin, then def do your own research (DYOR) to identify the method that best suits you. 

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

DropBit wallet Review: Is Dropbit A Legit Bitcoin Wallet Or A Crypto Scam?

DropBit wallet is a highly innovative Bitcoin wallet app developed by Coinninja Technology Company and introduced to the crypto community in 2018. According to its developers, the mobile wallet is specially designed to make it as user-friendly as possible without alienating experienced crypto traders/investors. But even more importantly, it was designed with convenience in mind. It is the first crypto wallet app to make it possible for you to send crypto to mobile phone numbers and twitter handles.

This convenience extends to the speed with which Bitcoin transactions are confirmed and the security measures around the wallet and your private keys.

But how effective are all the operational and security measures put in place by the Bitcoin app? Is the DropBit app as legit and functional as it claims, or is it just another crypto scam?

We answer these questions by detailing its features and everything else you need to know before creating a user account with the wallet in this review.

DropBit Wallet key features

Mobile-only wallet: DropBit is a mobile-only wallet. It is only accessible via mobile phones. You can download this crypto vault app on the official Coinninja website, Google Play Store, or Apple app store.

Integrates Lightning network: Though the wallet was initially designed to facilitate Bitcoin blockchain transactions, it recently integrated the Lighting network that champions ultra-fast crypto transfers. However, note that you will have to create an account on the lighting network and fund it if you wish to enjoy instantaneous bitcoin transfers. Plus, the account for the Lightning network, unlike the Dropbit user account, is custodial.

Integrates the phone’s address book: Dropbit doesn’t just make sending cryptocurrencies as easy as sending an SMS or posting on twitter. It also makes it possible to send cryptos to mobile numbers and twitter handles. The recipient doesn’t even need to have a crypto wallet. Since the wallet can be integrated with your phone contacts and twitter portfolio, you only have to select their phone number or twitter handle. Dropbit will send them a message asking them to download the app to receive the coins. If they download and install the wallet within 24 hours, you will get a notification asking you to complete the transfer.

Fee-free transactions: You only have to pay transaction fees for the outbound crypto transfers that were verified and confirmed on the Bitcoin blockchain. The transactions conducted on the ultra-fast lightning network are free.

Tracks your crypto portfolio: The Dropbit wallet dashboard features the balance and history tabs. The balance tab lets you monitor your crypto balances for all the wallet addresses hosted on Dropbit in real-time while the history tab outlines your crypto inflows and outflows for a given period. Both play a key role in helping you make sound financial decisions.

Dropbit Wallet security features

Password + encryption: The DropBit wallet app is secured by a multi-character password that not only helps you secure the app but also helps serve as an encryption tool.

Recovery seed: Dropbit will also provide you with a wallet backup and recovery option. When creating a user account, the wallet provides you with 12 random phrases (the recovery seed) that you can use to restore the wallet and private keys on another mobile device.

Hierarchically deterministic: Dropbit is privacy-conscious. For every new transaction initiated on the platform, Dropbit auto-generates a hierarchically deterministic wallet address, making it impossible for other individuals to track your wallet address and view your past crypto transactions.

Open source: DropBit wallet is also built on an open-sourced technology. Anyone, including its users and blockchain experts, can view and scan the wallet for malicious codes or security loopholes.

Non-custodial: Ideally, DropBit doesn’t store any of your personal information – private keys included – in its servers.

User anonymity: Even though DropBit wallet makes it possible for you to integrate your phone contacts and twitter profile, it doesn’t record or store any of the information contained here on its servers. It also allows for anonymous user registration and anonymous trading.

How to set and activate the DropBit wallet

Step 1: Start by downloading the Dropbit wallet app on the Coinninja website or your phone’s play/app store.

Step 2: Install and launch the app.

Step 3: Since you are using Dropbit for the first time, click on the “Create New Wallet” tab

Step 4: Create a password for the wallet

Step 5: Dropbit Wallet will then provide you with the mnemonic phrase, write it down on a piece of paper and save it offline

Step 6: The wallet is now active and ready to use

How to add/receive crypto into your DropBit wallet

Step 1: Log in to the Dropbit wallet and click on the “receive” icon.

Step 2: On the deposit window displaying your public address and QR code, copy either, and send it to the individual sending you coins.

Step 3: Wait for the Bitcoins to reflect on your Dropbit wallet.

How to send crypto from your DropBit wallet

Step 1: Log in to the Dropbit wallet and tap on the “send” icon

Step 2: On the transfer window, choose to either send to a contact address, a twitter handle or simply key in the recipient’s wallet address

Step 3: Enter the number of coins you wish to send

Step 4: Check the accuracy of these transaction details and hit send

DropBit wallet ease of use

Dropbit is an easy-to-use bitcoin-only wallet. It has eliminated all the complexities surrounding the process of installing a crypto wallet. It has also made sending cryptos to your phone contacts and social media acquaintances quite easy.

It also features a clean and easily navigable user interface that appeals to the newbie crypto traders and experienced investors.

DropBit wallet supported currencies.

Dropbit is a Bitcoin-only crypto wallet that will only host Bitcoins on the wallet.

DropBit wallet cost and fees

DropBit is a free wallet to the extent that downloading the crypto vault, creating a user account, and storing coins therein is fee-free. Network fees that are collected by the Bitcoin blockchain miners, however, apply when you send Bitcoins to another wallet or exchange.

What are the pros and cons of using the DropBit wallet?

Pros:

  • Dropbit wallet maintains an easy to use and beginner-friendly interface
  • It integrates the lightening network that provides ultra-fast crypto transfers
  • Dropbit promotes user privacy as it is non-custodial and its servers don’t access your private information
  • It introduces a unique method of sending and receiving crypto via SMS and Twitter

Cons:

  • Its anonymous trading feature is limited as you will need to verify your phone number if you want to send crypto via SMS and twitter
  • Dropbit is dogged by numerous unsolved customer complaints on their Google Play Store page
  • It has a sluggish and unresponsive customer support team

Comparing DropBit wallet with other Bitcoin-only wallets

DropBit wallet vs. Bitcoin Core

Dropbit and Bitcoin Core are similar in that they are both Bitcoin-only crypto wallets. They also share a common commitment to privacy and transparency. That is, they both are non-custodial wallets. They are also open-sourced, allowing for regular vetting and auditing by both the wallet users and blockchain experts.

But while Dropbit is a mobile-only wallet app, Bitcoin Core is a full-stack desktop client that synchronizes the wallet activities with the blockchain network in real-time. One may also consider Bitcoin Core safer and less controversial. Dropbit wallet app nevertheless carries the day when it comes to the ease of use and user-friendliness.

Verdict: Is DropBit wallet safe?

Dropbit wallet app has placed several premium safety and privacy measures, including hierarchically deterministic wallets, anonymous registration and trading, non-custodial wallets, password encryption, and recovery seed. The effectiveness of these security and privacy measures has, however, been dwarfed by the constant controversies surrounding the wallet.

First is the mountain of unanswered user complaints about the app’s ineffectiveness, missing cryptocurrencies, and a non-existent customer support team. Just recently, Dropbit founder and CEO – Larry Harmon – was arrested and charged with using the Bitcoin wallet for money laundering. These incidences have significantly injured Dropbit’s reputation and put a dent on its reliability. On Google Play Store, for instance, the app has a 2.6-star rating. 

Categories
Crypto Videos

What Are The Key Components of DeFi?

 

Key Components of DeFi

The crypto and DeFi sectors are growing exponentially, and there are currently more DeFi apps than ever. These projects are already saving businesses and customers both time and money. In fact, DeFi platforms started to emerge across nearly every branch of the financial sector. As the DeFi sector expands, it is important to understand what characteristics all DeFi applications have in common, and what they offer.

Open-Source

DeFi applications have to be open-source, or they are not truly decentralized. Open source coding means that the project’s code is made public. By being open-source, these apps can be audited it and its functionalities, security, and capabilities validated. Open-source codes are more stable and secure than fully-private codes simply because of community interaction. Additionally, being open-source provides more confidence in the platform as users can rest assured that no malicious coding is hidden in the background.

Transparent

DeFi projects provide the world with new levels of transparency. As most DeFi apps operate on public blockchains such as Ethereum, all transactions are fully available on the public ledger. As a matter of fact, all activity on the blockchain is completely public. The main difference in this approach vs. a traditional bank account is that the accounts are not bound to anyone directly. Instead, user accounts are pseudo-anonymous and list only a numerical address rather than show identity.

Global

While this characteristic is not only bound to Dapps, it is an extremely important one. Anyone can participate in DeFi platforms from anywhere across the globe. All you need is a smartphone with internet access.
Consequently, DeFi Dapps have the ability to solve the problem of certain areas being unbanked or underbanked, as they can bring them the financial services they are looking for. This openness is a major upgrade from the current banking system, which leaves around 40% of the population without any form of banking.

Permissionless

The DeFi sector operates without gatekeepers. As such, anyone can create a DeFi application and offer it to the world. On top of that, anyone can participate in DeFi apps without any concern for approval. This strategy is a massive change from the current financial system that requires every single potential user to be a part of many regulatory verification systems before even participating in the global economy.

Interoperable

Another trait of the DeFi space is interoperability. Interoperability is critical as it ensures that, as more developers enter the space, all the previous work is not suddenly lost. Instead, users can stack their own DeFi products to expand exposure. As an example, it’s common for a single user to utilize stablecoins, decentralized exchanges, as well as wallets. This strategy is only possible due to the seamless integration that DeFi applications possess.

Flexibility

Due to the open nature that DeFi provides, developers are able to exercise way more flexibility in their platforms than they ever could. Users gain considerable options by integrating third-party application integrations as well. If the current options are insufficient, users can even choose to build their own interfaces.
Check out the next video in our DeFi series, where we will show examples on how DeFi is used.

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

Best Blockchain Affiliate Programs

Affiliate programs allow you to earn by simply referring friends to a product. Since they are commission-based, the more friends you introduce to the product, the more you earn. While it is a legitimate way of earning, many people do not trust affiliate programs due to how complex some are. Others fear them because they might sound a lot like pyramid schemes. 

Blockchain or cryptocurrency affiliate programs pay you for referring customers to them. This is an unregulated industry, and a company may run the program however it wishes, but of course, within wider legal limits of its jurisdiction.

Nevertheless, several platforms pay exceptionally well, and they are the focus of this article.

Before looking at the top-paying platforms, let’s first see how these programs work. 

  • You first register on a cryptocurrency website that offers a referral program. Most of them are crypto exchanges, but it could be any company that sells crypto assets.
  • You get a unique referral link or code.
  • You share the link or code on any platform on the web. Links are easier to work with as they take your targets straight to the company’s website.
  • Someone sees your link and clicks on it. If they follow through to using the company’s services, you earn a commission.

Top Paying Affiliate Programs

#1 Coinbase

Coinbase is the largest US-based crypto exchange. If you are a merchant who accepts cryptocurrencies, Coinbase can also help you with the collections. 

Their affiliate program pays you 50% of trading fees raked from your referrals for three months. Payments are made daily, and there is no minimum earning requirement for payouts. This means that you can opt-out of the program anytime without forfeiting your earnings, however little. You can also check on reports for your referrals if you need to follow their use of the platform closely. 

#2. LocalBitcoins.com

LocalBitcoins.com is a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency trading platform – you can buy and sell Bitcoins directly from other platform users. 

You get a 20% commission on the trading fees earned from each trade made by your referrals on this program. Since the website charges 1% of the transaction value, you can expect to earn 0.2% of whatever your referral buys or sells through the website. Like Coinbase, you keep earning for up to 3 months starting from the day your referral joins the platform. There’s also no minimum earnings required for your payment to be processed. 

#3. Bitbond

Bitbond is a platform that facilitates the issuance, settlement, and custody of bonds but using the blockchain. The company makes money when financial institutions use their platforms to issue or settle bonds. 

For every transaction your referral makes, you earn up to 30% of the origination fee for two years. Two years may seem like a long duration, but remember, bonds are settled only once in a long while, maybe even annually. Nonetheless, settlements typically involve large sums, and 30% is more than a decent commission. Partial reports on your referrals are also available. 

#4. Paxful

Paxful allows individuals to buy and sell Bitcoins from each other, from which they charge commissions. 

Their affiliate program has among the highest rates in this sector – for direct affiliates, they pay you half of the commissions charged on their transactions. For affiliates recruited by your affiliates, you earn 10% of the commission charged on their transactions. Payouts are instant, and there are no minimum earnings required for you to receive your payment. The only downside with Paxful is you only get partial referral reports, and transfers to your Bitcoin wallet are manual.

#5. Coinmama

Coinmama is another platform that allows people to buy and sell cryptocurrencies and pay using cards, Apple Pay, and other options. It is also available in 188 countries – that covers almost the entire globe.

Coinmama runs an affiliate program that pays out a 15% commission on all purchases made by your referrals. The best part is that you will earn from your referrals for the rest of your life. This program can be lucrative if your referrals are stable businesses, likely to keep buying and selling cryptocurrencies even in the future.

Coinmama payouts are done monthly, but there are no minimum earnings required to process your payments. You also need to manually initiate payments transfer to your crypto wallet. Reports on your referrals are available. 

#6. Trezor

Trezor is known as one of the most secure crypto-wallets. The company develops and sells hardware wallets, which they sell through their official website. If you refer a friend to purchase a Trezor, you can earn between 12 and 15 percent of the sale value. Trezors go for around $170 and $270, so you can do the math. 

Commissions are earned once per transaction. You need to accumulate at least 0.1 BTC to transfer your earnings to your wallet, but the earnings are automatically transferred to your wallet.

#7. Bitpanda

Bitpanda is a retail broker for major cryptocurrencies. It allows users to buy and sell various digital assets using multiple payment methods. However, it only targets European customers. 

The company operates an attractive affiliate program where subscribers earn up to 20% of commissions charged from their affiliates’ transactions. What makes this program attractive is that you will keep earning commissions for as long as your referrals transact through the platform. Instant payouts and no minimum balances mean you can withdraw your earnings anytime, although you need to transfer earnings to your wallet manually. You can also get partial reports on your referrals. 

#8. Coinhouse

Coinhouse is a French-based crypto exchange. It allows users across Europe to easily buy and sell cryptocurrencies.

The platform’s affiliate program has among the most lucrative earnings – 30% for life. In other words, users will earn 30% of transaction fees from their referrals’ purchases for the rest of their existence. Payouts are done weekly, but there are no minimum balance requirements. Partial reports are available, and earnings are automatically transferred to your crypto wallet.

Final Thoughts

These are just a sample of the top-paying cryptocurrency affiliate programs. As we have seen, they offer between 10 and 50 percent revenue share from referrals’ commissions. Also, some programs have one-time payouts, while for others, payouts last a lifetime. All in all, these marketing programs change from time to time, and it’s only clever to look out for new offerings.

Categories
Crypto Videos

What Is DeFi Used For?

 

What is DeFi used for?

The Decentralised finance sector has been flourishing in the past few months, with more and more interest coming both from the side of retail and institutional investors. However, the current system isn’t exactly clear on what DeFi actually brings to the table. This video will hopefully bring a bit more clarity on how DeFi works.

DeFi in Lending

One of the sectors affected the most by the introduction of DeFi is certainly the lending sector. If you have ever applied for any type of loan, you surely know the process is both intense time-consuming. Worst of all, you are forced to use lending companies specifically designed to maximize their returns. On the other hand, the DeFi community produced some interesting ways to improve this sector.

Compound

A good example of a DeFi lending platform is Compound. The Compound platform showcases the true power of DeFi and its ability to transform how the world envisions the financial market in the future. Compound allows users to lend their cryptocurrencies out to other users. In exchange for providing the loan, these users receive interest in the form of cryptocurrency. The platform utilizes smart contracts that match lenders and borrowers. Additionally, these smart contracts make interest adjustments based on the market’s current state automatically.

Decentralized Exchanges

Many consider decentralized exchanges (DEX’s for short) as the logical next step in the evolution of the crypto exchange sector. DEX’s are peer-to-peer trading platforms that provide users with a more streamlined UX, tighter security, as well as more flexibility. Traditional exchanges operate via a centralized organization that monitors, facilitates, and approves all trades within the platform, which defeats the purpose of cryptocurrencies. On top of that, users of centralized exchanges are vulnerable to attacks and hacks, as history has shown us. There were numerous occurrences of exchange hacks in which the central organization, as well as its users, suffered huge losses.
DEX’s eliminate many of these concerns. The platform doesn’t include the assets directly, but rather via a smart contract. This way, there is no “weak spot” that a hacker could exploit.

Uniswap

We will use the Uniswap platform as our example of a decentralized exchange. It introduced an innovative mechanism now known as Automated Market Making. This new protocol enables near-instant settlement between different parties. The protocol will try to close trades as close as possible to the current market value.

DeFi Prediction Platforms

Another interesting development in the DeFi sector is the creation of prediction platforms. These platforms are used to analyze the current public opinion regarding a certain event.
Guesser
One good example of this type of decentralized application is Guesser, as it allows you to make various predictions and examine other people’s results in the pool. You even earn crypto for participation by being right with your prediction.

DeFi is Here to Stay

As the main systems of our society are currently undergoing a transformation towards decentralization, the demand for DeFi applications will rise. These new applications continue to disrupt the financial space in remarkable ways.
Decentralized applications are certainly something that is able to set the new standard for the worldwide economy moving forward.

Categories
Crypto Market Analysis

Daily Crypto Review, Oct 2 – Trump Tests Positive for COVID-19; Crypto and Stocks Negatively Affected

The cryptocurrency sector has failed to confidently push towards new highs, which triggered a pullback. On top of that, the current macroeconomic situation has pushed both cryptocurrencies and stocks towards the downside. Bitcoin is currently trading for $10,476, representing a decrease of 2.82% on the day. Meanwhile, Ethereum lost 5.09% on the day, while XRP lost 3.7%.

 Daily Crypto Sector Heat Map

If we look at the top100 cryptocurrencies as well as their gains and losses, Bitcoin Gold gained 4.88% on the day, making it the most prominent daily gainer. Balancer (3.92%) and Celsius (3.43%) also did great. On the other hand, Energy Web Token lost 16.88%, making it the most prominent daily loser. It is followed by Arweave’s loss of 16.61% and yearn. finance’s loss of 14.45%.

Top 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bottom 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bitcoin’s level of market dominance stayed at the same spot since our last report, with its value currently being at 60.37%. This value represents a 0.11% difference to the downside when compared to when we last reported.

Daily Crypto Market Cap Chart

The crypto sector capitalization has lost value over the course of the past 24 hours. Its current value is $336.45 billion, which represents a decrease of $7.99billion when compared to our previous report.

_______________________________________________________________________

What happened in the past 24 hours?

_______________________________________________________________________

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Technical analysis

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Bitcoin

The largest cryptocurrency by market cap failed to break the 38.2% Fib retracement level, causing a pullback, which (as we mentioned in our previous article) brought its price to the $10,360 range. The pullback happened over the course of a few hours, and first tested the ascending (pink) resistance level, which got confirmed, triggering another push towards the downside.

Even though Bitcoin’s price went down slightly, the good news is that the $10,360 range has not been breached. If Bitcoin, on the other hand, breaks this level to the downside, we may expect a strong push towards the downside.

BTC/USD 4-hour Chart

Bitcoin’s short-term technicals remained tilted towards the sell-side ever since Bitcoin confirmed its position below the 38.2% Fib retracement. Its daily overview has become a bit more bearish as well, while its weekly and monthly overviews are extremely bullish.

BTC/USD 4-hour Technicals

Technical factors (4-hour Chart):
  • Price is below its 50-period EMA and its 21-period EMA
  • Price is below its lower Bollinger band
  • RSI is pushing towards oversold(37.02)
  • Volume is average (with a couple of spike candles)
Key levels to the upside          Key levels to the downside

1: $10,630                                 1: $10,500

2: $10,850                                 2: $10,360

3: $11,000                                  3: $10,015

Ethereum

Ethereum’s price movement has lost its structure ever since it broke the higher high/higher low pattern it has created. The second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap pushed towards the $371 resistance level, but failed to break it, causing a strong pullback which first tested $360, and then went all the way down to $340 as $360 failed to hold.

ETH/USD 4-hour Chart

While Ethereum’s 4-hour and 1-day technicals are now tilted towards the sell-side, its long-term overview seems extremely bullish. Its weekly or monthly technicals are both heavily tilted towards the buy-side.

ETH/USD 4-hour Technicals

Technical Factors (4-hour Chart):
  • The price right below its 50-period and its 21-period EMA
  • The price is below its lower Bollinger band
  • RSI is heading towards the oversold territory (36.74)
  • Volume is average with a couple of spike candles
Key levels to the upside          Key levels to the downside

1: $360                                     1: $340

2: $371                                     2: $300

3: $400                                      3: $289

Ripple

XRP’s trading in the upper part of the range-bound by $0.235 and $0.2454 got interrupted by the market tumbling, pushing its price down towards $0.235 as well. While the $0.235 level was passed in the most recent push towards the downside, it is still unsure whether the price will stabilize above or below it. Traders should be very careful and should either try “riding the wave” if XRP starts to drop, or they should wait until the picture becomes a bit more clear.

XRP/USD 4-hour Chart

XRP technicals are now quite uniformed, with both short-term and long-term technicals being bearish. However, its weekly outlook shows a slight tint of bullishness.

XRP/USD 4-hour Technicals

Technical factors (4-hour Chart):
  • The price is below both its 50-period EMA and its 21-period EMA
  • Price is slightly below its lower Bollinger band
  • RSI is heading towards the oversold territory (37.47)
  • Volume is average (with a couple of spike candles)
Key levels to the upside          Key levels to the downside

1: $0.2454                                 1: $0.235 

2: $0.266                                   2: $0.227

3: $0.27                                    3: $0.221

 

Categories
Crypto Daily Topic Cryptocurrencies

The FIO Protocol: A Beginners Guide

Everyone who has interacted with crypto one way or another knows how daunting it can be – especially if they’re just beginning. This is due to the complexity of crypto transactions and the knowledge that your funds could be gone forever with a tiny mistake. 

What if there was a seamless way that you could operate your account? What if you could interact with crypto using an everyday name instead of an intimidating public address? 

Launched in April this year, FIO protocol (Foundation for Interwallet Interoperability) is an initiative that wants to make this possible. FIO says it wants to “make crypto products easier so anyone can use them.” It’s a platform that integrates exchanges, wallets, and more so people can have a better experience dealing with cryptocurrency. The FIO team believes the blockchain-based value wave is the inevitable future, and that “the masses are coming and we owe it to them to give them the experience they deserve.” 

In this article, we’ll examine the FIO protocol from a closer vantage point. We’ll also look at the utility token of the protocol and what role it plays. 

What Problem is FIO Hoping to Solve?

FIO’s vision for the blockchain space is based on actual research. The team conducted a survey in 2018 to establish the challenges that crypto users face – whether just operating their own account or sending money to others. They were then able to come up with the following feedback: 

  1. Almost every user finds using public addresses such a hassle
  2. Almost 75% of users are uncomfortable or less than confident when sending crypto
  3. Nearly 1 in five users has conducted a failed transaction or one that led to the loss of funds 
  4. 1 in 20 people has witnessed an attempted man-in-the-middle attack on their public address

The team then concluded that interacting with crypto generally is pretty stressful and requires a user to be extremely vigilant. 

What are the Goals of the FIO Protocol? 

The FIO team wants to create a better way for people everywhere to interact better with blockchain assets. This way encompasses several features, which are: 

  • Human-meaningful – enable users to interact with crypto using identifiers that are easy to understand and remember, e.g., “tom@trustwallet” or “alice@bitcoin” 
  • Decentralized – supported by a public blockchain that doesn’t rely on a centralized entity or third parties
  • Secure – FIO transactions are conducted securely since they require an FIO non-custodial private key
  • Private – sensitive information like transactions’ metadata and public addresses is cryptographically encrypted on the blockchain
  • Interoperable – the FIO platform is capable of working with any blockchain crypto network once it’s integrated with any wallet
  • eCommerce ready – the FIO protocol enables fast, safe, wallet-to-wallet and immutable payments with all metadata kept private

Features of FIO

The FIO protocol can support a variety of features – which we’ll look at below. 

i) FIO Addresses – intelligible wallet identifiers such as tom@trustwallet” and “alice@bitcoin,” which are more friendly to use. With the addresses, users will not come across public addresses. The icing on the cake? The addresses can support any crypto in any wallet or exchange.  

ii) FIO Requests – a functionality that allows users to request funds from any wallet via simple approvals. The requests are cryptographically secured and are only seen by the involved parties. FIO requests will not interfere with underlying blockchain transactions in any way

iii) FIO Data – this is encrypted metadata that can accompany transferred funds in transactions

These are just the current features of FIO. The network hopes to add more in the near future.

Technical Makeup of FIO

The FIO protocol utilizes delegated proof of stake (DPoS) for network consensus. Token holders are responsible for choosing block producers (BPs). Anyone can sign up to be a BP if they can garner enough votes. Every voting round is known as an epoch, and it involves the generation of 126 blocks. The BP selection process is repeated after every epoch – which involves 42 BPs – half active and a half on standby. 

After each block is produced and recorded on the chain, the network mints new rewards. 40% of the reward is equally shared among the 21 active BPs, while 60% goes to all 42 BPs in a manner proportionate to the number of votes each BP received. 

Additionally, BPs can change system settings if they have two thirds plus one (at least 15) majority. 

How Do You Use the FIO Protocol? 

As of now, the FIO protocol supports wallets, exchanges, and payment processors. The team is also planning to develop a suite of software development kits and APIs for developers that desire to use them. 

Now for the everyday user – using FIO is so simple. You just need to register an FIO address and immediately access loads of FIO capabilities. 

The FIO Token 

FIO token is the utility token of the FIO platform. It will be used as payment for transactions done on-chain. Other uses include fees for registering addresses and staking so as to vote for block producers. To hold FIO tokens, all you need is a pair of private/public keys. Transfers can be done through an FIO public key – which means one can hold FIO tokens without relying on a complex process. 

The team envisages demand for FIO arising from:

  • Platform users needing the token to register for addresses and other fees
  • Users needing to stake in the token so as to vote on on-chain governance and block producers
  • The possibility for some entities such as wallets and exchanges compensating users who have staked in the token 
  • Future software upgrades that will create more demand for the protocol and with it, the token

How Was FIO Distributed?

  • 16.42% went to equity investors
  • 0.04% went to the first private sale
  • 0.04% went to a second private sale
  • 1.33% went to the third private sale
  • 17.53% went to the team
  • 22.01% went to the FIO Foundation
  • 0.32% went to the foundation service provider
  • 3.59% went to the future token sales reserve
  • 12.5% went to the bounty program
  • 11.39% went to Integration Incentives
  • 12.5% went to the FIO address giveaway
  • 1% went to block producer incentives
  • 0.28% went to the airdrop program

Tokenomics of FIO

FIO traded at $0.162027 on September 14, 2020. It ranked at #402, with a market cap of 14.6 million, a 24-hour volume of $1,520,360, and a circulating and total supply of 90,017,353 and 714,376,155 respectively. FIO has a maximum supply of 1 billion. Its all-time was $0.425260 (July 31, 2020), while its all-time low was $0.083187 (July 19, 2020). 

Where to Buy FIO

The FIO token can be bought/exchanged at a variety of exchanges, which include Binance, BitMax, BitHumb, HotBit, Binance.KR and Hoo. 

Closing Thoughts

FIO might just deliver the most important of all crypto initiatives: making it extremely easy to send and receive crypto. Interacting with crypto may sound like a walkover, but the story is starkly different for many users. FIO’s solution is simple yet potentially revolutionary. For us here, it will be thrilling to watch the project evolve.